Volume 4, Issue 4

Triumph - The Protectors of Central Illinois University, the city of Stevenson, and beyond!  Or so it was.  Join us now, as we peek into the altered lives of the heroes of Triumph, and witness the spark of a new era!

Jan Graylin sat at the conference table in the temporary headquarters of the new Triumph.  The room was tucked away in the back of a mostly completed administrative building on UCLA’s campus.  Obviously, this room couldn’t work long term; eventually, the building would open and the room would see other uses.  But for now, this is where Triumph met.  

Jan chuckled to herself.  Triumph.   A big name to live up to for two “second stringers” and two newbies.  Not really even close to enough heroes.  But it was what they had, and it would have to do.

Jan looked up as someone moved into the room.  Her face lit up as she saw a well-built young latino man, Martin.  

“Hey, Jan,” he said, coming over and kissing her on the cheek.  

“Anything interesting?” she asked.  She’d called Martin Estevez the night before, asking him to look at the crime reports across the area for anything unusual.  

“Maybe.  A missing person.  Cops can’t find a lot, except that witnesses have tied it to a cult known as ‘Graystars’.”

Jan shuttered.  She remembered her own experience with kidnapping; she’d been taking, briefly, by ninjas during one of the original Triumph team’s last missions.  She was beaten, tied up and used as bait for the rest of the team, in a failed plot to get Dragonfly’s sword.  She felt for anyone who was taken, even for a short time.

“Any more information?” she asked hopefully.

Martin shrugged.  “I got a little bit of info on the Graystars after jumping into a time bubble this morning and digging for about 4 hours.”.

“What’s a Graystar?” Ace asked as she walked into the room.  She wore casual clothes, running pants and a sweatshirt.  Even so, her stance showed her powerful muscular form.  Jan wondered, once again, what this young woman had done to become like she was.  Was she born that way?  Some sort of intensive training?  

“They’re some kind of cult,” Jan answered.  “I don’t know much; Transcender will brief us as soon as Dreamweaver gets here.”

Transcender told of all the information he’d gathered regarding the Graystars, an enigmatic cult of neo-Shaolin Buddhist monks whose recruitment methods occasionally bordered on those of the Hare Krishna of the 1970s.  Evidently several of a the gray karate-suited monks had been seen harassing the missing young woman, Stephanie Williams, just before her disappearance.  The police hadn’t turned up any evidence pointing toward their participation in her disappearance, but a private investigator, Shondra Borrego, who had been hired within hours to find the young woman, had already disappeared.  

“Well, everybody,” Martin asked, “What do you think?”

Ace spoke first.  “It’s a longshot.  Kung Fu cultists kidnappers?  Sounds like a John Wu film.”

“Maybe,” Jan said thoughtfully.  “Still, the police obviously aren’t doing any investigating on this angle.  And we don’t have any cosmic rifts or mad scientists to fight this week.  Maybe we should look into it.”

Dreamweaver was characteristically silent.  He knew the others were older and more experienced than him.  The young man, every bit the fanboy, was just happy to be participating in this group.  

“Did you learn anything to get us started, Transcender?” Jan asked.  

“Only this: the Graystars are hard to find.  I had to dig off-line quite a bit to figure out that they had purchased an abandoned motel in the High Desert, northwest of Barstow.”  

Ace shrugged.  “Let’s go check it out.”

The trip was awkward.  Transcender had to hold on to Magma’s back, placing a fireproof blanket between them to avoid getting burned.  Ace held on closely to a 14 year old kid, Dreamweaver, who was incredibly happy that an attractive older woman was hanging on to him.  But finally, they took a north onto a deserted county road off 18 west of Barstow, and came upon a slightly less deserted motel an hour after sunset.  

“Wow,” Martin intimated.  “Welcome to the Hotel California.”  The place was grim, secluded, and more than a little creepy.  Lights were on inside, but it was obviously candles only, no electric.  

“Well, they kept the light on for us,” Magma nodded, setting Transcender on the ground and landing beside him.  Dreamweaver pulled his flight disc up to the sand and let Ace step off, after which is disappeared and he dropped the few inches to the ground.  

“Let’s go see what’s what,” Transcender said.  He had created a temporal shield around himself, basically guaranteeing that he wouldn’t be shot by snipers, or hit by any other sudden, unexpected attack.  The bullet would enter his time horizon, and stop, at which point he could safely dodge or remove it.  

Ace was more practical.  She drew a long blade, forged by modern technology and lined with super-sharp diamond particles.  A pistol ,equipped with high-mass blanks guaranteed to break bone on impact, was strapped to her side.  Magma and Dreamweaver simply walked.

The four approached the building cautiously.  Their plan was to case the building from the outside to try and determine if Stephanie Williams was inside.  Transcender and Ace would be in charge of that portion.  If she was, they’d incapacitate her kidnappers and rescue her.  If not, they’d find out where she was.

As Ace worked her way soundlessly around the western side of the building, Transcender moved east; he’d altered his temporal bubble so that sound he made would not be heard until several minutes after he made it.  But covering such a large area in such a specific way was a huge strain on his abilities, and he was, aside from silence and the abilities of his own body, powerless.  Looking in the near the front desk, he saw a bald man, wearing the characteristic Graystar uniform, resting in the hotel’s tiny lobby, focusing on the words of a book.  Transcender moved on.

Meanwhile, Ace had checked several windows, listening for a few seconds at each one to try and ascertain what was happening inside.  Her augmented senses gave her the ability to notice the slightest of noises inside such small rooms, out here in the quiet desert.  but she heard nothing by the occasional shuffling of people in the night.  

After the two had swept the entire property and met around back, they moved back around to the west together.  

Dreamweaver and Magma sat on the other side of a small ridge, a water break where huge streams would flood through the desert when heavy rains came.  Dreamweaver looked over the ridge, bored.  He’d had no idea there would be so much sitting patiently involved in super-heroing.  

“They’re coming!” he whispered to Jan.  Just then, he felt something hit him in the gut like a cannonball, and Dreamweaver doubled over in pain.  

Magma was quicker, activating a bolt of plasma and launching it into the desert darkness.  Unfortunately, before she could act, the cultist had kicked her solidly in the head, and she grew dizzy.  There was a faint smell of burning flesh as the flesh on the monk’s foot charred against Magma’s super-heated skin, but he didn’t scream.  

“Transcender!  They’re on to us!” Magma shouted.  In a split second, or maybe 30 seconds enveloped into a smaller piece of time, Transcender appeared.  Jan was still staggering from the hit to her head.  Looking left to right, Transcender searched for the attacker.

“Let me help!” Dreamweaver shouted.  Suddenly, the entire ravine was lit up like Broadway.  Two Graystars stood ready to face the heroes.  

The martial artists advanced, throwing attack after attack, but the heroes were not to be challenged by normal people.  Within a few seconds, Magma, Transcender, Dreamweaver and Ace had incapacitated them.  

“Well, considering the hostile welcome, I think we can assume they have something to hide,” Ace said snidely, flipping her hair out of her eyes.  

“Okay,” Magma said.  “They want a fight, we’ll give it to them.”  She absent-mindedly rubbed her sore temple as as she spoke.  

“Triumph, attack!”

The heroes descended on the old hotel.  Within a few minutes, they’d defeated every cultist on the property.  And the hotel was on fire.  The monks had put up a good fight, but there were only twelve of them.  Transcender was nursing two broken teeth from a kick to the jaw, and Ace, having confronted her enemies hand to hand, was heavily bruised,  

Dragging out the last of the monks, Dreamweaver turned off his floating disc.  “Okay, what now?”  Despite his small stature, or maybe because of it, Dreamweaver had avoided any significant bruises in the fight.  In fact, he looked completely unaffected.  

“Now,” Jan said, “we ask them about Stephanie.  Nicely.  At first.”

Transcender leaned over the first Graystar to stir.  “Hey, bro.  Got a couple questions to ask you...”

 

        

Volume 4, Issue 3

Triumph - The Protectors of Central Illinois University, the city of Stevenson, and beyond!  Or so it was.  Join us now, as we peek into the altered lives of the heroes of Triumph, and witness the spark of a new era!

Somehow, Aaron Majesky always loved October.  The feel of the cool night air against his face as he flew casually across the city, with a wind coming in off the lake, made him breathe a sigh of relief from the all too hot summer.

Dragonfly was getting used to this town.  Since his first reappearance here after the short vacation he took when he left Stevenson, he’d really grown accustomed to being on his own.  He particularly liked fighting street crime, as opposed to aliens, mystical presences, and hordes of ninjas.  Here, Dragonfly meant something.  

Things in Stevenson seemed to have calmed down, too.  He’d kept his eye on his college home, Making sure Dragonfly didn’t need to make an appearance.  Cazmonster did the same, he knew, and probably The Adept and The Gray Robe, as well.  

Suddenly, Aaron was jolted out of his revery by sirens.  To the left, toward the lake!  Dragonfly doubled back and looped past Heroes Deli, Captain Submarine, and the other sites he knew very well.  Not only was this his city, this was his neighborhood.  A grim look crossed the face of the winged warrior as he laid on the speed.  

Dragonfly zipped under the El heading straight up Montrose toward Lake Michigan.  Hanging a quick right, he headed into trouble.  This area was far from the worst neighborhood in Chicago, but it wasn’t the best, either.  

As Dragonfly swooped in on the scene, he noticed a squad car already stopped in front of a two story residence.  

“Can I be of assistance, officer?”  Dragonfly asked, hovering just above head level as a startled duty cop shifted his sidearm to cover Dragonfly’s position.

“Holy...Dragonfly!  Don’t sneak up on a guy, you’ll get shot.”  The officer returned his gun to the forward position and looked toward the house.  

“Shots fired inside.  Situation unknow.  I’ll get in trouble if I get you involved in this.  Plus, it’s probably just a routine matter.  Go spend your time with something bigger.”

“Well, I’m here now, may as well help out.  Besides, no job is too small…” Dragonfly said.  As he prepared to move toward the house, he heard a voice from an unexpected direction: above him.  

“Promises,” said the voice, that of a young woman.  It was Dragonfly’s turn to spin in surprise, having drawn his sword and prepared for battle.  However, when he got a glimpse of the young woman behind him, he didn’t quite know what to make of her.  

There, hovering in the air on wings much like his own, wearing a costume very similar to his own, was a young brown-skinned woman.  In her hand, she held a curved kris knife.  

Aaron couldn’t believe what he was seeing.  Jyoti?  With wings???  He had no idea how this happened, but now wasn’t the time.  

“On second thought, you’re right officer, we’ll just be heading…”

“Around the property for a look-see!” Jyoti said, fluttering gracefully forward into the yard, toward the upper windows of the house.

Aaron sighed.  Nirmala would never forgive him if he got her niece killed.  Aaron shot after Jyoti.  As he did, he watched in horror as a man leaned out a top floor window with a nine mm pistol and fired off several rounds. As soon as the first shot was fired, Jyoti dipped and fluttered back around.  

That was a nice move, Aaron had to admit.  Taking aim at the gunman, Dragonfly threw his humming bomb, set on a low setting.  The disc smashed into the man’s gun hand, forcing him to drop the weapon and stagger back into the window.  Swooping past the window, Dragonfly took note that the gunman seemed to be the only one in the room, but there was a body on the floor from which blood was leaching quickly.

Aaron turned to find Jyoti hovering behind him.  “No, absolutely not!”

“That’s not very nice!  After I baited the trap for you and all,” the young woman said teasingly.  

In the front yard, the officer stood, his weapon still at the ready, looking at the two heroes expectantly.  

“Looks like he’s alone, officer,” Dragonfly shouted down, “but I’d do a walk-through, just in case.  I’ll watch this guy.”

Later, atop the John Hancock building…

“Jyoti, there’s no way I can let you keep doing this,” Aaron said calmly.  He saw a lot of disappointment, in the girl’s eyes.  He felt like a hypocrit.  He’d jumped into danger at a young age; not as young as Jyoti, certainly, but young and so not ready for all that followed.  Now he was lecturing this girl on how dangerous her choice was.   

“I’m ready.  I can do this!” she insisted.  

“Ready?  I’ll admit you’re a natural with the wings, but how much practice do you have?  How many years have you trained, physically, mentally?  I was almost a full ninja when I STARTED being Dragonfly.  Have you studied martial arts?  Do you know how to use that blade you’re carrying?”  Aaron said, trying to drive home her complete lack of experience.

“You can teach me!  You’re the best!  I’ll be up to speed in no time,” Jyoti insisted.  

Aaron shook his head, looking out over the city.  “I think this is a bad idea, Jyoti.  You’re young.  Enjoy it.  The way you picked up the wings, you can easily be miles ahead of where I was in a few years.”

Jyoti looked up at Aaron with eyes filled with emotion.  It was obvious to him that she’d commit to this here and now, and give it her all.  But if he said no, if he told her he absolutely wouldn’t train her, then what?  She was obviously headstrong enough to get the only person he knew in the whole world who could duplicate his equipment to do so.  Speaking of which, Aaron made a mental note to have a little talk to Steven Chen, formerly known as Palisade.

“Aaron,” Jyoti said, moving a step closer, “I HAVE to do this.  I can’t tell you why, but this is important.  It’s not just a childhood adventure for me.  I understand it’s dangerous.  I’m willing to work within any limitations you give me, do whatever it takes.  But I WILL do this, one way or the other.”

And there it was.  Aaron could take her under his wing, so to speak, or she’d go it alone.  And without his tutoring...Aaron gave a heavy sigh.  

“Here’s the deal.  You NEVER go out without me there, or at least my knowledge.  You tell NO ONE your identity.  I’ll tell Nirmala, somehow, since she’d figure it out the first time she saw us together anyway.  And if I tell you to back off, you back off.”

“Done,” Jyoti said simply.  

“We need to find a time for you to train, and a time for us to go on patrols without making anyone suspicious.”

“I’ll give it some thought.  I can drop the information by the deli while you’re working.”

“Okay,” Aaron nodded.  “That’s decided.  Now, how about a code name?”

“What are those little dragonfly like things called?” Jyoti asked after a moment.  

“Damselflies?” Aaron suggested.

“Yes!  That is them.  But, it needs to be shorter.  How about just Damsel…”

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles…

A secluded conference room, in a closed classroom building.  Four young people were standing around the room.  One was Jan Graylin, a blond, slender woman who spent some of her time as the lava-tossing hero Magma.  Another, standing across the table, was her friend and lover, Martin Estevez, the time controlling Transcender.  A third, a short, somewhat pudgy boy with red hair wearing a black hoodie, was known as Dreamweaver.  And last was a powerfully built young woman with a dour expression who went by the name of Ace.

“So, we’re agreed?” Estevez asked, pointing to some notes he’d written on the table.  “We officially start on Monday?”

“Agreed,” Magma said strongly.  

“Yeah!” Dreamweaver’s voice cracked a little as he enthusiastically agreed.  Jan laughed a little, then looked apologetically at him.

Ace just nodded.  She was still uncertain about this whole thing.  Going public with her abilities could draw the wrong sort of attention.  Nevertheless, she was committed.

Martin spoke once again.  “Monday night, 10 PM, the new Triumph is born!”  

 

Volume 4, Issue 2

Triumph - The Protectors of Central Illinois University, the city of Stevenson, and beyond!  Or so it was.  Join us now, as we peek into the altered lives of the heroes of Triumph, and witness the spark of a new era!

It was dusk on Sunset Blvd.  Near the university, the street was pretty tame, but closer in to downtown, things were different.  Drugs were the product du jour, with a side of prostitution and stolen goods.  It was another hot California night, and a place meant to be a desert was teaming with human life.  There above it all he watched, floating on a disk of light.  

The young man was not much to look at, short and unobtrusive.  Even his costume was modest, jeans and a hoodie.  He looked more like a kid at a comic book convention than an actual super hero, except for the self-generated disk of energy that he floated on.  

It wasn’t for the drug dealers and prostitutes that Dreamweaver was watching, however.  It was for what happened next.  An alarm sounded, one that Dreamweaver had been waiting for.  Now was the time to act.

The young hero swooped down in the warm California air.  Before he realized what was happening, though, a blue blur zipped past him and up sunset toward downtown.  This was Dreamweaver's first encounter with a super speedster, and he'd been unprepared for just how amazingly fast the villain would be.  Undaunted, he swivelled his energy saucer and slammed ahead into the night and his best speed.  

Once he was close enough, the youth began firing coherent bolts of greenish energy at his opponent, until finally, one slammed into the ground in front of her, damaging the road in an unexpected way.  The blue costumed speedster flew through the air at high speed, barely twisting enough to avoid a dangerously fast head-on collision with the pavement.  

Dreamweaver pressed his advantage, diving toward the street and encasing the speedster, a dark skinned woman wearing a blue costume and helm, with a cage of energy.

"Okay, friabata or whatever your name is..."

"Ratnapani," she corrected.  "It means 'bodhisatva of readied treasure.'. It's Hindi."

"Okay, whatever," said Dreamweaver, frustrated.  "Looks like I've got you."

The woman smiled a wide smile.  "Looks that way," she agreed.  

Dreamweaver was taken aback, but nodded his agreement to his own statement.  "Right.  So you're coming peacefully?"

"Oh, hardly," Ratnapani said ominously.  "I was just agreeing with your assessment of the perceived situation. But perception is a fallacy."

With that, the speedster began spinning at A high rate of speed on her toes.  Since her movement was within Dreamweaver's cage, he was at a loss at how to stop it.

With a flash of light, Ratnapani was gone, just like that.  Dreamweaver stood, stunned, looking at his force cage.  It was at that moment that a figure of darkened fire approached.  

"Rough break, kid," Magma said.  

Dreamweaver was in awe.  "Whoa, Magma," he said, staring open-jawed at the former Triumph-er.  

"Hey, you know my name," Jan said, flattered.  "I know yours, too.  You go by Dreamweaver."

"Yeah," the young hero said, not daring to believe  his ears.

"We need to talk.  You missed this one..."

"I can do better!" Dreamweaver insisted.  

"I know you can," Jan said, inwardly laughing at the kid, seeing herself two years ago.  "That's why I came.  We're putting a team together.  We want you to be a part of the new Triumph!"

Meanwhile, in Chicago…

Aaron Majesky sat with his girlfriend, a beautiful Indian woman named Nirmala.  The two had met in Tibet, of all places, when Aaron, AKA Dragonfly, was trying to thwart the criminal organization known as The Milan.  Nirmala had been a physician at a clinic there, and had helped treat his injuries so he could finish his mission, and finally return to Stevenson, Illinois and re-join his friends in Triumph.  

Aaron and Nirmala had remained close, and when she’d relocated to the US, she’d decided to join Aaron here in Chicago.  Now, on a cafe on the North Side near Montrose, they waited for Jyoti, Nirmala’s niece who lived in Niles.  Her babysitter was dropping the young woman off to meet her aunt and the famous Dragonfly for a day of shopping on the Mag Mile.  

“Did you finish painting the living room last night?” Aaron asked, sipping his drink.  He was not a big fan of coffee or tea, so he’d simply gotten a blueberry lemonade.  

“Not quite.  I didn’t have the little brush for the edges.  I’ll need to pick that up today.”  Nirmala was still decorating her home, a townhouse in Lincoln Park.  

Aaron looked up and saw a pretty young Indian woman walk in the door, scanning the crowd until she caught sight of Nirmala.  The girl had her straight black hair pulled back in a pony tail, and her round head accentuated her dark brown eyes.  

“Aunt Nimala!” she said, running over and giving her aunt a big hug.  Aaron noticed the sitter watching through the cafe window, waiting to make sure Jyoti found her aunt.  The woman, a very curvy woman with short cropped blond hair, seemed satisfied and went back to her car, double parked on the street.  Aaron’s eyes focused back on his girlfriend and her niece.  

“And this is Aaron…” Nirmala started, but before she could get very far into the introduction, the young girl’s eyes went even wider.  

“Dragonfly!” she said.  “You are amazing!  I’ve seen and read everything about you I can get my hands on!”

Aaron didn’t know how to feel.  He’d had fans, of course.  Back in Stevenson, he didn’t even keep his identity a secret.  Even now, a quick internet search could turn it up.  But to his knowledge, Dragonfly had never had fans so young.  It made him feel a little old.

“Really?  Glad to hear I’ve inspired you!” Aaron answered.  It sounded cheesy, he knew, but he hadn’t interacted with anyone this age since he’d been that age himself.  

Later…..

The trio had a fun day of shopping, and Jyoti was exhausted when she finally returned home.  She spoke to her mother in Hindi briefly as she walked in the door, and went straight up the stairs to her room.  

Dropping on her bed, she pulled out her cell phone and spun so she faced the ceiling.  Jyoti’s room was very pink and girlie, with the exception of an ancient Kris knife on a stand on her desk.  She’d acquired it when her family had lived briefly in Brunei.  

“Yes, Raj?  It’s Jyoti.[pause]  Yes, I met him. [pause] He’d dreamy. [pause].  No, I guess you wouldn’t think so.  Anyway, yes, I do want to go ahead with my plan.  Call your contact in Honk Kong.  I need to speak to Steven Chen.”