She's Sunshine, She's Grace, She'll Punch You in the Face

Chapter 23: Sparring

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

"Come on, Jason." She 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?" She winked at him and then offered her hand to help Jason up.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Alfred and Bruce watch 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. "She is far more patient than she looks."

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

"She can teach them all something. Especially Master Damian." The butler watched Damian's genuine smile closely.

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

Dick and Marinette's spar 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. They each did graceful flips and perfect parries. This went on for almost 10 minutes before they both agreed to call it a drawl.

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

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

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

"That's me." She says after chugging her water. "Secretly awesome Marinette."

"Well it hasn't been a secret since Scarecrow, Pixie-pop." Jason gives her 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." They all begin to file out of the room one by one. "Can I talk to you for a second before you leave Marinette."

"Sure." She waves to the boys as they leave but Damian stays behind with her.

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

"Yes, father." He says a bit annoyed as he leaves the room.

Marinette was about to speak but Bruce held up his finger to stop her. "No eavesdropping."

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

"Okay." Bruce smiles down at the girl. "Now they are gone."

"How can you tell?" She asks.

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

"Oh, uh thank you."

"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." She looked down at her shoes. "I'm sorry." Looking back up at Bruce, she 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?" Marinette 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." She taps her chin in thought.

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

"You're right." She walks towards the exit. "Goodnight, Bruce."

"Goodnight, Marinette."