Tales of Paragon, City's Human Stories Layed Bare Options

[Fire Wa11]

TAKING BACK TEXAS (Photo Gallery #1)
Starring the Justice Force



Colonel Decker and Soldier at the Battle of South Padre



Jack Slade aka The Wraith!



The President of the United States

[DangerWoman]

Dear FireWall:

My Danger Sense tells me that soon, Tusky Malkov, is planning to make me his bride.
If I know the plan for the story, he would tell the President that he had to make a stop in Paragon City to get his bride, which is me.

I know that I would be captured by him and he would run some tests, as I mentioned, then I know that I would be married at Paragon City Hall, right in front of The Freedom Phalax and all the heroes of Paragon City.

I know that he still holds a torch of love for me, that is why he decided to finally marry me off and have me go with him to The Rogue Islands to not only honeymoon, but also stop Lord Recluse from controlling Texas USA!

I hope that this will help you overcome your writers block a bit.

[Fire Wa11]

(Thanks for keepin' up with Taking Back Texas, DW. It's less "block" than "fear." Want it to be worth your time. More to come.)

[Fire Wa11]

TAKING BACK TEXAS (#19)
Starring the Justice Force

High atop the War Walls, in that slice of limbo between Paragon City and the outer wastes....

"And remember what I told you about survival, kid," says a nearly breathless Sheila Aussie to Tabitha aka Radical Girl.

Sheila looks at the three youths for whom she now cares. She worries.

"I've been living on my own on one side of this planet or another since I was too young to count," says Sheila with a light Australian accent. "And I've lived to be a ripe ol' 29."

A Police Drone scans her..., "Scanning 32 year-old female! *BEEP!*"

"Err...32," stammers Sheila.

"Warning! Weapons detected! Weapons detected! *BEEP!*," proclaims the Police Drone as digital images of Sheila's concealed weapons emblazon a hologram created by the Drone.

"I gotta go kid! Be careful, right?" ....Sheila runs back to her armored van.

"Why!? Why can't you come with us," protests Radical Girl.

Angus McQueen steps in. A teenage Tabitha is near tears.

"Look, Tabitha," says Angus. "She really likes you. More than she likes most people that's for sure. And I'm just going to tell you straight out so you don't take things personally.

"We're smugglers. We are the kind of people Paragon doesn't need right now."

"But how could Sheila do that," exclaims a dejected Tabitha. "She shouldn't be a lawbreaker!"

"That's what my boss told me, Tabitha. He was the head of the FBI. They sent me out into the wastelands to investigate her. ....to bring her in. But then I got this," says Angus, viewing the six digits on his two Lost-infected hands.

"The FBI...the good guys, turned me over to some eggheads for experimentation. After 15 years in the force, they were going to treat me like a guinea pig. That lawbreaker over there saved my life.

"For the three of you," Angus McQueen points to Quasar Lad and Salvo, "Being different has been a blessing. For me, it is a curse. But Sheila overlooks it. And to think...I was sent out here to turn Sheila Aussie in. I've been watching her back ever since."

"Well, perhaps we will meet again," says Radical Girl drying her eyes.

"I think Sheila'd like that," as he jumps atop their van that a freight elevator is turning away, back to the scorched earth below.

"So, Wraith," says the teenage sonic-fighter Salvo. "Do you think you'll ever return to Paragon City?"

Wraith stands with ram-rod posture like a statue atop the War Walls..., "It was decided some time ago, that this city was not big enough for the both of us."

Coincidentally, an artist's rendition of the shadowy Raven Man with Wraith by his side withers just above. Quasar Lad inquires....

"What ever happened to the two of you any way?"

The Wraith drops from the perch into the void behind him. Without breaking eye contact with the young squad, he salutes from his brow and vanishes. The three teens still peering down.

"Wow," says Salvo. "The Wraith."

Quasar Lad utters, "Jack f*ckin' Slade."

"You know, for a kid who's travelled the universe," says Radical Girl. "Your vocabulary is average at best."

"Teenagers' clearance APPROVED *BEEP!*," says the Police Drone opening Paragon City's doors.

"Woo hooo! We made it!" say the friends together!

------------------
Will the mean streets of Paragon eat these children alive?

Can Crimson Fist and Raven Man track down Inside-Out?

Lord Recluse has claimed Texas as his own! Is Paragon City to follow?

Can Energy Crush escape the clutches of Arachnos Fortunata Miss Luna?

Where is M'jolnir?

Can Digitizer aid Tusk Malkov in fending off Arachnos's attacks?

Or will Mother Darkness's coma force Bootlegger to lead the Justice Force on his own?

Stay tuned!!!!

[Fire Wa11]

TAKING BACK TEXAS (#20)
Starring the Justice Force

Through the worlds in-between traverses a soul. This traveller crosses gaps limited only by the number of dead.

Into a recently collapsed heart patient in New Haven...a murder victim near Raleigh...Miss Opdyke's embalming where her undertaker swears those eyes weren't open before. Then onto another....

The energy bounds from dead to dead until it finds what it seeks. The undertaker breaks for a smoke.

[DangerWoman]

Will Danger Woman become not only a test subject for Tusk Malkov, only to become his bride?
Can The Justice Force Pets, Led By Danny Boy, The Fabio Swiss Collie, his puppies and kittens help make it happen?

Stay turned, fans!

Tales Of Paragon Will Be Right Back after a few words from Icon Superhero Fashions and Hero-Gear Superhero Fashions!

[Fire Wa11]

TAKING BACK TEXAS (#21)
Starring the Justice Force

"So, what's your name," blurts Radical Girl, the Council members' helmets sparking under her field of radiation.

"Swamp Healer...," as he casts two puffs of green at 3 Circle of Thorns falling asleep immediately.

"What else can you do," asks Radical Girl.

Theraxis, leader of the Circle of Thorns, sneaks into Salvo's blind spot. Just as the black-clad hero in eyemask aims a sonic burst at a mixed crowd of Council and CoT. Theraxis subtly scratches at his face with a cursed branch from the Thorn Tree. The cut elongates the left opening of Salvo's mouth, misdirecting his sonic blast into a nearby bulding. The bricks now fall on our young heroes as Theraxis gleefully springs away.

Swamp Healer alas responds to her, "I can do this."

Swamp Healer touches Salvo's face. The infected area heals.

"Hold on gang," yells Quasar Lad.

Quasar Lad scoops up as many friends while flying as he can. Straining under their weight and his own propulsion, he drops Salvo and Swamp Healer with the bricks still showering from above....

"Yeeeee! Haaaaaaaaw!!"

"I know that yodle any where," thinks Quasar Lad to himself as he looks up and sees....

"Kid Lantern...!" yells the gold-and-white wearing teen adorned in a cowboy hat while galluping on a horse emanating from the pistol in his left hand.

The horse Kid Lantern rides through the sky is one of golden solid light. With the six-shooter in his right, the Lantern creates a gold-light lasso roping Swamp Healer and Salvo up to safety.

"Shenarah shenazai!" Declares Theraxis, and Kid Lantern and his new friends' gold horse disappears into Theraxis's wand.

Our heroes land with a thud on the rubble gathering below them. Salvo shakes it off. He forms a wall of sound that explodes the remains of the falling debris.

Swamp Healer, the little emo kid from Marquette, Michigan, waits until the sonic wall dissipates and hops out into the madness. He puts more council to sleep with the swamp gas from his hands.

Quasar Lad zaps and zzots at Theraxis. His energy blasts knocking Theraxis off his advantaged perch.

"Kid Lantern, am I glad to see you," says Quasar Lad.

"Well, you're gonna' be happier than a Plutonian space-myte on a Norellian crud-hound when you see who I brought with me...."

"Young fools," says Theraxis, ancient leader of the Circle. "You cannot sto...oh no!"

The youthful heroes look behind Kid Lantern, to see: Danger Woman, Efreeti, and Majik!

Danger Woman is pounding the ground around Theraxis with her danger rays. Kid Lantern creates the equivalent of a gold-light pancake flipper from one of his pistols, raising Theraxis into the air. Steel Bus ends a leap onto the platform, taking up Theraxis by the cloak.

"Call off your goons, wizard," challenges the former football star.

From her airborn mystic-bound trajectory course, Majik warns "Steel bus, cover his mouth! ....quickly!"

Theraxis breathes in a long extinct language, "Hasha shellsheesh!"

The villain leader disappears in a cloud. The same cloud now sending Steel Bus back to the ground.

Majik lands. She puts up a Cube of K'tulu around the Justice Force and teens, or as they are to Danger Woman, the first on the crime scene.

"How did this get so out of control," asks Danger Woman.

"I thought I was rescuing a victim of the Circle of Thorns," gasps Swamp Healer. "But friends of the man I rescued started attacking ME! ...calling me meta-human and an abomination of G-d."

"They're called the Council," says Radical Girl. "They attacked us out in the wastes near Indiana."

"Never heard of 'em," admits Danger Woman.

"Well, as Swamp Healer learned today," says Quasar Lad. "They don't much care for people who aren't exactly like them."

"Ah." Danger Woman says, "a nativist paramilitary movement. OMNI, did you get that?"

A cybernetic voice from Danger Woman's wristcom chirps back, "First encounter with The Council is processed."

Efreeti creates a wall of fire separating the battling Circle of Thorns and Council. Steel Bus leaps onto the mobs of Council subduing them further.

"Kid Lantern," Danger Woman asks. "Can you playback today's events?"

Kid Lantern raises one of his pistols and commands from it a gold-light hologram of the day's events. Th rays forming an image of Theraxis standing above an abducted Council member as the two sects battle behind him. The playback of Theraxis is one of him uttering these words, 'Jack in Irons! Jack has won! Send to us, Dark Father! ...Jack's Greatest Son!'"

"Uh oh," says Majik, the only one who knows what those words mean.

"What is it," asks Salvo.

"At last!" Bellows a voice from under the street's rubble, "Me is FREEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!"

Then, stands a man-creature straight from the Mad Max sequels. At nine-feet it thrusts itself from out of the rubble in a plume of dust.

"He's like Jack in Irons," Majik cautions. "But with two sawed-off shotguns straight from hell strapped to his back."

(To be continued.)

[Fire Wa11]

TAKING BACK TEXAS (#22)
Starring the Justice Force

"Hey, Jackson!" Steel Bus taunts the beast, hitting him with a slab of concrete, "Over here!"

Son of Jack in Irons responds. He draws one of the menacing sawed-off shotguns, the size of a pirate's canon, from his back and fires. Steel Bus, in anticipation has placed himself before the Council mobs, and when he leaps out of the way, they distintegrate.

"Seed of Jack-in-Irons," Theraxis declares. "As the Dark Lord of the Circle of Thorns and your summoner, I command you to kill my enemies! Kill....the Justice Force!"

"Danger Woman," says Quasar Lad. "I was just about to send Swamp Healer into that building to make sure it's abandoned. Then, Radical Girl could fill it with radiation and have Salvo explode the glass. So long as we have adequate protection or are a good distance away...."

"That might work," Danger Woman interjects.

"Show off," Salvo mutters to Quasar Lad as Swamp Healer leaps off.

In the building, Swamp Healer hears the sounds of creatures scampering all about. His elongated ears stretching in parallel swaths from his up-turned denim collar and prongs of Elvis-like hair. His camo-clad legs leap with powerful thrusts through the chamber. On a floor above, a Council sniper takes aim.

"That rifle better be aimed at Theraxis," declares Swamp Healer, already caught up to his prey.

"Or what," defies the gunman.

"Or me and my friends here are going to chew you into pieces before you get off a second round," warns Swamp Healer.

The sniper, laying flat and vulnerable, sees a dozen or more gleaming sets of eyes in the darkness to each side of Swamp Healer. A family of wild dogs are taking refuge in the building and it is clear they will obey the boy's commands.

"I see you've made some friends," says Majik, from behind Swamp Healer. "Now, let's get you out of here, M'Jolnir would kill me and Danger Woman if he knew we let kids help us."

"Theraxis has been taken out," says Danger Woman over the intercom.

"I know. The kid here did it," Majik replies, the gleaming technology of her wristcom in contrast to the leather armor form-fitting over her lythe body. "Hey, Kid...."

"Stop calling me kid, please," requests an irritated Swamp Healer.

"I was talking to Kid Lantern," Majik responds.

"Oh," says Swamp Healer.

"....kid," she says.

"Hey!" He protests.

"We could use a ride from the 11th floor," Majik continues.

"'One...*phew* *phew*...dang ol' Circle...minute...*phew phew*,'" whirls his gold-light lantern pistols over Majik's wristcom. "'I said...*phew* *phew* stay down...varmint!

"Okay, Majik," continues Kid Lantern. "Elevator goin' down.'"

Majik turns the sniper's rifle into a double-sided viper that ties up his wrists and flickers spit right into his petrified eyes. Majik reassures her victim, telling him not to try any thing stupid. Majik, the pack of dogs, hostage, and Swamp Healer board the solid-light platform lowering them to the street below.

Along the way, Majik sprouts a sword from thin air finding its way to her hand. She drops into a somersault from the lowering platform and swings in 95 degrees as she lands. Without so much as touching her enemies with her blade, the Circle and Council alike burst away from her. Some...now unconscious.

"Swamp Healer," asks Danger Woman. "Can you heal Theraxis host and bring him back to life?"

"I can try," guesses Swamp Healer.

"No!" Warns Majik, "We need Mother Darkness for that! Swamp Healer's powers are not otherworldly based...at least not that I detect.

"If Swamp Healer attempts to bring the host back to life, he will revive Theraxis himself. Only Mother Darkness has the power to separate Theraxis from his powerless victim."

The Justice Force, Kid Lantern and their new friends prepare to battle Theraxis' monster along with the Council and Circle of Thorns. This time...without Mother Darkness to help them.

"Where is Mother Darkness," Swamp Healer inquires.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Thousands of miles away, off the coast of the Rogue Isles a bird flies above the rolling black waves. A dead fish in its beak hosts a mysterious energy taking in all it surveys.

Just ahead, hundreds of migrant field workers who were promised a better life in Nerva Archipelago, toil in sugar cane fields. Their tall limbering task masters, none other than Vahzilok's most grisly of zombies. The horror never leaves the workers' thinning faces. The most vapid of which are hauled off to a submarine/boat carefully watched by Arachnos state-sponsored troops.

Once the workers become too weak to work the sugar cane, they are shipped to Paragon and sold for body parts. Today visiting, is the plantation's biggest customer.

"Stitcher," greets the Arbiter.

"*ahem*, Stitcher responds. "Your lordship."

"My troops have loaded up the boat for you," says Arbiter Frederick. "In place of payment, all you have to do is go see Ms. Luna in the States. She will let you know what is required of you.

"Heh. Heh. It's kind of funny," continues Arbiter Frederick. "You're a prison warden and here you are 'wardening' body parts back to the States."

"I am not a prison warden," corrects Stitcher. "I am a prison physician, but not for long. With a fresh supply of still-living body parts, my former master Doctor Vahzilok now eliminated a second time by the Justice Force, and an Arachnos Fortunata on my side, I will soon rule Paragon City....

"And the beautiful thing is, I will rule whether the United States wins this war or Arachnos! Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

"If the superheroes don't stop you," replies Arbiter Frederick.

"Argh! Those cursed capes," replies Stitcher.

"Don't get your panties in a bunch, Stitcher," says the Arbiter. "We are hatching a plan to get rid of the capes permanently!"

"Excellent," says the visiting Stitcher.

"When you and your creepy zombies are running Paragon," says Arbiter Frederick, pointing a finger into Stitcher's chest. "Just don't forget who put you there!"

The bird flies nearer. The dark guest in its maw pleads, 'Beautiful creature of G-d within this world of sin, I am not your meal.'

The bird drops its prey with an abiding, "Caw!"

The dead fish falls into the sugar cane fields. It's resident within notes the presence of the thought-exterminated Vahzilok, then plans its return to the Justice Force Towers. It's home.

[Fire Wa11]

TAKING BACK TEXAS (#23)
Starring the Justice Force

"Not to sound like a novice but can we check his wallet or something," asks Quasar Lad.

"There's no need," says Danger Woman, standing over Theraxis's dead host. "I know him; he's Congressman Edgars from Skyway City."

Danger Woman looks up at the mobs of Council, Circle of Thorns, and the Son of Jack-in-Irons now rushing them over the wreckage of battle, and says, "So...Theraxis has again struck at our best and brightest and managed to strike fear in the hearts of the good people of Paragon.

"Radical Girl, start lighting up that abandoned building. Steel Bus, hit Son of Jack low. Efreeti, hit him high. Everybody else," says Danger Woman. "Flank 'em.

"This ends now."

Steel Bus thrusts his already battered body into the shins of Son of Jack-in-Irons. Efreeti blinds the giant with a wreath of fire. Jack Junior blasts with one of his shotguns, but Steel Bus again deflects it into the CoT.

Steel pounds twice at Jack's solar plexus but the blinded monster only goes into a rage. It smashes Steel Bus and Efreeti into the cityscape.

"Salvo," commands Danger Woman. "Now!"

Salvo opens his mouth and with all his force let's lose a cone of sonic energy. The bombastic frequency shatters the windows of the building, freeing the pent-up microwave energy inside. The concussive force obliterates Theraxis's monster. Any surviving gang members surrender.

By now a throng of news crews are broadcasting from a safe distance. Salvo again points out the cameras to Quasar Lad. A sonic cone launches Salvo at the news crew as Quasar Lad carries Radical Girl through the air.

"You're getting to be a real pick-up artist," says Radi, the wind whipping by the two.

"What?!" Quasar exclaims.

"I said if you drop me I'll kill you," Radical Girl yells back.

"You better look out, Danger Woman," jests Efreeti in his middle-eastern accent. "Looks like there are three new rock-stars in town."

Danger Woman chuckles along regarding her own singing career, "Let them have their moment; they did real well today."

The three teens posteur before the cameras as Quasar Lad gallantly shouts, "We are here to bring the child-killer Inside-Out to justice! We're coming for you, Inside-Out!"
---------------------------------------

In a shady loft housing a fleet of illegal stealth copters, television's ten-second delay broadcasts Quasar Lad over a motley crew, "We're coming for you, Inside-Out!"

The high-def tv illuminates the Sky Raider den miles above the city. A shadowy figure concealed in robes takes personally the teens' warning.

A Sky Raider pets his pooch. The scruffy one speaks. The dog lays silent.

"I said...! We call him Heroine Dog," Officer Chalmers says, an engineer's blow torch glimmers in the background. "Because the purer the heroine smells, the harder his d**k gets."

"I...I heard you," patters the mysterious stranger. "I really need to get out of town."

"Oh, I bet you do! ...after what you did to the Justice Force! Heh! Heh!" Responds the pirate, "But give me one reason why the Sky Raiders should help you of all people!

"You're one of our biggest enemies! We haven't forgotten what you did you know."

The disguised man places a stainless steel brief case on the table. He cracks it.

"Nice," says Sky Raider Chalmers to its gleaming contents.
---------------------------------------

"Long time no see, huh, Kid Lantern," says Quasar Lad.

"What...? Since we rustled up those space slavers outside the Horsehead Nebula I reckon," speculates Kid Lantern.

"Yeah." Qusar Lad responds, "Hey. This is Radical Girl, Salvo and Swamp Healer."

"Pleasure to meet ya'll," says Kid.

Majik interrupts the teenage get-together to remind Kid Lantern that they have to get back to the JF Towers. The teens ask Kid Lantern how he got a gig with the Justice Force. Being an intergalactic police officer has its advantages, he explains.

"Kid Lantern, you can hang out with your friends another time," says Danger Woman. "You have summer classes tomorrow."

"Dang it," protests the space cop.

Radical Girls sees a wind-ravaged newspaper attach itself to a wall. It reads "Danger Woman's Soup Kitchen..." as Radi pretends to faint.

Salvo catches her and whispers, "Radi, what are you doing? Swamp Healer fixed you up already. You're fine."

"Whatever," Radi lays still in Salvo's arms.

"I'm going to eat," she whispers. "Remember food?"

"Mmmmmm...food," says Quasar Lad and Salvo.

"And where are you going," asks Quasar Lad to Swamp Healer.

"Patrol...," deadpans Swamp Healer, leaping off into the night. "I'll be in touch."

[DangerWoman]

Dear Fire Wall:

My Danger Sense tells me that I would be going back to my heroic soup kitchen, when I am captured by Tusk Malkov, who, as you know, is the Secretary of Defense of the USA.

In case you may or may not know, Tusk Malkov still holds a torch for the Karaoke Crimefighter, being that he is also a very powerful vampire with very strong mind control hypnosis powers and this lust for the brave little songbird of Justice Force.

I know that he would have to hypnotize her in order to capture her for study and testing, in which once he has me in his power, I would end up in his old penthouse medical lab, where he would upgrade her cardiac implant, which would also cause her adult feelings for Tusk to be revealed as a side effect of the upgraded cardiac implant, once she awakens from the operation.

I should also mention that he would make her his bride, thus making her the wife of the Secretary Of Defense.

He would also use her as a breeder of a superhuman race of children for him to control.

I hope that this information will assist you in overcoming your mental blocks.