AN: Given how infrequently I use expletives, I should probably apologize upfront for Alix's language…

To Lyger 0: Most likely.

To Geft: Or at least that's what Marinette's afraid of.

Sk8r Girl stood on the sidewalk just outside of her apartment building, arms folded and tapping her foot anxiously. Her padded shirt felt tighter than normal; although her initial bandage seemed to be holding, she could still feel the slightest tug from her shoulder every time she moved her arm a little too far in just the wrong way. A second bandage had gone directly over the first one – if she was lucky, maybe Olivet or Hato Gozen would show up to help her find Jalil, and they could actually heal her wounded shoulder. As it was, though the weakness in her legs when she had first woken up had finally gone away, her hand still refused to tighten properly. She looked down at the reinforced bat she held in that hand, squeezing tightly. A stab of pain shot down her arm from her injury, and she let out a frustrated hiss.

While she had run around the apartment changing into her suit and collecting her gear, her father had pleaded with her to stay home, not to go after Jalil. Looking down at the broken bodies of the three men that Amun had destroyed using Jalil's body, Alix had been tempted to agree with him. She knew exactly what Jalil was capable of, and Jalil had never done anything like what Amun had done to the men in their apartment. And if he turned that power against her…

But for as much as he exasperated her, as much as he sometimes embarrassed her, she just couldn't abandon Jalil.

But she also couldn't handle Amun on her own.

Irritably, Sk8r Girl looked down at her watch. Ten minutes, forty-three seconds. She had hit the app's panic button and spoken to Alya almost eleven minutes ago. She had warned them about the attack, about the fact that Jalil was missing, that Amun was probably in control again! She had made it absolutely clear what was happening – hell, the bodies in the apartment were a pretty good indicator of that! And still no one had arrived yet. She frowned. Leaning her bat against the wall, Sk8r Girl pulled out a softball and tossed it into the air; catching it, she threw it again, trying to keep it as high up as she could. But still she couldn't stop thinking about Jalil, about the Heroes' delay. Shouldn't Jalil's disappearance have caused at least a little more concern from Alya, Marinette, and the others?

The communicator built into Sk8r Girl's helmet clicked, and she nearly missed the softball. "Help is coming," Pegasus informed her curtly. "Gap between your building and the one directly south. Is it clear?"

"Yeah," she told him, tossing the ball into the air one more time, whipping her bat up, and taking a massive swing. The ball hit the ground in front of her and bounced. Sk8r Girl muttered a curse.

As she was bending down to collect the ball, a shimmering portal swirled in the alleyway behind her, between her building and the one next to it. Twisting her head quickly, she gave a cursory glance through the portal, into the familiar background of the Heroes of Paris Headquarters. The butterfly garden, the walls of Max's lab in the background. Pegasus stood transformed just on the other side of the portal, Sabrina's hand clutched tightly in his own. He stared at Sk8r Girl, silently, the tension evident in his mouth and jawline. Sabrina squeezed his hand and gave him a meaningful look, leaning into his side. Sighing, Pegasus' shoulders slumped and he wrapped an arm around Sabrina's shoulders, swallowing. Under her helmet, Sk8r Girl arched an eyebrow at him dubiously. Before she could comment, the Heretic and the Disciple hopped through the portal, quickly followed by Volpinax, and all three of them stepped out of the alleyway and approached Sk8r Girl. Pegasus glanced through the portal at Sk8r Girl and nodded, hugging Sabrina tighter. "You can take care of this on your own, right?" he asked.

Sk8r Girl blinked, her mouth hanging open, and looked over at the Heretic. "Um…"

"Right. Well…" Pegasus coughed anxiously and waved his hand. The portal began to collapse, and he started to turn away. "Good luck."

Sk8r Girl, jaw hanging open, turned to stare at the three who had come. "'Good luck'?" she repeated, shaking her head. "Ten minutes of waiting, and that's all he's got to say for himself? What the hell is his problem?"

Volpinax shrugged noncommittally and turned his gaze toward the street running in front of the apartment building, his pupils expanding in the dim light. "I suspect he is stressed out."

"He's stressed out?" growled Sk8r Girl, squeezing her hands into tight fists, a snarl building in the back of her throat at the pain in her shoulder. "He didn't just get fucking attacked by a bunch of fucking lunatics!"

"No," the Heretic replied, tension in his jaw. He raised an eyebrow at her. "But he did–"

Sk8r Girl groaned, throwing her arms up in the air. "I don't fucking care!" she interrupted the Heretic heatedly, glaring at him. "They attacked my family! They tried to kidnap me and my brother! I got stabbed in the shoulder and knocked unconscious! And now Amun is back in the driver's seat in Jalil's brain, there's what's left of three – probably four of those crazies lying in my living room, along with two of them unconscious, and they send me the ex-Acolytes and you–" she waved dismissively at Volpinax "–to try to get him back!? The hell are they thinking!? They couldn't send Ladybug and Cat Noir? Hato Gozen? The Lancer? Literally anyone else?"

"Thanks," muttered the Disciple under his breath.

"Do you have any idea what's going on!?" the Heretic half-shouted in her face, his eyes wild. "As terrifying as this might sound, Amun off the chain isn't actually the Heroes of Paris' most pressing threat at the moment!"

"Bullshit!"

"No, it's the truth!" the Disciple insisted, nodding adamantly.

"Yeah? And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Sk8r Girl demanded, turning her glare back and forth between them.

"It means that there is far more happening in Paris tonight than just this," Volpinax explained. "Pegasus Rena Rouge, and Carapace had to respond to other developing situations before sending us here."

Sk8r Girl paused. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

The Heretic's mouth set in a thin line. "It appears that Killer Bee has essentially declared war on the Heroes of Paris tonight."

Sk8r Girl blinked, staring at him in shock. "'Killer Bee'," she repeated dumbly. "Lila Fucking Rossi has done what?" She let out a low growl. "When I get my hands on that fucking bitch, I will rip her limb from limb with my bare hands…"

The Disciple nodded firmly. "It's true. We were in the basement – the, um, Headquarters – all day. There were a couple reports of attacks this afternoon, but then this evening they just… all started pouring in at the same time, all around the city. Ladybug and Cat Noir ran off to the bakery right before you contacted Headquarters."

Sk8r Girl's eyes widened. "They didn't…"

The Heretic shrugged helplessly. "At this point, we don't know anything more than that. But Ladybug absolutely suspected it to be a possibility."

"Of course she would," Sk8r Girl muttered under her breath, frowning. Knowing that Lila Rossi was Killer Bee, there was nothing she would put past her, especially when it came to Marinette. Back in collège, she had thought Marinette was overreacting when she called Lila a liar and refused to even try to get along with her. Finding out that Marinette was Ladybug, however, had completely recontextualized that entire situation. Suddenly, Marinette's insistence that Lila was lying about her friendship with Ladybug made perfect sense. That, coupled with all the other stories Lila had told over the years…

The revelation last week that Lila Rossi was actually Killer Bee had come as a bit of a shock… but it hadn't surprised her that much, especially after going back over all her experiences with both of them – Killer Bee and Lila – over the past year, ever since Jalil–

Her eyes widened under her helmet. "God fucking damn it all to hell!" she groaned, smacking her face shield. "She knows who I am! She knows who Jalil is! That must be how they knew to target us! I'm such a fucking idiot! Lila was there that day. She saw us together at the museum, and she heard everything Jalil was saying in the café. Of course she was right there as soon as Amun appeared that first time! She was already at the museum! And she must have seen our faces at the Eiffel Tower…" Rubbing her forehead, she shook her head in frustration. "How could I have been so fucking stupid?"

Volpinax furrowed his brows, an intense look in his eyes, examining Sk8r Girl carefully. "How is your father?" he asked. "Was he home when it happened?"

Sk8r Girl nodded, her stomach clenching. "He was. We were just getting ready for dinner…" She let out a breath. "I, um, I didn't know where he could go…"

"Is he still in the apartment?" the Heretic demanded. Mutely, she nodded. The Heretic's eyes widened, and he tapped the communicator in his ear. "Pegasus?" He paused a moment. "Can you pull M. Kubdel out of their apartment? … Considering that she sent people there, it's a pretty good guess that she knows! … If she doesn't hear back from her people, she definitely could send more … Take him to…" He furrowed his brows, giving Sk8r Girl a questioning look.

She shrugged. "I don't know where there is in the city for him to stay," she admitted. "The Lê house, maybe? That way King Monkey can maybe–"

The Disciple frowned, raising an eyebrow dubiously and glancing at the Heretic. "Didn't he and Geber get attacked–"

"That fucking bitch!" Sk8r Girl's jaw dropped, and her eyes narrowed. "If they–"

"They're both fine," the Heretic interrupted, holding up a hand. "But could Killer Bee–"

"Germany." Sk8r Girl facepalmed. "We all said we arrived by portal, but if she knew who I was…"

The Heretic's eyes widened. "Would she–?"

Sk8r Girl's mouth set in a thin line. "In a word? Hell yes."

The Disciple blinked, looking sick, and turned toward the Heretic, confusion plain on his face. "And this is one of the miraculous abusers that the Prior was working with?"

"That is the hypocrisy of the Dark Acolytes of the Mundane," the Heretic confirmed, nodding seriously. "They will work with absolutely anyone – even the worst of the worst of miraculous abusers – if it will help them stop the good miraculous users."

"And meanwhile innocent people get caught in the crossfire," Sk8r Girl grumbled.

Volpinax let out a noise like a bark. "This discussion is irrelevant at the moment," he interjected, shaking his head. "We must determine a course of action! First to keep Alim and the other innocents safe, but even more importantly to find Jalil."

"Can we just get them out of the country?" Sk8r Girl wondered. She started. "Of course: maybe at least Dad could go to the Egypt temple?" she suggested. "He already knows about us being with the Heroes of Paris; he'd probably love seeing the inside of the Sphinx." She frowned. "That doesn't help with the Kurtzbergs and Lês, though…"

"Or the other families she knows about," Volpinax pointed out. "The Lancer's family, for instance."

"Still, it's at least an idea," the Heretic answered, relaying the information to Pegasus. "We can let Pegasus and the others worry about the logistics."

Gritting her teeth, Sk8r Girl moved away from the apartment building, looking in both directions before stepping out into the street. Very few vehicles were visible on the street, with even less civilians on the sidewalks. And yet, off in the distance down the street, she could see a thin plume of smoke coming up from a car that had exploded – recently, by the looks of it. She sighed heavily. "Well, if it's just going to be us going after Jalil, we'd better get a move on," she informed the others, nodding in that direction and deploying her skates. Almost instantly, she was whizzing down the street toward the far-off smoke.

"Pegasus is fetching your father as we speak," the Heretic informed her, accelerating to keep pace with her. "Unfortunately, his drones are otherwise occupied at the moment, so he will not be able to send any to help us.

She nodded curtly, scanning the buildings on either side. "Fortunately, I don't need him to give me eyes in the sky," she retorted, before throwing her head back and shouting. "Hey! Are you up there!?"

With a piercing shriek, a falcon swooped down from above to hover close to Sk8r Girl's head, flapping occasionally to maintain her speed and height. Fixing Sk8r Girl with one sharp eye, she asked, "What is it this time? I was just returning to my nest."

"Good: then that means you weren't busy," Sk8r Girl pointed out. "I'm looking for my brother. You probably saw him: tall, thin, red hair, head glowing bright gold, probably floating in midair…"

"What is she doing?" the Disciple muttered to the Heretic.

The falcon circled once around Sk8r Girl before ascending rapidly and circling twice. "I saw him," she called down to Sk8r Girl. "Moving… north, I think?" She turned in either direction and shrieked. "North he is! And I see – smoke! Fire!"

"Thanks for the tip." Sk8r Girl nodded to the falcon. "Keep an eye on him!" she shouted, before turning back to the others. "Follow me."