Justice Issue Guide #2

Issue 4:
Shangri-L.A.

Seven weeks after he last saw her, Tensen was finally reunited wih Rebecca in Los Angeles. It took him that long to regenerate the hand he lost at the hands of the dragon-like creature that had assaulted him in Arnie's cab, destroying the vehicle in the process, but now he was finally ready to confront the highest rung in the trail of corruption he had been stalking on earth thus far: Damon Conquest!

Reconnecting, Rebecca once again asked Tensen who he really was, at which point he reminded her that he'd already shared what he had experienced with her in Oklahoma. But he walked her through it all anyway, explaining how his powers work, and that they work again now that he had regenerated his severed hand. He then detailed the strange, bleak force he believed Conquest was a master of.

After a long embrace, Rebecca then shared the information she was able to obtain about Damon Conquest while Tensen was healing. It took her some time to acquire despite her government position, as operatives within were actively opposing her research into the man. But being no fool, Rebecca handily dug up everything the government had on him and his vile business of destroying livelihoods to fund his drug trade.

Hugging him again, Rebecca then pointed Tensen towards Damon Conquest's corporate headquarters, Conquest Dynamics, and off he went. Barging his way into the edifice, Tensen was directed to the top floor by the receptionist, though he opted to take the stairs rather than open himself up to ambush in the elevator. As he ascended the stairs, Tensen could feel a change in the air, noting the structure was lifeless.

Finally making it to the top, Tensen was mocked by Conquest, who promised he wouldn't have murdered the man in his elevator. The two exchanged barbs for a moment, and then unleashed their powers on each other. Tensen brandished his sword and shield, while Conquest manifested his bleak force, the distilled power of corruption he had been channeling to Tensen's home after absorbing it in Los Angeles!

For a time, Tensen's powers were a match for Conquest's sorcerous powers, what with him being a wizard from Tensen's own Far Side. However, when Tensen went to finally strike Conquest down his sword hand failed him, suddenly unpredictable when he needed it most. Taking advantage, Conquest blasted Tensen with a lethal dose of his bleak force, seemingly killing him on the spot. However, he wasn't dead yet.

Suddenly rematerializing in the Far Side, Tensen was greeted by his friend, Webstral. The vizier welcomed him back to the land of Spring, but demanded he explain his long absense. As he began to do so, Tensen realized that his memory had returned. Webstral, meanwhile, examined Tensen's regenerated hand, and declared it was defective, corrupted by the alien sustenance Tensen had relied upon on earth.

As Tensen vowed to return to earth to finish Conquest's threat some day, he was led to the king and queen's quarters by Webstral. The king was asleep, as it turned out, so Tensen was brought to the queen, who then dismissed Webstral. While the two star-crossed lovers reunited, Webstral used his sorcery to spy on them, and chose to let the king discover them in their illicit embrace. Some friend!

When king Therion attempted to slay Tensen for this betrayal, the man found himself shunted back to earth again, hearing Conquest claiming he was dead over the phone to Daedalus Darquill. With his sword hand unreliable, Tensen picked up a handy firearm and prepared to fire on the wizard, only to once again blip back to the Far Side. He then began rapidly toggling between worlds, menaced by his king and Conquest!

Managing to shoot Conquest despite this difficulty, Tensen expected to blip back to the Far Side again, but his dimension-hopping suddenly, unexpectedly ceased. Scowling, he picked up the phone Damon was using before his first return to earth, and let the man on the other side of the line know that, with Conquest having been dealt with, he was next!

Issue 5:
Dad

Having tracked Damon Conquest's master to Cabo San Lucas, down in Baja California, Tensen and Rebecca fetched a ride there from their old friend Arnie, who was finally out of the hospital after his old cab was totalled in Oklahoma. Of course, he wasn't too happy that his friends refused to let him come along to confront the villain, as he felt invested in their struggle, but sadly he couldn't speak Spanish.

Conversing in Spanish in a doomed effort to fit in while they traversed the town on foot, the two discussed how Rebecca managed to track Conquest's boss to the area with a phone trace. Getting distracted by their own, personal feelings, the two went on about how they'd fallen for each other, when the two were suddenly menaced by local police. And, as it turned out, Tensen could see their corrupted auras!

Blasting one to bones with his sword hand, Tensen found himself unable to eliminate the other one due to his still-unreliable powers. Rebecca didn't have that problem, though, and handily dropped the other with her firearm. Hearing a whistle in the distance, Rebecca realized that they were being watched, and the two then ran off until they could blend into the local throng. Uh, somehow.

Breaking away from the pack, Tensen saw a familiar figure stalking them in a nearby alley: the man who killed all the patrons of Rosie's Diner! When Tensen pursued, the villain doubled back to attack Rebecca, and the two fought in the streets of Cabo San Lucas for a while. Momentarily getting the upper hand against her, the mysterious assailant gloated above her, and introduced himself as Tattoo!

Issuing another dragon from the tattoos on his arm, he attempted to graft it onto her aura as he did to Hoyt Pittman months ago, but something deflected his mystic assault. Just then, Tensen tackled Tattoo and chased him off once more. Refusing to follow this time, Tensen regrouped with Rebecca, surmising that their weird link caused Tattoo's dragon to fail, and resumed their search for Darquill.

Sharing a tender moment, the two then got to work, canvassing the area with their assorted law enforcement skills, trying to track down Conquest's master. In time, they were finally pointed towards an estate on the coast, inside which Tensen could literally feel Conquest's vile aura. After a brief encounter with the estate's security guards, Tensen and Rebecca make their way inside, intent on finishing this.

Seeing Damon glowering at them from a second floor balcony, the two made their way to the house proper, where they finally met 'Dad': Daedalus Conquest himself! Flanked by Tattoo and numerous Hounds, Darquill greeted Tensen in his hot tub, not bothering to get up. Darquill then went on to explain he was like Tensen once, from the land of Spring, but found himself on earth - only to be corrupted as Tensen himself was.

He went on to explain that Damon Conquest wasn't actually his son, but another wizard from the Winterlands, and that Tattoo was a normal man he 'enhanced' with his own abilities somehow. And the Hounds? Well, they were just Hounds, soulless monsters from the Far Side he'd literally made. And he intended to recruit Tensen to his cause, to help him conquer this world in addition to his own, but Tensen declined.

Battle then broke out between everyone assembled, Rebecca blasting the various Hounds, while Tensen blasted a strangely enlarged and monstrous Darquill! Tensen vaporized Darquill, but he reassembled himself, taunting the Justice Warrior for a moment. He then resumed his monstrous form, and the two really began their battle - one which was interrupted when a collapsing ceiling produced Damon Conquest!

Taking him hostage, Tensen brought pause to Darquill's assault. The villain opened a portal to the Far Side, though, through which Tattoo forced Rebecca! Before he could recover her, Darquill recovered Damon and fled through the doorway as well, leaving Tensen stranded, alone, on the earth. Her mind scrambled by her passage to the Winterlands, Rebecca was at the mercy of Darquill and his many minions...

Issue 6:
Sara

On December 18th, back in Alphabet City, young Sara was roaming the city alone at midnight, attempting to find her father. Little did she know that he was dead, perished in a house fire, and that the police were trying desperately to find her. Unaware of just how much danger she was in, Sara continued her search, asking everyone she could find if he were her father - though no one was interested in helping her.

Elsewhere, Tensen was wasting away on his friend's chair, sitting in front of a television he wasn't really paying attention to. When Arnie returned to his apartment after a hard day driving his cab, he brought Tensen dinner, but the man wasn't interested in food. No, he only wanted to find a trace of the power that brought him to earth in the first place, and set off for the flophouse where it all began.

Nearby, drug dealer Zirco pestered his brother-in-law, Chain, about smoking all the profits, while fellow dealer Dickie kicked him in the head to get him moving. Heading to the Villalobos family's storehouse to pick up more drugs, Dickie indeed motivated Chain to come along for the ride, promising him more drugs after their work was done. As they left, Zirco spoke aloud about how he intended to ditch the bum.

When Dickie and Chain returned from their errand, the latter was tripped by Sara, who was chased away from an alley by a creepy pro-life activist brandishing a doll on a noose. Thinking it was time he created some new customers, he lured Sara into his apartment, where he fed the hungry young girl a peanut butter sandwich... one he had laced with enough cocaine to kill an adult, much less a four-year old girl!

Growing sick almost immediately, Sara ran away from Chain, only to collapse in a nearby alley soon after. Discovered by Tensen as he attempted to find the flophouse he first awoke in upon his arrival on earth, he could see with his aura vision that she'd been corrupted by something lethal. Carrying her back to Arnie's, Tensen hoped beyond hope that he could do something to save the unfortunate girl's life.

Upon discovering the shenanigans that Chain had been getting up to, primarily after he bragged about it to the man, Zirco fired his foolish in-law on the spot. He didn't need the kind of heat that coking up a child would bring, particularly since he thought of himself as merely a man offering goods and services to those looking for them, and went about doing his best to clean up the mess that Chain had made.

Back in Arnie's apartment, Tensen learned from his friend that Sara was dying from an overdose, something Arnie had seen fares do many times. Reaching out with his powers in the only way he knew how, Tensen shared his aura with her, using the link to transfer some of his own life force to her to blunt the poison killing her. Though he managed to save Sara, the effort wiped Tensen out, and he promptly passed out.

The very next morning, Tensen and Sara had both recovered from their ordeals, and the former was showing the latter how to defend herself in a fight. When Arnie woke up and bumbled into their antics, Tensen apologized after knocking the man over, and then paused his training to declare he needed to go to the store. Wanting to join him, Sara accompanied Tensen out the door, and the two made their way there on foot.

While they were shopping, Chain happened upon Sara, and kidnapped her in an attempt to get back in Zirco's good graces. Taking him there, the dealer freaked out when Chain said he could ransom her to her seeming father, Tensen, to atone for sickening her in the first place. Having followed them, Tensen demanded the release of Sara at once, prompting Zirco to summon all of his goons to take the man out.

Dealing with them in relatively short order, Tensen was faced with only Zirco and Chain before long, the latter of which stabbed Sara in the back rather than lose to Tensen. The Justice Warrior then beat Chain to death with his bare hands, and forced Zirco to take him and Sara to the hospital. Unfortunatelly, Sara died from her injuries, though Tensen didn't kill Zirco outright as a result.

He needed the drug dealer, after all. As an informant!