Alec grumbled to himself as he made his way to the supermarket by foot. Because Brian and Lisa each had their own apartments and Rachel was... well Rachel, it fell on him to go buy the groceries if he wanted to eat. Well, he supposed he could go out to eat instead but in the end that took way more effort than going to the supermarket every once in a while. With a sigh he walked through the front doors of the supermarket and was met with an unusual sight.

There appeared to be a girl made of bugs loudly crying and a supermarket employee trying to calm her down. She opened her mouth and wailed. It was probably one of the most disturbing sounds that Alec had ever heard, and Alec had experienced his childhood.

The bug girl managed to choke out some words through her tears. "Where am I supposed to go!? No one will let me into any of their stores. I need to eat to you know! Do you want me to live off garbage!? I can't believe that you would treat a Case 53 like this! Just because I look like a monster does not mean I am any less human! Why won't anybody help me!?" At that point she stopped talking and broke down completely, sobbing tears of maggots.

Alec watched in amusement as a manager ran over and said, "I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Unfortunately, we can't allow you to walk around the building due to health reasons, but we are more than willing to help you by making a list of things that you need and we can bring them outside for you. I'll even give you a discount for your trouble."

"R-really?" sniffled the bug girl, her voice buzzing and wobbling. She reached out to hug the manager, but he flinched away, causing her to shrink into herself. She then pulled out some tissues from her stomach and started to loudly blow her 'nose' causing bugs to go flying everywhere.

Alec shrugged his shoulders — wasn't his problem — and went about doing his own shopping. Although he was a little jealous. He wished that he could have the store do all of his shopping for him. That would be so sweet. When Alec finished his shopping and made his way past the bug girl, who was still waiting outside for her groceries, he came to a sudden stop. He just came up with the best idea ever and he was not going to let it slip him by. He walked over to bug girl and stuck his hand out and said "Hi. I'm Alec."

She gave a start of surprise, causing her whole body to lose its shape for a second before she resolidified. She turned towards him and stared down at his hand before raising her own hand made of various insects and shook his hand. Alec forced himself not to notice the bugs writhing against his palm and asked, "So what's your name then?"

"Um it's… Anne. Nice to meet you? Is there something you wanted?" she buzzed at him in confusion.

"Well you see the thing is I saw how you got them to do your shopping for you and I want in on that action. I am total willing to pay you fifty bucks to do my shopping for me," he explained.

She let out a snort and said, "Seriously? I mean I can understand hating going out and buying groceries, it takes so much god damn work. I only do it because my dad always comes back from work late and there is nothing to eat if I don't do the shopping."

Alec blinked and said, "Wait aren't you supposed to be a Case 53. How do you have a dad?"

Every bug on her froze for a second before they started buzzing in agitation. "I, uh... was adopted?"

Alec laughed and said with a wink, "Sure, you were. Sure, you were. So about you getting my groceries, what do you say?"

"Make it a hundred," she said annoyed.

"Deal," Alec said quickly. "So, do you have a way for me to contact you?"

She hesitated for a second before shrugging and giving him her phone number. She then asked, "So where am I dropping off your groceries anyway?"

'Damn it.' Alec hadn't thought this through all the way. He guessed that he could set up a drop off location, but that sounded like way too much work and would defeat the entire purpose of avoiding having to go out and do errands. He pulled out some paper and scribbled down the loft's address and said, "I call you in about a week. Just bring it up here." He gave her a wave goodbye and left with a skip to his step.

…

Alec heard the sound of thundering on the stairs coming up to the loft a moment before Lisa called out "Alec! Rachel! Lung is out looking for us and we need to talk about a game plan!" Fuck. Alec totally didn't want to deal with a giant rage dragon. He would have to get up off the couch and everything. Lisa and Brian appeared at the top of the stairs and then froze. Lisa exclaimed as she pointed next to him, "Who the fuck is she!"

Alec looked at Anne before shrugging and said, "This is Anne. She has been buying my groceries for the last couple of weeks."

Lisa buried her head in her hands and groaned. Brian shouted, "Alec are you fucking kidding me! You can't just go inviting people up here, because you are too fucking lazy to go shopping."

Alec waved his hand lazily and said, "Relax. She's cool."

Anne nodded her head and said, "Cool like a cucumber. Also, if I ratted you guys out I would be down a hundred every couple of weeks. And there is no reward for turning you in. Trust me, I checked."

Brian just stared at her while Lisa said with a sigh, "Look we don't have time to deal with her, Lung and his entire gang is currently gunning for us and we need a plan of action right now. I was thinking that we should confront Lung, but we need to decide this as a group. Also, where is Rachel?"

"Out walking her dogs? How the hell should I know?" said Alec flippantly.

"Wait," Anne spoke up, her voice bored, "Lung knows where the loft is?"

Brian growled at her, "No, it's supposed to be a secret, right Alec."

"Get off my dick Brian," said Alec with disinterest.

Anne spoke up again, "So if Lung has no idea where your base is what is the problem? What is he going to do, write you an angry letter?"

Alec snorted and drawled, "Dear Undersiders, I am super pissed. Rawr, I am a dragon. Love, Lung."

"Shut up Alec this is serious, Lisa thinks he is going to try burning down the surrounding area in the hopes of smoking us out." Brian said glaring at Alec.

"Wow, that is a terrible plan," said Anne with a shake of her head. "I mean aren't the super cops going to show up to stop him? I can't imagine he would go get very far before they are right up his asshole."

Lisa made a face of disgust and said, "Really? Look if word gets out that Lung burned down this part of town to get back at us, people will blame us and cause the local cape scene to pay more attention to us than we can afford."

Anne rolled her eyes and said, "So the best idea you can come up with is to run up and punch him in the face? I mean, won't a fight just start a large fire and burn down a whole bunch of buildings anyway? So, no matter what people are going to point their fingers at you."

Alec watched in amusement as Lisa rubbed her forehead and argued, "A fight would make it so less fire would be spread around before the Protectorate would show up and put it out."

"Alright so just call the cops on him now before he even gets going," said Anne with a shrug.

"Would that work?" asked Alec, his voice laced with laughter.

"I- maybe," said Lisa. "Give me a few minutes, I need to talk to the boss." Lisa walked out of the room for five minutes and came back in. "So apparently that worked. Armsmaster just captured Lung."

"See, what did I tell you? Right up his asshole," said Anne smugly.

"Well that was easy," said Alec with a shrug before turning back to the TV.

After a minute of Lisa and Brian standing there awkwardly as he and Anne watched TV, Anne spoke up, "I just had a thought, you guys are thieves, right? So if Lung is out of commission and his men are out looking for you, why don't you just hit his headquarters and steal everything?"

Everyone stared at her in silence, before Alec spoke up and said, "I vote for that plan."

…

As the Undersiders were counting their loot from their biggest score ever, Alec leaned back in his new la-z-boy and said, "Hey Anne want to join the Undersiders?"

"I don't know," she said, "if I become a villain I probably couldn't send my bugs to buy my groceries anymore."

Alec nodded his head in understanding and said, "Fair enough."

Lisa sighed as she shook her head and said, "You two are unbelievable. Before you make a decision how about hearing my sales pitch first?"

Anne shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sure, why not."