Ecats!

Her feet hit the lip around the roof's edge, and unable to right herself, she tumbled over it. Without her yoyo, she had no way to stop her descent. She fell through the air, flailing her arms and legs, but the ground continued to speed up on her. She squeezed her eyes shut and braced herself for a rather uncomfortable landing.

The impact never came. Instead, she felt something sweep her up. It took a moment to realize she wasn't still falling. She cracked an eye open to see the buildings passing alongside. Horizontal motion. She let out a small sigh.

"Need a lift, Miss Ladybug?" The voice sounded familiar, and for a moment, Ladybug could have sworn it belonged to Cat Noir. She turned to see her rescuer and nearly flailed out of his shadow-clad arms. "Woah! Hey, calm down! Do you WANT me to drop you?!"

"Who are you?!" That was NOT Cat Noir, and his masked face made her uneasy.

"Let's get to solid footing first." The strange figure bounded through the shadows of the alleyway, almost effortlessly, until they were standing on a flat rooftop near where she'd fallen. He set her down carefully and took an apprehensive step back.

Ladybug eyed him critically. A black mask covered the entire top half of his face, and a tight black suit hugged his body, revealing well-defined muscles underneath along his arms, legs, and chest. His covered hands and feet ended in sharp claws. Buried within wild blond locks, two cat ears sprouted from his head, each topped with a shadowy tuft of black fur. A long, furred tail twitched behind him from side to side. He looked eerily similar to her partner. However, rather than Cat Noir's green, this person's eyes glowed an unnatural shade of violet, and instead of a golden bell, a small, silver cat pendant with amethysts for eyes sat in the hollow of his throat, suspended from a black, leather collar. A matching ring sat upon a silver band on the middle finger of his right hand. Shadows swirled and shifted around him, seeming to cling to him almost as tightly as his suit and making Ladybug all the more uncomfortable.

"Ladybug! You're alright!" Cat Noir landed on the rooftop with her yoyo in his hand and rushed to her side. He was about to wrap his arms around her when her words stopped him.

"Who are you?" she repeated her earlier question.

Cat was puzzled for a moment, but when his gaze followed hers, a low growl escaped him. "Another akuma?!"

"I'm not an akuma!" the mystery figure said indignantly. He paused and looked thoughtful a moment. "At least, I don't think I am."

"Well, how do we know you're not?" Ladybug put one hand on her hip and eyed him skeptically.

"Well, how did you know he wasn't an akuma?" he quipped back, gesturing to her partner.

Ladybug and Cat Noir both blinked and looked at each other. "He's not acting like an akuma..." she allowed.

"Ok, if you're not an akuma," Cat Noir grumbled, "then answer her question; who are you?" He took up a protective stance slightly in front of Ladybug.

The masked entity looked thoughtful for a moment, then answered cockily, "Call me Shadow Cat."

Cat Noir glowered at him. "Woah, woah, woah! I'm the cat around here! LB isn't some crazy cat lady. She's a one Cat kind of gal, right, milady?" He reached over and caught her hand in his. Maintaining eye contact with the newcomer, he lifted her hand up toward his lips pointedly.

Ladybug snatched her hand away, and his puckered lips morphed into a pout. "Down, Kitty." She frowned and stepped around her partner, watching her rescuer. "Cat Noir has a point, though. Having two 'cats' could get confusing. What if we just call you Shade?"

"No!" he responded immediately, annoyance clear in his voice. He sighed and continued in a more subdued tone, "How about just Shadow, then."

"Fine, Shadow, where did you come from? Why haven't we met before?" Cat Noir demanded. Ladybug sighed. Her partner was clearly feeling threatened.

"I'd be more than happy to answer what questions I can, but..." Shadow trailed off and pointed behind them. "You might want to take care of that first."

The heroes glanced behind them and gasped. "The akuma!" Cat Noir tossed Ladybug her yoyo and readied his baton, and the heroes vaulted themselves toward the hotel rooftop.

Shadow hung behind, while the two made their way back to the akuma. He wanted to follow but wasn't sure he should. He was still new to this; it was only his second time out and about as Shadow, after all.

As he considered his options, Ladybug glanced back over her shoulder. Her expression was one of puzzlement and curiosity with a heavy dose of suspicion, but Shadow's heart fluttered in his chest all the same. Judging from her reaction to Cat Noir's behavior, it didn't look like they were a couple.

He shook his head. This wasn't the time to be thinking about that. Ladybug was about to fight a dangerous akuma, and if he could offer any help at all, he wanted to try. He just hoped he wouldn't end up being a hindrance.

Determination illuminated his face, and without a second thought, Shadow leapt from the rooftop. The late afternoon sun lengthened the shadows in the street below, and he used that to his advantage. He'd found that he could gather the darkness from around himself and use them to jump from place to place, almost as if he were a shadow himself. He could still move about in the light, but he felt more comfortable, stronger even, when cloaked in darkness.

Sunlight shone upon the hotel, but the windowsills cast small shadows along the face of the building. He used them almost like steps, launching himself from one to the next until he landed on the roof with a fancy flip he hoped Ladybug saw. Luckily, she did. Unfortunately, he also landed right next to the akumatized woman, stumbled, and fell square on his backside.

The akuma whipped around to face Shadow, clipboard in one hand, pen in another. "And just who are you? I don't have a second Cat Noir on the schedule..."

"I'm-"

"He's-"

"Not Cat Noir!" Cat and Shadow finished simultaneously.

Shadow stood up, brushed himself off, and looked straight at the akuma. "I'm Sh-"

"I don't care who you are," the woman cut him off. "The deal with Hawkmoth was Ladybug and Cat Noir's miraculouses. You're his problem. I have an event to run in..." She glanced at a watch on her wrist. "20 minutes." Her lips turned up at the corners. "I'll let you help me, though." Her pen touched the clipboard, and Shadow cocked an eyebrow, thoroughly confused. The next thing he knew, his body straightened of its own accord, turned toward the hero duo, and launched itself at them, claws out. Cat Noir stepped up and swung his baton out in front of him, ready to fight him off.

As luck (or bad luck) would have it, Shadow's tail twitched around in front of his legs, and he ended up tripping over himself, landing in a heap on his face right in front of none other than Ladybug. His body once again under his control, he looked up and let out a small, embarrassed chuckle.

"Well, that wasn't supposed to happen," the akumatized woman murmured. She frowned and looked down at the clipboard, and her pen scribbled on it again.

Not wasting a moment, Ladybug threw her yoyo up in the air and shouted, "Lucky Charm!" Shadow watched amazed as an object appeared out of thin air and fell to land in the masked girl's open hands. They dipped with the unexpected weight, and the item smacked Shadow on the head.

"Ow!" he grumbled, rubbing the sore spot as Ladybug quickly pulled it back.

"Oops! Sorry!" She offered him an apologetic smile and looked at the red and black-spotted thing in her hands. "A dumbbell?"

Ladybug didn't have time to sort out how to use her Lucky Charm. Cat Noir was charging at her, baton up and ready to strike. "Look out!" he shouted.

Understanding dawned on her face, and Ladybug hefted the dumbbell into one hand, holding it almost like a bowling ball. "Get ready, Cat Noir," she said with a mischievous glint in her eye.

As his body moved of its own accord, Cat Noir's eyes filled with apprehension. He never liked it when she got that look in her eye.

Ladybug pulled her arm back and rolled the dumbbell along the ground at her partner. The weight caught his foot as he ran, and it was his turn to stumble. Grabbing Shadow by his belt, Ladybug stepped nonchalantly out of the way, revealing the Coordinator behind her. Cat Noir grinned as he fell toward the woman and called out, "Cataclysm!" Dark powers swirled around his hand, sparking black and green, and he touched his palm to the clipboard as he tumbled into the akuma. She fell back, losing her grip on the decaying item, and Cat landed on his hands and knees near her. The clipboard flew through the air and landed a few feet away, disintegrating as it landed on the rooftop.

Still sitting where Ladybug had unceremoniously dropped him, Shadow stared, mouth agape, as a small black and purple butterfly rose from the ashes. He turned to Ladybug just in time to see her run a finger along the face of her yoyo. It opened, revealing a small compartment inside.

"No more evil doing for you, little akuma," she said. "Time to de-evilize!" She twirled the yoyo around in an impressive display and, with amazing accuracy, caught the butterfly in the yoyo. The compartment closed, and the yoyo returned to its owner. "Gotcha!" She turned the yoyo over in her hand and opened it again with a touch of her finger. A pure white butterfly fluttered out and flew off into the horizon. "By bye, little butterfly." Ladybug scooped the dumbbell up off the ground and, with a little effort, tossed the heavy object into the air. "Miraculous Ladybug!" As she shouted, the weight exploded in red light, and hundreds of tiny ladybugs shot off in every direction, repairing any damage and freeing anyone controlled by the akuma.

The little bugs enveloped the woman before them, and in her place sat a slender young woman with purple pixie-cut hair and multiple ear piercings. She looked around confused and straightened her black leather jacket as she stood. "What am I doing up here?" She looked at her wristwatch and gasped. "Oh no! The event!" Not even noticing the heroes around her, Penny darted for the stairwell and disappeared from view.

Cat Noir leapt to his feet and held a fist out toward Ladybug. She bumped her fist to his, and in unison, they both said, "Pound it!"

"That was amazing!"

Clearly having forgotten about him, a startled Ladybug and Cat Noir turned toward Shadow.

"Er, right," Cat Noir recovered. "Now about those ques-"

Ladybug's earrings and Cat Noir's ring both beeped, cutting him off. The heroes exchanged a pointed look, while Shadow just raised a brow at them.

"Shadow, we have to go," Ladybug finally said. "Can you meet us tonight at the Eiffel Tower around 9?"

Shadow jumped to his feet and, with one hand across his middle, dipped in a small bow. "Anything for you, Ladybug." He smiled, and Cat Noir narrowed his eyes at him. "Until then!" Shadow stepped back and melted into the darkness, vanishing from view.

Elsewhere in the city, a tall masked figure stood in a dark room, staring out a large window. Dozens of snow white butterflies floated around him lazily, their glowing wings the only light source in the room. The figure touched a finger to his chin and frowned. "Another miraculous wielder...?"

A/N: Ok, so everyone probably saw this coming. I just love jealous Cat Noir, though. Thanks for reading!