DP 7 Issue Guide #8

Issue 20:
War Dogs

Having a flashback to his traumatic experience within the Pitt, David woke up in a delirious rage at the rim of the massive hole in the earth, thinking he was still down there at first. As the others checked on him, the site of Jennifer Swensen's Spitfire armor confused and enraged the irrational David even further, and he began to thrash out at everyone - at least, until Lenore knocked him out with her vampiric power.

Once they put him down for the moment, the other paranormals collected their wits, and then prepared to transport the wounded David and Jeffrey back to their Winnebago. As they did so, a loud explosion rang out nearby, and Mutator leapt off to investigate the phenomenon. Randy sent one of his antibodies to follow him, and as they prepared to take off the group spotted it carrying Mutator back in failure.

Jennifer and the assembled paranormals trudged along for a time, making good distance thanks to Charlotte's friction control powers easing the haul of their fallen friends - at least, until she has to rest from the strain. They then decided to seek shelter for the night, and Mutator managed to find a relatively undamaged basement that the group could sleep within without too much exposure to the elements.

Raiding the emptied cellar for all its rather useful supplies, the paranormals found some canned food, a lantern or two, and a blanket - which was big enough to cover five of them. Jennifer and Charlotte both lay next to Randy, leading him to a few awkward moments as the two both put their hands on his legs, which ended for him when they all heard a second explosion going off nearby.

Mutator had gone scouting again, looking for the source of the previous explosion, and had taken one of Randy's antibodies with him. It returned suddenly, letting Randy know that the poor fellow was beset by armed gunmen. Quibbling about what to do for a moment, Jennifer took charge, not wishing to leave Mutator to their not-so tender mercies, and led the other four women out into the night.

Aided by more of Randy's antibodies (even though he stayed behind to watch the others), Jennifer quickly found Mutator and his tormentors. Though the others were somewhat useless in the fight, Lenore once again managed to easily subdue most of the thugs, who turned out to be Pitt survivors called the War Dogs. Mind you, their leader was lurking nearby, and jumped the ladies as soon as his men were flattened.

Declaring himself to be the Pit Bull, the ugly cuss proved to be quite a pickle for the ladies. Jennifer's rifle did little to the man, nor could Charlotte stick him to the soft, spongy ground. Even Lenore's power to leech energy didn't seem to faze the man much. Getting desperate, Jennifer lobbed a grenade at the monstrous man, seemingly killing him in the process - or at the very least, setting him on fire a bit.

As the group tried to collect Mutator, the Pit Bull got back up, madder than ever. This caused Sponge to panic and run off, while the others hid in a spot that Pit Bull - hopefully - wouldn't find them. He tromped past the trashed car they huddled within, following Sponge right back to where Randy was watching the group's wounded. And, of course, he came crashing in moments after her panicked entry.

Randy and his antibodies were nearly useless against the raging man, so Sponge tried to wake David up, despite his broken foot. The mere sight of David set Pit Bull off, and the savage man attacked him mercilessly. It took a while for David to get his act together, due to the haze of pain he was in, which left him open to all kinds of abuse from the Pit Bull, including a nasty bite on his shoulder!

His own rage overcoming his pain and unwillingness to kill, David broke the Pit Bull's jaw when the villain tried to bite his face off, and smashed his head clean through the basement wall next to him. This took the fight right out of Pit Bull, who was completely senseless after that one-two punch. Of course David wasn't in good shape either, and fell to the ground seconds later.

Just in time for the Army to train their guns on everyone in the basement. Thanks to the huge ruckus Pit Bull caused, the military easily found out where the group had taken shelter, and quickly took them all - wounded or otherwise - into custody...!

Issue 21:
Siege

Having lost track of their friends, Lenore and Charlotte hitched a ride with the momentarily avian Mutator. Having actually manifested a useful mutation for once, he was able to haul the ladies around as they all searched for all of their missing friends. Jennifer had already left the other three a day ago, reluctantly traveling to Colonel Browning's Army base to see if they'd been captured by the military.

When she didn't return either, the trio decided to keep looking on their own, at which point they came across the Army base themselves. Though they tried to avoid the place, they had the misfortune of wandering near at the exact moment that now-Major Zentner, formerly known as Bloodhound, was on the scene to interrogate the Army's prisoners. He easily detected the remaining trio with his paranormal powers.

Informing Colonel Browning of this, Zentner saw the man sic his men on them immediately. Realizing bad news was on the way, Mutator let the others know, and landed so they could decide what to do next. Though Lenore wanted all three of them to find a hiding place together, Mutator decided to lead the soldiers off. He barely managed to take flight again before he was gunned down by the Army's men.

Lenore didn't fare much better, taking a bullet in the back after a soldier pulled off her mask. Charlotte got lucky and avoided being shot, though she was too scared to actually do anything with her friction powers. All she could do was desperately wish that she hadn't ever left the Clinic. Speaking of which, things were heating up at the Clinic for Paranormal Research, and it was all Scuzz's fault. Of course.

He and his DDT gang were having a snowball fight outside, and using their powers to boot. While this mostly harmless fun went on, two strangers were lurking nearby. Led there by a former Clinic security guard, Abner Heath, this reporter was digging up a story with him - literally! Knowing where the bodies were buried, Heath let Jensen know the new Clinic head had two dead paranormals stashed on site to preserve the Clinic proper.

When the snowball fight approached them, the DDTs realized that the jig was up, and ran back to the Clinic proper. Realizing why David had told him repeatedly not to use his powers in public, Scuzz momentarily beat himself up over this slip up, and told the DDTs to grab their stuff. Knowing that the heat would be on them any moment now, he stole a car and, once the DDTs were loaded up, took off for greener pastures.

Elsewhere, at an Army hospital near the Pitt, David had recovered consciousness and realized that his broken foot had been treated. Jeff was finally pulling himself together as well, not that he even wanted to be alive at this point, what with his family being dead. Contemplating an escape, David broke through the leather straps restraining him when he was greeted by none other than Jack Magniconte!

Remembering the jerk from when he and his Kickers, Inc. buddies tried to put the beat down on him and his fellow Displaced Paranormals, David was surprised to realize that Jack too was a paranormal. And that he was leading some sort of Paranormal Platoon - once it was fully formed - for Uncle Sam. And, as it turned out, Jack wanted David, Jeffrey, and the unconscious Pit Bull there to enlist as well...

Back in Wisconsin, Ms. Newhouse was distressed to meet the county Sheriff at the Clinic's main desk, him having been summoned there by Heath and Jensen. Hoping the patients were behaving, she then began to give the Sheriff a tour of the facility, but his men weren't keen on waiting around. No, they started trolling about the halls of the place on their own initiative, and were strangely doing so with their firearms drawn.

One such police officer wandered into an office that Bazooka and Indigo were making out in at the time. Seeing the officer approach them with his piece out, Bazooka fired on him reflexively, killing the man instantly. His partner saw this and freaked out, opening up on the duo. Indigo shielded them with her force field, and Bazooka then jumped the cop as he attempted to reload his firearm.

With that, bedlam broke out in the halls of the Clinic. Nearby, Interface, Scrap Iron and Shock made a break for it, but the police quickly gunned Shock down. In a rage, Scrap Iron bore down on one of the officers and beat him to death with his own shotgun. Similar battles like this broke out all over the Clinic, culminating in a massive battle between the police and the paranormals that left dozens dead.

Though the dead were mostly police.

Nearby, Stephanie was once again home and enjoying life with her family, her husband inexplicably having accepted her back into the home. She only recovered from her coma but two weeks ago, but was still surprised at the lavish attention Chuck was giving her. She'd resolved to pay him back for his kindness that night, albeit reluctantly, when the door bell rang out of the blue. Answering it, Stephanie was shocked.

Scuzz had showed up on her doorstep - with six other paranormal minors in tow!

Issue 21 (Backup Tale):
Choices

A little while back, we catch up with Jack Magniconte as he attempts to storm a military installation. Having drawn the fire of various guards outside with an uprooted tree, Jack marks their position and then beats them senseless - though he holds back as much as he can. Entering the building, he thinks back to how things came to this, how he used to be an ordinary quarterback for the New York Smashers until Everything Changed.

Gaining extraordinary physical prowess, Jack used his talents to help others though a non-profit group he set up, Kickers, Inc. Of course, keeping such a high profile made it difficult for him to hide his secrets from the powers that be, and he was eventually found out by the government - first by Agent Scott Templar, a CIA operative who had documented proof of Jack's powerful paranormal abilities.

Refusing to work with them, since they'd already maneuvered him into killing for them before, Jack instead decided to go the route more traveled. Having done time in the Army reserves in his youth, Jack went ahead and re-enlisted. Having a college degree as well as previous military experience, he could re-up as an officer instead - which led to his receiving advanced combat training to exploit his super-human prowess.

The Army, you see, wanted to build a force of paranormals to do its bidding - particularly after the Pitt incident. Furthermore, they felt Jack would be a great leader for this force, and giving him the rank of Captain, they trained him in leadership, martial arts and dirty tricks, and set him loose on this building as a sort of rite of passage. And passing it, Jack earned his rank and new identity as... the All-American!

Issue 22:
Army Dreamers

An indeterminate time after his unconscious body was found at the edge of the Pitt, Jeffrey Walters is found at an Army base, recovering from his injuries. Of course that's not all, for his mind was being analyzed by Keith Remsen: Nightmask! This young fellow, having been drafted alongside several other paranormals, was serving as a Lieutenant in the Army's slowly forming Paranormal Platoon.

Not that he had field duties, so much as the job of determining whether or not the paranormals the Army has collected were actually mentally fit for duty. This was somewhat ironic, considering Keith's own sanity was somewhat in question, after having been in the mind of an empath who picked up on the wholesale death and destruction of everyone in Pittsburgh when it was annihilated by Ken Connell's foolishness.

At any rate, Keith noted that Jeffrey was having the same dream over and over. In them, he's trying to chase down a nuclear missile that his mother and siblings are strapped onto, but each time he fails. When it matters the most, Jeffrey returns to his old, overweight self, and collapses just in time to watch his family blown to bits... shortly before he himself is wiped out by the nuclear blast.

Waking him up at this point, Keith tried to calm Jeffrey down, and the two discuss their pasts - how the family of each was killed in an explosion. Of course, Keith's help was cold comfort to Jeffrey, who had yet to get over the sudden tragedy thrust upon him by the Pitt incident. As Keith escorted Jeffrey out of his office, he was met by Captain Jack Magniconte, who was asking about Walter's fitness for duty.

Keith then let Jack know that he'd approve Jeffrey for duty, if only he could work with him further at Fort Benning. Agreeing to this, Jack then moved on to the infirmary, where the other paranormals the Army captured in the Pitt were recovering. They were of course David Landers and the Pit Bull - otherwise known by his legal name of Gaylord Picaro. Jack then let them know what was coming up next for them, now that they were 'all better'.

A few days later, several buses full of the Army's paranormal 'recruits' wheeled its way to Fort Benning - to its Paranormal Training Annex, to be specific. There, David caught up with Randy, who had arrived via a separate bus (presumably because he'd not been injured like the others), though the two friends' reunions were cut short. This was because Sergeant Haldeman had arrived to 'greet' the new 'recruits'.

He proceeded to dress down the newbies as Major Zentner, formerly known as Bloodhound, used his own special power to verify that everyone the Army had tested to be a paranormal was in fact so. He found four people were 'normals' and had slipped through the Army testing process, and they were summarily assigned to more conventional Army training. But once they were gone, Haldeman got down to it.

He had the paranormals kitted out with uniforms, their hair cut to military spec - the works. As they all took their new gear to their bunks, the various paranormals got to chatting for a moment, at which point David learned from Dwight Frye, the Bazooka, that the Clinic had been closed down. Worried for Stephanie's safety, David asked about her, but Dwight didn't know anything - and probably wouldn't have told if he did.

Just then, Haldeman returned to order everyone outside, at attention. Once he had, he proceeded to tell everyone the Deal, that he knew about all their 'dirty' little secrets, their special abilities. He then went on to demonstrate that he had the ability to control any of them, at any time, doing so by bringing Pit Bull into line with his 'world hurt' ability as soon as the big goon tried to disrespect his authority.

Haldeman then began the proper training of these raw recruits, these draftees, in the Army Way. This wasn't an easy process for anyone, particularly for recruit Harlan Mook, who found himself a recurring target of the Pit Bull. Since Picaro couldn't take his frustrations out on Haldeman or his environment, he settled on Mook, and tormented Mook until the man hit his breaking point.

When the two 'stepped outside' to fight, Harlan attempted to destroy Pit Bull with his paranormal power. He can teleport, you see, and the further he travels, the greater an explosion he generates at his point of origin. Jeffrey had realized this on one of the obstacle courses earlier however, and when he spotted Mook preparing to teleport, he rushed to knock the big goon out of the way, arriving just in time.

Though he dislocated his shoulder in the process, Jeffrey indeed managed to save Pit Bull's life - though the giant of a man wasn't sure why. Jeffrey, having been working with Keith, realized that he'd done it simply because he could... because he, like Keith, wanted to use his special powers to help others. Mind you, this made a life-long friend of the Pit Bull for Jeffrey - which isn't a bad thing, really...

That night, Jeffrey had his dream again, though things were different. Pushing himself harder than he ever had, Jeffrey managed to reach his family before they were killed. However, his mother told him he had to let go, and to make her proud. Vowing to do so, Jeffrey then ran off, intent on running faster and farther than anyone on earth ever had before.. and finally let go of some of his pain.

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