Chapter Twelve- Winners

The group's walk into the classroom had been a bit dramatic to say the least. They had all noticed the jealous stares people were giving them as they had started walking together towards the classroom, but they ignored them in favor of the banter they ignited between each other. Nathaniel, Nino and Max had joined the group and Chloe had started up her usual sibling-like banter with Nathaniel, Marinette trying uselessly to quell the argument. Nino and Adrien watched the argument with amusement, not even trying to stop the two from shouting at each other, while Nino also made a bet with Max about who would win. Kagami and Luka were in their own little world and eventually broke off from the group to head to their own classroom.

Their rambunctious laughter and gestures didn't stop as they reached the classroom, it continued up until class began, much to the irritation of Lila. Everyone's focus had been on them that morning, with their new clothes that all seeming to fit them perfectly and it bugged her to no end. She had heard whispers of a new up-and-coming fashion designer MDC and that she had been the one to design their clothes.

She had tried to find the designer's website so she could get Alya to destroy it with false reviews. She couldn't find anything except a tweet from Jagged Stone promoting MDC's work. When she read the full tweet she found that her website was private and that only people with MDC's personal information were allowed to access it in order to prevent false reviews. Jagged also said he was only giving out that personal information to other people he trusted that would also promote the new designer's work. Lila fumed at this new information and from being blocked from spreading more of her lies yet again.

Near the end of the school day Marinette had been traveling from her physics class and back to Mrs Bustier's for English when she spotted a familiar figure enter the courtyard with a newly bought coffee in his hand.

"Hey! You're supposed to be resting," Marinette scolded the lanky man as he set his eyes on her slightly familiar face. Tim recognized the girl from the bakery and realized she must have taken him to the hotel he was staying at.

"As much as I love sleeping, I also kinda need to earn a living." Tim replied in an amused tone, clearly not taking Marinette's scolding seriously. "By the way, my name's Tim."

"I'm Marinette," she replied, realizing she hadn't introduced herself.

"So if you're trying to earn a living, why exactly are you at a school?" Marinette asked sarcastically and also with a bit of curiosity, his sense of humor rubbing off on her.

"What? You don't think I'm a teacher? I'm so offended." Marinette laughed, unable to contain herself as his sarcasm took on a whole new level. Tim's smile was careless as he laughed along with the girl, her laugh utterly contagious.

He sobered up a bit as he answered her question: "I'm here to announce the winner of a competition, perhaps you know the class. I'm looking for Mrs Bustier's class."

Marinette gasped in surprise, "Are you from Wayne Enterprises?"

Tim looked at her in surprise before he remembered the name of the person that had submitted the essay was Marinette Dupain-Cheng. His hand lifted up a bit, subtly pointing at her as if to ask her a question.

"Are you Mrs Dupain-Cheng?"

Marinette smiled gently at him, the knowledge that they had won the competition in the back of her mind. She held off her excitement until she could celebrate with her friends.

"I'll take you to the classroom, I was just on my way there anyway." Marinette started off towards the classroom, Tim eventually following once he got over his shock of the coincidence that had just occurred. The girl that he had just met the morning he arrived that had helped him to his hotel room when he could barely walk was also the intelligent author of the essay he had read. This girl's list of admirable qualities was growing larger each time he met her and he thought his gremlin of a little brother might be able to learn something from this girl.

"Marinette, I assume you have a reason for showing up late to class-" Mrs Bustier started before looking to see a man standing behind her.

"I apologize for causing your student to be late, I held her back."

"And who might you be?" Mrs Bustier assessed him. He looked much too old to be a student but way too young to be a new teacher, so she couldn't understand why this man would be in her classroom.

"I am Timothy Drake from Wayne Enterprises. We held a competition to all high schools to offer them a chance to win an all expenses paid trip to Gotham City. Mrs Marinette entered this class into the competition and her essay and presentation was exemplary. She won the competition, so this class, with their parents' permission, will be able to attend an educational trip to America where they will visit various historical sites as well as Gotham Academy." Tim continued his explanation to the teacher despite the fact that the students had stopped paying attention the moment he had said that we won.

Marinette's friends erupted in shouts of victory and excitement, jumping out of their seats and celebrating with each other in the back corner of the group, Marinette now beside them and celebrating alongside them, unable and unwilling to hold back her happiness.

Lila's part of the class looked like they wanted to celebrate with them, but with one look at Lila's enraged glare towards Marinette and Alya's disgusted look towards the group had them cemented in their seats.

Tim was confused by the interaction between the class, but decided he would have to ask Marinette about it later.

"A bus will be waiting to pick up your class at eight AM tomorrow morning to take you to the airport. I suggest you all pack well, there will also be a charity gala held at the end of your stay in Gotham that you are all invited to. Also it is imperative that you all remain vigilant during your stay in Gotham, there are dangerous villains in Gotham that you all should take the initiative to study up on if you haven't already. I will be escorting you on your way to Gotham, however if I recognize anyone misbehaving on the trip, as the person in charge of the competition, I can send you back to Paris should I see the situation calls for it." Tim's usual carefree demeanor became serious as he faced the class when explaining the rules.

Marinette was indeed aware of the villains of Gotham, had researched them extensively so as to not be caught off guard on her trip if she ended up running into one of them, which with her luck, would probably happen. Although her Ladybug luck did shine through in some moments, it didn't always counteract all of her bad luck that would tend to get her into sticky situations.

Tim continued on for the rest of the duration of the class until the bell rang: discussing what else they would be doing on their trip, what things they would learn, and handing out papers for their parents to sign and a list of things they would need to bring on the trip.

To be honest, marinette was only half listening out of respect for Tim. She couldn't stop thinking about how she was one step closer to defeating Hawkmoth, and one step closer to making sure no one she cared about would ever be in danger again.

Tim also had something else on his mind as he was explaining things. When his plane was about to land in Paris, he had seen quite a bit of water everywhere and then a red and black cloud washed through the city, and then he could see the land again. At the time he thought he was hallucinating, but then he had heard people talking on the way to the bakery about something called an akuma attack and they had also mentioned water flooding the city, which was exactly what he had seen.

He hadn't had time to research the term 'akuma' yet, but since he was there, he might as well ask Marinette about it. The class emptied quickly once the bell rang, Marinette hanging back with her friends, seeing that Tim was giving her a look that told her he needed to talk to her.

Once Lila's group had left the classroom entirely as well as Mrs Bustier, Marinette left her friends talking at their seats, Kagami and Luka drifting into the classroom and joining the friend group to hear the good news. Marinette approached Tim and sat down on the teachers desk, facing him.

"You okay? You've got a weird look on your face." Tim did in fact have a strange look on his face, his eyebrows were pulled together by a scrunched up face, eyes looking towards the floor in thought and his arms crossed.

"I saw something bizarre as my plane was coming towards the paris airport: there was water everywhere, and then suddenly it was gone, like it was never even there." Marinette's shoulders started to become tense, realizing exactly what he was talking about. "Then I heard some people say the term 'akuma attack,' do you know what it means?"

Tim looked up from his confused position to see Marinette's shocked expression, which only confused him more.

"You've never heard of an akuma before?" Marinette asked in astonishment before she considered the Mayor probably kept the attacks under wraps so it would not hurt the country's tourism rate, but she would have thought word would get out eventually

"Guys!" Marinette called out to her friends that all fell silent and looked towards her, as if they were all soldiers looking for her instruction. This team dynamic between her friends did not go unnoticed by Tim and he began to wonder what kind of connection she had with them. It was as if they had ranks within their friend group and Marinette was their leader, a dynamic that was usually only formed by experiencing something traumatic together. "I'll catch up with you guys later." With one look from Marinette, nobody even questioned where she was going as she took Tim from the classroom, leading him out of the school and towards the park that was across the street.

Tim didn't understand why they couldn't discuss a simple term while in the classroom, but followed her anyway. Despite her being several years younger than him, her commanding yet protective demeanor almost instinctively made him respect her. She sat them both down at a park bench near the edge of the forest so that their conversation wouldn't be overheard by a random passerby.

"I've researched Gotham City extensively while writing my paper, particularly it's villains, however you were probably not able to do the same for our city." Tim looked confusedly at her, he wasn't aware of any villains in Paris. "I believe this was on purpose, the Mayor doesn't want anyone to know what goes on here, otherwise the tourism rate will go down."

"What villain? What are you talking about? I'm sure that whoever it is couldn't be that bad if the Justice League hasn't been notified of it."

"But that's just it, they were notified when the attacks first started. Ladybug and Chat Noir, our heroes, contacted them personally, but they were treated as a joke by the person who answered and turned away." Marinette said, her frustration showing in her response before sighing, knowing there was nothing she could do about it now. "But then the attacks became more dangerous, and we knew it was best to keep anyone with superpowers out of Paris or risk them being akumatized and the world being destroyed." Tim shook his head, not understanding her logic at all.

"You're just confusing me more," Tim replied, making Marinette turn to look at him for the first time since they entered the park before looking down and pulling out her phone.

She pulled up a recording of the news update from early this morning before pressing play and handing the phone to him. He took the phone with a puzzled look before gazing down at the screen.

"Don't be bemused, it's just the news! You're here with Nadja Chamack as a new akuma is literally running waves through Paris. Let's take a look." The footage switched, zooming in from what Tim presumed to be a helicopter, and focusing on a human woman's figure that was made completely on water. Tim's jaw dropped at seeing this liquified figure freeze water out of thin air and launch it at a Ladybug themed girl, completely defying the laws of physics.

From a second camera that was off to the corner of the phone was focused in a different part of the city, somewhere near the canal that had become overflowed into the streets, and bodies upon bodies were floating down. All of them pale and wet, faced down in the water, following the stream as it carried them away.

At the other camera, the ladybug girl visibly tried to dodge, but there were simply too many of them and one ended up nicking her in the thigh. "Oh no, it seems like Ladybug's been hurt!" Nadja chimed in. Ladybug seemed to try to be holding her thigh to try and stop what seemed like quite a bit of blood from gushing out. Her other animal themed teammates covered for her automatically, trying to corner the water-woman into a butcher's shop.

Tim kept watching the entire thing until after he saw the Ladybug girl initiate the red and black magic stuff that returned everything as it was, except the heroes all still seemed to be injured.

Tim put down the phone, handing it back to Marinette and asking her to explain everything from the very beginning.