Heroes wear Capes

Chapter 18 - Meeting the King of Terror

"Not everyone is meant to make a difference. But for me, the choice to lead an ordinary life is no longer an option."

~ Peter Parker (Spiderman)

Agent Argent had been right. A prison full of super villains was not welcoming to April Watson. As they walked through the halls she immediately recognized some of her father's biggest villains of the past, like Strongman and Black Hawk. She also saw some of the smaller villains that had tried to kidnap her to capture White Knight's attention throughout the years like Mayhem and Jester. Even if most of the villains probably didn't recognize her, they sure as hell freaked her out by jumping at her through their bars. It was most likely entertaining to them to have a defenseless girl walk through their halls.

But they weren't scaring April as much as they should've. Being away from home for the first time ever, April was realizing that these villains couldn't really hurt her like they wanted to.

Like, how many times in April's life had she been hogtied to train tracks or suspended over a huge cliff? And how many times had she ever been actually hurt by those villains? Brandon was always around the corner. Besides, she didn't think Anakin could ever actually kill her like he told Brandon he would. None of the villains who knew who she was would or could ever kill her. She was leverage against not only one famous superhero, but two. If she died, they wouldn't have any way to weaken White Knight or Captain Fantastic.

April was reminded of a time two years ago when Black Knight had captured her and had her tied up in his secret lair. He had interrupted a White Knight fan event at the Kingdom Hills mall by hacking their television feeds and showing footage of her tied up to a chair with a cloth tied around her mouth. Of course, Anakin had been nothing if not dramatic.

He was threatening to use some weapon on the city, per usual, so Brandon had to choose between stopping it and stopping some poison from killing April. Brandon, being the kindhearted person he was, just had to go for the weapon threatening the city first. After all, one life wasn't worth more than millions. Back in Anakin's lair, the timer for Brandon to come and save April had run out. Anakin pretended not to notice, even though April knew it was an act. Because of Anakin blatantly ignoring the timer on the wall, Brandon was able to burst through the door in time to save her from anything Anakin had promised to do.

But April had already learned from that day. Anakin wasn't really going to ever risk actually hurting her. She didn't know if Anakin had developed feelings for her over the years (it was entirely possible) or if he had just realized how important she was. She would forever be the leverage against White Knight. None of the villains who always claimed they would killer her had ever done so, and thinking back on that incident made April wonder if any of them had ever actually planned on doing so. It was the same reason a hostage taker never got rid of all the hostages. They were useful, and sometimes they were the only thing that saved you.

Maybe being away from home for a while was what she needed to finally break free of her stereotype. Maybe people would finally be able to call her something other than a damsel in constant distress.

It wasn't until the end of the day though that April got to finally get on her way to talk to the man who would finally change her reputation.

They turned down a corner and were led into what seemed to be a briefing room. Across the carpeted room was a disheveled man in a pair of skewed glasses, ruffled untucked shirt, and stained blazer with hands shaking. Two guards stood at the doors to the entrance, like everywhere in Alcatraz.

"April," Argent pointed to the man, "meet Dr. Underwood. He was the most recent psychologist to have sessions with X. He's here to tell you what to expect when you walk in there."