Gold crept through the luxurious crème curtains, I woke up from the glare against my eyelids, body fighting to against my will to get up. Sitting up I felt the slight winds of the cracked balcony touch my exposed back
Chloe was still asleep barely covered and skin bouncing the glow of light turned toward the window, one arm thrown loose over the space where I'd been. I sat up slow so the plush mattress wouldn't shift too much.
Next to her chair I found black pants, The teal-ish blue button shirt I'd been wearing was already too dirty to keep on for the rest of today. Of course there were already shirts here for me. putting on the white button-up, I didn't bother with the buttons. I sat back down on the edge of the bed after, elbows fully leaning on my knees, and hands clasped in front of me. Sitting in silence.
"Morning," Chloe mumbled behind me, voice still thick with sleep.
I turned my head, and let the corner of my mouth go up on its own. "Morning."
—
The limo smelled like any luxury car, leather and the scent of freshness with vanilla perfume the tinted windows allowed the still rising sun in onto the seats. Chloe had her head tipped against my shoulder.
The partition halted the vehicle. "We've arrived, Miss Bourgeois, Mister Couffoiane"
straightening my shirt, one hand was already on the doors automatic latch before the butler could open it.
"Lu-ka." She drew it out, teasing, sitting up. "Did you have to come here, when will you be at school?"
"Sometime this afternoon," I said, stepping out.
"Lulu," she called after me in sing-song, I just shook my head at the nick name and continue forward
The elevator up to the tower moved slow enough that I had nothing to do but stand in it, face doing nothing, mind doing less. I came out onto the open walk at the top and leaned my forearms on the railing, looking out over Paris waking up under a sky the color of old brass.
"The Whole city looked like it was made of gold this morning."
My hand went to my wrist out of a habit I hadn't managed to forget yet — and found nothing there but the little voice-activation piece. I stood there for a while just looking at it.
I couldn't help but think brooding on a rooftop like a period drama extra wasn't doing me any good but the silence felt necessary just for a bit. I somehow had to get on my feet quickly.
My phone rang before I started my stratigizing. I picked it up quickly. "Hey, Ma—"
"LUKA!"
I pulled the phone an inch off my ear, jaw tight. Whatever this was, it had already cost me part of my hearing.
"YOU NEED TO GET DOWN HERE RIGHT NOW, I'M SERIOUS, DROP WHATEVER YOU'RE DOING—"
I ran through the short list of things that could put that particular pitch in Max's voice.
"—I FOUND IT, LUKA, I ACTUALLY FOUND IT, IT'S A BREAKTHROUGH, IT'S THE BREAKTHROUGH—"
"Max." I got a word in edgewise. "Breathe. What breakthrough?"
"JUST GET HERE." The line went dead. Couldn't he just say it on the phone, I sighed.
If this was really as grand as his voice made it sound like I had to use it immediately. I was on the back burner no matter how I whatever curveball came next — I needed to be standing somewhere solid before it arrived, not scrambling to catch up later.
I texted Chloe I'd be with Max for a while so I might be late, of course she'd already forgotten about him. Getting in the first taxi I counted down block by block, some potential ideas came to mind for accelerating my own plans with the time I had and soon after I pulled up outside the lab, my plans had already picked up a few weeks of urgency they hadn't had an hour ago.
I entered the blacked out abandoned building and quickly reached the lab door, sliding it open and revealing the, Laboratories goods. Still filled to the brim with Max's tech. It was mostly the same as before from a glance , but It felt like something was missing.
Crack*
I stepped on a tablet that had been fanned across the floor with other items, Strange, Continuing I moved pass a floating board cover his chair. It was tipped to its side, and the only sound in the room being the low electronic drones holding one buzzing note.
"Max?" There was no answer.
I pushed further in, past the cans strooning the floor and toward the main console chair — and that's when I saw him, slumped on the floor beside it, one arm bent under him, a small drone hovering low over his head like it was still waiting on instructions nobody had given it.
I was on my knees the next second before him, hand on his shoulder, "Max. Hey — look at me—" I said with a raised voice, shaking him. Nothing. Silence stretch for seconds. And a cold sweat poured at my face, I had to check for a pulse. First I glanced at the doorway, and the shadows past the equipment, found them empty, and I went right back to him. "Max."
"He is merely asleep," Malvok said, flat and entirely unbothered, from somewhere behind me.
Well that was one way to give me a heart attack. Now that I thought about it how would anyone even know his location, or target him?
My hand stayed on his shoulder a second longer than it needed to.
"Of course he is," I muttered.
Max jolted upright like someone had shocked him, the top of his head nearly clipping me under the chin and his glasses catching the overhead light in one bright shimmer blinding me as he blinked himself awake, grinning before his eyes had even finished focusing.
"You're here! Perfect — come on, come look—"
"Max, you scared the—"
"No time, no time, this way—" Already up, waving me toward the far side of the lab with one hand, flicking a floating board out of standby with the other — one of the dozens he used to scrawl half-formed ideas across in his own private shorthand — and sending it drifting off to clear the path. I followed noticing the slim white gadget wrapped around his wrist, a soft blue glow pulsing once when he moved his hand. Didn't know what was but it looked futuristic.
On the far table, a thin laser arm worked slow, patient passes over a small dark object clamped in place — the Bat Miraculous, or what was left of the shape of it, edges softening under the beam like wax.
"Okay, so what I've figure out was I was going about everything wrong, this is the thing, you'd think the miraculous, this object, the little — " he waved a hand at the thing on the table, "— that that's where the power lives but It's not."
Oh shoot did I forget to tell him kwami's existed and they hold the power? Well he figured it out anyways.
" It's packaging to hold the powers within. First I melted this down to figure out the materials properties then realized something was giving it the properties, I spread what was inside it across a dozen other objects, completely different materials from whatever it was made of, and it didn't lose a single degree. Not a drop. The power was never the bat. It was never any of them. It's something in them." He finished with a snap.
I nodded continuing to listen, Everything he said made sense so far.
"Which — okay, watch this, this is the part I actually wanted to show you, this is new, I only figured this out an hour before I called you—" He was already crossing to a tray, snatching up two plain silver rings, no stones, nothing to look at twice. Pressed one into my hand. "Put it on."
"Huh—"
"Put it on, trust me." He slid the other onto his own finger, and I followed his example.
"I assume you know more about this Miraculous than me, so please try and activate it's power."
Hmm, I knew a little from what was shown from the official bat miraculous wielder but only one attack from the mouth I'd seen her use, she likely had more but I could only make due.
I slid the ring on. Felt for whatever the Snake used to feel like waking up under my palm with power. And let a slight breathe.
"AHHHHHHH—" I immediately stopped eyes wide, that came out hundreds of times louder than intended!
Max was covering his ears but still had a smile. "My turn." He put the ring to his chest, even closing his eyes to focus before letting out a screech
"aaaAAAHHH,"
Shit! It was way louder from the receiving end. My hands jolted to my ears.
eyes bright, he seemed satisfied, either because it worked or he got his revenge.
"Okay this is what's most important, lets do both at once." He grabbed my wrist, held our two hands side by side like he was staging something, both rings a few inches apart, and stared at them so hard I thought he might actually be trying to force it through sheer will. He began a count of a full five seconds with his hands.
'Now!'
"HA." I breathed out trying even less than I had before. He dropped my wrist, covering his own ears. But a bigger smile appeared like he'd just proven something instead of failed at it. "You see theres one host. Only ever one. Doesn't matter how many rings you make, how many people want it at the same time — it picks one alone."
One at a time. I turned the ring over once on my finger, and a dozen half-formed ideas started circling each other in my head, none of them landing yet, all of them seemed worth keeping though.
"Anyway." Max clapped his hands together, already three thoughts ahead of the last one. "Since you're here — let me show you where everything else is at." He led me past the console to a wall of finished builds, tapping the first — a sleek little piece shaped like a modern hearing aid. "Guidance Device, version 6. Much more refined than the last, it's now capable of determining how hard it should push people into bettering themselves. Day-to-day stuff. Small stuff, life changing things. Afterall that's the whole point, the best method to making an individual better. It's practically fully prepared for sale,"
"The combat lenses, are still in beta, unfortunately for yours to stay up to date with real time, you're due for an update while you're here." Already reaching for a connector cable. "It Should be every three weeks or they start lagging."
Last, he tapped a wrist unit the same white device with a blue glow on him. "This is the only version eight-one for my health bands that reads stress, adrenaline, and all other flags my own possess the ability to control all my drones with neural feedback. Ha, sorry I somewhat stole the idea from your own 'flute device'. "
"It seems your making good progress, do you have anything else that could be used for sale, I assume the older generations for the health monitoring as well as the guidance device both are ready for sale."
"Yes, and one more item." He turned, and the far wall of the lab lit up, a massive display unfurling out of nothing, a simulation that had fully loaded not just random city but this city, paris itself. It even had a scatter of entire continents, each one breathing with its own weather, economies, politics, current wars happening in the time it took him to blink.
"All of this," he said, gesturing at the sprawl of it, a handful of small dotted lights each carrying a name and a life, "and all we need is people wearing the Guidance Device." He pulled up one profile at random — a woman, tired-looking even as a data point, a flag of what she wants beside her name: nearest discounted grocery, 0.4 km. Then another — a man with no fixed address: shelter opening tonight, veteran-matched employment lead attached.
"Every one of my product testers gets exactly what they need, exactly when they need it." Quieter now, for the first time all morning. "This, my ."
He looked at me, and his grin had gone somewhere steadier than I'd seen on him before.
"With you being Viperion and this cash flow the guidance device can be set to distribute whenever your ready."
He really managed to put a simulation to life, sheesh this guy was more hard working than myself. "About being Viperion, yeah lets scratch that off. I can still advertise it with other accounts and people I know so do worry" I replied while pocketing the ring
Max looked a bit confused but still nodded "When the combat lenses are updated I'll let you *Yawn* know."
I let myself out into a morning that had already gone from gold to something closer to white with how high the sun had climbed.
I had to get to school next, and confront Marinette, Adrien, Kagami, and all the rest with my head high, It may be a bit awkward with the two miraculous holders watching me the way they should be to the real incompetence but with this update even without a miraculous I'd know I'd be alright. People were waiting for me.
Patience with people had never once failed me before, and I didn't see any reason today would be the exception.
After all, if I was going to be a villain, I might as well be the only competent one.