Helloooo beautiful readers! I am so so so terribly sorry for the long wait. You see, my high school marching band went to the national contest in Indianapolis, IN over the weekend and preparing for such a huge contest takes a lot and lot of time (we got 13th out of 95 other bands from across the country by the way, so I'd say it was a SUCCESS). So that's why I haven't had the time to write in the last two weeks. However, now that it's over, I have more time to do crazy stuff like this, so please forgive me!
As always, thank you all for keeping up with this story and leaving your lovely comments (seriously, you guys are the bomb dot com). I hope to write longer chapters in the future, but for now I hope this will suffice. Again, apologies for any errors as I wanted to get this to you ASAP (because you deserve it). Happy reading my lovely shippers!
Chapter Three- The Rookie Enters the Battlefield
It was chaos in the streets just as Marinette had heard over the phone. Cars on their way home from work had skidded to a halt in awkward angles as people fled their vehicles hoping to get away faster on foot. Police sirens blasted down the street, as blue and red lights flashed on top on their car roofs.
Marinette ran along the gutters multiple stories above the streets, tracing back to where the people were running from. A few noticed her, but didn't stop long enough to really consider who she was or what she was doing.
As she ran farther down the block, the panicked screams and yelling grew louder and more intense. Taking the yo-yo wrapped around her waist, she flung it around a brick chimney across the street and swung down into the panic below.
She landed in a crouch on a rear-ended van before leaping from car to car avoiding the heavy traffic of fleeing pedestrians. Now fully exposed, a few began to stare at her before remembering the reason they were running in the first place. Tikki seemed to sense her uneasiness.
"Marinette, you're doing well. Stay focused and ignore the looks. They will only slow you down."
She shook the thought from her mind and nodded. "Yeah, you're right," she agreed. "Look, I think we're getting close."
She turned the next corner and her eyes widened as she took in the destruction in front of her. Not only were cars everywhere she looked, they were completely toppled upside down, riding up lamp posts and a few had even smashed through few shop display windows. Luckily, all the innocent people had fled the scene, leaving Marinette's mind clear to take in everything around her. She wasn't sure what exactly she was expecting, but it would have never looked like this.
Her thoughts were suddenly filled with nothing but doubt. How could she possibly defeat someone who had the power to cause so much destruction? She'd much rather be at home listening to her music and drawing in her sketchpad. The police were there; they could take care of this, surely! She was just a fourteen year old girl, after all, what could she possible do in a situation of this magnitude?
She wished she had never gotten involved in this.
"Marinette!" shouted Tikki from in her head, "Stop thinking like that! We don't even have any idea what we're dealing with yet. The miraculous chose you for a reason. It wouldn't have accepted you if you couldn't handle this kind of situation. You can do it if you would just trust in the miraculous-"
"No!" Marinette interrupted with tears threatening in the back of her eyes. She'd had enough of this. "I can't do this, Tikki. I'm too scared! I don't care if I was 'chosen', okay? The miraculous chose wrong. Who you need is someone who isn't afraid of anything- someone who's actually brave- and that's just not me, okay?" Marinette reached past her face and unclasped the precious earrings, the transformation lost its effect as the spotted suit dissipated, leaving Marinette back in her regular clothes.
Tikki tumbled from the buds in her palm as if kicked off a ledge and stared at the terrified girl with a dumbfounded look. No one had ever denied or turned down the miraculous before. What she supposed to do? She, herself, couldn't be the guardian, and now the world could easily fall into the wrong hands! She'd rather give up her immortal life than let that happen again. The only thing she could do was change Marinette's mind.
"Wait! Don't be so easily defeated! We can do this together!" Tikki encouraged, but it seemed to have no effect on Marinette. The tears finally rolled down Marinette's cheeks as she held out one hand to the fairy and handed off the miraculous earrings, and wiped away the tears with her other. Not knowing what else to do, Tikki took them tightly against her chest and stared unbelieving at what was happening.
"I'm sorry, I really am, but I'm just not cut out for this kind of thing. You, and the rest of the world, are better off finding a more capable guardian." She turned her back and began to walk down the street, back to her home hoping, somehow, she could forget all this insane destiny stuff that had befallen her and go back to how her normal, everyday life had been.
It hadn't even been a full twenty four hours since she had first come across the strange jewelry box in her attic and it had already been too much to handle. She'd met Tikki, had the most spectacular night of her life, and had finally agreed to protect the world's greatest prize.
But none of that mattered anymore. She was nothing special, and all the miraculous did was remind her of that. Not even an ancient power could change who she was- a helpless child. She bit her lip, in her attempt to stifle her pathetic whimpering and continued to walk down the street, maneuvering through the mess of cars and other vehicles, wiping away stray tears.
Hoping to be comforted by her best friend, Marinette reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. She smiled sadly and even let out a chuckle as her favorite picture lit up on the screen. It was a selfie she had taken on a school trip to the Louvre with her flashing a peace sign, while Alya looked annoyed over her shoulder at the camera. Alya never really liked surprise pictures, and had been completely mortified when she found out Marinette had made her phone wallpaper a picture of her looking so condescending. That day would always be in Marinette's memories.
She scrolled through the device until she found the phone app. Alya's name was where it normally was, at the top of her favorites, as she pressed her number and held the cool glass to her ear.
From back behind her, a happy familiar tune resounded down the empty block.
Her feet came to an immediate stop as she turned in absolute horror. There was no mistaking it. It was Alya's phone. The same phone she never went anywhere without. The same phone she had called her on earlier.
Marinette walked swiftly, then quickened to a jog until finally running back again through the littered streets, following the ringtone. Her pace only stopping when she found the source of the jingle. The cell phone in Marinette's hand slumped limp by her side as she stared down at the ringing device at her feet. A shattered screen distorted the picture of Alya and Marinette together outside at the park laughing and smiling when they were only small children in the third grade. It had always been Alya's favorite photo.
Now, the device had been trampled on and abandoned in the middle of the road. Marinette bent down and carefully picked up her friend's phone, wincing when the shards of broken glass cut and dug into her fingertips. She stood again and glanced up and down the street looking for its owner. She called out for her friend, which went unanswered as tears flowed over the dried riverbeds on her cheeks.
There was only one explanation why Alya would have dropped her phone. She hadn't been able to escape from the monster that had caused this mess of a scene. Whoever was responsible had been wrong to do something of this magnitude, but now they had been wrong against her. And Marinette wasn't about to let them get away with it. Not in a lifetime.
Stuffing both their cell phones in her purse, Marinette made a mad dash back down the street. She cupped her mouth shouting, "Tikki! Tikki, where are you?"
It took a few minutes of yelling (and a few more tears) before she spotted a small red dot flying from around the next corner. Tikki wasted no time to fly straight into her chest, and Marinette hugged her friend tightly back. When they finally released each other, Tikki looked at Marinette is tear-stained eyes that looked like if a homeless man had just been told he had won the lottery.
"Oh my stars, Marinette! I thought the world was crashing around me! Please tell me you changed your mind!" she blabbered, the words tumbling out of her little mouth.
Marinette laughed out of her nose and nodded and a kind pleading smile. "If you'll forgive me, I'd like to teach this guy that he messed with the wrong girl." Then it was Tikki's turn to giggle, "Of course, but what suddenly changed your mind? Not that I'm complaining of course..."
Marinette suddenly lost her kind smile in exchange for a look of a hardcore resolve.
"He has my friend, Tikki. That's something I can never forgive." She stated plainly, but Tikki could sense the intensity behind her words. She smiled. She knew the miraculous hadn't made a mistake.
"Well then, I don't know what we're waiting for! Let's get suited up, Ms. Ladybug," she half-teased, revealing the miraculous earrings to their rightful owner. Marinette took back the jewelry and began attaching them to her ears.
"I should also mention, just after you left I was confronted by the enemy."
The earring pin stabbed Marinette's ear and she winced.
"Huh?!" She asked nervously. Tikki nodded.
"He found me and somehow knew about the miraculous stones. He started trying to trap me by using the security cameras, but I was able to avoid his attacks. From what I observed, he has a portable screen that he's able to ensnare people by using the cameras all around here."
Just as Marinette attached the last earring, she felt herself began to change into the familiar jumpsuit as the mask materialized on her face.
"Oh, also, about the cameras-", Tikki began from in her mind, but was interrupted by a series of loud sparks. Once Marinette was able to unshield her eyes, before her stood a boy, who couldn't have been much older than her wearing a dark brown duster coat and a pair of intimidating goggles.
"-he can use them to teleport," she finished. Marinette sighed at how perfect Tikki's timing was.
"Who are you?" He asked her after dusting himself off, "Where did that little pixie with the miraculous go?" He turned his attention to the tablet in one of his inner coat pockets. "I'm sure she was from this camera…"
His unamused demeanor really ticked Marinette off. After all he had done, he wasn't the least bit interested in who he had to step on to get what he wanted.
Suddenly, images of Alya came streaming back through her mind. Pictures of her smiling, laughing at her terrible jokes and her hopeless crush on a certain blond. The way her eyebrows wiggled when she frowned at her handful of a newspaper committee. But then she imagined what Alya looked like in terror; running, trying to escape from the person standing in front of her, not even considering her to be a threat. Her fury began to boil over, and she had had enough; enough of this miserable feeling of being helpless.
Her best and only real friend was counting on her, and there was no way she was going to let a cocky techno freak like him harm anyone else.
She unclasped the string from around her hips and started swinging it by her side, allowing it to gain more and more momentum as she swung harder by the second. A spark of doubt flashed in her mind, but as quickly as it had appeared, Marinette eradicated it. She would never let herself go through that kind of self-pity again. Then, everything seemed to make sense.
"You know what, Tikki?" she asked aloud, "I don't know if I'm really cut out for this kind of thing, but if I can save Alya, I'll do whatever it takes."
Tikki would have shook her head smiling if she was in her physical form. "I never know what to expect from you, Marinette. Ready to take this guy down?"
Marinette smiled before walking towards her enemy, who was still concentrated on his tablet.
"Wait, she's wearing the miraculous?" he asked aloud as if someone had been clarified something to him. Suddenly, his attention turned to her and he went into action.
He began typing something on the screen in front of him as a whirring sound came from Marinette's right, where a light pole was rooted. Tikki's warning about cameras immediately came rushing back, and not wasting another second, Marinette pushed with all her strength to throw herself anywhere but where she was.
Just as her feet left the ground, a beam from the camera illuminated where she was just standing. A car was snagged by the light and like clay, was dragged into the camera before disappearing completely. A smirk spread across the boy's face as he considered his next approach.
"You're quick, I admit, but nothing more than a nuisance," he said after a moment of consideration, "Why don't we end this now? Just hand over the miraculous, and I won't have to hurt you. I mean, you're still going to be a part of my story, but you won't get hurt. Well, probably."
Marinette would have laughed if she wasn't so riled up, so she settled with an unimpressed sigh. "Your bargaining skills are absolutely terrible, you know," she complained.
He casually shrugged. "Well, if I'm going to win, I might as well give you a chance. I'm just considerate that way," he bragged.
That was enough for Marinette to finally release the swinging rope towards her opponent and watch as it wrapped around his body, refraining him from moving his limbs. Unfortunately, his mouth was left unchecked, and was just as cocky.
"You're funny," he remarked with a playful smile, "You think you can beat me with simple methods, like this? Then this will end even quicker than I thought."
Although Marinette had successfully encased his body, his fingers were able to tap a button on his tablet and a beam from the camera shone on him, and just like the car from earlier, he completely disappeared. Her rope fell uselessly to the ground and she reeled it back in.
Tikki, where did he go?"
"I'm not sure, she admitted, but he definitely isn't gone for good if he wants the miraculous as much as he says." That much was practically guaranteed. It was just a matter of where and when he'd reappear. After the sparks had died down, everything went quiet again. Continuously glancing around, Marinette began to scout down the street. She leapt over cars in her way as she paved her own path.
As she passed a car thrown onto its side, a faint static buzz came from behind them, and Marinette once again was just able to dodge the attack. One second later, and she would have been caught in the tractor beam.
Marinette rolled off to the side and ended in a crouch behind a gray van.
"You can't hide, little bug. I have eyes everywhere," his voice drawled through the van's speakers. She leapt from behind the van and into the streets. A series of flashes sent long shadows stuttering in front of her. She turned around to see the boy now in person and rushed towards him.
"It's the laptop, Marinette! The screen holds his power! We have to find a way to destroy it." Marinette sent a series of jumping kicks, while he used his forearms to dodge any serious blows. She spun on the ball of her foot, and sent another spinning kick straight for his body. Like she anticipated, he blocked her foot, and shoved it away.
A victorious smile spread across Marinette's face as she gained the advantage. She used the momentum of his dodge to her gain as she thrust her other leg up and jabbed her knee towards his face. He was caught off guard and took the knee to his face. The force of the attack sent him sprawling backwards onto his back as the goggles went flying out of his reach. Marinette leapt over to them and smashed them under her foot. His eyes had finally adjusted to the sunlight as he processed what she had just done.
"No more deals. Now I'm just going to take what I want," he growled staring up at her from under his eyebrows. He began ruthlessly punching buttons on his screen and disappeared back into the cameras to regroup.
"Marinette," Tikki called from in her head. She had almost forgotten about her. "You need to use your lucky charm. It'll give you the tool to defeat him!" Lucky charm? What the heck was that? She really wished Tikki would have explained what exactly the miraculous could do because these random abilities she was being informed about in the moment were difficult to keep up with. But then again, she was still unsure about the whole heroine thing not too long ago.
"Okay then," she said apprehensively, "What do I have to do?"
Before Tikki could answer crackling came from in front of her and even faster than before, the boy came shooting from above and swung a hardened fist at her. She dove away before he could make contact and readied to hit him with her own attack, but just as he had revealed himself, he disappeared back into the camera. "What the-" she asked aloud.
Again, flashing came from behind her. The boy shot out of nowhere and was able land a hit on her right leg this time. She swung in counter, but he had already made his escape. How had he suddenly become so fast? If anything, now without the goggles, he should have slowed down!
Marinette dodged left and right, avoiding some attacks while taking the rest in full force. The longer she went, the more tired she felt.
"Marinette, use the lucky charm now! Throw the yo-yo as high as you can!" Tikki insisted with a hint of panic in her voice, sensing her weakening body.
Following her instructions, she did as she was told and tossed the weapon as high as her muscles could muster, and before her eyes, it began to emit a bright red glow.
"Lucky Charm!" she found herself yelling instinctively. From the sky, a roll of similarly patterned ladybug duct tape fell into her hands. Was this supposed to be the 'helpful tool' that could help her defeat this guy?
"Tikki…?" she asked confused, hoping the yo-yo had made a mistake.
"Well, I'm not sure exactly how the lucky charms help at first, but it will eventually make sense, I promise!" Tikki insisted with her own confidence wavering. Marinette rolled her eyes shaking her head. Unbelievable, she thought. This wasn't going to be easy.
She In between attacks, Marinette took in everything around her. Then a plan formulated in her head and she smiled with confidence. She endured two more attacks before she sprung into the offence.
After dodging a kick, Marinette ran further down to the corner of the street, sticking multiple strips of the tape to her arm as she went. She launched the yo-yo up to the last light post and propelled herself to the camera lodged just under the light bulb. She took one of the strips of tape and stuck it to the camera's lense. Now with a bird's eye view, Marinette was able to leap from pole to pole, sticking tape to each camera she came in contact with. When she finally reached the end of the block, she had successfully blocked all possible exits for the culprit.
Looking back, the teen had been launched from the camera just under her feet before she closed that gateway as well. He stumbled before leaning against a nearby car to steady himself.
"It makes no difference," he huffed. "I am Tech Reaper. I cannot be stopped by your pathetic abilities!" Not waiting for Marinette to respond, he began typing vigorously into his tablet. Shaking her head in disbelief as well as pity, Marinette swung her yo-yo and knocked the tablet form his grasp, sending it skidding across the road. He reached out to get it but was knocked down on his stomach as the heroine swung from her perch. She picked up the computer screen and swung it down on her knees, splitting it into two. Tech Reaper's eyes widened in horror as he slumped to the ground in defeat.
Marinette was about to tie up the criminal when Tikki's voice entered her mind. "Marinette! There's something coming out of the computer!" she exclaimed. Turning towards the shattered screen she saw Tikki had been right. A black butterfly fluttered from the wreckage and begun to fly away. "No! We can't let it get away! It'll probably try to possess someone else!"
Marinette leapt back into action. Really, she was not getting a break during any of this and it was extremely annoying. As the butterfly ascended towards the sky, she used the yo-yo to swing her up to the rooftops, chasing the creature. Every time she made to grasp it, it slipped from her gloved fingertips. She growled annoyed at the little pest and ran after it. Mentally, she was really hoping no one was watching her, because she was sure she looked just like a kitten trying to catch a piece of fuzz floating through the air. Not image she wanted for herself.
"Since normal attacks aren't working, try using the yo-yo again." Tikki suggested. Marinette was tired of chasing this bug anyways and was up for anything. She lassoed the string and swung the yo-yo at the black winged butterfly. To her surprise, the device on the other end opened up on one side and securely locked the bug inside. How did it know to do that?
The yo-yo flew back to her hand and she marveled at the deceiving little thing. This really was a big job, she thought as everything finally caught up with her. She'd almost given up completely and forever, and she would have too if it hadn't been for Alya. Wait, Alya! What happened to her?
"You can let the butterfly out now, Marinette. I think all the evil has been drained from it by now." Tikki encouraged, concern hovering in her voice. Waking from her thoughts, Marinette tapped the device in her palm and out sprung the butterfly, not cleansed of all the evil that had once ruled over it. "Should we really be letting it go free?" Marinette asked. "It's fine. It can't harm anymore." So Marinette turned her attention back to the street below, which was still a chaotic mess. She held the tape in her hand and wondered what she should do with it. "Try throwing it." Tikki encouraged.
When Marinette threw the lucky charm, it exploded in a colorful burst, almost like a firework, but without the loud crack.
Before she could realize what was happening, the entire street below her was swept with a wave of ladybug spotted essence that was returning it back to normal. Cars began to right themselves and the things they had hit were repaired. The tape she had used disappeared as well. The only thing that was left was a familiar teen boy rubbing his head in confusion while staring down at his murdered laptop. Okay, well, not everything went back to the way they were it seemed, but at least he was back to normal, and from the looks of it, seemed completely unaware of what had happened. How convenient.
All along the street, people were being beamed back out of the cameras, looking just as confused as the next guy. Marinette sighed in relief seeing all the people hadn't been hurt; frightened definitely, but not harmed. Then her eyes found the person she was looking for.
"Alya!" called out desperately. She leapt down gracefully from the gutters ricocheted off a lamp post and a repaired car before running up to her friend before using all her effort to keep from embracing her best friend. She was completely lost in her eyes that looked like they were hypnotized by a huge celebrity. Those weren't the eyes she had known for so many years.
"Oh. My. GOD!" she squealed, obviously using every ounce of self-discipline to keep from jumping like a little child, "Ladybug know my name!"
Ladybug? she thought furrowing her brows. Oh right, now she remembered. That was the name some people had started to call her by. It wasn't terrible but she was completely caught by surprise and she took a small step backwards. As she glanced around a small crowd of the victims was beginning to accumulate around the two of them, their curious eyes digging daggers into her soul.
"How do you know my name, Ladybug?" Alya asked, pulling her into a deepening hole of anxiety. "W-well actually," Marinette stuttered trying to lie on the spot, which was obviously not her strongest area, "I... found this!" Marinette pulled out the shattered phone and held it out and Alya took it inspecting the damage with understanding eyes. "You see, Alya' was the name of phone's owner according to its contacts, so I figured you matched the picture on the screen."
Marinette mentally winced at her horrible lie, but in the heat of the situation, the crowd seemed to buy it. Alya put the phone away and smiled widely at her.
"Well, thanks so much!" Her face became more serious as she clasped her fingers together and stared down at them. "Actually, we should all be thanking you. For saving us, I mean. I saw all that you did and I can't thank you enough Ladybug. Wait, is it okay if I call you that?" Marinette gave a light-hearted laugh while waving away the concern nonchalantly. "No no it's fine. Names don't really matter that much to me, so you can call me whatever you want." A smile spread across her best friend's face.
"Could I get a picture with you? My friend looks so much like you and I can't wait to tell her about you!" Marinette held out a steady hand. "Actually, I'd prefer no pictures please. I really have to go now." She finished by swinging herself back to the rooftops. Some had already begun taking pictures of the young girl and before she could disappear, she heard her friend ask one final question, "Who are you?"
Marinette smiled down at the crowd and gave them a confident thumbs-up. "You said so yourself. I'm Ladybug." Not wanting to risk another word, the heroine slipped behind the gutters and disappeared from sight.
It wasn't long before word spread through the city of the mysterious spotted hero, her miraculous fighting skills, and desire to purify the city of disastrous evils. Every pair of eyes and ears were tuned into the latest news, gossip, and theories about the hero. Some believed her claim, supporting her personal fight against strange terrorists, while others thought the police would be plenty against any future problems. But the fact of the matter that everyone came to accept was that Ladybug, Paris's new guardian, was there to stay.
This news perked up a certain black cat's ears as he picked up a crumpled newspaper that had gotten caught in the rafters. The corners of his mouth twitched playfully at the red and black covered girl and her dark ocean-blue hair.
Yes, he thought, she is definitely something worth investigating.
And there you have it folks! I would love love love it if you'd leave me a little comment or favorite! If you don't want to comment why don't you tell me your favorite side character from the original series instead? I'm seriously loving Alya right now (in case you can't tell, hehe), but Nino is also just as amazing! Thanks for reading and see you in the next chapter!