Ann walked through the snack aisle of the grocery store and stopped by the pudding and gelatin mixes and picked up a few packs of chocolate pudding for An. Their little party that she and her fellow Ans were going to have tonight to celebrate An's first day as a camera woman would how have three more guests.
Anny sent her and An a text on their group chat that told them that they'd have Karen, Rachel and Jenny over and explain their most recent work as vigilantes and tell them what happened last night and explain why the men they'd dealt with today were dangerous.
It was probably for the best anyway that they tell them. After all, there were three dangerous criminals on the loose who knew where they lived and Karen, Jenny and Rachel literally lived right next door, so warning them of the possible dangers they could be exposed to was the least they could do.
Ann sighed, it was quite possible that their friends wouldn't be in all that much danger at all, as Wyvern and Basilisk made it quite clear today what their intentions were while approaching her and Anny… It was harder to be as sure when it came to the Golden Dragon, as he had seen An in a state of undress, but it had apparently been an accident and he had apologized.
That was certainly more than she or Anny had received from their Kanker admirers for their little stunts today, but still, apology or not, An had probably had the worst today and would have to continue to work with him for another week and have to deal with the fact that he had seen her in her underwear that entire time.
So, after a moment of consideration, she decided to pick up some more Chunky Puffs while she was here, just to help get An's mind off of things for a bit… she paused as she noticed a couple of three packs of giant jawbreakers hanging off of a hook not too far from her, a bright colored piece of paper in front of it informing her that each pack was 25 cents.
Oh how hard they had worked to get just this much for the same treats when they were younger…
She chuckled at the nostalgia and pulled a pack from the hook, she remembered them being so much bigger when she was a child. Not that they still weren't far too large for an average mouth, but still… seeing them smaller than she remembered made her feel as if the world seemed so much simpler back then.
She then suddenly recalled when the three became far more dedicated to their fantasy of being superheroes and gripped the package tightly in rage of the memory.
Tiffany had ran off a week before that day, leaving nothing but an empty bedroom and a note saying that she was tired of being turned down as a hero, and that if the heroes didn't think she was good enough to be one of them, then she'd make them see just what she was capable of as a villain.
Anny's parents had called the police and she and An had spent days comforting their heartbroken friend, the two doing their best to convince Anny that her sister would probably be back soon and that she just needed some time to recover from her latest failure to get into the Justice League and that she was probably just being melodramatic in her note.
Although, An had told her in private that in most of the comic books she'd read, that usually when someone said they were going to become a villain due to heroes rejecting them, they usually became pretty dangerous and that she worried that Tiffany would follow in her comic counterparts' footsteps.
Ann had told her that she doubted someone like Tiffany, who had been training to be a hero for years, would just switch sides like that, but still asked her to not tell Anny and to simply continue to tell her that her sister would probably come home soon. An had nodded and hadn't say another word about it.
That day had seemed so mundane at first, she'd been up for a while, doing her chores as usual, when An had burst into her living room in a panic, saying that there were police officers by Anny's house again and that there were lots of people with vans and microphones outside. Ann had felt her stomach sink with dread as she dropped the mop she'd been using to clean the kitchen floor and An grabbed her by the wrist and dashed to Anny's house, Ann not even bothering to tell her to use the door and let her make another hole in her house to get to Anny's.
When she saw the scene herself, she'd felt physically ill.
There were several vans around the cul-de-sac, with various news station logos on them with reporters talking into microphones and pointing at Anny's house, which was surrounded by police cars and had officers in bright blue uniforms motioning for the reporters and camera crews to back off.
An dashed past them all, hearing angry shouts from the cops as An broke through the door and skidded to a stop in her living room where they heard a deep voice saying, "I'm sorry you had to learn about it this way." And turned to see a police officer with his hand on Anny's shoulder, his expression sympathetic.
Anny looked as if he'd smacked her, tears filling her eyes as she started to shake.
"No…" She said, "No, that's not true! It can't be true! Tiffy wouldn't do something like that! She wanted to be a hero! She wouldn't… she couldn't…"
"Anny!" Ann called.
Anny turned, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks and without saying anything, she and An immediately understood what had happened;
Tiffany had made good on her word.
An immediately got her out of there, dragging Ann behind her all the while until she finally slowed to a stop at Anny's bedroom door. An let go of her and Ann took that as her cue to open her bedroom door… only to see several cameras pointed through the windows.
She scowled, furious as she stomped over, closed the blinds and then reached for the phone Anny kept in her room and began to dial.
"Rachel? It's Double-N. We have a situation at Anny's house and her family is being harassed by reporters, could you and the Urban Rangers please get rid of them for us?" She asked the moment she heard Rachel say 'Hello?'
After a moment to process her request, Rachel agreed and told her to give her 'two shakes of a lamb's tail and one shimmy shake of a swine and it shall be done!' Before hanging up, most likely to get Jenny and Jamie and inform them of their mission.
Ann put the phone down and saw An wrapping Anny up in her blanket before rubbing her back, "We're here, Anny. We're here." She told her, her voice breaking and her eyes starting to water.
Ann smiled at her simple friend, it was times like these that An knew what was needed without anyone needing to explain to her and she sat down to join them.
They sat there for a long time, just holding each other and letting Anny cry, tears sliding down their faces too, because they knew that other than just being there for her, there was nothing else they could do…
Finally, Anny's sobs and sniffles waned into silence before she broke it with five simple, but determined words;
"I'm gonna bring her back."
Ann and An looked at one other, shocked and a bit concerned at the declaration.
"How are we gonna do that, Anny?" An asked.
Anny threw the covers off of her body and hopped off the bed and looked at them, her eyes stern, "Not we, Lumpy, just me. She's my sister and I'll get her back myself."
Ann felt her face twist with irritation at her words, "And we're just supposed to sit by and watch you put yourself in danger?"
"I have a plan!" Anny insisted.
"Oh really?" she seethed, annoyed that Anny was going to insist on leaving her and An out of this, "Then please, enlighten us. What is your plan?"
"I'll become a hero, find her, and bring her back." She said with a shrug, "Easy peasy."
"What if she's part of a group of bad guys, Anny?" An asked, quickly sculpting several condiment containers out of the green slime she secreted from her body and held one of them up to her face, "Captain Mustard tried to save his brother, General Ketchup, but he was outnumbered by the Condiments of Evil and got captured and hurt!" She said.
"An's right, Anny." Ann agreed, surprising both of her friends, although if it was because she agreed with a concept An got from one of her odd comic books or if it was just because she said that An was right about something was unclear as she went on to say that, "It's took risky for you to go after her on your own!"
"I have powers, remember?" Anny snapped, crossing her arms in front of her chest and letting her chin sink into it, "And it's not like I'm going right now, I'll train 'n stuff first…"
Ann felt as if she was going to explode, why was she so insistent about doing this on her own? But before she could say another word, An put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a look that silently asked her to let her try something. The wisest Ann's scowl grew deeper, but she gave her a slight nod and An looked to their stubborn friend before them, her face still red from crying as she stood there in her pajamas.
"Superheroes need more than those things to be heroes, Anny. If that was all it took…" she stopped, biting her lip to stop herself from saying what they both knew she wanted to say;
'If that was all it took, then Tiffany would've become a hero a long time ago.'
Anny clenched her jaw and her fists, unable to argue with An's unspoken point.
"Heroes have to put themselves in danger and fight people with superpowers and guns and henchmen made of hotdogs and rayguns that turn people into evil Giraffe monsters and… Heroes can get hurt really bad in these fights." An looked at her, pleadingly, "We don't want you to get hurt, Anny. We don't want you to do this alone."
Anny shook and looked down at the ground before snapping, "SO WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO, LUMPY?!" Her powers sending a powerful wave of energy that crashed into the floor, destroying the carpet and the floorboards underneath and sending her friends into the air for a moment before landing on the mattress and bouncing a bit. Anny hugged herself as a few more tears surfaced on her cheeks, "I can't just give up on my sister…"
"An never said you needed to give up on your plan, Anny." Ann told her, making her look up at her, surprised and confused as she went on to explain that, "She's saying we don't want you to do this alone. We want to help." An nodded, a small smile on her face as she pulled her up onto the bed with them.
Anny stared at them for a moment, her eyes wide before she murmured, "This ain't gonna be anything like the scams we do."
"We know." An smiled.
"We'll probably have to go to bad places against really bad odds…" She told them.
"Then we'll simply have to do research before hand and prepare for the worst." Ann stated with a smile, "It's not as if we haven't done it before."
"And what if it goes wrong?" She asked.
"We run." An replied cheerfully, "Like always."
"And come back later with a better plan." Ann added.
"We could get hurt." She pointed out.
"We're quick healers." An reminded her.
"And I have no issue with expanding my medical knowledge for the cause." Ann volunteered.
"…We might have to hurt people." Anny said softly, looking both of them in the eyes before saying, "I know you two, you aren't fans of that kinda thing. I don't wanna to make you think that you have to do something you don't want to just to help me."
Ann felt her chest warm at her consideration as she hopped off the bed and said, "Well, then, if that's the case then I will definitely need to go to the library soon to pick up some medical textbooks so I can render aid if we have to hurt someone to save others."
An followed her off the bed and pulled them into a group hug, "We're the Ans." An reminded her, "We stick together, no matter what."
Anny's eyes watered again, her lips curved into a small smile as she gave them a squeeze, "You two are the best friends a girl could ask for, ya know that?"
"Yes." They said in unison.
"But it's always nice to hear it now and then." Ann added.
"Smart aleck." Anny chuckled.
"Excuse me, young lady." A voice called, snapping Ann from her flashback and she turned to see an old woman with a cart in front of her and that her cart was a bit farther in the middle of the aisle, "Oh, my apologies!" she said, dropping the jawbreakers into her cart, moving her cart backwards and closer to the side, "I must have been lost in thought trying to pick some snacks for a party I'm having with some friends tonight.
The old woman smiled, "Oh, that sounds like fun! You have a nice time!" she said as she passed.
"Thank you! And you have a wonderful day as well!" She replied, before turning back to the task at hand. She needed to focus on getting some snacks for tonight. Hmm, An had never been picky when it came to food, she'd actually made snacks of things that she'd rather had kept out of her mouth, honestly, but the others made it a bit harder for her.
Anny and Karen were very conscious of their weights, so they had to be low in calories or low in sugar. Jenny was a vegan, so that made snack hunting a bit difficult. And Rachel… well, her taste in snacks was odd in general, but since her diet consisted mainly of meat, it did make it hard to think of something that she and Jenny could both eat.
Oh dear… she should have made a list while on her lunch break, but informing An and Anny of what happened and hearing what they went through themselves had taken every thought of preparing for their little party out of her head until her shift was over.
She scanned the shelf and smiled when she spotted a box of unbuttered but salted popcorn. "Not high in calories, vegan friendly, and Rachel will eat it." she said, pleased as she placed it into her cart, "Perfect! Oh, maybe I should grab a fruit tray as well..." She said thoughtfully, "Hmm, perhaps I can find some of those sweet potato chips Rachel enjoyed and oh! There was that vegan friendly brand of cookies that Jenny had shared with us before that were quite good! I wonder if I can find those here as well…" She smiled as more and more snack ideas started to flow in and she moved her cart forward a bit and began looking through her options.
She'd finally found several snacks that she was sure everyone would enjoy and looked up coupons for them on her phone to keep the costs down.
She had been happily losing herself in her task until she saw a package of spicy snacks, flames printed all over the package and she felt her face burn with embarrassment and anger at the memory of having Larie 'Wyvern' Kanker's pierced tongue in her mouth and his hand on her behind.
She had been hoping her first kiss would be… well, enjoyable.
And mutual.
Hers had been five milliseconds of a stranger's mouth on hers before she had his tongue swirling around her mouth.
She felt so… used.
She held back hot tears and sucked in a breath to calm herself. He could have done worse and Rachel had texted her a while ago saying that she had dumped the second tracker he put on her off the pier and into the river. And after she and her friends got them arrested and they were awaiting a trial in jail, she would go to the police and report the sexual harassment then.
She just needed to wait.
She let out the breath and sucked in another as she grabbed her handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes. 'Stay strong Anna Marie.' She told herself, 'You can do this.' She put her handkerchief away and gave herself a moment to regain her composure before looking into her cart and recalculating the cost of the snacks.
Perhaps she could get a small fruit tray… one with fruit they could pick up without their hands getting sticky… Was that even a thing? Maybe not… perhaps she could get some strawberries or grapes at least. Even if they didn't finish them tonight, they could eat them for lunch the next day. She moved her cart to the produce aisle and saw the old woman from before, who smiled at her, "Hello again." She said cheerfully.
"Hello." She replied, returning the smile before turning to the selections of fruit trays and packaged fruits, thoughtful.
"Oh, excuse me!" She could hear the old woman say to someone, "can I please squeeze past you all? I need to find my grandson and pay."
"Or you could back up and get out of our way, ya old bat." A familiar female voice replied.
Ann's eyes widened.
No… it… it couldn't be…
She turned and her eyes widened as she saw Tiffany 'Rough Diamond' McGee standing with two female lackies on either side of her, all three women wearing matching jackets, heels, long fake nails and smiles that insured nothing good happened.
Ann felt her stomach twist with dread, no… NO! She needed to call An and Anny! She pulled her phone out of her satchel and began typing, only for a hand to grab at her arm, "The fuck do you think you're doing?" one of the underlings asked, her long fake nails sinking into her arm and cutting into her skin.
Ann clutched her phone in her hand and considered her options, three against one in an area full of civilians and she only had a few things on hand to help her.
Pepper spray wouldn't be a good idea, as she could already tell this woman was planning to draw blood and close contact and an open wound when using pepper spray was a bad idea. She had a few smoke bombs, but it was pointless as she was already caught, it just meant that she would be unable to see any incoming attacks. She had an electrified net gun, but that wouldn't do any good either, the woman who was grabbing her could knock it out of her hand or mess with the wires. Even if she aimed for one of the other two, she could still be disarmed or her attacker could do something to tilt her shot, and since she only really had one shot with it, it wasn't exactly optimal.
She made a mental note to make something to help in these situations later, for now, it was best to work with what she had. She grabbed a handful of her own hair and moved her feet into a better stance to handle any incoming attacks.
"Oh, you gonna do something, bitch?" The woman asked.
Ann sucked in a breath, she had been practicing some new moves ever since their failure to join the Justice League but still, she had been hoping to never have to do this…
'You may have to hurt people…' Anny had said back then. She was right, but Ann was hoping not to have to hurt anyone for a little while longer… and while in costume. Hurting someone as a civilian was really not a good idea, especially with her wanting to become a doctor someday…
But, as she was being held against her will for simply trying to call for help, she would probably not get into too much trouble…
"What the fuck did you just say to my grandma?" a familiar voice growled, making all the women in the aisle turn to see Larie 'Wyvern' Kanker standing there, blue flames lapping up his arms and burning his thick brown jacket.
Oh dear, this just got so much worse…