A night to remember (1x1 with Danny The Sphinx)

The black car's engine rumbled as it cruised down the interstate.  It may look like a regular car outside but inside, it's a totally different beast.  It is big, it is mean, and it is, well, beastly.  For something that was purposely built to serve as crime fighting machine, it better be.

"Approaching a high density area.  Extra caution is advised."  Says the on-board computer.

Kara frowned because the electronic voice just interrupted the chorus of her favorite song.  "Shut up!  Relax, it's not that I'm going to plow somebody or something."  

"It is for our mutual benefit that you stay cautious."  A winking smiley face appeared on the heads up display in-front of her.  The car's interior was more that of a fighter jet than a coupe. "I love you, remember that.  Always."  A heart icon popped up.

"Please cut the crap.  You're making me cringe.  I designed you but I still don't know how I ended up with an A.I. like you."  She tried to hide a smile but it still went through. She admits it.  As much as it irritates her, the computer's "attitude" keeps her entertained, especially on a busy city night like this.  It's packed.  Bumper to bumper, noisy as ever, people from all sorts of life merging at the heart of the city that never sleeps.  

"Screw it, I'm walking.  Laters GT."  Like magic, the car's engine shut itself down, the tinted windows closed with an extra layer of bulletproof glass, and a simple "Goodbye" message appeared on the display.  

She swiped her card on the parking meter and within a few seconds, she's already in the middle of the cluster of people marching towards Madison Square Garden for a big Friday night concert.  If there is another way to describe it, it's that:

"This resembles an epic movie. Like those wizard thing flicks."

The crowd was so dense that she can feel multiple shoulders hitting her own.  Their elbows hitter her lower back and her abdomen.  

"What the hell, of course."   She said to herself.  She knows that this is normal.  An event at an overcrowded city?  What can one expect right?  That is, until the hits became harder and faster.  Then the sirens of the NYPD squad cars caught her attention.  She's a few blocks away from the arena and she finally figured out what's going on.

A squad car exploded, sending debris across the streets, injuring the fleeing bystanders.  It was a chaotic sight.

"They are not running towards the Arena, they are scrambling away fro-"

More explosions and this time, accompanied by heavy gunfire.  The shots came from inside the Arena.  Whoever is in there has turned it into a fortress of some sorts.  A fortress with a public address system.

The loudspeakers hummed:

"500 million dollars or you can kiss everyone goodbye assholes!!"

Danny started to wonder why she gave herself the codename "Sphinx". Not a whole lot else went through her head as she walked the crowded streets of the rebuilt New York City. The wind picked up lightly, blowing past Danny's sleeveless shirt and jeans without a single thought from her. She picked the name when she joined Prodigy as an alias, but it never seemed like her power makeup actually contributed to the whole logic of a 'Sphinx". Maybe simply over thinking this issue could add something to her owning that name. She would go with that for now. It fit, but she could revisit it sometime in the far future.

The bustle of the city lost itself on her with her train of thought, but the bustle of the city did not draw her attention anymore. The rumbling from within the streets drew her mind back to her environment. Smoke rose from behind the massive buildings dominating the skyline. Even from her ground floor vantage point she could see it rise to the sky like a hand reaching for a savior. A man shoved by her, followed by a woman, continued by three to four to five different people. She saw the path of the hero before her. It was the path that went against the crowd running from danger.

Gunfire rang out, drowning away sirens and screams of terror. A number of entrances stuck out through the perimeter of the building, draped in the sound of echoing chaos. Danny ducked into an alley and eyed an elevated platform four feet off the ground. Gun fire drew away enough attention for Danny to jet across the alley and lift herself onto the platform, swinging her legs around and coming up on her feet. The door to the arena gave no budge to her entrance. She wiggled the handle a second time before giving up on the noise inducing activity. A rub of her bracelet would hopefully clear up any misgivings this mechanism harbored over not letting the young superheroine into its halls, and sure enough, a swift kick knocked the lock out of place.

Now, Danny stepped into the halls, unaware of what await her.

"Ok, gunfire?  A sinister voice?  A next to impossible demand?  Sounds like you got a job to do here Kara."

Kara looked around her.  Chaos and panic filled the area as the unknown villain continue to ramble on his demands:

"Let's make this easy shall we?!  It is a known fact that..." A slight pause and boom goes the truck near the entrance.  "I can single handedly destroy not only this poor excuse for an arena but along with it, a million dollar rock band, and countless innocent lives."  

The NYPD has nothing that can match the firepower of this psycho and worse?  He is not alone.  The fact that a couple of armored officers went down via sniper shots is enough proof that the statement is true.  

"He's armed, dangerous, and he's not alone.  Time to rock and roll."  Then she looked around her.  

"No way.  This is a mess." Confusion engulfed her because of the one problem that she's facing for the first time.  She's been doing this superhero in a suit thing for quite some time now but it's usually during the calm and quiet night.  Tonight, she's in the middle of a thick crowd and it's virtually impossible to summon her car to be by her side via autopilot.  A Phone booth is not an option since her combat suit is neatly stored inside the car.  

"No suit, damn."

She's in a huge compromise right now but she cannot let this one go.  She doesn't have enough time.  The whole place is a madhouse and she just cannot go back to that parking spot a couple of blocks away.  Thick crowd, car jams, exploding things?  "Yeah, gotta go oldschool on this one."

She made her way towards the fray.  She obviously attracted attention but before the officer can shout at her face and tell her to run for safety, a blue aura engulfed her body.  Then she's gone.  

Gunfire erupted but the bullets just can't hit their zig-zagging target.  

"That's the door, got it!"

She then barreled towards the locked door, planting her bullet like foot dead center.  "The lack of mass can be compensated by velocity.  That's physics."  Physics did it's job.

"Alright, I'm in!  And damn, I paid $250 for these sneakers.  Oh well."  She said while standing on top of the metal door that she drop-kicked, her sneaker's smoking and spongy soles leaving their marks on it.

"And ohhh... They are scrambling now... " She braced herself.  She can hear the footsteps echoing across the corridor.  The enemy knows of her presence and they're doing something about it.  

What she doesn't know is that on the side of the good guys, she is not alone.

The door opened with a little encouragement from Danny's well placed foot. Nothing too shabby, but the crashing of the door did echo out a little more than anyone hoping to infiltrate a villain's lair would hope to. And hope she did not have. For a hostage situation, it seemed rather calm through the antechamber. No announcements, but a weird wave music sounded through the loud speakers. Something psychedelic and laid back. "Well, that can't be the backing for the Mutilated Corpses last album." And Danny was right.

Bullets rang out from around the corner towards Danny. She ducked in behind a support beam and waited for a reload before hopping behind a concrete partition. A smell rose up from the ground around her. These bullets contained some kind of toxin in them that sprung out from the walls. The threat of a biological threat ushered Danny out of the hallway with a rain of bullet fire moving around her. Each bullet failed to hit Danny, but she realized they were not aiming for her. They simply wanted to corner her in an enclosed area where the gas could take its toll.

Danny backed her way through a swinging door within the upper seating of the arena. The conical seating of the balcony curved towards the floor level where the hostages sat quietly. Humming. The humming ran out from all around her as Danny noticed the entirety of the stadium sat quietly with all the teenage rebellion in full display in their clothing simply humming along to a simple melody, led by the band still in full capacity on the stage.

A bullet impacted in the column in front of Danny, releasing a gas. Danny turned quickly to fend off the attack from her assailant- with quite some success as he plummeted to the ground, but the colors of the stadium looked- well, far out. They were dancing all around. And the band, the band looked so brilliant. "No way. This is awesome." Danny swayed back and forth before shaking her head. "No Danny, nope. You directed the school play on saying no to drugs in fifth grade and you are not succumbing to it now." Footsteps followed behind Danny in hot pursuit.

"Boom!  Float like a butterfly..."

She ducked a knife swipe.  By this time, the enemy knows that bullets can't hit her.  They now have resorted to a "primitive" form of combat.  As if that's going to generate better results.

"...And sting like a badass bumblebee!"  The bury man's jaw snapped back, Kara's knuckle hitting it's mark right on the money.  She charged up a speed burst and quickly dealt with the two other armed men in the same fashion.  

"Dammit!  I admit, that hurts!"    Indeed, punching hard and fast without her gauntlets does hurt but she knows that this is no time for complaints.  There is a job to do and she knows that she's going to finish it before the night is over.  Thousands of lives are at stake.

She made her way through the corridors, her body ready to dodge any incoming fire or whatever the enemy tries to throw at her.  That is, till she noticed something:

The absence of guards in the area.   She's nearing the entrance of the arena itself and there's no one there.  It is against the rules of mass hostage taking 101.

"Ok, this guy has some tricks up his sleeve."

He sure does.

"What the hell??  What's with the hippy music?"

Unknown to her, it is part of his tricks.

"The hell...?"

Bullets releasing gas upon impact started raining around her.  Bullets are easy enough to dodge but the gas is a totally different matter.  

"If I have my suit, this won't be a problem but, whatever!!"   She zoomed past the gas clouds, trying her best to not inhale the fumes.  Whatever it is, she's not taking it in.

"Okay, I am not expecting this."

The place looked more that of a throwback 60s themed concert more than anything else.  It's as if somebody dug up the remains of Hendrix and Jerry Garcia and turned them into cyborgs, the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.

The music is getting into her, the gas, try as she might, is making her feel a bit woozy.

"Nope, not like this.  Got to figure this out first."

Then she spotted someone.  Out of all the sea of people wearing black, there is a stand out because of her loud pink outfit.  The burly men charging towards the female also helps with the attention.

She's not going to get high.  She needs distraction and action is perfect.

She jogged towards the group then with a quick charge, sped fast in front of them, knocking out one guy out with a well placed kick to the gut.  The man then tumbled back, knocking down the others.  She then turned her attention towards the girl in pink.  She knows that she's special just because of the fact that:

"Hey!??  You do know that those guys wants you dead right?"

She tried to shake her, her hands on the girl's shoulders.

"You're wearing pink.  No way in hell that you have a ticket for this gig."

Two men bolted out with a stream of gas trailing out from behind them. Danny sized herself up and took a defensive stance to prepare for the attack, but knew she needed to make it quick if she intended on getting away from the noxious fumes that would soon follow. Both men fell to the ground as a woman took both men to the ground before making a correct assumption about Danny for possibly incorrect reasons. Until Danny looked around at the metal heads and their attire. "I would hope pink isn't the only reason, but yeah, I'm not exactly into this scene, man. Or, the weird funky music everyone is humming along to, man. I'm not even sure if they were trying to kill me. It is weird that I'm saying 'man', so much. It seemed like they were missing on purpose to-"

The thick stench of the gas rose up. "Oh god, that's terrible. Let's get somewhere safe." Danny lifted her shirt over her nose, but the gas still kept coming. Kara's face turned purple. It really brought out the blue and green in her hair. Danny never noticed her eyes were orange before. "I think I need to sit down. But, not here. Anywhere but here."

Three goons sprung forward shooting nets towards the duo. Danny pushed Kara back to open up some space between the two before running down to leg sweep a man with a fish head and carrots for arms. Or, at least Danny assumed all these realities were one. "Watch out for the walking chocolate cake with machetes for arms!" A man bearing none of the things Danny saw would run to try and tackle Kara and hold her down so the gases could fill her mind. "It's going to get messy in here."

A pair of pasta noodles wrapped Danny up like arms. But, bears did not have noodle arms! It did not matter right now; what mattered was how the noodle armed bear flew through the air when Danny vaulted him into the pillar.

"Attention girls with neg vibes." A voice called out through the loud speakers. "You girls are acting like fascists. If you don't stop, we're going to have to ask you to leave. If you have any questions, you can come talk to me in the board room, man."

"Oh dammit, that's why." Danny chalked up her troubles in vocabulary to this predicament brought on by this new adversary. "Hey! Are you okay, man?"