ch 10 :Cupid vs Dark Cupid

(Paris, France, Valentine's Day, 2015, Marinette Dupain-Cheng's narrating POV...)

Have you ever wondered what your life would be like in some kind of alternate timeline somewhere in the multiverse should it prove to be real?

I know I have a few times before.

I always wondered about what my life would be like in some corner of the multiverse if I hadn't become a superhero in the first place.

Yeah, I'm a superhero, all right, and a moderately trained one at that.

To explain this better, let me start at the beginning. I'm Marinette Dupain-Cheng.

Before and after I became a superhero, I was a baker in the city of Paris in the country of France.

I usually designed clothes and other kinds of accessories for my friends for a living when I get time because I plan to become a famous fashion designer the equivalent of my favorite fashion icon, Gabriel Agreste.

I can design clothes and costumes for any of my friends for a price.

And yes, that especially includes superhero costumes.

Now, I didn't exactly grow up as a superhero nerd, but I did become an expert on superheroes the equivalent of Mr. Glass from the Unbreakable film despite being 13 years old at best.

And because superheroes actually do exist on this Earth, specifically the United Heroez from the United States and all other kinds of superheroes across the world affiliated with the U.S. heroes, I did as much research on them as I could muster without anyone even batting an eye.

And for 10 years since I watched the first Spider-Man film while being educated about the differences between fiction and reality, my research on superheroes has gone by unnoticed, unexposed, and without anyone, even my parents, being the wiser.

Of course, if Elijah Price was real, he would've been ecstatic to find that superhumans actually do exist. No matter if they're the superhumans from his native universal stream or not.

Lately, things have been going my way.

My former school tormentor, Chloe Bourgeois, the heiress of the Bourgeois family fortune, changed herself for the better, but I'd rather not go into details of how and why that happened. Simply because you wouldn't believe me if you didn't see it there yourself on the first day of school last year.

But on the exact same first day of school last year, I did something much crazier than starting to learn how to handle bratty kids while trying to babysit them or doing so much research on superheroes without anyone being informed in any way possible.

That day, I found a box containing a pair of magic earrings colored in the same quincunx pattern as the spots of a ladybug's shell.

Yeah, don't ask me why it was there, because I don't know all of the appropriate details just yet.

Anyway, I was met with a small-sized godlike being by the name of Tikki, a kwami with the ability to provide her owners the power of creation by simply merging with the earrings whenever someone speaks a transformation phrase.

In order for me to become Paris' guardian, Ladybug, I have to say, "Tikki, Spots On."

Once that happens, my clothes are replaced with a ladybug-themed suit of armor with techno-organic armored ladybug wings on my back to allow me to fly.

As my leader from another universe, Steel Butterfly, once explained to me, the reason why I was given the Ladybug Miraculous and why my parents trained me for 7 years to prepare for such a role of this size is because of 7 reasons. 1, me getting the Ladybug Miraculous is a fixed point in time and we can't interfere. I remember from my secret Doctor Who binges that fixed points in time are specific parts of the past or the future that are set in stone and that among the consequences of attempting to change a fixed point in time includes inadvertently creating a time storm that can potentially destroy the current timeline if it isn't stopped. Reasons 2 through 6 are related to Steel Butterfly's benefactor, the Great Guardian of the Miraculouses. Because of how old he is combined with his bad back, the Great Guardian is unable to properly perform his duties as a Guardian and a superhero at the same time. Next to that, because of the severity of Hawk Moth's threat to the world, the Great Guardian was on a time crunch to find users for the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculouses. Also, the Great Guardian chose teenagers to wield the aforementioned Miraculouses because he has seen for more than a hundred years how more and more adults are hard-working these days, how more and more adults became greedy and corrupt in different ways, and he calculated the chances of a chosen adult being up to the task at hand, which were slimming to zero. And at the same time, Master Fu chose teenagers to become his Miraculous champions because he didn't want to risk choosing someone who might attempt to use the powers of the Ladybug or Black Cat Miraculouses either for personal gain or to settle a grudge match at a later date. And because the Great Guardian believes that a teenage Miraculous user is easier to train on the differences between right and wrong compared to an adult Miraculous user in the modern era, and also to show the chosen champions that with great power comes great responsibility. And reason 7, because I had passed a test that the Order of the Guardians perform to test a person's character to see if they're worthy of using a specific Miraculous jewel simply by stopping everything to help out an incognito Guardian who appears to be old and frail.

Anyway, because I'm now a superhero with the power of the Ladybug Miraculous, I have to seek out an Akumatized supervillain and purify their Akuma – a dark magic-infused butterfly capable of turning someone into a supervillain through their negative emotions – while using my Lucky Charm. My Lucky Charm is part of my power set of creation. It gives me an important and often bizarre object necessary for the task at hand. Once I have activated my Lucky Charm, I will have ten minutes before I have to transform back to normal so I can feed Tikki. And when the Akuma is purified, I have to toss my Lucky Charm in the air and shout, "Miraculous Ladybug!" to make the Lucky Charm become a swarm of magic ladybugs capable of repairing irreversible damages, healing the wounded and even bringing back the dead.

And of course, for the Akuma butterflies, I have to purify them before they fly away. Because if I don't, they'll multiply and transform random people into clones of the original Akumatized supervillain and once the original is Akumatized again, the clones will literally come to life to serve as the villain's personal army of clones.

Of course, as I said, I had previously trained for seven years to be prepared for when I would receive the Ladybug Miraculous, and the fact that whenever I transform into Ladybug, I always wore a magic suit of armor combined with a set of armored ladybug wings to enable me to have the ability to fly despite being short of eighteen years old meant that no matter how much I would initially deny it, I was ready to become a superhero.

Along that path, I met the boy of my dreams. My own partner and new classmate, Adrien Agreste, aka Cat Noir, the son of Gabriel and Emilie Agreste.

Even though I initially thought of him as a passive pushover who wouldn't willingly throw childhood friends under the bus due to being unfamiliar with said childhood friends' bullying behavior and due to being unfamiliar with social interactions, especially in terms of what is socially acceptable and what isn't, and while the same could be said for compulsive liars like a certain "Lila Rossi" that Steel Butterfly told us about, that doesn't change the fact that just like me, Adrien is among the seven billion human beings who still have a gigantic deal to learn no matter how smart each of us is in our own ways.

And since Steel Butterfly has graciously told us who Hawk Moth is, we've been preparing all sorts of plans to arrest him when the time comes.

In addition to that, we've also been preparing backup plans to arrest Hawk Moth just in case our first plans fail. And we invented backup plans for those backup plans, all thanks to the fact that Steel Butterfly was excessively smart.

Of course, Steel Butterfly also made sure to inform us of an apocalyptic timeline in which Cat Noir got Akumatized into Cat Blanc, a white cat-themed supervillain with the infinite power of destruction, only to end up destroying the world and accidentally murdering every form of life on Earth due to his conflicting loyalties to me and to his terrorist father. All because of the so-called Great Guardian's stupid rule of us keeping our identities a secret from each other in the original timeline until Hawk Moth was defeated, and also because of a blunder my counterpart unknowingly made that resulted in Adrien finding out too soon, us starting a public relationship, Gabriel blackmailing me into breaking up with Adrien under the pretense of pulling him out of school just so he could Akumatize me, Gabriel finding out Cat Noir's identity after he transforms in public to save my counterpart from an Akuma, Hawk Moth psychologically torturing his own son by revealing his goals and emotionally abusing him with the promise of reviving his mother with our Miraculouses combined, and Cat Blanc's conflicting loyalties between the two of us resulting in his Mega Cataclysm destroying the moon, thus flooding the entire planet and killing everyone through either drowning or by simply being Cataclysmed into petrified coal statues that would disintegrate if they were touched. All of that primarily because Gabriel wanted our Miraculouses to be combined so he can speak a special incantation to be given a reality-altering wish to be used to revive his dearest wife just because of the fact that she overused the Peacock Miraculous despite wholly knowing that it was damaged and just because Hawk Moth was unable to properly move on like a big man.

I would've initially thought of good things to use with the wishing power, but Steel Butterfly told me that there'll always be a big, terrible price to pay in order for the universe to maintain balance.

For example, if Gabriel successfully revived his wife, chances are that Adrien will end up taking his mother's place because it's an equivalent exchange drawback to Gabriel's wish.

On top of that, due to being Hawk Moth for a long time, Steel Butterfly told us that Gabriel will eventually start craving additional power from every single Miraculous jewel in possession of the Order of the Guardians, regardless of whether or not it's a part of Gabriel's goal to save his wife.

And even if Gabriel knew about it all, he chooses to ignore it, making him out to be ignorant, reckless, cocky, overconfident, arrogant, delusional, prideful and greedy.

Anyway, about the Great Guardian's stupid identity rule from the original timeline... while I don't deny that it is indeed dangerous for us superheroes to reveal our identities to even our loved ones, due to my extensive research on superheroes, I firmly believe that superheroes who trust each other and who are great friends should throw that rule out the window on their first days on the job to ensure extra security in case of enemy attacks and to ensure better working partnerships, friendships, and even healthier romantic relationships between each other.

Steel Butterfly once told me that in multiple iterations of Earth in which I and the people and objects around me – kwamis and Miraculouses included – are fictional, people wanted my counterparts and Cat Noir's counterparts to have our identities revealed to each other on our first days without any consequences and without the Great Guardian taking away our Miraculouses just because we disobeyed the identity rule on our first days, when Stoneheart first appeared.

Of course, Steel Butterfly also once told me something I already knew thanks to my superhero research: it's that in a superhero team like the Avengers or the Justice League, it's important for all of the members to know each other's secret identities in order to avoid any problems in the future – such as love triangles or love squares – and to increase their mutual trust in one another. Steel Butterfly also said that this kind of strengthened trust in the French Miraculous Superhero Team is just one out of many things we need in each other to avoid getting Akumatized at all costs.

On top of that, I also firmly believe that certain superheroes should reveal their secret identities to their parents in case their parents turn out to be overly strict. Unless of course, if the particular superhero has a lot of good reasons not to do so.

Besides, as far as Steel Butterfly has told me, if Cat Noir and I kept our identities a secret from even each other for almost three to four years, there'd be a large four-way love square between our respective identities and crushes combined with trust issues revolving around pushing one another into the darkness without information to proceed due to being favored by the Great Guardian, combined with an inability to pursue a relationship with each other or with other people – as superheroes or as civilians – until Hawk Moth and all of his allies and successors were defeated, combined with the Great Guardian favoring one of us over all three of us and combined with all sorts of hardships that could irreversibly tear our relationships apart, metaphorical atom by metaphorical atom.

And even I'm aware that I'm not perfect. I'm not infallible. After all, even before I learned about how Christ came into this world two thousand years ago just because of my religious upbringing, even I'm only human.

I'm aware that I'm stubborn, my goal-driven desires and passions could lead me to ignore everything else around me as a form of tunnel vision, my temper in certain situations is as volatile as a great cloud of concentrated beltric acid burning at over a hundred and eighty degrees, and I do have a tendency to jump to conclusions.

But thankfully enough, Steel Butterfly was kind enough to give me lessons on how to recognize how my actions affect the people around me.

But I think even those aren't enough, as I'm bound to slip up at some point.

At the same time, Steel Butterfly informed us about the real reason why Bunnyx refused to tell me about the Cat Blanc timeline in the original timeline.

As it turns out, while users of the Snake Miraculous such as Viperion are allowed to inform their allies of immediate futures to change in order to achieve victory, users of the Rabbit Miraculous like Bunnyx, on the other hand, aren't allowed to share any piece of knowledge from the future under any circumstances without the timeline shifting in an apocalyptic fashion. And also because of the fact that users of the Rabbit Miraculous like Bunnyx can easily be affected by big and small changes to the time stream while users of the Snake Miraculous like Viperion are completely unaffected. Bunnyx chose not to tell me about something as catastrophic as the Cat Blanc timeline because of that, and also something along the lines of "The less you know about the future, the better." Mostly because, in science fiction about time travel, the conventional rules of traveling through time into the past or into the future specifically say that nobody is supposed to know anything about the future. Normally, I would've agreed thanks to movies and cartoons about time travel such as Doctor Who, Back To The Future, Meet The Robinsons, Austin Powers, and Planet Of The Apes among others revealing the consequences that can happen if any part of the past or the future is changed for the better or for the worse. BUT, even still, whether it's in the form of an alternate version of our current timeline or the chronological timeline itself somewhere in the multiverse, that still doesn't mean that what Bunnyx did or ever will do were the right choices at all. As proven by a select few timelines that Steel Butterfly showed us, whenever Bunnyx is in danger of being stuck in the present day, whenever she's in danger of being erased from existence, or if she is about to be fired by me and replaced by someone else for anything even remotely close to lying to me about the future, especially because of something unprecedented in an alternate timeline such as Cat Noir betraying me by siding with his father, Nathalie, and Lila Rossi, only to get his Miraculous taken away and get arrested, potentially all of those timeline categories all at once, Bunnyx will stop at nothing to preserve her Time Guardian status. Even if it means going back in time days before such an announcement to overwrite and alter the timeline to ensure that I don't have her fired and replaced permanently. All because even Future Alix Kubdel is tomboyish, arrogant, prideful and greedy in terms of wanting to stay a Guardian of time and space and she will go to extremes to do it. And all because she doesn't want her future to be erased just because she thinks her future is better for the timeline and the multiverse. What an idiotic b****. That's not how time travel works, and that's not how the multiverse works. Even Tikki agreed that those versions of Bunnyx are attempting to play god with timelines at best, and at worst, Bunnyx was acting like a villain. But like I said and like Steel Butterfly said, despite the clear and logical reasoning behind Bunnyx keeping the Cat Blanc timeline a secret, that still doesn't make right what she did and it doesn't make right whatever it is she'll do to make sure that her future plays out in chronological order, whether in the chronological timeline or in a divergent of the chronological timeline.

At the same time, however, Steel Butterfly also explained to us that Bunnyx also kept the Cat Blanc timeline a secret from us because she didn't want us to defeat and arrest Hawk Moth many months early than what Bunnyx might've gone through in her future timeline.

If I'm being honest, I'd rather defeat and arrest Hawk Moth on Heroes' Day of this year rather than waiting three to four years before we can do that. Steel Butterfly happened to agree, as he said that it'll give us a lot of time to not only give the Butterfly Kwami Nooroo plenty of therapy to recover from Gabriel's abuse, but it will also give us plenty of time to think about how we can revitalize Nooroo and his Miraculous' reputation as a beacon of hope by using the original Moth Miraculous aka the original Butterfly Miraculous in conjunction with the second Butterfly Miraculous to transform people into superheroes through positive emotions whenever needed.

Now that Adrien and I are aware of how dangerous Bunnyx is, we'll need to be extensively prepared to have her primary timeline counterpart erased from existence just before she can even have the opportunity to interfere with our timeline, but not by killing her as a baby. Even still, there'll possibly be someone to take Bunnyx's place to restore her future. And now that I think about it, time travel is so overly complicated to even trying to understand.

But anyways, as we sink closer to the present day, it's Valentine's Day in Paris, and love is in the air.

Adrien was really looking forward to it. Steel Butterfly, on the other hand, hates Valentine's Day.

I didn't know why at first, but when I found out that he had the worst of hunting when he was a kid, I felt sympathetic towards the man that became my leader on the superhero battlefield.

I just hope that Corvo and I can help Steel Butterfly with his past grievances for Valentine's Day.

(Steel Butterfly's voice-over POV as he writes in his Rorschach-inspired journal...)

Steel Butterfly's journal.

February 14th, Valentine's Day, 2015.

Love is in the air here in Paris, but I hate Valentine's Day.

Valentine's Day is the bane of my life, and it appears as though Hawk Moth shares this sentiment.

I haven't had much hunting in asking a girl to be my Valentine, and my only Valentine in high school back on my Earth wouldn't tell me when her birthday was. She wanted me to guess, and I hate taking guesses.

So, I severed ties with her before my second prom, which I didn't attend.

Yeah, Catherine Lyme of my high school's best buddies club was one of a kind and she would've become my girlfriend, but even if I didn't know anything about dating, she still lost that privilege.

I've heard that people don't need romantical love to celebrate Valentine's Day, but I don't give a f***.

Anyway, I have since learned to just ignore everything going on, so I'm just ignoring everything my teammates celebrate about the most beloved February holiday invented in the United States.

Of course, for Ms. Bustier's lesson on love in fairytales, I intend to pull a prank on her without being detected.

You'll have to ask either Marinette or Adrien what kind of prank it was.

But in any case, I wonder how I would be able to celebrate Valentine's Day now.

It's been so long since I was able to celebrate Valentine's Day with my parents. Although, if I'm being honest, I'd probably outlive them unless they were given angelic immortality.

Best that I focus on the goals ahead instead of personal and trivial matters.

But in all seriousness, even if Hawk Moth doesn't Akumatize Kim Chien Le into Dark Cupid, there's a good chance that some other Akumatized villain would literally try to ruin Valentine's Day.

And even though I hate the most celebrated holiday about love of the year, I would never allow any of Hawk Moth's Akumatized victims to ruin Valentine's Day for the people of Paris either.

(Francoise Dupont, third person POV...)

In Ms. Bustier's classroom, the red-haired social studies teacher of Francoise Dupont is teaching literature class.

Of course, nobody could prepare themselves for Steel Butterfly's little prank that he plans to pull on Caline Bustier as he hides himself on the roof of the school, completely invisible to the naked eye and using some of his angelic magic combined with his Speaking Inducement ability to make Caline Bustier say blah blah blah in the middle of her teaching.

As a golden light faintly glows over Ms. Bustier's mouth, she says, "In most fairy tales, blah blah blah. Huh?"

Some of the students snicker in response to the glow coming from Ms. Bustier's mouth forcing her to say blah blah blah.

With the exception of their class and alongside Marinette's parents, both she and Adrien are the only ones who know that Steel Butterfly's newest superpower is speaking inducement and that his new superpower combined with his angelic magic can easily make his targets say whatever it is that he wants them to say.

Ms. Bustier then says, "Ahem. As I was saying, in most fairytales, blah blah blah. Blah blah bladity blah blah! Blah blah blah blah blah blah! Blah blah blah blah blah blah! Ohhhh!"

By this time, everyone in the classroom was laughing hysterically.

Ms. Bustier looked slightly furious before realizing that an angelic being was playing a prank, but she was unaware that she's wrong; Steel Butterfly might have angelic powers, but he's not one hundred percent angelic and he's not infallible.

As the glow on her mouth disappears, Ms. Bustier clears her throat as she reiterates, "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, in most fairy tales, the prince breaks the spell by kissing the princess. Can anyone tell us why?"

Rose raises her hand and she gets called on.

Rose swoons as she answers, "Because only love can conquer hate!"

Ms. Bustier remarks, "Correct, Rose."

Max had a full mind to not explain the certainty behind the logic about how the reasoning of love conquering hate is in all fairy tales, knowing that Ms. Bustier was gonna interrupt him and tell him to not waste the class' time with such a mathematical lecture. Something along those lines.

Ms. Bustier sees Adrien writing on a piece of paper and says, "Adrien, I hope what you're writing has to do with my lesson."

Marinette quietly gasps in horror, fearing the worst.

Ms. Bustier approaches Adrien and asks, "Can you tell me what I just said?"

Adrien replies a little fast while smiling evilly, "That's why in most fairy tales, the prince breaks the spell by kissing the princess because only love conquers hate. Not including whoever made you go into a frenzy of saying blah blah blah with angelic magic."

Ms. Bustier is stunned at how easy it was for Adrien to pay attention while taking notes to paraphrase whatever she says while teaching the class. Marinette, on the other hand, is relieved that Adrien's not in trouble with Ms. Bustier. Especially because her teaching style underwent a major overhaul because of Ghost Punisher's tirade about Bustier's former habit of lecturing bullied victims and cuddling the bullies.

Ms. Bustier says in an astonished tone, "Very good, Adrien! I didn't know you were capable of paying attention so well."

Ms. Bustier adds mentally, "Especially because of the akuma attacks and ordinary crimes that happen frequently in the city."

Of course, Ms. Bustier might've temporarily forgotten that her two secret superhero students have telepathy, especially whenever they're not in their armored suits.

Suddenly, the school bell rings, prompting Ms. Bustier to say, "Now, everyone, don't forget to finish reading Sleeping Beauty by Charles Perrault tonight. And Happy Valentine's Day, students!"

Marinette whispers to Alya, "(Softly) Hey, go ahead. I'll meet you outside."

Alya nods as she gets up and leaves the room.

Marinette continues looking over Adrien's shoulder as he continues writing the letter that he hid underneath his notes.

Suddenly, Adrien said, "I know you're there, Marinette. You might've been able to sneak up on me in another timeline, but I'm much smarter and I'm able to hear your movements. After all, cats do have a good sense of hearing."

Marinette replies in a stunned tone, "I can't believe it. The first time someone knows I'm being a sneaky ninja and the person who knows is none other than my boyfriend. I can't say I'm surprised, because you already know it."

Adrien grabs Marinette and kisses her on the lips, taking her by surprise at first before she melts into the passionate kiss.

Adrien breaks off from the kiss after a few seconds and remarks, "Happy Valentine's Day, Marinette."

Marinette utters, "Happy Valentine's Day, Adrien."

Chloe enters the room and asks, "I hate to break this up, but who am I gonna have as my Valentine?"

Marinette and Adrien looked at each other before shrugging in unison.

Just then, one of the slightly taller boys from another class, Danton Bastin, came up to Chloe and said, "Chloe, I know you're not perfect, but will you be my Valentine?"

Chloe takes a close look at Danton's clothes and the stuff he bought.

Danton was wearing a Valentine's Day-themed business suit and was carrying an expensive bunch of flowers and a box of Valentine's Day chocolate.

Chloe hugs Danton and they both passionately kiss like they meant it.

Danton and Chloe left the classroom, with Marinette and Adrien in tow.

Of course, when Marinette was given time to use the girls' bathroom while she had the time, she jumped up and down excitedly while exclaiming, "I must be dreaming! Pinch me!"

Because Tikki doesn't understand certain sayings and because she tends to take certain sayings and phrases too literally, she pinched Marinette, which causes her to shriek, "AAAHHHH! NOT LITERALLY!"

Marinette starts rubbing her arm, a clear pained scowl on her face as Tikki starts giggling hysterically.

The students of the school walk out of the building.

Adrien gets in his bodyguard's car and he gets driven home.

Of course, Steel Butterfly knew that Dark Cupid was gonna come, even despite the fact that Chloe and Lynnette were no longer bullying people to the point of getting them Akumatized, and he wanted to be ready.

In Marinette's bedroom, Marinette was on a video call with Ryoka Mensah, aka Corvo.

Ryoka asks, "So, Miguel is absolutely sure he needs Blueclaw for this mission?"

Marinette replies, "Absolutely. Miguel says you've been hogging the spotlight of your crew. Why not let someone else help us to handle Dark Cupid should he come to be? And besides, because of the fact that Steel Butterfly can purify Akumas himself and because of the fact that his soon-to-come Cupid Tenshi can easily make people immune to Dark Cupid's arrows, Miguel says that you, Cat Noir and I have to sit this one out."

Ryoka chuckled in response before replying, "Well, in any case, if Miguel needs me, I'll easily strip Hawk Moth of his powers to make things easier."

Marinette says in response, "Whoa whoa whoa. Not so fast. Miguel told me and Adrien that apprehending Hawk Moth this early without the extensive list of his present day crimes and his future crimes might have untold consequences for the future. And there's no telling what kind of damage to the timeline that can cause. We have to wait until the Heroes' Day incident before we can implement our plans."

Ryoka shook her head fondly as she chuckled again.

Suddenly, a ladybug flies into the room and lands on Marinette's computer desk, completely distracting her.

Tikki exclaims, "Oh, this is a good omen, Marinette! Ladybugs are good fortune, especially in the love department."

Marinette asks skeptically, "Oh, really?"

Tikki answers, "Oh, yes, and you should know about this yourself. Since ancient times, the ladybug has been a symbol of love, guiding pure hearts on the very path to benevolent devotion. And the reason why there's a ladybug in your room is because they're attracted to homes with light colors and because they're always looking for heat in the winter season."

Marinette hummed in curiosity as Tikki ushers the ladybug out of the room.

In Adrien's room at the Agreste mansion, Adrien is looking fondly at pictures taken over the course of the past two weeks and over the past month.

As Plagg eats his portion of a grilled cheese sandwich with Swiss cheese, Adrien smiles at a photo that was taken last month after New Year's Day.

It was a picture from Adrien's first baking lesson that his father approved of that took place at Miguel Guevara's surface residence.

As Marinette, Tikki, Adrien and Plagg would soon discover, Steel Butterfly secretly used his time travel abilities to make his civilian counterpart appear as a cable installer or cable guy in order to maintain a low profile. That way, he can inform the Parisian Police Department of any ordinary crimes taking place before, during and after akuma attacks, and so that way he can earn enough money to fund his war on Hawk Moth and to fund his civilian life post Hawk Moth.

At the same time, Steel Butterfly used his clones under different masculine names from different languages to be undercover as an undercover police officer, an undercover investigator, a private investigator, an undercover reporter, a store detective, a supermarket cashier, a pool boy, a school janitor at Francoise Dupont to keep an eye on Ladybug, Cat Noir, the Akuma Class and the school staff, a bank custodian, a pizza delivery boy, and a paper delivery boy to help him amass enough money to buy things he needs for his goals such as clothes, food, laundry supplies, cleaning supplies, kitchen utensils, and so forth. In addition to things he wants in terms of material possessions like his favorite Transformers toys, and other things in his war against Hawk Moth such as spare equipment for his booby traps, upgrades to his security systems, extra undetectable cameras, encrypted phones, books about traps, books about the criminal mind, books about making concoctions, and so forth.

And as the two primary heroes and their kwamis would also soon discover, Miguel used his time over the past thirty thousand years to amass not only a universe-sized army, but also to amass infinite resources like Ra's Al Ghul from the Batman franchise.

True, Miguel Guevara is a mysterious man with power in the rumors of the public, but that doesn't change the fact that this was something truly unexpected and incredible.

In the present day, Adrien reminisces about the day he got his first baking lesson as described by the picture he was looking at on his phone.

He was learning how to bake chocolate chip cookies. He did so well on the first try with his first batch, he enjoyed his creation with Marinette and Tikki. But when he was making his second batch, he was chased around Miguel's residence by Marinette just because he was making too many cookie puns and too many baking puns.

When Marinette finally caught up to him, the two Heroes of Paris engaged in a tickle fight. And because Marinette and Adrien were equally ticklish, let's just say nobody was really winning.

And when Miguel had them resting to recover from their laughing fits, he made sure to have them as comfortable as possible before sending them home.

As Adrien snaps back to the present day, Plagg says to him, "I'm proud of you, kid. You managed to get yourself the girl of your dreams, you managed to do your part to protect the city, and you managed to have your future goals cut out for you."

Adrien smiles at his kwami as the black cat hero showers and immediately takes a nap, knowing that he's gonna be called for either superhero duty or for something related to his schedule.

Adrien sleeps soundly with Plagg keeping watch before eventually hiding someplace to sleep as well.

Meanwhile, at Pont des Arts, Kim is waiting on the side of a fence until he recognizes the voice of Karine Chambon, one of the popular cheerleaders from Francoise Dupont, approaching while on the phone.

Karine says on the phone, "Yes, Dad, I know. I'll try to be home early tonight."

Karine stops as she notices Kim while hanging up.

Karine asks politely, "Is there something I can help you with, Kim?"

Kim stutters before asking, "I-I... Will you be my Valentine?"

A passing bike splashes water into Kim's face, and an empty potato chip bag blowing in the wind sticks to his face.

Karine removes the bag from Kim's face and replies, "Thanks, Kim, but I'm not a fan of Valentine's Day. I always spend the day at home with my dad because he doesn't want me getting lost in the streets of Paris in case someone from school asks me to be their Valentine. But I will consider it if you stop with all of your ridiculous bets. After all, gambling is a huge no-no in schools both in Europe and in the United States."

Kim sputters, "B-but my bets are cool! No way am I giving them up!"

Karine replies sternly while looking down slightly at Kim due to her being a few inches taller, "Then you can find someone else to be your Valentine."

Karine walks away and Kim drops the brooch.

Kim cries over his heartbreak, unknowingly playing into Steel Butterfly's hand to introduce Dark Cupid's benevolent opposite.

In Hawk Moth's lair, the window opens as Hawk Moth remarks, "Ah, Valentine's Day. The day of love, and the day of fools. So many delusions, so much disappointment. My evil akumas, you're going to have such a field day today. Hehehehehehe."

Hawk Moth charges another butterfly with dark Miraculous magic energy, transforming it into an Akuma.

Hawk Moth sends the Akuma on it's way as he says, "Fly away, my little Akuma, and Akumatize him!"

The Akuma flies towards the Pont des Arts, flies into Kim's brooch for Karine and establishes the telepathic connection between Kim and Hawk Moth.

Hawk Moth states, "Dark Cupid, I am Hawk Moth. I can give you the power to shoot your arrows, pierce love and impale friendships. But there is something you must do for me in return."

Kim/Dark Cupid replies darkly, "No love affair or friendship will escape my fury. No one will ever love again!"

Kim is transformed into Dark Cupid and takes flight, shooting his arrows at lovers.

However, they immediately bounced right off their would-be victims!

Befuddled, Dark Cupid whirls around to see a green and white opposite of himself that is his opposite in every way, right down to the intact heart on his chestplate.

(Five minutes ago, the alleyway leading to the Dupain-Cheng bakery...)

Steel Butterfly sent a Tenshi to find a religious Valentine's Day-loving Parisian by the name of Pierrick Champlain to Tenshize into Cupid, a God-loving, spiritually profound, love-spreading superhero that is the very equal and opposite to Dark Cupid in every way.

The Tenshi finds Pierrick and enters his Valentine's Day-themed gangster necklace.

Steel Butterfly says, "Cupid, I am Steel Butterfly. I'm granting you the power to shoot your arrows, to seal love and fill friendships. But there'll be a Dark Cupid created by Hawk Moth to spread hate. I need you to help me spread love to all of Paris and make them immune to Dark Cupid's hate-spreading arrows long enough to deakumatize him. So, do we have a deal, Cupid?"

Pierrick/Cupid replies, "No one will be ruining Valentine's Day on my watch. Soon, everyone will know what it's like to feel the love that only our families and only God can provide."

Pierrick is transformed into Cupid by the Tenshi, an armored opposite of Dark Cupid in green and white, as green and white are the opposite colors of red and black respectively.

Cupid stretches his new armored wings and he immediately takes flight throughout the city, shooting Parisians with special love-spreading arrows that are so pure that they are made temporarily immune to Dark Cupid's arrows, and the effects will only remain so long as Cupid and Dark Cupid remain unpurified from their respective Tenshi and Akuma.

Of course, Cupid was also ordered to make sure that Dark Cupid and Hawk Moth are tricked into thinking that the effects of Cupid's arrows are permanent to make things easier.

(Present day...)

Dark Cupid growls at the sight of whom he can only assume is his equal and opposite.

Dark Cupid snarls, "Let me guess. You're Cupid."

The Tenshized Cupid replies, "Yep. And here's the bonus: my arrows made your victims permanently immune to your powers."

Dark Cupid asks in reply, "What?!"

Cupid answers in a short monologue, "Five minutes before you showed up, Steel Butterfly ensured that nobody would be able to feel hate on the day of love."

Soon, an aerial dogfight takes place between Cupid and his dark counterpart.

In particular, Cupid already knew how to fight before he was given his Tenshi, and therefore he was able to get Dark Cupid on the ropes before the Akumatized flier decided to initiate a tactical retreat.

In Hawk Moth's lair, the magic-abusing terrorist of Paris was fuming over how his new Akumatized champion was being made to look like a rank amateur compared to Steel Butterfly's newest champion.

Hawk Moth mutters to himself, "I must find a weakness that Steel Butterfly has to win this war. Whatever the case, Dark Cupid had better not fail me, or I'll have to remove his powers."

Meanwhile, Marinette and Alya walk into the Dupain-Cheng bakery in a laughing fit.

Tom gives them candy apples as he asks, "Candy apples, girls?"

Marinette and Alya take the candy apples as Marinette says, "Thanks, Papa."

Marinette kisses her father on the cheek as she and Alya leave the bakery.

The two friends make their way to Place des Vosges to munch on their candy apples.

As they munch on their candy apples, Marinette and Alya suddenly get text alerts on their phones and they see it's from Max Kante.

Alya and Marinette look at the picture text and gasp in shock as they also see the video of Karine's rejection of Kim over his bets.

Alya sneers, "Well, that's just harsh."

Marinette replies, "Yeah, and I honestly have no idea what's gonna happen next."

Alya remarks jokingly, "Dang, I hope Adrien doesn't do the same to you."

Marinette looks at Alya with a combination of a warning scowl and an "Are you kidding me?" expression on her face.

Alya looks a little nervous at Marinette's expression as she says threateningly, "You're not funny. Adrien may have been raised in a sheltered house life, but that doesn't mean he's really gonna do the same bad things that most anime characters do in toxic relationships or even before such a relationship starts. Next time, think about the context of your jokes before you make the jokes."

Then, Marinette and Alya suddenly hear the sound of arrows being fired and they look in the sky to see Cupid and Dark Cupid fighting each other in archery and in flight.

After dodging the latest hate-spreading arrow, Cupid spreads two of his arrows to Marinette and Alya to make them immune to Dark Cupid's arrows.

Marinette asks, "Hey! What gives?"

Dark Cupid sneers, "All hearts will be destroyed!"

Cupid snarls like a dragon as he states in reply, "Not on my watch!"

Cupid and Dark Cupid charge each other in flight and they try to go for a punch.

For Dark Cupid, he ended up slightly hurting his hand due to the fact that Cupid was wearing metal armor on even his hands.

Marinette and Alya run in the direction of the bakery, Marinette in particular realizing in time that Kim was Akumatized and Steel Butterfly sent in a Cupid of his own design to help save Valentine's Day. But then she also remembered that Steel Butterfly had requested she sit this one out, and that he requested for Cat Noir and Corvo to sit this one out.

Marinette silently prays for Steel Butterfly to handle this since she has always had faith in him.

Steel Butterfly and Blueclaw fly as silently as possible while they follow Dark Cupid from a distance while Steel Butterfly quietly asks Lion Hunter to inform Cat Noir about the incident via the Akuma Alert app and to request that he sit this one out.

Lion Hunter replies that he's on it and he immediately gets to work.

Blueclaw quietly asks, "Where's Cupid?"

Steel Butterfly answers, "Last I heard, Dark Cupid managed to lose his benevolent counterpart somewhere in the Third Arrondisment. But don't worry; Cupid's gonna rendezvous with us at the Grand Paris Hotel. Apparently, Kim was Akumatized because he was rejected by Karine Chambon just because he refused to back down on his ridiculous bets, and even after being lectured about how illegal it is to gamble, even in the United States, as shown in Saved By The Bell."

Slightly befuddled, Blueclaw replies back quietly, "Then let's make sure everyone has a safe Valentine's Day and outside of Hawk Moth's ever-growing influence."

The two heroes continue to fly quietly behind Dark Cupid while making sure to keep their distance so as to not be spotted.

Meanwhile, in Adrien's bedroom, Adrien is woken up by the Akuma Alert app on his phone.

Plagg groggily asks, "Who could've been Akumatized on Valentine's Day?"

Adrien replies while yawning, "Ahhh, that's what I want to know, too."

Adrien checks the report sent in by Lion Hunter and widens his eyes in surprise at the name of the Akumatized victim: Kim Chien Le, aka Dark Cupid.

Deciding that his friends need help, Adrien is just about to say "Plagg, Claws Out!" when he looks again at the Akuma Alert that reveals a message from Lion Hunter to be passed over to Cat Noir: "From Steel Butterfly: I'm gonna handle this Dark Cupid with Blueclaw and my latest Tenshized champion. Ladybug, Cat Noir and Corvo, I'm sorry, but you three are gonna have to sit this one out. Besides, Blueclaw deserves her chance to shine in the spotlight of the superhero battlefield. But don't worry; I know what I'm doing. I'll let you know if we need additional reinforcements, but with the powers that Blueclaw, Cupid and I have, I sincerely doubt that we'll need additional reinforcements this time."

Adrien and Plagg double check to make sure there wasn't any cameras or hidden microphones, which there wasn't, and Adrien quietly vents that he's being told to sit this one out.

Of course, Lion Hunter's message from Steel Butterfly added that there'll be severe consequences for Ladybug, Cat Noir and Corvo if they disobey him. And among the consequences for Ladybug and Corvo is that he'll tickle torture them both personally.

And among the consequences for Cat Noir is this: Steel Butterfly will have Cat Knight tickle torture Cat Noir personally.

And seeing as how the three heroes wanted to avoid being tickle tortured, in public or otherwise, they decided to suck it up and obey Steel Butterfly's orders.

In particular, Adrien wanted to avoid being tickle tortured by a mother cat-themed Miraculous user, i.e., Cat Knight. So, he replied that he read and understood the message loud and clear, and said good hunting for his boss, who was basically Steel Butterfly.

Meanwhile, outside the Grand Paris Hotel, Chloe and Lynnette are helping two delivery men with the latest poster of Steel Butterfly and Cat Noir stretching their wings broadly and proudly.

Dark Cupid spots Karine with the other two girls and shoots an arrow at her, but Steel Butterfly throws a shuriken at Dark Cupid's arms as he fires the arrow, thusly making him miss.

The three girls gasp in shock and horror as they spot Dark Cupid about to fight Steel Butterfly, Blueclaw and a recently-arrived Cupid in a three on one gauntlet fight to once and for all decide the fate of Paris on Valentine's Day.

Dark Cupid snarls, "So, you brought backup, Cupid!"

Cupid replies, "One of the most important rules of being a superhero or a supervillain in your case is to always bring backup. And Steel Butterfly always brings backup."

Blueclaw calls out, "Stop this right now, Kim!"

Dark Cupid replies, "I'm not Kim, I'm Dark Cupid! And I'll never stop! If I can't have love, then nobody will!"

Steel Butterfly states, "Okay, Dark Cupid. The name is catchy and all, and we get that Karine burned you badly, but that doesn't mean you have to take it out on all of Paris! And it certainly doesn't give you the right to do so!"

Dark Cupid sneers in reply, "Oh yes, I do! And Hawk Moth has given me the right to spread hate to all of Paris! I won't stop until everyone's heart is crushed. Say adios to your loved ones, Steel Butterfly. From now on, you'll hate them!"

Dark Cupid shoots an arrow at Steel Butterfly, only for him to activate his Wolverine claws and slice the arrow into pieces.

Dark Cupid looks mortified at the morphing furious expression on the face plate of Steel Butterfly's helmet.

It looked like something from a horror movie to Dark Cupid.

The expression on Steel Butterfly's face plate looked outright murderous.

Steel Butterfly snarls in his demonic voice, "GGGRRAAAGGGGGHHHH! NO ONE GETS INTO MY HEAD, MANIPULATES MY EMOTIONS AND THOUGHTS, AND THINKS THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH IT WHEN JUDGMENT DAY IS COMING FOR THEM THOUSANDS OF YEARS EARLY!"

Steel Butterfly pulls out of his cape... A SET OF DUAL MACHINE GUNS!

Everyone is shocked and horrified at the sight, even after Steel Butterfly fires his machine guns at Dark Cupid.

Most of the shots missed, but a few rapid-fire bullets managed to somewhat graze his suit without drawing a lot of blood.

Thusly, this shows a watching Ladybug, a watching Cat Noir and a watching Corvo that Steel Butterfly sometimes has no control over his demonic side and sometimes feels like its necessary to murder an Akumatized villain, even if its against his normally better judgment due to Hawk Moth's Corruption Inducement ability that comes with abusing the original Butterfly Miraculous.

Dark Cupid temporarily retreats to lick his wounds.

Steel Butterfly puts away his machine guns and remarks, "Now that I know how dangerous machine guns are against magic, regardless of whether or not the munitions are treated with anti-magic, I sure as heckling heck ain't gonna be doing that again."

Suddenly, Dark Cupid returns with his suit magically repaired and his wounds magically healed as he starts rapidly firing arrows at the flying heroes, only to continuously miss.

In particular, Steel Butterfly was firing lightning bolts out of his hands at the arrows, showing that among the new powers he managed to unlock over the months includes the electricity-based superpowers of specific heroes and villains who can control, manipulate and discharge amounts of electricity.

Blueclaw and Cupid engage Dark Cupid in an aerial dogfight to help Steel Butterfly come up with a plan much faster, only to have to contend with Dark Cupid firing his arrows rapidly like a rapid-fire crossbow.

Steel Butterfly stabs one of Dark Cupid's wings with his swordstick, causing him to cry out in pain.

Dark Cupid uses one of his arrows to heal the stab wound, taking everyone by surprise except Steel Butterfly. SB literally anticipated Dark Cupid would be more powerful than in the original timeline.

Steel Butterfly, Blueclaw and Cupid engage Dark Cupid in a three-on-one gauntlet fight to the death.

Despite Dark Cupid being an enhanced hand-to-hand combatant, the three fliers managed to come out on top due to their respective experiences in hand-to-hand combat and martial arts, both real and fictional.

Dark Cupid sees that he's losing and decides to fire all of his arrows at the heroes to prevent them from getting too close.

Soon, Steel Butterfly hid himself in order to begin his plan, hopefully without having to resort to Blueclaw's two superpowers. He hid himself by sticking himself onto the side of the Grand Paris Hotel while the other fliers hide themselves by either sticking to the walls of the building where Steel Butterfly is or by hanging upside down like Spider-Man or Batman with his grapple gun.

In particular, Steel Butterfly was hiding by changing the colors of his armor to match the building as he keeps close to the building wall while hovering.

Dark Cupid turns around to find that the three flying superheroes are nowhere to be seen.

Then Hawk Moth's mask flares on as he says, "If you want to continue destroying love, bring me Steel Butterfly and Blueclaw's Miraculouses and get rid of your benevolent counterpart, or else I'll remove your powers!"

The mask goes away as Dark Cupid flies forward in his search for the heroes.

Dark Cupid misses the obvious position that Steel Butterfly is in.

Of particular note, like Ladybug in the original timeline, Blueclaw was hanging upside down by her improvisational grapple gun in the same pose as Spider-Man.

This causes Cupid to whisper jokingly, "Falling for me already, Spider-Woman?"

Blueclaw dismounts from her Miraculous-based grapple gun as she chuckles, "Heh heh. Not exactly. But we must remain vigilant; Dark Cupid can turn love into hate unless you temporarily make us immune to Dark Cupid's arrows long enough until he's deakumatized. And he can easily sneak up on us due to the fact that his wings don't make any sound when they're flapping."

Cupid gives Steel Butterfly and Blueclaw an arrow each and the arrows disintegrate in a puff of smoke to make Steel Butterfly and Blueclaw immune to Dark Cupid's powers.

Steel Butterfly decloaks himself as he calls out, "Incoming!"

Dark Cupid flies towards the heroes as he prepares to fire an arrow, only to be met with a shotgun barrel in his face, along with Blueclaw's clawed scythe.

Steel Butterfly cocks the shotgun and says threateningly, "One false move and your brains get to be seen at close range. Especially if you try to invade our thoughts and emotions with even one square inch of your hate-spreading arrows."

Hawk Moth's mask flares again as he says, "That obviously can't be a real shotgun with actual live ammunition. See if you can call his bluff!"

Steel Butterfly sneers, "You know we can hear you from this range, right, Hawk Moth? And FYI, it's never a good idea to call someone's bluff, especially when you have a gun pointed at your face. And I wouldn't take my chances if I were you, because even if our Miraculous suits protect us from most forms of harm as a part of our respective near-invulnerabilities, I sincerely doubt even you would be able to defend yourself against armor-piercing bullets laced with anti-magic."

Even Hawk Moth in his lair had to admit that Steel Butterfly was right; it was and always will be a bad idea to call someone's bluff, especially if Hawk Moth were to have a gun pointed at his face. And even Hawk Moth had to admit it also wasn't a good idea to take his chances, especially if such a gun were to have been loaded with armor-piercing bullets laced with anti-magic.

Blueclaw remarks, "You've lost, Dark Cupid. Surrender now, and we will consider sparing your miserable life."

Slightly quivering in fear, Dark Cupid shakily hands over his brooch and Cupid crushes it in his bare armored hands.

Steel Butterfly closes his hands over the Akuma and his angelic magic purifies the dark magic-infused butterfly. And in the process of everyone's temporary immunity to Dark Cupid's hate-spreading arrows wearing off, Dark Cupid transforms back into Kim.

Kim looks at Steel Butterfly's gun as he pulls the trigger, only for a flag with the word "BANG!" to come out of the barrel.

Steel Butterfly and his superhero companions cackle in unison, knowing that Hawk Moth fell for one of the oldest evil tricks in the book.

Even Kim joins in on the cackling, knowing that Steel Butterfly has a somewhat dark, but kind of good twisted sense of humor, especially because when he's in a good mood, his more angelic nature rises to the surface.

In Hawk Moth's lair, Hawk Moth growls, "Grrr... I can't believe I fell for the oldest evil trick in the book that The Joker often uses! Even if it weren't for Ladybug and Cat Noir sitting this one out, I should've won! Blasted Steel Butterfly! Blasted Valentine's Day!"

The window to Hawk Moth's lair closes, encasing his lair in darkness once more, leaving Hawk Moth to stew in his anger over another mission failure.

Meanwhile, Kim and Karine have made amends with each other and Valentine's Day proceeds as usual.

In particular, Marinette and Adrien were enjoying a nice Valentine's Day dinner at the Dupain-Cheng bakery.

Marinette and Adrien enjoyed their Valentine's Day dinner despite Marinette being a strict vegan and Adrien being a true human omnivore.

After Adrien and Marinette cleaned up the dishes, they went to Marinette's room and they started making out as safely as possible without engaging in sexual intercourse by accident.

Thankfully, they were successful in not accidentally engaging in sexual intercourse too early in romantical and overall teenage life.

Meanwhile, in his first lair, Steel Butterfly and Corvo said in unison, "Leppey, Elegant Wings Die" and "Grrimm, Dark Feathered Wings Fall" due to having arrived from their special Valentine's Day patrol.

Miguel and Ryoka turn on the TV and watch the superhero comedy romance parody film Blankman, showing that Steel Butterfly and Corvo are two real life superheroes in a fictional perspective to have a love for superhero films.

As Miguel and Ryoka finish watching Blankman one hour and thirty-six minutes later, the two interdimensional heroes make out, also without accidentally engaging in sexual intercourse.

After all, like with Ladybug and Cat Noir, it wouldn't do Steel Butterfly and Corvo any good to have Ladybug and Corvo being pregnant this early in the superhero life and in Marinette's teenage life without Marinette being a legal adult with a steady job, accidentally or otherwise. And it wouldn't do the heroes any good to be expecting children while Hawk Moth is still on the loose, in addition to the threat to the world and perhaps the universe that Lila Rossi poses, with and without the Moth Miraculous as Gabriel Agreste's successor as Hawk Moth.

After Ryoka leaves for her home, Steel Butterfly patrols the skies of Paris while playing and humming the Superman theme.

As Steel Butterfly tests out another of his new superpowers, which is his Supersonic Flight ability, he literally manages to make it to New York City in less than seven and a half minutes.

Steel Butterfly meets up with Knightowl and Majestia in the same area that would become the Avengers Tower in the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.

Two days after the Christmas incident in Paris, Steel Butterfly was contacted by the United Heroez to be a consultant and to be asked when would be the best time to ask his crew – Ladybug and Cat Noir included – for their help in defeating the Trash Krakken and ensuring that crime in New York stays at a very improbable zero as long as possible.

Steel Butterfly answers that it'll be fourteen days after May the 21st, which is basically June the 4th.

Steel Butterfly also said that he managed to convince his benefactor to help Ladybug and Cat Noir learn more about their Miraculouses and to help them learn how to use their powers more than once while waiting for adulthood to come.

When Knightowl asked why Ladybug and Cat Noir can only use their powers once, Steel Butterfly explained everything about the Miraculouses and their associated kwamis in full detail, adding that only adult Miraculous users can handle the strain of their kwamis using the energy from their owners' bodies in order for their powers to be used an unlimited number of times, and that underage Miraculous users are not gonna be able to handle the strain for long durations of time. This is why underage Miraculous users have to feed their kwamis food in order for their kwamis to recharge their powers.

When Steel Butterfly finished the explanation, Knightowl reluctantly admitted that Steel Butterfly's answer and explanation were correct and logical. In other words, Knightowl reluctantly admitted that Steel Butterfly was right.

Soon, Steel Butterfly started making preparations with the United Heroez and his crew for the time to come when they have to deal with the Trash Krakken.

After finishing his business in New York City, Steel Butterfly flew back to Paris and seeing as the sun was setting, he managed to get in contact with his clones to report how much money they got in their latest paychecks.

After being given the results he needed and wanted, Miguel went into his lair, had dinner, showered twice, washed his clothes in the laundry, brushed his teeth twice, and went to bed.

(Steel Butterfly's voice-over POV as he writes in his Rorschach-inspired journal in the living room of his primary residence...)

Steel Butterfly's journal.

February 14th, Valentine's Day, 2015.

Second journal entry for today.

Truth be told, this was actually and literally the first Valentine's Day I've ever enjoyed in thousands upon thousands of years on any version of Earth.

Ryoka had encouraged me to enjoy Valentine's Day with the people who love me, even if I didn't have a relationship with her.

If I'm being honest, I think Valentine's Day is now officially my sixth favorite holiday.

Yeah, my other five favorite holidays in reverse order are April Fools' Day, Cinco de Mayo, even though I'm of Puerto Rican descent, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

And before you readers ask yourselves, yes, I don't celebrate Halloween because of my religious upbringing and also because, during my time travel training, I literally saw demons masquerading as cosplayers in ancient times and I had to destroy them with the power of my Butterfly Miraculous. Thankfully, I was able to avoid disrupting the timeline.

In any case, Ryoka and I actually made love in my lair without engaging in sexual intercourse by accident.

And we're glad we were careful not to engage in sexual intercourse by accident, as it's entirely too early for that, and we're not even legally married. At least, not by a few years or so.

And I heard that Marinette and Adrien actually made out without accidentally engaging in sexual intercourse as well.

I'm glad that they were careful not to engage in sexual intercourse by accident as well, for it's also too early for Marinette and Adrien to have children, Gabriel is still on the loose as Hawk Moth so the chances of him finding out Adrien is Cat Noir are pretty high, Gabriel finding out that Marinette is Ladybug while she's pregnant are also pretty high, both Marinette and Adrien aren't even high school or college graduates, and they're not even old enough to be legally married.

I cannot thank God and His angels enough that all of that didn't happen. I am so thankful that all of the things I mentioned didn't happen and will thankfully not happen any time soon.

In any case, I quite enjoyed Valentine's Day with my already established girlfriend, but we're gonna keep our relationship on tight lips and behind closed doors because the moment Hawk Moth finds out, he'll do anything to draw me out of hiding to make me surrender my Butterfly Miraculous so he can add its power to his own Butterfly Miraculous.

Anyhoo, there's nothing left other than to wait for the Akumatization of Aurore Beaureal, aka Stormy Weather.

I wish Alec Cataldi would practice what he preached, but unfortunately, until the events of the Wishmaker episode come to be – which is unlikely considering that my plans will involve Scarlet Moth being arrested on Heroes' Day this year – Alec is still gonna mock people the same way he was mocked as a kid for wearing an afro.

All the same, I wonder if I can make a superhero opposite of Stormy Weather.

Maybe some sort of Mellow Weather? Must remember to ask Leppey about that.

Until then, Ladybug, Cat Noir and I are gonna be doing the one thing I always wanted to do: tickle torturing Alix Kubdel's feet while hanging her upside down!

Yep, it's part of my bucket list of things to do in this cartoon universe, no matter if its for kids or not.

But in all seriousness, I haven't ever seen Alix Kubdel barefoot before.

HOWEVER, this doesn't necessarily mean that I have a foot fetish.

Besides, some girls and women don't always take care of their feet.

And besides, no matter how much a woman takes care of her feet, sometimes their feet will end up sweaty and dirty due to how long they wear flip-flops or normal shoes or even winter boots depending on their time outside for college or for work.

But thankfully, I don't need to worry about things like that since I don't tickle any woman as much as I used to in my youth as long as I was being a good sport about whether or not some women wanted to be tickled.

Anyway, I'm getting off-topic here.

Whatever the case, tickle torturing Alix Kubdel's feet while hanging her upside down is sure to be one of my lighthearted forms of punishment and payback for all the things that Alix does or ever will do as Bunnyx in the future if her future as Bunnyx isn't changed.

But whatever happens, I sure as heckling heck don't plan on doing anything like that ever again after it's been done once already.

Of course, even if Alix's future as Bunnyx isn't averted, she'll certainly try to tickle torture me in retaliation. That is, if she can ever catch me with my guard down.

And I have to say, good fortune with that one, Bunnyx, because I'm not ticklish at all, and I'm being perfectly honest and serious here.

I haven't been ticklish at all for thousands of years, and that's partially because of the fact that I secretly used my Sublimation superpower to grant myself an immunity to every and all forms of tickling, including any kind of oil that makes human skin ticklish to touch.

And like I said, normally I don't approve of tickling anybody, including girls due to personal experiences on my Earth during my childhood and my teenage years, but if this is the only way to make a point, to teach an enemy or a friend some manners, to get some information from an enemy, to cheer up someone having a blue day, to make someone laugh and release pent up energy from stressful days and weeks, and so forth, sometimes tickling even a girl is all you need to make those things happen.

Next to that, on a slightly off-topic note, I managed to meet the Quantic Universe iteration of the original Wiggles despite them not being the exact same four members I know from my Earth.

This iteration of the original Wiggles consisted of Walker Butvileyn, Von Burns-Dean, Vincenzo Buttery, and Wesley Burnam.

I guess that this is much better than the ones from the real world.

But regardless of that, I finally managed to meet my favorite TV educational heroes who specialize in making music and helping to educate young children worldwide about the basics of every day life, health, fitness and problem solving.

However, I've already learned early on that meeting your favorite celebrities and other kinds of heroes often and mostly lead to disappointment, and it depends on the celebrity in question.

Nevertheless, I intend to make sure that I get to test out my Sublimation power to see if I can bestow upon myself the powers I need for Heroes' Day and if I can bestow any powers that I could possibly need for the rest of Miraculous Ladybug.

But now, I gotta focus; now's the time to tickle torture Alix Kubdel's feet while she's upside down.

(Third person POV, Steel Butterfly's out of town prison for his most dangerous of prisoners of different types and categories of danger and threat levels.)

Alix Kubdel woke up in Steel Butterfly's primary prison, only to find herself in a slightly bright soundproof room, with her hands tied behind her back with zip ties, and completely hung upside down by rope.

As Alix looks at the ceiling further, she realizes that her bare feet were showing, completely suspended to the ceiling by rope surrounding her ankles, but low enough for Steel Butterfly, Ladybug and Cat Noir to reach her feet.

Suddenly, the door opens and Ladybug, Cat Noir and Steel Butterfly enter the room while Blueclaw, Rhinocharge, Corvo, Cat Knight, and Lion Hunter enter the room to provide extra security.

Alix asks crossly, "What's the meaning of this?"

Ladybug smirks behind her mouth guard as Steel Butterfly replies evilly and menacingly, "Your classmate Marinette Dupain-Cheng asked us to tickle your feet while hanging you upside down, Alix. And believe me, even Ladybug, Cat Noir and I always wanted to tickle you ever since we heard about Hawk Moth's potential targets for being Akumatized. And I quote Sheldon Cooper, 'Mwa ha ha.'"

Alix's eyes widened in horror as she gazed at Steel Butterfly's crossed arms over his chestplate, as she realized that when Steel Butterfly makes that pose eerily similar to Superman, that meant that Steel Butterfly wasn't joking.

And Alix was very scared, mainly because she was a ticklish tomboy, and it wouldn't look good for her reputation as a tomboy at Francoise Dupont if everyone there found out just how ticklish she was. Especially on her feet.

Steel Butterfly slowly marched towards Alix like a "supernatural" wrestler and morphed the fingertips of his gauntlets into soft feathers while aiming his fingers over Alix's bare soles.

He gently moves the tips of the feathers all over the creamy white skin on Alix's feet, completely causing her to laugh hysterically, signifying how ticklish her feet really are.

After about half a minute, Ladybug had her turn in tickling Alix's feet.

Despite Alix's protests and pleads for the tickling to stop, Ladybug was a bit relentless, knowing that she's tickling the pretty feet of who would've become the pathetic and naively coward excuse of a superhero known as Bunnyx in the future.

Then, Cat Noir had his turn in tickling Alix's feet.

He even decides to be a bit mischievous by pouring milk onto Alix's feet and he started to lick Alix's milk-soaked feet.

Alix's hysterical laughter reaches a new octave as she feels her feet being licked while being soaked in milk.

Then, Ladybug proceeded to tickle Alix's toes, causing her hysterical laughter to reach half another octave.

In the process of Ladybug's turn, Steel Butterfly couldn't resist looking at Alix's pinkish-white toenails even though Alix's toenails were naturally pinkish-white to signify that Alix doesn't believe in using nail polish.

After another minute of the tickle torture, Alix passes out from exhaustion.

Steel Butterfly cleans Alix's feet as meticulously as possible, careful not to tickle her anymore and careful not to wake her up.

Steel Butterfly takes Alix back home via a portal and places her on her bed, while making sure to leave her clean socks and her now clean sneakers on a part of the bedroom floor where she can find them when she wakes up.

Of course, to prevent Alix from snitching, Steel Butterfly takes a pinch of amnesia dust and wipes clean Alix's memory of the whole thing.

At the same time, Steel Butterfly made sure that this amnesia dust's effects would become permanent, even if Alix learns about the incident in the future as Bunnyx, the part of which will never happen on Steel Butterfly's watch.

After leaving Alix's apartment, Steel Butterfly, Ladybug, Cat Noir, Lion Hunter, Blueclaw, Rhinocharge, Corvo and Cat Knight go on patrol, with Ladybug, Cat Noir, Corvo, Blueclaw and Steel Butterfly monitoring the skies while Lion Hunter and Rhinocharge monitor things from the ground as additional eyes and ears.

Of course, they couldn't help but laugh hysterically and a tad maniacally knowing that they tickle tortured the young tomboy who will never become known as Bunnyx in the future.

After getting a call from one of Steel Butterfly's clones about a break-in at an apartment two blocks northwest from the Dupain-Cheng bakery, the eight heroes rush off to investigate the disturbance.

Upon arriving from the rooftops, the eight Heroes of Paris see for themselves that the perpetrators are a group of burglars that the Parisian Police Department haven't gotten close to apprehending, most especially because of Hawk Moth's reign of terror.

Steel Butterfly informs his comrades that these ordinary crimes take place before akuma attacks, during the akuma attacks and even after the akumas have been dealt with.

Deciding to take matters into their own hands on behalf of the police department, the eight heroes engage the perpetrators in an eight on eight fight.

In particular, Blueclaw's sonic bird call, which is activated by her calling out, "Blue Avian's TUAWEE!" was more than adequate to even the odds by making the burglars deaf for five minutes, in addition to her paralyzing scratch which is activated by her calling out, "Bluebird's Blood Venom!"

After another six minutes, the burglars were all subdued and left outside for the police to find.

Of course, Steel Butterfly couldn't help but jokingly quote one of Madea's signature catch phrases while simultaneously adding, "I ain't scared of no po-po; but you boys had better be prepared to crap your pants when the po-po comes!"

The Heroes of Paris laughed at Steel Butterfly's joke while the apprehended burglars tried to keep a straight face despite knowing that they were in trouble for real.

In his lair, Steel Butterfly decides to tell Ladybug and Cat Noir all about Lila Rossi early, while telling the twosome about Cat Noir's actions regarding Lila's lies in the original timeline, while simultaneously giving Cat Noir a firm reality check about compulsive liars like Lila particularly when someone with the same powers and motives as Hawk Moth is active, and while partially telling the twosome about dimensions similar to his own in terms of Ladybug and Cat Noir being fictional without spilling anything else. There's still a great deal of details about the Miraculous Ladybug future and Steel Butterfly's origin that still need to happen in chronological order and be kept secret for the time being respectively, after all.

This is why, when Ladybug and Cat Noir rendezvous with Steel Butterfly on the Eiffel Tower, she asks, "All right, SB. What's there to know about this Lila Rossi that Corvo told us you wanted to warn us about?"

Steel Butterfly replies, "What's there to know about Lila Rossi? Let me start from the beginning based on what I already know. She's always seeking attention because her mother is not home much because of her job as an Italian ambassador at the embassy consuming hours of quality time with Lila, and because Lila's mother is divorced from her husband because of circumstances that were never revealed to even me when I was learning everything I can about the original timeline. But I think that Ms. Rossi divorced her husband for possibly teaching Lila about lying while purposefully not telling her about the consequences and dangers of lying. As for Lila Rossi herself, she's highly deceptive and crafty, being able to manipulate people exceedingly well with her lies simply by utilizing her peers' hobbies, crushes, future jobs, favorite celebrities and so on. Her lies are so outlandish and yet a lot of people, including your classmates in the original timeline, are so dumb that they are willing to accept Lila's empty promises just for a shortcut to their careers, and that always results in disappointments and failures upon finding out too late Lila's promises were lies, all just for hours of attention. Lila's lies are so absurd that your classmates in the original timeline simply forgot that they can just use Google to search for anything related to her lies, all because your classmates had no common sense and no working brain cells in the original timeline. Some people like my own friends in the superhero community even remarked that they've never seen someone as skilled at lying as her. Except for maybe paling in comparison to the Devil himself, Mephistopheles, as he is the Father of Lies. Anyway, this Lila Rossi is overly fond of attention and has no qualms or restrictions with how she chooses to acquire it, leading to her making up various false tales about herself towards her peers in order to gather as much attention as possible. Possibly a sociopath, this girl views no harm in her actions and unfortunately, she possesses absolutely no remorse for her actions whatsoever. Yet, she does become incredibly distraught if her lies are exposed and her empire burns to the ground. Furthermore, she also envies the attention others receive, as she'll quickly become incredibly jealous if Adrien Agreste were to suddenly reveal that he's in love with Marinette and is currently dating her in one possible situation in the near-future. And this basket case will most definitely not hesitate to go out of her way to make Adrien feel the same way about her, no matter how long it takes, no matter how many times people try to get in her way for the greater good of such a healthy relationship, and no matter how many times Adrien turns her down just because of how he was raised. Also, this big liar does not – I repeat – does not ever forgive people she thinks have wronged her by exposing her deceitful nature when in reality, they're doing the right thing to prevent their friends from ruining their futures with lies before it's too late, hence why she's delusional. Whether any of us manages to expose her lies gently or harshly, she'll never forgive us, even if we didn't ask for her forgiveness in the first place. She especially doesn't like being lectured by superheroes, classmates, employers or even her own mother about the values of honesty and the consequences for lying on a daily basis, hence her arrogant and delusional views on the human race of the world. Moreover, if anyone attempts to expose her, she won't hesitate to make them miserable or break them down as discreetly as possible just to get them out of her way. This especially goes for doing whatever is necessary to get her targets Akumatized as soon as she undergoes Akumatization for the first time, only to end up succeeding or failing. Whichever one comes first. Furthermore, whenever someone tries to expose her in public, she uses crocodile tears – fake tears that are not from real sadness to make people more sympathetic towards her – to make the exposer look like a bully. Furthermore, after being ousted by either Cat Noir, you or me, Lila's hatred of either of us in general just so happens to be rather petty and undying. Meaning, after being ousted as a liar to Adrien Agreste during the girl's first day of school and after being Akumatized for the first time, Lila easily gets enraged at the attention that Ladybug will ever receive. And Lila is willing to grab up any given opportunity to get back at Ladybug for SUPPOSEDLY ruining her chances with Adrien on her first day at school here in Paris despite somewhat knowing the real reason for how and why that happened. Thus, as the Akumatized fox-themed supervillain known as Volpina, Lila will take great joy in beating up Ladybug and tormenting her, seemingly looking and feeling gleeful in nearly succeeding at taking her Miraculous twice in the future by exploiting Ladybug's emotions. Through her usage of her powers of illusion as Volpina, Lila can be incredibly precarious in her attempts to overcome us all, almost never confronting us directly and always using her illusions to fool and trick us into being where she needs us to be, waiting for the right time to strike fatally. Although, her arrogance in doing so seems to be on an equal matching level with her cunning intellect. As shown in a future battle I had to observe in order to learn more, Lila takes pleasure in doing whatever she can to ruin Ladybug's reputation – and my own if optional – by simply using illusions, even after being deakumatized, thus showing that she possesses absolutely no remorse for even those actions. Unfortunately, this also makes Lila the first of Hawk Moth's victims to genuinely enjoy her actions as an Akumatized supervillain. And, by extension, this makes Lila the first of Hawk Moth's initial victims to willingly work for him, even while not Akumatized, just to settle a petty grudge. Overall, Lila is vindictive, spiteful, arrogant, delusional, prideful, greedy and spoiled. She doesn't care one bit about human beings. She doesn't care one bit about even her own mother despite knowing that without both of her parents, Lila wouldn't exist. Additionally, she doesn't give a flipping crap about the people she tries to befriend using her silver tongue. Lila just views them as pawns and slaves for her future goals. She doesn't even have an ounce of tolerance about her grandparents' religious beliefs, even in terms of following the 'thou shalt not bear false witness' rule from the Ten Commandments. In addition to that, Lila doesn't care one bit about her grandparents, nor does she have one ounce of love for them. She doesn't give a f****** crap about the consequences of her actions. She thinks that nothing matters as long as she gets what she wants, even if it means aiding and abetting a magic-abusing terrorist in order to settle a petty grudge against any person calling her out on her lies in public, especially superheroes. And she is completely detached from telling any sort of truth whatsoever. But that's not all; I collected evidence of Lila's future counterpart doing the one thing I initially thought she didn't have the guts or the audacity to do:" Steel Butterfly shows Ladybug and Cat Noir footage of Lila as Hawk Moth in the future as he finishes, "Literally becoming Gabriel Agreste's successor as Hawk Moth in the future."

Ladybug and Cat Noir were so shocked to the point where they exclaimed in unison, "WHAT THE F***?!" "WHAT THE F***?!"

Steel Butterfly mentally noted that his two favorite heroes hearing him swear whenever he's in a bad mood must've rubbed off on them.

Ladybug asks, "But wait; if Lila becomes Hawk Moth in the future, why wasn't she exposed sooner in the primary timeline?"

Steel Butterfly answers, "Well, the thing is, before Lila started school at Francoise Dupont this year on May 21st, she had Alya post an interview on the Ladyblog about a fake story detailing how Ladybug saved Lila from a supervillain attack and became best friends with each other. Unfortunately, Alya doesn't check her sources when it comes to people making false claims about her favorite superheroes like Ladybug and Majestia." Ten minutes pass as Steel Butterfly finishes explaining Lila's crimes in season 1 and season 2. Then he explains Lila's crimes in season 3 thereafter, "Then, after Lila's third Akumatization – this time as Chameleon, a supervillain who becomes a duplicate of someone else by kissing them, thereby putting them to sleep and allowing her to duplicate everything, including superpowers – Adrien convinced you to take the high road with Lila's lies because he was unaware of Lila threatening you in the girls' bathroom by saying she would turn all of your friends against you and ensure that Adrien would never love you, along with the fact that Adrien thought if he ever raised a fuss about someone like Lila, his father wouldn't hesitate to pull him out of school, in addition to the fact that Adrien didn't want to lose the first true friends he made by simply telling them something they either don't want to hear or generally just don't want to listen to, and also because Adrien didn't know that lies hurt people because of how he was raised. You see, Gabriel literally neglected to teach Adrien about the differences between taking the high road with tabloids and taking the high road with compulsive liars, both including and excluding those who secretly collaborate with magic-abusing terrorists just to settle a petty grudge. Unfortunately, this was part of Gabriel's plan to make sure that Adrien would never become like a normal kid, to ensure that Adrien would succeed his father in running the Gabriel fashion brand, and to ensure that Adrien would be molded into the image of perfection no matter of whether or not Gabriel is aware that absolutely nobody on this Earth is perfect. And on an off-topic note, in my travels across the multiverse that I conducted fifteen years ago, I've seen a number of different universes that feature your dimension as a TV show directed by Jeremy Zag and a '"real life"' version of Thomas Astruc."

Cat Noir inquires, "And in those universes, we're actually fictional?"

Steel Butterfly answers, "Yes, but here, you're very much real and so am I."

Cat Noir and Ladybug sighed in relief.

Then Ladybug asks, "And in those dimensions, how did people react to Adrien's primary counterpart telling my primary counterpart to take the high road with Lila's lies?"

Steel Butterfly answers sternly, "Many people were so outraged that they called out the creators of the show about it, demanding explanations that didn't even satisfy them one bit, and that lead to an explosion of fanfiction stories being made about Lila's lies being exposed before she can cause any irreparable harm."

Ladybug and Cat Noir shared a knowing glance with each other on the subject, knowing that they were gonna have to talk with their kwamis about this sooner or later.

Then Cat Noir asked, "So, can you please tell me the difference between taking the high road with tabloids and taking the high road with compulsive liars like this soon-to-be future Hawk Moth?"

Steel Butterfly gladly agreed and he went into a five minute lecture about the differences between taking the high road with Lila's lies and taking the high road with tabloids, especially in regards to how many people will get Akumatized over Lila's lies should Hawk Moth somehow get the desired power boost needed to Akumatize an army of supervillains. But Steel Butterfly purposefully and unhesitatingly left out the part about Hawk Moth actually getting the desired power boost as Scarlet Moth during Heroes' Day. There were still some things out of multiple things in this universe that still needed to continue in chronological order and be kept secret for the time being, after all.

But Steel Butterfly mentally decided he would reveal more during the Collector incident.

Then Steel Butterfly went into a tirade about the things Lila Rossi had done, especially because Gabriel's primary counterpart was only enabling and allowing Lila to indulge in her lies and her infatuation of Adrien long enough for Gabriel's own goals of resurrecting his wife to succeed, and that he planned to dispose of Lila if she should outlive her usefulness or if she crosses a line in her obsession with Adrien such as physically harming him or sexually assaulting him. Or even if Lila forces Marinette to commit suicide. All culminating in the "season 4 finale known in the 'real world' as The Last Attack of Hawk Moth/Hawk Moth's Final Attack."

Steel Butterfly said The Last Attack of Hawk Moth/Hawk Moth's Final Attack because, like before, it was still the wrong time and place to reveal everything else, including Gabriel becoming Scarlet Moth during Heroes' Day and becoming Shadow Moth in season 4. Besides, those are also things Steel Butterfly knew had to still play out in chronological order somewhat. And Gabriel becoming Scarlet Moth and Shadow Moth were also things that had to be kept secret for the time being until the Collector incident happens.

After another few minutes of explaining the things that Master Fu told him to explain for the time being, Steel Butterfly coordinated with Ladybug and Cat Noir to begin plans to have Lila Rossi exposed as a liar to the entire school faculty – staff and students alike – and to make sure she gets caught in the act of willingly taking Hawk Moth's Akumas so that Lila won't be able to cause irreparable harm.

After patrolling the skies once again, the three Heroes of Paris left to return home so they can rest their bodies. After all, for Marinette and Adrien, this was a school night.

The next day, as Miguel Guevara went about his usual routine about going to the local gym close enough to his apartment, his Butterfly Sense went off, and he dodged a sonic knife being thrown.

Miguel whirls around to see the latest Akumatized supervillain flying via a jetpack emitting visible sound waves.

The Akuma villain declares, "Listen and listen good, Paris! I am Shriek Scream, and I will make you all scream like I was forced into screaming in fear during my time working on stupid horror films!"

Shriek Scream throws sonic swords and knives near the citizens of Paris, the intense sound waves making everyone scream in pain.

Miguel takes advantage of everyone being distracted by using shadow travel to return to his lair.

Miguel bemoans before musing, "Great, another Akumatized supervillain coming to be after the defeat of another chronological Akumatized supervillain. Well, at least I'll be able to introduce another new superhero to join my army on Heroes' Day."

Miguel then declares, "Leppey, Elegant Wings Live!"

Miguel becomes Steel Butterfly.

The window to Steel Butterfly's lair opens, and his Miraculous glows when it senses the positive emotions of Hortense Affré in an Akuma bunker near the Grand Paris Hotel.

Steel Butterfly then makes a Tenshi and says, "Fly off, my angelic Tenshi, and Tenshize Hortense Affré!"

The Tenshi flies off to the Akuma bunker.

As soon as it merges with Hortense's water bottle while she's holding onto it, the mental connection is established.

Steel Butterfly says, "Brown Blaze, I am Steel Butterfly. I'm giving you the power to utilize all of Batman's gadgets and contingency plans in order to deakumatize Shriek Scream. Do you accept my offer?"

Hortense/Brown Blaze replies, "You got it, Steel Butterfly!"

Hortense becomes Brown Blaze, a hybrid combination of the Arkham Knight Batman, Blade the Vampire Hunter, the first version of Terry McGinnis as Batman, and the second version of Terry McGinnis as Batman.

Brown Blaze flies off to Notre-Dame High School, where Shriek Scream is attacking the students there.

But the main reason why Shriek Scream is attacking the Notre-Dame students is because they're attempting to make their own horror movie for an upcoming competition that Steel Butterfly flawlessly remembers being the one from Horrificator.

Brown Blaze throws a couple of smoke bombs at Shriek Scream and she manages to subdue the villain with titanium ropes before knocking Shriek Scream out cold.

Steel Butterfly shows up and breaks the Akumatized object, which was Shriek Scream's helmet.

Steel Butterfly purifies the Akuma and lets out a stream of electricity that heals everyone of the injuries sustained by the supervillain attack.

Shriek Scream turns back into a French woman who appeared to be a taller version of Ms. Mendeleiev but with natural black hair in a French braid, French violet nail polish on her fingernails, an outfit consisting of defaced horror movie hero clothes, and without any reading glasses whatsoever.

Steel Butterfly gawks in extreme shock.

Brown Blaze questions, "Is that who I think it is, SB?"

Steel Butterfly answers, "Andrée Aliker, the lead protagonist of the horror movie Puke Stench with the smelly vampire themed after Joseph Bertrand III from inFAMOUS 2."

After explaining to Andrée that she got Akumatized, she explained in return that she hated working as a horror movie star and wanted to quit, but her boss threatened her with the death of her comatose mother in secret.

Steel Butterfly was so enraged that he decapitated her former boss in public while explaining to everyone in public why he sometimes refuses to let scum like the former movie director live.

And just when some nosy reporters were going to try to slam Steel Butterfly's reputation, Lion Hunter threatened them with large axes and butcher's knives while conveying the warning without having to say anything.

Steel Butterfly then used his Sublimation superpower to make everyone who knows about him without knowing too much to be more understanding about the reason why, like the Ghost Rider, SB kills those who either kill innocent people, threaten innocent people, or have already killed innocent people by using the explanation from a popular Ghost Rider fanfiction from fanfiction dot net on his Earth, but without spilling that last part.

And now, Steel Butterfly was in his lair returning Brown Blaze back to normal while guaranteeing that he'll call upon her assistance again in the future if he needs her again.