In the daytime, I'm Marinette. Just a normal girl with a normal life…but there is something about me that no one knows yet, because I have a secret.
Paris, France.
The city of light was now the city of day. The sun was shining through the 21st arrondissement at eight in the morning, and in a three story house that also served as a bakery on 48 rue Caulaincourt, Marinette Dupain-Cheng was sleeping in with a cute little roly-poly pink skinned kwami by the name of Tikki, a symbol of good luck sleeping on her abdomen.
Marinette had hair that matched the dark shades of a blueberry, with ice blue eyes that seemed to fit with whatever moment of panic or fright she had to freeze in order to expunge her positive, content emotions. A half-French, half-Chinese girl of thirteen to fifteen, she wore a dark gray overshirt with sleeves and a collar that was white with pink polka dots and outlined with black. Underneath, she wore a white t-shirt with a black collar and sleeve lines and a florid design below the collar with black leaves and pink flowers. For the bottom half, she had pink jeans and light pink dress shoes with dark red soles. Right now, however, she was wearing her pajamas, consisting of a white shirt and pale pink jeans.
Happy, cheerful, and generous, Marinette was inspired to become a fashion designer amongst a new generation of fashionistas that Paris was popular for, inspired by Hollywood costume designers like Erté, Howard Shoup, Robert Edmond Jones, Walter Plunkett, Gwen Wakeling and Deborah Lynn Scott. She loved her parents, she loved her friends and most of all, she believed that her one true love was a model—specifically, a boy close to her age named Adrien Agreste.
Adrien Agreste lived in a glorious art deco mansion in Rue Augereau (or at least the interior was like that for the exterior was in the style of Napoleon III). His attractive blonde hair, green eyes and personality of a charismatic gentleman became a source of curiosity to Marinette that grew into a relationship…of unrequited love. Marinette while kind and courteous, was clumsy and diffident while struggling with her self-confidence and self-esteem and when she was about a mile radius from Adrien, she would collapse into a nervous breakdown, or in slang, "stepped on a nerve". It was also because of her shyness that she felt like a foil to her classmate and rival Chloé Bourgeois, the richest and meanest girl in the county who had known Adrien since she was seven and innocent before being spoiled by her father, the mayor. In the eyes of Adrien, Chloé was just a friend. But in the eyes of Marinette, she was a world class bitch who did not deserve a boy like Adrien.
Anyway, in her bed located on the top floor with the rest of her room, she was still dozing when Tikki woke up in a more natural way. Marinette woke up to the sound of her Blackberry tablet phone, lifted her upper body with both hands and found herself falling down the stars shouting, "Bon anniversaire!"
After lifting herself up, Marinette remembered her position and found the direction of her computer. She spun in her dark pink swivel chair, arms raised and lowered them when her right index finger pressed the spacebar on her monitor and there came the background of her desktop. A five picture collage of Adrien at his best: happy, emo and serious.
"Happy birthday, Adrien!" she swooned.
She gave the monitor as kiss as in his own bathroom, Adrien was brushing his teeth. His toothbrush reached into his right wisdom tooth, when a five inch cat like kwami named Plagg came in with a quarter sized piece of carambert cheese rapped in a red ribbon. Not everyone had a kwami as a pet, but they only came to special people who were destined to become the protectors of the innocent, specifically superheroes, making Adrien the perfect candidate to take on the secret identity of Cat Noir, which only lasted for at least a few hours before he would go back to normal.
Being rich with the fame of a superstar model whose face appeared on various posters, magazines, advertisement and products was not a piece of cake for Adrien, who often compared his life with that of Clara Sesemann from Johanna Spyri's Heidi (minus the fact that he was not wheelchair bound), which made his father Gabriel similar to that of Herr Sessemann, a rich widower who always away on business in Paris (coincidently where Adrien lived) and his manager Nathalie Sancoeur to that of Fräulein Rottenmeier, the strict châtelaine of the Sesemann household who saw Heidi as nothing more than a clumsy country claude, but genuinely cared for Clara even if she did not show it. In fact, Nathalie was cold and distant, with dark hair, glasses, a red turtle neck sweater and a black suit that represented the hidden darkness of her external beauty.
Anyway, Adrien felt like he had two loves in his life, Marinette from afar and the mysterious Ladybug, whom he had known for almost a year. When Plagg presented the cheese, he looked for a moment pleased with his present before a pungent odor filled the bathroom and swooped into his lungs.
"Oh, Plagg!" he shouted in annoyance rather than enthusiasm. "Get that smelly cheese away!"
He did so by covering his nose with both hands. Plagg, generous and grateful in service of his master, flicked the camembert into the air and it landed into his open mouth.
Back in the bakery, Marinette, now dressed and ready to go, was walking her way down the staircase. She caught a glimpse of her mother sipping a strong cup of oolong tea. The "eyes in the back of her head" could tell that her daughter had arrived.
"Marinette," she said, stopping her daughter dead in her tracks. "Please clean your room right after you come from school."
Marinette gasped with forgetfulness and dismay.
"Mom, it's Friday! I promised to hang out with Alya."
Sabine Cheng turned to face her, still smiling as she went on. Her hair was the same color as Marinette's, yet she had the typical Asian features of a woman with no unmistakable signs that she was an authentic Chinese female.
"Okay, then, I'll clean your room. Just don't get mad if I happen to stumble across your secrets, like your email or diary."
Marinette knew that this was blackmail whenever her mother brought up such subjects like this. She had to defend herself with uncharacteristically refined courage.
"All right! I got it. I'll clean my room."
She ran over, holding a mauve piece of paper with a rose colored ribbon, both in the shape of an envelope and kissed her on the edge of her nose.
"Have fun in school!" Sabine called back when Marinette reached the door. She did not happen to notice that the mauve envelope was a present for Adrien until Marinette flubbed her farewell, but she was unaware of this.
"Happy birth- I mean, see you later, Mom!"
She slammed the door shut. Sabine blinked her eyes, pondering Marinette's first two words.
"Happy birthday?"
My birthday isn't until next month.
But then she smiled, sipping the rest of her tea when she remembered how generous her daughter had grown up to become.
Such a sweet girl.
On her way to the school, Marinette took no notice when she passed a red skinned boxer with two stumps on his forehead, a tail, cloven hooves for feet, an over-sized right hand made of stone and a wardrobe of a black shirt and a tan trenchcoat. He called himself Hellboy, who seemed gruff but had a strong sense of humor.
Hellboy came from the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, who had once defeated the forces of Baba Yaga in the past and had been looking forward to a retirement in Paris that was unfortunately cut short by the arrival of the mysterious Ladybug. Kind as he was despite his background as a devil, he had some regular interactions with humans and oddities alike and none of them found his appearance to be strange or out of the ordinary, and if they did they always kept it to themselves. He was just going out for a stroll when Marinette came his way.
"Careful, you don't slip!" he shouted after her.
Not hearing a response, Hellboy continued on his way, a bit satisfied under the belief that Marinette had heard him.
So rude.
Adrien was having tea and crumpets for breakfast at the end of the table in the black and white dining room, it was his thirteenth birthday and it seemed that it would be a rather quiet occasion with only his father and assistant for company. He ate and drank slow, lacking the energy to feel enthusiastic at all times. The table was made of mahogany and comprised of twelve seats, enough to hold a formal dinner, but what Adrien really wanted was a grand, lavish, Jay Gatsby-style party.
What'll I do with myself this afternoon and the day after that, and the next 30 years? He thought, remembering Daisy Buchannan's complaint about all of the boring moments in her rich, haughty life. Perhaps then, as Adrien once assumed when his mother was still in the house and supposedly died from being hit by a car, happiness lied not so much in achieving the state of happiness but rather in pursuing it and Adrien wanted to pursue that happiness with his life as a superhero in Lurex fabric.
Nathalie came in with her iPad, presenting it to Adrien.
"Your schedule for today, sir," was all she said, and she was just about to leave before Adrien verbally stopped her.
"Nathalie? Did my father say anything about a birthday party?"
Nathalie turned her head back and looked over her right shoulder, unafraid to give her employer's son the bad news.
"Now you know how your father's personality is. He doesn't think would be a good idea."
"I see," Adrien frowned, his eyes fixed on the tablet.
"Happy Birthday," Nathalie said softly and she left the room with almost inaudible footsteps.
So Adrien spent the rest of the day, completely mute, or at least not speaking too much. Perhaps it had something to do with the number thirteen being an unlucky integer. Still he tried to keep up with his studies at Collège Françoise Dupont the public secondary school, ignoring the rest of his peers at lunch, chemistry and literature. His friend, Nino, an Indian with a red cap, indigo t-shirt, glasses and a passion for bubbles, was of little help and by the time school was out, his reply to the news was.
"Your father is too harsh. He must've wanted birthday parties as a kid."
"My dad probably didn't have parties then either," Adrien sighed with grief. "I shouldn't have hoped."
Nino wrapped a "swaggy best friend" type of right arm around Adrien's neckline.
"But it's your birthday! You should pester him, friend!"
Alya, who was also a bespectacled Indian from the island of Réunion. She and Marinette had been witnessing their conversation from behind the right hand bannister of the stairway, with the latter hiding her face behind the violet colored present.
"You can do this!" she pestered.
"Yes I can!" Marinette muttered, gritting her teeth with a prodigious amount of ardor.
"I don't know if I have the courage to ask him," Adrien resumed to Nino.
"If you can't do it," the prestigious Indian replied. "Maybe I could persuade him."
Adrien looked down again, not noticing Marinette from the bushes.
"I'm fine, Nino. It'll be useless even if you met him. He's not gonna change his mind, no matter what you say."
Marinette ducked behind the bannister, visibly admitting defeat.
"What do I do?! I can't do it!"
Alya made a mental moan, placed her right hand against her forehead for balance and placed both hands on her hips. Her voice turned from formal to ghetto.
"Oh no, you don't girl! You were so determined this morning! Now all you have to do is let it go!"
Marinette wasn't sure if Alya was referring to the present or the weight of the situation grounding her to a small, timid girl with no power over control of the world. Then Alya, after seven seconds of silence, added in return.
"Just give to him and go."
She held back her muscles and thrusted Marinette to Adrien and Nino. Marinette's upper body was eighty degrees downwards, holding the present with her hands forward when she noticed the two boys and placed the gift behind her back. An instantaneous amount of high anxiety coursed through her blood stream and her central nervous system, causing her to stutter.
"Hi."
She greeted him with her left hand for a split second before putting it behind her back with the other.
"Hi," Adrien greeted with his own, yet unsure about what Marinette was trying to say.
As their conversation began to spark, who spy on them but Chloé her best friend Sabrina, a mousey ginger haired girl with a black bowtie, a pine green and purple diamond checkered vest with an ice blue pair of shorts. She waited on Chloé hand and foot and obeyed her every command like a dedicated friend…or a servant. Chloé was in shock when she saw Adrien talking to Marinette. It because of the blueberry headed girl's shyness and scatter brained behavior that made Chloé perceive Marinette as a "retarded fool" along with their competition for Adrien himself. She turned back to Sabrina looking disgusted.
"Wait! Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing? Could it be that today is Adrien's birthday?"
Sabrina looked over her iPhone, checking the calendar app for conformation, she said quietly.
"Yes."
But Chloé was more peeved than surprised, but she had a little bit of both. She growled, gritting her teeth with fury.
"Must I do everything myself?! Why are you so fucking useless!?"
She stormed out before Sabrina could respond. Marinette was still trying to impress Adrien with her gift, unwittingly mixing her words around.
"Just…give…gift a made for you. I mean made a gift for you!"
At last, Chloé reached her point of impatience. She launched her right hand, propelling Marinette back to where she started from. Then she clasped her hands together, pressing them against her right cheek while lifting the same foot on that side like a swan…a very dainty swan with a heart of black.
"Happy birthday, Adrien!" she said in the most sweetest voice she could muster. Then she ran up and kissed Adrien's left cheek. Adrien tried to turn away as Chloé broke through his personal boundary, knowing that Marinette would never try to be this rude. But as much as he liked to compare the two girls, he always gave them his best wishes in return.
"Thanks, Chloé," was his reply after her glossy lips left his skin.
Chloé moved her arms to Adrien's shoulders and asked.
"Did you get my present?"
"No," was all he said.
"WHAT?!" Chloé acted surprised. She removed herself from Adrien, continuing to rant over a tall tale. "Oh, that dammed mailman! Did he have to go back and get a partner because the package was too heavy? It's been such a long time since I sent it!"
Switching back to content, Chloé placed her hands back on Adrien's shoulders in flirtatious manner and left before reminding him.
"Wait for my present. It'll be there within today."
She kissed his left cheek again and left back up the stairs. Nino and Adrien watched her go, the latter wondering about his "gift", and mentally comparing it with Marinette's.
At least she's got something for me. But don't know if I should believe her or not.
"What are you doing?" Alya said to Marinette hiding her face with the present. "Get your ass back out there! It'll be a waste if you give up now!"
At the third sentence, Marinette revealed herself. She started to think about her next objective while Sabrina met Chloé from her conversation with Adrien.
"What's the present?" she asked.
"I don't know!" shouted Chloé pointing a right finger of accusation at her. "You sent the gift. A surprising one at that."
She moved the finger up to her nostrils, forcing Sabrina to lean back by five degrees.
"You know what happens if it arrives late, right?"
"Yes," Sabrina nodded. "I'll probably get punished for it."
Before she could even mention the exact details of her punishment, Chloé disappeared into the school. Back behind the bannister, Alya's left fist nudged Marinette's right shoulder, still encouraging her to continue.
"Hurry! Give it to him!"
Marinette, now motivated and full of energy, stood up to see a white Cadillac limousine pulling up in front of the steps—Adrien's limo. This only disappointed him further with his—business.
"Guess I'll be leaving for another photoshoot now," he said solemnly to Nino.
And with that, the poor little rich boy walked into the back seat. His chauffeur, a man with the strength and build of a civilized gorilla, stared all the way down the street and hit the gas pedal, driving off and leaving Marinette in another state of disappointment.
"Why do my words not talk itself?" she felt like she was the most pathetic girl in all of France. She could have run after the limo, but it would have taken all the strength out of her legs if she dared to try.
"You mean why can't you talk freely?" asked Alya.
"Yeah that's it."
Nino looked over at the two girls. He too had his own crush for Alya, but had to take it slow. He turned away and said to himself.
"Look like I'll need to pay a visit and negotiate with Adrien's father in person."
Then he struck off on foot down the long avenue, Marinette and Alya followed him at a distance. However, the girls came to the mansion first by way of a bus and outside the front gate, Marinette had studying the oddly rectangular black mailbox with a golden frame near the edge. She pressed her hands against it, hoping for it to open.
"It won't budge!"
Alya directed her left thumb to the communicator looking square beside her.
"There's a thing called a doorbell, you know."
"Stop joking!" Marinette replied pompously. "What Adrien picks up-"
She threw herself into a panic when Alya pushed the button and the doorbell resonated. A red eyed camera came out of the wall, peering down at Marinette against her personal border.
"Yes?" asked a low female voice from the camera.
Marinette closed her eyes, waving with her left hand nervously.
"Bonjour! I'm Adrien's classmate."
She opened her eyes at that sentence, afterwards placing the present directly in front of the camera's eye.
"Did I say it was a gift?" she asked putting the present down.
Marinette beamed with hope and prayed that the camera acknowledged her.
"Drop it here and leave," the voice replied.
The slot opened and Marinette tediously placed the present into it before the mailbox had a chance to devour her fingernails.
"Thank you so much!" the girl beamed.
And with that the camera went back behind the wall. Marinette turned to leave, accomplished and satisfied with her completion.
"I wonder if he's going to like it!" she squealed.
"Did you sign it?"
Merde! Marinette's eyes bulged and she froze as if every nerve in her internal system snapped and broke free.
"I can't believe you…" Alya placed her left fingers onto her forehead.
All Marinette could do was scream at the top her lungs to the heavens above her.
"GOD WHY DON'T YOU JUST KILL ME?!"
Across the street in the Saint Aubin apartments, lived a brown haired "nice guy" of average complexion and weight named Stanley Ipkiss, whose day job was a clerk at the Banque de France, headquartered in the Hôtel de Toulouse. Apart from a previous position held within the Agreste family, he found no other company than his pet beagle Milo, the other tenants as well as his manager and landlady Agnes Peenman, a crabby old dame who had a rule for everything. She insisted on neatness, preferred peace and quiet and would not allow anyone to think too loud. In a nutshell, Mrs. Peenman had no use for fun and when Adrien came over to visit, she had been smashed out of her gourd after a previous night of too many margaritas and slurred, "Yeah, and what are you supposed to be? His nephew?"
For reasons unclear of his previous position and how he got fired, Stanley had been a great companion to Adrien and his parents before Plagg came into the pre-teen's life. When not watching animated shows, deep serious or insanely humorous, he would often spend his spare time spying on his "other-side" neighbors from a telescope, but he wasn't that nosy, not at least to Adrien whose room was just across the way from Stanley's window. When he heard Marinette's scream, he just cringed and laughed at her misfortune. Then he turned to the oval mirror on the left side of the room and peered into it like a vain king who had a magic sort of mirror that could only reply, "You are the handsomest one of all."
What he really said was.
"Girls and their boys, you can't live with 'em."
And said by placing a dark emerald mask close his heart.
After receiving the present, Nathalie returned to her office in the east wing of the mansion, a completely mint cream colored room with an Apple computer and an intercom for communication with Mr. Gabriel Agreste, who was just about appearing on the monitor when she sat down in her sleek white chair.
"Who was it Nathalie?"
"A friend of Adrien's who came to drop off a present, sir," she replied.
Gabriel, a man with platinum blonde hair turning murky, replied with strict attention in his voice.
"I assume you have also brought my present for him."
Nathalie was flustered. She always did this around Gabriel, showing the hidden emotions of her professional stature.
"You didn't mention anything," she confessed with a sad look in her eyes and her mouth.
"Why wouldn't I mention it?!"
The loud volumes that sprouted from his voice turned Nathalie into a mental wreck.
"I'm sorry, sir! I'll go prepare a present right away!"
After turning the monitor off, Nathalie covered her mouth with her hands and placed them in-between her head feeling stupid.
How could I possibly forget? She shouted to herself in annoyance.
But then she looked at Marinette's present and it made her feel as if her prayers to God had been answered in the form of salvation with this unsigned present. Sighing with relief on the winds of her breath, Nathalie heard the doorbell again and activated the camera. Through the monitor, she saw Nino smiling with his right hand raised.
"Hello!"
"Another friend of Adrien's I assume?"
"Yes, it's Nino!"
Nathalie remembered seeing Adrien hanging around an Indian near the school. Taking in his looks, she said quickly, "I'll see you to the door."
A minute and two seconds later, Nino was inside the main hall of the Agreste mansion with Nathalie by his left side. He was mesmerized by the glorious grand staircase of Bianco Sivec marble, his left hand opening the cap of his bubble bottle as he did by eight inches. Footsteps resonated in the room and there from the landing of the staircase was the one and only Gabriel Agreste, wearing a white suit with blood jeans.
"Adrien is not home right now," was all he said.
"Actually, I'm here to see you," Nino replied. "The father, er…sir."
He added the last word with circumstance, trying to sound as formal as he could be.
"Me?" Gabriel did not show any sign of a surprised reaction
"You see, I know you dislike parties," Nino explained. "But it's your son's birthday party, friend—I mean, sir!"
He placed his hands together, like any respectable Indian and his devotion to Hinduism.
"It's your son's wish!"
"That's enough," said Gabriel. "Drop the subject."
But Nino would not give up without any further persuasion.
"You're being too harsh. He's a great student and he works super hard! Don't you think maybe, just maybe, he actually deserves a party?"
Gabriel held his right up, motioning him to stop.
"No, and that's final."
"But he works hard as a first page model! He studies fencing, Chinese, piano—"
Unbeknownst to any of them, Adrien came in just as Nino rambled with his second sentence. He stopped when he felt Adrien's left hand resting on his right shoulder. He turned around fast and saw his friend with his satchel hanging off of his right arm.
"Nino? When did you get here?"
Nino, with jubilation, pointed up his left index finger.
"What are good friends for?"
He turned back to Gabriel.
"Please give him a chance, friend—I mean, mister! Please?"
Gabriel glared at Nino with a face of unusual anger at this boy of brown complexion and mannerisms. It was the face of a white supremacist.
"Student, listen closely. I will take care of my son," he said at last. Then he turned to Adrien.
"Also, how in the world did you befriend this hooligan and let him inside?"
He turned to Nino.
"And as for you, I have decided that you are bad influence on my son."
"Bad influence?" Nino was shocked. "What do you mean? I've done nothing wrong!"
"I don't do business with malauns."
The word "malaun" struck a hard blow to Nino's enthusiasm. This was a further disgrace to his ancestral nationality when Gabriel shouted.
"Get out of my house this instant!"
"Dad, he was just defending me on my behalf!" Adrien protested. "You're too cold to even talk with me."
And this was true, Adrien wasn't the type of boy who annoyed his own father while he worked. He was very reputable towards any member of his family and Gabriel's employees, especially Nathalie. Speaking of Nathalie, after Gabriel disappeared into his quarters, he stepped in front of the boys and said a short word.
"Farewell."
Nino stormed out of the house, a bit pissed you might say at Mr. Agreste's supposed chauvinism against Indians. It was a miracle that Adrien was not about to grow up to be just like him…yet.
"Nino, wait up!"
He placed his right hand on Nino's left shoulder. But the brown skinned pre-teen had a dark look in his eyes…the eyes of an adult hating child.
"I'm sorry about my father, he's a bit of frustrating person, isn't he?"
"I can already tell he is," Nino muttered in voice that Adrien couldn't. But sadly the fair-haired boy heard him.
"You shouldn't take offense to his words. I think it's just best to stay out of his way."
"WELL HE CALLED ME A MALAUN!" Nino let himself go, taking Adrien aback. "No matter what you say, I can't just sit back and let this go."
He crossed his arms and stomped furiously away from the mansion. Adrien lowered his eyes and his head, whispering.
"Thank you for trying though."
But his voice fell on Nino's deaf ears, and after walking for twenty minutes, he came to a green bench in the park on Avenue de Breteuil. For a second, he might have seen a man smoking a cigar across the way, and being a smart kid who knew the consequences of smoking, Nino opened the bottle and blew three bubbles out. He heard whining from none other than a four year old red head in an orange shirt and lime green shorts being dragged away by his father, who wore a Carolina blue suit.
"DADDY, PLEASE!"
"No, it's time to stop playing and go home. You have chores to do."
Even though the smaller boy seemed ten years younger than him, Nino thought about his own parents and all the times that to be strict with him on certain things like rules (which he obliged to) and chores (which made him feel dissatisfied). I made him cringe with frustration, letting it all out with his own choice of words.
"It's always the adults that are the problems."
The eye of a dark conservatory opened to cast light upon a foreboding figure in a dark lilac dress shirt with a black vest in the shape of an "X", a white x-shaped bow with a purple button in the center, violet dress pants, black rubber gloves and a silver-grey cowl. His name…Hawk Moth. As with the other superheroes, nobody knew where he came from. His observatory just popped out of the sky one day surrounded by a hundred lepidopterans, more popularly known as moths or butterflies. He opened both eyes to the sunlight casting its positive spell that would balance the negative thoughts he had in mind.
"You want to help your friend through any means, but you don't have any power to do so."
Hawk Moth could sense negative emotions from a hundred square miles, though he often limited his senses down to the city of Paris herself. He like to prey on fresh anger, resentment and sadness and he liked it that way, for it would give him more opportunities before his future victims had a chance to calm down. When the eye of the observatory opened all the way, the butterflies flew around like snowflakes falling in reverse. He looked down with closed eyes pulling every sent of anger into his nostrils.
"Ah, it's frustrating. Very frustrating. So frustrating that no matter how hard you try to endure, that feeling keeps coming back."
He opened his left hand, summoning a butterfly to rest on his palm. When landed, Hawk Moth covered the butterfly with his right hand (very carefully so as not to crush her), and five streams of black particles came out of nowhere, spilling in-between the fingers and grew into bigger blobs before they disappeared. The butterfly was now black with light purple cracks and veins. Hawk Moth removed his right hand, setting the butterfly free and waved his cane of gold and oak as a farewell parting.
"Fly away, my akuma! Go to your host!"
The butterfly flew through the window in the square middle of three rings, out into the open world over a beautiful city that would soon be purged into a dark world of anger, corruption, arrogance, vice, sin and pure evil.
Nino was still blowing bubbles and when it looked like he run out the "akumatized" butterfly morphed into the center of the bottle and the energy emitting from the bottle struck total amounts of negative emotions into his fiber, creating the purple light of a mask in the shape of a butterfly. Gritting his teeth with this newly found rage burning through his stomach and the rest of his body, a voice rung into Nino's head.
"I am Hawk Moth, the butterfly. You are now my Bubbler. Shall we take care of those goddamned adults who have your lives so miserable? All you have to do is steal Ladybug and Cat Noir's Miraculous Stones in return. Are you up for this?"
With no free control over his mind, the brainwashed Nino obliged in an uncharacteristically refined voice of demonic proprieties.
"Of course, Master Hawk Moth!"
He stood up and a black liquid with royal purple shades covered his right hand. It spread to his chest until Nino was lost from head to toe in this black substance of corruption. It rocketed him from the park and pulled him down on the roof of an apartment building two blocks away. After a second, Nino came out of the liquid, eyes closed and kneeling on his right leg looking like a cartoonish doodle.
His face had light blue skin, reddish-brown eyes, and black circles around his eyes where the glasses would be, along with a black spot above his left eye and a black spot below his right eye. His clothes were now a bright red, blue and yellow body suit, with many parts of the suit being rounded like attached bubbles. Around his head, he had a red helmet that featured a red antenna on top with a matching sphere. Also, he wore black skin-tight boots, black elbow-length gloves with pink knuckles, and black pants. On his chest was a black and white circle resembling an eye with two dark gray tubes attached. The tubes connected to his red, yellow, and blue bubble container, where the bubble wand would be. The bubble wand had a blue handle and a yellow head with a long, oval hole. He had become…
The Bubbler.
"If there are no adults," he added with sadistic glee, "all kids will be free!"
He stood up and stretched his arms.
"Just thinking about it makes me feel excited!"
His right hand reached for the bubble wand and he spun it once, shouting in the voice of a liberal.
"FOR FREEDOM!"
And he rocketed away from the building, leaving a trail of bubbles in his wake. The Bubbler ricocheted off the middle arch of Notre Dame, flew over the Champs-Élysées and soared down the 8th arrondissement, his first victim being the father of the four year old red head. And speaking of red, Hellboy had been taking a stroll down that very same street, nodding and greeting his fellow Parisians as he went by. He noticed a woman in a black and white zebra striped dress being contained by a large 4:3 scale bubble with a purple wave turning green upon impact and was lifted into the air. Seeing this along with the man in the suit, pedestrians made a quick retreat for cover, but most of them were no match for the bubbles. Some took cover in their houses, some hid under their cars and Hellboy ducked into an alleyway when a bubble took big to enter, faded into existence with a single "pop!"
"What the hell is going on here?" he murmured.
And that he was going to find out for himself.
Marinette was in the kitchen, forming her soybeans in the shape of a heart that symbolized her love for Adrien. An allegory for anorexia, she couldn't even bear to take a bite out of the tuna sandwich her mother made for her.
"I wonder if Adrien opened my present by now."
Sabine, who had unwisely chosen to open the windows, turned back and asked, still smiling as any mother would do.
"What's that about a present, Marinette?"
And like any other teenager who did not feel like expressing his or her personal moments and relationships, Marinette told a fib.
"I was saying that I wanted to eat lunch quickly and go back to school."
Sabine chuckled at this joke and would have laughed a lot harder had it not been for the bubble that consumed her a moment later. Marinette dropped her jaw as the light waves around the bubble turned from purple to light lime green, taking her mother along with it. She ran to the balcony and saw her father being carried off as well…towards an army of adults from twenty one to ninety five being lifted via bubbles into the outer stratosphere. Sabine tried hard to break the bubble, pounding her left fist against it, but the bubble's wall was too thick (and even if she did, she might have broken her neck upon falling to the ground hard.) Tikki came from Marinette's rear right pocket and stared in horror.
"Your parents! We have to get them down!"
"I would, but I am not equipped with a parachute," Marinette said to Tikki as though it were obvious.
"Then we must find the source," Tikki replied. "Hawk Moth must have unleashed another Akuma."
Marinette looked back at the city known for its populace of 2.244 million people. She was determined, hard faced and ready to face the odds.
"We have to find out who's the victim this time, pronto!"
She brushed her hair back, revealing her luscious red round earrings.
"Tikki! Spots on!"
Five black spots covered her left earring, followed by her right when Tikki morphed into the earrings. Marinette placed her hands around her eyes, creating a domino mask of red with black spots. The tips of her pony tails gained red streaks and ten feet long red streamers flowing from her hair. Extending the rest of her body, Marinette gained a leather body suit of red with black round spots…like a ladybug, and that was who she was.
The Miraculous Ladybug.
Twirling around, lifting her left leg and placing it back to the ground, Ladybug was equipped with a yo-yo that could for many purposes: communication, purifying of akumas and mostly, as a weapon. She ran down to the bakery, spotting a male of nineteen with a boy and girl of matching ages, six to be exact. They looked up in fright at the face of the Bubbler reflected in a garden of round pink bubbles that would give Glinda the Good Witch of the South a bad name of disgrace. He announced his plans like a hipster in that sort of voice.
"Hey, hey, hey! Will there be another fine day as this, friends? Don't you feel like all the adults disappearing is good? No more homework or chores! It's an all you can play fiesta! It's a present from me, Bubbler!"
A gunshot rung through a bubble in the center of the fizzy clouds, the left gun of Hellboy, who expressed the face of an emotionless soldier.
"Nobody messes with us adults, right Ladybug."
Ladybug said nothing. She just nodded and lowered herself to the preschool siblings.
"Don't worry, Hellboy and I will bring your parents back soon."
She turned to the young man.
"Take care of your siblings in the meantime!"
All three cheered her and her unusual sidekick on.
"Go Ladybug!"
If poor Adrien wasn't frustrated enough with a racist father and an indifferent secretary, he would have shared the fate as Neil Perry of Dead Poets Society fame, but wiser and with more courage to stand up to his own father and tell him off just so he could lead a wild life that only destitute children get when they spend most of their time wishing they could be as rich as he was. He sat alone in the dining room after finishing a miniscule meal of a chicken breast and a glass of milk, wiping his mouth with a long napkin as he reflected on his quiet thirteenth birthday. The quietest birthday of his whole life. His words were acerbic.
"Wow. I'm totally feeling the birthday mood. Yay."
He walked out with his satchel, feeling lethargic as he walked into the hall. But as he stood there in the center of the room, it felt surprisingly empty.
"Nathalie? Dad?"
No answer came, it was bizarre…but not bizarre to Adrien Agreste, who just shrugged his shoulders and walked to the door. When he was outside he was startled to hear an uproar of cheers from his classmates, just standing there outside for no good reason…other than his birthday perhaps.
Chloé, Sabrina, Alya, Alix Kubdel, Kim, Rose, Juleka, Ivan, Max, Nathanaël and Mylène Haprèle were all standing in front of him shouting "Happy Birthday!" in multiple languages of French, English, Chinese and Korean.
"Hey yo, birthday boy over there!" shouted a voice from above.
Adrien could tell by his tone of voice that it was Nino…looking like a freakishly drawn oddity made from a cartoon sketch standing on a bubble.
"Your father's not here," he said as he looked down upon his guests. "If the cat's not around, then the mouse is the king."
Adrien's suspicions were confirmed.
"Nino?!"
"I, Bubbler, have personally gathered all of your friends for one thing…"
The colorful character raised his right arm in the air like he didn't care.
"We're going to celebrate your birthday!"
The crowd of teens and tweens cheered as Bubbler jumped off the bubble and landed on a DJ booth on a black stage with two subwoofers and six floodlights. He raised his hands in the air with everlasting energy and aggressiveness.
"So who's ready to par-tay?!"
"WE ARE!"
The kids shouted with joy and cheer, ready to have the party of their lives, hosted by this strange Messiah who came out of nowhere. Then scratching the record on with four strokes of his right fingertips, the song Lola by the pop band Superbus began to play at a slightly sped up tempo. In a mixture of shock, dismay, confusion and an entrée of surprising reactions, Adrien, unsure of what to make of the situation, ran back into the house.
The noise of the music could hear all the way across the street. While in his apartment, Stanley was sure to have seen Mrs. Peenman taking a walk outside when she was scooped up by a bubble. Since the windows were closed in the apartments, they did not capture the other tenants. Safe and sound in his room, he knew that trouble down blew and up above had brewing in the form of the Bubbler.
"Well, that takes care of her," he said to himself and to his dog. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna let the other adults get lost in space."
He picked up the emerald green mask he had been toying with for the last hour and a half.
"And I know who to catch the culprit."
He slapped the mask on, letting it cover the entirety of his head and spin wildly around in all directions and when he stopped, his head was a shiny mint green. He now wore a zoot suit that was as yellow as a taxicab with a tie that matched the checker flags seen on the sides of a Checker taxi. His shoes were black and white oxfords and he uttered the first words that had been spoken on his first day as…the Mask.
"S-s-s-smokin!"
He rushed to the window. Down below was the courtyard of the Agreste mansion, where he could see DJ Bubbler entertaining his guests, all comprising of Collège Françoise Dupont alumni.
"It's party time!" he said to his near visible reflection in the window. "P-A-R-T-why? Because I gotta, that's why! Twenty-three skidoo!"
He headed for the door and sped his way out. When he reached the gate, he stopped on the left side of the entrance, hiding from this new enemy while getting a closer inspection from his vantage point.
"What's with your dancing?!" The Bubbler shouted while trying to keep a straight smile. "You should have fun at a party!"
And so it appeared. Mylène was the first to look tired after a minute of dancing. This was followed by Rose whose body was growing weak, but the Bubbler was in no mood for rest and relaxation.
"Dance harder! Otherwise you might end up flying away like the adults."
He took out his wand and shot three fireworks that exploded into bubbles, catching the attention of Hawk Moth in his observatory. He laughed hard as he predicted the outcomes.
"Perfect. Now that the Mask has arrived, all that's left is for Ladybug, Cat Noir and Hellboy to appear. Then this battle between good and evil will have finally reached its end."
Back in his room, featuring a widescreen TV, three computer monitors, two arcade classics and an upstairs library, Adrien closed the door and looked at his silver ring, which possibly to him from his mother. Plagg appeared behind his right shoulder.
"What's the matter?" the squishy kwami asked. "Enjoy the moment! This is the party you have been longing for!"
"Nino has been turned into an Akuma!" Adrien reasoned. "I have to save him!"
But Plagg, for such a voice of reason that he sounded to be, had other statements.
"There's no better chance than this. Let's go! Have some fun while your father's not around. Then, we can save Nino and capture the Akuma."
Adrien looked away. He didn't know if Plagg was truly a Faustian devil that would lead him down the path of fame with terrible consequences, but he knew that the kwami was right about one thing: He had to have some fun in his as both a cat and himself. At last, he spoke to his conscious.
"I guess you're right. If not today, when will I get another chance to do whatever I want?"
He headed out the door, with Plagg going back into Adrien's right vest pocket.
Spotting the fireworks, Ladybug and Hellboy raced their way to the Agreste manor, getting closer as the sound of the fireworks grew louder.
"I won't forgive you, Bubbler!" she whispered, standing from a condo with her fists at the level of her mouth.
At the courtyard as the fireworks continued, Adrien was dancing like never before, cheering with hands raised and eyes closed, but the other kids were just about exhausted. He walked over to Rose, her eyes at half-mast.
"Hey there! How's the party? It's fun, yeah? It's my first time at one!"
"Sure…"
Rose smiled put both of her thumbs up as a sign of pleasure. But Adrien was quick to see that she was becoming helpless, mindless, doll with no personality other than walking the earth like a zombie. The same went for the faces of the other kids.
When Adrien wanted a Gatsby styled party, what he really meant were kids and adults from all over Paris as well to have them be more excited and euphoric. It was starting to feel like a small crowd being forced into serfdom. Even the Mask was getting bored, he just yawned and waited, knowing that he needed Ladybug to purify the Akuma and to give Hellboy the opportunity of kicking the Bubbler's ass. Chloé and Sabrina noticed this too, and, true to Bubbler's word, the blond haired queen bee ushered her gingered haired friend to the stage.
"D-Do you have any slower songs?" Sabrina stuttered.
The Bubbler looked at her with suspicion in his eyes.
"Isn't it a little early for that?"
Chloé walked up to Sabrina's shoulders and pushed her down, again having to do everything herself.
"It's for Adrien," she uttered sweetly. "Slow songs are a first for him."
She clamped her hands against her right cheek and fluttered her eyelashes, successfully capturing Bubbler's attention.
"Whoo. I've got just the song."
He placed a record on the left disk and a French cover of George Michael's I'm Never Gonna Dance Again blasted through the subwoofers. The kids took their turn to waltz, leaving Adrien and Chloé to themselves. For once, he had wished that Marinette was here with him.
"Is it just me does everyone else seem to be acting weird?"
Chloé, who had been listening but didn't seem to care at all, grasped his left hand and dragged him to the center before he had time to notice.
"That doesn't really matter! Let's dance."
At last, Ladybug and Hellboy found Mask near the entrance, who was now relived and re-motivated upon seeing the two in red.
"What took you so long?" he greeted the rouge duo in a typical imitation of Humphrey Bogart.
"We didn't know where the Bubbler was until the fireworks showed up," Ladybug confessed.
"The best thing we can do now is head to the roof. If Bubbler spots us too soon, it might endanger the kids' lives," Hellboy suggested.
Ladybug jumped to the balcony on the same side and Mask stretched his right foot onto the roof, taking Hellboy by the hands as they landed quietly on the floor of the balcony. Ladybug looked over from the suicide barrier, squinting her eyes at the Bubbler removing the other record and then looking down to find Chloé resting the left side of her head against Adrien's chest. It enraged her to the bone a bit further when Chloé puckered her lips and prepared to smooch Adrien. But Adrien did not think that now was the best time. Cringing, he moved his head further back until Chloé gained the upper hand and pressed a pink glossy kiss on Adrien's right cheek.
"Hare dare you do that to Adrien, you minx!"
Even though a cardinal rule of superheroes is to never use one's powers for personal use or selfish purposes, she summoned her yo-yo, lifting it up into the air with her left hand.
"Lucky Charm!" she shouted.
The yo-yo poured a hundred and one hearts out of it, then swirled around into a round mass of ladybug wings, transforming it completely into a record with a red and black spotted label in the center. Ladybug was fortunate to catch it as she looked at the contents with surprise.
"A record disk?"
No matter how odd the objects appeared to be, they would always prove themselves useful in the event of an emergency. Hellboy read the label.
"Hey Pachuco by Royal Crown Revue?"
"One of my favorites!"
The Mask nearly popped his eyes out as he said this…literally. He was able to bend his body into unrealistic shapes and proportions, even changing his wardrobe to reflect his current emotions and attitude. As the Bubbler searched through a colorful category of Adren's record collection of fifty albums, Mask daintily touched the disk with his right thumb and index fingers.
"May I do the honors?" he asked.
Ladybug let the disk go and the Mask took off like lightning. He stood from the top of the spotlights, grinning as always with the shout of a rock star that caught the attention of the kids…and the Bubbler.
"Let's rock this joint!"
He flung the disk like a Frisbee into the left player and ran quickly down into the stage before the Bubbler could stop him. As promised with the label, Hey Pachuco began to play. It struck up an upbeat, big band tune of classic jazz that got the children moving faster than the first number.
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?!" The Bubbler looked left and right, high and low in vain. In the meantime, Chloé was surprised, allowing Adrien to move away from her without a polite word. It was nothing more than a nervous chuckle.
"Now you're finished," Marinette saluted.
"It's dangerous for you too!" added the voice of Tikki.
But then she heard something else, the beeping of a sound that told her "danger!" A few more seconds and she would be back to her original state.
"Keep an eye out for the Mask and wait for me," Ladybug informed Hellboy.
"Got it, miss."
So she jumped down to the sidewalk, twirling and landing on her feet. Fortunately for her, there weren't too many citizens to expose her identity, so she called out.
"Transformation: Release!"
The last spot on her earrings disappeared, and in a pink ray that covered her from toe to head, she was back to the being the meek, pitiful and extremely shy Marinette. Tikki came into her open hands, yawning from lack of nutrition that had been spent on the Lucky Charm.
"Marinette…"
"Sorry, the situation was desperate!"
"Sure it was, because you were blinded by jealousy. Don't you know what happens when you use Lucky Charm? After a short period of time, you turn back into-"
"Myself," Marinette interrupted. "I know that. But Bubbler doesn't seem like he's going anywhere. There's still time to eat and replenish your energy. After recharging, we can go after him!"
Like any other organic life form, Tikki required food, not just for herself, but also for Marinette's alter-ego. The amount of energy from anything that was editable was likely to break down all the systems into creating Ladybug's limited powers.
So Marinette stuffed Tikki into her purse, then went into the courtyard. She was certain to have seen Hellboy still looking down from below. On her right was Mask under the stage, giving her the shushing gesture. Marinette wasn't sure if they knew about her life as Ladybug, but if they did, they were certain to have kept it to themselves. Fortunately on their part, neither of them knew, but they were suspicious.
She found a table of confectionaries (cakes, cheesecakes, fruit flavored sodas and cookies), and placed four chocolate chip cookies into the purse, allowing Tikki to devour them at a quick pace.
"That should do it," she said to herself. "All that is left is to find a safe place to transform."
But she was shocked to find Alya close by.
"Where were you? I was worried that something happened to you!"
The girls hugged with Marinette accepting the favor.
"Me too!" she replied loudly.
Alya moved four inches away from Marinette, briefing her.
"I just saw the Mask and Hellboy, Which means Ladybug and Cat Noir can't be too far behind and are going to save us at any minute. They always did in the past."
Marinette wanted to blush at the career she had been doing for the past year or so, yet most superheroes often kept their identities a secret for a reason.
"Before they do," Alya interrupted her thoughts. "Follow me. It involves Adrien's present."
Marinette sighed with getting the chance of signing her gift, but Tikki who bitten off a quarter scale bite of the fourth cookie, reminded her of the situation at hand.
"What about Bubbler?"
"I know! Just give me a moment!"
Hellboy continued craning his head over the partygoers. Marinette rushed into the mansion, following Alya. Marinette hoped to find the present before the party ended, but Alya, knowing a lot more about the Agreste manor, peeked her head through the door of Nathalie's office and Marinette poked her head under Alya's. Both girls saw the present still wrapped and lying there untouched for the last hour.
"Go ahead and sign it," Alya whispered.
And so she did, Marinette found a sticky note and a black aluminum pen, writing down the words "To Adrien, Love Marinette" in cursive.
Back in the courtyard, Mask was still hiding under the stage, though he peeked his eyes out to Ivan, a heavy set, but muscular young man of a black shirt, black cap and blond hair standing by the wall, sulking with his arms crossed. Bubbler approached him with an icy scowl.
"Yo, friend. Why aren't you out there dancing?" he asked furiously.
"Who cares?" Ivan glared back. "Mylène's dancing with Nathanaël."
"So what? You can find another dance partner."
"That is none of your business."
Ivan's tone went harsh, but the Bubbler's was a lot sadistic. He seethed with fury at Ivan's defiance.
"Then I'll make my business, fatass."
He pulled out the bubble wand, frightening the teen.
After finishing the note and stamping it onto the present, Marinette kissed the paper.
Mission accomplished!
Tikki poked her head out of the purse.
"Now that you're done…let's transform while there's still a chance!"
"Not right now," she whispered. "Alya's outside!"
She turned to the door fast and shouted.
"Go ahead of me, I'll be right there!"
Placing her right hand on her heart, Marinette could hear Alya's footsteps leaving the manor. It was all becoming crystal clear to her when she Ivan floating away in a bubble of green. It was plain to see that should anyone remove the "y" and spell "party" backwards, it would spell trap. And anyone who defied the Bubbler would end up being trapped in a bubble that float into the reaches of outer space and successfully driving the bubble's victim insane. She had to be quick and save the guests and the adults before they were driven to suicide by clawing themselves to death.
"I should have listened," Marinette moaned to herself. "I stalled too long."
She watched the poor, defenseless Ivan being carried through the stratosphere and into the hemisphere where he be lost in the clouds of Heaven forever.
Meanwhile, Adrien had been given a chance on the stage with Bubbler, knowing that there still was some good within his friend.
"Hey everyone in Paris! Are you having fun?"
He held the microphone in his left hand high above his head and the only feedback from the mic was chorus of fatigued groans. They were met by a furious growl from the Bubbler who reached for his wand, so they turned into fake cheers. Mask and Hellboy wanted to pounce the bastard, but they could not without Ladybug's signal. Hellboy looked behind to find Lady and so did Adrien from afar when he jumped off the stage.
"Ladybug?" the recently-turned thirteen year old exclaimed.
Hellboy leaped from the balcony and raised his left fist in mid-air, then thrusted downwards towards the cables connecting to the subwoofers. It smashed into the power strip, disconnecting the wires as the strip crumbled. Mask came out of his hiding spot, zipping his way towards Ladybug and Hellboy on the balcony.
"It's a pity but party time's over, Bubbler!" she teased.
"Everyone was having fun," Bubbler snapped back. "But what's your freaking problem?"
Ladybug was offended.
"You made the adults disappear into the sky by trapping them in bubbles, and yet you ask me what my problem? On top of that, you forced these unwilling kids to party!"
And before Chloé could even rest her head on Adrien's left shoulder, the boy rushed back into the house.
"YOU RUINED MY PARTY!" Bubbler screamed.
Reaching for the wand, he fired two circling bubbles. Ladybug readying her yo-yo, using it as a shield, spinning it around at what might been the speed of light. At that speed the yo-yo acted as a shield and she deflected left and right. Both participants jumped and struck each other while Hellboy and Mask tried to escort the crowd to the front steps of the manor.
Back in his room, a wiser Adrien knew that maybe it was worth having a quiet party as usual. Plagg came out of his jacket.
"Plagg, I was too naïve."
Immediately, Plagg was sucked in against his will into the ring which turned back with the light green insignia of a feline paw. Adrien decorated his eyes with a jet black domino mask that made his eyes green, pitch black cat ears made of leather and a dark grey suit of lurex. Curling into a fetal position, he sprouted a silver staff with a twelve foot long leather belt for a tail. The suit was also fitted with a golden bell under his collar. He had become…Cat Noir.
"Waiting for me, bubble-face?"
Bubbler dodged a right jab from Hellboy, then another from the left by the Mask, who stretched his left arm past the right shoulder and was unable to stop Bubbler from sending another Glinda-pink bubble towards Ladybug. Ladybug fired off her yo-yo, yet the disk bounced off and that was when Cat Noir flew into the scene. He used his staff to collide with the disk, knocking it upwards.
"I came just it time didn't I?"
"You didn't need to show up," Ladybug said casually.
The yo-yo disk struck his crown as she said this.
"At least you can be thankful," Hellboy added.
The pink mask appeared over Bubbler's face. The voice of Hawk Moth was hissing in his head.
"Bring me the Miraculous Stones! I need their power…NOW!"
Unleashing a scream of rage, Bubbler spun madly around, creating a barrage of bubbles that forced Cat, Ladybug, Mask and Hellboy to duck and dodge, twirling their weapons as they did. Mask even used his fedora as a shield while Hellboy simply used his fists and his guns to wipe out the rest of the bubbles. But there were so many that Bubbler snapped his left fingers that turned them into raging green bubbles that stuck onto the quartet like parasites. Within ten seconds, they were trapped in a large emerald green bubble.
Bubbler held out his left hand in an offering gesture.
"Hand over the Miraculous Stones if you want out."
"Dream on, asshole!" Hellboy shouted back. He was obviously the most profane out of all four in the quartet. This only aggravated Bubbler, who held his left hand against his temple.
"Then you'll end up just like the adults," he said mournfully.
"Children need adults!" shouted Ladybug.
"As if," Bubbler scoffed. "Kids need freedom, fun and comfortable lives, and it's the adults who always get in their way."
The classmates watched in return, surprised and astounded by Ladybug's following words.
"But kids needs adults just to be safe! They are the ones looking after them with love and protection! How would you feel if you lost your own child to an accidental death?!"
"At least some adults do," muttered Adrien under the mask of Cat Noir. Then he shouted. "But, bring back the adults!"
"What he said," said Mask and Hellboy together.
But the Bubbler was not about to defy his motus operandi.
"No can do. But if you're so worried about the adults, why don't you float along with them?"
He charged before the quartet could react, and like kicking a baseball into the outfield, the bubble rocketed into the sky. It went on for a mile before it slowed down at a thousand feet. Hawk Moth watched the scene from his observatory, cross and dismayed with the actions of his new-found accomplice.
"What do you think you are doing, Bubbler?! I told you to steal the Mircaulous Stones!"
Cat was tapping his right foot at the wall, along with Hellboy punching the barrier with all his might. It wasn't until Mask pulled out a pin from his left vest pocket that the bubble successfully busted into non-existence and sent the heroes falling down towards the Eiffel Tower.
"Care to show me if you can land on all fours this time?" Ladybug asked Cat out of the blue.
"No thanks!" was his reply and with quick thinking, he reached for his platinum baton and flung it at the base of the tower. Seeing this, Ladybug used her yo-yo to wrap it around the baton. She grabbed Cat Noir's right hand with her left and Mask lifted his arms under Hellboy's pits, letting the green faced man transform the rest of his own body into a parachute.
"Brace for impact!" shouted Mask like falling pilot as he tried to decrease speed.
The two came safely down and Ladybug and Cat Noir, swinging from the yo-yo, landed under the tower.
"Whoo! How was my four feet landing?" he asked his allies.
The yo-yo somehow had pulled the baton down from the tower, landing in Ladybug's left hand. She tossed it back Cat.
"We have to destroy Bubbler's bubble wand. The Akuma is in there."
Based on previous experience, Ladybug, Cat, Mask and Hellboy always knew that an Akuma would always infect a personal item of its victim and would remain there until the object was split in two or partially destroyed.
"Then let's hurry," Hellboy reminded them.
And they ran back to the mansion.
Still hiding behind the balcony at the front of Adrien's mansion, the teens prayed and held their breaths as Bubbler looked hell-bent on finding them all.
"Where did you all go in the middle of my party?!"
"Sorry for breaking your bubble," said Ladybug from atop the entrance. "But it seems like everyone thinks your party is mediocre, Bubbler."
Tipped off by Alya, the crowd chanted.
"Ladybug! Ladybug! Ladybug! Ladybug!"
Bubbler growled harder than ever and when he turned, he felt no affection for his guests, if not total confusion by their betrayal.
"WHY DO YOU ALL HATE ME SO MUCH?!"
As he screamed for question, he fired off his bubbles. As quick as a flash, the kids were trapped in purple bubbles, and it seemed like the majority of Paris' population had been erased and were now floating in space, ready to break free and unfortunately die from lack of food and oxygen.
"Your precious friends are headed for outer space. You'll never see them again!"
And with that, Bubbler leapt away and so did the four heroes, which led them right back to the Eiffel Tower where they had just recently come from. Hanging from the middle of the tower, He fired bubbles straight down at the fearless four, dodging them as they made their way to the second stage. Once they landed, Cat Noir noticed the right index claw in his ring blinking five times then disappearing. The hour had passed and his time as Cat Noir was just about to expire.
"My transformation is about to wear off!" he shouted to Ladybug. "Pick up the pace!"
So Ladybug summoned her Lucky Charm again and the hearts that spun around the yo-yo transformed into a 1/12 scale wrench with dual ends.
"Your tech skills are going to help us?"
Hellboy and Mask would have chuckled at Cat's crack, but they had to wait for the appropriate to joke. Bubbler held one bubble in his right hand and used the wand to bat it over to Cat Noir, who fled up, up, up the tower like a professional climber (which he was). Even more professional than Philippe Petit when he walked in-between the high towers of Notre Dame in 1971. When he reached a higher piece above the second level, Cat Noir further castigated his former friend.
"Is that the best you can do?"
By then, Ladybug knew what to do. Her vision saw a pipe venting steam through a vent and it hit her when she realized the capability and purpose of the wrench. Mask and Hellboy ran from behind, pinning the Bubbler as Ladybug reached the pipe and pulled harder and harder until the pipe was released. The pressurized steam sent the pipe flinging wildly.
"Get ready, Cat Noir!" shouted Ladybug. "I'm counting on you!"
Cat swooped down and held the mad pipe while Bubbler released himself from Mask and Hellboy's clutches by means of summoning his inner strength, pushing the two back with his upper body. He jumped to a higher level and fired three more bubbles at Cat, but the force of the steam from the pipe sent each bubble flying off in three different directions: north, east and west. Taking out the wand became another opportunity for Ladybug to attack by whipping out her yo-yo, pulling it from Bubbler's grasp. The villain screamed in denial as his prized weapon taken away from him…like an adult taking away his child's favorite toy.
"NO WAY!"
Ladybug caught the wand and snapped in two between her left leg. The butterfly came from the bottom half of the wand.
"Come out evil Akuma! You're finished!"
Her right index finger slid over the disk, a light purple barrier splitting it into two doors. She swing it left and right by her feet and swung the yo-yo wildly behind her back.
"It's time to purify!"
At her request, the yo-yo's white light of redemption caught the butterfly and pulled it back to her left hand, catching it and opening the disk.
"Bye bye, pretty butterfly."
She waved back at the now-purified butterfly flying away, whether it be to freedom…or back to her master for another cycle of possessing and purifying. Then she threw wrench into the air, shouting the command that matched her name.
"MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!"
At the moment it was about a mile high into the sky, a pink cloud with a red body sparkled into a star, multiplying into pink stars. As Tikki's nature of good luck would have it, the damage done by the Bubbler had been restored: Sabine and Tom found themselves back outside the bakery still trapped in their bubbles for a split second before the popped and landed on the ground. Reunited at last, the husband and wife hugged each other for what seemed like an hour but was really a minute. Wracked with defeat and dismay, Bubbler fell to his knees sobbing…and the purple substance that possessed him turned him back into Nino. As a bonus, the purification completely erased his memories as the Bubbler so that he would never have to remember the awful fact that he once been a vice person consumed by darkness.
As they always did to culminate a mission, Ladybug and Cat bumped their fists together, in unison.
"Mission accomplished!"
Hellboy did the same with Mask, but the result prove to be more painful on Mask's part.
"What happened?" Nino asked.
The four decided not to tell and immediately went their separate ways. After getting down to the bottom, Cat Noir reverted back into Adrien Agreste, sighing with despair at how much liveliness had occurred over the last few hours.
Best birthday ever.
Back in his observatory, Hawk Moth gritted his teeth with anger, fury and distaste over his recent failure. There was, of course, a reason why he only sent one Akuma a day. Like the heroes, he had a limit to his powers. Sending out more than one Akuma and controlling them took up too much energy and would cause him to revert back to his normal form and loose control. He would just simply wait until the next opportunity to akumatize someone instead of sending out another one because he needed time to get his strength back. Now that his opportunity had been wasted, he was furious and pissed with so much negativity that came from his blood.
"They've slipped from my grasp, yet again. You will rue the day when I get my hands on those stones! I won't let you two get away with this!"
And the eye closed, shutting the observatory back into the darkness.
It was late afternoon when Nathalie wrote her correspondence for the day. Being trapped in a bubble for almost two hours had put her behind schedule, so she wrote fast and simple amounts of words to make up for the time that was lost. The intercom monitor revealed Gabriel, looking proper as ever.
"Nathalie, did he like the present?"
Nathalie beeped back, realizing her mistake.
"Ahh, that is-I'll go deliver it right now."
"Very well," Gabriel said and the monitor went into darkness. Nathlie found the present still lying on her desk, but noticed the tape from Marinette.
Where did this come from?
Reading it, she considered about the source, until…
I can't let Mr. Agreste down.
Her left hand took the paper and crumpled it into the trash can. Then, she rushed right over to the dining room where Adrien aimlessly held a tumbler in his right hand. She took slower steps, walking professionally as she handed the present to Adrien.
"It's a birthday gift from your father," she explained.
Adrien looked at it. The colors of the wrapping and bow looked familiar, the same colors of the gift Marinette had attempted to give him, but he immediately brushed it off and made himself believe that his father was showing some compassion after his mother left.
"Thank you," he said before Nathalie turned away.
But then he said.
"Please tell my father that I said thanks."
"Certainly," Nathalie replied and she left the room.
Smiling, Adrien slowly pulled the wrapper off.
Back in his apartment, Stanley knew that everything would be the same…for a while. Out of all the adults who ending up being trapped by the bubbles, Mrs. Peenman was the most traumatized and it would be at least a week before she went back to her normal speed.
Hellboy was looking forward to a rest in the park, and Marinette could only pray that Adrien would get her present and be wearing it by tomorrow.
"What?! They can't deliver it this week?!"
"There wasn't anyone to deliver the present yesterday."
"Why does that even matter?! This makes no fucking sense!"
Chloé was reprimanding Sabrina the very next day at school. Alya and Marinette saw her rant and storm away into the building, visibly upset that Adrien's birthday had already passed and Marinette knew that because of the Bubbler incident, Chloé's present had not yet been shipped. But she was hoping that Adrien would like her own present.
"Ha ha, what a temper," Alya teased.
"Hey there!"
The environs of Paris were golder than ever when Adrien came out of the Cadillac limousine wearing a sky blue scarf. Marinette and Alya watched with glee and sedated levels of excitement.
"Ooh, my scarf! He's wearing the scarf I made!" Marinette whispered in a voice she hoped Adrien would hear. Nino came to the bottom of the stairs, fist-bumping Adrien as he greeted.
"Hey, friend."
"That's a nice scarf, Adrien!" Alya shouted from her distance. "It looks good on you."
"I know right? It's a birthday present I got from my dad!"
How could he not know? I signed the present! Marinette dropped her smile at the word "dad".
"In the past three years, all he gave me were these boring pens," Adrien said to Nino.
"Wow, you really can't know a person," Nino felt like a changed boy after being purified. "I guess there are times where adults can be pretty awesome."
Adrien sighed.
"About yesterday—when my dad said that word to you."
Nino laid his left hand on Adrien's right shoulder.
"It's okay, Adrien. Just forget about it. We're best friends. Best friends for life."
The reunited allies walked into the school and the girls watched them.
"You should have said you made that scarf," Alya whispered to Marinette.
"But he looks so happy to see a present from his father," Marinette reasoned, knowing about their relationship. "Let's just leave it like that."
Alya was so touched by her word, she just had to hug her best friend.
"Oh, Marinette, you're so thoughtful. One day, I'm sure Adrien will finally acknowledge you. I guarantee."
The bell rung and hand in hand, the girls walked into the school. Marinette's thoughts for the rest of the day focused on Adrien and the scarf she made. Perhaps if she would get closer to him, maybe then she would confess the truth of that lovely piece of fabric she had spent a week trying to sew. Either way, it had been the birthday Adrien had ever gotten.
Nobody ever mentioned that the present Chloé had given to Adrien had been a black Steinway grand piano.