#tobeworthy

Chapter 5: 

My suit, if I said so myself, looked amazing! I finished the designs for the suit and gadgets within the first hour and a half so now all I had to do was make them. Thankfully JARVIS - Mr Stark’s AI, told me that he had this super-advanced 3D printer-thing that could make it for me. It was now about 20 minutes into the process and the gadgets were all completed, along with half of the suit. 

There wasn’t really anything left for me to do but watch the really cool process of actually making the suit so I spared a glance at all of the other tables and gaped. Their tables were empty. No suits, no robots, not even any sketches. My classmates weren’t even there. And, as I looked around, I saw where they were and couldn’t help but stare. I knew my classmates were a bit... dim, but this was pushing it. They were in an actual Stark Industries lab, with full access to all the tech and resources - something people would kill to even dream about - and they were listening to Lila. 

“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” Chloe muttered from next to me. 

“I... how... what the...?” I was practically having a nervous breakdown. 

Chloe snorted from next to me and answered “I believe the sheep have finally lost their last collective braincell. Such a shame.” She tutted. I shivered - it was never a good idea to have Chloe on your bad side - she was absolutely terrifying when mad. 

Then, JARVIS’ voice interrupted my thoughts, bringing my attention back to my suit. “Miss, your suit is ready.”

“Oh, thank you JARVIS, and call me Marinette or Mari, Miss sounds too formal.”

“Of course Mari.” It might have just been me but I thought the AI sounded rather fond when he said my name. 

“Thanks J.” 

I heard Chloe scoff next to me and wondered what she found so funny. 

“What Chloe?”

“You! I can’t believe - you really do make friends wherever you go don’t you Maribug.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say that I-”

“You made friends with a robot M - a robot. If that’s not proof I don’t know what is.”

@peterxwade24

@buginetye

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@vixen-uchiha

@lady-bee-fechin

@lunathealphafemale

@abrx2002

Chapter 3: 

Last time: I walked into the lobby into a scene of pure chaos. 

When I walked into the lobby I thought I would see the traditional high-end entrance that all expensive hotels seem to have. What I actually saw was the opposite of that. 

Standing, sobbing great big crocodile tears, surrounded by a horde of overprotective teenagers was... you guessed it! Lila Rossi. I had no clue what she had said to get everyone in the lobby on high alert but whatever it was, it wasn’t good. Alya was standing in front of her rather aggressively, yelling at someone who - oh. Heeh! I tried and failed to keep a straight face. Alya - the supposed ‘superhero expert’ - was yelling at Captain America! I tried hard to supress giggles at the sight and judging by the way my bag was quivering, Tikki was the same. 

One of the people, agents from the look of him, spotted me and called out, “She’s here now. Or at least, I think she is.” Oh, that’s what they’re fighting about! They realised that I was missing and Lila must have started an argument to get attention somehow. From what I heard from Alya’s yelling, Mr Rodgers had asked where I was and seeing as no-one but me spoke English, Lila told them that he was insulting her for being ‘a slutty no-good rich brat.’ I almost snorted at that again. If only!

Realising that I should probably try to diffuse the situation before Alya got put in prison for assaulting a superhero, I moved to intervene. 

Steve Rodgers/Captain America POV:

What on earth is up with this french class? I was just walking by when I saw that Miss Walters (the receptionist) was looking quite panicked. It turned out she was missing a student so I turned and asked her class because, you know, missing person, ask the locals. And then one of them smirks then bursts into tears wailing about something or other in french and another one starts yelling in my face. I mean, how do you get that from a perfectly reasonable question? 

Anyway, one of the agents sitting in the lounge, looking rather tense, I noticed, called out that he thought the missing girl was here. I turned to see the tiniest girl you will ever see walk out of the shadow of the doors straight towards me, murmur something in french to the (rather incompetent) teacher then head towards me. 

“I’m so sorry about my class Sir. They don’t understand English at all and one of them, I should probably warn you, lies for attention. They all believe her so whatever they said, I’m sorry if it offended you.” The mini frenchie apologised in perfect english, though a frown marred her face when she spoke about the liar. 

“And you don’t believe her?” I asked, wanting to find out more. What had Stark let in our building? 

She winced. “No, but everyone else does. She lies about quite a few things that i know aren’t true about quite a few people. I’m sure a couple of the agents watching can understand french and will let you know what’s been said.”

Huh, smart. “Thank you, Miss...”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng, sir.”

Ah, so this is the girl who wrote the essay. “Of course. If you and your class will follow Miss Walters, she will show you to your rooms then tell you what the plans are for today.”

“Erm... do you have anyone here who speaks french who can tell my class that?” Seeing my frown, she explained, “I would do it myself but Lila’s lied about me quite a lot so none of them trust me anymore. Except Chloe.” She gestured to the blonde who was sitting down  checking her nails, narrow eyes glaring at the class. 

Hmmm... bullies and a manipulator - this class just gets better and better. 

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of these franchises or characters. The plot is mine, nothing more. 

(A/N) This story is pre-infinity war and endgame. No-one knows about Thanos yet and civil war was not a war between the actual avengers but clones or something like that. The clones were captured and the real avengers were restored to their places. Also, that episode where they destroyed Mari’s sketchbook never happened. Well, it did but it was more a random doodles notebook not the one for her designs so it was okay but she was still mad. 

Chapter 1: 

“AKUMA!!!” 

I jolted awake. Akuma, where, where is it? i looked around frantically to see a bunch of floating mini-gods nearly falling out of the air with laughter. 

Growling playfully at them, I tugged my clothes on. There’s no akuma. They’re pranking me. Sneaky gods... 

An insistent chiming made me blink, then yelp as I realised what it was. Scrambling forwards, I accepted the call on the last ring. 

“Yes?“ I nearly yelped then blushed furiously. 

“Am I speaking to a Miss Marinette Dupain-Cheng?“

“Yes.“ I squeaked, then groaned internally. 

“Wonderful, I am calling about the Timothy-S competition. You’re essay and designs were excellent and the judges have all come to a unanimous decision. Your class will be coming on an all-expenses paid trip to New York City. I will forward all the forms and details to you for your teacher to complete.“

“YES! I mean, thank you!“ I could faintly hear chuckling from the other end and blushed, embarrassed. 

“I will see you in New York Miss Dupain-Cheng.“

“Bye!“ As soon as the call ended, I squealed, bounding around my room in excitement, the Kwamis joining me, also calling out their congratulations. 

“I’m so proud of you Marinette, I told you that essay was brilliant!“ Tikki told me, half-heartedly chasticising me for my self-doubt. “You need to stop doubting yourself, it’s not good and you have absolutely no reason to do it. You’re perfect already baby bug.“ I giggled when she kissed me on the nose, the other kwami agreeing with her and swarming me. 

“Marinette you’re going to be late for school!“ My maman calls from downstairs, a note of fond exasperation in her voice. 

I ran around my room, tripping over things and dropping bags until finally, I was ready. Checking my emails, I could see the documents and immediately printed them out. Shoving them into the bag, I rushed out the door, leaving food out for the kwamis on my way out. “CHEESE!!!” was the last thing I heard before bolting down the stairs, shaking my head in slightly creeped out amusement. The relationship that cat has with his cheese really is something. Yeah, a creepy something. I told myself, running up the steps to school. 

I burst into the classroom with as little ceremony as humanly possible just as the bell rang only to be met with cold, stony glares. 

Oh, yeah, LILA. 

Sighing with resignation, i made my way to the back of the class with slouched shoulders, eyes lowered to the ground. After stepping over everyone’s obstacles - no, sorry - feet, I eventually got to the back of the class and sat there, opening my sketchbook and doodling. I pretended that I couldn’t hear the whispers about ‘Mari-trash’ and ‘useless’, though tears stung at the corners of my eyes. I would not cry. 

Chloe came in and sat next to me, muttering “Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous.” Oh, yeah, we’re friends now. And she knows that I’m ladybug. We were having a sleepover at her hotel and she saw me detransform in the bathroom because i didn’t lock the door and she needed to use the toilet. After Chloe had finished her, ahem, business, we talked and eventually made up completely now that Chloe had apologised to both civilian and hero me. 

She now wielded the Bee Miraculous - again - as Honey Dancer, though most people just called her Kaihoko, which is Maori for Dancer. I’m not sure why she chose maori but I’m sure she had a reason. Chat Noir isn’t the black cat anymore. I formally and permanently retired him after Plagg personally came to tell me that I had to take him back. He was being reckless, petty and had put countless lives in danger with his tricks. 

I spent the rest of the day lamenting my poor choice in friends and partners and then, after the school day had ended, packing for and sorting out our trip to NYC. Miss had handed out all of our forms today. Well, I say Miss did it but really she told me to do it and let Lila take all the credit for winning it. Ah... I wish I had a better teacher. But, beggars can’t be choosers. 

Chapter 4: 

Last time: 

Hmmm... bullies and a manipulator - this class just gets better and better. 

The next few hours are spent settling into our rooms - which, by the way, are HUGE - and, mainly, sleeping. Yeah, jetlag - not good. But, eventually, at eight ‘o’ clock in the morning, (the next day) we were ready to go. Today we were touring the R&D Department (which we had to sign NDAs to access) and at the very end of the day, our tour guide had told us that she had a little surprise waiting for us. 

I woke up, again, to the word ‘AKUMA!’. Tikki...! I groaned in my head. “Marinette, it’s 7:15! If you’re going to get there before the class you’re going to have to be quick!” That got me up pretty quickly. There was no way I was going to let them spoil my trip through THE Stark Industries! So, I slowly turned over, shuffled out of bed and woke up Chloe, who was muttering something about ‘Honey, more honey! Pollen, give me back my honeycomb!My honeycomb! My precious.” Barely stifling my giggles, I woke her up and within minutes we were heading out the door. 

When we got down to the breakfast bar in the cafeteria, I made a beeline straight for the coffee machine. Coffee! I ate a veritable mountain of pastries, pancakes and waffles, leaning against the back of my chair with a satisfied groan. “Thank you, madame.”

“It’s quite alright little one. You’re far too thin to begin with. You need to eat more!“ the baker, Miss Boitter, said, clearly mother-henning me. 

I was about to respond when the doors opened with a crash and a cacophony of noise burst through. Ah... there goes my peace and quiet, I sighed mournfully. I could already feel a headache brewing. 

And right at the front of the mayhem was, of course, Lila Rossi. Arrogantly demanding that poor Miss Boitter bake her something fresh and that it ‘better live up to her expectations or she’ll have Mr Stark fire her! He’s my uncle you know, part italian, he comes and visits with his...’ Blah, blah, blah. 

Yeah, I definitely had a headache. 

And it only got worse from there. For the entire rest of the day, I was fairly certain that me and Chloe were the only people actually paying attention to the tour guide. Even Max wasn’t listening. And he’s Max! The class was actually so loud that we got kicked out of the labs for disrupting the workers and warned that if we did it again we would be off the trip altogether. The tour guide, Miss Walters, let us stay though because we were actually listening and paying attention. We even asked her questions. She seemed to perk up when every time we did and I just had to feel sorry for her. Of all the classes to be stuck with, she ended up with ours. She can’t even get out either because all the other tour guides were sick. I absently wondered whether they were warned about us and were faking it. I certainly would if I had the choice. 

All the workers we met seemed to like me. Especially after I shyly went and fixed a problem with their equations. Their faces were hilarious. I mean, it wasn’t that hard! I may be a fashion designer but I do know other subjects too. 

Eventually, though, we had to reunite with the class. Bummer. But, then we were taken to a huge room with lots of cool tech and these cool hologram tables. We got split up, one person per holo-table and then Miss Walters explained what we were doing. 

“This is the workshop. It wouldn’t be right to come to Stark Industries and not build anything so, this is your chance. You have 3 hours until we move on. As you can see, you all have a holo-table each and, for sketches, pencils and paper. You can build whatever you want within this time, so long as it will not harm anyone. If you have any questions, please ask me or one of the scientists here for help. The scientists that are working are not to be disturbed. Please, do not waste this time. Off you go!”

I was eager to make something amazing. And fashionable. A voice in my head insisted. Of course it will be fashionable, I scoffed. I’m not stupid. I turned to the table. Now, how do you work this thing. I put my hand up to the table, hesitating, and immediately, images formed around my head, files and pictures and all sorts of text. OH! So cool! 

Hmmm... I could make a suit. We do have three hours. Yes, that’s what I’ll make. A super-suit. And actually fashionable, unlike a certain traffic- ahem - vigilante in Gotham. 

So, I got to work. This is going to be awesome!

Miss Walters POV: 

This class is so annoying. I was both relieved and embarrassed when they got kicked out of the labs because I got to stay behind with the two students who actually cared. One of them, a Marinette Dupain-Cheng, I quickly learned, was a genius. And, I spend a lot of time around geniuses. I work at Stark Industries of course. I know the signs. The other girl, a Chloe Bourgeois, was also very intelligent, though she downplayed it with a slight spoilt, self-absorbed attitude. Ah, why are geniuses always so closed off?!

Throughout the day, I started to see just how smart Marinette really was. She fixed Mr Hallinn’s equations! Mr Hallins! THE top researcher for unlimited green energy and sustainability. The entire R&D Department have been tearing their hair out and pushing the boundaries of sleep deprivation for months trying to solve it. And she just walked up to them, shyly asked if she could help and fixed it!

And that is why I felt completely justified using the Emergency Smarts Phone (yes, it is called that. Mr Stark wants to know immediately if there are any undiscovered prodigies he can bring to SI.) to call Mr Stark and tell him all about what I had found. He was going to love it! 

He answered on the first ring. “Yes? What is it? Have you found somebody?”

I didn’t even try to conceal my smile. If I had anything to do with it, Marinette Dupain-Cheng and Chloe Bourgeois would never have to rejoin their idiot classmates ever again. 

@buginetye

@vixen-uchiha

@lunathealphafemale

@abrx2002

@schrodingers25

Chapter 2: 

I’m Late!!! I rushed out the door, into the street and almost got run over by a limo that was parking just outside. “Come on Dup- Marinette! You’re gonna be late.”

“But... that’s... you...?“

“Yes, it’s me, get in!“

i clambered inside and within a a half-hour, we were sitting not-so-comfortably in the airport general lounge waiting for our teacher and class to get here. I clung to my bag - a new, over-the-shoulder satchel-type thing. It looked pretty cool if i had to say so myself. It had loads of cool symbols on it and a keychain with all the charms of the kwamis on it. 

Well, I say it is a bag - and it is - but it’s also the miracle box in disguise. I was reading the grimoire when I found a section all about the kwamis and all their homes. After reading and rereading it over and over again, I decided that it would be much easier to transport as a bag instead of a brightly coloured box. 

It took me hours but eventually I turned it into this and also found a way to put normal things into the box-bag-thing like actual beds for the kwamis. They were really happy with it, Plagg especially because I gave him a stash or camembert to keep him quiet. 

When our class finally decided to show their faces, they announced their arrival with a screeching voice like nails on a chalk board blabbering on about how she helped Iron Man design his suit and how he asked her to become an Avenger but she was ‘simply to busy to be a superhero of two - oh... oops. I’m sorry, you can keep it a secret can’t you. No-one’s supposed to know.’ URGH...! 

There was still 4 hours left to go before the flight began. Yay us!

But, at least we’ll be able to get inside the actual airport area now instead of sitting on these lumpy chairs. I mean, what is this made from, sandpaper? 

When we finally got handed out our passes and then passed security I nearly cackled. Turns out the person who won the competition gets to go first class and the rest have to go economy. Haha, Lila’s face. Chloe’s dad got her an upgrade to first class with me so we’re together and we aren’t going to have to listen to Liar’s tales. 

We spent the long, long flight chatting, eating, sleeping, watching movies and designing. Without any interruptions. It was amazing. We even let the Kwamis out at one point when it was obvious we weren’t going to be disturbed. But, alas, all good things come to an end. 

The plane landed and we had to reunite with the class’ very own lie-spewing manipulator. Lovely. And when I went to get my bags they were nowhere to be found. Eventually, I found it. Guess where it was? With airport security. Turns out, if you leave a bag unattended they assume that it’s a bomb or something and take you in for questioning. 

When it was finally made clear that my bags were not going to explode, they let me go. Or, they were going to until they realised that I was 15 (I got my miraculous at age 11) and my teacher had left me at the airport(!!!) they decided that they would call her. Of course, Miss Bustier hadn’t even noticed I was gone and when she did she was really disappointed. (In me?!). 

She didn’t even offer to pick me up she just thanked them for letting her know and hung up, leaving me with three gobsmacked officers who couldn’t believe anyone could be that irresponsible. When they turned to me for reassurance that this was abnormal behaviour, I just shrugged and told them that they were lucky she even picked up the phone. 

Then I walked out and walked all the way to Avengers/Stark Tower where Mr Stark had been nice enough to let us stay. Poor Mr Stark, he doesn’t know what he invited to his home. Oh well, maybe, if i behave well, he will kick the rest out for their bad behaviour but let me stay. With that wonderful thought in mind, I walked into the lobby into a scene of pure chaos. 

This is kind of what Mari’s suit would be like. The wings aren’t always there. It’s nanotech - they unfold from pads in the back if she wants them to. It would also be more matte but not dull. The shoes would be black not silver. She would have shapes like cat-ears on either side of her head that come out of her suit and they do stuff like enhanced hearing and can work as a detection system. She would have a hood and a mask. Her hair is longer and is usually in a long plait either at her back or over her shoulder. As you can imagine, she has all sorts of cool tech in her suit that I don’t have pictures of.