Heroes Wear Capes

“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.”

Dr. Underwood looked less like he had a degree in psychology and more like he just had a psychotic break.

“Dr. Underwood?”

He seemed not to hear April, so she tried again. On the second time upon her speaking his name, he looked up from his hands, eyes wild.

“April? April Watson? What are you doing here?”

He looked beyond scared.

“I’m going to be interviewing X as a part of my psychology paper. My parental background and the type of environment I grew up in may be able to help me see inside the mind of one of our time’s most notorious villains.”

Dr. Underwood seemed positively terrified at the thought.

“X? No . . . no, he’s not . . . It’s not safe for you in there.”

April looked at Argent, confused. Was this the same Doctor of psychology that had just interviewed X himself as she said. It seemed that it couldn’t be. There was no way someone professional like him get become so twisted after only meeting with X for a couple of times. How could a guy like that become so distraught so quickly?

“Dr. Underwood, are you feeling well?” April asked, concerned as the man gave her a crazy eyed look.

He suddenly bolted to April and took hold of her collar, his face only inches from hers. “He’ll take control of you. If you go in there, you’ll die by his hand.”

April shrugged the man off and he fell to the ground in a heap. She looked over at Argent, who didn’t seem at all surprised by his actions. “X did this to him?”

The agent shrugged and looked down at Underwood. “Yes, but we’re not sure how. Most everyone who tries to diagnose the villain is talked into crazy town. X is able to manipulate everyone who comes in contact with him, like Iago in Othello. Though you’d be the first person to meet with him who has real experience in the area of villains. We think you may be able to talk to X without falling to any psychological manipulation since you deal with people like him every day.”

“And you know for sure I won’t end up as much of a vegetable as Underwood?” As April asked this, Underwood crawled back to his chair and sat, a vacant expression on his face.

Argent crossed her arms. “There’s no way to know for sure, but we believe you can do it. Besides, you can stop this whole thing whenever you want to. If you fear you can’t handle X, we can send you back home to Kingdom City and you can find another topic for your term research paper. I can guarantee you that you won’t be able to find another subject as interesting as this one.”

April took one last look at Underwood and decided. She would not end up like him. Like Argent had said, April had experience with crazy super villains. X didn’t even have super powers, so how could it be any worse? Besides, this time she wasn’t the one tied up and locked down, he was. He couldn’t do any real harm to her.

“I can do it.”

Argent smiled and lead April to a door across the room. They left Dr. Underwood behind in the other room. April wondered what would become of him.

“You’ll be completely alone in there,” Argent explained, “and that’s only because you asked for total privacy. Right outside the door will be dozens of guards that you can summon with one push of the button that’s located underneath the table. You shouldn’t need to push it with X all restrained and all, but it’s still there for your safety.”

April nodded. Of course they would give her a way out, even if she shouldn’t need to have one.

She paused in front of a metal door. April guessed that was the one that would lead her to one of the most infamous villains in history.

April reached over Argent and grabbed the door. It was now or never.

Inside the room looked especially drab. The walls were an upsetting shade of gray and the old stains on the wall could have been dried blood if you looked at them a certain way. The metal table was dull instead of shiny and the chairs were nailed to the floor. If this was their Merlonium free room, why did it have to look so drab? If April had made a room where superheroes could interview non-powered villains and still keep their powers, she would at least make it a little roomier. The only reason she was even in that room was so that the warden could barge in if he ever needed to.

And X stood out in the boring room.

In an orange jumpsuit, he’d already be striking in the gray room, but his hair topped it off. X was known for his blood red hair, something so strange and abnormal that it couldn’t be his real hair color, but it seemed to be. Even after years in prison with no access to hair dye, no other more realistic color had grown in except for the dark red locks he was known for.

As April sat down she noticed his piercing dark eyes staring intently at her. He was probably trying to throw her off kilter, just like he had done to all of the other psychologists that had talked to him, but it wouldn’t work on her. She had stared down many more villains than he could ever imagine.

“So, what institution did they drag you from?” X asked curiously. “Are you another one of their interns from a local college? There’s no way that you’re old enough to already have your degree.”

April didn’t answer. X smiled coldly.

“Ahh, the silent treatment? You’re trying to see what information I might reveal about my past by just rambling? Do you want to know how many puppies I mauled as a kid or how many lives I took a pleasure in ruining throughout my life? Maybe you want to know about how horrible my parents were. Maybe that’ll give you a way to diagnose me as having daddy issues. How about you? Hmm? Have you got any issues of your own?”

April looked up at X with her own cold stare. “We’re here to talk about your problems, not mine.”

X’s smiled brightened. “So, she speaks. And who may I be speaking to? Hmm?”

“April Watson.”

X furrowed his eyebrows. “As in the very same April Watson who is saved by the notorious White Knight all the time? Don’t look so shocked, April. We may be in prison, but we do get news in here. I know all about how poor little April Watson always gets captured by Black Knight or the likes. Is that why they chose you to interview me? Do they think because you’ve been around so many super villains you’d somehow be able to understand me more?”

April knew that there would be some sort of reaction like this to her name.

“But it does get me intrigued, certainly.”

April was hoping for that.

“So, why are you here?”

She leaned forward conspiratorially, “I’m here to find out the truth behind X. Why did you do what you did? How did you do it? And what is your real story?”

X seemed to be interested. “And what makes you think you can find out all of this information when no other before you has been able to do so?”

April shrugged. “The chances of me finding out all of this are more than slim. In fact, I’m pretty sure I was only allowed to do this because I’ve spent so much time around super villains. MASKED seemed to think that this experience would make me more impervious to your mind tricks, or at least enough for me to go farther than anyone before me. If you ask me, they probably don’t care if I get through this unless I deliver some new information about you.” April leaned back, showing a façade of carelessness. “But I don’t personally care about informing an intelligence agency. I’m only here to get a good grade in Psychology 101.”

X stared at her for a moment before bursting out in laughter. April noticed, out of all things, how the villain had dimples. They made him seem less . . . sinister.

“I think we’ll end up having fun together.”

April smiled, thinking she had caught him in her reel, but, in reality, she was the one being drawn in.