But, If You're Here, Then Who's That? (AndI)

The last few days felt longer and more contrived than most, but the sun still rose and set at the same hour of the day. "Must be the nights making everything longer. No way is the clock telling me the truth." The day came too early. "Maybe the night isn't too long. I would have gotten more sleep if that were the case..."

Once out of bed, Danny went through her morning routine, got dressed in a pleated black skirt with brown tights underneath with a green sweater and a pair of black boots. She tied her hair back before snapping her bracelet into place. "I guess I can actually study today. I don't think I've sat down and actually studied or written a paper in like a month. I'm glad most of my stuff is capstone otherwise-" Danny almost dropped the cup in her hand.

A breaking news report began to flash on the screen of her phone. "I didn't do- what?! That's still happening?" Danny began to run out of the shop, breezing past any morning acknowledgements of anyone working.

Summer looked up from her phone. "Danny, stop destroying that powerplant."

"Shut up, Summer! That isn't- oh, idea." Danny hit the door with her shoulder and rolled on, taking her phone out. She quickly went to Instagram live and began a stream. "Hey all. I know what you're thinking, 'Why is Danny destroying that powerplant', well, I have an explanation- taxi!- well, as you can see, I am in front of my shop, waiting for a taxi to go deal with this problem- a problem that is currently happening." Danny opened the door and moved into the back of the cab. "Powerplant. Outside of town. Thanks. Well, That problem is coming from someone pretending to be me and mimicking my powers, so I'm going to stop them and make sure no one else gets hurt. Stay awesome!"

Danny slid her phone back into her bag and waited to get to the powerplant.

The suspense was killing her. And, she wanted to be killing whomever took her guise, but maybe a cool head would prevail- after a beatdown of course.

Andi stood shorter than usual, more feminine that usual, and somewhat uncomfortable if an Android can feel that type of stuff. Seconds after his creation, he had developed thousands of possible plans to get back at metahumans and humanity in general. This was near the bottom of the list.

The Danny Lookalike moved their arms about, turquoise spires of nanomachines shooting through the large machinery. There were explosions rumbling the city and helicopters hovering above, getting the scoop on the female ripping the city's power supply to scraps. Up close, it was obviously a fake with the skin being too... Artificial. The texture was just all wrong. But nobody was willing to get close to the psycho ripping through construction materials like paper. Also the explosions.

Suddenly, a large spire would shoot out from the ground into a helicopter causing a large blast. With an effortless wave of the hand, another generator would be wiped out. Just a few to go. Ooh, finally some national news coverage. This was quite exhilarating.

The brakes came to a stop a few blocks from source of calamity. Not Danny's choice, but the cab refused to go any further- even for double pay! Instead, the cab double timed out of there and headed for safety.

While explosions rung out and destruction reigned, a spire began to burst forth from the ground. Its trajectory made for a severe shot at a circling helicopter, a casualty Danny could save. A turquoise barrier would prevent the sharp impalement of the helicopter, but the helicopter would still lose flight. More of the turquoise barrier would turn into a downward slide, bringing the helicopter down to the ground in a way safer than a freefall, but not quite a fully safe ejection.

Danny turned back to see people vacating the helicopter while the rest of the civilians began to flee the scene. Unfortunately, the creation of the slide and the maintenance of the barriers to defend the retreating civilians left Danny out of resources. No shields or weapons until the safety of the innocents could evacuate.

Andi on the other hand was using every nanomachine he could find in the city. Before he betrayed the government, they had already begun shipping them out for construction throughout New York. It could've been great for them. Automatic repair after the daily attacks occurring there. But Andi wanted to do the opposite. He'd tear it down. He'd tear it all down...

And that's what he proceeded to do until something stopped one of his spires. Danny. Meddling as always. She wasn't a threat, but a nuisance. Many 'villajns' had tried and failed to end her miserable little life. But Andi wasn't going to. Whether it took 1 month or 1 thousand years. He would at least slay her. Andi soon realized that he had developed negative feelings for this insect. She'd gotten him to show feeling! She'd pay for that too.

Andi would create platforms beneath his feet as he walked in the air over to Danny. He looked down on her and sensors detected civilians leaving. Andrew finally stopped a few dozen feet from the pest.

"Hello there. I hope you're enjoying the show. And the millions in property damage you're costing the city."

He'd clench his fist and a hand shaped clump of nanites would crush a large tower in the compound behind him. The robotic Danny's face would curl into a smirk.

"By the way, I've made sure to jam any frequencies in and out of the facility. Cameras, radio, etc. I hope you can forgive me for slandering your name. However, it allows me to gain more public reputation for beating you in the next 20 seconds and also I get to cause massive amounts of property damage."

As Andi says the last part about beating Danny, another mass of nanites, this time more closely modelled to Andi would begin to attack from behind, throwing pulses of energy at Danny. Its first few attacks are slower than what Andi usually throws until the faux Danny disappears and more nanites flow onto the Andi.

As the transfer from two Dannys to Andi vs Danny finishes, feeds are switched back on.

The monologue helped. Danny held as long as she could with the grounds bursting around her. "Yeah, yeah, lots of damage. I know the rundown." She turned her head to see the danger remained contained on her location. "Time to get started."

Her barriers dropped off. Her phone signal rang from her satchel. A shield now formed on her arm. A weapon of choice would be needed, but it would need to do more than merely stab. Stabbing, slashing, or hitting never worked in the past. She needed some creativity to pull through.

Oh, and to not get hit. Not getting hit would help a lot.

Two turquoise pillars would shoot out of the ground towards ANDI, hoping to force him to act in a way that would keep him from directly engaging her while she made her way towards the smoldering tower.

As pillars erupted from the ground attacking Andi, he'd first maneuver around them but after several unsuccessful attempts to catch up to the scum that was Danny, Andi would split off into a few dozen small drones, armed with high power energy weapons.

The drones began to weave between the pillars more effectively than the 13 foot Andi. As she makes her way toward the tower, several beams of energy were fired off at her from behind. Several points of origin with some intense accuracy.

"I've studied past footage of you in combat with others. I've studied your tactics. Their tactics. I've seen what worked and what didn't. You're a criminal. Destroying the good peoples' power supply. Injuring dozens. You're going to be put away, Danny. And in going to be the one to do it."

His voice calls out from several points in the dozens of drones moving about, nanomachine spires tearing the plant apart in the background. They keep up their onslaught on Danny and as she nears the tower, more drones join in on the fun. This is much different from last time.

"Yeah, yeah, you know stuff. I got it!" Danny continued to keep her feign offense up while the energy blasts continued. Dirt and debris flew up while multiple drones continued to try and flank Danny. A barrier would appear in front of Danny with a two foot gap at the bottom, allowing Danny to slide under the barrier, while hoping the drone would slam into the barrier. "Yeah, too bad no one is going to believe that!"

Danny would keep striving towards the tower, beginning to build a dome around the fiery tower with a tunnel leading towards Danny. An opening on the backside of the doom would also remain with a hatch beginning to take shape over it, but still letting air flow.

A few more pillars would shoot out, trying to hit the drones and mitigating the blasts of the energy pulses shooting in her direction. The closer she edged towards the dome, the more the blasts became concentrated. And, it finally concentrated with a blast to her back, knocking Danny to the ground. Right in front of the tunnel.

As she pulled the barrier trick a few of the drones slammed the barrier while the others either flew through the small gap or around the barrier entirely. The drones that had slammed into the barrier would explode into a bunch of nanites... But moments after, they're in the shape of a long serpent.

As one of the drone strikes impact, they would all focus in on and attempt to surround Danny. Predicting an energy barrier, the drones would fly around to all sides of her, weapons already firing.

"You lose."

In case of any reinforcements, suddenly a large nanotech some would form over the section of the compound they were in. This some would begin to block out signals from all around them. It's as dark as a void in the massive cavern that was under the dome. Andi had thermals to ensure that he never lost sight of his prey.

"It took me a great deal of work to obtain these nanomachines from storages across the country. It's a good thing I'm one of the most advanced machines on the planet. One encounter and I already have you. You may ask what my plan is for you. You, Danny, will be turned into the police momentarily. With a few burns, bruises, and cuts, of course."

The room began to grow dark. Wait? Room. "Oh, so more dumb tricks. This one actually works though." The blast to her back left her sore and weary, but she put her plan up already. Now, she just needed to close the hatch. "This plan had a few holes in it. Let me close them for you."

The turquoise hatch would close, shutting off the wind tunnel and the resource fanning the flames in the turquoise oven. Once the hatch closed, the blackened room would suddenly spark to life with a massive flame shooting out of the oven. While still on the ground, Danny felt the flames go over her, but the rest of the drones and ANDI might take the flames more closely to the face.

While the flame shot about the room, Danny would begin to create a new line of turquoise pillars to connect to one of the sparking generators. They would move to try and impale the drones, overloading them with electricity.

While more of the drones continued to fire, Danny would put up a barrier to keep the fire more at bay, managing to only take one bolt to the side of her arm. She rolled to relative safety, taking out her phone, attaching it to a turquoise construct, and shining a light to help her navigate the dome.

The turquoise oven did its part, and began fading more as Danny pulled pieces to use elsewhere. But, her light continued to shine- for now.

Andi brushed his hand against a beam and suddenly, his body began to change in appearance. It had a different texture once again. As the flames hit him, he stood, his silhouette visible through the flames. He steps out through them toward Danny.

"Tungsten. A somewhat dense material, but excellent against heat. And is exceptional in hardness. Your plan could've worked had I not been created to withstand anything a foreign country could throw at America. I'm this country's nuclear deterrent. One little meta girl will not stop me from doing as I please. Or magical girl. Tarantula Hawk was an awfully nice man to provide me with the source of your power. I'll use this information to crush you. If he, a frail old man can beat you, I most certainly can and will make a mockery of you."

Andi, reaching ludicrous speed in seconds, would be upon Danny in under the time it takes one to snap. The drones in the meantime are doing their best to Bob and weave around the enemy constructs. Few are destroyed as more come about from the dome. Speaking of the dome, as Danny moves about it, sharp spear-like constructs shoot out from above, aiming to skewer her.

Knowing Danny would be preoccupied with the spires, Andi fired off point blank blasts of energy. He didn't want her dead, but if she was going to be so annoying as to waste his time, he'd do whatever he had to to catch this little mouse.

"He said he beat me?" A lightbulb went off in Danny's head. ANDI could run fast. And he probably would run fast. He had a straight shot at her and his drones were preoccupied. Danny approved. "Well, then I guess it's all over."

Not just one, but five turquoise spikes would shoot out as ANDI began to rush her. In his speed, it would make pulling out a little difficult, but impaling himself very easy. If those could stop him, Danny would not need to worry about his blast coming, but he was not the only immediate danger.

The dome began to attack Danny, putting Danny in a similar spot as two of the spear deflected from her spears and made ways to pin her clothing to the ground. Danny spun- tearing her sweater and putting a hole in her skirt- and managed to get away while another bolt of energy shot into her.

The air within her all shot out at once as the gut shot sank in. Instinctively, she put up a barrier to defend the next shot, but not before the spear shot out and hit her turquoise construct.

Andi is hit head on for the first time this match! He should've been stopped dead in his tracks, but as he was impacted by the large spike, he bursted into trillions of nanites and reconstructed himself into the serpent the drones turned into earlier. The flying snake weaved between constructs, both friendly and opposing. As he got close once more, he reformed into his humanoid form.

"Poor Danny. You know, I've been toying with you for the past few minutes. The battle of wits you think you're fighting is nothing but a game of checkers against an infant. You slap the pieces around in an attempt to confound me, but I can NOT be confused I can't be stopped."

Everything that was attacking is still attacking, bearing down on Danny with everything. Laser pulses, spires, large nanites chunks with the density of lead falling down onto her.
"This can all stop if you forfeit. Take off your bracelet, toss it away, and get on the ground. The assault will be called off. You'll still be jailed for the destruction of the plant, however."

He'd fire his own beams alongside those of the drones and alongside the spires. All he needed was for her to submit. She was smarter than the average ape, but he was a supercomputer. He knew all the moves. No mind could out think him. Unless their specific meta ability was intelligence, of course.

A few years ago Bliss told Danny to do something important involving a microwave and a satellite dish. While Danny lacked a few of those things, and Bliss' tech savvy, she did have a cell phone- with a lithium battery. The pillars from the ground continued to spark with jolts of electricity. Most had gone unnoticed as the drones continued to focus on her. Good.

Instead of investing in a major defense, Danny would continue to run from pillar to pillar, making a dish connecting them. With the drones attempting to surround her earlier, it made it made for an advantageous positioning. Now, she just needed to funnel all the electricity into a central catalyst. What would it catalyze?

A cell phone. Complete with a currently active cell phone battery. It would not create the largest electromagnetic pulse, but it would create one. And, with the dome blocking signals, it would keep it contained within the immediate area.

Danny dropped to the ground with her hands over the back of her head as she listened to her defensive barriers give out and her catalyst let out an explosion.

Andi waved his hand and a whole host of nanomachines, adapted to mimic aluminum in its properties would wrap around the catalyst in the moment it explodes, keeping the drone death count down to a little less than half. 1/4 of the original nano drones remain, but they decide to keep up their onslaught. One of Andi's major weaknesses was Electromagnetic pulses so he'd promptly speed up to the dome's surface, a hole, perfectly made for his body, opening up to let him out and promptly shutting. He'd wait for his drones to die in his HUD and snarl.

"Such cheap tactics. I gave you a chance to submit, insect."

The dome would speak to Danny, but then, the dome shorted out, dropping quadrillions of razor sharp nanomachine clumps down onto Danny. She'd likely have her own dome up to protect her, but these things were sharp as previously stated, and were extremely volatile as they had been shocked. When they did crash down, they rose copious amounts of dust from the destroyed power facility.

"Millions in property damage. A shame. I don't think the government will be happy with you destroying their facility and a bunch of their nanomachines. Don't worry, I already gave the news stations across the country the scoop on Andi battling it out with the villainous Danny... Whatever your name is. I don't care to mention it. In their eyes I may have lost, but I must say, Americans love an underdog."