Chapter Text
It started out relatively simple. A few weeks ago, a group of thugs were tied up outside the police station with no recollection of how they got there other than what they assumed was one of the bats appearing out of nowhere and beating them all up effortlessly. None of the bats were in the area that night and no one claimed it was them. They had a new crime fighter on their hands.
Tim immediately started looking at everything he could, witness reports, camera footage, interrogating the initial criminals, but he couldn’t get so much as a consistent description from anyone. The three of them descended into a fight over what they supposedly looked like, saying,”No she had brown hair!” “Are you crazy she was super tall!” “Her suit was orange, not silver!” The only thing they agreed on was that she was female and fox themed. He sighed and left the room. They didn’t have a reason to defend this person, at least not that he had discovered, so for now that was a dead end. With nothing left to do but wait for a new lead, they all decided to file it away for later.
And then it happened again a few days later. This time with the criminals describing an entirely new person altogether. This one was supposedly black and yellow and fought with… a spinning top on a string? Once again female. Notably, when they first arrived at the station the criminals were completely paralyzed and all had a glowing yellow spot somewhere on their bodies. It was clear they were dealing with at least one meta. But how did they get into the city?
The incidents continued without much progress on their end; whoever they were this team of vigilantes were good at covering their tracks. They seemed to all have an animal theme and carry unorthodox weapons, as well as some kind of magic that makes seeing their face clearly impossible. Other than that, they knew nothing. Tim didn’t like knowing nothing.
He started analyzing their patterns, where the crimes took place, what time they were left at the station, what days were seemingly silent and what days they took down multiple criminals. Eventually he knew enough to take a guess on where tonight’s vigilante was going to go.
She was just wrapping up knocking out some thugs when Red Robin arrived. This one was different from the others, she had a mostly light grey suit with a few pink accents, including what looked like a rope tied around her waist. He couldn’t see any distinct features above her shoulders though. The second he looked at her face it shifted constantly, from blue eyes to green to brown to pink and from black hair to blonde to blue to brown. It took him a second to call out,”Stop right there!” Because he was trying to wrap his head around it.
“Hm?” She turned to face him, oddly calm. It certainly made Tim’s life easier so he wasn’t complaining.
He made sure to be ready to run or fight however. “Who are you and how did you get here?” She was definitely a meta with that weird face shifting thing. Then again, maybe she was just working with one, since the others apparently had similar effects on the few people that saw them.
She smiled cheerfully,”My name is Multimouse, and I took a plane!” Red Robin felt mocked by her innocent voice. Maybe it was the surprisingly calculating look in her eyes.
“What are you doing here?” He needed to get to the heart of the issue while she was still cooperative.
Multimouse’s smile turned more genuine. “I’m here to help.”
“Help with what?”
Tim hadn’t meant for that to come out as harsh as it did, but she frowned. “I don’t appreciate being interrogated.” Multimouse huffed and turned away, strangely childish all of a sudden.
He rolled his eyes,”Well there’s not much I can do about that unless you answer my questions.” They couldn’t just let an unknown potential meta run around the city willy-nilly.
“Don’t feel like it.” She continued pouting until she suddenly pointed at something at the entrance to the alleyway,”Behind you!”
Despite everything that said it was clearly a trap Red Robin couldn’t stop himself from glancing behind him just in time to see a man rush him. He was wearing the same uniform the others were, and was defeated just as easily. “Don’t think you’re off the hook Multi-“
When he turned around she was gone. “Mouse…” he searched the surrounding area but couldn’t find any trace of her, and since this time she neglected to actually bring the thugs to the police now he had to. Great.
At least he had a name, Tim kept telling himself, already starting a mental file on her that he would add to the computer as soon as he got home. That’s more than he had before.
***
Marinette sighed as Mullo snacked on their cheese. “At this rate, I’ll be arrested by the bats before I can actually purify anything.” The kwami patted her head sympathetically but offered no advice. She let the others out of the box while she thought about it.
She honestly hadn’t even meant to take up crime fighting while she was in Gotham. Marinette was supposed to be there to further her fashion brand and help to purify the city of some deep rooted corruption by leaving behind various talismans and runes over the course of a few years. Instead, on the first day she suited up she wound up stopping a mugging because she couldn’t just stand by and watch someone be hurt when she had the power to do something.
Which was fine on the surface, it wouldn’t hurt the process to help some people along the way and she was already used to doing hero work, but the problem was that Gotham already had vigilantes. Famously paranoid and mysterious and anti-magic vigilantes. Ones that probably didn’t appreciate her not only trespassing on their territory but also sort of doing their job for them. Marinette’s tried to leave the rogues alone at least! But that didn’t mean much to them clearly.
“Maybe I should just look into something else. I can do commissions from pretty much anywhere, even if it isn’t as convenient, and there are plenty of magical imbalances in the world.”
Several kwami panicked and started talking over each other all at once, but they were all silenced with a sharp whistle from her. Thank goodness Alya taught her how to do that. “Alright now one of you explain what’s wrong.”
Tikki flew up to her,”Marinette you can’t leave, not after you’ve started the purification process!” She flew over to the spell book detailing the process. “Your soul has become tied to this place until it’s finished, you can leave for short periods of time like a week or two, but after that you’ll start to get sick and the corruption will slowly return!”
Marinette froze. “So I’m stuck here until it’s done? And the bats are already suspicious of me?” The Kwami all nodded. “I’m dead!” She squeaked.
There was no way she could hide from them for that long! Maybe if she stopped crime fighting she could last a few months, but they knew this city, there was no way she could stay hidden. Trixx flew up to her, a mischievous smile on their face,”Relax Mari, you just need to be a bit stealthier! There are plenty of us that are good at that, but I’m the best, try it tomorrow!”
Something about that sounded off, but Marinette couldn’t figure out how Trixx would cause chaos with her there to prevent it and was too tired to care. “Alright, but no mischief!” Their silent nod didn’t do anything to comfort her as she put the necklace on.
Sleeping that night was difficult as it usually was but she at least did try because she knew she had a meeting with Chloé to discuss the business and she wanted to be conscious for that. It didn’t work but an effort was made.
Marinette trudged down her street after the meeting trying to make it home so that she could nap. Or actually no, she had a commission to work on and while normally she would put it off this one was for uncle Jagged so she wanted to get it done quickly. So she wanted to get home so she could sit and do work and *then* take a nap.
“That’s the last time I stay up on meeting day…” Marinette sighed to no one in particular, speeding up more the closer she got to home.
Trixx snorted from inside her purse,”Don’t you always say that?” One downside to knowing the Kwami as long as she had, she couldn’t lie and say she was a functioning member of society to them.
She playfully put a finger to their mouth,”Shhhhh.” She could pretend to make healthy decisions all she wanted.
Unfortunately because she was shushing her Kwami Marinette wasn’t looking where she was going and when she turned the corner slammed into somebody with surprising force.
Due to a lifetime of tripping over air, Marinette caught herself before she could fall, but the man she had bumped into was on the ground gripping his head. She almost squeaked when she noticed his suit. This guy was absolutely rich and definitely hated her for running into him- “Oh my gosh I’m so sorry!”
Before she could fuss over him, the man put up a hand and smiled at her charmingly,”It’s fine, are you okay?”
Marinette blinked in shock before helping him up,”Me? You’re the one on the ground!” Even ignoring that she should have been looking where she was going, not talking to her bag!
“Like I said it’s totally-“ he froze, studying what she really hoped was her shirt or jacket before pointing to it,”Is that an MDC original?”
Oh! That was much better! But wait,”How did you..?”
The man smiled again, brushing some of his black hair out of his face. “They have a pretty distinct style, but I also see their signature on your jacket.”
Well she was pretty sure this guy wasn’t a client of hers, so it was impressive he noticed her signature. “Interesting. Even some of their more regular customers don’t recognize the signature.” Maybe she should keep an eye out for him.
He blushed slightly,”I’ve just spent a lot of time looking at their designs.” He shook his head suddenly,”Speaking of which, how did you get on the list? I’ve been trying for ages but nothing seems to work.”
That was intentional on her part, not wanting just anyone to be able to commission her. Unfortunately necessary after Lila sabotaged her old website with hate comments and nasty rumors. This man didn’t seem half bad though, and he was attentive enough to notice her signature. He might be worth testing.
She took note of the empty cup he was holding and the puddle on the ground behind him with a smile,”How about I tell you over coffee tomorrow? To replace the one I made you drop.”
He blinked, looking down at the cup in shock,”I didn’t even notice that…” This man seemed to have good control over his emotions, at least on a surface level, because he was smiling again the next moment,”Sure. There’s this place a couple blocks from here I usually go to, The Miraculous Cafe, that sound good?”
So that was the business venture Kagami mentioned! “A friend of mine actually owns that place, I’d love to go!” She hadn’t had the chance to ask about it with moving and commission work and guardian stuff, so this would kill two birds with one stone.
The man’s blue eyes almost seemed to sparkle in that next moment but that was definitely Marinette’s sleep deprivation talking,”Then I’ll see you tomorrow, 10:00?”
She nodded excitedly,”Yup! Oh wait I totally forgot,” She put out a hand for him to shake. “I’m Marinette.”
“Tim.” The man responded. “See you tomorrow.”
Marinette watched him go and couldn’t keep a smile off her face. Her first potential customer in Gotham! “You know Trixx, I think he’ll do just fine.”
The Kwami poked their head out with a grin,”Really? Oh it’s been too long since we’ve tested someone! Wait till I tell the others!”
Thankfully no one in Gotham had the time or energy to notice some random woman talking to her bag but that didn’t stop Marinette from shushing Trixx,”Not so loud!” She did smile to herself as she continued home though. “But yeah, I’m excited too.”
This was going to be fun.