Chapter Text
“Is the inventory all here?” Currently in a spot far from the city of France, in a secret warehouse the Vulture was seen looking over the trucks that were being unloaded, the cargo all being stolen weaponry and other such goods. After his run in with the Ghost-Spider the other day it was as important as ever that they made sure the job got done and got it done right. Thankfully other then that hiccup, the job went off without any hitches. But still, couldn’t be too sure. Any little thing could have happened and the boss would really let them have it if even one crate ended up being lost. “I trust everything is in order,”
“Y-Yes sir Vulture,” One of the goons answered Vulture. He was definitely one of the skinny ones, ones that was more responsible for going over the numbers and tech stuff rather then the henchmen work like all the big guys moving the crates. “I counted, re-counted, and re-re-counted. Everything seems to be in check, nothing missing or damaged at all.”
“Good, it looks like we might be in the boss’ good favor then,” Vulture nodded in satisfaction. He couldn’t afford to make the boss angry for two good reasons. One, those who made him angry, well to put it nicely they only had the chance to make him angry once. And two, he needed the money for his successful jobs. Desperately needed the money. “Once we get these unloaded we can finally breath a sigh of relief, first time since the Ghost-Spider showed up,”
“U-Um, about that sir,” The goon gulped a bit as he tapped his fingers nervously against the clipboard he was carrying. “The…The boss called and…he wants to speak with you,”
“…” If not for the Vultures helmet, the goon could have seen a brief look of terror come to his face. Quickly trying to gain back his composure, Vulture turned back to all the other goons that were unloading the trucks. “All of you continue to move things out, I got some business to attend to,”
Knowing he had no time to waste, the Vulture quickly moved to the communications room that was set up in the warehouse. The room was small, big enough for two people or one large person, and set up was what appeared to be a high tech radio. And it was on. Suspecting that the boss was on the other side of the line, Vulture quickly saw down and brought the communicator up to his helmet. Pressing a button on his helmet, the front of it retracted into the helmet exposing the Vultures mouth and once it was exposed he began communicating with the Boss. “Hello sir, Vulture here,”
When Vulture spoke without his voice filter sounded like a man’s voice, rather normal sounding and nothing to distinguished about it. But the man on the other side of the table…was anything but normal. “It’s good to hear from you Adrian.” Vulture felt shivers coursing through their entire body. The Boss’ voice...it was deep, firm, nonsense. He sounded calm and quiet but despite that his words hammered into Vulture’s head and made sure he listened to every single syllable. “I trust that the job went off without a hitch.”
“Yes sir,” Vulture confirmed, nodding his head despite the fact they were talking over a radio. “Everything accounted for, nothing lost or damaged and exactly as schedule, we should finish unloading everything in less then an hour.”
“Good, I knew you wouldn’t let me down. Unlike everyone else in the last couple weeks…” Vulture flinched as the Boss’ tone got an edge to it, it was small but sharp and deadly and he certainly wasn’t glad he wasn’t there in person to full the full force of it. “So everything went off without a hitch then?”
“Not exactly sir,” Vulture gulped a bit, fearing revealing this to the Boss. But he knew lying could only lead to worse things. “There was one hiccup,”
“Let me guess,” The Boss’ could easily predict what this hiccup is. This hiccup has been bothering him for the last few weeks. “A certain Spider on the wall.”
“Yes sir,” Vulture again nodded. “The Ghost-Spider showed up an intervened, we cleared everything out of the area though, and I got her off our trail.”
“Good job, she’s becoming a real nuisance to me,” Vulture flinched, he could hear the Boss tighten his fist from the other side of the line. “Thinking its time to squash this bug before she becomes a bigger pain.”
“Would you like me to take care of her sir?” Vulture asked, knowing where the Boss was going with this. Far from the first time he’s gotten rid of issues before they became bigger issues. “She’s still green when it comes to fighting, and she was taken off guard easily when I used my thermal vision to see her while she’s invisible.”
“No, I have someone else in mind for the job,” The Boss explained, but made sure to take in the information that Vulture gave them. “But that’s useful to know,”
“Always glad to be of assistance sir,” Vulture again nodded, but grew a little worried about who else the Boss had in mind for the job. “But…you don’t mean Gargan do you?”
“No, I don’t want any eyes on us. He can’t keep things quiet to save his life,” The boss grumbled making Vulture breath a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, Gargan was the definition of a loose cannon. He was sure if he got into a fight with the Ghost-Spider an entire city block would end up becoming a giant spot of collateral damage, and there was at least three people in Paris that Vulture didn’t want to imagine getting risked in the crossfire. “I’m sending in Schultz, I know I can trust him to be professional. Plus, the good doctor but the finishing touches on his suit, and I think he’s eager to play around with it.”
“I see,” Vulture nodded, now that was something he could agree with. Schultz was a professional man just like the boss said. He went in, got the job done, and came back without sparing any words. “Do you have anything you want me to do?”
“For now, no. Make sure everything gets unloaded then your free to go back home. Spend some time with your daughter.” The Boss told him, making Vulture smile a bit. He’s been so busy with this, getting a break was definitely something he welcomed. Especially if it involved seeing his family. “But I trust you’ll come back the second we need you again, right?”
“Y-yes sir, of course,” Vulture flinched a bit when the Boss rose his tone at the end of the sentence, making it clear there was no backing away from any business involving him now. “I’ll keep in touch,”
“Good,” Thankfully the Boss seemed satisfied with that. “I’ll transfer the money for the job into your account, have a good night.”
“You as well sir,” And with that, the other end of the line hung up. Vulture finally allowed himself to release a nervous breath and lay back in his seat. Every time he talked to the boss, he felt like he was walking on a minefield. One wrong step, and he was dead. Reaching into one of his gauntlets, Vulture pulled out a photo he was keeping inside of it and looked at it fondly, a reminder of why he was doing this. “This is all for you princess…”
RIIIIIIING!!!
The bell rung for lunch and as usual everyone in school was more then happy to take a break from classes and learning to get something good to eat. Juleka was at her usual spot in the lunch room and with one hand she was eating the meal school was providing today and with her other hand she was doodling on a piece of paper. Things have been going well the last few days, after Horrificator things seemed to calm down again.
Well, all except Nino who was still upset that the film he made of the Akuma incident wasn’t allowed to be shown in the festival due to ‘the monster looking like a blatant boot leg version of a Xenomorph’ or at least that’s what Nino told everyone. Ever since then there hasn’t been any Akuma’s yet and even other criminals haven’t been scene since the incident with the Vulture. Juleka was more then happy with this, gave her more time to relax and spend with her brother and Rose. And catch up on a bit of sleep as well.
Not to mention Chloe seems to be chilling out a bit as well. She hasn’t really done anything too mean since the last Akuma, sure she could still be a lot to deal with, it was still Chloe after all, but it appears like she’s been making at least somewhat of an effort to at least not bully around others that much. It made Juleka happy to see that, ever since becoming Ghost-Spider whenever she interacted with Chloe she saw a better side to the usual mean blond. Saw that Chloe wasn’t just a pure jerk. Juleka was hoping to see more of it, learn more about who Chloe really was. Yeah her moment with Mylene during the movie shoot wasn’t…the best and she certainly held a bit of a grudge but seeing Chloe willing to apologize again helped her see Chloe wasn’t heartless. Things could be looking up for the most infamous bully in the school but Juleka would just have to wait and see.
But for right now, Juleka was content with just eating her lunch and drawing. That and waiting for Rose, like with class Rose and her usually sat next to each other during lunch but after their last class Rose looked at her phone and told Juleka that she might be a minute. Juleka didn’t question it and simply went to get lunch and save Rose a seat at their usual spot. But now Rose was certainly taking her time, hopefully it wasn’t anything to serious.
“JULIE!!!” Juleka’s eyes shot open and many heads in the lunchroom turned as Rose suddenly came running in. The short blond girl had a giant grin on her face, even bigger then Rose’s usual smile, with her eyes absolutely beaming in pure excitement. “Julie! Julie! Julie! Julie! Julie!!!”
“R-Rose, calm down,” Juleka smiled a bit in amusement as she put a hand on Rose’s shoulder as soon as her best friend sat down. It did seem to help bring Rose get a handle on herself, but the blond was still bouncing up and down repeatedly on her chair still unable to contain whatever was making her so excited and happy. “Heh, what’s going on? I’m guessing something good happened.”
“Something more then good Juleka!” Rose rapidly nodded her head, what she just learned about was far more then exciting. It was the best piece of news she could have gotten! “It’s the best thing ever! It’s like every good day I’ve ever had wrapped into one!”
“Must have been pretty good then,” Juleka smiled fondly at Rose as she put her pencil down so she could focus on Rose’s words. “What is it?”
“Hmmmmmm~” Rose teasingly hummed as if to build up suspense for the reveal only to send Juleka a wink. “It’s a surprise~” Rose stuck her tongue out a little after saying that.
“Hey come on,” Juleka chuckled good naturedly at Rose teasing her like that. Can’t just build up to something like that and just leave her hanging with nothing. “You’re really just not gonna tell me like that?”
“Nope~” Rose nodded with a cheeky tone before giving Rose a big smile. “If you wanna know what it is then you can come with me to my house after school! So you can see if for yourself!”
“Heh, alright if I must,” Juleka rolled her eyes overdramatically but smiled when Rose brought her in for a hug that Juleka happily leaned into. She didn’t need a reason to come visit Rose at her house but this gave her something to look forward too. “I’ll just have to let my mom and brother know but they should be find with it.”
“Oooo, I can’t wait!” Rose once again started bouncing up and down in her seat, completely unable to truly contain the joy she was feeling right now. But as she was bouncing up and down excitedly, Rose spotted from the corner of her eye the piece of paper Juleka was drawing on. “Ooooo, whatcha got there Juleka?”
“Oh, uh, nothing much,” Juleka shrugged as she pushed the piece of paper over to Rose. On it was the logo on her Ghost-Spider costume, she couldn’t help but enjoy drawing her own logo and thinking of ways of refining it and making it better then before, or she just liked to doodle in her spare time. She was no artist like Nathanial by any means but it just gave her something to do that was pretty fun. “Just the Ghost-Spider’s logo is all, you know the one on her chest.”
“Oooooo, that’s really cool Julie!” Rose looked over the drawing a bit before handing it back to Juleka. Rose always felt honored whenever Juleka shared the occasional sketch she did as she was only one of few people Juleka would show them too, the other being her brother and mother of course. “Looks like someone’s a Ghost-Spider fan~”
“Hehe, I guess so,” Juleka slightly averted her gaze as she nodded. She just needed to find a way to explain that without the risk of sounding to egotistical. “I just think she’s pretty cool is all,” That was good right?
“I think so too!” Rose nodded her head rapidly in agreement. “I thought Ladybug and Cat Noir were cool but there’s just something else about Ghost-Spider ya know? Something mysterious, series, but also sweet and nice!”
“O-Oh…” Juleka found herself blushing madly at this causing her to quickly look away from Rose. Gosh if only Rose knew who exactly it was she was referring as those things. “You…really think so?”
“Uh-huh! I’m really glad that she’s helping fight villains in Paris!” Rose nodded her head again before looking up and day dreaming a bit. “Imagine if more heroes end up appearing in Paris? We could have our own version of the Avengers here!”
“That…would be pretty cool,” Juleka couldn’t help but think about that a little bit. Heroes or other people with powers or those with the skills to fight against those with powers could exist all over the world. And they could just pop up randomly at anytime, Ladybug and Cat Noir appeared shortly after Hawk Moth appeared and Akumatized her classmate Ivan, and then of course she got bit by that spider at Connor’s laboratory and gained her spider powers not long after. So whose to say more heroes couldn’t appear in Paris and they could possibly start their own group? It was pretty exciting to think about! “Guess we’ll just wait and see.”
And as the girls were engaging in their own conversation, over with Marinette and her friend group they were engaging with their own conversation.
“Oh my God, Alix, shut up!”
“Look, I’m just saying!” Alix defended herself while raising up her hands. Marinette was giving Alix a disturbed look while Nino was looking very uncomfortable, and Adrien was looking really weirded out. Meanwhile Alya didn’t seem to pay attention to whatever conversation was going on and was completely focused on her phone. “Guys walk around shirtless all the time! Why can’t girls do the same thing?”
“Because that’s indecent!” Marinette didn’t know what was harder to believe. That Alix actually had this thought and just brought it up completely out of nowhere, or that she was getting wrapped up into this subject. Why did Alix have a skill of bringing up just completely random topics and subjects that got people talking even they didn’t actually want to? “You can’t just go around showing off your naked boobs to everyone!”
“What boobs?!” Alix yelled out as he gestured to her basically non-existent breasts. “Mari I don’t even have A-Cups like you! A board has more cleavage then me!”
“You still can’t just do that dude!” Nino brought up with a face bright red due to the topic they were covering. Alix really scared him with what went on in her mind sometimes. “You’d freak everyone out if you went and did that!”
“Why not?” Alix was still intent on convincing her friends that it was fine. Though by the shit eating grin on her face this was more about drawing reactions out of them rather then actually proving a point. “You’re saying it’d be totally ok with you went around skateboarding around shirtless but when I skate around shirtless it’d become a problem? You know I’m sure you’d freak a lot of girls out if you did that.”
“And you’d freak out every guy around and then some!” Marinette was looking like she would pop a blood vessel from sheer frustration now and Alix was more then willing to see how far she could push it. “What if guys start leering at you!”
“So what? What if the lesbians do it? Who cares?” Alix shrugged with a grin before gesturing to Nino and Adrien. “It’d be no different if some gay dudes starting leering at these two if they were shirtless.”
“…That is…” Adrien began saying after being silent for this entire conversation. “That is a disturbingly good point actually.”
“ADRIEN!!!”
“COME ON BRO!!!”
“Yes! Yes!” Alix cheered as she rose up her arms while Nino and Marinette sent glares to Adrien who was now fearing he made a mistake. “Finally someone who agrees with me! That’s it, Nino, this weekend we’re having a shirtless skating race around the park.”
“No! No! We so not doing that dude!” Nino rapidly shook his head at Alix’s idea before glaring at Adrien. “Now look what you did man?”
“If she gets in trouble with the cops because of topless skating we’re directing the police to you!” Marinette claimed while pointing at Adrien who quickly flinched at this. Meanwhile Alix was looking like she could burst out laughing at any moment now. “You know that right?”
“Wha-no! I wasn’t-I didn’t mean-I just…” Adrien heavily stuttered as he tried to find someway to defend himself, and Alix snickering leaking out of her was certainly not helping. Seeing nothing coming to him, Adrien quickly turned to Ayla for backup. “Alya please help me out here.”
“…” But Alya didn’t response as she continued to watch the video on her phone, completely engrossed in what she was watching to the point of not noticing the chaos going on around her.
“Um, hello?” Everyone finally noticed that Alya wasn’t engaged in the conversation at all and was, once again for the umpteenth time, was completely focused on her phone. Alix rolled her eyes before putting her hand in front of Alya’s face and snapped her fingers a few times. “Yo, Earth to Alya!”
“Huh?” Alya finally looked up as she paused the video before taking out her wireless headphone, which were hidden by her hair, and looking up at everyone. “Sorry gang, what’s up?”
“Nothing just Alix being the worst human being ever,” Marinette said dryly as Alix winked and stuck her tongue out playfully. Alya rolled her eyes with a smile on her face, yeah she should have figured. “What were so invested in this time anyway? Updating your ladyblog again?”
“Nah, haven’t done anything with the Ladyblog since Horrificator.” Alya told her best friend as Nino scoffed, still salty his movie wasn’t accepted into the festival. Alya on instinct patted her boyfriend on the shoulder to comfort him a bit. At least the movie got positive comments on that Ladyblog she made sure to show him. “I’m watching that video of the Ghost-Spider fighting that birdman that was shown on the news!”
“You’re still watching that?” Nino inquired as he rested his head on his hand. Marinette sighed a bit at the mention of the spider themed hero causing Alix to lightly nudge her fellow short queen with her shoulder, meanwhile Adrien merely rose his eye brow in curiosity. “Babe that was like 4 days ago, you still have it on loop?”
“Well of course! Something like this happening is huge!” Alya grinned as she put her phone away and looked to all her friends with an excited glint in her eye. “I mean a super villain, a real super villain appeared here in Paris! Originally we only had Hawk Moth, and his Akuma’s don’t count. But now we’re actually seeing more real villains here in Paris!”
“So wait, you’re excited that more villains are coming in and are about to starting tearing into Paris the same way Hawk Moth is?” Alix rose a suspicious brow at Alya her words. Being excited about new heroes makes sense, Alix certainly thought Ghost-Spider was cool despite her best friend still having complicated feelings about them. But not everyday you see someone cheering for new villains showing up. “We sure you’re not some spy or something?”
“Oh shush you,” Alya rolled her eyes at Alix’s words, as well as her friends snickering in response. “I just think it’s cool is all, Paris is becoming the next New York! Who knows when more heroes and villains are gonna start showing up!”
“Yeeeeah, as cool as that sounds maybe we shouldn’t be hoping for that,” Adrien spoke up slowly. Don’t get him wrong the superhero stuff is cool, he should definitely know, but hoping Paris ends up becoming like New York city with all sorts of heroes and villains going around maybe wasn’t something to aspire to. More heroes? Yes that would be fine but that always leads to more villains which means more trouble and people at risk. “Maybe the heroes should start focus on taking down the villains we already have before they start inviting new villains here,”
“Well say whatever you want I still think it’s cool,” Alya shrugged and smiled, she could get her friends opinions but as a huge superhero fan she couldn’t help but be excited at the potential possibilities of what could happen in the future. “Still gotta try and set up my newest blog, about the Ghost-Spider. No ones made one yet so I still gotta try and make my move! Just need a good name for it…”
“Oh! How about Spider-Web!” Adrien suggested a bit enthusiastically. While the blond was still learning how to be social, something his friends eventually picked up on was his love for puns and word play. “You know, like website?”
“Hmmm, not bad actually,” Ayla nodded a bit as she took out a piece of paper. Adrien couldn’t help but beam a bit at Ayla liking his idea causing Marinette to chuckle a bit as she went a smile his way. He was always cute when he was beaming like that. “I’ll write that down for potential ideas.”
“So hey, putting the pause button on the superhero biz,” Nino spoke up as all eyes turned to him. “Thinking of hitting up the movies after school, around 4 o’clock. Anyone wanna join?”
“I should be good,” Alya nodded her head before raising a brow at Nino. “Wait, are you rescheduling our weekly movie night?”
“No I’m still good for that,” Nino quickly reassured his girlfriend, making Alya smile a bit in relief. “Just don’t have any plans today and thought we could all chill out together or something.”
“Ah what the hell I’m game,” Alix shrugged and agreed to that. “As long as its not a cheesy romance movie,”
“Just bring your shirt,” Marinette narrowed her eyes at Alix who simply chuckled in response. “You said four right? Yeah I should be good to come, probably should take a break from my latest commission anyway. Could be nice to have some fun before tonight.”
“Got something going on?” Alya asked her best friend with a raised brow.
“Just running some errands is all,” Marinette was able to smoothly answer. Thankfully with some help from Alix lying through her teeth became a lot easier, especially due to having a list of excuse’s to turn to. “My parents have been a bit busier then usually lately what with the upcoming winter season, people wanna get all the fall goodies before they’re gone for good.”
“Can’t blame em,” Nino nodded his head, fully understanding that. “Those pumpkin cookies are to freaking die for,”
“Well it’s really cool you’re helping your parents out like that,” Adrien complimented Marinette, making the shorter girl blush shyly a little bit. But soon Adrien’s face turned to a frown as the blond boy sighed. “Sadly I won’t be able to make it…”
A series of groans was heard from the table in response to this, everyone already knowing where this was going to lead too. “Let me guess…” Nino shook his head, clenching his fist a bit at his best friends lack of free time.
“Yep, modeling gig. My father says I can’t miss this one, or he can’t hire other models like all other companies freaking do…” Adrien muttered that last bit with a bit of venom in his voice. Everyone that knew Adrien at least decently well knew that his relationship with his father was…well…calling it messy would be an understatement. All they knew was that Adrien wasn’t exactly fond of the man and Mr. Agreste just seemed to want to try and control every aspect of his sons life. No one tried to bring it up most of the time, they wanted Adrien to have a good time when he was out of the house but in times like this it was impossible not to bring the guy up. “I swear once I turn 18 I am so out of everything involving him…”
“Good on you man, you can crash with me!” Nino told his best friend with a friendly punch to the shoulder, making Adrien smile a bit. Nino always knew how to put a smile on his face even when his dad was brought up. “My parents know about your whole situation and they’d totally let you live with us, then you and me can find our own place together eventually!”
“And where exactly do I fit in this plan of yours?” Alya asked her boyfriend with a raised brow. Nino flinched a little bit as Marinette and Alix looked to each other before watching in amusement. Alya tried to look intimidating but the girls knew she was just toying around with her boyfriend. “I don’t remember Adrien living with us as part of our future plans together.”
“Uuuuuh, well, of course we’re still gonna get an apartment babe!” Nino tried his best to save his butt from the wrath that was Alya Cesaire and quickly said the first thing that came to his mind. “Adrien…would just be our dog!”
“Pfffft, HAHAHAHAHA!!!” Immediately both Alix and Marinette burst into laughter at this while Adrien looked a bit taken aback. Nino looked around awkwardly as the shorter girls feel onto the table in their laughing fit and Alya’s growing grin showed she was trying her best not to do the same as well. “O-Oh my God!”
“Ok…that’s slightly demeaning…” Adrien said slowly as he looked down before glancing at Nino and Alya. “And for the record…I’d prefer to be the cat.”
And it was at this point that Alya finally gave in and began laughing loudly herself as Marinette and Alix’s laughter only intensified. “O-OH IT HURTS! AHAHAHAHA!!!” Alix laughed out loudly as she pounded her fist against the table in her laughing fit “IT HURTS TO LAUGH AND I LOVE IT!”
“YES! THAT WORKS SO WELL!!” Marinette also put a hand on her stomach to try and do anything to help calm down her laughter. “YOU GOTTA WEAR A LITTLE BELL TOO!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!”
“…Bells are cool…” Adrien crossed his arms and pouted, but all it did was make him look adorable.
“O-Ok…I was not expecting it to go that way but I’m glad it did!” Alya briefly took off her glasses and wiped away tears of laughter that formed in her eyes. “Nino relaxing, I’m fucking with you. And Adrien, I’m totally cool with you crashing with me and Nino when we get our own place.” Nino breathed a sigh of relief as Adrien smiled gratefully at Alya. “Unless of course you get a girlfriend to live with when that time comes~”
“Heh, that would be pretty cool,” Adrien definitely liked how that sounded. But he completely missed Alya sending a wink towards Marinette at this. “We’ll just have to wait and see though,”
“Subtle…” Marinette grumbled towards Alya with pink dusting her cheeks, Alix chuckling and patting Marinette on the back.
Yep, just another lunch period at College Francoise Dupont.
“Come on! Come on Juleka! Hurry up!” Rose skipped with a bounce to her step through the halls of the apartment building her family lived in, following close behind was Juleka who watched her short blond friend with a look of both amusement and fondness. It was clear whatever news Rose got that she was keeping a surprise from Juleka was something big. Rose was just waiting for the day to end, always looking at either the block in the classroom or on her phone and she struggled to sit still in her seat. Thankfully she didn’t get this news until before Ms. Mendeliev’s class or Rose probably would have gotten into some trouble. “Just wait till you see it!”
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Juleka chuckled a bit as she sped up a bit to keep up with Rose. “So we’re at your building now, can you tell me what the surprise is now?”
“Nope~!” Rose grinned as she turned back to Juleka. “I told you before you’re going to have to see it for yourself Juleka~”
“Hehe, alright then.” Juleka simply went along with it and continued to follow after Rose. Eventually they reached the familiar door that led to the apartment of Rose’ family. Smiling brightly and excitedly, Rose reached into her purse and took out the key to her apartment and quickly unlocked the door before opening it and rushing Juleka to go inside. “So is it somewhere in here?”
“He should be around here somewhere?” Rose narrowed her eyes as she looked around. Meanwhile Juleka rose her brow as she looked down at rose, who was he? Wait a minute. Could it possibly be him? “Where are yo-
“Raaaaah!!!” A voice yelled around as a figured run up to Rose and grabbed the girl…before wrapping her up in a big hug that lifted her off the ground. Holding Rose in his arms was an adult man with dirty blond hair, blue eyes that were the exact same shade as Rose’s. They were a tall man, contrasting Rose’s small frame and her wore a thin brown coat, a dark yet shirt, simple blue jeans and black shoes, and on his wrist was a pink homemade bracelet, of course made by his daughter. “There’s my princess!!!”
“Daddy!” Rose began laughing and smiled and immediately wrapped her arms around the ma that was revealed to be Rose’s father, Adrian Lavillant. Juleka hasn’t seen the man in some time, from what Rose told him he recently got a new job that required him to be away from home. “You really are here!”
“Of course I am!” Adrian gave his daughter a smile that rivaled her own as he held his precious little girl in his arms for the first time in quite a while. “Your mother told me I’d be back in town and when have I ever let you down princess?”
“Hehe, never!” Rose happily leaned into her dads embrace, happy to see her old man again. Meanwhile Juleka watched the sight with a fond smile. Juleka knew Rose’s family quite well due to often coming over and could feel how sad Rose was when her dad got that new job, so seeing them like this again was really heartwarming. Juleka was glad Rose had a good father looking out for her even from a distance, something she wished she and Luka had for herself. “Oh, and look who’s here with me daddy!”
“Juleka!” Adrian’s gaze turned to her and Rose’s father greeted Juleka with nothing but warm kindness. “It’s great seeing you again, get over here!”
“O-Ok!” Juleka, even with her spider sense, was barley able to react as Adrian grabbed her wrist and brought her into the hug allowing both him and Rose to wrap an arm around her. Juleka couldn’t help but smile and lean into the embrace as well as she wrapped her arms around Adrian and Rose. “It’s great seeing you again Mr. Lavillant.”
“Haha, Juleka how many times have I told ya,” Adrian chuckled good naturedly as he broke away from the hug and set his daughter back down, but she still clung to his arm. “You’re practically part of the family, just call me Adrian.”
“Heh, right, sorry,” Juleka sheepishly apologized before chuckling a little bit. “Ya know it’s actually kinda funny calling you that now,”
“Why’s that?” Adrian asked with a raised brow.
“Oh that’s right you wouldn’t know!” Rose pointed out before giggling and looking up at her father. “We have a new student at our school and his name is Adrien too! Only it’s spelled with an E,”
“Ah is that so,” Adrian hummed with interest before smirking a bit smugly. “Well my name comes first in the alphabet so clearly I’m the superior Adrian,”
Rose and Juleka giggled a bit at his joke as a new voice spoke up. “Real classy there honey,” Walking into the room from the kitchen was Rose’s mother and Adrian’s wife, Celine Lavillant. Celine was shorter than her husband, being only a bit taller than her daughter, and had blond hair that was the same shade as Rose’s and was done in a ponytail that reached her waist. She wore a sapphire blue dress that reached her knees with a pair of ruby red short heels and black stockings that reached past her knees. She also had a necklace with a gold colored pendant on it that had an opal in it. “Is comparing your name to others what you’ve been doing to entertain yourself while you’ve been gone.”
“Hey, I have to do something to keep myself entertained while I’m on the clock,” Adrian claimed as Celine rolled her eyes before walking up to her husband and planting a kiss on his cheek, Rose bouncing up and down in happiness as she wrapped her arms around both her parents. “Spending all those hours cramped in the truck does things to ya honey,”
“Truck?” Juleka repeated as she looked at Adrian. “You work with trucks?”
“Yep! Well, I work in them, I’m a delivery man,” Adrian explained as Juleka nodded her head. “But not just a normal delivery man, the kind that transports stuff for rich big shots, the kind that pay big bucks for delivering stuff unharmed and untimed.”
“No kidding about the big bucks part,” Celine chuckled a bit as she remembered what she saw this morning. “I saw the payment you got this morning, I almost dropped my phone into the pot while making breakfast.”
“So daddy, how long are you gonna be home?” Rose looked up at her dad with those big bright eyes. “A week? Maybe a little longer?”
“Well depends on when I’m called in again, could be a week or longer or shorter then that,” Adrian explained, and as she saw Rose frowned at the idea of his stay being shorter he was quick to try and cheer her up again. “Which is why all my time here is gonna be dedicated to spending time with you princess!”
“Yay!” Rose again perked up and wrapped her father into a big hug with both arms.
“Glad to know I’m high on the priority list,” Celine sassed to her husband who sent her a grin. Celine sighed before rolling her eyes fondly, she just couldn’t stay mad at the man. “Juleka would you like to stay for dinner?”
“I’d love to,” Juleka nodded, more then happy to take up that invite.
“Oh, uh, before that,” Adrian spoke up as he reluctantly broke away from his daughters embrace to walk up to Juleka. “Juleka, do you think we could talk privately in the hall for a second please?”
“Um, sure I guess,” Juleka shrugged, not seeing too much of an issue with this. Stepping out of the apartment, Adrian and Juleka stood across from each other as Adrian closed the door. “So what did you need to talk to me about Mr. Lav-I mean Adrian.”
“First off I just wanna say, thank you for being there for Rose while I can’t be.” Adrian said with nothing but sincerity in his voice as he looked Juleka right in the eye. “I took this job for her, to help get more money. But not being able to be there for her incase something happens it…it terrifies me. So knowing she has you to help look out for her while she’s out of the house and Celine can’t watch over her, it really helps.”
“Of course sir,” Juleka nodded her head, smiling softly at the father of Rose. “She’s my best friend, I’d do anything for her,”
“And I can’t be more thankful for that,” Adrian meant it, he was infinitely grateful for Rose having someone like Juleka in her life that treasured Rose just as much as he did. It wasn’t fair that someone has sweet, innocent, and kind as his daughter had to go through what she had. “Has…Has her CODP acted up lately?”
“No, I don’t believe so,” The subject of Rose’s illness was always…touchy to those who knew about it. Rose didn’t like it to be brought up because she didn’t like others thinking of her as fragile or incapable because of it, but her family and Juleka still couldn’t help but worry. Especially whenever it flared up. “She’s been taking her medication, and she’s been in really good health lately.”
“I’m so glad…” Adrian breathed a sigh of relief. When Rose’s medication started getting more expensive, Adrian feared not being able to provide for her. But then well…he got an offer that he couldn’t refuse and the money certainly spoke for itself. “It’s still not fair she has to go through that…I curse whatever God decided to inflict my sweet little girl with that…”
“Hm.” Juleka flinched a bit. She’s never heard Adrian speak with so much…intensity before.
“Oh, s-sorry,” Adrian quickly apologized, he kinda just let that slip out didn’t he? “Just…wish she didn’t have to go through all of this is all,”
“It’s ok,” Juleka put her smile back on and chalked it up to Adrian just being protective over his daughter. She was sure any father would be the same if their child was born with any kind of illness or disease. “I promise I’ll always be there to look after Rose.”
“Thank Juleka, truly thank you,” Adrian looked up at Juleka again, tears building up in the mans eyes. Quickly sniffling a bit, Adrian wiped his eyes before gesturing to the apartment door. “Come on, enough of the somber stuff. Let’s go eat!”
“Heh, sounds good,” Juleka didn’t have any complaints about that and followed Adrian back inside of the apartment.
SNAP!
SNAP!
SNAP!
Adrien never liked these photo shoots. Just stand there, pose like a statue, were a plastic smile, and put on whatever cloths his father wanted him to put on. Most of which he didn’t even like, he preferred darker cloths. Shades of black, green, and a bit of yellow. Everything his father made him model was just to bright for his taste.
He didn’t like most of the activates his father made him do. Piano was really boring, learning another language was a useful skill but at this point his Chinese lessons were getting boring and repetitive. He did like fencing through, at first it was just another thing that his father made him do but Adrien found himself actually getting pretty engaged with it and, not to brag, but he grew to be pretty good. Still though, would it really kill his father to show up to any of his fencing tournaments? Or literally any of his activities or anything else he did instead of just locking himself in his office 24/7. At this point Adrien was convinced his father slept in their.
“Hey, hey, Adrien,” Suddenly Adrien was brought out of his thoughts by the words of his photographer who was giving him a stern look. “Come on, I need the happy faces. Your father is not paying me to take pictures of you moping!”
“Of course he’s not…” Adrien sighed out loud before looking at the camera with the biggest fakest grin he could put on. “There, that better?”
“A little less sass will do but yes,” The photographer nodded as he began snapping pictures again. “Now stay just like that,”
As the photographer was doing his job, standing away and making sure he was out of the shot was Adrien’s bodyguard, most known by his nickname the Gorilla. And his nickname definitely fit as he was an incredibly strong looking man, taller then most people and arms just as big as someone like Adrien. Needless to say he as good as his job thanks to his appearance alone and if you pushed him he showed he wasn’t all talk, not that he tended to talk that much mind you.
Currently he was both making sure to keep any one from getting near Adrien as well as just making sure people stayed away from this section of the park in general. Mr. Agreste rented out this part of the park for the photoshoots, something his boss did often. But still, he couldn’t help but spare the occasional sympathetic glance at Adrien. Being silent and simply listen to others talk all the time made on very observant and well…you didn’t need to be observant to see Adrien didn’t like what he was doing.
Gorilla knew Adrien hated most of the things his father did, and knew that Adrien didn’t exactly like the man in general. And he completely understood why, it honestly pissed Gorilla off how negligent Gabriel was with his son, his own flesh and blood. He already lost his mother and now he might as well have no father too, and Natalie certainly didn’t do anything to help out. So Gorilla did his best to be an ear for Adrien to vent his problems to and a shoulder to lean on when he needed it. The boy needed someone in his life to do that for him.
Step. Step.
Suddenly Gorilla was snapped out of his thoughts by the sounds of footsteps approaching him. Looking, Gorilla’s eyes widened as he saw another man approaching him. He was a tall muscular man much like himself, but was leaner as opposed to Gorilla’s broader frame, skinned that was lightly tanned, brown eyes and brown hair that was done in a buzz cut. He wore a simply black shirt under a green jacket and gray jeans and brown combat boots. And around his shoulder was a large brown barrel bag. He also had a notable scar on his face and radiated an aura of toughness that immediately made Gorilla suspicious of the approaching man.
As he was walking forward, despite not really approaching the photo shoot, Gorilla stepped in front of the man and blocked up from going forward. The man was silent and kept a stoic face, but there was a slight twitch in his eye that Gorilla could tell meant why he was blocking him. Reaching into his pocket, Gorilla took out the piece of paper that showed this part of the park was reserved for the moment. Seeing this, the man opened his mouth to response. “I’m just passing through,” His voice was gruff and dull, but there was a dangerous edge to it. “I need to get somewhere.”
Gorilla narrowed his eyes before looking in the direction of the man was going and seeing one of the park exits that way. Technically, he could still try and get this man to back away from the premises, but if he was just passing through and didn’t get in the way of the photos then it was fine. Besides, Gorilla didn’t want to start any trouble. Especially since this guy gave him bad vibes. So the Gorilla stepped to the side and nodded at the man, allowing him to pass.
“Thanks,” Was all the man said before walking towards the park exit. Once he left he was easily able to blend into the crowd of the citizens of Paris. Just another everyday face, sure he was more intimidating then most but otherwise no attention was drawn to him. Just the way he liked it. Right now, there was only one person who’s attention he wanted at the moment and he knew how to get it.
As he walked through the streets, he eventually reached a jewelry store. His face still stoic, the man opened up his bag before pulling out a helmet that was red and yellow in color, the back being red and the facial part being yellow with black lines decorating the yellow part almost resembling a fish-net pattern. Putting on the helmet, the man cracked his neck a few times before entering the store.
…
…
…
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
Ghost-Spider was in a great mood as she swung around the streets of Paris. The sun was going down by the time she left Rose’ apartment after spending a bit of time with her best friends family. She was immensely happy to see Adrian come back to town for however long as he’ll be here, she couldn’t wait to get back home and tell Luka the news.
But first, a quick lap or two around the town couldn’t hurt. Can’t be to sure that their wouldn’t be some bad guys causing trouble. And it seems that would be the case here today as her ears perked up from within her mask as she heard the sounds of police sirens and looked down to see a couple of police cars racing down the road. “Guess Luka’s gonna have to wait,” Ghost-Spider muttered to herself before changing directions and swing towards the cop cars. Eventually this led her to a jewelry store near the park that had a number of police cars and cops around it. Landing on one of the cars, the thud she made as she landed got the attention of the police as they looked towards the spider hero with surprised looks. “Hey, was just swinging around the neighborhood and couldn’t help but notice the commotion. What’s going on?”
“Ghost-Spider,” Stepping up to her was an officer that she knew as Roger Raincomprix, Sabrina’s father. “It’s the damnedest thing, we got a jewel thief.”
“How is that the damnedest thing?” Ghost-Spider asked with a raised brow. “Isn’t that like, the most basic kind of bad guy there is? Other than purse snatcher.”
“Yeah but this guy clearly wasn’t your run of the mill jewel thief,” Roger explained seriously as he gestured to the shop’s door. Ghost-Spider watched and gasped as some officers brought out some people that were knocked out cold. “Everyone was out, camera’s disabled, no nearby witnesses, and every single piece of jewelry was taken. This guy made sure he covered his tracks…allegedly.”
“Allegedly?” Ghost-Spider repeated. Roger gestured for the spider hero to follow him. Following the cop into the nearby alley, Roger took out a flash light and pointed it at the ground and shown a discarded pair of earrings. “Looks like he lost a piece.”
“Not just one,” Roger then pointed his flashlight down the alley further and revealed another discarded piece of jewelry. Then another, and another, and another at the end. And Ghost-Spider had a feeling there was more down the corner. “This isn’t just some clumsy thief losing the goods, he set up a trail. He wants to be followed.”
“Hmmmmm…” Ghost-Spider hummed in thought. Whoever this guy was…it was clear he knew what he was doing. Knocking out everyone, cutting cameras, he didn’t want to be seen. But clearly he wanted to be followed shown by the path of jewelry. He committed this crime for the sole purpose of getting someones attention, and she had a feeling that this was meant for her. “I think he wants me.”
“Think so?” Roger asked with a raised brow.
“If he wanted to after the police, he could have stuck around,” Ghost-Spider explained as she put a hand to her chin in thought. Considering all the details, this was definitely her best guest. “And if this was an Akuma after Ladybug and Cat Noir well…Hawk Moth isn’t exactly known for being subtle like this,”
“Heh, true enough.” Roger sighed out as he took off his hat and ran a hand through his hair. Goodness knows that Hawk Moth and his Akuma’s have made his work a lot harder lately, and if it wasn’t for Ghost-Spider coming in and dealing with thieves and actual criminals and not just brain washed super powered citizens then he was positive the office would be in hell. “You realize you could be walking into a trap then right?”
“Not a trap if I’m prepared for it,” Ghost-Spider said with confidence before reading herself as she went down the alley. “I’ll leave the jewels, you and the other officers can retrieve them and give me back up if things start going down,”
“Right,” Roger nodded as he watch the Ghost-Spider walk off into the alley.
Ghost-Spider followed every piece of jewelry through the maze of an alleyway she was in. A ring, a pair of earrings, a necklace, and on and on and on. Each one set up perfectly straight from the other one. Yeah, if this wasn’t supposed to be a trail of gem encrusted breadcrumbs she was supposed to follow she didn’t know what was.
She wasn’t sure what she was heading into. An ambush with a bunch of armed goons? The Vulture? Something else entirely? All she could do was keep following and see where it all led and rely on her spider sense to help her detect any sort of trouble. But suddenly she felt tensed up a bit as her spider sense went off. Looking up, she saw a familiar figure jumping down into the alleyway. “And just what do you think you’re doing Ghost-Spider?” Jumping in front of her and immediately aiming suspicions at her was none other than Ladybug herself. After seeing Ladybug, Ghost-Spider let out a sigh. At this point she was getting a bit annoyed with the hero and Ladybug showing that she didn’t exactly like her. Ghost-Spider was content with just avoiding Ladybug at this point, but looks like this time Ladybug went to her. “Sneaking around in alleyways huh? Any reason for that?”
“Why do you care?” Ghost-Spider asked with narrowed eyes. “And were you spying on me or something?”
“I was swinging around and just so happened to notice you sneaking around here,” Ladybug explained as she stood in the spider hero’s way to keep her from going any farther. After the movies and some time with her friends, Ladybug went on her usual Akuma patrol and as she was swinging from roof top to roof top she noticed the Ghost-Spider walking through the alley and immediately knew something was up. “And I care because it’s my job to watch out for Paris’ safety from potential threats. All potential threats!”
“I am not a threat! In case you couldn’t tell I’ve been helping keep Paris safe just like you!” Ghost-Spider silently yelled back at Ladybug, jabbing her chest with her finger and making Ladybug back up and flinch before glaring more at the Ghost-Spider. Ok, now Ghost-Spider could say she was getting pretty pissed off at the insect themed hero. “And for your information, I’m following a jewel thief. They robbed a shop and left a trail to follow, see for yourself.”
Ladybug looked and did in fact see a trail of seemingly discarded jewelry forming a trail down the alley. “O-Oh…” Ladybug found her cheeks going a bit red in response to this. The narrowed eyes she was getting from Ghost-Spider didn’t help either…how the heck did her mask even do that with the eyes? Trying to get her composure in front of the Ghost-Spider, Ladybug put her hands on her hips. “Well if that’s the case…I’m coming with you,”
“What?” Ghost-Spider now just grew confused. So first Ladybug was apparently claiming she was up to now good and now she wanted to come along with her? “You want to come with me? Why?”
“Well like I said I’m responsible for Paris’ safety.” Ladybug claimed, once again making Ghost-Spider deadpan at her. She was still a hero to in case the ladybug hero somehow forgot that. “So if there’s something going wrong I should be there to handle it.”
“Where was that mindset during all the robberies I stopped or during the Vulture chase,” Ghost-Spider muttered with enough volume for Ladybug to hear causing the insect themed hero to send her a nasty look. Sighing, Ghost-Spider didn’t want to start and argument so she relented. “Fine, but be on guard. This isn’t just some random Akuma. We’re clearly dealing with an experienced criminal.”
“I can handle myself,” Ladybug insisted as they both followed the path of discarded jewelry. They were mostly silent as they walked together and simply followed the jewels, occasionally Ladybug would try to walk ahead of Ghost-Spider to try and take the lead on but Ghost-Spider would walk a bit faster in response and though the spider hero didn’t look her way Ghost-Spider could tell this was annoying Ladybug. “Do you mind?”
“Mind what?” Ghost-Spider decided to be a little cheeky with her response as she walked ahead of Ladybug much to her irritation. “I’m just following the jewels same as you,”
“Grrrr…” Ladybug growled out as she walked faster to try and pass the Ghost-Spider only to see her stop in place. “Hey, what you’d stop?”
“The trail leads in there,” Ghost-Spider pointed forward, causing Ladybug to look forward and see they had arrived at a rather dirty looking street. And the trail of jewels led into an old decayed building labeled as condemned. “Whoever left that trail wants us to go in there,”
“We need a plan,” Ladybug said as she looked up at the building, trying to think of how they should go about this. “We should scout the building first and see if we can spot anyone inside and then-Hey!” But Ladybug didn’t get to finish his plan as Ghost-Spider began walking in. “What are you doing?! We need a plan!”
“We won’t get anything just standing around out here,” Ghost-Spider said as she kept walking towards the building. “If this guys wants a confrontation I’ll give him one,”
“Grrrrr! Just like Cat…” Ladybug growled out in irritation as she followed after Ghost-Spider.
Unaware to both, watching them from a nearby rooftop was a figure with flowing emerald eyes and a conical hat.
Stepping into the building, the two heroes saw why it was condemned. The walls were faded, filled with holes and some parts of it had mold on it. The structure look unstable and it was clear this building hasn’t been shown any form of care for years, just waiting for the day a construction crew to come by and tear it to the ground and put it out of its misery.
“Well, we’re in here now,” Ladybug shouted out in annoyance at them just blindly walking into what would no doubt be a trap. “Now what?”
But before Ghost-Spider could respond.
Clink!
Suddenly the sound of something metallic hitting the floor got both heroes attention as they looked and saw a ring rolling down on the floor heading towards them, hitting Ghost-Spiders foot before stopping on the floor. Picking the ring up, Ghost-Spider narrowed her eyes as her spider sense go off, signaling that someone was near. “Show yourself,” Ghost-Spider demanded. “We know you’re here.”
Just then loud footsteps were hood, and emerging from the shadows from where the ring came by was someone wearing a full body suit. It was red and yellow in cover with the yellow having a fishnet pattern to it along with metal boots and gauntlets attached to their hands. And the eyes on the helmet made them look like they have pure white eyes. “Glad you could make it Ghost-Spider,” The suit wearing man said with a gruff stoic voice. “Was worried you might not make it, my boss has become quite annoyed with you,”
“So, you a part of this strange gang as well?” Ghost-Spider asked as Ladybug quickly took out her yoyo and got ready for a fight. “Mind telling me a bit about this boss?”
“Fraid that’s not my place to tell, not that’ll matter since you’ll be dead soon,” The man said as he cracked his knuckles and neck a few times making Ladybug flinch. “But since I believe one should know the name of your killer…”
“Call me Shocker.”