OK but out of the Miraclasse, who drives like a grandma, who drives like a maniac, who’s a good driver, and who is banned from going near the driver’s seat at all costs?
SCHOOL OF ROCK AU WHERE JAGGED STONE IS A STRUGGLING JUST-KICKED-OUT-OF-HIS-BAND MUSICIAN IN NEED OF RENT MONEY SO FAKES HIS WAY INTO A JOB AT FRANÇOIS-DUPONT BY PRETENDING TO BE HIS SUBSTITUTE-TEACHER ROOMMATE AND FORMS A NEW BAND WITH THE MIRACLASSE PRETENDING IT’S A SECRET SCHOOL PROJECT.
It’s finally here! Happy holidays everyone! (All of this either overlaps with the last part, with the last few paragraphs of Liar, Liar, Pt. 5, or takes place in the same few minutes. The chapter keeps track for you though, so no worries there.) (=^.^=)
Pt. 1
AO3
“Max, have you found the akuma on the security cameras yet?” Sabrina asked as soon as everyone else had left the classroom. She was already tapping out messages to the group chat, reminding everyone to let her know as soon as anything changes.
“Not yet Sabrina,” Max said distractedly, his eyes scanning the screen in front of him as his fingers flew across the keyboard. Markov had plugged himself into the computer and was helping Max get through the firewalls as quickly as possible, but he wasn’t in just yet.
“Oh, okay,” Sabrina said. She pulled out her tablet and opened it up to the website for the Ladyblog in the hopes that someone was able to update it while Alya was busy being a superhero.
Maybe Alya needs someone to help her with the Ladyblog…after all, even superheroes can only do so much. Although, Paris likely won’t be needing the Ladyblog after the fight today…maybe Marinette will keep the Miraculous and help dad as a part of the police force? Or maybe a new villain will come to Paris…although I hope not. Hawkmoth has been scary enough.
“Did you find it yet?” Sabrina asked again as she shifted the way she was sitting on Ms. Bustier’s desk to face him. She crossed her legs under her in a lotus position and balanced her tablet on her left knee with her elbow leaning on her right knee, holding her phone in her right hand so she would be ready as soon as she received a message. She could see the screen reflected in his glasses, but not clearly enough to know if he had gotten in.
“Sabrina you just asked me five seconds ago,” Max deadpanned, not looking away from the screen.
“Actually, she asked precisely 36.079 seconds ago,” Markov corrected. “That is, rounding up to the nearest one-thousandth of a second.”
“Thank you, Markov,” Max said sarcastically. “How long until we get past this security system and into the street cameras?”
“20 seconds and counting,” Markov responded easily. His eyes changed to a countdown, ticking down the seconds while Max scanned the screen intently.
“Finally!” Max cheered precisely twenty seconds later. “Okay, now I just need to zero in on any cameras around the school, and then find the one that was pointed at our classroom window…”
Sabrina watched as he alternated between typing and scrolling and typing and clicking and clicking and frowning and typing again and again and again. She watched this cycle repeat itself until both of their phones dinged with a new message.
To: Miraclasse
Juleka: They’re fighting Rose. It looks like LB and CN are here, but they’re hanging back a little bit with CP which is unusual, so they must be RR’s illusions. So far so good, but we have less than 5 minutes before RR has to retransform.
Sabrina: Perfect. Let us know if anything changes. Max finally got into the camera system and is looking for the right cameras now.
Nathaniel: That was fast! We’re almost to Le Grand Paris. We figured it would be easier to hide out there. Ms. Bustier is going to tell Chloe’s family that Cutie Pie is after Lila and that we need a place to hide her.
Sabrina: Don’t worry about it. I’ll send Butler Jean a message on Chloe’s behalf so he knows to expect you.
Mylene: Thanks, Sabrina!
Sabrina quickly tapped out of the group chat and scrolled down to Butler Jean’s contact. She sent him a short message explaining that a classmate of hers and Chloe’s was being targeted by the akuma and some of their other classmates and Ms. Bustier were bringing her to the hotel to protect her. She asked him to find them a room where they would be safe.
“I found it!” Max cried out just as she hit send. Sabrina startled so badly she almost dropped her phone. “I found the akuma! Now Markov and I just need to throw together a program that can track it through Paris.”
“You don’t have a lot of time, Max,” Sabrina pointed out. “Rena Rouge already used her Mirage to create Ladybug and Chat Noir illusions. She’ll detransform in less than five minutes and if they don’t distract Rose—er, Cutie Pie long enough for her to leave, recreate the illusions, and come back, Hawkmoth will get suspicious…and he might get suspicious anyway if Chloe paralyzes Cutie Pie but they don’t break the akumatized object.”
“I know we don’t have a lot of time, Sabrina,” Max said shortly. He was focusing all of his attention on writing the code, and only diverting the bare minimum he needed to talk to his classmate. “That’s why I have Markov helping me. But you micromanaging me and projecting your anxieties is not helping. Please, focus on what the rest of the class is up to and I’ll worry about finding the akuma.”
“Fine,” Sabrina huffed as her phone dinged again. She checked her messages to find a new one from Alix. “Uh-oh.”
~*~*~*~
Butler Jean was waiting in the lobby for Ms. Bustier and her students when they arrived. He took one look at the group and raised an eyebrow.
“Lila is the girl you’re protecting?” Jean asked. He kept his voice carefully controlled, though they could all tell how he felt about the situation.
“Why did you assume it was me?” Lila asked, offended. “We’ve never even met!”
“Miss Chloe has spent the last few days working with Miss Dupain-Cheng, Miss Césaire, Mr. Agreste, and Mr. Lahiffe to expose the lies you’ve been telling the rest of your classmates,” Jean explained. “If anyone in your class was going to have to be protected from an akuma today, it would be you.”
Lila fumed, but Ms. Bustier cut in before she could say anything else.
“Sabrina was supposed to tell you we were coming. Did you receive a message from her?” Ms. Bustier asked.
“I did. If you’ll please follow me,” Jean requested, turning and leading them to the elevators. They all piled in, and he brought them to the room he had set aside for them.
It was one of the standard rooms in the hotel, with one bed off to the side and a ring of couches in the middle of the room. The kids immediately got settled in the room while Ms. Bustier lingered at the door to talk to Butler Jean. Lila sat on one couch and turned on the tv, flipping to any channel that wasn’t showing the akuma attack. Nathaniel sat next to her and pulled out his sketchbook to test out designs for a new villain for his comics based on Lila. Ivan and Mylene made themselves comfortable on the couch across from them. Mylene had her phone out to keep track of the group chat and Ivan turned his attention to the tv.
“So, why are you and your students protecting her here?” Jean asked Ms. Bustier in a low voice.
“There was an incident this morning. You know that Chloe was working with Marinette, Alya, Adrien, and Nino to prove to everyone that Lila was lying. Lila didn’t like that and threatened to retaliate by telling Hawkmoth that Marinette was Ladybug,” Ms. Bustier explained, skirting around a few details that Jean didn’t need to know. “An akuma targeted Lila because she was so upset, but Rose caught the akuma first and let herself be akumatized again. We’re guarding Lila to make sure she doesn’t get akumatized, because if she does, she’ll work with Hawkmoth and put Marinette and her family in danger.”
“What a horrible girl,” Jean said, turning up his nose in disgust. “I heard from Chloe that she lied about knowing Mrs. Bourgeois, Jagged Stone, and Prince Ali of Achu. How anyone could believe such blatant lies is beyond me.”
“I’m guilty of it,” Ms. Bustier admitted sheepishly. “Marinette tried to prove Lila was lying on her own several times, but no one in the class ever believed her, myself included. They didn’t seem so outlandish though, because Rose—the girl who was akumatized—became friends with Prince Ali the last time he was in Paris, and Marinette has worked very closely with Jagged Stone before, and Audrey Bourgeois offered to bring her to New York. And then of course there’s Adrien, who is famous in his own right as a model and his father’s son, so it seemed reasonable that if these kids could know famous people, surely Lila could too.”
“I see,” Jean said, nodding thoughtfully. “Now, I must excuse myself. I have other things I must attend to, but if you need anything, please call reception using the phone in the room. If I don’t answer, ask them to forward the call to me.”
“We will. Thank you,” Ms. Bustier said. Jean nodded once and walked back down the hall to the elevators. Ms. Bustier closed the door just as three phones dinged all at once.
“Uh-oh,” Mylene, Nathaniel, and Ivan said in unison.
“What do you mean, uh-oh?” Ms. Bustier asked warily.
~*~*~*~
“Ha! Her name is literally Cutie Pie! That’s adorable!” Ladybug cheered, pumping her fist in the air. “I win the bet!”
“That you did, my Lady,” Chat responded. He paused for a minute, then smiled evilly and leaned in really close to her the way he had after Troublemaker attacked and he saw all of the photographs in her room. Ladybug’s eyes widened and a blush peeked out under her mask. “Would you like a reward?”
“Adri—Chat you cannot just, why would you, did you have something in min—wait, what is she doing?” Ladybug stuttered, turning her attention back to the fight at the Eiffel Tower. She pushed Chat’s nose away from her face with one finger to see around him better. Chat crossed his eyes to see her finger as he backed off, then shook his head and turned to follow her line of sight.
“Is she turning civilians into giant pink kittens?” Chat asked slowly.
“That’s what it looks like,” Ladybug confirmed. “And I’m positive she just turned a car into a pink unicorn…”
“And a building into a pink palace…” Chat trailed off. “It’s almost like she’s trying to make a magical kingdom for her to rule…”
“I turned on a friend who only wanted to protect me from a liar! I made her feel unwelcome! Now, I will turn Paris into a beautiful kingdom for her so she always feels welcome!” Cutie Pie’s announcement echoed across Paris and reached Ladybug and Chat Noir where they remained hidden across the river.
“Aw, Bugaboo, she’s doing this for you!” Chat said. “That’s so cute.”
“That’s horrifying, Chat! She’s hurting people…” Ladybug said, biting her lip nervously. “We have to deakumatize her.”
“Hey, wait a second, Ladybug,” Chat said, grabbing her arm. Ladybug tried to shrug him off and reached for her yoyo, but Chat caught her other wrist easily. “Marinette, seriously. Think about this for a second. If we purify her akuma, Hawkmoth gets another shot at Lila. Maybe he takes it and one of the others can intercept it. Maybe they don’t intercept it. Maybe he bides his time and waits until he knows Lila will be alone to try again. But for now, we know he’s stuck with Rose as his one akuma. Until he purifies her himself or we absolutely have to step in, he’s stuck with her. The longer we can keep Rose akumatized, the more time we have to find him. And your Cure will fix everything when this is all over anyway. Please, just be patient for a little while longer.”
“Okay. I’ll be patient,” Ladybug said. Her pout told him that she wasn’t happy about it at all, but at least she relaxed a little to watch their friends jump into the fight. That is until she froze completely a few moments later, staring at the battle behind him. “Uh-oh…”
“Uh-oh? What’s uh-oh?” Chat asked as he turned around. When he saw what she was looking at, he let go of her arms. “Uh-oh.”
~*~*~*~
To: Miraclasse
Alix: Just heard Illusionbug say RR is down to 90 seconds and counting. Cutie Pie is leaving the Eiffel Tower and traveling down the Champ de Mars. We're following as fast as we can. No idea where Adrinette are. Will update ASAP.
“Max, we’re really running out of time!” Sabrina said anxiously. “Please tell me you found Hawkmoth already.”
“Not yet…no! I lost it!” Max practically growled in frustration. “Markov, tell me it’s just on another camera!”
“Negative,” Markov responded. “The akuma seems to have missed all other traffic and security cameras in the 21st Arrondissement. It doesn’t seem to be in any other arrondissement, however, so perhaps that is where it originated.”
“It originated in the 21st Arrondissement? Has Hawkmoth really been that close this whole time?” Sabrina asked, adjusting her glasses nervously.
“That’s what it looks like…that’s where Marinette and Adrien live, isn’t it?” Max asked.
“And Chloe,” Sabrina confirmed. “Where did you lose it?”
“Somewhere past Marinette’s family’s bakery, headed towards the cinema,” Max said. “I’m going to try to hack into Le Grand Paris’ security system, but I may need your help to do so. Markov, can you help me get into any satellite cameras over Paris?”
“I will do my best,” Markov chirped, and a side window opened up on the computer screen. Numbers scrolled across the screen faster than Max could keep up with, so he turned back to his own task.
“Also, Sabrina, can you try calling Marinette?” Max asked. “I want to let her know we may have a general area for Hawkmoth’s lair.”
“On it!” Sabrina said, scrolling to Marinette’s contact and tapping the call button.
~*~*~*~
“They’re moving further away,” Ladybug said, starting to pace across the rooftop. “We have to follow them! What if they break her bracelet on accident and I’m not actually there to purify it? And the further away they go, the harder it’ll be for us to follow them.”
“But how do we cross the river without being seen?” Chat Noir said. “Remember that part of our plan relies on no one seeing us keeping our distance in case Hawkmoth found out? What if we cross the river and Cutie Pie turns around and sees us, which means Hawkmoth will see us, or someone takes a video of us rushing to catch up and posts it online?”
Ladybug thought for a few moments, her eyes flicking between her partner, the bridge, Cutie Pie’s retreat, and their friends chasing her as an idea formed.
“You’re right, Chaton. Ladybug and Chat Noir can’t cross the river. It’s too risky and puts our plan in jeopardy,” Ladybug said slowly as she started to smile. “But Marinette and Adrien can.”
“You want us to drop our transformations?” Chat asked. “Wouldn’t that be more dangerous?”
“We’ll have to be careful, but that is exactly what I want,” Ladybug said. “It means we’ll have to go down there, detransform, run as fast as we possibly can, and make sure we avoid Rose’s Cuties, but we can do it.”
“Did you just call her monsters Cuties?” Chat asked.
“Yeah…why?” Ladybug asked, tilting her head to one side. She decided she didn’t like the implications of the smug little grin on his face.
“I think you meant Cooties,” Chat said proudly. Ladybug huffed out a laugh as she shook her head.
“You are so immature,” Ladybug said fondly, flicking his bell before jumping off the roof to look for the perfect place to hide and detransform.
“I know, but hey!” Chat called as he jumped down after her. They ducked behind a wall to drop their transformations and gave their kwamis a second to get settled in Marinette’s purse with their snacks before they took off running at full speed.
Adrien stayed slightly behind Marinette while they ran so that he could catch her if she tripped or if he needed to pull her out of harm’s way. They made it across the river without any problems, but Marinette stumbled slightly when her phone rang. She caught herself and pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the caller ID. When she saw who it was, she turned into an alleyway and motioned for Adrien to follow her.
“Sabrina? What’s going on?” Marinette asked as soon as she put the call on speaker. “Did you find Hawkmoth already? How did you know we had detransformed?”
“We...actually didn't even think about that. But no, not yet. Max lost track of the akuma somewhere in the 21st Arrondissement, near Le Grand Paris. He’s trying to get into the hotel’s security cameras to get a different angle while Markov tries to get access to the satellite footage,” Sabrina informed them.
“We think the akuma came from the 21st Arrondissement, but we don’t know for sure or where exactly he’s hiding,” Max called.
“Trying to get into the satellites could take too long,” Marinette mused. “I know it was part of the original plan, but I’m not sure we have time for that anymore.”
“Wait! We know exactly where some of the akuma victims were when the butterfly touched them. Maybe you can add that data to your search to narrow down the list of potential locations,” Adrien suggested.
“That’s right! Sabrina, you know exactly where you were, and Max, you do too! I’d suggest not looking for the ones that happened at school though…we already know the path that akuma should have taken,” Marinette said, her mind racing. “Alya and I were at the Louvre when the Pharaoh was akumatized, and we know Simon Says was at the TVi Station, and I think Stormy Weather was there as well. We also know where Frightningale was, and the Sapotis were Alya’s little sisters who were akumatized at home. Troublemaker was akumatized at my house, Antibug was akumatized in Le Grand Paris, and Timebreaker was at the Trocadero after Kim and Alix’s race.”
“Do we know the time and dates of all of those?” Max asked. Marinette could hear the keyboard clicking as he typed.
“They should all be on the Ladyblog,” Marinette said. “I helped Alya proofread some of the articles she wrote for them. Sabrina, will you pull them up and find the times and dates?”
“Of course,” Sabrina said.
“Also look for when Father was akumatized into the Collector,” Adrien suggested. “That was right after Volpina attacked, when he said I couldn’t come back to school because I lost his book. He was akumatized at home, probably in his atelier, so look for any akumas flying into my house around then.”
“Oh, that’s right. That was the day I thought he was Hawkmoth,” Marinette said.
“Right, except that he was akumatized, so he can’t be Hawkmoth,” Adrien said.
“That sounds logical,” Max said distractedly. “I’ll look for all of those and put the data together. That should be enough to narrow down at least the right arrondissement. Hopefully we’ll get as close as the right street, and then you’ll just have to go door-to-door. It’s not a perfect solution though…”
“But it’s a better solution than we had five minutes ago,” Marinette said. “Thanks, you guys! Bug out!”
Marinette hung up just as both hers and Adrien’s phones dinged with a new message. She checked the group chat with wide eyes.
To: Miraclasse
Kim: Rena, Illusionbug, and Illusionoir just bailed on the fight. She ran out of time.
Okay I don’t think Miraclasse is going to be posted by midnight…so here’s a teaser! Merry Christmas!
“Did you find it yet?” Sabrina asked again as she shifted the way she was sitting on Ms. Bustier’s desk to face him. She could see the screen reflected in his glasses, but not clearly enough to know if he had gotten in.
“Sabrina you just asked me five seconds ago,” Max deadpanned, not looking away from the screen.
“Actually, she asked precisely 36.079 seconds ago,” Markov corrected. “That is, rounding up to the nearest one-thousandth of a second.”
(This takes place immediately after Chapter 5 of Liar, Liar, so if you don’t remember the ending or want to reread it, go do that first!)
AO3
As soon as the light faded from their transformations, Ladybug and Chat Noir raced across the rooftops after Rose and their teammates. They were careful to stay out of sight, however. The last thing they needed was a civilian filming them staying away from the fight, just in case the footage was posted online, and Hawkmoth ended up seeing it. They landed side by side on one of the rooftops of the Trocadero, watching as the akuma veered away from their teammates to head towards the Eiffel Tower instead.
“Why is it always the Eiffel Tower?” Ladybug asked.
“I don’t know, but I swear if Hawkmoth could akumatize inanimate objects on their own, the Eiffel Tower would be the perfect candidate,” Chat Noir joked. Ladybug giggled.
“People of Paris! I am the Evil Tower! You will learn to control your emotions, or you will perish!” Ladybug declared, lowering her voice comically. Chat Noir doubled over laughing.
“It’s almost a shame we have to defeat him before finding out if he can do that,” Chat said as soon as he could breathe again.
“Yeah…” Ladybug said, turning her attention back to the akuma fight. Their teammates were nowhere to be seen, and Ladybug assumed they were setting up the illusions and preparing to fight.
“Hey, we will defeat him, LB. You know that,” Chat said, putting his hand on Ladybug’s shoulder and turning her back to face him. “He won’t be able to hurt us or anyone else ever again.”
“I know. I’m just worried. There are just so many things that could go wrong…what if Rena’s illusions don’t work, or what if Max can’t find the akumas on the security footage because they can’t be seen on camera like our kwamis, or what if the class can’t get in between Lila and an akuma quickly enough? If Hawkmoth gets to her, it’s all over…and what will Master Fu think? He gave us this responsibility and he trusted us to keep our identities secret and our Miraculous safe, and in one afternoon we blew it, all because we let one girl get under our skin. What kind of heroes does that make us?” Ladybug asked, her eyes wide as she rambled. Chat just listened to her patiently, letting her air out her concerns before he even attempted to interrupt. “And once Hawkmoth is defeated, we’ll have to give back our Miraculous and then we’ll just be Marinette and Adrien and we won’t be Ladybug and Chat Noir anymore and what if that changes everything? I know you said that we’re partners no matter what, but it’ll be different and what if that makes us different?”
“My Lady, we were partners as Ladybug and Chat Noir long before we knew each other’s identities, and we work well together as Marinette and Adrien too. Remember the day you helped me go see my mother’s movie? What about just this week when we teamed up to expose Lila and stop her from hurting anyone else? And we work well together no matter what. You helped me fight Evillustrator as Marinette, and remember when I helped you in the fight against Riposte? I probably could have done more that day, but we were still able to team up and help each other. I promise we’ll be fine,” Chat said. “And if Master Fu gets mad at us? Let him get mad. We’re teenagers, Marinette, not saints. We did our best, and our best was really good for a really long time.”
“I’m less worried about him being mad and more worried that he’ll be disappointed…” Ladybug trailed off. Chat felt a pang in his heart.
“How could anyone be disappointed in you, Bugaboo? Master Fu would be crazy to be anything less than proud of the hero you became,” Chat said. “As for the other things you’re worried about? Just trust the others to work things out. Rena will let us know if her illusions don’t work. Max will call us if he can’t find the akumas on a security camera. And we need to trust that our classmates and Ms. Bustier won’t let Lila get akumatized. They know how important this is. We’re not in this alone anymore. It’ll always be you and me against the world, Marinette, but it doesn’t always have to be us against the entire world.”
“You’re right, Adrien,” Ladybug said, smiling at him. He thought he detected a faint blush peeking out from under her mask, but he couldn’t tell for sure. “Thank you.”
“Anything, my Lady,” Chat said. “Now, I just have one question…how come nobody thought to search security cameras for akumas before today? That would have made our lives so much easier.”
“Well, maybe the people in the government can’t tell an akuma apart from a regular butterfly? Or they never knew exactly where the victim was when the akuma reached them to start their search? Our classmates have seen enough akumas to know exactly what they look like, which may be more than most of Paris can say…plus Max knows exactly where the akuma was five minutes ago to start searching. That would give him a head start, and he has Markov to help him with the technical side of things,” Ladybug reasoned. “If anyone would be able to figure it out, Max could.”
“I guess that’s true,” Chat said. Rose’s akuma started yelling at the crowds of civilians who were running for cover, and Chat nudged Ladybug to draw her attention back to the fight. “Looks like we're about to find out what Rose’s new akumatized form is called.”
“I bet it’s something adorable,” Ladybug said, grinning at her partner. He matched her with a Cheshire grin of his own.
“You’re on.”
~*~*~*~
“I am Cutie Pie!” the akuma cried as she reached the Eiffel Tower. Queen Bee had done her best to lead Rose as far away from civilians as possible, but Rose—now called Cutie Pie—had other plans.
Cutie Pie still looked like Rose, but she was different enough to be unnerving. Her skin was now a glittering silver, as if she had been encrusted with diamonds from head to toe. Her blue eyes kept changing colors as they reflected the sunlight. Her pixie cut had more volume and was styled with old fashioned pin curls, and she wore a huge crown on top of her head, reminiscent of Glinda’s crown from the Wizard of Oz. Her light pink dress was similar to Glinda’s as well, except that it cut off at her knees. Underneath she had on pink and silver striped tights and wore a pair of sparkling silver slippers. The bracelet her akuma was in was larger now and studded with diamonds, and she carried a wand as tall as her with a pink and silver star on top.
A wand that she was using to wreak havoc on Paris.
A burst of energy directed at civilians turned them into giant pink kittens that tried to play with the civilians around them, but their claws and their teeth were too sharp, and they were as large as an SUV. What would have been playing coming from a normal sized kitten was now causing serious damage. Another burst of energy turned a car into a pink unicorn with a horn as sharp as a blade. Buildings were transformed into glittering pink castles, and trees were turned into candy, with chocolate trunks and cotton candy leaves.
“I turned on a friend who only wanted to protect me from a liar! I made her feel unwelcome! Now, I will turn Paris into a beautiful kingdom for her, so she never feels unwelcome again!” Cutie Pie announced.
“Yeah, that’s still Rose,” Rena Rouge commented as she crouched on a roof next to Queen Bee and Carapace. “A scary Rose, but our Rose is definitely still in there.”
“Everything is pink,” Carapace said, staring at the effects of the akuma with wide eyes.
“It’s utterly ridiculous. Deadly kittens? Candy trees? Hawkmoth is really scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one,” Queen Bee said. “And to announce that she’s only doing this because she thinks she made Marinette feel unwelcome? I can’t believe he fell for that.”
“Well, she needed some kind of an excuse as to why the akuma corrupted her instead of Lila,” Carapace reminded her. “Hawkmoth wouldn’t have fallen for it otherwise. If he had caught on, he would have just purified the akuma and tried again and then we really wouldn’t stand a chance at finding him before our identities were revealed.”
“I know that, Lahiffe. But this? It’s just too easy,” Queen Bee said. “He even made her akumatized object ridiculously obvious!”
“Hey! No civilian names while transformed, Queenie,” Rena Rouge scolded. “Just because Paris knows your identity doesn’t mean they can know ours.”
“Fine, Rena,” Queen Bee huffed. “You might want to create an illusion before Hawkmoth starts to suspect something is wrong.”
“Are you sure you can do this, Rena? Have you ever tried to create a moving illusion before?” Carapace asked.
“Well, if Volpina could do it, so can I, right? Her powers were based on mine, so anything she can do, I should be able to do better,” Rena said, twirling her flute.
“Rena, you realize that while Volpina was based on you, she was an akuma. Her powers were corrupted and modified, like when Queenie turned into Queen Wasp. She was based on her hero form, but her powers were totally different,” Carapace argued.
“But remember Copycat? His powers were exactly the same as Chat Noir’s. And Antibug had basically the same powers as Ladybug, just the opposite. Hers were evil where Ladybug’s were good,” Rena said.
“Can we stop bringing my akumatizations into this please?” Queen Bee muttered, crossing her arms over her chest indignantly.
“Fine, your majesty,” Rena sassed. “Look, we’ll try it and see if I can control it. If I can’t, then we’ll change plans and get the real Ladybug and Chat Noir here to keep Hawkmoth from becoming suspicious.”
“You’ll be wasting a transformation though…” Carapace said.
“Look, we owe it to Ladybug and Chat Noir to try. We’re only in this mess because we didn’t believe Marinette about Lila until she lied about being me, and then made it worse by transforming in front of the whole class. If we hadn’t jumped the gun and transformed instead of listening to Marinette when she said not to reveal myself, Lila wouldn’t know the truth and our identities wouldn’t be at risk,” Rena said. “If I waste a transformation, I’ll just feed Trixx and we’ll try again.”
Carapace looked ready to argue, but a blast from Cutie Pie’s wand hit the building they were hiding on and transformed it. Luckily it missed them, but they had to scramble to keep their balance as the rooftop changed and slanted underneath them to form a castle tower.
“Mirage!” Rena yelled, not wanting to waste any more time. She focused on the image of two of her best friends to create a proper illusion of Ladybug and Chat Noir. She refused to worry that it wouldn’t work. Even the slightest distraction could ruin her illusion and they’d have missed their chance. By the time she had finished playing and cast the illusion, she had mentally reviewed all of Ladybug and Chat Noir’s movements during battle in the hopes of making her illusion more likely to succeed. She threw the blast of energy off the end of her flute and towards the edge of the rooftop, praying her illusion would work.
There was a flash of orange light, and when it faded Ladybug and Chat Noir were standing next to them on the rooftop. The illusions looked at each other and then began pacing around the rest of the team to wait for instructions, which made Rena sigh in relief. They could move.
“You did it,” Carapace said in awe. “They look and move just like the real thing.”
“Okay, but new problem: they can’t actually fight,” Queen Bee reminded them. “If the akuma touches them, they’ll vanish. Plus, they’ll disappear when you detransform in five minutes, Rena. What are we going to do then?”
“You know what, we’re going to trust Ladybug,” Rena said, taking charge in Marinette’s absence. “I’ve never seen one of Ladybug’s plans actually fail, and I’ve seen a lot of akuma fights up close and analyzed even more for the Ladyblog. All we have to do is distract Cutie Pie long enough for Max to find Hawkmoth’s lair. If that means I have to create a dozen Ladybugs and two dozen Chat Noirs, so be it. But we can make this work. Carapace, I need you to protect the illusions, at least as much as possible. Jump in front of any attacks directed at them, use your shield, whatever you have to do. Just don’t get hit by a blast. Queenie and I will attack the akuma head on and keep her focus on us, so Hawkmoth is less likely to notice Ladybug and Chat Noir are keeping their distance.”
“Wait, who put you in charge?” Queen Bee asked.
“I’ve had my miraculous longer and I’ve been in more fights than either of you, and I made it my job to know everything about how Ladybug and Chat Noir beat Hawkmoth’s akumas,” Rena said.
“Plus, she’s my best friend,” the Ladybug illusion spoke up, startling Carapace and Queen Bee.
“Hey! No speaking through your illusions!” Queen Bee protested. “That’s so not fair!”
“That actually wasn’t intentional,” Rena muttered. Another blast and the sound of cars crashing drew their attention back to the actual fight at hand. “Anyway, we don’t have time for this! Queenie, when I have to detransform, make sure you sting her! If she’s frozen, she hopefully won’t notice me leave and the illusions disappear. I’ll be ready to call the real Ladybug and Chat Noir for backup if we need them.”
“Fine. As long as you make sure they can’t hear your Miraculous beeping,” Queen Bee said. As if on cue, Rena’s Miraculous let out its first beep. “Great. Now we only have three and a half minutes before we risk our plan falling to pieces. Let’s go!”
Queen Bee leapt off the roof, followed by Rena, Carapace, and the illusions. Cutie Pie would have been easy enough to lure away from civilians, but they couldn’t leave her little monsters unchecked. The heroes had to settle for keeping her as contained as possible.
~*~*~*~
Kim, Alix, and Juleka had no problem keeping up with their classmates despite their magical enhancements. They chased them through the streets of Paris, staying just far enough back that they could easily avoid any blasts Rose might have thrown their way.
They were very grateful for the distance when Rose started turning people into monsters.
“Okay, I get that Rose is cute for wanting to use the akuma to apologize to Marinette,” Alix grumbled as they changed course to avoid a giant kitten before it could see them, “but this is a little extreme, don’t you think?”
“Well, she is in a rock band called Kitty Section,” Kim pointed out.
“I just hope she doesn’t get hurt…” Juleka said quietly.
“Hey, she’ll be fine,” Kim said, smiling at Juleka as they ran. “Marinette and the others would never let Rose get hurt, let alone be the ones to hurt her. They’ll make sure she’s safe and when Max finds Hawkmoth, they’ll turn Rose back to normal.”
“I know they will. I’m just worried…being akumatized is never easy and Hawkmoth practically forced it on her…”
“Rose may be small, but she’s strong. She obviously didn’t break when accepting the akuma if Hawkmoth is letting her use her powers to make Marinette feel more welcome in Paris,” Alix said. “I don’t know very many people who could do that. I know you’re worried, and I know this isn’t easy, but we just need to trust her and Marinette and the others to get this done.”
“I know, and I do trust them,” Juleka said. Kim grinned at her.
“Well, would it make you feel better if we were closer, so we can be the first ones there when she gets deakumatized?” he asked.
“I’ll race you,” Juleka said, speeding up with a grin. Kim and Alix laughed and took off after her.
(Shout out to @da-tasuky for coming up with the idea of Rose being turned into Cutie Pie! I took a few liberties with her powers/appearance, but the core idea came from her!)
