Daminette-To Have a Soulmate

Part 17

"Do we really have to go ahead and search for the Bats tonight? Can't we take a night off?" Chloe wined at Marinette, objecting to losing even more sleep to her secret identity.

Marinette face-palmed. "We need to find the Bats as soon as possible. We don't know if our Hawkmoth suspect is him, but if he is, we need to inform the Bats. Anyway, we need to do a short patrol in Paris before we start our search."

Both Chloe and Adrien sighed. "Fine," they said simultaneously. The two of them called out their transformation phrases and Marinette followed suit.

"Tikki, Kallki, Unify!" the spotted heroine called out, turning into Ladymare. She called for her "Voyage", opening a portal to Paris. "Patrol your usual areas and meet back here in thirty minutes," she ordered.

Empress and Chat Noir broke off in different directions as Lady mare headed towards her own patrol area. The patrol was uneventful on her end, and they all made it back in time.

When Ladymare opened the portal back to Gotham, they still had thirty minutes until the rendezvous at Wayne Tower. Ladymare thought about it, before deciding that they should at least pretend to look for the Bats. "Meet me on top of Wayne Tower in twenty-five minutes. I'm going to head back to the room for a moment to get Kallki some food. I'll head out then to look for the Bats."

And so, as the other two heroes headed off into the night, Ladymare went back to their hotel room to feed her kwamies. Once she had fed her miniature gods, Marinette transformed back into Ladybug. By that point she was running a bit behind, so she hurried to Wayne Tower and got there with a minute to spare.

When the other two got there, they still had five minutes until the designated meeting time, but Ladybug managed to stall until the Bats got there. At exactly midnight, the vigilantes that had patrolled Gotham for years arrived.

At that moment, Ladybug had been explaining to Empress why her suit design had changed. The spotted heroine felt the presence of the Bats behind them, but decided to wait until the Gothamites made the first move.

"Who are you?" Batman's voice rang through the night, startling Chat Noir and Empress. Ladybug, however, simply turned to face the heroes of Gotham. When she saw Damian dressed as Robin, standing beside his father, she smirked.

Walking forward, she reached out and hugged Robin. "Robin, long time no see! How are your pets doing?"

The Robin's entire family expected him to push her away and possibly stab her. Thus no one on the roof was expecting him to reciprocate the hug. The gesture was too affectionate.

And yet, he hugged Ladybug back. "Ladybug, it has been too long since we last saw each other. All of my pets are doing well, with the exception of Alfred Kittyworth. He has a cold."

Everyone on the roof stared at the pair in shock. Nightwing was the first to snap out of it. "What, in the name of chocolate, is going on here?"