Triumph: In memory of their fallen companion, the heroes of the Infinite Seven have chosen to rename their group Triumph! Dragonfly, aka Aaron Majesky - winged martial arts master; The Adept, aka Rick Pennington - master of mystical movement; Cazmonster, aka Caz Greenbaum, super-strong cyber-werewolf; Palisade, aka Steven Chen - Biosuit powered defender; The Gray Robe, aka Sydney Koenig - Druidic mistress of the Earth; and The American Attitude, aka Barry Stills - Hyper-sensory, skateboarding streetfighter.
And introducing: Bill Brown (no alias), super-strong urban defender; Magma, aka Jan Graylin, lava blasting demolisher; and Transcender, aka “Dorado” Estevez, controller of time and space.
The American Attitude, Bill Brown, Magma, and Transcender stood guarding Spider Lord as the ERT finished cleaning up the spiders plaguing downtown Stevenson.
“Attitude. It’s your dime,” he answered his ringing phone.
“Attitude, this is Dragonfly. We’ve had some problems. Seems there’s more going on up here in Chi-town than vampires.”
“We’ve been a little busy ourselves. Some kook named Spider Lord tried to make Fairview Street an arachnatorium.”
“We? You got the others?” Dragonfly asked with interest.
“Yeah, all three. But, uh, they need some work,” Barry said into the phone quietly, having turned away from the new heroes.
“No time, Attitude. I need you guys to hop in the chopper and get up here, ASAP. The Adept and The Gray Robe have both been captured,” Dragonfly said urgently.
“How the hell did that happen?” Attitude intoned.
“Like I said, problems. We ran into someone we didn’t expect. Some sort of ancient godling or something by the name of Sarth,” Dragonfly explained impatiently.
“Whoa, whoa, god?”
“God, what god? Are we gonna fight a god?” Magma asked excitedly.
“No!” The Attitude shouted to her.
“Yes!” came Dragonfly’s voice over the speaker of his cell, loud enough for the others to hear.
“He’s more of a demigod, really. You guys seriously need to get up here, now! This Sarth is serious bad news; he’s got four Triumph members captive already, and he’s planning something weird and mystical. Cazmonster and I are outgunned. Get in the helicopter and get up here! Dragonfly out!”
“He hung up!” The Attitude said, drawing his arm back as if to throw his phone, but stopping himself just in time.
“What’s going on, A?” Bill Brown, who everyone had taken to calling BB, asked.
“I guess we’re going to Chicago. Come on guys, back to the HQ. We’re going for a helicopter ride.”
Meanwhile, in western Chicago, near a large construction area, Cazmonster and Dragonfly stood by, wondering how to progress.
“Any sign of any of them, Caz?” Dragonfly asked from a height of 30 feet; Cazmonster was using his cyborg senses to search for the others, while Dragonfly hovered above him and scanned the area visually. They’d tracked Sarth to this location after he grabbed The Adept and The Gray Robe, but honestly they could be anywhere by now.
Cazmonster looked up at Aaron. “Nope. If they’re here, he’s got them hidden pretty well. Hey, did you call The Wrecker? Maybe he could help. I mean this is his turf.”
“Negative on that, CM. Tim and Megan are in Europe. Getting married.”
“Married? When the hell did that happen? Why weren’t we invited?”
Dragonfly landed next to Cazmonster, his insectoid wings slowly buzzing to a halt as he did so. “Not sure, but considering the way things are going, I can’t say he made the wrong choice. Not sure I’d want us around my wedding right now.”
“Yeah, I hear what you’re sayin’,” Cazmonster agreed, starting his scans over as the two heroes moved forward. “Wait! Someone’s coming!” Cazmonster said. He arched his head to look to the sky; Dragonfly instinctively hovered a few feet above ground, ready to go airborne in case of attack.
Dragonfly prepared his humming bomb, but as the figure approached, he realized it was not Sarth; it was a young man, about their age or a little older, dressed in a white costume with dark blue cape and mask. Another hero?
Dragonfly flew upwards, keeping the humming bomb handy, just in case.
“Okay, guys, party’s over. Time to hit the road and go back to the costume shop!” the flying form said as he approached Dragonfly.
“Not happening, newbie!” Dragonfly said offensively. “We’re Triumph, in case you haven’t heard. I’m Dragonfly, and he’s Cazmonster. And we’ve been doing this a while.”
“Well, you’re done here,” the new arrival said, ignoring the insult. “Sarth’s my responsibility, and I don’t think wolf-man and bug boy are gonna be able to help much.”
Aaron started to say something, but the new guy had a point. They hadn’t been much use so far. Quite frankly, Sarth’s raw mystic power was something they’d never had to face before. He used magic energy the same way The Adept did, but on a much higher scale. His magical attacks had shattered The Adept’s shield and incapacitated the entire team except Dragonfly himself, who was scouting ahead at the time. For some reason, Sarth only took The Adept and The Gray Robe, ignoring Caz completely.
“What’s your handle?” Cazmonster asked as the other two heroes landed.
“I go by Misto,” he said, folding his shoulders and looking derisively at the lumbering cyber werewolf approaching.
“Mysto? Like magic? Isn’t that a stage magician’s name?” Dragonfly asked aggressively.
“No, MISTO, like MIST, the stuff you see after a rain on a fall day.”
“So you have fog powers?” Aaron continued to jab.
“No, I’m a sorcerer. Listen, I don’t have to justify myself to you. I’ve been at this a while, too. And Sarth’s my opponent. A dangerous one at that.”
Cazmonster and Dragonfly stood side by side, squaring off with Misto.
“Look, Misto. He may be your arch-enemy or whatever, but he’s got OUR friends captive. We’ve got a stake in this. Besides. The rest of our team’s coming.” Cazmonster said boldly.
“Oh, great, there’s more of you? Nevermind. Here’s how this is going to go down. If you want to stop Sarth, you need to follow my plan, got it? Not some crazy college kid’s team playbook. I don’t want your friends to get hurt any more than you do. But I’ve got to stop Sarth before he gathers more mystical power.”
“Ummm, about that,” Dragonfly said, switching from aggression to a more tentative mode. “Sarth kind of kidnapped our sorcerer, The Adept. Oh, and a druid called The Gray Robe.”
“A sorcerer and a druid? Are you guys playing D&D, or fighting supervillains?” Misto said, slapping his hand to his face.
“Nevermind. Forget I asked. You and Cat Monster...”
“Cazmonster,” Caz interrupted.
“You and Cazmonster are in, but seriously. Let me take the lead. I know this guy like, well, like the other half of my soul. Which is technically pretty close to reality.”
Cazmonster and Dragonfly exchanged glances that said volumes. Neither one had much respect for this guy’s bravado, but if he was on par with Sarth in power level, they definitely had a better chance of beating him with Misto’s help than without.
“Deal,” Dragonfly said, holding out his hand. Misto took it and half-heartedly shook.
“Now, when’s the rest of your team getting here?”
“I think I hear them now,” Cazmonster said. “They’re about 10 miles out.”
“Okay, when they get here, we strike. Now, here’s what I need you to do...” Misto began explaining his plan to Cazmonster and Dragonfly as the American Attitude approached with Triumph’s new recruits.
No comments:
Post a Comment