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arisu-artnfics · 6 months ago

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“A trip to Paris” 6

Notes:

Chapter: 6/12 Previous Next (First). Versión en Español

Also on: A03 || FF || DeviantArt || Facebook.

Chapter 6: “Introducing akumas”

Marinette shook off her embarrassment, there would be time to freak out about that later, right now, she had a job to do.

“Oh, no!” Marinette cried, checking her phone. “There is an akuma close by!” She turned to her new friends–or, rather, temporary friends… she knew they were just here on holidays. “You should stay here, it will be safe.”

“Safe from what? What’s an akuma?” asked Jazz. She didn’t remember reading anything about that, and she had done a lot of research before coming.

“Oh, um, well an akuma is a person…” Marinette began. Danny raised an eyebrow. She hadn’t planned to have to explain this today, and she was doing a poor job of it. “Well, a possessed person—”

“Wait, you mean like overshadowed?” Sam asked what all three Amity Parkers were thinking. She didn’t think his ghost sense had gone off, but they couldn’t be too careful.

“Over– what?” asked Marinette, confused, this was not an English word she knew. She shook her head, “No, I don’t think so… it’s more like control by, as if someone else brainwashed them.” Then she remembered that “possessed” could mean something totally different to them than it did to her.

“That’s horrible,” Jazz commented with a sympathetic look. Knowing that it was done by one human to another made it worse in her book.

“It is, that’s why it is better to stay inside, and let Ladybug and Chat Noir do their job. They will defeat it, don’t worry!” said Marinette. Her smile was a bit too wide, stretched thin. Ladybug would save the day, but first she needed to leave and transform into Ladybug. She just had to figure out how to slip away from them.

“Marinette is right,” said Sabine. “Our store safety policy includes customers in these cases of emergencies. Please stay inside of the store.” Her accent was stronger than Marinette’s but they could understand her English well enough.

“Okay... ” said Danny hesitantly. He didn’t think that he could do much against an akuma. As far as he knew they were just people, mind controlled people but still people, as wrong as that sounded. And although it may be killing him inside to know more about it so he could at least try to help, with Jazz and Sam and even the Parisians so close by, he wasn’t about to go ghost.

“Good,” said Tom, nodding approvingly. He never liked when Alya went to record the battles and he liked it even less when his daughter took the risk too. Although normally Marinette was trying to stop Alya.

Another explosion shook the bakery. The pastries bounced in their displays and some of them piled up at the edge of the containers. Things were falling off shelves, everything was out of place. Everyone in the bakery ran for cover, and Marinette took the opportunity to escape and 'hide' in the house rather than the store.

She didn't lose any more time, quickly transforming into Ladybug and swinging out through a window. With the help of her trusty yo–yo she made her way to the roof. Once there, she spotted Chat Noir, who was already watching the villain and trying to understand the situation.

Meanwhile, inside the bakery, Danny was trying to see what was going on from a window since the attack wasn’t that far away. Sam stood next to him, a gentle hand on his shoulder to keep him calm. Even though he didn't even know if he could do something against an “akuma,” he was sure there was still some way he could help.

Jazz was watching her little brother from further in the store, she could tell that he was itching to get out there and help, that was just his nature. She knew her little brother, if things got bad enough, he would try his best to help, even if that meant breaking his promise.

The fight had gotten even closer to the bakery and that wasn't helping Danny’s stress, he knew he could try to help, but didn't want to break his promise or expose himself.

Then when nobody was expecting it, the battle was over. As fast as it had started, it ended.

As soon as Ladybug found Chat Noir, he told her what he’d seen and she knew exactly what to do. The akuma was a demolition contractor who got fired for unsafe practices. His boss said he was using too many explosions, but he had a plan, it wasn't his fault that the higher ups didn't like it. He was throwing bombs all over the city, destroying lots of buildings, when Ladybug and Chat Noir found him. Using their awesome teamwork, the pair of heroes quickly found the akuma hidden in a remote detonator and put a stop to his rampage. Then Ladybug launched her miraculous cure and everything went back to normal.

Back in the bakery, Tom and Sabine were smiling at the foreigners’ shocked faces. They had become so used to akuma attacks that it was almost normal to them. It was nice to be reminded of how magical it all really was.

Danny, Sam, and Jazz were more than a little surprised when everything suddenly went back as good as new, the fallen pastries were back on the shelves, toppled chairs were set to rights, and they could see previously damaged buildings from the window with not a scratch on them. It was like the akuma had never even happened.

It wasn't long until Marinette was back downstairs and she was just as amused by their shock as her parents. The three Parisians explained to their guests that it was always like that for them. An akuma would destroy almost everything in their way, and then Ladybug with her Miraculous Magic would restore it all. Good as new!

Danny silently wished that was something he could do back home, maybe then people wouldn’t blame him for all the property damage.

It was at that moment that someone's stomach growled and the Amity Park kids suddenly realised how hungry they were.

“Wow, is it really that late?” Danny wondered aloud. He checked the time on his phone; even without a local service provider, the time was still correct.

“You're always thinking with your stomach, aren’t you?” said Sam. She laughed and gave him a teasing smile. Even though she was also hungry, she wasn’t going to admit it. The hours had really flown by.

“Let’s go and find something to eat, it’s about time for lunch,” Jazz suggested. She looked around at the Dupain–Cheng family, “Marinette, thank you for all the tips,” she held up the notebook where she’d written everything down, “and thank you, Sabine and Tom, for letting us stay here during the akuma attack. We’ve never seen anything like that before!”

“You are very welcome!” replied Marinette with a big smile. She was happy to know that everything was coming up good for the foreigners.

“Glad to know that our daughter has helped you kids that much! Have fun in your holidays and please come back!” said Sabine, she wrapped an arm around her husband and the two smiled proudly at the kids.

“We will!” said Jazz, grinning back. It was a nice place, and they could come back for sweets any time during their stay.

And so, just like that, Jazz, Danny, and Sam waved goodbye to their new friends and headed out into the Parisian sunshine once again. They had passed by some stores and restaurants earlier and Marinette had told them where they could have lunch at a very good price. The restaurant that they ended up going to wasn't the cheapest that they saw, but at least it was on budget for the day.

Just when they were finishing lunch, their Fenton Phones rang. It was Jack and Maddie calling to check on them because they had learned about the akuma attack. They knew the kids could handle themselves in dangerous situations, but they still worried. Plus, their curiosity was piqued.

Once the adults finished peppering them with questions, the kids took turns telling them about what happened, Danny explained that no, he didn’t use his powers, and no, he had no clue what that was, and yes, they were all good. Then Jazz took over the story and explained how and why they ended up hiding in a bakery of all places. Sam completed the explanation, saying that it seems to be like magic of some kind, at least that’s what the Parisians believed.

Jack and Maddie were glad to hear that the kids were okay and hadn’t gotten into any serious trouble. It was enough of a pain dealing with insurance back home, they really didn’t want to do it here. As far as the possibility of magic, the scientific side of them wanted to deny its existence, but they couldn’t explain what would fix all the damage that easily.

Danny confessed his wish that they had a magic fix back home, and to that, everyone agreed. Then he suggested that maybe next time another akuma attack happens, he could just observe from a closer distance than today.

That made everyone ask if he was planning to transform, to which he responded yes, but just that. No other powers, except maybe invisibility. It would be a stealth mission, reconnaissance. He didn’t want people to give himself away or cause people to panic even more.

They all talked it over and decided that maybe, just maybe, it would be okay, just this once. So they could see exactly what was going on here. The rest promised to stay far away. The local heroes seemed more than capable of dealing with those akumas, after all. They had just witnessed that practically firsthand, or learned on the local news – even though Jack and Maddie couldn't understand what the reporter was saying, they could guess, and then a quick check online using the hotel wifi confirmed their observations.

With their plan in relation to akumas now made, the three teens continued exploring the city. Then, later, they met the rest of Team Phantom –except for Tucker, Valerie, and Dani, of course– back at the hotel to relax and try to call home. It was weird to think about how many hours difference there was –damn time zones– and knowing they would need to wait until late afternoon or evening before they could talk to anyone back in Amity. Thankfully, Mr. Gray answered after just a few rings and they were able to check in with him, easing some of their anxiety.

The two girls were doing all right, Danny talked with Dani and asked her how she was doing and if she'd had any ghostly problems. Dani told him that he was worrying way too much and he should just relax– he was on holidays and that far away for a reason.

Then when they spoke with Valerie, she told Sam and Danny that she had heard the mayor was planning a little ‘meeting’ overseas. They pressed her for more details, and she said that Tucker was obviously planning a trip to Paris himself. He had used his power as mayor, in one way or another to make it happen. The public had been hounding the local government for more information about Amity Park, and until now, Tucker had declined a press tour. Recently though, rumours had spread that he'd accepted an invitation from the mayor of Paris. What an incredibly well-planned coincidence! The two teens laughed at their best friend’s antics, but couldn’t be happier. Only Tucker would manage to plan a special meeting halfway across the world just to come hang out with them.

Jack and Maddie weren't too happy with his idea, but couldn’t really say much knowing that the old mayor did much worse than that. Tucker was also still a kid, and he wasn’t going to be mayor forever. The next elections were coming up soon and would decide the next mayor, after all.

Hearing news from Amity lent some normalcy to their routine and they talked for quite a while, before saying goodbye. Even though they had only been gone a day, there was already a lot to tell each other.

While the kids were talking, Maddie and Jack looked up local attractions and found that a science exposition was being held not far from their hotel and would be opening the next day. Danny and Jazz expressed their surprise when they learned it wasn’t some sort of ghost convention, to which their parents sheepishly confessed that it was related to ghost studies… in a way. After all, people all over the world were talking about ghosts and learning about them now.

Of course, the elder Fentons weren’t about to miss the opportunity to talk about ghosts with a whole new city of people that hadn’t already heard all of their theories. They did agree that they were going to just listen to the presentations and such though, even though they weren’t sure how much of it they would understand, it likely being in French and all.

Just as his parents promised to try to keep a low profile at the convention, Danny once again promised to keep Phantom's presence in Paris a secret, even while invisibly spying on the local heroes. He hadn't really been around other heroes and he was curious about their powers. They were all very intrigued by what they could learn from them and considering that maybe they could use the knowledge later on, it was worth the risk. The others were calling it spying because that was basically what it was, even though Danny refused to call it that.

Once all were in agreement as to how they would conduct themselves while gathering information during their stay they decided to get back in the vacation mindset. Jack and Maddie prepared themselves for their science exposition, while the kids planned their next outing. The Eiffel Tower was one of the most popular tourist attractions in Paris after all and it was high time they went to check it out. Thanks to Marinette’s help, they, or, more specifically, Jazz, were able to quickly look through the bus schedule and find the best time to visit when it wouldn’t be as crowded. Once Jazz had fully planned out their day, from how and when to get to the Eiffel Tower and then what to do afterwards, she called it a night.

After Jazz went to bed, Danny and Sam decided to look into getting their phones on the Paris cellular network. They couldn't keep using the Fenton Phones for all of their communication. Sam took the lead in setting that up, since she had experience doing that sort of thing before, but Danny was the one to suggest that they still used the Fenton Phones to communicate with Amity Park, since it would be cheaper than international roaming. In no time at all, Sam managed to help Danny and the rest of the Fenton family to get a temporary local line. Jack and Maddie were very grateful to Sam for helping them with that, since they had been putting it off for “later.” Using the Fenton Phones had been working for them so far, so they might have never gotten around to it.

And so, with a very productive first day in Paris under their belts, they called it a night. It was getting late after all.

Over the next few days, Jack and Maddie enjoyed their convention, if nothing else, at least they learned the French word for “ghost,” and the kids took turns choosing which tourist attraction to visit. They would only be there for two weeks, so everyone wanted to make the most of their time in the City of Lights. In addition to the most popular locations, they also found some quieter places frequented by the locals that they all could enjoy. Before they knew it, the day for Tucker to join them was just around the corner.

“So,” Jazz commented, “Tucker finally said that the official reason he’s coming is for him to supposedly speak at a bunch of conferences about the ghosts from Amity.”

The kids were sitting at the park that afternoon, just enjoying the beautiful day.

“Yeah. We finally managed to get ahold of him, and it’s like Valerie said, he was supposed to do an online, long distance conference… thing. But you know Tuck, he managed to change it so that he could come to Paris personally.” Danny shrugged. “Although, I also think that he mentioned once that he had a few different cities around the world trying to book him. So, why, Paris? Who knows. Probably just because we’re here.” he shrugged again.

“Why am I not surprised? You guys have always been good at playing the system, haven’t you?” said Jazz. She, like the rest, had suspected that to be the case, but hearing Danny say it out loud just confirmed it. At least Tucker wasn’t really abusing his power… that much. They had invited him, after all.

“Well, it’s Tuck, what do you expect?” said Sam with a shrug. She wasn't going to deny the obvious.

“Valerie and Dani said he’s arriving tomorrow, right?” asked Jazz. They had managed to talk with the girls back home the day before; but it was more Danny asking about Amity and confirming the lack of ghosts than anything else. She hoped, for Danny’s sake, that things stayed okay over there.

“And I believe that he is staying in the same hotel as us, it seems like the ‘Grand Paris’ always receives important people… ” Danny added, recalling the details of his friend's travel plans. Even though, now that he thought about it, Tucker probably shouldn’t have shared those details with anybody other than his parents, who were coming too. It could potentially be a security risk.

“Yeah, he’s staying in the presidential suite, or whatever it’s called,” continued Sam. She had been the one to confirm the information, but didn’t care enough to remember the name of the room. The rooms had numbers, after all, and that was the important part.

“So I’m guessing you two will want to see him as soon as he gets here, right? The three of you will probably want to catch up tomorrow...” said Jazz. She already knew that Danny and Sam would jump at that opportunity to spend time with their best friend. Even though she was with them and they were having a good time, she still felt a bit awkward, a bit like an outsider.

“Probably…” Danny hummed, half listening. He was watching a group of children playing in the distance and listening to the pigeons coo. He was very much enjoying the holidays so far. As he should.

“Hey Jazz, you know even though we don’t mind your company, you could go do your own things, too,” said Sam. “You don’t need to stay with us.” She didn’t mind the other girl, but she also knew that Jazz would probably like to do some other normal teen stuff, without her little brother and his girlfriend tagging along. Like maybe check some of the local universities or something, even though she would never want to study that far from Amity. Honestly, Sam was starting to feel a bit odd being around Jazz when they weren’t battling some kind of danger.

“Oh no, it’s all right! I have the key card for the room, so we all need to stick together… ” replied Jazz. She was the oldest and therefore the one entrusted to keep track of their copy of it. She knew that Sam didn’t mean anything by it, but none of them were dumb enough to miss the awkward feeling between them.

“Yeah, but you know I don’t necessarily need a key...” said Danny, obviously pointing out his ghostly abilities. He was still oblivious to the mounting tension around him.

“True, but remember: no powers, little bro. Plus mom and dad trusted me to look after you two, and even though you don’t need it, that doesn’t mean I should just leave you guys! What if you got lost? Or went to the wrong room?” Jazz pointed out. With their limited communication here, getting lost wasn't something to play around with. That thought made her feel better about being there for them, even when they didn’t necessarily need her.

“All right, all right...” Danny raised his hands in surrender. He had finally noticed how stressful the situation was becoming. “We are going to stick together, and no powers, means no powers...” He sighed. He might actually be starting to miss the ghost attacks.

“Well, with our luck another akuma will attack soon, and you can go spy on the heroes,” Sam teased.

They had found the blog run by Marinette’s friend Alya. The 'Ladyblog' had an English translation on it and explained that akuma attacks were completely random, usually varying between two to three per week, but sometimes as frequently as two in one day, although that was very rare. So, in other words, they happened when you least expected it.

“Hey! I thought it was just ‘observing from a closer distance…’”

Jazz and Sam both gave him looks that said ‘not even you believe that.’

He sighed. “Fine, spying it is… ” he paused, “Let’s hope I don’t get in trouble for that…” he murmured. Even though he knew it was spying from the start, he didn’t want to say it like that, in case it was illegal or something. And he didn’t even know if he would understand anything.

“So, what time is Tucker supposed to get to the hotel again? I can’t remember what Valerie said, since you guys, or well, you, little brother, were hogging the Fenton Phones the whole time and I had to ask you about it later on…” said Jazz, with a twinge of annoyance, reminding him about his worrying over the phone about whether Amity was doing okay or not.

If they were going to do something tomorrow to meet up with Tucker and his family, it was best to plan ahead. And Jazz needed all of the information in order to do that planning.

“Well, his flight should land at around 5 p.m. He did a lot of complaining about how he was going to be spending a whole entire day on a plane. He may be a tech genius, but seriously, he didn’t get that if he leaves Illinois at midnight that’s 7 a.m here, then when you add the ten hours flying… ‘voilà’ you get to Paris at 5 p.m.” explained Sam. They had something similar happen to them when they flew over, although it wasn’t as bad because they arrived around 11 p.m. and then slept through the night.

“If I remember correctly, even you were confused about the time zones when we were travelling...” Danny teased her with a playful grin and Sam just glared at him in return. After all, that Monday night was hard for all of them.

“Well, if it helps, none of us had experienced crossing so many time zones like that before...” Jazz paused, “That means that Tucker would get to the hotel at around 6 p.m.” she commented, getting them back on the topic of planning for the next day.

“Yep,” said Danny, pronouncing the ‘p’ more strongly than needed, “so he should be free around six-thirty or seven tomorrow afternoon,” he finished with a nod. He was excited that he and Sam would get to hang out with their friend after such a long time. They had only been in Paris a week, but even before that, it had been hard to see him because of his mayoral duties. Actual ones, unlike this trip… Mostly it was fixing problems that Vlad left.

“Okay, so let’s just say seven, to be on the safe side, that’s when we should be looking for him,” said Sam. She would never admit it, but she had missed her friend; she was really thankful to have him in her life. After all, the three of them were the original trio, the original team Phantom.

“Sounds like a plan!” said Jazz and wrote it all down in her notebook that she was still carrying around.

Danny and Sam just rolled their eyes. Sometimes it seemed like Jazz was being a bit extra, but they knew she always had good intentions. And even though they would never tell her, they knew they were going to miss her when she went to Amity Park University in the fall.

The three teens fell into a peaceful silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

Danny was actually really enjoying his time in Paris. He never thought that travelling like this would help so much, but with Sam next to him so close their shoulders brushed, and Jazz at his other side, near enough for a teasing elbow to the ribs, he felt the tension slowly melting away.

Sam slipped her hand into Danny’s and gave it a gentle squeeze. She was so glad to see him actually relaxed for once, and she was enjoying every second she got to spend with him. A breeze blew through the park, rustling the leaves on the trees, and she took a deep breath of the sweet summer air.

Jazz was quite pleased with how everything was going so far. She mentally ran through their itinerary again, they only had a little time here and she wanted to make the most of it. Although, she supposed, always thinking of what they were going to do next was probably not the best way to enjoy the moment, was it? She shook herself out of her thoughts and instead watched the way the dappled sunlight danced across the ground at her feet.

“Well, now that we know when Tuck is getting here,” Danny began, breaking the silence, “and we’ve changed our plans for the weekend to include him–”

A sleek black car had pulled up at the park, causing some commotion when a bodyguard stepped out of it.

“Okay...” said Sam, noticing what distracted Danny.

Jazz finished writing down some more ideas for what they could do tomorrow, making sure to account for how they were going to ‘just say hi’ to Tuck. Then she glanced up from her notebook and saw what Danny and Sam were looking at. “Is he supposed to be a teen celebrity or something?” she asked. It did look a bit like it was out of a movie, in a way.

“I don’t know, it just looked like something was about to happen, with the way those people were acting. I didn’t expect it to just be some guy, I thought for a second that maybe an akuma was coming or something,” Danny explained. After all, they were expecting an akuma to happen sooner or later.

“I thought the same thing,” said Sam, “but that blonde guy doesn’t seem like an akuma, does he?” She watched the way he was being shielded by his bodyguard. He didn’t seem like much of a threat.

“Oh!” exclaimed Danny, after seeing the guy a bit better the closer he got. “I think I know him!”

“What?” asked Jazz and Sam, equally confused. They had never seen him before in their lives.

“Well, all right, all right. I don’t, you know, know him know him… but I’ve seen him. In ads. I think.” said Danny, trying to remember where exactly he had seen the ad, or if he knew what it was about.

“In ads, you said...” Jazz hummed thoughtfully, trying to remember what advertisements they had seen around the area.

“I mean, I guess… I don’t remember exactly where, and now that I think about it, I’m not even sure what it was for. I mean, how could I know, it was probably in French!” Danny said with a shrug. There were plenty of signs with people on them, both here and back home. Normally it was because of publicity, someone trying to sell goods or services, or worse, according to him, it was politics.

“That makes sense,” Sam allowed.

“He seems to be very popular… well, at least among the girls,” commented Jazz. She had been watching the crowd and noticed that most of the people that were now gathered at the park seemed to be teenage girls.

“Well, I guess, that’s our cue to go. Look, they’ve got a photographer over there now, they probably came here to work… ” said Sam, unimpressed. What else would a famous teen do if not work in one way or another? It was either that or just be ‘annoying’ in her book.

“Alright, let’s go,” Danny stood up from their bench. “I’m here to rest, not work!” Well… unless you counted the “definitely-not-spying” he would be doing on the local heroes.

“Hey, isn’t that Marinette?” Jazz pointed out a familiar set of pigtails in the middle of the crowd of what they could only assume were fans.

Sam followed Jazz’s line of sight and found their new friend talking animatedly with another girl. “Yeah, I think so...” When she turned back, she noticed how Jazz seemed like she was ready to go ask Marinette for some more Parisian advice.

“Uhh, Jazz, I don’t think we need to bother her and her friend right now...” said Danny, picking up on the same thing Sam had. Knowing his sister, she would try to get as much information out of Marinette as possible, even though they didn’t need it, they were planning to spend time with Tucker tomorrow, after all.

“Hey, just because I’m gathering my stuff and especially the notebook doesn’t mean… ” she trailed off when Danny and Sam both raised a sceptical eyebrow at her. “Okay, okay… fine. So maybe I thought we could ask her a few more questions… ” She sighed. It wouldn’t be that bad to get ideas of what else to do, right?

“Let’s just go,” Danny groaned. He stood up and stretched his back. It felt nice after sitting for a while.

“I’m right behind you,” said Sam. She would have been happy to stay there and admire the sunset, it was getting late and would be going down before much longer, but the idea had lost its appeal when so many people showed up.

“Fine” grumbled Jazz, outnumbered and defeated. She finished packing up the last of their things in a small bag.

And so the three of them began making their way back to the hotel. They would probably go up to the roof and enjoy some time at the pool while continuing to plan what they would do with Tucker once he arrived. However, as soon as they started walking, a huge flock of pigeons zoomed past them, flying in formation. A scream went up from the crowd of fans, many of them running for cover.

“Uh, that’s weird, right?” Danny asked. “Like, I’m no bird expert, but I’m pretty sure that’s not normal.” To be continued :D :D

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arisu-artnfics · 2 months ago

Text

“A trip to Paris” 7

Notes:

Chapter: 7/12 Previous Next (First). Versión en Español

Also on: A03 || FF || DeviantArt || Facebook

Chapter 7: “And they talked”

“Think it’s an akuma?” Sam asked, getting ready to jump into action.

“Could be...” Danny knew that if it was an akuma, he would be allowed to use his powers, but that didn’t mean he was going to transform out in the open. They needed to gather more information before doing something irrational like that. Even if it did seem obvious that the pigeons were the result of one. “Let’s get a closer look.”

They followed the lead of a few fans, hiding behind a nearby bush to watch the birds perform their strangely coordinated aerial manoeuvres.

After a minute or two, a weird looking man with an even weirder looking whistle–if it had a specific name, they didn’t know it– appeared, flying on top of a ‘plane’ made of pigeons. That was definitely the strangest thing that they had ever seen, and they were from Amity Park! They were used to ghosts attacking the city almost daily, but this had Team Phantom feeling befuddled in a way that they hadn’t been in a long time.

Danny was just thinking about how he would even start to handle a situation like this, even with his powers, and that he would take ghosts over this any day, when Ladybug and Chat Noir appeared.

“Wow! They really do look like the statue… but, you know, with colours…” said Jazz, a bit surprised at how well the sculptor had captured the likenesses of the two new heroes.

“Yeah, they do!” said Danny, also recognizing them from the very statue that stood not too far from where they were right now. He pushed aside a branch to get a better look. “Man, I can’t even tell what they’re saying!”

“Oh, right!” said Sam, smacking a hand to her forehead. “You can’t speak French!” Between the three of them, she was the only one who had a chance at understanding what the villain, if they could even call him that, and heroes were saying.

“Why didn’t I think of that?” Jazz lamented. It was such an obvious thing to overlook! Unless the heroes started speaking English for some reason, they weren’t going to understand a word they said. She mentally crossed ‘become international spies’ off her list of things to do in Paris.

Danny looked around. “Why does everyone else seem to be, like… bored about all this?” he wondered. At least in Amity Park, people actually hid when there was an attack.

“I don’t know…” said Sam. She had also noticed that most of the fans were just sheltering under park benches to avoid pigeon poop rather than truly hiding, as anyone who looked could easily see them.

“Yeah, it’s… odd,” added Jazz. She was used to people running and screaming as they ducked for cover, dodging ectoblasts and whatever the ghost-of-the-day’s weapon of choice happened to be.

A shout from the heroes drew their attention back to the fight. “Lucky Charm!” called the one they now knew was Ladybug. It was the only English they had heard so far.

Even though the battle was a fair distance from their hiding place, they could still hear the heroes very clearly. Although that Charm, power, thing was the only thing they had understood so far. At least until Chat Noir screamed “Cataclysm,” or that’s what it sounded like he said, destroying the weird-looking whistle. From the ashes in his hand fluttered a black tinted butterfly.

Now Danny was very confused. After listening to Marinette and her family explain akumas, he had been pretty sure he knew what to expect, but that hadn’t been anything like what he had imagined.

As they watched, Ladybug expertly snatched the butterfly from the air with her yo-yo. When she released it again, seconds later, it was as white as new-fallen snow. “Bye bye…” she whispered as it flew away. Then the battle was finished with the cry of “Miraculous Ladybug!” and that same incredible magic that they had seen once before swept over them, cleaning up all the pigeon poop and putting everything back to normal.

“Okay… please tell me I’m not the only one who didn’t think that’s what an akuma was… right?” asked Danny, voicing his thoughts. “I mean, Marinette said that they were kind of like possessed people… So, like, what just happened?”

“No idea… no idea… ” murmured Jazz, just as lost as her brother.

“Maybe,” said Sam, “maybe they were possessed by the butterfly…”

“Oh, Ancients! They’re getting away!” said Danny, pointing out the retreating figures of the Parisian heroes as they bounded across the rooftops.

“And everyone’s just going back to what they were doing, as if there wasn’t a superpowered pigeon invasion less than five minutes ago…” Sam added.

“Even the photographer is back at his set,” said Jazz, nodding her head in that direction. “If you can call a fountain and some extra lights a ‘set’”

“It didn’t seem like a very dangerous akuma villain guy,” Danny commented. “Just based on how everyone was acting.”

“Maybe he’s like their version of the Box Ghost,” Sam suggested with a shrug.

“We should probably take their cue and get back to what we were doing too,” Jazz suggested.

As the trio from Amity Park started making their way back to the hotel once again, they nearly collided with another teen that was going in the opposite direction.

“Oops!” said the girl they recognized as Marinette’s friend. Followed by what they assumed was an apology.

“It’s all right,” said Jazz without a second thought, even though she didn’t understand her. She had been the one that was almost run over by Marinette’s friend, much the same way as she had almost been crashed into by Marinette herself not that long ago.

“Oh, you speak English!” the girl sounded surprised.

Yeah… ” Jazz replied, a little confused. Surely English wasn’t that out of the ordinary, they were pretty close to a big, famous hotel, after all. And some of the locals in the area had spoken English with them already.

“Sorry about that,” she said, in English this time. “I was looking for my friend instead of watching where I was going. That girl pulled another one of her famous vanishing acts on me.” She shook her head fondly.

“No worries,” Sam said. “We know someone who’s like that, too.” At this she gave Danny a teasing look.

“I suppose there has to be one in every group,” the girl said with a laugh. Then, with a snap of her fingers, she switched to reporter mode. “So, if you guys don’t mind my asking, how long have you been visiting Paris? Did you see the akuma just now? Would you mind being interviewed for my blog?” she asked very enthusiastically, raising her camera phone to the trio of Americans.

“Umm… ” Danny hummed noncommittally while gently pushing the camera away, kindly rejecting the offer.

“Oh, uh… Sorry,” the girl apologised again, realising that she was probably invading their personal space. “I got a little carried away there for a moment, Marinette says I have a bad habit of doing that. Let me introduce myself, I’m Alya. I run the ‘Ladyblog,’ Paris’s number one source about akumas and heroes, if I do say so myself.” She stepped back to a more socially acceptable distance and showed them her blog, pulled up on her phone in English. She had correctly assumed that their French was lacking.

After a couple of seconds while they looked through her blog, she asked, “So… Could I get an interview? Or at least a statement? It’s always so interesting to hear what people think of their first akuma.”

“That’s… wow!” said Jazz, after checking as much as she could without reading ahead of Sam and Danny. They had checked out the Ladyblog before, on Marinette’s suggestion, but to meet the girl who ran it, and to see how much effort and enthusiasm went into it firsthand? That was something else.

“So, how did all this,” Sam made a sweeping gesture toward where the pigeon battle took place, “start?” she asked. She knew firsthand what caused the ghosts to start appearing in Amity, but the situation in Paris was a complete mystery for them.

“You mean the akumas? Or the heroes?” asked Alya, for clarification. As if she wouldn’t tell them the entire history of Ladybug and Cat Noir and their battle against the forces of evil at the drop of a hat.

“Both,” Danny replied, now curious. Aside from the akumas, Paris seemed like an average big city.

“Right,” said Alya, settling into her role as storyteller, “Actually, they both appeared at the same time– well, same day. The akumas were first though. You see, at the beginning of the school year– I remember it well because it was my first day at a new school, and, well, everyone was in class when it all went down…” she began.

“Wait,” Sam interrupted. “It happened at your school?” She had thought the girl only knew all this stuff because she was obsessed with the allure of heroism, at least, that’s how it looked on the blog. She was pleasantly surprised to find that they had met someone who had been there since the beginning and not just someone repeating the story for clout and attention.

“Well, yeah… in a way… I mean, part of it did– Oh, thank you,” she interrupted herself when Jazz handed back her phone. She pocketed it and then continued her story, “Now, where was I?”

“You were telling us about your first day of school here… what happened next? When did the akumas show up?” asked Jazz, already opening up her Notebook to write things down. She wasn’t one to miss a valuable learning opportunity, after all. She knew enough to realise that this whole akuma business had to be a recent thing. Maybe New York had its heroes and villains, but not Paris, at least not until recently.

“Well…” said Alya, thinking back on that day. “Like I said, one moment we were in class, just before lunch break if I am not mistaken– we were just a couple of hours in, you know– and then out of nowhere, one of the other students was a huge rock-like creature!”

“Woah! So one of your classmates just, like, transformed into a rock monster right in the middle of school!” Danny said. “That must have been wild to see!”

“Well, I didn’t actually see him get akumatized…” Alya corrected him.

“Wait, then how could you tell who it was?” asked Danny. He was a little surprised at that, since nobody has figured out his identity yet and not nearly that fast, not even the ghosts. And he’d transformed in the middle of the school!

“Oh, no, no, no… I learned that after…” Alya shook her head, “Anyway, as I was saying—”

“Hey, Alya!” a familiar French voice interrupted her, “I’m sorry for disappearing like that!”

Alya turned around to see her best friend running over to join them “Oh! Hey Marinette! I thought that you were back in the bakery…” she replied, speaking French as well.

“Hello Marinette,” Jazz greeted their new friend with a wave. She spoke English rather than butchering the French language more than she had to.

“Oh! Hi guys!” said Marinette, switching to English when she realised just who Alya was talking to. “Sorry, I didn’t see you there…” She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

“We aren’t invisible, right?” whispered Danny, looking himself and his companions over, just to be sure that they were actually visible.

“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that. What did you just say?” asked Alya, switching back to English as well.

“Nothing! Nothing.” said Danny, waving his hand dismissively. He didn’t think that anyone except his friends would hear him. Obviously he was wrong, but at least they didn’t understand his whispering.

“Okay…?” said Alya, a bit doubtful, but let it go as it didn’t seem important.

“I’m really sorry you guys, it was rude of us to speak in French in front of you. I didn’t mean to make you feel left out,” Marinette apologised. “I just didn’t expect for you to be talking with Alya… I didn’t realise you knew each other…” She let her sentence trail, an unspoken question in her tone.

“Oh! We don’t… Not really,” Alya explained.

“What? Then what… What were you guys talking about?“ Her eyes lit up in horror, “Oh no! I hope I didn’t interrupt anything important! Did I?” She felt a bit bad for that, she had thought that maybe Alya had already met them but forgot to mention.

“Oh, no, nothing like that! I almost ran into…” Alya paused, realising that she didn’t know what to call any of them. She turned to the taller girl, “I’m so sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“No worries, I’m Jazz,” she replied with a smile. They had skipped the second half of introductions and jumped straight into interviewing each other, but social conventions were never her family’s strong suit anyway.

“Nice to meet you.” She turned back to Marinette. “I almost ran into Jazz here and, well, noticed that they seemed to be watching the fight, and, well, you know me…” Alya shrugged, she knew Marinette would get exactly what she meant.

“You just asked them for an interview, didn’t you?” Marinette said, blinking at her friend, unimpressed by her antics.

“Actually, we asked her. She was telling us about what happened in Paris the day the heroes and akumas showed up,” said Sam. She was getting the feeling that they weren’t going to get answers anytime soon. Especially if they kept getting distracted.

“Oh yeah!” Alya exclaimed, remembering what they were talking about just before Marinette got back.

In that moment a bright flash of light caught their attention and everyone turned to see what it was. That’s when they all remembered that Adrien was supposed to be having a photoshoot right now. And so he was. Adrien had returned to the park as well and was doing what he did best, being a model. He had been working the whole time they had been talking and the flash was from the photographer taking pictures.

Sam scoffed and rolled her eyes, unimpressed. He was probably some rich kid whose parents had paid for him to be a model or something.

“Adrien…” Marinette sighed, a bit too dreamily and loud enough for the rest of the group to hear her. That caused some soft laughing from her companions, and Marinette’s mouth clicked shut in embarrassment.

“Sorry,” said Danny apologetically. He had noticed the discomfort coming from his new friend and didn’t want to hurt her feelings or anything like that.

“Ohhhh!” Marinette lamented, covering her face with her hands. No matter how many times she embarrassed herself, it was never a good feeling.

“Sorry,” Sam and Jazz echoed Danny’s apology, realising that it hadn’t been very nice of any of them.

“Don’t worry,” said Alya, calming her friend with a hand on her shoulder. “That’s Marinette for you… and that’s Adrien, the teen model of our class.” She nodded toward the photoshoot, confirming the information that they thought they had.

“He’s in your class…??” asked Danny. He was a bit surprised because he thought that models would need to be privately tutored or something like that so they could learn around their work schedules.

“He is,” Alya confirmed. “And he’s a literal ray of sunshine. Nothing like you would assume from a teen model, honest!” She herself had judged him harshly when they first met and she didn’t want these people to do that too.

“Sunshine?” asked Jazz. She had never thought of anyone like that before, not even when she was their age. Of course, she had always been mature for her age, so maybe she had just skipped over that developmental phase.

“That’s our secret nickname for him, to be honest. He is the nicest person that I know,” said Alya, glad that she had gotten to know him better.

“Oh, he is even better than that…” Marinette gushed. “He isn’t just a model, he does fencing, plays piano, speaks English as well as Chinese and a few other languages that he has learned over the years,” she explained, listing off all his talents by heart, counting them out on her fingers.

“He was homeschooled until this year. Nobody knows how he managed to enrol himself without his dad knowing, but he did. Although that probably is explained by the fact that he was friends with Chloe…” said Alya thoughtfully. It was a bit sad, to be honest, that he only knew friendship in the form of Chloe.

“Chloe…” growled Marinette. Just thinking about her bully annoyed her.

“Who’s that? Judging by your reaction, she doesn’t sound like a very nice person,” said Sam. She had a feeling that she knew where this was going, and hoped that she wasn't like Paulina back home.

“Oh, you know… just the Mayor’s daughter, the brat that nobody likes… except maybe Adrien, but that’s because he didn’t have any friends until we arrived in his life,” said Alya matter-of-factly with a small eye roll.

“Wow, that’s terrible!” said Danny. He couldn’t imagine his life without his friends. Well, he did have an idea, a terrible idea, of what would have happened if he had never met Sam.

“Yeah, you can say that again! He was terrible at making friends at first” said Alya, as a matter of fact once again.

“I did judge him bad as well…” Marinette admitted with more than a little regret for that day, well, that morning. Once she understood him better, she realised that she had been in the wrong and tried to apologise. Although it didn’t quite go to plan as he apologised to her instead, and she fell head over heels in love with him. Something she was still trying to confess to him.

“So… you are all friends now?” Jazz asked curiously. She thought that’s what they were saying, but wanted to make sure.

“Well, yeah, of course we are! I’m actually dating his best friend, and this clumsy girl here is my BFF, so that makes them friends automatically. Although I bet they would be friends even if that wasn’t the case…” said Alya with a wink at Marinette. She knew that they wouldn’t be friends, but a couple as that’s what the other girl had been working toward for so long now.

“Uh, Right…” said Danny uncertainly as he processed the information.

“So… ” said Marinette, trying to change the topic. “What have you visited since I saw you? You guys said last time that you are here for two weeks, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Danny here needed a holiday and so his family decided to travel all the way to the other side of the world,” said Sam. While that was true, if they had been anybody else, they would have just gone to another state or something.

“Oh! That’s a bit far for just a holiday…” said Alya. She didn’t doubt their claim, that they were from the US was obvious, or at least she assumed that’s where they were from since they didn’t have the British accent to be from England. She wondered what had brought them this far.

“Well, let’s just say that if you ever visited Amity Park, then you would understand why it’s necessary…” said Sam. She knew that they were right, it was far, but living over there was full of surprises. And, sure, they could have gone somewhere closer… but, well, with Danny and his powers, they couldn’t risk it.

“Wait… Amity Park?? Like where the ghostly hero is from?? Danny Phantom?? Did you guys know him??” asked Alya, with eyes big and full of surprise. She never thought that she would meet people from there, and so soon after his debut. She had been thinking of ways to conveniently make her way to that small American town, just so she could meet him too.

“Oh, uh, well…” Danny stammered, caught off guard by the sudden barrage of questions about, well, himself. He hadn’t expected to find a fan of his ghostly alter ego all the way in Paris and he wasn’t in the mood for that kind of interview. He was on vacation after all.

“Alya!” chided Marinette. She didn’t want to annoy her new friends, even if she would only see them whenever they went to the bakery or if they were around the area like today.

“Sorry,” Alya apologised, hand coming up to rub the back of her neck. “It’s just that while akumas and the heroes here are cool… I always thought all heroes are amazing! We went to New York not that long ago… and, well… IT WAS AWESOME!” The grin crept back onto her face, stretching from ear to ear.

“The heroes must have made a really good impression on you then,” said Jazz. She could understand her though.

“She almost couldn’t believe that she was seeing her heroes over there! Even though some of them don’t have secret identities, we didn’t expect to just see them around. It’s so different over here, we don’t think that Ladybug and Chat Noir would ever share their identities,” said Marinette, remembering the time they saw that the teacher from the American school was the hero that gave her and Chat so much trouble when they had to fight against him and the rest of the American heroes under the akuma’s power.

“Yeah, and it sucks because if we knew who they were, then we could help them! Isn’t that right, Marinette?” said Alya and turned to look directly into Marinette's eyes.

“Isn’t that dangerous?” asked Danny, worried that maybe this girl was getting into trouble trying to figure out who the heroes were. He might need to be careful around her in case she started to look too closely at him.

“Nah! Ladybug would put everything back to normal,” Alya said confidently, “and that is if something happened to me at all.”

This, surprisingly, did little to calm Danny down, so Sam squeezed his hand in hers to reassure him that everything would be okay. She had taken his hand at some point during their conversation out of habit.

“Alya!” Marinette scolded. She was worried about her friend, as she knew very well that she had a terrible tendency of getting into trouble and putting herself in danger when it came to heroes.

“It’s all right Mari, I’m always keeping my distance,” Alya assured her friend. “I promised Ladybug that I’d be careful if I want to keep filming all the battles for my blog.” And, well, she doesn’t like it when an akuma gets her.

“Wait… I thought you didn’t know who Ladybug is?” asked a very confused Danny. He had thought that they didn’t share their identities.

“Nah! I wish, but nah. I know how important her secret identity is, you see. She has rescued me a couple of times–”

“Yeah! Me too!” Marinette added quickly.

“Uhh… and well, once she stopped me from failing from a high place, and, well, that’s when I promised, I mean, It wasn’t my idea of being that high, but the akuma put me up there…” said Alya, as to explain the reason for her promise.

“So, are all the akumas like that pigeon man?” asked Jazz, all business, with pen and notebook in hand.

“Who? Mr. Ramier?” Alya asked, pointing back to where the attack happened to indicate who she was referring to.

“You know who he was?” Sam was surprised, thinking about how the akuma hadn’t looked much like the man he transformed into, except a certain resemblance in the face, perhaps.

“Welllllll… he has been an akuma victim so many times, that everyone knows him by now… I feel bad for the guy sometimes, he just wants to feed the pigeons in peace, you know?” said Alya. Most people only knew him as The Most Akumatized Man in Paris, but he was so much more than that. It was sad, if you asked her. “That reminds me, I need to update the number one more time!”

“I feel bad for him too,” Marinette added. “I wish we could do something against the ‘Papillon’ but, well, we aren’t heroes…” she giggled in a way that sounded fake, even to her own ears.

“Yeah…” said Alya, not noticing the fake laugh and continuing as if nothing had happened, “Sadly there’s not much we can do…” She pulled up her blog on her phone to update Mr. Ramier’s page.

“So you guys just, what? Sit and do nothing??” Sam asked incredulously. She was already mentally preparing a motivational speech-slash-civilian combat lesson. Even without the powers there was a bunch of stuff they could do to help, just like she and the rest of Team Phantom did on a regular basis.

“Sam…” Danny warned. They didn’t want to impose the hero life on regular teens, they got the chance to be normal, something Danny didn't have, and he didn't want to take that away from them.

After a moment of awkward silence, Jazz said, “Mmmmm… I see… That makes sense actually.” She didn’t want the Parisians to feel bad for keeping to the sidelines, in fact, sometimes she wished that she could ignore the ghost attacks too, but she wasn’t about to let her little brother fight those by himself.

“What?” asked Marinette, startled out of her reverie. She had noticed how Sam’s hand never seemed to leave Danny’s and was a bit ashamed that she kind of forgot that Jazz was there. She had just been so quiet that she kind of disappeared.

“Oh, no, nothing! Just, I can understand why you guys wouldn’t do something so dangerous and it’s better for you to leave it all to Ladybug and Chat Noir. The situation here is very different from what it’s like back home, in Amity Park at least people have the tools to fight back. Most people still just hide and hope for the best, of course, but ghost hunting gear is becoming a lot more common over there, and over here you don’t have that available. From what I gather, especially after reading your blog, I can see that each akuma victim is very different from the others, with unique abilities, and therefore it would be hard to predict any efficient system to fight them. That makes it more difficult for civilians to help, and any that tried would just be put in harm’s way, making things more complicated for the heroes.” Jazz explained.

Everyone just blinked at her a couple of times, their expressions blank.

Danny and Sam recovered from the impromptu lecture first, fairly used to this sort of thing from Jazz. And while they knew what she was saying, having experienced both ghosts and akumas, or rather, one akuma and hearing the explosions from a second, it looked like the Parisians were struggling to make the comparison. While the kids from Amity Park didn’t have that much to compare to, it seemed like it was more than enough for Jazz to make a connection. It was very clear that ghosts and akumas weren’t the same, but the concept was the same: if something supernatural starts attacking the city, take cover.

“I guess you are right,” said Marinette, who was the first one to break the silence.

“I suppose you guys are really used to hiding as well, right?” said Alya, understanding what the other teen meant.

“In a way, yeah…” said Sam. Even though they didn’t really hide, but fought. It was just that neither Marinette or Alya needed to know about that.

“Yep!” Danny added with a tight smile and awkward thumbs up, hiding the fact that he was the one who fought the ghosts most of the time. When he ran, it was towards the danger.

“Yeah…” said Marinette, “if we don’t get trapped… or something, I think hiding is the best we can do. I mean, what else is there to do, right?” she continued with a small laugh. It wasn’t even that funny, but she was just glad that it didn’t sound as fake as before.

“Unfortunately that’s true,” Alya concluded. If things got really dangerous, she tried to take shelter, she needed to be okay to film, after all.

The conversation lapsed between the teens once again. They hadn’t made it very far from where they started, still standing in the middle of the park between the bench and the fountain. They shuffled their feet awkwardly, unsure of what to say next, unaware that another teen was heading their way.

With Mr. Pigeon stopped once again, Adrien returned to the park, and, unfortunately, to his photoshoot. Just when he thought that for once, he might get an afternoon off, too.

His father had told him that after the shoot today, he was free to do as he pleased, so long as he had all his homework done. With that promise in mind, Adrien had rushed home after school and started his homework as soon as possible, finishing just before his bodyguard picked him up for the shoot.

If only the rest of the afternoon had gone so smoothly.

After they got to the park, they discovered that news of today’s photoshoot location had been leaked and they were swarmed with adoring fans. Normally, he didn’t mind his fans, but they did slow down the photoshoot and today he had been hoping for a short session. He briefly thought about asking the photographer if they could move to a new location, but when he saw his friends, Alya and Marinette, in the crowd, he changed his mind. He knew Marinette wanted to be a fashion designer and how much she loved seeing how things worked behind the scenes. So he forgot his annoyance and set to work as peacefully as he could with an audience.

All that changed when, once again, Mr. Ramier was akumatized into Mr. Pigeon. Adrien used the chaos caused by the fans running for cover from pigeon droppings as an opportunity to escape to a nearby alleyway and transform into Chat Noir. He returned to the park just in time to meet Ladybug. Luckily, he had already been there for the photoshoot, but she had arrived on the scene in remarkably good time. His Lady was just amazing like that. Together they kicked bird butt, just like always, and far too soon Adrien was back at work.

Thankfully some of the fans went home after the akuma attack and he was able to finish his shoot without further trouble. Now that it was over, he decided to find where Marinette and Alya went so he could say ‘hi’ to them, as spending any time with any of his friends was great in his book. Eventually, he spotted them talking with three people he didn’t recognize. Adrien thought it would be a good opportunity to meet some new people, he just hoped that they weren’t fans. He wasn’t willing to deal with that any more today.

Adrien greeted the group in French as he hadn't heard them talking in English.

Everyone jumped in surprise at his seemingly sudden appearance. One of them may have even jumped a bit higher, stayed in the air a fraction of a second longer than normal, but if he had, no one noticed.

Marinette stuttered out a hello, going between French and English, eventually settling on an awkward wave and a nervous smile.

“They are from Amity Park. You know… America…” Alya said in English as an explanation for Marinette's language mix up.

“Oh, I'm sorry,” said Adrien, switching to English as well, “I saw Marinette and Alya over here and thought I could come say hi… I didn’t realise…” he trailed off, scratching the back of his head. “So what are you all doing over here?” he asked, full of curiosity. He hoped whoever said that curiosity killed the cat was wrong, because he was certainly very curious, and he wasn’t ready to die quite yet. He wondered if these Americans were in trouble, maybe he could help!

“Don’t worry, Marinette over here did the same earlier, when… Alya, was it?” asked Sam. She didn’t have anything against the girl, but she had launched straight into her interview spiel and her introduction had been practically buried by questions. So forgive her for forgetting the other girl’s name, jeez. And really, they should be the ones asking the questions. They needed to find out what was going on in Paris, without Danny having to play superspy.

“Yes, that’s me!” Alya replied. She suddenly remembered just what Marinette had interrupted, “Oh, right!” She was supposed to be asking them questions, or, well, getting answers to the questions, for her blog.

“What?” asked Adrien, lost in the conversation.

“Alya was, uh, about to… interview us about the akuma attack, though I think she changed her questions when she learned that we are from Amity Park… but we distracted her by asking about Paris.” explained Sam. They were in a distraction within a distraction within a distraction, a babushka doll of distractions and she was getting tired of all this. They were supposed to be going back to the hotel to plan for their outing with Tucker.

“Alya!” scolded Marinette. She had already half-forgotten that’s what she had returned to after fighting Mr. Pigeon once again.

“Hey, I’m sorry, okay! I noticed them on my way to your home, and obviously thought that they were witnesses of the akuma, even though it was just Mr. Pigeon,” Alya defended herself. So maybe she didn’t notice them, exactly, but she would prefer to keep that for herself.

“Don’t remind me!” Adrien groaned, drawing their attention. “I hate when it’s him! Uh, because…his birds make my allergies act up.” he added as an afterthought to distract them from why he was really upset. He almost mentioned how tiresome it can be fighting the same person that many times.

“Right… Mr. Sunshine here is allergic to feathers. Actually, I don’t remember seeing you and all your sneezing during the attack, where did you go anyway?” asked Alya.

“Oh, wellll… you know… further…?” the words came out more like a question than a statement. He couldn’t tell the truth after all.

“You mean back to your car, didn’t you?” Alya teased, with a smile on her face.

“Heh… you got me…” said Adrien, rubbing the back of his neck in a way he hoped made it look like he was embarrassed rather than lying. It wasn’t like he could just say he ran to an alleyway to transform into a superhero, after all.

“I thought ‘Sunshine’ was a secret nickname,” Danny whispered to Jazz and Sam, who only nodded.

“Anyway, now that the introductions are all done, we should probably go somewhere else and do that interview… You guys are still up to one, right?” said Alya, as if they had said yes from the start and just now they remembered that they were doing one.

Danny shrugged. “I don’t see why not, but I don’t think we have that much to talk about, do we?” He was used to interviews as Phantom, so he was sure whatever Alya wanted wasn't going to be a problem. He just wasn't sure what to say as Fenton, and nothing else.

“Of course, anything you have to say would help! You guys aren’t from here, that gives me an outside perspective, just like…” Alya gestured to the girl with red hair, trailing off as the name escaped her. Just before the girl could say her name again, it came back to her. “Jazz!” Alya exclaimed, “Just like Jazz said. Sorry, my mind went blank for a second there.”

“It’s okay. Like I said before, I’m Jazz, and these two are my little brother Danny and his girlfriend Sam,” she reintroduced their group for Alya’s and Adrien’s benefit, since Danny and Sam hadn’t given their names earlier and Adrien had joined them later.

“Some reporter I am,” Alya said with a wry smile, “I completely forgot to ask for all of your names! Well, it’s nice to meet you all, officially.” It was always good and fun to meet new people.

“Nice to meet you all, I’m Adrien by the way,” said Adrien, “Adrien Agreste. I wish I could say something for your blog Alya, but I couldn’t really see much from the car, you know?” he shrugged apologetically.

“Nice to meet you, too,” Danny, Sam, and Jazz chorused, although they already knew his name thanks to Marinette and Alya.

“Don’t worry Adrien, Danny, Sam and Jazz can help me enough for today,” Alya said while opening her blog on her phone and editing an entry. She had been half doing that the whole time.

“Wait Alya, you are writing the article now?” asked Marinette. She knew that Alya normally used her laptop to edit her interviews for the ‘Ladyblog’ before posting them.

“Nah, I’m just updating the akumatization number for poor Mr. Pigeon. Did you know that he has already passed the fifty times mark?” she asked casually after checking the post on her blog.

“WHAT?” they all cried in surprise. Even though Marinette and Adrien knew that it was a possibility, it was still a lot for one person in that short of a time.

“Well, yeah… he is actually closer to sixty than fifty, to be honest,” replied Alya, as she read what her blog post said. She had long since asked their friend Max to help her set up a program that automatically updated the number of times the same person had been an akuma. It was a great way to get better statistics to possibly see if there was a pattern, and also because people were just curious.

“Wow! And I felt bad for the guy before,” Sam exclaimed. “You guys said that he mostly just wanted to feed the pigeons in peace, right? What’s so bad about that?”

“Well, it’s not exactly legal…” Marinette explained, remembering that he had been banned from several parks for it. “I think it’s because it attracts more birds than usual and makes them poop more than normal, considering that most of the time he gets scolded for making a big mess in so many public areas…”

“Yeah, I think he was even banned from most parks… if not all,” said Adrien, as if he was reading Marinette's mind.

“Wow…” said Jazz. She thought that was a bit harsh.

“That bad, huh? Who would have thought,” said Sam, seeing what they were saying.

“So different from ghosts that’s for sure,” commented Danny. As far as he knew, nobody in Amity Park has been banned from anywhere just because that would bring ghosts or something like that.

“What do you mean?” asked Alya.

“Oh, well, I guess, that while ghosts just kind of… appear and do whatever they want, including just fight m– Phantom…” Danny said, quickly correcting himself before he said too much. “Well, here you still have a lot of rules, right?”

“Danny, Amity still has rules and stuff. Just because they get ignored most of the time doesn’t mean that they don’t exist,” said Sam. She was well aware that they may have broken more than their fair share, especially the ones that say ‘don’t fight the ghosts, report all sightings to local authorities.’

“Oh! right…” Danny rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, reconsidering what he just said.

“Okay, I definitely need to know more about what it’s like living with the ghosts! You never said… Do you guys know the ghostly hero? Does he really look like that? Like a teen?” Alya asked in a rush, her curiosity getting the better of her. She just thought it was very interesting, is all.

Danny shrugged, “I mean, we’ve all seen him at least once… Ghosts like to attack our school for no reason,” he said. ‘Other than fight me,’ he didn’t. “So yeah, I think he really does look like that. Uh, assuming you mean the statue, right?” he asked, once again remembering that there was a giant statue of him holding up the world somewhere in the city.

“Yeah that.” Alya confirmed. “Have you seen it then?” It was a very curious looking statue. On the day of its inauguration she had dragged Marinette and Nino along with her, and tried to do the same with Adrien –but of course his father hadn't allowed him– to see it. That day she had also started another blog for her new hero, Danny Phantom.

“The one that's in Amity, yes. The one here… uh, not- not yet?” said Danny. He wasn’t actually planning to go see it, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings.

“You haven’t even thought about it, have you?” asked Alya. She remembered just as Danny said it, that they do have the original statue in their hometown.

Danny sighed, “No, not, really.” He felt like there wasn’t any use in lying about it.

“I bet it’s the same as the one that's over there,” said Marinette. She thought coming all the way to Paris to see the same thing that’s back home didn’t sound very fun. There were plenty of things unique to Paris for them to visit already, after all.

“We had assumed so…” Danny responded with a shrug.

“I’ve been wondering, why didn’t they just put it here in the park, with the local heroes. I doubt that they would mind sharing a space, you know?” said Adrien. He certainly didn’t mind at all. He could ask Ladybug how she felt about it later on as Chat, but he felt sure that she would be okay with it too.

“Yeah…” said Marinette, thoughtfully. It had crossed her mind, but it’s not like she could do anything about it. Maybe the next time she saw Chat, she could talk to him about it.

“That would be amazing!” said Alya. It would be so nice for her blog if she could take a picture of all the heroes' statues in one place, as that would be much better looking.

“I assumed they would just put it where anyone put their presents from other nations, the city hall or whatever the name is here. Sorry for that,” said Sam.

“If you mean the ‘Hôtel de Ville’ that is an excellent guess, but that isn’t where it is,” commented Alya. They had chosen an odd location to put it, but it certainly was… a location.

“It isn’t?” asked Adrien, who hadn’t been able to see it yet either. Although if he thought about the couple of times that he’d been to the ‘Hôtel de Ville’ as Chat lately, he would have noticed that, indeed, it wasn’t there. He wished his dad had allowed him to go with Alya back when she tried to drag them to see it, but that wasn't the case. It’s almost as if his father didn’t care about the statue at all.

“Nope,” said Alya, pronouncing the ‘p’ more than necessary. “It’s in the ‘Place de la Concorde’, as having it next to the ‘Luxor Obelisk’ was necessary, for… some reason?” She couldn’t stop thinking about how odd of a choice that had been.

Tucker had shown Team Phantom a picture of the Paris statue at one point and it did look like it was in a strange place, though it was hard to tell from the angle the photo was taken, but they didn’t know much about it until now.

“Huh, that is an odd place. I think,” said Jazz. She was the one who had looked up the different places around the city that they could go and visit, but now she may need to adjust their schedule and not go see the Obelisk.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

The group of teens fell silent, the flow of conversation interrupted. They looked at one another and, through a series of shrugs and gestures, all agreed that maybe it was about time to leave the park.

They began meandering slowly in the direction of Marinette’s house, as it was the closest, and, well, it was getting late. Nobody would fault the kids from getting some sweets before continuing their conversation upstairs in the cosy living room above the bakery.

To be continued :D :D

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