"Our guest should be here soon." Alfred informed as he gathered up all the dishes after breakfast.
"Why are they showing up so early anyways?" Jason asked. "The Gala doesn't start until 2."
"We have some League things to discuss." Bruce looks over to the bluenette. "Plus, they have seen the headlines about our newest member and are curious. Apparently, Damian is driving Jon insane."
"What do you mean by that?" Marinette looks over to her boyfriend with confusion.
"I've been ignoring Jon's calls and insistent texts." Damian almost looked bored about it all. "I knew that if I answered him that he would only have more questions. He's the kind of person you should explain things to in person or it will just be that much more annoying."
"That's not very nice." Marinette looked at him sternly.
"Sorry, Angel." He gives her a crooked smile. "But I think you will understand once you meet him."
"Jon has a bit of an overbearing personality." Barbara informs. "He's nice and he means well though. He's also a little bit excitable."
"So, he's the opposite of Damian?" Marinette joked.
"That's a good way of looking at it." Tim agreed.
"Yeah." Dick chuckled. "Baby bird here is more of the serious type whereas Jon is much more carefree."
"You mean childish." Damian rolls his eyes.
"Careful. He might be able to hear you." Barbara jokes.
"Good. Maybe he'll grow up."
"Dami!" Marinette scolds.
"I'm sorry, Angel. That was uncalled for." He looks at her apologetically.
"Do you say things like that to his face?" She asks.
"Yes." The rest of the family answers in unison.
"Jon doesn't really care though. He thinks of it as a joke." Dick informs. "Carefree, remember?" He laughs.
Just then, there is a ring at the doorbell.
"Come on." Bruce gestures for everyone to follow. "Let's introduce them to Marinette."
It's a short walk to the frond door and Bruce is the one to open the door for the guests.
"Hello, Clark. Hello, Lois. Hello, Jon." Bruce nods to them all then steps aside and lets the door swing wide. "Come on in."
Marinette was surprised when she recognized them. She had been around Alya enough to know all of the famous journalist out there, and Clark Kent and Lois Lane were among the most popular. Lois was a beautiful woman with striking blue eyes and perfectly styled dark hair that went just past her collar bones. Pictures of Clark on the other hand didn't seem to do him any justice. He was much larger than she though he would be. He's even a few inches taller than Bruce, who was one of the largest men she had ever seen. Clark has slicked back hair and thick rimmed glasses on his strong and angular face. He also carried garment bags, which confused her for a second before remembering that they were all going to the Gala too. And then there was Jon. He had an almost childish look of wonder on his face as he looked at the bluenette. Jon was clearly a few inched taller than Damian but she could tell that Jon was still a few years younger than him, but not by much. He looked a lot like his father only much younger. His face was still a bit babyish in comparison to his fathers but they both had the same dark hair and blue eyes. Jon's smile, however, was a mirror of his mother's beautiful smile.
"Hi, I'm Jon." The tall teen walked up to Marinette and held his hand out for her to shake.
"Hello, Jon." She smiled brightly at his excitement and shakes his hand. "I'm Marinette. It's so nice to meet one of Damian's friends."
"More like Damian's only friend." Jon laughed.
"Give the girl some space, Jon." Lois spoke up before looking over to the bluenette. "Sorry about my son. He's been very excited to meet you. I'm Lois and this is my husband Clark." She gestured to the large man beside her.
"Hello." She waved and giggled a bit nervously at the two. It seemed to have just hit her that she was talking to Superman.
"Well she's refreshing." Clark looked over to Bruce. "Where did you find this little ray of sunshine?"
"See? I'm not the only one." Jason laughed.
Clark looked at him with confusion before Jason spoke up to clarify.
"Sunshine is one of my nicknames for Marinette." He reached over to pat the small girls head.
"Quit patting my head, Jay." She smacked his hand away. "I'm not a dog." She laughed.
"Why don't we head to the living room to talk." Alfred said. "I can take those for you if you would like." He pointed to the garment bags Clark was holding.
"Sure. Thanks, Alfred." Clark handed him the bags.
"So, have you been ignoring me on purpose?" Jon asked as they made their way to the living room.
"Yes." Damian said without remorse. He absentmindedly took Marinette's hand as they walked.
Jon laughed at Damian's bluntness before catching sight of his best friends' hand interwoven with Marinette's and abruptly stopped. "Woah! You're holding her hand?"
"Jon!" Clark snapped at his son and then shook his head.
"Sorry, Dad." He smiled nervously.
"Anyways." Bruce sat down on a large recliner and Selina sat gracefully on the arm of the chair with him. "Everyone have a seat. I'm sure you have some questions."
Marinette found herself sat between Jon and Damian on one of the couches. Kori and Dick took the loveseat while Jason and Tim took the other couch. Clark and Lois mirrored Bruce and Selina on the recliner across from them. Barbara just parked her wheelchair next to the couch Marinette was sitting on.
"You know." Clark smiled at Bruce. "I remember the days when you said you worked alone." He looked around at everyone in the room before settling his gaze back on the billionaire. "You were quite a liar back then."
"I suppose I was." Bruce had a ghost of a smile on his face.
"You don't sound like you are from Gotham, Marinette." Lois looked at the bluenette. "Are you French?"
"Yes." She smiled. "I'm from Paris."
"Cool." Jon grinned gown at her from where he sat beside her. "What's Paris like?"
"It's a beautiful city. Much calmer now that Hawkmoth is gone."
"Hawkmoth?" Jon looked at her with confusion.
"That's what I wanted to speak to you about." Bruce looked at Clark.
"Okay." Clark's face immediately looked serious.
"I'm guessing that you had no idea what was happening to Paris up until a few months ago?"
"No. Should I be concerned?"
"Not anymore. Marinette took care of it." He nodded his head in the direction of the girl. "Unfortunately, she had to deal with a supervillain terrorizing her city for years. We should be grateful for what she has done."
"Paris had been terrorized for years?" Clark had a genuine look of confusion on his face. "How did we not know?"
"There was a multitude of reasons." Bruce began. "For one, the Parisian government blocked any international media about it and two, Marinette's powers prevented any permanent damage."
"She has powers?" Both Clark and Jon said at the same time.
Clark took off his glasses to look at the girl while Jon just stared harder at her. "But... she's just a girl, right?" Jon said.
"Yes. She's just a girl. She's not a meta or an alien." Bruce informed. "And she is from this earth."
"I'm confused." Clark said before he stared to the girl's ears then at the glasses resting on top of her head, then over at Damian's hand. "What... What material is that?" He pointed at Damian's hand where his ring was on his finger.
"We'll get to that." Bruce said. "I just wanted to inform you that the League will be updating its software. We can't let another city fall though the cracks. We are lucky that Marinette stopped Hawkmoth."
"What did this 'Hawkmoth' do? What did he want?" Lois asked.
"Marinette can explain it best." Bruce looked at the bluenette.
"Oh. Well there are these magical jewelries called miraculous that can grant specific powers. Hawkmoth had the butterfly miraculous which granted him the gift of giving someone with a strong emotion any power. Hawkmoth chose to single out those with strong negative emotions and turned them into supervillains instead of heroes as the miraculous was meant for."
"How does the miraculous work?" Lois asked.
"He uses what we call an Akuma. They are butterflies that he corrupted with his miraculous. Anyways, he sends the Akuma's out to a person with a strong negative emotion and they fly into an object on that person. After that's done and they have accepted Hawkmoths demands, they are transformed into a villain."
"What are his demands? And why would anybody accept them?" Clark was the one to ask this time.
"There was a reason Hawkmoth chose people with negative emotions. They are easier to manipulate. He usually offered them easy revenge and in exchange they would agree to steal the Ladybug and Black Cat Miraculous for him."
"Are those the most powerful or something?" Jon asked.
"Technically, yes. The Ladybug Miraculous grants you the power of creation whereas the Black Cat grants the power of destruction. But one was useless to him without the other. He wanted both."
"Why?" A multitude of voices asked at once.
"When you have both you are granted a single wish. Hawkmoth wanted that wish."
"That's scary. I wonder what he would have wished for." Lois looked at her with curious excitement.
"He wanted his wife back. You see, she fell into an irreversible coma."
"That doesn't sound so bad." Jon shrugged.
"That's what I said." Barbara laughed.
Marinette looked years wiser as she spoke. "Any wish you would make can be detrimental. In order to gain one thing, the universe would have to take something else away. Bringing her back could have meant the start of another black plague or catastrophic natural disasters all around the world. The universe is all about balance. We can't tip too far towards one direction lest we bring about chaos."
"Oh..." Jon nods. "I see."
"How old are you?" Lois looked sadly at the girl. "And why do you know so much about this."
"I'm 17." She smiles brightly, her wise look leaving her quickly as it was replaced by her genuine smile. "I'll be 18 soon. And I know so much because I'm the guardian of the miraculous."
"And you beat this 'Hawkmoth' by yourself?" Clark asked.
"Oh, no." She shook her head. "I had a partner who helped. He's retired now though."
"Was he older?" Lois asked.
"No. He's my age."
"So, a couple of teenagers took down a supervillain with magical jewelry?" Clark laughed. "You think I would have heard about this."
"No offence, but I'm sort of glad you didn't. Could you imagine what would have happened if you or anyone else slightly super-powered was angry or sad enough to get akumatized? I'm not sure I would have won that fight." Marinette shook her head at the thought.
"That makes sense." Lois nodded. "I'm happy that it all worked out in the end."
Clark was about to put his glasses back on when something caught his attention. "What is that?" He asks.
Marinette follows his line of sigh but he's only staring at the wall. "What are you talking about?"
"Wow!" Jon hops up and looks in the same direction as his father. "Are those fairies?"
"Oh." Damian shakes his head. "It's probably just Tikki, Plagg and Kaalki." He says to his girlfriend. "They have X-ray vision."
"Oh." Marinette giggles. "Come on in, guys!" She yells towards the direction they are looking.
It's only a few seconds later when the kwami's enter but when they do, it's Lois's turn to look at them in amazement.
"Are we being put on display again?" Plagg says a bit bored.
"Don't be rude, Plagg." Tikki smacks him on the back of the head.
Kaalki just ignores them and waves to the newcomers. "Hello. I'm Kaalki. This is Plagg and Tikki."
Plagg only nods and then sits on Damian's head as Tikki waves to the others and sits on Marinette's shoulder. Kaalki eventually finds herself a seat on Marinette's other shoulder.
"Cool." Jon looks down at the kwami's. "What are they?" He asks.
"We're kwami's." Tikki informs. "We are the magical creatures bound to the miraculous."
"I have so many questions." Jon said with excitement.
"Of course you do." Damian shook his head.
And Jon begins a rapid fire of questions about all things kwami.