To Butterfly: I've realized that some of my stories have a very frenetic pace to them, so I've been trying (especially in this one and "Heart of the Storm") to pace things a little more. I don't like it when stories just lose their way and meander, however – that's why I write the entire story before publishing any of it – so even the "slower" chapters have a purpose within the larger narrative.
After lunch the next day, Pegasus stood just outside his lab with an overnight bag over one shoulder and a second duffel slung over the other shoulder. He concentrated on the coordinates within the American Miraculous Temple that Julia had given him and opened a portal. Through the portal he saw yellow stone walls with metal tables pushed up against them, loaded down with scientific equipment – including several pieces which the Heroes of Paris still did not own. Two large computer monitors hung from one wall, with another computer at a desk along the other wall. A woman with dark hair and a dark tan sat in front of that computer, a cup of steaming coffee in her hand, and rose the moment the portal opened.
"You are lucky I normally wake up early," the woman observed in English, arching an eyebrow as she shook Pegasus' hand firmly. "The cooks have not prepared breakfast yet!"
"I apologize for the early hour," he replied, closing the portal behind himself and de-transforming. He fished an apple out of his pocket for Kaalki and looked more closely at the American. "I believe we have met before?"
"Your Heroes' Day," she explained. "You brought Alpac-Man, Espina, and myself to your Headquarters in case you had any trouble."
Max nodded. "We were grateful for your assistance that day – and even more grateful that your presence was ultimately unnecessary!"
"Paola," she introduced herself, indicating an empty table where he could place his bags. "Or Onça Feroz, 'Ferocious Jaguar.' I guess you would call me the team's 'techie.'" She grinned.
"Max." He laughed. "That is my position on our team, as well," he told her.
"Then you know my struggle," she commented melodramatically. "'Hey, Paola, can you modify our truck to be amphibious? And invisible? And hover?' 'Hey, Paola, why do we not have jetpacks yet?' I have only been in this position a few months; give me a break!"
Max grinned. "Give the team one breakthrough and it is a miracle. Give the team a dozen, and it is Tuesday!" He gave her a look of surprise. "Have you designed a cloaking device with sufficient range to hide a vehicle?"
She shook her head. "Not yet," she answered with a frown. "Making it amphibious was simple enough once I redesigned the wheels and modified the axles to serve as propellers – hover capability took another redesign to the chassis. But a cloaking device is still beyond my capability – even if I could bend the light waves around the vehicle, I still have not found an energy source powerful enough to run it. If you have any ideas I would welcome the collaboration."
Max nodded in acknowledgement. "I can certainly help you with the power source. The alien power sources with which we have been experimenting are certainly sufficient for the purpose."
"But what about yourself?" she asked, eyeing him curiously. "Julia has said that you are developing a technological version of your Voyage ability?"
"Max is going to solve the problem by the end of the century!" Kaalki commented, grinning. "Though why you need this thing when you have me…"
"I certainly hope it will not take that long!" Max replied, eyes widening.
"What is the problem?" asked Paola.
He shrugged. "Based on Kaalki's description, the closest analog to her portal ability that the laws of physics allow is a variation of quantum entanglement," he explained, opening his duffel and setting one of the portal rings on a lab table. Turing activated and flew out of the bag at the same time. "The ring incorporates entangled particles which resonate to form the portal." He gave Turing a nod, and the ring began to hum. A white glow emanated from the ring, and through it his lab became visible. Sabrina sat in her accustomed stool in the lab, skimming through something on a tablet, but she looked up and waved the moment the portal generator turned on.
"Impressive!" Paola observed, nodding.
"I cannot hear you very well," Sabrina stated, her voice coming through muffled. She stared intently at something on the tablet, eyes darting rapidly across the screen. "But according to the readings, the generator is operating correctly."
"Sabrina, this is Paola," Max explained, gesturing to the woman next to him. "She was one of the Americans from Heroes' Day – Onça Feroz."
"It is nice to formally meet you," Paola told her, grinning. "So your team has two tech people?"
"Not really," Sabrina replied. She giggled. "I help Max when he needs it, but half the time it is like he is speaking an entirely different language!"
"You are far more helpful than that!" Max assured her, smiling. He laughed. "You do not need to understand quantum physics to assist in this project."
Sabrina rolled her eyes and turned to Paola. "My miraculous enables me to read emotions," she explained. "So most of the time I monitor our team's emotional state. Max is the one who designs the portal generators and energy gauntlets and the like."
"And yet, you were the one who figured out how Lynchpin was disguising his shipments," argued Max.
"I just gave you the idea; you were the one who figured out how to identify them."
"That never would have worked without your idea." His smiled widened as he saw her blush.
A chuckle next to him reminded Max that they weren't alone. "The two of you," Paola sighed. "Should I give you some privacy? The way you talk, it is like you are almost opposites. Max is the reason; Sabrina is the emotion."
Max frowned. "Sabrina is more than that," he insisted.
"I realize that," Paola assured him, nodding. "It is nothing but a gross oversimplification." She picked up a pen off the lab table and held it a centimeter away from the portal's horizon. "Now what happens if I put this through? Will it pass?"
"You may make the attempt," Max told her, "but we have yet to have a successful attempt."
Paola pushed the pen through and, as with their previous experiments, the pen emerged from the other side of the portal blackened and burnt. She pulled the pen back and examined the end closely. "Fascinante," she muttered, rubbing a bit of the charring off onto her finger and sniffing it cautiously.
"Some dust came through the portal again," Sabrina reported, running a finger through it and holding it up to the portal.
"May I see the inside mechanism?" asked Paola, turning to Max.
He nodded and gave Turing a look. The portal disappeared as the device shut off. Once it had cooled, he turned it on its side, took the offered wrench, and removed the housing to reveal the internal wiring. He was relieved to see that everything appeared to still be in proper working order and none of the components were smoking.
Paola picked up a thin metal rod and delicately moved a few of the wires to the side to examine the connections, muttering to herself in Portuguese. "If I understand it correctly, these wires carry the charge through the particles that form the quantum entanglement?" Max nodded. "Light and sound can pass through, but not matter – or not entirely… The other ring is an exact replica of this one, correct?"
"Yes," Max confirmed. "Everything is identical between the two units."
"Have you considered reversing the polarity on the charge?" she suggested, glancing up at him. "After all, opposites do attract."
Max furrowed his brow and stared into the device. Could it be that simple? He had been treating the portal generators as two separate devices, but what if that was incorrect? The idea behind the portal generator was that it formed a single portal in two different locations by creating resonance within particles existing simultaneously in the different locations. Perhaps the particles themselves needed to have opposite charges… He grabbed a tiny screwdriver, unhooked two wires, and flipped them around before reattaching the housing. "Turing, activate the devices, but be ready to shut them off if something goes wrong."
The portal generator whirred back to life, and he looked through the window it created to see Sabrina looking at him curiously. "The readings are different but still within the parameters," she reported, her voice coming through much more clearly.
"I show all devices operating optimally," chirped Turing.
"Why do I hear you so much better?" asked Sabrina, cocking her head in surprise.
"I have a theory…" Paola began slowly, handing Max a pencil.
Max held the pencil up to the portal, but hesitated. This could finally solve the problem he had been working on for months! All of that effort, finally about to pay off! But if this didn't work, he could still be stuck working on the same impossible problem. Holding his breath, he plunged the pencil into the portal horizon.
He nearly dropped it when he saw the end sticking out of the other portal generator. Sabrina reached out, grabbed the pencil, and pulled it out of his hand, through the portal. She grinned ecstatically as she stared at the pencil and then back at Max. "You did it!" she squealed.
Max whooped and pumped his fist. "Now pass it back!"
Sabrina flipped the pencil around and, more confidently, pressed it against the portal horizon. Nothing happened. Max watched her frown and poke at it again with no success. "It's… bouncing off the portal," she announced. "Does that mean it will only work one way?"
Max frowned. Bouncing off the portal… as though something was blocking it. For some reason that sounded like a phenomenon he had encountered previously. "Is Ladybug at Headquarters?" he asked. "Or Cat Noir, Lupa Gris, or Ayilon?"
"Actually, Lise is in the grotto with Marco," Sabrina answered. She disappeared for a minute, only to return with Lise in tow.
"¡Paola! ¿Qué pasa?" called Lise, grinning.
"I have a hypothesis," Max explained. "The temples are protected from unwanted visitors, a protection which also affects my ability to open a portal in a temple I have not previously visited. If that applies to the portal generators, as well, then it would prevent Sabrina, who has never visited this temple, from entering, while Lise, who came from this temple, would have no trouble."
Lise nodded and accepted the pencil that Sabrina held out to her. She held it up to the portal and it passed straight through the portal. Max took the pencil and held it up: it looked no worse for wear from having passed through the portal twice. "That would seem to prove my hypothesis," he commented. "Unfortunately, that does limit the usefulness of the portals."
"I have an idea!" Sabrina shouted, jumping up and racing from the lab. Max looked at Lise in confusion, but the girl just shrugged. Five minutes later Sabrina returned with Julia. "You said that the Temple Guardians could give access to their temples, right?" she asked.
Max nodded.
Sabrina turned to Julia. "What if you do the same thing with the portal generator that you do at the temple? It worked for you to give Max access to the temple via portal; perhaps it will work on this, too!"
Julia's eyes lit up in understanding, and she placed her left hand on the top of the portal generator. Sabrina found a pen on the lab table and carefully held it up to the portal horizon. Max held his breath as Sabrina slowly pushed the pen through the portal.
"You did it!" Sabrina clapped in excitement.
"Actually, we all did it!" Max replied, grinning.
AN: As a reminder, the American Miraculous Team's previous tech guy was John (Man-Bear), who was killed in "A Miraculous Adventure in America." Paola was name-dropped in that story as the only member of the team (other than Lise) whose first language wasn't English or Spanish.
The reference to three American heroes coming to Paris is to "A Bittersweet Anniversary."