CHAPTER 2: A LESS NORMAL GIRL WITH A SIMILAR SECRET
"You can't hide from me forever Blake Crawford! You are MINE!" the akuma declared, her camera shooting a beam of pixelated light at a table she assumed Blake to be hiding in. The table vanished in a flash. Another deranged fan turned akuma from the looks of it. Why does Blake always get the trickier akumas after him?
I narrowed my emerald green eyes. I scanned the area from my perch up a bakery building, looking for her target. It wasn't that hard. His crimson hair stands out among the greens and whites.
Blake is hiding behind a statue a few meters right of the akuma, keeping track of her movements in case she turns her back on him and get a chance to run away.
"Come out, come out wherever you are…~" the akuma sang, taking a shot of the tent- one less place to hide for the wanted model.
Blake carefully backed away from the statue and tried to jump behind a tree so he has more places to hide in. As if he had my alleged bad luck, he stepped on a twig that snapped loud enough to catch the akuma's attention.
She aimed her camera at the grove of trees, making them disappear and exposing Blake.
The akuma grinned like she just won the lottery. "There you are!"
Welp. Ready or not, it's time to make my heroic entrance!
"I got you now my beautifully tragic bad bo-"
I threw my baton at her arm, making her shoot a tree instead of the model and cut her villain rant short.
"Who dares get in between me and my true love?!"
I jumped off the building and right into the park. I did a barrel roll in the air and finished with a three point hero landing, claws out ready to scratch.
I am one of the heroes of Helios City.
I bit back a hiss when I felt a jolt of pain from my knee. Okay Ladybug, you won that one. If it wasn't for my suit, I'd have a broken leg by now. But that doesn't make 'Superhero Landings' any less awesome.
I stood defiantly at the akuma with my usual smirk and casually caught my baton as it magically flew back towards me. It wouldn't do to let the pain ruin my heroic entrance.
"You know, there are better ways to get a guy's attention.~"
I flipped my wild fiery red mane to demonstrate my point, my other hand on my waist, and my feral emerald green eyes narrowed with mirth. Wearing a full body leather cat suit, matching leather cat ears, belt tail, and a bell around my neck… I sure rock the heroic Catwoman look.
The akuma -a gaudy looking girl with magenta hair, dressed in a black jumpsuit with teal elbow length gloves and knee length boots that end with a pixelated trim, and a chunky teal polaroid camera- turned to me with a glare. Blake took this opportunity to run. I blocked the akuma's path with a swing of my staff just as she was about to go after Blake.
"And you really should know when a guy is just plain uninterested."
I tried for a more playful tone, but I just barely managed to keep the venom out of my voice. The akuma better pray that Ladybug gets here soon, because I'm not sure how long I can hold back.
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The fight dragged on and we kept moving from one place to another, the akuma, Poppyrazzi, was ranting about her goals the whole time- something about getting all the date spots into her picture perfect world or whatever. The closer I get to her, the harder it gets to dodge her beams. And when I managed to get through her guard, I was aiming to hit her in the chest to wind her so I can snatch her camera but she surprisingly blocked my staff with her camera.
My breath hitched when my staff left a dent on the camera. The good news was no akuma went out. I don't know what happens if an akuma flutters away unpurified, but I'm taking Plagg's word for it that it won't be pretty. The bad news was it wasn't damaged enough to stop working as one click later, I'm disarmed.
Poppyrazzi's lips turned up in a satisfied evil grin.
"Give up, Chat Noire! Surrender your Miraculous and I will release everyone I trapped!"
"Hmm…" I pretended to think about it while checking my ring, my Miraculous, like I would check my nails. Trapped, eh? If everything Poppyrazzi zapped has to go somewhere, I bet my Cataclysm could break them out. But I'd rather keep that as a last resort in case either Ladybug needs my Cataclysm for whatever plan he comes up with or I find a way to trap her. Whichever one comes first.
From the corner of my eye, I can vaguely make out that familiar checkered orange shirt followed by a flash of pink hair hovering by the treeline. So Monsieur Ladyblogger and his self-proclaimed bodyguard are here. Better keep the akuma's attention on me.
"No deal," I said with a Cheshire cat grin.
Poppyrazzi's face contorted with fury. She pointed an accusing finger at me.
"You're clearly outmatched! I'll just catch you and bring you to Hawkmoth. Then I'll be able to keep my powers and keep Blake for myself FOREVER!" Poppyrazzi, let out a maniacal laugh.
Typical Hawkmoth. Always picking the melodramatic ones to work for her.
I dodged another photo beam with my cat-like reflexes. This doesn't look good. I'm disarmed, I can't use cataclysm to create a crater big enough to trap her in since I'm keeping an eye out for three teenagers, holding back my urge to claw this akuma's face off is frustrating, getting near her is impossible with her camera so snatching it is out of the question, and even if I did know where the possessed item is, I can't smash it now without Ladybug. I am truly living up to being the unlucky black cat today. Ladybug, where the heck are you?!
As if things couldn't get worse, Blake tripped out of his hiding place.
Blake, what gives? You're not usually this clumsy!
The akuma saw him too and fired her photo beam at him.
Compared to some other akumas, this one's among the less lethal ones. Blake will just be trapped somewhere for a few hours at worst. Once Ladybug finally gets his butt here and purify the akuma, he'll set things back to normal with Miraculous Ladybug.
The logical choice would've been to just let the akuma shoot Blake and keep her within the park until Ladybug gets here. If it were anyone else, that's exactly what I would've done.
But it's Blake.
"Oh no, you don't!" I pushed Blake out of the way and got shot as a result.
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"Sorry you got hit, Chat Noire," Blake apologized from what looks like a screen in an empty white sky. He keeps a good poker face, but judging from how his shoulders are hunched, his skin a shade lighter than its natural sun kissed tone, and the slightest frown on his face, he is far from feeling zen right now.
As it turns out, her beams trap people into Polaroid pictures. It's a good thing Blake had some presence of mind to grab my photo and made a run for it. He found a relatively safe spot to hide in the park while the Ladyblogger and his lady-friend are distracting the akuma.
"It's okay, it's part of the job description," I reassured as best as I can while exploring my sterile white surroundings. I've been walking for a while now but there doesn't seem to be an end to this. No walls, no ceilings, just a white floor and endless nothingness. Not another soul in sight. It's kinda like solitary confinement, minus the confining walls. "Why don't you get out of the park? Find someplace safer."
"Can't…" he curtly said without facing me, emerald green eyes anxiously scanning the park, running his hand through his crimson hair and messing up the sweptback style the hairstylist painstakingly worked on, "…Not until I find-"
A loud crash from behind Blake cuts him off.
"HEY POPPYRAZZI! STOP TRAPPING PEOPLE INTO PICTURES!"
Great. My partner's finally here.
"I better get out of here," I scratched the back of my wild fiery red mane in frustration. Looks like I've got no choice. "Cataclysm!"
Power surged up my claws and I pushed it down the white floor. A huge black crack formed, and next thing I knew, I'm back in the real world.
I scanned my surroundings to reorient myself. The photo shoot set is back. There's definitely a lot more people running around the park than there was a few minutes ago. It seems my cataclysm didn't just free myself, but freed everyone and everything the akuma shot. Even my baton made it back!
Just a little further in the park, I can see Ladybug fighting off Poppyrazzi. He's having trouble getting near her with her barrage of photo beams. Poppyrazzi had him stuck playing defence so badly, he couldn't get an attack in without risking getting stuck in a photo.
"Gotta go! Ladybug needs me. Stay safe, Blakey!"
I pulled out my baton and extended it to a quarter staff as I charged towards the battle. I struck low and tripped Poppyrazzi from behind.
"You!" Poppyrazzi glared at me, scrabbling back to her feet.
"The one and only~," I smirked smugly, not taking my eyes off her camera.
"Chat Noire!" Ladybug sounded relieved to see me.
"Let's finish this off, Ladybug," I said, reminding him that the fight's not over yet.
He promptly shifted his intense focus back to the akuma and summoned Lucky Charm. I can practically imagine him scrunching his nose in concentration as he took a few seconds to figure out what to do with whatever random object Lucky Charm gave him.
"Hey Chat Noire, remember that one episode from Tom and Jerry?"
Stealing a glance back at Ladybug, I saw him wrapping his hand with a string from a ladybug patterned ball of yarn.
"I think I can imagine which scene you're talking about. Wanna re-enact it?"
We dashed around the photo shoot set, Ladybug wrapping the yarn around every piece of equipment he can jump over. When he pulled the string taut, and the akuma tripped over it.
She fell with the entire photo shoot set following down after her in every direction. Predictably, she shot at the biggest, most sight-obscuring object first, and that was the tent. She's in for a nasty surprise.
Because of the tent, she didn't see my baton shooting towards her. She couldn't click her camera in time before my baton shattered her camera lens.
Ladybug quickly went over Poppyrazzi, snatched the card and ripped it in two. Without missing a beat, Ladybug caught the akuma and casted Miraculous Ladybug.
Once the magical swarm of ladybugs are done fixing the city, I sauntered over to Ladybug. He was doing his 'pep talk for the akuma of the day' thing again since the people getting paid to do it aren't here yet.
"So no more stalking Blake. It's an invasion of his privacy. Understood?" he said at the end of his scolding. Seeing the girl flinch at his tone, his features softened. "But don't worry, you'll find a guy who'll like you back someday. Just don't force yourself onto guys who are not interested from now on."
He is completely oblivious to the girl's glazed eyes dreamily checking him out, probably only selectively listening the moment he went soft. I roll my eyes. Typical fan girls. Just when I was about to congratulate him on a job well done, someone else beat me to him.
"Ladybug… Have you seen my sister? She was just here…" Blake said, his eyes shifting around in a fruitless search.
Ladybug shifted uneasily while the fan girl, learning her lesson from being akumatized, moved away to give them space. That was when our Miraculous simultaneously let out a warning beep.
"Don't worry Blake, you'll find her soon. Miraculous Ladybug already fixed everything. She should be safe," Ladybug said, as evasively as ever when it came to a certain female model. Sigh…
I quickly perked myself up before I made my way over to Ladybug, pulling him away from the growing crowd where Monsieur Ladyblogger and his pink haired companion are at the front. Ladybug's cheeks were growing flustered, probably from the arriving press. He never got used to the attention.
"We better get going," I cheerfully announced, flashing a smile at the cameras.
"R-right. Please excuse us!" Ladybug said to the crowd with an uneasy smile.
We did our traditional fist bumps before running off. I found a back alley near that same bakery with the cheese sale. It's the reason I wasn't at the park with Blake when the akuma got there.
My Miraculous beeped one last time before the magic detransformed me. My fiery red mane smoothed down to a silkier deep crimson fox tail. My feral eyes turned back into a normal human set of emerald green eyes. My leather cat suit changes back into a billowy black blouse, thin white jacket, dark moss green shorts, thigh high black socks, and knee high boots.
"And where's my camembert?" Plagg, my kwami, demanded as soon as he zoomed out of my ring.
"You caused me a lot of trouble today," I lightly chided. It's more of a rant than a scolding really.
"The cheese fondue was calling me. I can't just leave them alone," Plagg whined.
"And why can't I just give you that instead of your smelly camembert?"
"The cheese fondue was great, don't get me wrong. But nothing beats camembert!"
I rolled my eyes knowing I can't win this argument. I tossed him a small slice of his stinky camembert, which he quickly inhaled. Eww. At least that's one less slice of stinky cheese in my purse.
"Now get back in here. I've been gone long enough because of you," I said as I ushered the kwami into my purse.
My name is Blair Crawford: Full-time student, part-time teen fashion model. I wouldn't call my life normal, especially now that I'm also a superhero on the side.
As I snuck back into the park, I saw my brother still running around looking for me. Better make my appearance before he grows bald from worry. I grinned when an idea popped into my head.
Right when I was about to surprise him from behind, my phone rang. He turned around with his phone out and an unimpressed look on his face at my foiled prank. He's no fun anymore.
"Sis, where were you?" try as he might, Blake couldn't hide the slight tremble in his voice. At least, not from me. It's a twin thing.
This is a secret I can't tell anyone. Not even my only family.
"Chill bro, I was at the bakery. And even if I was caught, I'd just be trapped in a picture. No big deal," I flung my arm around his shoulder –having to stand on the tips of my toes just to reach it, stupid height difference- hoping the casualness would help calm him down. "How about you? The akuma went after you this time. What's our tally? Three to two? Congratulations bro! You're in the lead!"
"That's not something to be proud of," he warned while failing to hide a small smile. "Let's get back to the Liungs'. They'd be worried if we don't show up soon."
And so another day ends.
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So this is the two-part introduction where the two protagonists get a chapter each. Sorry if the format is a little confusing with the slight time leap back to a few minutes before Ladybug arrived when the last chapter cuts off when Ladybug was in the middle of a fight. I could've streamlined this into one long chapter but I felt that breaking it into two helps juxtapose the two leads better. I hope you enjoyed! Let me know what you think in the comments section.