Nathaniel sighed. Deeply. Heavily.
“Whoa, that's one hellava sight,” Alix pointed out. “What's up?”
“You know that person I danced with at Chloé's party?” Nathaniel asked, serious.
“Yeah?” She wasn't certain whom he was talking about, but it had to be someone cool for Nathaniel to still think about them weeks after that party.
“I've been looking everywhere for them with no luck,” he complained, drawing a grin from Alix, as Marinette watched them walk for the stairs.
“Maybe you're not looking in the right places,” the sports girl replied.
“But where else can I look?”
Now, during that party, Marinette may have been somewhat distracted by being with Adrien and then Chloé's tantrum causing yet another Akuma, but she had seen him dancing with Marc... whom she noticed was sitting just under the stairs.
She approached them carefree, and...
Yeah, they'd been so absorbed with whatever they were reading they hadn't noticed her approach.
“Your class got out early?”
“Y-Yeah,” they replied as they recovered.
“Us too!” Knowing of Marc's writing skills, perhaps she could pull them in... “Some of us are heading to the art room. You should come!”
Alright, that was as good as she was going to get.
She left Marc to their own business...
… which, unbeknownst to her, was admiring Nathaniel's own work as an artist.
Marc wondered if they'd get to meet Nathaniel again soon...
“Another evil Scarlet Lady?” M. Monlataing asked, bemused. “Why do you keep drawing her as a villain?”
“Artistic expression. I'm expressing how Marigold is better than her,” Nathaniel bluntly replied. “But I'm a terrible writer, so they're just concept sketches.”
“You could team up with a creative writer,” the art teacher said.
“And where do I find one of those?”
“Who knows, maybe someone as into skin tight suits as you will walk through the door one day!” Alix joked from the wall she was spray painting, causing Nathaniel to pout at her.
Just as Marinette realized someone was peeking through the open door.
“Marc!” she exclaimed, and rushed to grab the writer's hand. “You made it!”
“Gah!” Poor Marc, he was so shy!
“Come meet everyone!” Marinette continued, dragging Marc to M. Monlataing. “This is Marc, the writer I was telling you about–”
“You were at Chloé's party!” Nathaniel said, and Marinette swore she could see him sparkling. “I've been looking all over for you!”
“Really?!” Marc exclaimed, shocked, and blushing. “I–I saw your work on the school blog. The real thing is amazing! The movement, expressions...”
Nathaniel smiled... and also blushed.
“Wow, thanks! That's so nice!”
“If you're impressed by that, just wait until you see what I've got!”
And, of course, the mood killer supreme just had to put in the usual unwelcome appearance.
“Read the room!” Marinette shouted at her, not that it was going to do much, as it was clear Chloé was about to go on one of her usual self-serving speeches, while making a pose.
“I have a unique masterpiece that will revolutionize the art world–”
“Let me guess,” Alix interrupted, imitating Chloé's pose. “Another collage of selfies?”
Everyone proceeded to start laughing. It wasn't the first time she'd tried to do this, but it didn't stop being hilarious how self-absorbed the blonde girl was.
“RIDICULOUS! Utterly... ridiculous!” she yelled.
“You all think you're so great?! How about I knock you down a peg?!”
“Why do you even want in in the first place?” Alix asked, annoyed, not that Chloé would pay attention to anything that wasn't the sound of her voice.
“No one cares about your dumb baby unicorn songs!” she shouted, pointing at Juleka and Rose.
“You seemed to care when you helped XY rip us off,” Juleka fired with a glare. “We literally have a recording contract.”
Realizing she'd struck out, she picked her usual target.
“Y–YOUR DESIGNS ARE TRASH!”
Marinette gave her a smug smile.
“Gabriel Agreste and Jagged Stone don't think so. And you also tried stealing my 'trash' designs. Twice.”
Second strike, and she was running out of targets she could mock! She pointed at the closest person she could notice.
“Well, you– wait, who are you?”
“EEP!” Marc shrieked, running out of the art room.
“Hey, I'm not done here!” Chloé yelled, but that only made Marc run so fast they hit the wall in front of the door... causing them to drop a small notebook.
Seeing that she wasn't going to get the captive audience she somehow expected, Chloé left the art room as well in a tizzy, while M. Monlataing sent a disapproving look at Alix.
“Well Alix, if Chloé really did have an art project, it's too bad we didn't give her a chance to tell us about it, isn't it?”
“Uh, no? Why would I want her here? So she can come insult everyone, take over the art room, and try to steal ideas from us?”
The teacher tried to reply... but realized he couldn't give an actual answer.
“Yeah, that's what I thought,” Alix finished.
As she walked out of the room to track down Marc and check on them, she found a notebook on the floor she was certain had to be Marc's. She knew she shouldn't read it... but she was too curious! She'd seen them write on it, it had to be something awesome!
“'Diary of Ladybug: An Alternate Universe Where Marigold Has The Ladybug Miraculous'?” she read aloud. “'Me and Chat Noir almost cornered Hawkmoth, but the evil Scarlet Queen interfered and let him escape! She and her minion Antibug are more a nuisance than anything.'”
“This story reminds me of Nathaniel's drawings,” Pollen remarked, and Marinette smiled.
“You're right!” But then she realized something. “I don't know if it's brave or dumb to make a blatantly anti-Chloé and Scarlet Lady story, though.”
That didn't mean it wasn't good, though! She needed to find Marc and get them with Nathaniel! She walked to the lockers, where she found Marc looking through their locker.
Marc was a bit of a scaredy cat, wasn't he?
“... did you read it?” they asked, picking the notebook back.
“... yeeeeeah,” she admitted, grinning. “BUT! It was really good! It's based off Nathaniel's drawings, right?”
Marc's failed attempt to reply told her everything she needed to know.
“You should team up!” she encouraged them. “He's already interested in you and needs a writer!”
“What if he gets weirded out?! I'll have to change schools, change my name, change my hair–”
“Whoa,” she mumbled, surprised that Marc actually reminded her of herself. “Don't worry, Marc. I have a plan.”
“Should I be concerned?” he asked.
C'mon, her plans were simple and straightforward! What was the problem?
The next day, notebook in hand, Marinette approached her artist friend, eager to make her plan work.
“Hey Nat? My friend needs an unbiased opinion on their story,” she said. “Can you read it and tell me what you think?”
Seeing that he was still in an artistic dump, he felt he didn't have much to worry.
“Yeah, okay,” he replied, picking the notebook and opening it. “'Scarlet Queen got away by sacrificing her underling. I'm sure Antibug would've done the same to Scarlet Queen if she could. Maybe she would've put up a better fight if she was less concerned about her hair.'”
But he could also picture the images! Evil Scarlet Lady grabbing Antibug and using her as a human shield! Antibug (whom he pictured as Chloé) crying a fountain as Ladybug – Marigold with the Ladybug Miraculous – tied her up with her yo-yo!
“Aw, man, I gotta draw that scene! How should I design Ladybug?”
Meanwhile, from the other corner of the courtyard, Marc and Marinette observed Nathaniel.
“Do you think he likes it?” Marc nervously asked.
“Of course, just look at him!” Marinette replied.
“It's rude to spy on people, you know.”
“Adrien?!” Marinette said.
“Haha,” Adrien laughed softly, “what are you guys up to– WAH!”
“Quick, get over here before he sees you!” she continued, yoinking him towards her and behind the stairs. “Listen, this is what's up – blah blah blah.”
I just meant to tease her a little, he thought. It was what he got from trying to be nosey.
The next (after the next) day, the class was abuzz with a new matter of conversation, and Alix chose to pull it up with the source of the matter.
“Dude, your art spree is dominating the school blog, what's with you?” she asked Nathaniel.
“Ah, just got some great inspiration.”
“Got a name for your new Scarlet Lady?”
“'Scarlet Queen'. Like the 'Red Queen',” he replied.
The artistic friends hadn't noticed that Chloé was passing nearby, and had heard everything. She quickly pulled out her cellphone.
“Guess the artsy loser finally went and properly glorified my other self. School blog, school blog...”
Unfortunately (for her), her delusions once again clashed with reality.
Marinette smiled at seeing her friend sparkling with happiness. She had already seen the fruits of his labor, but she had to check!
“Nat! What did you think?”
“It's amazing!” he replied. “So funny, but also touching? I couldn't stop smiling!”
“That's great!” she cheered. “They were super nervous you wouldn't like it, but now they'd like to talk about it in person.”
Perfect! Her plan was working out!
“So! The Place des Vosges Square fountain in an hour?” she suggested: it was where she had already suggested Marc to go already.
“Sure!” Nathaniel agreed, smiling. “It's Marc, right? You know, your only writer friend?”
“GOTTA GO, DON'T BE LATE, K?!” she quickly replied, and Nathaniel chuckled.
Pity that there was someone listening in...
“It was nice of you to do this, Marinette,” Adrien said, as the two of them looked over the Place des Vosges from Marinette's terrace.
“Final phase of 'Operation Comic Book'!” she announced, as her cellphone zoomed in on Nathaniel and Marc, who were now talking. “Oh, they've made contact! Looks good so far!”
“As if there was any doubt–” he replied, before he saw something else that wasn't in their plans.
A second of silence pervaded the air, until they had the same brainwave.
Sadly, they forgot that 'haste makes waste', and in their case, 'waste' was 'tumble down the stairs to Marinette's bedroom'.
Marc and Nathaniel looked to the side, where they found –
“C-Chloé?!” Nathaniel exclaimed.
“How dare you?! Slandering my and my BFF Scarlet Lady's name?! Who do you think you're messing with?! Sharing that nonsense!” she shrieked, before snatching Marc's notebook from his hands.
“Is this where you keep your garbage?! I'll make sure this never sees the light of day again!”
And she pulled, ripping the notebook apart in half.
“It's what you deserve!” she shouted, turning to Nathaniel. “Your stupid little drawings–”
“Yes, Hawkmoth. Everything would be better if she was the opposite of who she really is,” Marc growled, and Nathaniel, who was looking in his direction, was aghast.
“I'm not Marc anymore! I am Reverser!” the Akumatized writer said, looking like some kind of demented puppet with the colors split in half, with what was white on the left being black on the right and viceversa. “Chloé! You are the meanest person alive, treating people like trash! Now it's your turn–”
“Hey, you!” Officer Raincomprix shouted, drawing the Akuma's attention, as he pointed at the large paper airplane they were riding. “You got vehicle registration for that thing?”
Nathaniel was left stunned.
“Is M. Raincomprix blind?!” he complained.
“How about you drop the law and order act? Reversion!”
As the police officer went off to carry out petty acts of vandalism, Marc (or, rather, Reverser) turned to seek their original target, only to find that Chloé had scampered during the distraction provided by M. Raincomprix. Since they didn't know where the girl had run off to, they looked at Nathaniel.
“Don't worry, Nathaniel. I don't plan on targeting you.”
“Cool cool cool,” he replied. So you won't mind if I try and stop this, right...?
As they two of them finally exited the boulangerie, they saw the unmistakable sign that their tripping had cost them.
“We're too late!” Marinette lamented as she saw the Akumatized Marc fly off.
“One of them got Akumatized?” Adrien asked, before he quickly pushed Marinette into a side street. “Stay here! I'm, uh, gonna go get help!”
And he rushed off, leaving Marinette in shock.
“Why wouldn't he try to hide with me... unless he needs too...” she muttered, before shaking her head and opening her purse. “... well, we have an Akuma to deal with. Pollen? Buzz On!”
Marigold quickly caught up with Reverser and tossed her spinning top, managing to catch him by the wrist.
“Stop! We don't need to fight!” she shouted as she tried to pull him down to ground. “Whatever Chloé did, we can fix it!”
“Hmph. I have a better idea,” Reverser replied. “Let's go for a ride, Marigold.”
“Huh–?” she mumbled, not realizing what was about to happen. “WAHH–!”
Namely, Reverser flying off fast enough that she was pulled with him for the ride.
(Maybe her previous success in talking down Sandboy had weighed in on her decision to try to talk things through first)
“Look out, Marigold ~” Reverser taunted. “You used to be quick on your feet? Now you have two left feet!”
“What–?” she said, only to see a paper airplane fly in the direction of a cyclist on the bridge nearby. Quickly pulling from the rope to make it loose itself from Reverser's wrist, she threw it in the direction of the bridge, just as the cyclist lost control of his vehicle.
“H–Help! How do I ride a–” and the bike crashed against the bridge railing. “UAAAAAAH!”
“I've got you!” Marigold shouted, grabbing the cyclist and bringing him back to safe ground.
“T-Thank you, Marigold,” the cyclist replied as Marigold made sure he was alright... which distracted her a second too long.
And a paper airplane hit Marigold.
As she climbed up from behind a barrier, she saw her partner and Scarlet ready to fight the Akuma.
“Ooo, cool costume,” Chat Noir said.
“It'll look better in pieces!” Scarlet added.
But – they didn't know what Reverser could do! She had to warn them!
Whatever Reverser had done to her, it had caused her to lose her body coordination, making it harder to do anything at all. So, the moment she had tried to reach them, she had tripped on the barrier and fallen.
“Goldie?” Chat Noir asked, worried.
“Why are you lamer than usual?” Scarlet asked (even though she was more liable to screw up than anyone else).
And, of course, they weren't paying attention to the Akuma as they looked at her.
The warning came too late, though.
Both of them were struck by paper airplanes.
“Reversion: have fun with zero confidence!”
Immediately, Chat Noir, who had been perched up on the railing, started to yell and wave his arms.
“WHAAAAA!” he screamed as he suddenly lost his usual confidence – and realized he was in a dangerous place.
“Scaredy cat got vertigo?” Reverser mocked him, not that Chat Noir noticed.
“EEEP! HELP ME!” Chat Noir shouted – jumping straight into Marigold's arms.
However, with Marigold's lack of coordination, she was unable to properly keep balance with the sudden weight of her partner, and she ended up falling against Scarlet Lady -
- causing all three of them to trip over the railing and fall into the Seine.
“Oh, great,” Scarlet Lady said in a depressed tone.
“AHHHH–!” Paris' heroes yelled.
And the three splashed into the water, while Reverser watched from above.
“... well, that takes care of them, I guess,” he told himself, before he flew off. He still had to find Chloé and punish her.
“No further sightings of Chat Noir, Marigold, or Scarlet Lady after being hit by the newest of Hawkmoth's villains–”
Fu sighed. He knew that, sooner or later, something would happen that would make it hard for Chat Noir and Marigold to reach him. He really didn't want that to happen, but he had to be prepared for the eventuality.
“Welp, we're up, Wayzz,” he told his companion. While he knew what to do, he also knew it wasn't going to be fun.
But, sadly, life didn't care about fun.
In front of Paris' town hall, a crowd had gathered for the mayor's unveiling of his latest idea.
“Thanks to our space dumpster program, all our trash will be stored in orbital dumpsters, making Paris the cleanest city in the world,” Mayor Bourgeois declared as the screen behind him showed his idea which he knew damn well was incredibly expensive and unnecessary, but who cared about that when he wasn't the one paying for it?
Needless to say, most of the crowd wasn't keen on the idea, and were prepared to show their opinion.
“Space is not a dump!” Ivan shouted, his deep voice sounding over that of a good part of the crowd. However, the crowd fell silent as they saw something else flying over them.
“Uh, what is that?” Mylène asked, pointing at the foreign individual.
“Paris, the cleanest city?” Reverser asked with a smirk. “We'll see about that: Reversion!”
A paper airplane struck the mayor... who suddenly changed his expression to a more manic one.
“I'm going to order satellites to release all their trash back down to Paris! Making it the biggest trash heap in the world!”
The crowd... wasn't sure what to think of that.
“WHY IS THAT A FEATURE?!”
Meanwhile, in the Seine, Chat Noir and Marigold were using their weapons to breathe in the water, as they struggled to make it to the surface, and Scarlet Lady... just let her yo-yo bob in the river.
Suddenly, something started to pull from the yo-yo, forcing Scarlet Lady up as Chat Noir finally managed to help Marigold move up.
“Are you all okay?” Nathaniel asked as he pulled Scarlet Lady out of the river.
“ACHOO! I think I caught a cold!” Chat Noir complained, while Scarlet Lady coughed up some water.
“Thanks, Nathaniel,” Marigold managed to say. “I can't even swim with this curse.”
“Why'd you even botherrrr? We're powerless, we're not gonna wiiiiiin,” Scarlet Lady wailed, causing Marigold to take a look at her.
“How did you get worse?” she pondered, as Nathaniel helped her to her feet – and helped her walk over to the nearest safe seat.
“This seems too extreme to call 'clumsy',” he said, as Marigold attempted to walk with trembling legs.
Chat Noir's confidence was so shot that he almost jumped in fright.
“Oh!” an elder man said – one that Chat Noir knew all too well – as he attempted to reach a fallen cane. “Oooo, I've fallen, is there anyone to help me?”
“Maste–oh!” Chat Noir said, and he looked over to the others that could help.
Nathaniel was a civilian.
Marigold couldn't even walk without tripping over herself.
Scar didn't know this was the guardian – and he'd rather keep her away from him as much as possible.
“I–I'll help you, monsieur,” he said, trying to smile.
“Oh, thank you!” Master Fu replied. “Just up the stairs, please.”
“Stairs?!” Chat Noir said, trembling. “Oo, I feel dizzy.”
It was a struggle, but Chat Noir was able to summon enough courage to 'help' Master Fu to the top of the stairs, leading into a deserted street.
“Master, what are you–” he tried to ask, but Master Fu beat him to the punch.
Before his eyes, Master Fu transformed into what was clearly his version of the Turtle Hero costume (which, incidentally, made him look a bit like the characters from that animated series).
“This is the easiest way to get help without dragging you back to my place,” Master Fu – or whatever name he had picked for this form – explained, as he put his hand through the center of his shield. “Guardian privileges.”
“Why don't you fight yourself?” Chat Noir asked, hoping Fu would solve the current problem faster.
“At my age? The longer I hold the transformation, the more backlash I feel when I drop it,” the Guardian replied. “So please hurry and choose a Miraculous!”
“Uh! Um! Okay! Uh!” Chat Noir stumbled, trying to make a decent choice... even if he was barely able to plan out anything.
Fortunately, Chat Noir was able to pick one option, allowing Fu to drop his transformation... and return home.
Well, as soon as he recovered from the transformation.
“Omigod,” he complained between deep breaths. What he'd give for a masseur to help him with his back!
Walking down back the stairs as carefully as he could, Chat Noir managed to reach the bottom.
“Nathaniel?” he said, bringing the artist's attention to him from Marigold. “I, uh, should take you to safety–”
“What?! NO!” Nathaniel exclaimed. “Look at you, you need me to save Marc!”
“Nathaniel,” Marigold interrupted. “You need to go with Chat Noir. Then he can go get help, okay?”
“Ugh, fine.” Nathaniel was weirded out by the heroine's look, but chose to follow her instructions, feeling that it would be faster than continuing to argue. He quickly walked up to Chat Noir and almost dragged him up the stairs.
“No one ever tries to take me to safety! Waaaaaaaah!” Scarlet Lady cried, drawing yet another glare from Marigold.
Finally reaching the vacated street, Chat Noir was ready to reveal the truth.
“Um, you're not taking me to the sewer, are you?” Nathaniel asked, worried, but Chat Noir shook his head.
“S–Sorry, um, taking you to safety was a lie,” he replied, turning to him. “Actually, you're right that we need help. Which is why I needed you alone.”
“Wait... are you...?!” Nathaniel began, shocked, as Chat Noir produced a box.
“Are you up for it? You seem up for it, and it would mean a lot. Especially if... if...” then he couldn't hold his fear back anymore. “If we have to fight that big mean bad guy! Waaaaaaaah!”
“Okay, okay, calm down! You'll drop it!” Nathaniel exclaimed, grabbing the box.
At the bottom of the stairs, Marigold was trying to toss her top into the air, but no matter what she tried, it just wouldn't work.
“What are you doing?” Scarlet asked, sounding depressed.
“Trying – ugh! – to use – c'mon! – Bee Balm!”
The top flew off the rope and returned, but no magical bees were summoned.
“ARGHHHHHHH!” Marigold yelled in frustration.
“Pointless, utterly pointless,” Scarlet mumbled.
Opening the box, Nathaniel was surprised to see a small goat-like creature fly out of it, shining with turquoise light.
“Woo! Hi, I'm Ziggy!” the creature exclaimed. “I can't wait to see what you create!”
“'Create'?” Nathaniel asked, feeling curious.
“That's your power: to create any one thing you want!”
“'One thing'?” Nathaniel continued. “After Evillustrator, isn't that a downgrade?”
“'Downgrade'?!” Ziggy said, before headbutting him.
“It's because you're a 'kid' that there's a limit to begin with!” Ziggy exclaimed. “I'll show you! Just transform!”
“Okay, fine!” Nathaniel replied, putting on the goat horn-like hair clips in the box, and saying the phrase that had just come up to his mind. “Ziggy, Bleat It!”
The two of them made their way down again, where they found Marigold on the floor and Scarlet Lady slouched while standing next to her.
“Ah, you're back!” Marigold exclaimed, smiling.
“Another one?” Scarlet Lady asked, much less enthused about it. “What's the point? We're going to loooose.”
“I'm going to ignore that,” the newcomer replied. “Call me Caprikid.”
“Now that you're here, we can check on the Akuma,” Marigold said. With some instruction, Caprikid was able to transform his weapon into a screen where they could watch the news... and, coincidentally, their target was on the news right now.
“Heroes! I demand you hand over Chloé and your Miraculouses! Or else Paris will be drowning in trash!” Reverser declared – while the bottom of the screen declared that an 'evil Oreo' had taken the mayor hostage.
“We won't let that happen, I have a plan!” Marigold said, and Chat Noir immediately began to tremble.
“There, there, kitty,” she said, patting his golden hair. If it weren't such a bad moment, she'd be squeeing at how soft his locks were. “It'll be okay.”
“THIS IS SO NOT OKAY, MARIGOLD!” Chat Noir yelled as Caprikid did his best to carry his fellow hero to where the Akuma had last been seen, the Eiffel Tower (Akumas really liked the place!).
At least, a taxi driver had been nice enough to carry both of them to the Eiffel Tower when they explained their situation, although Marigold could have used without Scarlet dragging down the mood even more with every sentence she spoke (as opposed to normally, where she did it with her lazyness).
“C'mon Scarlet Lady, the sooner you use Lucky Charm, the sooner you go home,” she encouraged, doing her best to remain standing up without needing to hold onto anything.
“Ughhhh, Lucky Charm. It's not like it's going to heeelp,” she dragged on.
“Hey, where's Chloé?! Heck, where's Chat Noir?!” Reverser exclaimed, their attention caught by the arrival of the heroine and the 'heroine'.
“You made him a coward, what did you expect?!” Marigold shouted back, as Caprikid led Chat Noir behind one of the tower's girders.
“They didn't notice us, now's our chance!” Caprikid said, as he rose his paintbrush. “GENESIS!”
Into Caprikid's hands fell... a fully functional jetpack. Seeing that Reverser was still riding that huge paper airplane, the plan was obvious.
“You're gonna want to keep that blindfold on,” Caprikid suggested, scaring Chat Noir even more, as Caprikid put on the jetpack, grabbed Chat Noir, and turned it on, flying straight towards Reverser.
“I told you!” the Akuma shouted. “I won't stop the trash unless you give me Chloé, and all the Miraculous –!”
“What the he–” the Akuma shouted, only to be interrupted by Chat Noir touching their paper airplane with the power of Destruction. “NO!”
“Sorry!” Chat Noir whispered, as the airplane was disintegrated, freeing a black butterfly and turning Reverser back to Marc – who, unfortunately, no longer had the means to fly.
“AHHHH! WHERE THE HECK AM I?!” Marc yelled.
“Whoops, I got you!” Caprikid shouted as he flew the jetpack beneath Marc, just in time to grab him... after letting Chat Noir go. “All good now!”
Marc ignored how nice it felt being held in Caprikid's arms in favor of looking down at the floor.
“W–What about Chat Noir?”
“Eh, he's probably fine,” Caprikid said... ignoring how Chat Noir was NOT fine.
“AHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh–!” the poor Cat Hero yelled as he fell.
“USE THE CURE, SCARLET!” Marigold shouted as she tried to grab her kitten partner before he hit the ground.
She really didn't want to test the 'cats land on their feet' thing now!
The magical ladybugs repaired everything that had been broken by the Akuma's attack... along with a special object that Caprikid picked up.
“Here, your notebook,” he told Marc, who grabbed the notebook.
“It must be important to you.”
“Ah, yeah,” Marc bashfully said. “Someone I admire really inspired me and I hoped we could get closer through our work. Well, if he still wants anything to do with me after all this.”
“I–I'm sure he's looking forward to getting to know you too, Ma–”
“Hey, Caprikid, hate to cut you off but we 'goat' to go,” Chat Noir interrupted him, looking non-too-happy (which Caprikid attributed to dropping him off earlier). “Don't give too much away, 'kid'.”
Alright, he kinda had a point. So he told Marc to get better, and followed Chat Noir to the nearest deserted place, so he could detransform and return the Miraculous.
“Thanks for letting me help,” Nathaniel said as he gave the box back to Chat Noir.
“Thanks for helping!” the hero replied, no longer beset by Reverser's curse.
“Soooo, whatdya think?” Ziggy said, smirking. “Still a 'downgrade'?”
“No way! I have so many ideas now!” Nathaniel declared as he opened his drawing pad and picked a pencil. “I gotta sketch them out before I forget!”
“Oo, an artist! I love those!” Ziggy said, smiling, as Nathaniel quickly moved his pencil over the pad.
“Here, for you,” he said, presenting his new work. “It's you and Caprikid! As an apology.”
“Wow, I love it!” Ziggy replied... and immediately tore up a corner and started to munch on the paper. “Ah'll kehp it wif me fohevah.”
The next (after the next (after the next)) day, the group that had met there had gathered again in the art room... with one notable exception.
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN I'M 'BANNED'?!” Chloé yelled.
“Chloé, you destroyed someone's work,” M. Monlataing stated. “You broke our one rule!”
“I didn't destroy it here!” she yelled again.
They were more enthused with their current activity.
“ANYWAY!” the teacher said, drowning the tantruming girl out as the teens read Marc and Nathaniel's first collaboration.
“'The Diary of Ladybug' comic looks great, guys!” Adrien stated, with everyone else nodding in agreement.
“It's all thanks to Marinette!” Marc said.
“We dedicated the first issue to you!” the writer revealed, drawing a blush from her.
“We could put you in as Multimouse,” Nathaniel offered. “Or Maotif if you prefer.”
“O–OH!” That would be nice... but she could feel the eyes of her Kwami partner looking up at her from her hidey hole in her bag. “That's very thoughtful, but I'd rather not.”
Nathaniel rose an eyebrow, but shrugged.
Now relaxing at home, after a great dinner with her family, Marinette chose to give one last read to the comic book Nathaniel and Marc had gifted her.
“It's funny seeing 'Scarlet Queen' and 'Antibug' get their comeuppance,” she told Pollen, who nodded.
“Though it's a bit weird seeing 'myself' with the Ladybug Miraculous. But that's the fun of fiction, I guess.”
“Right...” Pollen replied.
Marinette decided it was late enough to go to sleep, so she decided to close the book and put it on a shelf.
“Good night!” she wished her Kwami... who was suddenly left to her deep thoughts.
Tikki says Marinette was supposed to have the Earrings to begin with... that's probably where this is going if we get them back from Scarlet Lady. When that happens...
… I'll probably have to say goodbye to Marinette.
Sorry. Got too many things in the air, and I couldn't go back to finishing this. But I'm not going to drop it, I swear!
This chapter brought the story up to 558 pages, 222902 words, 1203346 characters.
