Welcome all to chapter two.

I do have something to say, and then I won't waste anymore of your time: I am no longer accepting Ocs for the team. I am however still willing to accept a few more Ocs for minor Villains, Vigilante and loner hero characters.

Eyes wide open; Seth lay in his bed with his arms folded behind his head. The music from his iPod blared in his ears. He hadn't slept at all the previous night after he got home. The culmination of the explosion, having ripped a car door off its hinges, and his frightening adrenaline rush kept him wide awake. He went home, ate dinner and for the following twelve hours he just laid there listening to his songs on a loop.

He reached over, and the very second his alarm clock came to life, he hit the snooze button. A loud yawn escaped him. He groaned…

"Today's gonna be a pain in my neck…" He sat up and yawned yet again. He flicked on the TV, listening to the news while he went about his daily routine.

"… Following yesterday's accident, authorities spoke with the victim of the collision, Travis Connors, who unfortunately did not get a good enough look at the perpetrators, but several credible witnesses at the scene report seeing two men running away from the scene only moments after. Police are on the search now, and it shouldn't be long now before these criminals are brought to justice."

"Thanks, Trish; it's always refreshing to hear some good news these days. Speaking of yesterday's events, several witnesses at the scene reported a young man ripping the door off of Travis Connors' car. He was also asked about these events…"

Seth froze in the midst of pulling his shirt over his head. No…

"But he refused to answer any questions we had."

He released a sigh of relief that he hadn't known he was holding. He pulled his shirt off and winced. He held his right arm, which had been hurting since yesterday. He took notice of the two dark bruises on his bicep. He flexed, and curled and uncurled his fingers. He was stiff…

"I should go to the hospital…" He murmured.

"Seth! Your breakfast is ready!" His mother shouted up to him.

"Be right down!" He shouted back. He briefly tried to work his arm, wanting to know how limited his movement was. He gasped and hissed in pain. He would definitely be having trouble today…

Then an idea came to mind. He would need time to sleep any way. He grabbed a long sleeve shirt to hide his bruises and then threw on some socks. He jogged out of his room, and set his plan in motion…

"Whoa!"

"SETH!"

"Missed a step… Ow… Ow… My arm… Ow… Son of a – Mmm!" He was helped to his feet by his mother, holding his arm and also holding in a silent scream. He had several dark bruises on his arm. He knew he had to make the damage look authentic, and unfortunately that called for falling hard, very hard, on to his already injured arm.

"You should be more careful when you're going down the stairs, Seth," His mom chided. She glanced over at her son who was reclining in his seat, his eyes closed. His right arm was in a sling, "Running in your socks? This is the fourth time this has happened now!"

"I know…" He would've smirked, if he didn't think it would somehow give him away. He got a day or two off of school, and he could sleep any time. His arm throbbed and he winced.

"Are you all right?" She asked him, her focus shifting from the road to him every few seconds.

"Just a little pain, it's nothing serious…" He replied. He yawned and closed his eyes for a quick cat nap. He'd be able to sleep a lot more once he got home. His mind drifted to his time at school, then the accident and Travis calling him a hero… He knew he had some weird super strength. It was pretty obvious. He had no idea how long he had been sleeping, it felt like just a few minutes, and he was jerked awake by a sudden halt.

His heartbeat started to race, he clutched at his chest…

"Seth! Seth, it's all right, calm down!" He jumped slightly at the feeling of a hand on his shoulder, but it passed quickly as soon as he realized it was his mother. She gently cupped his chin and turned his head towards her, "All the color just left your face," She was chuckling slightly, "Calm down, I just stopped to fill up the gas tank. We'll be home in no time."

Seth just nodded his head. The moment his mother exited the car, his head fell back with a plop against the headrest.

That scared the daylights out of him. He closed his eyes, trying to get his heart rate to go down…

He glanced out his window. His eyes widened. Two people ran up to a car stopped at a red light and immediately, without hesitation, shattered the driver side window with a tire iron. A gun was pulled on the driver. They were forcibly pulled from the car.

He got out and slowly rose out of his seat. His heart beat was picking up again… His chest was growing tighter.

The driver, a woman, quickly took her two kids from the backseat, who immediately clung to her for protection. The two carjackers sped off, clipping people who tried to get in their way. Sirens blared to life and two police cruisers sped off after them, leaving smoke in their wake.

"Seth!" His mother jogged out of the gas station, "Seth, what happened?" She asked. His eyes were wide; he was staring at the street, visibly shaking. He jumped in fright, falling on his butt the moment his mother touched his shoulder, "Seth! It's okay! It's me, just calm down!"

He clutched at his chest with his free hand. His vision began to darken at the edges. His heart was pounding in his ears, he could hear his mother calling to him, but he couldn't make heads or tails of his own name. He felt his body moving. She was shaking him…

His eyes rolled back. The last thing he remembered was the back of his head hitting the concrete, and his mother screaming his name.

Two hours. It had been two hours since he awoke in his mother's car, and was helped in to the house. It had been an hour since his father got home, and the two talked. They talked, somewhat argued, and the subject of it was him. Particularly his 'ailment'. How did he know how long they had been discussing him? Without use of one of his hands, he could not play - or barely play at least, because he had tried - video games; his head was pounding far too much for his music, so he was left with only one thing to do. Watch his clock.

Blood pressure medication. Anti-depressants. Adderall or Ritalin… Really dad? He was already going to be on pain killers for his arm. No more pills…

Two normal parents and he was the one to get the insane super-strength that liked to turn on and off whenever it liked… Or, when he was scared for his life.

He jumped slightly at a light knocking on his door, but immediately tried to calm himself down, "Come in…" The door opened and he was surprised to see neither his mother nor his father, but it was his best friend – not to mention one of his only friends -, Darren Carter.

"So… You enjoy that trip you took in the fall?" He asked, a small smirk tugging at his lips while amusement danced in his eyes.

Seth sat up, "Hardy har har… You're a riot – Ah! Fuc – Mm!" He quickly bit his lip before he said something his parents would make him regret. He glared half-heartedly at his friend, who had just lightly socked him on his injured arm.

"Lighten up," He said, plopping down on his small couch on the other side of Seth's room, "I came by to drop off that school work of yours…" He tossed a neatly stacked pile of papers on to Seth's bed, scattering them.

"Okay…" He eyed the papers, "But how did you get them?" He knew very well his friend didn't go to his school – or any school for that – matter.

Darren shrugged, "Some kid in a soccer uniform gave it to me, said he knew that we hung out and gave me the papers to give to you… I can't remember his name; he had a French accent though."

"Oh… Pierre Vastia, he has a lot of classes with me, star soccer player…" Seth replied, shifting through the papers. He shuddered slightly and rubbed his hands together, "Dammit, whenever you're over here, the temperature drops. Do you have a ghost following you or something?"

Darren deadpanned, glancing over at him, "You really believe ghosts exists."

It was Seth's turn to deadpan, "Superman has the power of a god compared to normal human beings. It has been proved to the entire world that multiple universes exists, there's the Deadman who is a ghost hero, the Flash can move so fast he can travel through time, Atlantis is Real, and there are all of these heroes with some kind of amazing, mind-blowing power and so many things that are outrageous, but real. Do you really believe that ghosts do not exist?"

"... Touche..." Darren just nodded, and then glanced around, "So… You think you can still play games or what? You, me, Street Fighter? I've been practicing with Akuma and I will kick your ass this time."

Seth chuckled to himself, "That's adorable… You kick my ass…" He grabbed one of the controllers and tossed the second one to his friend, "Bring it on."

"Bye, Mrs. McKinnion, Mr. McKinnion," Darren waved goodbye to his friends parents as he moved down the stairs to their front door two at a time before finally jumping down.

"Thanks for visiting, Darren, come by anytime," Mrs. McKinnion replied with a sweet smile. Darren stated that he would, and gave them one last wave before they finally closed the front door. He turned his focus to the street ahead of him. The deserted street, save for the few cars parked on both sides.

He whistled to himself. He brought out his phone, texting his mother that he would be home soon. He stopped walking to do so, and it was then that he noticed another set of footsteps.

Seth would've yelled for him to stop. Any innocent bystander probably would've kept walking to avoid suspicion. This person stopped.

He started walking, and he waited. He counted off in his head, waiting for the right time, and then he stopped. His follower made a mistake. They must've figured out what he was doing and they started after him before he could run. He ran as quickly as his legs would allow him.

He felt a sudden pain between his shoulder blades, and the impact sent him to his knees. His momentum sent him skidding across the ground and rolling in to a shallow puddle, "Ah!" He hissed in pain. His follower was closing in. He scrambled, scattering gravel, slipping on it as well.

Darren was nearly to his feet, but he was suddenly pulled back by his hood. His collar tightened around his throat, only briefly, his hood ripping just as he was thrown on to his butt. He glared up at his attacker; he made a move to get up and opened his mouth to speak. He froze feeling cold steel against his jugular.

"Do not move, don't you freaking move, hear me?" His mugger hissed. He was mostly covered by a black hoodie, and the lower half of his face was hidden by a red bandana. But Darren could still see his eyes, his bloodshot, crazed eyes, "Give me your money!"

Darren only lowered himself to sit on the ground, having been holding his body up.

"Give me your money, kid! I'll freaking cut you!" He pressed the knife harder against Darren's throat. He drew blood.

He was solely focused on Darren. He never saw the young man's fists ball in to fists and the white smoke rise off of his skin. He made a noise as if he were going to say something, but he abruptly stopped. He looked at the blood.

Darren's blue blood. It spread across a small portion of the blade and his blade began to freeze over, frost spreading father across it. He pulled his blade away from Darren's neck, but Darren caught his wrist.

"Sorry about this…" Darren stated, tightening his grip on his attacker's wrist. The mugger thrashed about, trying to wrench his arm free but Darren wasn't letting that happen. He gasped, his eyes widened in fright seeing ice beginning to spread of Darren's hand in random patches and across his sleeve. Darren broke knife blade in half, most of it having frozen over.

"L – let me go, Freak!" He swung with his free arm, but Darren caught that as well. The young man blocked his attacker's kicks, the futile attempts to shake him, with his own legs. Ice slowly crept along both of his mugger's sleeves.

"Be thankful it's just your jacket that's icing over," Darren stated. He pulled his mugger towards, and swung his head forward, making solid contact with his mugger's covered nose with a loud crack. Darren held his attacker's arms while he fell limply to his knees. His head slumped. He was unconscious.

Darren sighed and pulled the man off to the side of the road, setting him in a place where hopefully no looters or other desperate thieves would find him. He jogged away from the scene, keeping his hands shoved deep within his pockets so that people wouldn't see his hands.

He inhaled through his nose, and exhaled a white cloud, 'Calm down… It's over…' He exhaled again. He brought his hand up to his neck, and brought it away. His blood began to ice over on his fingers, but he brushed it off as if it were dust. He placed his hand over the wound again.

He brought it away and it was frozen over, "My mom isn't gonna like this…" He sighed, running a hand through his black hair.

Author's Notes…

And this was the second chapter. We have a good amount of stuff going on. We also introduced one new character and mentioned another. It's not the longest chapter in the world, but I think I did well enough with it. My chapters will never be shorter than 2000, I can assure you that much.

N-ice guy, Darren Carter (Lame pun totally intended) Keep reading to see him, Seth and more characters as this story unfolds.

I want to say it again for good measure, while I am Not accepting for the team anymore, I am willing to accept a few more Vigilante characters, minor Villains, and the loner heroes. So, you still have an opportunity to have a character in the story.

Drop a review if you like the story. Until next time.