Hi, this is my first fanfiction. English is not my native language so I am not really good at describing stuff and some phrases might not make sense sometimes, sorry. I also have a weird complex occasionally that causes me to use the most complicated words I can think of and most of the times they don't even fit so excuse me if it happens here too. By the way, I use [text] sometimes to describe change of scenes to make understanding easier, sorry if it gets confusing. I was planning to write this introduction on the first chapter but I did not know how the website worked and ended up publishing just the first chapter. It was originally meant to be a one-shot about lila getting exposed but as of writing I realised I needed to go into more details than I thought and it became too long so I had to cut it in 'parts'. I am also adding a bit more than I originally intended because ideas for more details just pop out of my head randomly. With this pace, the story should be 3-4 chapters but I might make a short sequel to it. Anyways, enough from me, let's hop right into the action.
[Marinette's POV]
Marinette knew someone was plotting against Alya and that person had to be Lila. Her Ladybug senses told her to keep an eye on the liar and so she did.
When the bell rang she saw Lila rush out of the class and followed her from behind. She wasn't surprised when she saw her faking a cry while opening the principal's office door. So she stood next to the closed drop and eavesdropped the first part of their conversation. She immediately knew what to do. She run to the locker room and checked Alya's locker. She hurried up as much as possible as she was digging through its inside till she found the 'stolen' necklace. Then she ran as fast as she could to the principal's office and knocked the door right on time.
...
"Don't worry Lila, we will find your necklace. Alya, would you start off by showing us what is in your fanny pack?" (reference from previous chapter)
*door knocks*
"Come in" Mr Damocles shouted
"Mr Damocles, Alya is innocent." Marinette shouted in response
"Yeah?"
"When I went to the locker room to take my books for the next class I noticed something shiny on the floor. It's Lila's necklace, she must have dropped it unintentionally." she said and handed the necklace to Lila.
"Give that to me" , Lila said with an angry tone in her voice and pretended to be examining it "Yeah, that is indeed my necklace. Thanks Marinette." she said (she hesitated to include the last part) and visibly was upset about something
"So Lila, don't you owe Alya over here an apology? Mr Damocles questioned Lila
"Oh yes, so...rry Alya for accusing you without proof, I thought you took it since you were the last seen near it, common sense isn't it?" . "Gosh, everything she said sounded so fake, why does everybody even bother consider her words?" Marinette thought
"I accept your apology Lila but I don't agree with anything else you did today. You lied that I was in the locker room, you accused me with literally no proof and then indirectly called me a criminal. You literally said: '...after what she has done' and made it sound like I commited crimes. Now that I think of it, the only bad thing I have been accused for with proof is that browser history on websites I would never visit myself, and that got revealed just before you stormed in the room and thus it is impossible for you to know because you were not there. So, could you please explain me what have I done that is so wrong?" Alya responded
"Uhh, i heard about older incidents of you doing bad things. didn't you get expelled before your first akumatization? Also, you have been akumatized plenty of times."
Marinette could not restrain herself from responding. "People under Shadow Moth's influence are not villains, they are victims. And they actually don't do anything wrong themselves. All they do is caused by Shadow Moth himself since they are his puppets so he is the one to blame. The only thing they did wrong is let themselves be overtaken by a negative emotion, but this can't be helped; it's in the human nature. And regarding Alya specifically, she has contributed to helping people not getting akumatized via keeping-calm lessons she posts on Ladyblog occasionally. Personally i would do they opposite of what you did, I would call her a superhero. To me she is Super Alya, Paris' everyday superhero." (a.n. I'll explain in the end of the chapter)
Meanwhile Mr Damocles was starting to get frustrated at the girls' fight. Not only were they wasting his time, but also he would have another problem to fix if it kept going. Though Marinette earned yet again his respect for her nice speech, perhaps he could include a part of it to his Owl speech.
"Ok girls, now that the issue is resolved, you are dismissed. Marinette and Lila you may enjoy your break before your next class. And Alya, you're expelled for the day. You can go home. I will talk to your parents shortly."
"Yes Mr Damocles" all girls responded while nodding and left the room
Lila went straight to class while Marinette and Alya stood in the yeard chatting.
"Girl, I love you and hate you at the same time." Alya told her best friend
"Of course you love me Al, I am your best friend, favorite superhero and partner in crime. But I don't understand why Super Alya would hate me...". She did not complete her sentence because she bursted into laughter.
"Yeah yeah, I will remember that when I will be talking about you with Nino and Adried next time."
"Oh no please don't! Anyways, what happened over there while I was gone?" Marinette changed the topic the instantly
"Well, it all started just fine, Mr Damocles agreed that the literature project shenanigans was not anyone's fault, just a technical problem and when he was about to dismiss me, something suspicious came up."
"Hm?"
"Apparently, according to the school's browser controlling device I have visited recently a casino, a betting website, some websites with nsfw names and also googled: 'How to cheat in maths test'. As Chloe would say: 'This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!' " Actually, Chloe was heard in the distance shouting her catchphrase at the same time and made both girls grin. "So, because of that I got expelled for the rest of the day."
"But you didn't do any of that, this must be some sort of 'bug' "
"You've been hanging out with Cat Noir too much recently. And you know that puns are his specialty so stop it. Unless you don't mind a little fox telling him that his 'Bugaboo' has started punning too and gets his hopes up again."
"You know what Alya? Sometimes you're lame", Marinette rolled her eyes and so did Alya after hearing her
"Back to the topic, according to Mr Damocles there has not been any technical issue lately with the device, actually it is 'brand-new' according to him. Someone has hacked my phone I think, so we should better avoid any superhero/ Miraculous conversation online till I make sure it is clear or we come up with a secret code. They are trying to frame me, and I am 99.9% sure of who it is."
"Lie-la, now it all makes sense" Marinette murmured
"Yeah, I will find out how the school's device works and ask an expert to check my phone for malware. After all, it needs to be safe, I'm not only Rena Furtive, I am also the Ladyblogger."
"Good, tell me if you find anything interesting. Did anything else happen I am not aware of?"
"Yeah, the reason why I owe you."
"Huh? "
"So, the moment you knocked the door, I was forced to let them take a look at my things while checking for the 'stolen necklace'. Starting with my fanny pack. "
"Oof, that was lucky, if I was few seconds late then they would have seen Trixx."
"Marinette, it wasn't lucky, it was all a result of your exercises. You have sprinting sessions every day few minutes before school starts." Tikki said as she popped herself out of her holder's purse to roast the latter
"Tikki! " Marinette shouted as Alya, Tikki and Trixx who also popped his head up the fanny pack laughed (the kwamis silently of course to avoid being heard).
"Oh, so that is the reason behind her being late literally every day. Everyone thinks she is oversleeping or that she is lazy but turns out she looks after herself and at the same time trains herself to be a better superhero." Alya said to Tikki who nodded still laughing. Then she turned to Marinette whose face was getting red out of embarassment at her being exposed. "Mari, I have to admit that your a five-head." and winked at her
"Hey, stop the bullying, results are what matter. You should all be thankful. Especially you Trixx." Marinette said and pointed at Trixx
"True, still thanks" Alya said while the kwamis returned to their hiding spots
"My hero instincts kicked in at the right time I guess."
"Hey, don't get over yourself."
"Anyways, what are we gonna do now?"
"About what?"
"About the liar, she showed her intentions in the worst way possible, a war declaration."
"Don't worry about that, I am already setting up a plan. Lila may be smart and persuading and never leaves proof behind and whenever she does it is something minor that she can lie about to clear herself but we have something she doesn't..."
"Alya, using a Miraculous for a personal gain can only go wrong. I have already told you about Cat Blanc."
"Who says it is personal gain? I am going to benefit the whole local society after I am done with my plan. But if you insist I will try to make it work without using Mirage but if it doesn't seem like it's getting anywhere, it shall be my last resort."
"Fine, do whatever you want. This situation does not seem as dangerous as mine. Also Bunnyx can always show up and fix things even though this would rather better not be the case. Besides, if this 'power abuse' is going to wreck the timeline somehow, Bunnyx has some time to fix things up since we decided on it early."
"Good, that means I also got your help on this. Including Nino and maybe Adrien, we should be good. And before you ask, yes Adrien is aware of Lie-la, Nino told me the other day. Turns out he is not as oblivious as I thought."
"Oh Adriennn..." Marinette was about to dive in her fantasies about him before Alya snapped her finger right in front of her. "Yeah, sorry about that. I will help you as much as I can but don't expect any help from Ladybug though."
"I wasn't going to need it anyways.", Alya said "Time to begin operation 'Expose Lie-la' !"
So yeah, we are getting closer to the juicy part. I don't know when I'm gonna be able to write the next chapter even though I already know what to include. I have an Adrien-level strict schedule and what makes it worse is that I am one of those people that need 8 hours of sleep to operate functionally. Right now there is a national holiday mini-break and I might be able to write it pretty fast. If not, it should be ready at around Tuesday. On regular weeks I have free time to write Monday- Thursday so bare that in mind. I will promise to have a chapter published at least once a week. That applies till further notice. Now, about the story and the author's note: As I mentioned in the beginning, I originally thought of it as a one-shot but as of writing it I felt like it needed more development. I started adding few filler things, jokes and references (Super Alya the everyday superhero is a reference to the end of season 2 when Adrien called Mari his 'Everyday Ladybug' and Super Marinette) to make the fic little more entertaining. In the reviews tell me if you like it and if you wanna see more of it. I am pretty good at making references at anything, especially jojo references. I will wait for 1 day before I start writing the next chapter and I will look at any feedback given. I also have PM enabled for suggestions related to the fic or you telling me if I have typos, I will fix them as soon as I notice if you point them out. Also, can someone please answer me a question: After I post a story/chapter, can I delete the from Doc Manager? Well, that's from me for now. I am looking forward to hearing from you :)