I do not own the rights to the Justice League.

Never Glomp a Lion

Let's see... oh yes, the bus came, and we went back to the apartment. I started homework, and she started making something that smelled delicious. Just another blah day. And the next day was blah. And the next. Well, you get the point.

I guess the next relevant thing that happened was... um... about two weeks later? Yeah, it was the first week of October. I remember because that's when Annie decided she wanted to go to the Central City Zoo. In order to attract people since their summer season was over, they had a reduced admission and Annie had seen the commercials for the price cut on TV. We had just watched The Lion King and she wanted to go see a real lion. Apparently she didn't quite understand that lions weren't as cute and fluffy in the real world, and they certainly didn't burst randomly into song, but who was I to ruin her dream?

"I want to see the lions and bears and penguins and unicorns..." she rattled off happily, as we entered the zoo.

"I don't think there are unicorns at the zoo," murmured Eugene. Even Eugene had joined Stuart, Annie, and me on the visit to the zoo. He claimed he liked monkeys, but Stuart and I knew what he really liked was Annie.

Stuart grinned. "Let's not ruin the fun for her." I smiled. It was nice actually having him to myself for the weekend, since he was usually busy with his clubs or homework, or I was busy with Annie and my own homework. I really wasn't that involved with clubs on campus, mainly because the ones that were related to my major bored me, and the rest had people that were just too cliquey for my taste.

We first stopped by the aquarium where Stuart and I kept telling Annie to 'find Nemo' among all the tanks. At one point she even asked a staff member for help. Used to this question from younger patrons, he politely told her the well rehearsed excuse that Nemo had been returned to his father on the reef.

After we went to the monkey house, they went to the reptile house (I say they because there was no way I was going to step in there anytime soon). Then we saw a bird show, had lunch, and finally visited the area with elephants, zebras... and the lions. It was an open area, letting the animals roam freely. There were hidden fences and sensors to keep them from wandering out though, and they were more aesthetically pleasing than iron bars and cages.

"Look! Look!" exclaimed Annie excitedly, peering off into the distance. "I see lions in the distance! And there are even cute little cubs!" And then she was gone. One minute she was clapping her hands excitedly next to me, and the next she was off and climbing over the gate.

"Don't you think we should have stopped her?" asked Eugene, as we watched her disappear from sight.

"Nah. Let her learn the hard way you shouldn't glomp a lion," I answered casually.

"Besides, she wouldn't have listened anyway," added Stuart.

A half hour later, Stuart, Eugene and I were sitting on a bench eating ice cream when we finally saw a figure in the distance. As the figure got closer, it became clearer that it was Annie. Except, not. Her hair was a mess, her clothes were torn. I suppose if it wasn't for her healing ability she would have been cut up and bleeding as well. Once she spotted us, she started to sob, "Lions are not as cute and cuddly in person like they are in the movies."

"Good. Now would you like a balloon and some ice cream?" I replied. Her face lit up like Christmas lights. She really could be so easy to please and distract sometimes, like a little kid almost.

Actually that was an accurate comparison. The week before the zoo incident, I had caught her talking randomly to a new neighbor, Roy Parker, or something. It's not that I don't approve of Annie meeting new people, it's just nobody in the apartment complex actually socialize with each other. Seriously, in the entire time I've lived there, I've never met my neighbors. So for a neighbor (a guy no less) to approach Annie, who has a tendency to be naive, probably meant that he was up to no good. Something that I had to remind her, as we walked away. But that's off topic.

Back to the story. Besides ice cream and a balloon, she had also gotten some new clothes since people kept giving us weird looks since Annie looked like she had just been mauled by lions. Which, technically was what had happened, but after explaining five times that she was fine, we insisted that Annie buy herself some new clothes at one of the little gift shops. It was actually a dress with safari themed print that Annie insisted was just too cute! (Gag). She also bought a stuffed lion cub which she deemed much safer than real ones. After everything that had happened I would have avoided lions like the plague, but once again, who was I to tell her what to buy when she was paying?

From there, security found us, and promptly escorted us off the premises, with a stern warning that Annie would be banned from returning if she pulled a stunt like that again. She really didn't understand what was so wrong until Eugene pointed out she should have died, and the zoo didn't feel like dealing with the bad press or legal issues if a patron died due to being attacked by the animals.

After leaving we took the bus back, ordered pizza, and settled back into our routines. I worked on physics homework while Stuart answered my questions and worked on his own, Eugene retreated to his room, and Annie was... doing whatever she does for fun.

It would have been another boring night if it wasn't for the TV being on. Stuart and I like it for background noise mainly, and it was on a local station. At around six o'clock, the local news came on, and like usual we ignored it. Well, Stuart and I did, Annie watched, trying to keep up with current events and any news on the League.

You see, that night that one reporter, Linda Park I think, teased a story about the Flash. The channel showed footage about him appearing to have been blown up, or something like that. Then they went to commercial before properly explaining it.

This upset Annie greatly. "The Flash can't be dead! I'm not ready to defend Central City by myself! We haven't finished my lessons!"

I stopped working on my problem and looked at her. "What are you talking about?"

"The news! The news showed an image of the Flash being crushed to death!" she said, pointing frantically at the TV.

I rolled my eyes. "Rule number two: Heroes (or villains for that matter) never die. It may appear that they are gone, but they will come back, eventually. Just like how a villain is never completed defeated, or will inevitably escape from prison."

"Really?" she sniffed, looking at me with her puppy dog eyes.

"Really," I said assuring her. "Look, a couple years, everybody thought Superman was dead after a fight with Toyman. Did I? No. I knew he wasn't dead and would come back, which he did, several months later. So the Flash isn't dead either. Besides, if he really was, they'd be making a bigger deal about it, and people would be out in the streets."

Just then, the program returned, and this time I actually paid attention. Sure enough there was a clip of the Flash appearing to be crushed by a giant metallic foot. The next shot showed the Flash on the other side of the screen, safe and sound.

"See? Alive. The Rules never fail." The doorbell rang, and Stuart went to get the door.

Annie's forehead wrinkled and she started to say, "That's weird, that's-"

I didn't hear the last thing she said. I was too busy looking at who was at the door. Sara.

**Author's Note**

Thanks goes to Loki's Son, Jana Girl123, and Autaumn Wolf for reviews. Three is less than six, but still much better than none at all. Also, if you leave a signed review, I will respond.

Next chapter is a bit of a fluff chapter, but some important things are mentioned that will make sense later, like several things in this chapter.

This is one of my favorite chapters, mainly because I got to use the line, 'never glomp a lion' and have it make sense.

On the Sara note, Sara is the roommate who's room was conveniently vacant for Annie to have. Upon starting this fic, I realized that Suzy wouldn't be able to stand having the same bedroom as Annie without killing her, Suzy would need her own space. So Sara was created, just so Annie could have her room. As Suzy states, things are very convenient for a Sue. That's why I thought it would be fun to mix things up and make things less convenient by having Sara return.

That's all for this update. Hope you enjoyed it, and don't forget to review!