Chapter 2: A really bad idea
A month had passed since Queen Bee had arrive on the scene and it was getting into the colder months, thankfully for the heroes their suit regulated their temperature so they didn't feel the cold as much. In that month a few things had become clear about Queen Bee, one was that she was a huge fan of Ladybug, clinging to the spotted hero whenever she got the chance, two was that she had a huge ego, always praising herself for her deeds, and three was that she had a fierce rivalry with Chat Noir. The Bee hero believing that she should be Ladybug's true partner while Chat was only a sidekick, and the Cat hero believing that Queen Bee was an egocentric pain-in-the-ass who didn't help out as much as she should, they both also competed over Ladybug's attention.
"M'lady, I'm sure the Akuma is in her bag." Chat Noir said, as they tried to work out where an Akuma was on the villain they were fighting.
"You've got bad eyesight alley cat, it's obviously in her hairpin." Queen Bee countered.
"And how would you know? The bag sticks out more."
"Because the obvious object isn't always the right object. Remember Vanisher?"
"How do you know about that?" Ladybug asked, she hadn't remembered many details about Vanisher getting out.
"I read." Queen Bee quickly covered up.
Today's Akuma was a woman who was so obsessed with beauty that it was borderline a disorder, even Queen Bee would say she took her obsession too far, and that was saying something. She carried a bag full of different make-up products that had varying effects on people, and her hair was pinned back with a butterfly hairpin.
"You bee-lieve me over Queenie, don't you, M'lady?" Chat Noir begged Ladybug.
"Sorry, Chat Noir, I have to agree with Queen Bee." Ladybug said.
"Ha!" Queen Bee laughed at him.
Chat grumbled slightly.
"Focus on the Akuma, please." Ladybug said.
"You won't take away my perfect beauty!" The Akuma, Madam Vanity, shouted.
"How can we take away something you don't have?" Queen Bee taunted.
That comment got Madam Vanity to focus on Queen Bee.
"Okay, I guess Queen Bee's playing distraction today, again." Ladybug commented dryly.
Queen Bee eventually failed to dodge a beam shot from Madam Vanity's lipstick, her lips turned bright red and became stuck together, preventing her from speaking.
Queen Bee tried desperately to speak but couldn't open her mouth causing her to let out a muffled scream of frustration. She then fired her trompo at Madam vanity in retaliation.
With Madam Vanity busy with Queen Bee Chat and Ladybug also tried to attack, but the villain proved to quick and dodged their attacks. She then took a bottle of nail varnish out of her back and fired a glob of the varnish at them, which enlarged as it flew through the air, the three heroes succeeded in dodging until a glob a varnish managed to hit Chat Noir's leg and hardened, trapping him where he was.
Chat tried to free himself using his staff but the hardened varnish proved to be too hard.
"Take his Miraculous, now!" Hawkmoth ordered Madam Vanity as his symbol appeared over her face.
Madam Vanity attempted to grab at Chat only to be stopped by Ladybug, who forced her to back up.
"Let's see you swing that yoyo around when you can't move." Madam Vanity said.
Madam Vanity brought out a bottle of foundation, which would cause whoever got hit by it to have trouble moving.
Ladybug and Queen Bee fought Madam Vanity and did their best to avoid getting hit by the foundation beam while Chat struggled to free himself from the varnish. Eventually he decided he had only one way out of it.
"Cataclysm!" Chat cried out, summoning his destructive power.
Chat pressed his hand to the varnish and it crumbled away, freeing him.
With Ladybug and Queen Bee, everything was going fine until Queen Bee got hit in her hair just as she fired her trompo, causing her to stop and freak out over her hair while her trompo went off course and hit Ladybug instead. And as Ladybug recovered Madam Vanity managed to hit her with her foundation beam, slowing down Ladybug's movements.
Madam Vanity then went for Ladybug's earrings, the hero in question being too slow to stop her and Queen Bee still distracted by the state of her hair.
Thankfully, Chat Noir stepped in just in time, flinging Madam Vanity away with her staff.
"You're looking a bit stiff, bugaboo." Chat said to Ladybug.
"I need to call on my Lucky Charm, but I can hardly move." Ladybug said, her voice not affected by foundation.
"Don't worry, we'll buy you time." Chat then looked over to Queen Bee. "Well, I will."
Chat ran over to Queen Bee.
"Snap out of it, we still have an Akuma to defeat." He told her.
Queen Bee didn't want to do anymore fighting, all she wanted to do was go home and book a stylist to fix her hair, but doing so would affect her reputation as a hero and would disappoint Ladybug. So she nodded and moved to attack Madam Vanity with Chat.
While Chat Noir and Queen Bee kept Madam Vanity busy, Ladybug very slowly raised her hand above her.
"Lucky Charm!" She called.
Thankfully, her yoyo was magic and did require much force to go into the air to summon her charm. The object materialised above her but because of her slowness she failed to catch it and it fell to the ground, so she slowly lent down to pick it up. She eventually managed to pick it up and look at the object.
"Make-up remover." She said.
Looking around with her vision, Chat and Madam Vanity's face lit up, telling her what to do.
"Chat Noir!" She called.
Chat ran over to her.
"Use this on her face." Ladybug told him.
Chat nodded and took the bottle, he unscrewed it and when he got the chance he splashed it in Madam Vanity's face.
Madam Vanity screeched and took a mirror out of her bag, watching in horror at her make-up started to run off her face.
"No! My beauty!" She cried.
Madam Vanity reached desperately into her bag and pulled out her make-up, applying it like her life depended on it.
With Madam Vanity fully engaged in her task, Chat easily took the pin out of her hair.
Chat Noir then went over to Ladybug and poured the remaining make-up remover over her, freeing her from the slowing effects of the foundation.
Queen Bee let out angry muffled noises and pointed to her mouth.
"Sorry, all gone." Chat said with an unsympathetic shrug, tipping the bottle upside down to show it was empty.
"That's better." Ladybug said, rolling her arms. "Now, the Akuma."
Chat snapped the hairpin in two and the Akuma fluttered out, Ladybug catching and purifying it.
Ladybug then grabbed the make-up remover bottle and prepared to throw it into the air.
"Do you have to?" Chat asked before she could. "I like her better like this." He pointed to Queen Bee.
Queen Bee waved her fist at him and let out more angry mumbles, obviously threatening him.
"Chat, that's not nice." Ladybug chastised him.
Queen Bee nodded, crossing her arms.
"Besides, Queen Bee wasn't the only one affected." Ladybug added. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
The Miraculous cure then returned everything to normal.
Queen Bee quickly felt her hair and sighed in relief at it being clean again.
"I can talk again." She said happily.
"I know, and I was so happy when you couldn't, what a buzzkill." Chat Noir said.
"You want to say that again, alley cat?" Queen Bee growled at him.
Chat's ring then beeped, reminding him he only had a couple of minutes left.
"What do you know, got to go." He said, throwing the hairpin in his hands to Queen Bee and running off.
"Scaredy-cat." Queen Bee said.
Queen Bee then turned to Ladybug only to find her leaving.
"I've got to go too, bug out." Ladybug said. "Can you take care of the victim?"
"Sure." Queen Bee answered with a sigh.
Ladybug then swung off.
Queen Bee then went over to the woman previously known as Madam Vanity and gave the woman back her hairpin, helping her to stand as an ambulance arrived.
Queen Bee didn't actually care for the woman, and would have happily left when the other heroes had, but since Ladybug had asked her to do it and it made people like her more, she helped the woman.
After helping the woman to the ambulance and turning her over to the paramedics, Queen Bee was about to leave but was confronted by reporters.
"Queen Bee, can we have a few words?" One of the reporters asked.
Queen Bee grinned, happy to be the centre of attention.
"I think I can spare a few minutes." She said.
"What's your relationship with Ladybug and Chat Noir?" A different reporter asked.
"Ladybug and I are really close, perfect partners, we're both bugs after all." Queen Bee answered.
"What about Chat Noir?"
"He's okay, I guess. He does his part and that's what matters."
"Do you think you've made a difference since you arrived on the scene?" A third reporter asked.
"Of course. With my help, Ladybug has been able to cleanse Akumas much better than when she just had Chat Noir. And I don't mean to put him down, but there's been a definite decrease in the amount of times Chat Noir has been hit by the effects of an Akuma since I showed up. My only regret is that I couldn't have shown up sooner."
"People have been saying that you aren't doing enough and can sometimes even make an Akuma worse. What do you say to that?" Asked the first reporter.
Queen Bee frowned, she hadn't expected people to have that sort of opinion of her. Who did like her?
"Well, they obviously don't know just how much of a struggle being a hero is." She said. "Not that it's too much for me. Anyway, questions are over."
Queen Bee then ran off.
Sabrina arrived at Chloe's room to find her friend furiously looking up internet articles about Queen Bee.
"Chloe, what's wrong?" Sabrina asked.
"She just realised what should have been obvious." Philla said from where she was munching on honey fudge.
"This isn't right!" Chloe exclaimed to Sabrina. "I grace Paris with my help, and this is how they treat me."
Chloe showed Sabrina a news report from an Akuma attack from a week ago, but it was just reporting the news without offering any opinions and Sabrina couldn't find anything wrong with it.
"I don't see anything wrong." Sabrina said, nervous at how Chloe would react to her not seeing what she obviously saw.
"What is wrong is that I'm not getting enough recognition." Chloe burst out. "I should be given top billing alongside Ladybug, instead I'm barely mentioned, like I was an afterthought."
"Ladybug and Chat Noir have been a duo for a long time, maybe people are still getting used to a third hero." Sabrina suggested.
"It's been a month, Sabrina, that should be more than enough time."
Chloe then showed off an article from a gossip magazine.
"And that's not even the worst thing!" Chloe said.
'Queen Bee, superhero or superzero?' Read the headline.
Sabrina winced, she had tried her best to hide these sort of things from Chloe and let her think that all of Paris loved her, but she had obviously failed.
"This trashy writer dares accuse me of not doing enough and being pointless. I do plenty for this city, I'm willing to waste my precious time to save lesser people like this person, and then they dare to say I don't do my part. It's outrageous! I should have daddy sue them for libel!"
"But if you do that you'll give away that you're Queen Bee." Sabrina quickly reminded her.
Chloe didn't look any less angry, but at least she looked like she didn't want to blow her cover.
"It's not fair, I should be treated better, I deserve better." Chloe pouted.
"Just give it time, Chloe." Sabrina said. "People are just looking for someone to aim at."
"But why'd it have to be me? Why can't it be that alley cat? He's the sidekick."
"Oh, poor you." Philla said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Some of the past Miraculous holders got treated worse than you and yet didn't complain as much."
"You know, I can easily take that fudge you like so much away and give you nothing but crackers." Chloe threatened.
Philla gave a huff and took a big bite of her fudge. "That's Kwami abuse." She said.
"I'm sure you'll prove the people who doubt you wrong in no time." Sabrina reassured Chloe.
"I know I will." Chloe agreed.
Another week passed and Chloe was about ready to trash her room, despite her efforts, opinions of Queen Bee had only slightly changed for the better, and even then they made sure to say it in a bad way. With people saying that Queen Bee was 'finally pulling her weight' and that she's 'not as useless as before'.
"Lots of people love you, Chloe. See?" Sabrina told her friend, showing her an appreciation blog towards Queen Bee.
Granted, Sabrina had been the one to start the site, but she was far from the only member.
"Sabrina's right." Philla told Chloe. "Stop focusing on the people who don't like you, and focus on the people that do. But still try hard like you've been doing and you'll get more people who like you."
"But I'm perfect, they should like me as I am now!" Chloe exclaimed. "I take down Akumas, so I should get the same respect as Ladybug."
Chloe was too angry to listen to the logical words of her friend and Kwami, only concerned in reading people's opinions of Queen Bee, and the more she read the more angry she became.
'If Queen Bee thinks so highly of herself, maybe she should take down the next Akuma by herself.' One of the comments said.
"I bet I could take down an Akuma by myself." Chloe boasted. "And then people couldn't say I'm weak anymore."
An idea suddenly dawned on Chloe, a really terrible idea.
"Chloe?" Sabrina asked when she saw the expression on Chloe's face, it was the same when she was scheming to get what she wanted.
"You don't really think you can take on an Akuma all by yourself, do you?" Philla asked.
"Maybe not a strong one. But I bet if I had my Miraculous back when that ridiculous Akuma, Mr. Pigeon, was around, I could have defeated him singlehandedly. If another ridiculous Akuma like him showed up I bet I could take them on easily."
"And what are the chances of something like that happening?"
"More than usual if I control the situation."
Philla dropped her fudge as she caught on to what Chloe meant.
"You can't seriously be suggesting something so stupid?" She asked, shocked.
"Deliberately create and Akuma?" Sabrina asked, also having caught on.
"I'll admit, I may have contributed to one or two in the past because people were way to sensitive. So, how hard could it be to do it on purpose?" Chloe said thoughtfully.
"In all of my millennia, I have never heard something as stupid as what you're suggesting right now." Philla said angrily.
"I don't know why you're complaining, victims never remember and are never blamed for their actions, and from my own experience it can even lighten their emotional load." Chloe said dismissively.
"It doesn't change the fact you'll be deliberately putting someone in Hawkmoth's sights, turning them into a villain and putting people in danger. Sabrina, please make her see sense." Philla begged Sabrina.
Sabrina gathered her courage. "Philla's right, Chloe. It's wrong." She said.
"Maybe. But daddy always says that to achieve something important, you have to do things that aren't always moral. And getting the recognition I deserve is important." Chloe said. "Now who to use?"
Sabrina watched helplessly as Chloe heartlessly planned, even she hadn't believed Chloe would go this far.
"Marinette would be satisfying to beat, and her family owns a bakery, so she could end up as some sort of bread-based Akuma, pretty ridiculous. But she's also a designer and could end up themed after that which includes needles, scissors and other dangerous things." Chloe said.
Sabrina clenched her fists and tears came to her eyes as she finally saw the monster her friend had become.
"Chloe, I can't take this anymore." She said. "I've looked past many things, but I can't look past this."
"Watch how you speak to me, or I might not be your friend anymore." Chloe threatened.
"Good, because from now on, I'm not your friend either."
"What?" Chloe demanded.
"I won't be friends with a monster!"
Sabrina took out the hair slide Chloe had given her in place of the Bee comb and threw it to the ground, she then turned around and ran out of Chloe's room.
"Fine! Leave! See if I care!" Chloe shouted after her. "Who needs you anyway?"
Chloe angrily went back to planning who to make an Akuma.
Philla realised she wouldn't be able to talk any sense into her forced chosen. Hoping she wouldn't be too late, she raced after Sabrina. But no matter how much she looked, Philla couldn't find Sabrina, meaning that she had already left.
Philla sighed, she had been hoping to talk to Sabrina to get her to find and tell the Guardian about Chloe's plan, but now she just had to hope Chloe's plan failed.
"I don't care if she's seventy-four and blind, the Guardian should have given me back to my previous wielder." Philla grumbled as she made her way back to Chloe's room.
