The Dover Boys, v2.0 Chapter 2
Mina began to feel as if she and Tom were being followed, and she kept glancing back over her shoulder. She started to shiver, partially from the slight chill in the air, but also from the suspicion that someone or something was watching them.
"Mina? You okay?" Tom asked, hugging his girl a little tighter. "You look scared."
"Oh! Um, no. No, I'm fine," she said, trying to hide the fact that she was becoming a bit uneasy. "Let's just keep walking." Mina quickened her pace, and her boyfriend followed suit. In a few minutes, they were at the door of the residence hall lobby and, after signing in at the desk, Tom escorted Mina to her room.
"Thanks for a great time tonight, Tom. I had so much fun," she said, trying to smile. Tom grinned back at her.
"I'm glad you did, sweetie. Good night, and pleasant dreams."
"Thanks. You, too." Their lips met in one kiss, then Tom released Mina and, as she unlocked the door and disappeared inside her dorm, walked down the hall to the stairwell. He jogged up three floors and turned the corner; his dorm room was located off to the immediate right of the stairwell, and he took his key out of one of the many pockets on his cargo pants. He turned it in the lock and entered his room, then quietly shut the door and locked it again. Then, Tom saw it, again...that dagger on his desk...
Flash! It was the spring semester of freshman year, and Tom was putting away the team equipment for varsity baseball. It had been another championship season, their twelfth win in thirteen years, and he was delirious from the high of the Scarlet Centurions winning as well as receiving his first college varsity baseball trophy. He happened to be loading the rolled up bat bag, which contained the aluminum bats the players practiced with, onto the high shelf in the closet when he accidentally knocked something off. The object plummeted straight down, and Tom had barely enough time to move his foot out of its path. It stuck in the wooden floor with a sproing!, mere inches from his cleats. The brawny blonde gazed down at it quizzically, then bent down and pulled it out of the plank with a gentle tug. Tom stood up straight and examined what appeared to be a knife of some sort, but not like any he had seen before: it had a gold hand guard, shaped like an eagle with its wings spread, and a fancy hand grip as well. The blade was so shiny it reflected like a mirror.
Where did this come from? he had wondered to himself. At that moment, a teammate happened to walk by, and Tom asked the guy if he knew what the knife was and how it got in the closet. His teammate had only shrugged and said he didn't know. Tom shook his head and originally thought he should toss the knife away—he never carried a weapon and did not believe in carrying them on his person—but something caused him to decide against it. He had slipped it in among the gear in his own bag, then stowed away the rest of the team equipment in the closet. That same night, he was given the most unusual dream...it was a moonlit night, and he was running. Running from whom, or what, he was not sure. But Tom knew something was chasing him, and he was sprinting like he never had before. Whatever was back there seemed dangerous, until there was a distant battle cry, which stopped Tom Dover dead in his tracks. Standing atop a building was a muscular figure silhouetted against the full moon. He could see something like a helmet and armor on the person, and a large cape furled out from the broad shoulders. In one hand was a sword with a long blade. The figure suddenly hurled himself downwards into the shadows, and there was grunting as he engaged the unseen enemy in combat. Shortly, there was a long, loud scream of pain that quickly died away, then out of the shadows stepped the man, who appeared to be some kind of superhero. He wore a black and gold centurion's helmet and chestplate, except they were more streamlined than what one might see on an ancient Roman soldier. His suit was red and shiny, like spandex, while the large gauntlets on his hands and the heavy boots on his feet were both solid black metal, with some gold trim around the edges. Tom could see that there was a handsome, strong- looking shield slipped over the man's left arm. Falling down from the gold- trimmed shoulder guards was a long black cape lined in gold satin. The most striking feature of the sword in his right hand was that it looked EXACTLY like the dagger found in the equipment closet that afternoon! The hero stood tall and proud, even though he and Tom were identical in height. The only thing that could not be made out was his identity, for his eyes were covered by a dark visor that went all the way across the line of vision.
"Who are you?" asked the blonde college student, incredulous, his deep blue eyes wide. The man in front of him slid the longsword into a scabbard, which rested at his left hip on the belt he wore, then with his free hand he gathered up his flowing cape and swept it in front of the lower half of his face, draped over his fully-extended arm in dramatic fashion.
"My name is Magnum Centurion Maximus, soldier of justice and mighty hero," came the figure's powerful, almost ethereal, voice. "I am the ultimate guardian of righteousness and defender of the innocent."
"Why have you come to me in this dream?" Tom pressed, still finding it wildly unbelievable that this guy showed up in his subconscious thought. At this, the man in spandex and armor apparently became angered by the questions being asked of him, for he violently threw the back the cape over his angular, muscled shoulder and bent his knees in an attack position, one foot in front of the other. With a loud yell, he darted towards Tom in a flat-out run. He had no time to react, for suddenly the hero was on top of him; he covered himself defensively, but instead of having his lights put out, the futuristic centurion passed right into him. Then he fell to the ground, knocked out cold from the impact. Tom Dover had then awakened, sitting bolt upright in bed, shivers running up and down his spine. He usually slept topless at night (with a godly torso like his, he was able to do it with no problem), so his face and upper body were moist with sweat. When he had gone to the bathroom in his dorm suite to rinse his face with some cold water and towel off his chest, abs, and back, he took a look in the mirror and saw the centurion hero reflected in it instead of his own face. He gave a yelp and had stumbled backwards, banging his head on the tiles as he fell into the shower. Tom remembered receiving a concussion and a gash that required 50 stitches.
Flash! The golden-haired young man shook his head, trying to clear his head of the memory of that weird experience. He didn't like to think about it too much. As he was about to take his shirt off in preparation for a shower, someone knocked on his door, so he walked over and opened it up.
"Dover! Dover, you won't believe this!" said Dunston Niedermayer, all out of breath. He was a short, skinny guy with glasses and medium brown hair, and was considered to be a big nerd. "You better come quick! I think Mina's in trouble!"
Tom blinked, his eyes round as baseballs, sensing danger had entered Culverton Hall. "Mina? In TROUBLE?!?!?" He pushed past Dunston, sending him tripping awkwardly to the floor of the hallway. Dover quickly muttered an apology, then dashed down the stairwell to the ground floor, where Mina's room was situated. When he reached the bottom and stepped out into the hall, he saw a gaggle of other students crowded around the entrance to the dorm. Mina was on the floor, wailing piteously, while two female friends of hers put their arms around her and tried to comfort her. Tom hurried over and squeezed through the students who had congregated there.
"Excuse me! Boyfriend coming through! Step aside!" he said as he made his way to Mina.
"Leave her alone. This isn't any of your business," the first-floor Resident Advisor told him.
"That's my girlfriend crying there, so this is my business," was his retort as he knelt down beside the bawling girl. "Mina? Honey, are you all right? Please talk to me." His broad, squareish face was etched with concern. Mina, however, was crying too hard to even respond. Tom's expression slowly changed from upset to angry.
"What happened to her?" he demanded of one of the students standing there, watching.
"It was Jawbreaker and his gang. They forced their way into her room and threatened to kill her unless she consented to sleeping with Backslide. When she screamed, I came running down the hall and fought him and the others off as best I could until I was able to call campus security," the student said seriously. Damnit! thought Tom as he looked helplessly at his girlfriend. If only I'd been there sooner! I could've fought Dan off! But maybe there's a way I can avenge her...Dover leapt to his feet and forced his way out of the crowd again.
"I'm going to find them," he declared to the group. A male student spoke up.
"Don't do it! They might try and kill you, too!"
"They won't kill me," said Tom, his face set in determination. "I'll make sure of it." With that, he burst out the lobby doors and found a dark place where he would not be seen, then he pulled out the fancy knife.
Okay, do your stuff!...whatever that is, Tom thought as he held the dagger in his hand. In seconds, its metal blade lengthened and gained width, while the hand grip became larger to compensate for the sudden growth spurt the sharp end had undergone. The hand guard shone brightly, and a large eagle of golden energy shot out, swooped around behind Tom and enfolded him in its wings. The sensation of the light and energy seeping in through his skin made his whole body feel warm and tingly, as if he were being massaged by the jets of a hot tub. When the light disappeared, everything around him was the same as before, except now there was slight pressure on various parts of his body. He looked down at his hands, then felt his chest, and found both were covered in armor. He even had the shield on his arm! That wasn't just some whacked-out dream he'd had, he realized, because this was the same getup the hero had worn. Hunky college student Tom Dover had become Magnum Centurion Maximus!
Quit admiring yourself, pretty boy, a voice in his head chided him. You've got more important things to take care of right now. Save the preening for when you're in front of a mirror. That snapped Tom's focus back to the matter at hand, which was finding Dan and his gang of punks and making sure they paid for terrorizing Mina. So, he went off in search of the troublemakers, discovering he was able to bound up onto the roofs of the various buildings as a way of getting around the campus faster. For a while, he vaulted noiselessly from atop one hall to another, seeing nothing, until he heard heavy footsteps on the sidewalk; down below, there were five figures, dressed all in black, fleeing towards the wrought-iron fencing surrounding the Pimento University campus. It was obvious the guys were looking to make a break for it and escape over the high fence before security and the police could track them down. It was up to Tom, now transformed, to catch the nasty punks and prevent them from evading punishment. He silently followed them to the edge of the campus, then watched from the roof of one of the academic halls as Backslide and his gang made it to the fence, out of breath.
I'll fix you yet, Tom thought to himself as he glared unrelentingly. I'll make you pay dearly for what you tried to do to my girlfriend. Down on the ground, the five punks had no idea they were being observed as they debated what was the best way for them to climb over this barrier and take off down the street. They could not imagine that someone was lurking in the shadows above them, waiting...
Mina began to feel as if she and Tom were being followed, and she kept glancing back over her shoulder. She started to shiver, partially from the slight chill in the air, but also from the suspicion that someone or something was watching them.
"Mina? You okay?" Tom asked, hugging his girl a little tighter. "You look scared."
"Oh! Um, no. No, I'm fine," she said, trying to hide the fact that she was becoming a bit uneasy. "Let's just keep walking." Mina quickened her pace, and her boyfriend followed suit. In a few minutes, they were at the door of the residence hall lobby and, after signing in at the desk, Tom escorted Mina to her room.
"Thanks for a great time tonight, Tom. I had so much fun," she said, trying to smile. Tom grinned back at her.
"I'm glad you did, sweetie. Good night, and pleasant dreams."
"Thanks. You, too." Their lips met in one kiss, then Tom released Mina and, as she unlocked the door and disappeared inside her dorm, walked down the hall to the stairwell. He jogged up three floors and turned the corner; his dorm room was located off to the immediate right of the stairwell, and he took his key out of one of the many pockets on his cargo pants. He turned it in the lock and entered his room, then quietly shut the door and locked it again. Then, Tom saw it, again...that dagger on his desk...
Flash! It was the spring semester of freshman year, and Tom was putting away the team equipment for varsity baseball. It had been another championship season, their twelfth win in thirteen years, and he was delirious from the high of the Scarlet Centurions winning as well as receiving his first college varsity baseball trophy. He happened to be loading the rolled up bat bag, which contained the aluminum bats the players practiced with, onto the high shelf in the closet when he accidentally knocked something off. The object plummeted straight down, and Tom had barely enough time to move his foot out of its path. It stuck in the wooden floor with a sproing!, mere inches from his cleats. The brawny blonde gazed down at it quizzically, then bent down and pulled it out of the plank with a gentle tug. Tom stood up straight and examined what appeared to be a knife of some sort, but not like any he had seen before: it had a gold hand guard, shaped like an eagle with its wings spread, and a fancy hand grip as well. The blade was so shiny it reflected like a mirror.
Where did this come from? he had wondered to himself. At that moment, a teammate happened to walk by, and Tom asked the guy if he knew what the knife was and how it got in the closet. His teammate had only shrugged and said he didn't know. Tom shook his head and originally thought he should toss the knife away—he never carried a weapon and did not believe in carrying them on his person—but something caused him to decide against it. He had slipped it in among the gear in his own bag, then stowed away the rest of the team equipment in the closet. That same night, he was given the most unusual dream...it was a moonlit night, and he was running. Running from whom, or what, he was not sure. But Tom knew something was chasing him, and he was sprinting like he never had before. Whatever was back there seemed dangerous, until there was a distant battle cry, which stopped Tom Dover dead in his tracks. Standing atop a building was a muscular figure silhouetted against the full moon. He could see something like a helmet and armor on the person, and a large cape furled out from the broad shoulders. In one hand was a sword with a long blade. The figure suddenly hurled himself downwards into the shadows, and there was grunting as he engaged the unseen enemy in combat. Shortly, there was a long, loud scream of pain that quickly died away, then out of the shadows stepped the man, who appeared to be some kind of superhero. He wore a black and gold centurion's helmet and chestplate, except they were more streamlined than what one might see on an ancient Roman soldier. His suit was red and shiny, like spandex, while the large gauntlets on his hands and the heavy boots on his feet were both solid black metal, with some gold trim around the edges. Tom could see that there was a handsome, strong- looking shield slipped over the man's left arm. Falling down from the gold- trimmed shoulder guards was a long black cape lined in gold satin. The most striking feature of the sword in his right hand was that it looked EXACTLY like the dagger found in the equipment closet that afternoon! The hero stood tall and proud, even though he and Tom were identical in height. The only thing that could not be made out was his identity, for his eyes were covered by a dark visor that went all the way across the line of vision.
"Who are you?" asked the blonde college student, incredulous, his deep blue eyes wide. The man in front of him slid the longsword into a scabbard, which rested at his left hip on the belt he wore, then with his free hand he gathered up his flowing cape and swept it in front of the lower half of his face, draped over his fully-extended arm in dramatic fashion.
"My name is Magnum Centurion Maximus, soldier of justice and mighty hero," came the figure's powerful, almost ethereal, voice. "I am the ultimate guardian of righteousness and defender of the innocent."
"Why have you come to me in this dream?" Tom pressed, still finding it wildly unbelievable that this guy showed up in his subconscious thought. At this, the man in spandex and armor apparently became angered by the questions being asked of him, for he violently threw the back the cape over his angular, muscled shoulder and bent his knees in an attack position, one foot in front of the other. With a loud yell, he darted towards Tom in a flat-out run. He had no time to react, for suddenly the hero was on top of him; he covered himself defensively, but instead of having his lights put out, the futuristic centurion passed right into him. Then he fell to the ground, knocked out cold from the impact. Tom Dover had then awakened, sitting bolt upright in bed, shivers running up and down his spine. He usually slept topless at night (with a godly torso like his, he was able to do it with no problem), so his face and upper body were moist with sweat. When he had gone to the bathroom in his dorm suite to rinse his face with some cold water and towel off his chest, abs, and back, he took a look in the mirror and saw the centurion hero reflected in it instead of his own face. He gave a yelp and had stumbled backwards, banging his head on the tiles as he fell into the shower. Tom remembered receiving a concussion and a gash that required 50 stitches.
Flash! The golden-haired young man shook his head, trying to clear his head of the memory of that weird experience. He didn't like to think about it too much. As he was about to take his shirt off in preparation for a shower, someone knocked on his door, so he walked over and opened it up.
"Dover! Dover, you won't believe this!" said Dunston Niedermayer, all out of breath. He was a short, skinny guy with glasses and medium brown hair, and was considered to be a big nerd. "You better come quick! I think Mina's in trouble!"
Tom blinked, his eyes round as baseballs, sensing danger had entered Culverton Hall. "Mina? In TROUBLE?!?!?" He pushed past Dunston, sending him tripping awkwardly to the floor of the hallway. Dover quickly muttered an apology, then dashed down the stairwell to the ground floor, where Mina's room was situated. When he reached the bottom and stepped out into the hall, he saw a gaggle of other students crowded around the entrance to the dorm. Mina was on the floor, wailing piteously, while two female friends of hers put their arms around her and tried to comfort her. Tom hurried over and squeezed through the students who had congregated there.
"Excuse me! Boyfriend coming through! Step aside!" he said as he made his way to Mina.
"Leave her alone. This isn't any of your business," the first-floor Resident Advisor told him.
"That's my girlfriend crying there, so this is my business," was his retort as he knelt down beside the bawling girl. "Mina? Honey, are you all right? Please talk to me." His broad, squareish face was etched with concern. Mina, however, was crying too hard to even respond. Tom's expression slowly changed from upset to angry.
"What happened to her?" he demanded of one of the students standing there, watching.
"It was Jawbreaker and his gang. They forced their way into her room and threatened to kill her unless she consented to sleeping with Backslide. When she screamed, I came running down the hall and fought him and the others off as best I could until I was able to call campus security," the student said seriously. Damnit! thought Tom as he looked helplessly at his girlfriend. If only I'd been there sooner! I could've fought Dan off! But maybe there's a way I can avenge her...Dover leapt to his feet and forced his way out of the crowd again.
"I'm going to find them," he declared to the group. A male student spoke up.
"Don't do it! They might try and kill you, too!"
"They won't kill me," said Tom, his face set in determination. "I'll make sure of it." With that, he burst out the lobby doors and found a dark place where he would not be seen, then he pulled out the fancy knife.
Okay, do your stuff!...whatever that is, Tom thought as he held the dagger in his hand. In seconds, its metal blade lengthened and gained width, while the hand grip became larger to compensate for the sudden growth spurt the sharp end had undergone. The hand guard shone brightly, and a large eagle of golden energy shot out, swooped around behind Tom and enfolded him in its wings. The sensation of the light and energy seeping in through his skin made his whole body feel warm and tingly, as if he were being massaged by the jets of a hot tub. When the light disappeared, everything around him was the same as before, except now there was slight pressure on various parts of his body. He looked down at his hands, then felt his chest, and found both were covered in armor. He even had the shield on his arm! That wasn't just some whacked-out dream he'd had, he realized, because this was the same getup the hero had worn. Hunky college student Tom Dover had become Magnum Centurion Maximus!
Quit admiring yourself, pretty boy, a voice in his head chided him. You've got more important things to take care of right now. Save the preening for when you're in front of a mirror. That snapped Tom's focus back to the matter at hand, which was finding Dan and his gang of punks and making sure they paid for terrorizing Mina. So, he went off in search of the troublemakers, discovering he was able to bound up onto the roofs of the various buildings as a way of getting around the campus faster. For a while, he vaulted noiselessly from atop one hall to another, seeing nothing, until he heard heavy footsteps on the sidewalk; down below, there were five figures, dressed all in black, fleeing towards the wrought-iron fencing surrounding the Pimento University campus. It was obvious the guys were looking to make a break for it and escape over the high fence before security and the police could track them down. It was up to Tom, now transformed, to catch the nasty punks and prevent them from evading punishment. He silently followed them to the edge of the campus, then watched from the roof of one of the academic halls as Backslide and his gang made it to the fence, out of breath.
I'll fix you yet, Tom thought to himself as he glared unrelentingly. I'll make you pay dearly for what you tried to do to my girlfriend. Down on the ground, the five punks had no idea they were being observed as they debated what was the best way for them to climb over this barrier and take off down the street. They could not imagine that someone was lurking in the shadows above them, waiting...
