S1E1 Origins Part 2
"How can I help my partner beat supervillains when I'm not even able to leave my house?" Amity questioned the bored looking kwami but Plagg just stared at her before he shrugged noncommittally.
"Nothing's gonna change if you don't make it change kid." Those words seemed to really resonate within her and she nodded.
"You're right Plagg, okay, so I just put on the ring and say 'Claws Out'?" She asked for the third time just to be sure. The kwami nodded and Amity took a deep breath. She slid the white ring onto her finger and watched it slowly shrink exactly to her size.
"It just shrunk."
"We can't have it sliding off your finger now, so just say the words now."
"Okay... Plagg Claws Out!" Immediately she went through a transformation and once it was over she looked over herself only to see her entire body covered in a leather catsuit, but luckily it wasn't the revealing kind, though it was still skin-tight showing off everything. She blushed and she was happy to also see a mask covering her face. Good so her identity actually will be a secret. Her hair didn't really change much, it just went from only the top being in a high ponytail, to all of it being in a low one. She actually didn't mind the change, it was actually a bit refreshing. She already knew that Plagg was now inside the ring, and she would need her partner to actually defeat the...akuma thing, so that was going to be her priority. Find her partner.
And with that goal in mind, she picked up her string attachment and used it to swing on top of buildings. (The first few did involve a bit of crashing.)
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"Okay so if I put on the earrings and say 'Spots On,' I'll transform?" She asked again and Tikki nodded.
"Don't forget that this isn't just some cosplay you're doing, you have a job to do." The kwami looked worried unsure how much of her explanation speech the (obviously preoccupied) girl heard.
"Tikki, I get it, this isn't me pretending to be a superhero, I'm actually gonna be one! Anyway, I'm ready to transform!" She stood up and Tikki floated in front of her.
Luz grinned happily before calling out, "Tikki Spots On!" And she went through her own transformation. Her suit was in a skintight ladybug spotted pattern. There weren't actually any changes to her appearance, but luckily she still had a mask on, so that was some kind of identity protection, though Luz wasn't actually sure it would work. Like in movies most people don't figure out identifies, but this was real life, not a movie.
She cleared her head and tried to focus on what she needed to do. She needed to find the supervillain who happened to be Snagg somehow, and then she needed to free its akuma? That was what Tikki said right? Luz then reached her side and picked up her weapon/transportation. Apparently this thing could fly, she remembered Tikki said that but she didn't exactly remember how to make it do that, or how she was gonna ride it, it's so tiny.
There was a big black button in the middle, so she decided to take a chance and press it. The ladybug shaped thing beeped for a few seconds before a face popped up in the middle of it. At first the girl on the screen looked confused before she let out a sigh of relief.
"You must be my partner. I was worried when I couldn't find you anywhere, and then I had to stop looking to do some damage control since this villain doesn't seem to care about hitting other people. But anyway, it seems like it's searching for someone, it keeps calling out to someone named Matt, but that's all I've gotten so far. He hasn't found this person luckily, but we never know when he will. So you should-" She stopped talking as something caught her eye off-screen.
"I gotta go, see you when you get here." And with that, the button went black again. Luz blinked confused. There was just a girl with leather cat ears talking to her from her ladybug device. She didn't really have time to think about it though since that girl would obviously need help.
"How do I make this work, I don't even remember what Tikki said this was, an um...ahhh, Oh! a staff! So how do I make you look like one is the question?" Luz decided to shake the thing but it didn't work, so she had to use her investigation skills. Lucky for her there was a small button on the part that was slightly sticking out of the ladybug. She pressed it and sure enough, it stretched into a staff that was slightly shorter than her own height. She also saw a small button on the head of the ladybug which she also pressed.
The wings on the ladybug suddenly stretched out and started to flap making the staff start to float on its own.
"Magic is so cool... I wonder if it can actually hold my weight?" She asked aloud before she slowly climbed on top of the staff. It held her weight fine but she really had to work on her balance. It took her a minute before she was confident that she wouldn't fall off halfway on her ride.
She then realized she didn't exactly know how to make it go.
"Can we like... fly now?" At that, the staff flew out of her opened window, and she was lucky she ducked in time. At first she thought it would be hard to find the supervillain and her partner but for some reason it seemed that Snagg's size had grown a lot since being at the school. She immediately started to fly over there.
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When she was flying overhead she could see her partner from earlier trying to distract Snagg from Matt who was trembling on the ground. It wasn't working that great because the only way to distract him was to hit him, and he only got bigger with every hit.
She could tell that her partner was yelling at Matt probably to run, but the boy wouldn't move. Luz quickly decided the best bet would be to get Matt out of the way. She really hoped she could keep her balance for what she was about to do.
She swooped down and quickly grabbed Matt with one hand making him scream as soon as he realized he was off the ground. He then clung onto Luz which at first threw her off balance for a second but in the end it made her balancing a lot easier. She flew around near her partner so she could speak, but also still out of Snagg's reach.
"I'm sorry I came so late." She smiled apologetically but Amity just grinned back at her. Although it had been a bit of a hassle fighting this 'HeartProtector' by herself, she never felt so excited and happy before in her life.
"Your timing was purr-fect, don't fur-et." If Amity had to guess why she just made those puns she would say she was feeling really confident because of the adrenaline but luckily her partner didn't seem put off by it.
"Were those cat puns?" Luz asked with a bright smile.
"I-" She was cut off by HeartProtector swinging his arm at her making her quickly dodge by stretching her string out to another building and pulling herself there. She expected him to follow her but instead he then focused on her new partner.
Luz could tell that Snagg really had his sights set on Matt, so she realized the best thing to do would be to hide him. She flew off with Matt still clinging onto her. She was way faster than Snagg luckily and was able to hide the cowardly boy before returning to the fight.
This time she could see that her partner was doing everything in her power not to hit Snagg, but that meant she was completely on the defensive and could only dodge. Although Luz wasn't sure exactly what to do, she needed her partners help to figure it out, she knew that.
"Partner!" She yelled out bellow her and the girl in the catsuit immediately looked up. Once they made eye contact she didn't hesitate to use her string to grapple up to where she was.
"You can call me Lady Noire just so you know," Amity said once she landed. Luz blinked surprised her partner had the time to think of a name while fighting but she thought about her own name.
"Well then... call me Catarina!" She grinned and Lady Noire tilted her head.
"That's Ladybug in Spanish right?"
"Yep!" Their conversation was cut short again by Snagg, who seemed to take it upon himself to start throwing cars at them. Although the heroes could dodge fine, Luz quickly noticed 2 familiar figures on the ground right where one of the cars was gonna land. She didn't hesitate before swooping down but she realized she could definitely only pick up one of them... maybe the other could just hold onto the staff really tight.
Luz was trying to think of what to do while approaching, but lucky for her, Lady Noire seemed to have the idea of stopping the car by wrapping her grapple around two poles to make a net. Luz then sighed in relief when she saw it actually worked, right before she got to her friends.
"Wil-W-What are you two doing here, this is dangerous you really should get to a safe place." She almost said Willow's name but the two didn't notice. Gus seemed even more excited as he was recording from his phone this interaction.
"You're a real superhero! This is so exciting!" He yelled and before Luz could say anything she was called again.
"Uh, Catarina! I still need some help!" She turned away from her friends and flew to her partner. Tikki told her she needed to be serious to actually defeat this villain, she couldn't get distracted by friends.
It seemed as though Snagg preferred to throw objects at them rather than trying to catch them after that point so they decided to converse while dodging.
"What do we do?" Lady Noire asked and Luz quickly went over in her head everything she remembered Tikki said.
"We both have a superpower that we get to use once every transformation. Apparently we only get five minutes after that before transforming back. Mine will give me an object that will help us win the fight, what's yours?" As she asked she had to dodge a flying pole by going behind the building it was gonna hit.
Lady Noire had to dodge a food cart before answering. "I can destroy anything I touch."
Luz blinked in surprise. "Well, that could really come in handy." She missed the proud smirk on her partners face in favor of dodging another car.
"MATT!" Snagg only seemed to be getting more worked up and Luz decided now would probably be the time to use her powers. She flew over to a building and landed before lifting her staff up into the air and calling the words Tikki told her.
"Lucky Charm!" There was a flash of light and then a small paint container fell into her hands. She blinked at it in confusion right before Lady Noire came over.
"Is that a spray paint?"
"Yep."
"So what are you gonna do with that?"
"I don't know yet."
"But will it help us find the akuma?"
Luz didn't respond to that question as she was more focused on looking around and trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly a plan came to mind when she realized Snagg's closed hand.
"His right hand has to be where the akuma is, he's kept that hand closed the entire time." She thought out loud and her partner looked surprised.
"It's so obvious..." Lady Noire looked a bit upset after saying that but Luz was more focused on her plan.
"Lady Noire take the spray paint and get as close to him as possible. Get him to catch you in his free hand somehow and I'll approach him on the right side. If you spray the paint in his eyes he'll drop both you and the akuma at the same time. How good are you reflexes?" She tilted her head while looking at her partner.
"Paws-itively Purr-fect." Lady Noire winked at her before taking the spray paint from her hands and swinging over to Snagg, who she's assuming had lost sight of them since he had stopped attacking and was only looking around. Luz lightly blushed from the wink but quickly shook her head before remembering she had a job to do.
She remounted her staff and took off after her partner.
"Looking for us HeartProtector!" Lady Noire wasted no time getting right in Snagg's face, and immediately after she was grabbed by him, making her slightly squeak in surprise from his grip. Luz quickly caught his eye after and he yelled at her.
"MATT!" He yelled out angrily like that would make her tell him where the other boy was.
Luz turned to her partner and Lady Noire nodded before shaking the paint and suddenly spraying his eyes. Snagg let out a surprised yell and let go of both his hands to rub his eyes.
Luz thought she would need to catch her partner from her free fall, but she had quickly threw her string and grappled on top of another building before she then swung back down to the ground. Luz floated down as well as they both then stared at both the akumatized object and Snagg, who was still rubbing his eyes frantically.
She got down and stomped the akuma, it quickly broke and a purple butterfly flew out. She noticed immediately after both Snagg turned back to normal and the object turned into the note that Matt wrote.
She decided to read it. 'A pink and stuttery nobody like you shouldn't look at Boscha that way, get a life.' Luz immediately felt bad for Snagg and slowly walked over to him.
"What happened?" He asked and Lady Noire answered.
"You were taken over by your negative emotions from something, and turned into a supervillain." She said and he looked confused.
"This is... really upsetting, are you okay?" Luz asked while helping him up and showing him the note. The green-haired boy just looked away.
"I just- I want to go home please." He asked sadly and she nodded letting him go. He walked away and Luz turned to her partner who was looking around.
"Great job Catarina, you didn't even need my ability." She gave a tight-lipped smile and Luz could obviously tell it was forced.
"Believe me, I wouldn't have been able to do all this on my own. Thank you Lady Noire." That seemed to perk her partner back up.
"Well good job on capturing the akuma-" Lady Noire was cut off by Luz's sudden gasp.
"I got distracted."
"What?"
"I didn't capture it."
"What!" The leather-clad hero stared at her in shock and Luz felt immediately awful. She wasn't quick enough, she didn't take it seriously enough, this wasn't over.
Without another word both of them started to look around for the butterfly but didn't get any luck. Sadly 2 minutes later Luz's earrings beeped. Both heroes looked at each other.
Luz had never felt this guilty before in her life, but before she left she knew she could at least fix the cities damages. She walked to Lady Noire and took the paint can she was still holding before throwing it in the air.
"Miraculous Catarina!" She called out and in a swarm of ladybugs the city was fixed. She sighed as the beeping in her ear got louder. She got onto her staff and almost flew off before Lady Noire took her wrist.
"This was our first mission... you can't expect it to go perfectly." Her partner tried to help but honestly, it just made her feel worse.
"Yeah, but you and I both know something terrible is gonna happen because I screwed up. I'm not cut out for this." She then flew off back to her house to de-transform safely.
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Amity stood there with a sad look on her face as she thought back to her partner's heartbroken expression. She shook her head before swinging her way back home.
"Claws in." She mumbled and Plagg immediately popped back out of her ring. Amity then groaned and sunk to the floor.
"Kid I get you're dealing with a lot, but I'm really hungry." The kwami flew close to her face and Amity sighed before looking at him.
"What do you want to eat?"
"Camembert Cheese!" And Amity's face was taken over by a disgusted face. "You can't be serious."
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"I failed Tikki." Luz de-transformed the minute she landed on her bedroom roof/balcony. "I forgot to capture the akuma."
The red and black kwami shook her head. "You tried your best, I'm proud of you." She tried but Luz shook her head.
"No, that's not something to be proud of." She rubbed her face before looking back at Tikki even more worried. "What's gonna happen now?"
Her kwami looked to the side sadly, she knew telling her would only make her feel more guilty, but this was too serious to lie about.
"The akuma will multiply and affect other people around Paris, and as soon as the boy feels negative emotion again, he will be re-akumatized and will be able to take control of the other affected people."
Luz wanted to crawl into a hole and never come out again, but at that moment she couldn't help but start to laugh. "Of course! Of course this would happen when I try to be a hero! I..." She stopped as there were now slight tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry Tikki you'll have to find someone else, I can't screw up again."
"Luz this was your first try! It's okay to mess up as long as you fix your mistakes!"
"But what if I can't! What if I make it worse again? I just... can't." And before Tikki could respond again Luz took out the earrings making the kwami disappear. She knew the box was still in her room so she climbed down into her room only to be surprised by her little brother sitting on her bed.
"King? What are you doing in here?" She asked and the little boy looked up at her with a bored expression. He then jumped off her bed and started to circle around her making her uncomfortable.
"I came up here to see you only to find you missing, and since I'm the best brother ever I covered for you when mom called you down. I would normally question where you were, or why you came in from the balcony, but dinners been done for half an hour and I'm more hungry than curious." He said before heading out the room. As he was walking Luz noticed something fluffy hanging from his pocket.
"Wait." She called and he froze immediately making Luz roll her eyes. She set the earrings down on her desk before walking up to him.
"Lift your arms."
"No."
"Lift them or I'll tickle you."
Luz could see his eyes dart to the door but before he could take two steps she grabbed him. She started tickling him mercilessly making him cry out in laughter. It took him only a few seconds to surrender.
"I give up! I give up!" And with those yells she stopped and he pulled out Luz's stuffed bunny. They both had one since their mom got them each one for Christmas a few years ago so they wouldn't get jealous or try to take each other's. That never seemed to matter to King though since he still always tried to take hers.
"Let me guess, François was lonely again?" She asked while taking her bunny, Tiny, away from him.
"Yes!"
"Stop taking Tiny. You have your own bunny, play with him." She held up her hand that wasn't holding Tiny to stop him from interrupting. "Just go get dinner I'll be down in a little while."
He stopped out of the room while mumbling, "I even covered for you."
She sighed and looked at her bunny before gently placing him back on her bed. She loved her little brother, honestly, he was the cutest thing in the world to her, but he always took her stuff. He always had trouble asking for things too, but he's been like that since before he became her brother.
Luz then turned back to her desk and looked at the earrings that were next to their box and she felt the guilt creep up again. "I'm sorry Tikki." She mumbled before taking the earrings and putting them in the box, before putting that box in her drawer. "I'll give you to someone who can handle this much better than me."
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"Can we talk about what happened now Plagg?" The girl asked while watching the kwami stuff his face with cheese. She couldn't believe she would have to carry that stinky stuff around just so she could be a hero.
"You already know that you can't capture the akuma."
"Yeah, but can I do anything else? She looked so upset when she realized she failed." Amity leaned back on her couch trying to come up with something.
"You guys just have to wait for the akuma to resurface. Just to let you know, it's gonna be more than just one this time though." Plagg told her, but Amity was too far in her thoughts to even hear that.
She could only think about how her partner was before they seperated. "I hope she doesn't quit... We really need her."
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"Luz are you up?" A bored looking 10 year old walked into his sister's room. "You're gonna be late again and mom to me to wake you so-" he stopped when he saw his older sister staring at him.
"Wait you're actually up!"
"Yeah, and I'm gonna go. I don't wanna be late." She mumbled and walked out of her room. King followed behind her with a worried face.
"Are you okay Luz?" He asked as they walked into the kitchen where their mom was making breakfast.
"Luz, you're awake?" She asked while walking towards her daughter.
"Yeah and I'm gonna head off-" Her mom interrupted her by feeling her forehead.
"Mija, are you feeling okay?" She asked and Luz slowly pulled away.
"I'm fine mama, but I gotta go." She said before walking out. She appreciated their concern, but it wasn't likely that anything could cheer her up after yesterday. As she started walking up the steps to the school she suddenly heard running. She turned around just to see a girl with green hair, running towards her while looking behind her. Since the girl wasn't looking Luz knew she probably wouldn't expect the steps. She jumped down the steps that she just climbed right on time to catch the other girl in her arms.
"Wait! Look, you almost tripped over the stairs here." Luz said the second she caught her and the girl tensed up at first from the contact before she then looked at the person who caught her.
Amity blushed from how close their faces were and quickly pulled away.
"Yes, thank you for that. Um, were you also going inside?" She asked a bit nervously and also hopeful as well. She would need someone to show her around, and since this girl was already here she wouldn't have to search for anyone.
"The school, yeah I was-" Luz was cut off by a woman who was approaching them.
"Amity, we talked about this." She started and Luz looked at the girl in front of her confused.
Amity turned around to face Lilith with a pleading look.
"Please! Just say you were too late or you couldn't find me?" She asked and Lilith stared at her for a moment before she turned and walked back towards the car making Amity smile really wide. She then turned back to Luz, her smile still there but more of a normal one this time.
"Would you mind showing me around?"
"No, I wouldn't mind do you know your classes?" Luz asked as they walked in together.
"Yeah, I have Madame Azura for homeroom." She said and Luz offered a small smile.
"Great, so do I."
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"And finally, this is our class." Luz stopped in front of the classroom. She honestly wondered how early she left the house if she walked slowly, and was able to give a tour while still being on time. Well, King normally leaves before she wakes up, so it had to be really early.
"Thank you so much Luz! I don't know what I would've done without you."
"Gotten lost probably." They both chuckled lightly at that before walking in. As soon as they walked in Boscha stood up and yelled.
"Noceda!"
"What?" Luz jumped slightly in surprise and turned to the pink-haired girl. Boscha only glared and started to walk over to her. She looked over to her friends only for both Willow and Gus to be staring at her with wide eyes.
"You really think that Amity Blight wants to be seen with you? How dare you walk in at the same time as her?" Boscha said while getting close to Luz's face making her back up before she turned to look at Amity who looked just as surprised.
"What?" She asked but Boscha sighed before walking over and taking her hand. Luz couldn't help but notice how the other girl tensed up at that but watched as who she had hoped would be a new friend was dragged to the seat right in front of Boscha. She sighed before walking over to Willow and sitting down, not noticing how Amity watched her in confusion.
"Don't worry, you don't need a nobody like Noceda for company. Luckily me and Matt are here to offer our friendship." It was obvious that the girl wanted everyone in the classroom to hear that because her voice was 3 levels higher than usual.
"Wait a second I-" Once Amity started talking Madame Azura walked into the room and cleared her throat right before the bell rang.
"Good morning class, let's start today with our roll call."
"Amity Blight?"
"Yes?" The girl asked and Madame Azura shook her head with a small smile.
"You're supposed to say present, okay? And I'm happy you were able to join us today." She then continued roll while Amity covered her face feeling a bit embarrassed she basically failed at roll.
"Snagg?" At the mention of his name the room went quiet except for 2 familiar snickers. The teacher immediately glared at them.
"I said this yesterday, but I won't be tolerating-"
"You do know her father is the mayor right?" Matt spoke with a smug face while standing up. He walked up to her and handed her a note and waited for an apology that never came.
"Thank you for this note, but as I said before, I won't tolerate bullying of any kind in my classroom now take your seat."
Matt stood there confused since normally any adult who got a letter from the mayor just went along with whatever he and Boscha wanted.
Before he could start throwing a fit, Snagg walked into the room looking at the floor.
"Sorry I'm late Madame." He mumbled and the teacher gave him a sad look.
"It's fine Snagg, please take your seat." At that Matt seemed to explode.
"What about him! He was a literal monster and tried to kill me! That has to count for bullying!"
"Take your seat! NOW!" After raising her voice like that Matt seemed to realize he wasn't changing her mind and glared at the floor before doing as told.
Amity quickly decided that she didn't want either of the two behind her to be her friends. She glanced at the row that was directly across from her, and noticed how worried Luz looked while glancing at 'Snagg.' She didn't know what the other girl was thinking, but Amity could tell she was probably a very considerate person.
'I'd much rather have her as a friend if I get t choose.'