Review. I own nothing. Not even this computer.
Ladybug lands easily on the roof and sprints through the darkness. She glances left and right before finally coming to a stop right above the small alleyway. She sighs and leans against the edge of the roof. She pulls out her yoyo and checks her messages. Still nothing from Chat Noir. She grinds her teeth together. That lazy kitty was probably somewhere licking the back of his hand and sipping on a big glass of milk.
She assaumed. He really did tend to take the entire cat persona thing a bit too far. It was downright creepy sometimes. It was also adorable but still creepy. She sighs and jumps from the roof and lands on the ground before glancing around and sprinting across the empty street. It seemed like there was a curfew in affect. No one was allowed out, no one was allowed to be on the streets, except for a few police officers. But once they had seen her they had only nodded and waved her on. They knew who she was and what she was probably doing. The police trusted her, she did tend to solve a lot of their problems for them. She didn't blame them for not being able to deal with all of the problems. After all it wasn't as if they were superheros or anything.
She comes to a skidding stop in front of the gates to the Agreste household. She glances at the front gate and easily jumps over it, the rush of adrenaline in her veins makes her feel like she could tear the entire world apart. She lands easily and walks casually towards the front door.
A light flashes on and she turns around in a tight circle with her hands up ready to fight.
"Ah. Ladybug. We expected you to arrive sooner." A voice called out from the top of the steps. Ladybug turned and nodded towards the secretary of the Agreste household. Nathalie stood there with her back straight and her hands folded behind her. She looked every inch the stern faced hard nosed disciplinarian. She nodded to Ladybug and opened the door to let her in.
"although I am not entirely sure what help you will be in this matter." Nathalie said snidely as Ladybug passed her. Ladybug shivered, she had never gotten such a cold reception from the woman, sure she knew that Nathalie could be cool and controlling, just like most of the Agreste household. But this was something else entirely. This was almost...hatred...
Ladybug paused in the front room and glanced back over her shoulder.
"I'm sorry I did not have a lot of time today. I was busy protecting Paris. I came as soon as I was able to. Ladybug lied easily. It was easy to lie to people when they couldn't see your face. She noticed that Nathalie's eyes flashed a little bit, as if she was searching for a lie.
"You will have to excuse Mr. Agreste he is very distressed by the kidnapping of his son. And he is unavailable to talk to anyone else. He is frankly worried sick and I had to force him to go to bed." Nathalie said as she walked to a pair of chairs beside the grand staircase.
"So it was definitely a kidnapping then?" Ladybug said, before clearing her throat and regaining control of her voice. She walked and joined Nathalie sitting across from her. Nathalie nodded to a newspaper seated between them. It was dated for tomorrows release.
"Yes. The official announcement was a disappearance but these sort of rumors begin quickly. and this rumor is unfortunately very true. Adrien Agreste was kidnapped in the morning when all of our security was disabled, we have no recordings and our security alarms and lights were turned off as well, so we have no idea what happened to Adrien, what time he was taken or who in fact took." Nathalie said. Ladybug checks the woman out, there is clearly more to the story, but she isn't sure how much she should push this...
Finally she decided that it would be best to lay all of her cards on the table. Sneakily of course.
"Where exactly is the rest of the staff? Adrien's bodyguard for instance has been noticeably absent. I would have thought that a person as important as Adrien would never have a second to himself..."She said clearly waiting for an answer.
"I am afraid that I am the only worker who has remained. Mr. Agreste has dismissed the rest of the staff, it was a foolish moment of grief but he is completely within his rights to do so." Ladybug nods and rubs her chin. That would be completely in character of Gabriel, being so cold and standoffish and aloof. But it still felt off to her, something was clearly going on behind all of this.
"Would I be able to look through Adrien's room?" Ladybug said and stood up expectantly. Nathalie nodded curtly and lead the superheroine through the house and to the large extravagant room. Ladybug glances around it and waits for Nathalie to finally get the hint and step out leaving her alone. Ladybug glances around and frowns even deeper then she had already been.
The room was tossed, overturned, it looked like there had been a struggle. The window was blown out. Ladybug walked to it and looked out, all of the glass was on the outside there was a little on the window frame but most had hit the ground below.
"Clearly they used the window to break in." Nathalie called in. Ladybug glances at the doorway where Nathalie had propped the door open. Ladybug frowned, she was not going to be left alone while she was in here. She nods pretending to agree, but her mind was racing, clearly this had been framed, and not all that well either. Clearly someone broke the glass from the inside, but whatever had broken the glass was gone, perhaps gathered up from where it had fallen on the grass below.
She rubs her chin and walks around the perimeter of the room, books and papers were tossed around, the bed was overturned, there were obvious signs of a struggle. But something still felt off about all of it. It felt like it was staged, made to look worse then it actually was.
Ladybug finally paused and sat down on Adrien's sliced up mattress. It felt weird that someone would go to the trouble of slicing up his mattress and tossing all of his papers around...She got up and peered into the bathroom, this room was completely untouched, there wasn't even any sign of the papers being blown into the room. She had expected...something out of the ordinary.
"Have you attempted to use your lucky charm yet?" A voice said from behind her. She jumped and turned around with her hands up in a karate pose that Chat Noir had taught her. She chuckles when she realized that it was just Nathalie, who had disobeyed her order and entered when she had told her not to.
"I have not. No." Ladybug said suspiciously. There were a lot of alarm bells going off in her head. Sure she had jumped to conclusions before...But she felt a deep sense of fear in her. She didn't know why, sure Nathalie was always cool and aloof towards Adrien and his friends before but she didn't think that it would be so bad right now.
"I think that I've seen everything that I need to see now. I will just be on my-"She stopped when Nathalie laid a hand on her shoulder and stopped her.
"Mr. Agreste's door is always open if you ever find anything, or if you feel that you might need some sort of help on this case. After all it is better to have an ally in these sort of situations." Nathalie said. Ladybug felt as if she was being threatened and shrugged off the hand.
"Yes...I understand, tell him that Ladybug...That I...say thank you, but that I already have a partner."
"Yes. Where is Chat Noir anyway?" Ladybug chuckled and waved it off.
"Secret mission, so secret that he can't even tell me! Yep! That is exactly what's happening!" She turned and marched out of the room, down the hallway and out the front door without even bothering to look behind herself.
"Such a strange young woman, it's odd to think that we still haven't managed to steal those earrings from her yet." Nathalie said before tutting and shaking her head and marching down the hallway to Gabriel's office. The man was standing at his desk, looking through old notes, trying to find something, anything at all that might help them track down his son.
"If the police officers in this town were not useless then I might actually be able to find him." He grumbles before looking sharply at Nathalie as she entered. She nods and takes over at the desk, looking over things that he had been pouring over all night and still finding nothing. She heard the trap door open and close and she let out a sigh of relief. He was going to use their ace cards then. Good, she could live with that.
Gabriel did not even bother to say the words. He just snapped his fingers and Nooro understood. Hawkmoth stood before the open window and closed his eyes. Searching, thinking, feeling. That was the wonderful thing about this miraculous, he could feel everything, everyone, all of their emotions. Which was fantastic for a man like him who so often felt numb and cold, as if all of the happiness of his world had been drained away long ago. He sighed as he meditated letting all of the emotions of the world wash over him.
He zeroed in on the negative ones, working through them. He frowns as his stomach growls and shakes his head. They would have to find someone to actually cook, and to do the grocery shopping, and to clean up the house and yard. How that man ever did all of it at once was beyond Hawkmoth. He rubs his stomach and wonders absentmindedly if there was any one he knew with a good chef.
He pauses as he searches through the police officers emotions. There was a sense of incompotence, frustration, fear, resignation. Nothing that he could work with at the moment, if he permitted these emotions to continue and encouraged them a little then he might be able to exploit them in a few days. There was a small sense of sorrow, of homesickness and loss just at the edge of his mind, he could feel it. He zoned in on it and dismissed the idea. It was coming from the carnival and Gabriel Agreste did not interact with carnie folks. Gypsies. He thought the slur hatefully. How he detested them.
He ignored the strangely familiar pulse coming from the carnival and followed other lines of emotions. He finally settled on a few familiar paths, ones that lead to classmates of Adriens. He grinned maliciously. If there was one group that he could exploit and control, it was these children. He settled his net across them like a fisherman wondering who he would drag in.
Ladybug landed on her balcony and detransformed before shaking her head.
"Well I think I learned a lot. But that was also a complete waste of my time." Marinette grumbles to a tired Tikki who settled into her spot on the pillow.
"Less talking more sleeping." The kwamii complained as Marinette fell back and put her hands over her face and sighs. She had to find Adrien, she was determined to find Adrien. She would find him no matter what it took!
"And I've got to find Chat Noir. Great. Two blonde boys go missing, what are the chances?" She grumbles before falling asleep.
Adrien shuffles and then grunts when he gets a kick to the bottom of his cot. He sits up and looks around. It is still dark outside. Plagg was gone. And the Gorilla stood in front of him with a pair of dumbbells and an expectant look on his face.
"Five more minutes?" He asks hopefully only to get a shake of the head in response. He sighs and gets up. It's still dark out, and he was having a wonderful dream...
Review. I own nothing. Not even this computer.