Let's Take It From The Top, Chapter 5: Without Any Further Introduction...
A sleepy-eyed Marinette trudged down the stairs for dinner, greeting her parents as she entered the dining room.
"Look what the cat dragged in," her father quipped, which jolted her more awake than it should have.
"Wait, WHAT?" Marinette panicked. "How did..." CAT? He couldn't POSSIBLY know... how could he?
Tom gave her a funny look. "Just saying, you look exhausted! What are they putting you through at that school?"
She breathed a slight sigh of relief as she settled in at the table and reached for some vegetables. "Oh... yeah. It's nothing, Dad, I just didn't sleep well last night. And, no, no more unexpected houseguests kept me up," she added with a smile.
"Have you heard from your friend since then, Marinette?" Sabine asked, with a look of concern.
"Actually... no!" Marinette sagged a bit in her chair. "I really thought that I would have by now. Ms. Bustier asked if anyone had seen him this morning, telling us that his father reported him missing."
"That's not good at all," frowned Tom. "You'd told us that he and his father had a fight, or something like that?"
"I don't know what it was, exactly," his daughter explained, "because he didn't give too many details. He said, whatever it was, it was his fault and he felt like he couldn't go home right now. He swore up and down that it wasn't abuse, wasn't drugs or alcohol, wasn't anything illegal... so what in the world could it be?"
"Hard to tell," said Sabine. "Every family has its issues..."
"Wait... we do, too?" Tom asked.
"Some scarier than others," grinned Sabine, leaving it at that.
"It sounds like the Agrestes don't just have issues, they have the whole subscription," sighed Marinette. "It's a shame, whatever it is that's going on. Adrien seems a little strange, not to be rude... but he seems really nice underneath that. There's something very sweet about him, too."
"Something beyond his big green eyes, huh?" her mother chuckled.
"Uh-uh. You taught me a long time ago, Mom, 'try not to date crazy,'" noted Marinette. "I've tried to keep that in mind ever since."
"Why not?" Tom asked. "It's how you got here."
His daughter busted up in giggles, while Sabine shot him a look. "I didn't say WHO dated crazy," backpedaled Tom, with a grin.
Marinette took a bite of her broccoli, then added, "Oh! Who put the little black box up in my room, by the way?"
"Black box?" Both Tom and Sabine looked confused.
"Yeah... the box on my computer desk! I found it there after my nap. Didn't one of you put it there? I know I didn't," asked Marinette. "And I know that I locked my balcony hatch when I came back down, so nobody came in that way..."
"No idea. What's it look like?" asked Sabine.
"Come with me after we're done eating, I'll show you," Marinette offered.
"Plagg... I feel strange," Adrien said, hidden away again in the deserted warehouse. "Hungry, but... not just for food."
"I'M hungry for food," grumbled Plagg. "Cheese, preferably. The stinkier, the better."
"Really?" Adrien wrinkled his nose. "I can tell already that you'll be fun to travel with. I mean, I could use some dinner, so I can go get you some cheese in a little bit... But there's just... I can't describe it well! It's like I'm missing something inside, and I don't know what to fill it with."
"Uh-oh," Plagg frowned. "I don't like the sound of that."
"Uh-oh? What are you saying?" asked Adrien, hesitantly.
"I don't know yet. Maybe I'm wrong," the Kwami evaded. "Let's just go get some stuff and see how it goes, okay? Maybe a good meal will do the trick."
"Sure..." pondered Adrien. "So... that GIRL! Firefly, she called herself..."
"Remember what I was saying about your dad making temporary superheroes? She was one of them, I'm sure," replied Plagg. "She didn't have a true Miraculous, like you do; she had powers given to her by Nooroo."
"So she won't be around for much longer? That's a shame. Firefly was... wow!" Adrien closed his eyes, reimagining the young heroine in action. "She was brave, she was charming, she was..."
"Adorable?" drawled Plagg.
"YES! I mean... okay, YES!" blushed Adrien. "Wow! Whoever she is beneath that mask... I think I-"
"Let's not get ahead of ourselves, kid. You've got bigger things to worry about than dating right now," Plagg lectured him. "Though, I have to admit... you did all right out there today, rescuing those people."
"I did, didn't I?" Adrien smiled. "It felt good. Like it's what I should be doing with these powers, instead of hiding away."
"Or blowing up secretaries," smirked Plagg, who changed his tone quickly as Adrien's face fell. "Hey, I didn't mean that! I'm sorry, Adrien. I mean, look... This isn't HOW you were meant to be chosen, and you got off to a really rough start. But you CAN do a ton of good as Chat Noir. Help people. Save lives. Stop crimes. Be Paris's midnight vigilante."
"I am the kitty that creeps in the night!" grinned Adrien, in a faux-deep voice.
"And it might be easier to do that from a real home base. Like, home, maybe," hinted Plagg. "Unless you're really into this kind of shabby chic," he added, gesturing around the decrepit room.
"I've thought about that some," Adrien admitted. "And a couple of things are still stopping me. One is that I still don't know what I'd say to Dad, and especially to Nathalie. But the other thing that's troubling me... These Miraculouses, they're immensely powerful, right? Some of the most powerful magic items on the face of the planet."
"Yeah, they are. So?"
Adrien stared at Plagg. "Where did my FATHER, of all people, get his hands on two of them... plus a book full of information on how to use them? And why did he keep them? What was he planning on doing with them?"
"Those..." Plagg said, blank-faced, "...are some good questions."
"Which is why I'm not quite ready to hand this one back to him yet," said Adrien. "Not until I figure some things out. For now, you wanna go eat?"
"Yeah," Plagg replied, though he'd started wondering about those things in his own mind. "Cheese shop?"
"Among other places," he grinned. "I don't make a big deal about being wealthy... but while it lasts, while I'm on the run like this, it does come in handy."
"That's it, over there," Marinette pointed, walking into her room. Her parents walked in behind her, with confused expressions on their faces.
"It's nothing I did," Sabine said. "Tom?"
He shook his head. "Not me. Could Adrien have left it for you before he disappeared?"
"I guess? But I used that desk this morning, and I don't remember seeing it there then. And I know nobody's been in here since then, except me and you." She looked under her bed and in her closet, just to make doubly sure, but both were empty.
A bell was heard from downstairs. "Oh! Sounds like a customer," Marinette said. "I'll go check."
She ran downstairs, while Sabine and Tom pondered the situation. "Could our escape artist have returned?" Tom asked.
"I don't know, but what other explanation is there?" replied Sabine. "I didn't put it there, you didn't put it there, and she seems genuinely surprised... Maybe it was something Adrien left behind, and we all just missed it?"
"I'd rather think that, than that a boy was sneaking into her room," her father mused. "Knowingly or not. And, no, I don't think knowingly, I know her much better than that."
"Hmmm. I wonder what it is?" Sabine stepped forward.
Across town, Gabriel Agreste stood in his office, pondering his options.
"Nooroo," he asked, "is there a way to direct a butterfly to a specific person?"
"It's possible... but it doesn't mean you'll get them, necessarily. They'd have to be charged up with strong positive emotions, or the butterfly might flutter away to someone else. It's a butterfly, after all; the winds can blow it where they will."
"I'll keep that in mind. That girl... Marinette, her name was? She seemed almost ideal for my purposes. Young, smart, brave, one of Adrien's classmates... it might be prudent to try for her again at some point." He looked at Nooroo, who appeared tired. "Are you ready for another transformation, my little friend?"
"Not yet, Mast... Gabriel. I'm sorry, but whatever happened in that invocation really drained me! I appreciated your snack, and normally that would be enough, but I think I'll need a few more hours of rest."
"It's all right, Nooroo. I won't rush you Adrien is a bright young man. His disappearance... consumes me, but he is not without resources or cleverness. I must have faith that he will not do anything rash."
Gabriel glared at his phone, punching in yet another text message that he expected to go unread. "If he would simply CONTACT ME...!" he growled. "So much of this could be resolved! He has his mother's stubbornness."
Looking at Nooroo, he muttered, "He will not have her fate. Whatever that may cost me."
Marinette dashed into the bakery, calling "May I help you?" She came face to face with a short man in a Hawaiian shirt, who looked oddly familiar...
That's the guy I helped across the street as Firefly! she thought. Good, he didn't become a speed bump since then!
"Welcome to the Tom & Sabine Boulangerie," Marinette began... then stopped, seeing his jaw drop and his eyes widen at her approach.
"Ah!" he stammered. "Hello, young lady. I, uh... are your parents in? I had... a question. About a special order."
"Um... sure? I'll go get them. Can you wait right here?" she asked him.
"Yes, I will. Thank you. Um... do hurry, please?" the man added, as he watched her spring up the stairs. BEFORE one of them gets the biggest surprise of their lives?
Sabine reached for the small box, noting the intricate runes and designs on it.
"I love the artwork on it... it looks hand-drawn," she said, holding it up to show her husband.
"Are those Chinese characters on it?" he asked. "I know a little, but not those."
"They're not modern Chinese script, that's for sure. They might be... I studied a little bit of Old Chinese in school, but that was decades ago," Sabine replied. "And even then it was more of a historical thing than learning to read it. Very strange to see it here, if that's what it is."
"Should we open it, or wait for Marinette?" Tom wondered. "I mean, it IS for her, presumably?"
"You're not curious?" grinned Sabine.
"Sure, I am. But I also know I'll get an earful if we do," he smiled back. "DAAAAD! Personal SPACE!"
"Oh, all right. You're no fun," his wife said, sitting it back on the desk.
"You know THAT'S not true," Tom laughed. "Or maybe you need a little reminder..."
"DAD! MOM!" they heard Marinette call. "The customer has a question about a special order. He asked for you..."
"I'll head down and see what I can do for him," Sabine said. As she turned to leave, she bumped the desk, shaking the box slightly...
Outside the grocery store, Adrien felt his phone buzz. "Well, it's good to know I'm being thought of, I guess," he smiled. He checked it and saw a message from Nino, four from his father - of course, but he couldn't think about that right now - another from Nino...
Whoa!
He saw, scrolling back:
[16 1 42 34 56 78] Hey, this is Marinette. Making sure you're okay, you worried me disappearing like that.
"PLAGG!" he whispered. "MARINETTE messaged me!"
"Uh-huh," the Kwami replied. "And?"
"She was thinking about me! She was worried about me!" Adrien wibbled. "I wonder how she got my number?"
"I take it that that's a good thing?" asked Plagg. "I thought you were head over heels now for your little winged wonder."
"Oh, Firefly is... don't even get me started! But after Marinette was so kind to me the other night, I'm... oh, I don't know, Plagg! I don't do this sort of thing."
"What, date?"
"CONSIDER dating," Adrien admitted. "Dad keeps me on a fairly tight leash that way. And I don't know if I'm like THAT about Marinette... but I do really like her, and I owe her one."
"One what?" Plagg asked him, amused.
"Whatever she needs." he smiled. "Oh! I just realized something, Plagg! Now I have her number, too!"
"Yeah, yeah. Less dialing, more cheese-buying," Plagg grumbled.
They went inside, the phone in Adrien's left hand, as he added Marinette to his contacts list and wondered whether to call or text her first.
Master Fu watched the stairs like a hawk. He smiled as he heard two sets of footsteps coming down... but it faded slightly when the first set was Sabine's, but the second was Marinette's.
"Hello, sir! May we help you?" Sabine asked as she entered, with a warm smile.
"Yes, ah... I have an order to place," he mumbled. "Something for a, um... party I'm planning. I had a question or two about it..."
"Certainly! I'll be happy to help you with whatever you need. How large of a gathering is it?" asked Sabine, taking out her notepad.
"I'm not... sure yet. A couple of dozen people, I think... is your husband also available?" Master Fu wondered.
Sabine frowned. "I'm SURE I can handle this myself, Mister..."
"Wang. Wang Fu." He looked a little flustered. "Oh! Certainly, you are more than capable yourself. I apologize if that sounded rude."
"...Then?" Sabine asked, puzzled.
"I had heard this was the best bakery in Paris. I hoped I might meet both the proprietors," he smiled, sweating a bit. "Maybe learn a trade secret or two."
"Well, that's different," she grinned. "Marinette, could you go get your father?"
"Sure!" Marinette said, brightly. She headed back up the stairs, with a loud thump audible from the upper floors as she left...
Tom stood on the ladder in Marinette's room, underneath the balcony hatch, fiddling with the lock. It seems sturdy enough... Marinette said she'd locked it, but maybe she'd forgotten? It's not like anyone comes in or out that way except her, anyway, so maybe she forgets sometimes. I probably would.
Satisfied that the hatch was secure, he climbed back down. On the last step, he slipped slightly, and dropped to the floor with a thump.
"Ow!" he grumbled, rubbing his knee where he'd bumped it on the way down. The little black box teetered on the edge of the desk, very close to falling off...
"You okay, Dad?" asked Marinette, as she poked her head in her door. "The customer wanted to meet you, too."
"Really? Hmmph. All right, I'll head down and see what he needs. You okay up here, honey?" Tom asked.
"Sure, I'm just going to stretch out and let my dinner settle..." she said, as Tom headed downstairs.
Huh! she thought, looking across the room. Someone must've bumped that box... it's about to fall off my desk! Marinette walked over and reached for it, gently...
A few minutes later, Master Fu left, grumbling to himself. "Ai-yaah! That was an expensive secret to keep!"
Wayzz chuckled. "Master, would you rather have had her parents find Tikki, instead of Marinette?"
"Of course not!" the old man sniffed. "But what am I going to do with a dessert platter for twenty-four guests?"
Adrien reached the check-out counter with a basket of groceries and odds and ends, still pondering how best to respond to Marinette's message. The woman at the register began ringing up his purchases, methodically.
"Oh, I HAVE to call her," he mumbled to himself, fumbling with the phone as the last groceries went into the bag. "But what will I say?"
"That'll be fourteen Euros," the cashier said, slightly annoyed. "When you're done with your phone."
"Sorry," Adrien blurted, reaching for his wallet. He dug out a ten and a five and handed them across the counter. As the cashier reached for them...
"OW!" As their hands touched, the cashier yelped in pain. "What was that?"
"I... don't know," Adrien said. "Almost like static electricity, but I don't know what would have caused it. I feel... hmmm!"
"Hmmm?" asked the cashier, rubbing her hand.
"Um... keep the change!" Adrien called, dashing off with his groceries. He bumped the Dial button on his phone as he hurried, not noticing...
Sabine and Tom came back upstairs together. "What a curious old man!" Tom said, amused by the encounter.
"Oh, I liked him," Sabine replied. "And, evidently, he knows how to throw quite a party!"
They entered Marinette's room... finding her lying on her bed, reading a magazine. "What did the old man need?" Marinette asked.
"A pretty big dessert tray," Tom smiled. "I like big orders like that. I'll get you to work on some icing designs for me, Marinette. You have quite the touch for that!"
"Sure, I'd be happy to!" beamed Marinette. "What kind of..."
She heard a ringtone from downstairs, interrupting her train of thought. "Oh, crap! I left my phone downstairs!" she said, jumping up to fetch it quickly.
As she ran, her mother called, "So what was in the mystery box, anyway?"
"I don't know, I didn't look yet! If you want, you can open it," came the distant reply.
Adrien darted outside the store, getting out of sight quickly. "PLAGG!" he hissed. "Why do I feel so... weird?"
"Oh, boy," Plagg whimpered. "I was afraid of this. Remember how I said my powers were screwed up?"
"Yeah..." said Adrien. "But I'm not Chat Noir right now, so why would that matter?"
"Something in that messed-up invocation must've really fried something. Your Cataclysm is STUCK ON, kind of! Even as ADRIEN! Just a little bit, but that's enough!"
"What do you mean, even as Adrien?" he panicked.
"You said you felt hungry, but not for food, right?" Plagg explained, frantically. "Then you touched that lady by accident, you felt a spark, and now you feel really funky, right?"
"Yeah! I'm all... like... charged up! Like I just drank three Red Bulls," agreed Adrien.
"The magic drained some of her energy! Your own energy is all messed up, and when it runs a little low, your right hand will try to pull some from whoever you touch!" Plagg did NOT look happy. "This happened once before, hundreds of years ago, when some wise guy tried to use me and the Ox together."
"What happened then?" asked Adrien?
Plagg said nothing.
Adrien glared at him... then realized that his phone had been dialing. "CRAP!" he gasped, reaching for it. "I didn't mean to do that yet..."
Marinette dashed down the stairs, hearing the ringtone for the third time... the fourth... the fifth...
Flying into the dining room, she picked it up and saw...
Holy crap, it's ADRIEN! she thought, hitting the Answer button and holding it to her ear...
A white flash filled Marinette's bedroom, making both Tom and Sabine recoil in fear; Sabine dropped the black box back onto Marinette's desk.
The flash dissipated, revealing...
Sabine jumped back. "Ahh! Help! It's a giant bug! A... a mouse! A... a bug-mouse!"
The tiny red creature floated forward, smiling, but also slowly realizing whom had actually opened the box. "Everything's okay! Don't be... scared? Oh... dear. Oh, my."
"Ahh! The bug-mouse TALKS!" cried Sabine, picking up a notepad from Marinette's desk, ready to throw it if necessary.
"OKAY. Um... greetings, Mr. Dupain, Mrs. Cheng. I am a Kwami, and my name is Tikki. I, uh... I don't suppose that Marinette is at home?"
Marinette heard nothing. She looked down at her phone, and saw 1 MISSED CALL.
"Darn it!" she grumbled. She tried dialing him back, but didn't get an answer. When she got to his voice mail, she didn't have a prepared message to leave, so she just winged it:
"Hi, it's Marinette... I saw you tried to call, I just missed you. I hope you're okay. We've missed you at school, they said your dad's looking for you, and, um... I just want to know that you're safe, okay? Call me or text me, when you can. Please, Adrien. Bye..."
She hung up, disappointed. I don't know why Adrien's been on my mind so much lately... but he sure has.
Slowly, she trudged back up the stairs, only to hear her mother calling her. "Marinette? Could you... come up here... right NOW, please?"
Uh-oh, she thought. THAT doesn't sound happy. What the heck was IN that box, anyway?
She stepped into her room...
Back at the warehouse hideaway, Adrien munched on a sandwich while Plagg ate his Camembert. "My hand HAD felt funny lately. Tingly, for some reason. But it doesn't now, or at least not nearly as much."
"It won't... for now," confirmed Plagg. "For lack of a better word for it, you've fed off of that cashier. That should last you for a little while."
"Did I... do something bad to her?" asked Adrien, with a VERY concerned expression. "Did I really hurt her?"
"Nah, she'll be fine. It felt like a static spark, right? It was no worse than that. She might feel a little tired for a few minutes, but human energy is pretty resilient that way." Plagg grinned. "Don't worry about it."
"I kind of have to worry about it. What am I, now, some kind of energy vampire?" Adrien shuddered. "I know I joked about being a vigilante and haunting the night, but I didn't mean it THAT seriously."
"Well..." Plagg struggled for an explanation that wouldn't sound overly dire. "Let me put it this way. As long as you don't let it go too long without touching someone, it shouldn't get worse. You'll feel it both as Adrien and as Chat Noir. The problem is, every time you use Cataclysm as Chat Noir now, or let it go for too long... it's gonna get worse."
"Worse how?" asked Adrien, staring hard.
"Just... don't." Plagg gulped. "The more energy you draw out at once, the more you will disrupt them. Cataclysm can dissolve anyone or anything entirely, by draining all of its energy; this is, like, a lighter version of that. It starts out lighter, anyway. And since Cataclysm drains me pretty hard, if I'm grumpy and want a lot of cheese from now on, now you'll know why."
"So you're saying that if it keeps up and gets worse, I could start killing people just by touching them?" Adrien looked like he'd seen a ghost. "What in the world am I going to... Plagg, how do we fix this?"
"I don't know, kid. Right now, I just don't know. So let's be careful and NOT make it worse."
Marinette stared at the most surreal sight of her life... which, since she'd spent part of her day flying through the air while chasing a magical catboy, was saying quite a bit.
"Mom, Dad... WHAT just happened?" she stammered. "And who or what are YOU?"
"My name is Tikki, Marinette. I'm what's called a Kwami, the spirit of a Miraculous. A Miraculous is a magical charm that can grant superpowers..." Tikki began.
"ANOTHER one?" said Marinette, then kicked herself mentally.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Sabine and Tikki, simultaneously.
"Were you sent by... Papillon?" asked Marinette, cautiously. "Because he already reached me once today."
"Okay, I'm beyond lost," muttered Tom, trying to make sure that this wasn't some kind of elaborate dream of his.
"Wait a second. The MOTH powered you up already?" Tikki boggled. "What did you become?"
"Would SOMEONE please explain to Tom and I what the HECK is going on around here, before I fall over?" Sabine begged. "My brain is breaking."
"Let me go first, since I'm your unexpected guest... Wow. I don't usually do this with parents present, but what the heck, we're all here now," Tikki grinned.
Tikki gave the three the big briefing: what a Miraculous is, how it works, why it's given, which one she represented, what other ones existed, the necessity of keeping it secret.
"I had been wondering, what the deal was with the whole insect thing..." Marinette giggled. "First I met the Moth, then I turned into Firefly, now you're a Ladybug..."
"Turned... into Firefly?" Tom wondered. "Marinette, can you explain what you mean by that?"
"Someone didn't watch the news this afternoon," Sabine replied. "I saw the footage of a... superheroine on Channel 3, an insect girl and a cat boy saving people's lives from runaway pipes. How in the WORLD could that have been you, Marinette?"
"The Moth... or Papillon, as he called himself... can pass on superpowers through silver butterflies, temporarily. One fluttered through my hatch this morning, I talked to him about it, I accepted his offer... and, whammo, I could fly!" smiled Marinette, nervously. "For a little while, anyway. Once I used that lightning power, it went away soon after."
She turned towards Tikki. "So... if you're NOT from Papillon... how long do your powers last?"
"For as long as you want. Mine don't go away unless you want them to," said Tikki, with a calm expression. "If you use your hidden power, you have five minutes of energy left... but then once you've fed me something, you can transform again. And from what I smell downstairs, you've got exactly the kind of sweets here that I adore."
Marinette looked awed. "So... you want me to be an actual superhero?" She blinked. "For REAL? Why ME?"
"Let's just say that you impressed someone today, very much. Your compassion towards those who needed help, your courage in diving right in, your putting yourself in danger to help others... you are precisely the kind of person these powers are meant for. If you'll accept them," smiled Tikki.
"Is it dangerous?" asked Sabine, with visible concern.
"I won't lie and say that it couldn't be," Tikki answered, carefully. "Chat Noir needs to have his... powers tweaked, to put it one way, for his own good and for the safety of everyone around him. My... master believes he can fix what's wrong with Chat and make him a true force for good, but first we need Chat to agree to meet him, and while this Chat doesn't seem violent or evil... he is one of the few beings out there that could hurt Ladybug, if he wanted to."
"And that master's not his dad, right? He wanted no part of going home, when I talked to him today," noted Marinette.
"DEFINITELY not," laughed Tikki. "My master has many things in his past, but no kids. He... Marinette, are you all right?"
She watched as Marinette froze for a moment, doing some mental math. Now, WAIT a minute! Papillon wanted Chat Noir to come home. Chat Noir wanted nothing to do with his father right now. Adrien's run away from home, at the same time... and his father is desperate to find him.
...Can that possibly be a coincidence?
"I'm... just thinking about something," she replied. "Some things are fitting together in my mind. Maybe." She stood up, looking at Tikki. "I won't lie to you, Tikki; it felt amazing flying over the city today, saving lives and protecting people. And if I'm needed to do that again, and to help save Chat Noir, too..."
"Are you sure this is something that you'd want to do?" her father asked, watching her put on the earrings from the jewelry box. "This is all very strange, and very sudden. I'm not sure how I feel about this."
"You could tell me no," Marinette said, facing her mother and father. "I don't know that I'm the right girl for the job... and I'll listen to you two, if you're against this."
"You really were Firefly today, Marinette?" Sabine asked. "Risking your life and saving people?"
Marinette gulped. "I was."
"Then I guess I'd better get used to having a hero in the family," she sniffled. "I'm so proud of you. I'll worry EVERY SINGLE SECOND about you, and you know that, but I'm so proud and I'll help however I can."
Tom nodded. "Before I change my mind..."
"Then why shouldn't the single craziest day of my life get even crazier?" giggled Marinette. She took a deep breath...
"Tikki... SPOTS ON!"
Next time:
* Together again for the first time!
* A tiny word of caution.
* Gabriel reacts to the new girl in town.
* Nathalie comes back from the hospital, feeling... better?
* Standard messaging rates may apply.
* NO, that is not Marinette's real phone number up there. Please don't dial it. Seriously.