AN: This series of one-shots came out of a desire to answer the question, "What are the other heroes up to while Chloe is missing during 'The Queen is Dead'?" At this point in the "Mind Games"-verse, there are no less than 18 members of the Heroes of Paris. Of them, 2 are out of town and 6 factor heavily in the events of "The Queen is Dead," but that still leaves 10 unaccounted for. So this series focuses on the other heroes. Consequently, there is a lot of connection between these one-shots and everything that has come before in the "Mind Games"-verse "Spring Break" event which began with "The Press Conference."

Nathaniel doesn't know anyone's identities (yet). This begins a little after "The Queen is Dead" Chapter 3. There are major connections to "Monkey Games."

Non-Canon Heroes:

Geber – Nathaniel (Rooster Miraculous)

Sk8r Girl – Alix (no miraculous)

Nathaniel crouched over his sketchpad, working to bring to life the image in his head. After his fight against the Animal Man the day before alongside King Monkey, he had been struck by the image of the two heroes fending off a pair of panthers. So this morning he had gone for a walk, trying to find the right background for the painting he wanted to sketch out – he couldn't incorporate that scene into his comic book, but he could still memorialize it – perhaps the Heroes could display it in the Headquarters he had yet to see. His feet had taken him past the zoo, which was still in some disarray as the zookeepers worked to reorganize the animals and secure their cages properly. He had walked through the Trocadéro, but rejected that as well. Finally, he found himself sitting on a bench in front of Notre Dame Cathedral, staring up at the imposing façade. Perhaps a stained glass aesthetic, he thought, eyeballing the stained glass window for a model.

He was just putting the finishing touches on one of the panthers when his phone chimed. Setting aside the charcoal and sketchpad, he pulled out his phone and checked the caller ID. He frowned. Why is Carapace calling right now? We're not supposed to train today… A surreptitious glance around the courtyard satisfied him that he was alone. He hit the answer button.

"What's up, Turtle Dude?" He smirked.

Carapace was silent. Nathaniel heard a heavy sigh on the other end.

"Carapace?"

"We've got a problem, Geber," Carapace finally told him, his voice heavy. "Queen Bee is missing."

"Wait, what? What do you mean she's missing?"

"Exactly that: she was abducted during the press conference, but we didn't realize it at the time."

"Yesterday? But… she's been texting me all day!"

"We know. Whoever took her has been pretending to be her to throw us off. We're looking into all the texts they sent. You shouldn't receive any more, but any messages you do receive from her – from any source – report directly to Pegasus." Nathaniel could hear the anger and irritation in Carapace's voice.

"Um, yes, sir." Nathaniel was quiet for a minute, thinking. "Um… does this mean you want me out looking for her now?"

"No," Carapace told him. "For now it's business as usual. Keep everything normal. As far as we know, they don't know we know they have her, and we want to keep it that way as long as possible. If we find a way for you to help with the search, we'll let you know."

"You got it, boss."

Carapace chuckled humorlessly. "I know you got a question, dude. What is it?"

Nathaniel frowned. "It's just… Orikko says a good Rooster is supposed to keep an eye out for dangers to the group. Why didn't I see this coming?"

"You know, I've been asking myself similar questions since we found out," replied Carapace. "My thing is Protection, so why couldn't I protect her? We're good, but sometimes the other side catches a break. Everyone can share in the blame for what happened to Chloe. But right now all that matters is for us to work together and find her. And for right now, we have to act like everything is normal. Can I count on you?"

"I'll try."

Nathaniel hung up the phone and tried to return to his drawing, but every attempt left him frustrated and unsatisfied. After a dozen abortive attempts to continue his drawing, each worse than the last, he finally shoved his sketchpad into his bag, packed up his pencils, and stood up to return home. He was waiting at the traffic light to cross the street and head home when his phone rang again. Again, it was one of the Heroes.

"I'm not exactly in the mood, especially after that stunt yesterday," he said on answering the call. "What's on your mind, Monkey Boy?"

King Monkey laughed. "Yeah… sorry about that," he replied. "I had a bear to find. So… I take it Carapace already talked to you."

"Yeah. He did. So what's up?"

"I have an idea how we might track down Queen Bee, but I need your help to pull it off. You busy tonight?"

The light changed and Nathaniel stepped off the curb. "Not really. Does Carapace know about this?"

"I ran it past him before I called you," answered King Monkey. "If you're in, he'll drop off your miraculous. So… are you in?"

Nathaniel shrugged. "Why not? So what's the plan?"

"Meet at the Eiffel Tower at eight."

"You got it." Nathaniel was almost across the street when he heard the screech of tires from his right. He put on a burst of speed and dove onto the sidewalk moments before a car stopped halfway into the crosswalk. "Watch it, jackass!" he shouted, glaring at the driver angrily. He turned and stormed off without waiting for an acknowledgement.

At quarter to eight that night, Nathaniel was doodling in the margins of his sketchbook when Pegasus opened a small portal on his nightstand and placed a small black box with a red pattern etched into the lid next to his glasses case. Nathaniel glanced up when the portal opened, but didn't see anything through it apart from Pegasus standing in front of what looked like a trio of giant computer monitors.

"Good luck keeping King Monkey in line tonight," Pegasus told him, raising an eyebrow. "Let me know when you're finished and I can retrieve your miraculous."

"You got it," Nathaniel agreed. "But when do I get to keep my miraculous?"

Pegasus shrugged. "Not my call. You'll have to ask Ladybug about that." With that, the portal winked out of existence.

Nathaniel opened the familiar box and slid the ring onto his thumb as a burst of red-orange light shot out of it and resolved into Orikko. "Twice in as many days?" the Kwami observed, folding his arms and spinning through a back-flip. "I wondered if you were going to bow out after yesterday's excitement!"

"Who, me?" Nathaniel asked, smirking down at him and breaking off a piece of the sesame seed bagel he'd picked up on the way home. "Why wouldn't I want to fight giant cats while dressed up like a giant bird?"

"I find the characterization of roosters as birds to be lazy and offensive!" Orikko huffed, folding his arms. Nathaniel arched an eyebrow at him, and he rolled his eyes. "Fine, I admit it's accurate. So what are we up to tonight?"

"King Monkey didn't say," he replied with a shrug, stuffing the rest of the bagel into his pocket. "Orikko, Let's crow!"

Five minutes later, Geber vaulted across the street, rolled to his feet just outside the Champ de Mars, and raced through the park toward the usual meeting spot at the base of the Eiffel Tower. As he drew closer, he recognized King Monkey leaning on his staff near one of the tower legs. Beside him was someone wearing a black helmet that entirely covered their hair and sported a tinted shield extending down to cover the top of their head. Stopping a couple meters away, he got a closer look at the figure, who was clearly a girl, a few centimeters shorter than himself, wearing a powder-blue T-shirt and athletic pants, with black rollerblades, gloves, and knee and elbow pads to match her black helmet. She was leaning against the tower leg, and over one shoulder he could see the taped handle of an athletic stick. Something about her looked far too familiar.

"Another recruit?" Geber asked, glancing at King Monkey in question.

King Monkey shrugged. "She helped me out yesterday, so LB thought we could let her tag along," he explained. "First mission, testing new equipment, and all that."

"I'm just 'tagging along,'?" the new girl scoffed. "If it weren't for me, you'd still be trapped under a bear's ass!"

"Seriously?" retorted King Monkey. "Can't we move past that?"

"Nope." She turned to Geber. "Call me Sk8r Girl." She smirked. "Spelled with an '8.'"

Geber furrowed his brow and tilted his head in confusion. He opened his mouth to ask a question, but none would come.

Seeing his confusion, she grinned maliciously, "It looks like a bear's butt cheeks. Like the ones I saved Monkey Brains from!"

King Monkey groaned and buried his face in his hands. "You are not going to let that go, are you?"

"Not any time soon," she promised.

"So… what's the plan?" Geber asked King Monkey.

Sk8r Girl laughed. "You came up with a plan?" she mocked.

King Monkey shook his head and looked at Geber. "Ignore her," he said. "Here's the plan: you go up to the top of the Eiffel Tower and use Vigilance. It points to enemies, right? So if we're lucky, the ones it points us to will be the ones holding Queen Bee."

"Huh." Sk8r Girl nodded approvingly. "That's… actually not a bad plan."

"See? I'm more than just a pretty face!" King Monkey struck a pose.

"Has anyone ever said you had a pretty face?" retorted Sk8r Girl.

"Why do I have to be the mature one in this group?" Geber muttered, coiling his legs and springing into the tower structure, leaving their bickering behind. He clambered up the tower, jumping from beam to beam. On reaching the last observation deck at the top of the tower he jumped, swung around a pipe, and threw himself meters into the air, twisting around to land on the very tip of the tower. The whole of Paris spread out beneath him in the gloom of dusk. Carefully he pushed himself up to his feet, balancing carefully atop the antenna. Before receiving his miraculous, he had disliked heights with a burning passion; when transformed, however, nothing could throw him off his game. He drew his spur from its place on his back, twirled it above his head once, and slammed one end into the antenna tip between his feet. "Vigilance!"

An orange ring passed rapidly down the sides of the tower and spread from the tower's base in all directions. In the fading light of dusk Geber watched the ring work its way down the streets away from him in every direction. It passed over the river, through buildings, and off into the distance without showing any signs of slowing. He held his breath.

It was nearly a minute later when an orange line darted back to the Eiffel Tower from the southwest. Seeing it coming, Geber jumped from the antenna over the observation deck, aiming to land on one of the support legs. He bent his knees to cushion the impact, swung his spur out for balance, and slid down the support on the soles of his boots. On reaching the ground he took off at a dead sprint to follow the Vigilance line. Pounding footsteps from the opposite side of the tower indicated that King Monkey had seen the line also. Geber slowed his pace slightly for the other two to catch up.

"So Chloe should be the pot of gold at the end of this orange rainbow?" Sk8r Girl asked, pumping her skates and keeping up with the two heroes easily.

"That's the idea," King Monkey replied.

"I hope you're right," commented Geber. "Orikko says that Vigilance really isn't an exact science. It will just point out the most direct and immediate threat. That could be the guy pointing a gun at my head; it could be the chilidog I was about to eat!"

"Better keep the chilidogs away from Gassy over there," Sk8r Girl joked, poking a thumb at King Monkey.

"… Do the two of you need to get a room?"

Sk8r Girl's only response was retching sounds. King Monkey just laughed.

Geber rolled his eyes, not slowing down as the three heroes raced across the deserted street. The Vigilance line lit up a straight path down the center of the road ahead of them, stretching to the horizon. However, movement a block ahead of them caught Geber's eye. He slowed down to look closer, and saw a man raising his fist to punch a woman crouching in front of him, who held her hands up protectively. Without meaning to, Geber found himself drawn across the street to investigate.

"No, p–please!" the woman begged, cradling her stomach.

"I told you I didn't want to!" the man yelled, pulling back his leg and aiming a kick at her gut.

Geber launched himself at the man and knocked him to the ground. At the same time, King Monkey landed in front of the woman, gently picked her up, and carried her to the nearby apartment building, where he set her down on the stoop. Geber grabbed the man's shirt and hauled him up, holding him so his toes barely touched the ground. "Is that any way to treat a lady?" he asked, glaring at him.

"N–no!"

"No, it is not. So what are you going to do now?"

"L–leave her alone?"

"I think that's a good idea," Geber agreed.

"The cops are already on their way, dirtbag," Sk8r Girl announced, staring at him with her arms folded. "I suggest you stay here and play nice with the boys in blue. Because we'll be watching."

The man nodded dumbly. Geber set him down, and he sat on the edge of the sidewalk, hugging his legs. A bulldog wandered out of a nearby alley, walked up to the man, and sat down right in front of him, growling. Geber glanced at King Monkey, who frowned and raised an eyebrow in a question. They didn't want to leave the situation like this, but they couldn't exactly wait; every minute they delayed meant another minute in which the Vigilance line could fade and they could lose the trail. In the end, Sk8r Girl solved the question for them by skating down the Vigilance line the moment police lights appeared a couple blocks away. Geber pushed himself up and followed her, with King Monkey racing behind them.

"I suppose we can't break up every petty crime and assault in the city at the moment," King Monkey commented, raising an eyebrow.

"You're probably right," agreed Geber. "Vigilance will only last for five minutes, and then I'll de-transform, the line will vanish, and we'll be right back where we started. But we can't exactly ignore something like that, right?"

"Not even a little bit." King Monkey sighed. "Welcome to the hero gig, bro. We can't save them all, but we sure want to try."

"If the two of you are done, we're here," Sk8r Girl announced, pointing at a nightclub directly in front of them, where the street they had been running down ended in a T. The Vigilance line disappeared straight through the club's wall.

Geber shrugged and pushed his way through the front door, ignoring the disgruntled murmuring from the crowd gathered along the wall behind a rope. The bouncer standing next to the door took one look at the three heroes, frowned in confusion, and stepped aside. "This had better be worth it," Geber muttered to King Monkey, who nodded in agreement.

The three heroes entered the club and immediately found the orange line to their right. Following the line deeper into the building, Geber stopped in front of a table with one man sitting at it. He looked closer, groaned, and immediately turned on his heel to leave. With a thought he dismissed the Vigilance line.

"What's wrong?" King Monkey asked, tilting his head.

"Outside."

Geber didn't say another word until they were again standing on the sidewalk outside the club. He pointed at one of the cars parked on the other side of the street. "You see that car?" The other two nodded. "That car almost ran me over this afternoon," he told them. He poked a thumb over his shoulder at the club. "That car belongs to that man in there, the one Vigilance brought us to. So apparently Vigilance thought he was my most immediate enemy tonight!"

King Monkey face-palmed.

"So much for that brilliant plan, huh, Monkey Brains?" Sk8r Girl smirked at them.

"I suppose we won't be the ones to find Chloe – at least not tonight," agreed King Monkey.

"So what do we do now?" Geber asked. "My timer is running low and I need to get home."

King Monkey shrugged. "I guess we can give this another try some other day."