The Team Verse

xXx

Marinette showed Agent Possible what she could do with and without her transformation right after she arrived and was surprised when the red-head actually dubbed Marinette a great asset with the suit and a potentially great asset without. The dark-haired girl had just wondered afterwords if her superior had really been watching her fight, because without the suit, she was still clumsy as all get out. Then the woman had outlined a very intense routine for the red-clad super heroine that promised to teach her martial arts and weapons (how cool was that?!) for when she didn't have access to magic. The older woman had insisted that she wouldn't have done so if Marinette didn't have potential, which made her feel a lot better about the whole experience in general. Like maybe she could do this after all.

Agent Possible and had then deemed her worthy of trying a team exercise, brand new to all of them and designed with their collective powers in mind.

Unfortunately, the first time the team participated in the exercise didn't end well. Disastrous was a little more like it. They didn't get what they're after – a glowing ball that was nothing more than their goal – and Marinette was convinced that it somehow had to be her fault. Well, mostly her fault. She was the new person on the team, after all. Although, she wasn't sure how they managed to destroy half the hall when she has the power of creation (and had to wonder if this was how their team exercises usually wnte). Agent Possible said it was simply because their team dynamic had changed and they all needed to adapt. Everyone left the training hall sore and frustrated that day. Marinette just headed to her room where she collapsed and tried to recover from an intense training session with a new team on top of jet-lag.

The next day followed a similar routine.

By the time the second exercise reached its end, she was more or less in the middle of a personal pity party. She felt dejected and upset and was half-tempted to throw in the towel right then and there no matter what the French Government said. She wasn't the only one either (the single person among them who didn't seem as upset as the rest of them was Danny, but she could tell that even he had been trying to hide his frustration). Still, she knew that this had been mostly her fault, but she that didn't mean she knew how to fix it. It had been a long time since she'd been so overlooked as Ladybug and no one else had really listened to her (which, she couldn't blame them for too much, she'd come in as the new kid, could hardly speak their language and also happened to be younger than them). After a while, she'd even used her lucky charm and figured out how to work with it and they still hadn't succeeded.

Of all of them, Agent possible seemed the most upset, though. She didn't actually say anything about it, but did just look at them all in disappointment and assigned them to run 20 laps without their transformations before walked out. The boys groaned but pulled themselves to their feet to start running around the gym. Marinette followed suit with a sigh.

Later, Marinette went over what happened and came to the conclusion that she needed to get to know what the other members of her team better and figure out how to work with them. She technically already knew the gist of their powers, as she'd read their files (or the watered-down version they gave her in any case) but she still hadn't seen their powers in action - not all of them - or how the boys could really use them. She knew Danny had ghost powers (which confused her because he doesn't look dead most of the time and he had a pulse), and that he can fly and faze through things and shoot energy blasts from his hands. There were a few more things he was able to do, she remembered, but he didn't seem to want to get involved with the rest of them, leaving the others to work at getting the objective. She'd watched him transform, hair going from black to white, and then he'd...just floated there looking either bored or annoyed.

Jake could, in fact, turn into a dragon with a burst of flame. She knew he'd be stronger and faster in that form and he could breathe fire, fly and even use magic sometimes. He'd... actually done quite a bit of damage to clear the way for her and Randy, but in her opinion it had done more harm than good. She really had to wonder who the team member before her had been if they defaulted to that strategy, but it was classified, unfortunately.

Randy's powers were more like Marinette's in the fact that he just slipped on a mask that gives him a super-suit and then he does flips over things like nothing else. It's kind of jaw-dropping - even she and Chat Noir would have issues pulling some of those moves off - but he seemed to like to show off more than he liked to figure out how to obtain the group goal.

Marinette herself was stronger and faster and had a lot more protection with the suit on, not to mention she had her magic yo-yo (which had gotten tangled around her teammates more than once, much to her chagrin - she had a new appreciation for Chat who had reached a point where where he rarely if ever got in her way anymore and visa versa). She could also do her fair share of maneuvering, but somehow, even after she transformed, she just kept tripping the others up, or they'd trip her up. She'd never realized just how much of a boon it was to have a partner – partners – who she worked so well with. She and Chat had had their rough patches, but the two of them had always had such a dynamic. They hadn't had to work at it... not like this.

The third day was marginally better... but only just, and at the end, they all had to run even more laps while their superior walked away in frustration.

Thankfully, even as tired as they were, they all had pretty incredible stamina. The only one she seemed to consistently be able to even remotely keep up with was Danny, and he'd paced himself well enough that by the end that he'd easily been a lap ahead of her. Part of her wondered if he had done that just so she didn't feel so bad when she finished last. Jake easily completed the laps first and Randy wasn't that far behind him.

Fortunately, she still had Tikki, who kept up a constant chatter in French and made Marinette feel much better, even when she was the last one who, tired and hungry, walked out of the empty gym.

She's surprised t find Randy waiting for her.

He stood in the large, featureless hall, leaning back against the wall nonchalantly. She wasn't sure if he'd been waiting there for her or not until he spotted her, stood up and walked forward.

"Hey, I totally know what it's like to be the new guy on the team," he said by way of introduction. "And I know we got off on the wrong foot, but I what you did in there was totally bruce. Sorry I made you think that you being here is an insult."

Marinette blinked, tried to understand what he had said and then figured she'd gotten the gist of it. She asked Tikki just to make sure, and was happy when it turned out that she'd been right. "Merci," she said, turning back to him with a smile.

"That being said, you gotta realize that this isn't Paris anymore. I know you're used to working with others (so you have a leg up on me, really), but this is a new team. Get to know us all. And I know I'm the last one anyone wants to hear this from, but don't worry so much about proving yourself. Believe in the weapon inside the suit," he said with a grin, then poked her in the chest above her heart.

She blinked in surprised as he shot her another smile and turned to walked away.

Marinette asked Tikki to translate what she didn't understand (apparently Kwami's could do that — she blamed magic). Then she stared after the boy with a thoughtful expression. Perhaps she'd misjudged him.

The next day when he farted in her face and then laughed about it, she dismissed that thought.

xXx

She didn't know why Jake Long avoided her like the plague. When he did see her, he'd scowl or get this expression on his face, like he needed to go to the bathroom or something. Then he'd turn and just walk in the other direction.

At first she'd thought it was just something about her being new, but it hadn't gotten any better after a few weeks. If anything it had gotten worse and had even begun to show up in their group training sessions. Finally, after about two weeks of him more or less pretending she didn't exsit, she decided that if no one else would address it, then she would. She managed to corner him one day after a particularly grueling session, walking up with her hands on her hips.

"Monsieur Long," she said, perhaps a little heatedly. He turned at the sound of his name, saw her coming and frowned. She could already see him shifting to make a break for it. "Do not run!" she yelled. Thankfully, he stopped.

She nodded approvingly. "Now, tell moi why you 'ave problem?"

He looked around nervously. "Um, I don't have a problem with anything."

"Non! You 'ave problem avec moi. Why?"

"Um, I don't even know you very well, so—"

"I not... am not dumb. You do not like me."

He frowned and seemed to think about that for a moment. Then he looked surprised. "You're right. Go figure."

"Well?" she pressed.

Jake was quiet for quite a while. "I think you remind me of my sister. Half Chinese, super powers, pigtails, everyone thinks the world of you, you're cute and you know it. I've just had issues in the past is all. Didn't realize I was shifting it on to you. My bad."

She glanced to Tikki to help with the translation, but when she'd finished, Marinette nodded.

"Then problem non more?"

Jake cocked his head to one side, then ruffled her hair. She squawked and shoved his hand away.

"Nah. I think you'll be a different kind of little sister anyway."

Marinette blinked at his declaration, then smiled. This was him saying he'd try, she realized. Besides, she'd never had an older brother before.

He still had problems after that, but she could tell he was working at it, and their interactions were getting better. That, she supposed, would be enough for now.