The Dover Boys, v2.0 Chapter 4
"It was awful," Mina was saying to a police officer who had arrived on the scene and was assessing her situation. When the cops had pulled onto the Pimento University campus, practically everyone in Culverton Hall was awakened, as well as those in the other residence buildings. Now there were people either milling about or being questioned by some of the officers. "I don't know how he managed to break into my dorm. But he and his friends had me surrounded before I knew what was going on; I didn't even have a chance to defend myself, because he had me pinned on my mattress by my wrists and suddenly his lips started traveling all over my face. One of his pals had a knife held to my neck while I screamed as loud as I could. They kept threatening to slit my throat if I didn't keep quiet and let him rape me, but apparently someone on my floor heard me because a guy from my ROTC class-he's an M-3 like me-came running into the room and chased them out."
"Are you okay now?" the officer asked in a kindly voice. He was young, apparently new on the local force, and he examined Mina with big, concerned eyes. "I want to make sure you're not hurt in any way."
"I'm fine now, thanks," she answered, sighing. "But it was really scary for me to go through. I think I'll be having nightmares about it for weeks."
"I'm sure it's a very frightening experience," said the officer. "Just know that we're here now, and we'll do everything we can to make sure you're safe and those guys don't attack you again. By the way, how many of them were there?"
"There were five," Mina replied. "It was Dan Backslide and his gang of bikers."
"I don't think I've heard of them," the young police officer said, a little confused.
"Well, I have," came a gruff voice. Standing over him and Mina was an older sergeant with dark hair and a mustache, both graying. He definitely had an air of experience around him, as he was more hardened to such situations than his younger colleague. "Those ruffians have been giving the department headaches since they first came to the university. We've brought them in I forget how many times because they were always causing trouble. I don't think I've known them to do something this, though; usually we just took them to the station for mischievous acts, but never for anything this violent."
"Where do you think they've gone?" the victim asked.
"Probably to their usual hideout, the basement of one of the old residence halls," the sergeant said. Mina gasped.
"You mean.The Dungeon, under Vernon Hall?" she blurted, starting to panic all over again as she remembered her boyfriend, Tom, saying he was going out to track down the gang. "Tom might be down there! He could be hurt, or trapped! My boyfriend, he's in danger if he ended up in that basement! Who knows what Dan and those horrible friends of his could be doing to him!"
"It-it's okay, miss. Please, just calm down," the young cop said, trying to soothe the frightened girl. He took one of her hands in his and put his other arm around her. "I'll stay here with you so you're safe. Meantime, Sergeant Peterson and his men will go to Vernon Hall's basement to get your boyfriend out and catch the scum who tried to hurt you. Everything's going to be okay, I promise." The police sergeant motioned to the other officers around.
"Alright, men! Move out, let's go!" Sergeant Peterson waved the officers out the door of the building, then they ran across the green in the middle of the campus towards Vernon Hall.
*~*~*~*~*
For the longest time, there was nothing but total darkness. Then, there was the sound of water dripping from somewhere in the blackness. It was a steady, constant drip, the kind of noise that would drive a sane person mad. Slowly, Tom Dover-still disguised as the Magnum Centurion-was coming into consciousness again, his eyes first beginning to shift under their lids. Then, they lightly fluttered open as he was becoming aware of his surroundings; behind the tinted visor hiding his eyes, Maximus could make out a dim, dank place. It appeared as if he were in a dungeon or something: the walls were made of hard stone, as was the floor beneath his large body. The superhero felt the chill seep through his spandex bodysuit, and he shivered slightly as it did a horridly slow dance up and down his spine. Fortunately, the ringing in his ears had ceased and all that was left was a dull throbbing in his head, but he would deal with it when he de-transformed and made it back to his dorm. As he was mulling this thought, he suddenly felt himself forcefully jerked to his feet and slammed against the nearby wall. Shaking his head roughly as the pounding worsened, he came face-to-face with his archenemy, Dan Backslide.
"Sleep well, Dorksimus?" the gang leader sneered at the captured hero, who was still somewhat disoriented. "I hope so, because you'll want to be awake for what's coming next."
"What might-unhand me! Unhand me, I say!" Maximus barked at Flamethrower and Chainsaw, who had grabbed his wrists in an attempt to hold him against the wall. He shook them off and stared down Backslide with armored chest thrust out and head held high, making known that he would not be overcome so easily. "What might be coming next, you dirty coward? Nothing that you do can ever crush the spirit and power of the heroic Maximus, noble champion of righteousness!" That aura, which seemed to shine around the superhero earlier when he had Dan down for the count, was practically visible again as he proclaimed he would stand firm even in the face of danger. Instead, Backslide and his followers continued to leer at the Magnum Centurion.
"Oh, but you will do as we tell you, if you want to live," Dan snickered as his eyes narrowed with malice. "If you don't cooperate with me and my boys, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to off you. You, uh, catch my drift?" With a grin of pure evil, he lifted the eagle-hilted longsword and pointed the blade at the hero's throat. The slight gasp from Maximus as he pressed himself flatter against the wall and one broad hand flying to his chest in shock was all Backslide needed to know that he had the Magnum Centurion in the palm of his hand.
"You contemptible villain! How did you get your sinful hands on my sword?" asked the cornered superhero, a more noticeable tremor creeping into his strong tenor speaking voice. Maximus' free hand gripped the edge of the flowing cape he wore, and he swallowed hard as he felt the cold steel of his own weapon, the point digging slightly into his neck.
"Ah, ah, ah. My little secret," said Backslide in a sing-song voice while he continued to look straight at the centurion. "Now, since you wanted to know what we got in store for ya, here's a little preview." Sledgehammer fisted the cape and hurled Maximus down the narrow corridor; he stumbled into a room lit only by a single, flickering bulb hanging from a ceiling fixture. "Get in there, Whacksimus! Tie him down, boys!"
"Never! You will not torture me, I will not allow it!" cried the Magnum Centurion as he charged for Dan's four sidekicks so he could pummel them before they did anything to him. Instead, Sledgehammer, Crowbar, Flamethrower, and Chainsaw threw themselves at Maximus, then dragged him struggling to the center of the room.
"Uh-uh. I got a better idea," Jawbreaker parried as his buddies made tracks out of the room, quickly shutting and barring the doors just after Flamethrower got his booted foot past them to the other side. There came a barely audible hiss as Dan started to turn a valve on the opposite side of the doors, and a strong scent soon permeated the room. "Why not fight fire." A hand holding an object appeared from outside, and the superhero's eyes widened behind his dark visor as he realized what was about to happen to him.
".With fire?" The hand tossed in a lighter with a flame, and soon a ball of fire shot through the air, exploding towards Maximus. The Magnum Centurion, attempting to protect himself, dropped into a crouch and covered his body with his cape with one great sweep of his muscular arm. Dan and his lackeys had to brace themselves against the initial impact when the gas first flamed up, then they all crowded around to watch while the fire consumed the room. "Haha! So long, you corny superhero wanna-be! You're dead, gone! Gone, FOREVER!" Backslide got such a thrill from seeing his nemesis disintegrate into nothingness he was laughing like a madman. Yet, all of a sudden the plank across the handles of the double doors splintered, then shattered, and finally they burst open, flying off their hinges. All five gangsters stared at a sight that nearly caused each one of them to have a coronary: there was a ring of fire around most of the room, and in the middle the flames had shot up into the shape of a humongous eagle with spread wings. Standing directly under it, surrounded in a burning aura, was Maximus, now stronger than ever. A voice, full of timbre and ethereal-sounding, echoed throughout the room, but neither Dan nor any of his pals could understand the words, for they were in Latin.
"Aquila de Ignis, te impero! Surgo." The flames around the Magnum Centurion began to burn more intensely.
"Uh-oh," muttered Flamethrower, his eyes so wide they were nearly popping out of his Mohawked head.
"Surrexi." The Magnum Centurion's cape was now billowing majestically as the flaming eagle rose higher above him, poised to strike.
"I think we made him mad," Sledgehammer said nervously. For a guy as brawny and tough as that, he was ready to turn tail and run because he realized all five of them were about to get torched, and they didn't have superpowers to help them survive.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Chainsaw yelled back at the big lug. "What do you think?!"
"Let's get outta here!" yelped Crowbar as he sprinted down the hall and headed for the stairwell going up to the outside world. The others started to follow, but they only got partway to their destination because Maximus uttered the final word of the attack.
"SURRECTUM!!!!!!" The superhero threw his hands out in front of him and, with a terrifying screech, the fiery bird surged forward at lightning speed, barreling towards Dan and his fellow bikers. They turned to look back over their shoulders and screamed, then finally got their pistons pumping again as they tore up the stairs, around the corner, and burst out the main entrance. The inferno exploded onto the upper floors and quickly spread throughout the old building; meantime, Maximus flung his cape around himself and ran as fast and as hard as he could through the blaze, leaping over the dancing flames in his path. Dan had dropped the longsword as he fled the basement, and the superhero managed to grab it up while he swiftly ascended the stairs to the main floor. Finally, he found a spot where the fire had burst up and out to the roof, so he bent his muscular legs and shot upwards with all the coiled energy he could muster in them. The Magnum Centurion soon blasted out the top of the abandoned building and began a dive downwards, his arms swept back as he rocketed towards the ground. When he was only yards from the grass below, he brought his bulging arms forward and spread his cape like wings to slow his descent. Maximus landed in a crouch with cape wrapped around his hulking body, then he rose to his feet and pulled the sword out of its scabbard, pointing it towards the sky as he struck a triumphant, heroic pose, the cloth flying back over his wide shoulders. From his mouth burst forth one golden note, a powerful operatic tenor that was the same battle cry of the hero in the dream, whose identity was now part of Tom Dover. "Now you have tasted the power of Magnum Centurion Maximus, and your punishment will be swift! You wicked dastards attempted to violate an innocent girl, thus you shall pay for this heinous deed!" Keeping his sword held high, the steel blade began to shine with a brilliant gold light as he called upon his ultimate power: the Centurion's Justice Eagle, a huge bird of light that would cause anything it attacked to evaporate into thin air. Though earlier he knew he should not kill Dan Backslide and his gang, Tom was allowing the might of Magnum Centurion Maximus to overtake his mind and body, and for some reason he was not able to stop himself from saying the words that would summon the eagle.
"Aquila Centurius de Iustitia, te impero! Subruo."
"Oh, man!" cried Flamethrower, his eyes bugging wide again.
"Here we go again!" screamed Dan.
"Subruti." The eagle spread its wings and soared up out of the blade to hover over Maximus, waiting for his final command.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!!" shrieked Chainsaw as he and his friends quaked in fear, knowing that this was the end for them. Or so they thought, when they heard another voice, which sounded like it was quickly coming towards them.
"Police! Stay where you are!"
"It was awful," Mina was saying to a police officer who had arrived on the scene and was assessing her situation. When the cops had pulled onto the Pimento University campus, practically everyone in Culverton Hall was awakened, as well as those in the other residence buildings. Now there were people either milling about or being questioned by some of the officers. "I don't know how he managed to break into my dorm. But he and his friends had me surrounded before I knew what was going on; I didn't even have a chance to defend myself, because he had me pinned on my mattress by my wrists and suddenly his lips started traveling all over my face. One of his pals had a knife held to my neck while I screamed as loud as I could. They kept threatening to slit my throat if I didn't keep quiet and let him rape me, but apparently someone on my floor heard me because a guy from my ROTC class-he's an M-3 like me-came running into the room and chased them out."
"Are you okay now?" the officer asked in a kindly voice. He was young, apparently new on the local force, and he examined Mina with big, concerned eyes. "I want to make sure you're not hurt in any way."
"I'm fine now, thanks," she answered, sighing. "But it was really scary for me to go through. I think I'll be having nightmares about it for weeks."
"I'm sure it's a very frightening experience," said the officer. "Just know that we're here now, and we'll do everything we can to make sure you're safe and those guys don't attack you again. By the way, how many of them were there?"
"There were five," Mina replied. "It was Dan Backslide and his gang of bikers."
"I don't think I've heard of them," the young police officer said, a little confused.
"Well, I have," came a gruff voice. Standing over him and Mina was an older sergeant with dark hair and a mustache, both graying. He definitely had an air of experience around him, as he was more hardened to such situations than his younger colleague. "Those ruffians have been giving the department headaches since they first came to the university. We've brought them in I forget how many times because they were always causing trouble. I don't think I've known them to do something this, though; usually we just took them to the station for mischievous acts, but never for anything this violent."
"Where do you think they've gone?" the victim asked.
"Probably to their usual hideout, the basement of one of the old residence halls," the sergeant said. Mina gasped.
"You mean.The Dungeon, under Vernon Hall?" she blurted, starting to panic all over again as she remembered her boyfriend, Tom, saying he was going out to track down the gang. "Tom might be down there! He could be hurt, or trapped! My boyfriend, he's in danger if he ended up in that basement! Who knows what Dan and those horrible friends of his could be doing to him!"
"It-it's okay, miss. Please, just calm down," the young cop said, trying to soothe the frightened girl. He took one of her hands in his and put his other arm around her. "I'll stay here with you so you're safe. Meantime, Sergeant Peterson and his men will go to Vernon Hall's basement to get your boyfriend out and catch the scum who tried to hurt you. Everything's going to be okay, I promise." The police sergeant motioned to the other officers around.
"Alright, men! Move out, let's go!" Sergeant Peterson waved the officers out the door of the building, then they ran across the green in the middle of the campus towards Vernon Hall.
*~*~*~*~*
For the longest time, there was nothing but total darkness. Then, there was the sound of water dripping from somewhere in the blackness. It was a steady, constant drip, the kind of noise that would drive a sane person mad. Slowly, Tom Dover-still disguised as the Magnum Centurion-was coming into consciousness again, his eyes first beginning to shift under their lids. Then, they lightly fluttered open as he was becoming aware of his surroundings; behind the tinted visor hiding his eyes, Maximus could make out a dim, dank place. It appeared as if he were in a dungeon or something: the walls were made of hard stone, as was the floor beneath his large body. The superhero felt the chill seep through his spandex bodysuit, and he shivered slightly as it did a horridly slow dance up and down his spine. Fortunately, the ringing in his ears had ceased and all that was left was a dull throbbing in his head, but he would deal with it when he de-transformed and made it back to his dorm. As he was mulling this thought, he suddenly felt himself forcefully jerked to his feet and slammed against the nearby wall. Shaking his head roughly as the pounding worsened, he came face-to-face with his archenemy, Dan Backslide.
"Sleep well, Dorksimus?" the gang leader sneered at the captured hero, who was still somewhat disoriented. "I hope so, because you'll want to be awake for what's coming next."
"What might-unhand me! Unhand me, I say!" Maximus barked at Flamethrower and Chainsaw, who had grabbed his wrists in an attempt to hold him against the wall. He shook them off and stared down Backslide with armored chest thrust out and head held high, making known that he would not be overcome so easily. "What might be coming next, you dirty coward? Nothing that you do can ever crush the spirit and power of the heroic Maximus, noble champion of righteousness!" That aura, which seemed to shine around the superhero earlier when he had Dan down for the count, was practically visible again as he proclaimed he would stand firm even in the face of danger. Instead, Backslide and his followers continued to leer at the Magnum Centurion.
"Oh, but you will do as we tell you, if you want to live," Dan snickered as his eyes narrowed with malice. "If you don't cooperate with me and my boys, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to off you. You, uh, catch my drift?" With a grin of pure evil, he lifted the eagle-hilted longsword and pointed the blade at the hero's throat. The slight gasp from Maximus as he pressed himself flatter against the wall and one broad hand flying to his chest in shock was all Backslide needed to know that he had the Magnum Centurion in the palm of his hand.
"You contemptible villain! How did you get your sinful hands on my sword?" asked the cornered superhero, a more noticeable tremor creeping into his strong tenor speaking voice. Maximus' free hand gripped the edge of the flowing cape he wore, and he swallowed hard as he felt the cold steel of his own weapon, the point digging slightly into his neck.
"Ah, ah, ah. My little secret," said Backslide in a sing-song voice while he continued to look straight at the centurion. "Now, since you wanted to know what we got in store for ya, here's a little preview." Sledgehammer fisted the cape and hurled Maximus down the narrow corridor; he stumbled into a room lit only by a single, flickering bulb hanging from a ceiling fixture. "Get in there, Whacksimus! Tie him down, boys!"
"Never! You will not torture me, I will not allow it!" cried the Magnum Centurion as he charged for Dan's four sidekicks so he could pummel them before they did anything to him. Instead, Sledgehammer, Crowbar, Flamethrower, and Chainsaw threw themselves at Maximus, then dragged him struggling to the center of the room.
"Uh-uh. I got a better idea," Jawbreaker parried as his buddies made tracks out of the room, quickly shutting and barring the doors just after Flamethrower got his booted foot past them to the other side. There came a barely audible hiss as Dan started to turn a valve on the opposite side of the doors, and a strong scent soon permeated the room. "Why not fight fire." A hand holding an object appeared from outside, and the superhero's eyes widened behind his dark visor as he realized what was about to happen to him.
".With fire?" The hand tossed in a lighter with a flame, and soon a ball of fire shot through the air, exploding towards Maximus. The Magnum Centurion, attempting to protect himself, dropped into a crouch and covered his body with his cape with one great sweep of his muscular arm. Dan and his lackeys had to brace themselves against the initial impact when the gas first flamed up, then they all crowded around to watch while the fire consumed the room. "Haha! So long, you corny superhero wanna-be! You're dead, gone! Gone, FOREVER!" Backslide got such a thrill from seeing his nemesis disintegrate into nothingness he was laughing like a madman. Yet, all of a sudden the plank across the handles of the double doors splintered, then shattered, and finally they burst open, flying off their hinges. All five gangsters stared at a sight that nearly caused each one of them to have a coronary: there was a ring of fire around most of the room, and in the middle the flames had shot up into the shape of a humongous eagle with spread wings. Standing directly under it, surrounded in a burning aura, was Maximus, now stronger than ever. A voice, full of timbre and ethereal-sounding, echoed throughout the room, but neither Dan nor any of his pals could understand the words, for they were in Latin.
"Aquila de Ignis, te impero! Surgo." The flames around the Magnum Centurion began to burn more intensely.
"Uh-oh," muttered Flamethrower, his eyes so wide they were nearly popping out of his Mohawked head.
"Surrexi." The Magnum Centurion's cape was now billowing majestically as the flaming eagle rose higher above him, poised to strike.
"I think we made him mad," Sledgehammer said nervously. For a guy as brawny and tough as that, he was ready to turn tail and run because he realized all five of them were about to get torched, and they didn't have superpowers to help them survive.
"No shit, Sherlock!" Chainsaw yelled back at the big lug. "What do you think?!"
"Let's get outta here!" yelped Crowbar as he sprinted down the hall and headed for the stairwell going up to the outside world. The others started to follow, but they only got partway to their destination because Maximus uttered the final word of the attack.
"SURRECTUM!!!!!!" The superhero threw his hands out in front of him and, with a terrifying screech, the fiery bird surged forward at lightning speed, barreling towards Dan and his fellow bikers. They turned to look back over their shoulders and screamed, then finally got their pistons pumping again as they tore up the stairs, around the corner, and burst out the main entrance. The inferno exploded onto the upper floors and quickly spread throughout the old building; meantime, Maximus flung his cape around himself and ran as fast and as hard as he could through the blaze, leaping over the dancing flames in his path. Dan had dropped the longsword as he fled the basement, and the superhero managed to grab it up while he swiftly ascended the stairs to the main floor. Finally, he found a spot where the fire had burst up and out to the roof, so he bent his muscular legs and shot upwards with all the coiled energy he could muster in them. The Magnum Centurion soon blasted out the top of the abandoned building and began a dive downwards, his arms swept back as he rocketed towards the ground. When he was only yards from the grass below, he brought his bulging arms forward and spread his cape like wings to slow his descent. Maximus landed in a crouch with cape wrapped around his hulking body, then he rose to his feet and pulled the sword out of its scabbard, pointing it towards the sky as he struck a triumphant, heroic pose, the cloth flying back over his wide shoulders. From his mouth burst forth one golden note, a powerful operatic tenor that was the same battle cry of the hero in the dream, whose identity was now part of Tom Dover. "Now you have tasted the power of Magnum Centurion Maximus, and your punishment will be swift! You wicked dastards attempted to violate an innocent girl, thus you shall pay for this heinous deed!" Keeping his sword held high, the steel blade began to shine with a brilliant gold light as he called upon his ultimate power: the Centurion's Justice Eagle, a huge bird of light that would cause anything it attacked to evaporate into thin air. Though earlier he knew he should not kill Dan Backslide and his gang, Tom was allowing the might of Magnum Centurion Maximus to overtake his mind and body, and for some reason he was not able to stop himself from saying the words that would summon the eagle.
"Aquila Centurius de Iustitia, te impero! Subruo."
"Oh, man!" cried Flamethrower, his eyes bugging wide again.
"Here we go again!" screamed Dan.
"Subruti." The eagle spread its wings and soared up out of the blade to hover over Maximus, waiting for his final command.
"WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!!" shrieked Chainsaw as he and his friends quaked in fear, knowing that this was the end for them. Or so they thought, when they heard another voice, which sounded like it was quickly coming towards them.
"Police! Stay where you are!"
