Volume 1, Issue 3, Post 1

Five young heroes stood inside their "secret headquarters", a sealed off room in a basement somewhere on the campus of Central Illinois University.  The room, accessible only via mystical portal, had been the headquarters of The Adept for some months prior, but with more and more additions to the team, was starting to get a little crowded.

On the couch against the wall sat The Adept.  White Diamond took up her traditional place near the desk, Dragonfly beside her, his head still ringing from the beating he took only moments ago.  The newcomers, Cazmonster and Wrecking Ball, stood and leaned against the far well, respectively.  Cazmonster's furry head scraped to ceiling tiles, dropping dust down onto the room which glowed in the weak light coming through the one external window.  

Now that all were here, in one place, standing still, it became obvious that Wrecking Ball had a bowling-ball sized piece of some alloy floating near his head, occasionally smashing into the brick wall behind it.  

"What the hell were those things?" Wrecking Ball asked, looking from one hero to another expectantly.  

The Adept sighed.  "No idea.  You mind not smashing my wall with that...bowling ball?"

"Wrecking Ball.  Hence the name," the young, dark-haired hero corrected defensively.  

"Okay, have it your way."  The Adept paused in his explanation.  "No, we have no idea what those were, or where they came from at this point.  I detected a strong mystic presence when they appeared, but not coming from them directly.  It's as if..."

"As if they were just images," White Diamond completed.  "Some sort of solid illusions, created by something else entirely.  Something with very bad intentions."

"Yes," Dragonfly nodded, his fingers on his chin in thought.  "I noticed that, too.  We'd be fighting and the creature would shimmer or skip, as if a signal were somehow interrupted.  And once they were destroyed, poof!  They were gone, no evidence that I could find, and I notice a lot."

Cazmonster spoke up.  "I bet I notice more.  I tuned every scanner I have on the area around the gazebo where the first one went down, and there was nothing there but wood, metal, and the gum under the seats."

The Adept looked over at their latest allies, then pulled himself up and stood in the center of the now crowded room.  

"I guess we should all introduce ourselves.  I'm The Adept, this is Dragonfly and White Diamond."

"As I said before, I'm Wrecking Ball, and this is Cazmonster."

Dragonfly's eyes opened slightly in sudden comprehension.  Caz = Cazmonster?  Had to be.  Which would make the other guy Tim O'Malley.  He was the right height and hair color.  In fact, Dragonfly was beginning to realize how transparent, figuratively, their masks were.  He wasn't willing to hide himself inside a giant cloak, but the more he thought about it, the more Dragonfly realized that care needed to be taking in exposing themselves to people's cameras.  The more change someone got to study their faces, the more likely it was someone would recognize them.  

The Adept appeared almost to read Aaron's thoughts as the winged hero examined the new additions.  "We have a tradition, here, of not hiding our Identities from each other.  You guys care to unmask?"

Wrecking Ball pulled off his bright yellow mask to reveal the face of Freshman Tim O'Malley.  Cazmonster sort of hesitated, almost reminding one of a shy schoolgirl, hands clasped behind her, kicking the ground.  A very large, fanged, and dangerous schoolgirl.  

"I..um..I can't really.  Not right now.  Not that I have anything to hide, it's just that I'm still working on how to change back.  I can will the change to Cazmonster, but the change back just sort of happens."

"Sounds inconvenient, Caz Greenbaum," Dragonfly said, removing his mask to reveal the face of Aaron Majesky.

"Hey, Aaron!  We just had breakfast together!" Tim said excitedly.  

"Yep.  Not a word to Ben or Dylan, got it?" Aaron said.  

"Of course.  Ditto, to anyone," Tim said.  

"Well, unlike the rest of you, I have more trouble hiding my alter-ego.  I haven't been like this long, so only a few people know, but I'm sure that won't take long to change."
Cazmonster said.  

The Adept followed Cazmonster.  "I don't wear a mask or a costume, generally, but have managed to avoid it becoming common knowledge that my name is Rick Pennington."  

Diamond removed her mask last.  "I'm Emily Fine, a senior at Stevenson high."

"Great!  Now we all know each other!" Cazmonster threw up his arms absent-mindedly.  With one swoop, his powerful bicep smashed through the wall; The old stone fell to pieces, quickly revealing the presence of the room to the room beyond.  

It just so happened that there was a gathering of some sort in the next room, roughly twenty people sitting around a set of tables looking at a lecturer standing near a slideshow.

"But...what...my headquarters!" Rick stammered.  Tim had the presence of mind to put his mask back over his eyes quickly.  When various people in the meeting realized what was going on, hands started flying toward smartphones.  Dragonfly had let his mask drop onto the desk, and was unable to remember that quickly, instead turning away when he realized he was about to be taped.  Suddenly, the light in the room increased a hundred times as White Diamond put on her mystic mask and activated her abilities.  

"Oh, wow.  Sorry!" Cazmonster said, turning on his running lights to add to White Diamond's distracting technique.  

"Time to go, Adept!" Aaron said, finally seeing his mask and grabbing it up.  

"Right, DF!" The Adept opened a portal into noontime sunlight, and the heroes rushed through as would-be bloggers and amateur journalists recorded and snapped still shots, hoping to get an exclusive on the secrets of CIU's new protectors.  Aaron had the presence of mind to grab a crate of "files" that Adept kept in the HQ, the only personal items there aside from a teapot and cups.

Looking out over campus from the top of Schuster Tower, CIU's largest dormitory, the heroes stood for a moment coming to grips with what had just happened.  Had their identities been compromised?  Each one wondered, except Cazmonster.  

Dragonfly hovered off the room, buffeted a little by the winds.  "Looks like we're going to need to find a new headquarters."