What if Lila had taken a picture of Marinette among the trash bins and sent it to everyone?

Ominous Oni-Chan
Chapter 1: Trashed

Marinette was about to leave Ms. Bustier's class when Adrien came back in. He looked up at the back row where Lila was sitting and he didn't seem to see Marinette. She ducked down behind a desk, out of sight.

"Lila, Nino explained everything to me," said Adrien. "If you want I can give you a hand with your homework."

Lila clasped her hands with her usual insincere gush of thanks.

"Really? You'd do that for me? You're an amazing guy, Adrien. You're a lifesaver, really!"

"Happy to help."

Marinette kept low and sneaked to the back of the room to spy on them.

Alya saw what she was up to and followed, whispering: "Marinette..."

Marinette jabbered her excuse: "Uh, I'm totally not spying on Lila at all! It just that... my shoelace is untied."

"There's no reason to worry," said Alya. "Nino told me that Lila told him she's not in love with Adrien."

Marinette discounted that instantly since it came from Lila. She listened intently to the conversation between Lila and Adrien.

"Why don't we go do our homework at your place? It'll be quieter there, don't you think?" asked Lila.

"My father will never agree," said Adrien.

"Hmm, I bet you I can change his mind," said Lila, dragging Adrien out of the room.

"Marinette, wait!" Alya called, but it was too late to stop Marinette from running after them.

Marinette and Alya watched from the entrance of the school as Adrien's driver held up a hand to stop Lila.

"Adrien's bodyguard will never let her get in the car," said Marinette.

They listened as Lila made up something about having to work in pairs on an assignment.

They watched as the bodyguard opened the car door for her. Lila got in.

"You've got to be kidding me!" said Marinette.

Marinette ran down the stairs to the street.

"No way, you're not going to follow them, are you?" asked Alya.

"Of course not!" said Marinette. "It's just, I have to go... buy myself some shoelaces!"

"And she calls Lila a liar," Alya muttered to herself.

Marinette ran off after the car. She spotted Juleka getting on her bike.

"Wait, Juleka! Let me borrow your bike, quick! It's really super urgent!" said Marinette.

Marinette handed off her pink backpack, took Jukeka's helmet, and jumped on the bike.

"Uh... Yeah, okay," said Juleka.

"Marinette, you should trust Adrian!" called Tikki from Marinette's purse as it whipped out behind her on the high-speed chase. "He knows Lila lies all the time."

"Yeah, I know," said Marinette. "But if she keeps lying like this, she'll end up hurting someone! I refuse to let her harm Adrien."

Marinette followed them to the gates of the Agreste Mansion, but when the gates closed in front of her she swerved and crashed.

Juleka's bike didn't look too badly damaged. Leaving the bike and helmet on the sidewalk, Marinette peeked through the gate.

Nathalie was standing at the door, barring Lila's way.

"I'm sorry, Adrian, but you know your father..."

"Excuse me ma'am," said Lila "But would it be possible to ask him directly? There's no harm in trying."

"Mr. Agreste is in the middle of designing and must not be disturbed under any circumstances," said Nathalie coldly.

"You see, I told you," said Adrien.

"Oh, Adrien! I wanted so much to help you catch up on all the classes you missed because of your photo shoots. What will your father say when he finds out your grades have fallen? He'll be so disappointed."

"Adrien... Have you gotten poor grades?" asked Nathalie.

Lila rattled off a story about Adrien crying over an A minus in math, and how she wanted to help him.

"It would only have taken half an hour... But I understand, of course. You're only doing your job, Ma'am. I did what I could, Adrien. Good luck."

"If it'll only take you half an hour..." said Nathalie.

"Well, if you really insist, then I accept!" said Lila, running inside with Adrien.

"You've got to be kidding – how does she do it?" Marinette asked herself.

Marinette ran around to the blank wall behind the house. She had to find some way to climb up and see into Adrien's room. She tried jumping up and then scaling the wall barehanded, but it was useless. She could have swung up easily with her yo-yo, but she knew Tikki would scold her if she transformed for a selfish reason.

Looking around, Marinette saw six plastic rolling trash bins. There must be more of them nearby...

It took quite a while, but Marinette managed to gather twenty bins from around the neighborhood and stack them up into a tower. Now she could climb up and keep an eye on Lila.

She was just starting to climb when a firefighter pulled up in his truck.

"Miss, don't climb up there! It's dangerous!" said the firefighter.

"May I borrow your ladder? The boy I love is going to get bamboozled by a liar!"

"The big ladder is reserved for emergencies, not for middle-schoolers spying on each other. Besides, you don't have a helmet."

Marinette pouted and started to sniffle.

"She's a terribly smooth liar, and I have to save him from her!"

"This little liar is really that good?" asked the firefighter. "And you really love that boy?"

Marinette whimpered and nodded.

The firefighter sighed and went to get a long rope from his truck. He expertly looped and tied the rope around the stack of bins to stabilize them.

Finally he said, "There, now you can climb safely."

He placed a spare helmet on her head.

Marinette had just gotten to the top and started looking over when she got an email message on her phone. A glance at the image startled her enough that she lost her balance and fell. She caught herself on a rope, but then it came loose and the whole tower went over. Marinette ended up in a pile of trash bins.

"Are you hurt?" the firefighter asked.

"Just shaken up a little," said Marinette.

(The bins had broken her fall, and all the jumping around she did as Ladybug had helped her learn how to land.)

"I could get in trouble for encouraging you to make such a dangerous climb," said the firefighter. "I've got to go."

The firefighter pulled the ropes loose and wound them up. He was such an expert that he was able to do this very quickly, without any tangles. He jumped back into his truck and drove off.

Marinette was still struggling to regain her feet in the trash bins when Lila came around the corner.

Lila smirked at what she saw.

"I could take a photo and post it online..." said Lila. "But that would be much too easy..."

Lila started to walk away, then turned back.

"On the other hand, how can I resist a cheap shot?"

She took a photo, typed in a quick caption, and sent it off. She ran off snickering.

"Tikki, spots..." said Marinette.

"Don't even think about it, Marinette," said Tikki.

Kagami had finished kendo training with her bamboo shinai, supervised by her mother in the park. She rested and drank a bottled water while sitting beneath a tree.

Kagami got out her phone to look at the email she had gotten earlier. (She had not been permitted to read it while training was going on.) There were two emails, so she opened the most recent first.

It was a picture of Marinette in the middle of a pile of trash bins. The caption said, "This jealous stalker was spying on me and Adrien. She fell off her tower of bins when she saw what we were doing!"

"What they were doing?" thought Kagami. "What could that mean?"

Kagami opened the other email and saw a picture of Lila smooching Adrien on the cheek. He looked a little nervous, but he wasn't resisting.

Kagami bared her teeth and threw the phone away from her. She took a notebook out of her inner jacket pocket. It had a picture of Adrien standing next to her, clipped out of a group shot of the fencing team. There was also a pressed rose, one that Adrien had given to her.

Kagami grabbed up her shinai and slashed in rage at a nearby tree. The tree was sliced neatly across, but the bamboo blade broke apart. She sank to her knees on the ground. She held the pressed rose in her hand, weeping over the lost love it represented.

An akuma butterfly landed on the rose and it darkened. Kagami heard a voice in her mind.

"Onichan, I am Hawk Moth. I'm giving you the power to hunt down your rivals relentlessly, and to make sure they stay away forever from the one your heart desires. Adrien Agreste is too innocent to be suspicious of them, the liar and the stalker. Of course, they are manipulating Ladybug and Chat Noir to prevent you from accomplishing your mission. That's why you'll bring me their Miraculous, to punish them for their naivete."

"If he had asked me to steal their Miraculous in payment for power, that would have been dishonorable, but this is acceptable," thought Kagami.

"Yes, Hawk Moth," Kagami said aloud, and a purple cloud of transformation engulfed her.

It had taken Marinette some time to clean up the mess from the fallen trash bins. She moved all but the last few back where she had gotten them, and lined the last ones up neatly against the wall.

Marinette was just dusting off her hands, ready to leave, when a white and red figure landed on top of one of the bins. This akuma victim looked like a Japanese demon, with a white face, a red horn on its forehead, and large tusk-like teeth. She carried a long sword that looked like it was made of twisted rose vines, reminding Marinette of the vines created by Weredad.

"Marinette, I am Onichan, your worst nightmare. I am going to deal with my worse rival first, but I will be back for you. I will find you no matter where you run!"

Onichan pointed her sword and touched Marinette on the forehead. Then she leaped away.

"Tikki, may I transform now?" asked Marinette.

"Yes... but something is wrong with your head. You have a horn!" said Tikki.

Marinette felt the sharp horn now growing on her forehead. She took a hand mirror out of her purse and looked at it.

"That's her superpower, to put horns on people?" asked Marinette.

"There's more to it than that," said Tikki. "I sense powerful tracking and truth magic in it."

"Tikki, what will I do? When I transform, will the horn be hidden?"

"I'm sorry. I can't hide it."

"If I go fight her as Ladybug, it's the end of my secret identity."

"There must be something you can do."

Marinette picked up the firefighter helmet that she had stashed out of sight behind a bin. She had meant to return it to the fire station as soon as possible, but now it would come in handy.

There was no cover, but Marinette improvised. She stacked a couple of bins to hide the side view from the busy main street, then got into an empty bin to transform.

"Tikki, spots on!"

Ladybug put the helmet on and the horn was concealed.

"Now to find that horny demon!" Ladybug said to herself. "No... that didn't come out right."

Swinging her yo-yo, she took off after Onichan.