Keeper of the Lost Cities: The Second Moonlark (a KOTLC/MLB crossover)

Chapter Fifteen: Sophie

That's when Sophie felt the blood trailing down her cheek.

"Sophie!" Biana squeezed her into a hug. "And... who's this boy?"

Sophie could see Biana give a small giggle and wink at Adrien, who was oblivious to the whole thing. Sophie could see him staring at a girl with bluebell eyes and dark blue hair pulled up in pigtails. She wore a skintight red suit with black polka dots, a mask of the same pattern, and a patterned yo-yo around her hips. Sophie immediately started thinking of ladybugs.

But she could also see she was still recovering from something.

"She was hit with shadowflux," Tam's shadow whisper echoed in her head. "She's lucky they didn't decide to break any of her bones. Just wormed into her body to give Adrien a good scare to get him talking about the Black Swan, which is strange, considering he clearly knows nothing about the Black Swan."

So why would they question him about it? Sophie transmitted back.

"I'm not sure," Tam shadow-replied. "I don't know what the deal is with this kid. Marella said that he was asked about being able to hear thoughts."

Sophie paled, sneaking peeks at Adrien.

She didn't know what was scarier, the fact that she could hear human voices trying to break her mental shield...

Or the fact that she couldn't hear Adrien at all.

Not even attempts to slip into her mind.

No...

Sophie shook her head.

She needed confirmation before asking Adrien about her forming theory.

Another piece of the paw blinked away on his ring.

"Okay, I know where to go now," the girl in the ladybug suit said, staring at her yo-yo. "Follow me."

No one seemed to disagree. After all, if this girl knew a place to hide, they wouldn't hesitate to take it.

Soon, they arrived at a small building, and the girl quietly led them down the hall.

"I'll go in first," she said. "The rest of you get ready for a lot of talking. I explained all I know about the situation."

And with that, the girl slid through the door.

Sophie pressed her ear against the wall, hearing muffled voices.

The girl opened the door.

"It's okay to come in now," she said.

Sophie slowly stepped into the room to see a small old man in a Hawaiian shirt, sitting in front of a record player, only no music was playing in it.

"Master Fu, guardian of the Miraculous," the man said. "Perhaps it would be best to introduce ourselves before anything else goes down."

"Um, I'm Sophie Foster, and these are my friends, Biana and Fitz Vacker, Tam and Linh Song, Dex Dizznee, Marella Redek, and Keefe Sencen," Sophie said. "But I don't know the other five. Well, Adrien and I met a little while ago, but still."

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng," the girl in the ladybug outfit said. "And that's Chloe Bourgeois, Alya Cesaire, and Nino Lahiffe."

"And I'm Mr. Forkle."

Sophie turned to see the familiar man who ate ruckleberries come from behind the screen, his and Master Fu's eyes quickly trekking to Adrien.

"Will someone explain why everyone keeps staring at me?" Adrien took a nervous step backwards.

"Maybe... it would be best if we explained who we were," Mr. Forkle said.

Sophie bit her lip. Was he about to admit their real species to a group of masked humans?

"Now, I will warn you, if you start to reveal the secret to the world, we will have to wipe your memories of about all of this to keep the secret safe," Mr. Forkle began.

Sophie saw Marinette give her a confused look.

"All but Master Fu and the superheroes... we're not exactly human..." Mr. Forkle said. "In fact, we're elves."

The five heroes didn't say anything for a while.

Then Chloe burst into laughter.

"Yeah, right," she snorted. "And I'm Hawkmoth!"

Marinette rolled her eyes. Sophie got a hint that Chloe was someone Marinette had a hard time seeing eye-to-eye with.

The others seemed pretty unconvinced as well.

Sophie took a deep breath.

"Humans can't do this," Sophie said, turning to Biana. Biana simply vanished and reappeared a few seconds later.

Not even Chloe was laughing.

"It's... uh... a trick of the light," Alya stammered.

"This probably isn't," Linh said, turning to Master Fu. "May I?"

He nodded, and Linh stared intently at the cup of water on the floor. In seconds, the water flew into the air and swirled around her hands, and she formed a watery orb.

None of the masked humans could say that it was fake anymore.

Alya and Chloe nearly fainted. Marinette and Adrien were deathly pale. And Nino...

Nino was too busy watching the swirling water to care.

"So... you're really elves..." Adrien managed to spurt out.

"And that's not even half of it," Mr. Forkle said, turning to Master Fu. "You think it's time?"

Sophie could see the two adults' eyes all pinned on Adrien. Again.

"Listen, Adrien," Master Fu said, leading him closer to the two old men. "Mr. Forkle and I met years ago. About fourteen to fifteen years ago to be exact. He explained what he had done."

Sophie was confused. She had assumed Mr. Forkle was going to come clean about her being the moonlark, but this was weird.

"He said that the Lost Cities, the elvin world, was on the brink of war," Master Fu continued.

"That's why me and the Black Swan created a plan," Mr. Forkle continued. "We've been an organization hiding in the dark, and we created the moonlarks to help us with our plans to save the Lost Cities before all was lost. In fact, that's how we got to Miss Foster in San Diego. Thanks to our enhancements, she now holds five elvin abilities: Telepath, Inflictor, Teleporter, Polyglot, and Enhancer."

"Okay, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense; I'll get used to it eventually," Adrien said. "But what does any of this have to do with me?"

"Because I said moonlarks, plural," Mr. Forkle said. "Because, Adrien Agreste... you're..."

Sophie blacked out seconds later.

All it had taken to knock her out were three little words.

Words she was sure would change Adrien's life.

Words that would change everything.

Because Adrien was... was...

The second moonlark.

*roll credits*