AN: What you see here is the natural result of thinking about the aftermath of superhero exploits...which has become a hot topic lately. This story will be focused on Tony Stark, and will act as an introduction to Miraculous Ladybug for those who don't know what it is, but without the thick candy coating that comes with Ladybug being a kid's cartoon. If anyone feels like watching something that blurs the line between the superhero and magical girl genres and is genuinely lighthearted and fun, check it out.

"Friday, give me what you got." Dozens of faces flashed across a screen as the illustrious Tony Stark lay on his leather couch with a bowl of popcorn in hand. The majority of the faces wore masks – which made sense, what with him looking for anyone with unique skills...who wasn't doing the bad guy thing.

In light of the recent argument with the Captain, Tony decided that some extra manpower would be a good idea. Even after dissolving his company's weapons production and later handing the rights over to his assistant/friend/girlfriend, he still couldn't shake his belief that the side with the biggest guns is the one who keeps the peace. The difference was that the "guns" had to have a heart behind them. It was too easy to pretend to be the good guy when you don't see the harm you cause, and too easy to justify it as just following orders. "Show me...Yellow McRageface."

"Of course Mr. Stark," replied the Irish accented voice of his artificial assistant. "He is Wolverine, aka Logan. He is a prominent member of the X-men, a mutant task force that acts to promote human and mutant cohabitation."

"So, he's one of those kumbaya around a campfire kind of guys," Stark said with a semi-dismissive wave of his hand "he doesn't look it."

"You'd be right on the second assumption. From the information I can gather from hacking into personality profiles stored in the Xavier Institute's databases, he has anger issues that are second only to the Incredible Hulk."

"Bad Friday." Tony said with a smirk and tone that didn't agree with his words. "Hacking is wrong."

"If they didn't want the files to be hacked, they would have kept them with the rest of the heavily encrypted files."

"Ohhh, the juicy stuff. Atta-girl. Leave that for later and tell me what he can do."

"Yes, Mr. Stark. Wolverine possesses an advanced healing factor that lets him shrug off most wounds in seconds and push his body beyond human limits. He also has animal senses, with a nose that can rival bloodhounds. Without doubt, his greatest asset is the adamantium skeleton given to him by the questionable Weapon X project. As a result, his bones have become nigh unbreakable and he received a set of adamantium claws that he uses to devastating effect. There's not much left in one piece once he's through with it. Despite his anger, he has a strong but simple moral code: 'you're innocent until you piss me off.'"

Tony clapped, causing a few popcorn pieces to fly off. "Sounds like our kind of guy...but to be sure, tell me what he's usually up against."

"Yes, Mr. Stark. As a member of the X-men, he is often at odds with the Brotherhood of Mutants or secret anti-mutant organizations within major governments. He has experience working with and against a large variety of individuals, all with different powers and personalities."

Tony of course knew a bit about those secret organizations, though he'd hardly call them secret if some random billionaire genius could look into what was going on with them at his leisure. Some of the things those people wanted to do were genocidal, plain and simple. The X-men keeping such fanatics down was okay in his book. "Welp, I'm sold. Nothing says Avenger material like knowing how to deal with a bag of trail mix and nut jobs, but the anger issues could be a problem. Let's put him down as a maybe."

"Understood."

"Alrighty then." Tony sat up straight and began pointing at random pictures while singing eeny meeny, even though he was basically deciding who to pick based off their costume. "Tell me about the red walking armory."

"Deadpool, aka Wade Wilson. Deadpool is a mercenary who is a master of both melee and ranged combat using conventional weaponry. Like Wolverine, he possesses an accelerated healing factor that was given to him through Weapon X."

"Really? Is Weapon X some kind of super human factory?" Tony asked, incredulously.

"Yes."

Tony shrugged then popped another piece of popcorn into his mouth. "Fair enough. Anything else you can tell me about Deadpool."

"Being a mercenary, Deadpool's services often go to the highest bidder, but he appears to have a history of killing employers who trick him into performing jobs that do more harm than good. A small number of high and low profile criminal leaders have dropped off the radar shortly after hiring Deadpool for a job. His facebook account can be quoted on him insisting that he is not a hero alongside claiming that he is prime Avenger material." An image appeared of his facebook account with the two afore mentioned quotes posted literally minutes from one another.

"Sounds like fun, but I don't think Captain Boy Scout would approve." Tony could see from other posts that Wade lacked any sort of self-control, and even seemed to go out of his way to cause unnecessary destruction just for the fun of it. "What about the guy dressed in puke?"

"Iron Fist, aka, Danny Rand. He is a master of all K'un Lun martial arts, and has the ability to use his chi to enhance all of his abilities to superhuman levels. He can also concentrate all his chi into a single powerful blow, or he can use it to heal himself or others."

Tony slowly sat up as a possibility he had yet to consider made itself known to him. "Friday, focus the search on those that can heal others." In an instant, all the faces disappeared except for Iron Fist. The wave of disappointment that Tony felt came faster than he could think to hide it behind his usual brand of witty sarcasm. Memories of all the destruction from recent events still plagued his mind: Loki's invasion, the battle with Ultron – which included a fight between him and The Hulk in a densely populated area, and then the recent conflict against Captain America. He may have gotten out of business, but he was still a businessman. He saw the numbers of every toppled building, every demolished freeway, every collapsed bridge, and every injured victim.

He knew exactly what it was like to go from having everything to...being nothing. It changes you, sometimes for the better, but usually for the worst. There definitely was more than one occasion of Tony thinking that he was walking the line between the two. He wanted to do better, but was stuck on figuring out how. "Sir, I've sent the invitation."

The voice of his AI shook Tony from his thoughts. Once he refocused onto the screen, he saw that she had formed the digital representation of herself on the screen, looking at him with a concerned expression. She was an orange-red outline of a girl in her mid-late teens, wearing a casual suit. "Are you okay, Mr. Stark?" Unlike the typically sarcastic tone that all of Tony's AIs usually spoke in, Friday's question was clearly full of concern.

Tony let out a long sigh and even set his popcorn aside. If only there was a way to deal with the problem, of course, besides surrendering to the next madman who decided to make Earth their next target. He wished there was an out, some kind of an easy solution. "We need more options."

"Should I remove some of the search parameters then?" she asked, with her avatar gone and the sarcastic tone back.

"Remind me, what were they again?"

"A hero that: hasn't participated willingly in any criminal or terrorist activity, who travels internationally, whose identity is known, who possesses the ability to heal others, and who is at least 18 years of age."

It only took a second for Tony to decide what to keep. "Do we really need to know who they are? And I'm sure I can handle any travel costs."

"If we do not know their identity, we cannot confirm their age, nor can we confirm if their civilian identity has a record."

While he didn't see the problem with the second half so long as their hero identity never went bad, Tony did not like the idea of letting a kid be a part of the kinds of conflict that the Avengers had to deal with. He may have gotten the panic attacks completely under control, but he still had nightmares about flying into that vortex and failing. Ultron had even started joining in on the fun. No kid deserved to have that kind of experience, but maybe, maybe just taking a look wouldn't hurt. "Hit me with your best shot."

Tony began counting the instant he finished his command. Even with a near worldwide sample size, it should take three seconds for Friday to find and catalog all of the results. For this reason, she had his complete attention after taking a full ten seconds to finally say something. "Mr. Stark, you'll want to see this."

Tony sat up straight at a video that was being taken by a smartphone. A quick look at the background showed a significant but not complete lack of skyscrapers. The focus of the video was three costumed figures: one in a bright red spotted costume, one in a black costume, and the largest of them wearing white pants with a dark top. The tallest wound up for some sort of baseball pitch and threw something that sent the other two flying. It was a two versus one scenario, but he couldn't tell the difference between hero and villain; though he was going to assume that the pair were the heroes.

The pair recovered quickly. The red one threw something into the air that gave off bright red lights, then coalesced into a red and black-spotted box, dropping into the matching hero's hands. They focused on the box for a second before the black one had to engage their foe with what looked like a silver staff. While the duel between the two was the focus of the amateur cameraman's recording, Tony could catch glimpses of the spotted hero doing something near a bus. She, judging by the voice, yelled something that got both the villain's and the cameraman's attention. As the villain then ran off to the right, the cameraman swerved ahead of him and revealed what could only be the Eiffel Tower with some kind of advertisement projected on it. The villain appeared from the bottom of the screen, managing at least ten stories in jump height, and swung his arms at the tower. A second later, the tower began sliding forward and the cameraman began running away from the inevitable crash zone.

While it wasn't as widespread as the kind of damage Tony was worried about, apparently cutting clean through the Eiffel Tower with just a motion of the arms was nothing to sneeze at. The destruction of one of the world's most famous monuments would be international news, so why hadn't Tony heard of it? Why hadn't anyone else for that matter?

The sound of the tower crashing entered the phone's speakers, but the timer at the video's corner showed that it took at least thirty seconds before the cameraman finally stopped and pointed his phone back at the scene. There was a small flash of light that exploded in a massive stream of dark pink particles that swirled around the ground a bit before vaporizing the fallen tower and swirling around where it once stood. The armored Avenger could not believe his eyes as he watched the monument restored in less than half the time it took to be destroyed. Up until he became a hero, Tony never believed in miracles. After becoming a hero, he came to understand that miracles didn't have to be grand; they could be as small as beating nearly impossible odds with all the cards stacked against you. What he saw then was exactly what he used to think miracles were.

"I've taken the liberty to search other social media posts around the time of this incident, and there are three of particular interest. The first is a car owner expressing his joy that the damage dealt to his car by The Mime was restored."

"The Mime, really?" While he couldn't shake how excessively well a mime themed villain fit the city of Paris, it also gave him a much clearer idea of what kind of foe the two heroes were fighting. It was easy to guess that he had the ability to use any weapon he mimed, on top of whatever he was using at any given time being invisible. It couldn't be easy acting and reacting against someone with that sort of power. "What about the second?"

"A large number of advertisement posters were destroyed over the course of The Mime's rampage. They too, were restored."

"So she didn't just fix the Eiffel Tower, she fixed everything." If anything, Tony was even more impressed. He found himself needing to know just how this worked, and also needing to know whatever he can about the hero behind that power. "So what's the third thing that got fixed?"

"The third point of interest is an hour long one-on-one interview with the hero."

Jackpot. Tony wanted to take a much closer look at the fight between the two heroes and The Mime, but there was no way he could wait to see what would be in the interview. "Show me."

The screen immediately went to black before revealing a young looking girl wearing bright red spandex, (seriously, what's with the spandex) that had black spots uniformly placed all over the suit. She also wore a mask that shared the color scheme and covered nearly every part of her face over the bridge of her nose that wasn't covered by her dark navy hair, which was styled in two short pigtails. Tony only needed half a second to be sure of what her superhero name was. She wouldn't be the first bug themed hero wearing bright red that he's seen, but unlike Spiderman, bright red made sense for a ladybug hero. "Hey Ladybloggers, this is Alya Césaire with a surprise interview with the hero of Paris, Ladybug!" said the slightly raspy voice of a young female behind the high quality camera phone. She of course spoke in French, but French just so happened to be one of the languages Tony was fully fluent in. "We have to know, what's it like being the hero of Paris?"

"It's amazing. Paris is such a beautiful city, and the people are all so great. I could never stand by while an Akuma threatens all of that." It sounded like a pretty stock response to a stock question, but it did provide a name to the threats she faced.

"Yeah, Paris is pretty amazing, but the Ladybug fans want to know how you feel about being a hero."

Tony smirked when Ladybug became slightly uncertain. It was a sign that wasn't all too prepared, which meant she'd be more likely to make mistakes and share more of her character. She thought it over for thirty seconds before nodding confidently at the answer she came up with. "To be honest, it's pretty scary. I know that every time that I go out there, there's a chance I could lose. If that ever happened, Paris would never be the same again." She chuckled suddenly at a single stray thought that passed through her mind. "I might actually have to thank Cat Black for all the jokes and puns he says all the time." Tony grimaced at what the other hero's name would be translated into English; there was already a Black Cat in New York after all. With Chat Noir being his French name, Tony decided that Cat Noir would roll off the tongue just as well. "Sometimes his timing isn't the best, but I think I'd be really tense all the time if not for him." That answer was much better. It showed that she took being a hero seriously and it was a sign that she wasn't very self centered. It also revealed that her black clad partner was in fact the more lighthearted of the pair.

"Speaking of Paris' favorite cat, what's he like?"

Ladybug's exaggerated roll of the eyes and smile said what her words could in a fraction of the time. "That kitten is the most unbelievable cat I've ever met. Like I said, his timing isn't always the best, but he always comes through when I need him."

"Sounds like you two really work well together. Are there any other activities that you work well together on?" There wasn't anyone in the world who could miss the suggestive tone in the amateur reporter's voice, language barrier or not.

Ladybug didn't miss it herself, judging by her incredulous sputtering. "Me and Cat Noir. He might be a giant flirt, but we aren't like that. We don't even know who we are beneath the mask."

Tony's eyes widened in shock. He was no stranger to heroes doing everything they could to keep their hero identities and their civilian identities separate and could even understand the reasoning a bit, but to keep it secret from a partner in the exact same situation as yourself? That brought the secret identity thing to another level. As someone who revealed himself with hardly any hesitation, it seemed like an unhealthy amount of paranoia. "Are you serious?!" And apparently Alya agreed. "Does anyone know who you are behind that mask?!"

Ladybug chuckled at what Tony suspected was an expected response. "Lots of people know who I am without the mask, but none of them know that I'm Ladybug." It was an interesting way to word her answer. A simple no would've worked, but she went the extra step in separating her two identities. It might even be a sign of a moderate or small ego.

"Isn't that lonely?" The concern in the reporter's voice shone far clearer than the hint of sadness on Ladybug's face. It answered the question of why the hero was letting an amateur conduct the interview. Tony had no problem dealing with callous reporters (thanks to his history as the CEO of a weapons development company), but he doubted that Ladybug had the same experience. Reporters who actually cared about who they were interviewing would always be easier to deal with.

"It is, but I can't risk letting anyone know, not even Cat."

"But...why?"

Ladybug took a deep breath and fixed a camera with a look that added ten years of maturity. "You know how Butterfly's Akuma work, right?"

"Pause." It was just getting good, but there was absolutely no way Tony could stomach a villain named Papillon. He muffled a snicker between his lips.

Friday had no trouble guessing what was bothering him. "The French word papillon is used to describe butterflies or moths. I have two names that will rank high on your preferences: Monarch or Hawk Moth."

"I'll dub him Hawk Moth, Monarch sounds overdone."

"Understood. Resuming video."

"Yeah," the reporter stated in response to Ladybug's segue into Akuma. "some random person could just be having a really bad day, then bam! Suddenly, they're a super powered villain bent on revenge and stealing your and Cat Noir's Miraculous." Tony's heart beat faster from rage-induced adrenaline. Twice now, he'd seen what kind of effect mind control had on others, and once upon himself. The idea that someone was doing this to people who are just having a bad time, and giving them super powers on top of it...Hawk Moth did a very good job of making it onto Tony's shit list.

Ladybug wasn't very happy with the villain either. "Well, there's more to it than that. When Hawk Moth manages to possess somebody, he can communicate with them and learn everything they know. All it takes is one person who knows, or even someone who knows someone who knows, and the people I care about will get hurt. Anyone can be a victim, but Cat Noir and I are Hawk Moth's only targets. He can already torment Paris from whatever hole he's hiding in. The last thing we need is for him to have another advantage over us." If Tony was understanding correctly, Hawk Moth didn't even have to come out of hiding to take control over anyone.

There was a few seconds of the camera shaking in silence before it panned all around the holder as if she hugged herself. "Oh Ladybug, I'm so sorry."

"Alya, it's okay. You didn't know." Tony's heart clenched when he suddenly realized the new course for the interview.

"I felt obsessed...angry...and betrayed. I wanted so much to expose you for who I thought you were, and then...I wake up on a roof at night. You and Cat Noir are standing right in front of me, and the first thing I think to ask is for an interview."

"Alya," the heroine said with a concerned tone, hoping that it would stop the cascade.

"I can't believe I did that! As soon as I checked the Ladyblog...what I did...what I tried to do...I'm..."

"Alya!" The phone was suddenly dropped onto the chair Alya was sitting on. The angle it landed at was just right to see her wrapped in Ladybug's arms. "It's not your fault. We all get upset, we all get angry, and we all get scared. When someone promises that they can make everything better, it's hard not to listen. I don't blame you...no one blames you."

Alya took a long shuddering breath then slowly relaxed into Ladybug's arms. After a few moments, she laughed. "Yeah. It won't happen again. I won't let it!"

They took thirty seconds to reset themselves, which gave Tony time to process what he saw. He came in expecting a more honest interview than there would be in a professional setting, but he was blindsided by the raw emotion on display. There was no questioning Ladybug's character after that, nor was there any questioning the nature of the threat she was up against.

"Okay," Alya said with an unsteady breath. It took yet another deep breath to calm her nerves. "Do you have any advice...on how not to get possessed?"

"It's not easy to say this, but there isn't much we can do, not until we find Hawk Moth and take his Miraculous. The best advice I can give is to let hurtful words be like water off a duck's back. Every time someone is possessed, it's after someone specific said or did something that was going too far. And to the people who do these things, please, think about others. Also, you can't fit everyone into the same bag: what works for one person won't for someone else. If Paris can truly come together, then Hawk Moth will have nothing. But until then, you can count on Ladybug and Cat Noir to pick up the pieces."

The rest of the interview from then on was about the Akuma victims she had to fight against and how each was defeated. The only thing more interesting than the colorful and almost random assortment of super powers she's faced was how each was defeated. Her Lucky Charm created one random – and typically useless item – which she'd then have to apply to the environment or directly to her foe to claim victory, or create an opening to do so. He would have never thought that a regular bath towel could be used to take down someone with the power to control the weather. By the end of the interview, Tony could do nothing to hide the smile on his face. "Friday, when was the last time Pepper and I went on a vacation together?"

"You have not had the opportunity to do so yet. I hear Paris is nice this time of year."

If possible, Tony's smirk grew even wider. "You read my mind."