The Algorithm

Chapter one - Agent 1492058

"And you are the only living survivor of these experiments as far as we know?" Tikki asked, shaking Marinette out of her thoughts.

"Yes." She answered.

"Well," The short red headed woman said, she finished writing notes and placing the clipboard off to the side and snapping her fingers. Plagg listened to the command and sat the thick file on the table. "Now that the formalities are out of the way, sorry about that, given the circumstances we needed to go by the book on this one. Take a look at your assignment." She said, nodding towards the thick file.

Marinette opened the messy file, it had pictures and crumpled papers flying out of the folder in all directions. There were countless documents, hundreds of pages lined with computer code, and amongst it all was a picture of a handsome blonde boy.

"I don't understand," Marinette stated. "What is this?"

The three of them darted eyes at each other before they all pulled their chairs out and sat across from her, dismantling the wall that was pinning Marinette down and letting her tense muscles relax a bit.

"Listen Marinette, um," Nooroo said shyly, his regular thin tone was replaced with hoarse and brittle words that caused him to clear his throat several times before continuing. "There's something we haven't told you." His unnaturally pigmented eyes filled with worry as he spoke, and as always, peeled away from her gaze and started darting around the room.

Marinette kept her eyes fixed on the papers she had now sprawled messily across the white table top. "What?" She asked with a growl through clenched teeth. She trusted these people and trust wasn't something Marinette took lightly. You gain Marinette's trust; it means you gain her respect, loyalty, and devotion as well. You break her trust, she'll break you. Simple as that.

"Look, Mari," Plagg said, folding his hands in front of him while calling her by her pet name. Only he ever called her 'Mari', no one else had gained such a privilege. "The day that we found you at Akuma... well let's just say you weren't the only thing we found." He explained.

"What do you mean?" Marinette asked with a blank expression despite how anxious and upset she was. She was a spy, she knew how to hide emotion. It was one of her more lethal qualities.

"We call it 'The Algorithm'," Plagg added in his usual low, gruff voice which always made his words sound serious. Maybe that's why people were intimidated by him, Marinette thought. "When we rescued you from that Akuma facility we came across a room. The place was covered wall to wall with computer screens. All of them were displaying thousands of lines of code." He reached over and picked up a stack of paper with black ink covering the white page with lines of random numbers and letters. "We have hundreds of files covered in code just like this, but the thing is that when we found that room, we were sure of just one thing." He said, allowing his words to trail off before Tikki finished his sentence.

"Akuma is planning something."

"Exactly," Plagg agreed. "We had no idea what, but we had never seen another room like that in any Akuma base. Whatever they were planning must have been important and when we found you, we were certain of it. So, we copied the Algorithm and stored it on a hard drive. We started running the program as soon as possible."

Marinette grinded her teeth and let out a halfhearted sigh. "And why didn't you tell me? I was stuck inside Akuma walls for years, they trained me. Raised me! I know how they think. I could have helped." Marinette was half-standing in her seat but Plagg put his hand up to stop her and she retreated back to her chair.

"I know you're upset, but we had our best minds on it." Nooroo explained while twiddling his thumbs. "There was nothing you could have done." He spoke calmly but his steady manner only made Marinette's face turn red with anger and resentment. "We didn't even know what it was before we called you in here." He stated. Marinette repressed her resentment and spoke placidly.

"And what is it exactly?" She decided the best course of action was to behave diplomatically, arguing would only waste precious time.

Tikki leaned over and scrambled through the stacks of papers until finally she found what she had been searching for. She found the picture of the blonde boy and held it up for Marinette to see. It looked like the kind of photo you would see in a school yearbook. He appeared to be about the same age as Marinette. He had light emerald colored eyes and a sharp jaw. Handsome for sure. He wore a white button-down and a thin black tie around his neck.

"His name is Adrien Noir," Tikki explained. "He's 19 years old, a university student at the Paris College of Arts. He is a part-time model and has an above average GPA. But overall, he's one of Akuma's targets."

Marinette took the small photo and examined it a bit, based on what Tikki said he was smart and by the look of his picture strong too. She took one last look before handing it back.

"But why do they want him?" Marinette asked, puzzlement evident in her tone. Akuma usually targeted the wealthy or powerful in hopes to use their resources to further their cause. They had no use for kids who were fresh out of high school and drowning in student loans.

"Because," Tikki said while glancing at Plagg. Her bright blue eyes seemed to ask if it was wise to share this crucial piece of information with the young spy. Marinette hated how Tikki thought she couldn't handle whatever it was they were hiding, luckily Plagg, per usual, had her back. He moved his head ever so slightly to indicate a nod which urged Tikki to continue. "We think Akuma is going to do the same thing to him as they did to you."

And with those few simple words, Marinette's heart dropped.

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Word count: 2475 (Not counting this)

Okay I am done spamming you all. 

This story will be updated every Friday. 

I hope you like it. 

There is lots to come, so be ready.

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