Chapter Text
Exotos: Hello, everybody! Happy 2022, and welcome to the first multi-part chapter of the story!
Cross: At times a story would work best with multiple parts or cliffhangers, and I believe this to be one of them. Feedback on how they function is appreciated, and before anyone asks, multi-part episodes that focus less on the train end and more on the Ladybug world end are possible.
Exotos: And, to be perfectly honest, probably just as interesting, if not more so.
Cross: Though what such a story would be is for a time later than now. With the first part of the major story skipping over the data so far, let’s see where part 1 leaves Marinette.
Exotos: Anyhow, without further ado, let's go!
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Father Time/The Fowl Prison Car Part 1
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Finally, after so many years, it was within her grasp.
The Ladybug Miraculous. One of the two Miraculous capable of recreating reality itself, the other being the Cat Miraculous.
Needless to say, being educated about the multiverse by the previous Conductor was eye opening: from giant robots that could turn into vehicles, to a world where people coexisted with fantastical creatures called Pokémon, and of course, the Miraculous World.
A world where people could, among other things, be brought back from the dead. A power that was beyond the so called ‘Infinity’ Train.
All she needed was to get the Ladybug and Cat Miraculous, combine them, make her wish and BAM! Alrich would be back, safe and sound, and she'd be out of this lord-forsaken train.
Sure, she'd tried replicating Kwamis before, but that… didn't go so well. There were many things that the train could recreate, or create good enough copies of, but the Kwami were one of the things that it could not properly recreate. It was a failed attempt, one of hundreds she’d tried since she got rid of that robot.
With one of the real deals here, however, she might just be able to get her wish after all. All she needed was to get the earrings first, and the girl’s visit to the Fowl Play Car would help her with that. Then it was just a matter of getting Adrien Agreste here, and she had seen enough that it would not be hard to get that to happen.
It was as simple as ‘Cat Blanc’. Figuring out where the girl was at any given time was the hard part, as the very much non-Infinite train couldn’t register or track a number that wasn’t a regular green number and the Infinity Train cars switched around even when she wasn’t doing it herself. However when the girl was in the Mystic Thread Forest Car she sent some sort of signal out that her systems could detect, and the Giant Apple Car had moved to after that rare car after one of the last Apex members was in it.
Whatever Ladybug had done in that car also created a multiversal pulse, but she had more important things to worry about than others looking towards the Infinity Train.
"Now then, Marinette Dupain-Cheng… it's time to see how long it is until you hand over your Miraculous."
She was going to get her wish, to bring her lost love back, and nothing would stop her.
Or her name wasn't Amelia Hughes.
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"Hmm, how peculiar."
Gabriel Agreste had just arrived at his supervillain lair and he was about to become Shadow Moth when he stopped and looked around. He could have sworn…
"What's peculiar, Master?" Nooroo asked fearfully, materializing from the Butterfly Miraculous.
"Just now, I felt that somewhere out there in the multiverse," Gabriel raised his head. "Someone expressed the same desire to use the Ultimate Miraculous Superpower like me, and it felt like a wave of…something else. I felt Ladybug and….Wayzz."
The Guardians spellbound has spoken of other worlds. It was nor the most detailed part of the book, they apparently had a book on the subject at their temple that was much more extensive, but it had told him enough. Though not what he just felt.
"That's not peculiar at all," Duusu remarked, emerging from the Peacock Miraculous. "I hate to tell you this, Master, but you're far from the only person who'd be interested in using the Ultimate Miraculous Superpower to get your wish. And oh, I felt Wayzz too! He must have moved between the dimensions and not exploded! Oh, wait, isn’t Ladybug the replacement for a guardian!"
Gabriel hummed and scratched his chin. Had Ladybug managed to take the power of Protection to the Infinity Train, and had she put it back so Adrien’s poorly dressed friend could play hero? "Could it be possible that this kindred spirit might be in the same location Ladybug was sent to, now able to take two Miraculouses?"
"Even if that's the case, you'd both be stuck in a stalemate," Nooroo pointed out. "With the Cat Miraculous here and the Ladybug Miraculous there, the necessary Miraculous can't be unified-"
"Therefore, we must act quick if my wish is to be granted," Gabriel stated sternly as he clenched his fists. "I've already done a lot to get this far, and I will fix Apex Conductor's mistake if it's the last thing I do!"
Nooroo and Duusu looked worriedly at each other.
“Should we tell him that others may feel that pulse like he did? It might not just be two who seek Tikki now?”.
"In that case I have no more time for questions. Nooroo! Duusu! Unify!"
Though as he transformed, a thought did come to him. Would he now be racing against more than a single rival to save his wife?
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The first thing that Marinette noticed about the car was what it was, a prison. It was what a prison was: a dreary world of cold metal and little light.
The second was the sound of a last BANG! as a massive metal sheet dropped behind her, blocking where the door into the car had been in a foot of solid metal.
The third…
"Marinette Dupain-Cheng. By order of the highest authority, you are to be incarcerated indefinitely!"
There was a giant chicken man in dark leather clothing with a pair of massive spikes on his scaly chicken legs in front of her, looking at her like a piece of scum to be….well, incarcerated.
“What!? On what charge!?!” Marinette reflexively asked as dozens of more darkly dressed chicken men appeared behind the first, all armed with club-like weapons and leg spikes, “And why do you all have spikes on your legs?!”
“Those are spurs, Marinette. Roosters have them to fight each other and ward off predators. They have those at home.” Tikki reflexively explained.
Really?! Chickens had spikes?! Why?!
“Get her!” The rooster shouted as the roosters charged, all drawing their clubs to strike her with or slashing at her with their spiked legs.
With a quick shout of ‘Spots On!’ she transformed and leapt over them.
“She’s got a Kwami! It's a Tikki!”
“Immobilize her immediately!”
“She’s speaking French!”
That last comment was random, the Milly Milly nuts and Hornwood hadn’t noted that at all. Still, chicken spikes!
But also, a Tikki? What was that supposed to mean? As far as she knew, all Kwamis were unique creatures, so why were they acting like Tikki was one of many?
The rooster men kicked at her with a style that was sort of like a foot-based martial art, but with emphasis on the part of the leg with spikes. She dodged and swerved and otherwise avoided being skewered, but spikes!
With a whip of her Yo-Yo she snared one guard and slammed him into another, hopped over a third one’s spike kick and kicked him in the beak. But three new rooster men appeared as soon as she took one down, with one landing a solid kick to her with their scaly bird foot, though she rolled off it and avoided a follow up stabbing side kick to kick one in the face.
And so the fight continued, with Ladybug growing more and more tired as the roosters fought back fiercely. She needed some solution.
“Lucky Charm!”
The roosters, however, seemed to know what that was, and one immediately flew up with his birdman wings to grab the lucky charm created object before it could be gotten by her. Though it seemed like the lucky charm was prepared for that.
FLAASSSSHHHHHH
“Ahhh! You fool! It was a flash grenade!” One rooster man shouted furiously, clutching his burning eyes. All the birdmen were blinded, stumbling around in pain, and by the time they regained their eyesight their newest prisoner had escaped.
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Back at Paris, Chat Noir and Rena Rogue landed at one of the rooftops to witness Shadow Moth's latest supervillain attack.
Today's supervillain was definitely much more mechanical, with nary a humanoid hint to it: a massive collection of living clocks formed around to create something like a humanoid figure, the clock heads ticking once in a while as their time went everywhere, going back and forward at random.
"Well, give Shadow Moth some credit," Chat Noir snorted. "He might suck at naming, but his designs are unique."
Rena Rogue tilted her head. "You've been fighting him for years, and only now you noticed?"
"I mean, I've been kinda busy trying to stop them from destroying Paris," the feline superhero answered. “Also, it’s been like a year at most, maybe a bit less.”
Really!?...oh crap it had been. Rena shook her head, this was not like the time she watched Friendship is Magic with her sisters and wondered how it was only a year since the series began at the fourth season. This was reality, they were superheroes, and there was a rampaging problem to hit.
“Yeah, you know me once and you know me forever.” Cat grinned, noticing her surprise at the timeline shock.
“...I could say the same for that one class and Chloe.” She deadpanned, to which Cat chuckled before looking over the large villain for a moment, a thoughtful and experienced mind at work imagining how the fight would probably break down.
"Speaking of Queen Bee, we should get going to stop that thing. Pegasus and Vesperia should do the trick." He suggested after a bit of thinking.
"They were hit by Apex Conductor," Rena argued, scratching her chin. "We're gonna need new holders for this job."
"New temporary holders," Chat Noir pointed out. "I don't think the Kwamis would be up for switching partners so easily."
Rena Rogue mentally noted that. Given how upset Trixx was when she once suggested to him what her name would be if she used the Ladybug Miraculous, it was a safe bet the other Kwamis might not be so keen on changing holders. Marinette said that Wayzz still missed her former master even as he fully knew the man wouldn’t recognize or remember him, even as he had apparently mastered Nico’s secret handshakes.
That being said, desperate situations require desperate measures.
Cat looked first at the ongoing problem, then back at Rena, then back at the problem. Then he sighed.
“Ah darn, we need four people to make this plan work. I was hoping to go and call myself Lynel Noir.” Cat shook his head to get back in the game, “But, if I can’t call myself that, can I give out one of the Miraculous, the Horse to be specific? I have a great candidate in mind. You could say she’s already proven herself.”
Rena gave a quick look for how close they were to the Miracle Box.
“Ladybug has a spare phone in the Miracle Box to call the Kwami with. I’ll give Kaalki a call and have her meet you….”
Step one, give Cat a place to go that was close enough to Marinette’s place without being a problem. Step two, Ilusion to buy them some time. Step three, figure out who to give the Bee Miraculous to. Step four, win.
Sounds simple enough, right?
"Okay, so I'll go look for a new Pegasus, and you'll go look for a new Vesperia," Chat Noir said aloud."Seeing as I know who to go look for, you got a great candidate?"
Not really.
"Yeah, I do." She lied. Er, maybe there was someone. Marinette had insisted that she had never had Adrien be a permanent miraculous user, and while she suspected there was some incident that Marinette did not want to talk about, maybe she’d have better luck with him if no one else came to mind.
"Great! Then let's do this!"
Chat Noir and Rena Rogue high fived and Cat hopped away from the scene, hoping to get the Miraculous as quickly as possible as she called the Kwami to get into position, while she set up an illusion to buy them some time. More for her to have a good idea than for Cat to find his own candidate.
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Marinette, having detransformed after a long brawl with the chickens and slipping away with the help of the flash bang, sighed as she hid in the air ducts alongside Tikki.
"You know, being the hero of Paris for months now made me grow a little numb on weird stuff, but being incarcerated by talking bipedal chickens with spikes on their feet is too weird, even for me!" Marinette complained, trying not to dwell on the distant sound of screaming that echoed in the air ducts.
"Roosters."
The parisian teenager turned to her fairy-like companion.
"Those were roosters, Marinette. "Chicken" is their female counterpart," Tikki explained thusly. "I've made sure to notice the difference since Orikko loathes the confusion."
Marinette felt a shiver go down her spine as Tikki said that. She still hadn't recovered from the last time she erroneously called Orikko a chicken.
Tikki had given her the stink eye for a while after having to use a lucky charm to repair the damage Orikko’s power did without a Miraculous to direct the power.
“Tikki, what do you think everyone else is experiencing? Is it weirder than what we are doing or more normal?” Marinette whispered as she crawled through the air ducts.
…
In Maccadam’s Old Oil House Car, Juleka was confused as to why she was seeing three different colored versions of Demolisher drinking a glowing blue liquid together in tandem. She hadn’t drank anything alcoholic.
“First time at a dimensional nexus bar, Purple Tigress?” The bartender asked her sympathetically.
...
Tikki shrugged. Who could say? With the cars they’d been in it was anyone’s guess.
Unfortunately, it distracted her human partner from noticing how weak the vent window in front of her was, causing Marinette to fall down.
Luckily for her, she wasn't high above the ground enough to make her crash anything more than an annoyance, but her butt still hurt.
"Well, in other news, why did these leather roosters arrest us!?" Marinette exclaimed as she stood up and dusted herself off. "They didn't even tell us, they just said "you're arrested" and tried to take us prisoner!"
"To be fair, you did try to resist arrest," Tikki remarked. "At that point, they had a legitimate reason to arrest you."
"Did they have one beforehand, though!?" Marinette repeated, faint memories of many talks with Mylene on justice and inequality bubbling up to mind. Those talks…well it was rare she understood why a Miraculous user’s costume looked the way it did, but she got exactly why Polymouse’s costume resembled a hoodie.
(Also, did Mylene get hit by Apex Conductor? Marinette couldn’t remember if she had.)
Tikki could only shrug, which didn't help Marinette's nerves. But luckily, she did spot an open locker with outfits similar to what the spiked roosters wore...
"Tikki, I got an idea!"
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After causing the villain to punch the air harmlessly via her illusions and getting the message from Cat that he had found Kaalki and her miraculous as planned, she took a minute to slip Trixx a grape as she tried to figure out who to trust with the Bee Miraculous for this mission. It would have to be someone who would not get akumatized when Vesperia came back, even if they didn’t quite match up with another Kwami. But who?
She was new to the city so, unlike Marinette, she didn’t know too many people. And of them who’d be a good fit for the Bee? Nora maybe, but some primal part of her said no to that on principle…
Ow!
So deep in thought she was, looking around the city for anyone who looked promising that she jumped right into a window like one of the countless birds her father rehabilitated. Owwwww.
"Oh my goodness!"
Rena opened her eyes, and to her relief, a candidate to be Vesperia's temporary replacement was inside what used to be Chloe's bedroom. Though to think that she was leaning on her was a good idea…either she was desperate or hitting the window scrambled her head. maybe both.
Sabrina Raincomprix.
"I can't believe it! Rena Rogue, in the window!" the redhead said cheerfully. "Oh, if only Chloe was here she… actually, considering what's happened, maybe it's better that she's not here."
"Touche, girl," Rena Rogue chuckled from the outside before tapping the window. "Now, think you could?"
"Oh right! Sorry!"
Sabrina opened the window, and the superheroine promptly jumped inside.
"So, Rena Rogue," Sabrina blurted. "What brings you to the hotel? Did you come to see Chloe? She’s gone…." the last part was said a lot quieter.
"We lI was looking around for someone in general, but seeing as I ran into you…I think I, and Paris, could use your help Sabrina.” The pain from hitting the window was fading, and this still felt like a good idea. And hey, if it did go badly….well it would be terrible but they could just sick Chloe on her and let the two of them cancel each other out in a big fight.
"Me?!" Sabrina asked, unsure of what she could possibly mean and unaware of how the heroine was already imagining how to damage control if this went wrong.
Rena Rogue promptly reached for her back, and took out the Bee Miraculous, showing it to Sabrina as she stated:
“Sabrina Raincomprix, here's the Miraculous of the Bee, which grants the power of Subjugation. You will use it for the greater good. Once the job is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?”
"... Did you just repeat Ladybug's recruitment speech word by word?"
"I always wanted to say it, okay?!" Rena Rogue whined, she only gave them out to a fake Nino and she wanted to do it at least once, though ideally without fake Ninos or Infinity Trains…. "Wait, how do you know about the speech?"
"Chloe told me."
"Of course she did…" Rena Rogue shook her head. "Regardless, I entrust you with this Miraculous. Do you promise to use its power for good, and to give it back when the current problem is over with?"
Sabrina fidgeted for a little bit, but eventually, she flashed a smile and said:
"I do."
Rena Rogue handed the Bee Miraculous to Sabrina and she put it on, summoning Pollen into view.
"Oh hey, you're the friend of my former master!" Pollen chirped. "I've heard a lot about you!"
"You did?! Chloe told you about me?!"
And as the duo talked for a bit, Rena Rogue looked out the window, hoping Chat Noir was getting his temporary hero just fine. Or that Pollen would not be the only agreeable Kwami today.
...
Alix Kubdel hid from the supervillain to the best of her ability. She wouldn't get to grow up to become Bunnyx if she was taken out by a villain right now, after all.
Of course, pure survival was just as much of a factor, and most certainly more so.
People had died to villains before, but Ladybug could and did revive them afterwards. But with her gone…well when even her brother admitted that it was only a matter of time…she didn’t want to become the first. Not only would it just suck to die, she’d hate to be the one on Ladybug’s conscience.
It wasn’t her fault some asshole went on a shooting spree or that she was doing her job and protecting people from dying when she was hit. She could revive people, sure, but Ladybug didn’t like people dying, and there was even talk on the Ladyblog if she even knew that people were brought back.
Plus…well if she died, would that be a time paradox? Future Bunnyx had come back and talked to Ladybug but if she died there would be no Future Bunnyx to talk to Ladybug…
“Hey Bunnyx to be, want to add to your resume?”
Alix immediately turned around, taken out of pondering the laws of time, and beside her was Chat Noir. Cat grinned at the currently short heroine of the future as he flashed her the glasses that Max used to become Pegasus, not that Alix knew that.
“That’s not the Miraculous my future self was using. This...isn’t going to create a time paradox right?” Alix asked nervously, though also in anticipation. This would be so much better than hiding, scared for her life and that of the stability of both Ladybug’s feelings and the space time continuum.
“Probably not. I think that only happens if you die….”
“I’ll try not to.” Despite her quipping Alix was rather excited as she took the pair of glasses from Cat. Cat himself coughed, as if readying his throat for a speech.
“Alix Kubdiel, here's the Miraculous of the Horse, which grants the power of Teleportation. You will use it for the greater good. Once the job is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?”
“You literally met my future self who you trust with time travel.” Alix reminded Cat, even as she nodded eagerly.
“I did, and as time travel is confusing, maybe you can wait on that until Ladybug gets back to fix things if we accidentally rewrite history.” Cat joked back as Kaalki emerged, which helped him avoid his Aspik flashbacks. "Kaalki, this is gonna be your new master for the time being."
"Why?" Kaalki inquired. "What happened to Pegasus?"
"He's… not available right now."
"Oh right, like Ladybug. Stuck on the Infinity Oro…Train…whatever it is called, though I am confident he will return. So, tell me, are you a great hero worthy of being my temporary partner until Pegasus returns?" Kaalki asked Alix, who gulped and nodded.
"Yeah, I met my future self. She's the user of the Rabbit Miraculous!"
"Hmm, I'll definitely get an earful from Fluff when this is over," Kaalki remarked. "But desperate situations require desperate measures, and meeting a heroic future version of yourself is impressive enough I suppose. Let's go!"
…
And so, both temporary heroines exclaimed in unison the empowering phrases:
"Pollen, buzz on!"
"Kaalki, full gallop!"
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Marinette now donned an outfit similar to the rooster guards, which immediately morphed to fit her size once she touched it. If she could stay just out of sight, maybe they’d think she was just a somewhat thin rooster. Stay in the shadows, be stealthy, bam!
She slunk her way through areas where there were only screams of distant prisoners to tell her that she was in a prison. She slipped past two roosters drinking coffee, then through a room of lockers with individual names and locks, and finally slipped into a seemingly lonely room when she heard a larger approaching group of the birds, though she found it wasn’t that lonely of a room at all. It had someone in it, though it wasn’t a Rooster.
It was…Duusu? She had only seen the Kwami of the Peacock Miraculous in pictures, and while the body was right, the colors….well Duusu looked like a peacock, while this Duusu looked more like a Turkey, with brown colors and a reddish head.
He was eating a sandwich next to a lunch box like someone on a break from work, and Tikki was staring at this Duusu like she was seeing something unnatural. Was it because it was someone who looked like a lost friend of hers, but also clearly not. Like, maybe if she was looking at Alya, but she had Juleka’s hair and clothes and colorations, but perhaps more primarily wrong.
“Oh hey there.” She cautiously spoke to the being eating lunch near an open air duct.
"Hello! He he he! I'm Duusu 37! I'm the Prison Torture specialist for self hating prisoners! What's yours? Your Tikki looks so near mint it's amazing."
“I’m Marinette, um, I’m from the Infinity Train Air Duct Safety Inspections.”
“Oh! Yeah, they haven’t done that since I started working here. He he he!” ‘Duusu 37’ bought her bad fib without question. "So, what brings you here?"
She pointed to the open air duct and he seemed to get it.
“Oh you need to inspect this air duct? He he he! I get it, I thought the way to the place we keep citizens from the worlds with the spider people and the mutants and the green rage monsters to torture had a unstable duct. Think you could patch it up, I’m always worried I’m going to fall into spider torture pit number 53.”
She nodded, not wanting to quite think about nearly five dozen pits of spiders used to torture people. Were they regular spiders or like, really giant freaky spiders?
“I will, thank you for the heads up. Though I do have a question if it isn’t too much to ask. I’ve just been really busy and…”
The faux-Duusu nodded.
“I get it, you want to take a few minutes of break on the clock. He he he! We all do that. So, what do you want to ask?”
Tikki mouthed ‘what the hell are you’, but she’d ask something more diplomatic.
“Most everyone else I’ve met here is a big bird but you aren’t a big bird. So, what are yo undoing here.” At her question Duusu 37’s eyes lit up, like he was happy to explain it.
"I can create sentimonsters out of people's emotions but only from self hatred. He he he! Other mes can use fury, despair, fear, constipation, but me, I can only use self hatred! They pay me to do it for the prisoners who need that specific sort of torture."
“And you do that…” Marinette tried to keep her horror at that idea from being too evident.
“Because everyone in this place is bad bad bad! He He he! Don’t you know, no good person ever goes on the Infinity Train. No heroes, no nothing. But sometimes really bad people come here, and they need to be punished a lot. So that’s what we do here, and I was hired to torture them more.”
“By creating sentimonsters.” Tikki said in horror as the turkey-Duusu nodded.
“Because when you are a bad person, you need Sentispecters to beat you bloody! He he he! Sentispecters! Sentispecters!”
Sentispecters? So whatever this Duusu-37 did, it had to be sufficiently different from prime Duusu. Or maybe it was the exact same thing, but with a different name like a Sentiladybug or SentiNino, who knew? Well outside of Duusu-37 she guessed.
“A Kwami shouldn’t be torturing people!” Tikki said firmly as Duusu-37 shrugged.
“Why?” He he he! There aren’t heroes on the Infinity Train, only bad people. And people need to be punished. Plus they pay me good to torture people.”
The happiest thought she was having in this place was a memory of her and Cat talking after New York when Eagle and Uncanny Valley mentioned they were paid as part of the United Heroez. He had joked about getting the mayor to pay them at minimum for time expended, though she had declined mostly out of practicality of how they’d even receive the payments, though Cat had really been joking about it and wasn’t particularly serious.
Their entire team helped people out of a sense of duty and desire to help, not for money and the Kwami were even less interested in money (though apparently if the mayor agreed to pay them in cheese Cat would take it without a second thought. Cheese was a bit more annoying to get then her getting extra cookies after all.)
This false Duusu was just as enthusiastic about it as any of them, and he was paid to torture people with a bigger smile than when she stopped by to give Nino or another a Miraculous. It was quite disturbing, and her bother didn’t seem to be what caused the not-Duusu to look the two of them over with a more suspicious eye. Whatever it was, though, the result was the same. Trouble.
"Wait, you aren't an air duct inspector! He he he! You're a convict out of her cell!"
"Not till they put us in a cell we’re not!" Marinette declared before headbutting the not-Kwami and climbing back up into an air duct, with Tikki headbutting the false Duusu for good measure and following her up.
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Once the replacements transformed, Chat Noir led the transformed Alix elsewhere, all while he spoke to Rena using his staff.
"Rena, I got Pegasus' replacement!"
"And I got Vesperia's! See you at the Eiffel Tower!"
Both teams nodded and jumped up to the Eiffel Tower, where the entirety of Paris could be seen while the heroes looked at the replacements.
Alix now had long white hair tied in a ponytail-ha!-with a black full bodysuit with blue highlights and blue skate shoes.
Sabrina, meanwhile, had a yellow full bodysuit with black legs and arms, her hair turning curly on the ends, and her glasses changing from circle to hexagon-shaped.
"So, wait, does this mean I'm Queen Bee now?" The costumed Sabrina, known only to have the crew present, asked the veterans.
"Nah, different superheroes, different names," Chat Noir answered. "I, for example, went by "Mister Bug" when I briefly used the Ladybug Miraculous." A tidbit that made Sabrina rather curious.
"You once used the Ladybug Miraculous?! What was it like?!"
"Eh, it wasn't that big a deal. I look good in all colors." Cat grinned.
"And that's not important," Rena Rogue stated. "You two, pick your names already, we're kinda in a hurry."
“Or at least think of them before Nadja Chamack or Alya ask you for an interview. Or they’ll name you.” Cat advised. "Trust me, Shadow Moth isn't the only person who gives weird names to people."
No one could see Alya rolling her eyes internally at that one. And after a few seconds, the superheroines exclaimed:
"Honeycombo!"
"Special Weekend!"
"Ooh, I like those names!" Chat Noir chirped. "I've got a good feeling about this!"
"Hold onto that feeling, because we're gonna need it," Rena Rogue stated before facing the new heroes. "Now, Honeycombo, Special Weekend, listen carefully: you need to play your part perfectly if we're to succeed, understood?"
Once the plan was shared the heroes were off, the veterans wondering whom the other had recruited. Cat out of curiosity and Rena out of that and practicality: would Cat be the only one able to find Special Weekend if they needed her again?
Also she only named the miscellaneous sentimonsters! Villains were all too happy to shout their names out for the world to hear and she couldn’t just call every sentimonster ‘Pancake Sentimonster’. It needed an actual name!
…Also Nadja gave far worse names than she did.
Some hopping through the roofs later, and the four heroes reunited to watch the giant collection of clocks looking down at the streets, having escaped the illusion she set it in earlier.
"Geez, that's a lot of clocks," Special Weekend remarked. "But it's nothing Chat Noir can't deal with, right?"
Chat Noir raised an eyebrow.
"Use the Cataclysm!" The short horseshoe-wielding heroine said aloud.
"I can't!"
"What do you mean you can't?!" Special Weekend exclaimed. "Just raise your hand and shout "Cataclysm!" like you always do!"
"No, I mean I can't use Cataclysm lightly anymore!" Chat Noir answered. "I can only use it now to destroy the Akumas!"
Special Weekend paused, her eyes widening as she processed the revelation. "The Cataclysm can do that?"
Chat Noir nodded. "Which is why I have to save it only for when the Akuma is released. Without Ladybug, it's our only other option to avoid a mass Akuma attack!"
“Yeah, just imagine it. Everyone in Paris turning into Mr. Pigeon clones.” Rena gave as an example, though fortunately for the poor guy there was not going to be a 73rd incident.
"Um, I'm no expert on the monsters you fight," Honeycombo spoke up. "But that thing’s face has a mark on it that isn’t a butterfly"
The group looked up and saw something akin to the mask that several akumatized villains had, but it was shaped less like a butterfly and more like a feather. It was a faint one, but as the villain had also not loudly declared itself to be ‘X!’..
"It's a Sentimonster!" Rena Rogue stated.
"Drat, so my Cataclysm wouldn't work anyway!" Chat Noir groaned. "Last time I tried it on a Sentimonster, it went haywire!"
"On the bright side, we don't have an Akuma to worry about," Rena Rogue pointed out. "All we need is to find where the Amok is and crack it to neutralize it!"
“I probably still need to cataclysm the feather though.” Cat wasn’t sure if it was exactly the same but he did not want to find out it was later.
"And how are we gonna do that?" Honeycombo asked. "That thing's a giant collection of clocks! Even if we managed to look at every single clock, it would take forever to find the right Amok!"
Chat Noir snapped his fingers. "If we can't beat it on the outside…"
Rena Rogue smiled. "We'll have to beat it on the inside! Special Weekend, aim for the top of it!"
The superheroine nodded and spun her arm before shouting:
"Voyage!"
A pair of portals opened, the first on the ground and the other right above the clock monster.
"Honeycombo! Jump through the portal and paralyze it!"
Honeycombo winced at the order, but she took a deep breath and jumped through the portals, screaming for a moment before shouting:
"V-Venom!"
She edged her arm forward, and as soon as she touched the clock monster, it stunned the beast, causing it to stagger while electricity surged through it for some reason.
The other heroes came out of the portal and landed next to Honeycombo, who squeaked before jumping into Chat Noir's arms.
"Calm down, Honeycombo, it's us."
"Oh! Right!" the bee-themed superheroine blushed. "Sorry."
"It 's okay."
"Alright, everyone, quick!" Rena Rogue instructed. "Find an entrance while this thing's paralyzed!"
The group looked around for any cracks or entrances they could use… until Venom lost its effect and allowed the monster to move, causing them to slip right into an open spot.
They fell for a bit until they eventually hit the ground… which resembled a giant clock.
Not only that, the interior was a colossal set of walls made of clocks, each one ticking and slowly telling the time.
"How could something so big be even bigger on the inside?" Honeycombo asked. Special Weekend had to bite her tongue to not make a joke about time machines, as did Rena. Though neither knew they watched the same marathons to get the same jokes.
"You get used to it," Chat Noir quipped. "Now let's look for-"
Suddenly, the clocks all around the heroes began moving and morphing, eventually summoning unconscious people trapped inside bubbles, all mumbling the same thing:
"Ladybug… where's Ladybug…"
"This is messed up," Special Weekend stated.
"I see," Chat Noir hummed. "This Sentimonster was created from their desperation for Ladybug to be gone for so long. Not sure who was patient zero, but that’s probably not important."
"That seems to be the case," Rena Rogue frowned. "But if that's the case, where could the Amok-"
It was then that she saw it. An alarm clock floating in the middle of the sea of clocks, surrounded by a purple aura.
"Huh, well this was easy," Special Weekend remarked. "Now, Chat Noir, use Cataclysm on that thing!"
"Cata-"
"Wait."
Everybody faced Rena Rogue, who folded her arms and hummed.
"Something about this feels fishy."
"How so?"
"It's too easy, and besides, when has an amokized item released a purple aura before?"
"Excellent deduction, Rena Rogue."
The group turned back and the clock began to morph and grow, eventually turning into a giant form of Shadow Moth's head.
"I had a feeling you wouldn't fall for such a simple trick, but it never hurts to get firsthand confirmation, wouldn't you agree?"
"The giant energy head trick again?" Chat Noir scoffed. "You really need to learn new tricks, Shadow Moth."
Cat lunged at the head, swiping it with a staff. The head turned to mist, vanishing for a few seconds as Rena quickly went to work, and was done before the head reformed. The now restored giant head scanned the team before flashing a smile.
"It appears there are new Miraculous Wielders. Does this mean Ladybug has returned from being vanished by Apex Conductor?"
"Yes!"
Everybody turned around and faced Rena Rogue, who had a confident smile on her face.
"In fact, I bet she'll be here any minute now!"
Rena turned to the team and winked, Chat Noir returning the wink while Honeycombo and Special Weekend exchanged confused looks.
"Shadow Moth!"
One of the clocks levitated from the wall and morphed its inside to reveal who was standing outside: Ladybug, spinning her yo-yo, and sporting a stern glare.
"Missed me?"
"Ladybug, excellent!" Shadow Moth exclaimed. "Father Time! Chase after Ladybug and get me her Miraculous! The others will be stuck in your endless abyss of time until that girl is captured once and for all!"
The head disappeared and the clock monster began crawling towards Ladybug, who used her yo-yo to jump away from it, turning a corner….and vanishing.
Father Time, the now named Sentimonster, looked around for any clue as Rena and Cat grinned and the two new heroines got it.
Mirage.
Without a word before Shadow Moth realized he fell for Mirage, again, the team went out in every perceivable direction in the monster’s cavernous interior.
"Alright, look for something that has turned blue in color and has a feather!" Rena ordered, aware that time was of the essence. Cat could know she had given Sabrina magical powers, but she’d kind of prefer to not run out and have Sabrina know her identity. Too close to Chloe for her comfort.
"On it!" Honeycombo exclaimed, oblivious to her concerns.
"Can't we just have Chat Noir use-"
"No, Special Weekend, we can't have Chat Noir use Cataclysm until we get the Amok out!" Rena Rogue stated. "Now start looking while the Sentimonster tries to catch Ladybug and hopefully fails."
AKA ‘wonder where the fake Ladybug went’.
And so, the group separated and started looking, with Chat Noir eventually stepping on something.
A blue cuckoo clock.
He casually grabbed it and smashed it… and from it came out the Amok.
"Cataclysm!"
The feline superhero struck the feather with his Superpower… and as soon as it was gone, the trapped people floated away as the entire place began to rumble.
"Everybody out!"
The heroes jumped up high and went to the rooftops while the trapped adults went back to their homes to be freed.
Oh, and Father Time crashed back into the dozens of clocks that formed them.
"That's gonna be one heck of a mess to clean up," Special Weekend remarked right before one of the dots in her glasses disappeared.
"That will have to be later," Rena stated. "For now, we gotta find a safe place to detransform."
"Before you detransform, maybe it would be for the best if we go somewhere more private?" Chat Noir suggested. "That way, we can keep a degree of secrecy between us."
Rena Rogue smiled coyly. "You just wanna have the bragging rights of knowing who Special Weekend really is, don't you?"
Chat Noir shrugged while returning the smile. "I mean, that's always a plus, right?"
"Yeah, you have a point," Rena Rogue said before turning to Honeycombo. "Now let's go, Honeycombo, before everybody finds out who you are."
"I know who she is~!" Chat Noir quipped in a sing-song tone.
"No you don't~!" Rena Rogue responded in the same tone.
And sharing a hearty laughter, the heroes and temporary heroes jumped away.
...
Shadow Moth slammed his staff against the ground in pure rage.
"Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on you. Listen, Rena Rogue, I will not allow you to fool me a third time!"
Shadow Moth clenched his raised fist.
"And in order to do that, I will take you out of the picture! Permanently if need be!"
And with his words spoken, the window closed, leaving the man in darkness.
...
Honeycombo and Rena Rogue jumped back to the hotel room where the former was recruited, and they closed the window shortly after.
"Alright, Honeycombo, thanks for everything, but it's time to give me back the Bee Miraculous."
"Yeah… Pollen, Buzz Off."
With those words spoken, Honeycombo turned back into Sabrina, who sighed sadly as Pollen materialized.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing, it's just… since Chloe went missing, I… haven't really known what to do with my life," Sabrina confessed. "I usually do what Chloe tells me to do, but since she's gone, I don't… know what to do."
“Well, that’s how most people are. They just try to figure out what they want to do with themselves from trial and error," Rena smiled. "Think of Chloe being gone as like a vacation, and you’ve got time to ask yourself what Sabrina wants to do, and not what Chloe wants Sabrina to do.”
The redhead still looked a little upset, prompting Pollen to chime in:
"If it makes you feel better, I'll tell the other Kwami of how you acted as Honeycombo. I'll let them know you were great."
Sabrina smiled a little. "Thanks, Pollen."
And with nothing else to say, Sabrina handed back the comb and waved goodbye as Pollen disappeared and Rena Rogue jumped through the window.
...
Meanwhile with Chat Noir and Special Weekend, the latter didn't even let the former say anything before she turned back into Alix and handed back the Horse Miraculous.
"Wow, that was quick!" Chat Noir remarked. "You sure you don't wanna share a few words with Kaalki?"
"Nah, it was fun while it lasted, but those glasses made me feel dizzy," Alix answered, scratching her head. "They're not supposed to do that, are they?"
"I wouldn't know, I never wore them before," Chat Noir replied as he pocketed the glasses. "Anyhow, how did it feel to be a superhero today?"
"It was decent practice for when I eventually become Bunnyx, I guess," Alix folded her arms. "But I couldn't stop thinking about how the others are doing wherever Apex Conductor sent them."
"I'm sure they'll be fine, they're with Ladybug and she's the useful one," Chat Noir answered with a wave of his hand.
"The useful one?" Alix raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Chat Noir winced and looked around before jumping away, leaving the befuddled Alix behind.
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
“This is some sort of computer room.” Marinette said aloud as she and Tikki split apart, being human and Kwami instead of heroine once more.
It was a giant room lined with computers, though it lacked any sense of home or habitability. The walls were all metallic, scuffed on the floor by chicken feet, no posters at all, and like the rest of this place there was the faintest sound of screaming always in the distance.
Wanting to take a look at things, and not dwell on where the screams were coming from (as she had not stumbled into that part of the prison yet and two different parts of her wanted to both free the screamers and knew that that end of the prison was probably more guarded and dangerous to), she took a seat at a cubicle and took to accessing the information within.
Eventually, after a bit of typing, and a happy grin at the lack of a password, a video started playing, and not at particularly loud volume either. So hopefully no one would hear them.
“Gahrrrrhhhh…”
Or at the sound of her screaming at what she was seeing on the video: some sort of monstrous looking robotic thing that looked like a Sentimonster made from someone’s fear of computers. It had a body made of wires, blue flames around it, and a single white rotation ball as a face with a single white eye on a black vein across the sphere’s entire body.
“Hello. Welcome to existence Fowl Prison Car. I’m the Conductor, the ruler of the Infinity Train. Nice to meet you.” The metallic thing greeted in a video from history’s past.
“...That’s the ruler of this place?” Tikki questioned in a much less screamy voice than she had just shouted in.
“Normally such contact is unnecessary, but the creation of your car, and thus yourselves, is a rather unusual circumstance that requires this specific action from my algorithm. This car’s design is unlike most any other car on the Infinity Train so far created. This car is not meant to assist in anyone overcoming their inner struggles and bettering themselves. This car is not a test or a trial. It’s a prison where any passenger who enters it is not allowed to ever leave, or denizen for that matter. But mostly passengers.”
“....what….” Marinette questioned. A prison? Her? But…why? Sure she…well maybe stole an item or two and occasionally snuck into Adrien’s home but, that was all for good reasons and eternal prison staffed by scary roosters was a bit overkill.
“Wait, The Cat said that this place was supposed to be some sort of demented help. I mean, I don’t know why giant apples are supposed to help but….a prison without parole isn’t helping. It’s a punishment.” Tikki questioned a bit more audibly as the bad guy continued.
“You might be wondering why this is. A Denizen is created to help Passengers, and the idea of imprisonment and torture is very much not what you are meant to do.” (Um….could you perhaps tell the Milly Milly King that?) “However, it has become required. The Infinity Imperium’s power has been broken, and now the question of what must be done with the surviving leadership and non rehabilitatable soldiers has been raised. The Infinity Train, when this question was raised, created the Fowl Prison Car and every detail of it within. Therefore that is the solution. Every denizen of the Fowl Prison Car is now charged with holding the Infinity Emperor, his 31,034 surviving administrators, 25 surviving legates, and the 703,363 surviving Infinity Legion army prisoners. Forever. And the Infinity Train will ensure that anyone else who deserves this fate, and no one else, will come to this car on their own. That is your purpose for existence.”
And the video ended after… that.
“....Then why are we here? You’ve only committed….misdemeanors I think? Hardly anything equivalent to… that.” Tikki asked her own question out loud.
"Whatever the case, we can't stay here," Marinette stated. "We're only going to get out of here if we get my number to zero, and call me crazy, but being imprisoned doesn't sound helpful."
“Or we breakout. That might be faster. Quick, see if you can find any successful breakouts!” Tikki suggested as she took to typing into the computer.
“ Okay….who escaped this thing…. ‘Master Galvatron’ of Earth 082205 nope, ‘G-Cis’ of Earth 110812 nope, still here, Odalia Blight of Earth 051921 nope, still here, ‘Master Cyclonis of Cyclonia from Earth… ah ha! Found a guy who got out! And his name is….kind of familiar?”
Marinette looked at the image of the green insectoid-robotic head on screen, trying to figure out who this was. Or what it was for that matter.
“Waspin…ator? The last member of the Infinity Imperium still alive? Escaped with help from the outside…” Tikki seemed more confused about the helping part than any recognition of the name.
"A member of the Infinity Imperium?" Marinette repeated. "Why do I get the feeling this imperium is gonna be a pain in our butts?" If it was already part of the reason they were in this car, what were the odds it was going to just be that? In her experience as a heroine…not much.
"It won't."
The two were startled from their archive search by the sudden opening of the door and the arrival of dozens of rooster guards, armed with clubs and leg spikes and violent intent in their avian eyes.
"The imperium ceased to be eons ago. And it's our sworn duty to ensure that stays true. And that includes putting you away forever."
0-0-0-0-0-0-0
Demolisher was nice enough to hold a small bucket for her as she spat up some sort of blue liquid. Energon it was called, and….blehhhh!
"Never. Again."
Juleka felt so foolish. Why did she think to try to share drinks with Demolisher? She was a human, not a robot!
"Ugh, I need something to take my mind off the stomachache I just went through," Juleka whimpered. "Demolisher, what are you supposed to be? Because you kind of look like a type of toy that exists where I’m from.”
“Hasbro’s Transformers line right? Oh yeah, we come from universes where they are quite real.” One of the other Demolishers at the bar said like it was something he was completely at ease with, while her Demolisher and the other one looked like the thought still bugged them greatly.
"Transformers?" Juleka asked, just wanting to confirm that there was a dimension where they were actually real.
Demolisher nodded as the bartender elaborated.
“Yes, and like your own, there are some variants to different versions of it beyond the small things like if, for example, Cat Noir was born a girl, if the villains such as The Mime and Mr. Pigeon were true villains and not just victims of Shadow Moth, or if your classmate Chlo é stole the Ladybug Miraculous and become the, quote on quote, heroine Scarlet Lady, there are quite a few variations on it: Ones like what you call the original cartoons, ones like the later beloved series, what you’d call the Bayverse-"
"I actually saw all the movies with Rose." She interrupted on impulse.
"You have my condolences." Her Demolisher reflexively apologized.
"I actually kinda liked it and Rose really liked them."
"I take back my condolences."
Juleka shared a little laugh, before she took out the photo and stated at Rose with a little smile.
"What's that?"
"A picture of my classmates," Juleka answered before turning to Drogo. "And the boy there's the one responsible for sending me here. For sending a lot of my friends here."
Demolisher hummed in thought as he stared at the picture.
“Demolisher, on the way back to the Giant Farmstead Car, you should drop her off at the Fowl Prison Car. Use the Spacebridge to put her right at the entrance to the Pirate Christmas Car, though it won’t be the car linking to it by the time she leaves it unfortunately.” The bartender advised her giant robot…..well not kidnapper but not companion….who blinked at his random advice.
“The Fowl Prison Car, of all places? I mean I do not want her to be eaten by a giant bird, but why not...er….Corginia or somewhere else. That seems a nicer place to leave someone.”
Juleka didn’t know what any of those places were, though she was sure ‘Pirate Christmas’ was what her mom would probably name as her own Christmas Album if she ever went back to music. Or, perhaps more unsettlingly, it would be what her father would make to try and appease her this Christmas.
The smiling bartender shook his head.
“Oh no, young Juleka should go to the Fowl Prisoner Car. Trust me on this one. Oh….and one more thing while I’m on that train of thought. Hear the devout out before assuming she’s dogmatic, okay? Fearing that reaction, young Juleka, is why it will surprise you.”
“Ooooo...kay?” Juleka wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean. Demolisher shrugged.
“The Maccadam bartenders can see into the future and comprehend different dimensions. They’re all kind of weird, but they have good energon and are always right so might as well listen to them. Anyway, ready to take the Space Bridge to your destination?”
“Sure…”
“You want some drinks for the road? Human digestible I promise you.” Maccadam asked.
"Please let my stomach take a break first," Juleka sighed, putting a hand over her aching stomach.
Stinger
Earth 051921
What was a hero? If you asked some random person in Paris it meant you were a teenager in skintight magical clothes stopping Mr. Pigeon. It was a person that accomplished great and moral deeds and did good for the world.
A classical definition of a hero was someone who accomplished great deeds. it was achievements, and not anything that might be broken along the way, that mattered to them.
And he was both of those things. He was trying to revive his wife and restore his family, the most moral and good deed in any world. He was accomplishing greatness by obtaining a power that was beyond even a God King.
In doing so he, Hawk Moth, was the most heroic person in Paris. He was as much a champion of love as the son of it, and his goal was closer than it had ever been before. So close in fact.
“Hey, Dove-blood! Catch!”
So close in fact, that without even looking to the other side of his solar and in the complete darkness he grabbed what was thrown at him. A grin came over his face as he saw the ring that he had been handed. A pristine creation of ages past, even with the blood stains on it. The Cat Miraculous.
“You’ve done well. Perhaps supporting your goal was worth it after all.” He turned to see the one who had brought him his prize, and he was so pleased to have obtained it he was not going to comment on….him.
Not the fact the young man who brought it was wearing combat leather clothing that exposed his chest like some….ergghhhhh. Not the fact that the exposed chest was coated in far too much red hair for anyone but some Nordic person to spawn (or God in his case).
“Cat Noir was a brilliant foe to battle! Truly worthy of a battle to the death! We battled him four against one and his fortitude in the face of the odds was amazing! He killed The Repugnant, The Scorching, and The Unstoppable, oh the slaying of such a lineage with the Cataclysm! He even managed to avoid me to recharge after such a feat, matched by no opponent of ours so far and then….”
Hawk Moth tuned out his visitor’s joyous, overly enthusiastic, and unhinged description of fighting Cat Noir to the death for his own sanity. The organization they belonged to, and he had aligned with, was dedicated to altering the fabric of reality to render Fate un-absolute and their memberships took on codenames describing their abilities and heritage.
The Mighty, the one who was currently describing every strike that Cat Noir gave against him in vivid detail, was a son of Thor, while the ones that Cat Noir had taken down were children of Mefitis, Shamash, and a descendent of Cú Chulainn, meaning that the rotten little cat had fought and killed an Irish mythological Hulk, and as it was Irish Mythology it was a completely ludicrous and nutty mythological Hulk….
Personally he didn’t care for the specific ‘recreating reality’ goal they were after, they both just wanted to recreate reality and his enemies were friends with their enemies.
The Mighty kept talking and talking and talking and talking and talking about fighting Cat Noir for hours and it was going on without end. He felt his eye twitch. Would he just stop already!!??
Cat Noir was dead unless he survived getting thrown into a gorge with his ring removed, he didn’t need to know every detail or how ‘fighting the greatest Cat Miraculous user of the age’ was now off his checklist.
Hawk Moth felt pity for anyone this guy found if he got one of the beings he really wanted to fight to the death slain.
He compared Cat Noir to that son of Poseidon enough times as a compliment of the highest order that Hawk Moth would bet the Peacock Miraculous that he’d probably gush about fighting Percy Jackson to the death for an entire day without stopping.
(Well he’d bet the Peacock Miraculous if he still had it. The problem with two sets of enemies teaming up was you lose something precious trying to not be defeated by them when they teamed up).
He’d take anything that could make The Mighty stop. Perhaps Adrien could call him from his trip to America for that role in a Tristian McClean movie they were filming somewhere in the west….
And then it hit them both: a shockwave that felt like something. Something miraculous.
“Ladybug, but not….” He couldn’t describe what he just felt. It was like he just felt Ladybug, a sensory upgrade to his natural powers after his alliance was forged, but not. A second Ladybug, but the same Ladybug somehow?
“....Bizarre, that energy…Ladybug and that energy….” Whatever it was, it had at least shut The Mighty up from gushing about fighting Cat Noir to the death. “It feels oddly like the energy we found when he lost track of The Human last week.”
And that was a terrible code name, but he didn’t choose it. He gave good names like Guitar Villain, Mr. Pigeon, and Queen Wasp to his minions, and he had given her a better name when he akumatized her before she decided to call herself ‘The Human’. But more importantly…
“Tell me everything about her disappearance.”
No more talk about Cat Noir, more on what might lead him to this second Ladybug. One whom he could taste to be younger than his Ladybug, and thus weaker.
And you didn’t need Miraculouses from the same universe to grant your wish.
