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Scarlet Lady: Origins (Part 1)
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That blasted girl! she thought. She had been the queen of this class of pathetic, poor peasants for years, and Dupain-Cheng, who was the worst of the lot, had somehow got a spine to replace the baguette she once had!
Baguette, ha! I kill myself.
Maybe that new girl, Cesar or whatever, had something to do with it, but she needed to make sure Dupain-Cheng got the message that no one got away with messing with Chloé Bourgeois, the Princess of Paris!
“I’ve got to get back at that upstart Marinette and Alya for talking back to me,” she muttered, and she looked towards the girl, who was distracted doing whatever homework she had missed, the clumsy idiot. And she also saw her bag - seriously, what a horrible thing, not even a Dior! - unattended to a side.
Struck by a brilliant idea, she carefully walked towards the bag and put her hand inside. Maybe she could find something she could use to put her down, back into her place. Her fingertips touched something wooden and polished, and when she grabbed it and pulled out, she saw that it was an eight-sided box that looked really old and expensive.
Hahahaha! This is probably an old family heirloom! she thought, crowing to herself with an evil smile. She’ll be totally freaked when she can’t find it! Perfect!
As she left back for her seat, Marinette remained completely oblivious to what just happened.
And would remain so for months.
----
Perhaps, if she had known what that act of thievery would bring her, Chloé Bourgeois might not have carried it out.
Perhaps.
But Chloé Bourgeois was never one to think on the long-term consequences of her actions.
----
Back home from that peasants’ building known as Collège Françoise Dupont, Chloé sat on her bed and picked the box she had purloined - not robbed, robbing is something those who are pathetic do! - and admired its colors.
“A pity that this was wasted in that family of boulangers,” she said. “Let’s see what kind of treasure I won. Hee hee!”
And she opened the box.
----
Within the box, the kwami known as Tikki had been waiting for this moment for quite some time. Master Fu had shown her how her future holder, Marinette, looked and acted like, and she knew it would be a wonderful partnership. With Nooroo and the Butterfly Miraculous in the hands of someone who would use it for evil, someone needed to act - and who better than the girl that showed strength of character and compassion in every act?
The box opened. This was her moment!
“Hello, Marinette!” she said, smiling. “Please, don’t be afraid, everything’s--!”
The light that usually covered this kind of thing vanished... and she saw that the person in front of her was clearly not Marinette. Blonde, long hair in a ponytail, rather than black and held in pigtails. Blue, cruel eyes instead of innocent blue. Features of Caucasian ascendancy instead of Chinese.
Conclusion: Master Fu had made a mistake.
“WHO ARE YOU?!” Tikki screamed, trying to make a sense of what had happened.
“THAT’S MY LINE!!!” the girl screamed even louder.
----
Elsewhere in Paris, a boy by the name of Adrien Agreste had discovered a similar box, containing a ring and the kwami known as Plagg. After the terrible day he had had, with his attempt to finally go to school thwarted by Nathalie and his bodyguard, he had listened to the cat-like creature and jumped into the chance to become something he had always wanted to be.
A Superhero.
“THIS IS GONNA BE AWESOME!!!”
----
He would regret those words soon enough.
----
Chloé couldn’t make heads or tails of what this little bug was telling her.
Going out there to fight some monster that had suddenly shown up?
"You’re the only one who can stop the Akuma!” the bug said.
As in, doing something sweaty?
“You use Lucky Charm to save the day?”
Helping other people? Her mere presence was enough to do that! She didn’t need to do like Majestia and waste her precious time in making people think they had any value beyond doing what she wanted.
“You have a partner?!”
And not even a way to claim the credit! No, she had to share it with some no-name peasant, and she couldn’t tell anyone she was the one that had saved their lives! No, she had to hide herself for whatever dumb, irrelevant reason the bug had mentioned, something about someone wanting to rob the earrings she had purloined from Dupain-Cheng.
But the bug was persistent. It kept pestering her until she agreed to it.
Well, maybe she could actually do something and bask in the love of the masses.
----
At the Dupain-Cheng’s house, Marinette thought she had earned a prize for finally telling Chloé off for being a jerk, so she had made herself some popcorn and gone to watch TV, where the usual programming had been replaced by a live newscast.
Un Super-Vilain Á Paris?
A giant creature, who for some reason the newscast had identified as Stoneheart, had shown up in the middle of the city, and was causing quite a lot of chaos.
“Stoneheart is moving toward the Montparnasse Tower!” Nadja Chamack reported, clearly shaken by the current events, as the titan punched a car and sent it flying several meters away.
“Sucks,” Marinette said, munching on her popcorn. Not like there was much she could do. If she were part of something like United Heroez, she would probably jump into action, but she was a civilian, so--
“The monster... seems to be unstoppable!”
And, as Stoneheart kept ambling towards its target, at the down left corner of the screen, Marinette saw something.
Or, rather, someone.
“ALYA!!! What are you doing?!”
----
How does Lois Lane always look so perfect when she does this?! Alya Césaire thought, panting as she pedaled behind Stoneheart. This could be the start of her journalist career!
----
“I’m starting to get the hang of this,” Adrien - no, Chat Noir, that was his superhero name - said, following the trail Stoneheart was leaving behind.
“aaaaaaaaAAAAAHHHHH!”
Pain.
Before he could react, someone had crashed on him, and now the two of them were tangled in some sort of thin rope and hanging upside down. And, as he recovered his sight, he was met with someone wearing a domino mask, similar to his, but red with black polka dots.
This had to be the partner Plagg had mentioned! Well, maybe he could break the ice and begin with a good joke.
“Well, nice of you to drop in!”
“Omigod, no.”
Seriously? Not even a smile?
Tough crowd.
The girl in red pulled on something, and the rope around them suddenly became untangled, causing them both to fall to the ground.
“Say, what’s your name, partner?”
“Why should I tell you?” she replied, with a tone that reminded him too much of his father talking down to someone else - usually him.
“I’m Chat Noir! Nice to meet you!” A loud noise reminded him that Stoneheart was still loose, and he swung back in action. “Come on! Stoneheart seems to be going for the Parc des Princes!”
“Stone-who?” he thinks he hears her say, but it might have just been his imagination. He didn’t pay it any mind.
It was time to be a hero!
----
Sabine Dupain-Cheng looked in shock as her darling daughter nearly crashed down the stairs and towards the door, a look of dread in her face.
“Marinette, where are you going? Lunch is almost over.”
“Out because my new best friend is INSANE!!!”
The bell clinked as Marinette opened the door, picked her bike and started to pedal westward.
“What’s going on here?” she wondered. Well, she would certainly learn about it later.
----
Chat Noir charged towards Stoneheart, his new staff - he could make it grow like Goku did, which was amazing - in hand, and attacked the creature, distracting it from the guy it was trying to attack.
BANG! the staff sounded as it hit Stoneheart’s head.
And then Stoneheart grew in size.
“Oh shit, he’s bigger!” he said, dodging an attack. “Where are you, partner?”
Looking around, he saw his partner standing at the top of the stadium.
“Ah, there!” Good, she could jump in and help him stop Stone- wait, was that a compact mirror?
She was preening in front of a mirror while he was here, risking his life?
“HEY!!!” he shouted, dodging another attack.
----
It looked like that mangy cat had everything well in hand, so she didn’t need to do anything at all! Whew! She could just stand here and let him do all the work, that was what peasants were for, after all.
“What are you waiting for, Super Red Bug?” a voice said from below, and Chloé Bourgeois turned to see the new girl down below, a cellphone in her hands.
“Ugh, you again.”
“The world is watching you!” Césaire said, gleaming and smiling.
“The world is watching...?”
Oh my god, this was perfect! She could jump in, easily put a stop to the monster and bang! Instantly famous! The adoration of all Paris was at hand!
She closed her new compact mirror and grinned.
----
Chat Noir was starting to feel that maaaaaaybe he was a bit over his head. Nothing he could do to Stoneheart could stop him, and it was a hard task to just keep dodging everything. And, of course, his partner refused to do anything.
Stoneheart had grabbed one of the goals with its gigantic left hand, and was clumsily attempting to swing it at him, but fortunately his years of fencing had given him the reflexes to avoid such a large object, and the suit was actually making him faster and stronger!
But then Stoneheart tossed the goal - and it was clear the target was not him, but a red-haired, dark-skinned girl that seemed to have followed them into the stadium.
Oh, no!! he thought, and he turned about to attempt to stop the large object from hitting the girl.
“ALYA!”
Before he could act, someone else, a girl with black bluish hair in a pair of cute pigtails, tackled the red-haired girl out of the way.
“You came!” the red-haired girl - Alya - said.
“Yeah, but why did you?!” the new girl replied.
Whew, crisis solved. Now, he had to find out how to stop Stoneheart, quickly, before it could cause further disruption.
“Cat boy!” the pigtailed girl said, and he felt her hand on his shoulder.
“It’s Chat Noir, actually!” he replied, turning to look at her - and wow, she was quite cute and blushing.
“He doesn’t open his fist!”
“Good note, thanks! Maybe you should be a hero!”
Anyone could be better than his "partner". Not that that was a high bar to surpass.
“Priorities!” the girl said.
----
Chloé could only see red. That blasted cat had said that Dupain-Cheng should be a hero? Ha! As if!
She jumped and kicked Stone-whatever in the head, sending it tumbling away as she turned to the cat and her classmate.
“WHAT DID YOU SAY?!” she shouted.
“Wow, wow, calm down! Maybe we need to use our powers to stop him? Cataclysm! My power destroys anything,” the cat said, his right hand covered in some sort of icky black thing.
“How barbaric. And useless. Like you.”
“Did I look cool?”
The cat thought he was cool? She wanted to laugh.
“Absolutely not.”
The cat grabbed the large net thing that had fallen nearby with his right hand, and suddenly the white on the stick became black, and in seconds the entire thing had disintegrated into dust.
She was sickened to have to admit it, but that trick left her hair standing.
“Jesus...”
“So, what about yours?” the cat challenged her.
You’re going to swallow those words, you mangy cat!
“Lucky Charm!” she declaimed. After a flash of pink, she felt something heavy in her hands, that seemed to be made of rubber and looked a lot like this unfashionable costume she was wearing. “Oh, ha ha, Tikki.”
“So, how useful is your power?” he taunted her, and she angrily threw the thing at him.
“Why not ask your other partner?!”
“You just don’t want to work,” he muttered. Well, of course she didn’t! Work was something someone as important as her shouldn’t be bothered with!
You’ll come crawling back to me once you see how useless Clumsinette is, she thought, grinning at the idea of her rival doing anything useful at all.
“Cat boy, run interference!”
“it’s Chat Noir!”
“Alya, the tap!”
“You got it!”
What.
----
Chat Noir followed the black-haired girl’s instructions. The moment he had given her the polka-dotted red wetsuit, she had immediately come up with a plan. It was a bit risky, particularly since he would have to let himself get captured, but something told him he could trust her.
His trust was rewarded. The girl had managed to trick Stoneheart into grabbing her and the wetsuit, dropping a purple rock from its closed right fist, and then Alya had opened the hose tap, filling the wetsuit to grow and forcing Stoneheart’s fist open. The girl had quickly jumped out, ran for the rock and stomped on it, letting out a black butterfly and a crumpled piece of paper.
And Stoneheart transformed back into a large boy that looked to be his age.
The girl picked up the note and ran for the large boy, shouting what he presumed was his name, as his ring began to beep.
“What’s the noise mean?”
“Dunno, I didn’t read the manual,” he said. Maybe he should have waited for Plagg to explain everything before transforming?
----
“Kim wrote it. He’s always making fun of me,” Ivan confessed to his classmate.
“Pa, don't worry about him. He cried when we saw The Little Mermaid when we were 10.”
He chuckled.
----
Chloé grabbed the rubber thing - now empty of water - and attempted to rip it, but it only stretched without giving in.
No one’s paying attention to me!
How could this be? She was Chloé Bourgeois! The Princess of Paris! Everyone’s eyes should be on her! All the boys should be in love with her! Everyone should worship her! But here they were, paying attention to a mangy cat and Bruel who got his dumb arse turned into a monster, instead of her!
Oh, wait. Tikki had said something about this, right? That she could fix stuff broken by the monsters with this Lucky Charm thing?
“Hey, reporter girl! Catch this! MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!”
The Lucky Charm transformed into a cloud of ladybugs that flew around everything Bruel had destroyed as Stone-whatever. In moments everything was back to its normal state - still below the quality she demanded of everything, of course.
“Whoa!!” Césaire said, and she rushed towards her, cellphone in hand. “Incredible! You can fix everything?! Hey, what do we call you, Wonderbug?!”
Now, that was closer to what she expected. Still not enough simpering, but closer.
“Well, obviously not that. Let’s see...”
----
Chat Noir was tired. Fighting Stoneheart had taken out a lot off him. And he realized that maybe the beeping was some kind of count down.
And then he heard his ‘partner’ proclaim to have saved the day ‘in spite of her clumsy partner’s inability to do anything right’.
“You... you didn’t do anything,” he muttered, astonished of her credit stealing. But then the beeping became more insistent and he left: he had to return home before someone noticed he wasn’t in his room.
Somehow, the beginning of being a hero had become nothing like he had thought it would be.
----
Fu sipped on his favorite tea, relaxing after a long day. Wayzz had reported that the negative energy of the Butterfly had vanished, which meant that young Marinette and young Adrien had managed to stop Stoneheart and captured the corrupted butterfly transforming him. Good. Ah, if only he were a few decades younger! He would have been able to go out there and guide the two young heroes in the matters of the Miraculous.
Wayzz clicked on the remote to turn on the TV and see if the news were mentioning anything about the attack.
“... our new hero, Scarlet Lady...”
He turned to look at the screen, only to notice something strange, because the girl wearing the Ladybug Miraculous didn’t resemble his Chosen wielder at all-
“... thanks to amateur footage by local student, Alya Césaire...”
-and then the screen showed Marinette and a red-haired girl he supposed was this Alya Césaire, smiling at the camera.
“Wait...” Wayzz said. The problem was clear: if Marinette was there in her civilian clothes, who was wearing the Ladybug Miraculous?
He barely noticed as his teacup crashed into the floor.
----
“So... her name is Scarlet Lady...”
Plagg was a bit disturbed by his bearer’s angry face. What in the holy name of Camembert had happened to leave him like he had gone a few rounds with trying to swallow some mushrooms?
“I’ll call her Scar for the scars she leaves on my life.”
Uh-oh.
----
Tikki enjoyed the cookies Chloé had offered her.
But she still wondered why she was here, instead of with Marinette.
And she remembered there was something she hadn’t explained.
“Did you catch the akuma?”
Chloé gave her what she supposed was what humans called the ‘deer-in-the-headlights’ look.
“Huh?”
Uh-oh.
----
Origins (Part 2)
@zoe-oneesama Hope you liked this.
#scarlet lady#fanfiction#milarqui#origins#long post#marinette dupain-cheng#adrien agreste#scarlet lady the novel
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Scarlet Lady: The Novel
Scarlet Lady: The Novel
by Milarqui
When Master Fu left the Miraculous Ladybug earrings in Marinette's purse instead of her room, he couldn't have expected that Chloé, the class bully, would decide to steal them before Marinette learned of their existence.
What Chloé didn't expect was to get saddled with an annoying fairy trying to get her to become an actual hero. Chloé instead decides to use this to make herself popular while leaving the work to her "sidekick", Chat Noir - not knowing that the latter is her friend Adrien.
Words: 2893, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English
Fandoms: Miraculous Ladybug
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Categories: F/F, F/M, Gen
Characters: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Chloé Bourgeois, Tikki, Plagg, Pollen, Alya Césaire, Nino Lahiffe, Juleka Couffaine, Rose Lavillan, Sabrina Raincomprix, Master Fu
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Juleka Couffaine/Rose Lavillant, Ivan Bruel/Mylène Haprèle, Alya Césaire & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Nino Lahiffe, Chloé Bourgeois & Sabrina Raincomprix, Lê Chiến Kim/Ondine, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Plagg, Chloé Bourgeois & Tikki, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug & Pollen
Additional Tags: scarlet lady
Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44923108
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This thing doesn’t like links. But, if you go to AO3 and look for the writer Milarqui, you’ll find the fic “The White Lady and the Black Knight”.
link
i've read it and i enjoy it!! i actually hadn't seen the last update so thank you <3
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Patroni in Winterfell
by Milarqui
Harry dies at age 150, but as it turns out, the next great adventure is anything but simple. When Death asks Harry, his wife Ginny and his friends Ron and Hermione to help her save a world, they all jump in - finding themselves in Westeros, a few years after the Greyjoy Rebellion - and before Jon Arryn dies. Will the four wizards and witches manage to save Westeros from war and death? Or will they be forced to fight in order to salvage something?
Words: 2108, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English
Fandoms: Harry Potter - Fandom, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Categories: F/M, Gen
Characters: Harry Potter, Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Eddard Stark, Catelyn Stark, Robb Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Rickon Stark, Jon Snow, Howland Reed, Robert Baratheon, Cersei Lannister, Jaime Lannister, Tyrion Lannister, Stannis Baratheon, Renly Baratheon, Varys, Petyr Baelish
Relationships: Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley, Ron Weasley/Hermione Granger, Eddard Stark/Catelyn Stark
Additional Tags: Crossover, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/32APpkC
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Scarlet Lady: The Novel Directory
Season 1
Origins (Part 1), Origins (Part 2), Stormy Weather, The Bubbler, Lady WiFi, Copycat, Mr. Pigeon, The Pharaoh, Horrificator, Rogercop
Season 2
Darkblade, The Gamer, Reflekta, Timebreaker, Simon Says, Volpina, The Collector, La Befana, Kung Food, Evillustrator
Season 3
Vanisher, Riposte, Captain Hardrock , Syren, Dark Cupid, Intermission, Animan, Puppeteer, Pixelator, Guitar Villain, Princess Fragance
Season 4
Despair Bear, Sapotis, Anansi, Troublemaker, Intermission 2, Silencer, Desperada, Ikari Gozen, Crocoduel, Robostus, Prime Queen
Season 5
Zombizou, The Mime, Gorizilla, Sandboy, Reverser, Party Crasher, Frozer, Frightningale, Intermission 3, Malediktator, Style Queen, Queen Wasp, Catalyst
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Scarlet Lady: Zombizou
Directory | Prime Queen
“As requested, I looked into whether or not the Bee or Cat has ‘extra’ powers,” Master Fu said, passing the pages on the Grimoire as Adrien looked on, his mind still on the events of the previous day.
“Hm,” he noncommittally said, distracted.
“There is something here, but…” Fu continued, fingering the characters in a page underneath a picture of Marigold's top. “It's unclear, as usual. Something about powers manifesting in times of great need. But my training didn't include decoding ancient vague posts.”
Fu shook his head.
“From what I gather, it's dependent on the holder to unlock any new–”
That was when he noticed Adrien was not paying his full attention.
“Is something on your mind, Adrien?” he asked, shaking him off his mental elucubrations.
“Huh? Ah, no, nothing! Thank you for updating me, Master!” he quickly replied, standing up to get ready to leave. After a few words of goodbye, Adrien left the shop and closed the door behind him.
“You didn't tell him you think Goldilocks might be Pigtails,” Plagg pointed out, and Adrien looked away, uncomfortable.
“Uhh…” he said, trying to find an answer that would actually work, only for Plagg to nod at him.
“Good choice. If you find out her identity, you'll have to give up your Miraculous.”
“Well, that's dumb. And shouldn't it be the other way around?” Adrien pointed out. “Giving the Black Cat to a noob at this point would be a disaster. Either way, it's not like I have proof. No need to involve Master Fu.”
“Right…” Plagg awkwardly replied.
—
Meanwhile, at another house near Françoise Dupont, Marinette was talking with Pollen on a similar matter.
“Pollen, should I try to find out Chat Noir's identity?” she asked her Kwami partner, who nodded with a grin.
“Whatever you think is best!” she replied.
Pollen was not up to date with current protocols, needless to say.
—
The next day, all of Marinette's classmates were ready to celebrate the day they had been preparing for the past weeks.
“I drew Mme. Bustier as a superhero for her birthday,” Nathaniel explained, “cuz she's always solving problems!”
Their teacher's birthday.
“I wish her solutions included less hugging,” Nino replied with a deadpan look.
“My gift is to thank her for the meditation minute,” Mylène said as she got her present on the table. “It keeps me calm.”
“Yeah, free nap time is awesome!” Kim added, causing Ivan to roll his eyes.
“Kim, that's not the point of meditation,” the gentle giant pointed out.
“I, for one, am a big fan of our morning compliment time,” Lila said, sparkling as she twirled around with a smile. “Isn't it great to start the day exchanging compliments?”
We all know why you enjoy it, Alix, Max, and Nathaniel thought as they thought of the latest such event.
—
Three days before
It was morning compliment time, and Mme. Bustier had picked two girls she could tell were having some difficulties with each other (or, as her students would put it, hated each other's guts) so they would say nice things about each other. Maybe this would help them become friends!
Or so she thought. because, as it turned out, people had the ability of making insults sound like praise, and neither Chloé nor Lila were shy about it.
“Oh, Chloé, I love how confident you are in your makeup skills,” Lila said, grinning at the Mayor's daughter, “despite being a total amateur!”
“Hmph! Well, I love how entertaining it is when you lie about having an amazing life even though you're a total nobody!” Chloé fired back.
“O-ho! You know, it's really brave of you to wear so much white when your fake tan is so runny.”
Chloé glared at the smirking Italian girl… while Mme. Bustier kept smiling, oblivious to what was really going on.
—
“What about you, Marinette?” Adrien asked. “I'm sure you came up with something awesome, as usual.”
“Heheh˜” she giggled, pulling out the box she had prepared. “I got her favorite shade of lip balm, and I made a makeup back with the first thing Mme. Bustier taught us: ‘If we want to change the world, we must all learn to love each other’.”
“AWW!” several of her classmates said.
“Isn't that lesson kinda… juvenile?” Alya asked with a grimace, which Marinette answered to with a side-eye.
“Well, she's been teaching some of us since we were six,” she replied as she put things back in place.
“Hey Chloé, what did you get Mme Bustier?” Sabrina asked with a smug look on her face.
“Ugh! Uh…” Chloé groaned as she tried to find an answer, but Marinette interrupted.
“C'mon, Sabrina, you know Chloé didn't get anything just like every year since Cours Preparatoire.”
“Whatever,” Chloé said, looking away and crossing her arms. “All that nonsense about compliments and love? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”
“What a shocker,” Marinette sarcastically replied as she opened her locker and put her present inside. “Caring about someone other than herself would require Chloé to have a heart.”
“Um, of course I have a heart? I could even buy yours,” Chloé replied, causing Marinette to roll her eyes at Chloé’s stupidity as she closed the locker.
—
The door to Marinette's locker opened again, but this time it was Chloé at the other side, marker in hand, as she grabbed the box.
“I can't believe I have to take my own cap off my own marker,” she complained. “What I go through to make sure Dupain-Cheng knows her place.”
—
“BON ANNIVERSAIRE, MME. BUSTIER!” the class cheered as their teacher entered the classroom, looking at the small pile of presents on the table.
“You're all so sweet, thank you!” the teacher said, smiling and blushing at her students’ generosity.
“Oh, Marinette made that one!” Alya said, pointing at the present that was closest to Mme. Bustier, who gently opened it… to find a box with an ugly scribble made with marker and covering what looked like a beautiful sewing of a sentence she could barely make out.
“Huh?! What's this?” the teacher asked, showing her students the contents.
“WHAT?!” Marinette shouted, turning to glare at Chloé. “I know you did this, CHLOÉ BOURGEOIS!”
Mme. Bustier raised her hands, trying to calm her student down.
“Now, we don't know that it was Chloé–”
“Of course it was Chloé!” Marinette interrupted, pointing at the blonde's face, who wasn't even bothering to hide how pleased she was. “Just look at her smug face!”
“Seriously, Chloé?!” Alix shouted.
“Why do you have to make everyone around you miserable?!” Nino yelled.
“Students, calm down. We don't want to be upset on my birthday, do we?” she asked, before checking the box over. “Well, I think it's a wonderful present. And I'll be able to think of both of you when I use it!”
Something inside of Marinette… snapped.
“Ex-CUSE ME?!” she shouted, unable to comprehend what was going on. Mme. Bustier looked at her student and walked up to the door.
“Marinette, would you come with me, please?” she gently asked, opening the door to the corridor, as Marinette slouched in shock.
“What is happening right now?” she mumbled.
“Alya, don't let things get out of hand while we're gone,” the teacher commanded, and Alya nodded.
“Oh, I'll keep us right on track,” she replied, as everyone else in the room aimed their death glares at Chloé… who suddenly realized she might have made a miscalculation as thirteen people made their best to drill holes into her with their eyes.
—
Hawkmoth had noticed it. How could he not? Such anger was usually the type that produced the best Akumas.
Yet… he also noticed who was this angry, and he knew all too well what had happened every other time an Akuma aimed at Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
But… it might be his best chance.
He sent the butterfly.
“Please let this be worth going after the girl for,” he said as he saw the black Lepidoptera vanish through one of the windows in his lair. “No risk no reward, I guess.”
—
As soon as they were outside, Mme. Bustier put a hand on Marinette's shoulder… who wasn't feeling placated at all.
“Chloé vandalized my work and I'm getting punished?” she asked, morose.
“Don't be silly, Marinette. You’re not in trouble.”
“But you are punishing me,” she fired, making Mme. Bustier lift her hand. “You're giving Chloé credit for my gift. My time and energy and hard work. That's punishing me.”
Mme. Bustier remained silent for a moment, and for that moment Marinette thought she might have got through her…
“... as class representative, I want you to be a good example for the class.”
Nope, she hadn't. Marinette felt her eye twitch.
“Chloé is capable of great things, but she only thinks of herself because she doesn't know how to love.”
The twitching became more intense.
“But you can show her how! You just have to forgive Chloé!”
Something snapped. Again.
This time, it was any kind of self-control.
And Marinette glared at her teacher.
“ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME?!” she yelled, for once in her life completely furious.
“Marinette–” Mme. Bustier tried to interrupt, but Marinette didn't care.
Chloé had stepped on her berserk button, and Mme. Bustier had not only done the same, but acted as if it were perfectly good.
“NO! Chloé did this maliciously! And she's not even SORRY!” Marinette continued yelling, her frustration pouring through. Almost ten years of her teacher mollycoddling Chloé, ignoring everyone else's requests in favor of favoring the mayor's daughter, had accumulated. And with the dam burst open, she just released it all. “All ‘forgiving’ her does is tell her that no matter how awful she is, she'll get away with it! Or even be praised for it!”
“That's–” Mme. Bustier attempted to stop her, but Marinette was on a roll, and no teacher was going to stop her.
“And what about me?! Why should I ever do nice things when I'm told to suck it up when my efforts are spat on?! Why do Chloé's feelings matter more than mine, the wronged party?!”
“Now, listen here–” Mme. Bustier said. Marinette could recognize the teacher was getting angry. But Marinette recognized something else.
She did not care.
“Well, I'm done! If you don't want to punish Chloé, fine, I can't make you! Just like you can't make me pretend Chloé isn't the meanest, rudest, most despicable person I've ever met!”
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”
Oh, resorting to full names? Marinette's subconscious noted. Time for the coup de grace.
“All that's necessary for evil to succeed, is for good people to do nothing,” she said, giving the teacher a look as she walked away. “And you did nothing, Mme. Bustier.”
With such Parthian shot she left, not wasting the time to look back at her teacher.
Mme. Bustier had sowed the wind, and now the harvest had included hurricanes.
And, as she walked off, Marinette gave a sigh of relaxation. That had felt amazing.
—
Hawkmoth realized that his original target had somehow managed to get rid of her negative feelings - or, at least, enough of them that she would be hard to Akumatize. But right next to her was another potential target… one that was angry with his original target.
“Well, switching from the girl to someone upset with the girl is marginally better, I guess,” he said, ordering the butterfly to move for the new target. “In for a penny, in for a pound. I mean, I already sent out the butterfly…”
—
“Chloé, you're worse than Hawkmoth!” Alya yelled.
“You've caused half the Akumas in Paris!” Alyx shouted.
Not that Chloé cared.
“Is it my fault that I'm better than all of you?”
“Just because your mom forgets your birthday doesn't mean you get to take it out on Marinette or Mme. Bustier,” Sabrina venomously fired, causing Chloé to turn to her former friend, furious.
“How dare you?! I don't have to sit here while you spill my life story! Keep your big mouth shut, Raincomprix!” Chloé yelled back, putting all her stuff back into her bag and then moving to leave the classroom, just as the door opened to let Marinette in. “Out of my way!”
“Hey!” Marinette shouted as Chloé shoved her aside.
“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” she grumbled as she left the classroom. “Where does she get the gall–huh?!”
“Zombizou, I'm Hawkmoth.”
“Oh, great,” she complained. First her moron classmates and now she'd have to deal with her moron sidekicks and her moron teacher.
“Your student spoke so hatefully towards you. I'll give you the power to spread love and compassion in exchange for the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous,” Hawkmoth said, and Chloé decided to carefully get herself out of the way to avoid getting caught in today's nonsense.
“I won't stop until everyone on Earth feels the love!” the teacher declared as Chloé reached the stairs. “Starting with Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”
Chloé stopped.
Now… maybe she didn't need to leave so fast…
—
“GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!” Mme. Bustier said as she reentered the classroom - but this was clearly not their teacher.
“Wha–?!”
“Mme. Bustier?!”
Because… to be honest, what her teacher was wearing now was making Marinette's eyes water. The teacher's usually loose brown hair was now tied in a green-gray bun held together with two massive needles, her face had a pink domino mask over her face, and her outfit was now black with a large pink heart on the torso and more hearts spread over it.
Marinette liked pink as much as the next girl, but this was an abomination.
“From now on, everyone is going to hug and kiss and feel the love!” the Akumatized teacher declared, causing Alyx to grimace.
“But not, like, literally, right…?” she asked.
“Starting with my role model student, Marinette! MWAH!”
“AH!” Marinette shouted as she jumped aside, while a small black heart slammed just behind where she'd just moved away from. “What the heck is that?!”
“Tch. Missed.”
“Mme. Bustier!” Rose shouted. “Snap out of it!”
“I'm not Caline Bustier anymore! I am Zombizou!”
Quickly, the students grabbed their backpacks and tossed them at the Akuma.
“Sorry for this, Mme. B!” Nino shouted while jumping off his seat.
“Ah! OW!” Zombizou yelled as she got slammed by multiple heavy backpacks.
“Get out, quick!” Marinette ordered, and everyone followed, knowing that putting distance between themselves and the villain was their best option to survive.
“You won't escape my love!” Zombizou declared. “MWAH!”
And the heart flew… straight into Sabrina's neck.
“AH!”
“Hahaha, smoochies my poochies!”
—
As the class ran, Sabrina almost tripped down the stairs and held onto the rail, her face flushing.
“I… is it suddenly very hot in here?” she asked, trying to stay on her feet as her mind clouded.
“Huh?” Adrien asked, wondering what had happened to their friend.
“‘Brina?” Lila asked in a worried tone.
“Can you keep going?” Adrien asked.
“Try to make it to the nurse's office at least!” Lila encouraged, even as Sabrina sat on the but stairs.
“Lila…” Sabrina mumbled… before she tackled Lila, her pupils somehow replaced with pink hearts, and pushing her to the ground. “Kissou~!”
“Wah!” Lila yelled in shock, and stunned as she was, she was unable to keep Sabrina from… kissing her in the cheeks.
“Sabrina! Stop smearing your lip gloss all over me!” Lila begged, embarrassed. “Now's not the time to realize how amazing I am!”
But then, when Sabrina stopped kissing her, Lila had the same pupils, and she tackled the closest person - Mylène.
“Kissou~!”
“Ah!”
“Mylène!” Ivan shouted, worried about what was going on, but one thing was clear: this was starting to get out of hand – particularly as Mylène started to turn around.
“It's contagious! Don't let yourself get kissed!” Alya warned him... but Ivan chose to stand at the bottom of the stairs, as the three girls tried to rush him, shouting 'Kissou~!'.
“Go! I'll hold them off!” Ivan shouted.
“Ivan!”
---
Nathaniel ran to the Art Club room: he knew that splitting from the rest of his class was tempting fate, per every horror movie he had seen, but he had to do something! His friends there were unaware of the newest threat!
“Quick, you have to hide!” he shouted as he opened the door. “There's an Akuma, and–!”
“Go on, Nathaniel,” his teacher's Akumatized form's voice sounded right behind him. “Tell us all about the Akuma.”
He wasn't the type to throw ugly words around, but he felt that this time, he totally deserved to be able to do so.
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU–
Unfortunately, he got hit by Zombizou's kiss before he could utter that aloud.
---
As his classmates ran upstairs to avoid all the kiss zombies that had suddenly sprung out, caused by Zombizou's power, Adrien realized he had the perfect excuse to get away and transform.
He faked slowing down and looked away, so Nino would be unable to see his face as he lied like a rug.
“Oh, noo, I–I feel faint. I think I– ugh, ki–kissou–”
“Dude, I love you but not enough to makeout with your zombie, stay away!” Nino warned as he followed Juleka to the top floor.
…
He wasn't going to go into how that sounded like. He had enough trouble already.
---
“I'll find you sooner or later, Marinette!”
“Kissou~!”
“You'll have to accept my love!”
“Kissou~!”
“Whether you like it or not!”
If she weren't an Akuma, she'd have probably been piled on by a zillion police officers already.
---
“I don't want to make out with strangers!” Max moaned in distress from his perch on Kim's back, as the survivors of the group holed themselves up in the locker room.
“What do we do?!” Alya asked, still shaking from the shock of everything that happened in the past few minutes.
“We're gonna hide until the heroes fix this!” Marinette ordered, while internally aware that that meant only Chat Noir would be there to do anything.
“Hey.”
“FUCK!” Marinette yelled after the 'heroine' suddenly showed up from within a locker. “Scarlet Lady, what the HECK?!”
Then she realized something was very much out of place.
“Why are you hiding in a locker?”
Scarlet Lady looked on, silently, before turning around and waving her hand.
“Anyways~”
“She ignored me?!”
Though, Marinette wasn't sure why she was that surprised – it wasn't as if Scarlet Lady ever paid attention to anything that wasn't her ego.
“Kissou!”
“Kissou!”
Everyone turned to look at the room's inner window, horrified to realize it was swarming with... well, the kiss zombies created by Zombizou.
“Oh no, they found us!” Kim yelled.
Scarlet Lady ran to the outer window and opened it, pointing upwards.
“Quick, we need to get on the roof!”
The students looked at her, suspicious.
“Why's she suddenly so helpful?” Alya asked, a sentiment shared by everyone else. Scarlet Lady never did anything that didn't benefit her.
Of course, they were completely right in being suspicious.
If I want a front row to the Akuma getting Dupain-Cheng, I'll have to stay with the group for now, the 'heroine' thought, hiding her evil grin from her classmates.
---
Fortunately (and no thanks to Scarlet Lady), the entire group managed to reach the roof, and much more fortunately, Chat Noir landed just next to them as they took a breather, and Marinette pulled out her phone to check the situation.
“Hey everyone! Let's hold off on the usual greetings, yeah?” Chat Noir suggested as Marinette opened her TVi app.
“Hordes of kissing zombies are spreading through Paris – ah!” Mme. Chamack reported, only to get interrupted by Zombizou, who turned to look at the camera.
“I'm coming for you, Marinette! And Chat Noir, Scarlet Lady, and Marigold!” the Akuma declared, and Marinette quickly turned it off, in shock.
“S–She's after me?!” she said, stunned.
“Maybe we should give them what they want,” Scarlet Lady added, and everyone else turned to glare at her.
“Don't even think about it!” Max shouted, clearly angry.
“You'd have to get through us!” Kim added, just as angry as his best friend.
“Come near her and I'll throw you to the zombies myself!” Chat Noir threatened.
“Aw! Guys!” Marinette replied, although she wasn't as happy as she should be. Though ditching me would make it easier to transform.
“Kissouuuu!”
“Kissou!”
“They're getting on the roof!” Nino alerted.
“What do we do now?” Rose asked.
“Over there! A bus!” Marinette suggested, pointing at the large vehicle. “Think you can drive, Chaton?”
“About as well as anyone else, ma belle,” Chat Noir answered, as he tried to think on how to reach it from their current position. “One of us has to throw my belt back to the roof and the other has to catch it–”
“I'll catch the belt!” Scarlet Lady offered, and Marinette and Chat Noir looked at each other.
“Super sus,” they both agreed.
Chat Noir jumped down to distract the zombies after giving his belt to Alix, and they all quickly used it to slide down a cable that led near the bus.
Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough, and...
“Please hit Zombizou extra hard.”
“Kissou!”
“MAX!”
“For being top tier uncomfortable!” their genius classmate said, having moved away to keep the zombies distracted from Marinette just long enough for her to escape.
“Ho–kay!” Kim exclaimed, grabbing Marinette and putting her on the improvised zip line. “Gotta go fast, 'Nette!”
“Wait, what–” and Kim shoved her down. “AHHHHHHHH!”
Scarlet Lady pouted.
There goes my chance to throw her to the zombies.
Then Kim turned, realizing she was still there, and pushed her off the roof.
“Hurry up and save everyone already!” he shouted.
“Wah –!”
“Kissou!”
As he got grabbed by the zombies, Kim noted that he was glad Max wouldn't remember what happened.
---
Thankfully, Marinette's sudden travel down the line was brief, and Rose was there to help her down, while Chat Noir jumped between vehicles to keep the zombies' attention away from the bus.
“Hey-yo! Don't you want to kiss me?!” he taunted, as he happily noticed Marinette was safe(r).
“Kissou!”
“I've got you, Marinette!” the blonde girl said.
“Just be careful behind you, Rose!” Marinette warned, and the two of them ran towards the bus –
“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Rose yelled as one of the zombies grabbed her wrist.
“Rose!”
“LET HER GO!”
Juleka's shout was accompanied with a mighty punch that forced the zombie away from her girlfriend.
“Juleka!” Marinette added, as the goth girl pulled them into the bus, and Rose hugged Juleka.
“My hero!” she exclaimed, unaware of the mark left in her right arm.
“That was an awesome right hook!” Alix complimented, and Juleka looked bashful
“I've been, uh, practicing.”
That was when Chat Noir jumped in, and after a few false starts he managed to make the engine run.
“If we get to the Eiffel Tower, we can lure the Akuma out,” Marinette suggested, and Chat Noir nodded.
“Hopefully, Marigold had the same idea–”
“AHHHHHH!”
“Rose, Juleka!”
“G–Get back!” Scarlet Lady shouted, backing off, as Rose turned around.
“Kissouuuu~”
None of them had realized Rose had been hit with a kiss, and she had just given another to Juleka. They had a zombie in the bus!
Which was when Alix jumped ahead and grabbed Rose by the shoulders, keeping her at arm's length.
“Hngh!” she grumbled, struggling to hold her off.
“Alix!” She was doing a lot of yelling her friends' names, wasn't she?
“Kissou! Mwah!” the zombified Rose mumbled as she tried to kiss Alix.
“Everyone! I'm trusting you to protect Marinette! And to get back at Hawkmoth and Zombizou for this nightmare!”
“Mmwah!” Rose kissed Alix, sealing her fate, as Marinette was pulled out of the bus by Alya and Nino, followed by Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady, as they finally reached their destination, still followed by zombified Parisians who were eager to try and kiss them.
“Kissou!”
“Kissou?”
“C'mon, c'mon, faster!” Alya shouted as she pressed the button to open the elevator's doors. They did, and–
“No–!”
“Kissouuu!”
“Mwah!”
“Alya!”
“Get off of her!”
The zombies had lied in wait, and too fast for Alya to avoid before they kissed her. While Chat Noir and Nino were able to force them away, it was too late.
“Alya–!” Marinette cried out, kneeling next to her best friend, and Alya gave her a wan smile.
“Hey, it's okay,” she replied. “Chat Noir and Marigold will save us. So keep yourself safe.”
“For both of us, 'Nette,” Nino added, holding Alya's hand.
“Nino?!” Marinette asked in shock, and Alya gently shoved her towards the elevator.
“You two...” Alya started, then she thought it better. “You better take care of my best girl, Kit-Kat.”
“Of course,” Chat Noir replied, and Scarlet Lady pouted.
“Uh, I'm still here too, you know.”
Nobody cared.
Not when the situation was so dire.
Chat Noir pulled her into the elevator and closed the door, pressing the top floor button.
---
“Don't forget our deal, Zombizou!” Hawkmoth said, glad that he was safely ensconced in his secret lair.
“They won't escape my kiss by hiding out at the Eiffel Tower!” his latest Akuma promised.
He knew it was close! Those Miraculouses were already his!
---
Nino could notice when his girlfriend's resistance to the Akuma's effect collapsed, as her face blushed and her eyes turned into those creepy heart-like pupils.
He sighed.
“It's not the first time we've been in trouble together,” he said, as Alya tackled him.
“Kissouuuuu!”
“Yeah, yeah, 'kissou' or whatever.”
---
As the door closed behind her, Marinette felt her eyes tear up, and looked down to hide them from Chat Noir.
The pain... it felt like her heart was tearing itself apart.
“Why?! Why didn't they protect themselves?!” she cried out, sobbing as the tears cascaded off her eyes and hit the elevator floor. “How could they sacrifice themselves for me?! I HATE THIS!”
“Hey!” Chat Noir gently said, lifting her head and cleaning her tears with his thumb. “Marinette, no one saw it as a 'sacrifice'. They protected you because they love you.”
And when he smiled, so softly and beautifully, her heart forgot for a moment its pain.
“And that's why I'm going to protect you too.”
“Chat Noir...” she replied, stunned. Had he... did he just...
“But also don't get sloppy because I have zero faith in this 'helpful' Scar,” he whispered, making her feel a bit of whiplash from the change of matter, but she had to agree with him.
---
After the long climb up, the elevator's door finally opened, and they were at the tower's highest terrace. They should be safe there, but...
“Damn, they're here too!” Chat Noir complained as they realized there were a few zombies there as well.
“It's not too many, stay sharp!” Marinette told the others.
Here's where you get what's coming to you, Dupain-Cheng! Scarlet Lady thought... and she tossed her yo-yo at Marinette.
Chat Noir, however, had been ready for this, and blocked it with his staff.
“What do you think you're doing, Scar?!” he shouted.
“Chat Noir, look out!” Marinette warned.
In his haste to protect Marinette from Scarlet Lady, he had forgot about the other dangers in the tower.
And the zombies promptly swarmed him.
“AH!”
“CHAT NOIR, NO!”
Chat Noir was able to force them away from Marinette and block their advance with his own body and staff... but his face was now covered in kisses.
“Chat, don't leave me!” she begged, tearing up again.
“Hey, Princess, don't cry. Everything is going to be okay,” he replied, still smiling.
“You don't know that!”
“Marigold will defeat Zombizou, and Scar will fix everything.”
“You haven't even heard from Marigold!” she exclaimed, feeling guilty. “How do you have such faith in her?!”
“She's the best partner in the world, Marinette,” he replied, and the glint in his eyes told her he knew much more than he ought to. “Believe in her like I do.”
“Chaton...”
“If you're done with your spappy moment,” Scar interrupted, tensing the yo-yo rope, and Marinette turned to face her. “Now that all the roadblocks are out of the way, you'll finally get what you deserve for making fun of Chloé!”
She tossed the yo-yo again, but Marinette dodged it (silently thanking her work as Marigold for it).
“Hold still!” Scar shouted.
“Where are your priorities, you menace?!” Marinette angrily yelled, furious that she had just caused her to lose Chat Noir to the zombies.
Not that Scar cared.
“I'm gonna hand you over to the grossest zombie I can find–”
“Kissou!”
And Chat Noir kissed Scar in the cheek.
“Huh?”
Marinette took advantage of the distraction to slip back into the elevator room.
“Ew ew ew, cat lips!” she heard Scar yell, but Marinette had something else in mind.
“B–Buzz On,” she mumbled, and felt the transformation take her.
But it was too late. She collapsed, sat with her hands over her head, as she realized what just happened.
“Scarlet Lady... Scarlet Lady's infected... she can't reverse the Akuma...” she mumbled. She was all alone now... and she had no way to fix what the Akuma had just caused. She... had she lost? “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god–”
“HAHAHA!”
And, of course, just to make things worse, Zombizou showed up.
“Marinette, Marigold, come out come out wherever you are! Witness the final triumph of love before I claim the Miraculouses!”
She couldn't do anything.
She might be wearing a Miraculous... but, right now... she needed an outright miracle.
“What can I do, what can I do?!” she mumbled, and in her despair, her shock, she imagined as if bees were buzzing around her. “I have to... I have to...”
And, like a dam that had overfilled... something burst from within her.
“AHHHHHHHH!” she screamed.
She didn't know if it was pain, or shock, or just plain need to yell out her feelings for everyone to know.
But what sprung from her was an explosion of light.
And suddenly... she knew she could do it.
She had found her miracle.
---
The explosion of light blinded all the zombies surrounding the elevator cabin, and forced Zombizou to cover her eyes.
“WHAT IS THIS LIGHT?!” the Akuma yelled, surprised at the sudden turn of events. She had finally cornered Marinette, and then this had happened. Her sweet hearts were now rubbing their eyes and collapsed on the floor, and so they were out of place when the door opened again. “Marigold, YOU–”
But there, she stopped.
Because Marigold's costume was now, somehow, shining. Black and gold had moved around the surface, with her leggings going from gold to black while her sleeves did the opposite. And she was twirling her top around, looking at her with an impassive face.
“Why–?! What's with that suit?!” Zombizou yelled, but Marigold didn't answer.
She threw her spinning top.
“BEE BALM!”
And suddenly everything was swarming with bees.
But when Zombizou realized the bees were not attacking her, she laughed.
“Ha. Hahaha! All that flashy light and it did nothing, Marigold–”
“Where am I?”
Zombizou turned to look at her sweet hearts... which were no longer under her control!
“Wasn't I at work?”
“What are these glowing bees?”
“WHAT?! My SWEET HEARTS!”
“Marigold freed them from your influence?!” she heard Hawkmoth shout.
Before she could react, try to bring them back under her love –
“Venom.”
“Wai–!”
Too late.
Zombizou became paralyzed.
And the nightmare was finally over.
---
“No fair, why does she get a new look?!” Scar complained.
Nobody cared.
“Wow, you unlocked a new power!” Chat Noir exclaimed, his eyes sparkling in joy as he took in her partner and her new uniform. “I knew you could do it! You really saved the day! How'd you pull it off?!”
Marigold... didn't answer.
She just bonked her head on his chest.
And...
“M–Marigold?!”
… she sniffed.
What happened?
---
As Scar finally deigned to do her work and use the Cure, Mme. Bustier was brought back to normality, and the woman collapsed on her knees as she realized what had just happened.
“Oh no, I... I let my negative emotions take over, how terrible!” she moaned in distress. “I'm terrible.”
“Hm,” Marigold joined in, turning to look at her. “Then I guess that means nearly all your students are 'terrible'.”
“What?! No, that's not–” the teacher protested, but she was interrupted by Chat Noir.
“Exactly. Feeling things like anger or sadness or jealousy is normal, and nothing to be ashamed of,” the hero stated. “How we react, how we use these emotions, is what matters.”
“And the only one to blame for taking things too far is Hawkmoth,” Marigold finished, before the two of them jumped off as her timer began to beep.
And the teacher was left alone with the last of the group.
“Scarlet Lady, you're friends with Chloé, right?”
“Huh?” the 'heroine' said, before realizing what was going on. “Oh, uh, of course! Best friends!”
The teacher approached her, and put a hand on her shoulder.
“I'm so glad she has you as a good influence,” she said, and Scarlet Lady looked nervous as she did so.
“Uh, thanks?”
“Chloé's friends aren't being very nice right now, so I was worried.”
“Oh, that's no big deal,” she declared, smug. “Chloé only surrounds herself with the best after all! They're just being dramatic.”
“Thank goodness!”
And the teacher hugged the 'heroine'.
“Thank you for not leaving Chloé alone.”
“Heheh, yeah, sure.”
---
Marinette mentally sighed in relief as she saw all of her friends and schoolmates milling about, as if they hadn't been struck by the latest Akuma.
Save for the fact that they were actually talking about said Akuma, it was all good.
“Did you wake up before the cure went out?” Mylène asked Alix.
“I saw bees and then ladybugs!” Nino told Adrien, who was nodding with a smile.
“G–Good morning, everyone,” she timidly interrupted.
“Marinette!” her friends exclaimed as they realized she had just arrived.
“Thank you all for protecting me yesterday and...” she sighed again. “I'm really sorry. When Mme. Bustier pulled me out of class, I went off on her. So it's my fault she was Akuma–”
“You really did that?” Ivan asked.
“That's amazing!” Alix and Nathaniel exclaimed together.
“Awesome,” Juleka added.
All of them were actually sparkling.
“H-Huh?!”
Marinette was so shocked she could barely show her shock at how... well her classmates had just taken the news.
“Mme. B didn't hold back pictures even though she knew I was in the bathroom,” Juleka explained, retreating back into her shell.
“And she let me do Chloé's work for years and never stepped in to stop it!” Sabrina added, angry at the reminder of what she had done in the name of her 'friendship'.
“If you mess up a little, she sends you to the Principal,” Ivan joined in, “but I knew I'd look like the bad guy if I said anything negative about the 'nice' teacher.”
Marinette was surprised to see everyone nod to Ivan's words. It was as if everyone had been in the same boat as Ivan regarding their teacher...
“No one blames you for losing it on Bustier,” Adrien said.
“Not when she was letting Chloé get away with bullying you again,” Nino added.
“We'd dive in front of a hundred Akumas to protect you!” Alya offered, smiling.
“Thanks, but PLEASE DON'T!”
She had already been traumatized enough. She didn't care to repeat the experience.
---
When Mme. Bustier arrived to her off, she found a small box with a card where Chloé thanked her for putting her ahead of the others.
Unfortunately, Mme. Bustier didn't realize the real meaning of it, and accepted it as proof that she was right about her student.
---
The Mime
Welp, the memetic molester of Akumas just passed through. Glad to see her leave, not so glad she never learned the lesson.
Apologies for the lateness, I have too many things in hand and too little time to work on them. Still doing this, though, just as the SL comic enters its finish line.
So, that's 514 pages, 205324 words, 1108074 characters.
I'll do my best to get the next chapter ASAP!
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#adrien agreste#chat noir#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrienette#caline bustier#zombizou#scarlet lady is better than canon
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Scarlet Lady: Prime Queen
Directory | Robostus
Scarlet Lady: Prime Queen
Lila observed the bouncing girl, slightly worrying how she would survive the night, while she kept the phone close.
“Thanks for hooking me up with this babysitting gig, Marinette,” she told her classmate. “I need some cash for Mme. Bustier's present.”
It had been a bit of a surprise that all of her classmates were actually into buying presents for their teacher – something she had never done before – but she really wanted to fit in with the rest of the class, and, well, when in Rome...
“No problem! I already had plans anyway,” Marinette replied. “You might want to record Mme. Chamack's new show tonight. Manon conks out at 8:30, so she'll probably miss half of it.”
“Ugh, an hour long interview with Scarlet Lady,” she complained. “Maybe Chat Noir and Marigold will tie her to the chair so she behaves.”
----
Marigold heard the soft laugh of her classmate and made a grimace.
“That's not a bad idea,” she muttered, as she started to break off the conversation.
It was time for... an interview.
----
“Live in 10 and no heroes, Nadja.”
“They'll be here, Arlette!” Nadja Chamack, TVi's star reporter, told her producer, trying not to sweat: regardless of her assurance, she knew something could still go wrong. “We're gonna break records tonight!”
“You better if you want to keep your prime time slot,” Harlette threatened, as per usual (the slot was coveted by most everyone at TVi and she had been lucky to present the idea for Face to Face and have it accepted). Still, she was certain she had what she needed for –
“Hey.”
“WAH!” Nadja involuntarily screamed as the couch that had been empty two seconds before now had two heroes happily sitting without a care. “How– where did you come from?!”
“Trade secret~” Marigold sing-sang, as Chat Noir leaned towards her with his hands on the table.
“Where's Scarlet Lady?” Nadja asked; while she wasn't strictly necessary for tonight's interview, she could help put the cherry on top of her hopes.
“Oh, she'll be here,” Chat Noir reassured her. “At the last possible second. But forget that, let's talk interview.”
Chat Noir jumped back and sat next to Marigold.
“Off the table topics: Identities. Miraculouses in reserve. Power ups–” Chat Noir counted, while the Bee Heroine looked amazed at him.
Wow, he's like a professional... almost like he's done this before... she thought.
----
“5 minutes, 35 seconds... 5 minutes, 33 seconds...”
Sweet almighty forces of creation (which she wielded on a regular basis), could Chloé get more self-absorbed?
“Chloé, just wait for the show to start with the others!” Tikki berated her.
“As if! I have to make a showstopping entrance worthy of my stardom!”
Never mind.
Every time she asked herself that question, Chloé just proved herself more than capable of saying 'yes'.
----
“Whatever. We don't need Scarlet Lady, we have the two that matter.” Arlette said. “Don't forget the goal, Nadja. Boost the ratings to max audience reactions. Make sure that red turns to green.”
Nadja briefly looked down at the electronic bracelet on her left wrist, currently showing a single red line, as a door slammed and a familiar red and black figure swung her way into the studio.
“Helloooo~ The star is here!”
“Scarlet Lady!” one of the cameramen exclaimed, as the aforementioned landed right next to the table.
“Nice of you to join us, Scar,” Chat Noir sarcastically greeted her, while Marigold sighed.
“As if you could start without me!” Scarlet Lady replied, unaware of how wrong she was in that regard.
----
“I'm Nadja Chamack, you're watching Face to Face!”
“Mommy!” Manon exclaimed, while Lila smiled. When she was calmed down, she was a little angel...
“For our first show, we have Paris' favorite protectors, Marigold, Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady!”
----
Elsewhere in Paris, the Césaires were watching the program with interest, as was a good part of the city. Most times, what they could see of their heroes outside the fight were brief moments before they had to leave, so the fact that they would be for a good hour on screen was interesting.
“Thank you for coming,” Nadja Chamack said.
“Thank you for having us, we're happy to be here!” Marigold replied, smiling.
----
“Ooo, Nadja, the Queen Bee is pleased,” Chat Noir teased.
“'Queen Bee'?” Marigold asked, looking at her partner. “Just how many nicknames do you have for me, Chaton?”
“Do you really want to know?” he asked in reply, grinning at her.
“Good evening, my loyal fans!” Scarlet Lady exclaimed, ignoring the conversation behind her as she hogged the camera.
“Um, please sit down,” Nadja asked as she moved on to the first part of her interview.
----
“We see you saving Paris, but we know next to nothing about you,” the reporter said as the camera focused on the heroes.
“Lucky you, you can ask anything!” Chat Noir replied with a smirk.
“Within reason,” Marigold added. “You never know who could be watching.”
Watching, indeed, Gabriel thought. If there was anything that he could exploit to achieve his objective, then he could well watch this asinine television program.
----
“How about some questions from your fans?” Nadja said, turning to a blank screen behind her. “Hello, caller!”
The screen, turned on, showing–
“Hi, Marigold and Chat Noir! I'm Alya~” their friend said, smiling and waving. “Would you give me an interview for the Ladyblog?”
As they saluted her with different ranges of awkwardness, Scarlet Lady glared at the screen.
“Excuse you, you've forgotten about me,” she said. “You know, the illustrious leader?”
“My followers are interested in the heroes of Paris, not you,” Alya said with a deadpan look.
“WHAT?!” Scarlet Lady yelled.
Nobody cared.
Instead, Alya turned the camera towards her twin sisters, standing next to their beds.
“Marigold! Chat Noir! We have a question!” Etta said.
“Yes?”
“When are you bringing back Koki Marina?” Ella asked.
“She was so cool!”
“I like her hair!”
Marigold smiled.
“Don't worry, girls, Koki Marina is a great hero and we'll definitely be calling on her again,” she replied.
“Yay!” the twins shouted, but then Ella looked at Alya with a curious face.
“Alya, why are you blushing?” she asked, and the camera turned around to show that, indeed, Alya was heavily blushing.
“ANYWAY!” the future journalist said, interrupting the conversation. “Remember to submit your Akuma sightings to the Ladyblog! And tune in for that future interview–”
“NEXT CALL!” Nadja shouted in an attempt to recover control of the situation. The screen stopped showing Alya and turned to show another girl the heroes knew well. “Welcome, caller!”
“Hello~” Lila said, and from a corner of the screen another face showed up.
“Hi mommy!” Manon said, and Nadja smiled.
“Hi sweetie,” she replied, as she silently gave Lila the cue to make her question.
“I'm Lila and I have a question for Marigold and Chat Noir.”
“What, nothing for your ex-best friend, you fraud?” Scarlet Lady said, laughing, while Marigold glared at her.
“Knock it off, Scarlet,” she warned, as Manon reentered the frame with the Marigold doll she had made for the little girl to play with, and Lila readied her question.
“What I wanna know is, how do you put up with Scarlet Lady when she's the worst?”
The heroes froze up at the blunt question, sweating as they tried to come up with something useful, while Scarlet Lady became incensed.
“How der you call in to slander my name and insult me?!” the red-suited girl yelled. “You're just mad I called you out for being the liar you are!”
Lila just stuck her tongue at her as she took a hold of Manon.
“Okay, that's enough!” Chat Noir shouted, sweating as he attempted not to show his true thoughts. “We all work towards the same goal of saving Paris and defeating Hawkmoth.”
“Scarlet Lady has a very important role ensuring we can all continue mostly unbothered by Akumas.
“So you put up with her because you have to, got it,” Lila 'helpfully translated' while Manon waved at the screen.
“Goodbye, caller,” Nadja cut off with a sigh.
“Nadja, get control of your show!” Arlette commanded. “Get to the scoop, now!”
Well, she had hoped to take a while longer to reach that point, but if she didn't act quickly she would lose the chance.
So she turned to Chat Noir and Marigold.
“Numerous fans think that on top of being a couple of superheroes, you're a 'couple', period,” she dropped, leaving them shocked. “Can you confirm it's true?”
“Huh?!” Marigold mumbled.
“What?!” Chat Noir shouted.
“Gross,” Scarlet Lady interrupted. “As if I'd ever be a couple with either of these sidekicks!”
Nadja gave her an awkward smile.
“I'm referring to 'Chatgold',” she said. “No one seems to care about your love life.”
“WHAT?!” Scarlet Lady yelled.
And, yes, nobody cared.
Chat Noir glared ahead at Nadja, while Marigold blushed, looking down.
“We're partners, doing our job,” the Black Cat Hero said. “No feelings involved.”
“That is a very personal, very inappropriate question,” the Bee Heroine added, clearly angry.
“The views are rising, don't let up! Time to give your evidence!” Arlette continued, pushing her to go forward with the plan.
“So then,” Nadja said, as the screen turned to show a still image of Marigold and Chat Noir kissing. “How do you explain these pictures?”
Chat Noir quickly recognized what it was from.
“Oh no.”
Marigold... didn't.
“WHAT?!”
Scarlet Lady...
“Oh, that.”
… didn't particularly care.
Marigold immediately jumped at her partner.
“When did THAT happen?!”
“I was reversing Dark Cupid's spell, I swear!” Chat Noir said, embarrassed. “I was saving you, not kissing you!”
“Then how about these?” Nadja continued, showing more images.
When she scratched him under the chin over his idea to capture Animan.
When she kissed him in the cheek to catch Glaciator unaware.
When he kissed her hand as he gave her the Tiger Miraculous for Juleka.
“Those are out of context!” Chat Noir yelled.
“Excuse me, the kiss?!” Marigold shouted, still stuck there.
“We're partners, friends! Of course we're going to be close, but–” Chat Noir shouted at Nadja, but Marigold...
“THE KISS!”
… had yet to comprehend everything that had gone on back then.
“OH KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!!! I'm at my FUCKING limit!”
Everyone on the set turned to look at Scarlet Lady in shock.
“I can't believe you'd waste my time to speculate on my sidekicks' love lives, instead of focusing on what's really important – ME!”
True to form, she did the right thing for the wrong reasons.
“Of course we'll cover your exploits, Scarlet Lady,” Nadja said in a conciliatory tone, “as soon as your partners admit the truth–”
“This is the dumbest interview ever!” Scarlet Lady shouted. “We're leaving!”
Nadja just barely avoided dropping her jaw in shock.
“What?! You can't–”
“Sorry, but for once I agree with Scarlet Lady,” Chat Noir said, giving the presenter an ugly look as he helped an almost comatose Marigold leave. “This has been incredibly unpleasant and uncomfortable.”
“Wait! The show isn't over!” Nadja attempted to call out. “The fans will be disappointed if you don't answer–”
“No means NO, lady!” Chat Noir shouted at her, and the door to the set slammed shut.
----
The command to stop the program came a few seconds after the heroes (and Scarlet Lady) left, and Nadja collapsed to her knees, crying; it had been her best chance to make a program to rival everything else in the channel, and it had sunk within a few minutes.
“Welp, wrap it up, people,” a crew member said after no one started to move for a few moments.
“Do you think we'd have a better success rate if every show at our station wasn't live?” a camera man asked.
No one noticed the black butterfly flitting down towards Nadja Chamack.
At least, not until it was too late.
----
The heroes and their not-so-heroic companion had jumped to the roof of the studios, where the latter of the group proceeded to continue making her displeasure of the previous events known.
“The AUDACITY! What a HACK!” Scarlet Lady yelled. Chat Noir ignored her, instead approaching his partner, who was clearly saddened by the reveal of their kiss.
“Marigold! I'm really sorry!” he said, trying to fix his mistake. “You can punch me if you want–”
“It's fine,” she interrupted, but even he could tell it very well was not. “It was just because of the Akuma, right? It didn't mean anything. So let's drop it.”
Chat Noir tried to come up with something to reply, seeing how hurt she was, but –
“AND ANOTHER THING!”
– Scarlet Lady was still in her tirade.
----
At her house, Lila looked at Manon, who had fallen asleep just a moment before everything went to hell, and saw her being completely dead to the world.
“What a dumpster fire,” she muttered, thinking of how badly Manon's mother had handled the show – as well as Scar's reaction.
“Good evening! Welcome to your new show! I'm your hostess, Prime Queen!”
Lila turned to look at the screen... which showed Nadja Chamack, only this Nadja had deep red hair, fluorescent blue skin, and Tron lines over her dark blue clothing.
“... of course,” she grumbled. After everything, it wasn't surprising that she became Akumatized.
----
“Tonight, Marigold and Chat Noir disappointed their fans by refusing to admit they're a couple in love!”
For once, Chat Noir, Marigold, and Scarlet Lady shared the same opinion on what they were just watching.
“You've got to be kidding me,” they said in unison.
----
“We'll see how far they'll go to hide the truth!” Prime Queen continued – and the screen behind her showed...
“Huh?!” Lila said, shocked. The studio screen was somehow showing her, as seen from her TV screen!
Which, of course, was the point when the Akumatized villain pushed her hand through the screen – and, as if it were an American horror film, Prime Queen's hand was suddenly coming out of her TV!
“What the heck, why ME?!” she complained as she tried to dodge the hand of doom.
Unsuccessfully.
----
“Welcome to the Subway of Suspense!” Prime Queen declared, showing a speedometer to the side, while a column to the side was filled to about a fourth of its size. “If it reaches 100 km/h, you can say goodbye to Scarlet Lady's former best friend!”
“Nadja, you idiot, you just kidnapped your babysitter!” Lila, tied up in cables, screamed at the Akumatized reporter – who ignored her.
“Will you dare to go through the screen to save your dear little Lila?”
Scar scoffed.
“As if I'd get my nails dirty for the superliar.”
Chat Noir sighed. Knowing Scar as he did, it didn't surprise him. Nor did her reaction to him pointing out the obvious.
“It's being broadcast live,” he said.
“Out of my way!” Scar shouted, ignoring the dismissive glares from both heroes as they jumped behind her.
----
Landing into the now moving metro car, the tiny screen at one end showed Prime Queen, looking with way too much interest at them.
“You're going to be the stars to the biggest audience record in TV history!” she declared. “Rules are simple! You admit the truth, that you're a couple in love, and I'll stop the subway!”
“A forced confession is as good as a false confession!” Chat Noir angrily shouted back, furious that she was trying to force something that was untrue.
“I want my scoop!” Prime Queen yelled; much like every other Akuma, she was looking for Number One.
“Seriously, why does anyone even care about this?!” Marigold said.
“If it helps, I care more about the 'not crashing' part,” Lila added from the floor.
Marigold sighed, and began to blush as she spoke.
“Fine, Prime Queen. I confess. I am in love with Chat Noir.”
“Oooo! Saving their fan by admitting their true feelings! The news is going crazy~!”
“Good thinking with that lie, Goldie!” Chat Noir whispered as she looked his way... but then she looked away.
“Superheroes don't lie, Chaton,” she whispered back.
And then he began to blush, as he realized what she meant by that.
“What a sweet gesture!” Prime Queen continued, simpering, as the bar to her right filled up to half. “But! The audience isn't breaking records yet! You'll have to do better than that~!”
As the heroes patently held onto their wish to roll their eyes at the goalposts being moved, Prime Queen gave a little clap.
“Oh, I know! To prove your feelings are authentic, you need to take off your masks! To do so, give me your Miraculouses!”
“Gross,” Scarlet Lady interrupted. “I'm not in love with either of these cretins. And I will do no such thing!”
Prime Queen made a grimace.
“Oh, I forgot you were there.”
“YOU–!”
Clearly unwilling to give up, the Akumatized villain jumped through a screen that took her to the Louvre museum, and then reached through another, grabbing someone else and tossing them into a sarcophagus.
“On to the next segment, dear viewers!” Prime Queen declared, showing her newest victim was–
“ALYA!” Marigold said, terrified.
“Marigold! Please, help me!” Alya – tied, trapped, helpless – begged before Prime Queen slammed the sarcophagus shut. “Ow!”
“Oops! Isn't that the girl who runs the Ladyblog?” Prime Queen maliciously said. “Better hand over your Miraculouses before your biggest fan is mummified!”
“Uh, why should I save her after she snubbed me–” Scarlet Lady muttered.
“Hurry up so I can go back to my room!” Lila interrupted her, shoving her through the screen.
“AH–!”
Marigold and Chat Noir jumped through as well...
“This isn't the Louvre!” the Bee Heroine exclaimed; instead of the museum, they had landed into a freezer room.
“She trapped us in!” Chat Noir added as the screen behind them changed to show Prime Queen's face.
“You got that right!” the villain replied. “Last chance, heroes! Take off your Miraculouses or your biggest fan will take a dip in the Seine!”
“NO! ALYA!” Marigold shouted again, trying to look for something that would help stop the Akumatized villain.
“Don't keep the public waiting~!”
“So what.”
Chat Noir and Marigold turned to look at Scarlet Lady, shocked.
“SCAR!” Chat Noir yelled.
“What? I'll bring her back when we win, so what's the big deal!”
----
“The 'big deal' is that that's seriously messed up, Scarlet!” Marigold shouted.
The other big deal was... well, it was being broadcasted live.
And hundreds of thousands of Parisians were watching.
And they just had seen and heard the so-called 'heroine of Paris' demonstrate a complete lack of regard for a potential victim's death.
And through many minds went one thought.
Is she what we thought she was?
----
Besieged by glares from the other two, Scarlet looked away.
“Oh fine, you big babies: Lucky Charm.”
As she saw the object Scarlet had summoned – a roll of tape – Marigold quickly came up with an idea.
“This'll work,” she declared, picking an empty pizza box – from the same pizza shop where Luka worked, even – and pulled it apart.
And put it on top of the screen, while Chat Noir (who had quickly seen the plan) grabbed the tape and fixed the spread box to the screen.
“Wuh–What's going on?! Why can't I see?!” the villain shouted.
“Too bad, Prime Queen,” Chat Noir said, grinning, as he stood to one side of the screen. “We think we will take off our Miraculouses.”
“And we will reveal our identities!” Marigold taunted.
“You just won't get to see it~!” both of them finished in unison.
“They'll probably make out too,” Scarlet added.
“No, Scar,” Chat Noir added, ready to move as soon as the villain fell for the trick.
“You better not be lying,” Prime Queen said, confirming she had swallowed the bait, and she punched through the screen and pizza box.
Which a prepared Marigold was all too happy to take advantage of.
“Venom~”
“Cataclysm! Free with one freezer exit,” Chat Noir said as he destroyed the freezer's door.
“The fact that that worked was embarrassing,” Scarlet Lady said as Marigold pulled the paralyzed Prime Queen into the freezer.
“Who's the idiot here, her or Hawkmoth?” Marigold rhetorically asked.
----
Once more, everything was fixed through the use of the Miraculous Cure, save for Scarlet Lady's entitlement and reputation, and... the situation between Paris' heroes.
“Marigold, I–”
“Chat Noir, I know we're just good friends and partners, you don't have to–”
“NO!” Chat Noir interrupted. “Goldie, you're AMAZING! And kind and wonderful and the best partner ever!”
“Chat, please, just don't–” Marigold begged, struggling not to tear up in front of her friend.
“I mean it! It'd be easy to fall for you, but --” and here Chat Noir began to blush, “but I'm already in love with Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”
Marigold completely blanked out at hearing those three words, and slowly turned to look at her partner.
She must have misheard something.
Or she had just gone temporarily crazy.
Because there was no way the boy she loved just said he was in love with her civilian self.
“Wuh... buh...” she babbled as she tried to make sense of it.
“You might not know her since I had her swear to stay out of fights around the time you joined the team,” he continued, completely unaware of the storm he was causing in her mind, “but she completely captured my heart! But since I see her everyday as 'myself', I can't just forget her! If you met her you'd get it!”
Marigold's eyes widened, and her blush intensified. What Chat Noir had just said... it really sounded like...
“The two of you are so alike, it's almost as if–”
Whoa, time to cut it off.
“AHAHAHA! You know what?!” Marigold interrupted, smiling. “She sounds awesome and you should totally go for it. Anyway, gotta go!”
“HUH?!”
And, as Marigold left, Chat Noir was left looking at her, trying to make sense of what had just happened.
----
Finally back at home, she watched at the now snoring little girl on her bed, making her pout.
“Wow. Amazing what people sleep through,” she muttered, before putting the covers over her again and moving to another room so she could check her computer without disturbing Manon.
Just in time to receive a call request.
Opening the screen, she quickly accepted.
“Yo!” Alya said, smiling and waving. “Glad you're safe!”
“You too,” she replied, returning the smile. “I guess the Cure has more heart than Scarlet Lady.”
Alya's face turned thunderous.
“She was gonna let me drown! She's dead to me!” she yelled, before shaking her head and breathing deeply. “Prime Queen sorta had a point with these views. Too bad for her they're all on my blog.”
“Seriously? That many people care about the imaginary romance between coworkers?” Lila asked, opening the Ladyblog and seeing the comments.
“Mostly people are split between ship wars, and freaking over Scarlet Lady,” Alya replied, and Lila could tell it was quite the understatement.
DING!
“Huh? An email?” Alya said, opening it – and she squinted at the contents. “You've got to be kidding me.”
“What is it?”
“Nadja Chamack just invited me to be a guest on her new show, 'Side by Side'.”
Her jaw dropped.
“All that melodrama over her dumb show being cancelled and they just handed her a new one?!”
----
“What a looong day, come to me my love~” Plagg sang, hugging a piece of Camembert cheese, but Adrien paid little mind to him, instead going over of what just happened. Which the Kwami noticed. “Uhh, what's got you thinking so hard?”
“Marigold... her reaction was strange.” He turned to him. “Her mood completely changed when I mentioned Marinette. And not in the way you'd expect if she was jealous... is it possible... that Marigold could be...”
Plagg began to sweat.
“Oh, no,” he whispered.
He really didn't want to face Tikki if his boy realized the truth.
----
“WOOHOO~!” Marigold said, landing on her terrace as she changed back to her normal self, letting Pollen come out.
“What a wonderful revelation!” the Kwami said, clapping with her little arms. “Chat Noir is in love with 'you', my Queen! Aren't you happy?”
“Sure, but, uh...” she replied, shrugging, confused. “What did he mean he 'sees me everyday as himself'?”
----
Zombizou
@zoe-oneesama Finally reached the end of Season 4! Let's see how much I manage to do before you end the story...
Also, we're at 498 pages, 199,063 words, 1,073,925 characters!
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#adrien agreste#chat noir#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#nadja chamack#prime queen#scarlet lady is better than canon
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Scarlet Lady: Crocoduel
Directory | Ikari Gozen
“Because you dye! My! Heart! A rainbow of coloooooors!”
“WHOO!” Everyone cheered as Kitty Section's song ended. Everyone had gathered at the Liberty to listen to their friends' band group, and it had been quite amazing, as they played some of the songs they would release soon, but this one was very much unexpected.
“Wow, Rose,” Luka said as he turned off his electric guitar, “you wrote that for Juleka?”
“Heehee! Happy birthday!” Rose said to a smiling, blushing Juleka, then turned to him. “I'll sing you yours before we head out on Saturday, Luka!”
“Lookin' forward to it!” he replied as he began to take off his costume.
“Everyone still down with watching 'Rock and Monster Party Parade'?” Nino asked.
“YEAH!”
Lila split off from the group to approach Luka.
“And how old are you turning, Luka?” she asked, smiling.
Luka smirked down at her.
“One year older than the last year~” he sing-sang, causing Lila to pout.
“Smartass.”
----
As everyone began to split along the Liberty to do their thing, Marinette found Juleka and Rose on their own.
“It'll work out, Ju!” Rose exclaimed in an encouraging tone.
However, Juleka didn't seem to be convinced that it would.
“I don't know...”
“Hm? Is something wrong?” Marinette asked, worried.
“It's just...” Juleka said, sighing. “This is the first time my Dad is in Paris for our birthday and I really want to celebrate with him. But he and Maman don't know me and Luka know who he is.”
Marinette grimaced.
“Wow, I've... never heard you talk about your dad.”
“Well, he and my Mom don't get along, so...”
“... is he a cop?” Marinette asked, remembering Anarka's rather acrimonious relationship with law enforcement.
All while Rose just gave a nervous smile.
“Every year we 'mysteriously' get gifts centered around our interests,” Juleka said, remembering how she got a makeup kit when she started to be interested in the goth subculture, or the violin Luka was given when he started learning how to play one. “So I think he'd be up for meeting us if not for Maman.”
She sighed.
“I just want to thank him in person.”
“Why woun't your mom let you meet?” Marinette asked, curious.
“Let's put it this way. Between the two of them... my mom's the responsible parent.”
Marinette felt her eyes going wide.
“Oh.” What kind of person is he that Anarka is the more responsible? “Oh, I see.”
“Yeah, I'd like Dad to come too,” Luka added, “but he'll cause a scene if he just shows up at the cinema.”
“'Cause a scene'?” Marinette asked. This only added to the enigma of who their father was.
“How about a party here?” Adrien suggested. “It's private property, so people won't stop him, but not so private he can't coincidentally stop by! Only hiccup is letting your dad in on the plan.”
“Oh, that's easy,” Luka said, pulling out his phone. “I have his manager's number.”
“Oh, perfect!” Adrien exclaimed, ignorant of the mental collapse Marinette was suffering.
Who is this man?! His manager?!
----
“Ha! Your birthday's on the same day so you have to be twins!” Lila shouted, but Luka's smirk stopped her cold.
“Or we were born on the same day years apart.”
“ARGHHH!”
Juleka rolled her eyes at her brother's teasing.
Luka's having too much fun with this, she thought.
----
The next day, preparations for the birthday party were quickly underway, and everyone was helping wherever they could.
“Thanks for bringing the cake, Marinette!” Juleka said, preparing to hang the flags next to a window, as her friend placed the box with the cake on the table.
“No problem!” Marinette replied, just as someone knocked on a window. Luka opened to see who was calling –
“Jagged?” Marinette asked, surprised.
“Hey, birthday sibs! Bon Anniv'!” the rocker said, grinning at Luka, who helped him through the window. “I'm not late, am I?”
“Early, actually,” Luka corrected, while Marinette's surprised turned into confusion.
“What is Jagged Stone doing here...”
Wait.
She slowly turned to look at Juleka, who was looking away and trying (and failing) to look innocent by whistling.
Marinette felt her jaw drop at the shock.
“I was so pumped to get an official invite! From, uh, 'Anarka's' kids,” Jagged Stone said, unaware of the shock he had just induced in Marinette. “I had to get the perfect gifts!”
From a bag he had brought with him, he pulled a bass guitar, which he offered to Juleka.
“Juleka's Kitty Section's bass guitarist, right? I thought it'd be cool if I gave her my very first bass guitar!”
Juleka carefully picked up the present, tested it, and smiled at Jagged – at her father.
“Thank you.”
Jagged acted as if he had been struck straight in the heart by Juleka's cuteness.
But he quickly recovered from it, and pulled a vinyl from the same bag.
“And for Luka, this original edition LP from Crocoduo, the group I had with your mom–“
“JAGGED STONE, YOU SCALLYWAG!”
Everyone jumped in the air as Anarka Couffaine screamed, her eyes glaring at the rocker.
“A-Anarka!”
“No stow aways on my ship! Disembark right now!” the twins' mother shouted as she walked up to the group.
“H–How'd you know I was here?! I was so sneaky!” Jagged declared, shocked.
“Your tour bus is parked on the dock, you one-hit wonder!”
----
On the dock, the class approached Jagged Stone's tour bus, stunned – mostly because all of them could easily recognize it.
“Whoa...” they all said, as Penny Rolling greeted everyone.
“Hey.”
----
Inside the Liberty, things were a lot more tense.
“You have some nerve gifting the album that split us up!” Anarka shouted, marching up to Jagged Stone.
“'Split us up?!' You mean the album that gave me my life back after you left me!” Jagged replied, brandishing the vinyl disc as if it were a weapon, only for Anarka to grab the other side and pull.
“You're the one who left me!” she said.
“No, you!” he replied.
None of them aware of the black butterfly flitting its way down until it touched the disc – which turned black.
“A-AKUMA! AH, SHIT!” Marinette shouted as the disc cracked and both Anarka and Jagged showed the signs of Akumatization.
Juleka and Luka sighed.
“Happy birthday to us.”
----
Hawkmoth was stunned.
It was the first time he had a two-for-one deal.
And both of them were people he had Akumatized in the past.
There was only one thing he could say.
“What? You two again?”
----
Captain Hardrock and Guitar Villain quickly took to the skies, facing each other.
“Ye selfish sea dog, ye sailed off on yer own cruise leaving two matey's behind!” the pirate-themed Akuma shouted.
“You're the one who destroyed our duet and played on without me!” the dragon-riding Akuma shouted back.
“Aw, man, you can get Akumatized again?!” Alix complained.
“Even after Scarlet Lady purifies the butterfly?” Ivan asked, remembering how he got Akumatized twice from the same butterfly.
“Well, that one florist gets Akumatized a lot–” Rose reminded her friend.
“BOOOOO!” Nino yelled, ignoring how his best friend was slowly sneaking away.
Elsewhere in the dock, Marinette was doing the same, while Juleka and Luka watched their parents duking it out in the skies of Paris.
“So much for keeping things a secret,” Luka lamented.
----
“GET BACK HERE, YOU BILGE RAT!”
“TRY AND CATCH ME!”
“Chloé! Akuma!” Tikki exclaimed, but when she turned, she saw Chloé was deliberately looking away.
“So it is.”
“Time to goooo,” Tikki tried to push her.
“Oh, what's the point?!” Chloé complained. “It's not like I can fly up there! Even though I'm a Ladybug hero!”
She turned to Tikki.
“Make me able to fly!”
“No~”
----
As the two Akumas fought, Chat Noir and Marigold managed to reach out to them and attempted to make them stand down.
“I'm the only one who gets to slay that villain, alley cat!”
Unfortunately, the Akumas were so fixated in their fight that they didn't like the interference, and one of Captain Hardrock's cannonballs struck Chat Noir before he could knock Guitar Villain out.
“WAH–!” he shouted as he fell off the dragon.
“I'm the one who gets to sink that ship, you wasp!”
While Guitar Villain hit Marigold with his guitar before she could inutilize one of the ship's engines – causing her to fall off as well.
“AHHH!”
Fortunately, both heroes reached a safe place, but the two Akumas were too high to reach.
“C'mon, Guitar Villain! We've got a duel to finish!”
“You heroes just wait there!”
Marigold and Chat Noir huffed, trying to work out how to stop them, while Scarlet Lady finally arrived.
“Ha! You totally got ignored! Losers!” the so-called heroine exclaimed.
“We're ignoring you too,” Guitar Villain reminded her, causing the heroes to give a knowing look at their 'partner'.
“HEY!”
The Akumas flew away, intent on continuing their fight, while Scarlet Lady angrily pointed at them.
“No fair! We don't have wings or a flying ship!”
Marigold snapped her fingers and turned to Chat Noir.
“Hey, that's right! What about the space potion?”
Chat Noir smiled.
“You're right! Let me just...”
He started to pat his pockets, but then he realized they were not as full as they should have been.
And he turned to Marigold.
“I... I forgot them at home.”
“M–Me too.”
“Pathetic.”
The heroes tried to come up with a plan to deal with the lack of materials, when they saw the twins shouting at their Akumatized parents.
“Do you have to attack each other?!” Juleka screamed, clearly upset.
“Stop pulling others into your drama!” Luka called them out.
The two heroes quickly realized they had had the same idea, and nodded at each other.
“I think this 2-for-1 special calls for a 2-for-1 special, Goldie!” Chat Noir said with a wink, which the Bee Heroine returned.
“Ooo, I think something nice and loud would suit just fine!” she replied, and Chat Noir extended his baton.
“You got it!” he shouted as he jumped away with his weapon.
“Where's he going?” Scarlet Lady asked. “Did he realize he's useless?”
“Nevermind that,” Marigold replied, grabbing her arm. “You and I are gonna protect civilians until he gets back.”
“NOOOOOO!” Scarlet Lady uselessly (as most of her efforts) yelled, unable to free herself from Marigold's iron grip, while Juleka turned to her brother.
“Maybe we should pitch in and help.”
----
“Master Fu!” Adrien said as he entered the old man's house, which was shaking from the sounds of battle. “There's–”
“Two Akumas? I noticed,” Master Fu replied, already opening the gramophone so Adrien could choose a Miraculous. Much to his surprise, he picked the Snake Bracelet and another one. “This is getting risky, Adrien. Five heroes?”
“Well, I only need one Miraculous if you have some space potion lying around,” Adrien replied, making Fu raise an eyebrow.
“And what happened to the one I gave you?” he asked, amused.
“Uh! Well! You can't expect me to carry weird colored cheese with me all the time, can you?” he excused himself, only for Plagg to spring up from behind his shoulder.
“You could if you weren't a COWARD!”
----
While Chat Noir made his way back to his partner, things were getting heated up in the sky, as the Akumas traded accusations, while, below them, Alya, Mylène, and Lila observed.
“You only ever cared about your music! That's why you dumped me when you started climbing the charts!” Captain Hardrock shouted, pointing at Guitar Villain with her large cutlass.
“Whoa,” Alya said with a grimace.
“Omigod the tea,” Lila added.
“Have you caught sea madness?! You dumped me! And didn't even tell me you were pregnant, and blocked me from my own kids!”
“WHAT?!” Alya shouted, feeling like her glasses were breaking apart from the shock, as Mylène looked on, stunned.
“Ohohomighod the tea!” Lila exclaimed.
----
Luckily, Chat Noir arrived soon, and the first thing he did was to walk up to his partner and kiss her hand.
“Welcome back to the party,” Marigold graciously said.
“Please, I am the party,” Chat Noir replied, discreetly passing her the new Miraculous he had picked.
“Did you remember to bring a gift?” she asked, grabbing the richly decorated wooden box.
“Only the best for my honeybee,” he said, smiling at her, before picking Luka up. “C'mon, Luka. Let's go recite our scales.”
Luka looked at Chat Noir with a surprised face.
Meanwhile, Marigold was tossing her top to hook it to a nearby roof and grabbed the other Couffaine sibling, who was shocked.
“Let's go, Juleka.”
“Wuh–HEY!”
Both heroes flew away towards nearby roofs... leaving their 'partner' behind.
“What about me?!” she complained.
(Nobody cared)
----
As soon as they were in a secluded place, Marigold pulled the box Chat Noir had brought her and offered it to Juleka.
“Juleka Couffaine, this is the Tiger Miraculous, which grants the power of Exaltation. You will use it for the greater good,” she said.
“M–Me?” Juleka stumbled. “But I'm not–”
“After helping with Captain Hardrock and Silencer you still don't think you're a hero?” Marigold asked with a smile, making Juleka blush.
“You remembered...” the girl said. It was enough for her to accept opening the box, revealing a panjas bracelet – and a light that flew around her before transforming into a small creature that –
“ROOOAR!”
“Wah–!” Juleka yelled, jumping back from the shock and falling to the ground. The small creature flew closer to her.
“C'mon, let's wreak havoc!” the Tiger Kwami said, grinning.
“O–Okay...” Juleka mumbled, still in shock from the sudden appearance.
“Huh?” the kwami continued, leaning his head. “You say something? Louder!”
“Okay,” Juleka replied in a normal tone.
“LOUDER!”
“OKAAAAAY!” Juleka finally shouted, making the Kwami fly back.
“WHOOOOOAH! Nice and loud! Perfect!” she said, smiling. “My power won't work if you don't feel it!”
Juleka nodded, putting on the bracelet on her right hand.
“Next, just say, 'Roarr–'”
----
“STRIPES ON!”
----
“Alright, ready when you are,” Viperion said, his transformation complete, as Chat Noir looked on, slightly worried.
“You're okay going against your parents?” Chat Noir asked, but Viperion shrugged.
“Going against authority is the Couffaine way,” he replied. “Even your parents.”
Chat Noir nodded – it was an idea that really spoke to his own soul.
“That's such a good way,” he agreed.
----
“Chat Noir!” Marigold said, as she and her new partner landed next to him, Viperion, and Scarlet Lady.
“Ah, the gang's all here!” the Cat Hero happily exclaimed, while Scarlet looked on with disgust.
“Gross, you got another cat?”
“The name is Purple Tigress,” the new heroine replied, while Marigold turned to her oldest partner.
“Chaton, I need you to throw us as high as you can!”
“Sure thing!” he replied, extending his baton as far as he could and telling the two girls to stand at the other end of it. “Me and Viperion will keep protecting citizens!”
“Ew!” Scarlet Lady said, running after Marigold and Purple Tigress. “Then I'm coming with–”
Too late, as Chat Noir pulled with all his strength and sent the Bee and Tiger Heroines flying – while whacking Scarlet Lady in the face.
“AH!”
Chat Noir grinned before walking to continue the work of helping innocent people.
----
The Akumas were so absorbed into their fight that, while trying to stop them was hard, stealing their Akumatized objects was another matter entirely.
“Ahoy, Captain Hardrock!” Marigold cheekily greeted her as she grabbed one half while dodging her slashes. “Yoink!”
“HEY!”
“Time to turn down the volume!” Purple Tigress said as she spun around Guitar Villain, who couldn't make heads nor tails of the new heroine as she grabbed the second half of the disc.
“OI!”
“You're ruining the music!”
The duo quickly jumped to the end of the flying ship and –
“HA!”
“HNGH!”
– snapped both halves of the disc over their knees!
But... nothing happened.
“... where's the Akuma?” the heroines asked themselves.
----
Chat Noir saw that both heroines were holding onto the end of his baton and contracted it.
“Aaaand they're back,” he announced, but when they returned it was obvious something had gone wrong. “It didn't work?”
“No!” Marigold shouted, observing the disc pieces and trying to find some clue in them. “I don't get it!”
“Me either,” Purple Tigress admitted.
“I saw the Akuma go in before it was broken–” both Viperion and Purple Tigress said at the same time, and they gave each other a glare.
“I got it!” Marigold interrupted. “We put them together and then break it!”
She grabbed Scarlet Lady's hand.
“Hurry, use your Lucky Charm!”
“Don't boss me around,” the Ladybug 'heroine' said, but still she created the magical object they needed to solve the problem.
“Purple Tigress, use your power to keep them at bay!” Chat Noir said, but the Tiger Heroine was doubtful.
“W-What if I miss, or, I can't pull it off?!” she asked, scared of failure. “Roarr said I had to 'feel it'!”
“Hey,” Viperion gently said. “Second Chance.”
Purple Tigress looked at him in shock.
“Now no matter how many times you need, I'll make sure you get your shot,” he said, smiling. “But I bet you'll only need one chance.”
Purple Tigress smiled back at him, and, encouraged by his support, turned towards the dueling Akumas.
“You two are always so damn loud. No one can get a word in edgewise!” she growled as her right fist shone in purple, swirling energy – and jumped. “How is anyone supposed to settle things when you won't listen?! It's time for you two to SHUT THE HELL UP!”
She reached the flying ship, still engaged in fight with the dragon, and her clenched fist struck the former.
“CLOUT!”
The energy collided with the ship, and the explosion of energy suddenly sent both Akumas flying arse over teakettle... much to the shock of Chat Noir and Viperion, who watched the entire thing with wide open eyes and an inability to look away.
“Ready, Chat Noir!” Marigold happily declared after using the Lucky Charm – a roll of adhesive tape – to put the disc back together.
“C–Cataclysm,” Chat Noir said without looking away from the Clout explosion.
----
Once everything was fixed up, Marigold took Purple Tigress aside, and she returned to her civilian identity of Juleka Couffaine, who carefully took the bracelet and put it back into its box.
“Thanks for trusting me, Marigold,” she said, giving the box back to the Bee Heroine.
“Whoo! That was awesome!” Roarr said, floating and smiling at her temporary wielder. “It's been a while since I've felt this refreshed! Feels good to let it out, right?”
“Yeah, it does!” Juleka exclaimed, before she remembered the other thing that had happened earlier, and turned to Marigold. “... um... you should know... I figured out Viperion's identity. And he probably knows mine.”
“Oh...” Marigold replied, before she started to get covered in a cold sweat. “I–It's fine. Probably.”
“Are you sure?” Juleka asked. “You don't look fine.”
“Nah, it's probably cool.”
----
Unfortunately, while they may have been deakumatized, it hadn't brought peace, because Anarka and Jagged had resumed their argument from earlier.
“You shipwrecker! This was your fault!” Anarka screamed.
“You're the one off-key!” Jagged screamed back.
“Oh my god, SHUT UP!” Juleka interrupted, fed up with the shouting. “No one cares who's fault it is, so drop it and at least be civil!”
Both adults pulled back and looked chagrined in the face of the girl's wrath, and Anarka pointed at a suddenly shy Jagged Stone.
“J–Juleka, there's something you don't know about this ship rat–”
“What, that he's my dad?” Juleka asked with a deadpan face.
“You knew?!” the adults shouted at the same time.
“I've always known,” Juleka replied, crossing her arms, while her friends reacted in different ways, from Rose's smile to Alix sticking her tongue. “And now so does all of Paris.”
After a few seconds of silence, the adults turned back to each other.
“This isn't something we can be civil about!” Jagged shouted. “Bob gave me your letter! It said you wanted nothing to do with me! It didn't even mention the kids!”
“Have you swallowed sea water?!” Anarka accused. “Bob gave me your letter and it said you wanted nothing to do with me! Right after I told Bob I was pregnant–”
As they listened to what the other was saying, Anarka and Jagged realized something that was missing.
The neuron they needed to realize what had really happened that day, sixteen years before.
Their growing fury turned so incandescent, that Jagged Stone and Anarka Couffaine looked like they were about to fire a Kamehameha at something – or someone.
“BOB!”
----
In one of the many streets that populated the fair city of Paris, a certain music producer (who, in his free time, also was a walking excrement) called Bob Roth felt a shiver running down his back, as if someone had stepped over his (shallow) tomb.
“Why do I feel a sudden chill...?” he asked himself.
Not having any pattern recognition, he didn't give it the importance it required.
----
Anarka and Jagged's brief foray into Saiyanism ended, and both of them collapsed into the Liberty's deck, as they realized what they could have avoided if they hadn't trusted the wrong person.
“I feel so dumb...” Anarka mumbled.
“All this time...” Jagged mumbled.
“This day has been so weird,” Alya declared, and everyone else nodded.
“Alright, everyone!” Penny said, clapping her hands and catching everyone's attention. “Let's not forget, we're here to celebrate! Let's get back to it!”
Everyone cheered in agreement, and Anarka and Jagged were shaken off their brooding: standing up, they hugged each other.
“I'm sorry, Nanarky,” Jagged said.
“I'm sorry too, you old pirate,” Anarka gently replied.
“Let's figure this out later,” Jagged added, before looking at his ever-faithful assistant. “Penny.”
“Already on it,” she said with a grin that wouldn't have been out of place in a sea predator or in a law firm.
----
Jagged offered to play with his children and their group for the party, and they all agreed: playing with Jagged Stone, famous rock and roll star, AND father of about half the group? No one was crazy enough to pass on the opportunity!
“I know I have a lot of time to make up for...” Jagged said as they adjusted their strings, “but I'm gonna do my best to play to your tunes.”
“I know it'll be a beautiful duet, Dad,” Luka said, hugging his father.
“You're speaking my language,” Jagged replied, and Luka let him go so Juleka could glomp him.
“I love you, Papa,” Juleka added.
“You rock my world, too.”
“Please don't get back with Maman.”
“Pretty sure that ship has sailed,” Jagged sentenced.
----
The party was now in full swing. With Kitty Section having done its part, now it was time for DJ Nino to put on some of his music, and everyone was now cheering in unison to the new tunes.
That was when Lila corralled Luka.
“A-HA!” she shouted, and Luka turned to look at her, as she gave a knowing grin. “If Jagged Stone is both you and Juleka's dad, then you have to be twins!”
Luka looked back at her, and shrugged.
“Guess you got me,” he admitted, and Lila smirked.
“Ha! Yes! I win!” she said, walking away. “Nothing gets past me!”
Except the smirk Luka was now bearing, and which she missed because she wasn't looking.
You still haven't figured out my age, though, he thought as he tried to contain his laughter.
----
In one of the most expensive and famous restaurants of Paris, the aforementioned music producer-slash-walking excrement was sitting down at a table, ready to partake in a delicious lunch.
“Enjoy your meal, M. Roth,” the elégant waitress said, and walked to her waiting place while Bob opened his Loco laptop in order to check his business.
Sadly for him, he was doing this as he drank from a glass of Perrier water, and the moment he saw the latest email he had received, he spewed most of what he had drunk and began to choke on the rest.
“M. Roth?!” the worried waitress asked, while in the screen of the laptop glared three large lines that spelled doom for the producer.
Notice of Termination
Penny Rolling
You're fired, Bob.
----
Robostus
@zoe-oneesama How far can Clout fire Bob Roth? Answer: Not far enough.
Apologies for taking so long in writing this chapter! It's been quite the month, between work, personal projects, real life issues... I never found the time nor the boost I needed to get back into writing this novelization! But, between the one-shot I wrote (only if (a) you are a RWBY fan and (b) at least 18 years old) and a request from @sassy-but-sweet-purrrincess29, I got back into the saddle!
I hope to be able to finish Season 4 before the end of year, and continue with a similar tempo as earlier. Please, bear with me (also, we've got the events at the end of Style Queen, and I really want to write that scene!).
With this chapter, we've reached 477 pages, 191,219 words, 1,030,945 characters!
See you soon!
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#marigold#chat noir#scarlet lady is better than canon#luka couffaine#viperion#juleka couffaine#purple tigress#crocoduel
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Scarlet Lady: Robostus
Directory | Crocoduel
As Marinette left the locker room, she looked down and realized there was something that should have been there, but wasn't.
She groaned.
“Aw, shoot! I forgot my backpack in the locker room,” she complained. “Again.”
Nino laughed.
“Don't take too long,” he warned her. “You know how Mendeleiev gets.”
Marinette nodded and turned around to cross the courtyard...
… only to trip on a loose slab.
“AH!” she shouted, waving her arms as she tried to recover her balance, but since she was unable, her heroic instincts flared up – and she did a flip in the air without touching the ground. “Whew. I'm okay!”
Just a few meters away, Rose, Alya, and Chloé had been witnesses to Marinette's spectacular feat.
“Wow!” Rose exclaimed, clapping.
“Ooo!” Alya cheered, somehow managing to film the entire thing with her phone.
“Showoff.” No need to say who was being hypocritical this time.
----
Entering the locker room, she quickly located her own and grabbed her backpack, decided to return to class before the bell rang.
“Of course you're my best friend! That's 100% fact!”
Marinette stopped, feeling confused: that was clearly Max, but she was certain that there was no one else. And, as she looked, it appeared as if he was talking to his bag.
“But I'm 98.2% adamant that the teachers aren't ready for such an evolution.”
“His best friend lives in a bag?” Pollen asked, surprised.
“So weird,” Marinette agreed. “That doesn't even make sense.”
She turned to her little kwami friend that lived in her bag.
“By the way! Do you have enough spicy chips, Pollen?” she asked, ignoring the hypocrisy in her question.
“Mhm!” Pollen replied, equally ignorant.
----
As they finally arrived to Mme. Mendeleiev's classroom, it was to see her and the principal behind the desk, with the former trying to do something in the computer.
“See, M. Damocles, nothing happens!” the teacher stated, the electronic blackboard behind her showing little more than showing little more than scribbles.
“You're in luck, Mme. Mendeleiev! I know a bit about computers!” M. Damocles replied, approaching the computer and starting to work on it. “Let me just–”
The blackboard changed – but it was clearly not what should have been.
“Wuh – that's not my lesson!” Mme. Mendeleiev announced, stunned.
“What is that?!” M. Damocles asked aloud: clearly, his vaunted computer skills were not enough to deal with what was happening to the teacher's computer.
“A computer virus, the Dino-33.”
Everyone's eyes turned to Max, who was making his way towards the teacher's desk, and put his schoolbag on it before turning the laptop around.
“I can–”
Whatever he could do, it was interrupted by Mme. Mendeleiev, who pulled the laptop away from Max's hands and pointed towards the other desks.
“Go back to your seat, and let the adults handle this,” she commanded, much to Max's shock.
“But–!” he attempted to intervene.
“Did she just forget Max is a computer genius?” Marinette asked Alya, who shrugged: sometimes, the goings on of the teachers were a mystery, never mind the adults in general.
“Tell them if they don't act in the next 75 seconds, there's a 99% chance the disk will be irreversibly damaged.”
Everyone looked in surprise towards Max's bag, from which a robotic voice had somehow spoken. Max winced as he smacked the bag.
“Shh! Quiet!” Max shushed, as M. Damocles shrugged.
“Ah! Oh, let the boy help!” the principal said, and Max gingerly walked to the other side of the table.
“You will need this, Max!”
The same voice had spoken again, and from the now open bag sprouted a metallic pincer holding a pendrive.
The shock amongst the teenagers witnessing this was immediate.
“Huuh?” Nino mumbled, unable to comprehend what was going on.
“WOOOAH!” Mylène exclaimed, while Max winced again.
“Um!” he started, unable to decide what to say, before picking the pendrive. “Uh, this is an anti-virus flash drive I came up with, with my... my best friend.”
M. Damocles and Mme. Mendeleiev looked like their eyes were about to pop out when a small red, silver, and green robot flew out of the bag, its face somehow smiling even though he didn't have a mouth to speak of.
“Hello! I am Markov!”
“Whoa!” the class exploded.
“Max, you made a robot?” Ivan asked, surprised.
“What, like it's hard?” Max replied as he inserted the pendrive and worked to eliminate the computer virus.
Everyone approached the teacher's desk to admire the small flying robot from a close distance.
“Rad,” Juleka said with a smile.
“So cute!” Mylène said, already taken in by Markov.
“Wow, Max!” Alix complimented.
“You gave him an arm since last time!” Kim noted: unlike the others, he had been witness to Max's work... even if he didn't understand what he was doing.
“Markov did it on his own!” Max corrected his friend. “He's at the cutting edge of robotic evolution!”
“Oh, please!” Chloé exclaimed, her usual spoilsport face in place. “It's nothing more than a talking calculator! My hair dryer is more advanced than it.”
“The only one less advanced than a hair dryer is Chloé,” Marinette snarked, and Alya cracked up laughing while the blonde glared at her rival.
“HEY!”
Mendeleiev leaned ahead, her face as stern and humorless as ever, as she looked down at Max.
“Alright, Max, your toy is impressive, but it's time for class. Put it away.”
“With all due respect, I am not a toy. I am Markov, Max's best friend!”
Max blushed as he looked at the robot.
“Yes, he's my friend! As smart and sensitive as any human!”
Markov's 'eyes' turned into hearts as he looked back at Max.
“Yes! For example, I love Max!”
“That's impossible. Robots don't have emotions, Max,” Mme. Mendeleiev stated, causing Markov to glare up at her.
“I believe you are just jealous that Max could create a robot with feelings!”
The teacher's face quickly turned... thunderous.
“Okay, Max, you can come get your robot after school,” M. Damocles quickly said, grabbing Markov and starting to leave.
“But, M. Damocles–!” Max tried to say, but the principal shook his head.
“Shh, don't look her in the eyes!” he whispered at the young man, leaving the classroom.
----
“I would like to stay with Max, sir...”
Markov was begging, feeling distressed at his separation from Max. M. Damocles shook his head in disappointment.
“You're too much of a distraction,” he replied as he opened his office door.
“I won't be a distraction! Where are we going, sir?”
M. Damocles didn't answer this time: instead, he opened the drawer where he put the objects that were confiscated from students.
“No! Do not put me in there–!”
M. Damocles thought that young Max had good skills to create a robot that could replicate such a feeling. However, this was not the time to consider such things, and carefully put the robot into the drawer.
“Maaaax~!”
… was that like tear tracks in the robot's face?
“That's some codependency,” M. Damocles muttered as he closed the drawer.
----
As Mme. Mendeleiev started to prepare her lesson of the day, Marinette turned to look to Max, who was looking despondent.
“Markov's never been apart from me before,” the smartest student in the class said, fretting. “I'm not sure how he'll handle it.”
Marinette smiled at him with assurance.
“Leave it to me, Max!” she said, and raised her hand. “Mme. Mendeleiev! May I go to the principal's office and get Markov? If you explain that it's class time, I'm sure he'd keep quiet!”
“No!” the stern teacher shouted. “And I'm done with this topic!”
“Could it be Markov was right and you're jealous of a robot?”
Everyone looked at Marinette in shock; not only was Marinette pushing a teacher's buttons, she was doing it to Mme. Mendeleiev of all people!
“Enough! Principal's office! NOW!”
Someone certainly got her berserk button pushed. Not that Marinette cared, waving goodbye as she smiled.
“Thank you!” she cheered, opening the door, and Mme. Mendeleiev got stuck, thinking about what had just happened.
“... wait.”
Too late, however, as Marinette had already left the classroom.
----
This was a first. An artificial intelligence that could actually feel emotions? Well, he wasn't going to complain. Perhaps this one could do the job.
“Robostus, I am Hawkmoth,” he declaimed. “I'm giving you the power to give life to all machines. In return, you'll bring me the heroes' Miraculouses.”
“Can you define the word 'Miraculouses'?”
“Magical jewels. Once united, they allow you to make a wish.”
“Any wish?”
“... yes?” he added, feeling a chill going down his back. “Why do I feel uneasy about this?”
----
Walking up the stairs, Marinette saw the principal walking out of his office, and decided to get her mission out of the way as fast as possible.
“M. Damocles–” she called out, but then Markov – with some marked color changes, including a deep green that resembled Chat Noir's eyes – appeared, glaring at the principal.
“You made a grave error of judgement, M. Principal!”
Markov started to fly around the principal, making him trip.
“I will show you what I'm capable of!”
Marinette promptly turned around. It looked like it was too late.
----
Collége Françoise Dupont was no stranger to weird events. Why, in the past year, a good number of its students had been the victims of a magical terrorist that had forcibly transformed them into monsters or villains with the aim of stealing two magical jewels from the heroes that had assembled to stop him. Some of them even within the premises!
But few people could have expected a large robot made of vehicles, construction gear, and other assorted machines to assemble in the school's courtyard.
“I am not a toy!”
Covered in green lightning, the large robot made a sign, and suddenly all over the school all electronic devices were covered in a sickly green glow.
Before students could react, said electronic devices started to fly around, hitting those who weren't quick enough on their feet and harassing those who were.
“AHH! OW!”
“STOP! OW!”
It was pure pandemonium.
In one closet, a panting Adrien looked at his kwami companion with a sarcastic smile.
“I guess that's the end of the 'do robots have feelings' debate,” he said, while Plagg rolled his eyes.
Elsewhere, Chloé looked around with a glare and clenched a fist.
“I'll show Dupain-Cheng who's more advanced than a hair dryer!” she declared.
For one of their number, though, the situation was different: Max Kanté found himself in an excavator bucket, being brought towards the car at the top of the robot.
“Max! My friend! Now we'll be together 100% of the time!”
“STOP!”
Marigold had arrived into the scene, and was looking up at the robot, who had pushed Max into the copilot's seat.
“If you really love your friend, you should listen to him!” the heroine said. She had yet to find an Akuma that was willing to stop just by words, but given his ties to Max, perhaps...
“You need to stop, Markov!” Max begged, feeling the helmet that a mechanical arm was putting on his head. However, Markov had been truly taken over by the Akuma, and denied his request.
“I am Robostus! I'm doing this for us, Max!”
“Forget him, you should listen to me,” Scarlet Lady said, receiving a look from Chat Noir and Marigold
“No one listens to you,” Chat Noir deadpanned, and the Ladybug 'heroine' turned to glare at the Cat hero.
“Well, you should listen to me, I'm brilliant!” Scarlet Lady yelled.
“Brilliantly annoying,” Chat Noir fire back, as Marigold tried to refocus them into important matters.
“GUYS!” she shouted, unaware of the threat coming from up above.
The bucket that suddenly grabbed the three of them, trapping them without the ability to escape.
“AH!”
“HEY!”
“LET GO!”
“Now you are at my mercy! I will take your Miraculouses and I will make my wish to become human!”
“What?” Marigold asked, shocked.
----
“What.”
Hawkmoth was left stunned.
He had had to deal with stubborn minions, strange minions, and even some who were just plain creepy.
But this was the first time one minion was truly... rebellious.
“May I remind you the Miraculouses are mine, Robostus!” he angrily told the robot through their connection.
“And how will you prevent me from using them?”
“I will simply take away your power!” he pointed out. Perhaps this would put –
“And you really think you can control me?”
Before he could reply, every alert in his lair was activated.
“INTRUSION! INTRUSION! INTRUSION!” one of the speakers screamed.
“ELIMINATION MODE, ENGAGED!”
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” Hawkmoth shouted as he suddenly found himself in a fight for his own survival that he hadn't expected.
----
Back at Collége Françoise Dupont, Max realized that Robostus was distracted, and carefully opened the door next to him.
Meanwhile, Marigold was still struggling to get loose, because she had seen the small helicopter flying towards her, with a pincer ready to grab her Haircomb. But, no matter how much she tried, she just couldn't free herself.
“I'm sorry everyone,” she mumbled, clenching her eyes shut as the pincer got closer.
SMACK!
“WAH!” Scarlet Lady screamed.
Marigold opened her eyes, and saw the helicopter starting to fall, after being hit by a bag.
“What, what's happening?” Chat Noir asked, still stuck upside down.
“That bag–!”
“I don't need you to be human!” Max declared, looking at his Akumatized friend. “I need you to be my best friend, my Markov! And you're not Markov, so I have to stop you!”
And he pulled a lever, forcing the bucket open and freeing the three heroes. Robostus glared at Max, showing tear tracks in his face.
“Top 10 human betrayals. No. 5 will surprise you.”
Freed of his restraints, Chat Noir quickly jumped up to the car serving as Robostus' command post, and activated his power.
“CATACLYSM!”
The giant robot quickly crumbled into parts, and Chat Noir caught Max mid-air to keep him from hitting the ground.
“You betrayed me, Max! I don't want to be human and heartless like you! Instead, I'll enslave them all! Starting with you!”
And he flew away, while the heroes took Max to the roof of the school.
“You were amazing, Max!” Marigold cheered, as Max took off the helmet he was wearing.
“Then why do I feel like I might throw up?”
----
The heroes (mostly Chat Noir and Marigold) tried to plan how to stop this latest Akumatized villain, when Chat Noir's baton beeped with an alert. Opening it in screen form, he grimaced as he turned it towards his partner.
“Look at this, honeybee,” he said as the screen showed the news.
“Live with Nadja Chamack. Animated objects are attacking Paris! The new mayor is making a declaration from City Hall!” the famous reporter said, as the screen showed... a lamp. With the Mayor's sash around it. While Mayor Bourgeois was (quite literally) tied up in the background.
“. .”
The sound of the transmission was unmistakeable to anyone minimally versed in the matter.
“Is that Morse code?” Marigold asked, surprised.
“Want a translation?” Chat Noir said, listening to the transmission.
“.... ..- -- .- -. ...”
“Humans...”
“.-- .. .-.. .-.. / -... . / ... --- --- -.”
“... will be soon...”
“- .-. . .- - . -.. / .-.. .. -.- . / --- -... .--- . -.-. - ... .-.-.-”
“... treated like objects?”
“-... .-. .. -. --.”
“Bring...”
“..- ...”
“... us...”
“- .... . / -... --- -.-- .-.-.-”
“... the boy. Uhoh, Max.”
“Oh, please, like you know Morse Code,” Scarlet Lady said, dismissively.
“He's right, though,” Max interrupted, causing the Ladybug Miraculous bearer to turn to him, shocked.
“WHAT?!”
“Oh, sure, you believe him,” Chat Noir grumbled. “I'm gonna go... recharge.”
----
“Now, Adrien, I must stress that this is a very useful and important Miraculous and it needs to be treated with the utmost care,” Master Fu told Adrien, who looked down at the small box he had just been given with apprehension.
“Uh, of course, Master Fu, but why is this one so special?” he asked.
“Because without it I can't get my hometown speciality tea any time I want.”
Adrien gave him a deadpan look and decided he didn't want to ask.
----
By the time Chat Noir returned, Scarlet Lady was nowhere to be seen, and Marigold was on her top-phone.
“The angry Tamagotchi made a new suit, I guess,” he heard her speak. “His big, fat foot prints go to the stadium. So hurry up already!”
“Yeah, yeah,” Marigold replied with a tired voice.
“Aaaand I'm back. With help,” Chat Noir announced. Max looked at him in confusion.
“'Help'?” he asked, and Chat Noir offered him the box in his hand.
“Max Kanté, this is the Horse Miraculous, which grants the power of Teleportation. Will you help us save your friend?”
Max was shocked that the heroes actually needed his help. However, one thing was certain: he wasn't going to step back!
“Y-Yes!” he stuttered as Chat Noir gave him the box.
“What's going on?! I can't hear–”
Marigold promptly cut off the connection, looking entirely done with Scarlet Lady.
“That's enough of that,” she said, rolling the rope around her top. “Way to kill the moment.”
Max looked awkwardly at the display before he opened the box, which came with a small flash of light as a horse-like creature appeared floating in front of him.
“Oh!” the creature said, surprised, as it looked up at him. “To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”
“Hello! My name is Max!” he replied, eager to understand who this was.
“I am Kaalki,” the creature said. “Are you glorious and famous?”
Max wasn't sure what that had to do with having powers, but he figured it was probably an idiosyncracy of Kaalki.
“Uh, I mean, I created evolving artificial intelligence?” he suggested.
“Hm. I don't fully understand, but I surmise that must be impressive,” Kaalki replied, nodding. “Very well! You have my permission to say, 'Kaalki'–”
----
“FULL GALLOP!”
----
As his transformation finished, Max was suddenly aware of information he was certain he hadn't learned on his own.
Then, he noticed something else.
“Whoa, where'd my glasses go?” he asked, as Marigold smiled at him.
“That's just how magic works~” she teased, showing the anti virus flash drive he had used earlier. “This, however, you'll want to hold onto.”
---
The three heroes arrived to the Stade de France (because apparently Akumatized villains loved to use either that or the Eiffel Tower to do their deeds) and landed next to Scarlet Lady, who, as per usual, had done nothing.
“Yo,” Chat Noir greeted her.
“Another newbie?” Scarlet Lady asked in a tone of complaint.
“The name's Pegasus,” the Horse hero said, to which Scarlet Lady scoffed.
“More like Poindexter,” she replied, reaching out to his pince-nez sunglasses. “Look, he even has dorky–”
Pegasus promptly slapped away her hand. And when Scarlet Lady tried again, he slapped the hand away again.
And Scarlet kept trying, and trying, and trying, and Pegasus kept slapping her hand away.
“KNOCK IT OFF!” an irritated Chat Noir yelled.
They did indeed knock it off – but it was because of the electronic laughter coming from above them, and the three helicopters that were now flying around them
“Hahaha! I calculated you'd fall for my trap! I will always be one step ahead of you! Because I'm superior!”
“That's it! LUCKY CHARM!” Scarlet Lady yelled.
And then jumped back as a large harp crashed into the ground just where she had been a moment before.
“WAH!” she yelled in fright.
“Nice,” Chat Noir deadpanned.
“This is annoyiiiing. Can't we leave?” Scarlet Lady complained.
“Sure, if you want to faceplant into a helicopter.”
Chat Noir didn't care.
Marigold, meanwhile, had grabbed the now broken harp and turned to her new temporary partner.
“You're on, Pegasus!”
“Voyage!” the Horse hero said, a cyan ring forming around his wrist.
“You're only making this hard for yourselves–”
Robostus was certain of his victory, but he would have been less certain if he had been aware of the portal opening right behind him.
Or of Pegasus being at the other side of said portal, holding the broken Lucky Charm.
He became more aware of it as Pegasus threw the Lucky Charm at him, causing it to entangle in its small rotor and preventing him from hovering in place.
Quickly, the little robot began to fall.
“WAAH! AHHHH–”
And then he was further entangled, as Marigold's top grabbed him mid-air.
“What is this?!”
The Akumatized robot was completely confused, unable to comprehend how quickly the tables had turned against him, and Marigold grabbed him.
“Wit, luck, and a stable hand,” she fired, causing Chat Noir to chuckle.
“Ha! I get it!” the hero said, as Robostus glared at Marigold.
“This isn't over! The game is still on–MMP!”
“That's enough of that,” Pegasus declared as he plugged the anti virus flash drive into Robostus' USB port.
----
Hawkmoth panted in the depths of his lair. He had never been so close to death as he had in the past fifteen minutes, and he was certain that, if the heroes had an inkling of where he was, they would easily put him down without an effort.
----
One Miraculous Cure later, Markov was back to normal, all the things the Akumatized robot had controlled were back in place, and Pegasus had transformed back into Max, holding his friend in his hands.
"Max! My friend!"
“So, this is your creation?” Kaalki asked, interested.
“Mhm! Welcome back, Markov!” Max greeted the small robot.
“Where are we? What's going on?”
“Remarkable,” Kaalki commented. “You were Akumatized, my dear.”
“'Akumatized'? Who is speaking?”
Markov was clearly unfamiliar with the term, and the fact that the voice that spoke it didn't seem to have a souce added to the confusion.
“What?!” Max asked, shocked.
“Kaalki, Kwamis don't show on camera,” Marigold pointed out. “Which is what Markov's eyes are.”
The Horse Kwami shook her head.
“What a pity. To never be able to gaze upon my visage.”
“Just you wait!” Max said, his previous shock now replace with the eagerness of doing something new. “I'll make a camera so powerful it can see magical creatures!”
“My! I'm looking forward to it,” Kaalki sincerely replied... while poor Markov wondered who was speaking.
----
At the Agreste mansion, with the crisis now averted (ironically, something he had to thank the heroes for, even if he would never actually do so), Gabriel Agreste undid his transformation and gently held the utterly exhausted Nooroo in his hands, even when he was about to collapse himself.
“N-Nathalie, order more missiles for the lair,” he said, puffing air like a geriatric locomotive.
“Yes, sir, and some tablet protectors,” Nathalie replied, rendering Gabriel even more utterly confused than he had been, but he attributed it to mishearing.
“Sure. I'm going to... lie down,” he mumbled, stumbling his way towards his private rooms and closing the door behind him before collapsing on the mattress and closing his eyes.
As soon as she heard the door closing, Nathalie cuddled her tablet.
“You know I love you most, right?” she said, caressing the device with the care normally shown towards a baby or a loved one.
----
The students returned to their classroom, and as soon as Max arrived, he was beset on by their Sciences teacher.
“Max!” she exclaimed.
“Mme. Mendeleiev!” he returned, somewhat scared of what she might say.
“Thank goodness you're okay!” Mme. Mendeleiev said, before turning bashful. “Look... I was wrong.”
Max became shocked. It wasn't common to hear a teacher admit to making a mistake... but it looked like she was mature enough to do so.
“It would seem that robots can experience true emotions. The fact that it– uh, he was Akumatized makes that irrefutable.”
“Thank you, Mme. Mendeleiev!” Max and Markov said in unison.
Uncharacteristically for her, she blushed – the teen and robot duo were too cute to react otherwise – and she coughed to hide that.
“But I expect Markov to behave in class as any other student.”
“Yes, ma'am!”
----
That night was patrol night, and the heroes met at their usual spot. This time, though, they had agreed to do something else.
“Shall we compare notes, Your Highness?” Chat Noir teasingly asked, to which Marigold gave him a small smirk.
“I'm sure Master Fu told us the same thing,” she replied. “The Earrings and Ring combined make a Wish. A Wish that can alter reality.”
“But the Universe demands balance and in order to gain something, something of equal value must be lost,” Chat Noir continued, and both heroes looked grimly into the horizon. “In other words...”
“Hawkmoth can never win,” both finished in unison.
----
Prime Queen
@zoe-oneesama: Maan, I lost a lot of lead.
Sorry for the wait, guys, you know how these things work - real life sometimes sucks, and it sucks your will to write stuff.
Also, I didn't fulfill my hope to finish Season 4 before the end of year. Apologies.
With Robostus, we reach 488 pages, 194791 words, 1050552 characters. Let's keep going!
P.S: Also, stupid Tumblr won't let me give a different font to parts of a paragraph.
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#adrien agreste#chat noir#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#max kanté#pegasus
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Scarlet Lady: Silencer
Directory | Intermission 2
Tikki watched the encounter from one of the flowerpots nearby: since Chloé wasn't carrying a bag with her now, this was the best way she could stick close to Chloé in case there was an Akuma.
Unfortunately, that still meant having to deal with Chloé's issues and her father's. Such as today.
“How good to see you, Bob!” the Mayor said, greeting a rotund man with sunglasses over his bald head she knew was Bob Roth. “And little Xavier–”
“Ah! XY!” Oh yeah, this was the boy Chloé liked for some reason. His music was decent, but nothing to write home about.
“Of course!” M. Bourgeois apologized. “You remember my princess?”
“How could I forget,” Roth said neutrally. Not that Chloé seemed to care, as she was making eyes at the singer.
“Hello XY! I got you Daddy's best table!” Chloé said.
“Thanks, Clarice,” XY said in a bored tone.
“Uh, it's Chloé,” her wielder corrected, not that the singer seemed to care. “Daddy, don't forget to comp XY's meal!”
M. Bourgeois was clearly not as enthusiastic about the idea as his daughter.
“Ma chérie, that's a little–”
“Don't worry, you can still charge M. Bob.”
“Ha. Ha,” the older man laughed humorlessly.
“Thanks, Cassie.”
“Chloé.”
Once more, XY didn't seem to care much about the correction, as he pulled out a laptop.
“Alright, let's hear what you cop– uh, created,” M. Roth said, as XY pressed a key, and music came out of the laptop's speakers. Chloé sighed in pleasure, but Tikki sighed in boredom. All of that boy's music always sounded the same to her ears.
“It's so cool, like you~” Chloé said. Tikki wondered if her wielder had an ear defect or if she was just blinded by her celebrity crush.
“It's the same as last year,” M. Roth stated. Tikki would have said that it was the same as everything else XY had ever made, but she had to stay hidden.
“Eh?”
“Oh, so it is,” XY blandly replied. “My bad.”
“No big deal. As for visuals...”
“Visu-what?”
Tikki blinked.
“Don't worry, we'll use my usual method,” M. Roth continued. “If you're short on new ideas, borrow someone else's.”
As if the manager couldn't fall lower...
And yet, as the two men laughed, she could see Chloé smiling.
Given her attempt to steal Marinette's design for the hat contest, Tikki could tell Chloé just felt like at home amidst her fellow plagiarists.
----
“We're looking for visually and musically creative talent! You have two weeks to send in your videos!” Bob Roth, the well-known manager, announced in his usual hammy style, from Marinette's phone as she showed it to his friends.
“It's the perfect chance to showcase Kitty Section!” Marinette suggested.
“And your designs!” Luka added with a smile.
“You guys will make something awesome for sure!”
Everyone in the group turned to Adrien.
“Huh?” Rose mumbled in shock.
“Adrien, you're not joining us?” Marinette asked, worried.
“It goes against my dad's contract, but it's okay! It doesn't bother me!”
“Sure looks like it bothers you,” Marinette replied, taking in on her friend's tense smile and shadowed features.
----
During the next two weeks, both Kitty Section and worked hard in everything to be made. Rehearsals, choreography, fittings, brainstormings, designings... a lot of work went into a music video, particularly one that had to be thrown together in such a short time, but the five teenagers rose to the occasion with greatness.
It was during one of the rehearsals that Marinette had the perfect idea for the designs.
“You know I love unicorns~ And nothing makes me feel better~”
Quickly, she began to put her idea down to pencil and paper, letting her prodigious mind become awash in patterns and designs... unaware of the fond looks the group's lead guitarist was giving her.
“I see their faces everywhere I go~ Dreaming about them in the night!”
----
“I only want them to be mine, mine, mine!”
And, of course, when the final product was finished, they sent it to their unofficial fifth member.
“THEY LOOK SO GOOOOOD!” Adrien cried out, tears waterfalling out of his eyes as Plagg patted his cheek.
“There, there,” the Kwami said, having expected this reaction. It wasn't as if he hadn't complained about it for the past two weeks.
“No fair~!” Adrien kept crying, even as the video kept playing.
“I dream about them every night!”
----
SUBMISSION ACCEPTED
“We did it!” Kitty Section and their costume designer cheerfully shouted.
Unaware of what was about to happen.
----
One week later, Marinette was at the Liberty, talking with her friends, slightly worried.
“They're sure taking their time...” she noted: despite the promises that they would get an answer soon, M. Roth's company had yet to send an answer on the video contest.
“They must've gotten a lot of videos and haven't chosen a winner yet,” Luka pointed out, knowing how things could be in the musical field–
“DUDE, WHAT THE FRIG?!”
Everyone turned to Ivan, who had just rushed into the room, clearly angry about something. Which was way out of character for the boy.
“Ivan, what–?”
“That dweeb XY ripped us off! Look at the TV station!”
Juleka quickly picked up the remote and turned on the TV, which showed the tail end of a music video.
One that all five people in the room were intimately familiar with, given that they had worked on it for two weeks. Hell, the singer's costume was almost identical to what Marinette had made for them!
Only, there were a few differences: every Kitty Section reference on the stage had been replaced with an XY monogram.
“XY is here to debut his new sound and style!” the announcer said. “A true original! You've outdone yourself, XY!”
It was only five seconds of video, but it was more than enough to suddenly turn the interior of the room into an atmosphere that promised both sides of hell for the singer and his manager.
“Oh, you hack frauds are dead,” Marinette declared, clearly ready to press her point straight into Roth's face – along with her fist. And the same for everyone else: for all that they were the nicest people around, Bob Roth had really managed to press their buttons.
----
Arriving to the studio where XY was showing off his 'new video' was easy.
Entering, however, became harder.
“No solicitors,” one of the men-in-black at the entrance stated.
“Hey! That's our music and our costumes!” Marinette yelled, filled with righteous anger at how her and her friends had been robbed of their work.
“And your problem,” the man-in-black replied, uncaring.
Kitty Section looked at each other. It was time to plan.
----
“ROOOOOAR!”
“Ahh!”
“Eek!”
“HELP!”
Ivan had grabbed his video's costume and was now running after Rose and Juleka, who were screaming in 'fear' as they attempted to stay ahead of Ivan.
“Our friend is akumatized!”
“There's no heroes to save us!”
The men-in-black rolled their eyes.
“Kids, c'mon.”
“That's not going to work on us.”
“Do you think we're that stupid?”
Behind them, Luka and Marinette struggled not to burst out laughing at the oblivious men-in-black, as they took advantage of their distraction to sneak inside without them noticing.
Yes, you are that stupid, Marinette thought as they made their way in.
----
Finding where the thief was showing off their ideas was somewhat complicated, mostly because they couldn't just stop someone and ask, but a few minutes later they found the studio behind one large door.
“Your new single is way better than your last one! It's your best hit!” they heard Alec Cataldi exclaim as they opened the door.
“There he is!” Marinette whispered.
“How can they praise him when he messed up the music?!” Luka asked, disgusted, while Marinette took in the decorations that were such a rip-off from the ones she had made.
“And he made such a cheap costume and set up!” she realized, offended that XY would so mess with her work. “Isn't he rich?!”
“And where'd you get this look?” Alec continued asking, not realizing what the singer and his manager had actually done.
“Oh, my personal designer, uh...” he said, nodding at a girl standing next to him.
“Chloé Bourgeois.”
“Right, Cleo.”
“Of course,” Marinette growled. She had already tried to steal her work once, who else would it be? The two of them angrily pushed open the door and walked up to the hack and the thief, who were accompanied by the manager. Marinette pulled up her phone.
“M. Roth, I sent you this video on the group you're blatantly copying!” she shouted, queuing Kitty Section's music video.
“Oh, please, there's no similarity!” the manager blatantly lied.
“We were just... inspired!” XY had the guts to say.
“'Inspired'?!” Luka shouted, grabbing the cheap knock-off mask XY was wearing and ripping it off.
“OW!” Luka hadn't been gentle when he did it.
“You didn't create this mask, Marinette did!”
“Mon Chouka!” Chloé chimed in. “I worked so hard on that mask! Are you calling me a liar?”
Marinette felt like ripping off that false innocent face off her... face.
It looked like Luka would beat her off the punch.
“I'M NOT CALLING YOU A TRUTHER!”
----
“Fine, you won't admit the truth? Then I will! Right now, LIVE!” Marinette shouted, pointing at the manager in righteous anger – only for the manager to grab her by the arm.
“If you do that, I'll ruin you and your friend's careers by telling them you're the copycats!” Roth maliciously replied. “Who do you think they'll believe? A renowned producer, or some nobodies?”
“Wha–?!” Marinette exclaimed in shock.
“You won't make another costume ever again!” Roth threatened.
“Of course, I won't let that happen to you, mon Chouka!” Chloé said.
He liked to think he was a calm guy. But... that comment made something snap in him, and he turned to fire a glare that could have probably stripped the paint off the studio's walls.
“Uh, um...” Chloé babbled as she realized that maybe she had made a mistake. “W–What's that look for?! I did nothing wrong!”
She turned around, giving her back to him.
“I'm just saying, with your looks, you could go solo like XY! You just have to ditch your loser friends!”
Luka was so beyond rage, that when he saw the black butterfly fusing with the mask he had taken from XY, he didn't care.
“And forget about Dupain-Cheng, her designs are way too complicated! Do you know how hard it was to copy them?”
That did it. He put on the mask.
“And also–”
He flipped her off with both hands.
“Oh fuck.”
----
Luka quickly transformed, becoming covered in what looked like a motorcyclist body suit, complete with a helmet that only showed his eyes, and he reached out with his left hand.
“Uh, Luka, what are you–”
“Shhhh,” Luka – or, more like, Luka's Akuma – shushed, getting closer.
“Eek! Don't touch me!” Chloé shouted, and suddenly grabbed XY, who found himself with Luka's hand on his lips.
“Huh?” the singer mumbled.
“L–Luka?” Marinette said, shocked as she finally realized her friend had been Akumatized.
As Luka pulled away from XY, out of the singer's mouth came a wiggling blue jellyfish-like thing.
“Haha! I'm the best! I'm the richest! I'm famous!” the jellyfish said in XY's voice, before it was snatched by Luka.
“EEK! Akuma!” Chloé shrieked, before running off behind one door. “See you later, bye!”
Then Luka started to move his hand...
“Tsk, there goes my chance to silence her for good.”
… and somehow spoke with XY's voice.
“Luka, don't do this!” Marinette begged, approaching her friend. “It's not justice!”
“Marinette, I won't let anyone hurt you again,” Luka said, still with XY's voice. “You're an extraordinary girl. Clear as a music note, sincere as a melody.”
Marinette felt her cheeks starting to burn as she kept listening on Luka's words.
“You're the music that's been playing in my head since the day we met. I won't let anything happen to you.”
And, as Luka left, Marinette clenched her fists.
That was the most romantic thing I've ever heard... she thought, and you said it in XY's voice!
But, never mind that, she needed to hide and transform! So she quickly ran out the exit and into the first bathroom she could find.
“A love confession!” Pollen said as soon as she could come out of Marinette's bag. “I'm not surprised, my Queen commands attention!”
A blushing Marinette closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on the matter at hand.
“P–Pollen, he's an Akuma! Who knows if he meant it!”
“Hm, I don't know~” Pollen sing-sang, clearly enjoying the moment... even if it was not the moment.
“G-Geez, Buzz On!”
----
“You can't escape me, Bob Roth!” the Akumatized Luka said, still using XY's voice. “And I'll force you to tell the truth on live TV!”
“Eek!” the manager yipped, sounding almost like a little girl. “Don't touch me! I have influence!”
“I can't let you do that, Luka!” Marigold shouted, landing between the Akuma and the manager.
“About time!” Roth complained – and before she could react, he grabbed her by the shoulders and used her as a shield. “Stop standing around and protect me!”
Marigold didn't even have the time to get loose before the Akuma touched her lips with his fingers – and another jellyfish, this one with the same colors as her costume, flew out of her mouth.
“Venom! Bien Joué! Just use your Lucky Charm already!” she heard herself shout before the Akuma stole her voice.
WHY?! she silently cried out. The cowardly idiot not only had ruined her plan to protect his ass, he had taken advantage of the distraction to run away, taking a lift at the other side of the building.
“Byeeee!” the thief sang as he disappeared – and, to pile on Marigold's misery, the other idiot showed up.
“Marimold!” Scarlet shouted. “Hurry up and sting him!”
I can't use Venom without my voice! she thought, and tried to convey it with signs.
“You can't talk?!” Scarlet realized, and then (like the Chloé clone she seemed to be) started to laugh at her. “Hahaha! What a loser! I can't believe you let your voice get stolen–!”
“An opening.”
That was Marigold's voice.
And Luka's fingers on a shocked Scarlet's mouth.
Idiot, Marigold thought. Knowing that she'd be unable to bring her full power ahead, she pulled out her top and swung it to grab a higher point. Scarlet followed her, and as they climbed away from the Akuma, Marigold picked her top-phone.
Text Chat Noir, she sent to Scarlet.
You text Chat Noir! Scarlet replied.
“You can run, bugs, but you can't escape me for too long,” Akumatized Luka said. “I'll find you and Bob Roth!”
----
At the entrance of the studio, Ivan, Rose, and Juleka were still waiting for Luka and Marinette to come out... and they were getting worried.
“I hope everything's going okay...” Rose said, and Ivan nodded.
“The commercial break's been going for a while too...” Juleka answered, checking her phone.
The gate to the studio opened all of a sudden, and a large man ran out, clearly in a hurry.
“Wuh?! Is that Bob Roth?!” Juleka asked, shocked.
“Why's he running?” Ivan wondered.
They got the answer when someone walked out, following Bob Roth, wearing a full body leather suit and a helmet covering everything but his eyes.
“Who is that?!” Ivan shouted.
“You don't think...” Juleka could recognize who had passed by them... or, rather, who it was supposed to be.
Rose was just stunned at the sight of the obvious Akuma.
And then the three members of Kitty Section looked at each other with dread.
“Maybe we shouldn't have let them go alone,” they agreed.
----
Back at home, Adrien was showing Nathalie his friends' music video, pointing out the blatant thievery Bob Roth and XY had carried out.
“It's in Père's best interests to know his business partner's unethical practices,” he argued, “like plagiarism.”
Much to his relief, Nathalie nodded. Clearly, she could see that this was a serious matter.
“I'll pass on your concerns,” she said, and firmly walked out of his room, carefully closing the door behind herself.
“That's all I can do, though I don't have much confidence,” he said as Plagg came out of his hideaway. “Unless there's a public backlash...”
However, Plagg wasn't looking at him, but at the window.
“Hey, look.”
Adrien looked, and saw something unexpected.
“Marigold?” he realized.
“Scarlet Lady?” Plagg asked as well.
“That means...! My friends might've been Akumatized! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Adrien cried out, brandishing the Miraculous Ring. “Plagg, Claws Out!”
----
“I am here!” he announced, and was pleased to see Scar jumping in shock. “I checked your texts about the Akuma, what's the plan?”
Marigold put up an awkward face, while Scar made a lot of gestures while attempting to say... something.
“Wait, you lost your voice?!” he realized, and began to laugh. “Hahaha! Truly we've been blessed!”
Then he approached Marigold and gave her a playful nudge with his elbow.
“Goldie, we don't need to rush with this Akuma, right?” he said, winking at her.
But then, instead of speaking up, she moved her lips and made a wordless noise, similar to the one Scar had made.
“Oh no, my poor Honeybee!” he exclaimed, realizing she had suffered the same as Scar, and he hugged his fellow heroine. “We'll get your voice back right away!”
He could feel Scar's anger and what was likely her flipping him off, but he paid her no mind. He pulled his baton-phone, knowing that it was the best way for her to 'speak' now.
“So you can't use your powers... and you can't detransform,” he said, summarizing the situation. “So we're fucked."
Marigold quickly tapped away at her top-phone, sending a message.
“You want to make Silencer say 'Venom' or 'Lucky Charm' with your stolen voices?” he asked, and she nodded. “How?”
She sent him another message, and he quickly read it.
“Huh?! Would that work?”
She smiled as she sent another message.
“Well, you're right that we don't have much choice.”
He got another message... but this time it was worthless. Namely, Scar making a selfie.
“Thanks for the contribution, Scar,” he sarcastically said.
----
The phone rang at the Hôtel de Ville, and a hand pressed a button.
“André, it's me, Bob!” the manager screamed. “I need the police!”
“No problem, Bob,” Silencer said, using the voice of André Bourgeois, who was now voiceless and struggling against the tight ropes holding him in place. “Just tell me where you are.”
----
As soon as the lift doors opened, Silencer reached out and grabbed Bob Roth.
“Thank you for escorting my prisoner, Officer Roger,” he said with Andre Bourgeois' voice, shocking the poor police lieutenant.
“Who–?” he asked, shocked at being tricked by an Akuma, but he was drowned out.
“EEEEK!” Roth said, once more screaming like a little girl as Silencer pulled him and threw him on a chair.
“I could easily take your voice, Bob Roth,” the Akuma said with Marigold's voice. “But what I want is for you to admit what you did!”
“NEVER!” the manager shouted.
“You think I can't make you?”
He switched to Scarlet Lady's voice.
“I can ruin you like you threatened to ruin Marinette!”
Then to Andre Bourgeois'.
“I know everyone in showbiz, Bob!”
Then to XY's.
“I'll never sing for you again, Dad!”
“Fine, fine, I'll do it!” Roth begged. “Why couldn't you just threaten my son?”
“Like that would've worked,” Silencer said, giving the manager a deadpan look.
“Damn, you knew.”
----
As they entered the studio once more, the television stopped showing ads, which were replaced by Bob Roth's cringing mug.
“Dear viewers, we're back with an exclusive interview with Bob Roth~” the voice of Alec Cataldi sounded out, although Marigold knew it wasn't him: this had to be Silencer!
“Hey, maybe we should let this play out,” Chat Noir suggested, eager to see the man getting punished for stealing his friends' work, but Marigold sent him a message.
“'It would be revenge, not justice. He'd just take it back later,'” he read aloud before sighing. “Well, you're right. No fun, but right.”
Marigold playfully stuck her tongue at him. Then he got another message.
“'You better not let an Akuma make XY or Chloé Bourgeois look bad'...” he read, wondering how that could not happen, and looked at Scar, who was also sticking her tongue out at him. “Leave the convincing to Marigold.”
----
The heroes quickly bursted in the set, and Chat Noir tackled Silencer out of the way while Marigold took Roth away.
“Mind your business or I'll shut you up forever!” Silencer threatened with Scarlet Lady's voice.
“Aw, but I'm hilarious,” he said, grinning and fending off his stretched-out arm.
Marigold dragged Roth to the first room she could find that would be isolated enough, which, much to her joy, was a dressing room she could use to pull off her plan.
“See here, Marigold! You need to hurry up and get rid of this guy!” Roth ordered, but she paid him no mind as she began to put together what she needed.
“This is all those brats' fault anyway, kitty whatever. Should've just let me steal the idea,” the man kept talking, making her twitch in anger. “Are you seriously doing arts and crafts right now? And where's Scarlet Lady?!”
Alright, that did it. This wouldn't be heroic, but it would feel amazing.
----
Scarlet Lady cuddled up with the tied up XY, who was struggling to move away from the superpowered stalker.
----
With Silencer running to attempt to find Roth, Chat Noir knew it was time to find the enemy and see what Marigold had come up with to do her part. And he also knew how to trick the Akuma.
“Oh nooo, Marigold, where'd you go?” he shouted, knowing that Silencer would be unable to resist the chance.
“I'm here, Chat Noir!” the Akuma said with Marigold's voice. “I defeated Silencer, meet me at the film set!”
He struggled to avoid cracking up, and just barely kept his laughter out of his answer.
“Sure, you got it!”
As he began to run for his destination, he found Marigold in the same corridor, holding her top with a few additions.
“There you are!” Chat Noir happily exclaimed, and he eyed the top. “What is that, 'Venom'?”
Marigold nodded.
“Got held up?” he asked, and Marigold's smile told him there was a story there that he'd love to listen to.
----
In the same dressing room Marigold had taken him to, Bob Roth was currently (unwillingly) cooling his heels thanks to the judicious application of a full roll of duct tape, tying him up to a chair, and rolled out of the way like junk.
“DAMN YOU MARIGOLD!” Roth screamed.
----
As they entered the film set, they found Silencer there, alone, and Chat Noir smirked as he pointed at Marigold.
“Too bad, Silencer, Marigold still has her superpower!” he taunted.
“Impossible!” Silencer exclaimed with Marigold's voice, making Chat Noir grin even wider. “I stole your voice! How could you summon Venom!”
And then the tricked-out top began to shine and twirl, and Marigold stuck her tongue at the Akuma, who realized too late that he had been tricked by the heroes.
“Aw crap,” he said, still using Marigold's voice, but before he could attempt to run away, Kitty Section tackled him.
“Hold still and take it, Luka!” the three teens shouted, grabbing him by the arms and torso to keep him from moving.
“Wuh – guys! Let go!” Silencer said, still using Marigold's voice.
“Omigod is that how you talk?!” Ivan said, laughing at how ridiculous it looked.
“No! Snap out of it!” Juleka ordered, while Rose hugged him even tighter.
“You can't do this!” the blonde girl shouted. “This isn't what we or Marinette want!”
The words caused Silencer to stop struggling, as he pondered the truth of it... giving Marigold the time she needed.
“An opening!” Kitty Section announced as Silencer became paralyzed by Venom, finally allowing Chat Noir to grab the Akumatized object.
“Thanks for the help, Kitty Section!” he said, smiling.
“Juleka, he knows our name!” Rose whispered, excited, but her girlfriend was checking something else.
“Uh, where'd you get a net?” she asked, pointing at the object in Marigold's hand.
Amazing what you find in dressing rooms, she thought, as the jellyfishes flew away from Silencer and she caught them with the net, putting her voice back where it belonged. Picking the one she had seen coming out of Scarlet's mouth, she found her sitting next to XY, who clearly looked like he wanted to be anywhere else in the universe other than here (and who could fault him?).
“Here, Scarlet, we got your voice back,” she said, showing the red-with-black-spots jellyfish. “Just put it in your mouth.”
Scarlet made a disgusted sound and crossed her arms in front of her.
“What?”
Scarlet kept making similar wordless sounds and tried to push her back when she approached the voice.
“Just take it already! You have to fix things!” Marigold yelled, annoyed by Scarlet's skewed priorities. Then she looked down at it... and decided that, if Scarlet didn't want it, then she could probably use it.
But when she made to eat it, Scarlet changed her opinion. Clearly, a life without hearing herself talk was too hard for her to imagine.
----
As Scarlet cast the Miraculous Cure, Marigold rushed back to find Luka, who was finally recovering from the effects of Akumatization.
“Ugh,” he mumbled, still a bit disoriented. “What happened?”
“You were Akumatized, but it's fine now!” Marigold said.
“It's a scandal, Marigold!”
Everyone turned to the piece of junk Bob Roth, who had managed to drag himself to the film set along with the chair.
“Tying me up in a dressing room?! But at least you did one thing right!” he yelled, turning to Luka. “Serves you right, thinking you could make me tell the truth! Like I'd admit I stole Kitty Section's song and look for my son! HA!”
Then the man noticed how Marigold and Luka were smirking, and he felt dread going down his stomach.
“... uh, why're you smiling?”
“Because, Bob Roth,” Marigold said, before pointing to a camera... manned by Chat Noir, “you are on Candid Camera!”
“Smile!” Chat Noir added with a smile that wouldn't be out of place in the Cheshire Cat.
“GAH!” Bob Roth yelled, as he realized he had actually confessed the truth to all and sundry! He had to fix this quickly! “Ahahahaa! Obviously I was just joking! I love, uh, Kitty Section, which is why I'm signing them a record deal and having them finish the show!”
As he said this, he was sweating like it were midday in mid-summer, knowing that he was this close to getting his business ruined.
“Can we get that in writing, Bob Roth?” Luka imperiously asked.
----
As Kitty Section quickly went to pick up their things, Chat Noir had to leave, and Marigold hid away so she could undo her transformation, just as her hair comb beeped for the end of her transformation. Returning to the set, it was to see everyone getting ready for singing their song, and she walked up to Luka.
“Luka, um, did you mean what you said? As an Akuma?” she timidly asked, but he shook his head.
“I'm sorry, Marinette, I don't remember. I hope it wasn't mean.”
“Ah, no–” she said, but before she could add more, he spoke.
“You're an extraordinary girl, Marinette,” Luka said, and she felt her entire face burning. “Clear as a music note, sincere as a melody. You're the music that's been playing inside my head since the day we met.”
Marinette gave a silent nod, and as Luka walked to the scenario, she collapsed on the floor and against a wall.
THAT WAS SO MUCH BETTER IN HIS OWN VOICE! she yelled in her mind, even as the ghost she was giving up squeed in delight.
Poor Marinette was left K.O. by the sudden confession, and as she gathered her wits, things were not much better.
“T–That was a love confession, wasn't it, Pollen?” she asked.
“Sure sounded like one to me!” her Kwami teased her, as the music started.
“Aw, geez,” she muttered, as she noticed Luka's eyes zeroing in on her. “How am I supposed to act now...?”
----
After all the kerfuffle was finally sorted out, Adrien was in the middle of his piano practice, as he went over what had happened to his friends.
“Thank goodness things worked out for Kitty Section,” he said; not only did they get that record deal, they had also ensured that all of their work would never be associated to XY, who (along with his father) was very lucky had not been slapped with a demand for plagiarism. Even if Gabriel Agreste had threatened to make things worse for Bob Roth.
Someone knocked on the door as he talked to himself and Plagg.
“Adrien, delivery,” Nathalie announced, and he stepped off the piano to grab the rather large package she had brought to him.
Putting it on a low table, he ripped off the tape.
“Huh, wonder what–”
And then he opened the package and gasped.
“My own Kitty Section costume?!” he shouted in joy. This must have been sent before everything that had happened, which meant Marinette had taken the time to sew him up one in the middle of all the hard work she had done.
“Oooo,” Plagg said, somewhat amazed at how good it looked.
To hell with piano practice, this was super-cool! He quickly donned the entire costume – unicorn mask included! - and posted it on his social network accounts. He may not be an official member of the band, but he would gladly show his love of his friends' group!
----
He had learned many things about crocodiles while taking care of Fang, and one of them was that crocodiles liked to hunt by ambush.
“Alright, Jagged, why'd you call me over so late?” Bob said as he entered the room.
The crocodile was not an animal that liked to run on land. No, they would wait under water, near the surface, unmoving... until prey got close enough.
“I'm in a bad mood so you better have a good reason!” Bob continued to yell, unaware of what was about to happen to him.
Because, as far as Jagged had been concerned... this man was prey today. And he was about to make clear his displeasure about the rotten thing he had tried to do.
“Why's it so dark–”
What a perfect cue! He stepped on the light switch, and the spotlight flashed over him.
“Bob.”
“EEEEKK!”
Ah, the sound of prey that knew how utterly fucked it was. He glowered at the bastard that had tried to ruin several lives that were very important to him.
“Let's talk about you threatening my favorite designer. And my ki– uh, her friends.”
Whoops, nearly slipped out. He hoped Fang was having as much fun as he was.
----
CHEW CHEW CHEW
Tasty thing! Shiny, with color of meat like Father gives me! Feels good to rip!
“DADDYYYYY! JAGGED STONE'S STUPID LIZARD IS EATING MY SHOES!” Loud Human shouts.
Who cares? Father said to chew on these things Loud Human put on her legs, and that was what he was going to do!
----
Desperada
@zoe-oneesama I think Jagged would have learned stuff about crocodiles, even if Fang still behaves like a dog! (Also, can't wait for Crocoduel)
By the way, that's 441 pages, 176582 words, 951399 characters.
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrien agreste#chat noir#scarlet lady is better than canon#silencer#luka couffaine#kitty section
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Scarlet Lady: Anansi
Directory | Sapotis
Today was one of those rare days where Adrien could get out of home, and since it was Spring Break, they had decided to enjoy it by doing something fun.
And, as they made time before they went out for the fireworks, they were having fun playing videogames – like the dancing game Alya and Nino were starting right now.
“It's amazing you were able to come,” Marinette said as the music began to sound out. “Did your dad make a fuss?”
“Oh, he definitely objected at first,” Adrien said, smiling.
----
“Adrien, I forbid you from going out tonight. It's too dangerous,” Gabriel Agreste said, and Adrien smirked.
“Ah, Père. I thought you might say that,” he replied, turning to the bottles he had carefully prepared for this precise occasion. “Sidebar, have you seen my collection of hair dye?”
Gabriel looked, and Adrien's smirk grew as the man broke out into a sweat.
“I forget, what's your favorite color, père? I'm partial to pink.”
“Mon Dieu,” Gabriel muttered.
----
As Marinette giggled from Adrien's story, the song Nino and Alya had been dancing to was ending, and Nino decided to end on a high note.
“Big finish!” he said, and he made a ballet pose, causing the others to laugh.
“What is that?!” Adrien said before he also broke down laughing.
“Aw, shoot, did I miss the ballet?”
“Nora!” Alya said, turning to her elder sister, who was still wearing her fighting gear, all marked with the symbol of a spider in a circle. “Is your match over already?”
“First round: total knock out,” Nora said, hopping around. “Aaaas usual.”
“I'm sure that was fun to watch,” Alya replied, feeling bad for the people that had paid to see the fight.
“And I told you not to call me Nora in front of other people, p'tite sœur!” Nora admonished her.
“That's so laaaame.”
Nora turned to the others in the room.
“Name's Anansi, like the spider,” she said, pointing at the symbol on her helmet.
“Oh! Like you're really tricky in the ring? Like the legends?” Nino asked, only for Nora to put a confused face.
“Nah, man, I'm like a tank in the ring.”
“How is that like Anansi or a spider...” Adrien wondered.
“Why're you all still here?” Nora said, ignoring Adrien's comment while taking off her helmet. “Isn't it a school night?”
“It's Spring Break, actually,” Marinette pointed out.
“We're gonna see the fireworks from the Place de la Concorde ferris wheel,” Alya revealed.
“What?!” Nora suddenly shouted. “No way, it's too dangerous with everyone becoming Akumas!”
“Oh, c'mon! I'm not a baby, I've been living with Akumas for seven months now!” Alya complained, glaring at her sister. “Besides, I have Mom and Dad's permission, I don't have to listen to you!”
“Forget it, you're staying home, safe and sound, period!” Nora replied, before waving at the others. “Baguette, Cappy, and Billboard Boy can go though.”
“Oh, gee, thanks,” Nino sarcastically fired back.
“C'mon, what does Billboard Boy know about self defense?” Nora asked.
“Hey! I fence!” Adrien replied, defensively.
“And Baguette can't lift more than a bag of flour!”
“Hey! They're heavy!” Hell, they could easily weigh more than twenty kilos!
“And Cappy–”
“Okay, first of all, we're not gonna stop living our lives just because Hawkmoth is a butthole,” Nino interrupted her. “Second, I'd do anything to protect Alya! And third --”
He turned to present Alya, who made a pose, as if for a magazine.
“Alya's a Queen who can take care of herself!”
Giving Nino a look, as if measuring him, and sat on the kitchen table.
“Fine! Alya can go... if you beat me at arm wrestling.”
“Huh?” Alya said, but then the four of them looked at each other, and it was obvious they had had the same brainwave.
“Well, okay,” Nino said, as they all walked up to the table.
“Fine,” Alya added.
Nora looked at them, confused (again).
“Uhh, what are you doing?” she asked.
“Come at us, scrub,” the four of them said at the same time, ready to accept the challenge, as they put together their right hands and clasped Nora's.
And the fight started.
“4-on-1 is obviously cheating!” Nora exclaimed, straining with all her strength against the four teens'.
“Hey, you challenged us!” Alya pointed out as they forced Nora's hand back.
“It's completely unfair!”
“You think Akumas care about fair?!” Adrien shouted.
“We have to do what we can to keep ourselves safe, even if it's not fair!” Marinette followed.
“As long as we have each other, we can do anything!” Nino exclaimed.
“We're not ashamed of asking for help!” Alya finished, and the four of them pushed even harder.
“THAT'S LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP, BITCH!” they shouted, and with one last mighty push, they slammed Nora's hand against the table.
----
“Hmm... if I send off this Akuma, whose grudge includes my own son, I'll be directly contributing to putting Adrien in direct danger... but that Ring and Earrings would look so sick on me, so, off you go, little Akuma!”
Yeah, a great set of priorities.
----
BOOM!
Tikki looked up as a red star exploded in the sky, followed by a green one.
“Aren't the fireworks beautiful, Chloé?” she asked her bearer.
“As if!” the girl yelled. “I could've been in New York with Mommy right now, but my whole Spring Break is ruined because I have to stay here and be Scarlet Lady! Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”
She paused for a moment. The rules said she could not take the Earrings from their wielder... but there was nothing about getting the wielder to give them up themselves...
“There's still time,” she innocently suggested. “You could leave the Earrings with Marigold or Chat Noir for the week!”
“ha! As if they could match my brilliance, even temporarily!” Chloé replied.
Tikki mentally snapped her fingers.
Worth a shot.
----
The sky was illuminated by the beautiful fireworks, and the four friends, who were almost at the top of the loop, were looking up, fascinated.
“Look at that!” Marinette pointed out, as three fireworks exploded at the same time to form what resembled the French flag.
“Wow!” Adrien replied. This was the first time he had been able to watch one of these from somewhere that wasn't home, and he was enjoying it so much!
Alya and Nino, hand in hand, weren't even voicing their enthusiasm, but anyone that looked at them would have seen it quite clearly on their faces.
But then the wheel jerked, and sent Adrien to the floor.
“Ah, whoa!” Adrien shouted as he fell.
“What?” Alya asked, surprised.
“Aw, man, are we stuck?!” Nino asked as well, hugging his girlfriend.
“L-Look, over there!” Marinette said, pointing at the middle of the wheel: something was pinning it in position by using what looked like long lines of silk. One wouldn't have been enough, but there were so many that their combined strength was preventing the wheel from turning.
“A... super villain?” Nino asked, as Adrien looked out.
“A spider villain,” he answered.
“Oh, you've GOT to be kidding me!” Alya yelled, incensed. “AFTER ALL THAT GRIEF, YOU BECAME AN AKUMA, YOU STUPID–”
“Alya, don't attract her over here!” Marinette said, pulling her down to avoid being seen.
Too late, though, because the spider Akuma quickly climbed up to where they were, unhooked their car and brought it down to the ground, forcing them to hold onto whatever they could find to avoid getting hurt.
“Gotcha, my little flyweights! Yoink!” the Akuma said.
“Jesus Christ, Nora!” Alya yelled as the Akuma forced the door open.
“Nora's not here to protect you anymore!” the Akuma shouted, grabbing Nino with one of her six arms.
“Ah!”
“I'm Anansi, the Super-Spider!” the Akuma continued, pulling Nino out of the car.
“Guys! Guys!” Nino begged.
“C'mon, Alya, let's see you 'take care of yourself' without your friends to help you cheat!”
“What do you–”
And then Anansi fired her webs at Adrien and Marinette, trapping them into the car.
“Ahh!”
“Aw, gross!”
With both teens blocked, Anansi began to move away, but then jumped and struck the ferris wheel right in the middle.
“NO!”
“KYA!”
“This'll slow down M. Whiskers and the bugs!” the Akuma yelled as the ferris wheel fell from its place and began to slowly roll away.
“Aw, man, aw, man!” Alya yelled. “She's getting away with Nino, but I can't just leave you guys!”
“Go ahead, Alya!” Adrien replied, starting to pull on the spider web holding his left arm.
“We'll try and catch up!” Marinette added, also pulling off the web trapping her.
“Yeah, don't lose sight of Nino!”
“Are you sure?” Alya asked. “I can wait until–”
“IT'S FINE, PLEASE GO!” both of them yelled at her, intent on getting her away while they transformed.
“Uh, if you say so...” Alya replied, confused, before she did as bid and began to run after her Akumatized sister and her boyfriend.
Marinette and Adrien quickly began to pull on the silk threads, and while it was still sticky, they were able to get rid of it fast enough that it only took a couple of minutes before they were free.
“Ah, you know, I did promise Chat Noir I'd stay out of Akuma fights, so, I–I'll try to flag down a hero instead, yeah?” Marinette suggested, while rolling up the silk: if this thing survived the Miraculous Cure, perhaps she could try to use it as a material?
“G–Good idea! I'll uh, try to catch up with Alya and Nino! See ya!” Adrien replied, and both teens bolted to hide behind the closest alley.
----
“KYAAA!”
“RUN!”
“What's that about? So noisy,” Chloé complained.
“Chloé, it might be an Akuma!” Tikki suggested.
“No way, you don't know that,” the girl replied, but then Tikki looked at the street and her face turned to shock.
“C-Chloé! Look out!”
Chloé looked – and became shocked as well as she saw a loose ferris wheel rolling towards her!
“The ferris wheel!” she pointed out. Tikki could – just barely – see Sabrina, Lila, and someone that was probably Lila's mother holding onto each other, scared.
“It's going to crash into your dad's hotel!”
“And more importantly, my room! Spots On!”
“Ugh–” Tikki didn't even have the time to voice her insatisfaction as she became absorbed into the Earrings.
----
“Dammit, Nora, get your own boyfriend!” Alya shouted, seeing Nino hanging from a web that Anansi had crafted all over the Arc de Triomphe.
“Hey, babe,” she heard Nino say.
“Anansi, p'tite sœur! Now take a hike!”
“Wha–”
Alya didn't have the time to react before Anansi smacked her, sending her flying.
“Oh you bi–”
“Alya!”
A string suddenly coiled itself around her waist and pulled her to safety in Marigold's arms.
“Are you okay?!” the heroine asked with great worry.
“Yeah, thanks...”
“Hmph!” Scarlet Lady grumbled. “Leave this to the Hero of Paris, reporter gir–”
Then she actually saw the day's Akuma for the first time.
“Hey, little beetle!” the Akuma said with a grin.
“EEP! SPIDER LADY! LUCKY CHARM, LUCKY CHARM, LUCKY CHARM!”
As Chat Noir finally arrived, Marigold immediately started to go into planning mode.
“Okay, I'll run a distraction, Chat Noir will go for the hostage, and Scarlet Lady–”
“Welp, here you go Marimo– uh, Marigold,” Scarlet quickly interrupted, handing her the Lucky Charm while her Earrings began to beep, “good luck with that, I gotta, you know, recharge and stuff.”
“And then you'll come back, right?”
“Oh, I can't hear you, gotta turn back, byeeeee!” Scarlet said as she turned to run.
“And then you'll come back, right!?” Marigold yelled at the retreating back of the polka-dotted girl.
----
Unfortunately, the plan soon run into a snag.
“Uh, Honey Bee? I'm in a bit of a sticky situation,” Chat Noir asked, stuck to Anansi's web, as he looked down at the laughing Akuma. “That's some nightmare fuel right there.”
“Chat Noir!” Marigold yelled, still holding the Lucky Charm. “I have to make a trip, but I can't leave Chat defenseless! Lord knows I can't count on Scarlet!”
Alya looked down at the baton Chat Noir had dropped after getting trapped... and decided it was time to act.
“I'll do it.”
“Huh?!”
“I'll distract Anansi until you get back.”
“Are you sure?” Marigold asked. This was her elder sister, after all...
“No problem! I can even get back at my sister!” It didn't look like she minded, though. “For the greater good, of course.”
“Of course,” Marigold replied, a bit shocked.
----
Fortunately, using her top and the roofs allowed her to reach her destination, and after transforming back into her civilian self, she ran for her destination.
“Master Fu!” she said as she entered the parlor. “Chat Noir's about to lose his Ring, Scarlet Lady bailed, and I had to leave my best friend to hold off the Akuma!”
“Yikes!” the elder said, springing to his feet. “We have to take action!”
He picked up the Miraculous Box from its hideaway.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, pick an ally who can–”
“I'mma stop you right there cuz I need your Miraculous, Master!”
Fu had a brief look of shock, but nodded as he understood her intentions.
“Do you have someone in mind, Marinette?”
“I know the perfect person,” she replied, before turning to the Kwami of Protection with a n awkward gaze. “I hope you like interviews, Wayzz.”
“What's an interview?”
----
“Not so easy on your own, is it, Alya?” Anansi mocked her sister, who was huffing from the effort of keeping her at bay.
“It's easier when my opponent's so slow!” Alya yelled as she triggered the baton, hitting Anansi with the end of it.
“Ow! Why, you little–”
Anansi attempted to punch Alya with her three left fists, but before she could do that a thread coiled around the girl's waist once more, pulling her away.
“Alya!”
Marigold quickly pulled her away to somewhere where Anansi would be unable to see them.
“Did you see, did you see?! I got her good!” Alya cheered up.
“Uh, yes, I'm very proud,” Marigold replied.
While they were distracted, though, Anansi went back to her original target, the Cat Hero.
“It's just you and me, kitty-cat,” the Akuma said, grabbing his left arm with one hand, ready to steal the ring from him.
“You, me, and Cataclysm!” the hero replied, sticking his tongue at Anansi.
“And now we're pressed for time,” Marigold said, watching the events from below. “Do you still want to help your boyfriend?”
“Of course!” Alya exclaimed. “I'd do anything for Nino!”
Marigold pulled the ornate wooden box she had brought from Master Fu's.
“Alya Césaire, this is the Turtle Miraculous, which grants the power of Protection. You will use it for the greater good–”
Alya grabbed Marigold by the shoulders and began to shake her back and forth.
“Are you serious, this is a total dream come true AHHHHHH!”
“L-Let me finish!” Marigold complained.
----
After letting her finish, Alya picked the box and opened it, revealing a green bracelet and, with a flash of green, a small, floating turtle-like creature.
“Whoa, what's this thing?!” Alya asked.
“The word you're looking for is 'Kwami'. My name is Wayzz,” the Kwami of Protection replied.
“A Kwami? You're what gives superheroes their powers, aren't you?” she asked, and Wayzz nodded.
“My, Marigold wasn't kidding about how bright you are!”
“No way, you talk about me?!” Alya exclaimed again, and Wayzz held his laugh at seeing Marigold's embarrassed face.
“H-Hurry up and transform!” she shouted.
“Eeeee! Okay, okay! Wayzz, SHELL ON!”
----
When the flash of light ended, the new heroine looked down at her costume, admiring everything.
“This is soooo cool!” she said, before turning back to Marigold. “Hey, where do you get Miraculouses?! How many are–”
“Focus!” Marigold interrupted the deluge of questions. “We have to save Nino before Chat Noir turns back! But first we need to locate our fearless leader.”
While the Turtle Heroine took the time to feel her new features – including her very fluffy hair – Marigold called Scarlet Lady on her top-phone.
Then the melody of Scarlet Lady's yo-yo began to ring right behind her.
“Of course,” she grumbled, irritated.
“Have you finished off the spider lady yet?” Scarlet Lady asked.
“Obviously not,” Marigold fired back.
“Well, hurry up!” Scarlet Lady ordered. “And who's she?!”
Our hero, the new heroine sarcastically thought.
Scarlet Lady ignored her and turned to Marigold.
“Uh, nice to meet you?” she asked, feeling awkward.
“Of course it is,” Scarlet Lady mumbled. “Bumbling bee! Where are you getting these Miraculouses, huh?!”
“As if I'd tell you,” Marigold said, dismissively.
“Scarlet Lady doesn't know where the Miraculouses come from but you do?” the Turtle Heroine asked, confused.
“Chat Noir too. Off the record.”
She wasn't sure of the reason, but she needed to ask.
“Why?”
Marigold gave her an 'Are you kidding me?' look.
“She can't be trusted with anything,” she replied, pointing at Scarlet Lady, “let alone secrets of that magnitude.”
“HEY!” Scarlet Lady yelled.
Nobody cared.
I'm starting to see that, she thought.
“How dare you–”
“Just use Lucky Charm already!” Marigold shouted, irritated.
----
This time, the object was a pair of boxing gloves, which Scarlet Lady immediately handed to Marigold.
“Here, go deal with the Akuma, worker bee,” she said, while Marigold just looked like she was done.
“Whu–?! You're not coming?!” the Turtle Heroine asked, shocked.
“Please, that's grunt work,” Scarlet Lady replied with a smug look. “Better get used to it, turtle head. That's your spot in the pecking order while I call the shots.”
“Please, you don't 'call' anything,” Marigold said, rolling her eyes.
Scarlet Lady ignored her.
“So, what dumb little name have you cooked up for yourself?”
She thought it over, and came up with the perfect combination.
“Koki Marina.”
“Hm, there's gotta be some way to make an insult out of it,” Scarlet Lady said, closing her eyes. “Give me time.”
And, with those words, the last remains of her respect for the 'heroine' completely vanished.
I'm going to write such an article about you!
----
Leaving the lazy girl behind them, Marigold and Koki Marina charged towards the Arc de Triomphe, ready to stop the Akuma before Chat Noir transformed back into his civilian identity.
“Hey Anansi!” Marigold yelled.
“Come at me, scrub!” Koki Marina challenged.
“Ooo, a new challenger?” the Akuma asked.
Immediately, Koki Marina began to attack the Akuma with a speed that was unlike what she was meant to represent, while Marigold began to extend her cord around the monument.
“Ugh!”
“Nyah, nyah!”
“This isn't kick boxing!” the Akuma complained.
“Anansi!” Marigold shouted, putting on the gloves. “One round! You win, you get our Miraculouses! I win, you release your prisoners!”
“Huh?” the Akuma asked, shocked.
“Pay attention, I challenge you!”
“Eeeeeeeeee...”
“Or, uh, Koki Marina challenges you,” she lamely added, as her cheer increased.
“EEEE!”
Marigold handed the gloves to Koki Marina, who got ready for the fight.
And began by dodging a punch that struck one of the Arc's pillars.
“Made ya look!” she taunted the Akuma.
“Nyah!”
“Over here!” she said over the next punch, which also hit another pillar.
“SHUT UP!”
“Too slow!” Koki Marina yelled as another attack hit another pillar.
“Hold STILL!”
And so they went for a minute, before Koki Marina noticed the small rocks starting to fall.
“Quit hiding in your shell, and fight back!” Anansi demanded, ignorant of what was about to come.
“Okay~” Koki Marina replied, leaning on the cord and pulling.
The Arc de Triomphe began to crumble down, and Anansi realized too late that she had fallen into a trap.
“Uhh–”
Marigold quickly pulled the hostages down and near Koki Marina, who used her ultimate technique.
“Shellter!”
A sphere of green hexagons surrounded the group, which was left safe as the monument fell to pieces around and above them, while the Akuma was not so lucky and got trapped.
The moment the Shellter was brought down, Chat Noir – just running out of time with his Cataclysm – and Marigold split off, while Koki Marina checked on Nino.
“You okay?” she asked.
“Y-Yeah,” he answered.
“Glad to hear it, handsome,” she said, grinning, in a flirty tone.
“Oh! Uh –” Nino floundered, while behind them Marigold had grabbed Chat Noir and got ready to throw him as if she were throwing a javelin.
“Ultimate Chat Noir Technique! Aim for the helmet!” the Cat Hero said, and Marigold shot him at the Akuma, finally destroying the object and freeing the corrupting butterfly.
“I, like, have a girlfriend?” Nino continued, flushing, and scratching the back of his head. “I mean, I'm flattered! But she's kind of the most amazing person ever, so–”
Koki Marina smiled, holding onto the instinct to laugh or thank Nino for his kind words towards her civilian self, and nodded.
“M-hm.”
Then Nino pulled out his cellphone.
“Do you mind being recorded for the Ladyblog?”
“Ooo, can I?!” Koki Marina asked Marigold, who just huffed in amusement.
“Keep it brief.”
While Nino filmed the new heroine, another person approached the group.
“Hellooo, the real hero is over here!” Scarlet Lady yelled, pointing at herself.
“I don't remember you trying to save me,” Nino deadpanned, wisely choosing to ignore her.
Paris' real heroes watched in happiness and a bit of amusement.
“Good pick, Goldie,” Chat Noir encouraged.
“I only surround myself with the best.” Then she felt a bit awkward. “Now I just gotta stop her from spilling all the Turtle's secrets.”
“See, it detaches!” Koki Marina said, posing for Nino's video. “I can put it on my arm and back!”
----
Finally pulling Koki Marina away – which was easy, as her bracelet was beeping – Marigold took her to an alley and had the girl return to her civilian form, ready to recover the Miraculous.
“Aww, you're taking my baby?” Alya pouted, holding Wayzz protectively in her hands.
“Don't make me regret you,” Marigold countered, and Alya let go with a sigh.
“Ah, just kidding. Part of me wants to make a fuss but I don't want to be as untrustworthy as Scarlet Lady.” She shook her head. “My poor blog needs a total rehaul.”
“Alya, your blog is a huge source of information,” Wayzz wisely pointed out. “I'm sure you could use that information for something good!”
Alya gasped.
“Like finding Hawkmoth!” she said, grabbing Wayzz again and rubbing her cheek against his. “Wayzz, you genius! Are you sure I can't keep you?!”
“No! Stop bonding RIGHT NOW!”
----
With everything back to normal, Marinette and Adrien managed to return from their hero selves and tracked down their friends, who were now being chaperoned by Nora.
“Hey! Is everyone okay?” Marinette asked.
“Woe is me!” Nino dramatically replied. “After all the power of friendship talk, only Alya came to save me!”
“Aw, geez,” Adrien complained.
“Relax, I'm just messing with you,” Nino said with a wink as he pulled his cellphone. “Alya, check this out, there was a new hero and I got footage for you–”
“Oh Nino that's soooo SWEET!” Alya shouted, jumping into her boyfriend's embrace and starting to kiss him.
“MMPH!” Nino said, not knowing whether to pull her closer or push her away, because... “A-Alya, Nora's watching, like, really watching!”
Given the 'overprotective sibling' glare he was getting targeted with, he had a reason to be wary.
As soon as Alya let her boyfriend go, Nora turned bashful for a moment.
“Hey, uh, sorry for losing my cool over the match,” she apologized. “I mean, even superheroes don't work alone! Why should you have to?”
Marinette and Adrien shared a look, and the teens let the fighter bring them into a hug.
“Hey, no big deal, right Anansi?” Adrien said.
“Hey, let's invite Nora to ice skate with us!” Nino suggested, and Alya nodded.
“Yeah I can't remember the last time we hung out!”
Nora pulled them closer.
“I'm gonna skate circles around you,” she said.
The teens wondered if they were going to have to deal with the same thing again.
“It's not a competition,” Nino pointed out.
----
After some time skating, everyone went back to their homes, and Alya checked her phone for the video Nino had made of her heroine self.
“Thanks so much for the footage, mon cœur!” she told Nino. “I've got a few things to finish up, try not to stay up too late! Night.”
And she hung up her phone.
Her two projects were on her table.
The first, a list of all the Akuma fights that had taken place since Stoneheart, and what Scarlet Lady had been actually seen doing during them.
The green, for the times she had actually helped, were a minority.
Most of them were purple, after what she presumed was Hawkmoth's color.
Every time she was heard insulting someone (usually Chat Noir or Marigold), it was blue.
Yellow was reserved for whenever someone new did more work than Scarlet Lady.
If she was late (which was quite common), the orange sticker let her find it.
And, finally, in deep red, the times where Scarlet Lady hadn't even bothered to show up.
The second project was a map.
She pulled a string and pinpointed the place and time where the latest Akuma had happened.
“Alright,” she said, tying the string to the tack on her home. “Where are you, motherfucker...”
She had not done much as of yet... but from now on, the hunt for Hawkmoth was ON.
----
Troublemaker
@zoe-oneesama Heyy, hope you like this!
Also, it's finally holiday time for me!
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrien agreste#chat noir#anansi#alya cesaire#koki marina
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Scarlet Lady: Dark Cupid
Directory | Syren
Adrien had always wanted to come to school.
He had never thought it would involve anything like what Mme. Bustier was 'teaching' them now.
“In most fairy tales, the prince breaks the spell by kissing the princess. Can anyone tell me why?” the teacher said, as he finished writing his first love letter.
Alright, he understood that she thought it was thematically appropiate, but... really?
“Oh, ooh!” Rose said, jumping from her seat. “Because only love can conquer hate!”
“Exactly,” Mme. Bustier said, proudly smiling at Rose.
“Yet only approximately 32% of those kisses were consensual.”
Max's stony declaration – along with his stony expression – fell on the cheerful ambiance like... a stone.
At least, that's what Adrien thought, particularly considering that the teacher's smile had turned very awkward from one moment to another.
“OKAY!” Mme. Bustier said, clearly trying to change the subject. “Happy Valentine's Day!”
Yeah, awkward.
----
With the day finished, Kagami was putting her things back into her backpack, when Ondine came up to her.
“Kagami, is Valentine's Day different in Japan?”
“A bit, though I've never participated before,” she replied. She remembered how the girls would hand chocolate to the boys they liked (or not – that was what 'obligation chocolate' was for, apparently) and the boys would then give back white chocolate a month later. But, with her mother's... presence metaphorically behind her, she had never tried. “Do you have plans, Ondine?”
Ondine smiled, blushing.
“Well, I'm really hoping Kim asks me to be his girlfriend! I'm the one who confessed, so it's his turn to make a move!”
Kagami nodded, smiling.
I'm proud of Ondine for striking first.
“Oh! Can I call you later and tell you how it goes?” Ondine asked, pulling out her phone.
“Sure,” she replied, doing the same.
She would do the best to help her one friend in the school happy.
And she also made plans for the future.
If he hurts her, I'll maim him, she decided.
----
The bell rang, and everyone began to pack their things. Some of them had plans for the day, after all, and others just wanted to finally be free for the day.
“You ready, dude?” Nino asked.
“Y-Yeah, hold on,” he replied, still writing. He would have finished earlier, but it was hard to hide it all with all the classes they had had!
“Adridarling~”
Suddenly, a claw hand snatched the letter he had been writing.
“Whatcha working on? A love letter for moi?”
“HEY! Give that back!” he yelled, trying to reach out before she could read it.
If she read that out loud, it would mess up his plans completely!
Fortunately, she did not read it out loud, but she still read it. Then she looked at him, confused.
“Adrien, you got my description wrong. I have cornflower eyes and golden hair.”
What the hell? Why did she think this would be for her?
“The description is correct. You're the one that's wrong.”
She began to wave the letter in the air.
“Tell me right now who this is for if not me!”
“Ah! Um!”
He couldn't answer that! Marinette was right there!
He had to come up with something, quick!
Who did he know that looked like Marinette?
Think, think, think –
“IT'S FOR MARIGOLD!”
“WHAT?!” Alya and Chloé yelled simultaneously.
“Really?” Nino asked, surprised.
“Huh?!”
Alya looked at her friend, who was blushing so much.
“Why are you embarrassed?”
Alya approached Nino, who began to blush.
“How did you not know who your own best friend is crushing on?” she asked, curious.
“I-I don't know! We don't talk about that stuff!”
“How?!”
“Look, dude, it isn't like it's my business who my bro likes!”
----
“Stupid Foolsgold–Bumbling Bee–Marimold! I'll make myself Adrien's Valentine!”
Tikki sighed.
“Chloé, please, this is pathetic.”
“SHUT UP.”
What had she done to deserve... this?
----
Marinette had managed to extricate herself from Alya's grip to get some time alone in the bathroom... so she could come to terms with what Adrien had just said.
“I never thought Adrien would get a crush on Marigold!” she thought, her cheeks still burning.
“You left quite the impression, My Queen!” Pollen cheered, as she bashfully looked away, her fingertips touching each other.
“It is pretty flattering, someone as nice as Adrien liking me. Or a version of me.”
“Flattering!”
“And brave! If he put his feelings out there, I have to answer properly!”
“So brave!”
She had to see if she could visit him as Marigold!
----
Outside the bathroom, all Alya could hear was Marinette apparently talking to herself.
“You sure have strange ways of dealing with bad news, girl,” she commented, even though she knew Marinette couldn't hear her.
----
“'In love with Marigold?' First I've heard, lover boy!” Plagg mockingly exclaimed, and Adrien gave him an exasperated look.
“You know the plan was to give Marinette the poem as Chat Noir. I panicked!”
“Ooo, romantic.”
He stood from his chair and went to the window, almost slamming his face on it.
“Now everyone thinks I love Marigold. Even Marinette! But I suppose it could be worse.”
He sighed.
“I could've said Scarlet Lady.”
“HA!”
----
“Operation: Valentine's Day commencing. After much online research, I've concluded this jewel to be the most popular,” Max declared, handing a heart-shaped box to Kim.
“Awesome, Max!” Kim replied, thankful for his best friend's aid.
Almost as if smelling prey, Alya and Marinette showed up, flanking Kim as he admired the jewel Max had found.
“Oo, shiny! Is it for moi?” Alya joked, causing Kim to flush as he realized the girls had just caught him in the middle of planning.
“Negative, Alya, the recipient is–”
Kim quickly jumped to cover Max's mouth.
“Shh, Max! It's supposed to be a secret!” he said, embarrassed.
“It's Ondine, right?” Alya said, smiling, while Marinette gave him a glare.
“It better be Ondine.”
Kim began to sweat.
“How'd you know...?”
“You know how she feels! Go for it!” Marinette encouraged him giving him a thumbs up, along with Alya and Max.
“She'll love it!” Alya said. So encouraged, Kim began to run for the place where he had agreed to meet Ondine, while waving goodbye at his friends.
“Thanks, guys!” he shouted, quickly turning around a corner, and Alya turned to Max with a smirk.
“I'm surprised to see you playing Cupid, Max,” she noted: given his usual approach to romance, it was a tad curious.
“Oh, not at all,” Max replied. “Ondine is a commendable character and Kim is happy.”
He adjusted his glasses.
“As long as they keep the PDA to a minimum, I am content.”
Alya tried to reply, but then she thought it over and realized she was pretty much on the same horse.
“Fair.”
----
She may have been the unofficial Adrien Fanclub president, but she thought that the other girls were taking this love for Adrien a bit too far.
Mireille was hugging the advert column where his latest ad was now hanging, and Jeanne was actually praying to it!
“Mireille, this is excessive,” she noted.
“Shh, Aurore,” Mireille replied, somehow basking on the feeling of the Adrien in the poster even though it was attached to a cold metal column.
“Ha! Dream on, girls!”
Sighing at what was likely to be another annoyance, Aurore and her fellow fans turned to see Chloé Bourgeois holding the same poster as in the advert column, but smaller, and with something handwritten on the corner.
“Adrien is already mine,” she crowed, but Aurore could easily see how false it was. Even a five-year-old child would have been able to make a better fake of Adrien Agreste's signature.
“Hey, that's not Adrien's signature!” Suhayla exclaimed, handily making it unnecessary for her to point out the same.
Not that she'd save Bourgeois a few stabs.
“We're his fanclub, who're you trying to fool?” she asked her, and she was rewarded by the other girl's embarrassed face as she realized her bluff had been called.
“Lying about that, that's so pathetic!” Vivienne shouted at Bourgeois, who hugged her fake autographed poster as if it were worth anything (outside of Adrien's face, that is).
“HOW DARE YOU!”
Heh, truth clearly hurt her.
By the time they were done, Bourgeois would be unable to claim the same thing again.
----
Marinette heard the running up the stairs to her room, and turned to see Alya holding a giant heart-shaped card as if it were some kind of treasure.
“Marinette~ look!”
“What's that for?” she asked, legitimately curious.
“Don't give up so easily! You gotta tell him how you feel!” Alya said.
“Thanks, Alya, but I couldn't begin to figure out how to give it to him,” she replied. Granted, if there was an akuma around, he would show up and fight, but she had promised not to appear in Akuma fights (that was what Marigold was for).
Maybe he would appear at her rooftop tonight...
“Why would that be hard?” Alya asked, shaking her off her daydream. “We know where he lives.”
She blinked.
It looked like they weren't on the same level.
“Who are you talking about?” she asked.
“Who are you talking about?” Alya asked.
Alya decided to pull her out as Marinette explained her love for Paris' best hero, and it was like something switched in her best friend.
“Chat Noir?! That's who you're into?!”
“Is that weird?” she asked.
“Oly if you were literally anyone else!” Alya replied, pulling from her arm and starting to run. “C'mon, let's track him down!”
“WHOA!”
----
Kim was waiting at the Pont des Arts, present in hand, ready for the most important moment of his life. It had taken him long – perhaps too much – in realizing that Ondine liked him, and also that he liked her back.
Then again, he had to admit he was kinda dense.
But, well, Max had come through and (as with many other things) had helped him find the way to finally ask Ondine if she wanted to be his girlfriend!
(He'd have to find a way to pay him back for all the stuff he had helped him with)
He could already imagine her face, smiling and shining as she said yes. Perhaps she might even want to give him a kiss!
“That's right, framed with 24-carat gold. Deliver it to Le Grand Paris.”
When he heard that voice, he felt his blood freezing up in his veins.
“Oh, no. Chloé.”
If she realized he was here, he just knew she was going to ruin everything.
He tried to will himself to become transparent. Invisible. Non-existant. Anything, as long as Chloé Bourgeois didn't notice he was there!
It shouldn't be that hard – it wasn't as if she cared about him on a good day!
“Bill it to Daddykins – uh, Mayor Bourgeois.” Then Chloé looked at him. “Huh? What are you doing here? Hm?”
“Uh, this is a public bridge,” he pointed out, as he tried to think of something to get rid of her before Ondine appeared.
“Oh, wow, you're really trying this with me, Kim?”
“Huh?!”
He definitely didn't understand what Chloé was about now, and definitely didn't like Chloé's face.
He was not religious at all, but suddenly something he knew was from the Bible sprung up in his mind.
My Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?
Chloé then walked up to him, and he tried to stay away, but she just wouldn't stop!
“Sorry, Kim, but my heart belongs to someone way more interesting than you!”
Kim briefly wondered what was going through Chloé's mind to make her think his present was for her.
Then again, that was the usual for Chloé.
“What are you –?!”
“Kim?”
He felt his blood freeze again.
Oh. No. No. No. No. NONONONONONONONONONONONO!
Not now!
“Ondine!” he shouted, turning to the girl. “It's not what it sounds like!”
“Who? Oh, right.” And because Chloé was what she was, she proceeded to make a mess of everything. AGAIN. “Do you mind, Hulk girl? I'm trying to turn down this loser, go away!”
The sight of Ondine's tears pooling around her eyes was like an arrow through his heart, and not the funny cute ones. No, it was the pain of knowing he had (accidentally) caused the girl pain that was coursing through him.
“SORRY TO HAVE BOTHERED YOU!” Ondine yelled, turning around and running away, and Kim felt his heart breaking in pieces.
“ONDINE, WAIT!” he shouted, but he was too late, and all he could do was watch as the girl he liked ran away in tears.
“Ha ha! Don't you hate how harsh love can be?” Chloé said, but he ignored her, kneeling on the ground, not even paying attention as the waste of air that had just ruined his life left.
Not even paying attention to the black butterfly landing on the brooch he had wanted to give to Ondine as a sign of his feelings.
Not even paying attention as a bow appeared on his hand, and wings on his back.
Not even paying attention as he was called Dark Cupid.
But then... he paid attention.
“No love affair or friendship will escape my fury! No one will ever love again!” he shouted, lifting off and flying away.
If he couldn't be with the girl he loved... then no one would be with the ones they loved.
And his arrows met their targets.
“Get off me!”
“Ah!”
“I hate you!”
----
Juleka and Rose had decided to take a walk for their Valentine's date. It was the usual for them: low key, nice, no need for anything grand. Maybe they could duck into a cafe later and enjoy a bit of privacy?
But then, Rose shouted.
“AH!”
“ROSE!” Juleka shouted, briefly seeing a large arrow sticking out of her girlfriend's back before it disappeared.
“Get off of me!” Rose screamed shoving her off, much to her shock.
“What?!” She couldn't understand what was going on. What would make her sweet Rose act like that?
“I hate how tall and gorgeous you are! Makes me sick!” Rose angrily shouted.
Juleka wasn't certain of how to feel.
“Am I supposed to be insulted?” she asked.
This looked like another Akuma in the making. Hopefully, the heroes would fix this.
She wanted her sweet, gentle Rose back!
----
Both girls were tired, and had decided to buy large candy hearts so they could eat them while sitting at the first bench they could find.
“So, tracking down Chat Noir is harder than I thought,” Alya noted, licking her candy heart.
“No kidding,” she replied, doing the same with her own candy. Alya then saw something on the sky.
“Hey, what's that?”
Suddenly, a winged figure with a bow in hand flew in front of them.
“Every heart must be broken!” the obvious Akuma shouted, firing an arrow at Alya.
“AH!”
“ALYA!”
Before she could further react, Alya – whose lips were now black, somehow – turned around and slapped the sticky candy heart on her chest.
“Ha! Like Chat Noir would even want a Valentine from a nobody like you!” Alya said, running away while giving out an evil laugh. Marinette looked down at the candy before turning to her fleeing friend.
“I'll ignore that because you look good in black lipstick!” she shouted at the retreating form, before ducking away.
What the hell had happened with Kim, anyway?
----
“I said 24-carat, not 18-carat! That won't match my 24-carat bathtub!” Chloé yelled into her cellphone. “You bunch of nimrods!”
Unseen by her, Dark Cupid readied one of his arrows, prepared to finally ruin the one that had ruined his attempt to confess.
But, as he was aiming, something hit him in the face, making his shot go wide.
“Ah!”
“Stop it, Kim!”
“Marigold!” He could recognize that spinning top anywhere – and then both heroes stepped in between him and his target. “And Chat Noir! Don't get in my way!”
“Then maybe don't be so loud and obvious,” Chat Noir replied, before both heroes turned to see something else.
“Ew, what is that?” Chat Noir wondered.
That happened to be a copy of the latest Gabriel Agreste perfume ad, showing Adrien in front of the Eiffel Tower. For some reason, the lower part had been ripped out.
And, worst of all, it was framed in gold.
“Scary,” Marigold said, pondering how bad Chloé's stalkering was that she would do this.
“Mind your own business!” the aforementioned stalker yelled.
“I am Dark Cupid!” the Akumatized Kim said, aiming with another of his rose-shaped arrows at the group. “If I can't have love, no one can!”
Chat Noir quickly began to twirl his baton, preventing Dark Cupid from having a clean shot on Chloé, while Marigold began to push the girl to safety.
“Chloé, get inside!” she urged, but Chloé didn't seem to be worried.
“Why? There's no reason for Kim to have something against me,” she replied.
Marigold was dumbfounded... that Chloé actually thought that.
“What.”
“Oh, wait! It's my signed Adrien poster he's jealous of! Go protect it!” Chloé said.
And she shoved her.
Away from Chat Noir's protective shield.
“What–”
And the arrow struck.
“AH--!”
“Marigold!” Chat Noir yelled. He wasn't certain of the effect the arrow would have... but he was certain it wouldn't be good. “Goldie–?”
“SHUT UP!” Marigold suddenly shouted, glaring at him. “I hate that disgusting nickname almost as much as I hate you! You and that blonde pest, I hate with all my heart!”
“HEY!” Chloé complained.
Nobody cared.
Without warning, Marigold threw her spinning top at Chat Noir.
“How do you like that!”
Barely able to dodge it, Chat Noir saw as his partner's weapon instead shattered the glass and tore apart the poster bearing his civilian self's resemblance.
“No! My poster!”
Chat Noir smiled. Alright, this Akuma had done something good, after all.
“I like that very much, thanks!” he replied.
“$@#€!” Marigold didn't seem to agree with his opinion, though.
“My posterrrrr...” Chloé cried out, but, to be honest, Chat Noir didn't give a damn about the thing.
“Run, Chloé!” he ordered, and finally the girl understood the stakes and ran away.
“EEEK!”
While shouting, that is.
With the civilian out of the way, Chat Noir turned to his partner, who was twirling her spinning top around and glaring at him.
“Square up, Chat Noir,” she declared.
“I don't want to fight you, Marigold!” he replied. He couldn't hurt his partner! Her grimace of anger was not very favoring.
“Ugh, your kindness and friendliness is insufferable,” the corrupted heroine declared.
Chat Noir wasn't certain what to make of it.
“Wow, you're really bad at being mean. Thank you?” he answered, sheepishly hoping it would–
“SHUT UP!”
Alright, it wouldn't.
----
In her blind rush to get away from Kim – who seemed to be really jealous of her, for some reason – Chloé didn't see the stand with several flower pots and tripped on it, sending the plants arse over teakettle and covering her with dirt.
“OW! Ughhh...” she complained, trying to stand up again while shaking off the pain and disorientation.
“Whoa. Now that's a look!”
“Wait until Alix sees this!”
“Hey!” she shouted, getting back to her knees and seeing Liar Rossi and Sabrina taking photos of her.
“Have you been hit by the Akuma?! How dare you take my picture!”
“What Akuma?” both girls asked, while Kim just laughed at her misery.
“HA!”
----
Marigold may have been doing this for a much shorter time than him... but she was still a very good fighter, as evidenced by the fact that he had his hands full trying to deflect her spinning top with his baton.
“How can I overcome all this hate inside you?” he asked. Maybe she would slip and say something that would let him get his partner back!
“You can't! Hate conquers all!” she replied.
The prince breaks the spell by kissing the princess.
Because only love can conquer hate!
That was from class that morning.
Oh, goodness, maybe that was worth the attempt.
“I never imagined my first kiss would be like this.”
He wanted to give that to Marinette, after all.
“What are you on about, you creep?!”
Whoops. He had said that out loud. And now Marigold knew what he intended to do.
Welp. If it had to be this way...
He quickly jumped at Marigold, who began to run away.
“Come take your medicine!” he shouted, even though he knew it wasn't going to work.
“Get back you freak!” Marigold shouted at him. Still, he gave pursuit, knowing it was his only hope of stopping this Akuma.
Instinct made him stop right on his track, which proved wise as one of Dark Cupid's arrows landed at his feet.
“AH!”
By the time he was able to recover position, Marigold was half-hiding behind Dark Cupid's form, sticking her tongue at him.
“How're you gonna fight both of us now?” the Akuma taunted him, but he wasn't deterred.
“Ha! I can take you!”
“I've arrived, sidekick!”
He sighed. Just when he thought things could go nice for once...
“Well, there goes my odds,” he complained.
Scar summoned Lucky Charm (a candy heart this time) while he kept his baton in front, deflecting the arrows Dark Cupid was firing.
“Got a plan, Scar?” he asked, even though he knew asking was futile.
“I'll deal with the birdbrain, you focus on Stinkbug!” she shouted, jumping into the air.
“And what do you think you can do with a candy heart?” Dark Cupid mockingly called out as he prepared another arrow.
“THIS, @#$% FACE!” Scar shouted, throwing the candy... which, on impact, exploded, covering Dark Cupid in a sticky mess.
“Ew, what the hell?!”
“THAT'S WHAT YOU GET!” Scar yelled, and he cast a brief glance at her.
“You're sure fired up,” he commented, deflecting one of Marigold's attacks while surprised that Scar could actually be competent. Then he couldn't do much more, as Marigold redoubled her attacks, forcing him to stay concentrated in the fight.
“You would not believe my day! I got snubbed for Mari-mold of all people, my Valentine was laughed at and then ruined, and I was chased into a flower stand and destroyed my hair!” he heard Scar complain, but he paid no mind – particularly when Marigold had just summoned Venom and was threatening to use it on him.
“Scar, I'm glad you're actually pulling your weight for once, but now is not the time!” he shouted, but that momentary distraction was more than enough to allow Marigold to trip him, leaving him at her mercy.
“Marigold! His Miraculous!” Dark Cupid ordered, even tangled up as he was in candy.
“Ready to lose your fur, Minou?” Marigold asked, smirking, as she prepared to sting him.
“Geez, can't you handle anything on your own?!” Scar shouted, and before his eyes the yo-yo got tied up around Marigold's arm.
“Ugh!” Marigold complained... but this was the moment.
Carefully putting his hands around her face, he brought her down...
And their lips connected.
It felt... it actually felt quite nice. Tingly. Her lips were so soft, and he could even get a hint of something sweet on her.
It may not have been Marinette – but it sure was a close second to what he thought it would be if he ever got to kiss her.
He was so into kissing Marigold, that he forgot where he was.
“Do we need to come back at another time?”
“AH! WHAT–?” Marigold asked, clearly confused and shocked at where she was.
Time to finish this!
----
Marigold was utterly confused. She had been in Chloé's room, and Chloé had pushed her away from her, and then something had hit her – and now she was outside the hotel, with Scarlet's yo-yo around her arm, and herself pinning Chat Noir against the ground for some reason.
Before she could react, Chat Noir stood up and grabbed her by the waist.
“Sorry, Ma Belle, it's time to fly!” he announced.
“Wuh?”
Before she could ask anything else, Chat Noir threw her at Dark Cupid, and she instinctively put her hands ahead, accidentally hitting the Akuma with Venom – and how had that come out at all? – and paralyzing him.
“Wha-oh!”
“The brooch, wanna-bee!” Scarlet yelled. She briefly recognized it from the box Kim had shown her and Alya earlier, so she grabbed it, and Kim soon recovered his form.
“Good job, Goldie!” Chat Noir cheered.
“Yaaaay?” she tried to cheer, but failed.
Mostly because no one would even tell her what had just happened.
----
Kim shook himself awake, and realized he was no longer in the Pont des Arts. And also surrounded by ladybugs.
“How did I–” he began to ask, before he was interrupted.
“Get here? By being the worst at handling rejection from a pretty girl, that's how!” Scarlet Lady shouted, stoking his anger as he stood up and towered over her.
“Who, Chloé?” he asked in disgust. “I wasn't even trying to as her out in the first place!”
He covered his face in anguish.
“But thanks to her, I'll be lucky if Ondine even talks to me, let alone agrees to be my girlfriend!”
He ignored Scarlet Lady's disgusted answer – which sounded so much like Chloé's would be – as he tried not to weep –
“Uh, Kim?”
That voice.
He turned around, and he saw –
“Ondine! What are you doing here?!” he asked, both worried and relieved to see her again.
“I, uh, saw the flying birdman with a faux hawk,” she replied, blushing. “Thought that might be you.”
He walked up to her. Maybe he still had a chance to fix this!
“Ondine, please, let me explain!”
“It's okay, I heard everything,” she softly replied, and he felt his heart soar as he saw her smiling. “So, if it's not too late, can I be your Valentine?”
“Valentine, girlfriend,” he replied, hugging her closer, “whichever means I get to kiss you!”
“Ha ha!” Ondine laughed, and she kissed him.
And he swore it was even better than he had thought it could be.
----
Chat Noir coughed awkwardly at seeing Kim and Ondine kissing each other for the first time. He was glad for his classmate and his now-girlfriend for getting a chance to finally do this... but maybe they could give them some privacy?
Marigold, who was clearly happy at seeing the new couple sealing the deal, turned to him with a questioning look – and the first beeps sounding out from her haircomb.
“Chat Noir, what happened? I remember being at the hotel–”
No. No. No. He really didn't want to discuss this here and now.
“Oh no, you're about to change back, better get going!” he said, 'subtly' pushing her away so he could avoid what was bound to be a really awkward conversation.
“HA! What happened is that back alley stray put her lips all over--”
“GOTTA GET OUTTA HERE BEFORE YOU TURN INTO A PUMPKIN!” he quickly talked over Scar before she could ruin things. The fact that she was beeping just made the excuse more believable.
“RUDE!” Scar complained, even as she obeyed and found a safe place to transform back.
----
Adrien stumbled into his room after taking a long shower in a failed attempt to wash off his embarrassment of what he had had to do to save the day.
“I'm so glad this day is over,” he said, walking over to the bed.
“Ah, not gonna spend Valentine's with your sweetheart?” Plagg asked in what he knew was a mocking tone. “Wait, who was that again? Pigtails or Goldilocks?”
“Ha, ha,” he sarcastically laughed before dropping on his bed. “Hopefully that's all the Akumas for a while. I don't think I can look Marigold in the eyes.”
Someone tapped on the window.
“Adrien,” Marigold said.
“AHHH!”
Damn, did he have some summoning power or what?!
Either way, he went on to quickly open the door. Marigold was not Scar, she deserved far better!
“Marigold! W-What brings you here?!”
“Well, I-I heard a rumor,” she said, bashfully. “About writing me a Valentine? That I definitely didn't hear at your school!”
He ignored the last part of the suggestion. It wasn't important, anyway.
“Oh! Um! Well!” he said, trying to come up with anything that wouldn't betray the truth. “I just, uh, wanted to show my appreciation! But, um, just as a hero of Paris, not because I have a crush on you!”
“Oh, that's a relief!” Marigold said with a sigh.
A relief?!
Hey, he didn't want to break Marigold's heart, but why was it a relief? Was he that horrible?
The truth hurt.
Unaware of the mental damage she had just caused, Marigold explained.
“The whole reason I became a hero was to protect my city and make things easier for Chat Noir. So to have your support, even after you saw me at my newest and clumsiest, makes me very happy.”
“Oh,” he replied, feeling his cheeks blush.
“Oh, um, and there's actually someone I'm in love with, so I'm glad I don't have to let you down or anything.”
“Huh, me too,” he admitted.
“Hm.”
Wonder who it is, he asked himself. Whoever Marigold loved had to be a swell guy.
----
Wonder who it is, she asked herself. Whoever Adrien loved had to be a sweet girl.
----
Up above, a narratorial face just covered itself with a palm.
Idiots, it christened them.
----
“Thanks for being my first fan, Adrien,” she finally said, and gave him a sweet kiss to the cheek.
“Ah,” he said, surprised.
“Happy Valentine's Day!” Marigold cheered, and Adrien watched her jump off his window and into the February night, his heart beating as his palm covered the place where the heroine had just kissed him.
Then he realized what he was doing and hit himself on the chest.
“No 'doki doki'! You're in love with Marinette!” he admonished his own heart.
----
“Kim asked me to be his girlfriend!”
“Wonderful. How did that happen?”
“Not well at first, I thought he was actually asking Chloé, but it turned out to be a mistake, because he wanted to ask me and I just didn't realize it before I left. He even got Akumatized because of it, and when I found him he told me everything and he even kissed me!”
“Good. Now I won't have to maim him.”
“You what?”
----
“SHE SAID YES! SHE SAID YES!”
“I know, Kim, you have been shouting that for the past hour. But I am still happy for you.”
“Thank you, Max, you're the best friend I could have!”
“You can pay me back by not engaging into overt public displays of affection while I'm nearby.”
“Huh? Oh, fine, I won't. What does 'overt' mean, anyway?”
----
Intermission
@zoe-oneesama Think Hawkmoth will get his heart literally broken?
@msweebyness Hope you liked the second of your favorite duo's chapters!
Alright, that's the Kim/Ondine part done. I hope it fit your expectations!
About Kagami's mention of Valentine's Day in Japan, it's pretty much spot on - girls give chocolate to their male friends and the guys they like, with the former usually getting "obligation chocolate", and a month later, during White Day, guys will give the girls white chocolate in response.
Curiously, the real "couples' day" in Japan is Christmas instead of Valentine's Day.
Now, we cruise into a mostly calm episode in Intermission, before coming back to action with Animan!
#scarlet lady the novel#milarqui#fanfiction#long post#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrien agreste#chat noir#le chien kim#ondine#dark cupid#scarlet lady is better than canon
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Scarlet Lady: Evillustrator
Directory - Kung Food
Marinette was surrounded by Stormy Weather and Lady Wifi! She looked around, but she couldn't find any way out!
“HELP!” she shouted.
“AHAHAHA!” both Akumas evilly laughed. No help would come to their future victim this time!
“HA!” a young man, wearing a striped shirt, thin pants, and a domino mask, laughed, landing next to the group.
“Super Nathan?!”
“Oh no!” the Akumas shouted, knowing that their defeat was now at hand.
And, indeed, as soon as Marinette managed to get away, Super Nathan encased the Akumas in an indestructible barrier, preventing them from doing more evil!
“NO!”
“Oh, Super Nathan!” a smiling Marinette said, rushing to hug her hero. “I love you!”
“Oh, it was nothing,” Super Nathan said, returning the hug of his beloved Marinette.
“You're amazing and totally write me in character!”
“Drawing in my class again?”
Nathaniel was suddenly pulled out of his daydream, as Mlle. Mendeleiev grabbed his notebook and shoot it up.
“Go show the principal your scribbles and see how he likes it!”
“S-Sorry,” he meekly apologized. Grabbing the notebook back, he morosely began to walk towards the door – but he was so deep in his own mind that he didn't see where he was stepping, and tripped over Mylène's bag.
“AH!” he shouted, as the contents of his bag began to spill – and his notebook flew away, only to get snatched by Chloé.
“Ooo, look Sabrina! He drew himself!” Chloé said in a mocking tone, loud enough to be heard everywhere in the classroom. “As a superhero, saving Marinette! He's totally crushing on her!”
“These are really good,” Sabrina noted, much to Chloé's confusion.
“What's with that reaction?” I'm trying to dish out some sick burns, and you just compliment this rubbish?
“GIVE THAT BACK!” Nathaniel shouted, and grabbed the notebook – but Chloé, either because she didn't have the time to move or out of pettiness, kept holding onto the last page he had drawn, and it got ripped.
Nathaniel's face when he saw Chloé had just ripped his drawing was very much out of place when it showed up.
“That's enough, Nathaniel, OUT!” Mlle. Mendeleiev ordered.
“Ooo, girl, you've got an admirer!” Alya said, while Marinette bashfully looked around.
“I–I guess! He didn't deserve to be outed like that, though,” Marinette replied.
Nino then began to hear the sound of something cracking just next to him, and looked down to see that Adrien had snapped his tablet pen, while he looked with way too much interest at Nathaniel. He thought he could actually see the daggers flying out of his friend's eyes.
I know you like Marinette, dude, but this much?
----
“Hm, isn't it rather early for this?”
“What?”
“Nothing, nothing,” he said, trying to dismiss the young boy's curiosity. He had just never thought about someone getting Akumatized this early in the day. “Oh, a Chloé Bourgeois grudge! Those are fun!
----
Class was about to be done, and honestly most of the class was eager for it. Mlle. Mendeleiev might know a lot of sciences, but she was a slavedriver when in the lab.
“Now, I'll be assigning groups for your physics reports,” she declared, just a few minutes before the end.
Everyone groaned. The reports for this class were always hard to deal with, because the teacher was very much willing to dock you points for minor details.
“Adrien, Nino, and Alya,” the teacher said, and the boys turned to each other, giving a fistbump.
“Awesome!” Adrien said.
“Lucky!” Nino replied.
“Ehh.” Alya was not so convinced about it.
“Sabrina, Chloé, and Marinette.”
Marinette promptly slammed her face on the table.
“Unlucky...”
This, she knew, was going to be a nightmare and a half.
----
The last class of the day, P.E., was done, and now Sabrina found herself in an issue.
“Forget it, Sabrina! I don't have time for some stupid report! I'm busy!”
Because Chloé, once more, was unwilling to do one iota of her share. Normally, she wouldn't have minded... but as of late she had realized that she shouldn't have to bow to Chloé's whims. Doing that for years had never been worth anything.
“That's what you always say!”
And perhaps it was time for a change.
“What's going on?” Marinette asked, approaching.
“None of your business!” Chloé yelled. Marinette just glared at her before turning to Sabrina.
“Chloé's trying to dump all the work on me again!”
“That's how it's always been!” Chloé yelled, and Sabrina also glared at her.
“Well, what's so important you can't help us?” Marinette asked, feeling at the edge of her patience.
“Like I said, none of your business, busybody!”
----
It wasn't as if they could understand the importance of her work, after all!
Storing all the pics people made of her as Paris' beloved heroine took hours!
----
“Don't forget, Sabrina!” Chloé continued, ignoring Marinette. “Not only am I your best friend, I'm your only friend!”
“That's not true!” Sabrina fired back. “Plenty of people have been there for me when you abandon me or exclude me or hit me! I do have friends!”
Nino and Rose, who had helped her back when Chloé struck her with her tablet.
Alix, who had defended her and got her to join the class during the photo.
Hell, Marinette herself, the one she had helped Chloé victimize, was more of a friend than Chloé!
“This class is kinder and more forgiving than you give them credit for, and I'm done letting you bad talk them!”
Sabrina attempted to tackle Chloé in a fit of rage, but Marinette quickly grabbed her by the underarms and pulled her away from a sweating Chloé.
“Oh-kay, we're gonna go calm down. Chloé, if you want your name on this project, meet us in the library in 5,” Marinette ordered.
----
Needless to say, with Chloé being involved, things didn't begin with a good start.
“Look, Sabrina! I bought a totally stylish Gabriel beret that I promise to lend you if you do my report.”
It was only a couple of minutes in, and Chloé had already missed the point of their previous discussion.
Sabrina, however, had not.
“You never keep your promises,” she accused, causing Chloé to face fault.
“Oh, c'mon!” she complained.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, a giant hairdryer popped into existence, aiming at Chloé's head.
“What the f–” Chloé began, but then she realized that the hairdryer was somehow starting to blow hot air. So she turned and began to run, holding her hair in place, while the oversized device flew behind her. “Aahhhh! NO! MERCY! NOT MY HAIR!”
“HA!” Sabrina laughed. Schadenfraude was strong in her today.
Marinette ducked down and pulled Sabrina with her.
“Um so, wanna finish at my house?” Marinette asked.
“U-huh,” Sabrina agreed. Better not to get involved in whatever Chloé did to be attacked by an Akuma...
----
After hearing the other students about the giant hairdryer following Chloé, Adrien had transformed into Chat Noir as soon as he managed to sneak away. He could actually bet on who had been Akumatized this time, and, as jealous as he felt, he knew Nathaniel had good reasons to target Chloé.
“Things are getting pretty hairy!” he angrily shouted as he jumped at the giant hairdryer.
“Ugh, stop!” Chloé complained. Just like Scar, she didn't have a taste for good puns.
A strong hit with his baton, and the hairdryer peril was no more. Turning around, Chat Noir saw the Akumatized Nathaniel on the library's second floor, looking from behind the banister.
“Hey, you're looking pretty sketchy!” he said. Nathaniel grabbed his pencil and... somehow erased the wall behind him.
“Ugh, I don't have to sit here and put up with your puns,” he declared.
“Hey!” Seriously, two in a row? What was wrong with the world?
Regardless, Nathaniel jumped out of the library, going for wherever he wanted to go, and Chat Noir looked for Chloé... who was now sitting on a couch, acting as if nothing was wrong.
“So, Chloé, any idea why this 'artist' is after you?” he asked, even if he already knew the answer.
“Noooo! Everyone adores me!”
Chat Noir just gave her a deadpan look. Chloé stood up and grabbed his arm, while giving him a smile.
“So, Chat Noir, how good are you at Physics?” she asked. Chat Noir could see it coming a mile away.
“I'm not doing your homework for you,” he declared, seeing something on the table. It had to be the drawing Chloé had been mocking Nathaniel form, only that Chloé had added her 'special' touch by giving the Marinette in the drawing glasses, a moustache and a goatee.
“Then what are you good for?!” Chloé yelled. Just as ungrateful as always. “Just get out if you're gonna be useless!”
She sounded so much like Scar that he really got ticked off.
“You know what? Maybe I will.”
“Great! Best idea you've ever had!”
He didn't have to deal with this, so he jumped out of the window and began to follow any tracks left by the Akuma, while he called Scar.
“Hey, Scar, your so-called 'best friend' is being targeted, you might want to pretend to care for 5 minutes because I'm going to spend my time finding the Akuma,” he said, before hanging up.
----
She was going ahead with getting everything she and Sabrina would need for the project, when she heard something knocking on the window. She figured it was a bird, so she paid it no mind.
Wipe
That was definitely no bird. In fact, she didn't even know how to translate that sound, other than...
“Wipe?”
She turned, and was shocked when she saw the Akuma entering through a hole made in her window.
“Ah, it's you! From the library! What are you–?!”
“I... wanted to see you,” the Akuma said, and if she wasn't so scared, she would have thought he was being bashful.
“Uh, are you here to attack me?”
“No!” the Akuma actually sounded offended. “You're Marinette! You're beautiful and sweet and perfect! I could never hurt you!”
Just next to the Akuma's foot, she could see her trapdoor being lifted, and Sabrina was looking from below, just as scared.
She had to keep the Akuma's attention away from her!
“Wow! Um, that's very... flattering? Thank you.”
The Akuma smiled, and became bashful again.
“So, um. I wanted to ask you something...”
As it turned out, it was the Akuma's birthday – well, that of the boy that had been Akumatized – and he wanted to ask her out. He even pulled out a very artistic invitation card!
“Huh, this is good,” she said. “You know what? I will go to your birthday party!”
“Really?!” the Akuma happily said.
“If you promise not to hurt Chloé.” She may dislike Chloé, but she didn't want to see her injured.
“I promise! Meet me at the Pont de L'Archevêché near Notre-Dame at sunset!”
“S-See you there!” she said, and the Akuma jumped out of the window. That was when Sabrina finally came in.
“Marinette, omigosh!” she said, surprised by everything she had witnessed. “What are you gonna do?!”
“First, I need to figure out how to contact Chat Noir.”
“Marinette, I saw the Akuma fly out your window, are you okay?!”
She blinked.
“Oh, awesome!” Well, that was fast. Remembering her manners, she turned to her classmate. “Chat Noir, this is my friend Sabrina.”
“I remember! You helped when Mylène was Akumatized,” Chat Noir said, and Sabrina just sparkled in joy.
“Omigosh, you do?! I can't believe a superhero knows my name! And you're in Marinette's room!”
Chat Noir scratched the back of his head, and Marinette thought he looked adorable.
“Heheh, well...” he said, “Marinette has experience punching Akumas in the face.”
“I do not!” she tried to deny.
“Oh, that's why you agreed to a date with an Akuma!” Sabrina said. Chat Noir's expression turned thunderous.
“WHAT.”
“I was gonna call you!” Marinette promised. “Somehow...”
----
The two of them tried to do as much work as possible for the project, but soon enough Marinette realized she would have to begin rushing through getting ready for the birthday party. Chat Noir had actually been a sport about it, although Marinette had detected some ugly signs of something about all of this.
Marinette accompanied Sabrina to the entrance.
“Sorry about that, Sabrina,” she apologized.
“It's okay! We got a lot done and I got to meet Chat Noir!” Sabrina cheered. “Day 1 of No Chloé is already amazing!”
----
“HA-CHOOO!”
Great, not only did she have to do her work instead of leaving it in Sabrina's hands, as it should have been, now her nose was leaking.
“This day is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous!” she shouted, silently picking the handkerchief Tikki was bringing her.
----
Alix looked around for her friend, but couldn't see him anywhere. She did manage to see Kim and Max, though: they were meant to be in the same group, so maybe they had seen him?
“Have you guys seen Nathaniel?” she asked them. “He was supposed to come to my place after school.”
“Not since this morning,” Kim said, apologetically.
“Great. Awesome. Perfect,” she groaned, wondering what the hell had held Nathaniel up.
They were meant to be celebrating his birthday, damnit!
----
“That's quite the charming scene you're drawing, but don't lose sight of your objective, friend.”
Evillustrator nodded.
“Romancing Marinette.”
“Incorrect!” Hawkmoth said, annoyed, but he paid him no mind.
“Hey!” a female voice said, and he looked at the source. “Bon anniversaire!”
“Marinette!” She looked so lovely, so wonderful!
----
Chat Noir glared at the scene below.
Marinette was wearing a beret, a jacket over a short dress, leggins under the boots, and her hair held up in two tresses instead of the usual pigtails.
Marinette was always beautiful, but right now...
Dammit, she looks cute! Totally wasted on this guy!
Why couldn't it be him down there instead of the Akuma?
----
“This looks amazing!” Marinette said. The Akuma invited her to his boat and to sit on the bench in the middle, which swayed slowly over the Seine's current. She had to admit it looked romantic, but she would have preferred if it were Chat Noir someone else sitting where the Akuma was. As she watched the Akuma paint musical notes that floated in the air, she went ahead with her question. “So, why is this the first I've heard about your birthday?”
“Huh?” the Akuma absent-mindedly asked, still painting on his tablet.
“You are Nathaniel, aren't you?”
“It's Evillustrator now. I don't like all the attention, so I only tell a few people. Like Alix. And you!” Evillustrator said. “You kept your promise, so I'll keep mine. And I always keep my promises!”
----
“This moron really over here blowing off our birthday plans?” Alix said, groaning into her pillow. “Where the heck are you, Nath?”
----
Now was the moment of truth. She knew it was a risky move, but she and Chat Noir had agreed on the plan, and if she did things right, Nathaniel would be freed soon.
“Maybe I could draw you something?” she suggested, reaching out for the stylus.
She ignored Chat Noir's glare from behind her.
“That'd be awesome!” Evillustrator replied, allowing her to pick the tool.
“NOW!” she shouted, and jumped off the bench as Chat Noir extended his baton, blocking Evillustrator.
“What?!” the Akuma exclaimed, shocked.
“Marinette!” Chat Noir shouted, urging her to run.
“Laughing and mocking me?! Betraying me?!” Evillustrator said, clearly feeling hurt. “You're just like Chloé!”
She knew she should jump off the boat. Keep the stylus away from Evillustrator. Stay away as Chat Noir immobilized him until Scarlet Lady could bother with moving her butt off her La-Z-Boy chair and at least come purify the butterfly and fix everything.
But that comparison cracked something in her mind.
In the blink of an eye, she was looming over Evillustrator, who looked like he was really scared out of his mind.
“O-ho! Care to repeat that?” she said, almost ready to stab him with the stylus.
“EEP!” Evillustrator said.
----
Tikki was not surprised.
Not anymore.
Not that it didn't make her feel angry.
“Don't you have an Akuma to deal with?” she asked.
“Uh, I have a physics project to ignore?” Chloé answered, reading Paris Match, which had Adrien as its cover. “The cat boy will ring me when he catches the stupid thing.”
----
Then, everything went wrong.
Evillustrator managed to kick Chat Noir's baton and hit her, and she lost the stylus in the process.
When Chat Noir shrunk his baton and jumped to attack, Evillustrator grabbed his stylus and managed to create a barrier in the shape of a box, trapping him inside, and then brought it down so it trapped both of them together.
“AH!”
“HA!”
And then, he used his power to erase a hole into the ship.
“I'm taking back my promise! Chloé's getting a lesson she'll never forget!” Evillustrator announced before jumping off the boat, leaving the two of them behind.
Marinette realized she had screwed up. That moment of weakness had cost them their best chance of stopping Evillustrator before it was too late. And now... Chat Noir looked like he was at the edge of a nervous breakdown, holding his baton as if to keep the walls from closing in.
“Calm down, Chat Noir!” she tried to help. “Extend your baton upwards!”
“You calm down! This psycho trapped us in a box and left us to drown! Does the air feel thin to you?!”
“Ho-kay! That's a lot to unpack,” she replied. Was Chat Noir claustrophobic?
With a bit of a struggle, she managed to coax her hero into moving the baton as instructed, and when he extended it they were propelled upwards, pushing the box away and allowing them to get back to safe land, while the boat Evillustrator had created began to sink.
“Thanks, Chat Noir!” she said, cheering. “Now you can–”
And then Chat Noir gave her a bear hug, much to her surprise.
“Chat, wha–?” she tried to ask, but Chat Noir interrupted her.
“Too close. That was way too close! I almost lost you again! I can't –”
He sounded so pained. So hurt. So scared.
As he slowly let go, and moved his hands from her back to her face, she looked into his eyes, and she saw, for probably the first time ever, that Chat Noir was actually afraid.
“Chat Noir?” she tried to say, because that sight scared her more than anything she had seen. Yes, even more than what she had gone through when Stoneheart kidnapped her.
“Please, Marinette. Promise me.”
And then he said three words that stabbed her heart like an icicle.
“No more Akumas.”
She wanted to say no. She wanted to keep helping. She wanted to help keep him safe!
But... she couldn't bear to see that pain in his eyes any more.
She knew he was asking this for her own safety.
And, as painful as it was...
“I... I'll try.”
“Thank you.”
… she promised.
----
After making sure she was alright, Chat Noir ran for Le Grand Paris, which was obviously Evillustrator's next target, and Marinette just watched him go.
“Chat Noir...”
“You two mean a lot to each other.”
She shook up as a gentle voice spoke behind her.
“Ah! You startled me!”
The voice belonged to a man of Chinese ancestry, with brown hair, a moustache and goatee, and a jacket and trousers of good quality. There was something about him that prickled at the edge of her memory, but she wasn't sure what.
“It can't be easy, being in love with a superhero.”
“'Love'?! No, I'm not in love with–!”
Then she realized it.
The feeling of his arms around her.
His cheerfulness whenever they spoke.
The beating of her heart when he smiled at her.
The fun they had back when M. Pigeon struck.
How they had worked together when she was Maotif.
Every time he called her 'my Princess'.
Every time he kissed her hand.
The day they met, at the Parc des Princes.
The day he clutched her from the jaws of death, at the Eiffel Tower.
He...
“Oh.”
He was her Chat Noir.
She was in love with Chat Noir.
“OH.”
The shock of this epiphany made her already present blush spread, and forced her to sit down, as she dealt with it all, by pushing her face into her legs, trying to hide both her blush and her tears.
“NonononoNO! I can't be in love with Chat Noir!” she yelled, begged, actually.
“Why not?” the gentle old man asked, as he sat next to her, and she looked at him, crying her heart out.
“Because! That'll make me want to help him more and I just promised I wouldn't!” she said, feeling herself break in pieces. The old man smiled. “I don't want to stress him out because I love him, but I can't leave him to depend on his useless partner because I love him!”
“Why don't I walk you home?” the man suggested, but she shook her head.
“Excuse me, I'm not done spiraling.”
----
It looked like Chloé was finally going to start doing something, but instead she just went on to plan how to excuse not doing her work. Again.
“Chloé, your teacher is never gonna buy your 'traumatized by hairdryers' excuse,” she pointed out, exasperated.
“You're right. An army of hairdryers couldn't dull my beauty.”
And, as always, Chloé completely missed the point of her comments.
That was when the door handles began to jiggle.
“What was that?” Chloé asked.
“I'll check,” she offered. Phasing through the wall, she stealthily made her way to a place where she would be able to see what was going on at the door. Seeing a familiar face, she promptly turned around. “It's the Akuma.”
“Fine, you know the drill.”
----
Evillustrator chose to stop trying to open the door by hand and resorted to his stylus, erasing the door.
“Chloé~ Where are you~?” he sing-sang, looking around for his target.
“Not here, freak!”
“Hey!” Evillustrator said, just barely dodging the polka-dotted yo-yo as it passed by his head.
“Oh, you decided to show up, Scar!” Chat Noir said in a disbelieving tone.
“Obviously!” Scarlet Lady said. “My best friend, Chloé Bourgeois, was in danger!”
“Is that why you almost let her become soup last week?” Chat Noir asked, piercing like a rapier sword.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” Scarlet Lady tried to cover up.
Evillustrator decided to act now. The sooner he got that stuff Hawkmoth wanted off them, the sooner he'd be able to find Chloé and get his revenge.
“If you knew anything about Chloé, you wouldn't defend her!”
“Rude!” Scarlet Lady exclaimed, as he sent a pair of giant boxing gloves at them.
Chat Noir whacked the gloves off, destroying them, and turned to Evillustrator.
Bearing the visage of a true predator, growling less like a cat and more like a lion, eager to shed the blood of the one that had threatened his mate.
Despite himself, Evillustrator flinched.
----
As he dealt with the Akuma's illusions, Scar summoned the Lucky Charm.
“Another useless, mundane object,” she complained. Chat Noir looked and saw it was a bouncy ball, with the same colors as every other Lucky Charm that had been summoned, and he knew what to do.
“GIMME THAT!” he shouted, snatching the ball off Scar's hand.
“HEY!” she complained. He didn't care.
And, as he readied his shot, he poured his rage into it.
This Akuma had put him in the box, and that made him angry.
But he had tried to kill Marinette.
The one safe port in the shitstorm that was his life.
The girl he loved more than himself.
Evillustrator made him furious.
He fired the ball.
“AGH!”
He hit him straight in the face, and he dropped the stylus, which broke when it fell to the floor, freeing the butterfly.
And, as the costume covering Evillustrator vanished, restoring Nathaniel, the tablet had the time for one last message before vanishing.
K.O.
He took a deep breath. He couldn't take his anger for the Akuma on Nathaniel, whose only 'sin' had been to like Marinette and to be embarrassed by Chloé ripping his drawing.
“... yaaaaay, we won,” Scar commented.
----
The next day was meant to be like any other day, but being the aftermath of not just an Akuma attack, but one that had ended hitting her close, Marinette knew it wouldn't be a normal day.
Which was proven when she arrived to school.
“So, what happened when the Akuma got there?” Alya asked, filming Chloé, since she had been the victim (and cause, not that the latter would ever admit it) of Evillustrator.
“Well, Scarlet Lady handled it perfectly while Chat Noir wrecked my room!”
“Geez,” she muttered, angry. She knew what that meant in Chloé-speak: Scarlet Lady did nothing while Chat Noir stopped the Akuma, and then the former just took all the credit.
“Hey, Marinette,” Adrien said, closing her locker door.
“AH! ADRIEN!” she yelled, putting her hand over her bumping heart, trying to calm down. “You scared me! How'd you sneak up on me like that!?”
“I have my ways,” he said, smiling. She closed her eyes halfway.
“... were you hiding in that locker?” she asked, suspicious.
“... noooo?” he answered, looking aside. Marinette wasn't fooled at all.
“Omigod, you were.”
----
Adrien decided he had to switch the conversation before Marinette began to think him a fool.
“So, I hear you had another Chat Noir encounter~” he said. Marinette was usually full of praise for his hero identity, so maybe he could find how she felt after yesterday's events.
“Yeah! It sucked!” she replied, beginning to cry.
That was not what he was expecting.
“Oh God! Why?!”
“I promised to stay out of Akuma fights!” she said between sobs.
Oh, crap, he had to fix this somehow!
“Isn't that a good thing?!”
“No cuz now Chat Noir has no one to rely on because Scarlet Lady is the worst!”
Oh, great, he had made her sad! Bad Adrien!
He gently pulled her into his arms and patted her head, trying to calm her down.
“I'm sure he appreciates your sacrifice,” he said, but that didn't seem to convince the still grumbling Marinette.
Welp, he would enjoy it as best as he could. Hopefully, she would see things his way.
----
Nathaniel watched Adrien console Marinette from afar. He didn't know what the hell had happened yesterday, but hopefully he had done nothing wrong.
“You're not gonna talk to her?”
“AH!”
“Well?” Sabrina asked, giving him a small smile.
“I'm... worried I might've hurt her,” he confessed.
“You were pretty calm for an Akuma. From what I saw,” Sabrina calmed him down.
“Really?”
“Yes, you very calmly asked Marinette out to your birthday party, alone, just the two of you,” she teased him.
He dropped to the ground and covered up his burning face.
“Ughhhh, leave me here to die,” he begged, embarrassed.
“Nathaniel!” someone else shouted, yanking his scarf.
“AH! Why does this keep happening?!”
“Where the hell were you?!” Alix angrily asked. “You ditch me and then don't answer any of my texts?!”
“Alix, I was an Akuma,” he explained.
“Ooooh!” She offered a fist bump, which he answered to. “Welcome to the Birthday Akuma Club!”
“You guys need therapy,” Sabrina noted, going to her locker to put her things in.
“Sabrina~!” Chloé said, suddenly appearing with the beret from yesterday in hand. “I'm sure you've heard of the trauma I had to endure. You understand I couldn't possibly work on the project!”
Seeing it for a white flag, Sabrina accepted the beret and decided to give her another opportunity.
“Alright, alright. You did have a hard time, I guess.”
She ignored Chloé palming the eyedropper out of eyesight.
“I knew you'd understand,” Chloé said, and she hugged the beret.
“But this is the last chance, Chloé,” she stated.
“Yeah, sure, whatever!” Chloé replied.
Somewhere in her inside, she knew that Chloé would waste it. She didn't know how, why, or when... but she was going to throw her last chance to the dustbin.
----
“Hmm... the Ox may be hard for a teenager to hide,” Fu noted, observing the open Miraculous Box. Those two empty holes, belonging to the Butterfly and the Peacock, hurt, but nothing could be done yet. Not until Hawkmoth was finally found.
“You're sure about this, Master?” Wayzz, his faithful companion, asked.
“I understand your concern after the last time, Wayzz, but I am certain now,” he replied. “She's proven several times that she has the makings of a hero.”
“Okay...” Wayzz accepted, before giving him a look. “You're not going to put it in her purse again, are you?”
“NO!”
----
Vanisher
@zoe-oneesama Hoping I made honor to the scene where Chat Noir asks Marinette to stop risking her life.
Also, end of Season 2, just before Gorizilla ended! Only 26 episodes away from reaching the comics!
Hope you guys liked this, because, remember, next chapter is the debut of our favourite heroine!
#scarlet lady the novel#scarlet lady#milarqui#fanfiction#long post#marinette dupain cheng#adrien agreste#end of season
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Scarlet Lady: Ikari Gozen
Directory | Desperada
Everybody sighed in relief as classes for the day finally ended, and everyone stretched out as they put their stuff back into their backpacks and bags.
And, of course, the talk of the day was the 'Friendship Day' the city was organizing on the weekend, for people to enjoy time with their friends at cafes, shops, and other entertainment options.
“Hey, mec, got plans for 'Friendship Day'?” Nino asked Adrien, who gave a strange smile.
“Actually, I'm the 'Hidden Celebrity' for KIDZ+'s hunt,” he admitted, and Nino gave a jerk of surprise.
“Whoa!” That meant he'd likely be stuck somewhere while waiting for the contest to end.
“I don't mind!” Adrien added, still smiling. “I like meeting fans!”
Behind his back, his friends began to think.
Adrien's the prize?
Then a terrible idea came to mind.
What if the winner is a crazy fan?! Or a creepy old person?!
The mere idea that their friend could be in danger made them sweat in horror. And they all reached the same conclusion.
One of us has to win the game!
----
Ondine smiled as she read the message she had just received.
“Kagami, did you get Marinette's message about the KIDZ+ Buddy Game?”
“Yes,” her friend declared, as she pressed on her smartphone's screen. “And now it's deleted.”
“Wuh–?! Why?!” Ondine asked, shocked.
“My mother goes through my phone,” Kagami said, as if it were normal, and Ondine felt angry on her best (female) friend's behalf. “So I delete messages and don't save any contacts.”
“Huh? How are you able to text me without my number?” she asked again, and Kagami gave a small, bright smile.
“I've memorized it. And Marinette's. And Adrien's and Alya's and Kim's and --”
“Wow!” She doubted she could memorize more than her family's and Kim's numbers, and here Kagami was doing that with everyone she knew!
----
“Okay, Buddies!” Aurore announced as the countdown began. “When Adrien pushes this button, you'll get your first riddle!”
“This will lead you to your buddy!” Mireille continued, holding the large tablet with the image of a button. “From there you'll solve more riddles that'll lead you to Adrien!”
“I'll be waiting for the winners!” Adrien said, as the studio began the final countdown.
“3, 2, 1, GO!”
And Adrien pressed the button.
----
“'I'm the highest heart of the city',” Alya read, grinning. “Ah, the Sacre-Cœur! See ya!”
----
“'Where animals live next to dinosaurs,'” Rose read, smiling as she came with the solution. “Oh, the zoo by the paleontology museum! Fun!”
----
“'Once home of royalty, now home of art',” Alix read, smirking and pumping a fist. Seriously, the clue was aimed at what was pretty much her home! “The Louvre! Easy!”
----
“'With one turn of a handle I can raise the level'?” Marinette read, grimacing at the apparent nonsense she had been sent. “What's with this difficulty spike?!”
----
Kagami jumped back as her mother's bokken came too close to her face, before she could try to deflect it.
“Too slow! Remember the story of Tomoe Gozen!” her mother screamed. “A female samurai when warrior women were rare and scorned!”
Kagami took off her mask as her mother stepped back, marking the end of the bout.
“As elusive as the wind! As powerful as the flood! As swift as lightning!”
Ugh, this story again, she thought. Her mother wasn't much of a talker, but she loved to tell the tale of Tomoe Gozen. No matter how many times she had said it, she would always do so at least once more. Also, a deeper part of Kagami pondered her mother's hypocrisy in telling her to be like a woman who had gone after the expectations of society while stifling her opportunities to have a normal life.
DING!
Oops, she forgot to turn off her smartphone's warnings.
“What was that.”
And that was why she shouldn't have forgot.
“Um...”
Great, now she had to see how to get away with it.
----
She hadn't got away with it.
“It's for a game, Okaa-san,” she said.
“You don't have permission to play a 'game',” her mother declared, as if that were the end of the discussion.
“Adrien is participating,” Kagami pointed out. Not that it seemed to sway her.
“Hmph,” Tomoe Tsurugi growled. “Then Gabriel is more foolish than I thought, being so permissive.”
Given how much of a... alright, control freak Gabriel Agreste was, that said more about her mother than about the man.
“Regardless, this and that have nothing to do with each other. I forbid you to play.”
That did it. Every time she had wanted to do something for herself, to have what other people would consider normal, she had to hide, escape, lie. Because heaven forbid that Tomoe Tsurugi's daughter was more than a doll for her to play with when she wanted and kept in a box the rest of the time.
Today, she would do it again.
I'm gonna play even harder now! Kagami furiously thought, while her mother remained unaware of what was going to happen.
“Tatsu, to the Grand Palais,” Tomoe ordered. Unbeknownst to the woman, Kagami had recorded her voice. Hopefully, she'd be able to find where she had to go first and have the car lead her there.
----
As pairs of teenagers checked their phones and run around Paris to follow the clues of the Friendship Challenge, a certain someone was looking at them and discarding them.
“Too dumb looking. Too unfashionable. Too ridiculous!” Chloé Bourgeois said aloud, pointing at the different pairs, while Ondine and her friend Freddy looked at her with confusion and a bit of irritation.
“Chloé, what are you doing?” Tikki whispered from the bag.
“I'm looking for a smart-looking pair of 'buddies', duh,” she said. “That way I don't have to do the dirty work of finding Adrien! I'm so smart!”
Tikki raised an eyebrow.
“Why didn't you just sign up to play?” she pointed out.
“My application was denied for some reason,” Chloé pouted, and Tikki rolled her eyes. Right, the prohibition from the bowler hat competition...
----
It had taken a while for her to realize the meeting point was Canal Saint-Martin: one turn of a handle, and the water level would change for the connection between the Seine and the Canal de l'Ourcq. A different turn, and it became drained, which happened at least once per decade, as needed.
The best, though, what who she found at the point.
“Kagami's my buddy, yay!” she cheered, and Kagami replied with a smile.
“I'm glad too.”
Immediately, Marinette moved on to hook an arm around Kagami's and the two began to make their way out, and towards their next target.
“Between the two of us we'll win for sure!” Marinette happily declared.
“Un,” Kagami agreed. “So, the second riddle...”
Marinette pressed the button to declare that she had met her buddy, and got the riddle.
“'To get closer to your goal, you must explore further and deeper',” she read out loud.
“Hm. Further down the banks of the Seine, which is deeper than this canal,” Kagami suggested.
Behind them, out of sight, a girl they both despised was stalking her.
“Target acquired!” Chloé said. As she followed them, Tikki stuck her head out of her hideaway in Chloé's hair.
“Gawd, Chloé, leave Marinette and Kagami alone!” the Kwami chastised her.
“True, they're not smart enough to win,” Chloé answered, demonstrating, for the n-th time, her inability to understand such simple concepts as 'common decency'. “But, like, they might! And that's not fair! Adrihoney already plays with Dupain-Cheng at school and not me! And then he plays with Tsurugi after school and makes no time for me! The only way to make it fair is to make sure they lose!”
“Nooo!” Tikki complained. Once more, she wondered: what had she done to deserve this?! She had saved Joan from the fire, dammit!
----
“Why'd they only give us one pole?” Marinette pondered as she cast the line. She hadn't done this much, but she thought she could do it.
“So... do you prefer to be called by your whole name or a nickname?” Kagami suddenly asked as she looked away.
“Huh? What brought this on?” Marinette asked in a low voice, but she supposed there was nothing to lose in answering. “I don't really have a nickname. Though Alya calls me 'M' sometimes.”
“I see,” Kagami said, uncertain. Marinette, knowing what she did about her buddy, was certain she wasn't sure of how to continue, so she did it for her.
“What about you?”
“No one's ever given me one before,” the fencer admitted, which made Marinette a bit sad on the inside.
“Alya will for sure!” she tried to cheer her up. “Hope you like being 'K'.”
After a couple of seconds of silence, Kagami replied.
“... can I workshop that?”
Marinette smiled widely.
“Is 'Gami' good?”
“Not bad. I'd call you 'Mari-chan', but...”
“Yeah, not in French,” Marinette replied, laughing. It would certainly be awkward to be called 'husband' by her buddy!
----
“What are they doing?” Chloé asked, mystified as she saw the two girls talking.
“Being friends?” Tikki replied, dripping so much sarcasm that she could have probably filled a barrel with it.
----
Chloé had found a box, and was trying to get away with it.
“Hey, look, that's the box!”
Chloé threw the box away and ran.
----
Chloé had moved the box under one table.
“Marinette, I have found the box. It's strange that it was put under this table, though,” Kagami said.
Chloé bit her nails in anger.
----
Chloé had found another box, and quickly went to throw it out of the building.
“This is the box we were meant to find!”
“Good. We're getting closer to our goal!”
Chloé twitched as she realized she had actually helped those two!
Tikki just snickered.
----
“Last step: Trust Challenge. Take a selfie in front of a monument using each other's phone,” Kagami said, as she handed Marinette her phone, “then regroup and take a selfie together. Only then will you get Adrien's location.”
“We're so close!” Marinette replied as she passed her phone to Kagami. Since they were at the Place de la Concorde, there were plenty of monuments to take a selfie with!
“We'll meet back here and win!”
With cellphones exchanged, the two girls rushed to find different monuments to certify the first half of the challenge, and Pollen came out of the bag.
“You did it, My Queen!” the Kwami cheered.
“Almost! Teaming up with Kagami has been a total dream~!”
“DUPAIN-CHENG!”
“AHHH, CHLOÉ! MY NIGHTMARE!”
Great, even now Chloé was out to ruin her life.
“C-Chloé, wha–?!” Marinette asked, but Chloé interrupted.
“You finally got the last clue, right?” the major irritant asked, pointing at Kagami's phone in her hand. Before she could react, Chloé stole it off her hand and began to laugh. “Now I'm going to meet with myyy Adrien!”
“Hey!” she finally reacted, and began to run after her.
Only for a very furious Kagami to intercept the eyesore.
“EEP!”
----
In his lair underneath the Agreste Mansion, Hawkmoth perked up.
“Hm?”
Another potential Akuma?
----
“GIVE IT BACK!” Kagami shouted as she tackled Chloé, but found herself with an ugly sandal on her face.
“NO!” Chloé shrieked as she was tackled from behind by Marinette, grabbing her by the neck. “OH!”
“CHLOÉ!” Marinette shouted as well, grappling with her life's personal demon, when the phone began to ring.
And Chloé picked up.
“Hello~?”
“KAGAMI!” Tomoe Tsurugi's voice shouted from the other side, causing Kagami to let go in shock, allowing Chloé to escape. “WHERE ARE YOU?! YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE AT HOME!”
“Ohoho! Little Kagami snuck out to play a game?” Chloé laughed, as she ran just ahead of Marinette and Kagami.
“Why are you so fast?!” Marinette complained, which was understandable, given that Chloé was wearing sandals while she and Kagami wore shoes that were better for running, and yet Chloé was staying out of reach.
“SCANDALOUS!” Chloé shrieked, as if she were an American schoolgirl called Ashley.
“GAME?! BUT I FORBADE HER!”
“Uh, I know? That's why I'm telling on her?”
The distraction from that was enough for Marinette to finally tackle Chloé and recover the phone, but the damage had been done already. Still, she had to try to fix it!
“Mme., don't worry, Kagami's with a friend, staying safe–”
“Kagami doesn't have friends!”
Marinette gave the phone a weird look, as she grabbed Chloé's face when she tried to steal the phone again. Either Mme. Tsurugi was willfully ignorant of Kagami's life, or she was another Gabriel Agreste.
Then again, Gabriel Agreste was willfully ignorant of Adrien's life as well...
“Wha–? That's not true,” Marinette replied, but then Kagami gently picked the phone and started to talk.
“Actually, Okaa-san, I do have friends! Lots of friends! Wonderful friends!” she said, her expression turning thunderous as she kept talking. “Friends I chose myself because I'm DONE with you CONTROLLING MY LIFE –!”
“With pleasure, Hawkmoth.”
“UGHHHHHH!”
Heaven's sake, one couldn't even berate their parent for being a control freak without them being akumatized.
----
It was only moments later that the Akuma, a large metal statue-like golem with the same colors as the Tsurugi's car, showed up at the Place de la Concorde.
“Kagami! You disobeyed me!” Yeah, this was Kagami's mother. “You'll never go out again!”
But, as she made to grab her daughter, Kagami dodged – and the red hand grabbed Chloé.
“Wha–hey!”
“Tsk! Missed,” the Akuma said with a gravely voice, but clearly it didn't care who she had grabbed – and opened its mouth wide.
“Ooooooom–”
“EEEEEEE! EW! EW! EW! EW!”
And Chloé disappeared down the gullet of the Akuma.
Kagami and Marinette looked at each other, a bit disgusted about what they had witnessed and also a bit scared at what was going on.
“You won't get away from me, Kagami!”
Yeah, it was time to run.
----
“ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! YOU DON'T EVEN HAVE BLUETOOTH, THIS IS SO LAME!” Chloé yelled from the (surprisingly) comfortable seat in the 'stomach' of the Akuma.
Tikki rolled her eyes at the priorities of her wielder.
Not to mention you can't transform here without giving away your identity, she thought.
----
Adrien checked his friends' photos on the phone as he waited for the end of the contest. Aurore and Mireille had been updating him on how people were doing (in general – they couldn't tell him who was where), and he knew that the contest would end soon. If he was lucky, it would be at least one of his friends that won. If he was very lucky...
“AKUMA ALERT, AKUMA ALERT,” the loudspeakers announced, and he quickly turned off his cellphone to put it in his pocket. “WE ASK ALL VISITORS TO KINDLY EVACUATE THE PALACE VERY CALMLY.”
“Claws Out,” Adrien said as soon as he was somewhere out of camera sight, transforming into his superhero alter ego.
“REPEAT, PLEASE EVACUATE THE PALACE CALMLY.”
That was what he was doing, evacuating as he calmly whistled on his way out.
He hoped that the Gorilla would evacuate instead of just searching for him...
----
Marigold had been lucky when Kagami suggested splitting up, to divide the Akuma's attention: it had allowed her to sneak away to transform, and then she had tracked Kagami again, so she could protect her.
“I see you two made a new friend for Friendship Day, Honeybee!”
She turned to see Chat Noir, smiling at them both, and Marigold was thankful for the levity, even if it was not the time.
“More like she's jealous of Kagami's friendships!” she replied. “She captured a civilian trying to get her!”
That left Chat Noir worried: civilians being taken hostage by the Akumas was not fun, because you had to be careful when you fought them.
“Would Venom work on an Akuma that big?” Chat Noir asked, worried.
“Probably,” she replied, remembering how it worked on Animan when he turned into a dinosaur, “but then we wouldn't be able to get the hostage out until Scarlet Lady gets here.”
“Hm...”
Given Scarlet's penchant for not showing until the eleventh hour, it was better if they found a way to save the hostage.
“We'll probably need some help,” Chat Noir suggested. “One of us should go and one should stay with Kagami–”
The girl promptly hugged Marigold's arm, leaving both heroes bemused.
“Uh, guess I'll get help then,” Chat Noir said, stunned.
----
Adrien entered the parlor as quick as he could, not forgetting to take his shoes off.
“Hello, Master,” he greeted.
“Adrien! You got away from the competition,” Master Fu noted as he drank from his teacup.
“Heh, yeah,” Adrien agreed. “Anyway Scar's her typical no show.”
“Ah,” Master Fu said, quickly opening the Miraculous Box, having expected this to happen. “Adrien Agreste, pick an ally you can trust, blah, blah, blah, greater good, you've heard it all before.”
Adrien gave a small snort as he checked the options. The Fox and Turtle were out, so was the Snake, and the Mouse – he held hope that Marinette might be able to pick it again at some point – but then he saw one that he realized would be a good fit.
“Wind, water, lightning, perfect!” he exclaimed, picking up the Dragon. Then he looked closer. “Is this too obvious for her?”
Plagg just shrugged.
----
Marigold jumped on top of the chimney while carrying Kagami in her arms, and kept rushing – Ikari Gozen was getting closer, and she needed to buy time until the reinforcemens arrived.
“We just gotta hang in there until Chat Noir gets back (or the off chance Scarlet Lady shows up)!”
Then, she looked down at Kagami... who was smiling a bit too much for someone who was being the target of an Akuma.
“No rush,” the Japanese girl said.
… was that a blush?
----
Chat Noir gracefully landed next to his partners for the day, box secure in his hand, and gave a short bow to them.
“Ladies~” he greeted.
“Chat Noir!” Marigold greeted back. “Have you got something for our friend?”
“You bet!”
“Huh?” Kagami said, clearly confused.
It was time to undo that confusion.
“Kagami Tsurugi, this is the Dragon Miraculous,” he said as he offered the box with the choker. “With it, you'll help me and Marigold save your mother. When we're done, you'll return the Miraculous to me. Can we trust you?”
“Yes,” Kagami replied, gently picking the box from his hand. “I am grateful you recognize me as the perfect candidate.”
“Um...” he mumbled, not quite believing the fact that Kagami was preening. And Marigold seemed to be about to burst out laughing.
----
As she opened the box, she covered her eyes in reflex from the burst of light in front of her.
“Ah–!”
“Greetings, young lady, and good day to you,” a voice that sounded old and wise said. “Fear not, I am Longg, the Dragon Kwami.”
As she looked up, she saw a creature floating in front of her. About the size of her hand, mostly red and black with eight horns around his head, golden eyes, two long whiskers, two spikes on its (her? The voice did sound female) back, and a long tail. It (she?) looked like a dragon of Chinese mythology.
But, still...
“A what?” The term was unfamiliar.
“A kwa-mi,” the creature – Longg – repeated. “Allow me to tell you the many feats that a magic being like myself will help you accomplish by saying 'Longg, Bring the Storm'.”
She picked the choker and carefully put it aoround her neck, feeling it a bit constraining, but then it suddenly fit her just fine. This was magical, right?
“Using the element of your choosing – wind, water, or lightning – you can defeat Ikari Gozen with panache–”
“Uhuh,” she interrupted. She had realized that she could be a superhero like Marigold (and Chat Noir). And also the fact that she could finally get back a bit at her mother without fearing reprisal. So, perhaps one might forgive her for being a tad too enthusiastic about it all. “Longg, Bring the Storm!”
“Wait, I'm not doooo–” Longg said, before he was absorbed into the choker.
Her clothes transformed into a red jumpsuit with black accents, with the most impressive part being the dragon tail image on her torso. She could feel the horns that were now growing on the back of her head, and the half-mask covering everything from her cheeks up, save for her nose. And, as she moved, she felt the sheathe on her lower back, with the pommel in perfect reach of her left hand.
She smiled.
“Looking good!” Chat Noir said, smiling.
“What do we call you?” Marigold asked, and she thought on it. It was the same conversation she had with Marinette earlier, but now it was important. She was a dragon. A dragon's name had to evoke power.
Well, if the kwami's name sounded like the word for dragon in Chinese... why couldn't she do the same?
“Let's go with Ryūko,” she said. And, somehow, it felt like the name just fit her.
----
Happy that Kagami (or, rather, Ryūko) was good and fit with her new circumstances, Marigold decided to check at the other side of the wall, to see if she could find either the Akuma or some idea of how to deal with it.
“Still no sign of Scar,” Chat Noir commented.
“'Scar'?” Ryūko asked, shocked. “You call your leader Scar?”
“Gross, Scar's not the leader. She's a mascot at best.”
There was no one on the street, thankfully, but then a sign caught her attention. A cosmetics shop, one she had gone to a couple of times, was having a sale on bath bombs.
Ryūko should be able to do something with water, right?
That was it!
“Guys, I have a plan!” she announced. “I need you to distract Ikari Gozen!”
“HEHEHEH!”
Turning to her left, she saw Ryūko sporting a very unusual face, the kind that came out in slasher movies. A bit like her own, too.
“Eager, aren't you?”
----
Ryūko quickly ran towards Ikari Gozen, with her sword at the ready, followed by Chat Noir, while Marigold went to get the supplies they would need to succeed.
Then she was there, next to the Akuma, and she attacked, using all the skills she had learned in the art of fighting, but Ikari Gozen, in spite of her size, was agile enough to parry and attempt to counter, which was no easy feat: her mother's akumatization was clearly not impeding her own skills.
But it was enough to keep her distracted from Marigold, and she knew it. But, still, she had questions to make.
“You push Kagami to be strong willed yet shelter her from having friends?” she asked, laying bare her mother's hypocrisy.
“You know nothing! She doesn't need friends!” Ikari Gozen shouted as she slashed the air. “Friends only betray you, abandon you! Like mine did when I went blind!
She gasped. Given how her mother behaved, she had supposed she simply didn't want to have friends... but to learn that she had been left behind?
“STOP HAVING YOUR SOAP OPERA MOMENT AND GET ME OUT!”
Oh, right, the hostage. As irritating as Bourgeois was, they still had to rescue her.
“Ryūko! Now!”
Perfect! Now it was time to trick the Akuma! She jumped up and prepared her sword for a slash.
“You should have faith in your daughter to have her choices!” she shouted, and as expected, Ikari Gozen grabbed her.
“I've had enough of your opinions!” the Akuma shouted, and she closed her eyes. This was not going to be pretty. “OOOOOOOOM–”
And down the gullet she went... into something that resembled her mother's town car. Well, at least she knew what had happened.
“Hahaha!” Bourgeois laughed. “What a loser, getting caught–”
As if to mock the other girl for her hypocrisy, the box Marigold had procured entered and fell on top of Bourgeois' head.
“OW!”
“Heh,” she chuckled as she moved to grab the box.
“Bath bombs?” Bourgeois asked as she saw the box's contents.
“You're going to want to hold your breath,” Ryūko warned.
“What–?”
“Water Dragon!”
“Hey, wai–!”
This was not going to be pretty either.
----
Suddenly, Chat Noir and Marigold saw water and soap suds coming out from the seams that formed Ikari Gozen's armor, and Ikari Gozen's face twisted to a form that looked like something had really not sat well in her stomach.
“Ugh, urgh,” she mumbled, “I'm going to–”
The two averted their eyes just in time.
“BLARGH!”
Yikes. Even if they knew it was just Ryūko in water form with the result of the bath bombs, it was still disgusting.
“WAAAAAH! I HATE YOU, PUKE-KO!”
Well, at least Chloé was out of there. Marigold felt sorrier for Ryūko, who had had to share space with her, but she paid no mind as her classmate ran out of the way. With the Akuma incapacitated by her stomach's sudden rebellion, she summoned her power.
“Venom!”
One touch, and the Akuma was finally paralyzed.
But the fight wasn't done yet.
“We can't release her without the Ladybug,” Chat Noir said, and Ryūko growled in annoyance.
“Where is Scarlet Lady?!”
Someone landed next to them, and they saw it was the devil in red with black polka dots. She was drenched in water and smelling like bath bombs. She had likely been in the bath or something when the call got out.
“Worry not, my poor, lost sidekicks, I have arrived–”
He would rather save himself all the irritation of hearing Scar speaking, and quickly jumped to push her ahead, while the angered Dragon Heroine pulled from her arm.
“Hurry up, we need the Cure!” he shouted.
“HEY!” Scar shouted.
Nobody cared.
----
One Miraculous Cure later, Ryūko approached her mother, who was recovering now from her akumatization, and holding onto the car she had fused with.
“What happened to me? Where's Kagami?” she asked, and Ryūko smiled a bit. While the woman didn't show it much... perhaps she did love her daughter? She put her arms over the one holding her cane.
“Your daughter is safe, Madame. She'll be here soon,” she told her, and her mother nodded in quiet thanks. She turned towards her heroes, who were holding a fist in the air, with a space left for her.
She smiled wider. She had seen the duo doing this after defeating Akumas... and they were willing to allow her to join them. She held her fist next to theirs.
“BIEN JOUÉ!” they shouted in unison.
“Rest assured, everyone, I got Chloé Bourgeois to safety~”
“Who are you?” Tomoe Tsurugi asked, showing that, much like the rest of the world, nobody cared about Scarlet Lady.
----
With everything fixed and back into place, Ryūko followed Chat Noir to a secluded place, where she undid the transformation and took off the choker.
“Excellent work!” Chat Noir praised her, and she nodded.
“Well, you gave me the Miraculous with a sword,” Kagami replied. “It was practically made for me.”
Longg floated around before stopping, giving her back to Kagami.
“Such rudeness to cut me off when I'm speaking!” the Dragon Kwami declared. “There's wisdom in patience, you know! Youths these days.”
“M–My apologies,” Kagami said, bowing respectfully to the divine being. “Please forgive me, Kami-sama.”
Longg perked up, and quickly turned around to begin patting Kagami in the head, which she took with a smile.
“There is also wisdom in admitting fault, so this Dragon God will forgive you,” Longg replied.
Chat Noir just rolled his eyes.
----
The car was exactly where it had reappeared after the fight, and Kagami knew that it was because her mother was waiting for her. And, as she approached, she saw her, sitting in her usual place, looking as stern as always.
“Okaa-san, I'm sorry I wasn't truthful. But I'm not sorry for making friends,” she said.
“Friends can be disappointing–”
“I know,” she interrupted. “Maybe these friendships won't last forever. But I know I won't regret making the choices I did. Because you taught me to never second guess myself.”
“'GAMI!!”
Before she could react, her buddy had jumped on her back, put legs around her waist, and hugged her like a koala hugging an eucaliptus.
“M–Marinette!” she shouted in shock.
“I'm so glad you're safe!” Marinette replied, before she turned to look at the car. “Oh, hello, Madame!”
She heard her mother sigh.
“Be home by dinner,” Tomoe Tsurugi said, and the car door gently closed before the car drove away towards her home.
----
In the time they had spent dealing with the Akuma, the two of them got a message warning that the contest had ended. Kagami received a message, and semi-dragged Marinette to meet two of her school friends.
“Hey guys!” Ondine greeted with a wave and a smile. Next to her was a girl with two large ribbon-infused hairbuns, heart-shaped earrings and plaster over her nose. “This is Freddy!”
“Hey,” the other girl said, and Marinette saluted with a smile.
“I'm glad you avoided the Akuma,” Kagami said, and their phones vibrated.
“Looks like we lost,” Freddy said, seeing Adrien in the photo accompanied by the two winners, Aurore, Mireille, and his bodyguard (who was giving Aurore bunny ears).
“Oh, that's Alya!” Marinette said, happily. The other winner was a boy she didn't know, but he appeared to be nice, so she considered that a success. “Mission: stop a total weirdo creep from meeting Adrien,”
“ACCOMPLISHED!” she said along with Kagami.
“You guys know the game has an age limite, right?” Freddy pointed out.
“EH?”
----
That night, Paris' two heroes went on their usual night patrols, and they were now sitting in one of their favorite spots, which had a great view of the Eiffel Tower.
And now, their discussion had turned to their newest temporary partner.
“The Dragon's powers are really cool!” Chat Noir said.
“Yeah! Can you believe you can use three powers before the timer starts?!” Marigold replied.
“I call hax! How is that fair?! Imagine three shots of Venom!”
“Or three times the Cataclysm.” Marigold leaned back. “Well, technically the Ladybug has two powers – Lucky Charm and the Miracle Cure. It's just easy to forget since one leads into the other.”
Silence fell around them, as they considered the implications.
“You think maybe we have multiple powers?” Chat Noir asked.
“Maybe we should ask Master Fu...”
----
Crocoduel
@zoe-oneesama:
* Tomoe Tsurugi: You must be like the woman who ignored society's rules and her father's demands to become an independent warrior!
* Also Tomoe Tsurugi: How dare you ignore society's rules and MY demands and attempt to become an independent person!
Seriously, hypocrisy knows no bounds.
That's 466 pages, 186142 words, 1003366 characters
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrien agreste#chat noir#kagami tsurugi#ryuuko#Ikari gozen
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Scarlet Lady: Desperada
Directory | Silencer
Wishing to relax after the absolute mess that was dealing with Bob Roth the previous day, the girls had agreed to join Kitty Section at the Liberty and just enjoy the afternoon, listening to the group practice for their future record.
For Marinette, though...
“Orange juice, Luka?”
“Thanks, Ma–Ma–Marinette.”
… it was just another stressful thing on top of all previous stress.
Because, after Luka's confession, she just didn't know what to do.
“Eheheh!” she tried to laugh, her cheeks burning up at how close Luka was. “You're really hot–” SHUT UP! “uh, tall!–” SHUT UP! “uh talented! How long have you been playing?”
Luka gave a soft laugh.
“Since I was in diapers,” he replied, taking off his guitar and carefully hanging its strip over Marinette's shoulder. “Wanna try?”
“Oh! S–Sure! Heehee!” she stammered, as Luka gently grabbed her left hand.
“Put this hand here...”
“H–Here?”
----
The feeling of being a third wheel was mighty amongst the girls as they saw Luka giving Marinette a too close lesson on guitar playing – and the awkwardness peaked as the last people meant for this encounter entered the room.
“Hey, guys!” Adrien said as he put his bag on the floor.
“Adrien, Kagami!” Mylène exclaimed, part in shock, part in happiness.
“Your parents let you out?” Alix asked, grinning.
For all answer, Adrien turned to his partner, and it was obvious they were both struggling not to break down laughing.
“Wait, you mean this isn't fencing practice?!” Adrien asked, acting shocked at the 'sudden twist'. “Oh no, Kagami, we messed up the address!”
“Dear me, it would seem so!” Kagami replied, holding her face in fake distress.
“Pft,” Alix snorted, rolling her eyes, “okay, guys.”
Then Adrien saw Luka's hands-on lesson to the blushing Marinette, and suddenly the sunshine boy was in the middle of an eclipse.
“What's going on there?” he said in a deceitfully tranquil tone, while Kagami looked at him as if he were a bomb about to explode.
“That's what we wanna know!” Alya exclaimed.
“We're not co-captain anymore, get lost!”
Everyone looked away at the sound of Anarka Couffaine shouting, shocked – mostly because everyone who knew her had barely heard her this angry.
“But we played so perfectly together!” a man said. A voice everyone found very familiar.
“What–?” Kagami said, shocked.
“Up deck!” Juleka pointed out.
“Let's go!” Alix added, and everyone ran for the door.
Well, not everyone – because Marinette collapsed on the closest couch, mentally exhausted, and Adrien stayed behind to make sure his classmate-slash-friend-slash-crush was alright.
“UGHHH~” Marinette groaned, feeling like her face was ready to be used for cooking.
“Marinette? What's wrong?” Adrien asked with worry.
“Oh, Adrien. Luka confessed to me and I... I...”
Adrien felt his eye involuntarily twitching at the idea of someone else confessing to the girl he liked, but held on her knee-jerk reaction as Marinette's face turned devastated.
“I'm trying so hard to be normal and it's! Not! WORKING!”
“Oh, boy,” he mumbled as Marinette began to cry, and he sat next to her as she covered her crying face.
“I'm not trying to date Luka but I'm not trying to ruin things with Luka and I keep overthinking everything and I don't know what to do!”
Now knowing that Marinette was really in a bind, he knew he had to park his feelings aside and be the friend she needed, so he put a hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed.
“Just... talk to Luka,” he suggested.
“Talk?” she asked, rising her face.
“Tell him what you told me. Luka's not the kind of guy to hold it against you.”
“True,” Marinette admitted, a couple of tears still on the corner of her blue eyes.
“More than anything, he'll appreciate your honesty.”
“Yeah...” She sniffed, and gave him a trembling smile. “Thanks, Adrien.”
----
After recovering from her cry spell, the two of them ran outside, where they found Mme. Couffaine in a screaming match with...
“I'm no one's back up plan, skipper!”
“It's not like that! You're the only one I want to play with, Nanarky!”
“Jagged Stone?” Marinette said, a bit shocked.
“'Nanarky'?!” Mylène asked, shocked that their favorite singer was speaking so casually with their host – and that said host was answering in kind.
“You don't fool me, pirate! I bet you threw your guitarist overboard! Again!”
“Nooooooo!” Jagged Stone said, unconvincingly. “I didn't, I swear! She, uh, sailed away!”
“LIE BETTER!” Mme. Couffaine replied, clearly angry.
Jagged looked over the people on the Liberty, and smiled.
“Marinette! My awesome designer!” he cried out. “Do you play guitar?”
“Uh, no–” she timidly replied, and Jagged shook his head.
“Bummer. Do you know one? Like one in a band on a houseboat with blue hair?”
“Uh, yeah! Exactly that!” Marinette replied, turning to Luka with a smile. “Wow, so specific!”
“You rock, Marinette!” Jagged said, pointing at Luka. “So, you up for it little dude–”
“Jagged Stone! I finally found you you hack!”
Of course, there was only one person in the world that could have uttered those words.
“Chloé?!” Adrien said, shocked.
“HACK?!” Jagged Stone fired, annoyed.
“I demand reimbursement for the shoes your stupid lizard ate!”
“Ugh,” he said, but he kinda acknowledged she was right, “send the bill to Bob Roth. Stop hounding me.”
“HEY.” Everyone turned to see someone else had arrived on scene, and was standing at the prow of the Liberty. “Jagged Stone is my target.”
“What?!” Chloé yelled at being ignored, but Adrien was more aware of the situation.
“Akuma!”
“Vivica?” Jagged asked, surprised.
“There ain't no more 'Vivica',” the Akuma said. “There's only Desperada now! You fire me and try to replace me with a school kid?!”
“Vivica, you're only two years older than him,” Jagged said.
Luka and Juleka looked at each other, feeling awkward and hoping no one noticed that Jagged shouldn't have known Luka's age.
“Back off my kids, ship rat!” Anarka furiously shouted at Desperada, who gave a smirk.
“Then I'll get you first!” she said, and strummed her guitar – and Anarka, after being hit by a projectile, disappeared in a cloud of golden smoke, as a sticker with her face appeared on the guitar.
“Ahh!” Mylène screamed in fright.
“Desperada always hits her targets,” the Akuma declared, and she started to pluck her guitar again.
“Ah–!”
“No–!”
Juleka and Rose, despite the former's attempt to push her out of the way, were soon taken out as well, while Marinette angrily glared at the Akuma before ducking away.
And Adrien, who could tell who was the Akuma's target right now, grabbed Luka's hand.
“Quick, let's get outta here!” he said, pulling his friend-slash-romantic rival out of the way.
----
As soon as she found a safe place, Marinette took a breather while Pollen came out of her bag.
“It's that time again, My Queen!” the Bee Kwami declared, while Marinette kept glaring at the Akuma.
“Does Hawkmoth never sleep?!”
----
“C'mon, Chloé, you gotta transform,” Tikki tiredly said.
“This one looks really annoying,” Chloé replied. ���But I have to avenge my shoes, so–”
Tikki rolled her eyes. Figures that that would be her goal.
----
“You probably got fired over your stupid hair!” Scarlet Lady shouted, and she began to run to a side as Desperada fired her musical bullets, which all hit the ground right next to her feet.
“GRRR!” the Akuma growled over her failed attack. But then another guitar started to sound, and Desperada turned to the source. “Another guitarist?!”
She started to shoot at him, while he remained in place, making his solo.
“LUKA!”
Before Desperada realized it, a large rope twisted around her waist.
“AH!”
“HYAAAAAAAH!” Marigold mightily yelled, and pulling from the rope she tossed the Akuma far away enough that none of those present could see her. With danger temporarily out of the way, she smiled at the boys and waved them towards what she had found. “Down here, quick!”
“Ew, the sewers?!” Scarlet Lady said with a disgusted tone, but Marigold paid her no mind and pulled the manhole cover before forcing the Ladybug heroine in.
All while Luka turned to Adrien.
“Did Marigold just kill Desperada?” he asked, shocked, and Adrien shrugged, before they followed Marigold inside. As soon as they closed the cover, the two boys started to huff from running.
“That was very reckless, but very brave,” Marigold encouraged them, ignoring Scarlet Lady as she skipped around in disgust. “Thanks.”
“N–No problem,” Luka replied between huffs, as he recovered his breath.
“You guys should hide while we find Chat Noir,” she suggested, immediately grabbing Scarlet Lady by the face before she could do what Marigold knew she would do.
“Nooo!” Scarlet Lady whined as she tried to reach out to them.
“Sure thing, Marigold,” Luka said, and both of them went off, eager to be away from the Ladybug heroine.
----
As soon as he got Luka into a closet, Adrien started to do a run around to find a different passageway that would lead to where Marigold and Scar were waiting.
“Chat got your tongue? Leave a message!” he heard his own voice say.
“Dammit, where are you?” Scar complained; she must have called him to his baton-phone.
Time to hero, he thought.
“Plagg, Claws Out!” Soon, he was once more clad in leather. “I'm here!”
As he turned the corner, Marigold and Scar looked at him.
“Chat Noir!” the former said.
“Why are you sweating?” the latter asked, disgusted.
He laughed. He wasn't going to tell them he had ran all the way around to avoid being tracked.
----
As soon as she recovered from being flung around, Desperada ran back to where she had found that boy, but by then there was no one around, as they had either taken refuge elsewhere or just hid.
“I'll find that brat guitarist sooner or later, you bugs!” Desperada yelled into the empty air.
----
Good thing I'm not claustrophobic, Luka thought from within the locker Adrien had told him to go into. There was literally nothing for him to do right now.
Perhaps he could think of a song to make for Marinette...
----
With no ideas to pull from, Scar used Lucky Charm, which took the form of a bronze dish.
Or, rather...
“A gong?” Marigold realized.
“You know what that means, Goldie!” he said, winking at her.
“You're going to get another Miraculous aren't you?!” Scar said, and Chat Noir looked at her, surprised that she had actually made the connection. “You are going to give whatever-it-is–”
“The Snake, probably,” Chat Noir suggested.
“– to my Adrien!” Scar continued. Chat Noir held the instinct to tell her that he wasn't hers, but instead chose to help avoid the potential problem.
“Wuh – Agreste? I don't think–”
“Actually...” Marigold said, blushing, “I think Adrien would make a good hero.”
Stunned at Marigold's words (and feeling a bit of a flutter in his heart) Chat Noir looked down with burning cheeks.
“... I'll find him while Scar recharges and you fetch the Miraculous,” he conceded.
“YAY!” Marigold cheered.
Splitting up to do their parts, Chat Noir found a place he was certain he wouldn't be seen in and detransformed.
“Claws In.”
“This'll never work,” Plagg warned him as he reappeared.
“You know that, I know that, but do they know that...?” Adrien asked.
“You're just soft because your honeybug recommended you,” Plagg deadpanned.
“Shush. Why're you worried, Plagg? For you it'll be like no time at all,” Adrien replied with a chuckle.
“I guess.” Plagg didn't look excited.
“And this'll get Adrien Agreste off the Hero roster.”
Plagg tilted his head in askance.
“Uh, how?” he asked, and Adrien gave a smirk that wouldn't be out of place in a cat's face.
“By being such a nuisance I never get called on again.”
Plagg felt a sweatdrop at the back of his head. Which was weird, because he didn't sweat...
----
We did all agree on Adrien...
But Luka distracted Desperada...
But Adrien saved Luka...
But Luka –
“Marinette? The Akuma?”
Marinette shook herself off. Oh, right, she was still at Master Fu's parlor.
“R-Right! Thank you, Master!”
----
“It's that it?” Scarlet asked as soon as she arrived with the Miraculous.
“Yeah. Where's Chat Noir and Adrien?”
“Here! I'm here!” Adrien said, and Marigold quickly put her hand exactly where it had to be.
“Mon Prince~” Scarlet said, attempting to grab Adrien in a hug, only for Marigold's hand to hold her in place, well away from the boy.
“Adrien!” the Bee Heroine exclaimed, ignoring the irritant behind her. “Where's Chat Noir?”
“Oh, uh, he had to check on the civilian thing he ditched,” Adrien replied. “But he said you needed me?”
“Yes!” Marigold said, offering the box. “Adrien Agreste, this is the Snake Miraculous, which grants the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good–”
“Let me give it to him, Marimold!” Scarlet yelled.
“Omigod, let me finish!” she replied with irritation as she struggled to keep her away from Adrien, who was now awkwardly waiting.
----
Alright, time to start faking this, he thought, and he opened the box. With a flash of light, the Snake Kwami of Intuition appeared.
“Oh, woooooow,” he said, trying to look like he had never seen something similar.
“Greetings,” the Kwami said, “my name is Sass, and...”
“Are you, like, some kind of genie?” he asked, playing dumb, but Sass' judging look told him that the Kwami wasn't falling for it.
“... I am a Kwami,” Sass replied, unimpressed. As he put on the Ouroboros bracelet, he noticed Plagg hiding at the wall, and he really looked unhappy.
Sorry.
“Sass, the transformation phrase, please,” Marigold kindly asked, and Sass sighed.
“Guess we're doing this. Right. Just say, Sass...”
“Scales Slither!”
He quickly noticed the difference as he transformed: while the feeling of leather was similar, it wasn't the smooth touch of his Chat Noir suit, but slightly rough, much like a snake's scales. The full black was partially replaced by aquamarine. The mask covered more of his face, and his hair felt wilder than normal. As the transformation finished, a name came to mind.
“Call me Aspik,” he told Marigold. “I won't let you down, my Queen!”
“Ha! I know,” Marigold replied, smiling.
“Adrien~ I believed in you first!” Scar said, but he scoffed.
“I don't care.”
Finding the ladder going up, Scar quickly went up first, while Marigold looked back at him.
“If anything goes wrong, Second Chance will let you go back to the time you used it.”
“Got it,” Aspik nodded. “Second Chance.”
As Scar left, she made a sigh.
“Finally out,” she said. “Where is she?”
She quickly got her answer, as a musical projectile hit her in the back.
“Ah–”
“Oh no!” Marigold exclaimed.
“Second Chance!” Aspik said, grinning at the sight of Scar being in distress. And, as he reappeared in a minute before... he realized something.
Every time he had wanted to do something to Scar, he had held back because he knew he would have to deal with the consequences.
But, here and now?
He could do something... and then use Second Chance to undo it.
And he could do it... as many times as he wanted.
It was a bit of a jerk move, but, honestly, after dealing with Scar for months, he felt he had the right be a bit of a jerk.
Time to have some fun!
----
He tripped her.
“Ah–!”
She got hit by Desperada.
“Second Chance!”
----
He shoved her.
“Wuh–!”
She got hit by Desperada.
“Second Chance!”
----
He used her as a shield.
“Ad–!”
She got hit by Desperada.
“Second Chance!”
----
“Aspik...?” Marigold asked, shocked.
Alright, perhaps this one was too hard.
Who cared?
“Don't worry. You won't remember this. Second Chance!”
----
"Hey, Scar, guess what, I'm not just Adrien Agreste, I'm also Chat Noir, your 'sidekick'!"
Scar's face suddenly twisted into horror as the two images clashed against each other.
"YESSS, THAT'S THE FACE I WANTED! SECOND CHANCE!"
----
“If anything goes wrong, Second Chance will–”
“Sass, Scales Rest.”
Marigold gave a gasp of surprise as Adrien detransformed.
“I'm so sorry, Marigold,” Adrien apologized, returning the box with the bracelet. “It didn't work, no matter how hard I try. I just... can't protect you two.”
“No! We can try again!” she said, but he shook his head.
“Um–! N–No, I've been trying! Like, 25,913 times!”
“Oh no!” It must have been tough for Adrien, trying for so long without success! “Adrien, I'm so sorry for putting you through that!”
“I–It's okay.”
“We'll figure things out,” she encouraged. “Don't take it to heart, okay? We chose you for a reason, don't forget that!”
“U-huh,” Adrien replied, but he clearly was feeling guilty over what had happened.
----
“So what do we do now?” Scarlet asked, clearly irritated that she wouldn't get her way.
“Relax. I know just who to go to,” Marigold replied.
“Marigold?”
The Bee heroine turned to the voice.
“Luka! Right on time!”
“I was looking for Adrien, have you seen him?” Luka asked, worried.
“Yeah, he's right–”
And she turned to where Adrien was.
Or where he should have been.
Because now there was a vacuum in the form of her friend.
“Huh?! Where'd he go?!”
“He was right here!” Scarlet wailed.
“Guys!”
And, right on time, Chat Noir returned from whatever thing he had been doing as a civilian.
“Chat Noir!”
“Why are you sweating again?!”
“So–So much running,” he puffed.
As much as she wished to check on Adrien, Marigold knew the Akuma remained the priority, so she turned to Luka, offering him the Miraculous.
“Luka Couffaine, this is the Snake Miraculous, which grants the power of Second Chance. You will use it for the greater good and then you'll return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?”
“Absolutely!” Luka replied, and gingerly picked the box and opened it – causing a flash. “Wow!”
“Ah, another one,” Sass said, and Luka was clearly confused.
“Huh–?”
“Greetings. I am Sass and I'll be your Kwami.”
“A 'Kwami'?” Luka asked, pronouncing the unfamiliar concept.
“Alas, we have no time for explanations,” Sass said. “All you need to say is, 'Sass...'”
----
“Scales Slither!”
----
“Looks like Desperada is sniping from the Eiffel Tower,” the newly minted Viperion said after a quick look.
“Let's take away her vantage point with Chat Noir's Cataclysm!” Marigold suggested.
“And how are we supposed to find the Eiffel Tower from here?” Scarlet Lady pointed out, to which Marigold pointed at a sign. “Oh!”
Eiffel
Tower zone:
Wear a hard
hat in case
of Akuma
MANAGEMENT
“Yeah,” Chat Noir said, slightly embarrassed.
“Hm,” Viperion hummed, giving an amused smirk at Marigold. “You guys destroy the Eiffel Tower so often it's a work hazard zone.”
Marigold grumbled, whistling away her awkwardness.
“I mean, technically the Akuma destroys it, not us...”
And, as if to contradict her...
“Cataclysm!”
----
The heroes jumped into action, ready to stop the Akuma... but they ran into their own problems.
Like Scarlet Lady tripping and smacking Chat Noir, leaving them open to Desperada's attack.
“Second Chance!”
----
Or Scarlet Lady setting herself up for getting hit by Desperada's weapon.
“Second Chance.”
----
Or Scarlet Lady just bantering with the Akuma and getting distracted enough that she got hit. Again.
“Second Chance...”
----
“Could you maybe chill the FUCK out?!” Viperion asked, irritated with Scarlet Lady... who didn't know what was going on.
----
As Desperada tried to recover her wits, she saw Viperion playing his harp, sticking his tongue at her.
“YOU–!”
“You're OPEN~” Marigold declared as she entangled Desperada's left arm with her top.
“AH!”
“You're surrounded~” Chat Noir said, as Viperion grappled her other arm, forcing Desperada to her knees.
“AGH!”
“You're done~” Viperion finished, as Scarlet Lady struck the Akumatized guitar with her yo-yo, breaking it and freeing both everyone that had been trapped and the butterfly.
“AGHHHH!”
----
With Vivica now restored, and the air filled with ladybugs, the heroes split their tasks.
“I'll escort Mlle. to the houseboat while you return the Snake,” Chat Noir said, leaning on his baton while Vivica smiled at him.
“Sure,” Marigold agreed. “Let's go, Viperion!”
“Hey!” Scarlet yelled. “I'm coming too! Show me where you get the Miraculouses, Bumbling Bee!”
Marigold smirked.
“Sure.” And she opened the manhole cover. “You just have to come down here with us.”
“EWWW! Oh, look at that, timer's going off, byeeee!”
And Scarlet ran away as if she had a bird flying to eat her.
Marigold and Viperion had a bit of a laugh before the latter detransformed, and Luka returned the Miraculous.
“You were great, Luka,” Marigold praised him.
“We make a good team,” Luka replied. “Thanks for not actually taking me to the sewers.”
“I agree. Most new sssnakes have to use Sssecond Chance many more times or ssselfishly,” Sass said, flying next to Luka. “You're certainly a bright, caring young man. A perfect snake!”
Luka blushed and looked aside.
“Aw, geez.”
“You're right...” Marigold said, causing Luka to blush even harder.
“Marigold, you too?!”
----
Back at the houseboat, when confronted with the young guitarist, Jagged Stone knew he had to fix his mistake.
“Sorry, Vivica. Eating my cereal and drinking Fang's milk wasn't a good enough reason to fire you,” he apologized. “You can come back if you want, I'd love to play with you.”
“Me too!” Vivica cheered. “I'm in, Jagged!”
The girl left, happily humming a song as Jagged Stone and Anarka Couffaine looked at her fondly... before the latter looked at him with an ominous glare.
“You fired her on purpose to play with our kids, didn't you.”
Just like that. A statement of fact.
“I don't know what you're talking about.”
Just like that. A terrible deflection.
----
“Orange juice?”
Penny looked up from her tablet and saw Juleka holding two glasses of oh-so-inviting juice.
“Oh, thank you, Juleka,” Penny said as she picked one of the glasses, slowly sipping it and letting it help her relax: after the mess with Vivica and the Akumatization, that kind of thing really hit the spot.
“Maman and Papa think they're being slick, huh?” Juleka asked.
“Mhm,” she agreed, still drinking.
“Funny they think me and Luka don't know.”
“Yup, hilarious,” Penny replied, taking another sip.
“Well, at least we get a cool step-manager.”
The resulting spurt covered a good part of the deck in a sticky liquid that took a while to clean up.
----
Marinette took a deep breath and sat next to Luka. She really needed to follow on Adrien's suggestion.
“Luka?”
“Hm?”
“I'm sorry for being so weird lately.”
“Hey, I like Weird Marinette as much as Put-Together Marinette. And Passionate Marinette, Justice Marinette, Designer Marinette–”
“Okay, okay!” Marinette interrupted, struggling (and failing) to keep her cheeks from flushing.
“I'm just glad you didn't become Avoiding-Me Marinette,” Luka replied, smiling. “I didn't tell you how I feel to put pressure on you. I told you so you know how important you are to me.”
Marinette sighed in relief. It was just as Adrien had said.
“You're important to me too, Luka!” she said, smiling. “And I'll never run from being your friend!”
“Good,” he nodded, before his smile became a bit naughtier. “That said, I'm gonna compliment you a lot more to bring out Blushy Marinette.”
Oh.
Oh no.
“NoOOOOOO!” she wailed.
----
Adrien watched from afar as Marinette – completely red in the face – slapped the air next to a laughing Luka, and he sighed in relief.
“Whew. At least they're not dating,” he said out loud.
“This time.”
“Ah, Kagami!” Where did she come from?!
“Marinette can choose whomever she wants to date,” his friend said, “yet you don't make yourself a known option. Why?”
Oh. That. His life second's major irritant.
“There's an obstacle,” he said, crossing his arms. “A big, tall, annoying, dumb obstacle with bad fashion sense and is so selfish!”
Kagami patted his arm.
“I understand. Your father is a difficult person to overcome.”
“Eh?”
I meant Hawkmoth...
----
Ikari Gozen
@zoe-oneesama Adrien better make a move soon, lest he lose his chance with his Princess!
That's 453 pages, 180836 words, 974597 characters!
#scarlet lady the novel#fanfiction#milarqui#long post#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrien agreste#chat noir#aspik#luka couffaine#viperion#desperada
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Scarlet Lady: Puppeteer
Directory | Animan
“So, who's stealing Miraculouses today, Manon?” Marinette asked. It was one more afternoon of taking care of Nadja's daughter, and Manon wanted to play Heroes and Akumas again.
“Um... Lady WiFi!” Manon said, picking the doll that represented Alya's Akuma form, before picking another two. “And Rogercop and Evillustrator!”
“And the heroes?”
Manon pointed at her favorite hero dolls.
“You be Marigold and Chat Noir!”
“You never pick Scarlet Lady, Manon,” she pointed out.
“But her doll is so lame,” Manon complained, picking Small Lady up.
Just like the real thing! Marinette thought, smirking. What better way to represent how much Scarlet Lady sucked than making her representation a painted paper bag with a glued ponytail? Well, she could have made it lamer, but there were limits to her talent.
She picked Small Lady and tossed her aside, while she began to prepare for the game.
“So, Hawkmoth, who controls the Akumas, wants the Miraculouses.”
“What for?” Manon asked, curious. And Marinette realized she actually didn't know.
“That's actually never been clear,” she muttered, before deciding on what to tell Manon. “Uh, because then the bad guys... WOULD WIN!”
It didn't look like she was too worried by the idea, though, as she grabbed Small WiFi and Rogersmall and gave the kind of smug grin only a pre-schooler could give.
“Yeah! Gimme your Miraculouses so the bad guys can win!” the girl declared.
You're a little too gung-ho about this! Marinette thought as she picked Chaton Noir and Minigold. She'd better keep her away from Hawkmoth, or they might end up with a tiny minion in the making.
----
A couple of hours later, someone showed her head through the open trapdoor, just as their game was reaching its end.
“Have you been good, Manon?” Nadja asked, and Manon angrily pointed at Marinette with her free hand.
“Mommy, Marinette didn't let me win!” she complained.
Snitch! Marinette thought. Nadja sighed.
“Oh boy,” she said; knowing Manon, this could get out of hand if not properly handled. When Manon approached her, she gently picked up the Marigold doll Marinette had crafted, and admired it for a second before turning to her daughter. “Get your things and give the doll back to Marinette.”
“NO!” Manon yelled. “I'M KEEPING HER!”
And before Nadja could react, Manon grabbed the doll and pulled hard – ripping it apart from the arm she had been holding.
She gasped.
“Oh, Manon, look what you've done,” Nadja chided her daughter. Manon needed to learn to control herself and grow up a bit. Marinette carefully picked the doll and the arm and promised to fix it before the next time she babysat Manon, and a now downcast little girl followed her mother.
Until they reached the bottom of the stairs.
“Mommy, I left my bag,” Manon said.
Just before she could reply, her phone rang.
“Be quick while I take this,” she replied, and Manon walked back to Marinette's room while she spoke with Alec.
----
While Marinette checked her supplies to see what would be best to affix the arm back into the doll, she heard a pair of small shoes coming up the stairs.
“Manon?” she asked, and the little girl picked up her backpack – it looked like she had forgot to get it earlier.
“Can I have Marigold?” Manon asked, morosely, but Marinette shook her head.
“Mommy said no, remember? And I have to fix her.”
“Pleeeease?”
“Ah! No! Fine!” Damnit, when she put up those puppy-dog eyes it was impossible to stop her! She picked the nearest doll she could get. “I'll lend you Lady WiFi!”
Manon smiled and grabbed the doll, before stuffing it in her backpack and running down the stairs.
“Thanks Marinette!” she said, and once Manon was out of sight Pollen began to give Marinette a look.
“What?” Marinette asked, but Pollen didn't answer. “What?!”
She felt like she was about to get blackmailed with chili peppers as the price...
----
“Geez, that took forever,” Chloé complained as she entered her room.
“It was nice of you to get your father to allow your class's work experience field trip to be at the hotel,” Tikki replied as she enjoyed a cookie.
“Of course, aren't I the nicest?”
Tikki could see it coming, so she began to munch just a bit faster as she eyed the last cookies in the dish.
“And seeing them all have to work for me will be hilarious, utterly hilarious!”
There it was.
“Hmm,” she mumbled, enjoying the deliciousness of both polishing the dish and getting one over her wielder. “Well, I'm glad you have so much free time now, Chloé.”
“Why's that?” Chloé asked in her usual uncaring tone.
“Because you need to go buy more Tom & Sabine cookies.”
“YOU ATE ALL OF THEM?!”
Ah, the taste of victory.
Tasted like cookies, of course.
----
“Sorry, Alec, I thought I left it on your desk,” Nadja apologized as she arrived to his office.
“No big deal!” At worst, it only delayed that part of the work for a few minutes.
Before they could continue, Nadja turned towards her daughter, who seemed to be playing with a doll.
“Manon! That's Marinette's doll! You took it even when I told you no!” Nadja said in her best authoritative (or 'mom') tone.
“Marinette wanted me to have it!” Manon replied, holding onto the doll as Nadja walked up to her.
“And I told you no! I'm taking this, I am not happy, young lady!”
“Mommy, nooo, please, give it back!”
Alright, this felt really awkward. He knew that Nadja loved that little girl like nothing else and that she had good reason to act this way, but little Manon's shrieks were really uncomfortable to listen to, particularly as Nadja returned, acting like nothing was wrong.
“Let's go, it shouldn't take long,” his fellow reporter said, as Manon continued shouting.
“I didn't steal it! I want it!”
He felt a strange gust flowing from behind him, but when he turned there was nothing.
----
He was quite surprised that his new Akuma was someone that hadn't even started going to school. This child was the youngest person he had ever akumatized! It would be a bit of a struggle to make sure she understood what to do.
“Puppeteer, I am Hawkmoth.”
“Oo, then, you're giving me powers?”
Just like that?
“Why, yes!”
“And I just gotta get you the Miraculouses?”
“Exactly!” This was certainly another record. Not even thirty seconds in, and his target was ready to act. “Geez, why can't all my Akumas be this informed?”
Maybe he should set up some kind of free seminar so people knew what they had to do when akumatized?
Nah, too much work.
----
Marinette and Alya ran into the Metro station, knowing that their train might pass at any time!
Fortunately, when they arrived to the platform, they saw that the next train was still four minutes away.
“Whew, we made it! So, movie or bookstore first?” Marinette asked as she checked her phone. Alya looked to a side and pointed away.
“How about that first?”
“What?” She turned to look in the direction Alya was pointing, and found someone she could easily recognize.
----
“Adrien!”
“AH!” Adrien yelped. His name being pronounced so suddenly made him fear he was about to be assaulted by (potentially deranged) fans, but to his relief it was Alya and Marinette.
“Yikes! I thought you were my fans!” he said, and the two girls made kawaii poses. Adrien wasn't certain if his heart was beating so hard from the shock or because of how cute Marinette looked.
“Only your best fans!” Alya declared.
----
She landed in front of the reception lady. She always said hi with a smile when she came with Mommy. Maybe she'd want to have fun?
“Wanna play with me?”
“Nope!”
She pouted as the lady ran away. Just like every other adult she found. None of them ever wanted to play with her!
So, she just went the same way Mommy did.
“Mommy took my doll, so it's probably in the studio,” she told M. Hawkmoth, who was listening to her.
“Excellent deduction, Puppeteer.”
“Shh, M. Hawkmoth,” she whispered. “Mommy can't catch us.”
“And why is that?”
“Cuz Mommy will get mad and I'll get in trouble!”
“You know you're an akuma, right?” M. Hawkmoth replied.
“Yeah, and she's still Mom! It's not worth it!”
----
Alya chuckled.
“You ran from your bodyguard?” she asked, shaking.
“I wanted to see a movie,” Adrien replied, shrugging a bit.
“Which one?” Marinette asked, smiling. Knowing what she did about Adrien, any opportunity for freedom was welcome. And, hey, Alya and here were already planning to go to the cinema! Adrien likely wanted to see a decent –
----
Puppeteer aimed her wand at the doll.
“Lady WiFi! Come to life!”
----
Suddenly, Alya began to shine with a blue light from her feet, and it went up her body.
“W-What's happen–!” Alya managed to let out before the light reached up to her face.
“ALYA!” Marinette shouted, horrified by whatever was happening to her friend –
“Marinette! Gimme the hero dolls!”
“Huh?”
Marinette blinked. Where Alya had been, now stood Lady WiFi, her Akuma, but there had been no butterfly, nor had Alya been angered for any reason. How had she been akumatized again?
“I want them, I want them, I want them!” Alya – Lady WiFi – shouted, sounding more like a toddler than someone her own age.
“But, why?!” Marinette asked, hoping to keep her distracted and that Chat Noir would arrive soon. Lady WiFi pouted and looked aside.
“Even though you said I could have them, Mommy said no, so you gimme them!”
Wait a –
“Manon?!”
Damnit, I shouldn't have let her keep the doll!
“It's Puppeteer!” Lady WiFi said, jumping. Marinette realized that Manon had likely been given the power to control people through dolls. “I'm gonna get all the Miraculouses and I'll be the strongest and win!”
“MANON CHAMACK! IF YOU DON'T STOP I'M CALLING YOUR MOM!”
----
Adrien carefully stepped out of the way, seeking a place to hide and transform. If this Akuma could transform people into their Akumas, he needed to act quick!
----
Chloé pushed the door open, and glared down at her bag.
“You better appreciate what I do for you.”
“Whatever,” Tikki replied, dismissively, before looking up. “Hey, what's that?”
Chloé looked up and saw something she definitely didn't expect.
“Wha–?! Lady WiFi?! What's she doing here!” she exclaimed, as she saw the Akuma enter through one of the windows at the top of the building she had just exited. “Breaking and entering again, she's trying to prove Dupain-Cheng is Scarlet Lady again!”
“You think so?” Tikki asked, disbelieving, but Chloé didn't care.
“I'll stop her!”
“So transform,” Tikki said as Chloé began to run.
“After I find the perfect spot! You don't expect me to hide behind trees or go into a dirty subway, do you?!”
Tikki rolled her eyes.
----
She wasn't shocked when Chat Noir showed up right in front of her, with his Cheshire grin and his pretty green eyes.
“We meet again, Purrincess,” he said, raising an eyebrow as he silently reminded her of her promise.
“I promise, it's not on purpose!” Marinette replied, waving a hand, and he got just a bit closer.
“What's this about dolls? You have one of yours truly?”
Oh, god, he was so adorkable she wanted to eat him! She blushed and tapped her kitty's nose with a finger.
“Omigod, just go before you become a puppet,” she said, and he nodded.
“Good point.” Chat Noir turned around and began to run up the stairs. “Stay safe!”
As he walked away, she realized something, even as Pollen came out of her bag.
“Now it's our turn, My Queen!” she exclaimed, but when Marinette didn't answer, Pollen became worried. “My Queen?”
Marinette brought her hands to her face.
“Chat Noir is going in my room!”
She had remembered a tad too late about the doll.
And the news.
And her computer screen background.
And the photo collage.
“Oh dear.”
----
Fortunately, it seemed like Marigold had heard of the Akuma and showed up at the top of the Dupain-Cheng's home very soon.
Unfortunately, so had Scar.
“Wow, color me shocked, Scarlet,” Marigold greeted the latter, who glared back.
“That's Scarlet Lady, newbee!”
As much as he'd like to rebuke Scar, time was of the essence.
“Let's go!” he said, jumping on his baton and retracting it so he could reach Marinette's bedroom – where he saw the controlled Lady WiFi with Marinette's bag and several dolls inside. “Puppeteer! It's not nice to steal from your babysitter!”
Scar landed next to him and began to twirl her yo-yo.
“Scarlet Lady's gonna give you a spank–”
CRUNCH
Looking down, Chat Noir saw a paper bag painted red with black polka dots and a glued-on yellow ponytail – and bit his lip to avoid laughing out loud.
“What is this?! Is this supposed to be me?!” Scar shrieked, and he barely held onto it.
“It's a spitting image,” he fired. Scar just leaned down, picked her bag – and ripped it apart.
“NO FAAAAIR! That's CHEATING!” the Puppeteer-ed Lady WiFi yelled, waving her arms and triggering several pause symbols around them. “Gimme your Miraculouses you bunch of super evil goodie two shoeses!”
“Give me your Akuma!” Marigold shouted, holding Lady WiFi off with her top, and he saw the opening. He was unable to pull the bag away, but he managed to reach out to its contents.
“I've got Chaton Noir!” he said, literally letting the cat out of the bag.
“Hey!” Lady WiFi yelled. Before they could do more, though, she barreled through them flying away with the bag and crying. “I'm telling on you!”
“Oh no, Minigold!” Marigold exclaimed, and he realized that he had seen the Marigold doll among those Lady WiFi had taken with her. “What are we gonna do?!”
“Just stay home,” Scar said, uncaring. “We've done this before.”
“But she got all the dolls, they'll outnumber you!”
“Don't worry, Goldie,” he said. “I know where to get backup. Best if you just sit this one out.”
Marigold pouted.
“Ughhh. I guess.”
----
This was the kind of moment he liked. No clients, no dealing with Akumas or Miraculouses. Just... time to relax. A song of his youth came to mind and he began to whistle, remembering happier times.
SLAM!
“MASTER, MARIGOLD'S BEEN TAKEN OUT, I NEED A MIRACULOUS!” Adrien shouted.
“AH!”
Relax time over.
----
Marinette grumbled.
“This sucks.”
“Chat Noir is right, My Queen,” Pollen said. “As long as you're not transformed, the doll will not affect you, since Hawkmoth and Puppeteer don't know your identity.”
There was that, at least.
“You'll just have to delegate to a temporary worker bee,” Pollen continued.
“Oh yeah, I wonder who Chat Noir will choose,” she pondered.
“MARINETTE, THIS IS THE MOUSE MIRACULOUS!”
“AH!”
Chat Noir seemed to have made his choice.
“You'll use this to defeat and return it to me!” Chat Noir declared, his eyes sparkling even as he huffed.
“M-Me?!”
Talk about ironic.
“The kwami's name is Mullo and your power is called 'Multitude, which splits you into tiny–”
“Whoa, slow down!” Marinette begged – while feeling Pollen's surprisingly piercing glare from behind her.
----
“There, she's still here,” Scarlet Lady said, pointing at Puppeteer in one screen. “I've sent my sidekicks to get more assistance, so just leave it to me.”
Alec thought the girl could do well as a comical villain in TV. She had the hamming up pat down.
“Thank you, Scarlet Lady, I knew I could rely on you.”
----
He grabbed Scar by the shoulder.
“Yo, Scar.”
“AHHHHHH–!”
He quickly covered her mouth with a hand.
“Shh, you wanna blow our cover?!” he chastised her, even as she tried to grumble out what he could guess were certain bad words.
“Wouldn't be the first time,” the transformed Marinette said. That was when Chloé realized she was there. “Oh, you can call me Multimouse.”
He pouted, even as Scar tried to shake him off.
“Aw, not Minimouse?” That name was pretty perfect.
“Pretty sure that's trademarked.”
----
Puppeteer was still angry that she didn't get all the dolls she wanted, and that bad Chat Noir had stolen the Chat Noir doll, but she had the same ones she had played with earlier!
“Evillustrator, Rogercop, Marigold! Come to life!” she exclaimed, and the dolls began to shine.
Well, only Evillustrator and Rogercop began to shine. Marigold's doll just stayed where it was, smiling and sitting.
And then it slumped.
Cheaters! They didn't let her win!
She jumped into Lady WiFi.
“WAAAH! IT DIDN'T WORK, MEANIES, MEANIES!”
The door was suddenly slammed open, and the three heroes entered – but one of them wasn't one she knew.
“You're cornered, Puppeteer!”
“Wha–?! Wait, who is that?!” she said, pointing at the new one.
“The Mighty Multimouse!”
“Pretty sure that's also trademarked,” Chat Noir said, but she didn't care. That was cheating! They couldn't bring someone new!
“No fair! You don't have a doll!” she cried out, huge tears dropping down her face. “Hawkmoth! They won't let me wiiiiin!”
“There, there,” Hawkmoth said. Felt like when Mommy's bald friend tried to comfort her.
----
“You didn't even bring the Chat Noir doll!” Puppeteer complained, and Multimouse chuckled.
“Well, that'd be pretty dumb, right?”
“I. Want. That. Doll!”
“Too bad~!” she sing-sang.
“And it's super hidden too!” Chat Noir added, grinning.
“Gimme your Miraculouses you super evil not pretty goodie two shoeses!”
“WHAT?!” Scar yelled. “I'll show you who's 'not pretty', brat! Lucky Charm!”
Hey, first time Scar's fighting someone with her maturity!
This time, the Lucky Charm was an extension cord.
“What do I do with this?!” Scar asked. He wondered if she had ever seen one of those.
“I'll take that,” Multimouse said, and quickly she began to swing the extension cord and the jump rope that acted as her weapon/tail, blocking and deflecting everything the transformed people (Lady WiFi, Rogercop, and Evillustrator) were throwing at her.
“Ha! Yah!” Multimouse yelled, smiling. “That all you got?!”
He barely paid attention to Lady WiFi as she struggled against his baton. He wanted to marry that girl!
“Wow,” he let out, as Multimouse stopped swinging both objects.
----
“Multitude!”
Turning from being one normal-sized Multimouse to a crowd of toy-sized Multimice was a bit of a shock, but she was able to quickly recover and began to swarm the enemy. She tackled Rogersmall and Small WiFi and Tinyllustrator, and the Akumas began to ragdoll (oh God, that was such a Chat Noir thing to say!) on the ground, along with the dolls.
“Wha–hey! Get off! Those are my dolls!” Puppeteer exclaimed.
“No, they're my dolls!” she replied, jumping on the Akuma's hand and biting it.
“OW!” the Akuma shouted, dropping her wand, which she quickly grabbed with her own help and ran away for Chat Noir.
“And now this is mine!” she chorused.
“NOOOOO!” Puppeteer yelled, but it was too late. Chat Noir destroyed the object, she returned to her normal-sized form, and Scarlet purified the butterfly and cast the Miraculous Cure. The three people that had been transformed came back to normal.
“What, how–?” Officer Raincomprix said, clearly being taken away while he was working.
“Where am I?” Nathaniel asked, a pencil on his notebook.
“Hey!” Alya shouted, bringing out her phone. “Who's that?! A new hero?!”
Chat Noir was looking at her, sparkling, and she realized there was a bit of a bad side to this: if he kept trying to get her Miraculouses to turn into provisional heroes, she wouldn't be able to act as Marigold anymore – so she knew what to do.
She began to take off her pendant.
“Here you go, Chat Noir,” she said, and gave him the pendant, feeling as her Multimouse costume faded away.
“No, wait not here!” Chat Noir shouted, but it was too late.
“Oops!” she added.
“Marinette?!” Alya shouted. She ignored her for a moment – she had to sell the 'mistake' so Chat Noir wouldn't come to her with a Miraculous again.
“Oh nooo, now I can't be Multimouse again, I'm so soooorry!”
She could feel Mullo grinning... while Chat Noir was crying as he held the pendant.
“Why,” he asked with a tiny voice, one that made her want to pet her kitten and make him purr, but she resisted the temptation.
Manon walked up to her, bouncing and sparkling, as if she had met her favorite hero.
“Woooooow, Marinette's a superhero!” the little girl said, so maybe she had met her favorite hero.
“I was, but we have to keep it a secret from Hawkmoth, okay?” she commanded, and Manon nodded.
“Okay, pinkie promise!” Manon replied, extending her finger – and Marinette hooked hers around it.
“That's my girl.”
Then Manon turned to everyone else in the room, little finger still extended.
“C'mon, everyone, pinkie promise!”
What.
“Wait, you don't have to–” she tried to interrupt, but Manon being what she was...
“PINKIE PROMISE!”
So everyone (even Scarlet) joined their pinkies, even if they felt awkward.
Save for Chat Noir, who was clearly laughing.
“I pinkie promise,” everyone said.
“Sorry.”
As Officer Roger left (taking Nathaniel with him) and Scarlet jumped out of the window, she felt an arm going around her shoulders.
“Giiiiirl.”
Oh, yeah.
“Alya,” she said in a knowing tone.
“Giiiiiiiiiiiiirl!”
She resigned herself to the unavoidable.
“I will give you an interview about Puppeteer, and an interview about Multimouse, but no interview about me being Multimouse.”
“Yay!”
Alright, that was enough. At least Alya understood that she really didn't want Hawkmoth to stake out her house!
----
Pollen glared at her Queen when she landed with her Cat on the balcony, still using that jerk Mullo's Miraculous.
“Guess this is goobye, ma Souris,” Chat Noir said.
“Sorry, Chaton,” her Queen replied, before finally detransforming – which meant that the jerk showed up.
“That was so much fun! You were a great mouse!”
“Oh, thank you Mullo!” her Queen said, and gave the jerk a hug – and the jerk actually smirked at her!
Oh, what she would give to be able to use Venom on the jerk!
Instead, as soon as Chat Noir took the jerk away, she snuck back into the room and sat on her Queen's bed, her back to the hatch.
“Pollen, I'm back!”
“Did you have fun as a mouse?” she asked, sullen.
“Huh?” The hatch was closed. “Waaait. Pollen, are you jealous?”
She chose not to answer, even as she kept buzzing. It was not fair! That jerk shouldn't be anywhere close to her Queen!
Who suddenly picked her up with her hands and brought her close.
“Oh, Pollen, you know you and the comb will always be my number 1!” she said, giving her a kiss.
… Well, alright, maybe she could forgive her Queen.
If she pampered her a bit more.
----
IT WASN'T FAIR!
SHE HAD ALREADY BEEN WITH PLAGG!
SHE WAS CARRYING POLLEN!
AND NOW SHE USED MULLO?!
WHY DID MARINETTE HAVE SO MANY MIRACULOUSES WHILE SHE WAS STILL STUCK WITH CHLOÉ BOURGEOIS?!?!?!
“You've been like that since I said Dupain-Cheng got another Miraculous! What is wrong with you?!”
“WAHHH!”
----
The next day, Nadja had once more arranged for her to babysit, and as always she brought Manon on time (she had learned her lesson from the cake incident, at least).
“Look, Marinette, Mommy gave me ears like Multimouse!” Manon said, showing her little buns that were, indeed, shaped like her hair in that form.
“Cute!” she said, smiling, even if she knew Manon's change was going to be short. I'm definitely not getting the Mouse again!
That way laid too many problems.
As Manon went on to jump onto her bed, she walked up to Nadja.
“Sorry about yesterday. I shouldn't have lent it to her when you said no.”
“No big deal,” Nadja replied with a smile. “I know she can be very convincing with those puppy-dog eyes. You'll be immune eventually!”
She sure hoped so.
After Nadja said her goodbyes, Manon turned to her.
“I wanna play with Marigold and Chat Noir!”
“Actually, we're working on a special project,” she replied.
“Project?” Manon asked, curious. Marinette brought the girl to the table where she had already prepared the pieces for her newest doll.
“We're gonna make Multimouse!”
“Really?!”
You'd think she was told she could become Multimouse!
“She has to stay here because she's a secret, okay?” she said, poking Manon's cheek. “But she's just for Manon.”
“Just for me!” Manon cheered up – and turned to her with puppy-dog eyes. “Can we take her to the zoo?!”
“Oh, boy.”
What's the point of telling you it's got to be a secret if you want to take it to the zoo?!
----
Pixelator
@zoe-oneesama: if it weren't for the rules, maybe Marinette could have made a Hawkmoth doll and have Puppeteer turn on him?
@nobodyfamousposts: What would happen if Marinette made a Minigold doll like Littlebug and Chaton Noir?
Alright, so, that's Puppeteer out of the list... still 19 chapters from reaching the comic.
#scarlet lady the novel#scarlet lady#milarqui#fanfiction#long post#marinette dupain cheng#marigold#adrien agreste#chat noir#scarlet lady is better than canon#manon chamack#puppeteer
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