Chapter Two:
Marinette woke up, drenched in freezing cold water. She glanced up at her room, then at her kwami. She blanked for a moment before remembering everything that had happened.
"Tikki, how could you?" she exclaimed, shivering and attempting to pull herself up to her feet.
"It always works in the movies," Tikki shrugged, "plus I believe you were the one that suddenly decided they had a flair for the dramatic."
"Sorry about that."
"Well, you're going to have to get over your apparent fear of fetching me pastries since now I'm even more hungry."
"Right, I'll go do that," Marinette told her before opening her trapdoor and walking down the stairs to the bakery. At least nothing had changed there, she thought, before accidentally slipping and falling down the stairs.
When she was on her own two feet again, brushing herself off from the fall, she realized just how bad her luck would be now that ladybugs were unlucky as well. Sighing, she continued to the kitchen.
A few minutes later she came up the stairs, arms filled with pastries and, after some contemplating over how much Tikki had actually changed, a couple chocolate chip cookies.
Tikki glanced over at her, quickly chirped, "This'll do," and proceeded to gobble up the pile. Marinette did her best not to stare, instead heading over to the computer. Her jaw dropped.
Gone was her familiar desktop collage of Adrien and in its place was… Chat Noir?
Yep, that was him.
She took a deep breath in, and decided that this was going to take some time to get used to.
She signed in, relieved to find her password was the same, and opened up her search engine; to find that, bookmarked next to the Ultimate Mecha Strike fanpage, wasn't the familiar Ladyblog, but instead a website called Noir News.
She hesitantly clicked on it and scrolled through the posts.
Chat Noir's Costume: Leather or Something Else?, Chat Noir's Been a Superhero 5,000 Years!?, Chat: Fan of Ultimate Mecha Strike?...
Marinette forced herself to take another breath in and out.
Once she was somewhat more relaxed, she shut her computer off and grabbed one of her design notebooks, flipping to a fresh page. She had to figure this out.
Confusing Things
-I apparently flirt with Chat Noir and make puns… about bugs I guess?
-Tikki has had a complete personality change.
-The Ladyblog has been replaced with Noir News.
Whoever this Ladybug was, it was certainly not her. However, considering she was supposed to be her, Marinette needed to seriously figure out what Other Her was like.
She pushed the notebook to the side, and turned the computer on again, mentally hitting herself for shutting it off in the first place.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the looking glass…
Plagg was bored. Really, really bored.
Mlle. Snow White over here hadn't done anything, and he was stuck either admiring the drab surroundings or shaking his head at Tikki's fashion choices.
She couldn't have been a little more creative with the costume?
While mentally disputing what had made Adrien fall for this girl, the boy himself appeared in front of him, panting and out of breath.
"Got… Trixx… necklace… Fu…" Adrien tried to say, clearly about to collapse. The stupid, stupid boy.
"Hey, kid!" he called, floating so he could be closer, "we don't need you channeling the Flash here, speedwalking would've been perfectly fine."
"But… Ladybug…"
"Does she look like she's moved? Because, I'm telling you, that girl hasn't so much as fluttered an eyelash."
Tikki flew out of his coat, lugging an all too familiar foxtail necklace with her.
"Couldn't you have just asked her at Fu's?" Plagg whined.
"Master Fu's, Plagg, and… a little help here?"
Sighing, he rolled his eyes before flying over and taking the other side of the necklace.
"You could've just dropped it on the ground once you got here, would've worked the same."
"Oh, yes, and I'm sure you would just love your miraculous lazily dropped on the floor, Plagg."
He huffed.
"Are you going to summon her?" Adrien cut in, desperately. "I've been running for 20 minutes straight, so if you could please…"
He and Tikki glanced at each other.
"Hey, Trixx, I know you're probably having a wonderful nap, but we'd really appreciate if you could come out of there for a couple minutes," Tikki coaxed, before glancing at Plagg.
He rolled his eyes before adding, "It'd be a real help, fox."
There was a few minutes of silence before a flash of orange blinded them all. The fox kwami that appeared lazily glanced around before yawning.
"I don't see my foxcub!" she exclaimed. "You'd better not have woken me up if I didn't get a new cub!"
"Trixx," Tikki began, "I know you don't like it but…"
Trixx placed her paws on her hip. "Give me one good reason-"
"She's right over there," Plagg interrupted, gesturing over to Ladybug.
Trixx turned around to see Ladybug before becoming thoroughly confused. "She's in a coma. How am I supposed to help with that?"
"Didn't this happen to one of your cubs before?" Tikki asked. Trixx turned to look again, and flew over once she saw the flower that was clasped in Ladybug's hands.
"Hmm? Oh!" Trixx exclaimed, clearly remembering now. "Oh, Kókkini! She was a real fox, that girl! Always-"
"So you know what happened?" Adrien cut her off, too relieved to let her finish.
"Well, yeah," Trixx replied, "but only what Kókkini told me. It was the strangest thing, the most talkative cub I'd ever had suddenly clamming up about something."
"So you don't know anything." Adrien said, sighing.
"I'll have you know I've heard far more about this then Master Fu can tell you," Trixx said, frowning.
"Sorry," Adrien apologised. "I'm just… worried."
"It's alright kitty. Now, let's see…" Trixx said.
"Okay, so… Kókkini. She was a Greek princess, daughter of King Constantine I. And yes, I know you don't want me to launch into a backstory," she said, glaring at Plagg, "but it's important to the story."
"Anyways, while 'kini was most definitely a fox in every way, she always had a chip on her back for not being allowed the throne. She'd help any servant or merchant, but when it came to a government official or priest she always turned up her snout.
"One day, shortly after deciding not to help a priestess that had come to ask her for a favor, I… walked out on her." Trixx sighed, shaking her head.
"I threatened to take away her miraculous and disappeared off into a nearby forest to calm down. I came back a while later to find her in the same state as your friend over there. She was out for weeks, and I thought it was my fault the entire time. Then, one day, she suddenly woke up. 'Kini smiled and hugged me, and, the next time she transformed, she helped one of the priests with some stolen sacrificial animals.
"The one time I ventured to ask about the experience, she replied that she was granted the ability to see the world through a new pair of eyes. She asked me what flower she'd been holding onto, and chuckled when I told her it was a hydrangea."
"So… you just had to wait for her to wake up?" Adrien asked, clearly puzzled.
"Mhm," Trixx replied, "nothing else worked. Trust me, I had my fair share of plans and methods to wake her up, but whatever magic she was under just repelled them all."
"But what about criminals or other problems? Was there some kind of trouble she couldn't deal with since she was comatose?"
"Oh, sure. The first thing that happened was a robbery.
"I tried everything I could to get her to wake up. I eventually just flew over to the scene and found a bouquet of cattails at the scene in front of the criminal, who had frozen in time. Any misfortune after that was cured by some flower or another." Trixx chuckled. "Oh, I remember when-"
"Flowers?" Plagg interjected. "Yeah, right. Those things are far too delicate to aprihand thiefs, let alone the akumas we have to deal with. There's no way they helped you out with any real crimes. "
Trixx gave him a glare, suddenly tensing up.
"Seeing as my story isn't being taken seriously, I'll be leaving," she snapped. A cloud of orange enveloped her and then she was gone.
"Plagg!" Tikki scolded.
Meanwhile…
After flipping through the different pages on Noir News for some amount of time, Marinette found what she was looking for.
She clicked on the link, and watched the article load.
Chat Noir and Ladybug: The Basics
This article is for those new to Paris' superheroes, so enjoy!
Who are they?
Chat Noir and Ladybug are the ultimate super duo of Paris.
Their first sighting happened shortly after the first akuma appeared. (see akumas for more information on them) Ever since, they've shown up at any sign of danger to protect Paris.
What are their powers and what do they do?
Chat Noir always shows up to the scene with his metallic staff, which can extend to various lengths and work as a device for transportation and a weapon.
While he mostly fights with his staff, claws, and a mix of karate-like moves, sometime in the middle of the fight, Chat will use his special superpower by yelling "Cat's collar!" while flipping his staff. The bell that typically hangs on his neck will then shapeshift to become a random item that will (eventually) lead the duo to victory.
Once Chat uses the item and successfully defeats the akuma, he flips the item while yelling "Miraculous allay!"
This causes any damage that the akuma created to light up with a cat paw before turning back to its original state, leaving no need for a clean up crew or casualty expenses.
Pretty cool, huh?
Ladybug is Chat's faithful partner, always jumping into battle with her yo-yo and a array of puns, usually bug-related.
Her special superpower can be used once to destroy any object. She simply yells "Haemolymph!" and her normally red and black polka-dotted yo-yo turns blue-green, almost turquoise. The next time she loops her yo-yo around something, it disintegrates.
Hope this was helpful to any newbies!
Your loyal reporter,
-Alya Césaire
She stared at the screen. She was going to have to learn to pun.
"Hey, whatcha up to?" Tikki asked, floating over Marinette's shoulder.
She quickly switched tabs. "You know, just some school project."
"Mhm," Tikki responded, not sounding the least bit convinced.
"Alright, fine. I've… managed to get Punner's Block."
"Punner's… Block?" Tikki repeated, looking at Marinette as if she was crazy.
"You know, Writer's Block, except for punners like me?" Marinette paused, "I- I just can't do it! The puns don't come to me!"
She slumped down, mentally channeling her inner Chat.
There was silence as Tikki stared at her. "Oh my god, you're obsessed."
"It's absolutely awful, and it's really bugging me!" she whined, cringing at how forced the pun was. She'd really have to work on that.
"You're right, that was terrible," Tikki decided.
"I know," she said, sounding as miserable as possible. "Tikki, I'm just suddenly gnat good at puns. Help me out?"
Tikki visibly winced. "Alright kid, but just because I don't know how much longer I can survive… that."
A long while later
"I just don't get it!" Tikki complained. "How do you go from a pun expert to awful?"
"Wasp's even the point anymore," Marinette groaned.
"Yes, yes!" Tikki yelled, jumping up and down. "There you go! That's how you pun. Now, if you'd just keep doing that, I won't need to bleach the last few hours from my memory."
"Well, on beehalf of those hours, what do you say I sneak you some pastries?" Marinette said, winking.
"I'd never say no to that!" Tikki replied.
When Marinette came back up she was smiling a Chat Noir grin.
"Hey Tikki, do you think this mite be too much?"
"Too many puns? Yes. Not enough food, though." Tikki retorted.
"Oh, alright. I'll stop bugging you."
"Mari-"
"Sorry, sorry! It just slipped out," Marinette quickly exclaimed, trying to put an innocent face on and failing.
Tikki just sighed and started nibbling on an eclair. She was about to start on a macaron when Marinette suddenly blurted, "Tikki, do you think I should come up with more nicknames for Chat? I mean, he seemed pawfully worried about me yesterday when my Punner's Block started."
Marinette had no desire to come up with any nicknames for anybody, but she desperately needed to know what she called Chat in this world. What was the masculine version of m'lady?
"Marinette, you will not come up with any more ridiculous nicknames. I've just barely adjusted to your insistence on calling him m'lord. Honestly, kid, that one was enough to make me faint the first time you said it."
M'lord? What was this world's Ladybug thinking?
The puns weren't too bad, but the nicknames? It'd be a miracle if she could manage to call Chat that with a straight face.
Oh god, she forgot about the flirting. She'd have to deal with that part of her new personality too.
"Sure, whatever you say," she replied slyly.
Tikki glared at her.
Marinette walked towards her computer, prepared to research pick up lines, when she noticed the time. 9:02.
It was already nine!?
Back home, her parents had a strict 9:30 bedtime, which she would have to assume had transferred here.
Great. She had half an hour to become a playful flirt.
Far more than half an hour later
It was 10:41 before Marinette had been able to fully memorize a handful of flirty lines, and convey them somewhat playfully.
Tikki had caught her muttering the lines under her breath more than once, but she seemed surprisingly used to it.
Marinette couldn't help but wonder if Chat did this back home. She chuckled, imagining him scroll through pages to find the one that'd make her blush. She'd always been glad that her ladybug mask covered most of her cheeks.
Maman had come up to check on her not a minute past 9:30, and Marinette, thankful she'd done this before, had shut off the computer and pretended to have fallen asleep drawing designs. As soon as her mother turned off the lights and left, she resumed her practice.
At the time, she'd muttered something about only doing it for 15 more minutes or so, but… here she was.
She glanced at the screen one last time before logging off, sighing.
Tikki glanced up at Marinette from one of her pillows and sleepily asked, "You finally going to bed now?"
"Yep," she replied, about to crawl into her comfortable covers before realizing… she would probably need to set her alarm. She'd also probably need to take precautions, considering the extra bad luck she was being granted via Tikki.
So, once her phone confirmed that her alarm was set, she went ahead and set another for five minutes later, one for five minutes after that, and one five more minutes after that one.
Yawning, Marinette fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillows.
Tikki looked at her fondly, muttering about what a silly bug her Chosen was before heading to sleep as well.
