DP 7 Issue Guide #6

Issue 14:
Cliques

It'd been about a month since Phillip Voigt and Dexter Charne were... removed from the Clinic, and things had seemingly returning to normal. As it sits, the Clinic, needing to trim its budget some, had assigned the paranormals treated within with jobs to help run the facility. While waiting to see what her job would be, Charlotte Beck was using her powers to perform advanced dance techniques when Jeffrey Walters interrupted her.

Surprised to find her dancing on the ceiling, Jeffrey was momentarily confused. He quickly recovered however, and remembered why he was there in the first place: to tell her what job the Clinic heads gave her. He eventually let her know (after teasing her for a bit) that she was given the job of being the receptionist at the Clinic... which she found somewhat disappointing (she had hoped to be a dance instructor).

Upstairs, Randy was talking with Dr. Semple about his issues with his antibodies - particularly with the one that killed Charne. He was feeling continual guilt about Charne's death, as his 'killer' antibody relayed the sensory data of it killing the man to him, and Randy couldn't get the images out of his head. Dr. Semple tried to reassure him that, not having control over their actions, he wasn't responsible for the act.

As he walked out, Randy was accosted by Tangler and and Freefall, two of the paranormals from therapy group b who haunted him in his Charne-induced hallucinations. Of course, the activities of those two clowns in Randy's dreams was based on their real life behavior, and Randy expected to get harassed by one or both of the surly duo's powers - only to be surprised. They declined to pester him because they had 'respectable' jobs now.

They were given the job of maintaining Clinic security!

Underwhelmed with the reasoning there, Randy wandered off, unaware that his antibodies had inadvertently wandered into Charlotte's bathroom - while she was in the shower, no less! Confronting him, Randy tried to proclaim his innocence but Charlotte was having none of it. Mind you, she had a 'thing' for the man, and had for some time, so she used that as an excuse to rope him into a dinner date with her that night.

Later, while preparing for said dinner date, Charlotte had two unexpected visitors: Indigo and Chill. These two paranormals were recent additions to the Clinic, and were assigned to therapy group d... before branching off on their own. They'd decided that they were going to form their own therapy group, composed entirely of black paranormals housed in the Clinic: the so-called Black Powers. And they wanted Charlotte to join.

She wasn't too thrilled with the idea, mind you, not being militant like Indigo was. Begging them off for the time being, Charlotte got on with her evening, and was watching 'Top Hat' with Randy. He seemed oblivious to her more subtle advances, so she got somewhat blunt - which caused him to reflexively recoil. Asking what was wrong with the man, Charlotte found out that Randy couldn't date her because he took dating 'seriously'.

And since, because of his 'small town upbringing', he felt he couldn't marry Charlotte due to her color - and since he couldn't do that, he didn't feel comfortable giving in to his physical attraction to her. Obviously, this torqued Charlotte off to no end, and when seeking someone to talk to about it, she fell afoul of Tangler and Freefall. These two tried to harass her, but she warded them off with her powers.

But by this point, she was furious.

Between Randy's rejection of her and being assaulted in the stairwell by those two goons, Charlotte went down to Indigo's room and joined up with her 'Black Powers' crew despite her previous misgivings. She told her friends in therapy group c what she was up to that next morning, only to be bawled out by Jeffrey - who rejected Indigo's militant 'rap' out of hand. Mind you, with Randy sitting there, she wasn't going to be talked out of it.

Joining the first meeting of the Black Powers, the group decided that all this 'talking' about their problems wasn't doing much good... that they needed to do something about them! And their primary problem seemed to be the 'rampant' racism present in the Clinic. They opted to take action against the racists amongst the Clinic's patients, starting with of course the two worst of the bunch: Tangler and Freefall.

Ambushing them as they did their security rounds in the parking lot, the Black Powers wrecked them up real good, though Charlotte was having doubts about participating in such brutality.... as was Squirm, another member of the group. As she debated what to do, Charlotte saw one of Randy's antibodies spying on the proceedings, and let the other Black Powers know. They then made their move against Randy while he was working out.

Randy tried talking them out of violence, but when Chill used his powers on him, one of his antibodies reflexively attacked the man. This started an all and out brawl, particularly when more of Randy's antibodies showed up to fight off the gang of black paranormals. Charlotte ran out at this point, not having wanted to (physically) hurt Randy at all, only to be met moments later by Jeffrey, who was alerted to this mess by another antibody.

Not about to let his good buddy get pounded into paste, Jeffrey then single-handledly trounced all of the other Black Powers.

Later, the rest of therapy group c was talking about what happened to Tangler and Freefall, trying to figure out what happened. David Landers noted that he was being moved to security since the other two couldn't 'cut' it - and were in intensive care now. He noted that nobody else was talking much, oblivious to the strange rift that had grown between Randy and Charlotte, much less the rest of the tensions at play around him of late...!

Issue 15:
Hunger

Our tale begins one night at the Clinic for Paranormal Research, where we find Jeffrey Walters watching an old, black and white horror movie on his aging television. His entertainment was interrupted by Lenore Fenzl however, who was there for his nightly 'treatment'. You see, her power was the only thing on earth that could drop Jeffrey into a deep sleep without the use of heavy drugs - he could only sleep for an hour otherwise.

What with his continual vibrations and all that.

Knocking him out, Lenore went to work off the excess energy she'd absorbed from the man's heightened metabolism in the Clinic's gymnasium. Hopping on a treadmill, her mind began to race even has her body did. She couldn't help but notice that her nightly workouts to burn off energy were getting longer and longer, and that she found herself enjoying the energies of others more and more...

Her contemplation was interrupted by one of Randy O'Brien's antibodies, however. It hopped onto the treadmill next to Lenore and began to mimic her motions, even though the machine wasn't even on. Overwhelmed by curiosity, Lenore decided to try using her power on the transient being, and found that it did work to some extent; the antibody recoiled and fled upon being exposed to her deleterious light.

Meanwhile, Randy himself awoke from another nightmare. He'd been having awful dreams about killing people, this time Charlotte Beck. This led him to mope about how he'd treated Charlotte, and he went into the bathroom to clear his head. Just then, the antibody that fled Lenore's light came back to him - but it turned out this was the so-called 'killer' antibody he'd been trying so hard to rid himself of!

Randy chased it off, telling it that he wanted it dead (thus causing himself even more worry about his 'murderous' urges). As it ran away, it flew through the room of Evan Huebner, the young orphan who'd hosted Randy's original antibody for some time. Of course, this was a different antibody, since that original one died horribly, so it didn't recognize the kid when he tried to wave the creature down.

Come morning, Randy was in bad shape as he got breakfast from the Clinic cafeteria. After Jeffrey gave him his meal, Randy sat down at the table only to be asked about his condition by Lenore. All the while, Scuzz was laughing about the condition of the place, and how the 'inmates were running the asylum'. At this point, Randy saw Charlotte - hanging out with her new 'friends' in the Black Powers.

Feeling guilty again, Randy left to do his medical rounds, at which point he met up with Tangler and Freefall. He tried to get the duo to come clean about what'd happened to them, but they refused. When Freefall got uppity with his powers and bounced Randy into the ceiling, one of his antibodies hopped out and defended him - further injuring Freefall in the process. And, of course, causing Randy even more angst.

Lenore, meanwhile, had gotten on with her workouts, still having an abundance of energy to expend. While doing so, she was relentlessly complimented by Juris Ziegler, who was at first going on about how she'd been physically improving almost every day. His compliments got more saucy over time, practically embarrassing Lenore... though at the same time, she found them quite compelling for some reason.

Later that day, she was teaching in the Clinic's school when Evan's activities caused him to be held after for detention. While monitoring his make-up work in reading, Lenore found herself overcome with the sudden hunger for his energies, his very life force. Thinking to only take 'a little', she knocked the kid out cold before she even knew what she was doing - much to her horror.

Randy, meanwhile, was in therapy with Dr. Semple, and talking about how he thought he was cracking up. The lack of sleep, including the stress of dealing with his 'killer' antibody, was pushing him to the edge. She decided to try and help him above and beyond the visualization techniques Juris Ziegler had taught him, and began to coach Randy in the fine arts of hypnotism, to build a 'mental trap' for the rogue antibody...

While Randy tried to work out his issues, so did Lenore. She decided that her addiction was becoming a danger to those around her, and was going to cut herself off from everyone until she could beat it. This started with her ceasing to help Jeffrey sleep at night, though she offered to zonk him out one more time since it was on such short notice that she stopped helping him. She meant to go to her room then, but events forced her hand.

You see, those Black Powers thugs happened across Randy in the halls that night, and decided to hassle him some more. This caused a second brawl between him and the paranormal gang, which quickly escalated out of control. This only got worse once Randy was knocked unconscious, as he couldn't stop his antibodies from continuing on with their fight against the Black Powers. Hearing the commotion, Lenore came running at once.

Stopping this mess the only way she knew how, Lenore zapped everyone present with her vampiric ability, and knocked all of the Black Powers out, as well as Randy's many antibodies. Mind you, this only served to supercharge her body even more, the effects of which renewed her resolve to beat her addiction to the life forces of others once and for all - even if it meant her body returning to its original state, due to a lack of fresh energy.

Of course, she was going to indulge in one more activity before her new found youth faded. Before she would isolate herself, Lenore made a curious call to Juris Ziegler, asking him to come up to her room... and to bring some non-toxic paint with which to cover her skin...!

Nearby, Randy found that his work with Dr. Semple was not for naught. When his 'killer' antibody tried to come 'home' to roost while he was asleep, Randy instantly noticed despite being asleep, and was able to ward it off at long last. As it fled, it happened across Evan's room once more, and when the child offered to host it, the antibody was more than ready to take him up on that offer, as weak as it was...

Issue 16:
Rumble

Outside the Clinic for Paranormal Research, we find Scuzz demonstrating his powers are to a series of young paranormals. Feeling that everyone else had a 'gang' going on, Scuzz had decided to make his own - recruiting all the paranormals under the age of twenty he could. This team, which he dubbed the D.D.Teens, was to compete directly with the Black Powers and anyone else grouping up in the Clinic.

After showcasing his own powers, Scuzz told everyone else to show him what they had. Joel Larson demonstrated his ability to generate energy-negating balls, Annie Stevenson her vibratory abilities, Evan Huebner his so-called Shadowman, and the Clinic's newest patient, Michael Crawley, destroyed an abandoned car with his psychokinetic ability. And then there was young Heather Hanneman, with her power to make rainclouds.

While the youngsters discussed picking code names for themselves, they were beset by David Landers - who'd been doing his rounds about the building and noticed all the kids hanging out outside after dark. Having everyone head back in, David tried to talk some sense into Scuzz, reminding him that the Clinic's rules were there for their protection - to keep the normals from finding out about the place.

This didn't really stick of course, and Scuzz just made his way inside the Clinic to have a chat with Charlotte Beck - attempting to recruit her, too, into his growing gang of underage malcontents. Still a member of the Black Powers, Charlotte wasn't about to do anything of the sort - and at just that moment, Blindspot appeared to let Charlotte know that Indigo was looking for her - so she ran off to see what the deal was.

Elsewhere in the Clinic, Jeffrey Walters was running around in an excited hurry, trying to let people know what he'd seen on the news. Apparently, some costumed maniac had shown up in Pittsburgh, and was doing the whole super-hero thing! He told Randy about it (as soon as he could slow himself down enough to be understood), and then quickly spread the news around the Clinic as fast as he could (which is pretty fast, really).

That next morning, various paranormals were buzzing about this so-called Star Brand character in the cafeteria, when Scuzz showed up to tell Dr. Semple he was dropping out of her therapy group to found his own. While he broke the news to her, the Black Powers goons began to intimidate several other paranormals, and Scuzz tried once again to horn in on Indigo's action by recruiting Charlotte.

Indigo wasn't about to let this go unanswered however, and brutally attacked the kid with her strange, indigo-colored projections. David broke up this brouhaha, though the event only served to set Scuzz off. After Joel mocked him for his helplessness against Indigo, Scuzz decided it was time to up the ante, and was going to start a brawl between his 'gang' and the Black Powers - as soon as he and his fellows were ready.

Joel wasn't about to join in on this act of stupidity however, and refused to join the others when they sought out the Black Powers. As soon as Evan found them, the D.D.Teens set out on their mission of dumb. Annie stunned the lot of them out of their inexplicable dance party while Michael destroyed Chill's boom box. With that, the gauntlet had been thrown down, and the two paranormal gangs started a brawl!

Naturally, this fight doesn't go too well for the D.D.Teens. They were outnumbered and outgunned, both in experience and raw power. Their one 'big gun', Michael Crawley, couldn't even use his power for fear of killing someone. Things quickly escalated out of control, only settling down for a moment when Charlotte used her friction control powers to stick everyone to the floor, stopping the bedlam for a short time.

Of course, Indigo wasn't done just yet, and attacked Charlotte as soon as she was stuck to the floor. Things almost escalated yet again until David showed up with Joel in tow, and put an ultimate stop to the brawl. Telling the assembled mob to clean up the mess they made (the Powers) and to get to their room (the Teens), David then carried Scuzz off to the Clinic's infirmary, since it looked like Chill gave him some bad frostbite.

Even with all this, Indigo wasn't done blowing hot air though. Irked at Charlotte for not doing what she said, she threw her out of her Black Powers gang. At this point though, Charlotte had had enough, and was perfectly okay with this - having had enough of the woman's pointless violence and incredibly arrogant attitude. The other Black Powers didn't like this, but they were inexplicably living in fear of Indigo...!

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