Actions

Work Header

Rating:
Archive Warning:
Fandoms:
Relationships:
Characters:
Additional Tags:
Language:
English
Series:
Part 1 of Welcome To The New Normal, Everything Is Fine
Stats:
Published:
2020-09-11
Updated:
2021-04-04
Words:
53,569
Chapters:
4/?
Comments:
7
Kudos:
14
Bookmarks:
3
Hits:
981

The Totally Ordinary (And Not At All Chaotic Or Magical) Misadventures of Hex and Cerise Beetle [and Team Chaoss]

Summary:

Billy’s just an ordinary boy living an ordinary life. Getting a magical ring and becoming a superhero won’t change that. Neither will him discovering he’s got magic powers outside the suit. Then, there’s the long lost twin he finds. But nothing out of the ordinary there. Developing a crush on the boy with a crush on his superhero persona? Totally ordinary boy stuff.

Notes:

Disclaimer: I do not own Miraculous Ladybug nor do I own the Young Avengers/Runaways/Champions/X-Men or anything that has to do with Marvel comics

A/N: I was gonna do some unnecessary complicated mess but then I just figured I’ll just put Nooroo as the kwami of emotion while Duusu is the kwami of transmission here
-Originally, I had no plans to use Roaar in the story (disliking their Miraculous) but I have decided to go against my original plan and add Roaar to the story. Also, I don't know if it is Roaar or Roarr [Similar issue with the spelling of Baark or Barrk]
-everyone’s powers/abilities are still prevalent, meaning other magics outside the Miraculouses exist – which is something I believe I state?
-Something I read (maybe the Miraculous Ladybug wikipage?) said Mullo is also called Toppo so that’s the name I’m going with here.
-Why are they in France? Why is everyone always in New York?
-Paris – once again – has the made up 21st arrondissement that has François Düpont and Sabine & Tom Boulangerie Pâtissèrie.
-Yin is considered the feminine and dark half of the dualism and Yang is the male and light half so... Tikki uses he/they pronouns and Plagg uses she/they

Chapter 1: an ordinary nerd

Summary:

Billy never was much of a ring guy but he’s gonna have to be to make this clunky magic ring less noticeable.

Chapter Text

“—There has been a lot of controversy surrounding the re-election of Le Grand Paris owner André Bourgeois.” The newsanchor on the television reports. The aforementioned man stands in front of the full-length mirror, adjusting the lavender brooch on the center of his bowtie. “Together with last night’s appearance of one ‘Seigneur’ Monarque, civilians are rightfully worried. Let’s turn it over to Nadja Chamack with our civilian perspective.”


The camera switches to a burgundy-haired woman. “Thanks Nickie, I’m here with Tom Dupain of – that’s right – Sabine & Tom Boulangerie Pâtissèrie. M. Dupain, how frightful was that...” The woman pauses tapping her earpiece, “what?” She hisses, “a... what? Really?” She clears her throat, “M. Dupain, how frightful was that kaleidoscope of butterflies blanketing the sky speaking of obtaining unheard of magical trinkets?”


“Uh... honestly? I was asleep during the entire thing but from what my wife told me it was pretty frightening!”


“And there you have it, Paris. ‘Don’t be bemused, it’s simply news.’ This is Nadja Chamack reporting live from outside Sabine & Tom Boulangerie Pâtissèrie. Over to you, Jack.” The camera cuts to another newsanchor.


“Monsieur Bourgeois—” Jean-Claude tentatively knocks on the door. “Your wife—”


The double doors fully open, “doesn’t need an escort.” Audrey finishes, “now leave.” The butler blinks at her, “are you hard of hearing? Would you rather be dismissed or fired? Your choice.” His eyes quickly dart in André’s direction before he flees. Shaking her head, the blonde walks into the office. André turns away from the mirror to face his wife. “What’s with the tacky bowtie?”


“I wanted to try something new.”


“It’s horrendous, André. Seriously. And lavender? I applaud the pop of color, good to know someone is listening to me, but bowties will never be a thing.”

“I know you haven’t come all the way from Venice to critique my fashion. Not when video calls exist.”


“I came to drop off our daughter. Right in time for school. Aren’t I a great mother?”


“The best. I’m sure Chloé appreciated spending the summer with you.”


“Of course she did. I’m an absolute joy to be around. Hopefully, I taught her to step up her fashion sense. Can you believe how many striped outfits that girl has in her closet?”


“I, uh, can imagine...?” André clears his throat, “how long are you in the city for?”


“That eager to get rid of me, huh?” She smiles at André who smiles back, “sorry to disappoint but I booked a one-way flight.”


“That’s wonderful news! I was hoping you’d stick around.”


“Yes, well, I suppose any wife would want to be there for her husband with all this ‘controversy’ nonsense.”


André makes a face, “you’ve heard.”


“Charlie booked the flights before the news hit. What sort of shit have you gotten yourself into?”


“Nothing. It’s simply wild speculations.”


Audrey raises an eyebrow as she hums. “Is that so? Even ‘wild’ speculations come from somewhere, André. The best lies have sprinkles of truth in them after all.”


“They think I sabotaged the election.”


“Did you?”


“Yes but not in the way they believe! I mean really, Fred Haprèle as mayor of Paris?” André snorts, “what an utterly ridiculous joke! How could I not intervene?”


“What did you even d—”


“Don’t tell me not to disturb my own parents!” An all too familiar shrill shouting voice has them both looking toward the doorway as their daughter stomps inside pulling a large carry-on in each hand.


“My two favorite women in the same room! How was Italy, Princess?”


Jean-Claude tries to make a grab for one of the carry-ons but Chloé moves it out of his reach. “Don’t touch!” She snaps, “Venice was fine, papa.” She glares at the butler as she struggles to pull her carry-ons into the suite.


“Do you need—” Audrey puts a hand to André’s chest, shaking her head. André waits until Chloé makes it to her room and closes the door before he turns to Audrey. “What happened?” He whispers.


“First crush and first heartbreak.” Audrey whispers back. “Poor thing. But she’s got Durand blood! We’re strong, persevering women. She’ll power through.”


“What sort of foolish boy would reject my Princess? Why, she’s the epitome of perfection!”

“Foolish I agree with, but who said anything about a boy?”


André’s eyes widen comically as he stares at Audrey, “w-wha—? B-But—” He sputters, “b-but you said she had a heartbreak—!”


“I did, because she did. And you automatically, not to mention heteronormatively assumed it was a boy she got a crush on?”

“Honestly? Yes! Y-You said crush and our daughter so...”

Audrey rolls her eyes. “I advise you to change your tune and your tone, André Bourgeois. Our daughter likes girls. Deal with it. It’s fucking 2020 for goodness sake! How utterly ridiculous are you?” With a huff, she walks to Chloé’s room. She glares at him before she closes the doors.


🐞 & 🐈


Eleven kwamis are floating above the opened Miraculous Box.

“He calls himself ‘seigneur.’” The cat kwami, Plagg, drawls, “isn’t that reason enough to want to stop him?”

“Plus...” The ladybug kwami, Tikki, begins, “he spoke of taking me and Plagg’s Miraculouses specifically.” The other kwamis murmur their agreement. “You can’t let your past mistakes prevent you from acting, Fù. Mistakes are human nature. Like Plagg said, anyone floating around calling themselves ‘seigneur’ needs to be shut down before they can act. Having an ideology that warped is harmful to others.”


Fù Wáng opens his eyes as he stares at the kwamis before him, “you’re right. I must act. I’m the only one who can.” He looks down at the nearly half-empty box. So many lost and stolen Miraculouses under his care. And yet—No. This isn’t the time. “‘Seigneur’ Monarque has showed his hand. If he’s seeking the Miraculouses of creation and destruction he’s aware of the requirements for the wish.” Fù sighs rubbing his forehead, “why must the Miraculouses be stolen or misplaced then used for evil so damn constantly? It wasn’t even forty years ago we had this errand timeline created because the snake and rabbit Miraculouses were used to grant a wish!”


“I’d be... eternally grateful if that didn’t happen again.” The rabbit kwami, Fluff, deadpans.


“Kaalki, I need you.” The horse kwami perks up, floating over to Fù. “We need to find the perfect wielders for the creation and destruction Miraculouses first, then everything else will fall into place—”


“Like checker pieces!” The monkey kwami, Xuppu, exclaims rubbing their paws together.


“It’s...” Fù pauses, “yes, it’s exactly like that, Xuppu.” The monkey kwami preens.


“You know... even though it wasn’t that long ago, I can’t seem to remember what the wish was.” The snake kwami, Sass, hisses.

“They wished for a world with magic.”


“Like—” Plagg slaps a paw over Orikko, the rooster kwami’s, mouth.


“What happened to the one who made the wish?” The peafowl kwami, Duusu, asks floating upside down.


“My knowledge of the situation is limited but I do know the wish did not kill them so I imagine they must be in this world they created, using the magic they wished for. They would be one of the few individuals in this world who still has memories of the old one. Those protected by the power of a Miraculous – who were alive and present then – also retained their memories.”


“And there’s no way to reverse the effects of the wish?” Sass asks.


Fù shakes his head, “this is our new reality. We must make the most of it. I’ll try and get in contact with all the sages and guardians I know to see if anyone was present for the wish.”


“I have two questions.” Fluff raises a paw, “why aren’t we with the wish granter, given we were used to make the wish happen, and why don’t we remember what happened?”


“If I had to take a wager on the second question, I’d say the sages magically shielded you from all knowledge regarding the wish and magics pertaining to it. That shielding must’ve returned you to your original Miraculous Box after the wish was granted. I believe now of all times, it was a foolish decision on the sages’ part to withhold knowledge of the wish from both Guardians and kwamis.”


“In case you hadn’t noticed...” Plagg gestures around the empty comic book shop, “the sages have proven history of fucking shit up. I mean...” Plagg gestures to herself, “look at the bodies they gave us!” Several of the kwamis nod in agreement.


“I just so happen to like my body.” Kaalki states, “it’s cute and travel size.”


“You can’t open a jar.” Toppo, the mouse kwami, retorts.


Kaalki scowls, “yes... that part is bothersome.”


“The wish has a downside too, doesn’t it?” The goat kwami, Ziggy, asks. “That’s the one thing the sages were adamant about us knowing.” The other kwamis nod in agreement. “You know... to deter people from trying to grant it? I’m guessing if they told us exactly what happened we could deter more people but...” They trail off with a shrug. “Anyway. My question is: what did they lose in exchange for the creation of a new reality? I know you weren’t there but do you have any semblance of an idea?”


Fù shakes his head. “Hopefully, we’ll get some answers from some colleagues. For now, let’s focus on the distribution of Tikki and Plagg—”


“With all due respect, Guardian—” The turtle kwami, Wayzz, inclines his head, “I don’t believe it’s a smart play just handing out the Miraculouses ‘Seigneur’ Monarque wants. We don’t know what he’s fully capable of or what else he has in his arsenal. We need to be smart about this. He may have magical counters to achieve his goal. There is no such thing as being too prepared.”


Fù hums, “while I don’t necessarily agree with you, you bring up a good point. Losing the two Miraculouses we need to protect would be devastating. However, I would hate to shoulder the burden of Tikki and Plagg's tentative balance on just one of them. If they are both active, 'Seigneur' Monarque will be looking for more than one person.” Fù and the kwamis stare at the Miraculous Box. “Kaalki, stay close.” The horse kwami nods. Fù picks up a pair of glasses in the brown space then puts them on. His hand hovers over the gold ring in the center black space before he picks that up, then he picks up the gold pair of earrings in the red space next to the black.


Taking a deep breath, he grabs the black necklace with the purple circular pendant from the light grey space, the olive bracelet from the green space, and lastly the seafoam bangle from the teal space. Nodding to the kwamis, he sets the five Miraculouses in his satchel. When he closes the Miraculous box, the kwamis fade out of existence. “Now... where would be the best place to look for champions for the force of good?”


🐞 & 🐈


Winner!” The tv shouts.


“Aww, dude! You had him on the ropes!” Groaning, the black-haired boy on the couch drops his controller onto his lap. “Walls, what happened?”


“I swear he’s some kind of wizard, man!”


The bespectacled brunet chuckles adjusting his glasses, “personally, I’d prefer to be a witch.” He says with a shrug.


“You gotta avenge me, bro. Twin powers activate.” Nodding, the black-haired boy sitting on the floor gets up and fist bumps his twin brother.


“I’m coming at ya, Billy.”


“Billy, can you come here a second?” Their mother calls.


“You two can play until I get back.” He hands his little brother the controller before getting off the couch and heading into the kitchen.


Their mother, Rebecca, is seated at the table holding a sheet of paper in her left hand. “We have to go back to school shopping.”


Billy’s shoulders slump, “seriously?”


“Yes, seriously. You’re entering a new school in two weeks and—” She shakes the paper in her hands, “according to this list they just sent in the mail, you’re wholly unprepared for the school year.”


“It doesn’t matter how ‘prepared’ I get ma, school is school.”


Rebecca sighs, “I know. Children have only gotten crueler since I was a child. You know I’m here whenever you need to talk. Both as your mother and as a psychiatrist.”


Billy manages to give her a weak smile.


Rebecca gets up from the table and hugs her son, kissing him on the forehead. “We might as well get this over with, if you’re not doing anything?”


“I’m free if you are.”


“Let me put some socks on and grab my jacket then.”


After telling them he and their mother was going back to school shopping, the twins decided they wanted to tag-along too.

Billy gets an instantaneous headache the second they enter the hypermarket. People are everywhere. The “back-to-school” cardboard display case is horizontally cracked in half. Two elderly men are each pulling a sleeve on a pink sweater near the clothing section. A group of people are gathering up supplies by the basketful. Carts are getting crashed into one another. Individuals are running around in a frenzy.

The only way to describe the scenario is absolute chaos.


Rebecca hugs her children close to her, looking on in horror. “This is definitely not normal.” She gasps as a screaming, naked man runs past them. “Definitely not normal.” She repeats. “Come on, we’re leaving.” Rebecca maneuvers herself and her sons around the chaos trying to head to the exit doors as the doors they’re standing in front of won’t open letting them out – being “enter only.”


Incoming!” Wally yells. Rebecca lets go of the three of them so they can run out of the way of the rampant water balloons raining down. When they reach the exit doors, they discover they’re locked.


“We gotta try the other exits.” Walt says. “But they may be locked too.”


“This is exactly the type of chaos that can be prevented if the Miraculouses of the ladybug and black cat were hand-delivered to me.” Says an annoying smug voice over the loudspeaker.


“This must be due to that Monarque asshole.” Rebecca grumbles. “C’mon boys, stay close, we’ll bust our way out of this place if we have to.”


Children are climbing up shelves. Adults are ripping pages out of notebooks. More full water balloons are raining down from above.

Wally pretty much latches onto his twin brother as they walk several steps ahead of their mother and older brother. This is like the premise of Zombiefried, people getting infected by the zombie virus in a hypermarket then acting like they’re in some sort of frothing frenzied state. All that’s missing is the frothing in question—no scratch that; Walt just pointed at someone run by frothing at the mouth.


As they’re walking, Rebecca suddenly drops to her knees sobbing loudly. “Mum?” The twins crowd the brunette and gently shake her but she continues to sob.


“What the hell happened?” Wally asks.

“I don’t—” Walt gasps, “butterfly!” He dives at Billy tackling him out of the way of the butterfly that disintegrates into jacket. His head snaps up and a purple butterfly party mask outline forms over his eyes and nose. “Spread the chaos!” He yells then runs off. A swarm of butterflies descend upon them and one flies into Wally’s shoe then the mask outline appears and he runs off.


Billy flinches as the butterfly flies into his glasses frame. “Spread—” A voice begins. He takes his glasses off, panting. He can still hear the voice coming from his glasses so he puts them into his still sobbing mother’s shirt pocket then scrambles to his feet and runs off.


🐞 & 🐈


Purple eyes snap open, feeling a connection dissipate. “Someone... resisted my akuma. Follow them and make sure they don’t resist again.”


🐞 & 🐈


Being chased by purple butterflies through a hypermarket was not at all how Billy anticipated his afternoon going. If he turned the corner or ran through an aisle, the damn butterflies just phased through whatever was in their way and continued to give chase.


All those years of doing the bare minimum in physical education was catching up with him. Barring some miracle, he was gonna get caught and magically afflicted by a goddamn butterfly! Butterflies aren’t even malicious creatures! What the ever-loving fuck is wrong with this Monarque asshole?!


He runs into the bathroom of all places then runs both hands down his face until he spots the window above one of the stalls. Climbing? Great more physical activity. Taking a deep breath, he walks into the open stall then climbs the toilet to reach the window. He tries to open it but of course it won’t budge. Looking around, he spots the roll of toilet paper on top of the dispenser and grabs it then hits the roll against the window until it opens. He drops the roll then rolls out of the window.


His phone ringing startles him. Billy takes his phone out of his pocket and stares at his father’s face on the screen. Gulping, he picks up. “Hello?”


“Billy? Thank God I got you! The hypermarket you four went to is all over the news. Monarque sent out a swarm, kaleidoscope—a whole whatever you call it of butterflies.”


“I know. They got ma and the twins. I-I only avoided it because I took off my glasses after a butterfly flew in them.”


Billy can hear his father take a deep breath on the other end. “You’re safe, right? You wouldn’t be answering the phone if you weren’t.” He takes another deep breath. “Can you safely come home? Or do you need me to come to you?”

“No, don’t come. You might get possessed or whatever the butterflies do. I-I can try to make it home.”


“Just be careful.”


“I will.”


“I love you.”


“I love you too.” Billy hangs up the phone then thumps his head against the wall. As he goes to put his phone back in his pocket, his hand bumps against a small hexagonal box. Despite the annoyingly persistent voice telling him to open the box, his common sense wins out the argument and scoots away from the box but then the damn wind blows and tips the box over opening it. “Son of a bitch.”


Before he can make a grab for the box, closing it, a bright black light shoots out of it, then the light takes shape into a small green-eyed black cat thingy. The thing yawns loudly showing off one of its fangs. Once done yawning, the thing shakes its head then stares at Billy. “Oh. So you’re my Intended, huh?” The talking floating cat thingy scoops up the box in their paws and holds it out toward Billy. “Take this.”


“My... parents taught me to never take strange objects from... magical cat creatures.”


“Ordinarily, that would be sound advice but unless you wanna get akumatized you’d ignore your parents warning just this once.” Billy skeptically picks up the silver ring from the box. “What? Never seen a magic ring before?”


“Never in person. Never was much of a ‘ring’ guy.”


“Rings are great! When you punch someone, they get the indent.”


“Not much of a ‘punching’ guy...”


“Are kicks more your thing?” The cat nods to itself, “that’s understandable, they do more damage.” Billy blinks at the cat. “Anyways, name’s Plagg. I’m a kwami.” A beat, “I’m your kwami.” Plagg bows, “in case you’re wondering what that means—”


“I am.” Billy interrupts.


“—It means I’m the god of destruction given corporal form. You, my lucky little Kit, get to be the instrument of my destruction.”


“Why?”


Plagg shrugs, “admittedly, I don’t have all the answers – to that. What I do know is... you were selected! Congratulations! Plus, and this is kinda big, you were the only person with any common sense to discard the afflicted object an akuma flew into.”


“Akuma? That’s what they’re called?” Plagg nods. “What do they do?”


“They’re creatures of emotion. Usually negative but previous users of the butterfly Miraculous have used akumas in a positive light. Anyway, an akuma can detect human emotions. The most prevalent emotion becomes weaponized and you are transformed into the personification of that emotion.”

“That sounds horrible!”


“Yes but with a mass akumatization like this, it’s far worse than that. Monarque latched onto anger – possibly their own – and is just making everyone pissed little goblins intent on wrecking havoc.”


Billy groans, “oh... dammit—” He stares at the ring, “I have to stop him, don’t I?”


“Yup! But you’re not alone. You have a team. Four more of you are out there—” Plagg pauses, “well probably all in or around the hypermarket: A ladybug, a mouse, a snake, and a turtle.”


“None of those animals seem particularly terrifying.”


“Yeah well neither is a butterfly, and yet...”


“True.” Billy sighs heavily, “given I’d rather not be ‘akumatized’ if I could help it and being a superhero is incredibly badass, I’ll help out. How do I... transform? And follow-up question: how do I uh untransform?”

Plagg gives him a toothy grin putting the ring on Billy’s left middle finger, “claws out to transform, claws in to detransform.”


“Right.” Billy shakily gets to his feet, “claws out!” The ring throbs before Plagg flies into it. “Yeah... I’m gonna regret this.”


There’s a bright light that emits from the ring then a dizzying feeling before Billy drops in a crouch. His eyes widen as he looks at the black armbands on his hand, and the green nail polish on his fingers – with their elongated nails. He looks for his phone, belated realizing it must be in his clothes. How does this magic outfit thing work out anyway? He’s always wondered that reading comic books.


Billy gets up, looking and feeling himself all over. He’s wearing a mostly black leather catsuit. He has an obnoxious silver bell around the spiked collar. He felt cat ears coming out of his head. His domino mask stretches over his human ears – that he could no longer feel – and covers the whole top half of his face. He has a tail. Which is worth mentioning. A long bushy one.


His boots are silver.


There are silver studded earrings in his cat ears.


The ring is now green and shaped like a cat’s paw and the ring is held in place by some fabric extending from his armband like Miroku from Inuyasha covering his wind tunnel. Which raised several questions for Billy that probably isn’t the best time to ponder.


His suit has a subtle polkadotted pattern that you can’t see unless you’re real close up to it.


Once he’s done admiring the suit, he screams.


“What have I gotten myself into!?”


🐞 & 🐈


Tommy wasn’t having the greatest of days. Trips to the fucking hypermarket were the worst. If they wanted them to have “freedom,” maybe they shouldn’t’ve kept them locked up behind bars 22 hours a day. He managed to elude the mook on babysitting duty by stealing their keys and freeing his shackles then running into the crowd. It’s old hat to him by now, no matter what mook they chase after him. He’s always been fast. He’d get away then steal a couple of wallets and hitch a few rides then when fatigue would catch up with him he’d drop and wake up in a cell in a new city. Wasn’t the most glamorous of lives but it was his.


Then, before history could repeat itself, everything went to shit.


People abruptly started screaming and fighting each other. Tommy saw his babysitter running after him until a purple butterfly ran into his hat and he started foaming at the mouth and stripping before running around.


Purple. Butterflies.


Purple Butterflies were fusing into clothing, jewelry, accessories, fucking everything but skin.


So Tommy had to conveniently use a few human shields to avoid getting butterfly’d himself but he'd do damn near anything within reason to avoid being part of this shitshow. He’s been mind-controlled once before and wasn’t a fan.


Then – and he’s getting sick of that word, he ran into an aisle and an old man wearing glasses fucking tripped him up causing him to fall flat on his back.


And the asshole didn’t even seem remorseful about it in the slightest.


Before Tommy could chew the guy out, the dude held up his hand and disintegrated the butterflies heading toward them.


Yeah, that would make just about anyone shut up.


“Do you wish to do better in the world?” He asked.


“Not... particularly.” Tommy answered.


Then, the man smiled and fished out a hexagonal box from his old school looking drawstring satchel and put it in Tommy’s hands. “Follow me.”


Tommy wasn’t conventionally smart – or even unconventionally smart but he followed the guy all the same.


Tommy was instructed to go in the bathroom and open the box while the old man would hold off the butterflies.


When Tommy got in the bathroom he saw the window above a stall shut, but he shrugged it off and opened the box. A pinkish-red light fluttered out of the box then formed into a thing with big ol’ blue eyes... and polkadots. It looked like a demented ladybug plushie. Maybe demented is not the right word but it looked freaky. In a cool way.


The creature that introduced himself slash themself as Tikki said a bunch of shit that flew over Tommy’s head but the part he understood was transform and kick butterfly ass. Okay, he said “purify butterflies,” but that could easily be translated to kick butterfly ass – given the situation.


Tikki told him to say “spots on” and “spots on” is what he said.


He was instantly bathed in a bright pink light after he put on the black earrings in the box. Good thing he had his ears pierced.


Tommy looked at his reflection in the mirror once the spots stopped dancing around his eyes.


He was wearing a pinkish red polkadotted black outfit; black boots with polkadotted soles and fingerless gloves that were the inverted colors of his suit. There’s red and black nail polish alternating colors on his fingers. He also had big ass ladybug wings and antennas coming out of his now red hair.


His hair is naturally white so he had no comment for the color change.


The freak-est part was his eyes. They were compound like a real bug except they were bright fucking blue. Now Tommy hasn’t seen a ladybug up close before but if he saw a giant ladybug boy with bug eyes, he’d flip his shit.


He didn’t have a mask but Tommy doubted if he knew anyone in the city, they’d recognize him with giant bug eyes.


Whoa. He was definitely gonna have nightmares about giant bug eyes when this ended.


When Tommy opened the door and the bespectacled old man – who introduced himself as Fù on their way to the bathroom engaging in small talk – tumbled in, there was a brief period of amusement (compensation from the tripping), but he swallowed it down. Fù picked himself off the floor and dusted himself off before easily climbing the open stall and took something, presumably another box, out of the satchel and put it out the window then easily climbed back down.


“Now what?”


“Now? Now, you purify the butterflies.”


All of them?!” Fù nods. “How? They’re... in people.”


“You’ll find a way. Trust your instincts, Thomas. I need to put the rest of the team together.” Then he just leaves the bathroom. Like, what the fuck!


Tommy blows out a breath then hears someone screaming. And not the frantic, frothing screaming from in here. With a shrug, he climbs out the bathroom window to find a cat-boy clad in black chasing his tail.


“Am I interrupting something?”


The cat-boy startles then turns to him wide-eyed. Tommy’s been around lots of cats (strays, just like him) so he is impressed with the realism of their eyes. “Ladybug.” The cat-boy says pointing at him.


Tommy gestures to himself, “ladybug." He confirms. "C’mon, teammate, we got a situation that needs handling.” Then he climbs back through the window. A few seconds later, cat-boy follows suit.


Cat-boy gasps at his reflection, “this is unreal... and your eyes are creeping me out.”


“Yeah? Well you’re not the one with the creepy-ass eyes.” Tommy retorts.


“Do you have a superhero name? I was thinking of something destruction based. Also, what are your powers?”


Oh fuck. He didn’t ask. “Purification, I guess, and a... yo-yo.”


The cat-boy unlatches the baton from his belt staring at it. “My power is destruction.” They cautiously open the bathroom door and peer out into the chaos. “Do you know how this started?”


“Nope. Alls I know is I gotta purify the butterflies.”


Cat-boy’s ears wilt, “my family is out there... affected by the butterflies.”


“I don’t know how I’m gonna get the butterflies out of the people yet, I’m gonna focus on the ones flying around looking for their bodysnatch.”


“I guess I’ll watch your six while you’re doing that?”


“Sure you can? What if it means fighting your family?”


The cat-boy’s ears droop further, “I-I don’t know. I... I’d just have to knock ‘em out quick and painless.”


🐞 & 🐈


Back to school shopping was the worst. The hypermarket was crowded, full of other people who also waited to the last minute to gather the necessary school supplies. Her parents’ “excuse” was they were “busy” with work. Busy with work from the jobs they haven’t been to yet. They moved here because her mother loved shoving her knowledge of history in the faces of anyone who’d listen (and even people who didn’t care) so she became one of the lead curators at the Louvre while her father was more stuck in shoving his knowledge of technology in people’s faces so he became one of the Louvre’s IT support guys.


Molly should’ve accepted her aunt’s offer of staying in America. She might still be suffering from jetlag. How long does jetlag last anyhow? The brunette swerves out the way of a large, jovial man happily ripping things off the top shelf and chucking them behind him. On her skates, she ducks from the butterfly that phases through the wall behind her.


Molly grabs a free sample from the abandoned booth then continues skating.


She checked every exit of this god-forsaken hellpit and they were all sealed shut.


This would be an optimal looting scenario if everything wasn’t getting destroyed.


So Maríana Georgina Hernandez-Hayes was stuck skating until her skates wore out or a butterfly managed to catch and possess her, turning her into a screaming, frothing mess the same way it did her parents. As she keeps skating, gasping when she sees the display of colorful animal hats remained untouched, something pulls her into an aisle.


The hats!” She cries.


The bespectacled old man in front of her puts a finger to his lips. Molly quiets, but she isn’t happy about it, and rushing footsteps stampede down the aisle. The old man has a hand mirror in his hands as he sees the retreating people running in the opposite direction. He breathes a sigh of relief after several seconds of silence. “Are you injured?”

Molly adjusts her blue penguin hat on her head. “Nope. Been working on my skating. I’m gonna have such buff legs. But enough about me, how... how’d you know they were coming?” Her eyes light up, “are you magic?”


The old man blinks at her for several seconds before nodding.


Molly squeals. The man digs into his old school looking black drawstring purse and pulls out a black and red hexagonal box. “This—” He stares at the box then frowns, “wait a second. Wrong one.” He puts the box back in the satchel then pulls out another one. “Ah.” He offers Molly the box and she happily accepts it. Though her parents’ voices are screaming at her for accepting trinkets from strangers. But hey, magic strangers carry magic trinkets. Plus, what they didn’t know wouldn’t cause a lecture.


“It’s so cute.” Molly peers open the box but the old man puts a hand down on it.


“Not here. I suggest you find an empty place to open that box.”


“Got it. But... uh, why did you give it to me in the first place?”


“Only five individuals aside from myself have managed to elude the akumas in the past half hour. I need to find the other two before they’re affected as well. Inside that box—” The man slowly lifts his hands on it, “is a magical artifact—” Called it! “—that’ll give you the power to assist your team and deal with the butterflies.”


“This is so badass~” Molly puts the box in her jacket pocket. She had her jacket tied around her waist – old school style when they entered the hypermarket. Huh. And to think, her parents didn’t want her wearing her skates. “Um... in case we make it out of here intact, do I give this back to you?”


“We’ll see.”


“Cryptic. I like it!” Molly pats her pocket, “I’m Maríana but I go by Molly since me and my ma have the same name. Nice meeting you.”


“Nice meeting you as well. Mlle. Molly. I am Fù. Be careful.”


“You too, man.” Nodding, Fù looks around the corner then dashes off. Huh. He’s just about as quick as Molly was on skates. Does magic make you faster? She’ll have to ask when they meet up again.


With a shrug, Molly skates until she finds the ladies’ bathroom in the back of the hypermarket. Once inside, she slams the door shut. She hears someone let out a sob. “It’s alright, I’m not... butterfly’d.” That just makes whoever it is sob harder. “Aww geez.”


Shaking her head, she skates over to the open stall where a girl with multicolored dreadlocks is sitting on a roll of toilet paper on the floor in front of the toilet sobbing. “My papa...” She sniffles.


Molly wonders if this is one of the five people Fù mentioned? “Your papa...?”


The girl looks up, tears running down her face. “My papa. H-He shielded me from the butterflies.” She cries out hiccuping.


Molly nods with a hum. Oh boy, she’s not the best person to deal with this. “I, uh, have it on good authority someone is taking care of those butterflies... as we speak! So you should stay here.” Which means Molly has to go—as she turns to leave, the girl grabs Molly’s jacket.


Please! Don’t! Leave!” She sobs hysterically.


“Okay, okay! I’ll stay.” Sniffling, the girl lets go of Molly’s jacket and the brunette blows out a breath. “I am not sitting on the floor though.”


🐞 & 🐈


“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Johnny swears tripping the oncoming possessed man, sending him flying into a container of large bouncy balls behind them. “Ramone!”


Duck!” Her brother narrowly dodges the stool Ramone hurls at the exit door. They both groan when the stool practically bounces off the door, without making so much as a dent, loudly clattering to the ground.


Had they known this clusterfuck would be the state of things, they would’ve held off their piercings until never.


But hey at least they discovered you can only get infected if a butterfly came in contact with something on your person. They found that out when an infected guy grabbed Ramone from behind and nothing happened; Johnny shoulder-bashed the guy and he let go as he fell on his ass. Also, they saw a butterfly fly into this guy’s pen he had clipped onto his shirt collar and he started streaming right after a butterfly mask outline appeared over his eyes and nose.


Seeing the approaching butterflies, Ramone grabs her twin’s hand and they haul ass.


“We’re gonna get caught.”


“Like fuck we are.”


Another reason Ramone wanted to head to the hypermarket was for the meet-n-greet with Anansi. Ramone saw the amateur kickboxer among the infected, giving a pair of little girls a ride on her shoulders as they bumrushed through other people.


A chair behind hurled into the glasses store they just sped past, makes Ramone pick up speed.


In seemingly slow-motion, Ramone loses her grip on Johnny and his bangle slips off his hand. Ramone gasps turning to her brother. Who loses his balance and stumbles onto his knees. The butterfly bypasses him completely and flies into the bangle in her hand.


Ramone gasps hearing a voice calling for her to “spread the chaos,” then suddenly the voice is gone. She looks around and sees Johnny also holding on the bangle in her hand. “Johnn—” He pulls the bangle out of her hand and cradles the bangle against his chest. “No!”


R-Run, Ramone!” The purple butterfly mask outline forms over his eyes.


“Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!” Gritting her teeth, Ramone runs off. Like some kind of cliché side character in a b-list, over-the-top horror film. Oh that asshole is gonna pay dearly for this!


She looks over her shoulder before turning the corner to see Johnny still sitting there holding the bangle. Wait—?


Before she can ponder that further, a door abruptly opens nearly hitting her in the face but a pink and blue blur does collide with her and they fall into each other.


“Guess they would go into the bathroom.” A voice mutters.


As they’re detangling their limbs from each other, a tiny girl with rainbow-colored dreadlocks jumps over their prone bodies cackling like some kind of overdramatic cartoon villain as she skulks into the fray.


“Hey!” The brunette takes off her penguin hat and shakes her long hair, “maybe if we hunch like the rest of the zombies the butterflies won’t bug us... ugh! Didn’t mean... well, you know!”


“It’s worth a shot?” She’s tried running for the past twenty minutes and that still got Johnny caught.


They get to their feet and mimic the cackling girl’s movements – which is gonna be murder on their backs – and the butterflies surprisingly pay them no mind as they fly overhead.


Attention my lovely akumas—” The loudspeaker crackles to life and the girls still their movements, “I’ve lost visual in the pharmacy and the toy section. Report the status of those areas immediately!” The loudspeaker shuts off.


“This guy sounds like a total asshole.” The brunette mutters.


“The pharmacy.” Ramone gasps, “we need to get there before the akumas do.” The brunette nods then they take off.


The loudspeaker shrieks back on, “also... it seems as though someone isn’t keen on giving into their darkest desires. Deliver that solitary, stubborn soul to me, personally.” Then the loudspeaker shuts off again.


“Fuck. He’s probably talking about my twin brother Johnny.”


The brunette grabs Ramone’s hand and they run. When they reach the pharmacy counter, they hop over it jumping into the pharmacy. The brunette looks up taking a slingshot out of her pocket, she fires a pellet at the camera above them then another one at the camera in the left corner (and how she hit that from their distance is impressive). As the girl gets up to look for more cameras, a hexagonal black and red box falls into Ramone’s lap.


Ramone opens the box as the girl turns around and a green ball of light surges from the box hovering a good distance above the box – that has a black bracelet with white trapezoid charms inside – forming into a turtle-looking thing.


“Ooh. You got a box too!” The brunette pulls an identical box out of her pocket and opens it. A grey ball of light shoots out then takes shape into a mouse the same size as the turtle still hovering in front of Ramone. “That means we’re teammates!” She cheers. “And I took out the other cameras but we’re still kinda out in the open. There’s more space by the shelves over here.” The brunette helps Ramone up then they squeeze behind the shelves that still give them a good view of the outside without being seen themselves.


“This is... a little unorthodox.” The turtle thing says with a frown.

The mouse thing sits on the brunette’s head, “I like the way you smell. I am Toppo, kwami of multiplication. The grumpy looking one is the kwami of explaining things too long.”


The turtle frowns at the mouse then turns back to Ramone, “I am the kwami of protection. Wayzz, at your service my Chosen.”


“‘Chosen?’ Chosen for what?”


“To be a superhero!” The brunette and the mouse chirp simultaneously.

“We use the jewelry to power up and stick it to Monarque!” The brunette gasps picking up the rose gold necklace with the mouse face-shaped pendant from her box. “This is so pretty!”


Ramone stares at the bracelet in the box remembering Johnny taking his bangle that afflicted her first. “We’re gonna use jewelry to...” She trails off. Well, the other day they were looking at that haunted castles tv series. Plus, with fucking butterflies turning people into empty husks of mindless violence, anything is literally possible at this point. “How does the jewelry work?”


“So glad you asked.” Wayzz pats the bracelet Ramone slips over her left wrist, “to transform say: shell on, and shell off to untransform.”


“I don’t think that’s a word—” The brunette interjects.


“For me~” The mouse flies in the brunette’s face, “it’s get squeaky and when you wanna turn back it’s dulcet tones.”


Ramone looks to the brunette who nods, “he’s hurting a lot of people. We gotta pay him back in kind.”


“Damn right we do.” Ramone puts the necklace on the brunette’s neck latching it closed. “Shell on.”


“Get squeaky!”


🐞 & 🐈


“W-Why are we wadding th-through the f-f-fucking f-frozen food se-section?” Billy can hear his teammate’s teeth chattering. As it turns out, these large soft to the touch ears are not just for show. (Though he’s surprised the ladybug-boy has teeth given his bug eyes. Do ladybugs have teeth?)


“As you may have noticed, it’s the only place there are no butterflies.”


Teammates!” Billy barely has time to react before a grey mouse tackles him into the ice cream freezer door. “Hi!” The mouse-girl jumps off him then points at ladybug-boy, the green turtle-girl, herself, then Billy. “Huh? He said there were gonna be five.” The turtle-girl backs up from the freezer, rubbing her arms.


Billy shakily pushes himself off the door, “alright, so we need to do something. I’m sick of this shit.”


“Let’s arm ourselves with frozen food to ward off butterflies!” Mouse-girl cheers. Like Billy, she has large animal ears atop her hair – both being grey; her short spiky hair splaying in all directions. Her suit is mostly grey though it does have the irregular brown or white spot throughout it. Her left boot is white and the right boot is brown; the armbands are grey and Billy noticed her pink sparkly nail polish. There’s a pink necklace with a black circular pendant around her neck. Mouse-girl has a pink whip tied across her waist like a makeshift belt. The turtle, however, has an intricate sorta hexagonal pattern throughout their suit – and she has a hood that hides most of her long green hair, except the bits flowing over her shoulders. Instead of a mask like him and mouse-girl, she has a pair of goggles over her eyes, and her lips are green. From what Billy can see, her weapon can only be that big ass shell on her back that’s a darker green than her suit; the same shade of green as her lips and goggle frames.


“That may prevent us from getting butterfly’d but it won’t do much for the people already infected.” Mouse-girl taps her chin in thought then slumps her shoulders nodding in agreement.


“Are you in charge?” Turtle-girl asks.


Billy jerks a thumb at Ladybug-boy. “What? No. I didn’t agree to be team lead.”


“The akumas need to be purified and you’re the only one who can do that.”


“That doesn’t mean I gotta be the leader.”


“You’re wearing red.” Mouse-girl interrupts, “the leader always wears red.”


Ladybug-boy runs a fingerless gloved hand down his face. Billy just noticed all of them have fingerless gloves and nail polish. Ladybug-boy’s lips are just a tiny bit reddish, and shiny from a lip gloss rather than the matte of a lipstick. Mouse-girl has a baby pink glossy lipstick on. When Billy looked at himself in the mirror, he didn’t notice any change to his lips. (Wearing black lipstick, glossy or matte, would've been so cool! Opportunity wasted.)


“Suck it up, Bug-Boy.” Turtle-girl cracks her knuckles, “that butterfly fucker is number one on my shitlist and if we can take the fight to him, we’re gonna.”


“I’ve been purifying every akuma I’ve come in contact with but more just keeps coming.” Billy nods in agreement. Thankfully, he’s been fortunate enough not to come across his family so he didn’t have to fight or subdue them. Which meant he actually got to enjoy running around the hypermarket in a leather leotard.


“What about people? Have you been able to...?” Ladybug-boy shakes his head and Turtle-girl sighs. “What’s it—”


The loudspeaker loudly crackles to life. “How kind of you to not only hand-deliver the ladybug and black cat Miraculouses to me but a turtle and a mouse!


“Wings off our goods, butter-bitch!” Mouse-girl exclaims, “we’re the ones who are gonna be taking your Miraculous!”


There’s a cacophony of agonizing screams as the butterflies fly out of approaching bodies. The four of them cringe as the bodies miserably crumple to the floor once the butterflies are released.


“That is... one way to free the butterflies from people.” Billy mutters.


The butterflies all fly around in a circle coming together to form a face. The face is a mask covering everything except their purple eyes and a pale white mouth. A stereotypical villainous laugh comes from the face and the loudspeaker. “I have thousands of butterflies at my disposal! What could you possibly—”


“I’ve heard enough.” Turtle-girl takes off her shield then hurls it at the face hitting it between the eyes scattering the butterflies. “Scoop ‘em up, Beetleboy.”


“I don’t remember delegating leadership to you.”


“Oh? So now you wanna lead?”


“I-I—!” Ladybug-boy growls unlatching his yo-yo from his hip, swinging it. Like before, the yo-yo turns into a net as the akumas are being nabbed up.


“Isn’t there anything we can do?” Mouse-girl asks then groans, “I should’ve asked how my powers work before transforming!”


Billy and Turtle-girl both look at her, thinking the same thing. At least, Ladybug-boy knows how to purify the akumas or they’d really be screwed!


“Wait. Where’s the loudspeaker located?”


“Probably in some kind of office.” Billy’s eyes widen, “if the akumas are endless...”


“We take out the akuma maker." Turtle-girl finishes. "You take Mousey over there and find out the layout of this place.”


Billy nods then walks over to Mouse-girl; he whispers in her ear then she nods unfurling the whip that is actually a jumprope. Ah... well. hm.


They run off, Billy sees Turtle-girl taking a few steps closer to Ladybug-boy.

🐞 & 🐈


Did Fù miscount? He still has a miniature Miraculous Box in his possession but he senses two individuals that haven’t been affected yet. His powers of premonition don’t give him much to work with on the best of days, but they told him five suitable-ish Miraculous users would be available once “Seigneur” Monarque let loose a mass akumatization at the Supergalaxy hypermarket.


As much as he wished he didn’t have to use children, the powers that be sucker-punched his conscience. While Monarque was most likely an adult, the magic didn’t seem to affect him more or less than it did the kids he selected, so age had no factor in how malleable someone was to magical influence. Hopefully, the Miraculous’ side effects would be slower to affect the children due to their age. Fù has never selected anyone less than forty to wield a Miraculous before, and it was never really so much him doing the selecting but the sages pointing out the individuals for him.


When he sees two of the four run off, hopefully after they formulated a plan he continues the search with renewed purpose. They’re gonna need that fifth member, and he definitely needs to find this other person unaffected.


🐞 & 🐈


“This is... really fucking tiring.” Tommy grits out. Catches a group of akumas. More akumas show up.


The loudspeaker feedback, as it screeches to life, makes Tommy grit his teeth, “why don’t you give up, Little Bug? It would be so much easier on you.


“Go to hell.”


The voice tsks. “Doing this serves no purpose. As I’ve said, I have billions of akumas at my disposal.


“He totally didn’t say billions before.” The turtle-girl points out. “You think I can take over for you while you catch your breath? Or are only you able to make the net?”


“You wanna give it a shot, I’m more than happy to let you.”


There’s a wayward chord Tommy knows he isn’t the only one to hear because Turtle-girl pauses right before she reaches him. “You hear that?”


“Sorry. That was me. Just testing out my power.” A turquoise snake of all things just casually strolls toward them. Their suit has a snake scale pattern (totally unoriginal) and they have a mask covering the whole top half of their face, including their hair and ears. Leaving only their mouth and chin exposed. Oh and well, hmmm—they have fangs and slit snake eyes. “I stopped time for the minute. You should be able to catch your breath.”


A minute? You couldn’t stop time for longer?”


“I will, just relax. I’m gonna go back and use the second chance again.”


“What?”


“Oops. Minute’s up.” The three of them look up and hear Monarque monologuing. “Hold up a sec.”


“You wanna give it a shot, I’m more than happy to let you.”


“If this blows up in my face killing me, I’m haunting your ass.” There’s a wayward chord Tommy knows he isn’t the only one to hear because Turtle-girl pauses mid-step right before she reaches him. “You hear that?”


“Whew! I know I got it this time.” A snake casually strolls up to them holding a harp. “Hey! So I stopped time. That should allow you to catch your breath and then catch the rest of the akumas before more show up.”


“That’s... a relief.” Tommy breathes out. The turtle-girl prevents him from slumping to the ground.


A portal opens to the left of the trio and not only does a dark brown horse jump out of it but cat-boy and mouse-girl jump out as well. “That asshole isn’t even in the hypermarket!” Mouse-girl growls. “He has an akuma in the camera room!” She shakes her head, “I mean, he has an akuma in a guy in the camera room!”


“Wait...” Turtle-girl tilts her head to the left, “I thought you said ‘he’ said there were only five of us?”


“Found one got another for free.” The horse says with a shrug, smiling at turtle-girl. Turtle-girl looks back at the horse apprehensively. The horse’s outfit is all dark brown – a subtle dot grid pattern with barely noticeable lighter brown in it; they have a curly white head of braided hair tied in a high ponytail. Dark brown lipstick, white nail polish, ankle-length white boots, a long curly white tail. They’re also wearing sunglasses.

“Let’s get this over with. I’m starving.”


Together, the five of them help keep Tommy upright as he manages to scoop up and purify all the akumas before Snake-Guy’s timer times out and time flows normally again.


Everybody but Turtle-girl, for obvious reasons, ready their weapons.


Their weapons: he has his yo-yo – which admittedly hurt when he swung it and hit himself, cat-boy has his baton, mouse-girl has a jumprope, the horse... has a horseshoe (seriously?), the snake is holding a harp, and the only possible weapon Tommy’s seen on the turtle-girl is her shell. (She did throw it after all.) These are interesting weapon choices they’re brandishing.


You think you’ve won?” Monarque proclaims via loudspeaker. “This is merely the beginning. You’re gonna wish you took the easy route when I gave you the option. I am a very patient man, and I am more than comfortable playing the long game.


“You talk a big game, Butterfly Guy, we’ll see if you can back it up!” Mouse-girl – aka the instigator – yells.


The loudspeaker feedback has them – Cat-boy and Mouse-girl in particular, possibly due to their larger ears – cringing. Huh. Well the ears aren’t just for show. That’s... good to know. He guesses.


Tommy cracks his back. “This was fun.”


“Wasn’t it? We kicked ass!” Mouse-girl cheers, hugging as many people as she can fit her arms around. “We need nicknames and communication devices! I wanna be called Southpaw!”


“Do mouses have paws?” Cat-boy whispers to Tommy who shrugs in reply.


“Slow down!” The horse says. “We can’t opt out of this so we gotta talk to our kwamis and make sure we know what the hell we’re doing for next time.”


“I would like to know just exactly what the hell I’m getting myself into, especially if I can’t refuse.” Turtle-girl says folding her arms over her chest.


“We’d better split before people get up and start asking questions we don’t have answers to yet.” Tommy says. “And this isn’t an executive leader decision or anything.”


“We can figure out leaders and stuff next time.” The snake pats Tommy on the shoulder.


“We took care of the cameras while we were in the ...camera room so we don’t have to worry about anyone unaffected seeing us.” Cat-boy says.


“That’s a relief.” The horse says running a hand through their hair. “Anyway, until the next catastrophe~”


The others wave at one another before the six of them all split off in different directions.


🐞 & 🐈


Billy casually strolls in the bathroom to break transformation. Although the cameras weren’t gonna pick them up, Billy didn’t wanna detransform out in the open in case someone got up and spotted him. He saw people slowly getting to their senses as he walked past. “Claws in.” There’s a bright black flash that comes from his left hand and his suit sorta melts off his body going into the ring that Plagg floats out of. Uh... that.... huh.


“Got anything to eat? I’m not picky but I’d prefer cheese.”


“Cats are lactose intolerant.”


“Regular cats, sure, but magical cats such as myself are connoisseurs of cheese. Die-hard lovers of it. Hard cheese, soft cheese, firm cheese, fresh cheese, blue mold—” Billy makes a face as drool runs down the kwami’s mouth. Clearing her throat, she wipes her mouth, “just don’t give me that weak, wilty ultra bendy shit the stores pass off as cheese and we’ll be square.”


“What are your thoughts on spray cheese?”


A dark look crosses Plagg’s face. “You don’t wanna know, Kit.”


“I’ll grab you some cheese.” He takes his ring off. “I’ll buy a few rings so my parents won’t ask questions.”


Plagg nods taking the ring then flying into Billy’s hoodie pocket.


The second Billy exits the bathroom, his phone starts ringing. “Found him!” Billy looks up from his phone, carefully putting it in his pocket beside Plagg as his brothers run over to him. Walt looks him over. “How’d you end up in here?”


“I—” Billy shrugs.


“Do you know what happened?” Billy shrugs again.


Wally puts a hand on his head, “all I remember is the screaming...” He rubs at his throat, “and the annoying voice telling me to destroy stuff.” He rasps, rubbing at his throat again.


“I just remember feeling angry... but not sure why.”


Billy watches other people reunite with their families. If the Miraculouses were all jewelry or accessories, he’s seen the mouse’s (a pink necklace with a black pendant), the snake’s (a turquoise bangle), and the turtle’s (a chrome bracelet with a green turtle shell charm); so he doesn’t know the ladybug’s or horse’s now. And if they were anything like his ring, they changed color and shape once the kwami was no longer in it making them difficult for “Seigneur” Monarque to find unless they were transformed.


Rebecca is sitting on a bench on the phone with her other hand mostly covering her face. Just what the hell did Monarque say to cause her to start bawling like that? What did he say over the loudspeaker? Something about darkest desires? Plagg said he was just making everyone angry and people do often cry when angry but his mother’s crying wasn’t angry. He’s seen her angry cry before; just once. He got expelled from his previous school because he fought back a bully tormenting him for three weeks straight that the faculty turned a blind eye to.

Billy threw in a laxative and some bee pollen (which the boy was deathly allergic to) into the lunch the bully stole from him. His mother furiously wiped her eyes as she cursed out the smug asshole principal and the boy’s parents.


As they shopped around, people were just straight-up weirdly polite to one another. Probably didn’t want to get possessed again. It was the most pleasant shopping trip Billy’s ever had in his fourteen years on this planet.


Hell, people were even paying for items of the person behind them. (Billy was grateful he was last on the line because he only had like 30 € on him.)


His mother suspiciously eyed his purchases of seven varieties of “real” cheese and three silver rings.


Their father, Jeff, is a hysterical blubbering mess the second they walk in the front door of their house.


After putting the groceries away, Billy heads to his bedroom and his family sits in the living room regaling their father of what happened at the hypermarket.


Plagg floats out of his hoodie and Billy puts Plagg’s ring on his left middle finger and two of the other rings he bought; one goes on his right pointer finger and the other on his right middle finger. They make his hands look weird but perhaps he’s biased.


Billy managed to slip an entire block of cheddar cheese into his pocket while he was helping put the groceries away. He was hardly expecting the block to be half-finished when Plagg takes it out of his hoodie pocket.


“What? I told you I like cheese.” Once he changed his clothes, Billy collapses on his bed putting his arm over his eyes. “You handled yourself well today, Kit, but like that horse said – we gotta get you up to speed on all your powers and whatnot.”


“Ugh.” Billy groans, “I’m just an ordinary nerd who fanboys about superheroes, as you can see by my room.” Plagg looks around seeing various superhero characters posters adorning his walls, and the toys and other paraphernalia spread out all over the room. “I’m not a superhero myself.”


“I don’t see why you can’t be an extraordinary nerd superhero?” Billy lowers his hand to stare at Plagg who flies over to him holding out a piece of cheese. Sitting up, Billy hesitantly accepts the offer. “Trust me on this, Kit, the people who don’t believe they're superhero material usually are. I’ve partnered up with all types. You got the superhero goods.” Plagg pats Billy’s chest. “All you need to do is let your chaos out just a bit. Open yourself up to the possibility of exploring your inner darkness. Let me help you be your best self by using my destructive nature to your advantage.”


“I don’t have anything in particular going on in my life right now and I can’t get any worse than rock bottom, right? What do I have to lose?” Plagg beams as Billy grips Plagg’s paw and they shake hands.