3. A Beeality Check

Chloe was beside herself with joy. At last, she thought, as she continued to leap around her bedroom as if on some kind of legal high. I'm finally going to be given the recognition I deserve. Not just as the daughter of the mayor, but as a superstar in my own right. I wonder what I'll call myselfas a superhero. Something exotic, perhaps? As long as it'll get me in the headlines and on TV, I'm fine with it. I can even give up the cosplay!

Zzubo watched the exertions of her new owner with barely disguised contempt. She thought this might be the vain teenage girl's reaction to hearing the news about her potential new powers... A celebration based on pure self-gratification. She'd seen the same kind of initial outbreak of narcissism from a handful of her previous users, though perhaps not to this extent. Well, it was time to deflate this young lady's balloon, before things got even more out of hand.

"You're not ready yet." Came the armour-piercing statement from the bee-type creature, and it was spoken so clearly and bluntly it even stopped the boisterous Chloe in the middle of her merrymaking.

The heiress laughed at such a patently ridiculous opinion. "Oh please..." She scoffed, wiping sweat off her face, so her mascara wouldn't smudge. "Of course I am! Why, I've been in training for ages! This hotel is practically a gym for me, when I run through the floors! I'm much stronger now than I was this time last year..."

"Yes, I've heard all about your shenanigans in costume, chasing after, 'Mr. Moustache'..." Zzubo interrupted, with little humour. "And I don't doubt you must have a lot of strength, to carry around that gigantic ego of yours. However, your personal fitness is not the issue here, as your transformation takes care of whatever physical attributes you lack."

Chloe blushed upon hearing her secret blurted out in the open so easily. "Have you been spying... Wait, it's not important. Why do I care about what a giant bug thinks, anyway?! You might be able to talk, but you're still just an icky pest to me. Take me to this 'Master' you spoke of earlier. I'm sure he'll see me as the wonder I am..."

Upon hearing this, Zzubo let out a derisive laugh, which sounded like a mixture between a hum and a buzz. "You must be joking. He's the one who told me what a spoiled, self-centred brat you were in the first place. The only reason I'm here at all is because it was foretold you were to be my new wielder. Do you really think you'd be my first choice if we were able to pick and choose our users? Ha!"

Chloe was taken aback momentarily, the insect's curt dismissal of her value chiselling away at her confidence. "Y-yeah, well... I wouldn't really want you either. I carry off the yellow and black look far better than you ever could. Plus, I don't even like honey." She finished off this devastating critique by sticking her tongue out at the creature, in a startlingly mature display.

Zzubo sighed in irritation. This was just getting pathetic now. "Shall I tell you why I'm sure you don't qualify to be a hero yet, or indeed by my estimation, at any point in the near future?"

"Yes, yes!" Chloe stated with impatience. " I have the money. I have the looks. I have the desire. I have the style. What more could I possibly need?!"

"This." Zzubo suddenly flew forward to the teenager's chest area, and lay a hairy leg just underneath her ribcage. "It's called heart, and is usually a prerequisite in superheroes. Unfortunately, from what I have heard and seen from you so far, yours is as dark and shrivelled as the flowers at my Master's apartment he forgot to water for over a year!"

Chloe took a step back upon hearing this. That idiot Kim, who'd had the gall to ask her to be his Valentine and subsequently transformed into Dark Cupid after she'd humiliated him, had said something very similiar. "How... How dare you! Everyone at school loves me! They appreciate my honest opinions about their appearance, and adore the little pranks I play on them from time to time . I'm generous, too. In fact, I gave my best friend an expensive brooch recently, to symbolise our deep bond..."

"Would this be the same friend you routinely treat like a slave, and have just shown no sympathy for when her family member died?" Zzubo frowned, in front of a shellshocked heiress. "As for your so-called popularity, I wonder who finished in last place at the class election, losing by a record margin? I don't call locking someone in the toilet during picture day, getting a pupil suspended under false pretenses and mocking someone suffering from stage fright, amongst other atrocities, harmless pranks, either. The term I'd use for that is bullying."

Chloe was aghast that this giant insect knew so much about her private life, and she continued to back away, a few silent tears streaming down her cheeks. "W-who...W-who told you all that?!"

"Does it really matter? And don't bother to deny it... Because i know it's all true." Zzubo hovered above the teenagers head, looking at her in disapproval. "The fact is, you're the least deserving holder of a Miraculous I've ever met, and believe me when I say that I've seen quite a few in my time. But, that just makes the challenge before me all the more greater..."

Zzubo suddenly zipped forward to get right in Chloe's face. The girl wasn't prepared for this manoeuvre, and fell back onto her bed in fright. Before she could get back up again, the bee creature had already landed on her midriff, and was staring straight at her with it's large orange eyes. Unsure of what else to do, the teenager craned her neck to return it's gaze.

"Hear me, Miss Chloe Burgeois, born into privilege but deserving none of it..." Zzubo spoke ominously. "I'm not here to help you to change. I'm saying you are going to change, whether you like it or not. The Miraculous cannot be used by the heartless, especially those responsible for most of the Akuma incidences thus far anyway. To turn you into the superhero you want to be will take enormous effort on my part, and a lot of strain on yours. But with the fate of the world at stake, I have no choice in the matter. And neither, I'm afraid, do you."

Chloe wanted to protest. She felt like screaming the place down, so that help would arrive, they could capture this freakish creature and the whole unpleasant ordeal would be over.

But something the creature had said about the world being in jeopardy if she didn't comply, and also the fact she was completely unused to being spoken to in that manner paralysed her tongue for now, and under extreme duress she found herself stammering "W-what s-should I-I d-do n-now, Ms Bee?"

For the first time since her unscheduled arrival in the bedroom that day, Zzubo genuinely smiled. "Now, that's better. The first thing you're going to do is call your friend back, and apologise for your rudeness. You will also offer your condolences for her loss, and tell her it's fine for you to do your own homework tomorrow. Then, after you've ordered me some nougats from downstairs, we can start discussing other things. Like how to start using your honoured position for the good of the community, instead of just for yourself, as well as your constant persecution of your fellow classmates."

Chloe gasped upon hearing all these strict conditions, as the bee creature took off once again, this time to a comfortable chair in the corner, where for some reason it started examining the golden comb the heiress had discarded earlier.

The mayor's daughter was too stunned at present to ask for it back though, as she got off her bed to stagger almost zombie-like to her door, to order the sweets the insect had requested. "Er, do you want chocolate with your nougats, Ms Bee?"

"Just the nougats will be fine, thank you. Oh, and seeing as how we'll be spending a lot of time together from now on, please do remember to call me Zzubo."

"Yes... Zzubo..." *Mutter*