Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Damian walked down a busy Parisian street, rubbing the bridge of his nose under his glasses. Father had sent him to liaise with WE Paris on a new project. Of course, the board members there were just as incompetent as those in Gotham. How anything ever got accomplished was a shock to him. It almost was enough to make him admire Drake’s so-called abilities in negotiation.

He continued down the street towards his temporary lodgings, when he suddenly heard the familiar noise of a mugging. Without even thinking about it he jumped into action. Running into the dark, for Paris, alleyway and subduing the muggers. His overtired brain caught up with what he had just done, as he helped the old man up from the ground.

“Thank you young man.”

“It was nothing. Anyone would have done the same thing,” Damian replied.

“But anyone didn’t,” the old man responded, “You did.”

Damian noticed something being slipped into his pocket as he assisted the old man and located his walking stick. He passively noticed that the would-be mugger had already fled the alley. “I hope you encounter no more trouble on your journey.” Damian ignored the man’s last comment. He had already potentially compromised his identity and needed to leave as quickly as possible to avoid making himself more memorable.

As Damian walked quickly away, a green bug thing flew up out of the old man’s pocket. “Master, did we just find a true black cat?”

“Wayzz, I think we did. He should match well with the Ladybug we chose earlier.”

Soon Damian reached the room, after a quick sweep to ensure there were no bugs of any sort, he reached into his pocket to find whatever that weird old man had placed there. His hand found an odd octagonal shaped box with ancient Chinese characters, similar to those used by the League. With a deep breath, steeling himself for whatever surprise awaited him, he opened the box to find – a ring?

“I know, I know, it’s a little anticlimactic,” a nasally voice said from behind him.

Damian whipped around, drawing one of his hidden knives and leveling it at the voice. All he saw was a black cat-bug thing. He took a deep breath and replaced the knife after checking the lock again. Clearly the old man was an agent of his mother and there was a fast acting inhaled hallucinogen in the box.

“Come on, don’t ignore me,” the cat-bug whined.

Damian continued to ignore the hallucination as he walked over to his closet and removed his portable lab kit. The sooner he figured out what had been in that box the sooner this thing would be gone. Whatever the substance was clearly caused both auditory and visual hallucinations.

“Man, what is your problem. Stop ignoring me. I will annoy you into acknowledging me. Don’t blame me for what happens next.”

What happened next was the most irritating version of 99 Pieces of Cheese on a Plate. However, Damian had been trained to resist worse tortures than this. That is until the computer beeped and his samples came back negative for any foreign substances. This annoying blob was not a hallucination. “What form of magic are you?”

“So now you acknowledge me,” the cat-bug snarked. “My name is Plagg, I’m the Kwami of Destruction. You are now the holder of the Black Cat, aka MY, Miraculous. Ya put the ring on and say “Claws Out” you transform and get my powers of destruction which are activated by saying “Cataclysm”. You get one shot with the Cataclysm per transformation. Because you’re an adult you won’t have a time limit after you use your Cataclysm. Your partner will be the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous, which covers Creation. Do you have any questions, because based off the news going on we’re needed.”

Damian looked over at the tv to see a giant rock monster rampaging through the streets of Paris and put on the ring, he knew he would never live this down once the family heard. “Just a few, give me a run down of the situation, and Ladybug’s powers.”

Plagg sighed, “Okay, so the Butterfly Miraculous was lost a long time ago and is now activated. Traditionally it’s used to empower people by creating Champions and giving them a power, however, whoever has it is using it to create villians to get the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous. That’s bad because when combined they grant the user one wish that always has devastating consequences, think the Black Plague, or French Revolution. We need to find the object that the butterfly is hiding in and break it so that the victim is released. Ladybug’s power is Lucky Charm which summons an item that somehow will help, it’s usually very convoluted and something only the wielder understands. She also has the ability to purify the butterfly so it can’t return to the victim when the emotions return. Victims have the ability to create minions. Anything else?”

“Yes, can I just destroy the butterfly?”

“In theory a Cataclysm to the butterfly would work but that’s what Ladybug is for.”

Damian just shot th- Plagg an unimpressed look. “Okay, I’m ready, Plagg Claws Out!” A toxic green light engulfed him and when it dissipated he was wearing black body armor, similar to what he wore out in Gotham, with neon green accents. Attached to the back was a cape similar to what he wore as Robin with a deep hood, the only difference was the cat ears on top. “I look like Father and Cat Woman’s lovechild,” he sighed, “Well there’s nothing left to do but complete the mission.” In his hands was a Glaive. “At least the weapon is useful, even if this outfit is horrid.” With a final glance at the monster’s location he bounded out the window.

He stopped on a rooftop close enough to observe the action. He was not about to jump in without a plan. Suddenly a streak of red swung across his vision and down into the thick of battle. That was most likely his new partner. Clearly whoever it is is completely inexperienced. Peering down he watched a young? girl in a red jumpsuit with black polka dots confronting the golem creature. He watched until he saw the creature’s fist rise up, the girl still not noticing. He swung down and swooped her up just as the creature’s fist slammed into where she was standing. “What the HELL were you thinking?” He snapped as they landed on a nearby roof.

“I was trying to fix everything. Who are you?”

“You can call me Matagot, I’m the holder of the black cat Miraculous,” At her confused look he continued. “I’m your partner. Didn’t you ask your Kwami any questions?”

“Is that that bug thing?”

He sighed, “yes, that bug thing.”

“I kinda didn’tlethersayanythingbecauseshescaredme.”

Matagot blinked as he interpreted the jumble of words. Then with a sigh he said, “Okay, what am I going to call you in uniform?”

“Um, Ladybug? Yeah, call me Ladybug!”

“-tt-, Alright Ladybug, tell me what you know.” Internally, Damian was freaking out. This child could not be much older than he was when he started as Robin, add to that that she clearly did not have the dubious advantage of the training he was raised with and he wanted to put that League training to use on that old man that gave this burden to her. What if he hadn’t intervened? Would it be 2 teenagers dealing with this mess?

Chapter Text

It was a good thing Damian was prepared and had taken the time to interrogate Plagg. Ladybug, most likely due to her inexperience, almost didn’t purify the Akuma. Damian sneered, how unimaginative was this villain, calling himself the Butterfly in French and naming his evil butterflies after a negative Japanese spirit. Even gracing him with the title of villain was insulting to the actual villains he fought at home.

He thought back to what happened after their battle with Stoneheart, as the giant monster called himself. He had convinced Ladybug that they should meet up tonight on the Eiffel Tower to make a plan and get ahead of Mr. Butterfly. Damian could not think of him without sneering, Condiment King was more threatening. But before he went to meet Ladybug, it was time to call in reinforcements. He was not so proud that he was willing to ignore the benefits Father and Drake could provide.

It didn’t take a minute for his call to connect with the Bat Computer back home. Grayson was on monitor duty still due to an injury. “Grayson, where is Father? I have an update on the Paris Mission.”

“Baby bird,” Grayson was clearly confused. “There isn’t a mission in Paris right now.

“-tt- that is what you think. Get Father,” he paused and sighed, “and Drake. They both should be here for this.”

A short while later the entire family was assembled in the cave, with the exception of Gordon who had connected in remotely. “Gordon, I have sent over a video clip from a French Blog called the LadyBlog, could you please verify its authenticity.”

A few minutes later she shakily confirmed that the footage had not been altered except for a few retouches to sharpen contrast and an audio track overlay. As the family watched Damian explained, “This happened earlier today. Approximately an hour prior to the footage, I assisted an elderly man in escaping a mugging, I am currently running facial recognition on him, who slipped this box-” Damian lifted the jewelry box into view of the camera “-into my pocket. Logically I assumed it was a test or a plot from Mother but it turns out that the good deed I did somehow fulfilled this man’s requirements to be granted magical jewelry. Now I am the wielder of this ring that turns me into that cat hero you see on the screen. As you can tell my partner, Ladybug, is clearly young and untrained. I wish to end this conflict with Butterfly Man as quickly as possible. Therefore, I will require the assistance of Father and Drake. Additionally I think it wise that the Justice League not be allowed to enter the city until the situation is resolved. The last thing Paris needs is a possessed Superman or Green Lantern.”

Back in Gotham, the family sat in stunned silence, until Bruce cleared his throat. “Damian we will absolutely assist. I will arrange our flights over now. I think we both know that there is nothing that will keep Selina out of Paris, especially now that you have a Cat themed persona.”

“I am aware Father. I will also be informing Ladybug of my identity and that I called in help. She is a smart girl so I imagine she will figure out the family secret fairly quickly.” With that he closed the connection to Gotham. “Plagg, Claws Out.” A few seconds later Matagot jumped out the window and headed towards the Eiffel Tower. When he arrived, he hid in the shadows, a remnant of his childhood, and watched as Ladybug paced back and forth on the platform muttering to herself. Once he was sure no one was in the area, he jumped down. “Ladybug,” he greeted her.

“Hello, Matagot,” Ladybug replied.

“We must plan for when the Butterfly reappears. I have taken the liberty of getting in touch with a few contacts that I have from my hometown. They are currently analyzing the videos on the Ladyblog,” he resisted the urge to sneer out those last few words, all current evidence showed that the Parisian French were very unimaginative. “Next up is making sure we are aware of each other’s civilian identities.”

Ladybug went to interrupt him here, to caution – at her kwamii’s advice – that it would only be a security risk if Le Papillon managed to akumatize one of them. However, Matagot did not pause.

“I am aware of the potential risks; however, those risks are far lesser than the risk that one of us gets caught up in the attack or has an obligation that is not easily escaped. I have been in the field for over 10 years. I have learnt from the mistakes I watched my elders make, including hiding their identities from trusted allies. As we are the only 2 people capable of stopping this madman, we must know each other’s identity. Now backup will be here in the next few days but until then we are on our own.” He sighed lightly, “Plagg, Claws In.” The light for the detransformation washed over him until he stood before her. “My name is Damian Wayne, I am the heir to Wayne Enterprises. My father sent me over here to liaise with our Paris branch on a new project.”

Ladybug took a deep breathe, visibly steeling herself for what was to come. “Tikki, Spots Off.” After the light dissipated a young girl stood before him. “My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng. I’m a student at Franciose-Dupont.”

“Thank you Marinette, now first things first, I have reached out to Batman and Red Robin. They will be forming a team to come help us track down Butterfly Man. In the mean time we’ll get you started on some hand to hand training. Today relied a little too much on luck for us to win.” And on that rooftop in Paris the two began to plan.”

Back in Gotham, Batman was focused in on the situation in Paris. So much so that he did not hear the Zeta tube opening behind him.

“Batman, you missed the meeting.”

He turned around to look at Wonder Woman. “Shrike, is currently in Paris on civilian business and just informed me of a developing situation.”

“Well, Paris is my stomping ground, what seems to be going on?”

Batman pulled the video up on screen. “Oracle verified that this video has not been tampered with besides some contrast correction and the audio track.” He pressed play and continued to explain, “apparently a villain has gotten a hold of a magical piece of jewelry called a Miraculous. An old Chinese man has selected Shrike’s civilian identity to hold another Miraculous and has assigned a partner to help defeat the villain. However, Shrike’s assessment is that his partner is young and inexperienced as a vigilante and he is requesting back up.”

Wonder Woman stared at the screen, white with fury. She recognized those costumes. “How dare he,” she whispered, her voice full of rage.

“Wonder Woman,” she continued to ignore Batman, “DIANA,” she turned to face him once more. “Do you know what is going on?”

“My mother used to hold the Ladybug Miraculous.” She explained. “My mother who is alive and well on Themyscira and would happily take up the mantle again to save a CHILD from that responsibility. I will be returning to Paris immediately after I talk with Aquaman, and when I find the current guardian, he will wish he was never born.”