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Alya grinned. Marinette may no longer need help finding opportunities to hang out with Adrien (as Chat Noir at least), nor to push her to get closer to him, but still, any opportunity that Marinette and Adrien had to really spend time with each other as civilians was something to treasure. And getting to participate in a group activity? Even better.
Adrien and Marinette talking with each other about fashion, giving tips, making jokes, really just having a conversation without any stress or anxiety? Not something she’d have thought was possible even a month ago. Finding out that Adrien was Chat Noir really let her relax around him.
Of course the rest of the class had noticed, and many of them were suspicious, but they’d deflected it as best they could. They’d considered telling the rest of the class about Marinette and Adrien dating, but had eventually decided against it. Most of them would be thrilled, but between Chloe potentially lashing out at Marinette if she discovered that Adrien had fallen for her and the ambiguous threat that Lila represented? It wasn’t worth it.
Time to film the main model!
She turned her phone from Adrien and Marinette towards Juleka. She wasn’t filming yet, but if there was one thing she’d learned from running the Ladyblog, it was to always be ready to press that record button.
“How about a little smile for the camera, Juleka?”
Juleka looked up, mumbling something quietly, barely coherently. It sounded like “I don’t think this is such a good idea guys?” With the way her words were blending together, it was hard to tell.
Juleka had been the one to put herself forward as a model earlier, but now she seemed weirdly freaked out. But this wasn’t like Marinette’s freak outs. Those tended to be a lot louder and more obvious, and a lot easier to pinpoint the cause of (Adrien. Almost always Adrien).
By contrast, Juleka seemed a lot more restrained, but in a way that was even more worrying. With Marinette she knew what was going on. With Juleka, she just kinda appeared freaked out and barely responsive, looking down at the ground, eyes darting around, mumbling, and with not being able to hear her really well, she wasn’t even sure what the issue was, much less how to fix it.
Marinette walked over to Juleka, holding onto her shoulders and talking to her comfortingly. Alya relaxed slightly. She wasn’t sure what to do, but Marinette was pretty talented. Maybe she’d be able to help Juleka through… whatever was going on?
She frowned. Juleka was hyperventilating now, even with Marinette there with her.
Hm. 11:30. They didn’t have long before Adrien would have to leave to go have lunch with his father. Whatever they did, they’d have to do soon.
Marinette spoke soothingly to Juleka. “It was great of you to volunteer to model for me, but I can tell you’re not feeling that comfortable about it. Would you prefer if someone stood in for you? These are my designs, I really should model them myself…”
If someone stood in for-
Oh.
OH.
This was perfect!
Adrien was already a model, and Marinette’s designs were unisex, fitting both men and women and looking good on them too. And, naturally, she already had versions on hand that were the right size for both herself and Adrien. (Come on, like she WOULDN’T design clothes in her kitty’s size).
It would be perfect for showing off Marinette’s range for her website!
…Okay so the main reason was because she’d get some matching clothing couple pics out of it. So sue her, they were cute together.
She was still waiting for the day they would get their first hamster together. She wasn’t sure who would be most likely to die of cuteness overload first, Marinette when cooing over the hamster, Adrien for cooing over the hamster AND how cute Marinette was, or herself for cooing over the cuteness of all of them.
Oh who was she kidding, it would be Adrien. The boy was such a smitten kitten.
Wait, what was she thinking about?
Oh yeah. New models for the photoshoot!
“Of course! Awesome idea Marinette!”
Alya grabbed Marinette and yanked her over next to Adrien, positioning them close enough to both be in frame of a potential camera. “If we want to show off how truly awesome this design is for both boys and girls, it’d be best to have the photoshoot with both a girl and a guy! You in Adrien?”
He shrugged. “If it helps. Could be fun! A lot more interesting than my regular photoshoots at least.”
“Perfect! Give Marinette your suit Juleka.”
She didn’t wait for a response, already grabbing the hat off of Juleka’s head and pushing Marinette and Adrien towards two shades they’d set up for any outfit changes.
This was going to be SO. COOL. Even better than the original plan!
The two of them emerged minutes later. She wasn’t surprised that Adrien was so fast at changing, he certainly had enough experience. Marinette was a bit more of a surprise, but she was used to acting fast, so maybe it wasn’t TOO surprising. Plus she was intimately familiar with the outfit and the accessories, which probably helped with the changing speed.
They looked so awesome! With the simple dark blue shirt with black stripes, the outfits were well-suited for casual wear, but the pop of color from the red berets and the addition of the rings and clip-on earrings added some extra interest that took the outfits to the next level!
Wait… rings and earrings…
She glanced at Adrien’s hand and at Marinette’s ears. Both of them were wearing the accessories for the outfit rather than their Miraculous.
She pulled them aside quickly.
“Adrien? Marinette? Where are your Miraculous?”
They both looked slightly uncomfortable, patting their bags.
Ok. So they weren’t wearing them right now, but they were close by. This would be fine. It was only going to be for a little bit, less than an hour. Surely Hawkmoth wouldn’t attack during this tiny little window of time.
Right?
…Maybe she should call for back-up. You know, just in case.
She sent off a quick text to Nino, asking him to meet up with her and the others at Marinette’s house. If there was an emergency, she knew she could count on him.
“Ok, let’s do this quickly before Adrien has to go back.”
They tried a few different positions in the room, but unfortunately-
Alya frowned. “Marinette, I don’t think your room has the best lighting for this. It’s a little too dim.”
Hm. It would mean more of a delay, but- “Maybe we should go outside? It’ll be brighter out there, and the background will be more appealing. Plus there’ll be more room for different shots.”
Alya following Marinette’s gaze as she glanced over at Juleka. She looked better now – well at least she wasn’t hyperventilating or mumbling. Slightly downcast maybe? But at least she didn’t seem ready to collapse to the ground.
The group started heading downstairs. Well, all except for one.
Juleka shook her head. “I’d rather not come.”
Rose looked put-out. “What? Why not?”
Juleka turned away from everyone. “It’s nothing, I just…”
Alya frowned as she checked the time, missing the rest of what Juleka mumbled. “We’ve got to head out now if we’re gonna do this, we only have thirty minutes left!”
Marinette called up to Juleka, looking uncertain. “Well, if you’re sure. Feel free to make yourself at home, we’ll be back soon.”
Nino met up with them on the ground floor. Marinette living so close to Francois-Dupont definitely came in handy sometimes.
“What’s going on dudes?”
Alya smiled. Seeing Nino never failed to lift her spirits. “There’s been a change of plans, we’re heading outside for the photoshoot. You up for it?”
He blinked. “Sure. Where to?”
He looked around. “And where’s Juleka?”
“She said she wanted to stay behind.”
Nino frowned. “Is she okay?”
“She said it was nothing.”
Nino glanced up at the top floor, where Marinette’s bedroom – and Juleka – were, but didn’t say anything.
“We can talk to her later if you want,” Alya suggested, “but we’re on a time crunch here.”
Nino hesitated, seeming conflicted. Finally he gave in. “Ok, where’re we going? And how’re we getting there?”
Adrien perked up. “I can take care of that!”
A few moments later, they were all squeezed into the backseat of the Agreste family car. Or, well, one of them. Alya hadn’t exactly kept track. Surely they had a second one in case Gabriel needed to go somewhere?
…Then again, Gabriel almost never left the house.
Alya had… OPINIONS on Gabriel. Between what Adrien had told her and the others a few weeks ago during the Chameleon incident, and what she knew from personal experience… well, most of what she had to say about him couldn’t be spoken of in polite company.
At least Marinette’s family had practically adopted Chat Noir. Adrien had seemed a lot happier and well-assured these past three weeks. She wished that Adrien could just move in with them already, but Nathalie would probably notice that.
She bet that if it was just Gabriel they could manage it though. For a guy who never left home, he sure didn’t spend much time with his son. Though that might be a blessing in disguise.
At least Adrien had Gorilla when he was at the manor. The man wasn’t exactly talkative, but he clearly cared for Adrien and gave him more slack than anyone else did.
Speaking of which…
The car halted. It was fortunate the school, Marinette’s house, and the Eiffel Tower were so close together, or they wouldn’t have had a prayer of finishing this within the time frame.
It wasn’t long before they had everything set up for the shoot. Marinette and Adrien had a few nice poses – nothing too coupley sadly, they had to keep that on the down-low for now. But still really nice pics that showed off the clothes well.
Then the giant Reflekta doll robot stomped into view.
Well, crap.
“Hello, my friends,” she heard Juleka’s voice call out bitterly. “I’ve got something special for your video.”
…And there were the giant laser beams. Welp, typical Tuesday she guessed.
She was more concerned with what was going on with Juleka. She’d seemed a little off when they left, but badly enough to get akumatized?
A small nagging feeling built in her stomach. Juleka’d been freaking out and hyperventilating, she KNEW that, she’d just… well she didn’t know why or how to help, so she’d just… brushed it off. And Juleka had seemed a little downcast when they left, but she’d been so focused on her whole “get Adrien and Marinette in cute matching outfits” crusade, she’d just… brushed right past any niggling feeling she had that something was wrong.
“I’m sorry Juleka, I should’ve stayed with you!” Rose cried, looking distraught.
“I am not Juleka, I’m Reflekta.” The giant Reflekta-bot fired a laser at Rose, which she barely managed to dodge in time. “Everyone always forgot about Juleka anyway.”
The nagging feeling deepened into guilt. Because yes, Alya HAD forgotten about Juleka. She hadn’t meant to hurt her, hadn’t been malicious at all! She just… just hadn’t given her much thought.
Marinette, Adrien, and Nino may be her closest friends, but that didn’t mean that she should forget about her other friends when they needed help.
Glancing quickly around, she saw Marinette and Adrien quickly dash towards some concealed spots.
Perfect! They’d transform soon and-
OH DOUBLE CRAP.
SHE KNEW THEM TAKING OFF THEIR MIRACULOUS WAS A BAD IDEA.
Okay, okay, so Juleka had been transformed into Reflekta again, this time with a giant mech to help her, and Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn’t transform.
Well today was just peachy, wasn’t it?
Ok good. They were heading towards the car now.
Aaaaand the Reflekmech was turning around to face them.
Maybe she should just stop thinking optimistic thoughts. The universe wasn’t looking kindly on tempting fate today.
They dove behind the car.
“You stole my limelight, Marinette,” Reflekta snarled. “I was supposed to be the star of the photoshoot!”
No. Marinette didn’t do that.
She had.
She’d gotten an idea in her head about what she wanted to happen, and she’d brushed aside any obstacle to getting it done.
Obstacles including Juleka.
Heck, she’d taken the hat right off of Juleka’s head, barely even looking at her as she did it!
Alya’d always known she had a bit of a one-track mind, but seeing the negative results of that so clearly displayed…
How many other people had she accidentally hurt in her overeagerness?
“But- you told me you didn’t want to!” Marinette shouted at Reflekta, indignant.
“You didn’t let me explain,” Reflekta told Marinette. Then she blasted her with a Reflekt laser, turning her into a Reflekta clone.
How many times could Murphy’s Law activate over the course of two minutes? Because this was getting ridiculous.
“Ha! Maybe you’ll understand me better now that you’re in MY shoes!”
Honestly, if she thought it would help, Alya would stand in the way of a beam herself. She still didn’t quite understand what was going on with Juleka, but with the hints that she HAD gotten? She wanted to learn more. To figure out just what she’d done wrong, and how to do it right next time.
Adrien tried to open the trunk, to no avail. Of course not, like Gorilla would be incompetent enough to leave it unlocked. She guessed that Adrien hadn’t had to get a lot of things out of the trunk himself though, so it was understandable that he didn’t know.
Oh. And now the Reflekmech had picked up the car with the Miraculous, thrown it, and Reflekta’d Adrien. She supposed that might as well happen at this point.
This was so much less nervewracking back in the days when she had Ladybug and Chat Noir on pedestals as invincible superheroes, and didn’t realize that they were just kids like herself.
Ok. What could she do to help?
“Alya!” Nino shouted.
She startled. With how hard she was concentrating on Adrien and Marinette, along with thinking about her own role in this akumatization, she’d completely forgotten that she’d asked him to come just in case something like this happened.
He hurried over to her. “What do you think we should-“
A beam of light interrupted his sentence. Two seconds later, both of them were a lot more pink and in far less practical shoes than they were before.
Juuuuust great.
At least they kept their own voices. It’d be a nightmare telling people apart otherwise.
“For now? Run!”
She took him by the hand as they bolted, trying to help keep him moving without stumbling. She was decent at running in heels – they weren’t exactly her favorite kind of shoes to wear, but she had some experience at least. Nino had none.
Get away from akuma now, plan later. Maybe try to find the Miraculous and Adrien and Marinette? That was less of a “plan” and more of an “aspiration” though.
“Ladybug? Ladybug?” She heard a familiar voice call out faintly.
She froze, causing Nino to bump into her. “Why did you-“
She put her fingers to her lips, silencing him. Looking up, she scanned the sky.
A small red-and-black blur darted around.
“Tikki?” she called out, wanting to attract her attention, but no one else’s.
Hordes more people ran past her screaming.
…She probably didn’t need to worry about that too much, come to think of it. There was a bit of a distraction going on already.
Tikki flew over to them. “Alya?”
She nodded.
“Nino?” she asked, looking to her side.
He nodded as well.
“Where’s Plagg?” he asked.
“Still trying to find Chat Noir. I’ve been trying to find Ladybug, but…” her antenna drooped.
“Hey, it’s okay,” Alya told her, “I’m sure you’ll find her eventually.”
The bug kwami perked up, eyes widening.
Ooh. Alya knew that face. That was the ‘I’ve got a brilliant idea’ face.
“Alya, how would you feel about being Ladybug?”
Her?
Be Ladybug?
She’d be lying if she said it’d never crossed her mind. Heck, after finding out that Marinette had wanted her to be Ladybug, that she’d even tried to give her the Miraculous because she believed she’d be a better Ladybug than her? Alya’d daydreamed about it for weeks, what might have been.
Not that Alya was unhappy with the way things had turned out – Marinette was a BRILLIANT Ladybug, she doubted that anyone else could make use of it the way she did – but it made a girl wonder.
She reached out eagerly for the Miraculous… and hesitated.
Back when she’d first transformed into Rena Rouge, she’d nearly let her ambition and desire to be a superhero override the promise she’d made to Ladybug. Her promise won out, but it’d taken a little pushing from Trixx.
Was she making the same mistake, letting her desire to be Ladybug, something she’d dreamt of since the superhero had first appeared all those months ago, override what was right?
“…Are you sure?” she asked. “This whole mess was partly my fault to begin with. Whatever was going on with Juleka, I should’ve stayed and listened, but I got so caught up in my own idea for the photoshoot I just… sorta ignored her.”
Tikki smiled at her. “You made a mistake. That’s okay, Alya. Just apologize once we fix this and be a little more careful next time.”
She bit her lip. “Are you sure I can do this though? Ladybug’s always coming up with all these crazy plans. My mind doesn’t work the way hers does.”
The little bug flew up close to Alya. “Remember what she told you before? You might not be able to do things the way she does, but you can do them the way YOU do. I’ve had lots of different Ladybug, each one different. You can do this.”
“She’s right,” Nino spoke up. “You might not come up with the super complicated plans that Ladybug does, but you can do them your own way. You’ve got this.”
She smiled at Nino and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. It was a little weird with them both still being Reflekta clones, but they made it work.
Taking a deep breath, she held out her hand. “Okay. I’m ready.”
Tikki dropped the earrings into her hand. Automatically they turned from the spotted earrings she knew, to solid orange ones.
Ah. Camouflage mode at work. Not a huge surprise they were orange for her, since that was her favorite color.
She went to put them on… and paused.
“Uh… Tikki?” she said. “My ears aren’t pierced. Or Reflekta’s, for that matter.”
“No problem!” she said cheerfully. “Marinette’s aren’t either.”
RECORD SCREECH.
“WHAT?!”
“Shh!” Nino pushed Alya around the corner, trying to keep her out of sight.
A group of Reflekta’d people looked around, trying to find out where the shouting was coming from.
Luckily Reflekmech started stomping their way, so they booked it pretty hastily.
Yay for giant robots bearing down on them?
“The earrings magically pierce the wielder’s ears when you try to put them on, and unpierce them when you take them off,” Tikki hissed. “All the piercing Miraculous are like that.”
Seriously?
Wait…
“Other piercing Miraculous? There are MORE?!”
“Ah, well, you know…” Tikki shook herself. “Never mind that, we have other things to worry about!”
Alya gave Tikki a searching look. “You’re right. Don’t think I’ll just forget about the other Miraculous though, I AM going to ask more about them later.”
Tikki looked away.
Alya looked at the Miraculous quizzically. “So I just hold them up to my ears…?”
Tikki looked back at her, nodding happily. Alya got the distinct feeling she was thrilled with the subject change. “Just pretend you’re putting on normal earrings, the Miraculous will do the rest.”
Well she’d never done that before, but maybe intention was good enough?
She moved one to her ear lobe, squeezing her eyes shut.
Then, it was in.
Eyes widening, she felt the earring.
There it was, secured like a perfectly normal earring. At least so it seemed, until she felt around it and noticed that there was no “hole” exactly, that it was sticking out of. It was almost like it phased through her ear.
Hm. Maybe it was related to how Kwamis could phase through things? She’d seen Tikki do that back when Marinette first met her.
Focus, Alya. Investigate Miraculous later, defeat akuma now!
Putting the other earring in (and honestly it was still weird how it DIDN’T feel weird to do that) she took a deep breath, looking to Nino and Tikki for encouragement.
They both grinned and nodded, Nino giving her a thumbs up as well.
Okay. Time to do this.
“Tikki, SPOTS ON!”
She shivered for a moment as the pink light rushed over her.
Blinking, she looked at her hands.
Red and black spots.
Her heart pounded.
She was Ladybug!
Or rather…
She looked back at Nino, staring at her with awe and pride (not that unusual to see from him, but it made her heart skip every time).
She smiled back at him. “Time to introduce Paris to Marybug!”
Nino gaped. “Wait, what?!”
Alya smiled. “What, did you think I hadn’t picked out a name already? Even before I knew what – and who – Ladybug and Chat Noir actually were, I daydreamed about being in their shoes. And finding out that I was almost the Ladybug Miraculous Wielder – well, I was going to at least consider what I could’ve named myself.”
Nino shook his head. “Yes, but – Marybug? That sounds way too similar to ‘Maribug’, aren’t you worried someone might draw the connection?”
She laughed. “That’s what makes the name so perfect! See, here’s the thing – it actually makes sense when researched, and I assure you, the Ladyblog is gonna have a front page article about this in the next few days. It turns out, that the ‘Lady’ in ‘Ladybug’, is actually supposed to be the Virgin Mary. So it’s just replacing ‘Lady’ with ‘Mary’. And if it just so happens that it sounds like ‘Maribug’, and Chat ever slips up and starts to call Ladybug ‘Mari’ or ‘Maribug’ or anything like that, well… it’ll be embarrassing that he almost called his partner by the name of a different Ladybug Miraculous wielder, but that’ll be all.”
Nino chuckled. “Should’ve known you had a plan with that name.”
She smirked. “…Also, it’s just a fun little reference”.
Throwing her yo-yo, she swung away, ready to make her (second) superhero debut.
This was a goddamn MESS.
At least most civilians had already fled. (Though it took a little longer than usual. Those heels were hard enough to WALK in, running in them when you had no prior experience with the giant hat thing unbalancing you? No thanks.)
So. Yo-yo. She’d practiced a little with a toy one she’d bought, imagining what it’d be like to swing on one, so she had a teeny bit of experience? She guessed?
Well at least she was an expert on the moves Ladybug used. Even Adrien probably hadn’t studied them in as much detail.
Hm. Competition for later maybe?
FOCUS, MARYBUG. FOCUS.
She shook her head.
Ok. What first?
Maybe try to contain it? It was bad enough running rampant over here, best to stop it from leveling more residential buildings.
She flung her yo-yo at the Eiffel Tower and some nearby lightpoles, creating a makeshift fence.
Downside: the lightpoles were too flimsy and she’d aimed too low to make an effective fence. It tore the lightpoles right out of the ground.
Upside: It tripped.
The mech crashed, Reflekta’s startled scream ringing out.
Yes! Point one for Marybug!
Leaping down, she ran at her downed foe. If Reflekta was controlling the doll, maybe removing her would stop it?
She pulled back to throw her yo-yo, and barely dodged the beam from the Reflekta robot’s eyes.
Oh, right. It could still do that. That was bad.
So just sending the robot crashing to the ground was out. That HELPED, it stopped it from moving around as much and restricted its range of attack, but she still couldn’t actually stop it from attacking, and she couldn’t get Reflekta out that way.
And if getting Reflekta out didn’t stop this robot… what then?
Lucky Charm? This was pretty early in the fight, but Ladybug DID usually call for one if she was stuck…
LIGHTPOLE
So, don’t stop and ponder, because apparently Reflekta had figured out she could get even MORE range (as if the Reflekta laser beams weren’t enough) by using a lightpole as a makeshift bat.
Dangit, WHY WERE THE VILLAINS ALLOWED TO IMPROVISE WEAPONS.
Also, a partner would be really nice right now! No wonder Ladybug and Chat Noir were sent out together; fighting an akuma by yourself without having someone to distract the supervillain was a NIGHTMARE. Maybe if she had a more purely offensive Miraculous that would make sense, but the Ladybug miraculous was built around tricks and plans. She needed time to think and plan; time she wasn’t getting right now.
A familiar staff smacked the lightpole out of the mech’s hand.
Awesome! Plagg must’ve found-
She took a closer look.
And did a double-take.
Still a black suit with cat ears, but this time the ears were attached to a black hood, and the seams of the outfit were bright green.
She grinned. “So, what’s your name, handsome?”
“Uh- what-“ he spluttered, looking taken aback.
She rolled her eyes as she tackled her boyfriend out of the way of a beam.
“Your superhero name! You’re not using the turtle anymore, ‘Carapace’ doesn’t make sense.”
He stared at her. “I give up. How can you always recognize me?!”
Her gaze softened. “You’re always there when I need you. I need a partner to take down this akuma; of COURSE it’s gonna be you.”
He blushed.
She laughed.
“ARE YOU SERIOUSLY IGNORING ME RIGHT NOW?!” Reflekta screamed, her mech barreling towards them.
She flinched. Ok, flirt later, akuma now. Bad enough she’d shoved Juleka to the side earlier, she didn’t want to repeat that mistake.
Especially since this time she might get flattened or Reflekta’d (again) if she did. That would be bad.
“Can you keep the mech busy? I need some time to think,” she said, dodging another beam.
“There’s something you need to know first,” he told her. He motioned for her to follow him to an out-of-the-way rooftop.
Marybug frowned. What info could Nino have picked up in the last two minutes? She’d JUST left him!
“So, less than a minute after you swung away, Plagg flew by calling for Chat Noir. Of course I answered him. He gave me some new info before I transformed. Apparently both that robot and the purple moth on Heroes Day were sentimonsters, creations of the Peacock Miraculous. They work a lot like the Butterfly MIraculous’s akumas, except the object that’s infected – it’s called an amok by the way – doesn’t transform the person themselves. A sentimonster just kinda… manifests. Whoever holds the amok controls the sentimonster.”
“…Well that would’ve been nice to know earlier. Why didn’t Tikki mention this?!”
Nino shrugged. “Maybe she forgot? Or she didn’t realize she was allowed to? Plagg mentioned something about having gotten permission to fill us in.”
Honestly she was surprised he’d waited for permission. He didn’t strike her as the type.
Wait… if the amok was used to control the sentimonster…
“Reflekta must have the amok!” she realized.
But… crap. How to get to her?
“Hey… uh… okay I give up, what should I call you?”
He thought for a moment. “Call me Panther.”
“Panther, can you keep the robot occupied? I want to see if I can spot something I can use to get in or get Reflekta out, or some pattern in its movements – SOMETHING we can use to take Reflekta and the sentimonster down. Hard to do that while dodging attacks.”
He nodded, pole-vaulting away.
She slapped her cheeks.
Ok. Focus, Marybug. Everyone’s counting on you and Panther. You can DO this!
Panther smacked the Senti-bot with his staff, dodging its attacks and just generally keeping it occupied, but doing no real damage.
The attack and movement seemed the same as ever, nothing special ther-
OOH
THAT SLOT ON THE BACK OF THE MECH’S HEAD LOOKED IMPORTANT.
Hm… but how to access it? She didn’t have something to open it with, and besides, it wasn’t like the sentimonster was just gonna stand still and let her and Panther get inside.
Well, if she didn’t have everything she needed right now, then…
“LUCKY CHARM!”
She’d wanted to do that for so long!
A remote fell into her hands.
…Huh.
What the heck could she use it for? Did it control something in particular? Or was it gonna be one of those weirder, utterly insane Lucky Charms that no one in their right minds would be able to decipher?
(Seriously, she wasn’t sure whether Marinette was a genius, crazy, or both. Probably both.)
She pressed a few random buttons.
Far away, she spotted a giant TV screen – one that normally displayed ads, but occasionally broadcasted news to the masses, like akuma attacks – turning on.
Right now it just showed static – nothing was being broadcasted, not on that channel.
Not yet.
A grin slowly spread over her face.
Marinette had her insane Macgyvering (some people had started calling it Ladybugging, something Alya THOROUGHLY supported) but Alya?
Alya knew how to put on a show and draw people’s attention.
Jumping out of cover, she waved frantically.
Panther dodged and weaved around the sentimonster’s attacks, extricating himself from the fight and making his way over to Marybug.
“COME BACK HERE! STOP LEAVING ME AND GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS!” Reflekta roared.
Marybug winced. Well THERE was another one for the guilt trip.
“You got something?” Panther asked quietly, just in case Reflekta could hear them and zone in on their location.
(Probably unnecessary. With how loud the beam firing was and how far away the robot was, she doubted Reflekta could hear anything short of screaming at the tops of their lungs.)
“I think so.” She pointed at a nearby metal beam the Reflektmech had knocked over. “Think you can cataclysm this into a long, thin sheet of metal? About a foot wide and an inch thick, if you can manage it.”
“…Maybe? Not like I’ve ever done this before, but I can give it a shot? Why?”
She explained her plan.
He grinned. “Babe, have I ever told you how much I love you?”
“Only every day. Now c’mon, let’s show the world what Marybug and Panther can do!”
Let’s see, where was she? She had about as much sense of self-preservation as Alya did, she had to be-
Ah!
Probably should’ve expected her near the TV; that area had a good view of the chaos, while being out-of-the-way of it.
“Don’t be bemused, it’s just the news!”
Marybug landed in front of Nadja. “Could I take the microphone for a minute?”
Nadja stared for a moment, but shook it off. Handing it over, she asked, “Who are you and the new mysterious superhero? Are you two replacing Ladybug and Chat Noir? What’s happened to Paris’s favorite duo?”
Marybug gave the camera a confident smile, making sure to press her remote’s button so the TV was tuned to the channel Nadja was broadcasting to. “I’m Marybug, and my partner’s Panther! Don’t worry, we’re only replacing Ladybug and Chat Noir temporarily. They’ll be back soon; I wouldn’t be surprised if you saw them later today in fact.
But enough about us; I’d like to interview the true star of show, Reflekta!”
“WHAT?”
Reflekmech turned around, stomping towards Marybug.
Hearing low voices? Probably couldn’t do that in a mech.
Hearing a gigantic TV cranked up as loud as it would go? Now THAT she could hear.
“Reflekta – what would you like to tell the public. Everyone’s here watching and listening to you!”
For a moment Reflekta was silent, the mech completely still. Then-
“You’re really listening? You’re not gonna brush me off and ignore me?”
“No. This is YOUR show. It’s all about YOU. You’re not going to fade away into the background and be lost; not now.”
Reflekta speaking quietly from within “Yes I’ll get the Miraculous, I know we have a deal, but I need to do this first; I’ll get them afterwards, don’t worry.”
More loudly; “I want people to pay attention to me. They never paid attention to Juleka. Just because she shrunk back and mumbled didn’t mean she wanted to be ignored. She just wanted people to recognize she was there! She existed! But her ‘friends’ threw her away the moment things got hard and just… let her stew. She obviously WASN’T okay!”
Marybug’s stomach curdled. “You’re right. They should’ve tried harder, checked in on her more. Checked in on YOU more. I promise, once you’re deakumatized, I’ll talk to your friends, try to help fix this.”
“I don’t want to be deakum- AH!”
The robot lurched around, no longer being controlled. A moment later it evaporated, leaving a feather behind. Marybug quickly caught and purified the feather and the butterfly. Juleka, newly freed from Hawkmoth, was caught by Panther a moment later.
“Wait- what- who’re you? What happened?” she asked, confused.
Marybug smiled. “He’s Panther and I’m Marybug – we’re filling in for Chat Noir and Ladybug temporarily – and you were akumatized.”
Juleka buried her face in her hands.
Crap. What did Ladybug and Chat Noir usually do with akuma victims? She didn’t just want to leave Juleka, not again, but-
Aaaaand her earrings were beeping.
She gave a strained smile. “It can happen to anyone. It’s Hawkmoth’s fault, NOT yours. I’m sure your friends will tell you the same thing. But for now, Bug Out!”
Throwing her yo-yo, she swung away just as Rose made her way to Juleka.
Ok, good. Hopefully Rose could help comfort her until she herself could get back. She still needed to apologize.
But first -
Man she'd always WANTED to do this. She miiiiight have practiced it a few times in her room privately. You know. Just in case.
Throwing the remote into the air she cried out "Miraculous Marybug!"
The ladybugs swept around repairing everything.
And now she REALLY needed to get going.
Panther pole-vaulted over with her, both of them eventually landing in an abandoned alley.
“Not bad, kitty cat,” she smirked.
He rubbed the back of his neck. “Thanks. Reflekta was so distracted, she didn’t notice I’d entered the robot until I’d already hit her hand.”
She laughed. “I think you might have our own resident Black Cat beat in the stealth department. Unless he can figure out how to pull off that ‘materializing behind locker doors’ trick as Chat Noir. I swear I STILL want to know how he does that.”
“Don’t we all?”
They both chuckled and detransformed. With a small pang of regret, she handed the earrings over to Tikki, Nino handing the ring over to Plagg. “I liked being Marybug, but… well, I’m really glad Marinette kept the earrings. How she does that on a daily basis, I don’t know.”
“She’s one of the best Ladybugs I’ve ever had!”
Alya smiled. “Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”
As Tikki and Plagg flew away to find their holders, she turned to Nino. “Come on, let’s go! We have a photoshoot to complete – IF our model still wants to do it anyway.”
Marinette, Adrien, and the rest of the crew were all circled around Juleka by the time the two of them arrived. With a jolt, Alya noticed that while Marinette had her earrings back, Adrien’s ring was still missing.
She shook her head. Worry about that later. Plagg could take care of himself… probably. Maybe. She hoped.
Nothing she could do about it right now anyway. And Adrien didn’t appear too worried, and she KNEW how much he cared about Plagg, so it was probably fine.
“Juleka, I’m so, SO sorry, I should’ve listened to you more closely. You’re my friend too, and I just brushed you off when you were obviously not okay. That wasn’t cool of me. Do you still want to do the photoshoot?”
She smiled, perking up a little. “Yeah, that’d be awesome.”
Alya snapped several photos, some of Juleka and Adrien together as planned, but then their friends kept on getting in the frame and – well, most of the photos may not be suitable for Marinette’s website, but they suited her digital photo album perfectly. Adrien and Juleka both seemed especially thrilled with how things turned out. Neither of them had a ton of photos of themselves having fun with their friends.
As she looked over the photos, her eyes wandered downwards.
A very familiar red and black box sat in front of her.
Heart pounding, she opened it.
And smiled at the sight of the familiar orange fox-tail necklace.