Old Relics, New Enemies

Danny took some time off. No more running around, fighting villains, or keeping the world at bay from the dangers of reckless hate. No, Danny could finally set back and enjoy the pleasures of what was left of being seventeen by just maintaining a low level of energy in a yoga class. Stretching and posing all beat whatever tragic evil hoped to accomplish in this world today.

Fortunately, nothing bad happened while she got her workout in with yoga or with her cardio. Unfortunately, that ultimately came to an end. Danny stepped out of her car and began to walk towards her high school wearing her school uniform. Nothing about the boring attire juxtaposed the atmosphere around her. None of her regularly attending metas from Prodigy showed up so far, but their attendance record seemed spotty at best. A fact Danny would bring up in their next team meeting. But now, Danny just needed a little focus on the part of her life she seriously neglected for the past couple of weeks. Not for lack of trying, but for lack of having any time in between homecoming, recruiting new metas, and almost dying a few times to dueling villains, it just slipped low on her priorities.

An unusual exhibit made its way into the auditorium, built with a generous contribution by the Tamamoa family. A slew of ancient artifacts bored countless students forced out of their study hall and prodded by teachers, whom also didn't want to be there. Each one of the relics held some odd hum of power to them, hidden to oblivious students, but more aware once the relics all came together. With their current position, each of the relics gave out a minor hum and positioning just close to them could give anyone sensitive to their nature memories of lost civilizations. In the wrong hands, the memories could show ancient points of power, buried treasure troves,  and unlock ancient mysteries.

"Way to go dirt girl. Your lame parents dug this stupid stuff up so I got my phone confiscated." The captain of the cheerleaders, Veronica Billingsworth, with her squad of senior cheerleaders surrounded Danny.

"You got your phone confiscated because you're an idiot." Pushing two of the cheerleaders back into fray behind their blonde, soon to be a supervillain, leader.

"I was just fine texting in the library, but in this stupid exhibit, I couldn't hide it." A well manicured finger poked into the collar of Danny's shirt. "You better get me a new one or I'll demote you."

"You know what..." Danny pulled a handy roll of duct tape out of her purse. "That's it."

Before Danny could completely assault several of her several cheerleaders, a door opened in the distance ushering in a new student.

”So, ya want me to steal something from a high school?” he would ask with a raised brow, cigarette drooping to the lower corner of his mouth as if asked the most stupid of things. Alpha however, was patient as ever, keeping a stony expression as he examined that of his lesser.

”Not just something Zeta. These artifacts have a strange energy about them, something that I would like to tap into.” Alpha answered, as if he were willing to repeat himself to the overly questioning male, and ignoring the cigarette for a moment.

”Well why don'tcha send Omega? He could do that mind thing and be out there in minutes.” He whined, arms crossed much like a child while Epsilon only shook his head disappointed in his corner. Fingers would pinch around the cigarette and rip it from the youths mouth, crushing the burning end before it was tossed into a wastebasket. ”What the hell man!” He growled.

”You cannot smoke on school property, they frown upon such actions. Now get dressed and prep, you have school to attend shortly.” Alpha stated glaring at him with a look that could wilt, Zeta frowning and nodding, standing up before going to his room to get properly dressed. A shurt depicting one of those rock bands, khaki cargo shorts and those shoes he had begged Alpha to get for him not long ago. An indistinct rock track was flowing through the room, pristine and white in condiction, with posters of scantily clad females, along side calenders of shirtless cowboys or something like that.

A small amount of time would pass, but him being registered in the school was easy considering Alpha influcence, as he was brought there via a nondescript vehicle. Zeta hefted the backpack, and ran fingers through his wells tyled dark brown hair, dyed only yesterday to keep up the lovely color. Alpha hated when he did that, but then again that wasn't something he cared about, as looks were superficial and in the end a little hair dye never hurt anyone.

He would start off at an ofice, being directed actually to the gym where some kind og exhibit was going on, just like he was supposed to be doing in that mission. How long this charade would go on was yet to be seen, but he went allong with it, walking along until he arrived through the door with a small push. However, upon stepping through he noticed that a lot of eyes were upon him, grey spheres scanning over the intellectually inferior with a sheepish smirk. So many humans around him, some as old as him and some a little younger. Still he could hear Alpha within the back of his head, telling him to keep his eyes on the prize, which was for some reason....that exhibit that all the children were boredly looking over.

”I...um...hi.” he said suddenly feeling a little nervous, his slightly brooklyn accent shining on through as he looked around. No, he had to act confident, otherwise they would eat him up alive.

"Oh you must be new." A gentle, old lady glided over to Zeta on his approach. "Here, let me fix you up with someone to show you around. We have a new exhibit, and just lucky for us, the archaeologist's daughter goes here- as well as their money." Pulling Zeta by the arm, the gentle teacher intruded on Danny and Veronica. "Miss Tamamoa, I want you to show this boy around. And, what is the tape for?"

"I was about to fix something." Danny kept her eyes directed at Veronica.

"I can show him around." Veronica edged up close to Zeta and started to wrap her leg around his.

"That's okay dear. You already lost your phone today, no need to to lose everything." Turning, the little, old woman shuffled off.

"Beat it honey, he's mine."

"Step off while you still have kneecaps." Danny took a step forward ushering the clique three steps back.

"Alright. We'll once you've ditched this loser, you come find me and I'll show you what's really good about private school." Veronica and her clique turned to head back, blowing Zeta a kiss.

"Go back to studying for the world's oldest profession." Without waiting for any leave, Danny would grab Zeta and pull him towards the relics, returning her greatest utility weapon of a roll of duct tape to her purse. "Uh yeah, so these are from some tribe in Africa and they found the exact same relics in Southeast Asia. It's pretty cool when you think about how people could do such similar creations without ever meeting or having any trade connections. Oh, so you probably don't care, so why are you moving here? Parents get a new job or did you get kicked out of your last school?"

A kindly female voice greeted him, Zeta turning to her and offering perhaps what one would call a friendly smile. Omega had always said soemthing about smiling when you wanted people to be nice to you, and if the big guy could do it so easily, surely he could too. A gentle hand would grab him by the arm, and without even having to think about it he was being lead to the rest of the student body, yet his eyes fell upon the exhibit which was being showcased. This was supposed to be what the great Alpha wanted stolen, yet with so many people around he would find that almost impossible. Okay, not impossible but having to light yourself up would only lead to a lot of trouble.

Where he was lead to was a female by the name of Tamamoa, holding a bit of duct tape as if she were planning to use it, the image enouhg to bring a small snicker from his lips. The image of Alpha with small bits of ripped duct tape around his figure returned to his head. The tape was stated to be out for fixing something, though he had a feeling it would have been fixing the mouth of someone, as a leg seemed to curl around his. ”Well hello there.” he thought to himself, mental voice even taking on an almost intrigued reverb by the sudden interest.

”Okay, that was gross.” Omega's voice would reverb through his head, likely seeing his fair share of rather nasty things.

”Hey, these are my dirty thoughts! Stay out of them.” He would think back, keeping that same expression. The female that he was supposed to be shown around by seemed to take exception to the seeming offer, threatening knee caps which seemed to work. The female would leave, offering something and blowing him a kiss. ”Aight.” he would said with a half grin and a nod of his head. Still, he had to think of the important things right now, which was mission first and carnal desires second. With that done, his tour guide would drag him from his point and towards the whole exhibit thing, explaining what it was all about with a certain passion. They were some kind of trinket things from Afirca, built probably a long time ago by some old people that died a long time ago too. Omega was all about this kind of stuff, but Zeta found it to be a huge snore fest.

”Oh, my parents moved here, dad got some kind of promotion. He didn't want to move, but hey.” he shrugged and continued to examine the trinkets. It would be so easy to just take them, but he was enjoying the whole interaction portion. ”I kinda like it here though, a lot better than Canada.” Honestly he did love America more than Canada, though what about it he loved he could not exactly pin down. ”So I heard you were an archeologists daughter? S'that true?”

"Yeah, that's right. I'm Danny Tamamoa. You know, the last name on the exhibit- and I guess the auditorium as well. It's why they always have me show the new kid around." Looking at the relic, Danny began to see a vivid waterfall cascade down the back of the exhibit. She took a few steps to the right to she the same angle of the waterfall as she continued to move. "Not that I'm complaining. Most of the girls around here would show you the janitor's closet first off, but I do get called on for this a lot."

Towards the back of the room a crash echoed out. A group of kids all "ew'd" as a guilty looking freshman turned his smirk into a smile at the approval of his classmates. "Hey!" Danny yelled, parting a divide between the underclassmen. "Get away from that. My parents didn't dig that thing up for you to break. Get out."

"Did they tell you they dug it up, or did they hire someone to tell you." Laughter came mostly from behind hands covering mouths. Most people knew of Danny's detached parents, but no one would dare bring it up to incur the wrath of Danny. And wrath did break across the kid's face, leaving an impressive hand print.

"Go." With a low emphasis on the vowel, Danny pushed the freshmen away from the exhibit. Turning to pick up the relic, the world began to change for Danny. The state of the art exhibit looked more like a brick laid temple. Not old or ruined, but new and full of life and color. Around her stretched out a stairway leading down into a market square and beyond that a man with a monkey performed prestidigitation tricks for local villagers. While looked around the lively ancient world, one of the younger boys reached into her purse and pulled out a bracelet of sorts. With Danny staring in a stupor to another reality, the boy passed it around his friends until they decided to leave Danny be.

Stepping back into the real world, Danny put the tablet down. "That was weird. I really need to write this stuff down. But first I need to get this stuff out of here." Danny turned back to Zeta. "Hey, this might sound weird, but can you help me take these tablets to the store room. I don't want any of these kids touching them. Make sure to cover them and don't touch them though. They're old. Oh, I don't think I caught your name either."

Looking down at the exhibit, he noticed the last name, or finally recognized it anyway. Alpha had said something about a family with the last name a time or two, but it was soemthing that he sort of put out of his head until now. ”Sounds like it kinda sucks.” He would state, mostly about the having to show new kids around, even if he wasn't too familiar with the whoole being important to something department. True enough some of the newer generations looked up to him for some reason, he wouldn't consider himself anything special. A quip was made about most of the girls around here, and from what he could tell of that Veronica girl, it was not a lie by any means, yet sadly his teenage self was....well teenaged.

Towards the back of the room something crashed, causing his head to jerk as he turned towards the source of the commotion with widened eyes, body almost instantly in a mode of self defense. Seemingly some snot nosed freshman had broken something, garnering the approval of the others but really annoying the girl. She would yell at them, and threaten her wrath, though all he could tell was that she planned to unleash said wrath from the tone taken. The reply from the underclassmen however was something that even he could not help but cringe at. It sounded perhaps too dickish, and if the context could be believed, then it was very dickish. What followed was a slap breaking across his face, leaving a small imprint upon the kids face and an impressed expression upon Zeta's.

”Dayum.” he muttered to himself, stroking his chin softly as Danny turned back to him. If someone had talked trash he would have punched them, but then again that was what kept Alpha from letting him go into public places. Turning to Danny, he saw what looked like an almost distant expression, as if her mind was beginning to zone out and then in a second she was back. Not even an hour here, and already these humans were beginning to catch his interest. His attention vaguely fell upon someone reaching into her purse and removing a bracelet, yet his mind had drifted off too far to actually stop it. ”I'm sure I could help ya.” He said with a nod, still impressed by the whole display.

”By the way, names Aaron. Aaron masters.” He would add before looking around for something to cover these tablets with, and doing so. It wasn't anything too difficult to do, and within a few minutes he had that done, carefully piling them up, and lifting these tablets up, resting against his torso. ”So...um...Danny right? Lead the way to the store room, I have like no idea where I is.” He said with a genial smirk motioning with his head to lead the way.

Once all of the tablets stacked against Aaron's chest, Danny began to lead him on the storage room. She released a loud sigh of frustration as she passed by through the rest of her classmates. "Sorry things got a little out of control there. I haven't been having a good month or so, since I got a new extracurricular. It did give me some really big dirt to spill on someone..."

"And where are you going Miss Tamamoa?" A man with a mustache covering most of his face stepped to intercept Danny and Aaron.

"One of the underclassmen almost broke a tablet. I need to take the rest of of them into storage to do damage control."

"And who told you to do that, Missy?"

"It's not 'Missy', it's Miss Tamamoa. You know, the same name as the one on this building. And by the way, I gave myself permission, because if you didn't notice, I'm named as under executor of this display." The mustache retracted from her way and turned to return to tell some young boys to stop running. "Sir." Danny didn't particularly like throwing around the rich girl routine or undermining someone simply doing their job, a job that in most circumstances would help Danny, but she needed to get these ancient artifacts back.

Reaching into her purse, Danny pulled out a pair of keys and slid them into the lock. The storage room was no mop closet. Spanning three stories, a catwalk lined the entire room, housing piles of crates all filled with artifacts, displays, and other props Danny's parents always sent to try and make the exhibit a little more colorful. "I've got a workroom back here. Just set them down here on this table and I can try to figure out what these things are."

Once the tablets slid into the grips, Danny would place her hands on the tablet she observed before. The same waterfall appeared. But this time she could see a fire burning inside the cave behind the cascade. A man held a rod over the fire. As he turned in, the rod failed to burn, but in the corner of the room an identical rod began to spark and kindle. Gently, Danny let go. "Okay. I have no idea what these things are,and this will probably sound really crazy,  but for some reason, when I touch this thing I can see primitive sorcerers. Yeah, that sounded really crazy. I think I'm going to stick around here for a while, I didn't know if you wanted to go check out your classes or not, just stay away from Veronica or anyone who says they 'want to show you how good private school can be'."

With all of the tablets rasting against his chest, he followed along behind Danny humming a low and almost happy tune to himself. ”Dirt to spill on someone? Sounds pretty...nice.” He said with a curious hum, adjusting the tablets within hsia rms, realzing how heavy they were once he thought about them. H ehad heard interesting things about Alpha revealing his true face, but that just didn't sound like him, so Zeta had not really thought about that. He was too caught within thought to even see the moustachoid man step before them, stopping any sort of proceeding.

They were going to put away some of these tablets, but he planned to let Danny answer for them, as she had more of an aidea what they were doing than he did. The whole underclassmen breaking the tablet was true, and cosnidering how important these things were to both of them, he couldn't go around letting them break things. Honestly, part of him felt like punching them now but that would have been drawn far too much attention for his own good. He had tablets to steal, and getting brought to the office would have been too much trouble.

Danny telling off the old man done, they would continue with walking through the hallway, towards the storage room. However, the storage room was pretty large, soemthing that reminded him more of his personal room, minus the weights and things like that. Setting the tablets down upon the table, he sighed softly and enjoyed the relief that his back was given from carrying them. ”Yeah, they look pretty interestin.” He agreed, removing the cover from one of the tablets and giving it a cursory glance. It was while examining that Danny spoke about something, touching the tablets and seeing ancient sorcerers. It took him a few secodns to consider this, and how crazy it sounded.

”Sounds pretty crazy but ey. We live in a world where people breathe fire, so its not too much of a stretch.” He said with a shrug and an almost chaismatic smirk.

”Enough flirting, get the damn tablets.” Omega would remind him within his mind, though flirting would have beenn a stretch for what he was doing. He would have to steal them, though part of him didn't want to. Still, if Alpha wanted it, he would get it with or without Zeta's help, so he would have to go along with the whole plan.

”Makes this so much harder.” He noted with a sigh, sure that this next move would not damage the tablets, one arm quickly shooting outwards in direct collision with the beck of the females neck, hopefully with enough force to knock her out. It was a swift motion, though anyone with enough skill could have avoided and even turned it around on him. Why he was going for a knock out was unknown, but he was doing so anyway.

"Yeah, this does get pretty hard, but..." Luckily, Danny turned her shoulder right as Zeta went for her neck, hitting her pretty hard right in the bicep. "Ow, what the..." Now she could see through his intentions. "You think it will be that easy." Danny grabbed his shoulders and would knee him between the legs to buy herself sometime to grab her purse. Opening the clutch, Danny dug through, rearranging make up and her wallet, but not coming across her bracelet. "How did it leave? I never leave it..." Imagining the worst in Aaron, Danny immediately tried to trip him, but her moves lacked precision and speed. "What did you do with my bracelet?! I'm going to get help."

The metal clasp of her purse would strike out to try and connect with Aaron's face. A little easier than trying to trip someone and possibly a little more painful. Turning to back away, she would hurl her purse at Aaron for another shot at his face. Danny stumbled a bit on her turn, but kept her balance. Years of dance and gymnastics had to count for something. The clicking of the wooden sole of her dress shoes agitated the inside of her foot when she tried picking up her pace a bit, but she needed to get to the door to yell for security to give her a hand. All she needed was her bracelet back. "Once I get that bracelet, you're going down like Veronica on any day that ends in 'Y'."

Seemed this whole manuever would end this in one swift manuever, but he had not thought about human error, and his fist collided with her shoulder, flesh colliding with knuckles as the reverb would travel up his arm. It would probbaly bruise, but Zeta was not the type to go around beating uo girls, making this even worse for him. He had extended himself too far forward, enough that any counter attack would have likely had some success. A hand gripped onto his shoulder, and the knee came hard, slamming between his legs and sending an unimaginable pain through his entrie body, including the groin. Despite being made of some prwtty tough stuff, it seemed she had hit him in his weak spot, drawing a strangled curse from the male. ”Ah..f..fuck.” he growled, falling to the ground and holding hands over the kneed area.

”Damn...that was just low.” He muttered, rapidly trying to recover from the strike, though pain like that was not something that would just go away quickly. Moving to his feet, she would demand to know about where that bracelet was, though honestly he had no idea where it was. Metal slammed into his face, forcing him back as blooc would dribble from his nose, and he slammed agains the wall. This girl was pretty good, not as good as him but she seemed to be doing well enough to even keep himf rom throwing out a few moves. This time however, when the purse came flying, he would reach out and snatch it out of the air, looking to it before letting it fall to the ground. ”You're not going anywhere” With a twitch of the hand, a flame would leap from his index and middle finger, curling outward ahead of Danny and serving more as a deterrent than actually trying to harm her.

Omega had taught him well. ”Now be a good girl and stop running.” He was already in motion, going as fast as his legs would lert him, and aiming to slam a fist into her solar plexus.

This guy could run. Good to know, but Danny prided herself on her athletic ability. Sadly, she did not train in how to avoid fire, so when his meta abilities came out, Danny fell back. Her best path to the door couldn't be accessed just yet, but she could still turn to dish out a little punishment. She lowered her stance to try to avoid him tackling her, but instead found his fist striking her in the chest. "Ow, you punched me in the boob." Winded, Danny slumped back towards a crate. Knowing she couldn't fight his fire and physical prowess while sitting on the floor, Danny tried to get back to her feet and launch an attack.

With her bracelet and the knowledge of fighters past, Danny could take this guy easily, but now she couldn't wrap up her grab around his waist on time. She clumsily tried grabbing her wrist, fighting with herself for sometime until trying to lift him off of his feet. Never before did she attempt this without the warrior spirit giving her some lifting advice, so on this try, Danny merely put all the force against her she used to hold Aaron. Her grip broke and Danny fell to the ground. She put her hands out to hold herself up, but stayed on the ground. She lifted one knee up to start ascension, but realized she did not know what to do. "I'm kind of having a bad day. Looks like you figured out how to get me to help you rob my parent's exhibit, but it doesn't mean I'm going along with any of this." Grabbing the handle of her purse, Danny tossed it to hit Aaron square in the head, but from her position and demeanor, it would be an easily dodged or caught throw. "Gotta any plans without concussions?"

His fist slammed into her chest, knocking the wind from her lungs and seemingly weakening the female. He winded upon striking, wishing he could end this without too much effort, because then he could get to just stealing everything. Sluming against the crate, Danny would let off something about him punching her in the boob. ”You know I wouldn't have to if you just let me take the tablets.” he said with a low growl, feeling only worse for having to beat someoen up, but life was what it was. A hand would attempt to grip at his wrist, pressure exterted considerable, but not enough to cause pain, and the grip rapidly failed as she fell to the ground. Was he beginning to feel bad for her now?

On the ground, it looked as if she would try to rise again, but stopped as soon as that started. ”I'm not exactly enjoying this.” He grumbled, catching sight of her attempting to throw her purse at him again, and moved his head out of the way. ”That's kind of my entire plan. Not getting concussions, stealing tablets and avoiding learning how good private school can be.” He replied, turning from the female and looking over the tablets, walking towards them and considering already trying the stealing bit. ”Don't go anywhere, or I might have to turn up the heat again.”

"Exactly how are you getting them out of here? You can't just walk through the middle of a private school with priceless artifacts, and the minute you leave me alone, I'm going to find security and get them back." Danny brought her knee to her chest, hugging it as she leaned over to call back to her work room. The work room currently experiencing an invasion. No use trying to talk sense into this guy. "There's so many guys like you. You get all these powers and then you work for someone. You work for someone right?" Her head fell back against the wall. "Of course you do. You're not playing a part. That's your actual personality and no one with that pension would be smart enough to pull off this heist or be interested in relics. You'd probably rob a convenience store and then burn yourself alive by igniting the fuel pumps."

Walls between the rooms were thinly constructed, letting Danny hear what Aaron was up to. Unfortunately, it went the other way. Without trying to make too much noise, Danny reached over to grab some a rope used to secure the crates. She hatched a plan, but like most of them, it was conceived under duress and contained many fall points. She kept throwing the rope out to her purse. "I'm surprised you have the composure to even look at priceless things without breaking them to see if there's gold inside." The make shift lasso wrapped around her purse. "There isn't. Please don't break them." Dragging her purse to her body, she came up with an interesting enough of a weapon. Almost mace like in manner, if she secured the knot around the handle, she could swing the purse like the business end of a flail and use the rope to generate force. "HELP! HELP!" Danny began to scream in order to get Aaron's attention. Time to see how good her little weapon proved to be.

Stepping to her feet, Danny would try to aim for Aaron's head, before trying to grapple one of his arms with the rope and pin him. How she would deal with the fire didn't come to mind just yet, but these plans could change.

”You'd be surprised. By the time anyone around is aware of whats going on, i'll have the tablets out of here. I know what i'm doing.” his voice was still somehat crass, but one could sense a shaking undertone if they listened close enough. He could hear the female talking out of the corner of his peripherial, each word probably meant to be scathing and they were in some fashion. Maybe she was trying to get into his head, and that was actually working. ”You have no idea why i'm doing this.” He said with a scoff, feeling that presence at the corner of his mindm silently pushing him to go faster, as calm and kind as it was.

He was acting out of respect, maybe love even, but mostly the prior thing. Yet at the same time Alpha had told him to respect humans, and beating one of them up kind of defeated that whole thing, by brutally punching it in the face. ”Of course i'm not going to break them.” He stated, turnning to be struck in the face by....something, more blood welling up from a busted lip and the taste of iron sliding along his tongue. Within this moment, she would grab onto one of his arms, and force him into a hold, pressing his face down against the floor, in an almost disgraceful display. ”Hey..get off .” he grumbled, trying to push him off with a small amount of struggling, though this hold made it difficult to escape from.

A few ideas on how to escape would flash through his mind, though they did not sound as great as they would have been, as burning people was never a good idea within his mind. Flames would leap upwards from his shoulder, crawling down his back in a way to perhaps dissuade her from holding him down, rather than actually trying to burn Danny. Though, he would make sure it seemed like that to her, and if that worked he would rapidly swing his legs about in an attempt to force her back and then get to his knees, though if that did not work he would have to be more creative.

One of her better quickly drawn up plans. The amount of work it did almost made up for the little element she completely remembered to forget about. "Stop that!" She spun off of his back, but bounced back towards him, still tethered from the rope. With the man's hostile flames keeping her from getting too close, Danny needed another means of beating Aaron. "Wait, you said your name was Masters? Your brother is Travis. He sent you." Occasionally a piece would need some welding done to mend it or fix the edges of a display. While pulling out welding equipment to burn Aaron sounded good, it would take too much effort to pull the entire kit around. Instead she found herself interested in the gloves the crew always used. If it could fend off welding sparks, it could possibly give her a little protection from fire.

Running in the opposite direction of the door leading back to the auditorium, Danny made her way towards the side equipment room. She grabbed the gloves and quickly slid her hands in. How much impact her fist could do wearing it still needed some testing, but Danny could stay away from some burn marks. Danny looked down to see a few holes in her shirt expending a trail of ash down onto her skirt. "You're lucky I never liked this uniform much to begin with." Danny shot out of the equipment room and now only had one goal in mind: get past Aaron and escape through the door behind him. "Get out of the way or become the trail!"