House Tamamoa (Tarantula Hawk)

Taking a week off from school would help Danny out a lot. Of course the school aspect she hated most typically involved monsters, or robots attempting to subvert the school's computer to release a deadly virus from the labs, or a half crazed clown trying to go full crazy and blow up the school with balloons, but just getting away from the Stanford campus would be a nice change.

Danny rolled down the half mile drive way towards her parent's regal estate. It looked as empty as ever. With Danny coming home for summer break, she called ahead and told the groundskeepers and house staff to take the week off, gifting Danny with the entire mansion to herself for a few days. She could clean up after herself for a few days. She did it with villains all the time and luckily, no villains ever paid her a visit at her home.

Stepping out of her camaro in a pair of short jean shorts and her Stanford Cheerleading jacket, Danny walked through the garage and into the spacious entry way. She hit the lights, illuminating the room under the glow of the chandelier. From the circular entry way, a direct opening to a large living room full of bookshelves and circular couches all centering a table with a globe in the middle. The massive kitchen and its ten burner stoves sat to the side, along with a dining room capable of hosting the entire archaeology department from Berkeley. The stairs led to the upper bedrooms and the other assorted workout rooms and studies.

For now, Danny just wanted to go check out what her parents found in their adventures. Walking over to the globe in the center of the room, Danny took off her locket and pressed it into the indentation of the Tamamoa family crest on top of the globe. The table moved away and a staircase emerged, letting Danny descend past the wine cellar and into the Tamamoa family vault.

Artifacts, armors, arts, pottery, jewelry, and weapons all adorned several display cases situated throughout the room. Most of them failed to catch Danny's eye from the past times she saw them, but something new in the back wanted to speak with her. "You!" The voice in her bracelet called out as she approached the swords. "These swords are cursed! Destroy them!"

Danny lifted the bracelet closer to her mouth. "Yeah, I'm not even supposed to touch things without gloves. I don't think destroying things will go over too well."

"The family that abandoned you knows nothing of this evil!"

"Well damn bracelet, tell me how you really feel." Faced with a problem she knew she could not ignore, Danny decided to remove herself from the vault. Once the spirit of the antiquity could not activate her bracelet anymore, at least Danny could get some quiet. She locked the vault behind her and put the locket back around her neck, sealing the access to the vault tightly.

Danny went upstairs to her own living room and plopped down in front of the computer. "Time to find out what those swords are logged as and where they came from."

As Danny opened the garage doors, she hears a buzzing which she could take as being a fly or bee. She could handle it if she wanted to deal with it. The buzzing insect would hover through the halls, following Danny as she moves throughout the house. It would follow her down into the vault room. She might start to get annoyed at this point with the mosquito probably trying to obtain her blood.

As soon as she exits and walks back up the stairway, talking to her bracelet about something, the supposed insect would immediately return back to its original size. Tarantula Hawk would press a button, folding his helmet back into the suit.

"It's go time."

He would start looking through the relics, being told about the cursed swords by a certain house owner. He opens a tungsten case, about the length of a duffle bag. His extra pair of arms would begin grabbing onto relics of all shapes and sizes. Anything that could fit. It was about the length of a duffle bag but as thing as a normal briefcase. He'd lay some blades in the case along with any loose gold, or jewlery.

Suddenly, he hears the entrance close behind him.

"That complicates things."

He would eventually have filled the case, reactivating his helmet. He climbs up the staircase and bangs on the door. The girl can't hurt him, obviously. Might as well just walk out. He could cut his way through, but that would just be a waste of time.

Danny retreated to the solace of her room. Just a few keystrokes and she pulled up a speadsheet listing all of the notable additions to the Tamamoa vault over the past year. No swords. Two years back. No swords. Going to three years brought up no swords. "How long ago did mom and dad get some of that stuff? You know what, this might help." Danny used the magic of control-F, filling the entry list with 'swords'.

No swords.

She poked her bracelet. "Hey."

No voice.

"Hey. You want me to destroy those swords right?"

No voice.

"Well, I guess I'm just going to-"

A not so gentle rapping sounded against the vault door. "Did those swords come to life?!" Danny made a sword of her own, stood up, then began to walk down the hall. Can demon swords go through doors? She moved past the family portraits, put together with photoshop. Do demon swords talk? Or do they just cut things up and drive people crazy? She stood at the entrance to the stairs leading down.

One step at a time. Slowly and with careful precision. She entered the code to the vault. Summoned a turquoise shield and opened the door.

"Woah there, little lady. Is it just me or are all those human ashes pretty gnarly on the nostrils? Man that stuff is rank, am I right? If you could just put down the glass dinner plate and just go back to your mommy and daddy it would make me so very happy. I won't hurt you if you do."

His energy cannon would shift into his hands within a second of him commanding it with his mind. He shrinks down into his Tarantula Hawk size and starts flying around Danny, heading to the wine cellar. You notice the extra arms on his back right before he transforms, one of them holding a large case, probably filled with your valuables, since he was in the vault. He buzzes off with them.

"You're less demon and more cynic. I don't know if I like that balance?" An unexpected arrival did nothing to reduce the size of Danny's shield, nor did his demeanor of 'I won't hurt you'. "The shield stays. Obvious reasons. I'm guessing you stole something while you were- demon swords!" Danny lunged forward to try and knock Tarantula Hawk back, missing her target.

"Did he just disa- no. Just a little guy with a big problem." Swatting a fly would be tough, but keeping one in the stair duct could be managed easily. A turquoise barrier would summon up at the top of the stairs, shutting the exit from the stairs to Tarantula Hawk, keeping him trapped down with Danny. "I don't know what you want those swords for- and I don't even want to know what it is they do, but you're putting them back right now."

The sword and shield faded away from Danny. In its place came a repeating crossbow on her forearm. "I'm going to count to ten. One..."

Tarantula Hawk would revert himself back to a human size. He turns around down the stairs duct. His energy cannon is raised toward her, charged and ready.

"You're on of those super people. God damnit."

He fires the energy cannon down into the stairwell duct. As she likely uses her shield to block it, she would experience insane knock back from the cannon. If she doesn't block in time, the sting would be extremely painful and have immense knockback. Almost paralysis inducing amounts of pain. The shoulder mounted blasters would turn around behind him and start firing at the hardlight until it shatters. They're definitely lethal as the shots seem to cause splash damage along the surface of the shield, damaging the walls as well unless they were durable enough to withstand it.

"Just give up and I won't make you into a pile of goop. I don't want to kill you, but I will definitely make you hurt."

He would command one of his blasters around on his shoulder, facing his front, lacing his 12:00 with rounds.

Part of her plan worked. She trapped Harry, but of course it still remained to be seen whom was actually trapped. Danny could conjure her weapons and armor. Harry could conjure a laser. Point Harry.

A desire to live overtook her desire to put an arrow bolt in Tarantula Hawk. It came just in time to block the release of energy from going through Danny, but where as the shield kept the energy out of her, it did not ground her. And back she went. Moving some of the unruly energy around, Danny vaulted into a somersault to keep some of the force from throwing her completely off track. Her landing put her back facing Harry.

She levied her shield back to her shoulder, formed a ballista behind her, and took the brunt of the attacks. The pings slowly pinched at her forearm, bruising the skin and leaving the muscle sore and constrained. But, still she stood. "How about you give me back everything you took, leave my house, and we forget about all of this?" Danny tumbled to the side of the narrow hall, slamming into the wall and stumbling to her hip.

The ballista she left in her stead fired a massive bolt towards Harry with a solid head to attempt to incapacitate her foe.

The walls all looked singed and beaten by the array of energy shooting the room. The vault remained unscathed, but the nice walling and paint decorating the entry could hold no more of the beauty it once did. Danny would need to get some decoration schemes in order for sure. "I'm glad not a lot of people come down here very often."

"Sorry, kid, but that ain't how this whole thing works."

Harry would keep firing his blasters as a heavy ballista bolt comes his way. His eyes would widen under the helmet as the bolt moves closer and closer. His brain sends signals into the armor, activating the shrink system as the bolt begins to scratched the surface of the armor he donned. TH shrunk down to his wasp size, landing on the moving ballista's head while also being forced to temporarily cease fire. He holds on for dear life as it prepares to slam into the hardlight wall behind himself. At the last second, Hawk leaps off the ballista like a squeezed spring, landing back onto the ground.

It looked truly amazing from his perspective, but from Danny's it was like a bug just bounced off the bolt. He returns back to his original size, his head darting between the hardlight wall that he had almost been flattened by and Danny who had fired the bolt.

"First of all, oww, don't put more strain on my back. Second of all, die."

His blasters on his shoulders resume their barrage on Danny, trying to get her to yield.

"Give in or I'll leave you with a lot more than some flesh wounds."

Danny rolled forward on her shoulder, forming a shield in anticipation of the disoriented bug's landing position. Once he came back to the form of a man, Danny would aim the shield to slam hard against his face. "I'm going to keep on living it up." She would turn to toss a kick into Harry's abdomen as his blasters came back on line.

Danny retreated back behind her shield. It grew in size and magnitude, covering her body, but those blasters remained consistent. Each bolt continued to wear and chip away at her power, only to be replaced by another layer of turquoise barrier. "I've taken more than flesh wounds from fights before. You don't survive this long in cheerleading without knowing how to take insults."

Each step took her closer to Harry, but the intensity of his blasters continued to harass and wane on her. The closeness intensified the strength of the blasts, breaking Danny's strength to hold up the shield. She broke off her attack, tumbling to the right and throwing a disc at Harry's head to try and disorient his shot. A turquoise box appeared in front of Danny's tumble, but a few blast shots managed to nick Danny's arm and leg, causing an intense stinging pain to leave her leg numb. "You ready to give up?"

Tarantula Hawk stumbles back from having the Shield's rim brought down onto his helmet. The blasters would come have come on line as he is kicked in the stomach back into the hardlight barrier behind himself. His eince turns into a sneer as the blasters rip away at the shield, but alas, the girl still presses on toward him.

"You won't win this. I can assure you that."

Front and center, he sees a turquoise disc flying right at him. He crouches low, letting the disc impact the barrier behind himself. As she tumbles off to the side, he activates his thrusters, and uses a powered tackle to take her down. As all of this is going on, he would keep lacing her with blaster shots from his shoulders.

"If you don't surrender, things won't be too pretty for you. You won't come out on top this time, hero."

A little breathing room would do wonders for her. Just a moment to catch her breath and think to herself 'why do I always get into these situations?'. That moment lasted a split second before she heard the hint of a jet warm up. "Oh shoot." Her natural go to in this situation always had been 'summon spike. Let the monster impale itself trying to run her through'. Unfortunately, no monsters or demons or otherwordly entities made strides to close the gap against her though. Just a man.

He was a villain. Stealing from her. And shooting her with blasters, but summoning a spike for him to impale himself on would not sit well with her conscience. It did not follow the code. And Danny lived by the code.

She still needed to survive this thing. Something those blasters would not see to if left intact. She calculated the impact point, and the whereabouts of the blasters on his suit. Spikes would shoot out from around Danny, hidden by the turquoise box. Once Tarantula Hawk would make impact with Danny in his tackle, the force of his charge would come into direct contact with her spikes with enough force to dislodge them from the suit.

While her gambit played out, Danny would take the brunt of the tackle, landing against the wall with Harry grasping her. His shoulder caught her in the sternum, knocking the air out of her lungs.

At such high speeds, Harry didn't even know that his blasters were sheared off by the lady. He realized it when they stopped firing seconds after he felt a bump on his shoulders.

"Do you know how much that will cost to replace?"

As she is knocked to the ground and out of breath, he remembers the girl talking to her bracelet earlier when he was tailing her. He grasps her forearm and attempts to remove the bracelet from her wrist.

"I hope whoever's on your comms doesn't send backup. It will be quite painful for them."

He uses a move he learned while behind bars on Danny. While she's down, he balls his hand into a fist and does a calculating punch into her Celiac plexus, a move that stuns and induces pain in the individual but is nowhere near fatal. If she takes the strike to the solar plexus, it may cause her to temporarily lose her ability to exhale. He rises up from where she lies and would walk back to where the barrier has hopefully disappeared. All of this is what could potentially happen if she were to be stunned long enough for the bracelet removal.

All the force shooting into Danny left her shaken, but not broken. A minor set back, but one she could overcome. A flick of her eyelashes tried to refocus herself on the danger at hand. A turquoise bar formed up behind Harry's head. While he kept Danny pinned, she planned on lulling him into a false security before delivering a blow to the back of his HUD. "Is that what you're stealing for? Gotta replace more things on your suit?"

All she needed to do was channel a grappler, take control of the guard, and put this guy on the ground. Her slamming of him against the bar would do the rest of the damage to finish this fight.

Her plan fell apart just as quickly as the bar when he pulled the bracelet from her wrist. "Hey! Woah! You don't know what that thing is!"

Danny looked up, grabbing for her bracelet. She did not manage to defend herself against the blow from Harry. It sent her to the ground unconscious.

Tarantula Hawk has finally subdued his enemy. Triumphant, he rises and let's out a deep breath. With the hardlight barrier now deactivated, he would exit and start walking around the house, nabbing more valuables. He looked down at the bracelet he snatched.

"Not bad. This will be worth something on the black market."

Harry would first make the decision to keep his enemy subdued. He goes through the house and finds some duct tape. Very convenient. Duct tape solves everything. Even securing childrens' hands behind their backs. Tarantula Hawk brings her down into the vault area and binds her hands and feet. He slaps a good amount of tape on her mouth to prevent the mouthy girl from talking.

"Good work, Harry. Now just get going. But then again, I can't just leave her to bleed in the basement. I'll have her not bleed in the basement."

Tarantula Hawk would find a first aid kit in a bathroom after searching through the estate. He bandages her wounds while still keeping her bound. Harry looks to the locker she had used to open the vault. He rips it from her neck, sliding it beneath the armor's surface like he did with the bracelet.

He sits there, across from Danny, looking at her unconscious and unmoving. She at least deserves an apology before he makes off with her stuff. She might be a super powered kid, but she's still a kid. He waits for her to wake up for a bit but then gives her a few smacks to hopefully do the job.

Falling asleep in battle never helped anyone. Most of the time terrible things happened. Like waking up with your hands and legs bound with an absurd amount of tape. Then, after trying to talk, you find out someone decided 'no', that's not going to happen with a more absurd amount of tape. Danny looks down to her legs. That tape is over bareskin. That is going to hurt coming off. Her inner monologue sounded nothing like that coming through a long strip of several pieces of tape though.

It also makes it hard to warn people of ambushes.

"Danny?" A voice carried through the first floor of the mansion. "Where are you? Are you down in the vault?"

Danny squirmed. Hard. But could not manage to force her bindings or let out a scream for help. Instead, she just watched as Tsukimi Sanada, her partner through most adventures walked blindly down the stairs in a pair of yoga pants and a Girl Alive! T-shirt.

"Danny, are you in- woah!" Tsukimi stopped dead in her tracks upon seeing Danny. "This is one of those nights your Instagram isn't going to be going off I guess."

A hushed dismay came from Danny.

"You told me to come over! Not come over a crazy guy is breaking in!" Tsukimi began to survey the room.