A bump jostled Adrien awake as the train sped northwest through France. I guess the vacation was good for more than just me! Last night was the first time Father took me out for dessert in… well… ever, I think. I think I'll finish this nap, and then check the news when we get closer to Paris.
Nathalie looked across the compartment at Gabriel, who was seated in the aisle seat next to his son. It's good to see him at least trying to be a father again. I know he says that everything he does as Hawk Moth is for Adrien's benefit… but it's nice to actually see him being a positive presence in Adrien's life, instead of an abstract concept. Who knows, with more time together like this… maybe they'll actually grow closer as father and son rather than as employer and employee. And speaking of employer/employee relationships… She looked at the man fondly and smiled.
Nathalie had a sudden coughing fit. Gabriel looked up at her and asked, "Are you OK?"
"Fine, fine…" she waved him off. "Just a persistent cough I've had for a few weeks now. I'm not sure what it is, probably some allergies."
"You'll see Dr. Toux when we get back to Paris. I'd rather try to survive a few hours without you than a few days, if you're sick."
"Thank you, sir. I'll be sure to do that."
Marinette was tossing and turning as the sun rose, the events of the previous night burning in her mind. After they had left the Trocadero, she brought Alya home and told her parents what had happened. They had insisted on taking her straight to the hospital for evaluation, despite the girl's protests.
"I'm fine, Mom and Dad, really! Now if you'll excuse me, I just have to get this video uploaded to the Ladyblog… hey! Put me down!"
Nora had given Marinette her personal phone number. "If you see the Beetle or Mr. Whiskers, you have them call me the next time Scorpion Lady shows up. I'll take her for a few rounds in the cage before I strangle her."
The video on the Ladyblog had gotten in the tens of thousands of hits already, and had been picked up by TVI. Mayor Bourgeois had called an emergency press conference and announced that all possible resources would be put in play to find the mysterious villain.
"Vengeance is ours! Beware, all who stand in the way of our mission! People of Paris… await your new Guardian!" Serket's words rang out.
OK, let's try to figure out what we're dealing with here. New super… something. Was it an akuma? Akumas usually demand our Miraculous… well, Ladybug and Chat Noir weren't there. Even so, this one just seemed to want to make herself known. After she grabbed Alya's phone and made her announcement, she just… took off.
It's not like akumas to want to be chased. Maybe this one wants to lure us to Hawk Moth, though? The last time we fought him, it was on neutral ground. If he wants to get us again, then he probably wants to tip the scales in his favor.
'Vengeance is ours'… that's certainly a negative emotion that Hawk Moth would take advantage of. So, all signs point to this being an akuma. Except… the sting isn't like anything any other akuma has had; it's more like Queen Bee's sting, except there's a lot of pain that comes with it. I feel like there's something I should be getting here.
I wish I had a clearer idea of what the Lucky Charm was supposed to be. I was so worried about Alya that I don't really remember it. It was… um… something I should have taken a closer look at, probably. Ugh! Maybe Tikki remembers…
She reached over and moved to poke her sleeping kwami. Ehh… I'll ask after breakfast. I'm probably going to get a scolding for not paying attention, so maybe it won't be as bad if she's not hungry.
The TGV pulled into the Gare de Lyon about five minutes behind schedule. Gabriel bolted from his seat, gathered his carry-on bag, and made a beeline for the exit.
Huh, Adrien thought. I wonder if he's sick again like he was before our trip to London. He and Nathalie shared a shrug and followed the designer into the station.
Gabriel was stopped at a newsstand, frowning. The front page of Wednesday's Le Monde had a grainy image of a scarlet-and-yellow clad person, with the headline "WHO IS SERKET?"
A still from a cell phone video, most likely, Gabriel mused. Certainly not one of *my* creations… although you have to admire their style. Egyptian themed, he noted, considering the costume. Is this another hero? Or someone more sinister? I'll have to be careful… I don't want this person distracting from my mission. Or worse, fighting my akuma. It's bad enough that we have the Bourgeois girl and two other heroes on-call for Ladybug and Chat Noir.
Adrien saw what his father was looking at and immediately pulled out his phone. Jamming his earbuds in, he quickly browsed to the Ladyblog and clicked on the first video. He gasped and covered his mouth in horror as he watched what happened to his friend. Alya hurt! And maybe Marinette, too! And I wasn't here to stop the akuma or help out. Marinette's cry of "Chat Noir, help!" burned his ears. My fault. I hope Ladybug didn't have too hard a time with this one. I'll have to get with her as soon as possible for an update. Maybe I can duck into a bathroom real quick and see if she's transformed…
No sooner did the thought enter his mind when his father turned to him and snapped, "Come along, Adrien." Without waiting for a response, Gabriel walked outside and got in the waiting limousine.
The ride back to the Agreste mansion was tense. Gabriel alternated between fidgeting with his cravat and drumming his fingers on his knees. Nathalie's gentle admonition to "settle down before you give yourself a heart attack" was met with a glare that would have caused a lesser person to dig their own hole and die on the spot.
Once the limo pulled into the driveway, Gabriel disappeared so quickly that Adrien didn't even see him go into the mansion. Climbing the stairs to his room, he was vaguely aware of a slamming noise deep within the mansion as he set his overnight bag down on his bed. Adrien walked over to the computer and pulled up the Ladyblog. "Look at this, Plagg… what do you think?"
Plagg watched the video and winced. "Kid, I don't know… there's something fishy going on here. This looks like a high-powered akuma that we're dealing with, and we have to be careful. Let's assume that Hawk Moth isn't messing around with this one. Not that he ever is, but… you know what I mean. This definitely isn't a giant baby."
As if on cue, an alert on the Ladyblog popped up: "AKUMA! Aquaboulevard de Paris. Stay tuned for updates and a live feed!"
"That must be it, Plagg! Let's hurry up and get there before it disappears again! CLAWS OUT!"
Chat Noir arrived on-scene and surveyed the situation. The akuma - a man dressed in a red-orange-and-green costume that had a white steering wheel emblazoned on its chest - was pointing at groups of people and shooting a red beam from his hand. The people hit by the beam were gathering together in tight groups.
Strange, this doesn't look like the akuma from the news last night… I wonder what this one's -
"I AM TRAFFIC JAM! And like I was, you are now going to be stuck in masses of slow, barely-moving people for hours on end! Hahahahahahahaha!"
- oh.
Cat Noir's reverie was interrupted by Ladybug landing on his right. "What do we have, Kitty?" she asked.
"This doesn't look like a repeat of whatever that was last night, at least. I'm sorry you had to work with that all by yourself. Is Al- the Ladyblogger girl OK?"
Ladybug frowned. "I didn't get to fight last night's akuma either. It was gone before I could get the chance. Alya's fine, thank goodness, but it was really rough for her for a few minutes after the attack. She went to the hospital to get checked out." I still don't know why the Cure didn't fix her.
"Wait, so if you didn't fight last night, then where did it go? And why are we dealing with something completely different now? I didn't think Hawk Moth could create multiple akumas without something special, and if he could, why would he stop at two?"
"I don't know, Chat… but let's take care of this guy first before we talk more about last night. I'm glad you're here. What have you seen?"
"Calls himself Traffic Jam, and his power appears to be, well, causing traffic jams." He pointed to a cluster of around forty people that was moving at a snail's pace toward the exit of the park, and trying to crowd their way through a passage designed for two people at most.
"We should hurry up… at that pace, people aren't going to get trampled, but crowds can get pretty dangerous quickly."
"On it, My Lady." Chat Noir extended his staff and vaulted toward the akuma. Ladybug tossed her yo-yo after him and quickly followed. Traffic Jam yelled something they didn't hear, and one of the crowds of people started inching back toward the akuma!
Thirty minutes later, Chat Noir lay on his back on a nearby roof. "That… well, that wasn't what I expected."
Ladybug was sitting cross-legged next to him. "He got so angry at the traffic jams that he caused that he threw down his car keys and stomped on them himself, which freed the butterfly so I could purify it. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before. We didn't even have to use our Lucky Charm or Cataclysm… he just gave up." She looked out at the mass of people in the park. "I should probably un-jam those people, though."
"Yeah, he totally lost it. Looks like all the crowds he created just swarmed him and made him madder than before. I don't think I've seen an akuma that unfocused since… well, I would say the giant baby, but he was at least focused on getting his lollipop. Heh."
"Maybe Hawk Moth can't create powerful akumas back-to-back… like making Serket last night threw him off his game today or something," Ladybug pondered.
"Or maybe he could use a vacation. Can we crowdfund a way to get him a Caribbean cruise? I'd be in for a few Euro. Anyway… since we have some time - which I can't believe, by the way - let's catch up on last night. What happened, My Lady?"
"I don't really know, to be honest," Ladybug replied slowly. "It's pretty much what was in the video on the Ladyblog. You saw that, right?"
Chat Noir hummed an affirmative.
Ladybug continued, "The akuma showed up and terrorized some people, then targeted Alya for some reason. I think it's because she ran to the akuma instead of running away from it. It used a power called Scorpion's Sting on her, then grabbed her camera and made its proclamation."
"Marinette was there, too, right? I'm glad she's safe. She must be a better friend than I thought if she called for help from me instead of you," he said absently.
"Now is not the time for that, Chat," Ladybug sighed. It's not like I was going to call on *myself* for help… not that you know that.
"Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry, Bugaboo. Still, I'm glad she's safe. I'm glad they're both safe."
"Me, too." Ladybug shuddered. "That could have been bad. I'm planning on talking to the Guardian tonight anyway, so this is going to have to go on top of the list."
"You're meeting with Master Fu tonight? Can I come?" Chat gave her his best smile and kitten eyes.
"Err… sorry, Kitty. He doesn't think it's wise that too many people know where he lives. I'll ask him to pay you a visit. Does he know how to get in touch with you?"
Chat Noir thought back to a time on another rooftop, and then later on that day when he had a substitute Chinese tutor. "Yes, he does. I'll have to be OK with that, won't I?" His costume ears flattened a bit. "Look… don't mind me. I'm still a bit salty that I wasn't able to help you out last night. I was… not in a place where I could transform. This is the first time that's happened, and I feel like I let a lot of people down."
Ladybug put her hand on his arm. "I know the feeling, Kitty. I felt like I let a lot of people down when I let Stoneheart multiply. We'll get past it together. Tell you what… I'll ask Master Fu if we can meet soon together to talk over all of this. I'm sure he wants to."
"I hate secrets," Chat Noir sighed. "I've got to keep so many from everybody. From my friends, my family, the people I love… it gets tiring."
"I know, Kitty. Me too. I promise that whatever I learn tonight about that akuma, I won't keep it from you." She continued with a malicious grin, "There will be no Serkets between us."
Chat Noir looked wide-eyed at his partner, then let out a loud, long laugh. "That - was - AMAZING! I didn't know you had it in you, My Lady."
Ladybug returned her partner's smile fondly, then unhooked her yo-yo and called for Lucky Charm.
Hawk Moth stood in the observatory, frowning. I wonder why that didn't work as well as I had hoped. Clearly anger alone as an emotion wasn't effective… the akuma just let it consume him and lost the will to serve me. I'll have to make sure next time I choose a target with strong emotions *and* focus.
The new costumed… villain?... didn't show up either. Serket, she called herself. One of these days, I will have to meet her… or at least, send an akuma to meet her, and see what she is made of. If she is after the Guardian too, and it sounds like she might be, then we could get on the same page and both achieve our goals faster than we would separately.
This isn't over, Emilie… not by a long shot.
The woman toyed with the bracelet on her wrist. "I felt alive… for the first time in many years, I felt alive."
"You will get that feeling again soon, I promise. But first, let us wait until some of the speculation about Serket has died down. We don't want to tip our hand too quickly and alert the Guardian until we have a better idea of where he is."
"And how do you plan to get that idea?" She inquired.
"Miraculous have a natural affinity for each other. It's how the Butterfly and Peacock Miraculous wound up in Paris, since I suspect the Miracle Box has been here for nearly a century. It's why I arranged for you to go to Paris in the first place. Now that we have our own Miraculous, we can use that to attempt to draw ourselves closer to the Miracle Box, and then to the Guardian. Watch your behavior and your routines over the next few days… see if anything changes. I imagine that you'll find yourself closer to the Miracle Box - or to other Miraculous holders - without even realizing it."
"And what about the superheroes in the meantime?"
"We can let them play their own game with the Butterfly for the time being. They'll be busy with that. When the time is right, we will show that we are more powerful than them, and we will strike."
Next time:
* "I'll have to get used to that if we're going to be spending more time together..."
* Chat checks in on a friend