"Guess everyone was right about the whole second Hawk-moth thing," Carapace sighed as the three of them stepped onto the stage.
"That's right Kiddo's and I'm not normally one for sequels, but I think she might just outdo the original." The Akumatised man taunted as he circled the stage.
You talk far too much showman
The voice of a young woman rang in his head, and he quickly shut up, turning his attention to the Trio of Heroes. "But enough gab I've got a job to do, you'll never guess what it is," Showman raised the microphone to his lips, turning his attention to Ladybug.
"To announce to Paris the existence of the new Hawkmoth and, of course, Getting the miraculous from you two!" He yelled into the microphone, and she was thrown back by the sound, though she managed to recover in mid-air and land on her feet.
"I'll go for his Microphone, Chat get the Detonator, Carapace keep him busy." Ladybug commanded, quickly taking charge of the situation as she often did.
"Don't you give me orders!" Chat snapped but did as he was told it was a good enough plan.
Carapace was quickly put on the defensive this Akuma was deceptively strong he stepped to the side as Ladybug was about to grab his Microphone before grabbing her arm and throwing her at Chat before he had a chance to get the detonator.
"Can't you be more careful?" Chat snapped as he stood up, pushing her off of him.
"It's not like you did any better," She snapped back, pulling herself to her feet.
"I would have had it if you didn't get caught."
"You only got that close because he was focused on me!"
Before Chat had a chance to reply, they were both thrown back by a burst of sound from the man's mic, knocking them into the curtain, causing it to fall on top of them.
"Aren't you two supposed to be a double act? You really aren't very in sync with each other, I'm getting more trouble from this Bozo, " the villain sneered as he caught Carapace's shield before throwing it back at him.
"Don't lump me in with her," Chat protested as he rushed Showman swiping at him, but not coming close to harming him, the villain was just too fast.
"I don't think your solo career has a future kid." The Man whispered before punching Chat Noir in the stomach and blasting him away by screaming into his microphone.
He gracefully waltzed over to where the hero landed and went to take his ring, but without warning, Rena Rouge rushed him and swiped his Mic. How long had she been here!?
"I didn't ask for any surprise cameo's"
"A little late to recast now" Rena Rouge went to break the Microphone but just before she did the Showman pressed the button on the Detonator using the distraction to snatch his mic back just as the charges went off.
"Hope you four enjoyed the show. There won't be any encore, I'm afraid." The villain laughed as he sprinted to the nearest exit.
Chat, Ladybug, and Rena all dashed to Carapace's side, who called upon shelter at the last moment, shielding them from the rubble.
It was at times like this that Marinette was glad the Ladybug Miraculous would fix everything.
The quartet stood up before brushing themselves off. Looking around for any sign of where he'd gone off to.
"So any of you dudes see where he -" Carapace was cut off by his miraculous beeping.
"Rena, go with Carapace to keep him safe while he recharges. Chat with me." She stated confidently before throwing her Yo Yo and zipping up out of the rubble, but Chat didn't follow straight away.
"Aren't you gonna go?" Rena asked impatiently, but Chat merely grimaced he didn't wanna follow Ladybugs orders, but she was right.
He extended his staff and headed back out into the city; it didn't take them long to find the guy who was giving anyone unfortunate enough to be on main street a front row seat to his latest performance.
"You two are still after me? What happened to your backup dancers?"
"We don't need help from them to deal with you! We almost had you before, and this time, we've got room to dodge, and you can't just blow the building when things start to look bad."
By now, the civilians had fled the area they knew what was about to happen. They'd lived here long enough to know how dangerous things got when heroes were fighting.
"I really don't have time to waste with you two, I've got an appointment to keep." He fired a Sonic blast from his microphone, causing a few nearby trees to fall, knowing the two heroes would prioritize, making sure nobody got hurt he took his leave.
By now, the media were on the scene, and everyone's favourite reporter, Nadja Chamack, was observing the scene from her news copter. Perfect showman thought as he easily scaled a rooftop and waited a moment before knocking the copter out of the sky. Ladybug and Chat Noir prevented any casualties, of course, but that was what he wanted.
"Where'd the showman get off to?"
"How do we lose a guy that brightly coloured?"
"Rich coming from the girl with polka-dots on her suit."
"It's not like I chose this look!"
The Pair's argument was interrupted by a blast of sound throwing them forward as the Akumatized man approached taking the camera from the copter as well as Nadja.
"Get off of me!"
"Relax, I know you journalists, this is going to be a major scoop."
By the time the two heroes had recovered, the villain had disappeared from sight along with Miss Chamack. The pair searched the area for almost an hour but didn't turn up a single trace of either of them.
Clearly, they weren't going to find him until he wanted them to.
Thankfully, they wouldn't have to wait too long, Alya sent Marinette a link to a news feed, and she saw the man on top of city hall.
"Hold that camera steady, Nadja, or I'll throw you off this roof."
"It's too windy up here to do that!"
"I didn't ask for excuses! Oh wait, it's recording -"
The man took a moment to fix his hair before turning dramatically to the camera. "Hello, people of Paris, I'm sure you've got a ton of questions. "Who's this guy?"Why does he look akumatized?" "Wasn't Hawkmoth defeated already?" Well, don't worry, you're pretty little heads. I'll explain everything."
Chat Noir landed on a nearby rooftop but decided to wait it out and see what the guy had to say; he'd jump in if Nadja was in danger, but as far as he was concerned the citizens of Paris should now about this.
"You see while it is True that The Man you've known for this past year as Hawkmoth is gone, Ladybug didn't manage to secure the very thing that gave him power" Marinette put her phone down before calling on her transformation, what he was saying wasn't untrue but she really hoped people wouldn't find out.
"I'm sure you see where I'm going with this." The man strolled around the rooftop chewing the scenery. He was loving the attention. "That's right, folks, someone else has that power now, and she's just as dangerous as the original. She was hoping to keep a low profile, but since someone thought it was a good idea to tell everyone about her, she decided to reveal herself, "
"Now I'm sure you people don't want to go back to having to deal with an Akuma every other day, so Ladybug and Chat Noir should just make it easier on everyone and give me their miraculous right?"
"I don't think so!" A voice called from the distance as Ladybug zipped onto the rooftop immediately going to kick Showman.
Seeing as Ladybug was here now, Chat also decided to jump in. In a more open space like this, the two were doing much better against him. Chat drew his fire, and Ladybug would strike when she saw an opportunity even if they weren't on the best terms when they were serious they were a formidable combination.
One that the villain found he had no answer for perhaps unsurprisingly just as Ladybug called on her lucky charm, which was a boomerang he resorted to the cheap strategy of taking Nadja hostage holding her by the edge of the rooftop. "One step closer, and Nadja here will take the fall for it."
Cheap trick though it may be, it did stop the duo from approaching. One of them could catch her if he followed through on the threat, but could either of them beat him by themselves? That said, it didn't take them long to come up with a plan.
"So go ahead and do it then." Chat Noir smirked. This was a bluff, but he sounded confident.
"What?
"Well no matter what you do when we beat you, my Ladybugs will bring everything back." It had taken Ladybug a moment to get it, but she decided to play along with the strategy. "You don't have as much leverage as you think you do."
What are you doing? Just throw her! the young woman's voice rang through his head again. They're bluffing!
"But if they're not, I can't beat them." The two hero's couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, of course, but they could tell he was distracted.
Ladybug threw the boomerang, but Showman ducked it, shooting her a glare. "Bad move -" Before he could drop Nadja, the boomerang came back and hit him on the back of the head. Chat used the moment of hesitation to rush forward, calling upon his cataclysm and destroying the Mic.
Ladybug caught the Akuma, and as usual, her lucky Charm fixed everything almost on instinct she tried to go for their trademark fist bump.
"Pound it" …Nothing in fact Chat seemed to have left without saying anything.
Nadja, never one to miss a beat. Immediately, went into reporter mode, asking Ladybug a few things. "Was Gabriel Agreste actually Monarch? Do you have any idea where this rumour started?"
Ladybug paused. Should she just come clean? Adrien had said he was fine with people knowing, but she was still afraid of what might happen if everyone knew.
"N-No comment."
"Do you have any idea of the identity of this second Hawkmoth?"
"I wish I did,"
"Well, what about just now? Chat Noir left without saying goodbye. Is everything okay between you two?" Nadja pressed for more information, but right now, the heroine just wanted to shrink from view.
"I'm sure he was just in a rush, yeah… Everything's fine."
Hey, sorry, this took a little while, huh? Last time I wrote a longer fanfiction like this I kinda pressured myself to do a chapter a week and I burned myself out so this time I'm not going to give myself any strict schedule I'll just update as and when I can. Hope you're all okay with that.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Don't forget to review it because I love reading them. That's all for now. Bye.