Miraculous Scarabeau @miraculous-scarabeau-au - Tumblr Blog

Miraculous Scarabeau

Chapter 3 (of Season 1)

Previous Chapter First Chapter (of Season 1)

Turns out that there wasn’t really anything that Nino could really do. Well, technically he could, but he would have to try and explain to his very concerned mom why he was leaving the house, especially after a near death experience, which….didn’t go over great. Especially when one was 14 years old.

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.”

“Guardian, I feel like you are forgetting that I’m as old as Tikki. Now she and I? We’re made for each other! I’ve been watching you humans long enough to know that there’s no such thing as fate, no such thing as destiny.” A Cheshire grin made its way onto Plagg’s face. “So it’ll be interesting to watch to see which one of us is right or not.”

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