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milarqui · 2 months

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Scarlet Lady: Robostus

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As Marinette left the locker room, she looked down and realized there was something that should have been there, but wasn't.

She groaned.

“Aw, shoot! I forgot my backpack in the locker room,” she complained. “Again.”

Nino laughed.

“Don't take too long,” he warned her. “You know how Mendeleiev gets.”

Marinette nodded and turned around to cross the courtyard...

… only to trip on a loose slab.

“AH!” she shouted, waving her arms as she tried to recover her balance, but since she was unable, her heroic instincts flared up – and she did a flip in the air without touching the ground. “Whew. I'm okay!”

Just a few meters away, Rose, Alya, and Chloé had been witnesses to Marinette's spectacular feat.

“Wow!” Rose exclaimed, clapping.

“Ooo!” Alya cheered, somehow managing to film the entire thing with her phone.

“Showoff.” No need to say who was being hypocritical this time.

----

Entering the locker room, she quickly located her own and grabbed her backpack, decided to return to class before the bell rang.

“Of course you're my best friend! That's 100% fact!”

Marinette stopped, feeling confused: that was clearly Max, but she was certain that there was no one else. And, as she looked, it appeared as if he was talking to his bag.

“But I'm 98.2% adamant that the teachers aren't ready for such an evolution.”

“His best friend lives in a bag?” Pollen asked, surprised.

“So weird,” Marinette agreed. “That doesn't even make sense.”

She turned to her little kwami friend that lived in her bag.

“By the way! Do you have enough spicy chips, Pollen?” she asked, ignoring the hypocrisy in her question.

“Mhm!” Pollen replied, equally ignorant.

----

As they finally arrived to Mme. Mendeleiev's classroom, it was to see her and the principal behind the desk, with the former trying to do something in the computer.

“See, M. Damocles, nothing happens!” the teacher stated, the electronic blackboard behind her showing little more than showing little more than scribbles.

“You're in luck, Mme. Mendeleiev! I know a bit about computers!” M. Damocles replied, approaching the computer and starting to work on it. “Let me just–”

The blackboard changed – but it was clearly not what should have been.

“Wuh – that's not my lesson!” Mme. Mendeleiev announced, stunned.

“What is that?!” M. Damocles asked aloud: clearly, his vaunted computer skills were not enough to deal with what was happening to the teacher's computer.

“A computer virus, the Dino-33.”

Everyone's eyes turned to Max, who was making his way towards the teacher's desk, and put his schoolbag on it before turning the laptop around.

“I can–”

Whatever he could do, it was interrupted by Mme. Mendeleiev, who pulled the laptop away from Max's hands and pointed towards the other desks.

“Go back to your seat, and let the adults handle this,” she commanded, much to Max's shock.

“But–!” he attempted to intervene.

“Did she just forget Max is a computer genius?” Marinette asked Alya, who shrugged: sometimes, the goings on of the teachers were a mystery, never mind the adults in general.

“Tell them if they don't act in the next 75 seconds, there's a 99% chance the disk will be irreversibly damaged.”

Everyone looked in surprise towards Max's bag, from which a robotic voice had somehow spoken. Max winced as he smacked the bag.

“Shh! Quiet!” Max shushed, as M. Damocles shrugged.

“Ah! Oh, let the boy help!” the principal said, and Max gingerly walked to the other side of the table.

“You will need this, Max!”

The same voice had spoken again, and from the now open bag sprouted a metallic pincer holding a pendrive.

The shock amongst the teenagers witnessing this was immediate.

“Huuh?” Nino mumbled, unable to comprehend what was going on.

“WOOOAH!” Mylène exclaimed, while Max winced again.

“Um!” he started, unable to decide what to say, before picking the pendrive. “Uh, this is an anti-virus flash drive I came up with, with my... my best friend.”

M. Damocles and Mme. Mendeleiev looked like their eyes were about to pop out when a small red, silver, and green robot flew out of the bag, its face somehow smiling even though he didn't have a mouth to speak of.

“Hello! I am Markov!”

“Whoa!” the class exploded.

“Max, you made a robot?” Ivan asked, surprised.

“What, like it's hard?” Max replied as he inserted the pendrive and worked to eliminate the computer virus.

Everyone approached the teacher's desk to admire the small flying robot from a close distance.

“Rad,” Juleka said with a smile.

“So cute!” Mylène said, already taken in by Markov.

“Wow, Max!” Alix complimented.

“You gave him an arm since last time!” Kim noted: unlike the others, he had been witness to Max's work... even if he didn't understand what he was doing.

“Markov did it on his own!” Max corrected his friend. “He's at the cutting edge of robotic evolution!”

“Oh, please!” Chloé exclaimed, her usual spoilsport face in place. “It's nothing more than a talking calculator! My hair dryer is more advanced than it.”

“The only one less advanced than a hair dryer is Chloé,” Marinette snarked, and Alya cracked up laughing while the blonde glared at her rival.

“HEY!”

Mendeleiev leaned ahead, her face as stern and humorless as ever, as she looked down at Max.

“Alright, Max, your toy is impressive, but it's time for class. Put it away.”

“With all due respect, I am not a toy. I am Markov, Max's best friend!”

Max blushed as he looked at the robot.

“Yes, he's my friend! As smart and sensitive as any human!”

Markov's 'eyes' turned into hearts as he looked back at Max.

“Yes! For example, I love Max!”

“That's impossible. Robots don't have emotions, Max,” Mme. Mendeleiev stated, causing Markov to glare up at her.

“I believe you are just jealous that Max could create a robot with feelings!”

The teacher's face quickly turned... thunderous.

“Okay, Max, you can come get your robot after school,” M. Damocles quickly said, grabbing Markov and starting to leave.

“But, M. Damocles–!” Max tried to say, but the principal shook his head.

“Shh, don't look her in the eyes!” he whispered at the young man, leaving the classroom.

----

“I would like to stay with Max, sir...”

Markov was begging, feeling distressed at his separation from Max. M. Damocles shook his head in disappointment.

“You're too much of a distraction,” he replied as he opened his office door.

“I won't be a distraction! Where are we going, sir?”

M. Damocles didn't answer this time: instead, he opened the drawer where he put the objects that were confiscated from students.

“No! Do not put me in there–!”

M. Damocles thought that young Max had good skills to create a robot that could replicate such a feeling. However, this was not the time to consider such things, and carefully put the robot into the drawer.

“Maaaax~!”

… was that like tear tracks in the robot's face?

“That's some codependency,” M. Damocles muttered as he closed the drawer.

----

As Mme. Mendeleiev started to prepare her lesson of the day, Marinette turned to look to Max, who was looking despondent.

“Markov's never been apart from me before,” the smartest student in the class said, fretting. “I'm not sure how he'll handle it.”

Marinette smiled at him with assurance.

“Leave it to me, Max!” she said, and raised her hand. “Mme. Mendeleiev! May I go to the principal's office and get Markov? If you explain that it's class time, I'm sure he'd keep quiet!”

“No!” the stern teacher shouted. “And I'm done with this topic!”

“Could it be Markov was right and you're jealous of a robot?”

Everyone looked at Marinette in shock; not only was Marinette pushing a teacher's buttons, she was doing it to Mme. Mendeleiev of all people!

“Enough! Principal's office! NOW!”

Someone certainly got her berserk button pushed. Not that Marinette cared, waving goodbye as she smiled.

“Thank you!” she cheered, opening the door, and Mme. Mendeleiev got stuck, thinking about what had just happened.

“... wait.”

Too late, however, as Marinette had already left the classroom.

----

This was a first. An artificial intelligence that could actually feel emotions? Well, he wasn't going to complain. Perhaps this one could do the job.

“Robostus, I am Hawkmoth,” he declaimed. “I'm giving you the power to give life to all machines. In return, you'll bring me the heroes' Miraculouses.”

“Can you define the word 'Miraculouses'?”

“Magical jewels. Once united, they allow you to make a wish.”

“Any wish?”

“... yes?” he added, feeling a chill going down his back. “Why do I feel uneasy about this?”

----

Walking up the stairs, Marinette saw the principal walking out of his office, and decided to get her mission out of the way as fast as possible.

“M. Damocles–” she called out, but then Markov – with some marked color changes, including a deep green that resembled Chat Noir's eyes – appeared, glaring at the principal.

“You made a grave error of judgement, M. Principal!”

Markov started to fly around the principal, making him trip.

“I will show you what I'm capable of!”

Marinette promptly turned around. It looked like it was too late.

----

Collége Françoise Dupont was no stranger to weird events. Why, in the past year, a good number of its students had been the victims of a magical terrorist that had forcibly transformed them into monsters or villains with the aim of stealing two magical jewels from the heroes that had assembled to stop him. Some of them even within the premises!

But few people could have expected a large robot made of vehicles, construction gear, and other assorted machines to assemble in the school's courtyard.

“I am not a toy!”

Covered in green lightning, the large robot made a sign, and suddenly all over the school all electronic devices were covered in a sickly green glow.

Before students could react, said electronic devices started to fly around, hitting those who weren't quick enough on their feet and harassing those who were.

“AHH! OW!”

“STOP! OW!”

It was pure pandemonium.

In one closet, a panting Adrien looked at his kwami companion with a sarcastic smile.

“I guess that's the end of the 'do robots have feelings' debate,” he said, while Plagg rolled his eyes.

Elsewhere, Chloé looked around with a glare and clenched a fist.

“I'll show Dupain-Cheng who's more advanced than a hair dryer!” she declared.

For one of their number, though, the situation was different: Max Kanté found himself in an excavator bucket, being brought towards the car at the top of the robot.

“Max! My friend! Now we'll be together 100% of the time!”

“STOP!”

Marigold had arrived into the scene, and was looking up at the robot, who had pushed Max into the copilot's seat.

“If you really love your friend, you should listen to him!” the heroine said. She had yet to find an Akuma that was willing to stop just by words, but given his ties to Max, perhaps...

“You need to stop, Markov!” Max begged, feeling the helmet that a mechanical arm was putting on his head. However, Markov had been truly taken over by the Akuma, and denied his request.

“I am Robostus! I'm doing this for us, Max!”

“Forget him, you should listen to me,” Scarlet Lady said, receiving a look from Chat Noir and Marigold

“No one listens to you,” Chat Noir deadpanned, and the Ladybug 'heroine' turned to glare at the Cat hero.

“Well, you should listen to me, I'm brilliant!” Scarlet Lady yelled.

“Brilliantly annoying,” Chat Noir fire back, as Marigold tried to refocus them into important matters.

“GUYS!” she shouted, unaware of the threat coming from up above.

The bucket that suddenly grabbed the three of them, trapping them without the ability to escape.

“AH!”

“HEY!”

“LET GO!”

“Now you are at my mercy! I will take your Miraculouses and I will make my wish to become human!”

“What?” Marigold asked, shocked.

----

“What.”

Hawkmoth was left stunned.

He had had to deal with stubborn minions, strange minions, and even some who were just plain creepy.

But this was the first time one minion was truly... rebellious.

“May I remind you the Miraculouses are mine, Robostus!” he angrily told the robot through their connection.

“And how will you prevent me from using them?”

“I will simply take away your power!” he pointed out. Perhaps this would put –

“And you really think you can control me?”

Before he could reply, every alert in his lair was activated.

“INTRUSION! INTRUSION! INTRUSION!” one of the speakers screamed.

“ELIMINATION MODE, ENGAGED!”

“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” Hawkmoth shouted as he suddenly found himself in a fight for his own survival that he hadn't expected.

----

Back at Collége Françoise Dupont, Max realized that Robostus was distracted, and carefully opened the door next to him.

Meanwhile, Marigold was still struggling to get loose, because she had seen the small helicopter flying towards her, with a pincer ready to grab her Haircomb. But, no matter how much she tried, she just couldn't free herself.

“I'm sorry everyone,” she mumbled, clenching her eyes shut as the pincer got closer.

SMACK!

“WAH!” Scarlet Lady screamed.

Marigold opened her eyes, and saw the helicopter starting to fall, after being hit by a bag.

“What, what's happening?” Chat Noir asked, still stuck upside down.

“That bag–!”

“I don't need you to be human!” Max declared, looking at his Akumatized friend. “I need you to be my best friend, my Markov! And you're not Markov, so I have to stop you!”

And he pulled a lever, forcing the bucket open and freeing the three heroes. Robostus glared at Max, showing tear tracks in his face.

“Top 10 human betrayals. No. 5 will surprise you.”

Freed of his restraints, Chat Noir quickly jumped up to the car serving as Robostus' command post, and activated his power.

“CATACLYSM!”

The giant robot quickly crumbled into parts, and Chat Noir caught Max mid-air to keep him from hitting the ground.

“You betrayed me, Max! I don't want to be human and heartless like you! Instead, I'll enslave them all! Starting with you!”

And he flew away, while the heroes took Max to the roof of the school.

“You were amazing, Max!” Marigold cheered, as Max took off the helmet he was wearing.

“Then why do I feel like I might throw up?”

----

The heroes (mostly Chat Noir and Marigold) tried to plan how to stop this latest Akumatized villain, when Chat Noir's baton beeped with an alert. Opening it in screen form, he grimaced as he turned it towards his partner.

“Look at this, honeybee,” he said as the screen showed the news.

“Live with Nadja Chamack. Animated objects are attacking Paris! The new mayor is making a declaration from City Hall!” the famous reporter said, as the screen showed... a lamp. With the Mayor's sash around it. While Mayor Bourgeois was (quite literally) tied up in the background.

“. .”

The sound of the transmission was unmistakeable to anyone minimally versed in the matter.

“Is that Morse code?” Marigold asked, surprised.

“Want a translation?” Chat Noir said, listening to the transmission.

“.... ..- -- .- -. ...”

“Humans...”

“.-- .. .-.. .-.. / -... . / ... --- --- -.”

“... will be soon...”

“- .-. . .- - . -.. / .-.. .. -.- . / --- -... .--- . -.-. - ... .-.-.-”

“... treated like objects?”

“-... .-. .. -. --.”

“Bring...”

“..- ...”

“... us...”

“- .... . / -... --- -.-- .-.-.-”

“... the boy. Uhoh, Max.”

“Oh, please, like you know Morse Code,” Scarlet Lady said, dismissively.

“He's right, though,” Max interrupted, causing the Ladybug Miraculous bearer to turn to him, shocked.

“WHAT?!”

“Oh, sure, you believe him,” Chat Noir grumbled. “I'm gonna go... recharge.”

----

“Now, Adrien, I must stress that this is a very useful and important Miraculous and it needs to be treated with the utmost care,” Master Fu told Adrien, who looked down at the small box he had just been given with apprehension.

“Uh, of course, Master Fu, but why is this one so special?” he asked.

“Because without it I can't get my hometown speciality tea any time I want.”

Adrien gave him a deadpan look and decided he didn't want to ask.

----

By the time Chat Noir returned, Scarlet Lady was nowhere to be seen, and Marigold was on her top-phone.

“The angry Tamagotchi made a new suit, I guess,” he heard her speak. “His big, fat foot prints go to the stadium. So hurry up already!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Marigold replied with a tired voice.

“Aaaand I'm back. With help,” Chat Noir announced. Max looked at him in confusion.

“'Help'?” he asked, and Chat Noir offered him the box in his hand.

“Max Kanté, this is the Horse Miraculous, which grants the power of Teleportation. Will you help us save your friend?”

Max was shocked that the heroes actually needed his help. However, one thing was certain: he wasn't going to step back!

“Y-Yes!” he stuttered as Chat Noir gave him the box.

“What's going on?! I can't hear–”

Marigold promptly cut off the connection, looking entirely done with Scarlet Lady.

“That's enough of that,” she said, rolling the rope around her top. “Way to kill the moment.”

Max looked awkwardly at the display before he opened the box, which came with a small flash of light as a horse-like creature appeared floating in front of him.

“Oh!” the creature said, surprised, as it looked up at him. “To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?”

“Hello! My name is Max!” he replied, eager to understand who this was.

“I am Kaalki,” the creature said. “Are you glorious and famous?”

Max wasn't sure what that had to do with having powers, but he figured it was probably an idiosyncracy of Kaalki.

“Uh, I mean, I created evolving artificial intelligence?” he suggested.

“Hm. I don't fully understand, but I surmise that must be impressive,” Kaalki replied, nodding. “Very well! You have my permission to say, 'Kaalki'–”

----

“FULL GALLOP!”

----

As his transformation finished, Max was suddenly aware of information he was certain he hadn't learned on his own.

Then, he noticed something else.

“Whoa, where'd my glasses go?” he asked, as Marigold smiled at him.

“That's just how magic works~” she teased, showing the anti virus flash drive he had used earlier. “This, however, you'll want to hold onto.”

---

The three heroes arrived to the Stade de France (because apparently Akumatized villains loved to use either that or the Eiffel Tower to do their deeds) and landed next to Scarlet Lady, who, as per usual, had done nothing.

“Yo,” Chat Noir greeted her.

“Another newbie?” Scarlet Lady asked in a tone of complaint.

“The name's Pegasus,” the Horse hero said, to which Scarlet Lady scoffed.

“More like Poindexter,” she replied, reaching out to his pince-nez sunglasses. “Look, he even has dorky–”

Pegasus promptly slapped away her hand. And when Scarlet Lady tried again, he slapped the hand away again.

And Scarlet kept trying, and trying, and trying, and Pegasus kept slapping her hand away.

“KNOCK IT OFF!” an irritated Chat Noir yelled.

They did indeed knock it off – but it was because of the electronic laughter coming from above them, and the three helicopters that were now flying around them

“Hahaha! I calculated you'd fall for my trap! I will always be one step ahead of you! Because I'm superior!”

“That's it! LUCKY CHARM!” Scarlet Lady yelled.

And then jumped back as a large harp crashed into the ground just where she had been a moment before.

“WAH!” she yelled in fright.

“Nice,” Chat Noir deadpanned.

“This is annoyiiiing. Can't we leave?” Scarlet Lady complained.

“Sure, if you want to faceplant into a helicopter.”

Chat Noir didn't care.

Marigold, meanwhile, had grabbed the now broken harp and turned to her new temporary partner.

“You're on, Pegasus!”

“Voyage!” the Horse hero said, a cyan ring forming around his wrist.

“You're only making this hard for yourselves–”

Robostus was certain of his victory, but he would have been less certain if he had been aware of the portal opening right behind him.

Or of Pegasus being at the other side of said portal, holding the broken Lucky Charm.

He became more aware of it as Pegasus threw the Lucky Charm at him, causing it to entangle in its small rotor and preventing him from hovering in place.

Quickly, the little robot began to fall.

“WAAH! AHHHH–”

And then he was further entangled, as Marigold's top grabbed him mid-air.

“What is this?!”

The Akumatized robot was completely confused, unable to comprehend how quickly the tables had turned against him, and Marigold grabbed him.

“Wit, luck, and a stable hand,” she fired, causing Chat Noir to chuckle.

“Ha! I get it!” the hero said, as Robostus glared at Marigold.

“This isn't over! The game is still on–MMP!”

“That's enough of that,” Pegasus declared as he plugged the anti virus flash drive into Robostus' USB port.

----

Hawkmoth panted in the depths of his lair. He had never been so close to death as he had in the past fifteen minutes, and he was certain that, if the heroes had an inkling of where he was, they would easily put him down without an effort.

----

One Miraculous Cure later, Markov was back to normal, all the things the Akumatized robot had controlled were back in place, and Pegasus had transformed back into Max, holding his friend in his hands.

"Max! My friend!"

“So, this is your creation?” Kaalki asked, interested.

“Mhm! Welcome back, Markov!” Max greeted the small robot.

“Where are we? What's going on?”

“Remarkable,” Kaalki commented. “You were Akumatized, my dear.”

“'Akumatized'? Who is speaking?”

Markov was clearly unfamiliar with the term, and the fact that the voice that spoke it didn't seem to have a souce added to the confusion.

“What?!” Max asked, shocked.

“Kaalki, Kwamis don't show on camera,” Marigold pointed out. “Which is what Markov's eyes are.”

The Horse Kwami shook her head.

“What a pity. To never be able to gaze upon my visage.”

“Just you wait!” Max said, his previous shock now replace with the eagerness of doing something new. “I'll make a camera so powerful it can see magical creatures!”

“My! I'm looking forward to it,” Kaalki sincerely replied... while poor Markov wondered who was speaking.

----

At the Agreste mansion, with the crisis now averted (ironically, something he had to thank the heroes for, even if he would never actually do so), Gabriel Agreste undid his transformation and gently held the utterly exhausted Nooroo in his hands, even when he was about to collapse himself.

“N-Nathalie, order more missiles for the lair,” he said, puffing air like a geriatric locomotive.

“Yes, sir, and some tablet protectors,” Nathalie replied, rendering Gabriel even more utterly confused than he had been, but he attributed it to mishearing.

“Sure. I'm going to... lie down,” he mumbled, stumbling his way towards his private rooms and closing the door behind him before collapsing on the mattress and closing his eyes.

As soon as she heard the door closing, Nathalie cuddled her tablet.

“You know I love you most, right?” she said, caressing the device with the care normally shown towards a baby or a loved one.

----

The students returned to their classroom, and as soon as Max arrived, he was beset on by their Sciences teacher.

“Max!” she exclaimed.

“Mme. Mendeleiev!” he returned, somewhat scared of what she might say.

“Thank goodness you're okay!” Mme. Mendeleiev said, before turning bashful. “Look... I was wrong.”

Max became shocked. It wasn't common to hear a teacher admit to making a mistake... but it looked like she was mature enough to do so.

“It would seem that robots can experience true emotions. The fact that it– uh, he was Akumatized makes that irrefutable.”

“Thank you, Mme. Mendeleiev!” Max and Markov said in unison.

Uncharacteristically for her, she blushed – the teen and robot duo were too cute to react otherwise – and she coughed to hide that.

“But I expect Markov to behave in class as any other student.”

“Yes, ma'am!”

----

That night was patrol night, and the heroes met at their usual spot. This time, though, they had agreed to do something else.

“Shall we compare notes, Your Highness?” Chat Noir teasingly asked, to which Marigold gave him a small smirk.

“I'm sure Master Fu told us the same thing,” she replied. “The Earrings and Ring combined make a Wish. A Wish that can alter reality.”

“But the Universe demands balance and in order to gain something, something of equal value must be lost,” Chat Noir continued, and both heroes looked grimly into the horizon. “In other words...”

“Hawkmoth can never win,” both finished in unison.

----

Prime Queen

@zoe-oneesama: Maan, I lost a lot of lead.

Sorry for the wait, guys, you know how these things work - real life sometimes sucks, and it sucks your will to write stuff.

Also, I didn't fulfill my hope to finish Season 4 before the end of year. Apologies.

With Robostus, we reach 488 pages, 194791 words, 1050552 characters. Let's keep going!

P.S: Also, stupid Tumblr won't let me give a different font to parts of a paragraph.

#scarlet lady the novel #fanfiction #milarqui #adrien agreste #chat noir #marinette dupain cheng #marigold #max kanté #pegasus

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