Edith walked towards the skate park, the metal gadget from the AVL in her hand. Her signup. Passing the vacant school, the blonde eyed the old stump uneasily. Guiltily. A vision of herself in all black, with a flashing badge attached to one jean's pocket and a weapon on her other hip, seared through Edith's mind. This is going to be epic! You know you want to do it! Looking around furtively, she walked casually past the stump and dropped the piece of metal in. Laughing, Edith broke into a run. What an awesome day! Maybe she'd meet Margo at the skate park. Edith always rented a skateboard for two dollars when she went there. Soon she'd buy her own though. Maybe she'd get a pink one – pink with black art on it – maybe weapons, skulls, bodies… Reaching the park, Edith plunked down her money on the little stand by the gate. The lazy-looking teen managing accepted the money, and turned to the secure rack behind him. "Which one?" he drawled. "A4," Edith grinned, pushing her pink hat up a little bit so she could see better. Indifferently, the guy unlocked the black and red, stereotypical used skateboard and handed it to her. Grabbing it, she hopped on and pushed off. "Ah-ah," Edith stopped short at the teen's voice behind her. "Helmet." Turning, the tomboy caught the helmet tossed to her with a sigh and strapped it on. "How dare you!" Margo? Edith looked around. She could've sworn she'd heard her older sister's angered voice. A flash of red and blue whizzed past her. Margo. A flash of black followed. Antonio? As Margo passed a row of perfectly planted trees, Edith saw a tall, muscular man, wearing all black, jump out behind her sister and leap after her. Heart in her throat, Edith froze. Turning just in time, Antonio stared wide-eyes up at the man directly behind them. The man pulled out a club. "Margo!" Edith screamed, finally able to move. She raced towards them, forgetting her skateboard. "Look out!" Antonio shouted, tackling Margo. He was too late. Whack! Edith watched, horrified as Margo crumpled to the ground. _ Antonio rolled, grabbing Margo and scrambling towards the grass. Fear for her choked him. The man glowered down at them, and… Ran off. For a second Antonio was confused. Why had the mysterious attacker given up so easily? That didn't matter right now. "Oh, Margo," the exotic boy whispered, pulling her the rest of the way to the grass. Sitting down, he placed his arms around her, breathing into her hair. "It's going to be okay. Ese idiota will not hurt you again. Never." Two attacks on her, two consecutive days. The first time he'd thought it was just a bully. But know he knew things were getting serious. _ Lucy looked up at Gru. "Look, I said I was sorry." A grunt. "I know it's my fault already." Another grunt. The redhead rolled her eyes and rested her long arms on the filing cabinet. "C'mon, Gru. Cleaning the storage room isn't the worst that could've happened." "You are right," Gru answered, his back to her. She could tell he was irritated. "The worst dat could have happened was dat you could have ACTUALLY BURNED DOWN HEADQUARTERS!" The last bit of the sentence was yelled, and he turned around, arms crossed, blue eyes narrowed on either side of his incredible nose. "Okay, so?" Groaning, Gru rolled his eyes. Lucy chuckled. It was fun to make him frustrated. "They didn't tell me what that button did, anyway! I say it's the manufacturer's fault!" "Luce. Envision thees. Dere is a dangerous looking weapon lying a counter. You DO NOT have specific permission to touch eet." "Nobody told me to ask for permission," Lucy blew air through her mouth in mockery, making her bangs blow upwards a little bit. "Does dat MATTER? So, den, you decide, dat testing it isn't a good idea." Lucy cocked her head and scrunched her eyebrows together, pretending to consider. "Actually that's not what I remember happening." "Eet was hypotheticawhatever. For what could have been, a peaceful afternoon, eef only you could've NOT PRESSED DAT BUTTON!" "Eh. I regret nothing." Sighing in exasperation, Gru gave up. Lucy smirked a little bit. "Mr. Gru?" Startled, the pair stared at the speaker, one of the secretaries. "Yes?" "You have a family emergency call on line 3." The woman held out a sleek AVL, wireless secretary phone out to him. Lucy watched her boyfriend's eyes widen, then roll upwards in resigned pain. "Not again. Give eet to me." Worried, the agent kept her eyes on Gru as he picked up. More trouble with the girls? Yesterday was bad enough. Then, instead of hearing Gru's voice raised in protective disbelief as she'd expected, Lucy watched in amazement as her partner dropped to the ground in a dead faint.