Chapter 12: Not a Hero

"Okay!" Queen Bee said to herself as she stood on a roof top with her hands on her hips. "Operation get me the attention I deserve."

On the screen of her trompo, Queen Bee pulled up the list she had made for what she could do to increase her popularity, made from analysing why people liked Ladybird and the other heroes so much.

'1 – Interact with children'

One of the most popular posts on the Ladyblog at the moment was of the Gigantitan fight. Where, instead of fighting, Ladybird had sung a series of nursery rhymes to calm and distract the Akumatised infant until Chat Noir had been able to reach and break their bracelet.
Personally, Queen Bee found the entire thing utterly ridiculous, Ladybird making a fool of herself by dancing along to the rhymes and showing off her less than stellar singing voice. But apparently the public ate that sort of stuff up, talking about how good the heroine was with children and how much more expressive she became when interacting with them.
Outside of the fight, there were multiple posts about Ladybird and the other heroes interacting with children, either while rescuing them or through patrols.

So, Queen Bee too would show off how good she could be with children.

"Ahh! Don't pull on my hair you brat!"

"That's not a toy!"
"It looks like a toy."
"Well, it's not!"

"Eww. I am not touching that."

Queen Bee's plan had started off so well.
Arriving in a playground full of children, they had been in awe of her, asking all sorts of questions that Queen Bee had been happy to answer. And it didn't take long for the people around to start taking videos of just how good the heroine was at interacting with children.

There was just one small issue.
Queen Bee didn't actually know how to interact with children.

After the initial awe of a superhero arriving to greet them had worn off, it didn't take long for the children to show Queen Bee that they had very little concept of personal space, or what was appropriate for them to say to an important superheroine they'd just met, that half of them would just grab things without asking first, that the hands of a few of them were sticky with some unknown substance that paired really badly with the lack of personal space, that they seemed to believe that Queen Bee would be interested in their incoherent ramblings, and that how they would react to Queen Bee was completely unpredictable.
Some children were nice and obeyed when told not to do something, some laughed like she was making a joke and continued doing it, and some would burst into tears at any ire directed their way.

Queen Bee's patience was rapidly running out and she simultaneously gained a respect for the childcare workers who could keep their cool while dealing with such gremlins day in and out, and viewed them as completely crazy for actively wanting to go into that field.

Thankfully, most of the parents seemed to recognise how much the children were bothering Queen Bee and pulled them away.

Deciding that she's had enough of the gremlins, Queen Bee moved over to the parents holding babies.

"Let me see the little...angel." Queen Bee said, holding out her arms.

The parent looked unsure but didn't object to Queen Bee taking the baby in her arms, looking almost as though she didn't think she could object.

"Uh, coochie coo." Queen Bee cooed audibly, bending down her head to kiss the infant on the forehead.

It was a classic PR move she'd seen her dad do many times before, so it should work for her.
However, when the infant opened their eyes and saw a strange girl leaning down to kiss them instead of their familiar mummy, they opened their mouth and let out an ear-splitting wail.

Queen Bee winced and the parent was quick to retrieve their infant and begin shushing them.

"Screw this." Queen Bee decided, running off.

She couldn't deal with children a second more and there was no way she was going to do that repeatedly until it got people to notice her properly.

'2 – Get cats down from trees and other small tasks'

The second idea was much easier, mostly because there wasn't anyone who would annoy and try Queen Bee's patience this time.

A cat needs help down from a tree? Easy when you can jump higher than a normal person and a magical bodysuit protected against cat claws.
A child who lost their parent? Annoying to deal with but brief and easy to reunite when you can jump on a lamppost for a vantage point.
An old lady is struggling with carrying her heavy shopping home? Shopping is nothing compared to the advanced strength that came as standard with every Miraculous.

There was just one small issue.
Queen Bee hated work. Especially menial labour. It was beneath her as both a Bourgeois and a hero of Paris, to waste her time doing such things.

When a man had asked Queen Bee if she minded cleaning leaves out of his gutter while she was stood on his roof, she decided that she had had enough.

'3 – Go on patrols'

This was another easy task, just running about the city on the lookout for Iris or any other danger.

And by patrolling, more people would see Queen Bee, meaning that she would be fresher in their minds instead of only when she showed up for villain fights. That had to be why Ladybird and Chat Noir were still the most memorable heroes, because people saw them all the time in fights and patrols, which kept them relevant.

It seemed to be working anyway. People would look up and point as Queen Bee zipped past, wondering what she was doing and why. They would go on forums and discuss, and Queen Bee would be the most relevant hero.

There was just one small issue.
It was so boring.

After only twenty minutes of patrol, Queen Bee was so bored and her mind kept drifting to what she'd rather be at home doing instead of running around Paris with nothing to show for it. She could be trying out a new hair style, painting her nails or watching a show, something she actually liked doing.

Queen Bee made it to half an hour before deciding that she had patrolled for long enough.

Queen Bee groaned audibly, scrolling through the current news and constantly refreshing the page with no results. And looking herself hadn't presented her with any opportunities either.

"Come on, I need something bigger than cats in trees." She complained.

She'd been at this for days but none of her efforts were baring fruit quick enough for her liking, she felt like she was at her wits end. Her only hope left was the final idea on her list.

'4 – Stop a disaster'

Ladybird and Chat Noir's heroics weren't just focused around Iris and her Akumas, using their abilities to stop regular disasters as well. Just recently they had stopped an out-of-control bus, saving everyone inside from a potentially deadly crash.
Events like that had garnered the heroes a lot of praise, people happy that their heroes looked after them even outside of their quest to stop Iris.

If Queen Bee stopped a regular disaster or two, it was guaranteed to get her the praise she deserved.

There was just one small issue.
There weren't any disasters for Queen Bee to stop.

No out-of-control vehicles, no fires, not even any robberies or other crimes to stop. How was Queen Bee meant to stop disasters when none were happening?

Sighing in agitation, Queen Bee dropped her chin into her hands and pouted.

"How can I show how much I should be remembered if I'm not given anything to do?" She questioned aloud.

Eyes wandering the street, Queen Bee's eyes caught the sign for the Metro. As soon as she saw it, an idea almost forced itself into her mind.
What if she-? No! That was stupid.

Queen Bee shook her head to get rid of the idea, pushing it into the back of her mind.

"I just have to be…patient." Queen Bee forced herself to say, as if saying it would make her believe the statement.

Stiffly turning her back to the Metro, Queen Bee went home.


For all that Gabriel Agreste was Marinette's mentor in becoming a superhero, he was still her mentor in the fashion industry as well. So, Marinette still had to perform her apprenticeship duties on top of everything else.
The amount of work she was expected to do, from her mentor, from her school, and from herself, was getting to be concerning and Marinette didn't know how she was keeping up with it. Though, her apprenticeship was almost over, so that would hopefully ease off some of the pressure and give her more free time.

But for the moment, Marinette was still an apprentice and had to do the duty of one, which included delivering things for her mentor.

The fashion designer was currently in a partnership with one Audrey Bourgeois. And the woman had decided that she wanted physical copies of Gabriel's work to be delivered by hand, rather than just the digital copies, and she wanted them immediately. So, Marinette had been given the physical copies, which the teen suspected she was only able to carry thanks to her weight training from how heavy it all was, and told to take them to the Bourgeois family hotel.

"Just walk in, drop off the work, then get out." Marinette told herself.

She really didn't want to be around any Bourgeois, but it was part of her job at the moment, and she supposed that she could view it as training for dealing with people you don't like in the fashion industry.

Marinette steeled her resolve as the butler guided her through the hotel and knocked on the door to Audrey Bourgeois' suite for her, receiving a stern "Enter" from inside.

"Ah, Mayling, Gabriel said you'd be bringing his work over." Audrey only gave the teen a brief glance. "About time. Gabriel needs to work on training you to do things faster."

Internally, Marinette wondered if Audrey got names wrong on purpose or if she really couldn't be bothered to remember names.

Abruptly, Chloe entered the room.

"Mummy, I-" Her face turned into a sneer at seeing Marinette. "What are you doing here."

"Clara, dear, don't burst into my room unannounced." Audrey told her daughter. "Get out and knock next time."

Marinette blinked in surprise, realising that the woman was also getting the name of her own daughter wrong.

Chloe pulled a face at being called the wrong name again but otherwise didn't react with Marinette there.

"But I-" She objected at being told to leave.

"Out!" Audrey ordered.

Scowling harder, Chloe left the room. A few seconds passed and then there was a knock on the door.

Audrey ignored it, turning her attention back to Marinette.

"I'm still disappointed in you, Mayling." Audrey told Marinette. "You could have learned so much in an apprenticeship with me, gotten real experience in the industry instead of just running around doing chores and watching Gabriel sketch out the latest thing he's convinced the weak-minded is fashion. With me, you could have learned how to be the one to shape the world of fashion."

Marinette still doubted that. With how 'fired' seemed to be the woman's favourite word, it likely wouldn't have taken long for the apprenticeship to come to an abrupt end even if Marinette tried her hardest to be absolutely perfect in everything. And with how selfish and uncaring the woman was, she probably wouldn't have even paid for a plane ticket home for the underage girl in her care.
Anyway, if Marinette had accepted the offer, she wouldn't have met Duusu.

"The only thing worse than being utterly unexceptional is to have the opportunity to become exceptional and turn it down." Audrey continued. "If you were my daughter, I'd be highly disappointed. But, if you were, I suppose I'd at least have a daughter with potential, even if wasted."

Audrey Bourgeois seemed to be talking to herself now, her attention no longer on Marinette, so the teen used the opportunity to slip out rather than be further subjected to the woman's demeaning words.
Marinette thankfully wasn't greeted with Chloe's angry glare when she left the room, catching a glimpse of the other teen stomping away around the corner. Recalling what Chloe's mother had said and done, Marinette couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for her bully.

Still, there was nothing Marinette could do about it, so she turned and left.


"My Queen, please calm down." Pollen begged as soon as it was safe for her to appear.

Chloe didn't listen, storming over to her bedroom window and throwing it open so hard that it strained the hinges.

"Screw keeping things secret." Chloe growled. "I'll show her just how exceptional I am."

She couldn't believe what she had just overheard. Even when insulting Dupain-Cheng, Chloe's own mother had still been complimenting her by talking about potential, to the point of theorising about if Marinette had been her daughter. And though her mother hadn't directly said it, she had been very clear that she didn't view Chloe, her own actual daughter, as being exceptional.

"Please. You must stop and think." Pollen continued to plead, trying to stop Chloe from doing something so drastic.

"Quiet!" Chloe ordered.

Magic took hold of the Kwami and she was rendered mute, though Chloe didn't notice.

"Bug On!"

Queen Bee jumped out of her bedroom window, headless of who could see her. Afterall, she'd be revealing her identity soon. But first, she still needed a disaster to stop to show just how much of an exceptional hero Queen Bee was, before revealing to all and her mother that she was actually Chloe Bourgeois.

She could have searched for a disaster, perhaps one would finally appear for her to solve, but she was impatient. She needed a disaster to stop now, she needed to prove to her mother just how exceptional she was as soon as possible and couldn't wait for the opportunity to happen, she had to make it happen.

Queen Bee found herself at an entrance to the Metro and eyed it with a fixed determination.

"If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself." Queen Bee said with a flick of her hair.

First, Queen Bee needed to ensure that there would be cameras there to record her heroic deed, which she set up but that little detail wouldn't be known to everyone else, so she placed a quick call to Nadja Chamak to come to the Metro before swinging down into the Metro entrance.


It seemed that Marinette was destined to be running errands for the day. Only seconds after escaping the hotel, Mr Agreste had called her to go to the other side of the city and pick up a package for him from an old antique shop. And because Marinette's luck was what it was, she'd had to run all the way to the Metro to catch the train to the other side of Paris in time.
When Marinette had managed to jump through the train doors before they closed, she once again thanked all the endurance training she had been going through.

"Oh, Marinette!" A sickly-sweet voice called out.

Marinette pulled a face at the sound. "Why me?" She lamented.

Lila waltzed over to Marinette, greeting the girl as if they were still the best of friends instead of bully and victim.

"I'm so happy to see you." Lila lied through her teeth. "We so rarely hang out outside of class anymore."

Marinette stared at Lila with lidded eyes, kicking herself for taking the train over a bus. Sure, it would have taken longer, but if Mariette had run onto Lila on the bus, there would have been plenty of stops to get off at to escape the liar.

"It's a real shame too." Lila continued, as if she didn't see Marinette's reaction to her. "The girls and I had a great time together last weekend, going to the movies, out to lunch. Too bad you told me that you were too busy with work to spend time with your friends to come."

Lila invaded Marinette's personal space, grabbing onto her arm and forcing her to look at the pictures on Lila's phone of the 'girl squad' minus Marinette.

Marinette's eye twitched at Lila's overly friendly behaviour, even at the girl bragged about how she had once again used lies to exclude Marinette from her friend group.
Lila's new favourite method of getting under Marinette's skin was to act as if they were still friends, even when it was just the two of them and there was no one around to fool into thinking that she was a good person, talking in a way only someone who knew what she was really like would understand to be malicious. For some reason, Marinette found this uniquely irritating, Lila tormenting her with false niceties, which only prompted her personal bully to continue doing it.

Both girls looked up as the sound of rhythmic thumping that grew increasingly louder.
Looking in the direction of the noise, the train passengers were greeted with the sight of a yellow and black figure running past on the outside side of the train towards the front.

"Is that Queen Bee?" Marinette questioned.

"What's she doing out?" Lila frowned.

She hadn't done anything today yet to prompt the heroes to be out, and running through the underground wasn't something done on a heroic patrol. She had a momentary flash of worry that the heroes had figured out who she was, before realising that Queen Bee would have busted through the train window to get her if that was the case.

A moment later, the train suddenly jerked as it rapidly increased speed, causing everyone to have to grab onto the seats to avoid getting thrown to the floor.

"Oof!" Marinette huffed as Lila used her as an air bag.

At the front of the train, the screens turned on to show the face of Queen Bee.

"Passengers, have no fear! Watch Queen Bee in action! You can thank me later." The heroine announced with a wink, the screens then turning off.

"Queen Bee's going to save us!" One of the passengers cheered in relief.

"She got here quick." Another noted.

But as the seconds passed by, the train continued to speed along the tracks.

"Is she going to save us or not?" A passenger questioned with increasing anxiety.

"At this rate, we're going to crash." Another worried, hugging their partner.

Eyes widening with the realisation that the train was not a safe place to be, Lila decided to head for a safe place to transform and depart the train through her own means before it could crash.

Casey wasn't paying much attention to the cars down the road as she walked across the crosswalk, expecting them to see her and slow down. Only, the van speeding down towards her apparently didn't see the teen, not slowing down at all.

"Smeg!" Casey exclaimed as she realised that the van heading towards her wasn't slowing down.

The teen shot forward at full speed, barely avoiding getting clipped by the van as it continued to speed down the road, apparently unaware that it had almost committed a hit and run.

"Casey, are you alright?" Tikki asked from within her wielder's hood.

"Yeah." Casey said, hand clutching her chest, feeling the rapid beating in her chest.

"Are you alright kid?" Someone who had seen the incident repeated Tikki's question.

"That news van almost ran down a kid." Someone else commented.

"I'm fine." Casey insisted to the people around her.

Quickly shaking off the people concerned about her, Casey ducked away into an alley where no one was.

"Let's see where the fire is." Casey said to Tikki as her Kwami floated into the open.

"And bust that driver for reckless driving." Tikki added, not happy about her wielder almost being ran over.

Casey nodded in agreement, still shaking from the abrupt shot of adrenalin almost being ran over had given her.

"Tikki, Spots On!"

Minutes continued to tick by and still the train didn't show any signs of slowing.

"What do we do?" Marinette worried, feeling helpless.

At the small poking at her side, Marinette looked down to see Duusu looked up at her from her purse.

"Help out." The Kwami suggested with a grin.

"But what can I do?" Marinette whispered.

Duusu raised the ridge above one of his eyes, the Kwami equivalent to an eyebrow raise.

"Oh, yeah." Marinette said, remembering that she had the ability to transform into a superheroine herself.

In Marinette's defence, she'd spent so long with Duusu around but not transforming into a superhero that it wasn't exactly at the forefront of her mind.

"Do you really think I'm ready?" Marinette questioned.

"If you wait until you think you're ready, then you'll never be ready." Duusu told Marinette. "You are needed now."

"Right." Marinette nodded.

With everyone focused on the front of the train, it was easy for Marinette to tuck herself into the small compartment between the train carriages to transform.

"Duusu, Spread my Feathers!"

In a wash of blue light, Marinette stood, transformed for the second time.
There was no time to admire her new costume this time, as there was a train to stop.

Slipping out of a window unseen, Marinette climbed onto the top of the train unsurely. She knew that her transformation would keep her more stable on the fast-moving train and protect her if she did fall off, but it was still nerve-racking.

At the front of the train, Marinette found Queen Bee attempting to slow down the train by pushing against it and bracing her feet on the tracks.

"What can I do to help?" Marinette called down to Queen Bee.

"Who are you?" Queen Bee demanded, her voice shaking thanks to the railway sleepers.

"I'm…" Marinette paused, realising that she hadn't yet come up with a name. "Here to help."

"I don't need help." Queen Bee denied. "I have everything under control."

Marinette frowned.

"What you're doing isn't working." She pointed out. "We need to stop before we go around a bend too sharply or crash into another train."

"I'm doing just fine." Queen Bee denied. "I've almost got it. Go do whatever and leave me to save everyone."

Marinette frowned heavier, not understanding why Queen Bee was denying her.

Instead of trying to reason with Queen Bee further, Marinette jumped into the operator's cabin, finding the man slumped against the wall and completely still with his hand still on the throttle.

Looking over the controls, Marinette's mind went back to her class's trip to London, where Max's mother had allowed them into the operator's cabin to give them a brief explanation of how the train worked. And one of the things she had explained was how the throttle worked, being a handle that the operator had to keep their hand on for the train to go.
The two trains were clearly very different, but the controls had to be similar, didn't they?

Looking at the operator, Marinette found that the man was pulling on the throttle, unable to let go of it in his paralysed state.

Marinette looked out at Queen Bee briefly as she connected the operator being paralysed to a certain heroine's special ability, but put that to the side for now to concentrate of saving the passengers.

Grabbing the man's hand, Marinette tried her best to loosen his fingers from the throttle without hurting him, using the advanced strength gifted to her to pull the man who was likely twice her weight away from the controls at the same time.
Finally, Marinette succeeded in pulling the operator's hand off the throttle, which snapped back into the neutral position.

However, just because the train's wheels had stopped speeding forward, it didn't mean that the train itself stopped, only that it started slowing down.

Marinette gritted her teeth, worried that disaster could still strike as they were slowing down.
And her worries weren't unfounded, the train turning a bend to be greeted by the sight of a single carriage train only just departing the platform in front of them.

Looking back down at the controls, Marinette was wondering what to grab to engage the breaks when a familiar yoyo created a crude web at the exit of the tunnel.

The train crashed into the barrier of magically unbreakable string, which was thankfully high enough that Queen Bee narrowly avoided getting beheaded from where she was still pushing against the front of the train, and Marinette barely avoided crashing into the controls as the train came to an abrupt stop.

With the train stopped, Marinette let out a long and relieved sigh.

Grabbing the still paralysed operator, Marinette jumped out of the train and carried him the short distance to the platform.
On the way, Marinette ran into Ladybird, who was running the opposite direction, towards the train.

Ladybird stopped in surprise at the sight of a new hero.

"Hi." Marinette said unsurely. "Are paramedics on their way?" She indicated her head to the man in her arms.

Ladybird looked the man over, frowning as she took in his paralysed state, as well as the glowing yellow dot on his arm. Said dot disappeared as the man started moving again, prompting Marinette to ease him to his feet as he looked around in shock.

Marinette and Ladybird shared a look, they both understood what that meant.

Ladybird scowled and turned to look at the platform, where Queen Bee was already bragging to the camera crew that had almost ran her over in their rush to follow the out-of-control train.

"You're welcome." Queen Bee bragged to the camera crew, already taking credit for the rescue. "Saving the train was all in a day's work-"

"Queen Bee! You did this!" Ladybird shouted as she raced over.

Marinette followed after at a slower pace, helping the operator onto the platform.

"Of course I did." Queen Bee misunderstood Ladybird's accusation. "Afterall, I am a great and exceptional hero. And that's not all, I am-"

Ladybird interrupted before Queen Bee could get to her big reveal.

"You attacked the train driver!" Ladybird accused, prompting gasps from the news crew and other people on the platform. "You used your Venom on him and sent the train out of control, didn't you?"

"Well, I…" Queen Bee stumbled for an answer. "Who cares? I saved everyone, didn't I?"

"You endangered lives." Marinette stepped forward. "Not just of the passengers of this train, but the one in front of us too. Why would you do that?"

"And just who are you to ask me?" Queen Bee sneered, looking Marinette up and down.

"I…" Marinette paused before drawing herself up to fell height. "I am Paonne."

On the platform, people started muttering about the new hero and how she helped save the train, much to Queen Bee's irritation.

"Well, Paonne." Queen Bee said derisively, as if the new heroine's name was incredibly stupid. "Next time don't bother butting in on my save. I had everything perfectly handled."

"You paralysed the driver!" Paonne reminded loudly.

"I…You can't seriously be believing this new girl who showed up out of nowhere, are you?" She directed the question at Ladybird and the camera crew, trying to use Paonne as a scapegoat to escape consequences.

Ladybird glared in response.
Unless Paonne's power was to replicate other powers, it was undoubtedly Queen Bee who attacked the operator.

"It was Queen Bee!"

Heads turned towards the operator, who was shaking slightly.

"She jumped into my cabin and just attacked me out of nowhere." The operator claimed.

All attention turned back to Queen Bee, but none of it was positive.

"She really did that?" Someone questioned.

"What a villain." Another remarked.

"No, it's not like that." Queen Bee tried to defend herself.

"Give me your Miraculous!" Ladybird ordered, holding out her hand expectantly while her other held her yoyo at the ready, in case her now-former teammate tried something.

"What? No!" Queen Bee clutched at her Miraculous protectively.

"You have used it to deliberately endanger lives. I can't trust you with it anymore. Hand it over." Ladybird reiterated.

Queen Bee shook her head and backed away, hand going to her trompo.
A beeping from her Miraculous reminded her that she didn't have long before she transformed back into Chloe Bourgeois, something she no longer wanted to reveal now that her plan had gone so badly. She needed to get out of there now, but Ladybird and Paonne clearly weren't going to let that happen.

Unheard by everyone on the platform, a brief tune from a flute played.

From down the tunnel on the other end of the platform, the horn of an oncoming train sounded. And there was only one track for it to go down.

Ladybird and Paonne jumped into action, quickly turning their attention from Queen Bee to preventing the oncoming train crash.
Ladybird began wrapping her yoyo around two pillars with many layers of magical string to create a barrier across the exit of the tunnel like she had done before, bracing herself to fight against the pull of the train. Meanwhile, Paonne ran back to the first train and began hurry the passengers off of it and onto the platform as quickly as she could, carrying them by twos to speed up the process.

"Take cover!" Ladybird yelled just as the train was about to hit her barrier.

To everyone's surprise, instead of crashing into Ladybird's yoyo, the oncoming train burst into orange smoke on contact.

"Iris!" Ladybird hissed upon realising that the train had just been an illusion.

She looked around wildly, expecting the villain to have used the illusion to try and get the drop on her, but Iris was nowhere to be found.
Queen Bee was also nowhere to be found.

Running out of the underground metro, Ladybird looked around but Queen Bee had used the distraction of the fake train to completely disappear.

"Ladybird!" Nadja Chamak ran up the steps after the heroine with her cameraman in tow. "What do you have to say about Queen Bee's actions? Are any other heroes going to attack civilians without cause?"

Ladybird sighed, she really didn't feel like dealing with the media after what Queen Bee had done, especially considering that the woman and her crew had almost ran her over not even five minutes before in their rush to get the 'scoop'.

"Queen Bee is no longer considered part of the team and I advise everyone to consider her as a danger until we get her Miraculous back." She said shortly.
She was sort of speaking for everyone without their input, but she didn't expect that her teammates would object to the decision.
"Also, I recommend keeping an eye on the road the next time you drive. I saw you almost run over a teenager on a crosswalk on the way here." She added with a glare.

The news crew flinched at that. Thankfully, for them at least, the recording wasn't live, so they could cut out the heroine's accusation of reckless driving before publishing the video.

Ladybird ignored further attempts at questioning, turning her attention to Paonne as the new heroine approached.

"Paonne, right?" She asked.

"Yes, that's me, Paonne. The new hero." Paonne fumbled over her words in the face of the heroine of Paris, much to her embarrassment.

Ladybird hummed.

Paonne's debut had the misfortune of coinciding with Queen Bee showing her true colours, and she knew from Master Fu that the Peacock Miraculous was among the missing, not exactly like the Bee Miraculous but still similar, and similar to how the Fox Miraculous went missing too. So, Ladybird was finding it hard to be accepting as Paonne as she had been with Queen Bee at the start.
She hoped, for the sake of everyone, that the feelings of caution were just her being paranoid.

"We can meet up later to talk properly with Chat Noir." She told the new hero.

"Okay, that sounds great." Marinette accepted, still feeling a bit awkward in the face of someone so well known, even though she was now a hero herself.

Ladybird nodded and cast out her yoyo, swinging off to see if there was a chance of catching a glimpse of Queen Bee.

Paonne watched her go, just thinking of running off herself before she found herself being pounced on by Nadja and her crew, eager to question the new hero about who she was and what she wanted.


Queen Bee cried as she landed on the hotel roof, which was thankfully empty, transforming back into Chloe.

Everything had gone wrong. This was supposed to be her big moment, when she proved just how good of a hero she was, and how exceptional she could be to her mother.
Instead, a new hero showed up to steal her thunder and Ladybird tried to take her Miraculous after finding out that she caused the accident in the first place.

"Well, well, well." A smug voice came from behind Chloe. "Chloe Bourgeois."

Startled, Chloe spun around and was met with the sight of Iris lounging on the railing.

"You're Queen Bee?" Iris smirked, as if the idea was laughable. "Though, I suppose the personality and attitude should have been a tip-off."

"Iris!" Chloe hissed. "Pollen, Bug On."

"I can't, my Queen." Pollen apologised sadly. "I need to eat to recharge first."

At that news, Chloe started backing away, realising that Iris had the advantage over her.

"Oh, calm down." Iris said, hoping down from her perch casually. "I'm not going to do anything to you."

"As if I'd believe that." Chloe sneered, keeping on guard.

"Believe what you want to believe." Iris shrugged.

Iris paced around Chloe though kept her distance.

"So, you've royally screwed up." Iris said. "Attacking a train driver, endangering civilians, all for no good reason. Not very heroic of you."

"I didn't do it for no good reason." Chloe stated defensively.

Iris gave Chloe a look that said she knew the teen was lying and found it cute.

"And now Ladybird and the other heroes will be after your Miraculous too." Iris said, as if Chloe hadn't spoken.

Iris came to a stop in front of Chloe.

"So, want to join forces with me?" She offered.

"What? Why on earth would I do that? It's ridiculous, utterly ridiculous. I'm a hero!" Chloe said, offended.

"Well, with me, I can help you keep your Miraculous, stop the others from taking it from you. If we work together and take out the other heroes, we could control the narrative and make the public love us again." Iris explained.

Afterall, if they took different Miraculous, they could play around with giving themselves new heroic identities.

"I…" Chloe said unsurely.

It was tempting. The others would try to take her Miraculous for just one small mistake. And while winning back public favour would be hard, it would be much easier with help and perhaps abandoning her old identity to create a new one free of controversy.

"I'm not a villain." Chloe declined. "And I don't need help from the likes of you."

Iris scoffed, looking at Chloe like she was stupid.

"Fine. If that's what you want. It's not like you'll be a threat to me anymore anyway." She said, turning to leave.

"What does that mean?" Chloe said, renewing her defensive stance.

"You can't exactly run around trying to play at being hero when they're after you too." Iris pointed off in the distance.

Looking, Chloe could see Ladybird swinging around, likely still looking for Queen Bee. Iris was positioned in a way that the decorations on the roof hid her from Ladybird's searching eyes.

Chloe frowned, reluctantly seeing Iris' point.

"And don't worry, I'll keep your identity secret." Iris assured, not that it made Chloe feel any better. "And since I'm such a nice person, I won't even use it for blackmail." The villain acted like her claims made her a saint.

With a wave, Iris left, leaving Chloe to think over what she had done and all that had happened.


Author's note: Please comment

Sorry to those hoping that I'd write a Chloe redemption, but it's not going to go that way. If you want Chloe in a good light, go read my Nymph story, because Chloe's only going to get worse from here.

I am trying to make Chloe's descent more natural than canon though, like it taking much more push for Chloe to endanger the train, instead of her immediately going with the idea.

And since the main issue of Audrey being neglectful was never actually addressed in Style Queen, it stands to reason that Audrey would eventually fall back on old behaviour herself, beginning to neglect Chloe all over again. So, Chloe gets the stress of first getting back her mother's love and attention, and then losing it again for reasons out of her control or understanding, hurting her even more than before.

This is also my reasoning for placing the swapping of the Miraculous before Marinette joined the team, as I had to decide on whether it'd be Chloe or it'd be Marinette as part of the swap, since it couldn't happen with both. And I decided that the forced Miraculous swap for Chloe would offer more opportunities to the chapter than Marinette