Nino blows a few bubbles, asking "Seriously, dude, was your dad always such a downer? You'd think he'd at least remember what it was like to be young and want to party." It's his bro's birthday, and the old man won't even let him have a party?!
Adrien sighs, and dejectedly says "No, I'm pretty sure he was a downer back then, to. Well, at least I tried." Again, for the fourteenth year in a row - he'd thought, just for a minute, that things would be different this time. That, since he had friends, since his dad had let him go to school like he wanted…he might get to celebrate his birthday, really celebrate it. Its not like he wants to get blackout drunk or anything, he just wants a birthday party like everyone else!
But…no, his father doesn't think it would be a good idea. At least, that's what Nathalie said.
Maybe I can talk Ladybug into doing something on Patrol tonight…
Maybe they can…get some cookies or something? From Marinette Dupain-Cheng's father's bakery? Her father apparently makes the best stuff in the city, from cakes to pastries to cookies, but he's never actually had anything like that either. Its not on his cardboard-diet his father keeps him on to keep him photoshoot-ready.
And then Marinette Dupain-Cheng stumbles into sight, looking distinctly like someone - probably Bloom - pushed her forward. At least it takes his mind off the depressing spiral his thoughts have been going in all day, right? She quickly rights herself, clearly hiding something behind her back, and shyly says "Um, hey…"
Adrien smiles, and says "Hey…" And then she starts jumbling up her words again, blushing as she tries to get a coherent sentence out while clearly hiding something behind her back.
And then Chloe barges in, cutting Marinette off and pushing her out of the way - Adrien's pretty sure he heard the word 'gift' in there somewhere, but it's honestly a toss-up given everything she tried to say - and sending her flying to the ground. After assuring him that she sent him a gift, and that the delivery guys must've been slacking off in delivering it, she's off…and he's got a photoshoot to go to. On his birthday…again. His birthday isn't even about him, its about work.
Oh joy...
Bloom watches as Marinette tries to get the very sealed mailbox open, wondering whether or not trying to yank it open with magic would be worth it or not, and says "Look, clearly the box itself isn't going to just pop open like that, Marinette. Try, I dunno…the doorbell?" The doorbell that Marinette brushed off at once, at that.
"What?! No, no, what if Adrien answers?"
Bloom immediately deadpans "He's at his photoshoot, Marinette." She pushes the doorbell, and…what looks like an electronic eye of sorts comes out of the wall.
"Hello? Who is this?" Bloom would be kind of creeped out at the female monotone coming from the speaker, but she's seen way creepier things at this point. An Akuma coughing up a hoard of black butterflies so Hawk Moth could send the three of them a message, for instance.
Marinette jumps, then nervously tries to explain why they're here. Bloom sighs, steps over so she's in sight of the camera, and says "Let's try this again, alright? I'm Bloom Peters, this is Marinette Dupain-Cheng, we're friends of Adrien's from school, and Marinette made him a gift but didn't get the chance to give it to him during school."
After a moment, the female voice says "Put it in the box." The lid suddenly opens, and Marinette slides the box in.
Once the eye is gone, Marinette excitedly says "I hope he likes it."
Bloom murmurs "He should, you spent a solid week knitting that scarf. You signed the card, right?"
At Marinette's dumbfounded expression, Bloom just pinches the bridge of her nose - Marinette is an absolute mess sometimes, usually when it comes to Adrien. "C'mon, lets head back to your place. Didn't you say your parents were making cookies?" She's recently become almost literally addicted to Tom Cheng's baking, and being Marinette's best friend happens to have the side-perk of spending a few hours a day with her in the bakery. It's not the only reason Bloom likes spending time at Marinette's - she genuinely enjoys Marinette's company, for one - but she won't lie and say it doesn't make the option more appealing. And, even if she tried to lie like that, her stomach would give her away.
Adrien heads back up to his room dejectedly after Nino leaves, a familiar combination of anger and despair welling up inside him - his father can't even let him have a friend over? Had he known Nino would try to change his father's mind about the party, he'd have told him not to bother, that he wasn't worth the trouble.
And now, Nino's been banned from the house forever - he knows well enough to know not to try and change his father's mind, it'll just end up with him being forbid from ever even speaking to Nino again to.
As soon as he gets up to his room, Plagg flies out of his jacket and says "I've seen a lot of people in my long life, but your father is something special, kid." And coming from a Kwami that's been around a since a few minutes after the universe was created, making him the second oldest Kwami right after Tikki, that's really saying something. The Black Cat Kwami starts trying to think of some way to liven up his Chosen's ultra-boring birthday - he can't exactly go Cataclysm his dad, thereby making it impossible to stop him from having a good time for once, so what else?
After a minute spent thinking, Plagg says "Let's play a game of foosball, Adrien." It's literally all he can think of when his Kitten is basically locked up in his room all the time when he's not doing lessons or photoshoots. And he really doesn't want his Kitten getting Akumatized because his father's a control-freak.
Marinette's in the dining room with Bloom, wondering if Adrien got his gift yet or not, when suddenly the two girls hear screaming and crying from outside. When they get out, every single adult in sight is floating into the air in giant bubbles. Bloom mutters "You gotta be kidding…"
"Another supervillain…who sent all the adults into the sky?" Marinette shrugs, deciding not to think about it and instead find the Akuma, and says "Bloom, go…she's already gone? Wow, that was fast."
Shrugging off the question of where Bloom went, Marinette quickly heads into an alleyway that nobody will see her from - easier said than done, with half of Paris floating in the sky - and transforms to go find this new supervillain.
Who calls himself the Bubbler, as he so helpfully broadcasted on some more of his bubbles.
Adrien heads outside, after a mind-numbingly dull birthday lunch-break - the same as all the others, what fun! - only to blink in shock when nearly all the kids in his class at school are there. Marinette and Bloom are missing, but everyone else is there…including Nino, who's been Akumatized. Its not particularly hard to figure out when and why he was Akumatized, since he's throwing a party for him after getting rid of all the adults - and calling him 'dude' is the big giveaway that it's Nino, since he's the only person Adrien knows that does that.
Adrien's torn in two right then, and heads back inside as the party starts up - on the one hand, he's never had a party before. On the other, his best friend's been Akumatized and has apparently gotten rid of all the adults.
Plagg asks "What's the big deal? Go enjoy the party for a bit."
Adrien immediately says "Plagg, Nino's been Akumatized!" Plus, almost everyone from his class is there! At ground zero!
Plagg shrugs, as much as a being who's only ten centimeters tall and who's head is bigger than the rest of his body can shrug anyway, and says "This is your chance to enjoy yourself, you may never get another one. Have some fun at the party for a bit, then transform, de-evilize Nino, and bring the adults back." This is his lonely Kitten's chance to have a bit of fun on his birthday - something which, according to most humans, is supposed to be celebrated - and he's not letting him pass it by.
Adrien actually stops to consider Plagg's words, seeing the cat-kwami's point - it is true, he'll probably never get a chance like this again. And, if he can keep Nino - or the Bubbler, whatever name he's going by right now - busy until Ladybug shows up…well, what's the harm? Its not like his father is here to stop him anyway.
Besides, it'll keep all his classmates safe to, if Bubbler is kept happy and the party keeps going.
About five minutes later, Adrien's dancing in the small crowd and bumps into Rose. "Hey, great party, huh? Not that I'd know, since I've never actually had a party before…"
She gives him a smile that's probably supposed to be convincing, along with two thumbs up, but the way her expression falls a moment later when she's looking away makes him pause and look around. And what he sees is…nobody's actually having fun. Yeah, they're all dancing…but nobody's really into it.
Before he can excuse himself, a familiar voice says "You've got to be kidding." When everyone looks up, Dragon Fyre is sitting on the edge of the nearby wall, an incredulous look on her face.
The Bubbler snarls "Going to crash the party, Dragon Fyre?" Everyone gets nervous as he grips the bubble wand tighter, getting into a hostile stance at once - given Dragon Fyre's usual tactic of 'beat them up, grab the Akuma, ask questions later' it's looking distinctly like the Agreste Mansion is about to be blown sky-high.
Shocking everyone speechless, she instead shrugs nonchalantly and says "Perhaps. I'm not much of a party-person these days, but I'm not out to actively shut down some fun either. So long as nobody gets hurt, and you return all the adults after the fun is over, I don't particularly see a reason why this has to come to blows." She's going against every instinct she has doing this, but…this is Nino. Adrien's best friend, who clearly cares about the blonde boy a great deal - he got Akumatized, and instead of tearing up the city, he…threw Adrien a birthday party. Call her crazy, or biased, but that doesn't seem particularly villainous to her. She's holding out a sliver of hope that maybe Nino can be reasoned with, considering the Bubbler seems to despise adults.
Also, she's trying to keep casualties to a minimum, and there's about twenty civilians between the two of them. Including her brother, who's currently staring at her in utter amazement.
The Bubbler scowls, and says "Not a chance! If you really love the adults so much, maybe you should join them!"
Dragon Fyre deadpans "You wouldn't make it five feet near me, Bubbler. Don't kid yourself, bath toy. As for the adults, kids do actually need them for things like food and money and such. Take the adults away, and the kids have to grow up too fast just to survive."
"Oh really? And how do you know that?" Bubbler grips his wand-sword tighter, fully prepared to send Dragon Fyre - easily the scariest, most serious of the trio - up into space.
Instead of a smart remark like Cat Noir, or an impassioned speech like Ladybug, Dragon Fyre deadpans "Take a guess." And then her gaze travels to Adrien and locks onto him, making him go cold with the certainty that she was telling the truth all over again when she said she knew Cat Noir's secret identity. "Mind if I talk with the birthday boy for a minute? I won't be long."
Adrien says "Uh, sure, c'mon this way."
As soon as the door closes, Adrien hears "What the hell are you doing?"
Adrien gulps, and says "Well, I was sorta waiting for you and Ladybug to show up…"
"Bullshit." Alright, she's got him. Dragon Fyre sighs, and says "Ladybug's going to be here any minute, so get your head on straight, alright? I'll go try one last time to get through to Nino in the meantime."
"Wait!" Adrien grabs her wrist, making her look back at him with a raised eyebrow. "Why are you trying to reason with him? All the others, you've been all for knocking them out." Literally.
Dragon Fyre sighs, and says "Simple. It's Nino. Your best friend in school, the guy who cracks jokes with you, the guy you eat lunch with every day. He's not just some random person. It's…complicated." Its why she never got close to anyone for four years, it hurts much less when something happens that way. And then she let herself get close to Marinette and Adrien, despite all she tried to do to convince herself not to…and now this happens. She cares about them, cares whether they're hurt or not, and it makes her magic go wild whenever they get hurt.
The only way this could possibly get worse for her is if those four weirdos appeared once more.
Godsdammit, I'm such a fool…
Even so, she's made it this far. Might as well go all the way.
Bubbler takes one look at an Adrien-less Dragon Fyre when she walks out the door, and snarls "What did you do?" Well, seems even Akumatized Nino's still protective of his best friend. It just makes fighting an Akumatized Nino all the harder.
"Oh Nino," Dragon Fyre sighs, "Hawk Moth's in your head, kick him to the curb. As for Adrien, the birthday-boy had to use the bathroom." Bubbler relaxes marginally, slightly lowering the bubble wand as she walks past him towards the snack table. And then she calls over "Besides, he's an adult, remember? Why are you even listening to him anyway if you hate them all so much?"
Ladybug gets to Adrien's mansion, just in time to see Dragon Fyre get blasted through the wall by Bubbler and a familiar purple mask fade away from his face. Cat Noir shows up right then, and Bubbler promptly traps them in a large green bubble and says "Give me your Miraculous' before you run out of air."
Ladybug says "Dream on, Bubbler!" If I can get him monologuing, maybe it'll buy enough time for her to wake up.
Because, unfortunately, for being a bubble this thing is amazingly strong.
Cat Noir feels like hissing, and if he were any more cat-like he'd be doing as much. As it is, he snarls "When we get out of here, I'm gonna claw you to ribbons!" Oh, wait, there's the hissing. He can hiss, who knew? Dragon Fyre is like a sister to him - a scary, fiery, mysterious sister, but a sister nonetheless. A lot better than his own father, to, who couldn't even be bothered to acknowledge his birthday.
"Boring, just like adults! Since you two love them so much, why don't you go spend some time with them?" And then, just as Dragon Fyre picks her head up and sees them, the Bubbler kicks their bubble-prison into the sky.
They just barely make out a faint shriek from down below as they soar up into the sky, but they've got bigger things to worry about than just how badly Dragon Fyre is going off on Bubbler. Namely, getting down before she kills Nino by accident.
After a minute spent uselessly kicking, scratching, and pounding at the bubble, Ladybug says "Use your Cataclysm!"
"You couldn't have said that five-hundred feet ago?"
"We can't stay stuck in here together forever!" Aside from the detail that Nino's been Akumatized and they have to save him…there's the very real issue of air.
Cat Noir gives her a Cheshire smile, which she responds to with "Such a one-track mind…" The bubble breaks easily with his Cataclysm, but that leaves the problem of them free-falling around five-hundred feet straight down.
Right up until a familiar heated weight crashes into them from the side, that is, knocking them into a different angle even as they end up a tangled mess of limbs and hair.
Ladybug gasps "Dragon Fyre?!"
The red-head yells "Hang on, I'm gonna try to slow us down! If that doesn't work, though, its gonna be a bumpy ride!" It's simple physics, she would have to cancel out the near-terminal speed the three of them are currently falling at in order to stop them…and she's not sure she can. She's never tried stopping something moving as fast as they are, that's usually a one-way mistake!
She does manage to slow them down significantly, taking the speed from 'terminal velocity' to 'badly injured', but then makes an orange bubble around the three of them and yells "Brace yourselves!"
Cat Noir tightens his hold on the two most important ladies in his life, even as he feels himself get suspended in the middle of the bubble, and feels Ladybug and Dragon Fyre do the same. What follows is a sickening and bruising series of jolts, with his stomach getting left behind in the process, and then they get separated and roll across some grass.
Dragon Fyre groans, and says "Sound off if your alive…" Ladybug and Cat Noir both groan, feeling like a pair of solid bruises at the moment. And then Cat Noir painfully lifts his head up, only to see the Bubbler hanging suspended from a tree branch in the yard by the table cloth that was under the snacks, unconscious and his bubble wand lying five feet away from him.
Well, that's convenient.
One de-evilized Akuma later, and a Miraculous Cure that puts everything right again, and the three Superheroes leave with bruises, a Concussion and broken ribs on Dragon Fyre's part, and an excuse to make up for his absence on Cat Noir's part. he can just say getting through the mansion takes a while, it's not like the fight lasted very long.
And that's when he finds a piece of folded paper on his desk, one that definitely wasn't there before. on the back, the words 'happy birthday, kitty, hope you like your gifts' looks burned onto the paper - so, it could only have come from Dragon Fyre.
Dragon Fyre made me a gift?
When he gingerly opens it up fully, it shows himself and Ladybug sitting on the edge of the Eiffel Tower, her laughing at one something he said as he apparently talks, one arm out like he's gesturing for effect. It looks so lifelike, he'd think she took a picture of them that night in secret if he didn't know better. Looks like she's one heck of an artist.
He quickly puts the charcoal drawing in his desk, smoothing it out carefully and storing it in a sheet of plastic so it won't get ruined, the biggest smile he's had all day on his face as he takes it in - he can't believe Dragon Fyre remembered his birthday! Heck, he can't believe she knows when his birthday is, for that matter.
As Adrien's finishing dinner, Natalie walks in with a wrapped gift box and says "A present from your father, Adrien."
Adrien just about falls off his seat in shock, and gingerly takes the gift like it might disappear altogether. "Thank you! I mean, tell my father I said thank you, Natalie. Please?" She nods and walks away, and Adrien eagerly opens the gift - it doesn't look like the same pen he's gotten the past three years in a row, did his dad actually get him a gift?
The next day, Marinette and Bloom see Adrien get out of the car wearing the bright blue scarf they spent a week figuring out how to knit. Marinette jumps excitedly, practically squealing in delight, and Bloom casually calls over "Adrien, like the scarf."
Adrien beams at her, and says "Thank you! My father got it for me, can you believe it? He's gotten me the same lame pen for the last three years!"
Nino says "Wow, guess people can change. Adults can be cool when you least expect it."
Adrien's face falls, and he says "About adults, I know my father said you were a bad influence…"
Nino casually waves him off, saying "Don't sweat it, man! We're cool. Best buds, right?"
Adrien smiles again, feeling like a weight's just dropped off his shoulders, and says "Always and forever."
Bloom raises an eyebrow at Marinette as the two boys walk into the school, and asks "You gonna tell him that scarf is yours?"
Marinette shakes her head, saying "He looks so happy about it being from his dad, I can't take that away from him."
Bloom sighs in exasperation, then says "One day, he's going to see what's right in front of him and wonder how he ever missed it, you know that?" She'll make it happen if she has to bash their heads together.
AN: Hey, everyone! I've really got to wonder, just what was Hawk Moth thinking with this one? Really, give the kid who's angry at adults the power to make them disappear...smart move, really. Considering HAWK MOTH is an adult, I've got to wonder if Bubbler would've rebelled sooner or later.
Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming soon! Please review!