Friday (2)

'I can't believe it's already Friday,' Marinette said as the three girls ate their breakfast, 'We only have two weeks left here and then we'll have to go back to Paris.' 

'Not me, since I got adopted by Bruce, I'm living here and going to Gotham Academy,' Lizzie replied. 

'Wait, doesn't that mean that you and Damian are adoptive twins? Since the both of you are born in the same year,' Chloe pointed out. 

'I have no idea, never thought about it like that,' Lizzie answered. 

'Tch, I seriously hope that is not the case, it's like having Marcus around you 24/7,' Damian replied. 

'Oh, you can't compare me to him,' Lizzie replied. 

'Speaking of which, let's go to school,' Marinette said as she finished up her breakfast and went to change her shoes. 

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'Good morning class,' their geography teacher, Ms. Park, greeted them when she entered the classroom, 'All of you would have to do a project by making a diorama for a place, like country, kingdom, cities and others. You will need to explain about your diorama and some special stuff about the place that you picked,' Ms. Park announced. 

'This is going to be so exciting.' 'I wonder who will have the best diorama.' 'I can't wait to start this project.' The classroom erupted with chattering students. 

'Students,' Ms. Park called to regain attention before explaining about the project, 'This will be a group project with five to six people, you can pick your teammates. Lastly, the library, computer room and science lab will be open for all of you, just don't blow the science lab up.' 

The chatter erupted again and everyone was beyond excited at the news. 

'Class,' Ms. Park called again, 'The due date for this project is next Thursday. Now, for the rest of the class, you may pick a teammate and discuss about the project.' 

Students started standing up and rushing to their friends, grouping with each other. 

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'Wait, a diorama about a country with special features?' Lizzie asked to make sure she wasn't hearing things because none of her teachers had let her done something so exciting before. 

'Yes,' Marcus answered, confirming that Lizzie was not hearing things, before asking, 'What's so surprising? We do it all the time.' 

'Oh, it's just that the projects we do are usually boring, like work with your teammate to write an essay about a nightmare or work with your teammate to color,' Lizzie replied. 

'That sounds boring,' Marcus said before adding, 'On another note, what about the six of us team up?' 

'I'm down for that,' Lizzie replied. 

'I would love that, thank you!' Marinette replied. 

'Fine by me, at least it's not with those ridiculous, utterly ridiculous people from our class,' Chloe answered. 

'Sure,' Jon answered. 

'Tch, whatever,' Damian said. 

'Great, now which country will our diorama be about?' Marcus asked. 

'Umm, we can pick Vatican City, it's the smallest country in the world, it's total area is 0.44 square kilometers,' Lizzie answered. 

'Oh, I heard of that country, it's surrounded by Rome and Italy and the whole city is just one building called the Roman Catholic Church,' Marinette replied. 

'That is a cool idea,' Damian answered. 

'See? Having me as a sister isn't that bad,' Lizzie replied. 

'SISTER?' Marcus exclaimed. 

'Shh, not so loud,' Lizzie shushed Marcus. 

'What do you mean by sister?' Jon asked. 

'I got adopted by Bruce Wayne so technically I am his adopted sister,' Lizzie replied. 

'That is so surprising,' Marcus stated. 

'Yeah, but can we focus on the project?' Chloe asked, hoping to get them back on track. 

'Yep, we can do research for the project first and then start making the diorama,' Marinette said. 

'Can we use the computer room now?' Lizzie asked. 

'Ask the teacher,' Marcus replied. 

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'Good morning Ms. Park, can my group use the computer room for research now?' Lizzie asked their teacher. 

'Of course, you can also use other rooms in the school to help with the project, but remember to go for lunch and your extra courses,' Ms. Park replied. 

'Thank you, Ms. Park,' Lizzie thanked before turning to tell the others. 

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'Ok, we have full permission to use any room that can help us with this project in this school, but we need to go to lunch and our extra courses after,' Lizzie reported to the others. 

'Ok, let's go, we're going to need to use the computer room first for research,' Damian replied as he turned towards the door.

'DAMIAN!' Lila shouted in Damian's direction. 

'Tch, what is it?' Damian turned to face the liar. 

'Would you want to be in our group?' Lila gestured to Alya and her. 

'I already have a group,' Damian replied as he turned once again to leave, but got stopped by Lila. 

'Well, I mean, can't you just leave Marinette, Lizzie and Chloe, since teacher said five to six people in a group, so us, Marcus and Jon can work in a group. Plus, I know all about the Kingdom of Achu,' Lila replied. 

'Tch, like I said before, I already have a group and I'm not leaving them, so I would suggest for you to find your own group with other people as I am not available to join your group,' Damian replied, very annoyed, but Damian knew just the thing that would send Lila mad, and he wanted to see her seethe with anger. So he turned and grabbed Marinette's hand on the way to drag her out of the classroom and his plan worked just as he thought, leaving everyone who was watching speechless. 

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'Damn, making moves on my best friend already?' Lizzie teased Damian as they entered the computer room, only then Damian released Marinette's hand. 

'No, just wanted to make Lila mad,' Damian replied as he sat down. 

'Are you okay, Mari? You look like a tomato,' Chloe said as she sat next to Marinette. 

'Damian, I think you broke Marinette,' Jon replied as he saw how red Marinette was. 

'I'm sorry, it was really just to piss off Lila,' Damian apologized to Marinette as her blush disappeared slowly. 

'Well, we can focus on the project now,' Lizzie said as she turned to the computer in front of her and went to google Vatican City. 

'What if all of us research about Vatican City for 15 minutes, then we compile our data together and start planning our diorama,' Marinette suggested after calming down. 

'Great idea, but what if we worked in pairs, since there will be other people using this room and we won't want to block other people,' Marcus said as the room filled up with people before he whispered in Lizzie's ear, 'Play matchmaker with me.' 

'That's a great idea, especially coming from you. What about Chloe and Jon, Damian and Marinette and I'll tolerate Marcus,' Lizzie replied. 

'Admit it, you have been waiting forever to say that,' Marcus replied as he took an extra chair and put it next to Lizzie's chair. 

'Yeah, I have been waiting for forever to say that,' Lizzie replied, sarcastically. 

'Ok, let's start this,' Jon replied as he took an extra chair and sat next to Chloe while Damian sat next to Marinette. 

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'So, Vatican City is the smallest country with the size of a city hence the name Vatican City,' Jon said. 

'Yep, we can find out why Vatican City became a country first, that will be interesting,' Chloe replied as she turned around to look at Jon to get confirmation, to which he nodded. 

'So, it became a country because the Italian government and the Catholic Church signed the Lateran Pacts,' Chloe summarized their research. 

'Indeed, and it they signed it because of a dispute between the two parties here,' Jon said. 

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'Should I write that down?' Marinette asked as she pointed at the computer screen. 

'Go ahead,' Damian answered as Marinette wrote the information in her notebook. 

'Ok, 15 minutes is up, let's share the information we learned, compile it and then start thinking about how to make the diorama,' Lizzie said as she stood up and went to a round table where they can talk about the project. 

'Well, we researched about why Vatican City became a country,' Chloe showed her notes to the others. 

'Interesting, the two of us,' Lizzie pointed to herself and Marcus, 'found fun facts about Vatican City.' 

'And we researched about general information,' Marinette replied. After looking through their research, they compiled it to create a script for presenting. 

The bell rang and they went to lunch. 'Should we continue after school or another day since Jon and Marcus are coming over?' Lizzie asked as they sat down and ate their food. 

'After school, I'll tell Alfred that he'll come when we finish,' Damian replied as he took his phone out. 

'Great, do we have any plans for tomorrow?' Marinette asked. 

'That depends on where all of you would want to go,' Damian said as he kept his phone in his pocket and continued eating. 

'Can we go to the beach?' Marcus asked. 

'Yes, we should go to the beach,' Lizzie replied. 

'So, that's settled, we're going to the beach,' Marinette said. 

'Great, it's been a long time since I went to the beach,' Chloe replied. 

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'I am so tired,' Chloe said as she stretched, leaving their fighting classroom. 

School was just over and the group was heading to the computer room unlike their usual routine where they exit the school. The halls were quite empty as the students were all near the entrance of the school. 

They walked into the computer room and it was filled with students who wanted to finish homework before they got picked up, some just wanted to research things. The group picked the only available table and sat down. 

The hours passed and they created a sketch of the diorama and made a prototype based off of the sketch. It was getting late and they needed to leave before the school closed. They were the only ones left in the school except for the faculty. 

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'Alfred is on the way,' Damian said as he looked up from his phone. 

'I want to sleep,' Lizzie yawned. 

'Just hold on a little longer and you can sleep in the car,' Marinette replied. 

The car pulled up and the six of them went in, it was a seven-seater car. They went to Wayne Manor, showered and went for dinner. After dinner, they gathered in the living room. 

'So, what are we going to do for the rest of the night?' Marcus replied. 

'Test and find out who the true cat Miraculous holder is and train him,' Marinette suggested. 

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'Plagg, who is your true holder?' Marinette asked Plagg. 

'Hmm, vibes, I'm getting strong vibes from Marcus,' Plagg answered as he pointed to Marcus with whatever those things are. 

'Hell yeah, I got chosen,' Marcus exclaimed. 

'Lizzie, you're in charge of training him,' Marinette ordered. 

'Why me?' 

'Because you can use your illusions to help and you are the most experienced fighter in our group without the Miraculous,' Marinette explained, she was too tired to train Marcus. 

'Fine, any place we can break stuff?' Lizzie asked Damian. 

'There's an unused training room,' Damian replied as he turned on the television, so they could watch a movie. 

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'This was not part of the plan, I'm supposed to be pushing Jon and Chloe closer together while Marinette trains you,' Lizzie told Marcus, annoyed that she has to train Marcus now. 

'Might as well accept it,' Marcus replied as he wore the Miraculous of the cat. 

'K, explaining time. In short, with the Miraculous your abilities increase, you become stronger and faster, you have a metal baton that can extend to great lengths and can help you get around the place, it can also contact other Miraculous holders-' Lizzie was cut off by Marcus. 

'Wait, wait, wait, why can't you just call Hawkmoth, isn't he a Miraculous holder?' Marcus asked. 

'Well, you kinda need to add the other Miraculous holder's contact first. As I was saying, you can contact other Miraculous holders and civilians if you have their number,' Lizzie answered before continuing to explain Cataclysm, 'And with the Miraculous, you get a special power, yours is called Cataclysm which can destroy anything as long as you touch it, but it can also destroy humans, so be careful.'  (A/N, this part is my headcanon)

'Cataclysm,' Marcus said and touched the wall, but it didn't crumble because he hasn't transformed yet. 

'You can't Cataclysm things if you haven't transformed yet, and I am not teaching you the transforming words until you behave,' Lizzie said. 

'The transforming words are "Plagg, claws out",' Plagg whispered in Marcus's ear. 

'Plagg, claws out,' Marcus said and he transformed. 

'I can't believe it,' Lizzie said shaking her head as Marcus finished transforming. Marcus wore some combat boots that connected to his suit which was leather and had short sleeves, there were some neon green designs that complimented the black of his suit. He had a black belt that acted as a tail, he was also wearing some black and neon green gloves and a hood that covered his head and cat ears, he still had the signature bell dangling from his neck area. He was also holding the signature metal baton.

'This is so cool, Cataclysm,' Marcus exclaimed like a fanboy. 

'Wait, that's dangerous,' Lizzie tried to stop Marcus, but Marcus touched something that faded to dust. 

'Cataclysm,' Marcus exclaimed again, but he couldn't use that power anymore. 

'You haven't even let me explain. Once you use Cataclysm, you will have five minutes before you transform back and you need to feed Plagg Camembert to transform again,' Lizzie replied as she dragged Marcus to sit down. 

'Ok,' Marcus replied as he sat down again. 

'Now, today's plan is to get you used to the increased strength, speed and other stuff, if we still have time, we're going to test your fighting skills against me, but you can't use Cataclysm yet. Any questions?' Lizzie asked. 

'How do I detransform?' Marcus asked. 

'Say "Plagg, claws in",' Lizzie said. 

'Plagg, claws in.' 

'Plagg, here's your Camembert,' Lizzie waved the stinky cheese around while Plagg greedily flew to the Camembert and ate it in one big bite. 

'Can I transform again?' Marcus asked. 

'Yes,' Lizzie replied as Marcus transformed, she then said, 'Plagg needs to eat a lot of Camembert or he won't be satisfied, so you'll need to buy tons of it.'

'Got it,' Marcus answered. 

'Come here,' Lizzie motioned to a punching bag, 'Punch it, don't use all of your strength though.' 

'Yes, ma'am,' Marcus saluted, getting an eye roll from Lizzie. He then punched the punching bag with a medium amount of strength and the punching bag was pushed to the floor. 

'As you can tell, your strength is increased when you've transformed,' Lizzie explained before continuing, 'So, you must know how to control it. Exercise one, punch that punching bag, but push it around 25°. Got it?' 

'Yep,' Marcus replied as he started controlling his strength, there was a measuring thing next to the punching bag that could record how much it was pushed back. 

'Less strength,' Lizzie said as she sat down. 

'Can you try once for me?' Marcus asked, wanting to see Lizzie in her hero costume. 

'Trixx, let's pounce,' Lizzie transformed into Masquerade, she hit the punching bag just enough to reach exactly 25°, 'Trixx, let's rest, your turn.' 

'Got it, boss,' Marcus replied as he continued trying to get to 25°. 

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'I wonder how Lizzie and Marcus are doing,' Marinette said as she turned to look down the hallway that Lizzie and Marcus disappeared down around 15 minutes ago. 

'Lizzie's probably giving Marcus a hard time and Marcus is probably annoying Lizzie,' Chloe told Marinette. 

'That is most likely true,' Damian replied as he took a handful of popcorn from the bowl. 

'Wait, what happened?' Marinette asked because she missed that one scene in the movie. 

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'Ma'am, I think I've got it,' Marcus told Lizzie as he rotated her phone down, so she can stop scrolling on it. 

'Really?' Lizzie asked as her grip on the phone got tighter while she looked up at Marcus before she said, 'Show me.' 

'Yes ma'am,' Marcus saluted as he went to the punching bag and punched at exactly 25° angle. 

'Nice, now punch as hard as you can on this machine, punch 'till you can exert 10,000 newtons of force,' Lizzie instructed. 

'Yes boss,' Marcus replied as he walked away to finish the exercise which he was done with in a minute. 

'Good job, the second thing to get used to is your speed and the last thing we'll explore tonight is resistance unless we have extra time,' Lizzie explained before continuing, 'For your speed training, try throwing punches as fast as you can, then finish this obstacle course in 20 seconds, it's not hard.' 

'Umm, so I just start punching?' Marcus asked. 

'100 punches in 20 seconds, use that machine, it can count how many punches and the time,' Lizzie said. 

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'Done,' Marcus exclaimed as he finished 102 punches is 20 seconds. 

'Great, very impressive. The more you train, the faster and stronger you become in that suit, you'll also build a greater resistance,' Lizzie explained, 'Now, finish this obstacle course.' 

'He's quite a fast boy, and strong,' Trixx noted. 

'Yeah, he is the third best fighter in his extra course and the top two are superheroes, so you can't really say he's weak,' Lizzie 

Marcus tried it twice and finished it in 19 seconds on his second try. 

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'Resistance is something you'll need to also train, so let me throw some punches at you,' Lizzie replied. 

'Trixx, let's pounce,' Lizzie transformed into Masquerade, her hair becoming black, the purple streak disappearing. 

'Wait, I'm supposed to let you punch me?' Marcus asked. 

'Yeah, you can fight back if you want,' Masquerade answered with a smirk as she slid right in front of Marcus and punched him across the room, 'A punch like that would probably have broke a bone or two, now that you are wearing your miraculous, you have stronger resistance.' 

'Yeah, but that hurt a lot,' Marcus shouted. 

'I'll go easier on you,' Masquerade replied. 

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'Let's take a break,' Masquerade said as she passed a water bottle to Marcus after ten minutes. 

'Thanks,' Marcus took the bottle and started drinking. 

'Now, something very important for a superhero is a catchy name that is easy to remember, any ideas?' Masquerade asked. 

'Hmm... What about... Midnight?' Marcus asked. 

'That is great. Oh, forgot to tell you, there will be some side effects when you are using your Miraculous, you'll act like a cat,' Masquerade explained. 

'Like?' Midnight asked. 

'Like meowing, crawling on all fours, and other side effects,' Masquerade explained. 

'Oh, that's not too bad,' Midnight sighed. 

'Come on, we're moving on. Your resistance is trained enough, since we have enough time, let's fight,' Masquerade said as she stood up, extending a hand towards Marcus to help pull him up. 

'Let's do this,' Midnight replied as he grabbed Masquerade's hand. 

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'He's not going to die, is he?' Marinette sobbed. 

'I seriously hope not, I just started liking him,' Chloe replied. 

"I g-guess this... is what I-I get for th-that..." the character said from the television. 

'NOOOOOOOOO!' Marinette screamed as big tears rolled down her cheeks. 

'Tissue?' Damian asked, holding up the tissue box towards Marinette. 

'T-thanks,' Marinette replied between sobs as she took the box of tissues. 

'Let's continue watching,' Jon said. 

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'How are you so strong with that Miraculous, when the both of us fought, it didn't even hurt as much,' Midnight asked as he laid across the floor. 

'I trained, you could possibly be stronger than me, but you'll need to train a lot more, almost three years worth of training. At Hawkmoths prime, we had to fight Akumatized Villains every single day,' Masquerade answered. 

'What about now? How often does Hawkmoth attack?' Midnight asked as he took a break. 

'Once every few months, he's been attacking less and less, probably growing old,' Masquerade answered as she sat beside Midnight. 

'That is not a lot,' Midnight noted. 

'We'll train this another day. Now, I want you to follow me on to the roof,' Masquerade stood up and walked to the door of the unused training room that is now used. 

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'What are we going to do?' Midnight asked his master, Masquerade. 

'Let's see how well you can jump on roofs with that baton of yours,' Masquerade answered as she jumped to another roof. 

'Umm...' Midnight fumbled with his baton before finally extending it, but after a few tries, he got the hang of it. 

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'What is that?' a civilian asked. 

'Two things jumping from roof to roof, probably a superhero or something,' another civilian answered. 

'Oh, right,' the first civilian replied. 

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'I think some people are looking at us,' Midnight said. 

'Definitely. Anyway, let's go back, we've trained enough for today,' Masquerade replied before jumping back to Wayne Manor, making sure no civilians followed her or Midnight. 

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'That movie is an emotional rollercoaster,' Chloe remarked as she handed Marinette a lot of tissues. 

'Hey, we're back from training,' Lizzie said as she entered from a hallway. 

'Hey, the movie just ended, so we're refilling the popcorn, sit down,' Chloe replied as Lizzie and Marcus sat on the bigger sofa next to Marinette and Damian, respectively. Chloe and Jon stood up from the smaller sofa and went to the kitchen to refill the popcorn

'What did you train?' Marinette asked Lizzie while waiting. 

'Oh, I let him get used to controlling his strength, speed, resistance, fought him and let him use his baton to jump from roof to roof,' Lizzie summarized the night. 

'That is what I expected of you, Liz,' Marinette replied. 

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'Ok, what genre should we watch? Romantic? Horror? Action?' Damian asked as he looked through the list of movies. 

'Horror,' Lizzie answered, 'I need something to wake me up.' 

'Ok, horror it is,' Damian replied as he selected a horror movie while going back to his spot in between Marinette and Marcus. 

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'AHHHHHHHHHHHH!' Marinette screamed. 

'Are you trying to burst my eardrums?' Lizzie and Damian asked at the same time as they covered their ears. 

'Sorry, I just got very scared,' Marinette replied, sheepishly. 

'Calm down, it's not that scary,' Lizzie patted Marinette on the back to calm her down. 

'Yeah, yeah, let's continue,' Marinette said as everyone turned to focus on the movie again. 

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'Your scream really scared the me,' Lizzie said as she laid on her bed in the room the three of them shared. 

'It was really scary at that moment,' Marinette replied as she sat on her bed. 

'I thought you saw a ghost, for real,' Chloe stated as she climbed the ladder to reach her bed. 

'Who's turning off the lights?' Lizzie asked. 

'Rock, Paper, Scissors, Shoot,' Marinette suggested to which Lizzie and Chloe nodded. 

The first round, Marinette shot scissors, Lizzie shot paper and Chloe shot rock. The second round, Marinette and Lizzie shot scissors while Chloe shot paper. 

'Damn it,' Chloe said as she climbed down the ladder and turned off the lights. 

'Goodnight,' Marinette shouted. 

'Night,' Lizzie replied. 

'Goodnight,' Chloe answered. 

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Another chapter done, I kinda forgot about Hawkmoth for a few chapters, so I'll try to include him more. I am very excited to write the next chapter because I would love a beach chapter. 

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and will continue reading, thank you!