Kpop Dragon

With Dmitri aiming his arm cannon at Xiao, Two of the Tesla Armors came over to the girls to restrain them. A bionic third arm slapped heavy duty superhero grade manacles onto Danny and Kim. Now both their arms and legs were confined. "Good, good. This time they won't be able to kick." One commented off-handedly.

"Vell... your terrorists are our freedom fighters, da? What would you understand, stupid American kids. Buy anything you want, whenever you want. In Russia-" Dmitri started but his friend called him out, and he cut off midsentence. Kim looked at Dmitri with a questioning stare, wondering what he was going to say.

"It's always America's fault, is that how it is?" She asked scathingly, but got no response. The proximity of the Tesla armored goon caused her hair to fray and stand up slightly, as well as keeping her docile.

"Come upstairs little girls." The Tesla armored goon said, directing their not very-strong hostages up to the motel proper, via the stairs up. Kim looked at Danny with a 'what-are-we-gonna-do' expression, the Kpop star having run out of ideas. The Tesla trooper pushed them along. "Keep moving. We shoot music video now. hehehe."

Dmitri looked at Xiao again. "You are strong, China. But not that strong. Still, too dangerous to live." The red-light illuminated basement suddenly lit up as Dmitri poured a large amount of current and voltage into Xiao with his weaponry. The dragon girl screamed in agony as she convulsed and spasmed, before falling down where she stood, her body smoking. Kim witnessed this and screamed, her eyes cascading with tears. "XIAO! YOU MONSTER, YOU KILLED HER!"

Dmitri looked down at the tall girl, who was from all appearances, dead. "This is what you get for playing hero. No hero in world. Only survivors. Artyom, get some people down here, we've got a mess to clean up." With that, Dmitri followed the girls upstairs towards a function room with video recording equipment.

"I guess you spent all your money on these handcuffs for teenage girls instead of staying in a motel that could pass health inspections. All in all, I'm not very impressed." Danny squirmed to try and wrest her hands free, but nothing worked. For now she would just need to bide her time with her hands behind her back until Xiao smashed everyone and broke her loose. "Oh, there's a holding area? Does this motel rent out multiple rooms to terrorists? I guess Expedia can really find anything you search for nowadays, oh you wouldn't know Expedia because it is for spoiled Americans who don't buy stuff with robot bears." Danny kept her mouth running as the Russian escorted her out of the garage.

So when Danny tried breaking out of this place, Kim almost strangled her, but now suddenly Kim fell into placidity. "I've seen what you can do with handcuffs. Given your friend and my new recruit's pension for breaking things, we should just let her be plan B..." Danny stumbled on the bottom step and fell forward as Kim screamed in horror.

"Ha, better get a plan C cheerleader." The powersuit pulled Danny to her feet and pushed her forward.

At a loss for words, Danny squirmed with more conviction trying to garner the full severity of the situation. If these guys would kill Xiao, it was entirely possible they would kill Danny next. The wanted Kim for the ransom and unless they needed some ties to archaeology, Danny would hold no real value to them. She would of course hold actual value as the daughter of famous, wealthy, archaeologists. "We need to short out those powersuits. If we short them out, then they're just big walking jail cells." Danny wanted to find something to help her plan out, but power outlets with surge protectors would fail in the plan. She needed a direct way to put a large amount of electricity into those suits. "I wish this bracelet let me shoot lightning. That would make a lot of things more interesting. We just need something to do that for us." The equipment in the room meant Danny would avoid a grim demise for the next few minutes, but nothing beyond that seemed guaranteed. She wanted a little more time. "Hey, Dim-Wit. That's what your friends call you for short right? Well, Dim-Wit, do you know who I am? Do you know who my parents are? Ever heard of Prodigy? You're going to wish you never heard of any of those things in a few minutes."

Dmitri was flustered at her insults, but decided to keep calm and oblige Danny. "We will make your hostage video after Korean girl. You can tell whoever your parents are to come to motel too."

Grief stricken and sobbing, the girls were led into a converted function room with lighting and video equipment and a booth with a computer set up. Kim was forcefully led to a chair and sat down in front of a webcam and laptop. Danny was held in a corner, guns pointed at her face to force the Kpop star's cooperation. The Russians started up the computer and opened Skype and Viber for Kim to use.

"Now. Little girl. Talk to your father over internet. Tell him to come to motel alone." Dmitri said from the back while his other goons set up.
The room fell silent for a few seconds, as Kim exchanged glances with her captors.

"...Uh... what is username?" One asked Kim, typing it in as her hands were heavily bound to avoid her performing any karate tricks. "KimStar2020... at google...dot com..." She said, trying to calm herself down to answer. Seeing her friend struck down in the basement had broken the girl's resolve, and though she didn't know Danny, she wasn't about to let another person be killed in cold blood for her own safety.
After handing her password too, Viber tried to connect. Dmitri was a bit flustered. "What's going on?" The goon looked around the computer, then the room for a problem. Down in the lower right hand corner of the screen was the dreaded red x.

"...No internet." He said dryly.

Several of the Russians expressed disbelief in their native tongue. Dmitri waved around his power armored arm. "Use Phone! Stupid internet providers. I guess there is a thing as being too cheap."

A tremor shook the building just as a Russian produced a phone, and seconds later one of the Power Armors who stayed behind in the basement- Artyom I think his name was- was here in the function room. After having been punched through two layers of reinforced concrete floors, his armor now a ruined, crumpled mess with a fist imprint on the chest. Dmitri cursed, and realized his folly. "She's still alive...!" but chaos was already unleashed as the wall behind Danny was ripped open, the flimsy lathe and plaster walls giving way and before them was a very angry dragon. The men holding Danny at gunpoint screamed in terror and opened fire, but were flung out of the building.

Dmitri stared in awe at the monster, as it produced a deep, terrible ROAR! at anyone else in the function room. The hardened ex-Soviet soldiers who had fought in countless battlefields in Eastern Europe were now paralyzed with dragon fear, their hands trembling on their guns as Xiao's draconic gaze met theirs. It was a primordial fear indeed, buried deep in the human psyche, when they remembered that they were helpless prey facing an apex predator.

Only Dmitri, shielded by his power suit's visor, was able to act. He raised his arm cannon to shoot Kim, but Xiao moved to shield the unfortunately terrified korean girl with her wing. Dmitri's energy beam caused Xiao to be unable to attack, as she needed to stay in place to shield her friend. The unnatural lightning illuminated the entire room and audibly heated the air like thunder, as sparks flew off of Xiao's tough scales where the beam struck it. Dmitri cursed in several european dialects as he now realized he had kidnapped the wrong person.

Danny meanwhile, was mostly ignored, thus getting an opening to take down this bad guy.

The power armor pushed Danny into a chair in the corner while the rest of the comrades tried to figure out their internet problems. "Do you want me to go to the front desk to get the password?" Danny held up her manacled hands. "I'm sure no one will ask any questions, seeming as none of you guys asked any."

"Shut girl's mouth with tape." One of the goons left his station before fully tying Kim to the chair to find the tool for the job.

"Is a seventeen year old girl really getting to you that much? This is going to be the worst story you ever tell your gun totting buddies." Danny drew enough ire away from Kim to give her sometime to recover from her despair. While she continued her jarring, she knew Kim must be suffering from the loss of her friend, but if Dim-Wit thought he could shut Danny up, well, he probably could for a minute, because at her current state, she could only throw a headbutt in her defense. A loud tear of tape sounded out a few feet from Danny, giving Danny a chance to dive down between the power armor's legs. These suits showed no ability to maneuver, so Danny gambled on getting out of their reach. Her gamble failed as two men dragged her back and held her while the tape wielding guard drew closer.

The wall burst forward behind her sending the men around her to the ground. Her posture allowed her to just sink back into the chair, placing a man's face in target range of her legs. A quick burst of energy shot the heel of her feet directly into his jaw. She didn't even need her bracelet to execute that move. Hopping from her chair, Danny found her way out of these cuffs. In order to cool the power armor, each suit had a cooling chamber attached to the back, so Danny dropped to her knees in the chaos and confusion around her and pulled out a nail file from her back pocket. Twirling the file unscrewed the hatch and allowed her to pop the lid, spilling out enough of the coolant to freeze her cuffs. With the locking mechanism freezing, Danny began hitting the cuffs against the sink until the mechanism finally popped. Her wrist hurt and would stay black and blue for a while, but she got herself free. Or her hands at least.

She kept hopping until the lock popped on her ankles as well, giving Danny a clean shot at Kim. For the second time this night, Danny would rescue Kim from the hands of terrorist while Xiao smashed everything around her. This time Danny hoped to actually seal the deal. "I don't think Xiao needs any help. If anything, I'm pretty sure we would just get in the way." Danny took on the role of the attendant and escorted Kim out of the motel room. "I got Kim, Xiao. You can go dragon crazy!"

The Trooper with the broken coolant pack had the misfortune of firing up his weapon, quickly bringing up the suit to the red. A muffled scream indicated that the suit was not comfortable to be in, and as a failsafe, it shut down, too heavy to move without assistance. Tesla Trooper Dmitri was now focused intently on battling the dragon, and the girls were able to slip away. Once Danny encouraged her, Kim had the presence of mind to search the downed Tesla Trooper for the keys. Once in the hallway, Kim freed herself and Danny from their bonds.

However, the motel, run by the Russian Mafiya as it was, had no shortage of goons. As Danny and Kim were fleeing the main battle, the motel security guards catch a glimpse of them and move to apprehend- though these lowly enforcers only carried batons and stun guns.

Kim was still a bit shaken from seeing her friend the dragon, mumbling something about Xiao becoming one. Once she saw that goons were coming their way, her response to the situation shifted from flight to flight. "I'm not getting caught again!" Kim didn't seemed averse to the propsect of fighting baton wielding men, assuming a fighting stance. Or perhaps an ass-kicking stance. More of the latter, as once her legs were free, she leapt up and performed a leaping kick into the first face her foot could find, knocking down a goon. Danny also had her share of goons to fight coming at her with a stun gun.

Xiao and Dmitri took their fight to the parking lot, as the dragon levelled the entire west part of the motel. Dmitri proved most able in his suit, doing leaping barrel rolls to avoid the concrete crushing tail blows and the hungry jaws. The lightning blasts connected with Xiao, but they only seemed to make her angrier. "Die you ugly lizard, Die!" He bellowed in a most mocking tone despite the power of his opponent, which Xiao responded with a mighty

ROAAAAAR!

Once the first goon lunged at Danny with his stun baton, Danny grabbed her handcuff and latched it around his wrist. She pulled with all her might and latched the other end to the guard rail of the outer lining. Good thing they took them to the second floor. Getting behind the latched man worked like a charm and Danny found herself managing to find a new stun baton. Now, she was in business. Too bad by the time she started to get towards fighting someone, Kim already downed the mob family of goons. "Alright. I guess you needed to work something out. Go get the police. I've got an idea. Oh, and don't get kidnapped again, please and thank you."

Something pulled Danny back into the room. A couple of cheap shots from Dimitri kept him in the fight, but Xiao looked like she wanted to kill this guy. Danny never ran over the killing rule, but knew it would be better for everyone if this guy just took a nap. And if Xiao came out of her dragon mode without leveling everything. Using the calamity of battle to her advantage, Danny sneaked into place to get a hold of the cooling compartment again. Once she latched her legs onto the man's back, she pulled the hatch back and pressed her stun baton into the cooling mechanism. She throttle the baton and sent a surge of electricity to overload the coolant. Once the coolant gave way, the electricity would course through the rest of the powersuit to shut him down.

Now, she just needed to avoid Xiao killing her.

Kim nodded and headed to the lobby, bellowing Korean threats as she picked up a pair of batons and went to town.

Outside, the parking lot had gone from a flat utilitarian space to having more craters than the moon. Nimble for his size, the Russian moved around and took cover, dancing and weaving with the bigger clumsy dragon. Dmitri's energy beams seemed to be running low and he had resorted to chainsaw blades to attack Xiao's limbs. The chainsaw's teeth didn't fare too well against the dragon's hide and were promptly dulled only after making a few grazes. Dmitri also succeeded in making Xiao angrier, causing her to resort to using cars as makeshift projectiles, causing dreaded collateral damage.

The Russian persisted bitterly, going the whole 9 yards in the fight, and still having the awareness to shake Danny off has she clambered onto his back. Unlike the other Troopers, Dmitri's suit was more well protected, and the design flaws were compensated for with some handy engineering and welding know-how. He also moved like a ballerina hippo and tossed Danny off, but this fight was going to be finished now, as Xiao used all 40 feet of her massiveness to tackle Dmitri and pin him beneath a claw. Defiant to the last, he raised his lightning cannon to shoot Xiao in the face; the entire thing was promptly chewed off, and Dmitri screamed in pain as he just managed to let the arm piece go before he was literally disarmed.

Xiao placed a single claw on the power suit's reinforced visor and slowly applied pressure, cracking the fiberglass and slowly making its way towards his face. Dmitri stopped shouting profanities and invectives at the very end, and only whispered, "Anya, I am sorry... Daddy will not come home." he closed his eyes and stopped fighting, waiting for his death to come.

Never before in her life did she ever call upon her strength to fight a dragon. Especially when she needed to save a man who just moments ago wanted her dead. Dimitri threw Danny to the ground, knocking her out of the fray as the weapons of the powersuit failed. Xiao stood over him with a look of absolute malice. From what she knew, this girl never lifted an attempt against the lives of any of the terrorists she fought to depose, and would surely rue the horrible situation she would turn into a lifetime.

"Xiao! No!" Danny shot herself up and rubbed her bracelet. A solemn and unknown voice came to her mind. The rarest of spirits spoke to her ear, gifting her knowledge unknown to most. She could see the weaknesses of a dragon lay out before her, the fierce power and swiftness still left some weaknesses. Embracing the lost spirit of the dragon hunters of China would be her only chance to save Dimitri and more importantly, save Xiao from her own wrath. With a considerable distance from her head to the base of her shoulders, Danny could mount Xiao and attempt to shock her at the base of her spine to send some pain into her.

The world came back into focus as the sounds of sirens and frightened human beings fleeing the scene made the Dragon look around. The parking lot was completely levelled, and property damage from a giant wyrm was substantial. Police arrived to, as always, keep a perimeter until a metahuman response could be mustered. The motel itself was raided and scores of Russian thugs and Eastern European girls were escorted away by police. Kim tried to make her way to the scene but was held back by the officers, warning that civilians must keep away from metahuman activity.

Dragon!Xiao needed only a little direction and a word from a teammate to relent with her attack, the four limbed Pain Train relenting her execution. Spared a horrible death, Dmitri opened his eyes and looked around, but refrained from moving. As she scanned her surroundings to look at Danny, Xiao noticed that the spirit warrior was already sprinting up and over her armored and very spiky back. Realizing what she intended, the dragon simply spread her arms and took off in a mighty beat of her wings. Hopefully this would make Danny think twice about zapping her. Xiao would land on a nearby roof to talk things out... if Danny withheld zapping her, she'd be let off without a fuss, otherwise have to hang on as Xiao shook her head and roared in pained annoyance.

Atop the building Danny fell to the ground. Still holding her stun baton as her sole means of fighting down the savage dragon. "You're still Xiao right? You know me? You know who I am right?" Keeping the dragon from striking her all rested in how quick he dragon's mind could work and how fast Danny's feet could shift from side to side. The police arrived and for the meantime it looked like the world of chaos and calamity ceded into nothingness while Danny fought to save one more person. "I don't want to hurt you, and I'm pretty sure you don't want to hurt me-or anyone else for that matter, but I need you to do me a favor and come back to being a regular giant girl for now." Each word slid Danny to her right. Keeping a steady cadence, almost like a dance. A dangerous tango. "Can you hear me Xiao?"

The Dragon lowered its head as it approached Danny, signifying its cooperation and non threat. Still, the massive beast Xiao looked Danny over for a few seconds, then sniffed, then snorted on her lightly, some frost forming on her hair. She blinked a few times then laid down at a spot, before the mysterious transformation went underway that shrank a 40ft dragon into the 7 ft girl wearing a silvery gray nano-fiber one piece.

Like waking up from a bad dream, Xiao rubbed her head as she looked around groggily, waving to Danny as she showed recognition, but not memory of the conversation. "I could go for some hot chocolate... and cheesecake."

Since it was Chicago and it was winter near the Great Lakes, the weather rapidly turned from cold to "French Kissing Princess Elsa" cold. Really, really cold wind was blowing all over the city, and it started snowing. The forecast called for several inches of snow tonight. not that it bothered the big dragon girl.

So the confrontation ended without anyone dying. That made Danny happy, since she happened to be included in said 'anyone'. After defeating evil and saving the world from the clutches of tyranny and nuclear was, cheescake did sound good. "Well, I guess if that's what you do after you turn into a dragon, let's go somewhere still open." The roof of the building didn't have any immediate access to the lower level, so Danny decided not to impose on her new partnership, but climb down a storm drain herself.

Once she took to the surface, she would make her way to wherever Xiao wanted to get her cheesecake. "So, I represent someone who goes by the name the Benevolent Man. He thinks you have just the skill set to help us- if you want to join us. We're called Prodigy."

Xiao simply leapt over the edge of the roof and landed with a dull thud. She went to ensure Kim was alright and on her way home with a hug and a peck on the cheek. She borrowed some leggings and a jacket while finding her shoes in the basement, and only then did she go with Danny to a some old, typical diner where they could get hot chocolate and cheesecake.

The streets were now empty and deathly cold, not even shady elements wanting to weather the weather. A young couple entered the diner with giggles just in front of the duo, and Xiao slumped into a booth. She ate slowly, feeling better thanks to the refined sugar.

She listened to Danny's quick offer, wondering if the group's leaders have heard of her. "So... a new hero team then? I'll be happy to lend a hand. Just text me the fine details and I'll be there. Chicago's getting crazy, but it has enough good folk protecting the streets." She offered Danny her contact info on her smart phone.

Mission accomplished, but not quite understood. Sitting in the diner for a two cups of water before Xiao showed up, Danny went ahead and ordered the desserts for their most successful, if only, mission. Keeping her manners in mind, Danny just sat with the cherry filling sinking into the divot on top of the cheesecake. A giant signal walked through the door, letting Danny know she could begin her celebration.

Xiao took the information well enough. Great actually. Dealing with heroes probably worked much better than villains, and for that, Danny could enjoy her cheesecake knowing she did a job well done. "I'll get in contact with you soon. I'm going to go back to California, but I'm sure evil is going to keep showing up wherever." Danny finished the last bite before finishing her statement. "I'll give you the contact of the others in the group, but most of them don't have private phones. Actually, I think the contact for two of them are just me." Danny put down her phone and started to pack up. "We can just do a face-to-face with the rest of the group."

Danny took off with Xiao's number. Maybe Kim would show up some day again in need or to help them out, but Danny succeeded her primary and secondary mission. Good enough for a two day trip to Chicago.