The walls were crumbling. If Silvia took the edge of her nail she could dig at the softening mortar between the distressed bricks. It was the dampness that did it, she thought. No matter the weather outside the floor was always wet in there; probably an underground spring surfacing just outside the walls and soaking through the building as time passed. Surrounded by four white walls, there was nothing else to do but stare at them. To look at the floor that was littered in claw marks - gouged by other prisoners.

Not long after Superman had left, two rather cautious officers had barged into her cell and scoured for any belonging. They had yanked her mask off, taken her knives, and the vial of dust she had collected from her now disintegrated shotgun. She was use to this routine, Silvia spent much of her teenage years in that very same cell.

When they threw her a prison jumpsuit she had stripped down with little concern for whether they were looking or not, then thrown her sap and blood ridden outfit in their direction. The jumpsuit was a little too big on her, but she doubted that it would be any more comfortable if it fit her properly; it was like wearing a bin bag.

Silvia relentlessly scratched her arms, the fabric never failing to chafe against her fair skin. The prison was full of the mumblings of criminals and the occasional swearing whenever an officer passed by. It was a rowdy environment but one that had a certain amount charm to it.

In some areas they were allowed to sit at the cafeteria for dinner (though they had to help cook and clean in exchange), but in Silvia's section their meals were brought to their cells. The smell of stale wheat products and watery soup filled the air, all presented on a tray and stacked in a way that was definitely squashing the bread.

The man serving dinner was instantly recognizable. Everything about him was wrong. His head perched at an angle on shoulders that were themselves crooked and hunched. His right arm was shorter than his left. His left leg, however, was several inches longer than his right. His feet were encased in black leather shoes, one heavier and larger than the other. He wore a black leather jacket with jeans... his muscles rippled beneath the cloth as if with a life of their own. Nothing in his body was coordinated, so although he was moving forward, he seemed to be trying to go backward or sideways.

His face was even worse. It looked as though it had been taken to pieces and put back together again by a child with only a vague knowledge of the human form. There were a dozen scars on his neck and around his cheeks, likely from his years working around such dangerous people.

When he made it over to her cell Silvia stepped a little closer to the bars. The man didn't look surprised to see her there, but he did look amused. "Almost managed to stay out of jail for a whole year this time, didn't you?"

"Would've been longer if that Boy Scout hadn't ruined my streak." Silvia sighed, leaning against the bars.

"Oh...yeah, him." He replied knowingly, opening a hidden cabinet in the tray and taking out a silver plate. "You should be proud of yourself. He usually just keeps to the bigger stuff. Plane crashes, terrorist attacks, car accidents...It means you're moving up in the world. You're doing good work, Sil. He doesn't think so, but all us little people who have to clean up all the mess...We'd rather clean up the bodies of lunatics than the bodies of husbands, wives, sons, daughters...you get the picture."

"They don't understand that the systems broken. It's sad, really. That they think they're helping people." Silvia took the plate when the cell was opened, and smirked when it was shut again.

The man winked at her, his clouded eye struggling to focus. His voice lowered to a whisper. "I'm on watch next week. Perhaps it would be best if you were on high alert." His index finger flicked against a metal bar and it echoed down the hall. "These doors have been mysteriously... unlocking themselves of late."

"I'll keep it in mind." Silvia felt the edge of her lips twitch but contained the smile that wanted to break forth as the man walked away.

Many within the police force still supported heroes like Superman, but others had started to agree with those further down. They were sick of the injustice, and the leniency served to murderers. This greatly benefitted Silvia as it gave her new contacts inside the prison.

The blonde sat down and the concrete sent a chill to her skin. The food on her plate was similar to that of everyone else's instead hers had a small portion of mashed potato smothered in gravy, and there had been extra care that her bread did not get squashed upon arrival.

The entire building then began to rumble, and Silvia started digging into her revolting meal. Multiple thundering booms shook through the concrete fortress. Silvia noticed that the mash was a bit...clumpy. It wasn't last time, she recalled. She scrunched her face up, but continued to devour the food.

"All personnel, Code Red situation in Delta Wing! Repeat, Code Red situation, Delta Wing!" A voice called over the PA. "Distress call has been sent to the Watchtower; evacuate all non-combat personnel immediately."

Silvia stirred the potato across her plate, the gravy sinking into each crevice it created. She glanced up at the speakers before looking back down to her food with a bored expression. Having had enough of the mash and gravy, she grabbed the bread. Silvia munched upon the cold, stale loaf as guards armed in tactical gear sprinted past her cell door, shouting jargon at each other. Silvia felt around the bottom of her food tray with one hand...and wiggled something loose. She raised a small silver shiv into the light, inspecting it.

Screams and roars echoed through the prison, as confused inmates shouted questions at each other. Then there was an alarm that rotated between about six different annoying noises of varying pitch and volume. It could only be described as something between a guttural cry and a shriek.

Silvia had only just pushed her plate away before the alarm ceased. A short period of silence engulfed the wing until, finally, there was a low horn and the sound of multiple doors unlocking at once. The cells swung open and from inside the criminals dashed out, fighting against each other to escape.

The blonde woman quickly concealed the shiv in her sleeve and got to her feet. Outside, there were a few other confused inmates peering out of their cells as the screams and thuds grew louder. Silvia shuffled to the cell door, but stayed inside.

"Hey!" A prisoner across the hall began to pace over to Silvia's cell. "You're that bitch who blew up my crew! You're fucking dead, you piece of--"

An earth shattering roar tore at the silence, as a massive purple beast stampeded through the wing, snatching the inmate with one fell motion. The monster was taking gunfire from the guards...but Silvia swore that he seemed to get larger with every round that hit. The man in his hand gradually shrivelled like a sultana, until he was nothing but a barely living husk. The monster pegged the prisoner at the wall, before lunging at the group of guards, out of Silvia's line of sight.

Around the hall she could see the horrified looks some of the inmates wore, whilst the smarter of the bunch realised that the guards were distracted by the monster. Silvia gave one faint look toward the corpse of the shrivelled man, deciding that he probably deserved much worse.

Shrugging her shoulders, she leapt forward and rushed out of the wing. On her way out she was wedged inside a large group of criminals; all trying to escape while there was still time.

"Move you fucking morons!" One woman yelled. Silvia glanced at her...and saw that she had light blue skin and white hair. This woman raised her hands, and a gust of frost blew outward, engulfing a chunk of the prisoners in front of Silvia. She was forced to dive backwards, already feeling like she was about to freeze to death.

On the ground, she sent her eyes back up, and saw that over half of the other prisoners had been rendered into icicles. With a cackle, the blue woman barged through, smashing a large number of them into millions of pieces.

"Fuck." Silvia gasped.

Just as she and the other inmates around her mustered the courage to stand and keep going, they were subjected to an unbearable amount of rumbling. With a terrible crack, the purple monster was hurled through the left wall of the hallway, and impacted onto the right. Gripping its neck...was Superman. "I think you've had enough for today. Time to get the bill." He quipped, before he blew a fierce arctic wind at the creature's body. The monster's purple skin faded to blueish white, and became encrusted with ice.

"Oh fuck me." Silvia called. She skidded on her feet and ran in the opposite direction. Superman was the last person she wanted to encounter.

Her legs propelled her through the chaos, pushing her faster than any other inmate. She took a turn and slipped into a maintenance corridor, which from her unreliable memory, should have been an alternate path to the prison wall, where she could escape into the river.

The corridor released Silvia at the processing centre where she saw about half a dozen inmates struggling against... "Come on...no fucking way."

The caped figure leapt and flipped like a ninja, landing blows left, right and centre on the outmatched inmates. He threw metal objects at the cowards who tried to run, knocking them out in their tracks.

Silvia took a deep breath, and charged at the Bat. He twirled around her, but her enhanced speed and agility managed to give her the upper hand. She brandished her shiv and buried it into Batman's ribcage, causing him to grunt in pain.

The other inmates roared, overpowering the injured Dark Knight just after she had pulled the shiv back out. Silvia wasn't going to stick around. She knew that it would only buy her about ten seconds of time, so she took off in the direction of the evidence lock up room.

Her belongings were still sprawled out on a nearby table, probably still being sorted through. The girl quickly grabbed her outfit, along with her mask and vial of dust.

Once she had made it back out another inmate skidded to a halt beside her. "What are you doing? If you want to escape now's the time."

"What I'm doing is none of your business." Silvia retorted.

The inmate raised his hands with a scoff. "Whatever, just trying to help."

"I don't remember asking you to."

The man's face scrunched up at her, obviously unsure how to react. His milky eyes darted down and landed on the possessions she clutched in her hands. His expression hadn't changed much... that is until his stare fell onto the mask.

"You're... The Reaper." His eyes leapt back up to Silvia's...and she could see the fear and hate in his eyes. She knew what he was going to try to do.

The two bounded at each other, and Silvia instantly brought the shiv up. Blood sprayed over her face as the inmate tried to reach up to his neck and force the small blade out. Silvia pushed it further in, causing more crimson fluid to gush out over her.

The man fell to the ground, gargling and grasping at his throat. The blonde wiped the blade on her jumpsuit and smeared the blood across the orange layout. Silvia then held the shiv back up to eye level, inspecting its shine before stuffing it back up her sleeve. Now, to get out of there before Batman found her... He was likely to hold a grudge.

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Author's Note: Some second or third time readers may have noticed that I've changed the faceclaim for this story, that's because I didn't want to discourage anyone from reading this book just because Amber Heard was the faceclaim. In all honesty, I kind of like Teresa Palmer more for the role anyway so it all worked out 🤷🏼‍♀️ Do keep in mind though that Amber's still in the cover because I don't want to get it changed. I love the cover too much ❤️