Chapter Text
Marinette Dupain-Cheng was actually having a good first day of school.
Sure, it had started off on the wrong foot when she got stuck in the same class as Chloe Bourgeois—again. But things started turning around when this new girl, Alya was her name, actually stood up for her after Chloe singled her out, something no one else had ever done for her.
Alya said, “all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing”.
Marinette liked that phrase a whole lot.
But what much could she against Chloe? Chloe was the mayor’s daughter, after all, and Marinette was just a normal girl with a normal life. She was no match for that queen bee.
Sometimes, Marinette just felt so powerless. Weak. Useless. She wished she wasn’t such a wimp sometimes. That she had something to give her power, confidence, something to proud of, to prove that she was more Chloe’s personal punching bag.
But all she had was a book full of fashion design sketches and a heart full of dreams.
She trudged up to her bedroom, poking her head out of the door, and her brain came to a halt.
There was some weird little box on her bed. Coming over, she picked it up and looked at it closer. It was shaped like a hexagon, and had Chinese lettering in red.
Maybe it was a back-to-school gift from her mom. She had known Marinette was dreading her first day back. Maybe she had gotten her something to ease the burden.
Flipping the lid open, Marinette screamed, caught completely off-guard as a ball of pulsing green light erupted from the box and went zipping all around her room before stopping in front of her. The light exploded and vanished, like a bubble popping, and in it’s place, a teeny-tiny black creature hovered before her, eyes as vibrant green as Christmas lights, ears pointed on it’s head.
“Sup, Marinette.”, said the creature in a high-pitched, croaky voice.
Marinette staggered backwards, finger trembling as it pointed at the strange creature who had infiltrated her living space. “Aah! Flying rat!”
“Rat?! Watch it!”
“Aah! Rat talks!” Marinette ran to her dresser and started throwing objects at the thing, which only looked exasperated. She didn’t hear it softly mutter, “Aw man, I wonder if this is what happened to Sugarcube when it was her turn.” She was much too absorbed in her own terror.
“Look, Marinette, I know this may seem scary to you, but—“
“What the—who—what the heck are you?! And how do you know my name?!”
The thing did a bow. “Plagg’s the name. Destruction’s the game. I’m a kwami.”
“A what?! What the hell is a kwami?”
“Think the genie in the lamp, but way cooler.” The kwami inched towards her. “Look, kid, I know this seems wacky, but trust me, I’m not your enemy. I’m your friend.”
Marinette relaxed, but not so much she let her guard down. “Why are you here?”
“I’m here because you’re the one Ladybug needs.”
Marinette gave him a weird look. “Ladybug?”
“Your superhero partner.”
“My what?”
“I’m here because you’ve been chosen to be the new Black Cat hero. You’ll team up with the wielder of the Ladybug miraculous and defeat Stoneheart!”
“And how do I do that exactly?”
Plagg flew over and went to the box that she had dropped. Crawling over, she looked and saw a silver ring had tumbled out.
“With this!”, said Plagg, pointing to the ring. “The Miraculous of the Black Cat!”
“Miraculous?”, asked Marinette, picking up the ring and holding it up to her face to get a closer look. Turning it around by her fingertips, she saw that a tiny little green pawprint on the top of it. “Is that what this is?”
“It’s a magical object that gives you the power of destruction!”, Plagg explained. “It will turn you into a superhero!”
“Me? A superhero? Yeah, right.”, Marinette replied in a glumly cynical tone. “The only superpower I have is super-awkwardness.”
Plagg flew closer to you. “Look, I know we just met and all, but I know you better than that, Marinette. I know you’re capable of so much more than you think you are. You can do anything you set your mind to.”
“Are you kidding? I can’t even stand up to my childhood bully.”, said Marinette. “What good is a superhero who can’t even face off against a basic mean girl?”
“No good.”, said Plagg. “That’s why it’s going to change. But only if you want it to. Trust me, Marinette, you’re the best person for the job.”
Marinette looked at the ring in her hand. “So…how does this work, exactly? I mean, it just looks like a normal ring.”
“Put it on.”
Marinette looked doubtful, but slipped the ring on her finger anyway. “Okay, now what?”
“Now say, Plagg claws out!”
Marinette closed her eyes. “Uh…Plagg, claws out?”
A flash of green appeared, shooing away the darkness behind her closed lids, and Marinette, scared, slowly opened her eyes. She looked down at herself and gasped.
Her regular clothes, her shirt and jacket and pink jeggings and ballet flats, were gone. In their place was a skintight one-piece leather suit that hugged her body, with matching high-heeled boots, all blacker than black, with streaks of dark green around her armpits, waist, and hips. She lifted her hands to see them covered in black fingerless gloves, her nails having grown an inch and painted green, pointed like a cat’s claws.
Marinette spun around to see herself in her full-length mirror, and saw her hair had been arranged into a high, layered ponytail with two pointed cats ears in it, her lips painted dark red, her eyes turned green all over like a cat’s and framed by a black mask.
Marinette opened her mouth to scream, but quickly covered her mouth, not wanting to alert her parents. “What…what is going…”
She then noticed the black cat thing was no longer in the room. “Plagg? Plagg? Where did you go? I want my normal clothes back!”
She looked at her hands, and saw the ring where she had put it. Only now, the silver color had turned to black to match her new outfit.
The TV in her bedroom stole her attention away. Nadja was reporting the Stoneheart attack. That’s when she saw Alya bicycling towards the monster.
“Alya!”
No, no, no! She’s finally made a friend for the first time in years! She couldn’t go back to being friendless because her new bestie was stupid enough to run towards a monster!
Marinette looked back at her reflection and swallowed. “Okay…calm down, Marinette. You’ve just got to find that Ladybug person Plagg told you about. Surely, they’ll know what to do!”
She suddenly became aware of the hitch on her belt, holding a sort of silver stub with a green pawprint on it like her new ring.
“Marinette!” Her mother’s voice came from below. “Marinette, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Maman!”, she hastily replied. “I’m just really tired! I think I’ll take a nap!”
“Okay, we’ll wake you up for dinner!”
Marinette breathed a sigh of relief. That should cover her for a little while, at least. She got onto her balcony and pulled out the stub.
“Okay, what does this do?”, she wondered out loud, pressing some buttons on it. Suddenly, the stub extended to a baton of sorts.
“Oh! A bo staff! Like in the martial arts movies!”
Then, the strangest thing happened. She suddenly got an idea, a familiar one, like she somehow already knew how this thing was supposed to work.
Flinging her arm back, she catapulted herself into the air with her new baton, flipping a hundred feet off the ground and bouncing from roof to roof. Marinette smiled at the rush she felt with every leap. Was this what flying was like? It was the best feeling in the world!
A feeling that was cruelly cut short when she collided into someone.
The next thing Marinette knew, she was hanging upside down just above the sidewalk, tangled up in thin but strong black string, squeezed together with another body.
Once the haze from the crash cleared from her mind, she found herself staring into auburn eyes, framed by red fabric splashed with black spots, set against a pale face.
“Oh my gosh! I am so sorry! I am so clumsy!”
“It’s okay. I actually fumbled with the yo-yo first.”, said a meek voice. Both struggled, and eventually loosened the sting and spilled onto the floor in a pile of arms and legs.
Getting up and dusting herself off, Marinette looked at the girl and saw wore a costume that matched her mask, red with black spots, just like a…
“Are you Ladybug?”
“Well, I am the holder of the Ladybug miraculous. At least that’s what my kwami tells me.”, said the girl, getting to her feet.
“Great! You’re the partner my kwami told me about! My name is…”
Marinette stopped. Waut, superheroes couldn’t share their civilian identities. At least that was what Alya had told her while they chatted earlier that day about their likes and dislikes.
The Ladybug girl looked up, expecting an answer. “Your name is…”
“My name is…Pantheress. Yeah, Pantheress.” Smiling in relief at her quick thinking, Marinette turned to the girl. “Et vu?”
“Me?” She shrunk back. “I…I…”
“Hey, don’t be shy. I don’t bite.”, said Marinette. “I’m your partner. We have to save the day together. I want to be able to call you something.”
The girl hesitated. “Uh…how about…Scarletta?”
“Scarletta! I love it! It sounds so elegant and yet so powerful! Like you!”
A great BOOM could be heard.
“That’s the akuma!”
Marinette looked at Scarletta funny. “The what?”
“My kwami told me! Something called an akuma possessed the boy and turned him into that stone monster! It was activated by his negative emotions!”
So that was what happened! Poor Ivan! Someone had used his hurt feelings against him to turn him into a beast against his will!
“Well, why are we just standing around here?!”, Marinette exclaimed. “He needs our help!”
Scared or not, Marinette couldn’t just stand around while someone needed help! She’d figure this out! She had to!
Baton in hand, Marinette vaulted off to save Ivan.