Robin landed on the roof of a building near Crime Alley, where Batwoman was supposed to meet him.
Damian sat on the edge of the building as he recalled the events of that night.
Marinette was a very intriguing girl. She displayed leadership skills that generally took years to appear, was intelligent, and skillful with both fists and words, as well as kind.
He had really enjoyed their discussion with her, it had been interesting and somewhat enlightening.
The little Parisian girl had somewhat naive ideals, but she was no fool, and above all Damian had realized the wisdom behind her words. Also, whatever ideal she had, no matter how unrealistic it was, the girl had the guts and the arguments to defend them.
Undoubtedly meeting Marinette had been a pleasant experience.
And that scared Damian.
Normally he didn't open up to others so easily, it had taken Dick almost a year under his tutelage to gain the trust of Batman's son. But with Marinette it was different, the girl had certainly dazzled him with her skills, but it was the open conversation they had that made his interest in her grow.
And what terrified him the most ... correction, Damian Wayne Al Ghul was not terrified, he was only concerned; He was concerned at the fact that he wanted to see her again.
Damian decided to put those confused emotions aside and focus on something else.
For example, the situation in Paris.
From what the girls had said the problem had been controlled by the local heroes, whom Damian would investigate, until things had escalated to another level with the appearance of a villain named Mother's Wrath. After that, the situation began to get out of hand for the Parisian heroes.
The whole situation was actually quite strange, from the powers of the heroes to those of the villain, but the sad thing is that this was not the oddest thing Damian had ever seen in his life, heck, it was not the oddest thing he had seen in one week.
He was deep in thought when he felt Batwoman land next to him.
"What's up, Damian?"
"No names" Robin said to which Batwoman just rolled her eyes with annoyance "everything went well, she is now in her hotel room."
"That's good" at that moment Kate looked at the paper bag in Robin's hands "What's in the bag?"
"Cupcakes" Robin replied, "Marinette gave them to me as thanks."
Batwoman opened the bag and the pleasant smell spread.
"There are about twelve cupcakes. Are you going to eat them alone?"
"Don't be ridiculous" replied the offended boy " I'm not Todd. She said it was for us, I'm assuming she meant the whole team."
"How cold Damian! You called us family before."
" No names, Batwoman."
"Anyway, did you get more information about the situation in Paris or did you just flirt with her?"
Damien felt himself blush, he was Damian Wayne Al Ghul, the demon's heir, the son of Batman, he was not blushing.
"Wait a minute. Did you flirt with her?"
" Don't be ridiculous. Where did you get tremendous nonsense?"
"You're blushing."
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are, would you like a mirror?"
" It is not necessary" Robin answered getting nervous when he heard Batwoman giggles "Anyway, I was NOT flirting with Marinette."
"And you call her by her name," Batwoman pointed out with a mocking smile, "as far as I know, you still call Dick by Grayson."
" That's because I don't know her last name."
" So, I assume you couldn't find out anything."
The young Wayne shook his head.
As he thought inside himself, nothing he could share with Batwoman.
"Well, yikes," Batwoman said while smiling "we better go report to the rest, those cupcakes look great."
"Tt"
Without more to say both vigilantes headed towards the Batcave.
Meanwhile, in a certain room in a certain hotel ...
Marinette considered herself a brave person, it took courage to take on Ladybug's alter ego.
As Ladybug regularly faced villains capable of destroying the Eiffel Tower, in fact, most had done so at least once.
She faced villains who measured more than a building almost once a month and still was not ashamed to admit it, seeing Tomoe and her friends waiting for explanations, she was scared.
"Well Marinette, how was it?"
"Everything was fine, Tomoe, thanks for asking."
"Hum Is there any particular reason why you decided to access our room in this so ... unusual way?"
She honestly had no idea. Robin had made the decision to go up to the room like that, but he had probably noticed her discomfort at the thought of having to go through reception with the kitten in his arms, although he hadn't said anything about it.
But if she told Tomoe that it had been Robin's decision, knowing her as she knew her, she would surely criticize the young watcher.
"Well, I did not want to go through reception with the kitten in my arms, and well, well, I'm here. That is what matters, right?"
"I screwed up"
Marinette knew that she had sounded stupid, the looks on her friend's faces was the extra proof that she needed, but she didn't know what else to say.
"Marinette, the unconventional way, let's say it that way, in which that boy got you is actually dangerous."
The three girls looked at each other, was that what Tomoe was worried about? In fairness, they understood her. They had not even been in Gotham City for 24 hours and had already met their first villain, all this while she attended to certain pending issues regarding the tournament in which Kagami would compete.
Still, being carried by one of the local heroes was nowhere near the most dangerous thing Marinette had done that week.
" I don't think you should worry about that, mother" Kagami spoke, gaining Tomoe's attention "the Gotham City vigilantes have a reputation for being competent. I highly doubt that one of them would intentionally put Mari-hime at risk."
"Still, the fact is, the method he used to get to this room was actually dangerous."
"Ok, I get the point, but don't forget that Maribug has experience swinging around buildings before"
"I didn't swim, Chloe, Robin just carried me up from the door."
"Let me ask you something girls. Why would Marinette have that kind of experience?"
The question echoed in the room as Marinette became alarmed, Kagami glared at Chloe and the blonde looked for a place to hide or what to say.
"Well Tomoe, remember that, unfortunately, the class that Maribug and I are in has been attacked by Akumas several times and well, that kind of gives experience ..."
"Also, if I'm not mistaken, Mari-hime has been the target of several Akumas."
"That's right! The miraculous team is always helping me so I got used to it" Marinette said with a nervous giggle.
For a few seconds, which felt eternal to the three teenage girls, Tomoe was silent, then sighed.
"Okay, do not forget to call your parents, I already informed them of the situation, but they had better hear from your mouth that you are fine. Also, you three should go to sleep early, tomorrow we have to fix certain tournament issues and I don't want the jetlag to affect you."
"Yes, ma'am," the three said in unison, although with different tones, Kagami with a stoic voice, Marinette with a nervous voice and Chloe with an extremely happy tone.
Tomoe smiled slightly at the three girls as they headed to the other end of the suite, where their room was.
Upon arriving in the room she shared with her friends, Marinette settled into her bed, mentally preparing herself for the interrogation that her friends would surely subject her to.
The hotel suite they were staying in was beautiful. It shared a living room and had two rooms, one with a Queen size bed, which was where Tomoe slept, and the other with two double beds, which the girls had joined to sleep together.
Right now, Marinette is seriously considering grabbing a sheet and going to sleep in the living room, that would be preferable to having to put up with Kagami's inquiring gaze and Chloe's mocking smile.
"Before you start the interrogation, let me call my parents to tell them that I'm alive."
Both girls just nodded without saying a word.
Marinette picked up her phone calculating, in Gotham City, it was already 9:00 PM, that meant that in Paris it was 3:00 AM. The young Parisian was seriously considering whether calling them would be a good option, it was super late in Paris and she did not want to wake up her parents, on the other hand, if they were awake and waiting for her call, they surely would not go to sleep until talking to her.
Marinette was still considering her options when her phone rang, indicating an incoming call. Seeing the screen, she noticed it was from his house so he answered quickly.
"Marinette? Honey, are you ok?"
"Yes maman, don't worry. Is dad with you?"
"Yes, wait a minute, I'll place you on speaker.
"Here I am, honey Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, dad, I am."
"How is it possible that on your first night at Gotham they already attacked you? Honey, maybe you should go back to Paris."
"Let's be fair dad, they didn't attack me, I was just involved in the attack, also I don't have a single scratch, the heroes of Gotham City came quickly and saved me before anything bad happened."
"Still, I don't like that my little girl is in danger."
"Calm down Tom, let the girl speak."
"Thanks, mom, dad, I'm perfectly fine."
"But..."
"Relax dad, trust me, I'm fine."
"By the way, honey, Tomoe said you were at a vet with one of Batman's partners, could you explain what happened?"
Marinette wondered to herself how it was possible that her mother's sweet tone of voice was scarier than the entire Mr. Freze affair.
After explaining the situation to her parents and promising that she would do everything in her power not to get into more trouble, Marinette hung up the call.
She turned to see her friends and sighed knowing that she wasn't going to be able to sleep until that crazy couple finished with her questioning.
"Well, at least I can wrap myself, it's getting cold"
Then, in the Batcave ...
Batman was silent, observing the disaster that his children (official and unofficial included) caused in the Batcave.
Jason was arguing with Tim, Stephanie was teasing Damian while he was glaring at her, Duke had gotten under the table to avoid a Batarang that Kate had thrown at Dick, Cassandra was sitting impassively to the chaos happening in front of her and Barbara by his side, waiting for him to say something.
Bruce Wayne AKA Batman sighed again.
He cleared his throat and everyone turned to see him.
"Anything to report?"
"I hate you."
"On top of that, Red Hood."
"Ah, well no. All quiet. It seems that the gangsters have taken a break."
Cassandra nodded at his words.
"All right, Red Robin, Batgirl."
"There was an escape attempt in Arkham, but we stopped it," Tim said seriously before being interrupted by Stephanie.
"Yep, Killer Croc will stay in Arkham for a little while. It would be troublesome looking for Dundee to deal with him."
"Especially since he DOES NOT EXIST, Brown."
"Oh, Dami, don't be bitter. Let me dream."
"Anyway," Tim said a little irritated with his girlfriend and his brother "the situation was controlled before anything could happen."
"Well done, Nightwing, Signal."
"The port was clean," Nightwing said "well, not clean, it was full of garbage and it stunk and Duke almost fell ..."
"Yes, whatever" Duke interrupted " there was no sign of the Penguin."
"I have a question."
"Go ahead, Nightwing."
"Did you notice, when assigning us together, how great 'Dick and Duke' sounds?"
Everyone fell silent as Duke covered his face in embarrassment.
"Well, who's hungry?"
"Very funny Steph."
"Thank you, thank you, I perform on Fridays."
"Could you stop your antics? We are not done" Damian pointed out, clearly irritated.
"Aww! Dami doesn't want to be left out!"
"Don't worry, little D, I will listen to you."
"Stop your nonsense, you two!"
"Well, but don't be mad," said Dick in an almost sung tone.
"Robin, Batwoman Anything to report?"
"Well," Kate started "we stopped Mr. Freze, but we ran into a situation, uh, peculiar."
Bruce frowned at this and motioned for Kate to continue.
"Well, Freze had three hostages, all three were girls of about 16 or 17 years old."
"Certainly, it's a bit weird for Freze to capture hostages."
"That's not the weird thing here, father."
"Explain yourself"
Damian took a few seconds to organize the ideas on his head before starting to speak.
"The three girls Freze held captive were not from Gotham. One of them is here for the Wayne Foundation fencing tournament. They come from Paris. They were ... interesting."
"Interesting? Is our little Damian interested in someone of the female sex? Open the champagne."
"Shut up, Todd! That's not what I was talking about!" Damian yelled irritated "besides, it's obvious that you are only looking for excuses to drink"
"Don't be mad, demon spawn, I already told you that at your age it is normal to look at the 'feminine charms' " Jason said laughing, which was cut off when a knife landed next to his head, cutting a lock of hair in the process "DAMMIT! WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING TO YOU, LITTLE SHIT!"
"You happen to be an idiot, Todd"
"And what is that new about it?"
"Get lost, replacement!"
Bruce allowed them to argue a little longer, then he requested Kate to continue.
She then began the explanation.
She told them about how the three girls had remained calm while they were kidnapped, how the apparent leader of the group had provided them with useful information under the noses of their kidnappers, how, at the time of the action, the three girls had demonstrated considerable ability in hand-to-hand combat and then things got weird.
Kate proceeded then to relate what Marinette had told them. From the appearance of Hawkmoth, the villain of Paris, to the reports to the League being rejected by Hall Jordan.
When he finished everyone in the Batcave was silent, reflecting on what Batwoman had said.
It was, without a doubt, a troubling situation, for which reflective silence was in place.
"So, demon spawn did like the girl."
"Go die, Todd!"
"Very late, I already did it and I didn't like it."
While Jason and Damian were arguing, Tim and Barbara were already on the batcomputer looking for information about it. Bruce, meanwhile, was pondering the information.
The story Kate and Damian had told was a little fanciful and unbelievable, but Batman had seen much stranger things, for heaven's sake, two of his children had died and resurrected before.
So he decided not to dismiss the possibility that the Paris situation was real, at least not until Tim and Barbara investigated it.
When he refocused his attention on her children, he noticed that Jason and Damian had gone from verbal to physical threats, with Dick in the middle of both trying to stop them.
He cleared his throat, drawing the attention of his bizarre family and focused his gaze on Damian.
"Anything else to report?" When Jason opened his mouth, he added "Damian."
Bruce watched his generally stoic son get flustered, ok that was weird.
"Not exactly a report" He took out a paper bag "Marinette, one of the civilians, gave me this for us as a sign of gratitude."
When opening the bag, a pleasant smell spread through the Batcave.
Dick and Stephanie were the first to approach and gasp excitedly.
"CUPCAKES!"
"Watch out! If the demon spawn brings them, they are surely poisoned."
"Nah, he didn't have time to poison them," Kate said absently as she approached the computer where Tim and Barbara were working "I saw when Marinette handed him the cupcakes, and trust me, there was no way that girl would do something like poison, she seemed like a bunny."
"And the devil didn't scare her away?" Jason asked with genuine curiosity as he approached the bag.
"A brave bunny" Kate rectified.
"Tim! You have to try these!" Stephanie said as she took another bite from the cupcake "They are delicious!"
" Swallow first, Brown, you're disgusting."
"Don't bother me dwarf!"
Meanwhile, Dick had a look of pure bliss on his face.
"These are so yummy!" turning to see Damian added "Do you know where he bought them? Mar' i and Kory would surely love to try these."
"She didn't buy them, she made them," Damian said absentmindedly, while she beat Stephanie in the hand so that she didn't get another cupcake," she said that her parents had a bakery in Paris."
"I only have one question," Duke said raising his hand while he took a cupcake and passed the rest "Why did she give them to you?"
"What do you mean, Thomas?"
"Don't be offended, kid, but most people are afraid of you."
"I already said it, Duke. 'Brave Bunny'"
Damian sent Kate a grateful look, to which she only winked.
Bruce was trying to guess what had happened when Tim and Barbara called him.
"I think we should further investigate the situation in Paris," Tim said when Bruce approached.
"Did you find anything?"
"That's the problem," Barbara said with a worried expression "we didn't find anything."
"And when I say nothing, it's nothing," Tim said with the same expression as Barbara "it is as if Paris had been erased from the map, any information we try to obtain is blocked."
At that information, Bruce frowned. That was definitely not normal, the batcomputer had the best technology in the world, Bruce had made sure that his software was even more advanced than that of the watchtower. If the batcomputer was having trouble finding information about an entire city, then something was definitely happening.
"Can you get more information?"
"We will try Bats," Barbara said with a frown and determined look "there is something strange in all this, I have a bad feeling."
Bruce nodded as he watched the rest of his family, which, by the way, had started a new fight, this time over the cupcakes.
Sighing, he went to the bag of cupcakes and took one, left his family in the cave, and went up to the manor. Alfred was in the kitchen next to Selina.
"Good evening, master Bruce."
"Good evening Alfred," approaching his wife, he placed a kiss on her forehead, "good night to you too, Selina.
Selina smiled at her husband's show of affection, then she saw the expression on Bruce's face and asked:
"Did something happen?"
"Still nothing is certain," said Bruce, smiling at him, "don't worry."
"That doesn't convince me at all" the ex-thief answered smiling "What about Damian? Is he still upset?"
Bruce was silent for a few minutes as he thought about what to answer. All week Damian had been really pissed off at all the mayhem that Talia had brought in to his life, he knew his son was still frustrated by the fact that Talia had been able to hurt his best friend, it frustrated him to see the normally invulnerable Superboy in a cast. That night, before going out on patrol, he had been grumpy, but something had changed.
Probably the thought of a potential new threat had distracted him from his anger, but something told him there was something else, he just didn't know what.
"He's better," he finally said to Selina, who was still waiting for his answer as she took a bite of the cupcake that Bruce had been holding a few seconds ago. "That's mine."
" It was"
"I thought the days of robberies were over, Selina."
Instead of answering her, Selina took a bite out of the cupcake while looking Bruce in the eyes with a mischievous smile.
They were both sharing glances when Alfred cleared his throat.
"Maybe you should consider continuing what you're doing upstairs," he said with a slight smile as he noticed Bruce's nervous expression, "the young masters are coming up now."
The moment Alfred had finished speaking, a clear yell was heard:
"GIVE ME MY KATANA BACK IN THIS INSTANT, TODD!"
"Now there is a girl in your life!" Jason said extra dramatically. "You don't need your katana anymore!"
"A girl?" Selina questioned looking at Bruce.
"Don't listen to Todd, that helmet must have burned his brain."
"I don't think that's the case, Damian," Tim said to him as Alfred passed him a cup of coffee. "You need a brain for that."
"You two liked were better when Damian was trying to kill you," Jason said with a pout.
"Don't incite them to violence, Jay!"
"They can go there by themselves."
"I don't think that's the point Steph."
Bruce sighed for the tenth time that night as he watched the wild group in front of him, the group he called family.
He wouldn't trade them for anything in the world, and if this miraculous threat was as dangerous as he suspected ...
Bruce Wayne decided that in case that threat was real, he should neutralize it as soon as possible.
******************************************
Lois was hungry.
That was their first morning in Paris, they had just left the train station with Nadja and Manon and had headed to 'Tom & Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie' for breakfast when Lois had witnessed her first Akuma attack.
On the one hand, that was good, she wasn't sure how long she would be in Paris before she could confirm her friend's story, on the other hand, they had just arrived and she was honestly hungry.
Therefore, it is understandable her surprise and disgust when she saw what seemed to be a giant devastating everything in his path, the disgust multiplied when she heard Manon:
"Poor August," she said as they ran away from the giant. "Surely the kindergarten kids were making fun of him again."
"Kindergarten?!" She yelled incredulously "Please tell me he's a worker there!"
"He's five years old!" Mother and daughter replied.
Lois had no time for shock because then a car had been thrown at them.
She closed her eyes preparing for the impact when she felt that she was lifted from the ground by a gust of wind, gust of wind that transformed into a girl.
" Are you fine?" Asked the girl, emphasis on GIRL. Lois was too shocked to answer, so Manon spoke up.
"We are fine, thanks Ryuko."
The young heroine, Ryuko, nodded before speaking:
"You have to get out of here." There's a shelter on the right, hurry up.
The three nodded and ran towards the direction Ryuko had indicated, where there was a girl with short hair and a cap guiding the rest of the civilians. Manon recognized the girl and ran towards her.
"Sophie!" She said hanging herself from the girl, who smiled when she saw the little girl "I missed you!"
"I'm glad to see you, too, pipsqueak," she said as she ruffled Manon's hair. "You can tell me later how was your trip, right now, go and save yourself."
"Lois, could you follow Sophie? She will indicate you where the refuge is."
"What about you?"
"I have to go cover the attack."
"But..."
"Sorry Lois, I promise I'll give you more information later."
"I take care of the pipsqueak, Ms. Nadja."
"Thanks, Sophie."
Nadja then ran out to where the attack was taking place.
Lois stayed still, and for the first time in her career years, she didn't know what she was doing. Seeing the uncertainty of the woman, Sophie took her hand as she began to guide her to a shelter where there were already civilians.
"Calm down, Ms. Nadja has been in a lot of attacks, almost every time unscathed"
"Almost?!"
"OK, that didn't go well. What I meant was that if the situation becomes dangerous, one of the heroes will bring her here."
"Why go so far for news?" Lois knew that was hypocritical of her, but her friend was in danger.
"Because we need help," she said with a hurt and irritated expression, "The Justice League thought this was a joke, we need proof."
Lois looked guilty, she herself had thought the idea sounded ridiculous. The only reason he had agreed to help was that Nadja was his friend. He was thinking about it when he heard Nadja's voice from a newscast.
"Good afternoon Paris, this is Nadja Chamack, reporting from the battle of our team of heroes against the latest akumatization victim." Nadja said while in the background the chaos that the giant was causing was observed: "And here she comes, Ladybug is here."
Lois approached the screens where the battle was seen. The heroine who had saved them earlier was on one side of the street, next to a boy in a fox-themed costume, on the other side a girl in a bee costume and a boy in an aqua costume that resembled a species of reptile. In the middle of the street was what she assumed was Ladybug next to a boy in a catsuit.
Lois watched as the six boys battled Gigantitan, who was apparently the poor boy's alter ego name while trying not to hurt him. She was so focused watching the battle that she hardly noticed the blonde woman beside her, who was tearfully watching the screen.
"August, my baby," said the woman, watching as the heroes tried to contain the little boy.
Lois didn't need to think long to realize that this was the boy's mother.
That was enough for her to know that the moment she set foot in America, she would force Clark to let her see who had rejected these people's requests for help.
That was no joke.
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I'm sorry for not being able to post anything in more than a month. I was in a horrible block. I knew what I wanted to write but I couldn't find a way to put it on words.
However, I'm pretty satisfied with the result.
Any comment is welcome.
Farewell fellows.