Golden Eagle

Chapter III:

The Eagle Miraculous

Alicia was thrown back by the sudden burst of light and she gasped in breath. When the light dimmed, she crawled back over to it and looked into the box. Inside was a gold chain with a black onyx gem cut into a hexagon. Curled up in the middle of the chain was a yellow creature with a big head, a little torso, stubby limbs and a pair of delicate bird wings on its back. It opened two big blue eyes and it sat up, rubbing its eyes as if it had been asleep. For a moment, they stared at each other before the creature stood up.

"Are you my new partner?" it asked in a horse voice but Alicia stayed silent "I'm Dono, a Kwami and I inhabit the Eagle Miraculous,"

"The... the what?" Alicia stammered "Stay... stay away from me!"

"Please... calm down. I won't hurt you. I'm here to help you!" Dono exclaimed.

Alicia tried to run to the bedroom door but Dono flew in front of the door handle to stop her. She frantically tossed an empty box at him before diving under her bed covers. Was she going insane? Had she finally snapped? What was that thing?! Alicia's bedsheets began to softly glow and Dono came crawling over to her. His soft glow lit up the dark space and caused the panicked tears in her eyes to blur her vision.

"Let's start again..." he said "Hi, I'm Dono and I'm a Kwami,"

"I'm... I'm Alicia Moira Blaise..." Alicia said "Wh-What's a Kwami?"

"We're eternal beings that inhabit different Miraculous. Whoever possesses the Miraculous is imbued with magical power to save the world!" Dono explained "My Miraculous is the Eagle Miraculous. If you put it on, I'll give you the power and you can become a superhero!"

Alicia pushed the blanket off and jumped to her feet. A superhero? Her?! Wait, was she believing this was actually happening?! Dono floated up and hung in the air by her face.

"How... this can't be happening..." Alicia gasped and she fell to the floor in shock.

Dono sat down on the floor next to her and waited for her to calm down. It took quite a while. The Kwami just sat, rocking back and forth with his hands holding his toes. Alicia looked ready to pass out so he hopped into the air and flew over to the Miraculous. The glow died as his "awakening" reached its end and he picked up the pendant.

"Alicia, you are the owner of the Eagle Miraculous now so it is your duty to become Golden Eagle and protect the world," Dono said, presenting her the necklace "Just put it on and repeat after me,"

Still stunned, Alicia took the necklace from him and numbly put it on around her neck. She looked down at the Kwami and he told her the phrase she had to repeat:

"Dono, wings out!"

Ladybug and Cat Noir sat on the rooftops of Paris as they waited for their help to be required. Patrols like these were boring so they absent-mindedly fiddled with their weapons. Meanwhile, a T.V creator had gotten the heartbreaking news that her show was cancelled without a finale and an akuma was sent her way.

"So... got any plans this weekend?" Cat Noir asked.

Before Ladybug could make the appropriate sarcastic comeback, every T.V device in Paris got an image of a cackling woman.

"Hello, Paris, Screen Queen here and I'm sorry to announce that you've all been cancelled! Time to storyboard your series finale!"

Down in the streets, scribbled monsters appeared but got more and more detailed and solid as the sketches were improved upon. Ladybug and Cat Noir jumped down from the rooftop and got in the way of some citizens and a hoard of storyboarded monsters.

"You ever think we need a T.V show?" Cat Noir bantered "We could call it... The Miraculous Adventures of Ladybug and Cat Noir,"

"Catchy but not the time," Ladybug retorted.

She threw her yoyo out and it ripped through a storyboard monster. Seeing this, Cat Noir broke the cap off a fire hydrant with his staff and sprayed water at the storyboards. They turned to mush and they systematically wiped out the storyboarded monsters while evacuating the citizens inside.

"Ya know, I swear I recognize those monsters but I can't remember from where..." Cat Noir said.

Ladybug considered this as she shoved more storyboard monsters into the Seine. They looked like goblins with medieval armour and weaponry. The design wasn't perfect yet so they moved clumsily. From her hiding place, Screen Queen gritted her teeth and began sketching in her notebook again. This time, the monsters would be better. Streamline iguana-like beings appeared with more thought out designs so they could actually work. They also had splotches of colours and a more detailed appearance.

"Uh oh... looks like Screen Queen's figuring out the plotline for the episode," Cat Noir said "Wonder what the script's going to be like?"

"That's it!" Ladybug exclaimed "The animation studios! If she works on a show that requires storyboards then it has got to be animated. She must be there!"

"Let's go," Cat Noir agreed.

Screen Queen happily began designing a new monster. She looked back at the previous ones to see what could be improved upon and what was a weak design. She put her heart and soul into her show so why did the Network Executives cancel it? Pleased with the new villain design, Screen Queen jumped into the computer screen and began work on the CGI.

At the entrance of the animation studios, Ladybug and Cat Noir ran through the automatic doors. The lights were down and the lobby was wrecked. The superhero duo looked around and Cat Noir noticed a poster for one of the studio's shows was left pristine. All the others were shredded but this one was left perfectly fine.

"Hey, L.B., check this out," he said.

"Hyper-Powered Super Force 4?" Ladybug read from the poster "Created by Adelaide Bellemy,"

"Yeah, I heard it was being cancelled after Season 4 bombed. The creator said it was part of some multi-season arc but-" Cat Noir paused "Wait..."

"Adelaide Bellemy is Screen Queen. She must have been angry that her show got cancelled," Ladybug realized.

The duo ran through the halls in the direction of HPSF4's animation studio. Screen Queen watched from the security monitor and an evil smile spread across her face. With a snap of her fingers, the CGI monsters came to life. Ladybug and Cat Noir felt the vibrations as something big approached them and Ladybug quickly pulled Cat Noir through the nearest door (that happened to lead to the motion capture stage).

"Let's think," said Cat Noir "What comes next after storyboards and detailed sketching?"

"Hyper-Powered Super Force 4 is CGI, right?" Ladybug asked.

Before her partner could answer, something blocked the doors from the hallway. The superheroes prepped their weapons and the CGI monster broke down the door. It was a gorilla: King Kong style! It wore post-apocalyptic battle gear and wielded a spear. The gorilla beat its chest and hollered before charging at them, it's spear ready. Almost too-easily, Ladybug wrapped her yoyo around the spear and jumped over the gorilla, pulling the spear away from him.

"Cataclysm!"

Cat Noir punched the ground and the floor broke beneath the gorilla enough to catch it. The gorilla looked down nonchalantly and grew three-times in size, breaking free and destroying the glass roof. Ladybug and Cat Noir were ready to fight it when a blur of yellow came rocketing down and hit the gorilla in the back of the head. The yellow blur came to a stop in front of them and turned around to face them with a big smile.

She wore a yellow bodysuit with a white turtleneck that had a golden jewel hanging from a silver chain coming from underneath. On her face was a yellow mask with an orange beak over her nose. On her back were a pair of small brown wings on her shoulder blades with a brown quiver of arrows between them. Fastened to her right wrist was a white oval with what looked like a folded bow attached. Around her waist was a brown belt and her dark brown hair was up in a white scrunchy.

"Who the- who the heck are you?!" Cat Noir exclaimed.

"My name? It's Golden Eagle and I'm just somebody who happened upon a Miraculous like you guys," she said "I used my Eagle Vision to get a good look around here and Screen Queen's in her office working on more CGI monsters while watching the security feed. Cat Noir, destroy the security cameras!"

"Do it, Cat!" Ladybug agreed.

Cat Noir used his staff to get high enough to reach a security camera and destroyed it, short-circuiting the entire system. Seeing the gorilla getting back up, the bow mounted on Golden Eagle's wrist fell into her hand and she drew a silver arrow with a feather-like point against the string. She released it and broke the CGI monster.

"How'd you do that?" Cat Noir asked.

"The gorilla was a prototype-CGI. I just fired my Feather-Tipped Silver Arrow through an anomaly in its animation. The next monster will look a lot smoother so we better hurry!" Golden Eagle explained.

She folded her bow back down as it shrank and attached it to its "dock" on her wrist. Her wings flapped in anticipation and the three Miraculous users ran in the direction of Adelaide Bellemy's office. Cat Noir noticed the first paw pad on his ring disappear and they picked up the pace.

Ladybug broke down the office door but found the room empty. They put their weapons down to search for a clue to where she went. Distracted, Golden Eagle began fiddling with the buttons on her bow's holder. After a few random button combinations, her bow and the holder transformed together to turn into a crossbow stationed on her wrist.

"Huh... cool. Seems my bow changes type depending on the situation," she muttered to herself, having not even noticed how her quiver had shrunk down too.

"How about you stop playing with your weapon and help us look for Screen Queen. I'm still not sure if we can trust you yet," Ladybug pointed out.

"Gimme a break. Until a few hours ago, I didn't even know you guys existed let alone Kwami and Miraculouses," Golden Eagle retorted.

"Wait... what?! You're that much of a noob?!" Cat Noir exclaimed.

Golden Eagle turned her back on the other Miraculous user and crossed her arms in a huff. There was another beep and Cat Noir's ring lost that much more power. Ladybug pinched the bridge of her nose before addressing the two of them.

"Alright, listen up. Eagle, I assume you have excellent vision due to that comment you made earlier and Cat, I know you have night vision. Time to use your eyes to find that akuma!"

"Question!"

"What is it, Golden Eagle?"

"What's an akuma?"

After explaining about Hawk Moth and the akuma in a nut shell, the three masked teenagers ran off in separate directions. The blinking from Cat Noir's ring apparently meant he was about to transform back so he headed in the direction of the kitchen to feed his Kwami once he did. Golden Eagle looked down at the yellow topaz that now hung from her neck. There were silver lines along the edges that separated it into five segments. Presumably, they represented how long until she had to transform back.

Screen Queen happily lazed around the test screening room as she put the finishing touches on her next monster. As she completed the monster's horns, all three doors in were kicked open and Ladybug, Cat Noir (now repowered) and Golden Eagle entered. Screen Queen angrily activated her new monster she sent it after the unknown Golden Eagle.

"Oh, crud," she complained when a strange new phrase seemed to bubble up in her throat "Golden Wings!"

Her small brown glider wings began to glow a heavenly gold and lifted her off the ground. Golden Eagle flew above the gorilla/lizard/rock/troll thing and took her bow out. It glowed and turned into a long bow, ideal for long-distance sniping.

"Ladybug!" Cat Noir exclaimed.

"Lucky Charm!"

Ladybug's polka-dotted yoyo spun over her head, releasing hearts before it dropped back down. In her hands, she held jumper cables. Thinking hard, she looked around the room and a plan came to mind.

"Cat Noir, I need access to the building's wiring! Golden Eagle, lure the monster closer to that water fountain!" she ordered.

Activating Cataclysm for the second time that night, Cat Noir pulled a light switch out of the wall and ripped it away from its wiring. Ladybug knocked over the water fountain so it spilled everywhere and she hooked the jumper cables to the ends of the wires before getting in position with the live other ends. Golden Eagle flew back from the monster's reach and used her weapon's current long bow form to keep hitting it despite the distance.

"Little closer, Eagle!" Ladybug exclaimed.

A segment of Golden Eagle's pendant went dark and she felt her wings losing power. She looked down at Ladybug and Cat Noir and saw the plan they had in action. She drew back another silver arrow with its feather-themed tip and she put the power of her wings into the shot.

"Eat this, you poorly-animated CGI freak!" and Golden Eagle released the arrow.

The image of Golden Wings appeared on either side of the silver arrow and it hit the monster square on the forehead. It toppled back and stepped into the spilled water. Ladybug quickly put the live ends of the jumper cables into the puddle and electricity shot through the monster, breaking apart its coding.

"No!" Screen Queen yelled and she lifted her pen to her notebook.

"Ladybug, the notebook!" Cat Noir realized "The akuma's gotta be there!"

Golden Eagle sat up from where she collapsed onto the ground and saw another segment of her Miraculous go dark. She looked over at Screen Queen and remembered that even without Golden Wings, she could still glide using her usual wings. She pushed forward off the ground and shot across the room, snatching the notebook away as she passed. Golden Eagle turned around and threw the notebook in Ladybug's direction. Ladybug threw her yoyo at it and the notebook ripped in two; the evil akuma came flying out.

"Time to de-evilize!" Ladybug exclaimed and she captured the akuma before releasing it "Bye-bye, little butterfly,"