Bio!Dad Bruce

Chapter 17

Marionette spun slowly with her arms stretched out, almost like she was reaching for something, in the center of a ring of broken glass. The weak light of the street lamps reflected over and over again in the shattered remains of the window. Had anyone dared to look in on her, they would swear she was just another manakin, positioned to capture a passersby eye.

After all, that was all the Joker saw her as. A pretty display piece to cause as much pain to her father as possible without actually killing him. She was little more than a toy to the deranged clown. But that suited Marionette just fine. The longer the Joker believed her only capable of following his orders, the longer it would take for him to see his mistake, which would make it all the easier for her to do as she wished.

As she completed a full revolution and faced the now broken window, a weak sliver of moonlight managed to make its way into her eyes, and Marionette could almost hear the fragile, tired, voice of the girl she used to be not twenty-four hours ago begging her not to go through with her plans. 'Don't hurt them! This isn't us! We're not like this! They've done nothing to hurt us!'

'They've done nothing to help us either.' Marionette stopped spinning and dropped her arms, a cruel smile dancing across her lips. 'You have faith.' she sneered at the voice in her head. 'You think they'll come and save us. Well, I think we should do what we do best. Take matters into our own hands.' Marionette shoved the still pleading voice back down, and walked away from her impromptu stage, paying no attention to the shattered glass that would've cut her feet shreds.

---

Bunnyx led them all to what the other Miraculous users could assume to be Marinette's room as the various bats protested. Before she opened the door she turned to them and snapped, "Do you want to save Marinette or not?"

"Of course we do!"

"No one deserves being at the hands of the Joker."

Bunnyx nodded, "Then shut up about this and be prepared to learn and accept a lot more about her." Without further ado, she opened Marinette's door.

Nino distantly noted that he wasn't the only one staring wide-eyed and open-mouthed at the scene in front of him.

Fourteen kwami floated around the room, each with a look of worry and fear as Bunnyx described the situation. "The Guardian has been captured and brainwashed. If we want any chance of saving her we're going to need everyone." Bunnyx knelt to the ground. For a split second Nino saw how tired Alix really was beneath the suit. Time travel wasn't easy on the heart. But then it was gone and Bunnyx looked determinedly at the kwami, "Kwami of the zodiac miraculous, will you aid us in our fight to save your guardian?"

Nino watched in amazement as each Kwami zoomed away and came back holding their miraculous.

Bunnyx nodded gratefully to them, before turning to the bat family. "Any of you used to wearing a magic suit?"

---

Talia watched as Selina paced around the room visibly angry. "How dare Bruce act like we wouldn't want to help Marinette!" Selina shouted at no one. If she had a tail it would have been thrashing from side to side. For her part, Talia wasn't much better. She wanted to throttle Bruce. Over the short period of time she had known Marinette, Talia had seen a young girl that had been hurt by the world but was still clinging to hope. It reminded her of Bruce. And he had the gall to say that she was a menace.

Not far away, Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn watched the two dangerous fuming women. Both were still dressed in their gala dresses, and neither seemed to realize or care.

While neither Ivy or Harley had yet had a chance to meet the newest Wayne and couldn't get what had happened out of Selina or Talia, they knew that something bad had happened at the introduction gala and now she was missing.

Had it just been Selina, Harley could have calmed her down and gotten to the bottom of what had happened. But with Talia I-could-kill-you-with-a-glance Al Ghul with her, it was like watching a whirlwind of negative energy that kept feeding itself.

A glowing blue circle sprang up in the middle of the room, and ten people stepped out. The four women only recognized one of the new strangers in their apartment.

Harley gave a wide smile, "Well Batsy! I can't say we know your new friends! Or how you got here! How'd you get here?"

The one dressed as a dark reddish-brown horse raised his hand sheepishly, "I did that actually."

Ivy gave him a once over, "And who are you?"

"I'm..." he looked over to the one dressed like a rabbit, "What is my name?"

She shrugged, "Whatever you want. The last one to use it called himself Pegasus. But if you don't want to name yourself, we can just call you the Horse."

"We are not calling me that." He turned to look back at the four women and said, "Normally I'm Red Robin, but for now you can call me Hermes. I can create a portal to anywhere I can envision."

"And why are you all here?" Selina all but hissed, still glaring at Batman.

The young woman dressed like a rabbit spoke up, "Marinette was captured by the Joker." Harley gasped. No wonder everyone was in a fuss. Any kid of Bruce's that got too close to the Joker never came out the other side better for it. "We're here because we need your help."

"With what?" Ivy asked cautiously.

"Saving Marinette."

"How?" It was the first thing Talia had said since the newcomers had arrived.

Once again the rabbit answered, but not before letting out a heavy sigh. "In the event that the Guardian of the Miraculous is taken out of commission or fallen to the point where their knowledge could be cataclysmic, I am to be the temporary Guardian."

It really was a night of firsts. This was the first time anyone in the room had ever seen Talia go pale. "Marinette is the Guardian of the Miraculous."

"Yes."

"We are in much more trouble than I thought."

Now that Harley was looking she could tell which of the newcomers were actually bats in a new outfit. All the ones that weren't bats let out humorless laughter. 

Selina clapped her hands together, "So, let's get this thing on the road. And on the way one of you can explain to the rest of us what a Miraculous is."

---

As day broke over the city of Gotham, its citizens started their morning with a tense casualness that could only be achieved in such a city. People had listened to their police scanners all night as report after report of robberies and vandalism rolled in, all courtesy of the new person that some had caught glimpses of at the Joker's side. No one knew exactly what this meant, but they knew it wasn't good.