Aljasus~Arabic; meaning to spy or observe.
One week pre-Miracle Queen...
"Whoahoo! Yeah, man, this is amazing! Wheeee!"
The dark staff rebounded off of the shingles roof with a resounding cling, drawing the curious gazes of the rest of the superhero team sprinted along behind the black cat. They were bruised and battered but smiling nevertheless, they were together. They were safe.
"Okay, take it easy there, Chat," Ladybug chastised as she and Rena scouted for a place the four of them could sit. "Come down here before you break something."
Nino chuckled to himself as he brought up the rear, balancing multiple boxes of pizza as he delicately stepped over another ingrown chimney and came closer to join them. He'd been unanimously voted to transport their precious cargo after making a quick swing by the nearest pizza shop they could find (an irony that Adrien had been incapable of overlooking, a turtle getting a pizza) and amid his determined protests, he'd eventually caved to the wishes of his two best friends and the love of his life.
"Yeah, dude," he called, spotting the cat giving one last showboating backflip before landing softly on the rooftops beside Rena, smiling charmingly her way. Alya returned the natural flirt with the most unimpressed look possible. "Ease up there or I'll have to eat your share of the pizza as well!"
Adrien gasped dramatically. "The betrayal!" he breathed, clasping a gloved hand to his heart while Marinette looked on, bored. "You...you wouldn't do that to a poor stray alley cat, would you?" His ears and tail drooped dramatically and Nino couldn't hold his disapproving scowl at his best bro's heartbroken face.
"Nah, man," Nino caved, plopping down between Adrien and Alya and holding out a box of cheese pizza to the girls (which Alya greedily snatched). "You're right. I can't. Get your tail down here and share this discordance of a pie with me." He set the other boxes down, electing the one from the bottom, opening it and holding out the mushroom, onion, green pepper and ham concoction to the blond.
"Ah, man, who's idea was it to get all of those on this anyway?"
"You, bro. It was your idea to ruin my pepperoni with your disgusting green things."
"Oh...yeah..." Chat chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck. "I forgot."
Nino rolled his eyes. "Of course, you did, dude. Here. Take your poison and get it away from me. before I rethink our friendship and decide to take you out with your own medicine." With that, he thrust the box at the boy and eagerly reached for his own plain pepperoni, wolfing down the pieces in a flash while the girls watched the male's impromptu race to make themselves sick with identical looks of disgust.
Females. No taste for the exciting things in life.
"So, I take it the city was clear?" Ladybug interrupted, poking in between the boys. Chat eagerly slid over to make room for her, a hopeful grin plastered on his face. Nino silently groaned as he gulped down another slice and obediently scooted down toward Alya, once again unable to get past Adrien and Marinette's blindness, like how had they still not realized who each other were yet? It was so obvious.
Well, at least it was obvious to him now, though he admitted he may have had some kind of unfair advantage, intentional and accidental alike.
Chat Noir. Adrien Agreste.
Ladybug. Marinette Dupain-Cheng.
Rena Rouge. Alya Cesaire.
His three closest friends were the three greatest superheroes in Paris. Even now, that possibility still boggled his imagination. And him, he was a hero now too. That part was still surreal to him. Even after physically coming face-to-face with Hawkmoth and sending him cowering back to his evil lair with his tail between his legs (Nino still didn't know how he'd managed to pull that one off, honestly. He'd never heard of anyone rejecting an akuma of that magnitude...or any akuma for that matter), he struggled to comprehend that he was now a permanent member of the miraculous team. Not a temporary stand-in like he and Alya had once been. Now he played a just as important role in battling everyday akuma as Ladybug and Chat Noir. And it didn't matter that Hawkmoth had found out who he was, Marinette had assured him. The villain had never been bold enough to make a move to actually harm any of the citizens of Paris. This meant Chris and his mother would be safe, at least for now. Besides, if it ever became too dangerous, she could just pretend to retract his miraculous and give it to someone entirely different.
Nino was justifiably nervous about this possibility, but he had swallowed back the lump of uncertainty and had dutifully nodded his agreement while being bombarded with cheers and whooping from Chat Noir from his right and Rena's all-encompassing hug on his left.
And at that moment, it had felt like he had made the right choice.
Nothing was going to happen to his family. Mari-er...Ladybug wouldn't let anything happen. She had given him her word. And the word of the holder of the kwami of creation was more than enough reassurance for Nino.
"As clear as crystal!" Rena cut in, leaning across Nino to snatch another piece from the box Marinette had carried with her. "Just the same as it has been for the past week and a half! Relax, girl, Hawkmoth is gone! He got way too gutsy and it eventually caught up to him."
"Gone," Marinette echoed, "but not defeated. He could still pop back up at any moment, which is why we need to remain vigilant! We must remain on guard at all times! There's no telling where he might strike next!"
"The only thing I want to be on top of is the pedestal for eating the most pizza in one night," Nino chimed in, sensing the storm brewing overhead...both literally and metaphorically, he noticed, as the darkened sky gave a rumble of warning. "Which...looks like it might have to wait. I think we're about to get soaked, dudes."
"Aw, man!" Chat whined. "And I was getting so close to totally destroying you too!" He promptly stuffed two more pieces in, nearly earning a slap upside the head from Ladybug who began the action and then seemed to rethink her actions and merely settled for the hardest eye-roll she could muster.
Lightning ripped across the atmosphere, releasing a deluge of heavenly tears upon the four who all shrieked, grabbing their take-out and running for cover. Rena and Carapace took shelter under a sunning canopy while Chat opened the top of his staff to release the compact umbrella.
"Could you try using that freaky future-guessing ability to warn us a little earlier next time?" Adrien complained, pouting as though he expected to melt at any moment. "This is one cat who doesn't like to get wet!"
"Why's that?" Nino shot back, feeling bolder under the mask when he and Adrien knew they were counter-bantering but the others didn't know who the main hero was. "You made out of sugar or something?"
"Suger and spice and everything nice!" came the retort that definitely earned him a smack this time.
The black-spotted heroine then turned her attention to the remaining members of her team. "All right," she called across the roof. "Looks like our meeting is going to end a little early tonight. Let's all go home and we'll continue this tomorrow."
"Sounds good."
"All right. G'night, Ladydude."
"Very well. Until tomorrow, M'lady."
And then they dispersed and Marinette was left standing alone on the skylight, her eyes following her friends until they were nothing more than specks against a cloudy mist. The smallest of smiles brushed her lips before she, too, turned and began her short trek home.
The city fell silent, once more becoming a victim to the stillness of the night. The lights pooled into rivulets formed from the brief downpour and the last of the pedestrians cleared the streets to retreat to their own chambers and for once, all was quiet; the perfect cover for a lone figure to follow close behind the heroes undetected.
They stopped first at the Dupain-Cheng bakery, observing from a dark alley as the girl swung in through her balcony. From where they stood, the flash of red was stark against the night, but they did not linger, hurrying on and arriving at the blogger's just as her transformation fell. They received the same results with the model, watching the last light flicker out in the upper room of the manor.
Three down, one to go.
The fourth was not difficult to locate. Seventh apartment down, near the river, the third floor on the left-hand side with a wide fire escape, perfectly positioned for easy access. They arrived just as the green-clad teen dropped against the metal rungs and called off his transformation, the emerald swirling away to reveal the red-capped teen and his kwami who hurriedly melted into his holder's clothing to avoid detection.
They settled onto a nearby rooftop, aligned perfectly to see through the boy's window as the bedroom door was thrown open to reveal the hurricane of red that came barrelling into the silence. The teen scooped the bundle of brother into his arms and then went to the door, calling out to someone down the hall. Hasty movement followed and after a few minutes, everything became still once again and the light finally clicked off, leaving the block suspended in darkness.
The apparition hovered for a few minutes longer until they were absolutely sure nothing more would move from the small apartment. A rumble of thunder roared through the night sky and lightning lit up the block, revealing the man standing, watching, waiting...
...and then the illumination ended and blackness enveloped the city once more.
When the storm finally let up and the sun began to rise early the next morning, the only trace of the man's existence was a single glistening clawed necklace and the faintest whisper to the wind from somewhere halfway around the world.
Nino...I'm coming...
