“Here you are, sir.” Silence. “Sir?”

Nino blinked, turning to Vincent.

Vincent was a very good friend of Nino’s – He always provided Nino with film and any other camera necessities. And Vincent considered Nino a friend as well – Nino was a returning patron to his shop, Nino himself keeping Vincent in business.

“Find something you like then?”

Nino chewed on his lip. Should he?

“That camera just came in yesterday. Brand new, one of the first of its kind and it’s got a better quality than before.” Vincent sang.

Pulled into the sale like a sailor to a siren’s song, Nino caved. “I’ll take it, please.”

After another monetary exchange, Nino was walking out of Vincent’s shop with a belt tucked into his jacket and his new camera propped onto his shoulder.

“Pleasure doing business with you Nino!” Vincent called out.

“Thanks Vincent!” Nino called back happily.

The camera was a rectangular box, a sweet mahogany color with a golden trim and silver bolts and crank. Nino looked into the eye piece, the image he received was perfectly clear, black and white.

Oh, he was buzzing with excitement. He pointed the camera towards Théo and Mireille. The picture was perfect. He turned his camera to look down the sidewalk.

Motorized vehicles. Some wagons were pulled by horse, people walking along the sidewalks happily. There was a peculiar man, slightly of Asian descent and a blond pompadour against his stark black hair, started running towards him.

Before Nino could realize, this man was running away with his new camera.

“H-Hey, wait!” Nino stumbled forward as the camera was snatched away from his hand. “Thief! Thief!”

Meanwhile, Théo was showing Mireille his Lady.

“What’s this?” Mireille asked, looking over Théo’s shoulder.

“Oh, this?” Théo motioned to the box in his hands, with handles, switches, even a joystick of sorts. Not mention the antenna at the top. “This, my dear, is our future. Technology will one day reign over us before we know it and one day, I’ll be ‘Théo Barbot, engineer’.” Motioned his hand out, imaging his own title. 

Mireille giggled. “Well, Mister Engineer, what’s this gadget you’ve got there?” Mireille looked up at him expectantly.

“Well, this is like a control. A remote control, if you will.” He showed her the box. “I can do all sorts of things with this, watch.” Théo pressed on one of the switches, expecting the lift of his truck to rise from the ground.

The box in Théo’s hand buzzed quietly and the lift started whirring, rising only slightly before falling back to the ground.

“It wasn’t supposed to do that.” He chuckled embarrassedly. “I’ll have a brand named after me, you know.” He tried to flip the switch again, several times actually, and the Ladybug didn’t budge.

“Théo?” She asked, looking up at him expectantly.

“Yeah, I’m– It’s–”

With a pop, the lift shot up, the three sacks of plant fertilizer shot up into the sky.

“Oh dear.” Théo sighed, tugging Mireille closer to him by the waist. “There’s one… two…” He counted the sacks as they fell on either side of them. He looked around for the last sack, when he started to hear Nino’s calls.

Mireille gasped. “Oh no, a thief.” She put a hand to Théo’s chest. “Théo, help, stop him.”

“Not a worry, my dear, I’ll stop him.” Théo didn’t move and the thief was coming up on the other side of Ladybug.

“Théo?” Mireille was curious as to why he hadn’t moved at all.

“Three, two, one…”

The last sack of fertilizer fell in front of the thief. He couldn’t stop himself and tripped on it, stumbling forward. Théo pressed a switch on his control box and the doors of the Ladybug opened, making the thief hit the door, face first.

The camera flew into the air as the thief hit and Nino caught it was a chuckle. “My camera!”

“Wow Théo, you actually saved Nino’s camera.” Mireille chuckled.

Théo gave an affirmative hum, blowing some non-existent dust off of his control box. “What can I say, I’m a miraculous person.”

Nino snorted and joined Théo. Mireille was giggling, fawning over how Théo pretended to be grand.

“‘I’m a miraculous person’?”

Théo glanced over at Nino while they were driving to their final destination. “Yes, thank you.”

“What number was that?”

Théo hummed. “That was number three in the book–” He shook his head. “Wait, all my lines are genuine and they are not tucked in between the seats in a tiny book!”

Nino laughed. “Genuine. Right.”

Théo was a genuine person, he was eccentric and a flirt, but overall, a great guy. Nino’s teases were never to be taken seriously and Théo knew it was mostly payback and that Nino didn’t mean it.

“So, where are we off to next?” Nino asked, making sure his new camera was comfortable.

“I’ve got to deliver something to Professor Mendeleiev. She’s really cool, always coming up with all sorts of experiments.”

The drive out to Professor Mendeleiev’s lab was a sketchy one. It was a road of wooden planks, since it was out to the flooded parts of Paris.

Had it been Nino driving, there would be no way in hell that he would have made that delivery. However, since it was Théo behind the wheel, he was used to it.

So across the sketchy, life-threatening wooden planks did the Ladybug cross, to a singular tall building. The walls were mostly windows, tinted, so you couldn’t see inside.

Théo parked the truck right in front of the building, before hopping off and heading to the back. “Professor Meneleiev is a treat, she’s a bit loony, yet an entertaining woman.”

Nino climbed out of the truck, slightly woozy. “Do you come here often?” He questioned, trying to breathe through his nausea.

“Oh yeah. I just never get to go inside. I’m always delivering peat here. I wonder what she uses it for.” He unloaded several sacks of said peat onto a cart and pushed it to the doors. “Hey, maybe you can meet the professor!”

Théo knocked on the door, calling out to the professor. “Well, that’s odd. The professor usually answers the door right away.”

“Maybe they’re shy?”

Théo scoffed. “The professor? Shy?” He shook his head and knocked a couple more times.

After no response, Théo tapped his foot thoughtfully. “Maybe she’s not here?”

The two of them heard a shuffling on the other side of the door and then a card slipped out from under the door.

“Maybe she’s really shy.”

Théo hummed, picking up the card. “‘Prof. Mendeleiev is out of the country. I am in New York for a convention, please leave the delivery outside and Nathaniel will take care of it’.”

“Nathaniel? Who’s Nathaniel?” Nino asked, looking at the card in Théo’s hands.

“Oh Nathaniel!” He sang, knocking on the door.

The door unlocked and the hinges squeaked as it slowly opened. Out of the shadows, a figure started to come out. A boy, short with bright red hair.

“Oh, you’re Nathaniel.” Nino nodded.

The boy fished out a card from his pockets, handing it to Nino.

“I am Nathaniel, Professor Medeleiev’s botanical assistant. Nice to meet you.” Nino smiled. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“He’s a mute.” Théo supplied. “As far as I know. Never heard him say a peep, that guy.” Théo pushed the door open, wheeling the cart inside.

In a flash, Nathaniel was in front of Théo, holding a new flashcard. “Théo, just leave the boxes here and please leave.”

“Damn it!” Théo coughed. “‘I’ll see you when I get back to Paris’.” He finished.

Nino peeked into the laboratory and gasped. “Wow, look at this place, its so cool.”

Théo wheeled the care to the side and set the sacks down. “We should have the right to explore, for peat’s sake!” He hit one of the sacks with his hand, laughing. “Get it, it’s – It’s peat, ‘Pete’s sake’, do you – oh, nevermind.” Nathaniel’s neutral face made Théo wave him away, before venturing forward.

“It’s like another world in here!” Théo exclaimed. “C’mon Nino, let’s explore the Botanical Gardens!”

“Uh, Nathaniel says that we should leave now. We don’t have the permission to–”

“Come on, Nino! You’ve got your camera, right? You could film this! Make it into a new movie!” Théo put his hand to his waist. “‘The Adventures of Théo the Great!’”

Nino’s hesitation to respond signaled Théo that he almost snagged him.

“In this adventure, Théo explores the lush forest of Mendeleiev, hoping to find new life!”

Nino chewed on his lip before he caved. “Alright, alright, I’ll go get my camera!”

After a couple minutes, Nino cranked his camera and looked through the eye piece, his camera looking up at the surroundings and then back at Théo.

“Here we are, Botanical Gardens, forest of Mendeleiev, where I, Théo Barbot, will find a new species of life!” Théo walked down a little bridge that led them further into the building. “Oh, what is this! Look at this huge tree I’ve discovered! I’ve decided to call it, uh... ‘Giant Théopolis’!” Théo threw his hands up in the air.

Nino chuckled lightly, until a card started to wave in front of his camera. Nino looked up, the image focusing on the card. “Actually, that’s a sequoia tree.” Nino clarified.

Théo rolled his eyes and his shoulders slumped. “Whatever, I prefer the name ‘Giant Théopolis’.” Théo muttered, waving his hand and continued down a small wooden path.

Nino followed along, until Théo gasped loudly. “Nino, look! Oh my god, look, it’s the professor’s lab!”

Nathaniel started to flail his arms, following after Théo to stop him.

“Wow, look at all these different tubes and colored liquids!” Théo squealed, picking up one of the professor’s lab coats. “Nino, Nino, record me, record me!”

Nathaniel pointed to a poster board that read “Warning!” and demonstrated Théo, test tubes and an explosion.

Nino came closer, standing on the other side of the table, recoding Théo as he picked up a flask of green liquid.

“And for today’s experiment, Doctor Théo has…” He picked up the little tag tied around the neck of the flask. “Super Fertilizer.”

“Théo, I don’t think you should go touching those–” 

“Oh, look sunflower seeds! Ladybug runs on sunflower oil, can you imagine the results will be!” Théo picked a sunflower out of a small jar of seeds and set it down on a small plate. Adding a drop or two of the super fertilizer, Théo bent down to be eye level with the seed.

“Nothing’s happening.” He mumbled.

“Maybe you should add some water to it.” Nino suggested.

Théo hummed, looking at the tag. “‘Unstable’. Big red letters. Meh.” Théo plucked the seed off of the plate and tossed it away, the seed landing in a small pond. “Next!” Théo picked up a little spray bottle, this time colored pink. “‘Automize-a-tune’. Sounds interesting.”

Nathaniel came closer and took a deep breath, ready to show his Angry Face, when Théo took advantage and gave the boy a couple spritz.

Nathaniel coughed a couple times and soon, his coughs started to turn into a lovely opera singing voice.

Théo gasped and clapped amusedly.

Nathaniel glared and started to pull all the nearby potions on the table. He started to put away all the potion bottles, when the floor started to shake lightly.

“Do you feel that?” Théo asked, looking around.

Nino felt something cross his ankles and he jumped, looking down. A black cat, glowing emerald green eyes, meowing up at him. “Oh, hello. How did you get in here?”

“Woah, woah, Nino, look at this!”

Nino looked to Théo and there was a huge sunflower growing from the little pond Théo tossed the seed in.

“Wow! Would you look at that! Can you imagine how much oil I’ll have for Ladybug!” Théo chuckled, patting the stem.

The sunflower bloomed, bumping into the light lamps and nearly breaking through the roof. When Théo patted the stem and the flower groaned, starting to tilt towards him.

“Oh… Oh no, Nino, Ni-No, help!” Grabbing the nearest object Théo could find, Théo tried to use a rake to push the stem back.

Nino tried to make his way over quickly, but that cat was in the way and he nearly tripped on it, twice. Nino eventually was able to join Théo’s side and attempt to push the abnormally large stem that rivalled the sequoia tree.

Théo continued to push with the rake, until it snapped and one of the halves was flung into the air. The broken half of the rake flipped towards the shelves of potions that Nathaniel just fixed, knocking over two of the most recently used bottles.

Nathaniel tried to catch the two bottles, but he jumped too soon and missed.

The two bottles crashed together and there was a big boom that echoed throughout the whole lab, enshrouding them all in green smoke.