Chapter Text
Max looked around the room at his friends. They all sat in his huge gaming room his mom set aside just for him to set up his new virtual reality tech. They sat around on a huge semi-circular couch. Mylene sat on the end, nestled up to Ivan. Ivan was next to Kim who was having a thumb war with Alix. Nathaniel and Marc sat next to her going over their latest story. Marinette sat next to them giggling at cat videos Adrien was showing her on his phone. Nino had his arms around Alya’s shoulders and was whispering something into her ear, whatever it was it caused an evil gleam in her eye and a smirk on her face. Rose sat next to Juleka, talking to her with her hands going up in the air, while Luka smiled softly at his sister and her girlfriend.
Max rubbed his hands together, Oh yes. This is the perfect group to test my new technology. He cleared his throat, yet no one responded. He rolled his eyes and gestured to Markov, who executed his whistle program. The group stopped talking to cover their ears.
“Thank you, Markov.” Max nodded to his friend.
“You are most welcome, Max!”
“My friends! Welcome to the first ever experience of Max Kante’s Virtual Reality! It is with great honor that you have gifted me with your assistance to test out my game. I have been through a simulation on multiple occasions, so I am confident there will be no harm to any of you.”
The group clapped softly at their friend. He held up his hand, his friends stopped clapping, and he adjusted his glasses before placing his hand behind his back with the other.
“Now I am positive that most of you are eager to get into virtual reality, but we need to go over some rules first. I have twelve headsets, but I was already under the impression that Rose and Mylene would not be participating due to the nature of the game.” Rose and Mylene both nodded. “Excellent. Then there will be a sufficient amount of headsets.”
He approached the table which housed the headsets, each nestled into a foam cushion. He grabbed one and brought it to the group. He handed out the headsets as he continued to explain what to expect of his game.
“Do not put these on quite yet, we will do it all at the same time. When you do put them on we will all be transported into the digital world. Everyone will land in a room together and the game will begin. Once the game begins, you will have a digital screen on your forearm that only you can read. The screen will identify you as a Crewmate or an Impostor. It will then tell you the tasks you need to complete and where they are located on the ship. Each person has a set number of tasks to complete around the ship. The display will have menus to activate the map, and in the Impostor’s case, a map to sabotage different areas of the ship. All screens will have a report button if you discover a body, and all screens will have a use button for certain tasks which call for it. It will illuminate when you encounter these scenarios. You will not be able to communicate with each other over comms, however if you are in the same vicinity you may speak to one another.”
The group looked on in awe and confusion at the details Max was describing for his game.
“As for the objective of the game. If the Impostor kills everyone without getting ejected into the vast vacuum of space, then the Impostor is victorious. If the Crewmates complete their tasks before the Imposter can kill everyone, then the Crewmates will be victorious. The Impostor can sabotage certain areas of the ship which can also cause the Crewmates to be defeated if not addressed in a timely manner. The display will tell you when these events occur. If on your mission, you encounter a dead body, you press the report button, and you will automatically be digitally transported to the original spawn point, which in this case is the Cafeteria. There is also an emergency meeting button located in the Cafeteria which you can utilize only once, if you suspect a person of being an Impostor. We then take two minutes to discuss amongst ourselves what was observed and whether you suspect another person of the misdeed. Majority votes will eject the suspected person, and let us hope we eject the Impostor and not a fellow Crewmate. People who are dead can converse amongst themselves and still achieve their tasks, which I advise you do, so the Crewmates can win, but they can not participate in the group discussion.” Max paused for dramatic effect. “May we find the Impostor, among us.”
There was a brief silence in the room.
“So. Any questions, or shall we commence with the simulation?”
Everyone looked around at each other and looked to their headset, shrugging before saying no and putting the headsets over their eyes. Everyone saw a black screen with the words “please wait” in the middle of the display.
“Alright then. We shall do one experimental round to get everyone acclimated to the map and to the idea of the game as a whole. Following the conclusion of the first round, we will attempt a longer campaign with increased quantities of tasks.”
Max watched his friends adjust the straps on the headsets that covered their eyes. “Mylene. Rose. The screen behind me will display what is happening in the game, you should be able to zoom the map in on individual players to receive a more detailed perspective.” The girls both nodded their heads in confirmation.
“Very well. Everyone appears prepared. Let us commence.”
He sat down in a chair near his computer, adjusted his headset, and turned to Markov. “Alright buddy, put us in.”
Markov pressed the button and Mylene and Rose watched as their friends around them went mostly limp. Their bodies still upright but their arms went limp at their sides. Mylene waved her hands in front of Ivan’s face and poked his shoulder.
“They seem pretty out of it. Alright! Quick, Rose, put Marinette’s and Adrien’s hands together!” Mylene said excitedly.
Rose squealed and bounced out of her seat to Marinette and placed Marinette’s hand over Adrien’s. What she was not expecting was for their hands to grasp each other tightly. Mylene and Rose both squealed loudly.
“Girls. As glad as I am that they unconsciously know they are made for each other, the game is starting.” Markov interrupted.
The girls giggled before turning to the screen where they observed their friends all together in one small room with chairs.
************
The group of friends digitally appeared in a small room in the same positions they left the real world in. They all sat in chairs you would see in a subway, except they were all wearing form fitting space suits and what appeared to be an invisible field around their head to provide them with the game’s digital oxygen.
Marinette looked down at her hands and noticed her suit was red with black seams. Great. Ladybug colors. Of course. Couldn’t have been any of these other colors. She thought as she looked around at her friends where they all seemed to be sporting a different color.
A gasp to her left snapped her out of her thoughts. “Look! Marinette! I got Chat Noir’s colors! Do you think I get his powers, too!?” He stood to show off his form fitting space suit that was black with bright green seams. In fact, his butt in that suit almost looked identical to her partners, but she was not going to think about either of their butts right now, or the fact that she admires both of them; she had a game to win.
“Very observant, Adrien.” Max stood up, going to stand in front of the group, his suit completely black. “While yes, I based the suit colors on those of our beloved heroes, they do not possess their miraculous power.” He pointed to a small laptop in the center of the room. “You may change the color there if you wish, however, there are not many remaining, as most are utilized by our friends.” He gestured to the other people in the room.
Nino had on a dark green suit with a lighter green seam. He stood next to Alya, trying to show off his muscles in the form fitting suit. Her suit was orange with white seams. Marinette shook her head as she looked around at the rest of her friends, all sporting their superhero colors, wondering if Max knew something he was not telling her or if this was all just a coincidence. She looked back over to Adrien, in her partners colors, Nope. Not even going there.
Marinette shook her head and observed the rest of her friends. Alix in her light blue with white seams. Luka wearing teal and with a darker teal for the seams. Kim jumped around wearing light brown with dark brown seams. Ivan just had yellow with black seams. Juleka’s was purple with light purple seams, Nathaniel had a darker blue with black seams and Marc had red with white seams.
“Listen, everyone!” Max boomed, clearly louder in virtual reality than in real life. “Once I hit the button on the computer everything will be radio silence and once you disperse from the central meeting area, you will only be able to communicate with anyone in hearing range. Remember to look at your display for information on tasks. Ghosts can still sabotage and perform tasks. And have fun.”
Everyone stood and gave max a determined looked. Marinette subtly looked around at her friends, Miraculous Team indeed.
“Three...Two...One.”
Another digital transportation and Marinette found herself in a cafeteria, with her friends all surrounding a round table, which housed an emergency button. She felt a tingle on her left arm and pressed a flashing button on her arm. A digital screen popped up with the word “crewmate,” and she sighed. Well at least I will have a chance to learn the game instead of killing.
The word shrunk to the bottom and her tasks popped up on the screen. She needed to fix some wiring in Electrical. She brought up the map and noticed that Electrical was below and to the left of her current location. All she had to do was run through storage to get there. She watched her friends look and mess with their arm computers and start to run off.
She took off south toward storage, passing a doorway on her left that her map labeled Admin, she entered a room with a large stack of boxes, one of them seemed to want to defy gravity. She wondered if that was on purpose or if Max needed to fix that. She stopped, looked down at her map when a red light started flashing around her and an alarm started to blare. Her Ladybug instinct kicked in and she got in her fight mode.
“Easy there, Ladybug .” A familiar voice said behind her.
Marinette went stiff, her heart rate increased as she quickly turned around to see someone sauntering toward her. She had to double take. She thought it was Chat Noir coming out of the darkness, but as he loomed closer, she realized it was Adrien. She shook her head. Stop thinking about it!
“Adrien! You scared me!” She relaxed, but only a little. She needed to figure out what the alerts meant. She felt a tingle at her arm and looked at her display. It flashed “emergency: O2 depleting” and had a countdown next to it. She pulled her map up and noticed two arrows pointing to a place in Admin and one at place on the right side of the ship called O2. She looked up at Adrien, as he looked up at Marinette. Their eyes went wide as she started to go for the closest panel, which was the one behind Adrien.
He turned around as she reached him and they both ran into Admin and noticed a slight glow coming from a panel on the other side of the computers. They approached it and noticed that there was a sticky note next to the keypad. Marinette grabbed the sticky note and showed it to Adrien as he quickly typed in the five digit code before pressing the green enter button.
The alarm and red lights stopped and Adrien and Marinette looked at each other, relieved.
“Well, everyday Ladybug, we make a pretty good team don’t we?” Adrien smirked down at her.
She looked him up and down, wondering why he was being so cheeky. “Ladybug, huh?”
He blushed a little, interesting in virtual reality, and rubbed the back of his neck. “Well yeah. It has been your nickname for two years, and well...you are wearing her colors. So, you know...codenames.”
She looked at him skeptically, “Well, if that’s the case, everyday Chat Noir, shall we get back to our tasks since the emergency seems to be over?” She gestured to the doorway.
He perked up. “Sure. What do you have to do? I actually have a task in this room. Want to travel together? We can watch each other’s backs!”
She looked at him skeptically again, not sure if he was truly a Crewmate or if he was the Impostor. She decided to trust him, for now. “Alright. What do you have to do?”
He pointed to a control panel behind them. “Looks like I need to swipe some sort of card over there.” He walked over to the end of the table and looked around. “I don’t see a card.”
“Check your pockets. Maybe there is something in them.”
He looked down at his body, patting it down, not seeing or feeling any noticeable bulge in the skin tight suit. He unzipped a pocket and reached inside. “Woah! There’s a wallet in here! The digital world is crazy!” Marinette giggled at his enthusiasm and he grinned at her. “Alright. Let’s see, all I have to do is slide the card.” He slid the card and an error message popped up on the screen. “Error?!”
“Try again. Maybe slower?” Marinette suggested.
He slid the card slower and it read a different error message. “No! It says it’s too slow, now!” He tried again and again, getting flustered the longer he tried. “Why won’t this stupid thing go!”
“Uhh. Everything ok in here?” A voice said from the doorway.
Marinette and Adrien jumped at the voice, took fighting stances, and looked toward the doorway. Nathaniel jumped and put his hands up over his head.
“Woah! Woah! Stand down guys. I’m not the Impostor. I’m just here to do whatever these tasks are.” Nathaniel walked into the room slowly, sticking close to the wall.
“That sounds like something an Impostor would say, right my lady.” Adrien said, not realizing what he said. Marinette jumped and stared at Adrien like he was the Impostor.
“Uhh...yeah...yes! That is...is what an Impostor would say!” She stuttered out, giving Adrien a funny look as she looked back to Nathaniel. “What is this task you have to complete here?” She spoke in a firmer voice.
Nathaniel looked between his friends. “You guys know it’s just a task oriented game, right? We don’t get fighting skills. And I’m only here to fix some wires, if you must know.”
Marinette and Adrien relaxed as they watched Nathaniel walk over to a weird looking panel with, what appeared, to have a wifi signal on it. He ignored the other two as they looked at each other and shrugged.
Marinette gestured to the computer for Adrien to go back to his task. He nodded his head, knowing what she was instructing without using words, and went back to doing his task. He swiped the card a few more times and he finally got it.
“Finally!” Marinette jumped in surprise next to him at his exclamation. Nathaniel stared at them with colored wires twisted around his hand, his eyebrow raised. “Sorry, didn’t mean to be so loud. It’s...it’s really difficult.” Adrien pointed to the card reader.
Nathaniel went back to his wires and Marinette shook her head at Adrien. She grabbed Adrien’s hand. “Come on, Adrien. We can do my task next.” They both blushed at the hand-holding but Adrien followed dutifully.