The line [invite only]

Unconciousness had claimed Alpha for a long time, until atlast he would surface, grasping above the waves of darkness that had pulled his mind under. A hand had been tapping on his cheek, trying to awaken him, the sight of Omega looking face level with him, expressions twisted with that look of worry. The pain within his side was a phantom one, a memory that only surfaced when focused upon. ”Alpha, you've been out a while.” his awareness would heighten as he slowly forced himself up, white shirt stained with dark red, yet there was no wound beneath it.

”They escaped, didn't they?” He would question, voice coming out in a tremble as he pushed himself to his feet. A sharp pain pulsed through his skull, followed by a small stream of blood trickling from his nostril, the taste the only thing really giving him awareness of the phenomenon.

”Only one did. Beta tied her up, she is awaiting in your main office.” omega answered, taking on a concerned tone. ”Have you been taking your medication?”

”This isn't the time for this.” Alpha snapped, brushing him off and stepping through the lab door, the facility seemingly in pristine condition, though he was surprised that it was so. It would only take him a few mintes to reach his office, where a bound Danny would be, though hopefully this had been done properly. He had enough of the human outdoing him or his family. ”Looks like things went better than expected.” He stated, waiting for her to regain consciousness, before addressing her personally. ”That was a cute attempt your friend made. ” It would have been successful, should have been successful, and why it had not been was something that Alpha had been wondering. Still, he could not let the girl see any weakness within him, even with the shirt stained with his own blood.

”However, they were only half successful. One thing they did leave me with was a useful bargaining chip.”
–
It was the meeting room of the Prodigy base that the message broke through in, the large screen flashing as an image flashed across it. It was a simple one, the backdrop looked much like that of a dirty warehouse, and standing in the cameras range was a man dressed in a black leather jacket, shirt and jeans following suit, and with a black mask over his face. Yet behind him one could see someone, a figure tied to a chair, a bag over their head and dressed in a white dress. ”Woah...that is not good.” Ryan would mutter, looking a little surprised by the sudden screen broadcast.

”Greetings young heroes of Prodigy.” He started off almost welcoming. ”I am Alpha, and I have a member of yours. I won't bore you with details, but its simple. There are 8 tablets, ones that were taken from me. If you wish to see your friend again, I want them brought to me at these coordinates within the next hour.” The coordinates would flash across the screen for a few minutes, enough time to write them down and then it would blank.

A rolling suit case bounced along the cracks in the concrete coming out of LAX. Bliss decided to undertake a promising business venture with assisting in funding a group of young crime fighters. But, LA was a little too smoggy right now, so she pulled Abby out of Australia and sent her on her way. Putting the few items she traveled with into a suitcase, Abby enjoyed economy class for a transoceanic flight. Her phone gave her an address to find along with a text from Bliss explaining "Only an idiot would say 'take me to Prodigy HQ', so give them this address." Sometimes Abby wondered if life in the business world would be as bad as working for Bliss.

Abby decided to stick it to Bliss and told the cab driver to take her to Prodigy HQ with a swell of confidence. When she received no answer, Abby just gave him the address and enjoyed a taxi ride in complete silence.

A large, empty blackness turned into a white spot. The white spot further grew into the sterile surroundings of the white walls; Danny didn't need to struggle against the ropes binding her hands and arms to know she remained a captive. "This isn't my cell." In all honesty, she could hardly tell the difference between the rooms between the concussion and the sameness of each room. "They stole the tablets?" No wonder her fire starting abilities subsided. It made Danny smile still. "They still have the tablets. All you have is an opportunity to fail in this attempt." With faith in her friends, Danny didn't need to fear the horrible situation she found herself in. A round of apologies might go out to her fellow heroes for forcing them to take time away from other ordeals to stage a rescue, but the rescue would come.

But, who would be rescued?

Danny and Ellen traveled together for most of the leg down to LA, tied back to back. Ellen's displeasure with the situation sounded out to fill in the bagged Danny on the displeasure of someone who deserved displeasure. "So, this is the most useful they could find for you to do? I'm guessing since they didn't wait til LA to tie you up, this wasn't a volunteer assignment." With nothing else to do, Danny really tried to push her luck to get Ellen bent out of shape to the point where she would either spill the plan or require Beta to gag her. Either would be funny to Danny.

Part way down the road, Ellen left for worst pastures, or at least Danny assumed the worst of Ellen. The plan started to set in. Prodigy would trade the tablets for the wrong hostage. Alpha would keep Danny for himself to go through the tablets and she would be in the same bad position. "So if this plan works and you get me and the tablets, what next?"

"Okay, what next?" Abby dropped her bag next to a stone up-cropping before turning invisible. Turning invisible made Abby a good test subject for most meta security devices, so she would put this place to the test. Tossing a rock from the flower bed through a window, Abby then went to the front door for someone to come check on the ruckus, so she could slide in through an open door instead of cutting her stealth suit crawling through broken glass. Now she just needed to find the meeting room and she could- hey these guys had a good set up. Teenage heroes with a penchant for a lavish lifestyle; this would be a much better assignment than keeping track of Seagirl. Distractions subsided as Abby entered the meeting room of the Prodigy complex when an announcement ushered in the red headed talent. "Enter the Abby"



And then all of her glory in that one moment subsided as the hostage video began to take over their giant monitor.

Kid Hero bases probably didn't put much money into guards or security systems, but there was a nose on the premises that had Abby's scent. The nose was attached to Xiao, who was sleeping on a couch, sleeping of a headache for the past few days. The scent of a familiar being stirred her from her sleep, when a kidnapping video did not.

Laying on the couch right next to where Abby stood, Xiao spoke in a most un-Xiao-like voice. "Hmmmm. What's this... an intruder? A thief? I can't see you... but can smell you... I hear your breath... I feel your air... where are you? come out... step into the light..." She rolled over and Abby came eye to eye with a being with dark, terrible eyes.

Then, just like that, Xiao snapped out of it, sat up, then started yawning, like she just woke up and wasn't totally quoting Smaug. She watched the video and the instructions. Of course being born in the new millennium she just took a screenshot with her mobile device.

"What... Danny's been taken? We have to go save her. Where are those tablet things?" She got out of the couch and got started headed behind a screen to change into her hero suit. "Oh, I think we have an invisible guest. Hi Abby." She added while slipping on knee pads and gloves to her ensemble, to take the attention away from the swimsuit look.

Silus was on his way to save Danny. After having enjoyed dinner at Red Lobster with Ryan and his dad. Of course Silus couldn't help but think that Zell didn't want Ryan there. He probably thought that since Zell felt the need to respond to Ryan saying "Hi Zell!" with "YOU DON'T LIVE HERE!". Silus played it smooth. He was a smooth criminal. He was so smooth people wanted to trade their soft babies in for his smoothness. Of course Silus' definition of being smooth was having nonchalantly drawn a tranquilizer gun and shooting Zell in the neck...and just telling Ryan he forgot to take his medicine. After twenty minutes and assistance form Ryan they managed to stuff Zell into the driver seat and slap him awake to drive them. They had this down to a science now. Maybe he did spend too much time with Ryan, maybe it would be-oh hey look it's the lobster tank.

  The waitress was nice, she got the drinks right thankfully. Silus generally liked to get Limeade when available, if not it was water. He loved water, he loved trying to corrupt Ryan into using his water to splash people at other tables, or better yet try to freeze other peoples water. Then it came time for breaded Calamari and the famous butter biscuits. All in all, dinner was pretty fantastic. Especially when Zell let his "dad" personna drop for a minute and tried to get Ryan to manipulate the water in the lobster tank to trap the lobsters and then drop them on peoples heads. In the middle of dinner though. The occasional gasp and scare was hysterical, the table hardly was able to keep their composure, especially when the manager eyes Zell who had the dumbest grin on his face. Of course that's when it all went wrong. You see the waitress returned and suddenly she had Danny's face. Woah, okay that was creepy. Of course he wrote it off as coincidence. Then he looked to the table across the room, and a girl there looked just like Danny. Oh boy, okay. The manager walked up, and in a deep booming voice this six foot dark skinned man with the voice of Samuel L. Jackson spoke. "Sir I need you to come with me for a moment please." In mid sentence his normal head turned into Danny's head on the body of a big hulking black guy.

  "I'm sorry what?" Zell asked, playing dumb.
 "What? Boy Say what again. SAY WHAT AGAIN!" the waiter said...with Danny's head.

  This must be what guilt felt like. Silus had left her there for Red Lobster. He felt bad. Quickly he reached over and took two biscuits and put them in a napkin, wrapping them up neatly. There. When he rescued her later he could give those to her. All guilt gone. Zell got up and went with the scary man with the Danny head. When Zell returned they finished their meal in peace and then went their separate ways. Silus made sure to keep the artery-clogging buttery rolls of god-like goodness safe in a small bag before arming himself to the teeth with a blanket and couch pillow. Now he was ready to take a nap. He could save Danny later. He closed his eyes and sighed. He could almost hear her voice haunting him. "Help me!" It wasn't a pleading way either. It was just kinda like a command. Like she was saying to help her. "Hey I said to help me." He heard her voice echo. Then there was silence. Silus sighed ans relaxed into the couch with a smile. The legs of the couch broke though and he dropped and rolled off into the floor, the kid jumped up, heart racing at a hundred miles an hour.

   "OKAY! I'll help, I'll help. Sheesh." Stupid pretty girls. Their sexist agenda of puppetting cosmic forces and mind controlling dudes by scary dream walking.  Silus buried his hands in his pockets and walked out the door, en route to find out how to get back to Canada. Thus here we are.

Ryan
--
So someone had been kidnapped by a mystery person on the screen, which meant that he would have to do heroic things. Well, that was what Ryan thought as he stared at the screen for a  little bit, considering the numbers that flash across the screen, though by the time he was halfway through reading them the screen was blank. ”Crap...I have no idea where i'm supposed to go.” Ryan muttered, stroking his chin and digging around in the pockets of his jeans for his phone, until he found it. Maybe Silus would know what to do, he always seemed to know what to do, so there was always the small hope that he could. Swiping along the screen, he mostly ignored the strange woman that had wondered into their base, looking for the icon that had denoted Silus and pressed the little call button. It had probably only been around...an hour or so since he last saw Silus, so maybe he would not be bothering him too much.

Pressing the phone to his ear, he would wait for Silus to answer.”Hey Silus, I kinda need you at the Prodigy base.” He would hang up, and wait, before noticing the strange woman. Ryan blinked a couple of times, not really having noticed her until now, meaning that she had some way if sneaking into the base, thought that was not too hard when you thought about it. ”Who are you?” he would ask finally, blinking a couple of times, and waiting for some kind of answer. ”Wait...I don't care. We gotta save Danny.” he decided, shooting to his feet and shoving the phone back into his pockets, not wanting to let his friend stay in the clutches of those evil dudes. Ryan would save her, with the power of water or whatever.

Alpha
–
Once Danny and her decoy had been separated, Alpha would have her brought to a personal safe house of his, the room for the most part much like her room within his lab.”You actually managed to demonstrate the power of the tablets, or so i've surmised Miss Tamamoa. First creating the dagger, and then conjuring flames with them. That trick with the fire extinguisher was also impressive.” Alpha would turn upon his heels, considering her with harsh gray eyes. ”I would be testing a hypothesis, whether the dagger and tablets are simply a point by which you are capable of accessing a power within yourself, or just an unknown power source. Either way, its something i'm rather curious about. I would want to see what I could do with that power, beyond simply starting a few fires.”

"Yeah! Tuh dah! I broke in here just in time to save the day." For someone with a lack of credibility, Abby brought a great deal of confidence to the room. "I've got a good idea of where we start. Xiao..." Abby turned to the heroine who welcomed her with something more than 'I don't care'. "...Come up with a plan by punching stuff until the bad guys give us Denise back." With a pound of her fist, Abby tried to convey a tone so others would find her useful for something other than making her invisibly spy on bad guys in very dangerous situations. "They're in a warehouse. I mean, how many of those could there be in Los..." Abby confirmed the number of locations. "Well, crap. Maybe we can retrace the feed?"

The vans split up Danny and Ellen before either one of them could say anything the other would truly be offended by, but unfortunately, Danny still did not get any information out of her companion. Once the van pulled up to the private estate, Danny found herself escorted up the paved walkway and ushered into another prison compartment. A man took the bag off her head, but kept her hands tied behind her back. "How many freaky dungeons do you own? What real estate agent do you use?" Alpha lost most of his tolerance for Danny with her last few stunts it would seem, but still hoped to come across as somewhat helpful to her. "Well, then let me see the tablets and I'll..." Danny leaned back in her chair. "Oh, that's right. I guess we can just sit here and enjoy each other's company until Prodigy gets here to take care of business. I've dealt with Gamma before. I am not very confident your plan will work. But, I'll send you a picture of the tablets some time. Maybe shoot you an E-mail about what I find in there."

Xiao fiddled with her device to forward the screenshot of the coordinates to Silus, then calls his number, then hands her impact resistant phone to Ryan. "Get Silus to figure out where these are, and we might have to visit each place. Or have him do something... with the base computer. We can do that along the way. I'll meet you two outside."

Xiao's headache was developing again. She thought these super migraines were gone, but now they were back with a vengeance. Being pressed for time she couldn't call for medical aid. "No resisting this time." She quickly headed to open space, and before she knew it she had initiated her transformation. Thankfully a grassy lawn took the brutal change better than pavement, as only the gardener would be hurt when some grass and some flower beds, and maybe some garden gnomes were smashed up. Xiao groaned and roared as she transformed.

Dragon Xiao though, was unusually calmer than usual. She looked at her team without letting out an ear splitting roar or looking like she could use a snack. "Get on. We're flying, and we'll figure something on the way. And we'll make these fools who took our comrade answer for their crime." Such heavy english from the usually roar happy dragon. Also, apparently, talking Dragon Xiao had no indoor voice.

The phone was buzzing. Silus reached into his pocket and there was a picture of Ryan with his tongue stuck to a flag pole. HA! freaking classic. Silus held the phone up to his ear and yawned. "Hey Ry-Hey Silus, I kinda need you at the Prodigy base" before hanging up on him. Silus heard the dead tone and pulled his phone away to glare at it. Maybe if he glared long enough at it some cosmic bullcrap would befall Ryan for his rudeness. After three minutes he sighed and decided he'd make his way to the prodigy base when he saw a massive dragon in the lawn.

  "Yeah, no 'cuz this is like...totally normal." Silus scoffed as he watched everyone seemed to pile over to the dragon while civilians were all screaming about the roaring dragon. "Yeah guys because nothing says "covert rescue mission" like storming in riding a dragon the size of a small house." He sighed as his phone buzzed. He looked down to see a list of coordinates. He quickly forwarded them to his father. That lazy guy could do it. Silus was still trying to understand what the heck was going on.

  "Anytime someone wants to tell me what's going on I'll totally listen. Unless it's Ryan, then I'll just rudely interrupt you and plug my ears after I do so." Silus said to Ryan with an arched eyebrow ans a smirk, not really bitter about it but more of a subtle friendly jab. "Hey Smaug, quit your scaring the people." Silus told Xiao before looking to Abby. "Whose the new girl?" He asked. What the hell happens around here? Seriously he was gone for like two days and they're having a fright fest in the front yard. Ryan was right, these guys need help alright...

Ryan
–
Ryan looked to Xiao and nodded, though he had already gone through the whole calling Silus thing, so he didn't really need to do that again. So that just meant waiting for him to arrive, and then possibly he could help with the whole thing involving saving his friend. Well, until Xiao had decided to transform out infront of the base, releasing a loud roar that he could have easily heard from his location. Upon running outside, he would see the large dragon standing upon the lawn, except not trying to devour them all like some kind of snack. ”Woah.” Ryan breathed in awe, not really having seen a dragon before, this was a first. Sadly this was drawing a lot of attention, which would not be good for the heroes considering that people tended to fear large scaly reptiles.

He was however somewhat happy to see Silus arrive, until the comment that made him shrink back a little. The young metahuman smiled awkwardly, trying to remember what he did, and sadly coming up with nothing. Then again it came with being very dense, so...well there was nothing being defended, so time to move on with this post. ”I...um...apparently Danny was kidnapped by some weirdo in a mask. Says he wants some kinda tablets and he'll give her back. Do you know what he means?” He would ask, peering out from around the massive dragon. ”I don't know who the girl is though, she just kinda showed up.”

Alpha
–
”Freaky dungeons come with being an evil genius.” Whether that was sarcasm or not was difficult to discern. ”You shouldn't be quick to dismiss my plans however.  Lets just say I have a backup prepared.” Bringing himself eye level with Danny, he smirked. ”After all, despite the setbacks, I still captured you. A few children shouldn't be too difficult.”

Sean
–
”Coordinates? Don't I have an app for that?” Sean wondered aloud, fingers tapping along the touch screen of his phone and actually finding something like that. Of course it was one of those third party apps designed by a tech save friend of his, but that's unimportant, all that mattered was that it got him the info he needed. Once it was done, he would type in the location given to him by the whole app thing. Got the stuff, here u r. That was followed by the address being sent.

Choosing another day to show up to help Prodigy may have helped with timing, but it definitely made it exciting. And, a little confusing. "I guess I should introduce myself a little further. My name is Abby and I've been sent by Bliss Fokukama in order to see if she wants to invest in this group. I was going to see how easy it was to break in and how you would react, but now I guess I can make my report based on what happens next."

Even though she knew what Xiao could do, it always came as unnerving, especially with the new voice Xiao brought with her. "Um, so, do I get a suit and equipment, or this is bring your own stuff kind of operation?"

"It took your entire family of rejects threatening people- you know what, I'm not going to get into this. You captured one out of an entire group and one kid managed to steal your tablets out from under your nose." Danny sat confined to her chair. No use in struggling when she would be entirely unable to escape with someone eying her the entire time. "I just hope you have a plan that calms down Xiao after she starts burning your face."

"Well. Adapt. Sorry, I didn't want to change, and It's one of those days where I can't explain why things are, For one. I'm vaguely aware I'm Big. Also, I met Abby here in Korea. Seagirl and I saved her. It's a long story. Now get on. I'll try to fly above the cloud line and Silus can tell me where to go. We have to hurry. Danny's in trouble and who knows what they're going to do." Dragon!Xiao was just reasonable enough to speak to Silus rather than order him around, as no such thing was implemented in Prodigy. But it should be. Being ordered around by these simian Jackanapes, really.

Xiao lowered herself just so they could climb on that less spiky part of her back. If any of them tell her to barrel roll she'll oblige of course. Just then an old lady starts passing by the Prodigy base's yard. She stares in abject surprise at Xiao, mouth agape. Yes, look at the majestic creature and be awed.

"Please don't be scared. I am Apparently on your side." Xiao tries to calm her down. As if that would really work.

But of course, the old lady got scared and started running away, screaming "Dragon! The L.A. Dragon is back!" Yes indeed, she had returned, and she had an inner voice with it.

"Hmph. Silly humans." Once all her passengers were securely on, Xiao would lift off with powerful wing beats, flying through the sky with grace and speed. She would fly above the thankfully abundant cloud cover and speed towards where Silus told her to go.

Silus was taken back by Xiao as he blinked. He didn't know what he wanted to do. He wanted to cry, but not like a little child. Part of him just went...cold. The inner life that was burning in his little tummy went out and all child-like vibrancy was drained from him. He had never been more insulted in his life. He had never felt more under minded and forgotten. The literal and proverbial glow faded from his indigo eyes as he was literally just sucked clean of the life.

"Nice to meet you Abby.No need to look here folks! Sorry, we forgot to turn the holo-projector away from the window! It's not a real dragon. We sincerely apologies." Silus said after waving his hand to Abby with a crestfallen smile and creating the illusion that Xiao and the others weren't actually there. He turned and walked around to Xiao, facing her dead serious. "Adapt? Okay you, stop talking." Silus snapped his finger and on top of it the illusion completely muted Xiao, no matter how much she roared or tried she wouldn't be heard.

"Adapt? I'm not even part of this stupid group, and I had to make a choice that cost me my best friend and the only person whose ever believed in me so you could get that girl. I'm here now, not even part of this thing and you order me around? Where do you get off?" Silus said before backing up and looking around. Poor little guy was crying tears of rage now, for the first time in his life he was actually enraged. It had to happen some time. He backed away and looked to Ryan, shaking his head.

"Yeah... I know ALL ABOUT the tablets because the girl asked me to take them and run. I did and when I went back to try and save her I couldn't. Just like I couldn't save Yancey. But it's okay... I'll adapt. But you know what? I have the coordinates. So SMAUG why don't you pull yourself out of the dark ages and learn how to use a computer." He scoffed before walking up to Ryan. "Old warehouse on the other side of the state. Have fun with your friends." He grumbled as he suddenly vanished, Void walking back to his house in order to look over the tablets for himself.

These could have the secret to bringing Yancey back right? But it was selfishly keep these and- he actually hadn't even thought of keeping them. Inherently he knew the right thing to to..so he was going to do it. He was going to to the warehouse... then Slay the dragon and save the princess. Actually that was a terrible analogy since his friend- well... since Yancey's friend was a dragon. The little Eleven year old picked up very specific tablets and inspected them. They all had magical emissions, they all looked akin to one and other in the group. It was actually impossible for Silus to know which ones were real. He'd take the motion to simply dismiss many of the painted slabs before seeing the real ones and heading off.

He wasn't going to do this WITH prodigy it seems. But it didn't matter. Doing good was its own reward. He promised the girl he was coming back for her... so he was going back. If it killed him.

Ryan
–
Ryan wasn't really sure what had happened, blinking a couple of times while trying to figure out what exactly had happened. Dragon Girl had said something, though it seemed to piss Silus off, or so the angry crying suggested, though the sight was enough to cause his heart to drop into his stomach. The rain which was only a light drizzle had begun to pick up slightly, though all he could do was stand there dumbfounded, well more than usual anyway. All he got was old warehouse on the other side of the state, though that was not a place he was aware of really. What the hell was on the other side of the state anyway? Wait, what state was he even in? ”Wait....” before he could ask where that was, Silus was gone and he was....confused. ”I.....don't know where were supposed to be going.” He was actually lost there, and then came the whole imagining the worst case scenario.
Alpha
–
”You beat up children barely past their first years. Congratulations, you are a paragon of martial prowess.” Alpha said almost mockingly with a smirk, a screen appearing from behind a panel within the wall and revealing a stream of the warehouse. ”You'll see the dragon will be no problem at all. Now relax, and enjoy some quality television”

With the tension rising to an uncomfortable level, Abby naturally just turned invisible to avoid any displays of tempers. She decided just to accept the answer of 'no' on getting any equipment, and that worked for her. Xiao seemed to know where she was the first time, so Abby got on Xiao in her still invisible form. Abby came out of her stealthy state to see exactly what state Xiao looked to be in. "So, this might be an odd time to bring it up, but I haven't seen Seagirl in some time. She may have just gone off on some kind of sabbatical, but we can look into that later. Hey! We can do it as Prodigy, because I'm not sure if you've heard, but it looks like everyone here really wants me to stay." Abby was taken aback for a minute. "That means I don't work for Bliss anymore, so she can't send me to watch out for Hanna any more. You know what, forget I said anything about Seagirl. She's fine. She's the best girl in the sea."

"So what's your excuse for getting outsmarted by a kid, letting a seventeen year old stall you while someone stole your prize, and then letting that seventeen year old beat you into a prison cell- oh, that one hasn't happened yet. I forgot to tell you I have farsight. It's why I'm called The Sphinx. Are there any other fortunes you want me to read." While Danny continued on with her charade, Travis turned on a television before Danny. She focused in to try and see exactly what the action before her entailed. "Deluge and Dragon Girl will be here soon. That's another vision I'm getting."

Xiao attempted to speak but she was muted for her trouble. She tried to let out an angry roar but found no sound come from her maw. She lowered her head in temporary defeat, then turned around to look at Abby as she spoke about Seagirl. Her draconic eyes conveyed meaning where her silence could not.

Do I look like I have something to say about Seagirl at the moment?

The dragon lifted off and homed in on a warehouse on the other side of the state in a not so shabby time, those muscles of hers propelling the dragon through the damp clouds that were omnipresent whenever Deluge was around. At least his power provided a convenient means of not sending the whole city into cowering mode. She landed with the grace of a battleship in a ballerina outfit around the warehouse.

She sniffed the air for the scent of Danny, letting her team hop off and hoping they could do better. She peered into the warehouse through a high open window. Perhaps the sight of a large dragon would do something than cause public hysteria and generate a panic epidemic. Like, miraculously produce the tablet they needed?