The battle was NOT going well for the masked heroes. Invocateur was summoning some utterly ridiculous things. It was one thing, Ladybug mused as she caught her breath, to think of characters on TV dropping safes on people's heads and be horrified at the thought, it was another thing altogether to have a safe summoned over one's own head and feel like you want one of those stupid signs or a broken umbrella or something...
Chat was doing a good job at the moment of keeping him busy while Ladybug tried to come up with a plan. She knew it would all come down to her Lucky Charm in the end, it usually did... but they still hadn't located what the akuma was hiding in, and she didn't want to start the countdown until they did. But what could it be?
"My lady?" Chat called, a bit strained, as an anvil bounced off of his spinning baton over his head, hitting the ground behind him with a loud sound. "Purr-haps you could come up with a plan?" he asked, his usual smile weak. This was a war of attrition and they were losing. They might not have yet used their abilities, but they themselves were tiring.
In some ways this was just light fighting Evilistratior all over again. Invocateur summoned items the way Evilstrator had drawn them into being. But this time she had no clue where the akuma could be...
Think, Ladybug... think....
If she didn't figure out something soon, they could keep this up maybe a half hour more. If the villain kept letting them swap out, and If all the citizens stayed safely inside. While Invocateur seemed only to be able to focus on one of them at a time, she doubted Papillion had the patience to sit back and just wait for the win.
And as it turned out, she was right.
Purple light flashed over Invocateur's face. The villain of the day scowled under his dark hood. "I am only one person, Papillion!" he cried out, frustrated. "I AM TRYING!"
She had sympathy for him. None for Papillion, of course, but she knew Invocateur wasn't in his right mind. His face pale under the black of the hood, too pale. Sheet white. And every time he summoned something... he got paler. This fight had been going on for the better part of an hour. Thankfully Kim and Ivan had the good sense to get people off the street when they saw the battle starting, so they had witnesses, but so far no casualties.
But she still had no clue how he was summoning anything, where his power was coming from. He waved a gloved hand to summon a flood of water, which hit Chat Noir square in the chest, blowing back the cat boy who had been braced for another attack from above.
No more time to think. Ladybug swung her yoyo in an arc and caught a light post, she ran as the wire coiled and lifted her feet, driving them into Invocateur's chest much as he had done for her pretty kitty. "You okay, Chat Noir?" she asked, without looking back.
"Purr-fect as usual, my lady," he said, sounding tired, but she could almost hear his cheeky grin. He'd be fine.
Purple light flashed again, and she dropped to her feet, pulling her yoyo free.
"Then I'll even up the odds!" Invocateur roared, probably in response to whatever Papillion had said.
Ladybug tried not to think about wishing she could hear the other side of the conversation in hope it would give her clues. That way lay only nightmares. Besides, if anyone could remember anything about Papillon's voice after being freed from him, they'd have found him already.
Invocateur jumped back from her and summoned a tall pillar under his feet, the most he'd moved all battle. He lifted his hands to the sky and a darkness formed there, disturbingly like the portal Le Pharoh had summoned to try and sacrifice Alya to the land of the dead.
Somehow Ladybug didn't think he was sacrificing himself for Papillon's sake.
A soft sound at her back, she didn't need to turn. "Any clue what he's up to now?" Chat Noir asked behind her, taking the moment to get his breath back, as she was doing, if she was being honest.
She started to answer, then closed her mouth and put a hand over her eyes. Up to? Did he really just say UP to? She managed a weak groan. One of these days he might stop making bad puns. But she doubted it.
Invocateur started speaking. "From the darkest darkness. One who has bathed in darkness. One who has dwelled in Darkness. I SUMMON YOU!" He drew his hands up as he called.
"That... doesn't sound good," Chat whispered. He put one end of his baton on the ground, a hand on the other. "Shall we rise to the occasion?"
She nodded, starting to swing her yoyo to give herself a boost. Suddanly an arm was around her waist, she looked down at the black leather glove with the sharp claw like fingers on her hip, and then gave her companion her most "I am not impressed with you, you are not as cute as you think you are," glare, flung out her yoyo and ascended all on her own.
He held onto his staff, grinning a bit as it grew in length bringing him up.
Another reminder of Evilistrator. She was now wondering if this akuma was related to... didn't matter now. Something was coming through the portal. And fast. Something that looked silvery. Ladybug landed on a roof and threw her Yoyo in the air.
"LUCKY CHARM!" She hated doing it when she didn't know what the item they needed to get from him was yet, when she didn't know what was coming. But she knew SOMETHING was, and they needed HELP. And they needed it now.
She blinked at the red and black star shaped fruit that dropped into her hand just as Riku was pulled from the dark rift. "What is... what is it?" Ladybug wondered out loud, staring at the thing in her hand...
What Riku would see upon his arrival was a Paris avenue not far off the Seine. A girl with blue-back hair in short low pigtails and a skin tight red suit with black dots and a matching eye mask was staring at a Papou Fruit that went with her clothing. Her earrings were also red with black dots. Five on each.
On a tall spit of rock was a very pale man with white hair, white gloves, and a long black trench coat festooned with silver chains. Not like the Orginization jacket, if for no other reason than the cut was wrong and the hood hovered over the face and hair, hiding nothing. Rising up towards him was... .
He looked like a boy in a skintight black leather catsuit, with fake ears nestled into blond hair, a black belt for a tail, clawed gloves, a bell about his neck and his eyes under his black mask... green. No whites. No pupils. Just three shades of green. The green matched the three paw pads on the black ring he wore, oddly OVER his gloves.
The pale man in the long coat pointed to the rapidly ascending Chat Noir. "KILL HIM! I SUMMONED YOU I ORDER YOU TO KILL HIM!" A pause, a small flash of purple light by his face. "KILL HIM AND BRING ME HIS RING!"
"Honestly," Chat said, dropping onto a different roof, his staff retracting to about the length of a Keyblade, "I'd purrfer you didn't."
Riku was in the middle of dive when he feels the unfamiliar pull in his navel that drags him right out of the path he was trying to take down to the next dream world on his journey to unlock the seven sleeping worlds. Honestly he isn't even sure if something hit him in the middle of the dive – though honestly he knows better than to be careless by now, but still…
Even when the haze of being yanked out of the dive and into an entirely different world finally clears, Riku needs a second to catch he bearings. He spends a second staring down at his arms, at the black wrist-guards… his cloths haven't changed. Wherever he is… it's a world that's sleeping… probably.
Then he takes a glance at the world around him… something about the sense of it is familiar, but he can puzzle that out later. First of all he'll have to figure out the mess around him. He can sense some weird kind of Darkness from the boy in the cat suit, and Miss Ladybug (what's that weird paopu for?) smells almost so brightly of Light that he'd put her down as a Princess of Heart if he didn't know all slots taken already… and well, Trench-coat-guy is shouting at him to kill the cat boy, so there's a threat he's going to have to deal with first.
He sighs before he rolls his shoulders, then makes a half turn to face the guy in the trench-coat while still keeping the cat boy within his line of sight.
"First of all, I don't kill people."
And he isn't about to let himself be ordered around by a B-List villain either, but that's beside the point.
"So either you un-summon me again–" he holds out his hand, light and darkness swirling until they settle into the shape of Way to the Dawn. "–or he and his ring–" he nods at Chat Noir "–will be the least of your problems."
"I summoned you! You must obey me!" Invocateur screamed.
Chat grinned. "Seriously, read a book, that never works."
"I don't know who you are," Ladybug called to Riku "But we'll do our best to get you back where you belong." Somehow. And what was this, even? She considered the odd star in her hands, then shook her head. She needed her hands free. She'd figure this out. "Chat, catch!" She flung it at him.
"My lady finally sees that I'm a great cat-ch?" He all but purred as he caught it.
She got her yoyo up just in time as the akuma pointed over her head, summoning a safe. It bounced off the spinning yoyo to hit the ground. Ladybug winced. "We still need to find the akuma!"
"Hate to break it to you–" Except he really does not. "–but it doesn't work like that."
At least not with the summon spell used here, because Riku certainly isn't feeling any weird compulsions to attack those two kids.
He ignores the byplay between the two – though he still wonders about the ladybug-pattern paopu – but asks: "What's an Akuma?"
Presumably it's something of Darkness and involved with the trench-coat-guy, but he'd rather have the facts before he tries to slice it up with the Keyblade.
"Short version? purple and black butterfly infected something he's wearing or holding. We find whatever it is, break it, the butterfly flies free, and I purify it, then everything goes back to the way it should be and we can get him the help he needs."
"Has to be Ladybug to catch it," chat warned, dodging a.... yes, that was a piano! "If you tried it might infect you, and I purr-ify things, not purify them."
An anvil aimed for his head and he dodged away, running on all fours. "The joke wasn't that bad!"
Well that doesn’t quite help as much as Riku would have liked, but if there‘s a chance to purify this person from the Darkness… well maybe then he can help this pair out a little.
“You can leave breaking the object to me.“
With that he uses the objects that Trench-coat-guy is throwing as a jump path straight to him – Free Flow is a wonderful ability and Riku has enough experience with it by now to know how to time his jump. If he focuses a Zantetsuken at the dark energy… then he should be able to cut right through just that.
Okay. Both heroes were a little awed by how he moved. "OR WEARING!" Ladybug managed to call out as Riku got closer and closer.
But when he got that close to the hooded man? He'd sense dark power over every bit of him, as if he was dipped in the stuff. With time, he could probably figure out where most of it came from, but there was a purple flash over the akuma's face and he nodded and pointed a gloved hand yelling "Réfrigérateur!" and a large fridge was dropping down towards Riku as the man jumped back.
Riku‘s eyes widen a fraction when he sees the fridge dropping towards him – but he doesn‘t even try to dodge it. Instead he focuses on the absolutely gamebreaking magic of Free Flow that allows him to interact with this kind of random object. He ensnares the fridge with Way To The Dawn, racing around along the sides before he grips the Keyblade with both hands and lobs the fridge in the direction of the guy in the coat.
“You can have that back!“
He isn‘t quite hoping to actually hit the trench coat guy… but if he can throw him off his game long enough for an opening, that should allow him to cut through the coat and see if that akuma-thing is hiding in there.
The man stared in terror, deer in the headlights frozen as the fridge headed for him.
"CHAT!" she called, panicked.
Chat was already moving, baton clipped to the back of his suit as he ran on all fours. He barreled into the akuma full body, knocking them both out of the way.
A different kind of panic as the fridge hit the ground, pinning Chat's tail, but nothing else. but from where she was, she couldn't see that. "CHAT!!!" She raced towards the fridge.
[Riku's eyes widen when he realizes that the Trench Coat guy isn't moving to dodge… what the hell? Can he really only dish out without having any clue to take any hit at all himself?
That's really kind of pathetic in his book.
The fridge hits the ground and from where he's still hovering mid-air Riku can see that the cat-boy didn't get hit. So as gravity pulls him back to the earth he shouts to assure the ladybug girl:]
He's fine!
[And with that he turns back towards mr. trench coat. The coat he's wearing… that's where the Darkness is coming from, right? There won't be any better chance to cut it into pieces than now while he's stunned by his own panic, Riku thinks as he advances at him.]
"Well, at least someone a-paw-ciates my good looks," Chat said with a wink at Riku as he got up and tried to pull his tail free.
Despite the fact that the tail had been moving independently this whole time, like an actual tail, when he couldn't easily free it, he unhooked it from his suit and stepped away, leaving it limp like the belt it appeared to be.
"Now, where is his akuma....?
Purple light flashed over trench coat man's face, and he yelled. "Yes..." he gasped, "Yes Papillion...." as he tried to roll to his feet.
The look that Chat earns for that statement from Riku is utterly blank – Riku isn't even going to ask why the cat boy (who is definitely way younger than him, despite his current looks) may be flirting with him, nope.
And anyway, they have different things to worry about.
"I think it's in that coat he's wearing. If he'd just stay still for a second, I could cut through it without a problem."
Nah, not you he's flirting with, Riku. Not that he minds you thinking that, he's just got eyes for only one hero.
"The coat? I can do something about that. "CATACLYSM!" The power that throbs around his claws is green and black, and very much more from the darkness than the light.
The Akuma got to his feet and staggered back. "GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS! OR I KILL THAT ONE!" HE yelled, pointing at Riku.
Exactly that, it seemed, as he jerked his hand up to the air above Riku's head, yelling "Réfrigérateur!" as one appeared, falling towards Riku.
Chat growled and launched himself just past the Akuma to one side, hand snaking up to snag the tail of the coat as he went past. The coat blackened and fell away. He stood, smirking, then dodged a safe. "WASN'T THE COAT!"
She put a hand over her face a moment, and shook her head, then looked around at everything. Then her eyes narrowed on the thing she had tossed to chat, the odd star shaped fruit. "CHAT! Toss me the lucky charm!" she called.
No questions, no hesitations, as he dodged another anvil, he flung the thing at her.
Riku rolls his eyes before pushing off the ground and jumping right towards the fridge to use Free Flow again and redirect the fridge… right into the river this time though, because he knows already that the trench-coat-guy, for all his bravo, is utterly incapable of dodging.
So much for the coat theory though.
"It's got to be something he's wearing… I can smell the Darkness all over him."
He glances over at the ladybug girl… huh. He wonders what she's planing to do with the paopu.
She ripped the fruit open and grinned at the juice that ran down the sides. There was an odd beeping sound, and the smile left her face, turning it serious. She looked older, being grim like that. "Hey," she called to the Akuma. "Catch!"
She threw half of the red and black papou fruit at him. He was, as Riku had noted, bad at dodging. But he caught it well enough, both hands closing around it. She grinned and looked at Riku. "you with the moves, how are you at snatching?"
Whatever she's planning, he can probably catch the paopu. Though he really has to wonder what she is going to do with that… he so isn't sharing it with the akuma, if that's where this is going.
A similar beeping from Chat Noir' direction, or rather, for his general vicinity, since he was running around, keeping the akuma distracted.
"Looks like his gloves are stuck together," she said, nodding to the akuma who was swinging wildly at Chat Noir, but not summoning anything any more. "think you can grab them?" She asked Riku, grinning.
The Akuma tries to dodge him, a purple light in the shape of the outline of a butterfly mask showing up over his face as he does, but as soon as Ruku gets the gloves off of him, he collapses to his knees, then drops his hands to the ground as well.
Ladybug started swinging her yoyo. "Break the gloves, then step back. It's time to purify this akuma and set things right!"
Once he has the gloves, Riku tosses them in the air, then closes both of his hands around the handle of his Keyblade. A second later he rushes forward cutting straight through the cloth of the gloves.
He dismisses Way to the Dawn as he flips forward and turns to watch out for that akuma-thing. Is that… a butterfly?
As the black and purple butterfly tried to escape the remains of the broken gloves, Ladybug flung the weight of her yoyo at it. instead of striking it, the yoyo opened, capturing it. It swing back to her hand, closing as it went. "No more evil doing for you, little akuma!" She said catching it neatly. She tapped the front and it opened again, a pure white butterfly flying away. "Bye bye pretty butterfly," she said with a grin. She walked over and collected the two halves of the paopu fruit. As she did dark energy surrounded the man they had been fighting, surged, and then dissipated, leaving a fairly normal looking guy in his place, down on all fours in the same pose of defeat, but looking confused.
Ladybug winked at Riku. "Thank you for your help," she said. It sounded a lot like goodbye.She threw the halves of the fruit in the air. "MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!" The pieces went far higher than they ought to have, and turned into pure light, as in the energy and the brightness that hurt ones eyes. Then the light broke into millions of small specks of light that swarmed out from the center over every broken bit of anything, over every fridge and safe and anvil that didn't belong, restoring everything to its proper state, repairing multiple city blocks with its magic.
She had a small satisfied smile on her face as she watched, but another beep brought her attention back. She turned to Chat Noir, raising a fist, he raised his own and they pounded out a fist bump. "Good job," they said at the same time, grinning.
Then Ladybug took a breath. "Countdown's almost gone, gotta...." she stopped dead staring at Riku. "why is he still here?" she asked in utter shock.
Riku watches as the Ladybug girl purifies the butterfly, noting the way the Darkness turns into Light… interesting, certainly. He nods at her with a faint smile when she thanks him and says:
"Any time."
It's not quite his job to help out – right now, he needs to find the seven sleeping Keyholes after all – but well… it's not like he can just stand by while someone needs help either. Though, he's sure that between them Ladybug girl and Cat boy would have figured out how to deal with the former trench-coat guy themselves too.
Riku has seen enough to know that his assistance was just extra.
He watches with wonder as the magical ladybugs wash over the city and repair the damages… and ignore him entirely.
Apparently that's not what was supposed to happen, if Ladybug girl's outburst at his continued presence is anything to go by.
Riku shrugs at that, mostly unconcerned. "I guess there's still something for me to do here."
Find the sleeping Keyhole of this particular world maybe. He'll figure out a way to get out of here sooner or later anyway, he's sure.
"That's not how this works though. Everything the Akuma did is supposed to be fixed....." She looked shocked, horrified, and sounded a little angry and insulted.
"No time, my Lady," Chat warned.
She nodded then pointed to the top of a roof. "Wait for us up there," she said to Riku.
Riku looks at the ladybug girl, raising an eyebrow – she's awfully inflexible, isn't she?
He is a little put off by the order she puts out – it's one thing to take her suggestions in battle when they are fighting an enemy that she's more familiar with, but honestly.
"You are pretty bossy, you know that?"
Which is definitely not a yes. Riku has done world hopping often enough to be able to take care of himself after all.
She blinked several times, looking shocked and a bit stung. Then she pursed her lips and turned on her heel. "That's where we'll be if you want an explanation," she finally said. "Show up or don't." She stalked off the other way, then flung out her yoyo and vanished over some buildings.
He winced, then looked to Riku. "She'll be calmer after she's recharged. Please?" he asked, but the last paw pad blnked out on his ring and without waiting for an answer, he chose another direction, extended his staff and vaulted away as quickly as he could, as of afraid of something.
Riku frowns after the two of them – "recharge"? Does their strange magic run on a time limit or something? – but then decides that it can't hurt to hear them out at least. Maybe they'll give him a clue on where to find the sleeping keyhole of this world, even.
He vaults himself up to the rooftop that ladybug girl had pointed at, for the first time getting a proper look at the city.
…And just when he thinks that nothing about it seems really familiar, he sees it. The tell-tale form of the church that rises up into the sky from across the river.
"No way… isn't that Notre Dame?"
Then, the city he's wound up at… it has to be Paris? Just like in La Cité des Cloches? Huh.
Riku turns towards the church again, frowning faintly as he mutter to himself: "…So I'm really back in La Cité des Cloches. Except that this has to be a different time… is this a different point of the sleep circle?"
It has to be something like that. Anyway, he was talked to. He should respond to that, shouldn't he?
"No problem. It's kind of a thing that I do."
Helping people with their troubles, he means. Doing that while passing through in search for the Seven Keyholes kind of seems to be a thing.
Riku shakes his head sharply – he really should have known better than to say this so closely to a local. "Don't worry about it; it doesn't really matter."
Anyway. Time to change the topic.
"Can you tell me more about the guy that summoned me here? Or the one that was in control of him?"
Knowing more will only help him figure out where to find the Sleeping Keyhole here… for all that his arrival in this world was unusual, he is more than up to doing his job.
He still wanted to know, and it sounded like it mattered, but he let it drop. For now. "The guy who summoned you? Near as I can tell... bad day. He is here fur a visit with an online gaming friend. They got into an argument about if a game they liked took out Summoners because almost no one played them because they are so weak, or because played right they are so pawaful no one else stands a chance. They couldn't find an old copy of the game that still had them to settle it, so they argued, and even though his friend tried to keep him there and calm, he stormed off to walk off some frustration. And... Well... these days, that's all it takes." Except that wasn't, if it was he would have been Akuamtized a dozen times over. and he wasn't sure why he hadn't been... yet.
He was sure it was a yet.
"As fur the one controlling him...." Chat sighed and lay back. His tail twitched. "Papillion preys on things like that. All it takes is one bad day, getting fired, having a fight with a friend, getting bad news..."
"Running into an unrepentant bully who really ought to know better. Or a liar who doesn't care who she hurts..." Ladybug added, dropping in next to them with something in a red and black spotted bag.
Chat sighed a bit. "She does seem to be getting better..."
"One of them, maybe," Ladybug said, but she didn't sound convinced. She dropped into a sitting position and pulled a box of cookies from the bag. "Ran to a bakery on the way back, best Macarons in Paris. I figured so bitter a topic called for something sweet. I also brought bottled water." She opened the box of the small multi-coloured french cookies for them to take, as she rolled her neck. "Ask your questions about Papillion. We don't know much, but what we can share, we will."
She carefully didn't say they's share what they knew... but what they could share.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2018-11-20 10:17 am (UTC)Chat was doing a good job at the moment of keeping him busy while Ladybug tried to come up with a plan. She knew it would all come down to her Lucky Charm in the end, it usually did... but they still hadn't located what the akuma was hiding in, and she didn't want to start the countdown until they did. But what could it be?
"My lady?" Chat called, a bit strained, as an anvil bounced off of his spinning baton over his head, hitting the ground behind him with a loud sound. "Purr-haps you could come up with a plan?" he asked, his usual smile weak. This was a war of attrition and they were losing. They might not have yet used their abilities, but they themselves were tiring.
In some ways this was just light fighting Evilistratior all over again. Invocateur summoned items the way Evilstrator had drawn them into being. But this time she had no clue where the akuma could be...
Think, Ladybug... think....
If she didn't figure out something soon, they could keep this up maybe a half hour more. If the villain kept letting them swap out, and If all the citizens stayed safely inside. While Invocateur seemed only to be able to focus on one of them at a time, she doubted Papillion had the patience to sit back and just wait for the win.
And as it turned out, she was right.
Purple light flashed over Invocateur's face. The villain of the day scowled under his dark hood. "I am only one person, Papillion!" he cried out, frustrated. "I AM TRYING!"
She had sympathy for him. None for Papillion, of course, but she knew Invocateur wasn't in his right mind. His face pale under the black of the hood, too pale. Sheet white. And every time he summoned something... he got paler. This fight had been going on for the better part of an hour. Thankfully Kim and Ivan had the good sense to get people off the street when they saw the battle starting, so they had witnesses, but so far no casualties.
But she still had no clue how he was summoning anything, where his power was coming from. He waved a gloved hand to summon a flood of water, which hit Chat Noir square in the chest, blowing back the cat boy who had been braced for another attack from above.
No more time to think. Ladybug swung her yoyo in an arc and caught a light post, she ran as the wire coiled and lifted her feet, driving them into Invocateur's chest much as he had done for her pretty kitty. "You okay, Chat Noir?" she asked, without looking back.
"Purr-fect as usual, my lady," he said, sounding tired, but she could almost hear his cheeky grin. He'd be fine.
Purple light flashed again, and she dropped to her feet, pulling her yoyo free.
"Then I'll even up the odds!" Invocateur roared, probably in response to whatever Papillion had said.
Ladybug tried not to think about wishing she could hear the other side of the conversation in hope it would give her clues. That way lay only nightmares. Besides, if anyone could remember anything about Papillon's voice after being freed from him, they'd have found him already.
Invocateur jumped back from her and summoned a tall pillar under his feet, the most he'd moved all battle. He lifted his hands to the sky and a darkness formed there, disturbingly like the portal Le Pharoh had summoned to try and sacrifice Alya to the land of the dead.
Somehow Ladybug didn't think he was sacrificing himself for Papillon's sake.
A soft sound at her back, she didn't need to turn. "Any clue what he's up to now?" Chat Noir asked behind her, taking the moment to get his breath back, as she was doing, if she was being honest.
She started to answer, then closed her mouth and put a hand over her eyes. Up to? Did he really just say UP to? She managed a weak groan. One of these days he might stop making bad puns. But she doubted it.
Invocateur started speaking. "From the darkest darkness. One who has bathed in darkness. One who has dwelled in Darkness. I SUMMON YOU!" He drew his hands up as he called.
"That... doesn't sound good," Chat whispered. He put one end of his baton on the ground, a hand on the other. "Shall we rise to the occasion?"
She nodded, starting to swing her yoyo to give herself a boost. Suddanly an arm was around her waist, she looked down at the black leather glove with the sharp claw like fingers on her hip, and then gave her companion her most "I am not impressed with you, you are not as cute as you think you are," glare, flung out her yoyo and ascended all on her own.
He held onto his staff, grinning a bit as it grew in length bringing him up.
Another reminder of Evilistrator. She was now wondering if this akuma was related to... didn't matter now. Something was coming through the portal. And fast. Something that looked silvery. Ladybug landed on a roof and threw her Yoyo in the air.
"LUCKY CHARM!" She hated doing it when she didn't know what the item they needed to get from him was yet, when she didn't know what was coming. But she knew SOMETHING was, and they needed HELP. And they needed it now.
She blinked at the red and black star shaped fruit that dropped into her hand just as Riku was pulled from the dark rift. "What is... what is it?" Ladybug wondered out loud, staring at the thing in her hand...
What Riku would see upon his arrival was a Paris avenue not far off the Seine. A girl with blue-back hair in short low pigtails and a skin tight red suit with black dots and a matching eye mask was staring at a Papou Fruit that went with her clothing. Her earrings were also red with black dots. Five on each.
On a tall spit of rock was a very pale man with white hair, white gloves, and a long black trench coat festooned with silver chains. Not like the Orginization jacket, if for no other reason than the cut was wrong and the hood hovered over the face and hair, hiding nothing. Rising up towards him was... .
He looked like a boy in a skintight black leather catsuit, with fake ears nestled into blond hair, a black belt for a tail, clawed gloves, a bell about his neck and his eyes under his black mask... green. No whites. No pupils. Just three shades of green. The green matched the three paw pads on the black ring he wore, oddly OVER his gloves.
The pale man in the long coat pointed to the rapidly ascending Chat Noir. "KILL HIM! I SUMMONED YOU I ORDER YOU TO KILL HIM!" A pause, a small flash of purple light by his face. "KILL HIM AND BRING ME HIS RING!"
"Honestly," Chat said, dropping onto a different roof, his staff retracting to about the length of a Keyblade, "I'd purrfer you didn't."
no subject
Date: 2018-11-20 05:21 pm (UTC)Even when the haze of being yanked out of the dive and into an entirely different world finally clears, Riku needs a second to catch he bearings. He spends a second staring down at his arms, at the black wrist-guards… his cloths haven't changed. Wherever he is… it's a world that's sleeping… probably.
Then he takes a glance at the world around him… something about the sense of it is familiar, but he can puzzle that out later. First of all he'll have to figure out the mess around him. He can sense some weird kind of Darkness from the boy in the cat suit, and Miss Ladybug (what's that weird paopu for?) smells almost so brightly of Light that he'd put her down as a Princess of Heart if he didn't know all slots taken already… and well, Trench-coat-guy is shouting at him to kill the cat boy, so there's a threat he's going to have to deal with first.
He sighs before he rolls his shoulders, then makes a half turn to face the guy in the trench-coat while still keeping the cat boy within his line of sight.
"First of all, I don't kill people."
And he isn't about to let himself be ordered around by a B-List villain either, but that's beside the point.
"So either you un-summon me again–" he holds out his hand, light and darkness swirling until they settle into the shape of Way to the Dawn. "–or he and his ring–" he nods at Chat Noir "–will be the least of your problems."
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Date: 2018-11-20 11:20 pm (UTC)Chat grinned. "Seriously, read a book, that never works."
"I don't know who you are," Ladybug called to Riku "But we'll do our best to get you back where you belong." Somehow. And what was this, even? She considered the odd star in her hands, then shook her head. She needed her hands free. She'd figure this out. "Chat, catch!" She flung it at him.
"My lady finally sees that I'm a great cat-ch?" He all but purred as he caught it.
She got her yoyo up just in time as the akuma pointed over her head, summoning a safe. It bounced off the spinning yoyo to hit the ground. Ladybug winced. "We still need to find the akuma!"
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Date: 2018-11-29 02:05 pm (UTC)At least not with the summon spell used here, because Riku certainly isn't feeling any weird compulsions to attack those two kids.
He ignores the byplay between the two – though he still wonders about the ladybug-pattern paopu – but asks: "What's an Akuma?"
Presumably it's something of Darkness and involved with the trench-coat-guy, but he'd rather have the facts before he tries to slice it up with the Keyblade.
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Date: 2018-11-29 02:11 pm (UTC)"Has to be Ladybug to catch it," chat warned, dodging a.... yes, that was a piano! "If you tried it might infect you, and I purr-ify things, not purify them."
An anvil aimed for his head and he dodged away, running on all fours. "The joke wasn't that bad!"
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Date: 2018-11-30 01:21 pm (UTC)Well that doesn’t quite help as much as Riku would have liked, but if there‘s a chance to purify this person from the Darkness… well maybe then he can help this pair out a little.
“You can leave breaking the object to me.“
With that he uses the objects that Trench-coat-guy is throwing as a jump path straight to him – Free Flow is a wonderful ability and Riku has enough experience with it by now to know how to time his jump. If he focuses a Zantetsuken at the dark energy… then he should be able to cut right through just that.
In theory. Right?
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Date: 2018-11-30 11:02 pm (UTC)But when he got that close to the hooded man? He'd sense dark power over every bit of him, as if he was dipped in the stuff. With time, he could probably figure out where most of it came from, but there was a purple flash over the akuma's face and he nodded and pointed a gloved hand yelling "Réfrigérateur!" and a large fridge was dropping down towards Riku as the man jumped back.
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Date: 2018-12-01 07:25 pm (UTC)absolutely gamebreakingmagic of Free Flow that allows him to interact with this kind of random object. He ensnares the fridge with Way To The Dawn, racing around along the sides before he grips the Keyblade with both hands and lobs the fridge in the direction of the guy in the coat.“You can have that back!“
He isn‘t quite hoping to actually hit the trench coat guy… but if he can throw him off his game long enough for an opening, that should allow him to cut through the coat and see if that akuma-thing is hiding in there.
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Date: 2018-12-01 09:36 pm (UTC)"CHAT!" she called, panicked.
Chat was already moving, baton clipped to the back of his suit as he ran on all fours. He barreled into the akuma full body, knocking them both out of the way.
A different kind of panic as the fridge hit the ground, pinning Chat's tail, but nothing else. but from where she was, she couldn't see that. "CHAT!!!" She raced towards the fridge.
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Date: 2018-12-04 08:06 pm (UTC)That's really kind of pathetic in his book.
The fridge hits the ground and from where he's still hovering mid-air Riku can see that the cat-boy didn't get hit. So as gravity pulls him back to the earth he shouts to assure the ladybug girl:]
He's fine!
[And with that he turns back towards mr. trench coat. The coat he's wearing… that's where the Darkness is coming from, right? There won't be any better chance to cut it into pieces than now while he's stunned by his own panic, Riku thinks as he advances at him.]
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Date: 2018-12-05 03:53 am (UTC)Despite the fact that the tail had been moving independently this whole time, like an actual tail, when he couldn't easily free it, he unhooked it from his suit and stepped away, leaving it limp like the belt it appeared to be.
"Now, where is his akuma....?
Purple light flashed over trench coat man's face, and he yelled. "Yes..." he gasped, "Yes Papillion...." as he tried to roll to his feet.
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Date: 2018-12-07 10:50 pm (UTC)And anyway, they have different things to worry about.
"I think it's in that coat he's wearing. If he'd just stay still for a second, I could cut through it without a problem."
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Date: 2018-12-10 12:07 am (UTC)"The coat? I can do something about that. "CATACLYSM!" The power that throbs around his claws is green and black, and very much more from the darkness than the light.
The Akuma got to his feet and staggered back. "GIVE ME YOUR MIRACULOUS! OR I KILL THAT ONE!" HE yelled, pointing at Riku.
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Date: 2018-12-10 09:08 pm (UTC)He tilts his head at the Akuma, honestly not impressed with his threat.
"You are welcome to try," he says, before lifting his Keyblade to attack and-slash-or defend, depending on what the trench-coat-guy does next.
Though really, what does the Akuma want to do? Fling another fridge at him?
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Date: 2018-12-10 09:25 pm (UTC)Chat growled and launched himself just past the Akuma to one side, hand snaking up to snag the tail of the coat as he went past. The coat blackened and fell away. He stood, smirking, then dodged a safe. "WASN'T THE COAT!"
She put a hand over her face a moment, and shook her head, then looked around at everything. Then her eyes narrowed on the thing she had tossed to chat, the odd star shaped fruit. "CHAT! Toss me the lucky charm!" she called.
No questions, no hesitations, as he dodged another anvil, he flung the thing at her.
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Date: 2018-12-10 09:32 pm (UTC)So much for the coat theory though.
"It's got to be something he's wearing… I can smell the Darkness all over him."
He glances over at the ladybug girl… huh. He wonders what she's planing to do with the paopu.
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Date: 2018-12-10 10:07 pm (UTC)She threw half of the red and black papou fruit at him. He was, as Riku had noted, bad at dodging. But he caught it well enough, both hands closing around it. She grinned and looked at Riku. "you with the moves, how are you at snatching?"
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Date: 2018-12-12 06:51 pm (UTC)Whatever she's planning, he can probably catch the paopu. Though he really has to wonder what she is going to do with that… he so isn't sharing it with the akuma, if that's where this is going.
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Date: 2018-12-12 07:51 pm (UTC)"Looks like his gloves are stuck together," she said, nodding to the akuma who was swinging wildly at Chat Noir, but not summoning anything any more. "think you can grab them?" She asked Riku, grinning.
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Date: 2018-12-17 03:18 pm (UTC)Riku flashes her a short grin and says: "I'm on the job!"
Then he runs off and towards their preoccupied enemy to steal his gloves right off his fingers!
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Date: 2018-12-17 05:49 pm (UTC)Ladybug started swinging her yoyo. "Break the gloves, then step back. It's time to purify this akuma and set things right!"
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Date: 2018-12-20 07:06 pm (UTC)Once he has the gloves, Riku tosses them in the air, then closes both of his hands around the handle of his Keyblade. A second later he rushes forward cutting straight through the cloth of the gloves.
He dismisses Way to the Dawn as he flips forward and turns to watch out for that akuma-thing. Is that… a butterfly?
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Date: 2018-12-21 06:21 am (UTC)Ladybug winked at Riku. "Thank you for your help," she said. It sounded a lot like goodbye.She threw the halves of the fruit in the air. "MIRACULOUS LADYBUG!" The pieces went far higher than they ought to have, and turned into pure light, as in the energy and the brightness that hurt ones eyes. Then the light broke into millions of small specks of light that swarmed out from the center over every broken bit of anything, over every fridge and safe and anvil that didn't belong, restoring everything to its proper state, repairing multiple city blocks with its magic.
She had a small satisfied smile on her face as she watched, but another beep brought her attention back. She turned to Chat Noir, raising a fist, he raised his own and they pounded out a fist bump. "Good job," they said at the same time, grinning.
Then Ladybug took a breath. "Countdown's almost gone, gotta...." she stopped dead staring at Riku. "why is he still here?" she asked in utter shock.
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Date: 2018-12-22 11:58 am (UTC)"Any time."
It's not quite his job to help out – right now, he needs to find the seven sleeping Keyholes after all – but well… it's not like he can just stand by while someone needs help either. Though, he's sure that between them Ladybug girl and Cat boy would have figured out how to deal with the former trench-coat guy themselves too.
Riku has seen enough to know that his assistance was just extra.
He watches with wonder as the magical ladybugs wash over the city and repair the damages… and ignore him entirely.
Apparently that's not what was supposed to happen, if Ladybug girl's outburst at his continued presence is anything to go by.
Riku shrugs at that, mostly unconcerned. "I guess there's still something for me to do here."
Find the sleeping Keyhole of this particular world maybe. He'll figure out a way to get out of here sooner or later anyway, he's sure.
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Date: 2018-12-22 08:53 pm (UTC)"No time, my Lady," Chat warned.
She nodded then pointed to the top of a roof. "Wait for us up there," she said to Riku.
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Date: 2018-12-29 10:51 am (UTC)He is a little put off by the order she puts out – it's one thing to take her suggestions in battle when they are fighting an enemy that she's more familiar with, but honestly.
"You are pretty bossy, you know that?"
Which is definitely not a yes. Riku has done world hopping often enough to be able to take care of himself after all.
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Date: 2019-01-03 06:11 am (UTC)He winced, then looked to Riku. "She'll be calmer after she's recharged. Please?" he asked, but the last paw pad blnked out on his ring and without waiting for an answer, he chose another direction, extended his staff and vaulted away as quickly as he could, as of afraid of something.
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Date: 2019-01-06 02:57 pm (UTC)He vaults himself up to the rooftop that ladybug girl had pointed at, for the first time getting a proper look at the city.
…And just when he thinks that nothing about it seems really familiar, he sees it. The tell-tale form of the church that rises up into the sky from across the river.
"No way… isn't that Notre Dame?"
Then, the city he's wound up at… it has to be Paris? Just like in La Cité des Cloches? Huh.
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Date: 2019-01-06 11:09 pm (UTC)"The city at peace is just purr-fect, isn't it?" he asked, watching people starting to emerge from buildings.
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Date: 2019-01-26 08:21 pm (UTC)"Yea… though, which city isn't?"
Anyway… he needs to know now…
"That church over there… that's Notre Dame, isn't it?"
He's pretty sure he recognizes it, but it's best to make sure.
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Date: 2019-01-28 08:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-04 11:32 am (UTC)It has to be something like that. Anyway, he was talked to. He should respond to that, shouldn't he?
"No problem. It's kind of a thing that I do."
Helping people with their troubles, he means. Doing that while passing through in search for the Seven Keyholes kind of seems to be a thing.
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Date: 2019-02-05 05:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-17 12:08 pm (UTC)Anyway. Time to change the topic.
"Can you tell me more about the guy that summoned me here? Or the one that was in control of him?"
Knowing more will only help him figure out where to find the Sleeping Keyhole here… for all that his arrival in this world was unusual, he is more than up to doing his job.
Drop pun unintended by Chat, intended by me.
Date: 2019-02-18 05:47 am (UTC)He was sure it was a yet.
"As fur the one controlling him...." Chat sighed and lay back. His tail twitched. "Papillion preys on things like that. All it takes is one bad day, getting fired, having a fight with a friend, getting bad news..."
"Running into an unrepentant bully who really ought to know better. Or a liar who doesn't care who she hurts..." Ladybug added, dropping in next to them with something in a red and black spotted bag.
Chat sighed a bit. "She does seem to be getting better..."
"One of them, maybe," Ladybug said, but she didn't sound convinced. She dropped into a sitting position and pulled a box of cookies from the bag. "Ran to a bakery on the way back, best Macarons in Paris. I figured so bitter a topic called for something sweet. I also brought bottled water." She opened the box of the small multi-coloured french cookies for them to take, as she rolled her neck. "Ask your questions about Papillion. We don't know much, but what we can share, we will."
She carefully didn't say they's share what they knew... but what they could share.