Day 23: Rescue

Thanks to her connection with Nadja Chamack, Alya was invited to ride in the TV news copter with field reporter, Clara Contard. To get a feel for reporting the news out in the city. Or in this case, above it.

And because they were nice, she was allowed to bring a friend along for the ride. Of course, she chose Marinette.

It was just supposed to be a routine traffic report. But, being in Paris these days, meant danger could come out of nowhere in the blink of an eye.

Specifically, akumas and/or sentimonsters. This time, it was both.

Vivica had gotten herself akumatized into Desperada again. But this time, Shadowmoth decided to upgrade her with a large sentimonster steed she called Maruja.

This huge creature had a long snake-like body but with four legs and a head like a parrots. It also had long feathery wings, so it could fly. But its most dangerous ability were the fireballs it could shoot from its beak.

The news copter was unfortunate enough to come too close to the sentimonster. Clara said they could get some great footage of the fight once Ladybug and Chat Noir arrived.

What she didn't know was that Ladybug wouldn't be arriving at all if they didn't land.

Marinette couldn't transform in the small helicopter with Alya, Clara, her camera guy, and the pilot so close.

She tried to convince Clara that it was too dangerous for them to be so close to the villain. The copter's fuselage didn't even have doors so they were quite exposed. She wanted them to fly away but the reporter was persistent. Alya was too. Not only was Clara's camera guy filming but Alya had taken her phone out and was filming too. Plus, Desperada wasn't attacking them. If anything, she was glad they were there to broadcast her return so Paris's heroes would come to her.

Eventually, Chat Noir arrived. As he stood on top of a tall building, Chat dodged attacks from Desperada as she flew around him from Maruja's back. He avoided golden dust blasts from her trumpets and fiery blasts from Maruja. Chat even jumped up onto Maruja's back to try to fight Desperada head on, but he just couldn't get close enough to her while also avoiding her weapons.

All the while he was praying for his lady to show up soon. Desperada was not easy to deal with the first time.

When he realized that he couldn't beat her while on Maruja's back, Chat had no choice but to abandon sentimonster. Unfortunately, they had moved too far away from the building so his only option to jump toward was the helicopter.

He leapt, grabbing onto the right landing skid and just held on. Seeing that he had nowhere else to go, Desperada flew her Alebrija sentimonster toward the copter.

"I've got you now, kitty cat," she sneered. "Maruja, fire!" With no regard for the citizens inside the copter, she gave the order.

Obeying it's assigned akuma, the creature started pelting the copter with fireballs. It was aiming for Chat but it was jerking so much, the copter itself got hit serval times. The pilot tried to get them away but the blasts were causing malfunctions.

Marinette tried to hold on but it was moving too much, jerking her to and fro, up and down, left and right…then right out of her seat.

With a scream, Marinette fell out. She did get a bit lucky, grabbing onto the other landing skid with both hands.

"Marinette!" Alya yelled down to her.

Having been in far much scarier situations before, Marinette tried to stay calm, but given that she wasn't transformed and protected by the magic of her miraculous at the moment made it far more scary.

Over on the opposite skid, Chat looked over and locked eyes with his bluenette friend. Her bluebell eyes were wide and he could see the fear in them.

"Hang on! I'm coming!" he shouted. But before the feline hero could move, another blast struck the copter, much too close to Marinette's body.

Out of reflex to avoid the fire, her hands let go of the metal bar.

"AHHHHHHH!" Marinette screamed as she plummeted from the copter.

Chat didn't hesitate. He let go of the skid and dived down after the girl.

Marinette fell, back facing downward so she was facing up. She looked up and saw Chat falling down fast to catch up with her. Their eyes locked again when they were only a few feet away from each other.

Chat reached his hand down to her. Marinette raised one of hers up.

Seconds later, they were finally close enough to grab the other's hand.

Chat quickly pulled Marinette as close as he could to his body, wrapping an arm around her while Marinette wrapped her arms around Chat's neck.

Eventually, a shorter building with a flat rooftop came close. With the greatest of care and precision, Chat landed feet first onto the roof, stopping their fall, allowing him to roll and slide along the hard surface until they came to a stop at the base of a chimney.

When Chat opened his eyes, he was on his side, Marinette was on her side as well, her arms still wrapped around him and his arms were still around her. Finally, she opened her eyes and pulled her head away just enough to look at him.

"You okay?" he asked her calmly.

Marinette's breathing was a bit ragged but she nodded her head. The two slowly started to sit up, still clinging to each other. Chat's hold was protective, Marinette's was fearful.

Eventually, Chat released her and helped her stand up. "Stay here. You'll be safe," he told her before giving her a quick nuzzle against the side of her head.

Then he ran off, extending his baton as he jumped off the building and vaulting up back toward Desperada.

Marinette stood there for a moment, still trying to process what had just happened.

She could have died, but Chat had saved her.

She took another minute to calm herself before dashing behind the chimney and transforming.

Fun fact; the word fuselage is derived from the French word 'fuseler' which means 'to streamline.' It's the proper name for the central part of the helicopter where the passenger's seats are.

When I was looking up alebrijes to get a good image for one in my head for the sentimonster, I found one called Maruja the Alebrije. It looks as I have described it.

Sorry, 24 is being skipped. So I with see u all on the 25th. =^.^=