Notes:
I don't own Miraculous.
This is an AU where the Miraculouses don't exist and superpowers are gained by other means, like being in dire situations.
Each episode will be adapted according to production code order.
If you create any fan art, I'd love to see it! Please send me a link.
Aurore Beauréal / Stormy Weather
It was a tense morning at the KIDZ+ TV studio, at the top floor of the TV1 building, one of the tallest office buildings in Paris.
Energetic host Alec Cataldi stood between two collège students, Aurore Beauréal and Mireille Caquet, all anxious as thousands of Parisians watched them.
"Welcome to the finals of our KIDZ+ competition!", Alec announced, reading from a card. "Today, one lucky winner will be announced as our brand new KIDZ+ weather girl!"
Scores of people had gathered at the Tower's entrance, watching the broadcast live from a large television screen. "Aurore! Mireille!", each one chanted, hoping to see either girl win.
"We started off with five thousand contestants," Alec related, "but with the help of our audience at home, we've whittled our talent down to just these two amazing young ladies! Let's welcome our fantastic finalists: on my right, Aurore Beauréal, and on my left, Mireille Caquet! Who will be the lucky winner? Vote now! Text 1 for Aurore and 2 for Mireille. Standard text messaging rates apply."
Five minutes later, the studio officials finished tallying the votes.
"This is the moment we've all been waiting for!", Alec announced. "The viewers at home have made their decision, and the new KIDZ+ weather girl is..."
An animated graphic appeared on the screen behind them. Two columns, each shaped like an umbrella, appeared behind the girls, rising at different rates. The one on the left was taller; with 640,625 votes, representing eighty-two percent of all the votes, towering over the right, which had the remaining eighteen percent, 140,625 votes.
"Mireille!"
Aurore gasped. She was furious! Why did she have to win?
Instead of helping, Alec thought it was the perfect moment to mock her. "Man, she crushed you, eh? Better luck next time!"
She growled. There was no next time. KIDZ+ weather girls have a multi-year contract!
Still Alec didn't think about sympathizing. "What's the big deal? You only lost by half a million votes!"
But she was done. She walked out of the studio, pouting, carrying her light-blue, cloud-patterned parasol behind her.
She waited until she was alone before ranting. "I should have won! I have the talent, the star looks, everything! But they took everything away from me. She took everything away from me! Ugh!"
Her spirits only lifted when she heard the ding that announced the arrival of an elevator. She entered, solemn, and pressed the button for the ground floor.
During the ride, she never looked up. She was too ashamed about what happened. She could only fear what her mother would have to say when she finds out about her defeat.
That was, until the elevator stopped.
She recoiled in shock when she felt the elevator grind to a halt. The lights blinked out in an instant, sending her into panic mode. She quickly felt for the elevator's control panel, pushing random buttons in the hopes something would come on. Alas, aside from a static shock, nothing happened.
She grew more and more hopeless. The survival "rule of threes" have been drilled into her head: "three minutes without air, three hours without shelter, three days without water, three weeks without food". As the third minute ticked ever closer, she readied herself to meet her fate, trapped forever with no one to help her. She was silently angry at whatever force was behind it all.
But then, something strange happened.
Aurore felt a strong urge to blow at the doors. At first, she dismissed it, brushing it off as just a weird thought brought on by the stifling heat. But the urge grew stronger until she unconsciously did it. What greeted her eyes sent chills down her spine.
The doors were now open, and the hallway of the twenty-third floor stretched out as far as she could see. The atmosphere was cold, colder than in the studio, and a transparent, shiny thing covered the walls and floor.
Curious, she walked out, the fact that she just escaped a life-threating situation never occurring to her. She touched one of the sparkling, blue objects, and the tingling in her fingers confirmed her suspicion. It was ice.
Wait, did I do this?, thought Aurore.
She opened a nearby door, revealing a janitor's closet. She lightly blew into it, eyes closed.
When they opened, everything was covered with ice.
Then a devious smirk formed on her face. I'm gonna have some fun with this.
Back at the top floor, Mireille walked to the elevators, trophy and certificate in her hands. Unlike Aurore, she had no hard feelings; in fact, she was flattered that so many people catapulted her into spotlight.
She waited for the elevator to arrive, excitedly watching the numbers grow higher.
But she never caught it.
Aurore intercepted her, blowing a blizzard wind in her direction. In an instant, she was now frozen in a block of ice, like some exotic specimen from the Ice Age.
"Somebody get me out of here! Help! Help!" Mireille cried, muffled greatly by the thick ice.
But Aurore didn't do anything. That's what you get when you don't research your candidates.
She ran away, hoping to crush all the remaining evidence of Mireille.
Outside the studio, the crowd grew worried. Mireille was supposed to show up an hour ago, but no one exited the building yet.
Instead, they were greeted by Aurore, floating in the air with her parasol open, just like Mary Poppins.
One person casually asked her, "Where's Mireille?"
Aurore floated closer to the crowd, scaring them. "To all of you who voted for Mireille, I'd advise you to move indoors.", she declared. "It's going to get very blustery."
She feigned messing up. "Oops... too late."
She blew at the crowd, hitting them with F5-scale winds. She watched as everything in the vicinity, from trees to guard rails, toppled over on this otherwise windless June day. She mentally grinned as she realized how powerful she really was.
But there was still more to do.
The Place des Vosges, one of Paris' most famous parks, was as lively as ever. Couples were talking photographs, excited kids played on the new merry-go-round, and vendors sold food and souvenirs to locals and tourists alike.
Aurore floated around the park, zapping posters of Mireille with her new-found lightning powers. She took great offense to the Mireille balloons being sold at the park. Not only did she win, but she's earning money from her image! Needless to say, all of them were zapped, save for the Aurore balloons.
Some kids on the merry-go-round didn't take kindly to it. "Oh no, my balloon!" "What did you do?" "Mireille's the best!"
Tired of hearing that stupid name over and over again, Aurore froze the merry-go-round in a huge chunk of ice.
She exhaled, then floated down to the ground. "That should teach them a lesson." She yawned. "Time to go home. All this villain stuff could wait."
She sneaked into the trees, hoping to throw off suspicion. She flagged a cab and climbed in quickly, so the driver wouldn't have time to examine her face. "Avenue Le-Jour-Se-Lève, Boulogne-Billancourt."
The ride home was uneventful. Most of Aurore's bad feelings were gone, replaced by the pride of defeating her enemy. She also decided in her mind not to tell her family, so she wouldn't have to endure any consequences.
But soon, everything changed.
As the cab passed in front of the TV1 building, Aurore screamed.
The screen on the side of building showed a gigantic poster of Mireille, with the words "Félicitations Mireille!" in gigantic writing. Anger surging through her veins, Aurore kicked open the cab door and gave the driver some money - she didn't have time to check if there was enough. Still, it didn't matter. Shortchanging a cab driver was much less than what she had in mind.
Aurore once again entered the studio, now empty.
She placed a TV camera in front of some computers, then started filming.
Soon, her voice blared from every TV in the city.
"Hello, viewers! Here's the latest forecast for the first day of summer." People were taken aback by the sudden weather report, but they didn't mind. "Looks like Mother Nature had a change of plans. Summer vacation is officially over!"
The temperature map of Europe behind her suddenly changed. Paris turned into the darkest purple, just like the farthest reaches of Siberia - in winter.
"Prepare for the worst weather in history!"
Aurore looked upwards, raised both her arms and blew for a solid thirty minutes.
Immediately, an immense storm formed over Paris, stretching from the 16th to 12th arrondissements, eye over the TV1 tower.
Temperatures dropped quickly as the fierce hail cancelled many outdoor activities. Residents were asked stay indoors, but many were injured, some seriously, as the hail struck them on their escapes. Wind tore up trees and posters - of Aurore and Mireille alike - and lightning danced above, threatening power and TV outages.
The city's only news reporter, Nadja Chamack, reported from home, visibly distressed. "Don't be bemused, it's just the news. The Meterological Office has confirmed that today's hailstorm is the worst in our city's history. In fact, it's the largest and most powerful in world history! Experts are stumped. How could such a storm form so suddenly in the middle of summer? As we wait for answers, we advise all Parisians to seek shelter and stay where you are until-"
The broadcast stopped as lightning struck a cell tower, knocking out the service.
At his home in the suburbs, Nathaniel Kurtzberg grew concerned when he saw the broadcast stop.
The young artist had been drawing in his sketchbook - as he did most of the time - when the storm hit.
Now that there's no more background noise, his hyperactive mind couldn't focus on his drawing anymore.
Without anything better to do, he just stared out the window, watching as the hail fell. He couldn't help but recall Nadja's words - "How could such a storm form so suddenly in the middle of summer?" - and wonder the same thing. Could this storm be... supernatural... in a way? That seems to be the only plausible explanation.
He then decided to look through his previous drawings. Most of them were comics that he wished to publish someday. They featured his original character, Super Nathan, a superpowered artist who regularly fought supervillains. He was very proud of Super Nathan, and often roleplayed as him away from the watchful eyes of his family.
Mindlessly he flipped through his sketchbook, paying little to no attention to the stories, as he had them all memorized. He flipped all the way to the first page, when suddenly, he noticed something strange.
The very first "issue" of his comics featured a weather-themed villain!
Shocked, he looked closer at the strips. A collège-aged girl loses a weather girl competition and falls victim to a supervillain who gives her the power to control the weather. She blows away her competitor and creates a gigantic hailstorm to lure any superheroes out. That's when Super Nathan receives the magical drawing tablet that gives him his superpowers and defeats her!
Two frames stood out in particular. The first showed the storm above Paris. A red star indicated where Nathaniel was. The second showed him looking out his window, noticing a hailstone strike a lamp post, destroying it.
Without knowing why, Nathaniel looked outside again.
Sure enough, a hailstone destroyed a lamp post.
It may have been a coincidence, but it was enough for Nathaniel to believe that something really strange is happening. Strange thoughts filled his mind. Could this really be a magical storm? If so, did my comics come to life? Or are they warning of future events? Does that mean I get to be Super Nathan?
He had the irrestible feeling that he has to do something about it.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door...
