Chapter 14
So, I didn't watch the last episode, but I know Lila got to see the portal of the Spider society and after 6 years I see Nathaniel shirtless. Weird how the two only things I guessed right about this show was Lila becoming Hawk Moth and Nathaniel in a bath dress code.
Nathaniel and his mother stood by the meeting point near the embassy of Italy waiting for the person, they were supposed to meet. The two were dressed a little differently than usual. More sympathetic towards the hosts. Nathaniel observed himself in a white dress shirt and dark-blue pants, that seemed quite new.
"Did you put any fragrance on your shirt?" Questioned Miss Kurtzberg watching Nathaniel shake his head. "Come, that would have been ideal. The one from Silverstar mostly. You loved that one, when I got you from Hanukkah,"
"I know. I just felt we were doing too much for only a few hours," Responded the redhead making the mother shake her head and place her hand on his shoulder.
"You'll do just fine. Just be that boy, you are," Said Miss Kurtzberg making her son nod and they watched from around the building an SUV move up slowly and stop in front of them. The driver stepped out revealing herself as Mrs. Rossi, which held her hand out to the adult.
"You're the mother, Mrs. Kurtzberg, right?" Questioned the brunette woman making the younger woman nod.
"Yes," Responded the woman, then the Italian looked at Nathaniel, which stretched up his hand to greet the woman.
"I'm one of Lila's closest friends Nathaniel….the one you invited, of course," Explained the redhead making the adult nod.
"I'm glad, that my daughter has a friend like you here. I didn't hear a lot, but I have acknowledged, that you do treat her right," Stated the woman making Nathaniel nod a little sheepishly at the woman's sympathy. "You do not look a lot like your mother I have noticed,"
"My dad sort of…..went to get milk, when I was still a baby," Mentioned Nathaniel followed by getting elbowed by his mother.
"This all happened years ago. He was….a more reserved guy. He would talk to you about problems if you would know him very well. I did know him well, I could sense when he felt down and would ask him about it, but in relation to us having Nathaniel….things just changed. The one good thing about this was that despite only being the two of us, Nathaniel did grow up well without his actual father. That role he could only see in his grandfather, who along with my mom was a great help," Explained the raven-haired woman making the ambassador nod.
"If you are okay with it, we can continue the talk inside the car. It's a little far for our destination and the earlier we go, the better," Stated the woman opening the door for the duo to enter the backseat making Nathaniel gasp at the modern interior.
"This makes our own car look like garbage," Commented Nathaniel making his mother shake his head.
"Ours may be old, but it survived a lot of heavy years, hail, your run over the road….."
"Ha Ha Ha," Nathaniel said sarcastically, then looked behind at the trunk to notice it consisted of two more seats, which were closed leaving more space in the trunk. "You can also make seven seats here?"
"We barely need those seats, but the volume of the trunk is quite useful," Admitted the mother entering into the front of the vehicle and watched the Kurtzbergs put the seat belt on. Mrs. Rossi took out her smartphone to send a thumb up to a foreign number she had saved under A. Rossi and placed it back. She swallowed hard a little tensed about having given out the command and moved the car out of the road to make her way out.
"I'm curious to get to know you two. You're a single mother, right?" Questioned Mrs. Rossi making the raven-haired woman nod. "How were you able to sustain yourself and your son only? Did you have any special help?"
"My parents would have taken care of Nathaniel, while I was going to school. I had made a break, when I was pregnant with him and got back to work later at around the same time his father left,"
"What kind of job did you take? It's quite rare to my knowledge to see a single parent put their child in the Françoise Dupont,"
"I work as an air traffic controller. I mainly do late and nightshifts," Responded Nathaniel's mom. "This is how I got a better income,"
"That doesn't sound like a basic job. You have to guide all the incoming airplanes around the airport, advise them, when they can land, take off, where they can go and where not,"
"Yes. It's quite a commitment, that not everyone can work with. Nathaniel knows well, that there are days I look burned out," Commented Miss Kurtzberg looking aside at her son.
"I don't complain. I know that it is very hard. She had described it once and I have been there on careers day. I don't know how she can handle all that,"
"Sometimes it's good to see, that people are capable of handling such hard tasks. There are many jobs out there, that people don't know, that are quite a challenge," Mentioned .
"When you're on the formation and get to know it has an elimination process you will really see, you're in for something that is not for everyone,"
"An elimination process? How does it go?"
"You have to go through several, realistic simulators and show, how you can work with your mind and logic. You would pass, if you had under 10 errors, then the next procedure, it would be 7 mistakes eventually. By the end of the day, only ten out of 1000 did pass. The rest would try next year again or change into something else. Some would see, that it's really not meant for them and left,"
"That really is a crazy number," Admitted Mrs. Rossi looking away from the road shortly at the side mirror to see, if she would spot Hawk Moth anywhere in one of the alleys of the avenue they were in. "My mother, grandfather, and great-grandmother were already in the embassy, and as most of them grew around this business we stuck in it as well. My girl Lila, I have told her, if she wants she can do something else. I'm not sure she's interested in it, but if she was I would know that," Explained Mrs. Rossi, then Nathaniel looked down to ponder about the talk.
"She would actually be a good actress. She goes to the acting class after school. We assisted her the first few weeks and she did grow well there," Nathaniel explained making Mrs. Rossi raise her eyebrows curious.
"I don't remember signing up for that," Commented the woman making Nathaniel look neutral at the woman.
"I think she didn't need a signature," Mentioned Nathaniel scratching his neck unsure."I'm in the creative class and I didn't need anything,"
"Do you have anything in mind about what you want to become in the future?" Questioned the driver watching Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.
"It's difficult to pick something that easy. There are so many jobs, yet I feel too young to know it already," Admitted Nathaniel making the woman nod, afterward they felt one wheel of the car burst, giving the SUV's dashboard a warning.
Mrs. Rossi glimpsed at the side mirror to see Hawk Moth hiding behind a tree with a couple of nails on his hands. Mrs. Rossi sighed, trying to get calm, then turned her blinker on to park on top of the sidewalk and walked out of it to take a look at the tire.
"Do you need help?" Asked Miss Kurtzberg getting out of the vehicle, followed by her son to look at the tire and Nathaniel spotted a few nails stuck inside the tire.
"There are nails, stuck inside the tire," Commented Nathaniel, followed by Mrs. Rossi stepping back from the wheel.
"Uh…..Miss Kurtzberg, I think I may have a supplement in the trunk. Do you think you can help me carry it out?" Questioned the Italian making Nathaniel's mother nod and follow the ambassador to the back of the vehicle. Miss Kurtzberg opened the door, while the brunette looked back giving Hawk Moth s thumb up, who raced towards the vehicle in Nathaniel's direction, then packed him from under his arms, causing him to yell.
"Help!" Yelled the redhead calling Miss Kurtzberg's attention, who looked out from behind the car, gasping at seeing Nathaniel being taken away by Hawk Moth.
"No!" Yelled the mother causing at a small park near the next crossroad pigeons fly off a tree and by the entrance the former student from the Françoise Dupont Socqueline looked around the area and widened her eyes in shock at seeing Nathaniel being taken by Hawk Moth. The girl hide behind the fence to transform into the bee-themed superheroine and ran after the villain, which was spotted by Mrs. Rossi and Miss Kurtzberg, who both reacted to the situation differently.
Honey Gold watched at a crossroad the cars stop as they witnessed Hawk Moth pass by with the redhead, thereafter the heroine reached the area and rubbed her hands together, then stopped focusing on the left side, then blew the pollen off her hands towards the citizens sitting inside the vehicles.
"Guys! I demand you to get help with your smartphones. Hawk Moth just passed here. Tell this on repeat," Ordered the blue-haired girl and continued the pursuit. "I'm coming after you, little buddy!" Warned Honey Gold following the two on the road, then switched to the next crossroad side to walk to the center leaving the path next to the Seine.
During the after-school activities, a couple of students had gotten out of the classroom to have a break, one of them being Yi, who was getting out of music class and took out her smartphone to see anything new. Yi noticed, that Marinette was online and texted her a message to see if she would answer.
"Can our miraculouses get enchanted in some sort of magical way?" Yi wrote it down, before sending it and continued to walk along the path meeting up with other students, which she would sometimes see on after-school activities. From one classroom, she recognized Lila Rossi from Nathaniel's class coming out while using her smartphone picking up the interest of the Chinese girl.
"Do you have acting class now?" Questioned Yi making the brunette nod.
"Yes," Responded Lila. "We have now a little break and I was entering Facestargram right now,"
"My boyfriend Jin is crazy about Facestargram and social media," Commented Yi making Lila nod.
"Yes, I've seen the many followers he has. Used to have that many, but after what I did, it all went downhill," Mentioned Lila neutrally making Yi nod.
"At least you're now being a better person. That's much better than anything else, isn't it?" Questioned Yi trying to sound polite. "Better in, you don't have to lie to be liked,"
"Yeah. Weirdly, that odd moment I had with your boyfriend back there, was a wake-up call of some sort," Stated Lila looking at the top of the screen more stories being blended on Facestargram making her curious as they were the same. "Hehe, this is funny, I follow Nora Césaire, River Langerak, Penny Rolling, and Vicent Aza here on Facestargram and they happen to be doing a live stream on the same place,"
"Okay, and what's funny about it?"
"Nora's a kickbox teacher, River's a journalist, Penny is Jagged's agent and Vicent is an influencer. They don't know each other and happen to be in the same place,"
"I….don't understand the connection. What are the videos about?" Questioned Yi and noticed on the one from the journalist a tall man with short hair come to the middle of the image to have his arms disappear on the side of the POV and seemed to be shaking something. Lila noticed the odd behavior, then tapped on the icon to see the video open up with sound, where Lila could hear a familiar voice yell and the man's voice, that blocked the view to her.
"Why did your eyes turn yellow? Speak to me!" Begged the man, then a baby cry caught the man's attention, who disappeared from the screen now talking with a sweeter, yet nervous tune to the baby, leaving Lila and Yi to recognize on far Hawk Moth still pulling Nathaniel with his arm away shrieking both girls.
"It's Nathaniel!" Both girls gasped, then Yi ran off making Lila wide her eyes confused.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm calling the police!" Announced Yi heading towards the library, then tapped on Jin's phone number to call him.
"Can you send a message?" Whispered Jin upon attending the call. "I'm supposed to be studying. My parents are….."
"Hawk Moth kidnapped in the middle of the city our Nathaniel," Warned Yi. "I don't know the location, but they were somewhere next to the Seine,"
"I'm on my way," Announced Jin turning the call off.
Lila glimpsed into a foreign classroom to spot Miss Bustier at the back of the classroom looking for something inside a shelf, then Lila entered the classroom quietly to hide behind the desk of the brunette, followed by Trixx flying out of her jacket to look at the brunette.
"Not a bad hideout," Commented Trixx making Lila nod.
"We have to save my friend, Nathaniel," Warned Lila making the kwami nod. "Trixx, let's pounce!" Shouted Lila transforming into the superheroine Miss Vixen and got up, then heard a voice, then looked at Miss Bustier, who did turn around to see the superheroine.
"Oh Miss Vixen, what brings you here to our school?" Questioned Miss Bustier curious, watching Miss Vixen looking unsure at the window, afterward, she sighed and took her flute out to break the window shrieking the teacher who watched the superheroine jump out.
"Gotta save a person. Bye!" Miss Vixen replied, followed by the teacher following the heroine to the window.
"You know our windows have a handle, right?" Asked Miss Bustier watching the superheroine run towards the seine to follow the sidewalk.
From the entrance of the school, Hydra came out following the road, where Miss Vixen was just going, then she whistled calling the friend's attention.
"Miss Vixen, wait!" Called Hydra watching the friend stop, then she met the taller heroine on the sidewalk.
"Have you got a plan? I have to save my best friend," Warned Miss Vixen tensed making Hydra nod.
"I know. I just wanted to suggest you an idea, except, we need to know if this will work with the two of us," Explained Hydra watching Miss Vixen nod.
"Whatever it is, I'll do it," Said Miss Vixen making Hydra smile.
"Great, can you put your flute to work like a glider?" Questioned Hydra making Miss Vixen sigh, then take out her flute to put it as the dragon holder wished.
"Okay, we have to take risks. Just as Onyx said. What are you going to do?" Questioned Miss Vixen watching Hydra touch the flute. Suddenly Hydra's miraculous began to shine an ice blue light, making both girls look curious at it. "What's that?" Asked Miss Vixen, afterward the point of the fox tail of Miss Vixen's miraculous did the same, earning Hydra's curiosity too.
"This looks like the light I've seen on the yetis on the mountains," Commented the raven-haired girl.
"What did they do to you?"
"I don't know. They threw some sort of magic light towards us and our miraculouses began to light in this color. The yetis can't talk, but they made some movements, that made it sound as they did give us some extra powers. But I don't know, what ones,"
"Perhaps you could give someone else your powers as well?" Guessed Miss Vixen making Hydra shrug her shoulders.
"Well, Everest showed his arm as if meant muscle or strong. He either meant we would get stronger or make our friends stronger?"
"Perhaps, it's the second option," Commented Miss Vixen looking at her glider and she placed it behind her back. Both girls' necklaces began to blink periodically, then both exchanged looks with each other wondering, what it meant.
"Do you believe, that you would be able to have my powers or one of them?" Questioned Hydra making Miss Vixen shrug her shoulders.
"If I could have a choice, I would like to use wind. I'm pretty sure, that would help me fly," Stated Miss Vixen making Hydra nod, then Hydra's choker stopped blinking, but Miss Vixen's kept blinking, changing into grey afterward and it stopped blinking, only now standing gray just like the wind symbol on Hydra's chest.
"Look now it took a different color," Commented Hydra making Miss Vixen nod. "I think you've got a new power…..somehow,"
"And how should I use it?" Questioned Miss Vixen looking at Hydra, which pondered about the question.
"Maybe you have to say wind?"
"Wind!" Said Miss Vixen expecting something to happen, but it didn't. "Okay, perhaps I have to do something else," Spoke Miss Vixen, then began to run with the glider on her back across the road and Hydra went after her to see, if she would have any success. "I don't think it's working,"
"Jump above the bridge,"
"What!?" Asked Miss Vixen earning a frown from the heroine, which nodded and looked at the river beside the wall. "Alright, I'll do it!" Miss Vixen shouted running towards the wall, then jumped up on it bouncing with her feet on top of the wall, and took off in the air, followed by a scream dropping straight toward the river. During the fall, Miss Vixen had clammed herself with her legs on the glider's tail, then took off in the air, following up in the air, still having her eyes closed.
"You did it!" Announced Hydra observing the fox heroine fly up above the Seine.
Miss Vixen opened her eyes to look how she was flying above the water, then looked up in the air to feel the glider bring her up, shrieking her, changing the position again down at the road making her gasp and look forward to sense the glider lead her to go forward. "Huh?"
Miss Vixen looked at her arms, then tried to use them to steer the glider and noticed, that it was working out for her. She kept on the track above the river, then observed the road beside her managing to keep herself up in the air. "I still have no idea, how I did that," Told Miss Vixen herself, then spotted the van of her mother, seeing her stand there together with Nathaniel's mother, which was crying about not knowing his presence making Lila's alter ego sad, who continued her way.
Hawk Moth in the meanwhile reached an area with parked cars, then looked at the present cars beside the road and sensed Nathaniel step on his leg, making him yelp. Nathaniel managed to get off Hawk Moth's hands, but the supervillain caught up with the redhead and used his cane to prevent Nathaniel to run away, keeping him closer to his chest.
"You're not going anywhere, Super Snake," Threatened Hawk Moth, then looked down at Nathaniel's wrist, where he had his miraculous. He smirked upon recognizing the miraculous, then moved his hand toward there to take it off.
From the side, Hawk Moth was hit on the side of the head by a large staff, causing both men to fall to the ground. Nathaniel immediately ran forward, leaving an angry Hawk Moth back, which initiated for himself a pursuit but was surprised by Onyx, which had catapulted himself between the redhead and the villain.
"You're not going anywhere," Warned Onyx swinging his staff around preparing himself for a fight.
"Long time no seen, Onyx," Greeted the villain, making Onyx hiss.
"You're not going anywhere this time," Warned Onyx making Hawk Moth laugh. Onyx used his staff to attack the villain and fence with him, leading him toward the building beside the road. Hawk Moth kept up with the superhero, then ended up losing his cane and he jumped after it, catching it as it touched the edge of the building. Hawk Moth sighed in relief, then watched Onyx ran toward his direction activating his cataclysm and jump towards the villain, aiming towards the cane, making Hawk Moth realize, what his goal was and Hawk Moth jumped aside, shrieking Onyx, who landed on his knees avoiding his hand to touch the wall. Onyx looked at Hawk Moth standing there, afterward Onyx looked up at one column connected to the building, which hold up a balcony and Onyx calculated the distance of the balcony towards the supervillain. Onyx raced to it to touch the column watching it get crumbled and fall down towards Hawk Moth's direction making him drop his mouth, then ran away from the plunging objects and jumped away from there, landing on the ground, only sensing the wind, caused by the broken balcony.
"Man, we almost had him!" Complained Nathaniel looking at Hawk Moth glare towards the redhead's direction, which widened his eyes and ran to the broken pieces to get across it to meet Onyx, which gazed above it, then encountered the redhead come to his side.
"There you are man," Said Onyx running towards the redhead to embrace him. "Where's Hawk Moth?" Asked Onyx, then jumped up at the top of the broken column to see, he had disappeared. "Gāisǐ!" Complained Onyx, then jumped down to meet up with the redhead. "You…..."
"Nathaniel! Are you alright!?" Asked Honey Gold jumping down of a building in front of the duo.
"I think he wanted to steal my miraculous. He knew how it looked like and wanted to take it from me just a while ago," Commented Nathaniel. "Before back at the car with my mom and Lila's, Hawk Moth had appeared outta nowhere and taken me," Explained the redhead to the two friends.
"I was in the near when it happened. He stood by a black SUV with an Italian sign and was taken. They were planning to change the tire as Hawk Moth showed up," Explained Honey Gold making the heroes nod.
"Make space for Vixen Airways!" Shouted a voice and the three heroes observed Miss Vixen fly down and put her feet down to land on her feet, then break down with them quickly, followed by letting the glider go, which flew aside on the ground.
"Now that was a better landing," Complimented Onyx watching the heroine grab the glider and see, they had rescued Nathaniel already, then sighed relieved.
"Thank goodness, he's alright," Commented Miss Vixen making Nathaniel smile a little from seeing his best friend was worried about his disappearance. "What happened actually? Weren't you….uh…...at home?" Miss Vixen rephrased upon remembering Nathaniel and herself didn't know each other's identity.
"My mother and I were invited by the mother of Lila Rossi to get to know each other," Responded Nathaniel.
"The SUV of them suffered a flat tire and when they were going to change it, Hawk Moth showed up and….."
"Took him," Added Onyx earning a nod from the bee miraculous holder.
Miss Vixen got attentive to the conversation and glimpsed at the newbie.
"Did the car have the sticker of the diplomacy?" Questioned Miss Vixen watching the bee miraculous holder shrug her shoulders.
"I don't know. I've seen an identical vehicle that carried flags on the side, but never paid attention to the license plate,"
"The Rossi's car has the Italian license plate. It's from the Italian embassy and we were meant to go somewhere with my mom….Where is she actually now? I don't remember, where I was kidnapped from," Questioned Nathaniel watching the group shrug.
"I could go check it out," Suggested Honey Gold looking at the heroes. "I know the place I did see them last,"
"Alright, will you take Miss Vixen with you? If anything's odd, call us," Suggested Onyx making the duo nod.
"Alright, follow me, we have to go this way," Ordered Honey Gold racing along with the brunette across the road and turn into the avenue across the bridge.
Mere minutes later the duo encountered the two women, Miss Kurtzberg sat on the trunk of the car with Mrs. Rossi patting her shoulder for comfort.
"Your son is alright, Miss Kurtzberg," Said Honey Gold waking up the interest of the women, then the raven-haired got up to look for her son.
"Nathaniel is a few blocks away with Onyx. He's questioning Nathaniel and will bring him soon here," Stated Miss Vixen and placed her hands on the woman's shoulder. "Don't worry, you'll get to see him," Promised the fox superhero.
"How did Hawk Moth come to attack you? Did you see anything suspicious?" Questioned Honey Gold watching both women shake her heads.
"I was driving normally and I had to stop because one of the tires had burst," Answered Mrs. Rossi, then Miss Vixen came to check the broken tire, then looked at the flat part to notice several tacks stuck in the rubber making Miss Vixen look perplexed at it.
"That's funny," Commented Miss Vixen looking up at the dark-colored woman. "Isn't it weird, that there were several thumbtacks stuck on the road and it went unnoticed?" Questioned the Italian superheroine making the bee heroine look perplexed at the friend while the ambassador got a little worried.
"I was having a conversation with Miss Kurtzberg and I didn't put my eyes on the road for a little while…..but I am surprised with the amount of thumbtacks…Could Hawk Moth have placed that on the road on purpose?" Questioned Mrs. Rossi watching Miss Vixen nod.
"Yeah….he did try to kidnap Nathaniel Kurtzberg. This is a possible connection. I just don't understand, why he wanted Nathaniel and how he would know where to find him or that he was right here in this car,"
"That's a good question. I'm curious too," Admitted Mrs. Rossi with a fake smile, then they watched Nathaniel come along with Onyx and Miss Kurtzberg ran in his direction, afterward Miss Vixen nudged the yellow-black heroine on the shoulder.
"l have a strange feeling about the woman here. Do you?" Questioned Miss Vixen making the blue-haired heroine shrug her shoulders.
"Perhaps we could report this to Onyx and Ladybug," Stated Honey Gold. "She's just an ambassador, but we never know what else can be behind all this," Commented the yellow-black colored heroine making Miss Vixen nod and gaze at her mother, which seemed a little tensed about the situation, making the brunette a little worried.