AN: This is the end of "An Interrupted Date." Tomorrow I'll publish the next story in "An Adrienette Anthology," and Tuesday I will start the next multi-chapter story, "Along Came Anansi."
To The Keeper of Worlds: Possibly; it is still about 4 years before when the "RooT"-verse invasion occurred, so there may be time. We'll just have to see what happens…
Cat Noir landed on the top steps of the police station, Ladybug right beside him, promptly at 8 the next morning and walked straight inside to Lieutenant Raincomprix's office.
"What can I do for you today?" he asked, looking up from his paperwork and glancing between them.
"We have a few questions for the attackers from the other day, the ones with the energy weapons," Cat Noir answered. "Pegasus examined the one we recovered, but now we need to find out where it came from."
Lieutenant Raincomprix nodded and led them to an interrogation room. "It isn't exactly standard procedure for non-police personnel to question prisoners," he told them. "But I think I can make an exception for you. Wait here while I bring one of them."
A few minutes later he returned, leading a handcuffed prisoner. "Come on, Berr," he said. "Ladybug and Cat Noir have some questions for you, and you'd better cooperate. Trust me: you don't want them angry!" With that he pushed Berr into the chair and left the room, closing the door behind him.
"You expect me to talk to a couple of costumed freaks?" Berr scoffed, leaning his chair onto its back legs and eyeing them appraisingly.
"Well, that's a start," Ladybug observed, arching an eyebrow.
"Not much of one," Cat Noir argued, sitting down opposite Berr. Under the table he surreptitiously withdrew his baton and hit the control to extend it slightly. "The thing is, Berr," he went on, leaning forward, "I do expect you to talk. I expect you to tell us exactly what we want to know. And I know that if you don't–" he poked one leg of the chair with his baton, knocking it off-balance. Berr yelped in surprise and pushed himself forward just in time to avoid falling over backward. "–you won't like the consequences."
"You really don't want to test my partner," Ladybug added, folding her arms. "He's been a little upset since you showed up and interrupted a perfectly nice evening. And when he gets in that mood… let's just say that he can turn into a very naughty kitty."
"All right, all right, geez, lady," Berr muttered. "So what did you want to know?"
"Where did the weapons come from?" Ladybug asked.
"We just found 'em."
"You just 'found' futuristic energy weapons?" Cat Noir deadpanned. He turned to Ladybug. "Does he think we were born yesterday?"
"I'm telling you the truth!"
"Say that you are telling the truth," Ladybug replied leaning forward and resting her hands on the table. "Where did you 'just find' them?"
"We were walking around in the forest, a few kilometers south of the city, when we stumbled across them lying in a pit," Berr said rapidly. "We didn't know what to do with them, so we just kept them. My partner, Lamy, he had the bright idea to see what they could do."
"So you decided the best way to test these unknown weapons was by blowing up half of Paris?" Cat Noir asked incredulously, feeling the hackles on the back of his neck stand up.
"Well, how else were we supposed to find out what they can do?" Berr shrugged. "Not like there was anything better to do."
"This pit where you found these weapons," Ladybug interjected, giving him a look of disgust, "where is it? Draw me a map."
Ten minutes later, Ladybug and Cat Noir stepped out of the police station with a map in hand showing where Berr and Lamy had found the energy weapons.
"That went a lot easier than I expected it to," Ladybug observed, squeezing his hand.
Cat Noir smiled and pulled her into an alleyway to de-transform. As their costumes faded away, he pulled Marinette close and wrapped his arms around her waist. She rested her head against his chest, and he kissed her hair. Then he took out his phone and called Ivan.
"Adrien?" Ivan mumbled sleepily. "You do realize it's 8:30 on a Saturday morning, right?"
"I know," Adrien told him. "I know it's early, but I was wondering if you and Mylène would be up for a double date with me and Marinette in a little while."
"I'll ask her," Ivan said with a yawn. "But we're definitely in if she's up for it. What did you have in mind?"
"Oh, a nice, easy stroll in the woods," he answered. Marinette rolled her eyes, and he gave her a Cheshire grin and winked.
"Sounds like fun," Ivan replied. "I take it we should bring hiking boots?"
"Actually… you should bring your miraculous."
"Ah." Adrien could hear the amusement in his voice. "I should've known there'd be a catch. Never simple with you, is it, Agreste?"
"You know me so well." Adrien grinned. "Can you guys meet us at the mansion in an hour or so?"
"Are you saying it's okay for Mylène to know your identities?"
"Are you saying you didn't already tell her our identities?"
"Are you saying you can actually keep secrets from your girlfriend? Because I sure as hell can't!"
"Fair point," Adrien conceded. "Thanks, Ivan. I owe you one."
"You sure do!"
Adrien chuckled. "See you in an hour."
He ended the call and put his phone away. He smiled at Marinette. "Now let's hope finding this pit is easy. And that we don't actually need the big guy on this one…"
An hour later, Ladybug, Cat Noir, Taureau Dechaine, and Multiplice stepped through a portal in the Heroes' Headquarters and emerged in a forest, about half a kilometer from the location they'd gotten from the two criminals. Cat Noir set a brisk pace toward the location, scanning the trees around them for signs of movement, his staff out and recording video of the woods for Pegasus. Behind him, he knew Taureau Dechaine was watching the woods as well, with the two girls sandwiched between them. The heroes didn't speak; the tension was thick in the air.
"Look at the tops of those trees," Multiplice whispered, pointing ahead. Cat Noir followed where she pointed and saw that the tops of several trees had broken off, leaving scorch marks behind. However, new growth had already begun to cover the scorch marks. The row of broken treetops drew a straight line to the ground about a kilometer to their left.
"Well, I think we know where we're heading now," Ladybug observed wryly.
Cat Noir turned and led the group toward the end of the line of broken trees. Suddenly this felt even more real than it had the night before. Whatever was at the end of this trail had to be the source of the energy weapons. He tightened his grip on his staff and gritted his teeth as they arrived at their destination. It didn't take much for him to imagine eyes watching them from the dark woods, but even his miraculous-enhanced senses couldn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.
Cat Noir stopped short at the rim and stared down into a deep crater as the others stopped alongside him. At the bottom of the crater, he could see an oblong brown object, about ten meters across and 30 meters long. The end furthest from where they stood looked to have crumpled in on itself in the crash.
"That does not look like a meteorite," Ladybug breathed.
"So what's the plan now?" Taureau Dechaine asked, his eyes flickering between Ladybug and Cat Noir.
Cat Noir looked closer at the object before taking a couple of pictures on his staff and sending them to Pegasus. From this distance he couldn't quite make it out, but there appeared to be an opening at the top near the far end. "Now, we explore," he replied. And he jumped off the crater rim and surfed down the crater wall, using his staff to maintain his balance. A tumble of dirt and pebbles around him warned that the others had followed his lead. As he maneuvered down to the crash site, Cat Noir couldn't repress a shudder of unease.
When they reached the ship – Cat Noir couldn't think of it as anything else now that he was standing right next to it – Ladybug shook her head, squared her shoulders, and took charge. "Right… Multiplice, could you scout it out? You can cover a lot more ground a lot quieter than the rest of us. If you get into any trouble, we'll be right outside."
Multiplice paled, but nevertheless nodded as Taureau Dechaine placed a massive hand on her shoulder and squeezed it gently. She removed an earpiece from one end of her jump rope and put it in her ear before walking over to the opening and whispering, "Multitude." She disappeared in a flash of pink light as she multiplied and shrank, dropping inside the ship.
The other heroes all retrieved their own earpieces. "Can you hear me okay?" Multiplice asked a few moments later.
"What do you see?" Ladybug asked.
"I'm not sure," she replied, sounding winded. "There are only a couple of rooms in here; it's not very large at all!"
"That's saying something, coming from you!" Cat Noir joked.
"Ha ha," Multiplice retorted. "I'm in what looks like a cockpit and I see two chairs. There's two – somethings – strapped into them."
Taureau Dechaine leaned forward. "Are you okay? Are they alive?"
"They're not moving," she reported. "It smells like they've been here a while and – yeah, there's something on the floor under the chairs, probably blood. I'm sending you some pictures of them."
Another Multiplice clone chimed in. "This room in the back seems to be for storage, but it's completely empty."
"What can you tell me about the cockpit?" Pegasus asked. Cat Noir rolled his eyes at the eagerness in his voice.
"Not much," Multiplice answered a moment later. "There are a bunch of buttons and a couple of sticks. Nothing seems to be active."
"Do you see anyone or anything else inside?" Ladybug asked.
"Nothing."
"I'm coming in," Ladybug announced, running over and dropping through the hatch, followed by Cat Noir. "It's a little tight for you with all of us in here, Taureau," she called out as Taureau Dechaine made to follow.
Cat Noir activated the light on his staff and followed Ladybug toward the front of the ship, where they saw a pair of Multiplice clones sitting on top of a console and testing the various buttons. A third was crawling up the legs of one of the alien bodies. Looking closer at the aliens in the light of his staff, he could see that their skin was a dull green-grey color. The facial features reminded him of nothing so much as the artist recreations of velociraptors from his biology book. On each hand it had four sharp claws, one of which was opposite the other three. One's mouth lolled open, revealing a row of sharp fangs.
"What are these things?" Ladybug asked in shock.
"Dead," Cat Noir replied shortly, poking one with his staff. "Probably been dead for a while. These woods are so deserted this ship could have sat here for months and no one would have found it."
"Based on the pictures you sent," Pegasus began, "I estimate a 70% chance that this ship has been in its present location for between six and twelve months. The aliens appear to have been dead at least that long, as well. Probably died on impact."
"Give us a couple of minutes and then open a portal so we can take the ship back to Headquarters," Ladybug ordered as the clones reformed into a single, full-sized Multiplice. "We need to know everything."
"I'll do my best, but I'm not a miracle-worker," Pegasus replied.
The three heroes exited the ship quickly and joined Taureau Dechaine at the "rear" of the ship, just as Pegasus opened a portal right in front of the ship's crumpled "front" end. Taureau Dechaine braced his shoulder against the smooth metal and shouted, "Stampede!" With assistance from the other three, he slowly pushed the ship through the portal, where it traced a long rut in the butterfly garden's grass before coming to rest along the side wall next to Pegasus' lab.
As the heroes followed the ship through the portal, Multiplice turned to Taureau Dechaine, giggled, and commented, "You really know how to show a girl a good time."
"Next time this one invites us on a double date, I'll be sure to ask what it is before agreeing!" he grunted back, nodding toward Cat Noir as he did so.
"Can I make it up to you?" Cat Noir asked, de-transforming. "How about pizza, popcorn, and a movie?"
"That sounds nice!" Multiplice squealed, hugging a de-transformed Marinette, who smiled back at her.
"If you need to shower or change or anything, I've got about 18 unused rooms upstairs," Adrien offered. "And about half of them are stuffed with unsold clothing, so help yourself to anything that fits."
As Taureau Dechaine and Multiplice rode the elevator to the mansion, Adrien turned to Pegasus. "You're free to join us, too," he told him.
Pegasus shook his head as he de-transformed. "I'm going to get started on this," he told them, gesturing to the ship. "However, I would certainly appreciate some pizza later!"
"I'll be sure to bring some down," Marinette told him, wrapping her arm around Adrien's waist. "But before we leave, do we need to be worried? What if they come back?"
"I do not think they will," Max replied. "I cannot know for certain, of course, but this looks like a short-range vessel akin to an escape pod. If they were going to retrieve it, doubtless they would have done so long before now. For now, I will contact the military to look for any more of these vessels, but I do not believe we have anything to worry about at this moment."
"That's good," Marinette said, breathing a sigh of relief.
"It is indeed, Bugaboo," Adrien replied, pulling her in tight and kissing her hair. "Now, shall we get on with our actual date?"
"Lead the way, Kitty!"
As a reminder, Taureau Dechaine is Ivan (with the Ox Miraculous) and Multiplice is Mylène (with the Mouse Miraculous). Max/Pegasus elected to keep his Miraculous after "Mind Games" but primarily serves as the Heroes' "tech guy."