Two weeks.
That was how long the two of them had been trapped in this building, and about that long since Marinette had twisted her ankle. Fortunately, Boris, who called himself Buddy, they had eventually learned, had a safehouse that he was willing to share and had brought the four of them there. There the Parisian teens had settled in, and Adrien and the kwamis had decided that Marinette would be kept off her feet despite her protests.
Right now, everyone was inside the safehouse, trying to keep themselves entertained. Plagg was eating, while Buddy was teaching Adrien and Tikki the basics of poker. Judging by the stacks of empty bacon soup cans around her kwami's spot, it seemed that the tiny sprite had picked it up quickly.
"So, what you doing?" Plagg asked, floating over to Marinette's area.
"I'm trying to figure out what the machine does," she said, indicating the papers in front of her. "According to this, the machine is supposed to create living cartoon characters."
"Huh," said Plagg from where he was sipping from a bacon soup can. "That sounds just like Brushogun's work." He took another sip, before spraying out the soup. "Wait a minute, that's exactly like Brushogun's work!"
This got the attention of the poker players, and they looked up from their game. "Who's Brushogun?" Tikki asked.
"Isn't that a DC villain?" Adrien added.
"Well, yes, but he was also real," Plagg explained. "He was a Japanese artist from the seventeenth century, wanted to bring his drawings to life."
"Just like the movie," Adrien added, while Buddy looked on confused.
"Well, yeah, but he used blood magic and the Ladybug Miraculous to do it instead of forbidden Japan magic."
"Wait, I don't remember any of this," Tikki said, waving her tiny arms.
"Well, from what my wielder and the Butterfly wielder at the time could tell, he never actually wielded you, just harnessed your energy or something."
"So do you think that is what happened here?" Marinette asked.
"Well, not exactly," Plagg said, eyeing the walls. "Brushogun never manipulated the environment around him, just made inky minions. But I guess the differences could be caused by the different styles of the casters."
"Then how did this happen?" Adrien asked, waving his hands around. "I mean, the mystery caster didn't have the Ladybug Miraculous, so how did he do all of this?"
Tikki thought for a moment. "I suppose," she said. "If the spellcaster found a substitute that was just as powerful they could have gotten the same results…"
Buddy thumped the table and slid a piece of paper across it. On it was written, Like every single soul in a cartoon studio?
The other four stared at the piece of paper. "That makes too much sense," Adrien said, looking green.
"And that is probably why we were sucked in," Plagg said before swallowing the rest of the soup. "Eventually, some souls will break loose of the spell and move on, and the caster would have to replace the missing souls."
Silence filled the room. "How long do we have?" Marinette asked.
Plagg shrugged. "Could be days, could be months, it's really hard to tell, wait," the sprite said, floating closer to Marinette. "Are humans supposed to be that color?"
"Wait, what?" cried Marinette, pulling out her phone, thankful that the electrical sockets in the studio worked with her charger. Activating the camera, she went into selfie mode… and blanched.
Or, to be more precise, yellowed. Before, she had had fair skin, but now it looked like she had been cut from old paper, and her hair was turning to inky black instead of the almost blue she had been born with.
Looking at Adrien and one of the many photos of him on her phone, she could see the changes in him as well, although his were mostly limited to a lightening of his skin and inky lines in his hair. It was still worrying.
Plagg seemed to think so too. "We got to get you kids out of here."
Buddy placed another sheet of paper on the table. I know a way out, it read, but there may be a chance that we'll be caught.
Plagg huffed. "The kits can handle anything this place can throw at them."
"I would prefer that Marinette stay off her foot for a couple more days," Tikki began hesitantly, "but I think time is less of a luxury right now."
"Right," Marinette, said, raising herself up. "Let's go! Tikki, Spots On!"