Maybe Danny Will Show Up (Naomi)

The hint of Tsukimi's blade flashed from the sheath. A small dash of her cuticles fell to the ground as the slender Japanese woman filed her nails down. A rather quixotic means of grooming, but nonetheless, a sharp blade could work wonders. A pair of boots ran up to her knees, gifting a small gap to breath before a black skirt flowed over distance between her knee and thigh. A black blazer sat over the top of the skirt, giving brief glimpses of the sleeveless posterior. "You're late."

A call went to Naomi a few hours ago from Danny Tamamoa, telling Naomi to meet her at a coffee shop in downtown Philadelphia. No Danny, but another woman waited for Naomi. And wait she had. She already tried polishing her sword for dramatic effect and then moved to checking her phone before falling upon the decision of her nails. No other souls inhabited the coffee shop. Perhaps the gentle breeze from the fan in the center of the shop blew them all away. It did not matter to Tsukimi. The girl in front of her did.

The gaze never met Naomi, instead the flowing locks of Tsukimi merely ran down the length of her shoulders. A small slip of air escaped from the sheathe as the blade returned. "I'm supposed to be training you. Your first lesson-" Tsukimi lifted her oval face, letting her brown eyes meet with Naomi. "Don't be late. I have to deal with that with Danny. And, Danny can make stuff with magic. She didn't tell me what you could do."

A vibration shook Tsukimi's side. "That's our mission right there." Tsukimi looked down to the hair tie on her wrist. Forsaking it. "My name is Sanada Tsukimi. My friends call me Suzy. You can call me Tsukimi Sanada."

The flash of the blue screen caught Tsukimi's eyes for a moment. "A defunct chemical factory is less defunct than the previous owner thought. They called it in, so you and me are going to go look at it."

Naomi was sitting in her fifth period class of the day at Bartham High when her phone buzzed from her bag. She glanced up towards the teacher from where she slouched in her seat. Her teacher's back was turned, writing some last mathematical formula on the white board.

The coast was clear. Naomi slipped her phone out of her bag under her chair and glanced at it behind the desk.

'1 New Message: Danny'

Who... Then Naomi's eyes grew wide That Superhero I met a few weeks ago! She glanced up at the teacher who had started talking again. Naomi couldn't wait for her to turn around again. She unlocked her phone and pulled up the message.

Danny wanted to meet with her in a coffee shop in Downtown Philly? The clock on the wall above her read 5 til. 'I'll be there.' She texted back.

The bell would be ringing soon. But she couldn't just skip out on the rest of her classes. She was already in the dog house at home for getting hospitalized with a broken rib over the summer. But if her Granny caught wind that she was playing hooky now, she'd be grounded for life.

The Bell rang and Naomi got up, thinking of excuses that would get her out of school but wouldn't get the school to call her Abuela. Hours passed as the school day continued, no good opportunity presented itself to escape.

When the final bell rang, Naomi took off towards the nearest public transport. It was doubtful that Danny would have waited around for her for that long but she had to try.

She ran to the coffee shop huffing and puffing from the excercise. She was out of shape from taking to easy while her injuries healed. It was not a good time.

Naomi looked around in confusion. The shop seemed closed and Danny was nowhere to be seen. Trying to slow down her breathing, Naomi crept to the door and pushed it open, peering inside. It was empty of people except for a young japanese woman who was sporting a large katana and looking stern.

The woman didn't even look at her, immediately berating her for her tardiness. Naomi immediately bristled "I was in school. And what do you mean late? Late for what exactly?"

The woman explained briefly about training, finishing with the fact that Danny hadn't told this stranger what Naomi's powers were.

Naomi was freaked out enough by the fact that Danny had  told anyone about her. She had just assumed the superhero would be considerate enough not to go spreading around her identity. She opened her mouth to tell this woman what her powers were, but apparently Naomi had been taking too long, because the woman went on talking. Tsukimi Sanada? Weird name she thought to herself.

"Wait, hold up, a mission?" She blanched. "I'm not ready for anything like that! The last time I was on a mission I broke a rib and nearly died!"

"Did you nearly die because you broke a rib, or did you nearly die and then break the rib?" The cell phone disappeared into the interior pocket of Tsukimi's jacket. "I guess I should ask about you, but I also figured Danny would have given me a heads up. You're Bumble Buzz right? You can turn into a bee?"

Tsukimi began walking towards the door, holding it open for Naomi to enter behind her. "People keep trying to take over defunct chemical factories. They want to make some super serum or a brain wash powder or something that blows up." Without summoning her keys from her pocket, the lights on her sedan flashed. "It's all bad. And, all the people who do this are bad. So, we need to stop them from being bad. But, we don't kill. It's messy and morally edgy and just not our style. Although, we don't really check in on what happens to demons when they get sent back to Hell or whatever, so we can't confirm nothing ever dies, but you know, whatever."

Tsukimi took her seat in the driver's seat, pulling the door shut. "Seat belt." The car's ignition came into being. "This shouldn't be hard. Probably just some gang. We'll go in, fix everything, and be done quick."

"It's Bumblebee" Naomi corrected under her teeth. "And I don't turn into a bee that would be stupid."

Naomi followed this Tsukimi lady out of the shop towards a Sedan parked along the curb. The young woman started rattling off factoids about chemical factories making Naomi roll her eyes. She's just as bad as my teachers.

Normally, Naomi would be relieved to hear that her partner was fundamentally against killing anyone. But when this lady said it she had to bite back a 'Do it. You won't.' and instead straightened her back to try and look a bit more professional.

Naomi got in the passenger side as Tsukimi got in the drivers seat. Oh crap my costume... uh... uniform Naomi quickly remembered, digging in her bag for her mask and jacket, the rest she had gotten used to wearing under her normal clothes. No one could tell under her jeans and sweatshirt anyway.

"Seat belt." The woman demanded, not even looking at the teen. Naomi paused and glared at the side of Tsukimi's head before sitting up, buckling with way more force than was needed, and shoving on her mask which she had just found from the bottom of her bag.

"Probably a gang? Doesn't seem like you have a lot of entail on this mission." Naomi observed, "How do you even hear about these things anyway? Some sort of police radio hacker or something?"

"Bumble. Bee." Tsukimi spoke into the memory of the car. "Remember contact. Bumble. Bee. I don't know why turning into a bee would be stupid. You could fly through open windows. You could sting people and then- oh, hmm, maybe you shouldn't sting anyone."

The sedan merged onto the interstate. "I don't know much about them, but I've done things like this plenty of times. I don't have Danny this time, but she wanted me to take you on your first outing. It shouldn't be that hard to- did you forget your mask?!"

Tsukimi swerved to avoid hitting the car in front of her as a result of taking her eyes off the road. "It's your first mission. You better not have forgot your mask or your outfit. You're still in high school and that's a big target. I know it's weird that Danny tells everyone her name and has an Instagram account with like 10 million followers, but you have to wear a mask. If you don't wear a mask, you don't get to go on missions and that is final- oh you found it." Tsukimi centered back up and put her eyes back on the road. "Maybe we should listen to music. Or, go over the details of the surrounding area."

The coordinates of the chemical factory put it right next to a river with a construction yard to its right and a foreclosed factory on its left. There is a front gate to the plant and a loading dock in the back on the river side.

"No I didn't forget my mask." Naomi snapped, gripping the car as it swerved. "I always bring it with me."

She took a deep breath trying to calm down and get her head in the game. Come on, you're Bumblebee. You gotta focus!

"If there's a loading dock they're probably using that to get materials to the chemical factory. If there's a foreclosed factory right next to it, then they're probably using that for like... an extended base of operations or something, right? And going through the front gate would definitely be a bad idea since it's probably got, like, a tripwire or sensor or something to alert them to people entering." She thought out loud, mostly to herself. "Do we know anything about what they're trying to do, or how many people are in this operation?" Bumblebee looked towards Tsukimi expectantly, she didn't want to go into this situation blind.

Does she even know Danny? Bumblebee thought suddenly. How do I know I can trust her? What if this is actually a trap? I just got into a car with a complete stranger and revealed my identity. What kind of idiot am I?! Whatever confidence she had immediately disappeared as she stared at the road in front of her realizing what a dangerous situation she had just walked into.

Tsukimi's headspace remained unchanged and quiet. "If we knew what it was, we wouldn't need to check it out. We would just go in and deal with it. You can fly right? When you're in your suit or can you just fly? What is your power exactly?"

The sedan veered off the expressway and into the industrial park. "Now, put your mask on and get ready to jump out of the car. You will need to take off the seatbelt in order to do so. Then, I will head to the loading dock. Check out the abandoned building and- oh shoot. I was supposed to tell you to jump."

A tired breath came out from Tsukimi as she looked for an alley. "Front gate would be a bad idea. I might just cut through a side fence and go in that way. You can just fly."

Tsukimi saw an opening beneath a pier just perfect for hiding the vehicle. It slid to a stop, the engine coming to a stop. "We're here. I hope you're ready to deal with whatever they have, assuming whatever they have is something we can deal with." Tsukimi grabbed her sword. "If it is something we are not capable of dealing with, then we leave."

Bumblebee secured her mask and unbuckled, waiting for her cue to jump. Tsukimi kept rambling, missing when she was supposed to give the cue.

The car pulled to a stop underneath the pier and Bumblebee opened the car door, anxious for Tsukimi to shut up so she could get this over with.

"Right I got it. Purely reconnaissance. I can do that" Bumblebee said, hoping out, her combat boots hitting the wet gravel under the pier.

She kept her black sweatshirt on, hiding the most of her bright yellow costume. Bumblebee took a deep breath and mustered her telekinetic field around herself, lifting up into the air and sending her bumbling along over the fence. She found a place where the fence was closest to the building to hide her assent, then immediately floated herself up to the roof. If she wanted to find out what was going on, a bees-eye view would give her the best vantage.

Time to see what these baddies are up to!

While Naomi took to flight, Tsukimi took to analyzing any weaknesses she could find in the fence system. If someone broke in, it would benefit them to keep people out, but if it looked like they restored the place, it would be suspicious. But, if it was suspicious, would not that throw off suspicions. "What do you think- oh, she's gone." Tsukimi pulled her sword out to cut through the fence.

Heat began to pull from the vents outside of the building. A low light flickered the poor decision making when reconfiguring the electric grid someone obviously stole from a neighboring building. One drip from an excess pipe hit a surface. While a solid surface would make the most sense in the case, the depth of which it fell gave a deep gulping measure. A few more drips gave the same, deep drop into a number of vats lining the back wall of the open chemical plant floor. A partition ran down the center of the room, cutting the massive floor into two still large areas.

The vats remained on one side with a hood over to begin collecting excess fumes. A vent ran up into a second floor cooling system shrouded with foil and insulation. The other side of the partition gave more than just the sound of dripping pipes. The laughter of three men could be heard from the open window. Their direct joy and pleasure still masked behind the audible problems of space, but their presence all the while open.

Outside of the compound, a crashing of vats could be heard. No direct alarm came, but a motion of alarm came across the faces of the men, each standing up with two grabbing baseball bats and one tucking a handgun into his jacket. The trio began to make their way to the door leading outside, taking hidden positions to watch and see if anyone came through the door.