Fanfic / CN Akumas

CN Akumas is a crossover fanfic between Miraculous Ladybug and several Cartoon Network shows, written by 10Bendog. It started out as a series of drawings on his Deviantart page depicting the hypothetical akumatized forms of several Cartoon Network characters before eventually turning into a full-fledged story.

Ms. Bustier's class — which includes Paris' resident heroes Marinette/Ladybug and Adrien/Chat Noir — ends up traveling to the island city of Townsville, home to many of its own superheroes. Unfortunately, Hawk Moth ends up following them, and naturally he sets his sights on akumatizing these same heroes to aid in his goals. Will Ladybug and Chat Noir be able to stop him, or will the might of these new akumas prove to be too much to handle?

The fanfic can be read on Archive of Our Own here or on Deviantart here; the original drawings can be found here.

As a result of dissatisfaction with the direction Miraculous Ladybug had gone, the author wrote an epilogue that covers how the events of Heroes' Day would go in this AU; it can be found here.

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This fanfic provides examples of the following tropes:

• Action Prologue: Several chapters open with Townsville's heroes fighting off villains otherwise unconnected to Hawk Moth.
• Adaptation Name Change: Be it Accidental Misnaming or a deliberate change, Ben’s transformation known as either Benviktor or Frankenstrike in canon is referred to as “Frankenstorm”.
• Alternate Universe: Besides the shared universe concept, this fic branches from Miraculous canon after "The Collector", disregarding everything that happens after it. This is especially apparent when it comes to the existence of the other Miraculouses; while in later seasons Marinette could have easily used the Horse Miraculous to transport herself between Paris and Townsville, here it's never mentioned.
• Antagonist Title: Almost every chapter is titled after whatever akumatized villain appears in it.
• Anti-Hero: The Rowdyruff Boys are heroes, but far more rude and prone to violence than their counterparts.
• Ascended Extra: Of all of Marinette and Adrien's classmates, Nathaniel gets the most focus, being Marinette's roommate at the hotel and often hanging out with the Townsville heroes alongside Adrien.
• Batman Gambit: Hawk Moth's plan in "Hotshot". He teams up with a number of Townsville's villains, having them distract the heroes while having the Dodgeball Wizard attack the KND's arctic base. Knowing that Wally will head there himself (as his younger brother is there), he also has the Wizard take an akuma butterfly with him so he can use Wally's rage to akumatize him — and since all the other heroes are busy, Ladybug and Chat Noir will have to take on the akuma alone, lessening their chances of success.
• Beach Episode: Chat Noir's subplot in "Duplicator" sees him spend time at the beach with his new friends.
• Birds of a Feather: Rich brats Chloé and Princess become friends pretty much the second they meet each other.
• Both Sides Have a Point: The argument that triggers Blossom's akumatization is this; Blossom points out that Buttercup acted irresponsibly during their battle, but Buttercup fires back that Blossom should check her ego and general "high and mighty" attitude before criticizing her.
• Broad Strokes: The events of FusionFall are acknowledged, but here the characters from CN all live in Townsville, whereas in the game they all came from different cities.
• Busman's Holiday: Adrien ends up going to Townsville for his class trip only to get blindsided by Hawk Moth also showing up there.
• Call-Forward: In chapter 28, Gabriel justifies teaming up with HIM by changing his wish from reviving Emilie to making it so she never went into her eternal sleep, his canon wish first hinted at in “Dark Owl”.
• Canon Welding: Juniper and Gwen learn from Ah-mah that a previous Te Xuan Ze was also a wielder of the Butterfly Miraculous.
• Chekhov's Gunman: In "Ms DJ", Wally offhandedly mentions that his younger brother is starting KND training. Hawk Moth takes advantage of this by having Dodgeball Wizard attack the training base, luring Wally into a trap.
• Continuity Nod: Monster Mama and Rad Dad were deliberately designed to form a "mother, father, child" set with canon akumatized villain Gigantitan.
• Create Your Own Villain:
  • Ben deliberately smashes Kevin's car to get him angry enough for akumatization so Gwen and Juniper can test their prototype anti-akumatization potion. Gwen chews him out over it, but Ben fires back that it's better than just sitting around waiting for a random person to get akumatized.
  • This is the reason behind the Kanker Sisters' akumatizations — they want to know what it feels like to get akumatized, and agree to get each other feeling negatively enough to attract Hawk Moth's attention. The heroes end up going along with it so that they can try and track down where Hawk Moth could be hiding.
• Darker and Edgier: Than most of the shows it uses — characters are more prone to swearing, and several of the akumatized villains end up having body counts either indirectly (Madame Magnolia turning people into topiaries which are later torched by Brick) or directly (Count Widow straight-up drains people of their life force).
• Deconstruction: In the original show, Marinette's inability to talk to Adrien is a Running Gag. Here, she tearfully confesses to Gwen that said inability has made her massively insecure about her chances of hooking up with him, especially since she's never had a proper conversation with him and thus doesn't even know a lot about him outside of interviews and magazines.
• Discard and Draw:
  • How akumatization works on characters that already have superpowers; they lose their original power set in exchange for whatever abilities Hawk Moth granted them.
  • It happens to Ben again when he temporarily uses the Cat Miraculous; he gets all of Chat Noir's powers, but the Ultimatrix won’t activate while he's transformed.
• Divergent Character Evolution:
  • Following the original show's lead, the Rowdyruff Boys have further diverged in character compared to how they were originally; Boomer is the nicest of the trio but also a vain Brainless Beauty, Brick is the hotheaded leader with some Hidden Depths, and Butch is both the meanest of the trio and The Stoner.
  • Personality-wise, Mary and Susan Test were very similar to each other, with only a couple traits separating them. Here, while they're both still geniuses, Mary is far more outgoing and interested in stuff like mythology, fashion, and horoscopes, while Susan is more introverted and logical.
• Divide and Conquer: This becomes Hawk Moth's preferred strategy after Ladybug and Chat Noir start getting help from Townsville's local heroes — he'll wait for some massive crisis to distract the other heroes, then try and create a powerful akuma to send after Ladybug and Chat Noir, ensuring that they can't get back-up.
• Dramatic Irony: The reason Marinette initially stays out of the Townsville trip is because she can't leave Paris alone while Hawk Moth is still there. Unfortunately, Hawk Moth ends up going to Townsville as well. And naturally, when Ladybug contemplates giving her Miraculous to Juniper since Hawk Moth is still operating in Townsville, Hawk Moth ends up declaring his plan a failure and making arrangements to leave.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Early on, each chapter had both a title card and an end card to emulate Miraculous' style. After "Madame Magnolia", the end cards were dropped for being too time-consuming, but the title cards remain.
• Even Evil Has Standards: In the end, the heroes only win out because Hawk Moth doesn’t trust HIM to live up to his end of the bargain, and fears what he might achieve with the Miraculous.
• Genre Savvy: Upon realizing that Princess has been having a generally bad day and is in an appropriately nasty mood, Chloé guesses she's going to be a prime target for akumatization and tries to save her.
• The Ghost: Numbuh 1 is mentioned several times by his old Sector, but never makes a physical appearance.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: The Test sisters, while still close, have this going on. Mary is the Pretty one of the duo (still intelligent, but also more outgoing and fashionable), while Susan is the Smart one (introverted and highly logical).
• Good Luck Charm:
  • Ben has one in the form of a necklace with an aventurine crystal that he wears wrapped around his hand. It ends up serving as the item Hawk Moth uses to akumatize him.
  • Ed has one in the form of an old fish bone named Angus; again, Hawk Moth uses it to akumatize him.
• Greater-Scope Villain: "Roi Serpent" sets one up in the form of HIM, who takes an interest in Hawk Moth after he akumatizes Boomer.
• Halloween Episode: "Edzilla" is heavily horror-inspired, and was posted on Halloween.
• Heel–Face Turn: The Rowdyruff Boys and Princess aren't quite heroes, but they've long given up their days of outright villainy.
• Hero for a Day: A variant occurs in "Blackout"; Juniper and Ben are already heroes, but when Marinette and Adrien get hit with Blackout's powers before they can transform, they end up temporarily taking up the Miraculouses as Te-Xuan-Bug and Wildcat, respectively.
• Heroic BSoD: A combination of multiple incidents making her feel useless compared to the Townsville heroes and having to technically kill several people in order to stop Madame Magnolia send Marinette into a big one. Thankfully, she manages to snap out of it.
• Hero Insurance: Discussed; Blossom chews out her sister for causing unnecessary property damage while fighting a giant robot, but Buttercup retorts that property damage caused by hero fights has become such a common thing in Townsville that it doesn't matter.
• Hypocrite: Hawk Moth's lack of self awareness regarding his parenting skills strikes again — he akumatizes Finn with the promise of helping him make sure no kid experiences something like Finn's neglectful and abusive dad, when Hawk Moth himself is far from a good dad to Adrien. Heck, it's Hawk Moth's lack of parenting skills that end up rendering Adrien immune to the akuma's powers.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Boomer tries this on Brick when he's about to get akumatized; it unfortunately doesn't work.
• It's All About Me: Downplayed; when Adrien tells her about how lonely he feels in Townsville since his friends are more interested in the resident heroes, Juniper deduces that — due to his celebrity status — he's so used to people flocking towards him that he's not used to the idea of starting up conversations himself.
• It's All My Fault:
  • Marinette initially blames herself for not joining the class trip when she learns Hawk Moth went to Townsville; Tikki consoles her by pointing out that there’s no way she could have known what Hawk Moth was planning.
  • Julie blaming herself for Kuki ending up in the hospital is what leads to Hawk Moth akumatizing her.
• Lemony Narrator: The narrator dips into this trope occasionally, mostly emulating the style of the narrator from The Powerpuff Girls.
• Monster of the Week: As per Miraculous canon, this is combined with Victim of the Week; every chapter sees a different character get turned into an akumatized villain by Hawk Moth.
• Nails on a Blackboard: Ben weaponizes this in Blackout's chapter in order to lure the akuma out.
• No-Sell:
  • The akuma butterfly sent to possess Ben tries to possess him through the Ultimatrix at first, but nothing happens when it lands on the device, forcing it to switch targets.
  • Since the Butterfly Miraculous was originally meant to be used for good, akumatizations didn't set off Juniper's bracelet. This only changed after she got akumatized herself.
  • The magical glamour that protects the identities of Miraculous wielders doesn't work on Juniper and Gwen, as they can see through magic.
• Not My Lucky Day: The trigger for Princess' akumatization ends up being a long day full of annoyances that keep piling up.
• Not What It Looks Like: Kuki's akumatization is triggered when she sees Wally in her room, surrounded by destroyed Rainbow Monkeys. In reality, he was trying to stop the treehouse's hamsters from destroying them.
• Obligatory Swearing: More swearing happens in the fic than in any of the shows involved. Granted, the majority of the cast are teenagers and anyone can tell you that real-life teenagers can be more than a little foul-mouthed, but it's still a bit jarring.
• Only Sane Man: Juniper finds herself in this position when she's grouped together with the dimwitted Boomer and Brilliant, but Lazy Eddy for a school project. This, combined with the fact that she really cares about the subject, causes her to snap and leads to her akumatization.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In "Edzilla" Ladybug is alarmed when, after spending so much time encouraging her and helping her, Juniper and Gwen forbid her from helping with an akuma attack. It turns out to be because the akuma ended up in Townsville's dangerous underground area — dangerous enough that they don't want to risk her getting hurt.
• Pet the Dog: After sabotaging May's play auditions so that she can get akumatized, Lee and Marie go back and manage to intimidate the director into casting her anyways.
• Put on a Bus: While the rest of Sector V shows up, Numbuh 1 is completely absent. It's all but stated that he's still in space after the events of the series finale.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Mayor Bourgeois happily lets Ladybug take his private jet to Townsville when she asks him; even without the urgency of the situation, it's noted that he’d probably do it anyways given how many times Ladybug's saved his daughter in the past.
• Running Gag: "Carmageddon" sees Kevin’s car get wrecked and a Mr. Smoothie’s get destroyed by a fight, continuing two running gags from the Ben 10 series.
• Secret Identity: A point of contention between the Townsville heroes and the Paris heroes; while Ladybug and Chat Noir prefer to keep their identities secret, none of the other heroes feel the same way, with Ben seeing his past attempts to do so as a bit of an old shame. The downsides of Marinette and Adrien's secret identities also become readily apparent later in the series, with both heroes feeling guilty about having to lie to their worried friends.
• Secret-Keeper: Juniper and Gwen end up figuring out that Marinette is Ladybug, and promise both to keep it secret and to help her sneak off to fight akumas.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: Juniper and Gwen figure out that Adrien and Chat Noir are one and the same, but keep it to themselves at Marinette's insistence.
• Seen It All: While his methods certainly shake people up, the citizens of Townsville generally aren't phased by Hawk Moth's appearance, largely due to them having a large concentration of supervillains and general weirdness already.
• Shipper on Deck: Gwen and Juniper become ones for both Marinette/Adrien and Ladybug/Chat Noir after they figure out the Two-Person Love Triangle they have going on.
• Sixth Ranger: The Townsville heroes end up joining the Miraculous duo in combating akumas.
• Something Only They Would Say: When faced with Ladybug and Rolemorpher disguised as Ladybug, Buttercup tries this tactic. Both Ladybugs point out that they don't know each other well enough for it to work; instead, the identity of the real Ladybug is discovered via her post-Lucky Charm countdown.
• Superior Successor: Marinette believes that, due to her experience, Juniper would have been one if she'd been forced to give her the Ladybug Miraculous. Juniper ends up refuting this, pointing out that using the Miraculous requires careful planning; since she's more used to brute-forcing problems, she wouldn't be able to make good use of it. When Juniper actually gets the chance to use the Ladybug Miraculous, she manages to do fairly well — and she discovers that her own magic lets her ignore its recharge limit, meaning she can summon as many Lucky Charms as she wants without worrying about detransforming.
• Tempting Fate: When lamenting her inability to join the class trip, Marinette is at least happy she'll have plenty of time to spend with Adrien and Chat Noir. Unfortunately, Gabriel approves of Adrien joining the trip at the last minute, ensuring she won't be able to see either of them.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In "Madame Magnolia", Blossom decides to let the Rowdyruff Boys handle a giant monster attack to prove themselves as heroes. Their method of handling it ends up triggering Bubbles' akumatization — the results of which send Ladybug spiraling into a Heroic BSoD.
• Villain Decay: After fighting Darkstar with Juniper's help, Gwen jokes about how he used to be more of a threat.
• Villain Episode: "Rolemorpher" largely takes place from the perspective of Hawk Moth and the Kanker Sisters.
• Villain Team-Up: Several examples.
  • Hawk Moth's plan in "Hotshot" involves teaming up with a number of Townsville villains.
  • The premise of the finale has HIM willingly allow Hawk Moth to evilize him as part of a grand plan.
• Wham Episode: "Hotshot". Hawk Moth executes his biggest plan yet by teaming up with Townsville's villains, throwing the heroes for a loop. While it fails in the end, it's noted that the Townsville villains, having previously been lying low due to not knowing how to perceive Hawk Moth, will become active again.
• Wham Line: At the end of "Lady Horoscope", Hawk Moth — sick of losing to not only Ladybug and Chat Noir, but their new allies — hatches a new scheme.
  "Back in Paris, Ladybug and Chat Noir always came out on top, despite there only being two of them. Here they get so much outside help. If I were to ever have a chance to defeat them, I have to seek help of my own."
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are:
  • When Ladybug starts feeling worthless compared to Townsville's heroes, Chat Noir tries to cheer her up by telling her this, reminding her of all the people she's saved.
  • Tikki does the same thing later when Marinette seriously considers sitting out an akuma battle due to her low self-esteem.
• You Are Grounded!: Marinette's parents let her go on the class trip at the last minute, but tell her she'll be grounded for failing to think it through when she gets back.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: As soon as he gets Wally akumatized, Hawk Moth leaves Dodgeball Wizard to Hotshot's mercy.

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