#royalfox

           Despite not being able to fly like her companion, Lady V had no problem staying on her tail as they cruised around the city. It was a quiet night, no sign of any akuma. It felt nice to soar across the rooftops with the wind ruffling her hair. She didn’t think she’d ever get used to the rush of energy she got each time she transformed. After a while, they took a break and sat with their feet dangling over the edge of a roof overlooking a busy intersection below.

           “So, Honey Bee-”

           “Must you call me that?” She groaned, but it didn’t faze Alya in the slightest.

           “What do you like to do when you’re not saving Paris?” She continued nonchalantly, swinging her legs slightly as she watched the cars and people several stories beneath them.

           “That information is top secret. Who knows what a fox like you would do if I told you,” She scoffed, attempting to restrain the playful smile on her lips.

           “Well, I like to hang out with my friends. Go to movies, have sleepovers, stuff like that,” Lady V commented, and after contemplating it for a while, Queen Bee finally spoke up.

           “Sometimes me and my friend dress up like superheroes and pretend to save the day. I always used to be Ladybug, but now sometimes I play you. But only because I can’t play myself, obviously, it would give me away,” She pursed her lips as Lady V bit back a smile.

           “That’s the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard in my life,” She snorted, and Queen Bee turned away with a huff.

           “See? This is why I don’t tell you anything,” She growled as muffled screams sounded from below.  Lady V’s ears perked up, and she tilted her head to listen better.

           “Purse thief down below. Shall we step in?” She cocked a brow.

           “After you,” She shrugged, and they dropped down together, landing right in the fleeing crook’s path.

           “I’m not sure that belongs to you,” Lady V grinned crookedly, placing her hands on her hips.

           “And it doesn’t even match your outfit,” Queen Bee added, nose wrinkling in disgust. The criminal backed up a few paces before turning and darting in the other direction. “Ugh, why do they always run?”

           “I got it,” Lady V sighed, rolling her eyes and conjuring up an illusion with her flute.

           When the thief rounded the corner he found himself yet again face-to-face with the duo who waved at him smugly. His eyes widened in shock, and he shot across the street, dodging traffic to lose them up the next street, but to his horror they were waiting for him casually at a café along his route.

           “So, give up yet?” Lady V asked, taking a sip of her coffee. He eyed them in fear for a moment before tossing the bag and running up the street. The genuine articles landed calmly in the place of their doppelgangers and high-fived, picking up the purse and heading back up the street to return it to the owner.

           “Thank you so much, Lady V, Queen Bee,” The woman sighed graciously, hugging her bag to her chest.

           “No problem,” Lady V winked. “Stay out of trouble, kay?”

           “I’ll never understand why people think they can outrun a superhero,” Bee sighed as they turned and headed up the street. “It would be so much easier if they just surrendered.”

           “Yep. Cause ya know, doing your job is so exhausting,” She rolled her eyes.

           “Ugh, tell me about it,” She grunted.

           “Queen Bee, Lady V!” They both turned abruptly to see a scrawny man with a camera approaching them. “Do you happen to know if Ladybug and Chat Noir would be willing to let me interview them?”

           “Why would we know?” Bee huffed.

           “C-Could you ask them?” He bounced excitedly in a way Alya knew all too well. It wasn’t too long ago that she looked like that.

           “Sorry, pal. It’s just us tonight, but we’d be happy to do an interview if you’d like,” She offered, but he deflated quickly.

           “Nah, that’s okay. I really want to interview the real heroes,” He winced, turning quickly and walking away. Oh, no he didn’t.

           “What the hell does that mean?” She scoffed, placing a hand on her hip. “Are we not good enough for you?”

           “Sorry, I’m just not interested in interviewing the sidekicks,” He shrugged then instantly shrank under their collective glare.

           “Sidekicks?” Bee cocked a brow, stalking toward him. “You’re about to get your side kicked!”

           “Whoa, whoa, Bee,” Lady V hooked her arms under Bee’s shoulders to restrain her. “So not worth it, babe.”

           “Chat Noir and Ladybug worked together just fine before you came along. I don’t even think they need you two,” He said, and Lady V froze, head turning slowly to look at him.

           “You wanna repeat that?”

           “You two are just knock-off versions if you ask me,” He smirked, and Alya felt that little piece inside of her that kept her civil snap.

           “Oh, I think not. Hold my flute, Bee,” She shoved her weapon into her partner’s hands and grabbed the poor sap’s shirt and yanked him down to her level. “Listen up, you two-bit bean pole, Queen Bee and I work our asses off saving this city alongside Chat Noir and Ladybug, who, by the way, really appreciate our help, not that you care, but maybe if you’d come down off your fucking high-horse and appreciate the fact that you can sleep soundly every night because we’re out here protecting you, Ladybug and Chat Noir might consider doing an interview with you.” She shoved him backward, forcing him to stumble until he landed on his back.

           “And another thing,” She whipped around again and stomped back over to him. “You’re not even worthy of interviewing Queen Bee and I. She is smart and capable, and she looks damn beautiful throughout all of the butterfly bullshit that we put up with, and you will show her respect!”

           By this point, the poor lad was cowering on the ground, and Lady V snapped her fingers and pointed up the street where he swiftly scrambled to his feet and ran. She snatched her flute back from Queen Bee who was doing a poor job of hiding her smirk. Without another word, they leapt back up to the rooftops where Lady V let out a long growl.

           “I think you made him pee his pants a little,” Bee snickered.

           “Sorry, I just hate being unappreciated or compared to those two,” She grumbled. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I think they’re both amazing, and they’re way better at this superhero thing than we are, but…” She paced toward Bee, folded her arms over her chest, and shrugged.

           “I know. We’re never good enough because we’re not the originals,” She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. More importantly, did you really mean all that stuff you said about me?”

           Alya felt her crooked smile return.

           “Don’t I always say those things about you?” She cocked a brow.

           “Well, you’re always joking normally,” Bee rubbed the back of her neck.

           “See, that’s one thing I can’t stand about being compared to Chat Noir. Every day he looks at Ladybug like she’s his world, flirts with her, cracks jokes with her, but he never makes a serious move,” She shook her head and stepped closer, cupping Bee’s face in her hands and leaning in until their noses brushed against each other.

When it came to being rescued and swept off her feet, Chloe was an expert.  

 At the top of the list of course, was Ladybug.  Absolutely nobody rescued her like Ladybug did.  The strength, the safety, the certainty that everything was going to be all right the moment she was swept up in those strong red and black arms; Ladybug could rescue the world’s most rabid dog, and it would become completely docile the moment she picked it up.  

 Next on the list was Serge, though it had been years since he had actually carried Chloe anywhere.  When she was a kid, Serge was always the one to pick her up and carry her home when she stayed late at the Agreste mansion. Actually, Aunt Sophia was always the one who picked her up, but it was always to hug her goodnight and give her back to Serge.  She couldn’t count the number of times she had fallen asleep with her cheek on his shoulder.  

 Chat Noir had never been particularly high on the list.  Knowing who he was now elevated him a little bit, but when he carried her to safety, it was just to get her to safety; there was no charm or elegance to it.  If ladybug was a lavish limousine, and Serge was a long used family car, then Chat Noir was a taxi.  He got you where you needed to be, but the ride was a bit uncomfortable, and it smelled a little like old cheese.  

 Volpina however….

 “You know, I think that little midair flip at the end might have been a bit unnecessary,” Queen Bee commented as they landed on the rooftop garden of the bakery.  

 Volpina was a motorcycle. She was wild, exciting, a little scary, and (Queen Bee had to admit,) sexy.  There was a fire in her eyes as she ran that made Queen Bee cling to her for dear life.  Volpina was going somewhere, and Queen Bee was only along for the ride.  Every time they leapt over a gap, Volpina looked down. Not out of fear, but as if she were daring gravity to just try to pull them down to earth.  She seemed ready to take on the world if she had to, and have the time of her life doing it. Needless to say, the short trip had taken Queen Bee’s breath away in more ways than one.

 She might even have replaced Serge to the number two spot on the list, if Queen Bee wasn’t still a bit hurt and angry with her from earlier.  

 “Sorry,” Volpina said, smiling and looking only slightly ashamed.  “It’s just, moving like that feels so great!  Ladybug’s always telling me to take it slow and do things safely, but a superhero’s supposed to have flair, isn’t she?”

 Queen Bee rolled her eyes.

 “You and Plagg would get along great.”

 “Plagg?”

 “Chat Noir’s Kwami,” Queen Bee replied quickly, looking around at the roof.  “This is… quaint.”  

 “Yeah, it’s not bad,” Volpina said, missing the subtle sting in Queen Bee’s choice of words.  “Hard to imagine there’s an evil Akuma just three stories below.  Maybe we got it wrong?”

 Volpina looked at her optimistically.  Before Queen Bee could do more than raise an eyebrow, there was a loud clattering of bells as the door to the bakery below them was thrown open.  They both peeked over the edge and saw a line of gibbering macaroons run out of the bakery and head towards the park.  

 “So, is constantly putting your foot in your mouth another superpower, or does it just come naturally to you?” Queen Bee asked, watching the freshly baked minions go.  

 Volpina groaned and grabbed at her face again.  Queen Bee smirked in satisfaction before looking over at the park thoughtfully.  

 “Still, that explains why there always seems to be more of them.  The Akuma must be turning them out by the dozen.”  She turned back to Volpina.  “So, what’s the plan?”

 Volpina grumbled and walked over to the trapdoor leading inside.  

 “We get in, we get the Akuma, and get out,” she said sourly.  

 She was about to open the trapdoor when Queen Bee grabbed her wrist.

 “And we do it very carefully, remember?” she asked.

 Volpina looked up at her. Queen Bee looked nervous, but she was trying to hide it.  Volpina sighed and then smiled reassuringly, and put her hand over Queen Bee’s.  

 “Right.  Don’t worry, I’m sure this’ll be a piece of cake.”

 Queen Bee made a face.

 “That is not at all reassuring today.”

 Volpina gave her a helpless little shrug, and pulled open the trap door.

 As the two of them descended into Marinette’s room, Queen Bee felt her skin crawl.  She imagined most people would have the same reaction walking into her penthouse.  If there was one person in Paris she hated, and felt completely justified in hating, it was… well it was probably Hawkmoth now that she thought about it.  But if there was a second person in Paris she hated and felt completely justified in hating, it was Marinette Dupan-Chang.  

 Her hatred only grew as she got a good look at the bedroom they were sneaking into.  The room was comprised of mainly three things: sewing supplies, pictures of Marinette’s friends and family (several of them just of Adrien,) and the color pink.  It was everywhere.  The walls were pink, the sofa was pink, the carpet was pink, the air even smelled pink somehow, no doubt due to a flowery pink air freshener hidden in a pink corner somewhere.  Queen Bee had to pause on the stairs and spend a few seconds just scowling at the room.  

 It worked.  Though she would never admit it, the slightly varying shades of pink and other colors used sparingly about the room just made it work.   Marinette knew how to use a theme, and Queen Bee hated it.  It wasn’t right that someone like Marinette had legitimate talent.  But then again, her own father was one of the most successful men she knew, next to Uncle Gabriel maybe.  It seemed the blacker your heart the more likely you were to succeed in life.  

 Life sucked.

 “Are you okay?”

 She blinked and realized she had been lingering in her angry thoughts too long.  Volpina was already on the bottom floor of the three tiered room, and was looking up at her with her head slightly cocked to one side. Queen Bee shook her head and continued down too.  

 “Yeah, I just…  Pink’s not my color.”  

 Not her best lie, but Volpina just pursed her lips and looked around the room.  

 “Yeah… she’s sure got a thing for it, doesn’t she?  Never did get the appeal of it myself.  I was always more of a fall colors kind of girl.”  

 “Pity you shot me down earlier,” Queen Bee said, strolling past her.  “Else I’d say how much I’d love to see you in nothing but flesh tones.”

 Volpina focused her attention on a nearby sewing machine and bit her lower lip, fighting a smile and trying to keep down a light blush.  Queen Bee paused for a moment at the second trap door before turning around to look back at Volpina with a puzzled expression.  

 “Am I doing that right? Like, I know you’re not interested, but the flirting…  Am I doing that right?”

 Volpina looked at her blankly.  Queen Bee took it as a bad sign, while in reality Volpina’s mind had simply been completely overridden by a single word.  

 ‘Cute.’

 “It’s just, I never flirted with a girl before today,” Queen Bee explained, beginning to play with her fingers.  “I’ve never honestly flirted with anyone, really.  I mean, I know how to flirt of course!  But not with someone I actually like.  Not that I like you!  I mean, I do, but I know that you don’t like me, so I’m not going to, you know…  I just, you seem to know how to do it, so if you could give me some pointers or something, that would be… nice.”  

 She trailed off, still playing with her hands and looking at every part of the room that wasn’t occupied by her partner.  Volpina meanwhile was fighting a small war with herself as she resisted the urge to squeal and scoop the nervous girl up so she could start cuddling her again.  

 After a few deep breaths, and reminding herself that she had already messed up and hurt Queen Bee once already, she decided she could be trusted within arm’s reach of her partner again, and purposefully strode past Queen Bee and over to the second trap door leading down into the main house.  

 “You’d probably come on a little too strong with a line like that,” she said, pointedly not looking at Queen Bee.  

 “But, that was still pretty smooth.  For a rookie,” she added, looking over her shoulder and giving Queen Bee a small smirk.  

 Queen Bee beamed at the praise.  She did a little arm pump and whispered “yes!” to herself.  Volpina could feel her resolve slipping away by the nanosecond, so she quickly looked back down at the trap door and cleared her throat.

 “Okay, Dating for Lesbian’s 101 is over for now.  Time to focus on the mission.”  

 “Right,” Queen Bee agreed and gave her a quick salute.  

 Volpina said a quick prayer to beg the powers that be to give her strength, and the two headed down into the rest of the house.  

 Truth be told, both of them had half expected the downstairs to have become some impossibly large maze made out of gingerbread or something.  Instead, they found a perfectly normal house.  Queen Bee guarded the stairs while Volpina did a quick check of the second floor for any clue or hint of the Akuma.  She returned giving Queen Bee a disappointed shrug.  

 They continued down the stairs to the small hallway connecting the house to the bakery, as well as the small side door to the street.  From inside the store, they could hear the sounds of a man’s voice talking enthusiastically to himself.  Volpina put a hand on the doorknob and looked meaningfully at Queen Bee, putting a finger to her own lips.  Queen Bee nodded, and quietly as possible, they pushed open the door.  

 However, the door had been installed by a complete moron, (most likely the owners, Queen Bee guessed,) because it opened out into the bakery, and away from the interior.  Queen Bee was certain that violated at least two safety regulations, as well as plain common sense in design.  She cursed silently to herself for leaving her purse back in the nurse’s office, as her hand mirror would have been perfect for peeking around the stupidly designed door.  Instead, in order to get a look at anything other than a brick wall, they had to open the door conspicuously wide, and poke their heads around it.  They kept low to the ground, trying to preserve what little stealth they could, meaning Queen Bee had to practically lay across Volpina’s back to get a look.

 Which led Queen Bee to decide that maybe who ever put in the door wasn’t so stupid after all.

 Queen Bee was unable to truly enjoy herself however, partially because pressing her body into someone she knew wasn’t interested was still awkward, (even if they did smell fantastic,) but mostly because of the strange sight that awaited them on the other side of the door.  

 The store itself was just as it had always been.  Fresh bread and pastries lined the shelves, light poured in cheerily from the large windows, the smells of warm baguettes and light fluffy croissants filled the air. The actual baking area however had undergone quite a makeover.  Any electric lights inside had been turned off, and several black candles had been lit about the room.  The wooden table Tom used to roll out his dough had been converted into a cross between a 17th century alchemical laboratory, and the set of a cooking show.  

 A cloaked figure stood chanting at the table.  In one hand he held a plane looking wooden rolling pin, while in the other he held a large book wrought in a heavy iron frame and lock, making it look like the grimoire of some ancient wizard.  The figure himself was large and bulky, and stood behind the table in profile to them. The heavy hood of his dark robes hid his face in shadow, and fortunately also kept them from his peripheral vision.  He also wore a small white chefs hat on top of his hood, and a white cotton apron around his waist, which clashed almost comedically with the rest of his dark and mysterious appearance.  

 “I think we found our Akuma,” Volpina whispered in Queen Bee’s ear.  

 “Either that, or the Grim Reaper is getting ready for a bake sale,” she whispered back.  

 They continued to watch as the figure waved the rolling pin over a mixing bowl and chanted phrases like, “One and one fourth cups of dry active yeast, two teaspoons of sugar, a pinch of salt!” then bursting out into a maniacal cackle.  

 After about two or three of these laugh breaks, the figure finished reading his “incantation,” and the contents of the bowl glowed and swirled up into the air.  The bits of various baking components manifested into half a dozen giant croissant soldiers, which stood still and lifeless in front of the cloaked figure.  He pointed his rolling pin at them.  

 “Go my creations!  Go see that that detestable taster remains where he is!  And make sure Ladybug and Chat Noir are ready to taste my ultimate revenge as well!”

 The croissants flew into a frenzy and charged out the door.  Well, most of them did; one of the little monsters managed to trip and impale itself on its own spatula on its’ way out.  It lay on the ground, completely motionless with the spatula sticking through it as its fellows ran around it and out the door.  The last croissant paused next to its fallen comrade, and regarded the spatula for a moment before ripping it out.  It held its newly acquired weapon in the air and screamed with delight before following the rest of its troops out the door, wildly swinging both of its weapons in berserk joy as it went.  

 The girls watched as the hole punched in the fallen croissant began to mend, and a few seconds later the evil edible jerked back to life and leapt to its feet.  It looked around for its stolen weapon before running out the door, gibbering furiously and shaking its fist.  

 “Did you see that?” Volpina whispered again.  “That thing was down for the count!  They must be weak to their own weapons.”

 “Maybe,” Queen Bee whispered back uncertainly.  “But remember the ones in the park?  They didn’t get up until all of their pieces were in place, remember?  I think that the spatula kept it from healing all the way, and that’s why it couldn’t get up. Like those old Christmas lights, the ones where if one bulb died then the whole string went out?”  

 “This is magical warfare, not party decorations,” Volpina snapped back.  “I bet it’s the weapons.  It’s more poetic that way.”  

 “And I say it just has to impale them,” Queen Bee snapped back.

 Before they could begin to argue like an old married couple, and likely blow their cover, the front door to the bakery opened with a sad ringing of its abused bell.  

 “Honey, I’m back!  You would not believe the lines at the…”

 The door closed behind Sabine Cheng as she stood stalk still at the front of her bakery, holding several large grocery bags.  Before her was the recognizable bulk of her husband, standing behind a strange mess of beakers, tubes, and open containers of sugar, looking like he was ready to go to a Halloween party.  Off to her left, were the unrecognizable masked faces of two strange girls peeking out from behind the door to her house.  All three of them seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see them.

 After blinking at the strange scene taking place in her bakery, Sabine simply gave a little shrug and carried on.  She walked around the table of culinary alchemy and handed the grocery bags to her Akumatized husband and began digging around in them.  

 “I got you another bottle of maraschino cherries since you said you were low.  Oh, and mixed berries were on sale so I got a few boxes of those. I figured even if you didn’t need them we could always have some with breakfast this week.”

 “Excellent,” her husband cackled as she set the ingredients down on the table for him.   “These are just what I needed!  Soon, my revenge will be complete!  That fool Dude Fury will rue the day he crossed THE NECROBA-Oh wait, um… you didn’t happen to pick up some more marshmallow fluff too, did you?”

 Sabine held up a jar of it.

 “Perfect!  Now my revenge will be complete!  And that fool Dude Fury will rue the day he crossed THE NECROBAKER!”  Tom through back his cloaked head and cackled evilly, still carrying his wife’s grocery bags.  

 “That’s nice dear,” Sabine said, taking the groceries back.  “I’m just going to go upstairs and put this away before the ice cream melts.  Have fun enacting your revenge.”

 “Thanks Honeybunch!”  

 The Nekrobaker kissed his wife on the cheek and went back to his evil work.  Sabine turned around just in time to see a pair of orange ears and black antennae disappear behind the door.  She walked over to it and pulled the door open the rest of the way with her foot.  She stepped inside to see the two masked strangers huddled up next to the stairs, looking awkwardly from her to each other.  

 “Hello girls,” Sabine said after closing the door behind her.  “Could one of you please tell me what is going on?”

  After introducing themselves as Paris’s newest superhero team, the two of them followed Sabine upstairs and Volpina recapped everything that had happened, as well as what she suspected had happened to turn Tom into and Akuma.  As she finished, Sabine went over to the window and looked over at the park swarming with her husband’s handy work.  

 “That no good scoundrel,” Sabine cursed.  “Who does he think he is?  Trying to bully money out of people like that; it’s just down right rotten!  I’ll tell you one thing for sure, I’m certainly never watching his show again.”

 “I doubt that cockroach will even have a show after this,” Volpina said, wickedly.  “Once it gets out that he’s been blackmailing the places he reviews, I doubt he’ll be able to get a job on an infomercial.”

 “Of course, that’ll also put bad press on anyone he did give a good review too,” Queen Bee interrupted.  “If those network affiliates have any brains at all, they’re going to try to twist this around to say that the restaurants offered the bribes to him, and try to sue.  Sure, you’ll save the little places like this that couldn’t pay, but what about the ones like Le Grand Paris?  If this gets out, Le Grand Paris will get sued for bribery, Chef Cesaire will be made into a scapegoat, and she’ll be fired and blacklisted from every restaurant in Europe, along with every other owner of an establishment that appeared on that show.”

 Volpina gaped at Queen Bee as she finished her grim “big picture” analyses of the situation.  

 “But… No!  No, My mo- I mean, Chef Cesaire doesn’t own Le Grand, the Mayor does!  He’s the one who will get burned when it comes out that he paid a bribe.  Oh, this is going to be perfect.”  

 Volpina smiled and rubbed her hands together while Queen Bee sighed.

 “You said the money to pay Dude Fury’s bribe came out of the Head Chef’s pay, remember?  The Mayor didn’t just do that to slight her, he did that so any paper trail for the bribe could be traced back to her.  His lawyer’s probably already have an iron clad case written up to peg her for any scandal that pops up.  They’re very good at shifting the blame like that.”  

 Volpina stared at her with her mouth agape, while Queen Bee looked pointedly out the window.

 “You girls certainly seem well informed,” Sabine said, looking from one to the other.  

 They both flinched.  

 “Uhm, well, er, gotta keep up on current events, you know,” Volpina said crossing her arms and trying to lean casually against the kitchen counter.  

 “A superhero has to look at the grand scheme of things,” Queen Bee said easily, pretending to admire her nails, despite the fact that she was wearing gloves.  

 Sabine smiled at them.

 “Well, don’t forget, you two have lady luck on your side.  Ladybug luck, in fact.  As long as you two do the right thing I’m sure it’ll all work out.  Although it certainly doesn’t hurt to be prepared…”  

 Sabine put a finger to her lips and thought for a moment before nodding to herself and heading for the bedroom.  

 “I’m going to make a few phone calls, could you girls go downstairs and take care of my wayward husband? That cookbook he was holding has been passed down for generations.  Just tear it apart and I’m sure you’ll find one of those butterfly things.  Oh, and don’t be afraid to be a little ruff with him if you need to,” she added with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.  “Tom used to be quite the rugby player in high school, and anyway he could use the exercise.  Have fun!”

 And with that, she closed the door to her bedroom and left the two new superheroes staring after her.

 “This family is weird, right?  It’s not just me?”  Queen Bee asked, turning to Volpina.

 Volpina just held up her hand and made a little “maybe” gesture.    

  Back at the bottom of the stairs, Volpina went over her plan with Queen Bee.  

 “Alright, I’m gonna rush in there and smash up his little laboratory so he can’t make any more of his minions.  Then, while he’s distracted with that, I’ll grab the book away from him and run back here. We beat feet upstairs, run back across the rooftops to Ladybug, I throw it down to her, she de-evilizes the Akuma, and mission accomplished!”

 “And then Dude Fury causes no end of problems for either the bakery, or La Grand Paris,” Queen Bee deadpanned.  “And that’s if your plan doesn’t go catastrophically wrong in any one of a thousand ways I can think of off the top of my head.”  

 Volpina groaned and ground her teeth.  

 “Well it’s not like I’m hearing any great plans from you!”

 “You didn’t ask.  You just started declaring you were going to go in and start smashing stuff and that that would somehow fix everything.”

 Volpina glared at her, while Queen Bee crossed her arms and stared back coolly.  Volpina’s glare began to falter, and she forced herself to look down at the floor instead, her hands squeezed into trembling fists. Queen Bee sighed and uncrossed her arms. Fighting with her partner wasn’t going to help the situation, and she knew it.  

 “Look I’m… I’m sorry. I can tell you’re really invested in this for some reason, but your letting your emotions do the thinking, and it’s going to get you or someone else hurt.   Or worse, caught and get your miraculous stolen!  I don’t want to lose my partner on my first day.  I mean, who’d help me find a girlfriend?”

 Queen Bee nudged her playfully and forced herself to let out a hollow laugh.  Volpina sighed and looked at her, her expression now more ashamed then angry.  She turned her head and looked back at the door, pursing her lips at it in thought. After a minute she turned back to Queen Bee.  

 “So, what do you think we should do?”

 Queen Bee frowned and gave the door a distasteful look.  

 “Personally, I think we should just get out of here and get Ladybug and Chat Noir.”

 Volpina shook her head.

 “I already told you, we can’t let Ladybug know.”

 “That’s if she hasn’t figured it out already,” Queen Bee lamented.  She sighed and continued.  “But, if you insist we have to do this by ourselves, then fine.  I think we should try your illusions again.  If we can get him out of there, and out in the open, I think we have a much better chance of snagging that book and getting away without him seeing us.”

 Volpina thought for a moment and nodded.

 “Alright, I think I might be able to make it look like the bakery caught on fire behind him.  That should flush him out.  But I’ll need to get another look at that room first.”

 Queen Bee gave her a thumbs up, and Volpina nodded with a smile.  She went over to the door again while Queen Bee hung back; less faces meant less chance of being seen.  Volpina cracked open the door and poked her head around.  From inside the room came the sound of rushing winds, and the voice of the Nekrobaker screaming over it.  

 “Rise my ultimate creation! Rise!  Rise my Antibug Devil!  Rise and crush my enemies like ground nutmeg beneath your-“

 Volpina withdrew her head quickly and snapped the door shut.  She stood perfectly still for several seconds before turning around to face Queen Bee.

 “…So plan C, right?”  

Authors Notes:  

Regarding the bakery: Yes the door really does open like that in the show.  I don’t know why, but it does.  It took me forever to work out what the floor plan of Marinette’s house looked like, but near as I can figure it goes bakery on the first floor, house on the second floor, then Marinette’s room, and Marinette’s garden on the roof.  I almost ignored the strange design of the door, but making them poke their heads around made it much easier for them to be caught by Sabine.  

 Originally, I did write it so the house became a giant medieval dungeon that Queen Bee and Volpina had to navigate through, but for reasons that will become clearer in the next chapter, that idea was just too problematic to use now.  I also originally wrote Sabine out of the story completely; either by having her locked in one of the dungeons of the transformed house, or just had her out getting groceries the entire time, but then I got the idea of her coming home to find everything gone nuts, and found the idea of her just rolling with it too funny to pass up.  

 Regarding the Nekrobaker: I had a devil of a time coming up with a suitable name and identity for this first Akuma.  The original name I had suggested was Doughmanator, but I just couldn’t make that name work with the concept and scene I had planned.