Chapter 2: Water Works
Marinette struggled against the goo, feeling it harden around her. She couldn't budge.
In her mouth, only the part dampened by saliva was soft enough to allow her tongue to move, but she couldn't get much sound out. It tasted like old tires and vomit. She could have tried to swallow the softened part, but she was afraid it might be toxic.
Tikki phased out of her purse and though the goo to the side away from Alya.
"Marinette," Tikki whispered very softly in her ear. "What can we do?"
After the Robustus incident, when Chat Noir was able to translate the message flashed by a light and Ladybug wasn't, Marinette had taught herself Morse code. She hoped the the kwami knew it – Tikki had been around for ages and probably knew every form of human communication.
Marinette blinked the eye facing Tikki in patterns of long and short intervals. "W_A_T_E_R... S_O_F_T_E_N_S."
"Water?" asked Tikki. "Where can I get water?"
"T_O_I_L_E_T."
It was an awful thing to ask Tikki to do, but Marinette had seen Tikki phase with a mouth full of cookies. If something was physically inside Tikki, she could treat it as part of herself.
Tikki grimaced, then said,"Okay. What about Alya?"
"F_R_E_E... H_E_R... T_O_O."
"I won't compromise your secret identity. You need to find a way to keep your secret, or else wait and hope Chat Noir can win by himself."
Marinette thought hard. She had an idea, but she felt as cruel as the monster for suggesting it.
"B_L_O_C_K... E_Y_E_S... E_A_R_S"
Tikki said, "All right."
Tikki phased in and out of the toilet from Marinette's side, carrying mouthfuls of water. She spit it out gently and quietly until she had loosened a good-sized blob of goo. She flew the blob behind Alya' s head and worked it up her neck, as if some of the stuff had come alive.
Alya shuddered and made muffled sounds as the blob was moved to the top of her head. From there, Tikki pushed goo down over the front of Alya's glasses, completely blindfolding her. Tikki worked more of the softened goo down on each side of Alya's head, covering and plugging her ears. Tikki blew on it until it dried as hard as the rest.
Once Alya was isolated, Tikki went to work freeing Marinette's arm on the side nearest the toilet. With an arm free, Marinette opened the toilet lid and dipped out water onto herself to speed up the process.
Soon Marinette was mobile. She still had to get out of the gummed-up stall, and the standing water in the toilet was exhausted. Tikki could bring mouthfuls from the other toilets nearby, but that was too slow. Marinette heard screams – she was needed out there.
Marinette flushed the toilet to bring in more water. She dipped it out and softened a hole in the goo that blocked the edge of the stall on her side. She was thin and limber enough to slide out through a small opening.
Once out of the stall, Marinette looked in the mirror – she was a complete mess, covered in runny gunk. Transformation would fix that.
"Tikki, spots on!"
Ladybug set out to save the others.