The Miraculous Adventures of Bug Man and Kitten Black: Episode 1
Hello, everyone. I'm back with my latest pastiche, The Miraculous Adventures of Bug Man and Kitten Black. It's not related to my other three, it's intended to be much longer (word-wise and chapter-wise), and it'll focus on the teenage children of Adrien Agreste and Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Emma and Louis. Now, they're two normal kids with a normal life (with reference to the Miraculous Ladybug theme song), but when they meet Plagg and Tikki, the kwamis of Destruction and Creation, life takes a turn for them. What seas will they brave? What mountains will they climb? What baddies will they take down? There's only one way to find out.
Have you got your legs crossed?
Have you got your listening ears?
Are you sitting comfortably?
I'll take that as a yes. Then I'll begin.
"Em," said the voice of 12-year-old Louis Agreste, as he shook his elder sister. "Wake up, you've slept through your alarm for the second time!"
"Shut up, Lou," mumbled 13-year-old Emma, still not fully awake. "I'm trying to sleep!"
"You wouldn't want another yellow card, would ya?" teased Louis. "And damage your so-called 'spotless' record?"
The threat pushed Emma out of the warmth of her bed.
"Alright, goody-goody two-shoes," groaned Emma, using what little energy she had to pull herself out of bed. "I'm out."
With a stretch, she turned to look at her brother. "You're ready for school? Since when have you cared so much about punctuality?"
"Since I heard that we were supposed to have Rock Music on Thursdays," said a fully-dressed Louis. "Now go on, you don't want to get caught looking like a zombie."
Emma rolled her eyes and went into the bathroom to freshen up. It was seven-forty-five when she stepped out, wearing grey jeans and her favourite orange top covered by a denim jacket. Her brothers (yes, there was another one) and father were at the table.
"Top of the morning to you, Princess," said her father, Adrien, pecking her on the cheek.
"Mornin'," said Emma lazily.
"You know," said the youngest brother, 8-year-old Hugo, "if you got at least 8 hours of sleep at night, you'd be much more well-rested."
"How long did I sleep for?" said Emma.
"I don't know, but you went to bed later than I did," said Hugo, "and I went to bed at 8.30 last night. You've not slept enough."
"Don't rub it in," said Emma. Just then, her mother came in, with a plate piled high with chocolate-chip pancakes.
"Ah," she said. "Just the person I was looking for." She, too, bent down to kiss Emma on the cheek, then Louis, then Hugo and finally Adrien.
"Ah, m'lady," said Adrien, sinking into her kiss. Their children exchanged funny looks.
"Right," said Mrs Marinette Dupain-Cheng (really Marinette Agreste, but she preferred to use her maiden name). "Eat these while they're still hot. And try not to steal too many chocolate chips." She gave Emma a cheeky look. "We don't want another dentists' appointment now do we?"
"Alright, Mum," groaned Emma, "we get the message."
Undeniably, though, these pancakes tasted out-of-this-world. Marinette had combined the ingredients with experience from growing up in a bakery, love, and the passion that she tried to invoke in her children. Eventually, it was time for school. Emma and Louis got their backpacks on, while Hugo got into Marinette's car.
"Why can't I walk with Louis and Emma?" he pouted.
"Because, sweetie," said Marinette, fiddling with the keys, "you have to wait until you're 10. Emma and Louis had to follow that rule, remember?"
She got into the little red hatchback, then rolled down the windows and called out to her two elder children.
"Now, you two have a good day at school, alright?" she called.
"We will," called Louis. Their mother blew a kiss at them, and drove off, with Hugo waving at them. Emma and Louis waved back, before heading their own way.
It was about 20 minutes before they reached school. Emma's best friend Rosa Lahiffe and Louis' best friend Ivan Haprele Jnr were waiting for them.
"Hey, girl," greeted Rosa. "Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for once, huh?"
"It's not like I'm never this way," grinned Emma, and joined her friend as they walked to their classroom; Louis and Ivan Jnr went to theirs.
"Looking forward to today's drum sessions, are we?" said Ivan.
"Are you," corrected Louis. "I, on the other hand, can't wait to get my hands on that guitar. It's gonna be a blast, man, lemme tell ya."
"Try not to break it," said Ivan. "We all know what happened at the talent show last year."
"Cool it, man," said Louis, nudging Ivan in the ribs. "I'm over that phase now."
Indeed, it had been a foolish act on Louis' part. He, Ivan and a number of classmates had been covering a Jagged Stone song when Louis thought it would be a good idea to pull a Pete Townshend and smash the guitar against the stage at the end of the song. Unfortunately it had resulted in a small fire and the school having to pay a few thousand Euros' worth in damages. Louis had wisened up after that though.
"Well, if you say so," said Ivan, and they walked on to their classroom.
Lunchtime came around, and Emma, Louis, and their friends met up at their usual table.
"Well, how was Music?" said Rosa. "I hope you didn't go smashing any guitars."
"Very funny, Ro," said Louis, with a roll of the eyes. "In any case, this particular guitar is going to be harder to learn than I thought. It's so heavy I thought I was going to dislocate my shoulders."
"You'll get used to it," reassured Ivan. "I remember how you struggled with that Fender Stratocaster."
"Fender what?" said Michel Lamont, a boy in Emma's class, curiously.
"Strat-o-caster, a guitar model," explained Louis. "What have you lot been up to?"
"Nothing much," shrugged Francoise 'Frankie' Legrand. "We had PE earlier, and we had to split into teams to see who could lift the heaviest weights."
"I managed better than you," bragged Emma, grinning cheekily.
"But I clobbered you, Em, so you can't boast," taunted Gerard Renault.
"Only because you're fat, Gerry," teased Frankie.
"Oy! I'm not fat, I'm big-boned!" protested Gerry.
"I'm just kidding, man, take a joke," said Frankie. Gerry still looked annoyed, but shrugged it off.
"So," said Rosa, "what have you got next?"
"French Classics with Bustier," said Ivan. "What about you?"
"Physics with Pique," groaned Emma. "I mean, she's alright - but God! That woman gives us so much homework!"
"I know, right?" sympathised Rosa. "How does she expect us to finish it all in a day?"
"I know what you mean," said Louis. "I still remember the time I missed that diorama. I went to bed wondering if I'd forgotten something, and when I went to her class the next day, she still expected me to have made it!"
"Well, let's hope I can get through today's load," said Emma.
As it turned out, Madame Pique had given Emma a copious amount of homework as usual; no amount of hope could have stopped that. Louis felt bad for Emma - and at the same time, he wish he didn't have to listen to her moaning about it on the walk home.
"Just get it done, Em," he told her, as they neared their house. "That'll be easier than just whingeing about it the whole time!"
"I know, I know," said Emma. "But seriously? How does she expect me to know all the answers to those equations?"
"Tell you what," suggested Louis, "get Hugo to give you a hand with it. He'll be all too happy to help."
"I suppose," shrugged Emma. Hugo was a bit of a nerd, and he was very knowledgeable for his 8 years.
Not long after, the two elder siblings of the Agreste family arrived home. They had to pass through their mother's clothing store first. Yes, MDC Apparel was the town's favourite clothing shop: Marinette herself designed the clothes and sold them on herself.
Louis and Emma walked over to the checkout desk where their mother was seeing off a customer. She leaned against her desk as she turned to greet her children.
"Don't think you can get past me without telling me how your day was," she said, with her mischevious smile. She liked to tease her children like that. "What did you two get up to?"
"Nothing much," said Louis. "I got to use that new Fender guitar, but I couldn't hold onto it for long - it weighed a ton!"
"Look on the bright side - at least you won't be able to smash any more stages!" grinned Marinette.
"Mum!" moaned Louis, "not you as well!"
"I was only kidding, sweetheart," said Marinette. "What about you, Em?"
"Not good," moaned Emma. "Madame Pique gave me too much homework again!"
"I see," said Marinette. "Try not to think about it too much. I know how you feel, but it's always best to try not to think of homework as a chore - rather as a large maze that you have to navigate, and at the end of it, there'll be a large bag with a lot of money inside. That's how I got through my homework."
"I'll keep that in mind," answered Emma, now motivated.
"Good girl," smiled Marinette. "Well, why don't you get on upstairs? Your dad's made orange juice."
Adrien was a stay-at-home father by choice. It wasn't that he didn't like to work - he just wanted to spend time with his kids. In the flat above MDC Apparel, he was sitting at the dinner table, alongside Hugo, who was doing his homework.
"Hiya, kids," he called. "Fancy a glass of juice?"
"Gee, that'd be nice," said Louis. After they had their fill, they joined Hugo at the table and tried to tackle their homework.
An hour later, Emma had her face planted against the table.
"Hugh," she complained, "give me a hand. I can't figure out what this equation gets to!"
Hugo obliged and patiently helped his sister work out the more complicated equations.
That was a perk of having Hugo around: he might give unwanted advice at times, but he was still accomodating and willing to help you out when you had a problem. Eventually, homework was done, and the teenagers (one was a pre-teen) went up to their rooms to relax.
Louis was browsing his phone as usual, looking for a nice jam to listen to. Just then, he noticed something strange.
There were two little hexagonal boxes lying on his bedside table.
Nah, they were probably something his father installed. Louis continued to browse, but he heard a noise.
The boxes seemed to be shaking. Now this seemed like a cause for concern.
"Em?" he called. "You might want to see this."
Emma came in. "See what?" she asked.
The boxes shook again.
"What is this, anyway?" she said, raising an eyebrow.
"You tell me, I'm stumped," said Louis. "D'you reckon we should open them?"
Emma shrugged. "Why not," she said casually.
So, Louis carefully pried one box open - and he and Emma both jumped back in fright.
Out flew a little red...
"Holy cow! It's a giant bug!" cried Louis.
"A mouse!" cried Emma.
"A bug-mouse!" they cried in unison.
"Calm down, everything's going to be alright!" squeaked the bug-mouse.
This only made things more tense.
"It talks!"
The bug-mouse tried (and succeeded) to dodge every desk tidy, plastic ball, and toy car that was thrown at her. Finally, Emma found a glass jar that was being used to store Louis' pencils. She emptied it and trapped the mysterious being inside it.
"Okay, if that makes you feel safer..." began the being. Then she changed the subject.
"Perhaps you ought to open the second box as well," it said. Louis hesitated, but opened it anyway. Out came another mysterious being that was only the size of one's palm. This time, it was black and had green eyes.
"Finally! I've been stuck in there for God knows how long!" it moaned. "D'you have any Camembert?"
"Looking for Camembert again, are you?" said the other bug. "You greedy old sock!"
"Hey, Sugarcube!" drawled the black one. "Good thing our plan worked out!"
"Well, why wouldn't it, if I organised it?" deadpanned the red one, rolling her eyes.
"What - who are you, anyway? And why are you here?" demanded Louis.
"Where are our manners?" said the red one, giggling. "It's nice to meet you. My name's Tikki, and I'm a kwami. What's your name?"
"My name's Louis," said Louis curiously. "And this is my sister Emma."
"Don't forget about me!" drawled the black one. "My name's Plagg!"
"And you're also a kwami then, aren't you?" said Emma.
"Let us explain," said Tikki. "We give people superpowers. I grant the power of creation..."
"...and I grant the power of destruction!" added Plagg.
"Is that what it is, then?" said Louis crossly. "An elaborate game of superheroes?"
"It's elaborate, yes," said Tikki, "but not a game."
"So what you're saying," said Emma, "is that you want us to become superheroes?"
"Yeah, we do, in a nutshell," said Plagg.
There was a moment's silence before Louis spoke.
"You're crazy, the pair of you," he snapped. "We don't know who you are, heck, we don't even know what you are, and all of a sudden you're appearing in our room to try and convince us to become superheroes! I mean, what on Earth do you see in us? Is there some kind of potential? Because as far as I know, asking a pair of nobodies to become superheroes out of the blue doesn't make any sense at all!"
"Everything will all make sense in the end," said Tikki. "You'll see!"
"Now," she continued, "you, Louis, must put the earrings on." She handed him a pair of circular earrings, red and polka-dotted black.
"And you have to put this ring on," said Plagg to Emma.
"Shut the door," reminded Tikki, and Emma did.
"Now, Louis," continued the little red kwami, "to transform into a superhero, you just need to say the magic words: Tikki, Spots On!"
"Tikki, Spots On...?" said Louis. Instantly, Tikki floated into one earring, and a red leather bodysuit with black polka dots all over covered Louis from the neck down. A bandana draped itself around his black hair, and an opaque face shield, with holes for eyes and a nose, covered his face.
Louis, naturally, looked at himself in the mirror.
"Oooo-kay," he said, intrigued. "I look weird. Now what do I do?"
"You said Spots On, didn't you?" said Emma. "Try saying Spots Off."
"Spots Off," said Louis. It worked, and he was back to normal.
"Now it's your turn, Emma," said Plagg. "You need to say, Plagg, Claws Out!"
"Plagg, Claws Out?" questioned Emma. That was Plagg's cue to fly into the ring. Emma, too, was covered by spandex (this time black) and an opaque piece of facial armour, accompanied by a golden bell around her neck as well as a belt that hung from her waist. Her dirty blonde hair, normally worn in a ponytail, let loose and floated downwards, only to tie itself again into two buns on the side, reminiscent of Princess Leia from Star Wars.
She, too, looked herself up and down.
"I look like a complete weirdo," she said, with a palm to the face - then she quickly retracted said palm. "Ow!" she cried, "that hurt! Right, I'm done. Claws In."
She turned back into her normal self, hair and everything.
"So, what exactly do we have to do?" said Louis interrogatively, but his thoughts were interrupted by a voice.
"Emma!" called Adrien. "Louis! Dinnertime!"
"Coming," called Emma. Then she turned to the kwamis.
"We want a full explanation tomorrow," she said.
"You can count on us," drawled Plagg. Emma and Louis retreated downstairs, wondering if this was just some strange dream they were in.
And that's how it all begins! Emma and Louis will have a real adventure getting to grips with the Miraculouses. Sure, it won't be easy for them at first, but they'll get to grips with it soon enough.
Inspiration for this chapter was drawn mainly from that of I Saw Mummy Kiss Chat Noir, by RicardianScholar Clark-Weasley. However, the rest of the plot will be very different from said fic. Also, I don't own South Park, even though I made a reference to it ("Oy! I'm not fat, I'm big-boned!" protested Gerry.)
I hope to start Episode 2 soon, so stay tuned!
EDIT: I noticed an inconsistency in that while Tikki and Plagg planned to select these two as heroes together, when they introduced themselves to the duo in the initial version, they appeared not to have seen each other in some time. I fixed that; now they know that this was collectively planned by the kwamis.