Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ulrich finished packing his clothes ready to move out, his parents would be here in a few minutes. They have been disappointed far too many times in their words by Ulrich’s behavior and grades and blame it mostly on his group of friends. In their minds their son needed a new environment, one where he would focus on his studies and where they could keep a better eye on him.

Odd broke the silence between them “So, it’s really happening?”

Ulrich replied “Yeah, can’t do much now, the paperwork is already done. I will miss you all, even you Kiwi.” he looked at the dog with a weak smile.

Odd tried to reassure him “Cheer up, we can still be in contact and your new home is not that far, it’s not like you are moving across the ocean. Come on, the others are waiting for you outside.”

The boys moved downstairs where they met with Yumi, Aelita, Jeremy and William, they kept chatting until the teacher Jim morales came in “Stern, your parents are here.”

Ulrich sighed “I guess this is it, Goodbye guys.”

Jeremy replied “Be sure to keep contact.”

Yumi leaned in and kissed his cheek “I will miss you.”

Ulrich followed Jim to where his parents’ car was parked, the teacher stopped him for a moment “For the record, you made me proud.”

Ulrich smiled and replied “Thanks, Jim.”

Ulrich loaded his bags in the car and took a seat. The trip to their new home was awkwardly silent; the only thing his dad noted was “Trust me Ulrich, this new school will be better for you.”

To which the boy answered dryly “Yeah, sure.”

The next day, Ulrich was in the front door of his new school ‘François Dupont’, his first task now was to find his classroom. the paper note says he is in Ms. Mendeleiev’s class. Ulrich looked around and saw a boy who seemed approachable and greeted him “Hey.”

The boy in question turned around and replied “Hmm Hi, do I know you?”

“No, I’m new here. I need directions, I am supposed to be in Ms. Mendeleiev’s class, 9th grade(Troisième).

“Oh it’s that classroom,” while pointing toward the door of the classroom in question ” I can show you around the school later if you want, I’m Nino by the way, I’m in mr bustier’s class, 8th(Quatrième) grade, it's that one.” as he pointed towards his own classroom.

“Thanks, my name is Ulrich.”

“You’re welcome, my dude. By the way Ms. Mendeleiev is strict and doesn't like tardiness so you should probably hurry up.”

Ulrich sighed “Great, Just great. see you later.” Of course they put me in the strict teacher class.

Ulrich entered the classroom where the students were chatting while the teacher had yet to arrive. When the teacher came in she began “Good morning class, today I was informed we have a new student. Ulrich Stern?”

“I’m here.” Said Ulrich after raising his hand.

“Perfect, would you like to make a small introduction before we begin?”

“Ulrich Stern, my parents moved me here so I can improve my grades, aside from that I practice various sports. That’s all.”

“Excellent, now class, open your chemistry books page …”

Unlike what his parents thought, Ulrich can focus on his studies if he puts his mind and heart into it, it’s just that recently his mind was focused on XANA while his heart was still in the she-loves-me-she-doesn’t-love-me phase. But now that both were fixed his grades improved a bit with the addition of Jeremie and Aelita’s help but not enough to change his parents' decision.

The first period finished and Ulrich thought that he was doing well for now. Some of his classmates approached him to talk to him.

The first to speak was pig-tailed blonde girl “Hello, I’m Aurore Beauréal, I’m the class president, if you need anything feel free to ask me.”

“Hi I’m Ulrich Stern but you already knew that, thanks for the offer.”

A boy then asked him “Where were you before moving here? I’m Jean by the way.”

“Collège Kadic, just outside Paris.”

Another blue haired girl Offered “you said something about improving grades, if you need help just ask us. I’m Mireille.”

“Thanks guys.” Ulrich liked the impression his classmates were giving him. their conversation was cut by the arrival of the next teacher.

The day has been pretty decent so far for Ulrich. Only one more period and I can relax. And that was when he heard a scream.

“Akuma!”

Can’t even have a normal first day. I defeated one villain and now I’m thrown into another. The Lyoko warriors knew about the akuma situation of Paris and debated multiple times if they should help them, but the final result would be to not intervene because this was an unknown territory to them. His friends also told him to keep his negative emotions in check.

in Jeremie’s words “We don’t want to know how strong an akumatized Lyoko warrior is.”

And Odd added “If you end up akumatized though, take Chat Noir’s ring and give it to me. I would make a better cat hero.”

The akuma this time is The Mime, Ulrich followed the evacuation process and was out before anything happened and let the heroes do their job.

The heroes finished their fights after a 20 min fight and the students were asked to return to their classroom and finish their period.

When Ulrich returned home he sat at the kitchen table with his parents. his Father began to ask him “So how was your day?”

“It was good, the teachers are decent and I made new friends. It was all good until that akuma attack happened.”

His mother stood from her seat slamming her hands on the table “There was an akuma! Why do you look so calm about it?!”

“I escaped and got out of the way like I was told, and from what I gathered that akuma was not that dangerous. I was pretty far from the fight, nothing to be scared of.”

His mother seemed to calm herself “Okay, good, don’t get caught in those akumas attacks, you hear me?”

“Loud and clear.”

After finishing his dinner Ulrich went to his new room, it was going to be strange having a room to himself with no Odd or Kiwi. He took his phone and began to type in the Lyoko group chat.

Ulrich : “First day was fine I guess. everything was normal at school except for the akuma attack.”

Aelita : ”There was an akuma attack?! What happened? Did you get hurt?”

Ulrich : “I escaped and stayed out of the way. Not the scariest akuma, and the heroes took care of it quickly.”

Odd : “Remember our deal, okay?”

Ulrich : “I’m glad to see you care about my safety.”

Odd : “I know you got it, you could probably defeat an akuma alone.”

Ulrich : “I would rather not test that theory.”

Yumi : “I mean he did beat a Krab IRL.”

Ulrich : “You know you could be more worried, Odd I can understand but you too?”

Yumi : “It’s because I have faith in you, I know you got it 👍”

Ulrich : “Well it was good talking to you guys but I have to go. Goodnight everyone.”

Yumi : “Goodnight.”

Aelita : “Goodnight.”

Odd : “Goodnight.”

After sleeping and waking up, Ulrich felt really good. It's been a while since he had a good night's sleep, even if you don't count XANA there was still the Kiwi problem. He took his phone and typed.

Ulrich : ”Odd I take back what I said, I don’t miss you or Kiwi anymore. Sleep>Odd+Kiwi.”

Chapter Text

The next day after finishing the first period students had a bit of free time so Ulrich decided to see if that Nino guy could show him around.

He knocked on the door of Ms. Bustier’s class and asked “Hi, is Nino here?”

Said boy was in a group listening to some story a girl was telling when he waved and replied “Hey dude, what’s up?”

“I was wondering if that offer of showing me around was still available.”

Nino beamed “Sure, let’s go. Sorry guys, gotta show the new guy around, see you later.” They both left, leaving the class behind.

After leaving Lila asked “Who was that?”

Alya answered her “That was the new boy in Ms. Mendeleiev's class, he asked Nino for directions yesterday and they became friends, I didn't catch his name.”

Lila frowned a bit but ignored the boy. Whatever, he is probably a nobody.

While Nino was showing Ulrich the classes and clubrooms in the school Ulrich decided to change the topic of conversation “So what do you do as a hobby?”

Nino said excitedly “I’m into music, I’m a pretty decent DJ if I do say so myself.”

Ulrich smiled “That’s cool, you know, one of my friends in my old school is also a DJ. Maybe I could introduce you and you could make something together.”

“That’s great! Here, you can give them my number if you want.”

“Alright, I will make sure to tell her.”

“And what about you?”

“I practice martial arts, say your school doesn’t have a pencak silat club.”

“Never heard of that word so I’m gonna say no.”

Ulrich chuckled “Okay then.”

Nino remembered “We do have a fencing club if that’s also your thing, it’s that way.”

Ulrich hummed and answered “I’ll think about it.”

Later that day, Ulrich was reading in the library trying to catch up on history for the next period when he heard a scream outside. Can’t even study in peace.

He took a look from the stairs to see Reflekta transforming everyone into copies of her. Soon ladybug and Chat Noir came and fought her, the akuma didn’t last long but jumped in the crowd and now the heroes were lost on who was who.

“Ladybug, Chat noir, help us!”

“Hey stop pushing me!”

“Ladybug!This is the real Reflekta.”

“You’re the real Reflekta!”

Ulrich looked at the situation How are they going to out her from the rest? Then an idea came to him and he screamed “Hey, Harley Quinn! Halloween was last month!”

One of the reflektas turned to him and screamed “It’s Reflekta!” and shot a beam at him before her face morphed in horror realizing the mistake she just made.

Ulrich didn’t even attempt to dodge and after becoming a reflekta himself he pointed toward the real one. “There she is!”

The heroes immediately went for her and de-akumatized her, returning everyone to their normal forms. Ladybug went to comfort the de-akumatized Juleka while Chat Noir jumped at Ulrich’s side “Thanks for help, that taunt was a good idea. I don’t think I have seen you here before, you must be new here. You shouldn’t get in danger again, okay?”

Wow, this is Chat Noir. A real magical hero is talking to me. Ulrich nodded “You’re welcome, I only did it because it was Reflekta, I’m not going to antagonize dangerous akumas. Say, can I have an autograph for my friend?”

“Sure.”

Ulrich pulled a pen and paper “Here, for Odd della robbia.”

“Here you go, anything for my fans.”

Ulrich chuckled “He’s not really a fan, in his words you plagiarized his video game avatar, also he told me if I ever got akumatized I should take your miraculous and give it to him. So I’m getting this autograph to spite him.”

Chat noir burst out laughing “Well, I didn't expect that. I guess I will have to watch out for you then. See you later, timer almost out.” Chat noir gave him a salute before jumping away while Ulrich waved at him.

Soon after the heroes disappeared, an auburn-haired girl approached the boy. “Hi, I am Alya Césaire the ladyblogger, I saw you help Ladybug and Chat Noir against Reflekta, would you like to say something for the blog?”

“I’m sorry but I don’t like the spotlight and my parents will kill me if they found out I didn't run away, so please keep this to yourself and don’t mention my name. If you must put the footage, blur my face and change my voice.”

Alya frowned a bit. “It’s okay, I understand.”

Ulrich gave her a sincere “Thank you.” before he went back to the library.

After finishing the last period Ulrich was going back home when two girls approached him, one of whom was the previously akuma Reflekta.

“Hi, I’m Rose and this is Juleka.” Juleka waved at him. “She wanted to tell you something, come on Juleka, you can do it.” said Rose while putting her hand on one juleka’ shoulders while clutching her other hand into a fist.

“T-t-thank you for saving me. and I’m sorry for turning you into a reflekta.” Said the girl while shrinking.

“Oh, you’re welcome and don’t be sorry, you were manipulated, it's not your fault. I just did what I thought was right.”

Juleka smiled and felt grateful the new kid didn’t hate her. Rose took over “Hey, as a Thank you, would you like to come see our performance tomorrow, we are part of a music group called Kitty Section.”

“Yeah sure.”

Rose clapped her hands and said “Great! Tomorrow at 6 Pm, here’s the address.”

Ulrich nodded “Got it. See you later.”

Then he walked away and after being far enough Rose said “See? that wasn’t so hard.” To which Juleka nodded and Rose hugged her.

When Ulrich returned home he was greeted by his mother “Welcome back Ulrich, How is your day?”

“Another day, another akuma. I’ve stayed hidden, nothing happened to me.”

His mother smiled wryly “That’s good, I mean you staying safe is good, not the akuma attack.”

His father interrupted them and asked “How are the studies?”

“Good, I’m catching up, not many distractions aside from the akuma.”

His father nodded “Good, keep it up.”

After Dinner Ulrich video called his friends “Hey, guys.”

Jeremie replied first “Hey, how are you doing?”

“Pretty good actually.”

Aelita seemed surprised “Really? I heard there was another akuma attack at your school. Reflekta if I’m not mistaken.” The pink-haired girl does check the Ladyblog from time to time.

“Yeah, it’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about.”

William teased “let me guess you got turned into Reflekta yourself.”

Odd laughed and said “that would be hilarious.”

Ulrich smirked “That did actually happen.”

No one understood why Ulrich was smirking when he was turned into an akuma minion. Yumi asked “And you’re smirking because?”

“Check this out.” he showed the Chat Noir autograph “I helped Ladybug and Chat Noir and got the latter’s autograph.”

Aelita gasped and shouted “No way! you were that guy who taunted Reflekta.”

Odd looked closer to see the name written alongside the autograph “Hey! Why did he write my name? You know I don’t like him.”

“That was the point. to annoy you. Chat Noir is my new best pal and favorite cat hero.” Said Ulrich while flaunting the piece of paper in his hand.

Everyone laughed at this while Odd looked annoyed and said “HA.HA. Very funny.”

Jeremie tried not to laugh and said “Come on Odd, you could be more happy for Ulrich, I don’t think many people can brag about having a hero’s signature.”

Odd rolled his eyes “We are heroes in case you forgot.”

William argued “Yeah but no one knows it, it’s different with a public hero.”

Yumi said “See? I told you you can take on akumas.”

Jeremie frowned and said “But still, two days in and you already had two akuma attacks in your school, that sucks.”

Ulrich replied “Yeah, I hope that doesn’t become a habit. On a side note Aelita, one of my new friends is a DJ, so I thought I could introduce you and maybe you could work up something together.”

Aelita answered “Sure, I would be happy to help.”

Ulrich replied “Great, I'll send you his number. Anyway that was all for the video call. See you guys later.”

“Later!” replied the rest in unison.

The next day Ulrich noticed quite the stares form the students on his way to school. I guess it’s not everyday a student help a hero here.

In fact, Ulrich became a bit of a hot topic, a student who doesn't fear an akuma even though he is new to Paris and not much information on him either, the mysterious factor made Ulrich rise up a bit in popularity, something that a certain girl didn’t like at all.

Nino was walking to the front doors of the school when he was stopped by a girl he didn’t recognize. “Hey, you’re Nino right?”

“That's me.” Said Nino enthusiastically “And you are?”

“I am Melodie, I have seen you around that Ulrich boy. Do you know if he has a girlfriend? or if he is into girls at all?”

“Oh, actually, I don’t know, the topic hasn’t come up yet. I could ask him today and give you the answer later.”

Melodie nodded “That would be helpful, thank you.”

“No problem, see you later.”

Later Nino would learn that Ulrich's popularity rose quite a bit. Dude sure got popular fast, let’s see if I can tease him about it.

A few periods later Nino finally got the chance to talk to him “Hey dude, what’s up?”

“Hi Nino, nothing much, boring class, you know.”

“You sure?” asked Nino with a smug face that made Ulrich weirded out.

“Bro, what’s with the smug face?”

“I just heard that a certain someone became quite popular after yesterday's stunt.”

“Oh yeah, I noticed the stares and whispers.”

“Is that all you noticed?” while giving him an eyebrow flash.

Ulrich looked confused “Yes? If there is something else, I don’t know about it so just tell me and stop with the weird faces.”

Nino protested “Hey! my face is not weird.”

“yeah whatever just spill what you know.”

“Are you single?”

“Oh I get it. I have a girlfriend. I love her, she may not be here in Paris but I’m not breaking up or dating someone else. I hope that answers all your questions.”

“Yeah, Too bad I really wanted to tease you about it. Oh well I still have Adrien and Marinette to tease.”

“If it is anything like what I just saw now then I pity them.”

Nino Gasped, looking offended “I will get you back for that.”

“you’re welcome to try.”

One uneventful day later. Finally some peace. thought a lot of students actually. Ulrich was on his way to the address Rose gave him.

Soon He saw the boat Liberty and waved at the group who were on it. “Hey guys.”

Everyone turned around and Rose was the first one to respond “Oh hey Ulrich, I’m glad you could make it, Come in.”
Rose guided him and Continued “Guys, this is Ulrich, Ulrich these are my friends, the one holding instruments are part of Kitty Section.”

Ulrich waved “Hi, nice to meet you all.” Everyone smiled and waved back.

A tall boy with dark hair and teal colored dye came to him first “Hi, I’m luka, Juleka’s brother. I heard how you helped Ladybug and Chat noir de-akumatized sis so I wanted to thank you.” Luka offered him a handshake.

Ulrich accepted the handshake and said “You’re welcome. So I heard you guys were practicing?”

“Yeah there is a competition soon and we need to be at the top of our game. You can sit and watch, usually we have a bigger audience but almost everyone was busy.”

Ulrich with the boy named Kim and the girl named Mylene. The session was good, Ulrich thought these guys were good Rose is louder than I thought and that Luka didn’t even break a sweat.

The boy named Ivan asked “So how was it?”

Mylene answered first “You guys were great.” making the big guy blush.

Kim continued “Yeah that was pretty good your opponent won’t know what hit them. What did you think, new guy?”

Ulrich replied “you guys are good, you have potential for sure.”

Ulrich returned back home feeling good about making some new friends. We were always in college Kadic. It's been a while since I made new friends, the fact we became a close secretive group didn’t help either. Maybe moving out wasn’t so bad.

Chapter Text

It was Thursday of the second week since he moved and Ulrich was nervous. The first period is with Mendeleiev where she will give them the results of yesterday's test. Ulrich was not that confident about it, he knew he didn’t do good but he just needed a note that showed he was improving so his parents could give him some slack.

The teacher began distributing the papers and was closing on Ulrich’s seat. “Stern, by my standards this would be unacceptable, however I have seen your previous records and I can see there is a clear improvement, so keep up the good work.” She handed him the paper.

Ulrich pulled his fist in excitement. D+, Yes!

Jean, the boy sitting next to him, saw his score and said. “You are quite happy for a D+.”

“This is the best score I had in a while so yeah, and hopefully this will make my parents give me some slack.”

Jean smiled and answered “Good for you.”

Ulrich then asked “What did you get?”

Jean showed his paper “B-, same as usual.” He said with a hint of disappointment.

“Still better than a D.”

“True. If you need more help be sure to ask. I’m happy to help you, the others too.”

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Ulrich finished his day in a good mood and went home since he had no plans today.

“I’m home.”

His mom replied. “Oh Ulrich, how was your day?”

“It was good, nothing much happened, definitely no akumas, I got the result of the test from yesterday I got a D+.”

His mom gave an awkward smile. “that’s… progress I guess.”

Ulrich ignored it and kept the conversation going “Yeah, I have been focusing more on my studies. Even my teacher noticed it.”

“Good for you, see, all you had to do was change the environment.” Ulrich resisted the urge to talk back to her inside and just went along.

“Yeah, I guess.” He went to his room and watched TV to pass the time.

Minutes later his father came in and called for him “Ulrich, your mother told me you had something to say.”

“Yeah, I got the result from yesterday’s test, I got D+”

The man looked furious. “D? Plus? What do you mean D+? What about all the studies you said you were doing? All of that for a D+.”

“Hey, I have been studying like you want me to, and D+ is a big progress so how about you layoff, and in case you forgot I have been here in less than two weeks. I can't go from Fs to As in Two weeks.”

The next moment Ulrich found himself on the floor, a burning pain in his left cheek “You don’t get to talk to me like that boy, I moved you here to study but you have been hanging around with a new group of friends. you better have better results next time or else you can say goodbye to your friends, old and new.”

“You don’t even know them, neither of them, you never bothered to get to know them, so you don’t get to judge them.”

Ulrich stood up to move to his room when his father yelled at him “Come back here! I'm not done talking.”

“I’m done listening!”

His father tried to follow him but his mother held him “Come on, give him some time. This is all new to him, he just needs time.”

The father readjusted his jacket and calmed himself “Alright.”

Both Parents went to their chores and didn’t notice the boy was getting akumatized.

The parents heard a loud thud and saw Ulrich’s door was on the ground and a figure standing there, the mother asked “Ulrich?”

“Ulrich, what is the meaning of this?” demanded his father angrily.

[Akuma appearance like season 4 Ulrich, with two swords on his back as weapons.]
“I’m not Ulrich, I am Cyber Samurai, before I get the miraculous I have one thing to do here.” Cyber Samurai dashed forward and punched his father in the stomach, knocking him out cold. “That shut him up.” His mother screamed in shock but The akuma paid no attention and went outside.

Cyber Samurai caused enough damage to get the public to sound the akuma alert. Soon Chat Noir was here.

“Chat Noir, I’m Cyber Samurai, give me your miraculous.” The akuma moved forward and drew one sword, Chat Noir drew his staff and used it like a sword and began trading blows against the Samurai.

Ulrich? What happened to him? He seemed happy all day long. Chat Noir shoved his thoughts to focus on the fight.

Since the hero seemed to handle himself, Cyber Samurai drew his second sword and began to overwhelm the cat hero. When the samurai was about to land a hit, his arm was wrapped in Ladybug’s yo-yo and he was sent flying “Perfect timing m’lady.”

The akuma flipped and landed perfectly on his feet. A mask appeared on his face and after a moment Cyber Samurai said “Shut up, I know what I am doing.” He then taunted the heroes with a bring-it-on hand gesture.

“Careful that guy is strong, has good sword skill, and no other powers so far.”

Ladybug nodded “Alright.”

The heroes jumped toward cyber samurai who began to defend himself, After exchanging blows Chat noir landed a cataclysm on one of his swords disintegrating it “Give it up now, you can’t win.”

The heroes rushed forward to finish the akuma when the latter said. “I don’t think so, Triplicate!” Two copies of Cyber Samurai came out and block each of the heroes and the original went for Ladybug.

Ladybug ran for her life, being chased by two samurais she called her last resort. “Lucky charm!” Moments later a ladybug themed wooden sword came down but was soon caught by the akuma.

“Tough luck Ladybug.”

Don’t be so sure. The hero swung with her yo-yo far enough that the samurais couldn't keep up with her.

Elsewhere Chat Noir defeated the third samurai and hid away to not get caught and recharge. “That guy sure is strong, Give me the cheese, also what kind of samurai multiply himself?”

Adrien shrugged. “Maybe it's a video game or anime thing? I hope Ladybug has a plan.”

Cyber Samurai reverted back to one body but it looked like he couldn’t create a sword. “Hey Hawkmoth, can you give me an extra sword?”

A mask appeared “I already gave you powers, the rest is up to you. If you can’t create a sword then that’s your limitation.”

“Pff useless.” Where is Jeremie when you need him.

“I already gave you powers to have your little revenge so how about you show some gratitude and give me those miraculouses.”

“Will you shut up already, look it’s my first time being an akuma and I’m already done hearing this crap, miraculous this miraculous that. Change the tune once in a while.”

Moments passed and then hawkmoth threatened him. “After I’m done with ladybug and chat noir you’re next on the list.”

“Considering your loss streak history, I'm feeling pretty safe right now.” No response came from the villain He Finally shut up.

The moment of silence was interrupted by the arrival of Ladybug, Chat Noir and a third hero, Cyber Samurai recognized her as Ryuko the dragon holder.

“Back for round two? Alright, triplicate.” There were now three samurais and each one took on one of the heroes.
Minutes passed and Ryuko was the first to defeat the first clone, soon followed by Chat Noir and both finally joined ladybug in defeating the original and de-akumatizing him.

Ulrich didn’t know where he was and he was feeling strange. What happened? He soon realized he was in the presence of Chat Noir, Ladybug and Ryuko.

Ladybug reached him and asked “Are you okay? You were akumatized.”

“I was?!”

“Yes, but don’t let it get to you, it happens to the best of us.”

“Wait, my home! Where are my parents? I was mad at them before being akumatized.”

”Miraculous Ladybug should have fixed everything. Chat Noir, do you mind taking him back? I need to take the miraculous back.”

“Got it. Come on buddy, let's get you back home.“

Ulrich nodded and would soon regret it. “Slow down! Slow down! Too high!”

Chat Noir looked surprised “No way! You are afraid of heights but are not afraid to take on an akuma. Come to think of it, we never had a fear of heights problem before.”

Ulrich tried to calm down. “Sorry to disappoint you I guess.”

“I just find it funny, but don’t worry about it. If it makes you feel any better my worst enemy is feather allergy.”

Ulrich chuckled and the boys were soon in front of the home. “Thank you, and sorry if I made the fight difficult.”

“Hero’s duty, your friend will have to wait a bit longer to get my miraculous.” Said hero gave him a salute and jumped away.

Ulrich entered the house and his mom was the first to speak “Ulrich are you alright? You were akumatized.”

“I’m okay, Chat Noir brought me here, Ladybug used her cure to fix everything, although I don't remember anything I did.” He looked toward his father who was just staring at him, not uttering a word.

“You kicked a door and punched your father, but hey, I heard there were worse situations!” his mother tried to reassure him, another awkward smile on her face.

“I’m sorry, I will be in my room.” He fell flat on his bed to sleep, not even bothering to look up his phone and call his friends.

Chapter Text

Yumi woke up and was eating her breakfast with her mother. “Something on your mind Yumi?”

“Yeah it’s Ulrich, he didn’t call or text yesterday and it was supposed to be the day he got the result from the test, I’m afraid something happened with his parents.”

“Yes, It’s concerning, especially with how his father is. I hope everything is okay.”

Suddenly both heard a loud scream. “Yumi! Yumi!” Her brother Hiroki run down the stairs almost tripping on the way

“Hiroki! What did I tell you about running on the stairs?” Scolded the mother.

The boy didn't listen and shoved his phone in their face. “Ulrich got akumatized!”

Color drained from the faces of both of them and Yumi snatched the phone faster than Hiroki could process it and saw the face of akuma Ulrich. “Oh no! I need to call him and tell the guys.”

Yumi : “Ulrich was akumatized.”

Not even waiting for a response Yumi began calling Ulrich.

Ulrich woke up in his bed only to remember the events of yesterday. Today is going to be a pain in the ass.

He changed his clothes and washed his face and headed for the kitchen where he saw his parents, his mother greeted him while his father still gave him the silent treatment. He drank his coffee when his phone began to ring. When he saw the caller was Yumi, he stood up to get some privacy.

Ulrich sighed, preparing himself for what’s coming and accepted the call “Ulrich?! Are you alright? We heard you were akumatized. What happened?”

Ulrich felt bad, Yumi sounded on the verge of crying. “Hi, I’m okay, the heroes saved me, I don't remember anything from being an akuma, you know. My dad got mad that I got a D+ then I was mad and was akumatized afterward. He is giving me the silent treatment after punching him while I was an akuma.”

“Oh my god! Do you need anything? I’m here if you need me, okay?”

Ulrich smiled and said softly. “You already did enough, sorry for not calling. I was not in the mood so I just slept it off, I will call you later.”

“Okay, but you better do it. And the guys are calling you too so you better be ready for them.”

Ulrich groaned. “Alright, but I still need to go to school so it can’t take too long.”

“Okay, take care, bye.”

“Bye.”

As soon as the call ended Jeremie’s name already popped up “Hey, Einstein.”

“Ulrich, are you okay? What happened?”

“Yeah I’m fine, sorry I didn’t call. I got akumatized because my dad got mad at me and I just wanted to sleep. I'm sorry I did not tell you, I still need to go to school so I’ll talk to you later. Can you and Yumi explain to the others, "I still have to go to school.”

Jeremie answered “Fine. Just take care of yourself, Okay?”

“Thanks buddy.”

After finishing the call Ulrich was ready to face his school. Alright, now let’s see how Parisians deal with a new akuma.

The boy was now closing on the doors of the school when he began to notice the new stares, pointing and whispering, unlike last time the students seemed to fear him. Wonder how long that will last. It didn’t seem like much with Juleka.

The first to talk to him was a pig tailed girl. “Hey, I heard what happened last night and I know you’re new here,don’t let the stares get to you, people will change to the next topic soon enough. Croissants?” Offered the girl.

“Thanks.”

“No need to thank me. On a more positive note, your akuma form is quite good looking, you're probably in the top ten design-wise, and you’re pretty good with a sword. I don’t remember anyone joining the fencing club recently, maybe you should give it a try.” Ulrich appreciated this girl's positivity but what he didn’t know is that said girl also had ulterior motive.If he joins maybe Kagami will learn his style and be stronger and defeat him easily on the chance he gets akumatized again.

“I’ll think about it.”

the girl smiled at him. “Great! Have a nice day.”

He continued to move toward his class when he noticed his classmates waiting for him. “Hey, good morning.” Then his classmates began to drown him with worry, questions and comforting words, which felt a bit too much for the boy.

The time of the first period closed in and Mendeleiev entered the class. “Good morning class, I can see you are worried about your friend but make sure to not overwhelm him. Stern, was your akumatization related to yesterday’s test?”

Ulrich looked down to his table and answered “Yes.”

the teacher frowned then replied to him. “I’m sorry to hear that. If you want I could talk to your parents more about the Paris situation.”

“That… would be good.”

the teacher nodded and said. “Alright students, let’s continue where we left off last time…”

When the first first period finished Ulrich got visitors from the other classes. “Hey dude.” Nino entered the classroom followed by Rose and Juleka.

“Hey guys. How’s your day?”

“We’re fine but we’re mostly worried about you. How are you doing?”

“My dad is giving the silent treatment over a few grades and punching him as an akuma.” The three winced at that. “The stares and whispering gets on my nerves but I got some comforting words from my classmates and my old friends.”

“They heard about your akumatization?” Asked Juleka.

“Yeah, must be Hiroki, that kid is a huge fan of Ladybug and follows everything related.”

Ignoring the unfamiliar name Nino asked “Would you like to spend the evening with us? To get your mind off… Everything.”

“Thanks but maybe next time, If I don’t call my old friends after school they’re gonna kill me.”

Rose chuckled “Okay, if you need anything you know where to find us.”

“Thanks everyone.” The three returned to their class after waving him a goodbye.

Later that day Ulrich got another visitor. “Ulrich Stern?”

“Yes, and you are?” The girl stood firmly with a stern expression on her face.

“Kagami Tsurugi. I heard about your recent akumatization. I’m a member of the fencing club and would like you to join us.”

Ulrich raised his eyebrows, getting recruited after being akumatized was not something he expected. “Wow, you didn’t waste time there.”

“Yes, I’m not known but my indecision. I saw potential and wanted to see what you got. But I also know you need time to process and adapt to your new situation so I will not force or haste your decision.”

“It’s okay, I can join the next session. When is it?”

The girl, Kagami, smiled. “Monday after class. I'm glad you joined Stern.”

“Call me Ulrich, everybody does. Can I call you Kagami?”

“Sure, see you Monday Ulrich.”

“See you later Kagami.”

The school day was now finished and Ulrich was mentally preparing himself for what his friends would tell him. He first checked the Lyoko group chat where he saw the tons of messages that were sent between them and stopped around the time he called Jeremie.

Ulrich : “Hey guys, sorry to have made you wait and worry, I’m free now.”

not even a minute later he was receiving a video call from Jeremie he accepted and the faces of everyone around him “Woah!”

Yumi began. “Hi, how are you holding? They didn’t bother you or bully you.”

Ulrich replied “Nothing like that happened. The worst that happened was just stares and whispers, the best part though, a lot of students came to comfort me and one of them even gave me a pastry. And she was pretty casual about it, I think she does it with student akumas or something.”

“That's very thoughtful.” Said Jeremie.

While William complained “Hey, how come nobody gave me pastry after I was xanafied?”

“Odd ate them.” Joked Aelita.

To which Odd followed with. “Oh! Those were for William. Oops.” And everyone burst out laughing.

William continued. “Seriously though, if you want to talk I’m here for you.“

“Thanks buddy, maybe another time.”

Odd asked hesitantly. “How did it feel?”

“I don’t remember much feeling angry, a voice in my head and the next thing I know the heroes were in front of me.”

Aelita continued. “Do you feel any different? Is there something missing or strange with you?”

“No, everything seems fine, Ladybug said her powers fix everything and so far no one felt any different.”

Yumi then asked. “You’ll be fine right?”

“Don’t worry, I can take care of myself.”

Jeremie brought everyone’s attention with a cough. “Ulrich, we wanted to talk about something.”

Ulrich looked cautious at the sudden change of tone and everyone’s now serious faces. “What is it?”

“We are going to help Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Chapter Text

Ulrich didn’t expect the conversation to go that way. “What? I thought we agreed to not interfere with their fight.”

Odd replied angrily. “That was before Hawkmoth decided to attack one of us.”

“Look guys as much as I’m happy to hear that maybe we should think twice about this.”

Jeremie said. “We thought about it, a lot. Look as long as your father is still… Well your father, there is a high chance you will be akumatized again, so we might as well help the heroes save you and hopefully defeat Hawkmoth in the process.”

Ulrich tightened his fist, he hates to admit it but Jeremie is right, the way things are he’s probably going to get akumatized as soon as the next test comes out, and that would help no one. “Fine, so what’s the plan?”

Jeremie continued. “We use the translation on one of Paris’ supercomputers to fight the akumas, we have a cover story and new looks, new code names and upgraded the security so nobody can trace it back to us. We will keep you in the dark for now so you will receive the news as everyone and don’t risk having you make a slip of tongue and bust us.”

Ulrich raised his eyebrow. “I’m offended by that, I don’t have a loose tongue and I’ve kept our secret the longest here, aside from Maya of course, wonder what happened to that girl?”

The group laughed a bit while William asked “Wait, who’s Maya?”

Aelita chuckled “That’s me actually, that’s the name Jeremie gave me before we learned my real name, way back in the day.”

“Cute.” to which the genius couple blushed.

Jeremie coughed to get everyone’s attention back. “Point is, you do you and we help the heroes as soon as we hear the akuma alert, we all downloaded the app.”

Ulrich took a moment to let the information sink in, his friends were willing to reopen a dark chapter of their life to help him. “I-I…Thanks guys, you’re the best.”

Odd replied. “You know it.” The call ended shortly after and Ulrich typed something on his phone.

Ulrich : “Can I call you later when you’re alone?”

Yumi : “Okay, see you in 20 minutes.”

20 minutes later Ulrich made a call and Yumi answered. “Hey, so what did you want to talk about?”

“Are you okay with that plan? You were the one who was most adamant about shutting down the supercomputer.”

Yumi sighed but answered “I know, and I still kinda am, however I can’t let you suffer alone when we know we can help. The supercomputer can be used for good, XANA traumatised us but XANA and the supercomputer are two different entities that’s something we didn’t really think about last year, and since there was no purpose to Lyoko after defeating XANA I wanted to put all of that behind us.”

Ulrich stood silently for a moment before replying “Just be careful okay? I don’t want you, any of you to get hurt because of me.”

“Don’t worry about us, we’ve got this plus this time we have the help of magical superheroes. it’s going to be alright.”

“Thanks again.”

“Anything for you.”

Saturday afternoon Denis Damocles received a message from the school board. They were not happy with how Francois Dupont was labeled the akuma school with higher akumatization rates there than anywhere else, the new transfer student getting akumatized in less than two weeks of being in his school didn’t help either. The poor man however didn’t know what to do, this was beyond him. He can't control the emotions of his students and he definitely can’t tell hawkmoth to leave their school alone.

Just when he had that thought he heard a voice in his head. “Darker Owl, I’m Hawkmoth, you want your school free from akumas. I can make you a deal, bring me the miraculous and I will end all akuma attacks.“

The man put his hands in ears trying to not listen to what Hawkmoth had to say. “No! leave me alone, I can’t trust you. you will bring other akumas as soon as I lose.”

“Then all you have to do is win, you were really close the first time. Their trick won’t work a second time. I even have something extra for you.”

Was this the only way? Was this how I can bring peace to the school and my students? How long will it take Ladybug and Chat Noir to defeat Hawkmoth? Damocles couldn't see a solution to his problem and so. ”I accept.”

The akuma alert was activated, Marinette was in her room at the time when Tikki informed her. “Marinette, there is an akuma right now.” the girl nodded, transformed into Ladybug and swung toward the location of the akuma.

She landed near Chat Noir. “What’s the situation?”

“Dark Owl, Or Darker Owl this time. He wants our miraculous to end the suffering of his students.”

“Alright, Chat Noir you distract him while I get the computer where the akuma is.”

“I’ll have you know I made a few upgrades since last time.” Said Darker Owl while showing a phone that displayed Albert the AI assistant. Ladybug and Chat Noir stood dumbfounded that the akuma showed them their object while Hawkmoth facepalmed in his lair.

“Thanks for the heads up.” Said Chat Noir as he lunged forward to strike the akuma, Ladybug followed him moments later. The two couldn’t get an opening or something to exploit, the akuma seemed stronger than last time.

Ladybug took her distance and called her. “Lucky charm!” Revealing a ladybug themed small ball.

Before Ladybug caught the charm she felt a kick from behind her and someone shouted. “I’ll take that!”

“M’lady!” Screamed Chat Noir then turned to face the new dark figure “Who are you?”

Darker Owl started to explain. “That was my other upgrade. I present you Owlet, my sidekick and Hawkmoth’s latest sentimonster.” The sidekick named Owled tore the ball with his razor sharp boomerang. “Now that that is out of the equation.” Darker Owl jumped to where Ladybug was, Chat Noir followed him only to be stopped by Owlet. “I heard you can’t use your power on sentimonsters. Owlet take care of him.”

Chat Noir engaged in hand with Owlet, one minute passed and then a second, no side had advantage over the other but Ladybug’s transformation will wear out soon.

Ladybug herself didn’t fare well either, with the timer on her mind and no charm she couldn’t think of a way to win this. Darker Owl threw his hook gun toward Ladybug and the hero found herself lassoed. the akuma began to pull Ladybug toward When some projectile cut the rope freeing Ladybug in the process.

The projectile, Was that a fan? Thought Ladybug returned like a boomerang to its holder, a girl in a brown suit with black hair pulled into a bun “Who are you?”

“Akma first, explanations later.” Said the new girl while keeping her eyes on Darker Owl.

“Alright, akuma is on the phone.” The unknown girl nodded and moved toward the akuma.

A purple outline appeared in front of Darker Owl. “I know our deal, One extra hero won’t help them.” Darker Owl aimed for Ladybug going into close combat trying to steal her earrings while the newest ally threw kick after kick to distract him and give Ladybug a chance to get the phone.

Seconds Later Darker Owl barely jumped back to dodge another kick from the unknown girl only to land near Ladybug who shoulder threw him in the ground and grabbed his phone. The next moment she broke it, releasing the akuma and amok. Darker Owl returned back to Damocles and Owlet disappeared.

Chat Noir realizing the fight was over jumped to where Ladybug and the newest ally were. “Care to introduce yourself?”

“Yes, I am part of a top secret organization called Project : Akuma fighters, we are here to help you defeat the akumas and Hawkmoth. I’m Project : Kunoichi and you can expect more of us in the future.”

Ladybug looked skeptical. “But you’re not a miraculous holder, this is not your fight and you could get seriously hurt.”

“Don’t worry about that, I’m just an avatar, a solid projection while my real body is back at the HQ, I can’t be hurt like regular people.” Kunoichi proceeded to cut her arm with one of her fans, the arm gliched a bit and returned to normal “See? Although if I sustain enough damage I will be ‘despawned’ but my body is still safe.”

“That is so cool!” Chat Noir exclaimed.

“Before I go I wanted to test something.” Kunoichi threw her fan toward a trash can, slicing it in half. “Try casting a miraculous ladybug so I can see if my damage is repaired.” Ladybug nodded and one miraculous ladybug later the trash can ws still sliced. “I see, it seems the damage can not be reversed, I will report this back to HQ and we will adjust the projects to be less offensive. Also we don’t know much about sentimonsters. Are we safe to destroy them? Or any other akuma creations.”

“My cataclysm makes them go berserk but I don’t know about your weapons.”

Ladybug thought for a few seconds. “We will test it next time. you’re only allowed to destroy confirmed sentimonsters or akuma creations, not the akuma itself or the brainwashed/transformed civilians.” Kunoichi nodded and Ladybug continued. “Okay, can we expect to see you in every akuma fight?”

“Most likely yes, if not me then another project, however there is a bit of loading time needed to deploy us, so don’t expect us to be present as soon the akuma alert is active. As of right now we are testing one project per fight.”

The holders nodded and Ladybug said. “Thanks, your help is appreciated.”

Chat noir grinned “hope to see you soon.”

Kunoichi chuckled “Maybe not too soon. It was a pleasure fighting alongside you.” she bowed and then continued. “HQ, you can recall me.” Seconds later the girl glitched and then disappeared.

Ladybug’s timer began to beep again. “Sorry, gotta go.” Chat Noir prepared to move out himself when he noticed the Ladyblogger waving at him to get some new scoop and the heroes and he was more than happy to share that Paris had new allies to help them in their fight.

Meanwhile Gabriel Agreste was re-watching the fight and the interview a growl forming on his face “First the temporary heroes and now there is this new project. Don’t worry my love, we will be together soon, I promise you that.”

Later that day Ulrich saw the new post in the ladyblog and the various comments and reaction from the fans, he switched to the Lyoko group and typed.

Ulrich : “You’re quite the hot topic, Kunoichi.”

Odd : “If you’re gonna flirt, take it elsewhere.”

Chapter Text

It was Monday morning and Marinette was heading for school. When she closed on the doors of the school she could already hear what everyone was talking about : Kunoichi’s debut. Everyone is so excited, almost as much as that time Rena Rouge made her first appearance. The girl ignored most of it except when it came to her best friend.

“Girl! Did you see the new hero? Everyone is talking about her. There are so many theories and speculations.”

“Of course Alya, I’m one of the oldest and most faithful fans of the Ladyblog.” I also was there when it happened.

“Aww, come here you!” Said Alya as she pulled her into a hug.

The two began to move toward their classroom and marinette asked. “You said something about theories. Care to share some of them.”

“Yeah, the most popular topic right now is how many are there and what does the others look like, Kunoichi didn’t seemed based on animal so the first idea is that none of them are animal based, as for numbers the most voted are either five or three, Kunoichi included, you know like the power rangers.”

“I thought there would be crazier theories out there.”

“Oh there is, but at this stage not a lot is known about the project so the crazier theories get ignored. theories will begin to get filtered the more information we get.”

As soon as they entered the class the girls saw their friends around Lila. “Oh, Alya good morning. I’ve got something for you.” The journalist beamed and went to her side.

Marinette rolled her eyes. Here we go again.

Lila began. “So I had a talk with Ladybug about the new project and she told me she will give you exclusive information as soon as she gets them.”

“Oh Lila! thank you!”

Marinette resisted the urge to argue back at her. Chat Noir already gave her information, he and I didn’t need a talk to give it to Alya. At least she’s not dumb enough to say she is part of a top secret organization, or maybe that’s her next lie if she doesn’t get enough attention. In the end marinette just sighed and sticked to the ‘high road’.

Marinette and Alya noticed Nino at the door talking to Ulrich. “That's my stop dude, tell Aelita she’s great, we’re already planning on something, of course you will be the first to hear it.”

Ulrich smiled. “I better be or else I’ll kill you both, I also better get discounts and back passes when you two become famous.”

Nino chuckled. “Of course you will, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves for now. see you later, dude.”

“Later.”

Nino moved to his seat when noticed Marinette and Alya “Morning girls. How are you doing?”

Alya replied. “We’re good, very busy with the ladyblog after yesterday. Say, who’s Aelita?”

“Oh, she’s one of Ulrich’s old friends and DJ like me, we’re trying to cook up something good together.”

“That's great! I’m sure you will do well, we’re expecting our back passes too.” teased Marinette.

Nino laughed while Alya forced a laugh. He seemed really happy talking about that girl. Maybe it’s just because they share a hobby.

The girl’s mood soured for the rest of the day, the idea of Nino being close with another girl that she didn’t know about always on the back of her mind. This didn’t go unnoticed by Lila. I can work with that.

Mendeleiev’s class had a free period and Ulrich decided to hit the library to catch up on some math problems. The first few were… manageable but then he got stuck on one of them, his classmate saw his struggle and joined his side. “Need a hand?”

“Oh, hi Mireille, yeah I could use some help. I can find solutions to quadratic equations but sometimes I can’t transform the initial equations into a quadratic one.”

The girl sat beside him. “Alright let me see. It depends on the situation but in this case since you have an algebraic fraction.” Mirreile began to explain while writing the solution herself. ”You need to keep the fraction on one side, move the rest to the other side, you then multiply by the denominator and finally move all them to one side so you go back to the general form.”

Ulrich looked a bit surprised. That looked easier than I thought. “I think I got it, let try it again with another example.”

“Sure, go ahead.”

Ulrich began to solve the next problem while Mireille was watching for any mistake, and sure enough a minute or few minutes later he was able to transform the equation and got the solutions right.

Mireille clapped her hands. “See? that wasn’t so hard.”

Ulrich replied while smiling. “Yeah, you made it look so easy. you’re even better than Einstein.”

Mireille chuckled. “I don’t think solving quadratic equations makes me better than Einstein.”

Ulrich realized the misunderstanding and said. “No, not the Einstein, just my friend nicknamed Einstein, he’s a genius at math but his method of explaining could use some work.”

Mireille chuckled again. “Well, I’m glad I could help, make sure to also review the problems on page 75 for the next test, those tend to have high points.”

“I will, thanks for the help again.”

“you’re welcome.”

It was time for Ulrich to go check the fencing club the girls told him about. He took his schoolbag and began to walk toward the clubroom, when he arrived he knocked and got permission to enter.

The students turned around to see the still new akuma victim and their reaction varied from shock to fear to excitement, some harder to notice with the fencing mask in their face. A red fencer and another one came to him and took off their helmets to greet the new boy. “I’m glad you came Ulrich, this is Adrien, the second best fencer in the club, the first being me of course.” she finished her sentence with a smirk directed at the blonde boy.

“Our score is 27-25, we’re basically equal.” Argued Adrien calmly.

“All I hear is that I’m still winning.”

“Hi, nice to meet you Adrien. So, what do we do now?”

“You’re having your first match with Theo over there, he is above average in the club.”

“You’re not going easy on me since I’m new?” To which Kagami shook her head with a smile. “Just great, however I need to tell you I have never fenced in my life, I do sword fights as a hobby and it’s kind of a freestyle type of thing. I watched a bit of fencing in the weekend but I'm not sure how well that will do for today.”

Adrien tried to reassure him “It’s ok just show us what you got.”

Ulrich was now facing Theo, the feeling of the equipment was a bit awkward and different than what he usually use when sparring against yumi or when he was in Lyoko.

Their teacher D’Argencourt was about to give them the signal. “En garde, prêt, allez.”

Theo lunged forward to attack Ulrich who blocked it theo continued to attack only for Ulrich to block, when Ulrich found an opening he went for the offensive but his strike was parried perfectly. ”First point to Theo.”

This persisted for a while and Kagami concluded he is in fact an amateur and she knew he felt restrained, not being able to fight freely, to use his full potential. “Teacher, I think we have seen enough.”

“Yes, I’m afraid so. I was expecting more from someone you recommended, miss Tsurugi.”

“Teacher, permission to do a no rule match with my wooden swords.”

The teacher sighed. “Granted, just don’t destroy anything and stay in the clubroom.”

Ulrich looked confused, “what's happening?”

“You clearly have poor knowledge in fencing-”

Ulrich rolled his eyes. “Thanks for the compliment.”

“So we’re doing it your way. Freestyle, no rules.”

“Fine by me. I hope you’re ready for round 2 Theo?”

“Actually you’re facing me right now.”

Ulrich sighed. “You don’t hold back at all, do you?”

Kagami smirked. “Did I ever tell you otherwise?”

If having the newest akuma didn’t have everyone’s attention already It certainly did right now. Ulrich and Kagami were facing each other, no equipment except the wooden swords, and the teacher declared “En garde, prêt, allez.”

Both moved forward and traded strikes. He’s already blocking more efficiently. this continued for a few seconds then Ulrich deflected the next strike and pushed kagami’s sword to the side to go for a reverse roundhouse kick. Kagami didn’t expect this but her years of training and refined reflexes kicked in and she barely dodged the kick.

One of the watchers shouted. “Hey, that’s cheating!”

Ulrich stopped in his tracks and looked towards the other students. “I thought this was a no rule match.”

Another student protested. “Yeah, but we’re the fencing club not the kicking club.”

Kagami then declared. “New rule, everything is allowed but only sword strikes get you points.”

“Got it.” Said Ulrich then moved forward to continue sparring with the fencer girl. The fight changed from a regular sword fight to a mixed martial arts fight. Ulrich blocked a strike only to be kicked in the stomach by Kagami. “Not bad.”

The boy tried to be on the offensive once more but the girl was defending pretty well, and after a few strikes Kagami managed to land a hit on Ulrich’s shoulders. “I gotta say, you’re better than I thought.”

“Thanks, you too.”

The two took their stances again and the teacher announced the beginning of another round, both changed strategies and were careful trading strikes while maintaining enough distance. Ulrich lunged forward and Kagami blocked every attempt he made, then Ulrich tried to sweep her legs but the girl jumped back only for the boy to throw his sword hitting Kagami in the stomach, the sword fell and Kagami covered the spot where she was hit with her hand while looking at the boy in disbelief, the latter only smirked and said. “I believe that’s a point.”

“Oh come on, he’s clearly cheating.”

“Again! we’re the fencing club, not the javelin throwing club.”

Adrien on his part was impressed. He’s way better than I thought, I thought the sword skill was part of the akuma powers but I guess I was wrong. His hand-to-hand combat is also pretty good.

Meanwhile Kagami only looked surprised and then began to laugh. “I admit, that was good. Care for a final round?”

“You know it.” The duo resumed their duel and kagami got the last point making it her win. Even though Ulrich lost he still got recognition for holding his own against their top fencer.

When Ulrich grabbed his stuff to go home he took his phone and typed.

Ulrich : “I met a girl who could beat a Krab IRL.”

Chapter Text

It was Tuesday morning and Lila was already about to explode, somehow that Ulrich became a member of the fencing club and held his own against the ice queen herself, her friends wouldn’t shut up about it, especially Nino and Rose and surprisingly Juleka too. So what if he got a point against that brat I could probably do it too. To make things worse that brat Marinette had the nerve to turn around and smiled smugly at me about the whole situation as if she made some big accomplishment.

The Class was waiting for their friend Adrien to come and tell them the ‘deets’ as Alya would call it. The boy entered shortly after and Alya greeted him. “Good morning, sunshine. Hey, is it true that Ulrich could hold his own against Kagami?”

“Good morning and yes, I have to say I was impressed he was pretty good.”

Kim interjected. “But didn’t some say that he cheated, and in front of everyone.”

“It was a no rules match, the reason people think he cheated is because our no rules match doesn't include punches, kicks and throwing your sword, but apparently his does, and Kagami accepted those terms and used them herself. so it was all fair.”

Kim looked impressed. “Damn, he must be pretty good. Do you think he swims too?”

Adrien replied. “Back off, Kim, no stealing our members.” That got a laugh from some of his classmates.

Later that day the class had some free time and some of the girls were gathered around when Sabrina Started. “Hey, Juleka, do you think Ulrich has a girlfriend?”

Rose beamed, knowing where the conversation was going. “Oh my god! you like him, Are you gonna ask him out?”

Sabrina blushed and answered “I- yes, I thought I should give it a try.”

Juleka finally answered her “I don’t know, I never heard him talk about his love life.”

Lila smiled, knowing her chance came and she was not going to waste it. “Actually, I’m pretty sure Ulrich said to Nino he has no girlfriend at the moment. So go for it while you still can.” Lila gave her best supporting smile. That will surely make her cry and ruin that boy’s reputation. With chance she may even be akumatized against him.

Rose naturally encouraged Sabrina to go for it, while Chloe was suspicious. If that was the case wouldn’t someone have already asked him out by now seeing how popular he is becoming.

Chloe stood up to search for Nino, after a while she found him with Adrien. “Lahiffe, there you are.”

Nino was surprised and confused. Was Chloe searching for me? “Did you need something chloe?”

“Sabrina wants to ask Stern out, is he single?” Chloe wasted no time on the matter.

Nino winced. “Sorry, I’m afraid he’s taken.”

Shit! “Thanks, gotta go.” Chloe began to run to find Sabrina and find her before something bad happened. When she ran back to where the girls were she found no one; she cursed again and ran toward Mendeleiev’s class.

She arrived only to hear the boy say “I'm sorry Sabrina but I can’t go out with you. I already have a girlfriend.”

Tears began to fall from sabrina. “You lied to me! To Nino! Is this all a game to you? Just so you can play with my feelings?" She then began to run her hands in her face not noticing her friend Chloe.

“Sabrina, wait!” Shouted both Ulrich and Chloe.

Chloe looked at Ulrich. “Stay out of it, I'm gonna fix this.” Chloe ran toward the crying girl following her into the girls’ bathroom. “Sabrina it’s me, open up.”

“Leave me alone!”

“Listen to me, lila lied to you, Ulirch has a girlfriend, Nino told me just now.”

“Liar! You always blame Lila for everything.”

“Sabrina please open up.”

“Yes hawkmoth.” After hearing those words a feeling of dread came over Chloe and she attempted to run but the door was thrown wide open hitting her and the akuma walked forward.

Chloe took a look at Sabrina’s new akuma form, she mostly remained the same, her clothes changed into a skintight suit with the same color palette, the most noticeable change was a big round hole in her left side of the chest and she was wielding a spear for some reason. Chloe tried to call her friend despite the pain. “Wait Sabrina.”

She looked at Chloe who was lying down on the floor still hurt from having a door thrown at her. “I’m not Sabrina, I’m HeartSeeker. Stay down, my only goal is the boy.” A purple mask appeared quickly. “And the miraculous, I know.” Said the akuma in an annoyed tone.

The akuma moved out of the bathroom and got noticed by the passing students, she immediately throwed spears from her hands. The students who were hit were now in a catatonic state with a big round hole in the area around their hearts. The girl then went for Mendeleiev’s class where she last saw Ulrich but noticed everyone was already evacuated, she gritted her teeth and screamed. “Ulrich! Show yourself! I know you’re still here.”

Everyone was running waiting for Ladybug and Chat Noir to come to their rescue, minutes later Chat Noir came in hitting the akuma pushing her back a few meters. “You took stealing hearts to a whole new level.”

“Chat Noir, you finally made it. How we cut to the chase and give me your miraculous.”

“Or we could have a heart-to-heart discussion and resolve this peacefully.” Just as he finished his sentence he saw a spear thrown his was and dodged it with minimal movement with his head. “Or not.”

Chat Noir engaged with his baton against HeartSeeker, the two exchanged blows with their weapons, minutes passed and it was clear the akuma was too strong for one hero. Ulrich was watching the whole thing while staying hidden. Come on, where is Ladybug and the others? Hurry up, Chat Noir won’t take this much longer.

Heartseeker just now kicked Chat Noir to the ground and was ready to impale him when she heard someone shouting. “Sabrina! it’s me you want, so come and get me.” The akuma turned to him and her eyes set on killing him, she ran after the boy across the school. Less than a minute later Heartseeker Threw a spear into the ground in front of him and made tumble, she then pinned him on the ground with her spear ready to impale him. “This is for breaking my heart.”

The akuma raised her spear ready to strike and the boy moved his hands to guard his face when a mass of black smoke came from nowhere and took Ulrich with it. The smoke took the form of a boy and said. “I got it from here.”

“Who are you?” Asked Heartseeker while pointing toward him with her spear.

“Project : Smoker, here to save the day.” The new hero had a mostly black suit with red outlines. He didn’t hold any weapon but had an armguard on his left arm.

A purple mask appeared on Heartseeker. “Careful we don’t know the extent of his powers.”

“Well I know one hit from my spears and he's gone.”

Smoker looked around him. “Jeez, and they call me ‘Le bourreau des coeurs’.”[french for heartbreaker, french dub nickname of William]

The akuma ignored the comment and began to throw spears at the new project, Smoker on the other hand kept dodging each one and tried to get closer to the akuma. “I’ll have you know, I’m pretty hard to get.”

“I swear, If I hear another goddamn pun.”

“You'll rip my heart apart?” said Smoker with a smug face. The akuma looked furious and jumped at him and changed to close quarters combat. She swung her spear at Smoker and the latter kept dodging.

Chat Noir stood back up and jumped to help the new ally. The two tried to contain the akuma as much as they could, between dodging, blocking and getting civilians out of the way. “What’s taking your partner so long Chat Noir?”

“She’s probably trying to sneak away from wherever she is. we have to hold on for now.”

The three kept fighting for a few extra minutes when Ladybug came into view, Smoker didn't waste time, turned into smoke, came behind Heartseeker and kicked her toward Chat Noir. “She’s yours.”

The cat themed hero caught the akuma and snatched her glasses before breaking them hoping it was the akumatized object, and sure enough a butterfly got released is flying away. “Ladybug!”

“I got it!” Ladybug caught the akuma and cast her miraculous ladybug to revert all the damage caused. Smoker and Chat Noir high fived each other while Ladybug said. “Sorry, I got held back and couldn’t get away.”

“figures, Don’t worry me and the new guy got it.”

“Project : Smoker, happy to help you guys.”

“I see you made a new friend.”

“You bet I did, and get this, he makes puns.”

“Oh hell no!”

Smoker replied. “Oh hell yes! If you hate my puns you’re gonna hate the new guy even more. Let’s just say he’s more of his kind.” While looking toward Chat Noir.

Chat Noir beamed, realizing the meaning of Smoker’s word. “Does that mean what I think it is?”

“Sorry, can’t spoil too much. See you guys later. HQ you can recall me.”

Chloe came running toward Sabrina, she stopped at her feet breathing heavily for air. “Sabrina, are you okay?”

The girl in question got up and hugged her friend, tears began to fall again. “I’m sorry I got akumatized, I must have hurt you.”

Chloe hugged her back and said. “It’s alright, we’re both okay. Do you want to take the day off?” The crying girl nodded “Alright, I will have my driver ready. Go wash your face for now.”

Chloe noticed the boy walking toward her. “Hey, can I talk to you for a second?” Chloe nodded. ”I don’t know who told your friend I’m single but I'm not. Was it Nino?”

“No, it was Rossi, I asked Lahiffe and he did say you were taken.”

“Tell me where Rossi is, I need to have a talk with her.”

“Alright, follow me.”

Marinette came to her class room after de-transofming and she noticed there was something happening.

Ulrich asked. “you’re the one who told Sabrina I don’t have a girlfriend.”

The girl answered. “Why yes, is there a problem?”

“Yes, I have a girlfriend and because of you Sabrina asked me out and I had to reject her, she was embarrassed and she got akumatized.”

Alya tried to calm everyone down “Hold on, it’s not her fault she was akumatized.”

Ulrich replied. “Your friend admitted.”

Lila began to cry. “I’m so sorry, I must have misheard, I just wanted to encourage Sabrina.”

“If you didn’t hear clearly you could have asked again, and don’t go around spreading information you have ‘misheard’.”

Kim came between the two. “Come on man, give her some space, she’s already crying and feeling bad about it.”

Chloe came forward to argue. “Sabrina is also crying and feeling bad about the whole situation when she shouldn’t be.”

Ulrich continued. “Point is, don’t go around spreading false information, misheard or not.”

Ivan came to Ulrich and grabbed his shoulder and tried to play peacemaker. “Come on Ulrich, everyone is already feeling bad about it, no need to increase the tension. we already had one akuma attack, we don't need another.”

Ulrich seemed to accept the resonning. “Right. See you later guys.” He turned toward the blonde girl. “Tell her I’m really sorry. she probably doesn't wanna see my face now.”

Chloe looked at him cautiously. “Fine.”

In the middle of all this nobody noticed Marinette dragged Adrien somewhere else with a furious look on her face.

“Listen Adrien, I’m done with the high road, Lila’s lies have gone too far.”

“Come on marinette, it was just a misunderstanding.”

“It was a lie, you know she is a liar, she hates the new guy because he got more popular than her in the few weeks he has been here. she encouraged Sabrina to ask him out just so he would like the bad guy who rejected a girl and made her cry.”

“You don’t real-”

“You said, as long as her lies aren’t hurting anyone it’s ok. But now one of her lies hurt Sabrina, Chloe, Ulrich and all the victims of Heartseeker.”

Adrien doesn’t like conflict and would rather avoid it as much as possible but Marinette was right. If we expose her, she gets akumatized, if we let her be she would lie again and someone else would be akumatized. exposing her would make only one akuma and then everyone would be freed from her. He sighed in resignation. “Fine, I’m in.”

Marinette nodded. “Good, First we gather as much evidence as we can then we see how to proceed with it.”

Later that day Marinette received a call from “Chloe?” She accepted the call “Hi Chloe.”

“Whatever you are planning to do with Rossi, I’m in.”

“What?”

“I know you hate her guts and are probably planning to do something about her lies, so I’m in.”

“I mean sure, but why?”

“She hurt Sabrina. that is unacceptable, utterly unacceptable.”

“Okay, I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”

“Good, and add Stern and Lahiffe too since they know she lied.”

“I can add Ulrich but not Nino, he can’t keep secrets from his girlfriend and she will report it back to Lila.”

“Whatever, see you tomorrow.”

“See you tomorrow.” Marinette looked at her phone then at Tikki. “Well that was something.”

Back in the Lyoko groupchat.

William : “Ulrich next time you akumatize someone, call us beforehand so we let your girlfriend save your ass.”

Odd : “at least let me and Aelita make our debut before you do that.”

Aelita : ”What they are saying is, don’t go causing akumatization Ulrich.”

Ulrich : “That was not my fault, this lila girl told her friend Sabrina I was single and she tried to ask me out and was heart broken then akumatized afterwards.”

Yumi : “Wow, she’s just like Sisi, poor Sabrina.”

Ulrich : “Yeah. Hey Einstein, can I kill her then you guys use the return to the past so nothing happens?”

Jeremie : “No.”

Ulrich : “You’re such a killjoy.”

Jeremie : “I’m more of a Cypher main.”

Chapter Text

It was Tuesday morning and Sabrina was getting ready to go to school. “Are you sure you don’t want a day off?” Asked her father worryingly.

The girl forced a smile and replied. “I’m okay dad, I can’t skip too much school.”

“Alright. If you need anything just call me.” Said her father before kissing her on the forehead.

Sabrina walked to the classroom where she saw Chloe already seated there. “Good morning Chloe.”

“Good morning Sabrina, How are you holding up?”

“I’m better, thanks for yesterday.” Said Sabrina as she sat down in her seat and noticed the object in her table. “Marinette’s after akuma pastry?”

“Actually that’s mine. Dupain-Cheng is late as usual.”

“Oh, thanks…again.”

“Don’t mention it.”

Soon after came in Lila. “Good morning Sabrina, I’m so sorry for what happened yesterday.”

Sabrina pursed her lips then answered. “Good morning, look even if it was a mistake I’m still hurt. Can you leave me alone for the day?”

Lila gave her an innocent smile, no hints of malice in her face. “Of course.” She then waved at her and walked away. Even if? What does she mean by ‘even if’? Her facade began to crack as she reached her seat but no one was close enough to see it.

Alya came in moments later and noticed the awkward silence in the classroom. “Hey Lila, how are you doing?”

“Morning Alya, I’m doing okay thanks.”

“Have you apologized to Sabrina?”

Lila fought the urge to argue. She is not entitled to an apology. “Yes, but Sabrina wanted some space and I’m respecting her wishes.” She finished her sentence with a concerned face.

Alya smiled at her. “Good job with that. That’s the best thing we can do right now.”

Marinette came in running and entered the classroom trying to catch her breath. “Good morning everyone.” Some returned the greeting, others simply waved at her while some were busy with something else.

“Good morning girl, you made it barely in time today.” Said Alya as she gave her a thumbs up.

Marinette returned the gesture and said. “I know right, quite the miracle.” She then moves to Sabrina’s seat. “Good morning Sabrina, here’s some cookies for you. Nothing like chocolate to mend a broken heart.” She then noticed something on her table. “Oh, I see someone else beat me to it.”

“Yes, Chloe had the same Idea. Not sure if this much chocolate and sugar is healthy for me though.”

“Nah, you’ll be fine.” Said Marinette then turned toward Chloe with Smile in her face.

Chloe didn’t understand what was going on and asked. “What?”

Marinette kept her smile and replied. “Being nice looks good on you, you should be like that more often, people will like you better that way.”

“Whatever.” Scoffed Chloe and returned to scrolling on her phone while Marinette moved to her seat.

Mendeleiev has called for the Stern parents to have word with them concerning the recent events. “Good morning Mr. Mrs Stern, please take a seat.”

The two adults walked toward the seats, took their places and placed their bags beside them. “Hello Mrs Mendeleiev, so what is this meeting about? You were pretty vague about it on the phone.”

“Why yes I thought it would be best to discuss this face to face, you see your kid Ulrich has recently been akumatized.” Both parents frowned at the reminder of that event. “And from what I understand it had to do with his score on the last exam. Is that right?”

The father pursed his lips and answered. “Yes, we had a fight when I learned the score he had was… unsatisfactory.”

“Right, so this is what we are addressing today, Ulrich seemed quite happy with the results he had, although I myself also find a score like this unsatisfactory. I did check his previous records since he was a transfer student and I believe he’s improving.” The father leaned forward and tried to say something only for the teacher to continue her point. “I understand that sometimes parents tend to have high expectations of their kids, but that can cause them things like stress and anxiety, something we should try to avoid considering the situation in Paris right now.”

Both parents looked ashamed remembering the akumatization of their son. The teacher observed their behaviour and continued. “We have a test tomorrow, results the day after. Just don’t give a hard time about it. Slow and steady wins the race right?”

Both parents nodded and thanked the teacher then took their leave.

The members of the fencing club were changing in the locker room when Adrien approached Ulrich. “Hey Ulrich, can I talk to you real quick?” While pointing to a more private location.

“Sure.”

Ulrich followed and when no one was near to hear them Adrien said. “Look I wanted to tell you that Lila is a liar and you should be careful around her.”

“I figured something was up with her but why are you warning me? Sabrina was the one hurt from this.”

“She has it against you because you become quite popular in the amount of time you’ve been here. She hates being ignored, we are planning to expose her. What we need from you is just to tell us anything she said to you or your classmates, we’re gathering evidence against her to get her punished for what she has done.”

“Why don’t you just tell everyone that she is lying.”

Arien sighed. “She tells good stories so everyone likes to believe in the good in her, one of my classmates already tried that but she was not taken seriously because the others thought she was jealous of her, one of them even wanted proof that she was lying. That’s why we are doing this.”

“Alright I will help anyway I can. Who’s in this ‘secret mission’?”

“Chloe the blonde from Yesterday and Marinette: blue hair, pigtails you probably saw her.”

“You mean the pastry girl?”

“Yeah, that one.”

“Alright. Anyway, I still didn’t get the chance to spar with you. you in?”

Adrien smirked with confidence. “You bet.”

In the evening after school Marinette and Adrien heard the akuma alert and quickly changed to their alter-egos and headed for the location. Ladybug arrived first and observed the situation while waiting for Chat Noir.

The cat hero joined. “Hello m’lady, so what do we have?”

“She calls herself Puppetmaster, she can create wood puppets to do her bidding, no idea where the akuma object is right now.”

Chat Noir took a look at the akuma, the woman seemed to have a wooden themed suit, from her back grew strings that floated in the air giving an impression of wings, the strings became invisible and probably intangible ony to reappear on the human-sized faceless puppet minions she created.

The two heroes jumped on the akuma, unfortunately for them, the akuma noticed them and lined up some of her puppets to form a line to shield her. Ladybug and Chat Noir destroyed the ‘shield’ using their weapons and broke through but the akuma took her distance to create even more minions.

Minutes passed and the akuma was able to keep the heroes from getting any closer, with her army growing faster than the heroes could take them out. A mask appeared over the akuma. “Good work so far, it won’t long until Ladybug will use her charm to try to turn the tables.” Puppetmaster kept doing its thing when she noticed A figure jumping on her, in a split second the akuma formed another line to shield her and took her distance. “ Who was that?” Asked Hawkmoth using his psychic connection.

“Name’s Project : Purple Cat.” Said the newcomer who wore a mostly purple suit that included a real tail or at the very least more real looking than Chat Noir’s, big furry claws for hands and cat ears above his blonde hair with purple streaks.

The new hero joined Ladybug and Chat Noir after Puppetmaster was adamant on keeping her distance. “That’s quite the tangled mess you got yourself into.” Chat Noir smiled at him while they kept defeating minions one after the other. “Real quick, since you’re destroying these minions, can I take it’s okay to go a bit wild and destroy them.”

“You have the green light.” Said Ladybug.

Purple cat nodded and raised one of his arms looking like he was aiming, a bolt of energy was shot from his hand hitting one the minions, destroying the head part while the rest simply fell. “Alright.” No collateral damage or extra explosions. After asserting the information Purple Cat head shotted several others in quick succession. “I’ll clear a path and you go in.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir nodded and went head on for Puppetmaster, the akuma formed another line to defined herself but Purple cat shot some of the puppets, the rest tried to cover as much as they can but Chat Noir cataclysmed one of them and used his staff to swat others and clear a path for Ladybug to go in. Ladybug didn’t take long to defeat the akuma who clearly wasn’t well-versed in hand-to-hand combat and soon took the small puppet she was hiding from them and broke it releasing the butterfly.

One miraculous ladybug later the trio gathered for a “Pound it!” Ladybug went to comfort the victim while Chat Noir said. “Good job out there, brother.” with a big smile on his face. “That was some mad accuracy out there.”

“Some might say it was spot on.” Said Purple Cat with a grin on his face.

“Damn! Why didn’t I think of that one. So I was wondering how many of you are there?”

“Four, and yes I’m the best.” Said Purple cat while flexing his biceps.

“Sure.” Chat Noir looked unconvinced.

“What? You don’t believe me, have you seen my performance today?”

“I did, but the others were holding back when they were fighting akumas, and you sure brag a lot for defeating a bunch of practice dummies.”

“You seemed to be struggling a lot against those dummies last I checked.”

“We were handling it. We would have defeated her anyway, you just spared us a few minutes.”

Now it was Purple Cat’s turn to look unconvinced. “Sure.”

After making sure the lady was safe Ladybug came in and said. “So Chat Noir, I see you found your long lost brother.”

Before Chat Noir said anything Purple Cat said. “Why hello there, princess.” finishing his sentence with a wink.

Chat Noir’s head quickly turned at the new development. “Whoa Whoa Whoa, it seems we need to set some rules here. First rule: Ladybug is mine.”

“Am not.”

“Well rules about to change cause there is a new Chat-riff in town and this town isn’t big for the two of us.”

“Oh, it’s on.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. Why did he have to be a cat? “I don’t need a cat fight right now and it seems there is a bit of misunderstanding here because alley cats are not my type.”

“Relax princess, I’m just messing with your boyfriend.”

“Not my boyfriend.”

“Yet.”

Ladybug glared at Chat Noir for a moment before continuing. “On a more serious note, do you have a minute to talk? I wanted to ask you a few questions.” Purple Cat nodded and Ladybug asked. “So first off, how many of you are there?”

Chat Noir cut in. “Four with him being self-proclaimed best.”

“Still true though.”

“Okay, what can the fourth one do?”

“Nah ah ah, can’t spoil her debut.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes. “Fine. How do you guys choose who to send for each akuma?”

“So far we are just testing the waters one at a time, I just won rock-paper-scissors to go instead of her today.”

“Really?!” Both Ladybug and Chat Noir looked surprised at how casual their process was.

“Yeah, but we also have a list of akuma studied and who we should send in each case. Of course that would happen only for recurring akuma. When a new akuma appears we’re in the dark as much as you are.”

“That’s… reassuring. Anything else you wanna add?”

“If you really want to know our powers, Kunoichi has telekinesis, Smoker can create a two handed sword but we don’t want him to slice people in half and I have a small energy shield. you’re gonna have to wait to see the last one.”

“Thanks, this will help us a lot in the future.” Chat Noir’ miraculous began to beep, signaling the heroes to leave the place. Ladybug and Chat Noir jumped away while Purple Cat disappeared in thin air.

Ladybug met Chat Noir in the evening an hour after the akuma attack. “Good evening Chat Noir.”

“Good evening, so what’s this meeting about?”

“I needed your opinion on the new heroes.”

“I think they’re pretty good, they are quite skilled in combat. Aside from that they seem likable. Is something wrong?”

“Me? no, however apparently the guardian had a history with top secret organizations and government agencies that didn’t end well so he is very skeptical about them.”

“Oh, can’t say I relate but I guess he’s just cautious with the miraculouses.”

“Right, I thought the same, he also doesn’t like how well trained or skilled they are in combat. He thinks they may one day turn on us and get the miraculouses for themselves.”

“So we gotta be more careful then?” To which Ladybug nodded. “Alright but I still think they are good, they shared some of their knowledge and powers. Since we’re on the topic of heroes, I wanted to ask you what you are going to do with the temporaries.”

“I was thinking we will bench them for now, that way we get to see more of the projects and learn how to work together with them, however seeing they are mostly combat focused and akumas can be tricky sometimes and we do need some powers like the mirage or shelter or venom. You must be happy it becomes just the two right?”

“Well I’m not gonna deny that but I actually had a suggestion for a new hero.”

Ladybug looked surprised at the change of mind and wondered who this hero was. “Who is it?”

“Ulrich Stern, he already helped us twice and he seemed brave and was able to make good” Although dangerous. ”decisions on the spot.”

Ladybug thought about it for a moment. “You’re right, he definitely fits the profile of what we need in a teammate. I will consider it when the time comes, but for now we stick to learning more about our allies.” Chat Noir nodded and Ladybug continued. “Well it’s getting pretty late and I need to go. Bug out.” Ladybug swung away using her yo-yo and Chat Noir jumped away in a different direction.

Ulrich entered his home and made his presence known. ”I’m home.”

His mother greeted him and asked. “How was school today?”

“It was good.”

“Great, your father wanted to talk with you.” She saw him step back and his face frown a bit. “Don’t worry, it’s something good this time.”

Ulrich moved to the room where his father was still working on his Laptop. “You wanted to see me?”

“Ulrich, I…I talked with your teacher and she made me realize a few things about your situation. I’m sorry if I gave you a hard time over the last few days.”

“Oh, emm… thanks.”

“She also told us that you were improving… just slower than what we were expecting. I am willing to let that slide but I still expect improvement by the end of terms.”

“Got it.” Ulrich began to go outside when his father called him, his hand extending trying to reach him.

“I’m sorry you got akumatized.” He averted his gaze. “I never meant for this to happen.”

“It’s ok, people have been understanding of the situation, it even helped me fit better. I don’t hold it against you.”

Later that day in the Lyoko group chat.

Odd : “Hey Ulrich, have you seen my debut? I’m quite the hot topic now, right?”

Ulrich : “What, you want me to flirt with you or something?”

Aelita : “I would like to see that.”

Yumi : “Take it elsewhere please.”

Chapter Text

Nino came to the classroom a few minutes before classes started where he found some of his friends were already there. “Hey dudes, what’s up?”

Alya turned around to see her boyfriend and said. “Hey, me and Adrien were talking about the new cat hero.”

Nino replied. “Oh I saw the footage yesterday, that guy seemed strong.”

Adrien argued. “I mean not as strong as Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

Nino said. “Yeah, no one is stronger than those two. We would be toast without them.” Adrien smiled and nodded at him approvingly while Nino remembered something else. “Hey Alya, are you free after school? we could go see the movies.”

Alya winced. “I’m sorry Nino, I can’t . I have an interview with Ladybug after school and she told me to make myself free in the evening.” Nino frowned and lowered his shoulders, alya noticing the change in the mood put her hand on his shoulder. “Hey don’t worry too much about it, we could go another day, okay?” Nino smiled back at her and nodded. The students took their seat when they noticed their teacher coming in.

A couple hours later in another class. “Time’s up, pencils down.” Said Mendeleiev announcing the end of the math test, students had varied reactions from sighs of relief to planting their heads on their desks.

Ulrich leaned back on his chair and sighed. jean was sitting next him asked “Is that a good or bad sigh?”

“Definitely a good one.” That went better than I thought. He remembered Mirreille’s instructions and he stood up and walked in her direction. “Hey.”

Mireille who was sitting next to Aurore turned around and replied. “Hey, so how did you do?”

Ulrich gave her a thumbs up. “Better than if I studied alone. Thanks I owe you one.”

Aurore smirked and said. “Well you could ask her on a date.” Just as she finished her sentence she was elbowed by her friend. “Ow! What was that for?”

“You know he has a girlfriend.”

“And I would rather not cause another akuma. Anyway, Thanks again and I will see you next class.”

While Ulrich was walking on the school grounds he was greeted by Nino. “What’s up dude?”

“I think I just nailed today’s test.”

“Noice. Anyway, are you free after school?”

“Yeah, why?”

“I wanted to try some beats with Aelita and wanted you to tell us your opinion. Does my home at 6PM work for you?”

“Yeah, see you later.”

“Later dude.”

Later that day Ulrich was now at the door of Nino’s house, he rang the bell waiting for his friend to come get him. “Yo dude, come in. Mom! I’m having a friend to work on something, it will probably take a while.”

“Okay, have fun and call me if you need snacks or anything.”

The boys moved to Nino’s room. “Make yourself comfortable.”

“Thanks.” Ulrich took a look at the room. It was… Very Nino-like, from music instruments to posters to collection of DVDs and blurays of movies and a bit of mess here and there. It was definitely what you would expect from someone like him.

“Alright, let's see if she is ready for a video call.” Said Nino as he typed a message for Aelita. A response was quickly sent confirming she was available. Nino hit the call button and moments later a new window appeared revealing Aelita on the other side.

Aelita greeted the boys. “Hello, can you guys hear me?”

“Crystal clear.”

“Good, so how was your day?”

“Boring.” Replied Nino.

“I had a test but it went well, and my parents have toned down their expectations after my teacher had a talk with them. So very unlikely I will turn into an akuma again.”

“That’s a relief, can you guys wait a bit. William is on his way.”

“Who’s William?”

“Our friend, he’s also into music. He would be a good judge.”

“What about Odd? I would have thought he would come.”

“Well unlike you, he has been slacking off with his studies. He’s studying with Jeremie right now.”

“Typical.”

A knock was heard from Aelita’s door, she stood up to answer to find William on the other side. “Hope I’m not too late.”

“Not too much. come in, the boys are here.”

“Hey, how is it going? You’re Nino right?”

“That’s me.” Said Nino happily. “And you must be William, ready to have your ears and mind blown?”

“Show me what you got.”

After that the group began to focus on their little project, Nino and Aelita would play some tracks while Ulrich and William gave them some feedback, from time to time the group would disagree on some points, Ulrich and William would glare at each other every time they did but quickly let it go since this was not between them.

Meanwhile Ladybug jumped from rooftop to rooftop and landed on Alya’s balcony, she knocked a few times and the young reporter turned to see her idol. Her face beamed, she stood up and walked toward the door. “Come in, Oh my god! I can’t believe Ladybug is in my house… aside from akumas.”

“It’s good to see you too, how’s my favorite blogger doing?”

“I’m great especially now that you’re here.”

“Okay so back to business, I’m going to give an interview to post in your blog then we’re gonna have an off record discussion, that means you keep this to yourself. got it?”

Alya nodded enthusiastically. “Got it.”

Alya began to record as she started to tell how her fight was going and how the new allies are helping her a lot and that with this new help their victory against Hawkmoth may be closer than ever. Alya asked her a few questions about the new heroes, how was their chemistry, what did she think about them and most importantly: was there some couples or romantic them and the new heroes or between themselves. Ladybug answered her question without revealing too much and reprimanded Alya a little about the last question. The next part of the interview includes how to avoid attracting akumas with exercises like meditation and what to do when you’re facing an akuma.

After finishing Alya stopped the recording and Ladybug said. “This is the off record part, since it involves you and Rena Rouge.” Alya straightened her posture as she felt the conversation was going to be more serious now. “I wanted to tell you that the temporary heroes are benched,” Alya gasped and wanted to say something but was stopped by Ladybug raising her hand. “This is not because you were weak or anything, I am adapting to the projects and their fighting styles. They have a very strong advantage: they can afford to lose, I cannot afford to do that and I should not put others into such a position by giving them miraculouses. Of course, I could always use specific powers like mirage or venom but that still depends on the last project, if the last one has illusion based powers there is a chance Rena Rouge will be benched. You can share this with Nino since this concerns him too.”

“I… Understand. Thank you for sharing this with me Ladybug.” Alya lowered her head and fought the urge to let her tears fall.

Ladybug approached the girl and patted her shoulder. “Don’t look so down, I could need your help any moment.” Alya nodded and Ladybug moved to the balcony and jumped away.

To say Alya was dejected was an understatement, she looked at her phone, the interview was over sooner than she thought and she didn’t know what to do with her time. She then remembered Nino and his date plan. Maybe we could still hit the movies. Alya searched for Nino’s number and called him. “Hey Nino, So I finished sooner than expected. Is it still a good time for movie night?”

Nino replied. “Oh I’m sorry Alya, after you told me you were not available I changed plans and I’m kinda busy right now.”

“Oh okay, sorry it was a bit last minute on my part. Maybe another time.”

“Of course. Goodbye, love you.”

“Love you too.” Alya ended the call, feeling empty and with nothing else to do she decided to hit the couch and watch whatever was on TV.

Meanwhile Nino was feeling a bit guilty about the whole thing. “Do you think I should have kept my schedule free for her?”

Ulrich answered him. “Hard for me to say, I don’t know much about Alya. You could however make it up to her with a gift or something. What do you guys think?”

Aelita on the screen wondered for a bit and answered. “She’s the reporter girl, right? Maybe you can buy her a mic if that’s within your budget.”

“Or a necklace, that usually works.” Suggested William.

“A necklace could work.” Alya already have necklace but she is not a permanent hero which mean she does not wear all the time.

The little group finished their session a little over an hour later, everyone returned to their homes/dorms while Nino still felt a bit guilty about what happened with Alya.

Chapter Text

Alya walked toward without paying attention to anyone or anything, Ladybug’s discussion still on her mind. When she entered the classroom she was greeted by Lila. “Good morning alya.”

“Hey Lila, how is it going?”

“I’m good, how about you? How are the views of yesterday's interview?” She finished her sentence with a wink.

“It’s doing great. Did you ask Ladybug to do it for me?”

Lila giggled. “I may have influenced her a bit.”

“Thanks you’re the best.” Said Alya with a weak smile.

The answer came with less enthusiasm than what Lila expected. “Something wrong?”

“Oh it’s nothing, something unrelated.”

“Oh okay, I’m here if you need someone to talk to.”

“Did I tell you were the best?”

“Maybe, tell me one more time just to make sure.” Both chuckled a bit and went to their seats.

Nino came barely in time in the morning and Alya had to wait after the first period to talk to him privately. “So what’s up?”

“After The interview Ladybug told me something off the record that I can only share with you.” Alya had a serious look on her face and Nino figured something must have happened. He nodded and Alya looked around one more time to make sure there was no one and continued. “She told me the temporary heroes are benched for now, she wanna see how well she can work with the projects, and-” she bit her lips and continued. “She said if the last one has illusion powers she may bench me indefinitely. She did not say anything about the others but I think the same applies to the others miraculouses.”

“Oh.” Was the only thing Nino could say right now. The idea that he could no longer be a hero was slowly sinking in his brain. “It’s ok Alya, we will get through this.” Was the only answer he could say, he didn’t know how but they will.

The couple returned to the classroom looking a bit gloomy. Most of the class took notice including Lila. Interesting.

—-------------------------------------------------

Mendeleiev was distributing the papers of yesterday’s test to the class. She reached Ulrich. “Stern, C. Keep up the good work.”

Ulrich sighed in relief, that was good enough for. His classmates also felt relieved and Ulrich gave them a thumbs up to tell them it was okay now.

When he returned home, he told his parents about his score. They both accepted it with no extra comments and that was fine by him. It was a good start.

—-------------------------------------------------

Saturday morning Marinette was helping her parents in the bakery, staying at the counter with the client when a family of four Asian looking people entered the bakery. Marinette didn't pay much attention until she heard one of them say. “What does Ulrich like again?”

Marinette turned to see the family and asked “Ulrich Stern?”

The family was surprised that this girl knew Ulrich, the tall girl then went and said “Yes him. How do you know him?”

“Oh, some of my friends know him and he is a bit popular in our school. I’m Marinette by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Marinette, I’m Yumi. Say do you happen to know where he is? We wanted to visit him at his house but I kinda wanna surprise him now.”

“Oh yeah, he is at the park just outside, my friends just won second place in a music competition and they are celebrating over a picnic.”

“Thanks. Mom, dad, Hiroki and I are going to the park.”

“Ok just be careful and watch your brother. Tell Ulrich we said hi.”

“Alright Hiroki, let’s go.”

Back in the park Kitty Section were celebrating their second place in competition, Alix began. “Congrats, you guys were amazing out there.”

Juleka replied. “Thanks, wish we got first place though.”

Her brother continued. “It’s okay, we’re still relatively new and those Quantic Kids were also good.”

Ivan followed. “And second place is still a big deal too.”

Kim smirked. “I would have gotten first place though.” only to be elbowed by Alix. “Hey, I was joking. that hurt.”

The group were discussing various topics and enjoying their food when a sudden voice came in. “Mind if we crash the party?”

Everyone turned around the source of voice when Ulrich spoke first. “Yumi? Hiroki? What are you doing here?”

“We came to visit of course, we would have come last week but dad was busy. Care to introduce us.”

“Right, guys this is my girlfriend Yumi and her brother Hiroki. and these are my new friends from school, some of whom are in a music group Kitty Section.”

“Wait, how did you know Ulrich was here?” Asked Luka.

“We were at the bakery when Marinette told us you were here. Here's some pastries from her, she sends her congratulations.” After giving the bag of treats to one of the girls she and her brother sat down and asked. “So how are you doing lately?”

“Pretty good, better now that you’re here.” While looking fondly at his girlfriend.

Hiroki interjected. “I'm also here you know.”

Ulrich then pulled him to his side and ruffled his hair. “Of course you are, how can I forget my favorite little brother.”

Rose leaned and whispered to Juleka. “They look so cute together.”

Hiroki pulled back and fixed his hair then asked. “So how did you guys become friends?”

Nino replied first. “He asked me for directions on the first day at school and we hit off from there.”

“Oh you’re that Nino guy, the one working with a music project with Aelita.”

Alya narrowed her eyes. How much time are they spending together that even their friends know about it. I’m his girlfriend and I don’t even know much about it.

“The one and only.”

“How about you guys?”

Rose replied enthusiastically. “He saved Juleka when she akumatized. Then I introduced him to our group.”

Hiroki frowned. Wait a minute, isn’t that the Reflekta girl? How did he … A realization came to him, he gasped heavily and shouted. “You’re that blurred guy who helped Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

Ulrich smirked. “Sure am.”

Hiroki then turned toward his sister “You heard that sis? He helped Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“I knew that.”

Hiroki looked betrayed. “And you didn't tell me?!”

“Even got an autograph from chat noir.”

“What?! Why does nobody tell me anything? What about Ladybug?”

“Sorry, don’t have one.”

“Oh come on, you know I love Ladybug. Can you get hers next time?“

“I would rather not have a next time, especially since Ladybug only shows up on akuma fights.”

Hiroki felt a bit guilty. “Sorry, didn’t mean that. Is that how you become popular in school? That girl Marinette said something like that.”

“Actually I became popular after I joined the fencing club.”

Ivan continued. “Yeah we heard you held your own against Kagami which is impressive.”

Yumi questioned “Kagami?” and then came a realization “Ah the Krab girl.”

Everyone looked confused Crab girl? Since when was the fierce fencer, heiress to the Tsurugi family and the ice queen considered a crab girl?

Nino was the first to ask. “What’s this about Kagami being a crab girl?”

Ulrich answered “It’s an inside joke. it’s a compliment though.”

Hiroki interjected. “How come I don’t get it.”

His sister answered him. “Because you’re not inside.”

Kim got curious. “Can we at least know what it means?.”

Ulrich looked at Yumi and smirked, then turned back and said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

To which Yumi bursted out laughing while Hiroki said “Ok that one I get it, but I will get you to tell me the joke later.”

Ulrich snorted. “sure you will, little guy.”

after catching her breath Yumi said. “Sorry if we took too much of your attention guys.”

Luka reassured her. “Don’t worry about it, you guys are welcome anytime.”

Rose continued. “and you are so cute together!”

Nino followed. “Plus I’ve never seen Ulrich this happy since he came to Francois Dupont.”

Yumi blushed a bit at this. “Tell you what, to make it up to you guys, we’re going to get ice creams, on Ulrich.”

Ulrich was taken back by the last statement but grinned and said. “I will get you back for that.”

“Sure you will, little guy.” Replied Yumi and high-fived her brother.

the group went to buy ice cream from a local store, Unfortunately for them they were spotted by a certain ice cream guy who didn’t seem to like when couples(Ulrich/Yumi, Rose/Juleka, Alya/Nino and Ivan/Mylene) got ice creams that was not his. Of course that in itself would not be a problem if it didn't get the attention of the local super villain.

Everyone was enjoying their ice creams when they suddenly heard. “There you are, how dare you buy ice cream from a shop that is not mine!”*

“Is he serious right now?” Asked Yumi in disbelief.

“He can get a bit emotional and people have been akumatized for less.” Answered Nino sheepishly.

Ulrich turned toward Yumi and Hiroki. “Come on, let’s get out of here, Ladybug and Chat Noir will be here soon. Everyone split up!”

the couples dispersed so the Glaciator can’t get them all. Glaciator began to follow Ivan and Mylene who he thought were his best customers among the four couples.

Hiroki asked. “What do we do now?”

Ulrich answered. “Nothing, this is not our fight. we stay hidden and let the heroes deal with this.”

Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived at the scene to fight off Glaciator, but the akuma seemed hellbent on freezing everyone in his way, couple or not.

“What do we do m’lady? We can’t fight him and defend the civilians at the same time?”

“You’re right, cover me I will get help.” As she was about to jump away, Glaciator sent a volley of ice cream balls in their directions, even if ladybug and chat noir dodged them the ice cream would still hit the crowd behind them.

The projectiles were closing in when they heard “Force field.” An energy barrier was created in front of the heroes and they looked at the source above their heads. A young feminine angel-like human was floating in the air, she had a pink suit with bright pink energy wings and long blonde hair with pink tips. “Project : Angel, at your service. What’s the plan?”

Ladybug decided to stay now that they got the civilians covered. “Keep using those barriers while we try to de-akumatize him. Chat Noir Follow me.”

“Got it/Right behind you.” answered the angel and the cat respectively.

Ladybug then called out. “Lucky charm!” moments later a tennis net came down.

“Surprisingly simple this time. Ready when you are.” Ladybug nodded and gave him one end of the net.

The two ran toward the akuma then jumped and passed the net through Glaciator, Andre came out of it while the giant crumbled into a pile of soon to be melted ice cream.

Ladybug and Chat Noir made their pound it when the angel came down and ‘turned off’ her wings. “Ladybug and Chat Noir, nice to finally meet you. I'm Project: Angel, the last akuma fighter.”

“Thanks for your help again, your assistance this past few days has been greatly appreciated.”

“You’re welcome. I believe you wanted a rundown of my powers last time.”

“Yes, that would really help me know how we can work together..”

“My power is the force field, it can be used defensively as a barrier or offensively as an energy blast. I refrain from using the latter against regular akumas. I also can ‘communicate’ with electronic devices, not sure you’re gonna need the last one.”

“Good, the only thing left now is a miraculous ladybug!” As she finished, the swarm ladybug covered the city and repaired everything back to its original state. “Thanks again for your help.”

“My pleasure, HQ, you can recall me now.” the angel smiled and waved at the heroes before disappearing.

Ladybug and Chat Noir to the rooftops where the latter started. “So, I guess that’s all of them.”

“Yeah.” Said Ladybug, pensive look in her eyes.

“Something wrong?”

“With someone like her Carapace would be benched for a while.”

“Right, you trusted him that much?”

“I wouldn’t give any of them a miraculous if I didn’t trust them. Expect the others to come back, we will see how we can manage our teamwork.”

“Of course.” Ladybug’s timer beeped again and Chat Noir said. “I guess your time is up. See you later.” Both heroes jumped each in their own direction.

After the fight the group of friends reunited. Kim began. “That was wild.”

Ivan, who was still panting from how much he ran away, continued. “Yeah, being chased by an akuma is not fun at all.”

Mylene said. “Thank god for that angel girl, if it was not for her barrier we would be popsicles right now.”

Nino turned toward Ulrich and the Ishiyamas. “Sorry, your first time here ended up in an akuma attack.”

Yumi reassured him. “Don’t worry about it, it was a good day anyway, and Hiroki kinda wanted to see and akuma fight in real time and not behind a screen.”

Hiroki replied. “Yes and I was hoping ladybug would save me and get her autograph but of course Yumi and Ulrich had to tAKe mE to sAfEty. And I was hoping for a cooler akuma like Guitar Villain or Darkblade.”

Nino teased. “I mean, you can’t get any cooler than Glaciator.” That got everyone except Hiroki to laugh.

A message notification came from Yumi's phone “That’s my parents. Ulrich, Dad and Mom want to see you and your parents before we go. Goodby guys, it was great knowing you all.” Yumi was about to go when she remembered something. “Wait, can I get your autographs? For my friends?”

“Oh sure, we gained fans guys, isn’t that great.” Said Rose happily.

Rose grabbed a piece of paper and Yumi said. “For Aelita and William.” She signed the paper then gave it to each member to do the same.

Alya frowned a bit. There was that name again, Aelita. The one Nino seems to spend more and more time with.

“Thanks, it was great knowing you all, goodbye.”

“Come visit again!” shouted Rose.

“will do.”

“See you guys at school.” said Ulrich before going with the other two.

The others soon went on their own, Nino walked with Alya to her home, the silence soon became awkward and then Nino said. “So, Project Angel huh? She didn’t have illusion powers. Guess Rena Rouge might come back sooner than we thought.”

“Thanks but how about you? you won’t be carapace again.”

“That sucks but I can live with that, plus I get to be saved by my amazing super girlfriend.”

Alya chuckled. “Thanks. Nino I-” Alya wanted to ask him about Aelita.

“What's the matter?”

“Never mind, maybe another time.” Alya felt tired, between the celebration the akuma and the last project there was a lot

“Okay? See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Chapter Text

Marinette was running late, again. That was not surprising, what was surprising to her at least was hearing screams from her class, it didn’t sound like akuma-run-away type of screaming but more regular teenage drama that will soon be an akuma, so she hurried to her class to see if she can prevent whatever is gonna happen. “What happened?!”

She found Nino and Alya screaming at each other while the others were either trying to play peacemaker or taking sides.

“Nino has been cheating on me with another girl!” Shouted alya with tears in her eyes.

“What?!” Nino? cheating?!

“I’m not cheating! Just because I talk to another girl who is into music doesn’t mean we’re dating.”

“you’re not spending time with me! you even changed our date to see her.”

“You’re the one who cancelled on our date! I even bought you a gift as an apology.”

“But you still went with her, on the same day even.”

“It was a video conference! And there were two other boys with us. All of us were working on the project I have been telling you about.”

Adrien tried to appease the situation. “Guys, come on I’m sure we can figure this out if we just-”

“So now your hobby is more important than me?”

“How about you? Is your hobby more important than me?”

“It’s different! I had an interview with Ladybug!”

“It’s the same to me, my hobby means to me as much as yours means to you. And if you can’t understand that then we're better off breaking up.”

Everyone gasped at Nino’s declaration and Alya stayed silent for a second before she ran away from the classroom, hands covering her crying face.

Marinette immediately followed her hoping to avoid what’s coming next. Unfortunately she saw the black butterfly heading toward her and before she could reach her Alya was already transformed.

Alya or Rocketear as she called herself threw tears from her hand that exploded upon contact, Marinette to reason with her. “Alya please stop, there is no point to this. Come on, it has to be a misunderstanding, Nino wouldn't cheat on you.”

“It doesn’t change the fact he broke up with me, now,” Rocketear prepared a tear in her hand ready to be thrown. “Move aside Marinette, you’re not my target.” Marinette then lowered her head and moved as instructed. “Good, and stay out of my way.”

As Soon as rocketear was out of sight Marinette searched for a place to hide and transform, seconds later she came back as Ladybug. Chat Noir followed soon after, Kunoichi came minutes later.

After purifying the akuma Ladybug excused herself to quickly return as Marinette to comfort her friend. She was joined by the rest of the class and the girls decided to have a girls night and maybe make Alya feel better.

—------------

Later that night, except Chloe, pretty much all the girls were there, including Lila and that didn’t sit well with Marinette. I don’t know what you’re doing but I will not let you. Marinette was sure Lila had something to do with the breakup, Marinette was late and didn’t know what happened but she saw how Lila was besides Alya during the fight, and usually a friend who is by your side is something admirable but that does not apply to that shoulder demon.

All night Lila would suggest unconventional, some might even toxic activities to do to make Alya feel bad like trash talking Nino and his passion project, however Marinette and Sabrina were quick to suggest something else and the rest of the girls went along with it. Marinette noticed they were agreeing more with her when Sabrina gave her input in the subject which hurt her pride a bit. Just because I didn’t experience a breakup or rejection doesn’t mean I don’t know what to do to help my friend. But at the very least she was glad she had an ally.

At some point Marlena, Alya’s mother entered her daughter’s room and asked. “Can one of you girls help me with the table?”

Marinette raised her hand to volunteer. “I can do it.”

Marlena happily said. “Great-”

“I can help too!” Said Lila eagerly.

A few minutes later as the girls were silently putting the silverware on the table, Lila said. “So you’re gonna just set the table and stay silent?”

“Considering I neither like your company nor your voice then yes.” Said Marinette without even raising her eyes from her task.

“I would watch my tone if I were you. I made Alya break up with Nino. I can easily make her break up with you.”

Marinette finally raised her head to face her and asked. “I don’t get it. What did even Nino do to you anyway?”

“He was doubting me, and following that new fencer boy way too much.”

“So what? You’re jealous of their bromance? Not only you don’t like competition in love but even in friendship?”

“It was never about love or friends, it's about having followers. That is why you will lose and be forgotten and I will win and be famous. See you later, loser.” Said Lila as she exited the living room while smirking.

Lila got out first and Marinette reached for the phone in her pocket and stopped the recording. Smirk while you still can, it’s not gonna last long.

After eating, the girls watched some sappy movies then said their goodbyes and went home. On her way there Marinette called Chloe. “Hey, How’s your progression on the Lila take down?”

“I just finished my part earlier today.”

“Good, look I’m gonna finish my part right now and send you the files. Tomorrow, first thing in the morning, you give it to the principal.”

“How long is it gonna take you to finish?”

“It doesn't matter, I'm not dealing with that bitch’s bullshit anymore.”

Chloe was taken back and looked at her phone, shocked by Marinette cursing. “Alright then, tomorrow morning it is.“

Marinette spent the next hours finishing organizing all the evidence she and the other were able to gather. She knew Lila was full of shit but this was a lot. How did even Ulrich get this many, he doesn't even interact with her! It was four in the morning when Marinette finished everything and sent them to Chloe. She immediately went to bed afterward.

That same morning Chloe entered the principal’s office dumping a impressive amount of papers, when the latter asked what is happening she explained the situation to him, at first he wanted to deal with this later but Chloe played her daddy card telling how her father won’t like it when he hears about a sociopath in her class. Damocles was now forced to go through the papers with her.

After the first period, Damocles had seen enough and went to Bustier’s class to fix this problem. “Hello class, I have been informed that Lila Rossi has been lying about various things in her stay, things that would get her in trouble. Miss Rossi Come with me, we have contacted your mother.”

“What! I’m not lying, this is all Marinette and Chloe’s fault!” Shouted Lila while the others watched in silence.

“Enough! I have evidence of a lot of your lies, we will discuss this and your punishment with your mother. Now come with me. The rest of you continue with your day.”

After the principal and Lila were out of earshot the class began to shout at Chloe. “What did you do Chloe?”

“I exposed her lies, that’s all there is to it. It was getting ridiculous and you guys have been eating her every word without checking anything. I also have all the evidence here.” As she pulled a flashdrive from her pocket. “You’re welcome to try to debunk me if you can.”

Nino was the first to speak. “She really was lying?”

“Yes.”

Rose then said in denial. “That’s not possible, she is so nice.”

“She only looked nice, she was acting, pretending, lying whatever word you wanna use, point is she is bitch and now she’s gone.”

“Why did you do it though? it’s not like you care about any of us. And don’t expect us to thank you.” Said Alix with a puzzled look on her face.

“I care only about Sabrina and I don’t need your thanks. If you wanna thank someone, thank Dupain-Cheng. Where is she anyway?”

“Oh my god! Marinette, I can’t believe we didn’t believe her.” Shouted Kim.

“She’s absent, her parents said she was tired.” Noted Max.

“Makes sense, she stayed late to finish putting the evidence together, maybe even all night.” The rest of the class felt guilty and ashamed that they didn’t believe their friend and that she even stayed late just to save them.

Minutes later the class heard screaming from the courtyard, the class looked outside where Lila was dragged by her mother, both of whom were shouting in a foreign language, most likely italian. Lila saw most of the school stopped what they were doing to see what the commotion was and she felt embarrassed, on top of being furious. All her hatred targeted toward Chloe who exposed her.

Soon a student screamed akuma and the class saw a purple butterfly fluttering toward Lila. Moments later a yoyo swung and captured the akuma, the students and teachers then saw Ladybug. “It’s okay I got it. I saw the butterfly and ran to try to catch it. Thankfully no one was akumatized. I can stay here for a few minutes to make sure you’re all okay.” Everyone simply nodded and Ladybug stayed on the roof waiting for any butterflies.

—------------

Later that day Alya dropped by the bakery where she asked Mrs. Cheng if she could see Marinette to apologize, the mother accepted but told to not stay long as Marinette was tired.

As soon as Alya saw Marinette she ran toward her and hugged her tightly. “I’m so sorry I didn’t believe you, I should have listened.” tried to say Alya in between all the hiccups and the crying.

Marinette rubbed the back of her friend. “It’s okay, I’m here, just let it out.”

Alya continued to cry and apologize for everytime she didn’t believe Marinette and promised to never do the same again.

—------------

Lila never returned to Francois Dupont, her mother sent her back to Italy where she would live with her grandparents and transferred to a more strict school where she would be disciplined and learn that her actions had consequences.

Chapter Text

Hawkmoth lost the link he had with akuma, signaling his latest defeat against the heroes of Paris. He threw his tablet on the ground as he de-transformed. “Useless, all of them are useless. Everything was going fine until those new heroes arrived, and now even the temporaries came back.” It has been over a month since the first project appeared and from then on, every akuma was defeated almost too easily, the new heroes were well trained in combat and worked well with Ladybug Chat Noir. And the worst part, They were holding back! They were not even at their maximum because they wanted to avoid injuring akumas.

Nathalie was by his side the entire time with her usual stern facial expression, she was taking some notes on her tablet, sighed and then said in an attempt to brighten the mood. “Don’t stress too much about it sir, All you need is one victory, it wouldn’t matter how long it will take in the end. In the meantime I have been trying to find ways to defeat these new heroes.”

Gabriel straightened himself and turned his head toward his assistant with big expectations. “I’m listening.”

—------------------

D'Argencourt was opening the door to Mr. Damocles’ office when the latter told him. “Please take a seat.”

“Hello Damocles, what is the purpose of this call?”

“I have received many complaints towards your students: Noise, fighting outside the clubroom, throwing equipment and many more. This has been going on for a while and I specifically told you to tone it down.”

the teacher frowned but kept his composure and replied. “I understand, but it is all under control, they are not hurting anyone, they are just passionate about fencing.”

“I don’t want to hear it, our establishment’s reputation has been going downhill for a while and I don’t need sword throwing hooligans on top of it. Get it under control or I will have to find someone else to do it.”

“You’re not serious?” Asked the teacher in disbelief.

“I’m afraid I’m, you’re dismissed.”

D'argencourt was pacing back to his club room furiously. Sword throwing hooligans?! How dare he! I’m just trying to make my students enjoy fencing. The man continued to walk toward the clubroom thinking how to announce the bad news to his students.

The fencing club was preparing themselves for their next session, changing into their sportswear and discussing various topics when suddenly a door was slammed loudly. “My Students! Damocles wants to deny you of your club therefore we shall revolt against him! Now follow me!” Said the black knight that came through the door.

Students screamed in panic and ran for the closest exit, the akuma Darkblade began to ‘slice’ every student in his way and turning them into his knights. Kagami and Adrien were targeted first and transformed fairly quickly and became Darkblade‘s ‘generals’, Ulrich was able to make it out of the clubroom and shouted. “Akuma! run away!”

Marinette heard the screams and commotion and she knew it only meant one thing: an akuma attack, so everyone in her class began to evacuate, Marinette was able to make out of the school but one by one students were sliced and transformed into knights, Marinette also noticed how almost all her class was transformed including Nino, Alya, Kim and Max. Great, I’m losing holders and potential holders with every minute.

After checking she was alone in an alleyway, she transformed into Ladybug. She went back to school and fought the black knights in her way. Soon she was met by two Different looking knights. She began to fight the two but couldn’t get past them.

Minutes passed and Darkblade came out and made his presence known. “I see you have met my generals, Tsurugi and Agreste, They are not your average knight.”

I hope Chat Noir and an akuma fighter will come soon.

Her thoughts were interrupted by someone shouting. “Laser arrow!” Two bullets shot in front of the generals who jumped back and raised their guards.

“Thanks. Now we just need the other cat.”

“No need, princess, I can take care of these guys myself.”

Purple Cat ran forward towards the general, engaging in hand to hand combat. He dodged the strike of Tsurugi and Agreste and tried to disarm them, unfortunately the two of them fought in sync, covering each torah’s back, not leaving any opening for the cat to exploit. Agreste jumped forward to hit the cat themed hero who flipped back and jumped away to safety.

Suddenly a dark figure appeared behind him. Before Ladybug could warn him the black figure created a black void around them, a second later the black sphere shrunk revealing only the new enemy. “Cat! What have you done to him?!”

“I present you Mayura’s latest sentimonster, Singularity, the project killer. his job is to absorb the light, including the solid projections that makes the projects.” Singularity was a humanoid looking sentimonster, there were barely any features to it, it was just a black mannequin, the only noticeable difference was there was no head, instead there was only a black sphere hovering just above its neck. “Now I believe this is the part where I say, give me your miraculous.”

Marinette felt the adrenaline rising, fear was starting to overcome her, and she ran away before she would be surrounded. After a few minutes nobody was after her. Damn it, Hawkmoth made a countermeasure, I hope the ‘damage’ can be fixed. What Am I gonna do now? Where is Chat Noir? He must have been turned too. Oh god! This is bad. Ladybug took a deep breath to catch her breath Alright, back to the basics, I need heroes, but even the usual team is compromised: Alya, Nino, Kagami, I need new heroes but who, come on, think! Who made it out without turning. A few faces flashed in Ladybug’s mind and a plan was starting to form in her mind. That could work.

Ladybug swung and soon reached her first location, she landed on a balcony where she heard “Ladybug?!”

“Chloe, Sabrina I need your help to defeat Darkblade.”

Sabrina’s jaw hung. “Me?!”

“Yes, both of you before we go, you need to keep your identity a secret,” Ladybug turned toward Chloe “Understood?”

“Jeez, I learned my lesson. I’m sorry.”

“Good, now here’s the plan.”

Ladybug left the two holders on standby while searching for the third candidate. “Ulrich Stern.”

“Ladybug?!”

“Yes, I need your help to defeat Darkblade, can I count on you?”

Ladybug knew he wasn’t afraid of danger and sure enough, Ulrich nodded immediately no hesitation in his mind. “Of course Ladybug. My friends are transformed and if I can save them I will do it.” Hopefully Odd too can be saved.

“Alright, here’s the miraculous of the mouse, it grants you the power of multiplication.”

As soon as Ulrich wore the necklace an light orb emerged and then the kwami appeared before him. “Woah, what is that?”

“A kwami, the creature that powers up the miraculous, her name is Mullo.”

“Hello little fellow nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too, now go on we don’t have all day. To transform, say Mullo, get squeaky.”

Ulrich nodded and did as instructed. Ladybug took a look at Ulrich’s miraculous form. He wore a grey martial arts kimono with a black belt, insteads of gloves and boots he had pink hand and feet wraps and finally he had a black Zorro style bandana instead of the domino mask to ‘hide’ his identity. His ‘suit’ was certainly unique. “So What do I call you? You need a hero name.”

Ulrich hummed for a few seconds. “Let's go with Multidude.”

Ladybug and Multidude were now in front of the school that was overrun by the black knights. “Alright, Multidude, you’re up next.”

The mouse hero nodded and divided into six copies of himself, apparently four copies was his limit, anymore and the copies were forcefully shrunk. the copies charged forward fighting the knights in front of them, Multidude even disarmed some of them and took their sword to fight with it. This is incredible. It’s even better than triplicate, I have better control of my clones.

Soon the commotion got the attention of the king and his generals “Who dares?”

“Multidude, the newest hero in town.”

“And you think you can defeat me alone?”

“Not sure if this counts as alone, as you can see I’m a one man army.”

“Let’s see how far that will get you. Generals, get him.” As soon as the order was given Agreste and Tsurugi lunged Forward and went for the mouse hero. Using the swords he stole, two Multidude blocked their strike while the other two used the moment to strike in return only for the generals to jump back to safety.

Minutes after the king was left alone, Ladybug threw her yoyo aiming to catch Darkblade’s sword, the latter saw it coming and intercepted the yoyo with his other arm. He followed by pulling Ladybug and throwing her using the yoyo into the ground. “Predictable, you think I would forget about you. All temporary heroes get their miraculouses from you.” Darkblade proceeded to cut the string of yoyo and keeping the yoyo part in his hand, he lunged forward stopping his sword a few centimeters before Ladybug’s throat. “Any last words?”

“Venom!” A scream came out of nowhere and suddenly the akuma was paralyzed. Moments later Queen Bee and another hero came out from thin air, took the sword and broke it in half releasing the butterfly inside it. Ladybug took yoyo and tied it back together with a knot, hoping this would work. She took the butterfly and casted her cure.

Multidude who looked like has been sweating buckets from his fights, joined the rest of the heroes and Ladybug said. “Good job everyone, that was perfectly executed.” She extended her arm and the others joined in. “Pound it!”

After regaining her senses, the Ladyblogger saw the four heroes and ran toward them, her heart ached a bit seeing a new silver fox alongside them. “Ladybug Can you tell us what happened? I was transformed the whole time. Who are the new heroes?”

“Purple Cat was taken down and so were some of my temporary teammates and maybe Chat Noir too, so I needed some new heroes to defeat the akuma, I present you Multitdude and Rena Furtive.” Both heroes waved at the camera smiling and Alya felt a bit relieved that her replacement might just be a temporary thing.

Moments Later a flying figure came from above. “Ladybug, I came to tell you that Purple Cat was recovered safely, he was however ‘locked’ During the whole akuma attack. That sentimonster will cause us some serious problems if we can’t take care of him.”

“We didn’t even fight it, Mayura must have released it to save her energy. Thanks for sharing with us, maybe we could discuss it another time. Alright everyone, your timers are running, let's get out of here. Bug out!”

The holders jumped into the rooftops while Angel was still standing alongside the ladyblogger “Angel out, I guess.” A second later the girl disappeared.

Ulrich was the first to return his miraculous. “Thank you Ladybug, it was an honor to fight with you. you too, Mullo”

“You’re welcome, you did well for your first time. See you later.”

Later, huh

Ladybug was now leading Queen Bee and Rena Furtive back to the hotel. the two girls transformed back. “Thank you for the help, you two did well.”

Chloe replied with a smirk on her face. “Naturally.”

“Thank you ladybug! I can’t believe I became a hero! Even for one time, it was amazing.” Said Sabrina, still excited about the whole experience.

Ladybug smiled at her. “It may not be a one time thing, there are other spots available.”

Sabrina’s jaw hung, not believing the word she just heard, Chloe helped her close her mouth. “Come on, Sabrina, you are embarrassing yourself.”

“Of course, On the condition that your secret identity stays secret.” Said Ladybug in a more serious tone.

Sabrina straightened herself and gave Ladybug a salute. “Of course Ladybug, I won’t disappoint you.”

“Alright. See you later.”

As soon as Ladybug was out of sight Sarbina grabbed Chloe’s arms “Chloe! I became a hero!”

Chloe replied slightly confused. “I know, I was there when it happened.”

“It felt so amazing, do you always feel like that when transformed?”

Chloe smiled a bit and answered. “Yeah, pretty much.”

“This is the best day of my life!”

“Alright, you might want to tone down the excitement or else your secret won’t one for long”

“Right, right.” said Sabrina gleefully.

—------------------

Back in the Lyoko group chat

Ulrich : “Are you guys okay?”

Odd : “I’m okay.”

Jeremie : “He gave me a heart attack I swear, the monitor and the sensors were bugging like crazy.”

Aelita : “Thankfully everything is normal now.”

Ulrich : “Well in that case you owe me your share of strawberry pie for saving your ass. Again.”

Odd : “Huh???”

Yumi : “Oh my god!”

William : “No fucking way!”

Jeremie : “*Another heart attack*”

Aelita : “You’re not messing with us, are you?”

Ulrich : “I’m dead serious, I mean come on, a martial arts guy who can multiply himself and wields a sword.”

Odd : “Oh my god! it is so obvious, how did we not see that?”

Ulrich : “I think it has to do with the magic of the miraculous. Not too sure about the details.”

Yumi : “What does it feel like?”

Ulrich : “It’s like Lyoko but even better, my senses are heightened and I could feel like there is something magical within me. The rush it gives you is something else.”

Odd : “Now I want that cat ring even more.”

Aelita : “Wait, are you even allowed to tell us about this?”

Ulrich : “No, Ladybug would kill me if she knew, so keep it to yourself, also codename only on the field.”

Aelita : “Got it Rena Furtive.”

Ulrich : “?????”

Odd : “Pfffft good one.”

Yumi : “You know what? I can see it.”

Jeremie : “*adjust glasses* Yeah, I see what you mean.”

Ulrich : “I already regret telling you.”

William : “No need to be shy Rena. We accept you for who you are.”

Chapter Text

Chat Noir and Ladybug came as soon as they heard the alert. The akuma in front of them was Gigantitan, again. Ladybug sighed “The poor baby, Can you keep him distracted in the meantime.”

“At your service m’lady.”

A few minutes later Ladybug was back with Rena Rouge, the girls were ready to wrap this quickly with a good mirage distraction when they stopped and looked at the scene unfolding in front of them. Purple Cat joined Chat Noir in ‘distracting’ the akuma, both were meowing and purring and acting all cat like trying to get his attention. It even looked like they were… competing? Ladybug stayed where she was and used the communicator to ask the cat hero. “Chat Noir, can you tell me what you’re doing?”

“Oh, Cat joined me and we bet 20 euros on who gets August's attention.”

“You made a bet in an akuma fight?”

“I mean it’s only Gigantitan.”

Rena Rouge joined. “He’s kinda right, and not to be rude but aren't four heroes against him way overkill?”

“I’m bringing more heroes to strengthen our teamwork with the akuma fighters, like a team bonding exercise. But this,” They both looked back at the silly scenario of two cat heroes playing with a giant superpowered baby. “This was not what I had in mind. Also what happened to Singularity?”

“It didn’t show up. I guess Mayura didn’t want to waste her powers on a baby akuma.”

“Yay! One of them has a working brain.” Said Ladybug sarcastically.

Rena Rouge brought her flute. “Anyway, let’s wrap this up. Mirage!” A giant cat illusion about half the size of the akuma appeared in front of him and immediately got his attention, the giant baby followed the giant cat unknowingly leading him to where Ladybug was. The other two kept looking shockingly at what was happening.

Seconds later Ladybug took the akuma and casted miraculous ladybug. Rena Rouge then announced. “Yay! 40 euros pour moi.”

Purple Cat shouted first. “Hey! What was that for? It was between me and him.”

Chat Noir followed. “And you used your powers, that’s cheating.”

Rena Rouge tilted her head innocently. “Was there a rule against powers?” Both cats said nothing and she smirked triumphantly. “Then I win.” She looked back at Ladybug. “I’m liking this team bonding thing. I sure hope the next time will be as profitable as this one.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes while the other two huffed. Purple Cat then said. “Whatever I’m out, can’t believe this.” The project then glitched and disappeared.

Somewhere else, a certain Mayura was looking at the footage of the whole thing and was very glad she didn’t participate in the akuma fight, sparing her lifespan and her dignity.

—--------------------------

Mr. pigeon got akumatized, again, for the… sixty something maybe seventieth time. Chat Noir sighed as he knew this was going to end with a whole lot of sneezes. He quickly transformed and reached the location where he met Ladybug. “So, how do we go about this?”

“You’re not gonna like this.”

“What? what's going on?”

“He can turn people into pigeons this time.”

“Ah what!”

“Yeah I don’t want to know what happens if you turn into one. Wanna sit this one out? Or go fetch a teammate while I distract him.”

“Ugh, fine. Can’t believe we need extra just for Mr. pigeon.”

While Chat Noir was on his way to bring Ryuko, Ladybug tried to fight Mr pigeon, it was hard to close on him without his horde guarding him. Ladybug spotted something moving quickly, a mass of black smoke tackled mr pigeon on the ground Smoker emerged and tried to take the akumatized only for Ladybug to shout. “Look out!”

Singularity was rapidly closing on him, it activated its black sphere power and Smoker barely managed to transform back to a smoke and get away. “That was close, thanks for the help.”

“You’re welcome, it's got harder now that it’s here.”

“Actually we have been meaning to try something.” Smoker manifested his sword and threw it like a javelin toward the sentimonster. The latter reactivated his powers and absorbed his sword. “See that? He can absorb light but not other materials like the pigeons, the akuma or the ground.”

“Ok so you want me to deal with it while you take on Mr pigeon.” Smoker nodded.

“And you think we will just let you?” Asked Mr. pigeon going for Ladybug while Singularity stood between him and Smoker. No matter how they tried they could not chase them off or get them to change.

Minutes passed and still no change, Ladybug was about to be hit by a wave of pigeons when a violent gust of wind came from behind her and blew the pigeons away. Ryuko then materialized from thin air. “How about I take it from here?”

Smoker was not faring well either, Singularity chased him relentlessly with no signs of fatigue unlike him. Singularity was about to reach when it was kicked back by Chat Noir. “Tag out, I’m in.”

Not a minute later Ryuko shocked Mr pigeon with lighting dragon and got his akumatized object, Mayura seeing no point in continuing the fight, released Singularity from existence.

“Pound it!”

“To think Mr pigeon gave us this much trouble.” Sighed Ladybug.

“Sorry.” Muttered Chat Noir.

Ryuko then felt the need to correct him. “Don’t be, your allergies cannot be helped. Hawkmoth however will be very sorry when I get my hands on him, staying hidden, using others to do his job and even using allergies. He is such a …”

“Scumbag? Douchebag? Sleazeball?” Suggested Smoker.

“Not the vocabulary I would use but yeah, that fits.”

“I’m happy to extend your vocabulary, if you ever need more insults just call me.”

“My, why thank you for being such a good influence on my life.” teased Ryuko.

—--------------------------

Nadja chamack was waiting for Ladybug and Chat Noir for another Face to face, the sound of a door knock was heard, when one of the staff opened they were surprised to find Ladybug and Chat Noir coming through and waving at them. “We thought we could be more punctual this time. Heroes don't always have to be late.”

Nadja and the rest of the staff greeted them and were ready to go live. “Don’t be amused, it's just the news. Today with me are Ladybug and Chat Noir who we will be discussing the recent events in our beloved city.” Both heroes waved at the camera and Nadja continued. “So Ladybug, Chat Noir, what can you tell us about your new teammates?”

“They’re a great help and breath of fresh air. Me and Chat Noir feel less tired and pressured knowing they are other heroes willing to help us.”

“Do you personally know them? Their identities? Their organization? Information on them has been nonexistent outside akuma fights.”

“None at all. We are as much in the dark as you are, just like me and Chat Noir haven’t shared our identities. Which means we couldn't contact them about coming here with us.”

That was not good, since they were the new thing, the crew hoped for their appearance. Nadja force a mile and tried to change the subject. “How about their team's chemistry with yours?”

Ladybug beamed at her. “I’m glad you asked, after knowing all of them, I tried to make plans to make us work together, which holder works best with which project and overall improve our teamwork. Things have been going well lately and hopefully Hawkmoth won’t last much longer.”

“That's wonderful to hear but I meant chemistry as in love chemistry.”

Ladybug didn’t hide her eye roll and basically tuned out and Chat Noir took over. “Now that you’re talking about it, the topic of their relationship never came out.”

“What about this footage of you, Ladybug and Purple Cat, or more recently with Ryuko and Smoker.”

“While I don’t know about Ryuko and Smoker,” He knew Kagami but they didn’t need to know that. ”Purple Cat was only flirting with Ladybug to mess with me. He has this rivalry with me for some reason, and If you must know, yes I am the better cat hero.” Chat Noir winked at the camera.

Nadja kept asking her questions but each and every time the two heroes kept answering in what her boss would consider not viral enough, nothing spicy or juicy.

The face to face part wasn’t going well either, most guests were rude asking questions, wasting too much of their time or trying to make publicity for their own stuff.

Nadja swiped the tablet to have the next guest. A girl gasped as she realized they were live. “Jeremie Look! We’re in face to face.”

The boy, Jeremie, came into view sliding with his swivel chair and greeted them. “Oh wow you’re right. Hello, my name is Jeremie and this is Aelita.” The girl, Aelita, waved at them very excitedly.

Aelita asked. “Hello, we wanted to ask the heroes who’s your favorite project. ”

Chat Noir answered first. “Purple Cat for me, you can never have too many cat puns.”

Ladybug on the other wondered for a few seconds. “I guess… Angel. Her powers are the most protective so people would feel safe around her." Unknown to her, Aelita and Jeremie were doing their best to not smile at the camera.

Aelita smiled at them. “Thank you for your answers. We won’t take more of your time. Hope you best of luck against Hawkmoth.” Both waved at the screen and then disconnected.

That was refreshing from all the other nonsense. Thought Ladybug.

A few minutes later, someone asked who were their favorite miraculous holders, aside from themselves and each other of course. This time Ladybug answered with no hesitation Rena Rouge, she was chosen first for a reason. Chat Noir picked Carapace since he was the one he worked with the most.

Nadja would say that this interview went well, however her boss was having none of it. Between learning almost nothing worthwhile, the disaster that was those guests and Nadja’s incapabilities to get them to confess anything the boss was close to firing her and Nadja knew it. Gabriel Agreste who watched the interview also could feel it.

The heroes were on their way home when they heard the akuma alert. “Prime Queen again? At this point they should really stop face to face.” Before they went back the two holders made a detour to bring extra help.

The three heroes arrived and were greeted by Prime Queen. “Welcome to my show, I see you brought extra.”

“That’s right, I’m getting payback for using me as a hostage last.” Declared Queen Bee and then shouted. “Venom!”

The three holders jumped on Prime Queen only for her to enter one of the screens and come out of another. No matter what they tried, Prime Queen was too slippery and the entire building was equipped with screens for her to use. After toying with them for quite some time Prime Queen said. “What’s the matter? Can’t keep up?” Then all of them heard something, some kind of divine voice was chanting, when they looked at the source they found Angel. Is she Praying? Right now? The akuma didn’t want to know what she would do so she headed for the screen next to her only to hit herself as she tried to enter. “What the? What did you do?”

Singularity showed up to absorb Angel only to be hit by Chat Noir’s extending staff, meanwhile the Ladybug Queen Bee went for Prime Queen and soon enough the bee holder was able to paralyze her.

“Pound it!”

Chat Noir was the first to ask. “So, what was that about?”

“I have a strong connection to electronics and can manipulate devices to a certain degree. I used to disrupt the screens Prime Queen used. It’s pretty niche for a power and works on only a handful of akumas.”

“I will keep it in mind for future references.” Noted Ladybug

“Couldn’t you have done that from the beginning. We could have avoided the whole chase.” Whined the now transformed Chloe.

“It was fun to watch, I mean I just got here.” Said Angel putting an innocent smile on her face.

“Devious angel.”

“Whatever could you be talking about?”

—--------------------------

Thomas Astruc was furious, the second miraculous movie featuring Ladybug and Chat Noir’s newest ally, Rena Rouge was a few weeks from being released but it looked like no one was talking about it. The new projects were all everyone talked about, not only that but a significant part of the community liked them so much they wanted them to be added in the next movies, some of them even asked if they could put them in the upcoming movie. I can't make that happen! Do you have any idea how much work it will cost? This is a magic cartoon not a sci-fi meets magic cartoon. And that’s how Thomas became Animage fuel by the power of magical fictional characters, he wanted to prove everyone that magic beats science.

Ladybug and Chat Noir have been fighting Animage for quite some time now, Somehow, even though his pool of characters was reduced to magic related only he was stronger than before. I guess he got better at using his powers. the akuma was pretty hard to fight and strong both offensively and defensively. From magic guns to a fire breathing mage to turning to a body of water upon being attacked. there was not much they could do.

Animage was now in the form of a blonde man with golden armor. “Gate of babylon.” As he said those words countless portals open revealing a variety of blunt weapons ready to be thrown at them. “Your miraculouses, now.” Suddenly Animage was hit by a trashcan flying his way. “Who dares hit the king!”

“Kunoichi, so for my insolence oh great king.” Said the hero sarcastically.

“You! This is all your faults!” Animage switched to gun wielding character and shot a bullet, Kunoichi used her fan to block it but failed, the bullet destroyed her fan and hit shoulder which was glitching right now.

“What’s his problem?” Kunoichi asked the other two heroes.

“He’s mad you guys are more popular than his upcoming second miraculous movie.”

Kunoichi raised her eyebrow. “Personal vendetta against us, that’s a new one.”

Even after Kunoichi came things were not going much better, add to that the appearance of Singularity and they were basically back to square one. Kunoichi stopped for a moment to listen to what HQ had to say and then she told the others. “Guys, we have an idea, we need…”.

Ladybug and Chat Noir agreed and the former said. “Alright, cover me while I'm bringing him.”

The two remaining heroes tried to buy as much time as possible, mostly by running away from the akuma and the sentimonster, after a few minutes ChatNoir heard. “Alright, we’re in position, bring him in.”

As Chat Noir and Kunoichi were leading the akuma and the sentimonster toward the others they kept dodging all the magic bullets Animage threw at them, Chat Noir then barely dodged some kind of lightning laser beam strike and shouted. “Hey! That was a railgun! That’s science, you’re cheating.”

Animage looked furious as he protested. “That was not a railgun! It’s a different lightning move.”

A few bullets later and Kunoichi was hit, Chat Noir caught her but both landed on top of a moving train, Animage landed moments later and was ready to finish them off, he shot another bullet when he heard. “Shell-ter!” Animage shot a few other times to no avail, Carapace came into view and said. “Too bad for you my shell-ter is unbreakable unless you can reach the temperature of the sun.”

“Hah! Classic villain mistake, explaining your powers.” Animage then transformed into the flame throwing pink haired character. “Roar of the-” the akuma stopped as he fell nauseous and lost his balance. What’s happening? He put his hand in his mouth to prevent himself from throwing up.

Ladybug landed near him, took the akumatized object and broke it, then she said as if she could read his mind. “Don’t you know? Dragon slayers have severe motion sickness. Or so I’ve been told.”

The four heroes joined to pound it then Ladybug said. “Good job everyone, also nice plan using one of the character's weaknesses.”

Chat noir pouted. “Can’t believe I didn’t think of it.”

“Thank the tech guy in our team. He says you’re welcome.”

“Maybe we could discuss anime another day.” Suggested Chat Noir.

Kunoichi listened for a second before responding. “He says I will be more than happy when Hawkmoth is out of the way.”

Chapter Text

Ulrich was sleeping soundly when he heard something noise in his room. “Huh?” he almost jumped from his bed then reached for his desk lamb and turned it on to see what was happening.

There in his room stood a dark tall figure, Ulrich tried to scream but was stopped when the figure closed on him and choked him. Now that the figure was close Ulrich saw its ‘face’ and his eyes almost popped out of his socket from the shock. It was XANA, a dark unformed silhouette with a XANA symbol in its head instead of a face, a specter. “Ulrich Stern, I don’t know how I still exist but I’m making sure to finish the job this time.” Said the specter with a ‘XANAfied’ voice of Ulrich.

XANA strengthened his choke on Ulrich, the boy was about to pass out when suddenly he fell on the ground, XANA had released him. Ulrich tried to catch his breath and tried to make sense of what was happening in front of him when XANA spoke. “Huh, I can’t kill you, it seems I’m the result of the akuma Sandboy and since I ‘originate’ from you, I can’t kill you without dying myself. This complicates things, I need you alive… For now.”

XANA exited through the window and Ulrich attempted to chase. “Wait! Get back here!” As soon as Ulrich looked from the window he saw Bloks, real life Bloks shooting their ice lasers on his house trapping him inside. Shit, shit, shit! I need to call the others. Ulrich went for his phone and called Jeremie. Come Jeremie, pick up. Ulrich began to tap his foot on the ground while waiting for the call to connect.

“Ulrich? it’s two in the morning, what are you doing?”

“Jeremie listen to me! We have an akuma, Sandboy and my nightmare was XANA, you hear me? XANA is back!”

The boy who was barely awake until now had every fiber in his body tense at the mention of THAT name. “WHAT!”

Before he said more Ulrich began to instruct him. “Wake up the boys, I call the girls and send in everyone. XANA itself is a specter and it can also create monsters. My house is trapped under Blok ice.”

—------------------

Chat Noir was currently fighting the monsters created from Sandboy and there were a lot of them, from vampires and werewolves to Demogorgons and some previous akumas too. The cat hero was being flooded with monsters, thankfully so far he was able to deal with most of them.

Chat Noir saw another batch of monsters and began to notice something. Didn’t I fight that one already? Sure he fought multiple of the same monsters but it was usually the mainstream kind, this one he didn’t know where it came from and began to see more of them.

Chat Noir then avoided laser shots from some… Thing. He realized it then, It was the pattern, they all shared the same pattern, it acted like an eye for some of them including the thing that is shooting at him right now with its two front legs. The boy felt a shiver down his spine at the way that thing stared at him.

Chat Noir destroyed it fast and contacted Ladybug. “M’lady I think we have a problem, some of these monsters share a pattern, some kind of peace sign bullseye symbol. I think they are an army of monsters, they come in different forms, we need to find their leader or Sandboy fast. I have a bad feeling about this.”

“I think I know what you’re talking about, I saw a couple of those. Keep destroying them. I will bring extra help.”

Ladybug went immediately for the guardian to gather the reinforcement. After taking the necessary miraculouses she went for Ulrich first. First we need to cover as much area as possible if we want to find them.

As soon as she saw his house she was surprised to see it completely trapped in ice. Et merde! Now what? Ladybug pondered for a few seconds. I can’t afford to waste time here. Ladybug left searching for another holder this time.

Ladybug arrived at her next stop. “Sabrina I need your help.”

“Of course, Ladybug.”

“Here’s the miraculous of the mouse. I need you to multiply yourself and search for Sandboy.”

“What happened to Multidude?”

“Unavailable. And here, since you know Chloe’s identity might as well help me give it to her.”

Ladybug then went for the other holders: Rena Rouge, Carapace and Ryuuko to help her. Then she gave out her orders. “Alright everyone, search for Sandboy and look out for those peace-sign-bulleye monsters. Try not to use your powers, we don't know when we will need them.”

—-------------------------

On his side, Jeremie translated everyone. “All right everyone, we need to find Sandboy fast, help the heroes but don’t reveal anything and don’t mention the word XANA.”

The four akuma fighters nodded and dispersed to cover as much space as possible. They went on a warpath destroying every XANA monster that was on their way.

—--------------------------

In the meantime XANA’s manta and hornets were able to locate Sandboy. XANA rode on the back of one of its manta and was now facing the akuma. “Hello Sandboy, and Hawkmoth.”

“Who are you?” Asked the akuma.

“My name is XANA,” The specter began to introduce itself using a female voice. ” I am one of the nightmares you created and I have a proposition for Hawkmoth. One that he will find very appealing.”

Sandboy waited for a few seconds with the butterfly mask still active then asked . “What do you want?”

XANA answered using a male voice. “I am an artificial intelligence, destroyed a year ago and I want you to ‘revive’ me.” XANA ‘stared’ at its own hand and grasped the air in front of it. Then it continued using a different male voice this time. “This is just a shell of my former self, something that will disappear when Sandboy will be de-akumatized.”

“Hawkmoth said why should I help you?”

A wide grin formed on XANA’s formerly mouthless face as it said using a new female voice. “Because I know the identities of the akuma fighters.”

Hawkmoth stood still for a few seconds. I know the identities of the akuma fighters. That sentence has been playing in his head a dozen times. If this was true it would mean he could have an edge over them and put them out of commission, maybe even use their technology against Ladybug and Chat Noir. He relayed his message to Sandboy who asked. “Who are they? How do you know them?”

“I can’t tell you who they are right now, I need to know if you’re going to help me, but what I can tell you is that I am their sworn enemy and they will come after me. They were not always the akuma fighters, they formerly called themselves the Lyoko warriors, virtual fighters who made it their job to stop me from being free.”

“I’m gonna need some proof if you want me to believe you.”

“I don’t have proof right now but I can guarantee you this. They will send all four against me. That is how much they fear me.”

Hawkmoth began to think. If they bring all four plus who knows how many holders it is going to be hard to defeat them all.

“Hawkmoth is asking if you can handle them?”

“I don’t know the extent of my capabilities right now. I can probably deal with two of them and leave the rest to you. As for the holders I will just flood them with monsters to keep them busy.”

“You said you were an AI, how am I supposed to revive you?”

“Frankly I don’t know, scientifically speaking all of my data was deleted beyond repair and that leaves me with being revived with magic. I leave the magic details to you.”

“Alright prove to me how strong you are now and I will help you with your quest.”

XANA smiled again. “Deal. Here, take this.” XANA brought a tablet to Sandboy. “I hacked this so you can see what my monsters see. Now, time to work.”

—-----------

Multimouse has been searching the city for any sign Sandboy to no avail, however she noticed something weird, Purple Cat was out there fighting some monsters, but that can’t be, a clone of her already saw Kunoichi fighting elsewhere. she asked the team. “Guys, I just saw Purple Cat and Kunoichi. Is that possible?”

Ladybug answered. “Yes, they told me they can bring more than one but this is the first time they have done it. Stay with them and act as relay for now.”

“Got it, chief.” Multimouse then jumped and waved at the cat hero. “Hi, mice to meet you. I'm Multimouse, I’m with Ladybug and she wants me to act as relay to you guys.”

Purple Cat was a bit surprised to see a shrunken down super hero, just a few centimeters tall in front of him but nodded. “Alright. We are searching for Sandboy as we speak, tell us when you guys find him.”

“When you say we, you mean you and Kunoichi? Cause I’ve seen her earlier.”

“No, I mean all four of us. Sandboy ranks pretty high on our list of dangerous akumas.” Was the excuse the group went with as to why they were all here.

The two then began to share their information, information that the akuma fighters already knew but needed to play ignorant. They did allow themselves to share some of the powers and weaknesses they ‘found’ about the monsters in the few minutes they have been fighting.

Multimouse jumped on Purple Cat’s shoulder and said. “Opurration catch Sandboy is a go.” The pun went unnoticed by the cat, Multmouse frowned a bit from his lack of reaction but paid it no mind. He must be having a bad night too.

—--------------

Angel was firing her force field at each XANA monster she faced when one manta stopped midair and turned into a grey cloud and reformed into something else. Her eyes widened in horror. No, no no no.

Angel was now facing the Scyphozoa. “Hello princess.” The Scyphozoa or maybe it was XANA itself spoke to her.

Jeremie, who was monitoring everyone, tried to remain calm after what he saw and quickly made a decision. “Odd, relay this to the others. word for word.”

Purple Cat then said using Multimouse’s communicator. “We have some news, one of those bullseye monsters is facing Angel right now and it could speak, there is a high chance it’s the leader. Location Parc des Buttes-Chaumont.” Of course that was a lie, but they didn’t need the scyphozoa to mind control Aelita or anyone else right now.

ladybug answered through the device. “Alright, Chat Noir and Ryuuko go for it, destroy it using your abilities if necessary. The rest search for Sandboy.”

Purple Cat continued. “I’m going there too, can’t be too sure.”

—-------------------

XANA and Sandboy were watching some of the fights happening everywhere where the former said. “My hornets detected a change of movement. Purple Cat, Chat Noir and Ryuuko changed directions. Looks like they were going to help Angel.”

“Is that good or bad?” Asked Sandboy.

“It’s good, they are going further east from us, and they sent their powerhouses. I think it’s time you made your presence known. We will deal with the rest.”

“Hawmkoth says it’s bad idea, I should just wait for the nightmares to deal with them.”

“They are just fodder at this point. We have them divided, now it’s time to conquer. Don’t worry I need you alive and akumatized, I’m not gonna throw you to the wolves and risk my existence.”

Hawkmoth thought for a few seconds and seemed to accept his reasoning. “Alright let’s see what you have in plan.”

Sandboy began to wander again, creating more nightmares in his path and sure enough one of the Multimouses noticed him. ”I have eyes on Sandboy, Near l’Arc de Triomphe.”

Ladybug then ordered. “Alright everyone, we meet there and work together to de-akumatize him. Multimouse don’t lose sight of him.” Everyone confirmed the order and headed toward the location.

William or Smoker right now has been slicing XANA monsters left and right. His blood has been boiling ever since Jeremie woke him. The idea that that monster was back turned his stomach. The boy was going to kill that monster once and for all for all the months of brainwashing and nightmares he had to deal with.

On his way to l’Arc de Triomphe, Smoker’s path was blocked by a black manta flying in front of him, the monster then transformed into another copy of him. The him that was possessed. The XANA symbol on his chest, eyes, and on his sword. “Long time no see, old friend.”

Chapter Text

“Hello princess.” Said the scyphozoa using a XANAfied version of Odd’s voice that sent a chill in Aelita's spine. Aelita was not going to let it mind control her like in the past. Her first reaction was to throw force fields toward it only for the monster to dodge the projectiles. “Is that any way to treat me? I’ve missed you and just want us to be together.”

Aelita felt repulsed by the way the monster spoke, the way it used those words, the way it used her friends' voices. “Stay the hell away from me!” Aelita activated her wings, took some distance and threw more force fields. The monster just flew towards and used nearby hornets as shields.

Jeremie then told her. “Aelita, keep it busy, reinforcements are coming. Try to buy time by talking to it.”

Aelita tried to outmaneuver the nearby hornets and then said. “What do you want XANA? We already destroyed you.”

XANA, the specter beside Sandboy, smirked as this conversation was being watched through the tablet he gave Sandboy and said. “I believe this is enough confirmation.”

Sandbot replied, relaying the message of Hawkmoth. “Yes, you proved your relation to them but I still need you to prove your strength.”

“Hard to please, I see. Alright just sit and watch.”

Meanwhile the scyphozoa replied to Aelita. “Trying to get information out of me, huh? Isn't it obvious? I’m trying to revive myself, and I will ally myself with whoever or whatever I need to if it means existing again.”

Aelita blew up another batch of hornets and asked. “We will stop like we always do.”

The scyphozoa didn’t reply and stayed silent, a second later an extending staff hit its head. “Hands of the angel bullseye monster.” Said Chat Noir as he landed besides Angel keeping his guard up.

“Bullseye monster? I guess that works for a placeholder, my name is XANA, enchanté.”

“Alright XANA-enchanté what do you want?”

“To rule the world of course.”

“Classic video game boss I see. Well your reign of terror ends tonight.”

“Well in that case, monsters, attack!” As soon as the order was given a bunch of monsters emerged from their hiding spots, mantas flying around, tarantulas, blocks and krabs on the road, on top of roofs, krawlers on the walls of the buildings.

The army of monsters began to fire relentlessly at the two heroes who did their best to avoid them as much as they could. Chat Noir’s suit was able to tank the damage fairly well but it still hurt, Angel on the other hand started to glitch more and more and probably didn’t have much ‘HP’ left.

Seconds later monsters began to blow up next to each other and XANA noticed Purple Cat shooting at them from a rooftop, keeping a fairly long distance between.

Ryuuko followed shortly after, destroying a group of tarantulas on the road, now with the extra help Chat Noir and Angel were also able to even things out. “Ryuuko, Angel I need your help to reach XANA.” The girls nodded and the trio tried to destroy the monster with Purple Cat covering their backs from a distance.

In the middle of all the fighting Purple Cat didn’t notice a group of mantas flying near him, they started to leave air mines behind them and the cat found himself surrounded, one of the mantas shot a laser beam toward one of the mines causing a chain reaction of explosions. The others turned where their teammate was, a rooftop completely blown up with no signs of the cat hero. “One down.” said XANA to the other present heroes who were still shocked by the death of the project. “It’s too early to be surprised, he is just the first of many and the night is still young.”

—------------

After defeating the monsters standing in her way, Ladybug arrived where Sandboy was, she noticed something near him. It was one of those monsters, the flying manta type, on top of it was something else she couldn’t identify. Ladybug waited for her teammates to come but minutes passed and still no sign of them. The hero was then hit in the back by something. She looked back to see it was one of those hornets looking monsters.

“Found you~.” singsang Sandboy as he and the other thing approached Ladybug. Even though it was approaching the thing was still unidentifiable, just a feature-less silhouette standing there.

Ladybug mentally cursed. Where are the others?

“Wondering where your teammates are?” Said the thing besides Sandboy.

“Who are you and what did you do to them?”

The figure changed its appearance, a certain symbol appeared on its face. “XANA, as for your teammates I’m just keeping them busy.”

“XANA?” Ladybug realized. They lured me in. There were less monsters on my way here even though it was closer to Sandboy. The jellyfish was just a bait. XANA didn’t waste time and had tarantulas shoot lasers and bloks shoot their ice lasers at Ladybug.

Multimouse saw what was happening and alerted her teammates. “Guys! Ladybug is surrounded and needs help right now!”

One by One her teammates began to explain their situations.

Smoker : “A little busy here.”

Rena Rouge : “These cubes won’t leave me alone.”

Queen Bee : “The ugly shooters neither.”

Carapace : “I can’t just leave, the giant metal balls are causing way too much damage.”

Kunoichi : “Tell her to hold on, I'm close.”

And the others were way too far, still trying to fight the ‘other’ XANA.

—------------

XANA who looked like the old version of William said. “Long time no see, old friend.”

Smoker furiously replied. “I’m not your friend and you’ve got a lot of nerve to come at me looking like this.”

XANA replied with a smile on his face. “You’re awfully angry, I thought you would be happier to see me. After all the time we spent together.”

Smoker seethed and said. “You mean the time you stole from me, months of my life gone because of you. Tonight I will make you pay for what you did to me.” Smoker Lunged forward and stroke with his sword.

XANA Blocked the strike and started to counterattack, XANA’s face took a more serious tone and said. “And then what? Go back to your so-called ‘friends’. The one who put you in this situation in the first place.”

“Don’t act like you know anything about my friends!” Shouted Smoker as he attempted to cleave the imposter in half.

XANA blocked the attack and smirked. “Oh, but I do know. Let me clarify something, I’m not the XANA, I am just a XANA created from Ulrich’s mind. I also happen to share some of his thoughts, memories and emotions. Something the old XANA was never able to do.” Smoker wondered where he was going with this. “And let me tell you something, they don't think highly of you. You never were their friend.”

A part of Smoker’s mind began to doubt but he quickly shoved it back. “You’re bluffing. You’re just trying to mess up with me.”

“Well then, I guess you wouldn’t mind me telling you what they have been thinking behind your back. Of course you’re welcome to check with Einstein.” Smoker flinched as the doubt started to invade his mind again. “How they never trusted you, how they never liked y-”

“Shut up!” Smoker swung his sword only for XANA to deflect the strike.

“How at some point they thought you were willingly my ally,”

“William don't listen to him, he is-”

“Shut up!” Another failed attempt at killing the impostor.

“How even when you were about to be rescued, Ulrich’s primary concerns were about your and his relationship with Yumi.”

“SHUT UP!” Smoker swung his sword launching an energy slash toward his clone, the latter used his sword to block the blast, absorbed its energy and launched it back at Smoker.

Smoker got thrown a few meters backward, his back on the ground, his sword out of reach, his chest glitching as he was grunting in pain. XANA walked next to him, stopped next to him and planted his sword on the ground. He kneeled next to him and said. “You really thought that would work on me? I gave you those powers, I taught you all your moves. Face it, you’re nothing without me, your ‘friends’ made your life worse while I took you in and made you my second. Now I’m giving you a chance to join me again and become what you were always meant to be.”

XANA stretched his hand to Smoker waiting for him to accept, only for him to slap it away and stand back up. “I will never join you. I never was your second, I was just another pawn to you.”

XANA stood up and sighed. “Maybe, at the end of the day I don’t know what XANA was thinking, I only know what-” XANA didn’t get to finish his sentence as he was sent flying by a punch from Smoker, an expression of rage on his face. XANA got back up and smirked. “you still have some fight in you, alright then.” The two engaged in hand to hand combat. XANA was able to keep up with Smoker using Ulrich’s knowledge on martial arts, that is up until a certain kick hit him in the face. Huh?

Both paused for a second. What? he didn’t see it coming? Smoker looked at his doppelganger who was just as confused as he was, then an idea popped into Smoker's mind.

Smoker began to attack XANA, his kicks started to land one after the other. XANA, still confused, asked. “What’s happening?”

Smoker smirked. “You said it yourself, you have Ulrich’s memories, however Ulrich hasn't seen me spar the last few weeks, he didn’t see me start training in capoeira.” XANA’s eyes widened realizing the implication of this. Smoker stepped forward for another attack, but the imposter used super smoke to escape. “Oh no you don’t.” Smoker followed using the same move.

XANA couldn’t escape, he couldn’t defend himself and he couldn’t land a hit. He had no knowledge on how to fight against this martial art. In one last desperate attempt he swung his sword, launching an energy slash only for Smoker to tumble on the ground then jump on him, manifest his sword and impale him with it. The impostor began to fade away but not before Smoker threatened him. “I’m coming for the rest of you.”

After finishing him off Smoker said in a tired tone. “What’s the status with the others?”

Jeremie answered him. “They are still fighting and Ladybug still needs help. Look, about what he said-”

Smoker cut him. “Not now, akuma first.” Jeremie stayed silent and Smoker headed for the akuma.

Chapter Text

After hearing Ladybug’s status, Chat Noir, Angel and Ryuuko wanted to go to help her but XANA and its monsters kept them at bay. “Guys, I will create an opening and you. Air dragon!” The dragon holder created a tornado and blew all the monsters away, leaving only Chat Noir, Angel and the scyphozoa at the eye of the storm.

“Cataclysm!” Chat Noir ran forward and jumped on XANA trying to hit it, the creature kept dodging until it was hit by forcefield, temporarily making it lose balance and buying enough time for Chat Noir to touch the monster.

As the monster disintegrated Ryuuko reverted back to her human form and Chat Noir ordered. “Angel, go ahead, me and Ryuuko need to recharge first.”

“Alright, stay sa-” Angel didn’t get to finish her sentence as she was shot twice by a nearby tarantula causing the girl to glitch a few more times and disappear.

“No!” Screamed at the two heroes, Ryyuko turned furiously toward the monster and destroyed it with a lightning dragon. “Damn it! We don't have time to waste, go recharge and head for Ladybug.”

—-----

Near l’Arc de Triomphe Ladybug was still dodging the lasers from the monsters, Kunoichi came to help her only for Singularity to chase after her. The others were still on their way here.

Multimouse stayed hidden and had to recharge her powers after all the scouting she did and dealing with the pain that came with the ‘death’ of the clone that was with Purple Cat. There must be something else I can do. I can’t just let Ladybug deal with everything alone. After transforming again Multimouse tried to kill the monsters, she wasn’t well equipped or as fast as others like Ryuuko, Chat Noir or Purple Cat but she tried.

In the middle of her fighting, something flew by and destroyed a crab monster. One of Kunoichi’s fans landed near her. Multimouse looked up to see Kunoichi still chased by the sentimonster. If I remember, their weapons don't work on that thing, did she lend me this? Multimouse picked up the fan and used it to slash the monsters, keeping it to herself instead of recklessly throwing it away. Having a blunt weapon made killing the monsters a bit faster and easier for her.

Meanwhile Carapace and Queen Bee and Rena Rouge arrived at l’arc de triomphe where they saw Ladybug trying to defend herself from the various monsters. Carapace Stayed by Rena Rouge’s side while Queen Bee landed near Multimouse. “Is that Kunoichi’s fan?”

Multimouse blocked another laser shot using said fan. “She lent it to me. It is a surprisingly useful weapon.”

“And you're surprisingly learning fast.” Queen Bee stayed close to Multimouse since she is still fairly new into this.

Seconds later Smoker joined in, immediately for the akuma only for the sentimonster to stop chasing Kunoichi and go defend the akuma. With two projects still active Mayura ordered Singularity to stay by the akuma’s side.

With the cavalry all here, the monsters fell one after the others, the tides of war began to shift and XANA started to feel frustrated. “Hey! Where are your nightmares, you can’t expect me to carry this whole thing alone.”

Sandboy whined back. “I’m trying! They are killing them faster than I can bring them out.”

Ladybug, using the absence of the firepower, jumped on Sandboy only to be intercepted by XANA the specter. The latter caught hold of Ladybugs’s fist and hold her in place. “Can’t have you kill my source of existence now, can we.”

“Your army is falling apart. Just give up.”

“I still have one last trick.” The specter jumped on Ladybug and seeped into her body.

Ladybug began to violently struggle, She felt her body moving involuntarily. “What’s…happening?” She kneeled in her place as she couldn't handle the pain and the severe headache she was experiencing.

Carapace hurried toward her. “Ladybug? Are you oka-” Not even finishing his sentence, Carapace felt a heavy punch in the gut and found himself thrown away.

Ladybug stood, straightened herself and looked at the rest of the heroes, all of them were shocked by the XANA symbol in her eyes. Kunoichi was the first to shout. “She’s possessed!” Kunoichi and Smoker stepped forward to restrain her while the others are standing still, still not processing that their leader has been brainwashed for the first time ever.

Hawkmoth has been just as shocked if not more by the possession of Ladybug. A few seconds of staring at Ladybug fighting against Smoker and Kunoichi, he ordered Sandboy to relay his message. “XANA! What’s Ladybug’s identity?”

“I don’t have access to her memories.” Replied the possessed Ladybug.

“Just detransform!” the order snapped the other others from their shock, they couldn’t let Ladybug just detransform right now.

“Not yet! We can use this to our advantage. This is our best chance to win. We just need Chat Noir right now.”

Rena Rouge then remembered the fact that Chat Noir and Ryuuko were not here yet. “Chat Noir, Ryuuko, hurry up Ladybug has been possessed.”

“WHAT!”

“We’re trying to restrain her for now but XANA seems even stronger while possessing her.”

Carapace, Queen Bee and Multimouse joined in restraining Ladybug. Ladybug, overwhelmed by their numbers, jumped back and said. “This is a bit too much for me. Tarantulas, bloks attack!”

The monsters began to attack, targeting specifically the holders. Ladybug took some distance from them and let Smoker and Kunoichi follow her. She taunted them while fighting. “What’s the matter? Is that the best you got? Come on, bring out your weapons.”

Their fight seemed to go nowhere until Chat Noir and Ryuuko Landed between them and kicked Ladybug away, Chat Noir stayed on his guard and cautiously approached Ladybug.

Ladybug on the ground groaned in pain. “Chat Noir,” She pleaded as she stretched her hand forward. “Help…me.”

Chat Noir slowly lowered his staff and approached her while extending his hand to reach her. At that moment, Kunoichi sensed something wrong and screamed. “Stay back!” Using her telekinesis she threw Chat Noir as far away as she could and ran to fight Ladybug.

Ladybug clicked her tongue as her plan was discovered and moved toward Kunoichi, the two engaged in hand to hand combat, Ladybug got close and reached for one of the fans in Kunoichi’s pocket and used it to behead her. The project fell to the ground and disappeared shortly after. “Good riddance.”

Smoker and Ryuuko, enraged, dashed forward but Ladybug proceeded to brutally beat both of them, kick to the knee, knee to the gut and repeated punches to the face. Ladybug lifted Ryuuko and took her miraculous before throwing her dozens of meters away. Smoker jumped to catch her fall and Ladybug didn’t waste time and placed the miraculous in her neck, as she did a red kwami appeared next to her. “You! Tell me how to transform.”

“Longg, bring the storm.” replied the scared kwami against his will, Ladybug repeated the words and transformed, her suit changed into a mix of the Ladybug outfit and the dragon outfit.

Rena Rouge, Carapace and Queen Bee, finally getting rid of the monsters in their way, all jumped on Ladybug, the fox hero then pleaded. “Come on Ladybug, snap out of it.”

Ladybug replied with a sadistic smile on her face. “Ladybug is no more, she is gone and you’re next.” As they were struggling to keep her, Multimouse used her ability and all her clones tackled the possessed holder. Ladybug struggled for a bit but stopped only to mutter. “Lightning dragon.” As she said those Multiple bolts of lightning discharged from her, electrocuting the nearby holders.

Chat Noir just stood there and watched as Ladybug emerged from the pile of unconscious clones, he didn't want to believe that this was Ladybug, that his reliable partner became this cold killing machine.

XANA marched toward him, jumped and swung her sword. Smoker came in at the last second and blocked the strike with his sword. “Come on Chat Noir, snap out of it! Ladybug needs you right now. Go for the akuma, that's the only thing that will free her.” Chat Noir snapped from his state of shock, nodded and went for Sandboy.

XANA stepped back and said. “Lightning dragon.” But nothing came out of it. The holder looked at her hand in confusion but Smoker wasted no time and used this to close the distance and kick her in the face. Smoker went in for another kick when XANA muttered. “Water Dragon.” The kick went through the body of water, XANA reformed her body to punch smoker away, she then said. “Water dragon.” Nothing happened. “Lightning dragon.” Nothing again. XANA clicked her tongue realizing the limitations of her power.

Meanwhile Chat Noir was chasing after Sandboy, the akuma kept fleeing the scene leaving nightmares behind him. Singularity also decided to be his bodyguard and a pain in the ass. Being a sentimonster also meant he just couldn't cataclysm it.

Smoker kept using his super smoker with the addition of his capoeira techniques, this annoyed XANA enough to force her to use her last power. “Air Dragon!” Creating a tornado from her hand, she blew away Smoker’s super smoke along with him.

After pushing Smoker away XANA jumped to chase Chat Noir only to hit something solid head-on and fall on the ground. She got up and looked at what stopped. A bright green wall was in front of her. “That’s-”

Carapace shouted. “Smoker! This is your chance to knock her out.”

XANA was stuck with Smoker as well as Queen Bee and Rena Rouge who just got up, Carapace is keeping himself and Chat Noir safe from outside the dome of Shell-ter. XANA took a step back. I’m not dying right now, not when I’m this close. Alright let's see what this has to offer. XANA threw her yoyo in the air and shouted. “Lucky Charm!”

As Ladybug said those words A giant pillar of light emerged from her, completely shattering the dome, the energy released blew everyone and everything in the vicinity away. The pillar of light grew wider and a few seconds later the light faded, leaving a giant red humanoid Creature in its place.

XANA laughed maniacally. “Fantastic! To think the miraculous had this much power.” She created a manta at her feet and rode it upward. Then created hornets to hover the head of the kolossus and cover one of its weakpoints. “Sandboy! Singularity! Take the high ground!” As soon as the akuma and the sentimonster got up on the Kolossus’ shoulder The latter lifted his sword-arm to prepare for a huge attack.

Kolossus hit a tall multi-story building, shattering all the windows in it, making the building crumble where the heroes were supposed to be. When the building completely crumbled Ladybug said. “That should have done the trick. Now let’s search for Chat Noir’s corpse.” As she said those words, a large boulder was toppled over and Chat Noir emerged from the rubble, not only that but a geyser of black smoke came from the ground and transformed into Smoker. “Is that what humans call a ‘jinx’?”

As the dust settled, the two remaining heroes looked at the situation they were in, The streets filled with rubble of the fallen building, the red giant creature standing not far from them staring at them, Ladybug riding a manta floating on one shoulder of the monster while Sandboy and Singularity were floating above the other shoulder.

Chapter Text

XANA, still possessing Ladybug, was staring at the destruction the Kolossus caused when Sandboy told her. “Hawkmoth is saying you proved your worth, now tell me the identities of the akuma fighters.”

“Alright, here you go.” XANA flicked her finger as she finished her sentence, at the same time words began to appear in the tablet Sandboy was holding. Boulogne-Billancourt, collège Kadic, the abandoned factory and a bunch of names that included Ulrich Stern.

Hawkmoth blinked a few times. Ulrich Stern? That boy?! He then relayed his message. “Ulrich Stern as in Cyber Samurai?”

“Yes, that one.”

Sandboy relayed Hawkmoth’s next message. “Can you prove it?”

XANA rolled her eyes and answered in a different voice and very annoyed tone. “Will you shut up already, look it’s my first time being an akuma and I’m already done hearing this crap, miraculous this miraculous that. Change the tune once in a while.”

Hawkmoth blinked a few times. That was our conversation using the psychic link I have with my akumas. That brat! All of this because I akumatized him. Hawkmoth breathed deeply to calm himself. No matter, everything worked out in the end, victory is closer than ever thanks to these series of events.

Meanwhile Smoker cursed from where he stood, the situation was getting worse by the minute and they were down to two heroes. “I know, I know!” his friends were screaming in his ears, a mix of giving him instructions, begging him to find a solution. Apologizing for everything they did to him. You’ve got a lot of nerve to beg for forgiveness right now.

Chat Noir was livid, that… thing not only possessed Ladybug but used her to beat their own teammates and tried to deceive him thinking Ladybug was still there. I always count on Ladybug to save the day, Am I really going to fail her the one time she needs me. Chat Noir heard Smoker screaming, an idea formed in his head. Nothing compared to the convoluted plans Ladybug makes but it might just work. No! It has to work! He ran toward Smoker. “I have a plan and I need you in it. *************”

“That could work.”

“We have to make it work. We have one chance at this. In the meantime we need to make it look like we are desperate and just aimlessly fighting.”

Just as they were about to finish their plans, the Kolossus lifted his sword-arm again .”They’re not waiting for us.”

Chat Noir ran forward ignoring everything around him, closing the distqnce on the Kolossus before he cuold swing that giant sword on him, as he got closer to it a small group of bloks manifested in front of him and started shooting their ice lasers toward him, as he dodged the lasers Smoker launched energy blades in the direction of the monsters killing them, opening a path for the cat hero. “Cataclysm!”

Chat Noir sprinted forward to hit the giant monster with his power only to be knocked down by a hornet crashing into him. As he attempted to get up he realized he cataclysmed a rock beneath him. “No!”

XANA, who was in the air besides Sandboy, said in an amused tone. “5 minutes until his detransformation, 3 minutes for the ladybug, 2 minutes 40 seconds for the dragon.”

The Kolossus raised his foot to stomp Chat Noir only for Smoker to carry him using his super smoke, the two landed on the ‘normal’ arm of the giant monster. As the two ‘climbed’ the arm of the Kolossus, XANA came down and stood in their way. “Going somewhere boys?”

The boys dashed toward XANA, the latter swung her sword to strike Chat Noir only to be parried by Smoker, giving the cat hero an opening to tackle the possessed hero, Smoker tried to attack XANA only to be met by the sentimonster who started chasing him.

The two holders continued with their fights, Chat Noir hit a heavy punch on Ladybug’s face, making her lose balance. After quickly recovering she said. “That one really hurt, I thought you loved me, mon chaton.” And went on the offensive again.

Chat Noir blocked her attacks and shouted. “Shut up and Leave her alone!” And punched her again.

XANA caressed her bruised left cheek as she said. “I never thought you were the type to hit girls, let alone your partner. Ladybug will really hate you after this, you know this?”

“I don’t care, She can hate me all she wants after I save her from you.”

“Well isn’t that just bittersweet.” XANA punched Chat Noir again as she finished her sentence, the latter didn’t falter and went on the offensive and punched in retaliation. She then saw his other hand approaching her, not a fist, an open hand as if to grab her, she stepped back, narrowed her eyes and said in a more dark tone. “You do realize what you’re doing?”

Chat Noir gritted his teeth as he failed to grab her earrings. “I know.”

“You try to beat me to a pulp and try to expose my identity, well aren’t you desperate. What will Ladybug think of this?”

“That Paris comes first.” Answered Chat Noir firmly before he resumed the fight.

On his side, Smoker tried to outrun and lose Singularity to no avail. the sentimonster didn’t stay far from the akuma either, he had no way to get close to him. Smoker kept trying to outmaneuver his opponent and there he saw it, an angle, an opening. Smoker instantly manifested his sword and threw it toward the akuma.

Color drained from XANA, Ladybug’s face. They wouldn't. As the sword was thrown she screamed. “NO!”

The sword passed by Singularity faster than it could activate its power, it was heading dangerously directly for Sandboy who just froze in his place only for the sword to miss him by a couple of meters and get planted on the Kolossus’ shoulder. “Fuck!” Screamed both Chat Noir and Smoker.

The scream snapped XANA from her shock. She turned and punched Chat Noir. “You scared the shit out of me, I'll give you that. But it all ends here, you have nothing left to use.” Ladybug jumped on Chat Noir and tried to snatch his ring, the two holders struggled to take the other’s miraculous while keeping their own, then Ladybug stopped when she heard an odd sound nearby. “What was that?”

She looked around but there was nothing, no one was there, then a memory flashed into her mind and she screamed. “Hawkmoth! activate Singularity! Right now!”

Sandboy was startled and didn’t know what to do but a moment later Singularity activated its power, the black hole expanded covering the entirety of the Kolossus’ head and shoulders. After retracting the black hole appeared two new figures: Rena Rouge and Queen Bee.

Ladybug Stood up and chased after them. Rena Rouge quickly pushed Queen Bee and shouted. “Go for it!” And ran toward Ladybug to tackle her, Ladybug tried to take her down but was stopped by Chat Noir.

Queen Bee was running toward Sandboy, as she did Singularity came into view and stood between her and the akuma. Are you kidding me? After all we have been through this thing still won’t stop.

XANA watched the situation, a smile slowly forming on her face. Singularity will take the hit for the akuma and absorb Smoker at the time and then there will be no hope for them. Checkmate.

Singularity’s head began to expand one more time, ready to absorb the project and apprehend Queen Bee, Queen Bee lost all hope but kept running forward anyway when something hit the sentimonster pushing him away from her and the akuma. Before she could think what happened she heard the screams. “DO IT!”

Before she knew it, Queen Bee paralyzed Sandboy and went to shred his pillow that contained the akuma. Smoker came in and took the akuma in his hand. “Good job.”

As she calmed herself Queen Bee noticed Smoker standing next to her. One hand holding the akuma while the other held something that surprised Queen Bee even more: Chat Noir’s staff. “You? you two planned this?”

“We planned to trick the sentimonster with this, Yes. We didn’t know about you girls but I sure am glad you came in.”

A few moments earlier, XANA watched as Smoker pushed the sentimonster away with Chat Noir’s staff and screamed. “No!” She tried to reach for the bee holder but was stopped by the heroes stuck to her like glue. as the akuma was released Ladybug shrieked intensely, the specter evaporated from her body. A moment later She found herself confused. “What happened?” She winced as she said those words, her face bruised like never before.

Chat Noir and Rena Rouge looked at her like she was back from the dead. “Ladybug!” shouted both as they hugged her.

“Ow! Ow! Ow!” Ladybug winced as she felt more pain from the rest of her body. “What happened?”

Chat began to explain. “It was crazy but we managed to-” He was cut off by the beeping of Ladybug’s miraculous. “We don’t have time, cast miraculous Ladybug and we will explain everything.”

“Okay? Wait ! Where is the akuma?”

“Right here” answered Smoker holding the butterfly by the wings.

After she purified the akuma Ladybug wanted to cast her cure when she remembered a little detail. “Where is my lucky charm?”

“We’re… Standing on it.” Answered Rena Rouge sheepishly.

Standing on it? Now that they said it, Ladybug wondered where they were. They seemed to be in high altitude and there was a lot of red around them, more like ladybug themed stuff around them as she looked around she gasped and shrieked. “What the hell is that?!”

“Sorry Ladybug but we don’t have time, cast the cure, recharge and we explain later.”

“Okay, okay, Miraculous Ladybug!”

After fixing everything, each of the holders went to recharge and come back. Ladybug came back and asked. “Can I know what happened now?”

Chat Noir stepped forward, took a deep breath and explained everything without taking another breath. “You were possessed, then you tried to take my ring, we tried to stop you but you were too strong so we went for the akuma and now everything is fine.”

Ladybug gapped, she tried to say something but words didn’t come out for a few seconds, the others refrained from commenting how Chat Noir broke her, and then she barely managed to say. “I-I was possessed? I hurt you guys? With that thing? No no no what have I done?!”

Before Ladybug went into full panic mode, Chat Noir moved near her and grabbed her shoulders. “Hey, hey, it’s ok we’re here, I know you’re terrified since this is the first time it happened to you but we got this, you don’t have to bear everything on your shoulders, you got all of us. You can count on us when things get tough.” Chat Noir and Ladybug glanced at their teammates who gave them each a nod of confirmation.

“I’m so sorry everyone, I don't know what to say, I-I don’t even remember any of it. I didn’t hurt you too much?”

“Nothing The good old miraculous Ladybug can’t fix.” Stated Rena Rouge.

“It’s ok dudette, the important thing is that we won and we fixed it.”

“Well if that is all, I’m heading back, I still need sleep.” Said Smoker before waving at them and disappearing.
.

After everything that happened, everyone returned to their home, returned the miraculous to Ladybug and hit the bed to hopefully have a few hours of sleep before the day started. Some of them found it difficult to do so, a nagging thought wouldn’t leave their mind. We won, right? Everything’s fine, right?

Chapter Text

The morning following Sandboy’s akumatization, Jeremie was listening to his teacher’s lecture, half of the words went over his head due to the lack of sleep he and the others suffered. Aelita next to him was not doing much better than him and Odd gave up completely and was sleeping on his desk with no care of the world.

In the middle of the lecture a certain beeping came from Jeremie’s laptop, a special sound that had one and one purpose only. It was not the activated tower alarm but something just as dangerous. Jeremie and Aelita stiffened and reached for the laptop to check the alarm.

Jeremie opened the surveillance camera software, there stood a figure, a tall blue human? Akuma? The individual was checking their surroundings and taking pictures of the supercomputer. It couldn’t be a coincidence, the timing was too perfect, Jeremie and Aelita couldn’t believe it. Hawkmoth must have found their lair, the supercomputer and most likely their identities.

The two shouted. “Infirmary!” And existed the classroom leaving their class confused as to what happened.

“No no no, what are we gonna do?” Asked Jeremie while watching the intruder snooping around the supercomputer.

“We need to call Ulrich, maybe he can contact Ladybug.” Suggested Aelita.

“Right,” Jeremie reached for his phone and dialed his friend. “Come on Ulrich, pick up.”

Ulrich was in a similar situation as his friends, lacking sleep and half listening to his lecture when he got a call from Jeremie. At that moment Ulrich stiffened. Jeremie calling me in the middle of class? The same day following Sandboy? Something wrong must have happened. Ulrich shouted. “Infirmary!” And left his class to answer the call. “Jeremie it’s me, what happened?”

“We have a problem, there’s an akuma in the lair, we’re compromised, XANA must have told Hawkmoth our identities.”

“Oh no no no, this can’t be happening!” Shouted Ulrich from the other side of the call, causing Jeremie to jerk away a bit from the phone. “What are we gonna do?!”

“We need you to contact Ladybug ASAP, we don’t know what Hawkmoth will do with the supercomputer.”

“Contact Ladybug? How am I supposed to-” Ulrich remembered something. “Wait, I think I know how. I’ll update you later.”

Ulrich went directly to Ms. Bustier's class. He reached the class, conveniently it looked like they didn’t have a lecture right now, he saw some of the students, including the girl he wanted to talk to. ”Hi Chloe, Hi Sabrina, can I borrow Chloe for a few minutes?”

“What do you want, Stern?” Asked Chloe while scrolling her phone.

“It’s a private matter.”

“If you're asking me out then it's no.” She answered without even lifting her eyes from the phone.

Ulrich rolled his eyes. “I wasn’t planning to, this is more serious I need you, or more specifically I need Queen Bee.”

Chloe stopped at the mention of Queen Bee and smiled amusingly. “Ok, I’ll see what you have to say. Sorry Sabrina, it won’t be long.”

Chloe followed Ulrich leading the way to somewhere they could talk in private, on the way she noticed his hands shaking a bit. “So what do you want?”

Ulrich nervously said. “I need you to call Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

“What? You want me to call Ladybug and Chat Noir? For what?”

“I will tell them that, will you help me?”

“Look I don't know what you need from them but I can’t contact them, they contact me.”

“Come on Chloe, I know you can, I can keep a secret.”

“I really can't, this is not about secrets.”

Ulrich glared at her. “Look, I’m not stupid, the day Lila got exposed, Ladybug was already in place to catch the butterflies, she clearly was ready for it, which means you,” He said while pointing his index finger at her. ”Must have told her about your plan to expose her.”

Chloe looked surprised then went into deep thoughts for a moment. “You’re right, she was ready but how did she know?”

“What? So you don’t know?” To which Chloe shook her head. “Then it must have been Marinette or Adrien, come on let’s go find them we don’t have time to waste.”

“Wait before you go, what is so important that it is making you afraid and need Ladybug and Chat Noir’s help.”

Ulrich didn’t want to say too much but he thought it was probably okay since this was Queen Bee. “Ok fine, it had to do with my nightmare, something happened that Ladybug couldn't fix with her miraculous ladybug.”

“That sounds serious, alright let me call Marinette.”

“What about Adrien?”

“As much as I hate to admit it, it must be Marinette, she was the one to finish the papers as fast as possible and it was really a last minute decision, not even Adrien knew about it. Also if he knew how to contact Ladybug he would have told me.”

“Okay then call her.”

Chloe searched for Marinette’s contact registered under ‘Stupid baker’s daughter’. Note to self, change that later. She dialed the number. “Marinette?”

“Yes Chloe?”

“Stern wants to talk with you, something really serious apparently.”

“Okay, I'm on my way.”

A minute later Marinette walked to the other two and asked. “So what’s the matter?”

“I need you to contact Ladybug and Chat Noir”

Marinette’s eyes widened and quickly tried to say something to defuse the situation. “W-What? What do you mean? And how will I do that?”

“Look I will tell them why, it has to do with Hawkmoth and they need to know about it, as for the how, the same way you did when Ladybug came to chase butterflies the day Lila got exposed. it’s either you, Chloe or Adrien who knows how to call her. So what is it gonna be?”

Marinette mentally cursed the fact they figured that part but quickly came up with an excuse. “Ok fine, I know how to contact Ladybug, she keeps in contact with students from different classes and schools to be aware of akuma more quickly, but this stays between us, I will do what I can do but I can’t guarantee that she will come.”

“Please, we’re all in danger if Hawkmoth makes his next move.” Pleaded Ulrich, the sense of danger and urgency didn’t go unnoticed which was weird to the girls since the boy had a reputation to be fearless.

“Alright, alright.”

“Can I come too?” Asked Chloe.

“I will see what Ladybug has to say.”

—---------------------------------------------

After ‘arranging’ a meeting, Ulrich and Chloe were now on the terrace of hotel Le grand Paris waiting for the arrival of the two heroes. “There they are!” Pointed out Chloe.

“Hi Chloe, Hi Ulrich,” Greeted Chat Noir. “We heard you had something important to tell us.”

“Yes, It’s about the nightmares of Sandboy.”

“What happened?”

“My nightmare was… XANA.”

The three immediately stiffened remembering that name, the ‘scars’ of the battle still fresh in their memories. Ladybug was the first to ask. “That XANA?”

“Yes, and I’m afraid it gets worse from here.”

“What do you mean? We de-akumatized Sandboy.”

“Yes but XANA must have told Hawkmoth our secret identities, and now he is trying to revive it and eliminate us.”

“Who’s we? Who are you talking about?”

“The akuma fighters,” The three’s expression was a mix of shock and confusion as to why their name came up now. “I was part of them before moving here, and after being akumatized, they decided to step up and help you guys against Hawkmoth.”

Chloe put a hand on her forehead and said. “Hold on, I’m gonna need a minute, this is starting to become too much.”

“We don’t have time, this morning my friends spotted an akuma or maybe it was Mayura since it was peacock themed in front of the supercomputer that powers up the akuma fighters. If Hawkmoth gets his hands on it, we are pretty much screwed, here look.” Ulrich handed his phone to Ladybug which showed the picture of the individual in question in front of what can only be described as a very advanced computer

“That does look like a peacock holder. Wait! I still don't know the most important thing here. What is XANA?” Asked Ladybug.

“Long story short, artificial intelligence that was stuck on the supercomputer, then freed itself and tried to rule the world and eradicate humanity. We destroyed all of its data last year, XANA said it wanted to be revived magically since scientifically speaking it was impossible.”

“How come we never have anything like this? Those monsters were not exactly subtle.”

“The monsters are only the virtual creatures he created that we fought in the virtual world, he did however affect the real world, mostly possessing electric devices. Then it escalated to possessing humans, creating an army of robots and even using a military satellite to redirect an asteroid to hit us.”

“Again! how come we never heard of this?”

“The supercomputer has a program called ‘return to the past’, you can guess what it does.”

Chloe asked in disbelief. “You’re kidding right?” Ulrich shook his head. “And why haven't you been using it like… All the time.”

“You can ask Jeremie later, he would explain it better than me.”

—-------------------

Ladybug, or more precisely Ladybug mixed with another miraculous arrived at the rendez-vous. “Your friends ready?” Ulrich nodded in confirmation. “Alright, here we go, Voyage!” A portal opened, Ulrich led the way, followed by Chloe Chat Noir and finally Ladybug.

On the other side of the portal the four teenagers found themselves in front of a factory, it looked old and abandoned. “They’re inside.” Ulrich entered the gate and yelled. “We’re here!”

A group came from their hiding spot, Ladybug and Chat Noir’s eyes widened as they recognised two of them. “You two?”

“You know them?!” Asked Chloe.

“They were in the last Face-to-face and asked us about their favorite projects. Now that I see you all, I can see the similarities.” Ladybug suspected his girlfriend was part of the group and Purple Cat was a no-brainer. “The only one who I can’t match must be the guy behind the computer, Jeremie, right?” Nodded said guy.

“Alright, first can you explain why you can't use the return to the past all the time?”

“Before that, William.” Ulrich called out, and walked toward the boy that looked like Smoker, William walked toward him, they stopped in front of each other when Ulrich said. “Do it.” To which William punched him in the face, making the boy fall on his back and covering his nose with hands.

“What was that for?!” Shouted Chat Noir

Ulrich raised his hand to not interrupt them. “It’s ok, I deserved that.”

“You deserved more than that but we have bigger problems now.”

Ladybug turned toward William and demanded. “Explain. Now.”

Ulrich began to explain instead. “I used to be jealous of him, I was a jerk and a bad friend at best. Last night, XANA used my memories to try to manipulate and hurt all of us, William received the worst of it. And it almost cost all our lives and Paris.”

“I’m not ready to forgive any of you yet, but Paris still needs to, so we need to work together on this.”

“Thanks and for what it’s worth I’m really sorry.”

Ladybug clapped her hands to get everyone’s attention. “Now that that is done, can we go back to our subject? Hawkmoth and why can’t we use the return to the past?”

Jeremie moved forward and began to explain. “You see, there are a few reasons for that: One, you already have your reset button.”

“Touché.”

“Two-a, XANA gets stronger each time it happens so there was a chance that nightmare XANA would be the same.“

“Of course it does.” Whined Chloe.

“Two-b, both us and XANA are unaffected by it and remember everything when it happens so nightmare XANA could still have both its and Ulrich’s memories and use it to its advantage.”

“How annoying can this AI get?” Whined Chloe again.

“And three, the supercomputer runs on a Uranium battery, and we can’t exactly afford one of those, and you guessed it : the ‘return to the past’ takes a lot of energy to activate.”

“Think Paris would lend us Uranium batteries if we say it’s to help us keep the city safe?” Suggested Chat Noir.

“I don’t think Paris would be willing to give teenagers radioactive material even if we plead our cause.” Ladybug entertained the idea for a moment before shouting. “I mean we’re getting sidetracked! we need to focus! Okay, so what we know so far is that your identities are exposed, Hawkmoth sent Mayura to investigate and is probably trying to use the supercomputer for himself.”

“Yes, we need a way to stop them before that happens. Also do you guys have a way to erase memories? Cause we don’t want them to out us.”

“The master may have something for that.”

Yumi replied. “That’s good and all, but we still have to capture Hawkmoth to do that, and no offense to you guys but it doesn’t look like we’re progressing in that department.”

The mood of the room soured, everyone tried to think up something until Ladybug lifted head and looked like she had an Eureka! moment. “Actually this may be our best chance to defeat him. He already tried akumatizing Markov into Robustus once, there is a chance he will do the same with the computer. And Boulogne-Billancourt is out of his reach which means he would need to come in person to do it.”

Aelita followed with. “So we trap him.”

“Exactly!”

“Alright, let’s plan our counterattack.”

Chapter Text

The evening following Sandboy’s akumatization, Nathalie Sanscoeur returned to the Agreste mansion after doing reconnaissance on her alter-ego’s enemies. She knocked on Gabriel's study to discuss with him what she had found.

Gabriel smiled at her arrival, excited to see her findings. He made sure to clear as much of his schedule as possible and even give his son some free time so he won’t bother them. “Welcome back. How did it go?”

“I found the factory, it had a massive supercomputer capable of who knows what. The security in it was impossible to crack even for me. I also found the other students in the college Kadic as XANA said. So far everything seems to be true.”

“Perfect, now we just need to figure out how to take that technology for ourselves.”

“I still think this is a bad idea.”

“This again?”

“Yes! This again, we don’t know what we are dealing with, we should definitely study it more instead of messing around with it.”

“That supercomputer may be too advanced for you,” Nathalie’s eye twitched at this statement. “But at the end of the day it is still technology, if we can’t crack it naturally we could just use some magic to do it.”

“We’re going to uncharted territory by trying to mix magic and technology, don’t you remember Robustus? You akumatized him and he turned on us. And XANA tried the same-”

“It did not-”

“Yes it did! Are you blind? It took possession of Ladybug, refused to detransform and tried to take the black ring for itself.”

“It tried to take the ring for us, I had everything under control with Sandboy.”

“Up until it took control of Ladybug, then you just followed its every order because that’s the closest we have been to reaching our goal, however XANA was about to take it right from under our noses.”

“And what would XANA need the miraculous for?”

“Isn’t it obvious? Revive itself, that thing was focused on its goal from the beginning, and we still don’t even know why it wanted to be revived in the first place? For all we know XANA is a bigger threat than any of us could ever imagine.”

“Now you’re just being paranoid, at the end of the day XANA is AI and the akuma fighters are virtual fighters, all those monsters were just the virtual creatures it used to fight. No one has seen or heard anything resembling XANA in Paris, I terrorize Paris on a daily basis and the whole world knows it. The only reason XANA was strong was because Sandboy made the monsters real.”

“You’re not changing your mind, are you?”

“We’re this close to reaching our goal, every battle makes us closer to the victory,” Gabriel started to raise his voice “And I will not stop just because of a hypothetical threat! Don’t you want to be healed too?”

Nathalie lowered her gaze and bit her lip. “Of course I do. Just be careful, I don’t want us to mess this up when we’re close.”

Gabriel calmed himself down and replied. “I will keep that in mind.”

Later that night, Gabriel knocked on Nathalie’s room, after she allowed him to enter he began to say. “I thought about what you said and I have a plan.”

“I’m listening.”

“We will use the peacock to create a sentimonster to create a virus that will infect the supercomputer and give it sentience, then we akumatize it using the butterfly. This way we get the powers of the supercomputer while avoiding to revive XANA itself, and we both have a way to stop the akuma-sentimonster hybrid.”

“That sounds… good enough, but I’m telling you right now, I will abort the moment I notice something going south.” Gabriel nodded and left the room. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day. Hopefully the last of this charade with Ladybug and Chat Noir.

—---------------------------------

The next day, Jeremie and Aelita were in their class when the alarm went off, the same alarm for surveillance that meant they came back. Odd gave them a nod and the two immediately excused themselves. When they both reached Jeremie’s room the two transformed into Python and Trojan respectively.

Trojan teleported somewhere else and left Python to sit in front of his desktop where he saw the multiple camera views placed around the location of the final battle : Places des vosges. “Python to the team, Hawkmoth and Mayura are in front of the supercomputer. Everyone ready?” The team gave a chorus of confirmation. “Let’s begin. Second chance!” After saying those words he started to give instructions to everyone. “Queen Bee and Chat Noir, you fight Hawkmoth. Ladybug and Ryuuko, you fight Mayura. Shelldude and Trojan proceed as planned. Queen Bee you must venom him before unmasking him, the revelation will be quite the shock. Ladybug, do not let Mayura escape after he’s revealed.”

The part about the revelation made everyone anxious and nervous about what’s to come, Ladybug took a moment to take it in and said. “You heard Python, now go!”

Trojan, who was in the factory right now, fed her kwami real quick, re-transformed and used her voyage to teleport Hawkmoth and Mayura away from the factory and into the public park.

The two villains found themselves falling into a portal and transported elsewhere. They didn’t have time to process anything before they heard. “Shell-ter!” The next moment they found themselves inside a green dome, surrounded by four holders : Ladybug, Chat Noir, Queen Bee and Ryuuko.

Ladybug began by shouting. “Lucky charm!” Manifesting a pair of handcuffs. “Today we end this!”

Hawkmoth readied his stance and replied. “Fine! We’ll take your miraculouses one way or another.”

For the next couple minutes, the six holders fought with everything they got, the heroes brought their A-game into this fight, Hawkmoth and Mayura could do nothing at their onslaught. They attempted to break the shell-ter but were stopped immediately in their tracks, the turtle holder stayed outside the dome just observing and waiting.

The dome and the fight attracted the attention of the public, civilians began to record the fight, Police cars parked nearby, the policemen ready to engage. Soon a TV crew also arrived and began broadcasting the fight.

Chat Noir parried and disarmed Hawkmoth, giving an opening for Queen Bee. “Venom!”

Upon seeing Hawkmoth getting hit and frozen in place, Mayura pushed away Ladybug and rushed to save him, only to be hit by a lightning strike from behind, then tackled and handcuffed by Ladybug.

Now, all that was left was the unmasking, Chat Noir took a deep breath as he took the brooch from Hawkmoth, The other holders, the police and just about everyone else watched the scene with great anticipation. “Stop it! Don’t do it!” Shouted Mayura as she tried to free herself from Ladybug's grasp. As soon as the brooch left Hawkmoth’s body, the suit dissolved in a flash of light leaving only Gabriel Agreste.

Gabriel’s face was now reflected on the phones of everyone present, saved for everyone to see and share. In the middle of all of the flashes, whispering and gasps of shock, Chat Noir said a word no one thought they would hear. “Father?”

For a couple of seconds silence hit the park, Chat Noir’s words stopped everyone in their tracks, even Mayura stopped and gaped at him. The next flashes of camera and shouting started again, even more overwhelming than before.

In the middle of all of this Ladybug snapped from her shock when she heard Python ask her. “Ladybug, the peacock and the potion.” Ladybug took the peacock brooch from Mayura, now revealed as Nathalie Sanscoeur, then sprayed both their prisoners with a magic powder meant to erase their memories of the last few days.

After the police took Gabriel and Nathalie, the others took off to the rooftops lifting with them the unresponsive Chat Noir.

A portal opened close to them and from it emerged Python and Trojan, as soon as they came out Queen Bee marched toward them and grabbed Python by the collar. “Why! Why did you make him fight his own father?!”

Shelldude stood next to them and grabbed Queen Bee’s arm. “Let go and let him explain himself.”

Before Queen Bee decided to let him go Python began to explain. He said in a tired tone. “It was the only way, I tried to make him fight Mayura instead, but It never worked out, everytime she would use the shock to her advantage and take the ring. We tried a lot of things but at the end of day no matter how many chances we get it will not change the fact that Gabriel Agreste is Hawkmoth or that his son Adrien Agreste is Chat Noir. For what it's worth I’m sorry about your friend.”

Queen Bee loosened her grip on his collar and bit her lip. She hated to admit it but he was right and she wouldn't know what to do in his place instead. She mentally cursed. Why did it have to be them both?

Ladybug finished dealing with the police and joined her team. “I-I don’t know what to say, this was not the victory I had in mind.”

“None of us could have foreseen this.” added Ryuuko while rubbing Chat Noir’s back.

Python coughed to get everyone’s attention. “I’m sorry to say this but there is still something else that needs to be taken care of.”

“What is it?”

His gaze shifted toward Chat Noir “It has to do with you and I’m not sure you can handle it, but one way or another you are going to know about this.”

Chat Noir faltered. What else was there? Did he commit other crimes on top of being Hawkmoth? His mind rushed with ideas, each worse than the previous. Ladybug put her hand on his shoulder and nodded at him. She was going to be with him through the end.

Trojan teleported the group to their next destination, the basement of the Agreste mansion. The place felt surreal, with dim lighting and a small garden in front of them. The team kept staring, a mix between awe and eariness, then Ladybug broke the silence. “So, what are we supposed to find here?”

Python looked around the big sci-fi looking tube, searching for something. He found and pushed a button that revealed the inside of the tube: Emilie Agreste.

Python started to explain again. “In some of the iterations, Ha-Mr. Agreste mentioned how he wanted to use the miraculous to revive his wife, he even tried to convince Adrien to give up his ring, unsuccessfully of course. He went into details about how she was in a magical coma from using the broken peacock and was still in the basement of the house.”

Python realized that halfway through the explanation Chat Noir broke down on his knees, crying his eyes out. He gave him a moment of silence as the others went to comfort him and reassured him and they were here with him.

“What’s going to happen to her?” Asked Queen Bee.

“I can ask the guardian if there is something that can help her condition…” Ladybug stopped herself before she talked about the alternative.

Trojan teleported the team and the unconscious woman to their last destination where they met the guardian.

The guardian glanced at Ladybug. “I saw the footage, I’m so sorry young Adrien, what happened after that?”

“We found out thanks to the snake miraculous Gabriel wanted to revive his wife who used the broken peacock. We brought her hoping you have something that could cure her.”

“Using a broken miraculous is not something that can be cured easily, I will have to diagnose her to see how deep the damage is.” He turned to face Adrien. “You need to rest, these days are going to be hectic for you.”

Chapter Text

After the revelation of the final battle, Paris has been chaotic to say the least : Immediate celebration by small parties, social media flooded with #Hawkmothisdefeated and #AdrienAgrsteisChatNoir, authorities raiding the Agreste Mansion, people already planning to riot against Gabriel Agreste’s brand and the question of where Adrien Agreste was right now.

Ladybug made a public appearance and announced. “Adrien Agreste also known as Chat Noir will be staying with the guardian of the miraculous for the time being. Now that the reign of Hawkmoth is gone Paris is freed from the akuma. The miraculous will appear less and less. I talked with the people responsible for Project : Akuma fighters, they are shutting down and only be reused in case of another great evil. That will be all.” Ladybug swung away with her yo-yo after finishing her speech.

At the guardian’s shop master Fu announced. “It’s getting late kids, your parents and friends might start to worry. We will resume our work tomorrow.”

Jeremie and Aelita went back to Kadic and told the rest what happened. Ulrich went back home where his parents asked if he was okay. The same happened to Kagami, Marinette and Chloe who also said she won’t be answering to any of the press.

—--------------------------------------

The next day the team returned to the guardian’s shop, Ladybug asked first. “How are you doing?”

“Could be better, I had a hard time sleeping.”

The group made small talk when Wang Fu clapped his hands to get everyone’s attention. “I have finished my diagnosis,” Adrien gulped, waiting for the master to announce the result. “She will live, but her body is likely not to make a full recovery, she will live sickly for the rest of her days.”

“That’s… Thank you master.” Adrien tried to say more but stopped himself. This was already good enough and the guardian probably did everything he could to save his mom.

Chloe then said. “Adrien, daddy told me your aunt and cousin are coming to Paris today, apparently there was some talk about her taking custody of you since… you know.”

“I see, and how do we explain my mother’s situation to them?”

“I’m not sure about that, my guess is it will come out with… your father’s trial.”

“I… didn’t even think about that. What’s gonna happen? What are we gonna do?”

Ladybug closed on him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Easy now, you don’t have to worry about all that. Take your time, we will be with you all the way.”

—--------------------------------------

The trial of Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie Sancoeur happened next week, both admitted to their overwhelming long list crimes, between enslaving their victims, temporarily killing civilians, losing the city tons of money due to the akuma fight putting parts of or the entire city on hold and thousands suffering from emotional damage. The two had a lot to answer to.

The guardian, Ladybug and the rest of the team all vouched and defended Adrien Agreste a.k.a. Chat Noir from parties questioning his involvement in his father’s activity.

Gabriel of course tried to plead that he wanted to revive his wife and that everything would have been back to normal with a final miraculous ladybug. The judge however was having none of it and the duo’s sentence did not shrink. Death penalty for both.

Adrien lowered his head as he heard the verdict, he knew it was coming but it still hurt him deeply.

—--------------------------------------

A few days later, the Graham-De-Vanily family was ready to go back to London in a few hours. Adrien said his farewells to his school friends and only his hero friends remained. Which brought him to the abandoned factory with the rest of the team thanks to the horse miraculous. “I guess this is it. I wanted to thank you for your help. I’m gonna miss you all.”

“You know we have the horse, right?” Said Aelita.

“And you have Astro Cat.” Continued Ladybug.

“Let me have this moment, okay!”

Jeremie added. “I guess this wraps up everything, aside from Ladybug’s identity.” Everyone turned toward Ladybug to see what she had to say about this now that everything was over.

Ladybug nonchalantly replied. “I guess I can reveal myself now, and finally put the secrets behind us.”

“Wait,” Everyone turned to the source of the voice, Chloe who said. “Can I take a guess?”

Ladybug’s heartbeat increased and she smiled nervously. “Oh? You think you figure it out? Since when?”

“Fairly recent.”

Ladybug tried to think if she made a mistake these days, the lila incident was the only thing that came to mind but they didn’t figure her out there. “Alright, take your shot.”

“Wait! Einstein, do you know her identity?” Asked Odd. The others also realized if the boy knew about Hawkmoth and Chat Noir maybe he knew about Ladybug too.

Jeremie adjusted his glasses and answered. “I learned my lesson with Chat Noir, and in the few times it happened I quickly reset. I only heard the first syllable.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t want to affect her guess and potentially ruin the surprise.”

Eyes were back on Queen Bee who took a deep breath and said. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” The name surprised quite a few, including Ulrich and Yumi, who should have had minimal interactions with Parisians. Now they turned toward Ladybug to wait for her answer.

Ladybug looked surprised for a moment and smiled at them. “Bingo. Tikki, spots off.”

Chloe looked at Marinette then at Tikki and shouted. “I fucking knew it! God dammit I’m so stupid! This is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

“Marinette?” Said Kagami and Adrien.

Both were still shocked when Ulrich said. “You? You tricked us into thinking Ladybug had confidants.” He then remembered something else. “Wait a minute, you tricked me to join the fencing team where Chat Noir and Ryuko were.”

“In my defense, I didn’t know Adrien was Chat Noir at the time.”

“But you still tricked me.”

Marinette faked being offended. “Excuse you, I'm a hero, I don’t trick people, I guide them.”

Ulrich rolled his eyes. “Sure you do, Saintbug.”

“Marinette is Ladybug.” Adrien began to say, attracting the attention of everyone. “Ladybug was behind me in class this whole time and I didn’t even notice!”

“Neither of you did actually.” Commented William.

“Oh I’m definitely taking the horse, there is no way I’m going to London now that I know who m’lady is and leave her alone with my competition.”

Odd tilted his head. “You’re still mad about that. I already told you I was joking, you can have her if you want.”

“Oh I wasn’t talking about you this time.” He finished his sentence glancing toward Chloe, who had a furious look on her face.

Marinette gaped at her. “You? Had a crush, on me?”

“On Ladybug! Not you.”

“Well they’re the same person.” Noted Aelita.

“I didn't know that!”

“Don’t beat yourself over it, Half of Paris has a crush on Ladybug,” Commented Yumi. “Even my little brother. Boy, if I tell him he met Ladybug without knowing he would go insane. He would definitely join the competition for Ladybug’s love.”

“He’s not the only one.” Added Kagami, making everyone burst into laughter except for Ladybug herself, who started turning red even though she didn’t transform.

“Someone’s really popular.” Teased Odd.

Ulrich smirked as an idea popped in his head and he said. “Odd, did you know? She is the daughter of the Dupain-Chengs, the tom-et-sabine boulangerie, the best bakery in all of Paris.”

Odd’s eyes widened. “What! Why didn't you tell me sooner?! Sign me up, I’m in!”

Jeremie added. “My condolence to your bakery miss Dupain-Cheng, it will go bankrupt a month after you marry him.”

“I better be your best man for making this happen.” Said Ulrich.

“I'm not marrying anyone! We’re too young for that!”

After calming down, little jokes here and there Adrien asked.“Are you going to tell Alya your identity?”

“I guess, how do you think she will take the reveal?”

“We should definitely prank her.” Said Odd with a wide grin on his face.

“No I’m not gonna-” Marinette’s eyes widened as she thought of something. “Actually, I have the perfect prank in mind.”

—----------------------

The next day, Alya just entered the bakery and greeted the Dupain-Chengs. “Hello Mr. Dupain, Hello Mrs. Cheng, Is Marinette in her room?”

“Yes, she is waiting for you, she seemed pretty excited to work on something. What are you girls working on anyway?”

Alya shrugged. “I have no idea, she just called me now and told me she needed help.”

“Well, if you need anything just call us.” Alya nodded and went up to Marinette’s room.

As she opened the trap door she saw Marinette noticing her. “Hey Alya, you came in just in time.”

“In time for what exactly? You didn’t mention anything.”

“Oh of course silly me, I’m working on a new dress and-Oh wait I forgot something.” Marinette searched for something in her purse. She then brought out money and extended her hand to Alya.

Alya looked confused for a second. “What is this?”

“Your money of course.”

Alya scratched her head. “Did I lend you money? I don’t remember when.”

“No silly, it was from the bet, the forty euros?”

“A bet? forty-” Alya realized what she meant. But that can’t be. How did she know? Alya smiled nervously and asked. “What bet was it again?”

Marinette stared at her unimpressed. “The bet you had with the two furries.”

Alya gapped at her. “How do you even know about-” She looked at Marinette as if she saw something she never saw before then her eyes widened. “No way,” She whispered. “Ladybug?” The word was barely heard, probably an instinct to not out her identity.

“Bingo!”

“Oh. My. God. You were Ladybug all this time, I am in the same class as Ladybug, I am Ladybug’s best friend!”

“Wanna sit down before your brain fry.” Alya did as instructed and extended her hand to Marinette’s face as if she would disappear if she touched her. “I’m not a mirage.” Commented the girl as if reading her mind. Alya pinched Marinette’s cheeks who winced in pain and said. “You’re supposed to pinch yourself, not me!”

“Oh, my bad. This is surreal.”

“The pain is real.” She said, rubbing her cheeks.

“So, If you’re telling me, does that mean others know?”

“Yeah, there is Chat Noir of course.”

“Oh my god! Both my OTP were one and the same.”

“The akuma fighters.”

“Wait, why? How? And who are they?”

“I was hoping to tell you in an interview. Of course you would have to be more professional than whatever this is.” She gestured to Alya as whole who was still flabbergasted.

“And finally Ryuko and Queen Bee.”

Alya gapped at her offended. “You told Chloe before me? Your BFF!”

“I didn’t tell her! Believe it or not she figured it out on her own, as much as I hate to admit it.” Said Marinette, offended by the idea, pouted while crossing her arms.

“Chloe figured out Ladybug’s identity before I did. Oh my god, She will never let me live this one down.”

Suddenly, Alya’s phone pinged and she saw a message that displayed. “No, I won’t.” Alya raised her eyebrow. “Wait a minute, is she hearing us now?” Alya started to look for something. “Did you record all of this?” Marinette nodded. “Marinette Dupain-Cheng! You didn’t just prank me about your secret identity and have it recorded for Chloe to see.”

“Her, Ryuko, Chat Noir and the akuma fighters.”

Something must have broken inside Alya because she started to laugh hysterically. “I’m going to kill you.”

Marinette reached for the hidden camera and shouted. “Help! Crazy psycho friend is about to kill me.”

Chapter Text

Jeremie was very paranoid when it came to XANA, so much so he had the ‘return to the past’ program ready in a window one button away from launching it. So when XANA took possession of Ladybug and tricked Chat Noir that Ladybug was still there and took it for itself, Jeremie pushed it with no hesitation.

Jeremie woke up the morning of that same day, tonight Sandboy is going to get akumatized and XANA temporarily revived and they need to prevent that. He immediately called Ulrich. “We need to talk.”

Ulrich answered him from the other end of the phone. “Been a while since we had a return to the past. Ok so what happened?

“XANA got hold of Ladybug.”

“Crap, how are we gonna fix this?”

“We need to warn Ladybug and Chat Noir about Sandboy tonight.”

“And how are we gonna do that without sounding suspicious or revealing the supercomputer?”

Jeremie thought for a few seconds.“Okay, Here’s what you’re gonna do…”

—--------------------------------------

Later that day in school, Ulrich asked Chloe about contacting the heroes which led to them now asking Marinette about the same topic. “Why do you need to contact Ladybug and Chat Noir?” Asked the pigtailed girl.

“I need to warn them about a potential danger. Sandboy is going to get akumatized tonight and it does not end well for the heroes.”

Both girls looked skeptical and Marinette asked. “And you know that because?”

“Sometimes I have visions of the future.”

Chloe looked at him like he finally lost it. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Why would I joke about future visions and Ladybug losing the fight against Hawkmoth?”

“Prove it.” Said Marinette.

“What?”

“I said prove it.”

“How would I- I can’t just- You know what? Fine. Think of a word or a sentence and I will tell you what it is.”

Marinette hummed for a few seconds. “Done, so what is it?”

“Mom is preparing a new darnish recipe for Thursday.”

Marinette looked shocked.“You’re… right.”

“No way! Do me next!” Exclaimed Chloe happily.

“What?! No!”

“Why not?!” Whimed Chloe.

“Do her next if you want me to believe you.”

Ulrich turned to Marinette again. “Are you serious right now?!” She nodded. “You have no idea how tiring this is.” She firmly crossed her arms. “Alright, alright.”

“So?”

“That Queen Bee jacket I saw yesterday was good but I can get a personal designer to make something far better.”

“Oh my god! This is amazing. Why haven't you told anyone about this?”

“I want to be a martial artist, not a fortune teller,” He turned to Marinette. “Convinced?”

“Yes.”

“Great. Now tell them Sandboy will be in l’arc de triomphe around two in the morning tonight. You need all hands on deck for this.”

“Why?”

“In my vision the akuma fighters were there, four of them along with others miraculous heroes and they still lost. One of the nightmares was too strong. Ideally Ladybug brings her team and intercepts Sandboy before he awakens that nightmare.”

—--------------------------------------

That night Hawkmoth stood flabbergasted as Sandboy was jumped on by not one, not two, but eight holders, including an army of Multidude and a new holder that called herself Miss Hound.

The next morning Marinette came to school and brought with her a box of pastries, when she saw Ulrich, she greeted and handed the pastries to him. “Ladybug wanted to thank you for the warning, the akuma was there just like you said.”

“I’m glad I helped.”

“She also wanted to know if you could do that more often.”

Ulrich thought for a moment for an excuse. “It's hard to control, sometimes it happens randomly, but if I have another vision I will warn you.”

Marinette beamed. “Thanks. Have a nice day.” She waved at him before going with her day.

—--------------------------------------

Ulrich met Marinette a few days later. “Ryuuko is sick today, tell Ladybug to not bring her in, she will try to hide because she is too proud and it didn’t end well.”

“Oh, thanks again. Come by the bakery later, I will leave you something to take home.”

“Are you bribing me with pastry?”

“It’s not bribery!”Shouted the girl. She nervously tried to come up with an excuse. “It's a reward.”

Ulrich looked unconvinced. “Ah-huh. Bribe accepted.”

—--------------------------------------

“Hey, Chloe.”

”Morning, Stern.”

“Don’t use your Venom today, okay?”

“What? How am I gonna shine if I don’t use my signature move?”

“Okay, I guess we are losing to Hawkmoth today. Time to move out of Paris. It has been good knowing you all.”

“Ugh, alright, alright. I won’t use it.”

—--------------------------------------

“Tell Chat Noir to remove his belt before fighting. Oh and apparently you guys have a pop quiz third period and it didn’t end well.”

“And you’re telling me just now?! Why didn't you tell me yesterday?”

Ulrich raised an eyebrow at her. “That’s not how that works. I don’t have control, remember? If I did, I would not have flaked my grades so much.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that. Sorry, gotta go! I have to save my grades.”

—--------------------------------------

“Avoid fighting near the bakery if you don’t want to be exposed.”

Marinette nodded her head. “Thanks,” Then Ulrich's words sunk in her mind. “Wait! What do you mean by that? I’m not a hero.” She said nervously and tried to sound convincing.

Ulrich replied to her with a dead serious expression. “I know what I said.”

“Oh, well emm- I guess it can’t be helped. Nice to officially meet you, Multidude.”

“Nice to officially meet you, boss.”

“Never been called that before, it feels weird.”

“Get used to it.”

—-------------------------------------

Marinette was happily walking toward carrying a small box with her. Since Ulrich can’t control his power, maybe Sass would help him improve. “Morning Ulrich, here’s the mira-”

“Nope, I tried it, it sucked. It was way too confusing. I almost lost my mind there. I work best in the frontline.”

Marinette’s smile dropped and looked disappointed but accepted his decision.

—-------------------------------------

While at home, Ulrich’s mother called him. “Ulrich?”

“Yes?”

“Why do you keep bringing so many ‘Tom & Sabine’ pastries home?”

“I’m friends with their daughter.”

“And she gives all her friends pastry?”

“Yes, but I’m also helping in martial arts and it's her way of showing gratitude.”

His mother seemed satisfied with his answer. Ulrich then hurried to his phone and typed Marinette's number.

Ulrich : “If someone asks, I’m helping you with martial arts and you’re giving me pastry as thanks. In fact, let’s do that, you probably could use some extra training.”

Marinette looked at her phone confused but went along with his idea. “Okay.”

—-------------------------------------

Odd : “Hey, we need some compensation for this. Why is it only Ulrich that gets the pastries?”

Ulrich : “Stop thinking with your stomach, Odd.”

Aelita : “No no, he’s got a point. We all suffer yet only you get the rewards.”

Yumi : “I’m with them in this.”

William : “Same.”

Jeremie : “Same.”

Ulrich : “Traitors.”

That night, Ulrich kept thinking he should come clear and reveal everything to Ladybug. It was a bit unfair that they knew her identity and she didn’t know theirs.

—-------------------------------------

Somewhere else, Hawmkoth was fuming as his plans to get the miraculous seemed to further away from him. Why was his nemesis so flawless?! And why were those projects even stronger than before?!

Chapter Text

After the defeat of Hawkmoth, the guardian decided to keep the miraculous active in Paris, to help the city recover after those months of suffering and let its citizens heal. He also let the former akuma fighters each have a miraculous to help them too; He didn’t understand the science behind the source of their powers but he understood that it cost a lot to maintain unlike the miraculous.

He assigned Ladybug as their leaders since she was training to be the next guardian and she needed to know how to manage her team. The latter decided to make small groups, each could go on a patrol together or do some missions and build their powers, teamwork and relationships.

—--—--—--—--—--

Rena Rouge and Carapace were on their way to the rendez-vous point with Trojan and Python to begin their patrol. The duo reached the location when they saw an unknown duo of holders, including a peacock holder. They immediately took a fighting stance and Rena demanded first. “Who are you and how did you get the miraculouses?”

The peacock and the rabbit holder looked confused before the rabbit answered. “Hold on It’s us, Python and Trojan, we changed miraculouses.”

Both the turtle and the fox looked confused. “You changed miraculouses? Why? From what I heard you did well with the others.”

The peacock holder began to explain. “The ones we used last time were necessary for the mission, I for one like creating things so I requested the peacock now that it is repaired. I would have loved to try the ladybug but it’s taken. I’m Paonge by the way.”

“And you?”

“For the longest time I was always the one staying behind in lines and watching my friends get hurt, and I wanted to change that so I asked Ladybug for something more frontal. I go by Code Runner.”

“That means he is a newbie so expect him to mess up a bit.” Paonge Commented, earning her a light punch in the shoulder from her boyfriend.

“That’s okay,” Carapace said . “We’ve been there before.”

“Yeah,” Rena said before she lowered her head. “Also sorry for jumping to conclusions… for the second time.”

Paonge replied. “It’s okay, I didn’t even know about the first time until much later. Thankfully nobody was hurt that day.”

Code Runner continued. “If you don’t mind me asking, how are you two doing?”

Carapace and Rena looked at each other. “We’re back together and we are working on being more respectful of each other’s hobbies and privacy.”

“That’s a good start.” Said Paonge, a hint of guilt over what happened between the two.

Carapace sensed the atmosphere turning awkward and tried to change the subject. “So you’re the guy behind the screens, must be some giant sci-fi looking machine to be able to do all the crazy things the fighters do.” An idea popped in his mind. “You could maybe talk with our friend Max, he's a genius I tell you, he even made a sentient AI robot named Markov. It's his best friend.”

Code Runner smirked and replied. “Not to undermine your friend, but I would like to think defeating an evil AI from conquering the world is better.” He turned his face toward Paonge. “And I don’t need an AI best friend when I already have a cute AI girlfriend.”

Paonge looked at him fondly. “Aww, that was so charming. For a moment there I almost thought it was your clone.”

Carapace and Rena Rouge both looked confused as the conversation sounded so otherworldly. The latter asked. “AI girlfriend? Clone? What does that mean?”

They both smiled at them. “A story for another day. Come on, we still have a patrol to do.” Code Runner then shouted. “Race you to the Louvre! Accelerate!” And leaped far away.

Paonge followed after him shouting. “Hey! That’s cheating!”

Then the other two jumped after them. “Wait up! What does that mean?! Don’t leave us hanging!”

—--—--—--—--—--

Police arrived as soon as they could but it was too late, one of the banks of PNB Paribas was already robbed, the criminals already fled the scene and worst yet, they took two hostages, a boy and his mother.

Team Miraculous came here as fast as they could, The police officers however did not recognize these new holders. “Who are you?”

“Miss hound, current dog miraculous holder.”

“Kunoichick, former akuma fighter, current rooster miraculous holder.”

Miss Hound then said. “We came as fast as we could. What’s the status?”

The sergeant, Roger, said. “Witenesses said they are at least 6 robbers, they took off in a van southeast, then we lost them near an alley where they changed vehicles. The hostages include a mother and her son.”

“Do you have anything that belongs to the hostages or the robbers?”

Roger brought a Chat Noir figurine that most likely belonged to the kid. The dog holder grabbed it and said. “Seek my prey!”

Her power activated and a luminous trail visible only to her was shown hovering the road where the criminals went. “I have their scents now, let’s move.”

“Take flight!” Kunoichick used the power of her miraculous, the levitation, to fly with a Miss Hound and have a bird’s view of the road and where the criminals went.

The holders flew for some time before they stopped directly above the place where the trail of Miss Hound’s power. She informed her team. “This is the place, It’s your turn now.”

The robbers hid in a warehouse, waiting for things to die down before escaping. One man dragged the hostages to tie them while the others began to count their loot.

They stopped what they were doing at the sound of the door being smashed open. “Hands up in the air where I can see them!”

The criminals looked confused for a bit. “Is that kid? Beat it, punk. This is none of your business.”

“Wait, is that one of those miraculous heroes?!”

“No way, I don’t recognize this guy. He looks more like a martial artist.”

“Hey karaté kid, You don’t think you can beat all of us alone, do you?”

Multidude raised his eyebrow. “You guys are not keeping up with the news, are you? let me give you an update, Multitude!”

After announcing his move, multiple clones emerged from him and lined up next to the original. The one man army then went and attacked the five criminals in front of him.

The sixth man showed up later, holding the hostages. He shouted. “Stop! I have the kid with me here!” He declared, shaking the kid for emphasis and holding him at gunpoint. “Back off and nobody gets hurt.”

“Okay, okay.” All of the clones lifted their arms in the air as a sign of surrender.

“That’s good, now you’re gonna let-”

“Venom!”

Before he could react, the sixth man found himself paralyzed, hit by Queen Bee’s trompo from behind.

Queen Bee shouted. “They are safe, you’re good to go.”

Hearing her confirmation, Multidude smiled in a sinister manner. “Roger that.” He resumed beating up the rest of the criminals and rounding them up.

The small team waited for the police to arrive and take the criminals from them. The police officer thanked them. “Thank you, team miraculous.”

“You’re welcome.” The team nodded and jumped away somewhere else.

They were now on a rooftop chatting when Queen Bee had an idea. “You know what I’m thinking: our little squad should have its own name and leader. I’m thinking: The colony and moi as your leader and queen.”

Kunoichick looked at her, clearly not impressed. “Your intentions are wide open, you just want some authority to make yourself look good. If anything I should be the leader: I’m older than you and have more experience since I was an akuma fighter.”

Multidude voiced his opinion on the matter. “If someone should be our leader, then it should obviously be me.”

Queen Bee glared at him. “Why? And your argument better not be because you’re the only man here.”

The man in question looked offended. “Of course not, what do you take me for? The reason is simple: we live in a democracy, and I happen to know a multitude of people who would vote for me.”

“Hey! Using your power is cheating!”

“I don’t remember the law stating anything about not using magic powers.”

Miss Hound interjected. “No but it does say you get one vote per voter card and fingerprint, so unless your power can actually change your fingerprint, the extra votes would not count, and you would probably be imprisoned for a year.”

Multidude clicked his tongue. “What a way to ruin my fun.”

Queen Bee bursted out laughing at him. “Damn! She got you good!”

Everyone got a good laugh. Kunoichik said. “I guess this went well for our first team up.”

Queen Bee replied. “Yeah, I thought for sure things would get awkward, especially with Hound’s crush on Multidude.”

Miss Hound looked at her like she had grown a second head. “Huh? I never had a crush on Multidude. Wait…” Miss Hound gasped as she realized. “Ulrich?!”

Both Multidude and Kunoichick looked surprised and the boy replied. “No way… Sabrina?!”

Queen Bee looked confused and asked. “Wait, you didn’t know?”

Miss Hound started to freak out. “How was I supposed to know that?!”

Kunoichik asked. “Chloe didn’t tell you?”

Queen Bee replied. “I thought Ladybug would tell everyone their identities.”

“You were her friend, she probably thought you would tell her.”

“Well she didn’t tell me anything, and last I checked I was supposed to keep identities secret.”

Multidude replied with a sly smile on his face. “Oh now you decide to keep identities secret.”

Queen Bee’s face turned red in anger and shouted. “I made that mistake one time!”

Multidude corrected her. “Twice now, and two identities this time, you’re improving.” He finished with a sly smile.

Before Queen Bee could retort back, Kunoichick asked Miss Hound. “Wait, so you also don’t know about Ladybug’s identity? Or the akuma fighters’?”

The latter gasped. “You know who Ladybug is?” She grabbed Queen Bee by the arms and began to shake her. “Who is she?! Do I know her? Wait, can I take a guess?”

Later that night, Sabrina had to take some Paracétamol due to the amount of information she received in that conversation.

—--—--—--—--—--

It was a chilly night in Paris. Ryuko was currently standing on top of a rooftop, cool breezes caressing her cheeks . She was waiting for her newest partner in patrol, The akuma fighter previously known as Smoker. Although, she did not know what he was called nor what miraculous he would be wearing.

Minutes passed and he had yet to arrive, it looked like punctuality was not one of his qualities.

Ryuko saw someone leaping from rooftop to rooftop and stopped in front of her. The newcomer stood straight and said. “Good evening, partner.”

Ryuko took a look at the new holder, he was dressed in a sleek futuristic looking full bodysuit, mostly black with dark blue lines highlighting his features. The most distinctive aspect was his horns growing from his head and the big hammer resting in his back. It seemed he was wearing the ox miraculous. “Good to see you too, Smoker. Or what should I call you like this?”

“Cornelius.”

“And you have been briefed on your powers?”

“Yes, I can make my body sturdy and resistant to many things: blunt weapons, firearms and even magic to a certain extent.”

Ryuko nodded. “That’s good. Let’s move on, we are already slightly behind schedule.”

“lead the way.”

The two holders began to scout the city for any suspicious activity. Leaping from one building to another, checking streets, alleys and dark corners.

Time passed and not much action passed. Some much so that Cornelius started to feel bored and tried to break the silence. “Things are pretty dull tonight.”

“Yes, but at least it means the city is safe.”

“I can't argue with that.”

The holders stopped themselves when they heard sirens, specifically from a nearby fire truck.

The driver honked more than once, traffic was blocked and cars could not move out of the way.

Cornelius sighed. “I had to jinx it.”

The two holders landed on top of the truck and asked the driver. “Where’s the emergency?”

Seeing the two magical superheroes, the driver shared the information to help the situation. “Further east near Jardin casque d’or, an apartment building is on fire. People are trapped in there.”

“We’ll go ahead.”

Less than a minute later they could see the smoke, they closed on the building when they found the fire already spread to three stories at least.

“I will extinguish the fire, you got the civilians out. Water Dragon!” Ryuko used her power to create a stream and douse as much flames as she could.

Cornelius Broke through a window and called out. “Anyone here?!”

“Help!/Help us!”

He heard multiple voices coming from different directions. Wasting no time he went for the first, picked up the victim and moved to the next.

The hero found three more people, thankful some of them were strong enough to pick up the only injured one. Now was time to get them out. “Now let’s get you off here. Move it people!”

Cronelius guided the small group of people stuck, clearing a passage from all the fallen debris and burned furniture.

Suddenly, a pillar cracked under the weight, and was about to fall on the group. Cornelius stepped in, used his hammer to block the pillar and stood there supporting the foundation.

The group was still frozen in fear from everything that happened. The hero instructed. “Move, go, go, go!”

The group of five exited safely, the hero let go of the pillar and moved back inside to see if anyone else was left.

The fire was eventually put out, Ryuko used her window power to syphon the smoke to have a clearer image of the building and let the clean air in.

No casualty resulted from the fire, only a few were injured.One of the fire fighters walked to the heroes and said. “Thank you for your help. Your team has been doing so much for the city.”

Cornelius responded. “We are just doing our duties, each in our own way.”

The two heroes jumped away and let the fighters take over. Ryuko kept observing the scene just to make sure everything went well. After a few minutes she said, “That went well. Thanks for your help.”

Cronelius replied. “Oh, please I barely did a thing, it’s a good thing we had you and your water and wind power, quite useful and almost unfair to the other miraculous. Are you sure the dragon isn't the strongest miraculous?”

“I don’t understand the full philosophy of how miraculous works but no, the ladybug and black cat are the strongest, maybe they have some hidden powers. Speaking of powers, you were quite strong yourself as Smoker, both offensively and defensively.”

Cornelius frowned upon hearing it and averted his eyes.

Ryuko looked confused. That was a compliment no matter how anyone looked at it, she wondered why he reacted like that. “Something wrong?”

“Yeah, my powers are related to my…past problems. Did the others ever tell you about that?”

“I only heard you were not always on friendly terms with the rest and that some secrets resurfaced along with that computer virus.”

William nodded. “I was not always part of the group, and when I joined them on my first battle I screwed up big time, got myself brainwashed and fought against them against my will for months. The powers are all XANA power boosts when I was his pawn.”

Ryuko frowned and pursed her lips. “I can’t imagine how that would feel. Or how it would affect you.”

“Yeah, and I was apparently really strong back then and gave them a lot of trouble. And when XANA came back, it rubbed it really hard on my face when it used the fact it had Ulrich’s memories to tell me how they talked about me behind my back. And while they were trying to save me, they also began to resent me because of how much of a burden I was. Can’t say I blame them if I was as strong as they said. Ever since then. Nothing feels the same anymore.”

“How is it going with your friends? Did you reconcile? I heard they apologized.”

Smoker didn’t lift his head. “Work in progress. Some more than others.”

“I have been told time heals everything, so maybe you both need some time to figure things out.”

“Yeah, that sounds good.”

Ryuko gave him a minute of silence and reflected on the situation while at it. At some point she remembered a certain detail. “Wait, if your powers come from XANA, then how did you defeat it when it made a copy of you?”

“Oh that, nightmare XANA only knew what Ulrich knew. And after Ulrich moved from Kadic I started training in other martial arts. XANA didn’t see it coming.”

Ryuko smiled at him. “XANA was stuck in the past but you moved forward with your life.”

“It’s not as deep as you’re making it out to be but yeah.”

“It is to me, it helped us defeat him and save all Paris. Something that me, Ladybug and all Paris are thankful for.”

William turned away and rubbed his neck and muttered. “Thanks, that means a lot.”

Ryuko grinned. “Would you look at, for all the bad boy attitude you give, you sure can be cute sometimes.”

William blushed and shouted at her. “Shut up!”

—--—--—--—--—--

Ladybug was now with Purple Tiger, explaining to him the situation. Chat Noir called for help in London; some new threat appeared and Purple Tiger was the only one available from their team. “Ready?”

“After you, princess.”

Ladybug rolled her eyes and both shouted. “Power up!” They both changed into their space suits and flew north in direction to London.

In the middle of the flight Cosmobug asked. “What should I call you when you’re like this?”

Purple Tiger thought for a few seconds, a bit too much even. Ladybug already knew he was trying to come up with a new pun and feared for the worst. Eventually, the boy answered. “Catstellation.”

“Really? That’s even worse than your usual puns and it's not even a tiger pun.”

“Tigers are big cats so that counts. And you have a bias against cat puns, we need a more appreciative judge like Chat Noir.”

“That’s not fair, he’s biased for all cat puns.”

Upon arrival they already saw Chat Noir fighting a group of wizards, causing quite the collateral damage around the town. The two heroes landed near him and joined the battle. “The cat-valry is here!”

Ladybug asked. “What’s their deal?”

Chat Noir dodged a fireball and punched one of the wizards. “Since the black cat miraculous is away from the others they thought it would be easy to snatch it from me. I’m proving them wrong so far but I don’t know how much of this I can keep up.”

“You’re telling me there are going to be more of them. What are we going to do if they keep coming?”

Purple Tiger replied while highlighting his claws. “Well for one, we could show them they messed with the wrong group of teenage superheroes.”

Almost an hour later, the wizards were caught and sent to the authorities. The heroes tried to come up with a solution to this new dilemma when Purple Tiger suggested. “You know, you could make us Lyoko warriors deal with this new threat. We could use the horse to get here, have Chat Noir be the leader of our team and you the leader of the rest in Paris.” He looked at his teammates who were shocked by his suggestion. “What?”

Chat Noir said.“That was actually a smart plan. I thought you were dumb one of the group.”

“Hey, I’m only academically dumb. I’m a genius at everything else.” Purple Tiger said while pointing at himself with both thumbs.

“Sure you are.” Ladybug commented. “On a more serious note, this is a solid plan and it's true we can’t have the black miraculous isolated from the rest.” She turned to Chat Noir. “I hereby declare you leader of the akuma fighters.”

Chat Noir kneeled in front of her and said in a deeper voice. “Anything for m’lady.” Earning an eye roll from said lady.

The two heroes were ready to leave and changed to their space suits when Chat Noir asked. “Oh I didn’t ask in the heat of the battle, what’s your power up name?”

Purple Tiger grinned and answered. “Catstellation.”

“Ni~ce.” Chat Noir fist bumped him.

Ladybug Groaned. “You’re idiots and I can’t believe I’m stuck with you.”

“Until death do us apart/For life!” Replied both cats.

—--—--—--—--—--

Someone didn’t get the memo, or maybe they got it too well. That was what Marinette was thinking right now because apparently since Hawkmoth is gone, Nadja or most likely her boss decided to do another Face-to-face. Marinette however had enough, yes those last times turned into a disaster because of Hawkmoth but he only targeted people with negative emotions so that meant those were disasters waiting to happen.

Point is Marinette was not going this time, however she decided to pick the members who will go to the next Face-to-face.

Which brings us to the Kidz Studio with Nadja Chamak and Alya Cesaire as hosts, the Ladyblogger was invited as a reliable source on everything related miraculous, Adrien ‘Chat Noir’ Agreste on a video call since he was still in London, and the partial miraculous team consisting of Kunoichick, Purple Tiger, Carapace and Chloe ‘Queen Bee’ Bourgeois.

The interview began with a bunch of simple questions, a little banter between the teammates and the hosts. The face-to-face part was sailing smoothly until a certain pig-tailed girl appeared on screen and waved at them. “Hi everyone!”

“Marinette?!” Said Nadja, Alya and Adrien while the others hold themselves from reacting and revealing they know her.

“That’s me!” Marinette Beamed with excitement at them.

Everyone was shocked, they knew she did not want to do anything with this so what was she doing on the other side of the show? An imitation of Jeremie and Aelita’s trick? Alya asked her first. “I didn’t expect you here.”

“Well when two of my friends are here how can I not join in? I told Nino to come over and call you but he is busy right now.”

Carapace stiffened a bit but it went unnoticed and everyone thought different variations of pretty much the same thought. Is she trolling us?

“I’m also here you know.” Queen Bee pointed out looking a bit offended.

“Oh yeah, bummer.”

Yep, she’s trolling us, with no Hawkmoth to hold her back even.

“You say you have two good friends here, are you friends with Adrien?” Asked Nadja as a start, she already knew that but their audience didn’t.

“Yeah, we’re friends from school.”

“Just friends?” Nadja teased.

Adrien interjected with a smile on his face. “Nadja, you know my heart belongs to m’lady. Marinette is just a friend. A very good friend.”

“Unfortunately.” Marinette said with a sad tone. You wanna play? Let’s play! “So my question is: since the miraculous team has expanded and projects converted to miraculous holders, I wanted to know who is the strongest among you guys? Do you have a current ranking in terms of strength?”

Nadja and Alya’s eyes widened as they knew they just entered a forbidden realm. All hell broke loose, heated debates unleashed in the studio if it could even be called a debate and no one was able to control anything anymore. The topic didn’t even end with Marinette because every fan after her wanted to defend their favorite hero’s honor and prove they were the number one.

Due to how chaotic the show was, the studio would later announce that superheroes were banned from Face-to-face.