> This is my first time doing something like this, but it seemed like a fun idea so what the hell?

Caroline Coleman, better known to the world as the infamous Doctor Vengeance, sat cross-legged on the cold, harsh concrete floor, facing the wall of her bare holding cell. So many lofty plans, and they had all led to this dead end, deep within the super-max security wing of the South City Stockade. As she lowered her head the greying black strands of her hair fell over her furrowed brow, her crows feet intensifying at the edges of her eyes as she glowered, and she felt the familiar sting of the bile rising in the back of her throat that told her the superhuman rage was building within her.

Caroline's thoughts were interrupted by the angry beeping coming from the metal collar clamped around her neck. She struggled to calm herself, her body rigid with tension as she held herself in place. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped her knees, nails biting at they pressed in 'Deep breaths. In... out. You're at the playground. It's a beautiful day. The sun sparkles in your daughter's eyes as she runs towards you. Chocolate smears the edge of her wide smile, the remnants of her birthday cake. The last time you got to see her be that happy.' The beeping stopped. At least she managed to not get shocked by the collar this time.

Outside Caroline's cell was a loud buzz and a metallic thunk, followed by the groan of a heavy metal door swinging open, then a definitive slam shut again. "Is that you, Captain Fantastic?" Caroline asked without turning around. "Come to gloat again? Well you'll forgive me if I don't join in with your childish games."

"I bet it just burns you up inside that they caught you, doesn't it?" Said a decidedly not Captain-Fantastic-like voice. "THE Doctor Vengeance, reduced to this. Sitting alone in a cell while they pose for photo opportunities and mock you on the evening news."

Caroline slowly got to her feet and turned to face the speaker, shrouded in the shadows at the edge of the room beyond her cell. "What do you want from me?" she growled, and the collar once again beeped, reminding her to calm down.

"What do I want?" The figure asked, slowly stepping forward. Light glinted off of a pair of glasses, before revealing a slight young woman in a bland suit, auburn hair tied up professionally in a bun, a laminated ID card dangling from a lanyard around their neck. She held a notepad in her hand and a pen in the other. She continued "I'm Viera Vallery, from Bayside Beugle. I want to tell your side of the story. Give you the chance to set the record straight and be heard by the people of South City."

"I'm sorry, what? This is a joke," Caroline almost laughed, taken aback. Whatever she had expected, this was not on the list.

"I'm serious," The woman insisted, slightly flustered. "Contrary to popular belief, not everyone in this city just blindly believes everything they're told on tv. There's something wrong in South City, something rotten. We both know that. And the people of this city need to know it too. I can help you with that."

"You want to hear my story?" Caroline scoffed incredulously as she stared at the young woman, intent on berating the young woman for their audacity to attempt to manipulate her, telling her what she wanted to here so they could use her for some cheap headline to advance their own career. Doctor Vengeance doesn't do interviews, that would be ridiculous. It was beneath her... wasn't it? But as she stared into the reporter's eyes in what was to be an attempt to intimidate the woman, she saw in her eyes and intensity and zeal that was all-too familiar. "Sure, why not? I'm not going anywhere."

"I'm sure it looks pretty fitting, the horrible Doctor Vengeance locked away in a cell, but I'm not the one who really belongs in here. You already know the beginning. Talented doctor loses her daughter tragically, the spirit of vengeance awakens within her. She becomes overwhelmed by the tremendous desire to exact vengeance and right any wrongs they encounter."

"Sounds very noble," The reporter says. "What about when you beat Mr. Vincent Price to death for cutting someone off in traffic? Was that a fair punishment?"

"Hey, no one said anything about fair. I'm possessed by a spirit of vengeance, not a spirit of cool-headed and reasonable justice. A wrong was committed, I righted it. But, you know, I've been working on my anger issues. Doing meditation and stuff. It's been a long time since I've killed someone who didn't truly deserve to die."

"Right..." The reporter moved on. "So anyway, what was with the rebranding? Dressing up in a hood and cape, calling yourself The Retributor?"

"What can I say, it gets tiring being hated by everyone in the city. And I would always see all these heroes doing pretty much exactly what I was doing, but everyone loved them. I thought that maybe if I didn't look like Doctor Vengeance, someone who they've fought and hate, I could fit in. And it was kind of nice, you know? It felt good being liked and actually helping. People on the street were happy when I arrived. I just had to control myself. I told myself it would at least make for a funny story; one of the worst villains at large in the city, walking around right under their noses and invited into their corporate headquarters. And it worked too, for a while."

"But something went wrong?" The reporter asked.

"Of course it did," Caroline let out a dry, sardonic laugh. "Something always goes wrong. Or, in this case, someone. I was brought in to the League of Supers to be a probationary vigilante. As part of the initiation, I had to meet with their chief of branding and marketing, Harold Hughes. I knew right away. The spirit within blazed, more intense than I'd ever felt before. This was the man. This was the driver that killed. My. Daughter." The metal collar crackled to life as Caroline seethed, shocking her violently and dropping her to the floor. After a little longer than was probably necessary, the collar died down. Caroline lay on the floor twitching for several moments, before taking a few breaths and collecting herself.

"Are you okay?" The reporter asked, a look of concern on her face.

"No," Caroline answered, slowing picking herself up off the floor. "No, I'm pretty damn far from okay. Just ask your questions."

"Okay," the reporter leaned forward. "So what happened next?"

"I couldn't have held back even if I wanted to. We both needed vengeance, and nothing was going to stop us. Nothing, that is, except for Captain Fantastic. I consider myself to be pretty powerful, as far as Supers go. There's not much that can stop me if I don't want to be stopped. But Captain Fantastic, he's on a whole different level. He stopped me dead in my tracks. I begged and pleaded, told him Hughes murdered my daughter. It didn't matter. Apparently it was far from the first time something like that had happened in the League of Supers. But Hughes was valuable, irreplaceable. And I was not. So they revealed my identity and threw me in here. That's my story. I suppose you're going to go and report it or something now?"

"Well, not exactly," the woman in glasses smirked. She clicked her pen three times, and a static sound came out of Caroline's collar before it fell to the floor. "I said I was going to help you tell your story, but I never said I was going to report it. You're going to go out there and share it yourself. Come on, we've got some vengeance to take."