The Team Of Ten

Part Two

You're back for more?

Well, I can't say I blame you, it does a seem . . . Thrilling! Oh the world of Supers and Villains! Seems just too good to be true!

But . . . One, how should I put this, hmm . . . Warning? Yes, one word of warning.

Not everything is powers and prestige. Quite the opposite, my friends. This is a story of heartbreak and soul shattering! Oh how wonderful!

So continue if you wish, but remember, you've been warned. I'm not responsible for any tears shed or wailing that is ripped out of your throat. Don't blame me for the punishments you put upon yourself.

With that said, enjoy the story. Because I know that they didn't.

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The city was once a star in the dark. A shining beacon of hope, a pillar of faith to those that needed it. It was that no more.

Crime plagued the streets. Criminal masterminds that felt they had the right to do whatever the hell they pleased. Organized robberies, scams, hits, all of it. The citizens locked their doors at all times of the day, most carried at least pepper spray.

But with the recruits these people were getting . . . Pepper spray or even guns wasn't going to make any difference. Because these people had powers, control of the elements, control of minds, other seemingly impossible things.

Once called Supers, these people were written off by the normal humans. They were treated like aliens, nothing more than filth that needs to be blasted off the earth. Oh but when someone is pushed down for so long, they come back up. But the one who was shoved down isn't the same one that crawls out.

Janet Harris, one of the top crime lords of the State of New York, runs all of Queens, nicknamed Jaguar Harris, was just one of many to crawl out and end up on top. Oh she was a Super, turned Villain, she had the power to show someone their deepest fears. That made her a force to be reckoned with.

Her biggest rival was Victoria Dorren, owned all of Brooklyn, nicknamed Vicky The Viking for their ruthlessness. They were what is know as a 'conjurer', specializing in weapons and other deadly matters. With just a thought from their head, guns or knives or full out swords form. A conjurer has to use something to make their weapons, some use materials around them, other use their own body parts. No one knows what Vicky uses, and they like it that way.

The city crawled with lowlifes, but more over, lowlifes with grudges and a debt to settle.

But not all Supers are this way. Several work everyday jobs that can use their skills. Doctors uses healing powers, firemen use water powers, a biologist could talk to animals. They all register with the government and wear their badges.

Badges that say their names, and powers. Little round badges that open them to insults and slurs. And they can't fight back, they throw one punch or use one ounce of power, they're shipped off to jail with no jury. Because it's the law, no one with powers can use that power against another human being or other life form.

Plenty of people have fought that law, but not enough normal humans care. If you aren't the majority, you're going to have a hard time.

Some Supers weren't registered. These people slip up once and they are as good as dead. They just want to be treated normally, but with great power comes great tragedy. And one group of Supers know that more than anyone.

For at this very moment a boy pulls his hood up to block out the rain because he has to go to the store for food for him and his mother. A blonde girl runs out of her house to dash to the library for a sense of safety from her "family". Another girl, a brunette with feathers in her hair, sings to herself as she mourns the yearly anniversary of the day her mother died and the day her father broke.

A black haired sister works at her third job in a cafe as her brother, a blonde haired boy, crams for a math test in his Ap class right after his shift at that very cafe. At that moment, the volume button on a black haired boy's iPod is turned up to drown out the cry of the toddlers in the orphanage he called 'home'. Another blonde boy reads medical journals to study, his mind trying to block out the sounds of his mother plopping down on the couch after she got home from her second job.

Curly brown hair was covered in grease as a younger boy worked on a man's car, trying to save his money for things he needed, and put off going back to his orphanage for a little while longer. The buzz of a razor sounded as an old woman cut her grandson's hair, the boy just gazed at the flag posted to the wall, the flag that his mother died for. Cinnamon colored hair bounced as the short girl ran home from her part-time job at a book store, back home to her mother who had gone mad a long time ago.

At this very moment stories where being written, tragedies told.

A story of people coming together to save their city and their people. For those younger people were fed up with how things were. Tired of things only getting worse, especially when their loved ones are the ones in danger.

This is the story of Heroes rising to challenge Villains. Of good facing off against evil. And that good is rising due to its time wrestling with evil. The happy stories born of tragic tales.

So keep reading, because who knows? Maybe you will see yourselves in these heroes and their stories. Let's go and find out.