~ Write a scene in which the character saves someone's life. ~

I woke up with my arms hanging above my head, tied to the ceiling of a dark room. Oddly enough, this was a normal experience for me.

No, I was not a BDSM artist, nor was I a stunt woman. I was just a regular high schooler.

(Regular being a relative term.)

You see, I was what you might call a damsel in distress. Not by choice, mind you, but by circumstance. If I had it my way, I'd be at home with no connection whatsoever to Capital City's favorite hero, White Knight.

White Knight was the reason I was hanging up here, and part of the reason I couldn't live a normal life. You see, super villains and superheroes didn't really like each other that much. And, to get back at the hero for every trying to arrest them, the villain usually tries to hurt someone close to the hero. And, for White Lightning, that meant me.

I've been kidnapped, hogtied, thrown off of buildings, and poisoned more times than I could count. And I've been saved, released, rescued, and recovered just as many times.

At this point I was surprised that the media hadn't gotten tired of me, or of White Knight always having to save me form some villain or another. I for one was sick of it, was no one else?

Being tied up for long periods of time hurt. I'm pretty sure I still had rope burns from the last time Black Knight kidnapped me. At least that time he had the curtesy to tie me to a chair instead of hanging me from the ceiling above a shark tank.

Yeah, that was a new one.

I wondered for a moment if Black Knight had tried to install laser eyes into the sharks. He was already crazy, so I wouldn't put it past him.

I let out a big sigh and Black Knight turned around from his stance in the front of the room. He grinned widely, but his scarred face made it look more like a grimace. "Miss Watson, how lovely to see that you're awake."

I blew a piece of hair out of my face and gave him the most condescending look I could muster. "You might as well call me April, Black Knight." I reasoned. "I mean - it's not like we haven't been in these kinds of positions before."

He grinned wider and I flinched. He did really look horrifying when he did that.

"Aren't you right, Miss Watson? We've had such fun together over the years, haven't we?"

"Yes," I deadpanned, "I've had such fun being tied to subway tracks and almost drowning in a tanks of water."

He chuckled. "I believe you have, Miss Watson."

Did I mention that he was a bit off of his rocker?

Black Knight was his super villain name, though it was very ironic because White Knight and he were sworn enemies. Whenever I ask who came first, they both claim it was themselves and that the other one is the copier.

His real name was Anakin McPhail (I kid you not, I'm not lying), and he didn't make it a public thing, for obvious reasons. His father was Lex McPhail, better known as Doctor Destruction, legendary nemesis to my father, Captain Fantastic.

Now, let me stop there, just in case you're confused.

Yes, my dad is a super famous superhero.

Yes, I was just kidnapped by the son of my dad's arch nemesis.

And, no, I did not have super powers.

(I mean - just because my dad is the Captain Fantastic doesn't mean I have to follow in his footsteps and be a crime fighting badass. I do just fine on my own, thank you very much.)

(And, by just fine I mean currently hanging with my arms above my head over a shark tank.)

(Yeah, I lived a weird life.)

But, with a superhero dad, it's probably surprising that villains didn't kidnap me and hold me for ransom just for that fact. Except, my dad is retired, mostly. He says he's retired, but he still did publicity saves and magazine shoots and things. Things to show the public that he was still around, but nothing too crazy.

His main job is, or was, training White Knight. My dad considers White Knight to be the perfect son that he never had, which is kind of frustrating since he got all of my father's attention and he wasn't even an actually kid of his.

"Tsk. You're hero should be here by now, April." Anakin noted, shaking his head.

I sighed as loudly as I possibly could. "Maybe Brandon is busy with having a real life, Anakin."

He turned faster than a dog who spotted someone touching his treat. "April, we've talked about this!" he whined.

I would've knocked my head against the wall if it was an option. "We're literally alone right now. We all know each other's real names and identities, so what's the point of calling you Black Knight behind closed doors? No one is here to keep up appearances for."

He scoffed. "You calling me by my real name is like, not right. It's like calling Lady Gaga by Stefani, or calling Marilyn Monroe by Norma Jean. It just feels weird."

I reeled back and narrowed by eyes at him. "Did you just compare yourself to Lady Gaga and Marilyn Monroe? Is there something you aren't telling me, Anakin?"

It was his turn to be annoyed. "Very funny, April. Just you wait until White Knight shows up. I'll beat him so bad that you won't recognize him one bit. I'll beat him into a pulp."

"Just like every other time." I mumbled under my breath.

You see, there's a reason the McPhail family was both the most successful crime family and the least. For one, they literally have the word 'fail' in their name (if you count the ph as an f). But, they never managed to destroy their enemies in life. My father was still standing after years of fighting Doctor Destruction, and Black Knight always failed to seriously hurt anything other than White Knight's pride.

It was normal for us to banter like this whenever he kidnapped me. It might sound strange to you, but I've been put into so many death-defying situations that I've become desensitized to them. Besides, living like me you tend not to make many real friends who don't just like you because of the fame of basically being a superhero's girlfriend. Anakin was a bit loopy in the head and a bit evil, but he was one of the closest things I could call a friend.

There was a crash and a boom as a part of the wall in front of us collapsed. Out walked White Knight from the dust and ashes circling the air, in all of his spandexed glory.

"You know, you could've used the door." Anakin complained, gesturing towards the perfectly fine door next to the roughly human sized hole White Knight had created.

"Oh, sorry about that, Black Knight. Usually you don't leave me a door to walk through." White Knight apologized, casually side-stepping away from the chunks of plastered wall at his feet. "Besides, running in through the wall really helps to make me look more like a hero, don't you think?" he added, looking in my direction.

I groaned. Of course Brandon Charleston would be more concerned with how much of a hero he looked like than he actually was.

"Don't fear, my dear, April." Brandon replied chivalrously to my voice of annoyance. "I will rescue you yet from the clutches of Black Knight."

And, just like that, they fell into the same character roles they'd been playing since they were practically in diapers.

"White Knight," Anakin started in a darker and deeper voice than he was using before, "I have captured your dear damsel. In ten minutes the gears holding her ropes in the air will break, causing her to drop into shark infested waters. To get to her, you have to get through me."

I huffed at the dramatic show off. We all knew how today was going to end.

"Then I will gladly fight you." Brandon replied, flying at Anakin.

They both had the powerhouse powers of flight and strength. It was yet another similarity between the two boys that they hated to admit.

The big red digital clock behind me counted down in big red numbers while they flew around the room, punching and throwing each other into walls. They were both too busy fighting each other to notice the time slowly ticking down on my clock.

Fine. I guess a lady does have to do everything herself.

I've been using my spare time to work out in my family's basement/secret lair for years. They don't know, and they wouldn't want to know. I was the baby of the house, even though I was six years older than my annoying little brother. It was because I didn't have powers that I was regarded like the youngest. I was powerless, and therefore I was defenseless. They didn't want their darling breakable daughter messing around with things that could hurt her. They said I had my father and Brandon if I was ever in trouble, and in the future I'd have Peter once he became a super himself. There was no need for me to potentially hurt myself playing with things they thought I couldn't handle.

I reached up and grabbed the rope with my hand. I pulled myself up until my other hand was level with my head. I plucked a bobby pin from my hair and let my body fall down again. My limbs were on fire, but I'd gotten the material I needed to break me out of this mess.

I nudged the pin into the knot holding my hands together. Anakin tied the same knot every time. I knew that if I could just loosen it enough . . .

And then I was falling. Of course, the last time I had done this, I was tied to a chair with something solid under my feet. This time the only thing to fall on was a tank full of sharks that may or may not have laser vision depending on how evil Anakin was feeling today.

A projectile collided with me and instead of landing in the shark tank below me, I was pushed to the wall behind me and then fell to the ground. I could feel a couple bruises and possible broken bones from that fall.

Brandon peered up at me through his mask with a smile on his face. "See, I told you I would save you from Black Knight."

Like I thought he'd try to do anything else.

"Now, wait here while I defeat him."

He jumped up and immediately met Anakin in the air. They were both so evenly matched that their fights could last for days if they let it get that far.

I didn't really get the point of them in their costumes either. They weren't in public and there were no cameras. We all knew White Knight was Brandon Charleston and Black Knight was Anakin McPhail. Maybe it had become too much of a habit by this point.

"Hey!" I yelled out. The two boys stopped, Anakin mid-punch and Brandon mid-kick, both mid-air. "Can we stop the fighting? Brandon had already saved me. As you can see, I am no longer in danger of being eaten by possibly laser-eyed sharks."

Anakin's eyebrows furrowed and he tilted his head. "Laser eyes? That would've been a good idea."

Brandon turned to face me with a hand on his hip. "April, we've talked about this. Call me by my superhero name when I'm saving you from super villains. We can't have the world finding out my identity."

I guess there was one thing the two agreed about.

"Brandon, there's only one other person here and he already knows your identity." I scolded, gesturing towards Anakin. "You've both known about the other one since you started out. I've known about the both of your for about just as long."

They were both stumped.

"Fine, I don't care anymore. Can I just go home?"

They recovered quickly.

"Not until Black Knight is in custody and pays for his crimes against humanity." Brandon announced proudly.

I put my hands on my hips and stared him down. "Yeah, and how are you going to do that when he's disappeared?"

I was right. Anakin had disappeared all of a sudden through a trap door a couple feet behind them.

Brandon did a full circle and narrowed his eyes at me. "Why didn't you alert me when you saw him escaping?"

I shrugged, "I did, but you were too slow. Now, can you please take me home? I am really craving some ice cream and a date with Netflix."

He was about to say something, but then stopped. Of course, he couldn't blame poor defenseless April Watson for not being able to help in a super battle.

I was only a damsel in distress after all. I couldn't fight my own battles as far as the rest of the world was concerned.

I hope y'all like this short one-shot for #projectsuper ! It's almost late for the contest, but I was writing this as a possible story, and I thought it fit perfectly. If you like it, vote and give me feedback. I tried something a little more comic booky than I usually do with as much cliché-ness than I normally do.

:D