Chapter Text
Arriving on the scene is very different from saving her class from an Akuma attack. First of all, the police aren’t technically giving them full power and with the help of Jim Gordon, they are actually vaguely helpful. Second, if one of those stupid fucks she calls classmates antagonizes Two-Face, a coin is all that stands in the way of them and permanent death. Third, the villains in Gotham are such a different brand of ridiculous.
They don’t need to go hunting for an obscure object to break, but they also can defeat them by breaking an obscure object. The approach is different.
Not that the class has seemed to realize that.
As far as Multimouse could tell, they were running their mouths like fucking idiots. As the first of her family on the scene she takes a few minutes to absorb just how stupid this is going to get before heading over to talk to the police.
While the officers update her on what they know so far, multiple bodies swoop down to join her side. By the time Commissioner Gordon is done with his brief, Batman and Robin are at her sides and the roofs are lined with the rest of the team.
“Multimouse, you know the targets. Anything we should be watching out for?” Robin interrupts the commissioner as the man starts to get off topic.
The attention of the group shifts on to her and Marinette has to resist the urge to groan.
“Image the worst possible scenarios that can come from the civilian’s side and multiply it by an ungodly number.” She rubs her temples.
“You can’t be serious.” Commissioner Gordon replies, disbelieving.
“God I wish I wasn’t.” She drops her hands. “The majority of these people are fucking idiots. We’ll be extremely lucky if we can make it out without anyone getting killed.”
The police commissioner pales.
“Then we better get started.” Batman states, pulling out his grappling hook and shooting off into the air.
Marinette holds eye contact with Gordon as Damian wraps an arm around her and they are both pulled into the air. Being set down on the roof, she turns to her brother and raises an eyebrow.
“You know I could have made it up here on my own, right?” She asks.
“What and ruin that dramatic moment you were having, inconceivable.” Jason, in his stupid bucket helmet, interrupts.
Damian shoots their brother a glare as they all move into position. As the smallest of the group and the one with the best luck, Marinette finds herself sitting in the air vents watching events play out.
Her former class is rounded up with a group of other civilians on the far side of the room with goon around them. Goons are also positioned at the doors to her left and right. But the only person standing directly between her and the class is Two-Face himself.
Marinette is almost willing to pull out her jump rope so play a game on the device when something interesting actually happens.
Lila and Rose are pulled out of the crowd, and it looks like Two-Face is about to do his coin toss. Probably to see which one is going to die. While Marinette may have better luck than most people, she’s also not Ladybug right now.
Two-Face calls out loud enough for her to hear that Lila is the bad face and Rose is the good face, which Marinette feels is fitting, considering everything.
"When the coin goes up, move in.” Comes the order from Batman through her comm.
Marinette taps her comm twice instead of responding verbally.
The coin goes up and chaos begins.
Multimouse bursts out of the vent and the windows in the ceiling shatter. The doors on either side of the room burst open and suddenly most of the goons are occupied by her family.
Multimouse moves for Two-Face. In the Chaos, Two-Face has stayed focussed on his coin. Marinette can’t see what the coin says, but the gun pointed directly at Lila’s face is a pretty good indicator.
She throws out her jump rope and pulls the gun down as the blast goes off.
Good news, Lila wasn’t shot in the head. Bad news, Lila was shot in the thigh. Good news, she might still bleed out. Or wait, was that bad news? Either way.
Multimouse uses her jump rope to pull Two-Face’s feet out from under him. She quickly wraps his legs together and get them bound to one of his arms before the hand with a gun still in it, moves to shoot her.
“Rude!” She yells, taking his gun and tying up his other arm. “If I have to look at the shit show that is your fashion choice, then the least you can do is not shoot me.”
She moves over to Lila and Rose, taking Rose’s hand and forcing them onto Lila’s bullet wound. She pushes down hand before removing her hand.
“Keep your hands there.” She instructs.
Throwing her words back to Two-Face, she continues berating him while undoing Lila’s belt.
“Honestly, who wears split colours like that. At least when Harley does it, it’s tasteful. I mean… Rose, more pressure than that.” She interrupts herself.
Having successfully pulled the belts loose, Marinette tightens it around Lila’s upper thigh hard.
“Ow! You Bitch, are you trying to kill me?” Lila demands, trying to loosen the belt.
“Quite the opposite actually.” Multimouse brushes off Lila’s hands.
“You couldn’t have gotten here sooner; you must have loved watching me get shot.” Lila growled, making Rose’s head snap up from where she was still pushing down with all her might on the wound.
“Most people in my situation, wouldn’t have come at all.” Marinette reminds the bully. “So, what did you do to attract a supervillain this time? Trying to make new friends?”
Marinette takes a roll of bandages, that Nightwing hands her, and pushes Rose’s hands out of the way. She places the bandages over the wound and Nightwing wraps a second roll around her thigh, securing the first roll. Rose moves to put her hands back in position but Nightwing waves her off.
“Batman will have something for you to clean your hands off with.” He assures her and gestures in the direction of Batman with his chin.
“You act like I want to get held hostage by crazies.” Lila scoffs once.
“Don’t you?” She asks.
They both pull away as the paramedics arrive and take over. Nightwing slings an arm over her shoulder.
“I presume since you came to help me that the rest of the situation is under control?” She asks, with a little smirk at far he was to bend down to bring their heads together.
“Yup! Honestly mousy, that may be the fastest I’ve ever seen someone incapacitate Two-Face. He’s a pretty big dude, and you’re…well…not.” Grayson, oh so eloquently informs her.
“So, what you’re saying is…that I’m better than you?” She smirks.
Nightwing ignores the snide remark.
“I’m really proud of you.” He tells her.
“For being better at your job than you?” She asks, confused.
“No! For protecting someone who has hurt you in the past.” He bumps his head to hers. “I know how hard it can be to put aside your own emotions to help people.”
“That’s what makes us heroes.” She gives him a small smile.
“You may have been a hero before, but you work with us now. That makes you a vigilante, kid.” He thumps her nose as he straightens up.
They vacate the scene after Marinette has had a chance to check in on her other friends. Some thank her, some *cough* Alya *cough* don’t. But she doesn’t really care either way. She extends an invitation for her court to come visit her house tomorrow and then follows her family back home.
It’s only hours later when she is working on a commission in the family room that she receives a text and thinks back on something Grayson had said earlier. With Grayson scrolling through his phone and Jason reading a book, Cass curled up in one of the chairs, Damian grooming Alfred the cat, and Bruce and Tim looking over some report together, she has a full audience.
“Mullet brother?” She says, interrupting the silence.
“Ok, who told her about that.” Grayson demands of the rest of the group.
A couple of snickers are heard but she cuts them off.
“Not the point, do you remember what you told me earlier? About being stronger than my emotions?” She asks.
“Yeah?” He puts his phone down to look at her.
“I’m apparently much pettier than you think I am.” She remarks, sewing a few more stitches in the embroidery of the jacket she’s working on.
“What do you mean?” He asks, clearly not understanding where this is going.
“It’s true, I gave my bully the chance for the hospital to save her life. I diverted the entry point and I stemmed the bleeding. But that’s all I did. She died twenty minutes ago on the operating table.” She hears Bruce take in a breath and looks up at him.
He seems to have figured out where she’s going with this. HIs face is a completely blank mask. neither approval or disapproval. He is giving no influence, leaving the decision entirely up to her.
“That’s all that can be ask of us, you do your best to keep people out of harm’s way and do the best you can to get them to professionals. Her death isn’t on your head.” Grayson tries to reassure her.
“You’re right Ric, isn’t not my fault. I have no obligation to do everything in my power for someone who doesn’t deserve it. I did my job but I didn’t go above and beyond.” Grayson stops his moaning over the nickname to really process her words.
“What do you mean?” Jason takes over the line of questioning, as Grayson seems to preoccupied on the terrible name.
She reaches over to Damian’s exposed arm, which has a bruise on it from the fight, and he had glows a faint red. When she pulls her hand away, the bruise is gone.
"You can heal people.” Grayson states the obvious, like usual.
“Yup!” she gather’s her sewing supplies and walks towards the door.
The rest of them sit in stunned silence, except Bruce who just looks proud of her. She keeps walking to the door, but stops right before crossing the threshold.
“Oh, I can also use that ability to never need to sleep again.” She books it from the room as it explodes with noise.
“Wait! Can you do that for me too?!?”
“Mari, that doesn’t sound healthy!”
“What do you mean you don’t sleep!!?”
“Tim! NO!”
The words blend together and Marinette cackles, enjoying the chaos she has created in a world that’s finally free of the banes of her existence.
Later laying in bed, Marinette reflects on the last words that she had said to Lila. It was only two words, but it had somehow been enough to shut up the obnoxious girl. While it isn’t the grand reveal of all Lila’s lies that she had envisioned, she finds she can be satisfied with that.