Chapter 18: Animan

Chloé Bourgeois and Alya Césaire were having a phone talk. "Chloé, are you going to see the new panther at the zoo?" Alya asked.

"If I'm not too afraid of an akuma happening there..." Chloé replied.

"Aren't you too worried?" Alya asked.

"Superbug wouldn't be keeping watch over us for nothing, would she?" Chloé asked back.

"Point taken." Alya commented and then perked up. "Which means she'll likely be there! Goodbye!"

"She's too reckless for her own good." Chloé commented to Tikki.

"Are you really concerned that something related to Hawkmoth might happen at the zoo, Chloé?" The kwami of creation asked her wielder.

"Yes, Tikki." Chloé answered. "At the very least, Kim will do something reckless enough to require superhero intervention."

"Are you calling Sabrina and Plagg?" Tikki asked.

"Yes, Tikki." Chloé answered.

On the day of Marinette's date with Adrien at the zoo, other students were there as well. "Alya Césaire." Nino called her.

"Nino?" Alya asked in shock. "What're you doing here?"

"Making sure you won't sabotage Marinette's date for Chloé." Nino replied. "Why else would you be here?"

"Because my Dad works here, Lahiffe." Alya replied. "And besides, if Chloé was that petty, she wouldn't need me to do the dirty work for her since she's here in person."

Hearing that, Nino looked around and saw Chloé and Sabrina arriving. "Chloé, if you're here to pick on Marinette..."

"Ridiculous! Utterly ridiculous!" Chloé haughtily replied. "I'm just enjoying the fresh air and wondering if Kim would do something reckless like claiming he can outrun a panther."

"Chloé, don't tell me you really think he'd be that... okay, maybe he would but I'm keeping an eye at you." Nino replied.

"Whatever." Chloé walked away and then noticed somebody at a table reading a newspaper in a way the paper hid the person. 'I wonder who still reads newspaper nowadays.' Chloe wondered. Her wonderings were interrupted by Sabrina.

"Look!" Sabrina said. "There are Kim and Max!"

As Chloé feared, Kim was indeed bragging he could outrun the panther, much to Otis Césaire's ire. "Afraid an akuma was about to happen, the Mayor's daughter intervened. "Kim, what happened to the whole not making dares for a whole year?" She asked.

"The panther's no student so it doesn't count, Chloé." Kim proudly bragged. "They're too dumb to go to school."

'Like you're any better.' Chloé thought. "You want to see if you can outrun a panther and think the panther is dumb?"

"Yes, it is and there's nothing you and the zookeeper can do about that." Kim said.

"Wrong! There is something I can do." Otis replied. "Get out of here!"

Kim tried to defy the order but Max talked him out of it.

Chloé started to leave as well and decided to approach the newspaper person but, before conversation could start, she noticed a black butterfly. "Akuma!" She screamed while pointing at it. Since everyone else ran away, nobody noticed Chloé and Sabrina hiding to feed Tikki and Plagg cookies and cheese. "About time." Plagg said.

Having noticed the akuma, Otis Cesaire was among the ones trying to flee but he tripped on a rock and the resulting injury allowed the butterfly to reach him. "Dad?" Alya asked in concern. To her horror, she saw him turning into an even bigger panther than the one at the exibit. She ran away.

The akuma panther tried to run after her but Superbug and Catgirl blocked his path. "Not so fast, Mr. Cesaire!" Superbug said.

"Shouldn't we call him 'Black Panther', Superbug?" Catgirl suggested.

"No, that name belongs to a superhero." Superbug replied. "A fictional one but still a superhero."

"Fine but what do we do about…" Catgirl was in the middle of asking when she noticed the akuma panther left. "Where did he go?"

"He must have gone after Kim!" Marinette said as she revealed herself. "He's upset about Kim's claim of being able to outrun a panther."

"Someone got akumatized over that?" Superbug asked in fake surprise since she had no excuse to already know that. "Disgusting."

"True but there's no time to discuss it now." Adrien agreed.

"Fine." Superbug said and then looked at the ground to look for pawprints.

Meanwhile, Kim ran out of the zoo. "Outrunning a panther is harder than I thought." He commented as the akuma panther was about to catch up with him. Fortunately, Kim endured long enough for Superbug to grab the akuma's neck with her yo-yo. She then placed herself between the akuma panther and Kim. "Mr. Césaire, how do you think your daughter will feel if you kill one of her friends for such a silly reason?" Superbug asked.

Sensing Superbug was reaching out to Otis Césaire, Hawkmoth tried to intervene. "Don't listen to her, Animan." He ordered. "She's just trying to trick you."

Fortunately, while Animan was distracted, Catgirl used Cataclysm on his bracelet, turning him back into Otis Césaire. "Lucky Charm!" Superbug shouted and got another bracelet. She then purified the butterfly, threw her bracelet into the air and shouted "Miraculous Ladybug!".

"What happened?" Otis asked in horror.

"You were akumatized but you're fine now." Superbug answered. "I advise you to look for your daughter, however."

While Otis ran back to where he left his daughter, Superbug and Catgirl went to the next place where they could change back into their civilian selves. Chloé and Sabrina then went back to the zoo to check upon their classmates. "Is everyone okay?" The Mayor's daughter asked.

"Marinette and I are but I don't know about the others, Chloé." Adrien answered.

"Where are Alya and Nino?" Sabrina asked.

"We're here, Chloé." Alya said as she and Nino showed up. They were holding hands and Chloé couldn't help but notice it.

"I see somebody did more than just hiding." Chloé teased.

"Nino and I got to know each other better, Chloé." Alya replied with a nervous smile.

"Alya, where are you?" They heard her father shouting.

"You'd better let him know you're okay." Chloé suggested.

"Right." Alya quickly replied and went after her father.

Later on, Chloé, Sabrina, Tikki and Plagg were at the former's hotel room discussing today's events. "I thought I could be fast enough to prevent Mr. Césaire's akumatization." Chloé sadly commented.

"You still did a good job defeating the akuma, Chloé." Tikki comforted her wielder. "It still worries me that someday people will stop believing Superbug and Catgirl are nearby just because students are Hawkmoth's preferred targets."

"Today's events just confirmed we're right to keep an eye at them." Plagg said and then noticed the others staring at him. "What? Is it so unusual for me to say smart things once in a while?"

"Yes." Sabrina answered.

"Anyway, we have something more important to be concerned about." Chloé replied. "MY BIRTHDAY!"

The next day, Chloé's classmates were surprised when they received invitations to her birthday party on their smartphones. "Awesome!" Adrien exclaimed. "So, are we going together or does each one arrive at one's own time?"

"Sorry, bro." Nino said. "I know you and Chloé have been friends way before you met anybody else here but I don't know if it's a good idea to go to a party of hers."

"Come on, Nino." Alya pleaded to her now boyfriend. "What's the worst she could do?"

"Believe me, Alya." Nino replied. "You're better off not knowing."

"Marinette, what about you?" Adrien asked his girlfriend.

"Well, Chloé has behaved well recently so, I'm giving her party a chance." Marinette replied.

"Well, if Marinette feels it safe to go, I'm going as well." Nino commented.

"That's the spirit!" Alya happily exclaimed.

Later on, at Agreste Manor, Adrien told his father the news regarding Chloé's birthday party. "Already?" Gabriel Agreste asked. "Time flies. I'll pick something for you to give her as a present. She's the Mayor's daughter after all."

"Thank you, Father." Adrien replied. His father then went to his office and Adrien stayed behind to watch the family portrait. "How does Father open this?" He asked himself.

At Gabriel Agreste's office, he and his assistant Nathalie Sancoeur were discussing ways to take advantage of Chloé's birthday party. "Nathalie, what can we give Chloé to akumatize her without making it obvious we want her to be upset?" he asked her.

"We can give her something seemingly golden and wait for her reaction once she learns it's actually gold-foiled, Gabriel." Nathalie simply suggested.

"Good idea but I'd rather try something more meaningful, Nathalie." Gabriel commented.

"Do you remember that teddy bear Chloé's mother gave her back when she was a little kid?" Nathalie asked. "We can give her a similar bear to trigger abandonment memories."

"Now that's a plan." Gabriel replied. "Normally, I'd just leave an akuma for when Chloé's tantrums made someone upset but she's mellowing down lately. It's like she developed some sort of common sense and is afraid of having akumas going after her."

"I know." Nathalie agreed.

End chapter