Miraculous Adventure - a Miraculous Ladybug fanfic

Chapter 28

"Felipe, call me Felipe, Miss Ladybug." the man corrected her, then breathed deeply. "And yes, I've been told by the social workers about it. They quoted it as CSB, I believe. But no, I'm past that blaming stage. I decided to move forward and forgive myself for the evil deeds that I've done. I also offered my apologies to those that I've hurt while I'm under the spell."

"You're amazing, Felipe. Not all people can do that." Chat Noir commented.

"Thanks, Mr. Noir." the man smiled. "I'm praying that Marcelo can also redeem himself as well."

"He will. Why don't you tell us more about your brother?"

"Marcelo - he's my twin, the youngest - is my last remaining family. When our Mamma died when we're ten, and our father five years later, Marcelo and I decided to continue our farm business." he began, then glanced at the paper piled on top of the long table. "My brother has a dream to become a physicist, aiming to work with CERN someday, so who am I to stop him?"

The superheroes remained silent and let the man continued his story.

"I don't have the brains like him, but I know that God has a plan for us. As his elder brother, I supported him. I handled the business while he continued his studies. Unfortunately, our finances weren't enough to sustain his University fees, and the mere fact that we need a new tractor and some machinery, we were left with no choice but to sacrifice something. Then here comes Mister Joseph Howards."

Chat's faux ears twitched.

Felipe fingered his beady necklace. "When he learned about our situation, he offered an assistance in exchange for using our mill as his warehouse extension. Being an ignorant fool with a desperate brother, we immediately accepted his proposal. What we didn't know was that he was using our property for his illegal acts, and when we confronted him about it, he scoffed and shoved us a signed document about him owning our property. A property he never bought by a single dime. A property that was passed to us by generations. He conned us."

"Mr. Howards has been taken into custody last night." Ladybug informed him. "Rest assured that justice will be served properly, and at the end of the day, he'll going to pay for it behind bars."

"The news hasn't reached here yet, probably delayed due to this Akuma business." he confided. "I apologize on behalf of my brother, for the damages he caused in this city. He's not a lost cause, is he?"

"That's why we're here, Felipe. We're going to save Marcelo. He currently called himself as Twiddle Gain. He was trying to free himself from Papillion's reins, but being an Akuma, he couldn't do it without my Miraculous Cleanse. Because of that, he couldn't control his power, which resulted in some random property alterations. Fortunately, he hasn't hurt any civilians yet, but his damages created some time-warps only Miraculous holders could access. Your brother is a brave and strong man, and he was our first rogue Akuma."

"How can I help?" the man asked again.

"Tell us the places where Marcelo often stayed during his downtime. Locations where he felt safe and secure." Chat responded. "He must've witnessed how you reverted from being Twiddle Doom, which triggered him to control his urges and reject Papillion's taunts to attack us. The destruction he incurred in Paris was his SOS to us Miraculous wielders, but we're having some difficulty cracking his whereabouts."

"My brother is a school-and-house sort of person, Mr. Noir. He rarely joins social events due to our monetary problems. He often stays in libraries but..." the man scratched his stubble cheek as if he was trying to recall something. "Church. We came from a pious family. If one of us were in a bind, we always go there. Sometimes we enter the confessional."