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When Batman said they were going to Paris for a mission, Jason had expected some sort of major big bad guy organization where Batman and Robin bust in with some crepes on the side.
Not… whatever this was.
Bruce and him were out as civilians to get an idea of the situation and had been enjoying brunch at a café when A giant creature with thorns growing out of it emerged from the streets of Paris.
Jason stood quickly to jump into the fray and protect the other civilians but Bruce held him back and pointed.
He watched curiously as the monster roared and charged forward. Jason struggled as the thing got closer and closer to a little girl in the street.
Before he could break free from B's grip, Jason looked and was shocked to see a woman swoop in and save the little girl from certain death.
Upon closer look though, Jason realized that the red and black blur of a woman was actually a young girl, likely his age.
And he thought the Robin colors were bad! This girl was in bright red!
Bruce and him watched as she zipped around the city, pulling civilians from the line of fire.
But she never seemed to attack the monster.
Jason glared, “B, are we gonna do anything? She's not exactly stopping the thing.”
Bruce frowned, “No, just watch.”
Jason huffed in frustration but continued to watch the scene before them.
He watched as the girl swung around and kept stalling. It was as if she was waiting for something… or someone.
Soon enough his question was answered as black rose from the rooftops and practically bounced from building to building. It appeared to be some sort of… cat?
Jason snorted, “They're not very stealthy are they B?”
Bruce smiled slightly and nodded but went back to watching.
Jason looked back to see the cat and polka dot girl talking as they moved. He was slightly awed by their fluidity. Jason thought he and B were a good team but these two were something else.
It kind of made him jealous.
Finally the duo broke off from each other and began the assault on the creature.
The cat used some sort of staff to block the creature from progressing further. Then he attacked, meanwhile the girl was further back seemingly just watching.
Suddenly she shot what looked like a yoyo across the skyline, letting it wrap around the creature's thorns. She then pulled herself across and over to the creature, landing on its back. Jason was impressed by her flying, he knew Dick would be too.
Jason watched in awe as the girl in red, threw her yoyo in the air and it lit up in a spray of rose light, bathing the sky in its light.
Once the glimmer faded Jason looked to see the girl had some sort of item with a matching polka dot pattern on it.
Curiously the girl ran off, but then she threw the item at a fire hydrant and he watched as it sprayed right at the creature which seemed to calm it down.
It made sense, given the thing was clearly some sort of plant based monster.
While the monster paused to take in the water, the cat boy suddenly snuck underneath the thing and grabbed something before running back to the lady in red.
Jason felt Bruce shift and he shifted with him into the shadow of the café they were hiding at so they wouldn't be seen.
The cat then offered whatever he'd stolen to the girl, it looked like… a vase?
Much to Jason's surprise, she took it, and immediately threw it on the ground much to the monster's horror.
Together they watched as a black butterfly floated up from the ruined vase.
Only to be snatched up by the yoyo.
A white light shone and the butterfly seemed to have been purged as it was now white.
The girl in polka dots said something, fist bumped the cat boy and they both parted ways, zipping off to somewhere.
Jason turned to Bruce, “I take it that's what we're here for?”
Bruce nodded, “Yes. They're France's proclaimed heros. The boy is called Chat Noir, and the girl is called Ladybug. They're villain is known as Hawkmoth and he has the ability to make thralls based off of strong emotion. Our mission is to assess the situation and provide support.”
Jason eyed him, “You sure it's not to adopt another black haired kid?”
Bruce dropped his seriousness in exchange for sputtering, “Excuse me?”
Jason snorted and began the walk back to the safe house they were staying at, “Didn't deny it though.”
The walk back to their home for the duration of the mission was brief, and once home B further informed Jason of the task at hand.
“I'll be working at Paris' Wayne branch and doing some deep diving on the two heros and the attacks, as well as try to find Hawkmoth's location and identity.”
“And what will I be doing?” Jason asked, though he fully expected some lame job like going to school and trying not to get turned into a monster.
Bruce turned to him and smiled, “I've triangulated the attacks and it seems that a very large portion is stemming from a highschool so your job is going to be infiltrating the school as a student and see if you can figure out any correlation. Though do try not to get turned into any sort of creature.”
Jason sighed, “Yeah, that checks.”
Thankfully Jason wouldn't have to have any sort of special alias. He'd be going as Jason Todd, a transfer student to the highschool while his dad is working in France.
The goal was to figure out why so many of the monsters came from this particular school and to discover more intel on the creatures.
And because B wanted him to work on his french.
Hooray…
Although the worst part of it all was starting school the next day and Jason realizing that he knew absolutely no one.
He hated being the new kid back when he was first adopted and Bruce put him in school, he was going to hate it now too.
At the very least he hoped the Wayne name stayed out of it, he really didn't need a whole bunch of kids ogling him because he came from money. He'd had enough of that back at home too.
Walking into the place things seemed fine… like any normal highschool albeit the architecture was different from the American system.
He quickly made his way to his homeroom, having been made to memorize it by Bruce the night prior.
He'd have to reluctantly thank B for that later.
Jason stood at the door for a bit, feeling a good bit nervous at the prospect of having to play the new kid role again.
Though finally the bell rang and he knew he was blocking the door so he forced himself past the door frame and went to the teacher's desk to find out where he'd be sitting.
The woman at the desk seemed nice enough. He took a glance at the nameplate on it and stepped forward.
Jason approached the desk and gave his best ‘I'm a good student’ smile, “Bonjour Miss Bustier, my name is Jason I believe I'm in this class?”
The red head looked up and smiled, “Hello Jason, you would be correct. I'm going to go ahead and seat you in the third row with Miss Rossi.”
Jason looked to where the teacher mentioned and tried hard not to grimace, the girl sitting there seemed to be way too eager for her new deskmate.
The teacher continued, “Ivan I'm going to have you and Lila switch so she'll be third row and you'll be fourth with Nathaniel.”
Jason went and sat down in his seat and felt the eyes of the girl next to him, Lila apparently, boring into him.
He sighed, “Yes?”
The girl smiled not unlike the Joker, “Hi! I'm Lila and I can't wait to be your friend. I can show you around the school since my dad built it!”
Jason felt his eyebrows rise. Her dad built the school? The school that was clearly older than Alfred?
Wait, scratch that, Alfred was probably immortal so not older than him but the point still stands.
Not wanting to start anything on his first day, Jason politely nods, “I… see. Uh, I already got a tour from one of the staff so no thank you but I appreciate it anyways.”
Before the girl could try and drag him back into conversation again, the bell rang signifying the start of class and so Jason promptly ignored her and faced forward.
Miss Bustier came forward, “Good morning class, today we have a new student joining as I'm sure you've noticed. This is Jason, please make sure to help him in the case of an akuma attack as he's never experienced one before. I trust you all to make good decisions. Now onto today's lesson!”
As the teacher taught, Jason pondered her words. ‘Akuma’ must mean the monsters that rage in the city. They must be fairly common if the teacher could just casually speak of what some would consider a national disaster…
Eventually class ended and Jason grabbed his things, moving to leave.
Unfortunately, Lila stopped him.
“Jay! Wait for me!”
Jason cringed at the unprecedented nickname and barely slowed his walk, hoping to play it off as not having heard her.
“Lila leave Jason alone, he's new and probably super overwhelmed.”
Jason turned to try and see his savior only to see a petite girl with pigtails.
The girl turned to him smiling, “Sorry about her, she's… oh how to put it…”
Jason finished her thought, “A horrible liar?”
The girl lit up, “Yes! Finally someone else sees it! Thank you so much you've made my day!”
Jason laughed, “Didn't realize that it was an unpopular opinion.”
The girl rolled her eyes and Jason found her attitude adorable.
“Well everyone here believes her lies except for me and a few of my close friends. It's utterly ridiculous how- oh no I'm turning into Chloe…”
Jason smiled, “You know, I never got your name?”
The girl looked at him, realization dawning, “Oh I'm so sorry! I'm Marinette, I'm in your first period.”
Jason laughed at how quickly she went from attitude to flustered, “Would you like to eat together at lunch later? You're really the first person I've met that isn't trying to lie to me.”
Marinette lit up, “Yeah sure! You can meet some of my friends, they'll love you! See you later Jason!”
Jason watched as walked off to class waving, he gave a little wave back and moved onto his next class.
Art.
Surprisingly enough he didn't care for art. He liked the language arts but art just wasn't his favorite. He could never get what he was trying to create to turn out right.
Sure enough, upon entering he knew he wasn't going to care for it.
Sitting down in his seat, he noticed a kid from his first class already drawing. Jason couldn't remember for sure but he was fairly certain that the kid's name was Nathaniel.
Probably Nathaniel was working on some sort of comic book it looked like.
Jason was impressed at his skill, and a little envious of it too.
He also noticed that the lying girl was in this period too.
Internally he groaned at the thought of having to go to school and see her. Bruce really just had to make sure he kept up with his schooling didn't he?
Though he'd never admit how happy it made him to be able to have this education.
Silently he worked before he heard a tearing noise.
He sucked in a breath as he looked up to see Nathaniel's hard work on the ground in pieces. The kid was shuddering as a whiney voice pleaded for forgiveness.
There Lila was, foot on the now destroyed work, going on about how it was an accident and she didn't mean to.
It made Jason's blood boil with hot anger.
But Bruce had told him to do his best to behave, so he breathed in deeply to try and dissuade his upset.
As his anger ebbed from him, Jason watched as Nathaniel gathered up the shredded papers and ran off. The poor kid quietly cried all the way out of the classroom.
Jason felt bad for him.
Bruce never said anything about consoling the others.
Quickly he excused himself to the restroom and went out after Nathaniel.
He scoured the halls looking for Nathaniel but couldn't seem to find him. The only thing he saw was a weird black butterfly.
Weird black butterfly?
Huh. That's new for schools right?
Jason watched as the bug flew under the school stairwell and it was then that he noticed the shredded papers sticking out from under it.
He had a growing suspicion that this was bad news…
Out from under the stairs came Nathaniel looking like some sort of clown?
In Jason's personal opinion, clowns are always bad news.
As quietly as he could, Jason backed up till he knew he was out of Nathaniel's sight.
Hiding around a corner aiming to complete his mission.
He watched as Nathaniel stalked forward, a purple mask floating in front of him.
“Yes, Hawkmoth.”
Hawkmoth? Wasn't that the name of the villain they were there to help defeat?
So that must be how he turns people into those monsters… That must mean that each monster and it's abilities are unique.
But why Nathaniel? Why did he get turned into an akuma?
Jason cased the situation the same as if he was back in Gotham.
Nathaniel had only turned into the clown version once he had ran off.
Could it be strong emotion?
Maybe strong negative emotion because that was when you were most vulnerable?
He'd have to talk to Bruce about it.
Suddenly a hand clamped over his mouth and Jasom resisted the urge to flip his assailant.
A hand on his shoulder carefully turned him and his eyes widened as the person holding him made a shushing gesture.
Jason nodded and his mouth was released.
Before him stood the heros of Paris.
Red Polka Dot Girl and Furry Boy.
Jason smirked, yeah that was definitely their name.
Interestingly enough, Polka Dots was pretty short. Short enough that Jason had to look down. Although he'd recently had a growth spurt so he was probably just tall.
The girl dragged him away by the hand and the cat boy ran alongside them, smirking.
“Why m'lady, you didn't tell me you found another cute boy to have all to yourself!”
The girl snorted and kept going, “Chat he's not ‘all for myself’. We're just getting him out of the Evillustrator's way so he doesn't get drawn in a cage or something.”
The cat, Chat apparently, smiled.
“Yeah I know, was just teasing Bug.”
Bug or so Chat called her frowned as they stopped, “Are you okay Ja- er, sir?”
Jason rolled his eyes, “Sir is my father, call me Jason. And yeah, I'm alright. What was that back there and who are you guys?”
Before Bug could answer him, Chat stepped in.
The boy gasped dramatically while Bug rolled her eyes behind her mask, “You don't know who we are? Why, we're the heros of Paris, Chat Noir and his sidekick Ladybug! Here to fight crime and be pawsome!”
Jason cringed at Chat Noir's pun, Dick would love this kid. Maybe they were long lost brothers?
Ladybug turned back to them smiling fondly, “Pretty sure we're a team kitty.”
Chat grinned, “Alway m'lady!”
Jason understood why the two worked so well together. They were equals and trusted each other completely. Robin and Batman would always work well together, but there was always this idea that one day Robin would fledge from the nest. And maybe that meant him and Batman didn't work as seamlessly but Jason thought it was what made their duo perfect.
The Ladybug and Chat Noir duo was meant to be this way he felt. Something in his gut said that they were supposed to be like this.
He could respect that.
Ladybug turned to him and smiled, “Alright Jason, we have to go now before the akuma causes any more damages. Go get somewhere safe.”
Jason nodded decisively and watched as the two of them raced down the school halls to find Nathaniel.
Unfortunately for Ladybug, Jason Todd was Robin and Robin rarely listened to orders let alone orders from a short stack like her.
He followed after the heros and looked for a good vantage point to watch from.
Hearing a crash he rounded the corner to see the wall of the school collapsed and the battle having moved into the street.
Jason darted into the nearest classroom and practically hung himself out the window to watch the battle.
The team was different from yesterday, having moved slower back then. Now though, the two flew through the air at speeds even Dick would be jealous of.
Chat Noir was facing Evillustrator head on, using what looked like some sort of extendable baton to attack the villain as if he were fencing. Unfortunately Nathaniel seemed to be holding his own.
Meanwhile Ladybug was using her yoyo like some sort of retractable spear, taking jabs at the villain. Although it seemed like she was aiming for nothing in particular.
Jason shook his head, trying to figure out what the two were trying to do.
Suddenly Ladybug had some sort of opening and she snatched the drawing pen that Evillustrator had out of his hand and snapped it in half. Yet nothing happened.
Jason remembered then what the two were doing.
They were trying to find that weird black butterfly so they could do something with it.
He leaned out the window further and yelled as loud as he could, “Ladybug! The paper! It's in the paper!”
Of course, by getting the heros of Paris’ attention, he also got the bad guy's attention.
Evillustrator used his finger to draw something and suddenly Jason was falling out of the school's second story window.
It wouldn't be fatal but it would definitely hurt.
Jason held his eyes shut and braced for impact as he fell through the air, dreading the lecture he was inevitably going to get from B.
The concrete never came as Jason felt arms holding him and wind in his hair.
Opening his eyes he saw none other than Ladybug.
She smiled and Jason felt his face heat up.
“You know Jason, you should be more careful. I bet where you're from you don't have a Ladybug to catch you.”
Jason knew she was just teasing but he couldn't help but feel like she was flirting in a way.
He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly as she sat him back down a block away from the fight, “Yeah though we do have vigilantes, none as pretty as you though.”
Jason blushed as he realized what he said hit him full force.
Thankfully Ladybug seemed to not mind as she laughed at Jason's blunder.
“Well thanks for the tip Jason, I gotta get back but make sure you actually stay safe this time.”
Before he could even stutter out a goodbye, Ladybug zipped off to end the battle.
Jason felt his heart race and it was then that he knew he was in for one hell of a mission in Paris with it's protector.