Chapter 4: Chat Noir

The fresh, cold air of Paris hit her in the face as Marinette made it on the other side of the portal. She dropped her transformation and made it down the street to stop outside Master Fu's shop. But as she reached for the doorknob, her hand froze. This was her mission. Although it was okay for the heroes in Gotham to help her fight something that was targeting them, the heroes of Paris had no reason to help out unless it threatened their city. Besides, what had the Justice League ever done for them? The only reason she was even fighting the thing was in the hopes of curing her cat; nothing more. And so she turned around, ducked into an alleyway and called for Kaalki's transformation.

"Ladybug, are you sure you do not want to request backup?" Kaalki spoke from inside the void.

Marinette's voice wavered as she responded, "Yes Kaalki. Gotham needs me, not my teammates."

She looked around to find no one roaming the streets of Paris. As she entered the portal, the sun illuminating her exhausted features as it rose. She looked around once more at the city she loved and cherished; she probably wouldn't be back for a while.

What she failed to notice though was a familiar black cat perched on a building watching her with a toothy grin.

"Gotham, eh?"

-&-

The bat boys watched her as she re-entered the room. Their gaze lingered longer on where she'd entered from but no one else followed from behind.

"Where are your teammates?" Red Robin broke the silence as he watched her, confusion written in his eyes. Robin's eyes narrowed for the second time that day.

"I didn't bring them."

Robin's mouth opened, presumably to ask why, but he was silenced by Batman's eyes locked on his. Batman cleared his throat and they all gathered around the monitor as he called the League. Green Lantern was the first to greet them as he shouted, "Yo! Batman! What's up?" Batman grumbled under his breath; his teammate was too loud for his own good. "There's something extremely important we need to tell you, gather everyone."

A few minutes later, Flash, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aqua man, Martian manhunter and Green Lantern were stood staring at Batman as he explained the situation. They all blinked as he finished his speech. A voice came from behind the group as Aqua man pushed his way to the front and said, his deep voice a slightly higher pitch than that of Batman's, "Wait, wait, wait. Let me get this straight." he indicated to Ladybug, "She's temporarily granted a God's powers on a daily basis when this psychopath, who's also granted a God's powers, turns people into monsters in order to get the two most powerful miraculi," he stopped for air, "one in which she has, that if combined allow the person to grant a wish and because of some ancient dark magic, one of the miraculi has been cursed and that dark magic is heading straight for us and if not defeated will destroy the entire world?" Ladybug nodded.

Silence.

Before anyone could get a word in, a rich voice burst into laughter. Flash was laughing. One voice changed to many as the rest of the team joined in. "S-sorry, but that's almost as ridiculous as Superman's weakness of kryptonite. If this was going on, we would've gotten word of it. Nice story though." Wonder Woman quipped as she ended the call.

Ladybug was fuming.

She understood why they didn't believe her at first because she had to admit that to anyone who didn't live in Paris, this all sounded pretty silly. However, what made her snap was the fact that they had the audacity to laugh! Their lives were in danger and they laughed. All eyes landed on her as she slammed her fist on the table. If it weren't for Chat, she would've left them to suffer. They needed her and they downright called her crazy. Crazy! She took a deep, shaky breath as she calmed her nerves. It was their own problem if they chose not to believe her. When the darkness came, she wouldn't spare any lives; only Chat's.

"So what should we call this thing? We can't keep calling it the 'great evil'." Nightwing asked breaking the silence. A chorus of voices followed after.

"The dark force!" came from Redhood.

"This isn't star wars."

"The dark evil." came from Red Robin.

"You just replaced the word 'force' with 'evil."

"The End." All eyes were drawn back to Ladybug, she looked up, meeting their eyes, and repeated, "Let's call it the End." ("This isn't Fairy Tail." Damian thought but shrugged it off. It was better than 'The dark evil'.

After that, they appointed teams and patrol days. Of course Robin was grouped with Ladybug and of course the first patrol was theirs. Robin let out an annoyed huff as he left the cave. Ladybug followed.

-&-

Robin had to admit, she was pretty fast with that yoyo of hers. She actually kinda reminded him of Spider-man with the red and swinging across buildings and stuff. Her suit was putting little to no effort into hiding her muscles and she was also pretty flexible. Was that because of the magic?

"So what now?"

He was pulled out of his reverie by a small voice. He turned to see that they had arrived and Ladybug was waiting for his order. It was his town after all. He made his way to the edge of the roof and peered down looking for trouble, Ladybug imitated his actions. "Just so you know, I'll never accept you." She looked back up, "What?" Robin remained facing the street and responded, "I said I'll never accept you."

"I never said you should."

"..."

They scouted the area looking for trouble but found none so decided to retire for the night until their next patrol.

-&-

The next night came for patrol and they were all but happy when they had to separate a fight and Robin hadn't seen the knife the other guy was holding resulting in a deep slash across the face. Luckily for him, Ladybug carried around a spare sewing kit everywhere she went. He wasn't even going to question it when she managed to pull it out of her yoyo. He sat on a roof in silence as Ladybug knelt in front of him and sewed the wound together.

As their breaths mingled together in the cold night air, he looked up. With the moonlight caught in her hair and her red mask accentuating her deep blue eyes, she looked absolutely stunning. Her chest was too close. Her face was too close. She was too close. As she sewed the last stitch in and cut off the thread, he stood and shoved past her, his mask hiding his blushing cheeks.

"A thanks would be very much appreciated."

"..."

"You know, I really don't know what your problem is but if we're going to get through this alive, we're going to need to work together!"

Before he could answer, a voice cut through the air.

"I've finally found you." Ladybug visibly froze. She slowly turned around and gasped. Robin unsheathed his blade as a figure came out of the shadows. There in all his glory stood a man clad in leather; his black cat ears blending in with his dark hair and his green orbs of eyes piercing through. Was he Catwoman's lackey? Wait! He was probably the black cat she'd spoken of, the one that'd been corrupted.

A sob came from behind. Robin's head whipped around to be met with the sight of Ladybug shaking as she took a few steps back. She seemed to know him. Her tiny voice cut through his thoughts as it shook, "C-Chat. How?"

"I have my ways Bugaboo. I have my ways." He stepped forward and she took another step back. It seemed as though the cat hadn't even acknowledged his existence. Robin watched as the girl sobbed more violently the closer he got; her eyes filled to the brim with what seemed to be fear. He couldn't take it anymore. Besides what kind of nickname was 'bugaboo'???

Chat Noir's approach came to a halt as he felt the cold metal of a sword press against his neck. "Step away slowly." Chat lifted his hands. Robin sent a glare towards the cat as he pressed the blade harder against his neck. "I said step away." Chat narrowed his eyes at the robin, stepped back and ran.

Robin visibly sighed as he dropped the blade and ran to meet her but stopped when he saw her lips quivering. "Ladybug?" his voice faded into the air as she took another step back. Then another. And another. "LADYBUG WATCH OUT!" But it was too late. Before she knew it, she was falling off a 20 foot building at 2 in the morning with nowhere for her yoyo to grip on to.

A whistle could be heard and before she hit the ground, she landed on something smooth. The air grew colder as she flew through the air. Wait, she was flying? She looked up to see her torso pressed against what seemed to be a wing. Wait, a wing? She quickly scrambled up only to be stopped by Robin's voice coming from above telling her not to move. As she took in her surroundings, she noticed Robin perched on what seemed to be the neck of whatever beast she was on top of. They were dropped off at another roof and the beast landed behind them. Ladybug's eyes widened as she took in the creature behind her. Its red hair matched that of her suit and its black eyes bore into hers. Robin stroked the creature's fur and grinned as he said, "Meet Goliath, my dragon bat." He watched her waiting for her frightened expression or her high pitched scream.

"He's. So. Cute."

His eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.

"Wait. What?"