Chapter 58: Volpina Part 1
Things after Antibug had quickly died down for Marinette and Adrien, even when Ladybug had explained her anger towards Chloé/Antibug to Chat Noir on their following patrol. While she couldn't give too specific details that would tie back to her identity, Ladybug did explain that the situation had hit a little too close to home for her, which the feline understood and left it at that. The week after Chloé was freed, the school had also let out for winter break and there had been no akuma's in the days leading up to Christmas.
Granted, there was the incident of Santa Claws on Christmas Eve when Adrien had run away from home and Ladybug mistook Santa for his kidnapper/akuma stalker. Thankfully for the heroes, it had been an easy one to take care of and led to Adrien having one of his best Christmases to date when his friends and their families came to the mansion to celebrate with him.
The week after the Christmas akuma, it gave the Miraculous Holders a well-needed break from school and training when Master Fu insisted that they needed it. It was much appreciated by the teens, especially since Marinette now had the opportunity to catch up with her projects, like the Geode Beanie for Toby. Speaking of gifts for her family in the States, they loved the handmade Santa hats and sweaters she sent them and sent a picture of them wearing them to her and her parents. It was their Christmas card to their Parisian side of the family. But when school finally started back up for them in Paris, it held quite a few surprises for them.
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The week after Christmas was presently quiet for the majority of the city, save for the inhabitants of the Agreste Mansion. After Adrien's late-night excursion, Gabriel realized that he was being a little unreasonable with his brooding earlier that night and made it a point to spend the holidays with him. It was one of the best weeks Adrien had spent with his father. But now that winter break was over and it was the first day back at school, it meant that both Agreste males had to return to their respective responsibilities.
It was on that fateful day when Adrien was running down the foyer's steps and making his way out to go to school that he heard a voice coming from his father's atrium. Intrigued by it, Adrien stopped right in the middle of the room and turned to see his father passing by the ajar door to his office, talking to someone on the phone. Deciding to find out more, Adrien quietly snuck over to the atrium door and poked his head into the room to spy on his father, even if the blonde would tell you he was doing it for noble reasons if asked about it later. As he observed his unaware father, Adrien watched as Gabriel suddenly grew frustrated with who was on the other line of the call about something regarding his new line just as the fashion designer was looking through a book on his desk.
'I wonder what's in that book. It's got to be something good if it's got such a hold on Father's attention.' Adrien mused internally, continuing his watching while a now frustrated Gabriel picked up the book on his desk and walked to the painting of his wife, still on the call. 'What's he doing now?" the blonde model wondered as he followed his father's line of trajectory.
As he did, Adrien saw that where the painting of his mother usually was, a safe had taken its place as Gabriel placed the book in before shutting it close. A second after the safe was closed, Gabriel reached off to the side and pushed the painting of his wife back into place, revealing that the safe had been behind it all along and leaving Adrien flabbergasted. But once the safe was hidden from view, Gabriel started making his way to the room exit and sent Adrien into a panic to scramble away, hiding behind a pillar to avoid being seen by his father. When he was sure his father was gone, Adrien poked his head out from his hiding place and then looked back at the man's office just as Plagg flew out of his overshirt, his curiosity growing as well as Adrien's.
"He hides stuff behind the painting of Mom?" Adrien quietly questioned out loud, intrigued by this new tidbit he learned about his father as he stepped out from behind the pillar he was hiding behind.
"Ooh! I love dirty secrets!!" Plagg squealed, eagerly following behind Adrien as he walked into the office and over to the painting. Once he was standing in front of it, Adrien placed his bag on the floor before he reached for the painting and pulled it away to reveal the safe. "Oh, yes! Go on, go on!" the black kwami excitedly encouraged, watching as Adrien was about to attempt to enter a code to open the safe. But just before the boy even touched the number pad, Adrien pulled his hand back and chickened out of the action.
"I can't do it. I'm just starting to reconnect with my dad and he would not like me going through his stuff." Adrien said, realizing that his previous thought of action would not be a good idea. "Besides, I don't even know the code, and my fencing class is about to start." the adonis nervously added as he turned to face his kwami floating off to the side, trying to reason with Plagg that they should just leave and forget about the safe altogether.
"You're such a party pooper." Plagg simply remarked a disappointed glare sent Adrien's way before he phased through the safe door.
"Plagg, no!" Adrien cried out in worry, reaching out to try and stop Plagg from going into the safe and failing to do so if the sounds of the safe unlocking were any clue to go off of.
"My, my, what have we got here?" Plagg teased from inside the unlocked safe, clearly going through Adrien's father's private stuff and prompting Adrien to open the door and get his kwami out of there. "A book on Tibet, an old flier from a hotel." the feline kwami drew on as he went through the contents of the safe, which had left Adrien in shock at the sight of the array of items inside... including a peacock tail-shaped brooch laying in front of a photo of his mother.
"Aw, it's just a load of junk!" Plagg whined after his search, dropping the aforementioned hotel flier in his not-so-interesting search. "Come on, where's the good stuff?" the black cheese goblin complained, followed by him knocking the book Gabriel was looking at into Adrien's arms in his search for more interesting secrets of the fashion designer. But upon seeing the book he had thrown out in Adrien's arms, Plagg abandoned his search and flew out of the safe just as the boy started looking through the book himself.
"I've seen this book somewhere before." Plagg realized, watching Adrien flip through the pages depicting numerous different heroes and what looked like their corresponding Miraculous.
Just after Adrien landed on a page depicting a Chinese Black Cat Miraculous Holder; leaving the boy amazed at the sight of it, Plagg zipped over and flipped a large chunk of the pages to end up on a section of blank ones. Confused at Plagg's action, Adrien watched as his kwami seemed to study the blank pages in front of him, his toxic green eyes widening when he seemed to find what he was looking for.
"Plagg, is everything okay?" Adrien asked, concerned about his kwami's strange behaviour. At the sound of his holder's worries, Plagg quickly composed himself and turned to face Adrien.
"Everything is fine, Adrien," Plagg assured in a wavering voice, clearly miffed at what Adrien had to assume were not blank pages after all. "But maybe we should bring this to Master Fu as soon as possible? He'll probably want to see this." the black kwami suggested, surprising Adrien with his sudden seriousness.
"I'll see if I can find some time to take it to him today, but I can't make any promises, Plagg. Especially since I'm pretty sure my father will notice it's missing sooner or later." Adrien stressed, knowing how much of a perfectionist his father was. "But why is my dad keeping this locked in a safe?" the model wondered out loud, flipping back to the non-blank pages before he landed on a page with a picture of what looked to be an ancient Chinese version of...
"Hawkmoth?" Adrien exclaimed when seeing the image resembling Paris's current nightmare. "What's this monster doing in a book about superheroes?" the boy incredulously questioned, momentarily forgetting the history of the Butterfly Miraculous that he learned from Master Fu in his shock. But before he could think more on the subject, footsteps coming towards the boy and kwami could be heard from outside the office.
"Kid, someone's coming!" Plagg yelped with worry while Adrien scrambled to close the safe again, cover it back up with the picture and hide the book in his school bag just as Nathalie and Placide I.T. entered the room.
"Adrien? You're going to be late." Nathalie chided her young charge, accompanied by a grunt from his bodyguard as well.
"I was...looking for my homework. Silly me." Adrien tensely explained with a nervous chuckle, rising back to his feet with a scratch on the back of his neck. 'Man, that was close!' the Adonis thought to himself as he walked over to Nathalie and Placide I.T., glad to not have been caught for his snooping around as they made their way to the car to take him to school.
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A while later, school had already started for the students and all of Collège Françoise Dupont were occupying the courtyard after the first half of their classes. Jim, unfortunately, had an emergency in Trollmarket that prevented him from participating in his and Marinette's normal call, allowing the designer to have lunch at her house for once. But when she met with Alya at the bottom of the school's front steps, Marinette was left in confusion when she heard the rest of her classmates conversing amongst each other with one name in common passing along them.
"Lila?" Marinette questioned her best friend, rushing back to Alya's side after lagging to overhear all the gossip being spilled about the unfamiliar name. Just how much did she miss while having lunch?
"Yeah, she just started at our school!" Alya replied, pointing to the so-called Lila as she stood on the second floor of the school with Adrien. "She even gave me an exclusive interview for the Ladyblog, since Ladybug saved her life once! Watch!" the reporter exclaimed with excitement, eagerly pulling out her phone from her pocket to show Marinette the video of Lila that she had taken for her blog. Needless to say, the combination of the video, the gossip and seeing Adrien with this new girl had Marinette's vision turning red along the edges.
"Who is this girl and what is she doing next to the love of my life?!" Marinette shouted incredulously, feelings of jealousy bubbling to the surface.
"No idea, but Lila's got the most incredible life and now she's going here! She's awesome!" Alya gushed, excited to have someone so accomplished in the same building while her words did very little to soothe Marinette's current worries.
"Don't say that! This is super bad!" Marinette exclaimed, now beginning to spiral into her insecurities on a whole new level. "What if Adrien falls for her?! I've never flown in a private jet, nobody's ever written a song about me, and I don't know a single person in Hollywood! Adrien will forget I even exist!" the pigtailed girl catastrophized, mental images of the aforementioned scenarios passing through her mind before she snapped out of them just in time to see Lila guiding Adrien along by the hand to someplace else.
"Where are they going?" Marinette wondered out loud, now even more worried about what Lila would win Adrien over. "Alya, we've got to stop them!" the red-tipped-haired girl proclaimed, shaking Alya by her shoulders to emphasize her point.
"You need to chill out, Marinette. It's not like she's doing anything wrong." Alya said to Marinette, dismissing her BFF's seemingly unnecessary worries. "Besides, my Ladyblog has the highest number of hits ever after that Lila interview!" the reporter added before she walked away, leaving a bewildered Marinette to stand in the courtyard all by herself.
"What's going on? Has this Lila girl hypnotized everyone or something?" Marinette questioned herself, not believing how admired this new girl was by her classmates in such a short amount of time.
"You wouldn't be a little jealous, right Marinette?" Tikki teased as she poked her head out of her holder's purse, finding Marinette's concern a little amusing since it most likely revolved around Adrien for her to be this riled up.
"Huh! Me, jealous? No way!" Marinette denied outright, trying to play herself off as the opposite... only to turn around and run after Lila and Adrien to see what they were up to.
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Thankfully for Marinette, it was the study hall period for her class, which meant that she technically wasn't missing any class when she followed Lila and Adrien to the school's library. Having to stay back to avoid being seen, the designer waited for the new girl and her crush to enter the room and waited for a little before going in herself, soon spotting Adrien sitting in one of the study areas alone. In response, Marinette hid behind a nearby bookshelf and continued to watch Adrien while not seeing Lila anywhere in the vicinity.
"Where is she?" Marinette whispered to herself and Tikki, looking around for Lila out of concern due to her sudden absence. But her search was put on hold when Adrien reached for his bag and took his father's book out from it, causing Tikki to gasp at the sight of it and draw Marinette's attention back to her kwami. "What is it, Tikki?" she asked.
"Marinette, Adrien's book! I need to get a closer look at it." Tikki exclaimed in a whisper, leaving Marinette's purse in her newly exhilarated state.
"Why are you so concerned about his book?" Marinette asked her kwami, a spike of curiosity interrupting her current train of thought before she re-focused on the task at hand. "Never mind, we can talk about this later. Hide, Tikki!" the pigtailed girl waved off before opening her purse for Tikki to return to her hiding place, only for the red kwami to fly over to the top of a bookcase near Adrien.
From her new perch, Tikki spied on Adrien from above as he started looking through the book, which had Marinette worried that her kwami would be spotted by someone. But before she could walk out of her hiding place to try and retrieve Tikki, Lila had finally reappeared and was walking towards Adrien. Seeing the girl coming towards her crush, Marinette fully hid herself behind the bookshelf she was using as her hiding place, hoping to avoid being seen.
"Now we can get going on our history homework," Lila said to Adrien as she walked up to him with a book in her hands, causing him to hide the book he was looking through under another textbook before she could see it. "It's so much more fun doing it together, don't you think?" the olive-green-eyed girl questioned in a flirty tone as she sat in the chair next to Adrien, eagerly leaning towards the blonde and making him a little uncomfortable with how close she was to him. But just as Lila propped her arm up on the table to support her jaw while she gazed dreamily at Adrien, her eyes had wondered to see the book hiding underneath the boy's math book.
"What's that?" Lila questioned as she suddenly grabbed the book from Adrien's grasp, not even asking if she could touch it before she started looking through it.
"Uh, nothing! Just images about superheroes." Adrien replied, a little surprised by Lila's rudeness before she put her hand on top of Adrien's.
"I love superheroes!" Lila cheered with a grin. But unknown to either of them, Marinette had poked her head out from her hiding spot behind the bookcase and had witnessed Lila's advance, making her quietly gasp out of shock.
"Oh, no! it's already too late!" Marinette wailed to herself after she fully hid herself behind the bookshelf again, only to bump into a book cart and push it by accident. However, the sight of the book cart gave the red-tipped-haired girl an idea of how to listen in on Adrien and Lila.
Meanwhile, Tikki was still on her perch and was now watching Lila as she flipped through the book, the kwami's eyes narrowing to try and get a better look at the pages. But thanks to Lila's hunched-over posture, Tikki had a hard time getting a good look at what the pages of the book truly contained.
"These are amazing! So much detail!" Lila gushed as she kept flipping through the book, finding the depictions of each new hero more fascinating than the last.
"Yeah, it is." Adrien agreed, leaning over to Lila's right to get a look at the book too since he had only a few seconds to do so before being interrupted. "But the weird thing is that it's incomplete." the green-eyed boy revealed, making Lila look up from the book and stare at him in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Lila questioned, not understanding why Adrien had made such a comment.
"A section of the pages towards the end are blank," Adrien explained, reaching over and flipping to the start of the blank pages to show her. "See? It just stops with no warning." the model added, unaware of Tikki's eyes widening at the sight of the first blank page from above them before Lila flipped through the rest of the aforementioned pages.
"Huh, that's peculiar. Maybe whoever made the book ran out of things to put into it?" Lila suggested, not taking her eyes off the pages. "Can't say I'd blame them. There are already so many interesting things in here." the chestnut-haired girl remarked before flipping back to the non-blank pages, quickly landing on the page with a depiction of an Ancient Chinese Ladybug.
"Ladybug!? She's depicted here too?" Lila questioned, surprised to see one of the city's protectors in Adrien's book.
"Why wouldn't she be? She's so amazing." Adrien gushed with a sigh as he looked up at the ceiling in his lovelorn thoughts, totally unaware of the look of jealousy flashing across Lila's face.
"A girl doesn't need to wear a costume to be amazing, you know." Lila nearly scoffed, scooting her seat closer to Adrien and practically leaving no space between them.
"Uh, I don't know—I mean, I—" Adrien stammered out, now even more uncomfortable with Lila due to her new proximity.
"So you've got a little soft spot for the bug, huh?" Lila asked with a sly smirk, digging for more information about Adrien.
"Me? Oh, no! Not at all!" Adrien denied it, even if it was painfully obvious that it was the truth. But while Lila had a death grip on his focus, neither of them noticed that a book cart had been moved closer to them as it sat across from them on the other side of the desk.
"You know... I happen to be very close friends with Ladybug." Lila revealed, causing Adrien; and Marinette as she was hiding behind the book cart immediately knew the girl had made a bold-faced lie, to both gasp in shock at the olive-green-eyed girl's words.
"Really?!" Adrien questioned in awe of the news, totally unaware of Lila's lie.
"We can chat about it if you want," Lila suggested, an unidentifiable glint in her eyes as she spoke. "Not here though. Why don't we meet at the park after school and I'll tell you everything." the chestnut-haired girl offered.
Unknown to her, Marinette had had enough of Lila's bulshagal and decided to try exposing her, standing up from her hiding place behind the book cart with a growl. However, the attempt immediately went sideways when she put too much weight on one side of the cart, accidentally sending it into the wall and causing Adrien and Lila to stand up in surprise at the noise. Thankfully for Marinette, the crash had given her time to hide under their table before they could spot her, to which had her sighing in relief just as Adrien got an alert from his phone. Upon pulling the device out of his pocket while Lila sat back in her seat, Adrien was then sent into a panic when he saw what the alert was for.
"I gotta go! I've got a fencing lesson in 58 seconds." Adrien explained before he quickly packed up his bag, prompting Lila to do the same. But just after Adrien turned to say 'goodbye' to Lila, she was already on her feet and standing so close to the boy that she caused him to drop his unzipped bag on the floor, his books falling out of it and onto the floor.
"So, the park?" Lila asked, keeping Adrien's attention on her as she used her foot to push the superhero book away from Adrien's bag before kneeling to pick up the rest of the textbooks.
"Uh, sure!" Adrien replied as Lila held out his re-packed bag to him, quickly running out of the library afterwards to make it to his fencing class. But once he was out of Lila's sight, she picked up the book from the floor and opened it to see a section about...
"A vixen superheroine?" Lila wondered to herself, looking at the image with a growing sly smile. "Hmm, interesting..." she mused to herself as she left the library.
Once she was gone, Marinette finally crawled out from under the table, both relieved to not have been caught and infuriated with Lila stealing Adrien's book. But she didn't have much time to dwell on the details when Tikki finally came down from her perch on the bookshelf, clearly concerned as well.
"Marinette! We have to do something!" Tikki exclaimed when she reached her holder's eye level, floating in front of Marinette while she still kept herself underneath the table for some reason.
"I know! I gotta talk to Adrien before he meets up with Lila in the park! He needs to know that she's a total thief!" Marinette responded, thinking that was what Tikki was referring to.
"No! You can't say anything to Adrien yet! I need a chance to look through the book first." Tikki protested, hoping to stop any unexpected factors in her plan from even happening. "If it's the one I think it is, then we have to get our hands on it!" the red kwami explained, further confirming that this situation was a lot bigger than just Lila stealing a random book.
"I don't get it. Exactly why would we need it?" Marinette asked, not seeing what the big deal was about Adrien's book.
"I'll explain to you once I know for sure," Tikki assured Marinette, hoping that it would be enough to quell her holder's questions for the time being. "But until then, we mustn't let Lila out of our sight!" the spotted fairy-like creature stressed, immediately appealing to Marinette since she had a growing dislike of the girl in question. With a nod of confirmation, Marinette got out of her hiding place and exited the library, making it her day's mission to keep an eye on the recently discovered liar.
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(Time Skip)
Like Marinette had promised Tikki, the two of them didn't let Lila out of their sight for the remainder of the school day, which had been easy since Lila had been placed in Marinette's homeroom class. But once the remaining classes had finished, they followed Lila as she made her way through the streets of Paris and entered a jewelry store, forcing Marinette to hide behind a tree to wait for her to come back out. Deciding to kill some of the wait time, Marinette pulled out her phone and opened up her saved link to the Ladyblog to watch the video Alya had taken of Lila's interview to find out just how much of it was true.
"So you must be pretty important to Ladybug if she saved your life, correct?" Alya asked from the other side of the camera filming Lila, the video of the interview nearly to the end with how long Marinette had been waiting for Lila to appear again.
"Totally! Ladybug and me, we're like this!" Lila claimed in the video, crossing her fingers together with a self-satisfied smirk.
"Liar!" Marinette growled, having watched enough of the video to know that not a lick of what Lila had said was true.
"There! She's coming out!" Tikki exclaimed, drawing Marinette's attention to see Lila exiting the jewelry store and continuing to walk away.
Staying far enough behind the liar, Marinette kept following Lila whilst still making sure to stay out of her line of sight to prevent any awkward situations. As time passed, Lila continued to make her way through town and soon ended up in the Place des Vosges park, sitting herself on a bench and unaware of Marinette hiding behind a tree a little bit away from her. But when Marinette had situated herself to make herself unseen by her target, she failed to see that there was one little problem with her chosen hiding spot.
"We're too far away!" Tikki whined, pointing out the one flaw of their current hiding spot.
But seeing this eventuality coming at some point, Marinette pulled out her phone and used the camera zoom to get a closer look at Lila. Once she had zoomed the feed close enough, both Marinette and Tikki watched as Lila took out a box she must have bought from the jewelry store from her bag and opened it to reveal a necklace with a fox tail charm inside it. After they saw her put the new necklace on and stuff the box back in her bag, Lila pulled out the book she had taken from Adrien and had just started looking through it when they heard a set of footsteps coming towards Lila.
"Oh hi!" Lila greeted the person coming towards her, standing up from the bench and quickly hiding the book behind her back. Curious as to who was approaching Lila, Marinette looked up from her phone camera and saw it was Adrien approaching.
"Oh no! He's already here!" Marinette exclaimed to Tikki upon seeing Adrien's arrival, only to glance back at her camera and see Lila throw the book in the trash behind her. "She just dumped the book in the trash bin! What a brat!" the pigtailed girl seethed while Lila walked up to Adrien and led him to the bench she had been sitting on, angry with Lila's blatant disrespect of Adrien's property.
"I'll get it–" Tikki offered, flying out of Marinette's purse.
"No Tikki!" Marinette protested, finding Tikki's latent risk-taking quite concerning.
"I have to get that book!" Tikki stressed, facing Marinette dead in the eye as she spoke. "You take care of Adrien." the red kwami suggested before she flew to the trash canister.
"Tikki!" Marinette exclaimed with worry, soon watching as Tikki went right inside the bin to search for the book.
Hoping that Tikki would be quick, Marinette waited for her kwami to come back before she even snuck closer to Adrien and Lila. But her hopes of that were dashed away when a second after Tikki had dove into the trash can, Marinette could see her struggling to get the book out of it. Seeing that Tikki needed help, Marinette scurried to her kwami and hid behind the trash canister to keep from being seen and saw Tikki struggling to take the book out of the trash. Thankfully for the kwami, Marinette saw her poking out from the rim of the bin and rushed over to help her.
"This is the book Marinette!" Tikki softly cheered, carrying the heavy book in her tiny arms before Marinette grabbed the book, taking both it and her kwami out of the bin and into her grasp. However, just before Marinette could leave, the conversation between Lila and Adrien was still underway and had caught her attention. Upon hearing the conversation, Marinette saw her new hiding spot had given her the chance to hear the conversation between Lila and Adrien.
"So you do know Ladybug, for real?" Adrien asked, unaware of Marinette overhearing them.
"Not only did Ladybug save my life, but we've become very close friends because we have something very special in common," Lila responded, answering Adrien's query before shyly looking to the ground. "It's what I wanted to tell you about, actually." the chestnut-haired girl admitted, re-averting her gaze back to Adrien before continuing.
"I'm the descendant of a vixen superheroine myself... Volpina." Lila revealed, leaving Adrien; and unknowingly Marinette, in surprise.
"Volpina?" Adrien repeated, unfamiliar with the name but left impressed nonetheless.
"Volpina?" Marinette uttered to herself, still keeping herself hidden as she took in Lila's claim before refocusing on watching the conversation.
"Wait a minute! I think I read about her in my book." Adrien exclaimed as he reached for his bag to retrieve the said book, only for a suddenly panicked Lila to stop him from grabbing it.
"Of course, she's in your book! She's one of the most important superheroes." Lila announced, preventing Adrien from discovering his book was missing and inadvertently exposing her superchery. "More powerful and more celebrated than Ladybug." the olive-eyed girl added, unknowingly angering Marinette with the comment.
'HOW DARE SHE!' Marinette seethed in her thoughts, having to stop herself from popping out of her hiding spot and ringing Lila's lying neck with sheer willpower alone.
"Between you and me, Ladybug doesn't even make the top ten." Lila snidely added, causing Marinette to bite down on the book in anger to continue staying hidden. Thankfully for her, Adrien had seemed a little unsettled with the blatant insult of the spotted heroine and caused Lila to do a little damage control. "At least that's what my grandma told me when she gave me this necklace." the liar continued, saving herself from her earlier insult of Ladybug before she showed Adrien the necklace she had gotten from the jewelry store.
With Lila's actions of trying to pass off the necklace as a real Miraculous, Marinette now saw that the reason why Lila had gone to the jewelry store was to get evidence of her claim, which enraged her even more than before.
"Wow, she's good. Really good." Tikki remarked, impressed with Lila's ability to spin a yarn before she noticed Marinette had already run just out of the park, prompting the kwami to follow after her when she hid behind a nearby pillar.
"You've got your book, now it's time I put a stop to this. I can't lose Adrien." Marinette nearly growled at Tikki as she gave her the book, the red kwami being dragged to the ground as a result. "Time to transform!" the designer announced before she pulled out her runestone necklace and clasped her hand over. No sooner than she did, her Ladybug disguise had taken full effect and allowed her to finally say...
"Tikki, spots on!" Marinette proclaimed, transforming into Ladybug and swinging out of her hiding place to perch herself in a tree above Lila and Adrien just in time to hear her crush say...
"Are you telling me this is a Miraculous?!" Adrien uttered in awe, holding Lila's necklace in his hands and drinking every word the girl sitting next to him said. At the sound of Adrien's words, Ladybug gritted her teeth and jumped from her spot in the tree, landing right in front of them and surprising the two teens.
"Well hey, Lila! How's it going? Long time no see." Ladybug sarcastically greeted Lila, which immediately caught Lila off guard alongside the superhero's sudden appearance. " I saw your interview on the Ladyblog, awesome job." the spotted heroine added before she put her foot on the bench between Lila and Adrien, leaning closer to the olive-eyed girl and unnerving her even more.
"Oh sure! I remember our instant connection when I saved your life and we've been really good friends ever since! Practically BFF's!" Ladybug went on, her voice practically filled to the brim with venom with how angry she was at Lila. "But come to think of it, when did I save your life again, Lila? I don't recall." the red superhero rhetorically questioned, faking a contemplating look before it immediately dropped when 'the answer came to her'.
"Oh yes! Of course, now I remember. Never! And we're not friends either!" Ladybug shouted at Lila, shoving her face right into Lila's as well to emphasize her claim. "Miss Show-Off here was trying to impress you and everyone around her." the spotted heroine tensely explained to Adrien, taking her foot off the bench and backing away from Lila now that she had disproved the dishonest claim she made.
"So I guess you aren't the descendant of a superhero either?" Adrien softly inquired Lila, who was now crying while the boy tried to get all the facts right now that he knew the truth.
"She's more like a super liar." Ladybug snidely remarked, even if it was an accurate statement at the moment.
"How dare you?!" Lila shouted at the superheroine as she stood up from the bench, followed by her turning tail and running away after grabbing her bag from the ground, sobbing as she went.
"Wait! Lila!" Adrien called out to the running girl in hopes of fixing things, only for Lila to completely ignore him as she exited the park. "Hey, what was that all about? Don't you think you were kinda harsh with her?" the blonde asked Ladybug, turning to face her as he spoke and catching Ladybug off guard with the question.
"I don't put up with lies, Adrien." Ladybug simply stated once she regained her composure. "Especially when they're about me," she added before yo-yoing away, leaving Adrien behind to stare at her retreating figure in shock.
"What is with you, Ladybug?" Adrien questioned to himself in confusion, not understanding why Ladybug had been so short with Lila. Yes, she had lied about knowing her and about a few other things, but that didn't call for such cruelty in return.
But as Adrien started walking out of the park, he missed Ladybug landing abruptly on a rooftop above the park, looking down at his existing form with a tinge of regret. Now that she had left and had a chance to cool off from Lila's lies and advances on Adrien, the spotted heroine couldn't help but feel ashamed of how she acted towards the new girl.
"I may have gone a bit overboard there." Ladybug thought to herself in recollection, only to shake the thought out of her head to no longer dwell on it. "But at least I'm not dealing with her anymore." the spotted heroine remarked before she pulled out her yo-yo and threw it onto a chimney to leave the scene to head back home, having no idea just how wrong she was.
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Meanwhile, in the streets of Paris, a still scorned Lila had found herself a fair ways away from the park and had found herself in front of a poster of Ladybug. But at the sight of the image of the source of her current embarrassment and ire, Lila's anger had skyrocketed to new heights.
"My chances with Adrien are gone! I hate you, Ladybug!" Lila all but screamed at the poster, throwing her bag at it as if it were the real Ladybug before falling to her knees in defeat.
Unbeknownst to Lila, her negative emotions could be felt all the way in Hawkmoth's lair deep below the city, where the lair's giant window had opened up to bathe the resident supervillain with beams of daylight. Needless to say, the intensity of Lila's volatile emotions had left him impressed as the resting butterflies started fluttering around him in the observatory-like space.
"Ah... jealousy, deceit, and the desire to be powerful." Hawkmoth observed to himself as he concentrated on feeling the specifics of Lila's growing negative emotions. "This young lady is my perfect prey!" the evil version of Tinky-Winky purred before he transformed one of the butterflies into an Akuma, allowing it to flutter free from his grasp after its transformation.
"Fly, my evil little one, and akumatize her!" Hawkmoth exclaimed as he watched the akuma flutter through the lair window, targeting the angry Lila.
Fortunately for Hawkmoth and the akuma, Lila was relatively close to where his lair was and hadn't moved an inch from her spot on the sidewalk when the akuma found her. So without another second to waste, the akuma fluttered over to Lila and landed on the liar's fox tail necklace, corrupting it and creating the psychic link between her and Hawkmoth.
"Volpina, I am Hawkmoth." Hawkmoth greeted his new accomplice once the link was complete. "I'm giving you the power of illusion so that from now on your lies will come to life." the resident supervillain explained, giving Lila the usual rundown of her given powers like his previous victims.
"Gain Ladybug and Cat Noir's trust and convince them you're a real superhero. Then betray them and bring me their Miraculous." Hawkmoth ordered, deciding to use his new akumatized minion to take a new approach to gain the Miraculous from his nemeses. All in all, the offer was too irresistible for Lila to refuse.
"It would be my pleasure, Hawkmoth." Lila replied in a gleefully evil tone, quickly transforming into her new alias, Volpina.
With her transformation complete, Volpina rose to her feet and pulled out her flute staff to test her new powers, playing a melody on the instrument and summoning an orb of orange light at the end of it. Once the light orb grew to a decent size, the vixen akuma used her new power and threw the orb right at the poster in front of her, changing it into one of her and Adrien before flying off to draw the heroes out.
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Out in the city of Paris, the masses of the population were all milling about and enjoying their day. But they were soon in for a surprise when they were greeted by the sight of a meteor appearing up in the sky, hurtling toward the city. One such person was Adrien, who was just getting home from the disaster at the park and saw the meteor up in the sky. Not wasting a second longer, the secret superhero ran to his room, quickly closing the door behind him just as Plagg flew out of his overshirt and watched as the boy pulled out his runestone necklace from under his shirt. Clasping his hand over it, the disguise was activated and in full effect before Adrien finally shouted...
"Plagg, claws out!" Adrien proclaimed, transforming into Chat Noir and leaping out of his room window to save the city from the meteor coming right at it.
While Chat Noir was making his way across town to help out, a mentally exhausted Ladybug had just arrived back to her home. But she was horrified when she turned around to take a glance at the city she loved and was greeted by the sight of the approaching meteor, leaving Ladybug in a moment of shock.
"Code Red!" Ladybug yelled when she broke herself out of her shock, throwing her yo-yo out to make her way towards the meteor to stop it. But just as she neared the Louvre courtyard, Ladybug was surprised by a flash of orange passing by her before it materialized into Volpina as she flew into the sky above the Louvre pyramid.
Seconds after Volpina prepared herself to make contact with the burning rock, the meteor hurtled right into her, pushing her towards the iconic landmark below her. However instead of merely being pushed to the ground by the giant flaming rock, Volpina had managed to catch it before it hit the Louvre, the fox the only thing standing between the rock and the tip of the pyramid. Pushing herself off of the Louvre pyramid, Volpina flew back up into the sky while pushing the meteor at the same time, soon hurling it back into space before flying back towards the ground.
But unknown to the masses below, the meteor had vanished completely when it hit a passing pigeon, leaving the poor bird confused. Alongside this peculiar incident, after Volpina flew down to one of the Louvre palace's rooftops and away from the public eye, she was greeted by the real Volpina before she swats the illusion version of herself away. With any evidence of her trickery erased, Volpina walked to the edge of the roof and looked down to address the crowd of Parisians below.
"I am Volpina, the only superhero Paris needs!" Volpina announced to citizens, causing them to chant her name out of gratitude and praise. However, they were all unaware of their city's current protectors watching on a rooftop just across from them.
"Volpina?" Ladybug muttered to herself in suspicion, Chat Noir standing on her right after joining her on the roof mere seconds ago.
"Looks like we have a new partner." Chat Noir noted as he held his staff along his shoulders with a smirk, seemingly happy with the new 'teammate'.
"Don't you think it's weird that this superhero just appeared out of nowhere?" Ladybug asked her partner, not liking the strange vibe she was getting from this new fox heroine.
"A little, since I'm pretty sure Master Fu would have told us about it." Chat Noir admitted, knowing that it was strange that the Guardian hadn't given them a heads up about putting another Miraculous into play. "But at least she got the job done. If she hadn't been here—" the feline hero added, to which seemed to strike a sour note with Ladybug.
"I could have easily stopped that meteorite myself." Ladybug said defensively, crossing her arms over her chest at what her partner seemed to be insinuating.
"I wasn't saying that you couldn't, M'Lady. I'm just saying she seems like a great ally." Chat Noir hastily assured Ladybug, now seeing that he might have offended her a little, which was the last thing he wanted. "The more the merrier, right?" the hero in black questioned, hoping to salvage the situation. But before Ladybug could respond, Volpina had suddenly arrived on the rooftop they were on and landed right in front of them.
"Hey guys! Glad you dropped in, because I need a hand." Volpina greeted the heroes after she landed on the roof, rising to her full height. "Come on!" the vixen 'heroine' exclaimed before flying off of the roof, a surprised Ladybug and Chat Noir following behind her as she led the way. Thankfully, Volpina hadn't gone too far and landed on a nearby roof, where they followed her example and hid with her behind a stack of chimneys just in time to be greeted by the sight of something they never thought they'd see
"I can't believe it! It's Hawkmoth in the flesh!" Chat Noir exclaimed with wide eyes, both he and Ladybug were shocked to see 'Hawkmoth's' figure on a roof across from them.
"He never shows up!" Ladybug remarked as the three of them crouched down behind the chimneys, hoping to stay out of 'Hawkmoth's' sight for a little longer. "Something big is going on. Really big!" the spotted heroine exclaimed, the situation growing much more intense than she thought it could be.
"We can take him down, but it's gonna take all three of us." Volpina said, taking charge of the situation much to Ladybug's surprise and annoyance. "So we better make the most of our individual talents." the fox 'heroine' added, slyly glancing over to Chat Noir and completely ignoring the incredulous glare Ladybug had been giving her.
"You can count on us." Chat Noir assured Volpina, his excitement to take down Hawkmoth clouding his ability to see Ladybug's reaction to Volpina's words.
"It's also very nice to meet you, Chat Noir! Cool suit, by the way." Volpina slyly complimented, flirting with the feline hero and leaving him a little more than flattered.
"Why thanks! You too, Volpina." Chat Noir bashfully replied, scratching the back of his head at the compliment he had received and unaware of Ladybug gagging at the interaction between him and Volpina. But instead of dwelling on it, Ladybug poked her head out of their hiding place and decided to analyze the situation further.
"First the meteorite, now Hawkmoth appearing both on the same day. Don't you think that's a little bit unusual?" Ladybug pointed out before turning to face her partner and Volpina, finding this whole day's events to be a little too well placed for her liking.
"Why would you say that?" Volpina questioned, a smirk on her lips while still crouching next to Chat Noir.
"I was asking Chat Noir, not you." Ladybug corrected, annoyed that Volpina had assumed that she was already trustworthy enough to be on their team.
"I'm finding you unusual today, My Lady." Chat Noir remarked, rising to his feet. "Is everything okay?" he asked out of concern, thinking back to his earlier encounter with Ladybug in his civilian form and hoping his partner wasn't dealing with a lot in private.
"I'm fine, Chat Noir. Just fine." Ladybug assured her partner, taking a breath to make sure her voice didn't have an edge to it when speaking to him since he wasn't the one who was annoying her. That being said, as soon as she finished speaking to Chat Noir, she turned to face Volpina with a glare. "Quick question Volpina, what's your Miraculous?" Ladybug interrogated Volpina, surprising the fox for a second due to Ladybug's bluntness.
"My necklace." Volpina simply replied with a smirk after regaining her composure, holding out the jewel for Ladybug to see.
"What power does it give you?" Ladybug continued, even though she and Chat Noir hadn't quite learned all the powers of the Miraculous Master Fu had in his possession.
"The power of flight and super strength." Volpina replied, making Ladybug sourly pout at her claim in thought. While she might not have known all the powers of the Miraculous, Ladybug was pretty sure that they only came with one main power, which was also based on a concept instead of an ability.
"Where did you get it?" Ladybug questioned in hopes of catching the vixen off guard, her; and now Chat Noir's, suspicions growing with Volpina's answer.
"Same way you and Chat Noir did, I suppose. I was chosen." Volpina responded with annoyance, finding Ladybug's insistent questions getting a little old.
"By who, though?" Ladybug asked with narrowed eyes, causing Volpina to raise an eyebrow at the spotted heroine in confusion just before 'Hawkmoth' suddenly disappeared.
"No time! He's getting away!" Volpina exclaimed when seeing their foe escaping, prompting them all to chase after him. The chase continued until 'Hawkmoth' had stopped again and had perched himself on the top of City Hall, prompting the heroes to land on a rooftop across from the building to make their plan.
"Okay, here's my plan. Ladybug, go to his left, Chat Noir, you take the right and I'll come from behind." Volpina explained to the heroes, which immediately rubbed Ladybug the wrong way.
"No, that won't work!" Ladybug protested. "I take the right, Chat Noir goes from behind and you... take the left." the spotted heroine said, swapping positions and soon realizing her folly in giving Volpina her old job, causing the vixen to laugh.
"Fine. Makes no difference to me." Volpina agreed with her usual sly smirk, finding Ladybug's re-organizing humorous.
"Good." Ladybug curtly replied, followed by Volpina jumping into the air to enact 'Ladybug's' plan, flying off into the air and leaving Chat Noir and Ladybug alone.
"Can you chill out a little? She's one of us." Chat Noir said to Ladybug, finding her behavior towards Volpina unwarranted.
"I'm sorry for being too short, Chat Noir. But there's just something about Volpina that I just don't trust." Ladybug explained, hoping that he could understand why she was acting the way she was.
"It's okay, I totally get it. She's new, we don't know anything about her, and we've got a dynamic that works well." Chat Noir replied, seeing at least a few reasons why Ladybug was acting so cold. "But you should give her a chance. She might just surprise you." the hero in black suggested, hoping to broker peace between the two girls and make their team stronger in the long run.
"I... I'll try." Ladybug relented. While she still thought it was a bad idea, Ladybug was willing to swallow her pride and compromise since it seemed to mean so much to Chat Noir. Plus, she owed him this much since he had been so understanding about her connection to the Trollhunter without knowing how it was possible, so she thought it was fair in the long run to have the same level of trust in him.
"Great! Now let's kick Hawkmoth's butt!" Chat Noir cheered, happy that Ladybug was willing to play nice with Volpina for a bit. "Here's to hoping that your weird feeling passes after working with Volpina today." the hero in black added before he jumped off of the roof and headed out to attack 'Hawkmoth' from behind, leaving Ladybug alone.
"Yeah... Here's to hoping." Ladybug muttered to herself, hoping that things would turn out okay before she followed her partner's example and yo-yoed herself towards City Hall, heading towards 'Hawkmoth'.
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While Ladybug and Chat Noir were having their little conversation before jumping into action to head off 'Hawkmoth', Volpina had flown behind another chimney and landed on the roof... where the real Volpina was waiting. Now that the illusion's job was done, Volpina swiped her flute through it to break the spell before she walked to the edge of the roof to watch Chat Noir running on rooftops in pursuit of her Hawkmoth illusion.
"He's running right into my trap." Volpina gleefully noted as she watched Chat Noir approach 'Hawkmoth' from behind the illusion's perch on City Hall. Wanting to get closer, the vixen akuma made her way to another nearby roof just as the mirage vanished again before the feline hero could get close.
"Where did he go?" Chat Noir wondered out loud, unaware of Volpina hearing him before he caught sight of 'Hawkmoth' on another part of City Hall's roof before appearing on a different roof further away. "There he is!" the hero in black exclaimed before he used his staff to propel himself towards 'Hawkmoth', continuing to chase after the vanishing illusion
"Good! Now to take care of the little bug." Volpina slyly remarked to herself, delighted that her plan was working before she jumped off the roof and started running across the rooftops to go after the object of her hatred... Ladybug.
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