Disclaimer: AgentLadybug does not own any part of the Miraculous franchise. Or the puns. She googled them.
Mirra World
Student life is never easy. Especially when you're trying to balance it with a popular virtual reality game that occupies most of your time—and okay, probably takes priority in your life. But, really, when there's a world where anything is possible, where miracles happen, who cares about academics? Mirror, mirror, on the wall, what's the best place of them all? Why, Mirra World, of course.
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Chapter 2
- Itsy Bitsy Spladder -
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In which slime is an attractive accessory.
94…95…96!
He trapped another akuma in the jar that Master Fu had provided. He winced as he looked at the purple butterflies angrily flitting about inside. It was getting awfully crowded in there. No wonder those guys were mad. Still, they ought to be more grateful! These akuma had more room than his akuma collection from last week—200 in a single jar. Yowch. This week, though, he was splitting the quest with Ladybug. So, they each needed to collect 100 akuma instead of the typical 200.
"Chat, are you done?"
"Almost, My Lady! Just need 4 more."
"Okay, I just finished. I'll help you now." He watched as Ladybug flipped up and threw her yoyo towards a frantic akuma that had just noticed her. She was a really cool player—and she definitely knew how to control an Acrobat. In general, Acrobats weren't very common since most players preferred the flashier moves of Mages or pure strength of Warriors. Acrobats, on the other hand, were huge investments. They started off extremely weak and only had long-ranged attacks (even those were pretty weak). Because of their low defense, they relied on their evasive abilities—which, most players tended to forget about since they often charged into fights without hesitation. But, he mused, enough effort (and skill) and an Acrobat could become really strong. Ladybug was really strong.
He'd caught sight of her leaving Master Fu's place a few times but never got around to talking to her. Just another player, he'd often think. Well, obviously not. Not just any player could leap up and catch an akuma before trapping 2 more that were flying in opposite directions as she fell back to the ground. Wait, what?
"You know, when I said that I'd help, I didn't mean that I'd finish the quest for you, right?"
"You…You know, you just caught 3 akuma in the span of, like, 5 seconds, right?"
"Um, yes?"
"That wasn't a question." Okay, so it was. But, it was rhetorical, and he didn't consider rhetorical questions as questions. Clearly, Ladybug thought otherwise from the look she was giving him. Before she could respond, however, an electronic beep resounded.
"Oh…shoot! I'm late!" Wincing, Ladybug pushed the akuma into his hands as she opened her Call interface. He squeezed the innocent (not really) akuma into the jar, trying not to eavesdrop (not really) as Ladybug answered the call.
"LADYBUG."
"H-h-hi, Timebreaker."
"Where are you? We're at Splad Cave now. The gate opens in 15 minutes."
"Sorry, I lost track of time. I was doing a mini-quest. I'm ready though, so I'll be there in 5."
"'kay, fine. See ya soon!" As the call ended, Ladybug turned apologetically towards him.
"I hate to just dash off like this, but I need to get going."
"Nyah, no problem. I'm meeting up with a friend anyway. I'm guessing you'll drop off your akuma with Meowster Fu later, then? I can let him know."
"That'd be great! Thanks! It was a lot of fun working with you. Let's do it again sometime?"
"Meowst definitely!" Smiling, Ladybug extended a fist towards him.
"Pound it?"
"Pound it." Immediately, a friend request appeared before him. He quickly accepted, and with a parting wave, Ladybug swung away on her yoyo. She was so…
"…not cool, not cool!" He watched as his friend got trapped in his own bubbles—again. How does that even happen? After an hour of watching Ladybug's seamless grace, he couldn't help but juxtapose it with Nino's, well, lack of it. Especially, when the guy was now unsteadily drifting about in his bubble.
"Are you going to help me or what?" Oops.
"Sorry, I was stuck in my own bubble." No reaction (He was going to ignore that flat stare). Personally, he thought that was a pretty good one. So underappreciated. Sighing, he took his baton and smacked it hard against the bubble—
"AH!"
—And apparently against Nino too.
"Dude, that hurt!"
"You were supposed to duck." It was really hard biting back the "duh" at the end. "And, this is a game. How does that hurt?!" But, he wouldn't let that one go.
"It's the principle of it. The principle."
"Meowtain out of a molehill."
"I'm the injured one. I'll decide if it's a big deal or not, thanks. Anyway, how'd it go earlier?"
"What are you talking about? Nice change in topics by the way. Real subtle."
"Being the magnanimous best—read, only—friend of yours, I'll just ignore that." Nino paused, looking a bit thoughtful. "I'll also ignore that you might have another friend in Chloé. Back to what I was saying. You know, after lunch. Did you talk to Marinette?"
"Oh."
"And, that would be a no. Dude, why not? You've been letting this go on for way too long. I thought you said you wanted to make friends. And, Marinette is like the queen of getting along with everyone. If you don't clear things up with her, you're going to have a tough time getting the rest of the class to warm up to you…well, except, Chloé. But, again, I'm going to ignore that."
"I know that! I told you before. It's just…circumstances. And, missed opportunities. Such and such. Stuff." He trailed off as he recalled their discussion from earlier this morning.
Immediately after he walked into the classroom, he saw Nino zealously describing his new weapon to Marinette and Alya. Shaking his head with a small grin, he headed towards them before pausing. This could go either really well or really badly. Oh well, he had to try at least.
"I resent that."
"Resent what?"
The group fell silent. With twin frowns, Marinette and Alya turned away. He felt his smile dim. Really badly it was. As he slumped down in his seat, Nino eyed him sympathetically. Not wanting to appear even more pitiful in front of his friend, he shook his head before repeating his question to Nino.
"Resent what?"
"Oh, uh. We were just talking about me apparently sucking at Mirra World."
"Oh…" As he trailed off and stared at the empty blackboard, he could feel Nino staring at him.
"You know, for a popular model, you're actually a pretty awkward guy."
"Thanks, man."
"No, seriously, why didn't you ever tell Marinette the truth about the gum incident?"
"…I never got the chance. I couldn't find Marinette after school that day—or the day after. And as the term went on, bringing up something from so long ago started feeling a bit weird, you know?"
He never found out whether Nino knew or not, as Mme. Bustier entered the room at that moment.
"Gah! Shit!" He snapped out of his reverie and turned to Nino—who was upside-down. And stuck in a bubble again (seriously?). Ambling over with his baton, he grinned as another joke—which would go unappreciated again, no doubt—quickly formed in his mind. With his head tilted to get a better look at Nino's expression, he gleefully warned his friend to prepare for the impending onslaught (mentally, of course).
"Head over heels for me, Bubbler? I hate to burst your bubble, but we can only stay best suds."
"Haha. Very punny. Now, get me out of here."
"Oh, come on! Lather is the best medicine!" He laughed as he swung his baton.
"You and your jokes are all washed-up—oof!"
"You really need to learn how to catch yourself before you fall."
"Well, maybe you should have warned me before—"
"Before the bubble popped?"
"—Before you hit the bubble!"
"Bubbler, the baton was coming right at you. I don't think there could be any better warning than that."
"You know what? Go be useful, and help me catch Kridder Krabbler!"
"Geez, someone's feeling a little crabby today! Don't start foaming at the mouth now, Frothy the Soapman!" And, that was the last straw. With a war cry, Nino abandoned his quest objective, choosing instead to give chase to his dearly, beloved friend.
Laughing, he twirled his baton, popping several incoming bubbles. With a mischievous smile, he batted the final one back at Nino, who widened his eyes and stepped back (instead of dodging).
"Aw, f—"
"—uck! Ladybug, watch out for that leg!" Marinette ducked as the offending limb swiped at her before twisting into a roundabout kick.
"Thanks, Gamer!" Max spared her a quick nod—at least, she thought it was a nod (she saw MX-01 bob up and down)—without looking at her, focused solely on the giant, purple slime spider before them. 4 limbs left. One for each of them.
Seeing another limb come at her, she threw her yoyo upwards. It anchored onto a particularly large stalactite, and she swiftly retracted the string, pulling herself away from the fight. As she hung above the chaos, she surveyed the area. King Spladder had summoned dozens of Spitsies and Spliddies, with the occasional Spladdy scattered about. Alone, King Spladder would have been relatively easy to defeat. Sure, he was fast—but so were she and Alix. Sure, he had 8 limbs—but the 4 of them together had 8 limbs too (and his limbs were nothing compared to Octopie's). Sure, he shot extremely sticky webs that trapped anyone who touched them and were getting increasingly annoying since there was only so much space in this cave. But, it was his infinite army that made this boss such a challenge. With so many minions mobbing them, it was nigh impossible to focus on King Spladder. Waves of these spiders were replacing their fallen comrades faster than her group could kill them. They needed to slow down the spiders somehow.
"C'mon. Think, think, think!" She watched as Kim shot a Spladdy. Immediately, 5 Spitsies emerged from a crack. Then, she turned to Alix, who had just knocked down a Spliddy. Nothing spawned. Kim shot another Spladdy, and 5 more Spitsies appeared. Wait a minute.
"Guys, stop killing them!"
"What? Tell that to the bloodthirsty little spiders!"
"No, I mean, it looks like more of them spawn only when you kill them!"
"Oh, great. You're right. 5 new foes spawn for each one that we defeat. How are we going to beat that rate? We're already killing as fast as we can." Max's MX-01 lifted a leg as he tried to shake off some Spliddies that were crawling up his robot. He lost his balance and fell. Splat. Splat. Splat. Sploot. She grimaced as 20 new purple blobs appeared.
"Hang on, I have a plan. Dark Cupid, Timebreaker, are your Specials charged up?" Her friends nodded. Perfect.
"Okay, get ready. I'll tell you when to use your Specials. For now, gather as many spiders in the same area. Try to avoid killing as best you can. Gamer! Shoot down that stalactite!" She pointed at a formation hanging above King Spladder. As Max took aim with his laser, she dropped from her own perch. Diving down, she swung her yoyo in an arc below her, clearing away a small mob of Spitsies that had been waiting for her. A wet smacking sound followed by a shriek came from behind her as the Max's stalactite pierced King Spladder. That would distract it for now.
She scrutinized the congregation of spiders in a small corner of the cave. Still not enough. What to do, what to do? She checked her Special gauge. Yes! It was full!
"Lucky Charm!" With a brilliant red flash, a large reel of red and black rope appeared in her hands. She bit her lip. Rope? What could she do with rope?
"Any day now, Ladybug!" She ignored Kim as she glanced around, focusing on several objects. Stalactite. Spiders. And, of course, her hands. Aha!
"Keep distracting them! I need to craft something!" Hastily, she opened her Craft interface and a giant Master Forging Pot materialized before her. She threw the reel into the pot and grabbed a bundle of 100 sticks from her inventory. She pressed the Craft button that appeared. A light—red and black with some brown, she noted—swirled in her Forging Pot. Hurry up, hurry up. She loved her special ability, but it was still very much a work in progress. Thanks to her high LUCK stat, Lucky Charm would produce the material that she needed to achieve her purpose. The problem was that she still needed to provide the other raw materials and take the time to decide what to create. Needless to say, things didn't always work out the way she planned and often led to loads of wasted resources. When the light faded (finally!), she pulled the polka-dotted Large Net out of the pot and closed the interface.
"Heads up!" She threw her yoyo upwards at a stalactite and made a running leap. As she soared around the cave, she held out the net, catching countless spiders in her path. Nearing the end of her loop, she threw the net at the shepherded pile of slime arachnids.
"Dark Cupid, NOW!"
"Cupid's Harrow!" An onslaught of black arrows rained on the spiders, painting their purple lips black. The brainwashed spiders turned towards their former comrades, who stiffened before skittering away.
"Timebreaker, head to one of the cracks and use your special there!" With a salute, Alix sped towards one of the larger cracks in the wall.
"Time Warp!" Alix skated in a small circle, gradually speeding up until she became a blur of black, green, and red. A twister formed within the ring before dispersing into a warp hole that prevented spiders from emerging out of the crack. The ones that attempted to squeeze by were pulled into the warp hole before they retraced their steps, traveling backwards in time and disappearing into the crack.
"Now that that's been taken care of…Time to de-evilize." They all turned to King Spladder, who seemed uncomfortably aware that its minions were no longer able distractions. Simultaneously, the 4 of them began attacking the giant arachnid's remaining limbs. In retrospect, it was a pretty pitiful sight. It flailed blindly—still partially immobilized by the stalactite jammed into its head. That was completely stuck in the slime and probably wouldn't be going away anytime soon. Poor thing.
She shook her head, focusing on the task at hand. She double-jumped up before diving down to deliver a Heavy Kick and Flying Hyper-Storm yoyo combo. Using her momentum, she rebounded back upwards and retracted her yoyo. Without pausing, she flung it at a thin stalactite, yanking the spike off the ceiling once it was affixed to her weapon. As a finishing move, she swung the makeshift scythe at the targeted limb thrice, slicing it clean away from the creature's body on the third round.
Whoops resounded, informing her that her friends had just finished destroying their marks as well. With an exhilarated laugh and a final somersault, she landed next to Alix. Frowning, she squinted at the mangled pile of slimy appendages. Why were they trembling? Wait. Why were all these creatures trembling?
SPLAT.
Everyone groaned before eyeing each other critically. Well, on the bright side, she now knew that purple slime would never work in any of her future designs. Sighing, she turned back to where King Spladder had been. Despite being covered in the offending gunk, she grinned when she noticed a white butterfly fluttering out of the mess.
"No more evildoing for you."
A/N: Fail-gamer Nino is a funny Nino. Hope you liked the Specials! And that the action scenes were decent (: