12/13/24
9 Reviews, 12 Favs, 11 Follows
The mystery gang was outside, but Shaggy informed them that Ladybug was inside and could be in danger by now.
"She can't do it alone inside there," Velma said.
"We have to help her" Fred suggested.
"Yes, together," Daphne said.
"Like, are you out of your mind? The ghosts are luring us to a trap!" Shaggy said cowardly.
"Reah, traps!" Scooby nodded.
"Like now is the time!" Fred said before dragging the scaredy boys.
"Ruh oh! Rhost!" Scooby Doo saw Monarch's ghost enter the building.
"You meddling kids shall be punished for helping these heroes!" Ghost Monarch roared.
"ZOINKS!" Shaggy ran inside with the others.
They could hear the heroes screaming out loud but it sounded like a fight.
"They are in the hero section!" Daphne said.
"Back off, you creep!" Fred threw the microphone from Nadja's statue at Ghost Monarch, which caused it to disappear.
"That should keep him away" They ran to find Cat Noir and Ladybug engaging Gabriel's ghost.
"Back off, old man! You're supposed to be at peace, not become a monster to haunt the living!" Cat Noir held his staff.
"You've done more than enough to Adrien!" Ladybug spun her yoyo.
"Hey ugly! Smile at this!" Fred and his friends shined their flashlights at the ghost Gabriel, which made him hiss at the light.
"Back to your spirit realm!" Daphne demanded while shining the flashlight brightly.
"We got to get him into the salt ring!" Ladybug said.
"Agh! This isn't over yet!" Ghost Gabriel went through the wall to escape, unaware that the gang was only seeing something that was never there but they don't know that.
"He got away again!" Cat Noir said in frustration.
"But we managed to save your lives," Velma said.
"Yes, thank you" Cat Noir replied.
"But Monarch's ghost?" Ladybug wondered.
"Gone but he could be back again," Fred said.
"Yes, they can be anywhere," Ladybug said.
"Let's get out of here before we get completely vulnerable!" Shaggy suggested.
"I agree, I got bad memories here," Cat Noir said, hyperventilating too rapidly at this memory.
"Easy, kitty. Easy" Ladybug calms him down.
"Thanks, Ladybug" He replied.
"This mystery is getting more complicated but there should be video captures from the security cameras that should have picked up before the lights went out," Velma said, using her smart thinking.
"Let's go to the security room," Ladybug said.
They went to the surveillance room to check for any footage. The beginning was normal with tourists checking out the wax statues until fast forwarding to a dark silhouette figure turning off the lights and summoning like an illusion similar to Rena Rouge's ability but no flute.
"Wait, rewind!" Fred noticed.
Velma then paused to get a better look, "It looks like….a thief but I can't see their body" Velma observed the footage.
"But the stranger has powers like Rena Rouge," Cat Noir said.
"So those ghosts were illusions all along. That's why they barely touch us because touching the illusions will disappear" Ladybug said.
"Clearly, and when I threw the object at Monarch's ghost outside, he disappeared," Fred said.
"Which means they were not real. Man, these illusions are so cunning just like shifty foxes to fool us" Cat Noir said, knowing one Akuma who faked the powers of illusion before.
"If it's not Rena Rouge then who?" Shaggy asked.
"Volpina" Ladybug said.
"Uhh….I don't see fox ears on that thief, milady. It's too…..silhouette thingy" Cat Noir said, knowing his night vision couldn't make out the dark figure.
"Must be someone with similar powers" Ladybug said.
"It has to be the new Hawk Moth you mention but if they akumatized themselves, they won't be able to remember the events before they transform back," Cat Noir said.
"This is gonna be harder than I thought," Velma said.
"The only thing we learned is that if this thief realizes we are on your side, it could terrorize us from getting further into solving this mystery," Fred said.
"We can't let the new butterfly holder get to you five," Ladybug said.
"The only thing that attracts an Akuma is negative emotions," Cat Noir said.
"Zoinks! Like even fear?" Shaggy asked.
"Yup, even that," Cat Noir said.
"Ruh oh," Scooby gulps.
"I suggest you try to remain calm and think positive thoughts," Ladybug said.
"Rokay" Scooby nodded.
"And be brave, big boy" Ladybug pets Scooby before kissing his nose, which made him blush a little.
"Like, how do we remain positive all the time when there's a dark figure out there who could be anyone?" Shaggy asked.
"Think positive, stay paw-sitive" Cat Noir made a pun.
"Like, is that really the time to make puns?" Shaggy was not amused.
"It's helpful at times Shaggy," Cat Noir said.
"Okay, like, if you say so," Shaggy said.
"Ray rositive," Scooby said.
"Puns and humor keep me distracted from fear," Cat Noir said.
"Good point there," Shaggy said.
"And sometimes my kitty and I always outsmart villains to distract them," Ladybug said.
"Well, Scoob and I are always the live bait when it comes to capturing monsters. But this will be no different this time" Shaggy said.
"Rame as always," Scooby said.
"In the meantime, stay safe. Wherever that thief is, make sure you don't spill out anything" Ladybug said.
"You can count on us you two," Fred said.
"Good, the sooner we'll get the culprit," Ladybug said.
"Let's hope it doesn't know who we are, milady. The real us" Cat Noir said.
"I hope he or she hasn't done it already, Kitty" Ladybug said.
"I hope not. Learning from Monarch, evil people are not too creative nor do they care about the consequences. Remember the last time we time-traveled to prevent him from altering the timeline? It would have been the end of us" Cat Noir said.
"I do. In our civilian lives, we better stay alert too" Ladybug said.
x
Much later as Marinette, she was out on a walk on the street, reflecting the time Volpina was around. Even though she admitted she overreacted too much to humiliate Lila in front of Adrien but Marinette did not like how Lila lied about being best friends with Ladybug just to grab everyone's attention. That event caused her to be her nemesis. Even if Lila held an unhealthy grudge to make her life miserable but the second time failed when Sabrina warned Marinette about Lila's plan to incriminate her.
"Wherever she is, she better not try to kill me," She thought and looked both ways; just ordinary people in sight.
x
With the Mystery Inc at the hotel, Velma was doing a DNA test on Lila's fake green eye lens as well as the hairpiece she found in the locker. If Velma can get a file info of her, perhaps there are more connections to what really happened when Lila vanished in Paris.
"Let's see" She scans the strand of hair.
But when the result of DNA popped up on the screen, it wasn't her hair but someone else's hair, "Jinkies! That's not her hair" Velma said.
The file read of a female person's real hair donated due to her cancer treatment and needed money for it. The person was a 20-year-old woman and still alive today.
"The hair is from a cancer patient" Velma checked.
"Jeepers, so the hair piece was a wig. Look at the picture of Lila on the cover magazine of the Gabriel brand" Daphne said.
"It matches the patient's hair color," Velma said.
"What about the real DNA of the real Lila from the contact lens? There should be fingerprints on it" Fred asked.
"Hmmm let's see about that" Velma placed the lens on the scanner.
It reads the fingerprint on the lens and the results soon came up but it wasn't Lila Rossi that appeared on the screen. The person appeared with short pixie dark brown hair and brown eyes. The name goes by Cerise Bianca, a movie star actress but there was no news article if she performed or acted in any Hollywood movie making. But it also said that she's a student and class representative at a different school.
"Cerise Bianca? So Lila Rossi was merely a disguise?" Fred looked at the info.
"A false identity that I can't find on Lila Rossi. It doesn't exist in her birth record either" Velma said, typing on her laptop of identification files of Paris and she was right, no birth record or identification of Lila Rossi's existence.
"This girl is full of surprises," Daphne said.
"She's definitely a master of disguise. That's not good. Disguises are very deceptive to the human eye" Velma said.
"That means she could be anywhere fooling the authorities and lawmen," Fred said.
"And the only way to find her is by where she found the wig. Hairstylists are just so fashionable" Daphne said.
"Exactly" Velma replied.
"Like, won't she be expecting that? She could be anyone in the crowd" Shaggy said.
"Reah, I can't recognize her scent," Scooby said.
"Well, it looks like we got twice the mystery now," Fred said.
"Like, Akuma creator, ghost haunting, and now a master of disguise? Is t it just one mystery at a time like always?" Shaggy said, not capable of handling the problems they are facing.
"We've faced monsters or ghosts with more than one disguise or identity" Fred reminded him.
"Right of course" Shaggy replied.