✩𝔻𝕒𝕣𝕜𝕖𝕤𝕥 ℕ𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥, 𝔹𝕝𝕦𝕖𝕤𝕥 𝕊𝕥𝕒𝕣𝕤✩

𝘞𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘙𝘰𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘬!

The teenage girl felt like she used up all the luck in the universe to find herself in that seat with Damian revealing to her that he was The Robin.

Raising her finger to protest, Marinette fumbled over the words rolling off her tongue. She had a million questions running through her mind and the next few words she chose were "Are you always this cool?"

The girl mentally facepalmed when the boy let out a choked cough and focused his eyes on the screen.

"Flattery will take you nowhere Dupain-Cheng."

His statement seemed to be true but Damian didn't mind being praised from time to time. He was an excellent Robin after all.

"Then why me?" she asked. "I'm the last persona that I would want to work with considering that my face is all over the news due to Alya's over the top and stupid scheme."

"That's true," he sighed. "But you're forgetting that my face is more popular than yours in any case."

Marinette couldn't argue against that.

"The matter at hand is frankly bigger than the two of us showing up on the news," he said as a criminal record file popped up, showing a girl with black hair with purple highlights dressed in full-body armor with a black crop top, mini-skirt and thigh-high boots.

"Oh! That's the girl from the alley."

"Precisely. She's an intergalactic war criminal named Komand'r, but on Earth she goes by Blackfire. "

"What?!"

She felt her blood run cold.

"Three months ago, she was imprisoned in one of the best, if not, inescapable prison known to any living being, The Phantom Zone."

"And let me guess, she escaped?"

"On the contrary, she can't escaped. The teen titans and I made sure of it," Damian said as he narrowed his eyes at Blackfire's image, making Marinette feel even more uneasy.

"Oh my gosh, please don't let her be a clone," Mari begged as she held onto her seat.

"The only way we can be sure is by catching her and I'm sure you already know how it went down the first time around with that black butterfly."

Ladybug falling onto his back wasn't exactly his brightest moment. Marinette could feel herself sweat out the guilt.

"So, whether or not that's the real Blackfire, there's still a high-profile criminal running around Paris and it's mostly my fault," Marinette mumbled as she began sinking into her seat. "Not to mention that there's only one butterfly themed villain around these parts and he should be in the best prison in the country too."

Damian crossed his legs. He had spent the last two days researching Ladybug's magical origins and butterflies in and around Paris using his father's semi-autonomous artificial intelligence surveillance system, Brother Eye, and still barely managed to discover that Marinette was indeed Ladybug.

"I've shaken up Blackfire and all her known accomplices from my end, at least the ones that are on the planet. Now I need you to shake up the ones on your end."

Marinette raised her eyebrows at him. When she first met Robin, he was completely opposed to working with him. Now he seemed more willing than ever, he even put himself in danger by revealing his identity to her like they were old friends.

"So, you went out of your way to blackmail me into helping you, huh?"

"Pretty much but if we are being fair, you threatened me first," he said with a smirk as he brought up every image and video of Ladybug that was circulating in the media.

Mari kissed her teeth as she blamed herself for her carelessness. It's no wonder how he figured out who she was and so fast too. Bye-bye social life.

"Fine," she said as she bit the inside of her cheek. "Let's get this over with."

Marinette extended her hand and shook his hand with apathy. "But we are going to set some ground rules. Firstly, no kidnapping."

"Please," Damian said, raising his arm in the air." If I saw the need to do so, you wouldn't be sitting in here facing me."

"Well, besides the fact that you scared me half-way to heaven, I'm pretty sure that my kwami is hyperventilating in whatever glass jar you trapped her in."

"Kwami?" Damian asked with his head tilted.

The girl shoots upright and points to her earrings much to his bewilderment.

"Yeah, Tikki. I need her if I'm going to transform into the ever-so-lucky miraculous Ladybug if I'm going to chase down villains and visit them in prison cells. I'm sure that my worst enemies don't want to know they've had their careers in crime ruined by a seventeen-year-old."

Damian shook his head. "I'll have you know that I haven't kidnapped anyone yet."

And it was at that very moment that Marinette knew Ladybug was in for early retirement.