Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The first to move wasn’t Catgirl. It wasn’t Duskwing. It wasn’t Valkyrie, Masked Hood, or even Midnight. 

It was Poseidon. 

He silently dropped down from behind the Justice League and activated the electric function on his trident. Within seconds, Aquaman was floundering for his trident. The Justice League scrambled in surprise. 

And then chaos broke out among the heroes. 

Sparrow flew up, darting out of the way of Green Arrow's arrows. “Look kid, I do not think this is a wise game for you to play.”

Sparrow laughed. “Sorry, Robin Hood. While it is heartwarming for you to think maybe it’s time to say bye-bye-” She grabbed an arrow as it flew past her, a rope attached to it. “I think it’s you who needs a time-out!”  She tapped her earpiece. “TRIXX, enhance suit strength.”

“Enhancing suit strength to 200%.”

Sparrow waited for a moment before she pulled.

Queen Bat, Red Feather, and Midnight fought against Nightwing and Red Hood. The girl ducked and easily avoided the heroes’ blows as they fought back. Red hood grunted as he landed, a sickly crack filling the air. “Yeesh, you guys put Bat’s training to shame!” he groaned as he got back up. 

“Well we were trained by someone far better.”, Queen Bat said haughtily. 

Red Robin blocked her with his bow staff. “C’mon guys! We want to help you!” he yelled. 

“Oh really? Why’d you kill Hunter then?”

“Because Hunter isn’t on your side!”, Red Hood yelled. “Bats told us everything!”

Midnight laughed hollowly. “Oh yeah? He told you everything? Please. The bastard doesn’t even know half of the story.”

Nightwing flipped. “Trust me, I know the story. I lived it.” 

“Oh really? ‘Cause from what I heard you didn’t even know half of it.”

HawkMoth grinned. “Well, well well. It seems as if our darling heroes have become distracted by someone else?”

Nooroo laughed coldly, “Well we can’t allow that to happen, now can we?” He turned to face the others. “Akumas! Paris will be ours for the taking! But first, we must eliminate the ones who stand in our way!” He whipped around and pointed to the battling heroes below. “Get them! We must return to our conquest!”

Aquaman swung his trident to block Poseidon. “I thought I didn’t have a spin-off.” He commented, groaning in pain as he was hit once again. “You’re pretty strong kid.”

Poseidon rolled his eyes. “You didn’t until like a year ago.” Poseidon hissed as his rib cracked. 

“You ok kid?”

Poseidon snarled and lunged at him. “This isn’t some training battle!”

“Trust me, I am well aware of that now. But I’m not gonna injure a grieving kid.” Poseidon froze. “I lost my dad. I can tell he meant a lot to you.”

Poseidon shrugged. “He was more of the uncle who looked after you than a father figure.”

Aquaman shrugged. “It’s still ok to grieve.” 

“You know we’re supposed to be fighting, not having a little therapy session right?”

Green Lantern groaned as he crashed into a building. “Seriously? Why was I the one who was given the spin-off of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy?” 

Poison Oak threw an explosive net at him. “C’mon, I thought we were kids who couldn’t handle it?”, Jack taunted him, swinging his mallet.

“Why Harley though?” He asked as he used his Lantern Ring to build some massive hands. He brought them down on the two. “She’s not a hero.”

“Well, I like her better than the Flash Killer or his best bud Supporting Murder Lantern.”, Jack snapped. 

“We do not support murder!”, Green Lantern yelled at him. “I get it, we mess up. We should have come to help you but that doesn’t mean we go around saying pro-murder and shit!”

“Then why did he just kill Rosie?”

“Who’s Rosie? One of Ivy Junior’s Plants?”

“No, she was Midnight’s girlfriend who Speedo Boy mistook for Princess Fragrance.”

Green Lantern blinked. “Oh shit.” He nodded his head. “Yeah, you have a right to be mad at him for that.”

“Mirror? Can you hear me?” Duskwing asked as he darted through the streets, hoping to lose the Bat that was on his tail- he had no clue which one it was -before they got to base. 

“Right here Dusk. What’s up?”

“We need the plans.”

“Which ones?”

“Bats and Supers. Wonder Woman isn’t fighting at all. She’s just standing off to the side saying she’ll talk with us ‘once the men are done being stupid’.” 

Duskwing turned a corner. The Bat- Batman had way too many Bats -was still going strong. “We need a Wonder Woman character.”

“Right you are. Now, the plans?”

Mirror typed on his computer for a few moments. “Wait a second.”

“What?”

“Shit.”

“Mirror?’

 “The plans might need to wait.”

“Why?”

“Because the Akumas have taken the opportunity.”

“ Shit .”

Valkyrie deflected Batman’s Batarang. “Why the hell are you here?”, she sneered. 

“Well, I found out I had a daughter who I never met. Which by the way, I found out because a friend’s son found entertainment in a live stream about a group of teens who dressed up and danced around acting like clowns.” Batman knocked one of Valkyrie’s swords out of her hands. 

“I’m sorry, did you just say they act like clowns?” Valkyrie growled, stabbing Batman. “For your information, they enjoy their cover. Unlike you, they act like who they really are.”

“Well, their cover will be blown sooner or later.”

“Please, everyone who my team cares about has been given the emergency plans and been informed of what to do when the alarms go off. They have been trained on how to protect themselves. If anything, I’ve done a better job than you.” 

Batman scoffed. “You don’t have a team, Sabine. You have children who were forced into this game way too soon.”

“Pot meet kettle, you fucking hypocrite.” 

The two landed harshly a few feet away from each other. Batman stood tall. “Why did you never tell me?”

“Why didn’t I tell you?! You know why!” Valkyrie yelled. “You know damn well why!”

Robin and Catgirl fought, jumping down and deflecting each other blows as they battled across the rooftops. “I can see how you are my sister.” Robin snarked. He swung his katana with ease. “You must get it from Father.”

Catgirl growled. “Please! I get it from my Mama and my Papa, not that scum bag!"

"Do not speak of Father that way! He is the reason you exist!" Robin scoffed. "As if Hunter and Valkyrie would be the reason you fight this well."

"First off," Catgirl kicked his legs out from underneath him. "My fighting skills go deeper than blood. My Papa trained me, my Mama trained me." She flipped over him. "And besides, you weren’t the only one with an assassin for a mother!”

Robin froze. 

“ What. ” 

Chapter Text

Catgirl laughed as she dodged Robin’s sword. “What? You didn’t know?”

“No!” Robin snapped, avoiding her knife, and moved to kick her legs out from under Catgirl.

Catgirl shrugged. “Welp, our mothers were in the League together.” She told him as she jumped into the air, letting his leg swing out and miss where he would have hit it. 

Robin blinked, the only sign he was surprised. “Our mothers were in the League of Assinans together?”

“Yeah, Mama and Talia used to be besties.”

Robin rolled his eyes. “What happened?” he asked. Dodging her arm, he corrected himself. “Do you know what happened?”

Catgirl grinned. “Yeah, Mama told us what happened. Did Daddy Dearest not tell you the whole story?”

Robin huffed. “I’ll have you know all of our information is on a need-to-know basis.”

“And he deemed you didn’t need to know?” Robin glared at his sister. Catgirl laughed. “It’s a long story, Baby Bird.” 

Robin froze in surprise. 

Which in hindsight would have been very bad if Catgirl didn’t get a message from Mirror at that moment. 

“Got a second, Catgirl?”

“Always Mirror. Talk to me.”

“The Akumas have taken the opportunity to regroup and are pretty much back to full strength.”

“Oh great.” Catgirl sighed and knocked Robin off balance. “Sorry to end our little family reunion, but my city needs me. If you wanna get some more info on the whole thing, feel free to ask when our sperm donor isn’t around.”

Robin blinked. “Huh?”

Catgirl gave him a feral grin. “Daddy Dearest may think you’re only on a need-to-know basis, but I happen to know the whole story and I’m willing to share all the juicy details.”

Duskwing hopped down, his Bat seeming to be bored of fighting him. He looked around and spotted the main female Justice League member. He walked over to Wonder Woman. Duskwing stood next to her for a moment before one of them said something. “Is there something wrong Duskwing?”, Wonder Woman asked. “I hope you aren’t thinking of fighting me.”

Duskwing laughed. “Oh no, I would be terrified to fight you, and I faced Stormy Weather when I was only 13 with only a few weeks of training.” 

Wonder Woman laughed. “So, what do you need Duskwing?”

“So, I was just wondering if you were planning to fight us?”

Wonder Woman shook her head. “No.”

 Duskwing nodded. “So, basically, because you- I mean you as in the Justice League, not just you-”

“I understand what you mean.”

“Ok! So we were about to defeat them and because we were a bit preoccupied with you guys, the Akumas were able to regroup. So I was wondering if you have no intention of fighting us, would you be willing to help us with the Akumas since you’re the only one who seems to be ok with us?”

Wonder Woman smiled. “I plan to treat you all like Justice League members. Therefore, your city, your rules. I’ll gladly help you.”

“Thank you!” Duskwing grinned. The Bat he had been fighting popped out from behind him, raising her hand. “Uh if you want to help sure?” The Bat nodded. “Thanks?”

Poseidon growled as he slammed his trident against Aquaman’s. “Are you done yet?”, Aquaman asked casually. 

“Why the fuck are you just not bothered?!”

“Again, grieving kid. I may have voted on us coming to help, but I’m not fighting a grieving kid.” 

Poseidon snarled as he pulled his trident back. He blinked and grabbed Aquaman’s arm, pulling him out of the way. “Stay down.”, he ordered. 

“What happened?” Aquaman asked. Then he noticed the arrow that was embedded into the building, right where they were. 

Poseidon sighed. “The Akumas must have regrouped. Each Akuma takes the shape of a real person and basically makes an evil version of them. Mine is called Dark Cupid and will do anything to kill me.”

“That’s an excellent way to explain it to your new little friend.” A new voice said from behind them. 

Poseidon turned around and quickly flipped out of the way of the next arrow. “Great to see you too Cupid .”

Chapter Text

Dark Cupid grinned. “How are you doing, Poseidon?” he crooned. “It’s been a bit, hasn’t it?”

Poseidon glared at him. “Three weeks is not long enough.”

“Question?” Aquaman said, raising his hand. “Who the hell are you?”

Dark Cupid bowed dramatically. “Hello, I am Dark Cupid.” He grinned. “I am the lovely enemy of your dear friend.” 

“Oh please.” Poseidon snorted. “We are not friends.”

“Acquaintances is a better word for what we are.” Aquaman agreed.  

Poseidon froze. “Whatever what is wrong?”, Dark Cupid smirked. “You seem quiet.”

“Get off the ground.”, Poseidon said quietly. His breathing began to pick up.  “GET OFF THE GROUND!”

Catgirl looked over towards where she heard Poseidon yelling. “What’s going on?”, she mumbled. 

"What?" Robin said turning towards her. 

“GET OFF THE GROUND!”

Poseidon's frantic yell was not like him in battle. 

Catgirl paused and focused on the sounds around her.

The sound of rushing water could be heard.

Unless you were fighting. 

Catgirl grabbed Robin’s hood and pulled him along with her. “Catgirl to the Legends. Get off the ground. Pull any Justice League members with you.” 

“What’s going on?”

“There’s an Akuma named Siren-” 

“Duskwing to Catgirl. Catgirl do you hear me?”

“GET OFF THE GROUND!”

Duskwing froze as he heard Posiedon yell. 

“Catgirl to the Legends. Get off the ground. Pull any Justice League members with you.” 

Duskwing quickly turned to the Bat and Wonder Woman. “We need to get off the ground.” 

Wonder Woman nodded, quickly moving with the Bat not too far behind her. 

As they climbed up the building, Duskwing noticed the battle raging between Queen Bat, Red Feather, Nightwing, Red Hood and Midnight. 

On the ground. 

“Duskwing to Catgirl. Catgirl do you hear me?”

“I hear you.”

“Feather, Queenie, and Midnight are fighting Hood and Nightwing on the ground. They’re too far. I don’t know if I will make it in time.”

“I’m connecting to Queenie.”

Midnight ducked under Nightwing’s escrima sticks. “Just listen-”

“Fuck you, you assholes!”

“We want to help!”

“We don’t need your help!”

“Listen-”

“MIDNIGHT!”

Midnight turned towards the source of the voice, jumping out of the way of Nightway’s attacks. Queen Bat and Red Feather were holding a struggling Red Hood on top of a tall building. 

“GET OFF-”

Midnight’s ears started to ring. 

There was only one thing she could hear.

The sound of rushing water filling the streets.

Warrior jumped.

Red Robin lunged for his arm. “No!” he tried to reason with him. “You’ll die too! We need a plan!”

“I. am. Not. leaving. My sister. To DROWN.”, Warrior hissed as he dove in after Midnight. 

“I did not say-” Red Robin groaned. He quickly took a few steps back before he threw himself into the water.

Duskwing froze as he saw one- no two- people jump. “Who the fuck- for Pete’s stake.” He pressed his comm again. “Duskwing to Mirror.”

“Mirror.”

“Please tell me that was Aquaman or Posiedon.”

“Warrior and Red Robin.”

“FUCK.” Duskwing hissed as he began to run toward where he saw them jump. “Mirror, who’s missing?”

“Midnight and Nightwing are under, with Warrior and Red Robin heading their way from under the water. Masked Hood’s tracker is gone and I can’t find his comm anywhere-”

Duskwing froze as he saw something new. 

The Masked Hood’s broken comm on the ground. 

Next to a pool of blood.

Catgirl looked around. “Mirror, report.”

“Mirror Mirror is current on call.”

Catgirl groaned as she began to look around. “TIKKI, fill me in girl.”

“Located: Duskwing, Sparrow, Mirror Mirror, Queen Bat, Red Feather, Poison Oak, Jack of Hearts, Dash, and Poseidon.”

“Where are the other four?”

“Unable to locate Kryptonian Knight, Kryptonian Warrior, the Masked Hood, and Midnight.”

“Push me through. I need Mirror.”

“Access code required.”

“Kit Kat.”

“Terminating call barriers.”

Poseidon began to run as he saw his friends running toward something. 

His heart froze up as he saw it. 

Midnight and Warrior were underwater. 

He dove.

Chapter Text

“WAIT!”, Aquaman yelled as he chased after Poseidon. He stumbled as Syren lunged out of the water. Poseidon was slammed back, crashing into Aquaman. Syren screeched as she slashed at the two heroes. Aquaman moved to block the mark from hitting Poseidon

Poseidon dropped back and pulled out his own trident, electric charging it to destroy the few minions that she had obtained. He glared at Aquaman. “I don’t need you to protect me!”

“You’re a-”

“If you call me a kid one more time, I will shock you again!”, Poseidon snarled. “No matter how much you pretend, I’m not a kid, none of us are!”

Masked Hood snarled as he looked around the drowning city. There was nothing he could do on his own, his side was bleeding from taking a heavy hit from fighting Animan- who had taken the form of a fucking shark because why the fuck not . The Masked Hood looked over at the Akumas who were preying upon the few people left on the rooftops.

The others who were fighting the members of the Justice League weren’t paying attention, with several under the water. Some were still missing, with two underwater and Knight had been missing before the fight began. There was no one to back him up- his comm went missing ages ago so there was nothing he could truly do to get back up without sacrificing the people who needed him to defend them. 

The Legends were tied down by a group of idiots who couldn’t realize that they were the ones who were causing the most deaths. 

The Justice League was why the akumas got an opening to regroup. They caused this whole problem by interfering and holding down the people who needed to fight to protect the civilians. 

The Masked Hood lunged at Darkblade, who had gone up top to target the last of the civilians. 

This would be the last chance they had before Paris fell.

“Mirror.”

“You are on the phone with myself and Duskwing.”, Mirror informed her. 

“Have you seen Masked Hood, Midnight, or Warrior?” 

“Midnight and Warrior are under the water and Hood’s comm is on the ground-”

“And Poseidon?” 

“Trying to get around Syren.” 

“TIKKI put Sparrow on the call.”

“ Connecting. ”

“You called Kitty?” 

“I need you to engage your water mode. Poseidon is tied down and we need someone to get Midnight and Warrior out of the water.”

“What about Nightwing and Red Robin?”

“Make a move on them too, they don’t know what they’re doing. We have a war to fight with the Akumas along with dealing with the heroes who have invaded our city. No one is left behind, not even idiots who invade other people’s cities.”

“On it.”

“Where do you need us?”

“Us?”

“There’s a Bat and Wonder Woman who are on our side.” 

“I want one of you to hunt for Masked Hood—the other two need to start fighting Syren. We can’t end this fight with Paris underwater. I want everyone who has a helmet with water protection to get as many people out. Anyone without, I want you to focus all of their efforts on Syren.”

Poseidon used his trident to stab Syren in hopes of getting to her item, to destroy her. 

Syren screeched and made a grab for his trident. Poseidon snarled and flipped over her head and lunged for the water. Aquaman ducked under her arm, leading to Syren knocking him back- by his trident. 

The Trident of Neptune flew out of his hand and crashed into the rooftop, right by Poseidon. Poseidon snarled in annoyance and threw his trident to Aquaman. “Use mine while I get yours out!”

“Wait, kid-”

Poseidon didn’t listen and moved for the trident. 

Nightwing felt the water around him press down on his core. 

The water was pushing in on him and forcing him down. 

There was no way for him to get out. 

There was no one coming for him. 

There was no one coming from them .

Nightwing turned to look at the person he was fighting- Midnight. She didn’t get to grow up. Her childhood was taken from her because of a stupid mistake that the Justice League had been the one to make. She worked with her teams to protect a city that the Justice League should have taken care of. 

He pushed down and grabbed the girl and moved to push up. 

Suddenly a new body slammed into Nightwing. 

It was one of the Kryptonian kids. 

Chapter Text

Hours after the battle, with Syren gone yet again, the two teams stood on the rooftops. Catgirl looked over Paris. “Are you happy?” 

“We were just-”

“Oh of course!” Catgirl snarled. “Just because the great Justice League didn’t mean any harm therefore we should just forgive and forget the fact that not only are some of our teammates dead, but multiple civilians are as well!” 

“Look around! My city is in shambles. It will take weeks to figure out where all of the butterflies went, which is the only way to reverse the destruction and death caused by the Akumas- and you would have known this if you stopped to listen for more than five minutes. But you didn’t and now so many people are dead.”

“And the only thing you have to say about any of this is ‘we didn’t mean it’!” Catgirl yelled. “I have teammates missing, a city to take care of. I don’t have time to worry about a bunch of heroes who weren’t thinking of the consequences of just storming into a battle when you didn’t know the enemy or the playing field.” 

Batman stared at her. “I-”

“Go away Batman.” Catgirl ordered. “You killed my father and led a team that killed so many others. Take your teams and leave. Never come back. Never talk to me again. I didn’t care about who my bio father was before. But now? You are nothing but a villain in my story. Now get out before I make you. I have to clean up the mess you made.”

Catgril turned around and walked away, not caring to look back at the man who had done nothing but cement himself as someone she could not trust.

Duskwing landed on the roof that he had seen Catgirl disappear to. He spotted her, and began to walk over to Catgirl, who was sitting at the edge of the rooftop. He sat down next to her and pulled her into his arms. “I followed them to the edge of the city limits. They’re out.” he whispered to her, doing his best to wipe her eyes. “It’s just our team again.”

Catgirl buried her face into his chest. “What am I gonna do?”

“We.”

Catgirl pulled away a small amount and looked up at him. “We? What do you mean we?”

“I’m in this with you. Your problems are my problems.” Duskwing leaned his forehead against hers. “I will always be by your side in cases like this. When you need someone to stand with you against the world, I’ll be there. We’ll win. We’ll find Knight. We’ll find all of the Akumas. Together.”

Catgirl blushed. “I- thanks Dusk.” She looked at the city. “How do we fix all of this?”

“The same way we started this thing. Together.” He smiled and brushed some of her hair out of her face. “Remember back then? It feels like we got started with this at the perfect time.”

Catgirl leaned against his side and looked out over the scene that was their city. “It feels like that was forever again.” She intertwined their fingers and took a deep breath before she asked the question that she had been wondering about since before the Fall. “Do you ever wonder if they would have helped if we never got involved?”

“I don’t know. But I’m glad we did what we did. We were never going to survive that day at school if we didn’t do it.” Duskwing paused. “Though, I do think that we also saved your mama and papa. Your parents are assassins. Who would they have blamed for what happened? More than likely your bio dad.”

“Is it bad that I don’t feel anything with that?”

“You just watched him murder your papa, even if it was an accident. I think you can give yourself a pass for that.”

Giving one last glance to her city, Catgirl steeled her shoulders and began to pull away. “I should go and check on Midnight and Warrior.”

Duskwing grabbed her chin and gently turned her face towards him. “Let me know what you want me to do. I’m here to help Nettie.”

“Names Dusk.”

“Fine then Kitty.”

“Can you check in on Hood?” Catgirl looked towards his direction. “He’s not doing so good and I think he might need his best friend right now.”

“You got it, Kitty.”

“Thanks Birdy.”

“Hood?” Duskwing called as he landed on the roof Catgirl had pointed him to. He saw him almost instantly, seeing as he was sitting as Nino on the edge of the roof, mask off and not caring that anyone could see his face. “You know what Kitty would say if she saw you.”, Dusk teased. 

Nino didn’t take his eyes off the city, not caring enough to look at him. “Go away Dusk.”

“No can do, the boss ordered me to check up on you.”

“I’ll get back to dealing with the damage in a minute.”

“Not what she meant.”

Nino sighed, “What do you want me to say? There’s so many people dead. Knight’s missing. What are we gonna do?”

“We’ll get it done.” Dusk said as he pulled off his own mask. “You’re not alone.”

“What about Nettie?”

“Since Kitty isn’t here, I’ll say it for her; names.” 

“Your mask is off too, dumbass.”

Adrien laughed and nudged his shoulder with his own. “She’ll have us- you, me, the team, her mom and so many others. This whole thing has been a mess and I have no idea how we are gonna fix this. But we will. And we will do it together.”

Catgirl had chosen to call everyone-well, apart from Valkyrie, she needed to get back to the bakery -back into the Legends base.  The fourteen teenagers all stood around the table that once belonged to their predecessors, though the team did need to get additional chairs, there was no point in a table room that only had five chairs. “What’s the plan here?” Posiedon asked as he leaned against the midsize table in the middle of the room. 

Catgirl took a deep breath and pulled up a holographic screen. “So let's look at this with full eyes.” She pulled up the video from only a few days ago, before this whole mess began. “It was made public that we were the only ones in town. Most people- including those in Paris -have no idea that the heroes and the actors are the same people, which did cut out most people who could be involved in this. However, Valkyrie has confirmed that she knew who was the one to attack me. Once we get some more information from her, we should be able to find the base and get Knight back.”

Next, Catgirl pulled up the stats for the initial Akuma battle. “Prior to the appearance of the other heroes, we thankfully only had six casualties.” The team whooped. “That was amazing considering we had fifteen when we had seven Akumas out. Of the recorded Akumas, we had nineteen in the mass breakout. These are in fact the nineteen that we have been unable to get the butterfiles on.”

She turned to Queen Bat who was sitting in one of the few chairs. “We need to focus on three major problems; we need to get the butterflies for the nineteen remaining Akumas, we need to find Knight, and we need to track down and end this with Hawkmoth.”

Queen Bat nodded and stood up. “Mirror Mirror has already reported to have begun tracking down the Akumas. Knight will have to wait until we can spare the manpower to insure Paris doesn’t die while we’re gone. In terms of location for Hawkmoth, there has been a pattern.” Queen Bee pulled up a holograph of a map, showing a circle that surrounded one section. “Not all of Paris gets hit by every Akuma, but this is the area that they for certain show up in. This is more than likely our Hawkmoth location. We just need solid proof on who he is and how he does this and then we’re gold there. 

“What about the other heroes?” Sparrow asked from where she was standing by Hood. 

“Not our problem anymore.”

“For now.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, they’re the JL, they’re bound to try and butt in again.” 

“I kinda lost it on my sperm donor. I get the feeling he’ll stay away for now.” 

“Girl, he’s Batman.” Sparrow shrugged. “Regrouping is kinda his whole thing.”

“I know he won’t stay gone forever, but he’s gone for now.” Catgirl shut down the hologram. “We don’t need their help, and when they show up again, we’ll make that clear.”