Adrien watched the world speed by him backwards in the limousine. People blurred by him, engaged in their own daily activities. He wished the car would stop and the world around him would freeze. Then he could get out of the car, walk, and enjoy the day.
As if reacting to his wish, he felt himself being pushed forward as the car slowed, then stopped. A grunt came from the driver, Adrien's bodyguard, who opened the car door and stepped out the vehicle. Adrien climbed between the partition between the passenger and driver section and peered through the front windshield. He was unaware that Plagg had shared his curiosity, and the kwami phased upward through the ceiling of the car.
Adrien could not follow him, so his sight turned forward to what he could see. Right in front of the car was a marble statue of a little pigtailed girl. She was literally frozen in fear in the middle of her sprint, her skirt caught halfway between rising and falling. His eyes darted towards the left and he jumped slightly when he saw his bodyguard. The man was no longer alive, just a statue with a stricken countenance, and acting on curiosity, Adrien scrambled over to the open door to investigate.
"Get down!" warned Plagg after he plunged through the car ceiling.
Adrien squeezed himself to the bottom of the drivers' seat, curling himself as best he could beneath the steering wheel and in front of the pedals. Immediately, he regretted his action, as the obvious alternatives of either diving to the passenger seat or the back seat chided him with availability. Before he could rectify his mistake, a shadow passed by the windshield. The wave of darkness forced him into a tighter ball, and he closed his eyes.
The source of the shadow came nearer. Despite her size, her slither was a faint, near-silent accompaniment to her approach. He neither felt body heat nor smelled the predatory figure, which made it all the more tempting to Adrien to take a peek. Hiding made him uneasy. He'd rather try his luck fighting, but for now the only battle he had was trying to keep himself hidden with an open car door that made his presence obvious.
Seconds slowly ticked away as the creature sounds first stopped, then started again, but became more distant. Adrien unfurled himself from his hiding spot and crawled out the car and onto the ground. He took the chance to look around to catch a glimpse of the retreat of the monster. It was definitely not human with a mop head and serpentine tail in place of legs, but at least it was headed away from him.
He stood up and scanned his surroundings. His visual sweep lengthened in horror. The people who had been walking along the sides were now sessile replicas of themselves, some transfixed in noiseless screams while others preserved in blissfully unaware simulacra of their former selves.
He had gotten his wish after all. The car had stopped and the world had stopped.
"What was that?" Adrien asked.
"Just a Gorgon," Plagg answered. "You know, a terrible monster you can't look at directly, or else you turn to stone."
"Like Medusa." His stomach dropped when he realized the mop-like hairstyle she sported must have been snakes.
"Good thing we kwamis are immune or else you might have been a statue...again."
"I'm surprised she didn't see me. The door was wide open."
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Plagg began to float away at a sluggish pace. "Maybe she just wasn't interested. And now with this peace and quiet, it's time to go on a Camembert raid."
"Not this time." Adrien extended his fist. "Plagg, claws out!"
The kwami spiraled into the ring on Adrien's finger. In a burst of energy Adrien was transformed into the obsidian-clad hero, Cat Noir. An alert caught his attention, and he pulled his baton from the small of his back. From the baton rose a back panel with a screen, and he read the message on it.
His lady needed him, and that was all he needed to start running towards her.
Ladybug peered over the corner of a building, her eyes parsing the landscape for her signs of partner. Behind her came the near-imperceptible footfalls, and she turned around to face the one she summoned.
"Cat Noir!" she exclaimed out of relief.
"I got your message," he replied. "So there's a new supervillain?"
"She calls herself Gorgis. She's after young children, but she's been turning every person in her path into stone statues."
"Just like Medusa..." He pressed one of his gloved fingers into his chin, as Ladybug's explanation took him back to his encounter with the creature a few minutes ago. He was simply too old for her to show interest him. At least that's what he hoped.
"Something on your mind?"
"If the villain is Medusa and that makes me Perseus," he covered quickly, "would that make you the Andromeda of my heart?"
Ladybug would have scolded him for his flirting had she been in another mood, but both her connection to the victim and the danger of the supervillain she became prevented her trying to rebuke him openly.
"No," she replied, "because unlike Perseus, we have an advantage against this enemy. We can spot her from the rooftops."
"That's fine for tracking her," he conceded, "but how are we going to fight her?"
"I don't know yet."
"Here's another thought." His eyes grew while Ladybug's mask scrunched slightly with annoyance. "Our kwamis are immune from this villain's powers. What if we de-transformed? That way our kwamis can be our lookouts until we get in position. Then we transform, attack her from behind, and cover her face. From there it's a win!"
"Nice try, kitty," Ladybug answered between chuckles, "but that would mean we'd have to reveal our identities to each other, since we wouldn't be able to communicate to coordinate an attack otherwise." Her words made Cat Noir hunch in disappointment.
"It was just a thought, bugaboo."
"Keep thoughts like those to yourself. Besides, I know your kwami can get out of hand without someone reining him in. We should be able stop Gorgis without destroying the entirety of Paris in case something goes wrong."
As soon as she stopped speaking, a soft sound like the release of air from a flat tire smacked their ears. They both looked around before hearing it again. It wasn't a hiss. It was a hush, and it was coming from an alley between the buildings.
Ladybug and Cat Noir ran atop the roofs before peeking down into the alley. There were three children standing behind a teenager in a plaid shirt. The teenage with red hair slid her thumb across her phone's surface as she held onto a stroller.
"Isn't that Alya," Cat Noir asked before adding, "that girl from the Ladyblog?"
"Nice catch," Ladybug replied.
Her words could have referred to his phrase had she known the truth. He had slipped by saying Alya's name so casually, although at least with the addition, he at least a fashioned a pretext for instantly recognizing her. Then again, she had given no heed to the familiarity. It must have been nice to have an adoring fan.
The thoughts were brushed aside as the two of them dropped into alley, and drawing the focus of all of the humans within it.
"Ladybug?" Alya asked.
"Ladybug!" Ella and Etta shouted together. "Cat Noir!"
"We're saved!" Manon shouted.
"Quiet!" Alya ordered in a curt whisper before returning her attention to the superheroes. "The monster went after the group of kids I was with. I was only able to save these ones. The rest were turned into statues."
"Thank you," Ladybug said. "You did your best. I know it's a long shot, but do you have any information we can use?"
"Actually, my fans did have some info."
"You mean that Medusa was a Gorgon," Cat Noir said, "a terrible monster you can't look at directly, or else you turn to stone?"
"Did you also know that anyone she looked at could also be turned to stone, too?" Alya paused, knowing the answer to that question was in the negative. "They leave that part out of the story according to my monster specialists."
"So even if no one looks at her face directly, she can still freeze anyone by spotting them if she wants to." Cat Noir stifled a noise of dismay. Following and fighting Gorgis via reflections would be difficult, but doable. If this villain could immobilize them on sight without having to meet their gazes, their Miraculouses were as good as gone.
"Anything else?" Ladybug asked.
"I'm afraid it gets worse. Even after Medusa was defeated her head still had the power to turn people to stone, and get this! Her head was put on a shield as a protective symbol, the Aegis. In one of the shots I could get of her, this supervillain was carrying a shield." Alya swiftly swiped and tapped her phone to bring up the picture, then turned her phone to face Ladybug and Cat Noir. As she described, the supervillain wielded a rounded shield. Ladybug immediately grasped the akuma had transformed Miss Bouclier's beret into that buckler.
"So we can't look at her, we can't let her look at us, and her shield would protect her from anything we'd throw at her," Cat Noir summarized.
"This seems like this would be a perfect job for Rena Rouge," Alya announced as she withdrew her phone. "Her illusion powers could lure the villain into an enclosed space allowing Ladybug and Cat Noir to immobilize her and defeat her. Or maybe she could just conjure up an image of the supervillain to give her a taste of her own medicine."
"Actually, this would be a better job for you, Alya," Ladybug stated.
"Me?" She pointed at herself in incredulous awe. "But I'm not a superhero."
"You have a livestream. That could be our eyes and ears. If you set your phone camera to 'Selfie' the picture will be mirrored, so it'll be like looking at a reflection."
"Great idea!" Alya lifted her phone and began the preliminary swipes to prepare another stream. "Plus, since the resolution is lower and since you won't be able to make out her face if she's far enough away, it's totally safe! But how are you two going to follow along?"
"We can watch it from the blog itself." Ladybug and Cat Noir held up their tools. On the yo-yo and the baton were screens showing the blog's stream, which was offline. "This villain doesn't seem to be moving very fast or going very far. But with your help, we could see where she is from ground level, so we can stay out of her line of sight until the time is right."
"And I bet she would be looking for André's stand to intercept any children who made it there. Just one more thing to take care of." Alya crouched and spoke to Ella, Etta, and Manon. "I need the three of you to find somewhere safe to hide. Once you see the magic ladybugs swirling around, we can meet up at the Trocadéro."
"We're scared," Ella protested.
"Why can't we go with you and August?" Etta asked.
"Because August...is a very special boy who is important to our plan," Ladybug lied.
"Besides," Alya asked, "do any of you want to change his diaper?"
The three young girls made noises of disgust and scampered away. As soon as they made themselves scarce, Ladybug and Cat Noir departed from the scene, launching themselves into the air with their respective tools. Alya was alone with the stroller and her phone, which she pointed to her face.
"Welcome to a special edition of the Ladyblog!" Alya half-whispered, half shouted into the phone. "We're going to help Ladybug by broadcasting the movements of the latest supervillain. But we have to be careful because one false move and this broadcast will be over."
A comment appeared on the screen. Alya's heart jumped. Could Ladybug and Cat Noir have created burner accounts to interact with the chat?
"'Where's Rena Rouge?'" Alya read aloud before hanging her head. "Really?"