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“You’re just a stupid girl who thinks she’s pretty!” She spat in the girl’s face. “Well newsflash, honey! You aren’t and never will be!” The blonde huffed, proud of herself. She yanked her friend’s arm next to her and left the other girl to her tears.
The girl, now alone, stood with a disgusted look on her face. That blonde had been harassing her for the past few weeks! While she had tried to ignore the harsh words, it was becoming harder and harder not to. She could tell she was on the brink of tears, but crying in the middle of the hallway was very frowned upon. She picked up her books that had been thrown on the floor and dashed to the bathroom. Art class was going to have to wait.
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“Alya, have you seen Katerina at all? She’s usually the first in the art room,” Marienette pondered, searching the room for dark brown hair pulled back into a sleek braid. Alya shrugged. Maybe she was just running late? No. That was so unlike her, Marienette thought. She decided to wait until after class to go search for her. Perhaps she was just sick and went to the nurse. Yeah, she probably just got sick and left early. Regardless, Marienette could finish the project by herself.
The late bell rang and Marienette got working on the project. The design of the clothes was quite beautiful if she did say so herself. The project was to base a dress on the city’s heroes. Surprisingly, there wasn’t much debate about what hero to pick. The two quickly agreed on making it based on Chat Noir. He definitely was a favorite between the two of them.
Marienette impatiently looked up at the clock. 30 minutes had already passed. She bit her lip. They only had one class period left until they had to turn in their rough sketches. While they were almost ready to turn it in, Katerina had promised to put on finishing touches that day. It didn’t feel right to finish it without her. She didn’t know what to do. It’s not like she could let them get behind.
She looked around for Sean. He and Katerina were practically inseparable. If anyone would know where she was, it’d be him. He and Adrien had already turned in their rough sketches and started on a different project. She took in a deep breath. Her crush on Adrien was not going to stop her from finding her partner. She made her way over to the table and completely avoided any eye contact with Adrien. She needed to focus.
“Hey Sean, have you seen Katerina anywhere? It’s not like her to just skip Art,” she asked, noticing the drawing he was in process of. It was a picture of the hound and Red Fia and they were kissin-? “No!” Sean said abruptly, moving his notebook out of view. A slight blush spread across his face. “No, I haven’t...actually, I haven’t seen her since lunch.” He frowned. “I figured she’d be here, but now I’m worried.”
From across the table, Chloe stirred, glaring at them. “That dumb good for nothing? I saw her run to the bathroom bawling like a baby. It was so pathetic!” She smirked. Sabrina, looked away, frowning. Marienette practically growled before being cut off by Sean.
“Excuse me? What did you call her?”
“What that piece of trash truly is.”
“You little-!”
Marienette stopped him before he could snap at Chloe. “Did you say anything to comfort her?”
“Of course not! Why would I want to stop her? She was hilarious!”
“Hilarious? She was crying! If anyone’s a good for nothing, it’s you!” Sean didn’t realizing he had gotten up until the teacher told him to sit back down. It only pleased Chloe more. Marienette, not being able to stand Chloe anymore, asked to go to the bathroom. She could certainly help out Katerina with whatever was troubling her. Or, at least, that’s what she hoped.
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Adrien beat her there. The second he heard about Katerina crying, he left for the Girl’s restroom. After roughly a year or so of fighting akumas, he’d become very accustomed to trying to spot them before they could cause damage. Even if he couldn’t prevent the attack, he could at least find where the akuma was hidden.
When he reached the restroom, he carefully knocked on the door. He could hear her muffled sobs. Thankfully, no other girl could be heard, so he walked in with one hand over his eyes. Adrien silently prayed no one else would need the bathroom in the next few minutes. “Katerina?” He asked out loud, hoping for a response. He waited. No response, but he could hear a hushed noise. Maybe the bathroom was empty? He moved his hand from his eyes and looked around. He could easily spot her feet hanging from the seat.
He knocked on her stall door. Her sobs stopped a second before the girl gasped.
“You can’t be here! You need to leave before I-!” She stopped mid sentence and sucked in a sharp breath. Maybe he was too late.
“Katerina, it’s okay! I’m here to help you! I promise,” He attempted, trying to calm her down. For a solid minute he waited, before hearing her yell in a strange voice, “Yes! He’s just like the rest of them! He thinks I’m hideous too!!” With a flash of bright purple light, Adrien knew he was too late.
“Plagg! Cla-!”
“Adrien?!”
“Marienette?!” He yelped back in surprise. He needed to transform and she needed to get out of here. “You need to leave right now! It’s not safe!” Before Marienette could even begin to formulate a responce, the stall door flew across the room and shattered a mirror. Instinctively, Adrien already had Marienette pinned to the ground. He had to get her out of here before the akuma started harming citizens. Swiftly, he picked her up in his arms and darted out of the bathroom.
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“Adrien?!” She jumped in surprise. Why was he in the girl’s bathroom? What on earth is going on? Marienette couldn’t even register what was happening as Adrien yelled something back and tackled her to the ground before they were both smashed by a stall door. His actions were swift and decisive as he then continued to pick her up and sprint into another classroom.
If adrenaline wasn’t already pumping through her system, it definitely was after the look he gave her when he set her down. The school was in danger and Adrien went into action. Well, either he went into action or ran away like a coward out of the room. She could hear him exclaim a short “Stay here!” before leaving. It was probably the former.
Marienette was completely awestruck at what just happened. It took Tiki’s yelling to get her back into action and out of her head. “Tiki, spots on!”
As soon as she transformed, a tall skinny figure, presumably Katerina, smashed open her door. She looked completely different. Katerina’s normal long braided hair was now dyed a chilling silver blue. It draped wildly over her shoulder with the right side braided tightly back to the left. Her figure had completely changed as well. Her strong, athletic shape had been swapped out for a scarily skinny being with the hips drawn in like a barbie doll. She looked exactly like a barbie doll, makeup and all. The only part of her that was true to her original self was the long necklace she wore.
“Katerina! Snap out of this! It isn’t you!” She cried, even though she knew it wasn’t going to be enough to break the akuma’s trance. The barbie staggered toward her before shouting, “I’m not Katerina! I’m Miss Plastic! I’m perfect! You can’t boss me around, Ladybug!”
Miss Plastic lunged at her, just barely missing her face with long nails. Ladybug pulled out her yo yo. All she would have to do was wrap Miss Plastic up and grab her necklace. It was simple. Well, it was simple until Chloe ran past the room and caught Miss Plastic’s attention. She immediately changed her focus on to chasing Chloe. Miss Plastic was already darting down the hall in her high platformers before Ladybug could even move. The second she left the classroom, Miss Plastic was gone. All that was left was blonde barbie doll with her hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. She greatly resembled Chloe. Chloe! This was going to be harder than she thought.
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As soon as Chat changed, he ran back to the bathroom, but she was gone. He didn’t even know where the akuma was. Heck, he didn’t even get to see what she looked like either. Katerina could be a shapeshifter or invisible for all he knew! Hopefully his lady would arrive soon so they could get to work.
From the corner of his eye, Chat saw a tall Barbie-like figure ready to pounce on him. Now was the time for action. He quickly dove out of the way and tackled her before she could get anywhere. Looking down, he saw an unfamiliar face, but assumed it was Katerina. She was holding a doll in her left hand. It greatly resembled “Nino!?”
Miss Plastic’s grin widened as she kicked the hero off of her, nailing him harshly in the gut. Chat Noir felt like he had the wind knocked out of him as he gasped for breath. Miss Plastic slowly stood up and staggered toward him.
“You don’t think I’m beautiful do you? I’m perfect this way, aren’t I? You don’t know a thing about beauty!” She exclaimed, tugging on her necklace. A bright blue light emitted from it. “Don’t worry kitty, I’ll make you into a perfect little doll, just like me.”
Her grip tightened on her necklace as her icy eyes turned the same blue. Chat began to panic. It was like he couldn’t snap away from her trance. This was it. Thankfully an object whipped past Miss Plastic and hit her hand out of the way. It gave Chat enough time to break the trance and dart away. His Lady must be here.
“My Lady, it’s nice to see...you aren’t ladybug.” He stopped, noticing who it was. The Red Fia gave him a funny look. “Sorry.”
“Yeah, it’s just me. So, akuma?”
“Well, we don’t get to break her nail or anything, but the akuma is most likely in her necklace. Only one girl in this school has a long necklace like that.”
“Okay. Necklace...got it,” Red Fia zoned out with a troubled look on his face. It was really strange as he looked around for something. Or maybe someone. Ladybug wasn’t here, so that might be who was looking for. “Are you okay Red?”
Red, still looking ahead, sighed, “Yeah, I guess, I’m fine. Have you seen the Hound though?”
“The puppy? No. I haven’t seen my Lady either.” It looked like they were both missing their other halves.Chat was almost certain that Red and Puppy had told each other their identities. The two were inseparable during battle, much like him and Ladybug. They fought so in sync it was like art to see them dance around together. They truly had mastered the whole duo thing.
A spotted yo yo broke him away from his thoughts as Ladybug landed next to him. “Hey Kitty, Red.” She smiled. Ladybug really was amazing.
“I missed you, bugaboo,” Chat dumbly grinned. He was truly lovesick. Everything about her was amazing.
“Well, well, well, it's you three street rats. Don’t worry, I can fix that,” called Miss. Plastic from below them. Her eyes were that same icy blue as she hurled crystals at them. Ladybug swiftly tackled the two boys down.
“Her crystals, I think they-”
“-change people into dolls? Yeah, I’ve seen it.”
“Which is why we need to be extra careful about the crystal shards. I don’t think it can be reversed until the akuma is gone and personally, I don’t want to turn into one of those cheap plastic barbies.”
“I’m sure I’d make a fabulous Ken.”
“Chat!”
“Okay fine, seriousness”
Red tapped Ladybug on the shoulder, “I’m going to take the high ground and help any other citizens escape.” Ladybug nodded at him as Red dashed down the hall, finding a few students still hiding. Ladybug sighed at him. She could see the stressed look on his face. Today’s battle was going to be interesting to say the least.
Ladybug stood back up in a defensive stance and swung her yo yo in a circle to deflect all the incoming shards. “Okay kitty, this should be as simple as hand to hand combat and just snagging the necklace, but…” She narrowed her eyes as she pressed forward to Miss Plastic. “I’m not sure that’s entirely true…”
Chat, who had his baton spinning just like her yo yo, gave her encouraging smile. “It’s alright Bugaboo, we can beat her with the three of us. Strength in numbers, correct?”
She nodded back and forced a smile. Something was off. “Four of us…” she began “There should be four of us. Where’s Hound?”
“Not sure...maybe she found Red already?” Ladybug shook her head. The two of them were always together, but most of the students would have been cleared by now anyways. Where could she be? As the two heroes pushed closer and closer to the akuma, Miss Plastic paused her waves of glass at them and snapped off her necklace. This was their time to strike!
Without a second’s delay, Ladybug drew back her yo yo to whip it at Miss Plastic. The akuma grinned. With the necklace still in hand, she ducked, letting the yo yo fly above her head before she yanked it towards herself. Ladybug flew forward with the force of her pull and slumped right in front of her. Miss Plastic’s eyes were already glowing blue. “This is what you want, right?” She tightened her grip on the crystal before opening her palm to show Ladybug. Ladybug instantly dove for the chain hanging on the sides of her hand. “Well you can have it!” Miss Plastic yelled, shoving the crystal in Ladybug’s mask as it shined a brilliant blue.