Illustrious Beta-Reader: ShadowofDarkness2004


"No! Again, but this time with more excitement," the photographer demanded, clearly agitated with the model before him.

Adrien looked up from his phone, and saw the angry expression on Vincent's face as he explained once again to the new model to be more expressive. "Ugh! Why is he even doing a shoot with us?" Ella, his modeling partner, asked, upset that the photo shoot was taking longer than planned.

"Give him a chance, he's doing pretty good for a new model," Adrien defended. Ella released an annoyed sigh before muttering about how 'Adrien was too nice' and walking away from the other model.

Left by himself, Adrien checked his phone again for any incoming emails from his father. Seeing none, Adrien instead looked at his contacts list and debated with himself if he should take a chance and call Marinette to check up on her; it had been a few hours since Gorilla dropped her off at her old home and no one had heard from her since.

Ultimately, Adrien decided not to call the noirette and put his phone away, dejected that he didn't have the confidence to call Marinette and having received no new messages from his father.

"Oof!" A grunt brought Adrien out from his thoughts, and he looked up and saw a tiny, old man fall. Rushing over to him, Adrien bent down to help the old Chinese man to his feet. A soft 'thank you' was given to the teen model before Adrien was forced back to the photoshoot by an angry Vincent, whom was still upset about the other model.

Before Adrien could make it back to the set, loud screams from nearby areas got everyone's attention in the park. "Oh my god! What is that?!" Ella yelled as she pointed at what seemed to be a hulky boulder moving towards them.

The sight of the large monster caused everyone in the park to panic and run, leading to chaos. "Adrien? Adrien!" Nathalie called out, frantically searching for her young charge. Mathews, commonly referred to as 'The Gorilla', searched alongside the frantic secretary but as the boulder-like monster got closer to them, they had no choice but to run away from the scene.

Meanwhile, in the midst of the chaos, Adrien had been pushed around and had ended up on the other side of the park. Confused from the chaos that had previously erupted around him, Adrien was dazed and became the last remaining civilian in the park.

Finally realizing the dangerous situation that he was in, Adrien tried to run away from the stone being; unfortunately, the being managed to get a grab at the young teen and pulled him towards it.

Frightened by his sudden predicament, Adrien almost didn't notice the girl who landed on one of the stone being's shoulder. The girl wore what appeared to be a dark purple bodysuit with a vest of a slightly lighter shade, and at the front of vest was a black butterfly pin whose top wings extended all the way to her shoulders. Her blue-black hair was pulled back into a ponytail with a single white butterfly ribbon, and half her face was covered with a white butterfly mask. However, what really got Adrien's attention were the delicate butterfly wings resting behind her.

"Be gentle and put him down, Stoneheart, he isn't who we're looking for," the girl commanded, reaching out to pat the stone arm that currently held Adrien.

With surprising gentleness, Stoneheart placed Adrien down before turning his head to the petite girl on his shoulder. "Where to now, M'lady?" Stoneheart asked, looking around the surrounding area.

Stupefied by the sudden situation, Adrien couldn't help but stare at the strange duo in front of him. It wasn't every day that someone saw a tiny girl command a literal monster to do her bidding. Adrien was so dumbfounded that he didn't realize that the two strangers had left him until they were already a long way away from him, heading in the direction of the Parc de Princes.

"Adrien!" Turning to the voice that shouted his name, Adrien saw Nathalie and the Gorilla rushing to his side and ushering him towards the limousine.

Once they were in the safety of the car, the Gorilla drove off towards the old bakery that Marinette was last seen at. Nathalie glanced at her phone nervously before dialing Marinette's number again and hung up when the phone call directed to voicemail.


"What do you mean you cannot find her?"

Gabriel sat at his desk with his hands clasped together in front of him while Nathalie and the Gorilla stood completely still in front of their boss. Just outside the office, Adrien pressed himself against the wall so that he could listen in on the conversation without getting caught.

Even from his position outside the office doors, Adrien could feel his father's cool anger directed at the two people inside the office. With his phone in his hand, Adrien looked down at the screen, a picture of Marinette displayed with her number underneath.

"She requested a break at the old bakery, sir. We tried calling her but she won't answer and the bakery doors are- "

"Find her." The command was short and clipped, immediately silencing Nathalie's explanation. With a nod towards their boss, both Nathalie and the Gorilla moved away from him and headed towards the door.

Silently moving towards a hiding spot, Adrien ducked just in time to see the two adults heading outside the front doors. Once he was sure that they were gone, Adrien got up from his hiding spot and spared a glance towards his father's office. With quiet steps, Adrien walked towards the doors once more and peered into the office; his father had moved from his desk and was now standing in front of his mother's portrait.

Recognizing that this was a private moment for his father, Adrien withdrew and walked towards his room. With Marinette's number still on the screen, Adrien pressed the call button, not really expecting an answer, and hung up when the call was directed to voicemail just as he had predicted.

Worried about Marinette but unable to really do anything, Adrien walked into his room and closed the door before turning on the TV to check the news.

Nadja Chamack was on the TV screen and behind her in the upper corner was a video of police officers shooting at Stoneheart, which only made the stone monster bigger. The butterfly girl was nowhere in sight. With a thundering roar, Stoneheart used both of his fists to smash the police cars and effectively scattered the police officers at the scene.

"As incredible as it seems, it has been confirmed that Paris is indeed being attacked by a supervillain. The police have been struggling to keep the situation under control," Nadja informed before being switched out for an interview with a police officer that was at the scene.

"Be confident, the strong arm of the law will come crashing on the-" - the officer winced as he accidentally moved his injured arm - "I mean, the other arm."

Moving to place the remote down on the table, Adrien was surprised to see a small, hexagonal box. "What's this doing here?" He picked up the box and moved it closer to his face before opening it. A ball of green light emitted from the box and Adrien shielded his face away from it.

Once the light was gone, Adrien opened his eyes and was met with the sight of a small, black thing. "No way… Like the genie in the lamp!" Adrien whispered, awed.

"Ugh, please. I'm way better than a genie. I'm way more personable and lovable! The name's Plagg, by the way, kid. Ohh! What's that shiny thing?" Plagg flew over to the Foosball table and tried to take a bite out of one of the heads before recoiling away and sticking his tongue out. "Guess this isn't edible."

He flew up again and started to look through Adrien's room, wreaking havoc as he explored. "Wait, stop! You're making a mess!" Adrien tried to catch Plagg, but the small being was quick and evasive, easily outmaneuvering Adrien.

"We've just been informed that the supervillain has a hostage." Both Plagg and Adrien stopped what they were doing and turned to the TV, watching a video feed of Stoneheart holding a teenage boy in one of his hands.

Stoneheart glowered at the boy in his hands, causing the teenager to cower and struggle even more. The boy squawked as Stoneheart tightened his grip, but, before the villain could actually crush the boy, the outline of a butterfly flashed over his face.

"Hey, is there something to eat?" Plagg asked, causing Adrien to turn away from the TV.

As quickly as he could, Adrien clasped both his hands together to catch Plagg. The small being simply stared up at the boy before repeating his question.

"What are you? How'd you even get in here?" Adrien asked, ignoring Plagg's question.

"Rude. Look, I'm a kwami and I grant special powers, specifically powers of destruction. You put on that ring"- Plagg nodded towards the box that was left on the table- "and the powers of destruction are yours. Now give me Camembert!"

Adrien blinked slowly at the kwami before releasing him and taking a step back. "Is my father playing a prank on me? Impossible, he doesn't have a sense of humor."

Hearing the mention of another human, Plagg flew closer to Adrien. "Your father can't know I exist. No one can, for that matter."

Satisfied when he saw the kid in front of him nod his head in understanding, Plagg backed away a few feet before vocalizing his demands for Camembert once more. A few minutes later found Adrien and Plagg both sitting on the couch and watching the news once more, with Camembert in front of the small kwami.

Stoneheart and the boy had moved away from the stadium and were making their way towards the Eiffel Tower. The police officers were no longer shooting at the stone supervillain due to the civilian in one of his hands and because they finally realized that brute force only made him bigger.

"So, let me get this straight: you can make me into a hero, I'm supposed to take that thing down" - Adrien pointed to the screen - "and I have a partner."

"Don't forget that you're a cat themed hero," Plagg added before shoving a slice of the stinky cheese into his mouth.

"And I'm a cat hero. Do you have any idea how crazy this sounds? Not to mention, how can I be a hero if I'm always stuck in here?"

"Well, you see, kid-"

"Adrien."

"Adrien, I can grant you the freedom that you want. All you have to do is become the hero of Paris, help your ladybug partner get the akumatized object and that's it. Oh, and you have this power called Cataclysm," Plagg explained.

"You can give me freedom?" Adrien asked, turning to Plagg with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Yup, all you got to say to activate the transformation is 'claws out' and 'claws in' to destransform."

With the ring now on his finger, Adrien gave it a contemplative look before saying the words, "Plagg, claws out!"

"Wait! I wasn't done!" Plagg grabbed desperately at the Camembert before ultimately dropping it and being sucked into the ring.

In a flash of green light, Adrien's clothes were replaced with a black, leather suit. A long belt was wrapped around his hips and dropped behind him, acting as a cat tail, and on top of his head were a pair of cat ears.

Raising one gloved hand to his face, Adrien saw that he now had claws. Hurrying over to a mirror, Adrien took in his new appearance. The changes to his eyes were what truly shocked him; the sclera of his eyes was now a green color and his pupils were now cat-like.

With an excited grin, Adrien turned away from the mirror and looked to one of the windows in his room.


Hey everyone! So I'm incredibly sorry for not posting anything for the past two weeks, but both me and my Beta-reader were just so busy with deadlines and other things. I hope this chapter satisfies you guys, and I'm really sorry about the long wait.

I hope you guys enjoy and hopefully I'll get a chapter out by this Thursday if possible. If not, then next Thursday will be the next post - hopefully. ^_^lll

Please comment! Comments always make me so happy and I'm always excited to hear your thoughts on the story. :)