Chapter 31)
Chloé.exe, as well as and stopped for a moment with a really crucial need to 'reboot'.
"Well, that explains a lot!" said Carapace with smile, observing Adrien.
"Don't be a fool tortoise, it explains everything!" snorted Queen Bee.
She turned to Ladybug wide-eyed: "No way!"
"What do you think, kitty, should I reveal myself too?" asked Ladybug.
"It's upon you, M'lady. Kagami figured out both our identities, of all of us in fact. Her mother figured out even identity of Hawkmoth independently. I suspect, Hawkmoth himself knows all our identities too."
"In such a case," smirked Ladybug. "Tikki spots off!"
Marinette passed Tikki a biscuit.
"Wayzz, shell off!" "Trixx, let's rest!"
Both Carapace and Rena Rouge detransformed.
"That's awful!" said Nino.
"What do you mean?" asked a bit confused Adrien.
"I hoped to have possibility one day boast to Marinette and Adrien about helping Ladybug and Chat Noir with saving Paris. But YOU actually do it on your everyday basis and YOU are Ladybug and Chat Noir YOURSELVES! I guess, even Queen Chloé is shocked too much to detransform…"
"Fine!" snorted Queen Bee. "Pollen, buzz off!"
"So, who is Hawkmoth?" asked Alya.
"First things first!" said Adrien. "We should vote. I would prefer to let even our kwamis to vote. I said my reasons and I vote for yes, we should give Kagami Tiger Miraculous."
"Adrien, you are the best!" said Plagg and snuggled to Adrien's chest for a moment. "No other Chat Noir though about us as about valuable friends, only as about servants…"
"I vote yes," said Alya. "She proved herself, finding my identity."
"It was pretty easy, Kitsune!" answered Kagami with wit smile.
"I vote no!" said Chloé. "She wants my Adrikins…"
"Well, Chloé, sorry to burst your bubble, but Adrien belongs to me now," said Marinette. "I will vote as last one, as my duty is establishing balance."
"I vote yes," smirked Nino. "I believe what my bro says."
"I vote yes!" all kwamis but Pollen said.
"My queen, she's really good, I can't vote no, but I will abstain from vote for you," Pollen looked sad, but Chloé made a gesture to invite her into silent and caressive hug to her face.
"I will abstain from vote too," said Marinette. "So we have eight for yes, two abstained, and one for no. Kagami Tsurugi, you were accepted. Adrien, give her the Tiger Miraculous."
"Kagami Tsurugi, this is Tiger Miraculous, which grants you Power of Tracing your prey," said Adrien and passed Kagami opened box with panjas bracelet inside.
Kagami putted in on her right wrist.
"Chose your superhero nickname," said Marinette.
"I'm Roarr," introduced himself Tiger kwami in same time. "For transformation it's 'Roarr, stripes on!' For detransformation it's 'Roarr, stripes off!' For Tracing it's 'Find a Trace!'"
"You should feed your kwami after using your powers and unfortunately also right now, we used him as our security guard," explained Adrien. "Roarr eats raw meat, we have some here."
"Fine," said Kagami. "Could you give me that bag with meat? I will carry food for my friend myself. And my superhero nickname is Tigresse. I would rather prefer Byakko*, but you'd have problem to remember it during battle chaos…"
(*Byakko - Bái Hǔ in Chinese or Baekho in Korean - White Tiger of West. It represents the west in terms of direction and the autumn season. Wiki)
"OK," said Marinette. "Now, we should shortly debate, who Hawkmoth is."
"So?" asked Alya.
"He's my father, Gabriel Agreste."
Everybody stared on Adrien in disbelief.
"I know, he's stupid," said Nino. "But I just had no idea how much stupid he could be…"
"So Hawkmoth's lair is somewhere in your house?" asked Chloé. "But where specifically?"
"Good question, Chloé," Adrien gave her sad smile. "In fact I have no direct idea, most probably somewhere in cellar."
"Makes logical sense," nodded Kagami. "You hired me as expert in fighting. Unfortunately, in our situation there's the only way and I believe Gabriel Agreste is prepared for that. But we unfortunately must do that and that simply means storm your house either through an window, maybe of your room, Adrien. Or maybe we'll go rather through lateral entrance, in worst case through main entrance. But your father could easily cover all possible entries in. Your house finally is really built like a fortress…"
"What will we do with Hawkmoth?" asked Alya. "If authorities would solve it, Adrien would be exposed to gutter press…"
"Said tabloid," snorted Chloé. "We have the power, we should solve it on our own. I don't want my Adrikins to be begrimed…"
"Well, Chloé, sorry to burst your bubble again, but actually Adrien is my now, as I already told you," said Marinette. "But I'd also prefer to do things without cops and judges… What do you think, Adrien?"
"I think, we do counting our chicken before being hatched," answered Adrien.
"True," agreed Kagami.
"But I do want to do indoor work without heavy lifting in my future," smirked Adrien. "So I'd rather prefer our self-help justice doing."
"No promises," said Kagami. "If anybody dies because of your father's actions, I'll finish him!" she promised, with wakizashi in her hand.
"Nice katana," said Nino.
"It's actually wakizashi," particularized Kagami. "For being named katana sword needs to be at least ten cm longer, than this one. But beheading of defeated opponent is traditional use and the length is sufficient for that…"
The others shivered after her cold words…
XXXXXXX
They did not spend too much time planning, as Plagg repeated his idea about battle being similar to a whorehouse with a fire raging through it…
Kagami grabbed piece of raw beef meat and with her tantō she cut small piece of meat. She placed it into her mouth and ate it, giving the bigger part of meat to Roarr:
"We share our friends, we share our foes, we share our food, we share our fight!" declaimed Kagami ceremonial tone. "Today we all go into decisive battle and together we shall win!"
Roarr ate the piece of meat and bowed to his new owner:
"She's really the perfect one, can I have her for a longer time?" asked kwami.
"Depends, whether Master Guardian would agree with that or not," said Marinette. "But first things first, we should go."
"True," said Adrien, tearing off a small piece of Camembert and placing the rest of cheese into Plagg's mouth. "We share our friends, we share our foes, we share our food, we share our fight!"
The others repeated same ritual-like words and ate small parts of kwami food doses.
"I hope, everybody has food for kwami to repeat transformation at least six times today," said Adrien. "Better check it now, when we could replenish our supply here."
"Nino, if Adrikins finds a earthworm, it's up to YOU to eat it!" said Chloé.
"What do you mean?!" asked confused Adrien.
"Queen Bee probably wants to say, that you act like a hen, leading her chicken," said Kagami. "But she never made plans for battle before, so she doesn't understand, you're right, we should check our equipment now, BEFORE going into battle to be won."
They silently checked everything before transformation.
"Tikki, spots on!" "Plagg, claws out!" "Trixx, let's pounce!" "Pollen, buzz on!" "Wayzz, shell on!" "Roarr, stripes on!" All six of them ordered transformation simultaneously and moved off, Carapace and Tigresse both with sport-bags over their shoulders…
XXXXXXX
They needed less, than ten minutes to reach Agreste Manor. A bit awkward situation was caused by fact, the place was too easily observed by too many rubberneckers…
"Mirage!" shouted relatively silently Rena Rouge and made sound on her flute.
The street around Agreste Manor looked like being duplicated for a moment, but in less, than a second it looked unchanged.
"What did you just do?" asked Ladybug.
"New kind of illusion, I invented it short time ago," explained Rena Rouge. "Imagine that as picture of second layer of reality, being painted on true scene. We could approach the house unnoticed by anybody."
"Even by akumas or our house security system?" asked Chat Noir. "Are you sure?"
"I'm not in fact," answered Rena Rouge simply. "But it's the best I can do right now. Follow me, I must lead you to the destination place, we can't go straight and we mustn't touch anybody during coming there."
They criss-crossed to left side of fence. Carapace opened his sport-bag and took out small quadrocopter with camera.
"I believe, we should check that place from bird's eye view," said Carapace and released his 'spy drone'.
Small explosion destroyed quadrocopter in air.
"Your crazy old man has anti-drone missiles here!" Carapace almost shrieked- "What the heck?!" asked, when Rena Rouge covered his mouth with her hand.
"Shut up!" she whispered. "We don't need audience!"
"There is a way," said Chat Noir. "You could 'Shelter us to the door. Preferably of left lateral entrance."
"Yea, I could do that," agreed Carapace. "But not in movement of such a big group. We must divide into two groups and I'll necessarily need to reload Wayzz."
"OK!" nodded Ladybug. "First group should be me, Chat Noir and Tigresse. Could it be that way?"
"Sure," said Carapace. "Get ready for move, you three!"
Once they circled him, Chat Noir positioned himself on 'tip of spear'.
"What are you doing?" asked Ladybug.
"M'lady, I have 'the universal key' here," Chat Noir explained, moving fingers of his right hand. "So I must go as first right now."
Ladybug turned to Tigresse, who nodded in agreement.
"OK," she hesitated a bit, but agreed. "But please, be careful, mon chatton."
"I AM always careful, however sometimes it doesn't work sufficiently," smirked Chat Noir. "Don't worry, M'lady, this cat has nine lives…"
"You could easily lose all nine of them in one moment, Bakeneko!" snorted Tigresse. "You rather BE really careful!"
"Once you maidens are ready, we can go," said Carapace.
"Ready!" answered Chat Noir.
"OK," nodded Carapace. "Shelter!" he activated his powers.
They together moved, being hit by four missiles, exploding harmlessly on shield.
Carapace shook his head in disbelief. Once they were at door, Chat Noir asked:
"Do you need to dissolve the shield, or could we just leave it?"
"From inside you can leave it," explained Carapace. "To let somebody inside I need to that, meaning, thankfully out of aiming range of those missiles, I hope."
"OK," nodded Chat Noir and stood next to the door, not touching that yet.
Same did Tigresse and Ladybug, who positioned themselves on Chat's back side.
"Patience!" said Tigresse. "We need to outnumber eventual defenders."
"Sure!" agreed Chat Noir. "However I don't think my father allowed somebody from outside come in, even if to be a defender of this place."
Carapace jumped over the fence, being followed by one missile, which exploded on his shield immediately. He waited for a moment, as no other missile appeared, he dropped his transformation:
"Wayzz, shell off!"
Nino fed his kwami and in same time he observed sky over him with a fear. Hawkmoth's missiles were relatively small, but most likely sufficient to kill a human…
Both Rena Rouge and Queen Bee joined him in no time.
"So?" asked Queen Bee impatiently.
"I'm ready!" said kwami.
"OK, Wayzz, Shell on! Shelter!"
As trio they moved even a bit quicker. They were in almost contact distance, when Chat Noir called for his powers: "Cataclysm!"
Through frame of destroyed door flitted hand of giant ape, grabbed Chat Noir and drew him into house…
TO BE CONTINUED…