Triumph - Protectors of Central Illinois University, the city of Stevenson, and beyond!
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; The Gray Robe, aka Sydney Koenig - Druidic mistress of the Earth; The American Attitude, aka Barry Stills - Hyper-sensory, skateboarding streetfighter; 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.
It was a rainy day when the alarm sounded. Aaron Majesky got the text notification as he waited to talk to his abnormal psychology professor. Helping with the assignment would have to wait. A few second later, Dragonfly flew from a 3rd story window into the heavy downpour and overcast sky.
Stella, the Citadel's computer intelligence, had detected a disturbance in the vicinity south of campus. Dragonfly opened a channel on his communicator and answered the incoming called.
"Dragonfly en route."
"Yo, it's Caz. Can you check in and let me know what's up?"
"Almost there, CM. Holy...Caz, get Rick down here, NOW! Sampson's up to his portal tricks again; this time it's a flood!"
Dragonfly swooped down on what used to be a residential neighborhood, but was now a raging river. Skimming the surface of the water, already five feet high, he listened for cries of help, looked for anyone trapped inside a flooding house. Because it was mid afternoon, most people were at work. Still, since Stevenson was a city of over 200,000, there were bound to be third shifters, or unemployed people, or the sick, trapped in some of these houses. It didn't take long to find someone.
Breaking in through a picture window, heedless of the glass, Dragonfly found a young mother with two children neck deep in water.
"Grab on! I can carry all three of you!". The women wrapped her arms around Dragonfly's muscular trunk, while he picked up the youngest child - a small, crying boy with thick dark hair. The girl, a slender preteen, grabbed her mother and Dragonfly, and they flew out the remains of the window. Spotting several citizens taking refuge on top of a two story house, Dragonfly dropped the family off.
In the ten minutes it took The Adept to arrive with Magma and The Grey Robe, Dragonfly had rescued six more people. Flying higher above the surface of the water, the rest of the team went to work. The Adept opened a portal directly above one of the lakes outside of Stevenson. Using her vast powers over the natural world, the Grey Robe wrenched a huge section of Earth free under one of the roads, allowing the water to drain more quickly into the sewers. Magma flew to the source of the deluge, a massive portal several blocks away, and began laying down layer after layer of burning lava in front of it; this lava quickly cooled in the water and hardened into rock, slowing the tide.
Meanwhile, Dragonfly continued to work on the human level, finding those trapped by the flood and flying them to safety.
"Syd, you got this?" The Adept asked the Grey Robe. "I need to get to work closing that portal!"
"We'll manage! Go!"
With that, the powerful sorcerer known as The Adept opened a portal of his own to the location Magma had pinpointed as the source of the flood. The portal was at least three stories tall; much bigger than any The Adept had opened himself. But it was definitely magical. The Adept could feel the waves of energy flowing around it. He could also sense its source, that horrible creation known as the Nightmare Engine. How powerful was that thing, Rick wondered. Sampson's evil fusion of mad science and dark magic?
Shaking the musings from his head, the Adept began to concentrate on his own connection to the mystic realm, the invisible but ever-present Robe of Merlin. Tapping into the the first power he had discovered, that to open magical portals in space, Rick The Adept began concentrating on closing this one. He used the same technique he would use to close a portal of his own making, but this was orders of magnitude more difficult.
Magic had a frequency, and the closer it was in frequency to the source of your power as a sorcerer, the easier it was to manipulate. The power creating this portal was dark, obviously demonic in nature. The Adept had squared off against it when the team fought Professor Sampson the first time; it was that confrontation that had pushed The Adept to the next level as a sorcerer. His powers had opened up that day, and with every day since, they’d grown in complexity and energy. Rick hoped that the same source that pushed him that time would help him to overcome this challenge as well.
As he continued his mystical battle with whatever evil will controlled the portal (Rick could tell it wasn’t Sampson; he may be calling the shots, but there was another entity at work here), he heard helicopters overhead as the National Guard arrived. Stevenson was the largest city in the area, and the guard maintained a base there for deployment elsewhere in the state. The guard began helping the dozens of people who’d escaped or been rescued into helicopters and boats so they could leave the area. Meanwhile, Magma and The Grey Robe continued to try to stop the flow of waters as best they could.
Suddenly, the portal snapped shut, and the water stopped. The Guardsmen and civilians started cheering; so did Magma and The Grey Robe. Dragonfly flew up to The Adept as he hovered near where the portal used to be. “Great job, Adept!” he said, the rain continuing to pour over them.
“Something’s not right, Dragonfly. I don’t think that was me. I barely broke a sweat. I think…”
Just as suddenly as the portal had closed, another opened, this one directly ABOVE the National Guard’s helicopters. It was even bigger. Hundreds of thousands of gallons began pouring down on them, and the helicopter was smashed to the ground.
The heroes watched in shock as at least two dozen men and women went from being safe to probably dead. The Adept’s eyebrows wrinkled in anger. “Get as many of those people out as you can, Dragonfly. I’m going to close this portal.”
Dragonfly hesitated an instant, then flew back into the fray. He was sweaty, cut up, and tired, but now wasn’t the time. He did not see The Adept fly through the portal, his mystical shield keeping him from being forced to the ground by the sheer pressure of the water.
Once inside the portal, the Adept glided up through water and found himself at the top of a lake. He had no idea where he was. There on the dock was Sampson in a rain slicker, along with the Nightmare Engine, covered in its own forcefield. As soon as they saw Rick, the portal closed.
Rick launched himself out of the water and flew toward Sampson, firing blasts of mystical energy at the bald mad scientist. Sampson ducked into the shield with the Nightmare Engine to avoid the attacks; the mystical energy of that shield was more than powerful enough.
“Sampson! Stop this!” Rick shouted angrily.
“Never! Not until that town is wiped from the face of the earth, and everyone who conspired against me destroyed! And that means you and all of your friends!” Sampson said with a mixture of glee and hatred. Rick stopped and hovered in the air above the lake, then opened another portal behind Sampson. Several groans and complaints at the unexpected transportation gave way to resolute silence, and the members of Triumph stood up behind Sampson and the Nightmare Engine.
All eight heroes were there. Dragonfly set down a young girl he’d just rescued from the water seconds before being transported. A girl whose mother had drowned before she could be rescued. And that was that. It was a showdown, the final battle: Triumph vs. Professor Sampson. The battle began.
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