Finding Myself Again

Chapter 5: Fight or Flight?

I've never actually been on a plane or to am airport so I have no idea what this is, but it's very crucial to the story because she has to, you know, ride a plane in order to get Gotham (unless she uses a Zeta Tube, but I don't think that's an option right now lol).

So enjoy this chapter where Marinette meets the weirdos that shell be living with until further notice!

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To say the flight to Gotham was uneventful would be an understatement. Sure, Marinette had to endure the screaming six month old a couple rows over and the snoring man next to her. But it was nothing a pair of headphones, a movie and a sketchbook couldn’t fix.

This wasn’t her first international flight, either, so she knows how to drown out all the noise and focus on one particular thing. She goes to China to visit relatives every summer with her family and her grandmother takes her on a trip during spring break. So yes, she’s been to America (specifically New York, Los Angeles and Niagara Falls) but never Gotham. Though her Grandmother gave her Alfred’s contact information, she never actually specified how she met these people. Marinette crosses her fingers as the plane nears their destination that they aren’t part of the shady shit that her grandmother has the tendency to get involved in.

The intercom crackles and a hush falls over the plane. “Please buckle your seatbelts, we are going to land in approximately ten minutes.” There’s a series of clicking, and after buckling her own seatbelt, Marinette rouses the man next to her, repeats when the flight attendant had said, and than lunges to the window at her left. She watches in awe as huge skyscrapers, windows sparkling in the sun, pass underneath them. She quickly opens her sketchbook and starts to draw a dress inspired by the buildings for her website.

There’s a tap on her shoulder and she looks up to find that the man that was sitting next to her is now standing and smiling down at her. “The plane has landed, and they’re getting first class off now.” Marinette scrambles to shove her sketchbook into her carry-on, opting to leave her headphones hanging on her neck. After business class unboarded, the flight attendant calls for coach. She files behind the guy that sat next her during the trip, and starts the slow process of entering the Gotham airport.

Because Gotham is one of the most crime-ridden city in the world, there’s a bunch more precautions and safety measures before you're even allowed to enter the airport, even if you're unboarding a plane or not. After going through the numerous checkpoints, Marinette is allowed to get her baggage and search for the person picking her up.

She decides to stack her things onto a cart instead of dragging all at once, for it makes it easier on both her injured wrist and ankle. She slowly walks out of the luggage pick up and into the area where nonpassengers are allowed to be. She must’ve passed at least five or six security officers in that many feet before she spots an older man with graying brown hair and kind blue eyes holding a sign with her name printed on it in neat handwriting. Marinette walks as fast as her boot allows her to, pushing the cart with her suitcases in front of her.

“Are you Miss. Dupain-Cheng?” The man asks when she stops in front of him.

“Please, call me Marinette. Are you Monsieur Pennyworth?” When she confirms she is who she says she is by showing him her ID, he answers with a certain sparkle in his eyes. “Please, call me Alfred. May I take your bags?” He looks over her injuries when she refuses his offer, and takes them anyway. “Who, Miss. Marinette, caused those injuries you carry?” She flushes slightly under his gaze and straightens before answering.

“It was my former classmates, but they didn’t mean to do it. And please, just call me Marinette.” Alfred arches a brow, very well knowing that her classmates did cause her harm on purpose, but leaves her alone.