An and Karen walked into the building, the two excited at the prospect of their first day filming. Karen was there as a make up artist, and although the idea of covering someone with fake blood, bruises, and more monster like makeovers wasn't her life's dream, the salon she was also working at didn't need as many make up artists for the next month, so she'd gotten a short term contract with the studio to help make ends meet.
An honestly felt a bit better being here on her first day with someone she knew, especially since those Kanker guys were after her and her friends. Even though the guy who talked to her seemed nice enough and Double-N had assured her that Jay Kanker, who was also called 'Golden Dragon' (which she still thought was SO COOL!), was the least dangerous of the brothers, being in charge of the many smaller, legitimate businesses the family owned.
So he was still one of the bad guys, even if he seemed like a nice guy.
She stopped for a moment and silently scolded herself, remembering that, while she should be concerned about the Kanker family, she shouldn't worry about it so much. She wasn't Jade Enforcer right now, right now, she was An. And An knew nothing about any Kankers or their shady dealings… Jade Enforcer didn't really knew much about them either, truth be told, but An was An right now, not Jade. She would just do her job, get some lunch, and head home to have a little party with her friends.
She could do that. She smiled again as she listened to the director about the scenes they would be filming today and then they began moving tables, chairs and other things around so they could set up their equipment properly.
Karen had gone with the actors and the make up and wardrobe people to the trailers they had parked in front of the building.
An had been moving several tables around when she nearly crashed into someone who came out from a door with the word 'Kitchen' on it, a 'What the?!' making her skid to a stop in her tracks.
She felt something barely touch the tables she was carrying and she took a few steps back and glanced around the table, "Are you okay?"
As soon as the words left her lips, she squinted at the blonde man before her through the lenses of her glasses. He was dressed in chef's attire, his hair pulled back into a ponytail and his mouth half open, revealing buck teeth as he seemed to relax that she had managed to stop in time, An noticing freckles spotting his cheeks from her spot.
He looked familiar to her, but from where…?
"Yeah, sorry about that…" The blonde man said, holding out a hand, as if to shake hers, "I'm…"
"Ah! Mr. Kanker!" the Director called, surprised by his presence as he walked over to them.
An felt a chill creep down her spine, then up again as the Director put an arm around his shoulder, "Everyone! This is the owner of the Restaurant we're filming today, say hello to Jay Kanker!"
The blonde man blushed, obviously a bit embarrassed as the whole room seemed to stare at him.
Kanker?
THIS PLACE HAD A BAD GUY IN IT?!
She bit at her lip, trying to think. Why would a bad guy be dressed up like a chef? Was he trying to poison them or something? No, no… Double-N said that the Golden Dragon was the least dangerous and was known as the nicest and friendliest of the brothers. He was in charge of the smaller legit businesses exactly for those reasons.
Whatever that meant.
An struggled to recall what else Double-N had said about him as he nervously cleared his throat and spoke, "Uh, the reason I came out here is because I forgot ta mention that the guy's room is out of order. So we'll have some plumbers in 'n out today fer that. We have a small bathroom in the kitchen that the guys can use, but it's a one person bathroom, so if more than one guy has to go, he'll hafta use the girl's room." He then flushed and waved his hands, "After knockin', of course!" he then rubbed the back of his neck, "'N sorry for not telling ya until now, one of my freezers just died on me today 'n I've had ta cancel reservations 'n clear it out with my staff 'n it just kinda slipped my mind…"
"That's understandable." The director said before he and a few others began calming Jay Kanker down, An still standing there with the tables, trying to keep her cool and not fling them at the man before rescuing everyone there and she felt some of her green gunk began to ooze from her skin and stick to the back of her shirt, her vest managing to keep it from view
She wasn't Jade Enforcer right now, she was An. An didn't attack random people, no, An was a good girl. Not that Jade Enforcer was bad either, but Jade Enforcer was a superhero, she had to fight bad guys, it was her job. An's job was to be a camera woman and not freak out when bad guys popped up from the kitchen door. No, An didn't know bad guys, how could she? An was An, she wasn't a super hero like Jade Enforcer, she didn't know who the bad guys were!
But he was right there! How was she supposed to act like she didn't know him when he was right there!
Luckily at that moment, Jay Kanker quickly fled back into the kitchen with a crimson face.
… Okay, now An could act like she didn't know him! It was like Double-N had said to her once 'Out of sight, out of...' Mustard? An tilted her head for a moment before deciding that mustard sounded right before Jay Kanker's presence here slipped her mind and she happily did her work without any problems.
They managed to do a couple of nice scenes that they all really seemed to like, the highlight of the morning being when she was sat in between a group of the actors at a table for one scene, while one of the actresses had a hard time calming down and remembering her lines. After managing to ask everyone's orders, An's stomach howled and she pointed to the last one who had 'ordered' and said, "I'll have what he's having!" and made all of them crack up and the actress who'd had a hard time did much better after the laugh.
After they filmed the scene a second time, they all decided that lunch was in order.
That's when Jay Kanker came back out with a tray of food and An remembered that he was the bad guy again. She looked at the food anxiously as her stomach roared again, it looked and smelled so good…
She shook her head, she couldn't be sure it wasn't a trap for her, but at the same time, she was really hungry…
She suddenly remembered that Double-N had made a lunch for her today and smiled as she explained that she'd be right back and gathered it from the An's van/superhero car. They hadn't taken it out yesterday in Superhero mode, which was good, since a car chase the night of a big football game could be unsafe and they wouldn't have been able to get to the party on time in it because of all the traffic, so they had used Double-N's gadgets and her goop to help run along the rooftops to get there and back.
She pulled the bagged lunch out and when she turned around, she was surprised to see Jay Kanker right behind her. She staggered back against the van clutching her lunch close to her chest and felt more of her goop begin to seep from her skin and tried not to panic at his sudden appearance behind her and accidently launch him back with a wave of her goop and trap him in it or fling the hardened goop crystals at him.
"Uh, I was gonna ask if you were allergic to somethin' I made when I saw you looked uneasy when I brought the food but ya left 'fore I could…" He said sheepishly, as to explain why he was right behind An.
An perked up, pleased that he had just helped her with an excuse as to why she suddenly left, "An is allergic to a lot of things!" She confirmed. "Eels, butterscotch, bunnies…" she listed before pausing and pulling a long list out of her back pocket, "Snapping turtles…" she read, her eyes narrowing as she looked down the page.
"Uh, is that a list of everythin' yer allergic to?" He asked, a bit shocked.
An quickly realized that showing a bad guy a list of things that could stop her wasn't a good idea before she quickly shoved it back into her pocket, "Maybe…" she said, unable to look him in the eye.
"Sorry, should have checked if anyone had any allergies first." He said, sounding truly sorry.
An suddenly felt bad for him, maybe he had just made food for them to be nice and she had just walked out without even saying thank you!
"It's okay," she said, "But thank you for making everyone lunch, it was really nice of you!"
He blushed a bit and began fiddling with his fingers, "Well, you guys are shootin' here fer today 'n I never told you about the bathroom situation like I should've, so I figured that makin' some lunch with the stuff that was still good would make up fer it…"
"The bathroom isn't your fault though." An pointed out before giving him a pat on the shoulder, "An is sorry for just walking out without saying anything, but An didn't want to make you feel bad after you did something nice." An also left due to a slight fear of poison, but she wasn't going to say that because it was mean and he seemed to be really upset about this.
He gave her a soft smile, "Thanks, uh, An was it?"
She froze. She probably wasn't supposed to give him her real name, but, but An hadn't meant to! She felt more of her goop start to leak from her pores like sweat.
"An!" Karen called from behind them both, making them both jump before looking at her, "There you are!" She held up her phone, "I just got off the phone with Double-Nerd, you're not allergic to any of it."
Jay seemed to relax and smiled, "Looks like we don't have anythin' ta worry about then."
"Yeah." She squeaked as Karen motioned for them both to get back inside and she felt more goop begin to trickle out of her pores and her back felt stiff and she could feel something cracking on her back as they walked.
Uh oh…
Not good.
Once inside with Jay Kanker smiling and waving at her before going back into the kitchen, she dashed into the bathroom and quickly removed her vest and shirt, biting her lip when she saw the green crystals stuck to the inside of her shirt and that they had poked holes in it, she pulled at her jeans and frowned when she saw more goop on her legs and on her lucky bunny underwear.
She could get the stuff off of her legs later, as her jeans were quite good at handling any sharp crystals that formed on her skin (although it would hurt a bit if it started poking her too much), her shirt was a more pressing matter with the holes and the slime showing through as it began to harden.
Karen slipped through the door and saw the dilemma, "Shit!" she hissed as she ran over to inspect the damage.
Karen knew about An's powers, she knew about Double-N and Anny's too. She'd grown up with them after all, so of course she knew about them and the damage An's in particular did to her clothes when she was nervous or just really sweaty.
"What happened?" she whispered.
"…" An bit her lip, technically what she, Anny and Double-N did while running around as the Crystal Crusaders was illegal, as they were not in connection with the Justice League or any other law enforcement group. She and her friends had applied and even had tryouts and interviews, but they didn't make the cut.
Karen and her roommates, friends and neighbors, Jenny and Rachel, knew about her powers and their failed try outs with the Justice League and they still went out as superheroes anyway, but they had not been brought up to speed on their attempt to take down the Serpent King by themselves…
Karen narrowed her eyes, then sighed, obviously annoyed, "Fine, I get it, not here. But you dorks owe me, Rachel and Jenny an explanation when we get home!"
An quickly nodded in agreement, grateful that she could explain when they weren't in the Golden Dragon's den as she ordered for An to give her the keys for the spare clothes they both knew Double-N left in there, just in case. An handed them to her without fuss and thanked her for her help.
"Whatever." Karen said, her cheeks pink at the gratitude as she slipped out of the bathroom, leaving the hamster in An's head to start spinning the wheel to figure out what she should do next.
She should keep pretending that she doesn't know Jay Kanker and that he's the Golden Dragon, she knew that much, but they were supposed to shoot here for a few days. As much as she loved movies, it didn't mean she was the greatest actress, she wasn't sure how long she could keep this up…
Maybe he'd go somewhere else in the next few days, the freezer thing and the bathroom and he was wearing a chef outfit, maybe he wouldn't show up for the rest of the days here if there weren't a lot of people to feed?
She perked up as she looked at herself in the mirror, yeah! Maybe that would happen and she could really pretend that she really didn't know him and he wouldn't know that she and her friends had been at his dad's party!
She looked back down at her shirt and frowned, speaking of her friends, Double-N would be mad if she had to de-crystalize her shirt for her again. She turned on the hot water and held her vest between her knees as she began scrubbing at the green goop that had crystallized on the cloth.
She was so busy trying to get the green crystals out, that she hadn't been paying attention to the sound of someone knocking before the door opened.
She turned, assuming it was Karen and instead saw Jay Kanker just inside the doorway with flushed cheeks and a trickle of blood coming through his fingers that covered the lower half of his face.
'I'm not in my happy place!' An thought as panic began to flood through her veins.
