AN: I deleted and reuploaded this chapter (again). I originally published yesterday, I saw it last night, and now it's saying it's not there.
To Lyger 0: Not all of them left Paris or went freelance, but Mecha-Man does have bills to pay (this is actually what I was setting up with his last chapter in "The Battle for the Seine"). He'll be back in Paris eventually. And in the meantime London definitely doesn't have superheroes…
To Butterfly: You'll just have to keep reading to find out who Antoine is meeting! And there is a Honey Badger Miraculous, though I haven't introduced it yet.
To StarDaPanda225: My conception of Felix at the beginning of this story is "Cat Noir but an asshole." That is Felix's main character growth in this story – learning how to be a hero, not just some jackass with superpowers. Regarding the portals, that's a good question that I don't think I ever fully addressed. They work on a closed-loop system because it's based on quantum entanglement: the portal rings are connected by particles in quantum entanglement with those in the Paris ring. The rings also have to be otherwise identical if they are going to function as two halves of a single portal. So you can't link the mini-rings to the normal ones, etc. And even if Lynchpin figured out the portal technology, that wouldn't automatically link his portals to the HOP ones. For Lynchpin to gain access to the HOP portal system he'd need one of their portals…
The next morning Felix entered the dining room to find his mother and Aunt Emilie sitting at the table in the dining room and sipping tea together while speaking quietly, Duusu and Barkk sitting on a saucer and working their way through a plate of mini scones. He collapsed into a chair, poured himself a mug of tea, and selected a pastry. "Did these come from Paris?" he asked, biting off half the croissant.
"They did!" Aunt Emilie confirmed, giving him a small smile. "Marinette brought a batch over just as I was getting ready to come, and said they were fresh from the oven."
"I could get used to the fresh pastries," he observed, finishing off his first and picking up a second one. "This right here might be worth the price of the portal ring!"
Aunt Emilie chuckled. "Pegasus does have some smaller ones," she commented. "I may ask Tom and Sabine if they would consider taking standing orders for delivery!"
Felix finished his first and grabbed another one. "Any more nights like last night, and I might just put one of those up in my room for them to just keep passing these croissants through! This hero business certainly helps work up an appetite."
Aunt Emilie hummed contemplatively, examining his face closely. "Your mother and I were just talking about that," she began. "I hear you had a busy night."
He ran a hand through his hair and stretched his shoulder muscles. "You might say that, Tante," he agreed nervously. Both his aunt and mother gave him a curious look.
"We had an amazing workout last night, Guardian!" Barkk chirped excitedly, shoving an entire mini-scone into her mouth, followed by a strip of bacon. "Felix and I were talking about it on the way home yesterday. There was the rapist we stopped, and there was the guy in the metal suit – and there was another guy in a metal suit, too! I haven't come across one of those in so long!" She swallowed her bacon and shrugged. "It's nice to be out with a hero again."
His mother pursed her lips and held up her newspaper, flicking the pages open between her and Felix. He looked a little closer at the newspaper's front page. The major headline covering most of the page read "Keep the Change" over a picture of the Lloyd's of London with its front door smashed in, burned out cars lining the street, and coins strewn up and down the sidewalk – if Felix couldn't see the Lloyd's sign in the background and the Queen's imprint on the coins, he would have thought that photo had been taken in a warzone. The far column bore the headline "Rapist Eludes Police," with a smaller subtitle "Woman Claims Miraculous Rescue."
"I see they missed the Ripper last night," Felix observed, frowning. "Too bad."
"No thanks to you." His mother carefully folded the paper and laid it beside her plate, giving him a hard look. Duusu looked up at her with wide eyes before turning to stare at Felix, shivering. Aunt Emilie furrowed her brows, eyes shifting between his mother and himself, and stroked the Kwami's feathers until he closed his eyes. "What were you thinking, Felix?" his mother demanded.
He scoffed in annoyance. "I assumed your senti-dog could handle that Ripper twat," he told her, waving a hand dismissively. "And I was needed elsewhere."
"It was a bank robbery. The police can handle those."
"Well, the police are supposed to handle rapists, too," he pointed out, annoyed.
"They weren't there in that alley. You were," she told him, her lips set in a thin line. "You shouldn't have left that woman behind just to respond to a bank robbery."
"I didn't exactly know what was going on there," he argued irritably. "The police radio called it a '10-43.' That's not a code I've heard before. I guess it means 'super-crime.'"
"Even so, it was a bank robbery." His mother frowned and fixed Felix with a disappointed look. "A bank robbery afterhours where no one was there to get hurt. A bank robbery at the bank where we just happen to have our accounts?"
He shrugged. "Those guys could have stolen anything there!"
"Things. They could have stolen things there," His mother pointed out, some bite to the words. "Do you want to know what happened after you left that alley last night?" she demanded heatedly. Aunt Emilie covered her hand with one of her own and gave her a calming look. His mother took a measured breath, looked down into her teacup, and continued, monotone, "That poor woman stumbled before she reached the street. The Ripper twisted his ankle when he landed, but he was still able to get back up. The senti-hound fended him off once – almost took a chunk out of his calf – before he fled the opposite direction. So I had to make a choice: the hound could either stay with the woman to protect her, or it could chase the Ripper and ensure that the police caught him. If I sent it after the Ripper, he could have eluded it and doubled back. I had to keep the hound near her." His mother finally looked up and met his eye. "The Ripper escaped because I had to make a choice." She knit her eyebrows together as she stared at him. "He got away, so now he is free to hurt any number of other women. And every woman he hurts, rapes, or kills from now on will be because of us."
"I'm sorry about that, but what about the thousands of people with accounts at the bank?" he retorted. "What about them? If I hadn't been there, maybe Mecha-Man would have emptied the bank out – money, jewelry, deposit boxes, everything. Does that not matter?"
His mother placed her elbow on the table and rested her forehead in her hand, rubbing her temples with two fingers. Aunt Emilie squeezed her hand gently before fixing her calming gaze on Felix. "Felix, sweetie," she explained patiently, "being a hero means you have to learn what to prioritize. The people with accounts at the bank I'm sure would appreciate your consideration – but the woman who had just been assaulted needed your protection far more. The Stripper Ripper needed your attention far more than Mecha-Man did in that moment. You were right there with the Stripper Ripper and could have stopped him for good, saving all his future victims from suffering. Saving even just a single life is far more valuable than lost property."
Felix frowned. "So I should just ignore the many for the sake of the one?"
His mother raised an eyebrow and shared a look with Aunt Emilie. "Everything at the bank is insured," she ground out through clenched teeth, looking him straight in the eye. "The money they stole will be replaced, whatever valuables were taken or damaged will be compensated. You know this! And yet you ran off to protect the insured property, leaving behind the real, live woman who could have been hurt or killed! All to protect the bank holding your things!" She looked at Aunt Emilie and shook her head. "I swear, Emmie…"
Aunt Emilie gave her a sympathetic look. "We all make mistakes, Ammie. No miraculous user can be perfect right away; even an experienced user can make mistakes." A shadow passed though her eyes; when Felix looked closer, it was gone. She continued, more confidently, "A Guardian's role is to guide the miraculous holder to become better."
"Right." His mother closed her eyes, took a slow breath, and sighed, releasing the tension in her shoulders. Turning back to Felix, she asked, calmly, "Tell me, what did Carapace teach you about being a hero?"
Felix scoffed. "'Heroes look out for the needs of others, not their own needs,'" he recited, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, the guy said it so often he should get it tattooed on his arse!"
"The guy is not wrong," his mother reminded pointedly. "Adrien and Marinette gave you that miraculous to help other people, not to just help yourself."
"Felix," Aunt Emilie began, "I know you meant well last night." His mother gave her a disbelieving look and a subtle headshake, but Aunt Emilie raised her eyebrows and nodded to her insistently. "You meant well, but you have to put the needs of others ahead of yourself. And nothing is more important than protecting another person's life. What is the miraculous you hold?"
Felix sighed. "It's the Miraculous of Loyalty," he answered, fingering the dog collar around his neck as he said it.
"And what does that mean?"
"Loyalty to my team and my people, not just to myself," he grumbled.
"That's right!" Barkk squeaked, clapping her paws excitedly. "And you never found someone as loyal as the Hound!"
"Perhaps that's not true yet of this Hound," his mother observed wryly, giving him a look. "But you can change that."
"What's wrong with helping the most people?"
His mother frowned. "What's wrong is that I know that wasn't really your mindset at the time." She sighed and rubbed her forehead. "What if my hound hadn't been there? Would you have left that poor woman to be raped and murdered? Would you still have run off?"
"But your hound was there. The woman survived and I stopped the robbery, even if the robbers got away." Felix pushed himself away from the table.
"Where are you going?"
"After last night, I have some research to do," he replied woodenly. "I need to find out everything I can about that Mecha-Man character. And about this new suit." Barkk took off from the table and hovered next to Felix's head. "I'll be in my room."
"First give your favorite aunt a kiss?" Aunt Emilie teased, smiling.
"Of course," he agreed, "though there isn't much competition for the title!" He rounded the table and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. As he leaned back, she put a hand on his shoulder, holding him in place.
"You have it in you to become a great hero," she whispered into his ear. "Or you have it in you to simply look on and do nothing. You come from a family of miraculous users who did both – who helped others and who sat on the sidelines and did nothing as others were hurt around them."
"I'm not Adrien," he whispered back. His whole life, he had been compared to his bubbly, over-the-top-happy cousin. "I'm never going to be another Cat Noir."
"No, you aren't," she agreed, squeezing his shoulder gently. "Nor does anyone want or expect you to be. You are Felix; all you have to be is your own hero."
Felix nodded and straightened up. "Thanks, Tante," he told her. His mother gave him a look like she was going to say something else, but he left before she could say it. Racing up the stairs he flopped on the couch in his bedroom with his computer and opened the Ladyblog.
"What are we looking for, Felix?" asked Barkk eagerly, settling on his stomach and staring wide-eyed at the screen.
Felix idly rubbed the Kwami's head between her ears, and she started wagging her tail in contentment. "I'm not sure," he admitted. "I know Adrien's gang have some experience with this Mecha-Man fellow, but I don't remember him saying anything about how to fight him. And I'm almost certain the Ladyblog never said anything about another man in a mechanized suit running around Paris."
"Didn't Nino say his girlfriend runs the Ladyblog?" Barkk asked, finding a chicken drumstick she'd saved from dinner the previous night and gnawing at one end. "You could ask her. Or you could ask Pegasus."
Felix frowned and slowly shook his head. "I don't need their help," he answered finally. "Didn't they give me a miraculous so I could use it to protect London?"
"I think Marinette's plan was for you to be a part of their team," the Kwami observed, fixing her enormous eyes on him. "The Canine Miraculous all work best as part of a team, not on their own. Even when he and the Fox were separated by distance, they were still part of the same team and working together. And on the frontlines, the Hound was part of a team with the other men in his unit."
"Well, I'm not much of a team player," Felix pointed out, clicking the link to read an article on the Ladyblog describing one of Ladybug's fights against Mecha-Man.
"You have me on your team," Barkk told him quietly, curling up on his chest and closing her eyes.