AN: Reports of there being internet available at the field school were, while not wholly lies, somewhat exaggerated. So it's taken some hoop-jumping to get this one posted, and I can't guarantee when the next one will be up.
…which means I should probably apologize for the cliffhanger.
What the Cat Dragged In
Chapter Four
"Oh. My. God."
Natasha fought the urge to shift uneasily. She'd faced down alien invasions, would-be world conquerors, an angry Tony Stark, and on one memorable occasion Nick Fury in the throes of the hangover to end all hangovers. None of which had made her as uneasy as the expression in round, soft brown eyes.
Then again, she was trained for situations that could be perilous to life, limb, sanity, and continued employment. Starry-eyed teenagers… had not been included. Unfortunately.
At least Clint looked equally nonplussed. Tony, on the other hand, was grinning broadly, clearly enjoying the moment. Then again, he was very much a hero in the public view. The adulation of the public was part of his daily life.
She'd always suspected he was less than sane.
"Oh my God," the girl Adrien had introduced as Alya squeaked, clutching her phone like a talisman in front of her chest.
Behind her, Adrien's friend Nino cleared his throat gingerly, lightly tapping her on the shoulder. "Um. Babe? C'mon, get it together…"
Alya barely twitched. "OhmyGod."
Leaning against the back of his white couch, Adrien traded amused looks with Marinette.
And three, two, one… Natasha counted, more entertained than she really should be.
Right on cue, the girl flushed a painfully deep red, all the way up to her ears, and hastily looked at anything except Adrien's now baffled face.
Natasha bit back the urge to shake her head in amusement. It had taken all of one minute to realize that Alya's friend, who claimed she had tagged along for moral support, had a huge crush on Adrien. And by all appearances, was completely at a loss for what to do about it.
Tony seemed to find the whole thing immensely entertaining, and also rather adorable. Natasha had overheard him chuckling something to himself about, can't fault the kid's taste. Professionally handsome guy her age who also happens to be intelligent and ridiculously nice? Glad he wasn't around when I was that age, or I'd never have seen any action.
Pity that Adrien was clueless – if, in fact, he really was. Natasha would be willing to give fifty-fifty odds that at least half of the kid's cluelessness actually stemmed from a determination to ignore the crush, in the hopes that Marinette would get over it, or at least calm down enough to respond to his friendly overtures as a friend.
Natasha wished him luck. Marinette didn't seem the sort to calm down much. She'd all but passed out from hyperventilation when Adrien had introduced his classmates to his guests.
On the other hand – as Natasha watched, the girl drew in a deep breath before nudging Alya with her shoulder. "Come on, Alya. You've met superheroes before. Ladybug even gave you a personal interview once, remem…"
Apparently that was what it took to break the dam.
"OhmyGod the Avengers read my blog, superheroes are reading my blog, EEEEEEEE!"
Adrien flinched, hands clapping over his ears in an effort to protect them as Alya's voice spiraled upwards into a shriek of pure, excited delight.
"Oh my God, oh my God, give me a second, I have to stream this…!"
Natasha moved without thinking, closing one hand on the girl's wrist as she fumbled her smartphone out of her pocket. "Please don't," she said, her voice clipped and just slightly warmer than frosty.
Alya blinked at her, wide-eyed behind her glasses. "What? Why not?" she asked, baffled.
"Tasha and I do a lot of hush-hush work," Clint said with a nonchalant shrug. "Cameras aren't really our thing."
From the blank way Alya stared at the two of them, they couldn't have said anything more incomprehensible if they'd been speaking Russian. "But… but… but…" she said slowly, phone still resting slackly in her hand.
At least she seemed to be paying attention. Natasha released the girl's wrist with an internal sigh.
Strangely enough, she suspected this would be easier if Alya were a real reporter. Even the nosiest tabloid newshound was at least aware that there were some things that weren't supposed to be made available to the public – even if they gleefully ignored that awareness. Alya, however, was very much a child of the Information Age, where everything from what you had for breakfast to your current location to your romantic escapades went up on the internet almost as soon as it had happened. Where "privacy" meant hiding your posts behind a Friends Only tag. The idea that there were some things that simply should not be posted at all plainly Did Not Compute.
Fortunately, they had their own Information Age PR specialist with them. "You know how it is," Tony said casually, bouncing one foot where it rested on his knee as he stretched out his arms across the back of the couch. "Not everyone does the whole limelight thing the way I do. And speaking of – that is some fine legwork you've been doing on that blog of yours. Where do you get your information?"
That seemed to snap Alya out of her stunned daze. "I do it myself!" she said proudly, holding up her phone for a moment before sliding it back into the breast pocket of her checkered shirt. "I made an app so that my phone would alert me the instant any news goes out about a new supervillain, or if Ladybug or Chat Noir are seen."
Clint grinned crookedly. "That's got to be frustrating when it starts going off while you're in class."
Nino groaned. "Tell me about it," he said with a roll of his eyes. When Alya shot him a sharp look, he simply shrugged, leaning to the side to rest his arm on Adrien's shoulder as he looked at her. "Look, I think you're awesome, but you sit behind me in class. It's kinda hard to pay attention to Mrs. Bustier lecturing about literature with that little jingle going off in my ear."
"That's assuming you were paying attention in the first place," Adrien noted, eyes glittering with amusement as he pointedly dipped his shoulder out from under Nino's arm.
The other boy clasped his hands over his chest dramatically. "Ouch!" he cried. "Betrayed by my best friend! Oh cruel world!"
This time, Alya rolled her eyes as she elbowed him gently. "That's what you get for complaining," she said archly, before turning back to where the Avengers were watching the byplay with amusement. "It's annoying, yeah," she admitted. "Less than you'd think, though. We've had a lot of attacks at our school, so I get plenty of first-hand footage that way."
"Really?" Tony asked, doing an admirable job of keeping his tone casual and interested, even as Natasha fought to keep her eyes from narrowing. "More than normal, you mean?"
Alya nodded enthusiastically, even as Adrien and Marinette both winced faintly and Nino sighed, looking away. "Definitely more – oh, hang on, I've got this neat map, I'll show you!"
Pulling out her phone again, she swiped through several screens and applications with quick, experienced fingers, before making a sound of triumph and turning the phone in her hand to show them the screen. "Here – it's a map of all the known akuma possessions, I worked for weeks getting the background information on some of this. I only just finished it."
…Oh, I don't like the look of this at all, Natasha thought grimly as she and Clint leaned forward for a better look. A map of Paris had been covered by multiple overlapping polygons of various colors, each one accented by a white point somewhere in their area, while several also had black pins.
"What are the colors?" she asked, as Clint reached out to take the phone and used two fingers to zoom in and out on certain areas, the thin line of his lips and flinty, narrowed eyes saying he didn't like what he was seeing, either.
"Well… the white pins show where Ladybug and Chat Noir defeated the victim and purified the akuma," Alya explained, leaning over to point. "The black ones show where the akuma originally possessed the victim – we don't always know that one. And the color blocks are the general area where the supervillain did stuff." She grimaced. "Or, well, in some cases, I had to do two layers, because some of them, like the Black Knight or Bubbler, managed to hit the whole city."
The Black Knight… now that had been a chilling post to read. Not the least because Alya had included a video she'd recorded on her phone, which had shown a strange black wall bearing down on her and her classmates as they tried to escape… and then simply cut out as it reached them. Given what Alya described as the Black Knight's power, of transforming people into minions… that was an unsettling thought.
These akuma can create supervillains who can turn everyone in the city into their minions. That was… unsettling.
It would be one thing if those powers were limited to simply transforming the victims, as the Black Knight and the Pharaoh both had. But if she considered what Adrien had said about the Puppeteer's powers…
When she'd heard that, her first thought had been the many, many lines of Ironman and Captain America-themed toys. Which had been bad enough.
Then Tony had one-upped her.
"Hulk action figures."
She really did not want to imagine the results of that.
Marinette leaned over Alya's shoulder in turn, blue eyes narrowed and intent. "…are those organized in any way?" she asked slowly. "Date?"
Alya sighed, shoulders slumping a little. "No. I tried, but the app doesn't let you get that detailed…"
"Oh really?" Tony asked, eyes glittering. Holding out a hand, he wiggled his fingers imperiously at Clint. "Gimme." And then glanced up at Alya. "With your permission, of course."
Alya gave him a perfect teenager's you're an idiot look. "You're Tony Stark."
Tony cackled as Clint handed the phone over with a smirk. "See, guys? That's the proper attitude to take to your resident genius."
"You're still not getting your hands on my radiator," Clint deadpanned. "It would try to take over the world. We've got enough bad guys out there without adding home electronics to the list."
A near-continuous stream of bips and beeps chimed from the phone as Tony's thumbs flew. "C'mon, it's a radiator, worst it would do is run for mayor, and given the alternatives home electronics would probably be an improvement. Speaking of…" For just a moment, he paused in his typing to hold the phone up between thumb and forefinger. "You, young lady, need a serious phone upgrade. Note to self, send you a real phone, something that would actually hold up to some of those stunts you were pulling in the videos…" Without waiting for a response, he went back to typing, and a moment later, made a victorious noise in the back of his throat as the screen reloaded the map. "There we go, color-coded by date, darker colors are more recent… oh. Lovely."
By now, all of them had gathered around the couch where he was sitting to see the results as he held up the phone. Natasha grimaced.
Oddly, though, it was Marinette who spoke first, her face set and grim, the silly, flailing child nowhere to be seen. "That's a search pattern, isn't it."
"What?" Alya and Nino both blurted, the girl snatching her phone back to look at it more closely. Behind them, Adrien grimaced, as though this revelation had simply confirmed his own suspicions.
"Looks like it," Clint said, standing up so that he could reach over and manipulate the screen a bit. "Look at this. Pattern's not perfect – I'm guessing there are limits to how much Papillon can control his victims, or maybe just in where he can find a suitable target. But… looks like he's got a general pattern of hitting a fairly wide area at first, and then mostly concentrating the next two or three attacks inside that area." He frowned, tapping on the screen to zoom in on a dense cluster of black dots, with one lone white point. "Except for this place."
"That's our school," Alya explained, shaking her head. "We've had so many kids get possessed, it's kind of crazy."
Natasha saw a shadow cross Tony's face for a moment, but a moment later it was gone, as the man shrugged nonchalantly. "Makes a certain amount of sense," he pointed out. "We're talking collège here – total hotbed of hormones and emotional tsunamis. If Adrien's right, about Papillon going after people who are mad about not fair – easy targets right there."
That prompted a number of offended, rueful or worried looks from the kids – but Natasha frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. "Why that school, though?" she pointed out. "There are plenty of others. Thousands of children that age within Paris. Why this particular group?"
Adrien cleared his throat carefully. "Actually, I… have a theory about that," he admitted.
Alya whipped her head around to stare at him. "What? Why haven't I heard about this?" she demanded, reflexively reaching for her pocket before remembering and grabbing after her phone.
"No video, remember?" Clint warned, although he handed the device over readily enough.
Alya blinked, startled, then huffed a sigh, tucking the phone back in her pocket before crossing her arms to give Adrien a Look. "Well?"
Adrien rubbed the back of his head, offering a winsomely awkward smile that had Marinette turning all sorts of interesting colors. "Ah… well, part of it is that I'm still not sure, but…" He drew in a long, deep breath. "I think the first couple attacks were random. Especially Ivan – Stoneheart."
"The first villain to appear." Natasha nodded slowly. That made a certain amount of sense. If Ladybug and Chat Noir were Papillon's targets, and yet all indications suggested they'd only appeared after the first attack began – then Papillon likely had begun with no idea of where to find them, and had simply targeted the most convenient victim.
Which could be useful, she thought, careful to keep her feelings from her face. These were civilians, and good-natured ones at that; no need to scare them with the Black Widow's bloodthirstiness. But Papillon, on the other hand…
With an internal sigh, she pulled herself back. Among other things – convenient would only help them if they could figure out the parameters of how Papillon was able to find and possess his victims. How fast did the akuma move? Could they be stopped by physical barriers? Did they have any powers on their own, without possessing someone?
…And, Natasha realized with a sudden chill, even then, that assumes that Papillon isn't protected by the same glamour effect that keeps anyone from finding Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities.
In which case, studying Papillon's methods became even more important – because looking at what Papillon thought would be an effective way to find the heroes could, in reverse, give them a baseline for how to find him.
"But why…" Marinette blinked, apparently too distracted to really pay attention to the fact that she was actually talking to her crush. "Oh. Of course. He wanted Stoneheart to be – well, loud and visible. And our school is one of the closest to the Eiffel Tower."
"D'you think he can tell what someone's gonna turn into before he sends out one of those black butterflies?" Nino asked, looking a little disturbed. "Because, man, if he wanted people's attention, a stone Hulk is pretty sweet. Uh, no offense meant," he added hastily, with a wide-eyed glance at the three Avengers.
Tony waved a hand cheerfully. "None taken. When the Big Guy's around, I certainly pay lots and lots of attention. That armor's expensive, it doesn't need dents."
Which was possibly the most sense Tony had ever shown on that subject, Natasha thought with amusement. And… also a very good reminder that convenient, in this case, could have a number of meanings, from Papillon's point of view.
Clint leaned forward, raising his eyebrows pointedly. "So you think that the first supervillain at your school was random. I take that to mean you think it stopped being random at some point."
Adrien nodded, then hesitated, slanting an apologetic look towards… Nino? "Well, the next one from our school… that was Bubbler."
The boy winced slightly, his shoulders slumping. "…I'm really sorry about that, man."
Natasha exchanged a quick, startled glance with the two men. Nino's been possessed? "What happened?" she asked quietly, hating herself for it just a little. But they needed to understand how the possessions worked.
The boy scuffed at the floor with the toe of a high-topped sneaker. "It was Adrien's birthday," he mumbled, not really looking at anyone, "and… I just wanted to throw him a party, y'know? I mean, he'd only just transferred in, he didn't really know anyone, and a lot of the other kids were kinda leery because, well, Chloé'd made such a fuss over him. But… well, I went to try to convince Mister Agreste that it'd be a good idea, and…"
"Ah," Tony said, in a tone of complete understanding. He grimaced. "I think I see where this is going."
Nino shrugged awkwardly. "I'm… really sorry, you guys. I – I just wanted Adrien to get to have some fun." He looked up at last, dredging up an obviously painful smile. "Guess I blew that, huh?"
"Nino, no," Adrien said fiercely, turning around to grab the other boy by the shoulders. "You were trying to look out for me – there's nothing wrong with that! My father's just…" He winced slightly. "…stubborn." His eyes slid away, as though he felt ashamed by the admission.
Marinette scowled darkly at that, but then shook her head and stepped forward so that Nino would meet her fierce gaze. "Exactly. It wasn't your fault, Nino! Papillon used you, the same way he used Ivan, the same way he uses all his victims. Blaming yourself… it's like what he tried to do at first, making the attacks Ladybug and Chat Noir's fault, when he was the one turning innocent people into monsters! Don't let him do that to you, Nino. Don't let him make you feel ashamed of wanting to do something for a friend!"
Natasha saw Clint and Tony both wince at that. She didn't blame them. She'd heard – and agreed with – Tony's rants about sheer apathy in the face of evil more than once. The thought that there was someone out there deliberately targeting those rare people with the emotional drive and conviction to try to actually change things for the better…
Worse – it more or less confirmed what Adrien had told them. Your intentions didn't matter. So long as that crack in the armor was there, so long as you cared about anything enough to get hurt… you were potentially vulnerable.
Natasha had lived with walls around her heart and soul before, without truly caring about anything – up to and including her mission, really. She didn't want to go back to that life.
Nino blinked at Adrien and Marinette's fiercely earnest faces – nearly identically so; all right, Natasha would grant Tony this much, that was cute – and then turned a half-tentative, half-hopeful look on his girlfriend.
Alya shrugged, not quite as nonchalant as she probably wanted to be. "Not like I can throw any stones," she pointed out, bumping him with her hip. "At least you got possessed because you wanted to do something nice for your friend. Me, I got possessed for something that… really was my own stupid fault, honestly." She made a face. "I can't believe I actually thought Chloé might be Ladybug."
"Neither can we," the other three chorused dryly.
Natasha blinked. So both Nino and Alya had been possessed? No wonder Adrien was well-informed. Come to think of it – Alya did bear a marked resemblance to one of the supervillains who had come to SHIELD's attention, one Lady WiFi. And given Alya's position as, apparently, one of the top amateur journalists following the story of the superheroes and Papillon, Lady WiFi made a certain amount of sense…
Oh.
Thinking back on the timeline of Lady WiFi, Natasha fought the urge to curse. She had a sudden feeling that she knew what Adrien's theory about their school might be.
Tony seemed to be caught on something else. "Just how many people in your class have gotten possessed?" he asked, brows furrowed.
The four kids looked at each other. "A lot," Adrien admitted. "In fact…" He frowned slightly. "At this point, I think Marinette and I are the only ones from our particular class who haven't been."
The girl cringed, tugging on one of her pigtails, so dark a black that the eye was tricked into seeing blue in the highlights. "So far, anyway," she said nervously, because summoning up a bright smile. "Or the teacher!" she added quickly. "Wow. Can you imagine? Pop Quiz. Now that would be a scary supervillain!"
Nino and Alya lunged in unison to clap hands over Marinette's mouth, nearly sending all three crashing to the ground. "Shhhhhhhh!" Alya hissed. "No giving the universe any ideas!"
Adrien – who'd dodged out of the way just in time – grinned. "Think we'd defeat her if we aced the quizzes? That would be kind of cool…"
Nino pointed imperiously at him. "Silence. You do not get a vote on this, Mister Always-Gets-the-Top-Grades-in-the-Class."
Pressing his lips together in a distinctly unsuccessful effort to hide a grin, Adrien shook his head in amusement, before turning back to the Avengers, serious again. "But, yeah. It's not just our school, it's our class. Not too long after Nino got hit, another classmate of ours turned into Timebreaker."
Marinette paled slightly. "That one was scary. She transformed practically right in the middle of us!" she explained hastily. "And she was really mad at all of us because we'd accidentally gotten her watch broken…"
Adrien nodded. "I think she was just random chance, too. She's… well, pretty hotheaded normally. And – it was her birthday, she'd gotten a special present, and then won a race, and then found out we'd broken it…"
Tony winced. "Whoof. Big high whiplashing into a fury? Yeah, that'd do it."
"…Actually," Marinette said slowly. "She might not have been random. That watch was… a little weird."
Adrien blinked. "Really? I mean – it was really big, even for an older pocket watch, but other than that…"
Marinette's eyes widened then, as a whole series of strange expressions crossed her face. "Um! Well… I mean, not that I saw anything weird," she said, the words practically tumbling over each other to get out of her mouth, "that would be silly, but… I don't know, it had… that funny blue color? Kind of like a glow? And all those fancy decorations?'
Natasha raised an eyebrow slightly, but held her peace. If she recalled correctly, the theory on Timebreaker had been that she had time-related powers. Given that… it was entirely possible that Marinette remembered a slightly different version of events than her classmates. "You think Papillon was interested in the watch?"
Marinette shrugged uncomfortably, eyes flitting about and looking anywhere but directly at Adrien. "Well… I just think, he's always after their Miraculous, and he got his greedy hands on one somehow…"
"And, speaking from experience, guys who think like that never stop grabbing for more," Tony said, a dangerous glitter hidden in his eyes behind a wry smile. Then again, Ironman had a history of dealing with people who always wanted one more superweapon. Dealings that tended to involve armor and explosions.
Adrien drew in a slow breath through his nose, then slowly let it hiss out through his teeth. "I… hadn't thought of that," he said slowly. "I mean, I'd guessed that Papillon went after the man at the museum because of Alix – that was her brother, right? But… well, I figured that tempers tend to run in families, so it makes sense that Papillon would have family members of past akuma marked."
"But he might be after that watch, huh?" Alya said, pulling her phone back out and thumbing through the map. After a moment, however, she frowned. "Except… he doesn't seem to have done anything else around that museum – and they had that papyrus with Ladybug on it and everything! I mean, the Mime, maybe, but he didn't even stay in the area very long. If Papillon was interested in the watch, why would he just let it go like that?"
"…Because he found something even better," Adrien said quietly.
And now we reach the real point, Natasha thought, tensing slightly as she watched the boy's shoulders shift ever so subtly under that white button-up.
Alya's eyes narrowed. "He did? What?"
Adrien pointed at her. "You."
Alya blinked at him, plainly taken aback-
But next to her, Marinette gasped, hands rising to cover her mouth as her eyes flew wide in dismay, and Natasha suspected that the girl had pieced together what Adrien suspected herself. "You were there," she said, voice trembling just a bit. "Investigating Ladybug's identity. You live-blogged the whole thing, even when the Pharaoh kidnapped you."
Alya smiled confidently – but Natasha didn't miss the way her fingers had tightened on the phone, clearly uneasy with where this was going. "It worked, didn't it? They both showed up really fast. I got their attention!"
"But you also got Papillon's," Natasha said quietly. "From what little we can observe… I suspect he would not be the sort to pay attention to a teenage girl's blog. Not until he got a chance to observe your dedication first-hand." She looked at the blogger, who'd bitten her lip uneasily. "Am I right in guessing that Lady WiFi…?"
Marinette pressed in close to Alya's side, lacing her fingers through the fingers of the girl's free hand while Nino stepped up to station himself right behind her other shoulder – not actively touching, but close enough that Alya could probably feel his warmth through her shirt.
Alya swallowed, then managed a weak smile. "That was me, yeah. Got expelled for… well, something stupid, in hindsight, and then Chloé blew it way out of proportion, and our principal has no spine when it comes to her…" She closed her mouth firmly and drew in a deep breath before letting it out slowly.
"That was just a few days after the Pharaoh attack," Adrien said. "And… ever since then? Almost every week, someone is possessed at our school, or someone from our school is possessed – sometimes both. It gets even worse if you count people near the school, or our classmates' family and friends."
"Stalking horse," Natasha concluded.
Marinette shot a piercing look at her, blue eyes hard. "Explain," she said flatly, her tone clipped and controlled.
Natasha inclined her head slightly in acknowledgement. "Based on the map you showed us, Papillon has managed to cover most if not all of Paris in his search grid, quite thoroughly," she noted. "The fact that he's still doing city-wide attacks, however, suggests that he hasn't narrowed the area much, if at all. My guess is, even using a methodical system, he hasn't been able to get past whatever it is that keeps them from being recognized. Which means he needs to find alternatives."
Tony grimaced. "Alya's got a rep for trying to find Ladybug's real identity, and she's definitely come the closest to succeeding. Heck, even if you don't know her identity – Ladybug gave you a private interview, right?"
Alya nodded, a little stiffly. "Yeah, although I didn't set that up…" She glanced at Marinette.
Interesting.
"In that case, it wouldn't even matter if you actually knew who she was or not," Tony said. "So long as you've got some way to contact her, something more direct than that blog of yours. Something you might use if, say, a classmate turned into a supervillain at school." He opened his mouth, as if to say more, and then closed it again, eyes dark and glittering dangerously.
Clint huffed. "And if he can confirm you've got a line to Ladybug – that gives him a chance to set up a trap. Or… is it possible to get possessed twice?"
Alya paled. "Yes. Ivan was…"
"B-but that was a special case, wasn't it?" Marinette interjected. "He was the first one, remember? I think Ladybug and Chat Noir were probably still figuring out what they had to do, and made a mistake."
That, at least, seemed to pull Alya out of her shock: she blinked once, and then rolled her eyes. "Figuring it out?" she asked dryly. "Marinette, you're the one who took me to see that papyrus in the museum, remember? Ladybug's been around for thousands of years. I'd imagine that she knows what she'd doing by now!"
Natasha very carefully did not snort at that, although she did trade a quick, sardonic look with the other two Avengers while the children were distracted. Because, to borrow a teenage colloquialism herself, yeah right.
Oh, that Ladybug as a role was ancient – that was quite possible, and she planned to pass that tidbit on to SHIELD's analysts as soon as she could, in the hopes that they would be able to come up with something in their historical research a little more solid than a cryptic image on a damaged papyrus scroll.
But this Ladybug? Natasha had seen that video Alya had posted of the first battle against Stoneheart. It had been… a little painful to watch, if she was going to be honest. The smooth teamwork the pair had shown against the Seamstress was nowhere to be found. Those had been the fumbling, clumsy efforts of two amateurs trying desperately to figure out the limits of their abilities. In fact, by all indications, Ladybug hadn't even settled on a name for herself until Alya had ambushed her in the aftermath.
Tony had sighed after seeing that bit. "All right," he'd said. "I officially forfeit the right to mock the poor girl for her superhero name, Gratuitous English and all. I'm all too familiar with the horrors of blurt-the-first-thing-that-comes-to-mind under pressure."
"Well… there wasn't anything about akuma on there, was there?" Adrien asked thoughtfully, drawing Natasha's attention back. "According to the papyrus and what you got from trying to interview the supervillain-"
And Natasha still hadn't made up her mind if that was a sign of brilliance on Alya's part, or a foolhardy trust that nothing really bad could happen that ran on the extreme end of the scale even for a teenager.
"-back then, Ladybug was fighting the pharaoh who was trying to bring his wife back from the dead," Adrien concluded, and slanted a smile at Marinette. "Just because Ladybug's been around for a while, that doesn't mean Papillon has, right?"
The girl nodded eagerly, eyes shining – and then froze, cheeks pinking as it obviously hit her that she was talking to Adrien.
To her credit, though, although her eyes got a little glassy, after that one moment of realization, she rallied admirably. "R-right," she said. "If Papillon's new, then it might have taken them a little time to figure out how to deal with his akuma." She smiled brightly, only slightly awkward.
Natasha heard Tony cackle, "Score!" under his breath, and rolled her eyes slightly before prodding his shin with her toe. Not quite a warning kick, but hopefully enough to remind him that they were here for a reason, and not to get tangled up in teenage romantic shenanigans.
Although she had to admit, the whole thing had a certain adorably charming innocence about it. Not really something she knew about from personal experience, but it was proving entertaining to watch.
Clint shook his head, wry amusement flickering over his face for a moment, before sobering again as he returned to the more pertinent topic. "So you think that Papillon's using Alya as a proxy for finding Ladybug and Chat Noir?" he asked.
Adrien turned up his hands. "Maybe?" he said tentatively. "I mean… I can't think of any other reason why so many of the victims are from our school, or possessed at the school, or are people connected with the school."
"Or maybe he thinks they're from our school!" Alya said, brightening. "Or, well, not from, maybe, but they have to be nearby. They always seem to turn up really fast. When Nathanaël became Evillustrator, they showed up almost as fast as he did! And when Horrificator sealed off the school, they managed to get inside."
"But not always," Adrien argued. "Sometimes it takes them a while – the Black Knight got halfway across the city, and he was possessed right in front of the school. And when Reflekta attacked, Chat Noir showed up fast, but Ladybug took a while."
Tony shifted on the couch, catching Natasha's eye. "Suggestion?" he murmured, eyes glittering mischievously. "Fire the SHIELD analysts and hire this bunch instead. They know more about what's going on than the authorities."
She rolled her eyes. "Of course they do," she replied, careful to keep her voice low. "From the sound of it, they've been caught in the middle from the very beginning."
"Besides," Marinette was saying stubbornly, "it's not like they aren't just as fast showing up other places. Remember Kung Food? He sealed off the whole Grand Paris, and Ladybug and Chat Noir still managed to get in."
Nino blinked. "You think they've got some way of… I dunno, just sensing when a supervillain appears? Is that why they always show up so fast?"
"That," Clint said thoughtfully, inserting himself into the conversation again, "or Papillon's actually skewing his own data."
All four kids blinked at him, clearly baffled – but when Natasha glanced at Tony, the engineer was nodding.
"Hey," he said, noticing her look. "It makes a certain kind of sense. Ladybug and Chat Noir? Not stupid, not at all. There's no way they haven't noticed the pattern themselves. Bets that they keep a close eye on the school, and people from it?"
Natasha pressed her lips together as another thought occurred to her. "That could be less skewing his data, and more manipulation," she noted grimly.
Marinette paled. "If he thinks they're… watching the school," she said slowly, "then he can predict in a general sense where they'll be. And he could use that to set a trap."
Alya paled, reaching for her pocket before catching herself. Instead, she curled her hands into fists tight enough that her nails were likely embedded in her palms. "We have to warn them!" she said fiercely.
"Um, how?" Nino asked practically. "Because, y'know, this probably isn't the sort of thing you can post on the Ladyblog. Last thing you want to do is give Papillon any ideas if he hasn't thought of this himself, right?"
"…Okay, true," the blogger said, drawing in a deep breath before looking down at her hands, very carefully relaxing them. Then she brought her head up, eyes narrowed with determination. "Which makes it even more important that we figure out who they are! We need to find Ladybug before Papillon does!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Tony said, sitting up quickly. "How'd we suddenly jump to trying to hunt those two down ourselves, here? Because last I checked, that's what they're trying to avoid."
"Well, how else are we supposed to warn them?" Alya demanded.
"Anonymous tip hotline? Junk e-mail address? Write it down, make a paper airplane, and toss it to them the next time you see them go by? Mention it the next time you score one of those private interviews?" Tony raised an eyebrow. "There are a dozen ways you could set up communication lines that wouldn't require you knowing Ladybug's identity."
Alya blinked, looking taken aback. "But…"
Marinette huffed, rolling her eyes. "I still don't get why you're so crazy about finding out Ladybug's identity," she said. Apparently, this was something of a long-standing argument. "Isn't it enough that she's doing what she does?"
Alya frowned at her, drawing herself up to her full height in righteous indignation. "People deserve to know who their heroes are! How else are we supposed to thank them?"
"Well," Tony said, very deliberately casual, "I'd suggest starting with not destroying their civilian lives, myself."
The girl's jaw dropped, as all four of the kids stared at Tony in shock. "W…What?"
Natasha shook her head slightly, trading a quick glance with Clint. Her partner nodded subtly, and then leaned in slightly to draw attention to himself. "Remember what we said earlier? About me and Tasha not really being big fans of cameras? If the wrong person got hold of that, it could get us or people we care about killed."
"Everything you put on your blog is accessible to anyone with an internet connection," Natasha explained. "Anyone can see it – including Papillon. Especially if he's already marked you as someone to watch. If you made their identities public, it wouldn't just be them in danger. Their friends, their families, even just random people on the street would become targets."
"Heck, ask my CEO," Tony said with a crooked, not really humorous smile. "She's had people try to kidnap her so many times, I think she invented a standard procedure for it so it'd stop disrupting company business every time."
"But…" Alya bit her lip. "But if I just didn't post it…"
"You didn't hesitate to talk all about that textbook on your liveblog," Marinette said quietly, but with a glint of steel in her eyes. "For all we know, that's what made Papillon decide to fixate on our school."
Natasha didn't bother to hide her grimace this time. Watching that particular video had been like being dropped off a boat straight into icy water. She was quite willing to bet that Ladybug's little interview in the aftermath of the Pharaoh incident had been all about damage control.
"Hey." Adrien stepped slightly behind Alya, looking like he'd almost rather be stepping in front of her as a shield. "The Ladyblog does good things. It's a way for victims to find people who understand, for one thing. And like Alya said – liveblogging the Pharaoh thing might have been crazy, but it did mean that Ladybug and Chat Noir got to the scene quickly. That might have saved her life."
Natasha was inclined to press the point – among other things, Alya's post about the book could very well have endangered every fifth-year collège student in Paris – but then she took in Alya's expression: blank with horror, her eyes glassy with tears.
I think she gets it, she told herself, taking her temper and sitting on it with all her control. After all – it wasn't Alya she was truly angry at, not really. It was the whole situation, from the mayor to the citizenry to Papillon himself.
Still, there was one more point that she needed to drive home – for Alya's own sake. "Even if you didn't post it," she said quietly, "you would still know. And if Adrien is right that Papillon is watching you…"
She'd… well, she'd tried to keep her tone more or less gentle, and she thought that she'd more or less succeeded. Alya still looked heartbroken, like she'd just seen a dream shatter.
She probably had. She was, by all indications, a child of the Information Age, grown up on a diet of superhero stories. She'd probably built a dozen glorious fantasies about discovering the heroes' secret identities and being taken into their trusted inner circle, fighting against evil with her camera and her wits and her special knowledge.
Even Tony looked like he was starting to think maybe he'd pushed the point a little too hard. Smiling a little apologetically, he deliberately relaxed back into the couch, tilting his head to one side. "Besides… remember what I said, about not everyone being that crazy about the limelight?" he asked. "I kinda get the impression Ladybug and Chat Noir don't really want a bunch of public acclaim. Can't blame 'em, it can really be a hassle. Papillon doesn't exactly give them much choice except to do their heroics where everyone's watching – but they don't really strike me as the type to enjoy all the attention. They've got a job to do, after all."
"Heck," Clint said with a crooked grin, "I'll bet you a hundred euros that Chat Noir's flat-out shy."
Adrien blinked in surprise, clearly thrown – but his reaction paled in the face of the three dramatic double-takes the other children made, heads whipping around in one synchronized motion to gape at the archer.
"Shy?" Marinette gaped. "Chat Noir? That's ridiculous! I've met him, he's a complete and total clown!"
Natasha raised her eyebrows. You've met him, hm? Interesting. Particularly given the implication, if she'd read that exchange of glances earlier correctly, that it had been Marinette to set up that private interview with Ladybug for Alya.
Papillon may have focused on the wrong schoolgirl, if he wanted someone who actually has the ability to find his targets.
"So?" Clint said, arching his eyebrows as he shrugged. "He's a performer. Take it from someone who knows a bit about the circus – lots of performers are shy, when they're not on the stage and playing to an audience."
Oddly, though, he was still watching Alya out of the corner of his eye. The blogger was simply gaping, blinking wildly as though her train of thought had gone completely off the rails-
Ah, Natasha realized, as her partner ever-so-subtly relaxed. Of course. Hadn't they just covered the fact that Papillon went after emotional hurts? He seemed to focus on anger, certainly, but there wasn't that great a difference between anger and horror and heartbreak.
Something to bear in mind. Sometimes, you had to break someone's comfortable assumptions about the world apart… but here, unless you wanted to be the source of another supervillain terrorizing the streets of Paris, that meant you also had an obligation to stick around and help them put it back together again.
And there was nothing like a distraction to push someone past that first horrible moment of what have I done, Natasha had to acknowledge, as Alya blinked in bemusement at Marinette's flailing.
"Huh." Tony tilted his head to the side. "Think you're on to something there, actually. The interviews? Other than the statue thing where Ladybug didn't show, he keeps himself in the background, lets his partner handle most of the PR."
"But… but he's so…" the girl spluttered.
"Over the top?" Clint suggested with a crooked grin. "Half of why I think he's shy, actually. No one's that ridiculous unless they're deliberately faking it a bit. Masks let you pull off stuff you normally wouldn't dare."
"…All the more reason to keep their identities secret, I guess," Marinette said slowly. She wasn't flailing anymore, but the baffled look on her face suggested that she'd just had a number of assumptions knocked seriously askew herself, and hadn't quite figured out what to do with the new picture in her hands. "I mean… if part of why they act the way they do is because of the masks…"
Natasha tapped her fingers lightly on her thigh for a moment. "I'm fairly certain they don't even know each other's identities," she noted.
Tony blinked. "Seriously? They trust each other enough that they're practically telepathic!"
Adrien laughed a bit at that. "Maybe, but… well, you don't need to know details about a person to know them, right?"
"And they always go different directions after a battle," Nino pointed out, before wincing. "Oh man… d'you think that means no one knows who they are? I mean, obviously they know their own identities, but…"
"Yeah." Clint's eyes flicked over towards Natasha for a moment. "That can get pretty stressful."
She shrugged, knew it wasn't quite as dismissive as she wanted. There was a reason that the Black Widow had finally let SHIELD catch up with her, after all.
Tony flopped back on the couch with a dramatic groan. "Oh man. Top that off with supervillains attacking every other day… dear God, when do those two get any sleep? Or if these are usually daytime attacks, any work done?" He shook his head and smiled crookedly. "Really, that should make finding them pretty easy. Just look for the people who are about to lose their jobs on account of terminal absenteeism."
Alya burst out laughing, nudging Marinette with her elbow. "Terminal absenteeism, huh? Now who does that remind me of? What was your last excuse, again – sun in your eyes so you turned down the wrong street?"
Marinette flushed beet red, pushing her friend away with a pout. "Yes, because I'm sure Ladybug falls face-first down staircases on a regular basis," she grumbled, not meeting anyone's eyes.
Adrien chuckled ruefully. "For all we know, they both might," he pointed out. "I mean – I have a hard enough time with my schedule, between classes and photoshoots. Can you imagine how hard it would be to juggle fighting supervillains on the side? At least the photoshoots are predictable."
"I bet it drives them crazy," Marinette said with a huff. "Who knows? Maybe that's Papillon's master plan."
Natasha drew in a sharp breath, only catching herself just in time to at least keep it silent.
Because that fit.
Ladybug and Chat Noir could not afford to share their identities with anyone, not even each other. Which meant they had to drop everything and simply vanish from their civilian lives without explanation, on an almost daily basis. Even the best liar in the world would start running out of plausible excuses sooner or later.
And while the attacks could happen anytime, anywhere… for the most part, they happened in broad daylight. When people were at work, their activities tracked by friends and bosses.
She glanced at Tony, noting that the billionaire had paled, although he'd kept his crooked smile intact to hide it. Plainly, Tony had added the pieces up as well.
At this point, Ladybug and Chat Noir's civilian lives are probably complete train wrecks.
And that… was stressful. And distressing. And frustrating.
And all the while, Papillon loomed over all of Paris. Ready to spring on the first crack in someone's emotional armor.
They're not immune to mind control. Which means…
The more their civilian lives fell apart… the more likely that Ladybug or Chat Noir themselves would become vulnerable to possession.
Natasha's eyes darted over to meet Clint's grim gaze. He nodded in silent agreement.
We need to talk to Fury.
Lips pressed together, the director of SHIELD settled back in his chair. "So it's a war of attrition."
"More like a three-pronged attack," Clint corrected, leaning forward slightly. "There's always a chance that one of his supervillains will actually succeed in getting their hands on the Miraculous – apparently there've been a couple close calls already. And all the while, he's basically got the entire civilian population of Paris acting as his own private investigators, to track them down; Alya's far from the only one who's completely careless about the theories she puts out there, just the most visible, and one of the most closely involved."
Standing back a bit from where Natasha and Clint were stationed around the tablet, since technically he was only allowed in on this particular video-conference out of courtesy – and recognition that trying to keep him out of it would be a futile effort – Tony grimaced. Jarvis had done a preliminary scan of Ladybug and Chat Noir-related internet posts while they'd been visiting the Agreste mansion, and… yeah. At this point, Tony strongly suspected that the only reason Ladybug and Chat Noir's identities hadn't been blown wide open was that weird Not The Civilian Identity You're Looking For effect.
Which at least made him feel a little better about the fact that even Jarvis apparently couldn't run a proper facial recognition program on those two, no matter how many images he used as references. Even if it drove him crazy.
Magic. Argh.
"The problem is," Clint said, "they're stuck fighting a defensive battle. No one seems to know where those damn butterflies come from, or where they go after Ladybug cleanses them – looks like a couple of people have tried to track them, but thus far, no luck."
"Hm." Fury's fingers drummed momentarily on his desk. "Papillon," he said curtly. "What do we have on him? Do we have any idea what his objective is?"
Natasha and Clint exchanged glances, before Clint grimaced. "Honestly? I don't think it matters," he said reluctantly. "Pretty obvious he's got one short-term goal – grab these Miraculous things from Ladybug and Chat Noir. If he manages to get that far…"
"Then it doesn't matter what he thinks he's after," Tony said bluntly. "Trust me, I know the type. This is a guy who doesn't see people, he sees tools for getting what he wants. People like that don't let go of power once they've got it. If he gets Ladybug and Chat Noir's Miraculous – well, it's not going to take long before he starts thinking things like, what else can I get away with, now that there's no one to stop me?" He crossed his arms. "Thus far, he's been too focused on going after Ladybug and Chat Noir directly to pull anything else. Take them out of the picture, though, and there's going to be trouble."
"Some of that focus may be from his mindset," Natasha said thoughtfully. "Thus far, the pattern of his attacks suggest that he's thinking like a civilian, not as a criminal or trained military."
The director's eye narrowed with a calculating glint. "In effect, Papillon is holding the entire city of Paris hostage," he observed. "Both to the threat of further supervillain attacks, and to the threat of becoming a supervillain oneself. And yet…"
"And yet he doesn't use that," Natasha confirmed. "The attacks are essentially random, rather than targeted, his victims focus primarily on personal objectives, and for the most part they attack Ladybug and Chat Noir. He's made no particular attempts to strike at the city itself."
"Could be a problem with controlling his victims," Tony pointed out. "For the most part, they're doing their own thing, right? Takes active intervention for him to give them directions?" At least, that had been their best guess at the strange butterfly-mask they'd seen flashing up on the Seamstress's face.
"Doesn't mean they aren't doing what he wants the rest of the time," Clint said tightly, and Tony bit back a wince. Right; mind control was a sore spot. And it wasn't like Clint had been simply a puppet, either; he'd been doing his own thing, more or less.
Tony shrugged, hoping it'd read as an apology of sorts. "Besides," he pressed on, "it's kinda hard to threaten to bring down the Eiffel Tower when a bunch of helpful little sparkly ladybugs just put it back again."
"We don't know what the limits of Ladybug's abilities are," Natasha pointed out, before shaking her head. "There's also the fact that his supervillains could easily be far more damaging than we've seen so far. For the most part, he seems to target ordinary civilians." Her eyes narrowed. "Imagine what could happen if one of his akuma targeted, say, a serial murderer."
Tony had already opened his mouth to reply. Instead, he snapped it closed and swallowed, hard. Because… yeah. If a sweet girl like Bissette or a couple of good-natured kids like Nino or Alya could turn into ruthless villains, Tony really didn't want to think about what would happen if one of those little black butterflies attached itself to someone who already had a taste for blood. Not to mention, if it went after a guy in prison…
Can we say jailbreak?
And while Ladybug might be able to clean up the mess caused by the supervillains, Tony wasn't so sure her fix-it would work to scoop all the escapees up and drop them back in jail. It wasn't a total reset, after all – when they'd beaten the Seamstress, all the Exposé guests who'd stampeded their way out of the hotel were still gone.
"Not a nice thought," he admitted reluctantly. "Hope he doesn't think of it."
Clint grimaced, shaking himself subtly – and then paused. "You know, odds are good that he wouldn't go there, even if he did."
Natasha raised an eyebrow at him.
"That whole production, when he announced himself," Clint said with a shrug. "So far as this guy cares, he's got a right to be doing what he does, and it's Ladybug and Chat Noir's fault for not falling in line. Sure, a lot of that's probably rhetoric…"
"But actively help the criminal element, and his nice pretty self-justifications won't hold up so well," Tony agreed. A sudden thought, and he snickered dryly. "So we're looking at a guy, probably civilian, probably pretty rich given he has the time to spare on this, and the attitude that he's got every right to be doing it. Evil French Batman? Bat Blanc?"
Clint cackled, and even Natasha's lips twitched slightly in amusement, while Fury grimaced and pinched the bridge of his nose. Score.
"At least Batman did the job himself," Clint replied, rolling his eyes. "Apparently Papillon doesn't like to get his hands dirty."
"That we know of," Natasha countered. "Given that his civilian identity could be anyone, we don't know if he's ever attempted personal intervention." She shook her head. "However, I would agree. Papillon seems to keep everything at a distance, which may explain why he's never exploited the effective hostage situation he has at his disposal. Thus far, his approach has been intelligent, analytical, and manipulative, but not actively strategic." Then, to Tony's surprise, she drew in a deep breath and adjusted her shoulders slightly, as though bracing herself, before turning to look at the tablet and Fury's face. "Which is why I recommend that we pull out, sir. As soon as possible."
Tony gaped at her, and even Fury and Clint seemed startled. A moment later, the director leaned forward, brow furrowed. "Explain."
"I've noticed a pattern," Natasha said grimly. "When a bystander actively helps Ladybug and Chat Noir, that same bystander often is the next one targeted for possession. It happened with Alya, after the Pharaoh incident. It also happened with that rock musician. It even happened to Chloé Bourgeois." She shifted her attention to Clint and Tony then. "Papillon knows we're here. He may not know who we are, although the odds of that are better than I like – and, sir, I suggest that SHIELD refrain from allowing any classified knowledge to be handed to Mayor Bourgeois in the future," she added, a hint of exasperation coming into her tone.
The words were almost lost under Clint's heartfelt swearing. "Papillon can target anyone," the archer said. "And if he can turn out city-threatening supervillains from the average civilian…"
Tony wanted to curse himself. More accurately, he wanted to replace the more-or-less respectable business suit he'd reluctantly donned for the meeting with Agreste in favor of a suit with a little more titanium alloy in it, and wreck something. If he just had a damn target.
And Natasha simply nodded. "Ladybug and Chat Noir are almost certainly civilians themselves, behind the masks," she said quietly. "They've improved remarkably since Stoneheart's first attack – but the fact remains that they're self-taught, and still learning how to use their abilities. Papillon's already stacking the deck against them. The last thing they need is to end up fighting one of us as well."
"Self-taught?" Fury asked sharply. "Is that confirmed, or supposition?"
"Guesswork," the spy admitted, but her gaze was level and confident. "They were clumsy and uncoordinated at first, but over time, you can track the way they've improved, both in terms of fighting and teamwork."
"Makes sense," Clint said thoughtfully. "The sort of… trapeze artist trust they have in each other? That doesn't happen in a day. Especially not when you only know the other person when they're wearing a mask."
"Exactly." Natasha nodded. "Although some of that was learning to trust their own abilities; their strengths and limitations." She hesitated, a frown flickering across her face. "Although they still aren't utilizing their abilities to maximum effect."
Tony opened his mouth, meaning to ask what she meant-
And then winced, because he already knew, didn't he? "Cataclysm," he said flatly. "How did Adrien describe that? The ability to destroy literally anything?" He didn't even realize he was rubbing at the arc reactor under his shirt until he felt the fabric under his fingers slide against the hard metal. The Seamstress's take apart at the seams trick had been unsettling enough, and apparently she'd been limited to using it against fabricated objects – things that actually had seams. If Cataclysm lacked that limitation… "That's a one-hit kill ability… and he uses it mostly to create distractions."
Although using it to disrupt the sound waves when they'd been fighting Guitar Villain had been all kinds of clever – and rather in line with Adrien's theory about Cataclysm being a form of directed entropy, come to think of it.
Clever. But not particularly strategic.
"It's not simply that," Natasha corrected, leaning back in her chair. "He has enhanced senses – vision and hearing at the very least, and given the tail, I suspect he has an enhanced sense of balance as well. He's stealthier than Ladybug, if only because black is less visible than bright red, although at least the spots break up her profile slightly. The baton and his ability to switch between quadrupedal and bipedal motion mean he can move quickly and fight effectively in a wider range of environments than Ladybug – she needs room to spin and throw that yo-yo."
"Scout," Clint summarized, "or…" He hesitated, grimacing.
"Assassin," Natasha concluded for him.
"Wait, wait, wait," Tony said. "Seriously? The catboy's supposed to be some kind of hitman? Can you seriously see him…"
He trailed off, grimacing. The worst part was – from a weapons design viewpoint, he could see it. Hadn't he just been thinking that it was odd to use a one-hit kill ability to create simple distractions?
At the same time…
"…Okay," he admitted slowly. "Powers-wise, sure. But Chat Noir himself? Can't see it. I don't think that guy could use his power on a living thing. Not and live with himself afterward."
To his surprise, Natasha nodded. "Agreed," she said simply. "Which is… reassuring, to be honest."
Tony blinked at her in surprise. Although he noticed, from the corner of his eye, that a small, rueful smile had flickered across Clint's face.
Natasha shrugged at him. "Strategically speaking, they're failing to utilize Chat Noir's abilities to their fullest extent," she said. "He's the scout of the pair, and the heavy hitter. And they're using him as the first line of defense, to stall and distract. Using Cataclysm as a distraction is a waste of the ability." She hesitated slightly. "But… All things considered, I think it's for the best that it is in the hands of someone who actively avoids hurting people."
"Like the Hulk," Tony said thoughtfully. And slanted a suspicious glance at the tablet. Fury was being way too quiet, sitting with his elbows on the table and his fingers laced in front of his face, leaving nothing of his expression visible except for one glinting eye and the dark eyepatch.
Clint huffed a laugh that didn't sound nearly as amused as he was pretending, running a hand through short-cropped hair. "Ouch. But probably a good comparison," he admitted. "Makes me kinda glad that Ladybug doesn't have that ability."
Tony gave him a look. "Ladybug? Seriously?"
Clint gave him a look right back. "Five words. Bringing down the Eiffel Tower."
Tony sucked in a sharp breath, wincing. "…okay, point," he admitted. "That was… cold."
Because… okay, sure, by all accounts the Mime had been one heck of a tough customer. He couldn't blame Ladybug for exploiting the hell out of the one weakness they'd been able to find in the guy's abilities. Except that it had involved dropping the Eiffel Tower on him – and, more or less inevitably, on everyone around him. Sure, the Mime had kept himself, and by association anyone close to him, from being squished…
But there was no way that people hadn't died in that stunt. People who'd been nearby, who'd been on the road the tower had dropped on, to say nothing of anyone who'd been on the tower at the time. Sure, apparently Ladybug had been able to undo the consequences with her magic (geh) ladybug swarm, but…
Yeah. Brrr. Not the happiest thought.
Natasha seemed to agree, from the careful way she shifted her shoulders – a motion that on anyone else would probably be a full-body shake. "My point exactly," she agreed. "But even then, I don't think that was a calculated sacrifice. Ladybug doesn't have the… mental hardness it takes to shoot the hostage. I think it's more likely that she was so focused on bringing the Mime down that she didn't really consider the consequences, or she assumed her powers would be able to clean them up."
"Not a happy thought," Tony said uneasily. Because, seriously. With the exception of Stoneheart bringing down a skyscraper, the fall of the Eiffel Tower probably counted as one of the most destructive events since Papillon had begun his attacks, in terms of direct consequences to human life and the infrastructure of the city – and Ladybug had very deliberately arranged for it to happen.
For a moment, Natasha seemed to almost hesitate, before her chin rose slightly, eyes sharp, as though she'd come to some kind of decision. "Tunnel vision," she said evenly. "It's a common problem with teenagers anyway, let alone under the level of stress those two are dealing with."
Tony stared at her, dimly aware that he probably had the same blank, stunned look on his face he could make out on Clint's from the corner of his eye. Even Fury started, eye widening.
"…Teenagers?" the director asked slowly.
Lips thinned in a grim line, Natasha nodded shortly. "That's my best guess at the moment: Ladybug and Chat Noir are teenagers. Likely no older than fifteen."
Several seconds ticked past before Fury straightened in his chair, eye hard. "Your evidence?" he demanded.
"Nothing direct," Natasha told him. "Tony's the one who figured it out."
Tony gaped, for once honestly wordless. "Me?" he managed to sputter at last. "Natasha, you're the one who pointed out that I couldn't tell how old Ladybug was, and…"
She arched an eyebrow. "You couldn't. And yet, you did not flirt with her. Not even once."
Eyes wide, Clint leaned back in his chair and whistled. "Damn. She's right. Heck, you haven't even commented on her figure – just the outfit. No eye candy commentary, no whistling…"
"That's because…" Tony started, and stopped cold. Because the only answer he could come up with was that would just be creepy.
"It's not just Ladybug," Natasha pointed out. "You call Chat Noir a catboy." She shrugged. "Granted, catman doesn't roll off the tongue – but you're not normally dismissive with people you actually like."
"Hey!" Tony objected reflexively. "Don't insult my powers of sass. Okay, granted, I do like the ki…d…"
Blindly reaching back, he managed to find the back of an unused chair and used it to guide himself down to a proper sitting position. Because all of a sudden it felt like his mind had flipped on him, bits and pieces falling into place and leaving him wondering how he possibly could have missed it before.
"Shit," he breathed, and rubbed at his face. "They are just kids. How did I not see that?"
Because, sure, weird freaky magic Jedi tricks, fine. But the two even acted like teenagers. Granted, teenagers who'd shouldered one hell of a responsibility, but still kids, playing at flirting with no idea what to do when it worked, short tempers mitigated by a genuine will to do good…
He rubbed his face. "That textbook," he groaned. "Damn it, that should have been a huge red flag right there."
"Likely the glamour kicked in to sidetrack us," Natasha suggested. "But it seems to apply at the level of recognizing the connection; after all, people know what those two look like. So even though the glamour prevented you from putting a specific age on Ladybug, it didn't change the fact that you knew she was underage by American standards – so you acted accordingly. What I recognized wasn't them – it was you."
Clint tilted his head to the side – and then, unexpectedly, he commented, "You know, if they're kids… that's kind of a relief."
Tony shot the archer a hard look. "A relief?" he demanded.
Clint crossed his arms over his chest, meeting Tony's gaze squarely. "Yes. If they're kids, then Papillon's nasty little war-by-attrition trick isn't going to work nearly so well. They've got a safety net."
"They're probably not responsible for keeping a roof over their own heads, or food on their table," Natasha noted thoughtfully. "Granted, they're also subject to more oversight, unless their parents are criminally negligent – and it's likely their grades are suffering. So they're still vulnerable… but less so than someone at risk of losing their only means of income."
Tony's hands hurt – when had he fisted them? "Okay, point," he said flatly. "Doesn't change the fact that we've got a pair of teenagers busy trying to protect all of metropolitan Paris from a string-pulling puppetmaster who's already painted a target on their backs." He pointedly shifted his gaze over to meet Fury's flat, expressionless gaze through the tablet's screen. "Now what are we going to do about it?"
Fury met his gaze squarely. "We are doing nothing."
…what.
As Tony stared blankly, Fury shifted his attention to Natasha and Clint. "I want the three of you out of Paris tonight."
What.
"You sure about that, sir?" Clint asked, frowning slightly.
Natasha sighed quietly. "There's nothing we can do to help the situation," she said.
What.
"Can't help," Tony echoed, and didn't even try to hide the sarcasm. "You know, last I checked, people with too much power on their hands and a pathological inability to take no for an answer were our job."
"Be that as it may," Fury replied tightly, "Agent Romanov is correct. The best thing you can do to assist in this situation is to remove yourselves from it."
Well, well. From grim commander to gritted teeth in one sentence. That had to be a record. "Oh really."
Fury drew in a slow breath. Let it out, just as slow.
"Stark," he said, his voice utterly flat. "Let me remind you that none of the Avengers are suited to fighting battles where the person you're fighting is a hostage. In addition, while Ladybug is able to undo any damage brought about by the actions of either Papillon's victims or by herself and her partner, we do not know the limitations of the ability. She clearly does not undo everything. We do not know if her powers would extend to reversing damage caused by forces other than these Miraculous." His face darkened in a scowl. "There are experts uniquely adapted to this situation in place. Let them handle it."
"Those experts," Tony said, matching Fury's tone, "are kids. Or did you miss this whole conversation somehow?"
"I heard it just fine," Fury growled at him. "Which is why I want you out of there, before the next supervillain of the day with mind-controlling powers swoops in and those children end up forced to fight you."
"Excuse me?" Tony demanded, leaning forward in the chair. "Could you maybe remind me just who managed to No Sell Loki's glowstick of doom?"
That earned him a dark look from Clint, but Tony kept his angry stare locked on Fury's one eye as the man leaned forward until his face practically filled the tablet's screen.
"Certainly," the director said coldly. "At the same time I remind you that we do not know whether or not that protection will work against the powers of Papillon's victims. The present situation in Paris, as you yourselves have noticed, is extremely precarious. I refuse to let your presence risk matters further." His eye narrowed. "Or did you somehow overlook the fact that between you and Agent Romanov, you've managed to break part of that protective glamour?"
Natasha breathed a soft curse. "Tony…"
Damn it, he'd had enough of this. Tony stood up, so abruptly that the chair he'd been sitting on toppled over behind him, the thud almost inaudible against the ringing in his ears.
"You know," he said coldly, "some of us, when we break something, stick around to fix it." He suddenly turned his back on the tablet and Fury's glare, and stalked to the door.
"Hey-!" he heard Clint shout, sounding worried and angry in equal measure as Tony wrenched the door open.
Tony gritted his teeth. "I'm going to cool my head," he said curtly, and took a childishly petty delight in slamming the door closed against any response the SHIELD agents might make.
Nice part about staying in an older, "classic" hotel like Le Grand Paris – making his way from the penthouse floor up to the fancy rooftop pool didn't take any time at all.
Evening had come and gone while Clint and Natasha made their report to Fury; it was full night now, the rooftop terrace completely deserted. It was still technically open, the nighttime lights on and everything, although the cover for the pool had been pulled, so you could see the water flashing in the lights but couldn't actually get in and swim. Safety issue, probably, given that there wasn't a lifeguard up here.
Be nice if the Mayor were half so conscientious about the safety of his damn city, Tony thought with a mental snort, resting his hands against the railing.
He got it, okay? He got it. SHIELD couldn't be everywhere or do everything, and Papillon's ability to take people over and turn them into ruthless supervillains was a potential nightmare from a security standpoint. Near as they could tell, Papillon's villains retained all the knowledge of the original victim – they were the victims, just with nifty new powers, a campy makeover, and all the nice little evolutionary and social limits saying don't do this shut down hard. If an agent got grabbed, everything they knew could be used against SHIELD. Not to mention the people of Paris.
He felt his lip curl in disgust. So their solution is to leave a bunch of kids to pick up the slack.
Not just Ladybug and Chat Noir, either. Although if he ever found whoever had come up with the brilliant plan of dumping a couple of magic objects and the responsibility for this mess in the hands of two kids, he was going to have words. And probably a repulsor blast or two.
No. What really got at him was Adrien, and the kid's classmates.
A bunch of teenagers are stepping up to the plate better than all the adults in the city combined.
Sure, Alya'd been careless and reckless, and pretty short-sighted with her obsession about finding Ladybug's identity. At least she'd done something. That blog of hers wasn't just information on Ladybug sightings; there was a locked forum specifically restricted to victims of past attacks, for example. (Not that the lock had kept Tony out, though he hadn't actually read anything. Much.) And when Bissette had been upset, Adrien had tried to head the possession off – and when that failed, he'd kept enough sense to remember that a bunch of superhero tourists were in town, and had made sure they had enough intel to do something before he got away.
And all the while…
Those kids are so used to this mess that they don't even blink about the fact that people at their school are turning into supervillains on a weekly basis.
Hell. Adrien had practically joked about the possibility that he was next in line for a little black butterfly.
And what are the people who are supposed to be in charge doing through all this?
Okay, fine. The Akuma Brigade kept civilians away from battlezones, and provided counseling for victims. But Tony sure as heck hadn't seen them helping. As for the mayor…
His hands tightened on the rail.
Guy's supposed to be the leader of the city, and what's he doing? Burying his head in the sand and leaving two people to try to protect the whole damn city, when he knows perfectly well there are people he could ask for help.
But that would make the Mayor look bad, wouldn't it? So instead, he just swept everything under the rug – unless, of course, he could benefit from making a fuss.
Just. Like. Stane.
Growling in his throat, Tony thumped a fist down on the railing, closing his eyes to breathe deeply through his nose.
Even if his eyes had been open, he probably wouldn't have seen it coming, with the blazing lights of the rooftop dazzling his eyes. Against the dark sky beyond those lights, fluttering black wings were nearly invisible – until the butterfly set down for just a moment atop the bright circle of the arc reactor.
AN: …of course I went there. Avengers in a Miraculous Ladybug setting – of course Papillon's going to snare one of them!
This fic introduces an alternative headcanon regarding the balance of power than the one I introduced in Luck of the Draw. There, I suggested that Chat Noir might have powers that he hasn't learned about yet. Here… yes, Ladybug has more specific powers. But Chat Noir has many more built-in advantages – a cat's night vision, reinforcement on the suit, claws, etc. (And given that real cats use their tails to help balance… well, I like that idea better than the tail being pure decoration!)
Speaking of headcanons? I like the idea that Adrien knows Marinette has a crush on him. She's not exactly subtle. This puts him in a bind, because Marinette is a friend, and he doesn't want to hurt her. But he doesn't want to lead her on, either. So he plays clueless, and tries to get her to treat him as just another classmate. He deliberately ignores her odd behavior (no way did he miss her diving off the bench, or hiding behind Alya), and otherwise treats her as a friend.
One of my personal rules is that, if a character frustrates me enough in canon that I feel like giving them a swat, I can… but only once, and if at all possible, that character should learn from the experience. But Alya most definitely needs a swat for her behavior as the Ladyblogger. Just in that first incident with Stoneheart, Chat Noir had to sacrifice his weapon to save her from becoming collateral damage. Twice. Stopping to snap pictures of Timebreaker gets her killed (at least as much as Chat Noir was). In the Pharaoh incident, she announces on a public blog that she thinks Ladybug is in fifth-year collège (meaning, fourteen or fifteen), and tries to interview Ladybug in the middle of fighting the supervillain. And Chloé leaning on the principal to get Alya expelled for a few days might have been over the top, but taking pictures of another student's locker is not acceptable behavior, given that it tends to lead to things like blackmail and cyber-bullying.
To be fair, if you read between the lines Alya seems to calm down eventually; to me, all the above episodes happened relatively early in the timeline. Still, that sort of behavior is a problem. And even as late as Volpina (which reads to me as one of the last episodes, chronologically), her default on anything Ladybug-related is clearly still to whip out her phone and record.
My read? Alya's a fourteen/fifteen year old who has never had anything seriously bad happen to her – and so the danger of the situation hasn't sunk in. She's caught up in the thrill and excitement of having her daydream come to life – which means, of course, that she immediately dove into it by taking on the persona of the Intrepid Reporter. (Plus, I suspect that she has her own girl-crush on Ladybug, and daydreams about becoming BFFs. Hamsters and all.)
…to be fair, dealing daily with Marinette's Prophecies of Doom and Disaster isn't exactly the best training for thinking seriously about "and then what?"
I'm pretty convinced that Bubbler is another very early incident, for a number of reasons. Marinette's crush is most definitely at its most incoherent stage, for example, and Adrien hasn't gotten his feet under him enough to call Chloé out on her more blatant behavior. Then there's that silly "drop the yo-yo on Chat Noir's/Ladybug's head" gag, and the fact that it didn't occur to Chat Noir to use Cataclysm on the bubble until after they'd risen too high to escape; they're still figuring out their abilities. The rest of the timeline… well, I confess, I see the order happening in this way in part because of the Alix/Jamil/Alya string.
I'm not kidding about the amount of attention the school gets. I assume that there are plenty of attacks that don't get shown in the series – but of the ones that are, it's easier to count the ones that aren't linked to the school either directly or by physical proximity: Climatika, Pharaoh (Alix's brother), Mr. Pigeon, Copycat, Mime (Mylène's father), Animan (triggered by schoolkids being brats), Puppeteer (whom Marinette babysits), Guitar Villain, Digitizer (who just happened to be triggered when the kids were interning at the hotel), and Jackady (who was near Adrien and Nino, and went after Adrien's father). Although, granted, I'm pretty sure that Antibug was triggered simply because it was too convenient to pass up, rather than her connection to the school. Still, that's only eleven out of twenty-six (counting the Invisible) who aren't connected to the school directly. Four, if you count indirect connections.
To be fair, that has a lot to do with the limitations of the animation medium, and also making certain that the villains/victims are people it's easy for the audience to care about. But in-universe? Them's some pretty scary statistics.
As for how Natasha is able to make guesses as to Ladybug and Chat Noir's age and experience – it's canon that people do know what they look like – see the statue! So my headcanon is that the glamour really kicks in whenever someone tries to apply observations of the superheroes to who their civilian identities are. The ability to observe isn't blocked – it's the ability to draw connections between those observations and the heroes' real identities.