Outside the Hôtel Grand Paris
At the same time that The Coon's message disappeared from the phones of the group back at the Collége Françoise DuPont, it ended on the screen of Ladybug's yo-yo. Shocked, she folded the screen back down, snapping it back into its familiar shape. "Great, now he's holding hostages!" She looked towards Mysterion, who was kneeling and looking down into the hotel entrance. "What's the best way to deal with a three-hundred-pound raccoon that's thirsty for revenge?" The situation had caused Ladybug to say something she never would've said before.
The cloaked hero rose from the ground. "Get to that akuma before he does anything catastrophic. He might not seem dangerous now, but the last time we fought, he almost threw the world into chaos."
"And that's not even with an akuma," Ladybug reminded him. "I can't imagine what else he can do now that he has one."
Mysterion entered deep thought until he could remember what exactly The Coon was capable of when he had the resources to pull it off. "Well, this one time-"
But before he could finish, Chat Noir jumped between the two, cutting him off from finishing the story. But it didn't seem like it would be too important anyways. There haven't been any oil spills in the Atlantic Ocean for it to even happen - that he was familiar with, at least. "Hello, m'lady! Looking as great as ever!" He flashed a grin towards Ladybug, who callously cringed back at the remark. "And to you as well, Mysterion! Purr-ple does suit you!" He put his arm on Mysterion's shoulder and leaned on him and pointed onto his chest, which startled him. "Has anyone ever told you that?" The cloaked hero had little time to either process a reaction or throw the feline hero off of him.
"Now's not the time for compliments, Chat Noir!" Ladybug walked over to the two. "There's hostages in the Hôtel Grand Paris and we have to rescue them before The Coon can hurt them, especially Chloé." Even though she tried to sound empathetic over the spoiled blonde, it was hard not to state that name and forget the horrible things that she had done. Perhaps she deserved what was coming to her? The mini menace snapped out of that thought. Nobody deserved any of this, not even the girl who physically and mentally intimidated her at any chance she could.
"We'll need to find a way to break in without him knowing," Chat Noir promptly opened the camera on his baton, zooming into the hotel lobby. The Coon had made himself home on the lobby desk, speaking on the phone used not too long ago to reach Kyle and Stan. To whom, nobody had a single clue. "And it looks like the hotel entrance is not what we're going to use!"
It then took the feline hero a minute to remember the anatomy of the luxury hotel where he had been when his only friend was Chloé Bourgeois. From what he remembered, there was definitely more than one way to get into the hotel, but where exactly? Then, his eyes lit up as soon as he rediscovered a memory from his childhood. The truck loading dock in the back of the restaurant! It was going to be their only bet if they wanted to get to the hostages as soon as possible. "I've got it!" He leaped off the building and towards the hotel. "Follow me, guys! This raccoon didn't rummage through the trash in the back."
Ladybug and Mysterion looked at each other in confusion but followed him anyways. He was the only one who seemed to have an actual plan.
When they reached the truck loading entrance, Ladybug looked in confusion. "So, from where exactly are we entering the hotel?" As something invisible to the common Parisian, the restaurant loading dock didn't look as striking as the rest of the building. Two loading docks on the white-marbled back of the restaurant were both closed and locked down until the delivery trucks made their annual visit to the restaurant to restock on goods, while there was a door to the left with a set of small stairs next to it, which looked rather boring compared to the magnificent-looking entrance to the hotel. Ladybug walked up to the door and attempted to open it, but it wouldn't budge. Even when she tried to wiggle it out, nothing happened. "It's locked. And we don't have the key."
"Do we have hairpins anywhere?" Mysterion began to look around the entrance.
"We're not going to need it!" Chat Noir raised his hand to the air, and dark, destructive energy began to form on his hand. "Cataclysm!" He touched the door, which turned from hard concrete into a pile of black dust under their feet. With the door now gone, an entrance to the restaurant kitchen was left in its wake. However, the team would soon find that they were not the only people there, because the restaurant staff had decided to shelter in the kitchen. Fortunately, The Coon had no idea this place existed and there was an accessible exit (emphasis on was, now that the door no longer existed) if the police carried out a hostage rescue. Staff members were crouching or sitting behind appliances and kitchen counters away from the front entrance, but one of the workers, a tanned-skinned worker with her hair tied back, walked up to the group. "Ladybug! Chat Noir! Mysterion!" The fact she referred to Mysterion as she referred to her hometown heroes shocked him. "Thank goodness it's you and not that villain up front!"
"Same with us, Mrs. Césaire!" Ladybug reassured her. "We had to get into the hotel without him finding out so we could locate the hostages upstairs."
"We know, we all saw that video on our phones..." It was obvious she was worried about something else on her mind. "I know she's not in that class, but I've been trying to call my daughter except the phone service line is down! I'm worried about what on Earth she could be doing right now."
"I wouldn't worry about it. I'm sure she's somewhere safe," Ladybug then directed Chat Noir and Mysterion to guide the other workers out and into the street, where they could hear the sounds of police sirens blasting from the street. Both complied and began guiding groups of people out of the door. "Everyone here needs to get out and go home as soon as possible, so The Coon doesn't get to you!"
When the four were the only ones remaining, Mrs. Césaire grabbed her phone from her pocket. "Thanks for the help! The first thing I'm going to do is call Alya and make sure she's safe." The moment Mysterion connected the dots between the chef and Kyle's girl crush, he covered his mouth with his hand and chuckled as he ran out. But before she left the kitchen, she turned back to the group of three. "Before I go, do any of you need something here in case either of you gets hungry?"
Chat Noir's ring beeped, and one of four paws began to fade in and out before disappearing from the screen. "Um, do you have Camembert by any chance?"
With stinky cheese in tow, Ladybug swung open the kitchen exit doors and got into the elevator, holding the door open for the rest of her team. When everyone was in, she clicked on the elevator button to reach the restaurant floor that connected to the lobby above them. As the doors shut, she looked to Chat Noir. "Wow, kitty! Good thinking! I never would have thought of that."
The feline hero then started to blush and look away from her, hoping she didn't see his face start to redden up. "Oh, uh, yeah. Me neither, honestly!"
Cutting off their conversation, Mysterion plugged his nose and looked at the plastic bag Chat was holding, containing the Camembert goodness for Plagg. "Out of everything here, you chose that shit? It reeks!" It didn't help that there wasn't any sort of vent or air conditioning in the elevator. It was worse than stale farts in the cargo hold of a 20-hour plane ride, a feat he didn't know was possible.
"Oh, this?" Chat lifted the bag, which brought the stench even closer to Mysterion, something he certainly didn't ask for. "That's not for me. That's... for someone else I know! They might be in the lobby right now." He needed to improve his lying skills. The elevator dinged and the doors opened, revealing the restaurant to the team. And like that, the three were off to rack up some animal abuse charges.
The Lobby of the Hôtel Grand Paris
The Coon, still sitting near the hotel lobby desk, began to play on his phone. The three didn't come as soon as he was expecting, which made it take longer to retrieve the Miraculouses for Hawkmoth. Speaking of Hawkmoth, who the fuck said it was going to be for him anyway? He was only using the old geezer to get them, anyway. Anybody would do anything to have the powers of creation and destruction at their disposal, and Cartman was no exception. With those powers, he could prove himself to be the absolute authority of South Park and do as he pleased. Especially tormenting Kyle forever.
Standing with his other classmates, however, Craig shot the fatass a glare behind his back. "Didn't you say you were going to free us if you got to Chloé? You have her, so why aren't you letting us leave?"
Upon hearing what Craig had to say, he paused his game, rolled his eyes and sighed, and looked over at him. "Craig, do you remember what I said in the video? I don't know if your dumbass picked it up but I referred to you guys as hostages."
"Hostages? The hell?" Craig shot back. "You said verbatim that you would let us all go if you got to her, and you did! So why the fuck are we still here?"
The Coon began to get irritated. "Can you, like, shut the fuck up, asshole? I'm using you guys to get to those three gaybods running around Paris. If you guys could just shut up and cooperate for one second, I'll let you guys go when I get those fucking Miraculouses!" He then looked back at his phone and resumed playing his game. "So, for now, your asses are stuck here!"
Craig sighed and crossed his arms, but before he could say anything back, he saw Chat Noir quietly moving towards him while Ladybug assisted another group of students. Startled on where the fuck they had come from, he looked back towards the feline hero with eyes wide open, who had his finger raised on his lip. "We're getting you out," he then pointed over to The Coon, who had gotten reinvested in his game, "but be quiet about it so it's not game over for you guys."
Craig then signaled for the rest of his friends to follow him, and they evacuated the lobby through one of the narrow downstairs hallways that usually led to customers' rooms. Following suit, Ladybug guided Wendy and the rest of her girlfriends in the opposite direction of Craig's group in case he chose to follow along. Trying to get to Stan as fast as possible, she was reaching for her phone to get a signal, but the spotted hero tapped her on the shoulder. "Do it when you get outside the hotel!" Ladybug whispered. "I know you need to talk to someone special, but now is not the best time to do it!"
Running back, Chat Noir helped pry Butters off of the hotel butler, who looked relieved to be able to breathe. "I'll take him from you, Butler Jean!" The butler sighed and smiled as he ran off. The blonde then grabbed onto Chat Noir's arm with more force than a tourniquet. "Oh, hamburgers! Kitty Cat! It's you-" His voice grew louder the more he spoke before Chat placed his finger on his mouth yet again. "Ssh!"
"Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry, kitty." For his entire career as Chat Noir, Butters had been the first person to call him Kitty other than Ladybug, and it was jarring to hear it come out the mouth of someone else. The two quickly made their way into one of the hallways. "Um, kitty, I don't know if you know him, but have you seen my friend Kenny anywhere? He's my best friend, and... I'm scared he might've gotten killed by that Coon fella."
"Don't worry, I'm sure he's still back in the lobby!" Chat reassured him, but he didn't know what exactly Butters meant when he asked about where Kenny was.
"Oh, no Kitty. He wasn't here with us! I was asking you because-" His eyes widened and he covered his mouth. "Oh wait, drat! I'm not supposed to say anything. Sorry about that, Kitty!" By the time Butters stopped himself from talking, they had already reached the exit. As he let him go and turned back, he was still confused about what he could've meant when he said that and stopped himself from finishing. Could there be something about his classmate that he didn't know? But now that he thought about it, Chat had the same question to ask himself: If Cartman was The Coon, where would the other three be?
Meanwhile, Ladybug had the displeasure of dealing with Chloé, who became a sobbing heap the moment they had gotten out of the building, and threw herself onto the mini menace. "Oh, you just don't understaaaaaand!" She choked her words between her tears. "He got all those nasty claws of his on the new jacket that my daddy had custom-tailored for me! Now it's all ruined, and I'm going to have to give it to Sabrina!" She wiped her eyes with her hand, careful not to smudge her makeup. Many of Teacher PC's students glared at her, especially Wendy and Bebe. The former whispered to the latter. "She should be grateful she can even get those new clothes!"
Bebe analyzed the crying mess. "Bright yellow does not suit blue eyeshadow. No offense."
Ladybug winced, and gently pushed Chloé off of her, giving her a forced grin. "You don't look bad! You still look... as great as ever!" It was hard to be nice to her, especially with all she had done to her. "Don't let what happened tear down your self-confidence!"
Immediately, Chloé hugged her yet again, much to her displeasure. "I knew I could rely on you! There's a reason you're my best friend!"
As the bug and cat duo wrapped up the hostage evacuation, Mysterion crept up towards The Coon, crouching so that the fatass couldn't spot him. Wherever the akuma was, it had to be on him. The Coon was too dumb to try to conceal it. If anything, he had it on him for bragging rights. So, when he saw him preoccupied with whatever was on his phone, he deduced that it couldn't be there, and slid a pencil off of the desk. When he heard The Coon pause his game, he moved back into a crouching position. "What the fuck? Who's there?" He looked around him until he spotted an empty lobby. "Where the fuck are my hostages!" He heard The Coon rise from his seat and walk towards the lobby in mad pursuit. Quickly, the cloaked hero sprung from his position and pounced on The Coon, throwing the two onto the floor and rolling to the hotel entrance.
"Agh, what the fuck! Stop punching me, dude!" The Coon hissed as Mysterion bombarded him with punches and slaps. "Get the fuck off me, you hick!" He wasn't listened to, as the cloaked hero positioned himself so that the fatass would be between his legs. "What did I fucking tell you, dude? Get off of me!" The Coon tried to scratch him off of him, but Mysterion responded by punching him in the head, shutting him up. "Ow! What the fuck?"
Mysterion then cupped his hand over The Coon's neck and shoved it down until he could hear the fatass starting to gasp for air. "Coon, where is it?" Mysterion demanded.
"What the fuck are you talking about, you asswipe?" He tried to scream out as loud as he could, but only gurgles could come out of his mouth. His breaths started to become short and erratic. He was in fear. But before Mysterion could ask what he was looking for, a luminescent purple butterfly pattern appeared in front of Cartman's mask. "What are you doing? Why haven't you hunted down Ladybug and Chat Noir as I asked you to do?" Hawkmoth demanded from the other side of the line.
"They're probably fucking somewhere nearby if Mysterion is here, you old fart!" The Coon yelled back into the air, which took Mysterion aback. He had no idea who the fuck he could be talking to. Perhaps it was the same person he was conversing with on the phone not too long ago? "And if you can see right now, I'm struggling to get this fucking asshole off of me right now!"
"I didn't ask for Mysterion, I asked for the Ladybug and Cat Miraculouses! I want them and I want them now! Or your powers will be gone, do you understand?" Hawkmoth was getting angrier and angrier with every wasted second. "Get him off of you, and get to what matters!"
"Whatever, I'll fucking get them!" The butterfly pattern disappeared from his face and he looked up to Mysterion, smirking. "I can't tell you where the akuma is, but I can tell you what I did to Marinette."
Mysterion looked back at him, eyebrows down in confusion. "What?"
"Oh, you don't know? She's being reported missing right now as we speak," he chuckled. "But I didn't do too much to her, I just roughed her up a few places here and there and threw her somewhere no one would find her when I was done with her!"
Mysterion was infuriated, more so than The Coon had ever seen him before. "Where is she?" He pressed his hand against his windpipe even more as he leaned away from the fatass. "Tell me, now!"
"Why the fuck would I tell you? I fucking hate you, douchebag!" He kept laughing as if he didn't have all of Mysterion's force pressing even deeper down onto his throat the more he spoke. "But I can tell you what she was doing when I found her! She was looking for her best friend who ditched her like I thought she would, in the school courtyard. And when she saw me coming for her, I can remember what she looked like!" He put his thumb and index finger on his chin in thought. "She was so terrified, and calling for Mysterion to save her! But he didn't come, because he was so busy jerking off in the bathroom like he always is! Right-"
But before he could finish, Mysterion slammed his fists into The Coon's face in pure rage, bathing his knuckles in his foe's blood, and even onto his face. Knowing that he had gotten into Mysterion's head and switched him from his rational to his monstrous side, The Coon scratched Mysterion in the chest, causing him to scream. He then bent his knees to his chest, and slammed them into Mysterion's chest with animalistic force, sending the cloaked hero back with so much force that he hit one of the marble pillars, slamming onto it so hard a crack formed. The Coon ran from where he had been laying and towards one of the open windows. "Now that you're down, I'm going for what fucking matters!" He jumped out and ran towards whatever he was looking for, but not before looking back and flipping him off. "Adios, asswipe!"
As The Coon excused himself, Ladybug and Chat Noir ran immediately from where the hostages had been and towards Mysterion as soon as they heard the loud thud. "Mysterion!" Ladybug covered her mouth in shock and bent next to him. "What did he do to you?" She wiped her hand on his chest and looked at her palm when she brought it to her, seeing it covered in blood. Ladybug and Chat Noir quickly looked at one another. This was clearly not the type of villain they had dealt with before. And never had been.
"How could he do this to someone?" Chat Noir demanded as he also bent down to be next to him, but the two were taken aback when Mysterion started to rise, clutching his chest where he had been scratched.
"I... I couldn't do it."
"What do you mean? You didn't know what would happen." Ladybug attempted to reassure him.
The duo saw Mysterion slowly rise from the ground until he could stand up, using the pillar to support himself. "I... I couldn't protect her."
