"I do have to admit…" Sagira spoke, her voice echoing through Osiris's mind. "Paris in the year 2019…is quite a spectacle. I never thought that we'd see anything like this until now. The whole city is so ecologically conscious and vibrant. Plus, the Light is still with us."

"Indeed." Osiris replied, taking a sip from the glass that sat before him. Osiris had stopped at a restaurant, and after Sagira quickly transformed some spare Glimmer into the proper amount of Euros, he sat down to enjoy a hearty meal and some excellent wine. He savored the taste of the merlot for a few moments, before settling back into his chair.

"We still have much to do, however. The Escalation Mind is still on the loose, and every moment that passes is one that brings us closer to devastation." He mused. "Let us not loose track of our purpose here, Sagira."

"You think I don't know that?" his Ghost jokingly replied. "But in all seriousness, I've been scanning every networked device that we've passed, along with the public and emergency channels across all platforms. Nothing's appeared yet that would indicate any Vex presence in the city."

"Keep at it." He responded. "Have you managed to gather anything else of note?"

"Well, apparently there's two teenage superheroes that are frequently cited in the news, called Ladybug and Chat Noir." Sagira replied. "For years now, there's been a phenomenon of ordinary people of all kinds being transformed into supervillains, and those two teenage heroes always manage to save the day and return these…"Akumatized" villains back to their normal selves. Not sure what that word means, though."

"Is there any idea who the source of these "supervillains" could be?" Osiris asked

"I'm consistently seeing a set of names come up as to that question. First there was Hawk Moth, then Shadow Moth, and then Monarch." Sagira responded. "However, there are also records of other heroes working beside Ladybug and Chat Noir, each themed with an animal aesthetic. There's been a turtle and a fox, among many others that have been recorded."

"Hmm." Osiris murmured. "Keep looking into that as best you can. For now, let's get moving."

As Osiris stood up, the employee at the counter bid them farewell in French, to which Osiris responded with a nod. Once they had returned to the sidewalk, Osiris gave a quiet "Hmph" of thought.

"Is something wrong?" Sagira asked.

"Shh…" Osiris hushed his Ghost, as he ducked into a nearby alleyway. A young woman with bunched up brown hair and green eyes in her teens hurriedly walked past them, murmuring under her breath. Then, Osiris saw something small and fast dart towards her in the corner of his eye. His hand lunged forward and snagged the object, turning it over with a curiosity-piqued gaze.

"It's some kind of Vex surveillance drone!" Sagira said in astonishment as she quickly appeared and scanned the machine, which was secured in Osiris's grasp. "According to this data, it's been tracking that teenager for quite some time on the orders of our old friend, the Escalation Mind."

"Why would the Vex be spying on her like that?" Osiris was feeling quite confused. "Unless the Vex had good reasoning to do so…"

Then, he put the pieces together in only a few moments.

"When did this drone start tracking her, and from where?" Osiris asked his Ghost.

"It started tracking her late last night, and the signal it's broadcasting originated from a section of the Paris Catacombs." Sagira replied. "You think that girl is up to something down there that attracted the Collective's attention?"

"I'm sure of it, and something tells me that this drone is only one piece of this puzzle. Guide me there, and let's take a closer look." Osiris replied, and Sagira transported the drone to storage, and it vanished into blue particles. As he took off into the back alleyways of Paris, Lila Rossi turned back, the persistent feeling like she was being watched having dissipated all of a sudden.

"What is going on with me?" She spoke under her breath, leaning against a shop's windowsill. "First was the creepy white machine breaking into my hideout, and then I feel for an entire evening and most of the day that I'm being watched, but not anymore."

She sighed and stood up, looking towards a police car that was parked nearby, with the officer it belonged to speaking to a citizen nearby. She was tempted in that moment to walk over and tell the officer what she had seen, but again, her nerves got the better of her and she resumed walking towards her destination.


It didn't take long for Osiris and Sagira to break into the catacombs and find the source of the Vex drone's origin signal. A small hideout, equipped with a large server hub and a powerful-looking computer and monitors that were currently tuned into the city's traffic camera network.

"Whoever set this up had some serious technical knowledge for this time." Sagira mused, as she scanned the servers. "Several asymmetrical encryption modules and an algorithm-generated password for the whole rig. Which certainly is impressive, but not good enough for me. I've got admin control and…done."

"What have you found?" Osiris asked, as he browsed through the various traffic camera feeds.

"The Escalation Mind was here, and it pulled a lot of data off this server rig." Sagira replied. "Nearly all of it has to do with those two Superheroes I mentioned earlier, Ladybug and Chat Noir. Whoever set this whole hideaway up had a lot of info on them both."

"Pull whatever you can." Osiris replied, moving to the doorway. "And do it fast, I think our welcome has long passed us by."

"Yeah, I'm getting a ping on my motion sensors as well. Hold on…alright, I've got what we need. Let's get out of here." Sagira nodded, and vanished into white particles. As Osiris hightailed it out of the hideout and towards a maintenance hallway, Lila entered the room barely a minute later.

She took a cursory glance around, and was relieved to see that nothing appeared out of the ordinary. As she left the room and locked the door behind her, she quickly made her way back to the streets as the sun began to lower in the sky, signaling night was on its way.


"You do know that we can't stay on the streets all night, right?" Sagira said in a concerned manner. "We should find proper lodgings as soon as we can."

Osiris stopped walking and sighed, knowing, but not wanting to admit, that his Ghost was right. He was going to speak, but the sound of sirens in the distance stopped him.

"Sagira, what's going on?" He said, picking up the pace once more.

"The police are responding to a disturbance at the Eiffel Tower." Sagira replied, as she tuned into the police network. "The staff there reported hearing odd noises and what seemed to be explosions, but…oh, no, that's not good!"

"What is it?" Osiris asked, worried at hearing his partner's distressed voice.

"Vex energy signatures are spiking! They're staging an incursion at the Tower, and from what I can tell from here, they're trying to build a Conflux as we speak. We need to move!"

"Get my Sparrow!" Osiris barked, and he soon mounted his Sparrow. He hadn't used it in a while, but he soon familiarized himself with the controls and blasted off towards the Eiffel Tower.

At the same time, two figures darted across the rooftops, with a shared destination in mind. Ladybug and Chat Noir had heard the sirens as well, and after changing into their super-powered forms with the help of their Kwamis, darted off to assist the police.

Except they didn't know the tiniest bit of what they were getting into…