To Rose Tiger: I mean, you'd be disappointed if Lila wasn't pulling that kind of thing…

To Guest: Thanks! A reader on AO3 mentioned that the G9 model wasn't in use anymore (from what I can tell on Wikipedia, it's still used in 2 states, but not in most of them, including Berlin), but I hadn't changed it yet because I couldn't find a name for what that year was called – my only guess was "Prima" (replacing Unter- and Oberprima), but I didn't think that was right. It is now corrected!

To Lyger 0: Oh, there's absolutely more to it than what's written down. But there's no way they'll ever find out about any of them… right?

To Butterfly: It won't happen until after the next "season" probably (the season after "The Colossus Saga"), but it is on the to-do list… And Lila really does have a punchable face, doesn't she?

To yellow 14: Well, Lila already has one member for her "Bee Hive" (la Gymnaste), she's definitely in the market for more… And I'm glad for the vote of confidence; I hope what I write lives up to the expectations!

"On your left, you can see a number of different forms of traditional dress from throughout Europe during the eighteenth century. The pearl necklace here was donated to our collection by a descendant of the original owner, a Pomeranian landowner's wife in the early eighteenth century."

Alix tried to stifle a yawn as she collected her backpack from the x-ray machine belt on the other side of security, just inside the Museum Europäischer Culturen's main entrance. Mme Meidner, the Berlin State Museums curator who was leading the tour, droned on about the styles of dress and fashion that had been in vogue in central Europe during the last three centuries, supplemented every few minutes with information from Alix's father. Alix frowned but shrugged. As embarrassing as it was to go on a school trip with her father, he was at least better than listening to Jalil's crazy theories about Atlantean totemic artifacts – although these days she had to give his theories a lot more credence… Beside Alix, Inga and Mireille and Ondine all seemed to be fascinated by the mannequins lining the atrium that displayed dresses worn by Prussian nobility before the Unification; Alix just wanted to smash her head against one of the stone pillars. Seeing the equally-bored look on Kim's face she leaned over and muttered, "Why the hell would anyone want to wear this junk?"

He shrugged. "Maybe you should ask Marinette when we get back," he suggested.

Alix paled. "Hell no!" she retorted. "The last time I asked Marinette a fashion question, the answer took about six hours!"

"Maybe it was that complicated?"

Alix gave him a deadpan look. "I asked her why women's skirts can never have pockets."

He grinned. "So did you get an answer?"

She arched an eyebrow. "Probably," she admitted. "Though I think it was somewhere around the three hour mark, and I forgot it by five!"

"Shh!" Ondine put a finger to her lips and glared at them, though the corners of her lips curved up into an amused smile. She rolled her eyes. "I can't take you two anywhere, can I?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Alix protested. She smirked. "But you should already have figured that out with Kim…" Kim frowned at Alix, who raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, I had," Ondine agreed, earning a disappointed look from Kim. She paused a beat. "But I had expected a little better from you!"

Mme Meidner had waved for the two glasses to gather together near the entrance to the main exhibit on Cultural Contacts, where she indicated the first display case, showing a wide array of handcrafted jewelry worn by German peasants, some pieces of which included cards noting that they were centuries older than the majority of the museum's collection. "Although peasant life was difficult," she explained, "some still found ways to make their existence more bearable, including through artistic expression. While the materials were poorer and the workmanship rougher, these pendants and bracelets demonstrate the creative spirit, something that has persisted through the ages." She pointed to a ring, and Alix moved a little closer, curious. "Some of these pieces include these scratches, probably evidence of the poor tools available to those who produced them."

M. Hauerfels, the German teacher, placed his hand on the case, near the ring, and frowned. "Actually, Frau Meidner," he interjected, raising an eyebrow, "I believe that this is an intentional marking."

Mme Meidner bent over and looked at it closer. "Huh." She furrowed her brows in confusion. "I– think you may be correct. It's rather rough and blocky, but it does appear to be an initial, perhaps the name of the person who created it."

"In fact," M. Hauerfels added, scanning the rest of the case, "similar markings are on several of these pieces."

Mme Meidner looked where he pointed and shook her head. "That doesn't look like any Germanic script in use during that time period," she objected.

M. Hauerfels hummed. "Perhaps it is not a letter, but a rune," he suggested.

"A rune?" Mme Meidner pursed her lips. "I suppose that could be the case," she allowed, "but it would bear further study to determine whether it is or not, as well as the symbolic meaning."

M. Hauerfels scoffed dismissively. "None of these runes have true meaning," he told her. "With how poorly they were carved, it is only enough to recognize the runic origin, not enough to understand them."

Drifting back to where Kim and Ondine were standing beside a silver tiara, Alix yawned pointedly. "All this talk of jewelry and clothing is seriously starting to get to me," she muttered to Kim. "What do you say we ditch the group and go on our own tour?"

Kim grinned eagerly. "It's like you read my mind!" he agreed, nodding. "Is there an exhibit on sports in this place?"

Alix raised an eyebrow dubiously. "You really think these people had time for a lot of games?"

Ondine cleared her throat and held up a map. "Maybe not sports, but it does say there's an exhibit on jousting and tournaments in the later medieval period at the end of that hallway," she suggested, pointing.

"Then let's go!" Kim enthused, grabbing Ondine's hand.

"But I was kind of interested in this," Ondine objected, frowning.

Alix shrugged. "We can come back and see the parts we actually want to see later on when everyone has moved on," she noted, leading the way down that particular hallway, past row upon row of medieval banners displaying stars and crosses in different color combinations and configurations, separated by a wide array of pole arms. The display placard at the beginning of the line labeled these as the coats of arms of the military orders of Europe.

Kim paused in front of one with a green cross on a white field and shook his head ruefully. "They sure had a lot of these groups, didn't they?"

Alix nodded. "What else were they going to do with all the dumbass jocks like you that couldn't help getting into fights all the time?" she asked, grinning. Ondine poked him in the ribs, giggling.

"Why do I feel like I'm always getting ganged up on?" he grumbled, grimacing.

Ondine looped her arm around his waist. "Only because it's so easy to do," she teased, kissing him on the cheek.

Alix made an exaggerated face. "Don't make me get out a spray bottle, you two," she warned them, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

Kim stuck his tongue out at her and grinned before turning to the next banner, this one with an elaborate red cross. "But seriously, what's with all these groups?"

Alix read the card next to another banner and shrugged. "As far as I can tell, the younger sons of noble houses had to go somewhere, and they couldn't all go into the clergy, so a lot of them became knights in the Crusades. And by joining together into these so-called 'religious military orders,' they could still claim to serve the church by expanding its reach at the edge of a sword."

Kim raised an eyebrow dubiously. "Sounds like a lot of bullies with swords to me. And associated with a religious symbol?"

Ondine frowned. "My dad has said the worst enemies he ever faced were the religiously-motivated ones. If your religion tells you that you need to kill people to spread your religion, there's nothing you won't do. And associating religious symbols with warfare is even worse."

Alix pursed her lips in agreement. "It doesn't have to just be religious symbols, though," she pointed out, walking past an open hallway lined with suits of armor. "Any symbol can become a rallying point for people to do terrible things."

"Like Hitler," Kim observed, making a face. He raised an eyebrow at Alix pointedly.

"Like him," Alix agreed. Suddenly the hairs on the back of her neck stood upright, as a wave of heat struck her. She glanced back down the side hallway they had just passed curiously. A swirling vortex of sickly red fire billowed down it, directly toward them. suits of armor glowed brilliant red, the plume on top of a helmet erupting in flame in an instant as the fire engulfed it and moved on without slowing down. Her eyes shot wide open in shock. "Kim!"

Kim looked down the hallway and cursed. "Xuppu, Show time!" he bellowed, pushing Ondine straight toward Alix and leaping into the hallway intersection, between the two girls and the fire.

Alix launched herself at Ondine's shoulders, tackling her to the ground and sliding both of them out of the path of the red fire as golden light surrounded Kim. Ondine gasped in shock when her back hit the tiled floor and tried to push Alix off of her. Alix pinned Ondine's arms between their chests, covered Ondine with her own body, and pushed her head down, squeezing her own eyes closed against the brilliant red and gold lights illuminating the hallway around them.

"Kim!" Ondine screamed, trying desperately to squirm away from Alix.

"Stay down!" Alix hissed in Ondine's ear, pushing her head down to the floor. Alix turned her head away from the building heat that threatened to singe away the tiny hairs on the back of her neck and seared her nose and throat with every breath. "I swear, he's fine! He just saved both of our lives, but that will mean nothing if you get yourself burned to a crisp now!"

Alix kept her eyes shut tight until the heat that had driven the room's temperature up to a stifling level had finally dissipated. But even then, Alix waited a beat before she finally opened her eyes and looked back to see King Monkey standing in the middle of the hallway, his staff still spinning in front of his chest, the walls on either side of that side hallway charred, the wallpaper crinkling up and flaking away to be caught in the breeze from King Monkey's staff. Where there had once been suits of armor, nothing remained but melted metal and plastic. The remaining flames along the walls slowly died away as the column of air blew them out. "Damn," Alix commented lightly. "Think there's any chance we can get an assist from Ladybug?"

King Monkey shrugged and stowed his staff on his back. "Maybe? Though I'm pretty sure they were planning to check out a bunch of wedding venues after school every day this week. And it sounded like they would have a full schedule the whole time…"

Alix hummed. "Still, it'd be a shame to leave the museum like this when we're done," she noted, pushing herself up onto one knee. "Dad would be pissed." She glanced back down at Ondine, who had finally stopped struggling once Alix had taken her weight off of her. Ondine stared past Alix's head at King Monkey, blinking slowly, her mouth opening and closing silently. "Um… are you okay there?" Alix asked her hesitantly.

"K–Kim," she finally croaked out, pointing up at King Monkey with a trembling finger, eyes wide as saucers. "He–he's…"

"King Monkey, yeah," Alix finished, smirking. "Who would have thought the rocks-for-brains jock who never takes anything seriously might also be the rocks-for-brains monkey hero who never takes anything seriously?" she asked rhetorically, arching an eyebrow pointedly at King Monkey.

"Hey!" King Monkey put his hands on his hips indignantly, glaring down at her. "I didn't have to save your ass just now!"

"Uh-huh." Alix rolled her eyes. Pulling her "knitting needle and embroidery hoop" out of her backpack along with a couple of other items, she placed the bag on Ondine's stomach. "Hey, hang onto this for me, will you?" she asked, setting the "embroidery hoop" on the back of her head to rest atop her hair and pulling it down over her face to deploy her emergency helmet. She shifted it slightly to one side to situate the visor in the correct position over her face. She tapped the joint over her right ear, and the built-in communicator came to life, syncing with her phone, even as King Monkey extracted an earpiece from his staff.

"Wh–what?" Ondine's voice trembled, clutching the backpack to her chest and staring up Alix in disbelief. "Why?"

Sk8r Girl scoffed and slid the portable skate bottoms onto the soles of her regular shoes before clasping the utility belt around her waist. "Because it really doesn't fit the look," she explained, patting Ondine on the head. She hit a hidden button on the side of her "knitting needle" to extend it to full length before slamming one end of her collapsible staff into the ground and pushing herself up to her feet. Grabbing Ondine's hand, she hauled her up after her, nudging her in King Monkey's direction.

Ondine looked up and down the hallway and then at the charred path the fire had left behind before her eyes finally settled on King Monkey. "But what–?"

Sk8r Girl shrugged. "Not a clue," she interrupted, holding up her free hand. "We don't know anything more than you do; thirty seconds ago, this was just a school trip. Now no more questions, please? Let us figure out what the hell just happened."