Vinny glanced outside a barred window, noticing the rain had just begun. The silence was awkward, stale. He was looking for anything to distract him while the woman before him reviewed his papers meticulous. She read them line for line, working as if he wasn't even there. Her silence was starting to make him anxious.

"What caused you to change careers?" She asked him abruptly. Her monotone delivery felt more accusatory than inquiring.

"Uhm," Vinny readjusting in his seat uncomfortable. "I wanna use my abilities for good, but there's this whole... political side to the hero thing that I didn't like. I mean, I know it doesn't change the fact that superheroes are still saving lives, but when I found out they all have PR agents and managers, marketing even, it kinda turned me off from the whole hero thing."

Her next question, "Why did you choose to move states?"

He chuckled nervously, "Figured I probably shouldn't go work in a prison that has people I caught in it."

She continued to write notes in a file she'd opened. The woman reached to the phone on her desk, calling for another employee of the prison. Then, she addressed Vinny, "I see no reason why we shouldn't hire you. You start today."

He breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank you. Wait- Today?"

"Yes, Mr. Mauro. Today." The door opened, a far less uptight gentleman entering. "Officer Montgomery will show you around."

"Please," He smiled, "Everyone else calls me Piggy D. C'mon, kid."

He turned around, heading out into the hall. Vinny was happy to get away from that unpleasant woman, even if it meant following a stranger through a prison packed with some of the most dangerous criminals in the world. Vinny introduced himself to Piggy, who was treating him with a surprising amount of respect. He's not oblivious to the way he looks and fully expected everyone to look down on him the way that worker had.

They existed the office portion of the prison, stepping onto a long bridge with an even longer drop. Piggy handed Vinny a key card, explaining, "It's a temp, until they get you your own at the end of the week. That thing's got pretty high clearance."

"Do I... Need high clearance?" He hesitantly asked.

"You could say that." Piggy stopped before a very large, very secure looking door. He swiped his own key card through a reader and led Vinny into the first cell block. They walked out onto the third level. To their left, railings looked down to a common area and two other floors of cells. "This is block one. Pretty minor criminals. It's where I work. There's three other blocks. You've been assigned to block four."

"I'm gonna make an educated guess and say that's where the lifers are?"

He laughed, "You catch on fast. That's good."

Vinny wasn't nearly as amused. "Shouldn't I be, like, here? Not in charge of the super dangerous criminals, on my first day?"

As they walked, Piggy explained there was a severe lack of super powered guards. Even if Vinny's abilities were nothing flashy or fancy, he was still considered more able than any other guard in the prison. Piggy also elaborated as to why he was called on to give Vinny the tour and orientation. He was once a superhuman himself, but lost his abilities not too long ago due to a super villain attack. Before the incident, he was in charge of the infamous cell block four.

After what felt like ten minutes of walking, they finally reached an extremely high tech door. Piggy instructed Vinny to use the key card he'd just been given. His own no longer was authorized to access anything beyond this point. Inside, it looked nothing like the other cell blocks. Instead of bars, most cells were locked by energy fields. On the bottom level, against the furthest wall, there looked to be a cell that was blocked off by pure concrete.

"The good news, you'll only have to worry about seven prisoners. The bad news, not a single one has been taken down by a solo hero. They were all brought in by teams." Piggy said.

"Well, what the Hell do they think I'll be able to do if one gets out?" He muttered.

His guide didn't answer, opting to continue forward. The first cell they stopped in front of housed a small girl. She couldn't have been more than a hundred pounds soaking wet. The girl leaned herself back over the edge of her bed, hanging upside-down as she observed her onlookers.

"Friday Ruki. She can manipulate dreams and nightmares. That includes daydreams. She's also extremely dangerous with a sword, and manipulative." Piggy explained.

Friday smirked, winking at Vinny. "You don't say." He replied.

They continued to a cell far darker than the others. The lights didn't seem to be off. Rather, there was a black fog consuming the space. Through the darkness, two glowing red eyes snapped open.

"I should mention, we have state of the art power dampeners in these cells, but they aren't strong enough to nullify anyone here. Only weaken. This is Ryan Sitkowski. Master of blood magic. He's killed a lot of people."

"I think that's kind of implied with blood magic." Vinny responded.

They stepped over to the third cell, where the inmate inside was preoccupied doing one-armed push-ups. "He's killed a lot more. Would never give an actual number, but I'm willing to bet it's more than anyone else in this place. His name is Richard Olson."

"What kind of powers does he have that make him so deadly?"

"He doesn't have any." Piggy stated. He turned around without elaborating and walked downstairs to the second level.

Ricky glanced up through a veil of black hair. The look in his eyes was enough to cause Vinny to turn tail and run. Downstairs, he found Piggy outside of a cell housing... Nobody.

"He's bipolar. When his shy side comes out, he turns invisible. Asher Saetta; A demon from another dimension. He possesses the ability to turn to smoke and spread disease. You won't see his nasty side much, though. Be grateful for that. Speaking of bipolar," Piggy walked down to the next cell. Inside, a taller man with bandages covering his eyes and a muzzle covering his mouth rested against the cell's back wall. "Christopher Cerulli. He can produce a sonic call that causes all who hear it to become criminally insane. He can also cause himself to enter into a state of insanity, in which he's nearly impossible stop. And he can resurrect the dead."

Vinny stood there in horror as he observed the disturbed man. Then, what Piggy had said sunk in. "...He can what?"

Of course, his guide was already on the other side of the room. Vinny rushed over to find a man with black angel wings cuffed to the wall. Some mysterious devices were attached to his temples.

"Beauregard Angel. Extremely powerful telepath. With those restraints, he won't be able to manipulate your mind, but he can still read it. So, try not to have anything personal or classified on your mind when you're close to him."

"But if I'm thinking about not thinking about it... I'll be thinking about it."

Piggy sighed, "The less you worry about it, the better. It's already late tonight. You'll only have a few hours of guard duty. I'll give you papers on how to handle their meals in the morning."

He began to walk out. Vinny stood there, thinking over everything he'd been told. While he did apply for this job eagerly, he didn't think he'd be thrown into it so suddenly, or strapped with such responsibility. He took a look around at the six active cells surrounding him. Six...

"Wait! Who's the seventh prisoner?" He called after Piggy.

Unfortunately, he was a little too late. The door shut, leaving him alone without an answer. From his left, a raspy Irish accent answered, "Turn around."

Well, that wasn't ominous at all. His heart felt like it was going to drop into his stomach. Vinny fearfully made the turn, releasing a trapped breath when there was nothing. All that was behind him was that concrete wall. Now that he was closer to it, he could see there was a slit in it. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but cats have nine lives for a reason.

He approached slowly. The gap was small, around two inches tall and eight wide. He began to lean in to look inside, when the same voice stopped him. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

Vinny glanced back, discovering it was the telepath who had addressed him. "There's a person behind there?"

"I wouldn't say a person per-say, but yes." Beau responded, "There are sensors in place, so that if any of us ever managed to break out, the nearest heroes will instantly be alerted. If he breaks out, it sends out an emergence alter to every hero on the planet."

The young guard turned white as a ghost. "I am so in over my head."

—

a/n

To all the logically sound people thinking, "Nona, you have enough fucking stories right now" you right. But blame my Instagram followers for telling me to publish this now instead of later. (I'm kidding I love you guys)

Anywho, let me know if there's anything specific you'd like to see happen in this story!