Chapter 35: KwamiBuster(Plagg's POV)
Plagg floats down towards the heavenly scent. Camembert. The classroom is empty, but he made sure it was before going towards the stinky cheese. Strangely his Camembert cheese is just sitting on a plate on a wooden desk. But he pushes that little detail out of his mind.
"What do you think you're doing, Plagg?"
He turns around to find Longg, Roaar, Trixx, and Pollen all behind him.
"Isn't it obvious, I'm going to eat that cheese."
"That isn't very re[sonible of you. Besides, it's not your cheese anyway and we're supposed to keep the fact that we exist a secret." Longg stresses.
"It's just sitting there, on the table. And it's the smelliest cheese I've ever sniffed. I am not going to pass this up."
He turns around ignoring the protests of the others and flies straight toward the plate with the cheese on it. Suddenly the door swings wide open to see Madame Mendeleiev. Oh crap, Plagg thinks as Adrien's other teacher's eyes widen in fascination, surprise and shock.
The other Kwamis scurry back to shelter, while he quickly grabs the cheese, gulps it in one swift motion and then heads to shelter. Oh crap, oh crap, he thinks rapidly in his head. One of the teachers discovered them, and it was all his fault. Curse his love(obsession) with Camembert cheese.
Adrien's so going to kill him when he finds out.
Madame Mendeleiev's POV
What had she just witnessed? Some weird floating things were in her room and one gulped the Camembert cheese she was studying over Christmas. It took her a good while to get it stinky like that and was going to discuss with her students next period about ageing cheese, but she was not that mad about it. Her students rarely paid attention to anything she taught, and akumas most of the time disrupted her class too making it difficult to teach all the things she is supposed to. So she is just mildly annoyed at the thing eating the Camembert.
She was however more shocked about those floating creatures. What were they, were they just a hallucination? Where did they come from? Were they spies spent by the government? Or a new type of drone that could somehow phase through walls? But what would they want from her empty classroom? But it ate her Camembert….
It just does not make any sense whatsoever.
Just what did she discover?
Perhaps she should take this discovery to a show that explores scientific discoveries every episode. Perhaps they could make something out of this, it's a good thing this school installed security cameras for akuma attacks. Though they are pointless(it does not stop the akuma and even when the Principal finds out who is responsible for making an akuma happen someone always lies to make it seem like it was not her fault for making it happen. Though he might of also installed the cameras to see who has been breaking lab equipment if that happens. )
And perhaps some drawings would not be amiss either. Even if she only caught a glimpse of them.
Next Day(Keith's POV)
Keith stares into space, not really paying any attention to the teacher. The feelings from that whole Christmas debacle hasn't really ceased, despite his heartfelt confession to Marinette's parents, Tom and Sabine who had now adopted both him and Adrien.
He is happy that he and Adrien are away from Gabriel and that whole relationship but Nathalie is still with him despite the fact. And…. Gabriel hasn't been punished except for the fact that he can't approach Adrien at all.
A warm touch on his hand brings him out of his thoughts.
"Hey it's okay. You and Adrien are in a better place now." Chloe whispers to him.
"Yeah," He whispers back. But still….. That whole experience…..
It shouldn't have happened. But yet, as try as he might and look back at all the things that happened, none of it could be really stopped. Adrien was going under a lot of pressure and despite how he pretended he was fine, was clearly saddened at the lack of his father's presence during certain things so eventually he would have run away just to escape it all. And nothing could be done about Gabriel's temper either.
He sighs. It's in the past, Adrien is happier and he should just move on.
"Monsieur Damocles? What brings you into our classroom?" asks Madame Bustier, surprised.
Keith turns his head to face the doorway, and sure enough the Principal is standing right outside their door.
"I just wanted to inform you that you will taking over Madame Mendeleiev's classes, since most of your students go to her room at the same time…."
"And you couldn't inform me of this earlier?"
Monsieur Damocles chuckles nervously, "Well it slipped my mind is all, I've been busy,"clears throat, "Anyway her absence is because she's gone on a show called Alternate Truth due to discovering something."
"Really?! I love that show!" Kim enthusiastically shouts, causing everyone to stare at him. "What, it explores things that could be true but also not false and it's up to us and the jury to vote whether it's true or not and then the final theories face their final testing and the one that gets voted to be the most plausible wins a reward!"
"Yes she swore to me that she discovered something that needed to be seen by others."
"Madame, can we please watch it? I want to see what her theory is." Kim asks.
Lila interjects, "But we didn't come here to watch a teacher go on a goofy kids show for some theory, we came here to learn."
The class looks at her, with wide eyes and Lila nervously stammers out, "But that doesn't mean we can't watch it to support her, right Madame Bustier."
"That's right Lila. So please can we watch it, Madame Bustier."
"Well….. I guess since a certain someone gave me extra hours to teach you," Madame Bustier replies while glaring daggers at Monsieur Damocles.
Keith chuckles quietly( at Lila's stammer and Madame Bustier glaring at Monsieur Damocles. Who knew she had it in her to be mad at something).
Monsieur Damocles chooses this moment to leave the room. Fair.
The video stream starts playing. The title card for Alternate Truth appears and suddenly Alec( a famous T.V show host for some reason) appears.
"We're back for the next segment of Alternate Truth. Where everything isn't always true but nothing is really false. Let's welcome our last guest today Madame Mendeleiev, a science teacher at Francis Dupont High School."
"Yeah, that's our teacher!" The screen then flashes to a close up of Madame Mendeleiev.
"Hello. Thank you for having me."
Alec says as the screen switches to him, "You'll describe a scientific theory to our panel of judges, who will decide based on their own personal reasoning if it's true or false. Madame Mwndeleiev you already know our juriy which consists of the Famous XY, the one and only ," ''Stay Peachy,`" "and of course the incredible Mannon Chamack, daughter of news reporter Nadja Chamack. Over to you Madame Mendeleiev."
The screen switches to Madame Mendeleiev walking over to a pulpit.
"What you're about to witness is proof of some interdimensional beings which I found by accident while heading back to my classroom. One of the creatures was attracted to my aged Camebert cheese that I left out on my desk. I captured it on film using the security cameras that were installed."
It then shows a video of a cheese being held up and then eaten with one gulp. No trace of it.
"Because they didn't show up on film I made a sketch of the creature who ate the cheese,"
She shows a drawing of a very poorly coloured sketch of a black cat, which looks like a kwami.
Keith looks at Chloe, worry in both their gazes.
But talking to their kwamis would have to wait.
"Alright it is now time for our jury to vote on the three different theories our guests have provided. Jalil Kubdel hypothesised that Egyptian pyramids are in fact alien spaceships who got stranded on Earth after having run out of fuel. What do you think, jury?"
"Alex, look it's your brother," Kim shouts out.
Meanwhile the screen turns to the jury and each of the screens turn green.
"Our Jury has been successfully convinced. Jalil succeeds this round. Next Vincent Aza hypothesised that snow is boogers from a cloud giant that lives in the sky."
"Ooohh. Mr. Banna was not convinced," "No, but stay peachy." "Which means unfortunately Monsieur Aza your theory doesn't hold water. Last but not least Madame Mendeleiev says there are creatures, invisible to film, that like cheese. I'm very sorry Madame Mendeleiev but your fake footage has not convinced our judges."
"Stay peachy,"
It shows Madame Mendeleiev then getting assorted off the premises and being made fun of.
"Thank you to all our scientists and members of the jury. We'll see you again next week for another edition of Alternate Truth!"
Suddenly a shout comes through the screen, "Wait! I am not finished proving my theory. I am Kwamibuster! And I'm going to conduct one last scientific experiment!
Then it cuts to the news station with Nadja saying, "An akumatized person has appeared near the T.V station. We aren't able to currently make out the person's identity but ..."
It then enlarges the footage in the corner to take up the whole screen. This is bad, really bad. And it only gets worse.
"This safety fault will withstand a 50-storey fall. True or False?"
"False! It won't!"
Madame Bustier's POV
"Everyone get to the akuma shelter in cas….." She falters, most of the class is gone already. All expect Lila….
Curses.
And she runs off to find her students herself, and make sure that they are all right.
Chloe's POV
She swings her spinning top at the falling crate just in time to save Alec. And swings it back up onto the building. Chat Noir and the rest of her teammates join her side.
Chat comments, "And there you have it. The answer was 'True'. Honeybee defies the laws of science."
"I'll capture your kwamis and prove to everyone that those creatures do exist. True or False?"
"It doesn't matter. My team and I aren't going to let you prove anything!"
"Are you sure about that?"
She then begins to fire her laser gun at all of us. Chloe tries to aim a strike but Kwamibuster just points her laser at her again. Swinging to safety, she breathes for a moment. How are they ever going to beat this akuma?
Then she hears a surprised yelp, Chat Noir has become enveloped in a green glow. His kwami is ripped out of his ring. Luckily he makes it to safety before his identity is revealed to the public.
"Go Chat," Marmora yells, "We got this."
Adrien's POV
He seriously hopes his kwami never does something like this again. The others didn't mention it but his kwami doing something like this, well, it might lead to Hawkmoth getting the physical items as well.
Running on adrenaline, he rushes to Master Fu's house, in hopes of finding a way to end the akuma and retrieve his kwami back.
Barging through the door of the massage shop he says, "Plagg has been captured by an akuma who can steal kwamis! I need something to help with this problem."
"Troublesome indeed."
Master Fu opens the Gramophone with a button and takes the Miracle box out.
"Adrien Agreste you have to pick a miraculous suited for the task of beating this akuma."
The miracle box opens revealing all the miraculouses that haven't been taken up by his team. The mouse miraculous will work best in this scenario and since the akumas power is trapping kwamis. He grabs all the miraculous left and puts them on.
"Adrien, are you sure?"
"Yes I know the risk. But I have a plan."
Master Fu smiles, "I trust you."
"Mullo Get Squeaky!"
After the transformation, Adrien opens up the french doors. A mild dizziness overcomes him as he pulls them. And he holds the doors for a grip until the dizziness passes. After a second it disappears.
Letting go he yells, "Multitude!" He shrinks down in size and multiple versions of himself appear. "Alright kwamis I need each of you to give me a lift. Fluff you'll have me with my ring. You'll have to get captured to get inside, meanwhile the rest of you and me will distract the akuma."
And he flies off, heading towards the akuma, leaving Master Fu.
Once they reach the tower, Adrien sees that his teammates are still fighting off the akuma. He smiles.
The kwamis fly down and start distracting Kwamibuster.
"More kwamis! More proof for my theory you idiots!"
Nah, more like a well calculated plan. A few seconds go by, and Fluff is eventually hit. Inside he meets Plagg and the other kwamis that got hit.
"Adrien! You came for me?"
"Of course I did Plagg. You're my friend. Now let's stop this akuma once and for all!"
"Plagg, Mullo Unify!"
"Cataclysm!"
He destroys Kwamibuster's device and it releases all the kwamis she'd captured. Now that is done "Mullo Plagg divide!" Then he gathers all his clones until he's big again.
"Hey Plagg ready for one more transformation?"
"Really? But you just used Cataclysm!"
"Yes but I need it again to destroy the akuma."
"Fine."
"Mullo Plagg, Unify!"
Marmora walks up to him and releases the akuma. Catching it with his own palm Adrien says, "Cataclysm,"
The akuma turns to ashes.
His teammates come towards him. Honeybee gives him a hug, "That was super awesome! Where'd you get all those kwamis?"
"Oh, well…."
"Excuse me, but how did I end up here?" Madame Mendeleiev asks.
"You were akumatized. But I can help you get home and rest."
"But what about what I discovered?"
"Kwamis need to be kept a secret from the public. We don't want to risk exposing ourselves to Hawkmoth because someone knows about them." Marmora answers.
"Fair."
"Now let's take you home," Marmora grabs her and they head off.
"Now that they're gone I got all these miraculouses from the Guardian. Which I have to head back to now."
Rouge Renarde asks, "Will we be able to meet the Guardian?"
"I'm not sure, but perhaps soon."
"Well you should get going, don't want that Guardian to be waiting."
"Yeah. Bye guys. See you on patrol tonight?"
"Of course." And everyone besides Honeybee nods in agreement.
Adrien nods. "See you then," And he leaps off the building.
At Master Fu's
"I'm glad you managed to beat the Akuma, Adrien."
"Me too. I mean I wasn't worried or anything, but…"
Master Fu smiles, " Yes. You're becoming quite the leader,"
"I wouldn't say that. Most of the time my teammates help me with the ideas on how to beat the akumas,"
"But that's normal in a team dynamic. Often teams have a plethora of ideas on how to solve problems, the leader is there to guide the team and to help the plan they come up with come to fruition."
"So I don't have to try and make plans on my own? But Ladybug did that and…."
"You feel bad for not following her style. Fair. But she also had the help of her Lucky Charm to guide her whereas you and your teammates do not. And there have been times in Guardian history, if I remember correctly, that the Ladybug miraculous wasn't used for certain situations. And Adrien even if you did possess the Ladybug miraculous you would have a different style than her because you are both different. So don't feel downcast…"
"Thank you,"
Master Fu smiles, "Your welcome Adrien. And Plagg try not to get seen again by a human. Your existence needs to remain a secret."
"But it was Camembert cheese…."
Master Fu gives him a questioning look.
"Oh fine! I promise not to, if I smell cheese that isn't Adrien's, to eat it or go after it. Happy now?"
"Yes, yes I am."
Adrien chuckles, as Plagg pouts.
Master Fu's POV
Yes I did indeed choose a good Cat Miraculous holder. I do wish Marinette were here, but Adrien is doing a fine job. I'm surprised he managed to not give out with all the power of the miraculouses coursing through him. But it worked out for the best. I never wanted to be the Guardian, but teaching Adrien and watching him and his team grow has been the best thing that has happened since the temple was destroyed due to my ignorance.