Chapter 16
Miguel finger combed his hair back and rubbed his temples. At last he was finished with his English assignment. He would have been finished sooner if Plagg hadn't kept eating him out of his father's camembert cheese and needed to go to the store to buy more. After stretching his legs, he got another look at the audition notice on his nightstand. The part he was auditioning for required for him to have a partner and after asking around the day before, he found himself wondering what kind of singer Angela had to be for everyone he asked to recommend her to him. As he wondered this, he turned to his window and saw how wonderful the weather was.
"Come on Plagg, we're going out." Miguel called grabbing his kwami.
Miguel hopped on the bus and couldn't wait to get to Central Park. When they got there, he started walking just down the path when he felt someone bump into him. He turned and his eyes met with Angela.
"Oh, I'm so sorr…ahhh!" she gasped seeing him. "Miguel! What are you doing here?" she gasped again.
"I was just out, enjoying the sun." he answered. "Nice to see you out here too. Would you like to walk with me?"
"Baah, no I mean, nay… no, that is, what I mean is, yes." Angela stammered causing Miguel to laugh at how cute she could be sometimes.
"Ok, well, shall we?" he said pointing further down the path.
"Your hair looks different." Angela commented seeing his new hair cut.
"Yeah, my Dad thought it could use a trim, and a wash." Miguel said brushing a few strands out of his face. "And to be honest, I kind of like it." Miguel said. "It's so much more tamable now and it's fluffier than it was before."
"It looks amazing." Angela breathed.
"Thanks." Miguel answered. "So hey, there was something I wanted to ask you about earlier yesterday."
"What?" Angela asked.
"The theatre club is doing a musical audition next week after courses and I was wondering if you would like to be my audition partner. I just need someone to sing with for the duet part I'm auditioning for."
"You want me to, with you, sing, audition for musical?" Angela babbled.
"Yeah, I was asking around for a singing partner and many other people say that you're a pretty amazing singer." Miguel explained.
Angela didn't say a word, though she did seem pretty thoroughly shocked hearing him ask her.
"I can understand if you don't want to."
"No, I mean, That, love to, I would do….ugh!" she said slapping herself back to attention. "Yes, I would love to do that." She said breathing that she finally got her response out.
"Great. So, do you think you could come by my place after classes tomorrow to rehearse?" Miguel asked.
"Yes, I will be there." Angela answered.
"Awesome, here's my address. I'll see you then." Miguel said walking off.
"Why didn't you just ask her out?" He heard Plagg snicker from inside his coat.
"Very funny." Miguel answered.
Miguel just enjoyed the beautiful day in the park for a while longer and headed home to get the basement set up for his rehearsal tomorrow. He would have thought that given his past experience with sound equipment it would have been easy, but that was back when he had the band. Right now, he was on his own, so it did take a bit longer than he was expecting. By the time he was done, his dad was just arriving home.
"Been busy today Miguel?" he asked seeing how tired Miguel must have looked.
"Kind of, I'm just going to go get ready for bed." Miguel said heading upstairs.
As Miguel was getting ready for bed, he heard what he thought was a girl's scream outside. He peeked out his window, and saw something that made his heart skip a beat. A spider-woman carrying what looked like Ladybug.
"We have to help her." Miguel said closing his door. "Just in case," he said putting his pillows under his covers. "There. Plagg, Claws Out!" he called transforming.
He followed the spider-woman to the Northern Manhattan bridge and watched as she strung her up high in the rafters. He was about to swoop in to save her when he saw the real Ladybug land not far away. He heaved a sigh of relief and made his way quietly to meet her.
"Who is that?" she asked herself in a whisper.
"I was going to ask you the same thing." He asked from behind her.
Startled, she turned around and saw Cat Negro standing behind her. "Oh, you scared me." She breathed.
"You scared me, when I saw that girl, I thought she was you. I'm just glad you're okay."
"That's sweet, but we still have a major problem here. Hawk Moth has obviously unleashed another akuma and for some reason, she seems to have it in for you." Ladybug explained.
"So what do we do?" Cat Negro asked.
"You go out there and keep her attention away from that girl and me. While you're keeping her busy, I can get the girl to safety."
"Sounds like a plan."
"Good luck." Ladybug said swinging her yo-yo toward the underside of the bridge.
As she made her way to rafters at the time, Cat Negro was doing his bit, but this new villain really seemed to have it in for him, she was really putting up a fight and Cat Negro knew he wasn't going to be able to hold his ground much longer. He just hoped that Ladybug would be able to work fast.
"Good, while the bug's away, the cat's will play." He heard this new akuma snicker.
"Qué?" Cat Negro asked confused.
"You really think that this was all about me getting at you? Oh no, this was just a means of getting what I needed to expose Ladybug."
Before Cat Negro could register anything in time, he found himself suddenly lifted from the ground and then covered in spider silk.
"Oh don't worry kitty cat, I'm sure you've been dying to know this too. So I'll let you watch as I uncover the truth to who Ladybug really is." Spider lady laughed.
Cat Negro tried to protest, but webs wrapped around his mouth and kept him from shouting for Ladybug to stay away. He could only watch as Ladybug returned searching for him, only to find herself caught in a web.
"And there she is." The spider woman laughed hanging upside down in front of her. "You really think I believed she was the real deal? Hello, I'm a spider, I know how to lure my prey."
"What do you want?" Ladybug snapped trying to get free. "Where's Cat Negro?"
"Oh believe me, he'll be joining us shortly, but not before this." she said pointing to what looked like a giant camera bug. "Good evening everybody. This is the web master Webi-Abbey bringing you the biggest news story this side of the Big Apple. Now we have all wondered who it is that is really behind the Ladybug mask, well tonight, we are about to find out who our mysterious heroine really is." she said turning to her reaching for her mask.
She pulled at it, but it was not coming off. "Why won't this come off?" she grunted.
"Uh, because it's magic." Ladybug smirked at her.
"Doesn't matter, there are others to, oh how shall I put this, skin a cat." Webi-Abbey sneered at her. Snapping her fingers, several webs collapsed to reveal Cat Negro trapped in a web cocoon. With a slash of one of her legs, the cocoon dropped into the river.
"No!" Ladybug cried out.
Barely even a few seconds later, he saw her diving down toward him. Whether it really was luck or some unseen power guiding her, she found Cat Negro and was able to break off what was left of the dissolving web cocoon and pull him up to a waiting raft at the surface.
"Are you alright Cat Negro?" she gasped as she helped him up onto the raft. Presently her earrings started to beep.
"You used your Lucky Charm, there's not much time left." Cat Negro said helping her up.
"Then we'd better catch Webi-Abbey before she causes any more trouble." Ladybug said as they made their way to the river bank.
Finally on dry ground, Ladybug and Cat Negro found Webi-Abbey not far from where he had left them. Ladybug got a good look at Webi-Abbey and saw a webcam around his neck.
"Cat Negro, that webcam, that's gotta be where the akuma is." Ladybug said getting Cat Negro's attention.
"Good eye mi senora." Cat Negro said pulling out his rod.
"Cat Negro wait, if she gets her powers from her webcam,"
"If we take out the wifi signal, that'll bring her down. Buen pensamiento mi senora." Cat Negro said catching up with her thinking.
"I'll keep Webi-Abbey busy while you go take out the wifi signal." Ladybug said pulling out her yo-yo. "Good luck."
"Gracias." Cat Negro said slipping away.
"Don't think you're gonna get away with it." Webi-Abbey said launching more webs to cut Cat Negro off from the antenna. "I'm not gonna let you both cut me off so easily."
"Too bad you don't know how to multitask." Ladybug said wrapping her yo-yo around her arms.
"Multitask this." Webi-Abbey said sending a lash of webbing to swat Ladybug aside.
Losing her grip, Ladybug fell. "No! Ladybug!" Cat Negro called out to her. He launched down toward her.
"Grab onto me!" she cried back throwing her yo-yo to him.
Grabbing it, Cat Negro was able to stop their fall with his rod between two fire escapes. Ladybug pulled herself up.
"You saved me, I save you." Cat Negro said holding her close helping her keep her balance. "That's how we work."
Her earrings beeped again. "We've got to hurry, I only have three minutes left."
"Lo tengo." Cat Negro acknowledged. "Keep trying for Webi-Abbey, I'll take out the wifi."
Pulling themselves up back onto the roof, Webi-Abbey was on the web again. "Don't change you page just yet because Ladybug's about to drop the bomb on her real indentity."
"I don't think so." Cat Negro said at the base of the antenna. "Cataclysm!" he summoned swatting his hand against the tall wifi antenna.
"No!" Webi-Abbey cried out as she lost the web signal.
"I'll take that." Ladybug said grabbing the webcam from her neck as she fell from her webs. Crushing the camera under her foot, she opened her yo-yo for the capture. "No more terrorizing for you moth. Time to be purified!" she called capturing it. "Be free little butterfly." She said releasing a white butterfly. "Miraculous Ladybug!" she summoned with her used Lucky Charm as everything was put back to normal.
"Olé!" she and Cat Negro congratulated each other with a high five.
"Oh my gosh! Ladybug and Cat Negro!" The de-akumatized Abbey gasped seeing them. "Oh I have to totally get an interview from you guys. Just let me grab my camera."
Ladybug's earrings beeped again. "We've gotta go, you've only got a minute." Cat Negro warned.
Ladybug and Cat Negro disappeared down the stairs of the building to the ground floor. Ladybug found a closet and was ready to shut the door when Cat Negro stopped her.
"Stay, por favor." Cat Negro said holding the door. "I won't tell anyone who you really are, lo juro cat's honor."
"No one must ever know who we really are," Ladybug said. "Not even us."
She then disappeared behind the door which did not close all the way. The flash of light said she had changed, he could have easily opened the door and seen who his true love really was, and he had come seriously close to it. He had his hand on the door handle and was about to open it but something in the back of his mind told him that this was wrong. She was trusting him not to look, to keep her identity a secret. He had heard how reluctant she had sounded not wanting to tell him, but he knew that she was right. As much as he wanted to know who she really was, it was better that no one, not even him knew who Ladybug really was. He closed the door all the way and raced out the front door and out to an alley to detransform himself.
"That was the chance to find out who the love of your life really is, what were you thinking?" Plagg asked him.
"That's just it Plagg, I wasn't. I was following my heart." Miguel answered letting Plagg hide in his shirt.
Miguel grabbed a taxi and headed back for home, sneaking in through his bedroom window and going to sleep.
The next day, after classes were done and he safely made it home, Miguel got some last minute things in place while waiting for Angela. Finally he heard her knock on the door.
"So, should we get started?" Miguel said welcoming her in and leading her to the basement
"Yeah. So, what are we going to sing?" she asked.
"This is an old classic from the 21 century. The performance is called High School Musical, and the song we're going to be auditioning with is 'What I've Been Looking For'." Miguel said handing her the music.
"Oh wow!" Angela said holding the music. "I loved High School Musical! My Mom and I used to watch it all the time when I was a kid."
"Really?" Miguel asked feeling impressed.
"Yeah, I used to sing their songs all the time."
"That's cool. If we're lucky, we'll both get a part in the show." Miguel said handing her a microphone.
"Yeah." Angela breathed as the song began.
The whole time they were singing, Miguel wasn't sure what to think, but the words just came so naturally to her as her voice hummed the music in a melody he wasn't sure he had ever heard before. It was beautiful. As the song ended, she could see Miguel was staring at her.
"Those guys were not exaggerating." Miguel said taking the mic. "You really do have an amazing voice. I wonder why I've never heard you on recording before."
"Well, to be honest, I've never been much of an 'On Stage' person. No, that was my mother. She was the musical star in the family. I've never really had the stomach to go on stage in front of so many people." Angela confessed fiddling with one of her curls.
"Well I think you would be amazing on stage if you gave it a chance."
"You really think so?"
"I know so."
"Wow, thanks." Angela breathed. "I'd better, go. My Dad's probably wondering where I am." Angela said looking at her phone.
"Yeah, so I'll see here again tomorrow for practice?"
"Yeah sure, I'll be here." Angela said as she headed up the stairs and caught a cab home.
"What was with all the goo-goo eyes? You find another girlfriend?" Plagg teased.
"No, I told you, she's just a friend." Miguel said clearing up.
But if Miguel was being honest, Angela did seem like a really nice girl, but someone like her had to have been already spoken for. She was pretty, and she had an amazing voice. Any guy would have to be nuts to say no to her. That's what Miguel thought.
That night, as Miguel was clearing up after dinner, he thought about how much fun it would be if both he and Angela got parts in the play. It would certainly help Angela get over her stage fright. Maybe that's all she needed was that little push.
After dinner was cleared, Miguel spent the rest of the evening in his room practicing the song for practice the next day. As he went to bed, he caught himself wondering what Angela must really think of him, maybe she did like him. But he had to remember he had a lady, she just didn't know it.
"Until next time mi senora." He smiled falling asleep.
