What if The Bubbler went after Ladybug when she hijacked his party music?
Bubble Your Troubles Away
"Adrien must have gotten his gift by now," said Marinette to herself, pushing the remaining lima beans on her plate with her fork into a heart shape.
She was at home on her lunch break from school, in the family dining room on the floor above the bakery.
Sabine Cheng, her mother, asked her, "What's that you said?"
Marinette turned, surprised to see her mother there opening a window.
"Um, I can't wait to get back to school this afternoon, heh heh," said Marinette.
Sabine chuckled, Behind her, a large purple bubble came in through the window. She screamed as it engulfed her and lifted her up and out.
"Mom! MOM!" cried Marinette. Then she saw her father being carried off from the bakery. "Dad? Dad!"
Tikki, her kwami, floated up behind Marinette. "Your parents! Hawk Moth must've released another akuma."
"I've got to find his newest villain ASAP," said Marinette. "Tikki, spots on!"
Ladybug didn't have a smile on her face when she transformed this time. Kidnapping parents was serious business!
As Ladybug ran out of the bakery, purple bubbles appeared in the sky. A clown-like white-faced villain broadcast his message.
"Today is your lucky day, little dudes. The adults have taken the day off, so make the most of it. No chores, no homework, no more nagging, just fun, fun, fun, fun. This is The Bubbler's gift to you."
The bereft children cried. Ladybug tried to comfort them, assuring them she would get the adults back, and assigned older kids as caregivers to the younger ones.
Ladybug spent quite a while comforting kids and searching for Bubbler. At a house in the distance, Ladybug saw fireworks being shot off. That had to be where The Bubbler was – only he really felt like celebrating.
"It's you and me, Bubbler," said Ladybug, heading for the place, which turned out to be the walled front courtyard of Adrien's family mansion, where she had delivered a present earlier in the day.
Ladybug swung up to the top of the wall where she could get the lay of the land. Almost all her homeroom classmates were there, dancing to romantic music. She saw Chloé slow-dancing with Adrien, and then going in for a smooch.
"There's no way this is happening!" said Ladybug. "Lucky Charm!"
The object fell down into her hands. It was flat metallic disk, silver except for a red center with black polka dots.
"A record?"
Ladybug scanned for a way to use the object. It could be done with a nearly impossible bouncing shot while Bubber was distracted looking for the next record to play on his twin turntable. Confident in her aim, and trusting to the luck that came with a Lucky Charm, Ladybug wound up and let fly.
The record bounced off a high balcony, flipped the switch for the second turntable, landed perfectly on the spindle, and jarred the player arm just enough to get itself playing. It was a faster dance tune, so the slow dancing broke up.
The Bubbler stood up and looked around angrily.
"Dude! Who just hijacked my mix?"
"Yours truly," said Ladybug giving him a mocking salute from the top of the wall.
Her earring alarm went off. It was the sound for one spot remaining!
"Better bug out quick before I change back to normal," Ladybug turned and jumped off the wall, somersaulting as she went.
"You're not gonna mess with my party!" Bubbler yelled.
Using the power of high-speed flight he had demonstrated when he was distributing bubbles all over the city, Bubbler zoomed after Ladybug. He caught her in a bubble in mid-fall. (Doing somersaults was a great way for a hero to show off her acrobatics, but it was lousy for defense.)
Bubbler moved Ladybug's bubble back over the wall and showed off his captive to the kids below.
"Ha! Look at what happens when anyone gets in my way, dudes! I just caught Ladybug."
All the kids at the party looked up as Ladybug's bubble floated over them. All of them saw her detransform as her time ran out.
The Bubbler brought Marinette down to the ground.
"No wonder I couldn't find you to bring you to the party, Marinette," said Bubbler. "Everything has changed now. Since you sided with the adults against me, I ought to send you up in the air to die with them. But Hawk Moth wants your Miraculous – hand it over and I'll let you out."
Adrien spoke up. "Please don't hurt Marinette – she's a very close friend."
"I know you like her, dude, but she needs to give up the super stuff. Then she can be your date at the party. I'm still mad she messed with my music."
"I wasn't fighting you," said Marinette. "I just changed the music because I didn't like Chloé slow-dancing with Adrien."
"I gotcha, jealous aren't you? That's sweet for my best bud," said Bubbler. "Just give me the Miraculous and I'll let you out."
"I'd really rather not do that," said Marinette.
"You have no choice."
Bubbler started making the bubble contract around Marinette so that she had to curl up.
"All right, I give in. You win," said Marinette.
She took it off her earrings and held them out in her hand.
The bubble around her popped and Bubbler took the jewelry.
"Hey dudes, look at this! I've got Ladybug's earrings now. No way she's gonna stop this party. We'll keep it up all day and night."
Everyone looked bleak.
"You were our only hope," Alya whispered to Marinette.
"You all had better enjoy this or I'm gonna send you up in the sky," said Bubbler, giving them an evil look.
A line of light shaped like a butterfly glowed around Bubbler's eyes.
"Okay Hawk Moth, I'll send you the earrings in a bubble right now."
Bubbler blew a bubble around the earrings and they started to float away. It didn't look like they were going very fast or very far.
"I'd like to take Marinette inside for a little privacy," said Adrien.
"Cool, dude," said Bubbler. "No tricks, former Ladybug. You mess with my friend and I'll mess you up."
Inside, Marinette said to Adrien, "I'm so sorry... I let everyone down with that dance music move. Now my identity is exposed and Hawk Moth has my Miraculous. Please don't hate me."
"You know I could never hate you, especially now," said Adrien. "And changing the music to save me from dancing with Chloé was sort of sweet."
"Now we have to hope that Chat Noir gets here soon and saves the day."
"About that. Since I know your identity, it's okay for you to know mine. Plagg, claws out!"
Marinette gasped in astonishment.
"Give me a second, m'Lady. I'm going to follow that bubble," said Chat Noir.
Chat Noir leaped upstairs and slipped out the window in his bedroom. Using his expanding baton to reach the roof, he caught sight of the bubble and followed it.
Chat saw the bubble enter a circular window in the attic, with an iris-like opening that he had never noticed on the house before. The bubble went through an open pane in the middle of the window.
A realization struck Chat. Since Hawk Moth's lair was in his own home, that meant... no!
Chat Noir called to the Bubbler. "Hey, do you know? Gabriel Agreste, the guy who set you off by refusing a birthday party for Adrien and saying you were a bad influence on him, is Hawk Moth!"
"No way, dude!" said Bubbler.
"See for yourself," said Chat Noir. "He's right inside this window!"
Bubbler flew up, looked in, and recognized the man.
"Dude, you tricked me! You said you would help me against the adults. but you're, like, the worst adult of all!"
"Fight me, then, if you dare," said Hawk Moth.
"Just in case it's a trap, I'm going to send bubbles in first," said Bubbler.
The Bubbler sent a massive stream of bubbles through the central pane. The man inside swung his sword expertly, but many of the bubbles stuck to him. He was lifted up into the air and floated out the window helplessly.
"You imbecile, I'm pulling your power!" said Hawk Moth. "Come back to me, my little akuma."
The black and purple butterfly left the bubble wand that the Bubbler was carrying. Magical purple clouds swirled around him, turning him back to Nino. It did not, however, undo any of the bubbles he had made. They still clung to Hawk Moth, and the one around the tip of his cane prevented him from reclaiming the akuma.
Nino would have fallen to the ground except that Chat Noir leaped up and caught him. After placing Nino safely on the ground, Chat Noir jumped into the secret room and grabbed the bubble containing the earrings.
"Cataclysm!"
The bubble popped and the earrings were in his hand.
Chat slipped back into the house and gave the Miraculous to Marinette.
"Thank you! I have to get some food for my kwami before she can help me transform again. She likes chocolate-chip cookies."
"There are plenty of cookies out on the party table," said Adrien.
"I need to transform fast. I've got to get to that akuma before it reproduces."
"I have to feed Plagg in a few minutes," said Adrien. "I'll get him some Camembert from the kitchen."
"Adrien, we really need to talk about this – we've both learned our secret identities today and everybody in the school knows mine."
"Later, after you've done the Miraculous Ladybug healing thing."
"All right," said Marinette.
As she went to the food table, Marinette whispered to the kwami in her purse, "Tikki, why did I time out so fast?"
"Using the power of creation selfishly really burns up energy," said Tikki. "Why did you do it?"
"It was an emergency, I thought."
"Yeah, if by emergency, you mean jealousy."
Marinette got Tikki fed, turned back into Ladybug, got a big butterfly net with her Lucky Charm, caught the akuma before it could fly away, purified it, and snagged the butterfly pin off of the floating Hawk Moth with her yo-yo. Only then did she do the "Miraculous Ladybug" healing charm.
Adrien called the police to get Hawk Moth. They arrived and took Gabriel into custody.
Ladybug let herself detransform back to Marinette instead of running off to hide.
Alya came up to Marinette and said, "You should have told me from the start. I would have helped you."
"Sorry," said Marinette. "Secret identities are important. If Hawk Moth hadn't been caught, he could have gone after my family and friends, like you."
"Speaking of friends, I snooped around inside the mansion earlier and found something. That present for Adrien that you forgot to sign? It's on the desk in the atelier. You can give it to him now."
"Thanks, Alya! I'll go get it right away," said Marinette.
Adrien was very happy with the hand-knitted blue scarf from Marinette. She blushed bright pink when he told her how lovely it was.
Chloé gave Marinette a sharp look and said, "I wouldn't normally let you get so close to my Adrikins, but since you're Ladybug, my favorite hero... I'll let you compete. I'll still win, of course."
Adrien and Marinette gave each other a look. They knew who was winning.
Nino was back to himself. Unlike when an akumatized object is broken, he had full memories of his time as The Bubbler.
Nino said, "I'm sorry for what happened to you today, dudes. If anyone wants to stay and party for a bit, now that you aren't being coerced..."
The guests hung around for a little while, but soon they drifted off. Only Nino, Marinette, and Adrien remained. Nino put on a slow dance for them.
Marinette sighed as they danced in a pink cloud of joy.
The End