In which Fox and Turtle join the race.
Five hours.
The illuminated clock on his dashboard clicked eleven minutes past six.
The modest houses in the small neighborhood slowly brightened to lighter shades of blue, announcing the arrival of the beautiful morning to come. A small bird sang sweetly in a tree next to his passenger side window. Sitting in a black Venturi instead of cop cruiser, Theo leaned his head against the rest, his amber eyes blinking in the clear morning. His body was relaxed. His heart thumped an even rhythm.
But he was no longer smiling.
A minute past five hours.
Reaching with long, lazy fingers, Theo gently typed his mini-computer's password and logged in to the agency's board. The familiar message lit up on the screen and he tilted his head with an almost thoughtful expression on his face.
He stared at the message, entranced. The screen flashed twice before disappearing with an auto-lock system. Placing the computer quietly on the seat next to him, the message's words twirled before his eyes like the lyrics to a never-ending song.
" Information request pending. Standby for further instruction. "
The words danced and twisted together in his head until only two words remained in the dizzy spin.
The two words he despised the most in the world.
Pending… Standby…
Pending… Standby…
Five minutes past five hours… no, now it was six…
Pending… Standby…
The only other message he'd received was three hours ago informing him no sign had been found of either Blondie or the girl. Theo entertained himself briefly with the image of those men carving lines in their faces with a dull knife - and he felt a twitch of a familiar smile grace his lips. He could practically taste the terror they'd feel. The imagined shrieks of agony twirled with the words of his agency's message:
Pending… Standby…
His amber eyes twitched to the digital clock. Nine minutes past five hours… the clock showed 6:20.
Pending… Standby…
His mind clicked back on the bar scene last night and his faint smile instantly vanished. A riptide of murderous heat boiled in his belly. He'd approached the small pub hoping for a quick in and out mission. Simple. Controlled.
But he had lost control. Theo's entire mission was turning into one of the biggest failures to date. His target had gone missing for an embarrassing length of time with no hope of discovering her whereabouts and she had a man with her whose true background was still a mystery. A man who, despite being the Mayor's estranged son, willingly stood in front of his target and dodged all of Theo's efforts.
Did the agency actually blame him? Did they think he was inadequate because he failed to recognize the fraud at the bar? Was this his punishment? Waiting?
He gritted his teeth behind his lips and the muscles tensed on his arms. How dare they punish him! How dare they think they can ignore him!
Pending… Standby…
What if they send another assassin in his place? What if the target was taken out before Theo could find her? How could they do this to him?
He was top at the agency. No one ever questioned him.
No one ever tried to stop him but…
Pending… Standby…
Theo slipped his phone back into the holder on his belt and flicked his poisonous gaze to the quiet house on the other side of the street. It was a simple one story. Small rose bushes lined the side of a modest whitewashed porch that surrounded the front door. The small scarlet flowers contrasted so beautifully with the white. Like blood drops on snow.
He'd given his agency five hours.
He's waited fifteen minutes over.
No new message
Nothing.
Pending… Standby…
Slowly, his lips curled into his comfortable pleasant grin. He flicked his thumb on the magazine to reload the ammo on his SMG.
Alya stifled a yawn as she flipped the bacon in the pan and watched Sophie scoot her kitchen chair closer to the table, her daughter's dark hair full of bed head cowlicks, but her hazel eyes wide with interest. A red-headed man sat beside her and colored ferociously with a black crayon on a blank sheet of paper.
Sophie had woken at her usual crack of dawn to find Nathaniel sitting on the couch and watching cartoons on their television. After a brief introduction, which included her daughter hollering at the top of her lungs about a burglar in the house, the two of them had soon settled into a strangely comfortable silence in front of the television. The My Little Ponies cartoon erased any of Sophie's lingering distrust for their mysterious guest as a conversation about unicorns soon turned into debate.
Hence, the current breakfast time art fest.
"What color should I make the horn?"
Sophie thought for a moment. "How about rainbow?"
Nathaniel frowned over his beautiful drawing and slowly nodded. "Rainbow sounds good, but what about if we leave it white. A unicorn's horn is usually white."
"It'll blend in with the panda's fur."
"That's true," Nathaniel smiled at Sophie and the girl grinned back. "Rainbow it is, then."
"It looks so good! You are great at drawing, Natey."
"You wanted a panda with a unicorn horn. Lucky for you that's the best thing I can draw."
"I don't believe that at all! I bet you can draw anything with a horn on it."
"Do you two want scrambled eggs with toast?" Alya called out.
"Yes, maman," they both answered in unison. She stifled a bubbling laugh.
This was too precious.
Wrapping her navy bathrobe tighter, she traversed to the fridge to pluck out several eggs from the plastic carton all the while listening to the silly chatter of her daughter and her new best friend.
"Okay, so the name should be Pandicorn."
Nathaniel laughed. "Sounds great."
"Does he have special powers?"
"You mean besides being a panda with a horn?"
"Yeah, not all pandas have horns. It has to be special."
The redhead tilted his chin to study his picture and his long locks fell over his bright eyes.
"Hmmm… what powers could it have?"
"What powers do unicorns have?" Sophie asked. "Maybe the Pandicorn can have some."
Nathaniel lifted a hand to count on his fingers. "Let's see… they heal everything they touch with their horns, their blood gives eternal life, they can run at fast speeds, and they are distant cousins to Pegasus."
Alya snorted a laugh as she cracked the eggs in the still-hot frying pan and began to stir the broken yolks.
Sophie grabbed a red crayon and colored the tip of the horn. "What if, when the Pandicorn stabs someone with its horn, it turns them into a unicorn?"
Dropping his crayon, Nathaniel turned to her with a wide smile. "That sounds perfect! Like an originator of unicorns!"
"Yeah!" Sophie grinned happily and turned to Alya. "Maman, what does 'originator' mean?"
"It means you create something, baby. In this case, you originate loud noise so daddy can't sleep." A low voice came from the entryway and Alya looked up to see a bleary-eyed Nino yawning into the kitchen from the hallway. Tilting her head and smiling at her tired husband, she watched him rub his soft ginger eyes behind his round glasses. Nino's hair was a tussled mess on his head, sticking up in all directions.
"Morning, you want eggs and toast as well?"
"Yes, maman," he crossed the tile floor and poured a cup of coffee from the brewer.
"You sure you want caffeine? I can quiet them down and let you go back to sleep."
"I'll try to get another nap in before I open the pub later. Besides, our guest shouldn't be here for too much longer, right?"
The tan woman bit her bottom lip. "Actually, Adrien never said how long Nathaniel will be staying with us. All he said was he had something to take care of at le Grand Paris Hotel and it had a whole lot to do with some guy named Hawkmoth and those motorcycle races that have been happening these past few years."
Nino stopped mid-sip and gave her a pointed look. "Should have known that cat would involve himself in one of the biggest conspiracies of the decade and somehow drag us in with him. Dude wasn't looking too well yesterday afternoon when I saw him. Kept on saying he had a bad feeling."
" Now are you grateful I took those suits, Nino?" Alya smirked cheekily. He gave her a scowl with no heat behind it.
"I still think it's a bad idea, babe. We don't need 'em. At least Adrien is leaving us out of the fighting this time-"
"Get down!" Nathaniel's sharp yell caught her off guard and she saw him tackle Sophie to the floor. Less than a second later, he'd yanked on the large, rectangular, kitchen table with inhuman strength, and crashed it on its side; ducking behind it for cover. Her eyes widened as the old, yet horrifyingly familiar, crackling sound of bullets whistling through the air punched all around her. Nino's strong hand grabbed her arm and wrenched her down behind the counter tops just as a bullet slammed into the frying pan in her hands, knocking it to the floor. With a quiet scream, her face pressed against Nino's chest, his arms protectively covered her head.
Alya lifted her eyes to meet Nino's wild ones. His body was taut like a tight string, trembling violently. Deep, irregular breaths of a panic attack gripped him. Unlike him, Alya's blood was singing with the challenge. Standing up to life-threatening situations was something she'd thrived in. Four years ago, she'd taken on each new mission with a sense of overpowering confidence. Studying Nino for a half second, she had always known he was the soft-hearted one out of the two of them. He still had many nightmares from their days in the ace squad, some he'd shared with her - other's he had not.
He was there now. Frozen. Deep in the memories that haunted his dreams.
Meanwhile, Alya's mind was clearer than it had been in years. Sharp and ready with fury.
Her lips met Nino's briefly before she wiggled out of his arms and pressed her back against the kitchen cabinets. Bare feet slipping in hot half-cooked eggs, she reached up to slide open the drawer next to the washing machine.
The cooking knives. She took four.
Alya's sharp eyes calculated the direction of each slug as they pinged over her head. Weighing the makeshift weapons in her palm, she estimated the blade versus handle weight and, within seconds, knew where to aim and how hard to throw. She backed away from the safety of the kitchen counter and crouched low to the floor. Nino was watching her in the midst of his shaking. His long arms were wrapped around his torso.
She shot him one of her old confident smiles from back in the day and she saw his frosted eyes thaw a bit.
She was the Alya from four years ago. The mother and wife she'd become disappeared from her mind.
Jumping instantly to her feet, Alya rapidly hurled two knives towards the gunman and ducked once more behind the counter. She had barely seen the man's body or position and had thrown them on instinct, A satisfying scream of pain answered her attacked followed by shouted obscenities. The bullets stopped and a loud clunking noise battered on the floor. She heard shuffling footsteps crunching rapidly on the ruined kitchen tile. A loud cry from a familiar voice made her heart seize in fright.
"Come out, you bitch, or the girl gets it!"
"Sophie, no!" Nathaniel's voice was full of tears. Alya stretched to look over the counter. A man, with his dark hair pulled back in a bun, was standing shakily next to the kitchen table that laid on its side. Blood ran down the right side of his chest and looked sickeningly bright against his white t-shirt. Sophie's head was pressed against the man's waist, her throat exposed to a bloody knife grasped in the man's shaking fingers.
Holding two more knives tensely at her side, she slowly stood.
"Drop the knives."
She didn't move.
He pressed the blade tighter to Sophie's tender flesh. The girl let out a whimper of pain. "I said, 'drop the knives'!"
She dropped them from her hand and they clattered loudly to the floor. Her brain was in a standstill. Her baby's beautiful face cried to her.
Just like that, she was snapped back to her current self. The mother and wife.
Finally caught in her own personal nightmare, her confidence was shot to hell.
"Don't move! Don't even think about moving! Tell me what you know about Adrien Agreste!" The gasping man practically spat the words in his rage. "Tell me who he is! What is he planning next!? You know him, right? So, where is he!?"
Her eyes filling themselves with her captive child, she opened her mouth but couldn't speak.
"I'm waiting, you bitch! If you don't start answering my questions by the count of ten, I'll slit her throat, you understand me?" His shaking knife pricked the side of Sophie's neck and a small weep of blood ran into the little girl's pajamas. Tears streamed down her eyes and she let out a tight sob.
"Maman…"
"P-Ple-Please…" her voice shook so horribly the words sounded like gibberish.
"You know where he is right now, don't you!? Tell me where he is! Tell me where he is hiding that piece of shit Ladybug!"
"I-I-I don't-"
The man's eyes lowered and she saw - despite the heavy breathing from his wound - his lips were starting to curl into a small smile.
"One… two…"
"Wait! I-I-I'll tell y-you! Adrien is… H-He's a…"
"Five… six…" The man's face was transforming. His amber eyes glinted happily at her.
"Adrien was part of the government!" she shouted shrilly, finally finding her voice. "He used to be an agent! Please, let her go!"
"Keep talking. Seven…"
"Why are you counting!" Hot tears ran down her face as she tried to catch her breath. "I'm tell you!"
"I said keep talking about AGRESTE! EIGHT!"
"We were all part of a small special divisions group in Commandement des Opérations Spéciales! We got out four years ago! He's no longer part of the government! He told me he discovered the plot to kill Ladybug through a mistake! A fluke! Someone handed him her picture last night!"
"I know all of this! You're tell me what I want to know! NINE!"
"Oh, God, please! I don't know any-"
Her ears caught the sharp pang before she could register what had happened. The man's amber eyes rolled backwards and he dropped the knife before crumbling unconscious onto the dirty floor.
Standing behind him was Nino. His eyes clear and strong.
A frying pan with bits of crusted egg on the bottom was gripped in his hands.
Next up: In which Butterfly plots and Fox and Turtle investigate