Went to Anime Expo so this took a little longer than I wanted. Although I don't have a set update schedule, I do try to get chapters done every other week or so.
Would you believe this started as just a Markov and Kaalki babysitting plot? It escalated way more than I intended it too... let's hope that happens more often.
"Ok, explain that again. But in a way that the rest of us can understand." Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose. She, Alix, and Mylène has been walking down the sidewalk when they witnessed a small explosion coming from a nearby window. As luck would have it, said window belonged to their friend and teammate Max.
Marinette and Mylene went the normal way to reach their pal, and Alix hopped through the now-broken window. They were worried the boy had been hurt, but when they arrived, they found him giving CPR to his robot buddy Markov (Alix was bummed that she couldn't get her phone out fast enough to snap a pic.)
Max cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses. Black patches of smoke were littered over his outfit and the tiny fire on his hair had been put out. "To put it simply, I am attempting to make Markov able to perceive the presence of kwamis. Kaalki in particular." His eyes shifted over to the floating horse, who had evaded the explosion and was soot free.
"But kwamis can be seen with technology? Is that even possible?" Mylene questioned, looking more towards Marinette than Max. "And why does he need to?" Alix followed up.
FLASHBACK TO YESTERDAY
Max adjusted the tiny hat on Kaalki's head. It was an elegant sunhat sewn by Marinette. "I'll only be out for a few hours, keep the hat on so Markov knows where you are-" he pulled up a small tablet and handed it to the kwami "-and use the typing here to talk with him. Now be good, you two!" Max closed the door of his room, racing off to attend a train safety seminar with his mother.
Kaalki and Markov turned to each other (or towards the tiny hat in Markov's case). "Soooo… would you like to engage in a game of chess?" the robot asked, unsure of how to go about this arrangement. The mini-horse sighed dramatically, taking the hat off and placing it on the tablet. "... Kaalki? Kaalki, where did you go?" Markov searched in the general area where he had last seen the hat floating, but the kwami had already escaped the room and flew off to do who knows what.
FLASHBACK OVER
"I spent two hours looking for her… TWO. HOURS." Markov emphasized with genuine frustration. That was the second longest waste of time in his existence, first place will forever go to watching 'Silence: The Musical'.
"With much trial and error-" "Probably more on the errors." Alix interrupted the boy. Marinette had to gently nudge her to be quiet, hiding a smirk at the remark. "With much trial and A FEW ERRORS! I've come to the conclusion that if a magic power source is used within a device, a kwami can be viewed electronically!"
"And the power source is…?" Marinette raised an eyebrow, not having a good feeling where this was going.
"Cheese. Magic potion cheese." The horse wielder held up a blue slice of cheese, given to him by the cat kwami. "However, the mixture is unstable and melts on the circuitry. Resulting in minor… cheese-scented explosions."
Mylene's kwami, Mullo, had been licking a scorch mark on the wall. "No wonder this carnage smelled irresistible!" She stuck out her tongue to continue, but her partner grabbed her away.
The pigtailed girl took a piece of the cheese and made a mental note to remind Plagg how hard it is for her to make the potion cheeses. "If you need a magic power source, could one of my magic charms work?" Marinette suggested. "Yes! That would work so much better! Would you mind?" Max pleaded to the team leader. Marinette exchanged a glance with Tikki, who shrugged. There wasn't any harm in this. "Sure, we'll help you get Markov fixed. What's the worst that could happen mixing technology and Miraculous?"
The rabbit kwami raised her paw "Hawkmoth could invent rings that transfer the power of a miraculous to an akuma and mass produce them as a smart device."
Most of the people in the room chuckled, "Good one, Fluff!" Mullo giggled. Fluff's partner was the only one not amused, looking horrified instead. "Did that really happen?" she whispered to her kwami. "Yep, the prime timeline. That place is a real doozy!"
OXOXOXOX
One magic charm later and the work on Markov commenced. "I am thrilled to have communications with Max's miraculous creature! There are so many historic events they could recount and provide new information unknown to the public!" The little robot buzzed happily, his face on a computer monitor as his body underwent repairs.
The girls stayed and watched Max work, watching their kwami's play and helping where they could. "And that information still can't be shared with the public. This is a secret, remember?" Max looked up from screwing a bolt to remind his A.I., who turned apologetic, "Of course, my apologies. I have not been this excited since I developed the blueprints for a human sized body!
"You made designs for a human body?" Mylene repeated.
Minimizing his face, Markov brought up a schematic on the screen. "Nothing too fancy. It would just be for me to attach my central unit to for access to arms and legs." The design had Markov's floating ball on top of a robot body that looked like it came from an anime of some kind.
"That's so cool! Max, why haven't you made this yet?" Mylene and the others crowded around the screen. "There's not much of a purpose to giving Markov limbs. He has one already. Trust me, adding in the magic is much more beneficial."
Markov pouted. "The one thing I liked when I was akumatized was getting a full body."
"Hang on-" Alix made an X shape with her arms. "Didn't you turn on Hawkmoth's defense system in his lair when you were Robustus?" "... affirmative." Markov answered. "If you can detect kwamis, can you use it to track down the butterfly and peacock ones?"
The gang froze. The implications of such a thing would be game changing. "It's a possibility." Max realized.
The mood shifted once more, from frozen awe to fiery determination. "Let's do it! Let's make a Kemal tracker!" Marinette pumped her fist in the air. "And hey-" Alix cut in "We can get Markov his body so he can help fight Mothbutt!"
"Absolutely not!" Max shot the idea down. "... that flimsy design isn't sturdy enough for fighting! He needs something bigger, stronger!" The bespectacled boy brought down a bigger blueprint from its barracks. "I've designed this ages ago. And now the time has come."
The girls and kwamis looked over the blueprints. Little Mullo raised her paw. "This is going to take a lot of materials. Where are you gonna get them?"
OXOXOXOX
Beside a river, Bob Roth inspected an enormous pile of scrap metal. "Ha ha! This is enough to finally build that illegal dam I've always wanted! I'd like to see the endangered Parisian beaver get through this!" he gloated to no one in particular.
A portal materialized directly underneath the mountain of metal, dropping all of it to the other side and closing in less than a minute. Bob blinked and rubbed his eyes, wondering what had just happened. The missing materials could wait a few more minutes, as the sound of clattering teeth alerted the man to a bigger problem. "Oh no-THE ENDANGERED PARISIAN BEAVERS HAVE FOUND ME!"
OXOXOXOX
Pegasus watched the mass quantity of metal hit the floor of the abandoned warehouse, where four superheroes and an A.I. stood prepared with an array of tools. They knew their mission and were dead-set on completing it.
Construction went smoothly, their powers made lifting the heavy materials easy for the quartet. Polymouse being able to shrink and multiply made the internal wiring a piece of cake. And Ladybug stopped by her family bakery to get them all pieces of cake. Snack breaks were important, and the kwamis loved it. In the span of seven hours, the project was complete.
The four teens looked up in awe. Their tiny companions buzzed around at the top where Markov's tiny head was located. "Markov, can you hear me!?" Kaalki shouted in the robot's face. "Affirmative! I have audio and visual on all four of you!" Markov sounded ecstatic to perceive his creator's other floating companion.
"Can you scan for other kwamis?" Marinette shouted from down below, cupping her hands to her mouth.
Markov's scanner blinked red. A whirling sound echoed through the warehouse. "... my apologies. It appears the kwami scanner is not functional."
"So much for finding those two." Alix muttered.
A notification popped up on the hero's phones. An akuma alert had just gone live. "Even if Markov can't find Hawkmoth, he can still fight him." Max grinned, eager for the first test run of his greatest creation for another of his creations yet!
OXOXOXOX
Today's akuma went by 'The Pencil Pusher', a middle-aged man in an oversized pencil costume with a lead tip on one hand and an eraser on another. Fully functional pencil sharpeners made up his boots. "Let's see how everyone else likes it when they break the only writing utensil they have!"
Any pencil he saw went straight into his sharpener boots, which sharpened them all into tiny, unusable stubs. The Parisans weren't too bothered by this. Most of them used pens, anyway.
"Stop right there, Pencil Pusher!" he heard a voice call out from the rooftops. Posing against the sun were Ladybug, Polymouse, Pegasus and Bunnix. A butterfly outline appeared over Pencil Pusher's face, he could hear the supervillain communicating with them "There's some of the heroes, if you want to keep your powers you need to bring me their miraculous!" "No problem, I can take on four teenagers!"
The sun behind the heroes was covered by an enormous shadow. The Pencil Pusher and all civilians looked up in shock as a giant robot stood with the heroes. Colored black and green like a video game system, the head was too small to be seen from below while its limbs towered over the city.
"PENCIL PUSHER, I AM ROBOGELION! THE NEWEST SUPERHERO IN PARIS!" the voice was much deeper than Markov's regular voice and was loud enough to be heard across the city. In Hawkmoth's lair, he blinked in surprise, not expecting a giant robot to show up. "That… is unexpected…" with this turn of events, he seriously doubted a pencil man could beat that thing.
Hawkmoth was right to doubt his akumatized victim. The Pencil Pusher ran in terror at the sight of a giant robot and ran faster when it shot lasers at him while stomping the ground hard enough to leave craters behind.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug swung down in front of the villain, her power gave her a long jump rope. Two heroes grabbed each end of the rope and held it out in front of the villain. Pencil Pusher tripped and broke the tip of his pencil hand, releasing the black butterfly from within. Ladybug did her whole 'De-evilize' speech and tossed the rope into the air "Miraculous Ladybug!" her power restored the damage from the fight.
"That was awesome!" "You did it!" "Way to go, buddy!" The other three heroes praised their new giant robot. "THIS EXPIERIENCE WAS INVIGORATING! THOUGH I DID NOT HAVE THE CHANCE TO TEST OUT BY MISSILE LAUNCHE-"
Unintentionally, the missile launcher activated upon Markov's mention of it. A large missile burst from his robotic nipple and soared over the city, landing somewhere in the distance with a large explosion. The stunned heroes watched in stunned silence. Polymouse leaned over towards the leader "You-you can still fix that, right?" Ladybug exhaled loudly, "Nope."