Fifty-Two: End Credits
Author's Note: Chat's creativity allows the team to turn the tables on Hawkmoth.
As the double doors of the turbolift sighed open, I bounded out and directly over to Rena, handing her the small disk that was in my paw. We'd used the communications panel in the elevator to fill her in on our plans as the carriage sped its way to the top of the saucer section, so she quickly turned back to the communications console and deftly slipped the small square into a receptacle. "I asked the computer how to do this," she said over her shoulder to us as we gathered around the brown-haired fox. "She was far more helpful than Siri, I must say."
"There are a few more advances in artificial intelligence by the twenty-third century," I pointed out as I leaned against a paw on the edge of the console.
"For sure. But I'm writing an email to Apple when we get home anyway."
She worked for a moment and then pointed to one of the small round monitors just in front of her. It flickered into life and started to show the very movie we were in, jumping directly to about where we were supposed to have been in the movie. It displayed an exterior shot of the Enterprise in dry dock, getting ready to depart. "This is now synched completely," Rena said.
"Can you transfer it to the main viewer?" I asked.
Ladybug looked at me. "Whatever for?"
I shrugged. "Might as well see it in widescreen."
Ladybug rolled her eyes as Rena tapped out a command. We turned in unison and saw the image appear on the rectangular viewer mounted at the forwardmost point of the Bridge.
"All right," I said to everyone. "I have a sense of how this might work, but just in case, you might want to find an empty seat and hold on."
As I took my spot at the Captain's Chair, I waited until everyone was safely seated before swiveling toward Rena. "Go for it, Rena."
The fox nodded and tapped a flashing button; I turned back toward the viewer and watched as the movie jumped ahead at triple the normal speed. My masked eyes flicked down to the chronometer built into the helm and navigation console just in front of me and was similarly rewarded by watching the time display begin to tick by at an extraordinary rate. Twisting slightly, I looked to Ladybug seated at the science console behind me. "So far, so good," I said.
She nodded before turning herself to watch one of her monitors. "This countdown is ticking faster to zero," she warned. "Is that bad?"
"Not necessarily. They were keeping track of when Vejur was to enter orbit around Earth. It hits zero just a bit before the end of the movie."
I was forced to pause, for the ship lurched beneath me, and then again. On the screen in front of us, the Enterprise had been dragged into a wormhole as a result of a misaligned warp core. In our version, it lasted just a moment before the shaking ceased; in another blink, we went to warp, dropped out, and entered the massive translucent cloud. I turned back to Rena. "Speed it up if you can," I said.
"On it," Rena said. She tapped another button and the chronometer below me shot ahead five times faster; in a matter of a few minutes, the Enterprise arrived at the heart of the alien spaceship.
"I'd guess about ten seconds until we hit zero," Ladybug called out.
I nodded. "The finale comes pretty quick," I said a fraction of a second before the screen lit up with a dazzling pyrotechnics display; a moment later, the Enterprise was serenely orbiting Earth before moving away into space and jumping back to warp.
"This is the part that might get rough," I said. "Everyone get ready."
It was exceedingly meta to watch the end credits of the movie I was trapped inside start to scroll upward on the massive viewscreen. As with the rest of the movie, they scrolled by very fast; before I had a chance to say anything to anyone, the space filled with a brilliant white light, blinding me despite throwing an arm in front of my masked eyes. Blinking furiously, I called out: "Everyone okay?"
I heard a chorus of affirmations but in the end, it didn't matter for my vision cleared and the entire team and I were standing on the same roof where the akuma had taken us out. The movie theater was still a pile of rubble, but the sentimonster was nowhere to be found. I had to assume the akuma was still close at hand. Ladybug stepped up beside me, her earrings chirping their first warning. "He's here," I said. "Don't ask me how I know." I turned toward her. "Do you want to feed Tikki before we continue?"
She nodded. "I think we'll need another Lucky Charm to get through this anyway," she said as she dashed away to find a safe place to detransform.
Ladybug had barely ducked around an HVAC unit before the telltale metallic tang of a film canister hitting something. Flipping backwards, I landed in a rough semicircle of Miraculous holders facing our theater akuma. "Who?" I asked tersely as the akuma smiled at us.
"Ryuko," Rena said. "She caught us off guard."
"Damn." I tensed, baton in one paw. Catching a movement, I yelled: "Scatter!"
We leaped in multiple directions, landing in a massive circle surrounding the akuma. She'd thrown a canister at us, but it had missed Pegasus by a wide margin and clattered to rest against the brick wall before poofing into nothing. Slowly, we circled in unison around the akuma, our time together as a team allowing us to work in unison without a ton of verbal direction.
The akuma twirled and shot out three canisters in different directions; I swatted one back with the baton, and Carapace hurled his shield at the second; King Monkey tried to leap over it but misjudged and vanished in a flash of light. I was starting to have flashbacks to Party Crasher.
"Regroup!" I yelled and vaulted toward the edge of the roof and then over and onto the street below. I sprinted down the street and rounded a corner, hearing the footfalls of my teammates as they fell in behind me; sliding into a side alleyway, I skidded to a stop and already had the baton out to let Ladybug know we'd moved.
"I'm here," she said from behind me. "I saw your tactical retreat," she added as the remainder of our group formed a tight ring around us.
"Glad to have you back," I said. "Please tell me you have a Lucky Charm."
"I do," she smiled as she held out a polka-dotted roll of gaffer's tape.
"What on earth are we going to do with that?"
Ladybug's eyes twinkled. "You aren't going to believe it. But first, I need your tail."
Not long afterward, I found myself grousing loudly from where I'd been taped to the side of a building. Ladybug had insisted on ensuring I was secure, and as the akuma started down the wide avenue toward me, I flexed one more time to remind myself I wasn't going anyway anytime soon. "This had better work," I muttered.
"Have faith," I heard in my ear, for the team had broken out our earwigs.
"You're not the one—"
"Hush," Ladybug said.
The akuma was close enough now I could see she actually had a name badge on that said Claire. It was a nice touch, if she hadn't been so menacing. The akuma was smiling wildly, and slowly began to pull out a canister. "Not quite a cat on a hot tin roof, but I won't quibble when it's been otherwise gift wrapped," she said. "My day is looking up."
"I wanted to stick around for the end of the show," I smiled back. "Get the full movie experience."
"That's too bad," she said as she readied her canister. "For there are no end-credit bonus scenes."
"I don't know about that," I grinned. "This is the director's cut, after all."
She looked at me oddly, but advanced a bit more before hurling the canister at me. In that same fraction of a moment, Pegasus opened a portal, allowing Rena to dash out in front of me, tugging behind her one of those mini-soccer goals from an indoor gym. My tail had been tied to one end, and she timed it perfectly, capturing the canister a few meters in front of me.
As the akuma started to reach for another canister, Carapace's shield came out of nowhere and knocked her off kilter; as she spun around, trying to regain her balance, Viperion landed cleanly next to her and yanked off her goggles, tossing them toward my ring hand that had been conveniently taped palm-outward.
"Cataclysm!" I cried just as the goggles hit my hand. They quickly dissolved, releasing the purple akuma that Ladybug deftly snagged with her yo-yo from where she'd been crouching just behind a dumpster. Standing, she spun up the yo-yo further and sliced my bonds, dropping me to the pavement.
"Nicely done," I said as I watched her purify the butterfly. As she called for her Miraculous Cure, I helped who turned out to be the theater manager to her feet and, after ensuring there were no lingering effects, saw her back to the fully restored cineplex.
"One complaint too many about the price of popcorn," I said to Ladybug with a tsk-tsk as we stood beneath the lighted marquee. "Although I have to agree, it has gotten rather expensive."
"It has," she nodded. "Let me collect everyone's Miraculous and then we can continue with our original plans, Chat," she added, inclining her head at the milling crowd of holders that were just out of earshot. I did a second headcount to confirm once more that everyone had reappeared after we'd broken the akuma spell.
"Actually, Milady," I said, looking at all of my colleagues, many of them my friends in civilian life, "as much fun as it was to roam the corridors of my favorite starship, I think I've had my fill of the movies for a bit. I have a better idea."
She arched a masked eyebrow. "Oh?"
"How would you feel about a little team building? I know a nice deserted warehouse where we could have a most wonderful match of Capture the Flag, Miraculous style."
Ladybug looked at me, and a smile slowly formed. "I like it. Not everyone has gotten a chance to become proficient with their secret superpower. Let me run past the Bakery to get some food to charge up everyone, and then you're on." Her smile went a little sly as she leaned in a bit. "But it's gonna be guys versus gals."
"As you wish, Milady," I laughed.