Chapter 15
The next morning the class of Miss Bustier was dismissed from the last classes before lunch and all began to store back their utensils to leave the room.
Nathaniel stood up as well, then watched Marinette take out the smartphone from her purse to see a notification, afterward she glimpsed back at Nathaniel and nodded. Nathaniel left his spot to meet up with Marinette, then accompanied her out of the classroom.
"What happened yesterday?" Questioned Marinette leaning with her arms above the railing along with the redhead.
"Mrs. Rossi was driving us to some Airbnb, so we could all get to know each other and her car's tire got spiked with thumbtacks. When we got out to change the tire, Hawk Moth showed up and took me,"
"Was there anything suspicious during the ride? Did you feel like something was…..you know, suspicious?"
"The thumbtacks appearing on the road and Hawk Moth suddenly appearing next is the most suspect thing I know from yesterday. I'm sure he has put them there,"
"Have you wondered, how Hawk Moth knew you were there?" Questioned Marinette making Nathaniel shrug his shoulders.
"Not really," Responded Nathaniel. "How exactly I was inside a car of the diplomatic corps, is even more strange,"
"Have you ever thought if Lila's mom had a deal with Hawk Moth or the other way around?" Questioned Marinette watching Nathaniel shake his head.
"I know her mother is very busy. I don't think she would have any time to be helping Hawk Moth in some way. To be frank, I don't even know, what would be the point for the two to be working together,"
"To protect her from akumatizations?" Guessed Marinette. "Well, that would kinda make sense, if she wouldn't have befriended you,"
"She is a member of the acting class. She does her job really well there and improves herself there among the others. Just as I do with the storytelling in creative class," Commented the redhead. "Are you going out today? I'm meeting Miss Vixen and Hydra for practice,"
"Luka asked me if I wanted to go with him to Rolando's birthday party. He is throwing a big barbecue and a chunk of his family is coming from Spain to celebrate it,"
"Sounds like too many people," Commented Nathaniel making Marinette nod.
"We'll see about that. But it's great, that you guys are going to practice. Miss Vixen as a newbie could really use it to gain confidence for upcoming scenarios," Mentioned Marinette making Nathaniel nod.
Behind them, all students had left, including Lila, who was checking her messenger bag and she noticed her deskmate was chatting with the class representative.
"Hey. Are you two staying for lunch?" Questioned Lila watching Nathaniel nod, while Marinette shook her head.
"Home as usual," Answered Marinette.
"I'm staying. They're serving wraps. Ain't going to let this opportunity slide by," Commented Nathaniel making the girls laugh.
"I'm not really interested in any of the menus from today," Confessed the brunette.
"Come, you have to eat at least a little. Eventually, you can share with Marc. Marc usually doesn't eat that much," Mentioned Nathaniel making the desk mate nod.
"I have to go you two. See you later," Marinette said making her way downstair to head back to her home leaving her classmates back.
Yi stood in the queue in the cafeteria having a video call with her boyfriend Jin, who walked through a supermarket to get food.
"How was school?" Questioned Yi watching Jin shrug his shoulders.
"Hmm could have been worse. I understood a big part of the subject, I will have to analyze it later at night, if we don't get called into a surprise again as usual," Commented Jin making Yi nod.
"Yeah, that would be annoying or it already has been it lately,"
"Exactly," Stated Jin. "I really hope we get closer to this idiot's hideout or something. If he appeared yesterday on the streets, he shouldn't be so far. At least we know, he's in Paris,"
"Indeed," Agreed Yi. "Are you staying home studying, right?"
"Yeah. You're going anywhere?"
"Well, after doing homework I meet up with the rookies at the trocadero, so we can all practice," Stated Yi, then remembered something, that happened. "Oh Jin, did you by coincidence discover something with the blue light on your ring?" Whispered Yi. "I believe you can give someone powers with it. I made the glider fly yesterday. At least, it felt like it worked,"
"Oh and how did you do that?"
"I don't know exactly. I'm looking forward to trying it out again and seeing how it went exactly. Everest somehow made it sound like we gained a new ability, that could help us out well,"
"Yeah. We did discover new things, but if we can do anything else with the…..uh…...blessing of our furry friends, that would be really helpful. It might even help us obtain our goal faster,"
"Yes, when we figure out, how it worked exactly, I can report it to you and you try it out with Marinette or Luka. I'm sure, they will be impressed,"
"I just hope we get through all this chaos in the end. What are you getting for lunch? I've spotted on the warm buffet rice. There are a few different supplements and I think I'm going with Casimir Rice, the one with curry, meat, and fruits,"
"We have chicken wraps today and falafel. About the wraps, most of the students seem to be interested in taking them. Even Jean Duparc is here and he usually eats at home," Explained Yi making Jin nod.
"When I still was at the Françoise Dupont, I did really enjoy the meals they had there," Confessed the boyfriend. "Hey look, I gotta pick up my food and revise my stuff for the next class. Just in case, something isn't complete,"
"Sure, take your time. Goodbye,"
"Bye, Yi," Said Jin followed by Yi pressing the red button to terminate the call, then looked at the queue in front of her to see Kim Chien Le from Marinette's class show the girl Alix Kubdel his bowl filled with falafel, then Alix smirked at him and received from the canteen man a bowl filled with the vegi balls as well, then both ran to join Max Kanté on a table, where he stood with a timer prepared for taking the duo's challenge. Yi chuckled about the planned eating challenge of the two, then moved along with the queue to receive their orders.
Honey Gold raced over the afternoon above a large building of habitats, then used her spinning top to towards the balcony of the next building to swing above an avenue up to the next building, to continue her run and extend her spinning top again to fasten it around a large light pole, that belonged to a stadium. Honey Gold swung down passing by a group of youngsters, which were doing warm-ups before their training, then all spotted surprised to see the superheroine running above the field.
"It's Honey Gold!" Shouted a few men admiring the blue-haired superheroine pass by, then she waved back at them and extended her spinning top to grab herself on the next light pole, throwing herself up and gazing down at the traffic down the road. Honey Gold looked at the trees in front of her, then used her top to grab the last tree its branches to fly forward toward the Seine landing on top of a large boat's roof, that was docked on the side. In front of her, a few other ships were docked as well, only one of them had left its place a couple of minutes ago and was heading towards the bridge of Lena, that connected the garden of Trocadero with the champs de mars. Honey Gold continued running, then took from each roof a leap, until she reached the last one on the dock and threw her top towards a light pole on the bridge to pull herself above the Seine and used the driving boat as a layover, then slid with the spinning top up on the bridge to land on top of a car, that was driving towards the Eiffel tower slow due to the traffic. Honey Gold looked at the trocadero, then smirked and used the spinning top to travel further by swinging from pole to pole towards the famous building.
On top of the Eiffel Tower, Miss Vixen stood looking down at the city of light, which was in the rush hour time notable by the amount of people and cars on the streets. Miss Vixen shook her head during her observation, then stepped away from the railing.
"I must be crazy. I can't just hop out of here and expect to be able to fly down without worrying about it," Commented Miss Vixen taking her flute out to look at it. "Trixx, I don't know, if you can hear me, but this idea is crazy. I know the newest Tarantula man did that in the last movie. My friend Nathaniel even was so fascinated by that scene. I'm not in a movie and I fear, that things go wrong and if it does I'm done or worse. I didn't even fully agree to this. I just stick with it, cause I kinda was…..forced into it. A little excitement I had, when Super Snake placed the miraculous, I could just have retrieved it back at the moment, but he seemed like a very helpful person. And he actually was," Mentioned Miss Vixen, then remembered, that she could use her flute for other occasions and opened the hologram of the flute to look for the superheroes she could call, then she pressed on Super Snake's name to call him. Miss Vixen waited for him to attend the call, but it followed a long beep, signaling, that he wasn't active yet. Miss Vixen frowned, then looked down at the streets to spot a yellow-dressed person swinging near the Trocadero making Miss Vixen realize it was Honey Gold, who also was new in the team. Miss Vixen decided to pick up the number of Honey Gold to see if she would attend it in which she did.
"Hey Miss Vixen! I'm already by the Trocadero," Mentioned Honey Gold watching Miss Vixen nod with a neutral face.
"I'm on top of the Eiffel Tower. My kwami convinced me to take a leap from the Eiffel Tower with my glider, but I'm not confident enough to do it. I'm afraid, I fail. I wanted to call Super Snake, but I couldn't reach him, so I thought you could give me some advice,"
"Sure, I can't change the moment you feel right now up there. What I can do is motivate you. You did already fly before with the help of Hydra, right?"
"Yes, but that was the first time and I felt like I was being able to control it by myself,"
"You know, when you're going to fall with the glider you will be able to control yourself too. It won't be the way as you're able to steer a drone, where you have 100% control of it, but you practically have it in your hands as well. Your fear is just blocking your mind from understanding that. If you would ask the school about that or read any books about wind or aerodynamics you would see, there's nothing for you to fear of,"
"The other time I survived. I don't remember how it went, I just remember screaming the whole time,"
"You're capable of going through this without that, Miss Vixen. You just have to stay calm, take a deep breath, count up to three, and let yourself fall with your glider. You can do that. You are capable of doing that without needing to scream or close your eyes. All you have to do is to guide your glider around and head towards the Trocadero. I'm down here and in case you get into trouble, I'm there to save you. I promise that, what do you say?"
"I'm giving it a try,"
"That's what I wanted to hear. Now do as I say,"
"Yeah, look I might have to turn the flute off. I don't think it works with the call function," Commented Miss Vixen making Honey Gold nod.
"Sure, I'll be down here rooting for you," Honey Gold promised making Miss Vixen nod and turn off the call, then changed the options to activate the glider function and watched it fold out its wings. Miss Vixen climbed up on a higher part of the monument, then adjusted the glider behind her back to certificate, that it was tightened well enough on her.
"Okay, that's good for now. Just take a deep breath and count to three, just like Honey Gold said," Miss Vixen told herself, then inhaled air into her lungs while closing her eyes and opened them upon exhaling out. "Three, two, one…..," Miss Vixen counted down, then let herself fall down of the tower and observed how fast she was falling. Miss Vixen moved her arm, trying to steer it aside, and sensed how she just made a curve, making her change direction toward the Seine. Miss Vixen moved to the other side, seeing how she now changed direction and head toward the bridge, still with a long distance from there. Miss Vixen swallowed hard from being far away from the ground, then rolled her eyes around to look for the bee miraculous holder and spotted her by the road in front of the lot of the Trocadero. Miss Vixen tried to steer toward the direction of the superheroine and initiated the sinking flight of her.
At the front of the Trocadero, Honey Gold observed the fox-themed superheroine come along the road passing high above the cars with a neutral face. Honey Gold smiled at seeing her teammate do really well to her sight, then began to clap amazed.
"You're doing it great!" Complimented the Chinese-descendant girl, seeing the heroine come closer to the cars, then became freaky as she saw how close, she was getting to the vehicles and turned aside, really badly and fell down on top of a Vespa driver, causing him to fall down on the road. Honey Gold gasped, then used her top to swing towards the friend and got down to see her look at her legs to see if she had taken them off the glider correctly.
"You did really well, Miss Vixen. Only the landing you need to work on, otherwise it was good from the view I had," Said Honey Gold, then gave the superheroine her hand to help her up.
"The landing really was terrible," Confessed Miss Vixen, then looked at the Vespa driver, which sat up annoyed and glared at the two heroines. "I'm sorry, I'm still learning," Commented Miss Vixen, then watched the man gaze at her with big eyes, making Miss Vixen feel confused about the young man's reaction.
"Uh we better go or we cause a bigger traffic jam," Commented Socqueline's alter ego grabbing Miss Vixen on the arm to pull her to the sidewalk and walk together to the Trocadero.
The duo reached the front space of the Trocadero. Upon getting closer to the grass, they heard a string melody and stopped to look around from where the noise came from, then spotted Super Snake come along riding on a broken car door and landed in front of the girls.
"Hey girls," Greeted Super Snake, then the girls who had waved to their friend looked down at the car door bewildered. "Uh you know, I did keep my wood out at the door, but someone took it away, so I had to improvise,"
"And by improvise you ripped someone's door?" Questioned Honey Gold making Miss Vixen chuckle.
"It was ripped off already when I found it," Corrected Super Snake. "The fire department nearby has gotten some damaged cars, they use for practice, so I borrowed one of their car doors,"
"Not a bad idea," Commented Honey Gold making Super Snake nod.
"So…...are we the only ones here to train?" Questioned Super Snake making Honey Gold shake her head.
"As far as I remember, Hydra alined in," Responded Honey Gold.
"Yes, she promised to help me practice," Added Miss Vixen. "She had discovered this new power, she received from the yetis and she could use it on her friends. She somehow made me fly the other time, when my….that one boy Nathaniel was kidnapped," Explained Miss Vixen.
"Oh, what happened to that boy actually?" Questioned Super Snake pretending to be aware of what happened with his own superhero's absence.
"Hawk Moth for some reason kidnapped him. We don't know, what the point was of it…..or I at least," Commented Miss Vixen earning a nod from Honey Gold.
"Me neither," Mentioned the bee miraculous holder. "While we're waiting for Hydra, what about we practice something else until she arrives?" Suggested the girl watching the duo in front of her shrug shoulders.
"The only thing we can do is practice street fight," Mentioned Super Snake. "Well, I don't have a sword, I have the lyre, which actually is my weapon, but serves more for throwing,"
"My flute is for attacking from the near. You still could use your lyre for close attacks. You just need to practice. In case you ever come to that moment, you need to protect yourself from a villain being this close to you, it's worth to train that," Suggested Miss Vixen. "That would actually be something,"
"You think so?" Questioned Super Snake unsure and Honey Gold agreed.
"She's right. That could be useful. What if we come close to Hawk Moth someday, like yesterday with it happened to Onyx? Onyx is lucky, cause hand-in-hand combat is his thing. In case you happen to be on his spot, it would be beneficial for you," Explained the blue-haired heroine.
"I could give it a try," Commented Super Snake. "I'm not really fond of hitting girls," Confessed the redhead making the brunette chuckle.
"Great, that means more fun for me," Joked Miss Vixen swinging her flute against Super Snake's head.
"Hey!" Complained the redhead making the superheroine chuckle, then Honey Gold waved at the two.
"While you two are on it, I will practice swinging," Announced Honey Gold, then threw her spinning top in the air to swing away from the two.
"Ok I'm serious, how am I supposed to use the lyre as a fighting object?" Questioned Super Snake, then Miss Vixen swung her flute towards Super Snake's head, which in fear pulled out his lyre to deflect the girl's attack.
"There you go," Commented Miss Vixen look at the superhero, which looked at his hands.
"I just protected myself," Commented Super Snake, followed by Miss Vixen swing her flute against the redhead's, which he dodged again with the help of his lyre. Super Snake had understood how he could use the lyre against the friend and smacked it against her flute.
"See? You can use it like that," Commented Miss Vixen watching Super Snake swing his lyre against her, seeing her block his attack and stay with the flute between the lyre's strings. "Okay, what would you do, if you had the lyre stuck like this? I'm the villain, who will try to remove the sword somehow,"
"I could do this," Suggested Super Snake walking backward while pulling the friend's flute after him.
"Have you thought about, that a villain could save himself in another way?" Questioned Miss Vixen watching Super Snake ponder about her comment, afterward, Miss Vixen moved her foot to throw Super Snake down at the ground, making it easy for her to remove her flute. "Villains won't wait for you. They'll use their bare hands or even feet to take you down. When you're not fast enough, you'll be down here," Mentioned Miss Vixen moving her flute up at his chest. "Use your head, how can you get out of here? You have tons of possibilities,"
"Have one!" Announced Super Snake grabbing Miss Vixen's flute, making her look surprised, then she used her one leg to shove Super Snake's arm away from the flute. Super Snake looked at the other feet, then bit his lips and shove the foot away, almost causing Miss Vixen to cause a split, shrieking her.
"Woah!" Miss Vixen let out, followed y Super Snake get up, and grab the flute to try to take it away from her.
"Now I try to take off the sword of the villain," Announced Super Snake slowly getting up with the brunette, which tried to keep the flute for herself. "Are you going to give up?"
"Nope," Responded Miss Vixen throwing herself up on top of Super Snake, causing him to squeak during the landing. "What's wrong? Can't you handle a little fox?"
"If someone would hit you in the jewels, you would be whining as well," Complained Super Snake watching Miss Vixen playfully shove her flute down under the legs of Super Snake shrieking him, as she missed hitting him on the private area. "Hey! I'm serious, I feel the same pain as I feel as a civilian,"
"It was an accident and this one was to scare you," Commented Miss Vixen watching Super Snake got up and picked his lyre. "Look, we're practicing. We gotta learn to fight like that. We don't have any training puppets. This is our only way at the moment,"
"I know, I just don't want to hurt one of my best friend's," Commented Super Snake making Miss Vixen raise her eyebrow. "I…..mean fox friend…..superhero friend…...you know, we all work together so many times, that we consider each other all as best friends, because…...we help each other, are there for each other…..like best friends. It's not because we know each other in real life. No one does know anyone's identity, because we can't according to Ladybug…." Super Snake got all mixed up, while Miss Vixen began to recognize the hero's social awkwardness. Miss Vixen shook her head and held out her hand at the hero.
"We'll be fine. Onyx told me the other day, that we have to take risks, even if we're not fond of it. Our fighting here, is kind of a sort of risk, but it's worth helping both of us improve," Mentioned Miss Vixen making Super Snake nod and hold up his lyre.
"Ready?" Questioned Super Snake watching Miss Vixen put up her flute in the air, which Super Snake immediately caught with his lyre and threw Miss Vixen behind him. "Tricked you!" Exlaimed Super Snake looking at Miss Vixen on the ground, then he ran towards her flute and she got up in an almost kip-up-like maneuver to stand in front of her friend, where she did block the attack. Miss Vixen pulled her flute in front of herself to block Super Snake, then he pushed his lyre hitting Miss Vixen's flute trying to guide her away from him.
Hydra blasted out of a light pole and stood in front of the Trocadero, then spotted Miss Vixen and Super Snake practicing together with their weapons. Hydra smiled, then looked at the zebra crossing to see a couple of people cross it as it was on green. Hydra took the chance to run over it to reach the park and made her way toward her superhero mates.
"Good evening, guys!" Greeted Hydra getting closer to the two friends, which stopped their fight and looked at the dragon superheroine. "Were you training?"
"Miss Vixen said, I could use the lyre to fight villains as well and I used it against her," Explained Super Snake making Miss Vixen nod.
"He hesitated at first, because I was like his training puppet of some sort,"
"Well, I do understand him. He didn't have a sword or a stick like me, you, or Onyx. Shall we now practice or do you two want to keep fighting?" Questioned Hydra.
"I'm actually curious about, what your new power is like. I have understood, that you could give another friend a power of your own or something?"
"Yeah, I think that was the point of the power from what I understood. Miss Vixen was at least capable of flying," Mentioned Hydra making Miss Vixen nod.
"Can I watch you two?" Questioned Super Snake curious making both girls nod.
"Sure, I just can't promise you, that it will work out at first," Commented Hydra, then she turned around to face Miss Vixen, which stung her flute down on the grass to wait for the raven-haired to act.
"Give Miss Vixen the wind power," Said Hydra looking at her choker to see if nothing happened. "I think I didn't say this right,"
"Uh no, I think you only said wind," Corrected the brunette making the heroine nod. "Wait…..I think you touched my glider, when your power got active," Mentioned Miss Vixen changing her flute into a glider, then held it towards the dragon miraculous holder, who grabbed it watching her choker along with Miss Vixen's necklace light up in ice-blue.
"I think as far as I remember, you wished the power by yourself," Commented Hydra watching Miss Vixen ponder about it and nod.
"I didn't really see it as a wish, but I think I formed the sentence that way," Noticed the green-eyed heroine. "I choose wind,"
Hydra's choker stopped blinking, except for Miss Vixen's which changed to a gray color
"Good, we've come so far. Now you just need to know, if you're capable of flying," Mentioned Hydra earning a nod from the brunette. Super Snake pointed at a small monument with statues carved. Miss Vixen nodded, then climbed over the persons to go on top to see her friends on the grass.
"Remember, you've got the wind with you. You only need to focus on, where you going. You'll do just fine," Said Hydra loud making Miss Vixen nod and adjust the glider behind her. Miss Vixen walked above the statue back to the edge and ran forward to jump up in the air, taking off and pass above the two heroes, which admired her going around the garden and moving towards the building behind the water fountains.
Miss Vixen got on top of the Trocadero, then landed on its edge to take a look at the surroundings. Miss Vixen grabbed the flag pole on top of the building to turn around and face the lot to see a couple of citizens hanging around the area, while her two teammates waited for the brunette behind the water fountain. Miss Vixen leaped down with her glider to pass above the stairs, then move slightly to the left to dodge the huge fountain, following it from the side safely.
By the front, Super Snake and Hydra watched her amused, after that Honey Gold showed up landing with help of her spinning top, then observed Miss Vixen steer away from the fountain, afterward she moved back carefully making her friends clap.
"Is she using the magic you gave her?" Questioned the blue-haired heroine making Hydra nod.
"Yep," Answered the girl of the same nationality, eyeing the fox-themed miraculous holder go above the Seine to make a U-turn.
"Can you give us power too?" Questioned Honey Gold making Hydra shrug her shoulders, afterward Super Snake borrowed the lyre to the short heroine, which shrugged her shoulders.
"I give you the wind power," Announced Hydra seeing Super Snake stand there waiting for activation, but nothing happened. "Uh perhaps, it only works for one person,"
"Have you tried another power?" Questioned Honey Gold making Nathaniel's alter ego nod.
"Don't you have lighting or water?" Questioned the snake miraculous holder making Hydra nod.
"I give you the power of lighting," Offered Hydra watching her choker glow along with Super Snake's bracelet, making him wide his eyes surprised.
"Hey, it changed colors," Mentioned the redhead noticing the yellow color on his bracelet, then he looked back at Hydra's choker, which lost its color.
"Okay, show me, what you can do with it," Spoke Hydra making Super Snake nod and point the lyre against the ground.
"Lighting!" Shouted Super Snake expecting it to shoot out a bolt, but nothing happened. "Huh?"
"Shouldn't you use your lyre like you always do by playing something on it?" Questioned Honey Gold watching Super Snake frown.
"Playing music, just to create lighting?" Questioned Super Snake outrageously. "How am I supposed to be quick, when I have to play a melody?"
"You know, you don't have to play a melody. You could simply play a note, by pulling the strings," Suggested Hydra making Super Snake look down at his lyre, then he plucked the strings on the instrument shooting instantly a bolt towards the feet of the superheroine, making Hydra jump as she was almost hit by the redhead.
"Sorry!" Apologized Super Snake, then looked away from the duo and did the same thing, watching the bolt hit the grass.
"Try to play a longer tune," Suggested Honey Gold making Super Snake nod and play on the lyre watching him form a bolt, that was growing slightly bigger than the first one. Super Snake took his fingers off watching the bolt rush towards the wall by the road forcing two cars to brake and crash one after the other, making Super Snake gasp.
"Oh oh," Said Super Snake exchanging looks with the superheroine.
Miss Vixen landed on the grass near the trio, now with better handling of her skill.
"What happened?" Questioned Miss Vixen looking at the team seeing the two cars on the road, where both drivers seemed to be in a good state upon the accident.
"I accidentally caused that accident," Commented Super Snake.
"Well, you didn't hit them. You just scared them and that happened," Mentioned Hydra, then observed the two drivers leave the car and go to the wall to see it was sung from the lighting. "Well, we could just tell them it was an accident. They will show us comprehension," Suggested Honey Gold making the trio nod.
"I don't want to go alone. Is someone coming with me? I don't know, how I should explain this," Asked Super Snake making Hydra nod.
"I will come with you, don't worry," Offered Hydra and walked along with the redhead towards the vehicles while the bee and fox miraculous holder stood back together.
"Was Hydra able to borrow more powers?" Questioned Miss Vixen making Honey Gold nod.
"Yeah. Perhaps, we should have chosen a different place to try Super Snake's addition of Hydra. To avoid this kind of issue," Mentioned the yellow-dressed superheroine watching Hydra talk to the two women, which were listening to her.