Phase 2 : Debuts
Paris rooftops, 7.00 AM
"AAAAGGGGGHHH" was yelling Chloé who was jumping on the rooftops with her sister.
"Oh common, don't tell me you're rusty ?" said Vesperia while laughing.
"But it's been years remember ?!" responded a stressed Chloé.
"Okay, I'll grant you that." said Vesperia.
Chloé was doing what she could to catch up with her sister who was way ahead of her.
Chloé's suit colors were way different from the ex-holders of this miraculous, she wasn't wearing a dark purple mixed with black and grey, she had a softer lavender purple accompanied with a light grey to replace the dark grey while the white was replacing the black. Sign she wasn't using the miraculous for evil or wasn't a villain at all.
She had long white high heels boots with flashy purple soles just like her gloves which were also all white with flashy purple on her fingers tips.
The rest of the suit or the body part, was covered all in light purple similar to Nooroo's color scheme.
The top part of it, was recovered with a small darker purple dress going from her breast to her hips, the dress was outlined or separated from the very top with a silver grey color with the brooch being located right above.
The bottom of her dress was similar to Pigella's except the front part of it was fully opened to her normal light purple suit while the back was a little longer and cut into 2 representing the butterfly wings. The dress was also made out of spandex like the rest of the suit unlike Pigella's tutu which was made with pink tissues.
Her hair wasn't attached, it had become longer and smoother with the hair tips being dyed in purple. She had 2 wicks like those on the front with her forehead still being cleared.
Her mask was shaped like a butterfly with wings. The middle part was colored in a mixture of different types of purple making a very good looking one and of course, had black outlines just like like a real butterfly. Her eyes had remained the same with only her pupils changing from blue to purple. She was wearing a butterfly shaped pin on her hair.
Her weapon, the cane, had remained the same shape with only the color being reversed going from black to white and with the top part being slightly less dark purple. She hadn't put a butterfly inside yet.
She had called herself : Duchess Butterfly or Duchess B. for the ones who really knew who she was. A reference to her past as the spoiled brat she was. But even though she had a royal title, she wasn't planning to show superiority, she was, on the opposite, going to try to be closer to the people.
"So where are we going ?" asked Duchess Butterfly.
"Well to the HQ of course." answered her sister.
After a hard session of high jumps, they had finally arrived.
Miracle Base, 7.31 AM
Monitor :
A.9 - VESPERIA
A.19 - DUCHESS BUTTERFLY
After the monitor had presented the newcomers, both girls were heading right into the center of the place where people were working.
"Hey did you see they changed my name code of access ? I'm a real member now, I can't believe it !" told Duchess B. to Vesperia.
"You'll have to get used to that then." happily responded Vesperia.
They both joined their teammates on the platform.
"Hi guys !" said Vesperia.
"Hey Z, how are you ?" asked King Monkey.
"Pretty good. So what are you guys working on ?" asked back the bee holder.
"The usual." responded Miss Hound.
Duchess was watching the conversation without saying a word and also without being noticed by the others. She then realized something, she clearly didn't know how to socialize normally since she had never done it back in her teen days and had got no friends in Brazil.
"So Sabrina, could you reshape the patrol schedule since Chloé joined us now ?" asked Vesperia.
"Oh..she's here ? I didn't notice." responded Miss Hound with a sassy ton.
"I'll see what I can do." said Miss Hound.
Chloé was right behind her sister but she could tell the others were ignoring her on purpose. Even though, she had worked with these people once, she never had the chance to have a real conversation with them or to apologize to some of them and based on Sabrina's reaction, she could tell the red haired girl still had a grudge against her.
"Well, if there's trouble, call me, I'll be with Chloé in the training room." said Vesperia before heading there followed by Chloé.
While in the hallways, Chloé started the conversation.
"Did you see that ?" yelled Chloé.
"See what ?" responded her sister.
"They were ignoring me !" said the butterfly hero.
"Don't worry, it's only the beginning. You'll be friends in no time." responded Vesperia.
"Yeah...we'll see about that." said a worried Chloé.
Both girls entered the dojo and headed towards the center of it.
"Let's see if you can handle a blade." said Vesperia.
Both got into battle position and took out their weapons.
Vesperia was spinning her spinning top like a shield while Duchess took out the blade out of the cane. She threw the cane near her on the ground and held her blade correctly.
Duchess launched at her sister with the blade but missed. She knew her sister was way faster than her but continued to attack her with determination.
Vesperia kept dodging by doing acrobatic moves or by using the spinning top as a shield.
"Stop moving !" responded Duchess to Vesperia's defense.
Vesperia then attached her spinning top to Duchess' blade and stole it effortlessly.
"What do you do now ?" asked a curious Vesperia.
"Huh...well, I kick your butt !" answered Duchess.
Chloé was as good as her sister in hand to hand combat but was still a little rusty.
After taking a few punches, Vesperia did a 180° jump above her sister and kicked Duchess' face with a high kick.
"Ouch." said Chloé.
"I'm sorry ! Are you okay ?!" asked a very worried Vesperia.
"Yeah, Good thing we have these magic suits on us." responded Duchess.
"You still didn't tell me how you got those fighting skills in Brazil ?" said a curious Vesperia.
"It's a long story..." answered Duchess.
"You better tell me all about it someday !" said the bee hero.
Vesperia helped her sister getting up and both smiled at each other.
A voice then spoke inside the room.
"Zoé, Sabrina wants me to tell you that the patrol schedule has been updated." said Markov's robotic voice.
"Thanks Markov." responded the bee holder.
"Let's go see it shall we ?"
Both siblings headed to the main room and saw other teammates leaving with angry noises.
Chloé already knew from why they were coming from.
Both women got close to the digital board that was displaying the schedule. Chloé was trying to understand how it was supposed to work but unsuccessfully didn't.
"Please explain." simply said Duchess to Vesperia.
"Well, each month, we make a new schedule for the patrols. It's pretty difficult to make since most of us are working so we divided a day into 8 patrols each of 3 hours. Ladybug and Cat Noir were the founders of the patrol concept so as a reference to that, we do the patrols as duos...and also because there's not much to do when there's no super villains."
"Example, today's Thursday and I don't work on Thursday while Marinette does so it's pretty obvious I'll be the one patrolling the most through the day while Marinette might not at all."
"We try to keep it clean, organized and not to much exhausting for everyone."
Chloé nodded in understanding.
"Okay, so what do you usually do for 3 whole hours ?" asked Duchess.
"It depends, if it's day and there's no trouble, we go visit the civilians, play games, et cætera and if it's night, we do some street fighting to have fun." simply responded Vesperia.
"Okay, that seems fun..for people who like each other ! No ones seems to like me here so how am I going to handle patrols huh ?!" yelled Chloé.
"You'll simply listen your heart..I think."
"Anyway, let's see your shifts." said Vesperia.
Zoé looked at the board closely before speaking.
"So, it seems your days off will be Wednesdays and Sundays, good for you !"
"Monday, you'll take the 12.00 PM to 3.00 PM shift with Carapace and the 9.00 PM to 12.00 AM shift with Pigella."
"Then, Tuesday you're doing the 6.00 AM to 9.00 AM with me."
"Thursday, it's the 3.00 PM to 6.00 PM shift with Sir Paon and for Friday, the 12.00 AM to 3.00 AM one with Rooster Bold."
"As for Saturday, you're doing 9.00 AM to 12.00 PM with Bunnyx." finished the bee holder with.
"It's going to be fun." responded a sarcastic Chloé.
"I know we only have one patrol together but it's perfect to befriend your teammates, right ?" asked Zoé.
"I hope it'll work." answered Duchess.
Miracle Base, 2.50 PM
Chloé was standing still, waiting for her partner Sir Paon to patrol.
"Is he always late ?" wondered Duchess in her head.
For weird reasons, no one was at the base right now, even Su Han was absent.
Duchess had looked at the board fifty times to see if she hadn't made a mistake but she hadn't, she was supposed to patrol with Félix right now.
Then, the doors of the elevator opened and the monitor announced who had just arrived.
Monitor : A.18 - SIR PAON
A way too relaxed peacock holder entered the premises while slurping a soda cup from McDonald.
"Hi lil caterpillar." simply said Sir Paon.
"Ready to go on adventure ?" said the all covered in blue hero while smirking.
"It's about time." responded Duchess while rolling her eyes.
Paris, 5.26 PM
Sir Paon and Duchess were chilling on a rooftop.
"Is it usually this calm ?" asked the butterfly holder.
"No not really, but today's been..boring."
"Really boring" responded Duchess.
Chloé tried in engaging in a conversation.
"So what do you do for a living when you're not wearing your bird costume ?" asked Chloé.
"Why the sudden interest in my life
Duchess Buttercup ?"
"Because I want to know you better duh !" answered an annoyed Chloé.
Sir Paon then had an idea.
"I know how you could not only learn to know me but also for people to get to know you !" said the peacock holder.
Random bar, 5.34 PM
The bar was full, people were shouting and laughing everywhere while loud music was playing on the radio.
People then took a look at the 2 newcomers.
"Oh my god it's Sir Paon !" said an excited girl.
"Hi !" "Can I get a selfie ?" said several people at the same time.
Sir Paon stopped to sign autographs and take pictures before getting back to his teammate's case.
"Let's sit beautiful." said a cocky Sir Paon.
Both took a seat on some bar stool of the actual bar.
"2 beers please." asked the peacock holder to the barman.
"But I don't drink alcohol." said an angry Duchess.
"Don't worry it won't kill you to drink once." responded the blue hero.
"So why did you bring me in a random bar ?" asked the female partner.
"I dunno I thought you were gonna open to me about your real self." responded Sir Paon.
Both beers got served and Chloé didn't hesitate to take hers.
"Yeah, well it's just hard...I'm trying to show my sister I can do fine by myself and I also have to prove to a whole team of heroes I'm worth something while I have 0 experience being a competent hero and-"
Félix cut his partner for a moment.
"I know. But why would you care about people's opinions ?"
"Where's the good old Chloé that never bothered to listen to people ?"
Chloé thought for a moment before speaking.
"Maybe you're right, I can just de-stress for a while and stop thinking about all that."
"Huh?"
"So you wanna play darts birdie ?" asked the butterfly holder.
"Mmh, wouldn't miss an opportunity to kick your ass." answered back Sir Paon.
Both holders spent the rest of their patrol playing darts, having fun with the locals and getting to know each other.
"So you're a new superhero ?"
"Will you get a welcome party ?"
Multiple people started asking questions about this new mysterious hero.
Duchess tried to cool down for a change and took time to get to know these people better.
"Well yes, my name is Duchess Butterfly and I don't know when I'll make my great opening but I promise to protect you all !" said a confident Chloé.
Sir Paon sat back laughing while drinking.
"Well, guess she's drunk."
Next day
Monitor : A.19 - DUCHESS BUTTERFLY
Chloé entered the base and saw several of her teammates joyfully speaking together.
Chloé tried to join the conversation.
"Hi guys, you're doing fine ?" asked a shy Chloé.
Miss Hound didn't bother to respond so did King Monkey. Caprikid was hesitant to respond but preferred to remain silent. Pigella didn't want to hurt Chloé so she tried to get her involved in the conversation.
"We're doing great Chloé, how about you ?" asked the pig holder.
"Pretty good, I'm ready to fight if you guys need me."
"Well we don't." harshly responded Miss Hound.
There was then a blank in the discussion for a few seconds.
"So you've had your first patrols right ? How was it ?" gently asked Pigella.
"Yeah yesterday afternoon and today's morning, well it was fine actually, I kind of learned things with the two birdies.
"Oh right you had a patrol with Félix ! I'm sorry for you." said Pigella.
"Oh actually he wasn't that terrible with me. You get used to him pretty quickly." responded back Duchess.
The conversation then went full silent, Pigella didn't want to make the others more annoyed that they already were and Duchess didn't know how to chat with people so to not make everyone uncomfortable, the purple hero left the group and took the stairs to go sit in the cafeteria all alone.
She then detransformed.
"Is...something wrong..Chloé ?" asked Nooroo to her holder.
"I guess I'm just like you, quite shy." said Chloé with a small smile.
"Don't worry, there will always be ups and downs but I know you'll manage." said the butterfly kwami.
"Thanks Nooroo." responded the blonde girl.
The blonde girl laid her head on the table and closed her eyes.
A voice then abruptly woke up Chloé.
"I would've never thought of seeing a desperate Chloé Bourgeois." said someone.
"Ladybug..it's you !" said Chloé who immediately got up of her seat.
"Being nice is way harder than you thought huh ?" asked the leader wearing a polka dots outfit.
"Yeah..." simply responded the blonde girl.
"Leave them time, they'll get used of having you here and even if they don't, they'll have to." answered back Ladybug.
"I wish we could've had a longer conversation but I have important duties so I'll have to leave you." said the team leader.
"No that's fine." responded Chloé.
"Alright." said Ladybug before leaving the cafeteria.
Chloé then blew of despair and got her head back on the table for a moment.
Duchess Butterfly's debuts weren't what she expected but will she manage to convince her partners that she's really changed ?