The Draft

The story of the Draft begins with Keith Remsen: the Nightmask! One of the first paranormals the Army got their hooks into after the Pitt incident, he was given a unique job for the military: he was to use his dream powers to mentally evaluate the various paranormals the Army was about to induct into service in order to ensure they were all fit for duty. He was even given a commission, and the rank of Lieutenant!

One of the first people he was ordered to analyze was Sergeant Haldeman, a paranormal who was already in the Army when his powers manifested. Dipping into his dreams, Keith had trouble locating the Sergeant at first, instead only finding an endless tableau of human misery. Eventually Haldeman revealed himself as the world in its entirety, proclaiming that he was all of the world's suffering!

Though Keith tried to draw Haldeman out some, the military man continued to argue that the point of the world was pain and suffering, that everything else was transient. Keith tried to counter this several times, only to fail in the face of Haldeman's absolute beliefs. Ending his scouring of the man's mind, Keith returned to the real world, only to find the Sergeant already knew what Keith was going to write in his report.

Of course, Keith had no choice but to agree that Haldeman, despite being a basket case, just might be the only person that the Army could rely upon to break the backs of its imminent paranormal recruits. In addition to his previous training as a drill Sergeant, after all, Haldeman could overwhelm the minds of others with this Weltschmertz - this so-called World Pain - and completely stop them in their tracks.

Later, near Giddings, Texas, we are introduced to Chris Barret, a youthful skate boarder who had just turned eighteen years of age. While wheeling his way home from school, Chris was distracted from the music playing on his Walkman ™ by a strange hubcap, which seemed to be rolling on the road behind him. After several attempts to avoid it failed, Chris simply got off the road to let it roll on by... at which point it stopped.

Reaching down to pick it up, Chris was astounded when the thing flew up into his waiting hand! Unnerved by the bizarre, almost alive-feeling '49 Chevy hubcap, Chris threw it away, only to find it buzzing back towards him! Catching it again, he then flung it as hard as he could, watching as it actually left his range of vision... for a few seconds. Soon enough, the hubcap came flying back to his waiting hand again!

Returning to the family farm with his new prize in tow, Chris noted that he was getting a stabbing headache. Upon his arrival, after greeting his sister, Tracy, and his dog, Harold, Chris was summoned inside by his worried mother. Making him watch the television as she broke down, Chris' mother could only cry as the news indicated that the Draft had been reinstated, and that the law required males from 18 to 44 years of age to register at once!

Weeks later, we move on to New York City, where we find Garth Mengeling, a broken down taxi cab driver, who was bemoaning the state of his life while trapped in gridlock with an overly talkative fare. As the man went on about how the Draft was an attempt to stimulate a war-time economy to stave off depression, Garth was overwhelmed with stabbing pains in his head, at which point strange pipes manifested all around him!

When his fare fled the cab in a panic, Garth began to think he'd gone insane, but just as soon as they'd appeared, the strange golden pipes vanished. Heading to a doctor to get checked out, Garth was ultimately late in getting home, which enraged his wife - who was late for her bridge night. Wanting to talk with someone about his strange day, Garth was in turn spurned by his surly daughter.

Sulking in front of the television for a bit, Garth made a resolution to do something about the sorry state of his life. He vowed to do what his fare was in the process of attempting earlier: register for the Draft! Of course, Garth wasn't going to just register, oh no. He intended to actually enlist in the Army, in order to finally do something with his life. In order to actually make a decision... for once!

Just three days later, in the library at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one Harlan Mook was working on his dissertation for his Doctorate degree when he was targeted by two of his classmates (one of whom looked a lot like Eric Chin). Seeing him nose-deep in his books, they decided to play a prank on him, just to shake him up a bit. Startling Harlan, the two were surprised when the nebbish bookworm literally exploded before their eyes!

Materializing several feet away, Harlan missed most of the excitement, passing out from the strain of teleportation even while the other library patrons tried to help the two burning students he'd left behind. Awoken a short time later by a paramedic, Harlan recovered his wits only to realize that all of his work over the last several months has been blown to bits in an instant... and that his college career is over!

Walking about Cambridge in despair, Harlan debates what to do with himself now. He debated suicide for a moment, until he realized he simply lacked the 'guts' to go through with it. Instead, he figured he'd take the only way out he could think of - he'd enlist in the Army! Yes, while he didn't have what it took to kill himself, Harlan figured maybe he'd get shipped overseas and gunned down by some random enemy...

Soon enough, the Army had managed to identify a large amount of paranormals in the populace through its Draft registration scheme, and those who hadn't enlisted directly (such as Garth) were called up for active duty. They were loaded onto buses and shipped out to Fort Benning, at which point the lot of them were introduced to none other than Sergeant Haldeman for the very first time.

While attempting to weed out a few 'normals' who had slipped through the paranormal testing process the Army had devised (thanks to the aid of one Major Zentner, who had enhanced senses of a sort), Harlan began to have second thoughts about this whole 'Army' thing, and was hoping he'd have been drummed out too. This only got him in trouble with the Sergeant, who had him do push-ups until he physically collapsed on the ground.

The Sergeant then began to introduce the new 'recruits' to the Army way of life. They were given regulation hair cuts, as well as uniforms (some of which were of a particularly large size), and then shown their bunks. This was when Harlan first ran afoul of the terrifying brute known as the Pit Bull, by accidentally dropping his helmet on the big lug's foot. Naturally, this enraged the ill-tempered lout.

Lifting Harlan bodily, the Pit Bull was simply menacing the man when Chris tried to intervene, which only got him, too, hefted into the air by the man. Before the Pit Bull could do any real damage to either of the two, however, Sergeant Haldeman called everyone out of the barracks and into attention. There, he let everyone know that the Army knew about their 'special' little abilities, and that he was going to make Men out of them.

The Pit Bull chuckled at this comment, leading to a showdown between him and the Sergeant. Telling him to take a swing at him, Haldeman waited for the Pit Bull to indeed attempt such, at which point he unleashed his Weltschmertz power on the man. This quickly dropped him to the ground, leaving him a whimpering wreck, at least until Haldeman kicked him back to his feet. He then went about the proper education of the paranormal Draftees.

The next day, Haldeman introduced the 'recruits' to the obstacle course, which he had them run through as fast as they physically could - without using their powers (if possible). Incredibly unfit, Harlan 'cheated' on a wall-climbing exercise with his power, which Jeffrey Walters - the Blur - couldn't help but witness. Mind you, Haldeman caught wind of this and forced Harlan to do even more pushups as a punishment.

Reaching the breaking point, Harlan actually attempted to kill the Sergeant with his teleportation power, but he was so tired from running the obstacle course, along with the subsequent push-ups, that he couldn't manage it. This left him panting on the ground, and vowing (inside the confines of his head) to 'get' the Sergeant another day. Later, Harlan was sent to speak with Lieutenant Remsen for a psychological evaluation.

Getting inside his head once he drugged the man, Keith found himself in a weird 'math land' of sorts, but had trouble actually finding the elusive Harlan. The man kept vanishing from one point in space only to appear in another, and actively resisted being analyzed - possibly in order to 'fail' the psych exam. Of course, Keith was having his own issues, and wasn't sure if Harlan was crazy or not, so he passed him as a result.

A few days later, the paranormal platoon was in the mess hall when Pit Bull showed up to ask Harlan for some salt - to finish eating his books! Enraged as he saw the big lout eat his mathematics texts before his very eyes, Harlan had enough - and called the Pit Bull outside! Lunging at the man, he waited for Pit Bull to pick him up, at which point he activated his ability to explosively teleport!

However, having seen his 'trick' a few days back, Jeffrey realized what Harlan was up to and knocked the Pit Bull aside at the last second, saving his life! This made a life-long friend of the brute for Jeffrey, even if he managed to dislocate his shoulder as a result. As the two recovered, Haldeman came to investigate what was going on, and realizing Harlan was the culprit, threw him in the Black Hole.

A massive pit used to punish soldiers being 'bad', this underground chamber was where Harlan was to spend the next twelve hours. Garth and Chris came to talk to him, but Harlan was having none of that, not wanting to get them in trouble. After the two mentioned that everyone was watching Reagan give a speech in Atlanta, Harlan made a decision. He was going to change his life - perhaps change the entire world!

Teleporting out a few minutes later, Harlan shook the entire base with his exit, letting everyone know he'd traveled quite far. Soon enough, they actually saw him materialize behind the President in Atlanta on television, and then 'blow out' once again - destroying the entire stage! However, the strange thing was that, though everyone around him died, Reagan himself managed to survive Harlan's devastating blast.

Thus revealing that he, too, was a paranormal... with vast self-healing powers!

Paranormal Officers

Nightmask: comatose Keith Remsen awoke with a start during the White Event, suddenly gaining incredible dream powers. Wishing to use them to help others, he began to enter their dreams in his Nightmask so no one would recognize him after he solved their problems. Availability:

Paranormal Enlisted Men

Coming Eventually!

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