Anastasia Bertradino

Anastasia Bertradino, also referred as Ana, is a side character in the Elsaverse. She is part of the "Triple A" team of heroes, along with her friends Alexis and Amanda Reid, the three women with powers that are the main protagonists of the novella AAA (2018). She is extremely shy and has the power to tweak people's perception to not be consciously registered by others as if she was invisible. Anastasia is married to the former Sangrive's Mayor, Joey Bertradino, and even though she's very intelligent, she currently doesn't have any known job.

Personal
Despite her outstanding intelligence, her kindness, and her beauty, Anastasia has always been an insecure and almost pathological shy girl who is unable to draw others' attention to herself. When she was a kid, she avoided conflicts by trying to hide behind her long brown hair, or by stepping aside to try and go unnoticed. An avid comic books lover, she only felt free to be herself when she was with her best friend, Amanda; however, their quirks made them the perfect target for bullies like their former friend Tina and her court of followers. Among other things, Anastasia, who had always been known as 'Ana', had to ask her classmates to call her 'Stacy', as Tina was starting to spread the ironic nickname 'Princess' for referring to her; as Anastasia succeeded in her attempt, Tina started to call Amanda 'Mandy', and that shortening became popular despite Amanda hating it. In sixth grade, while Anastasia and Amanda were the Riverside Junior Highschool official 'freaks', Alexis was a newcomer with the potential to become the most popular girl in the school, but she was always kind to Amanda and Anastasia and even stood up for them when they were attacked. For this reason, she quickly became their hero and, after a little misunderstanding due to a praising story written by Amanda that, at first, Alexis believed satyrical, the three of them became inseparable.

Anastasia quickly became Alexis' private math tutor; in exchange, Alexis helped Anastasia to hook up with her platonic love, Joey Bertradino, who had just been rejected by Jessica Springfield because, apparently, he kissed like a fish. As they grew up, the three friends remained together and even Joey accepted that the two women were just too special for Anastasia, leaving them their space. About twenty years later, Anastasia and Joey are a happily married couple, but her shyness hasn't disappeared at all and she's still unable to let her husband see her naked. However, the most recent events in their lives have made Anastasia gain confidence and take some steps in the right direction: as a real hero, Anastasia has revealed herself as a brave and resourceful woman in decisive moments, finding an inner strength when she sees her loved ones in danger. For instance, she tries her best to help Alexis recover after the riot at Mayhem's concert and doesn't hesitate on carrying out the most dangerous tasks during their work as covert heroes; finally, and thanks to Joey's reaction to the bombing at his rally, she even overcomes her fears of being rejected due to her unnatural trait and confesses her power to her husband after realizing that he's a true hero despite not having superpowers.

After Joey Bertradino lost the election to Anne Kruin and they had to leave the Mayor's mansion, in their last appearance in the saga, in Elsaverse: Transitions (2020-2021), Anastasia and Joey are temporarily moving to Alexis' and Amanda's home, where Anastasia used to live as a single woman.

Powers
Anastasia has the power to alter other people's perception so that they don't register her presence as if she was invisible. In the Elsaverse, powers are always a defining trait of every character with them, but this is especially true in Anastasia's case: when she felt threatened or stressed as a kid, she just wanted to hide and go unnoticed, and that's exactly what her power lets her do now. This has just reinforced her shyness as she can just resort to her power and disappear instead of facing those stressful situations. It's no wonder she has practiced a lot to master it; those practices included sneaking past the Mayor's mansion's security guards to reach her own bedroom without giving explanations, as she still felt uncomfortable around them despite the guards' usual politeness. However, it must be stressed that her invisibility is just an effect she causes on bystanders' sensorial awareness, as she's still registered by cameras; in addition, the effect is broken if she makes too much noise.

Although she tends to cover her head with a hood when she wants to disappear, she can do it even naked and has learned to calibrate her power so that she can make people to still see her without consciously registering her. This is how, in AAA last chapter, she can drive her car safely, preventing not only other drivers from bumping into her but also detectives Nathaniel Blake and Michelle Won from realizing they are being followed. Throughout AAA, she also realizes that she could hide other people she is touching the same way she does with the clothes she's wearing, and she learns how much background noise would be needed to let them talk without revealing their presence. That's how she convinces Joey to stop running toward the bomb: amidst a big turmoil, she grabs his hand, makes them disappear from other people's eyes, and flashes him to draw his attention before telling him what's going on; that naked exposure was absolutely out of character for Anastasia, but nobody else but Joey could actually see her.

Despite being the most insecure of the three friends, and also the one who first warned about all the potential negative implications of their crazy idea, Anastasia is probably the one who carries out the riskiest tasks when they finally decide to use their powers to actually help their friend Jessica: she covertly follows the detectives to assess their worth and sneaks into Sangrive's Courthouse to leave Charles Reyes' pic on the prosecutor's desk; however, she can't help but still feel useless. Then, when Blake and Won start working on the serial killer case, she follows them and helps Won to catch the panicked witness at the limo rental office: unlike her favorite comic hero, she chooses to act when her power could make a difference and trips the driver when he runs past her. Finally, she also uses her power to stealthily walk toward Brandon Henderson and then knocks him out with a crowbar before going invisible again to avoid Michelle Won's questioning.

Miscellaneous

 * Despite being always extremely zealous about not revealing their powers to anyone, fearing the consequences of doing so, Anastasia eventually lets her guard down and Serena watches her vanish during one of her visits to Amanda. Then the three friends have to tell Serena about their powers, and Serena promises to keep their secret. However, Serena ends up talking about them when she learns that Beth Lagrange and Emily have powers too.