Juleka stared at the creature-the kwami- for several seconds with a confused look on her face. "Superhero?"
"Yes!" Tikki exclaimed. "With my help, you'd be granted the power of creation!"
Juleka frowned as she remembered something. "You said, you said the miraculouses were only brought out if danger arose. I- Is Paris in danger?"
Tikki's smiling face was replaced with concern. "Well, we're not too sure. But the person who is in charge of all the kwamis feels that there is something coming, and something big. Handing out the two miracluouses is a precaution that he took."
"Miraculouses? There's more than just the earrings?"
"I shouldn't reveal too much... but I can tell you that you won't be alone. You should have a partner eventually."
Juleka hummed. Another superhero to work with? A new danger in Paris? This whole situation was a lot to take in.
Tikki noticed the girl's worried expression and tried to comfort her, "Don't worry, Juleka. Everything will work out the way it's meant to."
Juleka paused for a second, then asked, "What's the transformation phrase again?"
Tikki's smile grew. "Spots on."
Juleka took a deep breath.
"Spots on."
Do not look down do not look down do not look down.
Juleka did not enjoy flying through the air, especially while using a yo-yo (of all things, why did it have to be a flimsy yo-yo?) that felt like it might snap any second. Yes, Tikki had assured her that it was much stronger than a regular yo-yo, but the fear was still very much there.
She sighed with relief as she landed safely on a rooftop. She would definitely prefer to be on the ground, but she didn't want to reveal herself to all of Paris just yet.
"Hey, I think I'm getting the hang of this!"
Juleka jumped with surprise as she heard the voice near her.
But how exactly could she hear someone who sounded relatively close when she was so high up?
The voice appeared behind her, saying, "You must be the partner my kwami told me about!"
She turned around and saw the voice belonged to a boy in a leather cat suit (this day really keeps getting stranger, doesn't it?) who had his hand out for her to shake. She took his offered hand with a small, "Yeah, that's me."
"My name's, uh..." He paused for a moment, thinking, then said, "Chat Noir! What about you?"
Juleka blinked. She hadn't really thought about taking on a new name as her superhero persona. "Um... Conccinelle?" She offered.
His smile grew wider. "Cool! Nice to meet you, Miss Conccinelle."
She started to say, "You too," until the both of them turned to a crash sounding nearby.
"Well, looks like it's time to shine!" Chat Noir exclaimed, and took off toward her school's stadium where the sound had came from.
"Wait, I- uh..." Juleka hesitated, before taking off after him.
"Alya, are you crazy?!" Marinette dashed after her friend who was following the villainized version of their classmate, Ivan.
"Maybe a little! But girl, when there's a supervillain, who always shows up? Superheros! And I'm going to be the first one to catch an interview with them," Alya ran to the entrance of the stadium, where Ivan was stomping after Kim.
"Who's the baby now, Kim?" Ivan questioned the scared jock, who had tripped whilst running away.
"Ivan, don't do this!" Marinette exclaimed, accidentally revealing her and Alya's hiding spot.
He frowned, then said, "It's not Ivan anymore. I'm Stoneheart!" He once again reached down for Kim, but was surprised to see him no longer there.
"WHERE DID HE GO?" Stoneheart shouted.
"Sorry about that, big guy. We can't have you hurting any civilians." A boy had appeared at the opposite end of the stadium. "Right, Conccinelle?" He looked around, but whoever he was expecting wasn't there. The boy frowned.
"Is he dressed up as a cat?" Alya questioned. Marinette shrugged. She wasn't too sure what was going on.
Suddenly, a red and black spotted yo-yo wrapped around Stoneheart's arm, and tugged it forward. Everyone in the stadium looked over at the girl it came from.
Marinette supposed this was the Conccinelle the boy was talking about. She had a red and black polka dotted suit, with with something black hanging off her shoulders and hips; they kinda looked like wings. Her boots just came up over her knees, and her dark hair was tied back in a bun.
Stoneheart frowned, then yanked the arm that was captured by the yo-yo. Conccinelle flew through the air with a squeal, until eventually releasing the monster's arm from her yo-yo's hold. The boy rushed over to catch the superhero, then set her back on the ground.
He told her, "The object has to be in his left hand. It's the only hand in a fist, and there's no where else he could have it."
Conccinelle nodded, then yelled, "Lucky Charm!" She threw her yo-yo up into the air, where a suit magically appeared. The two supers stared at it, baffled.
"This is what the Lucky Charm gave you? How's that supposed to help?" The cat-boy asked.
Conccinelle frowned and looked around the stadium, looking just as confused as her partner.
The cat whispered something to the girl, then rushed towards Stoneheart. The monster reached to grab him, but the boy extended his staff and catapulted out of his reach. He did this several times, and it clicked in Marinette's mind that he was distracting the monster.
He landed next to her and Alya, and when he saw them, his eyes widened. "What are you to doing? Get out of here, it's not safe!" He said, then catapulted away once more.
Marinette turned to grab Alya's arm, focused on following the superhero's instructions, but tripped on something. She turned around to see what she tripped on: a water spout. Her eyes widened as a plan came to mind.
"Conccinelle!" She yelled. The girl looked in their direction, and Marinette waved her over. Conccinelle glanced at her partner, then ran over to where the two were hiding.
"Are- Are either of you hurt?" She asked.
Marinette paused at the familiarity of her voice, but shook her head slightly and moved on.
"I have a plan."
Conccinelle dragged the suit over to the opposite end of the stadium. She looked to the other end and saw Marinette giving her a thumbs up.
It was go time.
"Hey Stoneface!" Marinette yelled. The monster took his attention off of Chat Noir who was still distracting him and turned to frown at her. "Can't catch me!" She took off running, but wasn't fast enough to get away. Stoneheart grabbed her with his right hand.
Conccinelle could hear a yell come from someone, but she wasn't sure from who exactly.
She took a deep breath then ran up to Stoneheart. It was now or never, she supposed. She swung her yo-yo around the monster's right hand and propelled herself upward. Releasing her yo-yo's hold on Stoneheart, she prepared herself to be grabbed, and Stoneheart took the bait.
Contrary to popular belief, being held in a giant hand made of rocks was not very comfortable.
She heard Marinette call out to Alya, "Now!" Alya turned the dial on the spout, and the suit in Conccinelle's hold started quickly filling up. The suit burst when it couldn't hold any more water, making Stoneheart drop Conccinelle, the suit, and the akumatized object: a balled-up piece of paper.
Conccinelle rolled onto the ground, grabbed the piece of paper, then tossed it to Chat Noir, calling out his name.
Chat yelled, "Cataclysm!" as the paper was mid-air. As he caught it, it disintegrated and released a dark purple butterfly.
Conccinelle saw it, and remembered what Tikki had told her earlier. She grabbed her yo-yo and captured the akuma inside of it. She waited a moment, then released it, amazed when it came out white. She took the lucky charm then threw it up in the air, calling out, "Miraculous Ladybug!"
Marinette cried out as Stoneheart turned back into Ivan, releasing her from his hold and sending her racing toward the ground.
Luckily, though, the superhero, now known as Chat Noir, raced over and caught her in his arms. She breathed a sigh of relief once he placed her on the ground.
Marinette looked over at Conccinelle, who was placing Ivan back on the ground and comforting him. The girl looked over at her and smiled, thankful for her help.
"Okay, what you did was incredibly smart, so thank you for that, but that was also incredibly stupid of you."
She looked back over at Chat Noir, who was staring at her with a stern look on his face.
"What?" She asked him, incredulous.
"You put yourself in harm's way!" He exclaimed. "Don't you realize how dangerous that was?"
"You put yourself in danger too," she pointed out, but he shook his head at her.
"I'm a superhero, this suit gives me protection. You don't have that; you could've gotten really hurt."
She was about to retort back, but saw the worried look on his face and closed her mouth. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."
He relaxed a bit. "Good." With a little salute to her, he ran off to check on his partner.
Just then, Alya ran over to her. "Girl, that was awesome! You were fighting a villain with the superheroes!"
"I was just helping them," she said humbly. "They looked a little lost."
"Still, Mari, that was so cool!" Alya was practically bouncing with excitement. "I have to get an interview with them before they leave." She dashed off, leaving Marinette by herself.
Stoneheart was defeated, but something still felt a little off.
Conccinelle swung back into her room on Liberty, her mom's houseboat. Her earrings beeped, then a bright pink flash filled the room, leaving Juleka standing where Conccinelle once was.
"Your first fight went fantastically!" Tikki cried as Juleka handed her a cookie. "How did it feel?"
Juleka worried her lip in thought. "I felt different, I guess. I- I felt stronger, somehow."
"That's the Miraculous working its magic! Along with giving you the power of creation, it also gives you superhuman strength!"
The girl hesitated, "There was also a... a bad feeling." Tikki frowned, then gestured for her to go on. "I can't really explain it. It just felt like, like I didn't really belong there, in the battle."
Tikki pursed her lips, but said nothing. She knew why the young ladybug was feeling like this. Juleka wasn't truly meant to have the ladybug miraculous. With a bit of work, she would be a decent, maybe great, Miraculous holder, but there was someone out there who the Ladybug Miraculous was meant for. Someone who would handle the responsibility better. Not that Juleka wasn't a good holder, though. Tikki had a few different Miraculouses in mind that would suit the girl well, but the Ladybug wasn't one.
Tikki just hoped that this situation, while not ideal, would eventually sort itself out.
Hello, Ali here! Just here to say that I know Stoneheart took up two separate battles canonically, but A) I'm not the best at writing battle scenes, and B) it helped with the story moving smoothly to just make it one battle.
This was the last part of the prologue. Let me know what you think!
-Ali