They're heroes.

From the moment they pull the masks over their heads to protect their identity, and the lives of everyone they love, they're heroes. They transform, from hormone-ridden, insecure, awkward teenagers, to adults; people with a definite purpose, a set mind, and a united front. Whatever misunderstandings, whatever typical teenage-dramas or fights they're currently going through fades away, leaving the masked, determined adolescents with a unique commitment and a shared purpose: Fight, Protect, Win.

And most of the time, they do. Most of the time they fight – masked, always masked – and they win. Whatever villain they are up against this time will, after a differing measure of time, go down, and the Team will return to the Cave, victorious. And they will keep their masks on, just for a while. Just while they are flying home in the Bioship, revelling on yet another successful mission. But they will land, eventually, and they will take their masks of and return to the people they'd wisely left behind when they had headed out to fight for the world. And back is all the drama, the hormones, the anger, though there is a subtle, underlying happiness- a triumph- in all of them.

But sometimes, the mission is unsuccessful. Someone gets severely injured, and the team will no longer me masked comrades, but, once again, scared teenagers, with a friend or a lover hurt, fear clenching at their hearts. The ride in the Bioship will be panicked, while every member does whatever is in their power to help their injured friend, and the landing will be even more so as the fallen is rushed to the med-room, surrounded by drawn faces of terrified teammates. And finally, when the patient is declared stabile, recovering – they always are, they have to be- the fear will diminish, and the masks – the physical masks, the fabric they pull over their faces- will slowly start to come of.

And the next day they will, once again, stand ready, pulling the worn fabric over their faces, hiding their identity. And they will, once again, stand united, ready to make the ultimate sacrifice. They have to. They're heroes.