A Miraculous Story Book 2: Iceolator

• Hurt •

Susanna sat beside her daughter, Susan, laying on the couch in their home. She had called off work for the day when she found out that she was sick. Marcus went to work but Susanna had stayed home to take care of Susan.

"Marc should be back soon," muttered Susanna to herself, squinting to see the time that was displayed on the stove.

Susan was scrolling through her phone as she lay down on the couch. A cough escaped her every once in a while. She was only ten, so she didn't know a lot about the world yet.

"Heyyy, isn't that Marc?" Susan broke the silence, zooming in on a photo she came across in her Instagram feed. "Marc is in Lila's Instagram post mommy!" The girl held her phone to her mother's face to show her, excited that her own brother had such a position. Lila knew a bunch of Hollywood directors, she knew Prince Ali, she even knew Ladybug!

"What?" Susanna looked to where Susan was pointing. It was the picture of Lila and Ladybug in the art room. Sure enough, Marc could be seen sitting by Nathaniel in the background of the photo. The caption read, "Ladybug came to see me in Art Club today, again! So glad I'm friends with her."

"When was this posted?" Susanna asked. Her voice went cold and hard.

"Umm..." Susan took her phone back and checked the post, stifling a cough. "Oh, wow, 8 minutes ago," she replied, showing her mother the time. She cleared her throat.

"I told him to come straight home after school, why is he at Art Club with that Lila?" Susanna asked nobody in particular. She felt anger from being disobeyed and lied to and fear for Marc's safety building up inside her. "That boy better come back home right now," she muttered as she quickly stood up. She stomped into the room she shared with her husband without turning on the light and grabbed her phone from the nightstand using the dim blue light of the evening coming from the window to see. After scrolling for a few moments, she found and selected her son's contact.

Marc's phone began to ring. He stopped explaining to Nathaniel the plot he had just come up with to check who it was from. His heart dropped when he saw it was his mother and when he remembered he should've been home right now.

"Yeah, mom?" He answered as casually as he could.

"Where are you?"

"Um, I'm at home right now," he lied. Nathaniel gave him a strange look, but Marc tried to ignore it.

"Nice try mister, I'm at home right now watching your sick sister." Marc felt his heart rate increase. He knew he was in big trouble. "You'd better come home right now, and tomorrow come home straight after school, and I mean it." She hung up.

Marc slumped forward and lay his forehead on the table, closing his eyes in defeat and frustration.

Nathaniel rubbed his back gently. "Hey, what was that about? Why did you tell her you were at home?"

Marc groaned. He had no choice but to break the bad news to him. He sat up and looked Nathaniel in the eyes as he explained everything that happened: how his parents were overprotective and banned him from Art Club because of Lila, and how he couldn't find a good chance to tell him throughout the day and he wasn't sure what to do. "I'm sorry, I just didn't want to stop writing the comics and I knew you would be disappointed..." he finished, trailing off.

Nathaniel nodded after he had finished and smiled. "That's okay, I could go over to your house after school if your parents are okay with it, that is, and we can work on our book there!"

Marc was beaming. "That's a great idea! I'll ask them when I get home today! I didn't think of that, ha!" He chuckled, then frowned. "Since I'm going back early, the bus isn't going to be there..." he realized.

"I can walk home with you if you want, I've got nothing better to do if you're leaving earlier anyway. Plus, you can keep telling me about that plot!" Nathaniel suggested.

Marc breathed a sigh of relief. Nath was so kind and amazing, he felt so glad that everything was going to work out in the end. He felt very hopeful now, in comparison to how he felt just last night. "That sounds great, thanks Nath!" He replied cheerfully.

The two of them packed up their stuff and began their walk to Marc's house.

Susanna hung up and frowned at her phone, furrowing her brow. Marc usually wasn't one to disobey, but he took advantage of the fact that we weren't going to be home today till later, she thought. She didn't know what she was feeling. She felt angry and betrayed that her son would lie to both of them and put himself in danger, especially after agreeing to do what they said because they loved him. Did the words "I love you," not mean anything to him at all? All she wanted to do was protect his son from harm.
She sat down on the bed, still holding the phone in her hand and not bothering to turn it off. She realized now how she felt about it all: hurt.

Somewhere across town, a circular window opened, brightening up a room full of white butterflies.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later." Hawk Moth raised his arms as if to try to absorb as much of the negativity from Susanna as he could. "Time to feast on these emotions!" He caught a butterfly and quickly turned it into an akuma, setting it free through the small hole in the center of the window.
"Follow those emotions, and evilize this protective mother!"

Susanna heard coughing from the living room and was suddenly brought out of her thoughts and emotions, remembering that Susan was sick. She blinked the tears out of her eyes and returned her phone to the nightstand before quickly rushing out to her. Placing a hand on her daughter's forehead, she gasped gently. "Susan, you're getting hot. I told you to sleep, not be on your phone!" Susanna felt like crying, having not fully recovered from her son's actions, but she knew she couldn't in front of Susan. It'd only make her worry. She went to get an ice pack from the fridge in the kitchen to help her feel better.

What she didn't see was a black butterfly that slipped into the house under the window in the kitchen.

She made her way back to her daughter's sick form laying on the couch and sighed, unaware of the akuma following her. She shifted the ice pack to her left hand because it was starting to freeze her right one.

Susan angled her head to look at her mother to see what she brought. Her eyes widened when she saw the akuma.
"Mom, behind you!"

It was too late. The akuma entered the ice pack Susanna held in her left hand. She stopped in her tracks and looked up, staring into nothingness, as a scowl formed on her face.

Susanna heard a voice right in front of her. "Iceolator, I am Hawk Moth. You want to protect your children at all costs, don't you? Well, I'm giving you the power to isolate them from anything potentially dangerous to them. But, I ask one favor from you in return for your children's safety. I want you to get me the Miraculous of Ladybug and Cat Noir. Sound good?"

"Yes, Hawk Moth. Thank you for this opportunity," Susanna growled. She allowed dark bubbles to surround her body, spreading from the ice pack in her left hand.

Susan gaped in terror at the akumatization of her mother. She stood to run, but ran straight into an ice wall. The last thing she saw was a ceiling of cold, hard blue.

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Things are getting interesting! >:)
See you guys next time!
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