Okay! Time for the part I've been dreading! Volpina disguises herself as a human girl named Lila Rossi and goes undercover as a new student at François-Dupont High school! Immediately, she gets the boys' attention, but then she gets on the girls' nerves (Marinette especially) by getting close to Adrien! Oh boy...
In the akuma realm, Volpina was once again in audience with Queen Mayura. They were reviewing the footage of the Evillustrator passing away. The video feed cut out.
"The Evillustrator was nothing short of foolish. Volpina, you were right to eliminate him." Mayura praised.
"Aw, thank you." Volpina thanked.
"It was the idea of possessing a human that led to his failure." Mayura stated.
"While we're on the subject of humans," Volpina started. "I had this idea of following Evillustrator's lead. But instead of possessing a human, why not disguise myself as a human being instead? I'll be so attractive, the boys can't stand it!"
"There's something off going on at François-Dupont High school campus. Volpina, you are to find the final piece of the Miraculous Something Four and take it away from those Love Angels." Mayura instructed.
"No problem." Volpina replied with a smirk.
In another chamber in the realm, Volpina was standing in front of a mirror. She took out her flute, blew a few notes into it, and she blasted a yellow light ball on herself. When the light faded, her hair lost its ombré tones, her mask and suit were gone, and she was now wearing a red-orange jacket over her black shirt, black leggings under black shorts, shoes, and was wearing pearl earrings.
"I'll be the most popular and attractive girl at school, and finding those damned Love Angels will be nothing short of a snap." Lila said with a smirk.
The next day at the girls' school, Volpina, in her disguise, stood in front of the class, next to Mlle. Bustier.
"Alright, everyone, allow me to introduce our newest classmate, Lila Rossi." Mlle. Bustier said, gesturing to Lila.
"Hi everyone, it's nice to meet you," Lila greeted. "Please, help me out, okay?"
"Okay," Mlle. Bustier said. "We have an open seat at the desk across the aisle from Marinette."
Marinette gave a wave to indicate herself. Lila then walked over to her seat, sat down, and turned to Marinette with a deceivingly-sweet smile.
"I'm happy to meet you." Lila said, smiling.
Marinette's skin got goosebumps, like when someone was out in the cold for too long without a jacket. She tried to smile and she said, "Um... Hi there."
Later on, Alya, Chloé, and Marinette were talking to Lila, asking her some questions about her background.
"So, where'd you move from?" Alya asked with a smile.
"Oh, from around," Lila spoke. "Over there..."
The girls looked at her suspiciously when they saw she was pointing at another desk.
"Um, where, exactly?" Chloé asked.
"Well, because of mom's work, I'm from a totally different world." Lila said, covering up her mistake.
"So you're from abroad?" Marinette asked.
"Sort of." Lila spoke, trying to think of something.
"But you're from here originally?" Chloé questioned, her eyebrow quirked.
"Yo, Rossi!" Someone said. A group of boys approached. "Our next class is science. May I show you the way."
"Aw, that's so chivalrous of you," Lila said while giving the boys seductive eyes. "But you don't have to be so formal with me. You can call me Lila, so don't be shy about it."
The boys were already swooning, and one said, "Sure, Lila."
"Well, I'm ready to follow your lead." Lila said as she stood up and allowed the boys to escort her to the classroom.
Once they were alone, the girls' friendly expressions dropped.
"There's something about her that's giving me bad vibes," Alya said, crossing her arms. "People like that are annoying."
"I don't like her, either." Chloé agreed.
"Come on, girls," Marinette insisted. "I mean, yes, I'm getting weird vibes off her, too, but let's try and keep an open mind about her. She's new here, after all."
"You may have a point," Alya conceded. "After all, if we didn't keep an open mind about Chloé here, we wouldn't be the power trio we are today."
In the science room, Lila was surrounded by the boys at her table as she was getting the experiment ready.
"You can borrow my textbook today if you'd like, Lila." One boy offered.
"Aw, thank you," Lila thanked. "Now where are those beakers?"
"I'll get them for you!" Another boy said before running off.
"Working with these chemicals is kind of scary." Lila admitted, feigning minor fear.
Over with the angels, they were working on the experiment while watching the scene. And needless to say, they were not amused.
"She's only here, what, five minutes, and she's already got all the boys in school wrapped around her finger?" Chloé complained.
"Yeah, sugarcoating everything she says, adding a giant dollop of Créme Chantilly and putting sugar sprinkles on top? I mean, I like sugar, but this is overkill." Alya agreed.
"Yeah, it's so sweet that it makes me want to go to the dentist to get fillings for all of my teeth." Chloé spat.
"And there's something artifically-sweet about it, too..." Alya began.
"I'm with you," Marinette spoke in agreement. "But we shouldn't be gossiping about her, we need to be focusing on this experiment. We don't want Mlle. Mendeleiev to catch us. Remember what happened in the library?"
The girls pulled uncomfortable faces when they remembered that time they were attacked in the library by three akumas at once.
"ROSE LAVILLANT! GET THAT PERFUME BOTTLE OUT OF THIS CLASSROOM RIGHT NOW!" Mendeleiev shouted.
Rose ran out of the classroom with her pink perfume bottle.
"While I don't agree with her yelling at Rose like that, yeah, having flammables in a chemistry lab is dangerous..." Marinette spoke.
After chemistry lab, the girls were standing out at the school courtyard, watching the fencing team go at it again. They were taking photos and videos on their phones, watching the team.
Someone tumbled, rolling, and wound up dropping his saber. It bounced over to the girls.
"Don't worry," Alya said. "I'll-"
"I've got it!" Lila said as she was shoving other bystanders aside, pushed Alya away, took the saber and threw it back to the fencing team.
"Hey! Don't you know it's rude to just shove people around like that?!" Chloé snapped.
Lila was just staring at the boys on the team, letting the girls' protests go in one ear and out the other.
When the captain of the fencing team - a taller, rather muscular young man with tanner skin and red hair - came by, he said, "Thank you."
"Oh, don't mention it," Lila giggled before saying, "He's a looker."
"Oh, great," Chloé said, rolling her eyes. "Yet another girl going gaga over the fencing captain."
Adrien, meanwhile, had taken off his mask and helmet and was talking to his opponent.
Lila's eyes blew open, her face went red. Inside her body, her fox-colored DNA strands (black phosphate backbones and white and orange base pairs with different shades of orange and white) were bulging.
'There's something about that boy that's different from these other humans...' Lila thought, and she swayed her body around, saying, "OOH!"
"Yep, just another girl going nuts over the captain." Alya laughed a bit.
Adrien was just wiping his face with the back of his hand.
"Nathalie forgot to pack a sweat rag for Adrien again?" Marinette questioned as she rummaged in her backpack. "Poor guy. What can you do."
She took out a towel for him and started to make her way over to Adrien. As she came up next to Lila, the disguised akuma snatched the towel away from Marinette, saying, "May I borrow this?"
"Hey!" Marinette shouted as Lila ran out onto the field.
"What is she doing?!" Alya spat. "How inappropriate can someone be?! I'll bet she's going to be going over to the captain to butter him up!"
But to their surprise, Lila ran right past the captain, as if he wasn't there.
Adrien was having shallow breathing from his workout, only for his eyes to cross together when he saw the towel come into his face. He turned to see Lila right in his space, and he shouted before stepping away.
She gave him a overly-friendly smile, then once again got in his space, saying, "You're a hunka guy, aren't you?"
"Adrien, huh?" Chloé said. "Well, I can see why. He's a model and all, wealthy... He's got it made."
"Chloé, look." Alya said, pointing out Marinette.
Her eyes were narrowed with anger, her teeth were grit and she was shaking. Her fists were balled, too.
"Mon dieu..." Alya muttered, face-palming. Chloé winced, too.
"Hey, why don't you check out how fast my heart's going?" Lila said, holding on to Adrien's wrist. She pulled it to her chest, where one of her breasts were.
Marinette's face went red when she realized what that would look like from the outside looking in.
Adrien got chills running up and down his spine, like a strongman had played the strength tester game at a fair and hit the bell before the puck rushed back down. And his stomach felt like he'd eaten something that wasn't agreeing with him and he was about to see it a second time.
"Cut it out!" Adrien said firmly, yanking his hand away.
"Oh, come on," Lila insisted. "You can feel it, can't you? How my DNA's tingling up a storm?"
"DNA? The hell's she going on about?" Chloé asked, crossing her arms.
"Whatever she's talking about, bringing genetic talk into her flirting is nothing short of disgusting I mean, can't anyone else see how grossed out Adrien's looking? Like he wants to just shove her away and flip the bird at her?" Alya added. "Hey Marinette, what do you think?"
Marinette was about to cry, but she was taking large, deep breathes, imagining herself and her mother together again, thinking about Luka and his music, and more.
"S... She must be crazy if she thinks she can take Adrien away just like that!" Marinette said, turning to her friends and trying to put on a happy face... But Alya and Chloé were just looking at her with worry.
Lila was still trying to get close to Adrien, but he was pushing her away, insisting that she get away from him.
"Hey, please, just..." Adrien stated.
"Yo, Adrien..." The captain said, obviously noticing that the girl wasn't respecting his space. "Um, need some help?"
"Please!" Adrien said as he pushed Lila away and stood next to the captain.
"It's nice to meet you," Lila said. "Lila Rossi here. You must be the captain."
Later in the bathroom, Lila was standing in front of the mirror, looking at herself. But instead of the sight of Lila Rossi, her reflection was that of her true self, Volpina.
"What is this? This feeling that my heart's enlarging or something," She asked herself aloud. "It's so strange..."
That night, Marinette was in her bedroom, wearing her pajamas, in front of her computer with her controlling, playing UMSIII in a pure rage. Up on the screen, her chosen mech, which was modeled after a ladybug, was absolutely trouncing the other two mechs in the game.
"Adrien's suddenly popular with the girls, huh?! This is unbelievable!" Marinette griped as she kept pounding keys on her controller snarling, and more.
She had Nooroo and Tikki playing as opponents, but they were struggling with the game.
"Hey, you've got the wrong button, Tikki!" Nooroo pointed out.
"No wonder I'm getting the combination wrong constantly!" Tikki exclaimed.
In addition to forgetting which key did which action, they'd often get the combination moves wrong. Combine that with Marinette's experience with the game, they were getting creamed like butter and sugar in a stand mixer set on its highest speed. Right at the beginning of every round. Marinette wasn't even aware of how tired the kwamis were.
"Marinette, can't we stop?" Tikki asked as she collapsed onto the controller. "We've been at this for more than an hour."
"Yeah," Nooroo agreed. "I guess seeing someone hitting on Adrien that blatantly must've been a huge shock, Lady Marinette. At least you have a healthy outlet for this instead of ripping pillows or something."
"Doesn't matter to me what girls flock to Adrien! Not one bit!" Marinette griped while continuing to play her game. She hadn't even realized that the kwamis stopped.
Her phone, which was sitting on the loft bed, rang out loud, but Marinette was ignoring it while continuing to play the game.
"Lady Marinette, the phone." Nooroo spoke.
Marinette kept playing, ignoring the ringtone. Nooroo gestured to Tikki, who flew up to the bed to get the phone. She picked it up and flew it over to Marinette.
"Doesn't matter to me, doesn't matter to me, doesn't matter, doesn't matter..." Marinette kept muttering... while accidentally grabbing Nooroo and using him as the controller.
"Marinette, the phone!" Tikki insisted.
Marinette finally snapped out of it, then took the phone from the kwami. She said, "Thanks, Tikki."
She looked at the screen and saw a number she didn't recognize. But changing it, she answered the call.
"Hello, this is Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Marinette greeted.
"Hi, Mari. It's Lila." Lila said over the phone.
Marinette flinched, before asking, "Lila?! How'd you get my number?!"
"Oh no, is it that rival of yours?" Tikki asked.
"Oh, I just asked around," Lila giggled. "Listen, gossip around the school says that you know Adrihoney better than anyone else."
"Huh? Adrihoney?...You mean Adrien?" Marinette asked.
"Yep," Lila confirmed. "So, give me the deets on him!"
"Listen, I don't know why you're asking me," Marinette began, trying not to snap at her. "I don't have any real relation with..."
"TELL ME EVERYTHING!" Lila enthusiastically screamed into Marinette's ear.
Once all was said and done, Marinette was playing UMSIII to vent again.
"WHY do I have to tell Lila everything about Adrien?! It's not like I care about that guy like that!" Marinette ranted as she kept going at it. She changing from using the kwamis as opponents to going onto the online platform.
She asked other players to just indulge her and play with her, saying that she needed to let some destructive urges out in a healthy outlet, and crushing mechs on UMSIII was one of her favorite ways to do it. They didn't ask questions, but understood she needed to vent, so they let her.
And needless to say, the comments in the chat room...
"Wow. You're on FIRE tonight!"
"Whatever's gotten you so upset, it's really motivating you to kick ass here."
"Sure you don't wanna talk about it?"
"Marinette, you're going completely bonkers here." Tikki pointed out.
"Lady Marinette, please calm down," Nooroo pleaded. "You won't be able to get any sleep this way."
Marinette paused in her game, then as if an air-filled balloon was untied, she let out a big breath of air.
"Y... You're right," Marinette agreed as she told the other players she was signing off for the evening. "I need some sleep..."
The next day, the girls were once again watching the fencing team at work. They had their phones out, they were taking photos of the teammates playing, and more.
The fencers were sparring like no one's business. Adrien had just touched his opponent with his saber, then lifted his mask up before saying, "Nice work! Now let's get back to it!"
Unfortunately, Chloé and Alya noticed Marinette was sitting down on the bench, sadly staring off into space like a cloud was in her brain and wasn't lifting anytime soon.
"Things have been totally off since Lila showed up, am I right?" Alya questioned.
"No kidding," Chloé agreed. "I have half a mind to give that green-eyed witch a piece of my..."
"Alright, everyone! Take ten!" The captain shouted as he took his mask off.
Lila soon came running with a giant cooler filled with bottled water that was sitting in ice.
"Nice work, everyone! I've brought the water!" She shouted.
"Seriously?! Now what is she up to?" Alya asked.
As the fencers took the bottled water from the cooler, the captain told Lila, "Thanks a bunch. Having a club manager really helps us out."
"Manager?!" Chloé choked.
"That little...!" Alya spat. "She's found another way to get close to Adrien?!"
"Being a fox, I know sneaky and that girl is good. But I don't mean that as praise!" Trixx added from hiding.
Lila kneeled down next to Adrien with a rag in her hand before reaching up and saying, "May I wipe the sweat off your face?"
"No, I've got it," Adrien firmly replied as he took the rag from her hand. "Please leave me alone?"
Instead of listening to him, Lila hovered her hands over his knee and asked, "How does a knee massage sound?"
"Didn't I just say to back off?" Adrien asked, trying to be gentle, yet firm again while pushing Lila away.
"Can't that girl take a hint?" Chloé asked. "Boys are often given a lot of grief for not respecting women's boundaries, but girls are guilty of it, too!"
"Yeah, she's clearly ignoring him when he's saying "no," but it's like she doesn't care!" Alya added.
"Marinette, you're not just going to stand there and take it, are you?" Chloé asked, only to see Marinette looking on in fury, shaking, her eyes zeroed in on the scene with pain, and everything.
Once she realized she was being looked at, Marinette questioned, "What are you talking about? I... I don't have any business thinking about it! Nothing to do with Adrien!"
"Really, girl?" Alya teased.
"Not a thing." Marinette insisted.
"Looks like Adrien's got a sweet tooth, huh?" Chloé teased.
"Chloé!" Marinette shouted, her shoulders hunched and leaning in closer to Chloé.
"Gotcha." Chloé laughed, pointing her finger at Marinette.
"Chloé, you're not helping." Alya said, putting a hand on the blonde's shoulder.
The day of the big game for the fencing team arrived. The event was being held at the Parc de Princes.
The members of each team were having one-on-one matches with each other. Moves included riposte, ceding parries, feints, and more. The fencers were taking turns sitting on the bench and actually having matches on the field.
For François-Dupont High, two out of five of the fencers that were on the field were Nino and Adrien. Nino was doing offensive maneuvers and defending himself whenever there was engagement between the blades.
"Go for it, guys!" Alya shouted, cheering.
"Go, go, go!" Chloé cheered too.
"Come on, girls, try not to make a scene." Marinette giggled.
Adrien did a feint on his opponent before landing a touché on him.
"Great job!" Marinette shouted.
"Adrien!" Lila shouted from out on the field. The girls were looking at her, too. "Adrien, you're amazing!"
"Are you for real? She used her position as manager to get out on the field and bench?" Alya complained in annoyance.
"What a piece of work she is!" Chloé agreed. "Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!"
"There's no way you're coping with this, are you, girl?" Alya asked Marinette.
Marinette was gripping the stand railing, shaking, gritting her teeth. But when her friends were clearly looking at her, she relaxed and said, "I... I really..."
Tikki and Nooroo popped their heads out from hiding, and the latter said, "Lady Marinette was so upset that she was thrashing Tikki and I and some other online opponents at UMSIII until nearly midnight!"
"Nooroo!" Tikki hissed.
"So even Duchess Marinette is fallible and can get jealous." Pollen giggled.
"Yeah, I say we go and give Lila a piece of our minds," Chloe agreed. "Let's tell her to keep her sticky fingers to herself!"
"Say what?!" Marinette asked, blushing. "W-Why do we need to confront Lila! What she and Adrien do together is none of my business!"
Marinette was once again digging in her bag, and now Nooroo had put a small yarn ball in her hand to help her calm down. She was squeezing it while trying to breathe.
Back on the field, a fencer from the other team was lunging at Adrien, his épée at the ready. Adrien did a defensive stance for a ceding parry, but he lost his footing, fell off the mat and onto the grass, landing square on his knee.
"OW~!" He shouted as he dropped his épée and held his knee.
"Adrien!" Marinette shouted as she ran out of her seat.
"Marinette!" Alya spoke. She and Chloé went after her.
The trio was inside the stadium halls, and they saw Adrien coming in... Hanging on to Lila.
"Hang on, I've got you." Lila spoke as she was walking him somewhere.
"It's nothing." Adrien insisted.
"Hey, Adrien!" Marinette said as she and the girls ran up to talk to them. "Are you okay?"
"I'm good, Mariboo," Adrien said with a smile. He gave her a thumb's up. "Nothing that I can't handle."
"You can just leave it to me, his personal manager." Lila said, getting closer to Adrien while looking triumphant, her chest puffed out.
They then started walking down the halls.
Marinette made to follow, but Lila put her hand up as if shooing her away, saying, "Sorry, only authorized personnel beyond this point."
She shot a smirk at Marinette before pulling Adrien away. Marinette's face fell sadly, meanwhile Alya put a hand on her shoulder.
Marinette turned to Alya, who gave her a wink, and then dragged her away somewhere.
In one of the infirmary rooms, Adrien was sitting on the bed, his pants leg rolled up above the knee, and looking at Lila with a subtle look of revulsion in his face, like he was looking at a giant cockroach.
"Okay, here we go," Lila said as she put the poultice on the knee, and then wrapped the bandages on it. "Now pain, leave Adrien alone."
She then put her two fingertips to her lips before making a loud kissing noise, then tapped the bandage wound with her fingers.
She stood up.
"All done." Lila said.
"Thanks." Adrien replied neutrally before making to stand.
"Don't stand yet," Lila insisted, pushing him down by the shoulder. "Too early."
She leaned in to him while pushing him back, but he yelled in discomfort. She then sat on the bed next to him.
"Now it's finally just the two of us." Lila spoke, leaning in close to him, unaware that the skin on his face was beginning to match his eye color.
Outside the building, Alya and Chloé were spying on them through the window. They were standing on the planters, meanwhile Marinette was standing off to the side.
"Uh-oh! Lila's got Adrien! And she definitely looks like she wants him!" Alya spoke.
"Looks like your instincts were on point as always, Alya!" Chloé agreed. "That girl's clearly a fan."
"NOW she's leaning in closer and getting in his face. She's probably asking him out," Alya pointed out. Meanwhile, Marinette's expressions were rapidly changing from irritation to fear to worry, to jealousy, repeat. "Oh, come on! She's getting closer! And she's still disrespecting his space!"
"Hey, can we see?" Tikki asked as she and Nooroo flew out to look through the window. Trixx and Pollen were out, too.
"Hey, is she kissing him already?!" Trixx questioned.
"WHAT?!" Marinette near-shouted before jumping up to look inside. Lila was just holding Adrien by the arm while he was still looking at her in distaste.
Trixx was laughing. Once she calmed down, she told Marinette, "Just kidding!"
"That's not nice, Trixx!" Tikki hissed, while everyone else was looking at kwami, annoyed.
"But now at least we know Marinette's sweet on Adrien, no matter how much she protests otherwise and how much she insists she likes a certain guitarist." Trixx teased.
Marinette was quiet, pink in the face.
"So, Adrien, I wanna be your main squeeze." Lila said, fluttering her eyelashes before leaning her head onto his chest.
Adrien's eyes went wide and his stomach was churning like someone had diarrhea and he was about to flush the toilet. His face was about to match his eye color.
"Oh, great! Now she's asking him to be her BF!" Chloé complained.
"Say what?!" Marinette spluttered.
"How about a date, huh?" Lila asked, purring her words.
Adrien's skin crawled again, asking, "A-A date?"
"Yeah," Lila confirmed as she bopped his nose with her finger. "We can get to know each other."
Adrien took a deep breath and looked Lila in the eye.
"Well, thing is..." Adrien began.
But Lila turned up puppy eyes at him, asking, "Unless you already have someone like that in your heart?"
Adrien pulled back, his face turning red as his thoughts briefly flashed to blue eyes.
"Ooh, Lila's now put Adrien on the spot, asking him if he's crushing on anyone else! How's he gonna answer?!" Alya reported vibrantly. Meanwhile, Marinette inched closer to the scene to peek.
"And it looks like Duchess Marinette finds this quiet intriguing." Pollen pointed out.
Marinette shivered before turning away.
Lila was still holding Adrien's arm, and she said, "I asked Mari about it, and she says you don't have anyone you like that way... That's she's aware of, that is."
"Mari... You mean Mariboo?" Adrien asked, making the connection.
"Yep, called her up last night," Lila giggled. "For advice, after all."
Adrien's eyes widened a bit, asking, "Hang on, you asked Mariboo for advice about me?"
"Oh, AYFKM?!" Chloé asked, turning to Marinette. "Tell me you didn't give Lila advice about Adrien!"
"She was put on the spot," Tikki defended. "What could she do?"
"Mari told me that it's not worth going after you, considering how many fangirls your modeling career gets you." Lila spoke, running her fingers up his shoulder.
Adrien's skin tingled, almost like dirty insects were crawling up his body.
"W-Well, she's not wrong about that." Adrien admitted.
"You did tell her to leave him alone because he's yours, right?!" Alya questioned.
"She almost did." Nooroo laughed.
"NOOROO!" Marinette shouted as she shoved the kwami into her bag.
Adrien ripped his arm away and stood from the bed.
"Hey, what about our date?!" Lila asked, pissed.
Marinette looked on through the window, worried.
"Listen, there's no date," Adrien stated clearly. "I need to get back to the game."
He then left the room, while Lila called after him.
Marinette sighed before slumping down.
"And she breathes a sigh of relief." Alya stated.
"Wh-What?!" Marinette spoke, pulling away from the window.
"It's all over your face, girl," Alya pointed out. "You're an open book. We've seen how you've been looking at him lately."
"Yeah, ever since he was captured by Dark Cupid. You've been paying extra close attention to him. Even with Luka in the picture, you're still giving Adrien the time of day." Chloé added.
Marinette sighed before saying, "Forget about it. Let's just get back to the game, okay?"
She started walking away.
Lila was sitting on the bed by herself in the room, thinking over her newfound emotions.
"I don't get it... I'm still so devoted to him, and I like him that much, but... He doesn't understand." Lila said.
She then growled before standing up. Her reflection in the wall mirror was her true self again, and she screamed, "Now I'm angry! I WANNA TURN EVERY LOVING COUPLE INTO AN ICE CUBE!"
She roared as black clouds surrounded her, and she changed back into Volpina. She furiously blew into her flute, conjuring up creatures that resembled Pokémon's Wartortle, but with more icicle features and they looked far from cuddly and adorable.
In the hallways of the stadium, Marinette was heading up the group while they were walking back to their seats.
"I can't believe you had to pull us away from the match, Marinette," Chloé laughed. "But seeing your drama was much more entertaining."
Trixx and Alya laughed in agreement, but Marinette put her arm out to block them, and she said, "Girls, hang on."
"What's up?" Alya asked.
"That." Tikki said.
Up ahead was a couple who was at a vending machine, but they were frozen in a large block of ice.
"Wow, what the hell's going on here?" Chloé asked as the girls went to investigate. "They're frozen, but... It isn't cold for some weird reason?"
"Think their romance has cooled off to the point where they've frozen solid, my queen?" Pollen suggested.
"That's not likely," Alya said, pointing out their body language. "See how close they are? They're holding hands, and snuggled up close."
"Alya's right," Marinette agreed. "Nooroo, can you give us any insight?"
"This is the work of the Sea Ice Turtles." Nooroo spoke.
"Sea Ice Turtles?" Chloé asked.
"They're a group of akuma servants that can freeze happy couples. Literally!" Nooroo informed.
Speaking of happy couples, one pair of spectators was walking to leave the stadium, and they were snuggling up to each other. The woman was cuddled up against him, and he was holding her by the waist with one hand while using his other hand to hold hers.
"I'm starving. I could go for a nice croque Madame right about now." The young lady said.
"Me too, honey bunny." The young man said before kissing her cheek.
"Your happiness is hateful!" One of the Sea Ice Turtles spoke. "Feel the rage of Lady Volpina!"
"Wait, what are these things?" The young man spoke.
Instead of getting an answer, the Sea Ice Turtles opened their beaks and fired something akin to a Pokémon's Ice Beam out of their mouths. They froze the couple dead in their tracks, like a popsicle.
"That should cool you guys off!" The lead turtle laughed while the others laughed along. "Now, who's the next group?"
"Enough!" Marinette shouted.
The turtles turned to see the girls and kwamis approach.
"Lucky Wedding Flower!" "Cunning Wedding Flower!" "Growing Wedding Flower!" "Bridal Change Go! Wedding Dress Transform!" "Angel Creation Ladybug!" "Angel Illusion Rena Rouge!" "Angel Subjection Queen Bee!"
"Ladybug!"
"Rena Rouge!"
"Queen Bee!"
"THANKS FOR WAITING!" The trio chanted while taking out their weapons.
"We'll turn these Love Angels into ice cubes!" The lead turtle shouted before they all shot their ice beams at them.
Rena Rouge got behind Ladybug and Queen Bee, who blocked the ice blasts with their weapons.
"We'd better be careful," Queen Bee said as she and Ladybug took a few steps back. "Bees don't do ice!"
"I'm a red fox, not an Arctic fox! I'm not ready for this cold!" Rena added.
"Ladybug's aren't winter insects either, but we need to save the prattle for later! Queen Bee, go for it!" Ladybug spoke.
Queen Bee retracted her top before spinning it around, shouting, "Venom Spin!"
She let the top loose to do its paralysis magic, only for the turtles to blast it in ice, stopping it in its tracks.
Queen Bee then summoned up her baton, shouting, "Bride's Bashfulness! Honey Star Shower!"
As the turtles fired their ice again, the bee lights swirled around the beams, causing them to melt back into water that fell onto the floor.
Rena got her wand out of her Miraculous Something Borrowed, before allowing it to glow.
"Love's Tribute Candle! Miraculous Fantasies!" Rena Rouge hollered.
The fox tail lights were stunning the turtles, and they were screaming in pain. But then they jumped out of the way and above the angels, before all fusing together to create a giant version of themselves.
It looked more like a Blastoise with the same ice features and tail as a Wartortle.
"The bigger they are, the harder they fall," Ladybug said before getting the Lady's Crystal out. "Lady's Crystal!"
The giant Sea Ice Turtle fired a bigger ice beam at the angels. But it looked more like a Blizzard attack than anything if one was thinking in Pokémon terms.
But Ladybug was once again sucking up the blizzard into the crystal, and the huge amount of akuma energy was causing the crystal to glow brighter and brighter.
Ladybug jumped up with her yo-yo, before shouting, "Engagement Present! Lady's Crystal! L'amour Pour Vous!"
She fired the love waves at the turtle. All of the sharp, dark features softened, the eyes became big, sparkly-eyed and cute, the icicle features melted, and the turtle smiled in bliss.
"Aw, these warm love waves are warming my heart!" He said before disappearing into a cloud of sparkles.
Lila paused in her walk, feeling her brain thumping, and she turned around before saying aloud, "Hmph. The Sea Ice Turtles have been defeated by the Love Angels."
She smirked and said, "But it won't be long before I destroy them and take the Miraculous Something Four from them."
She then walked back out to the field.
Adrien was fencing without any problem, almost like he'd never been hurt to begin with.
He'd landed a hit on his opponent with his épée before shouting, "Touché!"
The whistle blew to approve Adrien's move and score. The next round started, and Adrien lunged at the other fencer, his mask down.
On the sidelines near the bench, Lila was still watching.
'I'm gonna make you mine, Adrien,' Lila thought, as she thought of how her DNA strands were pounding. 'After all, my DNA is tingling, and for the very first time.'
"Go for it, Adrien!" Lila squealed.
"Adrien! Do your best!" Marinette screamed from her chair.
Adrien parried one more move before knocking the other épée out of the person's hand and holding the sword at the face. The blonde was smiling underneath his mask.
THIS is why I'm dreading this arc! But like this pandemic, I'll get through it and come out stronger (and with more pleasant and non-Lila related drama in this show). At least it's not as uncomfortable as I was making it out to be. But still, writing about Lila is a really angering experience. I don't know how Astruc and the rest of the official Miraculous Ladybug writers do it.
I was also thinking of using Frozer here, but I felt like the situation didn't really fit because Frozer was capable of freezing Paris and turning it into an ice rink, meanwhile the devils in this episode of Wedding Peach were only capable of freezing people with ice blasts from their mouth. It just didn't work. And how was I supposed to incorporate the ice power-ups here, too?
See how Lila was getting in Adrien's space like she does in canon, how she's giving Marinette a hard time? Not as bad as in the show, but still. At least Adrien's being more firm about his boundaries in this one instead of in canon where he's got the spine of a jellyfish who lets people get in his space all the time, and is as dense as 6" thick cast iron when it comes to his own feelings as well as those of others.
And Marinette's doing her best to keep it together throughout it all. I want to retain her character development here in how she handles jealousy.
The good news is that it's only gonna last for another seven chapters, and luckily at least three of them aren't even going to FOCUS on Volpina. And Lila's lying skills and sneakiness aren't gonna be as good here as they are in canon, too. In short, she won't be as competent as she is in the real show, so everyone relax.
And about Lila taking on the role of team manager: maybe I watch and read too much anime and manga, but I don't think it's unusual for students to manage the sports teams at school. I think that might be a real thing. Hey, if Kagami were a real person, maybe she could tell us!
Also, we'll be seeing more of Renapace, and I promise you that in a few chapters, we'll see Kagami/Ryuuko make her debut.
Alright, in the next chapter, with the weather growing colder while the love in their hearts burns hotter, Marinette's knitting a muffler while teaching her friends how to knit, too. But who's her muffler going to be for? And then the girls have a case of travel trouble when Volpina's dirty work starts creating doors around school that transport people to random locations!