The Césaire Apartment
Marinette was speaking to Marlena on her phone while Kalianna and Alya are playing with her little sisters, Ella and Etta, who are both wearing propeller hats.
"Yes, Mrs. Césaire. The girls are ready for bed. Uh...technically speaking..." Marinette chuckled. "Yeah, we're good. Enjoy the movie!" She turns off her cellphone.
"Come on, bedtime, you little monsters! That's enough mischief for one day!" Alya exclaimed as she and Kalianna each picked up the rambunctious twins.
"It's not us! It's the Sapotis!" Ella and Etta said in unison before laughing.
~~~~~~~~
Kalianna and Alya tucked the twins in their beds.
"Off to bed, little Sapotis. You need to rest if you wanna be fighting fit for tomorrow" Kali smiled.
"It's not fair! We don't wanna go to bed! We wanna stay up with you guys!" Etta protested.
"Yeah! We wanna watch the movie and tell each other lots of secrets!" Ella added.
"And what kind of zombies will you be at the amusement park tomorrow if you go to bed late? Show 'em, Marinette" Alya uttered.
In the doorway, Marinette pretends to yawn and feel exhausted after she wakes up in the morning.
"So what's it gonna be? A boring sit-down pajama party with the big kids, or...the super cool amusement park tomorrow?" Kal asked.
"The amusement park!" The twins replied as they both settled down to sleep.
"That's what I thought. So, goodnight, Sapotis" Alya reaches down to remove Ella's hat.
"Wait! Can we keep 'em on? Please?" Ella begged.
"All right. But go to sleep now"
"Goodnight you two" Kalianna said before she turned off the light and closed the door.
~~~~~~~~
Alya sets down a tray with a pitcher of orange juice and two glasses on the coffee table, then she transfers the tray's contents to the table.
Marinette gets out three plates and spoons in the kitchen. "You seriously have a technique down with your little sisters. But...uh, who are the Sapa... Sapo...?"
"The Sapotis? They're little monsters from a créole fable who are always pulling pranks and making all sorts of mischief" Alya explained.
Kalianna takes a tray with two slices of cantaloupe out of the refrigerator.
"Now that we're all alone I can finally tell you guys" Alya takes out her phone. "Apparently Ladybug and Leopardess have been around at least since the pharaohs. But no way can the Leopardess and Ladybug we know can be five thousand years old! So, I downloaded a great app that analyzed some recordings I had of them talking. Based on the frequencies of their voices, it turns out they're girls our age!"
Kalianna averted her eyes to the charm bracelet that Adrien got for her while Marinette became nervous.
"Euhh.." The bluenette looks away from Alya's phone. "Uh...Alya? The orange juice?"
Alya, Marinette, and Kalianna hear Ella and Etta giggling just then. Alya looks over the couch to see that the pitcher of orange juice has been completely emptied. She groaned.
In Ella and Etta's room, Alya wipes both twins' mouths with a napkin.
"It's not us! It's the Sapotis!" Ella and Etta said in synchronization.
Alya leaves the room again when the twins both settle back in to sleep.
"What were we saying again?" Alya queried when she came back into the living room
Kalianna set the tray of cantaloupe on the coffee table and runs over to the TV and picks up some DVD cases. "We were about to watch a movie!" She grinned. She held out three movie cases, but then she notices she's showing a DVD of a Ladybug and Leopardess anime, so she switches it to show the Kond Le Chien movie before chuckling.
"Oh, yeah! Leopardess and Ladybug! They're like high school girls. So to figure out who they really are, all we need to do is to find a couple girls our age who's always late-"
"Don't you think there's a reason why they keep their identities a secret?" Marinette interrupted.
The three girls gasp when they hear Ella and Etta giggling again. They look to see that the two pieces of cantaloupe have been eaten. Alya groans again.
"All right, that's enough! Get out of bed one more time and no one'll be going to the amusement park tomorrow!" Alya said tersely, standing in the twins' doorway.
Ella and Etta giggled. "It's not us! It's the Sa-"
"This is your last warning! No! Joke!"
Ella nodded.
Alya leaves the room again when the twins both settle back down.
"What were you saying about their secret identities?" Alya asked her friends.
Not a second later, Kalianna, Marinette, and Alya heard giggling again. They look to see that someone is using the remote to select an episode of Kond Le Chien. Alya walks in front of the TV and groans angrily. Ella and Etta respond with laughter.
"It's not us! It's the-!"
"That's it!" Alya picks up her sisters and carries them to bed.
"Come on, Alya! We won't do it again!" Ella and Etta promised.
"Yeah? Well, it's too late!" Alya takes off their propeller hats. "We'll all go to the park when you can behave, some other day! Now go to sleep!" She leaves and shuts the door. Ella and Etta both start to cry.
~~~~~~~~
"If I knew who Leopardess and Ladybug were, I'd keep it a secret. I would even help them! Like say, if you guys were Ladybug and Leopardess, I'd cover for you, when you needed to transform in school, go fight the "baddies", you know?" Alya spoke.
"Oh yeah? Well, if I was Ladybug I wouldn't even tell you, to protect you from the "baddies", you know?" Marinette pronounced.
"You serious? If I was Ladybug, I'd totally tell you! Because I tell my best friend everything"
Kalianna raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Well if your her best friend, then spill the beans! Are you actually Ladybug or Leopardess?"
"Nuh-uh! Not telling!" Alya exclaimed.
The three girls laughed.
~~~~~~~~
Kalianna, Marinette, and Alya were now watching Kond Le Chien, suddenly, they heard laughter from the twins' room.
"That's it! I've totally had it with these kids!" Alya marches over to Ella and Etta's room and opened the door. "Don't even try to blame this on the..." Her eyes widened when she saw that her sisters have both turned into a pair of actual Sapotis. "Sapotis?"
The Sapotis jump out of the room, knocking Alya over, and start eating the food remnants on the coffee table. Kalianna and Marinette jumped up on the couch, eyeing the Sapotis.
"Maybe you were a little too strict with them!" Kali exclaimed.
The Sapotis suddenly multiply themselves and start to cause chaos in the room.
"Normally when you're firm with kids they don't turn into monsters!" Alya notices that a Sapotis is drinking from the fish tank. She tries to catch it but it leaps away. More Sapotis appear out of the fridge and make a huge mess in the room.
"They're multiplying after they eat!" Marinette realized. She and Kalianna ducked down when a book flies toward them. "Aah!" They both screamed.
"Window!" A Sapotis uttered, pointing at an open window.
"The window! We can't let them out!" Kalianna rushed over to the window to close it, but the multiple Sapotis jumped out before she could. "Shoot! Marinette take care of those two!" She ordered, pointing at two Sapotis. "Alya and I will bring the others back!"
Kal and Alya rushes out of the apartment and sees that the Sapoti clones are already causing chaos in the streets. The two remaining Sapotis also escape from the apartment.
"Shoot! I'll call the police!" Kalianna said to Alya before running away to a secluded spot, where Sunny revealed herself from the noirette's hair. "Sunny, speed up!"
~~~~~~~~
In the streets of Paris, the Sapotis clones causing chaos. One of the clones is looking at an opened traffic light control panel when Leopardess, Ladybug, and Cat Noir both appear surrounding it.
"It's forbidden..." Ladybug started.
"To play around..." Cat Noir added.
"With traffic lights!" Leopardess finished before she pushes the Sapotis clone away with her finger. The clone falls and gets its legs tangled in the wires.
Ladybug removes the Sapoti's propeller hat and breaks it, but the akuma doesn't come out and instead, the clone disappears.
"How'd you know to destroy the monster's hat?" Cat Noir asked.
"I...uh...trial and error"
"But no akuma's been released!"
"That's 'cause that monster was a clone!" Leopardess figured. A Sapotis clone leaps past in between her and her partners. "These Sapotis multiply every time they eat. To get to the akuma, we'll have to destroy the original one — the very first one Hawk Moth akumatized"
"So you mean we've gotta catch 'em all" Cat Noir complained. (Pokémon anyone?)
"Come on! I thought you liked a good challenge!" Ladybug pronounced.
Cat Noir groans. He, Ladybug, Leopardess then work together destroying Sapotis clones in order to find the original Sapotis' akuma, but without success.
At the Pont des Arts bridge, the Sapotis clones are messing with André and his ice cream stand. Two of the clones are bouncing on André's back while the rest are eating some ice cream. The heroes show up to see that the clones have multiplied further.
"Hey, don't eat that ice cream or things'll get catastrophic!" Cat Noir jested.
The clones all charge forward, Leopardess, Ladybug, and Cat Noir to try to take them all down; but they end up surrounded.
"We won't be able to destroy all their hats! There's too many of them!" Cat Noir exclaimed.
"Miraculous!" The Sapotis clones all said in synchronization.
"Okay...that's creepy" Leopardess remarked.
"Lucky Charm!" Ladybug yelled, obtaining a teapot.
"A teapot?" Cat Noir questioned.
"Looks strangely familiar" Leopardess muttered.
Ladybug tries her Lucky Vision, to no avail. "It's weird. I can't find anything!"
"Hurry up! My kung-fu's not enough!" Cat Noir divulged.
'Hmmm. Kung-fu...kung-fu...Master Fu? Master Fu!' Leopardess snapped her fingers. "I got it!" She looked at Ladybug. "You need to come with me. I know of someone who can help and I think you already know who"
Ladybug's eyes widened, knowing exactly who she was talking about. "You...you know..." She cleared her throat. "Uh, Cat Noir, hold the Sapotis off for us! Leo and I have to go"
"Right now? Can't it wait?"
"No, it can't. You have to trust us on this one" Leopardess said.
Cat Noir twirled his staff, blocking the Sapotis clones. "Go on girls!"
The girl heroes leaped away to their destination.
"So...you know Master Fu?" Ladybug questioned.
"M-hm" Leopardess responded.
"Does that mean you know who I am?" The bug hero queried, starting to panic.
"Nope! He didn't tell me a thing" Leopardess answered.
~~~~~~~~
"Okay, now stay here" Leopardess ordered as she set Ladybug beside the door of Fu's massage shop.
"Why?" Ladybug inquired.
"Cause your about to change back" The leopard said as Ladybug's earrings beep. She then knocked on the door.
"It's open" Fu said.
Leopardess opened the door and closed it just as Ladybug transformed back. "Hello Master Fu"
"Hello Leopardess" Fu greeted back, holding up a cup of tea.
"Leopardess?! What are you doing here?" Wayzz queried with wide eyes.
"Well, Ladybug used her Lucky Charm, I brought her in case anything happened, sorry, don't worry, she's not coming in. Anyway, as I was saying, Ladybug used her Lucky Charm and got a teapot, so I think it was a hint that led to you" Leopardess explained.
"Hmmm, interesting. I think Ladybug's Lucky Charm was trying to tell us that you need help this time" Fu stands on top of a stool to access the gramophone, but then hesitates. "I don't know if it's safe. I already took an enormous risk by putting three Miraculous into circulation "
"And you were right to do it. Me, Cat Noir, and Ladybug are very careful"
Fu nodded opens the gramophone to reveal the Miraculous jewelry box, and places the box between him and Leopardess. "Leopardess, please pick an ally you can trust to fight alongside you in this mission"
All of the chest drawers open to reveal all the Miraculouses stored inside.
"I still get fascinated when I see it" Leopardess cupped her cheek and admired the box.
"Choose wisely. Such powers are meant to serve the greater good. They must never get into the wrong hands" Fu spoke.
"Like Hawk Moth's" Leopardess frowned.
"Yes. Once the mission is over, you must retrieve the Miraculous from them and bring it back to me"
Leopardess nodded, then she began scanning each of the Miraculouses.
"Is there anyone you can think of?"
The leopard hero looked at the Bee Miraculous for a second, then she looked at the Fox Miraculous and grabbed it. "Yes Master Fu"
Fu nodded with a closed-eyed smile.
Leopardess exited the shop just as Marinette transformed back into Ladybug. "I got the Fox Miraculous" She said, showing her partner the Miraculous.
"Great! But...who are you gonna give it too?" Ladybug questioned.
"Don't worry" Leopardess smirked. "I know just the right person!"
Word Count: 2,183