To yellow 14: Kagami and Anarka have a great relationship going! With Luka and Tomoe, it's more of a grudging respect.

"Voyage!"

Hato Gozen covered her eyes as the portal opened on the lower deck of the Liberty and the boat's interior gave way to the bright daylight of Rio de Janeiro, the sun almost directly overhead. Always an early riser, Mira had spent a couple hours that morning packing her duffel before breakfast, then filled her usual shift sitting at the Mansion's security desk. They had never had a security problem at the Mansion, but after spending her entire life looking over her shoulder, the constant vigilance was a difficult habit to break. Finally, a little after lunchtime, Mira had grabbed her bag and walked down to the boat. Anarka and Luka had been playing a song together when she arrived, and she had spent the afternoon sitting on the deck and listening to them before the other three got out of school and returned to the boat along with Max. And now all five of them were transformed, bags in hand, looking out at a largely unoccupied back lot somewhere in Rio. A few meters away from the portal, Onça Feroz leaned against the side of an SUV positioned in such a way to block anyone's view of the portal.

"You'd better be safe," Anarka warned them, giving each of them a hug.

When it was her turn, Hato Gozen returned the hug quickly and promised, "I'll look after them."

"Don't forget to look after yourself," Anarka told her, a stern look in her eyes. Hato Gozen nodded to her before stepping through the portal with the other four.

Onça Feroz pushed away from the SUV and strode over to meet them, holding out her hand in greeting as the portal whooshed closed behind them. "Bom Dia," she called. "Welcome to Rio!" ["Good morning"]

"Bom Dia," replied Hato Gozen, taking the offered hand. Her eyes darted around the area, checking the rooflines on either side of them for movement. "What's the situation here?"

"What, no pleasantries?" asked Miss Pinky, raising an eyebrow. She gave Onça Feroz a quick hug and smiled brightly. "So how is Julia doing with the move? Is the baby okay?"

Onça Feroz chuckled and grabbed Hato Gozen's bag, followed by Luka's and Juleka's, and tossed them all in the back of the SUV, gesturing for them to get in. "So down to business," she observed, climbing in the driver's seat. "I appreciate that about you, Pomba!" ["Dove"] Viperion and Ryoku claimed the center bench for themselves, and Bengalia and Miss Pinky crawled to the back. Hato Gozen shrugged and took the front passenger side. Onça Feroz started the engine and they all de-transformed. "Julia is feeling good," she answered Rose a small smile on her lips. "Took her a day or so to adjust to the time zone, but that's nothing unexpected. Having her back at the Temple has made this whole situation so much more manageable. And the baby is moving a lot more – Marco was an active baby, too."

"Aww," Juleka cooed.

Kagami sighed. "This is so exciting! I wish I could have come to the baby shower."

Paola laughed. "They understood why you couldn't come – it's good to see you without a cast. Before I left to come up here, Pablo and Marco were testing out the training sabers – 'to make sure they're good enough for the baby,' of course!"

Kagami elbowed Luka in the ribs. "I told you they would like them!"

Luka grinned. "Of course," he admitted. "You always are." He sobered and cleared his throat. "But we do need to talk about what's going on in Rio," he continued.

"The simplest explanation is that there really isn't that much happening." Paola pulled out of the back lot and onto the main street. "People are coming down sick – maybe more than you'd expect any other year – but it doesn't seem any worse than the seasonal flu. Just a few here, a few there… a family might get sick all at once. You know how it goes."

Rose nodded. "My entire apartment building was down with a stomach bug a couple years ago. That wasn't fun at all."

Mira looked around carefully, committing the location to memory. A package of cookies in hand, Paxx settled onto the dashboard with Balamm and Roaar, watching the city fly past. It had been years since Mira had been to South America – last time had been with her mother. As Paola weaved through the traffic and down the streets, Mira thought back on that battle against the Bat. That time they had been too late to prevent him from sickening and even killing hundreds of people. And by the time they had tracked down the original source of the illness, he had already moved on to another target further north, and they'd had to start the whole process over again. Every time, it was a race to get to the original before the Bat could move on. What would happen this time? Would she be able to find the source quickly enough to prevent more people getting sick? Would the Bat even still be around?

"Where are we?" asked Rose, her face pressed against the window.

"Not too far from Cordão da Bola Preta," Paola replied, taking another turn. "Tomorrow this block will be crawling with people – you can already see some of the decorations going up." She gestured out the windshield to a large facemask suspended between two buildings.

"I remember coming here last time I was in Rio," Mira observed.

"Really?" Paola cocked her head in surprise. "My parents only live a kilometer or so from here."

"Do they know you're here?" Luka wondered.

Paola shrugged noncommittally. "I gave them a call that I would be in town, but it's not like I really have time to go and see them."

Kagami nodded sympathetically. "Too busy with everything else, then?"

Paola groaned. "You have no idea. K-Man is fine, but this is Alpac-Man's first extended trip away from the temple since receiving his miraculous, and he just wants to explore."

"I know the feeling," Rose whispered to Juleka, who giggled.

"Then there are the Red Cross workers we're trying to work with," Paola continued. "They know your bunch from the Ladyblog, and they're familiar with the U.S. heroes, but they don't quite understand that I'm not actually Ladybug. Or Majestia…" She made a face. "I would have thought the yellow suit would be enough, but they see the spots and figure Ladybug got a makeover or some other nonsense."

"Do you think we can help out with that?" Luka offered, furrowing his brows in thought.

"I suppose it couldn't hurt," she agreed shrugging. "Although they may just assume you're Cat Noir!" She glanced at them in the mirror. "Your partner is in red, after all!"

Longg folded his arms. "For as much as I like Tikki, I have no desire to be mistaken for her!" he huffed. Kagami stifled a laugh.

"Doesn't Rio have its own superheroes?" asked Juleka. "I thought I saw a story about them online. I passed it on to Alya, but I don't think she ever followed up."

Paola nodded. "She did – enough to let us know about them. 'Os Guardas' they call themselves. We've only met two of them, but they've been fairly helpful. I can introduce you to Mão Curadora when we get to the Red Cross tent; her partner is out with Alpac-Man to patrol the city."

Kagami sat up, a glint in her eye. "Expecting more trouble this weekend?"

"Not really." Paola laughed. "Far from it, in fact. We arrived two days ago and haven't had a single incident. Carnival rarely has crime. But you can never be too careful."

"Anything suspicious happening?" Mira looked out the window, her eye drawn to the cathedral in the distance.

Paola gave her an evaluating look. "No giant bats flying around if that's what you're asking."

Mira frowned pensively, staring at the skyline. They pulled into the parking lot behind the Sambadrome and drove up to a white tent with a red cross emblazoned on the side, at which point they all transformed back. No news of the Bat was often good news… but not always. Perhaps he was in the city but hiding. Or he could be outside the city, watching from afar as his plague infected everyone in Rio.

A thought arose unbidden: he might not even be here at all.

But that wasn't a pleasant option to consider… Especially when this was her best lead on his location in months.

Hato Gozen and the others followed Onça Feroz into the tent, where a number of doctors and nurses in Red Cross uniforms stood around cots, almost all of which were in use with patients. Just inside the door stood an American Miraculous user in a forest-green suit – K-Man. On the far side of the tent, a woman in a loose-fitting turquoise suit with a flared-out skirt knelt beside an old man, her hands on his shoulders. As Hato Gozen watched, her hands glowed the faintest white, the man's skin taking on a pinkish hue at the same time, and she stood up. Seeing them, she walked across, stopping beside Onça Feroz.

"This is Mão Curadora," Onça Feroz explained, introducing them. "She's one of Os Guardas."

Hato Gozen nodded to her curtly, a gesture which she returned. Ryoku stepped back beside K-Man on the opposite side of the entrance while the other three started working their way around the tent, stopping beside several of the cots to visit with the patients.

"What do they have?" Hato Gozen asked, carefully watching the man that Mão Curadora had been treating, whose breathing had evened out.

"Just bumps and bruises mostly," Mão Curadora answered. She pointed to a young girl cradling her arm. "Sônia fell and sprained her wrist." Ryoku winced and sent over to kneel beside her. Mão Curadora nodded to an older gentleman sitting in a chair. "Senhor Campos bumped his head, so they are watching him for any signs of broken bones. I can heal most of these ailments fairly easily, but I can only do so much in a day, so I have to pace myself."

Hato Gozen nodded in understanding. "I am the same," she told Mão Curadora. "Whenever I use my healing spells, they can be taxing. But what about these flu warnings?"

Mão Curadora shrugged. "We had someone come in with a low-grade fever earlier, but that's about it. There were several tourists who came in sneezing before, but they just wanted directions to a pharmacy – allergies." She glanced across the tent at Senhor Campos, who was rubbing his forehead and stretching his neck. "I should go and check on him again."

Onça Feroz gave Hato Gozen a raised eyebrow. "What are you thinking?"

Hato Gozen pursed her lips in thought. "I think she has a pretty good handle on these basic illnesses and injuries," she admitted. "And that makes me think they aren't being exacerbated by the Bat – non-miraculous magic rarely has an effect on his Kiss. But still…"

The tent flap behind them burst open, and two people rushed through, a woman a little older than them supporting an elderly man. "Please, my–my father. I don't know what it is! He was fine this morning, but now…"

Hato Gozen braced her arm under the man's shoulders – she could feel the heat radiating from him through her suit. "What were his symptoms?" she asked briskly.

"I–I–" The woman looked around helplessly.

"How did he feel before this started?" Onça Feroz explained gently, placing a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder.

"He – he had a headache this morning when he woke up," she admitted, looking away sheepishly. "I figured he just needed his coffee. But now…"

The man sneezed several times, until he finally was doubled over and gasping for breath, his entire weight supported by Hato Gozen. On the other side of the tent, Mão Curadora looked up in surprise and started toward them. The man covered his mouth with his hand and coughed again. Hato Gozen furrowed her brows in contemplation. Finally she placed her hand on the man's forehead and whispered, "Calming Breath." Slowly, while her hand was still in contact with his forehead, the man's fever dissipated and his breathing evened. She carefully guided him to sit on the edge of a cot.

Onça Feroz caught the woman as she slumped in relief. "Thank you so much," the woman whispered.

"My friends know what they're doing," Onça Feroz assured her, grinning. "But now, with how warm it is today, make sure you're getting plenty of fluids. Coffee is fine, but you really need water. This illness might be past, but you can both still get sick all the same, and that's the best way to avoid it."

The woman nodded. "Of–of course. It was just so sudden…"

Hato Gozen frowned. This illness might indeed have been Calmed. But for her Breath to work so easily, surely that meant the Bat was here somewhere.

But where?