Julimart: Yeah, I figured since Sam's family is the only other rich one in the cast, they likely knew Adrien and Chloe's families, which ties the two shows' lores together nicely. Yeah, I thought the Poindexter episode went against its own moral, so that episode is being cut. Though I will have to figure out how to slide Poindexter in sometime since his locker is connected to the Ghost Zone, and Poindexter himself shows up a few times in the show. Yeah, I wanted to make Chloe as complex as her season 2 counterpart and show how she might be affected by Adrien finding a new friend in Nino. You did write nonetheless correctly, by the way. Glad you enjoyed the Randy Cunningham reference.
Tiamat Dragoness: Thank you! It was pretty easy to blend the two shows together thanks to their formats and their common 'teen heroes with powers going to school' setup.
Johnymike98: Can't answer the question about Sam or Tucker getting a Miraculous, or the question about a ghost Miraculous due to potential spoilers.
Guest: I can confirm that those two ships, especially the Danny and Marinette ship, are not happening.
Crystal Da Pony: Thank you for apologizing. I agree with the lesson on proofreading; I have done it a few times myself. I'm glad that people are liking how I tied Sam to Adrien and Chloe's past. I did have a nice Thanksgiving, and I hope that you had a nice holiday and a Happy New Year!
Matt: Glad you enjoyed the Randy Cunningham reference. I initially didn't understand that show crossing over with DP or ML myself until I actually got a chance to watch it. I liked it, but not as much as DP or ML. Can't say on Poindexter getting akumatized. I don't like Felix, even if the writers are making him a jerk on purpose. I hate what they did to Chloe in season 4. The whole thing reeks of wasted potential, bad writing, double standards, and hypocrisy. I would like Zoe more if she didn't speedrun Chloe's intended redemption arc over one episode, and didn't get the Bee in only her second episode immediately after her first. Safe to say, Zoe is getting an overhaul in my version.
King of Fans: Interesting theory. Dash learning possible combos for bullying sounds like something he would do. I can also see both potential reasons for the change in dress code going together too. I thought the way the Fentons earned their money was canon; it's the only logical explanation for how they are able to afford their house and lab. Gabriel feeling the urge to send a butterfly after his designs are insulted sounds hilarious; that is now canon. Chloe doesn't really follow the rules anyway; even with the original dress code, she wasn't going to dress up like that. Glad you liked the Fairly Odd Parents reference. As for your theories about the effects of Cataclysm on Technus' suit, I would go with option two since Cataclysm acts on the user's intentions and Chat wouldn't want to hurt anyone. Funny that you mention Desiree...
Catgirl Hamato: Glad that you are enjoying the story.
Pokemon fan 1991: Glad you are enjoying the story. Don't compare your work to someone else's, otherwise you'll just make yourself unhappy with unrealistic expectations.
Fan: Let's meet Vlad before we start thinking about team-ups, eh?
ElizabethBathog: Glad that you are enjoying the story.
Erica phoenix16: I am glad that you like the story. Thanks for reading!
Friendly reminder that speculation about future chapters and what you want to see is okay, but please leave a comment about the chapter I just worked very hard on if you intend to speculate.
Also, Two Kinds apparently has a TVTropes page, so if you think of any trope examples for it, go ahead and add them. Without further delay, let's get into the first chapter of the new year!
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 Phone Call
Dash's party and the flight of the haunted technology were the talk of the school for a week. Anybody who went to Dash's party was shocked to learn something had happened while they were having fun and they didn't even notice. The students and staff alike also spread the word around to never attend a garage sale held by the Fenton household due to the possibility of anything bought there was contaminated with ghost energy.
That particular weekend did not have a lasting effect on many, but for Danny, Adrien, and their friends, it changed a lot. For starters, Danny quit his pursuit of the so-called popular crowd, something that pleased Sam and Tucker immensely; between Paulina using him to make Sam mad and Dash changing the dress code to the 'loser chic' of his and his friends' preferred styles after all the work he went through to get those designer clothes, he was completely done trying to fit a mold. Now that Sam came clean about her family's wealth, she was more comfortable with using it; she had already paid for two new phones for Tucker, one to be his primary and another to be his backup like before.
As for Adrien…
That Monday after the party, Adrien immediately started living up to his promise to Nino. When lunch came around, instead of heading over to the A-listers' table like he had done every lunch period since the school year started, he followed Nino to a table where Marinette and Alya were sitting and sat down across from the girls.
It didn't take long for the A-listers to notice. Dash, Paulina, Kwan, and Chloe were walking over within minutes.
"Hey, Adrien," Paulina greeted sweetly, waving her fingers at him. "I don't know if you didn't get the memo or something, but we're sitting over there today." She pointed to a cluster of tables full of A-lister students were seated, Sabrina included, and they were definitely watching the exchange.
Adrien shrugged casually, poking at his meal from home. "I know, but I'm sitting here today."
Kwan looked confused. "But, why? They're not A-listers."
"So? At least I know I can actually talk to them."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Paulina huffed, her patience with the model growing short.
Adrien spun around in his seat to look at the popular kids directly. "I mean I can actually talk to them about my interests." He pointed at Dash. "I tried to talk with the other guests at your party, but every time I brought up something that I liked, they walked away from me like I had offended them. They didn't want to talk about video games or anime or something else, they wanted to brag about who had a better weekend than everybody else."
Dash clenched his fists. "What are you trying to say, Agreste?"
"I'm saying that other than Chloe," Adrien pointed at Chloe, who had been strangely quiet the whole time, "none of you have wanted to know what I like or don't like. All you care about is my fame and wealth, and what it means for the A-listers." He then gestured to Nino, Alya, and Marinette. "These guys actually care about getting to know me as a person, and I'm sitting with them from now on."
"I don't believe this. I invite you to my biggest party of the year, and this is how you repay me? Turning your back on your friends?" exclaimed Dash.
"You're not my friends," Adrien calmly replied, again motioning to the three teens at his table. "They are, and I'm trying to be a better friend to them. Now would you please leave? I'd like to eat my lunch."
"You want to tank your rep by hanging out with these losers? Fine. Come on, guys," Dash turned and stomped back to the A-lister table. Kwan hesitated, glancing at Adrien with a hurt expression before following his football teammate.
Paulina shook her head at Adrien, almost pitying him. "You are so downgraded to B-lister." She flicked her hair and went to go gossip with Valerie and Star about the latest social update.
Chloe watched them return to their seats before turning her attention to Adrien and the others. "You're right. They don't know you like I do, Adrikins," she started to say, "and that's why I respect your decision unlike them."
Marinette, Alya, and Nino blinked at each other. Chloe wasn't throwing a tantrum over Adrien?
"You do what you want, just don't forget the one who helped you get here." Chloe turned to go join the rest of her clique. "The rest of you, don't do anything that will make this all for nothing."
As the trio worked out what she meant, she walked back to the A-listers. Adrien, on the other hand, spun back around to continue eating.
"I think that went well," he said cheerfully, popping a forkful of steamed corn in his mouth.
The other three gaped at him.
Did he really have no idea what he just did?
Adrien Agreste stood up to the A-listers.
Eventually a day came where someone was bound to get annoyed or irritated by something. This time, it was Alya. As she sat in her last class of the day, she secretly scrolled through her rival blogs- the Noir News and the Phantom Press. While the Noir News had nothing recent to report, the Phantom Press managed to post an update on the latest akuma attack, which Alya was forced to miss because her teacher refused to let her leave so she could investigate.
The two rival blogs were getting close to the Ladyblog's claimed spot as top hero blog again, the Phantom Press more than the Noir News. She needed a new scoop fast if she wanted to keep her place. But what?
On her way to her locker to pack whatever homework she had for the night, Alya mused over possible ideas. While akumas and ghosts were the most trending articles on her blog, they weren't always accessible. It's not like she could summon an akuma or a ghost just for the sake of having news to share. She needed something more readily available. What was easier than an akuma or a ghost?
"I'm Phantom's biggest fan in this school, maybe even the city." She heard Paulina talking, and came to a stop, listening sharply. "If anybody wants to doubt my claim, they can talk to my Phantom shrine."
Phantom shrine?
Alya continued down the hall, and peeked around the corner. Paulina stood at her locker with some of the other A-listers. Her locker was open, and while Alya couldn't see the interior, the photos and newspaper clippings taped to the inside of her locker door held some merit to her declaration.
"Phantom is such a dream boat," Paulina gushed to her group, "I've collected only the best pics of him that have been posted online, and I've already made a list of facts I know about him based on these pics. Like judging by this one here, Phantom's favorite food is onions. For now, anyway. I'm sure once he meets me and finds out how big a fan I am, I can convince him to pick a better favorite food."
Alya watched as she shut the locker and made her way out to board the bus with her group.
Her mind was running wild. Paulina? Phantom's biggest fan? His favorite food is onions? This could be newsworthy.
The blogger pulled out her phone and dialed Marinette. Her call went to voicemail. Strange, they had just gotten out of class so why wouldn't she respond right away? Oh well, Marinette probably still had her phone on silent or was caught up talking to someone else. "Hey, Marinette! Message me back, asap!" At that moment, Nino walked by her. Eager to start investigating, she grabbed his hand. "Nino, wait!"
Nino blinked at suddenly being stopped, but smiled at his classmate. "Yeah?"
"Come with me, I need your help." Alya dragged him out to the football field, where she sat him on the bleachers. Pulling out her phone once more, she tried Marinette again while shushing him. Voicemail again. She groaned, hanging up right away. "I hate it when she goes AWOL. She's not calling me back. Where is that girl?"
Nino shrugged agreeably, understanding her frustration. "Seriously, my man Adrien is the exact same way, but I guess you gotta be sly when Mr. Control Freak is your daddy-o."
Before either could say anything more about their friends' strange disappearing habits, Alya's phone beeped with a new notification- her danger alert app for akumas and ghosts. She tapped on it, bringing up the live feed of Amity Park's local news station. Onscreen were Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Phantom, surrounding a likely recent akuma victim. In the background, the two students could see a crowd cheering for the heroes.
"Once again, Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Phantom have saved Amity Park from the clutches of a menacing villain," Nadja Chamack reported over the footage.
The image of the heroes reminded Alya of her reason for dragging Nino out to the football field. [1]
"Oh yeah!" Alya turned off the app and faced Nino. "Nino, who is the biggest fan of Ladybug?"
The capped boy looked at her in confusion. "Um, you?"
She smirked teasingly at him. "Good answer. Who's the biggest fan of Chat Noir?"
"I don't know. Whoever is running the Noir News?"
"How about Phantom?"
"Is there somewhere you're going with this?" Nino asked instead of answering the question, furrowing his brow.
"Right after classes let out, I saw the inside of Paulina's locker. She has a bunch of stuff in there dedicated to Phantom."
"So?"
"So," Alya emphasized, "I haven't seen anybody at school with a shrine of the heroes in their locker yet. Paulina said she's Phantom's biggest fan. What if she's telling the truth, and has some information on him that none of the hero blogs have yet?" She opened the Noir News and Phantom Press on her phone, quickly scanning both sites for information like Paulina stated to have.
Nino raised an eyebrow at her. "You're going to ask Paulina for an interview about Phantom?"
Alya snorted at the idea. "No! As if any of the A-listers would give anybody outside their clique the time of day. I have a plan, and you're going to help me."
She started telling him what they were going to do.
Meanwhile, the team had split up after defeating the most recent akuma. After jumping across roofs and swinging around several corners, Ladybug landed in an alley and de-transformed into Marinette. Double-checking that she had her backpack, she exited the alley and walked the last block home.
Tikki popped her head out of Marinette's purse to look around after being hidden inside all day. "Time flies when you're saving the world," the kwami commented cheerfully, glancing up at her holder. "The day's already over."
Marinette sighed. "Tell me about it. I missed the last period at school, and half a day of seeing Adrien since he left after lunch for a photo shoot."
"Whoever is behind all this sure is keeping us on our toes," Tikki said seriously, crossing her tiny arms in a pout.
Her holder giggled at her admittingly adorable anger. "But you don't have any toes," Marinette giggled before opening the door to her family's bakery.
"Hi Marinette," Sabine greeted from behind the register, "have a good day at school?"
"Yeah, it was okay," Marinette yawned, "I'm just exhausted. I'm going to do my homework and then take a nap."
Sabine came around the register and gave her daughter a comforting hug. "Alright, rest up. I'll let you know when dinner is ready."
"Thanks, Maman."
Marinette got up to her bedroom and sat down in her desk chair, pulling out her schoolwork as Tikki floated out of her purse. "Ladybug and her friends saved Amity Park from destruction once again, but who's going to save Marinette from her homework?" Staring at her textbook from her last class of the day, Marinette grabbed her phone from her purse. "Sam shares last period with me. She'll know what our assignment was." Turning her phone on, she saw a few missed calls back-to-back. "Two missed calls from Alya? I hope it wasn't anything urgent." Clicking her best friend's contact, she started to call but discovered it wasn't going through.
"No signal?" She muttered in confusion and moved around to try getting service. Tikki watched from Marinette's shoulder as she climbed up her bed and out the skylight to the rooftop terrace. Walking around the terrace, she finally came across a man on a nearby roof tinkering inside a panel.
The man looked up from his work, Tikki ducking out of sight, and understood immediately what Marinette was trying to do. "Sorry, miss, cell tower maintenance. The whole neighborhood is down. No signal for the next hour."
With circumstances out of her hands, Marinette climbed back down into her room.
"Come on, Marinette," Tikki encouraged as she flew back over to her holder's desk, "Try again later. You can finish your other homework while you wait."
While she was concerned about Alya's missed calls, she had to acknowledge there wasn't much else she could do. So she started doing her homework. As she worked, she forgot all about them, including her missing homework assignment she meant to get from Sam.
The next morning, students arrived at Casper High for another day of classes. Paulina was hanging out by her locker with some of her fellow A-listers, including Chloe, Sabrina, Dash, and Kwan. From around the corner, Alya and Nino spied on them.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Nino checked hesitantly, looking between them and Alya. "Messing with the A-listers is like poking a beehive."
"All I need is a minute," Alya told him, "this is for the Ladyblog. Now go!" She ushered him ahead with a shove.
Nino stumbled a bit, but knowing how headstrong his classmate was, reluctantly approached Paulina. "Uh, h-hey dudette?" He started awkwardly.
Paulina and the other A-listers stared at his interruption, and the former rolled her eyes.
"Oh good, it's the D-lister freshman that stole Adrien away from us," Paulina grumbled. "What do you want? Came to gloat about how being besties with Adrien is boosting your rep?"
While the group's attention was on Nino, Alya snuck around them to get to Paulina's currently open locker.
Nino glanced between the five popular faces. "Uh, no? I was, you see… I wasn't trying to steal Adrien from you dudes. It's just that, well…"
While he floundered to keep their attention, Sabrina happened to look away and see Alya holding her phone up to Paulina's locker. The girl gasped and pointed, "Chloe! Alya is snooping in Paulina's locker!"
The locker's owner and the other A-listers whirled around at her shout.
Alya spun on her heel, hiding her phone behind her back. "Was not! Hey!" Kwan snatched her phone and held it above his head where she couldn't reach. [2]
"Gimme," Paulina demanded as she and the others crowded around Alya, leaving Nino stuck outside the circle. She tapped at the blogger's phone, bringing up the most recent picture taken. Scoffing at the photo, she turned the phone around to show everyone else. "Wasn't snooping in my locker, huh?"
Alya, Paulina, Chloe, Sabrina, and Kwan were in Principal Damocles' office a few minutes later.
"You see?" Paulina was saying as she showed the picture to the principal. "It's an invasion of privacy."
"It can't be an invasion of privacy," Alya countered from her seat next to the girl, "your locker was already open! Besides, you were showing it off yesterday."
"What about breaking and entering?" Chloe butted in haughtily. "Sanchez didn't say you could look in there."
Alya pinched the bridge of her nose in frustration. "Again, her locker was already open. There was no breaking to enter. There wasn't even any entering!"
"And there wasn't anything stolen?" Principal Damocles clarified.
Paulina sniffled, holding a tissue to her eyes. "Only my very soul! Nobody ever looks at my stuff without my say so. My daddy doesn't even look in my cereal bowl unless I let him." Getting emotional, she clutched onto Kwan for support.
"Right…" Principal Damocles looked between the two parties before settling on Alya. "In light of the evidence presented, an hour of detention for you, Alya."
Alya's mouth dropped open. Was he seriously giving her detention when she didn't break any of the rules?
Still with her face buried against Kwan, Paulina smiled to herself.
Chloe stepped forward, frowning. "Are my ears failing me? You're seriously giving one miserable hour of detention to this… this… heinous criminal? My friend's soul was stolen! Sabrina!"
Adjusting her glasses, Sabrina read off something on her phone. "The school rules clearly state that any student guilty of theft shall be suspended for one whole week."
"Yes," Principal Damocles, "but she's hardly stolen-."
"I'm not sure my father would share your point of view," Chloe taunted, pulling out her own phone and waving it.
The principal began to stammer and sweat at the sight of the phone. "W-wait now, Chloe! L-let's not bother your father, I mean the honorable mayor, with a minor situation…"
Chloe dialed her father.
"Uh, what I mean is," Principal Damocles corrected himself and put on a stern tone, "you're suspended for a week, Alya."
Alya leaned forward in disbelief as Chloe ended the call. Kwan and Paulina, who turned her face away from Kwan, stared with wide eyes.
Alya jumped up from her seat. "That's so unfair! I'm so going to protest this on the school blog!"
Before he responded to the angry reply, the principal looked over to Chloe, who waved her phone once more. Resigning himself to Chloe's power, he added, "the school blog is suspended as well."
Fists curled in righteous rage, Alya grabbed her phone from his desk. She glared at Paulina. "You know, for someone who claims to be Phantom's biggest fan, it's ironic that you're best friends with the school's biggest brat." She stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
-LB-CN-P-
The window to Hawk Moth's lair opened.
Hawk Moth breathed in then exhaled. "School life, such a science experiment. A petri dish of cultivating secrets, lies, and betrayal. But ideal for my evil akumas." A butterfly landed in his hands and he filled it with negative energy before sending it out the window. "Fly away my little akuma, and evilize her!"
-LB-CN-P-
"Marinette? Marinette!"
Slumped over her computer desk, Marinette startled awake at the sound of her mother's voice. Tikki did likewise and quickly hid in Marinette's purse as Mrs. Cheng came into her daughter's room through her trapdoor.
"Marinette, the school just called to check if you were absent. Are you okay?" Sabine asked.
"Ahhh! I was so tired from all my homework I overslept!" Marinette leaped from her chair and scrambled to grab everything she needed for school, making sure she had her purse before anything else. Sabine could only watch in bewilderment while her daughter sprinted downstairs and out the door towards her school. "I'm late! I'm late! I'm so so so late!" [3]
While Marinette ran in the school's front door, Alya ran out the back door towards the football field where she and Nino had sat the day before. She hid herself under the bleachers and pulled out her phone, dialing Marinette's number.
"This is Marinette, leave a message. Beep!" The voicemail said.
Frustrated at not being able to contact her best friend again, Alya buried her face in her arms, unaware of the purple butterfly fluttering in her direction. The akuma entered her phone, and suddenly the blogger's face rose, a neon purple mask forming.
"Lady WiFi, I heard through the grapevine that you're seeking information on the heroes. I'll do you one better and help unmask the heroes, only if you agree to help me too," Hawk Moth said through their connection.
Alya stood up, phone in hand. "Sign me up."
Hawk Moth's dark energy washed over her.
Marinette hurried to her homeroom, and burst in. Everyone looked up from what they were doing to look at the noise.
Ms. Bustier smiled from her desk. "Marinette! Glad you could come in today after all."
"Sorry I'm late, Ms. Bustier. I was so swamped with homework last night that I overslept," Marinette said, rubbing her neck as she took in all the eyes staring at her.
"Well, thankfully this is homeroom and not your first actual class," Ms. Bustier said kindly, "though please try to be on time from here on out?"
"Of course. I'll do my best. Can I take my seat now?" Once the teacher nodded her approval, Marinette sat down as the rest of the class went back to whatever they were doing before she rushed in, and quickly noticed the lack of a redhead best friend next to her. She leaned forward to speak quietly with Nino and Adrien. "Where is she?"
"She's been suspended," Nino answered back just as softly.
Marinette's eyes went wide. "What?!"
"Yeah, she tried to get a look at the Phantom shrine in Paulina's locker because Paulina said she was Phantom's biggest fan."
Nino, Adrien, and Marinette did not notice Danny, Sam, and Tucker whip their heads up at the mention of Phantom.
As Marinette processed the shocking news, another student by the name of Jean Duparc approached Principal Damocles' office. All he had done was play an innocent prank on his classmate Mireille involving Ms. Mendeleiev's coffee mug and an inflatable palm tree, except now the classroom smelled like rotting fish. His homeroom teacher did not find the prank's results funny, so she had sent him off to the principal.
Jean knocked on the door. "Principal Damocles?" When he didn't receive an answer, he cautiously opened the door, and found the man frozen in mid-motion with a purple 'stop' icon on his chest. Gasping in shock, he walked up to the desk and waved his hand in the principal's face to try getting a reaction. He nearly jumped when the principal's computer screen turned on. [4]
Alya's image was on the screen, and her look had changed. Her glasses had been replaced by a black domino mask, and her regular clothes had been replaced by a black jumpsuit with white gloves and boots and a neon purple wi-fi sign on her chest.
All over school, classroom projectors had either been turned on or hacked to display the same image Jean was seeing. It wasn't just the school that received the image; computers and phones all over the city forcibly displayed it regardless of what they were doing before.
"I'm Lady WiFi, revealer of the truth," Lady WiFi announced as the footage started. Many students inhaled sharply at her declaration, including Lady WiFi's own homeroom. "For our first expose, your principal would like to share a little tidbit with you." The footage zoomed out to show her standing beside a scared Principal Damocles at his desk. "So, Mr. Damocles, is it true you wrongfully suspended a student named Alya today?"
Principal Damocles looked down in shame. "…Yes, it is."
"So you were biased, unfair, and totally unjust?" Lady WiFi pressed further.
While watching the footage, Marinette squinted as she noticed something that stood out to her.
"Yes, I was," Principal Damocles admitted.
Marinette knew the little charm dangling from Lady WiFi's phone. Only one person she knew had a ladybug-patterned charm attached to their phone. "Oh no," she whispered to herself in horror, "Alya!"
"For my next scoop, I'll be taking you to meet the girl who claims to be Phantom's number one fan!" Lady WiFi declared before hitting Damocles with the 'stop' symbol that Jean had found him with. "Stay connected!" She then cut the footage, turning off all projectors or returning the projectors to what they had previously been displaying.
Immediately, Ms. Bustier turned to face her students. "I know the school day has only just started, but everybody go directly home for your own safety. The teachers will sort out assignments later."
Doing as the teacher said, the students packed up their things and hurried out the door. While most of the class followed the crowd out the school's front, Marinette, Adrien, and Danny went in search of places to transform.
Marinette rushed into the nearest girls' restroom while Adrien went to the boys', both unaware of each other in their haste. Danny found a nearby janitor's closet.
In the girls' restroom, Marinette opened her purse. "Tikki, time to transform!"
Tikki floated by her holder's shoulder. "You're going to have to fight your best friend!" The little kwami exclaimed, knowing how critical the situation was.
Marinette shook her head confidently. "Nope, I'm going to have to save my best friend," she corrected with a smirk. "Tikki, spots on!"
"If Lady WiFi is going after Paulina, then she's probably heading straight for her house," Adrien realized as he let Plagg out of his pocket.
Plagg groaned. "And here I thought we were done with the popular kids."
"Plagg, claws out!"
A short time later, the Sanchez family maid was minding her own business doing her usual chores when she got the fright of her life. Her phone rang, and she moved to answer it when the screen lit up impossibly bright and a form came out of it.
She screamed as Lady WiFi stood in the living room, looking around but not seeing Paulina. Lady WiFi raised her phone, fingers poised to swipe one of her icons at the maid.
"Where is Paulina? This is her address, isn't it?" the villain demanded.
"Sh-she's not here!" The maid stammered, clutching a bottle of disinfectant tight. "She and her fr-friends planned to have a sl-sleepover tonight!"
"And where exactly is this sleepover supposed to take place?"
"The Grand Amity! Chloe Bourgeois' hotel!"
Lady WiFi lowered her phone, grinning. "Thanks for the tip. I'll credit you as a source in my next scoop." Swiping at her phone, she and her phone vanished in a flash of light.
For a moment, the maid stayed tense. Once she was more certain that the villain wouldn't be coming back, she relaxed slightly.
Then Phantom phased his head and shoulders through a wall. "Hey, is Paulina here?"
The maid screamed, chucking her disinfectant at him.
For the next several hours, nobody could locate Lady WiFi. The authorities considered calling off the akuma alert, but the lack of visible signs that she had been defeated kept them from making the decision.
Phantom informed Ladybug and Chat Noir of Paulina's intended plans for sleeping over at the hotel belonging to Chloe's father, and the trio decided to stake the place out. The sun was beginning to set, day was shifting to night, and Ladybug and Chat took turns using their weapons to spy through one of the penthouse windows on the sleepover.
"And that's how I came to the conclusion that Phantom's favorite food is onions," Paulina was telling Chloe, Sabrina, Star, and Valerie as they sat around and did their makeup and hair together.
Using the enhanced audio on their weapons that came with the spying features, the heroes heard every word. Phantom was shaking his head at Paulina's supposed deductions.
"That's so bogus," Phantom complained to his teammates, "my favorite food is guacamole, not onions." Crossing his arms, he huffed as he looked away from Chat's baton. "She calls herself my biggest fan…" [5]
"Give her a break, Phantom," Ladybug said gently, patting his shoulder. "Nobody knows any of our favorites. Favorite color, favorite movie, favorite model…"
Chat Noir tore his gaze away from the stakeout. "What was that?"
"Nothing!" Ladybug yelped, turning slightly red as she realized her slip-up.
Shrugging, the cat hero returned his attention to the sleepover. "Hey, I think something is happening."
While the girls turned to their plans for the weekend, Star noticed something by the girls' pile of stuff they had gathered in one corner of Chloe's living room. "Hey, Paulina? I think your phone is going off."
Paulina smiled brightly. "Ooh, it might be the Phantom Press with a hot new article on the ghost boy! Sabrina, can you get that for me? My nails aren't ready for touching stuff yet."
"Sure, Paulina." Sabrina got up from where she had been brushing Chloe's hair, and went to pick up the phone. "Hello, you've reached Paulina's phone. Sabrina speaking," Sabrina answered. She let out a startled yelp as the phone began to light up and she threw it across the room.
All five girls screamed as Lady WiFi emerged from the phone.
"Well hello there, Phantom's biggest fan," Lady WiFi greeted sinisterly before noticing Chloe among the group, "and hello to the troublemaker that started all this."
"Everybody break for it!" Valerie shouted, and the five girls ran for cover. Valerie and Star ran for the penthouse door, Paulina went towards Chloe's bathroom, Chloe ran to her bedroom, and Sabrina chased after Chloe. However, none of them were fast enough to escape being frozen in mid-run by Lady WiFi's pause icons.
Ladybug and her teammates jumped to their feet from their stakeout location. "We got WiFi," Ladybug said, and the trio jumped towards the hotel.
Lady WiFi sauntered over to Paulina, and leaned on her shoulder like an armrest. "Well, well, we have the fan here. Now where's the-?" The heroes threw open the doors to the penthouse balcony, storming into the room. "Heroes? Perfect timing!" Swiping at her phone, she deleted the pause icons, allowing the victims to move again.
Including Mr. Damocles, who was still at the school. [6]
With their momentum disrupted, the five girls all crashed in one way or another. Chloe tripped over the rug in the middle of the penthouse and hit her bed, Sabrina tumbled over her, Paulina slipped in the bathroom and accidentally landed her head in the toilet bowl, and Valerie and Star crashed into the door.
"Alya," Ladybug started to say, but Lady WiFi interrupted her.
"Alya has been disconnected," the villain said, "I'm Lady WiFi. Newsflash, I'm going to unmask all of you and get your Miraculous." She then started swiping out pause icons rapid fire. All three heroes jumped and dodged out of their way.
Ladybug landed in a crouch off to the side. "Follow me!" She ran to the doors Valerie and Star had been heading for, successfully opening one of them to avoid hurting the two girls, and her teammates followed her out while ducking over and under the icons Lady WiFi threw at them. The three heroes took a sharp left at the end of the hall by the elevator, entering the stairwell as Lady WiFi continued to swipe icons.
"So, what's the plan?" Chat Noir asked as they ran down several flights of stairs, or flew down in Phantom's case.
"She gets her powers from her phone, so let's lead her down to the basement where there's no service," Ladybug explained.
"No service, no power," Phantom realized, smiling once he understood. "Nice one!"
As the boys continued going down the stairs, Ladybug stopped behind for a moment and sidestepped as Lady WiFi swiped another pause at her. "We need to go lower!" The spotted heroine called out.
"I've got you now!" Lady WiFi cackled, descending another flight and made to throw out more icons, only to discover her service flickering out. She growled at the misfortune.
At the bottom of the stairwell, the three heroes waited for her with their weapons and powers ready to deflect any attacks.
"Get ready," Ladybug murmured to the boys.
Chat Noir hummed thoughtfully. "If we answered a few basic questions about ourselves, do you think we could have avoided this?"
"Not the time, dude," Phantom sighed, his fists glowing with ecto-energy. "Besides, she shouldn't have been snooping around, even if a Phantom shrine is a bit creepy."
Pinching the bridge of her nose, Ladybug stopped swinging her yo-yo to throw her teammates a look. "Are we really discussing this? We're a bit busy right now."
The moment she stopped speaking, the three heroes heard a door open and shut.
"She's gone back into the hotel," Phantom realized, flying up as his teammates ascended the stairs. As they went up, they saw an alarming detail.
"She locked all the doors!" Chat Noir said, seeing a locked icon on every door they passed.
Phantom stopped at one level, seeing a difference from the other doors. "This one is open."
"Get ready for an ambush, on three!" Ladybug tensed along with the boys. "One, two, three!"
She kicked the door open, and the heroes entered what they realized was the hotel dining room. Chat Noir sighed, lowering his weapon.
"So much for an ambush," he muttered.
Fingering her yo-yo in her palm, Ladybug walked further into the restaurant. "Follow me." Chat Noir and Phantom stayed close behind her. "Where is she hiding?" The spotted heroine glanced around, and was suddenly aware of a phone at the center of each table. "What's up with all these phones?"
One of the phones lit up, and instantaneously, Lady WiFi was standing on the table. The villain cackled as she threw a pause icon at them, and the three heroes dodged at the last second, splitting up around the room.
"She must have gotten all these phones from the lost and found," Chat Noir theorized out loud, running across some tables before jumping behind one and turning it over as a shield. One of the icons slammed into his barrier and sent him flying into another table.
With the attention momentarily off her, Ladybug flung her yo-yo at Lady WiFi's arm that held her phone, wrapping it in the string. Ladybug tried to yank her arm so she would either pull Lady WiFi close enough to break the phone and release the akuma, or at least force the villain to drop the phone. Before she could do either, Lady WiFi warped back into the phone on the table, reappearing at another table.
"Haha! You can't get me!" Lady WiFi boasted, teleporting between all the phones on the tables.
"We don't need to get you. We need to get the phones," Ladybug retorted, reeling her yo-yo back to her. "Phantom!"
"On it!" Phantom started firing his ecto-blasts, hitting each phone at every table and breaking them to pieces.
Realizing what he was doing, Lady WiFi hopped down from the table she was on and ran into the nearby kitchen with Ladybug on her heels. Right after Ladybug had entered the kitchen, Lady WiFi spun around and swiped a lock icon at her. Ladybug managed to dodge the icon, but it locked the double doors behind her.
Chat Noir, who had recovered from the previous hit, went up to the doors and found them locked. "Hold on in there, Ladybug!"
Phantom flew up beside him. "I can get us through. Hang on!" Grabbing Chat Noir, Phantom activated his intangibility and pulled them both through the doors.
Ladybug jumped around the kitchen as Lady WiFi continued her barrage of locks, using a pot as a shield. She could only dodge so many before the pot was knocked out of her hands, and the villain used locks to pin her against the wall.
Brimming with confidence at the cornered heroine, Lady WiFi pulled up a play icon, which projected their confrontation across Amity Park.
"Who is Ladybug?" Lady WiFi asked her forced audience. "Is she a super hero, or a super weirdo? How can we trust the girl when we have no idea who she is?" She moved to peel off Ladybug's mask.
"Easy," Chat Noir interrupted as he and Phantom returned to solid form, "she tries to stop paparazzi like you!"
Lady WiFi spun around to confront the boys. "Oh look, the tomcat and the ghost boy have come to save their lovebug."
"I am not their lovebug," Ladybug protested behind her in annoyance.
"Yeah," Phantom added, crossing his arms. "We're teammates, nothing more. We don't have any romantic interest in each other."
"Well…" Chat Noir slowly corrected with his baton resting on his shoulders.
Phantom threw him a look. "Seriously, dude?"
In the brief moment Phantom looked at his teammate, Lady WiFi acted quickly and threw lock icons at the boys. One hit Phantom and pressed him against the wall above a sink, and Chat Noir was thrown into the freezer with the door locking behind him. The impact of the icon was so strong, Chat Noir hit shelves behind him, and his ring came off his finger, de-transforming him into Adrien. The ring bounced under a shelf while Plagg was forced out of the Miraculous.
Adrien got to his feet and gasped upon noticing his transformation had come undone. "My ring! Where is it? Where is it?" He got down on his hands and knees to search. "I could use a little help…"
"So chilly…" Plagg shuddered at the sudden cold.
Out in the kitchen, Lady WiFi shook her head at the three trapped heroes. "Well, well, what am I going to do with the three of you?"
Apparently, Hawk Moth had an answer for her.
He spoke to her through their connection. "Grab Ladybug's Miraculous! The earrings! They'll force her to switch back, reveal her identity, and we'll have one of the Miraculous I need."
"Grab the earrings?" Lady WiFi repeated out loud. "Good idea, Hawk Moth. Simple plan, but effective." She stepped forward to reach for Ladybug's ears.
"No!" Phantom shouted defiantly. Turning intangible briefly once more, he got himself free of the lock icon on his chest, which then stuck to the wall he had been pinned to, and he flew at the villain. In the split second it took for him to fly over, he forgot to return tangible and overshadowed Lady WiFi instead of landing a hit on her.
"Hrrgh!" Lady WiFi grimaced at Phantom entering her body, taking a step away from Ladybug.
"Phantom!" Ladybug cried out, unable to anything else but watch.
Lady WiFi clutched her head. "N-no!"
Meanwhile, the police had surrounded the hotel. At the front of the group were the parents of the girls at the slumber party. The girls themselves cautiously opened the front door, showing the police they meant no harm and that they were okay before hurrying over to their respective parents.
"Daddy," Chloe whimpered into her father's chest. The other girls had similar reunions.
Paulina happened to look up from her hug with her parents, and pointed at a screen projected above the hotel. "What happened to the ghost boy?"
Everyone all over Amity Park could see Ladybug helplessly pinned to the wall with the icons, the freezer still locked, and Lady WiFi in the center of the kitchen, holding her head as she fought for control of her own mind.
At the Manson house, Sam and Tucker were watching the screen on her computer together.
"Come on, Danny," Sam murmured hopefully.
Inside the freezer, Adrien and Plagg shivered more frequently as they continued to be exposed to the cold temperatures. "W-what's happening out there?" Adrien asked in his best Chat Noir voice.
In the kitchen, Lady WiFi's eyes briefly flashed green as she grit out, "Let my teammates go."
She stumbled a few steps to the right, nearly crashing into a stack of pots as her eyes returned to the purple they had been since her akumatization. "Not… until… I get my scoop…"
LB-CN-P
In his lair, Hawk Moth too gripped his head.
"What is going on? It's like there's some kind of interference in the connection," he said to himself, the outline he used to contact his akumas flashing green for seconds a time. "This energy, it feels like… when that ghost interrupted the rally in the cafeteria. Is this ghost energy?" His eyes widened at the realization.
LB-CN-P
Phantom was interfering with his connection to Lady WiFi.
"Get… out…" Lady WiFi gnashed her teeth together. "Get. Out!" She said the last two words in a roar, her phone slipping from her fingers and hitting the floor. The phone landed at just the right angle to dispel Ladybug's lock icons.
Suddenly Phantom was flung out of her body, returning to tangible sight as he crashed against a fridge. The ghost hero groaned, putting a hand to his head. "I guess I can't overshadow akuma victims. They're already sorta overshadowed…" [7]
Ladybug pulled away from the wall the moment her icons vanished, eyes darting between the freezer, Phantom, and Lady WiFi.
This gave Lady WiFi enough time to recollect herself, notice Ladybug was free, and snatch her phone back up.
"Good luck getting your friend out before he becomes an ice cat," Lady WiFi taunted before vanishing into thin air.
"What? No! Go back! The Miraculous!" Hawk Moth bellowed.
Outside the hotel, Chloe's phone rang. Believing to be safe with her father, she had forgotten how Lady WiFi found her and her slumber party in the first place. She answered the call, and shrieked along with her friends and their parents as Lady WiFi emerged and positioned herself at the top of the hotel.
"What's up, peeps? Listen up! I present you with the awards-winning news story you've all been waiting for! The reveal of the heroes' identities!" Lady WiFi declared, briefly interrupting her footage of the kitchen to make her announcement.
Back in the kitchen, Ladybug kicked at the locked door of the freezer. Seeing it wouldn't budge, she called through the door, "We'll get you out of there, Chat Noir!"
"T-take your t-time!" Adrien shouted back, still looking for his ring.
Ladybug turned around and saw Phantom still lying by the fridge. She crouched next to him. "Phantom, you phased yourself and Chat Noir into the kitchen, right? Can you do that again to get him out?"
Phantom lifted a finger, panting. "Need a minute."
"We might not have that long before Chat freezes," Ladybug said, thinking. Settling on an idea, she stood.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug called upon her power.
In her hands fell… a red and black spotted box?
"This better be a lucky box," she murmured, looking around. The box said not to put in a microwave. A microwave was plugged in the far corner from the freezer, but there was a cart that had a portable generator for heating stuff away from the kitchen. The heroine gasped. "The microwave!"
Shoving the box inside the microwave, she unplugged it and threw the whole thing on the cart, pushing it over to the freezer, being mindful not to ram Phantom by accident in her rushing, and plugged the microwave into the cart's generator before kicking the whole thing towards the freezer.
Miraculously, the lock icon transferred from the door to the microwave.
At the same time in the freezer, Adrien finally found his ring. "Got it!"
"Come on, jam the signal…" Ladybug muttered, crouching in front of Phantom to protect him from the inevitable blast.
Just as she hoped, the microwave exploded, bouncing away from the freezer at the throwback. She pulled the cart away from the freezer and opened the door. Chat Noir stood at the doorway, arms wrapped around himself in an attempt to stay warm.
Obviously shivering, he fell into her arms, and him being taller than her sent them both to the floor. She sat up, holding him. Her Miraculous beeped its five-minute warning before she transformed back.
Though weakened from the cold, Chat Noir had enough awareness of what was going on to know the bad news. "You used your Lucky Charm. There's not much time left."
She tried to protest as he pulled himself to his feet while Phantom recovered enough to do the same. They had five minutes before Ladybug changed back to defeat Lady WiFi, but they still had the issue of the kitchen being locked.
"I can phase us through, no problem," Phantom said.
"Yeah, but we have no idea where Lady WiFi could be now," Ladybug pointed out. Thinking back to earlier in the fight, she remembered something important. Lady WiFi had an icon recording her attempt to unmask Ladybug, and she didn't remember seeing the villain dispel that one.
Her eyes went to the icon she thought of. It was still there. Lady WiFi could be watching them.
She whispered a plan to the boys.
Everyone watched the footage as Ladybug and Phantom ran out of the icon's view, and Chat Noir cheekily covered the icon with a pot from one of the stovetops. Including Lady WiFi.
The villain growled, "What are they up to?" Jumping from her perch where she was watching the action, she ran to the stairwell that led up to the hotel roof. As she ran back to the kitchen, Hawk Moth contacted her once more.
"Don't let my Miraculous get away!" He ordered through the connection.
Right after she began running down the stairs, Phantom phased through the roof and looked around before finding what he was looking for.
"Sorry, no service for the next five minutes," Phantom quipped before firing an ecto blast at the hotel's cell tower.
One of the hotel's elevators dinged as it arrived on the floor. Lady WiFi sprinted out towards the kitchen where she had last seen the heroes, preparing to swipe icons in a second. However, when she checked her phone as she ran to make sure she had the right icon called up, she gasped upon seeing she didn't have a signal.
While she was distracted by the turn of events, Ladybug's yo-yo snared both of her arms, preventing her from swiping out icons in the case she still could.
"Now, Chat!" Ladybug called out.
Lady WiFi growled as Chat Noir ran up and yanked her phone from her hands, throwing it to the floor and crushing it under a foot. The akuma fluttered out from the broken phone.
Ladybug released Lady WiFi's arms from her yo-yo string and swung it again to catch the akuma. "No more evil doing for you, little akuma. Time to de-evilize!" Once the akuma was cleansed, she threw the box she grabbed from the remains of the microwave. "Bye-bye, little butterfly. Miraculous Ladybug!"
The wave of magical ladybugs turned everything back to the way it was. Alya's phone was fixed as well as the phones broken in the dining room, the microwave wasn't destroyed, and the hotel's cell tower was repaired.
Alya changed back into her normal self, though she was initially confused how she ended up in the hotel.
Phantom phased into the hall they were in, and joined the other two heroes for their traditional end-of-attack fist bump. "Pound it!"
Alya jumped to her feet, awed by the heroes' presence. "Ladybug! Chat Noir! Phantom! Wow! Can I get a quick interview? Just let me grab my phone." She searched her pockets, then realizing she must have dropped it, started looking at the floor.
Ladybug's earrings beeped, drawing the other two heroes' attention.
"You've only got a minute," Chat Noir realized.
Phantom looked between the two of them then motioned for them to skedaddle. "You two go. This all started because she wanted a scoop about me. I'll wrap this up."
Ladybug and Chat Noir shared a look before Chat gave him a thumbs-up and they both ran down the hall.
"Got it!" Alya said, Phantom turning to face her. "Now, first things first- hey? Where'd they go?"
Phantom pointed his thumb over his shoulder. "Ladybug had to transform back." He frowned at her. "I can do an interview if you want. Let's start by clearing up the fact that onions are not my favorite food…"
On the hotel's ground floor, Ladybug and Chat arrived in the lobby. Ladybug found a supply closet she could use, but Chat held the door open.
"Stay," he urged, "I won't tell anyone who you are. Cat's honor." He held up a hand, or paw, pledging.
"Nobody must know who we really are," Ladybug replied, looking down sadly.
Not when I already know who Phantom is, and I wasn't supposed to find out the way I did.
She pulled the door to close it, but it did not close completely. Chat Noir noticed this and reached for the handle. He could see a red flash of light beyond the crack.
The temptation was there. All it would take to find out his teammate's identity was just one pull of a handle.
But it wouldn't be right.
He closed the door completely, silently to avoid worrying her.
Inside the closet, Tikki rested in Marinette's hands. "Whew, that was too close for comfort," the kwami said tiredly.
Marinette gave her a smile. "Tell me about it." Slipping Tikki into her purse, she opened the closet door and looked around. The hotel lobby was empty, so nobody had seen Ladybug go in the closet and Marinette coming back out.
Outside and around the block, Adrien hurried on his way home. Once he was sure he was far enough to avoid being mistaken for Chat Noir, he stopped to look back at the hotel. Plagg flew out of his shirt.
"That was your chance to find out who the love of your life really is," Plagg said, looking up at his holder incredulously. "What were you thinking?"
Adrien shook his head, smiling. "That's the thing, Plagg. I wasn't thinking. I was following my heart."
The next day, the school bell rang for homeroom. Unlike the day before, Marinette was on time. She took her seat, and a few moments later, Alya entered the classroom. Marinette stood up from her seat, beaming.
"Alya, you're back!" Marinette exclaimed, catching the class's attention. She then furrowed her brow. "I thought you were suspended."
Alya laughed before taking her spot next to her best friend. "Not anymore. I told my parents about what happened, and that combined with Mr. Damocles' confession about the wrongful suspension, they came in this morning to get that overturned." She shrugged at the next part. "I'm still having an hour of detention after school though. They agreed that trying to sneak into Paulina's locker without asking her warranted some kind of punishment."
Nino stared at her in confusion. "But you got akumatized. Isn't that punishment enough?"
"I was akumatized because I was upset about the suspension, not being punished for snooping. The way they saw it, I didn't really learn my lesson from that so they're hoping I will from detention," Alya pointed out, pulling out her phone. "If you ask me, I think I already learned something from this. No sneaking into other lockers to get a scoop on the heroes, or their fans." [8]
"Uh, Alya?" Adrien spoke up. "I wouldn't go online for a little while. See, the Noir News and the Phantom Press-."
"What is this?!" Alya stared at her phone screen in shock. Marinette leaned over and saw what caused her reaction.
The Noir News had a new top story.
Ladyblog Admin Becomes Lady WiFi!
The Phantom Press had a similar post.
Hero Blogger Hits a Low!
If her rival blogs doing a piece on her akumatization wasn't enough, each had a view count higher than her own most recent headlining piece, a brief interview with Phantom, already. She had lost her spot as top hero blog.
Alya groaned, slumping over her desk.
"You'll get that spot back," Marinette said, patting her on the shoulder.
In the back corner of the classroom, Danny and his friends watched Alya process the turn of events before turning their attention back to each other.
"Another akuma defeated," Tucker said, smiling at his friends. "Must feel good, huh Danny?"
Danny reclined in his seat with a casual grin. "Yeah, though it's not as satisfying as that other thing I took care of."
In another homeroom, Paulina was sniffling as Star handed her a tissue. "I can't believe Phantom called me out like that."
"He didn't mention you by name or anything," Star pointed out, sitting nearby.
"He didn't have to. He said onions being his favorite food was dumb. He was basically calling me dumb." Paulina blew into the tissue after dabbing her eyes.
"Oh yeah, that." Sam smirked, pulling her backpack up on her desk and opening it. "I know you missed breakfast because the akuma made you sleep in and rush to get over here, so I brought you something." She pulled out a bag of chips and a small dish. "Chips and guac? It's not exactly a nutritious breakfast, but it should hold you over until lunch."
"Don't mind if I do," Danny said, accepting the offered snack.
This story is a year old! How time flies. When I started Lady WiFi, I knew I had to change things around. Alya hypothesizing Chloe was Ladybug didn't make sense when she has seen Ladybug and Chloe in the same place a few times already, and is even more jarring considering she accurately guessed Adrien was Chat at the end of the episode. It was my friend Lynse's idea to have Alya go to Paulina about Phantom to tie in the DP side of the story, and I agreed. With this episode being focused on Alya, I felt like it could have been a learning moment for her, with the lesson being there are some privacy boundaries she can't cross without permission. Her being suspended before being akumatized also warranted a resolution, so while she wasn't suspended in the end, she did earn a detention for her invasion of privacy.
[1] – Since they are not in Paris and don't have the Seine, the football field will act as a substitute.
[2] – Since Kim is not an A-lister, Kwan replaces him in the little game of keep away.
[3] – Always thought it was weird that Marinette managed to oversleep an hour without either of her parents coming to check on her, and since schools always call to check on a student's absence, it made sense for Sabine to pop in and wake her up.
[4] – The scene where Marinette snuck into class, only to be sent immediately down to the principal's office was pointless for no other reason to have her make the discovery about Damocles when she could have easily stayed put and someone else could trigger the video. Hence Jean, the prankster of Mendeleiev's homeroom.
[5] – It's common Danny Phantom fan lore that Danny's favorite food is guacamole. I suspect the reason for that is guacamole kind of looks like ectoplasm. The question is whether it became his favorite before or after his accident.
[6] – We never did see the guy unfrozen in the episode.
[7] – For those wondering why Danny doesn't just overshadow villains to make them give up their objects, here's my answer. The way I see it, Hawk Moth and the akuma are already overshadowing them in a sense.
[8] – I didn't understand why Alya got a new phone in canon since the cure fixed her original one with everything else, so here she still has the same one she had all episode.
Happy new year to you all! Hopefully, 2022 will be better for us than last year. Review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome! Also remember to say something about the chapter I worked hard on, don't just use the review box for speculation on future plot points.