Alya glanced across the table at Nora, watching in amazement as she steadily ate her way through the delivery pizza they had ordered for tonight's dinner. She had known that Nora burned a lot of calories and ate a lot – after her matches, she sometimes ate more in an hour than Alya ate in a day! But to see it up close and personal… She shook her head. How long had it been since the last time she'd had dinner with her sister? Had it been before the Tarasque? Probably. They hadn't seen each other more than in passing while they had been in Angola – Alya had been far too busy trying to help Marinette and Adrien figure out what to do next. And since their return from Angola, since she and Nino had gotten married there, the two of them had been so wrapped up in themselves, in enjoying their new life together, that both their families had been pushed aside. Alya felt a slight twinge of guilt at that. Her mother had assured her that they weren't upset: everyone understood that she and Nino needed their space. But Alya still missed her family. Even if they did just live a few blocks away.
Hopefully, it wouldn't take a patrol together for her and Nino to actually get together with their parents again!
"Any idea what you'll have to look out for this time?" Nino asked them, glancing back and forth between Alya and Nora.
Alya shrugged. "I assume it's just more of the same. Still no sign of Night Bat anywhere in Paris, but he's not the only criminal out there."
"That woman with the tats is still out there," Nora mused, grabbing another slice of pizza. "I spotted her last week walking at night."
"Any trouble?" asked Alya, raising an eyebrow.
Nora shook her head. "Nothing – criminals are probably starting to get wise."
"That would be a first," Alya replied wryly. Glancing at Nino, she grinned. "Maybe there won't be any trouble tonight!"
"All the same. If you find any trouble – especially something like Night Bat – you'd better give me a call," Nino warned, giving Alya a worried look.
Alya smirked. "It's adorable when you worry, but you really don't need to," she told him, placing a hand over his. "The Césaire sisters are perfectly capable of taking care of ourselves!"
Nora raised an eyebrow at her. "I thought you weren't a Césaire anymore, Madame Lahiffe."
"Where?" Alya made a show of looking around the apartment before turning back to Nora and scoffing. "Sorry, I thought you said Nino's mother was here!"
"Ha, ha," Nino drawled, rolling his eyebrows.
Alya looked down at the thin wedding ring that she had picked out after their return from Angola. Of all the things she had missed about getting married there instead of at home in Paris, that had been the most surprising. The dress, she could live without (not that she would ever tell Marinette that…). Not having her family there had been hard, of course, especially seeing the tears in her mother's face when they had told her about the wedding. But Nora had been there. Marinette and Adrien had been there. That had really been enough. But without the wedding rings, she had felt… incomplete. Like someone might question that they were really married if she didn't have a ring on her finger.
Finishing her last slice of pizza, Nora finally sighed. "Well, we'd best get to it," she told Alya, pushed her chair out from the table.
Alya grinned, sharing a look with Nino. "You go and get ready; I can be set in about two minutes."
Grabbing her bag, Nora scoffed humorlessly. "Fine. You just… keep it down out here. I don't need to know what you and Cappy get up to in your free time…"
Alya smirked, wagging her eyebrows. "You're just jealous."
Getting up from the table and turning toward the hallway down to the bathroom, Nora made a face. "Of you? Please."
As Alya stood up, Nino did the same, gathering their dishes together. Alya grabbed the silverware and piled it on top of the plates, before consolidating the leftovers into a single box and bringing them into the kitchen. As she set the tray on the counter, she felt Nino's arms wrap around her waist, holding her close. His breath tickled the back of her neck, and she shivered. "You're going to make it difficult to go out on patrol, you know," she murmured.
He hummed. "You could just let Nora do it on her own," he pointed out, one of his hands sliding up a little higher.
Playfully, she batted his hand away. "My sister is here!"
Nino sighed. "Fine." He smirked. "But she won't be here tonight…"
Turning around in his arms, Alya pressed a kiss to his lips and whispered, "Then maybe I can give you a little something… just to tide you over until then…"
"Are you for real?" Anansi scoffed from the hallway, arching an eyebrow at them, her helmet held under one arm as she leaned against the wall.
Alya sighed, giving her a look. "I don't have to invite you into my home, you know."
Anansi rolled her eyes. "Whatever. You and lover-boy can do your thing later; for now, we've got a city to check on."
Alya nodded. "Make sure no one sees you on the way down," she told Anansi, before transforming. Giving Nino a parting kiss, she jogged over and opened the window, throwing herself out and crawling down the side of the building while moving around into the alley. A couple minutes later, Anansi joined her on the ground, jumping onto her Spider-Bike as it roared down the street toward them. With a last glance back at the apartment, Rena Rouge and Anansi took off into the night.
Rena Rouge started straight ahead, racing down the street as fast as she could manage, the wind whipping her hair out behind her as she ran. Some days – some weeks – this was the thing she lived for: the excitement of going out on the town, of looking for people in need of help. When she had started the Ladyblog, it had been because she wanted to imagine herself being able to help Ladybug, to be a hero like her idol… who had turned out to be her best friend! And now, that was exactly what she had become: a hero.
But what about when the mask wasn't on?
After a few blocks of silence, Rena Rouge glanced over at Anansi, frowning. "About the night when Lila…"
"When your ex-classmate tried to set the city on fire?" Anansi finished for her, amusement lacing her voice.
"Yeah. Then. Um… thank you. For keeping an eye on Mom and Dad and the twins." Rena Rouge let out a breath. "I… I don't know what I would have done, if Lila had sent people after them, just because of my blog."
Anansi nodded. "Of course, sis. They're my family, too. Besides, half the reason I became a hero in the first place was to keep my family safe! If I couldn't do it then, what business would I have, being a hero?"
Rena Rouge hummed. "Fair. Still, that did get me thinking a little more: what if someone did come after our family? Even if no one knows our identities, they could still target us, just because I'm the 'Ladyblogger.' And if that happened–"
"If that happened, I would rip them limb from limb and throw them in the closest volcano," Anansi interrupted, growling. "No one threatens my family and gets away with it."
Rena Rouge raised an eyebrow. "You know, sometimes you worry me, woman!"
Anansi laughed. "Not that I especially want to have to do that, of course," she told Rena Rouge. "But if it were necessary, I would do whatever it took to protect our family."
Rena Rouge nodded in agreement. "Same."
"But," Anansi continued, "if we are careful, we can keep our family out of harm's way. As long as no one finds out our identities, they will be safe. Or at least, safer. I don't know if anyone is really safe in Paris these days…"
Rena Rouge hummed. "Unfortunately."
Anansi glanced over at her. "Have you thought about giving them security or something?"
Rena Rouge scoffed. "What, you mean like a bodyguard? I'm sure Dad would be thrilled with that."
"Maybe not like the Gorilla. But couldn't Pegasus come up with something to keep them safer?" Anansi suggested. "He's got all those drones, after all…"
Rena Rouge arched an eyebrow at her dubiously. "Do you seriously want to have drones following the twins around?" she demanded. "Because that's probably the worst idea."
"So maybe not a drone, but maybe we give them watches – something to let us know if they're in danger and where they are." Anansi shrugged. "Of course, maybe in a few years, that becomes irrelevant. Maybe the twins become superheroes to protect themselves."
Rena Rouge blinked. "Scratch that. That's the most terrible idea I've ever heard!" She shuddered. "They were bad enough when I had to stop them while they were Akumatized; could you imagine the chaos they would cause as superheroes!?"
Anansi laughed. "No worse than you, sis!"
Rena Rouge gave her an annoyed look. "I was a hero before you were," she pointed out curtly.
Anansi scoffed. "Maybe so. But only when Ladybug gave you a miraculous to use. I was doing this on my own, well before you were even a fulltime hero."
"And, amazingly, you're even still alive," Rena Rouge muttered under her breath, shaking her head ruefully.
"Don't sound so surprised."
After another hour-plus of patrolling along the perimeter of Paris – mostly north of the river, Rena Rouge glanced down at the time on her flute and frowned. "Are you ready to call it a night?" she asked. "It's pretty quiet; maybe there won't be anything to worry about. And in that case, I'd just as soon spend the evening with my husband as with you!"
"What, getting bored of my company already?"
Rena Rouge started to open her mouth to respond, but the words died in her throat as she heard a strange sound, carried on the wind, echoing from somewhere ahead of them. She held her hand up, just as Anansi cocked her head, her attention focused forward. Cautiously, the two heroes made their way down the street, listening closely for the sound to be repeated. Rena Rouge furrowed her brows. There it was again – faint, but slightly louder than the last time. Not exactly a sound she was familiar with; the best she could guess was that someone had thrown a rubber ball against a wall. But then there was a faint tinkle of breaking glass, and Rena Rouge's eyes widened. Giving a quick hand signal to Anansi, she slowed down and picked her way forward, moving quickly and quietly, avoiding any extra noise. Anansi's engine noise died out instantly, shifting from the gas-powered engine to the battery. Cautiously, the two of them approached the next corner and peeked around it, looking for the source of the noise. Rena Rouge's eyes narrowed in concentration, and she sprang at the wall, digging her clawed fingers into the brickwork to hold herself in place and moving her feet around to find tiny imperfections in the bricks in which her toes could find purchase. Below her, Anansi dismounted her bike and slinked forward, pressing herself against the wall and just poking her head out of the cover. Holding her breath, Rena Rouge leaned around the corner, scanning the street carefully.
Halfway down the street, Rena Rouge spotted a tall, thin figure standing outside what looked like a jewelry shop, one of its arms pressed up against the edge of the doorway. Narrowing her eyes, Rena Rouge studied him closely. Tall with gangly limbs, wearing an ill-fitting leotard, the man stuck his tongue out in intense concentration, his shoulder moving up and down though his arm seemed to disappear against the doorframe. Glancing down at Anansi, Rena Rouge waved to get her attention and made a couple of quick signs. Anansi barely nodded her response before pressing a button on her forearm and pressing herself back against the wall.
Still, the figure remained almost motionless, standing against the jewelry store's door.
Two minutes later, a loud roar sounded from the far end of the block, and the man jumped, his eyes shooting wide open as he spun around. The bright headlamp of the Spider-Bike shone out brilliantly, spotlighting the man, who seemed to shrink a few centimeters before sprinting away from the bike, directly toward Rena Rouge and Anansi. The bike accelerated, roaring down the street after him. A pair of leads shot out of the center of the handlebars and bit into the back of the man's leotard, and a bright arc of electricity coursed between them. Not slowing down, the man continued running away from the bike, even as it continued to tase him without effect.
"The hell?" muttered Rena Rouge, her brows furrowing in confusion.
Below her, Anansi dove out into the middle of the street. The man gasped his eyes widening in shock as he spotted her. without hesitation, Anansi drew back and swung her fist at the man's chest as hard as she could. As the punch connected, however, the man's body almost melted to the side, sliding around her arm. Anansi turned slowly to follow him, but the man swung around and pushed himself away, his torso expanding and catching a faint wind gust to propel him further away from her. The Spider-Bike screeched to a halt directly in front of Anansi, and the taser leads pulled out of the man to fall harmlessly to the ground.
"Mirage!" Rena Rouge whispered, holding her flute to her lips and blowing softly. A solid brick wall appeared out of nowhere, just as the man turned to face forward, leaving Anansi behind. Spotting it with seconds to spare, the man gasped in shock and pulled his legs up to his chest, wrapped his arms around his legs, and contracted down into a tight ball before slamming into the wall. The man sailed straight through the mirage, bounced in the middle of the intersection, and continued on down the street. Rena Rouge threw herself off the wall and landed in the intersection to sprint after the man, but he deflected off a parked car and down the opposite alleyway. By the time Rena Rouge reached the alley, the man had already disappeared. Anansi motored up behind her on the Spider-Bike and placed one foot on the ground.
"Damnit!" growled Anansi. "We should've had him!"
Rena Rouge frowned, kicking the ground. "What the hell even was he?"
Anansi shook her head in frustration. "I don't know," she retorted. "But I don't think I've seen anything like him. Was he made of rubber?"
Rena Rouge scoffed. "You mean, like a 'Rubber Band Man'?"
"You got a better explanation?"
