Rena Rouge and Carapace take the spotlight!
—
Alya and Nino, now both dressed and ready for the day, rode to school in the Agreste car.
"This is what it must feel like for Adrien, on the way to school." Alya said softly.
The ride was quiet, as the Gorilla was a silent man.
"Yeah...got any tunes?" Asked Nino.
The man grunted, but reached over and tapped a preset on the console.
Jagged Stone started playing.
"Yep, this is Adrien's ride." Nino laughed a little.
At school, the Gorilla dropped them off, and then went to go park.
Students milling around all noticed the Agreste car arrive, and stopped to look with curiosity. Seeing Alya and Nino exit just made sense, and they carried on without another thought.
Hand in hand, Alya and Nino went into the school and to their lockers. Their classmates weren't hanging out in the commons, so it was a guess that they were all together in the classroom, probably taking Mr. Agreste's advice to heart.
As they put their backpacks away, there was a soft clearing of the throat from Alya's pocket.
Trixx was peaking out, and then gestured his head outside.
Oh yeah! They had their Miraculous!
Surely the teacher would understand if they didn't show up to class right away, right?
—
Rena Rouge and Carapace crouched on a roof, across the street, careful to keep out of sight of the pedestrians.
"So, where do we start?" Asked Carapace. "Do we want to get Chloe?"
"Not yet. We haven't talked to her at all to see what state she's in…No, I think we should go to Montparnasse and check in with the detective."
"Do you think he's trustworthy?"
"I'm…not sure. I think so. I hope so."
"Well, he said the coordinates led over to Montparnasse, right? Let's go and see if we can stalk them! If they're on our side, then we can help them out."
Rena Rouge was quiet, thinking.
He took her silence as hesitation. "No?"
"I mean, yeah, we should." She clarified. "It's just...being Rena Rouge was fun. Fighting side by side with my hero, fighting ridiculous villains. But this...this is sobering. These aren't wacky villains that control pigeons or turn people into ice cream. These are evil humans that like to kill and are good at it. It's just...scary."
"Like that scene in the Incredibles." Carapace said.
"What?"
"The scene where they're in the cave? And the mom says something like, 'these aren't like the bad guys from your cartoons. They won't hesitate to kill you just because you're children.'"
"Yeah," she laughed hollowly. "Exactly like that."
"Well, Dash and Violet joined the fight anyway."
"Yeah but…we don't actually have superpowers. Just…suits with a charge. A charge that can run out." She clenched her eyes shut. "If Ladybug and Chat Noir couldn't beat this woman, what chance do we have?"
Carapace took her hands. "Babe. Look at me."
She did.
"Ladybug and Chat Noir had no idea she was after them. But Salo has no idea that we're after her."
That did ease her mind, at least a little.
"Aren't you scared?" She asked.
"Oh I'm petrified!" Carapace laughed. "And if it was anyone other than you on this roof, I would be gone. Home. Under my covers."
She snickered.
"But…I have you. My partner. And…I suddenly remembered that scene from Wonder Woman, where they're in the trenches? She literally goes up against machine guns with a shield. She wasn't fighting crazy supervillians with wacky powers. Just…trained men with guns. And—and Captain America! He was fighting Nazis!"
Strength came back into her limbs, and she sat up a little straighter.
"You have my shelter, my shield. I will protect you." He kissed her lips gently. "Now, are you ready to save our best friends?"
Rena Rouge smiled wildly. "Absolutely."
—
The run to Montparnasse wasn't too long, considering they were leaping across rooftops.
Despite Fu's warning to lay low, they were spotted by civilians pretty quickly.
"Look! It's Rena Rouge and Carapace!"
"They must be looking for Ladybug and Chat Noir!"
"Go team go!"
It was nice to have people cheering them on, and Alya felt a little stronger.
They closer they drew to Montparnasse, the more stealth they tried to practice. It would be awful if Salo found out they were nearby and looking. Their entire plan of action would be ruined.
"Look!" Rena pointed out three black utility vans driving together towards the north end of the district. "That's either Europol or more of Salo's men, I'm sure of it."
"What makes you so sure?"
"Fox intuition."
"That's not a thing."
"Let's just follow and see!"
Sure enough, the vans all came to stop outside a dilapidated apartment building. Though the rest of the buildings were nice enough, this one was just a little grungy. The windows were either painted, or boarded up. The door was covered with a sign that simply said 'condemned'.
A needle in a haystack.
Men exited the vans, dressed in bullet proof vests and all black. They all kind of looked similar, but one stood out among them, a man with an eye-patch.
"Secure the perimeter, make sure no one can come in or out unnoticed."
So they got to work, blocking off the streets from by standers and surrounding the building.
"Okay," said Carapace, "I feel like we can trust them now."
"You didn't before?"
"It was the whole eye-patch thing that threw me off. Only villains have eye-patches."
"That's rude. My uncle has an eye-patch."
"He's also in prison."
"Other uncle."
"Your point?"
"Didn't you hear? Salo's the reason he has that patch in the first place."
"What? How do you know?"
"She was widowed four times, after she stabbed her first husband in the eye with a butter knife!"
"How do you know he was talking about himself?!"
"Fox intuition!"
"That's not a thing!"
"Hey!" A voice shouted up to them. "What are you two doing up there?!" It was the detective.
"Whoops." Said Carapace. He and Rena descended to the street, approaching the group of officers. They stood tall, and tried to appear as authoritative as possible.
"Detective Bertony?" Rena Rouge asked.
The man became defensive, frowning. "How did you know my name?"
"I'm Rena Rouge, and this is Carapace."
"Yes, the auxiliary heroes for Ladybug and Chat Noir. It's hard to forget you."
"Alya Cesaire, author of the Ladyblog, told us what you discovered, and we're here to help."
The detective groaned, "told them not to tell—" then he sighed. "No, you know what? It's fine. We can use the extra help. And...I can assume you're trustworthy. Given your affiliation with the victims."
Hearing Adrien and Marinette referred to as 'victims' was like a punch to the gut.
"Ladybug wouldn't have entrusted us with Miraculous if we weren't." Carapace said firmly.
The detective breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, I'll bite. Here's a radio, would you two be willing to go in first? We can get bullet vests for you too, if you need it."
Rena smiled sheepishly. "I'll take a vest. I haven't tested to see if the suit bullet proof, and I'm not keen on finding out today."
"Radio us if you find anything. Anything at all."
Rena nodded, securing the vest and putting the radio in her front pocket.
He rested a hand on her arm. "You're being extremely brave, but please, call for back up. I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you too."
"We'll be careful." She assured. "Ready partner?"
He nodded once and they headed to the door.
With their super strength, it too nothing to break the door down, dust on the floor flying up in the action.
Rena turned on her lapel flashlight, since it was so dark.
The building was a mess. Trash littered the floor, the labels on cans and chip bags looked dated, like from the 90's. There were holes in the walls, where the dry wall had crumbled and only wooden slats remained.
They paused and listened, straining to hear any noise.
There was nothing.
"Work our way up?" Asked Rena.
"Sounds as good of a plan as any other."
Carefully and quietly, they made their way through the building. Some rooms had gross furniture, some were completely bare. But there was a healthy spread of burnt spoons, used syringes, and razor blades.
"A drug den," said Rena simply. She turned on the radio, and stated, "we finished our sweep of the first floor. There's a lot of drug paraphernalia. No sign of anyone being here recently."
"Copy that, move onto the next floor."
"Roger dodger."
"Wait," Said Carapace, nodding at a grisly door under the stairs. "Let's check the basement."
She shuttered, "yeah, just stay close."
The stairs creaked madly with each step, giving up any semblance of stealth they had. It was only a few steps before they came to the bottom. It was totally dark, cold, and stank like mold.
"How are your allergies?" Asked Rena.
"I'm probably going to have hives everywhere, but I'm not worried about that right now."
They wandered their way further in, Alya's light landing on the heavily graffitied walls, stained mattresses, and used condoms.
"This isn't right," she said suddenly.
"What do you mean?"
"Can you pull up the site on your phone?"
Having turned into the turtle, Nino's phone had merged into his shield, and he was able to pull up the stream. Adrien and Marinette were still suspended from chains.
Rena pointed at the background. "Look at the walls. They're made of concrete, old concrete. But there's no graffiti. They're totally bare. All the walls we've passed have been spray painted somehow."
"Maybe…there's a room that was off limits to the artists?" He asked hopefully.
She shown her light in the last few rooms, noting much of the same. A drug den from some 20 odd years ago. "Let's go back up." She spoke into her radio, "basement is clear. Graffitied walls, and dirty mattresses."
"Nothing looks like it's being used?"
"Not by people, rats maybe." As she said that, a little black blob ran by her feet and she shrieked.
"Rena Rouge! Come in! What is it?"
"Sorry! Sorry! It was just a rat!"
She heard some chuckling from the other end, like the other officers were laughing at her expense.
"You still alright?" The detective asked.
"Fine, fine. We're going upstairs now."
They returned to the first floor, and then travelled the steps to the second floor. A door closed on the end of the stairwell, with a padlock in place.
"I got this," Said Carapace, driving his shield into the door.
Luckily the hinges were so old the whole door came off the frame with a clatter, again, shattering the element of surprise.
This hallway was much, much different from the floor below. Cables ran every which way, along the floors, over boxes, even some stringing across the hall.
Rena turned on her radio. "We found something on the second floor. Lots of cables…not sure what else."
"Copy. We'll move in."
"You know," said Carapace, walking slowly down the hall, to where all the cables were leading. "I'm thinking of another movie right now."
"What's that?"
"Incredibles 2, when Elastigal finds that old apartment building with all the cables in it from the evil computer guy?"
"Yeah…?"
"And it turns out it was just a decoy?"
Rena stopped. "What…what makes you think that?"
"Turtle intuition?"
"Shut up."
They reached the end of the hall, standing on either side of the door.
"Ready? On three…one…two…three!"
Carapace busted down the door, while Rena shouted behind him. "Freeze!"
There was no one in the room.
No one anymore, at least.
But there were dozens of computers lined up along the walls. Website servers. Huge fans were blowing on them, but the room was still incredibly hot.
In the middle of them all was a large antenna.
"What!" Rena shouted in anger.
"This must be the website hub. They'd need this many servers with the amount of traffic they get."
"Okay, so it's a clue! But I didn't want a clue! I wanted my best friend! I want—" Rena clenched her fists as the sound of footsteps clambered up the steps.
Men flooded into the room, already getting to work inspecting the equipment and plugging in.
Rena ghosted past all of them and into a room down the hall that was less crowded with equipment. Carapace was quick to follow.
"Alya—"
"It was supposed to be over by now! It's been…24 hours." She shook her head. "A full day. How many more are our friends going to have to suffer through in that—that hell!?"
"Al…"
"We slept in a bed last night! We had coffee and croissants…I got to take a shower and I got to use a very nice toilet! What about them!? When was the last thing they ate? Drank? Where do they sleep?!"
Carapace laid his hands on her shoulders, gripping her tightly. "Al. I get it." By the hoarseness in his voice, she couldn't doubt him. "I'm worried about them too." Then he pulled her into a sure hug, holding her while she fought to keep the tears at bay.
She was Rena Rouge right now. She couldn't cry.
They didn't know how long they had been holding each other until there was a knock at the door. "Sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting."
Rena wiped under her eye. "No…just…just expressing some disappointment."
"Well, the good news is that this is where that call came from. This is also the server for their website."
"…what's the bad news?"
"The bad news is that the call was sent through wifi. And the website is updated through an FTP client. After trying to trace the IP address, we found thousands of them that could be potential matches. Our best guess is that they're using a VPN. It's…it's not likely that we'll be able to track them from here."
Rena shut her eyes tight, bringing her fist up to her mouth. Anger? Grief? Blackened rage? She was a whirlwind of emotion. Finally, she spoke, "So, what? This was all a waste?"
"I wouldn't call it a waste. We might not find anything right away, but we'll monitor their activity. They'll make a mistake. And if the server goes down, they'll have to come back and fix it. We'll be here waiting. This is a good lead."
Rena didn't know if she should bare to hope. "Okay." She breathed, "we…we have to go now."
"I understand. I'll be sure to update our mutual acquaintance when I have more information for you."
Without another word, they left. Hearts heavy, and hope draining.
—
My knowledge of how websites work is pretty sad. Don't grill me.
We may be going back to the Adrien and Marinette next chapter. But I haven't decided yet.