Who Needs Love?
Episode 11
Rogercop: Under Agreste
"You've reached the voicemail of Gabriel Agreste's office. Please leave a message."
Adrien sighs when he hears the same voicemail after his tenth attempt to call his father. It's Career Day at school, and he's the only one in his class whose parent didn't show up.
He frowns and says into his cellphone, "Hi, Father. It's me. It's Parent's Career Day at school, remember? I know you're busy, but I was still hoping that… you were going to show up. Call me back." He hangs up, and his kwami floats at his eye-level.
"You okay?" Plagg asks. Adrien checks if his father sent him any messages, and when he found none, he shoves his cellphone back into his pocket.
"Yeah," Adrien says, looking down. "Nothing new. I knew he wasn't going to show up."
Plagg flies back into Adrien's breast pocket, and the blond opens the door to the classroom when he hears the sound of clapping. He takes his usual seat next to Nino, who pats his back and gives him a look of apology.
"Marinette will come around and pass out some croissants baked fresh this morning," Tom Dupain says as Marinette makes her way towards her classmates with a tray filled with fresh bread.
"Thank you, Mr. Dupain," Mme Bustier says. "Now, let's meet Alya's mom, who is head chef at the Grand Paris hotel, owned by our mayor, Mr. Bourgeois."
While Alya and her mother make their way to the front of the classroom, Adrien doesn't even look up. His eyes remain glued to the desk in front of him, and his frown just deepens with each passing second. He should be used to this by now—his father has disappointed him in several occasions already. He was just hoping he would change.
A fresh croissant is suddenly placed in front of him, and he looks up to see Marinette holding a tray full of them with one hand, and a tong in the other.
"Jerks are better when they're smiling," Marinette says. Adrien chuckles and thanks her after taking a big bite out of his free snack.
"Thanks, klutz," he says, giving her a thumbs up.
Marinette rolls her eyes at the name, but no one can miss the smile on her face. She turns around after giving one to Nino, and watches as Sabrina gapes at the bracelet sitting in a brown circular case Chloe handed to her.
"It's beautiful!" the redhead exclaims as she picks it up to inspect it further. The bracelet is gold with sapphire jewels sprinkled around it. It shimmered under the sunlight, and it probably cost a fortune. But this is Chloe Bourgeois, and she gets anything she wants with a snap of her fingers.
"No!" Chloe exclaims, snatching the bracelet out of her friend-who-is-more-like-a-servant's hands. "You can look, but you cannot touch. Got it?" Sabrina nods her head vigorously.
"Put it away, Chloe!" Mayor Bourgeois tells his daughter in alarm. "It could get in the wrong hands!"
Chloe nods and places the bracelet back in its case. Marinette places a croissant on the table for Sabrina, and just as she's about to give one to Chloe, the blonde sneers, "I wonder how many croissants your dad would have to sell to buy you one of these? What am I saying? He'd have to sell the whole store!"
Marinette scowls. "Well, if you're so rich, obviously you don't need free croissants."
Chloe snorts when the black-haired girl walks away to give her other classmates croissants. "Ugh, she must be jealous," Marinette hears her say. But she knows not to start anything in the middle of a presentation. Unlike Chloe, she wasn't raised in the freaking jungle.
After passing out a croissant to each one of her classmates, Marinette starts walking down to stairs to hand the tray back to her father, when Chloe's bad suddenly falls over, causing her to trip over the blonde's things.
"Geez, is there a day when you're not tripping over something?" Chloe asks with attitude. Marinette grumbles incoherent (and inappropriate) sentences while she picks up the fallen food.
"Next on the list is Sabrina's father, a policeman. Officer Roger!" Mme Bustier presents as the policeman and his daughter walk up to the front of the classroom.
"I've been a police officer for fifteen years, and I firmly believe that every citizen is innocent until proven guilty," Officer Roger says proudly.
"My bracelet! It's gone!" Chloe suddenly screams, holding an empty circular case in her hands. "I had it a second ago!" The blonde then turns to Marinette, who just finished picking up the croissants off the floor, and points an accusing finger at her. "You! You stole it!"
"What? What are you talking about?!" Marinette screams back, wanting so hard to hit her over the head with the silver tray in her hands.
"You purposely tripped on my bag so you could steal my bracelet!" Chloe accuses, crossing her arms. She then turns to Lieutenant Roger and orders, "You're a policeman! Arrest her!"
"My daughter is not a thief!" Tom defends, his anger beginning to rise. Now he understands why Marinette always talks about how much she can't stand the mayor's spoiled daughter.
Officer Roger blows his whistle. "Hold on a minute, Miss Bourgeois, we do not accuse without proof!" he says calmly. "Now, everyone, calm down, please. Maybe you simply misplaced your bracelet."
Chloe gasps over-exaggeratedly. "Are you calling me a liar?! Daddy!"
"Roger, I demand you search this girl!" Mayor Bourgeois orders, and points a finger at Marinette. When the policeman doesn't do as he's told the mayor continues, "Need I remind you that as mayor of this city, I am your superior!"
"But sir, it's against the law! I can't just go—" Officer Roger begins, but is unfortunately cut off.
"Failure to follow orders, I see," Mayor Bourgeois says. "Then you're no longer a police officer!" Everyone gasps at the mayor's unreasonable decision, but no one does anything for now in fear of making the situation any worse.
"Mayor, you can't be serious!" Lieutenant Roger says, shaking his head. "Over a missing bracelet?"
"This is my daughter's bracelet we're talking about!" the mayor says, and Chloe sends him a snobbish smile. "You're incompetent and you're fired! Get out!"
After Officer Roger leaves the classroom, Tom can't take it anymore. His anger has reached a boiling point and he can't stay quiet any longer, especially since his daughter was accused for something he knows she'd never do.
When Mayor Bourgeois begins walking towards Marinette to search her bag himself, Tom steps in front of him and shouts, "You're not getting anywhere near my daughter or her bag!"
"Do you know who I am?!" the mayor screams.
"I don't care about your status!" Tom thunders. "Any person who accuses someone without proof is not someone worth respecting!"
"How dare—"
"Please, gentlemen!" Mme Bustier interrupts before it could get any worse. "This is a school here! Think of the children! Surely the bracelet is around here someplace."
"It probably just rolled out of her bag or something!" Marinette tries to reason. She then turns to see Nino filming the scene with his phone, and her face lights up. "Hey! Nino's been filming everything this whole time! We can see what really happened!"
The entire class all walk up to the front and huddle up to watch the video on Nino's cellphone. He fast forwards and pauses the moment the bracelet comes into view—and it's in Sabrina's hand.
"Well, there you have it! Sabrina was holding Chloe's bracelet!" Marinette points at the screen. Everyone turns to the redhead, who cowers in fear.
"Yes! But I gave it back straight after!" Sabrina says, waving her hands. "I swear!"
"Chloe, why don't you take a look in your BFF's bag?" Marinette snickers.
Sabrina gasps, offended. "Are you saying I'm a thief?!" she screeches.
"Nope! Chloe's the one calling people thieves without any proof," Marinette says, glaring at the blonde. "I'm simply going from what's on the video."
Sabrina growls, and turns her back on Marinette, knocking Nathanael's sketchbook out of his hands in the process. Marinette smiles upon realizing that it's the sketchbook she got him for his birthday.
While picking up his fallen papers, he leaves one behind—and it just so happens to be a sketch of Chloe's bracelet. Everyone gasps as Nathanael quickly picks it up.
"Yes, I did sketch the bracelet, but I didn't do anything else!" he says almost desperately.
Mayor Bourgeois walks over to Nino and slams a hand on his desk. "Give me the tape! I'll have it analyzed professionally!" he demands.
Nino pulls his cellphone closer to him and says, "No way! It's my camera!"
"Who do you think you're dealing with? I am the mayor of this city! Where's the school principal? I want to see the principal!"
While the mayor continues to yell about thievery and punishment for said crime, Adrien feels something bump into his foot. He looks down, and his eyes widen when he sees Plagg stuck in the very bracelet they're all looking for. Adrien takes his kwami and quietly sneaks out of the classroom while the mayor yells at Mme Bustier.
Once outside, Adrien lets Plagg go, who floats up. "…I can explain," the black cat says.
"Oh, yeah? Just try," Adrien says, crossing his arms. "You realize we have a big problem, don't you?"
"I may have… thought it was Camembert," Plagg smiles sheepishly. "My bad."
"Are you kidding me?!" Adrien screams, then clasps a hand over his mouth after realizing how loud he is. He then continues, "How?!"
"The case was similar to Camembert cheese packaging?" Plagg laughs nervously, and it sounds more like a question than an explanation.
Adrien is about to say something, when the sound of heavy footsteps echo throughout the hall. He looks over to rails to see a bulky guy in a blue suit of armor making his way into the school.
"Hey! You can't just walk in here!" the school's security guard screams.
"I can go wherever I want, whenever I want. I am the law," the intruder says in a robotic voice. "You are guilty of obstructing the path of justice!" He fires cuffs at the guard, who gasps in shock. "I sentence you to move around!" With a blow of his whistle, the guard does as he's told, making Adrien gape at the scene.
Seeing this, Adrien punches the air and begins, "PLAGG! TRANSFOR—"
"You're not going to want to do that," Plagg says. "If you transform, the bracelet will get absorbed with me and damage your powers!"
"Argh, I hope you're happy with this, Plagg," Adrien groans as he runs off to try to find a way to get the bracelet off of his kwami. He needs to transform into Chat Noir now.
"See, Chloe?" Marinette says, crossing her arms. "I tripped on the bag, but Sabrina held the bracelet, Nathanael sketched it, we are all suspects!"
"B-but I didn't swipe her bracelet!" Nathanael defends, clutching his sketchbook tighter.
"I believe you, Nathanael. And I didn't steal the bracelet either," Marinette says, placing a hand on her chest. "But when it comes down to it, Chloe can accuse anyone and everyone!"
"Fine! Since you're a suspect, you'll have no problem letting me search your bag!" Chloe says, arms akimbo. "It's only fair!"
"Only as long as you also search everyone else's too!" Marinette screams. "It wouldn't be fair to me if you only searched me!"
"No one's searching my bag!" Nathanael says, recalling all the drawings in his sketchbook. His classmates already know about his crush on Marinette, he'd hate for them to see that he has more sketches of him and her in his sketchpads.
"I'll do just that!" Chloe exclaims. "I'll search everyone's bags. Except for Adrikins', of course."
Marinette scowls. "Why is Adrien any different? He's just as guilty as the rest of us! In fact, he's not even here—maybe he's already running off with it."
Chloe's mouth falls open. "Excuse me? Are you calling my Adrikins a thief?!"
"Marinette, let the adults handle this," Tom tells his daughter.
"Papa, she called me a thief!" Marinette says, glaring at Chloe. "I'm just defending myself!"
"You're also accusing all of your friends like Chloe's doing to you!" Tom scolds, making Marinette frown after realizing that he's right.
The door suddenly slams open, and a man in blue armor asks in a robotic voice, "Where is the mayor?"
"Dad?!" Sabrina gasps, placing two hands over her mouth.
"I am Rogercop," the armored man says.
"May I help you?" Mme Bustier asks in slight fear.
"Where is the mayor?" Rogercop repeats.
"I believe he already left, Sir," the teacher answers calmly. "I'm afraid none of us know where he is at the moment."
"One of you must know where he is. If no one speaks up, I'll put you all under arrest!" He then turns to Chloe and asks, "Where is your father?"
She crosses her arms and answers, "I don't know!"
As if on cue, Mayor Bourgeois' shouts from the principal's office echo throughout the hall, making the akumatized victim walk out of the classroom and towards it. While everyone freaks out, Marinette quietly tiptoes out of the classroom to transform.
After finding a good hiding spot, Marinette opens her purse to let Tikki out. "Oh, Tikki. I was only trying to defend myself!" Marinette sighs. "My dad's right. I ended up accusing everyone in the process."
"I'm sure you'll find a way to make it right," Tikki says encouragingly. "I don't think anyone stole it."
"Me neither," Marinette says truthfully. "We'll solve this whole thing later, but for now, it's time to save the day. TIKKI, TRANSFORM ME!"
After transforming, Ladybug runs to the principal's office in time to see Rogercop at the door. "Justice doesn't need a limitation. Mayor, you're under arrest for abuse of power," he says monotonously.
Before Rogercop can put handcuffs on Principal Damocles or Mayor Bourgeois, Ladybug throws her yoyo at the akumatized victim, stopping him from shooting the cuffs at his targets.
"Ladybug," Rogercop begins. "Paris has a new righter of wrong. Your services are no longer required."
"I can't let you go around accusing everyone of any little wrongdoing!" she says, jumping out of the way just in time to dodge a laser shot in her direction. She jumps to the first floor and runs out of sight to catch her breath.
Seconds later, Rogercop walks out of the school building, and walks right past her. Ladybug launches her yoyo at him, and successfully wraps it around his arm, but the villain is too focused on getting his revenge on Mayor Bourgeois that he doesn't even notice. Ladybug falls to the ground at his immeasurable strength, but sighs in relief when she sees Chat Noir standing atop the roof of a building.
Before Rogercop could shoot the mayor, Chat Noir jumps on top of his lasers and then jumps off, making the victim miss. This grants the mayor enough time to flee the scene by zooming away in his car.
"You are disturbing justice, Chat Noir. You are going to pay for this," Rogercop says, ready to charge at him.
"You can add bodily harm to the charges," Chat Noir smirks, dodging the lasers shot at him. He tries fighting Rogercop off with the best of his abilities, but unfortunately, the cop's armor makes it almost impossible to hurt him. After managing to grab hold of Chat Noir, Rogercop flings him in the air, making him fall right next to a garbage can.
"Did anyone ever tell you not to litter?" Ladybug asks the akumatized victim, smirking when she sees the scowl on Chat Noir's face.
"You do realize you basically called me trash," Chat Noir says with a glare. Ladybug giggles—it's nice getting him annoyed every once in a while.
"I'm glad you got it," Ladybug grins. She then turns to Rogercop and a serious look replaces her playful one. "Rogercop, you're Sabrina's dad, and a good policeman! Don't let the evil person who gave you there powers make an evil cop out of you!"
"Justice must prevail in the streets of Paris," Rogercop says, and shoots his lasers at her. Ladybug tries to fight him off, but she's instead grabbed by the ankle and thrown back into the school's court. Only her screams could be heard, and they're interrupted by the sound of crashing.
"Mr. Rogercop!" says a shrill voice. Chloe walks out of the school and stomps down the stairs, stopping right in front of him. "I've got a serious problem! My hair is terrible!"
"Come with me and we'll talk about it," Rogercop says, opening the door of his police car for her. Chloe gets inside without hesitation, and Chat Noir could only slap his forehead when the car drives off.
"Oh, for the love of—" Chat Noir jumps to his feet and holds onto the car as it flies off. Ladybug runs out of the school to see the car flying off, and she flings her yoyo at it, swinging onto the flying vehicle.
"Missed me?" Ladybug asks, holding on tightly when she positions herself next to her rival.
"Of course, My Lady," Chat Noir says in a mocking tone.
The flying car suddenly starts spinning to try to shake the two superheroes off, but to no avail. He then abruptly hits the brakes, making Chat Noir fly off, but Ladybug catches him at the last second with her yoyo. She reels him back onto the car and gives him a look, awaiting her little "thank you".
"I could've managed on my own, you know," Chat Noir grumbles. She should've expected this instead—this is Chat Noir after all.
"I know," Ladybug smiles. Her smile fades when Rogercop climbs onto the roof of the car, initiating battle. The two superheroes try to fight off the villain with the best of their abilities, but he's too powerful. Rogercop suddenly pounds the edge of the car, making it spin round and round. Chat Noir and Ladybug run in place as if they were running on a log on water, trying their best not to fall off.
Rogercop manages to knock Ladybug off the car, and she throws her yoyo at Chat Noir, yelling, "Grab onto me!"
Chat Noir misses the yoyo, and could only watch in horror as Ladybug falls from a height of over one hundred feet. They may be rivals, but he and Ladybug have been through many missions together, helping each other out when the time calls for it. He's always mean to me, but she never fails to give him a smile. He always says no, but she never stops asking him if he wants to be partners with her.
"What have you done?" Chat Noir says darkly. Rogercop picks him up and holds him by the arm, ready to take his Miraculous off. He fails to see Chat Noir take his staff and jam it into the exhaust pipe with his legs. This causes a small explosion, making the hero's staff shoot out of the pipe and causing the flying car to shake. This surprises Rogercop, who accidentally lets go of Chat Noir.
Chat Noir is falling through the air, and swims towards his weapon. He indeed manages to get reach his staff, but he has no plan thereafter. His closes his eyes, ready to get smashed into pieces on the pavement, when he feels something wrap around his legs.
"Called it," Chat Noir says as he's being pulled up by no other than Ladybug. "I knew My Lady was going to come to the rescue."
Ladybug lets go of her yoyo, making Chat Noir fall to the ground with a scowl. "You're welcome," she says, offering her hand. "You owe me one."
Chat Noir brushes her hand off, and gets up on his own. "Yeah, okay," he says. The two rivals jump onto the first iron pillar of the Eiffel Tower in order to get a better view of where Rogercop is headed.
Rogercop's police car suddenly makes a stop and heads in the other direction, and Chat Noir and Ladybug both watch it go. "There's no point running after him anyway. He's way out of our reach now," Ladybug groans.
"Well, if it's the mayor he wants," Chat Noir says, crossing his arms. "Then my guess is he's headed straight for the City Hall."
"There's no use attacking in broad daylight," Ladybug says, noting the hoard of policemen standing in front of the building. "I say we wait it out."
When night falls, Chat Noir and Ladybug manage to blend in well with the darkness and sneak past the police guards in front of the City Hall. A black cat makes noise in a nearby alley, tricking the officers into thinking the pointy-eared feline's shadow was Chat Noir.
"Hm, your luck must be spreading," Chat Noir tells Ladybug while they tiptoe into the room Rogercop is in. They quietly open the door to find Chloe and the Mayor sitting on chair with red and blue handcuffs.
Chloe notices the superheroes walk in and cheers, "Go Ladybug and Chat Noir!" This makes Rogercop turn around, and both heroes slap their foreheads at Chloe's idiocy.
"Ladybug, Chat Noir, inside for justice you fail," Rogercop says, shooting lasers at them. The two heroes jump out of the way to prevent getting handcuffed.
"You got justice and revenge all mixed up, Rogercop," Ladybug says.
Rogercop blows his whistle. "Get Ladybug and Chat Noir," he orders Chloe and the mayor to do. Both handcuffed victims do as their told, but they're no match for Paris' greatest heroes. After a quick apology, Chat Noir and Ladybug throw them out of the room and close the door after doing so.
Rogercop continues to shoot at them blindly before Chat Noir and Ladybug dodge roll behind the large wooden table in the corner of the room.
"The akuma must be in his whistle," Ladybug says. Rogercop jumps on top of the table they're hiding under and continues to shoot like a mad man. Chat Noir and Ladybug barely escape, and luckily manage to find another hiding spot.
"Alright, let's make this a real challenge," Chat Noir says, cracking knuckles. "If my plan doesn't stop this, then you can go on and solve the whole thing yourself. We aren't a team, so it shouldn't matter to you whether my plan fails or not. See you." He says, giving her a two-finger salute.
"Wait, Chat, what are you doing?!" Ladybug screams when Chat Noir activates Cataclysm. "What are you planning on doing with that? If you hit the floor, the whole's building's going to crumble!"
"I know my powers more than you, My Lady," Chat Noir says, sticking his tongue out at her childishly. "Trust me—I know what I'm doing."
Chat Noir walks out in plain view and starts running towards Rogercop. When the akumatized victim shoots in his direction, Chat Noir ducks at the last second and slides right under him while touching the floor with his cataclysmic hand. Rogercop unexpectedly falls to the floor, and he landed on his arm as an attempt to break his fall. He ended up crushing his laser with his armor, rendering it useless.
He begins shooting with his other arm, causing Chat Noir to run back to the hiding place. "Okay, well I got half of my plan to work," he says.
Ladybug peaks out of her hiding spot to see a yellow oven mitts sitting on top of the mayor's desk for some inexplicable reason.
"I've got an idea," Ladybug says, running out of her hiding spot. She flips onto the table, dodging the lasers and successfully grabbing the oven mitt off the desk. She runs towards Rogercop and throws the mitt over his hand, stopping him from shooting anymore lasers.
She's about to reach for the whistle tied around his neck, when it's suddenly ripped off and crushed against the wall next to her with a familiar silver staff. She scowls in the direction the staff is pointing to, to see Chat Noir grinning at her.
"Slow and steady doesn't win the race," Chat Noir winks, capturing the black butterfly with the glowing tip of his staff. A white butterfly flutters out of it, and magic dust fills the air after he pounds the floor with his weapon, screaming, "MIRACULOUS CHAT!"
"That wasn't fair," Ladybug scowls, approaching him.
"Actually, what wouldn't be fair is if you caught the akuma when I did most of the work," Chat Noir says, and Ladybug doesn't say anything right after because he's right. His ring beeps, signaling the near-end of his transformation. "I should head back before I de-transform. Let them know I was the one who saved the day!"
With that, Chat Noir bows down to Ladybug sarcastically. He flees the scene, but not before tossing a familiar bracelet into a white purse.
"I think this belongs to you, Miss," Officer Roger says, handing Chloe her white bag.
"My bag!" Chloe exclaims, grabbing it. She opens it up to check if all her things are in there, and her eyes widen when she sees her formerly lost bracelet inside. "My bracelet! But… but how?!" Chloe asks in shock, taking her bracelet out and putting it on her wrist.
"Roger, you found the bracelet?" Mayor Bourgeois asks.
"Actually it turns out it was in Chloe's bag all along," Lieutenant Roger says. "It must've fallen into a side pocket when that girl tripped over it."
"Well, Roger, I do apologize for being so accusatory and firing you for no good reason," the mayor apologizes. "Please forgive me for being so unreasonable."
"I think Officer Roger has proven his excellence to you, Mr. Mayor," Ladybug says, smiling up at the police officer. "You'd be wrong not to keep him as a policeman."
"Of course, of course!" Mayor Bourgeois says. "Welcome back, Lieutenant."
"Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm proud to be back, and I vow to uphold my firm belief that every citizen is innocent until proven guilty," Lieutenant Roger says, saluting the mayor. "Thank you, Sir!"
The next day at school, Marinette takes her usual seat after entering class. Adrien swivels around the second she sits down and glares at her.
"So," he begins. Nino and Alya give each other a tired look. Here comes the arguments, and at eight thirty in the freaking morning. "Sources say you accused me of stealing Chloe's bracelet yesterday."
"You were nowhere to be found, so I just assumed—" Marinette tries to explain, but Adrien cuts her off with a scoff.
"Your hatred towards me doesn't give you the right to accuse me of thievery, you know," Adrien says, the word hate making his stomach stop.
"Okay, I'm sorry," Marinette frowns. "I didn't mean to accuse you. Chloe was blaming me for everything, so I got annoyed and blamed everyone else. I'm as guilty as her, I'm sorry."
"You should be held under arrest for false accusations against me," Adrien says. His angry expression suddenly softens and he's stifling his laughter when he continues, "Or should I say… under Agreste."
Marinette's mouth falls open. "Are you serious right now?" she asks as he gives her a smug smile. "You think you're funny?"
"Me? I'm hilarious."
While Marinette screams her head off, Adrien could only laugh at how worked up she can get this early in the morning. While she rants about how rude it is to laugh when you're being scolded, Adrien could only think to himself, "Valentine's Day is coming up… I wonder if she likes chocolates."
end card
A/N: I didn't know how to end the chapter, so I decided to give you guys a little treat of what's coming next: Dark Cupid! It's the chapter I'm sure most, if not, all of you were waiting for! Though I'm going to be honest and say that writing Dark Cupid is really stressing me out and making me really nervous because you guys are probably expecting it to be amazing. I'm so scared of disappointing you all. ;-;
I couldn't think of a title until I thought of the pun "Under Agreste" halfway through the chapter. I had to add it in somewhere, so there it is in the end LOL. This is a bit of a lazy chapter because, as I've mentioned before, I didn't like the Rogercop episode. I rushed writing this because I just wanted to get it over with and continue writing the next chapter. I'm sorry if Rogercop was one of your favorites!
Thank you for the favorites, alerts, and most of all, the reviews! All the feedback I got from last chapter made me so happy, you don't even understand. Thank you so much! ;w;
Thank you for reading!
Akuma Capture:
Ladybug: 6
Chat Noir: 6
Next Episode: Dark Cupid