It all began in what appeared to be the corridors of a warehouse, with someone fleeing from an armed militia trying to shoot him.
However, the target was running as fast as he could, dodging the bullets involuntarily. He raced down the stairs until he passed through a doorway and found himself in an unparalleled large room with tens of thousands of doors, either on walls, on the floor or floating in the void.
Pressed for time, he clutched something he'd been holding since the beginning of his escape, stepped through a door, placed what he'd been holding against it and promptly closed it.
The guards were just in time to see that a bomb had been placed on a door engraved with the number "510191", which exploded just after they had read the number.
The explosion left nothing but splintered, smoking pieces of wood, some still burning.
A little later, a teenage girl emerged from a bakery.
She was slim of medium height, with medium-length black hair with blue highlights tied in two braids, bellflower eyes, light freckles on both sides and the bridge of her nose. She wore a dark gray blazer with rolled-up sleeves; the inside of the blazer is lined in white with pink polka dots and black trim. Underneath, she wore a white t-shirt with black stitching and a flower design below the collar. The design itself has pink flowers and black leaves. She wore pink rolled-up jeans and pink ballet flats with dark red soles. She wore eyeliner around her eyes and black earrings.
"Oh no, I'm going to be late!" she shouted, rushing out of the bakery.
An Asian woman with hair the same color as the teenager came out holding a small bag.
"Marinette, have you forg- WATCH OUT!" Said the woman before seeing her cross the crosswalk as a truck drove towards her without stopping.
Inside the truck, the driver could be seen casually tuning his radio station without looking at the road.
The teenager stopped in the middle of the pedestrian crossing as she heard her mother realize that she was about to be hit by a truck and could do nothing about it.
She closed her eyes, hoping not to feel the violence of the impact, but instead felt someone protectively embracing her, followed by a noise she could mistake for the impact of a vehicle against a wall.
She opened her eyes to find that not only was she all right, but that a teenager her own age had been protecting her.
She turned around to see the truck stopped with a huge dent where the vehicle had hit her. Completely stunned by this, she didn't notice the driver sitting in shock on the ground.
"Oh no!" Said his savior, inspecting where the truck would have hit him. "I was hoping it would be stronger."
She then paid attention to him and saw that he was a slim boy with an athletic build, short black hair and dark eyes. His facial features were average, with no impressionable qualities.
He was wearing loose-fitting jogging pants, a pair of sneakers and a red shirt.
It was the same boy who had escaped from armed guards earlier.
"Marinette, are you all right?!" Marinette's mother asked as she and a tall man with a moustache wearing an apron emerged from the bakery and took their daughter in their arms.
"Uh... yes, yes I'm fine." She said as she saw the teenager apologize before her father took the boy in his arms.
"You saved my daughter, thank you very much." He said as he hugged the young man as tightly as he could.
"Urgh, it's nothing." Said the teenager as he felt choked by the embrace.
"Honey, you're hurting him." Said the woman.
"Oh." The man realized before letting go of the young man, who caught his breath. "Sorry."
"That's all right." Said the teenager, breathing hard before his stomach rumbled loud enough to be heard by Marinette and her parents. "Oh... running away from those guys gave me one of his hungers." he complained, not really paying attention to the two adults.
The latter heard this and the two adults smiled, having figured out how to thank their daughter's savior.
"Come on, we'll help you fill your stomach. Are you coming to help us, Marinette?" Asked the man as he led the boy into the bakery.
"What?! But what about school?" Marinette asked.
"We'll call them and tell them you'll be absent this morning. We'll help your savior." Said the man cheerfully as passers-by stopped, surprised by the state of the truck.
"You know him." Marinette's mother smiled. "Once he gets an idea in his head, there's no stopping him."
Marinette sighed, a little disappointed at not being able to join her crush at school, but then smiled as she remembered it was to thank her savior.
In her bag, a small pink creature with ladybug motifs trembled slightly. She'd felt a strange sensation ever since the teenager had gotten close to Marinette.
A few hours earlier, a filthy-dressed man handed a man dressed like the ones the young man was fleeing from a caramel rope in which were tied several transparent shapes containing photographs of men and women cut to perfection.
"Here's my crop."
The guard took the strap and handed the man a small box.
"Here's your payment. Replied the guard.
"Is that all?" Asked the man, trembling a little and angry.
"If you want more, bring us more human." Replied the guard before opening an invisible door and disappearing wherever it led before it closed.
The man then looked at the box on which was the shape of a sugared almond with a mouth and bat wings.
"More human, huh..."
Back in the present, the teenager ate a pain aux chocolat, savoring every bite.
"Mmm. Thank you so much for the food." Thanked the teenager.
"You're welcome. It's the least we can do to thank you." Smiled the man, happy to see the teenager feasting on his pastries. "What's your name, boy?"
"My name is Syrius. Syrius Amarga." replied the teenager.
"Nice to meet you, Syrius. I'm Tom, and this is my wife Sabine. And our daughter you saved, you must have already heard her name when we called, but she's Marinette." Smiles Tom as he introduces his little family.
"Dad." Marinette said, coming up to the living room with a cardboard box. "I found this in the back room. You forgot again to prepare the candy to put on the display." She smiled.
"Oh, you're right, they arrived yesterday and it completely slipped my mind." Tom said, scratching his head awkwardly.
"Sweets?" Syrius asked, intrigued.
"Yes." Said Sabine as she opened the box, showing different types of candy, including bags of jelly candy with "Poppin Gummy" labeled on the bag.
"Can I eat some?" The teenager asked shyly.
"You've never eaten any?" Sabine asked, surprised.
"No, never."
Her answer surprised the family who welcomed her. Marinette took a packet of Poppin Gummy and handed it to their guest.
"Here. There has to be a first time for everything." she smiled.
Syrius then took the bag and opened it before inspecting one of the sweets in the bag, before putting it in his mouth and moaning with pleasure once he'd swallowed it.
"This is delicious!" He said, before eating the rest of the contents. "A soft texture and a juicy sweet taste that fills the mouth! And they all taste different depending on their color!"
Then he picked up a lollipop sticking out of the box.
"Wow, is that one of those candies you lick?!" He asked the family, who were more than a little surprised to see him raving about something so simple, before he unwrapped the lollipop and put it in his mouth for a moment. "It's so good! So these are the human snacks..."
"Human snacks?" Marinette and her parents asked, surprised by the appellation.
Suddenly, the boy felt his stomach cramp and put a hand on his stomach.
"Are you okay?" Sabine asked, worried that the candy had made him sick.
"What the... my stomach..." Syrius said before the pain subsided. "It's okay, I'm better. I must have eaten a bit too much candy and my Gavv isn't used to it."
"Your Gavv?" Marinette asked, intrigued.
"Yes, my Gavv." replied the teenager, lifting his shirt to reveal a kind of red mechanical mouth with slightly open gold teeth.
This shocked Marinette and her parents, but then they saw something that had fallen out of Syrius' jacket.
It was a sort of blue and orange belt buckle with orange patterns, an orange double door with a yellow handle on the right-hand side on which there seemed to be a raised blue spot.
There was also a kind of small Pudding wrapper with a pair of blue Eyes that fell to the ground with the belt and hopped into Syrius's hand.
"What's that?!" Tom asked in shock, pointing at both the Pudding and their guest's second mouth.
"A Gochizo. I was entrusted with it along with the belt shortly before I ran away." Syrius replied as the Pudding Gochizo looked at the human family and nodded.
"A... Gochizo?" Marinette asked.
"Things born of human snacks. Or so I've been told. I've never been told how they're created." Syrius explained with what little information he had on the subject while picking up the belt. "I'm supposed to be able to use this."
"Uh... sorry to put it this way but... You're not human, are you?" Marinette asked in as gentle a tone as possible.
"Uh... how did you guess?" Syrius asked timidly.
"Actually, it's pretty obvious." Tom said softly, pointing lightly at the teenager's abdomen. "Humans don't have mouths on their bellies."
"Oh... Yes, that's right... My race has a second mouth on the stomach. We call them "Gavvs". My Gavv is red, which is quite rare." Syrius explained, pointing again to the mouth on his abdomen.
"You... you don't eat human, do you?" Sabine asked, worried as she realized they'd let some kind of human-shaped alien into their home.
"Never." Syrius replied hastily, before regaining his composure and lowering his gaze. "I'll never eat a human."
"Uh... I'm going to school, I'll tell them I'm late because I had to help at the bakery." Marinette said before picking up her school bag and leaving.
She hurried out of the bakery and ran towards the college she was going to, not realizing that the man who had made the transaction with the guard had seen her pass by.
He smiled before opening the box he had received, containing a dark, square-shaped sweet with the symbol on the box. He took a bite, a mouth appearing momentarily on his abdomen. And a tongue came out to take what was left of the candy and eat it before the mouth disappeared. Then he followed the teenager.
"Where's she going?" Syrius asked the two parents.
"Why is she going to her middle school?" Tom replied, both parents having overcome their shock at the realization that the alien really wasn't up to any mischief.
"Middle school? What's that?" He asked.
"It's where kids his age go to get an education." Sabine explained. "You don't have that sort of thing where you come from?"
"Not really. If you do, I've never been there." Answered the teenager, looking out the window to see Marinette running, but also the man crunched in the candy.
This alerted Syrius, who recognized the candy despite the distance.
"Gotta go!" He said hurriedly before running towards the stairs to exit the house, followed by the Gochizos.
Marinette continued on her way to the college, followed by the man, until she came to an unfrequented street.
The man took advantage of this and reappeared with his mouth on her abdomen and his tongue sticking out, trying to capture the girl.
But she was pushed aside by Syrius, who arrived at superhuman speed, even running into the wall of a building, to keep her out of the path of the tongue.
"Syrius?" Marinette said before realizing what had almost happened to her when she saw the tongue enter the man's monstrous mouth.
"Take cover, Marinette." Syrius ordered, and Marinette obeyed.
Taking advantage of the fact that she was out of sight, she opened her bag and the little creature came out.
"First I get saved by an alien, and now this. We've got to go and help him, Tikki." she declared.
"I know, Marinette, but there's something else going on with Syrius. I sense something strange about him." Said the little creature named Tikki.
"Maybe it's that Gochizo you've been smelling." Marinette surmised before remembering the urgency of the situation. "But there's no time. Tikki, spot on!"
The little creature was then sucked into one of those earrings as her outfit changed.
She was now wearing a tight red leotard covered in black spots and with a black collar. On her face was a red mask with five symmetrical black dots, and the waterlines of her eyes were black. Her earrings have turned red with five black spots in a quincunx pattern and the bands holding back her hair become red ribbons, resembling the antennae of a ladybug that flies when she moves. And a Yo-yo matching her outfit is on her waist as if attached to a belt.
She had become one of Paris' two heroes, Ladybug.
"Hey, hey, hey!" Said the man as Syrius stood facing him. "You'd better get out of my way if you don't want to end up at the candy factory!"
This threat made Syrius growl at the mention of the factory, as the man brought out of his mouth a kind of USB key depicting a chewing gingerbread man before changing into a monster with some aspects of a dog, his mouth still present on his belly.
"I forbid you to speak of this slaughterhouse. Syrius growled.
"What? Why aren't you afraid of me?!" the creature asked.
"Why would a Granute be afraid of one of his fellow creatures?" Syrius replied, pointing to his Gavv.
"A red Gavv?!" Said the Granute, surprised.
"You won't hurt a single human anymore!" Syrius shouted, before rushing at the monster to confront him bare-handed.
But despite his physical prowess, the Granute seemed to be just as resistant and stronger than he was. Its blows were powerful enough to wound him to a bloody pulp.
"All that big talk for this!" Taunted the monster when he saw Syrius on the ground, bleeding. "Back off, punk, and let me have my prey."
The Granute was about to resume hunting for Marinette, when Ladybug arrived and attacked him with her yo-yo.
"You really think I'm going to let you do this? she said.
"Ladybug, I'm surprised our paths didn't cross earlier. Besides, you didn't bring your comrade. Too bad for you, you'll be easier to bring to the factory." The Granute sneered, before trying to attack her with his tongue.
But she dodged it, and the action repeated itself as Syrius remained on the ground.
His mind haunted by a memory he'd been trying to keep deep inside him for years.
The lifeless bodies of his father and uncle, Granutes with similarities to a Medusa and a Tamia respectively.
Then his mother, an Asian human woman with blond-dyed hair, being kidnapped by a Granute, while human-like people - a man, a woman and two opposite-sex twins - laughed in his face, gloating at his suffering as a child.
This memory, when he could see the tongue of his adversary trying to Kidnap someone who was dodging as best he could, filled him with a nameless anger.
Elsewhere in Paris, in a dark dome lit by just one round window, was a man wearing a small purple brooch.
The man is very tall, with pale skin and a pink tint. His eyes are light blue and his hair is hidden. He wears a dark purple dress shirt with a black butterfly lapel, a dark purple brooch, with four strands of pale pink fabric protruding from it, making it look like a butterfly in the center of the collar and black suit pants. Over most of his face and neck, he wore a silver mask concealing all but his eyes, as well as his mouth and chin. He also carried a dark indigo cane.
"Such a tornado of negative emotions. The strongest angers are often the result of tragedy experienced in helplessness." He said before covering a butterfly with dark energy, and letting it fly away, passing a small found in the dome window. "Fly, evil Akuma, and unleash his wrath!" He said.
The butterfly flew in Syrius' direction, ready to make him a new Butterfly supervillain, it could almost reach one of the teenager's shoes when...
"Pudding!"
Syrius's anger disappeared, replaced by surprise as he looked from where the voice had come from to see the Pudding Gochizo.
"Pudding!" he repeated, jumping up and down in front of him.
He then pointed to the inside pocket of Syrius's jacket where the belt was and jumped before turning to land on his upper body.
"Do you want me to use it?" Syrius asked, grabbing the Pudding Gochizo who nodded in agreement. "Ok. Let's hope it works like we practiced..."
He then took out the Belt and placed it on his abdomen, revealing a puple strap that secured the belt.
Vrastumgear!
He then turned the Gochizo around and fixed it to the top of the Vrastumgear.
Cup on!
Music began to play as a giant saucer also formed beneath the cup, covering Syrius as what appeared to be liquid pudding poured from the Vrastumgear.
"Henshin." Syrius said as he pushed the lever down.
This action dropped the contents of the cup into the central unit, whose doors opened, and the liquid pudding filled the cup, which disappeared once the pudding was completely formed with Syrius inside. The giant dessert was then cut by a pair of spoons to free Syrius, now wearing a black and silver jumpsuit, to which pieces of pudding were attached, the spoons shrinking before sticking into the pudding at the helmet's ear level, completing the transformation.
Pudding Vram System!
As soon as the transformation was complete, he threw a powerful punch at Granute, shattering the wall against which he collided, while Ladybug looked on in shock as she caught a glimpse of the transformation during the fight.
The noise attracted the attention of passers-by who were able to see the fight and began filming it, including many Japanese tourists.
The man could feel the increase in his target's power through his connection with the Akuma, and gloated as he saw the potential of his future super-villain.
"He'll be perfect! They're weak, but his negative emotions are still there. Go my Aku- NO!"
As Akuma approached Syrius, Ladybug noticed him and captured him in her yo-yo.
"Sorry Hawk Moth, but you're deprived of a supervillain today." She smiled before observing the fight, ready to intervene if Syrius was in trouble.
"So... this is the final model I stole when I ran away..." Syrius realized as he looked at his new appearance. "Now I can finally protect people!"
He then lunged at the Granute, beginning a series of blows that seemed at last to be doing him damage.
The monster tried to hit him back. But his fist was cushioned by the texture of the pudding, which surprised him before he took another blow from his opponent.
He tried again with his claws, but Syrius gave him no chance to attack again. His blows were powerful and brutal, but well-trained. He knew perfectly how to fight while anticipating his opponent's blows.
"I won't let a monster like you hurt humans! Syrius shouted as a bow whose design seemed to match that of the Vrastumgear appeared in his hand.
Vrambreaker!
He turned the point at the end, which enlarged to form a scythe with a chainsaw blade.
"Me, a monster? So what does that make you?!" Shouted the Granute before trying again to attack him, unsuccessfully because of the Vrambreaker.
"I'm one too..." Syrius said in a low voice. "I'm a monster... a monster protecting them from his fellow creatures!"
He then delivered several violent blows with the Vrambreaker to the Granute, who tried to flee before being interrupted in his escape by Paris's second hero, Cat Noir.
A teenager with blond hair and green slit pupils, wearing a black catsuit and a black signet ring with a green cat's paw print, struck him with a metal fighting stick.
"I see I'm just in time, my Lady". He said to Ladybug.
"You're right, Cat Noir." Ladybug smiled as she held up a pudding wrapper with black dots on it.
"So, what does this Lucky Charm mean?" Cat Noir asked, pointing to the baggie.
"That we have to let him." She replied, pointing to the fight.
The Granute now stood exhausted before Syrius, who again had the Vrambreaker in his bow mode with the Pudding Gochizo at its center.
"You have two choices... either you give up the obscure treat, or I eliminate you." Syrius threatened.
"Give it up..." growled the Granute. "I'll never do that. I'll kill you instead!"
The Granute then ran towards his enemy.
"I thought so..." Syrius sighed as he pulled the handle on the back of his weapon pointed at the Granute for a few seconds, causing a series of arrows to appear in front of him, all targeting his opponent.
Then he released the grip, sending all the arrows flying at once.
Vram Shooting!
All of them hit their target, while the Granute fell to his knees as the power of the attack consumed him, causing an explosion that left nothing of him.
"I think it's my turn to play." Ladybug said, throwing away the wrapper. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
The wrapper turned into a swarm of ladybugs that repaired the damage caused by the fight, especially the Granute.
"It seems we're no longer the only heroes in Paris." Cat Noir smiled.
"You're right, but I think that's a good thing." Ladybug smiled back as they watched the spectators cheer Syrius on.
In his lair, Hawk Moth clenched his fist.
"Ladybug, you robbed me of a chance to get your Miraculous, but next time, you won't have the same chance. And you, my boy, I'll find out who you are and the secret behind your power."
Later, at Marinette's family home, she and her parents talked to Syrius. She had explained to them that they had protected her from a monster, and as video footage of the fight had gone viral, they were able to understand the explanation, and the belt proved that it was indeed him on top.
They advised him to keep it a secret, and after some thought, they offered to let him live with them, sleeping in their guest room, and see to it that he could go to the same school as Marinette to learn and live like human teenagers his own age.
He gladly accepted, and by nightfall he was sitting on his bed, while the two Gochizos, Pudding and a similar pink one with Purujelly written on the wrapper, seemed to be asleep in a drawer.
He sighed and revealed a necklace to which 19 rings were attached, each with a symbol representing a different animal or insect.
There were symbols for Ladybug, Cat, Butterfly, Turtle, Fox, Bee, Peacock, Mouse, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Snake, Dragon, Goat, Horse, Rooster, Monkey, Pig, and Dog, respectively.
And for some reason unknown to him, the ring with the slightly glowing ladybug symbol seemed to be pointing in the direction of Marinette's room.
"Why did you keep these, Mom..." he said to himself, then hid them again before falling asleep.