Stuck

Chapter Seven: In Which There's A Slight Akuma Problem

Chat appears beside me in a matter of moments, babbling at a million miles a minute.

'I went in but it was empty and then my father's assistant came in and I jumped out the window then went around the side so I wouldn't be seen but I don't know if she saw me go out the window and - and -' I cut him off.

'Chat, it'll be fine okay? You're here and it's already been done. You can't do anything about it now anyway.'

'Yeah, it's just that my father is very over-paw-tective,' I roll my eyes at the pun, 'and I'm worried that if he found out, he might stop me from getting out as Chat Noir.'

'Oh, Chat, that's terrible. I'm sure he wouldn't, you save Paris on a daily basis.' He relaxes a little but I can see he's still obviously very worried. We sit back for a while, basking in the early morning sunshine.

All at once, several things happen. The distant buzzing of a helicopter becomes very close, several vans pull up on the ground below us and off near the Eiffel Tower, there's a loud bang and screams. Instinctively, we get up and head to the source of all the noise with the vans and helicopter following. Great. Another akuma. We walk up to them, weapons at the ready. As we get closer, we try to identify the person plus figure out what powers they might have, I see Chat falter a little.

'Nathalie?' I look a little closer. It could be Gabriel's assistant I suppose. The akuma must have heard Chat whisper, or our footsteps because she turns around to look at us.

'Ladybug and Chat Noir. What a surprise.' She turns back around to what she was doing, searching for something. A glowing purple butterfly mask appears on her face and stops her in her tracks.

We walk around her, to try and see what she's doing but just as we do, the transparent mask fades away and she starts moving again. The strange thing is, she doesn't make a move against us, she just goes back to cataloguing or whatever she's doing with her clipboard and pen. I loop my yo-yo string around her, effectively tying her up.

'Look, uh, what's your name?' Chat asks.

'It's Nathalie, but technically Searcher.'

'Wait, Nathalie Sancoeur?' Chat pales a little behind the mask.

'Yeah, that's me. Anyway, can you let me get back to searching, I'm trying to find Adrien.'

'Adrien...Agreste?' I ask. Of course, she's Gabriel's assistant. But Adrien's gone missing? She nods. 'Okay, look, it's great that you're not terrorizing the city much or anything like every other akuma but can we - uh, let's turn you back to normal.' Another purple mask hovers over her face. As it does, I scan her, looking for where the akuma could be. Hawkmoth's probably trying to convince her to steal our Miraculouses and I have no idea if he'll manage to convince her so we'll have to be quick. She slumps a bit and the mask disappears.

'Let me guess, the usual deal, you get to keep your new powers in exchange for our Miraculouses?' Chat says, 'You know, you don't have to destroy Paris to find Adrien, we can help you. Not destroy it though, we're working pretty hard to keep it destroy-free.'

'I don't want to destroy Paris, I just want to find Adrien!' She huffs frustratedly. She starts struggling to free herself from my yo-yo wire. I just tug it slightly tighter.

'Look, if we de-akumatize you, we can help you look for Adrien. As superheroes, it's kind of our job.' I offer. She opens her mouth to say something but as she begins, another purple mask appears and she stops to listen.

'No, I won't do that; they're helping. All I want to do is find Adrien! I don't need their Miraculouses.' She's silent for a moment, most likely listening to Hawkmoth ranting at her. Just as her mask disappears, her clipboard turns dark purple, crumbles and an akuma flutters out and starts to fly away.