#turtle!chloe

Not to mention that he didn’t know how to find a loose akuma in the city, even if the akuma was apparently multiplying and making mini-Stonehearts according to the news. At least they weren’t doing anything and he had spent the rest of the night trying to at least understand the important information about how to purify, what he could do, and whatever else Tikki was willing to explain to him. How the akumas worked, the fact that he had a yo-yo, and then there was the person behind the akumas might be someone with a similar power like he and his partner had. And that he couldn’t tell anyone about the kwamis. Which, he got because superhero 101 and all that.

It was definitely weird seeing that the red domed earrings were now flat blue and orange earrings while he was wearing them, but at least he could say that it matched most of his clothes, which did consist of blues and oranges. There was also the issue of the five minute timer because how would he know that he was close to being a civilian if he couldn’t see the timer outside of the loud beeps.

“At least my partner has a better shot at knowing how long she has,” he said as he made his way to the school bus the next morning. He spent most of the morning trying to figure out a good superhero name to give himself, especially since he was going to try and meet his partner ASAP. But easier said than done. If he got tongue-tied around this sudden crush, he was going to die of embarrassment and he wanted to make a semi-good impression.

He was lucky enough to get on the bus this time, noticing that a good portion of the students were sitting quite a distance away from one student in particular: Ivan.

Not that he could blame them, but from what Tikki did explain, someone was taking advantage of whatever negative emotions someone had and Ivan unfortunately happened to be the first victim. Though you would think that in a city of two million people there would be multiple people being even more upset.

So he decided to sit next to him since there was plenty of open seats around him. “Hey, dude,” he greeted. “Hopefully today will be a better day! First day of school sucks, huh?”

Ivan just gave a shrug and a grunt in response, Nino just figuring he either didn’t want to talk or he’s not a morning person. Honestly, fair. He watched as Ivan put on his own set of headphones, which was loud enough for Nino to recognize one of Jagged Stone’s older songs. When Ivan noticed that Nino was still watching, the boy tapped his own headphones and gave a nod and thumbs up, Ivan giving the same gesture in return.

Good music was good music.

The ride to school was tedious and long, but they were off the bus and Nino and Ivan both stared at the giant hole in the school, right where the principal's office was. There were other kids staring too, but Nino couldn’t help but gulp, hoping that doing the Miraculous….whatever would fix this damage on top of whatever new damage would happen. Honestly he was surprised that school was still going, but looks like the construction crew was already there to help fix the hole and it’s not like the entire building was wrecked.

He spotted Alya walking up to them, her phone out and ready to be presented to them. “Hey, Alya. Whatcha got there?”

“The Shellblog! Since we don’t know the name of that superhero, I figured we could go with her turtle self. I mean, I was thinking of the Ladyblog, but that seemed really weird-”

“Please stick with the Shellblog, dude,” Nino said, immediately regretting his choice of words when both Ivan and Alya gave him weird looks. “I-I mean, she mentioned something about a partner and what if they’re also shell-themed? Like….a beetle or something? Haven’t seen them yet so gotta be fair to both of them, right?”

Alya just nodded in agreement. “I mean...ya gotta point. Heck, that reminds me of those Majestia forums where me and some of my American friends were speculating what sorta sidekick she would have and what the name would be. We narrowed it down to like...Major Glory or like Admiral Freedom if I remember correctly.”

Ivan just shook his head while listening to them. “Can we just...have a normal day of school?” he asked, moving to head into the school building.

“This is totally normal!” Alya protested as she followed after him.

“As normal as today can get at least,” Nino muttered to himself as he followed after them, avoiding the random rumble that littered the front of the school.

Inside was probably worse than inside the bus as everyone was either staring, keeping their distance, or muttering whatever rumors they heard from within the last twenty-four hours or all of the above. Of course there were some students who made a beeline straight to the trio, all of them from their class, Nino realized.

“Do you really not remember anything from yesterday?” Alix asked first. Nino remembered that she and Max were probably the first to make it out of the stadium they were in.

“You were totally going ballistic. It was so cool!” Juleka gushed, Ivan awkwardly looking away from that. Juleka may have been the quiet one, but it still surprised anyone when she said anything. If he remembered correctly, she was in the library and probably saw that destruction firsthand.

Kim chimed in last with, “you were seriously out to crush me, dude!” Nino was half tempted to elbow him in the gut since Kim nearly got him crushed in the process. He turned as Chloe and Sabrina had approached the group. “Right, Chloe? Like, he was a monster size and he was yelling my name and he was ready to crush me! You heard him right? When you swung by the stadium?”

Chloe glanced over at Sabrina, who looked at her in confusion. Looks like she didn’t tell Sabrina about her….weird escape from the hotel. “I mean, I guess I heard him? All I heard was monster noises, which, I guess makes sense since he was and is a monster.”

Nino felt his jaw dropped as he stared at Chloe in disbelief as Ivan stormed past the group. “Chloe, the heck, dude??” he asked as she turned her attention towards him.

“He literally threatened Kim right before you guys left for gym class yesterday,” Chloe pointed out.

“Even Miss Bustier wasn’t having any of it,” Sabrina added. “Sent him straight to the principal's office.”

Which explains why there’s a giant hole in the wall if he got akumatized either right before or after entering the office.

Nino could only sigh and pinch the bridge of his nose. “Don’t…don’t make things worse for him.”

“Only Chloe would,” Alix muttered under her breath as the group started breaking off to head to class.

He decided to head to his locker, setting the bag inside so he could let the red kwami peer out. “So, do you like….sense an akuma coming, lil dude?” he asked quietly, moving to put some books inside his locker. He wanted to at least keep Ivan from transforming again, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to don whatever superhero outfit he had.

Tikki just shook her head. “It doesn’t work like that, Nino,” she explained, the teen just raising his eyebrows at that. “I know, we can sense when someone is misusing a Miraculous, but that doesn’t mean we know when it’s going to happen or where it’s coming from,” she reiterated. “For all we know, the akuma’s not even heading here.”

“That’s….yeah that’s fair,” he sighed. Which, honestly made sense because wouldn’t the person who left these Miraculous to him and his partner know where to find the guy? “Thanks though. Wanted to be on the safe side,” he said, offering his fist. Tikki stared at the fist before placing her hand on top of it. He laughed softly, giving her a gentle pat on the head. “We’ll work on gestures after school.”

He got his backpack back on and started making his way to class. Maybe nothing will happen today, but he did dislike the fact that he didn’t know what will even happen on top of the fact that he still needed a way to contact his partner. He stopped when he saw Chloe practically hugging some blond kid he’s never seen before right in front of the classroom.

The kid just awkwardly waved at him. “Hey, uh, I’m Adrien,” he greeted, offering a free hand to him. Nino awkwardly stared at it, mostly because he wasn’t sure if he could trust someone who was friends with Chloe…

“Uh, Nino,” he said, finally accepting the handshake.

“I tried to save you seat, but Miss Bustier moved me away from the spot,” Chloe lamented as they finally headed inside. “I mean, I guess it’s technically there, but we’re not able to sit together!” she corrected herself with a pout. “I’m stuck in front of you if you really want it...I want you and Sabrina at arm’s reach after all!”

Adrien just waved it off. “It’s fine, I’m just glad that you at least tried,” he said. Chloe had let go of his arm to place her white bag on her seat. “So I’m right behind you then?” he questioned, moving to sit there.

Alya, while she was placing her own bag down at her seat, looked confused at gaining a sudden deskmate, but also shrugged. “Guess we’re both the new kids here, huh?” she asked, offering a hand to him. “I’m Alya, nice to meet you.”

“Adrien!” he greeted, grinning widely as he took the hand to shake. Once pleasantries were exchanged, he tilted his head. One could’ve sworn that he looked like a lost puppy. “You look...familiar. Have we met before?” he asked. Chloe also tilted her head at the question, as if trying to place where she’s seen Alya before.

Alya looked….slightly annoyed as she looked at Chloe. “My mom worked at your dad’s hotel for the last five or so years?” Chloe still had a blank look on her face, clearly not ringing any bells. “She’s the head chef?”

Chloe quietly made an, “oooh...right. I….yeah that makes sense.” She immediately sat down and faced away while covering her face. “Great start today, Bourgeois,” she muttered to herself.

Adrien just looked happy as he finally connected the dots. “Oh right, I remember seeing you a few times when I played with Chloe and Sabrina! Then I started getting involve with modeling when I was about….ten or so, so I haven’t been by the hotel that often.”

“Wait, you’re friends with Chloe and Sabrina?” Nino asked, deciding to chime in.

“Well...Chloe mostly?” he explained. “We’re just...kids with a mutual friend.”

“I’m an amazing mutual friend, by the way,” Chloe quickly chimed in.

“Who also didn’t tell us that you went after that thing! What were you thinking??” Sabrina pointed out, Nino almost forgetting that she was there. “You could’ve gotten hurt or worse if that superheroine didn’t jump in to save the gym class!” Chloe winced at that, but reluctantly nodded. “Fine, I will admit that I did a dumb thing…”

Sabrina’s eyes went over to where Marinette was going to sit and looked at Chloe with a confused look. “Weren’t you gonna…?” she asked, gesturing over to the spot.

Chloe immediately crossed her arms in a X-symbol and shook her head rapidly. “Nope, nope, nope, we’re not gonna make things worse when her desk buddy is literally the guy that broke down a wall yesterday. Not today. Don’t wanna. I like my spine in its place.”

Miss Bustier walked into the class, noticing that there was a new student and looking over her roster was….annoyed. “Chloe-”

“My friend wants to be here, pleeeeease let him stay for the day?” Chloe was quick to start pleading, clasping her hands together and started giving the puppy dog eyes. Usually super effective. That and her constantly threatening to call her dad were an effective combo. Hopefully she didn’t have to use the latter.

But Miss Bustier sighed as she made her way out the door she just came through. “I’ll have to make an extra copy of the assignments, but his guardians really do need to sign him up, otherwise we might be in trouble for...I suppose kidnapping a child. Please try not to cause trouble while I’m gone.”

Chloe and Adrien quickly high fived each other, grinning to each other. “Score one for us!” she cheered. “Your dad is gonna hear that you had a great time and made new friends and-” She was interrupted as they heard some terrified shrieking in the hallway, everyone turning their heads to the door. “…..please tell me that this is because someone recognized Adrien and is having a fan-meltdown,” she meekly asked with widening eyes.

“Are...schools usually this lively?” Adrien asked as Nino got up from his seat.

“Debatable!” Nino replied over his shoulder, stepping out into the hallway and gripping the straps on his bag. Oh man, please don’t be what he thought it was. But his hopes were dashed as he peered around the corner and saw that Stoneheart was making his way through the halls with Mylene and Marinette in both of his hands. He quickly backed himself into the classroom and closed the door. “So, uh….Ivan turned into the thing again?”

“What?!” the class nearly yelled in unison, some of them scrambling to see for themselves. He backed away, trying to figure out when or even where he should transform.

“He’s also holding onto Mylene and Marinette?? For some reason??” he said added. “Like….one of us should get the principal or call for help or-”

“I’m on it!” Alya yelled, flinging the door open with her phone in hand. “I’m sure that Shell Gal will come to the rescue once she sees the livestream of him being back!”

“That’s….the worst idea I’ve heard,” Nino groaned as she left their sight. This girl is gonna get herself killed! “Okay, we split up, try and find a teacher or try calling for help on our phones or something that’s not going to risk us getting hit by Ivan!”

Kim nodded in agreement as he said, “he might not remember like last time he was like this, but it doesn’t mean he’s still not our classmate! Let’s go! We’re playing Tag and Ivan’s It!” The other students, boosted by the fact that they wanted to do something to help, all follow suit after Kim to divide and conquer.

Nino had slipped into the boy’s locker room, making sure the coast was clear as he shoved the backpack into his locker. “Guess we’re doing this, Tikki,” he said as the kwami floated up to him. “Oh I’m so not ready for this. Tikki, Spots on!”

-

Chloe had slipped into the girl’s locker room (and secretly glad that she somehow managed to slip away from Adrien and Sabrina who both probably wanted to stick close to her) and transformed there. Wayzz didn’t seem too pleased about something, but she was willing to talk about that later when they weren’t on a time crunch and the fact that they had to get going She paused in front of the mirror, honestly tempted to admire her new look in the mirror, but she also was aware that the longer she was there, the more she was likely to expose the fact that she was a student there. She slipped out, being mindful of her classmates running around making a ruckus to alert people about the akuma.

“Better not bail on me this time, pal,” she murmured to herself as she didn’t want a repeat of yesterday. As she escaped from the school (not a phrase she would’ve thought possible, but this has been a weird start to the school year so far), she got onto the rooftop to see that Stoneheart was already marching down the street with Dupain-Cheng and Mylene in his hands. “Cool, great, awesome,” she muttered, running her hands down her face.

“S’up partner?” she heard a voice as someone land beside her. She turned to see a guy in a red and black outfit. Well, mostly red with some black spots on him, mainly on his hoodie-short cape thing. The cape had split off into a v near the end, resembling mini wings. “I’m, uh, well, I’m...still working on a name, but I’m thinking ‘Punch Buggy’.”

Chloe gagged at that idea. “I’m not calling you that. Also where were you??” she asked, keeping an eye on Stoneheart as she jumped down from the roof, the teen following her. Once on the ground, they started running after Stoneheart, though her partner was using his yo-yo to swing himself forward ahead to play catch up.

“My ‘becoming a hero’ memo was a bit on the late side of things,” he simply said, looking annoyed. “Also I don’t even know your name either, Miss…”

“You can call me ‘Emerald Venus’,” she said, quite proud of the name that she spent at least two hours thinking of. But her partner was still annoyed as before. “What, it’s better than being named after a car game!”

“I’m still not calling you that,” he responded, running after Stoneheart. “I mean, I still have other names!”

“I-I mean, same!” Chloe huffed. So much for that idea. “Also, are you sure that you’re a Ladybug? Because you don’t have enough spots to call yourself that!”

“Why would I want more spots??” he asked. “I’m trying to look like a Ladybug, not a watermelon!”

Chloe opened her mouth but shut it. Ok, she would admit that was fair. ...at least to herself. “Fine, call me, ah….” What was one of the other names that she was going to go for if Emerald Venus (an amazing name if she did say so herself)? She frowned before saying, “Tortuelle.”

The teen snorted as he landed in front of her. “Really? That’s….you just went with Turtle and girl?”

“Says the guy wanting to be called Punch Buggy five seconds ago.”

“Fine, fine, at least it fits the whole animal thing we got. And in that case….I’m Scarabeau.”

Chloe, well, Tortuelle now, stared at him indignantly. “Did you seriously named yourself ‘handsome beetle’??” she questioned as Scarabeau finally went on ahead to catch up with the escaping giant with his stupid magic yo-yo and why didn’t she have anything like that?!

“I am handsome!” he yelled back at her, as she ran after him.

“You’re not that handsome!!” she yelled. Why couldn’t her shield do something that cool?? She started running across the street, only to stop as a car was sent flying past her. Peering to where the car came from, she saw that the mini-Stonehearts were already moving and causing havoc. “Oh, ok, cool.” Glancing back where Scarabeau swung off to before splitting off to try and protect the people in that direction.

Scarabeau landed on the roof of a nearby apartment (or was it a small shop? He didn’t pay attention to the buildings down this road before), running his hands down his face. “Snarky?? I picked the snarky personality?? Of sure, at least it’s better than being mute because she’s beautiful and brave and stuff, but I could’ve gone with any other personality!” Sure, he wasn’t sure if he was really being snarky, but it the closest thing that he could name.

He looked around, before slouching over. “And I lost said partner. Where did she go?!” He started pacing around the edges of the rooftop, trying to see if he could spot her. “Come on, Tortuelle, don’t do this on my first day…” he muttered to himself. He jolted his head up when he heard a car crash following by a loud alarm. “If I was a superhero...follow the sound!”

He swung his yo-yo and started swinging to the source of the noise, landing on a streetlight at the corner of an intersection. A quick glance around had him spotted Tortuelle escorting people away from some of the mini-Stonehearts. “There you are!” he breathed a sigh of relief as he got down to meet up with her. “We need to go after the main guy!”

Tortuelle squinted as the last of the civilians left the area. “Why? People are in trouble here.”

“I’m going by vampire rules. Beat the main guy and the rest of these guys will crumble; that’s how they’re alive in the first place because we didn’t beat the main akuma.”

“And whose fault was that?” she commented, Scarabeau glared at her in response. “I’m just saying that we wouldn’t be in this mess if you had actually shown up!”

He gritted his teeth, trying to bite back any remark that would make it so that she would figure out who he was. “Look,” he hissed. “I am here now and right now, we need to focus on getting rid of the current threat who can make more of these things unless we stop them. We can protect people on the way, but we can’t wait too long! He had hostages already and I think he’s making his way to the Eiffel Tower.”

Tortuelle stared back at him, her blue eyes glancing him over before smirking. “Alright, bug boy, just try and keep up.” And with that she was off and running with her shield in hand. Her strides were quick, confident, and Scarabeau just swung past her with his yo-yo. “SON OF A-”

Scarabeau laughed as he landed on a different streetlight, offering a hand to her as she came up to him. “Come on, think it’ll be faster if I just swing us both?”

She eyed the yo-yo skeptically before looking at him. “You sure it’ll hold us both?”

“It’s a magic yo-yo that lets me extend it to basically infinity, and you have a magic indestructible shield. I think it’ll hold because magic.”

Tortuelle hesitated before taking his hand. “Quicker we get there, the quicker we save the city. ….and quicker for me to talk to my kwami about how to go faster,” she said as Scarabeau pulled her up.

He was equally hesitant before wrapping an arm around her as he spun his yo-yo around as he eyed the next spot to latch onto. She carefully wrapped her arms around his neck to hold on, pointing at a chimney in the far distance that he threw the yo-yo. “Well, you are a turtle and turtles do tend to be slow.”

“I still refuse to be this slow when the city is in danger and I’m halfway across the city! What am I supposed to do, call a taxi??” she grimaced as the two started swinging towards the Eiffel Tower. Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she gagged, “or take a bus??”

“Oh no, whatever shall you do?” Scarabeau muttered sarcastically as Tortuelle just lightly bonked his head with the free hand. “Could do that parkour stuff you did yesterday.” From the corner of his eye, he saw her squint at him. “I-I mean, it was on that new blog and the news stuff that showed you leave the stadium and stuff!”

“Ugh, fiiiine, but it’s still slow compared to this.”

It took a few minutes, with Tortuelle pointing at different spots to swing towards before they landed by the base of the Eiffel Tower, where it was already surrounded by police cars. “Ooooh, that’s not good,” Scarabeau noted as he pulled back the yo-yo and clipped it to his waist.

He recognized Officer Roger, who ran his eyes disapprovingly over them as the duo approached them, and he could feel his spine straightening up immediately at the look. “H-hi, we’re here to help.”

“Like your friend ‘helped’ yesterday?” he sniffed indignantly as he looked over at Tortuelle.

“I helped better than you did!” she snapped back, pointing an index finger straight at him.

Scarabeau quickly helped lower her arm and held up his hand in a non-threatening manner. “It’s our first time doing this and given what we had known at the time, Tortuelle here did a great job protecting those she was able to help.”

“And you’ll somehow do better? Especially since the guy has two hostages up there?” the officer gestured upwards the tower, Scarabeau’s eyes following to see that Stoneheart had made himself cozy right on top of the first level of the monument. “Probably more since we’re trying to get people out of the first and second levels!”

Tortuelle looked around and grabbed a pair of binoculars from one of the officers that was standing nearby. “Ok, we can’t physically fight him because that’ll make him bigger, and if his akumatized object is in one of his hands which also has the two hostages, we need a way to get him to let go but I can only do my thing one time so it’s a 50-50 chance we get the right thing…”

Scarabeau went over to take a look as well, Tortuelle handing them over. Peering inside, he frowned as he saw Marinette and Mylene were still in his grip, both of them trying to talk to him, but he didn’t know how to read lips so he could only assume good things were being said. “Ok, what about my thing? I say the thing, get an item that should help us according to my kwami?”

Officer Roger just looked at both of them in confusion. “What are you two even talking about??”

Tortuelle ignored him as she added, “I mean...we should get up there first. If he ends up tossing one of them, I can use my thing to save them and hopefully we’ll be able to save the other before my timer runs out?”

“Or we escort them into the level below once we get them to calm down,” Scarabeau suggested. “The other people are probably being brought down in the elevators as we speak so-”

A megaphone crackled as it came to life near the front of the police cars, the two turning their heads to the noise. “What are your demands!” the mayor’s voice echoed.

Office Roger swore under his breath, both teen superheroes’ cheeks turning red at the colorful language as he stormed off to stop the mayor from causing any more harm.

“….wanna get going to the Eiffel Tower?” Scarabeau meekly asked as Tortuelle just nodded. “Ok, cool cool, uh...let’s split up. Or wait, do you need a lift?”

“I can jump, I just can’t run fast, so I’ll face him head on as a distraction, you do your….thing,” she said, before running off.

Scarabeau handed the binoculars back to the officer with a thanks before swinging off towards the other side of the monument. Maybe he wasn’t as focused on the scene as he was before but it was when he started to think of an item that might help that he noticed that there were news helicopters flying around. “Oh, no pressure or anything. Love it,” he murmured before swinging his yo-yo high above him. “Lucky Charm!”

He watched as the yo-yo glowed red before finally dropping a red with black polka dots guitar in his hands. He looked it over, the gears in his heads starting to turn as his vision turned gray. “What…?” The guitar flashed once, as he turned to where Stoneheart and them were, the akuma victim in question also flashed.

“Wait…wait I got it!” he grinned, remembering what happened earlier this morning. He quickly propelled himself up to the top of the first level, landing lightly on his feet but got his hands in the right position on the guitar. “Thank you mom for the guitar lessons,” he whispered to himself as he started strumming the chords.

Tortuelle, who was ready to throw down or at least catch someone, peered over at him with Stoneheart. “Uh...Scarabeau? What are you doing?”

“Playing Under the Moonlight By the Sea Kiss Me, what’s it sound like?” he asked, starting to mutter some of the notes as he tried to remember how the song went. He must’ve played the song (one of the more easier songs to play of Jagged Stone’s) hundreds of times when he first started, yet he kept glancing at at his hands to Stoneheart who was watching him warily.

Mylene snapped her fingers in time with the music, softly singing along,

“Under the Moonlight, I saw you~

By the Sea, you looked blue~

I could only say to ‘Kiss Me’

And baby my heart feels Free!”

Scarabeau just watched as Stoneheart swayed to the beat, Ivan’s voice slowly coming out from under the gruff gravely sound as he sang along,

“I’m nervous to Kiss You,

My Heart’s pounding like a zoo,

But I just want to Shine,

If only you say you’re Mine!”

The teens watched in awe as Stoneheart dropped the two girls onto the roof, along with the purple paper. The violet paper turned white as the akuma flew out. “What just happened??” Tortuelle asked as Scarabeau dropped the guitar and threw his yo-yo to catch the bug. "Like did you just have a jam session and that just saved the day?? And possibly got these two dating??" she asked as Ivan and Mylene were just staring at each other lovey dovey. She looked over at Marinette who just shrugged in equal confusion. "Glad that we're all equally confused!"

“See ya later, lil dude,” he said, watching as a white butterfly came out of the yo-yo. He picked up the guitar again and was about ready to toss it out when Ivan coughed out some purple butterflies. “Uh, that’s not supposed to happen??” Tikki didn’t tell him about this. “Was that supposed to happen??” Everyone just shrugged, not sure either as the butterflies flew out to make a giant head to face the cameras. “Big Baddie?”

“Big Baddie,” Tortuelle confirmed. “Seems Big Baddie at least.”

“Attention Citizens of Paris, I am Hawkmoth.”

“Yep, Big Baddie,” they said in unison.

“The only thing I wish for is the ladybug earrings and the cat ring. Give them to me and we can stop the torment that you’re putting the city through.”

Tortuelle just tossed her shield through the butterflies, whipping her head towards Scarabeau. “Focus! He’s stalling us!” she chastised him. Then they heard three beeps from the earrings. “Well, you mostly!”

Scarabeau nodded and tossed up the guitar. “Miraculous Scarabeau!” The ladybugs that burst out of the Lucky Charm went on to repair the damage that was caused by the Stonehearts, and he offered a fist to Tortuelle. “You did good too, y’know?”

She smiled and gave him a fist bump. “I’ll take care of the press since I never used my power. Get outta here before your secret identity is plastered on the news!”

He nodded, giving a quick wave before swinging out of here.

Tortuelle jumped down to the ground and went up to her dad, er, the mayor, and took the megaphone from him. “Need to borrow this, thanks.” The megaphone crackled to life as she cleared her throat. “Hey, Hawkmoth! We didn’t start this fight, you did! Both my partner, Scarabeau, and I, Tortuelle, stepped up to stop the mess that you were causing and we’ll keep stepping up until you back down! You want those earrings, you’ll have to go through me to get them!”

She had no clue what this Hawkmoth was going on about with the cat ring, but if the earrings were something that he wanted, well, no chance!

She handed the megaphone back to her dad the mayor) before blowing a kiss to him and the forever annoyed Officer Roger. “Happy to be of help!” And then started jumping to the nearest rooftop because she needed to book it back to school. That and she was positive that Officer Roger was probably going to try and arrest her if she did stick around.

--

Chloe had absolutely no idea how she was able to get back into the school and how no one was able to not find her, but Sabrina and Adrien were the first to give her hugs once they did find her. “Oh, I just, ah ended up, uh, hiding,” she explained when pressed. “I-I mean, I’m sure everyone was going to hide in a classroom once everyone managed to alert the principal, but I just….hid in a closet.”

Sabrina sighed in relief, “in any case...it seems that everything’s been fixed! The hole in the principal’s office is gone! What even happened??”

She wanted to explain that it was a new hero, but that would require telling them how she even knew that if she was stuck in a janitor’s closet, so she just gave a shrug. “Couldn’t tell ya.”

Adrien looked thoughtful and grinned. “Hopefully next time I come here it won’t be as hectic as today,” he said as the trio started making their way towards the front of the school. “Natalie’s going to be picking me up soon since school got canceled early today. Do you guys have your umbrellas?”

Chloe stopped and blinked. Oh right, the weather did say it was going to rain, but it was pretty sunny outside… “I...think I left mine in my locker. And there’s that whole...year long study thing and I haven’t picked a topic for that…”

“Maybe we can look around the library while we’re waiting for our rides to show up?” Sabrina offered. “My dad texted that he’ll be late because of what happened today and I know I haven’t found my topic yet either. Rather get the topic picked done and over with, y’know?”

“Wish you luck,” Adrien said, giving a wave as they started to split off.

“Text me if your dad stops being a ridiculous jerk!” Chloe called back at him, Adrien laughing.

“When pigs fly!”

She rolled her eyes playfully at that as the girls went to the library. “I still find the assignment utterly ridiculous! What exactly is the point of it all, y’know?” she started complaining. “We’re just going to forget about it by the end of the year anyways once summer break starts.”

Sabrina just gave a shrug at that. “Just...whatever interests you and how you want to talk about it?” she said quietly as they entered the library. “I mean...you talk about the latest trends and stuff, so you could do that.”

“I could, but I also just...don’t,” Chloe whispered, recalling that conversation that Marinette and Alya had yesterday. “I mean, your dad’s a cop but I don’t see you wanting to talk about law enforcement.”

“Fair. I’m gonna check to see if my favorite series ever got that fifth book yet before we start hunting topics. Meet you in the non-fiction section?”

The blonde gave a thumbs up as the two split off. “So dumb,” she muttered, her mind still struggling to think of a topic. Just because she’s into certain stuff doesn’t mean that she wants to talk about it. And seeing how Miss Bustier is keeping an eye on her (and probably any homework) means that if she happened to take a topic that someone else had, well, she must be copying off of them.

She turned the corner to the graphic novels section and squatted down in front of the Knightowl graphic novels. She gingerly picked up the comic book that she dropped yesterday. A librarian or one of the student assistants probably put it back after the chaos yesterday. Chloe opened up the book, carefully turning the pages to make sure that it wasn’t completely damaged.

“Chloe?” she heard someone asked, the teen slamming the graphic novel shut as she turned to spot Nino. He gave a friendly wave as she started to try and shove the book back into the shelf. “Wasn’t expecting to see you here too. Topic hunting too?”

“Yep, sure am!” she said, tensing as he glanced at the book that was definitely not going into the shelf anytime soon. “...the hunt’s not going great as you can see.”

“I can imagine. So, uh, thinking of the world of comics or superheroes?” he asked as he squatted down next to her. “Makes sense because of the whole….thing the last few days.”

“Alya’s doing superheroes. I just…” she bit her lip, not wanting to expose that she was indeed less popular than perceived. “Wanted...to read something fun.” There she said it, now her desk mate was going to make fun of her.

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked, tilting his head with a gentle smile. “I mean...there’s plenty of people who post about fictional superheroes online. I remember this one was a what-if story where they speculate what sort of person Knightowl would be if he gave the title to a fictional eldest daughter, but it’s also like ‘please stop writing fanfic on real people, that’s creepy.’”

She blinked as he didn’t really question why an amazing person like herself was just...ok with reading comic books. Something for babies. “I...guess so?” she said, her brain trying to follow along with whatever he was saying. “So, uh, why are you here?”

“I’m, uh, doing my topic hunting on music,” he said. “And one of the things I wanted to do was like...see how music inspired people. Were there music-based heroes, how did events in history inspire the music we listen to today…or just talk about how my favorite type of music came to be. Like the syllabus said that we can pick a topic or a person. Like...who’s your favorite person, besides, well, yourself.”

She stuck her tongue at him playfully. “Hmm...I guess after my dad, it would be...my ballet teacher?” She watched as Nino’s eyebrows were raised at that. “I took ballet for 8 years, and my ballet teacher is pretty amazing!”

“Maybe you can make the topic about her and stuff then? Possibilities are endless?” he offered meekly before standing up. “Still, even if you don’t do her, you could still….talk about ballet. I don’t know much about it, but there’s probably like...new dances or something that are made every year with ballet? Like….I remember my mom taking me to like a play when I was waaaay younger but I fell asleep because I was bored and it wasn’t cartoons.”

He offered a hand to help her up, Chloe hesitated before taking it and being helped up to her feet. “Still, you got this! We both got this and I believe in you!”

It was probably fake, but something about those words made her heart skip a beat as Nino gave a wave. “Y-yeah, totally got this!”

“I should try and grab those books I’ll probably need before my mom shows up. Later!”

She was so glad he was leaving because her cheeks was burning red and she refused to make this her first crush! Was this what having a crush was like?? What nonsense was this?!

“I am being utterly ridiculous!” she murmured to herself as she went to find Sabrina.

--

Fu sighed as he sipped his tea, watching the news. He knew that it was risky letting the ladybug and the turtle miraculous out, but it seemed that he didn’t make a mistake in who he chose for those miraculous. “Thank goodness,” he murmured to himself.

“So, boss, when do I come out to play?” a pitch black kwami asked as he floated up to the elder. “I mean, this Hawkmoth guy is asking for the ring and earrings so maybe I should have a wielder?”

Fu shook his head, twisting the small gold band on his finger after he had set his cup down. “No, Plagg. Your time will come, but for now, this... Hawkmoth must not be allowed to access any other miraculous while these two heroes are still new. It’s still too early to tell, but I believe that these two were made for each other-”

“Oh spare me, Guardian!” Plagg gagged as he flew up to the TV where the news was now displaying close up shots of Scarabeau and Tortuelle. “Picking two random teenagers off the streets because they happened to be nice to you doesn’t mean that they’re made for each other!”

Fu stared hard at him, “Plagg.”

After the last akuma, she had felt off, felt anticipation for whatever was coming next, but neither Khelone or Chat had seemed to know what she was talking about. Maybe Marinette was paranoid, but there was something in the air that had only been building since the last akuma attack. Tikki hadn’t known what was going on and neither had Master Fu when he was consulted, but Marinette was positive that something was happening. She had spent the last three weeks feeling drained of energy and could barely get herself to create clothes or draw like she normally would. Most of her friends had noticed at this point, but Marinette had brushed them off and forced herself to continue through her days.

 Walking into school that morning, Marinette decided she should have turned around and went straight home. The air seemed thick with the negative energy, oppressive as Marinette struggled to breathe through it. She was only a few steps away from the stairs when she fell to her knees. Her lungs felt as if they were being crushed beneath an invisible weight and she couldn’t move. Marinette’s vision was beginning to blur, her eyes becoming unfocused as bitterness filled her bones. She attempted to ground herself, using her fingers to tap a rhythm on her leg to give herself something to focus on.

 “Marinette? Are you all right?”

 Marinette became aware of a hand on her shoulder, and as fast as the negative energy had overtaken her, it vanished and she could breathe again. Looking up from the ground, Marinette’s gaze landed on a kneeling blonde next to her. 

 Meeting the blue eyes of her friend, Marinette managed a small smile, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine, sorry.”

 Pushing herself up from the ground, Marinette avoided Chloé’s worried gaze and walked towards class.

 Marinette went through her day with the negative feeling still following her, but it never overtook her like it had when she arrived at school. Part of her suspected it had something to do with who had been hovering around her all day, checking in on how she was doing despite the constant reassurance to Chloé that she was fine.

 Midway through the school day, while she was sitting in her science class, Marinette jolted upright and whipped her gaze towards the window. She saw nothing at first, and she was beginning to think she really needed some calming tea and a nap, when a shadow passed over the window. Marinette stood from her seat, ignoring Mme. Mendeleiev’s calling for her to sit back down, and approached the window. There had been something, she knew, where did it go. Barely registering Chloé coming to stand beside her and the gentle hand placed on her shoulder, Marinette leaned closer into the glass. I know it was there.

 Marinette’s stomach dropped, as the noise from around her crashed against her ears all at once. Every phone in the room was blaring the akuma alert, and Marinette only had a few seconds to yell, “Down!” before shoving Chloé with her away from the smashing window.

 A shower of glass and wall covered the class, as Marinette strong-armed Chloé behind a desk. Their classmates were screaming, but Marinette still hadn’t seen the akuma, her focus at the moment was entirely taken by the girl next to her and making sure she was okay. Chloé seemed relatively unharmed, if not a little shaken so Marinette risked leaning around the desk. Marinette’s ears were ringing, but she could see the back of the akuma. They were tall, wearing something similar to a trench coat, but they were hunching slightly, standing as if they were in pain. As Marinette watched, the akuma seemed to become increasingly aggressive as it faced off against Mme. Mendeleiev. The akuma seemed to be vibrating with energy, and when their teacher turned to run, it shot a beam at her before she could escape and she disappeared.

 Taking a quick count of her class, Marinette realized at least a quarter of them were gone, though it appeared that akuma had only hit the female students in her class. Marinette watched as Kim and Max, both turned and ran from the akuma with no trouble, but as soon as Rose tried she was gone too. There were still too many people in this room with the akuma, and even if they were only targeting certain people, Marinette couldn’t let them continue hunting down people.

 Not thinking her plan through, Marinette jumped upright and threw the book on the table in front of her at the akuma’s head. The akuma fell forward, but Marinette wasn’t going to give him the chance to do anything as she bolted towards the door. Her body was alive with energy, and even though she couldn’t see the akuma behind her, she could feel when he looked at her, diving through the doorway and rolling around the corner just as his attack ripped through the space she had been standing. Scrambling to her feet to run towards the stairs, she risked a glance through the glass wall of her classroom and watched as the akuma began to float, power sparking in their hands. Their gaze was firmly locked on Marinette, and she turned away to focus on her escape. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard the wall explode behind her.

 /////

All Marinette knew so far was that the akuma was angry. They seemed unfocused in their rage, smashing buildings and cars as she continued to escape their beam. As she ran through the streets, the akuma would still blast any women they passed if they tried to turn and run. Thankfully, Marinette had managed to grab his attention in the school, and now some citizens were able to actually escape him. The longer Marinette ran, ducking and weaving behind cars and through alleys, the more civilians the akuma let go.

 When the chase had begun, Marinette had been confident that she could escape their gaze and hide long enough to transform into Ladybug to actually fight the akuma, but the akuma had been fast and relentless. Block after block, Marinette had looked for an opening of any kind, but the akuma was strong, and followed her every step of the way. The few times she had tried using a building that she didn’t think the akuma could follow her quickly through, they had smashed their way into the building and kept pace.

 The negative energy that Marinette had been feeling over the past three weeks had now left her, but was firmly centered on the akuma, and the further she ran, the stronger the energy grew.

 Heartbeat thrumming in her ears, Marinette ducked into another alley. Her mental map of the city was starting to falter. She felt as if she had already been here, had taken too many turns and ended up close to where she began but also somehow lost. She didn’t stop long enough to think of her best route for freedom, instead opting to continue avoiding the akuma as she had been. Run through the alleyway, listen for the whistle of the Akuma’s weapon, rush back into the street, duck behind a car, find the akuma, avoid another attack, duck into a new alley, repeat.

 In the back of her mind Marinette knew where she was, but she had never had to run from an akuma for this long without her powers, or run from an akuma that seemed to have a single focused goal of catching her. In between quickly catching her breath behind cars and buildings, Marinette could feel Tikki’s growing panic. She could feel her Kwami’s paws jabbing at her sides trying to signal her to turn or move or transform but Marinette knew she couldn’t. Time had stopped mattering as much after the first block of relentless chase. Passing time could be marked by the only things Marinette knew were still happening to her like breathing, ducking, and running. The akuma never gave Marinette long to catch herself, the shortest her duck and roll behind a car, gulping breaths of air while she rolled onto her knees and took refuge from his fire, the longest being when she had squeezed herself between two buildings and doubled back in hopes he would lose her trail, but never long enough for Marinette to duck away and transform.

 Ladybug thought she should be spending this time up close with the akuma to find out more about their powers, or why they were choosing to only target women, or chase someone until they were hit, or even the akuma’s name, but Marinette couldn’t even make out what the akuma was yelling, too busy trying to focus on not getting hit until Chat Noir or Khelone could show up and help her so she could finally transform and actually take care of the akuma. 

 Sprinting, Marinette turned off the street she was on, glancing over her shoulder keeping the akuma in her peripheral, only to almost run into a wall. Backtrack, backtrack, backtrack. Don’t get stuck, you can do this, avoid them. 

 Pivoting on her foot, Marinette tried to keep moving, looking for the closest alley or scanning for a car or a trashcan or something, Marinette only saw the akuma. Floating high above the street, long robe flowing down to skim the surface of the road, hands alight with power, Marinette could only focus on their smile. Stretched too far, something in the smile froze Marinette in place. 

 Unaware if time was actually shifting, or if her adrenaline fading away had shifted her perception with her panic to make time seem slower. Marinette could see their mouth move, saw too many teeth in a too small place, but ringing had overtaken her ears, senses flooding with too much all at once Marinette couldn’t move. Tikki’s jabs were painful now, persistent in her ribs, digging in with an urgency to get Marinette moving, to hold on a little longer and Marinette knew she couldn’t. The akuma raised their arm, and Marinette felt her eyes slipping closed as a shadow passed overhead.

 Two things happened in quick succession. A sharp whistling noise, cut through the ringing in Marinette’s ears, and the scent of honey flooded her nose as a slender, strong, familiar, arm wrapped itself around her waist. Jerking her eyes open to see a green shield meet a brilliant flash of blue, Marinette felt herself go weightless. 

 Time rushed forward to meet Marinette in the same instance she flew backwards, through the wall that had prevented her escape moments ago. The arm holding her close slid away from her as they both hit the ground and bounced apart. 

 Marinette ached everywhere, but she forced herself to sit up and tried to take stock of the situation. The akuma had blown Khelone and her backwards through brick, but Chloé had taken the brunt of the hit for her. Chloé was laying next to her, shield still on her arm, as she slowly began pushing herself to her feet.

 The akuma had stopped floating, and was stepping through the empty space where the wall had been, gaze firmly fixed in their direction. Their grin was still stretched over their face, though it appeared larger now, more menacing. The akuma took aim towards them, and fired.

 Marinette had thrown herself backward and ended up rolling behind a car, prepared to keep moving but the akuma was focused on Khelone now. Every part of her being was telling her to move, to run, to transform so Khelone, so Chloé, didn’t have to face this threat alone but she froze. She became stuck in place to watch Khelone dance around the akuma, blonde hair spinning behind her like the golden capes of invincible superheroes, except this wouldn’t protect her. Marinette’s body refused to move as she forced her hands into the pavement, stones digging into her hand, eyes tracking Khelone’s every move, wanting her to get away, to avoid the akuma to save herself. Marinette almost missed the akuma raise their hand and fire directly into Chloé’s path, but her eyes tracked the minute movement of Chloé’s legs, barely twisting into place as her eyes widened and her arms rose, meeting the akuma’s blast with her shield and being blown backwards down the street.

 Lifting her hands from the pavement, Marinette made a move to follow Chloé, to follow the fire in her heart to the girl she liked, to pick her up from the road and protect her from the akuma’s advancing form. Marinette was stopped before she could even manage a step, by a tiny and harsh tug on her ear from Tikki who had somehow maneuvered herself into Marinette’s hair.

 Forcing herself to turn away, Marinette ran through the closest alley chanting a hope for safety for the blonde, Be safe, be safe, be safe. Marinette ran around the corner, crossed the street, and found the closest alley so she could duck into an alcove, or behind a dumpster, anything large enough to conceal her from anyone passing by.

 Marinette took a deep breath and focused herself. Shining pink light overtook Marinette’s form and as it begins to fade away, a yoyo whips out towards the nearest roof and Ladybug steps forward. Pulling herself up into the sky, Ladybug threw herself forward to land on a roof, rolling before throwing herself further into the air, her rising height leading way to her view of the akuma. Ladybug felt herself begin to fall towards the battle just in time to see Khelone kneeling on the ground, shield raised above her head. She was bleeding, and appeared weak even from Ladybug’s distance. Her raised shield was smacked away, and before Khelone could move, an unforgiving fist drove her into the ground. 

 Ladybug fell onto the street and threw her yoyo into the akuma’s head, knocking him away from an unmoving Khelone. Placing herself between her fallen friend and the akuma, Ladybug swung her yoyo to create a shield.

 The akuma blasted her with their power, but here yoyo deflected the hit. The akuma attempted to blast her again, and again, but Ladybug would not falter. The grin that had been a permanent fixture on the akuma’s face slid away, and as they glared at Ladybug she glared back.

 Ladybug’s focus was entirely on the akuma, but she still saw the figure clad in black drop behind her opponent. The akuma yelled at her, deep, booming voice cursing at her for keeping them away from their prize, so Marinette screamed back. She didn’t know what she said, if she even said anything, but Chloé was bleeding and unmoving behind her, so she yelled and threw herself at the akuma.

 Chat Noir joined her to attack, but Ladybug was a one-woman army. She had spent almost the entirety of the akuma attack avoiding the akuma’s blasts, now she was avoiding his punches. Ladybug ducked and weaved around her opponent, getting in close to punch or kick when she saw an opportunity. Her yoyo was idle in her hand, waiting for use, but Ladybug was angry, and barely even thought of a plan to stop or subdue the akuma, she just attacked.

 The battle was moving quickly, the akuma barely managing to move without being hit by Ladybug. Chat Noir had stepped back, confused, but let her handle the fight. 

 One solid hit to the akuma’s nose had them splayed out flat on their back, groaning in pain. Stomping on their wrist, a black butterfly floated free, and Marinette finally stepped back to breathe. She caught and released the akuma with barely a word, instead focusing all her energy on releasing a swarm of ladybugs to heal the city, but more importantly heal Chloé.

 Marinette had rushed over to Chloé before the cure had even finished. Marinette fell next to the other girl, bringing her head to rest in her lap while she waited for her to be okay. The erratic beating of her heart was beginning to calm, and a wave of exhaustion was finally catching up to her, but she needed Chloé to be okay before she could focus on herself.

 The blood that had covered Chloé’s face was gone, her cuts had closed, and the bruising around her eyes was fading as Marinette watched, but she couldn’t shake the image of her friend bloody and on the ground from her mind. She was checking every inch of Chloé’s face, looking for a hint of the injuries she had experienced, tracing her eyes over closed lips to find any indication that the blonde was in pain. Gaze slowly moving towards Chloé’s eyes, Marinette found herself staring into ocean blue eyes.

 Chloé smiled up at her before she spoke, “Hey.” Her voice was low, and far too carefree for Marinette.

 Part of her felt like crying, part of her wanted to hug the other girl and never let go, and the other part wanted to yell at her for being stupid and reckless. “What were you thinking, Khelone?”

 “My friend, Marinette, was being chased by the akuma after she led him away from our classmates. She was still running when I caught up to them and I couldn’t let her get hurt. I got the akuma to focus on me so she could escape.” Chloé was sitting up now, moving herself out of Marinette’s lap. “Did you see her when you got to the battle? I didn’t see which way she went and I need to check on her.”

 “Marinette? Oh, she was super safe when I passed her. She ended up a few blocks away near a park, out of harm’s way.”

 Chloé quickly offered her fist, before bounding over to Chat and doing the same. With a short wave, she jumped away to look for Marinette.

 Ladybug realized her mistake immediately. Looking to Chat, she found him standing next to an angry looking man, most likely the akuma victim they had freed. “Chat I have to go! Can you help the victim?” A simple thumbs up and smile was her response and Marinette raced away from the scene of their battle to detransform and wait.

 /////

Chloé had transformed a block away from the park and quickly fed Wayzz. While Wayzz ate, Chloé texted Marinette, trying to check in and see if she could get a response to where Marinette was. She knew already, but Ladybug probably wouldn’t appreciate it if she found Marinette immediately despite them being separated back at Francois Dupont. Wayzz had finished his watermelon, so Chloé began making her way to the park. 

 She had tried to appear calm and unaffected to Ladybug, but Chloé was worried. She had left Marinette alone with an akuma, and couldn’t even get to her quickly. Mme. Bustier had rushed into the room moments after the akuma had smashed through a wall to chase Marinette and had made all of the remaining students buddy up. She had tried to calm the students who were left and talk them through what had happened but Chloé wasn’t paying attention. Her focus had been on ditching her partner as soon as possible because she had to go protect Marinette. Mme. Bustier had brought up the news in time for them to watch Nadja Chamack get hit with the akuma’s power. Her cameraman had tried to keep up a news commentary, but he couldn’t follow quickly enough while holding a camera and a microphone so he fell behind the fast paced akuma chase. He had managed to provide brief shots of Marinette running, so Chloé had a rough location to go off of, but from the brief news coverage Marinette seemed exhausted and Chloé didn’t know if she could reach her in time.

 Her partner was Adrien, and while all of the other buddies seemed to be engaging with each other, he was almost ignoring her completely. Gaze switching between the news and his bag while his back was to her. She didn’t question his silence, just used it to leave and transform.

 Chloé had arrived just in time to protect Marinette from getting zapped, but then she lost track of Marinette while she tried and failed to fight the akuma off. Her ego was definitely bruised, and she could feel the phantom pain where the akuma had hit her, but Chloé was just worried for her friend.

 She was lost in thought when she got to the park, phone still unanswered in her hand, when arms wrapped around her from behind. Chloé almost hit whoever had grabbed her before she recognized the smaller body clinging to her. “Hey, Mari,” she breathed out. “You had me worried.”

 The other girl held Chloé at arm’s length and turned her around. Marinette’s face was filled with indignation. “I worried you? What were you thinking?” 

 Shock worked itself through Chloé’s system, she hadn’t done anything as Chloé to worry Marinette. She had a moment to think if she should lie to her friend, lie to her crush about being Khelone, when Marinette seemed to widen her eyes in realization. The flash in her eyes was gone as quick as it came before a careful anger replaced it and Marinette shook Chloé slightly.

 “You can’t just follow after me when there’s a dangerous akuma! What if you got hurt?” The anger was fading from Marinette’s eyes, instead she just looked worried.

 Knowing the other girl wasn’t actually mad at her, Chloé smiled, “I wouldn’t follow after a dangerous akuma if you didn’t make them chase you.”

 Marinette seemed ready to yell at Chloé more, though Chloé thought their roles should be reversed, but then she just pulled Chloé into the tightest hug possible.

 Chloé relaxed into the embrace, pulling the shorter girl closer and leaning her head against the other’s hair. Marinette’s fingers were clenched into Chloé’s shirt, holding her in place. 

 I never want to move from this spot, Chloé thought. She still didn’t understand how Marinette bravely and recklessly having an akuma chase her to protect others had resulted in Chloé worrying the other girl, but if it ends in a hug like this she didn’t mind. 

 Marinette pulled back and punched Chloé in the shoulder, before grabbing her face in between her hands. Chloé’s breath caught as Marinette pulled her face down inches from the other girl’s. Chloé’s gaze fell to the other girl’s lips.

 “Do not ever scare me like that again.” 

 Jerking her eyes back to Marinette’s, all Chloé could manage was a nod.

 /////

Marinette had dragged Chloé around Paris for the rest of the day and Chloé had been on cloud nine the entire time. Chloé logically knew it hadn’t been a date, but they had gotten food together before Marinette had taken Chloé to stroll along the Canal St. Martin, their hands clasped together the whole time.

 Chloé was going to invite Marinette to a movie, and try to work up the nerve to ask her out, but Marinette had plans later that she couldn’t miss. Which had actually reminded Chloé of her own plans; patrol with Ladybug.

 Since school had ended before Chloé was given any homework, she had ended up on the Eiffel Tower. The people of Paris were still awake and strolling through the city, but Chloé wasn’t paying them any attention. Legs swinging over the edge of the Tower, Chloé was smiling at the sky, completely lost in thought. Daydreaming about her time with Marinette and thinking about what could come next for them.

 A clearing throat behind her caused her to jump, and only the railing in front of her prevented her from falling. Whipping around, Chloé saw an amused Ladybug standing behind her with a gentle smile on her face. “I’ve been standing here for five minutes.”

 Rising to stand with Ladybug, a warm blush spread itself across her face, “Sorry, sorry, I was a little side-tracked.”

 “I can tell.” Ladybug moved towards the edge of the Eiffel Tower. She looked like there was something on her mind, but she just shook her arms out and grabbed her yoyo before turning to face Chloé again. “Race you through patrol?”

 The air around them felt heavy but if Ladybug wasn’t ready to talk, Chloé could wait. “Let’s go.”

/////

Two patrol races later, Chloé was flat on her back on the Eiffel Tower, shield abandoned to her left, exhausted. She had tried to beat Ladybug, but to this day had never managed to actually get close. Ladybug knew the city better than anyone, and she could race from one side to the other almost quicker than Chloé could comprehend.

 Ladybug was sitting next to her, knees drawn to her chest. Her yoyo was off to the side in a pile, and she wore a pensive expression as she stared into the night.

 Puffing out a breath, Ladybug crossed her arms on her knees and rolled her head to look at Chloé. “Did you speak to Chat yet?”

 “I haven’t seen him since the akuma, why?”

 “The akuma we fought today did you recognize him after?”

 Chloé thought about it, but in her rush to get to Marinette, she didn’t even remember looking at him. Maybe not the best post-akuma-civilian-handling of her hero career but she wasn’t thinking. “No? Is everything okay Ladybug?”

 Ladybug looked out towards Paris again and began tapping her fingers against her leg. The gesture seemed familiar, and Chloé pushed herself into a sitting position, fully facing Ladybug in preparation for whatever she had to say. 

 Chloé watched Ladybug close her eyes and take a deep breath. “He could have really hurt you, Chloé.”

 “He could have, just like any other akuma. I know we have to be careful but you have the cure and I was-”

 “No,” Ladybug interrupted, “This time was different, Chloé. He wasn’t a good person.”

 “I don’t understand.” They usually never referred to akuma victims as bad, they couldn’t control their actions after Hawkmoth took control of their most negative emotions, and to hear Ladybug calling the latest a bad person was a shock.

 “Chat was the only one who stayed to talk to the akuma afterwards, he was trying to disappear while Chat was checking in, and then the police showed up.” Ladybug was looking at Chloé now, and she looked afraid. “He’s being investigated for willingly getting akumatized right now, but he’s already been charged for assault.”

 Chloé didn’t really know what to say. Ladybug seemed to have more on her mind, but she had gone back to staring at the city while she tapped against her leg. Chloé moved herself closer to Ladybug. The silence stretched between them, unspoken words whispered through the wind but Chloé didn’t understand what else needed to be said.

 Ladybug sighed. “He hurt a girl, Chloé. She was around our age. He wanted to take her out somewhere, and she said no, so he lost it and hit her. It took two people to pull him off, and then he pushed away from them and ran off. The police were looking for him before he got akumatized. He was already dangerous, and he could have really hurt you, Chloé.”

 Ladybug’s tapping had gotten faster, beginning to lose the established rhythm it had possessed, so Chloé put her hand over Ladybug’s, hoping to reassure her. There had been dangerous akumas, and Chloé knew there were dangerous people, you couldn’t be the daughter of a major politician without knowing that, but Chloé couldn’t recall a time when normal danger had crossed over with akuma dangerous. If Hawkmoth was willing to use violent people to further his own goals, what did that mean for them? She was beginning to understand why Ladybug seemed so shaken up, fighting akumas was dangerous and always had been, but they had always been fighting innocent people who usually only wanted their miraculous. Hawk Moth could akumatize violent people and the fights could end up being about more than just protecting the miraculous they wore.

 “I’m sorry for going into the fight without backup, but I was protecting my friend. I can’t let anything happen to Marinette. I know he was dangerous, but if it comes down to it, I can’t watch the people I love get hurt.”

 “I know.”

 Ladybug’s hand was cold underneath her own, so Chloé lifted it from her knee and slid her own hand into Ladybug’s. Their held hands dangled between them as they sat.

 “Just be careful, please. Protect your friends, but protect yourself until Chat or I can get there to help you. I can’t see someone I-,” Ladybug paused, “I can’t see my team hurt.”

 Rubbing her thumb over the back of Ladybug’s hand, Chloé smiled. “I’ll do my best.”

 Ladybug rolled her eyes before using her free hand to push Chloé’s shoulder lightly. “Thank you.” Ladybug stood and pulled Chloé with her. “But do not ever scare me like that again.”

 Ladybug pulled Chloé into a hug. The phrase felt familiar, and echo of something she should know, but Chloé didn’t know what her brain was missing. Sliding her arms around the other girl, Chloé realized for the first time that Ladybug was shorter than she was. Her brain was buzzing, she felt like she had all the pieces to a puzzle, but Chloé didn’t have an image to go off of. 

 Ladybug pulled away and jumped backwards off of the Eiffel Tower, yelling ‘bye’ as she fell, and Chloé was left standing alone. There was a thought burning itself into her brain as she stood and watched Ladybug swing away until she disappeared from view. She couldn’t grasp the thread to follow it, but she could see it, she knew it was there now, and maybe with a good rest, she could solve the puzzle that had created itself in her brain. 

He adjusted his headphones that were around his neck and slid them over his ears. He turned them on and while trying to make sure that they were connected to his phone so he could listen to the radio, he heard someone say, “Nino!”

He turned around to see Miss Bustier give a gentle smile and gestured to the front row. “How about you sit in the front row this year?” she suggested. Translation: please don’t hide in the back and listen to music like you did last year. He should’ve known that his last teacher would’ve made notes about him and his headphones.

Nino resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he moved past one of his larger classmates. “Excuse me, dude,” he said, dropping his orange backpack in one of the front row seats, close to the door. If he couldn’t have music, he could have an immediate escape route for when the bell rang. Speaking of the escape route, he spotted a girl with bluenette pigtails trip through the door with a white box that went flying out of her grasp. “You good?” he asked as the girl picked herself up.

“Yep, just another day in life,” she said as she watched the teacher help pick up the box. “Merci, Miss Bustier! Hopefully the macaroons didn’t break.” She turned to see who was all in her class and her face fell when she saw a blonde girl and her friend sitting in the seat behind where Nino was. “Chloe.”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

The girl casually pointed at the seat she was in. “That’s my seat.”

Chloe was about to start protesting when Miss Bustier stepped in. “Chloe, I actually had some notes from last year and I was going to have you sit in a different spot this year.”

Chloe, Sabrina and Marinette all looked at each other in simultaneous confusion and looked back at her. “What??” they asked.

“Well, just for the semester,” the teacher added, hoping to placate the teens. “You can stay in the front row, but how about we move you over with Nino?”

Now it was Nino’s turn to whip his head over to the conversation. “I’m sorry, say what now?” he asked. There was no way that Miss Bustier was going to sit the mayor’s daughter next to him. Even Chloe was grimacing at the idea of moving away from her friend.

“But, Miss Bustier,” Chloe started to say, clasping her hands together in a pleading manner. “My friend Adrien will be arriving at school and I have to show him around and he has to sit nearby me since I’m his best friend-”

Miss Bustier held up a hand. “Chloe, I appreciate that you want to help a friend especially since it’s his first day here, but your friend Adrien isn’t even on the roster for this class. I’m sorry, but I want you and Sabrina to not sit together for this semester. Both of your grades were barely passing last year and I want you two to thrive and not be distracted.”

Chloe didn’t bother hiding her disdained as she rolled her eyes and just slid into the next seat down. “Fine, whatever. I can survive one single semester.”

“Do I get a say in this?” Nino asked, raising his hand. “Like...I could move into the seat behind this one? Or even the next seat over?” Miss Bustier only raised an eyebrow as the teen sighed. “Fine….one semester.” He slumped over his desk. “…….well this stinks.”

“Tell me about it.” Chloe pulled out her phone, checking her messages with a frown. “He should’ve been here by now…”

Nino just decided to ignore her, watching as Marinette was going by delivering different flavored macaroons to different students. It was a miracle that they didn’t end up broken with the spill that she took a few minutes ago. He also watched as Sabrina moved over to the front row so Chloe and Sabrina could still talk without craning their necks too far back or forwards. There was a girl that he didn’t recognize before who was sharing the spot next to Sabrina, but she got up to move, probably not a huge fan of whatever she heard from the last few seconds, or she just wanted some space to herself. Don’t blame her because he would like the same as well. She simply slid into the spot behind their seat.

Marinette definitely hesitated before offering the treats to the last three students: him, Chloe and Sabrina. “Would you like a macaroon?” she asked in a flat tone.

Surprisingly, Sabrina timidly took one with a small thanks, glancing over at Chloe, who didn’t look up from her phone. Nino held out his hand since he couldn’t quite reach the box they were in. After getting a treat deposited into his palm, he grinned and brought it back over to him. “Thanks!” he said with a grin.

Chloe glanced up briefly and just waved her off. “No thanks, still full from breakfast,” she said, frowning as she was rapidly typing on her phone.

Marinette looked puzzled before going to take find a seat. Nino craned his neck as to see what other spots were available, knowing that they were pretty limited as everyone was starting to get settled into their seats and class was about to start: either sit by the new girl, sit by Sabrina, sit in the way back by another kid that Nino was unfamiliar with, or sit by the one kid that looked like he could break them all like a twig that sat behind the new girl.

Her answer was made for her as the tough-looking kid gestured to his seat beside him, the girl looking relieved as she made her way to Ivan’s left side. They gave each other a nod of respect, likely knowing that not many kids would want to sit with either of them. Nino had him in a previous year and even knowing that he was nice, the guy still sorta scared him since he was bigger than most of them.

-

Chloe pouted as she had to reluctantly put away her phone as Miss Bustier made her way to the front of the desk to collect the syllabus for the semester. “Where are you, Adrien…?” she murmured as she turned to try and focus on the lesson.

Well, it wasn’t really a lesson, but the first thirty or so minutes was booooriiiiing. She kept glancing at the door, hoping that Adrien would waltz on in and she would prove that they were friends and that everything was bound to be amazing and stuff and just uuuuugh, this morning just sucked! Can’t sit by her best friend, her other friend wasn’t even here yet and she’s sitting by someone she hardly knew!

She nearly sighed in relief when Miss Bustier finally dismissed the class. Sure it was the first day of school so it was going to be a half day, but it still sucked that she was still here for the next few hours.

Some of the students were leaving for PE, her desk mate included. But now she was stuck going to the library with everyone else. After she had shoved whatever she had into her bag, she glanced over at Sabrina, about to ask what they were supposed to do at the library when a loud, “KIM!!” roared out from the back of the room. She looked over to see Ivan hovering over the jock.

“Ivan, what is going on?” Miss Bustier asked.

“It’s Kim! I'm so gonna get…” he started to say before Miss Bustier pointed at the door.

“Ivan, go to the principal's office.”

Chloe kept her in seat as Ivan stomped past the rest of the students before directing her attention to Sabrina. They were both staring at each other with wide eyes. “….So, that happened,” she muttered as the two headed out the classroom. “He barely got a word out and Miss Bustier is already sent him to the office. Remind me never to get on her bad side.”

“That was her bad side?” Sabrina asked, raising her eyebrows. “You know Miss Bustier didn’t even punish you for your pranks from last year.”

Chloe grimaced at that; yeah, this year was going to absolutely suck if the teacher is already trying to bust down on any disturbance in her class. “Guess she may have grown a backbone since last year….anyways, why are we going to the library again? Couldn’t even focus in class, much less the syllabus.”

“Yearly project, gotta do a presentation, have to pick your own topic and no it’s not a group project. She wants us to pick a topic by the end of the week, details on how long the presentation is supposed to be and other requirements are in the syllabus,” she summarized, adjusting her glasses. “Any messages from Adrien?” she asked.

She glanced at her phone and shook her head. “Nope. Guess his dad dragged him back to his mansion. That man is utterly ridiculous.”

The two went into the library, the blonde breaking off from her friend to try and find a topic. Maybe her library card from last year still worked? Probably not, but it was worth a try. She wandered into the fiction section, trying to find anything that caught her eye. Sure they were supposed to find a topic, but she did want to check out something entertaining.

She paused at the graphic novel section of the library, glancing around to make sure no one was watching before grabbing one of the Knightowl comics. It was one she already read, of course, but she honestly needed something fun to read, quickly walking towards the nonfiction section with it shoved under her arm. Nothing wrong with reading an oldie but a goodie, after all. She resisted the urge to groan loudly because being in the library and she really didn’t want to do schoolwork today.

“How am I supposed to pick a topic anyways?” she muttered as she went to fish out the packet from her bag. “Like, does this even really matter?” she said, wondering if she could ask Sabrina to pick out a topic, but she remembered that Miss Bustier would probably be aware that it wasn’t a topic that she had picked out. Her ears pricked up as she heard some talking the next aisle over.

“So, you’re new here, right?” That was Marinette’s voice. “What, uh, what topic were you thinking of doing?”

“Probably how the history of journalism evolved or about the superheroes of the world. I’ve been reading a lot of Majestia stuff and it’s been making me wonder about, like, superheroes in our neck of the woods, y’know? What about you?”

Chloe could see some parts of the two teens talking, spotting Marinette shrugging a bit. “Maybe how fashion has changed over the years? I’ve been following Gabriel Agreste’s work and I wanted to try and focus on that this year.”

The blonde girl scoffed quietly, mentally crossing those items off her list of topics. Ok sure she could try and do one of those topics, but she didn’t want to come across as a nerd if she did something like superheroes, and frankly while she was a fan of fashion, she really didn’t want to read about the history of it. Also, ew, history assignments.

She listened as the girls kept talking as they left, heading towards the center of the library where all the tables were located. “You have until the end of the week anyways,” she quietly reminded herself. She started walking down the aisle, hoping that some topic would catch her eye when the entire room shook, causing her to fall over.

She stumbled to her feet as the shaking subsided, running to try and find Sabrina. Paris never got earthquakes and even if it somehow wasn’t one, she refused to stay here.Luckily, her friend had the same idea as she came running into her from the next aisle over, clinging onto her once they were reunited. Chloe gave her friend a tight squeeze, listening as other students were moving towards the center of the room, going to investigate the cameras. The two pulled away, holding hands as they went to join to see what the commotion is. She didn’t even care that she dropped whatever book she was holding.

The security cameras showed some sort of stone monster thing right outside the school building, yelling out as it went stomping towards the city.

“It’s a real life supervillain! Which means there’s gonna be a superhero not far behind! I’m not gonna miss this!” the new girl said, Chloe watching as she ran towards the library’s exit.

Sabrina muttered to herself, her fingers digging into Chloe’s hand, “that girl’s crazy…”

Chloe nodded numbly before tugging her friend along as she headed towards the same direction. “Let’s just get home. I doubt they’ll let us stay here if that...that thing is running around. T-think your dad will be able to give us a ride?” she asked, Sabrina nodded from the corner of her eye.

“Hopefully? I mean….I hope he’s ok if he gets caught in….whatever that was,” the redhead said.

The next hour felt like it was dragging on for several: the phone call to her dad to have someone pick the two of them up, the limo drive to drop Sabrina off at her place before arriving back at the hotel. There were so many detours and urges by other officers to just park the limo and go inside the nearest building until it was safe from whatever was marching through the streets.

She felt exhausted as she dropped her bag on the floor of her room, leaning against the closed door. She didn’t know how long it’s been since she had left the school’s campus, but she was glad to be home. Chloe started to put some of her things away when she paused, noticing a little black jewelry box with odd red markings on the top. Just sitting there on her vanity dresser.

“Sophie didn’t say anything about a delivery,” she said, trying to recall if the maid had said something. Then again, with how the last…..several minutes of going up to the room has been, it was possible it had slipped the teenager’s mind. “Maybe it’s a gift from daddy,” she concluded, knowing fully well it certainly wouldn’t be from her mother. The woman barely remembered Chloe’s name when they were even in the same room together.

But still, this being a ‘happy first day of school’ present from her father seemed much more likely. She picked up the jewelry box, frowning as she was trying to figure out what brand it was. Maybe it was a popular brand from China or Japan? The markings did sorta scream ‘Asian’ in some capacity at least…maybe the brand name was inside-

But when she opened up the lid a green light emitted from inside, Chloe shielded her eyes a bit with her free hand. She dropped the box as soon as the light started floating, scrambling away because what else does one do after the weird day she was having??

She slapped her cheeks a few times as the light transformed into a small turtle looking thing floating in the air. “It has to be a really bad dream. That’s all this is! A bad dream!” she muttered to herself as the thing came floating over to her.

The creature bowed their head slightly in greeting. “Hello, my name is Wayzz.”

She stared at the creature, her voice struggling to find itself before she just gave a meek wave. “H-hi.” At least no one she knew was watching otherwise they might’ve assumed that she was a completely different person.

“I am a kwami and you and one other have been chosen to protect this city,” he continued floating over to the jewelry box. Chloe got up onto her feet, not sure when she landed on her butt (probably when she was scrambling away) and approached the box. Inside was a black-wired bracelet with the main adornment being a flat six-sided jewelry with what looks to be five triangle pieces in the middle. She picked it up, looking it over. She looked over to the kwami (whatever that meant), who nodded to the jewelry. “Go ahead, put it on.”

It was easy to slip on, almost like it was made of elastic or something easy to pry apart that she couldn’t think of. The girl gasped as the bracelet changed from a drab piece of jewelry, to a gold-chained bracelet with the main jewel turning into a six-sided emerald in the middle. “That’s….ok if this is a dream, it just swung right back into being amazing~” she squealed. She giggled as she looked at the new jewelry in amazement. She almost wondered if she should change the color so it could match her outfits but gold went with everything and anything so she’ll probably keep it as is.

“Chloe Bourgeois, this will be a dangerous mission for you and your partner. There’s a great evil already striking the city; you may have already seen the actions in play already.”

Chloe frowned, looking to the creature. “You...you mean that thing from the school? I...have to go beat that with….you mentioned a partner or something?”

“The Ladybug Miraculous holder, and you have been chosen to hold the Turtle Miraculous,” he explained. “Our role is to help protect him and others from harm. There are limits for what we can do, especially since you are much younger than the previous holders.”

She scoffed at that. “Please, I’m the mayor’s daughter, what sorta limits could possibly hinder me?” she asked. She watched as Wayzz’s face looked mildly amused. “What?” she asked.

“For starters, due to your age, you can’t use your powers as often as you would as an adult,” he stated as he started flying around the room, taking in the living space. “In this case if you use Shell-ter, that is, my ability, you have five minutes before you transform back to your civilian self. Of course we need to locate the akuma and purify it to help the victim and-”

Transform?

Transform???

“I can transform??” she squeaked, completely derailing whatever Wayzz was saying. Oh this was absolutely like Knightowl, except, y’know, Knightowl didn’t have a lil guy telling him exposition stuff when he started out so it’s fiiiiine. “Like, uh, how?? Should I do it now?? Is there like a reverse button if I have to bail?”

“The phrase is ‘Wayzz, Shell On’,” he instructed, looking pleased with himself. Maybe he was just excited to tag along also, but they had no time to lose if they have to go stop that guy from terrorizing the town.

“Wayzz, Shell On!”

-

Nino exhaled in exhaustion as he and the others were wrapping up their gym class. The teacher was distracted almost the entire time, talking to someone on the phone in a hush tone but was telling everyone to run laps in a clear attempt to distract them, much to Nino’s delight because then he could listen to the Radio Nova station without Professor D'Argencourt yelling about him bringing his headphones to class.

Of course during one of the laps when the group just walked instead of running,Max had whispered to him and some of the others that there was some sort of monster roaming about the city and they didn’t know where it was heading and how no one could stop it.

He doubted it was real, like maybe it was some movie thing and the Mayor didn’t inform anyone about the thing and everyone was freaking out over nothing. Still, it seemed like that the teacher was keeping the class there until they were given the all clear to be taken home since the rest of the school day was canceled.

Or maybe he was hoping it wasn’t real as while he was walking away from the goal post with Alix, the ground shook beneath them all, sending whoever was still standing sprawling to the ground. He landed on his chest, aware of the shoulder bag he had that got awkwardly wedged between him and the ground.

“KIIIIIIIMMM!” a roar bellowed from above. He scrambled to look behind him to see a giant stone….giant standing where the top of the stadium would be. Some of the students were starting to run past him and Kim. “Who’s the wuss now?” the creature bellowed once more, jumping down to the field.

Kim was only a few feet away and he started to run past Nino. Nino’s feet were struggling to find purchase as he tried to get up as well, but it was like the world was suddenly made of ice and slow motion because there was no way he was getting away in time. Even if it clear that the monster was only there for his classmate, he was probably collateral damage if he wasn’t able to get away in time.

The jock that was running with him tripped and fell, reaching out to grab anything that could get him moving again, which, unfortunately was Nino’s ankle who was starting to barely past him. The two boys stared at each other in absolute terror and in Kim’s face was also a look of apologetic as he realized that he just dragged another kid along for the ride of doom.

This was it. They were going to die to a supervillain and it wasn’t even in New York, the place famous for superheroes.

His conversation with the older gentleman was starting to play back in his head, wondering if that was a sign that he was going to die today. Nino screwed his eyes shut as the giant behind Kim was reaching out for them, waiting for the impending doom. Crushed by giant hand. Maybe squeezed to death like a dying chew toy.

He thought he heard footsteps approaching, but there was no way someone came back to try and rescue their sorry butts. Maybe a teacher, but he was doubtful of that.

“Back off!” a voice yelled, the sound of metal hitting stone echoing in his ears. Nino hesitantly opened his eyes to see a girl swatting the hand away with a green shield that was attached to her arm.

The girl had curly blonde hair in a high ponytail, with green spandex with gold running down the sides and down along the side of the green knee high boots. He adjusted his glasses to see that the spandex looked a lot like scales than anything, and the girl turned around to look at them with a green and red mask, Nino noticing that her outfit reminded him of a turtle of all things.

“Go already! I’ll cover you!” she barked, holding up her shield just in time to block the slam of the giant’s fist. She gave another look back and yelled, “GO ALREADY!”

Kim was the first to react, scrambling up and pulling Nino along by his bicep, the boy stumbling as he was making sure that the jock didn’t dislocate his arm. They ran to the entrance that they came through when they had first arrived, pausing as they spotted a girl that clearly wasn’t in their gym class there, recording on her phone.

“Hey, uh, you…know what’s happening?” Kim asked, risking a look over to where the fight was happening. Nino looked over as well, watching as the girl nimbly dodged away from a backhanded swipe, surprising him since, well, turtles weren’t known for being fast after all.

“I dunno!” she chirped, looking back at them with a wide grin. “So I was at the school library with the rest of the class and this guy just came outta nowhere and just started stomping his way here! I’ve been following him on my bike and I saw that every time he got hit, he just got bigger! I never expected to see a superhero-villain attack on our first day of school, much less in Paris! You have to go over to America for that! Oh, right, I’m Alya! I don’t know if you guys caught that during homeroom or whatever, but y’know, first day and all that. No one wants to listen and all.”

Nino frowned, having turned to observe the fight during the explanation of what happened earlier. Turtle Girl, or, whoever she was, was doing nothing but dodge or block whatever attack came her way with the shield. It was definitely an impressive shield, considering that the giant was probably nearly three times her height and probably just as heavy. “Has he been using just...one hand to fight?” he asked, squinting. “I thought he would’ve at least thrown a punch or something with the other hand he’s been clinching.”

Kim peered over as well, before shrugging. “The guy’s massive so maybe he’s just...thought he needed one hand to finish the fight or whatever,” he shrugged.

Alya was about to comment before Turtle Girl had came flying into the concrete wall close to where the three were standing. “Whoa!” she gasped, her hand shaking as she kept recording the footage. The heroine pushed herself out of the wall that made the dent, dusting herself off with a grimace. “That was intense…” More like that was painful. He was certain that he could feel whatever bruise was forming by that impact.

Kim, turning his attention to where the giant was, quickly grab the other two teens back as a goal post was launched towards them, the superheroine getting in front of them and throwing her shield the impending object like a frisbee. The shield hit it, though it really didn’t do much outside of making it land a few feet to the left of where they were at. “Good hit!” he cheered.

Alya quickly came over, with Nino and Kim trying to pull her back because was she crazy?? “You’re a superhero, right? Well, superheroine, but still, you have some sorta power right? Can’t you just….use it?”

The girl rolled her eyes but frowned. “Unless you want me to waste my one chance, I can’t really use it. I’ve been trying to hold him off so my partner would show up, but I guess it’s up to me,” she said, turning around on her heel.

“His right hand!” Nino said, the heroine looking back at him. “He’s clenching his right hand so maybe that’s a weak spot? I mean, it work in video games so, I mean…” He could feel his mouth starting to go dry because he didn’t know this person, but she was definitely confident and pretty and nope, stop, no love at first sight nonsense…..but she has been risking herself to save the three of them and...well, he supposed he liked bravery like that.

She looked back at the monster, a widening smirk on her face. “So that’s where you are…” she said, rushing over to grab her shield. As soon as it was in her hands, it started glowing a light green as she started running towards the giant. “Gonna need you to let go of that thing, big guy! Shell-ter!” she said, aiming the shield at his hand.

Nino looked confused because nothing was happening for a couple of seconds, only for the giant’s hand to look like it was being pried open by something. A ball? Though it was confusing what he was trying to comprehend, the heroine slid underneath where the prying hand was, catching whatever fell through. Is that how physics work when it came to weird superpowers? Or maybe this was just a weird dream where Paris just woke up with superheroes.

She leapt up and easily tore it like it was paper and...maybe it was?

Or some sorta magic paper since some purple object went flying out and the giant just turned back into a person. An actual person.

“Holy smokes, is that Ivan??” Kim asked, rushing over to check on him. “Ivan! Yo man, what happened??”

Alya and Nino trailed after him while Kim and Ivan were chatting, trying to piece together what happened in the last several minutes. “Miss Turtle! That was amazing! Can you answer a few questions? Like what’s your name, how did you get your powers, and can you tell us anything about this partner of yours? You mentioned that you were waiting for him, right?”

The heroine looked surprised but then immediately looked pleased with herself at the sudden attention. “Well, you see, I am, ah….I suppose I haven’t really thought of a good name, but in my defense, I did have to help save the city so superhero names are sorta minor in that department, but I’ll keep you posted,” she said, giving a small wink.

Now that the excitement was over, he could feel himself becoming paralyzed with some sort of fear. Maybe he just didn’t want to make himself to be a goofball to person that saved his life. Speaking of her, she raised her fist up to him. “You helped save the city too, y’know? So, thanks.” He grinned and gave her a fist bump.

“Pound it!” he said. He looked startled as a loud beep broke through the noise, the green-clad girl looking at her wrist. “What was that??”

She looked worried as a there were two triangles on her wrist. “Uh, superhero stuff, it’s fine, but I gotta go! Can’t do a full interview but byyyye~!” she said, running off. Well, more like she parkour her way out of the stadium, leaping higher than Nino would’ve thought possible. And she was gone in an instant.

Kim and Ivan just shrugged as they couldn’t really figure out what happened to cause the sudden transformation and had started making their way out of the stadium. Alya, meanwhile, was looking up some sort of tutorial on how to make a blog, complete with how to use HTML coding, and Nino just followed after them.

When they finally left the building, they saw that Professor D’Argencourt was explaining to the police that the monster was inside with some of the students being trapped there. But thanks to Alya’s video footage, they found out about the new superhero and were starting to eye Ivan since….well, he did sorta cause a lot of damage on his way here, but since the everyone could testify that Ivan doesn’t remember what happened or what had caused the transformation, they were going to let it go (though it was with a silent threat of ‘for now’).

The class was instructed to stay put while waiting for their respective guardians to arrive, which, made sense since arriving home by police car isn’t exactly the greatest method given the events of today. There were just two students that clearly weren’t supposed to be there: Alya...and Chloe.

Kim was the one who spotted the blonde girl first, waving her over to join the rest of the group. The girl seemed oddly flustered, trying to word how and why she was even there. Nino and Kim could get why Alya was there because she wanted to record the action of Stoneheart (the adults had called him that) vs Turtle Girl (name pending). Chloe was the girl who would rather not deal with dirty work because it would chip a perfectly manicured nail.

“Well, uh, you see, I was...worried about you!” she stated, avoiding everyone’s eyes. “Because the monster and all that was making his way here and all! I just...couldn’t go inside because the noises of that fight scared me. You guys were either brave or very lucky to have survived!”

Nino watched as his classmate’s ears turned a bit red as he said, “you were worried about me?” Oh he was down baaaaad. Oh well, at least Chloe seemed content about everyone being around and not arrested.

His mom was one of the first parents to arrive, maybe second after the Mayor because last anyone had heard, Chloe had made it home, but the idea of her sneaking out to make it to the stadium was surprising.

But all’s well that ends well, right?

Nino had fallen asleep on the way home, glad that nothing in his bag was broken, including his headphones. Once he made it inside, he told his mom he was going to his room to take another short nap, much to his mom’s chagrin since she was going to finish making dinner soon. After dropping his school bag on his bed, he saw a black jewelry box on one of his stereo speakers.

“That….wasn’t there this morning,” he said, picking it up. He definitely would’ve remembered having something so out of place in his room. He gingerly opened the box, a red light emitting from the box and floating upwards. The light turned into a...bug? At least he thought it was a bug. It was red and had a black spot on its forehead. “What...are you?” he asked. “A genie?”

The creature shook their head. “I am Tikki and I am your kwami, Nino,” she informed him, floating around the room. “It’s strange, I don’t sense the akuma, but I know that I could earlier from within the Miraculous. But we didn’t purify it...that’s not good.”

“Miracu-what? Purify??” he asked, peering inside the box to see two red earrings with five dots on each one. “Uh….my mom already threatened to ground me once for the time I did pierce my ears,” he warned Tikki as he started to set it down. “And…”

‘ I’ve been trying to hold him off so my partner would show up, but I guess it’s up to me’ rang through his head as he stared at the earrings.

“I….I’m her partner?” he asked quietly. How could he have known? He was stuck on the other side of the city and the means to help save the city was sitting in his room waiting for him.