"You can't wear that," Macy said, eyeing Anna's dress.  

"It's not that bad," she said, looking down at the floral print she was wearing.  Even as she said it, she knew Macy was right.

"What do you even have that for?"

Anna considered the last time she had worn it.  Probably on orientation day for new students enrolling in the school.  It was professional enough, and disarming, but not date worthy.

"Fine," Anna relented.  "We can go shopping."

Macy clapped her hands, jumping up and down.  "About time.  Seriously, when was the last time you went out on a date?"

The answer to that question was longer than the heroine turned teacher turned heroine again cared to admit.  "It's not a date."

"He thinks it is.  And would it be the worst thing in the world if it was?" Macy asked.  "He is cute," she added, seeing Anna's frown.

"I can't date a cop.  This is strictly a fact finding mission."

"Well at least sleep with him after you've done you fact finding," Macy said.  Anna glared at her, before peeling off the dress.  "When was the last time you got laid?"

Anna grabbed her tank top and pulled it back on, giving her sister another angry look.

"Sorry, touchy subject, but I meant voluntarily."

"And how do I know it's voluntary for him?"  That, more than anything else is what kept her from wading into the dating pool.  Having been raped and violated, she wasn't about to even accidentally use her powers to make someone do something they weren't willing to do.

"First of all, and he doesn't want to sleep with you, he's out of his mind or gay.  Second, if you're that worried about it, just wear a gag."

Anna groaned.  "I hate gags."

"They're fun, under the right circumstances," Macy said with a sly smile.

"Well, my experiences have all been decidedly the wrong circumstances.  It doesn't matter anyways, I'm not going to do anything other than pump him for information."

"Suit yourself.  I'm just looking out.  Your secret life has gotten rather exciting, but your regular life is still pretty boring."

"I need a little boring."



Anna walked into the restaurant.  Despite her insistence that she didn't want to sex up her look too much, she couldn't help but enjoy the stares she was getting.  Macy had talked her into a short, green, single strap dress.  She hadn't needed any convincing to buy a new pair of shoes to go with it; black open toed heels.

She looked around the restaurant and saw her date getting up from the bar, coming to meet her.

"Anna.  You look, stunning," he said.

"Thank you, Tim," she said.  "You clean up pretty nice yourself."  She meant it.  She'd met him, stalked him really, at a local cop bar four days ago, where he'd just been wearing jeans and a T-shirt.  Now he was sporting black slacks and a blue shirt and tie, freshly shaven and his jet-black hair swept back.

"I've got us a table," he said, taking her by the arm and leading her across the restaurant.

"I'm glad you called," she said as they were seated in the corner.  She was.  Detective Tim Merrick had been guarded at the bar when she had told him to buy her a drink and tried to get him to talk about his work.  Agreeing to go on a fake date with him had seemed the better of two evils when compared to flat out interrogating him for the information she wanted.

"Me too."  He pulled her chair out for her and sat down across from her.  "Forgive me for saying, but you're not like most of the, uh, women who come into Lou's."

"The badge bunnies?" she said with a smile.

"Yeah, them."

"It's not usually my scene, but a friend convinced me go out, and I'm glad I did.  I will admit, the badge is kind of attractive."

"There's a lot more paperwork than they show on TV."  The waitress came by and took their drink orders.  "You said you were a teacher?"

"I teach English and Band at the Bristol School for the Deaf."

"That's versatile."

"Not really.  We're rather short staffed.  I'm mostly a babysitter in band, and I'm one of the teachers who can hear."

"I didn't really think about that.  What about the kids, how do they hear what they're playing?"

"Most of them that take band aren't fully deaf, just varying levels of hearing impairment.  A lot of them use instruments as a form of expression, since they're uncomfortable speaking.  It doesn't really matter that most of them aren't very good.  I'm not really a great teacher, though I do have one fully deaf student who's like a musical savant on the piano.  It's funny though, because he can't tell if the piano is out of key."

Tim laughed.  "So, do you play any instruments?"

"Not really.  Like I said, glorified babysitter.  I know the basics, but I'm not really musically gifted."

"I bet you're a great singer," Tim said.

"Oh, I don't sing."

"Really?  That's a shame.  You have a beautiful voice, I bet you'd sound great."

"Nope, don't sing."

"Not even alone, like when you're in the car or shower?"

"What I do in the shower is my business," Anna said with a wink.  She was flirting more than she had planned, but she was having a good time.  Maybe it had been too long since she was out with a handsome guy.

“So you’re not hearing impaired.  What got you into teaching deaf kids?” Tim asked after they ordered.  

Anna put her chardonnay to her lips, slowly drinking while she stalled.  So far she hadn’t really lied to him, but telling him that she was fired from the Legendary Consortium, and working with the deaf was one of the few places she could work without risk of abusing her powers.

“I learned sign language a long time ago, and I was having trouble finding a job, it just sort of fell into my lap,” Anna said finally.  She’d drained most of the glass of wine.  “But enough about me.  Tell me about your job.”

Tim shrugged.  “I’m a detective.  I work gang related cases, the occasional homicide.”

“That sounds interesting.”  Anna leaned across the table slightly.

“We get some weird stuff.  I’m sure you’ve heard; we’re infested with super powered people lately.  It’s, uh, well, it is interesting.”

“Oh, do tell.”

“I’m not really supposed to discuss ongoing cases, but half of this stuff is on the Internet or the news.”

Jackpot, she thought, propping her chin on her hands, leaning further across the table.  She’d seen all the news and the speculation on the Internet.  She needed the rest.

“There’s this guy who has this super sticky goo substance.  We call him Slimeball, original right?  Our tech’s can’t figure out what it is, but it’s crazy sticky.  We had to use acid to get it off of things.

“Anyways, he did a few B and E’s, kept under the radar, but last week someone walked in on him during a robbery, and he covered the guy’s face with the goo.  The guy suffocated, so he’s wanted for murder now.”

“Fascinating,” Anna said.  “I mean, tragic and horrible, but it’s cool that you get to work on stuff like that.”

“Eh,” Tim shrugged.  “These super powered people are all a menace to society.”

Anna reeled back as if she’d been slapped at the contempt in Tim’s tone.

“Not all of them, I’m sure,” she said, recovering her composure.  “There are good ones.”

“Even the ones that claim to be ‘heroes,’ are just vigilantes who think they’re above the law,” Tim went on, air quoting the word heroes.

“The government sanctioned the Legendary Consortium.”

“A huge mistake.  Your tax dollars go to paying those clowns instead of going to real law enforcement.  Do you have any idea how much they make?”

She did.  Not currently anyways, but eight years ago, her pay had been, excessive, to say the least.  "Probably too much, but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to operate.  They still function within the confines of the legal and justice system.  The government pays them so that they can oversee them.  They in turn oversee the lesser heroes, and stop vigilantism.”

“Oversee, please.  They let idiots like that Christmas themed tart run around making a mess.”

“Christmas themed tart?!” Anna asked, a little too indignantly, but Tim didn’t seem to take notice.

“Yeah, Siren, I’m sure you’ve seen her all over the news.  She’s more exhibitionist than hero.”

“I’m sorry, but what part of getting captured and humiliated while trying to be a hero makes you an exhibitionist.  If it happened to you in your line of work, would that make you less of a cop?”

“It probably would, but it doesn’t happen to cops.  When have you ever seen a police officer hanging half naked from a cruise ship in a mermaid costume?”

Anna glared at him.

“Never.  These ‘heroines’ go out in their slutty costumes, practically begging for them to be objectified and not taken seriously.”

“Did you seriously use the 'because of how she was dressed she was asking for it?’ argument?” she asked incredulously.

“Alright, that may have been too far.  But I’m real law enforcement.  I take my job seriously.  These Super Heroes just get me all riled up.”

“I like to think they take their jobs pretty seriously too.”  She drained the last of her wine, standing up just as the waiter showed up carrying their food.  “Can I get a box?  I think it’s best if I go.”

“Oh come on Anna.  I’m sorry; I didn’t mean to upset you.  You don’t have to go,” Tim said, getting up as well.

She did, and she knew it, before she did something stupid, like outing herself to a detective as Siren, or, possibly worse but much more satisfying, kicking his ignorant ass.  

“You have strong opinions, and I can respect that,” she said as she rifled through her purse, hunting her wallet.  “But I also have strong…” she trailed off, finding something strange in her purse.  

She looked in, seeing a red ball gag.  Attached was a note in Macy’s handwriting.  “Practice safe sex,” it read, followed by a winky face.

“When did she even put that in there?” she muttered to herself.

“Something wrong?” Tim asked, hoping she had changed her mind.

“No.  Yes.  Point is, I really respect heroines like Siren.  Yeah, she got humiliated, publicly, for the world to see, but she’s still out there, trying to do good.  And the fact that you can’t see that irritates me.  Thank you for dinner, but this isn’t going to work.”  She grabbed her wallet, dropping two twenties on the table and taking her meal from the waiter.

“Have a good evening madam,” the waiter said as she stormed out.  Tim sat back down, staring at his food, wondering just what the hell had happened.



Anna was at the gym, working out her frustration on a punching bag.  She leaned against the bag, panting, wiping sweat from her brow, when the lights turned on above her.

She spun around, arms up defensively, only to see Tyrese.  For a man who couldn’t hear, he was eerily quiet.  She hadn’t heard him come in.

He waved and signed “hello” to her.

She waved back, picking up her bottle of water.  “What are you doing here?” she signed.

“Can’t sleep.  You?”

“Same.”

“Everything alright?” he asked, unslinging his gym bag.

“Well enough.  You going to shut up and put your gloves on?” she asked, smiling as she walked over to her own bag, pulling out her gloves and mouth guard.

Tyrese nodded, pulling out his own gloves.  “Let’s go,” he signed before putting on his gloves.  They made sign language difficult, but in the ring, they communicated far better with their fists than with their fingers.

Anna pounded her fists together, popping her mouth guard in and ducking under the rope into the ring.  Tyrese lifted the rope and followed.