Chapter 27: The Sapotis Part 1
Ah, Saturday! The start of the weekend and one of the most looked-forward-to mundane dates during the year. This notion rang even truer when friends planned to hang out on those days, especially sleepovers! This was exactly where Marinette and Alya found themselves the day after Glaciator's attack, eager to enjoy an evening to themselves at the Césaire family apartment. Marinette even asked Jim and Toby to not call them that night, hoping to enjoy her time with Alya uninterrupted. However, the only problem was that Alya's younger twin sisters, Ella and Etta, were refusing to go to bed and were running around the apartment while Marinette was on the phone with Mrs Césaire.
"Yes, Mrs. Césaire. The girls are ready for bed!" Marinette assured Mrs Césaire, both she and Alya dressed in their pyjamas while the bespeckled girl was playing with her little sisters in the living room. "Uh... technically speaking..." the designer nervously chuckled, having turned to check on Alya's progress of tiring the propeller hat-wearing twins.
"Yeah, we're good. Enjoy the movie!" Marinette farewelled the adult on the other end of the call, quickly turning off her cell phone just in time to see the giggling Ella and Etta hiding from Alya on the living room couch.
"Come on, you little monsters! It's bedtime for you two. That's enough mischief for one day!" Alya declared when she finally caught them, picking up her sisters and carrying them under her arms.
"It's not us! It's the Sapotis!" Ella and Etta cheered, laughing while Alya took them to their room and tucked each of her sisters into bed.
"Alright, off to bed, little Sapotis. You need to rest if you wanna be fighting fit for tomorrow." Alya said, sitting at the foot of Ella's bed while Marinette stood at the room doorway and watched her friend work.
"It's not fair! We don't wanna go to bed! We wanna stay up with you!" Etta whined, sitting up in her bed.
"Yeah! We wanna watch the movie and tell each other lots of secrets!" Ella added, copying her sister while helping plead the twins's request.
"And what kind of zombies will you be at the amusement park tomorrow if you go to bed late?" Alya questioned her sisters, followed by her turning to glance over at Marinette behind her. "Show 'em, Marinette!" the reporter requested, followed by Marinette pretending to yawn and feel exhausted like how she usually woke up in the morning. It was a good thing Marinette was such a good example to learn from, otherwise, Alya would have had a harder time convincing Ella and Etta to go to bed.
"So what's it going to be? Boring sit-down pyjama party with the big kids, or... the super fun cool amusement park tomorrow?" Alya asked her sisters.
"The amusement park!" Ella and Etta cheered, the both of them quickly settling down to sleep afterwards.
"That's what I thought. Goodnight, Sapotis." Alya said as she reached to remove Ella's hat, only for the girl to quickly cover it with her hands.
"Wait! Can we keep 'em on? Please?" Ella pleaded, turning on the puppy-dog eyes to sway Alya. Fortunately, it worked like a charm.
"All right. But go to sleep now." Alya chided her sisters, standing up from Ella's bed to walk to the door and turn off the light before closing the door and leaving the room so that Ella and Etta could go to sleep. Once that requirement was taken care of, Marinette and Alya went to work setting up the rest of their sleepover, taking over the living room now that Ella and Etta weren't running around causing mischief. And after getting the couch set up for watching their movie, came getting out the refreshments and snacks for them to enjoy.
"You seriously have a technique down with your little sisters." Marinette complimented Alya while getting out two plates and spoons in the kitchen, Alya setting down a tray with a pitcher of orange juice and two glasses on the coffee table in the meantime. "But... uh, who are the Sapa... Sapo...?" the pigtailed girl questioned her friend, having difficulty remembering the unfamiliar creature's name.
"The Sapotis?" Alya corrected, transferring the tray's contents to the table before tucking it under her arm. "Oh, they're just little monsters from a Créole fable. They are said to always be pulling pranks and making all sorts of mischief." the bespeckled girl explained, walking over to the kitchen while Marinette took a tray of assorted fruit out of the refrigerator.
"Huh, learn something new everyday." Marinette remarked while Alya placed her tray onto the kitchen counter, making a mental note to ask Blinky if the Sapotis were actually real at a later date.
"Speaking of learning new stuff, now that we're all alone I can finally tell you." Alya excitedly announced, pulling out her phone seemingly out of thin air to pull up what she wanted to show her friend. "Apparently, Ladybug has been around at least since the pharaohs, but no way can the Ladybug we know is five thousand years old!" the reporter exclaimed, showing Marinette a picture of the Ladybug image in the papyrus she had found during Pharoah's akumatization before turning the screen back to herself.
"So, I downloaded a great app that analyzed some recordings I had of her talking. Based on the frequencies of her voice, it turns out she's a girl our age!" Alya proclaimed, once again showing Marinette all that she had discovered and leaving the secret superhero extremely nervous.
"Euhh..." Marinette began anxiously, her gaze looking away from Alya's phone... and finding a convenient distraction. "Uh...Alya? The orange juice?" the red-tipped-haired girl said, pointing to the living room and causing Alya to abandon her reporter rambling to investigate.
Thanks to her best friend's observation, Alya walked to the dividing wall between the kitchen and living room to find that the pitcher of orange juice had been completely emptied when looking over the couch. And before Alya could even think otherwise, the sound of Ella and Etta's chuckling eliminated any doubt that they were the guilty party. Following her groan of disappointment, Alya went to the kitchen and grabbed a napkin before going to Ella and Etta's room and harshly opened the door to find the clearly awake twins in their beds again.
"Girls, I told you to go to bed. But then you snuck out of your room and drank all the orange juice Marinette and I had out." Alya lectured her sisters, quickly wiping their mouths of any leftover juice with the napkin.
"It's not us! It's the Sapotis!" Ella and Etta cheekily declared, even though their sticky mouths proved otherwise.
"Go to bed. Now!" Alya ordered the girls, prompting them to settle back into sleep before she left the room again.
But now that her sisters were taken care of, Alya went back to the living room just as Marinette set the tray of fruit on the coffee table. "Sorry about that. My sisters can be really tricky sometimes." the reporter apologised, feeling bad that her little sisters were interrupting her and her friend's sleepover.
"It's alright. Kids will be kids, after all. When are they not causing mischief?" Marinette reasoned as she returned to the kitchen, going to the fridge and pouring some more orange juice into the previously emptied pitcher.
"Fair point." Alya replied, glad that Marinette was so understanding. "Now, what were we saying again, Marinette?" the bespeckled girl asked while Marinette came back to the living room, startling so much that she nearly lost her grip on the pitcher.
"Uhh..." Marinette hesitantly started, quickly setting the pitcher down before running over to the TV and picking up some DVD cases. "We were about to watch a movie!" the designer said with a nervous chuckle, only to then notice that she was showing a DVD of a Ladybug anime to Alya. Immediately, she switched the offending DVD to rest behind a DVD of Megamind before letting out another nervous chuckle. But by then, the damage had already been done.
"Oh, yeah! Ladybug! She's like a high school girl." Alya exclaimed now that she remembered the topic they were talking about before being interrupted by Ella and Etta, pulling out her phone and walking towards the nervous Marinette.
"So to figure out who she really is, all we need to do is find a girl our age who's always late—" "Don't you think there's a reason why she keeps her identity a secret?" Marinette tensely interrupted Alya, pushing the reporter's phone down from her face to make sure she had her friend's undivided attention.
But before Marinette could continue, they suddenly heard Ella and Etta chuckling again, causing them to gasp in surprise before looking around to find the girls. Unfortunately, their search had led them to find their fruit platter had been eaten, earning another groan from Alya before stomping over to Ella and Etta's room again.
"All right, that's enough! Get out of bed one more time, and no one will be going to the amusement park tomorrow!" Alya threatened Ella and Etta after throwing open the bedroom door, glaring at the chuckling girls in their beds.
"It's not us! It's the Sa—" "This is your last warning! No! Joke!" Alya interrupted the twins, having enough of their games.
After receiving the warning, both Ella and Etta nod in agreement to the terms, finally allowing Alya to leave the room yet again when the twins both settle back down. When she went back to the living room, however, she was surprised to see Marinette had taken the fruit platter to wash it in the kitchen. But it didn't stop her from walking over to her now tense bestie.
"What were you saying about her secret identity?" Alya asked as she came to stand at the kitchen counter, leaning over it while Marinette finished with the dishes.
"Ladybug needs it to protect her family and friends. Otherwise, the villains could use them to get to her." Marinette explained as she turned off the faucet and turned to face Alya, trying to get her to see the dangers of her investigation without spilling her identity. "I get you're curious, Alya. But that doesn't mean you have the right to know her identity when she doesn't want it to be known." the designer advised, turning to lean her back against the sink counter while Alya mulled over her words.
However, the mulling over was cut short when the girls once again heard Ella and Etta chuckling nearby. Immediately, they looked to the living room and saw that someone was using the remote to select an episode of Kond Le Chien; the third DVD option Marinette had picked up earlier. Enraged, Alya stomped over to the living room and stood in front of the TV, growling when she saw Ella and Etta sitting on the couch in front of her. But despite being caught red-handed, the twins responded to their big sister's anger with laughter.
"It's not us! It's the—!" "That's it!" Alya angrily declared, picking up the twins and heading back over to Ella and Etta's room.
"Come on, Alya! We won't do it again!" Ella and Etta whined, squirming around in Alya's hold while she put them back in their beds
"Yeah? Well, it's too late!" Alya snapped, quickly taking off the twins's propeller hats and putting them on the nightstand in the middle of their beds. "We'll all go to the park when you can behave, some other day! Now go to sleep!" the reporter decided before once again exiting the room and shutting the door behind her, leaving both Ella and Etta to start crying.
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Unbeknownst to either the twins or the older girls in the Césaire family apartment, the negative emotions stirring within Ella and Etta had caught a certain supervillain's attention. Needless to say despite the late hour, Gabriel was all too eager to exploit the children's emotions and hightailed it to his lair as fast as possible, transforming as soon as he arrived.
" 'I don't want another peep out of you!', 'Wash your hands!', 'Clean your room!'." Hawkmoth mockingly lectured aloud as his lair window opened up, letting in the moonlight stream through and startle the resting butterflies to flutter around him. "Kids should be able to do whatever they want to do, however, they want to do it." the emotional puppeteer claimed, not quite seeing the irony of his statement as he turned a butterfly into an akuma and let it flutter free from his grasp.
"Fly, my little evil one and akumatize them!" Hawkmoth ordered his akuma with a dramatic flourish of his cane, watching as it flew out the window and out into the city towards its duel target.
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Back in the Césaire family apartment, Alya and Marinette had finally gotten their movie night ready and sat on the couch, unaware of the danger quickly approaching them. However, despite having their snacks and beverages ready, the living room's atmosphere was still heavy with tension between the two girls thanks to their earlier disagreement. And while Marinette was getting the Megamind movie set up, Alya was bunched in on herself as she prepared to ease their awkwardness.
"Look, I know I can get a little carried away at times regarding my investigations." Alya began, her chin resting on top of her knees just as Marinette turned away from the T.V. and gave her a deadpanned look. "Okay, maybe a lot. But I only have the best intentions in looking for Ladybug's identity." the bespeckled girl amended, easing a little bit of Marinette's discomfort.
"How would you knowing Ladybug's identity be a good thing?" Marinette lightly interrogated her bestie, hoping she had a good reason for snooping around her secrets.
"Well, if I knew who Ladybug really was, I'd keep it a secret. I would even help her!" Alya began, letting her legs drop to the couch as she turned to face Marinette. "Like say, if you were Ladybug, I'd cover for you when you needed to transform in school, go fight the 'baddies', you know?" the reporter outlined, trying to convince Marinette while having no idea how right she was with her example.
"Oh yeah? Well, if I were Ladybug I wouldn't even tell you, to protect you from the 'baddies', you know?" Marinette countered, copying Alya's posture and turning away from the T.V. to give Alya all her attention. She needed to get Alya to understand why some things needed to be kept secret.
"You serious? If I were Ladybug, I'd totally tell you because I tell my best friend everything!" Alya proclaimed, clearly having not grasped what Marinette was trying to warn her about.
"You're right, Alya. You should always tell your best friend everything." Marinette grimly replied, placing her hands on Alya's shoulders. "So come on. Spill the beans. Are you actually Ladybug?" the pigtailed girl playfully probed her best friend, deciding to use Alya's theoretical suggestion to redirect the conversation.
"Right. Like I'm telling you. Nuh-uh." Alya responded in the same playful manner before she and Marinette laughed at their little joke, the tension between them now melted away.
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Meanwhile, in Ella and Etta's room, the two girls were now fighting over one of the propeller hats that Alya put on the nightstand, each girl thinking that one belonged to them. But as they were fighting, the akuma had finally reached the Césaire family apartment and entered through the window, zeroing in on the fighting twins.
"It's mine!" Etta whined, pulling the hat towards herself as the akuma came closer.
"No, this one's mine!" Ella argued, trying to pry the hat out of her twin's hands while they were unaware of the akuma hoving above them.
"No, it's mine!" Etta fired back as she pulled the hat back to herself, allowing the akuma to finally enter the propeller hat that the twins were fighting over.
Seconds after the dark aura covered the object, the twins suddenly calmed down and stood next to each other while keeping a grip on the hat. Only once he had Ella and Etta's full attention did Hawkmoth create the psychic link between him and his newest akumas, the light mask appearing over their faces.
"Sapotis, I am Hawkmoth. Your big sister's telling you what to do? Well, I'll let you be as naughty as you want!" Hawkmoth greeted the twins, his offer immediately piquing their interests even more.
"And do whatever we want? Like, stay up all night! And go to the movies? And eat lots of desserts? And drink orange juice?! And still, go to the amusement park?!" Ella and Etta rapidly questioned their new patron, their excitement catching Hawkmoth off guard for a moment.
"Yes, yes, but calm down!" Hawkmoth ordered, which the girls quickly listened to and waited for him to continue. "From now on, no one will ever be able to punish you, because it will always be another Sapoti's fault. All you have to do is take Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous and give them to your good friend, Hawkmoth. Okay?" the supervillain finished, outlining the terms and conditions to the twins.
"Okay!" Ella and Etta declared, accepting the deal before they were both turned into .
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Now turned into akumas, the Sapotis quickly started causing mischief in their room and jumping around all over the place. However, their misdeeds quickly caught Marinette and Alya's attention while they were watching Megamind, the two older girls hearing the maniacal laughter in the twins' room. Needless to say, the unaware Alya's patience with her sisters was at its end.
"That's it! I've totally had it with these kids!" Alya exclaimed, getting up from the couch and marching over to the twins's room. "Don't even try to blame this on the—" the reporter began to lecture her sisters... only to see that her sisters had both been turned into a pair of actual Sapotis as soon as she opened the door.
"Sapotis?" Alya gawked with wide eyes, her surprise giving the Sapotis a chance to jump out of the room, knocking Alya over in the process. But while Alya was sprawled on the floor, the Sapotis jumped onto the living room coffee table and started eating the food placed on it.
"Maybe you were a little too strict with them." Marinette nervously observed, having found herself standing on the couch and leaning away from the feasting Sapotis. She might have been used to seeing Trolls thanks to her brother's line of work, and all sorts of other crazy things as Ladybug, but that didn't stop her from being freaked out by the little imp-like creatures in front of her. Much to Marinette and Alya's horror, however, the Sapotis suddenly multiplied themselves and started to cause chaos all around the room.
"Normally when you're firm with kids they don't turn into monsters!" Alya fired back as she got up from the floor, only to notice a Sapoti drinking from the fish tank across from her.
After getting to her feet, Alya raced over to try and catch the clone, causing it to leap away when it saw her approaching. The insult to injury for Alya was getting hit in the back by a pillow thrown by another Sapoti clone, the rest of the clones still causing a frenzy all around the room. However, the chaos only continued when the Sapoti Alya tried to catch had jumped over to the fridge, causing more clones to pop out of the fridge like a jack in the box, making a huge mess of the apartment.
"They're multiplying after they eat!" Marinette exclaimed over the Sapotis's mischievous growling, still on top of the couch and a sitting target for a Sapoti to throw a book at her. "AAH!" the red-tipped-haired girl yelped when she saw the book coming at her, ducking down to avoid getting hit before the Sapoti spied an open window.
"Window!" A Sapoti announced, prompting Alya; who had holed up in the kitchen and was wearing a pot on her head for protection, to pop out from behind the counter and see the easy access for the creatures to escape.
"Marinette, the window! We can't let them out!" Alya shrieked as she pointed to the offending window, causing Marinette to quickly get up from the couch and try to catch one of the Sapotis.
Unfortunately, it and all but two of the clones escape from the apartment, the escaping clones trampling the fallen Marinette in a manner that reminded her of the gnomes from her first visit to Stone Arc. With nothing in their way, the Sapotis quickly filed out of the Césaire family apartment and started making a mess of the streets of Paris, doing as they pleased. But despite the Sapotis escaping the apartment, two remained inside with Alya and Marinette, looking to cause a little bit more destruction before joining their clones.
"Marinette, take care of these two! We've gotta bring them back!" the bespeckled girl said to the recovering Marinette while taking the pot off her head, quickly rushing out of her apartment to get the Sapoti clones back home. But while Alya was greeted by the Sapotis causing chaos in the streets, the two remaining Sapotis up in the apartment managed to avoid Marinette's attempts to catch them and finally join their brethren. Fortunately, it finally gave Marinette the chance to turn into Ladybug, Tikki flying from hiding to float next to her on the apartment balcony.
"Time to transform!" Marinette said to her kwami, pulling out her runestone necklace and activating her Ladybug disguise. Only once it was in place did Marinette finally say... "Tikki, spots on!" the pyjama-clad girl cried out, fully transforming into Ladybug before taking out her yo-yo and swinging into the fray.
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Even with Ladybug coming in to help, the streets of Paris were soon overrun with Sapotis clones causing all kinds of mischief. Such an example was a trio of Sapotis taking control of the limousine outside of the Le Grand Paris that Jagged Stone and Penny Rolling were using to get to the airport. The imp-like creatures were controlling the limo so fast, it was a miracle that Penny and Jagged weren't subjected to a car crash. But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Near the hotel, another Sapoti clone fell into a garbage bin just seconds before a garbageman dumped the bin into the back of a garbage truck, resulting in numerous multiplied clones escaping. The poor man was so surprised that he ran away like a frightened animal.
Meanwhile, a rickshaw driver who was giving a tour to a couple was interrupted by a bus door opening up next to him that revealed more Sapoti clones. They attack the driver and the couple, throwing them off of the rickshaw before five of the clones ride off on it, the one driving it continuing the tour with its passengers. And to add to the growing chaos, some of the Sapoti went about frightening passersby by shouting TRAFFIC! at them through a traffic cone, the clones laughing as they continue to cause a huge mess. However, it wasn't until the Sapotis had reached the news station that Adrien was tipped off by the new akuma, the model enjoying a little late-night movie in his room when the news broadcast appeared on the screen.
"These miniature monsters seem to be attacking more and more people throughout Paris!" Nadja reported to the audience at home, the upper corner of the screen playing a video of the Sapotis. "And... Oh!" the news anchor began, only for two Sapoti clones to attack her and send her tumbling to the floor, shocking Adrien. It didn't help that seconds later, the screen switched to show the Sapotis rampaging in the streets of Paris while another clone dressed in a blonde wig appeared on-screen to 'report' the scene. One thing Adiren did know, was that these little monsters needed to be taken care of as soon as possible.
"I think we better take care of this, Plagg." Adrien stated, quickly standing up from his couch. "Plagg?" the green-eyed boy called out, wondering where his kwami was when he didn't immediately appear at his side. Fortunately, a quick look behind his couch had revealed Plagg to him as the little black sprite quickly hid all of his Camembert in a cupboard, settling Adrien's worries.
"These food thieves are really dangerous! What are you waiting for?! Transform already!" Plagg demanded as he closed the cupboard door, shocking Adrien a little with how eager his kwami was to get into the fight. But Adrien filed that away for later as he pulled out his disguise rune necklace, activating his Chat Noir disguise before...
"Plagg, Claws Out!" Adrien shouted, quickly transforming into Chat Noir before heading out of his room and out into the city to help take down the Sapotis.
As Chat Noir made his way through Paris, he had a good view of the Sapotis as they took over the whole city in no time at all. Thankfully, he spotted Ladybug swinging toward a car-packed intersection that a good chunk of the Sapotis were playing around in, causing him to change course to join her. It wasn't until Ladybug ended up hanging next to a Sapoti clone Spider Mad style while the clone was looking at an opened traffic light control panel that the feline arrived to help.
"It's forbidden to play around with traffic lights!" Ladybug lectured the clone, leading to Chat Noir appearing on the other side of the Sapoti atop his extended baton, the two heroes surrounding it.
"The Lady is right!" Chat Noir agreed before poking the clone, making it fall from the traffic light and get its legs tangled in the wires.
"You're just in time, kitty!" Ladybug praised her partner, the two heroes landing on the ground next to the trapped Sapoti before she removed the Sapoti's propeller hat.
"MINE!" the Sapoti wailed in protest, which failed to deter Ladybug from breaking its hat and making the clone disappear. The only problem was that the akuma didn't come out, revealing the captured clone to not be the original.
"How'd you know to destroy the monster's hat?" Chat Noir asked, curious as to how Ladybug came to that conclusion so quickly.
"Trial and error. I managed to get a few before you came along." Ladybug explained, using Chat Noir's absence to her advantage while the remaining Sapotis rampaged around them.
"But no akuma's been released!" Chat Noir observed.
"That's because that monster was a clone." Ladybug stated, just seconds before a Sapoti clone lept past in between them and forced the heroes to lean away to avoid getting tackled. "These Sapotis multiply every time they eat. To get to the akuma, we'll have to destroy the original one. The very first one Hawkmoth akumatized." the spotted heroine elaborated once the clone was gone, prompting Chat Noir to run and wince at all the Sapotis that were currently playing around them.
"So you mean we've gotta catch 'em all?" Chat Noir questioned his partner, not liking the sound of that half-made plan.
"Come on! I thought you liked a good challenge!" Ladybug teased, earning a groan from Chat Noir before they headed out to do said task.
Soon enough, Ladybug and Chat Noir were working together to destroy Sapoti clones to find the original Sapotis' akuma, capturing and destroying any that they could get their hands on. But while they were able to take out scores of the little monsters in such a short amount of time, it was without success in finding the akuma. The heroes's search soon led them to the Pont des Arts bridge, where a good amount of the Sapoti clones were messing with André and his ice cream stand. But upon arriving at the bridge, Ladybug and Chat Noir quickly saw that this was where the clones came to multiply themselves, seeing two of the clones bouncing on André's back while the rest were eating his ice cream.
"Hey, don't eat that ice cream or things'll get catastrophic!" Chat Noir warned the clones when the supers showed up, their weapons at the ready. However, the original akuma must have been among the group, for as soon as the heroes caught the Sapotis's attention, Hawkmoth chose that moment to contact them.
"Seize their Miraculous!" Hawkmoth demanded the akumas from his lair, causing all the present clones to charge forward.
Now being charged at by their pint-sized foes, Ladybug and Chat Noir retaliate and try to take them all down, using both weapons and hand-to-hand combat to their advantage. However, thanks to the ice cream cart being nearby, the Sapotis kept multiplying faster than the heroes could knock them down. Because of this, the heroes soon end up surrounded, forced back to back against the bridge railing with their weapons on standby.
"We won't be able to destroy all their hats! There are too many of them!" the hero in black worriedly observed, the Sapotis closing in on the two heroes.
"Miraculous!" the Sapotis chanted, getting even closer to Ladybug and Chat Noir. But it was at that moment that Ladybug decided to call on her...
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug shouted, summoning her powers and receiving...
"A teapot?" Chat Noir remarked while remaining at the ready for attack, looking at the object that Ladybug caught in confusion.
"It's strangely familiar." Ladybug muttered to herself, followed by Chat Noir running back into the fray to take down more of the clones so that his partner could use her Lucky Vision to find the solution to their problem. But after a little bit, Ladybug's search was to no avail of anything that stood out for a potential plan. "It's weird. I can't find anything!" the red heroine exclaimed to Chat Noir, who was now kicking back another group of Sapotis away from them.
"Hurry up! My kung-fu's not enough!" Chat Noir warned Ladybug, causing her to look at the teapot again while thinking of Chat Noir's words. As soon as she did, however, the answer finally came to her.
"Of course! I know what it's telling us! I gotta go!" Ladybug told Chat Noir, turning to leave the bridge and immediately catching the feline's attention.
"Right now? Can't it wait?" Chat Noir questioned his partner while turning to face her, caught off guard by Ladybug's insistence to her retreat.
"No, it can't. You've gotta trust me on this one." Ladybug said, the Sapotis closing in on them once again while chanting 'Miraculous'. Fortunately, once Chat Noir saw that Ladybug was serious about her unexpected plan, he twirled his staff at the clones to push them back and give Ladybug an opening to leave.
"Go on, M'Lady! I'll hold down the fort!" Chat Noir assured her, prompting Ladybug to leap away to her destination in the hopes of getting there in time before the Sapotis destroyed all of Paris.
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Unknown to Chat Noir, Ladybug's Lucky Charm had been telling her to go to Master Fu's massage shop. For what reason, she had an inkling of why, but decided to wait until she arrived before making any assumptions just to be on the safe side. However, she still arrived at the shop in record time thanks to her powers and transformed back in an alleyway next to the building before entering. After quickly climbing the stairs to the building's top floor, Marinette finally reached Master Fu's shop, quickly knocking on the wooden door to let him know of her presence.
"It's open." Master Fu called from behind the door, allowing Marinette to open it and be greeted by the sight of the Guardian drinking a cup of tea while sitting on a stool on the other side of the room.
"Hello, Master Fu." Marinette greeted the old man, quickly walking into the room and closing the door behind her.
"Hello, Marinette." Master Fu warmly replied, the closed door giving Wayzz the all-clear to fly out of the gramophone's pavilion and float next to his holder.
"Marinette? You're rather early for training tonight." Wayzz remarked, always happy to see the young girl.
"Let her talk, Wayzz. Something tells me that there is a reason for her being here." Master Fu chided his kwami, hitting the nail right on the head as Marinette walked up to stand in front of him, Tikki floating by her side.
"Master, there's an akuma out on the loose. I used my Lucky Charm, but strangely, I think it was a hint that was telling me to come here for help." Marinette rapidly explained, causing a troubled look to appear on both Master Fu's and Wayzz's faces.
"I see." Master Fu said, an air of caution suddenly surrounding him as he stood up from his stool. "Marinette, I taught you all about the Miraculous and their powers. You know that yours works in a very mysterious way. I think it's trying to tell us that you need help this time." the old Gaurdian explained as he moved the stool to sit in front of his back cabinet, standing on top of it to access the gramophone holding the Miracle Box inside. But he then hesitates, his hands hovering over the gramophone with fear.
"I don't know if it's safe. I already took an enormous risk by putting two Miraculous into circulation." Master Fu admitted, hunching over the gramophone as he brought up the risks of this idea.
"And you were right to do it. Chat Noir and I are very careful." Marinette reminded Master Fu, who hummed in agreement before finally opening the gramophone to reveal the Chinese Miracle Box. Once it was out of the gramophone, Master Fu grabbed it and stepped down from the stool, coming to place the box between him and Marinette while they knelt on the floor.
"Marinette, pick an ally you can trust to fight alongside you in this mission." Master Fu solemnly announced as he opened the lid of the box, causing all of the chest drawers to open and reveal the current fourteen Miraculouses stored inside, including ten never before used.
"Wow!" Marinette breathed in awe, having not seen all the Miraculous Master Fu actually had in his possession before. Sure, she had seen the top part when he first showed the box to her, and the Horse and Goat Miraculous on the times Fu took them out to use. But this was the first time she had seen the whole of the Mother Box's contents on display.
"Choose wisely. Such powers are meant to serve the greater good. They must never get into the wrong hands." Master Fu grimly advised.
"Like Hawkmoth's." Marinette said, knowing full well what Master Fu meant in his warning.
"Yes. And once the mission is over, you must retrieve the Miraculous from them and bring it back to me. Until we've unlocked all the secrets of the spellbook, it's too dangerous to allow any more Miraculous to be out in the open for very long." Master Fu explained, making sure Marinette knew the dangers of adding a new Miraculous into circulation prematurely.
"Mmm." Marinette hummed in thought, looking at the available Miraculous in the box to decide which would be the most effective for this particular akuma.
"Is there anyone you can think of, Marinette?" Master Fu questioned Marinette, triggering her to reach for the Bee Miraculous. But at the last second, the right choice became clear to her and Marinette took the Fox Miraculous instead, trusting what her instincts were telling her.
"Yes, Master. I know just the right person!" Marinette announced once she had the Miraculous in hand, earning a pleased nod from Master Fu before she did her usual transformation routine and left the parlour. And as she lept over the rooftops, only one thought rang through her mind: She needed to find Alya as soon as possible.
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After leaving Master Fu's apartment, Ladybug found herself soaring through the city in search of Alya, hoping to give her the Fox Miraculous in time. But after about 10 minutes of looking, she was about to give up hope of finding her. Fortunately, her Ladybug Luck once again helped her out and the spotted heroine found Alya in the Place des Vosges, standing in front of a spinning carousel with several Sapoti clones hanging onto its poles.
"Listen! We can renegotiate the amusement park idea if you want, okay? But first, I need you to chill out and come back home with me." Alya tried to negotiate with the Sapotis, thinking that the original akuma was among them.
Seeing the tough spot Alya was in from a nearby rooftop, Ladybug leapt from her perch and landed in a crouch in front of Alya. Not wasting another second, the red hero stood to her full height and threw her yo-yo at the carousel, stopping it from spinning and sending the Sapotis flying into the air. Once the carousel was Sapotis-free, Ladybug pulled her yo-yo free from it and used it to remove all the propeller hats from the clones, making them all disappear.
"Ladybug! My sisters have been akumatized! I need to find them and bring them back home." the reporter frantically explained once her amazement passed, hoping that Ladybug could help her
"There's a way for you to find your sisters. But we're gonna need your help!" Ladybug said, turning to face Alya while putting her yo-yo away. "Are you interested?" the heroine in red asked, immediately leaving Alya blown away.
"Me? Help you superheroes? You bet I am!" Alya excitedly agreed, all for helping out her idol. "Just wait till I tell Marinette about this!" the bespeckled girl continued as she took out her phone, only for Ladybug to quickly interrupt Alya before she could do anything.
"Hold on now. This has to be a secret. Not a word to your friends or on the Ladyblog." Ladybug said, laying out the terms and conditions of this opportunity Alya was being given.
"Oh, right. Understood." Alya solemnly replied, quickly putting her phone away before Ladybug took out her yo-yo and opened it to retrieve the Miraculous box from within.
"Alya Césaire, here is the Miraculous of the fox, which grants the power of illusion. You will use it for the greater good." Ladybug declared, holding out the box to Alya as she stared at it in awe. "Once the job is done, you will return the Miraculous to me. Can I trust you?" the spotted heroine asked Alya as she took the box from her hand, eager to get started.
"Totally, Ladybug." Alya excitedly confirmed, earning a pleased nod from Ladybug before she placed the box in the palm of her hand and opened it. As soon as she did, a bright orange glow appeared out of the box and floated out to spin around a now-surprised Alya. "Wha? What is that thing?" the reporter yelped, watching as the glow settled in front of her and the Fox kwami; Trixx, appeared between her and Ladybug.
"I am not a thing. My name is Trixx, and I'm your kwami!" Trixx greeted Alya, immediately leaving Alya even more excited.
"My kwami? Wait, you're what gives superheroes their superpowers, right?" Alya questioned the little fox, leaving the kwami impressed by her prior knowledge.
"Not bad." Trixx said to Ladybug, already liking their new holder.
"She's an expert." Ladybug simply stated, proud that Alya and Trixx would be very likely to get along with each other before Trixx zoomed towards Alya.
"Mind blown!" Alya breathed in awe, watching as Trixx spun around her a few times and settled to float on her right before turning to Ladybug in the hopes of getting answers to some of her lingering questions.
"By the way, how old are you? Do you have any idea of Chat Noir's true identity? There's no way—" "Stay focused, Alya." Ladybug chided Alya, interrupting her ramblings so that they could focus on the task at hand.
"Sorry, Ladybug." Alya bashfully apologised, now seeing she became a little carried away before putting on the Fox necklace.
"Ready to become a superhero?" Ladybug asked Alya as she placed a hand on the other girl's shoulder, herself excited to work with her best friend.
"You just need to say one thing: 'Trixx, let's pounce!' " Trixx explained to Alya, eager to see some action after spending nearly 200 years inside the Mother Box. Now being told the transformation phrase, Alya wasted no time in saying...
"Trixx, let's pounce!" Alya excitedly shouted, transforming into her superhero alter ego for the first of many times.
When the transformation light faded, Alya was left dressed in a slimming orange jumpsuit, the top layer of her new suit was akin to an orange swan-necked-overcoat with a black high collar on her neck. Alongside a white front and black gloves up to the middle of her upper arms, the overcoat layer was attached down the vertical front centre where the Fox Miraculous became the zipper part. The overcoat also had a long fox tail-like coattail that ends a bit below her knees at a sharp white tip, while the bottom layer of her suit is orange with a white centre on the front of the body. She also wears black boots starting at a point in the middle of her upper legs with orange soles and black fox paw print markings underneath them.
The mask covering her face was orange with a white bottom half and a black mark above each eye that resembled eyebrows. Adding onto the existing orange of her suit, Alya's hair became longer and had a three-tone ombré, with the roots turning a brilliant brownish-vermilion and fading into orange until the white tips at the end. Her newly colored hair was also pulled back into a high ponytail with an orange headband, where two orange fox ears with white insides, black tips and edges are attached to the top of her head. To top off the look, an orange flute with white stripes decorating it in varying intervals was attached diagonally on her back, waiting to be used. As soon as she was done transforming, SuperAlya couldn't help but gawk at herself in awe as she took in her new look.
"This is so awesome!" SuperAlya squealed, turning to look at her whole suit. "But I kind of look like Lila when she was akumatized, right? Won't that be a little worrying for the civilians?." the newly made fox heroine observed, worried that the people might mistake her for an akuma too.
"Yes, but this is the superhero version! And as long as you stick with me, you'll be fine" Ladybug assured her, followed by her turning towards the park exit. "Now come on, I'll explain the rest to you on the way!" the red heroine exclaimed before pulling out her yo-yo to swing up to a building's roof. Following her idol's example, SuperAlya jumped up into the air to follow her, shrieking like an opera singer in amazement as she landed on the rooftops behind Ladybug. Once they landed, the two heroes started running across to make their way to the fight, giving SuperAlya the chance to look around the new perspective of Paris.
"Wow! This is so cool!" SuperAlya cheered as they both jumped from roof to roof, in awe that she was actually living her superhero dreams.
"Mission first!" Ladybug fondly reminded her new teammate, followed by her and SuperAlya continuing to look for Chat Noir, hoping they weren't too late to help out.
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