Chapter 18: Hack-San
"Marinette!" called her father, Tom. "The train's in one hour! Is your suitcase packed?"
"Oooah! I really don't feel well, Dad! But it's okay! Just... go without me!" said Marinette in a fake-sick voice.
"I'm sure it's nothing serious. and if worse comes to worse we can always find a doctor in London."
"I can't even move! My head hurts too much!"
"Wasn't it your stomach that was hurting ten minutes ago?"
"Oh! Umm.. it must be a moving ache. Those are the worst kind!"
"Come on. We know what's going on."
"Going on? What do you mean?"
"What's really going on is that you don't want to go to Auntie Shu Yin's because she's impossible. But that's just the way it is. We have to go once a year and we'll have fun in London! I'm sure we'll figure out how to shake her off now and then."
"I heard that, Tom," said Sabine from downstairs.
"Come on. Get up and get ready," said Tom. "We're a family and we face disasters together."
"I heard that, too, Tom!"
"Don't make me do this alone," said Tom, going down through the trapdoor with her suitcase.
Marinette spoke to the kwamis gathered around her.
"I used up an entire months worth of excuses in one go and it's still wasn't enough! What am I gonna do? Ladybug can't abandon Paris!"
"You can't abandon your family either, Marinette!" said Tikki.
"Didn't you go on the Startrain to London once before?" asked Kaalki.
"You know I did. I took you with me, which came in handy when we had to teleport back to Earth from space."
"Then why can't you do that again this time?" asked Kaalki.
"I guess I can. It may be harder to get away with my family while I'm there. But I have no choice. It's not like I have someone that I could trust to be Ladybug for the weekend."
"How will you feed us kwamis?" asked Daizzy.
"I've got plenty of fruit and vegetables stashed away for you here, so that's not a problem," said Marinette.
As they rode in the train, Marinette's parents discussed how to spend the time with Auntie Shu Yin.
"We can have lunch, but we don't have to stay for dessert," said Tom.
"We're bringing dessert!" said Sabine.
"That doesn't mean we have to eat it. We'll just leave it with your sister and go to the museum. The three of us. She doesn't like going to the museum anyway."
"She doesn't like cake either," said Sabine.
Tom looked at Marinette and shrugged. Marinette thought that it was hard to find anything that her aunt did like.
Marinette started making a to-do list by texting it to herself on her phone.
Not long after, the compartment went dark. The train came to a sudden stop and all three family members fell off their seats.
Sabine glared at Tom and Marinette, as if she suspected them of sabotaging the trip.
"It's not our fault! Promise!" said Tom and Marinette together.
Everyone's cell phone in the train began to ring.
"There's something wrong – don't pick up!" warned Marinette.
It was too late. Both Tom and Sabine answered their phones.
"Human, I am Robustus. Give me what you hold most valuable," said a voice on the phone.
Tom and Sabine said together in a hypnotized voice, "Marinette, you're what we hold most valuable."
They pointed their phones at her, which now displayed angry green robot eyes on a red background.
Marinette ran.
"Marinette, sweetie," said Tom as he lumbered after her.
Marinette dashed into a bathroom and locked the door. "Tikki, spots on!"
Ladybug opened the yo-yo portal and got out the Horse Miraculous glasses. She put them on.
"Tikki, Kaalki, Unify!"
Pegabug make the gesture for teleportation magic.
"Back to Paris to stop Shadow Moth! Voyage!"
Pegabug wasn't sure whether her Bug-phone could be infected by Robustus. Rather than risk it, she used the tracking device to find Chat Noir.
She found him on a rooftop near the Musée Grévin wax museum.
"M'Lady, I'm glad you're here!" said Chat Noir. "Everyone is getting hypnotized by Robustus and giving up their most purr-ecious possession."
"I can't stay long." said Pegabug. "I need to fix this quickly and get back to something."
Phone calls came in on their devices, but they declined them.
They heard a cry, "Help! Please help me! Cat Noir, Ladybug! Save me!"
"That sounds fishy to me," said Chat Noir.
"Me too," said Pegabug. "I think Robustus has switched from stealing precious things to trying to trap us directly. He was probably hoping we would just get controlled and give him our miraculous, but that failed."
Pegabug sent her yo-yo into the air. "Lucky Charm!"
She received a spotted box. Inside it was... "A Ryuko costume? What am I supposed to do with this?"
Windows opened all around them and people pointed their cell phones at them. Fortunately they were all out of range.
"I have an idea," said Pegabug. "But I could be wrong."
"You're never wrong, M'Lady."
"Tikki, Kaalki, Divide," said Pegabug. She sent Kaalki back through the portal to eat and recharge.
Ladybug got out the choker necklace of the Dragon and put it on. She also got a macaron though the purse portal.
"Tikki, Longg, Unify! Longg, Tikki, Divide!"
She was now in a red dragon costume with no black spots.
"Now I'm Dragoness. Chat Noir, take my earrings. Tikki, take this macaron to recharge."
"Why are you giving me your Miraculous, M'Lady?" Asked Chat.
"If my plan doesn't work I'm going to be trapped. If that happens, you need to detransform and become Mr. Bug, or find someone you trust to be a replacement Ladybug. You'll have to carry on the fight without me."
"But... nobody can replace you!"
"Don't try to unify with this. Unifying creation and destruction is a disaster."
Dragoness pressed the earrings into his hand. Chat took them reluctantly.
Dragoness called out "Lightning dragon!" and launched herself at the nearest cell phone.
She let the magic take her where it wanted, except that as she neared the destination she fought to remain in lightning form instead of becoming a record on the robot's hard drive. Summoning all her power she burst out of the magical confinement and fired directly into the akumatized Robustus, shorting him out completely.
Dragoness resumed human form. Using the device in her sword hilt she sent a text message to Chat to track her location. He arrived and handed back the earrings, which she put on.
"Longg, Tikki, Unify! Time to de-evilize!"
Using her yo-yo she captured and purified the akuma that had come out of the fried robot. She willed the costume box to appear in her hand, threw it into the air, and called out, "Miraculous Dragon Bug!"
In a burst of magical ladybugs, everything and everyone that Robustus had captured was restored to its proper location and Robustus became Markov again.
"Pound it!" they said as they bumped fists.
"Tikki, Longg, Divide!"
Ladybug got the Horse Miraculous out of the yo-yo portal. Kaalki had eaten an apple and was ready.
"I have to get back before I'm missed. See you next time, Chaton."
"Tikki, Kaalki, Unify!"
Pegabug then teleported herself back into the bathroom of the Startrain. She dismissed both kwamis and returned to her normal self. Marinette returned to her parents, who has gone back to normal.
"Where did you go, sweetie," asked Tom.
"Bathroom," said Marinette.
Marinette continued to monitor the situation in Paris during her trip to London, but nothing further happened during the weekend.
When she returned to Paris and had a chance to talk to Chat Noir, she asked him, "Just out of curiosity, who would you have chosen to be Ladybug if you had to?"
"I hate the idea," said Chat. "Paris will always need a Ladybug superhero to watch over her. It's just... I realized that if one day that hero wasn't you, M'Lady, since we don't know each other's identities, that means... I'd never see you again. Ever. And now, I just don't know if I can bear it."
"I'll never abandon you, kitty cat. But give me a name."
"I was thinking about Zoé," said Chat.
"Really? Why her?" asked Ladybug.
"She's been really helpful to us. First as Vesperia against Queen Banana, and then she helped get us out of Reflekta's sentimonster."
Chat thought, "Not only that, but since she knows my identity I'd rather that she was an ally and not an enemy."
Ladybug thought. "Zoé provided advance warning about the invitations to the event with Style Queen. And she knows my identity, so I need to keep her close to keep an eye on her."
"Maybe... but I have some problems with her because she's on Chloé's side," said Ladybug.
"Well, naturally she wants to help her sister," said Chat Noir. "But I don't think that means she would betray us to Shadow Moth or anything like that. She's basically a good person."
"I guess I have to agree with that," said Ladybug. "We just got off on the wrong foot. Maybe I should give her another chance, but I don't think it should be with the same Miraculous. Shadow Moth has been getting too clever about getting at secret identities. We don't want a repeat of the situation with Alya's family, this time at the Grand Paris hotel."
"Which Miraculous should she try next?" asked Chat.
"I don't know yet," said Ladybug.