7:43 PM
The girl—dragon, if Rotwood wasn't crazy, though McFist wouldn't put money on that—squirmed in his grip but couldn't break it. "You don't have to keep playing these pranks on me," he said loudly, not missing the side eyes and whispers from the others around them. At least the crowd had thinned; this was the sort of publicity McFist Industries didn't need.
"I don't know you! Let me go!"
Smart kid. Unfortunately for her, she'd come to him, not the other way around. Someone must've seen her do that, and that same someone would be telling others, and word would spread, protecting him from what would otherwise be a very problematic situation.
"Honey, I know having a stepfather can be an adjustment, but please don't do this in public. We can talk once we get home, okay?"
"No!" she cried as he pulled first one foot and then the other free of the ice with violent twists. He ignored Rotwood as the man tugged on his first leg in an attempt to free it; McFist was happy to throw Rotwood money if he had anything that might be of use, but this girl was a solid lead on the NYC Ninja. She'd had a Ninja Cold Ball. The Norrisville Ninja left behind a plethora of throwing stars and rings and whatnot, but McFist doubted any ninja just handed out those throwing balls.
He eyed the bulging pocket of her hoodie.
If it was full of what he suspected, maybe the NYC Ninja had handed her all those things.
Assuming the NYC Ninja wasn't as much of a fool as the Norrisville one could be, for all that McFist couldn't seem to catch him and keep him, this girl must mean something to him. Be a sister of the Ninja, maybe, instead of a dragon. Rotwood might not have things quite straight; the Ninja wouldn't just hand out weapons to little girls willy-nilly.
The girl opened her mouth to scream.
McFist jerked her towards him, her breath leaving her in the rushed surprise of a squawk instead. He hugged her close, burying her face in his stomach to muffle any subsequent shrieking attempts and holding her there even as she tried to drop to her feet and roll away. "Listen," he said softly as the crowd began to turn away from them again, "I'm not in the business of hurting kids. I just want a bit of information, and I pay well for it."
He felt her tense and, against what might be his better judgement, he pulled back and dropped down to her level. He kept a firm grip on her as he pulled out a wad of cash with his free hand. "I mean it. You tell me where you got that Ninja Cold Ball, and this is all yours."
Defiance had replaced fear on her face, but her dark eyes betrayed nothing and stayed fixed on his own, even when Rotwood managed to get his first foot free with a grunt.
"Don't listen to her lies," Rotwood puffed as he strained to pull his second foot out of the ice. "The dragons, they have all sorts of gadgets and magics. It was probably not this Ninja Cold Ball at all!"
This time, the girl glanced at him, and when she turned back to McFist, she was chewing her bottom lip. Then she said, "I got it from a ninja." One hand snaked out to grab his money, but he kept hold of it even as she tried to tug it free.
"Where?"
She stopped pulling and considered him for a second, cocking her head, and then she said, "I can show you."
Show him, not tell him. That was more promising. Might not be an outright lie, and he could hold his own in a fight if it turned into an ambush. If it was a wild goose chase, then he had her, so he'd still be farther ahead than he was now. He let her go and then peeled away half the bills in his hand, giving her some and pocketing the rest. "Show us both now and you'll get the rest—plus a nice bonus if you can tell us anything else. And even more if you hand over the rest of your stash."
She frowned at him but made no denials. "I don't want him to come," she said, pointing to Rotwood. He slipped at that moment, cursing quietly, and McFist winced. He couldn't really blame her, but assuming Rotwood had any marbles left, he might be able to come up with something useful on the Ninja front, and Viceroy could use some more ideas when it came to WNDs in case the Robo-Dragon went the way of the Robo-Dog. If it didn't, though, and he got it finished fast enough for McFist to test it out on this NYC Ninja? Viceroy would be getting a bonus he didn't have to argue for.
"Too bad. He's coming."
"I don't have to show you."
Attitude. Bravado. But she didn't strike him as a street kid or even a recent runaway, so McFist didn't mind taking the chance of calling her bluff. "He comes or I just take you over to the police and let you show them all the weapons you've got tucked away."
The widened eyes and sharp intake of breath seemed to come at the same time, but she didn't run away like he'd thought she'd might.
Instead, her eyes darted skyward, but before he could find what she'd been looking at, she said, "Fine. But he catches up. I'm not waiting for him."
McFist rolled his eyes and reached over to smash the ice around Rotwood's stuck foot with his mechanical hand.
"Why did you not do that earlier?" Rotwood cried, but he was getting easier to ignore; the girl was letting her fear get to her, since the flash of it she'd let him see looked real enough, and that demanded more of McFist's attention at the moment. He could work with that.
McFist held out his hand—his left, thinking she might shy away from his right, and he could hold her easily enough either way. She frowned at him but took it, shooting another nervous glance at Rotwood. He wondered if she was wary of him because she actually knew him or if she simply thought he had a few screws loose. Honestly, he wouldn't fault her either way. Just because McFist thought the man was useful, didn't mean he thought Rotwood was the sharpest tack in the box.
"Lead on," McFist said to the girl. Over his shoulder, he added, "Ninjas do that kind of thing all the time. Thought you could use the practical experience."
"Practical experience?" spluttered Rotwood as he stalked up to them. With his longer strides, it didn't take him long to catch up. "You are ignoring my very practical experience with dragons and letting that one lead you right into her nest."
"Didn't think dragons had nests."
"Trap." Rotwood's voice was clipped. "I mean a trap. Perhaps I should not have been so quick to offer my services to you, if you do not value my expertise."
"I'll value it once you prove it," McFist returned. "You know full well that I can uphold my end of the bargain, but I don't know that you can do the same."
The girl's pace quickened, but she said nothing.
She was listening, though. If Rotwood was remotely right about her, then she had the potential to be dangerous. Somehow. It was hard to think of a cute little kid as dangerous, though. Or as a dragon. Her hand didn't feel remotely scaly, but then again, Viceroy was convinced the 800-odd year old Norrisville Ninja was a current high school student, so McFist was willing to give Rotwood the benefit of the doubt.
He was not willing to give up a clear lead to the NYC Ninja before Rotwood had proven himself, however.
That would just be foolish.
"She is leading us away from the crowd!" hissed Rotwood. "If she wants us away from here, should we not ask what she's trying to keep from us?"
"Ninja wouldn't stick around in a crowd like this," McFist said as Rotwood started to grumble. "Not if he's smart."
The girl kept walking, rarely tugging on his arm except to steer him. She didn't try to slow. She didn't try to bolt.
She might be trying to lead them away from something, but McFist hadn't seen anything, and from what he'd heard from the NYC Ninja, the guy was as quiet as the Norrisville Ninja was. Which is to say, not at all.
If they were leaving the Ninja behind, he wasn't fighting anyone or they'd hear it.
Still, once they were through the bulk of the crowd and weren't passing within five feet of someone anymore, McFist said, "Why don't you tell me how you ran into the Ninja?"
She rolled her shoulders in what might've been a shrug and mumbled, "He fought the dragon, didn't he?"
He had, but she could just as easily have overheard that.
It didn't explain why she'd singled him out.
Come to that, none of it explained why she'd singled him out.
Judging by how she'd recoiled from Rotwood, it hadn't been him, even if Rotwood was right and they knew each other.
"Why me?"
This time, she slowed and glanced back at him. "What?"
"Why pick me?" He pulled her to a stop, looked pointedly towards his prosthetic arm, and added, "I'm not the guy singled out as harmless. So why, out of everyone in the crowd you could've come to, did you pick me?"
She dropped his hand and chewed her lip again.
"He told you to, didn't he? The Ninja? That's why he gave you the weapons? So you could bait me? Or pretend to be him if that didn't work?"
"The dragon must be back there," Rotwood declared. "That's why she wanted us to leave. We have to go back!"
"No!" she cried, and McFist knew that whatever the truth, Rotwood was right in thinking she'd wanted them gone. "I just…. I…. Rotwood, please."
McFist turned to Rotwood. The man was wearing a manic grin. "You admit it then, yes? That I am right about everything?"
"No," she said, and his face fell into a frown. "You don't know the half of it. That dragon isn't a dragon."
McFist blinked and tried to figure out what she wasn't saying, but it was worse than some of the things Viceroy came out with.
Rotwood moved so he could loom over the girl. At least, that's what McFist thought he was trying to do. The man didn't do looming particularly well. It looked awkward. His chest was puffed out too much, especially when coupled with the odd angle he had to tilt his head to peer down at her through his glasses. McFist was pretty sure he could do a better job than that. Viceroy certainly could if he put his mind to it, but McFist figured Mad Scientist University might've had a class in that kind of thing, so it didn't really count.
"It's Professor Rotwood," he said. "And if you do not want me to tell the world everything I know, then you should tell me everything you know. That is a fair trade, yes?"
7:43 PM
Randy was yelling something again, and Adrien wished he would stop. Randy might be used to fighting people who were too consumed with one thing or another to think straight, but Adrien knew exactly how smart akumatized people were, and—
"Get behind me!" Adrien screamed, reaching out to drag Randy into that position when the other teen didn't obey quickly enough. Randy squawked in surprise, but Adrien was already spinning his staff to dissipate the streak of fire. His staff was clipped by the dragon's talons a second later and sent flying; he hadn't managed to pull back enough, even if he'd prevented it from being taken into her clutches entirely. By some miracle that never seemed to occur around Ladybug, his staff didn't spin off the roof or otherwise wind up terribly far away. He'd be able to get it later, if he could just loop around those air conditioning units and—
"I think you need another Ninja Hydro Hand!" Randy shouted, rolling out from behind his meagre cover. A fist of water caught Susan's tail a second later. It barely slowed her down, most of it crashing onto the roof and making Adrien hope Randy didn't try pulling out of one those electrifying balls. Was Susan faster than before? Randy wasn't slower, so—
Susan roared, her lashing tail managing to break free of Randy's attack and sending some of that water back towards them. Adrien dropped and rolled, as much to get away from the attack which was undoubtedly coming as to avoid getting wet if Randy did pull out some questionable weaponry in the next breath. It's not that he begrudged the help; he needed help right now. He just…. Randy wasn't Ladybug. A fight and a half didn't tell him enough about Randy's fighting style to be able to anticipate his attacks and see how well he coordinated those attacks with those who were helping him, even if they were only acting as distractions.
Of course, that might be because Adrien had no idea if Randy was used to fighting with a partner.
Well.
That was a lie.
If Randy fought with a partner, they had a very poor partnership, unless Randy's job was to try to keep all the attention on him while his partner went in for the— Not kill, necessarily, not if Randy was used to dealing with a similar sort of situation as Adrien himself, but the final blow. Only, Randy had been more than happy to jump at the opportunity to break the Critic's pen, and he just didn't move like he was used to fighting with allies.
He wasn't a stranger to it, but Adrien was sure it wasn't the norm.
Randy had also clearly never fought a dragon before, if he thought a bit of ice around Susan's hind claws from Randy's latest volley of Ninja Cold Balls would be more than a match for the sheer amount of muscle Susan possessed in this form. Not to mention the fact that she could breathe fire. And, likely as not, had fireproof scales. It had looked that way when Randy had thrown the first fireball, at least, and why wouldn't a dragon have fireproof hide? It only made sense. Even if dragons usually didn't, Hawk Moth would happily supply an upgrade to increase his chances of winning.
Adrien kept low, dashing for the air conditioning units on all fours while Susan was distracted by Randy. A Ninja Air Fist met a torrent of dragon fire as Adrien took shelter behind the nearest unit; some of the flames flashed his way, carried by the wind instead of being immediately put out by it. The heat that still rolled over him must have fried the electronics of every unit up here, and the sheer amount of damage they were doing—
Adrien winced as he heard the chain of explosions caused by Randy's Ninja Boom Balls, even as he used the cover to creep toward his staff.
None of this was going to get repaired.
Not by any miraculous move on Ladybug's part, at least.
Adrien couldn't afford to think about that, though.
Useful a distraction as Randy was being, he couldn't hold Susan off forever. Not alone. But Adrien? Adrien had something she wanted—or, at least, something that Hawk Moth wanted. Randy was doing a phenomenal job of keeping Susan penned where she was, using elemental attacks every time she tried to take to the air, but she'd go through Randy to get to him if she had to. Especially since, at the rate he was using his Ninja Balls and Ninja Throwing Stars and everything else, he'd run out of ammunition sooner rather than later, which might even be Susan's intent, so that she could focus almost entirely on Adrien. Unless Randy had an unlimited supply of weaponry? Why hadn't Adrien asked? If he'd been thinking….
But there hadn't been any more time for questions.
Adrien might not be able to explain Susan's earlier disappearance, but he could explain her return. He recognized that drive in her, the focus of her attacks. Even if she had more of herself left in her than Hawk Moth's usual victims, Adrien had seen how people got…twisted. Even if it was subtle, it was there. Desperation turned justification turned for the greater good and it's only the end result that matters or I'll do anything in exchange—
She'd still made a bargain with Hawk Moth, dragon blood running through her veins or not, and she'd be bound accordingly.
He just wished he knew for certain why Hawk Moth had come here and what precisely he was looking for; having a clear thing to protect beyond his own Miraculous would give them an advantage. Any concrete information would help. He was operating entirely too much on guesswork, because Hawk Moth wasn't supposed to be here, he was supposed to be back in Paris where Ladybug could effectively neutralize each akuma—
Susan had too much room to manoeuvre here. They were out of the way of civilians, sure, but she still had the advantage. Neither of them could fly, and Randy didn't have the added bonus of night vision (to Adrien's knowledge, at least). Besides, if Randy's elemental attacks exhausted him—another thing Adrien hadn't thought to ask earlier—then there really was only so much time that he could be an effective fighter before he would need to recover. Furthermore, Adrien couldn't risk using Cataclysm except to get out of some kind of non-organic trap—and maybe not even then, if he risked bringing a building down on someone—which meant he was left fighting with his staff. Since his opponent was a dragon, his staff was better suited for defense or getting leverage, especially as said opponent wouldn't be hurt by a small bit of metal flung at her.
Well.
Maybe not.
He and Randy knew perfectly well that the plan was for Danny to get the necklace away from her (using his quick flight speed and optional tangibility), but she didn't know that.
Taunt, run, feign, distract.
Adrien smiled as his fingers closed around his staff. Planting it firmly on its base in front of him, he extended it and let it carry him a good ten or so feet above Susan's current height, which was already about twenty or thirty feet from the rooftop. Fortunately, Randy had been able to hold her at that height, even if his elemental attacks hadn't been able to push her back down. "Hey, dragon lady," Adrien called, suddenly realizing he didn't know what name she'd taken, if she'd taken one at all, "aren't you a little focused on the wrong hero in the cute black number?"
Sharp eyes turned to him, ignoring Randy entirely. "My name is Dracona," she hissed.
Dracona.
Not Susan, whatever Jake wanted to think.
Adrien swallowed but kept his thoughts off his face, plastering on a wide grin instead. "Then how about we play a little game of cat and mouse?"
He let the staff become ungrounded. It teetered for a second before slowly tipping as the wind caught him. Dracona snarled and gave her wings another ferocious beat, pushing her further into the air—
—but not pushing away an all-important flash of red as the Ninja's scarf lashed out to wrap around her neck. Adrien only caught a glimpse as he fell, spinning so he could better spot his landing on the next building over, but he saw Randy's wild swing bring him up and around Dracona's neck, landing him squarely on her back at its base.
Adrien couldn't suppress a grin as Randy let out a whoop of joy, even though it was nearly swallowed in Dracona's growl.
And then Adrien's feet touched down on the next roof, his staff already retracting, and he began to run.
7:44 PM
"That can't be a good sound," Danny whispered to Jake as Jake flew higher, relishing the fact that he didn't have to take care not to circle over busy areas while Danny was making him invisible.
This was made more important by the fact that Danny was right: it hadn't been a good sound.
Also, they weren't the only ones who had noticed Susan's roars. Jake didn't need dragon eyes to see the stream of people and vehicles below, flooding away from the gala and towards the danger. Some of those vans below had to be various news stations, which meant the moment Danny left him to play jewellery thief, it was entirely too likely that two dragons would be caught on tape.
The Dragon Council would definitely take his powers away for this. And maybe not just his, if they figured Gramps or Fu or someone should've stepped in before he let the situation get this far. That wouldn't be fair, but they didn't always care about fair.
They hadn't listened when it came to removing Chang from the council, despite the fact that Jake knew G had been pushing for it. Why would they listen when he tried to tell them that everything that had happened here wasn't anyone else's fault?
"We just need to move fast, yo," Jake said. He kept his voice at a normal volume despite the wind—Danny might not have sensitive dragon ears, but he did have one of his ears pressed against Jake's neck—and hoped that if it was loud enough for Susan to overhear them, even from this distance, she'd be too busy to pay attention.
Truth was, if her ears were sensitive enough to pick up their conversation, they were also sensitive enough to pick out the sound of Jake's wingbeats, even above the noise rising from the streets below.
They could see the fight now. It was dead easy to trace its path; concrete still scorched, after all, and lots of places were doused in water. Not to mention, Randy wasn't exactly stopping long enough to pick up any of his thrown weapons, even the ones that weren't too bent to reuse. Light pollution meant the night sky wasn't completely dark, either, and it was easier than Jake would like to pick out the spinning silhouette of his mother against the golden glow of gathering clouds.
And, apparently, Jake wasn't the only one with a passenger clinging to his neck.
The passenger was Randy, judging by the leaps the other shadow was making with the assist of a pole. Randy must be holding on for all he was worth, as Susan was doing everything in her power to shake him loose. Randy would be far too close to her necklace for comfort if she was going to do everything she could to protect it, and—
He'd be fine. He could hang on long enough for them to get there and help, even though Jake wasn't flying as fast as he could since Danny clearly wanted to say his bit before they got there.
"What's more important?" Danny asked as Jake climbed, intending to wheel closer from above and hopefully stay unnoticed. "Keeping the existence of dragons secret from the non-magical world or beating this Hawk Moth guy?"
Jake didn't bother to hide his snort. "Both. I'm gonna save my mom."
"Yeah, but…." Danny hesitated. "Saving your mom just means winning this battle. And Hawk Moth is in her head if she's fighting the good guys. You know that. Which means you don't know what she's gonna do when she sees you."
"I'm not sitting this out. You know that."
"Weren't you told you'd need the help of your friends to do this?"
"Yeah, help. That doesn't mean I have to take a back seat while you guys do all the work."
"Doesn't mean you need to stay in dragon form, either, if having more than one dragon on the scene gets dicey when it comes to pretending the magical world doesn't exist."
"Say what?"
"The thing Randy's book told him. To cleanse the soul, one must first clear the mind. You can do that just as well as a human, and then you won't let this Hawk Moth guy know that dragons are real. If he hasn't already guessed it, I mean. It didn't sound like he could just pick knowledge out of people's brains, so your mom might've been able to keep that under wraps."
Jake spread his wings to catch an updraft, even though he'd slowly been circling downwards. "He has a Miraculous. If we know about them, there's no way they don't know about us. Not when they know how to keep off our radar."
"Doesn't mean that guy specifically knows about you, or how much influence dragons have on the magical world, or anything else like that. I mean. Look. I can try to overshadow your mom instead of just grabbing the necklace and flying away. I don't know if she can throw me out, but it'll buy us some time, and it would shake her up enough for you to talk to her. And that might draw out Hawk Moth. He's obviously connected with her somehow. But if you're dragoned up when he crawls out of wherever he's hiding, we can't even pretend all this dragon stuff was his magic. So if you st—" Danny broke off.
He'd seen what Jake had seen.
The dragon ahead of them had shifted mid-flight, her form shrinking back to the all-too-familiar silhouette of Jake's mother.
Jake tracked the falling figures with his eyes as he sped towards them, and he wasn't surprised when Danny left him and flew ahead. He was the faster flyer; he'd get there first. That knowledge did nothing for the sudden terror in Jake's stomach, though. The two were falling together, maybe still tangled in Randy's scarf. He couldn't see any butterfly, and maybe there wasn't one, since Nino was diving towards them, trying to catch them before—
A flash of blue fire lit the sky, and the dragon surged upwards again, catching Nino in her talons.
Jake reached the scene a precious second after Randy's wild descent had halted, and Danny flickered back into visibility as he rose to meet Jake.
"She ruined my scarf," Randy complained, gesturing at the tattered red cloth. "If her magic messes up my suit magic and it doesn't fix itself, you owe me for that, too."
Jake just stared at him, wondering how he could even think about something like that right now.
Whether or not Randy could accurately read dragon expressions, he could certainly read the look on Danny's face. "What? I think Nino planned this. He had that planning look on his face, right before he fell and started the chase again."
Instead of telling Randy he wouldn't know Nino well enough to recognize a planning look on his face, Jake glanced below. The sight of the people beginning to gather was enough to pull a growl from his throat. He winged quickly to the rooftops, Danny following with Randy. "Climb on," he said, crouching down so Randy could clamber up. "If he's changing his own plan on us, we're not going to be left behind."
Randy swung up with ease even as Danny said, "You know plans never work out like they're supposed to."
Sure, but that didn't mean Jake had to like this one. If this really was the plan, it was entirely too self-sacrificial. More likely, it had been a mistake, and Randy just didn't want to admit that to himself. A mistake like this was bad.
Granted, a mistake like this was also par for the course.
"Let's just hit her hard and fast when we catch up," Jake said as he took to the air again. Danny moved to fly beside him, reaching out to keep a steady hand on Jake's neck. Invisibility really was handy. "She's got the Miraculous of the Black Cat, which Hawk Moth wants. She'll lead us to him, and then we can take them both down." He glanced in Danny's direction. "Um, after we save Nino."
"You want me to get him out of there before I try anything else? Overshadowing included?"
"What's overshadowing?"
"One of Danny's many fun tricks," Jake deadpanned. "And, yeah, you'd better. I don't think Nino would appreciate it if we tried to wait for an opportune moment and his identity got compromised because something went wrong first."
"You don't think he'd rather we took out Hawk Moth?"
"I think I'd rather give up one of our identities than his."
"I mean, if someone has to, I can," Randy said. "He won't know me. Nobody knows me. I'm not anyone important and, well, it won't matter in a few years anyway."
Jake tried to parse Randy's meaning and briefly wondered if he had time to ask what that meant when Danny said, "You weren't thinking of me or Randy, were you? You plan to reveal yourself. You're really fine with Hawk Moth knowing you're a dragon?"
"I don't have a choice."
Knowing Danny, he was going to protest that, but Randy cut him off before he had the chance, saying, "I don't see her. I think we lost them."
It was an obvious change in topic, but Jake took it for the lifeline it was. He spread his wings further to take advantage of another updraft and wheeled around, listening intently. Ear of the Dragon was good for more than just eavesdropping, and— There. Wingbeats. He was right. He picked up the pace, Danny easily matching him. "It doesn't matter. We know where she's going."
"We do?"
"Yeah. Fu updated me on the dragon sightings earlier, but it didn't click until now. If she was fighting this, then she was running away from Hawk Moth. Then she came back to him and found us. Meaning we were near him, even if we didn't know it."
"And you can see or hear her, right?" Danny asked. "So you know she wasn't just on her way past us to the other side of the city or something?"
"Right. She might be a dragon now, but I've been a dragon for longer. My knowledge is practical, not theoretical."
"I still have it best as dragon rider," Randy crowed, letting out a whoop. "This is the cheese! Can you go any faster?"
He was fighting the wind now, so going faster without using the air currents to his advantage would mean tiring faster, not to mention giving up all remaining semblance of discreetness, but— "Race you back to the gala?" he asked Danny.
Danny dropped his hand, returning them both to visibility as he flashed a grin at Jake. "You're on!" he called, speeding ahead, and Jake caught a brief glimpse of Danny's ghostly tail before he vanished from view entirely.