Larie knew in a small corner of his mind that showing off his powers right now was a bad move. Plenty of the city's cops had him on their radar for several crimes he actually did and this would only help them prove that…
But still, this bitch had been nothing but trouble ever since she came to here and today she had crossed a serious line.
She had the nerve to talk like that to his grandmother.
His and Jay's mothers died when they were young and Tee's mother left when they were still in diapers, leaving their grandmother as the only maternal figure in their lives as well as one of their best teachers.
She was the one who started their family businesses, although the city was in far worse shape than it was now when she did it. Back then, nearly every cop was crooked, every street was dangerous to go down alone and people only felt safe in their own homes when they kept weapons by their bedside or under their pillows.
Now, it wasn't filled with crazed lunatics, like Gotham or Star City, but that was probably why no Superheroes came to help the people here.
Creeps with cruel agendas and equally odd/colorful costumes they could handle, but corruption that had seeped into every part of the government of this town was something on a whole other level than what they knew how to deal with.
So, since no one else was going to do it, their Grandma took the reins and turned the town from a hell no one wanted to live in, to a nice, relatively safe place with reliable cops and mostly good people in the higher positions of the city who could easily be taken down if they started any shady shit.
She'd even worked with the older members of the Justice League back in the day. Hell, Wonder Woman still called her every two months or so and visited once a year for dinner and their yearly arm wrestling match.
She'd done so much for this city over the years all the while raising her son and eventually helping to raise her grandsons and running several businesses and making sure to keep on top of the city's politics to make sure no one could undo all of her hard work.
Even now, while she was technically retired from the family business, she still had many shares in their family's main business and had investments in many of their smaller businesses as well. And she'd have weekly dinners with them where they'd discuss issues happening in the city and their businesses and go over their plans to address to them. Then she'd usually insist that Larie and his brothers go out and make some friends and find people they wanted to spend the rest of their lives with, as she was 'worried that you boys are getting too sucked into handling everything yourselves. It's not like it was back in my day, where the police and city officials were completely useless. They're still not up to my own personal standards, but they are capable enough that the city won't burn down if you three decide to take one night off to have a good time every now and then.' Then she'd usually tell their dad to stop spending time with sluts and try to find a real woman to date.
Gladys 'Silver Serpent' Kanker was not a meta human like her son and grandsons. Apparently they got their powers from their grandpa's and mothers' sides. She changed this city with her wit, fighting skills, business sense and good heart.
And this dumb disco ball wannabe just spoke to her like that…
Then, as if to add insult to injury, he finally spotted one of Rough Diamond's goons with their long, nasty, fake fingernails digging into his Muffin's arm out of the corner of his eye.
He stared at her for a moment in disbelief, what was she doing here? And why the shit was that useless thug daring to touch her?!
Okay, the shiny bitch had insulted his grandma and now she was harassing the only person he'd ever been interested in romantically.
It was clear to him now;
Rough Diamond had a fucking death wish.
"Well, well, if it isn't the little firebug." Rough Diamond said, her tone mocking, but he could see her start to activate her power and saw the crystallization start at her fingertips and start to crawl up towards her wrists.
If her body kept up her shift at that speed, she'd have diamonds for forearms in about two minutes.
Hmm, that didn't leave him much time to think of a strategy here. He and his family were well aware of Rough Diamond's powers, as well as several other higher ups in the Viper Gang, but the abilities of the lackies were something they knew nothing about.
Were they meta humans? Were they trained in some sort of fighting style or combat? Did they have some sort of technical augmentation that improved their strength or speed?
Larie silently swore and made a mental note to have their workers start digging into that sort of stuff on the lackies too, just to be safe, before focusing on the blood that was starting to trickle from Ann's arm where her opponent's fake nails were digging into her skin and felt his flames grow with rage.
He needed to calm down. The bitch who was hurting her only seemed to be doing enough to make her bleed and causing enough pain so she could scare both Ann and anyone else who thought about interfering or calling the cops. Hell, he'd done similar things before to invoke fear and show he meant business before.
But despite him knowing the technique and doubting that the thug had the guts to do much more in his presence, he felt himself quake with anger as a single drop of crimson fell from her arm and onto the floor.
Shit. He needed to stay calm. Getting angry will make his flames grow more and he did not need to set off the sprinklers and get the fucking fire department in here to make this even more complicated.
Another drop landed on the floor and he felt his rage growing hotter at the sight.
Shit shit shit shit shit shit SHIT!
As angry as he was about the insult to his Grandma, and even though he doubted the thug would do much else to Ann than she already was doing right now, it didn't mean that Rough Diamond wouldn't think twice about killing her if it meant they could get away. To that sparkling psycho, Ann getting hurt or killed would just be a reminder to anyone in the city who thought about crossing them: That the Viper Gang were not afraid to take innocent people hostage to get their way and they weren't the kinds of people who had any problem executing the hostages if it meant they could squirm away if it meant saving their skins, even if the person who they were threatening had done what they had asked.
And if it came right down to letting them get away with insulting his grandma so they would let his Muffin go and she could get out of this without any more injuries, well, he'd probably do it.
It's not like his Grandma would be mad, if anything, him showing interest in a girl his age would probably get her all excited and have her start playing matchmaker.
But before he had to let anyone off the hook for anything, he should focus.
He'd seen Ruby Spider use plenty of gadgets and gizmos to escape their party with her friends and even fight back or just stop them in their tracks and he'd bet she'd brought a few of those with her, even when she was just acting like an everyday person. But most of the things she used were meant for either keeping a distance between her and danger, stopping someone from getting close or an attack that was more effective from long or mid range.
Not to mention while he found her willowy figure to be sexy as all hell, he had felt her body against his and he had noticed a lack of muscle tone on her arms on the bus. He knew her physical strength wasn't exactly the best and in a situation like this, that wasn't good…
His thoughts suddenly stopped as he watched her suck in a breath, grab a handful of her own long, dark hair and then, with a flick of her wrist smacked her captor in the face by using her hair like a whip.
As he watched the thug's face seem to turn and warp from the force of her attack in slow motion, he felt a broad grin curl up his face.
Hot. DAMN.
Okay, now he was officially calling it, he was going to marry this woman and be Mr. Dr. Sexy Badass Librarian.
The grunt had let go of her the moment the hair whip struck, which allowed Ann the time to snatch her arm back, push her cart between her and her attacker as she said, "I apologize, but you shouldn't have grabbed me." Before quickly dialing a number on her phone and then held it up to her ear, "Hello, I'm at the Grocery store on the corner of 5th Street and West Avenue and Tiffany McGee and two accomplices are accosting people inside the produce section-" she began.
He could see out of the corner of his eye that Rough Diamond had finally taken notice of her before making eye contact with his Grandma, who had her hand in her purse as she motioned to the other thug and gave him the slightest of nods.
She'd take Idiot #2, Ann was handling Idiot #1 and he'd take care of the Shiny Idiot.
The thug reached over towards Ann, only for the hot vigilante to push her cart into her stomach, moving the phone from her mouth for a moment to apologize again before putting it back up towards her ear and say, "Yes, I'm quite sure it's her, I grew up in the same neighborhood." She then glared at the taller, less clothed woman who was looking more and more like she belonged in one of those stupid bedazzler things he'd seen on infomercials, "I'd know her anywhere." She said into the phone, her voice like ice.
"Well, well, well," Rough Diamond sneered, "I never thought I'd see someone from the old cul-de-sac up here in the big scary city. Especially not one of Pipsqueak's little weirdo friends, although I did hear a little rumor-"
"Thank you." Ann said loudly, as if to cut her off as she hung up the phone and looked at the woman who was probably a foot or two taller and about three/four times wider than her and said, "And to answer your question, I can assure you that the only scary thing I've seen in this city is your lack of decency. And I'm not just talking about your disrespect to that nice woman over there who only politely asked you to move aside so she could pass you." She then indicated to the woman's outfit and made Tiffany 'Rough Diamond' McGee look as if she'd been slapped before moving towards her, her fists clenched.
Yup, totally marrying her.
The thug that finally recovered from the grocery cart slamming her in the stomach and began scooting away from the two, an impish smile on her face as she looked from her boss to Ann, as if to say 'you're about to get it now, bitch!'
Larie wasn't going to let Rough Diamond lay one sparkly finger on his Muffin, so he decided to remind the two women that he was still here.
"Hey," He called, making all three women in that little area turn to him as he put himself between Ann and Rough Diamond, "You forget something?" He asked, holding his flaming arms out, silently challenging her to punch him if she dared.
The Glittering fool let out a snort, "Are you stupid? My body is made of diamonds right now, there's no way in hell a little fire can hurt me."
"Actually," Ann chimed in from behind him, "A diamond can burn when heated to temperatures from 690 degrees Celsius to 840 degrees Celsius."
Larie soaked this fact in as he eagerly waited to see where she was going with this.
"So? I doubt this hot head can reach that level of heat." Tiffany scoffed.
"Blue flames, like the ones Larie is emitting, can range from a temperature of 1260 degrees Celsius to 1648.8 degrees Celsius. That's more than hot enough to burn you into Carbon dioxide…" she paused, "Although, since I've seen you crystallize into other colors of diamond before and your current colorization is a light hue of pink, it's possible if Larie were to light you on fire, you could release other types of gasses into the air, but honestly, I couldn't say for sure what they would be or if it would be harmful to breathe in or not…"
The sparkling bitch backed a step away, horrified.
"Y-you're lying!" Rough Diamond accused nervously, "There is no way a diamond can burn! Diamonds are-"
"Made from Carbon." Ann informed her, "Just like every other living multi-celled organism on this planet, albeit a living organisms' cell structures can vary more in structure and chemical composition than a diamond, not to mention the fact that a living organism has more ways to help itself heal or protect itself from these kinds of temperatures, which your current form does not have, such as the ability to sweat."
Rough Diamond stared at her, clearly shocked that she knew about these weaknesses she evidently had, while Larie happily noted her words in his head for later before he motioned towards the shaking human rock with a flaming hand while looking back at Anna Marie, smiling broadly as he said, "I don't know about you, Muffin, but I think for the sake of inquiring minds, I think we should find out what other bits of hot air she'd let out if I burned her."
Rough Diamond seemed to stop sparkling as much at his words before sputtering out a, "You'll pay for this!" and dashing off. The thug that attacked Ann quickly getting up to leave after her only for his Grandma to pull something out of her bag and throw it at her and he watched several small weighted balls attached to a cord wrap around the grunt and let out an amused snort as the idiot fell to the ground.
"Boss!" The thug cried, only Rough Diamond was already gone…
"Larie." His Grandmother's voice called from behind him, "your clothes."
He paused then looked down at his clothes, he had unzipped his jacket before going to pick up his grandma and he felt a small frown curl at his lips as he realized that his flames had burned away at his sleeves, making it look like a thick vest and the tank top he had been wearing underneath was completely burned off, revealing his bare chest to the world.
Well shit.
He didn't feel too bad about the shirt as he carefully patted down his shoulders and the sides of his jacket to put out any lingering flames, he had plenty others just like it, twenty bucks on Amazon could get him a weeks worth of them. But that was his favorite jacket, it had a decent amount of fireproofing while still looking casual and feeling comfortable. It was hard to get clothes that could handle the heat and fire he could produce that didn't look or feel like he was covered in tinfoil.
Although now that he thought about it, he was surprised that his flames hadn't set off the sprinklers. Either the manager (who worked for their family) saw what was happening on the security cameras and shut them off in the section they were in or they weren't working right and they'd need to have plumbers and the fire department come in to check on them.
He hoped it was the first option, Jay had already let them know about the freezer at one of their restaurants this morning as well as the plumbing issue, which meant they would have to go through several circles of hell once everything was up and running again to prove that everything was fine and that would cut into some of their profits there, but if a grocery store had to be closed for a long period of time, that would be a whole other issue.
Grocery stores worked on a very thin profit margin, and normally, in a very urban place like this, it was difficult to keep a business like this profitable with the high expenses of having this much space in the city for the building and parking lot. Now, they found a great size space here in an area where the property rental was reasonable and were able to make it work. Normally many places like this would go to find property in the cheaper but also less desirable areas of the city where crimes were more rampant and end up being unable to keep profits up due to massive thefts and possible robberies and less chances of staff safety and close down.
This was a serious issue that their grandmother had to address to years ago and the store still barely managed to stay out of the red month to month. If they had to shut down operations to fix the entire sprinkler system in the store, that could make it harder for this place to stay open and it was pretty much the only grocery store in the middle of the city…
Dammit, it was times like this that he wished he paid more attention during last months' business overview… and when his grandma explained how she managed to address to the classic issue of managing to have a grocery store stay open and profitable in the middle of an urban area…
"Larie. Could you please zip up your jacket, you're making her flustered." His grandmother cut in, snapping him out of his thoughts with an annoyed tone that he hadn't picked up on this earlier.
He looked over to see his Muffin with a crimson face and her eyes a bit too focused on her shoes.
He felt his smile grow larger at the sight.
So, she liked what she saw, huh?
After another second of staring down, she took a quick peek up at him, turned even redder and quickly averted her gaze away from him, "um, y-you could get in t-trouble for not wearing a s-shirt in here. N-no shirt, no shoes and all…" she stammered.
He felt a pinch at his ear and bit back a curse as he turned to refocus on his grandma, who was giving him a look that said, 'You've had your fun, Larie, now stop flustering the girl and zip up.'
He pouted, but obeyed her silent order and zipped up his jac- well, he guessed it was a vest now. She released his ear and went over to Ann, "Are you alright dear? Those scratches look quite deep…"
He froze, suddenly remembering that the thug that Ann had bitch slapped with her hair had been digging her brightly colored fake talons into her arm earlier and that she'd been bleeding.
He momentarily scolded himself for forgetting that until he recalled that he only forgot about it because he watched her use her hair as a whip to smack her captor in the face and rammed her grocery cart into her stomach.
And that was really fucking hot.
So he gave himself a pass and looked down at her arm, she had covered the wounds with her own hand, as if to hide it, but it was still bleeding and there were a few drops welling up from between her fingers and he felt his anger start to make his stomach feel like it was boiling, but quickly sucked in a breath and let it out to calm himself.
Later.
He could light up with rage later, he needed to focus on damage control for now.
"It's not that bad," She insisted, holding up her hand as if to stop them from worrying, "Despite how it looks, the cuts aren't deep enough to warrant much more than some disinfectant and bandages… although perhaps I should tell an employee about what happened so they can clean up any drops I left behind…"
Larie carefully took her arm in his hands, and began inspecting it anyway, despite her insisting she was fine with pink cheeks.
Because while he knew and she knew that she was a medical student and probably knew way more about treating injuries than he did, she was trembling and he had a feeling it was from more than just the waning adrenaline in her system.
And as he gently moved her hand away from her wounds to take a closer look at her wounds, he found that they both had been right, the wounds had been inflicted to make her bleed and cause her a little pain to scare her and anyone else thinking to call the cops off, but the wounds were (luckily) not too deep. He doubted she'd need stitches or glue or anything, at most she'd need some bandages and disinfectant, which was good, but it wasn't like she'd get into trouble needing to explain how she got her injuries anyway, so it wouldn't have been so bad even if she'd had to go to the hospital (although he would have probably gone on a fucking rampage if she did). He had a feeling she could still end up with some light scarring because of this, but only time would tell.
And while all of that was good news, he still felt horrible as he held her shaking arm. Because he hadn't been paying attention, she had gotten hurt while trying to do the right thing and help his grandma. He should have a better grandson and stuck with her the whole time instead of sitting at the Starbucks in here and looking at his phone… although if he wanted to, he could blame Tee since he had been the one to decide that since it was Larie's turn to take her to the store that he should be the one to go over everything that happened since last night… Although he couldn't really blame Tee for all of it since Larie had been kinda ignoring his phone for a portion of the day due to being on cloud nine after kissing his Muffin, (only stopping when his alarm went off to remind him to go pick up his grandma) so he had to go over everything his brothers sent him since that morning so he could give her a full report.
"U-um…" Ann stammered, snapping him out of his daze and he looked up at her face.
"Yer right, not too deep, still, considering the person who grabbed ya," he motioned to the bitch wrapped up in cord and weights on the ground, "might wanna use some strong disinfectant."
She nodded and he finally let go as a few police officers came in, guns drawn.
Two cops walked over to the captured thugs, the other one being handcuffed to a salad bar and began to collect them. One of the cops saw Larie, narrowed his eyes and began to stomp towards him, only for his Grandma to put herself between him and the cop, "Larie, why don't you see if an employee can get you a first aid kit for her? Even if her cuts aren't too deep, it would be better if we addressed them sooner rather than later, wouldn't want them scarring." He nodded and motioned for her to follow, "There's a bathroom in the back, you can wash yer arm a bit before we wrap it up."
"T-thank you," she stammered as she followed him towards the back of the store, Larie noting his Grandmother talking to the police officer and motioning to the security cameras the store had.
"You don't have to-" she started, only for him to hold up his hand, "This place is one of our businesses, and, as head of security, it's part of my job to make sure anyone who does get hurt, gets the proper care they need."
"One of our businesses? Head of security?" she repeated, her voice a bit higher than before she quickly cleared her throat, her hand still shaking, "You certainly are an enigma."
He arched an eyebrow at her before recalling that he never told her his last name.
They both knew she knew what his last name was, and that his family owned a lot of businesses (although admittedly this one wasn't really one she would've known about), and that he was the head of security for his family's businesses.
But still, there were other people here, their eyes glued to them as they did just cause quite a scene… so he might as well play along.
"Oh, right, I never told you my last name, did I?" He said as they reached the bathroom, "It's Kanker." He told her before motioning to the lady's room, "I'm going to ask an employee for a first aid kit, you want me to send my grandma in with it or would you rather a cop?" he asked her.
"… If you could ask both to come, I'd very much appreciate it as I want to apologize to her for what happened."
"Why? The sparkling bitch was the one that caused all that trouble, not you."
"… Because I know her sister would want to apologize for what Tiffany did, but I also know she'd get very upset about it. So I want to spare her that at least."
"… Yer a good friend, ya know that?" He asked, looking back at her.
She looked him right in the eye and gave him a small smile that made his heart race. "I try," She told him before slipping into the bathroom to wash up.
He waited until she was out of sight with the door closed firmly behind her before hissing out a "Hot. DAMN. I am so marrying her!"
...
Hey everyone, I'd like to apologize to you all about the way this fic was uploaded yesterday, I have no idea why Chapters 9-11 got all jumbled up with formatting code. But I managed to fix it and hopefully it looks way better now. Enjoy!