Doubt; That feeling of uncertainly stemming from fear. This was the senti-monster Shadowmoth had crafted for them this time. It was a senti-monster which was a jagged, faceless, interlocking steel frame that multiplied, and descended upon civilians like the spines of a cactus. If they didn't move fast and somehow escape this pursuer, they were encased in a mesh-like prison of impenetrable metal.
The akuma victim, who set it loose, was a metallic version of Stoneheart; Ivan had been corrupted by Shadowmoth once more. The metal giant was sitting in the street looking despondent, metal headpones clamped over his ears, with his head hanging over his knees. He had his head in his hands, and he mumbled to himself in a low voice. Ladybug tried to propel herself forward with her yo-yo trying to reason with him, but the Senti-Monster Steelheart referred to as "Doubt," was hard at work spinning webs of metal around Steelheart. Over the cringe-inducing screeching of metal scraping on metal Ladybug heard Steelheart mutter, "Milan said it wouldn't be forever, but if her Dad joins the performing troupe in London, and moves away how will we stay together? Milan will forget all about me, and I will be left behind. Did she truly love me? How could she leave? I'm such an idiot to think what we had could be real..." Over and over Ivan, within Steelheart, bereded himself, questioning the reality of his love. His mournful voice brought tears to Ladybug's eyes, and her heart broke for Ivan. How could he doubt the love that he and Milan shared? They were made for each other!
"Ivan! Ivan! Don't give up! Milan loves you! She loves you more than anything!" Ladybug called out to Steelheart's huddled form. "Don't let Shadowmoth deceive you. I know that you can resist. Milian would want you to resist!"
Steelheart did not even flinch at the sound of Ladybug's voice. It was like he had totally blocked her out. Her voice was overwhelmed by the metallic scaping that permeated the air. Ivan just contained to lament. The more Ivan spoke, the faster and more complex the woven spindles of metal were that shot out from the senti-monster.
"We have to get to Steelheart to stop the senti-monster!" Ladybug called out to Shadowcat.
"That'd be a good idea, if he wasn't totally fortified by the senti-monster," Shadowcat pointed his baton in the direction of the senti-monster. "You got any other plans?"
"Maybe you could think up a plan!" Ladybug grumbled with a pout.
"I thought you'd never ask!" Shadowcat cracked his knuckles with a smile. " He jumped up on his baton, and extended it upward toward the sentimonster.
"Wait! What are you doing? Running straight into danger isn't a plan!" She called up at him.
"Sure it is!" Shadowcat shouted over his shoulder. "Don't you see? This thing feeds off self-doubt. If we don't second-guess our selves it won't be able to pin us down!"
Ladybug looked at the senti-monster, and then at the civilian's that had already been caught in the web of metal. Sure enough any one of froze, anyone who faltered, or hesitated...they were the ones that became trapped. Shadowcat might be a bit brash, but he was observant, and decisive. Ladybug swung her yoyo, and followed after him.
To Ladybug's surprise, Shadowcat's tactics were working. They were keeping just ahead of the Senti-Monster "Doubt," and were more unpredictable in their movements because they did not coordinate them, but just reacted in the moment. Doubt's metal spikes were not able to pierce them, and they wove their way closer and closer to Steelheart.
This is working! It is working! Ladybug thought, laughing out loud as a beam of metal shot at her, only to dodge it nimbly. She glanced over and saw that even the serious Shadowcat had a smile on his face as he looked over at her. There was something in that smile. Something she had not noticed before. Somehow it looked familiar, but she shook her head. How many times had she fought side by side with Chat Noir, and not having him here in this moment she was just missing him she told herself.
In her distraction the sentimonster managed to intercept her yoyo string as it shot forward. She felt herself plunge down, but a firm hand grabbed on to arm, pulling her back up. Looking up into the yellow eyes of Shadowcat she found concern there. He wasn't really as aloof as he came off at first she realized. Who was this mysterious 'friend' of Chat Noir's who had earned his trust, held his secrets, and weilded his ring? Who was he really?
"Ya gotta be careful," Shadowcat muttered, his gruff voice breaking. He cleared his throat, and swung her carefully over the the ledge of a building.
Ladybug leaned over her knees breaking heavily. Each of their movements had to be so quick and spontaneous. It was hard to catch her breath, before the sentimonster was gaining on them again. In desperation she called out for her "Lucky Charm," and a small child's piggy bank dropped down into her hands.
It was at this moment when Ladybug was wondering how they were going to manage keeping this up, when Ladybug's yoyo rang, and the id for Rena showed up.
With a sigh of relief Ladybug flipped open her yoyo, and put the receiver to her ear. "As always, you have excellent timing!" Ladybug greeted her.
"Just wondering if you and your new boy-toy could use some help," Rena teased.
"Ech, don't say that," Ladybug groaned, and Shadowcat lifted his eyebrow and cocked his head to one side, unable to hear Rena's side of the conversation.
"Hey, he looks like he'd be fun to play with!" Rena continued. "The news already caught a few pictures of you and your new partner in action. I couldn't miss out on getting the scoop on you two, so here I am!"
"It is hard enough not having Chat Noir here, do you really have to give me a hard time!" Ladybug groaned to her friend.
"He is pretty hot, isn't he? Are you really feeling that hard done by?" Rena pressed.
"Not the time! We've got a situation here if you hadn't noticed!" Ladybug's tone tightened. "Ivan has been hit, and it is worse than before. He thinks Milan is leaving and is questioning their whole relationship!"
"Okay, okay. Let's do this! So you need a diversion or illusion to give you a chance to get close?" Rena conceded, getting down to business to help their friend.
"Right now we don't need deception, we need a reality check. Ivan needs to remember what he has with Milian!"
"Pigella!" Rena guessed.
"Exactly!" Ladybug nodded, and looked down at the lucky charm piggy bank in her hands. I'll meet you at our regular place. I don't have time to find her myself, but I know someone who might be able to help if you can track them down. I just have got to get Shadowcat to..." Then she glanced over to where Shadowcat had walked casually to the edge of the building.
"Already on it!" Shadowcat called over his shoulder. "One distraction coming up!" Then he bounded away without a second glance.
"How did he know what I was going to..." Ladybug murmured over the receiver.
"What was that?" Rena asked in confusion on the other end of the call.
"No, nothing. Just hold on, and I'll be right there," Ladybug confirmed, clicking her yoyo closed.
As soon as she dropped down next to Rena, she pulled the miraculous of the pig from her yoyo. She pressed it into Rena's palm, and whispered into her ear, "Find Rose. She'll know what to do!"
Rena nodded and leaped away without hesitation, and Ladybug wound her yoyo around her forearm, getting ready for the senti-monster Shadowcat was holding at bay.
When she rounded the corner, running back to where they had been fighting she came to a skidding stop. Right in front of her was the metallic spikes blocking her way, and encasing petrified civilians. The metal cages were multiplying fast. Where was Shadowcat? She hadn't been gone long, but she couldn't help but feel worried that she might not made it back soon enough.
Her hesitation attracted the onslaught of attack like a magnet. A spiked sliver of metal launched forward like a spear, cutting a fine cut into her cheek, and wedging itself into the building beside her left ear. Ladybug breathed in, glancing at the mace at eye-level. Before her stunned body could shake the shock of such a near encounter, three more metal beams struck down around her. At first she thanked her lucky stars (or miraculous in this case) for not being hit directly, until she realized that the sentimonster was not aiming to kill, but to entrap. She scrambled to get free of the building thorny cage that was swiftly blocking her way out. The more she struggled, the more doubt filled her brain. It weighed her down like quicksand, as the steel multiplied faster than ever.
"I...I...can't do this. I just can't do this without him," Ladybug wheezed out, at a beam slid across her chest, pinning her down. It was the worst possible moment, but her earring started to blink.
The Sentimonster doubt soared above ominously, while Steelheart stood, looking at her mournfully. "I'm sorry Ladybug. We're all alone together," Steelheart's voice lamented. "What was the point of hope? We thought the one's we loved would always be there? What fools we were."
Ladybug's eyes welled up with tears, and she bit her lip. Steelheart waved his hand, signaling his Sentimonster to finish her off. In his other hand he flipped his hand revealing a silver rubix cube (only every square was identically silvery metallic).
Then everything speed up. Suddenly Shadowcat pounced down from above in front of Ladybug (who was encased in metal spikes), and reached out snatching the metal rubix cube from Steelheart's hand. Without a pause he yelled "Cataclysm" and the rubix cube dissolved into dust, releasing a dark purple feather.
"Shadowcat! The feather!" Ladybug watched as the feather drifted on the wind just out of her reach.
Shadowcat tried to jump for it, but Steelheart body-checked him like a linebacker, crushing his ribs against Ladybug's cage. Shadowcat and Ladybug watched helplessly as the feather casually made it's way to the top of Paris' Pompidou Centre; a steel superstructure. It was home to the city's public library and the largest modern art museum in Europe, but at this very moment it was the breeding ground of disaster. The uncleansed feather was multiplying itself, leaving cascading feathers to fall from the colourful exposed guts of tubing, escalators and metal framework. Corrupting the 15,000 tonnes of steel the new senti monsters wound themselves up into floating balls of metal.
Ladybug's earring blinked again. She didn't have much time left, and she was still pinned down out in the open! She looked up at where Shadowcat was struggling to push Steelheart off of him. His ring was flashing now too.
"Cat! Your ring!" Ladybug cried out in alarm.
"I'm not leaving you," he declared, catching Steelheart in the side of the head with a shot. Steelheart wedged his forearm sharply under Shadowcat's chin.
"Ivan!" a shrill little voice reprimanded the Steel titan. "Let them go! Milan wouldn't want you giving in to despair!" Steelheart's head jerked toward the speaker at the sound of Milan's name. Ladybug and Shadowcat turned their eyes toward to voice in relief; Pigella had arrived!
"Gift!" Pigella sang out, and a window of light appeared in front of Steelheart's face. At first he shielded away from it, as if it stung him. In this moment, his loosened grip was just enough for Shadowcat to roll himself directly in front of Ladybug, so that they were face to face and his body shielded her from view. In that moment that Steelheart gazed into the images of he and Milan fighting side by side for the causes that they believed in, Ladybug's transformation dissolved. Ladybug clapped her hands over Shadowcat's eyes. She saw him smile under her hands.
"What?" she asked puzzled, still scrambling to come up with some way out of this whole situation.
"Nothing," Shadowcat continued to smile, with her hands tightly pressed over his eyes. "Things are about to get a bit more tricky though."
"Why is that?" Ladybug asked.
"I'm out of time too," Shadowcat held up his ring. Just then in a flash of green Shadowcat's transformation fell away.
Ladybug jerked her head down to his feet, but she caught a glimpse of limited edition Gabriel sneakers that were in a familiar white and orange design before she was able to clamp her eyes shut. She gasped despite herself, and she felt the young man who until recently had been Shadowcat tense.
"What is it?" he asked in a cautious voice, and she could hear him rustling around in his pocket to produce what could only have been stinky Camembert cheese (judging by the powerful smell) to charge up his kwami.
"Nothing, nothing, we just need to find a way to get out of sight!" Ladybug said in a quickened voice. In her head panicked hamsters were racing around screaming at the top of their lungs. There was no way...no way...no possible way that this Shadowcat could ever be Adrien Agreste. Gabriel athletic shoes were popular afterall. There had to be plenty of others, countless others, who wore those exact same shoes. Her Marinette design-trivia needled at her brain with the fact that this particular pattern and style had been released only briefly, and in limited supply. Even die-hard fans of the brand would be hard-pressed to find the orange on whites. Adrien however, wore them every day. The temptation to open her eyes was so strong she wasn't sure if she could stand it. Impossible she scolded herself. Adrien is nothing like Shadowcat, and Shadowcat is the polar opposite of Adrien. How could I even entertain the possibility that...Then she started thinking back to her conversation with Adrien. He had claimed to know so much about Chat Noir. What if Adrien really was Shadowcat and he was friends with Chat Noir! What if he even knew Chat Noir's identity. Had he been trying to throw her off before? No Adrien wouldn't...but would Shadowcat...but if they truly were the same person...
"Ladybug!" the boy (who may or may not have been Adrien) yelled, trying to get her attention. "Ladybug! You've got to charge up your kwami so we can get out of here! Plagg, Claws out!" he called resuming Shadowcat persona. As soon as he regained his transformation he used his cataclysm on the metal cage pinning her. Her hands were still firmly on his eyes, but Tikki managed to help herself to half a leftover macaroon that had been have crushed in her pocket.
"Spots on!" she finally called out, regaining her spots, and releasing her hands from Shadowcat's face.
If you have ever observed an unimpressed cat, you will understand the look Shadowcat was giving her. His yellow eyes narrowed, and his dark ears flicked backward slightly. Even his tail twitched irritably. "Really took your time didn't you?!" he grumbled. "You could have at least trusted me not to peak."
"Yeah, sorry, I just um...was just thinking," she mumbled, glancing up at him quickly, but unable to look at him for long. Every time she looked up her mind tried to analyze all the similarities with this Shadowcat and her 'very good friend Adrien.' It was like her mind was playing some cruel trick on her, and she kept visualizing Adrien in tight dark leather with charcoal accents, and jet black hair.
"Um guys, a little help here?!" Pigella called out from where she was in a tug-a-war match with Steelheart over what looked like a steel coated iPod. The vision Steelheart had been given from Pigella's "gift" had caused him to loose focus, but Shadowmoths hold on him, and the doubt Ivan felt was still strong. Suddenly the cord on the headphones snapped, and a dark purple butterfly fluttered swiftly out into the sky.
"On it!" Ladybug jumped back into action, snapping herself out of her daydream.
Shadowcat swiftly responded as soon as she moved forward, and pressed his hands together, offering a boost. She ran straight for him, and nimbly jumped placing her foot in his hands, and then he flung her upward, allowing her to capture the akuma with ease. The butterfly was snapped into her yoyo, and she fell back down into Shadowcat's waiting arms. Suspended with his strong arms under her knees and arms bridal-style, and looking up into his face she froze. A wicked blush spread across her cheeks, and she bit her lip to convince herself this was no wayward dream. Shadowcat gave her a smile, and raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you sure you're okay? You seem...maybe a little distracted or something?!" he said, confused by the dazed look she was giving him.
Like lightning Ladybug's brain was kickstarted again at the sound of his voice, and she flailed her arms and legs in a desperate attempt to stand on her own two feet with all haste. The result was a ungraceful sprawling of limbs, in which both she and Shadowcat ended up on the ground in a tangled mess. Ladybug scooted away from him, and hastily started offering more apologies. When Shadowcat offered a helping paw to help her back to her feet, she quickly picked her self up, and crossed her arms in front of herself awkwardly. She grinned a toothy smile at Shadowcat. He pointed to her yoyo. She blinked. Then she remembered the akuma still pinned inside. Grappling for her yoyo she released the akuma, adding a swift "Bye, bye, little butterfly!" She turned around to find Shadowcat standing there with his fist extended. "Uh...yeah...pound it," Ladybug bumped his fist, and Pigella enthusiastically joined them.
"That sure was exciting! You two sure are cute together!" Pigella chirped oblivious to the growing tension and confusion between the Cat and the Ladybug.
"Oh, we're not a couple," Shadowcat quickly corrected, before the very words were out of Ladybug's mouth. Then he added, "she's just a very good friend."
The words echoed in Ladybugs mind. Each time they repeated she saw them spill from Adrien's lips. The world started to swim, and Ladybug's reality and everything she knew was now in question. The boy she had been crazy about for so long...could he seriously now be this cocky, sullen Shadowcat? If he was, how had Adrien met Chat Noir, and gotten him to trust him with his miraculous. Sure, she could see why Chat Noir would have chosen Adrien. Adrien had always been so self-less, kind, and sincere. How then, could he change personalities so much when he put on the ring? Was Chat Noir that different when he wasn't wearing the miraculous? If she couldn't have even picked up on Adrien being Shadowcat, what if she couldn't recognize Chat Noir even if he was standing right in front of her?!
"You've got that look again," Shadowcat said with concern, leaning in towards her. "You aren't hurt are you? Do you need to lie down? I could get you to bed..."
"Nope! No...ha ha...I'm great! Miraculous even! Everything is peachy keen! Nothing to see here. Good job everyone. All's well that ends well. Till next time, catch ya later! Bug out!" Ladybug rambled manically. Then with a red face she spun on her heel, and grabbed Pigella's elbow, and hustled in the direction of the alley.
"Oooookay then...So I guess this is goodbye for now?" Shadowcat called after her.
Ladybug gave a hasty wave over her shoulder without looking back, while Pigella called back, "Nice to meet you Mr. Not-Noir! Hope to see you later New Cat!"
"Uhh...what happened? What was that all about?" Ivan groaned, looking around himself.
"Honestly man, I'm not sure myself," Shadowcat said looking in the direction Ladybug had disappeared.
