Contains minor spoilers for "Peeping Tomcat"

I am Terravenger: a Peeping Tomcat companion story

Summary:

Hawk Moth has found his latest victim, but what caused Michel to become the avatar for Mother Earth: Terravenger?

**Set between chapters 8 and 9**

Notes:

Contains minor spoilers for "Peeping Tomcat"

Michel Poirier couldn't believe his luck. Flying like a meteor out of the Place des Vosges was the leather-clad superhero of Paris. Michel had no clue why he was out and about, or where he was headed, but there didn't seem to be any akuma attacks happening.

Maybe he has a moment, Michel thought.

"Chat Noir! Hey, Chat Noir, over here!" He waved his hands high above his head as he called out to the superhero, trying to garner his attention.

Mid-swing on his tall, stilts-length stick, Chat Noir froze and rebalanced himself. Instead of continuing his momentum to the roof of the house across the street from Michel, Chat Noir collapsed his stick, slowly bringing himself down to street-level.

Dumbfounded that he actually got Chat Noir to stop, Michel continued to stupidly wave behind his little makeshift, pop-up kiosk: basically, a long collapsible table covered in a decorated cloth and information packets, along with a parasol attached to a lawn chair to protect Michel from the sun.

"Wow!" Michel beamed as the superhero walked over. "It's you. It's actually you."

Realizing he was a bit disheveled, Michel ran his fingers through his mop of brunette hair, pulling it out of his eyes, and detangling it a smidge. He couldn't believe that he didn't think to pin it down with a hat or something to prevent the wind from tossing it so much. He hoped he didn't look as terrible as he thought he did as Chat Noir stopped in front of the kiosk.

"Um, hi, I'm Michel." He thrust his arm out so quickly he felt a small pinch in his shoulder. He fought back the wince as he smiled at Chat Noir.

"Hey, Michel. Nice to meet you. Anything you need help with?" Chat Noir took Michel's hand and gave it a hardy shake before breaking away. He then stood in a very comic-standard superhero pose of resting his fists on his hips, his chest puffed out.

Michel was surprised to note that Chat Noir was so small. He always thought himself a fairly average height for a twenty-two year old, and yet he was probably thirty centimeters taller than one of Paris' saviors. Still, the superhero took time out of his day to stop by and greet a random citizen. Not just greet, ask if said citizen needed help, and that was pretty neat for Michel.

"Wow." He drew out the word and smiled wider. "Uh, yeah! I'm trying to petition Mayor Bourgeois to start placing recycling receptacles in public locations beside the trash cans. I'm also hoping to get a motion going to plant more trees, and maybe start a few community gardens. Would you sign? I'm sure the mayor would start to listen to me if I had a superhero's signature backing me!"

Michel scrambled to pick up his clipboard with the barely signed petition attached. He then held both it and a pen up like a game show model trying to display a grand prize.

"Gladly," Chat Noir gave him a friendly wink before taking the clipboard and pen from him. He then took a long time to sign, as if he were concentrating hard on the signature. After he finished, he handed both back to Michel. "Good luck. Those all sound like great ideas."

In a daze about actually getting both a superhero's signature and his encouragement, Michel gave Chat Noir the only symbol of thanks he could think of: the pin-back buttons he had done up to help promote his cause. They were small, about the size of a two-euro coin, and had a white background. The center of the pin had a stylized tree in hunter-green, which happened to be the same shade as Michel's shirt. Circling around the tree was the phrase: Treat Mother Earth Like You Would Your Own Mother.