Beverly Hills Karate Kids

Diana was always a good listener. She had this thing where she waited a minute before replying to conversations. It made her look like a deep thinker, but really, her brain was just typing out and editing what to say. "I can always... beat up everyone who gets in my way. Well. You take care too." Diana said that like it was a completely normal thing.

Diana stopped by the infirmary and got some aspirin for her headache. She felt good enough to catch up to the archery club's practice. All those movies with young heroines and bows had uplifted archery from obscurity to being a relatively participated in sport. Of course, some where aghast that it required immense upper body strength, but it hardly mattered to Diana, using a traditional yew bow on display to nail several near bulls eyes. The male Scottish team captain quickly hands her the application form and a team jacket.

After all the school affairs of the day were done, Diana lounged a bit at a nearby cafe. Her expression, as her thoughts, were mostly blank, as she waited for the sun to set and her milk tea to run dry. Once the sun once down, she decided it was time to walk the five blocks to the marked property on her GPS. A walk at night would be good for the lungs.

Danny headed back to Prodigy HQ located in Hearst Manor. She showered and then slipped into a pair of jean shorts and a loose poncho over a black tank top. No one else occupied the house right now. Ryan went somewhere and June was off being a corporate sellout. It actually got a little boring and Danny felt no reason to just sit in an empty mansion by herself when she knew she could do things. She put her book down, slipped on a pair of flip flops and walked out the front door. Forgetting her bracelet on the vanity by the shower.

She felt more comfortable without the metallic object hanging from her, but after fifteen minutes of walking through the market district, her comfort became odd. The oddity turned into a discomfort. She only took the thing off to shower, making her feel naked in her walk down the street. If she went back to Hearst Manor, she would probably just stay in for the night. Wanting to check out a new night life hot spot, Danny just continued on down the street towards a booming little cafe.

Some stupidity was eventually bound to show up along Diana's way. She took a quick route that bordered on one of the poorer parts of town, and some masked hooligans intercept her asking for money and favors. Diana checks the time on her phone, and decided a work out was in order.

Meanwhile...

The Warfield residence was now in sight not far from the cafe. Throngs of rich entitled kids were either being dropped off in fancy cars, or riding segways and hoverboards to reach the mansion gates.

A familiar face would show up on the streets. A tall girl riding a delivery scooter, wearing jacket and helmet. The back of her bike held boxes of her dessert table fillers. Brownies, Cupcakes, food for the gods, chantillies, muffins and more. She stopped at the entrance to be entertained by the guard.

The soy latte filled a spot of Danny she did not know she needed filling. She ran into a friend of hers and the two got to talking, pulling Danny's attention away from the moving exodus of youth towards an historic estate situated at the heart of the shopping villa dominating the newly revitalized area. The conversation turned from school and activities to all the problems facing the dynamics of the student body. It was in that moment Danny noticed two kids from school heading to meet a much larger youth movement.

"Is there a party tonight?" Danny peaked over her friend's shoulder.

"Yeah, something at the Warfield. I don't know who's throwing it though; I'm probably just going to head home. Are you going?" The blond girl looked down into her empty cup, disappointed her parents would make her be home before the party would take place.

"It looks like I have to. I think I know who's throwing the party." Not once did Danny's eyes make contact with her friends. Nor did she really look to the crowd. All she could see was Bellona standing over her and tapping her on the cheek. "It will be a fun time."

"I bet. Well, I'm going to get going." The blond stood up and grabbed her bag.

"See you in school tomorrow, Heather." Danny gave her a hug and walked towards the door.

She would look into this terrible gathering of terrible people. Popularity did nothing to help her blend in with the surroundings. Danny would need to sneak through in flip flops and with no bracelet help. This could get dicey, but Danny still possessed some athleticism to help her over a side wall and into the side yard, away from any spying eyes.

"Woohooo~" Some football jocks in shorts, tank tops and flip flops carrying kegs arrived at the gates, accompanied by the popular, pretty girls from the cheer squad and the girls who don't do anything. Diana arrived on her own, walking through the front gates, being expected. Her clothes looked a bit roughed up, and she had a smirk on her face. Diana was looking for a good spot to brood.

The Warfield mansion was expansive but spartan- that is, the family who own it were fond of greek style, and resembles an ancient greek villa with classical manicured gardens and modern amenities. The gardens and amenities alike were infested by excited teenagers of various ages and cliques, trying to butter up to the popular kids. Lacking subtlety, the garden featured a central fountain depicting the Warfield family as the roman gods, who were really just cheap greek gods knock-offs. Jupiter, Juno, Mars, and of course, Bellona. Where Athena was a goddess of wisdom and strategic warfare revered by the Greeks, Bellona was some gender-bender cosplay of Mars that the Romans have mostly neglected.

As Danny slipped over the wall she'd run into the pastry delivery girl, someone who was distinctly very tall, asian and cheerful. Her size and boxes provided excellent camouflage to the delivery area, where house staff were receiving pizzas from Cappadocia pizza.

"Hello Danny! How are you doing? fancy meeting you here! So the students here are from your school? Is this your friend's house?" June asked excitedly, walking beside Danny.

Away from spying eyes she did not go. "Oh, June? What the-" As June called for Danny it brought a number of eyes towards her location. "Yep. They go to my school, but I would not call anyone who owns this property my friend." Danny reached into June's cart and pulled out a pastry. "I'll pay for this later. Right now, I have things to do."

Danny turned around and ran into an approaching girl. One of the girls from the locker room earlier in the day. Watching her fall straight to the ground made Danny happy, but she decided to keep that to herself. "Oh hey, Lauren. Fancy seeing you here."

"You're not supposed to be here. At least not without the way we you to come here. You can't just show up like you want to." The brunette picked herself up as a blond walked over.

"Bellona wants to see you." She looked down to see Danny without her bracelet. "She wants you to help her surprise the new girl."

"I was just walking through Alice. I'm not sure I'll stay that long." Well, not with them knowing at least.

"What are you looking at?" Alice looked to June before checking out her goods. "These have empty calories in them. Get them out of my sight. And you need to tell Bellona you don't want to see her."

"Really? Well, you should take care then. I smell... pot... and other things around. Just a heads up. I hope they're not doing anything illegal or harmful.Ohh! Try that, it's a triple chocolate muffin, but I put in dark chocolate so it wouldn't be too sweet." June excitedly chirped about the product Danny tried, after her nose gives a useful warning.

June would eventually be relegated to background character as she brings out the order forms that justified the presence of her products. The Alice person would be too pre-occupied with the dragon girl to bother Danny further, citing how pastries were disgusting, which bypassed June's invulnerability to hit a chord. Perhaps Alice should be told not to argue with a seven foot gal with legit purchase order and pride in her products.

On the surface the freshman welcoming party seemed to be going normally. Packs of nerds were borderline worshipping the pretty cheerleader senior that was talking to them- or more like making a deal to do her homework in exchange for... taking selfies with them? Babymetal was playing in the background, as well as on the screens, giving the party a cutsie but metal atmosphere.

Bellona herself was a gracious host being all casual by wearing a Jpop shirt and nearly non-existent shorts, which got her alot of gazes. She welcomes the freshmen and guests, handily giving out drinks made of the fruits Danny never bought, and the pizza slices of a small, independent but growing Italian Pizza franchise. In short, people were actually having fun.

Diana shows up finally and Bellona welcomes her, handing her juice and pizza. It seemed they were looking to bend her to the cool kids side, and Diana was just open enough to see what they were up to.

"Out of my way." Danny pushed passed Lauren and Alice with the muffin in her hand. She waved good bye to June and made her way inside the mansion. "I have no clue why she's here, but she needs to stop sniffing me out. It's creepy now." The inside of the mansion looked far too tacky to be a real party. All the trappings of this place looked to be placed around to keep nerds complacent, but why Bellona would need that escaped Danny. But Bellona did not escape Danny. It just hit her wrong when she saw Diana here as well. "Well crap."

Danny would try to spot where a break would come so she could interject and get Diana to leave this party behind. Her hiding did not go quiet as unnoticed as she would like. For the first time in his life, Spock managed to build up the confidence to talk to Danny, but he was afraid of getting too close to her. From the other side of the room, the pudgy bespectacled guy waved and shouted "Hi, Dan-anny. Danny-sama!"

She noticed him alright, but so did everyone else in the room notice Danny.

With Spock's assistance, the hostess of the party spots Danny. Bellona milks the friendly atmosphere and makes her way to The Sphinx, Diana following, munching on pizza. Diana offers Danny her other slice.

"Danny! girl, You made it just in time. I'm so happy you're here. Really." Bellona gives Danny a big, ironic, crushingly affectionate hug, even giving her some italian cheek-to-cheek kissy face. She wore some strange perfume that smelled nice, but at the same time elicited a strong reaction of the aggressive sort.

She signals the DJ to stop the music for a moment. Some nerd who was working there as a sound guy, working the equipment like a pro- he has a bright future for sure- hands Bellona a mic. "Okay guys, we'd like to have a game- a short game for fun so everyone gather round."


Bellona hugs Danny some more like they were friends or something. "We're gonna have a Red Team vs Blue Team battle royale with a representative from every class and ever year level chosen by lottery. Now don't worry, it's not an mma thing. everyone gets foam helmets and these- foam tipped giant cottonbud things. You fall into the pool, you lose!"

That was when the Villa's Pool had soft floating platforms positioned like a labyrinth, steady enough to have fights. The names of the representatives were called, along with their corresponding teams, and lo and behold, Danny and Diana would find themselves on opposing teams. Teams that had a strange mix of unathletic girls, varsity girls, unfit nerds and oversized jocks. Padded helmets and padded staves were handed out, and somehow people were not objecting to this game- no one could. The teams took their positions on the opposite sides of the pool. The atmosphere was still friendly, until Bellona dropped a last minute rule.

"Oh yeah, one more thing. The losing team will have a special... video presentation... after the game. So good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor, dweebs! hahaha" Two big screens were brought out, and some gasps escaped the more socially conscious kids who recognized the videos that were not yet playing. Incriminating videos of the popular kids on both teams. Suddenly people fell into a more serious state.

Danny stood still as Bellona embraced her. How fake she acted struck Danny with two kisses to the side of her cheek, but not with any real surprise. What Bellona hoped to achieve sat somewhere between vanity and humiliation for others, but did not necessarily reek of criminal intention. "Hold on." Danny held her hand up as the representatives were called. "No offense, but we don't need any of those kids for the first game. And a real Battle Royale doesn't have teams either. It just has one winner. So how about we give everyone here what they really want to see, and have you, me, and Diana go at it."

Danny would try to bring people over to her side to break down the event to a more reasonable setting where Danny could give herself a chance to succeed at taking down Bellona or giving Diana a shot at taking it. Danny motioned for everyone called to head back while she grabbed a baton and hopped towards the one of the walls on the pit. "Winner picks the punishment for the losers! We can make our own video presentation from there." A distance spread between Danny and Bellona, but it would close soon enough. "I mean, you want to do this on your own right? You're not afraid of this are you?"

There was a collective "ooooh" when cheerleading badass Danny hit the nip in the bud and outright challenged the school reigning badass, and the new badass.

"Haha! Sure, sure! It won't be fair, but it'll be funny." Bellona laughed that annoying, snorting laugh she did when she was amused. Sure she looked cute when she wasn't scowling, but Bellona only ever smiled for a fight.

The whole pool was covered by the plexiglass floor now, with only narrow places for people to fall into the water.

"Hey, I got nothing else to do tonight." Diana voices boredom as her motivation to engage in this melee a trois.

Someone decided that the scenario could use the Mortal Kombat fight theme, to get people's blood pumping.

As is Diana's analytical style, she waits for someone to make a move to observe them. Bellona provides her with a brutish bull-rush, and Diana finds herself blindsided by a Bellona who uses no technique at all. Diana didn't seem to defend herself either, taking the tackle and sprawled onto the plexiglass floor, almost falling into the pool. She quickly recovers with a flip but Bellona was already heading for the other one.

"YOUR TURN DANNY!" She said with glee, so excited to unleash her pent up frustration that the war goddess wannabe actually performs an aerial Psycho Crusher to try and tackle Danny.

Instincts brought Danny's hand to her wrist to grab her bracelet, reminding her of the harsh reality of her grievous mistake of leaving in next to her hairbrush at home. Instead of tapping into the collective unconscious of a thousand dead warriors, Danny tapped into her own skill as a cheerleader. She flipped into a backhand somersault and tried to stick her landing without going off the side of the glass. "Who even builds something like this?"

An offensive from Danny would end terribly, but she could tumble and flip her way to safety all day. Or at least about ten minutes. "Diana. Got any ideas?" Danny looked up to the rigging to see if she could find any clues located above.

Diana recovers and hits Bellona with the big foam stick... squarely in the back as she twists around to avoid a direct blow.

"An ancient proverb says... let a raging fire burn out! OOOF-" Bellona lands another blow to knock the wind out of Diana, but she wasn't knocked down this time, getting used to the strength of her blows. Bellona may have been using the foam stick, but she was using it in a way to effectively deliver some hurt.

And now she uses a sweeping kick, sending Diana to the floor again and rolling to sweep Danny off her feet. The foam helmets averted concussions, so hitting the floor headfirst wouldn't end the fun too soon.

The kids at the party cheered as more energetic music, such as punk rock played. "BELLA! BELLA! BELLA!" The crowd chanted, as Bellona's wild and energetic style got the crowd going, Diana being far too reserved in her moves to win them over.

Sweep the Leg!

For a while the answer to godliness came through cheerleading. Then, godliness reigned supreme with a swift kick to Danny's shin. The effort to try a backhand somersault landed poorly, breaking Danny's wrist. The follow up shot came, but Danny managed to roll away, just barely managing to stay out of the pool.

Get her a bodybag!

Thriving off adrenaline, Danny spun up and attempted to deliver a swift kick to Bellona. The kick felt slow, like kicking through water in comparison to her bracelet enhanced kicks.

Make her do a wet T-shirt contest!

Danny knew her time in the contest would be over soon and whatever terrible prize Bellona had in store for her would make her wish a broken wrist would be the worst thing to come to her tonight.

Finish her!

"Danny sama, no.... get up! I believe in you!" While the rest of the crowds cheered for their war goddess, Spock alone - and maybe a few other nerds who liked Danny- tried to give her a morale boost.

Diana catches wind of Spock. An unconventional strategy came to mind. "Hey you! Get to the control room and play Bellona's video!"

"But... but... the wrestling club are in the way." Spock turned towards the control booth and began to break out in a cold sweat. He was terrified of the big burly wrestlers who gave people bear hugs.

"Then find the biggest kid at this party to help you!" Diana said frustrated, having to tell him how to do things.

Diana decides to abandoned propriety and throws aside the sporting foam stick and gives Bellona a taste of Jiu-jitsu. Right as Danny was about to get pounded with soft fluffy doom, Diana decides to attack Bellona's strength. "Danny get up!"

Bellona escapes from the grapple and rolls away, though Diana's challenge was welcome. She laughed that weird laugh of hers and decided to show this striker some real grappling moves. Her agility on the ground saw to Diana slowly getting overpowered and getting into a brutally well executed armbar. Diana shouted in pain as her arm was slowly being bent the wrong way.

Diana gave Danny enough time to roll away without putting any unnecessary pressure on her wrist. Bellona looked happy at the royale. Danny began to reconfirm she did in fact make a mistake, but sometimes those mistakes could be rectified. After a few moments of discussion with the crowd from Diana, Danny threw herself to take out Bellona's legs to give Diana enough time to tell Spock to get to the video room.

The shot to Danny's side left a stinger, but enough adrenaline kicked in to keep Danny fast enough to pop herself back up. Diana tried to parley some level of skill against Bellona, only to find herself put into submission by the massive bully. If Bellona could take Diana out of this, then Danny and Diana would both undoubtedly spend the night saran wrapped to the flag pole.

Not letting that happen. Danny might not know much martial arts on her own, but she knew how to get a good hold around the neck. Danny tried to get on Bellona's back, placing her arm around her neck, and would secure the lock by grabbing her injured wrist with her good hand. With a little pressure, Danny hoped to get Bellona off.