The next afternoon, the teens were all gathered at the skate park once again, more people than usual, all excited to bask in the light of that sunny day.

Marinette had been skating everywhere she could, from the bakery to school, back and forth, all around the streets of Paris. It was practically easier than walking, she hadn't tripped up all day. Heading over to the skate park, she was surprised to hear people calling her over, chanting for her to shred.

Climbing up the ladder to be up at the top of the skate park, she looked down at Adrien, who was currently skating in the bowl, and felt her knees go weak as he smiled up at her, skidding to a stop at the edge where she was standing.

"Hey Marinette, how are you?" He asked with a charming smile.

"You- I mean- ha! I'm fine." She stammered, grinning back.

"You want to skate together? There's plenty of room, people seem to really want you to go." He chuckled, motioning to the crowd of skaters on the other side of the park who were whooping and hollering.

"You and me? Together! Together skate! Skating I mean." Marinette spat out, the butterflies in her stomach over taking her. Maybe if she got back on her board she would feel better, "Right. Let's go!"

Dropping her board down onto the ledge, she climbed on, and was about to push off with Adrien by her side, but just as she started to move something grabbed the back of her pant leg, making her slip and fall flat onto her face. The crowd watching let out a wince.

Marinette panicked for a moment, had she lost the ability she had just fallen in love with? She rolled over and sat up, and the culprit was revealed.

"ADRIKINS!" Chloe called out, her voice echoing across the concrete jungle, "Come back here!" She finally got to the top of the ladder and was standing over Marinette, flicking her ponytail, though it wasn't as high up on her head as usual, because she was wearing a golden helmet.

Oh no.

Adrien rolled back up to the ledge, "Marinette, are you okay?" He asked, offering a hand to help her up, "Chloe what are you wearing?"

Chloe pushed herself in between Marinette and Adrien, making it so Adrien couldn't help her up, "Oh please Adrikins, you know exactly what I'm wearing!" She replied with a haughty laugh, "My skateboarding gear!"

Marinette frowned and pushed herself up, holding onto her own board and looking Chloe over. Of course all of her equipment was name brand, but her helmet, pads, even her board looked like they were practically gilded in gold.

"Since when do you skate?" Marinette questioned, hands on her hips.

Chloe glared at her, "I've never skated, but if you can do it I'm certain I can do it better." She said before turning back to Adrien, her mood changing entirely, "Why don't we skate together Adrikins, we'll be great together!"

Adrien looked concerned and hesitant, "Chloe I'm not sure that's the best idea, if you've never skated before you should probably learn the basics-"

"Oh please!" Chloe interrupted, "I can handle it, Dupain-Cheng can do it and she can barely walk, I'll be fine! Let's go!"

Chloe dropped her golden board onto the ledge and grabbed Adrien's hand, pushing herself off and pulling both of them down into the skate park. Adrien tried to keep his balance but with Chloe practically dragging him around he couldn't keep upright. He might have been able to land safely if Chloe hadn't been such a new skater, she was wobbling and throwing her body back and forth, unable to keep a center of gravity. They were only a few seconds in before they crashed at the bottom of the bowl, landing in a pile.

"OWIE!" Chloe cried out, sitting up and grabbing her wrist, which was limp in her hand, "Oh look at me! My wrist and-" she gasped, "MY CLOTHES!"

Chloe's wailing mixed with the sound of skidding wheels as Marinette made her way down to the bottom of the bowl, "Chloe, can you get up?" She asked.

"My wrist is BROKEN and you expect me to get up right away?!" Chloe cried.

"You're sitting on top of Adrien, Chloe." Marinette replied, motioning to the poor blond boy's body, Chloe's bottom doing a number on his back.

"Oh." Chloe said, before shuffling off of Adrien to sit on the pavement, pulling her phone out of her pocket, sniffling as she furiously dialed buttons.

Adrien, able to stand now, rubbed his forehead and winced, "My helmet didn't help out much did it?" He chuckled.

Marinette leaned forward, seeing a large scrape on Adrien's forehead once he removed his hand, "Oh no that looks bad, does it hurt that much?" She asked, reaching a hand out to examine it before quickly pulling it back, changing her mind.

"It's just a scratch, a bandaid and some time and I'll be fine." Adrien replied with a smile.

Chloe was back on her feet again, rushing over and side checking Marinette out of the way, grabbing Adrien's face in her hands without hesitation.

"Your face! No! Oh that's it, I'm going to have daddy ban this once and for all, it's clearly too dangerous!" She shouted, ever the dramatic. Her phone rang just that moment, "HA! There he is now! Finally useful. DADDY-"

Chloe stomped over to the back of the skatepark, wailing about this and that. The other skateboarders looked at each other with slight concern.

"The mayor wouldn't actually ban the skate park over this, right?" Alya said as she bent down to give Marinette and Adrien a hand out of the bowl.

"No way- kids scrape their knees all the time, even if Chloe's wrist was actually broken, she should have known the risks when she came here." Marinette replied, climbing out.

- - - - -

Police officers, an ambulance, and the mayor's limousine came extremely fast. As the sun set, flashing sirens surrounded the skate park. Adrien was quickly examined as the other skateboarders sat under the remaining trees and chuckled as Chloe was taken care of by the EMTs. All Adrien needed was a bandaid on his forehead before he was sent back over to the group, but Chloe continued to cry as doctors took care of her wrist, the police wrapping her in a shock blanket.

Once the doctors finished up, Chloe and the mayor of the city walked over to the group of students. Chloe had a smirk on her face, which was never a good sign.

"As of tonight, I will be putting in an order for the police to investigate the safety of this park. No one will skateboard here until the investigation is over and the parents of Paris and I have voted on whether or not to keep this clearly dangerous attraction around." The mayor announced.

A flurry of boos and protests was interrupted by Chloe elbowing the Mayor in the side and motioning to her limp wrist. The mayor coughed and continued:

"I will also be making an act to ban skateboarding in general throughout Paris. It is far too dangerous for you kids, you could get hurt like my poor darling Chloe!"

This time the sound of protest was cacophonous, the teens all shouting about how unfair this was, and how it was all Chloe's fault.

"I agree with this, Mr. Bourgeois." A familiar voice echoed throughout the park. Nathalie, Mr. Agreste's assistant, was climbing out of their limousine, holding a tablet with Mr. Agreste's face on it toward the crowd, "This so-called sport is treacherous, my son's career is at risk because of it." The man on the screen turned to look at Adrien and frowned, "Whatever endorsements you need, Mr. Bourgeois, I will provide."

Adrien stood up, "Father please, it's just a scratch-"

Mr. Agreste held up a hand and Adrien immediately stopped. "Get in the limo Adrien. We will discuss this at home."

Adrien sheepishly looked over to the others before following Nathalie into the limo.

Mr. Raincomprix, the police officer, started unwinding some police tape and began to wrap up the perimeter of the park, "Everybody out, it's for your own safety!"

The teens stood up, starting to protest this action, but the whooping of police sirens made them all sigh and listen to the officers, grabbing their gear and leaving the premises.

Marinette looked down at her board, heart sinking. Everything was perfect, she had finally found a calling, but of course Chloe came along and ruined it all.

- - - - -

Arriving at home, Marinette explained the whole situation to her parents, who (in a very frustrating way) told her to set her board aside and to listen to the mayor.

"But it's not fair- any of us could have gotten hurt, but because it was Chloe and her big ego the mayor got involved!" She protested.

"Sweetie, please, try to think about how we would react if you had gotten hurt." Her father replied.

"You wouldn't have let me ruin it for everyone else...." Marinette grumbled as she headed upstairs.

Once in her room, Marinette set down her helmet and pads, placing Tikki the skateboard under her desk and plopping down in the chair in front of her computer. She wasn't able to distract herself, and ended up searching up skateboarding trick videos.

During her search, she got a text from Alya, who had sent her a link to 'Anonymous Skateboarding Forum of Paris'.

Shrugging, Marinette opened the link, scrolling through hundreds of posts from people with strange usernames. They all seemed to be talking about the Mayor's decision at the skate park that night. Upon closer examination, Marinette realized that the forum had an announcement at the top:

'Due to the Mayor's plan to make skateboarding a crime, please don't use your real names. Keep your identity a secret. From now on, you can't search this forum anymore, you must be sent a link by an existing member.'

Marinette smiled a little at the idea of skateboarding being called a crime. However, as she scrolled through the forum once again, she realized no one was coming up with productive ideas, just complaining about Chloe.

Seeing this, she knew that something needed to be done that would actually help in their cause to prevent the park from being closed for good and stopping the mayor from banning skateboarding.

She stayed up late into the night doing research on the city government's website, checking and cross-checking different sources until she got the information she needed.

What they needed was a petition, with as many signatures as possible.

Now Marinette wasn't the leading type. But if she didn't get people's attention her idea would be lost in the depths of the internet.

So she needed to be someone else.

Enter Username: ...

The empty box on the screen taunted her.

She looked around her room for inspiration, she needed to be someone completely different than herself.

SewingMaster? No, too obvious.

Skateboarder9201? No, too bland.

Marinette looked down at her board, searching for inspiration, "Oh Tikki, I wish you could come up with something for me." She said, picking up the board and examining it.

The cracked red paint stared back at her, the black wheels peeking out from underneath like... like spots.

Red with black spots....

Like a Ladybug.

Turning back to the screen, she entered the name 'Ladybug' into the form. No one had claimed it yet.

With a smirk, Marinette said, "Thank you Tikki." and clicked enter.

Now, she was Ladybug. A leader, with a mission.