Marinette knew the back alleys of Paris like the back of her hand. Well, she used to. The back alleys of Miraculous Paris made no sense, a series of warped, inconsistently proportioned walls that curved into nonsensical sharp turns and dead ends.
It starts with a simple run of concrete through a fence, then they found themselves on a downward slope that stretched for minutes on end and turned into a spiral. The walls themselves were inconsistently placed, as if haphazardly thrown in, with windows that ranged from tiny cubby holes to towering church planes. Doorways and stairs didn't connect to the paths, some hung a few meters off the ground while others were halfway sunken in.
It felt like running through a world reflected through a funhouse mirror.
"Through here!" Juleka, the only thing that made sense in this place, called out, ushering the two through an alleyway that grew tighter and tighter the further they got.
The end of the alley was a tight fit, barely more than the length of Marinette's arm. After the smaller girls were through, they had to turn around and yank Gabriel to their side, which would have been hilarious if Marinette didn't already feel her bones groaning at her.
A groaning that only increased when Marinette turned around to find that they'd been spat out into a courtyard-sized area still styled as an alleyway, with bins that were bigger than Marinette's entire body, and a lamppost so titanic in the centre that Marinette briefly had to wonder if they'd shrunk.
Juleka was already taking off, unphased by the warped perspective, forcing Marinette and Gabriel to scramble after her. For Marinette, this was quite the task, the prolonged running wearing on her lungs and her muscles, while the shoddy state of her shoes wore down on her feet. Making every harsh step feel like her skin was being shredded by the hot, rough concrete.
Gabriel, on the other hand, was doing frustratingly well. He was keeping up with Juleka in long strides without missing a step, nor with a hint of discomfort, bounding with the energy of a man far younger and far more active than him.
"Keep up now, Bug." He called to her over his shoulder, "One would think you've never had to run from the authorities before."
"You were… You were…" Marinette huffed, fighting the burning sensation in her lungs. "You were keeling over from rushing through your front door earlier, how the hell are you doing so well?"
"I have no idea!" He admitted honestly, ending his declaration with an uncharacteristic howl of laughter.
"My body suddenly feels so spry and energetic." To make his point, he hung back to make exaggerated kicks with his legs. "It's like I'm ten years younger."
Marinette frowned, "And I apparently feel ten years older." She wasn't a health nut, and she knew that her activities as Ladybug didn't transfer to her non-transformed state, but it wasn't like she was a slob or anything.
"I must have just needed some warmups to shake off the rust." Gabriel shrugged, "You're probably still suffering from your captivity. God knows what effects that crystal cage might have left behind."
Marinette knew for sure that he was getting some sort of adrenaline high, because there was no way Hawkmoth just passed up an opportunity to rub her failures in her face.
Before she could take the opportunity to question him about it, she caught a glimpse of their senti-pursuers dashing across the warped rooftops. The bright colours of their armour had the dazzling advantage of making them shine in the dark of the night.
She pushed on ahead, calling out to Juleka and sticking her thumb skyward. "Heads up: Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumb are going high."
Gabriel muttered a curse under his breath as he followed her directions. "Is there anything we should know about Mad Moth's attack dogs?"
"Enhanced, obviously." Juleka answered with a grimace, the two knights easily making up for any distance the trio tried to put between them. "Really durable. Really flexible."
Without even looking for details, Marinette knew it was 96 who launched himself from the rooftop in a deadly dive, his speed propelling him like a bullet. His arm had regrown just fine, now moulded into a polearm perfect for turning all three of them into shish kababs.
Marinette stabbed her heel into the ground, throwing herself into Juleka to shove the girl out of the way. Just in time, her own body hit the deck with a wet plop as 96 shot past her, shattering the pavement into tiny chunks upon impact. However, his landing was nothing if not flexible, easily stopping himself from falling over and using the base of his spear to pivot around and face her again.
There was no time to think, no room to breathe – only react. 96 lunged forward with worrying speed to deliver several piercing strikes, forcing Marinette on the backfoot as she awkwardly tumbled out of the way, sitting unsteadily on her heels. 95 had joined the frey behind her, crashing through the pavement and creating a small crater that quickly ensnared Gabriel.
"Stay still and let me impale you on my spear of peace!" 96 yelled, blindly stabbing at her general shape with endless vigour.
Marinette had never fought a sentimonster long enough to consider their stamina, but facing one's relentless assault with no offensive moves available without her miraculous, she suddenly had to ask herself if sentimonsters got tired. Because outlasting him would have been her most optimistic strategy here.
She couldn't afford the time to risk testing that theory, not with every swing getting closer to the mark. She needed a way to get him stumbling, create enough time to retreat; Juleka was leading them somewhere she was confident that they'd be safe, they just had to have the slack to reach it.
With no lucky charm to guide her, Marinette set out to desperately scan the area for anything she could use for a foothold. Her answer came to her in a moment of mercy, where 96 overplayed his thrust and threw himself over Marinette's shoulder, ending with his sword hand getting stuck deeper into the ground behind her – a prison that even his super strength struggled to break free of.
Knowing that she needed every second to spare that she could get, she rushed past 96, making her way to the back end of the largest building she could see. It was a towering structure that leaned forward, as if it were peering down at the odd scene below through its tiny, window-shaped eyes. A door hung off the ground, the top end very wide and the bottom very thin, with a long, misshapen doorknob in the centre. Just what she needed.
Her ears perked up at the sound of breaking stone followed by 96's hurried steps advancing upon her. She couldn't afford to look back and check that 96 was in position, she just had to hope luck was on her side. Planting her heel against the building's foundations, she kicked off it and launched herself high enough to grab hold of the doorknob.
She kicked against the building again, propelling her body up while tucking her knees up to her chest to provide maximum momentum, swinging herself up like a pendulum. A split-second later, 96 came barrelling through the very spot she had just been inhabiting. His sword arm, along with his shoulder and half of his head, immediately found themselves lodged deep into the building.
The sheer force of the impact caused a knock-on effect, the shockwave traveling from the point of impact and spreading across the base of the building in vein-like cracks. Marinette wasted no time, already hearing the tell-tale creaking that told her where this was going. Gravity pulled her back down, but in the middle of her falling arch her tucked in feet met with 96's back, prompting her to extend her legs and use 96 as a springboard to perform a backwards flip.
She, in her own opinion, nailed the landing just as the back section of the building started to crumble. Thick sizable chunks of stone and plumping came crashing down on 96's head. If that couldn't slow him down, nothing would.
"I've got you, Brother!"
Marinette's triumph was ruined by the reminder that there was more to worry about. Her head snapped up to see 95 charging towards her, his hands having been transformed into hammers, making him a one-man wrecking crew.
95 let out a mighty roar, leaping into the air, throwing himself just above Marinette before diving down with his hammer hands held in front of him. This was gonna hurt.
Well, it would have if it hit. Instead, Marinette spotted Gabriel rushing over, but instead of heading to her, he took a sharp turn and made a b-line to a rubbish bin that was double his size. Positioning himself behind the bin, he braced himself against the wall and kicked at the base of the bin.
Just in time, the rubbish bin tipped over and, placed a slope, fell into a relentless tumble. As luck would have it, the bin's path crossed right into 95's at the crucial moment, catching his hammers with only a dent to show for it. To make matters even better, 95 fell far enough forward that he'd accidentally put himself in a precarious handstand atop the rolling bin, forcing him to desperately flail trying to keep his balance on the runaway bin
"Ah! Brother, help!" He shrieked as he was carried away to the other side of the courtyard. "How do I get off this crazy thing!?"
Gabriel and Marinette were still laughing about it as they returned to Juleka, hurrying into the next set of alleys.
"Ha!" Gabriel cried out, turning to run backwards so he could yell back down the alley. "You messed with the wrong god damn meatbags, didn't yah!"
"That's right," Marinette joined in, pumping up her fist. "Why don't you just go crying home to mommy moth?"
Completely unconsciously, Gabriel held up his own fist with an uncharacteristically wide grin. And in another unconscious move, Marinette bumped it with her fist.
"That was a go-"
Suddenly, the two froze, staring down at their scandalous, touching fists in abject horror. Immediately, the two sprang away from one another as if burned, stuffing their traitorous hands in their pockets.
"Urk." Gabriel hissed.
"Eek." Marinette squealed, just about ready to vomit right then and there. "Y-You made it weird."
Gabriel scoffed, but refused to meet her eye, instead swivelling his head in the opposite direction. "What?! You made it weird."
Marinette jumped to point a finger, from the 'unsullied' hand, at him accusingly. "You put your hand out first!"
"How dare you." He crossed his arms, a revolting shiver rushing down his back. "I would never consider touching those- Those… Maligned! Uh… Malignant growths you call fingers."
Their brewing confrontation was headed off at the pass by Juleka, who was more than done with hearing it, sharply yanking on their arms to urge them along faster. The trio made a few more sharp turns, with the cover of darkness hopefully clearing away any potential trail that the sentiknights could follow from either the ground or the rooftops.
Gabriel glanced back over his shoulder uncertainly, peering through the darkness for any hint of light. "That was a little too close for comfort." He muttered.
Juleka, who was intently muttering directions under her breath, paused to add on, "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that their arms are basically an entire shapeshifting toolkit. Sorry."
Marinette shrugged, "It's not like that wasn't already obvious."
A few minutes later, the trio came to a dead end marked by shattered stone where the purple muck bubbled up to the surface. Before Marinette could question if they took a wrong turn, Juleka guided them over to the rubbish bins stuffed into the corner of the little square space. Silently, Juleka opened the lid of the bin in front of her and started slotting herself inside it.
Gabriel grumbled about getting inside another bin, but heavy metal footsteps were already breaking through the quiet atmosphere, so he swallowed his comments and jumped inside his new shelter. Fortunately, the warped proportions of the bins ensured that even someone of Gabriel's height could fit inside without too much compression. Juleka's had looked empty, but Marinette could swear she heard Gabriel's foot squish something as he slid in, followed by Gabriel's disgusted groan.
Marinette quickly clambered into her own, the size in contrast to her own making it feel like a mini fort. Unfortunately, it wasn't empty, forcing her to crouch down and tiptoe around a collection of glass bottles leaking an unknown liquid into the soles of her shoes.
With her hiding place secured, Marinette dared to lift her lid slightly, letting light trickle in through a gap the size of her pupil as she peered out into the alley way. Seconds later, 95 and 96 came stumbling through the alley, 95 going with such forward momentum that he ended up colliding head-on with the wall.
96 hung back, slamming his fist into the nearest wall with a growl. "Blast it all, where did they go?"
95 didn't have much luck removing his now stuck head from the wall, instead just tapping his fingers against it as if to check that it was well and truly there. "I thought this was a dead end…" His muffled voice murmured.
Without the back of his head available, 96 instead slapped him on the shoulder. "It is a dead end, Dummy."
In a slow and awkward motion, 95 drew his arms under him, trying to cross them to mimic a thinking pose. "Then how'd they get away?"
Marinette briefly considered the effectiveness of her hiding spot when it was literally the only place anyone could hide.
"Obviously… They went through the walls."
But then she quickly reminded herself that they weren't exactly hiding from Paris' finest minds here.
95 gasped, "Wow, these humans sure are crafty."
"But not crafty enough for my brains!" 96 bragged, his hand jolting upwards to drill his forefinger into his forehead. "As everyone knows, criminals always return to the scene of the crime. So, the humans are probably heading back to the boat! They're too dumb to go anywhere else."
"I'd never think of that, 96." Said 95, "You're so smart!"
"Pfft, I already knew that." 96 scoffed as he strode over to 95 flailing body. He crouched down and took hold of 95's hips while planting on foot against the wall, all before pushing off the wall and violently pulling on his brother's submerged form with all his might.
It took a good few yanks, but eventually the stone wall caved to 96's strength and broke apart, allowing 95 to be ripped out and dropped on his ass in the mud. 95 tried to wipe the muck off his legs as he got up, but after a few smacks it was clear that his hands weren't going to do much other than smear it.
96 ushered him along, pointing dramatically at the sky. "Now let's be quick, if mother finds out we let the Ladybug and her weird grandpa slip through our fingers, she'll recycle us for sure."
When the dynamic duo had disappeared from view, Juleka and Gabriel emerged from their hide-holes with Marinette in tow. And to Marinette's credit, she resisted the urge to laugh out loud when she saw Gabriel, scowling like a wet, perturbed cat, with his trousers drenched in stains better not named.
"Lucky for us, they're also kind of dumb." Juleka commented with a relieved sigh, "We should be safe for now."
Gabriel grumbled, looking up at the dead end and the back down the alley. "I dunno, I'd feel a lot safer finding a better hole to hide in."
Juleka groaned, "Where did you think we were running to?"
Once more, she urged them back down the path, slowly making their way through the maze of hallways with the bonus of being able to breathe easier. "Come on, it should just be up ahead. The others will want to speak to you."
She paused, narrowing her eyes to look between Gabriel and Marinette. "Both of you." She emphasized.
With that, Juleka turned back around, falling into a comfortable silence as she focused on finding the way forward.
Gabriel hung back a little, keeping lock step with Marinette. It was odd to think that, by all accounts, she was the one he was probably the most comfortable with in this strange new world. "Did you get any information out of her?"
Marinette rolled her eyes, "You could ask her yourself."
"Oh yes, I'm sure she's dying to dish out gossip with me." He scoffed, "Did she say anything about Adrien?"
She shrugged, "I didn't get time to ask, that akuma interrupted."
Gabriel made a non-committal noise. His distain for being in the dark shining through his sneer. "And any light on what caused our current situation?"
"There was a big battle around the Tsugi company's headquarters." Marinette leaned her head back, staring into the akumatized sky, trying to imagine how it would normally look. "I can't say for sure, but it sounded like Chrysalis made a wish."
"So, your partner failed to protect his ring." Gabriel concluded, not in a mocking way, but just in a frustrated, teeth grinding acceptance. Maybe he too had faith, or at the very least hope, that Chat Noir would be their lifeline.
He didn't seem to dwell on it, stoking his chin as he asked. "What could Miss Rossi have wished for that would cause all this?"
Marinette stroked her chin thoughtfully, "Maybe she didn't think through how she worded her wish. Always trips people up in the movies."
Gabriel offered no rebuttal or agreement, he just silently narrowed his eyes, private thoughts and theories flickering through his eyes as he stared into space.
A curious look overtook Marinette. Could you screw up the wording? Was Gimmi a mischievous wish granter like the movie genies? She didn't know how the miraculous wish worked, just that when granted it pulled the universe apart to make room for whatever change it had decided on. And that, as far as she could tell, it paused time while the user is making the wish.
"What did you wish for?" She asked, rolling her wrist in a silent gesture. "You know, back then."
A heavy weight pressed down on Gabriel's brow, his voice quiet and unsure. "I think I wished to save Nathalie."
Marinette shot him an incredulous look, "You think?"
"I never spoke my wish." Gabriel admitted with a sigh, "Gimmi read my heart, saw what I wanted and what I was willing to sacrifice."
"And your heart chose Nathalie." Marinette stated with an almost accusatory tone, "Instead of your wife."
Gabriel inclined his head away from Marinette's view. Whether it was guilt at the accusation that he hid from her, or just another effort to seal away any inkling of humanity, Marinette did not know.
A moment later, he turned his head back slightly. Not enough to see his eyes, just enough to glimpse the corner of his lips strung tight, and the sharp incline of his eyelids brushing against the frame of his glasses. The only thing he allowed to be exposed was that something was struggling to reach the surface.
"…Nathalie did survive, right?" He asked quietly. Marinette wondered if he even expected a reply or wanted one.
She answered anyway, "Spent some time in the hospital, but she recovered."
His fist, which she only now realized had been straining itself in a tight grip, fell limp by his side. "That's… Good." It was one of the few times Marinette could find a sliver of fondness in his voice. The last time she'd recalled that tone was when Gabriel was telling Ladybug about his son.
Ever since she'd learned his identity she'd assume interactions like that had been nothing more than a façade, a bit of fun to dangle himself under his greatest enemy's nose while she was none the wiser. But perhaps there were some honest moments to the Gabriel she'd encountered after all.
Marinette pulled her arms behind her back, one scratching the other nervously. She leaned forward, softly asking "Was there something going on with you two?"
Gabriel's scowl was on full display as he turned to her. "I'll remind you that I'm not a teenage girl in one of your gawdy sleepovers."
Marinette resisted the urge to scream, instead just groaning. Every conversation with this man was like navigating a mine field. "You could just say 'no'. Most people just say 'No, I don't want to talk about this'. It's real simple and polite."
"Why do you care about my love life?" He demanded sharply.
"I don't."
She spoke truthfully. She didn't care about his love life. In fact, she'd probably like to go her entire life without imagining Gabriel being romantic with anyone, trying to lure some poor girl in like she was a future akumatized villain, dramatic monologue and all.
But Adrien did.
Adrien was always insistent that Nathalie and his father would get together eventually, that they would heal each other's grief and help each other move on. That they'd be a proper family again. And, over the course of many nights trying to understand Nathalie's role in Gabriel's scheme, Marinette knew at the very least that Nathalie was head over heels for the man. What she saw in him, Marinette wouldn't dare to imagine.
It was tragic, really. Marinette was an obsessive romantic at heart, she'd love to gush about two old friends picking up the pieces and overcoming tragedy with their love, she'd love to tease Nathalie about her crush or laugh at Gabriel's Agreste patented 'She's just a friend'. She'd love it if she didn't have to know how their love, Gabriel's for his wife and Nathalie's for him, drove them to despicable deeds, to hurting people.
Love was so pure. The idea was so important to Adrien, it was the sort of stuff that made him really light up in that way that made him look like he was glowing. And it had been tainted by them.
Maybe Marinette just wanted to know, at the very least, if there had ever been a chance that it could have been different. That, had another decision been made, Adrien would have found himself that family, that happily ever after for his father and his second mother.
Gabriel snarled like she'd personally wounded him with that question, "Then let's not waste our breath."
Well, the fact that he's so defensive about it at least implies it means something to him. But Marinette wasn't in the mood to ask any further questions on that front, continuing to plod alongside Gabriel in silence.
Eventually, he broke that silence with a sigh. She pondered if the silence unsettled him, that he needed an excuse to hear they were still there.
"Did she mention Felix?" He asked.
Marinette's raised a brow, "Huh? No. Why?"
"Miss Rossi used a sentimonster to take care of you, yes?" Gabriel paused to watch Marinette nod before continuing. "Which means Argos was compromised."
He made another pregnant pause, staring down at her expectantly, looking for something, only to find no reply prepared.
Argos had been her suspect the moment she realized what the little girl was, and it didn't feel as unbelievable as she wanted it to feel. Yeah, she could come up with any number of scenarios for how Chrysalis could wind up using the peacock's power that would leave Felix entirely blameless, but honestly, she couldn't say that this betrayal was something out of character for him.
He scoffed, "What, no disgustingly optimistic denial?"
Marinette herself thought she'd have some sort of rebuttal or platitude to throw his way, but looking deep down inside herself, she found that she just couldn't do it. She shrugged.
"I don't want to assume the worst of people." She sighed, running her fingers over her face. "But I have no idea what Felix's deal is at all."
She broke out into a bitter laugh, her voice laced with frustration as the thoughts came to her in one big burst of pet peeves she hadn't realized were simmering. "Sometimes he's a bad guy, sometimes he's a good guy." She threw her arms out, gesturing to the different options as if they were physically there. "Sometimes he cares about Adrien, sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he's pro-sentimonster, sometimes he'll use them for a power point presentation."
"So, yeah," She huffed, dropping her arms to her side. "I can't make any judgement of what he would or wouldn't do."
"I can't entirely blame him." Gabriel stated promptly, "He grew up in quite the two-faced environment."
Marinette nodded, "He didn't have anything nice to say about his father."
Suddenly, Gabriel came to a halt. Looking back, Marinette could see an unreadable, but undeniably dark expression come over him. "He… Told you about Colt?"
Not wanting to hold up Juleka, Marinette gently tugged on Gabriel's sleeve until his feet started working again. "He and Kagami gave me this whole presentation." She explained, "About the broken peacock, about your plans; everything."
"I see." Gabriel's face didn't twitch this time, in fact, it remained incredibly still, like his flesh had suddenly hardened into stone. "What did he show you about Colt?"
"Just a little bit." She shrugged.
"Cowboy. War profiteer, or something. Arranged marriage." She counted each detail off one-by-one on her fingers. "Terrible father."
That note struck a particularly sour chord with her, leaving a vile feeling bubbling in her stomach. She added on, hesitantly, "It sounded like he hurt Felix using his amok once."
"He… Did?"
For one single moment, Gabriel was caught off guard, his voice distant and soft, his struggle with those words bubbling up to the surface as stress lines and depressed wrinkles. But as quickly as it came, it was swept away by the stone resolve that followed.
"Of course he did." He spat out the words, more disgusted than Marinette had ever heard from him, even towards her. Immediately, she could feel an intense heat fill the space between them, one not too dissimilar to Defect's glare.
"Did you know him?" She asked, cautiously, but still curiously.
"I tolerated him." Gabriel practically growled, wielding a bitter sneer like a weapon. "Consequence of being his brother-in-law. And working for the same boss."
Marinette tilted her head back, "He was a… Fashion designer?"
"This was before I made connections with Audrey." He said hesitantly, his eyes telling of a mental struggle between giving satisfying context and fear of revealing too much about himself. "We worked for a rather secretive organisation surrounding rare artifacts."
"Headed up by a man going by the name 'Salvadore'." He continued, his tongue snaking out from his lips and lashing out at the name. "It wasn't the career I'd choose, but it was the one that allowed me to move up in the world enough to accomplish my dreams."
Marinette decided to ignore whatever extra unspoken history was there – because she was sure there was a lot to go through – and stick to the original topic. Colt. "You two didn't get along?"
Gabriel laughed, howled even, like the very suggestion was the punchline to an unheard joke. "Of course we didn't." He scoffed, "He was scum in a fancy suit, after all. Annoying accent. Very loud. Very obnoxious. So aggressive."
He spat, both verbally and very, very literally. "Absolute scum."
It was an emotional outburst. But unlike any time, a chink in Gabriel's armour was revealed, Gabriel showed no shame in letting this one burn through. What could this Colt guy even do to get someone like Hawkmoth this angry? This is a guy who took me and my friends assaulting him with cake and spaghetti with a straight face.
"Why did you give him the peacock then?" She asked.
"I didn't, it was Emile's idea." He said quickly, still laughing to himself. "Oddly enough, she hated the man more than me, the two never saw eye-to-eye on anything; she always referred to him as her sister's burden."
Marinette raised an eye brow at that, but Gabriel soldiered on with a wistful smile on his face. "But, Emilie was ever the all-loving sweetheart, she insisted on giving the couple the peacock to solve their infertility problems."
On a quieter note, he added on, "Of course, none of us knew the consequences of the peacock at the time. Nor the full extent of the power it gave us over our children."
"Really?"
He regarded her with a confused gaze, as if his explanation was the simplest thing to grasp in the world. "What?"
"Nothing." Marinette shook her head, pushing down her suspicions for later. "Just clarifying."
After a moment of contemplation, she asked "Was he really that bad?"
Gabriel held his hand up, holding out his palm, presenting his argument. "There's a good reason why only the two people bound by obligation showed up to his funeral."
Marinette scratched her cheek, trying to make sure she had all the pieces in place. "Wait, so the peacock killed him but left Emilie in a magical coma?"
"The Peacock wasn't what got him." Gabriel said in a tone that Marinette couldn't quite get a read on. "In the end, he chose to die by his own hand than to the peacock's curse."
Suddenly, Marinette felt rather cold. "Oh."
"Don't waste your sympathies, he deserves none of it." Gabriel assured her, "The world is better off without him."
Something flared up in Marinette's stomach at that. She may not know the man, and he could be the world's biggest scumbag, but that sentiment, it had her bile rising. "Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?" She growled.
At that, Gabriel offered no answer, just silence where his indignation was left to boil over.
Marinette quickly moved past that suddenly sore spot. She turned her head to Juleka just as they were confronted with a wall that had a hole the size of a small child in it. Juleka was the first to crouch down and slip on through, waving Marinette to follow her lead.
"How far is this place, Juleka?" Marinette asked breathlessly as she crawled through the hole. It was a tight squeeze, but she managed to wiggle until she was face first on the floor doing a solid impression of a worm.
"Not much further." Juleka assured her, reaching down to help pull her to her feet.
They were inside a house now, a lopsided dining room where everything hung at a slanted angle, yet the table remained stuck in place, unbothered by the pull of gravity that should have dragged it to the bottom.
The hole was certainly too small for Gabriel, so the two had to take a moment kick at the opening, chipping away at the old, weak brickwork until the hole had expanded enough for Gabriel to pop through. Not enough to make his entry easy, though. It seemed neither Juleka nor Marinette wanted to sacrifice the opportunity to watch Gabriel struggle to pull himself through, his hair somehow managing to endure constantly rubbing up against the opening's boundaries.
Juleka turned to Marinette while they waited, her lopsided bangs dangling precariously over her downcast gaze. "Sorry, we have to take the roundabout way to ensure we're not followed."
Marinette nodded in solidarity, remembering the lengths she herself would go to disguise Ladybug's route back to the bakery, knowing Hawkmoth could be watching at any time.
At some point as they pushed further into the house, Gabriel had ended up in front of her, lagging a little behind Juleka. They'd just finished climbing a staircase that was lying on it's side when he cleared his throat.
"What are the prospects of your little rebellion?" He asked in a raspy voice, unsure of how to speak to the girl.
Juleka jumped a little at his voice, both from surprise and probably the weirdness of being directly addressed by Hawkmoth. "Excuse me?"
Gabriel clasped his hands behind his back, asking "Do they have any solid design for taking down Mad Moth, or are they just dedicated to attacking her operations every now and then?"
Juleka scratched her chin, a little lost looking. Marinette guessed Juleka had never had to consider that subject before. "We just do what we can?" She answered hesitantly.
"Ah." Gabriel grunted, "Aimless then."
"Hawky…" Marinette started in a warning tone.
"What? It's a legitimate question." He shot back, raising his hand to wave her off. "We need a good assessment of our options."
"He's not entirely out of line." Juleka sighed, "Losing Luka and Nino was a big blow to us all, and with Roth's grip tighter than ever, there's not much we can do."
A crushing weight immediately fell over them. Juleka rushed to amend it, spluttering out "B-But I'm sure with Ladybug here, we'll find a way."
"We will." Marinette assured her, wearing a confident smile. For a moment, she allowed the three wins against Lila's lackies to get her feeing a little cocky. "I told you; we've already got a lead with this phantom guy."
With nothing to spit out in shock, Gabriel was left to dry heave his dismay, rounding on Marinette with a panicked glare. "You told her about the phantom!?" He hissed.
Marinette crossed her arms, unmoving. "Obviously? I'm not keeping secrets from my friends anymore."
Gabriel slapped his hands over his forehead. "She could be compromised," He loudly cried, "Working for the enemy!"
"Hey!" Juleka yelped.
Gabriel turned on her, looking at Juleka through loose, apathetic eyes. As if she were the one making a scene. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I've been inside your head, Reflekta. I've made deals with you."
He leaned closer and suddenly Juleka looked younger, smaller, as timid as she used to be. "And we both know that you'll agree to harm even your friends with the right incentives."
"That's enough." Marinette stated firmly, pushing to come between them. However, mid-stride, the tip of her toe smacked against the rim of a- Sewer grate? Marinette looked around here, they'd reached the kitchen area, and this grate didn't at all fit the pure white porcelain aesthetic.
"You don't… You don't get to judge me." Juleka shrivelled under Gabriel's unsympathetic gaze. This was a girl who had been akumatized, who'd given herself over to Hawkmoth, several times; enough times to grow bitter of his silver tongue. "Not after everything you've done."
As much as Marinette wanted to intervene and maybe smack Gabriel upside the head, something had snagged her attention. She couldn't entirely explain it, almost like an echo of her Ladybug sixth sense, something in her gut that focused her attention on that grate.
"Guys-" She tried to make herself heard, but her voice wasn't loud enough to overcome Gabriel's.
"I'm not judging you; I'm making an assessment of trust." He scoffed, drawing his finger to wag it under her nose. "You speak of sentimonster shapeshifters and still think my paranoia is unjustified? For all we know, you're not even Juleka."
Juleka impulsively stomped her foot down, gritting her teeth and pushing past the anxiety that claimed her throat. "Y-You should trust me because I've m-managed to go this entire walk without throwing you down the nearest hole."
"Guys!" Marinette yelled.
"What?" They both answered simultaneously.
Marinette made a show of flicking her ear. "Listen."
It was faint at first, but Marinette could just about hear it when she crouched down. Something that started out distant, a rumbling under their feet, lightly shaking the foundations and steadily growing.
"…That sounds like…" Gabriel turned his head up to better position his ear. "Rushing water?"
Juleka cupped her ear, squinting. "And something getting roasted on a grill."
Something was rushing towards them, spitting out tiny droplets that loudly hissed over whatever they hit. Likely burning through whatever surface, they faced. In fact, as the noise grew louder, Marinette could swear the atmosphere was heating up.
Yes, burning, something was definitely burning, she could smell it. Well, more like melting, as if bricks were being splashed with-
Marinette's eyes widened, "Ah. Crap."
She and Juleka had a split second to hit the deck before the sewer grate exploded, a geyser of burning acid bursting forth in one solid stream that broke through the ceiling. Gabriel was not so lucky, receiving a splash of the putrid chemical across his chest like a claw mark, knocking him through the wall and out of sight.
"I wasn't done with you." Meltdown sneered as he emerged from the hole, the glove of his suit peeled back to reveal an oversized fist made from acid.
The pain was blinding. It started in Gabriel's back, liquid fire scolding his flesh before diving underneath his muscle tissue, taking root in his bone marrow and blasting outwards in a shockwave across his skeleton. But it didn't start there, it wasn't just pain, it was swelling – that physical sensation of something pushing it's way out of his body like pins and needles.
Hundreds of little wounds closed up, swelling up into nasty, yellow welts to contain the pain and the tension and stop his body from spewing his insides out in one fell swoop. But then, all at once, those welts burst, popped and exploded. All at once, the tension receded, relief washing over him in a sweltering layer of sickly sweat.
Somehow, Gabriel Agreste was alive.
Slowly, he regained his sight, the world trickling back in like a painter was whipping their paint brush against the canvas. He was outside again, staring up at a slanted roof, the borders of his vision dominated by the mounds of mud and cement. He was lying down in a small crater, as deep as a shallow grave, piles of rubble pinning him down.
He blinked again and again, each time feeling like an eternity passed before he opened his eyes. After the tenth blink, he suddenly felt his breathing improve, the load pressing down on his chest lessening. After the next blink, he recognised Marinette's hands reaching across his vision, shoving bits of debris off him.
Gabriel tried to move to help her, but her hand pushed him back down. "Stay still, you don't want to break anything else." If Gabriel didn't know any better, he'd think she almost sounded worried.
"Cease your nerves. Bug." He groaned, pushing her hand away and lifting himself up into a sitting position. "It's just a few bumps and bruises."
Marinette stared at him incredulously as he pushed the last few heavy loads off his legs. "You got thrown through a wall and fell so hard you made a hole in the pavement, there's no way you-"
"Is this really the time to argue?" He snapped. "Meltdown isn't going to give us time to breathe, let alone argue."
"Right." Any hint of sympathy dissolved from her eyes as she turned to help him remove the last of the rubble. In good time, Gabriel was standing again, grumbling as he looked over the dismal state of his clothes. His front had been completely wrecked, a series of holes barely held together by one or two threads, framed by burn marks. They confirmed that he had indeed been hit with that acidic splash, and yet, the chest underneath looked nothing more than bruised.
Marinette crouched down by the end of the hole, peering over the edge. "Did you see Juleka anywhere? We got separated in the scuffle."
Gabriel looked up at her pointedly, "I'm afraid that my eyes have been a little preoccupied."
Any follow up remark was quickly thrown away as, just as soon as they had climbed out of the trench, a roaring Meltdown came charging through the wall at their backs. Gabriel and Marinette both threw themselves forward, narrowly avoiding the large chunks of stone that Meltdown's entrance shot across the air like shrapnel. They ended up crouched down, readying themselves to run as they threw their heads back to look at Meltdown.
"Gabriel Agreste." He snarled, a caged, hungry beast just waiting to be unleashed. "Oh, it's been so long."
Marinette glanced at Gabriel. "Friend of yours?"
"I think I'd remember an acquaintance who looks like that." Gabriel hissed back.
Meltdown's breath hitched, adding a shaky, breathless wheeze to his every word. "Oooooh, just looking at you brings back memories."
He took one step closer to Gabriel, chuckling at how quickly Gabriel scurried away. Meltdown lashed out with his fist, flicking a splatter of acid at the ground in front of Gabriel, making him watch how easily it ate through the stone. "It's enough to overwhelm me with nostalgia."
Past the tears in the suit, Gabriel could glimpse a vaguely humanoid shape wrapped in the acidic sludge he spat out. It never settled, constantly rushing over Meltdown's body like a river, waiting for an outlet, for a target.
At Meltdown's words, the acid seemed to bubble and shake, struggling to be contained by the suit. Meltdown howled with laughter. "Which, trust me, is really bad for you."
Gabriel gazes down at the singed hole left by Meltdown's warning shot, bile rising in his throat as he imagined that same hole being in his flesh. The acid that hit him must have been a milder dose, or somehow fell off as Gabriel was falling; it was the only way to explain how he managed to survive.
Marinette slowly tip-toed around the edge of Meltdown's vision, cautiously looking between him and Gabriel. "Is there any chance they call you 'Meltdown' because you're just a very loud complainer?"
"Heh Heh Heh, I haven't forgotten about you little bug." He breathed in deep, savouring the moment. "When I bring both your heads to Mad Moth, she'll release me from this damn akuma."
"Look, Mr. Uh… Meltdown?" She said softly, opening her arms and offering her most disgustingly welcoming smile. "I know it isn't easy being an akuma, especially one that makes your body leak acid, but it doesn't need to go like this."
Against all logic, Marinette decided, after gulping down the last of her fear, to step closer to the homicidal akuma. What is that girl thinking?! Gabriel growled to himself.
"Whatever deal Lila makes with you; she'll use it to stab you in the back." She said firmly, closing in on Meltdown. "You can't trust her."
Meltdown was quiet as she approached, cautiously appraising her, scanning for any tricks she could be hiding up her sleeve, any secret avenues she could use to hurt him. By the time she reached him, coming to a stop just a few feet away and placing herself between him and Gabriel, it was obvious she had nothing to strike at him with
She put her hands down, instead changing to reach one hand out, opening her palm to the akuma, to the man underneath the suit and the acid. "We can find a way to help you, I'm sure of it. We can end this peacefully before anybody gets hurt."
They stood there, a breath away, a short, fragile looking girl shivering in the cold holding her hand out to the monster whose very presence burned his footsteps into the ground. In that moment, everything was quiet, Meltdown's head hung low and listless, contemplating.
Slowly, he reached forward with his still contained hand. He hesitated, but Marinette gave him an encouraging smile. "I…" He said slowly, his voice low and weak. "I…"
And then his hand shot past her arm to yank her up by the neck, his howls of laughter echoing throughout the street.
"I don't want to do this the peaceful way." He hissed with sadistic glee, holding Marinette's now wide-eyed terrified face close to his visor. "I wanna do this the 'melt you your face off' way."
Try as she might, Marinette couldn't get anything out of her mouth other than choking sobs, his grip crushing her windpipe while she dangled helplessly.
Gabriel snatched the nearest blunt object he could scrounge up, an enlarged bin lid he could hoist over his shoulder, before taking off at full speed. By the time he closed the distance, Meltdown held Marinette over his head, his exposed hand swelling up into the enlarged acidic fist once more. He looked curiously over his captive, wondering what would kill her first, the acid or the asphyxiation.
"Nothing personal, Bug. It just suits me a whole lot more!"
There was no time to think, Gabriel just ended his running start launching himself into Meltdown, pulling his make-shift shield back and smacking it across Meltdown's head. There was an immediate cracking sound along with Meltdown's painful wheeze as he was sent stumbling back, throwing Marinette to the floor in the process.
Gabriel didn't wait around to savour the full result, just quickly discarding his shield (as it was already melting) and snatching up Marinette by the shoulder and dragging her in whatever direction took them away from Meltdown.
He glanced over his shoulder at her. Suddenly, he felt a long thought dead paternal need to chew her out for pulling such a dangerous stunt. But in the face of her puffy eyes and wheezing coughs as she massaged the bright red hand print around her throat, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
Instead, he simply said "I don't think he's in the mood for diplomacy."
Even with a breathless edge, she managed to inject some sarcasm into her voice. "You think?"
"We're two-for-two on your biggest fans being crazy bastards."
She pouted, and somehow that eased the tension in Gabriel's stomach somewhat. "At least I have fans, Hawky."
"Watch out!" They didn't know which of them called it out, Gabriel only registered the disturbance in the air and the encore of rushing water rapidly approaching them. Fortunately, the acid blast Meltdown fired their way fell just short of them, faltering at their heels and leaving them to stumble further.
When they looked back, they found the courtyard scorched in the shape of a cone from Meltdown's position. Gabriel noted a rough estimate of the distance in his head, it was good to know that Meltdown's attacks had a set range.
"Ah, blast it all. Just a fraction too short." Meltdown tutted, holding his hand up to his visor for inspection. "I've never had the chance to calibrate these abilities. You see, no one's really gotten the opportunity to run."
Gabriel looked over the warped alley space, noting with dismay that it being warped into the size of a courtyard was their biggest advantage here. The alleyways connected to the area, the ones that were just a maze for Gabriel and Marinette, were narrow affairs that were difficult to navigate. Which, unfortunately, meant that running away wasn't an option at the moment.
"I don't think he's going to let us get that lucky again." Gabriel sighed, casting his gaze over to Marinette. "Any ideas?"
Marinette was set up against a fire hydrant, leaning against it for support. Her pained expression gave way to one that Hawkmoth knew all to well, one that, on any other day, would be a source of dread. Today, however, that searching look of hers, where narrowed eyes were alight with curiosity and spontaneous creativity. She was looking for pieces.
After a few moments of silence, her expression shifted to a flicker of surprise; she'd caught something. "Do you hear that?"
Gabriel turned his head to the side, stretching his ear out trying to latch onto anything of interest. "The droning?" He said, unsure of his answer.
She shook her head and thrusted her finger out in the direction of Meltdown, who Gabriel had only just realized had yet to move any closer to them.
"No, his breathing!" She hissed, "Listen."
Over the gasps of the wind, the flutter of wings and the distant hissing of acid hitting stone, Gabriel's ears caught the heavy breath that escaped from Meltdown. The man had been wheezy before, but each huff he took now sounded like it hurt, coupled with the man's slouched pose like he was trying to give his muscles a rest.
Marianne pounded her fist into her palm, smirking. "Sounds like he doesn't have as much steam as he'd like us to believe."
"So, we dodge around until he gets sloppy and we make a break for it." Gabriel stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Solid plan." He admitted to his own shock.
"What are you two whispering about?" Meltdown roared, the brash swinging of his arms splattering acid across his front. "How dare you conspire right in front of me, like I'm not even here."
Suddenly, he dropped into a low crouch, pushing his feet aside and holding his exposed hand skyward. "Disrespect makes me angry. I might just blow my top!"
With the booming, rough echo of a mortar shell, a stream of acid erupted from his hand in a pillar of boiling activity. The stream didn't stay one continuous state, splitting off into tiny droplets at the apex of their ascension and scattering across the courtyard.
"Crap, death from above!" Marinette called out as the two darted around, desperately dodging between the acidic assault hammering down upon them.
Gabriel managed to leg it just an inch or so out of the bombardment site, but Marinette was not so lucky. All too late she found herself at a wall with no where else to go, the only exits throwing her right back into the grey. However, just before the latest splatter of downpour could connect, a brick, perfectly timed and perfectly aimed, crossed the path of what could have been a killing blow, causing the acid blast to break up into smaller droplets that scattered around Marinette.
As soon as she could, Marinette took off across the courtyard towards her sudden savour, who stood slumped against the hole Meltdown had made in the building earlier. Juleka looked like she was in shock, still processing that her one-in-a-million shot had actually worked.
"Juleka, there you are!" Marinette cried out, clapping a hand over Juleka's shoulder with a relieved sigh.
Juleka scratched the back of her neck. "Sorry, I was out of it for a minute there."
Gabriel muttered lowly curses of the youth and their short attention spans as he booked in to their location, grabbing both of them by the collar and yanking them along with him onward.
"Don't stop to chat, you idiots, we have to keep moving!" He called back to them.
"D-Don't call me an idiot!" Juleka cried, unsteady. Gabriel's grip was the only thing keeping her from stumbling over herself.
"We are facing literal acid rain." Gabriel spat incredulously. "There's a better time for this discussion."
Another attack rang out and, without even looking, Gabriel desperately threw the girls away from him just in time for the blast to cut in between them instead of hitting either. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of knocking Gabriel off balance, sending him stumbling back until his knees buckled and he was on his ass again.
Even worse news, when he looked up he found that Meltdown had locked onto him.
However, he noted an odd detail as Meltdown approached, namely that Gabriel could see tufts of black hair now peaking through the acid layer. In fact, on closer inspection, Gabriel found holes in the toxic armour, giving way to raw flesh and clothes underneath the veil of the akuma.
So, Meltdown's powers have an ammunitions limit. Gabriel thought gleefully. He was tiring himself out and, the more he attacked, the closer he was to running empty on whatever supplied him the acid. It was all so clear now, this was test of endurance, and Gabriel Agreste was nothing if not a survivor.
The girl, on the other hand, Gabriel was convinced was borderline suicidal.
"I've got you now, Gabbi!" Meltdown snarled as soon as he reached Gabriel, leering over the more fragile man, close enough that Gabriel could glimpse half of the man's true weaselly face. Close enough that he could read a name tag peeking through.
Gabriel froze. That name. He recognised that name for sure. He did know Meltdown after all.
"Ah, you finally recognise me, ey, Gabbi?" Meltdown chuckled darkly, holding his acid fist over Gabriel's forehead. "I've waited a long time for this. You and Colt never showed me any respect!"
"Weevil Irving?" Gabriel muttered to himself, more annoyed than shocked, "You're supposed to be dead."
"So are you. But don't worry, I'll be rectifying that." He spat, "I won't let that damn cowboy get to you first."
Meltdown didn't waste any time for once, yanking Gabriel to him by the scuff of his shirt and raising his fist up high, ready to deal the fatal blow.
"Time for you to- Arg!" Pure, undiluted water firing at 500 gpm crashing into Meltdown's head knocked the man flat on his ass, even going so far as to continue to push him back until he was grinding his face against the floor.
Gabriel looked back, stunned to see Marinette hunched over the fire hydrant, the nosel broken open, presumably, by the myriad of broken trash items that sat in pieces at her feet.
She shot Meltdown a cocky grin. "Sorry about that, Sludge Face. I just thought you were getting a little too hot headed."
"You dare mock me?!" Meltdown fell onto his knees, bashing his fists against the pavement with a primal roar; a desperate and hungry animal. "You won't disrespect me ever again. Nobody will! I have all the power now."
Without warning he fired off another blast at her, pushing through the fire hydrant's assault and sailing over to come down on her head. Acting without thinking, Marinette's foot slammed down on what remained of Gabriel's bin lid shield, launching it into the air where she caught it and used it to bat away the sludge attack like it was a tennis ball.
However, Marinette realized that Juleka stood not too far from her.
"Juleka, look out!" She cried out, but it was far too late.
Juleka screamed louder than Marinette had even heard someone scream. While Juleka did not take the full brunt of the blast, diving for the Gabriel shaped hole left in the ground, a good chunk of the attack clearly hit her upper arm; enough to leave a scar, enough to burrow into her flesh and pierce her bones.
"I won't let you-" There was no time for a speech, Meltdown rushed her head on, smacking her across the jaw, grabbing a hold of her head and slamming her into the mud.
"I can do anything I want. Kill anyone I want!" He snarled over the ringing of her ears, dragging her body across the ground, letting friction have it's fun peeling off layers of her face.
At a certain point, he found his rhythm, stopping to angrily drive his foot into Marinette's stomach. "You think you can pick on me? You think you can walk all over me?!" The kick had the effect of knocking Marinette back, sending her into a roly-poly position that took her face first into the nearest wall. "I'm more powerful than you, I am a God to you. You're just a fragile, worthless, gutless little shit!"
"You're nothing. You hear me? Nothing!" He screamed, stomping into the ground hard enough to leave cracks and the sound of shattering bones. "I am… I am… I am…"
He stumbled back, clawing at his containment suit as choking gasps escaped him. The sludge encasing him started to pulsate, pulling at his flesh until it stretched like rubber. It expanded, it hissed, it throbbed; all over his body, every inch stretched at odd ends, as if an invisible force was pulling him apart.
"Guaaaah!" Meltdown's painful and guttural screams were enough to make Gabriel jump.
Marinette limped over to Gabriel, one hand gripping her stomach and the other weakly grasping at the air until it found Gabriel's shoulder. She tugged him along as the two watched Meltdown's entire form violently shake, spitting out acid shots while the rest of his warped form bubbled and boiled – a volcano inching ever closer to erupting.
"He's unstable, he's having a nuclear-" Marinette stopped herself short of the obvious pun, just quietly hissing. "I think he's about to explode."
"Over here!"
The two struggled to their feet, craning their necks to find Juleka waving to them from the building Meltdown broke through. With no other ideas, the two sprinted, or hobbled as fast as they could considering their injuries, across the courtyard and back into the building.
Gabriel looked over his shoulder, where Meltdown's explosive presence only grew more violent. He growled, "We'll never make it, we don't have enough time."
Soon enough, Gabriel was surprised to find them back where they started the fight, the sewer grate that Meltdown had ambushed them from. Juleka looked over it uneasily, but gulped down her trepidation and pointed down the hole.
"It's the only chance we have." She said, "Now or never."
Gabriel hesitated, preparing a protest on the edge on his tongue, but it ended up dead on arrival as Marinette's shoulder connected with his back and shoved him down the hole. It was a short drop, enough to make him feel the impact of his landing, but not enough to break anything.
By the time he was up on his feet, Marinette and Juleka both dropped down as well, Marinette shooting him a mischievous look as she did. Gabriel didn't have time to complain, they had to find cover, but he did have time to glare at her as they pressed themselves against the walls.
Not a second later, everything came to an abrupt halt. It started with a deep, ominous rumble from above, like thunder rolling through the earth itself. Then the ground trembled in short violent shakes, sending ripples through the murky water at their feet. Dust and debris shook loose from the ceiling, raining down in small clouds above their heads.
Then, it hits—a deafening, muffled boom swallows the world whole. The air pressure in the tunnel changes abruptly, slamming into Gabriel's chests like a heavy, invisible wave. The force of the blast reverberates through the tunnel, pushing and pulling the ground in every direction and nearly knocking Gabriel to his knees again.
For a moment, everything feels surreal, as if time has slowed down. His ears ring from the concussion, drowning out all other sounds, and his head lay adrift among the sea of his buzzed brain. The smell of dust and damp concrete was the only thing he registered for the moment, mingling with a faint, acrid tang from above.
But soon enough, the echoes of the explosion fade into an uneasy silence, the world gradually settles. And Gabriel, as well as the other two, breathe.
"Talk about cutting it close." Marinette groaned, sliding down the wall until her legs hit the floor. "At least we're rid of him."
Gabriel braced himself against the wall, dry heaving until that wretched taste left his tongue. "Yeah, but for how long?"
Marinette looked up to Juleka. "Is your arm, okay?"
"No." Juleka said bluntly, cradling her arm that now sported a dark, purple mark running up to her shoulder. "But… I'm sure it'll survive."
They sat there, just breathing and processing for the moment, shocked that they'd managed to best death yet again. Enough time to get Gabriel thinking, enough time to pretend not to think about how Ladybug had saved him yet again, enough time to remember that name and all the history that surrounded it.
Apparently, the conflict easily bled into his expression as Marinette homed in on it with her own curious gaze.
"What's with that face, Hawky?" She asked.
Gabriel bit his lip but decided that there was only one of those thoughts he was willing to share with her. "I know who he is."
"Huh?"
"When Meltdown was throwing everything at you, some of the acid pulled back, exposed the body underneath. And a nametag." Gabriel found his eyes narrowing, a rather ugly snarl curving his lips into a frown. "I know him."
"Who is he?"
"Weevil Irving." Instinctively, he scratched his throat laughing as he said the name. As if it wasn't a revelation, but a joke answer. It felt so juvenile on his tongue. Irving, that little, useless weasel, actually managed to almost kill him.
Marinette muttered "Wait, I know that name…"
Juleka sat down beside Marinette, pointing out "He was a part of Tomoe's task force."
Marinette snapped her fingers, gasping. "Right! I remember, he was the guy who greeted me at the mall before…"
Her voice trailed off, leaving a strained, searching gaze that found only things she didn't want to remember. "Before everything."
She looked away, hiding how her lips quivered, and quickly changed direction. "So, how do you know him?"
"Remember that club I told you about?" Gabriel said through gritted teeth, annoyed at how easily he was giving away this information to her. "He was another member. He was the slimy type; a nervous wreck when you can see him, but a backstabbing weasel the moment you turn away."
"Oh, so you two must have gotten on like a house on fire then."
"Well, the last time I saw him the house was on fire." Gabriel explained casually, not even registering her jab as offensive. "Seems that he managed to make a miraculous recovery."
There was a strange urge, fuelled by the way Marinette's eyes suspiciously looked him over, for Gabriel to specify that he had nothing to do with that fire. In fact, the fire had been set by Weevil himself in some moronic attempt to get them out of a violent confrontation with some… 'Competitors'. All he managed to do was bring the damn warehouse down on their heads and almost get Gabriel and Colt killed.
Of course, Gabriel managed to stop himself from voicing this. Because Marinette didn't need to know that, and he didn't need Marinette to know that. He didn't care about justifying himself. He didn't care about what Ladybug, of all people, thought of him.
He didn't care. He'd never care. He couldn't care.
When it was clear Gabriel wasn't going to explain further, Marinette sighed. "How'd he go from collecting old junk for rich snobs to fighting akumas?"
Gabriel shrugged. "If I were to guess, I'd think he hadn't changed jobs at all."
It didn't take long for Marinette to catch on that Gabriel was talking about collecting more than some expensive vases and trinkets. Something more miraculous in nature.
"What exactly did you guys collect back in the day?"
"Power, Bug." Gabriel offered a crude smile, "It's always power."
Of course, there was another thought that he didn't share. A thought he didn't even voice to himself, locking it away to wriggle in the back of his mind, to fester like an old wound.
"I won't let that damn cowboy get to you first." Meltdown had declared.
That damn cowboy.
It was nonsense. It meant nothing. Gabriel knew that whatever implication his mind was taking from that was one not even worth considering, because he knew it wouldn't be possible.
He was the only one who knew for sure that it wasn't possible.
Next Time: A Team Effort
Queen Bee piped up over the comms, "I'm gonna assume the inciting incident here was a desire to be the most obtuse jackass of all time."
"Please tell me you guys are in position." Chat groaned, glancing up to Viperion. "I don't want to listen to his bizzarro talk for any longer than I have to."
The response was interrupted when suddenly inverted the local gravity, forcing Chat to dive towards the nearest wall and stake Pegasus with his staff whilst everything around them floated upwards.
"I'm in position." Viperion scratched the back of his neck, softly sighing like a disappointed parent as he looked over his shoulder. "It's my begrudging assistants who refuse to get low."
At his back, Carapace and Queen Bee were both stuck in the same window frame, a tangled mess of limbs. Hands were flying, lips were spitting, and no progress was being made as the two heroes smacked and slapped each other in a vain attempt to loosen themselves.
"Hey, it's not my fault." Carapace whined, "Bee keeps pushing me!"
Bee's scoff came out like a shriek, offense dripping from every word. "That's Queen Bee, thank you very much." She drilled her finger into his forehead. "We are not on a nick name basis, you Teenage Mutant Ninja Dweeb."
"Oh, I can come up with more nicknames." Carapace growled, slapping her hand away and thrusting his shoulder forward to press her back. "Stop pushing!"
Viperion groaned, slapping his hand over his forehead. As he gazed back over to the akuma battle, where everyone was suddenly forced to move backwards until they slammed into each other, Luka had to wonder which of them had it worse today.
"We can't fit in here, it's too cramped!" Bee moaned, her knuckles lashing out and scraping Carapace's nose.
"Look, I know you put on a few pounds, but-"
SLAP
"How dare you!"
"That's enough." Viperion's stern voice broke through their bickering like a hammer, leaving the two going limp and staring back at him wide-eyed and ashamed. Like children gazing up at an angry parent. "Knock it off, both of you."