Deeddily deet, here comes the yeet.
So! A Miraculous Adventure is off to a good start, been about a day and nearly 100 views.
Noice.
Anyways, guess that means I should get to working on the next one.
Today's chapter will show off our favourite baker girl battling against her first Akuma.
Let's rock 'n' roll!
Also, Archive of Our Own style tags!
Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Tikki, Alya Cesaire, Ivan Bruel/Stoneheart
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng/?
Unique Tags: Marinette is so done, Minor Master Fu Bashing, Hawkmoth is an idiot, The Miraculous have more powers, Kinda, It'll be explained later, Emile is a little shit
What do you think of the Ao3-style tags? Good? Bad? You don't care?
Regardless, I hope you enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 2: Scarlett
Dupain-Cheng Bakery - Marinette's Room - About 10-15 minutes after Stoneheart's initial appearance
"So, let me get this strait, your name is Tikki?"
"Yes."
"And you're a Kwami?"
"Indeed."
"And Kwamis are basically the concentrated manifestation of abstract concepts?"
"Pretty much."
"And these earrings-" She pointed to them for emphasis. "-are something called a Miraculous, which allows you to interact with the physical plane as, without them, you have no physical form."
"You've got it so far."
"And furthermore whoever wears a Miraculous is capable of transforming into a superhero with powers correlating to the Kwami's concept."
"More or less."
"And the reason I've been given one is because someone is using another Miraculous, specifically the Butterfly, for their own malicious purposes for reasons unknown."
"That pretty much sums it all up."
"Sigh..." Marinette really had no other response than that since, well, today was just basically pure chaos and insanity.
It started off normal with waking up and going to school, and then the next thing she knows is that there's a giant stone golem running around and apparently it's her job to deal with it!
You know, despite the fact she never asked to be the one to deal with it.
Welp, if she's gonna be forced into this, she is gonna do it her way.
"Fine, I agree to help, but I'm going to be laying down a few ground rules."
Tikki merely tilted her head in curiosity.
Being as old as she is, along with having many different holders over the millennia, she had more than a few of them drawing lines which were not to be crossed.
The rules mainly dealt with privacy, so it wasn't really an issue for her since everyone had their own boundaries.
"First of all, if I want to use your powers for my own purposes, I'm allowed to do so, ok?" Marinette began, to which Tikki nodded.
"As much as I'd prefer you not to, many of my past holders have done the same. Just so long as you don't use my powers for evil I'm fine with it." The embodiment of creation replied.
"Second of all, if being a hero interrupts my civilian life too much, I'm allowed to spill my identity." Marinette continued, to which Tikki looked horrified.
"What!? No! Your identity must remain hidden!" The Kwami quickly exclaimed, not wanting to lose another chosen due to their secret being revealed.
"Look, I'm not going to go around blabbing my secret to all my friends, just those that I know are trustworthy enough to tell, and that's only if being a hero disrupts my life too much." Marinette explained.
"I- but..." Tikki tried to come up with a counterargument, but simply couldn't find anything to use as ammunition for her case.
There was no guarantee that Marinette would tell anyone, and even if she did, it would likely be her parents or a trusted childhood friend.
Tikki sighed, and reluctantly nodded her head in agreement and defeat.
"Welp, those are my only conditions, so how about you tell me how these things work?" Marinette said, picking up the ladybug-patterned earrings.
"Right, first you put the earrings in, and to transform you say, "Tikki, Spots On", and to detransform it's Spots Off." Tikki explained.
Putting the earrings on, Marinette felt them shift into a different form.
Using a pocket mirror, she saw that the earrings now looked like two pieces of flat curved metal, tightly hugging the area between her ear lobe and ear helix(Look up external ear anatomy if you're confused).
Giving Tikki a curious glance, the Kwami explained.
"That's the Camouflage Mode, it's basically meant to make the Miraculous harder to steal."
Giving a nod, Marinette prompted further explanation.
"Next are your two powers, the Miracle Cure, and the Lucky Charm."
"Miracle Cure allows you to heal all injuries, cure all ailments, and restore any damage done, although this costs energy, either from the Miraculous or you yourself, sometimes both depending on what it is you're repairing."
"Lucky Charm creates whatever you need to complete your current goal, like winning against the Akuma, however you'll need to figure out how to use it yourself."
"So basically a healing ability and an ability which is pretty much useless to me." Marinette said in response, leaving Tikki confused.
"What do you mean Marinette?" Tikki asked.
"I'll explain later, please continue." She replied.
The Kwami of Creation was a bit confused, but continued regardless.
"Well, the last thing you need to know right now is how to De-Akumatise someone, which is relatively simple. First, you find their Akumatised Object, you then break it to release the corrupted butterfly and turn the victim back to normal."
"So find the object, break it, and then we win?" Marinette guessed.
"You also need to catch the corrupted butterfly with your yoyo to purify it, if you don't it will multiply and simply make the situation several times worst. Not to mention you can use the purified energy to help restore all the damage done during the attack." Tikki explained.
"Got it, so find it, break it, purify it, and then fix everything."
"You got it, there are some other things but I'll explain them once there isn't an Akuma running around destroying everything."
"Alright then, Tikki, Spots On!" Marinette called for her transformation, causing Tikki to be sucked into the Miraculous and a wave of red light to wash over the Miraculous Holder.
Walking up to her full-body mirror, she got a good look at her new appearance.
Red domino mask with five black dots, one over the bridge of her nose and one resting above and below each eye.
Her normally dark blue hair darkened to a midnight black with her usual low ponytail being raised up to the back of her head, and her bluebell eyes had taken on a more silver hue.
And then there was the main suit, which looked to have two layers to it.
The first under layer was pure black, while the top layer held the ladybug pattern and came in five pieces, the socks/stocking/boots/whatever they were which came up to her thighs, long gloves which came up to her biceps and had no fingertips, leaving the black under layer visible, and the main torso part, which had two coattails at the back and left her black-suit-clad neck exposed.
Overall, it was relatively simple, yet still stylish.
Now, to deal with the Dwayne Johnson ripoff.
The Current Street of Stoneheart's Rampage - During the Previous Scene
Emile pulled Alya out of the way of yet another thrown car.
It was getting to the point that he was starting to think that M. Boulder had a fetish for it.
Now you may be thinking, why the hell is he here?
Well good luck guessing, cause he doesn't know either.
Emile then tugged Alya so that the two of them were standing behind a lamppost.
While the metallic pole may have been thin and not offered much of a place to hide, he noticed they were surprisingly effective at deflecting/downright stopping the hurled auto-mobiles.
Taking a few whiffs of the air, he smelt the scent of altered iron, aka blood.
Clearly, some people weren't so lucky to get away from the rampaging giant.
"So, remind me again why you're risking your life to record this destruction?" Emile asked, slightly amused by Alya's reckless disposition.
"Because where there is supervillains, there are also superheroes!" The shorter of the two replied.
And as if to prove her point, a whirling/whizzing sound was heard, and landing in the middle of the street that was also occupied by Rocky Bowel-Boulder, was a girl clad in a ladybug-themed outfit.
"See! I so told you Emile!" Alya cheered with slight smugness, completely missing the slight surprise and recognition in the male's eyes.
Well then, he'll be damned.
Well, he was already damned since he was a Vampire, but you get the point.
"Alright Mountain-Man, how about you just hand over your Akumatised Object and we can all go home and get on with our lives." Little miss ladybug asked the golem.
"MY NAME IS STONEHEART!" Rock'n'roller yelled as he began throwing cars at the new arrival.
To which, the red and black-clad heroine sidestepped the first car, bent at the knees to limbo under the second, quickly straitened her legs to front flip over the third, and then stood ramrod strait since she was standing right under the front-side window of the fourth car, which then proceeded to roll away with the hero still inside of it.
And then, once the car came to a stop(Conveniently landing on its wheels), the ladybug-themed super kicked the door off and stepped out of the car, not looking too amused.
Watching Stoneheart with a calculating gaze, she observed the facts.
Right hand constantly closed? Most likely where the Akuma is.
Damage is only making him bigger and stronger? So she cannot attack him head-on.
Has the temperament of a wolverine? She can actually work with that...
Slowly, a plan, or at least the general basis of one, formed in the depths of her mind.
It was risky, but it was so stupid it may just work.
"Is that all you've got Rocky-Road?" She taunted with a smirk and hands on her hips, causing the exact reaction she wanted.
Stoneheart got angry.
And when Stoneheart gets angry, he rips a lamppost out of the ground and tries to hit his problems with it.
Calmly dodging his attacks(As much as one could be calm in this kind of situation), she initiated step-2 of her hastily thrown together plan.
Running right at him.
While she didn't anticipate Stoneheart to rip the lamppost out of the ground, in the end it worked to her advantage once she got close, as the improvised metal polearm was too tricky for him to wield for close-quarters.
Next, she jumped over a punch and landed on top of the golem's fist, then ran strait up his arm and latched onto his face.
"Y'know, I get that you're the tanky-type of fighter, but I didn't expect you to be slow in the head as well." She taunted with a grin on her face.
Naturally, this made Stoneheart even angrier, and he went to punch her with his fist.
You know, the one holding the Akumatised Object.
This was all part of Marinette's plan.
Moving quickly, she lashed out her Yoyo and wrapped it around Stoneheart's fist, before leaping over his head and yanking on the string, causing the line to become taut and pull in the walking mountain's fist much too quickly for him to stop it.
Naturally, this caused him to punch himself in the face, also causing him to stagger and stumble backwards, allowing the red and black-clad hero to slip through between his legs and grab the ball of paper he dropped.
Quickly tearing it apart, she opened up her yoyo and caught the corrupted butterfly which escaped from the torn up remains.
Turning around and seeing Stoneheart revert back into Ivan, she let out a sigh of relief.
Alright, now time to cast the cu-
"That was awesome!"
Oh god, please don't ask her for an interview!
"Can I get an interview with you?"
No!
"Of course." She said with a smile as she turned around, completely shoving down her anxiety into a not-so bottomless pit.
She was a bit surprised to see her new classmates Alya and Emile standing there, but she quickly dismantled that.
"Yes! First off, who are you?" Her glasses-wearing classmate asked excitedly.
Thinking for a moment, she came up with a name.
"Scarlett, call me Scarlett." The now named Scarlett replied.
"Um... Sorry to interrupt, but where am I?" Ivan asked as he looked around, confused.
Seeing an opportunity, Scarlett grabbed it by it's metaphorical horns.
Walking over and kneeling down, she gave him a headpat.
"You were Akumatised, what was the last thing you remember?" She questioned him softly.
"I... I was heading to the principal's office." The taller teen replied, still a bit confused about the situation.
"I see." Scarlett gave him a nod to show her understanding.
She then stood up, having accomplished her goal of resolving Ivan of any possible blame(Since Alya was recording this entire interaction).
She then heard a beep, causing her to look down and see that the middle spot on her yoyo was blinking white.
"Sorry, I have to see what this is." Scarlett said to no one in particular as she walked a few metres away from the three other teens.
Pressing the blinking spot, the top half of her yoyo flipped up, showing her a screen telling her she had a text message on her phone.
Well, that was convenient for an excuse to finish up and leave.
"Sorry for cutting this short, but I have to go deal with some stuff from my civilian life, but I'll catch you later!" Scarlett said to the aspiring reporter with a wave before zipping away with her yoyo.
Later, in Marinette's room
Scarlett sighed as she dropped from the trapdoor onto her bed.
"Tikki, Spot Off." she said before the magic washed off of her and Tikki reappeared from the earrings.
"Amazing job Marinette! You didn't even need to use your abilities to beat him!" The red and black dotted Kwami said joyfully to her chosen.
Said chosen merely gave a low hum in response, not in the mood after all that happened today.
Her classmate and friend getting "Akumatised" or whatever, finding out that she had been chosen to be a superhero without any warning whatsoever, getting a bunch of lore and exposition dumped on her by what is essentially a god, and finally, actually fighting her transformed classmate and friend.
All in all, it has been a rough day.
And now, she's gonna sleep.
Hopefully the world will make sense again in the morning.
Omake Time!
Miraculous Explanations - Transformations.
In the background are various imagines of Marinette and Tikki, before, suddenly, two of them come to life, with the real Marinette and Tikki jumping into the foreground(Technically floating/flying in Tikki's case, but eh, semantics).
"So, care to explain the transformation to me?" The bluenette asked her Kwami companion.
"Well... I'd explain, but it wouldn't make much sense to someone without knowledge of how magic works." The living embodiment of Creation replied while looking away a little shyly.
"How about just the technical mechanics then?" Marinette offered.
"That's much easier!" Tikki said, before going into Marinette would soon dub, "Rant Mode".
"So as you know you transform and detransform by saying the Kwami's respective phrases, however there is more to it than just that! For when a transformation is active with a Power-Up Potion, and the user wishes to drop the Power-Up but wants to remain transformed, they have to say their Kwami's name before saying, "Power Down", which will disengage the Power-Up. There is also when a single user is wielding/wearing multiple Miraculous and wishes to switch from one Miraculous transformation to another without detransforming or using unification first, all they have to do is say the corresponding transformation phrase and the first Kwami will be ejected from their Miraculous while the new Kwami will enter theirs and bring about their own suit, weapon, and abilities as the former Kwami's disappears."
"..."
"..."
"Ok... Aside from that utter word vomit, I'm now curious as to what Power-Up Potions and Unification are." Marinette finally said after Tikki stopped spitting out words like she was Eminem.
"Uh... Miraculous Secrets!" Tikki replied before laughing nervously.
"Mhm..." Was Marinette only response as she narrowed her eyes at her Kwami.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand done!
Finally.
So, really sorry about this taking so long, but I kinda got distracted by stuff in my private life, so yeah.
Again, doesn't excuse it, but at least I have a valid reason for not getting this over and done with.
But anyways! How do you like the Omake?
Ever since I conceptualised this fanfic I planned to have a little Omake or two at the end of the chapter going into details as to how the Miraculous work in my rework.
And trust me, if you're into knowing how the system of whatever magic the world has works, then you're gonna like the Miraculous Explanations.
Also, I'm thinking about putting tropes from TV Tropes down here like how I put Ao3 tags up at the top of the chapter, so do you think I should do it?
Now time to respond to comments!
bigvic150: Glad you like my story! And feel free to tell me if you have any unique ideas for what I could do in my fic. But aside from that I hope you enjoy!
Guest: Um... I have no clue what you're talking about Guest, Marinette doesn't really seem like a Mari(Heh)-Sue to me, and Adrien hasn't even shown up yet!
And... That's it for the comments...
But anyways, your waiting has gone on long enough, so I'll be ending the chapter here.
Adios!