"Just a Friend?" Book 1 of "Secrets Unraveled" Trilogy (MLB FanFic) |COMPLETED|

Chpt 45: Illumination.

Cat Noir entered the house through the windows of his room and snuck down the stairs, on the lookout for any danger. He slowly approached the doors to his father's office and put his ear to the door to listen for any voices. It seemed very quiet. He cautiously opened the door and peered in. Empty. He walked in and closed the door behind him. Cat didn't worry about the security cameras this time.

He stood in the center of the room and glanced around, trying to determine where best to look with the glasses. His gaze immediately went to the portrait of his mom. Cat went to stand a few feet in front of the painting. "Now or never," he muttered to himself. He put the glasses on, struggling a little to get them on over his mask and then looked at the painting. Things were blurry. He slowly walked toward the painting and the blurry images began to come into focus. The swirling details of the background of the painting practically came to life under the magnification of the glasses. The blue shapes became more vivid. Cat tried to concentrate on the task, pushing all of his roiling emotions out of the way. What should he be looking for?

He started to exam the painting beginning at the bottom. He could see the 3-D textures of the paint in all of the triangles and fish-like shapes decorating his mom's dress. He methodically looked at each of the shapes, looking for anything that stood out as different. This was taking so long- he hoped that his feeling about the importance of this painting was right or otherwise he was wasting so much time!

"Wait, what was that?" he said out loud. He scanned back over the last triangle he had looked at. It seemed strangely smooth. Cat ran his fingers over it. It was smooth and he could feel an outline around it! He eagerly ran his fingers over all of the shapes on the dress, making a mental note as to which ones felt the same as the triangle. In all, he found six smooth triangles. They were near each other, easily reachable by his fingers. He took a breath and pushed all of the triangles in at one time. He felt them click. He removed the glasses and stepped back to see what would happen. The hole that began to open in the floor behind him caught him off guard and he stumbled backward into it. He managed to catch himself and straighten up as the circle in the floor, with him on it, started to slowly descend until he found himself in an elevator.

When the elevator stopped moving, he found himself in a gloomy, cavernous room. Where was he? Could he really still be in his house? It was so dark that he could hardly see anything, even with his special night vision powers. Those powers required at least some light to work apparently. He secured the Lucky Charm to his belt before he walked forward slowly, scanning the room for any movement and trying to listen for anyone that may be there with him. As he walked forward the room lightened a bit and he realized he seemed to be on some kind of suspended metal walkway. He eventually came to what he thought was the center of the room. There seemed to be something like a garden in front of him. Were those bushes? He peered into the gloom.

Something that looked like a casket surrounded by strange greenery caught his eye. He walked over to the thing, tripping over something- was it a root?- on the ground. He fumbled forward, catching himself by bracing his hands on the thing that, now that he was up close to it, looked like a glass casket. He peered through the glass and only just kept from crying out when he realized what was inside. His mother was in there! Was she dead? Cat looked through the glass more closely. She looked so peaceful, and well, not dead. What was going on? His heart raced so fast, he felt like he was going to faint. He slid down to sit next to the casket for a moment. Now was not the time to deal with all of this about his mother. Hawk Moth- his father, he now knew for certain!- must be here somewhere! He needed to get himself together.

Cat pulled his knees up toward his chest and rested his head on them, taking a few calming breaths. He felt better. While he really didn't want to face the rest of what might happen, he couldn't just stay here. He twisted his body to peer around the corner of the casket. He could now see a dark figure about ten feet in front of him, but facing away from him. Was that Hawk Moth? Though, he supposed it was actually Scarlet Moth, since he again had the power of mass akumatization. Only one way to find out!