[Dick agilely flips out the way of the attack, he almost wishes he could just sit back and watch her fight because she seems pretty impressive, but it would be bad manners to introduce oneself and then not lend a helping hand.
Her explanation doesn't make a lot of sense to him, he has no idea what an akuma is, but 'look for the weird thing' is a straightforward enough instruction, and he can be pretty observant - he is trained by Batman after all - so he nods his understanding] Roger that.
[Flipping his way to the top of a nearby building , he casts a glance over the villain to get a better look.]
[As Ladybug engages Sound Machine, expertly dodging the attacks he throws her way, her sharp eyes sweep over him again and again. Finally, her eyes land on the guitar he's holding. It's pretty conspicuous, but the he doesn't let go of it at all and he is using it to generate those sound wave blasts.
Convinced, Ladybug darts out of the way, until she's next to Robin again.]
Got any ideas?
[Admittedly, she's curious to hear what he's come up with, considering the akuma are a phenomenon currently tied to Paris alone. She should know--she's checked the internet countless times for clues.]
[He grins over at her before casting his attention back to Sound Machine, frowning slightly in thought]
Not that I know exactly what I'm looking for [he can admit that, she's definitely got the edge here and he's ok with letting her know he knows it, but he's not Batman's protege for nothing, so he's at least going to make a guess] but there's something odd about his guitar, I just don't know if it's odd enough to be what you're looking for.
[She flashes him a smile, glad to have a second opinion.] That's what I think, too.
I'll make a grab for it. Think you can distract him for me? [Before she leaps away, Ladybug pauses.] Oh, and try not to injure the guy too badly. [She isn't sure how much he knows about akuma and how they work, so she figures a quick explanation's in order.] He's just a victim being controlled by somebody else. Got it?
[That raises his eyebrow, and he has to admit he's more than a little intrigued - she speaks with experience, like this is the kind of thing that happens a lot, and he can't help but wonder if the majority of her villains are being controlled, and if that 'somebody else' was always the same person, but that's a conversation for after the fight, so he doesn't question it now, just nods his confirmation]
Non-lethal, injury to a minimum, got it. [it's not an impossible task, he's used to dealing some damage but he can easily hold back.]
[He flips down in front of the guy, dropping a smoke bomb beneath him and landing in the cloud. From within the smokey depths comes an almost sinister giggle, attracting the villain's attention]
[It's a huge relief when Robin doesn't question anything she just told him, and Ladybug allows herself a quiet sigh when he leaps back into the fray. Another source of relief: having someone fighting alongside her. It's not that she can't handle herself when it comes to akuma, but she's also gotten used to having Chat Noir around and the fight always ended more quickly with two of them.
Robin, though--Ladybug knows she'll have to adjust her movements slightly. With Chat Noir, she knows him well enough to guess his plan of attack. It definitely isn't so with Robin.
As Robin distracts the villain, Ladybug edges closer and stays hidden, waiting for an opportunity.]
Wͬe̚'̄̓̈́͂͌ll̃̂̿ ̈́̾́s̃̈͂eͧe ͯ̈́aͤbͥ͆̏̒̈o͐͋ū͒͂ͬ̔t͆̋ͣͧͫ̈ ̿̍t̓̈́͋ͭḣ͒̀ä́̑̓t̽ͦ̔ͩ͛ͥ! [Sound Machine cries out with confidence, strumming his guitar again and again, hoping to catch Robin in one of the resulting blasts.]
[The sound waves dissipate the smoke a little, but not enough that Robin can be seen yet, and given his smug little giggle, he hasn't been hit yet. From within the cloud, two birdarangs come flying out, slicing neatly through the straps on his guitar. He hopes that'll make it a little easier for her to get it off him.
He rolls forward, appearing from the smoke and leaping to his feet, apparently running directly towards the villain - until he veers off at the last minute and loops around him, keeping him from looking anywhere but where Ladybug is]
[As soon as she sees the birdarangs cut through the straps, Ladybug leaps into action. Her yoyo flies through the air, wrapping securely around the guitar. From there, it's easy enough to yank it into her hands.]
Guess the encore's over! [Without hesitation, Ladybug smashes the guitar against the ground, making Sound Machine wail once he catches on. He stops chasing Robin, falling to his knees dramatically.
In no time at all, the dark butterfly is purified and released, and the damage from the attack fixed by her miraculous. Ladybug pads over to Robin as the akuma's victim sits up in confusion.]
Nice job getting the guitar straps. That made everything way easier.
Glad to be of help [he's sort of on auto-pilot, giving her a grin and a little bow, ever the showman, but he's mentally cataloguing everything that happened for future consideration. What he wouldn't give to be able to clean up a mess, post-fight, the way she did, it was like she turned back time practically.]
...So... I take it this kind of thing happens a lot? [he waves vaguely at the victim, since there wasn't any other evidence of the battle left for him to indicate. He meant the whole thing, the 'akuma' - whatever that was - and the butterfly, the possession, she seemed pretty practiced with all of it]
Pretty often. [Ladybug's distracted for a moment, almost expecting to hear the telltale beeping from her earrings. Nothing. That's right, I never used Lucky Charm this time.
Assured that she doesn't have to make a hasty exit, Ladybug gives Robin an assessing look.]
If you're asking, that means you haven't seen this before. I figured you were here to investigate the attacks.
There's this guy--his name's Hawkmoth--who uses his powers to transform people into something different. He gives them powers so they can do a lot of damage in his place.
[Ladybug's hands fiddle idly with her yoyo, mouth pulled down into a slight frown.]
He takes advantage of people's emotions and twists them. All those victims he takes over are just...having a bad day and don't even remember what happened while they were in their other state.
[Honestly, Robin's fascinated. He's come across mind control and the like before, but not on a scale like this - the ability to create fully fledged villains to wreak havoc on their own terms, what else were Ladybug and Paris' other heroes to do but deal with them when they came up, how were they ever supposed to find this Hawkmoth guy?]
Does he have to meet them or be near them to enact the transformations? Or do you know anything else about him that might help you find him? [He can guess the answer is probably no, Ladybug seems pretty clued up, she didn't seem like the type to have missed such an obvious solution]
[As she's about to answer, Ladybug realizes just how much attention they've gathered from the civilians--not that she can blame them. Not only has she stuck around, when she'd normally swing off right after the attack, but Robin is famous enough on his own.
Ladybug offers the cameras a smile and a cheerful wave before turning back to Robin again.]
Meet me at the top of the Arc de triomphe. We can talk more there.
Sorry, gotta go. Stay safe, everyone! [With those parting words to the growing crowd, Ladybug quickly sends her yoyo out and swings away from gardens.]
[Between being Robin one minute and the son of Gotham's most eligible bachelor the next, Dick's pretty used to the press attention, so he easily flashes a smile and a wave to the cameras before turning back to Ladybug with a nod]
See you there.
Thank you, people of Paris, it's been an honour fighting with your very lovely ladybug! [he waves his own goodbye and fires off his grapple, disappearing across the rooftops after her. It's not much later that he drops onto the top of the arc de triomphe as arranged - after a quick change back into his school uniform and an excuse to his teacher about being sick and going back to the hotel, the exertion helping sell the idea he had a fever, before another quick change back to his Robin costume]
[She's waiting for him there, and the viewing area at the top of the arc is thankfully empty. The scheduled maintenance that kept the regular tourists from using the stairs to climb up had been one of the reasons she'd suggested it as their meeting spot. That, and the landmark was famous enough to be known by someone new to the area.]
Got lost in the crowd of reporters and fans?
[Ladybug teases him when he arrives. She knows how persistent some of them--Alya comes to mind immediately--can be.]
Well what can I say, I just can't disappoint my public [he flashes a charming grin, though he can't keep it up for long and he laughs]
I had to run back and make my civilian excuses before anybody got suspicious. [He's not going to give too much information, of course, nothing she might be able to use to identify him]
And family? [he raises a surprised eyebrow. It isn't like he doesn't know anybody who keeps their secret identity from family too, but they're definitely in the minority, and it's always seemed like it would be really difficult to him] that must be tough. I'm pretty lucky on that front...
Yeah. [Another giggle, this one with a hint of nervousness.] It's starting to get hard to explain why I'm late for class so often. The akuma really like to attack during the day for some reason.
Wait. [This time, it's her eyebrows raising in surprise.] Your family's okay with you being a superhero?
Oh, wow, that must be a lot of work. Gotham's villains sometimes attack during the day, but most of the time we manage to stick to evening missions, I don't miss a lot of class.
[he laughs slightly]
Uh, yea, it's actually kinda... look, you can't tell anyone I told you this because it is kind of personal information, and Batman is super strict about all of that kind of stuff, but he's actually my dad [he doesn't think it's too much of a risk for a fellow superhero halfway around the world to know that one tiny bit of information, it wasn't like she'd be able to use it to figure out who he was. Probably]
Yeah. You saw the butterfly that came out of the guitar earlier. That's an akuma, and Hawkmoth always sends them when he's trying to corrupt someone. When I purify the akuma, it removes Hawkmoth's influence from the person, too.
[Ladybug leans against the wall slightly, deep in thought.]
Somehow, Hawkmoth just knows when someone's upset enough to be turned into one of his puppets. I don't know how he picks them out in a city this populated, but it worries me.
Do you know if he has to be anywhere near them? Have you ever seen this Hawkmoth? Or does he seem to control them from afar? [If he didn't even need to get near them, he could see why it was so worrying, how were you supposed to ever find someone with that kind of power?]
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[Dick agilely flips out the way of the attack, he almost wishes he could just sit back and watch her fight because she seems pretty impressive, but it would be bad manners to introduce oneself and then not lend a helping hand.
Her explanation doesn't make a lot of sense to him, he has no idea what an akuma is, but 'look for the weird thing' is a straightforward enough instruction, and he can be pretty observant - he is trained by Batman after all - so he nods his understanding] Roger that.
[Flipping his way to the top of a nearby building , he casts a glance over the villain to get a better look.]
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Convinced, Ladybug darts out of the way, until she's next to Robin again.]
Got any ideas?
[Admittedly, she's curious to hear what he's come up with, considering the akuma are a phenomenon currently tied to Paris alone. She should know--she's checked the internet countless times for clues.]
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[He grins over at her before casting his attention back to Sound Machine, frowning slightly in thought]
Not that I know exactly what I'm looking for [he can admit that, she's definitely got the edge here and he's ok with letting her know he knows it, but he's not Batman's protege for nothing, so he's at least going to make a guess] but there's something odd about his guitar, I just don't know if it's odd enough to be what you're looking for.
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I'll make a grab for it. Think you can distract him for me? [Before she leaps away, Ladybug pauses.] Oh, and try not to injure the guy too badly. [She isn't sure how much he knows about akuma and how they work, so she figures a quick explanation's in order.] He's just a victim being controlled by somebody else. Got it?
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[That raises his eyebrow, and he has to admit he's more than a little intrigued - she speaks with experience, like this is the kind of thing that happens a lot, and he can't help but wonder if the majority of her villains are being controlled, and if that 'somebody else' was always the same person, but that's a conversation for after the fight, so he doesn't question it now, just nods his confirmation]
Non-lethal, injury to a minimum, got it. [it's not an impossible task, he's used to dealing some damage but he can easily hold back.]
[He flips down in front of the guy, dropping a smoke bomb beneath him and landing in the cloud. From within the smokey depths comes an almost sinister giggle, attracting the villain's attention]
Hey music man, bet you can't hit me...
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Robin, though--Ladybug knows she'll have to adjust her movements slightly. With Chat Noir, she knows him well enough to guess his plan of attack. It definitely isn't so with Robin.
As Robin distracts the villain, Ladybug edges closer and stays hidden, waiting for an opportunity.]
Wͬe̚'̄̓̈́͂͌ll̃̂̿ ̈́̾́s̃̈͂eͧe ͯ̈́aͤbͥ͆̏̒̈o͐͋ū͒͂ͬ̔t͆̋ͣͧͫ̈ ̿̍t̓̈́͋ͭḣ͒̀ä́̑̓t̽ͦ̔ͩ͛ͥ! [Sound Machine cries out with confidence, strumming his guitar again and again, hoping to catch Robin in one of the resulting blasts.]
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[The sound waves dissipate the smoke a little, but not enough that Robin can be seen yet, and given his smug little giggle, he hasn't been hit yet. From within the cloud, two birdarangs come flying out, slicing neatly through the straps on his guitar. He hopes that'll make it a little easier for her to get it off him.
He rolls forward, appearing from the smoke and leaping to his feet, apparently running directly towards the villain - until he veers off at the last minute and loops around him, keeping him from looking anywhere but where Ladybug is]
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Guess the encore's over! [Without hesitation, Ladybug smashes the guitar against the ground, making Sound Machine wail once he catches on. He stops chasing Robin, falling to his knees dramatically.
In no time at all, the dark butterfly is purified and released, and the damage from the attack fixed by her miraculous. Ladybug pads over to Robin as the akuma's victim sits up in confusion.]
Nice job getting the guitar straps. That made everything way easier.
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Glad to be of help [he's sort of on auto-pilot, giving her a grin and a little bow, ever the showman, but he's mentally cataloguing everything that happened for future consideration. What he wouldn't give to be able to clean up a mess, post-fight, the way she did, it was like she turned back time practically.]
...So... I take it this kind of thing happens a lot? [he waves vaguely at the victim, since there wasn't any other evidence of the battle left for him to indicate. He meant the whole thing, the 'akuma' - whatever that was - and the butterfly, the possession, she seemed pretty practiced with all of it]
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Assured that she doesn't have to make a hasty exit, Ladybug gives Robin an assessing look.]
If you're asking, that means you haven't seen this before. I figured you were here to investigate the attacks.
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Nope [He grins a little] 'fraid I wasn't actually here on business, but you know how it is, these things happen you have to help, right?
I will probably pass this on back to Batman though, just in case we do come across it. Anything else you can tell me?
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[Ladybug's hands fiddle idly with her yoyo, mouth pulled down into a slight frown.]
He takes advantage of people's emotions and twists them. All those victims he takes over are just...having a bad day and don't even remember what happened while they were in their other state.
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[Honestly, Robin's fascinated. He's come across mind control and the like before, but not on a scale like this - the ability to create fully fledged villains to wreak havoc on their own terms, what else were Ladybug and Paris' other heroes to do but deal with them when they came up, how were they ever supposed to find this Hawkmoth guy?]
Does he have to meet them or be near them to enact the transformations? Or do you know anything else about him that might help you find him? [He can guess the answer is probably no, Ladybug seems pretty clued up, she didn't seem like the type to have missed such an obvious solution]
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Ladybug offers the cameras a smile and a cheerful wave before turning back to Robin again.]
Meet me at the top of the Arc de triomphe. We can talk more there.
Sorry, gotta go. Stay safe, everyone! [With those parting words to the growing crowd, Ladybug quickly sends her yoyo out and swings away from gardens.]
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[Between being Robin one minute and the son of Gotham's most eligible bachelor the next, Dick's pretty used to the press attention, so he easily flashes a smile and a wave to the cameras before turning back to Ladybug with a nod]
See you there.
Thank you, people of Paris, it's been an honour fighting with your very lovely ladybug! [he waves his own goodbye and fires off his grapple, disappearing across the rooftops after her. It's not much later that he drops onto the top of the arc de triomphe as arranged - after a quick change back into his school uniform and an excuse to his teacher about being sick and going back to the hotel, the exertion helping sell the idea he had a fever, before another quick change back to his Robin costume]
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Got lost in the crowd of reporters and fans?
[Ladybug teases him when he arrives. She knows how persistent some of them--Alya comes to mind immediately--can be.]
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Well what can I say, I just can't disappoint my public [he flashes a charming grin, though he can't keep it up for long and he laughs]
I had to run back and make my civilian excuses before anybody got suspicious. [He's not going to give too much information, of course, nothing she might be able to use to identify him]
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Keeping the secret is hard, huh? [Her smile turns a little bittersweet.] I've had some pretty close calls with my friends and family before.
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And family? [he raises a surprised eyebrow. It isn't like he doesn't know anybody who keeps their secret identity from family too, but they're definitely in the minority, and it's always seemed like it would be really difficult to him] that must be tough. I'm pretty lucky on that front...
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Wait. [This time, it's her eyebrows raising in surprise.] Your family's okay with you being a superhero?
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Oh, wow, that must be a lot of work. Gotham's villains sometimes attack during the day, but most of the time we manage to stick to evening missions, I don't miss a lot of class.
[he laughs slightly]
Uh, yea, it's actually kinda... look, you can't tell anyone I told you this because it is kind of personal information, and Batman is super strict about all of that kind of stuff, but he's actually my dad [he doesn't think it's too much of a risk for a fellow superhero halfway around the world to know that one tiny bit of information, it wasn't like she'd be able to use it to figure out who he was. Probably]
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[She sighs wistfully for a second, then shakes that mood right off, remembering why they met here in the first place.]
Aaaanyway, you wanted to know more about Hawkmoth, right?
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Yea it is... I mean, it means he's pretty hard on me, can't skip out on training or anything, but it's pretty great.
Oh, yea, so this guy makes other people into villains?
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[Ladybug leans against the wall slightly, deep in thought.]
Somehow, Hawkmoth just knows when someone's upset enough to be turned into one of his puppets. I don't know how he picks them out in a city this populated, but it worries me.
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Do you know if he has to be anywhere near them? Have you ever seen this Hawkmoth? Or does he seem to control them from afar? [If he didn't even need to get near them, he could see why it was so worrying, how were you supposed to ever find someone with that kind of power?]
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