Miraculous Adventure in Joey Drew Studio

by Gale-Dragon

It was just supposed to be a fun Halloween event. All they were going to be doing was going through each class's Haunted House. The only condition made was that they never go to the original location of that studio. But thanks to Lila, they were in Joey Drew Studio. Now Mariette, Max, Adrien, Kim, and Markov must survive the studio and escape, all without blowing their identities.

1. Chapter 1

Miraculous Adventure in Joey Drew Studio

~}i{~

Chapter 1: Welcome to Our Haunted Joey Drew Studio.

~}i{~

It was the last week of September at Collège Françoise Dupont. October was just around the corner, so each class in the school was planning on some kind of haunted house for the students and their families to enjoy and to add a little healthy competition between the classes. When going over ideas to what kind of haunted house Miss Bustier's should do, they just bounced around some ideas.

Everyone was pitching in ideas. Well, everyone but Lila, who was helping her mom with an embassy party for the Royal Family and was currently not in school at the moment. Or so she said... Alya steadfastly believed that story and just told Marinette that she was just being jealous. Just one tiny problem.

"... Uhhh, Alya, how the heck did you mistake me for Mari? Because I sound nothing like her, not to mention we don't have many common features," Kim stated as he folded his arms and gave Alya a stern look. The French/Vietnamese male student was the one who pointed out the oddity of the story Lila told, not the French/Chinese female student. Kim might not have been the brightest in the classroom, but even he knew that the Royal Family were from England. Which meant that they wouldn't use someone from the Italian Embassy to host a party anywhere in France. Kim told the blogger this, with a suspicious tone in his voice.

Alya was too engrossed at what was on her phone to look up when she said, "Yeah right, Mari. Lila confirmed that they're currently living in Italy at the moment. I hope Lila gives me the details when she gets back."

The majority of the class gave each other a concerned look. Miss Bustier was also concerned, but for a different reason.

The teacher was worried about both Alya's and Lila's recent actions.

The Ladyblogger has been rather... Flakey recently in regards to her friendship with Marinette. Catline has gotten a few good worrisome conversations from the bluette. At first, the teacher thought it was Marinette being a little jealous of Alya's friendship with the Italian and she'd get over it in a week or so. But the more Marinette told Catline about ALL the plans that had to be cancelled because Alya failed to tell Mari that she was doing some last-minute thing with Lila and wanted to re-schedule, which never came up again even when Marinette asked her about it, ALL the "miscommunications" in regards to Lila, and even the fact that Marinette made it a point to email the teacher all her tasks as Class President and calling to confirm that Miss Bustier got those emails a week or two in advance without telling Alya just so Lila doesn't take credit for the idea. All these were raising a lot of red flags in the teacher's head, especially when what Marinette had warned Miss Bustier about had actually happened last week.

Lila tried to take credit for last week's Student Art Auction. An event that Marinette had extensionally planned three weeks in advance with Aurore and had sent Miss Bustier a list of everyone involved, contact info included so they can be called for confirmation, and every single step that was done just before the event started. Lila was nowhere on that list. Miss Bustier was more than a little shocked by the Italian's claim and immediately confronted Lila about that by kindly asking if her 'condition' was acting up. The Italian replied in that sweet tone that she was fine and that she really did help with planning the majority of the Auction because all the members of the Student Council asked her too.

Now Catline Bustier knew that was a real bold lie. The Student Council consisted of the school's Class Presidents, meaning Marinette and Aurore were apart of it. There was also the fact that the two in question were the members of the Student Council that did the most work on the auction, wouldn't have asked some outsider on something they were fully committed to doing themselves. This was more than enough to make Miss Bustier get the principle to re-evaluate the whole "Lying Disease" that Lila had told them when she got in trouble for stealing Marinette's sketchbook and to get ahold of the Italian's mother to get her to come to the school for a long-overdue parent/teacher conversation.

"Uhh, babe, maybe you need to get your hearing checked," Nino told his girlfriend in a concerned tone that was peppered with weariness. Alya just replied that she could hear just fine.

Marinette rolled her eyes in annoyance and snipped in the same tone, "I can't say I'm surprised you're not listening to anyone," before the class wearily returned to discussing what they do for October.

It took Nathaniel and Max talking about a book about animation studios to have everyone agree on what kind of Haunted House Miss Bustier's class would do. They all agreed on doing a Trail of Courage at Joey Drew Studio.

Later, Principle Damocles approved Miss Bustier's class' idea on one very specific condition. The class was NOT to use or go to the actual location of Joey Drew Studio, which was listed as dangerously condemned. It was non-negotiable, absolutely no ifs ands or buts about it, period. They were to have the replica studio at a predetermined location the school had chosen to use. It wasn't much of a big deal, a little weird, but no big deal. Plus, they never saw their principles look and sound so serious.

}i{

"Seriously, I got half a mind to just drag Alya to England and show her that the Royal Family has only lived in that castle of their's," Kim said before munching on a cookie as the Dupain-Cheng family and Max played the newest game creation of the computer genius.

"Forget about her, Kim, she's not worth it," Marinette stated coldly as she moved her game character to take down a minion.

The two adults and two boys froze at this statement. Max paused the game before asking the bluette, "Mari, what happened between you two? It had to have been pretty bad if you're saying that."

Marinette folded her arms in a huff when she sated in real anger, "She bailed on me, again, and I really needed her help yesterday. I called her until her message box was full, then I started texting her, asking her where she was. I got no response from her at all, and it made me think that something bad happened to her! I even called her home phone and talked to her older sister, who just told me that Alya was out. So when I saw her this morning and talked to her about where she was, she told me that she and Lila had a 'sweet last-minute Girl's Day Out' all day yesterday. I should've just called her out on the fact that she already made plans to with me a WEEK in advance but no! I had to ask her through my teeth if she remembered making any important plans for yesterday before Lila called her, and she told me that she had NO plans and THAT was the reason WHY she accepted Lila's offer for a Girl's Day Out. I was pissed! I reminded her EVERY DAY for the week that she promised to help me yesterday, EVERY FREAKIN' DAY when classes were over! She should've known that! This had absolutely nothing to do with 'jealousy towards Lie-la', not even a pinch of it! Alya cannot blame 'jealousy' for my anger at her!"

Sabine placed a hand on her daughter's shoulder with a sympathetic look when Tom said, "We had a rather big delivery order yesterday and couldn't deliver it ourselves because we had a few other orders to complete. It was too big for Mari to complete on her own even with her bike, so she asked Alya to help. So when she didn't show..."

Kim and Max glanced at each other in concern. They'll admit, Alya does have a bad habit of leaving during meet-ups with friends, but the reason for it was just her trying to get footage of heroes in action when there was an Akuma attack. Yesterday, however, was a whole different issue...

"Uh, how were you able to deliver the order?" Kim asked, more out of curiosity than anything.

Marinette sighed when she said, "Well, my next option was to call Nino for help, but when I called he was having a family emergency. Chris broke his arm when trying to ride Nino's bike without his permission. Nino and his mom were at the hospital when I called. He couldn't help when he's worried about his little brother, so I told him to tell Chris that I'll visit him later in the week to sign his cast." Marinette sighed before saying, "At least Nino's excuse was valid, so I don't have any ill feelings for him refusing to help me. And this morning he overheard my little 'conversation' with Alya, and now he's completely concerned about the 'friendship' Alya has with Lila. He mentioned that he has had a few concerns about Lila before since she claimed to have met Alfred Hitchcock before he died. Nino did say that he thought it was a little weird that Lila would fib about that but he admitted that he just assumed that she wanted to be included in the conversation, so he let the lie slide."

Max adjusted his glasses when he said, "Mr Hitchcock died in 1980, long before any of us teenagers were born, thus Lie-la could not have met him before he died unless she's an adult pretending to be a high schooler for whatever reason. While it is nice to know we're not the only ones noticing the falsehood Lila has told, it is still concerning that our class "reporter" has yet to do any sort of research into any of her stories..."

Max started having doubts about Lila's credibility long before the napkin incident.

Yes, the whole thing just felt... Off. Very off. Paper napkins were flimsy and soft, making them one of the least likely objects to get any type of papercut on. And a wadded-up paper napkin was only good at annoying or getting the attention of others, you can't harm someone with a napkin ball unless it was wrapped around a rock. So the whole idea about a paper napkin gorging an eye out was utterly ridiculous, as Chloe would put it. Plus Max wore glasses, so he's eyes were safe even if that story was true. But what got the techie suspicious was all these stories Lila was telling. That she was meeting all these famous actors, singers, directors, authors, athletes, politicians, world leaders, and business people as well as all the places she has been with her diplomat mother. It just... Didn't make any sense that Lila would meet all these different people if she was Just a diplomat's daughter... Well, there was a higher probability of Lila being able to meet the world leaders and politicians due to her mother's job, but the chances of Lila actually meeting ALL the other famous individuals she has claimed to have met were close to 0.1%. Especially since all these people were in different industries or were dead.

So after the whole Napkin Incident, Max followed Lila, who was following Marinette, to the restroom to 'mend fences' as the Italian claimed. The tech geek didn't enter the girl's restroom, but he was able to hear exactly what happened through the door since Lila was not being very subtle because she thought it was just her and the bluette in and around the restroom. Max was just lucky that the janitor's closet was next to the girl's restroom since he quickly ducked in there when Lila exited the restroom without realizing that someone overheard her threatening Marinette. After he was sure Lila left, Max peaked out of the closet before quickly knocked on the girl's restroom door and asked if Marinette was ok.

(Thanks to this the bluette was able to calm down faster, thus causing Hawkmoth to retract the Akuma sooner and thus no Chameleon Episode in this Universe).

After that incident, Max had started keeping track of all the tales Lila had told and went out of his way to confirm whether or not these were lies. Markov also joined in on this task and even admitted to recording what he heard in the restroom. Max and Marinette were debating on whether or not they should let others know about that recording since technically it was made without anyone's knowledge and permission. But they eventually settled on using that recording as a last resort after running it through a heavy authenticity program to prevent any claims of creating it to make someone look bad.

Marinette took a deep breath when she said, "Kagami and her mother were passing by and saw my parents trying to calm me down from a mid-panic. Kagami managed to convince her mother to help me out. I guess it was good luck that they were heading close to the address on the client's order form. I'm pretty sure Mrs Tsurugi would've refused if our destinations weren't. It was thanks to them I was able to deliver the order on time, but Mrs Tsurugi did play a game of 20 Questions with me about what happened along the way..."

"I didn't think she was the type to play games," Kim commented cluelessly.

Max adjusted his glasses when he said, "Kim, Marinette was just making a statement saying that Mrs Tsurugi interrogated her similar to a game of 20 Questions, just without the fun."

"Oh," was all Kim got out.

Marinette glanced at the floor when she said, "I can't say she wasn't entirely wrong about her opinion about Alya, but I also can't say she was completely right either. And... She did have a point about ending my friendship with someone who has repeatedly "left a fellow warrior without aid", as Mrs Tsurugi put it. And... I kind of agree with her on that... So I compromised to drop Alya as my friend if she didn't have a valid reason as to why she didn't keep her promise to help me with the delivery... So after this morning's conversation, I don't consider Alya my friend anymore."

"I do admit it's harsh, but considering how big the delivery was and the repeated reminders about it... But still... Despite the initial unwillingness, we're really thankful that the Tsurugis were able to help Marinette," Sabine stated with a small smile. She then added, "We're already making them their Thank You Gifts. I'm hoping they'll like them." Marinette and Tom nodded in agreement.

Max adjusted his glasses when he said, to try to turn the mood around, "One more test round before we go over the plans on the construction of our Haunted Studio while making sure Lie-la doesn't try to take the credit for your effort."

That was when Kim had an idea on how to do both while not being so obvious about it.

~}i{ Three Days Later }i{~

After the Student Council meeting, Kim and Max got a text from Marinette. It was a simple thumbs-up, but that was their code for "the Council accepted the proposal".

}i{ Next Day }i{

Principle Damocles handed out the criteria list for the construction and management for the Haunted Houses each class will make to each of the classes. He explained that the Student Council wanted every class to follow these specific rules when working on their Haunted Houses to make the whole thing both challenging and fun. He then left the classroom.

Everyone read the rules.

Rule 1, Only students of the class are to work on the event in regards to their Haunted House. The only adult that is allowed to help with the event is the teacher of the classes. Family members, family friends, acquaintances, and friends outside the class are not allowed to help with the event. The members of the classes are only to use their own skills when making the pieces of their Haunted House.

Rule 2, Each class gets a budget for supplies and are not allowed to go over it, so keep track of the cost of everything. Students must buy the supplies themselves, no family members, family friends, acquaintances, or friends outside the class are allowed to do this.

Rule 3, Any sound effects, music, or visuals must be made by the students of the class. But if the class needs a specific sound or visual clip and if one of the class happens to already have a cd, DVD, or a recording of it in their possession before the planing of the Haunted Houses, it will be allowed. But only the section needed. Anyone outside the class is not allowed to help with this.

Rule 4, Construction of the chosen Haunted House structure must be finished by the day specified by the Student Council. Which is the day before Halloween. The location for the Haunted Houses has already been predetermined by the school staff. Teachers will be responsible for making sure that the pieces for each Haunted House arrives at the location and then put together by a third-party chosen by the School Board. This will be the only time adults outside the classes are allowed to help.

Rule 5, Teamwork is a must. The class must work together on the project.

Rule 6, Have fun and make your chosen Haunted House as scary as you can~.

Rule 7, Absolutely no exceptions to any of the prior rules. These rules have been thoroughly discussed and vented by the Student Council personally, therefore completely approved of. Refusal to adhere to the rules with result in Immediate disqualification from the event for the entire class.

Now that the rules have been read, now it was time to get the ideas flowing on how they should construct their Joey Drew replica. So far, everything was going just fine. At least until...

"Oh, maybe I can ask Clara Nightengale's costume designer to help out with making some of the designs for the cartoons," Lila said in her fake modest tone, trying to get the attention on her.

Adrien knew that his father wouldn't bother on a Halloween event for a school, even if it was the school his son attended. Although, the blonde model was pretty sure that Lila didn't know that his father WAS Clara's designer.

Marinette rolled her eyes when she stated sternly, "Lila, please re-read Rule #1." The bluette was NOT having this crap right now.

"But, Silvia would love to help us out with our replica studio if I ask her, especially since I helped her with finding the perfect fabric for Clara's latest outfit," Lila said in that tone of hers that made her sound all modist and timid.

It took all of Adrien's willpower to Not groan in annoyance at the lie. If the blonde model knew that his father wouldn't care what the liar was saying about this, he would've told him about this rediculous lie for attention. But still... This was starting to raising a few flags in Adrien's mind.

Marinette folded her arms and repeated sternly, "No Lila, and please re-read Rule #1. Especially before you call your "Friend" for that favour. Now please."

Lila continued with the show when she said, "But, think about it, if Silvia helped us, we can easily win the competition."

Marinette pinched the bridge of her nose, clearly annoyed, before saying, "I'm serious, please re-read Rule #1 before you say any more." As much as the bluette wanted to just tell the liar outright that it was against the rules, she was NOT going to let the liar try to turn this thing as a way to make it seem like Marinette was 'Jealous'.

That was when Alya butted in by saying, "Aw, come on girl, can't we ask Silvia to at least advise us or something along that line?"

This was getting repetitive real fast when the bluette repeated, "Seriously, please re-read Rule #1." Marinette rolled her eyes before looking at Alya and stating, "Rule #1 clearly states the reason why "Silvia" or any other adult outside this classroom Can Not Help Us." Now, this was getting frustrating.

"But, Mari, can't you just make an exception? Lila really wants Silvia to help," Alya tried to plead graciously.

'Hell no! She is NOT doing this,' Marinette thought before taking a deep breath and saying in a tone that screamed 'I-am-obviously-angry-but-I-am-being-calm-to-make-a-point', "Rossi, Césaire, I'm being very serious when I'm telling Both of you to please Re-Read Rule #1 AND Rule #7. NOW."

Most of the class was... Getting a little concern with this interaction. Besides the fact that Marinette Dupain-Cheng used Lila's and Alya's surname rather than their given names, was speaking volumes on just how mad the bluette was and a lot of the class wasn't sure how to respond to this... Why couldn't Lila and Alya just re-read the Rules?

That was when Lila finally played the "Jealousy" card, saying that Marinette was jealous of her connection to the fashion world. That caused the class to mummer amongst themselves. Lila thought the class was completely on her side and agreeing with her, but in reality, those murmurs were more because they were confused by the jealousy claim. All Marinette was doing was telling Lila and Alya to check the rules, and while the bluette seemed mad and irritated because she had to repeat the same phrase over and over, she wasn't being jealous...

A red flag was completely raised and waving in Adrien's mind.

That was when Kim broke the tension by saying in a confused tone, "Uhh, Alya, Lila. We don't have a classmate named Silvia, and won't we get disqualified if we ask or accept any help from anyone outside our class?"

"Where did you hear that?" Lila asked before asking in a meek tone, "Did Marinette tell you that I can't ask my acquaintances for help?"

Kim shook his head when he held up the List of Rules and an eyebrow when he said, "Uhh, nope. It's stated right here in the rules Principle Damocles gave us that only the members of the classes are allowed to work on their Haunted House and that the only adults that can help are the teachers of the classes. I mean, you two DID read the rules before you suggested asking this Silvia person, right?"

Marinette was officially glad Kim decided to be the one to point that out. Since he has no motivation to be 'jealous', Lila couldn't use that excuse.

This was when Miss Bustier said sweetly, "Alya, Lila, maybe you shouldn't skim over these rules when reading them. How about you two take a break from the class to go over them so we don't have another incident like this." The teacher was doing her best to smile through the whole thing even when her gut was twisting uncomfortably. What she had just witness certainly made her think that she and Principle Damocles NEEDED to talk to Lila's mother, ASAP.

"Oh, I guess I just misunderstood them," Lila said a little too quickly for Miss Bustier's liking. Marinette did her best NOT to roll her eyes at the statement.

But after Alya and Lila left to go to the library to "go over the rules again", the class resumed their discussion.

}i{ Two Days Later }i{

After some thorough research into the history and lore of the old Joey Drew Studio, the design model of the Trial of Courage at Joey Drew Studio was made and the entire class went over what should go where inside. While Max managed to get a copy of the original blueprint for Joey Drew Studio, it didn't say what each area was for. Rose did ask where the techie got the blueprints. To which Max replied that the blueprints were apart of the public archives in the library and he simply took a flashless picture of the blueprint.

Ivan looked at the blueprint copy and asked, "Hey Max, are you sure you got the blueprints for Joey Drew Studio?"

Max nodded when he said, "Yes, both the front librarian and the archive librarian confirmed it to me. Why do you ask, Ivan?"

Ivan looked over the blueprints again before saying, "It's just... Well, it seems like something's off about it. Besides the fact that it's a copy."

Now that Ivan mentioned it, the blueprint did seem a little off... But no one could tell what. Did it have something to do with the ominous feeling of the old studio? Or the "History" of it?

That was when Rose opted to lighten the mood by watching some of the old cartoons made by Joey Drew Studio. The whole class agreed. Besides, Bendy was fun to watch.

}{

Despite the school work and personal lives, construction on the replica parts began without much of trouble. Although, Lila "claimed" to have sprained her ankle earlier and couldn't really help with all the manual stuff. Alya, of course, asked Marinette if there was anything Lila could do to help while keeping pressure off her ankle. Marinette crossed her arms as she glanced at both of Lila's ankles, which were only a few cms off the ground as the Italian sat in a chair.

'I'm not surprised that she's faking an injury to get out of doing work,' Marinette thought before saying sternly, "Then the two of you can just switch tasks. Documenting doesn't need the student to be up and about just as long as the student records the progress and doesn't hinder the flow, so Rossi can do that until her "ankle feels better", or until our studio is done. Whichever comes first." In all honest, Marinette figured that having Lila on the sidelines would make everything progress faster.

"Oh no, I couldn't possibly do that to Alya, she loves recording and knows her stuff," Lila said in her (fake) modist tone, spotting an opportunity to cast Marinette in a bad light. The Italian then asked meekly, "Isn't there any task I can do that doesn't involve me on my feet?"

Marinette saw what Lila trying to do, but the bluette had a counter already planned when she said, "Oh, I'm sure Césaire doesn't mind giving up documenting so that her total bestie doesn't have to stand on a sprained ankle. I mean, if it's for a friend I'm sure she wouldn't mind. Plus, it would be cruel of me to make a hurt individual aggravate their injury." Might as well, tare a page out of Lila's own book to make Alya feel what Marinette has felt every time that tactic was used.

"What?" both Alya and Lila gasped in confusion.

With almost a cheerfully sadistic smile, Marinette said, "Then it's settled, Rossi, you document everything, and Césaire, you help with making the walls. Miss Bustier will help with documenting if you need the extra hand. So no more dilly dattling." With that, the bluette left the two, both of whom were still in shock.

Alix waved Marinette over and asked her to check her art. The bluette walked over to the pinkette, but instead of looking at art Alix asked her, "Two things. What's wrong with Lila? And what happened between you and Alya?"

Marinette sighed when she said, "I really don't want to talk about Césaire right now, and Rossi claimed to have sprained her ankle earlier. So Rossi's going to document while Césaire helps with wall construction."

Alix discreetly glanced at Lila, who was currently talking to Alya and looked at her ankles. "Uh, Mari, neither of her ankles are sprained. I've sprained my ankles sometimes when I try a new skating trick, so I know ankle care and she isn't doing what's recommended for sprains. Plus, her ankles aren't even bandaged."

Marinette pretended to look at the artwork when she said, "I know, and unlike her, I've sprained my ankles before, so I know for a fact that she's faking. I just don't want to deal with her making a big deal about it."

Alix followed the bluette's lead in pretending to look at the art when she asked, "But why? I mean, it's fine if she doesn't want to do any of the heavy lifting or strenuous activities, she could've just said so. No one wouldn't think any less of her."

Marinette eyed Alix when she said sarcastically, "I don't know, why DO people fake injuries?"

That actually got Alix thinking. And she was still thinking about it when Kim challenged her to a contest after the Haunted Houses were completed. The challenge was to get through all the houses with the least amount of screams.

~}i{ 22 Days Later }i{~

As Halloween got closer and closer, the Haunted Houses from each class in Collège Françoise Dupont were close to being completed. It was all good progress, but it was a different progress that was raising more concerns and questions.

"The number you have reached is no longer in service, please chec-," Principle Damocles hung up the phone before drawing an X next to the phone number he had just dialled.

Ms Mendeleiev tapped her finger on the principle's desk when she told all her co-workers, all of whom were in the principle's office, "This has become more suspicious than concerning. None of Ms Rossi's emergency contact numbers are working and we were never given any updated information."

Principle Damocles tapped his pen on one of the numbers without an X when he said, "Technically, Mrs Rossi's number is working but she's been... Dodgey, to put it simply. Every time I call her to ask something in regards to her daughter, she'd confirm it right away. But regarding her coming in for a Parent/Teacher meeting or when I ask her to send the documents proving an ailment, she'll say that she's busy and call back when she has a free day for the meeting or say that she'll e-mail me the documents later. Only one of those came to be. And it's been raising my suspicious about the authenticity of the owner of that phone number and email." Mr Damocles then opened a drawer and pulled out a manilla folder, then handed it to the school nurse. The medical staff did ask why they never got the documents. The principal told the nurse to open the folder.

"What the-? These aren't copies of medical documents!" The nurse stated, looking over each one of the papers that the principle has printed out. Miss Bustier looked over the nurse's shoulder and saw exactly what the nurse meant. While the fake documents could fool someone at a quick glance, it was obvious that it was fake. There was no Hospital or Office Seal anywhere on the paper, which was mandatory for any official doctor's office when either writing a diagnosis or a prescription. Not to mention the signature of the doctor looked familiar to Catline for some very strange reason.

Mr Damocles intertwined his fingers, rested his elbows on his desk, placed his chin on those fingers, and said, "I've already sent copies of those to the School Board when I got them. Although the reason I didn't give them to you was because they were fake and I wanted an unbiased opinion when I asked you about Ms Rossi's trips to your office."

"So when I did tell you that I never had Ms Rossi in my office for any reason, you were confirming that she was the one sending you these? Not her mother?" the nurse said, placing the folder on the desk, open for the others to see.

Mr Damocles nodded at that as he wrote the sheet next to the non-X'ed number, 'Did Ms Rossi steal her mother's cellphone?'. He then wrote next to the email under the number, 'And reading her mother's emails before she can read them?'

Miss Bustier looked at the nurse when she said, "But, I sent Lila to you when her arthritis and sprained ankle started hurting this past month... But... If these documents are faked just to get these accommodations and the fact that you haven't had her in her office... Then she's just using these "fake injuries and ailments" to get out of doing stuff!"

D'Argencourt placed a hand to his chin when he said, "That actually makes sense now that I think about it. She's used the arthritis claim to get out of some of the activities for PE. And when I had them running laps, to warm-up before we did a good physical activity, she'd 'twist her ankle' during the laps. I originally thought she just needed to exercise more or that she was clumsy, but considering all this information and the fact that Miss Marinette hasn't sprained or twisted her ankles despite being one of my clumsiest students. I'm starting to think Ms Rossi has been faking these ailments to get out of my class and, I'm guessing, getting out of doing most of her school work. Catline, how often has she 'asked for help' because of her ailments?"

Catline thought about that for a bit before saying, "Well, she has asked Adrien to help her take notes because of her arthritis since they were seatmates. But after he told me that he couldn't do that anymore because his schedule was making it harder for him to make copies of his notes, I changed where he sat and Mylène has been taking note for Lila... But...You know, now that I think about it, Adrien just never seems comfortable with Lila being near him and I think he was just using his schedule to keep away from her."

Fred Haprèle, the part-time teacher, nodded at the comment about his daughter being the new note-taker, but raised a brow when he asked, "Lila's the one who's been hanging off Adrien recently, right?"

"Ah, no, Chloe does that sometimes," Miss Bustier said with a small sigh.

"Ah, no. Chloe has blonde hair, but the one hanging off Adrien during my time with your class had brown hair with those sausage strands dangling in front of her ears," Mr Haprèle said as he folded his arms before saying, "In fact, it was Chloe who told me to keep Lila away from Adrien because she wasn't giving Adrien any room to move, or breath, and she added that he's told Lila multiple time that he wanted her to stop with the clinging. I would also like to add that Ms Bourgeois hasn't hung off Mr Agreste in a couple of months and her behaviour has improved thanks to her new friendship with Ms Dupain-Cheng."

That was a good point. Chloe had improved a lot since Marinette helped her see that Audrey Bourgeois was the one who didn't deserve Chloe's affection by pointing out that Audrey never acted like a mother at all. Once the mayor's daughter finally dropped her "mother", she was able to grow more as her own person. Chloe could still be a little bratty at times, but it wasn't as bad as before.

Ms Mendeleiev placed two thick folders of her suspicions about Lila on the principle's desk when she said, "As much as adding sexual harassment to the list of offences to Ms Rossi's file is concerning, can we get back to the topic of how often Ms Rossi been asking for help because of her ailments, and can we add her "travels" to this list? Because she's been missing a lot of school because of those trips, if I may add."

Mr Damocles opened his drawer again and pulled out a stack of notes and placed them on his desk when he said, "These are all permission slips signed by Mrs Rossi for her daughter to be out of school for her travels. So even if she is lying for attention and getting out of certain tasks here at school, she can't exactly lie out of travelling with her mother without someone looking after her at home... Hm? Wait a minute." The principle picked up one of the slips with one hand and one of the fake doctor's notes with the other hand. He looked at both pieces of paper at the same time as his eyes flicked from one to the other. He then took another sheet for the fake doctor's notes and compared the sheets again. Finally, he glanced at the sheet with the list of Lila's numbers, more specifically, the girl's signature at the bottom. Mr Damocles's eyes furrowed in anger when he said, "Albert, separate all of Ms Rossi's contact information from the list of current parents and move them into a new folder. Rename the new folder 'Suspicious Information Given by Lila Rossi'."

The computer beeped a confirmation sound before starting the task.

The other teachers glanced at each other in confusion before the Ms Mendeleiev put the facts together and said in anger, "Why that little Lying Brat! She isn't just lying to us and her fellow students, she's lying to her own mother about what's happening in school! I bet she's been telling her mother that the school's been close when we all thought she was on those "Trips" with her mother. Oh! I got half a mind to just-." The science teacher stopped and took a very deep breath to calm herself down. Ms Mendeleiev then said, "We have to get Mrs Rossi real contact information and talk to her. Because not only is her daughter lying about her ailments, her travels, getting out of work, and sexually harassing a fellow student, but she's also cheating with her homework and bullying other students."

"Whoa! Hold on! I can understand the other stuff, but cheating and bullying? That's a different issue," Armand D'Argencourt stated, raising his hands in a 'whoa there' motion.

Ms Mendeleiev tapped the folders she brought when she said, "Ms Rossi has been bullying Ms Dupain-Cheng by making it look like she's the victim AND stealing her homework until Ms Dupain-Cheng equipped her pack with a double-action lock. Once Ms Rossi realized she could no longer steal Ms Dupain-Cheng's homework, she started conning her classmates to 'help' her with her homework. As for proof of the bullying, Max and Markov have given me a few videos of Ms Rossi threatening Ms Dupain-Cheng, plus I have witnessed the bullying myself. The little liar thought I didn't see the confrontation and tried to play the victim in that. Trust me, I was very pissed at this, though Ms Rossi assumed I was mad at Ms Dupain-Cheng. That was when I convinced Ms Dupain-Cheng to tell me everything about what Ms Rossi was doing."

Fred Haprèle looked a bit uncomfortable when he said, "Umm, that's a pretty big claim. Umm, do you also have proof of cheating?"

Ms Mendeleiev nodded as she opened one of the files and slid it over to her co-workers when she said, "I recognized the handwriting on the homework sheets Ms Rossi has been turning in as Ms Dupain-Cheng's. She was smart enough to erase the original name on the sheet and replace it with hers but I've had Ms Dupain-Cheng as a student for years and I know her handwriting. I've been giving Ms. Dupain-Cheng the credit for the homework, since it IS hers, though I'm a little surprised Ms Rossi never noticed that. Also, Mr Lê witnessed Ms Rossi taking Ms Dupain-Cheng's homework straight out of her bag during lunch. He forgot to grab his lunch before he left the classroom, so he went back to the classroom to get it when he saw Ms Rossi opening Ms Dupain-Cheng's bag and taking out her homework. Mr Lê played it off as he walked into the room after she took the homework when he asked her what she was doing by Ms Dupain-Cheng's desk. Much to his dismay, she told him that the a/c blew her homework up to Ms Dupain-Cheng's desk and she was just retrieving it. Mr Lê then told me what he saw that same day during lunch and I'm pretty sure he told Ms. Dupain-Cheng about it too, since the next school day her bag had that double lock."

The other teachers and principal looked over the files. They did recognize Marinette's handwriting on the sheets with Lila's name on the top on the first ten sheets, but the rest had paperclips attached to them with other homework sheets. It took a minute or so for the teachers to understand why the paperclipped sheets would be considered cheating, but once they did, they were understandably upset. While the top sheet of the paperclipped papers was actually in Lila's handwriting, the paper under the first sheet were the notes written by other students. It wasn't noticeable right away, but if you looked at the answers written on the homework sheets and then the notes, you would see that Lila just copied off the notes almost word for word. The Italian wasn't even trying to do the homework herself.

The other folder was a list of everything Marinette claimed Lila did to her, most could be corroborated by the staff. It was not a pleasant list to read...

"So... Now what do we do? We don't have Mrs Rossi's real contact information and asking the liar about it is obviously out of the question, since it's clear that she can't even be trusted with the simplest things," Fred asked the others, still, a bit unnerves about what he had just learned and how he was going to approach his daughter about this whole thing. Since she was the one writing the notes for her a classmate that she genuinely cared about.

Ms Mendeleiev thought for a bit before finally asking Mr Haprèle, "Fred, doesn't the boss of your troop have a cousin working at the Italian Embassy?"

}i{

Another type of progress was happening, but it took a while for a certain person to notice.

Alya finally noticed that Marinette has completely pulled away from her.

At first, Alya brushed it off as Marinette just being jealous at her for hanging with Lila more than her, to which Lila stroked that idea with so much joy, and she just assumed Marinette would come around and apologize in a few days. But as the days, weeks, and then a month went by of Marinette outright avoided being around Alya longer than necessary did make Alya rethink her original assumption. Lila simply assured her that Marinette was just being "ridiculously jealous". While Alya just smiled and verbally agreed with her, she just didn't think it was jealousy anymore. Not when the behaviour didn't match with that accusation...

So, like the reporter she was, she investigated by asking her classmates.

The first on Alya's list was Adrien.

"Huh? You're asking about that now?" Adrien asked with a confused look when Alya asked her question. He was currently getting ready for his fencing lesson.

Alya raise a brow when she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Adrien zipped his fencing suit up and then stated with a stern when he grabbed his mask and fencing lance, "I guess since you just ask that, you still don't understand why Mari doesn't want to be around you. Now, if you'd excuse me, I got to get to fencing." With that, Adrien headed out of the locker room. Alya was just left in confusion.

Next to ask was Alix.

"Oh, so NOW you act like a reporter," was Alix's response when Alya asked her question. The pinkette strapped her skates after her helmet was in place.

Alya raise a brow when she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Alix 'cht' when she stood up and stated, "If you have to ask that, then you really are a crummy excuse for a reporter." With that, the skater girl rolled off as Alya exclaimed a "Hey!".

Next to ask was Nathaniel.

"Sorry Alya, but I don't have time to answer your questions," Nath stated as he gathered his art gear. The redhead then added, "Marc and I have a meeting with our publisher and we can't be late." Nathaniel then headed off when he said, "And unlike a certain individual, I'm not going to let Marc face that kind of task alone."

Alya raise a brow when she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Nathaniel froze. He glanced over his shoulder when he asked with a mild glare, "Did you seriously just ask that?"

Confused, Alya responded, "Umm, yeah, why?"

Nath shook his head in annoyance before he left, leaving Alya even more confused than before.

Next to ask would have been the members of Kitty Section, but they were currently at a gig and will be for the rest of the day. So next was Kim and Max.

"You are asking that question 29 days too late," Max stated sternly as he folded his arms while he glared at Alya. Kim was nearby, just grabbing his sports bag.

Alya was a little taken back by the nerd's tone. It was out of character, to say the least. Alya raise a brow when she asked, "What do you mean by that?"

Max growled in annoyance when Kim placed a hand on his shoulder and said, "Come on Max. We're meeting Ondine at the pool." Max nodded as he followed the taller teen.

"Hold on! Kim! Can you answer my question?" Alya asked, trying to get the two to stay.

Kim glared at Alya when he said, "Same thing Max said." With that, the two left, leaving Alya still confused.

}{

Alya was sitting at her dining room table as she looked over her list of classmates. Besides the members of Kitty Section, she hasn't asked Lila, Marinette, and Nino. Lila because she was so sure Marinette was just being jealous of her. Marinette because she's the one avoiding Alya and ignoring her questions. And Nino because...

Alya sighed. She and Nino broke up over the whole issue.

Almost three weeks ago, Lila told Alya that she saw Marinette flirting with Nino. Lila was sure Marinette was just flirting with Nino to get back at Alya. So Alya quickly confronted Nino the next day, telling him that Marinette was just using him. Nino was confused about the accusation and asked Alya what she was talking about. So Alya told Nino what Lila told her. Nino immediately denied that Marinette flirted with him, and he stated that she would never do such a thing even if she was mad at someone, even adding that he hadn't even talked to the bluette face-to-face the day before. This started a heated fight as Alya adamantly stuck to Lila's claim. Nino was utterly horrified by the fact that his girlfriend was so sure that Lila's words were true that she wasn't even considering his own words. That was when Nino made his decision by saying, "Well then, I guess maybe you should ask Lila to find you a better boyfriend since you seem to listen to her more than everyone else." With that, they broke up...

Alya ran a hand through her hair in aggravation as she thought about that. How'd that conversation go so wrong? All Alya was trying to do was warn Nino...

"Ayls? Ayls. Ayls!"

That voice snapped Alya out of her thoughts. She quickly looked up to see her older sister standing in front of the table, holding a carton of milk in one hand and a glass in the other.

"You ok, little sis? Been calling you for a minute," Nora asked as she placed the two objects onto the table.

Alya sighed again when she said, "Not really... It's just... Marinette's pulled away from me, I kinda notice it at first, but I just thought it was because she was jealous. But, the longer she kept away, the more I started thinking that it wasn't. And I just... I just want to know why... I asked most of my class, and while they seem to know, they didn't exactly tell me. They just said that I should now what it was..."

"And which of your friends is Carinette?" Nora asked, trying to put a face to the name. She was never good at remembering names, but she remembers everything else about people.

Alya rolled her eyes when she said, "Marinette, she's babysat the twins a few times and her parents run the best bakery in Paris."

That last bit got Nora's attention when she asked, "Bakery? As in sweets and baked goods?" Alya nods. Nora then asked in an intrigued ton, "Do they deliver?"

Alya nodded again when she said, "They do, but sometimes Marinette delivers some of the orders where her parents are busy. They also cater."

With a concerned look on her face, now knowing what happened, Nora said, "Uhh, Alya, have you ever been asked to help Naminette with one of the deliveries?"

"It's Marinette," Alya stated before thinking about what her sister said. The ombre haired girl finally said, "Sometimes, but it's been a while since I was asked to help."

"How long is 'a while', little sis," Nora said in a serious tone as she rested both her arms on the table.

"Nora, you're kinda acting my classmates right now," Alya stated, rather confused by the whole thing.

Nora took a deep breath when she asked in a serious tone, "Alya, I mean it, how long has 'a while' been? Because if your answer is what I think it's going to be, then you've got a lot of explaining AND apologizing to do."

Alya was a little taken back by the tone, but she tried to think about the last time she was asked to help with a delivery for Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. Has it really been that long since-? And that was when it hit Alya, hard. Nora watched her younger sister's eyes grow wide as her face gone pale. Alya buried her face in her hands when she said through her palms, "How could I forget something like that?! She even reminded me every day up until the day before!"

Nora raised a brow when she said, "You tell me, little sis. It was your promise."

Alya looked up from her hands and asked, "How'd you know that?"

That was when Nora told the younger sister about Marinette's call close to a month ago. "She said that you promised to help her, but you weren't there. I told her you were out but I was under the assumption that you were on your way and just got sidetracked because you saw those heroes, which I did tell her. She didn't think that was it though," the older sibling started, then paused to think for a moment. She then said, "Come to think of it, I don't recall hearing about any hero sightings that day... *Eyes Alya*. So, if you weren't helping Morinette with that delivery or chasing your heroes, what were you doing all day that day?"

"Umm, Lila invited me on a Girl's Day Out," Alya said a slightly sheepish tone.

Nora folded her arms when she stared at Alya while asking in a very serious tone, "Isn't that the name of the girl who isn't allowed to babysit the twins anymore or allowed in our house at all? The same girl who both mom and dad told you that she was being less than honest and to stop hanging with her so much?"

"Nora, mom and dad are just overreacting, once they've calmed down they'll see how cool Lila is," Alya quickly defended.

Nora rolled her eyes when she said, "That's not what I'm hearing. And considering that you chose to hang with Lila over helping Marinette, which you'd promised to do might I add, I'm starting to worry about you."

"I-I just made a big mistake!" Alya nearly shouted.

"A mistake that took you a month to realized that you did," Nora retorted seriously before adding, "You got A LOT to make up for, little sis. But if want my opinion, I'd say that you REALLY need to start looking into what that Lila girl tells you. I mean, I wouldn't be surprised if Fly-Weight breaks up with you for taking that girl's word over his."

That last bit felt like a dagger being stabbed and then twisted in Alya's heart, but she tried to hide it. Nora did notice but didn't say anything.

'Did that... Already came to be?' Nora wondered, now realizing that she hasn't seen Nino dropping by the past three weeks. Now the older sister was worried about her middle sister when she thought, 'Oh, Ayls...'

~}i{ Two Days Later, 10/28 }i{~

Every Haunted House made by each of Collège Françoise Dupont classes. The third-party construction picked up each class's Haunted House, which was labelled, along with the blueprints and any extra theatric attachments. Max was more than happy to explain how his Virtual Holographic Device was supposed to be installed and how it worked to the third-party crew. Yeah, the techie was super excited to have his new creation put to the test.

But until everyone gets the news that all the Haunted Houses were constructed at the pre-determined location, they were just chilling and double-checking their quick Joey Drew Studio synopsis for their replica.

Joey Drew Studio, once a thriving animation studio, now lays abandon to the world. As the building continues to stand, adventure seekers and curious strangers venture in but are never to be seen again. The more time passed, the studio has claimed more and more victims. No one knew why these people were disappearing, all they knew was that it has to do with the old Joey Drew Studio.

Until one day, at the front gate of Joey Drew Studio, a passerby noticed a camera on the ground. There was nothing unusual about the cameras, except the fact that it had black ink stains on it. So the passerby brought the camera to the police. When they developed the camera's film, they were puzzled at what was in the photos. Horribly disfigured versions of Joey Drew Studio's famous cartoon characters and creatures made of ink were the main focus in those photos. The police figured it was some kind of prank until more cameras appeared by the main gate of Joey Drew Studio, covered in black ink. All these cameras had photos of these same terrifying characters.

Soon, the old animation building was deemed condemned in the hopes that it would deter people from going into the studio.

But how can we call ourselves Adventurers if we did that? Try to survive our replica of the Joey Drew Studio and show the courage deep inside to concur with the fear that dwells within.

The synopsis was perfect for their Haunted House.

On the class note, a lot of things have changed over the past month for them. While everyone was still rather civil towards one another, minus one certain person to a certain bluette, it was a little obvious that there was a bit of segregation going on to some of the groups.

It took a while for Lila to notice, but she was losing her "fans".

The first one she noticed was Nino, but she got back at him by playing Alya against him and while she didn't completely expect them to break up, it worked in her favour. Lila punished Nino for leaving the flock and got Alya to stay by her side.

The next sheep that left the flock was Alix, to Lila's surprise. The liar easily punished her by dumping paint on those stupid skates and blamed it on Marinette by saying that she saw she bluette doing it. Lila expected Alix to return to the flock the next day and rant about how her skates were ruined, but much to her horror, Alix was hanging with Marinette! Lila played the "Marinette is probably blackmailing Alix" card with Alya and the rest of the flock.

Nathaniel was next, but it took a while for Lila to notice since he doesn't stand out much. He's been claiming to be working with someone named Marc on a comic. Lila KNEW that was a lame excuse he was using to not worship her, so she poured orange juice on that sketchbook of his and blamed Marinette for it, of course. Lila expected him to be back with the flock soon enough, but to Lila's horror, he was wasn't. He was with Marinette's growing group. Lila just told her flock that "Marinette is taking advantage of Nathaniel's crush on her".

Lila has noticed that Ivan, Rose, and Juleka have been pulling away a little bit, but they assured her that it was because they've been getting a lot of gigs for their band and they needed to make sure that they practice. While Lila didn't remember the name of their band, she knew that they were probably telling the truth about the gigs and the practice.

Lila wasn't too worried, her classmates will be back to worshipping her in no time. Oh, that reminded the liar, she still needed to get Kim and Max into her flock. Those two have been keeping their distance from Lila for some reason, and while she hasn't tried to herd them into her flock, she would certainly love to have them on her side. Kim could help with all the manual stuff Lila couldn't bother with and Max could do all of Lila's homework.

Lila smirked as she read the boring article for the name of this CEO for that big gaming company Max loved. Seriously, it took her five whole minutes to find the guy's name! Lila could've used those five minutes for something more productive, but it will be worth it. Lila noticed how much Kim seems to value Max's opinion, so all she has to do is get the geek to her side and the jock will follow. It was like killing two birds with one stone.

Easy peasy.

}{

Lila spent literally half the day following (stalking) Max, waiting for a moment to catch him alone. 'Urg, how was that dweeb able to make that virtual projector when he's always hanging at this stupid place?' Lila thought as she impatiently waited outside the public indoor pool for Max to emerge from it. If it weren't for the fact that swimming costumes were mandatory to enter the indoor pool, Lila would be inside. That made the liar wonder if Max got a swimming costume just to get in without much problem.

}{ Inside the Indoor Pool }{

When Kim, Max, and Markov check-in with the receptionists, they showed them Lila's picture and told them to let them know if she loitering nearby or trying to follow them (which they notice close to an hour prior). The receptionists did their jobs and told them that the girl in question was indeed trying to follow them. Right now, one of the receptionists just told them that Lila was still loitering outside the building.

"Any idea why she's following you?" Ondine asked her three friends as she dried off with a towel.

That was when Markov stated, "Either she is waiting to confront both Kim and Max to threaten them into co-operating with her, or she will fabricate a story of knowing a famous person in Kim's and/or Max's field of interest to try to woo them to her side."

Kim thought about it for a bit before saying, "But if she wanted to confront both of us, she would've done that when we passing through the park. Only Max and I were there."

Max adjusted his glasses when he said, "Then it is more likely that she wants to confront one of us alone like she does when she threatens Mari."

Ondine immediately asked if the boys if they told any of the teachers about that, to which they replied that the did and the teachers were looking into contacting the liar's mother and possibly bringing in the School Board and police into dealing with Lila. Max thought it was a little excessive, but Kim pointed out that Lila was also stealing Mari's homework and claiming it as her own on top of the bullying. Ondine then asked how the teachers haven't noticed the homework stealing before, to which the boys replied that Mari gives their homeroom teacher the homework she assigned in the morning when she walks into class and that the stolen homework was for their science teacher. But that teacher was already suspicious about the authenticity of "Lila's Homework" because of the handwriting, Kim ended up confirming those suspicions when he caught Lila in the act.

Ondine thought about that before coming up with a plan to see what Lila was after.

}{

'Finally!' Lila thought when she spotted Max and Kim leave the building with a redheaded girl (Markov was in Max's bag, btw). She watched the three bid each other a good-bye before they all went their separate ways. 'Perfect!' Lila thought as she immediately followed Max. Ondine saw and quickly texted her friends, "She's following you, Max."

}{

Max calculated it took Lila 8.6 minutes to finally let herself be known to him. Right after he got ice cream from André's cart, and the ice cream man even gave him an interesting combination of flavours too.

"Max! What a coincidence running into you here," Lila said a little too cheerfully for Max's liking. André too, apparently, since he started cleaning his scoop a little slower. Lila then said with a smile when she spotted Max's ice cream cone and said, "Oh, is that your Soulmate Ice Cream? It looks good. I got mine before my recent trip. *Pretends to think*. You know, I didn't want to make a big deal of it, but the Soulmate Ice Cream I got seemed to resemble Adrien's characteristics. I mean, I know he's a good friend of mine and I really don't want to ruin our friendship because of it, but since it's the Soulmate Ice Cream."

Max raised a brow when he discreetly glanced at André, who heard the claim, for a real answer. The ice cream man wore an uncharacteristic frown when he pointed at his scoop before pointing at Lila and potently shaking his head, indicating that he had never served the liar a single scoop of ice cream, soulmate or otherwise.

'Big claim considering the one person who could easily disprove it is standing right there. Does she not know that André practically has a photographic memory when it comes to his ice cream?' Max thought before giving the liar a look. He couldn't help but think that the liar wanted to drop those hints just people would think that she should be with Adrien. 'How disgusting. She really thinks I'm going to fall for that crap,' Max thought before saying out loud while trying to keep his tone neutral, "What do you want Lila? Because I don't believe that you want to talk about ice cream." He just wanted her to get over herself and just tell him what she wanted.

With a look on her face that feigned modesty, Lila said, "Well, we haven't interacted a lot, but I was kinda hoping we could be friends. I heard from Alya that you're quite the gamer, and while I'm not much of one, I personally know the CEO of Mecha Strike."

'Oh, she's playing that card, huh,' Max thought before stating in an 'I-don't-completely-believe-you' tone, "Really? You actually know James Carter?"

"Of course I do, he lets me call him Jimmy because we're just good friends," Lila said with a smile. Thank goodness she was such a quick thinker. Lila just assumed that the article she read was outdated or something if Max was giving her a different name. Lila then said, "Jimmy said he could use a skilled gamer to test out his new Mecha Strike game, maybe I can recommend you for it?"

'Wow, she just walked right into that one,' Max thought as Markov tapped his side through the fabric of his bag three times, signalling that he recorded the conversation. Max glanced over at André, who was raising a brow in confusion at the exchange. 'Seems like he knows his history,' the techie thought before his eyes were back on Lila and thought, 'And considering that we went over that timeline in history class recently and she doesn't know that name practically proves that she's not even bothering to pay attention in class.' Max then sighed when he asked the liar, "Lila, do you really think I'd fall for that lie?"

"I'm not lying!" Lila stated immediately before adding, "I actually do know Jimmy Carter! He's even showed me plans for his new Mecha Strike game!" She then thought, 'How is he not falling into line? Alya told me that he was a hardcore fan of Mecha Strike, so he should be begging me to be his friend right now!'

Max took a lick of his ice cream before swallowing it and saying in a stern tone, "The reason why I know you're lying is the fact that James Carter is a former President of the United States, not a CEO of any gaming company. Heck, the nickname you said you 'call him by' should have been a big hint that I was testing your credibility." And as much as Max wanted to tell Lila off about the inaccurate information regarding the Mecha Strike series, he didn't so he wouldn't give her any ammo to use on someone who might not know better.

Lila was fuming! How dare this nerd expose her like this! That was when Lila thought, 'Crap! He can expose my lies at school!'

Max switched the cone into his left hand as he adjusted the strap on his right shoulder when he said, "Listen, Lila, it's one thing to make up stories, but it's another thing to jus-" The techie didn't even have time to even finish his sentence when Lila outright attacked him, physically.

André was the first person to act by prying Lila off Max, but not before the liar practically stomped on the techie's right wrist, hard. After hearing Max cry out in pure pain, Markov flew out of the bag and used an electrical current to zap at Lila's leg.

"You awful jerk! Leave my friend alone!" Markov exclaimed in the emotional tone that the AI could classify as either 'Rage' or 'Anger', before immediately flying over to Max's side to analyze his wrist, which appeared to be either fractured or broken.

Lila shoved André off before she snapped at the AI and techie with a full fury glare, "Consider that a warning. Next time you out me like that, I'll break something more than your wrist." She then stormed off, not caring if she had witnesses to her actions. Lila didn't care about them, they couldn't do anything to her anyway.

André immediately called over a passing police officer, telling him that someone has been assaulted and needs to get to a hospital. The first thing Officer Roger Raincomprix did was call for an ambulance before calling another officer to the location to help interview the witnesses to the incident.

~}i{ Later That Night at the Le Grand Paris }i{~

"That's weird, Max should be here by now or have at least texted or called to say he was going to be late..." Kim said as he stared at his phone. That was when he bit his lip when he added, "Maybe I should've stayed with him rather than letting him figuring out what Lie-la wanted with him..."

In a VIP Private Room of the hotel, Chloe decided to host a little 'Whoohoo, We Completed the Haunted Replica Slumber Party' for her and her friends. That's right, friends! Plural. Heck, the doorman was completely floored when she told him this. But that aside, it was a nice little get together to chill, relax, and not worry about a certain liar hovering nearby.

Chloe, Kim, Marinette, Adrien, Nathaniel, Alix, Juleka, Rose, Ivan, Mylène, Marc, Nino, and even Luka and Kagami were currently at this party. The Japanese girl somehow managed to convince her mother to allow her to attend this slumber party. The only extra perk about this was that all of them knew that Lila was a liar.

Adrien placed a hand on Kim's shoulder when he said, "Max should be fine, besides, it isn't like Lie-la would do anything in bad in public. I mean, she wouldn't risk a chance having someone from school or her mother's workplace finding out."

Those words brought little comfort to Kim. So the jock quickly called Max's cell. When Kim only got the voice mail, he left a message for Max to call him back when he got the chance.

"I do hope Max does arrive, he promised to teach me how to do a combo in this Mecha Strike III game," Kagami stated as she fiddled with the controller in her hand as she played against Rose.

That was when a knock was heard at the door.

Alix lept to her feet when she said, "That probably him, I'll let him in." She then walked over to the door, since she was the closest. But when she opened the door, she wasn't greeted by Max. "Sabrina?" Alix stated in shock before she regained her poster when she asked, "What are you doing here? Because I know for sure that you weren't invited."

Long story short, Lila buttered Sabrina up with a lot of lies and then made her choose between her or Chloe. Sabrina chose Lila.

Alix glared at Sabrina when she said, "I sware, if you're spying on us for Lila, I'll kick you out of here my- *Finally see's the look on Sabrina's face*. Self... Umm... *Shifts her weight a bit* Are you okay? You look like you've seen the dead rising out of their graves or something."

Which was true, Sabrina did have that look on her face but it also looked like she was about to cry. That was when the damns broke and Sabrina latched onto Alix in a hug and pretty much balled her eyes out on the spot.

Okay... THAT was a little unnerving to the group, but there had to be some kind of story behind that, right? So despite their better judgment, they let Sabrina in, sat her down, calmed her down, and asked her to explain what the hell happened. So, she did, and the first line Sabrina told them was, "Lila attacked Max near André's cart! She ended up breaking his wrist!"

"WHAT?!" Was the unanimous exclamation the group shouted at the same time.

At first, they thought it was a lie, but considering Sabrina wasn't capable of lying about something like that...

Suddenly Kim's phone rang. He quickly answered it. Turns out it was Max's mother. Mrs Kanté told Kim to put her on speaker, so he did.

"Can everyone hear me?" Mrs Kanté asked, her voice emitted from the phone's speaker.

Kim replied that she was coming in loud and clear, then asked why she was calling and if Max was alright. That was when the train conductor told them that she was in the hospital, waiting for the doctors' to fix Max's broken wrist and put it in a cast. She also added that he was not going to be able to attend the slumber party because he was going to still have the painkilling meds in his system when he's released from the hospital. When she was asked what happened, her answer seemed to match up with Sabrina's story. Mrs Kanté explained that Officer Raincomprix dropped by the hospital with his partner and gave her the rundown about what happened. Since this case involved a pair of his daughter's classmates, Officer Raincomprix was taken off the case but came by as a fellow parent to help his partner ease Mrs. Kanté into co-operating. Mrs Kanté did say that both she and Roger were still a bit taken back by the fact that it was Lila who broke Max's wrist but for different reasons.

Kim nodded when he said, "Yeah, I can understand that. Max told you about how Lila's a liar and I bet Sabrina was telling her dad how "wonderful" Lila was since she fell for those lies." The taller teen visibly glanced at Sabrina at this. The orangette lowered head, knowing full well it was the truth.

"I guess that's one reason," Mrs Kanté stated, before sighing and adding, "The other being that she actually attacked my Maxie, physically. According to the witnesses, it was because Maxie tricked Lila into exposing herself as a liar to him, they heard him say something about a US President not being a CEO of a gaming company. *Sigh* I'm going to have to ask Maxie about it when the meds wear off. And before you ask Kim, yes, I am going to press charges against her. She assaulted my son and broke his wrist on purpose! I wouldn't be a competent parent if I didn't think about doing it! Oh, and on that note, Kim."

"Yes, Mrs Kanté?" Kim replied, a little worried about the tone.

That was when Mrs Kanté said in a calmer voice over the phone, "I'm counting on you and your friends to keep an eye on Maxie while he's at school, and would you be willing to come by tomorrow morning to pick up Maxie and walk with him to school? I've already alerted the teachers about Maxie's wrist and how it happened, Roger's partner already emailed the principle one of the video recordings of the incident so that liar can't weasel her way out of that."

"Sure thing Mrs Kanté, and I'll keep that liar away from him too," Kim said with a small smile. Then everyone said their good-byes before the call ended.

That was when Sabrina spoke up by saying, "Daddy told me that I had to stop hanging out with Lila the moment he came home. He was madder than he usually was when it comes to litterbugs, and you know how much he hates those. When I asked why, because he was fine with Lila yesterday, he told me about what happened to Max, well, what he was allowed to tell me anyway. There... There was no way daddy would make something like that up, especially if he wanted me to stop being friends with someone. It... It was hard to believe that Lila would do something like that..."

That was when Alix stated, "Not really on our end since she was the one who has been destroying our property and blaming Mari for it, but the physically attacking thing is new and a bit unexpected. That's very worrying if you ask me. Ug, poor Max."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Adrien asked with a raised brow. Okay, he finally got that not all lies are harmless, but what Alix was saying sounded completely different.

Kagami was the one to say, "I understand. Every time she is exposed as a liar, even a little bit, she attacks them in some way. Whether it be threats, destroying their property, or even allowing herself to turned into an Akuma. She always does something to retaliate against those who would expose her. Adrien, she's escalating in her attempts to silence those who would speak the truth to her many lies."

Luka grimaced when he said, "That is a harsh note to play, and from what I'm understanding now, it's going to continue to turn into a song of discord and chaos." Rose squeaked in alarm while Juleka placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

That was when Nathaniel said, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but she's getting to be worse than Hawkmoth. I mean, the worst kind of villain out there is the one who works behind the scenes." Marc nodded in agreement.

Chloe frowned when she said, "Urg, even when I was being a bitch, I would never have done something like that. Okay, yeah, I would've humiliated them and maybe put a marker to some of their stuff, I never would've harmed them. Especially on that scale. And before anyone asks, tripping counts as humiliation and let me remind you guys that I never tripped anyone where they could've really gotten hurt." That was a good point.

Adrien shifted uncomfortably when he said, "Well, at least she can't make things any worse."

"Dude," Nino vocalized before saying, "Never say that, because when you do, it will somehow get worse."

"Uh-oh..." Mylène vocalized as she stared at the screen of her phone.

"What's wrong, Mylène?" Ivan asked his girlfriend, wrapping a comforting arm around her shoulders as the two sat with the rest of their group.

Mylène looked up at the group when she said, "Ummm, how many of you are still subscribed to Alya's blogs?"

Rose was the one to answer by saying that all of Kitty Section are, more because they didn't want to tip Alya off to the fact that they were aware that Lila was a liar. "Why do you ask?" the pink wardrobed girl asked in confusion.

Mylène shrank when she muttered a, "Umm, you guys might want to watch her latest post and share a screen... And don't attract Hawkmoth's attention, *squeaks* please."

So Ivan, Rose, Juleka, and Sabrina took their phones out and went to Alya's personal blog. Mylène handed her phone to Alix. Once everyone had a screen, they quickly went to the Recent section, and the title of the newest post concerned them.

"I Thought He Was a Smart Guy! But He's Really a Violent Bully Like Marinette!"

"Oh, God. Lila didn't," Marinette muttered before Juleka and the others hit play.

"She did," was the unanimous response from half the group. Nino rubbed his temples in annoyance.

}{

Lila was cackling in her room as she watched the post. Now no one would believe Max about anything because of that post.

Oh yes, that idiot blogger was such a wonderful pawn.

}{ About an Hour Later }{

"ALYA! LIVING ROOM! NOW!" Marlena Césaire, Alya's mother, shouted angrily from the kitchen. She and Otis, Alya's father, just got off the phone with a very angry Mrs Kanté. Apparently, the Césaire's middle daughter posted a VERY mean and inaccurate post about the train conductor's son on one of her blogs and she was very close to adding her to the charge that she was making against Lila, who Mrs Kanté was very clear to state was the one to break Max's wrist on purpose for outing the brunette on her lies. The Césaire adults were certainly going to have a very stern talk to their middle child.

"Uhh, yes mom?" Alya asked, nervously poking her head into the living room.

Otis pointed at the couch and told her to sit. Alya knew that tone and just did as she was told. He then told the twins, Ella & Etta, to go to their room and stay there until they were done talking to Alya. As much as the twins wanted to see their big sister get in trouble, they saw how mad their parents were and decided to listen.

Marlena crossed her arms when she told Alya in a very stern tone, "Guess who just called to inform us about not only your behaviour but that you have also been ignoring our warnings about Lila."

Alya sighed when she relaxed and said, "Mom, Dad, I know Marinette is doing her best to keep a distance away from me, but she didn't have to drag you into this. Especially about Lila. Mari's just jealous of her."

Otis crossed his arms and stated in the same tone as his wife, "Oh no, you are NOT blaming Marinette for YOUR behaviour, and it wasn't even her that called. And no, it wasn't her parents either."

Now Alya was confused. She couldn't think of anyone who would out her to her parents.

That was when Marlena told her daughter in a stern tone, "Mrs Kanté was the one who called. She told us about a very interesting video from your personal blog that Kim sent her. He was equally as mad about that post too, might I add. The one you posted today."

"So... Marinette had nothing to do with it?" Alya asked, still a little confused.

"Alya! Pay attention! Mrs Kanté was the one who called, not Marinette. Kim was the one who showed her that post, not Marinette. And Both of them are more than upset with you, and quite frankly, So Are We," Otis snapped angrily.

~}i{ The Next Morning }i{~

Max was still a bit out of it when the gang met up with him and Markov, but he was able to move without much problem, minus his right hand and wrist that was in a stiff cast. From the tips of his fingers to halfway to his elbow were encased in the harden wrappings, so no movement could be done on his wrist. Kim already sighed the cast and the rest easily followed.

The only ones in the group that weren't present were Mylène, the members of Kitty Section, Sabrina, Luka, and Kagami. The oldest didn't attend Dupont, Kagami was in a different class, and the rest had to keep their cover, so as not to alert Lila to the fact that they know her real character.

"Not so hard, Adrien," Max said, kind of pulling his arm away from the blonde model, who was trying to sign the cast.

"Sorry, I've never signed a cast before," Adrien said sheepishly.

Max adjusted his glasses with his left hand when he said, "That much is obvious, but try to keep in mind that I have several pins under the cast that are keeping my wrist in place and if you apply too much pressure to one of them they'll dig into my wrist."

"Only several? Wow, guess those painkiller meds are still affecting you if you're not giving us exact numbers," Alix snickered as she skated around the techie.

Max's cheeks got a dusting of pink when he said, "I was under anaesthetic when the doctors inserting the pins! They just told me they put several pins so my wrist will be stable while it healed faster." He then glanced at the cast before adding, "Good thing I'm ambidextrous, or else this would've been worse."

Nathaniel and Marc nodded when the darker-haired boy said, "Yeah, having your dominate hand out of commission is hard."

(I'm just going with Max being about to use both hands equally because A, he has his watch on his right wrist, which usually means that the person is left-handed but he uses his right as a lot like it was his dominate hand in canon. B, Max also uses his left hand a lot in canon too. And C, it'll just make it a lot easier to write if he was ambidextrous).

That was when Adrien finished writing his name on Max's cast. Nino signed next.

Marinette rubbed the back of her neck as they walked towards school when she asked, "Uh, Max, I know this is probably not the best thing to ask, but considering that we're heading to school..." Chloe then grumbled out a 'why did you bring it up?' to which the bluette shushed her.

Max glanced at the sidewalk when he said, "Yes, I saw the video... Kim sent it to mom, and she was pissed. Well, I guess she was already pissed because Lila broke my wrist, but still, it added fuel to the fire. She called Césaire's parents about it..."

Kim crossed his arms in front of his chest when he said, "I wouldn't be surprised if she brushed off her parents like she did Mari."

Markov hovered by when he said, "I have already deleted Alya Césaire from our list of friends. However, I am still debating on whether or not to put her name on the list of enemies, and that post is not helping her case."

Nino glanced to the side when he said, "You're worried about what she and that liar are going to do to Max, right Mari?" The DJ was still a bit reluctant to talk about Alya, but it made sense why. Nino still cared for Alya, but it seemed harder and harder to do because of Lila.

Marinette nodded at the answer before she said, "I'll try to keep their attention on me since Lila hates me, and Alya is sure it's all my fault, so they'll leave you alone." Max immediately rejected that idea, but Marinette explained that he had a broken wrist that Lila could use to hurt him even more.

While no one liked the idea, they only accepted adhering to it on the condition that was allowed to run interference. Adrien couldn't help but admire Marinette.

}{ At Collège Françoise Dupont, Miss Bustier's Class }{

"Hey, Alya, are you okay?" Mylène asked the blogger cautiously, seeing the annoyed look on Alya's face.

Alya huffed when she said, "No! My parents took All my electronic devices last night! Now I don't have anything to use to record Ladybug and Chat Noir if there's an Akuma attack. Not to mention my big sister is going to be picking me up from school for 2 weeks and bringing me straight home, so I can't hang out with you guys as often as I would like."

Even though they knew the answer to it, they had to ask the question. So Sabrina asked, "Why did your parents take your devices?"

Alya folded her arms when she said, "Max's mom called them and told them about my post yesterday. *Rolls eyes*, Apparently, she got pissed when she saw it after Kim sent it to her. I was just speaking the truth, she should be happy I'm exposing his bad behaviour towards Lila."

Ivan, Mylène, Rose, Juleka, and Sabrina glanced at each other before the goth said softly, "Uhh, Alya, I don't think that's what Max's mom and Kim heard when they watch that video..."

"You guys believe Lila, right? She would NEVER lie about anything, especially on something so serious," Alya immediately said.

That was a little worrying to the others that that was the first thing that popped into the blogger's head. And as tempting as it was to just call that out, they had to keep pretending that it was true. Especially when Lila could be eavesdropping nearby.

Ivan was the one to say, "Of course we believe her Alya, but... *Sigh*, I think you were a little too harsh in that post. I mean, it's one thing to expose someone's bad behaviour, but it's another thing to just... Uhh, I guess the right thing to say is 'rant about how bad it is'. Kim could've easily seen that rant as you bullying Max and felt that his mom should see it so she could tell your parents about it..."

"What are you saying?" Alya asked, a little confused by what she was hearing.

Mylène fidget a bit before saying, "Alya, we understand you were trying to defend Lila and call out bad behaviour, but... To a parent, that post just sounds like You're the one who's bullying someone. I mean, if my dad saw a post like that that was directed at me and knew it was a classmate of mine who posted it, he would certainly call their parents about it..."

Rose hesitantly nodded when she said, "It was pretty harsh. I mean, you know how I don't like confronting people with mean words, even if they do deserve it. But I can't help but think that you went a bit overboard. I mean, even if you don't take Lila out of that post, it did sound like you're bullying Max..."

Alya... Actually hadn't thought of that... Than again... She didn't think of anything but anger at the nerd after Lila told her about what happened...

Nino and Adrien walked into the classroom. Both laughing at a joke that one had just told. Nino stopped laughing when he spotted Alya. The DJ glanced away with a small frown as the model placed a hand on his shoulder and somewhat guided him to their seats. Alix and Nathaniel walked in next and went straight to their assigned seats. Chloe and Marinette arrived next, they were talking about the latest fashion magazine issue as they made their way to their desk.

Yeah, during the last seat re-arrangement Marinette and Chloe asked Miss Bustier if they could sit together.

Kim, Max, and Markov walked into the classroom with Miss Bustier when the teacher said, "I know you're mother called to inform us, but I'm glad she made sure to get a doctor's note for us so we can make some official accommodations."

"So, it's okay for Markov to sit on our desk?" Max asked the teacher as Markov hovered nearby.

Miss Bustier nodded with a smile when she said, "It is, just so long as he doesn't disrupt the class in any way." She then glanced at the cast before saying, "I want you to let me know if you're wrist acts up, so I can give you a pass for the nurse's office."

Max nodded as he, Kim, and Markov walked over to their desk. As they passed Alya's desk, the taller teen glared at her as he placed a hand on the shorter teen's shoulder. Max, on the other hand, avoided eye contact with the blogger. Markov just flew ahead and landed on the desk.

The moment Alya spotted the cast on Max's arm, she scoffed when she said, "Wow, you really are faking an injury, Max." That caused both Max and Kim to stop in their tracks when Alya added, "I thought you were better than that."

"Eh-em," Miss Bustier coughed, getting everyone's attention, before her eyes landed on the blogger when she asked in an uncharacteristically stern tone, "Alya, would mind explaining to the class how you can tell if someone is faking an injury?"

As the teacher expected, Alya immediately jumped at the chance to say, "Lila told me exactly what happened! And SHE'S the one who really got injured! Not Max!"

Miss Bustier easily saw the reactions of Kim, Max, Marinette, Chloe, Nathaniel, Alix, and Adrien. It was clear to the teacher that they were aware of what really happened. And she also saw how Ivan, Rose, Juleka, and Sabrina reacted like they seemed to know but they didn't want to admit it. That she'll have to look into later. Catline folded her arms in front of her chest when she said in that same stern tone, "Well then, I expect Lila to have a Doctor's Note with her as well when she arrives if she really is injured." But she highly doubted that that would happen, considering the video she and the other Dupont staff saw. And to add more information to the ongoing case Roger's partner was on, Mr Damocles handed over the files he already had on Lila Rossi. Now, Miss Bustier isn't going to give the liar any more leeway, she was going by the book now, all of the teachers were, and that was that.

The school bell rang, and Miss Bustier took attendance.

}{

Lila didn't show up until the beginning of the 3rd class period. She had her left ankle thickly bandaged and was using a walking cane as she came hobbling in.

"You are late Ms Rossi," Miss Bustier stated, turning her attention to the tardy student and asked sternly, "I hope you have a good excuse as to why." No more leeway, and if that means that Catline has to stop her 'benefit of the doubt' mentality, so be it. Although, the teacher did hope that the tardy student did have a ligament excuse.

That was when Lila spun a tale of her saving a cute little puppy from an oncoming truck. She also added that the heroic did aggravate her 'fractured ankle' while pointing at the wrappings, but she assured that she was okay despite the pain. Lila made sure to glance at Max at the end of her tale. Alya immediately praised Lila about her heroics, must to majority of the class' dismay.

Miss Bustier had way to much doubt by this point to even think that the story was true, and the video from the police made that very clear that the liar needed to be dealt with. The teacher folded her arms in front of her chest when she said calmly, "I'm sure you are fine, Lila. However, I have to ask for a Doctor's Note before I make any sort of accommodations for you."

"What?" Lila gasped out, completely shocked at what she was hearing. "What do you mean?" the liar asked, hoping that she was hearing wrong.

Miss Bustier calmly repeated what she said and then explained, "Mr Damocles had to strengthen the accommodation rules because of recent policy changes from the School Board. We need some sort of document from a student's registered doctor before we start making any changes for the student. I assume that you went to your doctor after your ankle got worse and got a note from them, right Ms Rossi?" It was the story that the school came up with in case someone asked, besides this was something they should've done from the beginning.

"Of course I saw my doctor! My ankle was killing me yesterday!" Lila said with a sniffle, feigning the pain in her ankle and glancing at Max.

Catline noticed and knew she had to give the other teachers a heads up about keeping the liar far away from Max. "I'm sure you did Ms Rossi, but I still need to have a Doctor's Note from you before I can do anything," Miss Bustier stated sternly, somewhat hoping that Lila would finally admit she didn't have a doctor's note and just accept that.

But to took THREE ENTIRE MINUTES of Lila whimpering and crying before she finally admitted that she didn't ask her doctor for a note. To make matters worse, Alya jumped in and accused Miss Bustier of playing favourites because she gave the accommodations to Max and not Lila. The lair immediately joined in on that idea and start her crocodile tears. The teacher was officially DONE with this crap when she nearly snapped while trying to control her now raising temper, "Ms Césaire I am NOT playing favourites! Max had an actual Doctor's Note, Lila DID NOT! Therefore, he can have access to the accommodations he needs! Not to mention that Ms Rossi showed up late to school and has stalled the start of this class by five minutes! But seeing as that Both of you are disrupting my class, you can spend some time in the Detention Hall!"

Lila and Alya protested, mostly Lila with a stream of crocodile tears, but Miss Bustier stood her ground and told the two to leave her classroom until after the assembly today. The two reluctantly left the classroom, Alya helped Lila walk to the detection room since her ankle was 'acting up'. Catline sent a quick text to the teacher-in-charge of detention, letting them know that she's sending two of her students to their room. Then Miss Bustier started her class, who for the most part was still in a bit of shock from witnessing their teacher acting out of character.

Well, there was one thing the class had to worry about.

}{

During lunch Lila tried to spin her tale about how Max 'nearly broke her ankle' and how he was 'faking his injury' to Kim, to drive a wedge between the two and to get the jock on her side. But Kim already knew the truth and saw that lie coming. It just completely disgusted the swimmer that the liar could play the victim so easily when SHE was the one who broke his best friend's wrist with no remorse. Luckily, despite his own anger towards Lila, Kim managed to do the one thing that the liar didn't expect him to do. He turned her out and ignored everything she said. Kim wasn't going to give Lila any attention, even when she made a nasty snide about his behaviour being Marinette's fault.

'Is she still talking?' Kim thought as he took a fork and a knife from the end of the cafeteria line. When he realized that she was, he rolled his eyes in annoyance. When Kim did, he noticed that Lila was standing just fine on her supposed 'fractured ankle'. Aggravated by the lies, Kim decided to just walk away from the liar, to both stop himself from retaliating for the ugly lies and to just get away from the voice that was starting to give him a headache.

He was going to eat outside, with his friends, period. But now he had to deal with the other problem.

"Alya, enough!" Kim finally snapped as he placed his tray on a nearby table in the back of the school before turning fully towards Alya with his arms crossed. The swimmer then stated as calmly as he could without snapping, "I don't see why I should believe you over Max. Especially when you have shown you can't be trusted anymore." When Alya asked what he meant by that, Kim was more than willing to say, "Besides the fact that you haven't kept any promises you made ever since Lie-la came back from that 'trip from Achu', you've been turning into nothing but a bully."

That was when Alya gasped out, "Wh-what are you talking about? Marinette is the bully! And she's dragging Max into it! I'm only trying to warn you!"

Kim glared at Alya when he asked very coldly, "Oh really? Have you actually witnessed either of them being bullies or heard anyone other than Lie-la say that they were?" Alya opened her mouth to say something, but no words came out. Kim frowned when he added, "Figured as much." He picked up his tray and walked off before glancing over his shoulder when he said, "Apologize to Mari first before you even think about talking to me again because she's the one you let down the most with those broken promises."

Alya just stood there as Kim walked off.

}{

The assembly after lunch was more splitting the students into groups of four so everyone can participate in going through all the Haunted Houses. After having all the students draw lots for teams, after being called in alphabetical order, everyone immediately started gathering into the groups that matched what they drew.

Kim high-fived Max with their left hands when they realized that they were in the same group. When Marinette showed the two her card that had a matching image, they gave her a high-five. Adrien walked over to their group and asked what they had on their cards, and when they showed him he smiled when he showed him a matching card. Now their group was complete, go Team Psi.

Lila was seething with rage when she saw that Adrien was with a different group, especially that Marinette. As far as Lila was concerned, Adrien was HERS and hers alone. She was going to get rid of those other three and have Adrien all to herself, and she had the opportunity to do so. Lila glanced at Alya with a smirk. The liar was going to use her perfect pawn to do it.

~}i{ Two Days Later, 10/30 at 17:00. Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. }i{~

Marinette raised a brow as she re-read the directions from the school to where the locations of the Haunted Houses were. She then looked at the maps that Kim and Max received. Marinette sighed when she asked, "Well, our maps match up... But I still can't help but feel like that the maps are different somehow." Apparently, both Max and Kim had their suspicions too, but they wanted a teammate's second opinion before they made a final decision on that. But since all of their maps matched-up, they had to be right.

Adrien arrived last and asked his team to check his new map.

"New map?" the three other group members asked as Marinette took the blonde's map and compared it to their maps. Adrien's map was completely different from theirs. When asked who gave him the map, the blonde replied that Lila gave him the map when he was looking for his original. He said that she claimed that there were some minor changes to the maps and that the Student Council asked her to hand out the new maps to the students.

"That's obviously a lie," Marinette stated coldly as she crumbled Adrien's map in her hand before tossing it into a rubbish bin. The bluette then added, "We never made any changes to the maps, plus it was the teachers who made and handed out the maps."

"Just wanted to make sure it was a lie," Adrien said as he sat on the couch in the Dupain-Cheng's living room.

Kim couldn't stop himself from saying, "Everything from her mouth is a lie."

Max made a copy of their map for Adrien and they all agreed to meet in front of their school tomorrow at 9:00 to follow the maps to the Haunted Houses.

}{

Alya was laying on her bed as she stared at the ceiling of her room. Something was nagging at her brain, but she didn't know what. Alya rolled to her side when she thought back to school earlier today.

Lila claimed that there were some minor changes to the maps and that the Studen Council asked her to hand out the revised maps to the other students. Alya was ecstatic that the Student Council asked her friend to help them, she deserved the recognition. Lila did say that she was a little worried about handing out the last three maps to Marinette, Kim, and Max. It was a little too obvious as to why, at least to Alya.

So Alya volunteered to switch the maps behind their backs so Lila didn't have to deal about them and they wouldn't know that difference since the new maps only had a few changes. Lila, of course, worries about Alya getting in trouble with them for doing such a thing, but Alya assured that she wouldn't get caught.

And she didn't. Alya successfully switched the old maps with the new when the class was empty, and none of the three were the wiser.

Alya turned her attention back to her ceiling with a heavy sigh. It was so no one would miss their Haunted House Event, despite some people not being deserving of it, so... So why did Alya feel like she did something wrong? She tried to brush the feeling off as her sneaking the new maps into a few classmates' belongings, but that didn't seem like it was that. Alya ran a hand through her hair when she thought, 'Why is this feeling pestering me so much?'

"Alya, dinner," her mother called.

~}i{ The Next Morning }i{~

Marinette, Max, Kim, Markov, and Adrien met in front of the school building at 9:00, and then they followed their maps towards the location of the Haunted Houses.

}{

Lila smirked to herself as the other students gathered at the real location of the Haunted Houses. She's gotten rid of the two main pests in her side, plus Kim because he didn't react to her lies, and now she can have Adrien all to herself once he gets here.

Lila's plan was perfect, as always. The plan was to offer to go with Adrien into the haunted Houses when his group-mates 'don't show', he realized that she is a wonderful person and becomes her boyfriend. The bonus to that plan is that Marinette, Max, and Kim with getting into so much trouble for 'going to the real Joey Drew Studio'. Nothing could go wrong.

"Hey Lila," Alya greeted cheerfully as she walked over towards the liar. Lila happily greeted her favourite pawn. They happily chatted for a bit before Lila casually dropped a 'hint' that she was worried about Adrien being in a group full of 'bullies', especially since Marinette was in that group.

"I don't want my boyfriend to deal with such a stalker," Lila dropped before she covered her mouth with an 'oop'.

"Oh, no you don't gurl," Alya sassed with a playful smirk before saying, "You're gonna spill. When did you and Sunshine hook up?"

"Who hooked up with Adrien?" Rose asked as the rest of the class started arriving.

Alya quickly told the class that Lila and Adrien were dating, much to the Italian's 'dismay'. Lila couldn't help but think that this was too easy as her followers gathered around her. She didn't notice that Juleka made a recorded call and muted her end so whoever was on the other end could hear what was going on but not heard. Lila easily spun a story about how she and Adrien started dating, with Gabriel's approval, and how they had to keep it a secret because of fangirls and the media. "But you guys can keep it a secret, right," Lila asked her classmates with pleading eyes. They all chirped an "Of course we will."

On the other end of the call...

"Ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous that that liar would think that Adrikins would ever willingly date someone like her," Chloe scoffed in annoyance as Miss Bustier handed Nathaniel back his phone after the call ended.

Miss Bustier folded her arms as she stared at the students of her class that was here and said, "So, nearly all of you were already aware that Lila's been lying. Now, here are my questions. How long have you known and why didn't anyone think to inform me about it?"

That was when the group told their teacher how they all found out that Lila was a big fat liar.

They told her that for Marinette, she knew since day one about Lila being a liar. They told her that with Adrien, it was being outed by Ladybug herself. They told her with Max, it was the inconsistent stories and that he overheard Lila threaten Marinette in the girl's restroom. They told her about how Kim caught Lila stealing Marinette's science homework and claiming it as her own. Chloe stated that she knew that Ladybug would NEVER be friends with someone like Lila, who completely disrespected Ladybug's #1 Rule of secret identities when she claimed to be Ladybug's BFF. Nino said that he started having doubts about Lila when she claimed to have known Alferd Hitchcock before he died, and then after Lila told Alya about Marinette flirting with him, he knew for sure that Lila was a complete liar. Alix placed a comforting hand on Nino's shoulder when she told Miss Bustier about Lila faking the sprained ankle to get out of doing actual work on their Haunted House and then she angrily added that she actually saw Lila dumping paint on her good skates from the outside through a window and then tried to blame it on Marinette. Nathaniel explained that Marc happened to be passing by their classroom when he saw Lila pouring orange juice on one of his doodle sketchbooks and immediately told him about it in the Art Room. "When I went to confront her about it, she immediately told me through crocodile tears that she saw Mari dumping orange juice on my sketchbook before I could ask her about it," Nathaniel said as he brushed his bangs out of his face out of a nervous habit.

"And the others?" Miss Bustier asked with a raised brow.

Alix explained that Sabrina's dad was the first officer that arrived on the scene after Lila broke Max's wrist. "So he told Sabrina what he could and that's how she finally realized that Lila's not only a liar but also a big fat bully," the skater girl said with her arms folded in front of her chest.

Chloe smirked when she said, "As for Ivan, Mylène, Rose, and Juleka. Well, it's a funny lie that made them realize the truth. You see, Lila claimed to personally know the bassist to Kitty Section and told Juleka that he'd be a perfect boyfriend for her."

Miss Bustier raised a brow when she asked, "Aren't three of them apart of that band and isn't the bassist Juleka's older brother?" Everyone easily replied with a "Yup". Miss Bustier took a deep breath when she asked, "And Alya?"

Chloe scoffed when she said, "Puh-lease, Lie-la can't do anything wrong in her eyes. Urg, she's been hanging on every word of that liar tells, and she's even been helping Lie-la with bullying others. *Rolls eyes* But that so-called reporter just thinks she's retaliating against 'those who are bullying Lila', *scoffs* she doesn't even think that there's even a possibility that Lie-la is lying."

Miss Bustier kept that note before she asked, "And none of you came to me about your concerns because?"

The group glanced at each other when Chloe said, "Mari, Adrikins, and I HAVE told you about Lie-la and her lies, multiple times. You brushed us off each time."

That was when Nino added, "And since you brushed off their concerns, it made the rest of us think that they were either just overreacting or overly concerned about Lila. Which gave her the chance to spin some bull about Mari and Chlo being jealous of her and Adrien just being concerned about her. So by the time we realized how bad Lie-la really was, we didn't think you'd do anything to help even when all of us told you. So we've been gathering information to present to Mr Damocles so he could do something about Lila."

It hurt Catline so much when she heard these words. Because of her lack of action, her students didn't feel like they could trust her.

"Umm, speaking of Mari and Adrien... Shouldn't their team be here by now?" Nathaniel asked as he looked around for his classmates.

As Miss Bustier's class looked around for the individuals in question, Mr Damocles was on his cellphone with Fred Haprèle. "Ah, so you were able to meet with her... ... Excellent, did you ask her about her 'Ailments'? ... ... ... Perfectly healthy, huh? Did you tell her what she's been claiming to the school? ... ... ... Couldn't think of a reason as to why her daughter would make that stuff up and actually thought YOU were lying? ... I see, and what about all the 'trips' she and her daughter have taken for her work? ... ... ... ... She was told what by her daughter? ... ... ... Wha! What did you tell her? ... ... ... And what was her response? ... ... I can imagine, but why didn't she call the school to confirm that we were indeed closed? Or at least her daughter's homeroom teacher? ... ... ... Is THAT so? And she wasn't the least bit suspicious about all that happening so often? ... ... ... I see. Is she going to come to our event this time? ... She's going to be arriving with you? ... ... Good, I'll have Ms Mendeleiev and Miss Bustier meet the two of you by the entrance. Make sure Mrs Rossi hear them out before she says anything, I'll meet up with all of you after I talk to the construction staff... Good, I'll see you all soon." With that, the principal hung up.

~}i{ With Marinette, Adrien, Kim, Max, and Markov }i{~

"Wow, guess we're starting with our studio, huh," Adrien commented as they walked passed the old iron gates with the Studio's logo.

Kim whistles when he said while looking over the entranceway, "Wow, we did a great job on our replica and the construction guys did a good job putting it together."

Marinette opened the creaky door when she said, "The sound effects are perfectly timed."

When they all entered the studio, the door suddenly slammed shut behind them. It made them jump, but Max smiled when he said, "They managed to set up all the mechanics correctly."

Markov hovered by Max when he said, "Now all that is left to critic is the Virtual Holograms. My memory files stated that you were a bit worried about the quality of the holograms due to constructing it faster than you would have liked, Max."

Max adjusted his glasses when he replied, "Correct, but let's try to have a little amusement while we do so."

Kim laughed when he said, "You guys don't have to tell me twice." He picks up three long metal pipes that were laying on a nearby table and tossed two to Marinette and Adrien, who caught them easily enough, before saying, "Remember, right now we're brave adventures exploring Joey Drew Studio. *Point to Max and Markov*, You two can document our awesomeness, and prove to Alix that I never screamed."

Markov beeped in amusement while Max laughed as he pulled his phone out of his pocket before turning on the video recording function and saying he hit the red dot button, "Adventure log. Date, Halloween. Time, 10:03. Our first stop is our abandon Joey Drew Studio, we just entered and now are ready to explore." While Max made a quick pan of the area, Markov synced up to the phone to keep a back-up file.

"Is that really necessary?" Adrien asked as he pointed at Max's phone in confusion as the lens landed on him.

Marinette playfully nudged the blonde when she said, "It's part of the fun, and we do need to have proof that Kim screamed."

"Which I won't be doing," Kim said as he looked at the old cartoon posters. He raised a brow when he asked, "Did Nath, Mylène, and Rose make more posters then we agreed on, or did we miss looking at all the ones they made?"

While Adrien commented that they might've, Max zoomed onto the poster with the voice control (since he can only use one hand and he was using it to hold the phone) Kim was looking at, and Marinette said, "Wow, they did a superb job drawing and ageing these posters. They look so real."

"They certainly did, even my sensors are indicating that the posters are authentic," Markov stated after analyzing the posters.

They explored the area until they came to a flight of stairs. They walked down the creaky steps and continued exploring. The ceiling boards were cracked open so that the leaking pipes were visible and what was leaking from the pipes wasn't water, it was ink.

"Wow, I think we did too good a job at this," Adrien said with a shutter as he avoided a puddle of ink as they turned a corner. That was when the five froze at what they saw.

Written on the wall in front of them in thick black ink were the words 'DREAMS COME TRUE.'

Focusing his phone lens on the inky letters, Max asked, "Umm, I don't remember anyone writing That on any of our walls, *pans his phone over to the others* unless I missed that part when I was working on my VHD." Kim looked at Marinette, who shook her head in response, then looked at Adrien, who just shrugged. Both the blonde and bluette looked at Kim, who responded by shaking his head.

"What about the others? Is there a possibility that one of the other classmates wrote this?" Markov asked, flying in the way of the phone lens.

"Maybe," Marinette said as she placed her left index and middle finger on an inky letter. She pulled her hand back to examined the black stain on her fingertips and then said, "This is real ink, and it's fresh. *Looks at the others*, This had to have happened before we walk in."

Kim scoffed when he said, "Someone's trying to mess with us by adding an extra element."

"But who would carry around ink? Especially that much," Adrien vocalized as he pointed at the inky words when he added, "I mean, look how big these letters are. That had to have taken a good amount to write that."

"Maybe one of the workers wanted to add a little flare?" Max asked as he aimed his phone lens down the nearby dark corridor and saw some movement. He looked up from his phone just in time to see a black blobby half-human figure clumsily coming towards the group, and it wasn't alone. "Looks like my Virtual Holographic Device is functioning perfectly," Max commented as he pointed his cast towards the inky beings.

Kim readied his metal pole when he told Max to get his good side as he charged at the inky beings quickly followed by Marinette. Adrien was completely impressed when he muttered, "Wow, she's amazing." Max and Markov glanced at the blonde with a raised brow at this.

~}i{ With the Collège Françoise Dupont groups }i{~

The parents started arriving by now and Team Psi still hasn't shown up. This was pretty worrying to their teacher, parents, and friends.

"Any of you guys seen anyone from Team Psi?" Alix asked Lila and her flock. The 'Openly knows Lila's a liar' group decided to have Alix ask them because Lila claimed that 'she was just being blackmailed' and that she wouldn't be brushed off as a 'bully' or 'lying'. And it was to let the 'Secretly Knows Lila's a liar' group know what has happened.

"Team Psi?" Alya asked with a raised brow.

Alix rolled her eyes when she said, "The group with Kim, Max, Marinette, and Adrien. We asked and looked around, no one has seen any of them. Their parents are here and getting worried since they left long before them. So they should've been here an hour ago."

Alya scoffed when she said, "They're probably ditching the event." She was annoyed that after all Lila's effort to make them feel included, they didn't show up for the event.

Alix raised a brow when she said, "I'm not too sure about that. Marinette's our Class Rep and she NEEDS to be here to thank the construction people with the principle. Kim and I have a Challange going on right now, and we all know he can't resist a challenge. Max wanted to observe his invention to check that it's functioning correctly. Also, Adrien was looking forward to this and unless his dad has him doing some real last-minute modelling, he wouldn't miss this."

"I'm sure Adrien's just running a little late," Lila said with a sweet smile. She then added, "You guys know Gabriel won't let Adrien attend an event without his bodyguard."

"One problem with that theory," Alix stated as she pointed in a certain direction. When the group looked where the skater was pointing, they saw Adrien's bodyguard and Nathalie talking with a worried looking Nino. Alix then said, "The bodyguard is here but Adrien isn't, and from what I'm seeing, he and the secretary are looking pretty uneasy now that Nino told them that Adrien isn't here. 30 Euros on Ms Secretary calling Mr Agreste within the next minute." And if on cue, Nathalie practically yanked her phone out of her pocket and quickly made a call with that worried look still on her face.

Alix folded her arms uncomfortably when she said, "If it weren't for the fact that I'm pretty worried about them being missing, I'd be shouting 'Called it!' ... *Looks at the group*, I'm serious guys. Despite what your opinions of them are, Mari and Max love their parents too much to make them worry like this. You know Kim NEVER chickens out on a challenge. And we know for a fact that Adrien would Never make his father worry about him, heck, the jerk would easily pull him out of school if he even thought about playing hooky. Something's very wrong here..."

Mr Damocles quickly gathered Miss Bustier's class together before anyone could get in another word. He asked if anyone has heard from the missing students when he got nos all around he asked if anyone had their contact information on hand.

"I got Kim's number!" Alix said as she pulled out her phone and quickly called the jock.

"And I have Adrikin's, or course," Chloe said as she started calling Adrien for a video chat.

Because of the two's rush to contact their friends, they accidentally hit the 'Record Call' button.

}{ With Team Psi }{

Kim just smashed an Inkman when he heard his phone ringing. He pulled his phone out and answers it by saying, "Kim here."

Alix's voice emitted from the phone when she nearly shouted, "Hey doofus! Where the fu-, uh, fudge are you? Everyone here's been looking for you and your team! Urg, I swear, you better not be chickening out on our bet and taking your team with you."

Kim rubbed his ear before bringing the phone back and said, "Oh please, pipsqueak, I haven't screamed once since we walked in. I mean, the ink monsters and the creepy decor are cool and all, but you might as well give up now 'cuse they aren't scaring me."

Alix was quiet for a bit before saying, "What are you talking about?"

Kim rolled his eyes when he said, "Haha, nice try, but I'm not falling for that old trick."

Alix quickly replied in a slightly panicked tone, "Kim... I'm not joking, where are you and your team? Because I know you guys are not at our replica."

Kim, getting a little annoyed by this, said, "Of course we're here, take a look. *Turns on the video chat and shows Alix the area they're in*. See? We're here in our replica."

Marinette takes out the last of the ink creatures with a swing of a metal pipe. Kim gets that on the video chat.

Adrien couldn't help but say in amazement, "Nice shot, Marinette." The bluette blushed as Adrien got an alert for a video chat from Chloe. He answers it quickly.

Chloe practically shouted through the video chat, "Adrikins! Please tell me you are okay?"

"Yeah, Chlo, we're fine. And we're having fun here," Adrien said with a smile.

Marinette looked over Adrien's shoulder at the video chat screen when she said, "Yeah, and actually. Hitting Ink Holos is a great way to burn off stress."

Alix looked at the area through the phone when she said, "Uhh, guys... I don't know where you are, but I can tell you that you're not in our school's haunted studio. Our's had a sign that says "Welcome to Joey Drew Studio" when you enter... Did you see that?"

Max was looking at the ink smears on Kim's metal pipe as he listened to conversations everyone on a call was having when he said, "That's weird, these are actual ink stains... That shouldn't be happening if these creatures were from my Virtual Hologram Device... *Realized what Alix said*. Wait, we didn't see any signs when we arrived, we only passed a gate."

Something wasn't adding up here.

Now Mr Damocles' face appears one Kim's phone screen behind Alix when he said, "Did you follow the map the teachers handed out? Because you should've seen the other students before you even entered any of the Haunted Houses." Chloe walked over to the principle and got him in her video chat so Marinette and Adrien could see.

Markov looked over Kim's shoulder when he said, "We followed the directions on the map to a T, but we did not see anyone before entering our studio replica." Max stood next to Kim when the AI made that statement.

Mr Damocles placed a hand on his chin when he said, "Do you have your maps on you? I would like to see them." Adrien responded that his map was a fake and that he threw it away. He also said that they as a group followed the maps that matched up with each other. The school principal raised a brow at this then he asked, "Can you explain that a bit more?" That was when the group explained that they felt that their maps were somehow different the second time they looked at them, so they compared them and when they matched up, they'd figured that they were just imagining things.

That was when Adrien said, "Lila gave me a "New Map", she claimed that there were some minor changes to the maps and that the Student Council asked her to hand out the new maps to the students. I should've known she was lying right then and there, but I gave her another chance when I shouldn't have."

Marinette rolled her eyes at that statement when she said, "Even IF the Student Council DID make any changes, we would've told our classes about it directly and in person rather than making a SINGLE student hand out maps to the entire school. I mean, come on, that has to be one of Lie-la's weakest lies."

In the background, Alya was listening to all this and started wondering. What Marinette said about the Student Council made sense, but she highly doubts the lying part... 'Hold on, did Adrien say that his girlfriend was lying?" Alya thought before falling back on, 'Right, Lila said that they were keeping their relationship a secret so fans don't target her. Marinette doesn't know they're dating and Adrien is just playing along so she doesn't hurt Lila.'

Max sent Mr Damocles the email with the image of the map that he sent to Adrien two days ago.

The principle checked his phone and pulled up the new picture. He then zoomed in on the words on the map, he looked at them for a few seconds before realizing, 'That looks a little too close to the handwriting Ms Rossi used when she forged her doctor's signatures... Hmm. Would she really do something like this to another person?...' Mr Damocles glanced at Alix's screen and said, "Markov, can you give me the building name attached to your current GPS location?" A surge of suspicion was boiling in the principle's voice and gut.

Markov complied with the request with a series of beeps and chirps before finally saying in a puzzled tone, "That is peculiar, I checked our current GPS location three times and this building's name for this location is the real Joey Drew Studio. Weren't we suppose to keep away from it as a condition of making a replica of it?"

"Wait! Wait! Wait! Are you saying that we're in the actual Joey Drew Studio?!" Marinette practically shouted in utter shock.

When Markov confirmed that they were, Kim was the one to practically shout, "Whoa! Hold on! How's that possible?! All the teachers know that we're supposed to keep away from the real place! It was even part of your speech Mr. Damocles! No one on the staff would have made such a blunder like that!"

Adrien was muttering under his breath in horror that his dad was going to keep him locked in the mansion forever once he hears about this, while Max said, "I concur, and even if one of them did, either someone else on the staff would've caught that or all of the students would be here!"

Something finally clicked in Alya's mind as she turned her attention towards Lila with a bewildered look on her face. The Italian, on the other hand, had a look that showed that she was displeased by some kind of inconvenience. To say that Lila was pissed that Adrien trusted his assigned team more than her was an understatement. The blonde model was supposed to believe that there were new maps. Lila 'tsk'ed when she thought back to when she stole his map out of his bag so she can have the opportunity to give it back to him under the guise of being helpful to the Student Council.

Mr Damocles noticed the looks on the two teenage girls, he folded his arms before giving them his 'stern teacher look', and said, "Ms Césaire, Ms Rossi, is there anything you would like to say?" Only one of them seemed to hear what was asked.

Alya took a step back from Lila when she shakily pointed at her and said, "You-you made bogus maps to the real Joey Drew Studio! You made me think that you WANTED them to be able to attend the event, despite not 'getting along' with them! You tricked me into swapping their maps with your fake maps because I honestly thought you were helping the school!"

"Wait! You did WHAT?!" Adrien, Marinette, Kim, Max, and Markov exclaimed over the video chats, utterly horrified at what they have learned.

"You switched our maps with fakes Lila made!" Kim shouted in anger.

Marinette growled in anger when she seethed out, "I'm not that surprised that Lila would do something like this. But what I am surprised and mad about is that ALYA forgot that I'M on the Student Council and thought it was a good idea to sneak a new map into other's possession WITHOUT CHECKING IT FIRST!"

Max glared into the phone when he said in anger, "I certainly concur with that statement."

Alya grabbed one of Lila's arm in furry when she practically shouted, "Why the hell would you do something like that?! Mr Damocles told us how dangerous the Joey Drew Studio building was! Mari, Max, Kim, and Adrien could've gotten seriously hurt or worse in there!"

Lila immediately put on the 'kicked puppy' look when she whimpered out, "But I did help the Student Council with fixing the maps! Marinette must've used Max to lure Adrien to the real Joey Drew Studio building to play the hero. It's their fault that they're there!"

The colour drained from Alya's face when she heard those words. She then looked down at Lila's 'fractured ankle' and saw that she was standing on it with no problem or pain. Alya backed away from Lila as if she was shot in the gut with a cannonball when she stuttered out, "Y-y-you're lying!? Y-you're actually lying!"

Mr Damoclies frowned when he told Lila, "I do believe that I'll be having a rather LONG conversation with your mother when she gets here. After Team Psi is out of that dangerous studio."

Lila quickly turned to the principle and put on an 'apologetic' look when she said, "But sir, I told you, my mother is going to be busy all day and can't make it to the event."

"Oh am I?" a new voice said from behind the liar. When everyone looked at who the owner of the voice was, they saw a woman who had a striking resemblance to Lila but she had a very angry look on her face. This woman glared at her daughter when she said, "So, how's that ankle of your that was 'fractured' or was it 'sprained' when you weren't home? Because you've been walking around the house just fine for the past month. Or how about your tinnitus or arthritis you seemed to have only at school, hmm? *Narrows her eyes at her daughter*. You cannot even begin to imagine my surprise when I had one of your teachers use a contact inside the Italian Embassy to speak with me face-to-face because, apparently, the contact information they had on file for me seemed to raise more suspicions than answers. Especially when they wanted me to come in for a parent/teacher conference, which I learned for the first time today that they were trying to contact me for and all you supposed ailments."

Mr Damcolies will have to talk to Mrs Rossi a little later, right now, more pressing matters need to be attended to. He quickly turned back to the video chats when he said, "Kids, you have to get out of that building, NOW. I don't care how you get out, just that you all do! As you saw, the creatures there are REAL and real dangerous! All that information you found about that building is true, all of them, they're not lore!"

Mylène squeeked when she said, "W-w-wait! Y-y-you m-mean th-that?!"

The principle nodded when he said, "It was the reason WHY I had that condition. I may not know the entire story behind that accursed building, but what I do know is that those creatures aren't able to leave it. *Turns back to the screens*. So you kids need to get out of there before any more of those Ink Creatures appear."

"You don't need to tell us twice," Adrien said as the others nodded alongside him.

Max held up his phone when he said, "Good thing I started recording as we came in. We can just retrace our steps."

Inky webs suddenly appeared on the walls of the studio and the sound of a heartbeat echoed.

Marinette, Adrien, Kim, Max, and Markov swallowed as they turned towards the sound just in time to see another ink creature coming into view. But it was different from the other ink creatures, this one felt more dangerous.

This ink creature was tall, had a malformed figure with his skin made in black ink resembling tar. His head highly resembles that of the Bendy from the old cartoons, but the top area of his head appears melted, obscuring his eyes. His horns are slightly more curved to bear a shape like a deformed crescent moon, being able to articulate similarly to animal ears. His toothy, Cheshire grin, with sketch-like shadings. His spine appears slightly crooked or curved, his slightly-hunched back, which induces endless wisps of blackish smoke, also sports spiky spines for demonic features. His left arm is slightly longer than his right, which looks thinner and less human. On his left hand, he wears an oversized white glove with four fingers, though it does not sport two buttons like the original Bendy, while his right hand is smaller and more human-like, with five fingers. His feet are also mismatched: His right foot faintly resembles that of a human, while the left is just a lump-covered, disease-like stump, which gives him a limp. He also wears a drooping bowtie close to the middle of his chest

"Is that!" Adrien gasped out.

"Bendy?!" Max finished in shock.

The moment 'Demon Bendy' then spots the five intruders, he lets out a growl before charging towards them.

The five scream before rushing off in the opposite direction, with both video chat's still on. The ones who were holding a pipe, dropped them in panic as they raced off.

"The stairs! We have to get up the stairs!" Kim shouted at his friends as the stairs came into view.

They rushed to the stairs and quickly ran up the creaky steps while keeping an eye on the Ink Demon. But before any of them could reach the top, the stairs broke under their feet and they began to fall into the cavern that opened up underneath them. The humans screamed in horror as they plummeted into the dark depth. The AI flew down after them, worried for the well being of his friends.

The next thing they knew they plunged into a swell of black ink.

}{ At the Haunted House Location }{

The video chats ended due to a lack of signal from the other end.

Everyone who had the missing team's numbers was now frantically calling them, but none were able to get ahold of any.

Miss Bustier's class then turned to Lila with fury in their eyes.

Lila scoffed when she said, "What? It's not my fault they fell. Besides, they were totally faking it."

"What? Like you're ankle? Which might I add seems fine to me," Chloe said as she started typing her father's number. The Mayor's Daughter then said with a scoff, "Also, I know Adrikin is incapable of playing those kinds of pranks."

Mrs Rossi placed a stern hand on her daughter's shoulder, to prevent her from escaping, when she said, "Lila, if any of them end up dead because of your pettiness, then I will allow them to charge you with manslaughter."

Lila looked up at her mother with wide eyes when she practically shouted, "What?! You can't do that! I'm your daughter! And I didn't do anything! They're trying to frame me!"

Mrs Rossi gripped her daughter's shoulder tighter when she snapped, "Young lady, You gave them a map leading them to a place that YOU KNEW was dangerous all because they would not believe your lies or outed you for those lies. Or the fact that you bullied them because they wouldn't let you do as you please, and don't think I wasn't told about how YOU BROKE the wrist of one of those individuals. Oh, and let's not forget that you've been sexually harassing one of your classmates."

"I wasn't! Adrien's my boyfriend! And he's fine with it!" Lila claimed, trying to get out of her mother's grip.

Mrs Rossi stood her ground when she snapped, "When someone tells you to 'stop touching them' or that you're making them 'uncomfortable by invading their personal space' THAT'S considered sexual harassment! I taught you that so YOU wouldn't experience that, but you go and do it to someone else! That is NOT ACCEPTABLE, Lila, not at all!"

"Excuse me," Nathalie said walking up to the group when she then asked, "Could someone explain to me what Ms Rossi is claiming to be AND what was that about sexual harassment? I do want someone other than Ms Rossi, here since it's a little too clear that she can't be trusted."

As the class explained to Nathalie what Lila's mother was talking about, Chloe got ahold of her father. The blonde immediately told him that they needed to get a crew to Joey Drew Studio to save her friends.

~}i{ At Joey Drew Studio }i{~

Markov hovered above the lower level that was flooded with black ink when he called out, "Max, Marinette, Kim, Adrien? Please respond."

The four teens broke the surface of the waist-high pool of ink, coughing and spitting the foul liquid out.

"Gah! What the hell is all this ink doing here?" Kim asked as he leaned against a nearby pipe, trying to wipe the ink off his face.

"Ewww, it's seeping into my clothes," Marinette cringed as she trudged over to a wooden shelf as she quickly raised her purse over her head to try to keep it out of the ink. The moment she spotted Tikki poking her head out of the purse, Marinette sighed softly in relief.

Max tried to wipe the ink off his glasses when he said, "On the positive side, the ink broke our fall or we would've been seriously injured."

Adrien quickly checked to see if his ring was still on before sighing and asking, "So where do we go from here? The whole area is flooded with ink." The blonde felt Plagg squirming in his inner jacket pocket, which gave him some relief.

Markov quickly scanned the area and spotted a valve handle on the pipe Kim was leaning against and then said, "Kim try turning that valve, maybe the ink level will decrease if you turn it."

Kim nodded and turned the valve. When he did, the ink level lowered before the flooded room was no more. But there were still small puddles of ink on the floor.

"Well, that's better," Adrien commented before looking down at his ink-soaked clothing. The model frowned when he said, "Urg, my dad's going to be furious at this."

Kim gave Adrien a look when he said, "Dude, I'm sure your clothes aren't going to be high on your dad's priority list right now. Urg, but yeah, the guy's gonna be pissed about that liar tricking you into coming here..." Adrien grumbled out a 'don't remind me.' Kim then added, "Pretty sure he's going to be more pissed at Lie-la rather than you. *Shutters* I hope he doesn't get Akumatized because of it."

That actually worried both Adrien and Marinette more when they thought, 'I hope Ladybug/Chat Noir can handle him if he does.' Unaware that their crime-fighting partner was right next to them.

Marinette noticed a tape recorder on the shelf when she said, "What's this?" She then pressed the play button.

The tape started and a gravelly voice of a man emitted from the device, "It's dark and it's cold and it's stuck behind every single wall now. In some places, I swear this godforsaken ink is clear up to my knees! Whoever thought that these crummy pipes could hold up under this kind of strain either knows something about pressure I don't, or he's some kind of idiot. But the real worst part about all this... Are them noises the system makes. Like a dying dog on its last legs. Make no mistake, this place... This... Machine... Heck, this whole darn thing... It just isn't natural. You can bet, I won't be doing any more jobs for Mister Joey Drew. Tomas Conner, signing off." The tape recorder shut off, signalling the end of the tape.

Marinette placed a hand to a hand to her chin when she muttered, "Tomas Conner? Wait, wasn't he one of the main workers from the Gent company that Joey Drew hired?"

After finally getting the ink off his glasses, Max said, "He was, but it was never stated what he was hired to work on. Mr Drew just kept insisting that it was some kind of big project." He then noticed that his cast was caked in ink and grimaced at the sight.

Kim walked over to the phones on the ground when he said, "What bothered me about that recording was the part about the Machine that sounds like a dying dog. I mean, why would anyone want to make something like that? *Picks up his and another phone*. Huh? Hey, Max, your phone's still recording."

The teens picked up their respective phones and checked for any signal to call, sadly, there was none. Max then checked the recording when he said, "You're right, Kim. Wait, how are our phones still working after being submerged in ink? Not that I'm complaining." He then clipped his phone to his right overall strap with his phone case and so the camera wasn't obstructed, with some help from Markov, so he can still document this whole thing just in case proof was needed, and so they could use it against Lila should they actually take her to court.

Adrien tried calling Chloe but was unable to make a connection. When he failed a third time, he said, "Well, not like it's going to do us any good. We don't have any signal to make any calls or send out texts." Adrien then spotted and then pointed over to an open doorway when he added, "Looks like this is the only path we can use."

So they followed the path and walked down the stairway. They kept walking until halfway down, where the lower level was flooded with more black ink.

Marinette raised a brow when she said, "I know this was an animation studio and they used ink, but it's been closed for decades. So seriously, where is all this ink coming from?"

Adrien shrugged when he said, "Not sure, but since our clothes are already ruined..."

Markov already flew ahead over to the valve, letting the teens know where it was. So when they trudge through the waist-high ink to get there, they weren't aimlessly wondering. This time, Marinette turned the valve. Once the ink level receded, Team Psi continued down the stairs. At the bottom was more ink flooding the floor, this time the ink was at chest level. So Kim, being the tallest, trudged through the ink to the valve and turned it. Once the ink was gone, they were able to open a door.

They entered the room. They saw that the other doorway was boarded up, a couple of barrels sat in the far right corner, and a workbench near the entrance they came in. And when they were completely in the room, they saw more words written in ink on the whole left side of the wall. But these words were 'THE CREATOR LIED TO US.'

"Urg, I sympathies with whoever wrote that," Marinette said with an annoyed growl as she crossed her arms in front of her chest. The bluette then snapped in an angry rant as she started pacing up and down the room while waving her hands around, "She's the reason why we're here! Grr! What the hell was that liar thinking?! That we were JUST going to get in trouble?! Mr Damcolies made it very clear that this place wasn't safe, both structurally and metaphorically! I mean, if it weren't for the fact that we are completely capable of defending ourselves from those minor ink creatures, we'd certainly gotten seriously hurt or even killed! Grr! I'd bet she was hoping that only Adrien would show and 'insist' that she make sure he doesn't go through the Haunted Houses 'alone' when we didn't show up! Did she forget that Adrien KNOWS she's a liar?! Cht! I bet she thought that Adrien wouldn't be suspicious of her and would want to double-check his map with ours!"

Adrien held up a hand to stop the bluette from ranting, but Kim lowered the hand when he whispered, "Let her get it out of her system. She kinda needs it right now." Max nodded in agreement as Markov scanned the graffiti on the wall.

Marinette continued ranting and pacing, "Is she that egotistical to think that?! ARG! I bet she is! She's gonna get her ass sued by our parents because of this! And I'm sure Mr Agreste won't be too please by his 'new muse' sending his son to a death-trap! There is no way in hell she's going to lie her way out of that, especially now that EVERYONE knows she's a liar! Oh and don't get me started on that Ink Demon Bendy! Okay, granted no one knew of that, but still, that creature just oozed danger! No pun intended. Uuuurg! I bet he's the big reason as to why this place is dangerous!" The bluette finished her rant with a huff.

Kim patted Marinette on the shoulder when he asked, "Feel better now, Mari?" The bluette nodded with a quiet sigh.

Adrien looked through the cracks of the wooden boards to see what was ahead when he said, "Well, there does seem to be a turn down this corridor, but we can't get through these, and they looked like whoever put them up knew what they were doing."

"We can use These to break the boards down," Max said, pointing at a workbench where two axes and two metal pipes. The techie picked up a metal pipe with his left hand since the axe was a two-handed weapon.

Markov gathered up any screws, bolts, and nuts he could find and load them into Max's pack when he said, "Max do you think you'd be able to attach that air-gun you brought to my body and edit it so I can fire these at the Ink Creatures so that I may also defend myself?"

Max nodded when he replied, "Might be a good idea, but let's wait until we're someplace where there's less ink." He glances at the ink dripping out of a nearby pipe that seemed to be sticking out from the ceiling in the corner over the barrels. Yeah, it might be better to attach a new device when there wasn't a chance of getting a liquid getting inside.

Kim immediately picked up an axe and said, "Well, at least we got something to use to defend ourselves from the Ink creatures and a way to get through those pesky boards." Marinette then took the axe off the table as Adrien walked over and swiped the last item on it. Kim walked over to the boarded-up door and started smashing them down with the axe.

Once the doorway was cleared, they walked through it. Kim swung the axe each time a wooden board came into range as they continued through. They made a left at the turn and saw another door that was boarded up.

"Mind if I do these?" Adrien asked the group. When they gave him the go-ahead he immediately went to hacking down the three boards on the closed door with the metal pipe. Once the boards were off, they opened the door and peered inside. There seemed to be a pentagram drawn on the floor with only candles lighting the room, two wooden coffins leaning against the opposite wall, a coffin acting like a table, some Bendy poster, a chair or two, and another closed door that was boarded up. Despite their sudden feeling of anxiety that crept upon them, the five entered the new room.

The closer they got to the pentagram and coffins, the anxiety increased.

Suddenly, an image of some sort of machine flashed in front of the group's eyes. They all clenched their now aching head with their free hand, or cast or mechanical arm. Then another image flashed in front of their eyes, this time an image of Ink Demon Bendy that was backlit by a yellowish light. Anyone who was holding a weapon dropped them as the pain in their head increased as the next image flashed. It was an image of 10 pillars of light that were structured into a circle.

Everyone blacked out. Marinette, Adrien, Kim, Max, and even Markov collapsed on the ground, all completely unconscious.

Plagg and Tikki peaked out of their respective hiding spot after their holders hit the ground. Once they made sure that the two other humans and AI were out, they flew out of their hiding spots and tried to wake up their holders. When they showed no signs of waking, the Kwami looked at each other with worry.

"What do we do now?" Plagg asked his red counterpart with an uncharacteristic look of pure worry on his face.

Tikki thought about that for a bit before finally saying, "Normally, I would suggest that we go to the guardian, but that will leave our holders defenceless from whatever vile threats that are here. Also..."

Plagg flew over to Tikki when he said, "You feel it too?"

The red Kwami nodded when she said, "That strange energy... It's just... Something about it is just off. It feels evil, yet at the same time, it doesn't... We can't leave our holders to face that."

Plagg had that worried look when he glanced at the unconscious Kim, Max, and Markov when he said, "What happens if Chat Noir and Ladybug are needed? It'll be hard to explain how two superheroes are also trapped here while trying to keep their identities a secret."

Tikki signed when she said with a heavy heart, "If that happens... Then it means that it's going to be a last resort." The Kwami glanced at the unconscious group with worry.

The phone on Max was still recording.

~}i{ Elsewhere in the Studio }i{~

A steady rhythm of dropping ink echoed through a darkened area. A boney left hand that seemed to be completely covered in ink appeared from the darkness and traced an old picture frame laying on an old artist's work desk. Next to that old frame was a couple of Bendy comic strips that were yellow with age. The comic was signed by the artist.

"Yyyooouuu'rrreee fffiiinnnaaalllyyy hhheeerrreee," a voice, unused to speaking, said to the photo within the frame.

~}i{~

Chapter 1: Completed.

To Be Continued.

~}i{~