Chapter 11: The Evillustrator
Marinette Dupain-Cheng and her boyfriend Adrien Agreste were walking together through a school corridor when they were approached by Stormy Weather and Lady Wi-Fi. "Heeeeeeeeeeeelp!" Adrien screamed in horror and ran away, leaving Marinette behind until Lady Wi-Fi paused him.
"Coward." Marinette muttered with a frown.
"You're next, Dupain-Cheng." Lady Wi-Fi said as she paused Marinette and Stormy Weather encased her in ice.
The two villainesses' moment of triumph was interrupted by their weapons disappearing right in front of them. "Surrender." An unknown figure told them.
"Super Nathan?" The villains asked in shock. The new superhero easily defeated them and freed Marinette.
"Oh, thank you, Super Nathan!" Marinette said with a lovely expression normally directed towards Adrien.
"You're welcome, Marinette." Super Nathan replied. "Now excuse me while I free your boyfriend."
"That coward?" Marinette asked in disgust. "Leave him that way. Serves him right for abandoning me."
All lines above turned out to be a comic book a student named Nathaniel Kurtzberg was drawing until Ms. Mendeleiev took it from him and berated him for doodling during class. As additional punishment, she sent Nathaniel to the Principal's office. As Nathaniel walked outside the classroom, he tripped on Mylene's bag and that left his comic exposed for everyone to see it. Upon seeing her alter ego on the cover, Chloé felt tempted to pick it up but stopped herself. 'He's already on verge of being akumatized.' The Mayor's Daughter thought. 'I'd just make things worse.'
After Nathaniel left, Ms. Mendeleiev announced the groups for the presentation of a particle physics project. Chloé, Sabrina and Marinette were part of a group and Chloé tried, in vain, to convince Ms. Mendeleiev to let her and Sabrina do their project by themselves. After classes ended, the three girls met by Chloé's locker. "Alright, Chloé." Marinette said. "I didn't want to work with you and you don't want to work with me but none of us has a choice."
"In that case, the first thing to decide is where and when do we meet." Chloé replied. "I vote for my home."
"And I second that." Sabrina eagerly added.
"And I make it unanimous." Marinette thirded it. 'Being in enemy territory is a lesser evil than letting the enemy in mine.' She thought.
"Now that's settled, I propose we…" Whatever Chloé would say was interrupted by the sound of an akuma alert. "… run away and schedule a meeting after making sure everyone is safe." Chloé quickly shouted and ran away, pulling Sabrina with her. Once the two girls were somewhere unseen by any other humans, they felt it safe to transform.
"Tikki, spots on!" Chloé said.
"Plagg, claws out!" Sabrina said.
"Follow me!" Superbug told Catgirl and the two superheroines ran towards Ms. Mendeleiev's classroom. Upon arriving, they saw the teacher being attacked by an akuma. "Stop, akuma!" Superbug ordered the akuma.
"My name's Evillustrator and this fight isn't yours." Evillustrator replied and sent a giant pen after Ms. Mendeleiev but Catgirl blocked it. Evillustrator drew a barrier to block the heroes while he escaped. "Thank you, girls." Ms. Mendeleiev said.
"You're welcome but, what did he want with you?" Superbug asked, pretending to have no clue.
"His real name is Nathaniel Kurtzberg." The teacher explained. "He's upset because I caught him doodling during class."
"Would you perchance have a sample of his 'doodling'?" Superbug asked, hoping for a clue.
"Of course, Superbug." Ms. Mendeleiev answered and gave the heroine the confiscated comic.
"Wow, that boy has an unhealthy obsession with Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Superbug commented as she read the comic and then frowned. "And he shouldn't portray Adrien Agreste like that."
"How do you know their names?" Ms. Mendeleiev asked out of concern. "I mean, Adrien is famous enough to be known by practically everyone in Paris but not Marinette."
"Well, she won that hat design contest sponsored and judged by Gabriel Agreste, didn't she?" Superbug asked in reply, proud of herself for her quick thinking. "Anyway, you should warn the two students and their families they might be Evillustrator's next targets."
Cut scene to Chloé's limousine, where she, Sabrina, and their kwamis were having a conversation with a barrier preventing the driver from seeing them. "Chloé, I know Marinette was already assigned as your project partner but shouldn't you be concerned about Adrien as well?" Tikki asked while glancing at the books her wielder borrowed from the school library.
"Don't worry, Tikki." Chloé replied. "Gabriel Agreste can afford better protection than the Dupain-Chengs and I'm sure Kurtzberg is more concerned about romancing Dupain-Cheng than going after Adrien."
"Well-thought, Chloé." Sabrina complimented her friend.
Chloé's smartphone rang. "Dupain-Cheng?"
"Chloé, Superbug called my parents and said I'm an akuma's target." Marinette said. "We'll have to reschedule. Will you tell Sabrina?"
"She's here with me, Dupain-Cheng." Chloé replied. "I'll set it so the both of us can hear you."
"Hi, Marinette." Sabrina said.
"So, are you both okay with rescheduling?" Marinette asked her project partners.
"Dupain-Cheng, how about we meet at your place?" Chloé suggested. "I already borrowed books from the library for the project anyway."
Sabine Cheng then took over Marinette's side of the conversation. "Chloé, an akuma might be coming here for Marinette." Marinette's mother said.
"We'll take the risk." Chloé replied.
"If your family and Sabrina's are okay with that, we also are." Sabine replied.
After everything was settled, the limo eventually arrived at Tom and Sabine's bakery. "Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Dupain-Cheng." Sabrina said.
"Good afternoon." Tom replied.
"Marinette is in her room." Sabine said and lead the two visitors there. "Marinette! Chloé and Sabrina arrived."
"What?" Marinette asked in shock. "Are they really here?" Afraid of how Chloé would react to all the Adrien pictures at her wall, Marinette tried to place herself between the pictures and Chloé.
"Don't worry, Dupain-Cheng." Chloé said. "I have no problem with people keeping pictures of Adrien and certainly won't give anyone a hard time for that."
'Was that supposed to reassure me?' Marinette wondered. "Anyway, are we all ready for the project?" She asked.
"I've brought the books!" Chloé proudly said as Sabrina carried them into Marinette's room.
Suddenly a big hole was formed at one of the walls and Evillustrator came through it. "Akuma!" The three girls shouted in horror. Hearing that, Marinette's parents showed up again. "Nathaniel?" Sabine asked.
"The name's Evillustrator and I want a date with Marinette Dupain-Cheng." Evillustrator said to everyone's surprise except for Chloé's and Sabrina's since they were faking it for sake of secret identities.
"Nathaniel, don't you know she's dating Adrien Agreste?" Tom asked Evillustrator.
"Other than money, what does he have that I don't?" Evillustrator asked.
"For starters, he doesn't attack teachers for no good reason." Marinette answered, getting the villain's attention. "Yeah, I know what you did to Ms. Mendeleiev."
"You know what she did to me at class." Evillustrator argued.
"Ridiculous!" Chloé shouted. "Utterly ridiculous! You should have known better about how strict she is. My Dad's mayoral power never scares her into letting me get away with anything. Being akumatized over that is…" Her mouth was suddenly gagged.
"If I go with you on a date, will you leave Ms. Mendeleiev alone and undo all damages you caused?" Marinette asked. Miraculous wielder or not, she was still a brave girl who went out of her way to help other people.
Before Evillustrator had a chance to reply, a butterfly symbol appeared on his face. "Evillustrator, don't forget our deal." Hawkmoth demanded.
"Don't worry, Hawkmoth." Evillustrator replied and then turned his attention back to Marinette. "I still must lure Superbug and Catgirl and get their Miraculous but I'll leave Mendeleiev alone. Deal?"
Before Marinette had a chance to answer, a yo-yo pulled Evillustrator's stylus away from him. From the other side of the hole, Superbug could be seen breaking the stylus and releasing the akuma, turning Evillustrator back into Nathaniel Kurtzberg. "Stay away from the hole, please." Superbug told the Dupain-Chengs as she noticed them looking through it while she de-evilized the akuma. She then tossed a red with black polka-dots stylus into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" Marinette's bedroom was restored and the barrier at the classroom vanished. "Good." Mendeleiev commented. "Superbug saved the day."
Later on, Chloé and Sabrina returned to the bakery. "Back so soon?" Sabine asked.
"We saw the heroines coming so we didn't go far, Mrs. Cheng." Chloé explained. With that said, the three girls finally started working on their project.
The next day, Ms. Mendeleiev addressed the students she assigned projects to. "Due the latest akuma attack, I decided to extend the deadline by one day." She said.
"Better than I expected from her." One of the students whispered and several other nodded.
"We still have to deliver before Valentines' Day." Chloé commented.
"Whatever." Marinette replied. "It's not that Nathaniel delayed us too much."
End chapter.