"No, you're fine," Iris said with a smile. "Let's go! I know the best ice cream parlor." She then lead the way. The ice cream parlor wasn't too far from school. They walked in and they had to stand in a small line. She turned to him. "What are you going to get?"

"Vanilla," Gabriel answered without any pause to think. It was the only flavor he didn't find too sweet or too fruity, or too minty, etc. Ice cream always seemed to overdo every flavor. At least vanilla had a rich, creamy flavor that never failed despite differences in brand. You couldn't go wrong with vanilla.

"What about you?"

Iris just stared at him. So he was one of those people. Sticking to boring flavors. "I'm not sure. I always like to try something new." They caught up to the counter and ordered their ice cream. She got cookie dough chocolate chip. Iris paid for their ice cream despite Gabriel's protests. They then found a seat.

She took a bite of her ice cream. Yum! She liked this flavor now! "Do you want to try my ice cream? It's really good! Way better than boring vanilla."

Gabriel frowned as she not only paid for his ice cream but also insulted his flavor choice. Vanilla was a good flavor. Very subtle while still having plenty of flavor. He took a bite of it before answering her.  "No. That looks way too sweet. Vanilla is a perfectly good flavor."

"Oh, come on!" Iris said trying not laugh. "You need to lighten up and try new things. Life is more exciting that way." she then ended up laughing. "Sorry, you're fun to tease." she took a bite out of her ice cream. "You don't have to try it if you don't want to."

Gabriel took a bite of his ice cream and studied her for a moment. He didn't know what to make of Iris. Her teasing was unpredictable, and she took way more joy from it than he would have expected. Did friends do this sort of thing to each other? Part of him still wondered if this friendship was some cruel joke. But she just seemed so sincere...

"I think I'll stick with vanilla," he said. Silence fell over them. He wasn't quite sure what to change the subject to.

"Alright then, but promise me one day you will try a new flavor," Iris said. She leaned frowned and hold out a pinkie finger. "Promise me!" she gave him a little wink.

Gabriel stared at her pinkie for a moment before realizing what she was doing. He nodded. She probably wouldn't remember such a trivial promise later anyway. "Sure. I promise I'll try something new some day."

They finished their ice cream and hung out at the ice cream parlor for a little longer before they both had to leave. Gabriel didn't want to stay out too late tonight. It was best to be in his room when his parents started arguing about money, or he'd be pulled into it too.

When Iris returned home, she was greeted by her mother was in full panic. She hugged her the moment she walked into the living room. Iris gave her a puzzled look.

"I am so happy you made it back just in time!" she said, when she let her go.

"What's wrong?" Iris asked.

"A dragon just magically appeared in the city!"

"What!?" her mother then pointed to the TV. Iris walked over to it. The news was showing a huge purple dragon smashing into buildings. She looked at her mother. "Where's Papa and Elise?"

"You're father is on his way and Elise is her room. You stay there. If the thing gets closer to us we should leave at once."










"Uh.." Iris pinched her arm and felt pain. Yes this was happening. She then took a deep breath. Letting it sink in.

"Hurry we need to stop that dragon!"

"Okay, but how do I fight it?"

"Oh! You can fly and use fans! Now hurry!"

"Okay, okay. Pain, it's show time!" the kwami went inside the brooch and Iris transformed into a superhero. She opened the window and jumped out. Pain said she could fly and it was correct! She was flying through the city heading straight to the dragon.

Gabriel entered his apartment to hear the news blaring about some type of attack on the city. His father sat in the living room home incredibly early from his work for some reason, and stared at the screen. He quietly entered the kitchen to grab a bite to eat, not wanting to disturb his father.  Unfortunately, his mother was in there, hidden by the small wall that separated the kitchen from the main room.

"Oh. The dragon didn't get you?" She asked, unconcerned (and maybe even disappointed) as she worked on dinner. The portion didn't look big enough for three people.

"Dragon?" What was she talking about? There was no such thing as dragons. Was that the name of the person involved in the attack on the news?  He slipped past her to the pantry and looked for a snack.

"Don't touch the pretzels," his mother warned. She didn't even take the time to enlighten him on the dragon issue. Not that she would.

He bit his lip, staring at the pretzels as if taking them would be some important act of defiance. But he decided on the chips instead. Defiance was always met with more hostility. He poured a few chips on the plate and headed back to the living room.

'And the dragon has just taken another part of the city. Ambulances cannot respond fast enough. The mayor of Paris has declared a state of emergency. Please remain in your homes until the military can stop this... dragon...'  The news person was saying.

Gabriel stopped and turned to the TV long before he could make it to his room. Dragon? Even the news was saying Paris was being attacked by a giant, fire-breathing lizard... Was something in the water?

He hovered to watch the news feed, trying to catch a clip of the attacker. The plate of chips nearly slipped from his hand  a moment later when the news crew was suddenly dodging fire raining down on them. The brave cameraman took an extra moment to get a shaky video of the dragon before dropping the camera and running. The news feed went black, and the channel switched quickly back to its anchors.

That was all Gabriel needed to see before he walked quickly to his room, shut the door, and fell onto his bed, his mind trying to comprehend what just happened. He was a logical thinker. Dragons were not a logical thought. And how was the military going to stop a dragon, anyway? They were too well armored for human weapons, as far as his brief dabbling in fantasy novels would lead him to believe.

His eyes traveled the small, nearly empty room as he tried to clear his thoughts. Except, now his thoughts were even more incoherent as his eyes landed on the small, ornate box sitting on his nightstand. Everything in his room other than his bed was something he had somehow scraped up money to buy. His parents didn't give gifts. So, having a random box appear on his nightstand was not something that should happen.

He sat up, crawling over to the nightstand and taking the box in his hands to inspect. It was pretty small and had Chinese lettering around it that he couldn't read. What could be inside? Well, only one way to find out. He reached his hand to the lid, against his better judgement, and opened it.

A small sphere of pink light erupted instantly from the box causing him to throw it across the room, regretting his decision to investigate. Unfortunately, the light didn't go away. It materialized into a small, butterfly-like creature instead. A creature that was staring right at him.

"Yo," it said, looking slightly bored.

Gabriel stared at the creature, speechless, before laying down on his bed and covering his head with his pillow. Maybe it would go away if he ignored it. This was not what he wanted or needed in his life. 

"Hey. You need to come out from under there now. If I'm here, then there's some kind of emergency that you have to deal with," The creature said as he poked Gabriel.

Gabriel peaked out from under his pillow. "I am not dealing with a dragon."

"Woah. A dragon? This place is screwed if it's only Peacock fighting."

Again, against his better judgment, Gabriel pushed the pillow away and sat up. "What do you mean? Who's Peacock? Is someone else going out there and fighting that thing?"

The creature shrugged. "Peacock and Hawk Moth are usually paired together, so yeah, probably. A dragon's a little hard for one new miraculous holder, though."

That didn't really answer his question... "What exactly is going on?"

"Some enemy has appeared. You've been chosen.  Now you have to work with Peacock to fight the enemy. Understand?" 

"No. Why do I have to fight the enemy?"

"Do you want it to destroy this city?"

"No..."

"Then you're going to have to fight it. I'm a kwami. My name is Lycca. I can give you the power you need to fight. All you have to do is agree."

Gabriel stared at the kwami. It wasn't doing a very good job of convincing him. A roar  rumbled through the air as he sat there. Okay... The kwami wasn't convincing, but the dragon was getting closer and would probably level the area. That was convincing.

"Okay. Fine. What do I do?"

Lycca nodded, and suddenly hundreds of butterflies filled his room. "The item in that box is called a miraculous. You have to wear it so you can transform. Your main weapon is a sword, but you can also use these little ones to do some damage." Lycca smiled fondly at the butterflies as he spoke. "They can transform an ordinary person into a superhero or supervillain, depending on how you use them. You shouldn't use them for evil, though."

"I see..." How was he going to hide so many butterflies? 

"You can also teleport short distances to travel faster. Just say Dark Wings Rise, and you will transform. Then you can go join up with Peacock and fight."

Gabriel stood, still very unsure about this. The transformation phrase did not inspire confidence; sounding kind of evil instead. He walked the length of the room and picked up the box to find a brooch. The butterflies swirled around him as he pinned it to his shirt. Well... Time to save the city...  

"Lycca, Dark Wings Rise," He said. Power washed over him as he transformed. The butterflies in the room seemed even more excited now, a few landing on their new master. 

He bit his lip, wondering what to do with them while he was gone. His mother would kill them if she saw them.  The only place with enough room would probably be the closet... He opened the closet door without a second thought and the butterflies instantly flew in, landing on the floor or any perch they could find.  He closed the door, hoping they weren't the type to chew on clothing.

Finally, he teleported from his room to the roof of the building. He stumbled, not expecting the teleportation to make him queasy, but forced himself forward anyway. Soon his stomach no longer churned as he continued across the city towards the dragon. 

He landed on a rooftop down the street from the rampaging enemy. It was huge. How the hell what he supposed to beat that?

Someone caught Peacock's eyes as she flew. It was a young man dressed in purple. He looked like a superhero. Did that he mean she hand a partner? She wished Pain explain things a bit better instead of rushing her out of her room. She understood Pairs was in danger, but a detail explanation would have been nice. She landed next to the man.

"Are you with me?" she gave him a friendly smile. "I'm Peacock."

Hawk Moth looked away from the dragon as the girl landed next to him and spoke. He didn't need her introduction to know that this must be Peacock. Her color scheme was enough. 'So, her kwami didn't tell her about me?' He thought to himself, wondering how there could have been such an important oversight.

He shrugged, still not completely into this magical superhero idea. "I suppose... My kwami mentioned a Peacock.  I'm Hawk Moth."

"Yes that's my name," Peacock said. "It's nice to meet you, Hawkmoth." she then looked at the dragon. It was smashing down a building. "I guess you're new as well? My um.." she looked embarrassed. "kwami didn't go into great details about things. So I have no idea how to take down this thing. But she did mention that I can use fans whatever that means."

Hawk Moth shrugged and motioned toward his sword. "I have this. You probably have something that can be used as fans? Apparently, I can also make other superheroes, but I don't see the point in bringing more people into this mess. I guess we should attack it once you figure out where your fans are."

Peacock nodded. She placed her hands on her hips. The fans weren't anywhere on her body so where could they be? She then looked at her hands and all of the sudden two fans appeared in her hands. Peacock looked shocked. She threw one and it came back to her as a boomerang. "Neat. I think I have idea how to use them." she looked at her partner. "You seem like a logical person. Any ideas how to take this thing down?"