To armadas: "Bri" is indeed short for "Bridgette"! (The blue hair is dyed-blue, not natural) In a lot of "Bridgette" stories I've seen, she's Marinette's cousin, but that's not the case here. Her relationship with her father gets a bunch more explanation when all's said and done. Regarding her and Felix, we will see where it goes with them… at least a little in this chapter!

To Lyger 0: Thanksgiving could be a touch uncomfortable…

To Butterfly: I swear that wasn't intentional… I've been trying to develop the antagonists a lot more. These two especially I want to be reasonably likeable. Antoine and Gaston are definitely not bad people – or they are, but they have sympathetic reasons for everything they do. Antoine's another one of those guys who made one bad decision and then it just kept going downhill for him.

The sun was just setting when Felix raced down the stairs from his bedroom into the front hall, stretched his arms, and whistled for Barkk to join him. His mother followed the Kwami down the hallway from their "Hero Study," already transformed. Similar to Aunt Emilie, she had a sky-blue ankle-length gown with pink shoulder-sleeves and train of peacock feathers. Covering her eyes was a pink masquerade mask, clasped in the back with a bunch of peacock feathers woven into her platinum-blonde hair. La Paonne Deux gave Felix a quick peck on the cheek as Barkk nuzzled his ear in greeting. A senti-falcon chirped and landed on Felix's hand, fixing him with a piercing gaze. "I see I am to practice my falconry tonight," he observed, arching an eyebrow.

"It is a lost art for an English gentleman to practice," La Paonne Deux replied, smiling. "Now do be careful, dear!" she called after him as Felix shrugged out of her embrace and found the mansion's front door. He threw it open and ran outside, the Kwami hovering next to his head. He threw the senti-falcon into the air, where it caught a wind current and took station high above his head. "I can help you tonight, but this may be the last time for a while!"

That was the trouble with his mother only sharing a miraculous with Aunt Emilie: she had initially come that morning to bring the Peacock Miraculous back to Paris with her; Felix's run-in with the Stripper Ripper had changed that plan for tonight, but Aunt Emilie would be back tomorrow. At that point, Felix would be on his own for a few days before Aunt Emilie returned with the Butterfly. "I'm always careful, Mother!" he replied just before the door closed. He jumped into his Bentley, revved the engine, and was off. Barkk settled into the passenger seat next to him, nibbling on the package of dried beef he'd left in the center console for her.

"What are we doing tonight?" the Kwami asked eagerly, her tongue hanging out in excitement.

Felix smiled at his Kwami's infectious enthusiasm and settled back in his seat to listen to the car engine's purr. His face fell. "The Ripper is still out there."

"Maybe he'll take a night off?" Barkk suggested hopefully.

Felix hummed. "Normally he does go quiet for a few days after an attack," he agreed, "but will that hold true when he failed last night?" He shrugged noncommittally. "Course, we gave him enough of a thrashing last night he probably needs a few days to recover!" That was the only positive to come out of the previous night's encounter: hopefully the Ripper's sprained ankle would slow him down for now. "And there's still Mecha-Man," he added with a frown. Unfortunately, the day's research had proven less than useful. "After last night… All that property damage and for what? The Times said he only got away with a few grand."

"At least we stopped him from getting more," Barkk consoled him, fixing him with her enormous eyes. "Whatever we do tonight sounds good to me!" Barkk climbed up the door to sit on the window frame. She phased her head through the glass, and in the side mirror Felix could see her with her tongue hanging out in the wind, eyes closed.

"You know I could just roll down the window for you like a normal dog, right?"

Barkk pulled her head back in and gave him a confused look. "Now where's the fun in that?" With that she stuck her head back through the window glass, leaving Felix alone with his thoughts.

He frowned as he eyed the sparse traffic. This wasn't exactly what he had signed up for when he accepted the Dog Miraculous from Marinette. At that time over the summer, the Stripper Ripper was the only thing in the headlines, but the accounts were all in agreement that he was just a pervert, not a super-pervert. Well, he'd faced down the pervert once and failed to send him to prison, and now there was an actual bona fide super-villain in town. Not only that, but there was another person in town trying to play hero… and wearing the same kind of mechanized suit as Mecha-Man wore. What was his deal? As the kilometers ticked away, he kept coming back to that question, though without finding a satisfactory answer. He sighed. Whoever he was, they could do with a little less of the fireworks from now on – otherwise his mother might never speak to him again! And with this as near to his last night at home before returning to Eton…

How would he stop either of these criminals once he was at school, close to an hour away from London?

Felix pulled into a mostly-deserted overnight parking lot on the north end of London and glanced over at Barkk. As they had neared the outskirts of town and traffic had picked up, the Kwami had pulled her head back inside the car and picked out another piece of beef. She swallowed it whole and nodded up at him, eyes shining with excitement. "Ready when you are, Hound!"

"Barkk, Ears back!"

A moment later, the Hound slipped the car door open and dropped into the shadow the car cast in the light coming from the streetlamp just on the other side of the fence. He crept down the length of his own car, darted across into the shadow of the closest car in the next aisle, and straightened up, racing across the parking lot at breakneck speed. He detached his leash from his belt and threw it up to loop around the crossbar of a light pole one aisle in from the fence and swung himself up around it, releasing the pole at the apex of his swing and twisting around in a back-flip to land perched on top of the fence. Confidently he ran the length of the fence before pushing off to land on the roof of the storefront closest to the parking lot. His ears twisted this way and that, alert for any sound of a disturbance. The only sound he could hear was the subtle flapping of wings above him as the senti-falcon began its own circuit of the city.

"How are you doing, sweetie?" came his mother's voice over the communicator in his ear.

"Just fine, Mother," he replied, jumping the gap between two buildings. "I only left the car a minute ago; not much trouble I can get into in that time!"

"I know you better than to believe that!" she chastised, a hint of amusement in her voice. "There's nothing on the police radio at the moment," she informed him. "All the same, do be careful. I do wish you weren't out there alone or with nothing but a senti-helper for support all the time."

He rolled his eyes. "I'll be careful, Mother." The Hound raced across the rooftops above deserted streets, his own footsteps the only sound he could hear in the quiet commercial district. The shops had all closed up hours ago; the bars would still be packed for at least another few hours before the revelers left to return to their homes. As he passed the Lloyd's of London branch from the night before, he noticed that the damaged vehicles had all been towed away during the day and the front door had been replaced, though the melted scores across the street left behind by the discharges of so many energy weapons had yet to be repaired.

A pity Ladybug didn't ordinarily make house calls.

Two blocks down his ears perked up on hearing a sound like the activation of an energy weapon. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, his head turned slowly to narrow down the direction. He frowned: it seemed to be coming from the direction of the river near the east end of the city, but what targets were over there? City Hall? "I'm going to investigate something on the East End," he reported. "Have the falcon keep circling."

"Let me know if you need emergency."

With a sigh, the Hound took the next right turn, flipped across the street, and cut across the block over rooftops until he found himself on the roof of a warehouse overlooking an otherwise-deserted loading yard. In the center of the yard was the new mechanical suit he had encountered the previous night, standing stock-still with its arms out to either side. Suddenly orange fire poured from a spot on its back, causing the Hound to raise a hand instinctively to shield his eyes from the brightness. The suit lifted a meter into the air and hovered for a moment before settling back to the ground.

The Hound dropped to the ground, landing silently on all fours, and sauntered out into the yard toward the suit. "Fancy running into you here," he called. "Not to make light of the situation," he added, smirking.

"Something you want, Dog Boy?" the suit responded, the voice mechanically distorted.

He clucked his tongue disapprovingly. "Is that any way to speak to a superhero?" he asked, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

The helmet raised and lowered, looking him down. "I don't see a superhero," came the reply. "I just see a wannabe who likes getting in the way."

"Oh, I'm the one getting in the way?" he scoffed, rolling his eyes. "I could have handled yesterday's little 'trouble' just fine without your help."

"I'm sure," snorted the suit, shaking its helmet. "You definitely had it well under control while I did all the work!"

"What was that?" he demanded heatedly.

"What's going on there?" his mother's voice came through the communicator. The Hound hit a button on his leash handle to disconnect the call.

"I said… 'I did all the work'!" It slapped its chest plate for emphasis. "I showed up the moment Mecha-Man arrived. I fought him and kept him occupied. I prevented him from getting away with more than he got. If anything, I could have handled it just fine without you!"

The Hound scoffed. "I so want to rip that stupid suit off of you right now."

The suit turned to stare at the Hound. "Want to put that to the test, Puppy? That's a lot of talk coming from a teacup poodle!"

The Hound let out a grunt of frustration and threw his leash at the suit's head. The suit ducked under the leash but reached up to grab it as it passed. It took a step back and tugged on the leash, pulling the Hound off balance. His feet left the ground, and he let out an involuntary yelp. He sailed toward the suit, one arm swung at his face, and the Hound contorted his body around the arm. He dropped to the ground and pulled on the leash, swinging the suit up into the air. The suit lifted two meters into the air before the jetpack activated, holding it suspended three meters above the ground, leaving the Hound dangling with his feet mere centimeters above the asphalt. He released the leash's hold on the suit and dropped to the ground. The suit flew above him and dropped down behind him, swinging both arms together at his head. The Hound dove forward and rolled to his feet, spinning around and bringing up his arms in front of his face a moment before the suit punched him. He ducked below the punch and threw one of his own at the suit's chest. A clang rang through the warehouse yard, but the suit didn't budge. As the suit threw a punch of its own, the Hound sidestepped and swung around to kick the suit in the back. The suit stumbled slightly off-balance, and he followed it up with a second kick. This time, however, the suit was ready and grabbed his leg, swinging him up and slamming him to the ground on his back, the asphalt buckling under him. He kicked out with his free leg, caught the suit in the forearm, and wrenched his foot out of its grip. The suit lumbered forward as he threw his legs over his head in a backward somersault. He raised his fists defensively as the suit did the same.

Flashing blue lights in the distance drew the Hound's attention, even as the suit turned to stare. As the lights approached, the suit looked back at him and made a sound like laughter. "I guess we'll have to finish this later." It shot up into the air on its jetpack. "See you around, Doggy," it called behind it.

"My name is 'the Hound'!" he shouted after it. "I'll be waiting for that," he promised quietly, staring after it as it followed the river upstream until it vanished into the darkness.

AN: Amelie's hero suit is almost identical to Emilie's from "The Woman out of the Fridge" chapter 12; the only real difference is that their hair is different colors.