Chapter Text
"Thank you all for coming. I never imagined that we'd have to do this, but… here we are."
Marinette inwardly groaned, looking over the large group of teenagers, each with a kwami by their side. Seventeen pairs in total, including herself and the boy next to her. If the reveal had been under different circumstances, Marinette would have short-circuited upon learning her crush and her crime fighting partner were one and the same. But she had only less than a day to process this before holding this emergency meeting.
"You now know I'm Ladybug, and this is my kwami, Tikki." Marinette gestured to the floating red bug over her right shoulder.
“And I'm Cat Noir, with my kwami, Plagg." Adrien did the same, while also shooting the deity of destruction an unamused stare as he tried to contain his laughter over the ordeal.
"Plagg, it's not funny!" Tikki chastised the giggling cat kwami.
"Come on Sugarcube, this is hilarious! Never in my whole existence have the identities of nearly every holder from our box been revealed to each other all at once!”
"Right. We are all here to discuss the consequences of yesterday's… incident." Marinette addressed the group. Almost everyone turned to stare at Ivan, who avoided making eye contact.
ONE DAY EARLIER
The entire group of teens stood under a massive billboard, no one even paid attention to what kind of product it was for, they were all too busy staring at the mascot in the center of the ad. "... it looks like a kwami…" Ivan muttered. The sixteen other teens murmured in agreement.
…
Simultaneously, the teens realized the implications of what had just occurred. Everyone screamed.
BACK TO NOW
"And now we all know each other's secret identities." Their leader summed up. "Before we continue, for clarity's sake, each of you introduce yourself with your superhero name and kwami.”
Her best friend Alya volunteered to go first. "I'm Rena Rouge and this is Trixx." The tiny fox waved his paw.
"I'm Carapace and this is Wayzz." Nino followed after his girlfriend, doing a fist bump with the turtle.
"I'm Vesperia and this is Pollen." Zoe looked up at the bee sticking out under her beanie cap.
"I'm Polymouse and this is Mullo." Mylene held the tiny mouse in the palm of her hand.
"This is Stompp and I'm Minotaurox. Sorry about causing this." Ivan apologized and the little ox patted him on the shoulder.
Juleka went next, though mumbled her introduction, the tiger repeated after her, "She's Purple Tigress and I'm Roaar!"
"I'm Bunnyx and this is Fluff!" Alix patted her rabbit companion on the head.
"I'm Ryuko and this is Longg-sama." Kagami did a short bow, and the dragon did the same.
"Viperion, and this is Sass." Luka and the snake nodded to one another.
"I'm Pegasus and this is Kaalki." Max straightened his glasses, and the horse curtseyed.
"I'm Caprikid and this is Ziggy." Nathaniel looked toward the goat on his shoulder.
"I'm King Monkey and this little guy is Xuppu!" Kim held the monkey on one of his biceps, said monkey did a headstand.
"I'm Rooster Bold and this is Orikko." Marc watched his tiny rooster spin in the air.
"I'm Miss Hound and this is Barkk." Sabrina and her tiny dog shyly waved to the rest of the group, the holder unused to being with everyone without Chloe.
"And I'm Pigella with my kwami Daizzi!" Rose practically bounced in her seat, happily cuddling with her miniature pig.
With introductions out of the way, it was on to the next item of business. "Alright. With Introductions out of the way, it's time to get to the next item of business!" Marinette had a lot to cover, they had to go over Akuma shifts, communicating without letting anyone else realize who they were, lies to tell their loved ones when they needed to go transform-
"We need a team name!" Adrien announced, slamming his hand on the whiteboard behind him and his lady.
"Wait- No! A team name?!" Marinette gaped at the boy of her dreams.
"Yeah, a team name. Now that we can get together like this, we have to come up with a real name for the group!" The blonde pointed out, "Right now people call us the French Miraculous Superhero Team!"
Mylene held up a tablet. "That is what the Wiki says…" she pointed to the webpage.
"Ok, who's got a good suggestion?" Adrien tapped a marker to his chin, watching as almost every hand flew up in the air.
The cat boy wrote down everyone's ideas on the whiteboard, while his partner tried to comprehend what had just happened. "Just a second! We have more important things to talk about!" She tried to regain control of the meeting.
"How about the Hawkmoth Exterminators?" Zoe's suggestion ensured the control stayed with the naming board.
OXOXOXOX
"So the next two voted out are 'The Superhero Style Strikers' and 'Can we please focus and get back on topic'." Adrien crossed two more names off of the board. The team names had been set up in a bracket. Democracy decided which name moves forward and which one is erased. It had been forty-five minutes since they did something productive, and twenty since Marinette gave up trying to get them back on track. Now her primary focus was keeping the group from picking a dumb name.
"And Fluffy Unicorn Dream Team moves to the next round!"
… it was a challenge.
"Objection! None of us have a unicorn Miraculous!" Sabrina raised her hand.
Little Kaalki huffed, "I think the name is marvelous! Tell her Max!"
The kwami expected her partner to back her up. "Sabrina brings up a valid argument. A moniker such as that would only confuse the citizens of Paris."
Rose, who had suggested the name, tapped a finger on her cheek. "How about… Fluffy ANIMAL Dream Team?"
"... That is acceptable." Max conceded.
Erasing the 'Unicorn' and replacing it with 'Animal', Adrien updated the bracket. "Now we move on to the semifinals! It's 'Fluffy Animal Dream Team' vs 'Miracuclass', and 'Moth Murderers' vs 'Harcore Parkour Squad'!"
"Aw man, I still can't believe my name came in last." Kim pouted.
Marc, who was sitting beside him, raised an eyebrow. "Yours was 'The Ostrich Wranglers'. How does that fit our superhero team in any way?"
The wielder of the monkey miraculous blinked. "Wait… this is for our superhero team name!?”
The semifinal voting commenced. Rose's 'Fluffy Animal Dream Team' name was beaten out by Alya's 'Miracuclass' by a good margin. "To be fair, we've got bugs and reptiles on this team, too." Luka had pointed out to Rose after she had lost. The next matchup was a close match between Alix and Adrien's names.
"If we were the Moth Murderers, people will think we're actually trying to kill Hawkmoth!" Nino argued, with his kwami nodding.
"But not all of us want to do hardcore parkour!" Mylene shot back.
The debate had gotten fierce, voices were raised, feelings were hurt, someone bit Plagg's tail (it was Roaar) but through it all the group managed to reach a verdict. "Hardcore Parkour squad moves to the final round!" Adrien cheered. It was his idea after all. Marinette was absolutely done with this. She had opted to sit out the debacle and share a cookie with Tikki as they watched democracy at work.
In the final round, it was all down to 'Miracuclass' and 'Hardcore Parkour Squad'. Now that her own idea had been defeated, Alix backed up the one who bested her "PARKOUR!" as she led the charge in the support of Hardcore Parkour Squad.
Alya was not to be outdone, "Miracuclass assemble!" allies gathered by her side.
Amidst the divide, there was the tragic fate of two lovers, Nathaniel and Marc, who had chosen opposite sides and were pitted against one another. "Nathaniel no!" Marc cried out, heartbroken.
"I'm sorry, but I have sworn myself to the Miracuclass!" Nathaniel tearfully turned away.
It wasn't just the kids involved in the horrors of the divide, the kwami's were also torn. "Kagami, this isn't the right choice!" Longg begged his chosen.
“I know what has to be done Longg-sama! And it is Hardcore Parkour Squad!" Kagami's eyes darkened. She made her final choice.
"Kaalki! Where's Kaalki?!" Max shouted for his kwami.
The horse kwami was high up in the air, Trixx riding her like an actual horse and holding Pollen like a javelin "VIVA MIRACUCLASS!"
The fox charged at Barkk who was riding on top of Plagg. "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS GET THE STEED?!"
Somewhere in the chaos, Kim had climbed up the rock-climbing wall and tackled Ivan to the ground "HAHA!"
"KIM WE'RE ON THE SAME SIDE!"
Adrien and Alya locked eyes, an unbreakable determination burning like a fire clashed between them.
"AAAAAAHH-"
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHH-"
OXOXOXOX
"And now that we tally the votes, we find ourselves in a tie." Adrien calmly addressed the group, who were back to being civil the moment the scene changed. "However, there is one of us who has not voted… our fearless leader Marinette!" the blonde gestured to the pigtailed girl boredly sitting off to the side.
Without a word, Marinette walked up to the board and erased the 'class' from 'Miracuclass' and the 'Hardcore Parkour' from 'Hardcore Parkour Squad'. "We're doing both. We'll go by the Miracusquad." Marinette announced, watching everyone give their approval, including her co-guardian, who held out his fist to her. Rolling her eyes, she couldn't be too mad at him. Marinette bumped his fist with hers.
"Pound it!"
With their name settled, the Miracusquad got back to business. "Ok, any more questions before we discuss what we came here for?" Marinette asked.
A single hand raised in the air, it was Nathaniel's. "How come we held our meeting in Adrien's room?"
"I can answer that." Adrien looked confident. It was his room, after all. "Because it is the biggest and has the most space for us. Thankfully, my dad and his assistant are in a meeting of their own for a few hours, and my bodyguard is willing to bend the rules for me while he's gone."
OXOXOXOX
Elsewhere in the mansion, in a dark, empty room filled with butterflies, Gabriel paced back and forth while his assistant Nathalie watched silently from her chair. Nooroo and Duusu sat off to the side, munching on a bowl of nuts the peacock holder had brought.
"It was bad enough dealing with two teenage superheroes! Now there's a herd of them!" Gabriel ranted out loud. "If all the Miraculous were being kept by the guardian, I could collect them all in one fell swoop! But with all of them active, I'll never have all the Miraculous under my roof!" Unaware that, ironically, all the other miraculous were right below them.
"Sir, you didn't bring me in here just to rant about children again, did you?" Nathalie raised an eyebrow.
Gabriel stopped and took out his tablet. "No Nathalie. I have summoned you here for something of far greater importance… we need a supervillain team name!"