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Marinette stared into her opponents eyes with determination. This was not a battle she was willing to lose. Too much rested on the result of the coming battle. Because this was the highest stakes game of rock-paper-scissors ever played. It was not everyday that Batman gave his explicit permission to mess with the various members of the Justice League.
Everything would be harmless of course, minor physical inconveniences and psychological torment of the smallest scale only. All that remained now was to determine who would have the joy of ‘easing’ each member into the idea of another member of the infamous bat family. The last one introduced had been Damian as Robin, some still had yet to recover from the experience.
Confrontation of Guy Gardiner had been decided in trial by combat, or minor sparing for the bat kids. Marinette and Adrien had been excluded from that considering they already got a shot at him and because it had been mutually agreed that it would be more humiliating coming from a known hero. Damian won and Marinette was honestly pleased. For a half brother only a year and a half older Damian was surprisingly protective of Marinette. The other boys had theorized that it was because Marinette was younger and had never expressed interest in ‘stealing’ Robin or the right of ‘heir’ from him. Plus Marinette had always been adorably persistent in making people like her.
To decide on who would confront the rest of the League they had set up a rock-paper-scissors tournament at Alfreds recommendation. Everyone in the family was included and though some would tag team and others would do more than one member there were a few JL Members under contention.
Marinette and Adrien had called dibs on talking to Wonder Woman. They wanted to have a more detailed discussion on the history of the miraculous and see if there was anything the Amazonian could help them learn.
Damian was of course taking Guy Gardiner, but Steph was going with him to make sure Damian wouldn't maim the man if he spoke out of turn.
Bruce had already gotten Ladybug and Chat Noir set up with access to the Watchtower. He had even set Marinette up as team leader for team Miraculous with Adrien as co-leader so that the two had more access beyond the basics. Marinette had quickly applied a selection of resources to watch Gabriel Agreste with Adriens blessing.
The family was setting up an unofficial grading scale for their interactions with each Leaguer. There were several categories. Most Memorable Encounter, Originality, Productive Use of Everyone's Time, and The Lamest of the Lame. Since most of the encounters were ‘supposed’ to occur in the Watchtower under full surveillance they would be able to score their performances later.
Now for the competition. Each of them would play three times against every other person and their scores would be calculated to determine who was at the top and who was towards the bottom. Alfred was the referee. They had already given him his top pick of John Constantine.
Marinette's first opponent was Adrien. Easy pickings.
“Rock, Paper, Scissors, and as the kids say it these days, but I expect Master Jason to Not do indoors, Shoot.” Alfred said. Immediately groans and cheers can be around the batcave.
Adrien is a good sport about losing all of his matches against Marinette. They had figured out a while ago that Adriens bad luck was mainly harmless, or applied to his opponents. Against Marinette though their dual luck got a little wonky. In a game of chance Marinette would beat Adrien nine times out of ten, especially when Marinette already knew him so well. Spoiler alert, Adrien Always went for Paper first.
Marinette went up against Dick, Jason, Tim. Win, Win, Lose against her brothers. She lost against Babs and won against Damian. Steph lost with the greatest amount of dignity she knew, which was none. Her aunt Kate had been doing Rock for every turn all day and was only here to laugh at everyone else. Cass won and Marinette was unsurprised by the decimation that her sister was bringing to the table. Duke clearly was just there to say he did it and get his assigned JL member, but happily conceded victory to Marinette.
Her current opponent though is her father. And he was playing to win today. Marinette had for the sake of the game tamped down her luck to a more reasonable level after playing Adrien. She wanted to play fair against her family. Marinette already got her top pick and wanted to enjoy the friendly competition.
“Rock-Paper-Scissors, Shoot.” Alfred called out again.
Marinette pulled Scissors, so did Bruce. She grinned. Marinette put her fist in her hand and her dad mirrored her. They went again. Marinette had Paper, Bruce had Rock and looked frustrated. Marinette giggled as they went again. Alfred had already written down the results of the first set as he observed them with his all knowing presence. Bruce had Rock, Marinette cursed, she had Scissors. They went again. Scissors-Scissors, Rock-Rock, Paper-Paper and so on and so on.
Alfred came over. “Who might the two of you both be interested in? You are holding up the tournament.”
Marinette and her Father met each other's eyes before speaking simultaneously. “Dr. Fate.”
Marinette was a little surprised, but considering the man's track record Bruce probably didn't want any of the rest of them attempting to talk with the man alone. Marinette had her own bone to pick with the ancient Mystic.
“Might I suggest doubling up so that we are not here all day.” Alfred told them in a tone that brokered no argument from any Wayne who ever heard it more than once. Argue with Alfred and regret it was the house motto.
With twin nods Marinette and Bruce moved on to their last opponents. Selina was looking at her with a feline smirk as she sat down. “Hello little kitten.” She greeted.
“Wrong kid. The kitten is over there.” Marinette deadpanned as she pointed to her partner.
Selina laughed lightly. “He sure is, but you are my little kitten too Mari.”
Marinette blushed. Selina was practically the only mom figure she could remember besides her aunt Sabine and the faint memories of her own mother. “Thanks Cat.” She murmured.
“Let's play little one.” Selina conceded.
They played quickly as they exchanged sly smiles. Marinette won, but it was close, and she was fairly certain that Selina had been playing with her on some of those ties. Selina probably just wanted to fuck with Superman or Arrow so she could hang with Lois or Canary afterward.
“B seemed pretty keen on keeping you away from Fate.” Selina commented quietly. “He hasn’t wanted the boys around him since Zatara.” She trailed off remembering what had happened to Zatanna's father.
Marinette's face grew hard. “I know, that's why I wanna talk to him. I have some words for Dr. Fate.” Her voice was cold and Marinette could feel Tikki’s matching fury in her pocket where the kwami still preferred to sit.
“I hope you know what you're doing Kitten.” Selina murmured. “You know I trust you, but I’m glad B will be with you.”
Marinette nodded and they waited for the rest of the room to finish. In the end the assignments were as follows.
Green Lantern (Guy Gardiner) - Robin assisted by Spoiler
Wonder Woman - Ladybug and Chat Noir
John Constantine - Agent A
Dr. Fate - Batman and Ladybug
Aquaman (and Aqualad) - Nightwing and Chat Noir
Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) - Red Hood and Robin
Superman - Red Robin
Green Arrow - Catwoman
Black Canary - Batwoman
Booster Gold - Black Bat and Signal
Blue Beetle - Red Hood and Red Robin
Flash - Nightwing
Hawk Girl - Batwoman and Black Bat
Martian Manhunter - Oracle and Batman
Captain Marvel - Chat Noir and Red Hood
Red Tornado - Oracle
Stargirl - Spoiler and Ladybug
Black Lightning - Robin and Signal
It wasn’t a complete list of JLA members, but it included those who people wanted exclusive prank rights to. Agent A had also put some people together who don't tend to bond as much, because that is just how grandparents do things. Of course some of the teen heroes were already notified of Ladybug prior to the massive reveal at the recent JLA meeting. Mainly those who were already familiar with the Wayne’s civilian identities such as Wally, Roy, Connor and Jon. That still left Blue Beetle and StarGirl wide open to pranks since they were newer additions to the younger group of heroes. Signal had also grown closer with Black Lightning’s younger daughter Lightning, Robin was fully prepared to direct his brother into achieving parental approval during this mission, he wasn't heartless after all.
Overall most everyone was satisfied with their assignments. Marinette figured that the Rock-Paper-Scissors was just Alfreds excuse to make sure no one got into any more fights before they could get around to choosing their pranking targets.