Chapter 13: Horrificator
At François Dupont school, some students were making a movie for the Parisian Student Short Film Festival. Adrien Agreste was playing Officer Jones while Mylène Haprèle was playing Agent Smith. "Waaaaah!" Exclaimed Ivan Bruel, who was playing the monster, causing Mylène to break character and scream in terror.
"Cut!" Nino said and Ivan apologized to Mylène.
"Fourteen takes and it's the first scene?" Chloé asked in disdain. "I wonder how many takes the kiss scene will need."
"K-k-kiss?" Mylène asked in shock.
"There's no kiss scene in this movie!" Alya protested.
"There's a kiss in the script Nino sent me, Alya." Chloé replied.
"Just a little tweak to move the story forward." Nino justified his decision, only to be berated by Alya, who ranted about how a kiss that soon made no sense within "the main character's emotional journey".
Nervous about that discussion, Mylène left the classroom. Seeing that, Ivan decided to go after her. "I'm going too." Marinette said.
"Oh, great." Nino sarcastically muttered. "What do we do now?"
"We can record scenes where they don't appear." Chloé suggested.
"But I wanted to film scene 1 first." Nino whined.
"Then have Chloé play Agent Smith." Alya replied. "Mylène was too nervous for the role anyway."
"No way!" Nino said. "I bet that's why she made Mylène run away."
"That was on you, not on me." Chloé argued and the remaining students, even those who didn't like Chloé, agreed.
Meanwhile, Marinette spotted Ivan giving Mylène a black skull pin and saying it's from his favorite band. "Oh, there you are. Feeling better now, Mylène?"
"Yes, Marinette." Mylène answered.
"Then let's hurry before Chloé steals your role and kisses Adrien." Marinette replied and dragged Mylène back.
"Wait!" Mylène exclaimed. "I feel better but I still think I shouldn't play the role. Perhaps…"
"No way!" Marinette interrupted. "I cannot let Chloé win!"
She resumed dragging Mylène until Ivan interfered. "Marinette, I don't like seeing Chloé Bourgeois getting whatever she wants but we can't force Mylène into something she's not comfortable with."
"She just needs proper encouragement, Ivan." Marinette argued. She and Ivan were so focused on their argument they didn't notice Mylène going to the bathroom.
Meanwhile, Chloé and Adrien finished the scene the way Alya wrote it. Kim played the monster. "Cut!" Nino shouted. "Good job, even if the scene would work better with a kiss between Agent Smith and Officer Jones."
"I don't even know why I agreed to replace Ivan as the monster." Kim commented.
"Because I dared you to; and Principal Damocles only allowed us to use the classroom for the film until 6 p.m." Chloé answered.
As time passed, they heard screams. "What was that?" Alya asked.
"Probably an akuma." Chloé said. "We'd better run." She added and pulled Sabrina with her. "Coward." Nino muttered.
Eventually, the school became full of pink goo. "Definitely an akuma." Chloé commented upon being sure nobody other than Sabrina and the kwamis. "Ready, Sabrina?"
"Ready, Chloé." Sabrina replied.
"Tikki, spots on!" Chloé shouted while Sabrina said "Plagg, claws out!"
Superbug then pointed at a pink goo wall. "Catgirl, cataclysm it before somebody sees us."
"Okay." Catgirl didn't really understood Superbug's plan but did as ordered. "What now?"
"You detransform, take off one of your shoes, and transform again." Superbug answered.
"Plagg, claws in!"
"Detransformed so soon?" Plagg asked after his wielder implemented that part of Superbug's plan.
"It's part of my plan, Plagg." Superbug explained and then turned her attention to Sabrina. "Now give him some Camembert and transform again."
"I don't know what your plan is but I'm already liking it." Plagg commented and ate the offered cheese.
"Plagg, claws out." Sabrina shouted and became Catgirl again.
"Good." Superbug said. "Hopefully, nobody will suspect we were already here before you took down that goo wall."
As the two superheroines looked around trying to find the akuma, they eventually found Marinette and Ivan. "Superbug!" The two civilians shouted at the same time. (Better saying, Marinette and Ivan found the two superheroines) Actually, while Ivan just shouted "Superbug!", Marinette shouted "Superbug and Catgirl!"
"We noticed that goo wall during our nightly patrol and suspected an akuma." Superbug explained. "Did anyone here lose a shoe?"
"That's Sabrina's!" Ivan exclaimed in horror. "The akuma might have caught her! And if Sabrina was caught, Chloé might have been as well."
"We'll do our best to save them, I assure you." Catgirl said.
"Does any of you have an idea of who the akuma might be?" Superbug asked.
"Mylène!" Ivan exclaimed. "She was too nervous playing a lead character!"
"Lead character?" Superbug asked in fake confusion. She couldn't explain already knowing about the movie contest to people who didn't know her secret identity.
"We were making a movie for the Parisian Student Short Film Festival and Mylène was playing Agent Smith, Superbug." Marinette explained.
"And things got worse when she learned Nino added a kiss scene." Ivan added.
"So, were they already bad before?" Superbug asked.
"Fourteen takes in scene one alone." Marinette said.
"And she insisted on pushing Mylène into trying a fifteenth take." Ivan said while pointing at Marinette.
"I couldn't let Chloé win." Marinette argued.
"And couldn't you offer to take over the role instead?" Ivan suggested.
"I… I didn't think about that." Marinette sheepishly answered.
Following the sounds of their conversation, the other non-captured civilians joined them. "Superbug!" Nino exclaimed in joy. "Awesome! No way my film will lose the festival now!"
"What's with your sense of priority?" Superbug asked with a frown and suppressed the urge to say 'Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!'. "One of your classmates is probably an akuma and at least two others might have been captured."
"One of us?" Alix asked in shock.
"Bruel here believes a Mylène to be the akuma." Superbug explained.
"In that case, Ivan, do you have an idea to calm her down?" Adrien asked.
"There's a song I can use." Ivan replied.
"Good." Superbug commented. "Come with me. All of you. I don't wanna risk Mylène or whatever she calls herself as an akuma attacking any of you where I can't see."
"Where do we go?" Catgirl asked.
"The basement." Superbug answered. "Basements are favorite lairs for horror films."
She was proven right as Mylène's akuma self was indeed at the basement. "Mylène?" Ivan asked and she looked at him, horrifying most people and Superbug noticed how that made the akuma even bigger. She also noticed the akuma shrinking when Juleka expressed love instead of fear. "The akuma feeds on fear!" She shouted. "Don't show your fear." She then turned her attention to Ivan. "Any clues to where the butterfly is?"
"The skull pin!" Ivan quickly replied. "I gave it to her to calm her down earlier today." He then tried to calm Mylène down with a song.
"Lucky Charm." Superbug said as she threw her yoyo upwards and got a set of strings materialized. "Strings? Why couldn't I get a whole guitar?"
"That's it!" Marinette exclaimed. "Sorry." She said as she took the strings from Superbug's hands and started tying them up to some random objects. "What's the big idea?" Superbug asked.
"I'm making musical instruments to help with Ivan's song to Mylène, Superbug." Marinette explained.
"Wow." Superbug was impressed. "That's an actually good idea." She said as other students grabbed some strings to make instruments of their own. Once they're done, she used her yoyo to take the pin and Ivan turned out to be right about the akuma butterfly being there. She quickly purified the akuma and tossed the instruments to the air, turning the strings into magical ladybugs. "Excuse me, Catgirl and I have identities to protect." She said and quickly pulled Catgirl away.
As Catgirl followed Superbug back to where they were when they transformed, the latter's five minutes were over and she changed back into Chloé Bourgeois. "Why're we still running?" Catgirl asked.
"To give enough time for Superbug and Catgirl to rescue Chloé and Sabrina from the spot where they found Sabrina's shoe, Catgirl." Chloé explained.
"Good plan, Chloé." Tikki commented.
"Speaking of that shoe, where did it go?" Catgirl asked. "It vanished when you performed your miraculous cure."
"You're probably wearing it underneath your cat suit." Chloé dismissively replied.
Minutes later, Chloé and Sabrina were back at the classroom. "Thank God!" Adrien exclaimed. "I thought you were gone."
"Superbug and Catgirl rescued us, Adrien." Chloé explained. "Now we can continue filming."
"And Mylène is back so your services as a substitute are no longer required, Chloé." Marinette said.
"Actually, because of the akuma, we don't have enough time to finish the movie at a fourteen minute take per scene pace, Marinette." Alya stated. "We'll keep using Chloé but don't worry, Marinette. The kiss was removed from the script."
"Phew." Marinette sighed in relief.
The next day, Nino was angrily ranting. "I can't believe it! The Mayor refused my entry! Said the monster wasn't convincing! One'd assume having his daughter in the movie would make him reconsider."
"Movies are a serious business for Daddy." Chloé explained. "He loved filmmaking so much he once thought about making a career on it instead of politics."
"Speaking of politics, he probably didn't want to be seen as favoring his daughter so close to election day." Marinette commented.
"Ridiculous!" Chloé shouted. "Utterly ridiculous! He's not that afraid of losing to D'Argencourt."
Marinette then approached Nino. "Speaking of elections, the time to elect a class representative is coming." She said. "Has anyone said anything about running against Chloé Bourgeois?"
"Not to me, Marinette." Nino answered.
"In that case I'll do it!" Marinette said.
"Do what, Marinette?" Adrien asked.
"I'll enter the election for class representative, Adrien." Marinette answered.
"What?" Chloé asked in shock.
"What's wrong, Chloé." Adrien asked.
"Nothing, I was just surprised someone would be bold enough to announce their candidacy before election time was officially declared." Chloé commented. "Sure, we're just a few days away from it but still."
"Okay." Adrien accepted Chloé's answer.
Chloé then approached Marinette. "Anyway, Dupain-Cheng, may the best candidate win."
"Oh, she will, Chloé." Nino replied.
"Are you her running mate or something like that?" Chloé defiantly asked.
"Congratulations, Chloé." Nino replied. "That's the best idea you ever had in your soon-to-be-ended days as class representative."
"We'll see about that, Lahiffe." Chloé replied.
Later on, Chloé and Sabrina were at the former's hotel room watching as D'Argencourt made a fool of himself with his way of speaking. "No way he's winning the election now." Sabrina commented.
"And that worries me." Chloé replied.
"Chloé, don't you want your father to be reelected?" Tikki asked in confusion.
"Of course I want." Chloé answered. "What really worries me is that D'Argencourt's defeat will be so big he might be akumatized over it."
"Oh, relax and have some camembert." Plagg said. "Not mine, of course."
Mayor Bourgeois showed up and the kwamis hid themselves. "Chloé, I'm winning with such a big margin I think I'll recommend D'Argencourt for the Prix Iznogoud!"
"Honestly, Daddy, I'm surprised that utterly ridiculous prize still goes on with Hawkmoth at large." Chloé commented. "That's like rubbing salt in the wound."
"Oooookay." The Mayor uneasily replied and left.
"What's the Prix Iznogoud, Chloé?" Tikki asked.
"It's a so-called "prize" that was named after Iznogoud, a comic book villain who works as the Grand Vizier of Baghdad and tries to, as he says in every story, "be Caliph instead of the Caliph", Tikki." Chloé answered. "He failed in so many spectacular ways that somebody had the idea of creating the Iznogoud Award and give it to people who were big failures in winning positions of power from others."
"Iznogoud sounds like somebody I met in Baghdad." Plagg commented.
"And that prize sounds like a tasteless joke." Tikki said with a frown.
"Yeah but the jury is headed by someone who once gave himself the award for losing a regional election." Chloé argued. "Not to mention that France once had a President who received the award for losing a previous election. Some people even described his eventual victory as Iznogoud finally becoming Caliph."
End chapter
Author's Note: When I decided the episode order I'd follow for Season 1, I didn't realize Horrificator would be Episode 13 until I reached it.