Chat's smirk immediately dropped at the sight of a female who scowled at him. This was unheard of, girls usually swooned over him. Within a matter of seconds, he shrugged it off and went to his position on the far side of the arena, opposite of his opponent.
As the crowd counted down in anticipation Copycat morphed into Chat's doppelganger, shooting the true black cat a coy smile.
"Match start!" The announcer boomed into his mic. The two fighters glanced at their feet as the tiles beneath them began to glow. Whipping out his staff, Chat latched onto his signature weapon and propelled himself towards another tile. Within a blink of an eye, spikes shot out of the tile he was on seconds before.
"Meowtch." Chat whispered, wincing at the thought of being impaled. Quickly, redirecting his attention on the task at hand, he glimpsed at Copycat who was making his way towards the center of the arena.
Chat clenched his fist, forming dark energy around his hand. Thrusting himself in the air once more, he opened his hand, revealing a black ball of malicious intent. Hurdling the ball towards Copycat's half of the arena, Chat smirked as the ball split off into a dozen pieces, each destroying a tile.
The black cat was pleased with himself until Copycat used his doppelganger staff to fly over to safety. The copycat shouldn't take his ideas; he should make up his own!
Chat's inner whining momentarily distracted him, making him oblivious to the glowing tile. A strong gust of wind pushed him upwards, hundreds of feet above the ground. How'd they make these crazy stadiums?
Copycat sprinted, stepping on all tiles surrounding Chat's former tile. Chat tossed a glare at Copycat when he shot him a cheeky grin. Is that what he looked like when kicking his opponent's asses? They must get so angry.
Anxiety swelled in his chest a gust of wind, twice as strong as the first pushed him down. He hated heights, but you know what they say. "Cats always land on their feet." Chat grunted as he fell through the holes in the arena.
"Did our champion just lose his first match?" The announcer questioned, the audience gasped and some fan girls even teared up. Marinette sat on the edge of her seat. It's not as if she wanted him to win, she just wanted to be the one to beat him.
Seconds passed by like hours as everyone stared into the bottomless pit, awaiting Chat's return. Meanwhile Copycat was too busy dodging traps and cursing the announcer in his head for not declaring him the winner yet.
The crowd grew more dejected as Marinette perked up. But alas, Chat shot out of the darkness, sitting atop his staff. "Geez, whoever designs these stages deserves a raise." Chat muttered as he watched Copycat step on the last tile and fall to his doom.
"Chat Noir is the winner once again! Congratulations. Uh, can someone go get Copycat?"
The crowd hopped to their feet and stomped against the floor, causing the stadium to thunder as they chanted Chat's name. Chat waved to the crowd before bowing. "I'll be in the back to sign autographs." He glanced at Marinette once more only to be greeted by an eye roll. She was really hurting his ego.
Tykki, who nestled herself in Marinette's hair at some point during the match, pulled a strand of hair to capture her attention. "We have to get you registered so you can fight too." Tykki's enthusiastic tone turned into a wary one by the end of her sentence. "But first," Tykki waved her tiny hand, causing her black spots to disappear. The spots on Marinette's suit disappeared too, causing a perplexed expression to wash over her face. "Okay, now we can go!"
"So glad you'd like to join us here in Never Ever land. I'm Papillion." A masked man dressed in a suit said while sitting behind a desk. The air was thick with tension and Marinette couldn't help the foreboding feeling swarming around in the pits of her stomach. "May I ask what your powers are?"
"Powers?"
"Would you happen to have a Miraculous by any chance?" His once partially welcoming eyes became cold, steel, and calculating. Her heart skipped several beats before she opened her mouth. Her throat went dry in fear.
This time Tykki opted to hide underneath her hair. She whispered, "Say, you have no idea what a miraculous is and your power is material construction."
Marinette did just that, she repeated the words verbatim.
"Ah that's an interesting ability." Papillion sat back in his chair, his gaze and tone reverting back to warm and welcoming. "What would you like your title to be?"
"Uh, Well I sorta just wanted to go with Ladybug since those are my favorite bugs…" At this, the man's eyes narrowed for a split second, sending chills down Marinette's spine. "But you just gave me an idea, Miraculous Ladybug sounds wonderful." Marinette said as she feigned a smile.
"Alright, Ms. Miraculous. I'll sign you up for the newcomer's tournament then, is that fine?"
"Yes, thank you Papillion."
"Good, I'll send you all important documents and files at a later date. See you."
Marinette offered another fake smile as she left the intimidating man's office. A sigh escaped her lips as her shoulders slouched. That butterfly guy gave her way too many bad vibes. "Marinette, you can't relax yet." Tykki giggled. Marinette simply kissed her teeth, wondering what was next.
"So you wanted an autograph after all." Chat sauntered over to her, wiggling his eyebrows, his leather tail swaying back and forth. Cue another eye roll from Marinette.
Exhaling heavily, Marinette said "I don't know if you noticed, but you came to me." A frown adorned her face as she glared at Chat, whose grin only grew larger and larger by the second. "So, what do you want?"
Chat purred as he gently gripped her hand, eyes glimmering. "Well I've never seen such a pretty face around here before. Just wanted to welcome you to my humble abode."
"Uh, I'm pretty sure I just spoke with the one who's in charge here. And that wasn't you." Frowning, Marinette sunk her shoulders. Sure, he was the champion or whatever but he didn't have to act all that. It was overkill
"You…spoke with Papillion?" Chat's voice became thick with venom and his once glimmering eyes grew dull as they bore into the floor. Worried, Marinette snatched her hand away from his grip and took several steps backward until she hit the wall. "Just be careful, okay?"
Chat glanced up, he had impaled her with fear. He chuckled lightly, "Wouldn't want anyone else laying a finger on someone as purr-cious as you."
"Please, stop with the puns." They were growing more and more unbearable by the second. "And I'd prefer it if we never interact again unless it's in the arena."
Chat whistled as his ears twitched in excitement. "You think you can beat the best of the best, huh? Well I look forward to it." He grinned from ear to ear after hearing her response.
"I know I can."
A/N : PHEWWWW. I finally finished this chapter. You have no idea how long this doc has been sitting in my computer Lmao idk I lost inspiration for this story. I was just scrolling through an AU blog and that's how this fanfic was born. I'll definitely still continue it but I've been busy. I also plan on publishing maybe 2-3 other ML fics. All AU's of course bc I'm a garbage can lol
So tell me which one y'all would be most interested in. Imma tell y'all right now, I'm more interested in 1 & 3 but I'll let y'all decide bc why not? (:
1) AU where Marinette attends the best culinary school in the country (or world) and aims to be number 1. (Actually the second best culinary school is like 20 mins away from my college, so the setting will be New York, again lol. Even the #1 school is in NY so it doesn't really matter)
2) AU where the Purge becomes a thing while Mari and Adrien are in college so they both team up as Ladybug and Chat Noir to protect citizens and beat up ppl who try to murder instead of like steal clothes and food
3) Or a Dangan Ronpa AU where Marinette wakes up, trapped in a school with other students where its kill or be killed. Each time a person is killed a class trial is held to determine who the murderer is by popular vote. If the murderer IS NOT voted for, everyone else is executed and the killer gets to go home. If the murderer IS voted for then they get executed.
UNTIL NEXT TIME, CIAO CIAO!