"Men tend to fall for damsels in distress because it not only boosts their ego, but also gives them hope that the relationship would last forever."

She agreed to that, with an add on, it applied equally well to superheroes. Or rather it applied even better for super heroes with their super egos. And no where was is it so visible as it was now, superhero after superhero, gathered in one colossal arena, which in her opinion was more like a circus. It would soon turn into one, once any of those present superheros did manage to fulfill the task for which they had been trapped.

Ophelia sighed, she seemed to be doing it quite often over the past six months, ever since her father,  had decided on getting a superhero as a husband for his daughter. Her father,Ailbrill, Eminence of the Sun, king of tiny and almost unknown Tealon Empire, had also felt that holding a traditional ball to invite the prospective suitors and have the best dancer selected as his son in law was not appropriate. Ophelia agreed, with great enthusiasm, after all a ball necessitated dances and the only way one picked on the winner was by the dancing skills and she did not care much about dancing. She was practical enough to realise that as heir apparent to the kingdom, her chances of meeting anyone interesting were slender yet hoped that some of suitors picked by her father would be interesting and maybe, she could grow to love the one she married. 

Unfortunately, her father had decided on superheros, which again was her fault, or rather the fault of her childhood self.

"So, which of them has captured your heart?"

She turned towards her childhood friend, who was smirking and protested, "Really, Amelia? You should know that I am the least interested in any of them."

"Even though you are responsible for them being here?"

She did not turn around at that voice, it belonged to her recently appointed secretary, Alistair Evans, one who was a personification of exasperating efficiency. Add extreme attractiveness to that trait, coupled with brown eyes that gave her an impressing that they could read her soul. It unsettled her and left her flustered, which she hoped to avoid by not looking at.

"Let us just discuss, Princess Diamond."
She hated that nickname, but protesting would please him, so she simply raised a questioning eyebrow.

Grinning at her silence, he asked, "What about The Ironman?"

"He would rust with age."

"Batman?"

"Only Pennyworth's."

"Superman?"

"Too blue, too broody."

"Spiderman?"

"Sticky"

Great," She could not help smiling at the sarcastic admiration in his voice, "and what about the superheroines?"

"That is not me, blame Amelia for that. She can marry the woman who wins."

"Ha, that explains the conflicting descriptions that the prisoners has regarding the damsel in distress."

You spoke to them?" She twisted to look at him, he had turned his chair so that his back was to the arena and he lounged in it, a picture of elegant casualness. She ignored the flutter in her heart, it was unwanted and unwarranted. "When did you do that?"

"Somebody had to check up on them from once a while; I felt it was a good time to learn what they thought of you. I was a bit confused to when they descriptions were polar opposites; blonde, fair with blue eyes and raven haired, golden skin and brown eyes. I have to admit that it never struck me that it was the two of you."

"Okay," she grinned knowing that she had managed to hide something from him, "and what do they say?"

"Let us just say that none are in favour of this circus, nor interested in the prize. Especially once they realised how they were duped."

Amelia giggled, she had enjoyed playing the damsel in distress, surprised that even the women could fall for that act, but Ophelia had hated it; she had agreed because she found it difficult to refuse her father. Or maybe she had hoped that he would not go through with his scatterbrained plan. However, today as she stared at the diamond formation the heroes were standing, each neatly subdued by their unique weakness, her gut twisted. This is definitely not what she wanted. 

She stared at formation and then squinted, there was on place missing, the only superhero who had not fallen for either of them, Incognito, the master thief. However, that should be fine, he was a thief par excellence, but maybe the ability to steal was not a super power. She turned back to Alistair, who had asked her something, something which sent her down the memory lane.

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Ophelia had always been small for her size, but in her early childhood days, she was diminutive, one that caused her to be the butt of all the jokes, princess notwithstanding. She would do anything to prove that her heart, courage and intelligence were in inverse proportion to her physical stature, which often ended up with her being in the center of a mess. It had been once such incident which had convinced her father that his daughter deserved nothing less than a superhero.

Their ancestral mansion, a large stony structure that was more cold than cozy, had a large antechamber in the back, which was out of bounds for almost all, a fact that aroused insatiable curiosity in Ophelia and her childhood friend, Amelia. A curiosity that was dared and encouraged by the other kids, once they got a glimpse of the rather uninteresting object inside. They could not understand why such a ordinary looking object should be shrouded in secrecy and the fear it aroused, there was not door to the antechamber and yet, few would enter it. It was her father or her mother who entered the room, at intermittent intervals, to dust and clean the place. Finally curiosity getting the better of her, she snuck in behind her father.

She would never forget her first impression of the object, a shiny metalic ball like around a foot in diameter, resting on an obsidian base, carved in concentric circles with series of runes in each circle. What fascinated her was how the ball stayed steady, it must be magic as her everyone believed. Unable to resist the urge, her tiny fingers traced the concentric circles, outer most to the inner most one, and as she reached the smallest one, she heard her father cry out, 'Do not touch it..."

Too late, Ophelia thought as the ball slipped from the base and rolled to the far corner, the thud echoing the horrified silence. After a few minutes, she ran towards the ball, picked it up and placed it back, the faint click that locked it in place was ignored by her father. From that instant onward, everyone was convinced that she had some secret super power that permitted her to unlock the magic in the ball. If only they bothered to ask her....

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Ophelia snapped to the present, only to hear the loud trumpets which heralded the entry of her parents. 'This was it, it was going to start, the madness,' and while a tiny part thought it fun to see which of them would be able to wrench the object free, a large part of her hated it. Even more unpalatable was the fact the she would have to marry whoever did manage to do so, and she had no intention of marrying any of them. They could be superheroes with super powers but none of them interested her. In fact, if she had to, she might as well marry the infuriating Alistair. He was handsome, had a ready wit, could carry on a scintillating conversation, on anything under the sun, for hours together. He was almost perfect...she shivered when she felt him lean towards her, "Poor Ophelia, you are in a fix are you not? You promised your father to marry a superhero but no superhero has your heart. And the man who most probably could win your heart would be too normal to be a superhero. What would you do?"

She turned to look at him, breathless with shock, 'how could he understand her so well? It was like he could hear her thoughts, which was not possible. Or was it?'

Her mind was still grappling with his observations, when she heard her father start his opening speech. It was at that precise moment that Alistair chose to ask, "I wonder which of them will crack the magic to unlock the ball." 

And it was in that instant that she made up her mind, enough with the stupid games. She hissed at Alistair, 'If only they bothered to ask me, it is not magical it is mechanical. And all it needs is a child's hand." 

She ran to her father, pulled the mike off his hands and announced, "Apologies for this grand farce. Whatever, my father planned is not happening, you guys are free to go."

And she reached out to the lever and yanked at it, freeing all of them, uncaring of the pandemonium that erupted nor did she bother with the questions her father bombarded her with. She waited for the dust to settle, the superheros were capable of raising a lot of it, even in their weakened stated and once she was sure that they had all left, that not a single one lurked around having second thoughts, she turned to her ruddy faced father.

"Daddy, I love you loads but then I am not interested in marrying anyone at the present and never a superhero. I am only twenty, and if I am to be a ruler I have still to learn a lot more things. And you not think a husband who understands me and is a good person is better than a superhero, however powerful they are?"

The King sighed, his daughter was right and he only wanted her happiness.

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It was much later that Ophelia made her way to the anteroom, wondering how anyone could believe that beautifully carved elemental object to be held in place by magic. The perfect ball was slightly flat at the base and was locked in place by an intricate mechanism, one that could be opened by a very slim object, like a thin metal pipe or a child's curious finger. However, years of adults being unable to make the object budge had endowed it with legendary powers and when as a child she had accidentally freed it, all presumed her to be possessing special powers. She had kept quiet, it was nice to be feared a bit and it had significantly cut down on the teasing she had gone through on account of her short stature. Amelia herself had learnt of it only a couple of years ago. 

She had not realised how her keeping it a secret would boomerang on her and determined to show her parents the truth, she walked to the antechamber, with her parents following her. She pushed open the doors, only to gasp in shock, one that was echoed by her parents and Amelia.

The ball lay on the foot of the obsidian base, on a tightly coiled scarf, which held it in place. The slightly flattened base was no longer existing, instead the top half of the ball seemed to be split into multiple segments, like flower petals. And in the centre was an ivory coloured card. 

It was in a daze that she walked inside, her mind already processing the possibility as she registered the absence of the ever present Alistair. Her fingers trembled as she picked the card and read the short note,

"To the Queen of Diamonds, I am no superhero but I wish I could be the ACE of your heart"

~ Alistair (also known as Incognito)

Word count 1968

This is my story for prompt by Wattpad superhero profile. 

"To the world you are the weak fragile damsel in distress, in need of saving, but underneath you are not what it seems, since you capture heroes who come to save you. Until one of them escapes and you realise you miss him."

The story had to be written in a limit of 2000 words.

I could not write it in time for submission, but I did enjoy writing it out. Do let me know how you found it.