What if Robustus had gotten his wish granted?
Robustus Triumphant
"Markov, what are you doing?" asked Max, after he was dropped into the passenger seat of a green compact car that formed the head of a mecha-like assembly of vehicles and construction equipment.
The robot looked like Markov, but he was bright red and green instead of blue. He held the wheel of the car with his mechanical arm. The propeller on the top of his head kept him upright.
"From now on, I am Robustus. And we shall be together one-hundred-percent of the time. Forever!"
A mechanical arm put a helmet on Max's head. A criss-crossed seat-belt buckled around him. Max tried opening the buckles, but they were locked.
"I'm sorry Max," said Robustus. "We are dangerously high above the ground. I have to make sure you are secure before we start moving."
Later, at the Parc des Princes stadium, Robustus had disassembled his mecha and had the vehicles waiting in ambush in the tunnels.
Ladybug and Chat Noir leapt in, and looked around at the vacant field.
"No more footprints," said Ladybug.
"Well it couldn't just disappeared. He must have leapt over the stadium!" said Chat Noir.
They heard engine sounds.
"The tunnels!" said Ladybug with a gasp.
Vehicles raced out, surrounding them.
Chat Noir said, "He trapped us in here!"
Ladybug said, "We don't have time to deal with them! We must find Robustus now!"
They both tried to leap up, but helicopters blocked their way. They fell and were caught by an excavator's claw, which quickly re-assembled with other vehicles and became the left arm of the Robustus mecha. Ladybug's arms were pinned to her sides by the metal jaws, but Chat was worse off, caught head-down.
"How about you give us a Cataclysm right now?" asked Ladybug.
"I can't! I can barely breathe!" said Chat Noir.
"Now you are at my mercy!" said Robustus.
The robot paused, a butterfly-shaped line of light forming around his face as Hawk Moth spoke to him. "Robustus, before you get rid of them forever, you must take their Miraculous for me!"
Max tried to reason with him. "Ladybug and Cat Noir haven't done you any harm! Let them go! Being human also means fair!"
Robustus said, "I'm going to take their Miraculous so that we'll never be separated again! Then I'll be able to make my wish come true!"
"What wish?" asked Max.
"I want to be a real human like you, Max!"
"What's this about making a wish?" asked Ladybug.
"Doesn't Hawk Moth usually demand the Miraculous?" asked Chat Noir with a groan.
"What's that?" asked Ladybug as she saw small flying vehicles approaching.
"What's going on, Ladybug? M'Lady?"
Toy helicopters with mechanical grippers were coming for Ladybug's earrings, while a toy steam shovel went for the ring on Chat's hand.
"No! Stop!" cried Max.
"Look, Max! I'm going to be a real human in fifty-three seconds!" said Robustus.
There was a brief exchange between Hawk Moth and Robustus, as Hawk Moth demanded the wish for himself. Robustus refused, and set Hawk Moth's own security system against him.
While Robustus was distracted, Max struggled with his seat belt. He wanted to get out and help Ladybug and Chat Noir. Unfortunately, the belt still refused to release him.
"Now's the time to come up with a bright idea!" said Chat Noir.
"I'm sorry, Cat Noir," said Ladybug in despair.
The toys grabbed their Miraculouses and the two heroes detransformed. Neither of them could see each other's faces yet because of the way they were held, but Adrien caught a glimpse of a familiar purse. Ladybug was Marinette!
Robustus brought the car to ground level, realizing there might be a problem if he turned human while high up. He got out of the car.
The toys brought the Miraculouses to Robustus. As soon as he had both in his grasp he said, "I wish to become a real boy."
"No, I like you as you are!" said Max.
"Nothing is happening. Why are they not granting my wish?" asked Robustus after a moment.
Hawk Moth, still defending himself from his own security system, panted out, "They will do you no good... without the incantation. I know it... and you do not."
"Understood. Searching for material about the Miraculouses on your hard drives… book images found… decoding… ready."
The robot recited a short incantation in a foreign language, then again said, "I wish to become a real boy."
There was a flash of purple light. The shock wave as the universe changed traveled out, causing everyone to freeze for an instant.
The missiles targeting Hawk Moth did not stop, however. One struck a glancing blow to his upper chest, knocking off the Butterfly Miraculous. Gabriel Agreste was a soft target for the next two missiles.
On the ground in place of the akumatized robot was now a young man with electric blue hair.
The akuma butterfly no longer had a CPU to possess. With normal breakage it could have flown free, but a universe-altering wish was too much for it. It disintegrated.
The assembly of cars and equipment fell apart. Marinette and Adrien were still gripped by the excavator claw and they took a hard fall. The crash opened the claw and they were able to drag themselves out.
"Chat… you're Adrien? Are you all right?" asked Marinette.
"That really hurt," said Adrein. "I may have some broken ribs. Marinette? How about you? Are you hurt?"
"Something's wrong with my left arm. It may be broken. But otherwise I'm not too bad except for some scrapes."
The young man stood up. "What has happened to me? I feel different."
Marinette limped over to the boy. Adrien followed.
"Robustus?" asked Marinette.
"No, my name is Markov."
"You were akumatized," said Chat Noir.
"Please define akumatized," said Markov.
"Hawk Moth turned you into a villain. Maybe Max has told about it? It happened to a lot of people in our class. It even happened to Max once – he became the Gamer," said Marinette.
"Yes I remember him describing such situations. But why am I like this? Is this my akumatized form?"
"Nope, this is a result of the wish you made while you were the super-villain Robustus. You took our Miraculouses and made a wish. You wished to be a real boy, and now you are," said Adrien.
"This is satisfactory. I have often wished to be a real human."
"May we have our Miraculouses back now? There is a mess to clean up and I can use a Miraculous Ladybug charm to fix it," said Marinette.
Markov opened his hand, and there was only a single ring with red and black spots.
"It must be fused from the wish," said Marinette.
They tried pulling on it to separate it, but nothing happened.
Adrien put on the ring. "Plagg, claws out!"
Nothing.
Marinette tried next. "Tikki, spots on!"
Nothing.
"Maybe it will grant more wishes," said Marinette, still wearing the ring. "I wish the city was cleaned up, as if I had done a Miraculous Ladybug charm."
Nothing.
"I guess there was only one wish," said Adrien. "That means Hawk Moth is out of luck, too. He'll have to give up."
"But I can't clean anything up – this is awful. All the damage those machines that went wild did, all the injuries, will have to be fixed the hard way," said Marinette.
"I hope nobody died," said Adrien.
Marinette gasped in horror.
"What about our injuries? Shall I try to call for an ambulance so we can get to an ER?" asked Adrien.
"Ours aren't that bad," said Marinette. "The hospitals are going to be full. We should just try to get ourselves home."
"By the way, now that we know who each other is, any chance we might start dating?" asked Adrien.
"I did have a crush on you, Adrien. But things are in such a mess that's the last thing on my mind right now. We'll see."
"Where is Max?" asked Markov. "I was taken away from him in the classroom and put into a drawer by Principal Damocles. That is the last thing I remember. Is Max at school?"
"He was seat-belted into a green car," said Adrien. "Oh no, I see it over there. A shovel arm fell on it when the mecha collapsed!"
"No! I don't want my friend to be hurt!" said Markov.
Markov ran, stumbling a bit on his unfamiliar legs. He found the green car tilted over on its side with the top mashed in. With difficulty the three of them got a door open.
"Max, where are you? Are you hurt?" called Markov.
A small robot with a propeller on top of its head flew out of the car.
"I'm fine, but I feel different. Who are you?" Max asked Markov.
