When You Live Forever...
You start to read faces
Marinette
It was Nino's voice, but the costume was all wrong. Blues and yellows and purples. I went to move when I backed up into Adrian's bubble, it engulfing me. I yelped and fell backwards into the strange substance .
Adrian helped me up as we started floating into the sky. From our view, we could see other bubbles, trapping other people and things. I noticed, all kids grabbed were going to the park, while the adults were heading straight for the tower.
Nino, whatever happened to him, stood in the center of it, stealing things and teens and placing them in the park. Adrian looked up at me, then down at the ground 200 feet away. "Think I'll land on my feet?"
Plagg and Tikki finally made their appearance, popping out of my bag. Plagg grumbled. "All this magic woke me up, what's going on? We're really high."
"Are we in a bubble?" Tikki asked childishly. "Can I pop it please?"
She gave me bug eyes, when a chuckle started behind us . I shot around, seeing Nino floating in the air, a moth mask over his face. His voice had deepened into Gabe's. "Little Tikki, you couldn't pop it if you tried. You couldn't possibly even try. This bubble's made of-"
The bubble popped suddenly.
And they were falling from cloud level.
"Tikki!" I screamed, but she just shrugged. She's always grouchy after naps. "We'll talk about this later! Can you please transform me?!"
Suddenly, in a blur of red, I felt lighter, my vision slightly better. I picked up my yo-yo, hooking it to a building top and grabbing a still transforming Adrian. I landed in a crouch as he rolled along the roof before catching himself.
I got up to brush myself off, when a bubble came flying towards me. I flipped to move out of the way, before having to duck under two other bubbles. Chat batted off his killer bubbles with his baton, before beckoning me over.
"Think you can keep them off my back for a moment?" He grunted, jumping to miss one aiming for his legs. I nodded, letting him jump off the back of the building.
A moment later, a baton went flying at Nino from behind, hitting his head and dazing him. The bubbles stopped immediately, floating to the ground and popping. Nino wobbled, before falling down.
I sensed an opening. I scanned the boy, before realizing his entire outfit, none of it was black or purple. Except for the wand. I ran forward, making a grab at the bubble wand.
"Netta! No!" Chat yelled at me, fear laced in his voice. Enough for him to use my name. I skidded to a stop in front of Nino, arms out to brace for any attacks.
It took me a second to realize. Nino wasn't dazed, he was faking. As I tried to jump back, three bubbles stuck to me. One tick, then they exploded.
I was thrown backwards, passing buildings by the dozens before hitting back first on a brick building. I groaned, surprised that I wasn't as hurt as I'd thought I be.
My earrings beep.
"What?" I murmured, cupping my earrings before moving behind a dumpster to hide. Nino seemed to busy, dealing with Adrian, who was running him away from me.
A moment passed, and I detransformed without my permission. Tikki landed in my lap. Her side had turned a purple the color of Nooroo, which spreads to a wing on her back, licking towards her middle. A large bruise. "Tikki? Are you okay?"
Tikki nodded weakly. "Yes, Marinette. I took most of the damage for you, but since I only have half of your soul, it hurt a lot more than usual." She smiled. "I'll be fine."
I bit my lip. "We need to find you some food. A bakery nearby? You're vulnerable like this. Transforming is out of the option."
"Don't worry, My Bugaboo."
I would of scoffed if I wasn't so happy to see him. Chat dropped down from the roof, two cookies in hand. She place one in my hand by Tikki, who scooted over to eat. I grinned. "Chat. I'm happy you're okay."
He plopped down, Indian style with a cat smile. "Course I'm fine Nets. I'm worried about you. You can't transform until Tikki is okay." He tapped his chin. "I don't like this. Gabe's singling out people now. Maybe people close to us."
I frowned, before an idea formed. "Hey, do you think you could drop me off at the park? Those bubbles caught everyone in the city, maybe they got Gabe too, and he's technically still a teenager, so he'd go to the park."
Chat almost hissed. "No way Mari! You're not going to confront him while Tikki's hurt. You're basically missing half a soul! Those are important!"
I gave him a look. "I'll be careful. Now, either you could take me there safely, or I could walk there, out in the open to Nino or Gabe." I smiled innocently.
Chat groaned, but picked me up, waiting forTikki to climb into my bag, climbing through alleyways to stay hidden while we went. After almost no time, Chat set me down with a soft glare. "Don't get hurt."
I scratched him behind the ears. "Course, kitty."
It took me a moment to find a side entrance that wasn't guarded, but Nino didn't cover the trap door on the stage, which lead to a building across the way. I blended in perfectly with the rest of the teenagers. Where were the kids? Babies? Home by themselves?
Oh no.
I found Alya and tapped her shoulder. She squeaked slightly, but stopped at my sight. "Marinette? Thank god you're okay."
I smiled. "Thanks, and you too. What's going on?"
Alya tapped her phone against her thigh, a tight lip frown on her face. "Nothing good. We're trapped here, no exits. There's party favors here, and it seems like the bubble guy wants to throw a party for someone."
I flinched, but hid it. Alya continued. "The superheroes don't seem to be doing any good. We all saw them go up in a bubble, and fall down. I got it on video. Someone else posted a video that I put on the main page. Apparently, Ladybug's hurt. I don't think Chat will do good without her. They're a duo, not a single act."
I nodded. "Alya, I need you to use that LC Blog prestige that you might have. I think I found a way out."
She blinked. "Really?"
I nodded. "Yeah, there's a trapdoor under the stage. I'm going to go through it. If I don't come back in ten minutes, gather everyone up and start sending them through."
Alya nodded, a determined look on her face. I ran back to the stage and dropped in, climbing through and checking the empty building. Ten minutes later, the first boy, a guy from my class, Nathanael, climbed through. He saw me and smiled. "Thank you."
I tilted my head and smiled back, confused at the blush I saw. "No problem. Happy to help!"
Soon, teens were flooding out from the park, and I directed them through back doors and alleys. In a few hours, I could say most of the teens in Paris were back at their homes.
"No!" I heard Nino yell as Alya finished checking the park, climbing back through. "So, no one wants to party?!"
Alya squeaked as I pushed her down behind the reception area, before popping my head up to look around. Nino flew by our area, and I had a sudden thought.
"Chat..?" I whispered, scanning the area. He wasn't there.
My breathing started to pick up, but I forced myself to stop. I would have felt it happen. Tikki would've felt it happen. Everything's fine…
That didn't stop the tears that attacked my eyes, wanting to be let out. Where was he? Where is he? Come on Arden…
"Hey, Bubbler!" I finally heard. From my spot, I could see him on a roof. Nino looked over in his direction, and Chat grinned, before sticking out his tongue and turning around and jumping off the roof. I smiled as Nino bursted off into his direction.
I turned to Alya. "Your House seems a little too close to this mess. You can crash at Adrian's and I's apartment."
Alya pursed her lips, before smirking. "You guys live together? You sure you're not more than friends..?"
I squelched the blush that rose to my cheeks. In all my years, I never had a crush. Before this all happened, when I was 10, I was told I was to be married to him, since we were the only children at our village during that time. I didn't really mind, and he didn't either. When we changed, we still were supposed to marry, but we just didn't think it really mattered anymore.
"Nah, just friends." I said, before following her to her house. At some point, we ended up on the rooftops, after Chat hid us from Nino, who was flying by. He left before Alya could get a word from him.
As we came up to our apartment, I checked on Tikki. She was mostly healed, but i didn't want to rush anything.
"Mari." Alya said. "There's no roof access on your apartment."
God dang it.
I looked down to my apartment floor, where Mari was dozing on the balcony. It was to high from the ground, but too low to just jump to. Then, almost like my Ladybug vision, i saw a fire escape on another building, just a little above my balcony.
I had an idea.
"Hold on to my backpack, Alya." I said, handing her it. Before she could ask, I stepped to the edge of the roof, and jumped.
I didn't land on the fire escape, it was too far for that, but my hand grabbed the railing as my foot hit the side of the building, balancing me. I grinned, before holding out my extra hand. "Come on Alya!"
"What?!?! How did you- Why did you- What the f- That's a ten foot jump at least!"
I shrugged, realizing that normal people might not be able to jump that and land it perfectly. "I did a lot of gymnastics when I was younger. "I babbled. "THey said I was good. Now, come on, jump and grab my hand. I'll catch you."
Alya bit her lip before smiling weakly. "Hehe, yolo, I guess."
She put my backpack on, before climbing to the roof edge and jumping. I caught her hand, grunting as I felt my muscles shift. To a normal person, that should of definitely dislocated a shoulder, but I was still resiliant, and if Alya was a descendant of Fred, then she was as well.
Her hand started slipping from mine. I held back a gasp, before using my leg hanging off the fire escape to hook around the bar my hand was on. I hooked my other leg, before letting my hand release the bar. Alya, quiet scared, made a quick grab for my free hand. We looked like traipse artists.
"Alya, trust me." I said. "Let go of my hand."
The panic cleared from her eyes, and she let go of the hand she snatched. Quickly, I grabbed her not free wrist with my free hand, before letting go of her hand. She caught on, grabbing my wrist as well. I smirked. "Grabbing a person's wrist is a better way then hand. Now, I'm going to swing you over to our balcony."
Alya nodded, and I arched my back, letting the motions swing my back and forth. After a few swings, I let Alya go, and she rolled onto my balcony. As she recovered, I switched, so my hands held the bar. With a few more swings, I could jump off and land on the balcony.
"Mari, that was awesome!" Alya squealed. "I wish I'd gotten that on video!"
I smiled at the compliment, before thinking. "I'll be back. I need to find Adrian." And before Alya could say anything, I was gone.
By the time I reached an alley outside, I could transform again. Idid so quickly, jumping onto the roofs to look around for Chat. After a moment, I saw him batting off some bubbles that wouldn't pop. Nino grumbled at him, sending more bubbles with his wand.
Using my yo-yo, I swung it, wrapping around the bubble stick, before yanking. The stick flew out of Nino's hand, which Chat caught.
I tagteamed him. "Break the wand! I got Nino!"
Nino wailed for a moment, diving for his wand before I stopped him. My yo-yo wrapped around his waist, pulling him back, where I kicked him. He grunted, landing on his back before sliding to a stop. With no warning, he ran forward, and we exchanged a few hits, before he pushed me back.
I swept his legs, and as he started to come back up, he stopped, slumping on the ground. "Ladybug!"
I turned around, finding Chat holding dust in his hands. I ran over, opening my yo-yo to catch the dust. I cleansed the butterfly before turning to the wreckage. "I never used Lucky Charm, how am I supposed to clean this all up?"
"Use it now." Chat shrugged, before looking at his ring. "I have only 2 minutes left."
I tried his idea, and it worked better then i thought. Bubbles and wreckage disappeared, and I could see the parents in Paris return to their homes. Chat started moving to an alley, and I followed him, after discovering that Nino had disappeared.
He detransformed, and I followed suit. He was caked in sweat, and I felt bad for a moment. "Arden?" I said quietly, my accent coming out. "How are you?"
He panted. "Fine, Netta." He stood up slowly, picking Plagg up from where he was sleeping on the floor. "Just some complications. We're good."
I tilted my head at his words, but nodded either way. "Okay then."
And we started walking home.
