Before you start reading, I would like to point out this. I changed a bunch of the original dialog, added in some more dialog, and had a bunch of mentions to things I'm planning on adding on in the future. I'm not going to say anymore than that until the bottom.
I would like to thank Atea1793 for pointing out how the breaks were missing. When I was adding the breaks in, I noticed how I forgot to replace '(name)' with an actual name for Adrien's chef, so thanks for alerting me to the problem!
...
"Marinette, time to wake up! Your alarm stopped going off ten minutes ago!" Marinette heard her mom yell from the kitchen.
"I'm coming, mammon!" Marinette called down, sleepily. Moving to run her fingers through her hair in an attempt to untangle it a bit before getting dressed, she groaned after noticing that she had left her hair in pigtails before going to sleep yet again. She knew that with how tight she had made the hair ties yesterday along with the fact that she slept with them in would mean that her head would be aching there for hours.
After climbing down to the lower level of her bedroom, she opened up one of her windows and stuck her hand out to feel the temperature, not fully trusting the weather app she had on her phone with the app proving on multiple occasions that it's not very accurate. Feeling that it was still only a little chilly, she started to get dressed for the school day.
Walking over to her closet, she threw on a pale pink short sleeve with a black jacket she'd just finished making a couple of days ago and a pair of dark wash jeans and a pair of pink flats. After she was dressed, she climbed back up to the level her bed's on so she could brush her hair real quick and put a couple of her hair ties on her wrist in case she felt like her hair was starting to get annoying at any point in the day.
"Morning." She said, walking into the kitchen.
"Good morning, Marinette. Did you sleep well last night last night, or did you end up staying up all night finishing one of your projects again?" She heard her dad ask as she sat down on one of the stools by the kitchen counter.
"I might have had a better sleep last night if I hadn't forgotten to take my pigtails out." Marinette said as she poured some chocolate milk into her bowl of frosted flakes cereal.
"Are you excited for the new school year?" Marinette's mom asked.
"Kind of, but knowing my luck, Chloe will probably end up being in the same classes as me again." Marinette said, placing the milk down.
'If so, that's four years in a row. Is that really possible?" Sabine asked.
"Anything's possible when Chloe's involved. Lucky me."
"Oh don't say that. There's always a chance for you two to be placed in different classes. I'm sure everything will turn out fine." Sabine said as Marinette placed the chocolate milk jug back onto the table, starting a chain reaction that ended up with flour, plain milk, and butter all over the table.
"Doesn't look like a very good start to me." Marinette said, helping her mom clean up the mess she'd made, somewhat glad that none of it had gotten on her clothes.
"Papa, these look great!" Marinette said, looking at the macarons her dad had made for her class as part of a tradition they had for the beginning of every school year.
"I'm glad you like them, sweetheart!" Tom said.
"You're the best!" Marinette said, jumping up to wrap her arms around her dad's neck, making her dad drop the macaron box out of surprise, only to catch it with his foot.
"We're the best, thanks to your design idea!" Tom said, showing off the bakery logo on the underside of the lid.
"It's so cool they managed to do that!" Marinette said, seeing how the symbol would either blend in with the lid or appear a golden color depending on how the light hit it.
"I'll see you and mammon tonight!" Marinette said, grabbing the box after her dad closed it up and rushed out the door.
Once out the door, Marinette gasped in shock after spotting an elderly man struggling to reach his cain in the middle of the road. Looking around quickly, she realized two things.
One. She was the only person to notice the man, with everyone else too busy staring at their phones.
And two, there was a car speeding right in his direction. With how fast it was going, the chances of it stopping in time were slim to none.
Before she even realized that she'd done it, Marinette dropped her macaron box, ran out towards the man and helped him up after picking up his cain and dragged him to the side of the road he'd appeared to have been going before he fell. The same side of the street that she'd dropped her macarons on.
"Thank you miss. Oh my, what a disaster!" The man said, noticing her macaroons.
"It's alright. I'm anything but a stranger to disasters." Marinette said, bending down to quickly pick up as many of the macarons as she could before people ended up stepping on them all.
"Would you like one?" Marinette asked, holding the box out to the man seeing that she would still have plenty of macarons left for her new class.
"Thank you." He said, grabbing one. "Mmmh. Pistachio!"
"Sorry if I seem like I'm advertising, but if you want more, my parents own the bakery, right on the corner. My dad's the one that made them." Marinette said, pointing towards her parent's bakery.
"I'll make sure to keep that in mind." He said, as Marinette heard the school bell go off.
"Oh crap, I'm late!" Marinette said, running across the street.
"How is it that I live right across the street, yet I'm always late to school?!" Marinette asked herself, running up the steps and into the school entrance.
...
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng." She heard an oh, so familiar voice say.
"I knew it." Marinette muttered as she heard the teacher, who according to the name on the board was Miss Bustier, ask Nino if he could sit in the front of the class.
"That's my seat." Chloe told Marinette, placing a hand on the table.
"Chloe, I've always sat in this spot of the classroom. You of all people should know this." Marinette said.
"Not anymore! New school and new year, so that means new seats!" Marinette heard Sabrina, the glasses wearing red head that always followed Chloe around, say as she sat in the empty spot next to Marinette and started pushing her out of her spot with her feet.
"Why don't you just go down there and sit next to that new girl instead? A friend of mine is starting in this school this year and I'm saving this spot for him." Chloe said, swiping Marinette's stuff off the table before pointing at the spot in front of where Marinette had previously been sitting.
"This is my seat, so that's going to be his seat. Get it?"
"Any friend of yours is probably rude like you too." Marinette said, bending down to pick up her books and folders.
"Hey, who died and made you Queen of Seating?"
"Oh, look, Sabrina. It appears as if we've got ourselves a do-gooder in our class this year!" Chloe said, laughing. "What are you gonna do? Shoot laser beams at me out of those glasses of yours?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?" The brown and red haired new girl said, bending down to help Marinette pick up her stuff.
"Come on, girl." The brown-red haired girl said, dragging Marinette to where she was sitting.
"Sorry!" Marinette called to the teacher when she tripped, dropping and breaking all but two of the macarons.
"Chillax, girl! It's not that big of a deal." The new girl said, helping Marinette quickly pick up the macarons.
"I really wish I could handle Chloe the way you do." Marinette said, sitting down as the teacher checked to make sure all of the students found a place to sit.
"You mean the way Majestia does it." The red head said, unlocking her phone.
"She says that the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for the good people to do nothing." The red head said, showing Marinette the image of a blonde, female comic book character she had for her phone's background. "That girl over there is evil and people like us are good, so we shouldn't let her get away with it."
"Well, that's easier said than done. She loves making my life miserable and her father's been the mayor for as long as I can remember."
"She makes your life miserable because you let her do that, girl! You just need to find your confidence! Who cares if her dad is the mayor?"
"Pretty much everyone." Marinette said, watching as the last two macarons slid around in the open box as she moved it.
"I'm Marinette." She said, taking one of the two macarons and handing them to the red head.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Marinette. I'm Alya." The new girl, Alya, said, taking the offered macaroon.
"Adrien, please! Reconsider this! You know what your father wants for you!" Adrien heard Nathalie yell out the window of the car as he ran towards the high school.
"This is what It's my life, so I'm going to start taking more control over it!" Adrien yelled as he stopped in front of the school, noticing that an elderly man had fallen and was reaching for his cane.
Adrien looked between the school doors and the man, trying to decide between helping the man with his cain or walking through the school doors and gaining a bit of freedom from his father, before making up his mind.
"Right now, all I want is to go to school like everyone else instead of spending all day at home. I don't see what's so wrong about that." Adrien said, helping the man up.
"Please don't tell my father about me trying to do this." Adrien said, looking up to see that Nathalie was standing in front of the school steps, blocking him from walking inside before going to sit in the back seat of the car.
"Kim!" Marinette heard Ivan, who she's known since fifth grade, yell, scaring her and forcing her to peel her eyes away from the blond teen and the two adults outside.
"What on Earth is going on?!" Miss Bustier said as the bell rang, marking the end of homeroom.
"It's Kim! I'm gonna get you for saying that!" Kim said, raising his hand back in a fist and punching Kim in the eye.
"You, principal's office! Now!" Miss Bustier said, pointing towards Ivan and the classroom door.
"Now that problem is handled for now, if you have gym, Mr. D'Argencourt is expecting you in the courtyard by the school entrance. For everyone else, head to the library. The entrance is by the bathrooms on the first floor. It shouldn't be too hard to find." Miss Bustier said as the students started putting their stuff away for the next class. Marinette looked out the window just in time to see the blond teen climb into the car before it drove away.
"Ah!" Marinette yelled, jumping in shock as she felt everything around her shake. Curious about what was going on, she looked to the muted TV that was playing the news in the school's library. There was a giant stone monster running around Paris.
"Come on!" Alya yelled, grabbing Marinette's hand and pulling her towards the library's exit.
"I'm going to stay here for a bit before heading home. I don't live far from here." Marinette said, taking her hand out of Alya's grasp.
"Girl, you really need a confidence boost." Alya said, seeing the scared look on Marinette's face.
"KIIIIIM!" They heard the stone creature yell.
"Alya, that was Ivan's voice!"
"Who's Ivan again?" Alya asked confused.
"He's the one Miss Bustier sent to see Principle Damocles earlier!" Marinette said, running to the window.
"Oh crap!" Alya said, looking out the window. "He's been turned into a supervillain! GPS, check. Battery, check. Sorry about this girl, but I've got to go!"
"What are you doing?!" Marinette asked out of fear, seeing how Alya was running towards the library door again.
"If there's a supervillain, then a superhero is bound to show up eventually! I was born too late to catch any footage of the previous group, so there's no way I'm missing this!" Alya said, pausing just long enough to tell Marinette that before leaving the room.
Looking back at the TV screen, Marinette saw Ivan-Turned-Stone-Monster pick up a car and throw it at the camera, making Marinette wince when the footage cut out.
She decided to wait a few more minutes before running home to her family's bakery across the street.
...
"Who was the first president of the fifth French Republic?" Adrien heard Nathalie ask.
"Everyone thinks it was De Gaulle, but it was actually Rene Coty before the first elections." He said in a bored tone, resting his cheek on his hand, having been all but forced to memorize that answer over a year ago and being asked it once every month since.
"Very good, Adrien." Nathalie said as Adrien heard the dinning room door open up. Looking over to the dining room entrance, Adrien's eyes widened in shock for a couple of seconds out of shock of seeing his father. That was the first time he'd seen his father out of his office since his mother disappeared a few months ago.
"Give me a moment with my son, will you, Nathalie?" He heard his father ask.
"Very well, sir." Nathalie said before leaving the room and shutting the door behind her.
"You are not to go to school. The outside world is too dangerous for you. I've already told you this countless times. Your mother spent a lot of her time out there and look what happened. She's gone." Gabriel told Adrien. Adrien couldn't help but imagine that flames would be bursting out of his father's eyes if this were like any of the anime's he's watched based off of how angry his father sounded at him.
"But father-!"
"No, I'm talking right now. I want you right here where I can keep an eye on you. Everything you could ever want is right here within these walls. I will not stand having you out there!"
"It's not that dangerous, Father, and I don't have everything I want here. I want to go to a normal school and make friends like everyone else my age."
"Don't you talk to me like that. You are not like everyone else, you are my son! Because of what you did, you will be spending the rest of the day locked in your room and I'll be sure to have Simon stand guard out front your door." Adrien heard his father say before walking out the dining room.
Picking up his history book off the table and throwing it towards the other end of the table as hard as he could.
"Adrien, your father wants you to -" "Go to my room. I know." Adrien said to Nathalie before running towards his room and slamming the door shut. Alone, he slid down to the floor while his back was pressed against the wall and didn't try to fight it as his anger turned to sadness and made him cry.
"What on Earth?" Adrien asked, standing up to walk towards his window after hearing loud thumping from outside.
Wiping the tears off his face, he looked out the window and saw a giant stone creature.
"Ready? Fire!" He heard one of the cops yell. Adrien's eyes widened in shock as the police's shots just made the thing grow bigger. Looking around, Adrien quickly found the remote for his TV and changed the channel to the news.
"I'm asking all Parisians to stay inside until this situation is under control." He saw Chloe's dad say before the feed switched back to the news station.
"As amazing as it seems, it's just been officially confirmed that Paris is, in fact, being attacked by a supervillain for the first time in over ten years. The police have been struggling to keep the situation under control with the stone creature absorbing all of their attacks."
"What's that doing here?" Adrien asked himself, noticing a small, black, hexagonal shaped box with bright green lettering. Curious about what was inside, he picked it up and opened it.
...
"I hate first days back at school." Marinette said, after hearing what Nadja Chamack, her mom's friend and mother of the girl she often babysits, say before turning back to the lunch she'd brought up from the kitchen.
"What is that?" Marinette asked herself, seeing a black, hexagonal shaped box with pink lettering. Not recognizing the box, she opened it up thinking that it might have been something from one of her parents.
...
Adrien dropped the box and covered his eyes out of shock of seeing a bright green ball, the same green as the lettering, float out of the box.
After the light dimmed down, he uncovered his eyes and saw a black cat-like creature not much bigger than the size of his hand yawn and stretch its limbs much like the cat it resembled.
"Are you like the Genie In The Lamp?" Adrien asked, remembering the Disney movie him and his mother would often watch together before her disappearance.
"Nope! However, I have met him once. So what if he grants three wishes? Big deal, I'm way better company than him!" The cat-like being said, startling Adrien. Sure, he'd technically asked if it, or him based off of the voice, if he was like the Genie, but that didn't mean he was expecting an answer.
"I'm Plagg. Nice to meet you! Oooh, what's this?!" Adrien heard the cat being, Plagg, say before flying off towards the foozeball table and tried to chew off the head of one of the plastic men.
"Wait, get back here!" Adrien said, jumping over his couch and cringing at the loud crash he made thanks to miscalculating the jump, hoping that Simon wouldn't be able to hear anything that was going on inside.
"What's this? Can you eat it?" Adrien heard Plagg say. Looking towards the direction of the voice, he saw that the cat being was now trying to eat the control stick to one of his video games.
"Don't do that!" Adrien said, standing up and running towards Plagg.
"Bummer, you can't. What about this?!" Plagg said, flying off in another direction just in time to avoid Adrien grabbing him. Giving up on chasing the being, Adrien sat down on the floor, using the game Plagg had just tried to eat as a back rest, and decided to just wait until the being was finished trying to eat everything. He'd realize sooner or later that there was nothing edible in the room.
...
"Eek!" Marinette said, hiding behind her computer chair after seeing a ball of light the same color as the lettering on the lid of the box fly up from inside after she opened it.
"It's a bug! A mouse! A bug-mouse!" Marinette said, moving to run up towards her bed after seeing a red creature with a black dot on its forehead appear.
"Everything will be okay, you just need me to explain." Marinette heard the creature say, in a high pitched, feminine voice, freaking her out even more.
"Gah! Bug-mouse talks!" Marinette yelled, throwing her pillows at it.
"Listen, Marinette! I know everything may seem a bit strange to you… Alright. If that makes you feel safer." Tikki said looking around at the glass cup Marinette had trapped her in.
"What are you and how do you know my name?" Marinette asked.
"My name's Tikki and I'm a Kwami, now may I please explain what you need to know?"
"Mom! Dad!" Marinette yelled, reaching for the latch of her trap door.
"No, no, no!" Tikki said, flying through the glass before floating in front of Marinette's face. "I'm your friend, Marinette! You're the only one who's able to stop Stoneheart!"
"Stoneheart?"
"That's what the stone being you've probably seen is calling himself. He's one of the creations of the Butterfly Miraculous's current user who, unfortunately, seemed to have fallen in the wrong hands yet again. Now, if you'll pay attention, I'll explain to you how to stop the Butterfly's Champion."
"This has got to be some sort of mistake. The only superpower I could have is super-awkwardness… I know! Alya would know what to do! She's a new friend of mine, at least I hope she is. She loves superheroes, so she'd definitely be up for the job! You should go see her about it instead!"
"No! Bad idea! Who knows what could happen if the Ladybug Miraculous were to fall into the hands of someone not meant to wear it! You're the chosen one, so you're the only one who would be able to use it without a problem! The only other person who would be able to wear the Ladybug Miraculous is the chosen bearer of the Black Cat Miraculous, and the same goes for you with theirs!"
"So what do I have to do then?" Marinette said, realizing that she appeared to not have a choice.
...
"I still don't know what you're doing here." Adrien said, watching Plagg tear up a roll of his toilet paper.
"Look kid, I'm a Kwami. I grant the power of destruction to whoever wears the Miraculous I'm bonded to. Understand?"
"Uh-uh." Adrien said, shaking his head.
"Well, can't say I didn't try. Now, do you have anything to eat around here? I'm starving!"
'This has got to be some sort of joke. Dad maybe?' Adrien thought. 'Wait, no. It couldn't be! He has no sense of humor!'
"Oh, I almost forgot! No one can ever know I exist, not even your parents!"
"My mom's missing, probably dead even, and my dad probably forgets I even exist most the time unless I do something that he disproves of, so why would I tell him? You have nothing to worry about." Adrien told the Kwami.
"Kid, I'm sorry. I had no clue." Adrien heard Plagg say as look of shock and sadness, pity maybe, crossed over his face.
"Well, things will be getting better for you after this, if I have anything to say about it!"
"What do you mean?"
"I don't just grant you the power of destruction. I can also give you the ability to turn into a superhero. Or villain, depending on what your intentions are, but please don't do that. The Miraculous weren't intended for evil and I still get nightmares about that time someone decided to use me for evil reasons."
"You can make me a superhero?" Adrien asked, making a mental note to see if it was safe to ask Plagg about some other time.
"Yep!"
"But I'm stuck here! I'm not allowed outside the property unless my father allows it, not to mention how I'm not allowed to even go to a regular school! What good is a superhero if their own house is a prison to them?"
"Nothing. That's why I said things are going to be changing for the better! Something tells me you and your partner will get along great. Most ladybug and ladybugs do. If you're willing for there to be a change, just put on the ring and say 'Claws Out'! That's how you transform. You should find the ring in the box."
"Got it." Adrien said, putting the ring on. "Plagg, Claws Out!"
"Wait! I didn't explain everything you need to know yet!"
"Woah!" Adrien said, excitedly, as he felt a strong wind and saw the same green light from earlier cover his body.
...
"So, all I have to do is break the object where the demon is hiding?" Marinette asked, putting on the red earrings with five black dots, watching in the mirror as they changed to match the same color as her hair.
"It's called an Akuma, not a demon. You need to capture and purify it otherwise the situation will get worse than it already is."
"Akuma and demon mean the same thing, the only difference is what language you use. Other than that, I got it! Capture it, and what's that charm thing again?"
"Your Lucky Charm. It's one of your superpowers! Only use it when you feel like you absolutely need to. After you use it, you'll only have five minutes before you change back. Also, seeing as how these Akumas are just butterflies the bad guy is using to control and give powers to angry and upset people, it's not a demon."
"This is all going too fast for me Tikki. I don't think I'll be able to pull this off." Marinette said, sitting down on her computer chair.
"You can do it, Marinette! I believe in you, so now all you need to do is start believing in yourself too!" Tikki said. "All you need to do in order to transform is say 'Spots On'."
"Spots on?" Marinette asked Tikki, making sure she heard correctly.
"Tikki, what's going on?" Marinette asked scared as the same pink light she saw earlier surrounded her as she felt what seemed like a strong wind blowing around her.
"How does this thing come off?" Marinette asked, trying to find the edge to her gloves and boots, or even a zipper somewhere.
"Tikki, if you can hear me, I would like my normal clothes back! I'm not going anywhere unless I have them back!"
"Stoneheart is heading towards the Montparnasse tower. The monster seems to be unstoppable!"
"Oh no. Alya!" Marinette said, seeing Alya chasing Stoneheart on a bike.
"Marinette, did you get home alright?" Marinette heard her mom say.
"Yes, Mammon! I have my door locked though! I'm working on something for you and Papa's anniversary!" Marinette said, realizing that she would actually end up having to start working on something for their wedding anniversary, while quietly locking her door so there would be at least some truth to what she was saying.
"Alright, dear. I'll leave you to it!" Marinette let out a sigh of relief as she climbed up to her bedroom's balcony.
"Okay, so I have special powers now. And this yoyo that's supposed to act as my weapon?" Marinette asked herself, swinging it around before accidentally letting go.
"Really?" Marinette asked, watching as it flew out and got itself wrapped around the head of a gargoyle. She pulled the end that was still in her hands in hopes that it would come loose, only to squeal in surprise as she went flying off.
...
"I think I'm finally getting the hang of this." Adrien said as he walked across his baton that he'd extended between two buildings. Hearing someone above him screaming, he looked up to see some dark haired girl in a red and black suit come flying towards him.
"Well, it sure was nice of you to drop in on me." Adrien joked, looking at the girl he was currently trapped hanging upside down with, due to the both of them being wrapped up in some sort of wire.
"Ow." They said as the two of them ended up falling on their heads.
"I'm so sorry about this. I didn't mean for this to happen really." She said, helping him up.
"It's alright. I bet you're the partner my Kwami told me about." He said, noticing the pattern of her suit, remembering how Plagg mentioned his partner being a ladybug.
"I'm… Chat Noir. Yeah. Chat Noir. And you are?" Chat Noir, according to what he'd just told his new partner, asked, rubbing where he hit his head, hopping that a knot wouldn't form. That would be a hard thing to explain away to his father. Well, more-so whoever was the first to notice and then his father later on.
"I'm Ma… ugh! Mar... Whoops." He heard the red and black clad girl say as she loosened the wire they'd gotten trapped in, which was apparently part of a yoyo, from his baton then hit him on the head, in the same spot he'd landed on.
"Sorry. I'm a walking disaster that tends to mess stuff up a lot, which is why I find it very ironic that I got the ladybug."
"No need to worry about it. I'm still learning the ropes too." He said before the two of them heard a bunch of rumbling. They looked over to where the sound was coming from, only to see the Montparnasse Tower fall down.
"Where are you going?" Chat Noir heard his partner ask after he made his way back up to the roof he was on earlier.
"To save Paris! That's what we're supposed to do, remember?" Chat said. Noticing the nervous look on her face, he climbed back down.
"I can tell you're scared, but look on the bright side. At least you're not doing this alone, right?"
"Yeah. That would be really bad. I… I'll follow you to where the Akuma is, but don't be surprised if I chicken out."
"Alright, but when you say Akuma, what did you mean by that exactly?" He asked, gaining a confused look from her.
...
"Well, it sure was nice of you to drop in on me." She heard a boy say in a joking tone. Opening her eyes, she met the face of a boy with blond hair and emerald green cat-like eyes. She ended up letting go of the handle part of her yoyo, both out of shock from seeing cat eyes on a person, who appeared to be a boy around her age, and from wanting to get untangled from the yoyo's string.
'Wire would probably be a bit more accurate.' Marinette thought as she apologized for getting the two of them wrapped up, along with making him hit his head.
"It's alright. You're probably the partner my Kwami told me about." She heard him say.
'Tikki never mentioned me having a partner.' Marinette thought, a bit relieved that she wouldn't have to stop Ivan, well Stoneheart to be more accurate according to what Tikki said about the Champions.
"I'm… Chat Noir. Yeah. Chat Noir. And you are?" She heard him ask as she started to get her yoyo, and what she guessed was his baton, down.
"I'm Ma… ugh!" She yelled, tugging as hard as she could, while hoping that she wouldn't go flying off like last time.
"Mar… Whoops." She said as she freed the yoyo, only for it to land hard on his head. "I'm a walking disaster that tends to mess stuff up a lot, which is why I find it very ironic that I got the ladybug."
"No need to worry about it. I'm still learning the ropes too." She heard him say. Based off of the tone of his voice when he said it, Marinette knew that he was telling the truth.
Noticing that he'd quickly made his way up to a roof, Marinette asked him where he was going. When he reminded her of how they were supposed to be saving Paris, the whole reason why they were given the Miraculouses in the first place, she felt terrified. Based off of how he was currently walking over towards her, Marinette had to guess that it showed too.
"I can tell you're scared, but look on the bright side. At least you're not doing this alone, right?" She heard Chat Noir ask. The reminder that she wouldn't be alone like she'd previously thought was reassuring and made her feel a bit braver about what they had to do.
"Yeah. That would be really bad. I… I'll follow you to where the Akuma is, but don't be surprised if I chicken out." Marinette warned her partner, still feeling nervous about the whole idea of saving the city they called home.
"Alright, but when you say Akuma, what do you mean by that exactly?" I heard Chat Noir ask.
'What else did his Kwami forget to explain?' I thought, swinging after him.
...
"KIIIIIMM! So who's the wuss now?!" The two of them heard as soon as they reached the stadium, after following the trail of destruction Stoneheart caused while heading there.
"Hey, it's not very nice to pick on people who are smaller than you!"
"I guess you're talking about yourself!" Marinette heard after making it to the top of the stadium. Taking one look at Stoneheart, she froze. She knew that every hit he took only made him bigger, but she wasn't really expecting him to be almost two or three times the size of when she first spotted him on the TV in the school's library.
"Where are you, partner?!" She heard Chat Noir call out to her after he hit Stoneheart with his baton, only succeeding in making him grow a bit bigger.
"What are you waiting for? The world is watching you!" She heard a familiar voice say. Looking in the direction it came from, she saw Alya recording with her phone. Seeing Stoneheart throw Chat Noir, she quickly calculated where he might end up landing. The result? Not good. A broken water pipe that was torn out of the ground and, if he did land on it, would probably end up impaling him.
Knowing that he would probably be unlikely able to save himself with how fast he was flying, she swung down and caught him.
"Animal cruelty? How shameful!" She told Stoneheart with a voice of confidence, while on the inside she was freaking out.
"Sorry about how long it took for me to join the fight, Chat Noir." She said as they landed back on the ground.
"It's alright, Red Wonder. Duck!" Chat yelled, knocking the both of them over as Stoneheart threw a chunk of the stadium's seating at them.
"Red Wonder?" Marinette asked as they stood back up.
"You know, like Robin the Boy Wonder? I would have said Spotted Wonder, but that sounded weird in my head."
"Yeah, it probably should have stayed there." She agreed.
"Now, let's turn this pile of boulders into a pile of gravel!"
"Wait!" Marinette said, grabbing the part of his belt that appeared to be acting as a tail. "Haven't you noticed by now? He only gets bigger and stronger with each hit! We'll have to try something different."
"Different how?
"Um…" She said, looking over at where Stoneheart was trying to figure out where Kim had gone. "I have no clue."
"What about our powers? Apparently I have the power to destroy everything I touch. I just need to figure out how."
"You need to figure out how? Didn't your Kwami tell you anything?" Marinette asked him, while mentally yelling at herself for not realizing that his Kwami probably hadn't said much after finding out the cat themed hero didn't even know what an Akuma was.
"Only what my powers were, that I would have a partner, and how to transform. I sort of got excited about my new freedom that and transformed before he had a chance to tell me anything else."
"I guess it's up to me then." Marinette thought, while making a note to ask Chat Noir later about what exactly he'd meant by 'new freedom'.
'If anything, this feels more like a burden than freedom to me.' She thought, calling out for her Lucky Charm.
"Since you apparently don't know this, I feel it's necessary to point out that now we only have five minutes until I change back, so we better get this over with." She told her partner, looking at the red and black object she caught.
'What the heck am I supposed to do with a scuba suit?' She thought, holding it up.
"Cool superpower. And how do we stop him exactly?"
"My Kwami told me that we have to break the object the Akuma's hiding." She said.
"Well, he's made entirely out of stone. I don't see any objects on him. Unless it's disguised as one of the stones?" Chat Noir suggested, looking at his partner as she observed Stoneheart.
"Chat Noir, look at his right hand! No matter what he does, he never opens it! Not even with what I can remember from any of the news footage I saw! It's like the Russian Dolls! The object isn't on him, it's hidden inside!"
"So what's your plan then?" Chat asked.
"I got it!" Marinette said after looking around for a bit.
Walking over to the water hose that the stadium kept in case there was ever a fire, she grabbed the end of it and made sure it stayed secure inside the swim suit before tying the other four openings shut.
"Could you do me a favor?" She asked Alya, who was standing next to the hose tap.
"Sure! What do you need?"
"When I say so, could you turn the hose on for me?"
"Sounds easy enough. I don't see why not!"
"Chat Noir, do you trust me?" She asked, turning towards her partner.
"We may have only met today, but so far I haven't seen any reasons why I shouldn't. Why?" Chat Noir asked, only to find himself getting fastball specialed towards Stoneheart.
"This girl's crazy!" He yelled as he went flying towards the Akumatized villain.
"Be ready." Marinette told Alya, before running towards Stoneheart and challenging him to catch her after jumping up in the air.
"Camera girl, the tap!" She yelled after Stoneheart grabbed her, saying 'camera girl' instead of Alya's name so she wouldn't risk getting questioned about how she knew her name later on.
'This girl is awesome. She's crazy awesome!' Chat Noir thought, watching as his partner stomps on what appeared to be a jagged rock, only for it to turn into a crumpled paper ball after a black and purple butterfly flew out of it.
"Oof." Chat said, after landing on his back as what looked like a black and purple light passed over the Akumatized person, turning them back to their normal self. At least, as far as any of them could see that is.
"You were incredible, miss… uh… Bug. You did it!" Chat Noir said as he heard the previously Akumatized person ask how he'd gotten there/
"We did it, partner." Marinette said, holding up her fist for a fist bump.
"Pound it!" They both said at the same time. They both gave each other a shocked look before laughing.
"You can leave now if you feel like it. Or you could stay here and help me cheer him up." Marinette said, gesturing towards Ivan.
"I'm actually thinking of roaming the city while transformed for a bit. I should still have plenty of time until anyone notices me missing." Chat Noir said. "Something tells me that he won't be the last Akuma victim, so I guess I'll see you next time?"
"I guess so." Marinette said, watching as her new partner took off.
"Ivan, you haven't even got the guts to tell Mylene you love her, you wuss." Marinette read off the paper the butterfly had previously been inhabiting.
"Kim wrote it. He's always making fun of me." She heard Ivan say. She knew, due to a tendency to observe her other classmates when she wasn't talking to someone else or drawing new designs, that he liked Mylene. She didn't blame him for getting Akumatized like that.
"You know, you shouldn't get bent out of shape over stuff like that. There's no shame in telling someone how you feel. If you just get too nervous to tell her, then I guess you could try writing it down instead? Everyone gets nervous around their crush at some point, Ivan." She said, kneeling down and taking one of his hands in what she hoped was a comforting way.
"How did you know my name?" He asked.
"It was on the note." She said.
"Amazing, uncanny, spectacular! Are you and Chat Noir going to be the beginning of Paris's new superhero team? Are you and Chat Noir related to any of the previous heroes? If not, have you at least met any of them?" Marinette heard Alya ask, holding up her phone with the camera pointed at her.
"Um… I really hope that this situation doesn't get as serious as it has with the past heroes and villains that cause our duo to expand, but I guess Chat Noir and myself will be protecting Paris like the former heroes. Also, I can't say for sure if I am related to or have met any of the previous heroes. It is an entertaining idea though!"
"I've got plenty more questions to ask you, like for starters, what's your name?" Alya asked.
"Um, maybe you could ask me them some other time. I really need to get going." Marinette said, hearing her earrings beep their first warning.
"And you can call me Ladybug!" She said, swinging off.
...
"Thanks to this amateur footage, the people of Paris now know the identities of the city's newest heroes"
"I did it, Tikki! I can't believe I did it!" Marinette said, laughing and jumping on her bed.
"You see? I told you you were up to it!" Tikki said, happily spinning around Marinette as Marinette heard her parents call her down to dinner. On her way down however, she couldn't help but feel as if there was something she had forgotten to do.
"I am pleased to announce that we will be organizing a huge celebration in honor of the new heroes of Paris, Ladybug and Chat Noir, and all the heroes of the past!" Adrien heard Andre Bourgeois say. Thinking back to the other heroes, Adrien realized that their names weren't really that creative. At the same time though, the names always seemed to match their personalities to some extent, so he figured their names might be good enough.
"Ewww. What is this?" He heard Plagg ask after lifting up the cover of t a tray Adrien had the cook his father hired for him had brought in.
"Are you kidding me? Javier worked really hard on all of that!" Adrien said, looking at the food laid out in front of him and the Kwami.
"If you expect me to get my energy back after the transformation, then I'll need something a bit more… delicate!" Plagg told him, covering the food back up.
"Alright, fine. What do you want?" Adrien asked, picking his phone up and selecting Javier's name in his contacts.
...
"I'm home!" She called out, stepping into her front door before laughing a bit as she placed down her keys. She was currently living by herself, with her boyfriend currently visiting London, the place they once called home.
When she saw how there was a new user of the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses, she was a bit worried for the duo, remembering how she felt when she was first starting out.
Turning on the TV, she changed the channel to the news to see if there would be any updates on the duo.
"Just as Paris is about to celebrate Heroes Day thanks to the arrival of Paris's new heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, a new wave of panic is sweeping across the capital as dozens of people are transformed into copies of Stoneheart!"
"Dang it Tikki! You made her go into information overload again, didn't you?!" She asked, although she knew full well that the Kwami wouldn't hear her.
...
"Camembert cheese. That's just great. The only thing he said he likes is Camembert, which means that I'll have to smell like stinky, old cheese all the time." Adrien said, watching as Plagg shoved a whole slice of the cheese into his mouth.
"These victims transformed into the Stoneheart copies are still like statues. The police are trying to figure out if there's any way to change them back or, at the very least, move them to a safer location where they're at less risk of being hit by cars. Will these poor souls come back to life or are they doomed to be frozen in time forever?"
"Plagg, what's going on? I thought we defeated him!" Adrien said, feeling somewhat bad for the frozen people.
"Did you and Ladybug capture the Akuma? If not, that's what happened." Plagg said around a mouthful of Camembert.
"What does that have to do with the new stone beings?" He asked.
"An Akuma multiplies if it's not purified by Ladybug. Knowing her Kwami, Ladybug probably forgot due to having everything explained at once. So, just as a heads up, you'll have to defeat an army of Stonehearts the next time the original gets Akumatized."
"Well, that's just great." Adrien said with his face buried in a couch cushion.
...
"Dang it! I knew I forgot something!" Marinette screamed into her pillow.
"You'll get another chance, Marinette! Out of all the other people I've seen bear my Miraculous, you want to know how many of them never forgot anything? None. Forgetting something is something every human does." Tikki said, hugging Marinette's cheek after she moved to lay on her side.
"Seriously? All of them forgot something?"
"Yes and compared to some mistakes, what happened due to you forgetting to purify the Akuma is like a crumb compared to that cake I saw your parents working on downstairs."
"Wow. I find it hard to believe that anyone could have messed up that badly."
"You have no idea." Tikki said, a sad look on her face as she thought back to the most recent time someone had used Plagg for evil reasons and how that whole city was now at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean.
...
"Hey it's me. Did you see what just happened here?" She asked her boyfriend over her phone.
"Yeah, I saw. Do you think it's Papillon?" He asked.
"I don't know. If it is him, something must have happened to Pafagel. I hope not though. Last I heard, they had a son together."
Okay. Now that you've read it, were you able to see what I was talking about? The mentions of previous heroes and the currently unknown woman and her boyfriend? The line "a black and purple light passed over the Akumatized person, turning them back to their normal self. At least, as far as any of them could see that is"? Yeah, that's stuff I'm planning on following up on in the future. Also, the Akumas attack two or three times each week, so if you payed enough attention you'll be able to make a rough guess how long it'll be until