Duty to protect

Discoveries

Catastophe heard the rest of the team land behind her, Red-beetle standing beside her as she moved past her brother and sister. "Batman." She said coldly. The cure would not be able to work at this stage as none of the damage was caused while Slade was magically enhanced. Therefore marinette was still very bloody and bruised.

None of the miraculous team had any idea what was going on or why the Gotham vigilantes were there.

"You think this something to do with the stealing of the bike?" Bunnyx whispered to Luka.

Viperion frowned, "They would have to know her identity... but even if they did I think this is more than that... Cat's sound has almost disappeared... like she's trying to burry the semblance of humanity she is. The bat... he's worried, scared even... something bigger is going on..."

"Before you lecture me, could I request medical attention?" Catastrophe asked cooly.

The two held eye contact for a moment.

"Of course." Batman nodded. "Let us go to the watchtower."

She raised an eyebrow, "Why not the cave?"

"We.... Have some questions." Batman supplied.

Catastrophe felt the strong urge to hiss at him but barely restrained herself.

"Do you still have your suit?" Batman asked barely loud enough for anyone but his daughter to hear.

"Somewhere. But it isn't like I haven't tried to be rid of it." She didn't restrain this time and hissed at him.

He visibly flinched. "Please retrieve it while we meet with the league. The rest of the team are welcome to come if they remain transformed."

"Why should I?" She stared up at him.

"It will establish even ground to know that a known member knows about Paris and you aren't all just nee heroes with no training." Batman stared back at her.

She held his gaze for a moment longer then snapped away, "Tt...Fine. But in doing so, my team will know all our identities."

Batman hesitated. "Mutual trust. If we know theirs, they can know ours. We mostly know theirs already..."

The miraculous team looked around at eachother, very confused as to what was happening.

"Um, Cat, do you mind explaining.... This?" Queen Bee asked, placing a hand on her hip.

Catastrophe stood between Batman and Robin. "My biological father." She pointed to Batman. "My twin and the one I am sworn to protect."

Robin attempted to protest.

"My family." She gestured to the rest of the Bat family with a straight expression. Most gave small waves.

The team gaped slightly at her.

"You're... Cardinal?" Luka uttered. Everyone had heard of Cardinal. She was known to be very tactically smart but very brutal when members of her team were attacked. She never let her enemy get away.

Cardinal was not the most respected hero/sidekick around. She was often described as reckless or in some cases heartless. She was never seen with an experession.

To know their leader was the infamous Cardinal from Batman's group was.... Jarring to say the least. While they were coming to this realisation, the cat had retrieved her Cardinal suit and had changed into it.

"Shall we go?" Marinette asked.

Her team blinked at her, she was like a completely different person. Her eyes were covered by a mask that doubled as a hood, going to a pointed beak at her nose.

Her suit was mostly black and red with white accents trailing down her sides. Her cape was attached to each arm and split in two with feathered edges, giving the impression of wings. Her own emblem of an open winged white bird but certainly not a dove, more like a falcon.

Her expression remained flat. It was unsettling to her team. They almost always at least had a hint of emotion from her. But with her family she seemed to just turn it off.

Luka thought of the moment she was hit by wishmaker. She just burst into tears. Her greatest wish was the ability to feel wholeheartedly. Unfortunately for her, she had much more to break because of than she had to be happy about.

He understood why now.

The family stepped forwards, one by one getting into the zeta tube.

Marinette handed Adrien the horse miraculous to teleport them to the watchtower.

When they arrived, Marinette was met by some familiar faces, surprisingly, most of them were younger heroes, mostly titans as well as Superman sitting at the discussion table, Wonder Woman soon appearing from another zeta tube.

Beast boy dropped his slice of pizza when he saw her. "Cardinal!" He flushed.

Marinette still couldn't pin whether the boy liked her or was terrified of her. Probably a bit of both. She gave a nod of acknowledgement in his direction.

She sighed when she saw the younger Superboy bounding over to her.

She, Jon and Damien had formed a trio before she was banished, they hadn't talked since because Jon never actually got her number, instead just flying to them normally. But thanks to Bruce and the law banning metas from Paris, he couldn't do that anymore. He hugged her but pulled back as soon as she saw her injuries. "What happened!?"

"Unimportant." She tutted.

She returned from the medical ward not long later bandaged to the point that if she was out of suit she could be mistaken for a mummy.

Once Jon was sure she was in little pain, he hugged her again.

Marinette remained stiff and blank-faced. "Afternoon boyscout." She tutted.

"Aww you're exactly how I remembered!" Jon grinned brightly. "You have a team!?" He looked behind her.

"I'm part of a team-"

"That's so cool!" His gaze stopped on Red-Beetle for a moment. "Who's the blonde in red? He's really cute..."

Marinette rolled her eyes, "go talk to him then. We have things to attend to.

He pouted "Really? After all these years that's all I get?"

"Yes." She stated simply, following Batman to the table and taking a seat next to him, waiting for the meeting to start while the team introduced themselves to the present heroes, Jon and Adrien had already exchanged numbers.

She sighed barely audibly.

Luka sat next to her and held her hand, not saying anything. He just sat with her which was exactly what she needed.

Slowly the rest of the core league members appeared.

Cardinal had relaxed ever so slightly thanks to Luka but still sat defensively.

Batman rose from his seat. "Let us begin."

Again
Not proof read, so sorry.

Hope you enjoyed have a good day.