NOTE: This chapter is longer than the usual 2000-3000 words but like half of it is reused scenes from the episode Riposte. and all updates will be every Saturday unless so stated on my profile page.
Ben woke up, got dressed, and went down to the hotel's complimentary breakfast and joined Grandpa and Gwen at a table.
Ben yawned and then said "morning" and then yawned again clearly still waking up.
"Morning Ben." answered Grandpa Max with a smile but then noticed the Omnitrix back on Ben's wrist.
"Ben is that the Omnitrix?" asked Grandpa Max double-checking he hadn't lost his marbles.
"Huh oh yeah." replied Ben with a waffle stuffed in his mouth and clearly still sleepy.
Grandpa raised an eyebrow at Ben's response "And you're not going to tell me why you put it back on?" he questioned.
Ben after taking a moment to swallow his waffle answered "Well I can't just sit on the sidelines with all of these akuma things nor can I let Dweeb here get captured again." Gwen gave him a death glare for that comment but refrained from causing a scene since they were in a fancy hotel at the moment.
"Well that is very mature of you Ben to admit you care about your cousin's safety like that." replied Grandpa Max
Realizing he accidentally admitted he cared about Gwen (like family not romantically) Ben then retaliated "No I don't care about her I just can't be a superhero if I let a supervillain trap someone. Even if it is my dorky cousin."
Grandpa Max frowned at that. It was another confirmation he still hadn't outgrown the teasing and fighting with Gwen yet. Gwen however responded "Yeah real mature doofus just so you know I won't bother saving you if you get captured by one of those akumowhatsits."
Ben and Gwen then went back to their old behavior of butting heads so grandpa Max had to hurry them out of the breakfast and back to the hotel room.
"Great way to start out the day fighting with your doofus of a cousin Gwen" Gwen thought to herself as she walked to her fencing tryout. She had studied the rules of fencing and watched some online tutorials to help her get a basic understanding on the subject last night. When she arrived she got changed into some fencing gear and joined the other people trying to join. When Gwen joined the group she saw Marinette there which puzzled her since Marinette hadn't told her she would be taking fencing.
Gwen walked up behind Marinette and tapped her on the shoulder. Marinette turned around to face Gwen
"Oh hey Gwen." greeted Marinette.
"Hi Marinette. I didn't know you were also interested in fencing?" said Gwen
Marinette blushed then replied "Yeah I am."
Gwen was a bit confused by the blush but before she could ask about the fencing instructor spoke
"I am the fencing Instructor Mr D'Argencourt. As I'm sure your aware we only have two spots open this year. So to select the best candidates I will observe the beginners performing attacks on the experienced students. Now Get into position."
"Where's Adrien?" questioned Marinette
"Who's Adrien?" asked Gwen
causing Marinette to blush and turn to Gwen
"Oh uh he's a classmate. blond really cute, nice, and super handsome." answered Marinette.
"Thanks for the compliments." said a voice whom Gwen and Marinette turned towards.
The voice lifted up his fencing mask to show a blond haired boy with emerald green eyes which were slightly brighter than Gwen's. He also was wearing the usual fencing outfit of all the fencing students and his face looked like that of a model's.
"Gah!" panicked Marinette as she realized that Adrien heard her comments.
"I didn't know you were into fencing Marinette." said Adrien "Oh and hello I'm Adrien." Adrien greeted holding his hand out.
Gwen shook it and said "Gwen my name's Gwen."
"Nice to meet you Gwen."
Marinette after being paralyzed for a second finally responded to Adrien "Adrien. Nice to fencing! I'm totally into you! "I mean nice to see you. Yeah I'm totally into fencing"
Adrien chuckled at that and Marinette giggled. Gwen could tell Marinette obviously had a crush on this guy so she decided to leave them alone and find an experienced student to test her out.
Gwen was about to begin her practice duel with the partner she found when a mystery person in a red fencing uniform shouted "Hey you! Are you Mr. D'Argencourt? The Fencing Master? I want to join your team!"
"Only the best are admitted you knave." replied Mr. D'Argencourt.
"And I was everywhere I went
"Par Le Fer! This whippersnapper has nerve. All right I may consider your admission, shall you defeat one of my students!" Dared Mr. D'Argencourt.
"Which one of you is the best combatant?" asked the mystery person.
Adrien stepped forward through the crowd. "Adrien please give our guest a lesson in chivalry." said Mr. D'Argencourt
"I shall master." replied Adrien slipping back on his fencing mask. A minute later they were hooked up to the fencing machine (not sure what the proper name is) and began dueling.
After several stalemates Adrien and the person in red fought without the fencing machine however the fight got a bit out of hand and all the way into the library on the second floor of the school. During the chaos everyone tried to get up but was blocked by a runaway book cart and the roadkilled by the book cart Mr.D'Argencourt. except Marinette who had went around on the opposite staircase and was the only one to see Adrien and the masked stranger finish their duel in what appeared to be another draw.
"Who got the first hit WHO!" demanded the fighter to Marinette as Gwen had finally made it around up the same staircase Marinette did.
"Uh... I" stuttered Marinette
"Who touched first. Tell us now!" groaned Mr.D'Argencourt who came crawling up the stairs.
"I don't know. I think... it was... Adrien?" answered Marinette clearly uncertain.
Suddenly like magic Mr.D'Argencourt miraculously recovered and boasted "Ha ha! Wonderful! This victory is an honor to D'Argencourt academy!
The masked fencer sighed, shook hands with Adrien and then left.
After the masked fencer was gone Adrien lifted back up his fencing mask and said "Are you sure Marinette?"
"Uh... Well not entirely sure. I mean it looked like it was you but it went so fast." answered Marinette.
Adrien turned to face the instructor and said "I think he touched me first."
"The referee has the last word" replied Mr. D'Argencourt
Adrien ran over to the railing to see the mystery fencer throw his saber into the the ground and leave.
Adrien turned to face everyone (on the second floor not below) and said "I'm going to offer him a decisive match." as he then ran down the stairs and after the mystery fencer with the mystery fencer's saber in hand.
Gwen and Marinette made down the stairs and to the exit to find Adrien face to face with the no longer mystery fencer whom everyone assumed was male. turns out he was a she with hair a little more blue than Marinette's but swept over and not in pigtails. She also looked asian and held her fencing helmet in her arms.
Adrien then stuttered "Let's do a... Decisive... Match?
She replied coldly "What's the point you won. There's no such thing as a second chance in my family. Goodbye." she then got into her car and the driver (or self driving car) drove off with Adrien shouting after her "Hey! What's your name?"
Adrien then got into his own car which followed the mystery girl's car.
Just Adrien took off Marinette and Gwen saw an akuma flutter by "An akuma!" said Marinette as she began to chase it.
"Hey wait where are you going?" called out Gwen from the top of the stairs.
"Uh... well since there's an akuma I... need to make sure my parents will be ok during this attack. Yeah akumas really stress them out bye." answered Marinette as she resumed her chase.
After Marinette left Gwen pulled out her phone and called Ben.
Ben was playing one of his many Sumo slammers video games in the hotel room while Grandpa Max was packing up a suitcase when suddenly his phone rang from his pocket. Ben paused his game and looked to see it was Gwen calling and answered "This better be important dweeb. I can't wait forever to beat Kenko."
"Well Kenko will have to wait while you defeat a real super villain Doofus!" Just saw one of those purple butterfly things flying around which means a super villain will come out soon and I haven't perfected my disguise spell yet so I can't fight it without revealing my identity which means you have to." replied Gwen
"Sure it wasn't just a purple butterfly and not the kind that turns people evil." asked Ben somewhat sarcastically.
"Yes Marinette herself identified it as one of the evil ones. So get off your butt and go fight it!" shouted Gwen through the phone causing Ben to move his head away due to the volume.
"Alright alright on my way. Wait. Where is it?" asked Ben
"Somewhere at an intersection near the school is where it was headed." answered Gwen.
"K on my way." finished Ben as he hung up and put his phone back in his pocket leaving sumo slammers on the bed and rushed out of the hotel.
Ben ran towards an intersection near the school hoping it is the right one. When he saw a car cut in half and another car with a hole in its roof he knew it was the right intersection. However there was another problem the battle looked like it had already happened and passed.
"Darn I missed them." grumbled Ben but then he heard a shout from the roof of an adjacent building
"I will defeat you. Both of you! I am the best fencer!" growled a woman with silver skin and silver armor. she also had a blade that was merged with her hand and a helmet over her head with a red symbol in the center. She also had blood red eyes and also appeared to be extremely furious. Ladybug was also up there with a blond person whom Ben didn't recognize.
While the blond person and Ladybug talked about some fencing error to the akuma Ben made his way to an alley and activated the omnitrix.
"Alright first time in over a year. So who to choose?" thought Ben as he scrolled through his list of options.
"hmmm Heatblast would melt her and I want to save her not eliminate her so not him. Grey Matter and Upgrade would need tech to work with so they're a no too.
Before he could decide he heard the akuma shout "It's too late the damage has been done! This time, I shall be the referee!"
No time to pick and choose just give me someone that can fight." said Ben as he slammed down the Omnitrix core without really looking at what alien he chose right before a bright green light appeared as he transformed.
While Ben transformed Ladybug was dueling with Riposte on the roof but was mostly forced onto the defense due to Riposte's fast slices and jabs at her.
Ladybug then seeing an opportunity threw her yoyo at Riposte but seemingly missing it and wrapped it around a chimney instead.
Riposte smirked at Ladybug missing her but then Ladybug pulled the chimney down on top of her trapping her temporarily underneath the now having finished transforming now saw Ladybug then swung off with the blond boy in tow leaving Ben thinking "huh guess I wasn't needed after all" or at least he thought that until he saw the akuma slice out of the rubble with a look of rage on her face.
Seeing this Ben leapt onto the roof as Four Arms (however where his shirt was once white was now green since he no longer had his old White with black stripe T shirt but the rest of his outfit remained the same as it did when he was ten) and causing the roof to shake upon holding his weight.
Four Arms then said "Your not going anywhere after them."
"Who are you?" asked the akuma.
"Name's Four Arms you?" replied Ben
"Riposte." she answered just then a purple outline came over her face confusing Four Arms a bit but then it dissipated just as quickly as it appeared.
"Join me Four of Arms and we can rule Paris." offered Riposte
"Ok one the name is Four Arms not Four of Arms. Second I'm a superhero not a villain like you. Three can we just skip to the part where I kick your butt!" growled Four Arms with annoyance.
"EN GARDE!" Shouted Riposte as she took a lunging stance but Four Arms moved before her trying to ram her with his massive strength and size. However Riposte just leapt over him and threw an energy slice at his back as she landed.
The slice however did nothing to Four Arms's thick skin and he shrugged it off as he turned to her.
"Was that supposed to be an attack or a back massage." gloated Four Arms as he crossed his arms with a smug look on his face.
Riposte growled in frustration. She then lunged at Four Arms trying to strike his chest with her blade but Four Arms was parrying the strikes off with his arms.
Four Arms then grabbed the blade above his lower left arm with his upper right arm and threw Riposte down into the street creating a crater.
"Hah that'll teach yah." gloated Four Arms
However Four Arms heard a creaking sound as he looked beneath himself he realized the roof could no longer support his several hundred pound weight and was going to collapse.
"Oh crud" groaned Four Arms right before he crashed through the roof and into someone's apartment however that someone wasn't home.
Four Arms was lying in a pile of broken wooden boards and was about to get up when he heard the typical beeping sound signaling the end of his transformation.
"And this is worse" said Four Arms right before he transformed back into Ben in a flash of green light.
Ben then got up coughing a little at all the wood dust he just breathed in and walked over to the window to see Riposte leap on top of a building jumping her way towards the Louvre.
"Even better that I couldn't keep her away long enough to get that blond kid to safety." groaned Ben as he left to chase after Riposte.
Wasn't difficult for Ben to find where Riposte was heading even though she easily outran or out jumped him to the Louvre. Ben just had to follow the police to their outside barricade of the Louvre with a now sliced off roof.
However Ben knew getting past their barricade wouldn't be easy unless... "XLR8 could just zoom right past them without them even knowing I was there" thought Ben as peeked out from behind a building adjacent to the Louvre (NOTE I have never been to Paris so am not familiar with the architecture of the city just the famous stuff so if I make some mistakes about what the city looks like sorry)
Ben activated the Omnitrix which had recharged on his way to the Louvre and dialed up XLR8.
"Its Hero Time!" said Ben as he slammed down on the omnitrix core causing a green flash to appear from it as he transformed.
Cat Noir had finally shown up to help Ladybug beat Riposte but Riposte had forced Ladybug out of the paintings gallery and trapped Cat Noir in by activating the security system which barred him in.
"Ladybug!" Cat Noir shouted as he ran up to the bars.
"Ready to lose Ladybug." said Riposte has she charged at Ladybug.
Ladybug dodged slash after slash as the fight led her and Riposte down the stairs and to the Egyptian exhibit where she had hidden Adrien in the sarcophagus.
Riposte shoved Ladybug into the Egyptian room. Ladybug looked towards the sarcophagus after she landed on the floor and her sword had rolled away.
Unfortunately her glance towards the sarcophagus was a dead giveaway to Adrien's location for Riposte "Of Course" said Riposte realizing where Ladybug had hidden Adrien.
Riposte jumped off the walls and columns of the room and landed before the sarcophagus and said "The hour of revenge has struck." right before she slashed the sarcophagus into pieces to find nothing inside it. She and Ladybug both held a look of shock on their faces but Ladybug quickly shook it off and hit the burglar alarm sealing Riposte inside the sarcophagus area of the room.
Cat Noir then slid down the stair banister to join Ladybug in her fight against Riposte.
"He's gone." said Ladybug
"Uh Who? asked Cat Noir a little stupidly
"Riposte is trying to get revenge on Adrien Agreste. I hid him inside the sarcophagus." answered Ladybug
"Maybe he was feeling Claws-trophobic?" punned Cat Noir.
Ladybug gave him an are you serious look.
Riposte then spoke up "We can look for him together, Ladybug and finish this match." She then sliced away the bars that sealed her inside the room.
Just as Ladybug was about to call on her lucky charm a green fist came out of nowhere and punched Riposte in the side of the head knocking her down. The fist then retracted back towards a green plant like creature. It had one blue eye, numerous legs, what looked like the jaw of a Venus flytrap on its shoulders and black fruit budding from its back.
The green creature stepped out of the hole it had burrowed through to get into the room.
"Uh Ladybug am I crazy or is that another akuma?" said Cat Noir shocked to see the plant guy.
"It can't be an akuma. We know Riposte is the akuma so what is it?" replied Ladybug also shocked.
The green creature turned to them and said "Don't just stand there are you going to help me beat her or not?"
Ladybug snapped out of her shocked stupor and said "Lucky Charm!" as she threw up her yoyo into the air.
As the yoyo spun a radiator fell into Ladybug's hands. "A radiator?" said Ladybug.
"Great that should really heat things up." punned Cat Noir less punning more fighting said the green plant greature who was currently dealing with Riposte trying to slash him.
"Hold still you overgrown shrub!" growled Riposte as she continued to slash at the green creature.
"Hey the name's Wildvine not shrub. And-" Before Wildvine could finish Riposte had sliced of his right arm.
"Ow! hey that hurt!" yelled Wildvine. Just then his arm began to grow back much to everyone's shock.
"Impossible!" roared Riposte.
"You have no idea what's possible." replied Wildvine as he reached onto his back and plucked a black fruit off of it and threw it at Riposte creating an explosion knocking her into a column."
Why Wildvine had been fighting Riposte Ladybug explained her plan to Cat Noir. Cat Noir gave Ladybug his belt like she asked and took the radiator as they then faced Riposte's lying body that was getting up.
"Hey Riposte!" yelled Cat Noir charging at her with the Radiator
Riposte responded by attempting to jab the sword through the radiator at Cat Noir but it just went through it and Ladybug then wrapped Cat Noir's belt around the guard of the sword. Wildvine saw what they were doing and seized his chance to restrain Riposte by wrapping himself around her like a python by stretching himself as he held all of her still except her sword arm.
Ladybug said "Prêt!" then Cat Noir finished her line "Allez!" as they pulled the radiator to the right snapping Riposte's blade off the hilt (which was also where her hand used to be)
The blade landed on the floor and out of it came a purple butterfly. "No more evil doing for you little akuma." said Ladybug as she opened up her yoyo and then swung it at the purple butterfly capturing it inside. Ladybug then released it saying "Bye bye little butterfly.". Lastly Ladybug tossed her radiator into the air shouting "Miraculous Ladybug!" as a magic swarm of Ladybugs appeared and repaired all the damages of the battle and returned Riposte back into the former mystery fencer girl.
Cat Noir's ring then beeped and he said "Gotta go. Have a vets appointment. Take care of the young lady will ya. Oh and be sure to fill me on on the details of that guy." replied Cat Noir pointing to Wildvine. Ladybug nodded her head yes and ran over to the former akuma and told her everything is ok.
"Yup everything is great, We stopped your rampage and saved that blond kid. wait where is he." said Wildvine now looking around in confusion after his focus was on the girl who was once Riposte.
Ladybug ignored Wildvine and lead the akumatized victim to the exit saying "You go on ahead I have to find someone."
"Thanks" replied the girl as she left.
Ladybug then looked around and said "Now where could he have gone." and just then the blond kid stepped out and said "Ladybug." catching hers and Wildvine's attention.
"There you are." sighed Ladybug in relief.
"Yeah I'm sorry I figured it would be better to escape before Riposte came along. Besides, I hate to be locked up." said Adrien rubbing the back of his neck nervously.
Ladybug gasped and then replied "I'm so sorry. You did the right thing."
Then a somewhat awkward silence filled the room. Adrien was going to break it but then Wildvine spoke up "So your the kid she was after?"
Adrien and Ladybug turned to face Wildvine. "Uh yeah she was upset about losing a fencing match to me and got akumatized by it. But uh who are you?" said Adrien
Wildvine blinked then said "I'm Wildvine."
"How about what are you?" asked Ladybug
"An alien plant I think." answered Wildvine.
Ladybug scoffed at that and then replied "There's no such thing as aliens. You're just trying to hide the fact you're another miraculous wielder like me and Cat Noir aren't you."
Wildvine took a moment to process a response and then said "Believe what you want but I'll go leave the way I came in." only to then see the hole he made in the wall was gone. It had been repaired by the magic ladybug swarm from miraculous ladybug.
"Guess the owners of this museum wouldn't be too happy if I made another hole just to get out huh." said Wildvine as he then turned around and left via the stairs to head to the bathroom to wait out his transformation leaving a curious Adrien behind and a skeptical Ladybug.
After some persuading from Adrien Mr.D'Argencourt agreed to give the girl now known by her name Kagami a more fair chance to join the fencing team like everyone else. Mainly because he hadn't decided yet who would get into the two spots on the team yet and Adrien never lied so taking his recommendation seriously Mr.D'Argencourt gave Kagami the same type of tryout everyone else had.
Kagami easily beat her opponent even though he was an experienced fencer which surprised Mr.D'Argencourt.
Marinette knew Kagami would make the team for certain but there was the second spot that she might make.
After all the tryouts were completed before they all left to go home Mr.D'Argencourt announced something.
"I am proud of all of you for trying your absolute best to join my prestigious fencing team. But alas only two spots are open so I may only choose two of you. And the two I believe to have stood out above the rest and shall join the team are Kagami Tsurugi and Gwen Tennyson. That is all. You are all dismissed. Oh and Ms Tsurugi and Ms Tennyson. Lessons are every Wednesday and Friday immediately after school so I expect you both to be punctual."
Gwen was happy to make the team Especially since she had no prior experience with fencing. On her way out she spotted Marinette leaving and called out to her "Hey Marinette!"
Marinette stopped and turned around to face Gwen and said "Hey congrats on making the team."
"Thanks but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about." replied Gwen
Marinette grew a look of confusion o her face until Gwen clarified "Actually I noticed how you acted around Adrien and its kinda obvious."
Marinette blushed in embarrassment and replied "Please don't tell Adrien."
"Woah I'm not going to tell him just going to give you some advise" answered Gwen. Marinette looked relieved to hear that.
"So advice number 1: Don't let Ben know you have a crush." said Gwen.
"Huh what why?" asked Marinette.
"Because Ben is terrible with secrets and who knows what he would do if he knew." answered Gwen knowing there was only one secret Ben can actually keep.
Marinette nodded for Gwen to continue.
"And lastly Advice number 2: You need to tell him. Cause if you don't then by the time you do it may be too late." said Gwen
Marinette blushed "Yeah... I can never talk right around Adrien. All of my words get jumbled around or I trip and ruin every chance I get of spending time with him." sighed Marinette.
"Well if you need any help I'll be glad to help in any way I can." replied Gwen
"Thanks Gwen." said Marinette as they then parted ways.
So chapter done. Next chapter will be Ben and Gwen's first day of school in Paris so who knows what kind of drama or trouble would come around at that. Oh yeah I do but no spoilers. Thanks for reading please review I value feedback and constructive criticism and I'll see you next chapter which will release next Saturday. :)