The Algorithm

Chapter thirteen - Puddles of Blood

 Marinette awoke to the sound of the rhythmic beeping from the heart monitor. She slowly opened her eyes to see her surroundings. She was in a private room, lying in bed. Everything in the room was clean and smelled of chemicals and antiseptics. The walls were a pale beige and the floor a white tile. She tried to pull herself up, but there was something tugging on her arm. She glanced over to see plastic tubes, strung to her arm, filled with liquid dripping into her bloodstream. As Marinette's senses came back, she felt something on her face and removed a clear pipe that was wrapped around her ears and feeding her oxygen through her nose.

A short Asian woman with dark eyes walked up to her and asked her how she was feeling. Marinette recognized the woman as Dr. Duusu by her blue and purple striped hair that was kept neatly in a bun. "I feel fine," Marinette said while sitting up straight. "What happened?" Duusu explained that she was shot multiple times by the sedatives and overdosed. That explained the badges wrapped around her arm, shoulder, and legs. Marinette's foggy memory was starting to clear and she remembered the plane, the herd of ATVs chasing them, the makeshift torch, blondie. Blondie!

"Where's Adrien? Is he alright?" She questioned a sense of urgency in her words.

"He's fine," Duusu reassured her. "A doctor examined him and he only had a few mild cuts, bruises, was a little dehydrated, and hungry." Marinette felt a heavyweight life off of her shoulders and she sighed in relief.

"Can I see him?" Duusu nodded with a smile. She held the commlink wrapped around her wrist to her mouth and asked Trixx to bring Adrien, Tikki, Plagg, and Nooroo to the med bay urgently.

Adrien followed close behind the girl with the messy orange hair that almost resembled the tongue of flame that had saved him in the desert plains. As they came closer to her hospital room, he saw himself picking up the pace of his strides. By the time Trixx opened the door for him, he was sprinting to her bedside. He wrapped his arms around her so tightly, he worried she might break. "Good to see you too, blondie." He heard her whisper faintly. Behind him followed Tikki, Plagg, Nooroo, and Trixx.

Once Adrien pulled away, Marinette was greeted by friendly smiles, but Tikki seemed focused on business more than anything. "We need to do an assessment of your powers once you're fully recovered." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking." Marinette retorted with a hint of bitterness towards Tikki's indifference. Plagg sensed the growing tension and knew all too well that any small amber of a disagreement between the two of them would erupt into a bonfire if not extinguished.

"We're glad to see you awake Mari." He said, using his pet name for her hoping it would calm her temper. He placed a hand on Tikki's shoulder as a way of saying they could talk about the matter of Marinette's power at a later time but Tikki didn't seem to understand the gesture.

"Can you use your telekinesis or not?" She asked, her voice filled with heat and impatience. Plagg felt that a flame of disagreement was already catching.

Without responding to Tikki's question, Marinette stretched her hand towards a glass of water sitting on an end table near her bed and made it hover a few inches in the air. Then Marinette slowly moved her hand and the glass started flying higher over the heads of the crowd like a bird. First, it passed over Adrien, then Nooroo, then Trixx, until finally, it stopped, suspended over Tikki. Without warning the glass turned upside down and the water spilled out onto her red hair and to the floor, leaving her dripping wet.

"Whoops," Marinette said, but it was evident by her smirk that the stunt was intentional. A stunned expression was still plastered on Tikki's face as Marinette returned the glass to its home on the side table. A giggle started to rise up Adrien's throat which he hastily choked down, knowing it wasn't an appropriate time for a shared laugh.