59September 2, 2015
The last week of summer went by relatively quickly. Marinette, Adrien, Nino, and Alya didn't have as much time to hang out as they all had last minute preparations for their quatrième year. Nearly everyone had grown over the summer, so back-to-school clothes shopping was in order.
Finally, the first day of school arrived. With a new school year, Ms. Bustier was allowing her students to pick their own seats on a first-come-first serve basis.
Since the pair had worked so well together the previous year, Adrien asked if Marinette wanted to sit together again. When she agreed, he let her pick the seats. The boy was surprised when Marinette chose the seats at the very back.
"I don't want to rock the boat." Marinette whispered, nodding at Lila sitting in the front with Nino and Alya.
The first day passed without much drama. Everyone just wanted to get back into the swing of things.
The second day would be much different.
For the second day of school, Marinette, Adrien, Nino, and Alya met at the front of the building. Collège François Dupont had new food vendors outside in the morning and everyone wanted to try the customizable coffee cart.
Nino sipped his latte as Alya rambled about her latest Ladybug theory. It had been a minute since the four of them had hung out like this, but the budding DJ knew that Marinette did not normally stand that close to Adrien without him shuffling away for some personal space. And… were their hands touching?
It wasn't long before the warning bell rang and everyone scattered to get where they needed to go. The girls waved to the boys as they ran to the bathroom before heading to class. Adrien and Nino meandered on their way to home room in case the girls were able to catch up.
"So…" Nino drawled. Adrien gave him a side-eye. "What's up with you and Marinette?"
"M-me and Marinette?" Adrien stumbled, surprised at the question. "Nothing."
"Come on, dude!" Nino poked his friend's arm. "You two were cozier this morning than I've seen you all year."
Adrien sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's not like that, Nino. She… saw the coverage of Ladybug's fight with my bodyguard the other week and the footage of me falling from Montparnasse Tower kinda freaked her out."
Nino began counting on his fingers. "One- you didn't fall; you jumped, you freak. Two- that freaked all of us out. Why's Marinette taking it so hard?"
All the boy got in response was his friend giving him a look. Nino's eyes widened in comprehension.
"Wait, you know?"
"Know what?" Adrien asked coyly.
Nino dragged the blonde away from Ms. Bustier's door before he could walk in.
"You know what I mean!" Nino hissed.
"Yeah… I know. And there's definitely something there. But neither of us is in a good place for a relationship right now. We're good being just friends."
"Well, if Alta catches wind that you know about that, make it clear that I did NOT tell you!"
"Noted." Adrien chuckled.
Conversation shifted as the girls rejoined them at the door. Time to start the day.
Marinette sighed as the door finally shut behind her. It had been a long day.
She was about to drag herself up the stairs to her room to work on homework when her mother's voice made her pause.
"Sweetie, I think your principal's on the news!"
The girl groaned inwardly. So they had footage of her long day.
"Really?" She did her best to sound surprised as she came to stand next to her mother. The news story continued.
"A child was almost struck by a rogue grappling hook at Place des Vosges Park today that was operated by a citizen calling himself 'The Owl'. The Owl was trying to rescue the child's kitten from a tree when his grappling hook went haywire. Luckily, Ladybug and Chat Noir were nearby to assist. While Ladybug and Chat Noir do not condone the actions of 'The Owl'-"
The screen cut to a pre-recorded sound bite of Ladybug looking sternly into the camera.
"You musn't copy him, okay kids? It's VERY dangerous!"
The reporter's face filled the screen once more, surrounded by onlookers in the park while the cameras rolled.
"Many people are now asking themselves… is it a good thing for Ladybug and Chat Noir to inspire ordinary people to be heroes? Let's hear what a local citizen has to say. What's your name?"
Marinette couldn't contain her groan this time as Lila stepped up to the microphone, flipping her hair.
"My name's Lila. I'm a student at François Dupont. I don't get the hero worship of these people. I mean… they wear spandex and jump around rooftops. Cirque du Soleil does that every night. And what's up with the masks? Someone who never shows their face is SURELY hiding something. Ladybug doesn't even answer questions about how her Miraculous works!" Lila looked straight into the camera. "Ladybug was right about one thing - don't copy The Owl; don't copy the heroes… be your OWN hero!"
"Did you see the news report about The Owl this afternoon?" Chat Noir asked.
The sun dipped below the horizon as the heroes took a minute to sit before their evening patrol. Ladybug winced at the memory of Lila's interview.
"Yeah… that girl they talked to? She goes to my school."
"A real ray of sunshine, she is."
"Can confirm - not a fun person." Ladybug stood to shake out a cramp in her foot from sitting funny. "Anyway… what are we going to do about Mr. Damo- I mean, The Owl? He means well…"
"But he almost hurt a kid today." Chat nodded.
"Any thoughts?"
Chat sent his partner a wry smile. "No ideas from Ms. Lucky Charm herself?"
The girl huffed. "You've got good ideas! And maybe you'll come up with something I wouldn't've thought of!"
"I'm teasing, Bug." Chat laughed.
"I walked right into that one," Ladybug agreed. She stilled. "I gave you exactly what you wanted…"
The boy leapt to his feet. "Oh, I know that look! You've got something?"
"Exactly what I said. What if we give The Owl what he wants? A chance to be a hero? We can whip up a scenario that wouldn't put anyone in danger and let him 'save the day'!"
"OOOH! Like one of those 'Make a Wish' things they do for sick kids? That could work!"
Ladybug tapped her chin, already making plans. "Let's rope in Alya. She'd be a great help on a number of levels. Let's get started. How bad could it be?"
It could be REALLY bad.
Not only had The Owl not 'defeated' the villain 'Cardboard GIrl', but his equipment malfunctioned again, resulting in many photos being uploaded onto the Internet. To add insult to injury, Ladybug and Chat Noir accidentally revealed that The Owl was in fact Principal Damocles. The poor man ran off in a flurry of tears followed by more camera snaps.
Marinette pricked her finger on the needle she was using to stress embroider her laundry bag. Whenever the girl was stressed and didn't want to risk creatively disrupting an actual project, she pulled out the laundry bag she used on trips and would furiously add a new embroidered spot to the bag. Looking down, Marinette realized that the piece she'd created resembled an owl. She groaned.
"Marinette!" Tikki squeaked.
The girl glanced over at where Tikki had been watching a Clara Nightingale music video. Had being the operative word. Now the screen was filled with the face of a dark figure.
"Citizens of Paris!" The figure growled. "I am Dark Owl and YOU will listen carefully." The screen shifted to a shot of the Eiffel Tower. There were multiple large containers attached to each leg of the structure.
"I have rigged the Eiffel Tower with liquid nitrogen at each of its legs. If Ladybug and Chat Noir want to keep one of Paris' national landmarks unscathed, they will meet me at Parc des Princes stadium within 15 minutes. And if any first responders try to disable my devices, it will detonate. Since there's four legs and four devices, who knows which section of the city would sustain damage!" Dark Owl laughed evilly before the screen clicked off.
Marinette leapt halfway off her balcony before she had fully transformed. How much power did Hawkmoth give Principal Damocles? She worriedly thought. It wasn't long before she came across Chat racing along the rooftops.
"What was Hawkmoth THINKING?" He shouted as he continued running. "Did he really give an akuma the power to cause that much damage?"
"I don't want to find out. Come on. We're almost to the stadium."
The duo pushed themselves to make it to the Parc des Princes in time. When they arrived, a large countdown clock stopped at 15 seconds to spare. A figure atop the clock slowly clapped his hands.
"Very good, heroes. You cut it a bit close, but I guess some just have a flair for the dramatics." Dark Owl drawled.
"Sir, we're sorry for embarrassing you and revealing your identity." Ladybug lifted her hands in a placating gesture, slowly stepping forward. "You wanted to be a hero, right? So why are you working with a villain like Hawkmoth? Why are you willing to risk innocent lives?"
"Because he's right!" Dark Owl bellowed. "How can I be a hero with you two blundering around? Once I've claimed your Miraculous for Hawkmoth, he and I will have a rivalry for the ages! It will be glorious!"
"And why would we give you our Miraculous?" Chat gave Ladybug the hand signal they developed to prepare for battle.
"Unless you give up your Miraculous, Paris will lose a tourist trap. Plain and simple." Dark Owl wiggled a remote in his hand. "You're welcome to try and stop me." He pressed a button on his wrist, the countdown clock now counting down from ten minutes.
The heroes launched into action. Ladybug used her yoyo to try and grab the remote from afar while Chat moved in and did battle up close. All that accomplished was Ladybug grabbing random gadgets and gizmos from Dark Owl's utility belt. On the off chance that one of those was the akumatized object, she broke each item. She grew more and more frustrated at each item that yielded no result.
Her head snapped up at Chat's yell. He managed to use his baton to smack the remote onto the top of the countdown clock, which now read three minutes. The teens scrambled to beat Dark Owl to the top of the structure to claim the remote.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug yelled. It felt like the night was almost over, but a still small voice in her mind told her that she would need her Lucky Charm soon. She'd learned trust that voice, unsure of exactly where it came from. "A fountain pen?" She murmured, turning the spotted instrument over in her hands.
"No doubt to record our victory tonight," Chat boasted. "You're finished, Dark Owl!" He cataclysmed the remote.
The countdown clock kept counting down.
"What?" Chat exclaimed.
Both heroes yelped as the floor gave way beneath them. They groaned, Chat rubbing where his head had hit the cold metal floor.
"What's going on?" He yelled.
The pitch black inside suddenly flared to life with a TV screen on one of the walls. It was the same shot of the Eiffel Tower from the hijacked footage with the countdown running out its last seconds in the bottom corner.
"NO!" The duo screeched. Ladybug forced herself to watch what was coming next, forcing herself to watch her failings as a hero.
But no shrieking of metal ever came, no sounds of frightened bystanders.
The devices attached to each of the Tower's legs simply… vanished.
"I-it wasn't real?" Ladybug whispered, paling.
Dark Owl's face now filled the screen, along with a picture-in-picture live feed of the trapped heroes.
"You heroes really are GULLIBLE, aren't you?" Dark Owl sneered. "I already had the gadgets. Hawkmoth just gave them a bit of a boost. That whole thing was a hologram! And since you wouldn't hand over your Miraculous when asked nicely…"
Spigots raised from the floor and began to spray a viscous substance.
"...I'll have to take them from your corpses."
Ladybug pounded the wall closest to her in frustration before turning to Chat Noir. She rushed over to him, smacking the boy upside the head just as he was about to put a dab of the viscous substance in his mouth.
"DON'T EAT THAT, KITTY! It could be poison!"
He opted for smelling it instead. "Well, poison smells dairy based."
"Excellent deductive skills, Chat Noir." Dark Owl preened. "Your prison is now filling with over 8,000 gallons of whipped cream! By the time it gets high enough, it will be too thick to swim in and too runny to float in.
"You'll drown."
"Unless we give you our Miraculous." Chat surmised.
"HA! You humiliated me and now I will humiliate YOU by revealing your identities and showing the people of Paris what worthless heroes you two are!"
Fed up with Dark Owl's gloating, Chat snatched the pen from Ladybug and squirted the ink into the lens of the camera filming them. The picture-in-picture feed inside the container went dark.
Dark Owl growled. "Fine. I won't have footage of your defeat, but you've both used your powers! You'll have to detransform event-"
His monologue was cut off as Chat swung his baton at the TV. Sparks rained all around them, turning patches of the whipped cream more sludgy as static now flickered across the broken screen.
Chat's ears perked up as he heard gasping breaths. He whirled around to see Ladybug hyperventilating.
"Bug! Bug, have a seat," He helped her sit in the still rising cream. "Tikki, can you force a detransformation?"
Ladybug's earrings beeped sadly.
Knowing that they'd have to ride out her panic attack until the timer ran out, Chat rocked Ladybug back and forth. He pressed his forehead to hers and brought her hand to rest over his heart, trying to ground her.
"I'm here, Bug. Shh, shh, shh. Can you tell me what's going on in that head of yours? What's so loud right now?"
"T-too many th-things I… missed…" She took a shaky breath. "Too m-many details to… to make sense of…" Her earrings beeped again while Chat's ring gave a four minute warning. "And we're about to transform back!"
Chat rubbed her arm. "Well, half of that's okay. I already know. And you don't have to catch everything. We're partners, right? And I've got good ideas occasionally, right?"
Ladybug let out a watery chuckle. "Occasionally."
"Let's see if this is one of them. Since I took out the camera, there's no eyes in here. We can detransform, feed the kwamis, transform back, and kick butt."
The girl in his arms groaned. "See! That's what I'm talking about! A GREAT, OBVIOUS idea! How did I miss that?"
"Hawkmoth's getting more aggressive, but he's also getting sloppy. He may not have counted on us having this much trust or ways to recharge."
"Hang on, there's one snag in the plan." Ladybug's mind became quieter, finally allowing for clear thoughts. "What about your identity? It's risky…"
"I say we both still close our eyes. Just in case anything gets back to Hawkmoth, he'll think we're both still in the dark."
Ladybug nodded. "Okay. Let's do this."
Neither Hawkmoth nor Dark Owl had counted on the plan. But neither had the heroes counted on the akumatized object to not even be with the villain! It was certainly one of the most unorthodox was an akuma had been defeated, but it had been defeated nonetheless.
The next week, Mayor Bourgeois called a press conference within Place des Vosges at noon. Marinette and Adrien snuck out of class, unbeknownst to each other, to meet up and watch the press conference from the rooftop across the street.
"The city has commissioned local artist, Théo Barbot, to create a statue celebrating our heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir. But seeing the noble deeds ordinary citizens, like The Owl, have been performing within their own communities - tending gardens, handing out blankets to our homeless, volunteering at our local animal shelter - we have decided to also celebrate YOU! Our citizens, our everyday heroes! In just over a month's time, we will dedicate our statue and celebrate Paris' first Heroes Day - a day where ANYONE can be a hero!"
The audience applauded as a sheet was whipped away and a blown up concept photo of the coming statue stood tall.
"Did they make me look taller than you?" Ladybug squinted, trying to see from far away.
"You stand tall amongst men, milady." Chat leaned back on his hands. "So…"
Ladybug turned, looking at her partner curiously. "So?"
The boy leaned in closer. "Did you look? Back in Dark Owl's trap. I know we agreed to both close our eyes, but I wouldn't blame you if you did. Look, you know." Chat was rambling, but he couldn't stop. "It's kind of unfair that I figured you out, so like I said…" He stilled as Ladybug placed her hand over his mouth.
She smiled. "I didn't look, Kitty."
His eyes widened and he mumbled against her hand. Ladybug rolled her eyes as she returned her hand to her lap.
"Really?" Chat asked again.
"I won't lie and say I wasn't tempted. I almost did."
"What stopped you?"
Ladybug basked in the noonday sun before continuing. "I was so close to opening my eyes… but then I thought that if I did ever find out who you are… I wouldn't want it to happen like that.
"You mean trapped by an akuma at risk of drowning in whipped cream?" Chat asked with a wry smile.
"Exactly!" Ladybug giggled, bumping his shoulder with hers. Her breath hitched as Chat lifted the back of her hand to his lips.
"And that's why I fell for you, milady."