3rd POV
"Plagg hurry up and stop faffing about I refuse to be late for school." Said a tall pale girl with forest green eyes as she readjusted her prim black braided bun for the third time.
"Yeah, yeah I'm coming." Responded a tiny black cat as he floated over to her casually. With an exasperated sigh she scooped him out of the air once he was close enough and gently dumped him into the gray purse that she had slung over her left shoulder. She gave herself another once over in her mirror and nodded once. She raced of out her room and made her way downstairs and settled herself at the table just as her mother placed an omelet in front of her.
"You were making quite the racket up there Aisling is everything alright?" Her mother asked in a chill tone, earning a nod as Aisling quickly ate her food and placed her plate in the dishwasher.
"That's me off then." Aisling said tossing a red leather jacket over her red dress and grabbing her backpack.
"By the way Aisling, you'll be sure to let your man Jacques know that he's not welcome to come here anymore won't you? Your father and I won't allow you putting your grades at risk because of him." Her mother said with a condescending sniff. Aisling and Plagg shared an eye roll before Aisling muttered "Will I, yea?!" Her mother narrowed her eyes and asked, "What was that young lady?" Aishling plastered on a look of ambivalence and turned around as Plagg ducked back into her purse.
"I said 'I will yeah'." She lied expertly before exiting the house without another word and made her way to school. Once she arrived she was immediately met by the sight of her best friend Jacques who, once she caught his attention, jogged over to her.
"Hey, I was waiting for you, there's only five minutes to the first bell is everything alright you're usually here first..." He said looking concerned. Aisling shook her head and rolled her eyes at the auburn haired boy.
"Plagg was being a little melter and taking too long to get up." She complained and Jaques chuckled at the Irish girl's annoyance.
"My offer to trade still stands." He said grinning. She shook her head and rolled her eyes again.
"Absolutely not. You're both bad enough separately, together you'd be insufferable, besides Tikki seems to be a good influence on you." She said smiling fondly. A small red head popped up from the pocket of his denim overshirt and waved at her before quickly darting back down. The two of them chuckled and made their way to class.
"By the way Ash, I got something for you." Jacques said pulling something out of his pocket and holding it out to her. Aisling stared in shock at what he held in his hand, they were two simple pieces of paper with a yellow star over a blue background. She took one reverently and gasped as she read the words printed on the slick surface.
"Th-these are front row tickets for the Stella Blaise concert tonight..... I thought you had to be a scalper to get these...." she murmured staring nonplussed at her best friend. He laughed nervously and said, "Yeah....I may have bought these like a year in advance the second sales started." She pulled him into a tight hug, being sure not to crush the little red kwami in his pocket. A sudden wave of guilt flooded her as she remembered her mother's order from that morning. She pulled away quickly and brusquely stated, "We should get to class." Before rushing up the stairs.
(Meanwhile)
"Stella! We need you for a sound check in five!" A teenage girl finished her make-up in her dressing room mirror. She took a deep breath and muttered, "Alright Stella, it's now or never." She gently clutched a star shaped pendant before calling out, "Coming!" With that she got up and exited the room, making her way to the stage area, her long platinum blonde hair sweeping out behind her. When she got there she swept her eyes around, searching through the pre-show chaos for her manager. When she finally saw her Stella made a beeline for her. Her manager was standing by some of the music equipment and yelling into her phone.
"I don't care how close this deadline is you promised her you'd be here and I expect to see you tonight. Got to go Stella's here." She turned to Stella with a bright smile and asked, "How's my shining star doing today?" Stella laughed nervously and tightened her grip on the pendant.
"Actually, mum I wanted to talk to you about the set list for tonight. Do you remember that song I sent you? You know the one I wrote? I can get the music set up completely no problem I already have the lyrics memorized so I was hoping that we could squeeze it into the show? Just as the encore, I might not even get to sing it, but it's just.....I miss being allowed to just sing from the heart and be real. It's like it's not even my music anymore, it belongs to the record company, I don't want that anymore." She said searching her momager's eyes desperately hoping to find some kind of understanding. Instead she only found indignant rage.
"Do you have any idea how hard it's been to get you here?! Do you even understand what what I've sacrificed to even get you this record deal?! And you have the audacity to complain because you don't like the music you're singing? Grow up!" Stella flinched at her mother's outburst before running off to her dressing rooms. Meanwhile somewhere on opposite sides of the city two people stepped up to great windows overlooking the city. One of them a woman in a long orange suit with a white stripe down the front and purple accents, a long orange wing shaped train with purple veins trailing behind her as her cruel green eyes stare out from her orange mask with purple lining. She gently tossed her long brown hair with purple tips over her shoulder as a cruel smile spread its way across her face.
"Well now, a slighted mother who only wants what's best for her daughter. How perfect." She purred as a white butterfly landed in her hand. She placed her other hand over it delicately, as though she was petting it, and a dark energy began to shine out of her cupped hands. When she lifted her hand a dark purple butterfly with orange veins rested in her palm fluttering its wings delicately. She thrust her palm upwards and the butterfly made its way out of the window.
"Go my darling little Akuma and darken this woman's noble heart." Meanwhile on the other side of the city a man in a midnight blue suit with a tophat and card suit shaped buttons pulled a white feather out of a blue fan with a flourish.
"It's always nice to see what else is happening in the world of entertainment. There's nothing quite like the crushing fist of a controlling manager to make you feel trapped in the life you once loved." He said before closing his white gloved hand as dark blue energy seeped through his fingers. Then, with a flourish he released the feather, now a menacing blue, out the window and closed the fan with a snap.
"Ride the wind my Amok, and free this trapped artists soul!" Back at the stadium where Stella was meant to play she and her mother both found themselves wallowing in their own pain as each of them received a rather nasty visitor. The Akuma flew to the mother and landed on her phone which she gripped in her shaking hand just as the Amok came to rest on Stella's pendant.
"Hello Momager, I am Monarch. Your daughter doesn't seem to appreciate how much you do for her, not to mention her disrespect, I will give you the power to make sure that no one questions your sacrifice or authority ever again along with the use of one of my mirages. In exchange I only ask that you bring me Ladybird and Miss Fortune's Miraculous and destroy my rival Khaos while you're at it."
"Hello my dear, you may call me Khaos. You have great talent but all anyone seems to want to do is to trap you in some false persona, well I will lend you something to help you make sure that everyone knows how that feels. After all how can they cage your brilliance if you are the only one who's free? All I ask in return is that you and our mutual friend get me the Miraculous of Miss Fortune and Ladybird, along with the destruction of a certain "Monarch"." Despite their distance and discord Stella and her mother both spoke with one voice as they responded to their respective supervillain patrons.
"Never again will my work be taken for granted."
"Let's see how they feel about being trapped in a cage!"
(Meanwhile)
"Ugh! I thought class would never end! I'm starving!" Jacques huffed as he and Aisling exited the school. She chuckled and asked, "Did you forget to have breakfast again?"
"I do not forget I simply run out of time, there's a difference." He said glaring slightly. She laughed and shook her head before turning to walk home for lunch, stopping when she saw him following her.
"Where are you going?" She asked. He gave her a confused look before saying, "To your house, for lunch, with you, like we do everyday." She balked before stammering, "Y-you know that's not such a good idea, my mother's really sick today and I-uh I don't want you catching it, I should just er, go home to make sure she's doing alright." She sprinted off in the direction of her house. Once he was out of sight she slowed down and sighed.
"You know kid, you're making this way too complicated. Just tell him the truth and give him some cheese as an apology." Plagg said, sticking his head out of her purse.
"Oh shut up, I'll fix this, I just need to figure out how." Aisling replied rolling her eyes and gently stuffing him back in. Once she arrived at her house she sighed in relief as she saw her parents sitting at the table. Good thing dad gets a long lunch break and mam works from home. She thought as she smoothed her dress nervously.
"Mother, father I need to discuss something with you." She said stepping into the kitchen. They both looked at her curiously.
"I see that your man Jacques isn't here with you today." Her father said with distaste. Aisling nodded and took a deep breath.
"That's what I'd like to talk about-" she began only to be cut off by her mother.
"I thought we discussed this already, he is no longer welcome to be your friend." Aisling's thoughts screeched to a halt.
"W-what? I thought he wasn't allowed to come to our house, what do you mean we aren't allowed to be friends anymore?" She asked numbly, still not fully comprehending what was going on. Before her mother could answer Aisling's phone gave off an all too familiar notification sound. She stood, still momentarily frozen from her mother's words before she pulled out her phone and cursed. The message she'd received read:  Two for one lesson in progress, your seat partner is already present and waiting for you so the lesson can start.~ Mistress Red
"You call that timing?!" She growled before looking at her parents and saying, "I have to go, we'll finish this later." She turned to go only to be stopped by a hand around her arm as her mother turned her around roughly.
"We are not done here young lady, I just don't understand where all this rebellious behavior is coming from." She said looking down at Aisling with concern. Aisling sighed and shook her hand off.
"Mam, my french tutor just texted me, she has an opening for me and my classmate right now, I have to go now." She said looking her mother dead in the eye her eyes shining with cold defiance and tears. Her mother nodded and said, "Alright, but this conversation isn't over." With that Aisling left her house and quickly darted into an alley. Plagg phased through her purse and placed a paw on her cheek as she allowed herself to cry quietly.
"We'll figure this out, all else fails we'll ask Mistress Red to help us fix it." He said looking concerned. Aisling nodded and tried to wipe her eyes. Then Plagg brightened up and said, "Hey at least you'll always have me, even if you can't figure out how to fix this he'll always be your partner, and if you get sad again I'll share my camembert with you." She laughed and nodded.
"Deadly, now let's go help our partners. Plagg, claws out!" Aishling called a grin breaking out onto her face. She threw her left arm out and a bright green light surrounded her as she used her momentum to do a pirouette and closing her eyes as she pulled her hair out of it's usual prim bun leaving it as a long braided ponytail with her green hair tie holding it in place as two black cat ears appeared and twitched on top of her head. The light spread over her hands she flexed her fingers and glittering silver claws grew onto her fingertips as they became encased in black gloves with a green hem. The light spread along her arms covering them in black leather with a green vein as studs appeared along her shoulders and a bright green collar encased her neck. As the light spread down over her legs a long, lithe black cat tail grew out behind her and whipped back and forth from her as her black suit formed into a short black skirt fastened by a green outlined belt along with leggings with studs along the sides and deep pockets outlined in green and sensible knee high combat boots with green rims. Her eyes snapped open as a delicate black mask appeared on her face revealing two forest green irises surrounded by spring green sclera her pupils turned to slits as her pirouette ended and she used the last of her momentum to pull her collapsed baton out of her left pocket cocking it to open it up before twirling it around and planting it on the ground; leaning against it with her head cocked to the side, her playful grin filling all her features. She vaulted onto the roof and was immediately met by her partner, Ladybird. His striking blue eyes blazing out from his mask as he ran up to her.
"Alright Lucky, we've got an Akuma and a sentimonster, weirdly the sentimonster seems to be listening to the Akuma so I'm guessing that the Akuma is controlling whoever has the Amok. That being said, you've been acting weird today, everything alright? We can't afford to be distracted during this fight." He said searching her eyes with concern. Miss Fortune sighed and shook her head.
"My parents are being stupid about something, I can compartmentalize." Just then they heard a cry from the streets below. They both looked down to see what looked like Alya Lahiffe and her news crew who all seemed to be injured.
"Well Lucky, duty calls!" Ladybird said before attaching his yo-yo to a streetlight right by the civilians. Miss Fortune shot him a cheeky grin and called, "Last one down owes lunch!" Before fireman sliding down her baton at an angle in order to land next to the civilians as he swung down behind her. When her feet touched the ground seconds before his she grinned at him and said, "God I love a free meal." Ladybird glared at her playfully before he turned to Alya who was rubbing their leg.
"Are you able to walk?" He asked offering her a hand. She nodded hesitantly, taking his hand and slowly rising before crying out and collapsing. Miss Fortune was dealing with the same thing when one of her cat ears twitched, hearing an odd 'whooshing' sound. Somethings wrong. She thought noticing a strange, purple static-like glaze flicker across the camera man's eyes as she tried to help him. As the sound got louder she tackled Ladybird out of the way as a massive cage came soaring at them. The two heroes looked up at the hulking monstrosity that was the sentimonster. It was a 50 foot tall tinker toy construction made entirely out of cages and it loomed over them menacingly.
"I'll distract cuddly while you deal with figuring out a weakness and handle the civies." Miss Fortune offered getting off him and standing up. Ladybird rose after her and nodded. The Sentimonster reached to reconnect the cage to its arm as the two young heroes planned.
"Be careful Lucky, we still don't know where the Akuma or the person controlling the Sentimonster is- and she's gone." He said looking dully at his partner as she slipped through the bars of the cage that had been thrown at them and sat down on the edge of it's open bottom as she rode it upwards .
"Don't worry Birdie, I'm always careful!" She called with an impish grin. Ladybird headed back to the civilians once Miss Fortune was high enough she laid her baton down across the bars of the cages and tightrope walked across to the sentimonster's head.
"Well hello there ya fine thing, have we met? I'm Miss Fortune, and unfortunately for you I tend to cause people rather bad luck!" Miss Fortune laughed as she gripped onto the bars of the cage monster's "face". The sentimonster raised one of the cages that made up its hands and moved to hit her only to have her slip between the bars of its face. She continued to dance through the bars making quips like, "Oh minus craic!" Or "Oh well this is a fine mess you've got yourself in isn't it?" Meanwhile Ladybird was flitting between trying to help the seemingly useless civilians and trying to find a weakness in the structure of the sentimonster. Where the hell is the Akuma anyway? They have to be around here somewhere but I haven't seen them once! He thought feeling concerned and confused. Just then he noticed something odd about the civilians, they were all holding their phones. He frowned as he noticed that the screen of Alya's phone was covered in a strange purple static with a Bluetooth symbol in the center. Oh.... oh no....... that would explain a lot.... the akuma is controlling them through their phones! Then that must mean... he reached out and took hold of the phone, wrenching it from the reporter's hand. The Bluetooth symbol and the static disappeared from the screen and the strange static-like glaze faded from her eyes with a pixel-like flash.
"What the-? OH COME ON! Do not tell me that an akuma just hijacked me while I was supposed to be reporting! That is COMPLETELY unacceptable!" Alya shouted with a rage that Ladybird admittedly found incredibly terrifying.
"Mrs. Lahiffe, can you please make sure that the rest of your crew gets separated from their phones? I think I have an idea for how to beat these guys." He said giving her a determined smile. She nodded and set to work releasing the others from the Akuma's control. Just before he could call out for his Lucky Charm however there was a warning shout followed by a cage racing down towards him like a fist as a woman wearing a pantsuit-like black super suit with a Bluetooth symbol on the chest outlined in magenta and a mask that resembled dark sleep circles around her eyes appeared out of nowhere, seemingly hidden by an illusion, yelled, "How hard is it for things to work properly?! All those idiots had to do was distract you two for a little while while we took your miraculouses! Is that so much to ask?!" Ladybird ducked and rolled out of the way of the cage and shouted, "LUCKY FREAKING CHARM!" He panicked as he looked at the item that had fallen into his hand. It was a small star shaped charm. He frantically looked around for what he could use it for but found nothing. Then in a stroke of genius he looked up at Miss Fortune who was holding on for dear life inside of the central cage and glanced over at a blond girl who was gripping some kind of pendant with her right and and her phone in her left who had appeared at the same time as the woman.
"LUCKY KEEP THIS THING STILL FOR A SECOND AND GO TAKE HER PHONE!" Ladybird yelled gesturing to the girl. Miss Fortune glanced at the charm in his hand and the blond girl and nodded.
"Looks like your luck just ran out mate," she muttered before shouting "CATACLYSM!" Her hand was instantly surrounded by a menacing black aura and she slipped out of the cage and dove straight down onto the pavement below. Dragging her hand across the ground she created a massive crater behind her as she ran in the direction of the girl not pausing as she heard a metallic crashing from the beast. When she got to her she swung upwards with her no longer glowing hand and slapped the phone right out of her hand. The phone crashed and skittered along the pavement as the, now apparent, static-like glaze left her eyes. At this point both Miss Fortune and the sentimonster paused, one to catch her breath and the other one because the person controlling it was staring in frozen horror at the scene before her. Miss Fortune straightened from her bent double position and suppressed a star struck scream. Standing before her was her favorite musician in the history of the world was standing in front of her and,as ultimately she was still a teenage girl despite her superhero status, the first thing that left her mouth once she was sure she wouldn't scream was a typical utterance of "OHMYGODYOURESTELLABLAISEIAMYOURLITERALBIGGESTFAN!" Immediately followed by her clearing her throat and asking, "Do you think that you could do us a solid and get that geebag over there pinned down before she hurts one of us?" The rock star blinked and looked at Miss Fortune in complete and utter confusion before asking, "H-how?" Miss Fortune inwardly cringed at her oversight. Of course she doesn't know how to you eejit, she's probably never even seen a sentimonster let alone controlled one! She yelled at herself, kicking herself mentally.
"Fair enough, think of this as a video game and that massive cage thing is your avatar. You just tell yer man there to aim a cage at her and throw and then we'll take it from there. Go ahead and give it a lash!" Miss Fortune explained calmly and Stella complied, actually looking kind of excited at the prospect. The massive tinkertoy of cages brought one of its arms back and launched a cage forward at the akuma who had been fighting with Ladybird. The supervillain only had enough time to shout "Oh bu-" before a massive cage crashed down on top of her and bounced on the pavement a little before landing slightly on its side, trapping her in it.
"Oh shite! Mum!" Stella exclaimed before racing towards the dizzy but unharmed akumatized victim. Miss Fortune and Ladybird stood behind her and had a short argument about who got to break the akuma infested object before hearing a growl, a shouted swear that ought not be repeated, and the sound of a cracking screen as a phone flew past their heads.
"Well... that's that sorted then." Miss Fortune said with a chuckle. Ladybird purified the Akuma quickly before the two heroes turned to the still fuming Stella. They approached her tentatively and shared a furtive glance as the two had a silent argument about who would tell her about releasing the Amok.
"Look Stella, this is probably going to sound mad but we'll be needing you to either hand over whatever the Amok, the thing that looks like a manky feather, is in or break it yourself." Miss Fortune said nervously. When the blond girl clasped her hand around her necklace protectively Ladybird stepped in and added, "I can fix it right away with one of my abilities but I can't do that until I've purified the Amok and gotten rid of the Sentimonster, the er...... cage thing......" Stella looked between the two superheroes and shot a concerned glance back at her worried, and still caged, mother. Then she sighed and removed her star necklace.
"Honestly it was really fun helping you guys but I suppose that I can't have a giant cage monster following me around everywhere..." Stella stated and the sentimonster's topmost cage groaned forlornly. The two superheroes shared a knowing look and Miss Fortune said, "Stay in town, we might know a way you can still help." Stella then dropped the necklace on the pavement and stamped on the pendant with her steel-toed combat boot. Ladybird captured and purified the Amok and fixed all the damage done by the attack.