got impatient waiting for the role of the alley cat to be taken, so...

time to learn about Saberleaf...

"a man twisted into darkness by his own power: telepathy"

as i put it in the book description

-ᴍɪɴᴛʏ

⟁ ⟁ ⟁

"It's all so... useless."

Titus Saywell had been just a young boy, once. You might find it hard to believe from how he acted now, but he had been fairly normal, once. He'd had a mother and a father, once.

He never knew quite what it meant; the words he'd hear when he was around others.

But there were certain things he'd hear, from his very own parents--his very own mother--stuck with him the most. He never really understood, but he kept track.

By the time he was finally old enough to understand, it was too late. It had already happened.

He recalled that he'd once tried to tell his father about what he'd heard inside his mother's mind. His father had laughed, run a hand through Titus' hair, and told his what a wild imagination he'd had.

It had been too late. Too, too, too late. Always too late. Never on time.

Titus had been 9? Maybe 10? His father had broken into tears when he told his son that his mother was no more.

The world simply wasn't her place, he had said. She'd felt like that for a long time, he had said. There simply wasn't any way to change that, he had said.

"No one could love me."

That had been Titus' first brush with the real world. His power hadn't been enough. He hadn't been able to save his mother from herself. He had failed.

He'd heard the things she'd thought, but he hadn't been convincing enough to help her.

His mother had looked like such a happy woman. No one would've ever guessed... But that was the point, wasn't it?

Depression was a silent killer. And Titus' mother had been one of its victims.

Titus had slowly begun to change into who he was after that. He had begun his shift from "hopeful child" into "evil mastermind".

And the first stage was "angst-riddled preteen". 

As you probably guessed, no one thought much of a twelve year old talking about how putting effort into anything was useless. You might've called it a "phase", like most others.

But for Titus Saywell it had been something more. He never quite grew out of it. As he got older, he started caring less for repercussions. Started breaking rules. Stopped turning in schoolwork. Started wearing all black. Stopped making time for his friends. Started making new friends: people like him.

A girl named Cassandra Castle had become friends with him. If you were to look at Cassandra, you'd never guess how similar she and Titus really well. With her long, vibrant, hot pink hair and her twinkling green eyes, you'd never guess she could blind a man with one wave of her hand.

They'd often joke that "Cassandra Castle" sounded like a superhero name. You know, among Clark Kent and Peter Parker.

But really, it was a supervillain name.

"No one would even care if I was gone."

"Solar Flare" and "Saberleaf" robbed their first bank at ages 20 and 21, respectively. Before then it had been mostly petty crimes: shoplifting and the sorts. Cassandra had insisted she'd mugged a man in the street once, but Titus hadn't believed it.

That was the start of their crime empire. But it had grown. They'd expanded.

Norah O'Shea and Achilles Lovelock. Silver Katana and the Scarlet Sentinel.

Silver Katana never spoke. Ever. They had no idea where she'd come from or how she'd tracked them down, but the woman with the narrow dark eyes had appeared on the doorstep in the middle of the night. She hadn't said much, but she'd gotten her point across anyway: she wished to join them.

And she had. Her intimidation skills had proven useful time and time again. She had a glare like no other.

The Scarlet Sentinel had a different story. The freshly on-the-rise Silver Oracle had heard word of a sultry seductress, known for seducing anyone she needed to in order to get what she wanted. Even going as far as to use her "powers" on major political figures. Saberleaf had figured that she would be a useful asset to their team.

What a shock it had been to find out that the Scarlet Sentinel was actually a guy. But he had confirmed all the rumors were true, with no shame.

That had been their beginning. The first couple months.

Years had passed, and there wasn't a single person in Mermaid Run who didn't know their names. 

Titus Saywell, Cassandra Castle, Norah O'Shea, Achilles Lovelock. Saberleaf, Solar Flare, Silver Katana, the Scarlet Sentinel. 

"I can't take feeling like this anymore."

⟁ ⟁ ⟁

interesting fact: i wrote this while watching total drama island on netflix

that show is absolutely amazing, my man. highly recommend.

((dont know how it got away with half the jokes that it made though))

also, i'd like to mention that there's going to be A LOT of referencing to DC and Marvel in this book, and i'm not going to regret any of it. because both of those franchises absolutely exist in this world ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-ᴍɪɴᴛʏ