Heroes Wear Capes

“Our story hasn’t been written yet, Kal-El. And every villain is only as great as his hero.”

~ Lex Luthor

“. . . and then I totally saved the day.” Brandon bragged. “Even after April let Black Knight run away.”

April groaned and tilted her head back in frustration from the couch. Why couldn’t Brandon brag about how awesome he was and how he always saved her when April was safe in her bedroom, far away from her judgmental family?

“It’s not her fault,” her dad responded, “April isn’t a superhero, so it’s really not her fault that she’s so inadequate during these missions.”

And there it was. ‘Little innocent April Watson didn’t know any better. You can’t blame her for being stupid because she wasn’t as great as us supers. She didn’t understand what it meant to be a hero.’

There were moments where April hated her family, but at the same time it wasn’t fair to think like that. They really didn’t know any better themselves. They didn’t know what they were saying was hurtful because they viewed it as the truth. April was the only non-super in the family, so she was the baby, the one they all had to take care of. Peter, her little brother, even had superpowers. Like – usually your parents would be mad if you thought it was a good idea to sneak around your uncle’s chemistry lab and accidentally get doused with a mixture of chemicals and then fall into a broken prototype machine, but not their parents. They were proud of their little boy finally developing a superpower, super speed.

He never even got in trouble for almost killing himself. Her parents were happy that he found a way to get super powers. They knew for certain that he would join the family ranks when he grew older.

April on the other hand? Well, you already know about her.

April was the fragile one. The one who might break at any moment because she couldn’t protect herself. She was the one who needed a White Knight to save her from every super villain in the city. The one who was surrounded by the best superheroes of all time.

They didn’t know that their words hurt. They didn’t know that she didn’t want to be known as the damsel.

But, growing up in a family full of superheroes hadn’t been all bad. In high school April used to always score autographs of famous superheroes to gift her friends, though they thought it was only because of her connection to White Knight. She also got to meet all of those other famous superheroes. What fun.

But, when you spend every day with Captain Fantastic, he becomes a little less fantastic.

“I’m going to go upstairs.” April announced, anything to get away from the conversation that was ensuing about her.

“Do you need help?” Brandon asked quickly and hopefully.

April gave him her straightest face. “I’m only going up the stairs, not making a soufflé.”

His face was still hopeful, so she had to spell it out for him. “No, Brandon, I don’t need help. Thanks for asking.”

“No problem.” He replied with a smirk and a wink.

April sighed. Brandon wasn’t stupid, only oblivious. He’d been playing the role everyone expected him to play since he moved next door when April was six and he was eight. He was the apprentice of Captain Fantastic, a legend in the making. White Knight had already won People’s sexiest masked man alive for two years in a row. He was always meant to be the esteemed protagonist, he was born to be a role model.

(The runner-ups to that award were The Marvel of Empire City and White Lightning of Washington DC. The Marvel apparently lost the award because he was married now and married men aren’t as sexy, even married superheroes. White Lightning got second place, which kind of pitted the fans of the two heroes against each other.)

(But, it was all good now. They made a public save together and the fans forgot about it.)

But, back to the point April was trying to make about Brandon. He viewed himself as her protector because that’s what he was supposed to be. He would always be trying to save her from every threat because that’s what he was supposed to do. He hadn’t quite found his own path in life just yet. He didn’t know how to be his own person, but he knew how to be a hero, and that was good enough for him.

Brandon also assumed April and he were practically dating. Like, who wouldn’t after saving a girl so many times?

It was kind of confusing where she was at with him. April knew he would do anything for her, including jumping off a cliff (which he’d done twice now) and taking a beating for her (too many times to count). But, April wasn’t sure if she would do the same, or at least with the same blind purpose. Besides, when would normal girl April Watson ever get the chance to take a bullet for a super strong super? It would be pointless seeing as the bullet would barely harm him.

Society makes it so hard to say no to a guy asking you out. You’re programmed from such a young age to feel grateful for any guy’s attention that you just can’t say no, even if you don’t necessarily like them back. It gets so bad that you’re not sure whether or not you actually like this guy or if you like the idea of having him because society tells you that you need to have a guy to make your life happy.

But, April just can’t say no outright to Brandon, it would break his heart. So, for now, they were on the fringe. Everyone else in her family already assumed they were a thing though, so it was more just April trying to prove something to herself by not making it official.

April plopped down on her bed and sighed. Everything in her head was so confusing and didn’t make sense, and there was no sane person she could tell these thoughts to who wouldn’t call her ungrateful for not accepting the affections of a world renowned superhero.

“April!”

She sat up immediately. Well, there was one person who wasn’t as insane as the rest of her family.

“Diana!” April screamed back, equally as excited.

She rushed into April’s room, immediately giving her a crushing hug. With hugs like that, you’d expect her sister’s power to be super strength.

“I didn’t know that you’d be back today.” April said once she pulled away. “I thought you weren’t getting back until tomorrow.”

She smiled and her perfect white teeth flashed. “I just couldn’t wait to see you! Plus, I heard about what happened with Black Knight today. I wanted to make sure that you were okay.”

April offered up a weak smile in return. “Thanks, I’m fine though. We both know Anakin would never do anything to hurt me.”

Diana pulled back and sat down on the edge of the bed next to her, frowning. “April, he hung you by your wrists over a tank of sharks. I wouldn’t exactly call that looking out for your wellbeing.”

April groaned and fell back on the bed. It was so hard to explain to other people how Anakin was like. Most people wrote him off as another crazy villain, but it wasn’t like that. No one else has spent time with him like she had. They haven’t listened as he told his life story. They haven’t heard his crazy ravings at their worst. They haven’t seen the guy underneath as anything other than the child of a super villain obsessed with killing a hero.

“But, he knows I can handle it. In fact, I bet if we went back there, we’d find that the ropes holding me up were never intended to drop into that shark tank. He only puts me in those types of situations because he knows it will attract Brandon.” April argued. “If he was ever actually intending on seriously hurting me, he would’ve done it by now.”

Diana obviously didn’t take her sister seriously. “April, he’s a villain. I didn’t think I’d have to spell it out for you. That kid has hated you and our family since birth. He was trained to hate us like the plague. Trust me, with a father like his, he’s pure evil. We’re lucky Doctor Destruction is locked up in the high security vaults at Alcatraz.”

After super villains became a big problem, the secret organization known as MASKED (Monitoring of Abnormal, Strange, or Kaleidoscopic Events Department) repurposed the most successful prison in American history as the super prison. Its walls were lined with Merlonium, the rock that temporarily dampened the powers of any super.

Only a few villains have been known to escape its walls, Smith and The Manipulator just to name a few, and they were huge in their times.

Good old dad locked Anakin’s father up five years ago, one of his last big saves. Obviously that made Anakin a bit sour towards April’s crime fighting family, and to Brandon by association.

“But weren’t we taught to do the same thing?” April retorted, still looking up at the ceiling while laying on her fluffy pillows.

Diana brought her face into April’s field of vision and gave her the stare. You know the one. I’m-your-big-sister-and-I-know-more-about-the-world-than-you-do.

“April, we’re the good guys. Everything you’ve heard about Black Knight and his entire family is the truth. They create crime and we stop it. It’s as simple as that. Your family is full of heroes and soon-to-be heroes, and his is full of villains. That’s all there is to it.”

April groaned again. “You make it sound so black and white.”

Diana laughed and patted April’s head like she was a kid. “That’s because it is. At least, it is most of the time. You either fight crime or stop it. You’re either good or evil. You either kidnap daughters of famous superheroes or you save them.”

April smiled at her sister. She knew she was never going to win any conversations on the subject, at least not today.

“And on the subject of heroes that save daughters of famous heroes, how is the great Brandon Charleston doing today?”

Diana knew April’s thoughts on the subject. “He’s a bit mad that his favorite super villain got away. Again. But, he’s fine beyond that. Yesterday he tried teaching Peter the proper way to save a damsel in distress. Let’s just say that we had fun putting out the fire in the backyard.”

She narrowed her eyes at April. “You know what I meant.”

April huffed. “Nothing is going on. I’m not dating him.”

“But, do you like him?”

“No.” She answered.

Diana gave April that all knowing look. The one that lets you know that they think you’re lying.

“You ask this every time you come back, Diana. The answer is never going to change.”

“Fine.” She replied. “While you stay up here and think about your real answer to that question, I’m going to go downstairs and ask dad what we’re having for dinner. I’m really craving Super Burger right now.”

April narrowed her eyes at her sister. “You just want to try their new Siren Song Frappuccino, don’t you?”

She blushed. “What? A girl can’t order a drink that’s named after her?”

April laughed at her as she ran down the stairs. Super Burger, the insanely popular chain of super themes restaurants. April could probably walk in there and name the secret identities of over half of the people the menu items were named after.

Diana Watson was otherwise known as Siren, the crime fighting superhero that presided over Iris City along with White Static. She was finishing her last year of college there, and she was planning on staying. April’s parents were a little upset that Diana didn’t decide to just skip it altogether to spend more time saving citizens, but Diana always had a backup plan. Besides, she was currently valedictorian at ICU, there was no way dad was going to get her to drop out. She was planning on becoming a Private Investigator, which my parents could actually approve of. She’d still be fighting crime.

The Watsons earned a lot of money from endorsements from when Captain Fantastic and his wife were full-time supers. So much that they were almost assured not to need to work real jobs. When supers signed deals with big companies for endorsements, they got rich fast. People loved to buy superhero merchandise. Diana wasn’t the type to live off of other peoples’ money though.

As her superhero name suggests, Diana was almost like a literal siren from Greek mythology. She could manipulate the sound waves around her, giving her the ability of a great impersonator and the ability to have supersonic screams. People would often joke that she could’ve been a great villain with powers like those.

She was the same age as Brandon, two years older than April. It was always a wonder to April why the two never got together instead of Brandon being fixated on April. Diana was better than her in every way. She was older, prettier, smarter, more athletic, and way more intelligent when it came to real life. She was even a superhero. It was no wonder April had self-esteem issues growing up with a big sister who was everything she strived to be, but never could be.

Don’t get her wrong, April loved her sister, but Diana was always the favorite. Their parents were superheroes. Obviously they liked the fact that two of their children would follow in their footsteps.

It wasn’t April’s fault that she didn’t have powers. Although, you could technically argue that it was. You see, superheroes got their powers from freak accidents like lightning strikes, experimental medications, falling in radioactive waste, and so on. Seeing as April didn’t make it her business to be accident prone in a chemistry lab or to run around with a metal rod in a thunderstorm, you could say it was her annoying need to stay safe that kept her from getting powers.

Though, not everyone got powers from those situations. There was a running theory that the ability to get superpowers was genetic, but there was no proof as far as anyone was aware of besides the fact that everyone in April’s family had superpowers besides her and everyone in the McPhail family did too.

As far as the world was concerned though, the Watson family was nothing out of the ordinary. It was only April that made them stand out to the public. She was the girl who was constantly being saved by White Knight, and those were just the public saves.

She found it ironic that she was the most famous member of the family to the outside world, even though in her house she was perhaps the least special.

But maybe one day things would change. One day she might be more than a damsel.