Chapter 23

Marinette's P.O.V:

Watching Jason very closely, I evaluated his moves and looked for a weakness. Dodging each attack he threw my way, I noticed that he seemed to favor putting his weight on his left foot and throwing punches with his right arm. I waited for the perfect opportunity and when his right fist went flying towards me, I dodged it at the last moment and grabbed his arm to pull him over my shoulder. I sweeped his leg out from under him and heaved my body forward, effectively throwing him across the floor.

"Come on, Jason." I smiled down at him on the floor. "I know you can do better than that."

Damian actually belly laughed at the whole thing, causing everyone to look over at him. "He didn't even land a single punch. Well done, Angel."

"Did you actually ever doubt me?" I winked at him and then offered my hand to help Jason up.

"No fair." Jason took my hand to get up off the floor. "I told you I was going easy on you."

I put my hand on my hip and raised an eyebrow at him. "Well that's your own fault, now isn't it?" I turned to the other boys. "Who's next?"

Damian stepped up to the mat across from me. "It's my turn, Angel."

"I thought round two was supposed to be our second date?" I smirked at him.

"We will find something else to do for our second date." He got into his stance.

"Okay." I gave him a determined face. "Don't hold back."

"I never do." He gave me a sly grin before lunging at me.

I barely moved out of the way in time. Turning around to face him, I studied his technique. All of his movements were precise and swift and he hardly ever left an opening for me. Deciding that defense wasn't my best strategy here, I instead went on to offense. To try and trick him for a moment, I let him advance on me until I was backed up against the wall. The moment my back touched that wall I used it as a spring board to tackle him to the ground. We wrestled around on the floor for a moment until Damian regained control over the top to pin my arms above my head.

"Looks like I win, Angel." He gave me a triumphant smile.

"I don't know about that." I smiled up at him. "From the angle I'm looking at, I don't think it's possible that I could lose." I give him a playful wink.

Damian goes red and quickly hops off of me as he offers his hand to help me up. "Good job, Marinette."

Bruce's P.O.V:

Alfred and I watched the whole thing unfold from behind the one-way mirror.

"She is quite good, Master Bruce." Alfred smiles at the spar between Marinette and Tim this time. I also can't help but smile. "She is far more patient than she looks."

"Yes." I agree. "She adapts, uses her surroundings to her advantage and studies her opponent." We see the small girl use her speed to outwit Tim by running around to tackle him from behind. We can faintly hear Damian laugh again from the other side of the glass.

"She can teach them all something. Especially Master Damian." The butler and I watch as Damian genuine smiles.

"I know." I see Marinette finally line up to spar with Dick. "I think she can teach all of us something." I say genuinely.

Marinette's P.O.V:

The spar between Dick and I was something more of an even match. The fight was almost like a perfectly choreographed dance of give and take. One would advance before the other quickly took the upper hand. We each did graceful flips and perfect parries. This went on for almost 10 minutes before we both agreed to call it a drawl.

"Wow, Mari." Tim says to me. "You really know how to put on a show."

Resting my hands on my knees to catch my breath, I give him a small nod. "I didn't know I was here for entertainment."

"You know that's not what he meant, cupcake." Dick hands me a bottle of water that I happily take. "But we seriously had no idea how awesome you are."

"That's me." I say after chugging my water. "Secretly awesome Marinette."

"Well it hasn't been a secret since Scarecrow, Pixie-pop." Jason gives me a high five.

"I think it's time for you all to call it quits for tonight." Bruce walks into the training room. "Good job everyone." We all begin to file out of the room one by one. "Can I talk to you for a second before you leave Marinette."

"Sure." I wave to the boys as they leave but Damian stays behind with me.

"I would like to speak to just Marinette." He looks deliberately at Damian.

"Yes, father." He says in an annoyed tone as he leaves the room.

I was about to speak but Bruce held up his finger to stop me. "No eavesdropping."

"Sorry." They all mumble from down the hall before they finally walk off.

"Okay." Bruce smiles down at me. "Now they are gone."

"How can you tell?" I ask him.

"Years of living with them. I just want to praise you on how well you did today." Bruce says.

"Oh, uh thank you." I beam brightly at him.

"I also wanted to bring to your attention that it's probably not wise for 'Ladybug' to be seen around Gotham. The dots are too easy to connect. You are lucky that only Wayne Tech cameras caught sight of you today and we could easily wipe the footage."

"Oh, right." I looked down at my shoes. "I'm sorry." Looking back up at Bruce, I added "But I was planning on changing up my look in costume anyways. Tikki said she could work with me to change it."

"You can do that?" I nodded in response. "Does that mean you won't go by Ladybug anymore?"

"I guess not but I'm not sure what we would call me." I tap my chin in thought.

"We can think about that later. It's late. I suggest you get some sleep."

"You're right." I walk towards the exit. "Goodnight, Bruce."

"Goodnight, Marinette."