Chapter 10
Yi and Jin stood together on the sidewalk in front of a residential house, where the girl's apartment would be located.
"Have you got your keys?" Questioned Jin observing his girlfriend seek in her pants for the keys to her family's apartment and found them.
"It's here," Responded Yi showing her boyfriend the key making him smile. "It would be bad if I had lost it during the transformation or any other way," Mentioned the raven-haired girl earning a nod from the boy.
"Oh if I had lost it, my parents would have killed me," Stated Jin earning a smile from the short girl.
"I know, what you mean," Commented Yi, then heard the door of the entrance squeak and both looked at a person holding the door up, which was the mother of Yi, who was carrying a carton with milk packs. "Oh hey Mom," Greeted Yi holding the hand against the door to facilitate her mother to hold the box.
"Good evening. Shall I carry the box up for you?" Offered Jin making Yi's mother smile and shake her hand at the boy.
"No thank you, Jin. It's fine," Responded the woman. "Thanks for walking Yi back home. Did you have a great time together?"
"Yeah, we did," Responded Yi looking at Jin. "We walked through the park together and talked about our day. It was short, but amusing for both of us," Explained the daughter winking at the boyfriend, which nodded as the girl hid their outgo as superheroes.
"You know, the university is pretty challenging and I thought I could use someone to rant about," Added Jin making the woman smile and lean back at the door.
"You're very intelligent, Jin. You will make it through. Just keep your head up," Said the woman earning a nod from Jin, afterward Yi stepped out to give Jin a kiss on his cheek.
"Talk to you tomorrow," Yi said, then watched the two women enter and he waved back at them.
"Good night!" Wished Jin and turned around to make his way back home along the sidewalk, afterward Plagg glimpsed out of the pocket of his dress shirt.
"No cheese?" Questioned Plagg making Jin shake his head amused.
"You already had one before. You gotta wait until we're back home," Mentioned the Chinese-descendant boy making the kwami nod. "I don't know if you're into it. I had seen on store cheese with walnuts. Have you thought about trying it out?"
"A cheese made of nuts or a cheese with nuts?" Questioned Plagg making Jin raise his eyebrows confused.
"With nuts…." Responded Jin wondering, if he had phrased his sentence correctly. "It was basically a soft cheese with nuts around the corner. Seemed pretty delicious to my eyes,"
"Why not. I could give it a try someday," Mentioned the kwami, then Jin patted the cat with his index finger and looked forward to see a few cars moving along the road as regularly.
Jin was getting closer to a crossroad, then heard two voices yell and the boy looked at the bridge from where he heard the voices, then encountered a duo of teens standing on top of an E-Scooter racing away in panic. Jin got curious, then stopped by the edge of the crossroad to look, if something had happened.
"There's an akuma! Run!" Yelled the teen standing behind the friend on the scooter and Jin observed the young men move straight on along the crossroad. Jin looked back to see a car drive backward fast on the right side of the road and Jin took his phone out to search in his social media app for the group, where he and the alter egos of the superheroes were in it. Jin pressed the recording option to record a message.
"Guys, I think there's an akuma alert. Two men escaped from the Saint Louis Island warning about it. I'm in the near, I will check it out," Jin spoke, then released his finger from the button icon on his screen and watched it being delivered. Jin looked around the area, then noticed the underpass of the metro station and made his way towards it, then disappeared into it, yelling out his transformation phrase. Jin reappeared as the cat miraculous holder Onyx and launched himself out of the tunnel with the help of his staff to land on the road heading to the bridge, which lead to Saint Louis.
Luka sat on the outside of the boat with his guitar on the lap plucking on its strings for inspiration, while looking at the clear skyline above. From the interior of the ship, the kwami Wayzz came out carrying a smartphone in his hands and stopped in front of his new wielder.
"Luka, there's a notification on the smartphone from my heroes," Mentioned Wayzz making Luka stop and pick up the smartphone to open the message seeing it's a voice message.
"Thank you, Wayzz," Responded Luka leaning his smartphone close to his ear to listen to the message. Wayzz got beside Luka's head to see, if he could hear anything and got surprised to hear Jin's call. "Wayzz, are you ready?" Asked Luka watching the kwami raise up happily, waiting for orders from his new holder.
"Our first akuma together. I'm ready to give you the assistance you need," Answered Wayzz making Luka beam.
"Wayzz, shell on!" Luka shouted activating his miraculous to transform into Camouflage, afterward he jumped above the ship's wall to land on the sidewalk above the river and ran along the path heading to the danger zone.
After a while, he reached the stairs, which led up to a bridge and he went across it to head to Saint Louis island, where the SOS had come from. Camouflage spotted at a restaurant several people sitting on the outside for dinner talking very loudly making it hard to understand, what everyone's topic was. Camouflage observed the location to see, that everything seemed to be alright at the moment. Camouflage began to trott on the road to move along the area, then placed one hand on the left side to cover his ear to prevent the crowd's chatting cross his mind. Camouflage slowed down as he felt to hear a different noise and took his hand off, trying to sort the number of noises in his head. Suddenly from behind Camouflage, Super Snake appeared riding on top of a wooden board with help of his lyre and nudged the friend down on the ground. Super Snake stopped, then jumped on the ground to look at the superhero with flinched teeth.
"Sorry! I did have this differently in mind," Apologized Super Snake approach his friend, which got up by himself.
"Were you planning, that I would jump on it spontaneously?" Questioned the raven-haired boy passing his hand behind his head.
"No, that you would fall down on your back over the board, then look at me like…...woah, that was awesome…,I guess, it looked better in my head," Commented Super Snake, then Camouflage stepped on Super Snake's board, then observed him play the solo he learned and moved further with the floating board across the streets.
"Have you spotted anything yet?" Questioned Super Snake, then widened his eyes along with his friend as they spotted by an ice cream restaurant a couple of people standing in front of the place in panic and a light-blue-skinned woman in a purple dress stand there holding on her hand a smartphone with the symbol of an emoji wearing earphones and waves moving around the ear parts. The chest of the woman contained the same symbol, just slightly altered by having its facial expression replaced by a smirk instead. The woman's eyes were slightly covered by a drawn bolt, strongly orange-red tuned notable from afar to the heroes.
The villain pressed her finger on the smartphone activating the flash of the smartphone to take a picture of the citizens, then watched them all begin to talk loud. The villain chuckled, then moved along the road missing the appearance of the superheroes.
"Oh she makes people talk louder," Commented Camouflage watching on the road a motorcycle pass by honking at the akuma villain, which raised up her smartphone to picture the vehicle and its driver as well. Upon the issue, the driver began to rev up with his vehicle, making its exhaust pop noises similar to a little explosion.
"She just causes things to get noisy!" Complained Super Snake, then both followed the woman, and Camouflage took from behind his back his shield to prepare himself to use it. By the next corner, Onyx appeared and spotted her looking at him.
"Hey! There you are," Spoke the cat-themed superhero watching the villain aim her smartphone at him, making the cat use his staff to throw himself in the air up at the roof, encountering Ladybug, who had just appeared from above the roof and looked down at the ground.
"Hey, hey," Greeted Ladyug waving at the woman, then jumped down to land on the right side, while on the other side, Onyx dropped down with his staff, which he retracted back to use it as a weapon. The villain looked behind at Super Snake and Camouflage, who had both split up to mirror their partners. The supervillain smirked taking out her smartphone to use it on Ladybug and Onyx immediately jumped in front of her watching the camera flash both heroes. Onyx landed on the side, then looked up at the villain and had eye contact with the bug-themed superheroine.
"Hey Onyx! What are you doing on the floor? You should be here fighting with us all," Ladybug said loud, then covered her mouth.
"I didn't want her to hit you with the camera flash. She would make you talk loud, just like that!" Onyx spoke loud, then covered his mouth as well making Super Snake and Camouflage look at each other confused.
"Who's next?" Questioned the supervillain looking back at the childhood friends, then heard Onyx give out a loud comment.
"Can I see the picture, you took of me? I want to make sure, I don't look ridiculous….."Spoke Onyx, then covered his mouth again. "I don't even want to talk!" Complained Onyx and Camouflage threw his shield against the supervillain, which dodge it and raced towards the two superheroes and took her smartphone out, making Super Snake gasp, afterward used his lyre to float with the board to crash against the turtle-themed superhero pushing him away accidentally against the wall, letting the super villain escape heading towards the Pont de Marie.
"Okay, that was a little hard," Commented Super Snake slightly dazed from the crash, then looked at Onyx, who looked at the two friends on the ground.
"You two are a really big cat-astrphy!" Commented Onyx, then covered his mouth again. "I swear, this isn't me! I'm not even thinking…...I'm thinking, but not like that,"
"This issue really is bugging us all….Ugh, why am I saying that against my will?" Questioned Ladybug, then pointed at the direction of the supervillain.
"You know the villain doesn't seem that hard to defeat," Mentioned Camouflage. "All we have to do is to destroy the smartphone. I might have an idea,"
"What is is?" Questioned Super Snake watching Camouflage pick up his shield.
"Ladybug, what does your lucky charm have to offer?" Questioned the boyfriend watching Ladybug use her yo-yo to activate her power.
"Lucky charm!" Shouted the blue-haired superheroine watching above her head a ladybug-themed dog train leash. "Uhm, what exactly is this?" Questioned Ladybug pulling the metal tong out of the plastic case to see it was a leash, she could pull out to a certain length.
"Isn't that one of those dog leashes people with bigger dogs have?" Questioned Super Snake watching Ladybug approach Onyx with it, then look around his neck earning a glare from the Chinese-descendant boy.
"Don't you dare," Warned Onyx with a deadpan face.
"Just kidding," Ladybug spoke, then along with Onyx both widened their eyes as they had an idea. "I know it!"
"I have an idea!" Onyx said among Ladybug's phrase and both looked at each other, then Onyx pulled the leash out of the object.
"You're thinking about wrapping the villain with that leash around too, right?" Questioned Onyx watching Ladybug shake her head.
"Uh no. But I know you will hate the idea," Commented Ladybug making Onyx pout.
"Really, do I have to wear that as a dog?" Questioned Onyx making Super Snake and Camouflage cackle. Ladybug giggled as well, then looked at Luka and Nathaniel's alter ego and down to her leash.
"Alright boys. I think I have now found an easy way to defeat the villain immediately," Announced Ladybug with a big smile, facing her school friends. "Onyx…..sorry, you got no choice," Commented Ladybug making Onyx roll his eyes, then allowed the heroine to adjust the leash by Onyx's bell. "Guys go around the area, we meet on the other side, we're going to catch her,"
"Good, Super Snake, let's take a ride," Stated Camouflage watching the snake-themed superhero begin to play the lyre to use its magic to make the board lift up in the air, then the tall superhero leaped on top of the board and both boys flew up at the roof, then Ladybug ran forward along with her friend side by side.
After a while, the supervillain had crossed the bridge to leave the island, entering into another arrondissement located near a hotel with a large garden in front of it. By the entrance stood two securities, which spotted the villain, which had to their eyes the obvious looks of an akuma villain. The guards closed the gate immediately and got back to the building to safety. The villain passed by the door ignoring it, continuing her path to the next crossroad and from the right side a bus turned in her direction, then stopped as the vehicle driver recognized the villain come to their direction. The bus tried to move backward, then stopped as behind him a car stopped and honked warning the vehicle about its behavior. The supervillain began to laugh about their behavior and ran towards them, thereafter stopped as the car moved in a foreign direction through the left lane of the road, followed by the bus going above the sidewalk and falling back onto the road again, leaving the crossroad as well.
"Meow!" Yelled Onyx catching the attention of the supervillain, which looked back to see Onyx running in her direction with his staff in his hands, making the villain smirk and take out her smartphone to aim at the superhero. Ladybug moved off Onyx's back to extend the leash going to the near of the sidewalk, making the villain widen her eyes and ran away from them toward the crossroad. From above appeared Super Snake with Camouflage, who jumped off the board landing on the ground, and stretched up in the air his shield.
"Shell-ter!" Yelled the reptile-themed superhero activating his protection shield, which he used to lock all the heroes, including the supervillain in there. Camouflage held his shield up in the air to keep the force field active and Super Snake stood in front of the friend to offer protection, making the villain gasp, who looked around the area and looked back at the experienced superheroes still coming with the dog leash in their direction and Ladybug threw the yo-yo at the villain's direction, which jumped in the air to dodge the yo-yo, but was hit from behind on the legs by Super Snake's lyre and Onyx grabbed the leash on the side to push it away from Ladybug's hands to wrap it around the villain's legs causing her to fall down dropping her smartphone.
"Destroy it!" Warned Ladybug watching Onyx jump down on his belly activating his cataclysm to pulverize the object to release the akuma. Camouflage deactivated his special power to observe the akuma fly up in the air, after that Ladybug used her yo-yo to capture the akuma and purify it.
Onyx looked back at Super Snake and Camouflage, which fist bumped each other making the cat-themed superhero smile and the trio began to hear a noise of electricity and looked around to see from the corner of a light bulb of the light pole a lighting get shot out getting beside Onyx's side and materialize itself into the superheroine Hydra.
"Good evenin…...you're all done….." Hydra spoke upon seeing Ladybug use the miraculous healing power.
"Was easy, actually," Commented Onyx. "Her powers weren't really something, that would cause us immense difficulty," Hydra nodded looking down at the villain, that lied on her knees and she vanished behind purple smoke, which revealed the identity of the supervillain.
The villain was turned back into Mrs. Rossi, who gasped in shock as she lied on her knees in front of the superheroes, which eyed her quite surprised.
"You're…your face seems familiar to me," Commented Onyx, then looked at the other superheroes and noticed, that Super Snake was gazing at the woman shocked as he did in fact recognize her.
"She's…..one of the ambassadors from the Italian embassy here. She is the mother of this one girl, that got akumatized once," Super Snake said trying to sound discrete as possible to the woman.
"I know, who you mean," Confessed Ladybug. "How is she doing? Did something happen between you?"
"Actually not. I don't remember what happened. I was going to my car and that's all I can recall. I didn't see anyone appear anywhere," Explained the woman making the heroes nod.
"Do you need help to look for your car?" Questioned Onyx watching the woman shake her head.
"It's alright. I think it is better for me to get home. I can go look for it tomorrow or ask the embassy to get it towed back," Responded the woman making the heroes nod, afterward Super Snake stepped forward to the woman to get her attention.
"Seniora, if you'd like, I can walk you home. If you want to have someone around," The redhead asked making Camouflage nod and look at Ladybug, which observed what the woman's answer would be.
"You don't have to do that. I'm good," Responded the ambassador, then Ladybug signaled Super Snake to accompany her.
"I don't want to take any risks, Mrs. Rossi. I would feel safer if anyone of my team could follow you home. If you don't want to talk, Super Snake is more of a listener and quiet one of the team," Pointed Ladybug out observing his friend cross his arms.
"But I can talk, when needed, don't worry about it," Mentioned the redhead making the woman nod. Ladybug chuckled, then remembered something and opened her yo-yo to put her fingers inside the pocket dimension taking out a small charm with a chain around it, colored in blue with the yellow emoji, Mrs. Rossi had as Noisy on her chest. "Mrs. Rossi, please accept this charm from me and keep it with yours, always. This will protect you from future akumatizations. As long as Hawk Moth is around, this will be your lucky charm," Ladybug explained making the woman tilt her head and watch the heroine put it around the woman's wrist.
"UH…...thank you," Said the woman with a little smile. Ladybug looked at Super Snake, which nodded and looked along with the red-dressed superheroine at the Italian woman.
"Where do you live? Super will bring you there,"
"Okay, I live at the Rue du Gotlieb 15," Mentioned the Italian woman making Super Snake nod, which walked beside the woman along the sidewalk of the central park. Mrs. Rossi spotted the superheroes splitt up to return home, afterward she observed from the trees the sentimonster Optigami appear to follow Super Snake from behind and stuck itself inside his lyre that was attached on the back.
"You're not one of those heroes that got the face shown in front of Hawk Moth, right? You seem different from the rest,"
"Ladybug needed new partners and I got to be one of them. It's weird, I didn't even think about that she would one day pick someone like me,"
"What do you mean? Weren't you good at something?"
"Everyone is so confident about everything they do. I'm a bit of the opposite. I did appreciate the chance I received but there were times I felt like the team was better off without me,"
"This must have been just a phase. I don't think your team wouldn't want to leave you behind,"
"No, they won't," Responded Super Snake moving further, then Mrs. Rossi took out her smartphone to text a number, which had the name A. Rossi on top and she tapped down a message to that contact.
"Optigami landed on Super Snake's back. Soon or later we will see, who he is," Mrs. Rossi typed down, then sent away a message to the number. Afterward, a response was sent back with a thumb up, making the woman sigh relief.
"Is everything okay?" Asked the superhero earning a fake smile from the woman.
"Everything is fine. I had received a text from my daughter and I wondered, if she would believe me if I said I met one of the superheroes," The ambassador made up earning a nod from the superhero.
"If you want, we can take a photo together," Offered the superhero looking at the woman, which looked at the smartphone and nodded.
"I think she would like to see that," Mentioned the adult, then Super Snake got beside her to pose for a photo and the woman wrapped one arm around the superhero looking at the phone camera as well.
"Smile!" Said the woman followed by the superhero taking a snapshot together and the woman opened the picture of them to check it out. "I like it and you?"
"I'm good. If you already like it, it's what matters the most to me," Stated the redhead making the woman smile and caress the superhero on his shoulder.
"Cute. You remind me of a son of one of my colleagues," Admitted the woman making Super Snake shrug his shoulders, afterward the duo stopped by an alley that led to a few entrances of a townhouse. "I live at the first door. Thank you for walking me here. I appreciate you and your team helping out all the people here in Paris with…..all, that Hawk Moth does,"
"Don't mention it. One day we will put him behind the grids. We just need to wait for his next, big mistake and with a bit of luck. We catch him!" Said Super Snake proud making the woman nod, then wave at the superhero."Ciao,"
"Ciao seniora…R. Rossi," Super Snake said unsure making the woman chuckle and enter the building while closing the door behind her. She opened again the same contact from before and placed the snapshot with the superhero on the chat box and added a description to it. "During the walk, Optigami has hidden behind his lyre. He followed me home in order of protection and he seems to be around my daughter's age. In the next hour, if we're lucky, we get to see, who's behind his mask," Mrs. Rossi finished and pressed on enter to send the message away.