Chapter Seven

Thank you for your kind review guest(ch. 5)! And to the guest who reviewed ch. 6: Helen is actually Annabeth's step-mom's canon name. It's extremely unoriginal of me, but thank you for your review! Also: dunno how old y'all are, but the trailer for Raya and the Last Dragon came out and if you've seen it, just know that I'm picturing the position of Jinx's staffs like Raya's weapons are placed, X over her back. Jinx has two, Chat has one he can split. Hopefully this helps you picture her better! A friend is working on cover art for this and it's going to be amazing! Also also: Just re-read my plan for the rest of MS but yeah just realized that stuff's going down next chapter and I'm super excited for you guys to read it!

Double-Jinx

"Oh, my God! I literally can't believe this!" Luke explodes. The maid trembles.

"I'm sorry, sir, but your homework is nowhere to be found!" she tells him. He raises his hand and then snaps it down quickly, collecting himself.

"Ok, Veronica." She curtsies and walks out the door. He smirks and reaches for a personalized hotline to his butler, Halcyon, or just Hal. "Hal? Please fire Veronica. She-uh-made inappropriate advances towards me. Blacklist her if possible. Thanks!" He hangs up.

Hal stares at his phone, bemused. Right...

Luke grabs his bags. He supposes that he can just have Ethan do his homework before school. He leans down to tie his shoe and something shoves him from behind. He doesn't shriek like a girl, no he makes a strong, manly grunt, and stumbles. "Damn it." He starts walking out the door and his foot must have gotten caught on something because how else could he have been flat-tired? Man, he should not have gone to that party last night...


"Dang, look at Luke," Apollo whispers, nudging Percy, who's concentrating on a sketch he's drawing on his tablet. "Percy!" He looks up, startled.

"Yeah?"

"Luke. Look at him." Percy takes a quick glance. Luke's jacket is rumpled and his shirt is wrinkled. Percy snorts.

"Apollo, it's Luke. He's probably recovering from a hangover." Apollo smirks but looks thoughtful.

"I dunno, man. Maybe he's missing Ethan."

"Well, Ethan is missing, but I dunno if Luke misses him," Percy quips. "Honestly, though, I don't wonder that Ethan's not here. Heard his mom got fired after she became Officer Justice." He shakes his head. "That kinda crap should be illegal, you can't fire people for having emotions." Apollo nods.

"Yeah." They sit in silence for a bit until Luke's shout pierces the stillness.

"Mr. D, I have to go. Something is attacking me and I need Luckybug and Lady Jinx!" Mr. Dionysus, or Mr. D as they've begun calling him, crosses his arms.

"Is that so, Mr. Castiron?" he asks cooly, eyebrow raised. Percy's got to hand it to him; the man has guts, calling Luke 'Castiron'. Luke nods sharply.

"Yes! My hair's been pulled, my homework's been stolen! This is definitely an akuma- probably caused by how jealous of my good looks and wealth they are." He smirks, running a hand through his hair. "But, anyways, I must be leaving." Mr. D glares at him. "And you'll let me, unless you want to be fired," he adds. He strolls out the door, slamming it behind him. Percy blinks then raises his hand.

"Mr D.? I have to go to the restroom." He gets up and leaves, and behind him Annabeth makes the same excuse. She's probably going after Luke-and he doesn't know why that makes his heart twinge. He brushes the thought away and barricades himself in the bathroom. Tikki pops out, looking concerned.

"Percy, look," she says, pointing to the walls. He looks around and there are crude drawings of Luke, labeled 'Luke', with several rude words pointing to him.

"Yeah, someone's mad at Luke. Tikki, spots on!" The transformation washes over him and Luckybug races out of the bathroom, heading to Le Grande Paris.


Annabeth hurries into the bathroom, shaking Plagg out from where he's nestled in her pocket. He rubs his eyes blearily.

"Waz goin' on?" he yawns. Annabeth frowns.

"Someone's mad at Luke, I think an akuma. We have to help!"

"Or not..." he mumbles, but grudgingly complies as she shouts the transformation words and shifts into Lady Jinx. Pushing open a widow, she hops out, running to Le Grande Paris over the rooftops. When she gets there, Luckybug's already there, practicing yoyo tricks. She smirks and drops behind him.

"Boo." He yelps and then rearranges his face to a more chill expression as she snickers.

"Haha. Very funny. C'mon, let's go find out who he pissed off this time," he says.

"Language!" she reprimands, but she still trails him into the hotel and up the stairs to Luke's penthouse suite. They're stopped at the door by an older man in a suit and she pushes Luckybug back, prepared to do the talking or fighting, in case he's influenced by the mysterious akuma.

"No entrance. Mr. Luke is not letting anyone in at this time," he tells them. Luckybug starts forward, but Jinx quickly extends a staff, blocking him. She smiles winningly, turning on the charm.

"Oh, ok! What's your name?" she asks. He stares at her suspiciously.

"Halcyon, Hal for short."

"Well, Hal, we're superheroes, Luckybug and Lady Jinx, and nothing you say in this hallway will leave this hallway. Whatever knowledge you have can help us. Please, has Luke angered anyone?" Hal ponders for a moment decides to speak.

"Officer Nemesis was fired last Monday for inappropriate conduct, meaning her akumazation. Her son, Ethan, is pretty good friends with Luke, and he came over yesterday to ask for her to be re-hired, saying that since she had done nothing wrong and was a victim, she should be rehired."

"As she should!" Luckybug breaks in. Hal and Jinx stare at him and he flushes. "Sorry, go on."

"He asked Luke to bring the issue up to his father, but Luke refused. Ethan kept asking, and eventually Luke started ignoring him, saying that he didn't see anyone." Hal falls silent. Luckybug doesn't look surprised, but Jinx is shocked. That doesn't sound like the friend she knows.

"Thank you, Hal. I need to tell Luke this, for his own safety," she tells him. Hal looks conflicted, but opens the door. "Thanks!" She pulls Luckybug through and as soon as his feet cross the threshold his senses start tingling. He tackles Jinx and twists their bodies around as they fall so he doesn't land on her. He lands on his back and she quickly stands up, pulling a dart out of the wall. "What the hell?" she exclaims. Luke's head pops up, crossbow in hand.

"Sorry," he says, not looking particularly apologetic. "What are you doing here? Missing me, Jinx?" She raises an eyebrow.

"That's Lady Jinx to you. Luke, Ethan's the invisible akuma that's been targeting you," she tells him. He shrugs, not looking concerned like she expected.

"He's too sensitive, like his mom. Minions, am I right?" He seems to be directing the remark to Luckybug and Jinx is super confused. First, he's a Luckybug fanboy and next he's flirting with her and now he's talking to her like she's some lackey? She clenches her fists and opens her mouth but Luckybug beats her.

"She's not just a minion, we're partners. She needs me and I need her," he says to Luke, voice cold. Luke shrugs again.

"Sure, LB. What do you need me to do? Knock him out? Beat him up? Smash the akuma? I could be such a better superhero than one of you, if you'd give me the chance." Jinx shakes her head, mind racing. So this was his angle...

"Stay here and don't move. We'll get back to you once the battle's over, or you could watch on TV. Catch you later!" She pulls Luckybug out the door and into an elevator. She leans against a wall, smirking. "LB, huh?" He laughs.

"Don't even go there," he says. She shakes her head.

"Nah, I like it. LB." He scowls playfully and they laps into silence.

"Jinx?" he asks after a few moments.

"Yeah?"

"You know you're not just a minion, right?" She smiles up at him, making his breath catch in his throat.

"Yeah." They don't say anything after that but when the elevator doors open he plucks a rose out of a vase, handing it to her.

"Gonna be hard to get an akuma we can't see," he says, in an effort to make the gesture more casual, but she just sniffs the rose and puts it back into another vase.

"Yeah. But we've got an advantage, he doesn't know we're onto him." Her eye catches on a bright spot on the marble floor of the foyer. It's a rose-a rose she distinctly remembers putting into a vase. Her eyes widen and she looks over at Luckybug, whose hair is moving in a breeze-or someone' breath. "Watch out!" she shouts. She tackles Luckybug, taking him by surprise. Their faces land inches away from each other and she stares into his wide sea-green eyes. In an instant she's up, pulling a staff and extending it, swiping it in a circle. It makes contact and someone grunts. Her suspicions confirmed, she pulls Luckybug onto his feet. They go back to back without even communicating and she pulls her other staff, spinning one in a defensive gesture and holding the other with her fist clenched. He spins his yoyo and everything is silent, the only sound the woosh of their weapons.

"Lucky charm!" Luckybug calls. A bag of chocolate powder falls into his hands and he grins. "I know exactly what to do with this," he tells Jinx. He can practically fell her smirks even though they're back to back.

"That's a first," she says, and he knows she's about to make another snarky comment-God, she's perfect- but she's interrupted.

"Hey, loser. I know you're here somewhere Ethan, and I'm honestly not even surprised that you got akumatized. The bad apple doesn't fall far from the rotten tree, does it? You're not even worth firing a maid over, just like your mom,"Luke says, standing at the top of a marble staircase, smirk firmly attached to his face. A snarl sounds in the foyer.

"It's Vanisher. Don't talk about my mom like that, you bastard!" Luckybug and Jinx race up the steps, her spinning her staff in a wide arc. They skid to a stop in front of him, defensive tactics activated. Luke laughs.

"You're gonna end up defeated anyways, just like your loser mom." He begins moving back though, not being completely stupid, and moves faster as vases start to be thrown at his head. Jinx leaves Luckybug to find Vanisher and hustles Luke away, behind a pillar.

"Stay," she tells him, and starts running back but he grabs her tail, making her yelp. "What?!"

"I know where the akuma is," he says. She turns to him.

"Spill."

"Ah-ah-ah," he smirks, wagging his finger. She grits her teeth; she doesn't have time for this. "You gotta come closer, can't risk Vanisher hearing." Sighing, she moves closer. She doesn't notice him pulling out his phone until it's too late. He grabs the bell on her collar and pulls, hard. Yanked off-balance, she stumbles towards him and he pulls her head up to him, kissing her quickly and taking a picture, the flash blinding her momentarily. She scrambles away from him, extremely close to hissing.

"What the hell was that for?!" she demands. He smirks.

"Wait till everyone finds out that the almighty Lady Jinx kissed me. Ooh, LB's gonna be mad." Her hand twitches, wanting to slap him, but she controls herself, instead turning tail and running.

"We'll come back to this!" she calls. He leans against the pillar, smirking.

"I'm sure we will." She runs into the foyer again, pausing to take note of the scene. Luckybug is still, scanning the area. She looks closely too, until someone grabs her from behind. She shrieks and Luckybug is next to her in an instant. Ripping open the bag, he dumps it over her head, and while she's dusted with chocolate powder, so is Vanisher. The outline of his from is visible, and while his suit seems to be the standard catsuit, there are two items that stand out: a baseball cap and a badge pinned to his chest that looks like the police badge officers give to schoolchildren after they do a presentation.

"It's in the badge, right there," she calls to Luckybug, pointing. He nods. He's about to hit the badge with his yoyo and break it when Luke interrupts yet again. He's leaning against a pillar smiling inanely and Jinx is going to slap him.

"It's in the hat, idiots. I gave it to him, and it was one of his favorite things," he calls. Jinx grits her teeth.

"Can you handle Vanisher?" she asks Luckybug in a mutter. He nods subtly and moves to intersect Vanisher while Jinx stalks towards Luke. She grabs his arm, making sure her claws will dig in a little- Miraculous Ladybug will fix it. He winces and curses as she drags him towards the elevator.

"I'm right, you know," he says to her. She snorts and shoves him into the elevator.

"You told me you knew where it was last time and that was a ploy. I'm not falling for it again. Stay up there unless you want us to find out if Miraculous Ladybug can resurrect a dead body." She presses that button and as the doors close she gets in the last word. "This isn't over, Castellan!" She runs back toward the fight and Luckybug tosses her a small object. She catches it and it's the badge, broken. She looks up, confused. "I thought it was..." she trails off. Luckybug nods grimly.

"Yeah, sorry to tell you but you thought wrong. Where'd Castellan say it was?"

"The hat, but-" she stops talking as she watches Luckybug wrestle Vanisher into a headlock and rips of the hat, tearing it neatly in half. The akuma flutters out and luckybug nabs it, calling his usual phrases and finishing with 'Miraculous Ladybug!'. He helps Ethan up and moves over to talk to her.

"Why'd you ignore his suggestion?" he asks. She rubs the back of her neck.

"I didn't want to say anything, but earlier when I tried to help him the first time, he told me he knew where it was. I went to talk to him and he didn't exactly tell me. So yeah, I wasn't gonna be a fool a second time." He tilts her chin up gently.

"What'd he say?" he asks, more concerned. She flushes.

"He kinda- uh-kissedmeandtookapicture," she mumbles quickly. Not quickly enough apparently, because anger flares in his eyes.

"He did what? Bastard. I'm gonna murder him," her says, fists clenched. His eyes soften as he looks at her again. "Are you alright, m'lady?" She nods.

"I'm going to address the issue later but right now, we should get Officer Nemesis back her job. C'mon, LB." They walk over to the mayor, who's thanking them profusely for 'saving his boy'. Luckybug draws him aside to talk and Jinx leans against a pillar, mind wandering. Luke was always so polite to her, and she'd never seen that side of him. Mind racing, she almost misses the tap at her shoulder. Still, she's jolted out of her thoughts as she's greeted with Ethan's face.

"Hey, Lady Jinx. Luckybug looks busy but I overheard his and Mayor Hermes' conversation and, well, I just wanted to say thank you. For trying to get my mom's job back. It's great that you guys don't just save the day and swing off or whatever. You actually help deal with the aftermath and that's great," he says, shuffling his feet. She smiles and pats his shoulder.

"No problem, Ethan. Everyone should try and be a superhero all the time, you know? Powers or no. I hope everything works out for you and your mom." He grins and walks away, Luckybug replacing him.

"I gotta go, Jinx. I'm about to de-transform." She nods.

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll- look out!" she shoves him out of the way as a silver staff narrowly misses him. He spins around and they stare into the eyes of someone who looks like a male her. Blonde, tousled hair and a black-and-green catsuit, staffs criss-crossing the back of his outfit. He even has cat ears and a tail.

"Hey, losers. Honestly, you never would have defeated Vanisher without my help. I'd be a much better superhero, if you would just LISTEN to me!" he snarls. Jinx's eyes widen.

"Luke?"

"Double-Jinx to you," he says. Luckybug gives him a cursory glance.

"I have to go, but I'll be back. Promise." He takes off and Jinx runs after him out the doors, propelling herself to the top of the roof to avoid civilian casualties. He follows her up and she smirks.

"It's just you and me now, Double-Jinx. I love a good catfight." He growls and lunges. She easily parries his strikes, because while he looks like her and may have her powers, he doesn't have any of her experience- both in and out of the suit. He has a few tricks up his sleeve though- he quickly unhooks his belt and she flinches imperceptibly, expecting a hit. He does something worse. He's backed her up to the edge of the roof and as she stumbles he whips his other staff out and binds her to it quickly. She snarls and struggles but it's too secure for her to escape. He smirks and raises his voice.

"I know you can hear me, Luckybug. if you want your oh-so-precious Lady to be saved, I'd get up here if I were you." He leans on his other staff, laughing as she glares at him. "Aren't you tired of being second-best to Luckybug?" he asks casually.

"Aren't you tired of copying me? Aren't you tired of losing to us, Kronas?" she adds, addressing the woman she knows can hear her through Double-Jinx. The butterfly symbol flickers over his face and he cocks his ear, listening. The connection seems to cut out and he laughs.

"Gonna give you ten seconds, Lucky-boy, before I activate a little power I'm sure Jinx here knows well," he says, stretching his fingers. Jinx's eyes widen but apart from that she shows no signs of fear.

"Bring it," she says cooly. Double-Jinx raises an eyebrow.

"Fine. Cataclysm!" Dark energy surrounds Double-Jinx's hand and he laughs, evil villain style. "You have ten seconds before she goes up in smoke-or ashes? It doesn't matter. Ten!" he calls. All is silent on the roof. "Nine!" Nothing. "Eight!"

"Lady Jinx and I are unstoppable- together, we can defeat anything and anyone- looking at you, Hawkmoth!" Luckybug's voice rings out and Double-Jinx smirks.

"Looks like the bug came to get squished," he snickers. "Oops." He's let the pole fall and Jinx is flat on her face. "See ya," he calls as he stalks off in the direction of Luckybug's voice. Jinx lies there for a few moments before she feels the belt loosening around her. She grins.

"LB?"

"Yeah, in civilian form. Don't look up until I transform. My kwami needed some time," he tells her. She nods and twists over. He yelps but calms down when he realizes that her eyes are firmly shut. She feels for the staff behind her and grabs it, securing one of her original staffs on her back and replacing it with Double Jinx's.

"Spots on!" he says in a lower voice. She opens her eyes and Luckybug's there, grinning at her. He extends a hand and she takes it, pulling herself up. They hear Double-Jinx's voice in the background.

"Nice trick, but now your precious Lady's going to get utterly destroyed." He strolls over to where she should be but looks around confusedly when he sees that she is most definitely not. He growls and pulls his staff. Before he can even think, Luckybug's whacked it out of his hands using his yoyo. It goes flying off the roof and Jinx and Luckybug step forward confidently. Double-Jinx spots the extra staff on Jinx's back and lunges at her. She grapples with him, carefully avoiding his hands. Luckybug stands there in kind of a stupor as they fight, watching. Double-Jinx gets a lucky hit and scrapes her side with his claws, ripping the supersuit and drawing blood. She yelps and the sound of her voice shocks Luckybug into action.

"Lucky charm!" he calls and and a bottle of olive oil falls into his hands. Thinking fast, he rips the cap of and squirts it on the floor underneath Double-Jinx and Jinx's feet. They both start slipping but while Double-Jinx just stumbles onto the pool cover, Luckybug lassoes Jinx and pulls her out. Instead of thanking him or jumping back into the fray, she clutches her side, muttering what for her are filthy curses: darn, hell, crap, and heavens behold: frick. He realizes that the yoyo must have dug into her already wounded side and he pries her hands away gently. It looks pretty bad, made worse by the yoyo. "I can fix this, but..." he says slowly, looking into her face. She nods determinedly.

"Right. Cataclysm!" She limps over to the pool cover Double-Jinx was lying on, intending to destroy it, but while Double Jinx was trying to get up he accidentally got it himself. He's flailing in the ball pit right now so she jumps in, grabs his hand, and destroys a ring resting on his finger. The akuma flutters out and Luckybug nabs it, purifies it, says goodbye, and ends with 'Miraculous Ladybug!'. The glowing red ladybugs swarm over Luke, returning him to normal, and touch on her side, healing the cut and sewing up the suit. Luckybug helps her out and she turns to Luke, who's climbing out of the pool. He stands and dusts himself off, a glare on his face.

"Luke, I'm sorry for ignoring your suggestion, that was wrong of me. I'm also asking you to delete the picture you took," she says slowly. He rolls his eyes.

"And what makes you think I'm gonna do that?" he asks. In seconds, Luckybug's strode up to him and grabbed a fistful of shirt, pointing at Luke threateningly.

"You're gonna do it," he says. Luke nods quickly and deletes the picture while Luckybug watches. Then he deletes it from 'recently deleted' and Luckybug backs off, satisfied. Jinx pushes him back and apologizes to Luke again.

"Again, I'm sorry, and I hope you know that your voice is important to us," she tells him. Luke shrugs.

"It's not my fault that you're a dumb bi-" Before he can finish his sentence, Jinx snaps. She walks up to him and slaps him neatly. While this would have been no problem in her civilian form-while very out of character- she's forgotten about the claws on the tips of her gloves. Claws that have left a long scratch down his face. She pales.

"Crap." Luke howls.

"I'll have you reported, arrested! Assault!"

"Who'll believe you? Besides, you technically assaulted me as well- that wasn't a consensual kiss," she says calmly- more calmly than she feels. Luke looks at both superheroes glaring at him and backs down.

"Fine- but I won't forgotten about this," he grumbles.

"Neither will I. Catch you later!" she calls, pulling a staff and jumping off the roof, her staff catching her. She leaps away and it's just Luckybug and Luke. Luckybug doesn't stick around.

"Bug out!" he says, whipping his yoyo out and slinging away. Luke's left alone on the roof. Still angry, he slinks away to tend to his wounds.


Apollo nudges Percy again.

"Look who's back- and still not next to Luke," he says, motioning to Ethan, who's sitting cautiously near Persephone, who's chattering on to him about something. Percy smirks.

"Guess he got tired of Luke's BS," he says. Apollo laughs in agreement.

"Speaking of- dude has has a wicked scratch." Percy takes another look and yes, Jinx's scratch has formed into a long, enflamed scratch across his face.

"Guess he's gotten what he's deserved. Not such a pretty boy now, eh?" he snarks. Apollo guffaws and in front of him, Annabeth turns to see Luke's scratch as well. A little smile spread across her face and Percy catches her eyes, winking. She blushes and turns back around and Percy smiles too, for no particular reason. It's just been a good day.


A/N: I bring you a new chapter, on Election Day for us Americans! I think this is a good time to make a statement: I'm never going to bring my personal politics into your reading. You came here to get away from the real world for a little bit and I'm not going to force it onto you. Any statements the characters make will be what I think they would say given their situation and personality, not necessarily statements I agree or disagree with. Have a good Election Day for those 17 and under or those who aren't voting, and I hope you aren't waiting too long for those 18+. And just have a good day for those who aren't American! Thanks for reading!