DP 7 Issue Guide #11

Issue 29:
Deadweight

In early November, 1988, David Landers has settled into the Big Apple after a fashion, and is doing odd jobs that take advantage of his particular paranormal powers. To wit, he's filling in for several sick employees at a moving company, since business is booming. You see, with New York City down wind of the growing Mount Pittsburgh volcano, everyone that can is clearing out of the town.

Except for the growing population of paranormals, that is.

After he was done with his latest odd job, David met up with Merriam Sorensen, who was just finishing her shift working in Voigt's campaign office. She'd been offered a job by the man and, thinking it a great way to maintain her ruse as a CIA operative, accepted it. But all done for the day, she was to go out on a 'date' of sorts with David, who appreciated her attention, but nonetheless still pined for Stephanie.

The only problem was that, when she attempted to report in to her control, Merriam couldn't get an answer. This was kind of a big deal, so she gave Jennifer Swensen a call. Jennifer, who was in the process of applying makeup to both herself and Randy O'Brien, told Merriam that she'd check into it... and subsequently left Randy to finish applying his mascara (the better to 'fit in' as a normal) himself.

Randy was somewhat concerned about this however, and sent one of his new, wee antibodies behind Jenny to keep an eye on her.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Beck was busy doing her part of the sham surveillance operation against Voigt across the street from his campaign office, when she was hit on by two macho thugs. Though she could've presumably handled them quite easily thanks to both her paranormal power and her CIA training, she didn't want to sour relations with the diner she'd been using as a surveillance point, and thus fled the scene.

Nearby, Stephanie Harrington was bringing home some groceries with her kids, when she was suddenly stricken by a serious problem. Finding that she was feeling incredibly heavy, Stephanie collapsed to the ground, and actually cracked the concrete when she hit! Hearing the panicked screams of her children, Randy flew down to investigate, only to find he couldn't move poor Stephanie at all.

As she stated she felt like she was having a heart attack, Randy was shot from behind by a sniper - and the bullet passed clean through him and grazed Stephanie in the head. Sending his antibodies out to find the sniper, Randy flew off with Stephanie, hoping to get her to a hospital before it was too late. Of course, he was weakened by the bullet as well, and collapsed into a dumpster with her soon after.

While Randy's antibodies couldn't find the would-be killer, they nonetheless found his rifle, and took it back to the ladies' apartment. It was discovered soon enough by Jenny upon her return, who sort of got the story of what happened from Stephanie's panicked children. She couldn't go looking for the two now-missing paranormals though, since she felt it important that someone stay with Stephanie's kids.

When Charlotte eventually made her way to the apartment, she and Jennifer were beset by the sniper who attacked Stephanie earlier, who drew a gun on them and flattened them with his apparent gravity control powers. Before she was rendered helpless however, Jennifer punched the floor, rapidly falling through it thanks to her increased mass. The killer took advantage of this and shot her in the back three times.

In a panic, Charlotte used her friction powers, causing her and her would-be assassin to slip to the ground, and slide towards the hole Jenny made. They both fell through in short order, and when Charlotte landed funny, the assassin managed to regain the upper hand. He lost it quickly, however, when David and Merriam came bursting in to the downstairs apartment, tipped off to the emergency by a wee antibody.

The paranormal hitman, who identified himself as Deadweight, tried his level best to kill David with his power, subjecting him to up to ten gravities - before Stephanie's son shot the man in the leg with his own rifle. This basically ended the fight, after which Deadweight spilled the beans about his actions. Or, at the very least, what little he knew about the person who'd hired him to kill the Femme Force off.

Investigating all of this, Jennifer reached another of her CIA contacts, and met him in a seedy Times Square theater to talk about what he knew several days later. He revealed to Jennifer that Miss Dobish had hired Deadweight to kill them all off, as she'd been shipped off to another country once Voigt complained to the government about the CIA's spying on him. She didn't take likely to her paranormal team being co-opted, you see.

Much less the effect it would have on her advancement.

As she walked out of the pornographic theater, Jennifer sulked about this sorry state of affairs, as well as the fact that she and her friends had been cut loose from the CIA in the wake of this disaster. She wasn't sure what she could do for a living, what with her freakish appearance, despite all of her advanced engineering skills and the espionage training she'd received from the government over the years.

Jennifer then saw that Voigt had won the election by a landslide, and (correctly) assumed he'd done so by compelling others to vote for him - much like he'd enslaved the minds of her and her co-workers. She wondered if he would push through some kind of paranormal bill of rights, what with him being a paranormal himself... but quickly though better of that. The man was rather psychotic, after all...!

Issue 30:
The Tree

While bringing home the group's Christmas tree on December 15th, Jennifer, Stephanie and her children were ambushed by a bunch of druggie muggers. Not about to give up their hard-earned money, Stephanie covered her kids while Jennifer went to town on the thugs, throwing the Christmas tree at a few while even Stephanie punched another for good measure - at least, until one goon took her daughter, Emily, hostage.

Thinking they'd lost, Jennifer prepared to hand over her cash and jewelry when a sudden, inexplicable sound interrupted the mayhem. Overhead, everyone involved saw the strange sight of a flying man! Clad in orange and blue stretch fabric, and wearing both a cape and a mask, this stranger disarmed the robber holding Emily at knife-point - and then hung him upside down from a light pole by his trousers!

With the crisis over, Jennifer and Stephanie thanked the mysterious man - and asked who the heck he was. He then introduced himself as Captain Manhattan, a concerned citizen who'd decided to use his considerable paranormal powers to clean up the cess pool his lovely town had transformed into. Escorting the ladies home, the Captain then mentioned a citizen's coalition he was trying to form, made of reputable paranormals.

While only his pal Captain Brooklyn had joined so far, Captain Manhattan thought these two would be a splended addition to the mix. Stephanie turned him down outright, thinking that she had enough going on in her life with her kids, but Jennifer wasn't so hasty. She was fascinated by this strange man, who used his powers without want of personal gain - sort of like she did in the past, with her MAX armor!

Later, that thug who Captain Manhattan hung up on a light pole was rescued by another paranormal - a bat-like man who identified himself as the Wild Thing. Asking how he'd got up there, Wild Thing learned that Captain Manhattan was responsible. Furthermore, the thug and his buddies asked why his gang, the Para-Troop, hadn't dealt with that 'busy-body do-gooder' yet. A new member, Wild Thing didn't know.

Thus, the formerly pantsed leader of this crew, Moe, demanded that Wild Thing take them to speak to his leader. Seeing no problem with this, Wild Thing escorted them to the Black Shamrock bar, where the Para-Troop chilled in their down time. Moe was freaked out but brazened it out, demanding to their leader, Acid Queen, that the Para-Troop do something about the Captain's heroic antics.

Tossing them out, Acid Queen now found that she had to, to keep her gang's rep intact. Furious, she punished Wild Thing by having his friend, Wipeout, use his rancid breath power on him - it was that or suffer the use of her own, mysterious abilities. Since that was a much worse fate apparently, Wild Thing took his friend's vomit-inducing vapors, and then the Para-Troop set out on a plan to bag the Captain!

Their goal was to draw him out, doing so by committing a very public crime against the citizens of New York City. They abducted several Santas around town and stole their costumes, and were going to subsequently steal the big tree at Rockefeller Center upon its lighting. Once the Captain showed up to stop them, they would then beat him down in the most humiliating way possible, thus cementing their place on top of the heap.

Meanwhile, our heroes were hanging out in their loft, when Stephanie declared that she was tired of New York City - and wanted to go home. The others talked about it, ultimately agreeing to rent her a car (since a bus or plane ticket was right out, thanks to her sparkles), though Randy suggested she and her kids see the lighting of the tree at Rockefeller Center before she goes - since she might not get another chance.

So she and the rest of the paranormals from Wisconsin (and of course Jennifer) did so. And, right on cue, as it was lit, the Para-Troop showed up to steal the Christmas tree! Sure enough, Captain Manhattan was nearby, waiting to see if anything went down, and flew in to oppose the theft of the tree... at which point one of its burglars, the Wooly Bully, smashed him upside the head with it!

The Para-Troop then ganged up on the lone, spandex-clad hero, until our paranormals decided that they couldn't let the solo adventurer get trounced so unfairly. Joining in the fight, Jenny, David and Randy added their might to the side of right, and quickly turned the tide of the battle. Soon enough, the Para-Troop was defeated... and Captain Manhattan restored the Christmas tree to its rightful place!

The Captain then escorted his new found allies to safety before the crowd could turn on them, and joined them for a little Christmas party at their loft. There, David showed up a few minutes later, dressed as Santa Claus, and offered Stephanie a rental car and a drive back to Wisconsin, since she wanted to leave the city so badly. Which, naturally, didn't sit so well with Merriam.

What with her pining for David much like he was for Stephanie...!

Issue 31:
Cult

Shortly after he dropped Stephanie and her children off in their Sheboygan home, David was driving his rental van back to New York City when he heard something moving around in the back. Pulling over, he discovered one Michael Crawley back there, having hidden in the van after abandoning the Harrington house upon its occupants' return. He'd been hiding out there for a while, you see.

Ever since he and Scuzz got mixed up in some sort of White Event cult.

Thinking Scuzz needed a rescue, David went to go collect him, taking Michael along for the ride. Upon his arrival, David listened in on the proceedings in the White Eventists' cabin / church, until he'd heard enough. Busting his way in, David tried to cart Scuzz off by force, only to meet considerable resistance from the youth. This only stopped when Milnius, the cult's leader, bade Scuzz to go along with David.

Thus, David was in the van with two teenaged paranormals for the ride back to the City, though neither was feeling very talkative.

Meanwhile, in the City proper, Randy was trying to finally get Charlotte to talk to him, since she'd been avoiding him for quite some time. His antibodies finally tracked her down to an audition she was attending, and he cornered her once she was done. There, Randy learned that Charlotte was avoiding him because she didn't like his obvious paranormal appearance - an ironic twist, considering how he rejected her before.

That evening, David finally made his way back to New York, at which point he let everyone know that Scuzz would be staying with him for the foreseeable future - not that most folks present seemed to mind. Of course, they were all relatively bored to death by his White Eventist screed, which he went on about when he described his suicide attempt after getting half of the D.D.Teens killed in that car wreck.

Since his audience wasn't really receptive to his screed, Scuzz left the loft early in the morning to preach on the street corner about the coming Apocalypse, only to be met by derision from the locals - this was New York City, after all. Of course, one group was a bit different, being led by Moe and his cohorts. They seemed quite receptive to Scuzz's speech, and wanted to 'talk more'.

Leading him off to their lair before David and Michael could find him, Moe and his goons then locked him up in their paranormal torture chamber. There, Scuzz and a variety of other White Eventists, who wouldn't fight to defend themselves, were worked over by the sadists who'd abducted them. Naturally, they wouldn't even use their powers to escape to safety - they believed in the White Eventist cult dogma that much!

One of Randy's antibodies eventually spotted Scuzz and the others being tortured in this hellish chamber, and soon enough David came running to the rescue. The gang of Flamin' Demons, who weren't used to a paranormal who would actually fight them, were quickly decimated by David's onslaught. Not that he really had to try that hard to beat them; they lacked both skill and the ability to take one of his punches!

While the various White Eventist paranormals praised David for his timely rescue, he tried to get Scuzz to come back home with him. This failed, however, when Scuzz told David he wanted to go off with his fellow 'faithful'. Realizing that Scuzz had to make his own way, and that these cultists had inexplicably helped him mature a bit, David relented - only to ask Scuzz to keep in touch.

This didn't sit well with Michael at all, who'd got ahold of David to save Scuzz in the first place. After he had to leave the Psi-Force to save them, and the dispersal (or deaths) of the rest of the D.D.Teens, Scuzz was the only 'friend' Michael had left. Even though Scuzz was only abusive to him in the past, of course. Stomping off in a huff, Michael left for parts unknown.

That left David to sulk, thinking he'd tried to do good - only to fail yet again. Merriam comforted him though, hoping to make him feel better... before finally asking him out. Believing that he had no chance with Stephanie (what with him not having the guts to admit his feelings for her), David decided to 'settle' for Merriam - not that he put it like that to her, of course...!

Issue 31 (Backup Tale):
Crackdown

Deep in the heart of Harlem, we find a gang of crack dealers preparing for their daily sales pitch at the local junior high, when the roof of their dilapidated building began to rumble. Seconds later, Captain Manhattan and Jennifer burst through the ceiling, only to be greeted by a hail of gunfire for their trouble. The shocking thing to the dealers, however, is that the bullets didn't stop the costumed freaks.

Though several ricochets definitely bounced off the heroes and struck them.

Mopping up the mess, the two adventurers took all of the drugs and the drug money and threatened to come back and do even more damage if these goons didn't stop peddling their wares in the City. With that, Captain Manhattan then levitated himself and Jennifer - who he'd identified as 'Chrome' - up and out into the open. He then sailed to a nearby smoke stack and poured all the stolen crack into it.

As he told Jennifer that he'd be giving the cash over to a priest he uses as a 'fence', to disperse it to various drug rehab charities, Jennifer found she was increasingly smitten with this man. Despite his protestations, she found him to be a noble man, and felt herself quickly falling head over heels for the Captain. Not that he seemed to notice in the slightest...

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