Justice Issue Guide #5

Issue 13:
Drug of Choice

Six months after his arrival in Los Angeles, Tensen found himself working in the Razzle, a night club. Known as Trace to its patrons and its owner, Reggie Wyschoff, Tensen was simply biding his time. Though he still fumed constantly about being used by Damon Conquest to destroy the land of Spring, Tensen couldn't return home, so he was making money while learning more about earth and its denizens in the city.

While doing his rounds in the Razzle, Tensen observe a drug deal in progress, and hassled the dealer selling his wares. Ignoring the buyer, Tensen found himself the target of his sudden, insane rage. Having great difficulty dealing with the unhinged user, Tensen noted that he had the strength of ten men, and were he not empowered, he'd have already died. To protect himself and others, Tensen struck the drug user down.

Hearing sirens in the distance, Tensen seized the dealer, who was still recovering from an encounter with Tensen's shield arm. Threatening him with a severe beating, and then making his eyes glow to punctuate his point, Tensen managed to make the dealer talk. Learning that his source was Peter Markham, the dealer told Tensen where he could find him, and gave him samples of the product he was hawking for him.

Just then the police showed up, and attempted to arrest 'Trace' for roughing up that dealer and his customer. He was rescued from jail by his boss, Reggie, who convinced the police it was in their best interests to leave him alone. Carting off the dealer in the back of their car, and having the user hauled off in an ambulance, the authorities then left, at which point Reggie told Tensen to take the rest of the night off.

Walking it off at his house, given to him by Reggie for as long as he worked for the man, Tensen pondered how he intended to respond to Conquest's next move once he made it. He also found himself considering whether or not he even cared about the people of earth. Sure, they were corrupt, but they were still people. That and he wasn't sure they deserved the same treatment the people of Spring had received.

Meanwhile, off the cost of Catalina, Daedalus Conquest was lounging on his yacht with Rebecca Chambers, the two of them exulting in their evil and making plans to co-opt politicians. They were interrupted by Max, a looming underling who proclaimed that Andrew Markham had refused their merchandise, even though his son was happy to sell it. Proclaiming that sad, Conqest dispached Max to, well, dispatch Andrew Markham.

Come morning, Tensen had apparently made up his mind, and journeyed to the Beverly Hotel. Accosting Andrew Markham, he told him his son Peter was dealing at the Razzle, and threw the sample merchandise he'd retained onto their table. Taking Tensen aside to speak in private, Andrew left Peter's drugs unattended, at which point Peter gave them to one of the women that was sitting at the table with them.

When she took them and lost her mind as the previous user had, Tensen was distracted from his meeting with Markham, having to deal with the knife-wielding maniac. Knocking her into the pool, Tensen returned his attention to Markham, only to find him dead on the ground. Seeing a large figure stalking away from Markham, Tensen chased him down, only to realize that he wasn't human. No, Max was a whole lot more!

Revealing himself as Maximus Argath, Cacodemon servant of Damon Conquest, Max transformed into a large, demonic monstrosity! Though Max's very visage radiated fear, Tensen persevered despite panic both real and manufactured, and fought with the beast for some time. His powers proving useless against the Cacodemon, Tensen finally learned how to defeat his foe when he revealed his weakness.

Seeing his shadow reflected his human form, while it previously looked monstrous when he was in his mundane shape, Tensen blasted it with all his might, vaporizing Max at once. When Peter pulled a gun on Tensen, thinking he'd killed his father, Tensen simply explained that Andrew's death was Peter's doing. Doing business with Conquest is ultimately what got his father slain, after all.

This broke Peter, who dropped his gun and wept upon realizing what he'd done.

Issue 14:
This is a Land... of Power and Glory *

We rejoin Tensen in the middle of a hunt for Everett Sloan, a distributor of child pornography. Tensen had previously raided his warehouse of iniquity, slaying five of his cohorts, but Sloan himself had escaped. Chasing him into the desert in a stolen taxi cab, Tensen seemingly cornered Sloan in a ghost town formerly occupied by miners, but lost the trail there... until Sloan ambushed him with a knife!

Sparring with Sloan for a time in the abandoned town, Tensen waited for Sloan to overplay his hand, and then snapped his spine with his bare hand. Verifying his judgment by peering at Sloan's aura, he saw that the man's soul was far blacker than most on earth, and reached out with his sword hand as a result. Vaporizing the scum, Tensen ensured Sloan wouldn't profit off child abuse ever again, and walked off.

Attempting to return to the car he'd 'borrowed', Tensen followed an arroyo until he was suddenly bitten by a venomous snake! Subsequently losing his focus and getting lost in the arid climate, Tensen became increasingly confused as the pain from his snake bite only increased over time. Slowly succumbing to the venom, Tensen passed out near a convenient rock outcropping, and was lost to the world for a time.

Waking up the next morning, Tensen still felt the effects of the snake venom coursing through his veins, but he once again felt capable of walking again. Happening across an occupied town this time, Tensen gleefully headed towards its diner, and both ate and drank copious amounts of sustenance, recovering from his latest ordeal in a desert. Of course, as it always happens, he wasn't able to rest long.

Interrupted by an exchange between the waitress and another diner employee, after she caught him stealing from the register, Tensen was about to intervene when an explosion suddenly rang out nearby! Seeing debris raining down from a nearby construction site, Tensen ran outdoors to shield the fleeing workers from the falling rubble. Always curious, he then drifted that way to investigate what was going on.

Speaking to the workers as they reluctantly returned to their work site, Tensen learned that this was the fourth explosion afflicting a construction site in the last month. Offering to help local law enforcement as it arrived, Tensen was told to buzz off by Sheriff Barlow, but Tensen wasn't so easily deterred, and began to search for clues pointing towards the perpetrators of the bombing around the job site.

Slowly following a set of tire tracks into the night, Tensen happened upon a small campsite miles away, though before he could investigate further he was knocked senseless from behind. Waking up hours later near the campers' fire, the trio introduced themselves as Edward, Wiley, and Redpath - though they admitted to Tensen that they weren't really campers, but the construction site saboteurs he sought out.

They explained that they were bombing these construction sites because the banks behind them were destroying the environment. Redpath in particular grew up near Glen Canyon, and fought hard to prevent rich bozos from building a dam nearby and flooding the place. Noting that wind and solar projects would've made the hydroelectric dam unnecessary, Redpath lamented the dam flooding all the beauty she grew up with.

Still hampered by the venom in his blood, Tensen couldn't see the purity (or lack thereof) in their intentions, but he found Redpath's explanation trustworty. Sure, she was blowing things up, but she did so to protect her home and her friends, so Tensen could respect that, if not her methods. Thus, Tensen joined them on their next outing, hoping to at least prevent them from killing anyone when they struck.

The police had sussed out their modus operandi, however, and sprung a trap for the environmentalists. Chasing them through the desert after their botched bombing of the New Sanora Bridge, Tensen saw them fall to police bullets, one after another, until even Redpath was slain in the desert. Though the police tried to arrest Tensen as well, he warded the cops off with his powers long enough to escape with Redpath's body.

He thought, at the very least, she deserved to be buried out in the desert she loved.

* Though the date given would indicate otherwise, this story states that it takes place two weeks after Tensen's battle with Klane. It thus occurs after issue 11, but could be anywhere between it and issue 15, considering the narrative dissonance here. Probably after issue 12 and before issue 13, since the former had no date and the latter stated it occurred six months after the fight with Dark Justice.

Issue 15:
Rude Awakening

Stricken with a recurring dream, that of a man who was him and yet was not, Tensen kept seeing himself standing before a doorway into the Far Side. Having been heavily drugged by Damon Conquest, he was pushed forward into the portal, his casual white suit ruffled as he resisted the wizards of the Winterlands. Desperately fighting his way free, Tensen unleashed his shield arm for the first time, and fled!

Waking with a start in his cab, Tensen was prompted to pay his fare by the annoyed cabbie, which Tensen did without hesitation. He had a soft spot for taxi drivers after he was taken in by Arnie, after all, so he wasn't about to give the man a hard time. Stepping out of the cab, Tensen made his way into the Ballard Clinic of Dream Research, seeking an answer to this nightmare that had plagued him of late.

Meeting Keith and Teddy Remsen, Tensen tried to explain his plight, though the duo thought he was more than a little bit crazy. Tensen didn't care what they thought, however, as long as they helped him find answers. Explaining that he was having a singular, recurring dream, he stated that it slowly revealed more details over time. Thinking it the work of his enemies, Tensen pleaded for help from the Clinic to resolve it.

As Tensen willed himself to sleep, Keith Remsen used his own impressive powers, traveling into Tensen's dream as the one and only Nightmask! Smelling death everywhere, and spying fields full of dead Justice Warriors, Nightmask sought out Tensen to no avail. Nearby, Daedalus Darquill presided over his minions as they declared the last bit of resistance in the land of Spring had been brought to heel.

Proclaiming that the only thing remaining on their list of evil deeds was the elimination of Tensen, Darquill gave Rebecca the job. Malakite protested, considering she had Tensen at her mercy before but let him live, but Darquill silenced the monstrous general. Darquill then sent Rebecca across the dimensions, watching her manifest at the feet of the sleeping Tensen, which freaked Teddy out!

Momentarily preventing Rebecca from opening fire on Tensen, Teddy ruined her aim by shoving her aside, the resultant gunfire waking Tensen from his slumber. When Rebecca aimed her guns at Teddy, Tensen reached out with his shields, causing Rebecca's bullets to rebound upon herself, instead. Approaching Rebecca, Tensen proclaimed his love for her and, wanting her suffering to end, abruptly snapped her neck!

As the two tried to wake up Keith, they realized he was still in Tensen's strange dream, despite Tensen himself being awake. Within that dreamscape, Nightmask was snooping around in his search for Tensen when he was captured by numerous Hounds, who took him to Darquill. Unaware who this new interloper was, and not at all liking his sarcastic tone, Darquill vaporized him, excising him from the Far Side!

Having returned to sleep, Tensen relived memories that both were and weren't his, of his time working for the Justice Department. Called Johnny by his ostensible superior, Tensen was given the assignment of infiltrating Conquest Dynamics, a corporation owned by Darquill, and led by his supposed son, Damon. Before he could make sense of what he was seeing, however, Tensen was shaken awake by Teddy.

Coming to in time to see Keith's body vanish, Tensen told Teddy to flee, for he was expecting company. Sure enough, another doorway to the Far Side appeared, through which Malakite and a brace of Hounds issued forth! Instead of facing them, however, Tensen used his shield arm to project his shields on the Hounds' heads, using them as stepping stones to leap through Darquill's portal back to the Far Side!

Coming face to face with Damon Conquest, Tensen attacked him without hesitation, pitting his sword and shield against the man's corruptive sorcery, and for a time the two were evenly matched. However, when Conquest attempted to pin down Tensen's sword hand, the Justice Warrior switched hands with great effort. Ripping Conquest assunder with his mighty sword, Tensen watched him drop dead at Darquill's very feet.

Assuming his monstrously giant form, Darquill then assaulted Tensen personally, eventually overwhelming the man with his sheer might. Blasting him as he did Nightmask, Darquill removed Tensen from the Far Side, only for the Justice Warrior to appear in Baja California, outside his residence on earth. More than that, though, Tensen found himself standing next to an equally confused Keith Remsen!

As the two compared notes, Keith revealed that the dream he had entered wasn't Tensen's at all, but that of Daedalus Darquill himself. The two entered his home, finding the man asleep in bed, with a portal to the Far Side hovering next to his head. His reality shattered, Tensen only knew that slaying the dreamer before him would end the threat Darquill posed to the entire world, and thus didn't hesitate to slay him

And with Darquill dead, the Far Side faded, along with all the changes Daedalus Darquill had wrought - including those to Tensen's and Keith's wardrobe! Of course, that left Tensen with the ultimate question: if he wasn't a Justice Warrior, just what was he?

Justice Issue Guides:

Return to the Justice Handbook main page!

Interested in using Technoholic content in your own project? Please read this beforehand!