Chapter Text
Luka hadn’t been quite sure how his first day at Lycée Claude Monet would go, but he had at least thought he would make it through his first period.
First days were always reserved for getting to know the classrooms– the rules, the work you’d be expected to do– but Luka liked to use it to get a good feel of those he’d be around for the next year. To have a full understanding of what these new teachers and students around him would be like, to find what kind of emotion was singing in their hearts.
For Luka there was nearly always music playing around him– melodies of people passing through the streets, of those sitting around him, the music of those closest to him. It was something he had heard his whole life, something that was so natural to him that it was rarely distracting– joining the ambiance of the world around him like passing cars or the hum of a heater, a hum in the background unless he focused on it.
He had no explanation for it, but there were many things he understood about his ability– each song was unique to a person, they were a reflection of what that person felt, and that the music could manifest in a thousand ways. Endless tunes, dozens of different instruments, and varying volumes all coming down to the unique individual. It wasn’t something he shared often with people, however, as outside of his family there were very few people who believed him.
There had been a time when a few doctors believed him, confident that it was a form of synesthesia he was experiencing, a rare phenomenon where the stimulation of one sense could lead to one experiencing effects from another. The doctors had spent time trying to see what would trigger the music that Luka heard– but they were unbelieving that it was the presence of a person’s emotions that caused each song to play.
One doctor thought it was colors that triggered the music of the synesthesia, explaining to his mother that the ‘emotions’ Luka thought he could understand were probably just a reflection of how individuals chose to dress. His mother had then walked him out of that appointment upon the man saying that believing Luka’s insistence that it was emotions would only feed his “mindreading delusions" and it was unhealthy.
His mother had nearly stopped making him and Juleka doctor appointments altogether after that, she now only took them in when he and Juleka asked for a visit themselves. It usually came with a lot of ranting about the state of the medical system, but it wasn’t something she’d say no to either.
But listening to the music of the emotions of those around him was how he had found himself when it had happened, the melodies around him humming with a high speed echoing the tension that often came from the first day of classes. Tension, but no urgency, the songs around him blending together in a repetitive hum that drowned out the words of teacher, though not her song– which was slightly tense itself, though intermingled with cheerful chimes– she was excited for the new school year start, unlike most of her students.
Then suddenly the harmony was interrupted by a loud ping that echoed through every phone in the classroom, snapping Luka out of a trance. Instantly the tension of the songs in the room were stirred up into something much more urgent as everyone reached for their phones, Luka joining them as he drowned out the music to see what could possibly be happening, his heart picking up as he read the alert.
ATTACK IN THE 21ST ARRONDISSEMENT. THOSE IN THE IMMEDIATE AREA PLEASE EVACUTATE IN AN ORDERLY MANNER. DO NOT CONFRONT THE THREAT. POLICE ARE ON THE WAY. IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO LEAVE YOUR CURRENT LOCATION PLEASE SHELTER IN PLACE. THOSE IN ALL OTHER ARRONDISSEMENTS SHELTER IN PLACE AND REMAIN CALM.
No one was calm.
“Attack? What kind of attack?”
“Wait, that’s in our arrondissement!”
“Where do we evacuate too?!”
“Everyone, remain calm,” their new teacher’s voice rose above the crowd and everyone’s heartsong rose into a clash of discord. “We know the police are on the way, we have nothing to worry about if we just listen to the instructions!”
No one was listening to her, everyone still on their phones as they searched the internet for an answer. Luka didn’t have to scroll very far in the news in order to see something that was very much impossible– a news report showing video of a giant creature made of stone ripping through the brick wall of a building with ease. A very familiar building, one he knew very well– Collège Françoise Dupont– his old school.
And Juleka’s current school.
“No!” Luka barely realized he had said a word, it all being downed up in the mayhem that was now filling the whole school. He was on his feet, heading towards the classroom door without even a thought, breaking into a run the moment he reached the halls.
“Wait!” His teacher’s voice called– but they didn’t know each others’ names yet. “Um, you– come back!”
As his mother always said, rules were meant to be broken, so he didn’t slow down as he rushed out of the school and straight onto the streets. He only had one destination in mind, and no one was going to stop him from reaching Juleka’s school. He raced down the street, trying to weave his way through the crowd, but the streets were even more crazy than his classroom. People were pressing their way down the sidewalks, all moving in the opposite direction of where Luka needed to go. Cars disregarded traffic laws, honking and driving through whatever space they could find. Others sat abandoned on the roads, people flooding into the nearest buildings to find somewhere to hide.
Those he pressed past glared at him, a few people called out to him that he was going the wrong way, but overall most people ignored him. The crowds were getting thinner the farther he went, the noise of the city more soft, and soon he was only a few blocks away from his old school. It was still far from quiet though, sirens and rumbles echoing from near his destination.
Then he rounded a corner and rammed straight into an old man.
Luka felt both horrible and frustrated as he collided with the short elderly man, both of them falling down onto the sidewalk. His bag fell off his shoulder, and the man’s cane clattered to the ground. Luka was immediately on his feet, everything in him screaming to run to Juleka, but that didn’t stop him from offering a hand to the dazed man.
“I am so sorry,” Luka apologized as he pulled the old man to his feet, who thankfully didn't seem to have anything wrong with him beyond a few scrapes. “I didn’t see you, I am so sorry–!”
He could hear the man’s heartsong loud and clear as their skin touched each other, he was startled and worried, but strangely didn’t carry the raw fright Luka had felt from everyone else. His melody was steady, slow and confident in a way that seemed that no one could shake it. Luka reached for the man’s cane, and as he turned to hand it to him he was startled to realize that the man had leaned down to pick up Luka’s bag.
“I’m much stronger than I look,” the man said with a small smile as he took back his cane, leaning against it despite his words. “Don’t worry about me, son, worry about yourself– do you realize you’re heading right towards the danger?”
“I have to–”
“No, no one has to do a thing,” the man said firmly. “You are putting your very life at risk if you try to fight that champion. It is not a foe for any human to handle.”
“My sister is there!” Luka snapped. “I’m not leaving her there– or anyone. Not with that– that thing!”
What even was that thing it was like a living statue a dangerous golem it shouldn’t even be real or possible was it a robot were they underattack by another country what was even happening–
Luka swallowed the panic and the questions he had been fighting the whole way here. He didn’t have time to make sense of the impossible, not until he knew for sure that Juleka and his old classmates were out of there!
The man smiled, but Luka wouldn’t have noticed if it wasn’t for the shift of the man’s song– a sudden strum of confidence and hope swelling in his melody, followed by a firm resolution. Luka looked down at him in confusion, but the man was only closing the flap of Luka’s bag, before holding it out to him.
“Then I am sure you’ll find exactly what you need to protect her,” he said with pure confidence singing from him, and Luka slung the bag back over his shoulder. “Good luck, child.”
He didn’t bother replying, taking off down the street once more with no hesitation. He recognized where he was, and he only had a few blocks to go until he reached his old school, nothing could stop him now, not even that police barricade he saw as he rounded one of the last corners–
There was a police barricade.
Luka was instantly on alert, naturally wary due to his mother’s constant fleeing from those with such a profession. Sirens usually meant it was time to move the houseboat, the sign of a badge meant to take a different route home so he didn’t lead them home to his mom– but those thoughts quickly vanished as he took in the state of police barricade, or at least what was left of it.
Several cars had been overturned, the metal barriers bent and scattered across the road. Large deep imprints the size of tires potted the cement, and then there was the police themselves. Several on alert, talking into radios and phones, others speaking urgently to an ambulance nearby, and several of the police men resting on stretchers as they were loaded into it.
“It got bigger,” They were speaking urgently, and Luka could only make out a few words as he got closer. “As soon as we shot at it the thing got bigger. Chunks of cement from the road were drawn towards it like magnets!”
“That’s impossible.”
“Look at the footage for yourself!”
“We need military back up now. We aren’t equipped to handle this– this monster!”
“Hey! You! Kid– what on earth are you doing here!” A voice shouted as Luka crept closer, the police woman immediately hurrying up to him the moment she spotted him. “This whole area is under an evacuation alert, you need to leave now!”
“My sister–” Luka tried to explain, but the woman grabbed his shoulder, leading him away. “She was at the school– the news, where it happened– did she get out? Is she okay? I have to see–”
The woman’s expression softened slightly, but her firmness did not as she kept leading Luka back down the direction he had come. “I personally don’t know nor can I divulge any details, but trust me when I say there are crews onsite now at the epicenter. You get to shelter and let us work, and we'll have better chances of helping your sister if no one’s in the way.”
She let go of him, giving him a small push. “But–”
“Kid, I don’t have time to escort you personally out of her, my men need me– so please don’t make me have to talk you all the way out of the evacuation zone myself.”
He hesitated, before giving a small nod. “Y-yes, of course, ma’am, I’m going now.”
“That’aboy,” she said with a smile, watching him closely, and he turned and started jogging in the same direction everyone else had been fleeing. He didn’t look back, didn’t let his pace slow, and turned the corner to keep heading down just like the policewoman had told him to.
Then just like his mom had taught him he promptly ignored what the official had told him to do, ducking into the nearest alleyway. He made sure to retreat into the shadows to make sure he couldn’t be seen if anyone walked by, and began digging through his bag. He’d have to find another way to the school to get to Juleka, and he needed the map on his phone to call her, to see exactly what his options were to navigate there, and to see if there was any more information on what exactly had attacked Paris.
His hand however closed around something he knew hadn’t been in his bag before, sleek with sheer edges. He froze up for a moment, before pulling the wooden object out for himself to see.
It was a small hexagonal wooden box, painted black and just big enough to sit in his palm. The lid was painted with a red symbol of some kind. He wasn’t sure if it was just a design, or perhaps a word of some kind– Chinese maybe? There was nothing that explained what it was though or why it was in his bag. He stared at the box in pure confusion, until he heard something impossible.
A heartsong.
He dropped the box in surprise, stepping back as the heartsong suddenly cut off. He pressed up against the wall, heart pounding in confusion. This whole area was evacuated– the only heartsong he could hear was his own and the faint panic of the police! He hesitated, slowly reaching out, letting his fingers wrap around the box once more– and immediately the heartsong began playing again. Quiet and almost muffled, almost like it was coming from someone asleep– except for it was coming from the box.
He had heard songs from non-humans before, dogs and cats and birds had their own tunes that sang to his ears, but they were always much simpler and harder to hear than songs from fellow humans. But with how small this box was... it would have to be like a bug inside– and he had never heard a heartsong from an insect or anything like it before! He didn’t know if it was because they didn’t have one or if his powers just weren’t tuned to hear something so different from his own type of emotions– but either way there shouldn’t be something in this box that he could hear. And definitely not something so muffled. Not like he couldn’t pick it up– but more like something was trying to smother the emotions radiating from whatever sat in this box in front of him.
It was wrong, for emotions to be suffocated like that, no matter what it was– and so with only a slight moment of hesitation Luka opened up the lid– giving him a glimpse of two red jewels inside, before a sudden surge of song and a pulse of bright light pink rose up from it. He raised one hand to try to block out the light as a whole orchestra of song filled the alleyway about him. It was like he was wandering through the heart of the city, what should have been a hundred heartsongs echoing about it– except for this was only one song. Dozens of instruments playing in perfect harmony, swelling as the complex tune continuously changed– a song that seemed to be everything in a single moment.
And as the pink light faded the song seemed to only grow, a small red being now hovering in front of him. They had a pair of vibrant pink wings on their back, though they did not flap as it seemed to stand there in the air, a pair of elytra shifting above the dormant wings. The being was vaguely insectoid– antennae flicking up on their head and their whole form having the sheen of a beetle’s shell– but the rest of the being varied from there. Two big blue eyes, four limbs stretching out,and several black spots across its form giving the impression of a ladybug.
This creature was so tiny that they could have sat in Luka’s hand– and the heartsong was that of a whole neighborhood singing as one.
And most frighteningly, the song still sounded muffled.
“Wha... what are you?” Luka whispered in pure shock.
He had sensed emotions from animals before, they were not often not quite as complex as those of humans, though they could be very similar. They were emotions that took a bit of concentration to hear though, which he believed was since they varied from his own human perspective. But never had he encountered something like this. Emotions that weren’t like his... but greater. Beyond what he could understand, yet also it was beyond any human’s song he had ever listened to before.
If humans thought they were greater than animals, then he knew he was nothing but an animal to this being.
The being drifted closer to him, giving him a smile. The face was just human enough to give expressions he understood, but different enough to stray from the uneasiness of the uncanny. Her wings flittered again, the swell of her symphony rising in turn, and then the creature spoke in perfect French.
“Hello there,” they greeted, the voice feminine and rich– far richer than what should be possible, as if several voices spoke at once. “It’s nice to meet you, I’m Tikki, and I’m a kwami.”
Luka hesitated, trying to grasp what was happening, and then find words to reply. “What... what is a kwami?”
She drifted down, hovering near the box that sat forgotten in his hand, pointing to within. Luka’s eyes shifted to look at what was inside, seeing a pair of bright red earrings embedded inside, each one dotted with five black spots. The ‘kwami’ laid her paws on the lid, speaking again with the melodic voice.
“A kwami is what we named ourselves millennia ago,” she said, as if this explained everything. “And this is my Miraculous– which has been entrusted to you.”
“That– that doesn’t mean anything to me,” he stammered, heart pounding. “What are you? You– you have to tell me more than just what I’m seeing– I’ve never sensed anything like you before.”
She tilted her head, wavering of curiosity rising up among her shifting heartsong. “Sense?”
Luka swallowed, this wasn’t giving him answers. “Why are you here?”
Those blue eyes gleamed, twinkling like there were faint stars within. “I’m here because Paris is in trouble, and you were chosen to help.”
Luka’s heart lurched, and suddenly reality came rushing back to him. The stone giant, the attack on the city, Juleka being in the heart of it– the thoughts hadn’t left his mind for more than a minute, but it was startling how this Tikki’s sheer presence had done that. His hand tightened around the box, all this only adding to the pure confusion his reality had become– but he latched onto the kwami’s words.
Paris. Trouble. Help.
“You can help?” Luka blurted out. “Against– against that giant thing? It’s– you’re like it, right? Something that shouldn’t be real?”
“We are both magic, yes, and my magic can help– but you have to be the one to stop the champion.”
“Me?” Luka asked in disbelief.
Tikki tapped the box below her. “I can lend you my power, all you have to do is put on the earrings and go face the champion. Their powers may be great, but they are fragile– all you have to do is locate the item he carries to shatter their connection to it.”
“Wait– what– you’re going too fast,” Luka said, eyeing the earrings. “If there’s a way to stop this thing you have to tell me more– the police were saying that they couldn’t touch it! That it got bigger when attacked– it was throwing cars around!”
Tikki regarded him, thinking. “There are many ways powers can manifest on this earth. Through lineage, through artifacts, through beings– you can gain powers yourself by wearing my earrings. However someone else in this city has done the same with another Miraculous, and has created the champion you fear.”
“The stone giant?”
“Champions can manifest in many forms,” Tikki replied. “They are given powers based on what they need, and in return they help the one holding the Miraculous that gave them such powers– the Butterfly Miraculous.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning we have to shatter the connection between the champion and the other Miraculous,” Tikki explained. “The connection is formed through a small butterfly made of pure energy, which merges with an object on the person in need– the champion cannot be far from it, and they will do all they can to protect it. Shatter the object though, and they will return to being human once more.”
Luka blanched. “There’s a human under there?”
Tikki nodded. “What kind of person, I do not know, the Butterfly’s powers can be... unpredictable.”
“And you said I can have powers too?” Luka asked hesitantly.
Tikki nodded. “I am a being of Creation magic, and you can tap into that magic by wearing my earrings. With the words ‘Tikki, spots on,’ the powers become yours– offering not just magic, but strength and protection beyond what you have now. And by saying ‘Lucky Charm’ you can summon an object of your need.”
All of this sounded impossible– but everything he had seen and heard today also seemed impossible. And as a boy that could hear the emotions of people around him through song, he felt it was probably not his place to question what could be possible. So he took the earrings out of the box, sliding out the studs that were already there, and replacing them with the red jewels that seemed to hum with power.
“Destroy the object and Paris will be safe?” Luka confirmed.
Tikki nodded. “You will have a partner out there to help you fight. There’s just two things you have to remember– you will be on a time limit as soon as you activate your powers, and you can’t let anyone know your identity.”
“A secret identity, like a hero?” Luka asked, slightly amused despite all that was happening.
“A hero is what Paris needs right now,” Tikki replied.
Luka agreed, so he didn’t let himself hesitate, taking in a deep breath, hoping that this would work. “Tikki– spots on.”
Juleka didn’t know what to do.
School days were easily her least favorite days of the year, and this first day of school had been no different. She was stuck in a class with Chloe again this year (thank goodness Rose was still in her class), she had crashed straight into an old man on the way to school (and had then been late due to helping him up and across the street as a result).
Then there was Ivan turning into a giant stone monster, calling himself Stoneheart and then literally breaking out of school to chase down Kim.
Now she was separated from the rest of her class, stuck hiding down under a bridge with some demon cat that wanted her to go fight Ivan. As far as she was concerned seeing a demon cat was epic– but that didn’t mean she planned on actually listening to it.
“Come on,” Plagg drawled, drifting in front of her. “It will be fun!”
He was a tiny thing, a little Black Cat no bigger than a mouse, with big green eyes and a Cheshire grin. He most definitely wasn’t natural with the whole floating and talking and being summoned from a random ring she found in her purse thing. He wasn’t even a full solid being, his tail severed and floating behind him, a glowing green aura shining where flesh should have been.
“Don’t make deals with fae,” Juleka muttered. “Everyone knows that, it always backfires.”
“I ain’t some fairy!” Plagg cried (not like that even his real name, a fae wouldn’t tell her that). “They’re not even real!”
Said the literal flying cat.
“Don’t barter with demons, they’ll steal your soul,” Juleka said instead, because maybe he wasn’t a fae, but he could just be about anything.
“Jumping straight to the evil accusations, huh?”
Apparently he had the hearing of a cat, because most people couldn’t understand her mutters– except for Luka. She had tried to call him after she had gotten run out of the school, but she had been unable to reach him. She looked down at her phone, which had a signal, but it had gone straight to voicemail every time she tried calling Luka.
She wished she had thought of trying before she had accidentally summoned this cat-being– but in her defense she hadn’t expected anything alive to come out of the strange box she had found in her purse!
“Don’t want to deal with evil spirits…”
“Spirit, yes, kinda– but evil though? No! I mean I’m not going to claim to be a saint, but I like you humans well enough to make sure you all keep breathing,” Plagg said, crossing his paws. “You know, like right now, where I could help you with something attacking the city that no regular human can fight!”
“What makes you think I can even… ow!”
Something hit her head, and she looked down to find that it was the black ring that had been thrown at her. She glowered up at the spirit, who was glaring right back.
“I didn’t ask for this either!” He snapped. “But guess what you were chosen and I’m not going to sit here until we get Nooroo back!”
“Who?”
“None of your concern!”
“What? Another one of you that made this monster…?”
“Nope, it was one of your kind that did!” Plagg snapped back. “Come on, I ain’t cleaning up humanity’s mess myself, put on the ring.”
Juleka scrolled through her phone, this being clearly needed verbal agreement for its magic to work with how it was insisting, so maybe it would bother someone else if she ignored it. She pulled up the news, watching the footage of the stone giant shot from a news helicopter above. Ivan... or she guessed Stoneheart? clearly had a destination in mind, raging every time a barricade came his way, hurling cars and roaring, but now it was no longer just police barricades that stood in his way.
“You humans have brought in a tank?” Plagg said in shock, and Juleka jumped as she realized the cat was hovering just above her shoulder. “I thought that was just a war thing! I don’t know how that will mix with magic...”
Juleka felt her throat closing up slightly. “They could kill Ivan.”
“They most certainly aren’t trying to avoid that,” Plagg muttered, tail lashing. “You said he was a kid like you, yeah? Even if he’s in on all this that shouldn’t mean a death sentence! Then again this is France...”
Stoneheart stared at the tank down the street, and for the first time in his rampage there seemed to be a moment of hesitation. Juleka was barely listening to the news report itself, just watching as a purple light flared to life around the stone face of Ivan, almost like a mask of some kind. Whatever this was seemed to hardened his demeanor, and he lowered himself as he prepared to charge. The muzzle of the tank shifted, taking aim towards the giant.
Then a flash of red zipped off from the roof of a nearby building, a small object striking the giant in the side of the head, before it was pulled back just as quickly. Stoneheart turned to look to see what had hit him, and the camera of the news helicopter shifted as well, revealing a figure dressed in red standing up on the roof– a mask on his face and yoyo in hand.
“...Is he supposed to be a superhero or something?” Juleka said in shock as she looked at the costume and the mask– that not exactly being what she had expected, even with all that had happened so far today.
“Looks like your partner didn’t give their kwami any trouble,” Plagg grumbled. “And now they have to fight the champion all on their own seeing as you’re going to leave them hanging.”
“That person is with one of your kind?” Juleka asked skeptically.
“Yeah, one that actually put on the Miraculous and transformed!” Plagg said, swooping down and picking up the ring he had appeared from, waving it in her face. “You know, usually I don’t have to try to convince the humans to accept superhuman strength and magical powers of Destruction!”
“Destruction powers? Knew you were evil,” Juleka said with a small smirk.
“Destruction isn’t evil!” Plagg shrieked, looking at her like she had personally offended him. “It’s just a power, you can use it however the heck you want– all I’m asking you to do is to use it to destroy the object Empowering that champion!”
Juleka eyed him. “What object?”
“I dunno, it could be just about anything,” Plagg said, waving his paws about. “But it will be on the champion, and as soon as it is destroyed poof! He turns back into a kid and the powers are gone.”
Juleka considered this in silence, watching as Stoneheart turned his attention fully towards the boy in red– that purple glow back around the giant’s face. A rocky hand reached up towards the roof where the hero had taken shelter– who jumped back much farther than should be possible for a human to avoid the swipe.
“...So Ivan doesn’t have to be fought to be defeated?” She checked. “We just have to have this magic item taken away?”
“Yes!” Plagg cried in exasperation. “And that boy shouldn’t be expected to do it by himself– this is all new to him too!”
Juleka watched as the boy leapt across the street, his outfit just as red as his mask. It was a dark red, closer to crimson than a bright scarlet, and dark black spots covered his form. If there truly was another creature like Plagg involved in all this, then it must have resembled a ladybug the same way Plagg tried to look like a cat.
The boy in the mask was moving fast, Stoneheart’s full attention on him now. He leapt and he ran, and despite the impressive speed and distance he had, he was clearly unsure. He sprang away from a rocky hand with a leap, landing on the side of the building– and he hung from the brick with no clear sign of having any leverage.
Juleka took in a deep breath, tucking the phone away as she looked at Plagg. She considered for a moment, hesitating. “If I were to... try this, what would I have to do?”
Plagg gave her a huge grin, rushing forward as a black blur, sliding the ring he had been holding right onto her finger. “Don’t worry, it’s simple– just say ‘Cataclysm’ and you’ll destroy anything you touch, then you get a few minutes til you turn back to your normal mortal self. But to get the powers? All you gotta say is ‘Plagg, claws out’.”
Juleka still was quite positive there was a catch to all this, clearly this little cat creature was going to get something out of her agreeing to this– but she couldn’t deny if he delivered on his claim of the powers of Destruction that it would be awesome.
So she closed her eyes, not sure if she was risking her soul or not, and muttered: “Plagg, claws out.”