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milarqui · 8 days

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Scarlet Lady: Zombizou

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“As requested, I looked into whether or not the Bee or Cat has ‘extra’ powers,” Master Fu said, passing the pages on the Grimoire as Adrien looked on, his mind still on the events of the previous day.

“Hm,” he noncommittally said, distracted.

“There is something here, but…” Fu continued, fingering the characters in a page underneath a picture of Marigold's top. “It's unclear, as usual. Something about powers manifesting in times of great need. But my training didn't include decoding ancient vague posts.”

Fu shook his head.

“From what I gather, it's dependent on the holder to unlock any new–”

That was when he noticed Adrien was not paying his full attention.

“Is something on your mind, Adrien?” he asked, shaking him off his mental elucubrations.

“Huh? Ah, no, nothing! Thank you for updating me, Master!” he quickly replied, standing up to get ready to leave. After a few words of goodbye, Adrien left the shop and closed the door behind him.

“You didn't tell him you think Goldilocks might be Pigtails,” Plagg pointed out, and Adrien looked away, uncomfortable.

“Uhh…” he said, trying to find an answer that would actually work, only for Plagg to nod at him.

“Good choice. If you find out her identity, you'll have to give up your Miraculous.”

“Well, that's dumb. And shouldn't it be the other way around?” Adrien pointed out. “Giving the Black Cat to a noob at this point would be a disaster. Either way, it's not like I have proof. No need to involve Master Fu.”

“Right…” Plagg awkwardly replied.

—

Meanwhile, at another house near Françoise Dupont, Marinette was talking with Pollen on a similar matter.

“Pollen, should I try to find out Chat Noir's identity?” she asked her Kwami partner, who nodded with a grin.

“Whatever you think is best!” she replied.

Pollen was not up to date with current protocols, needless to say.

—

The next day, all of Marinette's classmates were ready to celebrate the day they had been preparing for the past weeks.

“I drew Mme. Bustier as a superhero for her birthday,” Nathaniel explained, “cuz she's always solving problems!”

Their teacher's birthday.

“I wish her solutions included less hugging,” Nino replied with a deadpan look.

“My gift is to thank her for the meditation minute,” Mylène said as she got her present on the table. “It keeps me calm.”

“Yeah, free nap time is awesome!” Kim added, causing Ivan to roll his eyes.

“Kim, that's not the point of meditation,” the gentle giant pointed out.

“I, for one, am a big fan of our morning compliment time,” Lila said, sparkling as she twirled around with a smile. “Isn't it great to start the day exchanging compliments?”

We all know why you enjoy it, Alix, Max, and Nathaniel thought as they thought of the latest such event.

—

Three days before

It was morning compliment time, and Mme. Bustier had picked two girls she could tell were having some difficulties with each other (or, as her students would put it, hated each other's guts) so they would say nice things about each other. Maybe this would help them become friends!

Or so she thought. because, as it turned out, people had the ability of making insults sound like praise, and neither Chloé nor Lila were shy about it.

“Oh, Chloé, I love how confident you are in your makeup skills,” Lila said, grinning at the Mayor's daughter, “despite being a total amateur!”

“Hmph! Well, I love how entertaining it is when you lie about having an amazing life even though you're a total nobody!” Chloé fired back.

“O-ho! You know, it's really brave of you to wear so much white when your fake tan is so runny.”

Chloé glared at the smirking Italian girl… while Mme. Bustier kept smiling, oblivious to what was really going on.

—

“What about you, Marinette?” Adrien asked. “I'm sure you came up with something awesome, as usual.”

“Heheh˜” she giggled, pulling out the box she had prepared. “I got her favorite shade of lip balm, and I made a makeup back with the first thing Mme. Bustier taught us: ‘If we want to change the world, we must all learn to love each other’.”

“AWW!” several of her classmates said.

“Isn't that lesson kinda… juvenile?” Alya asked with a grimace, which Marinette answered to with a side-eye.

“Well, she's been teaching some of us since we were six,” she replied as she put things back in place.

“Hey Chloé, what did you get Mme Bustier?” Sabrina asked with a smug look on her face.

“Ugh! Uh…” Chloé groaned as she tried to find an answer, but Marinette interrupted.

“C'mon, Sabrina, you know Chloé didn't get anything just like every year since Cours Preparatoire.”

“Whatever,” Chloé said, looking away and crossing her arms. “All that nonsense about compliments and love? Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!”

“What a shocker,” Marinette sarcastically replied as she opened her locker and put her present inside. “Caring about someone other than herself would require Chloé to have a heart.”

“Um, of course I have a heart? I could even buy yours,” Chloé replied, causing Marinette to roll her eyes at Chloé’s stupidity as she closed the locker.

—

The door to Marinette's locker opened again, but this time it was Chloé at the other side, marker in hand, as she grabbed the box.

“I can't believe I have to take my own cap off my own marker,” she complained. “What I go through to make sure Dupain-Cheng knows her place.”

—

“BON ANNIVERSAIRE, MME. BUSTIER!” the class cheered as their teacher entered the classroom, looking at the small pile of presents on the table.

“You're all so sweet, thank you!” the teacher said, smiling and blushing at her students’ generosity.

“Oh, Marinette made that one!” Alya said, pointing at the present that was closest to Mme. Bustier, who gently opened it… to find a box with an ugly scribble made with marker and covering what looked like a beautiful sewing of a sentence she could barely make out.

“Huh?! What's this?” the teacher asked, showing her students the contents.

“WHAT?!” Marinette shouted, turning to glare at Chloé. “I know you did this, CHLOÉ BOURGEOIS!”

Mme. Bustier raised her hands, trying to calm her student down.

“Now, we don't know that it was Chloé–”

“Of course it was Chloé!” Marinette interrupted, pointing at the blonde's face, who wasn't even bothering to hide how pleased she was. “Just look at her smug face!”

“Seriously, Chloé?!” Alix shouted.

“Why do you have to make everyone around you miserable?!” Nino yelled.

“Students, calm down. We don't want to be upset on my birthday, do we?” she asked, before checking the box over. “Well, I think it's a wonderful present. And I'll be able to think of both of you when I use it!”

Something inside of Marinette… snapped.

“Ex-CUSE ME?!” she shouted, unable to comprehend what was going on. Mme. Bustier looked at her student and walked up to the door.

“Marinette, would you come with me, please?” she gently asked, opening the door to the corridor, as Marinette slouched in shock.

“What is happening right now?” she mumbled.

“Alya, don't let things get out of hand while we're gone,” the teacher commanded, and Alya nodded.

“Oh, I'll keep us right on track,” she replied, as everyone else in the room aimed their death glares at Chloé… who suddenly realized she might have made a miscalculation as thirteen people made their best to drill holes into her with their eyes.

—

Hawkmoth had noticed it. How could he not? Such anger was usually the type that produced the best Akumas.

Yet… he also noticed who was this angry, and he knew all too well what had happened every other time an Akuma aimed at Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

But… it might be his best chance.

He sent the butterfly.

“Please let this be worth going after the girl for,” he said as he saw the black Lepidoptera vanish through one of the windows in his lair. “No risk no reward, I guess.”

—

As soon as they were outside, Mme. Bustier put a hand on Marinette's shoulder… who wasn't feeling placated at all.

“Chloé vandalized my work and I'm getting punished?” she asked, morose.

“Don't be silly, Marinette. You’re not in trouble.”

“But you are punishing me,” she fired, making Mme. Bustier lift her hand. “You're giving Chloé credit for my gift. My time and energy and hard work. That's punishing me.”

Mme. Bustier remained silent for a moment, and for that moment Marinette thought she might have got through her…

“... as class representative, I want you to be a good example for the class.”

Nope, she hadn't. Marinette felt her eye twitch.

“Chloé is capable of great things, but she only thinks of herself because she doesn't know how to love.”

The twitching became more intense.

“But you can show her how! You just have to forgive Chloé!”

Something snapped. Again.

This time, it was any kind of self-control.

And Marinette glared at her teacher.

“ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME?!” she yelled, for once in her life completely furious.

“Marinette–” Mme. Bustier tried to interrupt, but Marinette didn't care.

Chloé had stepped on her berserk button, and Mme. Bustier had not only done the same, but acted as if it were perfectly good.

“NO! Chloé did this maliciously! And she's not even SORRY!” Marinette continued yelling, her frustration pouring through. Almost ten years of her teacher mollycoddling Chloé, ignoring everyone else's requests in favor of favoring the mayor's daughter, had accumulated. And with the dam burst open, she just released it all. “All ‘forgiving’ her does is tell her that no matter how awful she is, she'll get away with it! Or even be praised for it!”

“That's–” Mme. Bustier attempted to stop her, but Marinette was on a roll, and no teacher was going to stop her.

“And what about me?! Why should I ever do nice things when I'm told to suck it up when my efforts are spat on?! Why do Chloé's feelings matter more than mine, the wronged party?!”

“Now, listen here–” Mme. Bustier said. Marinette could recognize the teacher was getting angry. But Marinette recognized something else.

She did not care.

“Well, I'm done! If you don't want to punish Chloé, fine, I can't make you! Just like you can't make me pretend Chloé isn't the meanest, rudest, most despicable person I've ever met!”

“Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

Oh, resorting to full names? Marinette's subconscious noted. Time for the coup de grace.

“All that's necessary for evil to succeed, is for good people to do nothing,” she said, giving the teacher a look as she walked away. “And you did nothing, Mme. Bustier.”

With such Parthian shot she left, not wasting the time to look back at her teacher.

Mme. Bustier had sowed the wind, and now the harvest had included hurricanes.

And, as she walked off, Marinette gave a sigh of relaxation. That had felt amazing.

—

Hawkmoth realized that his original target had somehow managed to get rid of her negative feelings - or, at least, enough of them that she would be hard to Akumatize. But right next to her was another potential target… one that was angry with his original target.

“Well, switching from the girl to someone upset with the girl is marginally better, I guess,” he said, ordering the butterfly to move for the new target. “In for a penny, in for a pound. I mean, I already sent out the butterfly…”

—

“Chloé, you're worse than Hawkmoth!” Alya yelled.

“You've caused half the Akumas in Paris!” Alyx shouted.

Not that Chloé cared.

“Is it my fault that I'm better than all of you?”

“Just because your mom forgets your birthday doesn't mean you get to take it out on Marinette or Mme. Bustier,” Sabrina venomously fired, causing Chloé to turn to her former friend, furious.

“How dare you?! I don't have to sit here while you spill my life story! Keep your big mouth shut, Raincomprix!” Chloé yelled back, putting all her stuff back into her bag and then moving to leave the classroom, just as the door opened to let Marinette in. “Out of my way!”

“Hey!” Marinette shouted as Chloé shoved her aside.

“Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!” she grumbled as she left the classroom. “Where does she get the gall–huh?!”

“Zombizou, I'm Hawkmoth.”

“Oh, great,” she complained. First her moron classmates and now she'd have to deal with her moron sidekicks and her moron teacher.

“Your student spoke so hatefully towards you. I'll give you the power to spread love and compassion in exchange for the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous,” Hawkmoth said, and Chloé decided to carefully get herself out of the way to avoid getting caught in today's nonsense.

“I won't stop until everyone on Earth feels the love!” the teacher declared as Chloé reached the stairs. “Starting with Marinette Dupain-Cheng!”

Chloé stopped.

Now… maybe she didn't need to leave so fast…

—

“GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!” Mme. Bustier said as she reentered the classroom - but this was clearly not their teacher.

“Wha–?!”

“Mme. Bustier?!”

Because… to be honest, what her teacher was wearing now was making Marinette's eyes water. The teacher's usually loose brown hair was now tied in a green-gray bun held together with two massive needles, her face had a pink domino mask over her face, and her outfit was now black with a large pink heart on the torso and more hearts spread over it.

Marinette liked pink as much as the next girl, but this was an abomination.

“From now on, everyone is going to hug and kiss and feel the love!” the Akumatized teacher declared, causing Alyx to grimace.

“But not, like, literally, right…?” she asked.

“Starting with my role model student, Marinette! MWAH!”

“AH!” Marinette shouted as she jumped aside, while a small black heart slammed just behind where she'd just moved away from. “What the heck is that?!”

“Tch. Missed.”

“Mme. Bustier!” Rose shouted. “Snap out of it!”

“I'm not Caline Bustier anymore! I am Zombizou!”

Quickly, the students grabbed their backpacks and tossed them at the Akuma.

“Sorry for this, Mme. B!” Nino shouted while jumping off his seat.

“Ah! OW!” Zombizou yelled as she got slammed by multiple heavy backpacks.

“Get out, quick!” Marinette ordered, and everyone followed, knowing that putting distance between themselves and the villain was their best option to survive.

“You won't escape my love!” Zombizou declared. “MWAH!”

And the heart flew… straight into Sabrina's neck.

“AH!”

“Hahaha, smoochies my poochies!”

—

As the class ran, Sabrina almost tripped down the stairs and held onto the rail, her face flushing.

“I… is it suddenly very hot in here?” she asked, trying to stay on her feet as her mind clouded.

“Huh?” Adrien asked, wondering what had happened to their friend.

“‘Brina?” Lila asked in a worried tone.

“Can you keep going?” Adrien asked.

“Try to make it to the nurse's office at least!” Lila encouraged, even as Sabrina sat on the but stairs.

“Lila…” Sabrina mumbled… before she tackled Lila, her pupils somehow replaced with pink hearts, and pushing her to the ground. “Kissou~!”

“Wah!” Lila yelled in shock, and stunned as she was, she was unable to keep Sabrina from… kissing her in the cheeks.

“Sabrina! Stop smearing your lip gloss all over me!” Lila begged, embarrassed. “Now's not the time to realize how amazing I am!”

But then, when Sabrina stopped kissing her, Lila had the same pupils, and she tackled the closest person - Mylène.

“Kissou~!”

“Ah!”

“Mylène!” Ivan shouted, worried about what was going on, but one thing was clear: this was starting to get out of hand – particularly as Mylène started to turn around.

“It's contagious! Don't let yourself get kissed!” Alya warned him... but Ivan chose to stand at the bottom of the stairs, as the three girls tried to rush him, shouting 'Kissou~!'.

“Go! I'll hold them off!” Ivan shouted.

“Ivan!”

---

Nathaniel ran to the Art Club room: he knew that splitting from the rest of his class was tempting fate, per every horror movie he had seen, but he had to do something! His friends there were unaware of the newest threat!

“Quick, you have to hide!” he shouted as he opened the door. “There's an Akuma, and–!”

“Go on, Nathaniel,” his teacher's Akumatized form's voice sounded right behind him. “Tell us all about the Akuma.”

He wasn't the type to throw ugly words around, but he felt that this time, he totally deserved to be able to do so.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU–

Unfortunately, he got hit by Zombizou's kiss before he could utter that aloud.

---

As his classmates ran upstairs to avoid all the kiss zombies that had suddenly sprung out, caused by Zombizou's power, Adrien realized he had the perfect excuse to get away and transform.

He faked slowing down and looked away, so Nino would be unable to see his face as he lied like a rug.

“Oh, noo, I–I feel faint. I think I– ugh, ki–kissou–”

“Dude, I love you but not enough to makeout with your zombie, stay away!” Nino warned as he followed Juleka to the top floor.

…

He wasn't going to go into how that sounded like. He had enough trouble already.

---

“I'll find you sooner or later, Marinette!”

“Kissou~!”

“You'll have to accept my love!”

“Kissou~!”

“Whether you like it or not!”

If she weren't an Akuma, she'd have probably been piled on by a zillion police officers already.

---

“I don't want to make out with strangers!” Max moaned in distress from his perch on Kim's back, as the survivors of the group holed themselves up in the locker room.

“What do we do?!” Alya asked, still shaking from the shock of everything that happened in the past few minutes.

“We're gonna hide until the heroes fix this!” Marinette ordered, while internally aware that that meant only Chat Noir would be there to do anything.

“Hey.”

“FUCK!” Marinette yelled after the 'heroine' suddenly showed up from within a locker. “Scarlet Lady, what the HECK?!”

Then she realized something was very much out of place.

“Why are you hiding in a locker?”

Scarlet Lady looked on, silently, before turning around and waving her hand.

“Anyways~”

“She ignored me?!”

Though, Marinette wasn't sure why she was that surprised – it wasn't as if Scarlet Lady ever paid attention to anything that wasn't her ego.

“Kissou!”

Everyone turned to look at the room's inner window, horrified to realize it was swarming with... well, the kiss zombies created by Zombizou.

“Oh no, they found us!” Kim yelled.

Scarlet Lady ran to the outer window and opened it, pointing upwards.

“Quick, we need to get on the roof!”

The students looked at her, suspicious.

“Why's she suddenly so helpful?” Alya asked, a sentiment shared by everyone else. Scarlet Lady never did anything that didn't benefit her.

Of course, they were completely right in being suspicious.

If I want a front row to the Akuma getting Dupain-Cheng, I'll have to stay with the group for now, the 'heroine' thought, hiding her evil grin from her classmates.

---

Fortunately (and no thanks to Scarlet Lady), the entire group managed to reach the roof, and much more fortunately, Chat Noir landed just next to them as they took a breather, and Marinette pulled out her phone to check the situation.

“Hey everyone! Let's hold off on the usual greetings, yeah?” Chat Noir suggested as Marinette opened her TVi app.

“Hordes of kissing zombies are spreading through Paris – ah!” Mme. Chamack reported, only to get interrupted by Zombizou, who turned to look at the camera.

“I'm coming for you, Marinette! And Chat Noir, Scarlet Lady, and Marigold!” the Akuma declared, and Marinette quickly turned it off, in shock.

“S–She's after me?!” she said, stunned.

“Maybe we should give them what they want,” Scarlet Lady added, and everyone else turned to glare at her.

“Don't even think about it!” Max shouted, clearly angry.

“You'd have to get through us!” Kim added, just as angry as his best friend.

“Come near her and I'll throw you to the zombies myself!” Chat Noir threatened.

“Aw! Guys!” Marinette replied, although she wasn't as happy as she should be. Though ditching me would make it easier to transform.

“Kissouuuu!”

“Kissou!”

“They're getting on the roof!” Nino alerted.

“What do we do now?” Rose asked.

“Over there! A bus!” Marinette suggested, pointing at the large vehicle. “Think you can drive, Chaton?”

“About as well as anyone else, ma belle,” Chat Noir answered, as he tried to think on how to reach it from their current position. “One of us has to throw my belt back to the roof and the other has to catch it–”

“I'll catch the belt!” Scarlet Lady offered, and Marinette and Chat Noir looked at each other.

“Super sus,” they both agreed.

Chat Noir jumped down to distract the zombies after giving his belt to Alix, and they all quickly used it to slide down a cable that led near the bus.

Unfortunately, it wasn't fast enough, and...

“Please hit Zombizou extra hard.”

“Kissou!”

“MAX!”

“For being top tier uncomfortable!” their genius classmate said, having moved away to keep the zombies distracted from Marinette just long enough for her to escape.

“Ho–kay!” Kim exclaimed, grabbing Marinette and putting her on the improvised zip line. “Gotta go fast, 'Nette!”

“Wait, what–” and Kim shoved her down. “AHHHHHHHH!”

Scarlet Lady pouted.

There goes my chance to throw her to the zombies.

Then Kim turned, realizing she was still there, and pushed her off the roof.

“Hurry up and save everyone already!” he shouted.

“Wah –!”

“Kissou!”

As he got grabbed by the zombies, Kim noted that he was glad Max wouldn't remember what happened.

---

Thankfully, Marinette's sudden travel down the line was brief, and Rose was there to help her down, while Chat Noir jumped between vehicles to keep the zombies' attention away from the bus.

“Hey-yo! Don't you want to kiss me?!” he taunted, as he happily noticed Marinette was safe(r).

“Kissou!”

“I've got you, Marinette!” the blonde girl said.

“Just be careful behind you, Rose!” Marinette warned, and the two of them ran towards the bus –

“KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Rose yelled as one of the zombies grabbed her wrist.

“Rose!”

“LET HER GO!”

Juleka's shout was accompanied with a mighty punch that forced the zombie away from her girlfriend.

“Juleka!” Marinette added, as the goth girl pulled them into the bus, and Rose hugged Juleka.

“My hero!” she exclaimed, unaware of the mark left in her right arm.

“That was an awesome right hook!” Alix complimented, and Juleka looked bashful

“I've been, uh, practicing.”

That was when Chat Noir jumped in, and after a few false starts he managed to make the engine run.

“If we get to the Eiffel Tower, we can lure the Akuma out,” Marinette suggested, and Chat Noir nodded.

“Hopefully, Marigold had the same idea–”

“AHHHHHH!”

“Rose, Juleka!”

“G–Get back!” Scarlet Lady shouted, backing off, as Rose turned around.

“Kissouuuu~”

None of them had realized Rose had been hit with a kiss, and she had just given another to Juleka. They had a zombie in the bus!

Which was when Alix jumped ahead and grabbed Rose by the shoulders, keeping her at arm's length.

“Hngh!” she grumbled, struggling to hold her off.

“Alix!” She was doing a lot of yelling her friends' names, wasn't she?

“Kissou! Mwah!” the zombified Rose mumbled as she tried to kiss Alix.

“Everyone! I'm trusting you to protect Marinette! And to get back at Hawkmoth and Zombizou for this nightmare!”

“Mmwah!” Rose kissed Alix, sealing her fate, as Marinette was pulled out of the bus by Alya and Nino, followed by Chat Noir and Scarlet Lady, as they finally reached their destination, still followed by zombified Parisians who were eager to try and kiss them.

“Kissou!”

“Kissou?”

“C'mon, c'mon, faster!” Alya shouted as she pressed the button to open the elevator's doors. They did, and–

“No–!”

“Kissouuu!”

“Mwah!”

“Alya!”

“Get off of her!”

The zombies had lied in wait, and too fast for Alya to avoid before they kissed her. While Chat Noir and Nino were able to force them away, it was too late.

“Alya–!” Marinette cried out, kneeling next to her best friend, and Alya gave her a wan smile.

“Hey, it's okay,” she replied. “Chat Noir and Marigold will save us. So keep yourself safe.”

“For both of us, 'Nette,” Nino added, holding Alya's hand.

“Nino?!” Marinette asked in shock, and Alya gently shoved her towards the elevator.

“You two...” Alya started, then she thought it better. “You better take care of my best girl, Kit-Kat.”

“Of course,” Chat Noir replied, and Scarlet Lady pouted.

“Uh, I'm still here too, you know.”

Nobody cared.

Not when the situation was so dire.

Chat Noir pulled her into the elevator and closed the door, pressing the top floor button.

---

“Don't forget our deal, Zombizou!” Hawkmoth said, glad that he was safely ensconced in his secret lair.

“They won't escape my kiss by hiding out at the Eiffel Tower!” his latest Akuma promised.

He knew it was close! Those Miraculouses were already his!

---

Nino could notice when his girlfriend's resistance to the Akuma's effect collapsed, as her face blushed and her eyes turned into those creepy heart-like pupils.

He sighed.

“It's not the first time we've been in trouble together,” he said, as Alya tackled him.

“Kissouuuuu!”

“Yeah, yeah, 'kissou' or whatever.”

---

As the door closed behind her, Marinette felt her eyes tear up, and looked down to hide them from Chat Noir.

The pain... it felt like her heart was tearing itself apart.

“Why?! Why didn't they protect themselves?!” she cried out, sobbing as the tears cascaded off her eyes and hit the elevator floor. “How could they sacrifice themselves for me?! I HATE THIS!”

“Hey!” Chat Noir gently said, lifting her head and cleaning her tears with his thumb. “Marinette, no one saw it as a 'sacrifice'. They protected you because they love you.”

And when he smiled, so softly and beautifully, her heart forgot for a moment its pain.

“And that's why I'm going to protect you too.”

“Chat Noir...” she replied, stunned. Had he... did he just...

“But also don't get sloppy because I have zero faith in this 'helpful' Scar,” he whispered, making her feel a bit of whiplash from the change of matter, but she had to agree with him.

---

After the long climb up, the elevator's door finally opened, and they were at the tower's highest terrace. They should be safe there, but...

“Damn, they're here too!” Chat Noir complained as they realized there were a few zombies there as well.

“It's not too many, stay sharp!” Marinette told the others.

Here's where you get what's coming to you, Dupain-Cheng! Scarlet Lady thought... and she tossed her yo-yo at Marinette.

Chat Noir, however, had been ready for this, and blocked it with his staff.

“What do you think you're doing, Scar?!” he shouted.

“Chat Noir, look out!” Marinette warned.

In his haste to protect Marinette from Scarlet Lady, he had forgot about the other dangers in the tower.

And the zombies promptly swarmed him.

“AH!”

“CHAT NOIR, NO!”

Chat Noir was able to force them away from Marinette and block their advance with his own body and staff... but his face was now covered in kisses.

“Chat, don't leave me!” she begged, tearing up again.

“Hey, Princess, don't cry. Everything is going to be okay,” he replied, still smiling.

“You don't know that!”

“Marigold will defeat Zombizou, and Scar will fix everything.”

“You haven't even heard from Marigold!” she exclaimed, feeling guilty. “How do you have such faith in her?!”

“She's the best partner in the world, Marinette,” he replied, and the glint in his eyes told her he knew much more than he ought to. “Believe in her like I do.”

“Chaton...”

“If you're done with your spappy moment,” Scar interrupted, tensing the yo-yo rope, and Marinette turned to face her. “Now that all the roadblocks are out of the way, you'll finally get what you deserve for making fun of Chloé!”

She tossed the yo-yo again, but Marinette dodged it (silently thanking her work as Marigold for it).

“Hold still!” Scar shouted.

“Where are your priorities, you menace?!” Marinette angrily yelled, furious that she had just caused her to lose Chat Noir to the zombies.

Not that Scar cared.

“I'm gonna hand you over to the grossest zombie I can find–”

“Kissou!”

And Chat Noir kissed Scar in the cheek.

“Huh?”

Marinette took advantage of the distraction to slip back into the elevator room.

“Ew ew ew, cat lips!” she heard Scar yell, but Marinette had something else in mind.

“B–Buzz On,” she mumbled, and felt the transformation take her.

But it was too late. She collapsed, sat with her hands over her head, as she realized what just happened.

“Scarlet Lady... Scarlet Lady's infected... she can't reverse the Akuma...” she mumbled. She was all alone now... and she had no way to fix what the Akuma had just caused. She... had she lost? “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god–”

“HAHAHA!”

And, of course, just to make things worse, Zombizou showed up.

“Marinette, Marigold, come out come out wherever you are! Witness the final triumph of love before I claim the Miraculouses!”

She couldn't do anything.

She might be wearing a Miraculous... but, right now... she needed an outright miracle.

“What can I do, what can I do?!” she mumbled, and in her despair, her shock, she imagined as if bees were buzzing around her. “I have to... I have to...”

And, like a dam that had overfilled... something burst from within her.

“AHHHHHHHH!” she screamed.

She didn't know if it was pain, or shock, or just plain need to yell out her feelings for everyone to know.

But what sprung from her was an explosion of light.

And suddenly... she knew she could do it.

She had found her miracle.

---

The explosion of light blinded all the zombies surrounding the elevator cabin, and forced Zombizou to cover her eyes.

“WHAT IS THIS LIGHT?!” the Akuma yelled, surprised at the sudden turn of events. She had finally cornered Marinette, and then this had happened. Her sweet hearts were now rubbing their eyes and collapsed on the floor, and so they were out of place when the door opened again. “Marigold, YOU–”

But there, she stopped.

Because Marigold's costume was now, somehow, shining. Black and gold had moved around the surface, with her leggings going from gold to black while her sleeves did the opposite. And she was twirling her top around, looking at her with an impassive face.

“Why–?! What's with that suit?!” Zombizou yelled, but Marigold didn't answer.

She threw her spinning top.

“BEE BALM!”

And suddenly everything was swarming with bees.

But when Zombizou realized the bees were not attacking her, she laughed.

“Ha. Hahaha! All that flashy light and it did nothing, Marigold–”

“Where am I?”

Zombizou turned to look at her sweet hearts... which were no longer under her control!

“Wasn't I at work?”

“What are these glowing bees?”

“WHAT?! My SWEET HEARTS!”

“Marigold freed them from your influence?!�� she heard Hawkmoth shout.

Before she could react, try to bring them back under her love –

“Venom.”

“Wai–!”

Too late.

Zombizou became paralyzed.

And the nightmare was finally over.

---

“No fair, why does she get a new look?!” Scar complained.

Nobody cared.

“Wow, you unlocked a new power!” Chat Noir exclaimed, his eyes sparkling in joy as he took in her partner and her new uniform. “I knew you could do it! You really saved the day! How'd you pull it off?!”

Marigold... didn't answer.

She just bonked her head on his chest.

And...

“M–Marigold?!”

… she sniffed.

What happened?

---

As Scar finally deigned to do her work and use the Cure, Mme. Bustier was brought back to normality, and the woman collapsed on her knees as she realized what had just happened.

“Oh no, I... I let my negative emotions take over, how terrible!” she moaned in distress. “I'm terrible.”

“Hm,” Marigold joined in, turning to look at her. “Then I guess that means nearly all your students are 'terrible'.”

“What?! No, that's not–” the teacher protested, but she was interrupted by Chat Noir.

“Exactly. Feeling things like anger or sadness or jealousy is normal, and nothing to be ashamed of,” the hero stated. “How we react, how we use these emotions, is what matters.”

“And the only one to blame for taking things too far is Hawkmoth,” Marigold finished, before the two of them jumped off as her timer began to beep.

And the teacher was left alone with the last of the group.

“Scarlet Lady, you're friends with Chloé, right?”

“Huh?” the 'heroine' said, before realizing what was going on. “Oh, uh, of course! Best friends!”

The teacher approached her, and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I'm so glad she has you as a good influence,” she said, and Scarlet Lady looked nervous as she did so.

“Uh, thanks?”

“Chloé's friends aren't being very nice right now, so I was worried.”

“Oh, that's no big deal,” she declared, smug. “Chloé only surrounds herself with the best after all! They're just being dramatic.”

“Thank goodness!”

And the teacher hugged the 'heroine'.

“Thank you for not leaving Chloé alone.”

“Heheh, yeah, sure.”

---

Marinette mentally sighed in relief as she saw all of her friends and schoolmates milling about, as if they hadn't been struck by the latest Akuma.

Save for the fact that they were actually talking about said Akuma, it was all good.

“Did you wake up before the cure went out?” Mylène asked Alix.

“I saw bees and then ladybugs!” Nino told Adrien, who was nodding with a smile.

“G–Good morning, everyone,” she timidly interrupted.

“Marinette!” her friends exclaimed as they realized she had just arrived.

“Thank you all for protecting me yesterday and...” she sighed again. “I'm really sorry. When Mme. Bustier pulled me out of class, I went off on her. So it's my fault she was Akuma–”

“You really did that?” Ivan asked.

“That's amazing!” Alix and Nathaniel exclaimed together.

“Awesome,” Juleka added.

All of them were actually sparkling.

“H-Huh?!”

Marinette was so shocked she could barely show her shock at how... well her classmates had just taken the news.

“Mme. B didn't hold back pictures even though she knew I was in the bathroom,” Juleka explained, retreating back into her shell.

“And she let me do Chloé's work for years and never stepped in to stop it!” Sabrina added, angry at the reminder of what she had done in the name of her 'friendship'.

“If you mess up a little, she sends you to the Principal,” Ivan joined in, “but I knew I'd look like the bad guy if I said anything negative about the 'nice' teacher.”

Marinette was surprised to see everyone nod to Ivan's words. It was as if everyone had been in the same boat as Ivan regarding their teacher...

“No one blames you for losing it on Bustier,” Adrien said.

“Not when she was letting Chloé get away with bullying you again,” Nino added.

“We'd dive in front of a hundred Akumas to protect you!” Alya offered, smiling.

“Thanks, but PLEASE DON'T!”

She had already been traumatized enough. She didn't care to repeat the experience.

---

When Mme. Bustier arrived to her off, she found a small box with a card where Chloé thanked her for putting her ahead of the others.

Unfortunately, Mme. Bustier didn't realize the real meaning of it, and accepted it as proof that she was right about her student.

---

The Mime

Welp, the memetic molester of Akumas just passed through. Glad to see her leave, not so glad she never learned the lesson.

Apologies for the lateness, I have too many things in hand and too little time to work on them. Still doing this, though, just as the SL comic enters its finish line.

So, that's 514 pages, 205324 words, 1108074 characters.

I'll do my best to get the next chapter ASAP!

#scarlet lady the novel #fanfiction #milarqui #long post #adrien agreste #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #marigold #adrienette #caline bustier #zombizou #scarlet lady is better than canon

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synergymagicbabeee · 6 months

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The possibly unintended (though I doubt it) brilliance of Z.O.E.'s power-ups

With @zoe-oneesama's season 5 of Scarlet Lady slowly creeping to its big finale, I am sure anyone familiar with the AU knows how well written everything is, however something in particular caught my eye as a world builder, that being Marigold's power-up. In case my name didn't make it obvious, my entire thing is magic systems. The Miraculous as a system are immensely interesting, and part of the reason I dropped canon is that they didn't flesh it out as well as they could, leaving it feeling flat.

Why's there a five minute timer post-ability for underage users? They aren't old enough to handle the full power, but that isn't an in depth answer. There's no internally consistent logic to it, or if there is I can't find it. Why are the Kwami bound to their holder's orders if they're primordial basically-elder-gods that embody inherent concepts? What defines suitability for a Miraculous, or is it literally just personality? We don't get these answers, and while not the largest reason by orders of magnitude, it is one of the many reasons I don't like canon, and that's when they don't turn around and straight up contradict themselves.

Oh, underage users have a timer? Not if they "master" their Miraculous, but we won't define what that mastery is or how to achieve it, because that would mean admitting the writers are talking out their asses! Like yeah, we can infer that the Guardians were shit from the reason Feast came to be, but the Mage was supposedly borderline Saint like, so why would he force the Kwami to obey whoever holds their Miraculous?

A line from Plagg (known gremlin and likeliest to slag off on the Guardians) talking about it could have fixed that issue, just imagine! "Oh yeah the Mage was awesome! The problem was his students, who would go on to form the Guardian order. Once he died, they used his research to alter the enchantments on the Miraculous' to force us to obey them. Jokes on them though, doing that weakened the jewels by a ton!" Boom, problem solved.

Anyway, while some of these questions haven't been answered, and probably won't be (we have like five episodes left including Maledictator, plus it's at least a little bit a parody, it's job isn't to answer) there is a neat little thing that has shown up, specifically in the first episode of season five, Zombizou. And that was the introduction of Bee Balm.

This power introduces a lot of shit and does so brilliantly, foremost being actual requirements for a power-up. In canon, we have the introduction of the Akuma talismans that comes from... Maribug understanding her powers and believing she can do more? This isn't a bad way to do a power-up mind you, and she was absolutely due some level of recompense for the universe repeatedly kicking her in the metaphorical dick, but it doesn't feel like it fits in this situation particularly.

The Akuma talisman boost would work if this is Marinette finally getting past a mental block and we knew about it, but I can't find anything about that, so it feels almost like a payoff without a conflict. Compare that to the introduction of Bee Balm, where the heroes are constantly stressed due to having to simultaneously fight Hawkmoth and pick up Scarlet Lady's slack, so they're both near constantly stressed and training their asses off.

Then, Chat Noir is taken out. More than that, he's taken out defending her civilian identity, after being essentially betrayed by their incompetent partner, who's then taken out in turn. Bare in mind that this same sociopathic bitch is vital in stopping Akumas and preventing swarm incidents, and without her they're essentially fucked. She can't go get a Miraculous from where she is, and that wouldn't help anyway, meanwhile her partner and the dumbass they have to tolerate are out of commission. So what does she do?

She develops a power relevant to both her Kwami's concept and the situation at hand. If she can't purify the Akuma, then she'll purify the effect their having on others. And looking at Zoe's other power-up posts we see that the ability is clearly specific to her, because we also get to see Queen Bee's and Vesperia's power-up forms, and none of the three Bee users share a power apart from Venom.

This of course all made my little world builder's brain light up, and the fact that we get to see new forms for Carapace, Rena Rouge, Pigella and Purple Tigress did so even more, and not just because Nino's entry gave me more clues for my personal theory as to how they work. With all that out of the way, I think I just locked down the conditions for a new ability. First is the emotional component, a degree of anguish and desperation on the level of a mental breakdown. Marinette looked like she was a few seconds from a literal heart attack before the awakening hit, for god's sake.

Next is the affinity the user has with their Miraculous. A person who isn't suited for a particular jewel simply isn't going to be able to use it properly.

Third is the domain a given Miraculous commands and the way the user interprets that domain. Bee Balm is an application of Subjection, created when the horror toward Zombizou's powers and actions against people Marigold had sworn to protect reached a critical mass. Her subjects, if you will, were being forced into a state where they had no agency in the most literal sense possible, and thus she gained the power to free people from such an influence, both commanding the Miraculous magic affecting them to fuck off and bypassing a lesser form of her domain of influence.

Fourth is the environmental factor. That specific thing you can trace for exactly how the power formed the way it did. Bee Balm having no effects on the inanimate because there was no collateral damage factor, Carapace's theoretical waterbending power-up, they shape the power because they are exactly what was needed at the time. Nothing else would suffice, they have no more tricks in the arsenal, and even if they did none would work.

With all that in mind, I think I have an idea as to what set evolved!Pigella off in Z.O.E.'s last power-up design post, as well as a possible ultimate form(?) ability of my own which would give Hawkmoth a cold sweat.

The first (love chain's activation) would probably be a Scarlet Moth incident, possibly even the first depending on if the timeline the power-up happens in is closer to the Scarlet Lady one or not. Rose has the Pig Miraculous, she's got it active, and she's fucking terrified. People are getting mass akumatized, it's a known factor at this point that a Miraculous doesn't make you immune to Akumas and Rose had looked into Princess Fragrance enough to figure out that she was sandbagging, hard. Remember, this was the Akuma with airborne mind control and was likely capable of making any number of chemicals.

So Pigella is in the streets fighting Akumas and is stressed out her gourd. She has to maintain a positive attitude, while helping fight a what's basically a small scale apocalypse with a tambourine of all things, and she can't use her powers because they're one use a transformation, and only affect one person. So you can imagine the stress she's under.

As she's going across the city, she spots a swarm hit a group of people. None have been akumatized before so there's a small delay as the butterflies try to decide on the host forms, but Rose knows she's got maybe twenty seconds from the other end of the street. At this point the stress is at an all time high, a headache is forming, she has no idea if her friends and loved ones are okay, and...

Then it hits, that little piece to the puzzle. Loved ones, love, specifically how it can develop and relate to other emotions. Right now, Paris needs love very literally, it needs positivity to resist the swarms, and if Gift as it is can't help, then something new is in order. Grabbing the side of her tambourine with her free hand, Rose twists the handle and lets go, allowing her weapon to take its new form.

With a cry and a pull on the not-muscle that normally indicated her power, Pigella's new whip flies across the road and sinks into the nearest Akuma-to-be with a strange ripple effect, like the end of the weapon had dropped into a pond as opposed to hit a human being. A soft glow encompasses the civilian, before sparks leap off of them and onto the person next to them like forks of lightning, and the process repeated. In less than a dozen seconds the entire group was affected and in the face of such joy, the Scarlet Akumas were forcibly ejected.

While I don't have an actual story-bit for the ultimate form power, I do have a general idea how it would form. The power would be called Blessing, and befitting it's Ultimate moniker, it's absolutely cracked.

Blessing would be a support/empowerment ability formed when someone close to Rose (for this example, Juleka) was Akumatized again, and her sheer incandescent rage is enough to unlock an ability, turning her tambourine into a weapon not unlike the Voltron Bayards.

Blessing allows the user to purify an Akuma while it's still in the person, granting them a set of powers similar to that Akuma form, and also preventing them from being transformed into that state again if they have multiple forms. In other words, Blessing permanently eliminates options from Hawkmoth's roster while empowering the victim to let them better fight back.

#miraculous ladybug #scarlet lady au #mlb power-ups #personal theories #go read Scarlet lady #ml upgrades

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