(Summary: A trip to Gotham? Well, that wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately, Marinette has a long lost father in Gotham, and particularly nosy brothers. Not that they know this, of course.
Okay, it's been a while since I've read any Batman comics, watched any of the cartoons/movies or played any of the games, so bear with me, okay? I'm fairly certain that I've kept things accurate, at least. I tried to keep as close to the character's roots as possible, but I haven't really figured out Jason's speech patterns.
Somebody suggested that I do the Felix/Quantum Kids trope, but I have to be honest. I was not vibing with it. I mean, Felix is pretty average for a minor antagonistic character. The angsty mommy's boy who's also a bit evil for whatever reason. He bores me. And the reason that I dislike the Quantum Kids trope is because we know next to nothing about them. I tried writing it, but it just didn't work out.
You'll notice that Marinette's name isn't hyphenated here. Tom met Sabine after she'd already had Marinette, so I decided not to hyphenate the name. For reference, Tom is Mari's step-dad, but he didn't adopt her.
Let's just pretend that Bruce threw his weight around, so Damian was reinstated to Gotham Academy, but after some arguments, they allowed him to skip two grades (that is the word in America, right?), provided that he took the necessary academic tests, which he did.
Also, I was looking through my responses to your reviews, and I only just realised how condescending I sound. Seriously, look out for my replies in the reviews because I sound like such an asshole. I'm really sorry if I made anyone feel bad. I never realise how shitty I sound until I read things back. Nobody said anything, but I can't help but feel that I may have been rather rude whenever I answered things. I mean, generally I only answer replies at three AM because, you know, time, but that's no excuse to be a bitch.
Disclaimer: I don't own Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Chat Noir or the DCU.
Marinette had always known that Tom Dupain wasn't her biological father. She'd never been told just who her real father was, but that had never really mattered to her. Tom had always been there for her, loving her as if he were his own. Marinette would later learn that Tom physically couldn't have children, so perhaps that was why he'd been so willing to parent Sabine's toddler when giving the option.
But Marinette had never questioned Tom's love for her, so perhaps that was why she never asked her Mom just who her biological father was.
But that would all change today.
You see, Marinette had been tasked with an ancestry project by Mme. Mendeleiv, which was to be completed before their yearly school trip, and Marinette needed to know key information about her biological father, like his hair colour or his eyes.
"Hey, Maman," Marinette started. "I have a question."
"Is something wrong, Marinette?" Sabine looked up from the dishes she was cooking. Tom was downstairs in the bakery.
"No, no, nothing's wrong. Just, you see, well, for science, umm…" she bit her lip. "Mendeleiv wants us to do a project about our DNA and stuff, but to do that, I kind of need to know about…" Marinette muttered something under her breath.
"What was that?"
"I said… for the project, I need to know about my b-biological father." Marinette chewed her lower lip nervously.
Sabine merely smiled. She knew this had been coming, some day. It had honestly worried Sabine and Tom when, after fifteen years, Marinette hadn't asked about her father, but it seemed the day had finally come. Tom had no problem with telling Marinette the truth, but it had been Sabine who'd insisted that Marinette should come to them with her own questions.
"That's fine, Mari. I've been waiting for this."
"You have?" Marinette asked, sitting beside Sabine on the sofa.
"Of course I have. Now, where should I start?"
"What does he look like?"
"He had… black hair and blue eyes, like you and me. You have the same eyes, you know." Marinette had always known she'd gotten her blue eyes from her father. After all, Sabine's eyes were grey. "Last I checked, he's still in America. Here, let me see if I can find a picture." With that, Sabine bustled away to a cupboard, pulling out a stack of photo albums and skipping to the purple one.
Marinette looked down at Tikki, shrugging as the kwamii's curious gaze turned on her.
"Ah, here's one!" Sabine handed a picture to Marinette. She carefully took it in her hands, examining every detail.
The background was wet, dreary. The top of a dark, starless sky could be made out, as well as a glowing W off to the left. A young woman, roughly sixteen years younger than the one before her, was standing, her arms wrapped around a man who appeared to be her age, maybe a little young. His free hand was placed in his jacket. Marinette couldn't make it out from the grainy camera footage, but she was fairly certain that this coat was Versace. Marinette's eyes travelled up from the man's expensive clothing to his square jawline to his cornflower blue eyes to the dark black hair.
And Marinette could be wrong… she really could… the camera quality was bad. It was entirely possible that she was simply imagining things.
"Maman…" she swallowed little moisture. "What's… what's his name?"
"Oh," Sabine smiled. "Bruce Wayne. We met… what was it? Sixteen years ago? Bit of a whirlwind romance, to be honest. This was a few years after he adopted his first son, mind you. But it was─… Marinette?"
Marinette was… a bit overwhelmed.
After all, it's not everyday that you learn your father is one of the most well known billionaires in the world.
Marinette was just quirky like that.
Marinette was a worrier. It was one of the many facets of her personality. She could have a panic attack over something as little as her crush looking in her direction. So it wasn't particularly surprising that Marinette could be found hyperventilating in her room not an hour later.
"Bruce Wayne's my father…" she muttered, over and over again, her voice elevating in pitch every time she spoke. "Bruce Wayne… is my father."
"Marinette!" Tikki exclaimed. "I understand that this is weird, but you need to calm down! Hawkmoth might send an akuma! Come on, just breathe in with me."
It took Marinette a second to start copying Tikki's exaggerated gulps of air, but it worked, eventually.
"I just…" Marinette started, sometime later. "I never would've expected…"
"It's okay, Marinette," Tikki said, flying up to sit on her desk. "Just because he's your biological father, doesn't mean you need to meet him. That's what you said, right?"
'That was before I knew,' Marinette thought. It was much more real, now. She could always imagine that Tom Dupain was her father. Now… she had a name and a face.
But…
"Yeah, Tikki," she smiled. "You're right. Nothing's changed… nothing's going to change. Right."
Well, something changed, anyways.
"We're going where?" Marinette repeated as Alya jumped around excitedly. Marinette had missed the announcement after an akuma attack, but it seemed that they now knew the top secret location of their school trip.
"We're going to Gotham City!" Alya shrieked excitedly.
"As in the Crime Capital of America?" Marinette asked. 'As in the place where my father lives?'
"Yeah! Oh, this is going to be amazing! D'you think I could put our visit on the Ladyblog?!"
"It's your blog," Marinette said, her mind on anything other than Alya's blog. 'Stay calm, Marinette.' Adrien and Nino approached them. "Is this because of that whole 'celebrating the relations between France and America' thing?"
"Yeah, we were originally going to New York, but plans have changed, for some reason."
"So, my dude here has actually been to Gotham," Nino announced, his arm slung over Adrien's shoulder.
"Uh-uh," Adrien nodded, a slight frown on his face as he looked at Marinette. "You okay, Princess? You're a bit pale."
"What?! No! Nope, I'm fine! A-okay! Never better! I'm gre-at!" Her voice cracked as she spoke, giving away how not okay she was. Alya and Nino passed this off as her usual reaction to Adrien, but Adrien frowned again. Marinette cursed herself. Chat always knew when something was wrong… then again, she was hardly the most subtle of people. "So, anyways, tell us about Gotham!"
"It's very wet," he told them. "There's only two sides of Gotham. The crime side and the crime side for rich people."
"Really?" Alya asked. "So everyone there is corrupt?"
"Not everyone," Adrien conceded. "I met Bruce Wayne and his kids a while back. They're cool. The youngest, Damian, was a bit stand-offish, but you know the situation there." Oh, they knew the situation, alright. Damian Wayne, Bruce's only biological son, was twelve years old. That made him Marinette's little brother… oh shit.
Well, it's not like they'd ever meet, so it was fine. Even if they were going to be in the same city. Things would be okay. Totally. Definitely.
Marinette was really hoping that her Ladybug Luck would be on her side for the next two weeks.
Somebody would need to remind Marinette to never board a plane again. Ever. She much preferred Kaalki to whatever she was feeling right now. Adrien told her it was jetlag. Lila was trying to call Adrien's attention, but he quickly side stepped her and approached Marinette.
"Okay, Bugaboo, I know you said not to, but can I Cataclysm her?"
"No, Chaton, as much as I'd love to see it, you cannot vaporise Lila," Marinette told him.
"You're no fun, M'Lady," he pouted, slipping his arms around her shoulder, playing with her pigtails.
"Stop that," Marinette batted at his hands. "We agreed not to draw attention to ourselves. Alya's gonna have a heart attack if she sees us like this."
"She's preoccupied." Adrien nodded to where Alya, Rose and Mylène were fawning over Lila's latest story.
"Twenty Euro that she's claiming to be dating some Gothamite."
"Thirty that it's Damian Wayne," Adrien laughed as they sat in the bus.
Marinette grimaced. "He's twelve."
"It's Lila," Adrien pointed out. "I doubt she even knows his age. Just that he's Wayne's only biological child."
Marinette bit her lip guiltily. "Y-yeah."
Adrien's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"
"What? Nothing. Nothing's wrong!"
"Lies."
Marinette swallowed. "I don't know what you're talking about, Kitty."
"You've been acting weird whenever I mention the Wayne family… and you looked… guilty when I talked about Damian Wayne…" Adrien's eyes narrowed. Twelve seconds passed before he gasped, loudly. "No."
Marinette cringed. "Yes."
"Really?" Adrien glanced around, his voice lowering significantly. "You're─Bruce Wayne is your father?!"
"How'd you guess?" she asked quietly.
Adrien sighed. "Well, I already figured out that Mr. Dupain isn't your father. I mean, you're tiny─ow." Adrien rubbed the arm that Marinette punched. "And you guys have the same eyes, too."
She frowned, leaning her head back. "I only found out a few months back."
"Really?" Adrien asked. "Does he know?"
"No," Marinette said. "At least, I don't think so."
"And are you going to tell him?" Adrien looked down at her knowingly.
She rolled her eyes. "In what world would I ever meet Bruce Wayne?" Well, maybe if she became a famous fashion designer, but even then, the likelihood of her meeting the man was very, very low.
"We're staying at his cousin's hotel," Adrien pointed out. "And we'll be spending four of the days at Wayne Enterprises. Plus, the Wayne's own more than a third of Gotham."
"Gotham's a large city," Marinette said. "He's one man. The statistical likelihood of us meeting is practically none."
"Okay, Max," Adrien rolled his eyes. "But, purr-haps, you might be wrong."
"Perhaps," Marinette said, ignoring the pun. "But that doesn't mean he ever has to find out."
"Yes, because that would be a catastrophe, wouldn't it?" Adrien rolled his eyes. Marinette didn't know if the pun was on purpose. Never mind. Of course it was. This was Adrien in front of her.
"I'm surprised that your father even let you come here," Marinette commented.
"So am I," he confessed. "And he didn't even send Gorilla to watch over me!"
"Oh shit." A lot of Adrien's time was spent trying to dodge that man. "Really?" Marinette asked in disbelief. "He didn't disagree? We're going to Gotham!"
"Yeah…" Adrien cleared his throat. "I… may have told him that we're going to Miami…"
"What?!" she exclaimed, jolting forwards. Marinette ignored the curious gazes lingering on them.
"There are no supervillains there! Besides, I'll be fine. It's not like we'll get hurt or anything."
"Right…" Marinette frowned. "He didn't even read the waiver he was signing?" she prodded.
"He was busy," Adrien defended. "I think he's planning a trip to New York, and since Nathalie's been sick lately, he wouldn't even notice that I left the house, but because of the Gorilla, I couldn't just not say anything, so I… told a little lie."
"Sure." Marinette rolled her eyes. "Definitely a white lie. Miniscule. Not like we're going to the most crime ridden place in America, or anything."
"If we're careful, he'll never know," Adrien countered.
"Maybe," she said. "Maybe he'll never know." She risked a glance back to where Alya and Lila were laughing. "Or maybe he already knows."
"What? No."
"Come on, do you really think his little lapdog hasn't been updating him about every little thing that you've done?"
They'd figured out early on that Lila was reporting back to Gabriel Agreste. It became apparent when Gabriel had commented on something that Nino had done in front of Adrien and Lila, calling Nino an embarrassment to Adrien, and telling him for the fifth time to stop being friends with Nino. When Adrien had mentioned this to Marinette, she'd pointed out that this wasn't the first time that Gabriel had somehow known about something he shouldn't about Adrien, and since Lila was the common denominator, they'd identified her as the reason behind Gabriel's knowledge.
"But if he knew, then why did he let me go?" Adrien asked, frowning thoughtfully.
"I don't know," Marinette frowned. "Maybe he wanted you to get away from Akuma attacks for a while."
Adrien snorted. "That's likely. Nah, if he let me go, this probably has something to do with the contract between Wayne Enterprises and Gabriel… definitely, actually. If his son is on the tour that's meant to build relations between our two countries, then there's no way the deal will fall through."
"You know this means that he probably has sent the Gorilla?" Marinette pointed out.
"Probably," Adrien agreed. "But at least now he won't be able to stop me from doing anything without blowing his cover."
"Hurrah to fathers," Marinette drawled sarcastically. "For only they can manage to have such a fucking weird relationship with their offspring."
"I dunno, my mother is a missing person. Kind of a weirder relationship than an overprotective dad." Marinette snorted, leaning against Adrien's shoulders.
"And parents wonder why we're so fucked up."
The Kane Hotel was a pretty luxurious place. It was on the nicer side of town and there was no way in hell that the school could afford to send the entire class here.
"How'd we land this place?" Kim asked, grinning up at the building. Alya was recording the entire time, speaking a million words per minute.
"Chloé," Marinette said. At the incredulous looks, she elaborated. "She was upset with the original hotel so she had her father tell the school that she was going to be staying here, but she couldn't stay at a separate hotel from everyone else, so she made her dad upgrade the entire class."
"And here I thought Chloé Bourgeois did something good for once," Alya shook her head, turning the camera on the class. "You guys all know Marinette. She helps me out occasionally, when she's around." The last word was punctuated with a pointed look.
"Oh, sorry, Alya. We're not all insane enough to run headlong into danger, every single time an akuma attacks." Adrien snorted, raising his eyebrow. "Oh, shut up." She elbowed him.
"It's pretty funny, Mari."
"No, it's really not."
"Au contraire, Marinette. I think it's paw-sitively hilarious."
"I'm going to murder you with a sledgehammer," Marinette promised, glaring up at him. She needed to tell lies for her identity to remain a secret. Adrien, of all people, should help her, not make stupid jokes about it.
"Are my eyes deceiving me?" Alya asked, zooming in on them. "Are Marinette Cheng and Adrien Agreste actually having a conversation for once?"
"No, he's started telling me puns and I've realised what a dork he is."
"Ah, finally!" Nino held his hand up. Marinette quickly slapped it as Adrien let out an exaggerated gasp.
"You both know you love my puns. Don't even try to deny it."
"I am denying it," Nino crossed his arms.
Marinette's eyes rolled as Adrien opened his mouth. She put a hand over it. "If I hear one more cat pun out of you, I'm going to deliver your Miraculous to Hawkmoth myself," she hissed. Adrien's eyes widened and he nodded slowly. But once Marinette retracted her hands, Adrien's lips quirked into his signature smirk.
"Well, Princess, I'm pawsitive that that would be a catastrophe, so purrhaps you shouldn't do something so clawful. I'd be feline very sad if you whisker my ring away. So, purrhaps if I'm purrsuasive enough, we could come to an agreement, and you can drop this apawling cattitude towards my hissterical puns."
"I…" Marinette blinked dumbly at him. "Why…"
"Kill me now," Nino tiredly leaned against the wall.
Alya was grinning. Oh, God, no. If Adrien and Alya found something to bond over… Marinette would be fucked. Nino seemed to be thinking along the same lines as he frantically shook his head. "You could rival Chat Noir's puns, Agreste. Do you─"
"Alya!" Lila quickly approached them. Marinette found herself going on full alert as Lila stood directly in front of the camera. "Come over here. I have to tell you about my first visit to Gotham!"
"What? Oh!" Alya was dragged away without another word, but the dirty look and vindictive smirk Lila sent Marinette was enough for her to get her true intentions.
"What's with that look?" Nino asked, frowning at Marinette. "Don't tell me─"
"Lila's a liar, Nino," Adrien answered absently. "Of course Marinette doesn't like her."
Marinette tilted her head at Adrien. "What's wrong?" she asked. His tone was strangely… toneless, if that made any sense. Probably not, but to Marinette, it couldn't be clearer. Something was wrong with her kitty.
"Nothing, just… I'm fairly certain that that deal lasted all of two seconds."
"Deal?" Marinette asked with narrowed eyes. Nino eyed them curiously.
"Ah, nothing, really, I mean it." Bull. Adrien smiled charmingly at her. "Come on, Marinette. Mlle. Bustier's probably sorted out whatever issue was with the rooms."
"Right…" she wasn't convinced, and by the looks of it, Nino could also tell something was up.
A tour of Wayne Enterprises was their first agenda, as the school had made some deal with the company to be able to do this entire trip in the first place. As far as Marinette knew, Timothy Wayne was trying to get the company to be more involved with other countries and schools, so they were just hitting two birds with one stone.
"Welcome to Wayne Enterprises!" A cheerful blonde woman beamed at their group. "I'm Samantha, an intern here at Wayne Enterprises, and I'll be with you guys for the duration of the tour! Follow me!" As she walked, she spoke quickly and excitedly about the history of Wayne Enterprises, even going so far as to bring up Thomas and Martha Wayne's murders.
"I'm technically related to Martha Wayne, you know," Lila said. Marinette rolled her eyes. "Her cousin is my aunt. She always tells me about how much she misses Martie."
Oh God. Oh God. Marinette just imagined what would've happened if Lila wasn't lying for once. They'd be related. Her and Lila. Lila and Marinette. No. Just no. Never happening.
"You okay, Milady?" Adrien whispered, his hand landing on her shoulder.
"I'm fine," Marinette said, taking his hand in her own as they walked. "It's just… you know, the devil."
"Ah, right." Adrien nodded, frowning as he glanced back. Most of their classmates were paying attention to Lila, not the woman leading their tour. And it was painfully obvious. Samantha's words became few and far in between. Marinette just knew that if they were back in France that she'd be akumatized. She was suddenly much more thankful that they were on this trip, but she couldn't help but feel bad.
"So, Samantha," Marinette started off loudly, knowing that she'd gotten her classmates attention. "Is it true that Wayne Enterprises makes stuff for Batman?"
It was an unusual question, for sure, but it worked, as the class was suddenly looking at Samantha with rapt attention. "Oh, well, um… that's classified, I'm afraid, Miss."
Alya gasped loudly, her camera zooming in on Samantha's face. "So you do!"
"Not as far as I'm aware," Samantha said. "But what I can tell you about the Dark Knight is that he once saved me and a bunch of people here from the Riddler."
"No!" Alya let out a strange noise. "How'd he do it? Where? Did you have to solve riddles? Did he use bombs? How did the Riddler get you? Was he working with anyone? Was Batman working with anyone? Robin? Nightwing? Red Hood? Red Robin? No? Yes? Was the Joker there?"
"Well, aren't you enthusiastic," a new voice joined the conversation. A man in a grey business suit smiled at them. "Samantha, they need you up in communications, along with the other interns in that branch. Get anyone you see on the way, please."
"Y-yes, Mister Wayne─uh─Drake─sir!" Samantha nervously nodded. "I'll─what about my group?"
"I'll lead them around until you're ready," Timothy Drake-Wayne smiled. "You should be finished by the time we're done with the intern's R&D labs."
"Uh, yes, sir!" Samantha hurried off before Tim could get another word in edgewise. He turned to the French students, smiling a somewhat awkward smile, Marinette noticed, but his voice also projected confidence. Mme. Bustier frowned at the young man, but she was quickly distracted from a phone call. Marinette assumed that Mme. Mendeleiv was the person currently arguing with their literacy teacher over the phone.
"Hello, everyone," he said. "I'm Tim Drake, one of the CEO's of this place, and I'll be taking over with you guys for the next…" he checked his watch. "Twenty minutes. Any questions?"
Alya's hand shot up. "Do you know Batman?"
He chuckled. "I… met him once or twice, yes. My family's a bit notorious for attracting criminals."
"Got that right," Adrien muttered in her ear. She elbowed him, trying not to grin.
"I feel so bad for him," Marinette whispered as Alya badgered Tim with questions.
"He's your brother, I'm sure he can handle it."
Marinette sighed. "Fuck you, Agreste. Fuck you." She paused. "Also, he's adopted. And I haven't even met my father─you're full of shit, Adrien."
"You know you love me," he smirked widely.
"I'm starting to question why," she said, just as Lila opened her mouth. "Ah, here we go again."
"Batman saved me once, too," Lila said, interrupting Alya's next question. "It was… three months ago, I think. Dami-boo and I were kidnapped by the Joker, but Batman and Robin saved us from being dropped into a vat of chemicals, like Harley Quinn was. Of course, they never would've found out if I hadn't gotten a message to Ladybug. She contacted them. Afterwards, Batman took me to his lair. There are so many bats."
The second Lila finished her sentence, the class was suddenly surrounding her, interrogating and fretting over the liar worriedly. Marinette, Adrien and Chloé were the only students not surrounding Lila. Nino stood awkwardly to the side with a frown.
"Is that a daily thing?" Tim asked, watching the gaggle of students in amusement.
"Try 'whenever-somebody-takes-their-attention-off-of-her'," Marinette said, frowning at them. She looked at her adoptive brother. "How'd you know she's lying?"
'"'Dami-boo' is obviously referring to the… my brother." Tim paused as he spoke. Marinette suspected that a different word came to Tim's mind when he thought of Damian Wayne. "And everybody knows that Batman doesn't exactly stick around for tea."
Marinette clicked her tongue. "And there I was, buying crumpets."
Tim grinned down at her. "So why don't you just call her out for lying?" he asked curiously, but Marinette frowned at the sharpness of his eyes. Tim seemed to be thinking a million thoughts a second.
"Shouldn't we be moving?" Chloé asked, obnoxiously loud. "If I'm in Gotham, I'm not going to waste my time standing around. Let's go. Sabrina!" Chloé clapped her hands, leading a charge back towards where they came. Adrien quickly caught her arm, pointing in the opposite direction. She made a noise of contempt, storming down the hallway.
"She has no idea where she's going," Adrien muttered as he followed after the blonde.
"Stay with the group!" Mlle. Bustier called, putting her hand over the phone's speaker. Adrien stuck his thumb up as he ran after Chloé.
"Come on everyone!" Tim clapped for attention. "Let's get to the R&D Department. I'm fairly certain that they're going to be letting you guys build something there, so we should hurry, unless you want to miss it."
Max was the first to move, grabbing Kim and pulling him after Chloé with a strength nobody had ever seen before.
"Why are we following Chloé?" Alya asked as Tim strolled easily beside them, hands in his pockets. "We'll probably end up running into Two Face, knowing her… then again…"
"Alya, just because Chloé has a tendency to cause Akumas, that doesn't mean she's going to attract every single supervillain in Gotham." Marinette frowned. Ever since Miracle Queen, everybody had been alienating Chloé. Sure, Marinette was still pretty pissed, but she also felt terrible about how they were treating her. Chloé had been even more closed off since then, and Marinette was quite aware that she could've prevented what happened, but Adrien insisted that with Fu as the Guardian, they never could've stopped Chloé from being Akumatized, but she wasn't so sure.
Alya shrugged. "You never know," she defended herself.
"Akumas?" Tim asked, an eyebrow poised in interest.
"Oh, that's─"
"Nothing," Marinette smiled sweetly, elbowing Alya. She knew about the information block placed on Paris by Mayor Bourgeois. If Superman or Wonder Woman found out and decided to get involved… that wouldn't be good if they were to be Akumatized. So Mayor Bourgeois had put an information block on any news about Hawkmoth, Ladybug, Chat Noir or Akumas leaving Paris. That was one of the main reasons their tourism hadn't decreased much, but tourists did tend to tell their families and friends about what they'd experienced, but since Paris always looked fine, hardly anyone ever believed them. "It's just a word we use to refer to most of the problems Chloé causes in our school. Our friend Kagami, from the other class, came up with it. It's Japanese for 'demon'."
"Interesting," Tim said, probably taking note of how quickly the words tumbled from Marinette's mouth. "Well, I should go take charge of the rest of your group. Your teacher seems rather distracted."
Alya snorted quietly at that as Tim hurried to wrangle the rest of the tour group back into some semblance of propriety. "Thanks for that," Alya said once he was out of ear shot. "I'm not sure that I'd be able to pay off the fines I'd get for being the person to expose the fact that Paris has a supervillain."
"I'm not sure that it'd affect our economy too badly," Marinette said as Adrien dragged Chloé back to the group. "I mean, people still go to Gotham and Metropolis, and those places are notorious for getting attacked by villains."
"Something about America just attracts bad guys," Adrien commented as Chloé stood with her arms crossed and lips pouting.
"Maybe it's the president," Alya shrugged. "Did you hear that he's not even going to participate in the next debate because 'they're not taking enough precautions against aliens'?"
"No way he'll win," Marinette said. "He only has bigots on his side. I'm fairly certain the rest of this country is smart enough not to vote for somebody who'd enthusiastically take away most of their rights."
"Yeah, Lex Luthor is a real asshole. Ten Euro he's arrested by Superman again next month."
"That is not a smart bet," Marinette said.
Adrien laughed as they reached the R&D Department. Chloé split away from them, huffing to Sabrina as she crossed her arms in annoyance.
"Alright, everyone," Tim called. "I'll be going now. Samantha should be back in five minutes, so I'm going to leave you guys here with these interns. Marcus, how about you show them the model you're working on for your robotics project?"
"Ah, yes, sir!"
"Does he know everyone's name?" Kim wondered as Tim left them.
"It's sweet that a CEO knows his employees names," Rose defended.
"Pretty weird, if you ask me," said Alix. "I thought all CEO's are evil overlords and shit."
"Statistically speaking─"
"Evil is just a concept created by the human mind to excuse people's actions, we know, we know," Kim said, wrapping an arm around Max.
Max blushed. "I was going to say that most of the CEO's of multi-million industries have been consumed by greed and are quite unlikely to remember the names of their employees, especially interns."
"Huh," was Kim's only response.
It was a weird, albeit fun, day.
At least they hadn't been kidnapped by the Joker and almost dropped into the very same vat of chemicals that turned Harley Quinn's skin white, only to be saved by Batman and Robin because one of their classmates were best friends with Ladybug, who somehow knew Batman, too.
Marinette was pretty good at ignoring Lila. She'd been doing it for ages, ever since Lila had first started going on about how she saved Jagged Stone's cat or how she was best friends with Prince Ali. But Lila was really starting to get on her nerves. Marinette knew that it was only a matter of time before she blew a gasket, and that wouldn't be good for anyone. Marinette certainly didn't want to add onto Mme. Bustier's stress, who had looked sick ever since they'd arrived in Gotham.
"I'm going for a walk," Marinette told Adrien as Lila lamented about how she was the secret heir to LexCorp.
"Are you sure?" Adrien frowned. "It's pretty dangerous out there."
"I can handle myself, Kitty," she said, tapping her earrings pointedly. Marinette sighed, frowning over at Lila. "I just… really need to get away from here. Don't worry. I'll be back in twenty minutes, tops."
"Do you want me to come with you? It's incredibly dark out." She smiled at the worried look on his face.
"I'll be fine," Marinette assured him.
"Okay, just be careful, please. Paris and Gotham… they're different. Hawkmoth seems tame when compared to the guys here."
"Don't worry," Marinette said, leaning down to peck his lips before hurrying out the door. Marinette heard a shriek as she left. Alya had definitely seen that, and she knew for a fact that Adrien was currently being interrogated. Well, she'd leave him with Alya. This was payback for all of his puns.
Gotham really was different to Paris. It was darker, gloomier. Even the light casted by the Kane Hotel did little to deter the constant feeling of wariness as she took her first left. Well, at least she wouldn't be getting lost.
Gotham was full of twists and turns. Glass and cans littered the alleyways, a fire was built in a barrel which people congregated around, their hands outstretched in an effort to warm up. Marinette could make out Wayne Enterprises from about halfway across the city. Pollution was heavy in the streets of Gotham. To be fair, Paris was polluted to, as were most cities, but that was nothing when compared to this place. A light drizzle of rain fell down, comforting Marinette as she strolled with her hands in her pockets.
Lila was just… terrible! Seriously! How could she lie about everything? And everyone always believed her. Marinette hated it. She hated seeing her friends manipulated and lied to, and she hated that Lila lied about these celebrities who she knew nothing about! Just last week, Lila was claiming to have been blacklisted by Katy Perry for 'having a better singing voice' than her.
What bullshit.
And Lila's newest target, the Wayne family, hadn't gotten the lucky end of the stick.
Sure, Lila was going around saying that she was romantically involved with Damian Wayne, who was only twelve, but she was also implying that Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's oldest adopted son, was being a little too 'friendly' with a fifteen year old. She claimed that Jason Todd had faked his death on purpose to escape his abusive father, and that the kidnapping was a fake story concocted by the Wayne's PR Office to avoid any more scrutiny.
It's true that Marinette didn't know anything about the Waynes, but she did know that nobody deserved to be the brunt of Lila's lies. Marinette knew a little too well how that felt.
As Marinette went, she heard a shout for help coming from a nearby alleyway. Marinette's instincts kicked in and suddenly she was sprinting towards the danger, Adrien's previous pleas and warnings completely evaporating from her head.
A woman was being surrounded by two dirty, leering men. The shorter one was holding a bright red purse which clearly belonged to the woman. Marinette could understand why she'd been picked by the men. She may as well have been a beacon of colour in a black-and-white film.
"Stop!" The woman shouted as they rifled through her belongings, dropping a passport and papers on to the floor as one examined her cell phone.
"Say it'd go for… uh… three-twenty, probably," the shorter of the two said.
"Don' be daft you fool!" The taller, even dirtier one snapped. "It's a knockoff! We'd get one-thirty, maybe."
'I don't think you'll be getting anything,' Marinette thought as she raised her voice. There was a cul-de-sac at the other side of the alley, so the only way for them to escape would be to go around Marinette. That wasn't likely.
"Hey!" she shouted, glaring at them.
"Ey?" the short one grinned tauntingly. "Looks like we go' more easy prey, Vinnie."
"What are you doing?" the woman hissed. "Run, you stupid girl!"
"Uhh, no," Marinette said. She glared at the two men. "Return her belongings. Now."
The dirtier man chuckled. "Yeah, sure, just after we finish with you," he said, advancing towards Marinette.
The second he reached for the strap of her purse, Marinette reacted. She lashed out, kicking him squarely into the gut and pushed him back onto the ground.
Purse Pursuer No. 2 growled in annoyance at seeing his friend getting beaten by a tiny teenager. "Ge' up ya big lump!" he hissed, stomping towards Marinette, dropping the woman's belongings as he went. She quickly grabbed her purse and phone, pressing herself against the large bin in fear, shaking erratically.
Marinette could've easily taken this guy. Seriously. It would not have been hard. All she'd have had to do was land in a solid paunch to the jaw to take him down, but two gunshots rang out. Marinette was splattered with blood as the man fell to the ground, clutching at his shoulder. Blood seeped through a tattered t-shirt and Marinette could see that the man who was already down had blood pooling around his middle. She gaped at the men, looking to the direction of where the bullets came.
The first thing Marinette noticed was the red cowl covering his head. A red bat symbol was prominently displayed on his chest and a ring of black surrounded his eyes. He was holding to smoking red guns and as he jumped down into the alleyway, Marinette couldn't help but step back in shock.
"You two ladies alright?" A gruff, unfriendly voice asked. The woman whimpered loudly, looking between Marinette and Red Hood before sprinting as fast as she could in her bright pink heels, which wasn't very fast, but neither Marinette nor the vigilante made to chase after her.
She stared at him in shock. "Y-y-you k-killed─"
"They'll live," Red Hood interrupted. "I didn't shoot anything vital. I have a little deal with the ol' Bat. No killing normal scumbags like purse snatchers. Don't worry, though. I'm completely free to take out any of the big league bastards. Like the Joker." His voice somehow became darker, bitterer as he talked about that particular criminal.
"B-but─"
"Are you hurt?" the vigilante moved a hand towards where the blood had splattered on her shirt.
"N-no, that's from…" she pointed to the taller criminal who was writhing on the floor. Marinette flinched.
"Oh, good, good." Red Hood stood there, almost awkwardly.
That was… not how they handled things back in France. They didn't just shoot any random purse grabbers! But this was Gotham, right? Maybe they needed to be harsher in order to keep a tighter lid on the staggeringly high crime rate.
But still…
"S-should we call an ambulance?"
"I have it taken care of already," he waved a hand nonchalantly. Marinette frowned, but nodded, biting her lip awkwardly. "What were you doing out this late?"
Marinette cleared her throat. "W-well, I was on a walk and then I heard that woman shouting for help, so I went and… yeah."
"Try not to, next time…" Red Hood frowned. He looked at the shorter man, who still hadn't gotten up. Marinette would've thought he was dead, but she could see his arm moving. "But you seemed to be able to take care of yourself, kid. Good job." She nodded awkwardly. Marinette had been expecting to be berated not… whatever that was. Marinette was just glad that she hadn't transformed. That might've been a little harder to explain.
"W-well, I should get going…" she said.
"Would you like me to escort you back to your house?" Red Hood asked.
"No, no, that's okay," Marinette shook her head. As she left, she smiled tightly. "Um, thank you, for… that…"
"No problem." Marinette nodded with an awkward smile that could've been mistaken for a grimace.
She didn't say anything, but as Marinette walked, she could feel Red Hood's eyes on her, all the way back to the hotel.
When she entered the hotel, she was glad not to be immediately accosted by Alya, but she must've spoken too soon, because the second she entered one of the lounges that contained their entire class, Alya ran towards her.
"Marinette! Why didn't you tell me that you and Adrien were─oh my God!"
Adrien took one glance at Marinette and leaped over the couch he was sitting on. He grabbed her hands in his, checking her over for injuries. "Why are you covered in blood? What happened? Are you hurt? Where? Who did this? Princess, who do I have to ki─"
"I'm fine!" Marinette exclaimed. "Don't worry, it's not my blood."
"Uh…" Alix frowned. "Then what the fuck happened?"
Marinette wasn't allowed to argue as Adrien forced her to sit on one of the couches. Lila glared at her. Marinette already knew that she'd interrupted one of Lila's stories.
"Did you know that Gotham superheroes use guns?"
The next day was much calmer, fortunately. They'd arrived at Gotham Zoo where Lila told more stories and they'd admired the penguins and otters. It was relaxing and calm and Marinette didn't have to be saved by any more gun wielding vigilantes.
But the next day? That wasn't so calm.
Their next destination was Gotham Academy. They weren't going to be taking any classes or anything. No. They were meant to have a playdate with one of the classes there.
And you know, they were all the same age. It'd be easy enough for the teenagers to bond over something.
But that wasn't the problem.
It was a well known fact that most of the Wayne children had skipped a year or two. Could you really be surprised to find out that the twelve year old Damian Wayne was actually in a class full of fifteen year old?
Marinette could tell from the glare that he sent every which way that he did not want to be here. She could also tell that only two of her classmates realised just who the snappish child sulking in the back was.
Chloé sent Damian a nod of acknowledgement as she scowled at the two teachers and crossed her arms while Adrien smiled warmly at him and waved. Damian's scowl merely deepened as he nodded back at the two blondes.
"I met him last Summer," Adrien elaborated at her curious look. "He has some anger issues, but he's cool all around…" he grinned suddenly. "Hey, maybe it runs in the family."
She paused, glaring up at him. "I do not have anger issues, Agreste."
Adrien held his hands up in surrender. "Course not, Milady. I would never suggest such a thing, Princess."
"Quiet, please, you young heathens!" Simon Trent, the school's drama teacher, called out. He was a rather old man, leaning on a walking stick as he grinned maniacally down at them. Marinette couldn't tell if he needed the stick or not. "Our lovely Mademoiselle Bustier has a few words to say, if you'll allow her to."
Mlle. Bustier stepped forwards, her hands clasped pleasantly in front of her as she smiled at them. See, this was the Mlle. Bustier Marinette knew! She was always one to smile and assure them that everything would be okay, even when the chances of that were highly unlikely. Marinette was curious as to what seemed to have their teacher so worried lately.
"Thank you, everyone, for having us today, and thank you, Mister Trent, for those kind words. Now, myself and my students have come here from Paris, in France, to celebrate the relations between France and America. Now, we've arranged it so that all of you can interact for the rest of the day, but you will have a buddy that you need to stick with. We want you to get along with each other, so at the end of the day, I'm going to ask you for a fact about your partner. Mister Trent will give you your partners now. Marinette, could you come here?"
Marinette frowned, but approached her teacher as Mister Trent spoke animatedly in the background. "Something the matter, Mlle. Bustier? You look tired."
"What? No, no, nothing's the matter. Now, I'm going to have to warn you about your partner. He's the child in the back. Damian Wayne. Mister Trent warned me that he's a bit standoffish, which is why I paired him up with you. I think that you're responsible enough to deal with him and any of his tantrums. But I wanted you to know what to expect before anything. And thank you, Marinette. I can always count on you, can't I?"
"Y-yeah." Okay, being in the same classroom? That, she could do. Having to interact with her biological little brother for an undisclosed amount of time? You might as well kill her now.
Maybe the embarrassment would do it.
But Marinette swallowed her pride, approaching the preteen with an awkward smile and an uncomfortable look back at Adrien, who was fending off an overly eager teenage girl. Marinette couldn't even bring herself to be jealous.
Oh this was going to be horrible.
When the overly happy looking French girl sat beside Damian, it took all of his self control not to send her away. Damian was not in the mood for this 'friendship week' bullshit. If you asked Damian, he should be with Father searching for the Riddler, who'd just escaped Arkham. Not having to play house with these French students. Damian could care less if a war broke out between France and England. At least maybe then Father would stop babying him.
Damian was surprised when the older girl didn't immediately start talking his ear off─she looked like the type who could speak for hours and never stop─but he quickly became annoyed when all she did was sit still and fidget.
"Are you going to say something or are we playing charades?" Grayson had introduced him to the activity a few months prior. He'd insisted that it would be helpful during patrol, but what Damian hadn't understood was why they needed to play it with their entire clan. It was rather embarrassing and somewhat… fun.
"Oh! Oh, I'm─I'm so, so sorry! I… I just… you're─"
"Damian Wayne, I know, my Father's only valid heir. Is there a point to your babbling?" Grayson was a worthy contender, being the eldest, Todd was completely useless, given that he still continued to work against their Father's wishes (even if Damian didn't completely disagree with his methods) and Drake was totally abhorrent, end of story there.
"I─sorry?" the girl raised an eyebrow, frowning openly at Damian. "You think that's what I─you know what, never mind. I don't care. Whatever. Let's start over. My name is Marinette. I'm my Class' Representative and I live in a bakery. What about you?"
Damian took one look at the girl and snorted. He was hardly going to humour this girl just to make her comfortable. If she continued yapping, he'd just ignore her. He had plenty of experience, given that Grayson and Gordon never shut up and Brown always found something to talk to Drake about over their comms. When Todd occasionally joined them, he always tried to initiate an argument with Father. Father mainly ignored Todd's arguments, but he did shut everyone up the second that Todd joked about his death. He did that often.
Pulling out his phone, Damian flicked through the files that he'd downloaded on the Riddler case. Damian was quite aware that the French girl─Marissa, or something─was looking over his shoulder.
The Riddler had escaped with the assistance of Scarecrow and Joker. It wasn't any major interference from them. Scarecrow's newest fear toxin had been released in Asylum and the Joker had presumably provided Nigma with a gas mask, and a necklace of some sort. A picture of Riddler escaping had been captured by Vicki Vale's contracted photographer. Riddler was wearing a purple and green ensemble, but his trench coat was a long, deep purple, his mask and top hat were a dark emerald green. A magenta sash was wrapped around his hat. The necklace that Riddler wore was long, a bird's feather on the end. He was holding a long, purple, ancient, traditional Chinese sword. The Riddler's skin was light green. A normal person would think it was the lighting, but Marinette disagreed.
"Oh my God…" Damian frowned as he looked back at the French girl. She was staring at the Riddler in horror, particularly the necklace. She caught Damian's gaze and immediately tensed, clearing her throat loudly. "That's─that's a disgusting outfit! I can't believe that anyone, even a supervillain, would wear that!" She spoke loudly, looking pointedly at one of her classmates. Damian knew this one. Adrien Agreste, the scion of Gabriel. Damian hadn't found him to be too annoying, but he did seem rather afraid to speak his mind. Damian completely disagreed with this mentality. It was Damian's opinion that if you never spoke up for yourself, then you'd continue to be pushed around. Damian wasn't the type to be pushed around.
Agreste and his partner, an annoying girl by the name of Jesslyn Rose Turner, approached them. Turner tried to latch onto him as they walked, but Agreste swiftly dodged the embrace in a way that made Damian raise an eyebrow.
"Hey, Mari, you okay?" Agreste asked, looking at the French girl in concern.
"Yeah, fine. Just… hey Damian, could you show Adrien that picture of the Riddler?"
"Why?" he asked suspiciously.
The girl─Marionette, maybe?─grinned sheepishly. It was the kind of grin that most people would think was real. Damian had been raised by the League of Assassins. This girl was clearly hiding something. "I'm a bit of an aspiring designer, so I like to ask Adrien for his opinions on things after I see them, as he's a model, you know?"
"'Aspiring'?" Agreste snorted. "Mari, you've designed for Jagged Stone!" It took all of Damian's self control not to ask 'who?'.
"You know Jagged Stone?" Turner perked up.
"Uh, yeah," the girl─it had to be Marinette, right?─smiled before turning back to Damian. "So, the picture?"
"Alright." If these two French students could help the case in any way, then Damian wouldn't stop them. The Riddler was known for his… well, riddles. There was no way that the flamboyant outfit wasn't a clue of some sort. Damian clicked on the image so that the outfit could be seen in better detail. Slowly, he turned it around. Immediately, Agreste made a sound that was somewhere between a gasp, a laugh and a whimper.
"You see it too, right?" she asked, the fake smile frozen in place.
"Oh, wow… that's, uh… very interesting. Yeah, I see what you mean. It's something else. Very topic-inducing... Hey, Marinette, I think there's something that we need to discuss… over there."
Before he or Turner could protest, Agreste and Marinette were halfway across the room, heatedly whispering between themselves.
Unfortunately for them, Damian was capable of reading lips, and he spoke French.
Now, if only they slowed down.
"Impossible… way… how… Hawkmoth… can't…"
"Might… wrong… I don't… there can't… more?"
"I… Guardian… Maybe?"
"There… accessory… outfit..."
"Sword is… yo-yo… flute…""It's possible… Mirac─… Tibet…""Hawkmoth… find out…""Unlikely… back in France… think that…"
"I don't… wish Master Fu was…"
That… was a whole bunch of nothing.
Damian understood absolutely none of what they said, but he did know something.
These two knew something.
When Marinette finally went back to Damian, she was practicing her breathing and trying not to freak out.
The craftsmanship… the effort… the design… it all pointed to something that Marinette did not want to consider, but they had.
But where would the Riddler even get a Miraculous? And how? Marinette was the Guardian. There weren't any more spaces in the box, except for the missing Peacock and Butterfly Miraculouses. Then again, the Rabbit Miraculous didn't have a place in there, either.
But how?
In the article that Damian had been reading, it had said that the Riddle had gotten the necklace off of the Joker, but that still raised the question of how?
"Hey, Damian," Marinette said, trying to remain as nonchalant as possible. "Sorry about that. Adrien and I tend to geek out over jewelry and stuff. Comes with the trade, I guess."
"You're hiding something," Damian accused tactlessly. Marinette hadn't expected this kid to be so irrational. Even her, who'd acted like a completely uneducated baboon around Adrien, knew that would be a stupid play to make.
But Marinette wasn't one to be backed into a corner so easily.
"So are you," she returned, smiling as she spoke. Damian shifted uncomfortably, looking like an angry kitten as he glared at her. "That was no article you were reading, Damian. Do you really want to go down this road? Or do you want me to ask why you're looking at clearly classified documents?"
Marinette felt rather vindictive when Damian stared back at her in shock. He quickly composed himself, and what she was quickly learning to be his signature glare was back on his face.
"What was your name again?" was not the response she had expected.
"W-what?"
"Your name. I don't remember it."
'My brother is a real asshole, isn't he?' Marinette thought as she stared back at his distrustful gaze. "Marinette Cheng."
"Well, Cheng, you should know that I don't like games."
"Too bad," she smiled. "I love them."
It was after twenty minutes of tense silence that something finally happened. It wasn't something good, not in the slightest, but it was something.
Because neither she nor Damian had said anything in the past hour, she could clearly hear the conversations going on around them. Specifically, she could hear Lila.
"Yeah," Lila was telling an American boy named Dwayne. He was hiding the bottom half of his face with his left hand as he shook sporadically. Lila didn't seem to realise what was happening, as she was too busy with telling her tale, but Marinette could clearly hear his giggles. "I know Damian Wayne. We go way back. That's probably why it was so natural for us to start dating, but I get that it's not like that for everyone."
"Y-you─" Dwayne cut himself off, grinning madly as he choked on his words. "You do know he's there, right?"
"What?" Lila's startled expression was priceless. She slowly turned to look in the direction of where Dwayne was pointing. Damian stared back at them boredly, his eyes narrowing in on Lila's position. "I─I─th-that's not─"
"You alright, Lila?" Alya's voice came from the front, her 'Lila-is-in-distress' meter going off.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," she chuckled awkwardly, turning back to Dwayne. "You know that was just a joke, right? I knew that he was in this class."
"Sure," Dwayne nodded skeptically.
Damian turned to Marinette, a begrudgingly curious expression on his face. "That was not just a joke," he stated tonelessly.
"No, it wasn't," Marinette agreed. At his questioning eyebrow, she continued. "Lila likes to tell people what they want to hear. People like to believe her."
"You don't," he said, frowning as he looked between them.
"I know that she's lying," Marinette said. She sighed as she laid her palm on her forehead. "But it's not like anyone believes me or anything…"
"Agreste isn't that stupid," Damian commented, almost to himself.
"You're right, he's not," she said. "Adrien knows that Lila's a liar. But that's only because La─I called her out in front of him, and he realised that she was lying. Only Chloé has also realised that Lila lives, eats and breathes lies, but she doesn't care anymore." It was worrying how little Chloé actually cared about this stuff anymore. Marinette wanted to reach out, but she knew that she'd only be shut down. As things were, Marinette was letting Adrien handle that front.
"So you're not─" Before Damian could finish his sentence, three loud consecutive shots rang out. Marinette jumped in her seat as a green haired, white skinned… thing grinned maniacally down at them. When had the Joker even arrived? Marinette hadn't seen him enter. She hadn't even seen the door open.
"Holy shit," she whispered, staring from the machine gun he held in hand to the three bullet holes in the roof. Three lackeys soldiered inside, each holding a large, terrifying gun in hand. Mlle. Bustier flinched, staring at the Joker in resigned horror. Adrien looked back at Marinette, but she held up a hand for him to wait. She needed to vet the situation. Lila was sitting perfectly still, but Marinette could tell that even she was afraid. Chloé's eyes were narrowed in annoyance. She probably saw this as having the same level of severity as an Akuma attack. That was stupid. They could come back from an Akuma attack. This… they couldn't come back from.
"Salut, students! I sure hope I'm not interrupting anything! After all, adolescence is a pivotal moment in life. You never know when you'll die." His grin widened, somehow. Rose whimpered and Alya's hand crept towards their phones. Some American students were shaking and others were crying. Marinette couldn't say that she was surprised. After all, these guys didn't have to deal with life threatening situations every other week. "Now… you!" Joker's index finger landed on Chloé. Marinette cursed quietly. "I want you to come here, and do me a small favour." She could see the C4 one of the lackeys were holding. Chloé rolled her eyes, but stood and approached slowly.
"Why isn't he going for you?" she asked Damian quietly.
"He's probably planning on using me to threaten my Father somehow. Your friend, however…"
Marinette knew that something was about to happen the instant Chloé opened her mouth. "Can we get this over with, you freak? I have places to be you know."
Marinette saw the second the Joker's facade of happiness faded, being placed with something darker. It was when Chloé said 'freak'. Shit.
"Well, don't worry, sunshine. You may be missing your four o'clock, but you'll be missing everything else, too."
Marinette jumped up when he raised the gun, grabbing Chloé's arm and pulling her out of the way. Reaching for the gun would be a dumb move, but maybe she could take his attention off of Chloé.
"Oh?" Joker's eyes gleamed with interest as he paused, his lips turning upwards, emphasising the red lipstick on his face. "Well, that's funny." He looked at his lackeys. "Right?" They chuckled nervously. He examined Marinette. "Seems that we have a hero on our hands. But you know what the best thing about heroes is? Their downfall."
Marinette flinched, expecting for three rounds to end up in her chest, but she was shocked when something was tossed into her hands. She looked down at the C4 she was now holding in genuine surprise.
Joker smiled. "I want you to place these around this little building. In the walls, on the boilers, et cetera, et cetera. But don't worry! Nunchucks over there'll accompany you so you don't get any funny ideas. Like running. Or calling the Bat. I'll be the one sending a little message over to him, with the help of my good, personal friend, Damian Wayne." The twelve year old's tense posture went rigid as his name was called. Marinette heard the whispers as her classmates whispered amongst themselves, looking from Lila to Damian, but she was too busy staring at nunchucks.
He was tall, very tall, his exposed, bulging muscles were covered in tattoos. A black and blue mask covered his face, but a leering grin and hard, stony eyes stared out of them. His torso was tearing through his thin shirt and his shoes seemed to be a size too small. Marinette could make out a faded scar on his neck. His large hands were holding a machine gun, but it looked to be tiny in his grasp.
...She could probably take him.
Which Marinette did end up doing.
The second they were down the hall from the room, Marinette kicked the man in the face, dropping the C4 on the ground. His mask fell away, showing a scarred face, an ugly moustache and a bald head. Marinette aimed her second attack for the one place men forget to guard, but would always take them down in one fell swoop.
Nunchucks dropped to the ground, clutching his crotch as he writhed on the floor and groaning in pain. Marinette kicked the gun away, but not before grabbing it and hitting him over the head with the butt of the weapon.
"Well…" Marinette looked around. "The fuck do I do now?"
She couldn't call the police. They wouldn't be able to do anything but negotiate, and Marinette got the feeling that the Joker wasn't the type.
Batman was probably on the way, but since the Joker was expecting him, that would be dumb. Not to mention that there were roughly forty hostages in that classroom.
Realistically, she only had one option.
"Tikki," Marinette quietly called. "Spots on." Pink lights shone through the corridor as a French hero replaced a student. "Alright… here goes nothing."
Marinette had just been taken away by this 'Nunchucks'. Adrien was terrified for his girlfriend, even though he knew that she could handle herself. But there was also the matter of Marinette's biological younger brother, who the Joker was eagerly staring at. Adrien was fairly certain that the criminal was salivating.
The Joker pranced about, throwing his gun to one of his lackeys. He pulled out a knife, advancing towards Damian.
"Well, well, well," Joker said, looking out at them. "What should I do now? Should I tear open your chest? Carve a smile into your face? Or maybe I should just kill you. That would certainly… tear Bats up! Haha! I crack myself up sometimes!"
'What was the punchline?' Adrien thought as he stood slowly. Nino's hand shot out, sending him a warning look. He slowly lowered himself back into the seat, but every few seconds he would scoot towards the brute keeping watch of their side of the classroom.
Damian stared up at the Joker expressionlessly. Adrien got the distinct feeling that the kid was used to this kind of thing.
"No? Ya got nothing?" Joker raised his eyebrows in mock sadness. "Yo-you're just like your father! You never laugh at my jokes! You're always so stoic!" The Joker jumped in the air, clapping his hands together in excitement. "Oh, I love it! I can always imagine that it's his chest I'm tearing into when I kill you." He cracked his knuckles. "Then again, I suppose losing another son at my hands would do it for him," the Joker said, chuckling. "Hey, hey, give me your phone, kid!"
The Joker grabbed Damian's phone from his pocket. It was unlocked for some reason, so the Joker quickly opened an app, snapping a selfie of the two of them.
He looked at the class expectantly. "Well? What are ya looking at me for? Go like my newest post! It's on ' BatJokes', where I name dropped ' DamianWayne'─that is very unoriginal, kid─on Twitter! But I do get why you're nickname is Demon Brat, kid. Your mommy is a work of art."
"That was Todd," was Damian's grumble.
Everybody scrambled to open Twitter, quickly finding Damian's Twitter and liking, commenting and retweeting the post.
Joker'sGottaLottaLaughs BatJokes · 17s
Just my new friend and I, DamianWayne, hanging out in #GothamAcademy with a lotta French students for #FriendshipWeek. I suggest you get your toushee over here, Batsy. Wouldn't want another Wayne to end it with a bullet in their head!
Adrien flinched, quickly checking through other news sources. Nobody had anything up, so nobody knew. Shit. The chances of Damian getting out of this thing alive were slim.
But just as Adrien thought that, he caught sight of a faintly pink light on the other side of the door. It was far away, down the hall probably, but Adrien knew exactly what it meant.
He quickly texted Alya, which the Joker wouldn't notice, since most of them were still on Twitter.
Adrien Agreste: Guy to your left. Take him out in twenty seconds. Trust me.
Alya Césaire: That's risky. You sure?
Adrien Agreste: I'm sure. You'll see why soon.
Ten seconds had been taken up by that minor conversation. Alya looked at Adrien cautiously and to the machine gun in the lackey's hands. She nodded slowly. Alya had been the best choice of all of the superheroes in the room. Not only was she closest, but she also had the least self-preservation instincts.
Adrien looked at the door, rising slowly. He dodged Nino's warning hand.
Five…
Four…
Three…
Two…
One!
As the door burst open and Ladybug raced inside, Adrien delivered a swift blow to the brute's stomach and Alya grabbed the other's gun, twisting to the left and hitting him in the nose with her elbow. Ladybug quickly took notice of his and Alya's actions as she changed her angle, sprinting at the Joker. He reached out to grab Damian, but the kid ducked down, allowing Ladybug's yo-yo to wrap around the Joker, causing him to drop the knife as he was incapacitated. Marinette hit the Joker with the yo-yo in the head, and Adrien was surprised at how quickly he fell limply. Marinette must've used a lot of force.
"Oh my God!" Alya exclaimed as she stood over the lackey, his gun in her hand. She quickly dropped it onto him, causing the lackey to groan in pain as he rolled weakly to the side. "Ladybug! What are you doing here?!" Alya's camera was already pointing at Ladybug's face.
"Ah─" Ladybug frowned. Behind them, Adrien quickly pointed to his neck. Marinette quickly started speaking in rapid French. Adrien assumed that even the most fluent French speakers in the class wouldn't be able to understand her. After all, Adrien was French and he didn't even know half of these abbreviations until he started attending school. "Chat Noir and I are in the area right now. We… have sufficient reason to believe that Hawkmoth is working with a number of criminals from Gotham. Now… I have to go. You know─" she gestured back to her earrings vaguely.
"Wait!" Alya called. "What about Marinette?! She was with another guy─"
"I've already taken care of that!" Ladybug exclaimed. "She's coming right now! Well, bye!"
Marinette swung her yo-yo, using it to propel herself out of the room.
"Who was that?!" Dwayne demanded, staring back at Ladybug's retreating figure in surprise.
"Uh─" Adrien looked at his classmates nervously as Marinette hurried into the room. They all looked nervously between themselves, before simultaneously looking at Adrien and Chloé. They were probably the only people who could tell others about Ladybug without getting decapitated by the Mayor.
"That was…" Even Chloé looked unsure of how to answer. They all knew what would happen if this got out and the Justice League decided to investigate Paris.
"That was the class's bodyguard!" Marinette exclaimed.
"Huh?"
"Sorry?"
Marinette's smile gleamed uncomfortably. "Right, guys?"
"Uh, yeah!"
"Totally!"
"Uh-uh," Adrien said, looking cautiously at Marinette. "Chloé's dad, the Mayor, hired her to keep our class safe during Friendship Week. You know how things would go if anything bad happened this week. Relations between France and America would be tense for years!"
"Who was she?" Mr Trent asked. "She looked like quite the connoisseur! Do you know if she acts?"
Adrien tried not to smirk at that, he really, really tried. Marinette didn't even look at Adrien, she just elbowed him with a look.
"She's a cage wrestler," Marinette explained. See, now would be a good time for Lila to start lying and helping them out, but she seemed content to sob dramatically and shake sporadically in Alya's arms. "Best there is. Highly respected. But if you're not from Paris, you wouldn't know about it. It's a bit underground, you see!"
Damian Wayne looked at them sceptically, pocketing his phone and crossing his arms. Adrien could clearly see that the kid didn't believe them.
"Well, we should probably tie these guys up properly," Marinette said, clapping her hands loudly. Mr Trent took out a packet of zip-ties, and Adrien did not want to know why he just had them on hand, but they were convenient so he let it slide. Adrien may have used six zip-ties for each of the clown's limbs, but Adrien had heard stories about how much of an escape artist the Joker was, so he was merely being thorough.
And if, upon waking up from his unexpected nap, the Joker complained about how tight they were, and if Adrien were to suddenly become unable to hear, then that was entirely not his fault.
'This is the third brother that I've met since going on this fucking trip,' Marinette thought as Dick Grayson sat across from her, handing her a steaming paper cup of coffee. All of the students were being interviewed individually, and all of the American students were being picked up first. Marinette had seen Bruce Wayne with his son, but she wasn't going to think about how they were in the same fucking building.
"It's Marinette, right?" Grayson asked, smiling down at her. "I'm Richard, but everyone calls me Dick. Richard's a bit stuffy, you know?"
"Nobody's hurt, right?" Marinette asked. "After I got back, I wasn't able to do a proper check because we had to tie up the Joker and his lackeys, but─"
"Everybody's fine," Dick assured her. "One of your classmates, Lila, I think, had to be taken to your hotel early because she was panicking so much, but other than that, everybody's fine." Marinette almost rolled her eyes, but she also knew how that would look, so she merely nodded. Marinette might have believed that Lila was actually scared, if not for the small smirk she'd sent Marinette as she was given a free ride in one of the police cars. "Now, I have a few questions about today. Are you up for them?"
"Yeah, I'm up for it," Marinette said. She looked down at the cup of coffee on the school desk. It was a strange shade of brown. Very dark. Marinette preferred the sweeter kind. She couldn't handle any bitter drinks. It probably came with growing up in a bakery.
"Alright. I understand that you jumped in to rescue one of the girls from your class, Chloé Bourgeois?"
"Yeah, I um… Chloé's… not the nicest person, you know? She has a knack for causing problems, but she's not a bad person, at heart. She didn't deserve to get picked out by the Joker like that."
"Why do you suspect that she was picked specifically?"
"She's the Mayor of Paris's daughter," Marinette shrugged. "If she was killed by an American supervillain, or if she planted that C4 around the school, then this whole 'Friendship Week' thing would be ruined, you know?"
"And is that why you risked your life to save her?" Dick asked, raising an eyebrow.
"No. I just… reacted, I guess."
"I see," Dick nodded, writing something down on a notepad. "And this… 'bodyguard' of your class, uh… 'Ladybug'... she saved you from Mr. Oliver Akton, yes?" Marinette assumed this was the name of the lackey who she'd kicked in the place where the sun doesn't shine.
"Uh, yeah," Marinette bit her lip. "When he wasn't paying attention, I opened my phone and asked for her help."
"Really? And could I have this contact information?"
"Why do you need it?" She asked suspiciously.
Dick shrugged. "We need to cover all of our bases. After all, it's not everyday that a French pro wrestler takes down the Joker with a yo-yo."
"Ahh…" Marinette frowned. "Well, you see… we don't know who she is."
He sighed, jotting something down onto his notepad. Marinette wondered if he was actually writing, or if he was just scribbling. "We gathered that much. A bit strange, no? That the Mayor hired a random pro wrestler to protect his daughter and her class without knowing her identity?" Marinette assumed that was rhetorical. "But you're the first person to admit to having her contact information. That could really help us, Marinette."
"I would… love to help you, really, I would, but… uh…"
Dick smiled at her. "But you can't for a completely sound reason that you also can't tell me because none of you are telling me the truth?"
"What?" Marinette's eyes widened. "N-no. We're telling the truth! Ladybug is a bodyguard."
"Then why isn't she guarding you?" Dick asked. He put down the pen, clasping his hands. "But you don't need to worry, Marinette. Gordon's not going to pursue this any further than the routine questions, so this is the last I'll ask about it." ''Gordon's not'. Notice how he doesn't say that 'I'm not'?'
"Right." Marinette bit her lip. "Is there anything else?"
"No, no, you're fine," Dick smiled again. His teeth were really blinding. "That's it for the interview, then. Do you want me to contact anyone? Your parents?" Dick looked down at a tablet in his hands. "Let's see, Marinette Cheng… Césaire… Couffaine… ah, Cheng! Yeah, your mother and step-father's emergency contact information is he─…" Marinette cringed. She knew exactly what Dick was looking at. Well, not exactly. Marinette knew that her birth certificate was on file, which Bruce's name was on, but she also knew that Dick probably met her mother. He would've been ten at the time of her Maman's… tryst with Mr. Wayne, so it wasn't completely farfetched to say that they might've met. "You're… Sabine Cheng's daughter?" Dick asked.
"Uh, you know…" Marinette cringed. "I just remembered… I have something to do… over there… now… are we done with the interview? Yes? Good! See you!" Marinette sprinted from the classroom before Dick could get another word in edgewise.
As Marinette was running, she couldn't help but think, 'Shit, shit, shit, shit!' Of all the people… it had to be somebody who more than likely knew… who could put two plus two together… oh shit… she was so fucked.
Marinette slowed down upon entering the next room because she could hear voices, and she didn't want to draw any more attention to herself. And it was definitely a good thing that she slowed down, because guess who was in the hall she entered? None other than Bruce Wayne. And who was he talking to? Well, Mlle. Bustier, of course! And Mlle. Bustier was waving her over.
"Is something wrong, Mlle. Bustier?" Marinette asked, cringing internally. She ignored Damian's suspicious gaze and Mr. Wayne's curious ones.
"No, Marinette, nothing's wrong," Mlle. Bustier said, placing her hands on Marinette's shoulders. "I just wanted to introduce you to Mr. Wayne. Marinette, this is Mr. Wayne. Mr. Wayne, this is Marinette. She's our Class Representative, and the reason that nobody got hurt today."
Marinette frowned at that. Both Alya and Adrien had helped Ladybug to take down the Joker and his lackeys.
"Ah, Damian was telling me about you, Marinette," Mr. Wayne smiled kindly at her. Marinette couldn't help but notice a fading scar under his ear. "He said that you found something strange about The Riddler's outfit?"
"Uh, yes," Marinette cursed internally. She did not want to have this conversation. She looked back at her teacher. "You know, Mlle. Bustier, I should really go back to the rest of the class─"
"Nonsense, Marinette," her teacher smiled tightly. "Mr. Wayne has offered to give us a complimentary tour of the new Wayne Laboratories Building for tomorrow. Isn't that wonderful? He'd even be leading it, he says! And he's offered to upgrade our hotel's security after what happened today!"
"Y-yeah, that's great," Marinette smiled tightly. "But you know, I don't think─"
She cut herself off as Dick Grayson approached them.
'I'd rather give my Miraculous to Hawkmoth than deal with this.'
"Marinette," Dick said. "We didn't finish our interview."
"I think that we were quite finished," Marinette said, nodding fervently. 'Oh God, oh fuck!'
"Grayson," Damian nodded beside them.
"Is something wrong, Dick?" Mr. Wayne asked. Marinette quickly twisted out of Mlle. Bustier's grip, ready to bolt if it was necessary.
"Nothing's wrong, per se. But I do need to continue the interview with Miss─"
"We covered all of the questions," Marinette said, looking at Dick warningly. "I don't think there's anything left to talk about, do you, Mr. Grayson?"
"Ye─"
"No? Good. I need to go and water my cat. Yeah! Bye!" She hurried away to the other side of the hall where Adrien, Alya and Nino were standing. "Kill me," she said, upon arriving.
"What?" Alya asked. "Girl, you were just talking with the Bruce Wayne─"
"Don't worry, I'll tell you why that's bad when we get back to the hotel tonight, so please don't make any other plans because I'm most likely going to have a panic attack."
Adrien tensed. "What is it? Did they─"
"Dick Grayson knows."
"He knows?" Adrien repeated. "Did you─did you tell him?"
"No! He saw my file and he knew! And he knows that I know that he knows!"
Nino looked between all of them. "Why do I get the feeling that we do not know anything?" He gestured between himself and Alya.
"Because you don't," Adrien supplied.
"What?" Alya asked. "Girl, you told Adrien some big bad secret before me? I'm hurt."
"That's nice," Marinette said, looking warily at Dick Grayson, who was weaving through the crowd. "I'm going to hide in the bus."
She ran from the room without letting them say anything else. Marinette was well aware of all the eyes on her back.
"God, I am so fucked," she said upon exiting the academy.
Alright, so this One-shot has become a Two-shot. I know, I know, but it's gotten so long and I haven't put anything out in over a month. Besides, this will probably be at least thirty thousand words. I feel that some people wouldn't like to have all of that dumped on them at once. Besides, I've officially hit a burn out and I wanted to give you guys something. Don't worry, I'll have a lot more time on my hands soon enough.
In other words, yesterday was my birthday! It wasn't very interesting, but I got a watch and I really like watches.
Anyways, tell me what you guys think! What would you like me to incorporate into Part Two? Has Dick told Bruce? How will Lila be taken down? Find out whenever I get my shit together and write a part two! I've already gotten some of that finished, by the way.