Chapter Six: Hot Pursuit
Being Akumatized had nothing on actually using a Miraculous, Gabriel thought. Although becoming Bisector had been exhilarating, as Hawkmoth, all of his human limits were gone. Everything that had held him back, physically, emotionally, and mentally, fell to the wayside as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop. In hindsight, it made sense how his inhibitions had gradually waned, as he had let this kind of power go to his head. At least now, he could use it for a proper cause.
"So, where exactly are these other Ripplers?" asked Bunnyx, traveling alongside him. "You can see them, can't you?"
Gabriel had only learned minutes ago that he was somehow privy to the movements of the Ripplers as Hawkmoth, meaning the specifics of it were still a mystery. But he had seen them heading towards the hotel, so that's where he was headed. "If we move quickly, we should be able to cut them off," he said. He kept on running, focused solely on stopping them before they reached Adrien.
Bunnyx grinned slightly as they went on. "You realize I could just warp us straight there, right?" she said.
"And risk missing them? We can't take that chance." Gabriel kept his eyes forward, scouring the cityscape for any sign of the Ripplers ahead. "We've seen what they can do to an unpowered individual. If they reach their target…"
"Are you forgetting that Adrien isn't exactly unpowered?" asked Bunnyx, almost amused. Gabriel winced–while he hadn't forgotten, he was deliberately avoiding thinking about his son being Cat Noir. "Besides, we don't know for sure they're after Adrien. You could be getting worked up over nothing."
Hawkmoth growled, almost stopping where he was to make his point. "Even the potential of Adrien being in danger is not 'nothing!' The way you talk, I wonder if you even really are his friend!" He kept on going, hoping to leave her behind, but with her portals, she always caught back up.
"Gabriel Agreste is lecturing me about not caring about somebody? Now I really have seen everything!" Despite prodding him, Bunnyx was on lookout as well, her eyes peeled for any signs of the Ripplers. She was more used to them finding her, not the other way around, so she was in uncharted waters. It would seem she had to defer to Gabriel on this one.
It was only a few more blocks before he spotted their targets. "There!" he announced, zeroing in on the Rippler like a hawk with its prey. Hawkmoth wasted no time in going after it, launching himself down to ground level as the Ripplers leapt between the buildings. There were five or so of them, and none stopped as he got closer. With a mighty lunge, Hawkmoth held out his sword and pierced it through the closest one, pinning it to a building. Defeated, it dissolved.
Bunnyx hopped through a portal to intercept the Ripplers. "Surprise!" She batted the leader aside with her umbrella, and the procession split into half. Two of the Ripplers headed left, while their companions went right. "Ah. Great. Nothing can ever be easy here, can it? I'll go left, you go right!" She chased after one half of their foes, leaving the other half to Gabriel.
"Excellent," he muttered. He gave chase, with the Ripplers moving faster than he would have thought. They swung through the city like monkeys through the jungle, their arms extending to reach the higher handholds. Gabriel realized that they realized he was on their tail, as they frequently turned back to check his proximity. Initially, he thought they were afraid, but as these looks became more casual, he realized they were taunting him.
Despite the beings seeming to want to get a rise out of him, Gabriel didn't care. He sped after them with all his speed, intent on stopping them from reaching Adrien. In his haste, he didn't notice that they were traveling further away from the hotel. So intent was he, he may not have stopped chasing them even if he had noticed.
One of the Ripplers misjudged its positioning, ending up landing on the side of the building it leapt right into. As it began to climb to the top, Hawkmoth saw an opportunity. Sword out, he lunged, aiming to destroy it just as he had the one before. Before he could pierce his target, something collided with him from the side; the first Rippler had been a distraction. The other had tackled Gabriel, the two of them crashing into a building and tumbling to the ground. People nearby scattered as the pair of combatants got back up.
Hawkmoth swung his sword, but the Rippler nimbly dodged every slash. "Stand and fight!" he hissed, slicing through a streetlight in his rage. It toppled over, sending more people running. Now that he was surrounded by frightened pedestrians, Hawkmoth could feel their emotions spilling out…negative emotions.
The other Rippler landed on the street behind him, attempting to tag-team him with the first. They circled like wolves, waiting for the right moment to attack. Feeling the fear around him, Gabriel struck.
"Fly, my Akuma!" A darkened moth flew out of his cane, fluttering over towards one of the terrified herd. The pedestrian was too focused on the Ripplers to notice it coming towards an item they held… Gabriel would soon have an ally in his fight.
Before the Akuma could reach its target, a portal opened up, blocking its path with an umbrella. "What exactly do you think you're doing!?" Bunnyx demanded angrily.
Hawkmoth approached her, ignoring the two larger threats in his rage. "Do you intend to face them alone!? What was the point of giving me this Miraculous if you do not allow me to use it!?"
"Do you really need to brainwash helpless pedestrians just to help you take on two measly Ripplers?" replied Bunnyx. "Maybe if you used that Miraculous how it was meant to be used, we wouldn't be having this problem!"
How it was meant to be used…what exactly did she mean by that? Gabriel had little time to wonder, however, as one of the Ripplers leapt onto his shoulders. Before he could tear it off, the other went for his legs, taking him to the ground. He dropped his cane as well, left with no weapon as they repeatedly slammed their arms into him.
Bunnyx sighed as she shook her head. "What would you do without me, Gabe?" She darted forward, batting one of them aside with her umbrella. The other one leapt back, crouched low in a fighting stance. Bunnyx held her weapon, waiting for an opening. "You all good down there?"
"I didn't need your help!" Hawkmoth said irritably, standing up. He grabbed hold of his cane once more, standing back-to-back with Bunnyx as the Ripplers circled them.
"That so? 'Cause it sure looked to me like these guys outsmarted out," she shot back, not bothering to hide a smirk.
Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Perhaps if my Akuma had landed, things would have gone differently."
In lieu of responding, Bunnyx charged at one of the Ripplers. It anticipated her move, dodging to the side. What it didn't anticipate, however, was her opening a portal in front of it, sending it right to her. With one swing of her umbrella, she sent it sprawling into a nearby building, where it burst from the impact. Two down, three to go.
Meanwhile, Gabriel had gone after the other, with it once more dodging his strikes. As nimble as it was, he would have to try something else–perhaps a feint. He went in for an incredibly-telegraphed overhead slash, which it obviously avoided. But now that he had it in the direction he wanted, he struck out with the sword's sheath, knocking it off-balance. Before it could recover, he sliced it in two, reducing the number of threats to just as many.
Now that they had a moment to breathe, the two of them did so. "Alright, nice going," said Bunnyx. "Now we just need to take care of those other two."
Gabriel stopped in his tracks, slowly turning around. "You mean you neglected to deal with them already? You just left them to hunt down Adrien!? Why would you come back here while they were still a threat!?"
"I came back for you, ungrateful!" Bunnyx said. "Sheesh, last time I help you out." She opened a portal directly to the hotel. "Now, you wanna keep whining, or you wanna do something about them?"
Without anything but a glare, Gabriel walked past her through the portal. Bunnyx signed, following. The two of them now stood on the building's roof, looking out for the approaching Ripplers. They shouldn't have been too hard to spot, but they had proven themselves to be craftier than they appeared.
"Now that they know we're onto them, they could come from any direction," Hawkmoth growled. "Perhaps a third pair of eyes would be helpful now…" He glared at Bunnyx again upon saying so.
She groaned in irritation. "Look, you want to be a good guy, right? Well, that means no more evilizing! Maybe if you goodify someone for once, I'll allow it, but something tells me you've never bothered to try that."
Goodify? It was true that Akumas didn't naturally occur in their evil-infused form. The Hawkmoth from the previous dimension had even Akumatized him without directly controlling him. That must be the butterfly Miraculous' power when it isn't corrupted by darkness. But ever since he had first found it all those years ago, that was the only way he knew how to use it. "What does one person matter, when the entire universe is at stake?"
Bunnyx didn't answer for a moment. "And what if that person was Adrien? Or you? Or Nathalie? Or your wife? What then?" she said eventually. Gabriel was the one who didn't answer this. "That's what I thought. Maybe you're just not cut out to be a good guy."
They were interrupted by the shattering of a window from the other side of the building. Both instantly knew it was the Ripplers. They made their way over, finding the broken window and leaping inside, just narrowly missing them as they raced down the halls. The two gave chase.
The Ripplers tore through the walls of the hotel, sending panicked guests back into their rooms and crouching by locked doors. "Since you're not the good guy, I'll worry about saving people, you just take those things out," Bunnyx said. She opened another portal, putting Hawkmoth in the Ripplers' path. He swung his sword, catching one of them unawares–though the strike didn't kill it, with both of them rushing past him.
Hawkmoth raced after them, noting that they largely ignored the people they passed. This only reinforced the idea that they were after Adrien specifically, leading to him redouble his efforts. He resisted the urge to throw his sword, reasoning that Alix would not be happy with him if he injured a civilian.
One of the Ripplers burst through a door to the stairway, it and the other making their way down. Hawkmoth leapt down the center rather than follow them directly, grabbing onto the railing once he was close. He launched himself at the injured one, nicking it again with his blade. Seemingly realizing it was outmatched, it stretched out its arms and wrapped them around Gabriel, while the other made its getaway.
"Release me!" Gabriel bellowed, before using his Miraculous-enhanced strength to tear free of its grip, splattering its limbs in the process. The now-armless Rippler staggered back, giving him the perfect opportunity to strike it down. He then followed the final one towards the lobby.
Panic had spread as the Rippler raced around the room, causing the people inside to run for cover. If it had any goal in mind, it wasn't obvious, as all it was doing was running around, leaping from place to place and chasing people for a moment at a time before switching targets. Unless causing pandemonium was its goal…
One lone Rippler shouldn't be that much of a problem. Hawkmoth charged, readying his sword to deal the final blow. The creature saw his approach, leaping onto the ceiling to evade him. "Oh. This is…unexpected." It crawled along like a spider, leaping back down onto a nearby couch, where it stared, as though daring him to attack. He did, throwing his sword its way.
It leapt aside, the blade embedding itself in the wall. Now that its enemy was deprived of his weapon, the Rippler leapt at him, slamming down with both its arms. Gabriel was able to block the strike, which was stronger than he was expecting, before attempting to impale it with his sheath. Although it passed right through the being, it was otherwise unharmed, reaching for his neck. He realized just in time that it was attempting to remove his Miraculous, covering it before it could.
With a kick, Gabriel sent it sprawling to the floor, rushing towards his blade. The Rippler latched onto his ankle before he could reach it, pulling him back towards itself. His sheath was still embedded in its form: Gabriel grabbed it before it could attack, tearing it out of its body with enough force to nearly split it in half. But the Rippler was not yet defeated, only staggering back.
"Hawky, catch!" Bunnyx emerged through a portal near his sword, tossing it his way. Gabriel caught the weapon, slicing through the Rippler as it was about to land on him again, finally dispatching it. Its body dissolved, finally freeing this dimension from their presence.
Hawkmoth sheathed his sword, only now noticing that all the people in the lobby had been tensely watching their battle. Now that it was safe to do so, many slowly emerged from their hiding places, watching him with a mixture of apprehension and confusion. Seeing as Hawkmoth hadn't been seen for some time, and had still been a feared villain then, their reactions were understandable.
Bunnyx approached. "That's all of 'em, right? You can't sense any more?"
Gabriel tried, but he could no longer feel their presence. "For now," he replied. "But that still leaves us with the question of why they were after Adrien in the first place."
"We don't even know they were after Adrien," she replied. "It could just be a coincidence that he was here. Though I agree with you on one thing: we need to find out what these things are, and what they want. C'mon, let's get started." She opened a portal back to her burrow, stepping inside and waiting for him to follow.
Giving one last look to the people, Gabriel figured there was no point in lingering. He was about to step through when he heard the sound of a familiar soft landing. Nobody else would have heard it, but he was familiar with the one doing the landing. He turned to see Cat Noir–who he now knew as Adrien–waiting among the chaos, prepared to fight if need-be. "Adrien…?" he said softly.
Cat Noir was taken aback. "W-what did you say?" he said, just as quietly.
"Get in here, we're burning daylight!" said Bunnyx, yanking Hawkmoth through the portal. "Excuse us!"
Still quite confused, Cat Noir raced over, but the portal closed before he could reach it. He was left standing in the middle of the room, with more questions than he could hope to answer. "How did you know…?"
"Look, I know he's your son and all, but he's not your son," said Bunnyx, followed closely by Hawkmoth. "You'll have plenty of time with your version of Adrien once we fix reality. Actually, probably not, since you're technically dead. I wonder how that's going to work once we fix things?"
Gabriel wasn't much interested in her ponderings. "Dark wings fall," he murmured, his costume disappearing, with Nooroo appearing by his side. "Do you happen to have any ideas on how to do that, or do you intend to pass all your work onto me?"
"Counterclockwise." Bunnyx was replaced by Alix, joined by Fluff. "Hey, I helped plenty! You'd still be wandering around the timeless ruins of Paris by now if I hadn't shown up! And as a matter of fact, I do have a plan: now that we know you can sense Ripplers, all we need to do is have you sense where they originate. Then we go from there."
Of all people, Nooroo responded. "But we don't know who or what is making them. If they or it can transcend timelines, could we really stop it on our own?"
All three of them stared. "Wait, you…know what Ripplers are?" asked Alix.
"I could feel their energy while Gabriel fought them," he replied. "I've never felt anything like it before. It was like an Akuma…and yet not. Like a force mimicking an Akuma, or moving beyond one. I cannot begin to fathom how beings so horrible are created…" He shrank inward, looking shaken by what he had felt.
There was a small pause as everyone digested these statements. "Okay…well, this doesn't change much," Alix said. "For now, let's just focus on learning all we can about these things before rushing in. We'll pick up some reinforcements if we need to, but until then, I think it's high time you learned how to use your Miraculous the right way."
"You mentioned that before," Gabriel said. "For so long I've used the butterfly Miraculous to corrupt people by force, I had forgotten it was originally a tool for good." He removed the brooch, looking down at the small jewel. "Is such a small change truly so difficult?"
"Using a Miraculous is not so much learned as it is felt," Nooroo said. "If you are anything like my Gabriel, you used the power of transmission for evil. As such, it was powered by the evil in your heart. In order to use this power for good, your heart must contain good."
"So basically, this might take a while," said Alix. Gabriel shot her a glare. "Ah, don't worry! A few lessons in empathy here and there, and you'll be the goodest of the good! To a point. Not much we can do about that whole 'control freak' aspect, after all."
"I'm beginning to wish you hadn't rescued me after all," Gabriel muttered. "No matter. To save Adrien, I'll do what I must. Dark wings rise!" Nooroo was pulled into the brooch, and Gabriel became Hawkmoth once more. "Now, tell me what I must do to use this power at its full potential!"
Fluff and Alix looked at each other. "I think you're right: this is probably gonna take a long time," said the Kwami.
Three figures walked around the hotel lobby, assessing the damages. Just as with past Rippler attacks, there were no physical traces left, but the temporal radiation left behind was like nothing they had ever seen before. Alix spoke into a communicator on her wrist. "We've assessed the scene, Director. Nothing to tie the rogue Bunnyx to the event, but eyewitnesses clearly saw her and Gabriel battling a pair of Ripplers."
"Good. Collect as much data as you can, you three," said Director Bunnyx. "We need to isolate her signature and track them down before they mess up the multiverse even more. Call in when you have anything else."
"Alix, over here!" One of the figures called her over. She joined her, standing beside a frozen Ladybug and Cat Noir. In fact, aside from the three of them, everyone in the lobby was frozen. The entire timeline had been paused.
"What have you found, Sabrina?" said Alix.
Rather than her traditional glasses, this version of Sabrina Raincomprix wore a pair of high-tech goggles. With them, she scanned the pair of frozen heroes. "According to this Adrien's memory, the Hawkmoth we're after knows his name." She paused, letting that statement sink in. "This isn't good. You know how most Gabriels react when they find that out."
"Then what are we waiting around here for?" came the haughty voice of the third. Chloe Bourgeois strolled over to join them. "We should be going after them now, before they make things harder for us! I think we all remember how things went with that geezer Gabriel…"
Alix shuddered knowingly. "You're right. How much longer before we can isolate his temporal rhythm?"
"We can right now, but not while he's in Bunnyx's burrow," Sabrina replied. "We have to wait for them to access another timeline. But once they do, we'll know."
"Good work. Let's get moving." All three of them reached down to a device attached to their belts. Alix's glowed a light green; Sabrina's, a sky blue; and Chloe's, yellow. "Hunters, mobilize!"
AN: Ten points if you can guess who the Hunters are! ...Aside from the obvious, I mean.