A/N: Since some people were apparently puzzled by the missiles mentioned last chapter, I'm just going to go ahead and point out now that I didn't make those up out of thin air. They were shown in Robustus and I just decided to incorporate them. They're probably technically mini-missiles or something but eh. It's splitting hairs at that point.

For their second meeting, Adrien and Plagg arrived late thanks to a photoshoot that ran over. Adrien ran all the way to Fu's place, though Plagg didn't understand the hurry. It wasn't as though the old man was going to be going anywhere.

So of course when they got there, Ladybug and Tikki had already arrived and were sitting in Adrien's usual spot behind the screen. Plagg could see Tikki already perched on the low table, nibbling on a small cake. Next to her, Wayzz was sipping away at a small cup of tea.

Plagg perked up when he saw his normal cheese plate set out. He zipped towards it, ignoring Adrien's quiet apologies to Fu for being late. He mumbled out quick greetings to his fellow kwami and then dove into the cheese.

The cheese plate was the best part of these boring meetings, really. But Plagg knew that any moment now, he was going to be dragged away from the cheese to act as a mouthpiece for Adrien so he and his lovebug could talk to each other.

"What- what's this for?" Adrien asked suddenly, sounding positively puzzled. Plagg glanced over long enough to see his Chosen pick up what looked like a weird black plastic mask.

"Ladybug brought them," Fu said, as though that was any sort of explanation. Plagg glanced over and saw Ladybug sitting on the other side of the screen- or, well, he was assuming that it was Ladybug. Black pigtails stuck out from the bottom of a black mask identical to the one Adrien held. She waved at him. "They have a voice changer built in, and Ladybug thought you two would be able to use them to talk without having to go through the kwamis while still keeping your identities safe. I believe she called them... Darth Raider masks?"

"Darth Vader," Tikki corrected.

"Ladybug is my new favorite," Plagg said around a mouthful of cheese. "Now I don't have to stop eating just so you can ask a million questions. I mean, you'll look like a dork, but..."

Adrien grinned and jammed the helmet over his head, apparently unconcerned by the dorkiness. "This is so cool!"

Plagg blinked. That...was definitely a voice change. He had not been expecting that.

"And they were on clearance," Ladybug added, her own voice just as distorted. "Because the paint job got messed up somehow. The masks are scratched, but the voice things work well enough."

Adrien laughed. "Your voice sounds so funny like this."

"You're one to talk," Ladybug retorted.

"That is going to take some getting used to," Fu said with a laugh. "But it was quite a creative solution, I have to admit. Clearly I made a very good choice when I picked you for Ladybug."

"You really did," Adrien spoke up. Plagg could tell by the tilt of his Chosen's head that he was doubtless giving the screen in Ladybug's direction a soppy lovestruck look. "I don't know what I would do without my Bugaboo."

Plagg made a face and dove with more vigor into his cheese. He really didn't need to spend any more of his life listening to Adrien flirt and pine. It was lucky that he wasn't alert when Adrien was transformed, because from what Plagg could tell, Adrien flirted with Ladybug all the time while they were transformed.

"Both Ladybug and Chat Noir have been excellent choices this time around," Wayzz spoke up, thankfully cutting off any more flirty banter between the two superheroes. "You both fight wonderfully."

"But now we must talk of more serious things," Fu agreed, coming to sit by the table that the kwamis were on. "Tikki has told me already about some of the things that she and Plagg are planning. There are...security elements, in the lair, that you're in the process of destroying, is that correct?"

Plagg nodded by way of answer. He didn't want to have to hastily swallow the lovely creamy Brie that he had just bitten into.

"And from what I hear, that's going along well," Fu pressed. "And you have plans to finish the project this Thursday?"

"He's going to break an elevator button so Mr. Agreste can't go up to the lair and transform," Tikki volunteered, wiping cake crumbs off of her mouth. "So it won't matter that he's had to recharge a zillion times. And Ladybug is going to bring some cheese bread and some cheese up to a hidden spot on the roof so Plagg can keep recharging."

Plagg perked up. He hadn't heard that that part of the plan had been confirmed. He had rather thought that Tikki hadn't actually meant it when she said they would bring cheese for him and that he would have to keep going back down to the kitchens or to Adrien's room in between destroying missiles. Hopefully Tikki had told- or would tell- her Chosen how much cheese he would need, and he also hoped that she wouldn't skimp.

Fu was stroking his beard. "That sounds interesting. But you know your strength wanes the further away you are from your Chosen, and surely Chat Noir would be at school that day?"

"I have a lot of exams," Adrien confirmed. "And I've kind of been worried about it, since I don't want to have to miss exams because of an akuma attack."

"That was the initial idea behind breaking the button," Tikki chimed in before Plagg could. Not that he actually wanted to do all of the talking "So that they could complete their exams in peace. And then we figured that since Mr. Agreste wouldn't be able to transform anyway, we might as well take advantage of it. And I would be there as well, to counteract the effects of the distance between Plagg and Chat Noir as much as I can."

"And I can sit in a cafe or a park nearby and have Wayzz join you, to help further," Fu volunteered, and Plagg only just refrained from rolling his eyes. If it weren't for the fact that having Tikki and Wayzz there would help bolster his destruction powers with Adrien off at school, he would wonder if they didn't trust him to be able to destroy stuff on his own. He didn't need babysitters.

"And I'll come hang out nearby at lunch," Adrien added in. "In, er, the park or something. And after school, too."

Plagg hid a snigger. He knew full well that Adrien would be coming home and eating in the dining room just like normal, but he could hardly say that. Fu would end him for the early reveal.

"I'm glad we have a plan set for that, then. Hopefully there won't be an akuma attack late that day but if there is, then Ladybug, you will have to be prepared to do the brunt of the fighting. Plagg will be exhausted after that much destruction and recharging and won't be able to hold on to a transformation long."

"Right. Tikki already told me about that."

Plagg rolled his eyes. Of course Tikki had. She had always been ridiculously responsible about those sorts of things.

"And then we need to start planning further ahead," Fu told them. "We need to recover the book and the scrolls and then destroy the digital copy that Hawkmoth has, preferably without alerting him, though I don't know how we could do that. I don't know how far someone without training would be able to get with decoding it, but we cannot allow him the opportunity."

"We could always take the files off of his computer to see how far he's gotten," Adrien suggested.

"And we could introduce a virus somehow to make it look like that was what wiped the files off of the computer," Ladybug added. "I know someone who might know how to do that, actually. He was-"

"The Gamer," Adrien and Ladybug finished in unison. Adrien perked up- Plagg was certain that his Chosen was beaming under that dorky mask- and turned towards the screen separating the two superheroes. "Yeah! He probably could, considering that he made that robot! And maybe he could help us with the security cameras- I mean, Plagg could probably break them somehow, but it would be more convincing that nobody was there if the cameras were on the whole time, but just showed an empty loop of video."

Fu was smiling at both of them, looking for all the world like a fond old grandpa. "Ah, young minds! You certainly are more in tune with today's technology than I am. Those sound like excellent ideas. You are certain that the young man you're referring to could keep a secret and not accidentally let word get out about how he's helping superheroes?"

"He's rather down-to-earth, I think," Adrien said, and Plagg stuffed another wedge of Camembert in his mouth to muffle his laughter. Adrien was trying so hard to pretend that he didn't know Max in person, even though Fu definitely knew and Ladybug would probably soon know that they were in the exact same class. "I mean, he doesn't freak out when we show up, and I think he could understand how serious this is."

"Definitely," Ladybug agreed. "He's trustworthy."

"Then you should try to speak to him in private as soon as possible," Fu told them. "I'm sure that the young man will probably need some time to develop the- the virus, did you say?- and figure out the security cameras."

"Tomorrow evening, maybe?" Adrien suggested. "So we can figure out the security camera system information."

Plagg made a face. That sounded like it was work for him. Again. Too bad he couldn't just suggest that Ladybug come over so Tikki could do the exploring this time. Even with the extra cheese that he got, all of this research nonsense was starting to get a little old.

He zoned out again as Fu started discussing potential new powers and how Adrien and Ladybug might get them. He had made some good progress with the decoding and translation of the relevant pages in the book, apparently, but wanted to be certain that he was understanding things correctly before teaching them to the superheroes.

Plagg really didn't care. He didn't summon the powers, just supplied them. Adrien would have to do the work of remembering whatever it was that Fu said. Once the cheese was gone, Plagg rolled over and took a nap in the beam of sun that was hitting the table. He woke up when he was rudely tossed in Adrien's bag when he was packing up to go home.

"That was interesting," Adrien said as he hurried through the darkening streets. "New powers! Even if Master Fu did say they would probably be hard to master this early on and that we should try not to use them."

Plagg blinked and yawned. "Why not?"

"Because we want to be able to surprise fath- I mean, Hawkmoth," Adrien corrected himself. "Once we actually face him, I mean. If he knows all of our attacks already, then he can think of ways to counter them. If we have attacks he doesn't know about, then then he can't do that. So I guess we can do new stuff if no one is looking, but that doesn't exactly happen super-often."

Plagg shrugged, uninterested. All of this strategy talk bored him. He just needed to know what he had to do to keep his Chosen safe, and a nice nap. And cheese.

(He always needed cheese. That was a given.)

Plagg was Not Having Fun.

"I'm already getting tired," Plagg complained as he phased back through the walls of the lair to mess up another couple missiles. He had already made the gunpowder in over a dozen of the weapons expire completely just that morning, and while it had been fun at first to watch the energy give out and dissipate as the powder unnaturally aged, it had gotten old.

Really old, really fast.

"You wouldn't have this much to do if you hadn't taken two evenings off," Tikki chided. She and Wayzz had been circling around the lair all morning, keeping track of Plagg's progress so he wouldn't miss anything and leave active missiles in the lair. "And it's not meant to be exciting. This is a job."

Plagg scowled- he had taken one night off because Adrien had transformed unnecessarily to go visit some classmate that wasn't Ladybug, and the other night off because of an akuma attack late in the evening- and zipped towards the wall cavity that Wayzz was waiting by. He phased through and went to the first missile. The gunpowder crumpled into no more than black dust under his paws. If Hawkmoth tried setting them off, they would just let out a cloud of black smoke and slide forward off of the launching rig to fall unimpressively to the floor in a grand display of ineptitude.

Plagg decided to amuse himself by imagining the look on Hawkmoth's face if he ever did try to shoot off the missiles. There would be wide eyes, there would be cursing, there would be foot-stomping, and there would probably be panic as the superheroes pounced on him and took his Miraculous.

"Hawkmoth is still struggling to figure out what is wrong," Wayzz reported after Plagg emerged from the wall, leaving three more thoroughly expired missiles in his wake. "Apparently he did decide to try to fix it himself, like you thought, and he's gotten little bits and pieces all over the floor." Wayzz held up a small spring. "I may have, ah, borrowed a piece."

Plagg sniggered. Ah, Mr. Agreste's reaction once he figured out that he had "lost" a piece would be a sight to see. Unfortunately, he was stuck up in the lair all day until he got every last missile destroyed. Maybe he would have to break another button some other day so he could see the results for himself. He could pull that stunt on a weekend sometime so he could sit and listen and laugh at Mr. Agreste as he struggled to fix it all day.

The cheese stash that Ladybug (Plagg was pretty certain that he had heard her name before- after all, she was Adrien's classmate and friend- but he really couldn't remember what it was, and he wasn't about to admit that by asking Tikki) and Adrien had put together was the one bright spot in Plagg's day. Ladybug had bought a variety cheese pack sort of thing that had all of Plagg's favorite cheeses, and then several cheese bread buns. Adrien had added a round of Brie and another of Camembert, all sliced into chunks. It was 100% Plagg's dream, and if only he hadn't had to work, then Plagg would be in heaven.

Unfortunately, Plagg was also 100% certain that he would never get a cheese basket like this again unless someone was trying to bribe him to do something or he was getting forced to work again.

"I'm only doing this for the cheese," Plagg grumbled to Tikki as he headed inside for the last time. He was starting to feel a little light-headed from the number of times he had had to recharge. "Otherwise, no way."

Tikki giggled at him. "You know full well that you're doing this to protect Adrien. You can't fool me. The cheese is just a bonus."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Plagg sniffed. "I am a creature motivated by cheese and cheese alone. Protecting my Chosen is just a bonus. Besides, who would get me my cheese if he got hurt?"

Tikki sighed.

"I mean, I guess that the kid has grown on me just a bit," Plagg added with his most exasperated sigh. "And I would be a bit upset if he got hurt."

Tikki clearly wasn't fooled one bit.

"Adrien is about to leave," Wayzz reported, popping up into the lair again. "His lunch break is nearly over. Are you almost finished?"

"The cheese is finished," Tikki reported with a giggle. "And Plagg only has two more missiles to go."

"I'm going to be running on empty as soon as I'm done," Plagg whined. "And then I'll have to waste away for the whole afternoon until Adrien gets back after fencing."

"Not if you hurry up and catch Adrien before he goes back to school," Wayzz called through the walls as Plagg made the last dregs of gunpowder crumble into harmless dust. "I know he has cheese on him, and he could probably spare a few minutes to grab some more before going back to school."

"Why would I want to go to school?" Plagg demanded as he wobbled back out into the lair to join them. He was feeling a little fuzzy-headed now after so many recharges. "I have to listen to that blond brat yammer on and threaten to call her dad all day when things don't go her way. I just want to have some cheese and sleep."

"He's not talking about Adrien, is he?" Wayzz hissed to Tikki. The turtle kwami was frowning. "Adrien isn't a brat."

"He's talking about the Mayor's daughter," Tikki explained with a giggle as she guided- well, pulled- Plagg towards the covered window of the lair. "She's a bit of a character. And they have exams practically all day at school, so it should be quiet. And Plagg, you know that you'll recover faster if you're close to Adrien."

Plagg tried to say something, but it came out as slurred mumbles.

"Yeah, he's exhausted," Tikki said with a sigh. "Wayzz, can you help me get him down to Adrien so he can sleep it off?"

"Certainly."

A/N: Next to be updated will be the outtakes (ft. "the trip to see a classmate that wasn't Ladybug").

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