The Sword and Shield of the Universe

Chapter 1

Annie opened the door to Max's Plumbing feeling triumphant. She'd woken up early enough to add almost 4 extra miles on to her morning run and then her Mom had relented on her new reign of healthy food terror to cook pancakes, with actual pancake batter this time. If you asked her milk and egg substitutes everywhere should be banned. Like forever. Then Gwen had called her on the drive to HQ to tell her about this hilarious thing Kevin had done last night.

All in all, it was shaping up to be a pretty great morning. She would have stopped for an after-breakfast snack, but Grandpa Max called to tell her he had something important to tell her, so she skipped it and picked up the pace. Which leads her to now: stepping off the elevator into Bellwood Plumber HQ.

"Hey, Gramps, what do ya wanna gab about today?" Annie called out when she found her Grandpa standing just behind the bank of control monitors observing the city. In the lower left corner, she spotted some Plumber cadets checking her, Gwen, and Kevin's last baddie, Zombozo, into the prison 30 feet below them.

Max sighed when he saw his granddaughter and put an arm around her when she came close enough. He knew she wasn't going to enjoy what he was about to say but it had to be done.

"Well, Annie I've got some news for you dear. Your being assigned a partner, permanently." Max knew it was only the shock that gave him the chance to finish his sentence because a second later she was wrenching herself out from underneath his arm, so she could argue with him face to face.

"What! What the fuck do you-"

"Antoinette Marie, you watch your mouth!" Max instantly glared Annie down and she immediately shut up, she knew the rules after all.

Both she and Gwen were only allowed to curse during fights or when they were being sewn up in medical. One because it was a fight, so of course they were going let a few bad words slip and the other because stitches hurt. Max had certainly let loose a few times when something ridiculously bad happened, but he made sure the girls knew they weren't allowed to go around cursing the air blue just because he wasn't in earshot. And they got it mostly, but Annie sometimes got worked up and cursing seemed like the only way she could really express her feelings on stuff.

"I'm sorry Grandpa Max," She said truly remorseful but still unwilling to back down, "But I really don't want a partner okay? Do I really need one?" She asked, "I mean I've been fine for two weeks almost, I haven't even gone to medical once. And I've been following all the rules and everything! I read all the baddies the Intergalactic Miranda Rights and I report in every day and I alert the closest patrol when I run into something. And the first three days I didn't even cause so much as a pothole Grandpa! I've been super, super, super good." At this point, Annie was ready to get on her knees and whine if she had to.

She simply could not, absolutely would not get stuck with whatever uber-boring, rule-abiding cadet the Magisters would deem good enough to keep watch over 'The Sword of Azmuth'. Annie got hives even thinking about it.

Max spoke up to stop Annie before she could really get on a roll, "Annie, Gem, you're right, you have been really, really good these past weeks but a grandfather still has a right to worry about his granddaughter, alright?" He held up a hand to stall further protests.

"Yeah, you do" Annie conceded his point, "But Grandpa? Did you forget that I have instant access to some of the most powerful beings in the next two galaxies?" She said waving her Omnitrix clad arm in front of her. Max gently grabbed said limb to make sure he had Annie's full attention.

"Be that as it may Antoinette, you also can't deny that you can't rely on just your wits and the Watch to get you out of trouble all the time." He lectured.

"What will you do when the Watch times out during a difficult fight? What if Ghostfreak acts up again and we have no way of knowing until you're possessed body makes its way back here?" Max let go of her arm to cup her delicate face. He still remembered being there at her birth, she had been so tiny then, a warm squirmy little pink-faced bundle in his arms that giggled and grasped at his fingers. From the day he'd meet them Max had been wrapped around both his Granddaughters little fingers, ready and willing to do anything to keep them safe.

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something terrible happened to you and I could have prevented it," He chuckled when she shamelessly nuzzled into his palm, Annie was always a cuddly child, "Do you really think I would stick you with someone boring? I think you'll quite like who I picked out. He's a good cadet, top of his class shows great skill in hand-to-hand combat and logical thinking. Don't grimace at me, young lady." He scolded.

"He's also highly adaptable, able to readjust strategies mid-battle and not much slows him down when he's given a mission. Loyal too, the only technical smudges to his record are when a mission went south, and he prioritized getting his team to safety instead of completing the mission. He even offered to take all the blame on his own." Max explained, looking down at Annie's thoughtful face. He thought her thinking face was adorable.

Annie ignored her Grandpa's face, she knew what he looked like when he was mentally bragging about the 'cuteness of his lovely granddaughters!' she and Gwen had learned to whether the silent and sometimes verbal dotting with patient grace since Max didn't do it that often.

She just stepped fully into Max's personal bubble to bury her face in his chest and breath in his odd scent of alien cooking ingredients, aftershave, motor oil, and the special polish he used to clean all his plumber guns. Max's arms came up around her automatically, holding Annie to him and letting her lean all her weight on him.

This was her usual thinking pose: Annie would find one of her family and just flop on their lap or chest to block out the world and think without interruption. The first time she did it to Kevin he thought she had passed out or something and had full on thrown her over his shoulder and ran to Gwen nearly screaming about how she was 'totally sick or something!' and to 'please not kill him' cause he didn't do anything.

His face when it was explained to him that it just meant Annie trusted him completely and his scent was something that helps calm her down and think was even funnier. Annie relaxed even further into her Grandfather when he started petting her shoulder length hair. She spent the next 10 minutes with her head buried in Max's chest, 5 of those minutes were spent actually thinking about this so called 'perfect partner' and the last 5 were just so she could enjoy her Grandpa's warmth. She didn't see much of him these days now that he was retired from field duty and working full time as one of Bellwood's permanent Magisters, she missed him.

Annie stepped back and heaved the most put-upon sigh she could manage making Max chuckle at her dramatics, "Okay fine, I'll try and work with who you picked. But if he goes around criticizing the way I operate we're gonna have some problems, alright Grandpa?" She bargained, holding out her hand so they could shake on it. Max took it without hesitation, he knew he had picked the perfect Plumber to protect his Granddaughter and fight with her, not for or against her.

They shook and said a firm, "Deal made!" and Max walked her over the elevator while telling Annie that her new partner was already out and waiting for her, so they could get started on their first case together.

Apparently, a store had been blown up last night; a victim of a protection racket that was going around threatening off-world immigrant store owners for taydenite. Her new partner was already out patrolling the city for any activity, Annie was to go check out the site of the explosion and look for any clues about what went down.

As she left the garage she hoped that this case stayed away from Mr. Baumann and his store, the man already popped a blood vessel if he even saw her on the street. Fighting near or, Cosmos forbid it, in his store would make him so mad he'd make her bi-monthly chore day absolutely hellish if it got trashed. Again.