Lost Kitten

Chapter 19: The Lair

The plan was ready, all they needed to do was put it in motion. Yesterday, Monday, after Adrien had calmed down, they had begun to plan how to get Mr. Agreste out of the house. The plan was to fake a work emergency at one of his Parisian offices. Nino was pretty good with computers, he’d been taking online university classes for early credits, so he would send a fake Email, saying that he needed to urgently get to his office in Toulouse, which is several hours away. Nathalie would of course go with him, and they would take the chauffeur, no one would be home. Nino had just sent the Email and Alya was making sure they left, she would be calling at any time so they could head over to the Agreste Mansion, Marinette was transformed waiting for the call.

“When will they leave!” Marinette flung her hands in the air in exasperation.

“Patience M’lady, we only sent the Email a few minutes ago. I know my father, he’ll leave as soon as possible. He’ll want to solve the ‘problem’ as quickly as he can.” Adrien said, rubbing Marinette’s shoulders lightly.

“Okay, sorry, I’m just so anxious. We’re so close Adrien. We’ve been doing this for too long, I’ve been doing it for even longer than you. To be so close, yet having to wait for so long is incredibly painful. Why’d we have to be put in the position of stopping a terrorist when we were just children? It makes no sense. He isn’t even here to help us. Why did Master Fu have to leave us with this duty?”

“Because he knew we could do it. He knew from the beginning that we could defeat Hawkmoth. He hand-picked us, and we hand-picked them because he trusted us to make the right decisions.” Adrien held Marinette’s shoulders and looked into her eyes, they were brimming with tears.

“You think that he thought we could win?” Marinette asked softly, lifting her head to look at Adrien.

“I don’t just think that, I know. He wouldn’t have chosen us unless he knew that for a fact. Marinette, he was trained to know these things. I wish we could ask him too, but he’s gone, and we can’t get him back. We’ve got to figure this out on our own, together.”

The two looked deeply into each other’s eyes, bluebell meeting electric green. Adrien’s hand moved up to Marinette’s face to brush loose strands of hair from in front of her eyes.

“Get a room!” Chloé whined, interrupting the moment between the two heroes.

“Thank you for your input Chloé, much appreciated.” Adrien said sarcastically, his eyes never breaking their gaze with Marinette.

Marinette and Adrien sat down on the chaise longue, while Marinette kept her eyes on the screen of her yoyo. A few minutes later, Alya called.

“Hey guys. Mr. Agreste just left, not only with Nathalie, but an overnight bag. He’s going to stay in Toulouse for the night. This is perfect, we’ll have plenty of time to look around.” Alya stated.

“Perfect, we’re on our way. See you in a bit Als.” 

Chloé and Nino transformed and they all went up to the balcony. Marinette wrapped her arm around Adrien, which made him wink at her. Marinette blushed a brand new shade of red that hadn’t existed until that moment.

The superheroes made their way over the rooftops towards the bland colored building that was the Agreste mansion.

“Go around to the back.” Adrien yelled over the wind. “My window is open, so you guys can go in through there. Alya is already in my room.”

They made their ways around the back to Adrien’s room, Marinette doing a once around the house to ensure that they were not being watched or followed. 

When they reached Adrien’s room they made the decision to stay transformed while they were in the house, so Adrien transformed into Chat Noir.

The five friends walked to Monsieur Agreste’s atelier, where Alya immediately walked over to the portrait of Emilie Agreste. The group watched with bated breath as Alya placed her hands on the painting, where her expertly placed fingers sank into the portrait. Alya quickly gestured for the group to come closer to her, and just in time they all stepped onto the sinking floor. It was a bit cramped, so none of them could see the other room they passed as the platform continued to move. 

When they stopped moving, they were let out into a hallway. Chloé took the lead, walking down toward a large steel door. The silence was eerie, they all knew what was beyond the wall in front of them.

Chloé stopped, taking a breath before opening the large, arched door. The room they stepped into was domed, with white butterflies littering the concrete floors. Their footfalls echoed through the room, causing the group to shiver with a tinge of fear.

“Well, this is definitely it.” Nino stated the obvious.

“Way to state the obvious, turtle boy.” Alya elbowed her boyfriend.

“We must’ve travelled through the catacombs on that elevator thing.” Adrien observed, curiously looking around. “This is nowhere in my house, that window has the Agreste Fashion symbol on it though. How long were we moving for?”

“A minute, minute and a half? I’m not completely certain.” Marinette answered.

Adrien went to look out of the window. “It looks like we’re on Rue Cambronne, right near the Eiffel Tower.”

“He’s basically been at the center of some of the most populated areas in France, whether it be residents or tourists. He made sure he had the best radius of akumitization opportunities.” Chloé stated as she walked up to the window and stood next to Adrien.

There wasn’t much to the room, although the thousands of butterflies just sitting on the floor, were a bit off-putting. There were panels scattered across the ceiling, but they were unable to open them, they would have to recruit Max to figure out what was in them.

Having all the information they needed, Chloé opened the window, and the heroes jumped out the window, heading of to prepare to tell another person their secret.