Chapter 2 starts from Luka Couffaine's point of view as he's practicing his guitar in the early morning. His sister, Juleka, and their mother, Anarka, enter—surprise, it's his birthday! Anarka Couffaine has a cake with lit candles, and they both sing him a rocking birthday song rendition.
Luka jokes about cake in the morning as he blows out the candles. Anarka says it's okay just this once, for his birthday. The family does, indeed, have cake for breakfast. Juleka Couffaine gives her brother a present. He opens it to find a single earcuff wolf head. He thanks her with a kiss to the forehead and puts it on immediately. Then both head off to school.
The PoV swaps to Marinette Dupin-Cheng, who encounters Marc Anciel, writing by himself. He's got zero confidence, but Marinette encourages him to show her his work anyway. She is genuinely impressed with his writing. Considering he's writing a fanfic based on Nathaniel's webcomic, and that it does have Ladybug out-of-character (to the extent fanfic Ladybug has a crush on The Mighty Illustrator), Marinette admits it's good writing and a good story. She even suggests that Marc team up with Nathaniel Kurtzberg (as she knows Nathaniel is struggling with his plotline).
While Marc Anciel genuinely wants to see his writing in comic form, he has no confidence whatsoever that Nathaniel will want to illustrate his work. Marinette encourages again, and offers to take the manuscript to Nathaniel herself to help. Marc is still wary, so Marinette suggests she submit it anonymously. That Marc does agree to.
The PoV changes to Nathaniel, who is again drawing, but this time in the art room. He's really struggling with plot. This scene allows brief cameos of background characters who become important later on (sorta like My Little Pony, where reoccurring background ponies got fleshed out by the fans. (( photos . app . goo . gl / cgLSrNi71rxfep9e8 ))(remove the spaces) shows an image I labeled as to who is named what. I hope it helps.) It might seem insignificant, but hopefully everyone can recall the background cast as needed when the time comes. They'll be introduced and fleshed out gradually.
Rose Lavillant from Miss Bustier's class is there composing (as she is a canon character), and Nicolette Lacroix from Ms. Mendeleiev's class is working on a purse she designed herself. Etienne Fontaine from Mr. Haprele's class is decorating a mirror frame but spending more time looking at his reflection. Meera Pugliese, who is also in Ms. Mendeleiev's class, is working on a very, very abstract sculpture. Nicolette occasionally glances at Etienne, but he doesn't notice her. He only has eyes for himself. Marinette enters, searching for Nathaniel. Nathaniel is surprised and happy—then surprised that he is happy. Does maybe Marinette like me? That'd be great! No, wait! I like Ladybug now. I thought I was over Marinette. But…
They make some small talk as Marinette tries to broach the subject of Marc's story, and Nathaniel does admit he's struggling. The art teacher encourages them both (Marinette in her fashion design) before attending other students. Marinette offers Marc's manuscript to Nathaniel, but she refuses to tell who wrote this. They part ways, giving Nathaniel time to read it.
Nathaniel winds up thinking it's real and that Ladybug does have a crush on him. He seeks out Marinette after school and agrees to meet "the person who wrote it." Nathaniel thinks he's meeting Ladybug and wonders if the time of him turning into Firefly is the beginning of his comic come true (even though he still has no idea how he transformed nor how to repeat it.)
Marinette relays the message to Marc, who is also thrilled.
However, things go wrong when Nathaniel realizes that Marc wrote the story, that it's just a fic. He's disappointed and heart-broken. Marc can sense that Nathaniel is distressed but still timidly asks of Nathaniel will consider illustrating his story. Nathaniel drops it in the dirt and walks away.
Marc, now depressed, winds up perfect akuma bait and turns into Reverser. His was a wish to be what he wasn't—confident, talented, respected. As Reverser, he gains the power to make people into what they aren't. Using paper airplanes, he begins to target people around the city. Marinette, who happened to be nearby watching Marc and Nathaniel, runs off and transforms into Ladybug. She calls Cat Noir (yo-yo to baton) who joins shortly after.
Nathaniel storms off and runs into Alix Kubdel. She talks him down. Nathaniel realized he made a huge mistake. As an artist, if someone threw my comics in the dirt, I'd be so upset. I owe him a huge apology. They go together to find Marc, only to walk smack dab into the middle of the fight between Reverser, Ladybug, and Cat Noir. Nathaniel shouts an apology, thinking it'd calm Reverser down. It doesn't; it only makes Nathaniel a target. Alix scolds him, telling him "you know how akumatized people are! How did you think that would go?!" Nathaniel replies that he doesn't know, he just thought it would go better, as he really doesn't remember his own time being akumatized as the Evillustrator. Alix concedes, as she also doesn't remember anything about being Time Breaker. They talk as they run back to the school. Ladybug and Cat Noir try to buy them time to escape, but both get hit by Reverser, turning Ladybug clumsy and Cat Noir afraid.
As they try to escape with Reverser gaining, Juleka and Luka Couffaine are leaving the building. Several classmates, as well as soon to be introduced characters, get hit by the paper airplanes. During this, the "Akuma Alert: Evacuate Calmly" message is playing, and at least one person mentions uploading the akuma sighting to the app. Luka manages to dodge the airplane sent after him. He grabs Juleka by the hand and runs, doing all he can to protect her first and then himself in order to escape. However, Juleka witnesses Rose getting hit. This is enough to cause Juleka to stop, getting hit by a paper airplane herself. Luka does everything he can to prevent it, but he still fails. Juleka shoves him off and strolls away, confident and cruel while Rose is belching and picking her nose. Luka upset his sister goes off the deep end, and he's frustrated as more and more people get hit—people he couldn't protect. It's noisy, loud, chaotic, and perhaps someone is even wailing on an instrument. His ear cuff sparks as this miraculous without kwami's activation also comes from element and emotion. In this case, the element is sound and the emotion is the feeling of failure.
Meanwhile, Ladybug and Cat Noir are fighting Reverser despite the handicaps they've been given. They burn through both the Lucky Charm and Cataclysm, but Reverser manages to out-maneuver both on his personal, life sized paper airplane mount. Alix tells Nathaniel they have to stop running and start helping. Nathaniel agrees.
Back to Luka Couffaine, his ear cuff sparks, and he transforms into a wolf-themed superhero. His outfit revolves around a long, black and blue trenchcoat that hides a furry black and grey tail. His natural hair grows shaggier, blending in with the fur trim on the coat to look like a mane. This also includes two wolf ears. His mask is a blue and black domino mask, and his other accessories include shin-high, studded boots, a spiked collar, and a studded leather bracelet on each arm. His weapon is a matching spear. He goes on to help other students, including Ivan Bruel and Mylene Haprele. While Luka is every bit as surprised as Nathaniel, he is much more focused on the task of rescuing people when compared to Nathaniel, who did spend some time geeking out about becoming a superhero.
With so many people affected by Reverser, they're beginning to turn on each other. Luka's new skill set includes speed and leaping. He races over and pulls Mireille Caquet away before reversed Juleka can go off on her. When Mireille asks him who he is, he gives the name Alpha. Alpha makes his way towards where Reverser is, helping people as he goes.
Back with the fight, it's led inside the school. Ladybug and Cat Noir lure Reverser to the outside courtyard and seem to be cornered; however, Alix and Nathaniel drop a net from the drama club on him. Ladybug binds him with her yo-yo (after bonking herself on the face) while Cat Noir (still afraid), goes to destroy the akuma. Both of them are getting very short on their remaining transformation countdown.
However, Reverser sees Nathaniel on the floor above and finds the strength to break free. He targets Nathaniel, but Alix takes the hit, turning her girly. Ladybug and Cat Noir are down to seconds (and have no more use of their special abilities) but go to stop Reverser anyway.
That's when a flash of black leaps on the top of the roof and lets out a very, very loud howl. Much to Ladybug and Cat Noir's surprise, their countdown gauges refill. Cat Noir asks what's going on, but by then Alpha is gone. Ladybug says not to question it and summons a second Lucky Charm.
She's able to get Reverser away from Nathaniel and trap him with the Lucky Charm object (whatever that is), while Cat Noir using Catacylsm to destroy the object holding the akuma (Marc's manuscript). Ladybug purifies it and uses her world-healing wave, which restores everyone and everything, including the manuscript.
Meanwhile, Hawk Moth expresses abject shock that the two of them could use their abilities twice.
Luka wakes up outside the school, on his back and looking at the clouds, baffled at what happened. What did I just do? Was that all real? He rejoins Juleka, and when he poorly tries to explain, she just brushes it off he must have gotten hit by Reverser like she was—that time is a bit blurry for her too. However, she does apologize and Luka tells her she has nothing to apologize for.
Ladybug hands Marc his manuscript back and wishes him luck before both she and Cat Noir leave, transform back, and return.
By then, Nathaniel has approached Marc with a sincere apology for taking out his heart-break on him. Nathaniel admits the story is so good he thought it was real and offers to partner with him, admitting he really does need help with plot. Marc accepts and the two head to the art room to work on their first chapter.
To be continued in Chapter 3: Frozer…