Chapter Twelve: Laying Low
"Oh my god…" Alix said softly, gazing up at the scene above them. She had no love lost for Gabriels such as that, but what they saw was grisly. The Rippler's corrosive touch seemed to have burned straight through his chest in order to reach the Miraculous it wanted. With them in hand, it removed its arm, and this simple act caused the rest of Gabriel to dissolve into nothing.
Seeing himself die in such a way left main Gabriel understandably shaken. To say nothing of Adrien, who it seemed still held some regard for his father, as he was left frozen in place at the sight.
Marinette, oddly enough, was the one most horrified by what had transpired. "He just…that thing…and it…" Having long since turned pale, she staggered back, supporting herself against the nearest surface, which just happened to be Adrien. "Why is this happening?"
"Hey, everything is going to be fine," Adrien said, his voice soothing in spite of his own terror. "We'll get your timeline back. We just need to figure out where that thing came from."
The Rippler, still hovering in the air, held onto the twin Miraculous, which its touch caused to dissolve. Ripples of red and green spread across its black form, starting with its arms, as it appeared to absorb the Kwami within. It stared down at the four, but rather than engage, rose higher into the air before vanishing into a ripple.
"An entire universe gone, and we're no closer to reaching the culprit," Gabriel muttered. It was clear from his angry tone that he assumed things were over. But that would soon prove to not be the case. Instead of subsiding, the ripple left over by the vanishing Rippler began to grow, spreading across the entire white sky.
The anomaly grew wider and wider, before all of the sky was churning like a stormy sea. "That…isn't normal, is it?" said Adrien, staring up at the maelstrom along with the others.
"It very much isn't," said Alix, the worry clear in her voice.
And then, the entire sky split open. Like floodgates bursting apart, the very fabric of reality was ripped through, sending a deluge of dark shapes raining from above. Ripplers–millions of them. Saturating the sky above like rainclouds, the dark mass closed in on the heroes at terminal velocity.
Timekeeper pointed her umbrella upward, the canopy opening to show the two hands slowing to a stop. A bubble spread around the four, with the Ripplers who would have otherwise landed on them freezing just before they did. For what seemed like miles in every direction, other Ripplers hit the ground. Though some were destroyed on impact, the majority charged at the group, only to end up frozen as they entered Timekeeper's sphere of influence. This left them trapped in a dome of blackness, with only tiny pinpricks of light able to shine through. Even worse, Ripplers ran at them from all sides, forcing themselves up against the time-barrier, even tearing through their fellows just to get in.
Despite the terrifying situation they now found themselves in, they managed to stay calm. "Do your time powers come with a rewind option?" asked Marinette, readying her bat in preparation for the worst.
"Not while I'm…holding them back!" Alix strained, maintaining the sphere clearly taking a lot of energy and focus. Her umbrella seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, but she still held it aloft, keeping the horde at bay. "Ideas, now!"
"Forget this–if I'm going out, I'm going out swinging!" Marinette stepped to the edge of their little pocket, bashing the paused Ripplers with her bat. Each one she hit was destroyed, but each one she destroyed was replaced by another one, on and on and on. "Well? Don't just stand there, help me out!"
Adrien pulled her away from the wall of Ripplers. "I admire your persistence and…um, ferocity, but I don't think Alix can hold this for that long."
"Yup, time is of the essence!" she called.
Glancing around at their surroundings, Gabriel noticed a startling factor. "Not to alarm everyone, but it appears that this dome is shrinking." The Ripplers on the edge were beginning to move, and although it was at an almost imperceptible speed, they would no doubt be getting faster.
"What did I just say!?" she shouted, almost losing control over her power. "Adrien, can't you just make a wall or something!?"
Raising his hand, Adrien spread the energy of creation around the circle, summoning a red and black spotted wall up from the ground. However, he stumbled before the wall could close at the top, leaving a gap for the Ripplers to fall through. Marinette caught him. "What is it? Are you hurt?" she asked.
He smiled. "No, just tired. Between escaping from the Warren, fighting your Hawkmoth, and now these guys…guess I'm out of practice, huh?"
Gabriel scanned the area once again, a plan beginning to form in his mind. "Timekeeper, would you be able to open a portal beneath us before the Ripplers descend on us?"
"In this form, no," she said, still straining. "You'll have to take back your Akuma first, but…" Her eyes darted to the mass of Ripplers above them.
"We'll have to be quick on this, then," said Marinette. "On my signal, everyone do your thing–that includes you, kitty-cat." After Adrien was able to stand up by himself, she headed over to the side. "On three, ready?"
Despite his surprise at Marinette suddenly taking over the situation, Gabriel knew this was no time to raise any objections. He, along with the others, took their positions, knowing what they had to do.
"One…two…three!"
Gabriel called the Akuma back from Alix, just as Adrien unleashed a massive blast of destruction upwards. Timekeeper became Bunnyx once more, and the Ripplers above them were destroyed. But more began climbing up the wall, to say nothing of the ones burning through it.
At the same moment, Bunnyx turned around, creating a burrow at everyone's feet. All four of them fell through, just as the next wave or Ripplers was upon them. Plummeting through the air, she closed the portal behind them, but not before a number of the Ripplers made it through alongside them.
The land beneath them was red, beneath a pale orange sky. It would have been a sight to behold, were they not currently falling to what could very well be their deaths. "I'll get Marinette, you get Adrien!" called Alix. She made her way to a surprisingly calm Marinette, the two grabbing hold of each other as she opened her umbrella, arresting their fall.
Gabriel raced downwards as well, speeding towards Adrien's barely-conscious form. One arm wrapped around his body, while the other gripped his sword, driving it into the side of a building as they reached the city. Cutting through the wall, the pair slowed down before finally reaching the ground, safe and sound. "Are you alright?" he asked his son, setting him down.
"I think so," replied Adrien, leaning against the building's side. "Tikki and Plagg just need a rest. …Where are we, anyway?"
Only now did Gabriel take a good look at their surroundings. In addition to the strange alien landscape, the city surrounding them was much more advanced than he had expected. Skyscrapers taller than he had seen before, hovering vehicles traveling down the street, monorail trains speeding through tubes above. He then realized that he was being stared at by crowds of people–and by people, that meant other strange beings in addition to humans. Beings in a variety of shapes and sizes and colors, with varying amounts of limbs and eyes. Perhaps 'alien' landscape was more apt than he thought.
He only had a brief moment to examine his surroundings, as the Ripplers that were brought along with them reached the ground. A panic began spreading among the populace, spurred on by a bunch of strange creatures falling from the skies. Gabriel readied his sword, slicing through any that came close to him and Adrien.
"Well, great, guess we're playing clean-up crew too," said Alix, having landed atop one of the buildings along with Marinette. They were not alone, with a good number of Ripplers congregating up there as well. The two of them got their weapons ready as well, just as their foes charged.
Bat and umbrella cut down the Ripplers, the former with surprising ferocity. Alix hadn't thought much of Marinette's makeshift weapon, but it proved to be just as adept as her own. The fragments of Miraculous embedded in it were no doubt to blame for that. With each enemy she bashed, the shards glowed brighter. "What's that thing do?" she asked.
"This!" Marinette raised the bat over her head, bringing it down against the roof. The moment it made impact, the glowing Miraculous pieces unleashed a wave of energy that blasted back the Ripplers caught in its wake, destroying most of them. She wasted no time to bask, instead heading to the edge to search for more of them.
Down on street level, they saw Gabriel being beset by more Ripplers. "Come on, let's go save the boys," Alix said, leaping from the rooftop. Marinette followed after her with no hesitation, both of them speeding to the ground. Alix opened a portal just before the ground, sending them hurtling into the Ripplers weapons-first.
Gabriel saw them go by, but barely acknowledged them, as even more Ripplers approached. He readied himself, only for something wholly unexpected to interrupt the fight.
"Halt. Halt. Halt." The artificial voice was coming from a small fleet of flying robots approaching. Each one was the size of a beach ball, with a propeller on top and a large claw underneath. "Unauthorized Miraculous use detected. Please stop all activity and surrender peacefully."
Who were these machines to tell him what to do? Just before Gabriel could give them a piece of his mind, the Ripplers attacked the drones, their touch searing into the metal. But the robots were not defenseless, firing blasts from their claws that vaporized many of the Ripplers.
Marinette grabbed Gabriel's arm, pulling him away from the spectacle. "Now's our chance to slip away," she said. They did just that, Bunnyx helping Adrien into a nearby building. Thankfully, the few people present in the lobby were more concerned with the Ripplers, and so only gave them a passing glance. The four managed to make it into a supply closet, unseen.
"Nooroo, wings fall," said Gabriel, reverting from Hawkmoth. His Kwami appeared beside him, looking through the crack in the door with concern. "I don't suppose you have any idea what we should do now?"
"I might have an idea," Adrien said. "Tikki, Plagg, divide." The two Kwamis separated, and he too was back in his civilian form. "Does this crazy place have anything to eat? I can't remember the last time I had a real meal…"
Now that Gabriel thought about it, neither could he. "Hmm…I suppose it would be hard to fight Ripplers on an empty stomach. I vote we stay here a while to recharge."
"Just as long as someone gives me the whole story, I'm fine with that," said Marinette. "And where exactly is 'here,' anyway?"
"Paris Nouveau, 2121 AD," answered Alix. "Mars."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "We are on Mars? …I suppose that explains the sky."
"Fine by me," said Adrien. "Let's go sample some Martian cuisine."
As it turned out, Martian cuisine was a lot like French cuisine. Given that Paris Nouveau was apparently a French colony, it made sense. "Now…once we are done here, what is our next move?" asked Gabriel.
Seated at a (surprisingly contemporary) cafe underneath a sun umbrella, the four of them thankfully blended in with the populace. They got a few odd looks, likely due to their clothing being out of place, but none of the multitude of aliens really gave them much grief. The waitress, some manner of three-legged cyclops, took their orders without so much as a second glance.
"Well, unfortunately, we're back where we started," said Alix. "Your guys' vision didn't lead us anywhere, we still have no idea where the Ripplers are taking the Miraculous, and it's pretty clear that Gabriel wasn't the mastermind behind them.
"But it's not like we didn't learn anything new," Adrien replied. "We've seen firsthand what happens to a dimension the Ripplers destroy. It's like they somehow hijack the wish's power. But if they're just using it to destroy the dimension, what are they doing with the creation energy?"
"Building something?" Gabriel wondered. "But what could need multiple universes' worth of Tikki's power to build?"
Marinette had been largely silent through their recounting of events. "Maybe something that's slowly decaying," she suggested. "I mean, you've seen these Ripplers. It's clear from the way they look that they're somehow connected to the butterfly Miraculous. And the way they dissolve whatever they touch, that's the black cat's power. Maybe our potential mastermind is using both in tandem?"
"No." The other three were surprised by how forcefully Alix had spoken. "C'mon, that's not how their powers work. Akumas can't turn people into monsters like that, and Cataclysm can't be spread to other people. Not to mention, neither of them can travel to other universes. It has to be something else."
She averted her gaze, gripping tightly to her Miraculous. "Alix? Is there something you want to talk about?" asked Adrien.
"Not unless it involves finding where the Ripplers are coming from," she said. "Every minute we waste our time here is another minute they get to tear more timelines apart. Our only option is to go where someone is about to make a wish, and stop the Rippler before it can claim their Miraculous. Then, we chase it back to where it came from."
"I'm not so sure," said Marinette. "Everything adds up with their powers. There's still too many unanswered questions, but it's a better lead than just blindly throwing ourselves into another problem."
Gabriel nodded. "I agree. Alix, don't you think this warrants further investigation?"
She glared at him. "I think you're all jumping to conclusions. Look, I've seen a butterfly/black cat combo in action before, and it doesn't work like that! He isn't behind this!" She pounded her fist against the table.
There was a brief silence as everyone stared at her. Realizing what she did, she laid back in her chair, looking away.
"Perhaps there really is something you should tell us," Gabriel said. "I've noticed you haven't disclosed much of your past since we met."
"That's because there's nothing to tell," she growled.
"You keep saying that, but something's clearly bothering you," Adrien said. "Even if it turns out to be nothing, you should get it off your chest."
"And something tells me it won't be nothing," Marinette added.
Alix got to her feet, walking a short distance away. She took a deep breath, rubbed her eyes, and sat back down. "Alright. Okay. Fine. Just to get you off my back, I'll tell you exactly what happened back in my own dimension."
"I'm sorry, Director," the Bunnyx reported, "but we were too late to stop the timeline's destruction. Just like the others, it was reduced to a colorless wasteland."
Director Bunnyx stared at the multiple screens, a somber look on her face. "Another one, lost. Thank you, you're free to go." The Bunnyx walked away, similarly somber. The Director turned to the others present in the Warren's control room. "All the more reason to step up our game."
The three Hunters stood at attention. "We're the ones for the job, Director," said Chloe. "Just say the word."
"Not so fast," she said. "Right now, the one behind these Rippler attacks are our top priority. And those 'escapees' are already in hot pursuit of whoever it is. Track them, and they'll lead us right to the source."
Sabrina stepped forward. "Um, with respect, Director, but is relying on a group of dysfunctional prisoners really our best option? There have to be better ways at our disposal to locate this culprit…"
The Director grinned. "And we are running them as we speak. I like to keep my options open when a threat of this caliber appears. Trust me, we're doing everything we can to locate their origin. But in the event that those three get there before us, I want to be prepared. Just follow them for now, and don't engage unless I say so."
Other Alix smiled too, pounding her fist into her palm. "Will do, Director. They won't know what hit 'em!"
"...Assuming I give the okay first," Director Bunnyx said.
"Right. Yeah. Of course." Time-Hopper led the other Hunters away, intent on tracking down the ones who evaded them.