The Ladybug and the Raccoon (a Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction)

Chapter 9

Adrien and Nino sat on the park bench and leaned back. They've been to every comic book store in their neighborhood and have found nothing on Sly Cooper. Half of the stores have never even heard of him, and only few of them did but never had any in stock. Adrien swiped through his pictures of the comic book on his phone, of all the pictures he had he always turned back to the pages with Carmelita Fox. After what happened that night, he kept on wondering, how is it possible that she was here? "Dude how could an animal themed comic book that takes place in Paris be so hard to find?" asked Nino. "I don't know man, maybe we're looking in the wrong stores." answered Adrien. "We're definitely not having any good luck here.". Nino pulled up his phone and played the video footage from the robbery. " Why are you still looking at video?" asked Adrien. "I can't get that song from the robbery out of my head dude." answered Nino. "I kept trying to figure out what it's called but the sound quality isn't that great.". Adrien looked at him. " What? He may have robbed the museum but he has good taste in music." said Nino. Adrien suddenly had an idea. "What if the song could tell us more about the comic book?" pondered Adrien. Nino had a quizzical expression on his face but then he grinned. "Dude are you saying what I think you're about to say?" He grinned. "Please don't tell the others about this, but I'm starting to believe Sly Cooper was involved with the robbery somehow." said Adrien, while rubbing his leg. "Nah but you'll think I'm crazy.". " Crazy? Dude I started this whole conspiracy theory, I don't think you're crazy." said Nino. "I'm your best friend, besides you're secret is safe with me." He flung his arm over Adrien's shoulders. ." Thanks man." smiled Adrien. "Anytime." said Nino. They both reviewed the footage again and again. They turned up the volume and rewind the footage. "Lets turn on the word captions, maybe we can get the main lyrics." said Adrien. "Captions on." said Nino. They held their ears up to listen carefully

"I was struck by lighting, walkn' down the street
I was hit by something last night in my sleep,
It's a dead man's party, who could ask for more?
Everybody's coming leave your body at the door."

The footage cut out and Adrien and Nino looked at each other. "I've never heard something like that before." said Adrien. "Yeah it sounds like something my dad listen to when he was my age." added Nino. "Maybe we can look for the lyrics?" wondered Adrien. "I'll type them in." said Nino. He typed them into the search engine and the first thing that popped up was "Dead Man's Party" by Oingo Boingo. He turned on the music and listened to the full song until he suddenly heard the same lyrics from the footage. Both of their jaws dropped. "I think we have a match." said Adrien. Nino took a closer look. "The song was a pop and rock song released in 1985, and there's only one comic book store I know that is retro themed." said Nino, pulling up the address on his phone. "Hey that's on the other side of town, we could take the subway." said Adrien. "Alright dude we're getting closer to solving this thing." said Nino. They high-fived each other and rushed toward the subway. They entered the subway terminal and boarded the train headed for the other side of town. Nino grabbed the subway ceiling handle and Adrien sat down on the seat. "I'm gonna listen to the full song while I wait." said Nino. He plugged in his headphones and put them over his ears. Adrien felt a small sense of relief knowing that he'd at least get some answers, or at least a clue of some sort. This retro song may not be much, but it's a great place to start. He looked around to see who was on the train. He realized he was sitting next to a woman, wearing a long trench coat and a hat, he couldn't see her face because it was covered with a scarf. The only thing he could make out was her big curly hair. It was long and thick. She was writing down some things in a small notebook. When the train made another stop, the slight forward then back motion of the train made her accidentally drop her pen. The pen hit the ground and bounced over towards Adrien's feet.
She was about to reach over but in an act of kindness, Adrien picked up the pen and handed it to her. "Here you dropped this." He said. "Thank you." said the woman. She took the pen and pulled out a map of Paris. She kept turning the map at different angles as if she were a confused tourist. She circled a place on the map and kept looking at it. Adrien saw what she was doing and decided to help. "Do you need any help with directions?" He asked politely. " I'm fine. I don't need any help." She said, she put the map away and took out her notes. "Are you new to Paris?" He asked. The woman didn't answer. She turned to a page with the words, 'Trust no one.' written down and underlined the words. "Trust no one? That's a bit of an understatement don't you think?" said Adrien. "Have you always eaves dropped on other people's business?" She asked. "I'm sorry to bother you ma'am, I was just trying to help." apologized Adrien. "If you don't mind me asking, why did you write those words?". She looked at him and then back at her notes. " Every person I've ever trusted has always double crossed, and betrayed me." She answered. "For that I always preferred to work alone.". Adrien was astonished by that response. He can't imagine if something like that would've ever happened to him. " That's so sad. I feel sorry for you." said Adrien. "I don't need your pity." said the woman. "No I'm serious." said Adrien. "I would hate it if someone betrayed me, especially if it was on a daily basis.". He could see a small amount of sincerity in her eyes. The eyes were the only part of her face that he could see because the rest was covered up by the scarf. " You know I could help you get around Paris." offered Adrien. "I've lived in it my whole life, so I know a thing or two about directions.". She glanced over her notes once more, then she closed her notebook and put it back in her coat pocket. " Do you know where this is?" She asked. She showed him the location that she circled on the map. He instantly knew where it was and coincidentally it was at the next stop. "Hey that's around the next stop." said Adrien. "Now what you do is get off at the next stop, then you walk three blocks forward and then turn to the right. It should be right in front of you, so you can't miss it.". The train stopped at the station and the woman got up from the seat. " Gracias." She said as she walked away. "Gracias?" said Adrien to himself. When he looked at the seat he noticed something strange. There's were tiny strands of hair left on the seat, but they weren't blue like her hair. They were a dark ish orange color with a hint of yellow. When he looked back at the woman he saw something orange and yellow peaking out from under her coat. Then he realized, it wasn't hair at all, it was fur. The orange and yellow that was under her coat was a tail. He looked at the woman again as the train doors closed he had a sudden realization. He looked up the word 'gracias' on his phone and it answered that it was Spanish for 'thank you.'. He picked up the strands of fur from the seat and pulled up his pictures of the comic, to the ones with Carmelita. She had dark ish orange fur with yellow, the comic also mentioned that Carmelita was Latina. It was then he realized as the train moved forward, she had already disappeared. He couldn't have been more perplexed and surprised as to who he was talking to. Throughout an entire train ride, he was sitting a few inches away from Carmelita Fox, and he never even knew it.