Thanks to Mini-Minou for betaing!
Damian peered up at the manor in front of him. Huge, imposing –
"How quaint."
– if you didn't happen to grow up as the prince of a society of assassins and the son of a billionaire, that is.
He took stock of his surroundings. There were cameras at the gate, but ONLY at the gate it seemed.
"Tt. What brain-dead simpleton designed this security system? Does the owner REALLY think this will be sufficient to catch any criminal infiltrating the place? Idiot."
He launched himself onto a rooftop, getting a better angle to see the whole manor.
Two things stood out from the new vantage point; an open window that seemed to lead to a boy's bedroom, and a weird patch of wall that wasn't quite flat. To the casual observer it might appear to just be some strange design on the wall, perhaps an artistic choice.
Damian was NOT a casual observer.
He narrowed his eyes. "Things just got a little more interesting."
He swung over to the patch of wall, running his fingers over it. Grooves spiraled across it, fitting together in just such a way that…
"I see. So this patch of wall is some sort of covering that can expand and contract. Now why would a perfectly ordinary, everyday citizen – well, aside from being rich – have one of these?"
There was nothing more he could do with that patch of wall. Time to investigate the window.
Swinging back around the manor, he took a better look at the room… and its occupants.
He narrowed his eyes. Seems I wasn't far off about the spirit of the cat.
Inside a boy typed away at his computer, looking up news reports about Robin. Not a huge surprise, seeing as how the boy was almost certainly Chat Noir.
Slightly MORE surprising was the tiny black cat-like creature stuffing his face with cheese.
Seriously, how was he even eating that much, that cheese was bigger than his entire body?!
Oh wait, magic. Stupid question.
So he'd almost certainly found Chat Noir. Not exactly why the tracker had disappeared, but he had a start.
Time to do a little digging.
He brought out his phone and got to work.
Hm. Seemed like this mansion belonged to Gabriel Agreste, a world-famous fashion designer. He'd been reclusive ever since the disappearance of his wife nearly a year ago, only making a handful of public appearances. Judging from what little he could dig up, he seemed like a rather cold man who didn't put up with anything he considered nonsensical or silly, such as when he was called into a game show without apparently having agreed to it. Damian actually agreed with his displeasure at being tricked into participating, but his tone and body language… it was a little too familiar for his liking.
There wasn't much info on the wife, Emilie. Apparently her maiden name was Graham De Vanily. Her family owned a studio called Graham films. From her few public appearances, it appeared that she'd gradually been getting sicker and weaker over the months before her disappearance, though there was no news of her being diagnosed with any illness.
And then there was the final member of the family, Adrien Agreste, AKA Chat Noir. A fourteen year old model, he had plenty of professional photos and lots of celebrity appearances.
Damian's eyes narrowed.
Plenty of celebrity appearances… but little outside of that. Not until a few months ago, when he started going to public school. Then he started being tagged in other people's photos, being talked about as a friend. Before that the only person his age who seemed to know him on a personal level was Chloe Bourgeois, and it took only about a minute of research to figure out that she was a stuck-up rich brat. It was always possible that his personal life was just kept private before this, but… well, Damian's instincts were telling him that something was very, very wrong here.
Time to get a little more hands-on. Luckily the security of the mansion was ABYSMAL. Seriously, if Gabriel had lived in Gotham, both he and Adrien would have been kidnapped dozens of times in the last few years.
He didn't need to make much of an effort. A few minutes after he'd put down the phone and started surveilling the mansion, a woman – judging by her appearance, most likely Nathalie, Gabriel Agreste's assistant, opened the door. The little cat creature disappeared into Adrien's shirt, likely to conceal himself from her, and Adrien left the room. Luckily for Damian, he left the window open.
He quietly alighted in the room. It was huge and had a lot of stuff in it, but nothing of interest, except-
He followed his nose. And wished he hadn't.
"YUCK!"
So that cat creature had an entire hoard of the stinkiest cheeses that Damian had ever smelled in his life. And judging by how huge the stash was, he ate a LOT.
He swiftly closed the cabinet door. If anything else was in there, it wasn't worth sacrificing his nose to find it.
His next discovery was a little less nauseating to his senses.
Damian pulled out a photo from the trophy where Adrien had hidden it and several other similar photos.
So the flirtations weren't just banter then. Great, he's lovesick.
Damian rolled his eyes and put the photo back. It was always a pain to deal with couples on a team, they were always making googly eyes at each other and being gross and NOT concentrating on the mission.
There wasn't time to investigate much else – not without risking discovery. He planted a few bugs and cameras and moved on, entering the air duct.
He pulled up the floor plans of the building to use as a map… and soon frowned. The floorplan differed slightly from what he'd seen from the outside, especially with that strange covering. Not TOO big a surprise – that covering was obviously meant to conceal SOMETHING – but the size of the difference was pretty staggering. It seemed like at least a 500 square foot room had been secretly added to the mansion and NO ONE had noticed.
But even that didn't explain what he saw in front of him.
He frowned. Now where was THIS little fork in the road supposed to go?
The duct split, one piece of it following the regular floor plan, as shown in public records, and the other decidedly NOT following that, instead curving steeply downwards.
A secret place that – judging by how long and how steep the ductwork was – lay underneath a mansion? If it was some sort of cave he should get Bruce to sue for copyright infringement.
It was not a cave.
A huge chamber stretched before him. It looked almost like a mausoleum, with its high ceiling, ornate windows, and general over-the-top atmosphere.
A cult, perhaps? They were fairly common – WAY too common – in Gotham, but he'd been hoping to maybe not run into them as often elsewhere.
He should have known better. Sheep existed everywhere in the world.
Still, if it was a cult, it must be a small one. The walkway wouldn't be able to fit more than one or MAYBE two people, and the "island" at the end of it wasn't exactly huge. Speaking of which…
He walked to the end, peering at the closed pod. A human-sized pod that was obviously supposed to be the focal point of the room underneath the manor of a millionaire who he strongly suspected wasn't Father of the Year, when his wife had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Yeah this boded well and wasn't suspicious in the slightest.
He prepared to hack the pod to open it up, or at least to get information on what was inside, but discovered there was no need. There was no security on it, it only required a button press to open.
Seems like Gabriel Agreste hadn't thought to include any contingency measures for someone breaking into his lair.
The pod doors opened, revealing pretty much what Damian had expected.
Because of COURSE Gabriel was keeping his "missing" wife in a pod underneath the manor. Naturally. Why wouldn't he? That's a perfectly normal thing for a perfectly normal man to do.
Question was, was she alive and in some sort of coma or suspended animation, or dead and being kept preserved?
He examined her closely, checking her for signs of degradation and any sign of life. If she was breathing it was so low as to be undetectable, and her heart rate also appeared nonexistent. However, while her vital signs were missing, she appeared to be in good health otherwise, with no sign of rot or decay at all.
Suspended animation it was then.
After taking a picture, he closed the pod. If she was in suspended animation it may still be possible to revive her. He didn't want to be responsible for more death.
A small insect flew by – a white butterfly.
What was a butterfly doing here? Then again, what was ANY of this doing here, especially the foliage.
Wait… a white butterfly – like the one that had been released when the akuma was purified.
A butterfly emerged from a cocoon on a nearby branch. Dozens of similar cocoons hung nearby.
A reclusive millionaire who was hardly seen out of his house, two massive rooms that didn't appear on the floor plan, one of which housed his supposedly missing wife, and dozens of the same type of butterfly that Hawkmoth used to create his akumas?
It was possible that Gabriel Agreste wasn't Hawkmoth. It was also possible that Damian would spontaneously grow wings and decide to become an opera star. Both possibilities seemed equally likely.
Might as well set up some cameras and bugs and then get out of here. If Gabriel descended the elevator, he'd have trouble leaving without being spotted. Wouldn't be a problem if Gabriel was only down here for a short period of time, but if he wasn't…
Swiftly he returned to the duct, heading back to the surface.
As he crawled around the vents, he left numerous bugs everywhere he could without leaving the vent, along with tiny cameras at each vent opening. When preparing to break into the lair of a supervillain, it paid to be prepared.
He shot off a quick text to Ducard, telling her to meet up with him at a certain rooftop he'd spotted that had some good cover. They needed to exchange notes.
It was time to take down a supervillain.