Adventures in Trinity - Volume 1
Volume 1 shows the formation of the Trinity of Heroes and the rise of superhuman threats, covering the Apex story arc.
Adventure of the Cursed Coins
In a laundromat near the Trinity College campus, a dryer comes to life and swallows a young woman in front of army veteran, sometime drug dealer, and secretly super-powered Scott Conroy. Nearby Jen, a sorceress hiding from her evil family senses powerful magic from the laundromat, and tech-sensitive student Londyn detects the sudden disappearance of the devoured woman's cell phone. Thrown together by chance or fate, the three work together as more objects around Trinity City become magically animated and attack people. They identify the source as normal coins that have been cursed to produce a chaos magic effect when they are inserted into an item. They trace the coins to an Adept of the dark arts bent on causing chaos just as he has unleashed a batch of the cursed coins on a charity casino night. Working together as a team the three stop the rampaging magically animated slot machines and are able to gather all the remaining coins before more damage can be done, with Jen later removing the magic from the coins so they can't cause any more problems. The Adept escapes, but turns up dead days later, ritually murdered by someone. The public wonders if Trinity City has its own team of super-heroes now.
Foreshadowing
A series of art thefts conducted by a group of super-powered thieves draws brings the three reluctant heroes together again. They identify some members of the gang, allowing them to track them down before they can flee Trinity City with their ill-gotten loot. A confrontation between the trio and the gang, a quartet calling themselves Four-Shadow, attracts the attention of the police and the media. The villains escape, but have to leave the stolen art behind where it is recovered by the authorities. The media start referring to the trio as the Trinity of Heroes.
Animal Kingdom
The three get more closely acquainted with each other, leading to an unfortunate incident where Londyn, appalled by the conditions of Scott's apartment, unintentionally causes the building where he lives to be shut down for multiple health and building code violations. A homeless Scott moves into the abandoned house where Jen has been living while the three start investigating the disappearance of several homeless teenagers. Londyn traces one of the teenagers' phones to a pawn shop and Scott and Jen are able to recover the phone along with ones belonging to some of the other missing teens. With the information on the phones Londyn pinpoints a location on the edge of the Steeltown district. The three take Scott's car to check out the site and are attacked by a pair of men, one who transforms into a human-wolf hybrid and the other into a human-bat hybrid. Scott's car is wrecked in the fight but the trio manage to drive away their attackers. The location turns out to be secret laboratory hidden in an abandoned industrial site and is guarded by strange bat-winged dogs. They get past the dogs and nside they find three of the missing teens along with several captive animals. The trio rescue the teens and release the animals before the lab self-destructs. The trio leave as the authorities arrive to investigate the explosion, making sure the teens will be taken care of. Londyn keeps one of the freed animals, a turtle, as a pet.
Downsized
Though in denial of it, the three have become a team and they try and learn more about the destroyed lab and who might have been behind it. Londyn starts setting up a place for herself in Jen's house, including getting the house hooked up with electricity to run her computer equipment and setting aside a room for her new pet turtle, named Bernoulli. Exploring the house more the three discover one corner of the attic that has angles that defy physics; they elect to tape it off and will later name it "Bruce". To help her keep an eye on things Londyn sets up some computer equipment with a search algorithm to help scan for future events in the city that might warrant to trio's attention. This monitoring system is named Stoptimus Crime, and soon after being set up it alerts Londyn to a recent rash of luxury car thefts. Staking out the parking at a hotel hosting a gala event the trio find the criminal Downsizer who has been using his power to reduce the size of objects to shrink the cars he is stealing and simply walk away with them in his pocket. Downsizer escapes by shrinking Scott, but the effect wears off in a few hours and the trio are able to trace the recently stolen vehicles to a garage in Mechanicsville that acts as a chop shop. They arrive to find the police have done the same and are engaged in a shootout with gang running the chop shop, who are aided by Downsizer. The trio step in and take down the gang and Downsizer. Media coverage and a burgeoning online fandom christen Scott and Jen as Adrenaline and the Hooded Sorceress while Londyn, who has only been observed as a disembodied voice remote controlling drones and other electronics is called the Technical Witch, soon shortened to just Twitch. The more recently stolen cars are recovered by the authorities but the trio keep one, feeling they have a better use for it than its rich owner who has insurance, and they trade it in at an-other Rust Belt garage for a black utility van they can use for transport replacing Scott's wrecked car.
Dragon's Den
Londyn has fully moved into the House with Jen and Scott though she keeps her student apartment around for emergencies, and so her parents do not learn she has started rooming with "questionable" people. News reports come in of a major disturbance in the city's downtown core, with police evacuating the area and military jets be-ing called in. The disturbance turns out to be an actual dragon, a giant fire-breathing lizard with leathery wings and all, wreaking havoc. While Londyn hangs back and tries to figure out where the dragon came from, Jen and Scott head into downtown to engage the creature. After the dragon throws Scott through a Starbucks Jen attempts to cast a spell to send the dragon back where it came from. The spell goes wrong and opens a portal to a different dimension, pulling in Scott and Jen as well as the dragon. In a strange realm of large slabs of rock floating through strange colored skies the battle with the dragon continues until at last Scott is able to knock it out. Jen then transports herself and Scott back to Trinity City, leaving the dragon behind. The trio then trace the dragon's path of destruction back to the ruins of demolished low-rise apartment building. Some online research by Londyn finds posts from a trio of nerds who had apparently discovered some legitimate books of magic and accidentally summoned the dragon. More investigation reveals the book shad come from a landlord getting rid of the possessions of a tenant who had disappeared, and Jen wonders if the tenant was the Black Adept responsible for the cursed coins. Finding more of the possessions leads to the Trinity College library and reveals the tenant had been the dark magician and Jen learns from her librarian contact that the man had been researching pre-Columbian art and something called the Legend of the Grey Man. Elsewhere the Blackthorne Family sees news footage of the fight with the dragon and they recognize the Hooded Sorceress as their lost member Iphigenia.
Family Reunion
Londyn feels like she is being watched while she is out shopping so reviews footage from nearby security cameras. Jen recognizes the face of her half-sister Electra in the footage, and then spots her uncle Hermes and cousin Telemachus as well; the Blackthorne Family has tracked down their wayward daughter. Since the Family appears to be following Londyn to try and find Jen, the trio decide to set a trap using Londyn as bait. With Scott and Jen keeping keeping an eye on her, Londyn heads out again and soon Telemachus starts following her. Londyn fakes a seizure, luring in Telemachus and she starts to awkwardly try and seduce him. The two wind up at an ice cream bar and surprisingly start to bond. Electra contacts Jen and says she has no interest in her being brought back into the fold, proposing a plan to deceive their uncle Hermes. Jen reluctantly agrees and the two stage a magic battle where Jen eventually appears to come out on top. Electra uses this outcome to convince Hermes to leave Jen in Trinity City and wait for a better opportunity to bring her back in. The Blackthornes leave the city, but Telemachus and Londyn exchange contact information and later set up a covert means of staying in communication with each other.
Cat and Mouse
Trinity College student services calls in Londyn to raise concerns about her recent absences from her classes, even though it does not appear to be affecting her academic performance yet. College officials wonder if she is not being stimulated enough and offer to arrange for a co-op position for Londyn at Genesys Technologies. Meanwhile, Stoptimus Crime raises an alert about recent hospital admissions of people seeking treatment for animal attacks, but with no corresponding police or animal control reports. The trio dig into the three victims discover that all three appear to be involved in either human trafficking or child pornography. After anonymously passing on the information they have found to the authorities, Londyn hacks the GPS in each of the three's cars and pinpoints a common location in The Forge where the attacks seem to have occurred. Heading to the area the three spot familiar faces, the three teens they had rescued from a criminal genetics lab weeks earlier. Jen also spots a mysterious black van in the area, and when she and Scott go to check it out they recognize the two men in the van as the Wolf-Man and Bat-Man they had fought when they went after the genetics lab. The trio go on the attack, and learn the black van also holds several of the flying mutant guard dogs they had also seen at the lab. Scott fights with the Wolf-Man and Jen takes to the skies to deal with the Bat-Man and the dogs. Mid-fight the battle is joined by the three teens, who suddenly transform into cat-people. The two girls help Scott against the Wolf-Man while the boy picks up the van and tosses it into the air to scatter the dogs and distract the Bat-Man. Outnumbered, the two flee with the Bat-Man grabbing the Wolf-Man and flying away with the dogs. The trio and the teens sit down and have a long talk, with the trio explaining how they had rescued the teens from the lab and made sure they got medical attention, and the teens explaining how they discovered the experiments in the lab had changed them.
Building a Mystery
To try and deal with some of the growing pains of learning to live together at the house, the trio hang up a whiteboard and start using it to list house rules. Londyn starts her co-op job at Genesys Technologies, working in the cryptography group in the Computer Science division at the Think-Tank. Meanwhile, Scott heads back to the Forge to check on the Cat Gang and see if there are any clues left by the Wolf-Man and Bat-Man. At Trinity College, Jen digs more into the research the Black Adept had been doing at the library. Doing so she finds references to an early 20th Century adventurer archaeologist named Richard Adair who had led an expedition to South America that found ruins linked to the Grey Man legend, but by the 1920s he was discredited and disap-peared in the 1930s. At Genesys, Londyn meets co-workers who turn out to be fans of the Trinity of Heroes and learns how deeply the fandom has developed in the short time since the trip first appeared in public. Londyn also learns that Genesys has started working with the local authorities and with CHIEF, the new federal agency that deals with "extra-normal" activity, to help investigate superhuman crimes. They've collected blood samples from some of the crime scenes, which Londyn realizes might include blood samples from Scott and Jen. Since Scott was military, they are worried the authorities might be able to identify him by his DNA, but the fears are somewhat assuaged when they learn the US military's DNA database can only be used for identifying remains, not for DNA matching in criminal investigations. In any case, there is little the trio can do about it for now.
Touch of Grey
Jen continues her research into the Legend of the Grey Man and of Richard Adair. She discovers that Adair, while originally from England, had spent the last years of his life here in Trinity City. After being discredited in England he had come to the United States in order to continue his research and attempt to prove his theories had been right. Needing money, Adair had taught history and archaeology at Trinity College for a few years in the 1930s before his reputation caught up with him and led to his dismissal and after this he seems to disappear and is believed to have died a year or two later, though there is no evidence of this. The College records have Adair's last known address, a former rooming house that is still around, though was converted into student housing in the 1970s. Londyn makes a fake social media post announcing a house party at the location to give the trio an opportunity to go in and look around without raising suspicion. At the house Jen attempts to use magic to learn anything about Adair through object reading the older walls, but too much time had passed and she gets nothing. Londyn switches focus and looks back into the Legend of the Grey Man. Based on the story, she starts to wonder if the Grey Man and his enemy the Sky Warrior had been ancient aliens. She develops a different theory after a chance meeting with Dr. Jacob Wiseman, a scientist at Genesys who is researching the Wave and superhumans. While talking with Dr. Wiseman, Londyn wonders if the Wave could have struck Earth in the distant past. Wiseman says there might be traces somewhere in the geologic record, if they can identify effects from the Wave and then look for the same thing in older records. Londyn mentions her theory to Telemachus in one of their covert conversations, and he wonders if maybe such a Primal Wave could be the origin of the ancient gods of mythology, and maybe even the original source of Magic.
Truth or Consequences
Stoptimus Crime alerts the trio to some kind of superhuman disturbance at a mall. They head there and find a stone giant tearing into a bulk food store. After a brief fight the trio realize the giant is not a threat and once the situation settles the stone giant changes back to a twenty-something guy, who Scott recognizes was at the house party the team had been at and that Scott had sold him some weed there. The Stoner is arrested by the police, then handed over to CHIEF who take him to Genesys for study. When Londyn is back at Genesys she makes a point to try and eavesdrop on Dr. Wiseman to see if she can pick up anything from he research on the new arrival. When she hears mention of a "compound" of some kind she decides to hack into the Genesys files to see what they have found. From the files Londyn learns that the scientists at Genesys had identified a strange mutagenic compound at the site of the explosion that had destroyed the illegal genetics lab and initially had wondered if this was linked to superhuman abilities. Lester, the Stoner, turns out to have tested negative for any trace of the compound, so they have abandoned this theory. Londyn does some research into the compound and manages to link it to a discredited geneticist named Dr. Joshua Stone. Could Dr. Stone be responsible for the illegal lab and the Wolf-Man, Bat-Man and bat-winged dogs?
Chimera
Following up on the link between the destroyed genetics lab and a Dr. Joshua Stone, Londyn tracks the doctor to a mysterious company called Chimera Research. The company has a small office in Trinity City, so Londyn bluffs her way in as a food delivery person and is able to access the company computer network. From there she is able to link Chimera to the megacorporation Apex Pharmaceuticals. Some of the research at Chimera traces to recent beauty products from Apex subsidiaries, so the team buys a few samples to test for themselves. Trying out the perfumes and deodorants produces no obvious effects on the trio so they try a different tack. Among the other data Londyn found in her hack was a series of orders for large amounts of meat delivered to an address in the expensive Edgewood area of Trinity. Taking a quick look they see that the address is a walled and gated estate bordering on the forests of Mount Stanley National Park. The trio feel it would be easier to approach the estate from the forest so they travel through the park. As they approach the compound's walls the three come under attack by a small pack of the bat-winged guard dogs they had faced before. Scott and Jen are able to defeat the dogs and the three carry on, sneaking over the wall and onto the estate grounds. Londyn is able to disable the security system at the main house, allowing the three to get into the large manor. They quickly confirm they are at the right place when they spot their old foes the Wolf-Man and Bat-Man as well as others they do not recognize. Jen casts a spell to turn Londyn invisible, both to protect her and to let her sneak around while Jen and Scott try and distract the building residents. As Jen and Scott draw away and engage the security they discover that the other guards are also human-animal hybrids, including a Crocodile-Man and Turtle-Man. While this is going on Londyn is able to locate a secret lab down in the basement. She gains access and is shocked to see what appears to be an alien Scourge soldier. Outnumbered and at risk, Jen and Scott have to retreat and Londyn has to sneak out on her own. Thankfully Jen's invisibility spell lasts long enough for all three to safely get out.
Apex Predators
After spending the night recovering from they attempt to infiltrate the Apex Pharmaceuticals estate, the trio tries to figure out their next move. In the morning both Jen and Londyn have to go to their respective jobs At Genesys, Londyn is called to the front desk and asked if she has her passport with her. When she says it is at home, a woman named Gemma takes Londyn by helicopter to the house (or to the street, as Jen's spell prevents those not allowed from finding the house). Londyn texts Scott asking him to bring her passport and a bag, which he delivers to the helicopter when it lands in the middle of the street. From there Gemma flies Londyn to the airport where the two board a private plane that soon takes off, bound for England. On board Londyn senses strange computer activity so she connects to the network and hacks in, discovering a virtual environment where she meets Trevor Brand, who is surprised at her ability to access it. Brand, better known as Omni-Man of the Protectors, deduces that Londyn is Twitch of the Trinity of Heroes and he explains that he is responsible for Genesys Technologies. It is one of several Think-Tanks that Brand has set up around the world to work on advances to help the world adapt to a Post-Wave paradigm. He had planned to recruit Londyn to one of his special teams, but knowing she is one of Trinity City's super heroes he feels it is better to leave her there, so the plane turns around and brings Londyn home.
When Londyn gets back to the house and tells them what happened both Jen and Scott are not pleased that Omni-Man now knows so much about them, but they choose to focus their attention back on Apex Pharmaceuticals and what is happening at the estate. Ready for another attempt to get in to the main house and the secret lab, the trio know it will be much harder since their failed attempt has put the enemy on alert. Scott proposes a frontal assault as a distraction and he recruits the Cat Gang to help. That night Scott rams a rental SUV through the front gate of the estate and he and the Cats start attacking the other Animal Men guards. While this is happening Jen once again casts a spell to make Londyn invisible and magically teleports her into the house. Londyn again sneaks down to the lab only to discover that whatever they were working on is finished and the lab, including the specimen of the alien Scourge, is being packed up. She hacks the computers and learns that Dr. Stone has been using the genetic material and techniques he has perfected with his human-animal hybrids to cure the head of Apex Pharmaceuticals of a degenerative disease, while also giving him animal-based powers. Londyn records what she is seeing and sends the recording, and several of the files she has accessed from the computers, to CHIEF as Jen teleports her out of there. Scott and the Cats leave just as the authorities arrive and discover the illegal genetic material, the alien specimen and other evidence. With the animal-powered guards already taken out by Scott and the Cats, CHIEF has no problem subduing and arresting everyone at the scene, including Dr. Stone and Apex CEO Adrian Pierce.