California Dreaming (Prodigy)

"Yeah, those Nancy Drews are always up to something." Danny still gripped the bench she planned on using as a ram. "Yeah and the costumes we picked up were-" Well, the costumes were just the black dresses the other henchwomen wore.

Calling them costumes brought a twirl to the villains mustache. "I have told you, they are not costumes; they are performance piece enhancements. Oh never mind. I guess I can't have normal henchwomen like that one fortune teller who disappeared after robbing a bank and was never seen from- henchman union! I made it very clear that I want nothing to do with their- why were you looking for those girls down here again?"

"Uh, we heard something by the um- things you took, from the-"

"You're that girl from the museum! Just with a blond wig on."

"Blond wig! That dummy said it was a full disguise!" In case her visage did little to reveal her true form, Danny made sure to shatter the illusion. She looked over to see if Xiao grew any bigger. Nope. That dummy and her promises had some explaining to do.  "Well, I guess it's time for-" Before Danny could take more than two steps closer a bouquet of flowers landed between her and Xiao. The stems fell flat with the thud of metal. "Uh-oh." The flash bomb went off, dazing Danny and knocking her to the ground.

"Well, I guess I can try and see if that trick every other famous magician has tried really does have a one hundred percent mortality rate."

Xiao did not yet have the foresight to defend herself from an unexpected attack. The wonderful flash and bang served to both blind, deafen and disorient her completely. A girly cry of pain escapes Xiao's mouth briefly, as she is sent to the ground crawling on all fours, reaching around blindly, trying to mouth Danny's name- but all there was, was the ringing in her ears.

"Well, that wasn't what I was expecting." The clicking of keys tore through the silence. "A pool of piranhas. I don't have any, and I don't know  anyone who can deliver overnight. Well, what is this- flaming death? What? It doesn't even! Well, that's just false advertising!" The Great Manifesto de Destino tapped his finger in annoyance. "I guess I can always saw you in half."

Danny squirmed uncomfortably against the black tape wrapping her hands and ankles together and the normal sized, non super strength enhanced dragon girl to her back. "I don't know why a lie about a henchman union sunk us, but we need to remember not to bring that up again. You don't happen to have any Chinese escape tricks? Or even regular person escape tricks do you?"

It took a blow torch to pry the magical assistants out of the pipes Xiao tied them up in, but they finally got back into the basement, angry as ever. "Let's do a magic trick where we pretend to cut their thumbs off, but the trick is that we actually cut their thumbs off."

A pair of crossed arms and angry eyes stayed focused on Danny and Xiao. "I think we should see if they can get out of a safe we drop in a river."

"I say we make their heads disappear."

The caped tuxedo drew back a pair of lifted arms. "Silence on the stage!"

"No! You suck!" Danny spat out towards her lamely dressed captor. "You look like a birthday magician who took up a life of crime because he couldn't get paid."

"She's half right." The magic assistant who finished tying some rope around Danny and Xiao added in. "We're not doing a performance. No one has to listen to you."

"Dammit, Coleen, we have prisoners." The Great Manifesto reached his breaking point in an annoyed tone. "But, the show. Must. Go.-"

"Do you want us to put them in the death trap or-"

"Coleen! Will you please- okay, you know what sure, we'll just- what was that?"

A creaking sound came from over their heads. "Police! Anyone here?"

The assistant closest to the bench grabbed a roll of duct tape while the other two pressed their hands over Danny and Xiao's mouth.

"Hello!" The voices continued to echo while the search continued.

The tape ripped off and slid over Danny's mouth while another assistant tied a bandanna over it. Xiao received the same treatment to keep her from screaming for the police.

"You think it's just kids?" The voices seeped through the flooring.

"Eh, probably. They said some superheroes were here."

"Yeah just some damn kids I guess."

Danny tried to kick the support beam by the wall, trying her hardest to grab the attention of the surveying police.

"I don't know though. Some lights are still on outside and that fortune teller kept talking to me. Kept saying some things that were way too personal. Really gave me the creeps."

"Yeah, but it's all just fun and stuff. Let's check out the maze to see if anyone is hiding there." The sound of the front door closing in the room above them sounded out. A smile grew across the criminals as they held Danny and Xiao still. Dangling from one of their wrists was Danny's bracelet. Danny knew if she could get reunited with her bracelet it would fix a few problems, but the problems she needed to fix kept her tied up. She really hoped Xiao had some of those Chinese escape tricks.

"This... this is hopeless..." Xiao for a moment seemed to have completely given up, having resigned herself to silence once the bluff was not holding up. She sat quietly as she was gagged off, and this hopefully showed the villains that the meddling kid had given up.

That was when Ellie's training kicked in. She puffed herself out as they were being tied up with rope; even the smallest slack would be useful. As for the cuffs and duct tape Xiao did have some things up her sleeve- much as Ellie's training was unpleasant, the time had finally come to start applying.

Xiao looked at the bad guys with doeful, pleading eyes, while she made as little movement as possible to produce a thin razor from up her sleeve. she starts getting to work on getting their hands free first.

"Well, it looks like the police are gone." The shadow cast by The Great Manifesto drowned out Xiao's feinting eyes. "Did any of you two have anything to say?" He stopped to watch as Danny's eyes gave the exact opposite sign as her partner. Danny kept squirming until the assistant assigned to watch them smacked Danny in the back of the head to deter her attempts. Nothing more than hot air and muffled sounds poured out of Danny. Then she spotted what Xiao was up to. After a failed attempt at trying to remove her gag against her shoulder, Danny decided simply to keep squirming to draw the attention of the assistants.

"We just need a box. And, some swords." One assistant pulled out a box with enough room to fit the two girls in while another grabbed a bag full of sharp tipped swords. "Yes, those are perfect. Perfect for those-" The Great Manifesto looked down at Xiao. "Aw, you look sad. Maybe we don't need the swords. Get a safe. We can shove these girls in there and drop them off somewhere. Or maybe ransom them. I got it. We ransom them, and then make them appear in the house of whomever pays us."

Danny rolled her eyes as the magician turned his back to continue on with his plans. She felt the binding around her wrists slice free. A good start. She explored Xiao's wrists too to make sure they were free. A good next step. Now they just needed to get loose from everything else holding them down and they would be in the hero business.

"Time for the details of the exchange." The roaming hand of the Great Manifesto swooned over Xiao's head. "I'm reading a very peculiar name. Starts with an 'X'." Danny rolled her eyes again, knowing how easy it would be to simply ask for the names without all the showmanship this man put into his failure of a success. "A Xiao. Lung. Nu?"

"I think you made some of those noises up."

"Xiaolongnu Li. That is a mouthful. And then we have this ball of fire and ire." His magical hands hovered over towards Danny and her frustration began reaching a boiling point. "Dairy? Day Light?" Oh no, Danny mustered to herself. He was grabbing her real name. "Dayanara?" Yep. He nailed it. "Dayanara Tamamoa."

"Did we get attacked by a cultural awareness after school special?" One of the assistants got the camera ready and put it in front of Xiao first.

"Just get them filmed. I must rest after probing the minds." He stuck a straw into a juice box. "Once I have replenished, I will be able to find out who to send the tape to. And how rich their parents are." He would not need juice boxes anymore if these girls were rich kids. He could buy real fresh squeezed fruit juice. And someone to squeeze it for him. And a monkey to serve him. Yes, this plan would in no way backfire on him at all.

...Crap, Xiao thought, looking up at her abducor. A mind reader?

A lightbulb turned on in one of the assistants' brains. If the henchgirl was sipping coffee she would probably spray it on her employer's face.

"Xiaolongnu Li? Boss... she's that techie billionaire Ellie Wong's ward! we could be set for life!" she exclaimed, the dollar signs more or less visible in her eyes.

"So we're talking really rich?" The Great Manisfesto tapped his fingers together. "Really, really rich?" He reached down and pulled the bandanna off of Xaio and peeled the tape off. "What do you think a good ransom would be? How much does your guardian usually pay for these kinds of things."

Things were not moving as quickly as Danny wanted. At least her hands could move around, but the woman standing over her kept a hawk like gaze on her. One mistake from the assistant could spring Danny easily. She just needed to bide her time and- wait. Yep. The assistant leaned a little too far in to check to see if Danny got her hands free. The bracelet felt a strong calling to Danny, moving from the assistant's wrist to Danny's. A little bit of magic took over. Danny started by throwing the perfect side of her head to incapacitate the assistant. Her legs slid under her body and even the body of Xiao. A locking of her knees, would throw Xiao over her back, attempting to hit The Great Manifesto in the face.

The weight from the lift could break the tape if Xiao put enough of her weight against it. No longer the bruising, hulking Dragon Girl weight, but still the Five Foot seven form of Xiao could be enough to spring the girls free.

"We could ask for like, ten million minimum! I bet Ellie Wong makes that much in a day!" The goon said excitedly, completely distracted by the possibility of money, rather than being a responsible goon and thinking about taking up Law school.

Xiao watched as Danny's moves suddenly unfolded before her eyes. It looked liked things were now coming to a head, as the goons were distracted by the possibility of a huge ransom.

"What in the... whoa!" Xiao was taken by surprise by Danny's sudden moves, flailing her legs as she went topsy turvy. More by luck than by skill though, Xiao's flailing connected a boot to a face before using her less than heroic butt to wallop the magician's whole torso.

Danny struck the black heels from her disguise as a magical assistant into the ground to keep the force of Xiao's kick from slamming her face into the ground. The sound of Xiao's voice brought a little reprieve to Danny, inspiring her to join her in that regard. Danny pulled her bandanna from around her mouth and pulled herself closer to the ground, carrying Xiao with her. She draped the bandanna around one of the assistant's ankles, pulling her into the air and onto her back. A counter attack from the assistant farthest from the action found itself thwarted by Danny lifting herself onto Xiao's back and driving her heels into the assistants chest.

Two enemies on the ground gave Danny time to pull the tape from her mouth and lean back to her counterpart. "I don't know about you, but I'm tired of wearing this stupid black dress and being tied to you. Gotta any ideas dragon girl?"

The attacks from Danny would only keep the goons down for so long before they would try and overcome the duo again. Off in the corner, one of the assistants readied a full body mirror. "Be careful." Danny pried her ankles out from the duct tape binding her feet. "That thing can put a duplicate of one of us into the picture. If you're still normal sized, it might be more useful-" One of the assistants ran straight into Danny. Bad move. The point of Danny's heel pushed her back to give Danny a little room to move around, then she spun in a circle to use Xiao to put the assistant back on the ground. "I doubt I'll be swinging you around like this much longer. But, if they copy you, I'm pretty sure without your dragon powers it won't be too tough to beat you."

"Dragon powers?" The Great Manifesto made his way to his feet. "That's what I stole from you with that fortune teller?" He pressed his hand to the butt of his cane to hold himself up. "There is no end to my power if I can become a dragon. Never again will I need to bow to the will of others. It is others who will bow to me!"

"You put the fortune teller out there? So, you're the reason we're wearing this stupid-"

"Let me stop you there. Yes, to everything you are about to say. Now, sit down and shut up." A quick strike from his cane would try and knock Danny and Xiao off their feet while the mirror made its way over. The Great Manifesto glided towards the stairwell, certain in his victory in stealing Xiao's powers.

Xiao times herself with Danny's throws, and connects her heels with faces or lungs. The experience left her a bit dizzy though. "I... I... knew that f-f-f-fortune t... t... eller couldn't be trusted." she said to Danny, her vision spinning, taking a few steps to compose herself. She saw that the henchmen were on the floor thanks to her and Danny's teamwork.

When the magician started running away, Xiao was worried. Sort of. She'd thought of it before- while she could stomach losing her power, she couldn't handle it in the hands of a motley villain. "We should go after him. We'll have to run together... and if they really do make a copy of me, she'll probably go after my power too." Xiao gestures Danny to come with and pursue.

The worst case scenario stepped out of the mirror wearing the same black dresses Danny and Xiao disguised themselves in. And, then another one stepped out. "Yeah, definitely one of those days." Danny felt a tug come over her as Xiao started to make her way towards the door, still tied to Danny. Unfortunately, so did the unbound, more evil duo whom just stepped into this world. "If you have wished bad things to happen to me before, now is your time to exercise some demons."

The original best case scenario involved Xiao coming out due to her poor relative weakness when she could not go into rage. The mirrored Xiao remedied that by taking a knife off the table and beginning to charge towards Danny and Xiao. "That looks useful." Navigating the pivot point where a knife should be stabbed to allow for an easy escape took a great deal of coordination, especially when Mirror Danny threw a kick to catch Xaio and Danny off guard.

Along the upper level of the amusement park remained a silence. The police shut off the electricity to the lights before departing, but the Great Manifesto could find his fortune teller easily. Except he could not. He knew where he placed it. He walked past it so many times when coming past the haunted ice cream parlor. An sound rustled away, moving from bushes to concrete and into a truck. "Thieves!" Manifesto did not go through all this trouble to steal a fortune teller just to have it taken. Especially not from those no good North Koreans. "You still owe me money from that heist I performed two years ago, and now you're stealing from me! South Korea banned me from performing magic tricks and now the north one is stealing from me. Is there an East Korea I can talk to?" Manifesto threw his hands down as he heard the sirens of police cars coming back towards the amusement park. "Well, never had cops come back again and been happy with the results."

"Wait no I-! " (good)Xiao just couldn't catch a break, between the urgency of getting back her powers and now facing off against evil mirror clones. She tried to protect herself against the most immediate threat- the knife- by trying to raise her hands. (evil)Danny meanwhile delivered a sweeping kick to Xiao's shin; the bone immediately explodes in pain, and she stumbles, with a long cry of pain. "OOOWWWWWWW!"

By sheer luck this causes the rope tying them heroes together to taut, and the knife cuts through it. But bad luck though, the knife keeps going, and (good)Xiao gets cut on her shoulder. She rolls away instinctively, crawling away from danger and towards the stairs, now bleeding.

A stroke of luck set Danny apart from Xiao just in time to keep away from the fiasco of a melee behind her. It did not look good at all. Instead of merely letting the ropes fall, Danny grabbed a fairly long enough piece of rope and used it to grapple up Evil Xiao's knife wielding hand. "Quit being emo and trying to cut yourself!" With one hand Danny wrangled the weapon and with the other, she delivered a punch to the doppleganger's face. "My second grade teacher told me we were all individuals, and I plan on proving her right." The next portion of fight involved Danny throwing Evil Xiao at Evil Danny. It was super effective!

"Stop moping around. It's time to get your powers back!" Neither of the duplicates would stay down for long, but Danny wanted to make sure Good Xiao would get up and make her way up the stairs with her. "Just be like Mulan. She had the dragon inside of her- or something. You're already dressed in a way you probably don't want to be so we're practically Mulan." Danny took the uncomfortable heels off and threw them with accuracy towards the evil twins.

Danny took one step at a time on her bare feet until she burst into the dimly lit hallway. Sirens sounded around outside the mansion. It brought some hope to Danny until she remembered she was still wearing the black dress the other assistants were and an evil version of her and Xiao still continued to pursue them. "Xiao let's not talk to the police today." Danny curved around the hall and looked out towards the flashing lights. While Danny would avoid them, she still needed some light on what happened in the vicinity. The fortune teller disappeared. Or was moved. The second was worse and it was always the worst.

Until it got worse. And it always got worse.

Some movement on the perimeter of the forest bordering the amusement park showed some signs of life. And, showed some signs of the Great Manifesto on his way as well. "Okay, so we have evil twins behind us, an angry magician, and someone trying to steal from him. Do you think anything good is going to happen to us tonight?"

Xiao eventually gets up thanks to Danny's encouragement, and the disturbing sight of coming face to face  with a *sort of* clone of herself. It was uncanny, and stroke the rare fear in her heart seeing the soulless creature.

It slowly got up, fixed on her progenitor, knife in hand. Xiao saw no light, no humanity- only malice and hatred. Xiao shuddered, her hand instinctively going to her wound- it stung, but only slightly. the adrenaline kicked in.

She followed Danny, running as quick as her feet could take her, up a flight of stairs, then down a hall, turning a corner, then another hall. Xiao's eyes were glared by the headlights and hid with Danny, ignoring that strange burning sensation in her chest and legs. She took quick, rapid breathes- fatigue, something her super dragon physiology rarely experienced without titanic effort.

She felt one other thing- fear. Fear that until now, she had seen only in others when their attacks were blunted by invulnerable skin, then pulverized by fists that struck like wrecking balls. Xiao perspired as she exerted and her thoughts raced. She was pale as a ghost and seemed ready to pass out, barely able to hear Danny as she quipped about Mulan.

Mulan. Mulan was her childhood hero! Hold it in there Xiao. What would Mulan do? Kick ass? light a firecracker and blow up the big bad? no, that was the Disney movie, not the actual myth.

Xiao was hyperventilating, then she whips out her phone, seeing her situation left her with little choice. She hit the speed dial feature and phoned it in.

"Xiao?" the phone didn't even ring. The person on the other side picked up immediately. A voice on the speaker rang out, calm and collected.

"E...El..." Xiao suddenly struggled to speak. She'd never been afraid before and not have the power to deal with it.

"Your heart rate is elevated, pupils dilating. What's going on?" The lady on the other side of the call seemed to be capable of monitoring Xiao's status in real time.

"Power... gone... wooden fortune teller... magician... stole... Ellie I'm scared..." Xiao blurted out, looking at Danny. The girl was starting to burst out in tears as shock began to set in.

A moment of silence, then the voice became assertively comforting. "Xiao. Calm down."

"C..can you come get me?" Xiao said, like a child left at soccer practice.

"Xiao. I'm not in the U.S. right now. I can't help you... not directly. but you can help yourself. Are you with someone?" She asked.

"I... I am... with Danny..." Unable to hold back her tears she hands the phone to Danny in panic, having difficulty coping at the moment.

"Xiao? Xiao? oh. Miss Tamomoa." The video call  continues now between Danny and Xiao's mentor, who would not be providing a deus ex machina tonight. The image briefly showed some fellow in a half-orange, half black helmet, before cutting to audio only and a static picture of a rather grumpy looking business lady in a lady suit, wearing glasses and having her hair done up- Ellie Wong, if Danny cared who it was.

"Ahem. Miss Tamomoa, Xiao's phone camera has thermal, night vision and zoom functionality which should help you navigate around that place without being detected. You can also access a snake camera (The detachable thing blinks three times to tell Danny) to peer around corners. I am trying to get you an overhead satellite feed but this might take time... and good luck. Xiao, please be strong and remember what I tried to teach you." Ellie then hung up. Xiao was at this point a blithering wreck of tears and snot.

While Danny listened in for the certainty of her counterpart making her way up, the situation continued to gain traction towards an ultimately, untimely, unwarranted ending. Xiao used her super power of calling in a favor. More steps followed behind Xiao, prompting the normal response from Danny to take it upon herself to remedy the situation. "You're calling someone now? You didn't think of that when they had us tied up?" Danny grabbed the wood frame above the door and lifted herself up to throw a kick into Evil Xiao's chest. "Hey, Ms. Wong." Evil Xiao tumbled backwards, taking Evil Danny for a spin as well. "Night vision on a phone? I've to get some of that."

The problem began to roll down the stairs while Danny took the phone from Xiao to take in the rest of the conversation before handing it back to Xiao. "Okay. We kinda have a plan, but not really. We have some tools. Um. So plans are going to come as we go." The night vision built into the phone gave Danny a better vision of the truck behind the forest line. A number of six bodies lifted a box into the truck while one walked towards the Great Manifesto. Danny stayed in visual contact as she continued to run with bare feet. The slender woman placed her hand on the Great Manifesto's shoulder and leaned in towards him. His hands moved over his heart and he began to swoon. Swooning as the day is long. "Things are about to get- complicated. At best. And things are always bad."

The truck blew out exhaust as the massive military vehicle kicked up. Three Korean woman standing above and below six feet continued to move into position while the vision of the slender woman took form in the light. She wore a purple body suit covering her tall six foot one frame. Her hair rolled in bouncing curls just upon her shoulders. She flipped it with her hand, not out of necessity, but out of- well if your hair looked that good you would too. The Great Manifesto looked upon Danny with a look of infatuated disgust. One for one girl and another for the second. Danny fell into the latter category. "Be a sweetie and help us escape."

"You-you got it."The Great Manifesto stumbled forward, but flipped his cane with pin point accuracy. It flung a chain out of the middle of no where and wrapped Danny to a tree.

"Xiao. Don't let them escape! Or, better yet, help me escape." Danny squirmed to pull her arm out, but none of her appendages would muster any give.

"Both of you stop right there." The Great Manifesto pointed his cane towards Xiao. "Neither of you will be of any hindrance to my beautiful girl gang. They said they were going to let me in. Just let me have this!"

Xiao's fight or flight reaction kicked in when she saw the clones again, and got up off her butt once Danny sent them back downstairs. Xiao couldn't let Danny risk herself like this for both of them- that's why Xiao used her super lock the door and bar it with a broken chair leg power. That would hopefully keep them there.

With the help of some choice apps, Xiao followed behind Danny, keeping up with her frantic pace as the truck and the Kpop Kommandos came into view. Xiao had a sinking feeling she'd seen such individuals before. But... she could use this too.

Xiao reflexively stopped and raised her hands. Like she could do much against an evil magician... except talk. "So. Uh... You're working with the North Koreans? You know they're just gonna dump you once they get what they want. That's how their Dear Leader operates." Xiao decided to put on a poker face one more time, trying to play her bluff. "I would know. I have South Korean friends."