Chapter 6 – Of fashion and pigeons
A/N: Chapter 6, here we go! This is all going way faster than I had expected! And we're still just like three canonical episodes in! I feel like I'm moving forward in the timeline really freaking slowly. Especially considering that I'm ALREADY running out of ideas on what to do until we meet Master Fu. I have one more idea for this chapter but from there on out it's gonna be a lot of improv. xD
Story-Info: This may have been obvious throughout the previous chapters, but just that Manuel doesn't really want to change the story, that doesn't mean he's just gonna stand idly by. He'll always find his own way to better a situation without consequently changing the end-result. Only that his actions will have more influence than he may realize.
-s-s-s- (Manuels POV)
It was 7:58 am, another morning approached, and the Parisans went on with their regular morning life… With the exception of ME, who was rushing through the streets like my damn life depended on it!
"Too late too late too late! WAY too late", I cursed under my breath, as I was running towards the school, my chest already killing me from the long-time-sprint I had been pulling off, "How did I sleep in, if I slept on a trash-container?!"
To my surprise though, someone else was rushing right past me, at speeds I WOULD be capable of achieving, if I had my normal physicality. A short girl with bright blue hair. "Glad to see I'm not the only one who is coming in late. Soleil was also having trouble getting up it seems."
The both of us were just barely managing to squeeze ourselves through the door before the janitor would have shut it in our faces. Soleil and me only had time to wave each other before we parted ways to make it to our own classes each.
I stumbled in through the door just as Principal Damoclese was almost done explaining today's event. But he wasn't finished entirely yet, meaning I was capable of sneaking to my seat with hardly anyone taking note of me.
"You have one day to envision a fashion piece of your very own design. The presentation will be in ten hours, and the judge will be the famous fashion-designer Gabriel Agreste. The father of our very own student, Adrien Agreste, who will be modelling the winning piece at his next fashion show.", the principal threw exposition at us, and I groaned in annoyance, since I recognized this explanation. The topic of Mr. Pigeons episode…Yet another day without any peace.
"I'm already starting to get tired of all this damn fighting…", I thought to myself, "And we're not even halfway through season one yet… This is gonna be exhausting…"
"And the topic for this competition will be…: Derby hats!", Damoclese announced, and I got a little laugh out of the shocked noise Marinette made. I didn't mean to be rude, I just really found it hilarious.
-o-o-o- (7:02 am)
„Derby hats – Derby hats – Derby hats – I have nothing!", Marinette was freaking out as she was flipping through her sketchbook, with Alya and me watching her panic-attack amused, „I have practically everything else! Top hats? A whole collection! Cylinders? Right here! Tophats? I'm your girl! A Sombrero? No problemo! Even some two-horned hats! But Derby hats? NOTHING!"
„This is gonna go on for a long while…", I thought with a smile.
„You know what?! It wouldn't even matter!", she continued on, „I would probably just trip over my hat anyway, and crash right into Mr. Agreste, giving him a major concussion and Adrien would hate me forever! I'll never be a world-renowned fashion-designer! My life is over!"
„Just because of a Derby hat?", Alya questioned amused, making me chuckle a bit, „You could write a book about that. The Derby hat that ruined my life."
„You're no help…", Marinette complained, to which I laughed, „What can I say? I cope with my problems via sarcasm! And I, as a hobby-writer, have quite the experience with problems, let me tell ya!"
„Not to mention, as a martial artist with a tendency to fight overpowered opponents…", Alya added by the way, and then took her friends sketchbook, „Now let's see here. There has to be SOMETHING, right?"
A whistle caught my attention, and as I looked around, I saw Soleil wave my direction. Well, now was as good a time as ever, so I excused myself, „Okay, so I won't be much of a help here anyway, so I'll leave ya to it!"
„Aren't you participating as well?", Alya asked, making me explain, „Oho no! I'm a writer, not a fashion-designer. I have something else I need to take care of."
„Right. Looking for your gramps.", the girl remembered with a humorous smile, which I had to deny though, „Oho, yeah, still on my to-do-list, but that's not what I'm taking care of now. A… let's just say acquaintance of mine… kind of blackmailed me into teaching her… self-defence against akumas…"
„You mean Soleil?", Marinette questioned, which made me raise an eyebrow, „Wait, how do YOU know about her?"
„Are you kidding?", Alya joked, „When we were at the park right after your akumatization, you suddenly just took off and went on your way with her. Who else would you be talking about?"
"Not to mention she eats my parents' baked goods with a passion.", the baker's daughter added.
„…Fair enough.", I just accepted, and then left them, with Marinette calling after me, „She's a really strong girl, so for your own safety, don't hold back with her!"
-x-x-x-
„Well SOMEONE calls himself a Ladies-man.", Soleil joked as a greeting, to which I groaned, „Don't remind me… I'd prefer keeping social interactions at a minimum."
"Well, your decision.", she merely accepted, "So, about this… thing you're doing…"
"Right… Uhh… Let's find some place where no one's listening, okay?", I asked of her, making her beam, "Oh! Let's go to the Eiffel tower! That's a great atmosphere and you can easily notice if someone's following you since it's so open!"
"Well, can't argue with that…", I admitted, "Then let's go. I'll give you an explanation once we get there."
-o-o-o- (10 minutes later / 7:14 am)
We weren't even AT the Eiffel tower yet, when I already started regretting that choice of destination… In fact, we barely made it to the park in front of it.
"You know… maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all…", Soleil thought when she noticed my uncomfortable reaction to running into a whole bunch of random couples giving us adoring looks.
"I… would have preferred a little less attention given to us, but you couldn't know that all these lovebirds would randomly be here, so…", I answered, keeping my by now sure as shit deep red head low, "Not blaming you for that…"
"Good to hear…", she replied, when she suddenly saw the sweets-shop-truck-thing (whatever those things are called) stand a bit further along, "Hey, how about something sweet to bite to make up for it?!"
I grit my teeth, a bit of guilt taking hold within me.
"Or do you prefer some good ol' spice in your food?", the girl, when she noticed my reaction, asked quickly, "'Cause we can get that too!"
"Oh hell no, I'm SUPER-sensitive when it comes to spicy stuff!", I rejected that idea instantly, my eyes shrinking at the sheer mention of spicy food, "I'm just… really freaking broke… As in, if I tighten my belt and play my cards right, I just MAY have enough money for one croissant from the Dupain-Cheng-bakery… at the end of the week, that is."
"Ohh, I love these guys!", Soleil suddenly smiled again, "They're always so nice, and their food tastes SO damn good, especially their macaroons! It's just amazing!"
"Ah yeah! I remember Marinette telling me about that just earlier today!", I added as well, causing Soleil to give me a playful punch to the shoulder, for which she had to jump up by the way, „Well, either way, don't even worry about that! I'm mad liquid."
„You are?", I asked in confusion. She sure as hell didn't look the part.
Soleil burst out in laughter and answered, „PAHAHA, hell no! My parents are constantly out on some sorta business-trips! Haven't seen them guys in half a year, and the allowance they give me roughly equals around 10 bucks a week!"
I took out the notebook I carried around in my schoolbag and added another two lines to my tally, making the girl question, „Uhh… What exactly are ya doing there?"
„At this point I made a habit of tallying up the number of irresponsible, neglectful or straight up abusive parents in this town. 'Cause there are a lot of them, let me tell ya.", I explained, making her blink in confusion, „The hell…? How do you already have six of those?!"
I thought a bit, remembering which tally marks belonged to who, and then explained, „Well, here we have Gabriel, there's Audrey, those two are Leonard and Sylvia, and these are now yours."
„…Come again?", she asked, seeming even more confused than before, making me use full names, „Gabriel Agreste, who only uses his son for his own publicity and mostly locks him up and/or neglects him otherwise.
Audrey Bougeoir in New York, who literally can't remember her own daughter's name because she just doesn't give a shit about her.
Sylvia and Leonard are MY parents, who I can't even remember the looks of, 'cause it's been forever since I last saw them.
And now we have YOUR parents, who are away from home 24/7, forcing you to grow up fast to make it through life and without any sort of guidance. Correct me if I'm wrong though…"
Soleil held in, apparently thinking about something, but then admitted, „Honestly… Can't argue with tha- HEY WAIT A MINUTE! Back up a moment!", she called out suddenly, „Did you say Audrey Bourgeois? As in THE Audrey Queen of fashion Bourgeois?"
„The very same.", I confirmed, seemingly amazing her, „Holy shit, man! How did you even find that much info about her?!"
I stopped. I wasn't sure how to answer that. „…Research.", I said, keeping it short.
„That sounds kinda ominous…", Soleil noticed, raising an eyebrow, making me reply, „Trust me, if I gave you a detailed explanation, it would be even more ominous."
The conversation fell into awkward silence. For a whole five terrible seconds.
„Sooo, anyway!", Soleil gave the topic a much needed change, „You up for something sweet anyway, or what?"
„Oh hell yeah!", I jumped aboard.
„Nice! I'll be going then!", she called back while she already was running off.
„…Those are a lot of shitty parents in this city.", I started talking to myself, „At this point I wouldn't be surprised to hear that someone here is beating their kids on a regular basis."
„What was that?", Soleil asked right next to me out of the blue.
„GAH! What the hell?! How are you back already?!", I asked taken aback.
„You KNOW I'm really fast!", the girl replied as she put a lollipop into my hands, a confident grin on her face, „Is that question really necessary?"
„…Fair enough, I guess…", I just accepted her answer, and took the lollipop into my mouth as she dragged me to one of the benches around, „Quite sweet. Love it."
„Good! I was worried I might not get your tastes right!", Soleil replied as we both sat down, before switching to the reason why we met up here in the first place, „But enough beating around the bush now. You gonna explain your stuff to me or no?"
„Right!", I remembered as well, „What questions do you have?"
„Uhh…" Soleil thought for a while. Five seconds passed. Ten seconds. Twenty seconds. Half a minute. That's it, I'm helping her out, „Let's ask differently… What do you want to know?"
„How about everything?", she just answered.
„Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?", I asked.
„No! Because I know next to nothing!", she answered, „Yes, there are some weird-ass rocks that apparently boost the villains' powers, but that's about it! How do you know where to find them? How do you know what they do? Why are you taking this on yourself in the first place, when there are people who would be paid to do the same thing? Who else knows of your daily adventures?"
„Ahh, now we're getting somewhere.", I concluded with a grin, "Okay, now let's take this from the top. One step at a time."
"Right.", Soleil agreed, "So let's start with the weirdest one to me. How do you know where to find these stones?"
Great. She was starting off with the hardest one to explain. "Uhh, let's see. How do I explain this…?", I thought out loud, "Have you ever… had a feeling that… something was off?"
"I get it pretty much every time Hawk Moth decides to make a move.", Soleil confirmed, "It's kinda like… I'm not quite sure why, but I feel like something's wrong."
"Exactly!", I confirmed, "And for me, it works kind of like that, but in a more direct way. You see… I guess you could say I'm kinda psychic, or something. For some reason, that I STILL don't know myself, I'm capable of sensing where these stones are. In a way, I can feel their aura of sorts."
"Wou… What is this, some sorta anime?", she asked jokingly, making both of us laugh, "I was actually thinking the same thing when I first noticed that. I wonder if I have some sorta evil twin somewhere in this world."
Soleil stopped laughing abruptly, and just looked at me with a grin. "Odd choice of words, dude."
"Huh? W-What do you mean?!", I asked nervously. I hadn't even noticed my phrasing just now!
"This world. What, you from some sorta other dimension, or somethin'?" She was just staring at me, with an expression I couldn't exactly make out. What I DID manage to make out, was, that she was making me nervous with that. I felt the sweat form on my forehead again.
Time for another effective improv-technique! "You must be thinking I'm making this stuff up. To make myself seem hella cool or something." Admitting, that what you're saying sounds fake, makes your conversation-partner forget about details like your phrasing, and focuses on the conversation as a whole.
"Actually, no.", Soleil denied though, surprising me quite a bit, "You're not? Seriously? Even I wouldn't believe me if I told me that stuff myself!"
"I'll admit, it does sound strange.", the girl pointed out, "You're no more special than me for all I know, but for some reason YOU seem to be some sorta chosen one. Blessed with this sixth sense or somethin'."
"I'd call it 'cursed', actually.", I corrected though, "I despise great responsibility. The thought of messing up and dooming everyone else in the process, is just… terrifying."
"Heh, you're a strange one, you know that?", Soleil laughed a bit, "Ya hate responsibility and yet ya straight up fight supervillains to stall for time. You're reluctant to make friends, and yet you have no problem with taking crazy huge risks for those around you."
"That doesn't make me strange, that makes me a decent human-being!" Did someone actually count, how many times I was seen as strange for being decent? 'Cause that would be awesome to know, really. "Is that such a strange trait around here, to put the well-being of others BEFORE your own?"
"Well, when you have two superheroes, you start kinda relying on 'em after a while.", Soleil explained, "All them regular people started to take action themselves less and less, since there are two heroes who can take care of most threats anyway. Exceptions would be da police or those morons we call politicians."
"…So civil-courage IS an exceptional trait around here.", I concluded with a sigh, which Soleil confirmed, "Kinda. And that just might be the reason why YOU got chosen to hunt those boost-stones down."
"I can think of another reason, and that one's a secret.", I thought to myself, but didn't follow that train of thought. I'm having enough trouble understanding my job in this world. I was NOT gonna concern myself with my jump from reality to a fictional universe right now.
„While we're at it, how did you even find out about those things in the first place? I mean, of course you can SENSE them, but how did you know what they do or how to smash them?", Soleil kept asking, with me trying to keep up with her questions,
„Ok, uhm- first: I found out about them when I accidentally stumbled into Ladybug's battle with Stormy Weather this week. I noticed the villain getting huge power-boosts seemingly at random, and when I sensed that thing with the same aura as the villain himself, I just counted two and two together.
As for the destruction of it, I'm not quite sure what you mean. It's not like that thing is particularly hard to smash."
„PAHAHA, no it's not!", Soleil laughed, „It's freaking IMPOSSIBLE! I literally threw a metal-container on that thing, and THE CONTAINER ended up with a hole instead!"
"Oooookay…", I acknowledged fairly confused, "I… never had any problems with that… Usually I just stomp on those things and they shatter."
"For real?", Soleil asked confused, before thinking again, "That just may be connected to your ability to sense those stones."
"Possibly…", I agreed.
"So how does that work anyway?", she asked, now back to being as enthusiastic as ever, "You feel that sorta aura in a certain place leading ya towards it?"
"Pfft, I wish…", I scoffed a bit annoyed. Not at her question mind you, but at the wacky way this sensing worked, "I only get a general idea of where to look, as I kind of feel an entire area sort of engulfed in that aura. And once I get into that area, I can only sense when I'm getting closer."
"So it's like a game of ‚hot or cold'?", she asked for confirmation, which I could definitely give her, „As much as I hate it, yes…"
„…That sounds annoying as hell.", Soleil noted, making me react a little bit… well, annoyed, „Like hell it is! Especially when that little bastard is hidden under something! It's like, I KNOW it's somewhere around here, but WHERE EXACTLY?!"
"Phew, really does sound like you could use some assistance.", the girl stated, a grin on her face which I was not so sure if I liked, "What exactly are you going on about?"
"What the hell are ya thinking?", she answered, still grinning, "I'm fast as hell, and you can sense where those little bastards are. If you just point me in the right direction, I can cover WAY more ground in WAY shorter time for ya. I wanna help ya do your thing!"
"Of course…" I sighed deeply. I probably should have expected that, and yet for some reason I didn't. „…You sure about this?"
„Hmm? Come again?", she asked confused.
„Don't take this the wrong way, but if we keep doing this, there is a really good chance that this will become more and more dangerous as time goes on. ESPECIALLY if Hawk Moth finds out about these boost-stones.", I explained, going straight to the point, „Chances are, that we'll find ourselves face to face with a supervillain sooner or later. And if we mess up before taking down the boosters, things are almost bound to go south. It's just… a lot of responsibility to carry."
„Jeez, the way you're putting this makes it sound like we're about to become superheroes ourselves.", Soleil pointed out, „And I mean, essentially we are, right? In a far more passive way than Ladybug and Chat Noir, but heroes nonetheless, no?"
That thought circled around in my head for a while. She wasn't exactly wrong. I didn't straight up take supervillains down, but I DID take down their power-boost-sources, allowing Ladybug and Chat Noir an easier victory. „GODDAMMIT!"
„Whoa, chill out there, buddy.", Soleil interrupted me, „What's the big deal about it?"
„You don't understand!", I replied, „I'm trying SO HARD to NOT play the hero's role as to avoid unwanted attention, and I'm not even realizing I'm BEING a passive hero all the time!"
-x-x-x-
Our conversation was cut short, when a huge shadow flew over the two of us, and when we looked up it turned out to be a…
„Whaaaat the hell is that?!", Soleil called out, so disturbed by the ridiculously bizarre thing flying over us, that she actually had to rub her eyes to confirm what she was seekng was real, „Is that some sorta huge bird? Or some kinda weird plane?"
„It's BOTH!", I answered her question, „A plane MADE of birds!"
"The hell?", Soleil asked, apparently processing this sorta information, "…I'm sooo confused right now…"
"Not gonna lie, that one IS incredibly… weird.", I agreed with her, but was startled when she suddenly started screaming, "UAAHH! GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!"
"What? What's wrong?", I called back, but I found the problem on the very first glance. A goddamn pigeon was straight up attacking her, by flying all around and pecking on her over and over again.
"Oh! Oh god- Holy shit! Uhh- I got'cha Soleil!", I answered her call, and looked for an opening to attack the featherbrain without hurting Soleil, "Just stay still! Stay still! STAY STILL I SAID!"
"Easy for you say that!", she called out, as she flailed her arms around wildly, "You ain't under attack of a bloodthirsty bird!"
In a lucky accident, she actually managed to hit the frantic pigeon, knocking it a few meters away. But just seconds later, it set course on her again, charging directly at her.
"Here he comes…", I spoke to myself, getting one of my poles out of my bag, and taking a stance, "Soleil, duck!"
"A freaking duck as well?! WHERE?!", she called out, looking around in panic, which was why I corrected my sentence, "Get the hell down! NOW, DAMMIT!"
The girl ducked down, and I smashed my improvised baseball bat right in the face of the aggressive bird, shooting it admittedly not that far away, but definitely knocking it out.
-x-x-x-
We both slumped down, taking a breather after that frantic experience, while making sure our feet stayed on the bench.
"Yo, Manuel…", Soleil took word after like ten seconds of silence.
"Yeah…"
"Thanks for… saving me from becoming bird-seed right there…", she thanked me, but I rejected that instantly, "Don't even thank me for that. I just knocked out a pigeon."
"Yeah… I guess.", she agreed, "Still, you're really amazing at what you do, all the same. I kinda envy you."
"Don't. 50 % improv, and 50 % imitating moves from videogames.", I explained bluntly, "That's literally all I'm doing in battles."
"Oho, don't let Peta hear that, or we're gonna have ourselves yet another war to defend our videogames from 'em.", she joked, but let's be honest, she was right.
Inside I just KNEW that was DEFINITELY gonna happen if Peta even heard as much as a rumour of that shit right here. A teenage-boy straight up baseballing a pigeon, that was turned hostile by the influence of a bird-man-hybrid, making it fly all across Paris using the metal-pole of an old tent, and doing so by imitating battle-moves from videogames.
…I literally had to do a double-take to make sure I wasn't getting anything wrong there, but no, that's actually what happened. My life turned freaking weird…
"Okay, back to the topic at hand.", Soleil caught her breath first, "These pigeons seem completely harmless, UNTIL you do as much as brush a feather of 'em."
"Wait what?!", I called out in confusion. "That shit is COMPLETELY different from what happened in the show! These feathered bastards just blocked traffic and shit but didn't straight up attack without orders from himself!"
"Right- Uhh… That's… interesting, to say the least.", I spoke unsurely, gears turning in my head so fast they were smoking. Soleil looked down from the bench we were standing on, meeting the blank stares of more pigeon all around us, "Interesting puts it mildly. That shit's hella dangerous not only to us but everyone within range of these feathered assholes."
"Agreed.", I replied, "And I don't think I have to tell you, that we ain't gonna achieve anything by taking on the birds."
"Nope, definitely not.", she agreed with me, "But… that IS the cause of an akuma, right?", she asked me by the way, which I could confirm, "Yep. Definitely."
"So, shouldn't you be sensing that… thing already?", Soleil asked confused, which I could only deny though, „Tch, I wished. Until it activates its power, I'm left to search blindly. And it most likely won't do THAT, until Ladybug and Chat Noir confront the villain."
A few seconds of silence passed, as an entire armada of bird-planes flew towards the Eiffel tower. If I was correct, Mr. Pigeon would soon make his announcement.
„…So, really, we can't do nothin'? Am I gettin' that right?", Soleil asked, and I was pretty sure I could hear an iota of annoyance in her voice, „Nothing at all?"
„Nope, not for now.", I confirmed, making her groan, „Arrrrgh, for real? Then what are we even doing here?!"
„We survive until there's something to do, I guess.", I replied again.
„Seriously? Is there NOTHING ELSE we can do but freaking WAIT?!", she called out in frustration.
"Well, I NEVER said it was anything else!", I called back, causing her to groan, "Huurgh… Fine then… let the BOREDOM begin, I guess…"
"That's the spirit!", I laughed, as we got going, "Here we go!"
"Wait, we're seriously gonna move straight through that flock of murder-birds?!", Soleil called out with a slight bit of panic in her voice.
"Well, YOU were the one getting bored, and we ain't gonna achieve nothin' by staying here.", I said, as I carefully set foot between the shit ton of birds everywhere, "So come on! It's nothing more than a minefield of birds out for your life, after all!"
"Very reassuring, thank you.", she growled, as she followed me, her foot shaking like a leaf when she set it on the ground, "You owe me for making me do that shit, got it?!"
"Hey, you were ALSO the one who wanted to play passive hero with me!", I protested, "If you ain't ready to accept potentially mortal danger as a consequence, you shouldn't have insisted on tagging along!"
However, as we moved along, I held in for a second, "Hey wait a minute… Soleil, can I borrow your phone for a second?"
"The hell do you need that for now? You gonna flash them birds away, or what?", she asked confused, which I answered, "I just need to take a picture: Look over there."
"Ohhh… Hell yeah, I'm down!"
-o-o-o- (about… 30 seconds later / 7:18 am) -w-w-w- (Narration)
"Uhh, Manuel…", Soleil called her now official partner to her, pointing a bit intimidated at one of the big monitors on the buildings, "That helpful for ya?"
Manuel stepped next to her and watched the news flash that was currently shown on the screen, titled „Rrooo Rolooo". It was Nadja Chamack who was speaking, "Pigeons seem to be seizing control all over Paris, as they have started to show grave hostility to anyone who touches them. This is only one of multiple things giving the local authorities cause for concern." She put a finger on her earpiece, and then continued, "Yes, I'm also just getting word, that a man calling himself Mr. Pigeon wishes to make an announcement."
The footage of the camera switched to the Eiffeltower, upon which a man in grey and white skintight clothes with a pink headpiece like a pigeon was standing, flailing his arms like wings, „Oh drrrreadful day, you poor Parisians! Sorrrrrry if it ruffles your feathers, but Paris shall belong to the pigeons from now on! Flap flap – Flatter flatter – Rrrrooo rroooo! To any civilian heroes amongst you, do not try to rrrrresist. Otherwise, you will see first-hand how bird seed feels! ROO ROOOOO!"
"Damn, that's one hell of a lot more aggressive and threatening than he's supposed to be. The dude's supposed to be ridiculously weird, not straight up menacing and life-threatening.", Manuel noticed, getting a chill from his violent way of speaking, „And I can assume, with ‚civilian hero' he's referring to the only one this far with so much lack of common sense to challenge supervillains."
„Well, we know where he is now…", Soleil concluded as the transmission cut off, „Think we can take him on 'till the hero-duo shows up?"
Manuel scoffed at the thought, „Pfft, you can try, but you'd have to be prepared to deal with every single murder-pigeon in the area, if you do."
Soleil's eyes shrank at the sheer mention of that possibility, „O-Okay, let's try something else then, shall we?!"
„Like what?", Manuel asked bluntly, making his partner ask a bit irritated, „You're asking ME? I'm not the one who's doing this on a daily basis!"
„But you were going to support me doing it, so I just wanted to involve you a little.", the boy excused himself with a grin.
„Well I don't know shit on what to do in these situations!", she threw back at him.
„And I do?!", he asked in return.
„More than me, you do!", she countered.
„Well, I know that I'm freakin' useless until I sense that damn rock!", he answered.
„Then find a way to MAKE yourself useful!", she suggested.
„Ain't no need for that no more, 'cause the shit-rock's energy just freaking SPIKED!", he rejected her suggestion while gazing in the distance, making Soleil scream with relief, „FINALLY!"
-o-o-o- (10 minutes later / 7:30 am)
„Oh hell no! I'm NOT going in there!", Soleil's voice cracked in horror, as Manuel pointed right inside the Grand Palais.
"Come on, Soleil!", Manuel kept nagging her, "Don't be a chicken now!"
The boy chuckled a bit. His partner, however, just stared at him in disbelief. "I swear to god, you better tone it down on the bad jokes, or Hawk Moth is gonna come after the ring you're not even wearing."
"Oh shut up, we have other things to deal with.", he cut his partner off with a joking smile, making her focus again, "Right, but still, I ain't going in there! That place is SWARMING with pigeons!"
"And that's EXACTLY why that thing is gonna be in there.", Manuel concluded, "As to keep the stone save from us."
Soleil's eyes widened a bit, "Wait, you mean, someone is AWARE of what we're doing?"
"And seems fairly determined to try and stop us.", Manuel added, not feeling too well about this himself. But as to prevent Soleil from worrying any further, he tried to hide it as best as he could. The success of which's efforts were minimalistic though, as Soleil called out, "Can we NOT just turn tails and leave?! You're just about as scared as me!"
"Ah crap, she noticed…" "Okay, soooo… I'm not even gonna TRY to deny that – I'm downright terrified of doing as much as stepping foot in there.", the boy admitted, as hiding his fear was clearly pointless now, "Buuut I'm gonna do it anyway."
"WHY?!", Soleil screamed in frustration.
"About 33 % because – apparently – I really freaking hate myself.", Manuel stated bluntly, „And 33 % are because there's no one else to do it. The other 50 % are pure and utter spite."
"…Spite…", Soleil repeated, quite baffled at his response, "THAT is the reason why you keep doing this passive-hero-stuff?"
"Yeah yeah, I know. Not that heroic.", Manuel admitted slightly annoyed, "But I'll also admit, that's not really your business. And I can't guarantee that we AREN'T gonna get swarmed by birds the second we step foot in there. Sooo… You're welcome to leave, if you don't want to do this."
Soleil remained silent for a moment. It took her some time to process that.
But then, she let out a deep sigh, and stated, "Ugh, fine then. Count me in, I guess."
That agreement took Manuel quite off guard, "…Come again?"
"Like you said, the moment you step in there you might get turned into birdseed.", Soleil explained, while stretching her arms and legs, "At least SOMEONE has to be there to make sure you make it out in one piece!"
A little laugh escaped the boy, "Now THAT is heroic."
The girl, in turn, laughed as well, "Heh, more than you for sure."
"Need a weapon?", Manuel asked his partner quickly, "I have one more pole left."
"Thanks, but no thanks.", Soleil declined, "My speciality is running. Some weapon would just slow me down."
"Okay, anything else we need to figure out beforehand?", he asked, which his partner denied, "Nope, don't think so."
„Well then…", Manuel concluded and got into a fighting-stance, „You ready?"
„Right behind ya!", Soleil confirmed confidently.
-x-x-x- -w-w-w- (Manuels POV)
We were just about to charge into the building, when an awfully familiar zipping wire could be heard, that wrapped around me and Soleil and pulled us into the air.
We landed on the roof of the Grand Palais, coming face to face with Ladybug, "You have to get out of here! There's a supervillain nearby!"
"Oh, we know.", I answered unbothered, "That's kind of why we're here. To-"
"Hey, hang on a moment…", Soleil interrupted me, "The akuma itself is here too?!"
"Yeah,", I confirmed casually, "you didn't know that?"
"NO?!", she denied, clearly panicking again, "Confronting murder-pigeons is one thing! Holding your ground against SUPERVILLAINS is another!"
„YOU'RE the one who suggested that JUST EARLIER!", I also pointed out.
„Well I didn't think there'd be HUNDREDS OF MURDER-PIGEONS AROUND HIM!", she shit back, making me question, „What DID you expect?! He calls himself MR. PIGEON!"
„I dunno, maybe that he flies and pecks around like a pigeon?!", Soleil suggested, „How do you expect US to hold our own against a supervillain AND a flock of DEATH-BIRDS?!"
"You are not going to do EITHER of these things.", Ladybug lectured us, „We can't fight Mr. Pigeon AND protect you at the same time."
"Bugaboo's right! There may be two of us, but it will also TAKE both those two to get that bird from the sky.", Chat Noir next to the heroine seconded that.
"Except, the two of you won't be enough.", Soleil called out slightly distraught, making Chat Noir reply with a grin, "Yeah, that may get difficult, admittedly. But no need to worry! We've ALWAYS won up to now!"
Now Soleil looked quite judgemental at me, and switched to yelling at me, "Wait, you mean they don't even KNOW?!"
"WHEN was I going to tell them?!", I yelled back.
"Tell us what?", Ladybug asked, understandably confused.
I looked down the roof-window, noticing Mr. Pigeon petting one of his birds while waiting patiently. "…Yeah, I think we should have enough time right now."
I looked back to the heroes, and began to explain most directly, "Let's just start with the most important thing: I'm sure you two noticed a certain boost in power your enemies got from time to time recently, right?"
"Now that you mention it…", Ladybug began to think, "I remember Stormy Weather, the Bubbler and Shadow Play randomly getting more powerful from one moment to the next…"
"Exactly!", I confirmed, "That's what this is all about!" I put my hand in my pocket, and pulled out a small shard of one of the smashed boost-stones I kept for… future research. "There are certain stones, like this one, that boost the villain's power every now and then, both physically and magically."
"Okay…", Chat Noir acknowledged, "So… How and why do they do that?"
„There is time to discuss the details later, Chat Noir.", Ladybug pushed, „Right now, the important thing is how we stop them from doing it."
„Right!", I agreed eagerly, mostly because I wasn't sure of many details yet myself, „On how to stop them: They behave sort of the same way as akumatized objects. Simply destroy them in one way or another, and their powerboost drops to zero instantly."
„There's two major problems with that, though…", Soleil took word again, „First, these things are harder than steel and therefore super tough to break. When I tried to take that lil' prick down, even a metal-container wasn't enough to break 'em."
Chat Noir didn't let that intimidate him, though. Instead he stated confidently, „Nothing a good Cataclysm can't fix."
„Provided you won't need it for the villain.", I reminded the hero though.
„Secondly:", my self-proclaimed partner continued, „When it comes to finding those things, we are almost completely dependant on Manuel here. Because, you see, this civilian-hero-"
„Don't call me that."
„-can sense their aura and track 'em down."
„For reasons still unknown."
Yes, I know, interrupting someone while they're speaking is rude as hell, but I had my reasons! I was NOT going to stand idly by, while she explains my situation like I was a hero, dammit!
"So basically,", Chat Noir concluded, "when it comes to destroying those stones, we're pretty much entirely reliant on you, right?"
"It sure seems that way, I'm afraid.", I confirmed, causing Ladybug to suggest, "Then you'll go ahead and lead the way. Chat Noir will go with you and cataclysm that stone, while I stay here and keep an eye on Mr. Pigeon, so I can take him down once the stone is destroyed."
"Yeah, actually…", I hesitantly took word, "The stone is right in there…"
"Uhh… You mean in that huge flock of pigeons?", Chat Noir asked unsurely, „Are you sure?"
„Definitely.", I confirmed, „And the two of us were just about to charge in when you interrupted us."
A short pause happened. After a few seconds, Chat Noir took word again, „M'lady, I think the best course of action would be, to actually rely on our two friends here."
„You're right, Chat.", Ladybug agreed, „When it comes to these stones, I'm afraid they're our only chance to find them." She turned to us again, „You two focus on destroying the stone. We'll get his attention and keep you safe."
Of course this was the only option available to us, but there was one big problem with it. „But… what if you can't hold out long enough?!" All three looked at me, questioning my claim, so I continued, „I have seen the extend and effects of this power! I know how much stronger the villains become because of them! And not only that, but they get far more aggressive and violent because of it too! There might be a chance you won't even last long enough for us to destroy the stone!"
„Manuel, what are you saying there?", Soleil asked as cheerful as ever, „These are Ladybug and Chat Noir we're talking about here! If you really think they can't handle that, you're gonna be surprised!"
„Actually, he has a point.", Ladybug agreed with me though, „I hadn't actually thought about that, but their power when boosted exceeds ours by, like, a ton. If we don't watch out we might go down in one hit."
„Then we'll just have to play it safe!", Chat Noir suggested, keeping his confidence as always, „If we can't lay a finger on him until that rock turns to gravel, we just gotta play for time! It's not like he's just gonna fly away, right? He wants our Miraculous, after all."
A smirk got on my face, „Well, someone took some strategy-lessons, it would seem."
„So the plan is basically buying time 'till the rock goes down, right?", Soleil asked, apparently confused at this permanent back and forth of arguments, „We can do that, can't we, dude?"
„You got it, girl!", I confirmed, „So let's go and shoot down a huge ass bird!"
-x-x-x-
It was a strange situation, let me tell ya. Two civilian teens waiting in front of the Grand Palais to charge in and startle a gigantic flock of murderous birds.
And while Soleil suddenly seemed fairly eager to screw the bad guy over, I myself still wasn't all too sure of all this. I mean, the second we stepped in there, all hell was gonna break loose, for sure. And when that chaos ensued, I might not be able to concentrate enough to sense the stone anymore. Meaning I'd need a lot of goddamn luck even finding it, and I needed to do so fast.
We looked upwards and spotted Ladybug (Heh…) on the roof, giving us the thumps up. That was just the sign we were waiting for. "Okay, all or nothing, I suppose…", I spoke to myself after mentally psyching myself up for this.
„WOO!", Soleil called out in excitement as we charged in, effectively ruining our element of surprise to 50 %.
„Analyse the situation.", I spoke to myself, trying to stay cool headed, „What is happening and what can we use?"
There was the huge metal-cage with the park-keepers inside right in the middle of the huge hall. A few food-dispensers were at the walls as well.
And apart from that, I could only make out a shitload of pigeons, swarming around us and occasionally pecking us seemingly at random as well, making concentrating to sense the stone pretty much impossible.
What I COULD feel, though, was that they weren't just flying around us. They were taking hold of us. And before I knew it, the both of us were lifted in the air, held by the pigeons and carried away like birdseed, while the thing I used as a combat-pole was pecked out of my hand.
„Well… That didn't take long.", I cursed under my breath, as the pigeons pulled us face to face with the great Alpha-pigeon itself, ironically not actually flying, but hovering on a platform of even more pigeons.
A short staring contest ensued, until I took word, „…Hi."
„Ohh what wondrous turn of events!", Mr. Pigeon spoke, „Two children being carried to their doom like worms carried to theirs by a mother-bird."
„…Gross.", Soleil noted, but the villain didn't care right now, „So what brings you two kids into this haven of feathers?!"
„Take a wild freaking guess, featherbrain.", I scoffed at him. The title would have been fitting for this idiot.
„That is quite the rude tone to expose to the new rulers of Paris, my little grounded friend.", he scolded me, as he turned to Soleil, „Even brought some company for the ride?"
„Name's Soleil. Nice to meet'cha, Chickenwing.", Soleil introduced herself with a sheepish grin, ticking off the huge bird-wannabe even more, but making me laugh a bit, „PAHAHA, Nice one!"
Mr. Pigeon however just turned away from us, speaking, „You can talk badly about me as much as you want, it changes not the fact that Paris belongs to the pigeons now!"
„Not yet, anyway.", I added by the way.
„You lucked out, though, as neither of you are my objectives.", the villain ignored me, „But I'm sure if civilians are willing to take action, Ladybug and Chat Noir will be here soon enough as well."
„They're around.", Soleil mentioned casually, though I noticed a trail of sweat running down her head, „Closer than you'd think, even."
The villains head snapped back to us instantly. „You know where they are!", he concluded from our conversation, and came closer, „Tell me, now! Lest you'll be the prey of my feathered friends!"
„Whoa, okay!", Soleil called out between her heavy breaths, „No need… to get… excessively violent!"
„Then cooperate!", he demanded again, now mere inches away from Soleil's face. And that was exactly what we were waiting for. „We ARE COOPERATING!", she yelled back at him, and while he was distracted by her outburst, I took the chance to throw a kick in his direction, making him stumble back. „Just not with you.", I added.
However, to my massive dismay, he didn't quite fall off his platform.
„Let me help you…", Soleil said with a pitying smile, and kicked him as well, basically launching him from her and letting him fall down from his pigeons.
The birds carrying us let us fall immediately to fly after their master, which made Soleil scream her lungs out and flail her arms around wildly. As the WAY heavier one of us, I landed just early enough to catch the panicking girl before she bellyflopped on solid floor.
About two seconds later she finally stopped screaming as well, and just looked down, noticing that she was barely a meter above the ground. „You done?", I asked a second later and set her down. She turned bright red and warned me, „We are NEVER talking about this again… EVER!"
Our conversation was cut short by Mr. Pigeon getting to his feet again, and tweeting (get it?), „So you DID come looking for trrrrouble. Your request shall be fulfilled. ROO ROOO!"
But just before he could attack us, he was suddenly restrained by a wire attached to a yoyo. „W-What?!" Obviously, Mr. Pigeon had not expected this turn of events. Sending two, arguably helpless, civilian teenagers as the vanguards to prepare a surprise-attack from behind? Sounds like the idea of a madman after all.
Ladybug, standing atop of the platforms on the ceiling, pulled the restrained pigeon-man upwards to her, leaving him vulnerable to Chat Noir standing on another platform right in front of him now.
„Chat Noir! Now!", Ladybug called out to him. Chat took his hand back, ready to finish this, „Cata-ha-haaa… Catacl-ACHOO! CA-ACHOO!"
„No no no! C'mon, not now!", I cursed in my mind. Of COURSE his feather-allergy would kick in NOW again! And therefore preventing him from activating his power to take this bastard down!
The villain… gave a weird sound, from which I deduced he just got a smirk on his face, and then, out of the blue, that dark energy in him straight up spiked. So much in fact, that it released a shockwave, pushing Ladybug and Chat Noir off their respective platforms, knocking me and Soleil back and on the ground, and, of course, RELEASING HIM FROM THE DAMN BINDINGS!
The villain landed again, while the four of us were regrouping again, and, just because he's evil, taunting Ladybug, „Sending worms to battle a hawk? How very irresponsible of you, Ladybug." He wasn't wrong.
„Pfft, you're nothing special. All you do is control some birds. I could take you down myself if I tried." I however was.
Around each of his fists gathered a bunch of birds, turning his hands into huge, feathery wrecking-balls. „I know this move…", I noticed. „Watch out guys! That attack has quite the-" I was cut off by a flock of birds hitting me square in the face. Or should I say, on the body, because the absolute area of that attack was about as big as myself.
The next thing I perceived, after getting rid of that incredible nausea that hit me after that attack, was a burning pain all over my front, and a sore spot on the back of my head. Not to mention, the scolding voice of officer Raincomprix right behind me, „What are you doing? You shouldn't be fighting that guy!"
I slowly stood up, rubbing the hurting point on my head that, I assume, had hit the cage. Though every movement hurt in my body, most notably a stinging pain in the chest when I straightened myself again. My breathing turned heavy as well, as that attack just knocked the air out of my gut.
„S…Soleil…", I managed to speak between heavy breaths. I saw my self-proclaimed partner take a turn battling Mr. Pigeon while being supported by the miraculous duo, and, to my slight dismay, doing a way better job than, you know, me. The one who was doing this on a daily basis by now.
Her speed really WAS her best quality in battle, I noticed right away. With quick and precise jumps to the side and in the air, she actually dodged every single one of his pigeon-punches. Heck, she even managed to lure his attention AWAY from Ladybug and Chat Noir by being an incredibly effective nuisance. Even though all she was doing was run around him and give him a jumping kick in the back any time he turned his attention away from her!
„Hot damn! That's one hell of a partner I found me there!", I finally recognized in that moment, but actively refused to walk that train of thought any further than that. The one thing that I could use the LEAST right now, was me developing feelings to anyone here! And we all know how Chat Noir fell in love with Ladybug! I ain't about to go down THAT rabbit-hole!
Anyway, digression aside – While Soleil was keeping Mr. Pigeon fairly occupied, Ladybug and Chat Noir also repeatedly came to her rescue whenever the dude decided to go into close combat on her. Either by knocking him away with Chat's staff, or by swinging Soleil out of danger with the yoyo.
„Well, those three seem to have things under control for now.", I concluded fairly surprised, and therefore went back to my own job, „Now, where to look – where to look…?"
I closed my eyes, and was surprised yet again. This dark energy felt so close, it was almost as if… „Hey! You guys!", I called into the cage, „Does any of you know if there's a weird stone in there?"
„A stone?", one of the officers asked confused, „I- I mean there's this… thing in here, but… I'm not sure why it's here in the first place."
Just as I had thought, the thing he handed me, was indeed the boost-stone. „Ha-Ha! Perfect!" I snatched the stone, that was currently engulfed in the dark aura, right out of his hand, and threw it straight on the ground, „Now to end this!"
Just like all the other times before, I stomped on the stone. Or, at least I tried, had I not gotten interrupted. In the very same moment I heard Ladybug call out to me, „Manuel, watch out!"
I looked up just in time to see Soleil dodge yet another pigeon-fist. However, that one was now directly en route towards my face. As a reflex I dropped to the ground. The punch flew right over me, and connect with the cage behind me instead. It shattered instantly, freeing the officers inside.
But, apparently, for the powered up Mr. Pigeon, the bird-punch functioned as a sort of grappling hook as well, since he was standing directly above me a second later. He prepared to throw a punch down at me, but Ladybugs yoyo wrapped around his fist. Chat Noir hit him back with his pole, and Soleil followed up with a kick to the back of his neck.
Seeing an opportunity, I carried the combo even further. As the villain was falling forward, I grabbed his wrist, used his momentum to throw him over my shoulder and straight up smashed him on the power-stone with all his weight. The stone shattered once again, and Mr. Pigeon seemed… stunned? That was new. I never noticed that the villains were stunned for a moment after breaking the stone.
We didn't get to finish him off right away though, as he used his whistle to call for his feathered reinforcements. And, unfortunately, they blocked our path towards him.
Ladybug and Chat Noir noticed the shattered stone, and both gave us the thumbs up. „Purr-fect job, you two! Now leave the rest to us!", Chat Noir asked of us, „We'll make sure to ground this bird!"
„You two can make sure the officers stay out of harms way.", Ladybug continued, „It will still take a lot from us to keep him busy."
She called forth her Lucky Charm, which, just like in the original, was a small coin, while Chat Noir activated his Cataclysm to… destroy the whistle, I guess? I honestly don't know what he needed that for. Even in the original episode he only used it once to destroy the cage that captured the two of them, then recharged, but didn't use it in the actual fight.
Jeez, I really tend to digress, don't I? All that aside, while the fighting ensued again, Soleil jumped right on that suggestion, "You got it, Ladybug! Come now, gentlemen!"
Raincomprix, who seemed completely thrown out of the loop at this point, looked down at the girl who was literally just a third of size, and took a moment to collect his thoughts. Then, after a few seconds, he spoke up, "The polices job is protecting the people! Meaning, I'll stay behind and ensure your escape!"
I couldn't help but let out an exasperated sigh. I looked at the battle, just as Chat Noir was thrown against the wall while Ladybug tried to break through the villains defences. "Tell me honestly…", I took word, my voice clearly showing my annoyance, "Is there literally ANYTHING you can do to help out here?"
The officer held in, and since his answer never came, I continued instead, "Yeah, that's what I thought. Now shut up and move it, before I have to carry a dead body outta here."
-o-o-o- (1 hour later)
Okay, in summary, the following happened afterwards:
I was scolded for a lack of respect in front of authorities.
Soleil and I got separated when the birds ran amok again.
The Miraculous Ladybugs healed all the damage except for the one on my body, for some reason.
Soleil kept talking for what felt like multiple hours about how awesome today was.
And at the fashion-competition, me and Soleil screwed Chloe over, by proving that she stole Marinettes design with the photo we took just that day at the Eiffeltower. Honestly, up until that point, I literally forgot we had taken that.
All in all, a fairly standard day in this world, right? Can't wait for tomorrow to give me a headache again.
-e-e-e-
A/N: Phew… I know this one took a long time to come out – trust me, I know. But I had, what I call "Writer's Block". Basically, that's when I have to force myself to write because of reasons, but all that results is steaming garbage. And honestly, that's not what I want.
If I'm uploading this story, I want it to have a certain amount of quality, instead of keeping my upload-rate consistent.
So I thank everyone who is still reading this story for their patience, and I promise, I'll try to upload faster next time. (No promises though. Who knows when Writer's Block kicks in again…)
Next time on A tale of superheroes and animations: Helping out the heroes of Paris, that's what Manuel is getting used to by now. What he didn't consider, though, is the media-attention he was going to get.
