Author's Notes: Sadly, this is the last chapter I will be able to update today but there will be one- if not two- more tomorrow. Enjoy!
Jay sat on a rather pink lounge in an equally pink room along with Brandon, Adrien, and the owner, Marinette. The three of them were talking about something rather animatedly. Every now and then, as Brandon had promised, he made sure to translate the sentences and comments to keep her involved. They even attempted to teach her some French. Somehow, she managed the basics like "Je suis Jay" and "Bonjour" and "Bonne nuit" and a few more vocabulary words. Even more surprisingly was her ability to connect with Marinette. While looking around her room, she couldn't help but notice the sewing and crafting materials. She pointed to a thing on her desk, "You crochet?" Marinette smiled and nodded. "Would you mind…?" She looked confused and then at Brandon who translated. She nodded again. Carefully, Jay picked up the work, making sure to not pull out her progress by undoing the thread. She pulled them apart gently to see the posts better and quickly found the pattern which she muttered, "Two doubles, skipping with chain, single, skipping with chain, double, and repeat across." She sat it down. Mari gasped and asked Brandon a question.
"She wants to know if you crochet too."
"Oui," she smiled in answering. The dark haired girl started rambling something exciting and Brandon didn't hear much of it as she basically turned, grabbed Jay's arm, and pulled her over to the other side of her desk to show her some of her crafting supplies and newer designs. The boys shrugged. They started talking to each other as the girls examined the goods; eventually, Mrs. Cheng came up, offering more goodies and drink and the clothes she'd taken from Brandon and Jay upon their arrival. The two thanked her before disappearing into different rooms to quickly change out of their borrowed clothing.
Brandon's phone rang when he came out of the room. He answered, "Hey Aunt Joy." Pause. "We're fine. We got caught in the storm so some friends gave us shelter until it passed by." A frown. "What? The news? Yeah, we'll turn it on now."
Marinette blinked as Adrien translated. She responded positively and went to her computer, turning it on. Immediately, Nadja Chamack appeared on the screen, worry clearly etched on her face. Jay didn't need subtitles for this newscast.
Pictured on the screen was Viper.
"What the- why is she here," she groaned.
"Don't know but someone's going to have to do something."
"Leave it to Ladybug and Chat Noir," Adrien assured the two of them. Viper was laughing, blasting the immediate area around the Eiffel Tower. Jay clenched and unclenched her fist. Finally, she turned on her heels, running for the door much to the surprise of everyone in the room.
Brandon followed after her. "Where are you going?"
"To figure out how to distract her," she called back, not stopping. "People are going to get hurt if no one gets there."
"Jay! Wait!" She didn't of course. Jay bolted out of the store front and down the street, looking back only long enough to see if Brandon was behind her before she ducked into an alleyway, released Cassiopeia from her bag where she'd ducked after they'd entered the bakery.
"Ladybug and Chat Noir are going to need our help for sure. They've never faced a person like Viper before."
"Right," she chirped. "You ready?"
"Always. Cassiopeia, armor on!"
There was a temporary golden glow in the alley and shortly after, The Golden Dragon leapt out of her hiding place in order to go fight the foreign villain.
MLGDMLGD
Viper didn't know being a tourist could be so fun.
She blasted a man that she had unfortunately laid eyes on; missing him by mere inches, she let him run a bit before blasting in front of him again, forcing him to run back the way he'd just come from. It was a horrible game of cat and mouse. She enjoyed every second.
A round object came flying at her but she easily knocked it away, glaring at the hero who had thrown in. Ladybug and Chat Noir stood on the ground, ready for a fight. Viper snickered. "The great heroes of Paris," she mocked. "Come to save the day." Ladybug looked at Chat confused as he translated. She returned the glare, stating something but Viper yawned, looking extremely bored with the situation already. "I have no idea what you just said," she drawled, "but I can tell it was heroic and so cheesy. You're bothering me now." She held her daggers up, allowing a blast of energy to come forth, going straight for the heroes'. They dodged. Chat Noir extended his staff, trying to knock her out of the air, but she merely danced around it, kicking it swiftly and making sure that he went down hard. Ladybug swung herself up. She didn't know that close combat was her specialty. So when the villain managed to dodge every single one of her swings and come up with her dagger pointed straight at the exposed skin of her jaw, Ladybug gasped, unable to dodge. Viper hissed in pleasure.
Until she was knocked hard in the stomach by a staff that came from the blue. It caught her just in the side, forcing her out of reach of the red hero who backed up herself to regain her footing. A gold figure landed in front of her. Chat came up behind her.
"Are you two okay," she asked over her shoulder. Chat grabbed Ladybug's shoulders, checking. When all was good, he nodded and asked, "What do we do?"
"Stay out of her reach. She's nasty in close combat but she's also got some poison she uses to…." Before she could finish, Viper did it. She summoned her poisons magic and spread it out among the immediate area. Anything it touched melted before coming back as a shapeless blob. "…do that. Keep out of their reach."
"Get them," Viper ordered.
The blobs surged forward. The three heroes jumped. Dragon, having the most experience, immediately began to fight back, knocking a lot of them in the head, the gut, anywhere she could really, to push them away or knock them out. The French heroes tried to keep up. These were not as mindless as some of the akuma minions they'd fought before and Viper was no controlled puppet; she directed their movement expertly, enough so to drop into the fray and tussle specifically with the golden hero.
Dragon jumped back when she charged. Viper held her daggers up, blasting a couple of times which she dodged again. She spun her staff. This knocked some of the blasts back but they didn't hit the villain either. A cry caught her attention. She looked back long enough to see that Chat Noir and Ladybug were being pinned down by some of the poisons and looking was a mistake; Viper used her distract moment to rush her, grabbing Dragon securely by the throat.
"If this is all it took," she hissed, "I would have done something to that partner of yours forever ago."
She gritted her teeth and gasped out, "Not… on…my …life…." She laughed.
"If you insist." She raised her daggers. Just before she could sling them down, a white whip caught her around the wrist and tugged, causing the dagger to fall. Dragon used that moment to push off of her stomach. Viper dropped her. She clutched at her stomach and glared when she noticed that a white covered hero had joined the fray. "Leo," she hissed. He righted himself, staring her down.
"That's right and I'll ask you to kindly keep your filthy hands off of Dragon."
"You disgust me."
"And you annoy me," he tightened his hold on his weapon, "which makes us even." She snickered. A soft beeping came from somewhere on her and she paused, apparently listening. When the speaker finished, she smirked at them.
"It looks like my fun is over." She jumped back, holding out her hand for her discarded dagger, which flew back to her hold obediently. Viper stood. "Have fun fishing your friends out of my poisons." With that, she was gone. Dragon gritted her teeth.
"I'll ask what you're doing here later," she growled, "but first we need to rescue those other heroes." Leo smiled.
"Easy." He held up his bracelet. As he walked towards the poisons, he roared, "Royal Roar!" A blast of sound left his mouth and the poisons in the area melted, turning into pools of darkness, exposing the red and black heroes underneath them. Chat sat up, holding his head. A hand was held out for him. Dragon had approached and offered it, which he took gratefully. Ladybug got help from Leo. She asked something but Dragon looked confused until the black cat translated, "Thank-you but my partner and I want to know who you two are and who that girl was." Leo started to say something but his band started beeping. Dragon held up a hand.
"We understand. We'd have been confused too if you'd just appeared in America. How about this: let us handle this, go recharge and meet you two somewhere later tonight?" Chat nodded and translated for Ladybug. She nodded as well and suggested somewhere even she understood. "Great. We'll meet at the tower." She pointed at Leo. "You, get. Recharge. I want to talk to you later." He smirked at her.
"Of course." He bowed. "I eagerly await this conversation." He saluted all of them before taking off over the horizon.
Dragon smiled, "I'm going to purify these things before they form back up. Then I'll have to recharge."
"Alright. My lady and I will patrol quickly to make sure everywhere else is good."
"Sounds good." She took a breath and closed her eyes. Raising her staff, she reached inside of herself, muttering, "Golden purity," before bringing the staff down between her feet. Ringlets of gold radiated out from the bottom, catching every bit of darkness in the area and erasing it. Chat whistled. Ladybug looked impressed. When she opened her eyes again, Dragon smiled. "There ya go. Area cleaned." Chat gave her a thumbs up. She saluted the two heroes like her partner and disappeared over the horizon just as he had.
MLGDMLGD
Jay feigned a migraine to get to her bedroom early. She locked the door with a sigh and when she was sure that Aunt Joy and Brandon were asleep, she transformed again and took off through the window. The apartment wasn't that far from the tower so it took only a few minutes to arrive; apparently she was the first so she took the moment to enjoy the view again, only this time, without the restraint of the metal fence. It took her breath away. A small surge of jealousy for the two heroes who got to see this every day ran through her system which caused her to shudder.
"Enjoying the view? I know I am." She smirked, turning her head a bit to face her partner. Leo was leaning against a cross beam of the tower, arms crossed, smiling at her and she took a breath, trying to remember their professionalism. His tail twitched a bit. "I wasn't expecting to see you here Dragon," he whispered.
"Same to you," she returned. She turned, facing him completely. "I owe you an apology," she added, "I meant to call you but so much happened since I arrived that I didn't get a chance and it seemed like every time we met, there just wasn't any time to bring it up." He nodded.
"I know. I meant to tell you too." She kicked her foot on the metal.
"So… what brings you to Paris?" He chuckled.
"Visiting a relative. You?"
"Visiting a friend's relative… ironically," she chuckled.
"Ironically," he repeated. The two of them fell into silence with only the breeze of the evening moving about them. She breathed in deep.
"It's such an amazing view," she gushed. Suddenly, a pair of hands were around her waist and she squeaked in surprise. Leo was now behind her, burying his face into her neck, breathing deep himself. Her face blushed scarlet. They didn't move for a long time.
A cough forced them to move. The two other heroes had arrived and they looked anywhere than at the two of them until they broke apart. Leo smirked. He asked something in French which caused the other two to blush and shout at him. Dragon eyed him confused. He shrugged at her. "I just asked if we were in their spot."
She rolled her eyes. "Stop teasing them and let's get to talking. We do owe them an explanation." He shrugged and turned back, speaking in French for them but being sure to translate for Dragon when it was needed. He explained that he is the holder of the white lion miraculous and his hero name is Leo. His partner is the holder of the very rare Golden Dragon miraculous and her hero name is the Golden Dragon but most just called her Dragon. Their main crime fighting area is a city in the states. They fight against a man named Arachnid and his minions Dark Claw and Viper, the girl they met tonight, because their ultimate goal seems to be the Golden Dragon miraculous for some unknown reason.
"If Viper's here," Dragon mused, "I can promise you Dark Claw is too. She's not smart enough to do anything on her own but she's vicious enough to handle herself in a fight."
"What would they want in Paris," Chat asked.
"I hate to say it but I think they followed my miraculous." Ladybug titled her head. She asked something. Leo shrugged.
"Who knows? I wouldn't discount it." Quickly he added for Dragon's sake, "She asked if it's possible that they might team up with Hawkmoth."
"If they've been here, they probably have." Dragon cupped her chin in thought. "If they've combined their powers, we could be in a lot of trouble especially since we don't know what they'd be able to create." Leo shivered.
"An akuma poison hybrid? That could be a nightmare to deal with."
"And dangerous," Chat added. Ladybug nodded. She needed no translation to guess where the conversation had gone.
Dragon spread her hands. "Unfortunately, there's no telling what they're doing or going to do. We have to wait for them to make their move; it's something I don't like but we can't just go hunting blindly since it could cause us to be too tired to actually handle anything they throw at us." Ladybug offered a suggestion.
Chat nodded and pointed to her as he asked, "Could we establish a patrol schedule?" Dragon eyed Leo who shrugged.
"I don't see why not. What do you suggest?" The red spotted hero laid out a plan which her partner translated as, "We can each take a section of Paris each night and meet back at the tower to report in."
"That works for me." She smirked. "I shouldn't be able to get lost on the rooftops that easily. Not with such a big monument marking the way." They nodded in agreement. When the decisions were finally made, the four heroes went their separate ways until the following evening when they were to meet again to hopefully prevent the fall of Paris or the world.
