Hello heartbreakerninja here,
Sorry this has taken so long. I had a really hard time with this chapter. Then I got Covid (seriously felt like a head cold not gonna lie) That knocked me out of commission because of quarantine. Then I had more serious writers block. I hate trying to fit chapters together when you give half the plot in the last chapter. Its very hard to get from point A to point B when I do this lol
Anyway,
Then the holidays got in the way and work stuff but finally I have it done. And boy is this a very long chapter. Not gonna lie I have mixed feelings about this chapter. Some of it I love some of it I really detest. Hopefully you all will enjoy it. Have fun!
It was supposed to be a normal trip. A normal trip, won through impossible odds. Unless you are a math genius and can equate the amount of jellybeans that would fit normally into a giant 128oz. jar that was 10.5 feet high and had a 5.7ft diameter. After that figuring out the proper equations was easy. (Volume=3/4 π 43 for just the jar and then contents is volume= (circumference)2 x height/4π just in case you were wondering) He didn't even have to bust out paper and pen to figure that out. It was too easy. The answer was 2,792. He equated 2,790. Small margin for error. He was equating Jellybeans in a jar after all. Their volume was only 80% of the total volume of the actual jar. It took some convincing to prove to the judges that he did not cheat. He was just smart. It helped that Ned was only off by four and MJ was only off by 10. Thus, he was not the only one that got super close to the correct answer.
Did we mention Peter was a genius? Because, yeah, Peters a genius. Jellybeans were a piece of cake.
Anyway, moving on.
The trip was something for him and his Aunt to do together before school started again for the year. Besides that, his Aunt had always wanted to visit Paris. It had been on her bucket list for forever. The free trip to anywhere seemed like the perfect time to surprise her with it. The look on her face when he showed up that day with both plane tickets and hotel reservations was priceless.
He should have known it would not stay a normal trip.
He'd been worried, at first, about leaving his city unprotected but his Aunt May had been adamant that it could survive two weeks without him. Matt and Luke had even promised to keep an eye on Queens for him while he was away. Both were actually very happy to hear that Peter was going on a real vacation. They both worried about a kid "as young as him" swinging through the city; even with his healing factor and Spidey sense. Most of his big bad's where either in jail or had been so quiet that they were probably under lock and key with SHIELD and Fury had just elected not to tell him. (Wouldn't be the first time) Hopefully that would mean a quiet patrol for them anyway. He would only be gone two weeks after all.
He did not even think to let the Avengers know he was leaving. He did leave a message for Happy to let him know he was going out of town and not to worry. He also did not even think about it when he packed his suit. After all, you can never be too careful. Wouldn't be the first time he'd been caught without it and needed to run all the way home before returning to where the bad guy of the week was causing trouble. He'd found out the hard way that it was just better to have it with him or even on him most days than for the inevitable to happen and he had to run all the way home to save the day. That wouldn't really be feasible half way around the world though. Better just to pack it.
The trip started normally. They got to the airport at a reasonable time. The plane ride was amazing. The tickets were for Business class suites! They were amazing! So much legroom and their own table and TV! Aunt Mays was next to his and all they had to do was lower the dividing wall to see each other. It was so much fun. It made the almost 8-hour trip go by super-fast. Customs was a little tricky as his Aunt May tried to smuggle in a few bananas. Thankfully, they thought it was move funny than a problem and let them into the country. From there they caught a cab to their hotel.
The prestigious Le Grand Paris hotel was amazing. The lobby and rooms were stunning. In their room alone, they had two separate bedroom areas with a sitting room area in the middle. The bathroom was HUGE. It was almost as big as their apartment alone. It was fantastic! Though they were also quietly warned that the Mayor, and hotel owner, had a daughter that lived in the hotel and that she had a fiery temper. She stayed one floor above them so Peter wasn't too worried about running into her. Still, other than that, the place was super cool.
They even had their own restaurant with some amazingly fantastic dishes. Their hotel reservations included a 30% discount on the food, which made it even better since the food was quite expensive. Peter loved the ladybug cheesecake, while Aunt May thought the Beehive honey cake was super cute as well as tasty. They did not understand the bug theme but, apparently, the Mayors daughter commissioned them for the desert menu herself. The head baker at the hotel made them daily because of how popular they were.
They actually had a relaxing first few days before anything happened. Peter and Aunt May had visit the sites and sent pictures back to friends and family in the states. They were at the Eiffel Tower when Peter realized he hadn't really told any of the Avengers that he left the states. The lack of messages from them was what kind of clued him in that Happy may not have listened to his messages, again, or told the Avengers that he wasn't in New York.
Whoops. Had to rectify that.
One quick picture later and that small miss step was rectified and now Peter didn't have to worry about being in trouble with Tony or the rest of the Avengers. If ONLY he knew the pandemonium, he caused with that picture. However, he did not. Because his Spidey sense did not work that way.
Speaking of his Spidey sense it seemed to be a bit weird during his time out in Paris. He really didn't understand it but every so often, it would tingle in the back of his head. He looked around every time it did but nothing stood out. There would be nothing there that could cause it. He thought maybe someone may have been watching him but he never seen anyone that looked suspicious enough. At one point, he thought he would have to contact Fury to see if he was having him followed. It would not be the first time. However, he nixed the idea. His Spidey sense wasn't hurting or pulsing. Whatever was setting it off wasn't really a danger as far as he could tell... It would not be the first time his Spidey Sense was just trying to point him in the direction of someone or something important. Just figuring that out was what was driving him mad.
And then, he saw them… Or felt them more like it. He really should have expected it. Spidey was apparently not allowed to take vacations, obviously.
He had been out and around in the evening hours to try to take pictures of the area when the sun was just on the cusp of setting. The lighting made everything look that much more magical. Aunt May was tired and decided to stay at the room; so that had just left Peter and his camera lens that spotted them.
He had been taking pictures of the tower with the sun setting just off center of it. It gave some interesting lighting on the tower and cityscape around it. He was just pressing down the capture button when he felt a stronger twinge from his Spidey sense that caused him to turn around quicker than any normal human would. This caused his camera to snap a slight picture of a pair of red and black spotted legs, just in the top frame of his photo. Peter just blinked at the image in confusion before looking around for the rest of the person. His super hearing heard the sound, of what he would find out later was a yo-yo, but at the time thought sounded like a zip line. Faster than humanly possible, Peter turned around only glimpsing what looked like two figures disappearing behind the top of a building. His Spidey sense let up but still seemed to point in the same direction. Again, it did not feel like danger. It worried Peter but not enough for him to feel the need to call Tony. Instead, he started jogging in the direction of where the two figures had disappeared. His Spidey Sense lightly leading the way.
It led him on a merry chase around the city; and at one point, he was sure he had gotten lost. Then his Spidey sense would pull him in a different direction and he would just see a leather belt (tail?) go over a building and the chase would be on again. Whoever they were, they were fast. Peter had tried to get a picture of them more than once and only seemed to get sections of them. But never a head shot or full body. Only getting a hand here or a leg, foot, and, more often than not, a tail there. (Belt? He still wasn't sure.) If he had thought to have his suit on, this probably would not be a problem but he didn't have it so he couldn't really go climbing up the side of buildings as Peter. The Avengers would sic Natasha on his butt and he really wanted to make it to his senior year alive thank you very much.
He eventually ended up across the street from a bakery when he totally lost them. The bakery was closed, as it was late by that time. The sun had completely gone down and he was going to be late getting back to the hotel. He did however mark the bakery on google maps as a place to visit tomorrow. The shop looked cute and somewhat small. It reminded him of one of the family own places back home that his Aunt like to visit. Maybe he could pick up a few pastries, and then bring them back for breakfast.
Plan made, and his Spidey sense back to a small light hum again, Peter headed back towards the hotel for the night. Aunt May was asleep by the time he walked in, so Peter quietly took a shower and headed to bed.
Next morning Peter woke up early, before his Aunt, and headed out for the bakery he had seen the night before. It was much easier to find in the light of day. It was also pretty busy when he made it. Looked like it was a popular place early in the morning. Peter waited just outside the door for it to clear out a bit before walking in. No need to overwhelm his senses that early in the morning.
It only took around 15 minutes before the shop was empty enough for Peter to comfortably walk around inside. The inside was light and airy and smelled heavenly. There were many different types of baked goods on display and a large man in an apron was bringing in more trays from a back room. There was even a beautifully decorated 2-tier cake; a motherly Asian woman at the cash register was placing it in a baker's box. The large man kissed the woman's cheek as he passed by with the trays, leading Peter to guess that they must be married or dating. The scene was so domestic and cute.
Peter had a bit of a wait until it was his turn, so he pulled out his camera to look through the photos from last night. He hoped that he could see something that he missed last night when he was tired. He was more awake now so maybe he would spot something he didn't notice the night before. He was zooming into one of the more clear photos of the two figures back legs, trying to see if a reflection on a building would show a face, when he felt a presence looking over his shoulder. His spider sense was also moving from a hum to its new unusual tingle again. He was so focused on the image though that the presence combined with his Spidey sense acting weird made him turn around a lot quicker than he usually would normally. This made him smack into a blond haired boy, who had been looking over his shoulder and almost knocking him down. Thankfully, a darker skinned boy was able to right him before the poor kid landed on the ground. Peter was mortified.
"Oh wow, I am so sorry. Are you ok? Please be ok; I totally did not mean to knock into you like that and…..you probably can't understand me because I'm yammering away in English. Uhmm what was the French word for sorry. Uhh…. je suis désolé?" Peter rambled out quickly. He was worried he may have hurt the kid with his super strength. However, to Peters surprise the kid just smiled at him before answering in an accented English with a chuckle.
"It's ok, it was my fault. I should not have been looking over your shoulder like that. Don't worry my aunt lives in England so I know English pretty well. My names Adrien by the way." The blond, now named Adrien, said with a sheepish smile. His companion just looked between the two confused. He said something in French to another person coming into the store.
"Adrien, not everyone can speak English you know. You may want to clue Nino into what you're saying."
Peter looked over to another kid his age, this time a younger girl in glasses. Who had spoken in almost perfect English. Adrien just blushed before repeating himself to Nino in French before turning back to Peter.
"Sorry about that. This is Nino and this is Alya. I got curious of your camera when I saw what looked like partial picture of Ladybug. Are you a reporter or something?" Adrian asked. Before Peter could answer, Alya jumped in.
"Wait; did you say a picture of Ladybug? Let me see, let me see! Please!" Alya said excitedly, tacking on the please when she remembered her manners.
To say Peter was overwhelmed would be an understatement. However, before he could say anything about being confused on who exactly this Ladybug was, another voice chimed in.
"Alya se calme. Je pense que tu fais peur au pauvre gars." Another girl admonished Alya in French. Peter turned around again to see another girl, this time a bit shorter, with dark hair and blue eyes coming from a back room behind the counter. Peter figured that she must be the woman and large man's daughter with how much she resembled them. Once her friend gave her a sheepish smile and apologized to Peter, the small girl turned towards Peter with a warm smile. His Spidey sense was again tingling but not in danger. It really did not make any sense to Peter.
"Hi, welcome to The Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. My name is Marinette, and you've already met Alya, Nino, and Adrien." Marinette said with an amused smile. Her English was a bit stilted but clear and understandable.
"Hi, my names Peter, and thanks, but uh…who is this Ladybug that got them so excited?" Peter asked now that everyone had calmed down. The question made Marinette stiffen ever so slightly before she smiled again and forcefully relaxed. Peter pretended not to notice. He started to take careful note of the reactions of the teens around him. He noticed that the Blond, Adrian, had also looked wary of the mentioning of this Ladybug. The other two just looked curious. The girl called Alya just seemed excited. He watched the girl, Marinette, Forcibly relax and give a smile, a bit too big to be real.
"You don't know who Ladybug is?" She asked innocently. Peter shook his head. He could hear Adrien translating the conversation to Nino in the background.
"Wow I guess the rumors on the web about the French government keeping the Akuma incidents under wraps is true then." Alya spoke up from behind in slight excitement. This only confused Peter some more. What had he fallen into this time?
"Akuma incidents? Ladybug? French government? Ok I am so confused. What's going on exactly?" Peter asked. His brain going a million miles an hour. Now he was wondering if he should have contact the Avengers after all. However, before that, he needed to find out what was going on from his new friends.
Adrien answered him this time.
"I'm not really sure about the government part but Ladybug is our local superhero. She, along with her partner Chat Noir, protect Paris from Hawkmoth."
"Hawkmoth, who's that?"
"He's the bad guy behind the Akuma attacks, Akuma's are people that have been brainwashed by Hawkmoths evil Akuma making butterflies to wreaking havoc based on their anger or sadness. These strong emotions attract the Akuma butterflies and turn people into villains against their will. They then start attacking people and destroying the town to lure out our local superheroes to steal their miraculous. The items that give them their powers. He's the worst." Alya jumped in to explain with a scowl just thinking about the evil mastermind. Peter on the other hand was reeling with this information.
How had he not heard about this before coming here? Nowhere on any of the tourist sites was a superhero team and city destroying bad guys mentioned. ANYWHERE! Did Mr. Stark know? Did Fury? Did the Avengers? Maybe he should have remembered to tell them he was leaving the country for two weeks. This sounded a little bit too much for just him. Before Peter could ask any more questions though, the woman at the register spoke up to Marinette.
"Marinette, ne sois pas impoli, présente-nous ta nouvelle amie. Est-ce qu'il aimerait aussi des pâtés?" Marinette blushes at the admonishment from her Mother.
"Désolé maman, ce n'est pas encore vraiment un ami. Il vient d'Amérique et a en quelque sorte trébuché sur Adrien. Mais je vais lui demander et voir." Marinette answered before turning to Peter again. "Sorry about that. Mom wanted to know if you would like some pastries. They are really good. Alya jumped in before Peter could say anything in the affirmative. He was starting to see a trend.
"Yeah, Mari's parents have the BEST macarons in all of Paris. Plus, if you get some then we can all go to the park and we can explain what's going on better. And you can show me what pictures of Ladybug you have." Alya decided. Marinette rolled her eyes fondly at her friend, as did Adrien.
"Alya you can't just decide that for him. He barely knows us." Adrien admonished. He turned to Peter still smiling. "But she is right. If you want, you can join us in the park. Maybe we can also help Nino learn some English as well so he's not so lost. As well as help with your French?" Adrien tacked on quickly.
Peter took a moment to think about it. On one hand, he had come here to get breakfast for his Aunt. On the other hand…the other teens seemed nice and willing to share what they know. Maybe he could hang out for a short while before heading back to the hotel with something else that was sweet from the bakery for his Aunt. Besides his Spidey sense seemed to be pointing to at least two members of the group. He needed to find out why. Decision made Peter smiled and nodded.
"Sure; sounds like fun. I just need to text my Aunt and let her know what I'm doing. I didn't really tell her I was leaving the hotel. I also wanted to pick up something here for her to have later." Peter said while sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck. Alya whooped in glee while Adrien and Marinette both smiled at him. Marinette's was a bit more natural this time.
"Sounds great. I can help you order with mom if you're having any trouble with your French." Marinette offered. Peter gave a nod in appreciation. Conversing in the French language, he had learned, was quite different from speaking it in a classroom setting. There was a lot to get lost in translation if he was not careful. So having someone who could assist with ordering was awesome.
Marinette smiled as she led the way to the front counter. Her mother, though not knowing much English, did try to welcome him. It was sweet. He in turn tried to thank her in French. His words came out a bit jumbled but she smiled and giggled at his attempt making him feel less awkward. They ended up picking out a small box of macaron's and another small box of berry and cheese Danishes. Marinette was also handed a medium size box of different pastries and cookies to share with the group by her father. She and the others waved good-bye to her parents as they led Peter out of the building and towards the park.
Along the way, they chatted about the different buildings and places around them, asking Peter questions about America, and what he had seen in Paris as they walked. It was fun and it helped Peter relax quite a bit. He also learned more about the two main superheroes in Paris. He also learned that there were quite a few other heroes. These heroes would often team up with the main duo when Hawkmoth made bigger and meaner Akuma, or when Mayura showed up to help cause havoc with her Sentimonster. Peter was concerned to hear how crazy things would get. He was reassured that there were heroes here that were keeping the problem at bay, but it sounded like they were struggling when it came to finding out who these bad guys actually were. It was also concerning he wanted the good guys magic items but no one knew why. No world domination plans were announced, no obvious experimentation to make a super race, and no obvious grudge against the heroes beforehand since no one knew whom the other was before all this started. It was unknown exactly why Hawkmoth wanted them and what he planned to do with them. It was quite the mystery.
By the time they reached the park, Peter had learned quite a bit about the Paris heroes and their villain. He had also learned quite a bit about the group of friends. They were all very unique in style and attitude but seemed to click together well as only good friends can do.
Marinette was a very sweet, if not a bit clumsy, friendly girl. She was aspiring to be a fashion designer and created a lot of her own clothing and accessories. She also seemed to have a crush on her blond friend, though he seemed quite oblivious to it. She was also the youngest of their group by a year.
Alya was also extremely friendly, if not a bit in your face about everything. However, it was more amusing then annoying for the most part, thankfully. She was also extremely passionate about their city's heroes and journalism in general. She was a ball of excitement and energy, dragging everyone else along for the ride. She was also the oldest of the group by a year and a half. She was also dating Nino, the only non-English speaker of the group.
Nino was a bit harder to get to know, if only because of the language barrier. Nonetheless, He and Peter were able to have a slightly faltered conversation; especially with the other 3 teens helping to translate where Peters French was lacking. He apparently really loved music. He wanted to eventually write and compose his own one day. He also liked videography, and wanted maybe do his own movie one day. Big dreams and aspirations seemed to be the theme of this friends group. He was also second oldest, right behind Alya making Adrien the middle child of their group.
Adrien seemed to be the shiest of their group. (He also seemed the most lost, if Peter was reading him right.) He was warm and friendly but also seemed a bit withdrawn. He was also, apparently, THE model for his father's fashion company. He was relieved when Peter didn't instantly fawn over that particular piece of information. It really didn't matter to Peter. He was used to being around Tony and his billionaire status. Money would not change his reaction to others.
By that point, they had reached the park and had found a picnic table to sit at.
The park was spacious but much smaller than Central Park in New York. There was even a carousel with beautifully painted horses. An Ice-cream man was nearby selling double scoops to couples with a dramatic flair. It was all quite peaceful. The group had placed the treats that Marinette's parents had given them in the center of the table; that way everyone could reach them, and were each munching on one type or another. Alya had been right, the macarons were fantastic. They sat in appreciative silence for a few moments as they enjoyed the treats.
Then the questions started.
Peter should have seen it coming. He had obviously learned quite a bit about the others but they had yet to learn much about him. Other than knowing that he was from America. Alya, of course, was the first to start asking questions.
"So Peter, which state do you live in?"
"I actually live in Queens, New York." Peter answered after swallowing what was in his mouth.
"Ooh the big Apple that's probably super exciting."
"Eh, not really, you're kind of used to it after a while; and I've lived there almost my whole life."
"Where do you go to school?" Marinette asked next. She had a strange gleam in her eye that Peter couldn't place. He just brushed it off as curiosity about a new person.
"I actually attend a specialty high school, Midtown School of Science and Technology." Peter answered self-consciously. Most people did not like to associate with nerds. However, to Peters surprise and delight, Adrien and, even surprisingly, Marinette, were pretty impressed and excited by this information and started asking him rapid fire questions about what he was learning and what his specialty was. Peter was even more surprised when Adrien was able to keep up with the high-level science gorgon he was used to using. Even Marinette was able to keep up with quite a bit of the math. She wasn't genius level but pretty smart in her own right. When he mentioned engineering design, THAT, was when she really showed her talent for design.
He had pulled up a design he was working on for Tony that assisted a blind individual with paperwork that was not done in brail or could not be done in digital format. It was actually a redesign on an existing system that was super bulky and slow to translate from written format to brail. He had gotten the idea from Matt after finding out he was Daredevil. (That was an interesting and long story that no one but he and Matt's team were privy too) He had taken one look at the original design and Matt getting mad at it and decided it was now his next project outside of Spider-man stuff. The original could only translate a single line at a time and took too long between lines to be as efficient as possible. Especially when it came to the legal documents that Matt and Foggy worked with on the daily. Karen was great but she could not translate all the written documents to digital fast enough by herself, even with Peter assisting, and get them to Matt fast enough to work with. Therefore, he was creating a compact design that would translate an entire page at one time as soon as it was placed under it. However, he was having difficulty with the compact size. Marinette pointed out a small flaw in the design that was what was causing issue.
"This button on the side is bigger than it needs to be. If you make it half the size, you can shrink the design down more and make it less bulky. The slide on the side could also be changed to a two-section button design and that should lower the amount of internal pieces needed to make it work. That will also make it slimmer and help with a sleeker looking piece." Marinette stated as she pointed out the sections that could be improved.
Peter was impressed. If the girl ever got bored with clothing design, she could have a bright future in product design. Pepper would adore her. Really, Tony would as well. Unknown to most, Tony was a sucker for up and coming Designers that had promise. He was always visiting new designer's shops, either online or in person, to see if he should help them out by buying just about everything in his size they had in their inventory. He wondered if Marinette took commissions.
Peter was about to ask her just that, when his Spidey sense started screaming. That's when he heard the first scream. After hearing everything that the others had been telling him, he should have expected it really. He had noticed the child screaming about wanting ice cream to his mother in the background but did not think anything about it. It was such a normal occurrence. Something that happened so frequently in New York that he didn't even really register it as a possible threat. He noticed that all four of the others had switched to a more serious stance, moving away from the table, looking for the threat. He thought that was odd but summed it up to being used to this by now and knowing that they would need to defend themselves until help could arrive. Peter too had switched to a ready stance without realizing it. It was then that the other four remembered they had someone that wasn't normally in the middle of these kind of fights but before anyone could say anything a giant scoop of ice cream came spiraling out of the trees and right for them. Peter had already been in motion before he even saw it. He grabbed both Nino and Alya and yanked them out of the way. He could not grab everyone and he could only hope that Marinette and Adrien had moved out of the way.
The ice cream splattered right on the picnic table, smashing it into splinters and spraying both wood and globs of ice cream everywhere. Thankfully, Adrien had grabbed Marinette and had gotten themselves out of the line of fire as well.
"Are you guys alright?" Peter yelled over to Marinette and Adrien. He was relieved that they had made it out unharmed. Adrien nodded as he helped Marinette to her feet.
"Yeah we're good but we need to get out of here. This is ground zero and we're right in the line of fire. We should sp…."
Before Adrien could finish more ice cream started raining down causing everyone to duck and cover. In the confusion, he lost sight of both Adrien and Marinette as they headed deeper into the park. Before he could head after them, Nino started pulling on his arm and shaking his head. Saying something in rapid fire French. Alya was the one to explain.
"Don't worry about those two. They look to be headed towards the bathrooms. They are reinforced steal and stone. They are made to withstand most projectile shots like this. The mayor put a lot of money into making small spaces like that to be bunkers in case of attacks. But you need to keep moving. There's no telling what other things the Akuma can dish out and if Myura is helping it could get really bad really fast. You need to move towards the buildings. They'll give you cover if anything else." Peter eyes widened as she spoke realizing she only meant for him to run.
"Wait! What about you two. We all need to get out of here." Peter exclaimed as Alya pulled out her phone and started recording. She shook her head and pointed at her phone.
"Don't worry about us. We need to get this documented and up on the Blog so that everyone knows to stay clear and possibly get Ladybug's attention as well. If she and Chat Noir don't know what's going on already. Don't worry we're used to this by now. We know how to stay out of the way. Now get a move on." Alya said giving Peter a push in the direction of the Buildings. He hated the idea of leaving two non-powered civilians in the middle of a war zone but he wouldn't be able to become Spider-man and help if he was dragging the two of them behind him. He hated the idea, but in the end he nodded in defeat.
"Alright, but be safe. I'm going to head towards the hotel and make sure my Aunt is ok. Don't do anything reckless!"
Nino seemed confused by the conversation but seemed to understand the actions if nothing else. He had a mini video camera in his hands already. Alya gave Peter a winning smile before nodding and pulling Nino behind her as they headed further into the park. Peter gave them a few moments to disappear before heading for the nearest dark corner to switch into his Spider-man Suit.
It wasn't too hard to find a secluded spot. Then it was only a matter of moments to switch into his suit and web his bag up into a corner of the building's fire escape. He really hoped no one tried to take off with it. It would really be hard to replace everything in it. Especially his passport. Then it was just a matter of booting up the suit and Karen and finding his way up the side of the building inconspicuously. Hopeful that he'd get a better view once on top.
Once up on the roof it didn't take him long to find the Akuma. To his surprise though, it was huge! He knew that magic was involved and that it changed the people that were Akumatized but his scientific focused mind wasn't expecting a 500 foot tall giant Stay Puft Marshmallow man knockoff. It was ice cream instead of Marshmallow but other than that it looked like the monster from Ghostbusters. Right down to the sailor hat on its angry face.
"If they ever find out who Hawkmoth is, he's going to be in a lot of legal trouble for copyright infringement." Peter quipped aloud.
"Wouldn't that be a Cat-tastrophe." Came a voice behind Peter causing him to swing around. And there behind him was one of the figures from his late night stroll. The figure was a boy, probably about his age (he couldn't be sure but it was a good guess), Wearing all black. He had striking toxic green eyes and messy blond hair. A tail? Of some sort, was moving behind him and ears, honest to goodness cat ears, were swiveling on the top of his head. This one could only be the Chat Noir that Alya and the others had spoken about. Chat looked at Peter confused before realization seemed to hit him and he gasped and pointed exaggeratedly at Peter.
"Holy caterwaul, your Spider-man. THE Spider-man!" Chat yowled excitedly before skipping, honest to goodness skipping, over and into Peter's personal bubble. Peter leaned back a little awkward. He was getting a bit of déjà vu. Was this guy related to Deadpool?
"Uhh, yeah?" Peter eloquently said. Was this what it was like for everyone else when he did this? If so he reeeaally felt bad for it now because, wow, was this weird. No one but Deadpool ever fanboy'd over him. It was a little overwhelming to be honest. Before the conversation could get anymore awkward then it already was, Peters Spidey sense chose that moment to dial it up to a six, sending Peter into action. He grabbed the Cat boy around his waist and flung them both across the rooftops. Just in time for a scoop of Rocky road to land right where Chat had been standing. Crisis thankfully avoided for the moment.
Of course, that's when Chats partner chose to shows up and looked like she wants to rip Peter to shreds for even being there in the first place. Good grief that girl could almost give Natasha a run for her money in the Scary face department. Peter actually wondered if she was a Natasha clone or been trained in a similar vain. Also, THAT was a scary and very disturbing thought! Natasha didn't talk about her past often but what was said, and furthermore what was NOT said, laid out a very brutal and painful childhood to become the lethal but beautiful assassin and super spy that she was known as today. The fact that someone else may or may not have gone through the same thing was not something Peter wanted to think about. Like ever.
After his new superhero'd fan vouched for him, Ladybug, with much long suffering, told him he could tag along as long as he stayed out of their way. He was then treated to 2 minutes of nonstop cat and spider puns from Chat as they swung through the streets of Paris towards where the ice-cream Stay Puft Marshmallow man knockoff was causing havoc. From the looks Chats partner was giving him, Peter is pretty sure this is a regular thing and not just something he's doing for Peter. How the poor girl stayed sane from that was beyond him. He was a lover of quick witty quotes and puns but Chat was able to take it to a ridiculous degree. He asked Karen to remind him to apologize to his mentor.
Five minutes into the fight Peter was thrown two blocks and felt way out of his depth. That's when he made a call to the Avengers. He wasn't expecting how the Call was going to go….
"How does he do that!"
"I don't know!"
Of course, he then got to listen to an interesting segment of Bucky Barnes and Nick Fury cursing in Russian and English simultaneously; while Clint bust a gut in the background. It was pretty distracting.
So when it became clear that they'd clearly forgotten he was on a call with them, Peter had Karen turn down the call volume and rejoined the fight. Eventually Ladybug used her power (something called a lucky charm…Peter chalked it up as magic and tried not to think to hard about physics behind object displacement) and a spider web ring landed in her hand. Peter was pretty confused how that was going to help but Ladybug seemed to find some kind of inspiration from it. Because the next thing he knew she was having him create large webs all around the walking copyright infringement. She was not concerned with Peter's explanation of it taking hours to dissolve that much webbing.
"Don't worry about it. I'll fixed it all after we stop the akuma." Ladybug yelled out as she and Chat got into the positions she had earlier indicated when explaining her plan.
Peter shrugged and got to work. It was a good thing he brought extra tubes of webbing, as this was going to take A LOT of webbing. By the time he was done, a four way intersection looked like someone got excited for Halloween and gone overboard. But it worked. It trapped the walking Hollywood lawsuit and enabled Ladybug to grab the akumatized item thing and return the rampaging victim back into a child. Peter was pretty disgusted to find out that this Hawkmoth would be so low to go as far as screwing with a little kids head. Poor kid looked so confused and about to cry. He apparently didn't know who the Paris hero's were but his eyes got big when he spotted Peter.
"SPIDER-MAN!" The little boy cried with delight. Peter smiled before landing before the boy and waved. The little boy laughed and ran up to hug the hero. Peter gave a chuckle before lightly hugging the boy back.
"Hey there little dude, you ok?" Peter asked.
"Uh huh" The boy said nodding his head vigorously. Peter nodded before looking back to the other hero's.
"Uhmm do we know where the kids parents might be or is there somewhere designated to take them? Sorry I'm a little out of my depth. I was supposed to be here on vacation." Peter said with a sheepish shrug. He had to will himself no t to rub the back of his neck. Even so Ladybug gave him a suspicious look before they all heard a loud beeping and Ladybug reached up to feel her earrings.
"Looks like we're out of time." Ladybug said with a frustrated sigh; before giving her partner a nod and then swinging off quickly, leaving Spider-man still crouched beside the kid.
"Uhmm Chat Noir, not to be rude or anything but this isn't my city and the medias probably just waiting to bombard us wondering why I'm here…so do you know what we do with the little guy so I can swing out of here?" Peter said while shrugging sheepishly.
Chat gave him a chuckle.
"No problem Spider-Man. I still have some time before my miraculous runs out; you go ahead and head out. I'll get the kid to the authorities so they can find his parents."
"Thanks." Peter said with relief before looking back to the kid.
"Hey kiddo. Chat Noir here is going to get you to someone to help find your parents ok?"
To the kid's credit, he nodded with a smile and didn't put up to much of a fuss that Spider-man was leaving. He just smiled and waved as Peter went to swing away.
Of course as he's webbing away does Karen remind him that he still has the Avengers on the line. He then almost fell out of the sky when everyone tried to yell at once…not all of them yelling in English either. Angry Russian is even scarier when it's aimed at you. Karen also refused to translate it in full, as apparently some kind of protocol in the suit didn't not allow for cursing to be translated. (Really Tony?!)
There was still more lecturing/yelling while he was trying to get out of the suit and Karen switched it to his cell phone. By this time, though, it was mostly just Tony and Fury yelling at each other and Steve trying to be mediator. Clint could still be heard cackling in the background.
Peter sighed as he contemplated the merits of just hanging up and deal with the consequences later.
"HE DOESN'T ANSWER TO YOU FURY!"
"WELL MAYBE HE SHOULD BE! THEN AT LEAST WE'D HAVE KNOWN HE LEFT THE COUNTRY!"
Yep screw the consequences. Peter ended the call and walked the rest of the way to the hotel in blissful silence.
*Meanwhile in New York*
Tony and Fury where still at it for another 15 minutes before Friday could butt in and let her Boss know that Peter had hung up already. The shock alone shut both them up long enough for Clint, Same and Rhodey to burst into laughter.
"He's grounded. The moment he's back on American soil he's grounded." Tony finally said after shaking out of his shock from Peter's sheer audacity to hang up on him. This just set the other three off again.
"Friday please send a Tiktok video to Peter that has the sound of "I don't want these consequences" Don't give him any context, he'll figure it out." Clint got out between giggles.
Everyone in the room just stared at Clint until Bucky snorted
"I don't want these consequences chasing me right now" Bucky said after another snort.
Tony, Fury, and Steve were very confused but it sent both Clint and Sam in to hysterics once again.
"Holy cow the Winter Solider knows Tiktok!" Clint exclaimed so loudly that it could be heard down the hall.
*Meanwhile, again, in Paris*
Hawkmoth was in a state of shock as he closed up his lairs window. He was having a bit of a hard time processing what just happened.
An American superhero was in Paris. An actual Superhero. Spider-man, THE Spider-man, was in Paris right now and had fought against one of his Akumas. Not only that, but he had also teamed up with Ladybug and Chat Noir. Moreover, Ladybug had let him! And held his own!
Had news of his activities finally reached the ears of America or was this just a fluke? Would he now need to worry about the likes of Tony Stark coming and messing up his plans… or… could he use this to his advantage? Of course, even if the American Superhero's hadn't known of his existence they sure would know of it now. There was no way Spider-man would stay silent on this. Given time, he was sure that the Avengers would be getting in his way. He'd have to come up with new plans to deal with this new threat.
"They cant get in my way" Hawkmoth growled as he released his transformation and left his lair and reentered his office. It was time to get back to work.
So what did you think? Too long? Too much dialog? not enough? Let me know how you liked it in the comments.
Until then see ya in the next chapter!