This week’s Top Ten Tuesday is….a character freebie. Okay, fine. I’m Nick Fury and I’m building my own team of Avengers.

1. Richard Sharpe, full stop. Maybe add in Harper so he’d have someone to exchange witty banter with.   Role:   extremely improbable shots and general commando aciton.
(Sharpe’s Eagle, Sharpe’s Gold, Sharpe’s  Rifles, Sharpe’s Company, – etc. Bernard Cornwell.)

2. Uhtred of Bebbanburg.    Ferocious in battle, implacably loyal to his friends. Uhtred not only excels in close-quarters combat but would be  the one to rescue another team member even when reason suggested otherwise.

3. Warprince Elfangor. Not only are Andalites absolutely terrifying in battle — even without the ability to morph into pretty much any animal they’ve touched —   but Elfangor would be the wise leader figure.

(Animorphs, K.A. Applegate)

4.  Rachel.    Not for nothing is Rachel’s nickname “Xena, Warrior Princess” — a name given to her by Marco, who finds her battle rage frightening at times, as much as the team needs it.

5. The Daemon,   because  who doesn’t want a distributed  machine intelligence capable of recruiting its own army on their side?

6. T’Ressa Chen, Star Trek: Greater than the Sum.     Chen is my favorite character from the Relaunch books,  the lone survivor of a Borg attack whose sense of humor defies both that tragedy and her partial Vulcan heritage.   I thought her sophomoric at first, but quickly warmed up.   Surprisingly resourceful.

6. Marcus Yallow (Little Brother, Corey Doctor), because everyone needs a hacker.

7.  Katniss Everdeen, who proved valorous both in battle and out.

8. Dr. Ree, from the Star Trek Titan series. He may be an obstetrician, but he’s also a dinosaur.  So….scare factor, and he doubles as a medic.

9.  Max Evans, Roswell High.    The aliens had more general abilities in the books than in the show;  Max would be able to read emotions, change the constitution of things at a molectual level by hand,  heal, and enter people’s dreamstates to probe for information.  And he doesn’t, Michael or Isabel would.

10. Arthur Morgan and Sadie Adler, Red Dead Redemption II.

I don’t care if they’re not literary characters, if I’m making a team they’re going to be on it. Fury’s Prerogative.