Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Everything in the hold of the ship rocked back and forth as the ship wailed onward through the tossing seas. Danny wished her vacation could come without any hint of trouble or adversity, but Danny did not find herself on vacation. A pair of shorts with a long sleeve shirt bearing the home colors of her home school of Our Lady of Too Many Sorrows green and white, did not tell the whole truth to why Danny holed herself down into the cargo hold of a cruise ship, trying to dig through crates for a history exhibit. Truth be told, she was stealing. But, in her defense, those jerks stole from her parents first and as Jesus once said, finders keepers, people who are not Danny are losers. Danny actually stopped paying attention to chapel once she got her first cell phone- like most kids.

Danny kept moving with her bracelet wrapped around her wrist. If trouble happened, she would merely snap it into place, and deal with the problem. Peacefully of course, but still- she would deal with it.

The rest of the night continued on as any cruise would. pools stocked with people who may or may not have swimsuit bodies, tables filled with all sorts of food, however the shrimp ran out way too early yet again. And a luau with a stuffed pig took place on the top deck of the ship. If Danny could just find the crate with this stupid staff, she could go enjoy the festivities, but unfortunately for Danny, she really liked shrimp.

June the Dragon Girl found herself on a luxury ship by way of her waterproofed, mobile device's GPS and long distance swimming. She had no service but still had satellite internet, and so messaged Danny. "Arriving in 5 minutes."

Budget was tight this season and a luxury cruise ticket was completely out of the question... but Danny needed help in recovering some stolen artifacts, or so she said. As usual June was more concerned for her friend's safety than the artifacts, but if it was important to the Sphinx, it was important to her.

She climbed out of the warm ocean into the chilly night air, out of sight and exploiting the ship's blind spots and rather unobservant people. Strong arms climbed up the anchor chain, and side-climbing on the railings. She crawled onto the deck, passing by a child who, despite being on an ocean cruise surrounded by family- was unfortunately glued to her tablet and gaming. As were her siblings. Xiao felt a pang of pity, of sadness at this situation.

She slipped into the pool mostly unnoticed and swam to the other brighter side, climbing out in her Aquatic costume, the gray one piece nanofabric with the yellow 'W' on the chest. This sort of made her a corporate hero? anyway, the food definitely got the Dragon Girl's attention much as her amazonian figure got the wrong kind of attention from a few nearby males. Of course most men weren't into fit girls, dismissing them as 'too masculine.', which sounds kind of sexist but ultimately falls into personal tastes and cultural expectations.

Helping herself to a plate and some utensils, June caught up to Danny once she had a Mount Everest's worth of food on her plate, most of it coming from the roast. "Hey Danny. Have you tried the Rotisserie?" She said in a friendly, socialite tone, plopping a whole drumstick and thigh onto Danny's plate and inviting her to sit over yonder by the railing with only a few, glued-to-devices people. Of course in the line with all these people mentioning 'powerful artifact' was a definite no-no.

They ran out of shrimp. Again. How does a midnight buffet attract that many hungry people? No traces of marijuana filled the cruise, and most of the people were old. Once Danny found a complaint box, she would fill it. How do you even run out of a seafood dish on the ocean? Can't someone throw down a net or something?

"Woah, what the Hell?" A plethora of chicken parts flung themselves on Danny's plate, massacring the potatoes and showing no mercy to the peas on her plate. "Xiao?" The text message alert fell silent to Danny due to her misplacement of her mobile phone in a set location on her nightstand. "What are you doing here?" The question hung in the air without much need for an answer, until the words floated around the room. "And why are you wearing a 'W' on your chest? Prodigy or die girl." Those words rang a little too literal with the past experiences of Danny and Xiao's adventures.

A woman with purple and pink hair walked through the bottom levels of the ship with a USB stick in her hand. It spun around her fingers a few rotations before she pulled a perfume sprayer from her jacket and sprayed it in the face of a man standing watch of a door leading to a security terminal. The woman strode through with ease while the man coughed in a dazed state until he finally leaned back against the wall, infatuated with the sheer image of the woman's form. She shot the spray towards the woman manning the security cameras, leaving her in a dazed state. "Now, I just need to figure out which one of these thingies leads to the sound system. Hmm?" Her fingers danced around the control console. "Do you know?"

"That one my queen." The dazed brunette pointed with no emotion in her voice.

"Oh, how nice." The multi colored hair woman pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number. "Hello Ms Pink, its Ms Purple, I'm ready to put the tracks on. Are you ready for the ship to go to after hours?"

A voice came through the other side of the receiver, from a woman wearing a pink suit with short blonde hair. "Yeah, put the track on. I think we may have a problem though." She looked over towards Xiao. "A giant problem."

"It's my allowance from corporate sponsorship. Hard to get clothes that fix themselves." DG said, forgetting to explain to danny who did pay for all her nice regenerating nanofabric costumes. "Anyway, not important."

Dragon Girl, whatever her name is now, brought Danny to a more secluded table by the railings out on the al-fresco dining deck. Here they could converse in relative peace, lit by soft ambient lamps and the pale glow of mobile devices. June began her investigation by asking more in-depth questions, much like any good character would in an rpg. "I couldn't get a ticket so I just caught up. Anyway, you mentioned something about recovering some family heirlooms? Do you know anything about who stole them and why?"

June ate as she asked, loading up on carbs and protein for the task ahead, as well as for recovery after the kilometers long swim she'd had. She also kept an eye out for any unusual activity.

A gentle humming began to emanate through the speakers around the room. "Your corporate allowance? What corporation? They sponsor you to be a hero? That sounds good in a bad way- or maybe bad in a good way. Not bad in a bad way, but definitely not good in a good way either." Danny mushed some peas and potatoes together to fill her spoon and brought it to her mouth. She made the little concoction when she was little and used it as a comfort food ever since, but the food now found itself smothered with chicken.  

"I don't know what the artifact does, but it doesn't belong to some thieves who just walked in somewhere and took it- even though my parents did kind of go into some ruins and take it. They did it for better reasons!" Danny slammed her fists into the table, causing her chicken to jump a little. "Oh snap!" Very little attention moved over towards Danny. So little in fact, it made the woman in pink looking over appear more obvious.

It was during the brief investigation Danny noticed people within the dining area dropping unconscious. "Uh-" A yawn captured Danny's last expression, but the Prodigy member did not go down just yet. "That sound-" She grabbed her bracelet and created a pair of headphones to drape across her ears. A close encounter with her face and the plate barely skimmed past Danny. She took a look towards June to monitor her situation and created an equally awkward- but somehow stylish, pair of headphones to block out the sound dropping people within the room.

"We have two problems." The blond woman spoke into the receiver of her phone. "Send me Big Bertha."

"You know. With Ellie. She pays me to test fabrics for uniforms. This one knits itself together if it gets torn." DG said with a bit of enthusiasm, stretching the sleeve of her quite fitting and elastic diving suit. So apparently Danny's parents were tomb raiders. And here June thought they were those boring archeologist types who stay in university. "Maybe it was in those ruins for a reason." She offered a rather different angle of thought.

June had sensitive hearing, but only rarely exercised her heightened draconic senses. She blinked a few times during their brief conversation. "Do... do you hear that?" It would be a bit too late for Dragon Girl as she too felt the effects like mild nausea.

Mobile phones and selfie sticks, as well as the people holding them, began to clatter to the floor. A few unfortunate people likely had broken glasses and expensive drinks to deal with. June felt like she was about to get a migraine when Danny decided on a novel solution to protect them.

"Thanks Danny. You know, I've been wanting to try this." June gulps down a glass of fluids, but instead of swallowing she spits it out as a hail of icicles that shred the nearest speaker's circuitry, causing it to screech out in static before forever holding its piece.

She quickly realizes the limitation of this use of her power, having grabbed Danny's pricey brewed iced tea drink for her second shot to knock out another speaker with icicle loogies. With that, there were no more drinks for June to appropriate. "We should... get out of here, while disabling the speakers along the way." She suggested, pocketing her phone into her little superhero sling purse.

"There's a bunch of them." Nothing about her statement rang false empirically, but the threat of danger within the room still remained at large. "If they think everyone is knocked out, they probably didn't bring anything with them to fight a group of-"

Before Danny could get the words of her lungs, a small form darted across the dining room, aiming to hit June square in the chest to try and knock the air out of her. "Wanna play?" Standing all of four and a half feet tall, a small girl with blond pigtails would try to grab June by the leg and try to spin her in a circle a few times before launching her towards a wall. "Wait for me!" The terror would run to try and get to June's landing spot before her, waiting with a fist to keep June off her feet.

"Don't worry Xiao-" Another loud punch rang out from the royale between June and Big Bertha. "Well, worry a little-" Danny put her hand on her bracelet, foregoing channeling an ancient warrior to put up a large crossbow on her arm made of constructed turquoise light. "But I'm going to try and-" A flicker of yellow light materialized around Danny's wrist, pulling her to the ground before she could launch any ammunition towards the fight.

"Cool trick." The pink suited woman stood over Danny, holding a golden lasso made from hard construct light. "You gave me a great idea- anything else I can steal from you?"

"Yeah. This." The projectile from her wrist fired out towards Ms Pink's leg, sweeping it from under her. "I think you stole enough from my family, now give me back the artifact and I won't make you walk the plank." The Turquoise crossbow dissipated and a saber manifested in its place.

Dragon Girl's attention was on Danny when the speedster rushed her, before she could even put up a good defense. The speedster also had some strength in her, being able to toss Dragon Girl and juggle her with punches like in cartoons or some cheesy video game, using a character who was complete cheese like Asuka Kazama. "WHOAAA!" June felt the dull thud of the punches that sent her flying. Her opponent was pretty strong from some half-pint.

Not wishing to destroy the ship with an Axe kick, June instead rights herself midair with that martial arts training and blows on the little twerp with a blast of cool, minty fresh frost breath. June couldn't hope to catch a speedster, but perhaps she could slow her down.

"En garde!" Danny lunged forward to parry at her opponent. The awkward jab from Danny ran its course in the side of a table, throwing the placement from the center of the table. The dodge from the pink suited woman came with little grace, but she placed enough room between herself and Danny to avoid the follow up from the cheerleader.

"Too slow." Once Danny passed by Ms Pink, the whip wrapped around Danny's arms, pinning them at her side.

In the corner of the room, the smaller girl continued her onslaught against June. The dragon girl looked like she was ripe for the picking, and Bertha had just the tool for picking ripe dragon fruit. The small girl pulled a backpack and reached into the small bag, removing a five foot tetsubo. "This is my wham stick! I'm gonna WHAM ya!" The minty fresh breeze blew past the little ball of destruction, allowing her to only gain ground slowly, but she devised a plan to use the breath as a form of fog. The little girl's laughing continued as she fought through the folds of the breath until she grew closer to June. A smack turned into a pop. Under the protection of vision, Bertha put a piece of Ultra Chew gun in her mouth. The popping of the massive bubble would aim to shoot over June's mouth to close off the source of the freezing breath. After her initial attack, Bertha would wind up her Wham stick and try kneecapping both of June's legs.

"Little tied up?" Ms Pink took note of Danny trying to squirm to get back to her stance.

"Not so much." What went through Danny's head looked far more impressive than what actually happened. Her constructed blade crashed against the light forged whip, not making much of a dent against it. "How is your's stronger than mine?"

"They're equal. And equality favors me." Ms. Pink manifested a golden sword in her hand. "Now, you need to get off my boat and leave me with my relic I stole from those Tongo people!" The blade flew towards Danny in a resolute strike.

Halfway through the swipe, Danny met Ms Pink's hand with her foot, stopping it dead in the air. "It's Tamamoa! You stole it from my parents!"

"Wait-" With a heavy grab, Ms. Pink lifted Danny's air bound ankle higher in the air, sending Danny to the grab. "I stole their relic? And, now I'm beating up their daughter?"

"You stole their relic. Correct. You're scum. But, you're not beating me in anything." Danny called out from the ground as she hopped back to her feet with an impressive jump, sending a headbutt directly into Ms Pink's skull. "Now, give me back the relic!"

June was trained in combat and doubly in protecting her legs, and dodged with fervor. Not to mention having the better senses when sight went out the window. She could hear the massive weapon swinging, but didn't expect the breath neutralizing gum. It was gross, but there was no time to freak out over gum.

Like a flimsy fighting game stage, Dragon Girl exploits the girl's mad swings and has her hit a water pipe, causing more water to hit the super-cold air. June rolled and ducked past a horizontal blow. She needed a weapon, and a bright red sign on a wall was her answer. She timed a Tetsubo swing to be entangled with the firehose, so June could get in and land a solid, barefoot front kick to Bertha's gut... She really wanted to disable her long enough to assist Danny so Danny could assist her.

"Wham! Wham! Wham!" Bertha continued in her onslaught as she chased June deeper around the room. Pipes burst forth, soaking the floor with an outpour of chilled water. "Whack! Whack! Whack!" Each one of her swings sought to further drive the Dragon girl into a corner, but it seemed June had no problem going towards the side. The water hose on the side of the room got in her way, but it only did more to grow her weapon. Bertha lifted the weapon off the wall and swung it around to wrap June up in the hose. The leg struck Bertha straight in the solar plex and for a moment it looked as though all the air would slip from Bertha's lungs. It remained static inside her, growing in intensity. Then it all let out. The sheer strength of the blow delivered from June worked its way all through Bertha's body and unleashed itself into June's leg, propelling all of the energy in the opposite direction, with Bertha still holding onto the tetsubo with June tethered to it.

Danny managed to get her arm free just as Ms Pink brought a blade down towards her shoulder. Green light clashed with the yellow, creating a surprising lack of noise from the weapons. "Where's the relic?"

"I'm not telling a bratty little princess like you!" Danny spun around and swept Pink's leg.

"Wrong answer." The blade Danny wielded dissipated into nothingness, granting Danny enough power to slide her hand under the whip wrapping her up and slicing it with a pair of green constructed pliers.

"Too bad your friend is having troubles." Ms Pink drew on Danny's team spirit to distract her long enough to summon a giant yellow mallet and slam it against Danny, sending her flying towards June.

Dragon Girl was caught by surprise by the little girl's resilience. To have taken a kick without even flinching, and then toss her around with the hose like a yoyo, it was way too much for June. Some kind of kinetic absorption, but she simply understood punching and kicking wasn't going to solve her problems.

Problems included smashing into the deck, smashing through the ceilings, some furniture then into some railings. June got the wind knocked out of her; to avoid further humiliation she morphed claws and cut herself loose.

But, all this tossing June about meant she was about to put distance between herself and the half-pint terror. She saw Danny wasn't much better off; clearly they were outmatched and countered. June quickly reacted to get to her feet and catch Danny as she went flying. "Danny, I think these guys got us beat. The kid can take a kick from me and keep going!"

"...Better hold your breath." With no other good direction to go, June plays her aquatic card and carries Danny off into the water.

The fight took a turn for the worst. Danny heard June call out for a retreat, but retreat right now did not fit into Danny's tactics. Knowing the overly sentimental dragon would try and wrap her up and force her to retreat, Danny built a wall to divide the room, keeping June from grabbing her, but also keeping Bertha in the same side of the room with June.

"You should have gone with your friend, princess." Ms Pink lunged towards Danny with the pale yellow sword.

Danny parried, disarmed, and knock Pink down. "You should have told me where the relic was." Turquoise bonds wrapped pink up to try and put an end to her reign of chaos. It did and it did not.

Bertha followed June over the side of the ship, hoping to quickly find a way to grab the dragon and force her to feed her energy. The limited knowledge of Bertha about her powers failed to put into her mind just how much energy existed within an ocean. Bit by bit, Bertha became faster, stronger, and more focused to find the dragon, exploding like a ball of energy until she finally caught up to June. The boon of energy felt amazing, until the energy became too much for any one being to handle. Eventually the intake of energy would overwhelm Bertha, causing her to unleash the energy in an explosion.

Back on the ship, Danny brought her prisoner to her feet and walked her out of the dining room with a saber to her back. "You try anything and I'll make your lungs turquoise."

"Got it princess. We just need to go down to the cargo hull and the relic is in a crate." Pink stopped trying to escape from the massive bonds wrapping up her entire torso. She knew when the time came, she would be free enough to break loose and turn the tables on Danny. "I can't wait to see what you think about it."

June wanted to help Danny but it seemed she objected. She didn't have much time to argue, with the brat coming at them, swinging the weapon of japanese demons. "Take care!" June said and and dove. Sadly she got no reprieve as the little Oni Girl followed, and defeated her aquatic agility with sheer brute force.

Desperate she dove down, straight down, wondering if Oni Girl could take a deep dive. June could not see her, but she could feel her unnatural bio-signature, she was highly inhuman. June struggled and tried to shield herself with her arms as her power surged to critical levels.

The explosion of energy sends a massive wall of water skyward, and sent June spinning, roiling through the water. The water served to cushion the shockwave a little. just enough that Dragon Girl would take a few moments to gather herself and swim back to the surface; she'd been displaced quite a distance. She looked around and looked for her half-pint foe, but somehow she was nowhere to be found. Did she die? How? June was curious but she had to prioritize.

She swam back to the ship; if these folk were powerful they might as well get to the stolen goods first. It seemed their little rumpus had sent all the civilian passengers on board to the lifeboats, several of which Dragon Girl swam past. She was again rolling her eyes to see them trying to use their mobile devices to help them out of this bind. Oh come on.

She swam beneath a lifeboat with kids on it and bumped their phones into the water. June would left those kids with the task of actually talking to their family for once.

She skipped the climb and simply rocketed out of the water like some marine-park trained aquatic life form. She'd have to find Danny; luckily it wasn't that hard. Danny wore a distinct shampoo, soap and perfume that Dragon Girl could follow by nose. Down a hallway then a flight of stairs, she'd rejoin her teammate in no time... unless some surprise awaited our draconic hero.

The ship cleared out into a more docile state, but none of the circumstances for the departure made Danny feel more comfortable. Her prisoner continued to lead her deeper into the ship through crowded stairwells, each step sounding out nothing but the echoes of their feet. Where did the rest of the ship go? "Pretty quiet, huh princess?"

"Maybe you cut it out with the 'princess' thing. I've got a sword to your back in case you haven't noticed." Danny closed the hatch behind her as they stepped into another corridor leading to bottom level cabins.

"To be honest, I had forgotten. Silly Me." One more level and they would descend to the hull of the ship. Whatever artifact they stole would be completely within Danny's grasp, but exactly how she would extract it still remained at large. Her parents excavated the relic, it was then stolen, and now Danny would take rightful claim of it. Or at least she hoped it would come across in that manner.

Some noise alleviated the haunting silence of echoes. "I've got a dragon girl too in case you forgot."

"I've got something too." A pistol pressed against Danny's head from behind. The absent appearance of Ms Purple showed up behind Danny from one of the cabins Danny presumed to be empty. Ms Pink pushed against the light binds around her torso, shattering them and conjuring a piece into a knife. The sudden attack caught Danny in a predicament, but the quick slice of the knife severed Danny's bracelet from her wrist, dropping it to the ground. "And it looks like we got you, princess."

A crash broke through the walls. It came from every direction. One after another it shot down every hall, rang through every door, and finally surrounded June from every direction. Nothing appeared before her, but a violent punch would land straight for her gut. The crashing sound would echo down the hallway, continuing to run in a circle around June. The violent ruckus would come back again, this time allowing the noise to follow, sending a sonic boom towards June to try and disorient her so it could grow closer and strike at the vulnerable spots on the dragon girl.