What's a Planeteer? (Danny and Dabs)

PROLOGUE

5:00 AM. Freeway was empty. Perfect time for a perfectly normal cargo truck to be transporting perfectly normal cargo to a perfectly legal business destination. It was also perfectly normal for said truck to be trailed by two biker escorts, as well as a black sedan.

Of course, someone in the hero community with special information would likely tell someone else in the hero community about a special prize waiting inside the truck. Had to be, or else why would they have the infamous mercenary Red Tigress herself riding shotgun in the truck? One of the bike escorts as well was of a make unlike anything on the market. Fully enclosed, sleek and glowing all over. A custom machine, for a custom job.

"They're supposed to be coming by any minute." Danny sat on the overpass, keeping eyes on a convoy beginning to form a few miles down the way. "Are you ready?"

Tsukimi lifted the visor from her helmet and glanced over to Danny, giving a thumbs up. "Ready, mongoose."

Lights painted the road signs in an illuminated shade of green, bouncing off the top of Danny's helmet. A small hint of light lit up Danny's bracelet. The plan needed to take place now. "Suzy, no nicknames."

"My name isn't Suzy, Mongoose." The black visor hid Tsukimi's face as she walked to the back of the overpass.

"Get ready to jump." Turquoise bars lunged out of Danny's bracelet, creating a brace on the hidden side of the overpass. As the convoy approached the overpass, two turquoise claws reached down, grabbing the drivers from the motorcycles. It would give the two riders some broken ribs and a bad case of whiplash, but they would feel better after a few days. A turquoise brace would keep the bikes up as the vehicles moved under.

Tsukimi lifted a thumbs up signal as she jumped, landing on the motorcycle. She looked over, seeing Danny on the bike next to her. So far, so good. Time would tell how that pan out though.

The Red Tigress was a professional mercenary and killer, but she was not a morning person. She had dozed off in the driver's seat, and had to be forcibly awoken by the driver.

"...Tigress! Heroes just took out our bikes!" He said, shaking the mercenary awake. She instinctively slapped the hand away, looking around to see what was happening.

"Chto... what? What? what?! Ugh, stupid heroes." Being a good Russian merc, Tigress brings out an AK-103, which looked pretty much like an all-black, evil AK-47. She leans out the window and starts putting bullets at them, in short controlled bursts. CRACK. CRACK. CRACK.

Meanwhile, the large black sedan tries to flank the girls from the left, their passenger-side windows rolling down to reveal goons with more guns. These guys were more liberal with the spray and pray, using Uzis. RATATATATATATA.

All this was happening of course, on a high speed battle on the freeway.

= = = =

Some distance down the road, A little girl in tattered dress and wearing a pointy wizard hat was talking to herself, in different voices.

"...Walking to Wisconsin... is taking a lot longer... than I thought it would... WE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE BUS! ugh, but we don't have any moneeeey! WHO SAID ANYTHING ABOUT PAYING?!"

She picked up some vibrations in the ground and guessed a truck was coming through. She heads to the side of the road and raised a thumb to hitch hike. What she got instead was a fast paced, heart pounding high speed gun battle, between two bikes, a sedan and a truck. Like in the movies!

"Oh wow are they shooting a movie?!" Of course Dabbler would not miss out on the action, and poofed from the side of the road and onto the top of the cargo truck. "Whooaaaa! so faaaaast!" She said, alarmed at how difficult it really is. Thankfully she had four clawed demonic arms to hang on. She slowly moved forward to have a chat with the red headed lady.

It took Danny a moment to get a grip on the handle of her bike. About a moment as long as it took the convoy to realize the plan Danny and Tsukimi sprung into action. The sedan pulled up beside them, an ominous gesture with a fixed meaning. Tsukimi pulled up alongside the sedan, trying to hold her position as she took her hands off the grip. A goon fiddled with his weapon as the window began rolling down. His excitement got the best of him, as did the sole of Tsukimi's boot. Her propped her body against any rebuttal to attempt to push her from the vehicle.

The hail of bullets directed to Danny met a turquoise shield. Keeping her focus on the road and diverting a hail of bullets took more skill than Danny had at the moment, meaning she could only keep up with one of her current actions- and one felt a little safer than the other. A turquoise platform impacted into the side of the van, letting Danny safely tumble to the side without the need for her motorcycle anymore. "They don't teach that at cheer camp. At least not anymore."

Tsukimi continued to position herself in a spot within the sedan where she could grapple the weapon out of a goon's hands while continuing to wrap her legs around the steering wheel, keeping the vehicle compliant. She turned her head back as Danny's motorcycle crashed. No nerves passed through Tsukimi- the massive platform Danny constructed left nothing to be lost in translation. "I offer you surrender. It will be much safer for all of us if you merely drop your weapons and pull over."

The battle intensifies as the Sedan goons, with rich corinthian leather interior, and Armani wearing guards had to contend with Tsukumi. They all pull out pistols and knives, trying to stop her and regain control, as the vehicle starts swerving all over the road.

The Red Tigress teleported herself onto the top of the truck. "Interesting moves, hero! You'll die here though." Having the high ground she begins emptying her gun on Danny, at point blank range.


Dabbler watched from the back of the truck, watching Danny leap onto a magical platform. Clearly she was the action hero.
"WHOOOO! She applauded, her attention then diverted by the bike. She watched with anticipation for the explosion, but real bikes aren't made by Michael Bay.

Hey how come that bike didn't explode!?" She exclaimed, before using a Chaos Beam to make the destroyed bike explode, as they should. In the movies.

"REMEDIIIIEEED! Haha. Again! again! AGAIN! AGAIN!" She clapped incessantly, before noticing the Russian lady trying to kill Danny. She came to stand beside Tigress, who was met with predictable hostility.

"Another hero? Get off, no free rides." Thinking Dabbler was on Danny's side, Tigress casually pulls out her massive revolver and puts one in her gut. The gunshot connects, causing a large wound in Dabbler's abdomen.

Dabbler's expression turned to horror, as blood was quickly hemorrhaging from her. "...I was just... watching..." She falls over, one arm hanging over the edge. A glowing red pupil meets Danny's eyes, life seemingly leaving her.

Space became less and less of a privilege to Tsukimi as she fended off the goons from her passenger seat vantage. The first stab from a knife breezed by her synthetic jacket, allowing Tsukimi to grab the man's wrist. A great deal of force meant for Tsukimi flung itself into the dashboard, planting the knife deep in the leather. Her knee jarred up, to try and remove him from her vicinity. His last effort to gain control of the situation convinced him to wrap around Tsukimi's head, but a quick snap of her helmet allowed it to leave just as quickly as the man rolled into the backseat. Tsukimi unzipped her jacket and removed it quickly, revealing a synthetic purple shirt with very minor, largely untested, bullet stopping properties.

The quick moment of prowess fleeted from Tsukim's presence of mind as two pistols pointed directly at her from the backseat. "I want you to know, I am still willing to accept your surrender." Cogniscant of her predicament, Tsukimi lifted both of her arms into the air with the jacket in her right hand. Once a goon moved forward to try and restrain Tsukimi, she would take a bullet to the gut, trying out the properties of the shirt. Flipping the jacket, Tsukimi would aim wide to wrap around both guns, allowing her to disarm both adversaries while bringing their guns to a more secure location: outside the window. No air coursed out from Tsukimi's lungs as she called upon her strength to send out a comment of arrogant taunting- that bullet in her shirt really hurt.

Lucky for Danny, the assassin announced herself. A turquoise shield manifested on top of Danny, taking away from the platform underneath her. She needed to be careful in these next moments, less she find out the answer to the question: what is worse, falling from a vehicle at high speeds, or being shot- and then falling from a vehicle at high speeds.

The platform dissipated, only to resurface a foot in front of Danny a tenth of a second later. One by one, Danny pushed up the ever collapsing staircase with a turquoise shield on lifted over her head to deflect the shots. Bullets continued to riddle her shield as Danny took her step on the roof of the van. Propping her shield against such force began to drain on Danny's arm. If not for a slight reprieve, Danny would surely succumb to her mortality. Danny shot up as the bullets stopped, only to see a round from a revolver blast a woman on the other side of the van. Remembering her primary directive, Danny slid down and swept the leg of her opponent.

A few seconds would separate Danny from a ready to fight assassin- and she would need them. With a quick burst of speed, Danny flung herself to the edge of the van, grabbing Dabbler by the arm, trying to hoist her up to safety. Relative safety at least.

"GET HER!" Deprived of weaponry, the desperate Armani men in the sedan resort to fists and elbows to try to stop Tsukumi. A stray foot here and there would probably connect with the driver, causing the vehicle to careen into a cactus or something, triggering the airbags.

"AAAH!" Tigress was off her footing when she got leg swept, and fell off the top of the truck... only to materialize in a mist of red energy kneeling at the far end of the truck, safe. Out of rounds for her rifle, Tigress takes aim with her big revolver with the big bullets.

The danger of the situation didn't quite register with Danny's rescue victim. She makes grinning eye contact with Danny, with no concept of personal space. She was getting her blood and guts all over the hero.

"So where's the action hero in this scene? Is it Stallone? Van Damme? The Austrian dude? I've never heard of a female lead before. Are you a new actress? You're pretty attractive, but I feel the western market isn't ready for a female, non-caucasian lead. Where are the cameras though? Y'know this truck is due for an explosion. Be right back!" Dabbler poofed into the truck's compartment right beside the driver.

"...Oh god don't kill me. I'll stop the truck right now." The driver pleaded, shifting to neutral and steadily decelerating the truck, a much more sensible action compared to suddenly braking and potentially endangering them.

Sensible didn't sit well with Dabbler. "One I'm not god, two, I'm not gonna kill you, three, I have no third point." She explained to a relieved driver.  

"But I do need a replacement liver." So she went and took a third of the driver's liver, by hand. Apparently livers grow back. He was screaming in horrific pain and got off the decelerating truck. Dabbler gulped down the whole thing, and could feel her ruined one healing.

"Hnnn It's supposed to explode at high speed! Well this'll have to do."

An explosion rocked the at-rest truck, bringing the massive transporter to a stop. Over the burning metal a manic laughter could be heard, as Dabbler rejoined the 'action star', in a showdown with the evil Soviet villain. "When will you Soviets learn that America will never bow to communism!"

The capacity of the vehicle grew more cramped with every limb fighting for control of any semblance of room in the well interiored sedan. Their constant vying for control made its way into annexing wheel security away from the driver, sending the vehicle off road through the coastal southwest landscape. The first few bumps reminded Tsukimi of the danger of high speed chases, while the second told her of the dangers of high speed chases. Seeing a cactus on the horizon, Tsukimi quickly spun and fastened her seatbelt seconds before the collision deployed an airbag into her face.

Whether the gut shot from earlier finally caught up to her, or the impact from the airbag to the head rang her bell, Tsukimi waded her last seconds of consciousness in the embrace of the white airbag before she finally fell unconscious.

"If you don't think America is ready for an action star of that description you've never heard of Elaine Angara." Danny did not watch as Dabbler vanished. Dabbler just simply vanished. And her enemy reappeared.

The first revolver shot broke Danny's shield. Turquoise energy scrambled to fill the void before the next round came, but it met the same fate. Inches came under great scrutiny, and surrendered themselves under greater duress. "You're going to run out of bullets some time!" Danny continued to march towards the villain with little improvement in her stance.

Just as Danny felt her luck change, she also felt an explosion beneath her feet. The blast knocked her from the roof into the cargo area of the transport.

Why, yes Danny, the villain with the revolver would run out of bullets. Six large caliber shots later, the revolver was dry, and the Russian lady realized that the truck was immobilized. "Mission failure..." She thought to herself.

"You're out of bullets, but I've got alot of Fwoosh!" Dabbler threatened, but Tigress simply smirked and teleported out of the way of the chaos beams. A helicopter had conveniently appeared quite high up, and Tigress had pinpoint teleportation, accurately getting up there. "DAS VIDANYA AMERICAN HEROES!"

Dabbler gauged the helicopter's altitude and speed as it flew away, and realized Tigress was a Soviet Olympian in terms of  teleportation. She could not port that high or that accurately. Yet. "...Wow the Russians really are good at sports." Dabbler sighed. She supposed she should go see her newfound action hero friend down in the cargo.

The canvass roof had given way, so Dabbler rips it all up to let the sunrise shine through just in time. She got a good look at the contents of the truck.

Fortunately, Danny had fallen into a large chamber filled with sawdust and foam to make her landing humiliating but not back breaking. The reason for the cushioning was due to three very, very large crates inside, having moved around due to violent motion.

"...Oooh mystery boxes! What's inside them??"  Dabbler didn't bother helping Danny up, one of the first troubling signs of her villainous nature. Once Dabbler saw inside she let out a long whistle. "Whhhoooa Momma. Dem's a big eggs! Somebody wanted to make some really big omelettes!"

Indeed, the contents of the crates having come directly from South America were eggs. Very, very large eggs, like, just one was big enough to fit Danny, Dabbler and Tsukumi, but that would be a really uncomfortable fit despite being a fitting metaphor.

Falling into foam beat out several other situations Danny have found herself in. Rubbing her head, Danny noticed Dabbler looked far better than the previous state Danny left her in. "You look far better than you did a minute ago. Now, how did you just get rid of a bullet wound? Or, do I even want to-"

"What's in the crates?" Recovering from her car accident, Tsukimi strolled in with her helmet under her arm. "Eggs?"

"Eggs." Danny looked over to Tsukimi before turning back to Dabbler. "So just who or what are-"

"Danny, who is that?" Pulling the top off of a crate, Tsukimi brushed her hand against the egg. "I bet you could fit a person inside there."

"Suzy, this is-" Turning her attention to Dabbler, Danny tried to pull something impossible from her memory. "Wait, I didn't get an answer to that."

"Tell me when you get one." A knock echoed against Tsukimi's head as pressed her ear to the surface and began to test the nature of the egg.

"I'm Dabbler and if I'm not mistaken those are Roc eggs! Also I'm starting to think I'm not in a movie at all." Dabbler spoke in that cheerful and high pitched voice, taking a curtsy-bow, taking her witch hat off to do so. the sight of the giant eggs prove to be an interesting enough sight to keep Dabbler's attention for a few moments. It helped the shells had a smooth glossy finish.

She poofs up onto the egg Tsukumi was hugging, taking a listen. "OoooH they're pretty far along. Probably hatch in the next couple of weeks!Haha. Their momma and papas gonna be looking for em. I'd love to see what they'll do to whoever's holding them around! It's be all, 'squawk!' then rip and tear and rip some more! or fly em up real high then drop em! AHhahahaAHHAHAA!" Dabbler laughed like a little evil gremlin once she imagined what retribution the maternal beast would inflict on the transgressor.

For easier reference, the crates did indicate they came from South America. Perhaps the eggs' mother will be happy to see them again.

"What's a Roc?" Tsukimi moved over to the second egg, placing her head against the outer layer. "This one is rock hard."

"A roc is a bird." Danny held her hands away from each other to create a spatial dimension representing a gap. "A big one. Like, really big." The space between her hands moved, showing the distance anyone could see in front of her. "I don't know why one would be in South America, let along three. They come from the Middle East, but I guess they move around because-"

"They can fly. Birds fly." Tsukimi lifted her head and looked at Danny. "Little birds can fly over big bodies, so big birds can probably too."

"Well, Suzy that's a great deduction and use of your- are you okay?" The evil laughter of the little hand wringling warlock could not stay ignored by Danny and Tsukimi. "You're kinda going all- wait, why were you here in the first place again?"

"I'll get the duct tape." Lifting her bag flap, Tsukimi began digging through her goods.

"Hold on Suzy. Actually. Um-we'll keep it ready." Danny turned back to Dabbler. "So, who are you exactly?"

"Well it goes a little something like... I was thinking about getting some steak... and steak comes from cows... and I remember there's a lot of cows in Wisconsin... so I started walking... but Wisconsin is pretty far away so..." Dabbler started to explain, or at least ramble on.

Dabbler then goes off on a tangent. With a cheeky grin she makes eye contact with Danny, one of them eyes being all glowy and demonic. "Speaking of cows did you know they have more cows in Switzerland than people? They must have like a ton of milk and cheese and butter! I really like dairy especially ice cream but I think I'm lactose intolerant... I feel bloated around the tummy, y'know?"

"That's evil." Tsukimi extended a long strip of tape from the roll. "She's getting arrested."

"Woah, woah. We need something concrete otherwise it isn't 'arresting'. It's kidnapping." A gently waving of Danny's hand attempted to bring Tsukimi's sense of justice to a more balanced point between impulse and logic.

"She's speaking nonsensically and has evil eyes. If that isn't evil then I don't know what is." The roll of tape stayed taut in Tsukimi's hands. "And I know what evil is."

"Yeah, you know evil; your half sister is Bliss. You don't just arrest Bliss for doing shady stuff though, so we aren't arresting Cowgirl here." Danny stepped in between Dabbler and Tsukimi, aiding her mental defense with a physical one. "And, if that doesn't work, I'll just make you put the tape down with my bracelet. How about that?"

"Shady. Very shady. I'm keeping my eyes on her. And these eggs."

"Yeah, um- hey, how do we move these eggs? I'm pretty sure those guys we stopped are going to come back for them. They were loaded and had a Russian." Danny tapped on one of the eggs. "I'm guessing we can't mail them, so do we take them to a lab?"

"OoooH! Kidnapping? What a twist to the story! The good guys kidnapping!" It seemed the idea amused Dabbler more than anything else. However Danny seemed to object. Dabbler did not pay attention to the eggs yet.

"Well, you can't kidnap me... If I KIDNAP YOU FIRST! HAHAHAHAHAH!" Dabbler poofs onto Tsukumi's back and started putting her witch hat on her head, using her superior number of arms to try to hold her steady, but taking a few moments to realize she had not yet unlocked its power as a storage bin. "Won't fit... your... big...HEAD!"