Chapter 3

I'm only… Human?

Marinette new how risky this was, but what other choice did she have? Marinette Dupain-Cheng is, surprisingly, the one and only Ladybug! But when she is not Ladybug, she is just a normal, teenage girl who is exceptionally clumsy and has a major crush on Adrien Agreste (but we will get to him later). Marinette has pale skin and is rather skinny, she wears a dark gray blazer with rolled-up sleeves; the inside of the blazer is lined in white with pink polka dots and it has black trimming. Underneath, she wears a white t-shirt with black stitching and a flower design below the collar, pink rolled up jeans and pink ballet flats with dark red soles. And on her ears, were her earrings, they may look like normal stud earrings, but they are actually her miraculous, the miraculous of the Ladybug. She has a red Kwami that came with her earrings, the Kwami's name is Tikki, and it is not usual to get on her nerves, but what Marinette did was too much,

"why did you bring him HERE!" Tikki demanded, "this could reveal your identity to him! Remember what happened when Cat Noir almost found out?" it was a low blow, Marinette hadn't meant it, it was a complete accident that Cat Noir had almost found out, it had caused her dad to get Evilized!

"if you would let me get a word in, Tikki," Marinette said calmly "the reason I think that he should know is because he has powers, but no miraculous." They then looked at the stranger on the bed, Marinette had convinced her parents to let him stay the night, Tikki already knew that he had powers, unusual powers, he could jump through fire without getting burned, and now, he had a tendency to self-ignite! Marinette had had to put him out 5 times already. They then heard the stranger groaning and moaning, he was coming to!

Burpy sat up in a burst of panic, he was sitting on a bed in a room that had cream pink wallpaper. The floors were made up of a series of overlapping dark oak rectangles. In the centre of the room was a circular pink rug, with a black and pink flower design along the edges. And standing on the rug, was a young looking girl, she seemed familiar, then he saw that this girl was hiding something behind her back, he grabbed something that looked oddly like a pencil, and pointed the sharp end at the girl, he was getting the hand of this new body.

"what are you hiding?!" he demanded, shaking the pencil at her "and if you want to ghoul me you have another thing coming!" he was blinded by fear, this new body and new people and how BIG he was! What was happening to him!

"calm down," the girl said in a soothing, "just don't panic, and calm down, you are in no danger here." Burpy wasn't convinced,

"then what are you hiding behind your back?!" he asked, "I won't trust you until you show me." The girl sighed, she looked at a trapdoor which must lead to the rest of the house and then said,

"ok. Tikki, come out and say hi" and then Burpy saw something red with black spots on its head fly out from behind the girl, when Burpy got a good look at it, he felt relieved, it looked like a floating SLUG!

"wow" Burpy only managed to say, "I can always trust a fellow Slug". This must have insulted the red thing because it turned its back on him, and said in a high, female voice,

"how dare you!"

"sorry," said Burpy, rather confused "aren't you a slug?". The red thing turned in mid-air and replied

"no, I am not a slug, I am a Kwami, how can you even compare me with a black, slimy creature?!"

Burpy then realized that the creature thought that he was talking about the other kind of slugs, the ones found in gardens on the surface, this was going to be hard to explain,

"oh," Burpy started "no, not those, I meant my kind of slug."

What was this guy on about? "his kind" it made no sense, Marinette then realized what he had said when he saw Tikki and things seemed to snap together in her mind. Tikki, meanwhile, was still trying to understand what he was on about,

"so, you have a different use for the word "slug"?" Tikki asked, Marinette then butted in and said

"Tikki, I think I know what is going on here," she then turned towards the boy and asked, "what do you think you are, mister?" the boy looked confused, as if this was a stupid question, and replied in an unusual way,

"I am a slug; what do you think I am?" now this was a bit awkward, Tikki was looking equally confused, so Marinette then asked,

"What is a slug to you?". And again, the boy gave an unusual answer

"we are small beings that have great power shut inside ourselves, the true extent of our powers is still to be found out, and I am almost one of the most powerful and rare slugs in the history of Slugterra; I am an Infurnace slug.". Tikki couldn't keep it in any longer, she blurted out,

"BUT YOU ARE A HUMAN!" it was lucky that Marinette's parents were out, or else things would get even more confusing.

Burpy was tired of this, he needed to show what he meant, he needed to show what he used to look like, he then noticed that he was still holding the pencil in his right hand, and then he saw a sheet of plane paper on the desk nearby, so he stood up and made his way to the desk, this body was his now, he had almost full control. He then said, "I didn't always look like this" he said over his shoulder, " in fact, I only recently turned into this wired form, I have no idea how, but I did," he then started sketching what he used to look like with the pencil, and discovered that he was brilliant at drawing, so good that he decided to draw another slug too. When he was finished, he pointed at the drawing of himself as a slug and said, "this was what I used to look like, I was actually only just taller than her, whoever she is" he then pointed to the red creature who responded with,

"my name is Tikki, what is your name again?"

"Burpy," Burpy replied "pleased to meet you Tikki and… um?" he gestured at the girl,

"Marinette," said the girl, holding out her hand, Burpy took hold of it and they shook hands, it was the start of a good friendship.

Tikki looked at Burpy's drawing again and saw the other slug he had drawn, it looked different from the one Burpy used to be, "what slug is this one Burpy?" she asked, Burpy turned around and looked at his drawing, and said, casually

"oh, that is my best slug friend, Joules…" he then remembered something that shocked him, he gasped "oh no! Joules! He was sucked into that hole-thing too!" he was starting to worry, what if anyone could get sucked into the hole. What if Black was to turn up?!

"what hole?" asked Marinette, rather confused. "You never mentioned a hole." Burpy then realised that he needed to explain to them all about Slugterra and Eli, this was really going to take a while.

"… and the last time we saw Black was when Will shoved him and the Goon into a vortex" Burpy finished, it had taken well over an hour to explain all about Slugterra and Black, Marinette and Tikki were so shocked at what black did to the innocents of Slugterra, humans, trolls, molenoids, and Slugs alike, that Marinette had a tear running down her cheek. Burpy noticed the tear and said "oh, I am sorry that it was sad, I didn't mean to upset you" she wiped the tear away quickly and asked in a croaky sort of voice,

"did … did you ever get Ghouled?"

"no, not by Black at any rate, only by the Goon, and that was a surprise," he had completely forgotten to tell her about Eli having no choice but to Ghoul him in the Deep caverns, and was about to tell her when he heard a noise that he recognized greatly, and it wasn't good.