Fun fact: the movie they're watching was planned out while I was brainstorming crack ideas with Sakura Marie!
Cinematic
Alya was so excited for the impending double date that she almost didn't mind the thunderstorm that raged just outside her window. The blogger pulled out her cutest rain boots, which were a very fashionable Chelsea style that Marinette bought her.
"Do you think I should wear jeans?" she asked, turning to her best friend for advice.
The pigtailed girl sat on the edge of Alya's bed and shook her head. "No, wear leggings and that oversized shirt I made you for your birthday. They'll dry much faster than jeans and flannel."
Alya hummed and nodded her head as she pulled the shirt from her closet, "Yeah, that's why you're the fashion expert and I'm just the all-around expert."
Tikki giggled from her place on Marinette's shoulder. "I'll give you that one, Alya!" the pigtailed girl exclaimed with a laugh.
"What are you wearing, Marinette?" Tikki asked, zipping up to eye level.
"My custom-made Jagged Stone shirt and distressed jeggings. I just finished up the pants yesterday, and my chunky rain boots will be perfect with them!" Marinette replied with clear excitement in her eyes.
Alya grinned at her, "Ooh, going with an edgy look, then?"
Marinette blushed and shrugged, "I mean, the Jagged shirt is very rock and roll, so I guess?"
Alya smiled encouragingly, "Girl, you're gonna rock that look!"
Tikki offered Marinette her phone, "You two should get going soon if you don't want to be late!"
"You're right, Tikki," Marinette replied, grabbing her bag of clothes and rushing to the bathroom to change.
When they arrived at their destination, the four teenagers hopped out of Adrien's car and sprinted to the awning that would shelter them from the rain.
"We would pick the rainiest Saturday ever, right?" Nino joked. Marinette beamed at Adrien, her eyes full of warmth, "I like rain."
"Good, because this seems to be a recurring thing for us," the blond remarked with a playful roll of his eyes. The four of them stood there laughing amongst themselves for a moment before heading inside.
Adrien held the door for the girls like a true gentleman, and then tried to slam it before Nino could walk through. The DJ was able to squeeze through at the last second, and turned to glare at Adrien.
"Dude! That's uncool," Nino complained, while his best friend smirked mischievously.
"You should be more careful, Nino. If I'd accidentally shut your fingers in the door, you'd be in quite a jamb," Adrien drawled, looking quite satisfied with himself. Marinette giggled, and Alya gave her a flat look.
"Girl. That wasn't funny," Alya chided, crossing her arms. Marinette blushed lightly, and leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"He just looked so proud of himself," she murmured with another giggle.
The blogger rolled her eyes and approached her boyfriend. Nino was busy balancing the two buckets of popcorn Adrien had bought, and she sidled up to him with a cheerful grin.
"I'm so excited for this movie," Alya exclaimed. Nino took the bait and smiled widely, "It was produced right here in Paris, you know."
"Wow, really? That's pretty cool," Adrien replied, handing a drink to Marinette.
The pigtailed girl chuckled nervously, "What movie are we seeing again?"
"Stupendous is an action-packed superhero romp, featuring lots of explosions and a strong female lead," Alya explained, looking quite excited about the idea.
"Sounds like my life," Adrien remarked before popping a piece of popcorn in his mouth, almost as if he hadn't realized he'd said it aloud.
Nino snorted and Alya clapped a hand over her mouth to muffle her loud guffaws. Marinette casually took a sip of her soda, looking much too calm beside Alya and Nino.
"Same," she deadpanned.
Alya gave up on trying to hold in her laughter, and soon the other visitors to the theater were giving the four loud teenagers odd looks. Adrien gave a dramatized sigh and began shoving Nino toward the entrance to the auditorium, "We're going to miss the beginning if we don't get moving."
"Okay, okay! Calm down, Sunshine," Alya exclaimed before picking a seat near the back. They all filed in and sat down with Marinette and Alya in the middle, and Adrien and Nino on either side of them. The lights dimmed and the movie began.
The opening shot focused on the outside of a sleek, trendy building. It cut away to a young woman in a business suit, who was boarding an elevator. A chipper voiceover began as the woman went through her daily routine at the high tech company, "My name is Marie Luminaire. In the daytime, I'm the CEO of an innovative software and technology development company."
The building shook as an explosion boomed outside, and the woman's eyes narrowed as she stared out the window at the super villain who rampaged through the streets.
The voiceover continued, "But when the sun goes down, that's when I become the Stupendous Lightning Bug, bioluminescent hero of the night!"
There was a jump-cut to a dynamic shot of Lightning Bug soaring through the air on large rounded wings. Her suit was mostly black, with glowing stripes of orange emblazoned across her chest. A bug-like helmet covered her entire head, save for her nose and mouth.
Marinette furrowed her brow and leaned toward Alya. "Lightning Bug? Bioluminescent hero of the night?" she whispered. The blogger shushed her and pointed back at the screen, where more explosions were lighting up the city.
Lightning Bug dropped down in front of the villain, a stone behemoth who looked alarmingly like Stoneheart wearing a construction helmet. The monster spoke in a gravelly voice, "I am Deconstructor, and you'll all pay for not appreciating me when I was a construction worker!"
Adrien nudged Marinette with his elbow, "I'm getting Akumatized victim vibes." The pigtailed girl rolled her eyes, "Me too."
With that, the behemoth hurled chunks of road at Lightning Bug, who flew upward to avoid them. She began to glow as she spun some sort of energy beam around. The effect was very much like Ladybug's yoyo.
A shrieking noise cut through the air, and the superhero was forced to cover her ears. A man in a dark suit dropped out of the sky, silver birdlike wings flapping behind him.
"Night Hawk!" Lightning Bug spat.
"You didn't think you got rid of me, did you?" Night Hawk remarked with a sinister grin.
Nino tried to muffle his snort while Marinette gave Alya an unimpressed look. "I thought you said this movie would be good," she hissed.
Adrien laughed quietly while he patted Marinette's hand, "Hey, it could always be worse."
A figure appeared on a rooftop above. His voice somehow drowned out the battle, though he didn't seem to be speaking particularly loudly.
"Two on one. How unfair." He drawled, before dropping down and giving Deconstructor a sound whack on the head with his bow staff.
The camera zoomed out to show the newcomer, and his outfit immediately caused an uproar in the theater audience.
Adrien's jaw dropped, "He's literally Chat Noir with a grey suit!"
"Don't forget the fluffy tail. Dude has a fluffy tail," Nino called helpfully.
"Silver Wolf, glad you could make it," Lightning Bug exclaimed, giving him a saucy wink.
The Chat Noir copy stuck an angsty pose, "When justice calls, I must answer. Like a wolf to the hunt, I cannot ignore it."
Lightning Bug swooned, "Oh Silver Wolf, you're so romantic!"
"I'm gonna hurl," Alya commented, making a sour face.
Marinette glared at the screen, "Did she just swoon in the middle of a battle?" The explosions on-screen thankfully drowned out Plagg's howling laughter.
Night Hawk took advantage of her distraction and nearly landed a blow, which was blocked by Silver Wolf at the last second. "We'll talk later, Love Bug," Silver Wolf flirted in between grappling with the super villain.
She fought against the Stoneheart copy with gusto, throwing cheesy banter at the explosion-based villain. Just as the superhero duo began to get the upper hand, Night Hawk flew up high and screeched loudly.
"Ca-Caw! Ca-Caw!" he shrieked, sending shockwaves of energy pulsing out over the city. "No! He's making a new villain," Lightning Bug exclaimed through gritted teeth.
A wave of laughter crashed over the auditorium, drowning out whatever dialogue came directly after Night Hawk's high-pitched bird noises.
A new villain made of pure darkness arrived, and announced that her name was Shadowbox.
"Those shadows are about as dark as my outlook on life," Silver Wolf commented with another angsty pose. Shadowbox threw shadow spikes at Lightning Bug, who dodged with ease.
"Looks like she's throwing shade," the Chat Noir rip-off quipped.
Adrien laughed in spite of himself, and Marinette looked betrayed. "Sorry, it caught me off guard," he whispered, not looking sorry at all.
Lightning Bug and Silver Wolf stood back to back, with the Stoneheart copy on one side and Shadowbox with Night Hawk on the other.
Silver Wolf struck another groan-worthy pose, "Looks like we're stuck between a rock and a hard place. Maybe it's time for a little Stupendous intervention, Love Bug."
Lightning Bug took up a dramatic stance and threw her glowing hand up in the air. "Stupendous Lightning Bug!" she shouted, causing sparks to fly over her head before they reformed into a giant sword.
"Hey! That was Lucky Charm!" an enraged moviegoer shouted at the screen.
"Boo!" Alya hollered, throwing popcorn at the screen. Several other moviegoers joined in, drowning out the flirting between Lightning Bug and Silver Wolf.
From that point on, the crowd collectively poked fun at the cheesy movie. When Silver Wolf abandoned the battle to chase a car, someone shouted that he needed to go to puppy school. When Night Hawk "akumatized" his victims via loud crowing noises, a woman in the front suggested that Hawk Moth should try it.
Suddenly, the already dim theater lights flickered threateningly. Hushed whispers about the storm outside echoed through the theater. The movie screen ripped open as someone crashed through it into the auditorium.
Frightened screams erupted from the audience as the spitting image of Shadowbox stood before them.
"You will not continue to insult this cinematic masterpiece! I am Shadowbox, and I'm pulling the plug on your criticism!" she exclaimed, voice echoing through the room with a reverberating quality that mimicked the movie villain's voice.
Alya jumped up and shoved Marinette and Adrien out of their seats.
"Get help, we'll distract her!" she said in a hushed shout. The secret superheroes wasted no time escaping from the auditorium, leaving pure pandemonium behind as Shadowbox blocked the exit behind them and the other moviegoers panicked.
Nino managed to goad Shadowbox into an argument about the movie's cinematic strong points, or lack thereof, buying the occupants of the theater some time.
Just as the Akumatized woman began to lose patience, Ladybug kicked in the door to the auditorium. As soon as the door had given way, Chat Noir sailed through the air and landed a solid kick to Shadowbox's stomach.
While he kept the akumatized woman busy, Ladybug guided the moviegoers out and emptied the theater of all but Alya and Nino.
After Lucky Charm produced a disco ball that scattered light and disrupted the woman's shadow powers, it was only a matter of plucking the movie ticket from Shadowbox's hand and restoring the damage she'd done to the theater.
A short while later, the four teenagers walked out of the theater side by side, sorely disappointed with the way the evening had gone.
As they stepped outside, Marinette raised a hand up as she checked for raindrops.
"On the plus side, it's stopped raining now," she commented with a cheery smile.
"It's too bad. I planned to say something about cats and dogs on the way out," Adrien quipped, shooting finger guns at an unimpressed Nino.
"Sorry we picked such an awful movie," Alya apologized, wringing her hands nervously.
"It wasn't that bad," Adrien lied, giving them his fakest smile yet.
"Someone got akumatized because of it," Nino deadpanned.
Adrien allowed his smile to drop, "It was pretty terrible."
Marinette looped her arm through her boyfriend's and gave Alya a dazzling smile.
"I think tonight went pretty well, all things considered. We should do it again sometime," the pigtailed girl suggested in a chipper voice.
"Yeah, I wouldn't mind having a do-over," Nino agreed, giving Adrien a friendly punch in the arm. Alya laughed and swung her and Nino's intertwined hands between them as they approached Adrien's car.
They all took turns hopping over a particularly large puddle and stopped just short of the car door.
Marinette looked Alya in the eye very seriously, and raised an authoritative finger. "But next time, I'm picking the movie."
The blogger grinned, "Deal."