Tee sat at his laptop, scrolling through the data Larie had sent him, his cup of coffee just to the side of him in his peripherals. He felt a small smile curl up his cheeks, he couldn't believe his luck, the coffee machine at this safe house dies and the closest coffee shop had Anny 'Royal Diamond' McGee working there!
And she was just as fiery as she had been this morning, telling the other girls around her about what happened this morning…
Okay, more like complaining… but hey, everyone has to start somewhere and even though it wasn't the best starting point, it was a start.
He shook his head, he needed to focus and oddly enough, the coffee wasn't helping. He pushed it aside and pulled his laptop closer and began reading.
Man, these government types didn't mess around, they had everything in here, her date of birth, her powers, a list of her friends, family-hold up…
Anny had an older sister named Tiffany?
He pushed his hair off his eyes and read the list of family members again, his jaw clenching in displeasure as he confirmed he had read the correct name and even saw a picture of the two girls when they were younger, side by side.
Fuck.
Tiffany 'Rough Diamond' McGee, a high-ranking member of the Viper Gang, who had been trying to take this city from them for years. A meta human with the ability to make her skin become as hard as a diamond and a bitch who was turning out to be really hard to get rid of.
He probably should have noticed the similarities, after all, the two of them were tall, powerful pink haired women with powers who even had similar monikers: Rough Diamond and Royal Diamond.
So that's why Anny and her friends had been looking into them and trying to arrest his dad. Because the moment their dad was in lock up, her sister and the rest of the Viper Gang would ooze out of whatever rat holes they'd been hiding in and seize the opportunity and try to take over the city. Not that he or his brothers or his grandmother, the original leader of the gang, would let them succeed, but his father's arrest would bring her out into the open…
And while that could help them get rid of the slime on their turf, that wasn't something Tee was willing to allow.
But what was her plan here? What would Anny do once she was face to face with her sister? Would she take her down? Or try to talk to her?
He shook his head, if what he could guess of Anny's personality from the few meetings they had and what Larie and Jay showed him of her social media accounts and if what he'd heard about Rough Diamond was true, stubbornness was a family trait. No, Anny would know better than to bother trying to talk her sister out of that life.
She would most likely try to take her on, most likely on her own, without her best friends to help her, just to keep them safe.
He clenched his fists at the thought.
He didn't like it.
Rough Diamond had a reputation for having no issue destroying anyone who got in her way and not caring if she didn't fight fair, and he had a feeling her sister was no exception to this rule. Anny on the other hand, was obviously a part of the 'don't kill, just restrain or at least don't do more than maim if you have to' group that made up the Justice League and many other 'good guy' groups. It didn't mean that always worked out well for them and in this case, without her friends backing her up, he didn't see it ending well for the younger of the two sisters.
He then sucked in a breath, trying to calm himself. He needed to think. He needed to think clearly.
He let out the breath and took in a new one.
It was possible her sister had figured out about Anny and her friends being vigilantes in this town, after all, what happened last night had gotten them plenty of attention from cops and criminals alike, it wouldn't be hard for her to hear about it. And since she probably knew all about her sister's powers and personality, it probably was clear as day who had the nerve to crash the Serpent King's party to her. And she might try to use it to her advantage.
Hmmm… Maybe he could too.
Maybe he could get the Viper gang out of his city and earn Anny's trust at the same time. Maybe even get to know her better if he played his cards right.
He and his brothers could all reach out to Anny and her friends, tell them that they've been looking into them to see if they could help them get rid of the Viper Gang, tell them all about the human trafficking they'd been doing and the drugs they were selling on their turf and all the crimes they were doing and that they wanted to stop them.
He paused, but would they want to team up with them, even for that reason? They had pretty nasty reputations themselves… Even if most of their reputations were half truths.
Yeah, sure they had dealings in the human trafficking industry, but it was to help reunite the victims to their families, for a fee, yes, but they still had to pay for the victims to get them out of there. And if anyone caught wind that they were actually helping people get their families back, then they wouldn't be able to get access to the auctions and get information on their warehouses and such. And yes, they did have a drug trafficking operation, but it was mainly pot and buying cheap knock off drugs and selling them to pharmacies in bad neighborhoods to help those who needed medicine and didn't have a lot of money for it. That and pot did plenty of good for pain and wasn't something anyone could easily overdose on.
And yes, they had probably brutally killed a lot of people, but not without good reason. Larie especially, put himself at the biggest risk while facing the worst scum of the city that sucked the life and money out of the people living in it. Who happily tossed money to assassins so they could take out people who were putting in good reforms for the city and who were doing good work for the people. They fought against drug dealers who were pushing hardcore drugs like meth and crack onto the streets and pill mill doctors who had no problem prescribing powerful painkillers that were overkill to say the least. They had no problem taking lives, so they couldn't be afraid to either.
And yeah, sure they laundered money through businesses, but they often were employing plenty of people who would have a hard time looking for work otherwise, like ex-cons or recovering addicts, helping them turn over a new leaf and giving them places to work as well as making sure they got the help they needed. They also gave people good wages they could live off of, no need to work overtime or for tips, they worked fair hours and got fair pay. Jay made sure of it, as many ex-cons went back to crime when they had trouble finding jobs and addicts not having a lot of money was a sign they were back to their old shit. So it was a good way to keep track of the employees and making sure who needed more looking after than others and kept the crime rate down.
But that was what they did. They looked after this city and the people in it.
This city was their turf, and they'd protect it like their father and their grandmother did before them. They did it in ways the cops and politicians never could and they broke a lot of laws to do it, but sometimes you needed bad guys to be the good guys.
Now all he had to do is figure out how to get the good girls to give them a chance… in more ways than one…
