Chapter 43

Marinette's P.O.V:

"By the way." I spoke up as Alfred went around collecting plates after dinner. "Ivy texted me. She wants to know when I can meet up with her and Harley. I was thinking maybe this Saturday Dami and I can meet up with her."

"That should be fine as long as you meet up with us for patrol that night. She can't keep you all day." Bruce answered. "Speaking of which, we have training in an hour and patrol is tomorrow. We can't be slacking."

"Okay." I got up. "I'll see you then."-----------"I find training to be pretty entertaining with you around." Damian was walking me down to the training room.

"Shouldn't you be training and not watching me?" I giggled.

"I can multitask." He grinned back down at me.

"Bruce will be disappointed if he catches you slipping." I booped him on the nose as we entered the training room.

"Is Damian falling behind?" Tim asked, clearly hearing the last little bit of our conversation.

"Definitely not." Damian scoffed.

"Where is everyone else?" I looked around the room.

"We're here." Dick said as he, Jason and Bruce entered the room.

"Today is weapons training." Bruce held a box in his hand as he walked over to the wall of practice weapons.

"What's in the box?" I asked curiously.

"Your weapon of choice." Bruce took off the lid to show me.

I looked inside to see a perfectly shiny metallic yoyo. The string was some kind of strong metal wire that would probably be hard to break and it looked to be the same size of the yoyo I usually worked with.

"Now this yoyo's weight may be a little off but we made it as light weight as possible. I know that this isn't some magical yoyo but it will do for training purposes. When it comes to training with our real weapons, we will always be suited up." He smiled down at my excited face. "Go ahead and give it a try."

I carefully took the yoyo out of the box and examined it. It had no flaws that I could find and it was so smooth and shiny that I could see my own reflection in the metallic surface. Putting my finger through the loop and letting it fall, I consider the weight of it. It's a little bit heavier than the one I am used to, but I can work with that. I flick my wrist up to recall it back to my hand. "This is awesome. Thank you, Bruce." I smile up at the billionaire.

"I'm glad you like it. I'm pairing you up with Tim first and then we will rotate out. We will give you some time to work with it before we all start."

I nod and back away from the group to test out my new weapon. I don't have the range I usually have but learning to work in close proximity with people would be good for me. I work with it for a few minutes before nodding to myself. "Okay, I think I'm ready."

Tim walks over to the wall of weapons and grabs his wooden Bo staff. After a short walk back to the mat, he stands in front of me and gives me a curt nod with a small smile. "Ready when you are."

I begin to spin my yoyo in rapid circles in front of me and closely watched Tim's every move. We slowly begin to circle around each other before he finally makes his first move. He swings the staff towards my head and I used my yoyo's momentum to knock it out of the way with a loud 'clank'. I jump just in time when his staff goes to sweep my legs on its way back. Flinging my yoyo around the staff, I trie to yank it back but Tim's hold on it is too strong. He uses his strength to pull his staff back and I go tumbling forward. Tim tries to bring his staff down to hit me but I roll out of the way and yank my yoyo free. 'New plan.' I think to myself. 'Work around the staff.'

I wait for him to strike again and when he does, I grab the end of the staff with my free hand and go to wrap my yoyo around his nearest leg. When he tried to step back and pull his staff free, I immediately let go and used all my strength to pull on the yoyo and yank his leg out from underneath him, causing him to become off balanced. I then run at him to tackle him the rest of the way down to the floor. He still has the staff in his hand so I take the yoyo that is still wrapped around his leg and loop the string around the arm holding onto his weapon. Yanking the yoyo tight again, his arm and leg become tied together. Tim uses his other hand to reach around and grab the staff but I am too quick. I wrap his free hand up with his other hand and foot and grab the staff, effectively yanking it away from him and throw it across the room. Keeping a tight hold on the three limbs I have tied up; I pull his free leg in with the rest of them and though he puts up a good fight, I tie it up too, leaving him practically hogtied.

"What's my time?" I joke while laughing at Tim's predicament.

"Wow." Jason begins laughing from across the room along with Damian. "Who knew we needed to put Sunshine in the rodeo?"

"Please let me go." Tim looks up at me a little bit annoyed, still trying to yank himself free.

"I don't know..." I tighten the yoyo's hold. "Does anybody want to take a picture first?"

"This room is always being recorded." Dick tried to hold back his laughter as he points to a camera in the corner. "I think we're good."

"Okay." I loosen my hold so Tim can get free. "Are you okay?" I hold my hand out to help him up.

"You just hurt my ego a little bit is all." He accepts my help up and walks over to pick up his staff. "I'm okay."

"Sorry, Tim." I look at him apologetically. "Who's next in rotation?" I looked to the rest of the group.

"Damian" Bruce spoke up. "You just finished up with Jason so why don't you two switch partners?"

"Are you ready, Angel?" Damian steps up to me and gets into a ready stance with his practice sword.

"Are you, Boy Wonder?" I let my yoyo hang slack by my side while I give him a sweet smile.

"Y-yes." He seemed to be caught off guard by my carefree and sweet attitude.

"Okay, handsome." I gesture with my index finger for him to come closer. "Show me what you got."

Damian actually went red as he tried to school his features. Calming down the best he could, he went in for the strike.