Heroes wear Capes

Chapter 1 - Everything is Awesome

"At some point in our lives, we all wanted to be a superhero."

~ Dave Lisewski (Kickass)

Xander Mendez is pretty sure that everyone in existence has wanted to be a superhero at one point or another in their lives.

(Yes, even the crazy old cat lady on the corner house who owns one too many creepy porcelain dolls.)

In Xander's mind, Superheroes were awesome. They got to save the day and they never even took credit most of the time. Superheroes were normal everyday people who dressed up in awesome spandex costumes in their spare time to help out their fellow citizen. And the public never even got to know who was doing the real saving!

Well, that is if the superhero's identity isn't revealed.

(The entirety of the League of Legends got their identities revealed a couple of years ago by the wife of a reporter. Though they still save the people in their respective cities as their superhero personas without expecting special recognition in their everyday lives.)

(Xander would imagine that it'd be hard to go grocery shopping if everyone in the store knew you were a superhero in your spare time.)

Superheroes like The Marvel and White Lightning saved the day with their extraordinary superpowers (telekinesis and the control of lightning respectively) and sought no fame in return. They did it because it was the right thing to do, and that was more admirable than anything else in the world.

Of course, they had to have gotten their extraordinary superpowers from somewhere. Some supers (the term for people with extraordinary abilities) claim to have swam in rivers affected by toxic waste (Golden Eagle), or to have had a laboratory accident (The Marvel and White Knight), or to have been experimented on when they were young (Calico and Black Hawk), or to have been affected by a pharmaceuticals company's drugs (Delinquent and Kratos), but there was no way to tell for sure if that was what really gave them powers or if they were even telling the truth. There was no way to know for sure why some people were struck dead by lightning and some would end up getting superpowers from it, like White Lightning did. There was no way to know for sure why some experimental serums worked on turning some people into superheroes and others turned out to be quite deadly.

Xander guessed that the general public would always just be in the dark about these things.

Some supers decided to go on the opposite side of the spectrum, though. Not every super wanted to be a hero. For one reason or another, other supers decided that robbing banks and trying to destroy the world was worth more of their time than trying to actually help people. Super villains included people like Andromeda, Inferno, Nemesis, Black Knight, Midnight, Artic Frost, and more. They usually chose their path because they felt wronged by superheroes or by society in general. Not to mention that it would be hard to be a superhero with powers over shadows or poison or something like that. Those people were kind of destined to be villains.

But there was a third group of supers out there as well. People who had powers who decided to live in hiding. People who chose not to use their powers for good or for evil, who'd rather act like a normal person than save the day or destroy the world. Xander never saw the reasoning of those people, because he knew if he had super awesome super powers, he would definitely use them. Like, who wouldn't?

(Well, obviously those people don't use their powers wouldn't, but you knew what he meant. What sane person wouldn't use their powers if they had them?)

Kingdom City had a long history of super related activity. Though Empire City laid claim to the first superhero, The Avenger, Kingdom City could lay claim to the most superheroes in its history. One of the most famous was Captain Fantastic. He was a classic superhero who could fly and lift cars over his head. Though his powers were considered generic nowadays, he was an instant star back then. He retired about a decade ago, much to the despair of the citizens in Kingdom City. Though, shortly after his retirement, White Knight showed up to take his place. There had been a gray area of time between the two supers' exchange of legendary power when a villain had control of the city, but no one liked to talk about that time. White Knight was another generic super, but he played it good. He got so many endorsement deals and sponsorships in town that his legacy would never die. He also had his very own damsel, April Watson. She must've had the best time in the world, always being saved by the city's best hero. Xander didn't like guys, but, like, who wouldn't want to be saved by that hunk of a man?