As Ladybug and company chased after Kobra, Nathaniel following them from the ground, they heard him shouting something they couldn't quite pick up on.
They barely turned the corner when they saw Kobra's lyre make contact with one of the figures' arms, causing him to let go of the person he was trying to shove into a black car.
"Shit!" the man cursed as he looked up and spotted the heroes.
"Forget the bitch; just drive!" another voice shouted from the vehicle and the ski-masked man scrambled in just as Kobra came up to the girl's side.
With a squeal against the asphalt, the black car sped off, flying past a stop sign and turning a corner.
"Yanbian, Shadow Barb - after them!" Ladybug ordered. The two heroes nodded quickly before taking off in pursuit of the car.
With that handled, Ladybug turned to look at the victim of what she assumed was a kidnapping, only to gasp in utter horror when she recognized the purple highlights of one Juleka Couffaine's hair.
The poor girl was currently sobbing into Kobra's arms, her own arms wrapped tightly around his torso. "It's okay… you're gonna be okay," Kobra whispered into his sister's hair, rocking her back and forth slightly.
"What the heck was that?!" Bunnix exclaimed in shock.
"I don't know…" Dragonica muttered, looking completely and rightly disturbed. While it wasn't unheard of to hear about crimes like kidnapping, theft, and all nine yards of humanity's worst behavior, it was another issue to witness it happen (or almost happen, in this case).
"Ladybug!" Nathaniel's voice called as the artist finally caught up with them. He leaned over slightly out of breath before his eyes landed on the girl Kobra was embracing.
"Wh… Juleka?" he gasped. He turned to the spotted heroine, "What happened?"
"I don't know…" she admitted, "Whatever it was, we got here just in time."
Nathaniel swallowed, the twilight air suddenly feeling far heavier than before.
There was no sound for a while besides the sound of Juleka crying, slowly devolving into hiccups as she managed to cool down.
Two shadows passed over the group; Ladybug tensed, but immediately relaxed when it turned out to be Yanbian and Shadow Barb.
"Sorry… we lost them…" the Ox Hero said, looking down ashamedly. Shadow Barb was holding his elbow, staring at the ground.
Ladybug sighed but didn't move to reprimand them. Instead, she squatted down next to Kobra, gently tapping Juleka's shoulder.
"Juleka? That's your name, right?" she asked gently. She always felt bad when she had to play dumb around her schoolmates, but it was necessary if they weren't a holder.
"Mmmhm," Juleka murmured, looking up with bloodshot eyes, but not letting go of Kobra.
"Do you think you could tell us what happened? Do you know who was trying to… take you?" Ladybug cringed for not being able to find a better word.
Juleka shook her head, before stuttering, "I-I was coming back from a friend's, and th-they just pulled up next to me. The windows were dark so I didn't see who was inside, but then those guys jumped out to grab me. I screamed and they grabbed my mouth before…"
"That must have been when I showed up," Kobra muttered darkly when Juleka fell back into crying, albeit not as strong as before.
Juleka nodded, leaning against the hero and shivering.
"Okay, did you notice anything specific about the men?" Ladybug asked, hoping to get some details, but Juleka shook her head.
"They were wearing ski-masks," she said, miming the act of pulling an invisible mask over her face.
"Okay," Ladybug nodded before she got back up. "Kobra, can you take her home? It would be smart to let Mme. Couffaine know what happened… to a degree, anyways."
"Got it," the Snake hero said rather calmly. Ladybug wasn't fooled; he was angry and fighting hard to keep it contained.
"Yanbian, Shadow Barb, why don't you describe the car to Nathaniel so he can make a sketch? That way we can keep an eye out for it."
"Yeah, sure," Shadow Barb nodded before he and Yanbian pulled the artist aside.
"I had no idea Juleka could scream like that," Bunnix mumbled. "She's got pipes."
"Hmm…" Dragonica mused, a frown on her face.
"What's wrong?" Ladybug asked, catching her look.
"I don't think this was a random kidnapping," the Dragon heroine said, "Something about this seems… organized."
"Wait, you think Juleka was targeted?" Bunnix asked.
"Well, there's nothing that can confirm it, of course," Dragonica amended, "but I can't deny a possibility like that."
Ladybug bit her lip.
"Um…" Juleka piped up, "A few times lately, I thought I felt someone following me, but I didn't see anyone when I looked. I figured it had something to do with the akumas, so I mostly forgot about it…"
"All right, thanks for telling us," Ladybug said.
"Ladybug," Nathaniel said, walking over, holding out a page of his sketchbook, "here you go."
Nodding, Ladybug took a look at the drawing of the car. It looked rather expensive and was short, sleek, and black. It almost reminded her of a limousine, and the license plate said R-15-T-8.
"Thanks, Nathaniel," she smiled, "This'll really help us catch whatever b… er, whatever jerks did this."
There were a couple of humorless chuckles at Ladybug's correction. Getting back to business, the heroine herself took out her yo-yo, snapped a picture of the drawing and sent a text to Chat Noir with the photo attached and a note detailing her plan for discussing this event.
He didn't respond, so Ladybug assumed he had something he was doing as a civilian.
She nodded at Kobra, mouthing meet tonight as he leaped off with Juleka in tow. Turning to the heroes and Nathaniel, she told them, "We're holding a team meeting tonight. Nathaniel, I'll bring the Goat."
"Okay," he nodded.
"Head home for now, we'll meet at the Eiffel Tower around eleven to midnight."
With that said, the heroes separated, heading home.
They'd been lucky Gabriel was too busy working on his business that night to go akumatize Juleka.
"They did what now?!" Chat Noir shouted.
"We're fairly certain they were trying to kidnap her," Dragonica repeated.
"I wonder what they wanted her for…" Ibex mused.
"Can't have been good," Bunnix pointed out, "not if they had to kidnap her."
"You said she felt like she was being watched?" Chat Noir asked. "Do you think it was a stalker?"
"Not likely," Kobra snarled, "There were two men, not one."
"Besides, while Juleka is a model, she's not all that well-known, even in the modeling scene," Ladybug noted. "Not like, say, Adrien Agreste."
Chat nodded. "I'm pretty sure he has that bodyguard of his for a reason…"
"I'd wager money there's a whole group of baddies out there for us to clobber," Yanbian smirked, though even he was obviously uneasy.
"You mean like… like human trafficking?" Shadow Barb asked.
"You mean child trafficking," Kobra growled, fists clenched.
Shadow Barb wisely refrained from suggesting sex trafficking; the thought of that might get Kobra akumatized if everything else that had happened wasn't enough.
"So… what exactly can we do?" Chat Noir asked, feeling a little helpless since this wasn't their area of expertise.
Ladybug pulled out her yoyo and sent a message to all of them. It contained the picture that Ibex had drawn earlier that evening.
"Keep an eye out for vehicles that look like this or have this license plate. We need to figure out what those people are doing. I doubt Juleka was their first victim."
"What if we see it when we aren't hero'd up?" Yanbian asked.
"Don't approach the car, but try to get away as casually as you can," she instructed, "We don't want to make these people suspect anything."
The team nodded among themselves.
"Any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads.
"Then I'll see you all when someone finds something."
With that, the team dispersed for the night.
"You rocked it, as usual, Marinette!" Jagged lauded. Marinette had just presented him with the finally-finished suit, and he'd loved it.
As Marinette headed to the elevator, Penny called after her. "We'll send your payment to your mom and dad!"
"Thanks a lot, Penny! Take care, Jagged!" Marinette waved as she let herself out. Ever since she'd meliorated her system with Akira and company, she'd been better about taking payments from others, whether formal commissions like Jagged Stone or friendly stuff like when Rose had requested her to make a hat for Juleka's birthday not too long ago. Rose had paid for it, of course, and Marinette had felt the blonde slipping down the scale.
So lost in thought was Marinette as she exited Le Grand Paris that she almost didn't notice a very familiar automobile parked in the parking lot.
Her eyes widened. "R… 15… T… 8! Oh, mon Dieu…!"
Looking around furtively, she whipped out her phone, snapped a photo of the car, and hightailed it back to the bakery before anyone could see her.
Once she was home she forwarded the photo to Kim, Nino, and the other permanent Miraculous wielders.
LB: -carphoto-
LB: Yanbian, Shadow Barb, is this the one?
Nino was first to respond, taking a minute or so to notice.
SB: That's the one! Right, Yanbian?
YB: ...yup! That's the bastard!
CN: So who did it belong to?
LB: I was the only one around… I didn't want to stay and get caught with this stuff on my phone.
DR: That would be awfully suspicious…
CN: Where did you find the car?
LB: Le Grand Paris' parking lot. Don't do anything reckless, guys!
Marinette then noticed a message from Alix to everyone on the previous group chat - except Chat Noir wasn't on it, but Nathaniel was.
Jack_of_Hearts: We should tell the Tokies about all of this.
Little_Miss_Fortune: Yeah… that's a good idea.
Horny_for_Marc: Thankfully Hawkmoth isn't there… they might have gotten akumatized if so.
Horny_for_Marc: I hate you sometimes, Alix.
DJ_Vortex: I'll talk to 'em if you'd like. Saves Luka the aggravation.
French_Dragon: Wise call, Nino.
French_Dragon: Why am I called this?
Jack_of_Hearts: Sorry. Jalil showed me this old cartoon called American Dragon.
French_Dragon: May I please change it?
Phil: Of course, Kagami.
Little_Miss_Fortune: Is that a Disney's Hercules reference?
Phil: How'd you know? :D
K.K._Slitherer: Thanks, dude. Mom was super freaked out when she got the news. She almost called the police!
Jack_of_Hearts: Whoa! Really?! Doesn't she avoid them like the plague?
K.K._Slitherer: Only when they would be getting in her way. She's good with the law when it does what it's supposed to do… which is only so often these days.
DJ_Vortex: I did notice that Juleka wasn't at school today…
K.K._Slitherer: Mom made her stay home. She almost made me, too. I managed to convince her that I would be okay, but I had to come straight home after.
Little_Miss_Fortune: Anarka Couffaine going full lock-down mode? That's something you don't see very often.
K.K._Slitherer: She owns a boat, melody. It's sorta harder to lock it down, so it becomes all the more important to know how to do so.
DJ_Vortex: Sorry to hear, dude. Can all of us meet up at the Liberty tonight for the meeting?
K.K._Slitherer: It'll be hard to hide things from Juleka. Can we do it tomorrow?
Little_Miss_Fortune: I think so. I'll come by later to at least drop her homework off. That okay? …
DJ_Vortex: The Tokies say they're up for tomorrow morning since tomorrow's the weekend.
Jack_of_Hearts: Sounds good to me!
With that, Marinette put her phone down and began working on the homework she'd gotten today, focusing on the classes she shared with Juleka so she could help her if need be. After finishing her copy (she had been elected to bring Juleka's homework to her as Class President anyway), she made her way through the night to Juleka's house.
Luka was waiting for her at the door. "She doesn't want to see most people right now…" he said sorrowfully, taking the homework.
"Understandable," Marinette sighed. "I hope she'll be feeling okay soon."
"Speaking of you, my Melody," Luka said, "She started sobbing all over again when I mentioned your name. Don't tell her I told you this, but I caught something along the lines of 'I almost didn't get to apologize'..."
"What do you suppose that means?" Marinette wondered. "She and everyone else apologized about believing Lila… what else happened?"
"I honestly have no idea," Luka admitted. "She was crying too hard for me to get anything…"
Marinette sighed. "Maybe I can talk to her in a few days."
"Only one way to find out…" Luka nodded gravely.
Despite her gut-wrenching unease about all of this, Marinette swung home. She and the others had a lot of work to do.
