Chapter Text
Marinette's schoolday had been going great so far. She managed to arrive a couple of minutes early, she hadn't tripped over anything at school, and neither Chloé nor Lila insulted anyone yet. It was only half over, they were about to be released for lunch, but if the second half of the day was just as good as the first, today probably would have been the best schoolday she's had since she became the Guardian.
The familiar sound of several different akuma tracker apps going off at the same time was disappointing but honestly not surprising. She hasn't been nearly as lucky as she used to be.
Most of the class were already pulling out their phones to check the akuma's location. Most of the teachers in their school had long since stopped trying to enforce the no-phone rule for akuma attacks, Miss Bustier included. Marinette, naturally, was among them. She went to swipe to unlock her phone when the screen suddenly changed to show someone's face. The person was unhealthily pale, almost pure white, with neon pink hair and bright blue eyes. She had a lime green domino mask over their face. She was almost certainly an akuma.
"Good afternoon, Paris!" The akuma's voice was high pitched and really annoying. "This is Clickbait, and I'll be your akuma for the day. Don't bother trying to turn off your devices, because I'm not gonna let you." Marinette checked, and, indeed, her phone wouldn't turn off. None of her classmates seemed to have any luck either; Max was even kind of freaking out because Markov's face screen was displaying Clickbait. "Feel free to try to change the channel, because I'm on all stations! You've got me for however long it takes for me to take Ladybug's and Chat Noir's miraculouses. But first, I've got an exclusive interview with someone you probably know by name, if not by face..."
The voice was coming from all around her, given every single phone in the classroom was playing her video. So Marinette really thought it was understandable that she wouldn't notice one more voice until a giant robot suddenly rocketed right outside her classroom, with Marinette dropping her phone in shock. Through the windows, she could see a giant humanoid robot with a camera theme; its head was a camera, its hands ended in cameras, it was being propelled by flames that came out of cameras on its feet, and, in its hollow chest cavity, Clickbait was sitting down in a chair, across from another chair, each with multiple cameras pointed at them.
Immediately, her class stood up and began to run out the room. Before they could get very far, however, Clickbait shouted “Freeze!” and the giant mech raised both of its arms to point at the class. Marinette and her classmates stopped running immediately, which caused a couple of them to fall down, with Lila in particular yelping in pain. The robot's chest cavity opened, and Clickbait got out of her seat, walking towards the window. She snapped her fingers, and the robot's right arm shifted its aim slightly and lit up into a laser that blasted through the window and into the wall behind them, laving a hole in both. Then the arm moved back into it's previous position as Clickbait jumped through the hole. “You're not going anywhere, Alya Césaire.” Clickbait smirked.
Marinette's eyebrows shot up. She was honestly expecting this to be yet another akuma going after Chloé. Alya hasn't mentioned getting into a fight with anyone recently...though Marinette supposes she might not have told her about it. Marinette turned her head to look at Alya, who looked as confused as Marinette felt. Clickbait seemed to notice, and she narrowed her eyes. “Do you not even know who I am? Even with my name as a hint?”
“Name as a hint?” Alya tilted her head somewhat, thinking, but then she backed up slightly with a gasp. “Claire?”
“Oh, now she remembers.” Clickbait laughed as she approached Alya. “It seems like the Ladyblogger is too high-and-mighty to remember the little people.”
“That's not...” Alya tried to interject before Clickbait rushed forward to grab her by the throat. Alya, panicked, began to try and pull Clickbait off of her, with no success. Marinette, Nino, and Adrien immediately moved to try and get the akuma off of Alya, but the cameras still pointed at them started to power up in response, causing them to freeze again.
“That's not...what, Ladyblogger? That's not the reason why you rejected my offer of a collaboration? That's not the reason you called my channel nothing but clickbait based around other people's work?” Clickbait started to tighten her hands. “It's Youtube! You need clickbait titles to gain attention! And I'm sorry we can't all get constant exclusive interviews with Ladybug!”
Alya's flailing was starting to get weaker, and Marinette was very close to just trying to tackle the akuma anyway, robot be damned. Luckily, it seems Clickbait noticed as well, as she dropped Alya on the floor. Alya gasped as she struggled to take in air, while Clickbait turned to her giant robot and looked into the camera where the head should be. “That's right, folks!” Marinette turned her head to look at Alya's dropped phone on the table, seeing that this was indeed still being broadcast. “My special guest today is none other than Alya Césaire, the Ladyblogger herself! I can't wait to find out what she's hiding. What's the secret to running a successful blog? How is her love life going? And, of course, the big one, why is she Ladybug's favorite reporter? With the help of my loyal Sentimonster, Bad News, we'll find out.”
Clickbait turned back to Alya and picked her up by the arms. Alya continued to struggle, but she wasn't able to fight against an akuma. Marinette could see out of the corner of her eye Adrien physically holding Nino back from trying to fight her. Marinette could completely understand him, but between the fact he wasn't transformed and the Sentimonster pointing what was basically a cannon at his head, she was glad Adrien was there. The best thing she could for Alya right now was escape and transform to get her away from Clickbait as fast as possible, and she's sure that Carapace would love to help.
Clickbait, with Alya in tow, jumped into Bad News' chest cavity. The akuma forced Alya, who was still struggling, into the chair opposite the one she was sitting in. As soon as Alya was forced back, metal bars came out of the chair, forcing Alya to sit back. Satisfied, Clickbait sat in her original chair and brought out a notepad and pen from nowhere. “Now then, first question...” Before she could actually begin the 'interview', the familiar outline that indicated Shadowmoth was talking to his akuma appeared over Clickbait's face. She listened silently for a couple of seconds, and then growled. “I'll take their miraculouses when they show up. I have Ladybug's favorite reporter here, they'll be there eventually.”
Miss Bustier silently pointed towards the door. Marinette, as class representative, helped direct the evacuation. The class evacuated front the back, and most of it passed without incident, but then they came to Lila, who gestured towards her right foot. Marinette rolled her eyes and helped Lila stand. Lila either was actually injured, or she was really into selling this lie, because she refused to let go when Marinette tried to shake her off. Marinette sighed. It was going to be really annoying to find a way to escape with Lila literally holding onto her.
The rest of the school was already mid-evacuation, without the threat of giant Sentimonster Lasers to worry about. She had picked up her phone from the floor and had half an eye on it as she looked around for an empty spot to transform, and she could see Clickbait was still talking to Shadowmoth. Clickbait shook her head and groaned dramatically. “Fine. You're the boss.” Clickbait then looked directly into this camera. “Welp, sorry guys, but it's not my decision. Blame Shadowmoth, or Ladybug and Chat Noir for not getting here fast enough. Good luck.” Good luck for what?
And then Bad News fired again, sending two of those lasers blasting directly through the roof of her class room. Immediately, the relatively calm and in control evacuation broke into a panic as people began to run away from the Sentimonster and the collapsing building. Another shot, and the stairway her class was taking got ripped in half. Marinette looked over the railing in a panic. As the dust settled, she saw a bunch of her classmates gathered around...
Marinette and Lila both gasped. Adrien was in the middle of the group, laying on the ground, groaning in pain. Nino, next to him, said something she couldn't hear, and Adrien shook his head. Nino rolled his eyes and turned towards Kim and Ivan, saying something else. Then Nino, Kim, and Ivan all picked Adrien up and started walking out the building with him.
“Marinette.” Miss Bustier put her hand on Marinette's shoulder. “Calm down. Adrien is getting medical help and as soon as Ladybug fixes this he'll be fine. We need to get to the elevator.” Marinette hadn't noticed she was beginning to hyperventilate. She took a couple of seconds more to control her breathing and then nodded, right in time for another blast from Bad News to rip through the classroom next to hers.
“Um, Miss Bustier?” Lila asked in a voice that Marinette knew was trying to make her sound as vulnerable as possible. “Are you sure we should take the elevator right now?”
“No, but we don't have a choice. Both of the stairs down are out.” Indeed, when Marinette wasn't looking, the other staircase leading to the second floor was also destroyed, with a bunch of rubble on top of it. “We either stay here, directly where the Sentimonster is aiming, we go to the roof, which is even more dangerous, or we risk the elevator down.” Miss Bustier smiled gently at Lila, clearly trying to be reassuring. “I know it's scary, but we have to move. Alright, Lila?”
Lila's lip wobbled a bit (Marinette resisted the urge to roll her eyes) and then she nodded. “Okay...” she mumbled. Marinette really thought Lila was overplaying things, but Miss Bustier either fell for it or decided it wasn't worth the effort to talk about it.
The girls followed their teacher, slower than Marinette would have liked due to Lila's limp. Marinette was very much hoping that Lila was actually injured, because if she wasn't, Marinette had half a mind to break her leg with her own bare hands. She kept hoping and wishing that Chat Noir would show up and take Bad News' attention away from causing random property damage, but from the occasional cannon shots and the few glimpses of the interview that Marinette caught in between slow steps, Chat Noir hadn't arrived yet.
After far too long, they finally came to the elevator, which thankfully responded when Miss Bustier pressed the button. “Alright, girls, get outside.” Miss Bustier smiled at the two of them, though it didn't reach her eyes. “I'm going to go look for anyone else who might have been left behind.”
Marinette saw her opportunity. “Actually, Miss Bustier, maybe I could go look for people while you help Lila out?” she tried.
Miss Bustier shook her head. “No, Marinette. I'm the teacher here, it's my duty to make sure you're safe.” Well it was worth a shot. Grudgingly, Marinette helped Lila into the elevator, hit the button for the ground floor, and waved goodbye to Miss Bustier's retreating form. The elevator doors closed and started to descend as Marinette planned her next move. She could pawn Lila off on the medical staff that was hopefully outside, and then run home. Hopefully her parents would accept that she's just trying to hide in her room. Then she could transform, maybe go over to Nino and give him the turtle, and hopefully Chat Noir would be there by that time...
Marinette heard a large crashing sound, and then the elevator went plummeting down the rest of the way. Marinette tumbled to the floor, with Lila following on top of her. They weren't too far from the bottom floor, so they didn't fall too far, but it was still a hard drop.
Marinette groaned in pain and annoyance. First that fiasco with Style Queen where she was trapped with Adrien, now this. She was never taking an elevator ever again. “Lila, are you alright?” She asked, worried that she couldn't stand up with moving the other girl.
Lila winced, but managed to push herself off of Marinette. “I'm not any worse than I was before I got in here.” Lila lifted her right leg up, stretching it out, before placing it gently on the ground. Marinette noticed how she was avoiding putting any pressure on her right foot.
Marinette cocked her head to the side. “Huh, I kind of thought you were just faking the injury for attention.” She stood up and walked to the elevator buttons, pressing them to see if they still worked. Unfortunately, none of them seemed to.
Lila rolled her eyes. “Yeah, because that's the sort of thing I'd do. Fake an injury that prevents me from escaping the giant monster and makes me rely on you.” She shook her head, leaning back against the elevator wall. “What kind of idiot do you take me for?”
“The kind of idiot whose genius plan for getting me expelled involved walking down a staircase and hoping no one was looking?” Marinette raised an eyebrow as she tried to force open the elevator doors. They must have been jammed, because she couldn't move them at all.
“Well it worked, didn't it?” Lila shrugged. “You don't need to think smart, you just need to think smarter than anyone else.”
Marinette sighed in frustration. “You read that in a book?” She snapped, sitting across the elevator from Lila.
“Something my dad said, actually.”
Huh. That was the first time Marinette heard Lila talk about her dad. It was usually her mom she was bragging about.
There was no way Marinette was getting out of here without transforming, and there was no way she was going to transform in front of Lila. Adrien is one thing. Marinette would trust him with all of her secrets, except maybe her crush on him. But Lila? The best case scenario Marinette could see about revealing her identity to Lila would be Lila trying to blackmail her in exchange for not immediately telling everybody, and that's assuming Lila doesn't just immediately get akumatized so she can tell Hawkmoth. Transforming would have to be a last resort.
...But only Alya, who was still trapped in the sentimonster's chest, knew she was Ladybug. Her only hope is that Chat Noir rescues Alya, and Alya immediately transforms and gets to Kaalki, who can rescue Lila...but Alya didn't know where she was, and with Clickbait still hijacking her phone, she had no way to contact her without transforming.
It didn't look good, but she had no other choice. Her only option was to sit here, watching Clickbait, and desperately hoping for Chat Noir to show up.
Clickbait's interview with Alya was actually remarkably tame, all things considered. Clickbait asked normal, if leading, questions, like “Is it true that you're Ladybug's secret lover?”, and Alya would answer them (“No, I have a boyfriend.”) Marinette was afraid Clickbait could force someone to tell the truth, or at least detect it, but that didn't seem to be the case...
Her thoughts were interrupted by Lila. “Do you really need to watch that drivel?” Marinette turned her attention towards Lila, who was glaring at her. “It's just a jealous idiot trying to get Alya to say something stupid.”
Marinette scoffed. “Sorry that I'm worried about my best friend?” Marinette glared back. “I know you've never had a friend to worry about, but I'm sure you're smart enough to figure out the concept.”
Lila shrugged, exaggeratedly checking her nails. “There's nothing to worry about. Ladybug will show up and fix everything.”
Marinette blinked in confusion. As far as she knew, Lila hated Ladybug. It was odd to hear her say that she trusted Ladybug to save her and solve the problem. “Fine, I guess. Do you want to talk or something?”
Lila looked at her like she was stupid, but then dramatically sighed. “If I have to talk to you so you stop watching that video, sure, fine.” Marinette put her phone back into her purse, where the sound was muffled and Tikki could inform her if something changed.
There was a couple of seconds of awkward silence before Marinette figured that Lila was waiting for her to say something. “So, um, uh...” Lila rolled her eyes and gestured for her to get on with it. “So how's modeling?”
Lila threw her arms up in annoyance. “Bad. Gabriel has barely called me recently and even when he does he rarely uses the photos I'm in. Claims that Adrien looks better by himself?” She crossed her arms, looking petulantly to the side. “It's stupid. Makes me put in work for no reason.”
Honestly, Marinette wouldn't be surprised if Gabriel was just trying to keep Lila away from his son, but that's just a guess. Outwardly, she said “That's unfortunate.”
Lila just rolled her eyes in response, and another awkward silence occurred. Right as Marinette was about to break it with some other inane question, Lila asked first “So why haven't you done any stupid plans to try and get with Adrien recently?”
Marinette sputtered for a bit. “What? I don't...who told you that?”
“Rose, mainly. She loves sharing everyone's romance drama with anyone who will listen. I have heard way more than I want to about her and Juleka's dating life.” Smug, Lila leaned back against the wall. “You're not dating Juleka's brother anymore, so I'm surprised you're not trying to lock yourself in a refrigerator with him or something dumb.”
Okay, so Marinette was going to have to have words with Rose about what is appropriate to share about her love life, especially with Lila. “I just decided that romance isn't for me, right now. I'm too busy with...other things.”
“Other things.” Lila rolled her eyes. “No wonder you hate liars, you're awful at it. 'Other things.' Do you have stuff to do, too? Maybe some activities that take up all your time?”
Marinette growled. “Speaking of liars, why haven't you said any more big lies? Until today, I could have just pretended you didn't exist for the past couple of weeks.”
“Funny thing about telling your teacher you have a lying disease.” Lila slouched onto her side, holding her head up with one arm. “Suddenly no one believes you about anything. I basically had to apologize to everyone for everything I ever told them.”
Marinette couldn't resist smirking. It's nice to know that something good came out of that whole disaster, even if it did suck at the time.
“So I should tell Rose that her fanfiction isn't going to come true anytime soon?” Lila smirked back.
“Wait, what?” Marinette stood up in a panic. “What fanfiction?”
“Oh, you didn't know?” Lila's smirk melted into a more polite smile. “Rose writes fanfictions about her friends. Her and Juleka, mainly, but she also writes about Nino and Alya, and Ivan and Mylene, and I think I saw a couple of chapters of Chloe and Sabrina. But she really loves to write fanfiction about you and Adrien.” She sat upright again, leaning back against the elevator wall as she checked her finger nails. “I think I even saw a couple of steamy ones. I liked the one where Adrien had Ladybug boxers, personally.”
“That's just...” Marinette shivered for a moment. It was completely unbelievable that Rose would write stuff like that about her friends. It just wasn't like her at all...
In fact, it was completely unbelievable. Marinette narrowed her eyes, glaring at Lila. “That's just a lie, isn't it? You're making that up?”
Lila glared back for a second before breaking out into laughter. “Absolutely, but the fact you actually bought that...”
Marinette definitely wasn't pouting in response. “Hmph.” She turned away from Lila, who was still chuckling to herself.
A couple of minutes passed where the only sound was the muted noise coming from Marinette's bag. Marinette checked to make sure Lila wasn't paying attention, and quickly took out her phone. The interview was still ongoing, though Alya looked a little worse for wear. She couldn't even see a clock on her phone, so she didn't know how long everything was taking, but it must have been at least 20 minutes. Chat Noir should have been there by now...
Unless he was trapped, like she was. Bad News had apparently moved around a lot, still firing lasers at the buildings it passed, so the fact that Chat didn't go to her school didn't really matter. He might have been injured, or simply unable to help. And if Chat couldn't help, Alya couldn't help, and if neither of them could help, then Ladybug couldn't help.
Marinette looked towards Lila, still smiling to herself about her stupid joke.
This was a bad idea. But it was the only idea she had. “Lila.” Lila looked to her, confused at the serious look on Marinette's face. “I need you to not tell anyone about what's about to happen.”
“What are you...?”
“Tikki, Spots On.”