Hm, this is an interesting find for me. This story concept is based off of a dream I had if I recall. People are put into multiple different teams and there's a series of bracelets - or some kind of jewelry, but it was originally bracelets, I'm sure - that they have to find and collect. Whoever collects the majority of them or all of them before the time is up get incredible power or influence. The rest die. Predictably high stakes, of course.
Oh and they all have superpowers already. They've either been sold to these people by their parents for being superhuman or the government has finagled it to get them in this anyway. Each team is named after a color and they have handlers that also have some sort of incentive - bragging rights most of all! - to get their team to win.
This was a story concept I had at one point, of course, but these characters are long retired. Not only in this setting but in general. I haven't touched these characters in years and I likely won't for years to come. Unlike some of my other old stories and concepts, there's not really much left for me here that I haven't found in other stories and characters of mine. I have another superhero concept that I much prefer to this one and I have another story - nicknamed Alphabet, you'll likely see snippets of it someday - that has taken this sort of competitive atmosphere into much more interesting territories. So Richie and his companions will stay in a limbo where abandoned projects linger, but I hope you enjoy these little bits of who they could have been.
Word Count: 1703
Majorelle
He smirked, looking at the screen, he was far too amused as he watched his team struggle not to kill each other, not that they were doing a great job. They didn’t do it on purpose, of course, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t just as bad as if they had, he chuckled as little Richie was barely kept from floating away by a rope tied around Carson’s waist.
“Man, if your team wins I’m afraid for the world,” leader of the Rosso Corsa team stated, giving the other’s monitors a bland, distasteful look, “Look at them, I’m surprised they haven’t died yet.”
He huffed in annoyance, “They may seem like idiots, but which one of our teams already has three rings? It was…mine, right?” His smirk grew, watching the angry flush spread across the other leader’s cheeks, wiggling his eyebrows cleverly. He really hated the fact that the other nine team leaders doubted the Majorelle so much, but…that might turn out to be useful in the end. No one would see them coming, they all doubted the abilities of his team and yet here they were carrying three out of the ten rings.
The Rosso Corsa leader frowned at him, “Whatever, just you wait though, my guys’ll be taking over the game soon.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure, you just keep thinking that,” he laughed, folding his arms and leaning back further into his chair.
Rosso Corsa
He glared at the kids that he had been presented with, they were certainly not his ideal group, but he could have ended up with Majorelle’s group of kids. They looked like that didn’t even have a clue about what they were doing, especially the kids that kept randomly floating away, only being kept near the ground by a rope tied around the waist of another boy.
The other’s couldn’t help but laugh at him, but Rosso Corsa didn’t make a sound, just watching the other, looking for the reason why the man seemed so excited to have such messes as his team.
“Man, I sure would hate to be you right now,” Bone said with a grin, colorless eyes shining in the strange lighting.
Majorelle just shrugged though, grin never faltering, “Really? Because at the moment none of our kids can make much of themselves, I just happened to get the group that needs a bit more polishing than most.” All stared at him like he was crazy, but Rosso Corsa was sure that there was something that he was seeing that the other’s could not. He would have loved to walk up to the man and asked him, but that would require him compromising his own pride and that was not something that he would ever be willing to do. He would just have to wait and see what ended up happening and prepare his team for whatever could possibly come their way, like a little devil with the powers to control gravity.
‘I see that look, do you really think that that pathetic little team could ever be of concern to us?’ He looked at the cloudy figure of a young boy that looked much like he did when he was a boy, ‘Come on now, I expected better of me…’ The boy sighed and spun in his chair, they were all used to seeing random things move, so no one asked about it the chair spinning on its own.
He huffed, crossing his arms over his chest and ignoring the other for now, instead he turned and walked into the room where his new set of children were waiting for him to show himself.
Majorelle: Richie
He pulled the blankets tighter around his shoulders burrowing himself further from the sun that was already peaking through his curtains, instead of feeling his bed beneath him though, he felt something hard and… rough?
He groaned and tried to scoot away, figuring that he had rolled too close to the wall his bed was against, but he couldn’t escape the feeling.
Someone poked his cheek and he snapped his teeth, threatening to bite the person, he knew from how rough the pads of the fingers were that it probably wasn’t his mother. So he was good, because his father never really took offense to his attitude in the morning. Or, he thought that he was good until he felt himself being dropped by whatever force had been holding him and opened his eyes to see his floor rushing at him.
He screamed as he fell and hit the ground with a thick sound, a few cracks telling him that he either really hurt himself or his joints just decided to pop at that moment.
He was pretty sure that it was the former.
The door to his room crashed open and his mother and father stood there, looking at him with fear, until he groaned and they realized that something was terribly wrong.
“Richie!” His mother cried, going to her knees next to him and trying to figure out what happened. His father took the position opposite and started examining his son for wounds.
Sometimes having a healer for a father was something he was extremely glad for, “Ugh,” Richie groaned, trying to curl in on himself, even with as much pain as he was in, it was still far too early to be dealing with any of this.
“What happened?” His mother demanded when she couldn’t put together the story herself, something seemed to have been blocking her powers.
He almost shrugged before thinking better of it and just lying there, “I don’t know, I thought I was in my bed and then I wasn’t and then I fell or something…”
She looked confused, brushing annoying blonde bangs from her eyes, “Fell? But you weren’t in your bed then where-?” She looked up in thought and gasped when she saw Richie’s comforters plastered firmly to the ceiling, before something released them and let the blankets drift down onto the family.
She looked at her husband, worry and panic clear on her face, these emotions only growing when a small chuckle seemed to come from thin air, “Honey…?” She whispered, hoping that he would have an explanation that was better than hers, but he only shook his head, brown eyes sad and despaired.
“What’s wrong with me? Who-who is that?” Their son mumbled, his eyes, so similar to his father’s, opening wide and staring at something that neither of them could see.
But they knew by the look on his face that there was something there and it was terrifying him.
He stared fearfully at the man that leaned against the wall on the opposite side of his room, the man looked like his father but… not. More like… an older version of him? his floppy hairstyle had been cut short, revealing a face that was much too hardened for his likings, “Who are you?” He demanded, voice still small and weak, even though the pain was slowly diminishing as he father healed him. The man didn’t respond though, making Richie growl in anger, “What are you doing here? In my house?” He snapped, pushing his parents away and Forcing himself to his feet, approaching the man and not even noticing the slightly foggy edge around the figure.
The man finally glanced up at him, a growing smirk on his lips and mischief in his eyes, “What are you talking about? I don’t live here, but I do live in here.” He grinned at the instant confusion in the boy’s face, arms crossed over his chest as he slowly approached.
“But-but… what?”
“Richie, stop talking to them! You’ll only make it worse!” His mother shouted, shaking her son’s shoulders but getting no response.
The man laughed, “Yeah, Richie, listen to your mother, I’m a bad, bad man you know.”
Richie shook his head, shaking off the weight on his shoulder and meeting the other half way, “Who are you?” He whispered, this time honest curiosity in his voice instead of the malevolent anger from before, “Where did you come from?”
The other shrugged, “No one special, as for where I came from…” He flicked the boy’s forehead, smirk widening to a stupid grin when he flinched away, “I came from inside your mind.”
Richie screamed at the sharp pain that went through his head justthen, like his skull was imploding in on itself and the last thing he saw before he blacked out was the insane grin of a man that looked just like him.
Rosso Corsa: Freddy
“Yo! Fredster, whatcha doing around here?” Called a voice that he was sure belonged to a person that shouldn't have been anywhere near where he was at the moment.
He squinted, trying to figure out where the heck his friend was hiding from him, not to mention why he was hiding from him in the first place, “Manny? Where the heck are you? Stop playing hide and seek we’re not five anymore!” He laughed, annoyed, but still happy, he tended to always be happy when his friends were around, no matter what.
A hand pushed his shoulder out of nowhere, the sound of laughter echoing in his ears, “Don’t be stupid, dude, I’m right in front of you.”
He shook his head, there was no way that his friend was right there, he didn’t see him at all, all he could see was the park that he liked to visit every once and a while, trees, bushes, flowers, even a playground, but no Manny. “What are you talking about? You must be messing with me, ‘cause I can’t see you at all,” he said as honestly, wondering if Manny had developed invisibility or something.
Freddy jumped when two hands landed on his cheeks and squished them together, “Are you okay, dude? Your eyes don’t seem to be focusing on anything?”
He felt his breath speeding up in just the slightest, a tinge of panic taking over his thoughts, “H-hey, Manny, where exactly are we right now?”
Chuckling reached his ears and he was insulted that his best friend would find such a situation funny, but then thought twice, it was probably just in his head.