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“Pound it!”
Cosmo Bug and Astro Chat bumped fists as they celebrated the defeat of yet another akuma. This one had sent them out into space. It had lost Monarch’s control high above Paris, and had gone AWOL.
Cosmo Bug had cast her cure, returning the victim to their home before they could suffer the effects of space without protection. Astro Chat headed back towards Paris quickly, but Marinette had a much longer journey to make. She had been on vacation with her parents in San Francisco, looking at design schools for after she graduated, when the alert had gone off. Thankfully, her parents had been sleeping, and wouldn’t notice how long she had been gone.
Her timer beeped again. One minute. She was still in the stratosphere. She stopped trying to make her way back, and started heading straight down. She had 50 seconds to plummet to the ground before she would free fall without the protection of her suit.
20 seconds.
The ground was still so far away, but at least she could make out buildings now. They were still tiny specs that were spread out sporadically across the otherwise flat farmland, but they were visible. Maybe she could make it.
10 seconds. She was still higher than most planes travelled.
9… 8… 7… 6…
She wasn’t going to make it.
5… 4… 3… 2… 1…
Her transformation dropped, and her controlled descent became rapid falling as Tikki raced along behind her.
She screamed.
Tears streamed behind her as she fell, Tikki desperately grabbing for a cookie. But it wasn’t enough. She didn’t have an extra space potion with her. She had no way to fly.
Not even a recharged Tikki could help her now. She saw Tikki start swallowing cookie bits as fast as she could, desperate to help her charge. Their only hope was a lucky charm that would somehow solve this. Like a parachute.
The ground was coming too fast. Tikki couldn’t eat that quickly.
Even if she could, there was no time to call on a transformation and lucky charm and figure out how to use it.
She had no time.
She screamed again, crying for help that wouldn’t come. She was in the middle of nowhere.
Tikki floated beside her, tears in her eyes. Marinette could see the moment that Tikki admitted defeat.
She called out anyways, desperately, “Tikki, spots on!”
But nothing happened.
She was going to die.
In the middle of a corn field.
She was leaving Paris defenseless, all because of her mistake. She was leaving Chat Noir alone. Her kitty would never understand what happened to her. Would whichever farmer found her body eventually even take off her earrings? Would Tikki ever be able to help again? Would she and the miraculous be buried as a Jane Doe in whatever state she was in?
And her parents. Her poor parents. They would never know where she was. What happened. Would they think she was kidnapped? Would they blame themselves?
The fields were now becoming individual stalks of corn. This was it.
She couldn’t bare to watch the end.
She closed her eyes.
She landed roughly on something uneven.
Funny, death really didn’t hurt as much as she thought it would. Maybe her brain was just overloaded with pain, so it was just registering the worst of it…
She opened her eyes, wondering what the afterlife would look like.
To find a pair of big blue eyes staring at her from above.
It took her a moment to realise that it wasn’t someone welcoming her into some kwami afterlife. But if she wasn’t dead…
She looked down. He was holding her. In midair.
“Nice catch,” she said faintly.
His eyes roamed over her for a moment before he finally spoke. “…Definitely.”
She couldn’t help the blush that formed as he smirked at her.
She took in the blazing S that was covered partially by a leather jacket. “Superboy, at your service.”
Relief washed over her, and she hugged him, a fresh wave of tears overcoming her. He had saved her. He had saved Paris, even if he didn’t know it.
He slowly lowered them back to the earth while she regained her composure. “I’m Marinette,” she finally choked out between sobs. “T-Th-Thank you.”
“Who’s your little friend?” he asked, looking directly at the floating bug beside her, who had been desperately trying to save her.
“Hi, I’m Tikki,” Tikki responded with a giant mouthful of cookie. “I make Marinette turn into Ladybug!”
“Tikki!” Marinette hissed.
Tikki shrugged with her stubby little arms. She was right. Suberboy already knew the moment he saw Tikki anyways. Their secret was blown. It was just a good thing that it was a hero on the other side of the world.
“If it helps any, my name is Conner. Most of my friends just call me Kon.”
He put her down gently, his hands running along her side. She felt a tingle rush through her as he stared intently at her. “It doesn’t seem like you’ve hurt anything.”
She stared back, lost in his eyes for a moment and missed what he said next.
“Marinette?”
“Huh? What?”
“The boy asked if you wanted to meet everyone. They were fishing when he rushed off to save you,” Tikki repeated for him.
“Fishing?”
“Yeah. Is that okay? Or do you want me to take you home?” he asked sincerely.
Would she be meeting Superman? “Sure. I mean yes!”
He chuckled and picked her up again. “Hold on tight…” He sped off, and before Marinette knew it, they were hovering over top of a lake. “…wouldn’t want you to fall in.”
“I think I’ve already fallen for you,” she said without thinking.
Two booming laughs sounded from behind her, along with two much lighter ones.
She quickly pegged Superman and the other Superboy, and what must be the boys’ mother and grandmother.
“I think I win,” Kon smirked again as he held out Marinette. “I have the biggest catch of the day.”
They all laughed at that, and conceded defeat.
“So Marinette, what brings you to our side of the world?” the civilian-dressed Superman asked.
“What? How do you-?”
He tapped his ear. Right. Super hearing. Likely how Kon heard her too. The other boy did the same before bounding up to her, putting his hand out for her, his fishing pole abandoned at the side of the dock. “Hi, I’m Jon!” he said eagerly. “And you are sooo cool. I hope I’m that good of a hero one day.”
She turned a red that would have put her suit to shame. “Thanks,” she accepted the compliment as she ruffled his head. “You are too!” The kid may only be ten, but he was helping already.
The man stood up, handing his fishing rod to his wife, and walked over at a more normal pace. “I’m Clark. This is my wife, Lois, and my mother, Martha.”
“I’m Tikki!” the red bug Marinette considered her best friend piped in, now finishing her cookies at a more leisurely pace.
She sat down beside Kon after shaking everyone’s hands, and marveled at how quickly the family went from crisis to normality.
She was almost drifting off to sleep as he rubbed circles into her back.
Her alarm blared, breaking everyone out of the peace that had settled over them all.
She glanced at the time as she shut it off. “Oh no! I have to get back!”
“Late for something?” Kon asked.
“No, my parents will be waking up soon, and they don’t know!”
“They… they don’t know you’re Ladybug?” Clark asked, very concerned.
“No! I have to get back, now!” she wailed.
“No problem, Rin, I’ll have you back in no time,” Kon reassured her.
“You’re welcome to join us any time dear,” Martha patted her leg genially, “Just give us a holler and we can pick you up if needed.”
“I’m actually planning on going to school in San Francisco – their industrial design school – or to MIT in Florida…” Marinette explained. “It would be nice to know someone nearby. Though, I don’t know where I am right now.”
They laughed. “Kansas, sweetie,” Lois explained, “But we usually live in Metropolis.”
“Hope we see you soon!” Jon added happily.
“Me too.”
Kon picked her up and raced her back to her hotel room as she gave him directions.
He put her on her balcony before she knew it.
“Thanks for the lift,” she said and gave him a gentle kiss on the cheek.
“Any time,” he said, leaning down and returning the gesture.
She closed her eyes, and relished in it. When she opened her eyes, he was gone, and in her hand was a piece of paper.
‘Next time don’t wait to drop in. Just call me,
Kon
555-444-3333’