The Good Stuff (Artemis)

It looked cleaner than most pharmacies in New York. Hidden away behind the scar tissue of the destruction of New York, under the disguise of a newly rebuilt city, one of the most sophisticated drug manufacturies still held to the lawless state New York fell into years ago. While their goal still turned out profit from the amount of goods they peddled, the man walking the cat walks over the vats of chemicals expected to gain a more sinister goal from this distribution. Drugs from this plant not only modified people with strands of DNA taken from the crash of the ship responsible for leveling New York City, it also would slowly eat away the mental forbearance people could use to resist telepathic suggestion. It made Dr. Caligari happy. It made his love happy.

On the streets of New York, the scene looked much different. New buildings surrounded the neighborhoods, but the same graffiti and urban decay marked the new with the old. With brazen defiance, peddlers still pushed their product in the open street without a care for authority or society. Why should they? There was no authority here other than what was given to them. The appearance of the user did not take on the same depiction Danny put in her own mind. No hunched over movement or frantic shaking, these users all possessed a certain calm to them. Even in desperation, they pleaded and begged for more, but they never lost control. Never cried. Never fell to their knees. They came and went as Danny watched, taking in the operation.

Taking down one drug dealer would not save the neighborhood. Danny needed to know where this trail came from and where it went. A brave trailblazer broke onto the scene. A teenage girl no older than sixteen approached a coated man with a finger to his chest. With dark hair and a medium complexion from a Puerto Rican family, the girl dressed in jeans and a simple T-shirt from her high school. An accusation on behalf of one of her family members shot out towards the peddler. His mannerisms tensed as the reproach of his own authority caused the neighborhood to take notice. Danny started to know how to take down the drug operation, but it would take more than a careful observation from Danny.

Zipping up her suit and pulling down her mask, Danny began to emerge from the shadows when a bolt of lighting flung from the drug dealer's hands into the young girl's chest. She shot out against the wall as the thug pulled out a syringe. Before any involuntary inoculations could take place, Danny took the ruffian by the wrist and met eyes with him. "No. I don't think so."

A spark of surprise in the man's eyes turned to a look of disgust as his hand turned into a tesla coil, shooting Danny to the ground. A man with platinum hair and a woman with hair as brown as dirt came from other street corners came to help with the interruption of business. The man with hot, white hair turned his fist into a pure block of ice while the woman untied her ponytail, letting a growth of vines burst forth from the back of her head and crawl out through the cuffs of her jacket.

---Earlier That Day---

"Oh come on I'll pay you double, do you what fine triplet the amount for the damn drugs just hand them over." pleaded Opal. She looked desperate, her hair was a but messy and she was obviously on edge.

"Hell no, my friend sold to you a month ago and he is still missing. You're bad luck go find someone else." said the dealers beginning to walk away.

"I'll pay you four times the amount, I have the money right here." said Opal running in front of the dealer.

"No, go find someone else." barked the dealer as he pushed past her . Opal let out annoyed scream and kicked over a near by trash can before walking off. She was extremely stressed out between her home life with her mother begging her to start her career and her now super heroine life. Her hobbies weren't enough to cut down on the stress and lack of sleep. She could of talked to her mother about the stress she was in but it would just raise more suspicion with her mother and make her think she was relapsing into her old habits, which was exactly what she was doing. Opal yawn and decided to return home and suit up. If she couldn't buy them she would just steal them from the source and at least look good for busting a drug ring.

---Later that night---

Opal watched the building from afar, looking through a pair of binoculars. She was dressed up as her new persona which she decided to call Copycat. She had only been at it for about a month but she had already gotten some light buzz on the news and pissed off one or two mob bosses. She would mark the places she was at with some black spray paint with the initials CC. And then it started to get weird. Apparently this place has higher security then she though. Something was going on in the shadows . It looks like someone else was there to shut down the operation. From what she could tell there was a meta with Lightning powers fighting someone. Maybe she could sneak past her and grab some for herself before jumping into help.

Although that train of thought was interrupted when she saw two more people approach the lightning man and the mystery hero. One had glowing platinum white hair, an obvious sign they are a meta human, unless that was their only power which would suck. But then his fists turn into blocks of ice.

"Ok one ice man, and one electric man." Noted Opal as she observed from afar. Although she made a sound of disgust as vines grew from the the woman's head.

"And one very disgusting plant woman." said Opal. Deciding she should probably help out she threw the binoculars in a bag next to some spray paint. Grabbing the bag she climbed down the building. Sticking to the shadows she snuck up behind the trio. She grabbed the spray paint and taking the top off, thinking on a fun idea. From there see decided to do a sneak attack. Running up and sliding under the plant woman to knock her over before spraying the black paint in her eyes.

"Hey it looked like you needed some help." said Opal with a teasing smile.

"The name's Copycat." Opal got into a stance to fight once again.

A lash of vines shot out towards Danny. Only by the loss of complete balance did the vines smash against the concrete wall of a house, sending debris showering the area. Before Danny could jump to her feet, a full fist of ice struck her in the gut. Icicles suck to the fabric of her suit, causing the synthetic material to shift in color from her normal green to a lighter blue. Still trying to catch her breath from the blow, Danny grabbed onto the man's wrist, trying to apply some pressure to his joints to secure her release. More ice cascaded over her hands, locking her hands together. With one throw, he shot Danny towards Copy Cat. Billowing into her, Danny looked towards her new companion. "I'm Danny. Danny the Sphinx. Though no one really calls me by that."

Lighting shot towards the duo, causing Danny's muscles to tense up under duress. Without her hands to rub her bracelet, Danny opted to bring her face into the action. A new technique, an untested technique, but once her double fisted ice block crashed over the electric man's head, Danny could feel vindicated in her actions. Fighting through the muscle tension only bought her time. Bringing her knee up to keel into the man's stomach only made the pain worse, but unlike the electrokinetic, Danny could still stand.

Ice man took advantage of the skirmish and used his ice to wipe the spray paint out of his allies eyes. Getting back on her feet with the help of her vines, ice and plants started to unleash a furious attack against Spinx and Copy Cat. While the frozen fists of the platinum man would try to make contact and freeze the ground around the battlefield, the vines would try to entangle Opal, taking away her mobility.

"Well Danny it's nice to meet ya. How about we kick some ass." said Opal. She could feel the adrenaline running through her. She had improved greatly through out the month but she still always got a huge adrenaline rush when was up against thugs that where stronger then her. She dodged the lightning bolt, sensing the man move through her Seismic Sense. Although Danny didn't seem to be so lucky yet she was still able to seemingly knock the electric man out cold. Opal was impressed if she took a hit like that she would of probably stayed down. Danny was tougher then she looked. Although it seemed the plant woman was back up.

"As long as your touching the ground I can see you." said Opal dodging the vines that the plant woman was shooting out vines. Although Opal was getting a bit cocky. She started to do flips to show off. However when her feet weren't touching the ground the ice man punched the ground and set a line of ice towards Opal, freezing the ground. The moment Opal landed on her feet she regretted it. Unable to land safely she tripped and landed on the ground funny. She heard a crack and Opal screamed out in pain. Pain coursed through her foot. But before she could check her foot it was engulfed by vines and she was being pulled towards the two thugs. She cried out in pain again as the wines pulled at her foot.

Everything looked to be in order when Danny stared down the thug she put on his back. Funny how turning around can completely change someone's perspective. With an unconscious girl laying in the trash and one held up by her feet, it looked like a good time for Danny to go about being a hero. The only problem came from ice and electricity, two of the biggest things facing her at the moment. Well, one wouldn't be getting up for a minute. A throng of vines sprouted out to try to entangle Danny as she moved towards the duo holding Opal, but a quick move of her feet took Danny closer to a victory and further from the worst imaginable consequences.

Throwing all of her force behind a meaningful blow from a icy boxing glove towards the plant woman's face, Danny felt the blow end just short of her desired goal. Looking at her fist, trails of ice ran off from ice gauntlet towards the icy man. A kiss leaned forward and planted itself on Danny's fist from the vine filled woman. A burst of vines shot out from the source woman, shooting Danny against the wall. Before Danny could slide down the wall, ice formed and held Danny against the wall by her wrists.

Feeling confident in their victory, the ice man cracked his knuckles and walked towards the frozen wall. Vines would wrap Oval up in their grasp more firmly with the woman and her vines guarding her. Ice fell off the fists as the metahuman pounded his fists together. A powerful fist shot towards the wall to crack Danny's hips. Dodging the blow with a quick move of her shoulders pulling her legs up, Danny breathed a sigh of relief as a grimace shot contorted the meta's face. Both of her legs came down on his head, sending him to the ground. A push of strength from her legs broke her free from the bracing to the wall.

Unfortunately the vine woman still held Oval in her grasp and the previously staggered electric wielder grabbed the downed teenager and held his hands against her neck. "Why won't you stay down?"

A forceful punch struck Danny from behind, sending her into the middle of the street on her. "How bout you stay down?"

"Danny!" cried Opal as she saw her new friend get thrown against a near by car with a simple punch.Opal was trapped, as hard as she tried to struggle against the vines they held her down. Her ankle was killing her and she couldn't tell if Danny was still awake. But it didn't last long. The plant woman approached her and with a quick jab to the side of her head knocked Opal out.

Who knows how long she was knocked out. Opal woke with a groan and freaked out until she felt her mask was still on her face. Looking out a near by window she could tell it was still night. Wait, a window? Wasn't she outside last time. She tried to move but then realized she was wrapped up in a chair. Her foot  still was killing her and the pressure of the rope was only making her foot hurt more.  She felt another chair behind her, she could only assume it was Danny.

"Hey Danny are you awake? I think my foot or my ankle might be broken." said Opal through gritted teeth. She was honestly surprised she wasn't gagged. It could be because who ever was in charge was going to question them. But that question didn't stay in the air to long. Soon the three who beat the ever loving crap out of her and Danny walked up to them, all following a man in a black suit.

"Go tell our beloved Queen our guests are awake. Let her figure out what to do with these two. I'll go investigate these two." said the man in black. The three meta humans then left.

"Who are you and why are you holding us captive, wouldn't it just make more sense to kill us?" barked Opal, trying to put on a tough facade but failing horribly.

"Quite girl! I will be the one asking the question around here!" said the man, he walked up to Opal and bend down gilding a hand over her left ankle. Opal winced as the man went over her ankle.

"My men told me what happened, it seems you decided to show off and it cost you your ankle. I imagine it would hurt to walk on. So tell me, what you were doing here and maybe I won't push the bone out from under your skin. And maybe, just maybe i'll leave your friend alone." said the man calmly as if it was something he had done before.

"Go eat a-" Opal was cut off as the man quickly put pressure on Opal's ankle. Opal writhed with pain screaming.

"Now tell me why you where here. Oh I think I see your skin breaking." said  the man, pressing the bond to the side to try and make it break the skin. Opal was left scream and writhing in pain until she broke and split the beans.

"I came here to steal drugs! One of your dealers wouldn't sell to me so I sought to steal some at the source. Oh god please just stop it hurts! I have no idea who this girl was, she was here when I got here. Please stop!" screamed Opal, tears falling down her face out of the pain. The man released his grip and Opal was left sniffling and crying from the pain. The man then walked behind her and focused on Danny.

"It's nice to see your friend over there breaks so easily. Most people are so prideful that they try and hold on for as long as they can. So does her story match up with yours? Or will someone be loosing their foot the painful way." he asked Danny. "And why would you be here if you weren't with her."

"That's a good one..."

For a few moments of unconscious glory, Danny forgot about the set up she gave her adversary to deliver a brutal strike to her. In her unconscious state, Danny felt much better about how her encounter turned out. She remembered flipping and drop kicking one of them before ice dropping another. But now she woke up. Tied back to Opal with ropes brought Danny back to the reality her side did not do as well in the last fight as she dreamed about. "Yeah, it's me." She tugged on the ropes around her wrist and tried to pull her ankles apart, but the ropes around her legs kept her from moving too much. "I don't see how this can get any worse." Before it could get better, the door opened and in came their caretaker. "Why don't you leave her ankle alone and deal with me. All you're doing is picking on someone who is actually trying to do something better for..."

And then the truth shot out of Opal's tortured mouth. "You were what?" Almost leaping from her chair, Danny pulled Opal tightly with the ropes connecting them. "You were going to have me help you score drugs? You're what every anti-drug PSA always warns people about- you know, before they turn into this loser." Danny motioned over towards the man currently interrogating them. "I'm not going to tell you to let us go, because it won't do anything. I'm not going to try to appeal to you. I'm not even going to insult you. I'm just going to sit here and wait for what it is going to take to put you in your place."

Not knowing who she was more mad at within her current vicinity, Danny elected to simply stew in her disappointment while the machinations of their hosts spun up in the distance.

"It seems you have some working out to do. The queen will be here shortly and she can deal with you." The caretaker looked satisfied with the two now that they where in disarray with each other. He walked off to let the two fight. The queen would be there soon and then it will all be taken care of.

"I-I'm sorry, originally I was just going to slip in and out with out a fight but then I saw you fighting and and I couldn't just leave you in a three verses one fight. I was going to knock you out then take some of the drugs for myself." said Opal, tears still falling down her face. Although it would be hard to tell if they where from pain or if because she was truly sorry.

"But what does matter anymore, we are going to die anyway. I graduated college early with multiple degrees and my mom is trying to get me to start a career. Between that and being new to the hero scene my stress was off the charts... I just needed something to help and now we are dead." said Opal, her voice cracking.

"I-I'm never going to see my mom again... I'm going to wind up dead in a ditch some where and my mom will never know..." said Opal. She had started to cry again. From general observation anyone could tell that she was close to her mother but from that line. After a few minutes the caretaker returned with a rather grim expression on his face. As if he had just been thoroughly chewed out.

"So it seems my queen thinks of you as so unimportant that I am now on the hot seat for even suggesting she comes out here. And I need to redeem myself now. So in other words your fate is left of to me. However we don't really have the means to depose of you two here. So I hope you two don't mind a little trip." said the caretaker before waving to his men. They covered their heads with cloth bags and then where dragged and thrown into a vehicle of some sort. Every move made sent Opal crying out of pain. But next thing they knew they where being driven off to some unknown location for their deaths.

Danny's stew went from a simmer to a boil. "You were going to knock me out? I'd like to see you try. I would love you see you..." Before the two could escalate into a further pitch- and Danny could further push the state of her broken companion any further, the caretaker returned to find a better suiting end for the two superheroes.

The trip took several turns throughout the winding streets of New York. Traffic seemed especially heavy, but between the crying from her side and the nervous planning of the caretaker in the front seat, Danny could barely find anything to take any solace in. Her bracelet always managed to stay on, villains never valued just how important her little piece of jewelry ended up being in the long run, but right now, Danny needed to work on the short term goals. Halfway through the trip, the caretaker slammed on his breaks, hitting his head against wheel. "I can't take this crying anymore! I'm not going to end up like the two of you!" A door slammed and the back door opened up, several drums of unknown substances rolled into the van next to Danny and Opal. "Now don't poke any holes in these. You wouldn't want to breath this stuff in."

After twenty grueling minutes, the fan drove over a bump of sorts, rolling one of the barrels onto Danny.

"Load all this up! I want this place ready to go up in fifteen minutes!" Each barrel rolled out of the vehicle and slowly wound into position. "Go, go. Put them next to the generator with the barrels."

A more sinister voice stood out form the caretaker and his minions. "You look like ran into some trouble." With two swords on his back and a pistol holstered on his hip, the dark haired man walked towards the large generator loaded with barrels of chemicals and the duo of superheroes wrapped together with duct tape around their legs and arms, still bound with ropes around their hands.

"I'm going to be fine. I just need to-"

"I wasn't talking to you." Brushing the caretaker aside, the duelist pulled the bags off of the girl's heads. Once Opal's crying became too much for the caretaker to stomach, he finally relieved Opal of her surprise and taped her mouth shut. Danny avoided treatment, but still wound up next to Opal. "You two look to be in rough shape. I guess you'll be the first victims."

With the bag no longer obstructing her view, Danny could see the sky above her. And the river to the side. And a deck beneath her. They took them to the Hudson River, under the Manhattan Bridge, and filled the boat with barrels of chemicals. Fuses ran the course of the ship; once these barrels accepted a spark from those fuses the entire boat would go up. "Now, I'm sure you're wondering what's going to happen when this light hits those barrels. Well, it won't be pretty. The first thing that will happen is a massive explosion. It will probably kill a few thousand people. Plus two of course. Do you know what the best part is?"

"There's a good chance because of traffic you'll die too?" Danny looked back to see what kind of state Opal appeared to be in. Attacking your own partner did very little to help the situation. If only she could get loose and attack someone else.

"No, no." A fine hand reached down and patted Danny on the head with a hearty laugh. "The explosion is going to spread the mind influencing agent we've been putting in the drugs we've distributed throughout the city. So, first responders, police, firefighters, EMTs, all of them will come over to the will of my queen. Ingenius right?"

"Petty and pathetic."

"Well, those can be your last words." No longer seeking a quorum the swordsman ripped off a piece of tape and pushed it over Danny's mouth. "I'm sure they were better than hers. Now, I've got somewhere to be." As the last man leaving the ship, the swordsmen pulled a flare out of his belt and threw it to light the fuse at the end of the boat. If the explosion would be as big as he said it would, they would need fifteen minutes to clear the blast area. Danny and Opal needed to work on something and do it fast or they would ride this ship down to the bottom of this- And then Danny got her idea, now she just needed to get everything else about her free.

When the bag was removed from her head duct tape quickly found it's way onto her mouth. She and Danny where thrown onto a frail old boat next to a bunch of barrels. The sun was starting to raise in the sky. Her mother definitely would be wondering where she was at this point. At least they wren't tied to chairs this time, which was a small plus. Opal's eyes widened as she heard what would happen. The fact that this was even an option for these men disgusted her. The moment they where clear of the area and focused, trying to calm down. Opal listened to the ship, using it's natural vibrations to look around for something, anything to try and get free. And then she saw it. It was blocked by one of the barrels. Mentally bracing herself she began to hit the barrel closest to her as hard as she could. She could feel the pain rack her body from moving her ankle just a bit but this was a bit more importance. After a few minutes of seemingly random flailing the barrel fell over on top of her, covering her in the mysterious liquid. Opal coughed as she recovered from the strange liquid. Her head started to feel funny and woozy. She felt some of the liquid go up her nose then down her throat. It made her feel really really sick. Pushing the barrel aside she painfully moved some more, getting to a jagged piece of metal that stuck up from the floor. After struggling for a bit she was able to cut the ropes that bound her hands and arms. Within moments her legs where free and she tore the tape of her mouth.

She tried to stand up but the pain from her ankle kept her crawling on the floor. She began to move towards Danny when a wave of nausea hit her and she vomited. After recovering from that she was finally able to get close enough to Danny to untie her arms, trusting she can do the rest.

"There is no time to escape, there is a patched up area on the port side of the ship, if you can find some way to puncture it the ship should sink." said Opal before passing out.

Time moved faster than the fuses burning towards the major payload of the ship. As Danny continued to be stuck to Opal, she too found a drum collapsing down on herself when it came for Opal. While Opal fought against the bindings with jagged metal, Danny tried pressing kicking her legs against a loose grating to try and pry the tape away from her ankles. With a more diligent effort, Opal finally cut through Danny's bindings, freeing her from one tough situation and forcing her to deal with a more pressing matter. First, she needed a more open form of communication, so she pulled her lips in and ripped the tape from her mouth. "I think I can get there, but what-" A loud thud hit just behind Danny, letting her know she would need to carry this out on her own. "Okay, I got this. Puncture a patch. I could use a-" The barrels and fuses gave her an idea.

Pushing a barrel over, Danny worked it over to the stairs leading below deck. While the rolling motion continued, Danny made use of the time by grabbing a flare from an emergency glass. Following the barrel down, Danny kicked the barrel against the wall opposite of the patched hull and grabbed a fire extinguisher, quickly becoming Danny's tool of choice. With the extinguisher next to the welded portion of wall, Danny grabbed an ax from the emergency fire case and put a large dint in the case. One more hit and a hiss started to sound. A third hit and the case erupted. While most of the gas spilled into the room, the force pushed the extinguisher back, rupturing the hull. Water began pouring into the ship, but at this rate, the ship would burst into flames before it would sink.

Now, Danny needed to see how flammable this gas would be with a flare. The barrel rolled on its own as the ship began to tilt towards the side of the ship with the fracture, but Danny shifted along the axis to stay close to the stairs. Holding onto the rail, Danny aimed the flare and gave the trigger a squeeze, jetting the small flame towards the barrel. Water swallowed most of the flare, but a small spark hissed at the meeting of the water. The hiss turned violent as the drum burst, tearing the wall down and flooding the bottom compartment.

With the first portion of her plan complete, Danny moved to the part where she and Opal survived to see tomorrow. Grabbing the still unconscious Opal, Danny lifted her by the arm and draped it around her shoulder. On her own, she could dive for distance from the bow of the ship, but carrying her partner made the departure much more of an awkward plummet into the Hudson. Knowing the ship would soon begin to capsize, Danny got on her back with Opal still in her grasp and began to kick away from the ship. No way would Danny come all this way just to get caught in the riptide of a sinking ship. Instead of a loud explosion, the ship succumbed to the watery grave with its deadly payload.

Danny washed up on shore with Opal next to her. With her low level of interaction, Danny immediately went to performing emergency recitation on the unconscious metateen, whose questionable ethics would need some examination. One. Two. Three. Holding her palms, Danny continued to press against Opal's chest to push any toxins she swallowed out of her lungs. One. Two. Three. More and more Danny continued with vigor to save Opal. "That's impressive." Danny stayed focused as a stranger approached. The same voice she heard tell her what her last words would be. "Gotta hand it to you for wrecking the boat and trying to save this kid. Tell you what-"

"Busy." Danny continued pressing as she hoped to gain an ally to assist her if the need arose.

"I'll tell you what." His blade rested next to Danny's neck. "Take off the mask and I'll let you and your friend go."

Danny took a rest from her chest compressions. "You left me on a ship to die. I'm seventeen."

"And you were in the way." The blade turned to press under her ear.

"Hardly. I was tied to this girl." Giving in to the annoyance at his request during such a trying time, Danny pulled her mask down and turned to the dark haired swordsman. "Happy?"

His blade moved from Danny to lift the mask from Opal as well. "Very. I know who you two are now. We'll be seeing each other again. Don't you worry."

Danny needed to worry about a few more things before she gave some creep too much of her time, but in between compressions to Opal's chest, Danny began to wonder about what her change in costume should ultimately be.

Opal's eyes shot open and turned to the side, spitting out whatever liquid had got into her lungs. She moaned slight, she felt like had been thrown into the side of a wall or something. After a few minutes of retching and feeling absolutely horrible she sat up. She massaged her forehead, nursing a head ache. Today was really not her day.

"Thanks for saving me..." said Opal. Then she realized she wasn't wearing her mask. Freaking out for a bit Opal made an attempt to cover her face before she realized that only two people there where her and Danny. Once she came to the conclusion that they where alone she calmed down a bit and put her hands down.

"Well at least it was only you that saw my face, it would be pretty bad otherwise." sighed Opal. It was still really bad though. Since this girl was a hero Opal doubted blackmail would be a thing.

"Do you know any place I can get some medical attention? I don't feel very good and my ankle hurts a lot more then it did." said Opal. She wasn't comfortable giving her name just yet. She wasn't sure if Danny knew who her mother was or not and she was worried that Danny might just ditch her if she knew.

The victory felt fleeting, but Danny knew the city would not fall under the control of a mad drug cartel tonight. Danny kept pressing against Opal's chest until the girl threw up a horrible smelling petri dish of chemicals. "Are you alright?" With a brief moment of concern, Danny would wait for the answer to confirm her next action.  "Good." A flat open palm would strike down to hit Opal square on her forehead. "Did you steal enough drugs from the boat? Cause I'm sure the fish in the river haven't swallowed it all up yet." Stepping back for a moment, a time for thinking stood in front of Danny. One more swat for good measure came down from Danny to Opal to drive in the most important part of the lesson.

"We saved the city tonight. And when you aren't screwing everything up, I guess you can do a thing or two right. We'll need to work on the fighting though, because we aren't telling anyone how we wound up on that boat." Danny tossed Opal's mask down at her face. "The guy with the swords saw too. He came out when I was giving you CPR. He said he would see us again and then left." Given there disposition at the moment, finding somewhere else to be would help out. "Is there any reason this guy knowing who you are would be bad? I'm pretty okay with it. I'm boring enough." Before Opal could say anything, Danny would visit one more blow upon her head.

A crack in the wooded area around them caught Danny's attention. "Something's out there."

"Ow! Hey I'm injured party here!" said Opal rubbing her her head. Danny then berated her on the drug confession she had earlier. She brought the leg that wasn't injured up to her chin and rested her head on it.

"I'm sorry ok, my life is way to stress- ow!" said Opal before being interrupted by another whack to the head. Opal grumbled to herself a bit before letting go of her leg and letting it slide back down. She picked up the mask that laid next to her, wondering if this was even a thing she could continue with.

"Considering I learned how to fight watching old kung-fu movies some actual training would be- wait what." said Opal, all color drained from her face.

"Yes that is bad, that is very very bad." said Opal, starting to freak out.

"Ok what I am about to tell you I don't want you to share with others. Have you seen the news recently? More particularly have you seen the new coverage of the anti-meta human campaigns. If you have you know that woman with the bright red hair? Rich CEO, owns a very successfully medical company? Her name is Natalia Duval and if you have listened to any of her speeches she always mentions one person, the one who she says everything she does is for the betterment of her future and the future of her generation? She almost always mentions her daughter Opal. Well... Natalia is kinda my mother..." said Opal, still freaking out but sound a bit more somber like she just confessed to telling a huge lie. And then Danny hit her in the head again. Opal was starting to notice a trend here but it seemed like before Danny was able to answer she was cut off but a sound coming from a near by wooded area. Quickly putting her mask back on she struck at the ground, sending vibrations through the ground to see who was hiding.

"One person, Female. That's all I can really tell at the moment, I have a massive head that feels a lot worse no thanks to you. If it comes down to it just run. I-I'll think of something but I am not exactly mobile at the moment." said Opal, grinding her teeth a bit.

Once Opal gave more of her background, it clicked in with what Danny knew of the kids she went to school with. "So, you're a rich kid with drug dependencies and you learned to fight watching kung fu movies? No wonder we did so well. I'll stop hitting you, when you stop needing it. I don't do this very often, but I'm checking you into Prodigy to keep you out of trouble. We're a group of young metas. We mainly work off the west coast and keep a base there." Danny grabbed a stick and braced it against Opal's leg. A brief piece of regret came over her as she realized either the rope or the tape could brace this. Using the next best thing, Danny took off her shoes and pulled her socks of. Soaked, but still useful, Danny tied the stick in place. "But, you can't do drugs. Okay?" Danny urged a response, but instead she received an alert.

"One female? Well it will be someone new to terrorize us if they're unfriendly. Wouldn't surprise me at all tonight." Danny felt an urge to scold Opal for something, but it didn't fully come to her. Yelling just to yell would probably do very little to build the morale of someone with little heroic feelings right now. "If you don't come out right now, I'm going to take this fight to you before you take it to me."

"That's not how a hero should act." A woman in a nice blazer stepped out from behind a tree. Her hair was streaked with some grey in her soft brown hair. "I could be a scared child or perhaps law enforcement. You can't just-"

"I know."

"You can't just threaten people and get them to do as you want. You need to be more gentle."

Danny thought about the slaps she delivered to Opal. "I can see it working sometimes."

"Are you ready to go? You are very late."

"Yes, ma'am. Opal. Tell your mom you need to go to California for a bit." Danny started to walk towards her guardian. "And don't crack in between now and your house."

Danny would let Opal know the exact whereabouts of the Prodigy mansion and get a set of living arrangements set up for her. Once Opal showed up, Danny would greet her at the door in a much less heroic attire. Just wearing a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, accessorized with a pint of ice cream, Danny would show Opal to her living quarters. And, show her where the gym was for those sparring lessons she needed so badly.