A Snap in Time

Chapter 22 (Alya)

Alya sat on her desk looking at the footage of today's akuma attack. Something wasn't adding up, everytime she watched the clip of Ladybug hitting the chimney the video glitched.

She rewound and replayed the clip; three, four, five times yet every single time the video would look as though something had short circuited. It was only a fraction of a second, and it could pass as a lack of battery power, or loss of signal, but she knew her phone and she knew the way it worked and her phone never glitched.

"What is going on with this?" She downloaded the section of footage and decided she would send it to Max. If anyone knew, he would.

Max
Hi Max, I was wondering if you could help me with something. My video from the Akuma fight today keeps glitching, could you have a look and let me know what could be causing it?

She sent the message, waiting for him to reply before emailing the clip over. She had more pressing matters at the moment, and that is where she would turn her attention to for the time being.

She pulled up her google docs drive and opened her l editorials, started a new document and typing.

A New Hero in Town?

Finding the picture of the black cat with golden hair, Alya inserted the picture into the document, and studied the way the cat seemed so ridiculously comfortable for a new hero. Each move was like a choreographed pose, like he was a model of some sort.

He'd moved with a grace that was only equalled by Ladybug herself and she also noticed a difference when it came to Ladybug's activity around the cat. She was mesmerising, like the Queen of Paris. Alya was amazed with her decorum, and she knew that if the spotted hero kept this up the whole website would need to be changed, because she was digging this new Ladybug and could just imagine the popularity of 'The Ladyblog'. There was a nice ring to that, and maybe it would increase the traffic to the site. 'Viperbug' sounded like an illness you'd get from a snake. She knew her blog wasn't doing bad, but she was almost certain it could be better and this what she was watching was it.

Her phone signalled a new message and she picked it up, reading the confirmation from Max. Now all she needed to do was attach the video and send it via email. It was too big to forward on by phone, plus she only wanted to send the cut section which was currently only on her desktop. Not that she didn't trust Max, but she didn't want anyone else getting hold of her exclusive footage, who knows what people would pay..

Finding the correct section of video, Alya attached the file and sent it, hoping Max would come up with a reason that wouldn't cost her a fortune in new hardware.

She turned back to her article and began to describe the appearance and aesthetics of the black cat. She had no idea what his power was when activated, but she had discovered his main weapon was a staff to use and he was an incredibly skilled fighter. He must have training in martial arts or fencing, or something along those lines. There was also clear indication he knew what he was doing, he must have been a hero for a while or else why was he there?

Alya flicked back to the video and watched the second half of the battle. The half where they kicked butt. She'd been so excited watching the trio fight Desperada, and she hoped that maybe, just maybe, she would see the trio of heroes work together again in the future. To be honest she wouldn't mind if she could see just Ladybug with the cat in action. A sign of good luck with that of bad ... It was intriguing to say the least.

The video continued to the end, where she'd began to approach the gang of heroes, watching closely as the cat held up his fist to the other two ...

"Pound it!" She spoke unconsciously, suddenly surprised by where this had derived from.

She rewound it again, and watched it once, twice, three times and although she couldn't hear the cat saying it, the voice's in her head began to get louder and louder, each one clearer and clearer.

"Pound it!"

"Pound it!"

"Pound it!"

A pain shot through the left side of her head and she lifted one hand, which had been cooled from the breeze entering her room, and placed it to her head. Her cold fingertips calmed down the pain to a bearable level, and she closed her eyes into the soothing coolness.

"We can't leave them in there alone!"

"We have no choice, Rena. It's their battle, not ours."

"You don't understand ... if this fails ... if he gets the Miraculous we're done for, all of us."

"Where are they? Rena? Carapace? Where are Ladybug and Chat Noir? Please don't tell me they've gone in alone?"

"We don't know, Viperion. They told us to wait here and that they'd be back."

"Why? Do we know who he is?"

"Yes -"

"And?"

"It's Chat Noir's father."

Alya's eyes bolted wide open and she fell off the chair, her glasses flying off somewhere and disorientation settling in. Crawling around on the floor, she searched for her glasses, finally locating them somewhere near her open patio door. With unsteady hands she placed them on her face, her breathing coming in short laboured breaths. Oh God, she was having a panic attack. Damn, her chest was tight.

Just breathe Alya, come on girl, breathe.

She closed her eyes again, counting slowly as she began to steady her rapid intakes of breath. It was working. Slowly, everything was coming back into focus. She looked around the room, and even though everything seemed right, it didn't look right.

Sudden unease settled into her again as she reached up to grab her pendant, an additional wave of calm overtaking her once she felt the heavy weightiness of the fox tail in her hand. Moving down to her hip, her hands scurried to unzip the hip bag and allow Trixx to roam free.

"This doesn't feel right," Trixx said, as she flew around Alya's room. "Where's all your Chat Noir items? And since when did you like Viperion so much?"

Alya looked to where her little kwami was settling and noticed there was nothing Chat related. That made no sense? Had her mother been in and binned them? No, she wouldn't do that. A lot of the models were limited edition, her mother wouldn't just bin them, not after the amount she'd spent obtaining them.

"I have no idea. I've never bought anything 'Viperion'."

She clambered up and onto her computer chair noticing the video was still on the screen. Her hand was slightly shaky as she reached for the mouse, and  rewinded to the beginning of the film. Alya pressed the play icon and started the video.

She watched as Ladybug was slammed into a chimney, and the lack of assertiveness she usually displayed. Confusion overpowered her, noting it seemed to just be the bug and the snake fighting before retreating and coming back with Chat Noir.

The battle took a swift change as the cat joined in, however the unusual lack of the lack of 'Pound it', and the overall obvious PDA from Viperion and Ladybug shook her to the core. Her eyebrows creased closer and closer together, what was this? What had she missed? This wasn't what happened during Desperada. This was not right!

Closing the video she opened the internet screen noting the homescreen.

'The Viperbug Blog.'

She slumped back in her chair, her hands over her face. Where the hell was she? What was going on?

Her phone signalled a message, and absent mindedly she picked it up allowing the face ID to open the screen.

Max
I've analysed the clip and it seems to be some sort of time lapse? I don't know how your phone had picked this up, but I would like to inspect anymore you might video in the future.

She looked at the video in question and could help but wondering if Chat Noir wasn't usually part of the fight then why was he suddenly here now. Was he stuck in this place like she was?

As curiosity took over her she looked at their latest class photograph. It's dated two months prior and one noticeable person was missing.

She pulled out her phone finding a lack of contact for said person and slowly it began to piece together.

She needed to find Chat Noir, she needed to find Adrien Agreste.