It was Alya who taught her about how to walk. Not in the way babies had to learn, but in the way that timid adults did.
"Shoulders back, chin up, be confident," Alya had ordered.
Alya could have walked up to the king himself and shook his hand without anyone asking a question. Her stride was so confident, her face so sure, it always seemed impossible to think that she didn't belong in whatever place she had decided to occupy.
Marinette remembered her lessons carefully as she walked away from SHIELD. She imagined that she was a completely normal woman, born in the this century. She had seen, on the youtube, people dressed up in costumes before. She just had to act like one of those people who walked around in costumes of famous people.
She had a handful of cash, her "allowance" from SHIELD, and a plastic card that could apparently buy things, though she still wasn't clear on how or why.
She stopped at the first kiosk she could find and bought a hat and T-shirt, both which said she loved NY. It was easy enough to play a tourist, and she needed to get out of her suit quick if she didn't want to get caught. A confident walk could only carry her so far.
She ducked down an alley and changed as quick as she could, then put her hair into a ponytail to add more to the disguise. People, she had found, generally only looked for what they expected, so ditching her usual victory rolls or twintails should at least give her a slight lead. Especially combined with her tourist clothes.
Once suitably disguised, she rolled her shoulders and headed out. The first thing she needed was to contact those she trusted, and that meant heading to the bakery. Then she would find Alya, and she would bring her back no matter what it took.
Alya was her best friend, and she would do anything to have her back.
This had to be the worst day of Adrien's life. First, his father had died at the hands of a crazed maniac. Then he discovered, while getting his father's secretary to safety, that the organisation his father had helped found and he had spent the last few years working for both in and out of his suit was actually a cover for the Akumas who were determined to finish what Hawkmoth had started.
And also Ladybug had gone missing.
Maybe this was all just a dream and he was still in Afghanistan, any minute now Plagg was going to wake him up and complain about how his fever was getting worse and how badly he wanted some cheese. He would get up and carry the car battery attached to him, and they would play backgammon until what little medicine Plagg could give him kicked in and he fell asleep once more.
Except, of course, it wasn't a dream. Everything bad had happened, and like Afghanistan, he couldn't let it all stop him from continuing on. Agreste men don't rust, as his father had told him so often. (As his father would never say again).
So that meant he needed to carry on and sort his priorities.
First of all, ensuring no civilians were hurt. Once he finished that, he found himself unsure of where to go next, He had three objectives, Hack into SHIELD's files to figure out how deeply the Akumas had infiltrated, get revenge for his father, and find ladybug.
He knew that logically, he should check the influence of the Akumas, they were dangerous, smart, and he had no idea what their plan was or why they would choose today to reveal themselves. There had to be something big, something Chat Noir would need to be on the lookout for.
If he was going to disregard that, then finding Ladybug should have been his next move. He could trust her to know what to do next, and if nothing else he needed to make sure she was safe and not captured by Akumas. Ladybug was important to him, and he didn't know what he would do if he discovered she had been seriously injured because he had put his personal feelings ahead of what needed to be done.
Yet, knowing all this, Chat still made his decision.
"PLAGG, locate the Winter Soldier." He said as he put on his suit, "Do whatever needs to be done."
"What needs to be done could be highly illegal." PLAGG said, and even with his mechanical voice, Adrien could tell PLAGG disapproved. He cursed whatever part of his mind decided to make give his AI the ability to judge him.
"Like I said," Adrien said, and flew upwards, "Whatever needs to be done."
"As you wish sir."
It wasn't the first time Adrien had put his personal feelings over everything else. He tried to comfort himself with the thought that Ladybug was likely safe, he knew she was capable and would be able to fight her way out of any situation. If she was captured, and hadn't escaped by the time he got his revenge, then he would be sure to break out. And if she was free, then he was sure she was after the Winter Soldier too.
He had confidence in Ladybug's abilities after all, so if she asked him why he hadn't sought her out first, then he would just tell her that he simply been anticipating what she would want done. The Winter Soldier had stolen the Miraculous, that would need to be recovered before any serious damage occurred.
"Sir, I've located the Soldier." PLAGG announced.
"Where?" He demanded, and had to resist the urge to pull up his weapons in preparation.
"Sir, I feel I must warn you-"
"PLAGG," He interrupted, "Tell me where she is."
"Transmitting coordinates now, sir."
He took off flying immediately, the only thought in his head was that he was, for the first time in years, going to do what his father would want him to. Adrien had never thought of violence as a solution to his problems until that moment, and now that was all he could think about. He was going to kill the Winter Soldier once he found her.
A life for a life.
AN: Sorry it took awhile, life is crazy. IDK if I've mentioned it before, but this is a first draft of this fic, basically if I don't post it I'll never finish it. Once it's done I'll be rewriting it.