#buggiewrites

Marinette was running on 2 hours of sleep. Again.

She had a busy schedule okay? Balancing ESMOD classes, commission work, and searching for Lila Rossi aka Hawkmoth 2.0 took up a lot of time. So sometimes she just had to make up the sleep deficit with caffeine.

Ah yes, whether she was knee deep in fabric or dealing with an akuma at 2 am, coffee was always there to help her through. And after pulling such a late night finishing assignments, she needed some desperately.

Too bad her roommate hid all of her coffee. 

Adrien had claimed that it was "for her own good" and that he was "saving her from an early grave" like the both of them weren't basically demigods after so many years of miraculous exposure. Well, she had been wanting to try the small café she always passed by anyways. This just the perfect opportunity.

Doesn't mean she's not getting back at Adrien though.

                                                          ----------

Marinette stepped into the café and took a deep inhale at the pleasant aromas of coffee beans and fresh pastries.

Despite the small shops location and the time of day, coupe du destin was fairly uncrowded. There was a very inviting aura about the place, reminding her of the many days spent at Fu's old tea shop as a teen. While someone had been leaving as she entered, besides that there was only one other customer in the café.

She was thankful that she wouldn't have to deal with the usual morning rush line, especially since there only seemed to be one person working. It was a girl who seemed to be a couple years younger than Marinette with a smile that put the sun to shame, and she was saying that as someone who knew Adrien Agreste.

The young lady at the counter, Felicity according to her name tag, smiled at her. 

"Welcome to coupe du destin! What can I get for you today?" She greeted with enthusiasm

After ordering herself a caffe mocha, Marinette watched as the lively barista flew between machines and equipment creating her beverage, she honestly wasn't sure if the girl knew what she was doing, maybe it was her first day? Eventually the barista came back over to the counter with the finished drink.

Of course though that's when things got just a touch odd

After paying for her drink, the barista looked to be analyzing her. Though It was almost as if she was looking through her, straight into Marinette's soul.

Now if she were anyone else, she probably would have been more creeped out by something like that. But she was Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Guardian of the Miraculi and heroine of Paris. Honestly this didn't even make top three for weird things she's seen this week. It also helped that the girls analytic gaze reminded her of Luka. She still wasn't sure whether or not he was a meta of some sort or if he just like that, but this barista had the same look in her eyes as when Luka would figure out somebody's heartsong.

She could only hope that the girl wasn't about to pull a guitar out from under the counter.

After the peculiar girl had been studying her for a minute she stopped and broke into another wide grin with a newfound gleam in her eye.

Thankfully the barista did not at this point pull out a guitar, instead having grabbed a red pen from a mason jar next to the register and quickly drawing something on something on the cup before handing it to Marinette.

The drawing was of a robin.

After paying, Marinette finally got to try her coffee. Marinette took a sip and... it was the best coffee she had ever had. She was definitely making this her go-to café from now on. And if Adrien kept hiding her home supply, she would likely soon be a regular.

She wouldn't get to finish her heavenly coffee though, apparently being a superhero for nearly a decade had not made her any less accident-prone. As she turned around to leave the shop, she walked right into a man who was getting up from his seat and spilled her coffee all over both of them.

Only one other customer in the café, and she somehow managed to run right into the guy. So much for having the goddess of luck in her purse.

She finally got a good look at the guy. He was about her age, maybe a year or two older, but that could just be how tired he looked, somehow he seemed even more exhausted than her which was quite the feat. Other than looking like he was gonna pass out any minute, he was quite attractive. Like her, he had black hair and blue eyes, Though his eyes were more of a gunmetal than her shade of bluebell. Average height, and very well built. And his suit…

Oh sweet Tikki she was so dead. That suit was designer, it can't have cost less than somewhere in the quadruple digits. And she spilled coffee all over it. She was so screwed.

This guy was probably loaded and she ruined his suit and now he's gonna ruin her. He was gonna sue her for all she's worth and she'll have to fake her death and go live all alone in Tibet and her only company will be Tikki and a hamster named-

"Are you okay?" The man before her asked, with a concerned look that managed to break her out of her catastrophizing. While her spirals had gotten better as she got older (and a therapist), evidently the lack of sleep was bringing them out in full force today.

"I'm so sorry! I should have been paying better attention to where I was going." Her mouth finally caught up with her brain as she began apologizing.

The man began to reassure her "Don't worry about it, it was just as much my fault. I am sorry about your coffee though, could I buy you a new one?"

Oh yeah her coffee, about half the cup was lost in the collision. "Oh no it's fine, if anything I should be offering to pay for your dry cleaning considering I totally ruined your suit."

"Really it's fine, plus I'm getting myself another anyways."

Well if a cute guy was gonna offer her free coffee who was she to refuse?

"You know in that case I might just take you up on that offer…"

"Tim."

"Nice to meet you Tim, my name's Marinette."

                                                          ----------

Two years ago If you told her that Lila Rossi would somehow actually manage to take almost everything away from the then 14 year old designer she probably wouldn't have believed you. She had faith in her friends which, looking back was a pretty big mistake. She was less than surprised when most of her classmates began freezing her out. It stung but it’s not like they ever really helped her during Chloe’s original reign of terror so in a sense nothing really changed except for the person behind the pain.

What did surprise her-and perhaps stung the most-was that her closest friends left her as well. Alya had been enamored by stories of celebrities and quick to end their friendship when Lila cried about all of the terrible things Marinette had done and said to the transfer student. Nino remained mostly neutral but was dating Alya so it wasn’t exactly easy to hang out like they used to.

And Adrien? What a bullet she dodged there.

The sweet boy who gave her an umbrella and became her first real crush had proven himself to be way too passive. His many speeches about the high road and how nobody was being hurt had chipped away at that crush until there was barely a spark left.

A spark that was finally put out when she discovered that he was her (now former) superhero partner.

Luckily the young heroine wasn't completely alone. While she hadn't told them the full story with the Lila situation lest either of them get akumatized her parents still had a sixth sense for when she was low on fumes and would always find a way to brighten her day. Her Uncle Jagged and Aunt Penny were still there too, having become part of her family in all but blood and name. It had come as quite a shock the first time she came downstairs for family game night and saw the two of them sipping hot-cocoa and exchanging stories with her parents as Fang slept on the floor, But it had slowly become a regular occurrence in the Dupain-Cheng household for them to drop by whenever they had the time.

She had made new friends too. Her and Luka grew closer and even dated for a couple months before realizing that their melodies worked better platonically, becoming best friends ever since. The two would regularly have  ‘creativity sessions’ where Luka would test out his newest songs as Mari worked on her designs.

Her and Kagami had also grown closer once they both realized that their blossoming friendship was more valuable than a battle over a boy that they both had kinda grown out of their feelings for. They had started meeting once a week to enjoy some orange juice and fence and it had just evolved from there, Marinette had even been the first person Kagami came out to as gay. Kagami was also the first person she decided to share her identity as a superhero with. Luka had already known-a result of his second akuma as Viperion-but it felt different to make an active decision to share that part of her life with someone.

The most surprising addition to her friend group though, was one Chloe Bourgeois. Marinette wasn't really sure what to expect when the blonde had asked her to talk after school one day, but it certainly was not an apology. Chloe had explained that she had been in therapy for the past few months trying to better herself, and that seeing how Lila was really drove the point home for her in accepting how wrong her previous actions had been. Their friendship was rocky at first, as that much history doesn’t just disappear overnight, but it had slowly grown as the heiress proved over time how she really had changed. Sitting next to each other in class had led to them passing notes which led to them grabbing lunch together sometimes which somehow, eventually, led to the two becoming pseudo-sisters. She had been the third person to find out she was Ladybug, when one day she swung into her room mid-transformation only to realize that Chloe had shown up early for their sleepover that night.

At some point in all of this, her three friends also became friends with each other, forming a close knit group. Their varied personalities all seemed to balance each other out, which made them the perfect team in more ways than one.

 Which is why she decided to make them all permanent Miraculous holders.

Shortly after her 16th birthday, Master Fu asked her to take over as guardian of the Miracle box. He wasn't getting any younger and had managed to find a way to preserve his memories after passing on guardianship, so that he could still help should the need ever arise. Marinette was apprehensive but she had technically finished all of her training and she wanted Fu to have a chance at a nice retirement so she said yes.

The next day, just hours after she wished her teacher safe travels she made a very important decision. A decision to revoke Chat Noir’s ring.

You see, as Guardian it's kind of important to know who holds the magical pieces of jewelry that are your job to protect. Therefore Fu made the ever wise decision to tell her before promptly riding off into the sunset.

To say that Marinette was upset at the atomic bomb dropped on her was a bit of an understatement. She actually made the executive decision to have Kaalki portal her out of Paris just so that she could mentally unpack everything without risking an akuma. She stared up at the sky from the field she had landed in for what felt like hours and eventually came to accept a few things that she’d honestly been feeling for awhile.

Like the fact that sacrificing himself every other battle wasn't actually that heroic, especially when most of the hits he took for her she would have dodged anyways. Or the fact that he would act out whenever she asked him to take things more seriously by showing up late to akumas and threatening to quit. She had been considering talking to Fu about his behavior for awhile but was always stopped by the fact that they had been fighting together since day one, she wanted to believe in her kitty but finding out he was Adrien had been the last straw.

As Adrien, he had remained passive in the face of injustice many times. He had rarely if ever taken any real action in stopping Chloe’s behavior and he seemed to be taking the same approach with Lila. She understood that Gabriel definitely was partly to blame for his skewed worldview, but Adrien had been going to public school for 4 years now. He had been present for multiple mental health awareness assemblies and they had even appeared together as Ladybug and Chat in an anti-bullying PSA a couple years ago. It honestly baffled her that he still truly believed that the high road method could work.

Simply put, she just couldn't trust him to act as a hero anymore. She made a plan, but for it to work she needed help.

Well she had been planning to expand team Miraculous anyways, but this gave her the perfect chance to set those plans into motion. Marinette needed people she could work well with and she just happened to know three people who would make perfect teammates. Luka had already been appearing as Viperion more as Chat showed up to less fights, so the only real change was that Sass would get to go home with him at the end of the day. Chloe had been a bit harder seeing as all of Paris knew she had been Queen Bee, but Marinette was nothing if not determined. After a couple of weeks of her working with Chloe and Pollen on a new suit design, Abeille Royale was born. The finishing touch was Chloe and the new hero to be spotted near each other in public with some assistance from Trixx and they were good to go. Which just left Kagami.

Her original plan had been similar for the one she had for Chloe, but then she remembered something. To preserve balance the Miraculous of destruction needed to remain active, which meant she needed a new black cat. Now she could have jumped in front of oncoming traffic to see who saved her, but she was not willing to test her luck that much even with the boost Tikki gave her. This meant she needed to pick someone she already trusted. She didn't see a Chloe/Plagg team up going well for anyone involved so that was gonna be a hard no. Luka would have possibly worked, but the power of the snake was just too valuable of an asset to take off the roster. But Kagami? Now that would work.

While it was true that Kagami was much more well suited for the dragon, she would still work well as the black cat. She enjoyed a bit of chaos, but was disciplined enough to not be dragged into any of Plagg’s crazier ideas. She also understood the responsibility of holding such a powerful item, not one to take such a duty lightly. After talking with her about it Kagami had accepted the position becoming Kuro Neko.

After that they just had to get the ring back which was surprisingly easy. As Chat didn't know that she had given out more Miraculous again, she just had to wait for him to show up to a patrol. She played distraction and Abeille snuck up behind him with a venom, freezing him as she took back the ring. Finally, she cast a spell that would prevent him from sharing anything about him being Chat Noir as a safety measure. While he may not have as much knowledge about the miraculous as her, he did have some information and she was not going to risk letting Hawkmoth get his hands on any of it. And with that problem solved she finally had her team.

And from there things got a bit easier, with an actual team helping her and the seeming disappearance of Mayura akuma fights began to end way quicker and it felt like they were slowly making progress towards finding Hawkmoth. 

But when can things ever stay that nice?

                                                          ----------

Again, Marinette was no stranger to bad days but coupled with the week she had been having so far her patience was wearing thin.

Earlier that week, Chloe had shown up to the bakery in near tears. After calming down she shared the news that her Mother was going back to the states on Thursday, which while a bummer wasn't the issue. The issue was that she was bringing Chloe with her. While the blonde was happy to be getting time with her Mom, she didn’t want to abandon her team. Marinette assured her that while she wouldn't be able to be on the front lines anymore, she didn't have to quit the team. Seeing as the young heiress was scarily organised (perhaps even more than Marinette) She could continue to remotely assemble case files on each akuma and keeping tabs on any possible leads to Hawkmoth's identity. In addition, the city Chloe was moving to seemed to have heroes with ties to the justice league so they could finally try to get help again since they never responded to the video messages Ladybug sent at the beginning of her hero career. She had no idea how news of the akumas never made it out of France, but she suspected it was a mix of magic and corrupt officials. The plan was to have Abeille track down the heroes and explain the situation, with Ladybug teleporting in if necessary, and to establish a line of communication between them while requesting assistance.

From there the rest of the week was spent with the four friends enjoying as much time as possible together before their bee had to fly an ocean away. Kagami and Chloe also finally admitted their feelings for each other and while long distance isn't easy, they were going to try and make it work. And if Marinette lent out Kaalki every once in awhile? Well nobody had to know. If anything it was her duty as future maid of honor.

But still Thursday came and tears were shed as Chloe got ready to board her private jet. As hard as it was they stayed and watched as she took off, before all heading back to their respective homes.

Which brings us to today, the first day of school Marinette would have to endure without Chloe.

The day started off well enough, She woke up on her first alarm for once which gave her plenty of time to do some morning meditation before getting ready and heading down to the bakery and grabbing breakfast. She enjoyed a small croissant and some fruit while catching up her parents and helping out here and there before heading out to school.

Which is when her day began to sour. 

First she ‘tripped’ over somebody's foot while heading up the front stairs. Then in English, it was announced that they would have a partner assignment and she was paired with Alya, her former best friend who now hates her guts. At least it wasn't Lila. Alya tried to get switched on the grounds of ‘not wanting to work with a bully’ but partner assignments were final so the red haired girl settled for glaring at her throughout the class leading up to their lunch hour.

Things didn't get much better after lunch either. She came back to class early to avoid bumping into Lila’s group in the courtyard only to come face to face with the liar minutes later when the girl came to the back of the class and ‘spilled’ her iced coffee on the designer’s sketchbook. On the bright side, Marinette only ever brought a travel book with her to school after the first time this kind of thing happened. It was still annoying to clean up though.

After that, the rest of the school day went by mostly without incident. There were a couple of little jabs from her former friends here and there but nothing she wasn't already used to.

Eventually the final bell rang and she breathed a sigh of relief. She had a new bath bomb waiting for her at home and she was excited to use it. But first she had to get out of school without having to interact any further with her classmates, which turned out to be easier said than done.

Adrien decided to invite himself to walk her home, which meant she was due for another speech about the high road. She honestly wasn't even sure what she did this time and she didn’t really care to find out.

These talks had become such a regular occurrence that she tended to just kind of zone him out as he followed her home. It was kind of impressive that his bodyguard never came for him, maybe Gabriel gave in and loosened the leash after Nathalie quit? She was a bit surprised he still hadn’t found a replacement considering it must be quite difficult to run such a large company when you never leave your house but she supposed that's what technology is for.

Eventually, they reached the bakery and the bluenette was free at last. She even took the side entrance that led directly into the apartment stairs so that Adrien couldn't follow her in. She may have been a little petty in closing the door a bit harder than necessary, but she didn't really have the energy to care at that point.

The rest of her evening went by in relative peace. She had already caught up on homework over lunch and it was a slow time of year for commissions, so she helped out in the bakery until after dinner.

After telling her parents good night, she went to go enjoy her bath. Just as she went to go unwrap her fancy bath bomb, her room began to shake, causing the bath bomb to fall from her hands and shatter on the floor. Before she could even process the poor cherry-blossom scented bombs fate, the akuma alarm sounded. While that explained her room shaking, having to fight hawkmoths fashion disaster of choice really wasn’t how she wanted to end her already crappy day. Nevertheless, she walked back into her bedroom, slightly grateful  that she hadn't actually gotten in the bathtub yet, and called for Tikki.

Tikki, who was already waiting after hearing the akuma alarm flew over and gave her the rundown on what had been in the alert.

“It seems to be a new akuma, powers are unknown but they're headed for the Eiffel tower, Kuro Neko and Viperion are already on the scene since it was their night for patrol anyways.” the small Kwami informed her.

Marinette sighed in resignation. New akumas were always a bit of a pain. Not knowing the enemies powers and weaknesses was dangerous, not to mention it made the battle drag out a good bit longer than one against a repeat. Her work wasn't over after the battle though. The next day she would need to assemble all of the information regarding the battle, track down and conduct an interview with the victim about what led up to their possession, and send it all over to Chloe so that she can assemble a case file. 

Accepting the fact that she likely was not going to get much sleep that night, The heroine got into fight mode.

“Tikki spots on!”

And with that, she swung off into the night.

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Well well well look who finally got around to cross-posting this asdfg, anyways I hope you enjoyed chapter 1!! I have 5 chapters up on ao3 at the moment so I’ll probably post one a day here until I'm caught up so that I'm not spamming the tag on accident.

Her to-do list for the day, while short, was fairly time consuming. First she needed to head to the fabric shop to get the supplies for her most recent batch of commissions, then she needed to meet up with Alya (who she was so not looking forward to dealing with) so that they could get started on their english project, and after that she needs to interview the previous nights akuma victim for their case file.

Which reminds her that she should check and see if Chloe ever responded to her text. Opening up her messaging app, she’s greeted with two texts. The first is from the number she texted last night, the one that has turned out to be the number of someone who is very much not Chloe. Marinette was all of a sudden very grateful for the code that her and her team had come up with for any messages regarding hero work. Hopefully she could just thank the unknown number for alerting her of the mistake and leave it at that.

The second message was what had her worried though. This one actually was from Chloe, and the contents of the text were a bit concerning.

(XXX)XXX-XXXX: Hey DC it’s Chloe can you call me when you get a chance? I kindasortafuckedupreallybadlydidsomethingstupid

Now Marinette was sure that whatever Chloe had done couldn't have actually been that bad, so that wasn't why she was worried. No, she was worried about her blonde friends current emotional state. Chloe had come a long way from her 13 year old self, but she did still have insecurity issues on occasion. Judging by her text, the blonde was panicking, likely in an anxiety spiral. Something that she too was well known for doing, she would call the heiress as soon as possible to make sure that she was okay before saying anything to her about Mayuras return.

Anyways, it’s not like there was much she could do about it until later in the day, seeing as it was currently around 4 am in Gotham. So instead, the young designer focused on getting ready for the day ahead of her.

After some deliberation with input from the kwami’s, she settled on a nice outfit. The ensemble starred a black pinafore with subtle floral embroidery, paired with a light pink long sleeve underneath, both items of course being MDC originals. Shoe-wise she kept things fairly simple with a pair of black high top sneakers and white knee-high socks. Deciding to keep her hair down today, all that was left was choosing which kwami to bring along with her.

Tikki of course was a given, but she typically rotated out wearing a secondary miraculous so that the kwami could get to experience the outside world, even if it was from Marinette's purse.

Hmm today seemed to be a good day for Kaalki. It had been awhile since the horse kwami’s last voyage out of Marinette's room, plus they would be going to a cafe which meant free sugar cubes. While Kaalki would not be pleased about the ‘free’ part, Marinette's wallet sure would. She may run an extremely successful business for her age but kwami food sure does add up to eat a decent chunk of her budget. So yeah, free sugar cubes it is.

After slipping on the magical glasses and getting the two kwami into her purse, she was finally ready for the day, and so made her way downstairs to the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

“Good morning!” she greeted her Maman, who was serving customers at the register. The bakery was already quite busy, seeing as it was a Saturday afterall.

“Good morning sweetie, any exciting plans for today?” Her Mother inquired between customers.

“Not really, just have to pick up some fabrics and work on that english project.” She sort of left out who exactly she was working on said project with, but she really didn't want to risk having to dodge the question of why Alya never came around anymore. Luckily her Maman just nodded.

“Oh by the way, Jagged and Penny are coming over for dinner tonight, so make sure not to be home too late.” 

Well that made for a slight change of plans, she would just have to interview the akuma victim during her patrol instead of during the evening beforehand. Not a big deal, but it was slightly inconvenient, even if she did enjoy seeing her Aunt and Uncle with their busy schedule.

“Of course, i’m going to head out now, can you tell papa I said hi next time he comes out of the kitchen?”

“Will do, oh and Marinette?”

“Yes Maman?”

“Don't forget to grab breakfast.” Her Mother smiled and went back to serving customers.

Smiling back, Marinette grabbed a fruit tart and made her way to the fabric shop.

                                                        ----------

Luckily the fabric shop wasn't that busy, and Marinette was able to drop her supplies back home with enough time leftover to get to the cafe early. After finding a good table to set her things up at, she decides to go ahead and order an iced coffee to drink while waiting for Alya. Due to all of her time spent with Master Fu she was typically more of a tea drinker, but to get through this she would likely need the extra bit of caffeine coffee would provide.

Roughly ten minutes later, Alya walked through the door of the cafe. Time to get this over with.

While her former best friend didn't usually take much of an active role in the bullying Marinette had been experiencing at the hands of her classmates, she definitely encouraged a lot of it. Hopefully the fact that they were meeting out of the classroom meant that they could start on the project without any incident.

And for the most part it did. Despite the awkward tension between the two they managed to delegate who did what, with Alya doing the research portion and Marinette assembling the presentation itself.

Just as Marinette was about to leave though, Alya stopped her.

“Hey… have you noticed anything different about Adrien lately? Nino says he’s been acting strange and we’re all a bit worried about him.” The glasses girl inquired while putting away her things.

Well that caught her attention.

“Strange how?” She honestly didn't really care about whatever drama was currently happening in her old friend group, but on the off chance that he was experiencing side effects of the memory wipe spell, she needed to know so she could fix it. Magical backlash was no joke, despite her dislike of the blonde he didn't deserve having to deal with the effects of a spell gone wrong.

“He’s just been distant lately, almost like he’s been avoiding us. You didn't say something about Lila to him again did you? I know you're into him but just because Lila does too doesn't mean-” 

‘Ah so that's what this is about, I walked right into that one huh’

“Alya.” She cut the wannabe reporter off “I haven't had feelings for Adrien in years. I also have no idea why he’s avoiding you guys or why you assume I had anything to do with it. If you want to know so badly, try talking to him yourself.” She got up from her seat “If that’s all, I’ll be going now.” And with that, Marinette began heading home, looking forward to having dinner with her honorary uncle and aunt in a few hours.

But before that, she had a couple of text messages to take care of.

------------------------------

Taglist (open!!):

Not Hawkmoth’s worst design, but it definitely wasn't his finest work either. Though to be fair she had run around in spotted spandex for two years before she found out she could change her costume, so those in glass houses she supposed.

Viperion, noticing the team leader's arrival began to fill her in on what they knew so far.

“They're calling themselves ‘Elect-Trick’, keeps sending out shockwaves to try and knock us back which is frustrating but our suits seem to take the brunt of it which helps but Neko’s staff is a no go at the moment since there's no way to know if it’ll conduct the electricity.”

It likely would, something they had found out the hard way during the last weather akuma they had to face. While magical it was still metallic in nature sadly, which meant she needed to also be careful with her yoyo. She still isn't really sure what it’s made of besides magic, but this was not the way she wanted to find out.

“Alright, in that case we’ll continue to keep him away from the Eiffel Tower, it’s likely the akuma’s going to try and use it as a large conductor. I’m gonna head down, stay up here and be ready to use your second chance at the signal.” She instructed

Viperion nodded and went back to watching the fight just as Ladybug swooped down to join in. She was just in time as the akuma had begun to corner Neko, who had no choice but to rely on playing defense while her staff was out of the mix. The two heroes nodded their heads in greeting as Ladybug yoyo-d her cat themed friend over putting the duo back on even ground with the villain, who seemed to be ranting about school elections of all things.

Which would be a probable explanation for the first half of his name.

The two continued to fight back against the akuma, neither side quite able to grab the upper hand. Ladybugs yoyo-as it turned out, did not conduct electricity afterall. And, seeing as it's practically indestructible she was able to land hits on the akuma without getting shocked. But the akuma had realized the issue with Neko’s staff and was using that to their advantage, aiming a decent chunk of their attacks at the cat hero which forced them to go back on the defense.

As the fight had been going for over an hour at this point, the spotted heroine decided to bring out the big guns. After doing a silent signal letting Viperion know to start his timer, she got in position to call on her lucky charm.

But she didn't get a chance to. Just as she went to throw her yoyo in the air, Viperion called out a warning that sent a feeling of dread through her.

“LB watch out, There's an amok headed straight for the computer!”  

Sure enough, there was an all too familiar purple feather floating through the air on track for the laptop that she quickly caught and purified it before it could land. Thank the Kwami for the power of second chance, nobody wanted to deal with a sentimonster on top of everything else tonight.

Keeping Kuro Neko on the lookout for anymore feathers, She finally activated her lucky charm. Throwing her yoyo up she manifests… a slingshot! She could work with that, just needed to find ammo. Looking around her eyes land firmly on the window of a small toyshop.

Bingo!

Having Viperion keeping an eye out in case he was needed temporarily as backup, she sneaks over and breaks the window with her yoyo. Typically, the heroine would feel bad about causing this much property damage but tonight she’s tired and wants to get this over with so she can make a plan of action for the whole ‘Mayura seems to be back’ thing with her team and maybe get at least a couple hours of sleep. Anyways her miraculous cure would fix the window and return the bouncy balls she was actively stealing so no harm done? After finishing committing what was technically a misdemeanor, she made her way over to the roof Viperion was on and handed off the slingshot supplies before making her way back down.

Luckily Neko had managed to keep Elect-Trick distracted enough for the team to catch him off guard. On Ladybugs call Viperion began to pelt the Akuma with rubber balls, drawing his sight away for long enough to tie him up and take his glasses. One cataclysm later, the teen had been successfully deakumatized and she was able to cast her cure, fixing the decent chunk of property damage caused that night. After making sure the teen was okay to get home safe and getting his address for the interview she would have to conduct later, she turned to her team.

“Good work today guys, let's meet back at base in 30.” Her eyes communicated the urgency of the meeting despite the neutral tone of voice she tried to maintain.

From there the teens all departed in separate directions to recharge their powers and head to the team's secret base.

----------

Okay so secret base was a bit of an overstatement. It is a secret place that the team uses as a base of operations but it was less of a Batcave and more of a repurposed hotel room in Le Grand Paris.

Chloe had brought up the idea after one too many close calls with Marinette's parents while the girls were investigating Hawkmoth. They needed a place to discuss hero work safely without having to talk in code but the question was where. Obtaining an apartment would be difficult as all of them but Luka were still underage, not to mention the issue of trying to pay rent without any parental suspicion. Luckily for Chloe, it's surprisingly easy to just claim a hotel room without being questioned when your Father owns the hotel.

And while it was no Batcave, it wasn't anything to scoff at either. The four teens had been able to pool together enough money in the beginning for the basics, which meant that now any small snuck away chunks of commission money, music gig payments, competition winnings, and allowances were all able to go to improving things bit by bit.

The room was already quite nice, having a separate bedroom that they used as a gym and a kitchenette that was kept well stocked with kwami snacks. Then there was the  main area, which had been split down the middle. The first side was dedicated to the investigation and housing Marinette's Guardian materials, While the second half was a hangout zone where they could chat or decompress after any particularly rough fights.

The base was also secure, Marinette had put so many spells and protections on the room with the help of the kwami that it might as well be a pocket dimension of sorts. The magical security system of sorts was extremely complicated, being tied to the teams auras in a way so that the only way to even find it without being one of them was to be taken there by Ladybug herself. It had taken weeks to pull off but was well worth it to give her team a place that was safe from the outside world.

Ladybug was the first to arrive this time, having flopped down into a chair at their meeting table as her two friends entered the room and joined her. They all sat there for a moment, processing the fact of Mayura’s return. Of course this would happen when they were down a member, it wasn't a complete surprise that the peacock miraculous would come back into play at some point but it was really bad timing.

“So what exactly is the plan?” Viperion asked, finally breaking the silence.

Ladybug sighed, knowing that their workload was going to increase once again. At least it was close to summer vacation.

“First we need to increase patrols- especially around the typical hot spots, Neko do you think we’ll be able to finish those jars by this time next week?”

The cat hero nodded “They're almost done, we’ll need to test them somehow though.”

The two of them had recently been working on a variation of an object enchantment technique mentioned in the grimoire. The original object was dubious in nature, having been used as a cage of sorts that kwami wouldn't be able to phase through. Marinette was disgusted by the thought, further feeding into some suspicions she had about the old order. As she was ranting about it to Kagami about it, her fencer friend got an idea for a way to repurpose the spell to trap akuma when Ladybug couldn't easily get to a fight. It would also allow them a new way to prevent possessions when Ladybug wasn't actively on patrol.

“That's good. Lastly I need Bee’s new number, I was going to ask you for it tomorrow but I need to give her a heads up to start on a new case file. We also might want to move up our plans to contact the heroes there.”

Kuro Neko quickly jotted down the number on a nearby notecard and handed it to Ladybug. After hammering out a few last details about their new patrol schedules the heroes were all free to head home for the night.

The trip home was uneventful, and she arrived home to see that it was just past midnight. She also noticed that her bath bomb had been fixed! It was sometimes a gamble on if something like that would count as akuma damage so it was a nice victory after the day she’s had.

Marinette quickly put in Chloe's number, eager to get to bed. She sent her blonde friend a summary on what happened and let her know to be on the lookout for an email tomorrow with the information to assemble a case file. And with that, Marinette drifted off to sleep.

She had made a small mistake though. In her tired state the young designer’s finger slipped, putting a 5 where there was meant to be a 4.

Meaning Chloe Bourgeois was not the recipient of her intended message.

Good thing she wrote the message in code?

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Across the ocean, Damian Wayne received a strange text message.

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Perhaps the heiress was catastrophizing just a bit with the whole dying thing, though the city does have it’s reputation for a reason. Here, danger lurked around every corner, no miraculous cure to bring you back if things went sideways. It was honestly scary, and a bit depressing to think about so, as she sat to take a break from unpacking, she tried her best to look at the silver linings of her move instead.

Her new school seemed nice enough. She wouldn't be starting there for another week, but she had researched Gotham Academy a decent amount on the plane to get an idea of what to expect. The school was fairly prestigious, and had a pretty good business program that piqued the blondes interest. Afterall, if she was going to take over her fathers hotel someday, she was going to make sure she did a damn good job at it.

Her across the ocean move may also have some benefits in her other life too. The Miraculous one. While Gotham was known for its extremely high crime rate, it was also known for its decent lineup of vigilantes. One of whom could possibly be their key to finding Hawkmoth after almost 5 years of constant fighting. It was time to make a direct plea to Batman, also known as the world's greatest detective. While she and Marinette did their best, which was pretty good despite their lack of any formal training, they didn't exactly have the resources nor the many years of investigative experience that someone like Batman would. If they could convince him to aid them, it would likely be the breakthrough the young heroes needed.

It was a bit of a gamble on if they would be given help, seeing as the Justice League never responded to their initial messages all those years ago, but it was worth a shot to take a more direct approach. And Chloe was fully prepared to be stubborn, especially if it got them to at least hear them out.

So yes, maybe Gotham Wouldn't be so bad for her in the long run. But currently? Chloe was not having a good time.

Despite the fact she was supposed to be sleeping off her jetlag, she found herself restless. Back in Paris, she would usually be patrolling right now. It was gonna be strange getting used to not sneaking out almost every night to run around protecting the city. At least not until she tries to get permission from Batman when they eventually meet. While she doesn't technically need the Bats permission, Chloe was aware that it probably isn't the best idea to go and piss off the person that you’re begging for help from.

As she lamented the (hopefully only temporary) loss of her nighttime escapades she was struck with an idea. It likely wasn't a very wise idea, but what is life without a little risk taking?

While she may not be able to do any hero work here yet, she could take a little walk. She wasn’t going to go out as a civilian of course, Kwami would that be idiotic . But, if she was careful not to be seen, Abeille Royale could enjoy some exercise.

She just needed a disguise. Abeille wasn't supposed to make herself known for another couple weeks, as showing up right after her civilian self would be suspicious, even if Trixx had helped her two selves be seen in the same place after she ‘retired’ from being Queen Bee. So she needed to be unidentifiable, just in case she messed up and got spotted.

After going through the clothes she had unpacked so far, she found just what she needed. A black-velvet cloak laid towards the bottom of one of her many clothes trunks. It was certainly nothing fancy, but it would do the job.

Setting the cloak down, she went to go get the attention of her Kwami friend, who had been making herself at home in the new bedroom's plush carpeting.

“Hey Pollen, wanna go for a little run?” The bee goddess perked up at the question.

“Of course my Queen!” With that, Chloe started to get ready.

Just a few minutes later, Abeille was headed out to explore the city of crime.

What could go wrong?

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Which is why he was currently a tad bit on edge. Things had been way too quiet lately for something big to not be approaching. He just needed to figure out what it was.

No matter what his family said, he was not bored. He was just being cautious.

Patrols had been pretty tame for the past couple weeks, at least by Gotham standards. With no recent Arkham breakouts, the Bats had mostly been stopping run of the mill crimes such as muggings and break ins from occurring. It's not like he wanted something big to happen-quite the opposite in fact- but the whole situation was just suspicious . No matter what he did, the teen vigilante couldn't shake the strange feeling that something big was coming.

And something did come, in the form of a strange text from an unknown number. At first glance it appeared to be a simple case of wrong number, one that he usually would have been fine to ignore, delete, and forget about. But then he saw the contents of the message.

The first half was pretty normal. It started out asking the intended recipient (who was referred to as ‘Chlo’ by the sender) how they were settling into their new city, overall just a completely unassuming text to a friend. Nothing strange about it at all.

What was strange though, was the second half of the message. It was written in some kind of code, one he hadn't seen before at that. It seemed quite complex too, something Drake would probably enjoy cracking. He wasn't going to ask his sleep deprived sibling for help though, lest he receive any comments about undue paranoia (or boredom). He was going to figure this out himself.

But that had to wait for the time being, because he needed to get ready for patrol.

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It was about 2 hours into patrol when Robin got the distinct feeling that he was being watched. He began to look around and his eyes landed a few buildings away, where a strange figure in a cloak had just landed.

Turning on his coms, he filled in the others on the situation and waited for backup.

Luckily backup came in the form of Nightwing, who was one of his easier to work with siblings. Together, the two went to confront the strange figure, who was still hiding on the same rooftop.

Unfortunately the figure noticed the two vigilantes approaching, and decided to make a run for it. The figure was fast too, leaving the rooftop before either could make out any identifying features. Him and Nightwing were prepared for this though, and continued to give chase.

That's when something strange happened. They were starting to close in on the mysterious figure when it started levitating, a strange buzzing sound coming from under the cloak. And just like that, the cloaked figure flew out of reach, and into the night.

From there patrol went by as normal, but there was definitely work to do when they got back to the cave.

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The briefing over the cloaked figure was pretty short, considering they didn't have much to go off. Their cloak covered them well and no cameras managed to capture a face. It was a dead end for the time being, but they'd all be keeping an eye out if the figure showed up again.

With everything wrapped up for the night, Damian remembered the strange message on his phone. He wasn't quite sure where to begin there.

He wasn't going to track it just yet. That would be a bit too much of a privacy invasion, considering he didn't even know if the sender was doing anything shady in the first place. No matter how bored suspicious the 17 year old was, he knew that was a bad idea. Especially if his father were to find out.

So instead he decided to first text the number back. Simple enough, he could just inquire about the code after informing the sender of their mistake. From there he could figure out if further investigation was needed.

So he picked up his phone to send a response, completely unaware of the rabbit hole he was soon to fall down.  

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She had just wanted to stop for a breather between rooftops when she spotted the first one. Judging by the utterly ridiculous color scheme it seemed to be the current Robin who, according to her research, was one of Batman's main partners. It was probably at this point she should have retreated, considering she was very much not supposed to be here. The blonde's curiosity got the better of her however, and she moved closer to get a better look. A little too close as it turns out, because he evidently spotted her and called in backup. Next thing she knows, two highly trained vigilantes are headed her way. Not good.

Deciding it's better late than never, Abeille makes a run for it. Unsurprisingly though, the two begin to chase her. She just had to hope her enhanced abilities would be enough to lose them and get home. They were not. While she had magic on her side, her pursuers were much more familiar with the area. And well, trained. It seemed that every time she started to lose their trail, she’d meet some dead end or obstacle and have to change directions, letting them catch back up with her again.

It was at one of these dead ends where Abeille finally got cornered. With the two vigilantes closing in on her, she began to panic.

“Hey, we just want to talk!” The blue one-Nightwing if she remembered correctly-shouted out to her.

Yeah right, she knew a trap when she saw one. And that was one of the oldest tricks in the book. She was getting brought to the Bat, who was either going to send her to jail or give her some kind of nightmare interrogation, neither of which sounded very appealing. It was time for a last ditch effort for escape.

You see a couple months ago when she turned 16, the previously decorative wings of her suit finally became functional, along with her time limit after power use going up to 15 minutes. While she likely wouldn't unlock her full power potential till she was 18, 16 was apparently a big enough milestone for her to get some upgrades. This was something she was very thankful for at the moment, because she was gonna need to put them to use.

As her pursuers drew closer, she let herself lift off. From there she made a swift departure, heading back home, and leaving behind two confused vigilantes.

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After sneaking back into her bedroom, Chloe detransformed and dramatically flopped onto her bed. The night had been an utter disaster. She had nearly put a huge dent in her team’s plans just because she wanted to do some rooftop running. How was she supposed to explain this to Dupain-Cheng?

While part of her just wanted to pretend the night had never happened, the hero part of her knew she would need to tell her team leader. While she highly doubted that the vigilantes were able to get anything identifiable from her, they needed to be prepared to explain just in case. Better to come clean now and deal with a potential lecture, even if Marinette's lectures were kinda terrifying, and extremely guilt inducing.

“I suppose i just have to bite the bullet huh Pollen?” She pondered.

At the lack of response Chloe looked over to see that her kwami had once again nuzzled into the plush carpeting, falling into a peaceful slumber. Softly smiling at the sight, she finally opened her messaging app and texted her designer friend. With that, she was free to join Pollen in the sweet embrace of unconsciousness.

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