Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Miraculous Ladybug. They belong to their respective owners. Any and all familiar dialogue is for the sake of the plot.

One Kind of Origin Story, Part One

"A long time ago, magic accessories were created to allow humans to wield the powers of creatures like me known as kwamis. With these accessories, they could channel our powers, and use them to become heroes. Throughout history, many have wielded the Miraculous. There are several Miraculous, but two are stronger than the rest. There's the earrings of the Ladybug, which grant the power of creation, and the ring of the Black Cat, which grants the power of destruction. Legend has it that when used together, they can grant someone the most power imaginable."

"That power… I want it, Nooroo. I must have those Miraculous."

"But Master, you don't know where they are. Even I don't know."

"Then we'll just have to find them, or better yet, let them come to us. Remind me of your powers."

"The Miraculous of the Butterfly grants the power of transmission. Your ability is called Metamorphosis, and allows you to give another person super powers as well as communicate with them in their mind." [1]

"Excellent. With your power to create heroes or villains, I should gain the attention of whoever has the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous."

"Um, what did you mean by villains? Master, the brooch of the Butterfly should not be used for evil purposes."

"It's the only way to get what I desire. I need that power. Now, tell me how to invoke the transformation."

"I really shouldn't…"

"I am your master now. You obey me. The transformation!"

"…Say my name… and then 'wings rise'…"

"Good, but let's see if we can twist that into something more sinister. Nooroo, dark wings rise!" [2]

As Nooroo went inside the brooch, a wave of glistening, white butterflies washed over his master. When the transformation was complete, Nooroo's master stood in a dark purple suit with a silver mask over their face and a cane in their hand.

"Amity Park deserves to know who is interrupting their peaceful life, and The Butterfly doesn't sound very wicked at all. No, Amity Park shall know me as Hawk Moth."

Wayzz had been sleeping when he felt yet another shift in the natural balance. Two shifts in one month, one each from different sources? Something was not right.

Flying out of the gramophone, he saw that Wang Fu was working with a client. Normally, he'd wait until his chosen closed the parlor for the night, but this was an emergency. As stealthily he could without the customer seeing him, he went to Master Fu's cheek, prodding him silently. The old man opened one eye as he did some strange ritual for his massage work. Wayzz made some motions that told Fu in no uncertain terms that they needed to speak. Right away.

"I'm sorry," Wang Fu began telling the client and helping him up. "We'll have to cut this appointment short. Please come by next week, and we'll be sure to have a complete session. Thank you." As politely as he could, he ushered the customer out the door and shut it.

Wayzz flew over to his chosen. "Master, I felt the Butterfly Miraculous."

"What? I thought the Butterfly Miraculous had been lost with the Peacock."

"Apparently not, and there's more, the aura was negative. I fear that the Butterfly Miraculous has fallen into the wrong hands."

"In that case, we must find Nooroo and his Miraculous at once." Master Fu lifted his arm that bared the bracelet of the Turtle Miraculous. "Wayzz- gack!" He prepared to transform, but his back went stiff.

Wayzz held up green flippers. "Master, be careful. You're-!"

"Young, and only 186, I know," Fu cut his kwami's caution short. "But perhaps, you may have a point. Even if we do find Nooroo, we may not be able to rescue him and secure his Miraculous on our own. We will need help." Allowing his back to recover, Fu walked over to where the gramophone sat, retrieving his step stool so he could be at the proper height to reach it. Pressing his thumbs to the eyes of the dragons decorating the musical instrument, he opened a secret panel and pressed four buttons. The top of the gramophone popped open and a large black and red box rose out from inside it.

"Master, there is something else." Wayzz flew up beside him as he reached for the box. "A few weeks ago, I sensed another thing of possible significance. In addition to the Butterfly Miraculous being used for evil, ghosts have gained a greater means of entry to Earth."

Master Fu shook his head gravely. "That's not good. While magical creatures and their abilities like the kwamis and their powers are somewhat compatible with paranormal beings such as ghosts, they are not able to combat them as effectively. If we are not able to fight them properly, then who?" [3]

Danny pulled on his red and white shirt, completing his outfit for the day.

"Okay, first day in a new school except this time I have to be careful with my ghost powers, or I'll be labeled as a freak. No pressure, Danny, no pressure at all," the new high school freshman sarcastically quipped. Grabbing his backpack, he left his room and went downstairs to the kitchen to grab a bite for breakfast. As he walked into the dining area, he found his dad, already dressed in his favorite orange jumpsuit, tinkering with something at the table. "Uh, Dad? What're you doing up here? I'm pretty sure Jazz said a normal family doesn't try to build ghost weapons at the table, especially this early."

"Hey, Danny-boy! First day of high school, isn't that exciting? First step into the big leagues of academics," Jack stated eagerly, briefly looking up to smile at his son.

"Sure, but seriously what are you doing? With a soup thermos, and where's Mom?" Danny asked, briefly looking around for his other parent.

"She's downstairs in the lab, taking the morning readouts from the Ghost Portal. I don't know what you and your friends did down there to make it start working, but it was a really big help." Jack frowned, recalling what happened that day from his viewpoint. "Er, sorry. Probably still a sore subject with the accident and all."

Danny shrugged. "Nah, I've gotten over it. It's fine." As far as his parents knew, he came out of that incident with accidentally turning on the Ghost Portal without any bizarre side effects. Knowing his parents and their profession, it was probably a smart idea to keep anything related to ghosts and powers to himself and his friends.

"And to answer your question, this is our latest tool in ghost catching. Behold," Jack introduced the object, holding it up with one hand. "The Fenton Thermos, looks like a regular thermos meant to contain soup, beverages, and other liquids, but nope! It's a thermos designed to suck any and all ghosts within range inside and contain them. As a bonus, the size is perfect for traveling on the go, so you can use it at any time. Fenton-tastic, right?"

The device looked like a regular thermos outfitted with a bunch of tech on the side, and under normal circumstances, Danny would think nothing of it. It being in his father's hand and nearly pointing in his direction, though, was kinda worrisome. The fourteen-year-old took a step back.

"Yeah, Dad. Really… that. I'm going to head out and meet up with Sam and Tucker at school. Get there early enough to roam and get a feel for the place, you know?"

His dad seemed to understand since he nodded his head. "Sure thing! Have a good day, and we'll see you after you get back." Setting the thermos back down on the table, he started tweaking it with some tools.

Spinning around on his heel, Danny started making his way to the front door, only for him to not feel the floor beneath his footsteps. Looking down, he bit back a yelp of shock when he noticed that he was floating. Shooting a panicked look at his dad, who didn't seem to be paying attention, he scrambled to get his feet connecting with the carpet floor again.

He managed to get his feet back on the floor right before his mother emerged from the downstairs lab, wearing her blue jumpsuit.

"Oh, Danny! Glad I caught you." Maddie crossed the living room, and kissed her son on the cheek. "Look at you, my little boy already off to high school."

"Mom…" Danny groaned in embarrassment. Thank goodness Sam and Tucker weren't here to see this, or anybody else for that matter.

She stroked her son's face once. "Just excited for you, sweetie. That's all, and soon you'll be off to college."

"If you're going to be excited about going off to college, shouldn't you be all over Jazz? She's going to be starting there far sooner than I am," Danny felt the need to point out.

Speaking of, Jazz came downstairs, ready for school much more than Danny was. She took one look at the kitchen table, and frowned.

"Dad! Can we start one school year without experimenting where we eat?" The sixteen-year-old began to lecture as she walked over.

Danny smirked at his mother. "See, she's already acting like she's ranting at a messy roommate."

Maddie shook her head with a playful smile. "I guess you have a point there. But, she's not the one starting in a new place."

"That's fair." Danny waved farewell, resuming his exit. "Alright, see you after school. I'll probably hang out with Sam and Tucker after classes finish, but I won't be out too late."

"Bye!"

Once he was outside, he looked up at the giant sign that hung outside his family's home, advertising their ghost hunting business.

Here's hoping for a not-disastrous day.

"Bye Mom, Bye Dad!"

Marinette exited her family's bakery with a box of treats in hand. Every year, she would bring a box for her classroom. In elementary school, it was her class, and then the last few years, it had been her homeroom, the closest thing that had resembled her elementary class. Starting today, she would also be making a short walk to the school she would be attending for the next four years. [4]

Reaching the corner of the street, she joined the other pedestrians waiting to cross the road. Most of them were other teenagers on their way to school, and they were also focused on their phones.

Because everyone else was distracted, she was the only one to notice an old man with a cane trying to cross the road. Probably senile because he didn't realize it wasn't the right time to cross.

Marinette looked down the road, and saw an oncoming car on course to collide with the elderly man.

"Ah!" Shrieking, Marinette made the split-second choice to rush out onto the street and pull him out of harm's way.

They had just barely cleared the crosswalk when the car drove through right where the elderly man had just been crossing. Nobody else must've seen it happen because the other pedestrians didn't comment on it, and began to cross the road now that the crosswalk light was green.

"Thank you, miss," the old man thanked her once their safety was assured. "Oh my, I'm terribly sorry. You dropped your sweets."

He was referring to the box of treats Marinette had dropped in her haste to help him. A few macarons spilled out onto the sidewalk. Marinette picked up the box, and was relieved to see that only a few had left the box instead of many.

"It's okay," she assured him. "I have bad luck like this all the time, and I think I'll still have enough to share with my homeroom. Want a macaron?" She offered the box to him.

"Don't mind if I do." He accepted a green one, and took a bite. "Delicious."

"There's more where that came from. This is my family's bakery right here." She gestured to the building behind her that she had just left minutes ago. A bell rang slightly far off. "Oh no, that's the warning bell. I'm going to be late!" Making sure the crosswalk light was still green, she hurried across the street and down the block towards her school. "Have a nice day, sir!"

Watching Marinette leave, Wang Fu looked up at the bakery Marinette had just indicated with a smile.

"Thank you very much, young lady," he said to himself.

Marinette scrambled to find her homeroom. As excited she was to meet the students she would be spending the free period with, she just didn't want to be late on the first day.

When she got there, she was quick to recognize most of her classmates. There was Nino in the front row, slouched over in his desk. While they had a few class periods together the past few years, they were never really that close; sure, they played together when they were in the same elementary school class, but they drifted apart to pursue their individual interests. Then there were Rose, Juleka, Kim, Max, and Nathaniel, they had been together in homeroom with Marinette two years ago. She recognized Danny, Sam, and Tucker, the three of them occupying the back corner. She probably shared a period with each of them only once in middle school, but it was hard to forget them with the way Sam stood out in her goth attire, Tucker with his red beret, and Danny, who looked average, was easy to remember since his parents were the town's resident ghost hunters. That explained why Nino, who usually preferred the back corner, was in the front row. It looked like her class also included Ivan and Mylene; she knew Ivan was quiet, and that Mylene was easily scared from the few occasions that she worked with them on assignments. The only person that Marinette didn't appear to recognize was a redhead wearing a plaid shirt and jeans near the window in the front row a few seats away from Nino. [5]

Huh. Small class.

To Marinette's pleasure, her favorite spot in any classroom was open. The row behind Nino, one to the right. It wasn't right next to the wall so she'd be practically shoved against it if the classroom needed to be rearranged, and it was close to the door in case a quick exit (usually due to humiliation by Chloe) was needed. Being in the second row also meant that she hopefully wouldn't be put on the spot by a teacher very much. She was fine answering a teacher's question, but not that frequently.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!"

Oh no. Not again.

Chloe marched into the room, closely followed by Sabrina.

"That's my seat," Chloe stated, slapping her hand down on the desk.

"Here we go again," Marinette muttered under her breath before speaking up, "Chloe, this has always been my seat."

Sabrina slid into the desk next to hers. "Not anymore! New school, new year, new seats." [6]

Chloe nodded. "Yeah. In fact, speaking of new, why don't you go sit next to that new girl over there?" She pointed at the new redheaded girl, who appeared to be clicking at her phone and looked up when she realized she was being talked about. "Listen. Adrien's arriving today, and since that's going to his seat," she explained, motioning to the seat next to Nino in front of them. "This is going to be my seat."

Marinette and Chloe didn't see it, but Sam's head shot up curiously at the mention of Adrien.

"Who's Adrien?" Marinette asked, completely lost.

Chloe and Sabrina began to laugh.

"You don't know who Adrien is? What rock have you been living under?" Chloe mocked.

"He's only a famous model," Sabrina stated as if Adrien's identity was obvious.

"And I am his best friend," Chloe bragged, "he adores me. So go on, move!"

The unfamiliar redhead stood up from her seat, eyeing the situation furiously. "Hey! Who elected you Queen of Seats?"

Chloe laughed again, sharing a look with Sabrina. "Look, Sabrina! We have a little do-gooder in our class this year. What are you gonna do, super newbie? Shoot lasers at me with your glasses?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" The new girl retorted, grabbing Marinette by the hand and pulling her out of the seat. "Come on, girl. You can sit next to me."

"Um, okay?" Marinette quickly grabbed her things as she was hauled away, nearly dropping more macarons from her box.

Before Chloe could throw some tantrum about not being done teasing Marinette, their homeroom teacher arrived.

"Hi, everyone! I'm Miss Bustier, and I'll be your homeroom teacher this year," the red-haired teacher introduced herself, standing at the front of the room. "Has everyone found a seat?"

Marinette sheepishly smiled at the new girl. "Thanks for getting me out of there. I wish I could handle Chloe the way that you did."

The girl's eyes lit up. "Oh, you mean like how Majestia does?" Bringing up a picture on her phone, she showed Marinette the image of a comic book heroine with a purple M on her suit. "She says 'all that is necessary for evil to triumph is that good people do nothing'. That girl is evil, and we're the good people. We can't let her get away with it." She gestured to Chloe.

Marinette sighed, thinking of the past. "Easier said than done. She's been making my life miserable for the past several years."

"Well, maybe you just need more confidence. She can't push you around if you don't let her."

Marinette wasn't sure what it was about the new girl, but she made sharing a classroom with Chloe suddenly a lot more tolerable. Taking a macaron from her box of goodies, she handed it over to her desk neighbor. "I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng."

"Alya Cesaire." The newly-named Alya accepted the macaron.

As Miss Bustier started an introductory discussion about the year, Marinette cast a glance back at Chloe, who was sulking in the seat that Marinette had left. That was strange. Didn't she get what she wanted?

"Ugh, where is he?" Chloe muttered to herself.

Adrien ran down the street towards the school with a sleek silver car in pursuit. He was almost there. The young teen could almost feel the metal of his own locker, the weight of his lunch tray as he looked for a seat in the cafeteria, the eyes of new classmates that would ultimately become his friends!

As he approached the front entrance, the car pulled alongside the curb and Nathalie climbed out in a hurry along with Adrien's bodyguard, who he affectionately called the Gorilla.

"Adrien," Nathalie called out to him, "please reconsider! You know what your father wants."

Adrien swiveled around to face her. "This is what I want!" He heard a grunt and looked over at the crosswalk in the opposite direction he had come from. An elderly man, possibly in his eighties, had fallen and couldn't reach his cane. Ever the helpful soul, Adrien hurried over to assist the man back up.

"Thank you, young man," the man said with a kind smile. He hobbled on his way.

Turning back to enter the school, Adrien frowned in dismay when he saw Nathalie and the Gorilla blocking his entry. Sighing in defeat, he approached them with pitiful eyes. "I just want to go to school with everyone else. What's wrong with that?" They escorted him back to the car. "Please don't tell my father."

The car started up again, and looped around to return to the Agreste Mansion. If any of them had been paying attention, they would've noticed the old man watching them leave.

"I believe we have found him, Wayzz," Master Fu stated confidently, his kwami coming out of a pocket. The Guardian pointed at the car. "Follow him and find out where he lives. We must act fast." [7]

The students went through their first day back in school, already sinking into disinterest as the teachers spent their first lessons going over the syllabus and their schedule for the year. To alleviate his boredom, Kim thought it would be funny to write notes. When the teacher's back was turned, he slipped notes to those sitting around him. He shared his last period with Ivan, and the broad-shouldered freshman sat several spots away from his seat. Figuring he could catch Ivan at the end of class, Kim wrote one last note before the bell rung.

As the students gathered their things and exited the classroom, Kim quickly did the same, hurrying to catch up with Ivan before he lost sight of his classmate.

"Hey, Ivan! Wait up!" Kim called out.

Grunting in acknowledgement, Ivan slowed once he was out in the hall, allowing Kim to join him.

"What?" Ivan grumbled. He was not a social person, and didn't do small talk.

"Just wanted to give you this. Here, take it." Kim handed him a note. "I'll see you tomorrow, okay?" Kim then ran off to do whatever he had next on his agenda. [8]

Ivan watched him disappear around the corner for a moment, and then unfolded the crumpled note that he had been given.

You haven't even got the guts to tell Mylene that you love her, wuss.

What? How'd Kim even know about that? And who was he calling a wuss?

Anger ran through Ivan's veins, and he rushed forward. "Kim!"

Rounding the corner, he found that Kim had already vanished from sight. That only served to make him madder.

-LB-CN-P-

"Yes. Increased negative emotions, that's what I was looking for. You will do nicely for my first. A tough exterior with a hard heart." Hawk Moth commented, the only window to his lair opening and causing the white butterflies around him to take flight. Holding out his hand, he waited as one landed in his hand, covering it with the other and injecting dark energy into the creature. "Fly, my little akuma, and evilize him!"

The butterfly flew out the window in search of the target.

-LB-CN-P-

Not entirely sure where to look without looking like even more of a fool, Ivan stomped into the nearest boys' restroom and sat in a stall. As this would come to be the first time this happened, he didn't even watch for the darkened butterfly that slipped through a window crack. The butterfly landed on the note crushed in his hand and turned it purple.

Ivan's head shot up as the area around his eyes turned red and a purple outline of a butterfly hovered in front of his face.

"Stoneheart, I am Hawk Moth," the villain introduced himself through the link Nooroo had mentioned. "I give you the power to get revenge on those who have wronged you."

A sinister grin formed on Ivan's lips. "Okay, Hawk Moth." A wave of purple energy washed over him and expanded.

As the transformation took place, another boy wandered into the restroom and was about to use one of the urinals when he heard a loud bang.

"What was that?" He wondered, looking over at the stalls.

Just as he was about to take a closer look, a giant thing of stone burst out of a stall, ruining the others in the process.

"KIM!" The thing roared.

"Holy crap!" The boy yelled, scrambling to get out. His need to use a urinal was no longer necessary. The monster saw him leaving, and followed him. Too big to fit through the door, he decided to go through the door and the wall surrounding it instead.

"KIM!" The rock monster boomed as chunks of wall fell around him.

Several students lingering in the hallway screamed, running away at their fastest speed possible.

Stoneheart watched them flee, but couldn't pick out the person he was seeking. It looked like he still needed to do some searching. Picking a direction, he trudged down the hall.

Meanwhile, Marinette and Alya relocated to the library after the final bell, wanting to get to know each other better.

"You have how many sisters?" Marinette asked as the conversation swerved into the topic of their families.

"Three. One older, and two younger. My older sister, Nora, she's a boxer. She graduated high school earlier this year and could've stayed back where we were, but she wanted to stay with us to help out. That, and she was interested in the local boxing circuit." Alya tapped at her phone as she talked, informing her family that she was staying after school with her new friend for a little while.

"What about your younger sisters?"

"Ella and Etta? They're twins, and let me tell you, because there's two of them, they're a pair of little-."

Before Alya could finish her sentence, the library felt like it shook.

Grabbing at the table for stability, Marinette asked Alya, "What was that?"

Having no answer herself, Alya leaped from her seat to the nearest window and looked out. Her eyes nearly bugged out of her skull. "Marinette, come look!"

Reluctantly, Marinette joined her new friend, as did a few other students that were in the library at the time.

Out the window, they could see the school's soccer field. Stoneheart was there, having just burst through the wall.

"KIM!" The monster roared again.

Kim was among several students out on the field, and he felt all eyes, including the monster's, turn towards him. He flinched at the sound of his name, and let out a sharp yelp when Stoneheart began to move in his direction. The other kids fled four their own safety, and after a second, Kim realized he needed to do the same, rushing off the campus. Stoneheart kept his sights on the boy, following at a lumbering pace.

Alya stared at the departing monster, and gripped her phone tight, moving to head for the library's exit. "I have got to get footage of this!"

"Alya!" Marinette reached a hand out to try and stop her. "Where are you going?"

"When there's a monster or a supervillain, superheroes are always close behind," Alya answered with a brief turn back. "And I'm going to see it when it happens."

"She might want to run into danger, but I'm going to run away from it." Marinette murmured, looking at all the fleeing students around her, and figured it might be a good idea to run home to where it was safe.

Down below the library, students warily approached the giant hole Stoneheart had made, Danny and his friends among them.

"Guys," Danny started to say to Sam and Tucker, a nervous, almost bad feeling forming in his gut.

"Go," Sam urged, Tucker nodding his head beside her.

Without any further prompting, Danny ran for the nearest hiding spot he could find. He ducked into an empty classroom, closing the door behind him and beginning to transform.

Danny's appearance changed. His black hair had gone white, his blue eyes turned an ectoplasm green, and his clothes changed into the jumpsuit Tucker had given him to put on when he was dared to step into the Ghost Portal, except the white and black colors were inverted.

With the transformation complete, he used his ghost powers to turn intangible and flew out the classroom window to hunt down Stoneheart.

Across town at the Agreste Mansion, Adrien was right back where he started and didn't want to be. In his dining room alone with Nathalie, continuing his homeschool lessons. In the middle of his history lesson, his father interrupted.

"Nathalie? Could we have a moment?" Gabriel asked his assistant.

"Of course, sir." Nathalie stepped to the side.

When he saw that she had stationed herself against the wall, giving the illusion that she was out of the conversation, he focused on his son. "I already told you, Adrien. You are not going to school!"

"Father!" Adrien tried to protest, feeling betrayed that Nathalie had told his father about sneaking out. "I already registered for the year!"

"Not possible! How could you even manage that?"

Adrien's eyes narrowed, the stinging betrayal of Nathalie giving way to the defiant nature that allowed him to pull off his act in the first place. "I have ways, Father, but I'll never tell. I'm going to school with other kids." [9]

"You're not other children. You're my son!" Gabriel glanced at Nathalie. "Continue with the lessons, and see to it that Adrien's registration is withdrawn." With nothing else to say, the fashion designer returned to his atelier.

When Gabriel left the room, Nathalie noticed how upset Adrien appeared and tapped at her tablet. "If you'd like, we can pick this up-!"

Adrien needed to hear nothing more. Shoving his schoolwork aside, he sprinted out of the dining room.

In the safety of his room, he curled up on his bed with the intention to remain there for the rest of the day when he heard a banging noise. Curious, he climbed out of bed and went to the large windows on one side of his room. He could see cars being thrown and people running and screaming.

There was no way his father would let him go out and investigate, but he knew how to get a closer look at what was happening without leaving his room. Jumping on his couch, he turned on his TV, not taking notice of the box sitting his table. [10]

Amity Park's main reporter, Nadja Chamack, appeared on the screen.

"As strange as it might seem, Amity Park is under attack by a giant rock monster," she informed those watching. "The police have been called in to fight this strange creature and are en route, and wait- what? Breaking news, there's been a development in this story. It looks like… a superhero?"

"KIM!" Stoneheart yelled for the umpteenth time that afternoon, trudging down one of Amity Park's streets after the boy.

"Hey, Rocks for Brains!" A familiar voice shouted out, getting the akuma's attention. The rock monster turned, and saw Danny flying towards him. "Didn't you hear? School is back in session!" Rearing a fist back, he slugged Stoneheart in the center of his face, managing to shove him back a few feet.

Stoneheart let out a guttural growl, and shone with light, growing bigger.

Danny raised his eyebrows. "Whoa. Okay, hitting you makes you bigger. Good to know."

Having followed Stoneheart from the school, Alya grinned while she filmed the whole thing on her phone. "A real superhero. I knew it!"

Marinette watched the news feed of the fight, curled up on her computer chair in fright.

"Huh. Alya might've been onto something," she mused. Looking away from her monitor to grab her phone, she noticed a black and red box on her desk.

"What's this?" Marinette and Adrien wondered at the same time, the latter noticing the box in his room as well.

Marinette opened the box, and was greeted by a red light. When it faded, a small red creature with black spots dotting its body hovered in front of her.

"Ah! Giant bug mouse!" Marinette yelped, recoiling with fear.

"It's okay. Don't be scared."

"The bug mouse talks!" Marinette started throwing things to defend herself, but the red creature easily flew out of the way.

Adrien opened his, and the light that flashed in his face was green. The light disappeared, and a floating black cat was in front of him.

"Whoa, are you like the genie in the lamp?" Adrien prompted, his curiosity getting the better of him.

"No, but I met one of them once. Big deal if they can grant wishes. I'm way more interesting. The name's Plagg. You got anything to eat?" The flying cat replied, starting to float around Adrien's room and try eating things.

"Hey, don't eat that!" Adrien demanded, chasing after Plagg.

"Marinette, I know things seem scary." The red creature tried to reason, but the panicked Marinette trapped it under a clear cup. "Okay, if that makes you feel better."

Now that she had the creature trapped, Marinette regarded it warily. "What are you, and how do you know my name?"

"My name is Tikki, and I'm a kwami. Allow me to explain."

While Plagg tried to eat Adrien's TV remote, Adrien finally got him in his hands after making a dive jump from his rock-climbing wall.

"Okay, I know your name, but I don't know what you're doing in my room," said Adrien.

"I'm a kwami, and I can grant you the power of destruction." Plagg turned in Adrien's hands.

"Uh…"

Plagg sent a critical glance around Adrien's bedroom. "Seriously though, you have anything to eat around here? I'm starving."

"Is my father pranking me?" Adrien asked, then thought better of it. "Nah, he has no sense of humor."

Plagg squirmed his way out of Adrien's grip. "Your father can't know about me. No one can."

"Mom!" Marinette reached for the trapdoor that would let her go downstairs to the rest of the house.

"No, wait!" Tikki phased through the cup she was trapped under, stopping Marinette. "You're the only one who can stop that akuma." She motioned one of her arms at the newsfeed on Marinette's computer. Danny was doing his best to prevent the akuma from causing damage without attacking it and making it grow bigger.

"But… I can't be a superhero. My only superpower is super clumsiness," debated Marinette. "My new friend I made at school today, Alya, she'd be a much better choice. She knows all about superheroes."

"My apologies, but it has to be you. You're the chosen one to wield the Ladybug Miraculous."

"KIM!" Stoneheart roared, finally finding his target again.

Kim attempted to flee, and Stoneheart threw a parked car at him to prevent his escape. Danny acted quickly, grabbing the boy and flying away with him.

"Gotcha," Danny said.

"Whoa, thanks man," Kim replied in stunned gratefulness.

"But I'm stuck here. How can I be a superhero when I'm locked in my own house?" inquired Adrien. He was starting to see why Plagg was giving him the chance to have destructive powers. The little kwami was already causing destruction in a way by unrolling the toilet paper from his bathroom all over his floor.

"That's why you gotta break out, kid," Plagg replied, seemingly encouraging the idea of breaking rules. "With the power of the Black Cat Miraculous."

Adrien contemplated the silver ring in his palm.

Marinette held the black earrings in her hand, looking at herself in the mirror. Reluctantly, she put the earrings on. While her ears were pierced so she could put them on, Tikki had informed her that because they were magic earrings, they could magically attach in the event a chosen holder did not have pierced ears. [11]

"So I break the object where the akuma is hiding, and then cleanse it?" She clarified to Tikki.

"Yeah, and if you have any questions while you're transformed, look in your weapon. It'll have all the answers you need," affirmed Tikki. [12]

There was a knocking sound, and Marinette turned towards her trap door while Tikki quickly hid.

"Marinette, are you doing alright?" Marinette's mother, Sabine, asked as she peeked in through the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just… trying to think of a new design," Marinette lied quickly. "I think that rock monster has given me some interesting ideas to try out."

"Okay, just wanted to check on you and make sure the attack at school didn't shake you up too terribly. I have to get back to work." Sabine went back downstairs.

Once she was sure that her mother wasn't coming back up for something else, Marinette allowed herself a sigh of relief.

"Don't forget about the Lucky Charm. It's your secret power and will help you turn a fight back in your favor. Once you use it, you only have five minutes before you de-transform. When you're done with it, toss it up, say 'Miraculous Ladybug', and it'll clean up any damage in a fight involving Miraculous." Tikki flew back into the open, continuing where she had left off on the instructions.

Marinette grimaced as she nonetheless filed the information away in her mind. "I don't know if I can do this. When I started school today, I didn't expect to become a real-life superhero."

"You'll do great," Tikki reassured her. "Now, to transform, say 'Tikki, spots on'!"

"Okay…" Taking a deep breath, Marinette said loud enough for only the kwami to hear, "Tikki, spots on!"

Adrien adjusted the ring on his fourth finger, surprised to see that it fit perfectly.

"Nice! How do I transform?" Adrien wondered.

"That's easy. To invoke the transformation, say 'Plagg, claws out'!" Plagg helpfully added, poking his head out of the newly unrolled toilet paper tube.

"Got it. Plagg, claws out!"

"No, wait! There's more you need to kn-oooow!"

Adrien felt a wave of green wash over him, watching Plagg be sucked into the ring and turning it black with bright green cat claw pads decorating it. He would never forget the wild and chaotic feeling that rushed through his body. It felt so freeing, to wear something his father probably wouldn't approve of if he found out. A grin on his face, he ran a pair of fingers over his eyes as he felt a mask form and his eyes change. He raked his newly gloved hands through his hair, ruffling it up to match that wild sensation. As he did so, he felt a second set of ears form on top of his head that somehow felt different from his normal pair. A strange sensation was felt through his tailbone. If he had to guess, he suspected that he was getting an actual tail. To top it off, he was amused when a cat bell appeared at his neck. How'd the suit know he would get a kick out of that?

Weird, but at the same time it was the most interesting thing to happen to him in forever.

His transformation completed, and he stood in his room, wearing a black suit with gloves that looked like sharp cat claws.

"Cool," the superhero Adrien smiled.

Marinette wasn't sure what she expected. She was too alarmed by Tikki vanishing into her new earrings that she didn't pay attention to how her normal clothes were replaced by a red spandex suit with black spots and a mask with five spots forming on her face. A pair of red ribbons also looped around her pigtails, clenching them even tighter than they already were.

The transformation finished quickly, and Marinette found herself seeing her body in her mirror, examining the suit and noticing that the black earrings were now red and had five black spots. Already, she was feeling uncomfortable.

"This was a bad idea," she regretted. Seeing that Tikki was nowhere to be found, she realized she couldn't ask the kwami how to undo the transformation.

In hindsight, the kwami probably picked up on her nervousness and intentionally left that part out so she would give the superhero thing a try.

Clever little bug. Wait… what did she say about answers?

"Of course! The weapon!" Looking to her hip, she figured that the thing looped around her waist was probably it. Picking it up, she soon realized what the weapon was supposed to be. "A yo-yo? Strange choice for a superhero gadget. How does this thing work?" As she poked at it, she heard a news update.

"It looks like Amity Park's new hero is trying to lead the monster back to the school. Most of the students and faculty have evacuated, so Casper High might actually be a safe zone to fight it at the moment. Looks like since his fighting tactics weren't working, he decided to guide the monster away from the civilians." The voice of Nadja spoke up.

Marinette glanced at her computer, and saw Alya was still following the monster, who was following Danny, who was carrying Kim. She had thought Alya would try and follow it from a safe distance, but it looked like she was getting too close. If the news have spotted her on camera, then she was definitely too close to be considered safe.

"Alya!" Marinette couldn't help but call out.

She knew Alya was crazy for going after the monster in the first place, but she was a good person. Alya stood up to Chloe for her, even sat with her at lunch when she normally didn't have anybody to sit with on the first day. If Alya got hurt despite that new hero's best efforts to stop Ivan without any help, she'd never forgive herself.

She had to give this hero thing a try. For Alya.

Going downstairs where her parents could see her was not an option. The only other exit she had was their rooftop terrace. That would have to do.

Climbing up her bed, she reached for the trap door that led to the terrace and let herself outside.

"How am I supposed to get around?" She wondered to herself, palming the yo-yo. Giving it an experimental fling, she watched it loop around a hanging sign. When she tugged it back, she was the one being pulled instead of the yo-yo. "Waaaah!"

Elsewhere in Amity Park, superhero Adrien practiced using his weapon- a baton- as a bridge between building rooftops across streets. He liked to consider himself a good balancer, but as he crossed the baton, he felt like he was extra good at balancing. Maybe improved balance was a skill that came with the suit, or maybe it was the tail. He had learned in his studies that tails were used for balance in some animals. Either way…

"I'm getting the hang of this," he remarked.

A shrill yell attracted his attention, and before he could place what it was, he was crashed into by another costumed hero, this one mostly in red. She knocked him clear off his baton, and they would've fallen to the ground together if her yo-yo string hadn't caught on his baton and tangled them up.

"Hey there, nice of you to drop in," the black cat hero punned right off the bat.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to do it on purpose," the ladybug hero apologized.

The pair got untangled and up righted themselves on the street.

"You must be the hero with the Ladybug Miraculous my kwami told me about. My name is Chat Noir." When he snuck out, he had given thought to his hero name, and given his French roots, he thought it'd fit nicely. "What's yours?"

"My name? I haven't really thought about it. Yah!" She tried to untangle her yo-yo from his baton, which was still raised between the buildings, and squeaked unexpectedly when the two weapons suddenly came falling down towards them. Chat Noir easily caught his baton while her yo-yo fell onto the asphalt. "I was told about you too, but there's something I'm wondering. If there's already a hero fighting the akuma, then why do they need us? You know, besides for cleansing it?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. It looks like we're both learning the ropes here."

The red heroine looked around. "The reporter on the news said that other hero was leading the akuma back to the school it came from. We need to get there."

"Luckily for you," Chat Noir said with a confident grin. "I was already on my way there while I was trying out my new kicks. This way." Extending his baton, he vaulted to the rooftops. "Let's go help save Amity Park."

The hero of the Ladybug Miraculous groaned uncertainly, but spinning around her yo-yo for a good throw. "Trust yourself…" She threw her yo-yo in the same direction Chat Noir had went, and followed, screaming along the way.

"Come on, flying hero guy," Alya encouraged as she watched Danny fight Stoneheart on the school soccer field. Kim stood on the roof of the school, safely out of the monster's reach. "Punch it or kick it already!"

"Uh, how about you don't backseat fight?" Danny snapped back, dodging the monster's attempts to grab him. "Besides, every time it gets hit by something physically, it gets bigger."

"Watch out!" Alya pointed.

In the brief second that Danny had turned away from Stoneheart to reply to Alya, that second allowed Stoneheart to punch him. The half-ghost hero was sent sprawling several feet away into the grass.

The rock monster lumbered close to Danny, towering over the stunned hero.

"Crush him, Stoneheart," Hawk Moth ordered through their connection, "he is of no use to me!"

"Crush him," Stoneheart grunted, reaching down to crush Danny with his hand.

Danny started to recover from the punch, and had gotten himself up on his arms when he saw the huge rock hand about to grab him.

Clang!

A silver baton blocked the snatch, and soon Chat Noir stood between them.

"Hey," Chat Noir idly commented, not seeing Danny's bewildered stare behind him. "It's not nice to pick on people smaller than you."

"You mean you?" Stoneheart retorted, preparing to strike again.

Chat Noir was clearly anticipating it, but Danny beat him to reacting. Without warning, Danny picked up Chat Noir by the arms and flew him over Stoneheart's head.

"Whoa! Didn't quite need the assist, but thanks anyway," Chat Noir thanked the half-ghost.

"Just returning the favor. Wasn't expecting help to be honest," Danny replied, lowering closer to the ground several feet away from the rock monster and putting Chat Noir down on his feet.

"Just as I planned. The Miraculous of the Black Cat has been activated, and when that one's activated, the Miraculous of the Ladybug is sure to follow," Hawk Moth thought out loud.

Danny hovered next to Chat Noir, both clenching fists.

"Fair warning," Danny mentioned to his new crime-fighting friend, "with every hit that thing gets, it grows bigger. Avoid attacking it if you can."

"Thanks for the chip," Chat Noir winked, and then rushed forward.

Caught off-guard, Danny gawked as the black cat superhero went ahead. "Puns? Okay, I have a feeling we're going to get along just fine." Shaking his head in amusement, he flew over to join in giving the rock monster the runaround.

"Two superheroes? This first day of school just keeps getting better," Alya grinned on the sidelines, filming everything she could possibly contain on her phone.

On the roof of the school, the suited-up Marinette watched the fight go on, hesitant to join in. Kim was too baffled by the appearance of another actual superhero to say anything.

"There's two of them now. I'm sure they've got this," she tried to assure herself.

Any reassurances she tried to give faded away quickly when Stoneheart picked up a soccer net and chucked it in Alya's direction. Before she could even think of getting halfway down there to rescue her, Chat Noir used his baton to deflect the net away. The black cat superhero paused, glad to see his quick thinking worked.

"Watch out!" Danny swept in and picked up Chat Noir again.

"Is this going to be a regular thing now?" Chat Noir inquired.

Danny rolled his eyes. "I hope not."

The ladybug heroine watched as they circled around some more, the end of the fight apparently not coming soon.

"Hey! Red hero on top of the school?" Alya's voice snapped Marinette out of her spectating. She looked down, and saw that the new girl was looking specifically up at her. "What are you waiting for? The world is watching you."

"Uh…" Why wasn't she joining in? She had invoked Tikki's transformation, snuck out of the house, met the hero with the Black Cat Miraculous, and come to the fight. Even though she personally felt Alya would have been a better choice to be a hero, she was the one in the costume with the special powers. If she had to play hero just this once, so be it. Steeling her resolve, she leaped off the roof and made her way down to the field. Looping her yo-yo around one of Stoneheart's feet, she slid underneath the rock monster and gave a sharp tug of her string after coming out on the other side. "Lay down and stay down!" She pulled Stoneheart's foot out from under him, making him fall onto his huge back.

"Yes!" Alya cheered, proud that she had gotten a third hero engaged in the battle.

Danny flew over, dropping Chat Noir next to Marinette. "Another one? Just how many of us are dressing up to be heroes this year?"

"Hopefully, just the three of us," Marinette said. "There's another one out there, but they're the bad guy. They're the reason that monster is here." She pointed to Stoneheart.

Danny frowned at her. "Wait, you know what's going on?"

"A little, I'm still trying to process everything, but it's better than knowing nothing." She faced Chat Noir, face apologetic. "Sorry for not jumping in sooner, Chat Noir."

"It's cool, wonderbug," he assured her, "not all of us can dive in head first into this hero stuff."

"You two know each other?" Danny looked between them.

"We just met on the way over here," the heroine with the Ladybug Miraculous explained. "Our story is the same, but I'm not sure if we can tell you."

The half-ghost waved a dismissive hand. "That's alright. I don't exactly feel like telling you how I ended up like this, and just want to get this fight over with."

"We all do," Marinette agreed, "but how are we going to stop this guy without attacking him?"

"What about our special powers?" suggested Chat Noir.

"You have special powers?" Danny raised an eyebrow.

Chat Noir picked up his baton, and pointed to it. "Yeah. I found a section on my special power in the instruction guide in my weapon."

"Your weapon comes with instructions?" Danny's levels of disbelief skyrocketed. He raised his hands, annoyed. "Why do you guys get all this stuff to prepare you? I had to go into this blind."

"The monster is getting back up," Chat Noir pointed out, putting his baton on his back. "I'm going for it. Cataclysm!"

A sphere of black energy formed in his hand, rippling and ready to be unleashed.

Danny pointed a cautious finger at it. "Uh, what is that?"

Chat Noir grinned. "Cool, right? I can destroy whatever I touch." He reached for a nearby soccer net to demonstrate, but Marinette reached her hand out.

"Don't do that!" She cried out.

The destructive superhero touched the net, and it started to disintegrate. He watched it break apart with awe. "Cool! Time to rumble, soon-to-be rubble!"

"Chat Noir, wait!"

Chat Noir ran at Stoneheart, and slapped the hand he had used for Cataclysm on it. To his surprise, nothing happened. He looked up as Stoneheart growled, rearing a foot back.

"I guess I was only able to use Cataclysm the one time," he deduced, wincing. This was going to hurt.

Whack!

Danny and Marinette flinched as Chat Noir came rolling back to them.

"Now you only have five minutes before you transform back. Didn't your kwami warn you?" Marinette scolded.

Danny whistled, not expecting the twist. "Wow, not really jealous of you guys anymore if your costumes come with a time limit."

Chat Noir gave them a sheepish grin. "I guess I was just a little overexcited about my new life."

Marinette patted him on the shoulder. "You had the right idea. Now it's my turn. Lucky Charm!" She threw her yo-yo in the air, and a swarm of ladybugs emerged, forming an object that dropped down onto the grass.

"Your power gives you a mattress with ladybug polka dots?" Danny glanced at the object.

"Ooh, how'd it know I'd want a cat nap after this," joked Chat Noir.

"Not exactly. My Lucky Charm gives me something that's supposed to help us win fights. We need to use this to break the thing that the akuma is in. That should turn the monster back into whoever they were before," explained Marinette, staring at the mattress intently.

Danny raised a finger. "If it's any help, the whole time I've been fighting this guy, he's had his right fist closed." He pointed the finger at the indicated hand. Stoneheart was stomping towards them. They needed a plan, and fast. "I wasn't sure what the deal was with that, though."

Marinette narrowed her eyes in thought before widening them. "That's got to be where the akuma is. The object with the akuma is in there."

"So we get him to drop it. How do we do that?" Chat Noir asked.

Marinette started looking around. She saw Chat Noir, Danny, and Stoneheart's fist. She had a plan.

"Like this. Chat Noir, you and, um," she began to lay out a plan but stumbled upon the fact she had no clue what to call her third teammate.

Danny quickly cycled through ideas for a ghost-themed hero. From growing up with his parents, he knew spook, specter, spirit, ghoul… phantom. "Call me Phantom." [13]

She nodded, happy to have a name for him. "Phantom, you and Chat Noir need to rush the monster. Let him catch you, it'll make him drop the thing that has the akuma since he'll need both hands."

"Are you sure that's a good plan?" Chat Noir asked, not too keen on getting close and personal with the monster after that kick.

Phantom shrugged in reply. "Hey, it's either this, or keep playing a cat and mouse game all day."

While the cat-themed hero groaned, Marinette got ready. "Go on three. One, two… three!"

Reluctantly, Chat Noir followed Phantom in charging at Stoneheart and jumping up in a fake attack. Marinette used her enhanced strength from her magic suit to grab the red and black mattress, throwing it under the captured boys. She spotted a round, purple thing fall from the hand that snatched Phantom, and ran over to it. She crushed it under her foot, and smiled when the akuma emerged, fluttering away.

The connection to the akuma severed, Stoneheart's form rippled away, leaving only Ivan. No longer captured, Chat Noir fell down onto the mattress with Ivan while Phantom managed to stop himself from falling and hover in place. Seeing that they were all okay and that Marinette's plan had worked, Chat Noir grinned in her direction, awestruck.

"That girl is crazy awesome!" He crowed.

"Just maybe, man, just maybe," Phantom murmured, looking down at Ivan.

Now that he saw who the monster really was, he realized that he knew the boy. He and Ivan hardly ever crossed paths at school, but he remembered the face.

Who is she? And how did she know what's going on?

Phantom put his questions aside when he saw Ivan was waking up.

"What happened? How'd I get out here?" Ivan wondered, startled to be sitting on the Lucky Charm mattress.

Chat Noir got off the mattress, heading over to Marinette. "You were incredible, miss bug lady. You did it!"

Marinette rubbed the back of her head, shyly accepting the praise. "We did it. All three of us." She looked up as Phantom hovered down to the ground. Both she and Phantom noticed that Chat Noir was raising a fist, and they bumped fists together.

"Pound it!" The trio said in unison. Shortly after, Chat Noir's ring beeped. All three heroes noticed that the ring, which previously had five paw pads on it, only had two left- a small one and a big one.

"You should get going. Our identities have to remain secret," Marinette told the destructive hero.

Smiling, Chat Noir gave a bow. "Farewell, my lady. See you around, Phantom." Extending his baton, he ran and made a jump up to the school roof, disappearing from sight.

"Think we'll see him again?" Phantom came up beside Marinette, watching the cat hero go.

"We probably will. Whoever created that akuma, they're still out there," Marinette confirmed. Looking down at the remains of the akuma object, she noticed that it had changed back into a crumpled ball of paper. Picking it up, she unfurled it for some possible clue about the akuma. She read it out loud, and suddenly her heart went out to Ivan. "Oh."

"Kim wrote that. He's always making fun of me," Ivan grumbled as Marinette went over to him.

"And that's a mean thing he did," she confirmed, "but there's no shame in telling someone you love them, Ivan."

Ivan looked at her in confusion. "Uh, how'd you know my name?"

Realizing she had slipped, Marinette tried to come up with an excuse, but she was saved by Kim and Alya's timing.

"You did it! You stopped the monster!" Kim ran up, having made his way down from the roof somehow once he had seen Stoneheart was no more. He blinked when he finally approached the two heroes and the akuma victim. "Wait, Ivan? You were the monster?"

"Amazing! Are you guys going to be protecting Amity Park from now on?" Alya questioned Marinette and Phantom while filming the moment. "How'd you get your powers? I've got a ton of questions to ask you both."

"Um, uh," Marinette stammered, dropping the note and stepping away from Ivan.

"Sorry," Phantom intervened, stepping in front of Marinette, "it's one thing to learn comic book hero origin stories, but it's another to learn real-life hero origin stories. How we got our powers is confidential, right?" He looked back at Marinette, giving her a wink.

"Well, what about names? What can we call you? I heard you guys call the cat guy 'Chat Noir'," Alya pressed.

"You can call me Phantom, and my friend here goes by… say, you never gave us your hero name." Phantom glanced at Marinette, realizing that he knew everybody involved in the fight by name except her.

Marinette looked down at her suit. Call her uncreative, but a lot of heroes went by what their suits made them look like, didn't they? At least, that's what her limited knowledge of superheroes suggested. "Ladybug. I'm Ladybug." Not wanting to answer any other questions, as well as needing to escape before she had to transform back, she whipped out her yo-yo and fled the scene.

"Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Phantom? Wow, what a group!" Alya exclaimed, recording Ladybug's exit.

"Hey, I was the first one at the fight. Why is my name last?" Phantom protested, turning back to her.

"Uh, the other two have animal-based names, and you don't? You're the odd one out."

Danny lifted a finger to argue the point, but found that she was right. "…Point taken. You three take care of yourselves. Even though I don't have a time limit on my super form, I've got other places to be." Namely wherever Sam and Tucker have bunkered down, and tell them how his first time using his powers in a fight went. Taking off, he left Alya, Kim, and Ivan at the field.

Later that day, Danny sat at home with his friends in his normal clothes, watching Nadja use the footage Alya had submitted to the local news to explain what had gone down. Marinette and Adrien watched it from their respective homes as well, Marinette celebrating that her first outing as a hero had gone successfully and Adrien unfortunately finding out that Plagg required camembert cheese for regaining power.

"Thanks to this amateur footage," Nadja reported on Danny's TV, "Amity Park now knows the identities of its heroes."

"Looks like you're not the only one with strange powers in Amity Park," Sam remarked to her friend as the report continued.

Danny nodded. "Yeah, and honestly, I'm thankful they've got them too. I never would've beaten Ivan without them."

"I still can't believe that Ivan was the monster. What do you think happened there?" Tucker mused.

"I'm not sure," Danny answered, frowning in thought. "Ladybug said that the thing that turned Ivan was called an akuma, and that someone else was in control of those. She and Chat Noir both knew what was going on, at least vaguely. I think whoever sent that akuma to change Ivan into a monster was trying to set a trap. For what, I have no idea."

"Now we know that this isn't going to be an isolated incident," said Sam. "The akuma's master will probably try something again. Maybe we can find out more then."

Tucker quickly shushed his friends. "The mayor's about to talk." Danny and Sam both rolled their eyes. For whatever reason, Tucker was interested in politics, even if said politics included bratty Chloe's father. [14]

"I'm pleased to announce that we will be organizing a big celebration in honor of our new protectors," Andre Bourgeois stated in a press interview, "Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Phantom."

Adrien sighed fondly in his room. "Her name is Ladybug." That was his one regret about the afternoon, leaving before he had a name for that amazing face and mind. Hearing she had a name on the news lifted that regret from his shoulders. Then his nose wrinkled and he felt like gagging. "Do you really have to eat camembert?"

"The stinkier the cheese, the better," Plagg quipped, swallowing a wedge of the smelly cheese whole.

Unfortunately, though the group had won the battle, they forgot one crucial detail. The akuma.

Perching on the highest point in Amity Park, the evil butterfly began to multiply.

Later that night as Marinette slept, exhausted from her incredible first day back to school, she was poked on the cheek gently.

"Marinette!" Tikki hissed as she prodded. "Marinette, wake up!"

The girl in bed groaned, trying to cover up further. "It can't be morning already. I feel like barely got any rest."

"No Marinette, it's not that. There's something on the news you've got to see. It's important."

"…Alright, give me a second." Marinette slowly climbed out of her lofted bed, down to her computer desk where Tikki waited for her. "What is it you need to show me?"

Having figured out how to operate the computer earlier in the evening, Tikki tapped a button to start a video.

"A new wave of panic is sweeping over the town as dozens of people are being mysteriously transformed into rock monsters like seen earlier today with the one fought by our new protectors, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Phantom." The late night reporter for the news announced. On her computer, Marinette could see the little akumas sneaking up on people roaming the streets late at night and entering their bodies, changing them into Stoneheart lookalikes. "It's simply unbelievable. The police are unsure what is going to happen to them. Are they going to come to life and attack, or are they going to remain frozen?"

"I don't understand. I thought we defeated Ivan's monster form," Marinette told Tikki, turning off the video.

"Didn't you capture the akuma?" Tikki inquired.

"What does that have to do with this?"

Tikki launched into an explanation. "If an akuma isn't captured and cleansed, then it can multiply. Once the original victim, Ivan in this case, starts feeling negative emotions again, the akuma could repossess him, and then anything could happen based on what a victim's powers are. With Stoneheart, he could create a whole army of these stone beings." [15]

"This is all my fault. I knew I wasn't cut out to be a superhero," Marinette lamented, spiraling fast.

"It's okay. It was your first time. When you go back out again, you can capture the akuma and cleanse it then," Tikki tried to reassure her.

"I can't! I'm only going to keep messing things up, for you, for Chat Noir and Phantom, for everybody. It's all I'm good at. I can't do this anymore." She went into her bathroom.

At Adrien's house, Plagg had alerted him to the problem and that he unfortunately couldn't do anything about it.

"So we can't fix anything without Ladybug?" Adrien clarified.

Plagg ate another wedge of cheese. "Because the Ladybug Miraculous has the power of creation, Ladybug is the only one with a Miraculous that can fix damage done by supervillains."

"If Chat Noir and Phantom can't capture the akuma, then you'll just have to find another Ladybug," Marinette decided, staring into her mirror and only seeing someone who made too big of a mistake. Her decision final, she reached for the earrings.

"Marinette, no!" Tikki cried out desperately, but the moment her jewelry was removed, she vanished.

Holding the earrings in hand, Marinette found she was once again alone in her room. As much as she liked having that sweet little voice around, she couldn't keep her with the problems she herself created. That would be selfish.

"I'm sorry, Tikki," she murmured. Finding the box that the earrings came in, she put them back in it, and crawled into bed to get rest for tomorrow.

As far as she knew, her days as a hero were over, but her days of being a student continued on.

And so the origin story begins. While we have no clue when Danny's powers originally came into play during his freshman year, here we can pinpoint them to the month before freshman year started. I have a lot of notes I want to go over, so for this project I will be using footnotes.

[1]- We know the names of each hero's power, but not the villains' powers. Given I do not believe that akumatization is the butterfly power's actual name, I decided to name it Metamorphosis to reference the butterfly being a symbol of change with the different stages of life they go through.

[2]- Two things for this one note. First, I prefer the dub's transformation phrases over the original's 'Transform me!' because I like that each kwami gets their own unique phrase. It would be too easy to access their powers if the wrong person got their hands on a Miraculous and only needed to know the kwami's name to invoke them. Second, the creator confirmed that each Miraculous has a villain phrase as well as a hero one. As I take everything that man says with a huge grain of salt, I'm going with Hawk Moth twisting it just enough to work.

[3]- This is my headcanon for ghost stuff interacting with magic stuff. While I see them being compatible to a degree, they generally don't mesh extremely well. We'll discover more nuances of their compatibility as time goes on.

[4]- As American schools work differently than French schools, I decided to skip over Marinette's discussion with her parents about being stuck with Chloe in the same class since different school systems render that pointless.

[5]- Another thing about American schools is not every high school has homeroom, which is basically downtime to get last-minute homework done or get guidance from a teacher. My high school had it, and I'm using it to justify the 'Miraclass' from Miraculous Ladybug canon. Aside from Danny, Sam, and Tucker in the corner, imagine the seating arrangement is the same.

[6]- In canon, Ms. Bustier says a few lines before that Nino should move up front 'this year' as if they had attended the same school the previous year with the same teacher and apparently stood by while Chloe and Sabrina bullied Marinette out of her seat. Taking out that line and making Bustier one of the last people to arrive causes Sabrina's 'new year, new school, new seats' line to make sense and allows for her and Chloe to bully Marinette without implying Bustier is incompetent as a teacher out of the gate.

[7]- We never saw how Fu figured out where Adrien lived to deliver Plagg and the ring, unlike he likely figured out Marinette lived above the bakery. This is how I assume he tracked Adrien down.

[8]- As American school lunch break works differently than French school lunch break, the Stoneheart akumatization was put at the end of the school day instead of at lunch period. Like note 6, I tweaked Kim and Ivan's confrontation to occur out of a teacher's sight instead of again implying Bustier is an incompetent teacher. If she did her job correctly, she would have sent Kim to the office too for antagonizing Ivan instead of Ivan alone for threatening to punch Kim.

[9]- As we never learned exactly how Adrien signed up for public school behind his father's back, fans have assumed Chloe pulled strings with her father to allow Adrien to do so on his own. Since Adrien really wants to attend public school and sneaks out in the second part to try again, I decided to show he still had that rebellious spirit in him. Whether he would get a Miraculous soon or not, he was going to that school.

[10]- In canon, Adrien is shown in his room when he first hears Stoneheart's rampage, runs out the front door to see what was happening, and then ran all the way back up to his room to turn on his TV. I kept him in his room to avoid that extra bit of legwork.

[11]- Magic earrings are magic. I figured there have been some holders in the past who did not have pierced ears, so I put that bit in just because.

[12]- Included this bit of info after watching the Oblivio episode. Sure is handy that magic weapons come with instruction manuals.

[13]- Since neither Ladybug nor Chat Noir give first names with their hero personas, it didn't make sense for him to introduce himself as 'Danny Phantom'. At least giving Phantom a name now avoids the 'Inviso-Bill' incident later.

[14]- Tucker's campaign for student council and eventual job as mayor in the finale that shall not be named always came across as out of left field personally, so I'm establishing his interest in politics early.

[15]- In the original, Tikki sounded like she knew exactly what would happen. Since akumas have different powers, I edited her explanation to be more speculation.

As you can see by most of my notes, I intend to play 'fix the show' while fusing these two hero stories together. While Danny Phantom's writing has a few minor snarls that could use touching up, Miraculous Ladybug often has writing quality issues for the sake of plot. My hope is that by pairing Miraculous with a show that has stronger continuity, like Danny Phantom, the writing quality will get better and more consistent.

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