AN: This chapter takes place concurrent with "The Press Conference" as well as the first chapter of the next story to come out, titled "Purity and Corruption." There are dialogue indicators of how all of this fits together.
Non-Canon Miraculous users:
Geber - Nathaniel (Rooster Miraculous)
Miss Pinky - Rose (Pig Miraculous)
Replies to reviews of "A Miraculous Adventure in America" chapter 15:
To GuenZhenXuan2020: The Roadrunner Miraculous will probably show up eventually, but I haven't given it too much thought yet.
To Guest: I've got 4 full stories written, plus 3 one-shots, and definite plans for another 2-3 stories, so… it's going to be a while before there's another long break!
To anonymousfriend27: I really like Pedro the reformed Dark Acolyte. He recognizes that what he has been told isn't entirely true and has learned and evolved. I haven't written the part where Marinette and Adrien introduce Pedro to the rest of the gang, but I do know the next place he appears. Of course, a few other things have happened while they were out of contact, so Pedro is the least of their worries…
To Etoile-Lead-Sama: That battle was a ton of fun to write! A lot of fics skip over the battles, but I try to avoid that. Cat choosing not to destroy the Dark Sword was a big moment for him – capturing the sword is huge. Given the cost, that battle wasn't exactly a victory, but they at least prevented the Dark Sword from falling into Lynchpin's hands. This isn't by any means the end; there's plenty left to tell!
King Monkey leapt from the Zoo's main building, dropped onto the hippo statue in front of it, and sprang from the statue, using his Ruyi Jingu Bang staff to vault himself to the top of a streetlight. He flipped off the streetlight backward, caught the crossbar with one hand, and swung around it once, building his momentum before launching himself from there to land on top of the closest cage. He turned back to see his partner still standing on top of the building with his jaw hanging open.
"C'mon!" King Monkey called, waving up to him. "Don't tell me you're a–"
"Don't say it," Geber warned, glaring at him.
"–Chicken!" King Monkey finished, laughing uproariously at his own joke.
"Rooster!" Geber retorted, preening and puffing out his chest. His suit was entirely red-orange, with yellow and green accents across the chest and a red mask covering the top half of his face and bringing his hair together into a bright orange Mohawk that caught in the wind. Geber took a deep breath and leapt from the roof. He landed awkwardly on the statue but swung out his spur to catch his balance. He smoothly jumped off the statue and caught the streetlight's crossbar with the hook on one end of his spur, swung around once, and retracted the hook, launching himself up to land in a crouch next to King Monkey.
"Not bad," King Monkey told him with a nod. "For a beginner."
"You realize gymnastics isn't exactly Carapace's priority in training, right?" Geber asked sardonically.
"Excuses, excuses. That's your first mistake: relying on a turtle to teach you how to move! That's what monkeys are for!" King Monkey retorted, flipping back into a handstand, shifting from one hand to the other before returning to his feet. He bounced on the balls of his feet and grinned in excitement. "Now let's see if you can keep up on a run around the Zoo!"
"Check in, people."
King Monkey jumped when the communicator in his ear came to life. Geber simply raised an eyebrow at him. King Monkey raised a finger. "Don't even…"
"This is Viperion. Everything is quiet along the Seine."
"Of course it's quiet along the Seine," King Monkey observed, snorting. "It's always quiet along the Seine!" He activated the communicator and commented, "Cat really isn't taking any chances today, is he?"
"About that," Geber began. "Why did Cat Noir and Ladybug call in all the other heroes for this press conference today?" His eyes narrowed. "Is it because it's for Hawk Moth's son and Hawk Moth's former company, and they suspect Adrien Agreste of having been involved with Hawk Moth?"
King Monkey tried to keep a straight face. "Yes," he answered seriously, "that is absolutely right."
Geber gave him a look of outrage and threw his arms out. "That's crazy! Anyone who knows Adrien knows how crazy that is! The guy doesn't have an evil bone in his body!"
King Monkey only managed to maintain his straight face for another fifteen seconds before he burst out laughing, falling backwards, kicking his legs in the air, and startling the monkeys in the cage he was standing on.
"I don't see why that's so funny," Geber told him, glowering down at him.
"I really shouldn't laugh," he admitted, pushing himself to his feet. "Adrien isn't who we're investigating. He's the bait. The press conference is supposed to lure the bad guy out into the open."
"Okay… but why are practically all the Heroes involved in this operation today? Why does Adrien warrant this treatment?"
King Monkey put a hand on Geber's shoulder, looked him in the eye with a serious expression, and said, deepening his voice, "I am sorry I cannot give you all of the answers, my son. You are not ready for that responsibility. I can only tell you that you will have all the answers someday." He paused dramatically. "And when that day comes, you will come and find me and say, 'My God, KM! I can't believe I was such an idiot!'" He snorted and clapped Geber on the back. "Or at least that's what I was saying when I found out!"
Geber opened his mouth to respond but his eyes went wide on hearing Ryoku's voice over their communicators. King Monkey smirked at seeing the expression on his face. The smirk turned to a frown, however, when Carapace replied.
"Easy there, Ryoku. How do you keep a secret? By telling nobody. That's what kept us safe before we defeated Hawk Moth: if any of us were Akumatized – and all of us were at least once, remember – we didn't know who Ladybug was so we couldn't target her directly. Anansi and Rena were keeping this investigation as close to the vest as possible so Lynchpin wouldn't realize they were on to him."
That was a little too much for King Monkey. "I'm with the Dragon," he announced into the communicator. "I get not tipping their hand, but shouldn't the rest of us have known something was going on? Look what happened to Cat Noir!"
"What did happen to Cat Noir?" Geber wondered, eyeing him curiously.
Shoot. "… I'll tell you when you're older."
Geber shrugged and started twirling his spur. "Fine. Keep your secrets."
"I'd love to explain everything to you, bro," King Monkey told him, "but that's the rule. I can only share my own secrets. I can't tell you anyone else's secrets. Either they will tell you themselves, or you'll figure it out on your own." He looked around from their position atop the monkey cage. "This isn't a great vantage point. Make a circuit around the zoo and meet back up by the large predators."
"Got it." Geber ran across the roof and leapt over the heads of a small group of tourists, landing lightly on the roof of the next exhibit. He quickly crossed that exhibit's roof and jumped away.
King Monkey turned the opposite direction, eyes scanning his surroundings for signs of trouble. Nothing stood out as particularly memorable. A man sat on a park bench staring intently at the monkeys. A couple walked down the path holding hands. A girl a couple years younger than him was chasing a pair of little boys. Alix raced down one of the paths on her skates. Satisfied, King Monkey stepped back and raced to the edge of the roof, gathering momentum and leaping to the reptile building across the path. He tucked into a roll and sprang to his feet without losing momentum, scrambling up the sloped section of the roof and sliding down on the other side.
As he was leaping to the next building, he noticed a woman looking around frantically. On the far side of that exhibit, he could see a little boy holding a Carapace doll and watching a group of turtles sunning themselves. King Monkey redirected his jump to land in front of the woman.
"What's wrong, ma'am?" he asked, landing softly less than a meter from her. He raised a hand in a soothing gesture when she jumped and nearly screamed at his sudden appearance.
"My – my son is missing!" she told him when she had calmed down a little, her hands shaking.
"Was he holding a Carapace doll?"
The woman nodded.
"He's looking at the turtles on the other side of this exhibit right here," he told her, pointing.
"Thank you," she called over her shoulder, racing off in the direction he had pointed.
King Monkey leapt back up onto the building's roof, where he had a clear view of the woman looking for her son. The moment she spotted him, she cried out and ran straight to him. The boy looked up at the call and waved nonchalantly before returning to staring at the turtles. King Monkey looked away as the mother swept the boy up into her arms, holding him close to her chest. Movement caught his eye, and he glanced into the exhibit which had so captured the boy's attention. The water had been calm moments before, but had suddenly started to churn as the turtles jumped in and started swimming toward the exhibit walls.
King Monkey toggled his communicator to a private channel. "Hey, Carapace?" he asked hesitantly.
The response came a moment later. "What's up, dude?"
"Is it normal for turtles to go from sunning themselves to all swimming full-out in a matter of seconds?"
"Why would I know that?"
"Aren't turtles your thing, Turtle-Dude?" King Monkey asked, chuckling.
"I have the Turtle Miraculous," Carapace retorted. "That doesn't make me a tur– hang on." The communicator was quiet for a moment. King Monkey narrowed his eyes, watching the turtles start standing on each other's backs in an attempt to scale the walls of their exhibit. "I guess Miss Pinky is a turtle expert," Carapace finally said. "Who knew? She says the answer to your question is a hard 'no,' at least if there aren't any predators around. Why?"
"There… are some turtles acting really weird at the zoo," King Monkey told him. "I–" At that moment the monkeys started shrieking and rattling their cage bars. King Monkey covered his ears and winced. "Something's got a bunch of the animals here riled up," he shouted, racing back the way he had come.
"What's wrong?" Carapace asked quickly. "Do you need help?"
"Nah, stay where you are," King Monkey replied, skidding to a halt on the edge of the reptile building's roof. From his vantage point he could see the animals in all of the zoo exhibits jumping up and down, slamming into their cages, and shrieking wildly. His communicator beeped at him, and he glanced down at the control on the Ruyi Jingu Bang to see that Geber was calling on their private channel. He toggled the control to switch channels.
"–and I have no idea what to do!" Geber was shouting. It didn't take much guesswork to figure out what he was calling about.
"Are all the animals still contained near you?" King Monkey checked. From what he could see, the cages and exhibits were still holding, but as the elephant backed up, trumpeted, and charged its exhibit door for the third time, he wondered how much longer that would be the case… and when the pandemonium would start.
"For now," Geber confirmed. He sounded out of breath. "But I don't know if the cages will hold up forever. Something's got the panthers really angry over here…"
King Monkey opened his mouth to respond, but the words caught in his throat as a colossal roar sounded from the far side of the zoo, followed by a chorus of screams. "Are you close to the lions?" he managed.
"Already on the way," Geber assured him, grunting at the exertion.
"I'd better let the bosses know." King Monkey grimaced as he switched back to the main channel. "Something… weird is happening at the zoo," he announced, dropping from the roof and running toward the elephant habitat. "I think Geber and I can handle it." Or I hope we can handle it…
"Let us know if you need backup," came Rena Rouge's response.
"I'll get right on that," King Monkey muttered under his breath, switching back to his channel with Geber. The elephant had by this time slammed its head into its habitat door hard enough to dent the metal. One of its tusks had gotten stuck in the door, and it was twisting its head around in distress, trumpeting its displeasure. The crowd that had been watching the elephant minutes earlier had all fled.
"Okay," King Monkey murmured, "what's got you all riled up?" He jumped down into the habitat and smacked his Ruyi Jingu Bang on a rock as hard as he could. The rock split apart with a crack, and the elephant stilled, looking over at him with its eyes wide in their sockets. King Monkey ran over to where the elephant was still stuck in the door.
"I–I think I've got the lion back in its cage," Geber reported, panting. "But now a couple of the turtles somehow managed to climb out of their exhibit. Give me a second."
"Little busy with an elephant at the moment," King Monkey grunted back, jumping up on the elephant's back. "Easy there," he told it, patting it on the head. "So what's turned you into a pissed-off pachyderm?"
The elephant started to growl, softly but growing louder. King Monkey slid down the elephant's trunk, wedging himself between its head and the door, braced his feet against the door, and pushed. Slowly the tusk came loose from the door, freeing the elephant. King Monkey slipped as the elephant backed away, but grabbed onto its tusk as he fell. He swung around and launched himself up onto the elephant's head. The elephant ran at a breakneck pace around its habitat, King Monkey balanced on its head and using the Ruyi Jingu Bang to prod it into turning to avoid running into the walls. As the elephant turned to avoid another wall, King Monkey jumped from its head, flipped over the wall, and landed on his feet in the pathway.
He was just drawing a calming breath when he heard a clang behind him, followed by a bellowing roar.
"Now what?" he grumbled.
"Geber" is Hebrew for "Rooster" or "Valiant." Using Hebrew seemed appropriate for Nathaniel, as the only (confirmed) Jewish character on the show. His weapon is a "Spur": a staff with retractable hooks (spurs) protruding from each end and curving inward.
AN: In real life, this particular zoo has mostly smaller animals and doesn't have any of the larger animals (makes sense for a zoo in the middle of Paris). But where's the fun in writing an "animals gone wild" story without elephants, lions, and more?
Also, who's been reading this series long enough to realize what's going on here? It gets explained in the next chapter, but let me know in a review if you figured it out!