"Nino?" Wayzz asked tentatively, hovering over the face of his sleeping charge. Nino's alarm continued to drone on and on but the boy showed no signs of stirring, and Wayzz deliberated for a moment more before sighing and flying back across the room.

Wayzz flew over to his now fully functioning turtle tank, the whole thing so delightful that he had been in it almost exclusively since Nino finished assembling it. The small kwami flew down towards the surface of the water, passing by a floating wooden log with a frog sat squarely on top.

"Good morning Will," Wayzz said kindly, waving to the frog. "You'll be alright here won't you? It's very comfortable. I have to wake Nino now though, I'll see you when school is over. It's been a long time since I've been to school! It will be interesting to see what humans are learning these days."

With that Wayzz quickly dunked himself in the water before flying back towards Nino, flying right up to his face and dripping cold water all over him.

"Eh, AH," Nino said as he was startled awake, sitting up and rubbing at his face before looking around in a disoriented fashion. "Ugh... don't do that, come on bro," Nino grumbled, reaching out for his phone to get it to shut up.

"You'll be late if you waited any longer," Wayzz stated matter-of-factly, not very sorry at all as he flew over to take care of his own things. "Let me know when you are ready to leave, I have to feed Will."

Nino blinked, scratching at his head and fumbling around with one hand for his glasses as he mumbled, "Will? Oh, your frog yeah? Why Will?"

"Because!" Wayzz laughed, rooting through the pet store bag on Nino's desk. "Where there's a Will there's a Wayzz! Clever isn't it?"

Nino paused for a full second before he snorted once, shaking his head and chuckling to himself. "Wow. Yeah, got to tell that one to Adrien, he'll love that."

The turtle duo went through their separate routines, Nino getting ready for school while Wayzz tidied up his tank and enjoyed a few swims while he could. After Nino had showered and thrown on his go to shirt and jeans he multi-tasked, making some soup for his buddy while he just ate whatever he could find. Once Wayzz was all done and Nino was actually sort of awake Wayzz situated himself in Nino's hat and they headed out the door.

Nino found he couldn't actually listen to music while Wayzz was in his hat, he had over the ear headphones and didn't want to squish him. It was definitely outside of the usual for him to walk to school silently, but he couldn't say it was totally bad. It was just quiet. Well, actually, it wasn't even that, it was just different. He could hear people talking as they passed him, car's driving passed, the ringing of storefront doors and general noise of early morning Paris. He loved music, but he found that silence had a calming effect as well. It gave him time to think.

Nino's gaze dropped to the jade bracelet on his left wrist, subtle and unassuming but probably the biggest turn around in his life so far. Just... fell out of the sky. Well actually it came in the mail, but it had been unexpected. He was getting better at it, he still hadn't used his big power yet though or actually had to fight anything. But if skating around on a turtle shell counted as being super awesome then, yeah he had that down. According to Wayzz there was still other stuff he could try, but they were taking their time. No akuma sightings or attacks, no rush or bad news. He could afford to relax a little.

The night before had been the first night where he had company through the whole thing, Ladybug sacrificing a full night's rest to hang out with him a little. They hadn't done way too much, but they essentially did patrol. She showed him where her and Cat usually started and their system for looping around. It had been cool but...

Nino sighed, pulling himself out of his spiraling thoughts and focusing on the sidewalk ahead of him. He shouldn't beat himself up when nothing had happened yet but...

Would he even be able to? Step up when stuff went down? He couldn't stop obsessing over it, the monsters and the chaos and the fighting. The feeling of Hawkmoth standing over him with a sword at his neck.

Was he really going to be able to be a hero when it actually mattered?

"Yes," Wayzz spoke quietly, startling him. "You are braver then you give yourself credit for."

Nino looked around, checking that no other pedestrians nearby were watching him when he responded to his talking hat, saying, "Oh so what you're a mind reader now?"

"No," Wayzz chuckled, "but you are occasionally predictable. Your first transformation or any countless ones after will not ease your doubt, nor will your first fight. Only you can do that. Believe you are a hero and you will be."

Nino huffed, grabbing at the strap of his messenger back in agitation. "Saying that is a lot easier than getting it done little man."

"I know," Wayzz responded, settling into Nino's hair, "but heroism is often that way."

Wayzz offered no further words of wisdom, leaving Nino to quietly stew the rest of the way.

Alright so maybe that had been a bit predictable. Nino doubted himself every chance he got, but he supposed he just wasn't used to having someone around to constantly contradict him.

It was kind of cool.

"Thanks little man," Nino said after a while, feeling a bit better as he finally arrived. He didn't get a response, but rather a soft pat on the head that he took as 'you're welcome'.

Nino scaled the steps to the school, turning and leaning against the same space of wall he usually did as he waited for Adrien. It was kind of funny, the last clear memory Nino had of waiting on that wall with a secret to hide was of his knowledge of Ladybug, but now he had a whole lot more stuff going on. Things were weird man.

He hadn't been waiting long when Adrien's car pulled up, the model stepping out and looking towards Nino's usual spot expectantly, his face lighting up to find him there.

"Hey!" Adrien called out, approaching him with a fist bump prepped and ready to go, Nino quick to reciprocate. "Glad to see you here. I was kind of worried your parents would pull you at the last second or something."

"Nah," Nino shrugged, turning with his friend to head inside. "They don't want to trap me inside, never thought I'd be so glad to go to school again."

Adrien laughed, pleased with the normalcy having Nino back at school provided. Seeing his empty seat had been a constant reminder for everyone about what had happened. Everyone was really excited to have him back, and it was evident by the commotion they caused just by walking through the door.

"Hey!" Kim shouted out, jogging down the steps with half the class at his heels, a surprisingly large number of the students already in class. "So you're alive. Adrien said you were but I had to see it myself."

Nino had been about to respond when Alix interrupted him, hopping up and sliding along his and Adrien's shared desk to say, "Dude that was crazy! You getting got was all over the news, you were attacked by the big bad himself. You must have really pissed him off when you socked his akuma like you did!"

"Yeah!" Ivan chimed in, arms crossed and a smirk on his face. "He got mad enough to go after you himself."

"Were you scared?" Mylene asked, hiding behind Ivan slightly and holding his arm like the details of what went down might be enough to scare her too.

"Uh," Nino finally managed during the onslaught of questions, hands up as he laughed awkwardly. "Well I mean yeah I was scared but I knew the super dudes would save me. Hawkmoth hit the road as soon as they showed up."

"Of course," Max chimed in, adjusting his glasses in a stereotypically nerdy way. "A three on one encounter is far from favorable. With someone who hides behind others as often as he does I'm surprised he resorted to that tactic at all."

"Three on one?" Rose asked innocently, peering through the crowd to see Nino but looking at Max. "What do you mean?"

"Oh come on you didn't hear!?" Alix said excitedly, jumping down from the desk looking pumped. "Ladybug and Cat Noir aren't the only superheroes on the block anymore! There was a new guy there too! Right Nino?" Alix said, turning to him. "You saw him right? Wasn't there a third guy who saved you?"

Nino looked a little caught out, smiling innocently as he said "Uh yeah. He was called Jade Turtle."

The gather students let out a collective 'woooaah' and chatter picked up, Adrien taking the distraction to guide Nino towards the desk so they would at least have some cover from their classmates. The others gathered on the steps around their table as well as in the space in front of it, everyone so caught up in the energy of a new hero in town that no one wanted to go back to their seats. This was when Alya entered the conversation.

"I already told you guys the name," Alya reminded them, getting everyone's attention as she leaned over her own desk towards everyone else, her eyes shining. "But guess what? I've got some other details that are more recent. I'm talking last night recent."

Nino turned around, catching Marinette's amused expression before looking over to the excited reporter, asking with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Oh yeah," she said triumphantly, pulling out her phone and waggling it in the air. "I'm going to get the full story soon, he's a hard guy to find, but I've got one big scoop no one else has got yet."

"Well?" Kim asked, arms crossed and appearing skeptical.

Alya paused dramatically, letting everyone get good and focused on her before she unlocked her phone, holding up the screen as she said, "It's not the same guy."

Nino admittedly felt a bit of uncomfortable heat on his neck as he very clearly saw a distant but clear photo of himself with Ladybug, talking about some details of the patrol route probably. Directly next to it was displayed an equally as distant but clear photo of the old Jade Turtle, the difference in height, age, hair color, and literally almost everything about them incredibly obvious. Nino did his best to keep his cool, self-consciously laying the wrist that had his miraculous on his lap anyways just in case.

"There is no way that's the same guy," Alya pressed as the student's jostled to see the photos. "I got the second photo off the news but I took the one of the new guy myself. I heard that Jade Turtle had been spotted again but only way late at night, so last night I snuck out, grabbed my bike and went all over the city. And it totally payed off! I got this pic of him talking to Ladybug clear as day! There is no denying it, there is a totally new miraculous wielder which proves my theory!" she said excitedly, so animated it was actually pretty infectious. "The stones are passed from person to person! I thought that maybe it was the same hero from the very beginning, that maybe Ladybug was just thousands of years old and reappeared whenever people needed her but it's not that at all! There are more miraculous stones and they are inherited! Do you guys get how big of a break through that is!?"

A few of the students looked kind of confused but the others were on board, getting excited as they traded places to get a better look at the photos.

"So you think this new guy is the next Jade Turtle?" Alix asked, pushing up her snap back to peer at the phone close range.

"I'm almost positive," Alya confirmed, her expression incredibly determined. "That other guy was amazing but he was definitely old. I'm not surprised that he would want to pass it down. The only question is who did he give it to? My guess," she said dramatically, in full reporter mode now, "is that it's someone who lives in Paris! I mean, why would Jade Turtle show up from nowhere and then only now decide to stay in the city when there are clearly super baddies here all the time? I'm betting the old Jade Turtle lived super far away and only came when he heard about a supervillain making his big move, and has now left his miraculous stone in Paris to better fortify the fight against Hawkmoth!"

Alya took back her phone, flipping through to her blog and totally missing the three blank looks she was receiving from her friends.

Damn that was pretty close.

"So," Alya continued, not noticing anything out of the ordinary, "I've got a plan. The only way I'm going to prove any of this is if I track him down. He likes to hang out at night, so I'm going out again. There is no way I'm letting him get away without a one on one interview. No new superhero is going to be in town and get away from me!"

Nino was sitting very still before he started to slowly turn around, facing forward and leaning his head on one hand, doing his best to ignore Adrien sliding into his peripheral vision with a huge smirk on his face.

"Yeah," Adrien was saying so the whole class could hear and still grinning, "You're a really tenacious reporter. There's no getting away from you!"

Nino heard Marinette's snicker from her desk behind him and he remained focused on being very carefully neutral.

This wasn't ideal...

"Alright class!" Ms. Bustier called as she walked in, signaling for the students to clear the area they had been crowding and return to their seats. She was looking down at a folder when she walked in, but when she looked up she seemed delighted to find Nino in his usual seat. "And Nino is back with us! I'm glad you're alright, and don't worry. You have till the end of the month to complete any assignments that were given while you were recovering."

"Thanks Ms. B," Nino said genuinely, a bit distracted as she started to call roll.

Adrien was right, and Marinette too though she hadn't said it out loud. If Alya wanted to track him she probably would, or wander Paris all night trying too. Just from his one patrol he had seen that something like that wasn't the safest idea, but Alya never cared much about safe when it came to superheroes.

He repressed a sigh, head leaning on one hand as he stared blankly ahead.

He was actually doing a pretty good job, looking cool and collected. Inside though he was just imagining Alya, phone on and recording collecting the first public face of Jade Turtle. She'd ask questions he can't answer and he's never been great about being recorded. He was going to be in the public eye now, maybe not as much as the other two but he was a hero now.

Damn. He was a hero now. And he hadn't even fought yet...

He felt a soft pressure on his scalp, Wayzz patting his head almost absentmindedly. Nino had no way to know if Wayzz had just guessed that he was stewing or if it had just been a passing gesture, but it still forced him to collect himself.

Alright so... Alya was going to be on the lookout for him now. At least he had some kind of heads up. And luckily at the time of it being recorded there would only be Alya there. She was his friend, even if she didn't know it at the time. Shouldn't be too hard right?

...ugh.

He wasn't looking forward to tonight.

It was about 2:00 AM when Alya dragged her bike into an alleyway, pulling out her phone and using the light from a restaurants side door to like her face as she started to record.

"Hey Ladybloggers, its Alya here. It's now 2:00 AM and I haven't caught sight of our elusive turtle yet."

She looked to the side, huffing slightly before turning back to the camera. "But don't worry, I'm not giving up yet. I'll go until dawn I I've got to, it's time the city met its new hero and I'm going to be the one to break the story."

With that she shut off the recording, tucking her phone back into her pocket before she got back on her bike, setting off into the city.

She had been at it for two hours now with no luck, but she remained hopeful. He didn't have any reason to hide, so she doubted he was avoiding her. It was just a matter of finding him.

She headed off in the general direction she had spotted him last time with Ladybug, pedaling along the river and enjoying the atmosphere of Paris at night. You would think being alone late at night in a big city would be unnerving but it wasn't really, not when you knew superheroes walked about. In her opinion any petty crooks still stealing cars and robbing stores in this city were either ballsy or stupid. The crime rate overall had dropped drastically when the heroes had come to town, even if 'super' crimes were pretty commonplace now. She biked around the city without fear, the chance to meet a new hero keeping her awake well into the hours she should be asleep.

Ladybug and Cat Noir were cool enough, like crazy cool, but how was this new guy? Was he the cocky play around type like Cat Noir? Was he the confident powerhouse leader type like Ladybug? Or was he something else? Only way to know was to meet him herself.

Alya laughed to herself out loud as she turned to head over a bridge, pedaling to the middle and pausing to overlook the river as it was lit up by moonlight. She was a bit giddy really, a third hero! She had so much to ask him.

"Well," she suddenly heard from somewhere nearby, called out to her, "you seem to be enjoying yourself. Night time bike ride?"

Alya gasped, looking around her before she followed the sound down, and saw him there on the surface of the water.

Jade Turtle skated into view some distance below her, standing on a circular green disk like shape that stayed on the surface and supported his weight. She recognized him instantly, having already obsessed over the one photo she had.

Alya got off her bike, running to the side and gripping the railing as she said, "It's you! You're him aren't you? You're Jade Turtle?"

The hero didn't answer right away, looking down at his outfit before looking up and saying with a chuckle, "Well there aren't many other guys dressed as turtles so I guess I must be."

"Oh my gosh!" Alya cheered, fumbling for her phone and grinning from ear to ear. "Please, can I have an interview?"

Instead of answering that question Jade instead asked, "You're Alya right?"

She froze, phone in her hands but not yet recording as she asked quickly, "How do you who I am?"

"Ladybug told me about you," he said smoothly, arms crossed but not looking closed off. There was something sort of gentle about his face, she noted mentally. "You're the reporter behind the Ladyblog right? I'm a fan, though I guess everyone is. No one would be caught dead not being up to date with that thing."

Alya's brain sort of broke, eyes wide as she stared down at the hero who chuckled, probably having expected that.

"L-Ladybug," she stammered, before she went all out and shouted, "Ladybug told you about me?!"

Jade straight up laughed now, skating backwards a little and leaning to the side, gradually heading towards the bank of the river. She followed when she could move again, stumbling after him as he replied.

"Yeah, you kind of dedicate a blog to her, she obviously knows you dude."

The two kept mostly level with each other until Jade leapt up the side of the river, landing on the railing and bringing what she finally saw to be a shield to rest up on his back.

Alya ran her bike towards him, quickly ditching it to lean on a lamppost as she closed the distance. She could see him clearly now, under the light of a simple lamppost like you might find in a park and sitting on the railing in front of the river with his hood up, leaning forward casually with his elbows on his knees. His face was carefully relaxed but she could see something was a little off, his expression coming off as a little... uncomfortable.

"Well Ms. Reporter," he said when she got there, smiling in a friendly yet apprehensive sort of way, "want an interview?"

Alya nodded, quickly looking around before saying, "Here! Sit on this bench. I can point the camera at us then we can just talk. Cool?"

Jade seemed surprised, saying, "Uh yeah sure," before complying with what she wanted. Alya set up the camera on the railing he had just vacated faster than he could sit down again, Alya beating him to the bench with an eager smile as she said, "Alright let's get started!"

He laughed, shaking his head and smiling before saying, "Yeah alright. What's up then?"

"You're a new hero right?" Alya asked immediately, getting right to the punch. Jade looked like he had been expecting as much.

"Yup," he answered simply.

"So you're an ally of Ladybug and Cat Noir's?" she pressed, watching him carefully.

"Yup," he said again, nodding. "We're bros."

"So if the city is under attack again you are now around to help out?"

"Mhm," he hummed, looking up at her to see that she looked a little annoyed at his short answers so he sighed and elaborated. "I'm a miraculous wielder like them. I showed up to help and am going to be sticking around in Paris from now on to be a thorn is Butterfly Butt's side."

She looked happy with that, grinning wide as she asked, "So you are a new protector of the city? That's so cool!"

He laughed, something about her fawning over him humorous apparently. He didn't offer anything else on his own though, something she was starting to notice was a trend.

'If I have to drag it out I will,' she thought to herself, getting ready to jump straight to the big question.

"You're not the same Jade Turtle as the one involved in the rescue mission at the Notre Dame, are you?"

Jade met her gaze unflinchingly, answering, "I am not."

Alya's face lit up, delighted to have been right. "So who are you?"

"Jade Turtle," he answered with a laugh, rolling his eyes. "Oh come on what you think I was just going to tell you? Like 'Oh I'm so and so, I work at the market'. No"

She huffed, looking him over. "No, guess I shouldn't have thought it would be so easy."

"Smart," he chuckled, looking away again.

"You're kind of reserved," she noted, expecting him to react but he just shrugged his shoulders. "Camera shy?" she asked, a slightly teasing tone audible in her voice.

"Well not everyone is great about press," he said dismissively, still trying a friendly smile anyways though. "I'll adapt. I'm new to this."

She took the opening to refocus the conversation, saying, "So you are the new guy. Your miraculous was given to you by the previous Jade Turtle so you could be trained to take his place?"

She could see one of his eyebrows raise as he grinned. "Clever girl."

"Some people think so," she said back, making him laugh. She was grateful that he was making an attempt to give her the interview, she could at least try and make him more comfortable.

"At any rate," he said before she could speak again, "I'm Jade now, and you'll be seeing a lot more of me. I'm here to help out."

"Can you tell us a bit about your powers?" she asked, changing the subject since she had a feeling she was going to hit a brick wall in that direction.

"Mm," he deliberated for a moment, grinning as he said, "probably. No fun doing it like that though."

She huffed again, grimacing slightly at him which only made him laugh. When he laughed that time the sound was a lot fuller, the hero leaning back against the bench and dropping his hood to muss with his hair. She was a little caught off guard and she wasn't totally sure why.

"You have that shield," she tried to corner him, going off of context clues she had for lack of anything else, determined to get something more from him. "What's it do?"

"Block things hopefully," he said dismissively again, seeming to enjoy watching her get irritated with his evasiveness.

"It acts like a hover board, you use it to get around?" she tried again.

"Mm," he deliberated for a moment, looking off into the distance almost sarcastically before finally saying, "Yeah."

Alya sighed, arms crossed as she said, "You really gonna make me do all the work here tough guy?"

His grin didn't falter as he looked over at her, seeming a bit more confident. "I'm sorry Ms. Reporter am I annoying you?"

She leaned against the back of the bench, weight on her shoulder with her arms still crossed as she said, "Not completely, though you're getting there."

He laughed heavily again at that, his smile bright now.

"Alright, alright," he said in a placating way, reaching back to grab his shield and displaying it to the camera. "Cool yeah? It can do this," he said, quickly demonstrating how quickly it could change sizes.

Alya gasped, her love of heroes overcoming her mostly playful irritation. "Woah, that's so cool!"

He was smiling as he set the shield on the ground, leaning it on his knees. "Pretty rad yeah?"

"Being a superhero must be epic huh?" Alya asked after a moment, looking at him and was surprised when he turned to catch her gaze, a genuine sort of humor in his eyes.

"Mm. Yeah, it's cool. It's really cool, not trying to downplay it or nothing, I mean giant turtle shell shield is freaking rad, but a lot of responsibility comes with it too. That's not bad exactly, but it's worth being aware of. It's not really a get up or a 'superpower' that makes you a hero, its doing the right thing and protecting everybody you can yeah?"

He ended the sentence a little unsure, having said the words powerfully enough but ending things with a question mark, as if waiting to see if she'd agree. It didn't really feel like they were on camera anymore, they were just talking, and she sort of forgot about being an interviewer for a second.

"Absolutely," she agreed, smiling at him and saying, "but having 'turtle power' can't be too shabby right?"

He laughed, rolling the shield from left to right in his hands idly. "Yeah, definitely. It was a little overwhelming at first but I'm pretty alright now. Next time stuff goes bad I'll be out there with the others, don't worry. JT's on top of this now."

Alya grinned, saying enthusiastically, "That's good to hear. Paris is lucky to have you."

He took a second to respond before smirking, the lamp light shining in his eyes and making them appear utterly golden as he said, "I appreciate that."

Alya blinked, standing up and heading towards her phone to shut off the recording as Jade stood, fitting his shield back in place. She held her phone protectively against her chest and danced giddily in place for a second, giggling to herself.

"This is the best footage ever! The first contact with the new hero this is awesome!"

"Glad I could help," he said warmly, seeming to mean it. He was much looser now then he had been at the start, a lot more 'dude bro' then he had been at the beginning.

He didn't leave right away, watching her as she quickly skipped through the footage to make sure the audio was all good. When she looked up he was still standing there, a little bashful as he said, "It's really late for you to be out here. I know it might be weird but I'd feel better if you let me walk you home."

Alya paused, phone still in her hands as she realized what he was asking before saying, "Uh, I live sort of far, are you sure?"

He shrugged, seeming unperturbed. "Doesn't matter to me. Dangerous for a pretty girl to be out on her own."

He didn't seem to have caught exactly what he had said, but Alya definitely did, one eyebrow going up and that same teasing edge in her voice as she echoed, "Pretty girl?"

Jade froze, eyes going a bit wider before he was sputtering, one hand nervously running through his hair as he tried to recover, turning to her and saying with a smirk still covered in embarrassment, "You saying you aren't?"

Alya paused, grinning slightly. She hadn't expected that response.

"No," she disagreed, watching as the hero tried to play it off like he had totally meant to say all that when he clearly hadn't making the fact he had even more entertaining. "I'm pretty, I see what you mean."

"Then we're agreed," he said dismissively, like he hadn't just called her pretty again and gesturing towards her bike. "Lead the way."