Max was dialing away at his computer madly. Ever since that Latombe guy showed up, he had been trying to decode the signal. Due to a randomizing algorithm, he couldn't trace its source, but it helped to rewatch it from different angles, to refresh his mind or trying to see something he missed. Though in the end he wouldn't get any closer, he felt like he needed to do something.
Luckily he wasn't on his own. "I am grateful you trust me with this, Max. Though I must say I am not sure if I'm good enough to help with this." Sabrina said as she looked over his shoulder. "I am not nearly as good with computers as you, and what I excel at was to help coordinate."
"I heard you managed to hack once." Max noted.
"It wasn't as impressive as it sounds. Either a sub-par system or my dad's computer and he is not exactly the best either." Sabrina said. She allowed herself to look over at Barrk, whom was chattering to Kaalki, whom was trying to merely enjoy her beauty sleep but the energetic dog kwami just wouldn't let her.
"But you have a keen eye and a good head on your shoulders." Max said. "And out of all our teammates, I believe that statistically you are the best help, aside form Markov, in this endeavor."
"Why is your body heat rising and hormone production increasing when you proclaim this?" Markov asked Max.
"Markov, ix-nay on the ersonal-pay, uff-stay." Max said as he gestured at the little robot.
"Why do you choose to express yourself in Pig's Latin?" Markov asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Er...Sabrina, you have an idea to perhaps use your Miraculous' powers to track him?" Max asked nervously.
"I need to tag a target before I can trace it. And he hasn't appeared in person." Sabrina said, looking pensive and forgetting Max's weird outburst. "Barkk, can your sense of smell help?"
Barkk turned away from Kaalki (Kaalki would praise the heavens) as he explained: "I'm good at sniffing, but I haven't caught a whiff of his scent. And what was left of that drone? It now smells all like snail dragon goop so I wasn't able to get anything from that. Sorry."
"It's ok, next time Latombe sends something out we'll let you take a good whiff. That's at least two leads we'll be able to follow." Sabrina said.
"You hear that, Kaalki! I'll be helping!" Barkk said excitedly.
"Very good for you." Kaalki muttered dryly.
"You smell like sugar. I wanna lick you!" Barkk said. Kaalki was grateful that she was the Kwami of transportation, because she wanted to fly the heck out of there.
At that point an alert went off on Max' computer. "There is an emergency downtown." Max stated as he brought up footage. He saw the Miraculous team engaging the Toybot. "And that is clearly an artificial construct so it is safe to assume it is Latombe."
"Then why are we still standing around here for? Let's transform!" Sabrina said. "Barkk, here boy!" Kaalki sighed in relief, as she was cornered earlier and was holding off Barkk with her paws and he was sucked in Sabrina's collar for the transformation.
"Kaalki, Full Gallop!" Max said as Kaalki was sucked into his glasses and transformed him.
Laika jumped on Pegasus' back. "Now mush!"
"It's not because I have a horse theme that you have to use horse terms all the time." Pegasus scoffed. He then felt something warm and soft in the back of his neck and realized Sabrina puberty was catching up with Sabrina. "Stupid puberty." he thought to himself as he found himself blushing with her breasts pressed against his neck.
"I see the hormone production and body temperature has increased even more..." Markov noted.
"Why don't you hold the fort while we go on, ok bye!" Pegasus said.
"Hey, I'm not readyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!" Laika said as she soon felt the wind in her hair with Pegasus' fast movements.
Ladybug shot forward, her yo-yo at the ready and throwing it at Toybot. The thing moved much faster then anyone expected as he held out one of his crude cartoony claw arms and caught the yo-yo mid-air. His hands spins around, wrapping the wire of the yo-yo around him and pulling Ladybug in. When Ladybug was close enough the clamp claw hit her in the face and sent her flying.
"Bugaboo! You'll pay for it, you tin can!" Chat Noir lashed with his baton, but the robot held out its forearms to block all blow. Chat's baton then was caught at the tip. However, he was able to split his baton in half, and with the second half in hand, the first half still held by the robot, he tried to lash, only to be grabbed by the waist, as the thing spins his upper body around wildly, Chat along for the ride, until he was thrown through a wall of a building.
"Hi-Ya!" Rena jumped in and launched a few kicks mid-air, only for the robot to block with his forearms. He held out his arm and it shot forward, but she jumped up and landed on the arm, ready to strike a blow to its head. But its head turned to her fired lasers at her. Rena was sent flying back. Smoke came from her chest, and she was lucky her Miraculous suit absorbed most damage. "Oh come on! It has lasers?" she moaned.
Queen Bee flew up and swooped down, ready to strike Toybot, whom merely sidestepped. She didn't crash, instead pulling up and looking from above. She had to assess the situation. At least at this altitude, he couldn't reach her. Or so she thought as she felt something grap around her leg, the robot had stretched its arm to great lengths to grab her. Queen Bee let out a resigned sigh. "Of course..." before she was pulled in and smacked into the ground.
Finally Carapace moved in. He threw his shield, a buzzsaw sound could be heard as it was thrown, but the robot held out its clamp claw hand, and it began spinning rapidly. Sparks flew off as the spinning claw and buzzing shield clashed, before the shield shot back in Carapace's direction. He caught it again and rushed at Toybot, striking him with his shield, but he kept blocking them with its arms. He kept wailing, even when it clearly didn't work.
"The others at least put thought in their moves, you are just doing the same attack over and over." Latombe mocked, his face on the monitor in Toybot's chest looking bored. He even was putting some greasy chili cheese fries in his mouth. And it was seriously ticking off Carapace. He wasn't taken seriously. He lashed out even harder, but he was still easily blocked. "You're only embarrassing yourself, kid!" Latombe said. The Toybot's eyes glowed and fired lasers at Carapace. He was lucky to have his shield to absorb the blow, only it didn't prevent him to be flung across the street.
Rena moved over to help her boyfriend up. "You okay?"
"I am not!" Carapace snapped. "We are getting creamed by an oversized toy!"
"Funny isn't it? Can you believe I made this thing on a budget?" Latombe mocked as he took a bite of a fried chicken leg. "But by all means, if you think it makes you feel better, try your luck some more. I don't have cable you see, and I need a good show."
"I'll give you a good show, in your face!" Carapace said as he got up, and rushed forward. He threw his shield, but it was caught by the Toybot, before he grabbed Carapace, slammed him into the ground, before slamming his own shield into him.
"Really, does the kid have a death wish?" Latombe asked. "He did say I killed his father, so I'll make sure they'll reunite." Toybot lifted its leg to stomp on Carapace, but Carapace was wrapped up in Ladybug's yo-yo and dragged out of the way.
"All right, the thing seems to have an idea on how we fight, but he is just one and we are a team, so let's see if he can handle our team attacks!" Ladybug said. "And Carapace, please keep your temper in check. I want to destroy him as much as you but...we cannot allow to fall, otherwise HE has free gain."
Carapace gritted his teeth but he stood up and ready to follow Ladybug's lead. They charged in, Toybot eyeing them carefully. "Delta maneuver!" Ladybug said as Carapace held his shield above him. Ladybug intending to jump on top to kick off for her next attack. However, the Toybot fired lasers at Ladybug before she could jump up. Carapace turned around quickly to see Ladybug tumble onto the ground before the Toyboy stretched its arm to launch a long distance punch.
"Queenie, the Kitty-Bee dropkick!" Chat said, hoping their moves would do better. Queen Be nodded as she used her trompo to wrap around Chat, he spins him around and throws him at the Toybot, hoping to use the boost to be able to attack him. However, Toybot plucked him out of the air and threw him into Queen Bee. Both crashed into the ground.
"He knows our combo moves too?" Rena Rouge asked. "All right, time to stop playing around. Mirage!" Rena put her flute to her lips. With a little melody, there were suddenly a hundred Rena Rouges. All of them charged in.
The Toybot didn't seem impressed. He turned his head in a certain direction and fired eye lasers, hitting the real Rena and knocking her down, making her illusions fade. Latombe chuckled. "Silly girl, this robot isn't fooled by mind tricks. Didn't you figure anything out? This robot knows all your moves before you make them. It is specifically made to counter all of you! I did my homework. Gave myself an A+ for it."
The Toybot snapped its claws menacingly as it was ready to strike again. However, a blur went by the robot, whom began spinning rapidly due to the speed the blur streaked by. He managed to stop spinning, but his head went on for a few more moments before it clamped his hands on his head to make it stop. As it stumbled, it suddenly landed with its foot on something and fell on its back. A ball rolled form under it, and headed back into the direction of its owner. With Pegasus coming to a standstill and Laika picking up her weapon. "Are we in time for the party?" Pegasus asked.
"Latombe really built that?" Laika said as she turned her head to eye Toybot.
"Don't let the looks fool you. It is programmed to know all our moves." Ladybug said.
"Really? Well, as a man of science, I'd like to test that theory for myself." Pegasus said as he rushed into the direction of the Toybot. Though he had caught the big robot off-guard earlier, the robot was ready this time. Pegasus came in from different angles, trying to launch a punch or kick or throw his horseshoe, but the robot always manages to react quickly, blocking with his arms at every turn. After a failed blow, he tried to run off but he was caught by his leg in one of Toybot's claws. "Good reflexes..." Pegasus said before he was thrown through a wall.
Laika threw her ball weapon, bouncing it off various angles, but the robot seemed to calculate from which angle the ball would bounce and just avoid it by side-stepping. After that failed Laika decided to stop the ball throwing and went for a more direct approach. She just swerved around like an excited puppy in the hopes that the robot wouldn't be able to keep up with her erratic movements. She thought she was about to succeed when she tried to get him in the back, but Toybot's head turned around 180 degrees and shot her with his laser eyes. She was sent flying back, but she was caught in time by Pegasus. "You ok?" he asked.
"Could have been better. Bless these durable supersuits. But that thing is tough." Laika said. She blinked a few times. "Er, you can put me down now?"
"Oh, right! Sorry." Pegasus said as he did just that.
"I am eating over here, you are making me lose my lunch!" Latombe growled form inside the monitor on Toybot's chest. "But since you're here, would you please allow to get your butts kicked for science some more, I'd be most grateful."
"That's what we have been putting up with since the fight begun." Chat noted.
"It knows what we can do...but earlier you got the drop on it, so we know that it can't focus on all of us at once. Ok, everyone, divide and conquer!" Ladybug noted. With that they rushed back into the fight.
"Oh, they are gluttons for punishment. Luckily for them, I got plenty to go around." Latombe muttered.
Ladybug and Chat closed in from two sides. Jumping and kicking off the walls, the Toybot stretched out its arms, pinning the two against a wall each. Carapace came in from behind, shield raised, but the robot turned it head and fired lasers. Luckily Carapace was fully aware of its capabilities this time, holding out his shield and bracing, trying his best to power through it. Queen Bee and Rena came in from one side, as were Laika and Pegasus form another.
The Robot, still trying to pin down Carapace with its lasers swung the arms around with Chat and Ladybug still in it. However, as Ladybug was flung into Queen Bee, she grabbed on instead of being knocked down. Ladybug unfolded her own wings and they started tugging at the arms. As the other arm with Chat in it was flung at Pegasus, he caught it too and the two started tugging at the other arm. Now he was left open.
Laika barged in, but the Toybot had another trick up its sleeve. Its chest opened up and it launched several missiles, and Laika had to leap back to avoid the exploding projectiles. Rena Rouge leaped in to strike with her flute as suddenly the wind up key on the robot's back disconnected and flew in to block the attack. It then started to clash with Rena's flute, like an invisible swordsman was using it.
But Carapace managed to power through the lasers to get close. "Shellter!" he said as he raised his hand, and a green film was projected over its chest, preventing more missiles from launching. Laika regained her ground and threw her ball at the robot's head, sending it spinning violently, as it no longer produced lasers. Finally, both the arms, still being tugged at, now were struggling less now the robots head and its CPU was unfocused and the two heroes wrapped him up in his own arms, managing to also get the floating key trapped in it..
"Nice try, doc. But it ends here." Chat said as he raised his hand. "Cataclysm."
"Would you mind not to destroy it too badly? Just enough to disable it? I would like a chance to study it." Pegasus asked. Chat felt like he could do that.
"Oh, you were really clever just earlier, but I am not done yet. Toybot, Overclock!" Latombe said. The robot then started to vibrate violently, becoming red hot and steaming. Everyone knew it wasn't good. Chat wanted to throw caution out of the window and charge in. But not fast enough. The robot broke free, and now lasers, missiles, the flying key and its stretchy arms lashing out all around it erratically, hitting the heroes and laying waste to the buildings around them at random. They were knocked down to the ground. Chat got flung into a mailbox and had accidentally released his Cataclysm on it.
"Your plan had merit. I mean it, pretty clever. I give you an A for effort, though the execution..." Latombe said as he waved his hand tilted. "It was a good try though. You did better then most whom went against me. Last group whom tried to charge one of my inventions like that, had one whom was crippled."
Carapace gritted his teeth and he breathed heavily. No, they were so close. "Shut up! Stop talking about people like that you monster! Stop talking about their hurt and pain like it is a game. Because it isn't. You shouldn't be enjoying people's suffering." He charged in and lashed at the robot with a shield. Like last time though, he wasn't doing any good as the robot avoided or blocked his blows.
"Oh, you clearly would like to see me and everything I create suffer, do you?" Latombe taunted.
"I am not like you! I don't hurt innocent people." Carapace said as he continued his futile onslaught.
"Kid, let me learn you a life lesson. No one is innocent." Latombe said as the Toybot seemed to have enough of blocking attacks and fired its missiles off. Shielding himself in time, Carapace was nonetheless blasted back. "You would like to see me going down, me in pain. Its understandable. It is part of human nature. We suppress these dark impulses but we have them. But they are part of us, they can't be fought. So I stopped doing it."
Carapace didn't speak up further, he was too angry to continue speaking. However, before he could charge in again, he was held back by Queen Bee's trompo. "Sorry for doing this, shellhead, but we can't let you go Leroy Jenkins again."
"Fallback and regroup! Pegasus cover us!" Ladybug said.
"Horsepower!" Pegasus said as he began rapidly in place, kicking up a dust cloud that obscured the vision of the Toybot. When it died down the heroes were gone.
Latombe just chuckled. "You can run, but you can't hide." Latombe, in his lab was dancing behind his desk. "yes, that is what I call a successful test run, I got them cowering and sent them running. Next time they charge in with a half-brained scheme, I'll crush them!" he said as he locked his hands to symbolize the crushing part.
"You haven't won yet." Mahamayuri said.
"Matter of time. Come on, be happy, live a little." Latombe said. Mahamayuri just glared at him. "Oh, I forgot, you hate fun! Oh well, I'll enjoy the moment for the both of us. And I'll enjoy the fall of the heroes of Paris twice as much as well." Latombe said as he sat down in his chair behind his monitor, with another burger in his hand.
The heroes managed to retreat and hide out in an alleyway. "Let me go! I want to cave his face in. You..." Carapace was still hot-blooded and angry. "Why did you had to gt in the way? Why did you had us run away?"
"We needed to fall back and rethink our plans of attack. Most importantly we need you to cool down before you got compromised." Ladybug said.
"You know how worried you made us by barging out there? We expect something like that from Chat...no offense." Rena Rouge said.
"None taken. I have been quite reckless in the past." Chat added.
"Anyhow, of all the bull-headed...we were thrown around and you got pummeled the worst because you leapt in as a raging animal. We can take a lot of punishment but we are not invincible!" Rena Rouge continued. "I thought we had a good talk earlier but it seems that went don one ear and went out the other."
"You did hear him right? How he talked about...all these people, how he hurts and kills...he didn't seem to think anything of it. Like it was right to do so. What he did to my dad..." Carapace said as he seemed to break a little as his eyes went moist.
"I know it is hard. I cared for him too. And...maybe I would have snapped too if the fight had gone on too long. Because I am mad at the words of Latombe as well." Ladybug said. "He was maybe right about us all having dark impulses. We are human after all. But the rest of what he says...that is utter bullcrap. For a so called genius, Latombe doesn't understand anything."
"Latombe thinks that the wold we live in is cruel and harsh. And that one has to be cruel and harsh to thrive. And he wants to force others to think like that too, to see the world like he does. But Latombe is a man whom has nothing. He doesn't understand love, friendship, or simple joys of living itself. He is...actually pathetic. And now that I realize him...I do not like him but I feel like he isn't worth hatred. He is a man with nothing to lose, while we are people that had a lot to fight for.
"When I found out about Gabriel, I came really close too, you know?" Chat asked. "I had this urge to see him suffer. I would be the one doing it, I would be the one to enjoy it. If I had done that...well, I'd have truly been the son of Hawkmoth. When we first confronted him head-on, I almost messed up too. Got emotional, almost handing him the win. But when I started to fight with my Lady again, and for our sake, we pulled through."
"And I don't think I have to explain myself." Queen Bee said. "We all know how I crawled back out of th abyss.
Anger had completely left Carapace. He now sighed and looked defeated. "I am sorry guys. I...there are so many whom have suffered at that monster's hand but I made it all about me and my pain. But the hurt...I let it consume me. I almost botched our mission, I forgot I was a hero for that moment. I turned myself in a liability."
"You are not a liability. Not to use." Rena said as she hugged her boyfriend. "And your hurt is valid. But you know when it blinds you."
"I don't want to be blinded." Carapace said as he returned the hug. Rena still in his arms, he turned to the others. "I'm sorry...I got the message. I'll not let him get to me again. I could not bear to disappoint all of you."
"You are no disappointment. Not by a long shot. You are our friend, our brother." Chat said, putting a hand on his best friend's shoulder. "Come on guys, let's give him a group hug."
"I am really no the touchy-feely type." Pegasus said before Laika dragged him along.
"Just shut up and join the cuddle pile." Laika said as they joined in the group hug.
"This actually feels rather nice." Pegasus said.
"It does, doesn't it?" Carapace let out a sort of laugh/sigh. "I really have been a mess, am I?"
"Just forget, Latombe is alone. You always have us. And it is not like Uncle Enzo has truly left us, has he? You remember him still? You still feel him here?" Ladybug said, poking him in the chest where his heart is.
"Thank you,all of you, I don't know what I would do without you." Carapace said as he let his tears flow again.
"Let's not figure that out. We wouldn't now what we'd do without our brother." Chat said. "We are just returning a favor, because you were always the chill bro of the team, our heart. We don't want that to be taken from us."
"Next time I see that Toys 'R Us bargain bin reject, I'm going to strike it down, but not for anger and revenge. I'll do it right." Carapace promises them.
Well, glad we got that out of our system, but we still don't know how to deal with that walking junkheap." Queen Bee reminded them. "And we could use a good idea about now."
"Mh...Well, I guess it is about as good a time as any." Ladybug said as she threw her yo-yo up. "Lucky Charm!" in a flash of light, a pendant appeared. "Oh, another really cryptic one."
"Is it one of Fu's items again? Do we need to contact him?" Chat asked. "But he doesn't have a Miraculous aside from Nooroo and Duusu and they aren't healed yet."
"I don't think Fu had a pendant like this before..." Ladybug said. She had a good memory, so she'd know.
"What are those symbols on it? " Pegasus asked.
"Does anyone else see the ring components on it?" Laika asked.
"Oh, you're right! It is segmented in rings." Ladybug said as she turned parts of them around. "It is a ring-based slide puzzle, so if I arrange them like this..." Ladybug said as she quickly shifted it around. "Oh?"
Chat looked over her shoulders. "Arrows? What does that mean? Do we turn back time? Do we need Bunnix?"
"Her control over time still has to advance to that stage." Pegasus noted. "And while reinforcements doesn't seem like a bad idea..."
"The machine may know their moves too. Strength in numbers may be mere brute force and we know that brute force didn't get us anywhere up to this point." Ladybug said.
"So, if you could interpret this cryptic Lucky Charm of yours it would be really helpful." Queen Bee noted.
"It is the nature of this pendant. The arrows, the puzzle...symbolism for shifting, or..." Ladybug's eyes went wide.
"I know that look. She figured it out." Chat said happily.
"I have...And it is not without risk because we haven't practiced as much as we could. And we'll need absolute trust among ourselves." Ladybug said.
"That should be no problem. We already trust each other with our lives? What else could we trust each other with."
Ladybug paused for a moment. "Our Miraculous."
TO BE CONTINUED