"There this one's finished." Marinette said as she finished sewing her new dress. "What do you think Tikki? Isn't it pretty?"
Her female turkish angora cat mewed in agreement.
"I think so too. Hey maybe I could make some money off of this. It looks good enough to sell."
"I already told you, you'll have your money!" She heard her father call from downstairs. She put down her dress and went downstairs to see what was going on. Her parents were talking with a man from the bank. He came at least once a week to remind them of the money they owed the bank for their bakery.
"It's been a month! Time to pay up!" The man said.
"Business is slow." Her father Tom protested. "We don't have enough money yet."
"Not my problem! You have been slacking on your debt for too long Mr. Dupain-Cheng so either pay up or get out! I'll give you til next week but after that no more!"
He then left the bakery. Tom sighed and hung his head in shame, his wife Sabine went to his side and hugged him.
"Don't worry Tom we'll get the money." She said.
"How? We hardly have enough to pay the electric bill. If we don't pay the mortgage by next week they'll shut us down and throw us out."
"Use my college money." Marinette suggested coming downstairs.
"Marinette honey, did you hear all that?" Sabine asked.
"Yes and you should use my college money to pay the mortgage."
"Marinette we can't do that to you." Tom said. "Going to that designer college is your dream."
"Dad I'm not even sure if I'll get in and I'll find another way to get the money."
"But-"
"It'll be okay, I promise."
"What did we do to deserve a daughter like you?" Tom asked as he and his wife hugged her. They spent the rest of the evening baking cookies and eating them while watching a movie. The next day Marinette pulled out her bike, put Tikki in the bike basket, and peddled into town to search for a job. So far there were no places that needed any new employees. She was about to give up when she finally found a place. She went inside gave them their resume and they agreed to give her a call if they were interested in her.
"Thank you, thank you so much." Marinette said leaving the building carrying a sheet of paper with information. She hoped that she would get the job, this job in particular paid a good amount of money and the people in charge seemed pretty impressed with her.
"My bike!"
She was horrified to find her bike in the dumpster and standing not to far from it was Chloe Bourgeois and her friend/lackey Sabrina snickering and cackling.
"Don't be too sad Maritrash!" Chloe laughed. "I only put your bike where it belongs! In the trash! Why don't you go join it! Since you're trash too!"
"Chloe!" Marinette growled. "You'll be sorry for this! One day you'll pay for how you treat people and then you'll be sorry!"
"That's what they all say!" Chloe said. "Come on Sabrina we've wasted enough time here."
The two girls then walked away laughing. Marinette sighed and went to pull her bike out of the dumpster, she found poor Tikki shivering inside the basket.
"Oh Tikki are you alright?" She asked nuzzling her cat close. "I'm so sorry, come on let's go home."
Once she picked off all the trash on her bike she got on it and began to peddle to the market to pick up some ingredients for her parents recipes. Upon arriving at the market she parked her bike on the side and went inside to buy the items her parents her told her to get. On her way out she saw Tikki conversing in her own cat language with a black cat.
"Well hello." She kneeling down to stroke the black cat. "Where did you come from?"
He purred and nuzzled against her hand, pleased with the girl's touch.
"Plagg!" A familiar voice called. She felt herself become very nervous when she saw that the voice was coming from Adrien who was walking right toward her. "There you are."
"Adrien is-is-is this your cat?" She asked shyly.
"Yeah I was in the middle of a photo shoot when suddenly he just took off running." He looked over at Plagg who was being nuzzled by Tikki. "Now I know why. Plagg shame on you for running away and then bothering these ladies."
"Oh I-I don't mind." Marinette stuttered. "You know you're really cute. I mean! He's cute! He's a very cute kitty and I think Tikki likes him."
"Huh I didn't know you had a cat. She sure is pretty."
"Yes she is. Say hello Tikki."
The white cat walked over to Adrien and began brushing up his leg while purring.
"She likes you." Marinette told him.
"You think so?"
"Sure who wouldn't like you? You're amazing. I-I mean..You...I-"
"Thanks and thanks for finding my cat."
"You're welcome." She blushed. "You know since our cats like each other so much we should bring them together for a date. I mean a play date."
"Sounds like a good idea. Well I'll see you later."
"Okay bye."
Adrien got into his family limo which took him back to the manor. No one was home, his father and Nathalie was at work and his mother was out shopping so it was just him and Plagg. He sat up in his room doing his homework, minding his own business until he noticed that his worksheet had a few words he didn't understand so he went into his father's office to see if he could find his dictionary. As he searched the book shelf he accidentally hit something that felt like a switch then suddenly a secret door opened in the wall leading to a stairway.
"Whoa. What's this?"
A little voice in his head told him going down there was a bad idea but his curiosity over shadowed that voice and he found himself going downstairs. At the bottom he found a secret lab filled with chemicals, a computer, and a machine.
"What is this place?"
A butterfly flew by and perched itself on top of some vials containing chemicals. Plagg being a cat who liked to chase bugs instantly pounced on top of the butterfly knocking over some of the vials.
"Plagg no!" Adrien said.
The butterfly flew away but Plagg continued to chase him knocking over more chemicals one of the which was the perfected formula that landed in the machine. Adrien chased after Plagg and tried to catch him. The chase led them into the machine, Plagg quickly jumped back out of the machine leaving behind a strand of cat hair and accidentally jumped on the lever which turned on the machine. The doors closed, trapping Adrien inside. Lights flashed, bolts went off, and a the chemical was infused into Adrien's body. He felt dizzy and nauseous, his head was burning up and he could hardly breathe. In the shock of everything he passed out. When he woke up the machine had stopped and the doors had opened again.
"Oh man what happened?" Adrien asked waking up.
Plagg only looked down at him concerned.
"Oh no! What if that machine turned me into a freak!" He looked at his reflection in a shard of broken glass. To his relief he still looked normal but the entire lab but he probably wouldn't for much long if his father found him down here.
"Oh man look at this mess! We better get out of here before something bad happens."
He grabbed Plagg and ran out the lab as soon as possible. He then hit the secret switch, closing up the secret door, and rushed back to his room hoping that whatever happened back there was over. Little did he know that this was just the beginning and his life was about to change in the most unusual and miraculous of ways.
