Identity Crisis

Annie walked down the street, her blue backpack swung over her left shoulder, and headphones over her ears. It was a busy and sunny Sunday morning, the sun shining brightly in the sky as the many citizens of Wellspring ran their errands by foot or by car. The streets were packed as Annie made her way to the edge of town where she lived in a small house fit for a family of two. She grunted when someone bumped into her and turned around to question the man's manners when he suddenly disappeared. She looked around, confused. Shaking her head, the woman continued on her way. "RUN!", a woman cried and grabbed the little boy next to her, likely her son.  The woman's cry caused Annie to look up from her phone and turn around once more as "The Boy's are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy drowned out the screams of citizens. A good 50 feet away, someone was thrown into a building causing glass to shatter and the wall to break. When the body removed itself from the broken wall, Annie could see Ace stagger as he tried to keep his balance.  "WHERE'S THE DESTROYER?!", the opponent asked as he flew toward Ace, ready to hit him again, "WHERE IS SHE?!" Ace didn't respond as he quickly moved out of the way, the opponent collided with the brick wall and caused the building to crumble.  "Stop this madness, Link. I can help you.", Ace said to his opponent as he flew up to the sky and punched the villain that followed him. "Madness? You're the one that's mad! YOU KIDNAPPED THE DESTROYER!", Link yelled as he cupped his hands together and hit the hero in the back with enough force to cause him to fall toward the ground and create a crater in the road. The impact caused a wave of dust to fill the sky for a brief minute. Annie covered her face with her arms to protect her eyes. When the dust cleared, Ace got back up and launched himself at Link once again. The battle continued until Link could barely stand. His weak state caused Annie to worry a little. Sure, he was a villain, but he was still human and could still die. No one deserved that in Annie's book, no matter how evil. When Link disappeared, the citizens, aside from Annie, cheered for the hero. When Ace's eyes met Annie's, she could see fear flash in his eyes before it disappeared and he gave a smile and a friendly wave to her. She just crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him causing his smile to falter. She turned on her heel and made her way through the crowd as she felt his eyes watch her leave. Slowly, the crowd dispersed. When Annie made it home, she made herself a quick meal and ate as she sat on the black leather couch and watched the news. "Our city is once again saved by it's superhero, Ace. The Destroyer's old crew is at it again as they look for their missing leader, Lord Thrun the Destroyer. As the terrorists return to our city, citizens fear the return of Lord Thrun.Though she has not been heard from in nearly 4 years, her last words still shake the citizens to their very core. Here's Thrun's last words and next, we'll hear from our very own, Ace." As the recording started, Annie couldn't help but feel a sense of familiarity at the voice, "I will be back - mark my words, Ace! I'll destroy you! I'll destroy all of you! Lord Thrun will return and when that happens, chaos will reign and the world will be MINE!" Annie felt something she couldn't quite describe. Was it revenge? The one person that ever angered her was Ace and he's never done anything to harm her. . . has he? As Annie tried to remember ever meeting Ace before she moved to town, she came up empty. In fact, she realized her life as a child was perfect. Too perfect.  "I'm glad I was able to stop Link. To be honest, he's getting stronger. Like any other villain I've come across, Link has something to fight for and he won't stop until he gets what he wants. I have no idea where Thrun is but when she returns, I vow to protect this city with my life as I have in the past. I don't doubt that Thrun may be in hiding after she broke out of prison 4 years ago, likely getting stronger like her crew. Thrun is the one villain I hope never returns - not that I want any others to return. Thrun, like many know, is dangerous. More so than any other villain. To have defeated her last time was luck. This time, it may not be so easy. I-" Annie stared at the broken TV, her hand blooded and anger rising the more Ace talked bad about Thrun. Though Annie had never heard of The Destroyer, she's sure that if the villain were to return like she said, then Ace would be kept busy for once and wouldn't have time to gloat over his victories or news reports. The only sightings would be outside, not on the TV and surely not walking around town on a stroll. Something told her that Ace would become virtually nonexistent if this Lord Thrun were to show her face. Annie unplugged the TV, walked outside, and threw it in the trash. She didn't even wince when the TV sounded like it shattered when it collided with the bottom. Annie walked back into her house, slamming the door behind her and made her way to a set of stairs that led to the basement. As she walked down the steps, taking two at a time, she glanced around the room to determine where the box she was looking for might be. When she reached the bottom of the stairs, she headed in the direction of a white box located on the far left side of the stairs, near the wall. She opened the box and found the more recent newspapers that dated back to 20 Sundays prior. Sighing, she closed the box and opened another. This one was 40 weeks ago.  "Great.", Annie sighed annoyingly, "Not even a year ago. It may take a while to find a specific paper about Thrun. Why does that name sound so familiar but not?" She figured that since she lived with her mother when Thrun was arrested, she may have the newspapers in her basement or attic. Annie headed upstairs to the main floor and grabbed her phone. She scrolled down until she found her mother's name, Nurht, and hit the call button. The phone didn't even ring. In fact, it sounded as if the line had been disconnected - or was nonexistent. This only made things more suspicious and just angered Annie more. Had her mother changed her number without telling her? She sifted through her contact information and found her father's name, Lore, and called him. The result was the same as her mother's number. It seemed as if it was disconnected. Distraught, she looked her parent's names on the internet and found an article. WOMAN AND HUSBAND KILLED BY 9-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER, NURHT LORE! Police found the bodies of Kate and Dan Lore in their Louisville home, their daughter was covered in their blood and scared the police with her sadistic smirk. "The girl wasn't even traumatized by her parents death, she was oddly calm about it.", officer Hector Bud recalled. Annie couldn't believe it. Things weren't adding up at all. Her parents names were Nurht and Lore, weren't they? And, if that really was their names, who was Nurht Lore? Is she still alive, where is she?  Questions ran through Annie's mind, none of which could be answered. One by one, it seemed, her memories faded and her past became unclear. Did her parents die or this just some sick dream?  Determined to find out of any of this is real, Annie headed back down into the basement and began searching boxes once more, labeling each one as she went so she didn't open the same box twice. The boxes, it seemed, were in order along the back wall. She went to the box located at the bottom the furthest from her previous position and pulled the boxes from the top off. When she opened the box, she saw that the top one was, in fact, 4 and a half years prior. She set the box by the steps and looked back at the two boxes on the ground. She opened the one that had been on the box from 4.5 years ago and saw that it was the box she had been looking for. She took both boxes upstairs and to her living room. She started with the oldest box and read about Lord Thrun. It turns out, the woman was one of the most wanted villains in all 50 states of the US. She and Ace had quite the history starting from when she was just a thief. The last newspaper nearly caused Annie to faint. LORD THRUN, 36, FINALLY BEHIND BARS! The image beneath the headline was of Lord Thrun and the woman looked exactly like Annie Turner. Right down to the smallest details.