Chapter 16: Sentibubbler
Alya was at home with her family. They were searching for Hannibal, a missing tarantula that her father had brought home from the zoo to recover from an injury to his legs. Alya had left the cover off of Hannibal's glass case after feeding him, and he had crawled out.
"Where did that thing go?" asked Alya, looking in a bookcase. "Come on, Nora."
Her older sister Nora said, "If I find him, he better be ready for a good ol' roundhouse kick!"
"First one who finds the furry squishy gets to keep it," said Ella, one of her young twin sisters.
"Yeah!" said Etta, the other twin.
"I can't believe this, it's like the little monster can go through walls or something," said her father, Otis.
"Hurry up and find it, everyone," said her mother, Marlena. "It's almost time for lunch."
Marlena placed a large pot of chicken Columbo on the table. Alya turned to look, and saw the tarantula crawling out of the pot using the handle of the serving ladle.
"There it is!" said Alya, pointing.
Her mother laughed. "Everyone can stop looking. Alya found Hannibal."
Her father said, "Seems like he got his legs working again. Tomorrow, it's back to the zoo, buddy."
Marlena picked up the ladle by the spoon end and put Hannibal back into his terrarium.
Her boyfriend Nino (who she had invited over for lunch) called out from the bathroom, "Is it okay to come out now?"
Nora said, "Ha! You flyweight. Cappy was scared of the itsy-bitsy spider!"
"Nah, I wasn't scared, I just went into the bathroom to make sure that Hannibal hadn't fallen into the toilet," said Nino.
Alya chuckled a little at Nino's cover story, especially when he gave a little yelp as Otis passed close by with the spider in the terrarium.
As the family prepared to sit down for lunch, there was a sound from the sliding glass doors that lead to the patio. A garish, clownlike figure entered the room.
"The Bubbler!" said Alya. "But how?"
She looked over at Nino. (The Bubbler was his form when he was akumatized over Adrien not getting a birthday party.)
The Bubbler started shooting bubbles from his wand, capturing everyone but Alya. They all floated out the sliding glass doors into the air. Even Hannibal was in a little bubble of his own.
Alya picked up a chair and held it like a lion tamer. "Let my family go, Bubbler!"
"I'm not the Bubbler. I'm the Sentibubbler," said the villain.
Nino was afraid because the spider was floating in a bubble close to his, "Hey, you! Keep those hairy legs away from me, okay?"
"Don't panic," said Nora. "The Beetle and Mr. Whiskers will save us!"
The telephone rang, and the Bubbler motioned for Alya to pick it up.
"Rena Rouge, I am Shadow Moth," said the sinister voice on the phone. "You've probably realized by now that you'll have to obey me if you want to see your loved ones again."
"What do you want, Shadow Moth?" asked Alya.
"I want you to betray Ladybug," said Shadow Moth.
Alya stared into space, in shock. How could this be happening? Was it because she had let Ladybug use her as Rena Rouge again?
"First, I believe you carry a phone in your pocket. Take it out."
Alya obeyed, and Sentibubbler bubbled it away from her.
"The only people you'll be able to communicate with now, Alya Césaire, are me and my sentimonster!"
Marinette was sleeping in, as she often did on Sundays. Her sleep was peaceful, with no bad dreams.
"Wake up, Marinette!" said Tikki. "Your buzzer is going off."
Still in her pajamas, Marinette said groggily, "Tikki, spots on!"
Her Bug-phone had a message. "M'Lady, there's an akuma attack on the news. Alya Césaire's family has been kidnapped by the Bubbler, but it's not Nino. He was captured, too."
Ladybug called Chat Noir back. "Shadow Moth must have made a sentimonster copy of the Bubbler."
"He can do that?" asked Chat.
"Mayura made a copy of me once," said Ladybug.
"Why would he go after Alya's family?" asked Chat. "He thinks she knows something, just because she blogs about you?"
"I think Alya was targeted because I used her against Style Queen yesterday. I wish now I hadn't."
"You mean... Alya is Rena Rouge?"
"Yes. Umm... being the Ladyblogger made her a good choice for the team."
"I see."
"We need a plan for two. Let's meet at our laboratory."
"Purr-fect! I love your plans, M'Lady."
"Listen carefully," said Shadow Moth on the phone to Alya. "Ladybug will be here any minute. And since it's your family and friends, Ladybug will ask you to help her, and hand you the Miraculous of the Fox. Once she's given you the Miraculous, the Sentibubbler will be hiding nearby and capture Ladybug!"
"She won't give me a Miraculous," said Alya. "She's not doing that much anymore."
"I think she will," said Shadow Moth. "She did yesterday. I think you have a special connection to her."
"Chat Noir will come and save her."
"No. He won't even know she's been captured. Because thanks to your Miraculous, you'll transform into Rena Rouge and create an illusion of Ladybug and Rena Rouge to distract Cat Noir. Thinking he's joined his fellow heroes, he won't notice the Sentibubbler until it's too late, and you'll give me your Miraculous! It is then and only then, when the three Miraculous are finally in my possession, that the Sentibubbler will release your loved ones. If you try anything to warn Ladybug or Cat Noir, I'll order the Sentibubbler to send the bubbles into space, too far for any superhero to ever save them!"
Alya looked up to where her family was floating in the sky. "Astrobug and Cosmocat could still save them," she thought, "But I don't want them to suffer from the cold and no air."
"If I were you, I would do anything I could to ensure Ladybug to show up very shortly!" said Shadow Moth.
Alya wished she had the Fox Miraculous now. She could have tricked her way out of this. As it was, she had to play along with the villain and hope that Ladybug would figure things out in time.
Alya went out on the porch and waved her arms. "Ladybug, please come save us! Ladybug!"
A short while later, Ladybug swung in and landed on the porch beside Alya. They went inside.
"What's going on?" asked Ladybug.
"The Bubbler has captured my family and my friend!" said Alya.
Saying "Bubbler" instead of "Sentibubbler" was a hint to Ladybug. If she noticed Nino up in a bubble, Ladybug would know something was wrong.
"Hmm, but not you?" asked Ladybug.
"I don't know. He was already gone when I got here," said Alya.
"That's strange. It would have made more sense if he threatened your family in order to force you to betray me," said Ladybug.
"I'd never betray you, Ladybug," said Alya.
"Shadow Moth attacked your family because he found out that you're a superhero. Unfortunately, I won't be able to give you the Miraculous of the Fox ever again."
Alya pretended to gasp in surprise, even though this was exactly what she expected.
"I was proud to fight by your side, Ladybug," Alya said.
"Don't worry, Chat Noir and I will save your loved ones," said Ladybug.
"Thank you, Ladybug," said Alya.
Sentibubbler popped up from where he was hidden behind the kitchen counter and sent a bubble to capture Ladybug. But the moment the bubble touched Ladybug, she vanished.
"No! An illusion!" said Sentibubbler.
Fox Noir grinned as he watched.
At the same moment, a hero appeared behind Shadow Moth and pulled the coffee cup that held the amok out of his hand. She flipped over him and landed facing him.
"Ladybug!" shouted Shadow Moth.
"No, Pegabug!" said the hero, striking a pose.
Shadow Moth came after Pegabug, but she leaped up onto a lamppost.
"Sentibubbler! Bring the bubbles down and free the prisoners!" commanded Pegabug.
"At your command!" said Sentibubbler, starting to bring the bubbles down.
"You're forgetting something, Pegabug!" said Shadow Moth. "I created him! Sentibubbler, I release you from existence!"
"No!" said Pegabug.
Sentibubbler disappeared, and then the bubbles holding the captives all vanished. They screamed and started to fall.
Fox Noir leaped and caught Nino. Pegabug wove a net with her yo-yo and caught the falling family members.
"Kaalki, Dismount!" said Pegabug.
Ladybug got everyone safely to the ground.
She put the spotted cooking pot she had received as a Lucky Charm over the tarantula. (It was too small to catch in the net, but also too small to be seriously hurt by the fall).
"Gotcha!" said Ladybug to the spider. To Otis, she said, "Can you hold onto this for me, please?"
Chat Noir joined her on the ground. He had released Trixx.
"Where did Shadow Moth go?" asked Ladybug.
"I think he felt the wind start to change," said Chat.
"This could've been the end of Shadow Moth," said Ladybug.
"You had to put the hostages first rather than grab his Miraculous," said Chat. "You could bring them back to life, but they would still remember."
"If I had grabbed the Peacock along with the coffee cup, that would have been smarter."
"Yes, but you can't think of everything at once," said Chat.
They bumped fists. "Pound it!"
Ladybug went up to the apartment to get the terrarium for the tarantula.
Alya confronted her. "I shouldn't have let you give me the Fox Miraculous yesterday. I didn't know Shadow Moth would go that far. My family was in terrible danger! Couldn't you have done it without me?"
"I... I wanted to be sure we could stop whatever Shadow Moth threw at us," said Ladybug.
"Don't count on me helping you again," said Alya.
"I wasn't planning on it," said Ladybug. "I think what Fox Noir had my illusion say will convince Shadow Moth to leave you alone from now on."
"I hope so," said Alya. "This is going to give Ella and Etta nightmares. Me, too."
"I'm sorry. I wish this hadn't happened," said Ladybug.
Alya said nothing, giving her a cold look.
Ladybug thought, "I'm really glad I didn't tell you my identity. Shadow Moth could have threatened you to make you to tell him."
Ladybug went back to the others; they took the spider out of the pot and put it into the terrarium. It seemed like a silly use of the Lucky Charm, but even a tiny action against something the sentimonster did would make the Miraculous Cure effective.
Ladybug threw the pot into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!"
The swarm of magical ladybugs returned Nino and the Césaire family to the apartment and cleaned up any damage Sentibubbler had done.
"We lost an ally for good today," said Ladybug sadly to Chat.
"Never mind. It's you and me against the world," said Chat Noir.