Nothing to Cheer About (Diana)

When Diana saw Kovah go for her coat, she thought Kovah had a weapon. No, instead, it was the flower that fired foam. Diana was embarrassingly caught, having tried to deflect the attack with her staff. Except sticky foam was not a laser beam.

Diana struggled, but she wasn't Dragon Girl so the foam held fast. Kovah taunted her, making this setback become a major embarassment. "...Sorry, I don't take contracts anymore. Hurting you though, will be personal." she retorted in spite.

"Ugh, get me out here! DAAANNYYYY!" Diana shouted, hoping Danny could at least give her mobility first. At least, if she could get her shuriken dispenser arm free, she'd use an explody shuriken.

The deep, piercing laugh of Kovah always found a way to bury itself deep inside of its victim's mind. "I guess this sword is mine. You know, finders keepers." Kovah ran the blade over Diana's shoulder. "I don't get what's so good about it. It's not a bomb. I've got plenty of those, and since you don't want to join my team and you ruined my whole day, I guess we'll just trade swords for bombs."

"Not a chance." Danny emerged on the catwalk sporting a turquoise blade out of her bracelet. "We stopped you already today. There's no reason to keep this up."

A smile grew over Kovah's face. She looked at Diana, keeping her elbow on the incapacitated swordless swordmaster's shoulder. "Well, aren't you just full of something. And, I don't think it's team spirit."

"You have no idea." The events of the day would forever soil Danny's already poor opinion of southern California, but she would not let the clown win the day. Grabbing the blade with both hands, Danny swung out to attempt to strike at the clown, and at worse, free Diana.

But, when Danny brought her arm down, the blade no longer existed.

"Looking for this?" Kovah spun Danny's bracelet around her finger. "You wanna try that again, but without this?"

"Suzy's still out there. She threw your plan away once, and she'll-"

"She's tied up in the back." Kovah pocketed the bracelet and slid the sword into her overcoat. "How about that rematch?"

"Well, you see-" For the first time in her life, a bullet came for Danny and she wanted to thank the gunman. Instead of impacting in Danny's chest, it instead hit a nearby pipe, shooting the gas towards Kovah. Seeing her only time to get out, Danny grabbed Diana and threw her over her shoulder. "You're heavier than I thought. Or, maybe that's the foam. Don't worry, I'll get you out."

Once Danny cleared the warehouse floor, she dropped Diana to the ground, hoping to shake enough impact to spring Diana free. Probably not the greatest idea, but Danny only ran on bad ideas when her bracelet disappeared. "You go find Suzy. I'll, actually, nevermind. We'll both go find Suzy."

"You can't handle my sword. It'll drive you insane!" Diana warned Kovah, though the sentiment sounded empty when she said it out loud. "More insane anyway."

Diana could only sit and watch helplessly as Danny and Kovah duked it out verbally, then physically. Except Kovah somehow relieved Danny of her special McGuffin too. At a great disadvantage, and few options left, Danny decided to run away with her.

"Wait what? no, what about my sword!" Diana was not really in much of a position to protest Kovah's thieving, or hauled off, still trapped in insta-foam.

As Diana watched helplessly as her sword left her again, her stomach began to twist like a knot. She may have saved lives, but she had lost this fight at a cost. Defeat? The word, or rather the concept rang in Diana's ears. Their escape passed in a quiet blur, and Diana only came to her senses once more when She was liberated from her foam by being tossed to the ground like a cheap vase.

"...Ugh. So this Kovah has my Katana now... I-I- I'm going to need some serious eskrima sticks... need to... need to be smarter... it's the only style I'd fight someone with a samurai sword...and... and... Suzy... Yeah, Suzy..." Diana ranted as she got up, muttering to Danny as the thought of losing her weapon seemed more important than their survival, as Diana only seemed to hear half of what Danny said, and followed her lead. The swordless swordsman was down to her last two shuriken, and drew a back-up knife as they went to find their friend.

The bracelet was not a McGuffin. It was a character point. It did nothing to drive the plot forward. The bombs were McGuffins. Very dangerous McGuffins. And, Danny knew it.

"I didn't hear any major explosives, so the primary goal is still working for us. I'm not sure where Kovah is heading to, but-" A bullet ran past Danny's head. More of these clowns kept the pressure up, but they refused to advance. "They're corralling us. You would almost think they don't want us to follow them. I know what I'm doing."

Firing while retreating always made a follow more interesting. "I'm going to get in contact with the first person in authority I can speak with, then we can- damn! She has my bracelet!" Her job greatly changed in what she could do when she could not do anything on the superpowered spectrum. Even her martial arts lacked any real substance since her bracelet always covered most of her deficiencies.

Since Diana would not be able to teach Danny martial arts in ten seconds, Danny would be on her own skillset from here on out. "I got a power you don't, so I'll lead with it. Find Suzy, and make sure Kovah can't blow anything up remotely."

The last bullet impacted against the back wall. No more clowns in the vicinity. They would not create ruckus around here, but it did limit how much justice Danny could bring to them. The distinct lack of bullet fire made Danny's withdrawal from the building less complicated, but the potential bomb threat made the outside of the warehouse far more complicated.

Mass hysteria would be expected, but something about the calamity did not sit well with Danny. Instead of running from the stadium, fans found themselves transfixed around buildings between the stadium and warehouse. Danny pushed herself between and man in a Penn State sweatshirt and a woman sporting Trojan crimson and white. As the crowd thinned out, Danny caught a brief look between the gap to notice fans packing the same motherboards into the crevices throughout the blocks. "Does she ever just stop?"

While the bombs continued to be recycled by Kovah's never ending recruitment of everyday fans through a mysterious matter of means, the technician Tsukimi knocked out began to wake up. The sabotage Tsukimi inflicted on Kovah's systems shut down the bombs, rendering the action playing out with Kovah's new recruits benign. Unless the sabotage were corrected.

The technician rubbed her forehead, smearing some of the white makeup above her brow. "I don't get enough candy for this." She stumbled over to the console. Her her foot failed to leave the ground halfway there, sending her stomach into the edge of a table. A muffled sigh of pain came from down around her feet. A small laugh came from the technician as she looked down to see Tsukimi still tied up and gagged. "I guess you're having a worse day than me, but I think it might be getting worse once I get in here and fix what you broke."

Diana kept her head behind a chest-high obstacle like the crate, splinters as they reassessed. The goons were shooting but they didn't move in to finish them off. Cowards.

The bloody minded warrior's urge to go against blazing guns was no longer an option when the clowns retreated, likely to support Kovah's escape.

Before they parted ways, Diana offered her knife to Danny. " you should take this knife, Danny. Maybe scare people away with it."

The ninja was on the roof in a small amount of time, able to scale the wall with minimal handholds. Diana was barely slowed down and started searching, peeking down skylights and hanging off the edge of the roof to see through windows, until she finally found the Suzy.

She opens the window and drops in quietly, unarmed, though a swordless Diana was hardly impotent. She found Suzy bound and gagged, and someone who wasn't. Diana immediately identified them as some she could take out some frustration on.

She doesn't bother with the warning. She goes to town on the technician with a kick to the knees and swiftly seizing them in a rear naked choke. Diana waited until they stopped struggling, though not considering if they shared Kovah's fortitude. Tsukumi would be free... once the Technician passed out.

A few keystrokes stood between the technicians and an inferno of shrapnel and damnation. Every push of a button brought more of a curve to the corner of her lips and a shifting of the tape over Tsukimi's mouth. "You know, I never got your name. You just waltzed in here and cheap shot the first person you see. You really got what you deserve." Before getting to work on undoing the good work Tsukimi did, the technician first took time to tie Tsukimi to a chair, so the cheerleader could watch as her work unraveled. "Once I'm done with this, you and me will take some time to play before Kovah ruins you forever. And, I do mean ruins and forever." A laugh creaked out from her throat, echoing through the jagged ends of her lips.

Tsukimi's eyes grew wild at the sight of a newcomer to the room. Her anticipation grew more hopeful with the wrapping of Diana's arm around the clown's throat. Instincts coursed with adrenaline to push Tsukimi to help, but she stayed firmly in her chair. Everything looked good. At first. Then, it became contested.

Not feeling welcome by the grasp around her throat, the technician rose to her feet and pushed herself back, trying to push Diana against the wall. Once she got into a better position, she would try to leverage her weight to bang Diana's head against the wall, trying to free herself from the impending unconsciousness.

On the outside, Danny located three of the motherboards and placed them in her backpack. "Really hope you pulled through Suzy." Armed with the knife the ever resourceful Diana gave her, Danny now hoped to find a way of catching Kovah off guard. Wherever she might be. Whatever trick she may try to pull. Whatever game she may try to play, Danny needed to be absolutely ready.

Even if a trap looked you dead in the face. "Too easy." A van dipped in acid trip purple and green slowly crawled down the street. Danny ducked and looked around. No way would she let some goon just sneak up and grab her. She wanted to find these motherboards, not hand them over to Kovah- or get strapped with them again. "If I were Diana, I would fight the van. I'm not Diana, so I need to be smarter. Hmm?"

Diana was not wholly surprised by the resistance, and it seemed she'd have to work to put this goon down. Without anyone else to interfere, Diana's Jiujitsu allowed her to roll with and use the technician's movements against her, smart positioning and economical effort in the form of a tug of the clothes would lead the clown to hit her own head against the wall.

"...Can't choke her, gotta break something." The thought occurred to Diana, just as her legs quickly went up and over and around the technician's neck, a quick clean armbar plus sneaker to her face. With this leverage, Diana pulled as far as she could to break, no, completely remove the goon's arm from its socket. "Give up or I keep breaking bones!" She warned the clown.

"Aww!" The clown cried out as she felt her face plant into the table in front of her. "You win! You win!" The separation of her shoulder began to separate her composure from her willingness to not pass out. "Kovah! Kovah needs to create chaos! The more chaos she spreads, the stronger she makes her-"

And without a care in the world, the clown passed out. Her head rolled on the table after the loud thud pressed itself against the grain. "Something, something. Evil. Evil." The clown muttered as her lips parsed just enough to give out her unconscious secrets. "You get a car! And you get a car! Everyone gets a car!" Not everything she muttered had significance.

A thud came from the corner of the table. Tsukimi lifted the chair and scooted her way towards Diana. One step at a time until Diana would finally take care of her predicament. Today lasted too long and took too many unexpected blows to her pride for her to think Danny would let her live it down. But, it did raise the question: Where was Danny? "Hmm?"

"Ugh, I hate crazy clowns." Diana simply muttered, giving the now passed out goon a final humiliation kick to the head.

Even the humble shuriken Diana carried had a sharpened edge, useful in cutting through restraints quickly. Suzy was free in no time, her brains to supplement Diana scrawny brawns. "The ringmaster took my sword." She said with a huff, complaining to Suzy a moment but not really blaming her. "So, what did you learn about these bombs? Are we sure they're not gonna go off?" Once all's well Diana would lead them back to where Danny was and they could do a fusion dance to beat all remaining resistance.

Once the shuriken cut through Tsukimi's ropes, she quickly reached up to take the tape off of her mouth. "The bombs are set off by a main server. I took this one down, but it is possible they could attempt to build another." The reason to look for Danny did not need any more explanation from Diana. Tsukimi however, did not know about the loss of Danny's bracelet. If she knew a little more of that detail, Tsukimi would probably move a little faster to get Danny some back up.

The mass calamity made finding Danny easy. Nothing out of the ordinary, no dead Danny, or taped up with a bomb, not even being menaced by Kovah Danny. Just the Danny without any superpowers wondering how she could manage to get everyone safe. No one really pays as much attention when giant constructs telling people to stop did not magically appear, and the authority a cheerleader possessed might cause a group of people to give her an 'S', but it did not extend to getting them to stop running.

Needless to say, Danny needed to take her powers to where she could apply a little bit of good to a realm of chaos. Well. she did have a knife.

The urgency of their situation necessitated Diana demonstrate her ability to full sprint for long periods, putting that fitness to use. And anyone who bothered to stop her got a flying knee.

Diana links up with Danny, one of the few people who was not fleeing the area in panic, and also because Diana could track by her specific scent. No homo. Having sprinted the whole way she was breathing deeply and quickly. "...I found Suzy. Now let's go get the bad guys."

Tsukimi trailed just behind Diana as they made their way towards Danny. Just how Diana knew just where her partner would be still evaded Tsukimi, but the two of them probably worked something out in the case of emergency. Nothing weird at all. The storefront looked cleared out, some how in the wake of evacuation, people found some time to do a little looting.

"Diana, I found Kovah, but I'm pretty sure she's loaded up for a fight." The small knife in Danny's position remained in her hand. "I'm not sure this will do enough for us to take her down."

"Have they tried to reset the bombs?" Tsukimi noticed one of the motherboards in a display window.

"I'm pretty sure it's on their list of things to do." A few more of the boards were tucked away behind the counter. "But, if they get it back working, the blast will most likely only impact a few bombs and not all of them."

"What are you basing that off?" Tsukimi took the motherboard down and unscrewed the plate on the back.

"Science?" High school science, probably not the most reliable when dealing with robotics.

"This one is done." Tsukimi dropped the motherboard to the ground after dismantling the primary ignition. "Let me get the others."

"We need to find the factory that made these. I doubt anyone would build these with an ignition switch primed to explode. I mean, I'm pretty sure that violates an EPA regulation or something."

Diana looked at their options. Two shurikens, and a knife. Danny had Kovah's whereabouts, but the swordsman was not keen on an unfair fight. "You found her? good." Diana paused. She looked around for something to use. Anything. The people took almost everything, except a fire extinguisher. Big blunt weapon. good enough.

"...Where is she now? Did you find anything else out?" She asked.

Dian thought about the options on hand. A part of her wished to wreak DARK VENGEANCE on the woman who took her sword, but she had to get a grip on that temper and think. Diana decides to open her mouth to let out her train of thought. "We don't have to win, we should just make sure they lose..." Diana turned to Suzy and hands her her mobile. "Here, I've got a strong internet connection and a ton of voice activated apps, maybe more useful to you. We'll buy you time and distract Kovah. Avoid any of her goons and get to the factory. Steal a car if you have to."

"I'm actually okay with us winning." The knife in Danny's hand did very little other than look a little menacing, but it would come in handy should the occasion arise. And, the occasion did look like it began to climb the horizon. "Let's take out her factory- oh, yeah, we'll be the distractions. That works."

"Got it." Tsukimi knew her part of the plan, but not the precise details pertaining to it. "I'll just make the plan up as I go. Usually works, but today it's been a little rough, so I'll let you know what's going on."

Using an app on the phone, Tsukimi zeroed in on a car with the door unlocked and the keys in the ignition. It happened to be a police cruiser, but they could always apologize later for taking it. Tsukimi slid in and placed her hands on the wheel. "Let's turn on the siren." A number of buttons, switches, and computers lined the interior of the cruiser, but none said what they did, meaning Tsukimi had no choice but to test every button until she finally hit the right switch. "Go time."

On the other front, Danny tried to fit in with the crowd as she approached the van holding the numerous goons. Holding the knife with both hands, Danny plunged it into the front tire of the van. A little air began to escape, but not much else. "Just takes a little-"

"Hey! What are you doing!" A gruff voice challenged from behind Danny. "Oh, cutting our tires huh?"

A tattooed woman placed a bag over Danny's head from behind, pulling the drawstrings to close it. "Maybe we should poke holes in your legs too."