Anniabal sat on her stupid couch, in her stupid living room, in the hero league’s stupid member apartments, Clair was over, and they were watching a cute animated movie that was usually one of the princesses’ favorites. The witch had put it on just to cheer Anniabal up, but she couldn’t bring herself to enjoy it right now. Stupid Stormburst. it would have taken him no effort to take her request to the higher-ups. It was just the next building over, and it's not like he had to walk up the stairs. He could fly god damnit! She slumped into her sulking more before remembering she had company, even if it was just Clair, and straitening her posture.

“You know you don’t have to do that, right?” Clair asked.

“I will act on the values I was raised with, thank you very much.”

Clair snorted “Oh? I got you talking now? Let me ask this then, Why are you so bummed about this?”

Anniabal tried to glare at her fiancée but her face softened without her permission.

“I just feel like no one on the team, excluding you, appreciates me. Especially Stormburst. Did you see how dismissive he was? And no one bothered to stand up for me!”

Clair looked guilty at that.

“Sorry, I should have said something. It's just dealing with Captain SB is the worst ya’know. But that actually wasn’t what I meant, why don’t you just go to the branch head and ask yourself?”

Well, that was obvious. She wasn’t supposed to. Only team leaders are supposed to see the branch head directly, security reasons.

“I can tell what your thinking just by your face, Annia nothings really stopping yo-

“Anniabal.” Anniabal corrected.

“Anniabal, nothings really stopping you, people who aren’t team leaders go to ask for stuff all the time. No one cares about that rule.” Clair said rolling her eyes.

“You say that. but nothing good ever comes out of doing that kind of thing”

“except getting what you want,” Clair said with a smirk.

Anniabal hesitated.

“Listen, Hun, I know you’re hesitant to do anything that ‘breaks the rules’. I honestly only want you to be happy and strong enough to stay alive, I think it’s the best thing you can do, but think on it.” Clair told her, her smile softening “For now, let’s finish the movie”

The next morning Anniabal and Clair made their way to the mission center to report in for their weekly patrol.

This week Anniabal was paired with Ziporound, a tall-ish slender Asian man, who’s hero costume consisted of a green and blue tracksuit with a ‘Z’ on the chest and back and The Insane K-9, a mutant-cyborg beast created by an evil organization bent on fusing the intelligence and cold calculation of machines with the instincts and wild ferocity of wolves, the eight previous incarnations of the experiment had all been driven truly mad by their warring duality, but by focusing on his memories of his pack, who had been murdered for his capture, K-9 was just barely able to hold his sanity together. After destroying the organization that had done this to him, he had eventually joined the hero’s league. Clair always wanted to pet the “big puppy’.

Despite both of them being on her team, Anniabal didn’t know either personally, and she was still a bit miffed about them silently agreeing with Captain Stormburst yesterday, but still, etiquette stated that she should greet them as she approached.

“Hello, K-9, Ziporound.”

“Ah, Greetings Geyser. It is a delight to be grouped with a fine pack today. I am quite excited for the hunt.” The wolf growled, a device in his neck automatically translating it to English.

“Uh…What he said…. Hey, Geyser.” Ziporound muttered a confused look crossing his face.

Anniabal Smiled at her hero name. Geyser as a name had been Clair’s idea and was part of how they first met. She also thought the name was just cool on its own. It was punchy and Had a sort of ‘snap-snap’ to it, all the qualities of being memorable, she thought it would be good for merchandising and the like, all in the future of course.

“Now that we’re all here,” Ziporound said impatiently “We should hit the road soon, the sooner we start the sooner our rounds are done.”

“I would like to remind you that there has been a string of robbery’s by metabeings in the areas we are set to patrol. We will have to be on alert for any evidence of that.”

“All the more reason to leave now,” Ziporound added

With a nod of agreement from his teammates, they were all soon out the door.

The city, Caliber city, was beautiful as always, ever since she had come to this world, even with all its flaws, she couldn’t help but be in wonder of the things humanity and the other races of beings that lived in this realm had created. As they patrolled Anniabal made sure to take in as many sights as she could, hundreds of outings, and she still enjoyed every second of it.

While they walked K-9 was constantly sniffing the ground for anything out of place. While Ziporound zoomed into alleys or any other out of the way areas at superspeed to search there. Anniabal just stayed alert with her powers, she was the group's heaviest hitter and she needed to be ready to go on any alert from the others.

For two hours they walked about their route with little cropping up, the only thing that happened was a mugging that Ziporound stopped without Anniabal even having to think about using one of her abilities. They even had time to strike up some light conversation.

“Hey, Geyser. So… What’s it like being made out of water and stuff?” Ziporound asked without prompting.

“Excuse me?” Anniabal responded raising an eyebrow.

“Sorry, that was rude. It's just that your body is shaped like a human’s but, it's water. I find myself wondering what that’s like.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never experienced anything different. Good in most aspects, I would assume. There are some disadvantages to having a body made of liquid held together by magical force but there are also benefits” she said bending her forearm backward in a way impossible for a human. “I don’t have bones to break, is one. What is it like being made out of meat”?

“Oh, it sucks.”

“yes, I assumed so, I heard as much from Clai- I mean Wickid. Awful name… What about you K-9, what is it like being half robot?”

“My every moment is suffering. Every second consumed with both physical pain and the torment of my mind slowly shattering. I was once just a wolf, just an innocent pup and now I am the monster that stands before you, not broken enough to die but far from whole. You cannot imagine what it is like to lose everything and then to lose yourself in an endless agony of being torn apart and put back together, endlessly for only the scientific curiosity of others. For your thoughts to be stretched with intelligence your kind should never possess. I am no longer what I w-“

“So, it sucks” Ziporound interrupted

“Yes… ‘It sucks’” the beast growled baring his teeth at the speedster

“My apologies for asking” Anniabal bowed slightly to show her regret, “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

The three lapsed into silence after that, about thirty more minutes later K-9 spoke up.

“I have caught a scent that is abnormal in this area of the city.”

“What is it?” Anniabal asked.

“I do not know, it smells like it may be a metabeing or group of metabeings. But they seem to be out of place. I am getting a heavy scent of jewelry and electronics along with them. We may need to investigate. Agreed?”

Anniabal readied her power with a nod and Looked at Ziporound, who was jogging in place at a speed that made him a blur.

“I’m nice and warmed up, let's go”

K-9 led them as he followed his trail, the trio stopped when the trail clearly led into an abandoned building. The structure was disheveled and clearly seemed to have been out of use for some time now. The windows were boarded up, the paint had long since fallen off leaving the rotting wood and chipped brick exposed. It seemed to have once been a shop based on the unreadable faded sign but the years of being ignored had left it a dingy husk

Ziporound frowned, “How many are inside?”

“There are many, I can not be sure of the exact number but there are no more than twenty, most of them are normal humans. Only about a third are metabeings

Anniabal prepared her pressure beam. It was essentially a laser of water, kept precisely straight and so pressurized that, if she put everything into it, it could level a small building or two. Even with the comparably little power she used now, it would be perfect for breaking open a door while also dealing a first strike. She glanced at her teammates both of whom gave her a nod. With their conformation, she pointed her arm forward and released her power at the door of the building. Water vapor was pulled through the air, condensing at her palm until a large orb was formed. The orb began spinning. With a short hum like a weapon charging up, A stream of water laced out of it, so fast that even to Ziporound’s superspeed powered eyes it was probably a blur. The beam rammed into the door and there was barely even a creak before the door flew off the hinges. Receiving a few cries of surprise confirming that there were indeed people hiding here.

Anniabal moved the attack from side to side trying to neutralize as many enemies as she could from outside, before ending the attack and slumping a bit, that ability always took a lot of her energy, and she needed a second to rest. As she caught her breath, Ziporound and K-9 ran into the old shack.

With one final deep breath, Anniabal followed behind them. Inside of the building, several suspects were already out. Clearly knocked unconscious but thankfully not dead. She had started to think she might have overdone it with the pressure beam, especially since these people weren’t confirmed to be involved with the robberies… there were five people down, eleven were still on their feet either having avoided or not being put down by her attack,

“Hero’s league! You are suspected of breaking and entering and robbery. Come peacefully for questioning” Anniabal shouted as she entered the room.

A gigantic man laughed as he stepped forward “No thanks, bitch. Heroes my ass. What are you going to do? Make us slightly damp until we submit? Have your puppy nip us?” he chuckled louder “I’d rather take my chances. Get ‘em!”