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                         They Don't Come Any Larger
              Chapter One in the continuing adventures of Mr.X
       
            It was a cold night in Sabre city. The kind of night 
       when honest citizens huddled close in their homes, watching 
       "Moonlighting" and drinking kool-aid. The wind blew threw 
       the barren trees forming visages from the countless bad 
       horror movies we all go to see. But a few people did dare to 
       walk the streets. Yes, the geeks, noids, and depraved all 
       dared, they didn't have the brains not to. Who could keep 
       the teenagers, partyers, and criminals behind bars? But more 
       insidious than the rest was doc Skin and his portly co-hort 
       The Berg.
       
            Yea, It was up to me, Mr.X, the Sam spade, David 
       Adison, and Dick Tracy; of this two-bit city, to keep these 
       city slime in line. I was sitting behind my desk in my 
       $100,000 office kicking back when a new case came bursting 
       in. It was Ma Shlepberg, a local rep. for a  sporting goods 
       company. The company was an off-shoot of a mental brew-thru 
       owned by none other than doc Skin. She was quick to talk 
       telling me that the doc was trying to muscle her out of her 
       new position because she new too much. Simple case, familiar 
       plot. No sweat. I took the case, I was going to nail these 
       lying bunch of non's once and for all!
       
            My first step was to gather dirt on these dweebes. I 
       picked up the 'ol raprod and called the local P.W.N.B.T.D. 
       (people with nothing better to do) office. Hell, I was going 
       to need help and this was the best place to find it. I 
       talked to a guy who gave me the names of a "few good men" 
       willing to help. I called up the people on the list and told 
       them what was up. Only four guys volunteered. Fine by me, I 
       didn't need any wimps on my team, people who couldn't take 
       the heat.
       
            We fanned out across the city to find what we needed. I 
       grabbed my Nikon Super Automated Do-Everything camera, my 
       all purpose 17 to 500mm lens, and of course my .50 Calibre 
       auto pistol in case somebody wanted to give themselves 
       trouble. I headed down to corporate HQ to confront doc Skin 
       and his henchmen. As I drove up I noticed the sign on the 
       building-Adolescent Instructional Brain Cramming Corporation-
       "We're good at what we do and we're fair too." I laughed at 
       this as I parked and went up to see the big guy.
       
            The receptionist was just what you would expect, tall, 
       blond, and perfect. Just the kind of girl you'd like to- no, 
       later, back to the story. She wasn't to keen about letting 
       me in but I persuaded her by just ignoring her and going 
       right on in.
       
       "What's the meaning of this?" barked the doc.
       
       "I'm here on the behalf of Ma Shlepberg," "I know what 
       you're up to but it won't work, you're through in this town 
       bucko so pack your bags!"
       
            I snapped a few pictures as his head turned a bright 
       red. He drew a Big Gun from the top drawer of his desk. 
       This, I thought, would be a very good time to leave.
       
            I floored my car out of the garage with three old, 
       black, Lincoln "biscanes" on my tail and a hail of bullets 
       raining down on all sides. BOOM, was the only sound I heard 
       as my 1965 Corvette Stingray lost a tire and careened off 
       the road and into a large ice cream truck, sending 
       tutti-fruti everywhere. I pulled my way out of the wreckage 
       and watched with ddoouubbllee vision as cars tore off down 
       the street in the opposite direction from which I came. Yes, 
       I realized, my patented Acme Hero Anti-Death Suit had saved 
       my life yet again. They were going to pay dearly for this, 
       "they ruined all that tutti-fruiti and broke my camera," I 
       thought, as I sunk into an black oblivion...
       
            The moist touch of a towel awoke me from my 72 hour 
       sleep. My head felt as if an elephant with hiccups had sat 
       on it. Take it from me, it's not a nice feeling. As I forced 
       my eyes open to view my towel bearing savior, the words 
       "ooh, dat eesh niice!!!!" came to mind. She was a vision. 
       5'6". Brunette. Brown eyes and a bod to match it all. "Move 
       over Annete Funichello", I thought.
       
       "I'm Bessie", she purred. "Dont try to get up", she said, as 
       I did just that. "you've got a terrible boo boo on your 
       head".
       
            Well, following the rules of being a "tough guy" I 
       ignored her pleas and forced my self back into my slick 
       Anti-Death Suit. She fixed me a little breakfast (which the 
       FDA would probably have put into quarantine) and told me 
       just the facts. According to her, she found me trapped under 
       only what could be described as a sickly looking, blue, 1976 
       Toyota Mark II. Using her "muscles in all the right places," 
       she dragged me free and into her pink, convertible, 
       volkswagon bug. She brought me home , cleaned the 
       tutii-fruti out of my ears and put me to bed.
       
            As I strapped on my pistol and all the other nifty dyno 
       gadgets I carry with me, Bessie slunk her way over to me.
       
       "Let me go with you, I've always wanted to live a life of 
       danger," she said.
       
            I just couldn't tell her that eating her cooking was 
       just that, so I consented to let her come along. We hopped 
       into her other car, a slick looking Ford Tempo. A real 
       get-up-and-go-nowhere-machine, 0-60 in 3.8 minutes. I used 
       her "Cellular One" as we sped down route 66 back towards the 
       big city. I called the guys that were doing my dirty work 
       and told them to meet me at my office for a big pow wow-war 
       council.
       
            After a long and dangerous trip (women drivers!), we 
       made it back to my office. Sending Bessie out of the room, I 
       got everyone's attention and  got down to business. Lance 
       Speedstick informed me that we could expect to get any aid 
       necessary from the homosexuals and transvestites of the 
       underground in cracking this case. And they would all love 
       to "kiss ass" to help; scratch that area of info, 
       definitely! Next was I.R. Cool, our liaison to the cities 
       teens. They were smart kids, they new nothing and had 
       learned it all in high school. Unless it dealt with parties 
       and alcohol you could count them out. Biff Appleton had 
       talked to the yuppies of the area. No good, they were all 
       worried about what color wall paper to put up and paying off 
       their new BMW's. Last but not least Senator J.D. Bedfellow 
       had contacted the local politicians, all of which refused to 
       comment unless they were being indited. This was a blow, it 
       looked like I was going to have to do all the butt kicking 
       my self! Lord knows I was just the guy to do it.
       
            I adjourned my meeting and took Bessie with me back to 
       my apartment to get all my supper bad guy beating equipment. 
       As we drove along I reflected upon my long career...well, so 
       maybe this was  my first case. I studied under Sherlock 
       Holmes, yea, that's the ticket. We arrived at my penthouse 
       to find it gone, along with the rest of the building. Forgot 
       to lock it up...Well at least I knew what my next case was. 
       That was the last straw, I was mad, and the only person to 
       take it out on was doc Skin and The Berg. As we pulled up in 
       front of their corporate office, I slipped into my new 
       Acme-Battle Suit. With a hearty "Up, up, and gone!" I flew 
       out of the car and into the 80th story window (I really wish 
       they'd open the windows in these stupid stories!) to face my 
       foes. "It's a pigeon, it's the Concord, NO! it's Shtupor 
       Man!!!"
       
            I went right into action, with a giant "S" on my chest 
       and a billowing pink cape.
       
       "Hold it right there you "Aunt Jamima" looking somebodies!"
       
            First, knowing that the bullets from my .50 cal. pistol 
       would never penetrate the fat on the Berg, I lifted him up 
       and threw him out the window to land with a large "splat!" 
       on the roof of a taxi 80 stories bellow. Bang, the sound of 
       a gun shot! Doc Skin smiles as a Ronco Mini-nuke smashes me 
       in the chest doing full damage. Ouch! Faulty #$'&% damn 
       suit! And I lost the warranty too. But never fear my super 
       good guy power prevailed as I lunged at the laughing form of 
       doc Skin.
       
       "This is for the people and all those other kumquats 
       everywhere!" I screamed as I fired round after round into 
       his shiny dome looking head. He fought back hard, hitting me 
       with a large kosher salami stick. In the end though, he just 
       couldn't beat me.
       
       "Gurgle, glup, ach, phtt," gasped the mangy form of doc 
       Skin. Victory at last!
       
       Epilogue
       
            Well another case through. Ma Shlepberg is now 
       president of the brain mashing firm. The Berg was used to 
       fill pot holes around town. And you can bet he filled them 
       all! I sit here, gorgeous babe at my side with my feet 
       propped up on doc Skin's hide, a real nice rug. Not to 
       shabby for a stud and a half like myself...
       
       To be continued!

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                           Murder in the Cesspool
              Chapter Two in the continuing adventures of Mr.X
       
            I was in the jungle. The heat was unbearable. The 
       mosquitoes were biting like blood sucking beasts. I lost 10 
       pounds in an hour. I chopped through the jungle but in five 
       minutes it would grow back. I could hear the tribal drums 
       beating. Dooom, dooom....dooom, dooom...things weren't 
       looking good, the natives were getting closer...doom duda 
       duda doom ding-dang a walla-walla bing-bang...
       
       "Bessie turn down that radio!".
       
            False alarm I thought as I turned off the Hypno 3-D 
       climate control. The room faded back into the familiar high 
       class ritzy-do place it was.
       
            Things had been slow these days until the phone rang. 
       "Bring, Bring." Whata coincidence, eh? I picked up the ol' 
       raprod to hear the bellowing voice of Capt. Lardbucket. He 
       explained that they had a case right up my alley. Simple yet 
       difficult. Easy yet hard. Totally ridiculous. A man had been 
       found down at the old Cesspool boat house with a "Twinkie" 
       lodged in his skull. Hmmm, this was interesting.
       
       "Ok, Ill crack it wide open, just send me some help, all my 
       regulars are on vacation. Suit up Bess, We've got a case on 
       our hands thats a real hum dinger."
       
            Bess looked real hot in her one size to small Acme 
       Heroine-Anti Death Suit, as we jumped into our super speed 
       Ford Tempo. Normal time to the boat house in heavy traffic 
       was 10 minutes, but in our suped-up baby it took us 45.
       
            The place was a hole and crewies were everywhere. Our 
       police liaison, Special Agent Kay was already there beating 
       the info out of these jocks.
       
       "I'm Kay, just call me Special."
       
            He had a young looking, intense eyed, red head in tow 
       who he explained saw the murder.
       
       "Spill it," I said as she did just that by throwing up on my 
       shoes.
       
       "Gee, that wasn't nice." sighed Bess. The excitement was to 
       much for "Red".
       
       "I'm real sorry Mr.X, I'm Robyn, I take care of the place 
       for the owner, old man Dugwump."
       
       "Just the facts mam." I sighed.
       
       "Here's what I know: I was out back storing oars and all 
       that other crew jazz when I heard a spine chilling scream. I 
       turned and ran towards the noise where I saw a man slam a 
       large "Twinkie" into the victims head."
       
            That was either one strong "Twinkie" or one soft head, 
       I thought. I wanted to examine the body but it had already 
       been fed to the hungry light weight rowers. That reminds me, 
       I haven't had lunch.
       
            On my meager budget we stopped at Le Sleazebag 
       Ristoraunt for a quick repast and then it was on to old man 
       Dugwumps to see what he had to say. Dugwump wasn't very 
       interested in talking, but we convinced him he'd like to 
       cooperate with us by having Bess blow down his front door 
       with a Ronco Economy size Disposable Bazooka. I just love a 
       babe who can make me feel sooo niiish and handle one of 
       those babies too. He said he knew nothing, but we didn't buy 
       that. We decided to search the dump he lived in and see if 
       we couldn't find something to nail him on. Special Kay 
       sniffed out the "Twinkies" in a sec. They were hidden under 
       his "Fruit of the Looms" next to his rubber duck. "You've 
       found me out, but you'll never take me alive!"
       
            It all happened in an instant. Dugwump snatched a 
       petrified "Twinkie" from Special's hand and proceeded to 
       hold it to Bess's head.
       
       "Ok you bung's, anyone moves and the dame gets it!" What 
       could I do? I could shoot through Bess killing 'Wump, but 
       that could get messy.
       
       "It's your move Dugwump," I sneered.
       
       "I'm getting out of here and she's my ticket, as for you all 
       , your history!" Uh oh, I didnt like the sound of that...
       
            Next thing I knew we were all tied up, literally, with 
       an old B&W T.V playing the current days soaps, this was 
       worse than being strapped to a bomb! There was only one 
       thing to do! I carefully removed the All Purpose Cutting 
       Tool from my Dyno-utility Belt. My bonds were broken and I 
       proceeded to smash that damn boob tube into a million 
       pieces. VRooom, Screech, was the sound that greeted us as 
       'Wump tore off down the street in my hot Ford Tempo, Bess 
       trapped in the trunk. I had no car. How was I going to win 
       this one? This was one of those times when there is only one 
       thing that states all the facts: "Oh, shit!"
       
            Enough standing around, it was time to move, save the 
       dame and beat the bad guy! A quick but thorough search found 
       us a bicycle. This would have to do. Special Kay pumped the 
       pedals while I rode "shotgun" on the handle bars. It was all 
       up hill, but through amazing biking or incredible luck we 
       managed to catch up with 'Wump.
       
       "Faster, faster!" I screamed as Kay shifted gears and pumped 
       harder.
       
            'Wump decided to get tricky by going off road and down 
       the side of a hill towards a small highway. Have you ever 
       rode a bike down a flight of stairs? Thats my interpretation 
       of our ride down the hill as we weaved in and out of trees 
       and assorted bushes. Once we hit the highway it was full 
       speed ahead and into high gear as I readied my means of 
       stopping the fleeing car ahead. I snapped the safety off on 
       my Extra-Compact Ronco Pocket-Machinegun. Budda-budda-budda, 
       was the sound as hot brass flew over my shoulder and lead 
       into the rear windshield of the tempo. Screeech, smash!! As 
       the the car ran off the road and into a fire hydrant, 
       killing several small dogs and causing a large fountain of 
       water to form over the dead car. Destroying public property, 
       that does it! Dugwump was mine!
       
            Special skidded to a halt in front of the car just as 
       Bess kicked the trunk lid open. You can never keep a good 
       women down...We quickly went to work sorting through the 
       wreckage in search of Dugwump. It wasn't a pretty sight. 
       Evidently when the crash occurred 'Wump was holding one of 
       the murder weapons in his hand as he drove, preparing to 
       throw it at us no doubt. But when he crashed , his head was 
       thrown into the steering wheel and into the "Twinkie" held 
       in his hand, killing him instantly. We couldn't find enough 
       of him to fill a dixie cup. That'll teach him to wear his 
       seat belt!
       
            There wasn't anything left for us here, but I had a 
       hunch that this case wasn't over just yet. We hopped on the 
       scooter and faded back to my place to think things over. 
       "Somethings just not right about this whole thing," I 
       thought. I was pondering this whole mess, playing a few 
       games of Pac-Man with Bess while Special ate me out of house 
       and home, when it came to me-"Eureka!" I exclaimed.
       
       "Mphttt?!" Cried Special through a mouthful of "Hostess Ding-
       Dongs".
       
       "Grab your hats people theres a mystery to be solved!" We 
       took the express elevator down to the garage and hopped into 
       Specials parked Ford Taurus. Special floored it out of the 
       garage, the car shifting gears like a sling shot, giving me 
       and Bess minor cases of whiplash.
       
            We shot on over to the dame we had talked to earlier's 
       house to give her the third, fourth, and fifth degree. The 
       door to the place was already open. It was dark, and so 
       quiet you could hear me thinking. Click. Blam-blam-budda-
       budda-boom! Tinkle, tinkle, crash. Suddenly theres light.
       
       "Oops,"says Special.
       
       "You can say that again."
       
       "Oops."
       
       "You've successfully killed a parakeet, one china cabinet, 
       three old Elvis Presley glasses, and a small, defenseless, 
       stuffed, "Teddy Ruxpin."" Oh well, Special was his name...
       
       "All you had to do was knock, detective," Robyn said as she 
       slunk in from the other room.
       
       "Ok sister, tell us the whole truth; I know that you're 
       holding more than your stomach back!"
       
       "What do you mean!" she exclaimed.
       
       "Dont play dumb with me babe, it wont work, I'm dumber than 
       you are so I can see right through your little scheme. 
       Dugwump was your lover who you finagled into doing your 
       dirty work for you, if he got caught, you'd still be in the 
       pink. The man he murdered was the only other person 
       qualified to cox the winning, nationally famous, light 
       weight four, besides your self, of course. And you wanted it 
       all, fame, power,and glory, but you didn't count on me and 
       my superior intellect figuring out this plot. Pack, it up 
       babe, your doing hard time!"
       
       "You'll never take me alive!"
       
       "Well what ever, doesn't matter to me."
       
            And we were off, the chase was on! Robyn ran from the 
       room thru the doorway with us right on her tail. It's a 
       wonder what the though of jail will do to make one run so 
       fast. We had gotten down the stairs and onto the dock of the 
       old boat house (which was conveniently placed right next to 
       her house) just in time to watch her jump into a motor boat 
       and go tearing out into the Poluteomac river as if jaws was 
       after her. And lucky us, there wasn't another boat anywhere 
       in sight! Time to strain the old brain and come up with 
       another save the day plan...Hey, why not use my Acme-Battle 
       Suit?! Goggles on, the next thing I knew I was zooming along 
       the waters surface like a human torpedo. 
       
       "Hurry up, stupid, she's getting away," special yelled from 
       his water skiing position behind me. 
       
       "Bess, use your Ronco-Bazooka, and stop her already!"
       
            From her position on Special's shoulders, she'd have a 
       great shot at our little murderess. FOOMP-Woosh, and another 
       case was through.
       
       Epilogue
            Well, another one done. The dames doing hard time 
       busting rocks at the pen. She confessed to everything, 
       saying that she couldn't take anymore of this silly story. 
       Anyway, she was still going to be rich and famous by the 
       time she got done suing me for the destruction of her 
       priceless Elvis Presly McDonalds glasses. As for Special, he 
       was a great help and he should recover fine from his little 
       tango with the buoy we hit, he may walk a little stiff 
       legged for a few weeks, but that wont stop Special. Bess, 
       she's still a little wet be hind the ears but a dry towel 
       and some chicken noodle soup will cure that. As for me, it's 
       miller time and so with that it's back to my jungle, a place 
       where I can escape the one outside on the streets, boom-
       dadda-boom-ding-dang, "Bess!"...
       
       To be continued...
        

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                             A Pop in the Chops
            -Chapter Three in the continuing adventures of Mr.X-
       
            Things had been good to me lately, my reputation as a 
       crime fighter was spreading all across the city like the 
       plague. The Mayor had been kind enough to give me a key to 
       the city, nice, since I was always locking myself out. I had 
       even been asked to appear on the 200th annual Jerry Lewis 
       Telethon with the national poster child for homosexuality, 
       Michael Jackson. And it seemed even the neighborhood dogs 
       liked me since I hadn't came up with a wet ankle on the way 
       to my car in weeks...Yes crime was down.
       
            As I sat and cleaned my fancy highly expensive camera 
       equipment, the phone rang. Bring, bring. "Wah wawa wah, wah 
       wah."
       
       Click. "Captain Lardbucket needs you right away down at the 
       precinct, sweetie, something about bodies exploding."
       
       "Ok Bess, I'll get my gear and we'll get going."
       
       "Sorry dear, I have a roast in the oven, so you'll just have 
       to take care of this one your self." Darn. Whata bummer, no 
       good looking dame on this mission.
       
            After I refreshed my self with a little physical 
       pick-me-up and said good-bye to 'Bess, I hopped into the 
       elevator to the garage to get in my new car! The sight of it 
       gave me "duckpimples," it was a beautiful, bright, cherry 
       red, hearse with a big, fuel injected, turbo-charged, top of 
       the line dual exhaust 440 Magnum . I just love lots of 
       adjectives when it comes to my cars...Strapping myself into 
       the aircraft style seatbelt and g-suit, I flicked the switch 
       to start her up. BahROOOM, bludda, bladda, bludda. 
       Screeeeech, boom, was the sound as I pulled out of the 
       garage on the way to my next case, leaving ten feet of 
       rubber and creating a small vacuum behind me. It was good to 
       be on the open road once again. People greeted me with wild, 
       happy waves as I cruised down the sidewalks of South Weener 
       Way Avenue, the wind and exhaust wiping in my face. Police 
       officers of all ranks jumped up to attention when
       
       I pulled my car up onto steps of the 87th precinct.
       
            Captain Lardbucket was in a state of apoplexy, 
       screaming at the top of his lungs to the various personnel 
       who rushed about doing his bidding.
       
       "Glad your here X, this is the evidence, see what you 
       think." He threw me what appeared to be a five pound bag of 
       grade "E", ground chuck, extremely rare.
       
       "Thats whats left of the victim, he was identified by his 
       girl as Alex Lyman." Needless to say the bag proceeded to 
       make a sickly splat, louder than the remains of my lunch, as 
       it struck the floor.
       
            I recomposed myself and prepared to get down to 
       business. Lardbucket, decided to tell me the whole history, 
       so I to could see how stupid this was. Lyman was a local 
       crew stud down at the Old Cesspool Boathouse. He had a lot 
       of potential to go places as long as he didn't blow it. Uh 
       yea. His only weaknesses were his love for art and 
       chocolate, yes, he was a chocoholic. He would do anything to 
       get his fix: eat it, smell it, even shoot it up directly, a 
       sick habit that many GiveAdamnericans had. His evil habit 
       shortly caused the rotting out of his teeth as he lost his 
       self will and forgot to brush. About a week ago he was 
       fitted with dentures, false choppers. Everything went fine 
       until this morning when he was forced to eat hard candy 
       because of a lack of "choco" on the market. The official 
       statement from his ex, (a girl I knew well but hadn't seen 
       much of lately) Kate, was: "One minute he was sitting on his 
       bike chomping away, when next, blewie! His whole body was 
       raining down on the hood of my Volkswaggen Rabbit! Whata 
       mess, I still cant get all the blood stains out of my 
       jeans..."
       
       "Can you help X?"
       
       "Yea, I'll solve this one, it sounds interesting, but I'll 
       be needing some help, my groups busy again."
       
            Lardbucket gave me Special Kay. He wasn't busy, never 
       was, and anyway, he always loved a little bit of excitement. 
       As my second replacement 'bucket suggested a guy named 
       Datta, Tej Datta. I had heard of him, he was a smooth, 
       totally under control guy, and street smart to boot. I met 
       both out front. Special was looking jockular and ready, 
       Datta was cool as ice, chanting lines from the Rolling 
       Stones tune "Satisfaction". We hopped into the hearse and I 
       backed out into traffic, people honking with crazed 
       excitement upon seeing me on the trail of a new mystery.
       
            I decided that the two best possibilities were the hard 
       candy or dentures, they were the only two things new to his 
       character. Doing 150mph on 395 at approximately 5:25, we 
       rocketed towards Lymans apartment. He lived in east b.f., 
       better known as Borelington, a suburb located across the 
       Poluteomac from the District of Confusia. The house was a 
       mess. Medals, trophies, and ads for ivy league schools such 
       as Princeton, an area branch of the grand Diesel Institute 
       of GiveAdamnerica, were everywhere. We spread out to rummage 
       through the ruble, looking for any clues that could lead us 
       to an answer. The answer came as a piece of paper lying next 
       to an old "Hershey Kiss" wrapper. It was an ad for the "Rot 
       'em and Drop 'em" denture makers, a company known for it's 
       use of inferior materials. Not suprising since Lyman's habit 
       would have used up most of his cash and "Re a De" was cheap, 
       cheap enough to take the poor suckers last dime and give him 
       less than that back. Now the problem was to find the place 
       since it was an underground establishment.
       
       "No problem X, I can find it," said Datta. I knew he would 
       come in handy.
       
            After a quick stop at the "Seven Eleven" for Specials 
       mid afternoon post lunch pre-dinner snack, we shot towards 
       Datta's connection at the Crossed Sabres newspaper, a real 
       rag, nothing like the Northern Virginia Sun or National 
       Enquirer. Now thats respectful journalism!
       
            The place was crawling with reporters, and worse still, 
       photographers with big lenses. The kinda people that I felt 
       right at home with and, as it seemed, Datta's kind of people 
       also. We headed for the second floor in search of the person 
       with the info. But, yes, you could of guessed it, a gang of 
       female admirers attacked us half way up the stairs. I 
       finally had to drag Datta from the crowd at gun point, 
       threatening to plug any dame that tried to stop us. That 
       didn't put me high on their list but at least we got on with 
       this fool mission. We found his contact hiding out in the 
       paper's political office. She was tall with curly brown hair 
       and a smile that would have brought a dead man to life.
       
       "Hi Tej, what can I do for you?" She chimed.
       
       "Hi Kathleen, we need the location of an underground 
       establishment, and with your knowledge, I figured that you 
       might have it. Here's the name of the place." With that he 
       handed her the paper with the name of the dental works on 
       it.
       
            She set the compromising pictures she held in her hand 
       down and examined the paper closely.
       
       "Sure, I know where they are, but it'll cost ya. You know 
       how it is, if they ever found out who told you, they'd kill 
       me!"
       
       "Ok X, give her the money and get the info, I'm taking 
       Special with me downstairs to get some photo supplies I 
       need." 
       
            Datta and Special filed out the door and down the 
       stairs. I reached into my pocket and forked out a "Benjamin 
       Franklin," and handed it to Kathleen.
       
       "That'll be fine X, the place your looking for is on the 
       corner of Washed-out boulevard and Kirkwood road. But I 
       don't know how your going to get into that place, securities 
       very tight."
       
       "Don't worry about me doll, it'll be a piece of cake!"
       
       "You don't talk much, but some how I believe you, I bet you 
       can handle your self pretty well, if you have a chance, give 
       me a call sometime, we'll do lunch." I smiled and headed on 
       down the stairs to get Tej and Special so we could get over 
       there and confront these bozo's.
       
            I decided to call it a day and get some rest before the 
       big finale. I dropped everyone off and headed back to my 
       penthouse suite. I got home to find Bess sick with a head 
       ache. Just my luck! The next step before my blessed relief 
       was to get on the blower and call the people on my special 
       "support squad" to let them know that I would be needing 
       their special abilities. Afterwards I leaned back in my easy 
       chair and thought over my present case and wondered if it 
       was all worth it. Sure, what the heck, fame, glory, and lots 
       of money would make any stupid shmuck agree that it was all 
       worth it, an that was me.
       
            At first light I gathered my men together out behind 
       the Flab Slab Gym. I was leaving Special behind to guard the 
       car and and be our back up in case they brought out the big 
       guns. In his place I was bringing Sasha Ivanchocuv and Steve 
       Veit, a couple of ace tunnelers, at home in the sewers and 
       lovin every minute of it.
       
       "So who are we after? Whats the case? Do I get over time?"
       
       "Just shut up Steve and I'll give you the details." Kid asks 
       to many damn questions. Sheesh. "Ok, the plan is this: we're 
       going to go in via the storm drain which runs right below 
       the building, there is a man whole cover that leads right up 
       into their underground garage. From their we'll take out 
       their security system and then go looking for evidence. Both 
       Tej and I have our Super Automated Do-Everything camera's so 
       we'll be taking shots of whatever we find. Ok?"
       
       "Hmmmm, I think we had better think about this some." 
       
       "But it's a perfect plan Sasha, it's the best we've got." 
       
       "Hmmm, well..." Theirs just no pleasing people these days.
       
            With that the professionals went to work, Steve used an 
       old pair of pliers to lift the lid off the sewer, and in we 
       went, led by the faint beam of light coming from Sahsha's 
       flashlight. Ahh, just what I love, a nice walk though sewer 
       water that has detergents, chemicals, animal pollutants and 
       other foreign items floating in it. Now thats the way to 
       start a day! It took us only five minutes to reach the man 
       hole into the building, a little muscle and we were inside.
       
       "Ok you guys, keep it quiet! Steve, stay here and guard the 
       exit, we'll be right back."
       
            From here it was up the stairs to the Switch box room 
       that contained the security box.
       
       "Ok Sasha, take care of it." 
       
            Blamm, budda, budda, boom, buzz, crack, as Sasha 
       whipped out his Jennings pocket auto and let the whole mess 
       have it.
       
       "Well they'll never know we're here now! What a pro!" 
       Knowing that we would have little time before we were 
       swamped with more corporate thugs than you could imagine, we 
       took off to do our thing and blow this popcicle stand before 
       things got sticky. Wa-ooga, wa-ooga, wa-ooga. Well maybe we 
       had no time. We took the next five flights of stairs in a 
       dead sprint and turned smack dab into what we were looking 
       for.
       
            The room was filled with billlleeons and billleeons of 
       false teeth waiting to be put into the dentures that the 
       many poor fogies and troubled people of the city needed. Tej 
       went to work right away firing away with his camera and 
       motor drive, sounding more impressive than a submachine gun. 
       I decided to inspect a box that appeared to contain the 
       materials that were used in making the teeth. H-I-G-H E-X-P-
       L-O-S-I-V-E-S (please keep out of the reach of children). As 
       I snapped a few pictures of my find every thing fell into 
       place, while, at the same time, everything else fell apart.
       
       "Gang way, incoming," were the words Tej yelled as about 15 
       guards opened up with their Acme power guns, doing their 
       best to turn us into swiss cheese.
       
            Three against fifteen, was not my idea of even odds, 
       which meant I was going to have to do one of my amazing 
       super good guy stunts if we were going to get out of this 
       one alive. As my partners blazed away with their guns, I 
       drew my .50 caliber autopistol with "butt kicking rounds" 
       and returned fire. The enemy dropped back in abject terror 
       as we pressed forward in our attempt to escape. Not being 
       good with guns, Tej shot out the various inanimate objects 
       that stood between us and freedom, many of the enemy 
       succumbing to his evil plan, falling over in fit's of 
       uncontrollable laughter. Whata plan! Just like something I 
       would have come up with. The light of day greeted us like a 
       flash bulb in the face as we dashed to the awaiting safety 
       of our get away car.
       
            It had all fit into place, this case was more 
       diabolical than I thought. I proceeded to explain my 
       solution to Capt. Lardbucket, my colleges standing to the 
       side smiling, knowing that I was a true genius. First I told 
       the Captain about the clues we had found and our little 
       escapades to the secret establishment. After developing the 
       pictures that both Tej and I had snapped before the fire 
       fight, the real clincher clue became apparent. The large 
       warning that said "explosives" was in plain view. This made 
       us look at things a little more closely, where we found the 
       words "C-5" burned into the box. Plastic explosives. Easy to 
       get a hold of at your local Army base and it molds real 
       easy. It seems that the firm's scientists had come up with a 
       way to semi-harden the explosive so that it could be used to 
       make the dentures.
       
            They also knew that the people most likely to come to 
       them were "choco" addicts, so if the C-5 didn't hold up, it 
       wouldn't matter since they would be to stoned to complain.
       
       "But what caused the explosion and the death of the victim!"
       
       "Elementary my dear Lardbucket; the hard candy."
       
       "Lets not get fresh now."
       
       "Ummm, just pay attention."
       
            I continued to explain that they were making the 
       dentures for the punishment of eating a constant diet of 
       chocolate. They didn't expect a shortage of the drug and the 
       turning of it's users to a harder substance. The cracking of 
       the hard candy acted as a sort of blasting cap on the 
       modified C-5.
       
       "And there you have it, blewie."
       
       Epilogue
       
            The police snapped right to it, they called in the 
       101st Airborne and stormed the place. Since most of those 
       military types are real rough necks, they brought in the 
       heavy artillery. The next thing you knew they were really 
       airborne. Oh well, they got the bad guys too. To the 
       amazement of everyone, the victims ex-girl friend, Kate, 
       joined the local chapter of Chocoholics Anonymous, she to 
       had become a victim of this dreadful addiction. As for me, I 
       shot on back to the old ritzy-do penthouse, people waving 
       wildly as I drove by, happy that I had solved another one 
       and hadn't run over them in the process. Home to the 
       awaiting arms of my beloved babe, and that was heaven 
       enough...
       
       To be continued...!

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                            Zepplin for the Road
            -Chapter Four in the continuing adventures of Mr.X-
       
            I lay on my couch, wondering where my next meal ticket 
       was coming from. Yes, once again things were slow, crime was 
       down and it was all my fault! I'm just to good. Oh well, at 
       least I know it, the bigger the ego the better. Yea...
       
            The afternoon sun filtered it's way through the 
       darkened room and onto the "waterford crystal" glass panes 
       in my door. The sun felt warm on my face easing me into a 
       deep sleep, then the door to my apartment opened. My full 
       attention was suddenly focused on the girl standing in the 
       doorway, and the 90 decibel alarm horn going off above her 
       head, which I, of course, promptly shot off the wall with my 
       .50 cal. auto pistol. She walked towards me, door closing 
       behind her. I sat up and pulled on my shoulder holster, 
       knowing that a new case had just walked in.
       
       "Mister X?" She said, removing her sunglasses at the same 
       time. She was around five-four, dark hair with deep brown 
       eyes that spoke of the orient. 
       
            I looked her over trying to get a first impression on 
       what was on her mind, besides a little air. She had a 
       slightly bored, sarcastic look on her face.
       
       "Please, have a seat." I said gesturing towards the couch. 
       She sat down and crossed her legs.
       
       "What can I do for you miss..."
       
       "Hong. Kathy Hong. Call me Kiki."
       
       Phew! Glad we got that straight!
       
       "I want to hire you to check out an establishment that I'll 
       be attending next year."
       
            With that she told me the whole story. She was going to 
       attend a Brain Cramming Institution of Higher Lore this 
       coming fall, but there was a problem. She felt there was 
       something fishy going on down there and she wanted me to 
       look the place over. This would mean a trip to the far coast 
       and the recruitment of some special operatives. I told her 
       I'd take the case. She wanted to come along, "maybe I'll 
       learn something," she had said, and what the hay, Bess' was 
       away and it always helps to have a dame around, just in 
       case. I grabbed my jacket and fedora and we headed out the 
       door, she flipped a "butterfly" knife the whole way to our 
       next destination.
       
            Special Kay showed up as we were leaving and offered to 
       come along. Yea, we could never be without Special. We 
       hopped into my hearse and shot down the sidewalks to "JR's 
       Mags 'n Things" on the far side of the county. A dingy 
       little place nearly wallpapered in old, yellowing, paper 
       thin books. Both me and Special frequented the place and 
       this is where we would find the three people who were needed 
       for this sort of operation. As we walked in, the place went 
       silent,  eyes bulging and tongues hanging, the men we were 
       looking for stood drooling at my client.
       
       "Put the hormones on hold fellas, I know you all don't get 
       many females in here, but this ones off limits, she's a 
       client."
       
       "Ahh, come on 'X," was the cry...
       
            I ignored their obscene requests and got down to 
       business and told them what was up. The leader of the group, 
       Troy, was a master in the martial arts, and was a man good 
       with a gun and "Ginsu" cutlery. Rich, was the next one, good 
       at surveillance and capable of doing the "dirty work" 
       necessary to achieve our goal. He had worked for the Federal 
       Badguy Impounders, so, you knew he must be good. Last but 
       not most was Tony. Tony was a computer hack with the ability 
       to sniff out any dark, depressing person within ten feet and 
       blend in with the "brothers" as long as he kept raping. They 
       liked the case and were ready to take off whenever. 
       
       "Thats right, we'll get the cretins, because they won't be 
       able to beat a superior god-like being like myself...why I 
       could bring the perpetrators here now but that would ruin 
       the challenge." Uhm, yea, I'm glad Troy's on our side, then 
       again...
       
            We hopped into the hearse and headed for the highway. I 
       picked up my mobile voice box and told Captain Lardbucket 
       that I was head'in out of the city on a mission and Special 
       was coming along as our official liaison. He gave me 1000 
       reasons for not leaving the city on this fool mission; all 
       of which I shrugged off as mere responsibility. Lardbucket 
       wished me good luck and said he'd put out the word that it 
       was safe to walk the sidewalks again. With that I hit my 
       Acme Anti-Collision Cruise Control and cranked up INXS on 
       the radio.
       
            An hour later Bryan Adams "victim of Love" was blaring 
       out of my highly expensive stereo when I noticed the flash 
       of the old red and blue behind me. I dropped out of cruise 
       control and pulled off to the side of the road. I was 
       somewhere between South Carolina and Georgia, and it looked 
       pretty backwater to me.
       
       "Howdy boy, now yous ain't going to give me no horse crap 
       about ain't hav'in done nothin is you boy?" This was going 
       to be interesting.
       
       "What exactly did I do officer?"
       
       "I's sittin back der eat'n my Tasty Freeze cone when I's 
       clocked you doing 175 ina 45mph zone, then ya's proceeded to 
       go through old man Zeke's chicken coop and you sucked one of 
       dem birds into your turbocharger-dothingy. Basicaly thats a 
       420: reckless driving, a 367: destroying domesticated farm 
       animals with a motor vehicle  with out a license, and a 763: 
       the intentional intent to ruin an officer of da laws uniform 
       with a Tasty Freeze cone. That adds up to about a $500.00 
       fine and 30 days in jail. So what do you have to say for 
       yourself?"
       
            Uh oh, this guy was serious! First I showed him my club 
       card for the National Anti-Badguy foundation, showing me to 
       be a fellow upholder of the law; no such luck, he just 
       leaned against my car looking us over and spitting large 
       wads of "skoal" on my new paint job. Ok that was the last 
       straw, I was on a case and this guy was leaning on my car! 
       Obstructing an honest city "dick" and his colleges from 
       helping this young lady with her problem just because he 
       didn't like TastyFreeze vanilla icecream! Unbelievable! I 
       threw the hearse into four wheel drive and reverse and 
       floored it, backing right over the officers car. Into drive, 
       and floored again, I went back over his car and left him 
       standing in the middle of the road as feathers floated out 
       of the sky around him. I still to this day can't figure out 
       where those feathers came from...
       
            Two days, 10 "McDonalds", and 20 restrooms later we 
       pulled onto the campus of University U- California. It was a 
       sprawling metropolis that just crawled with every sort of 
       post pubescent teenager imaginable. We got right down to 
       business. I sent Rich and Tony down to the main building to 
       start looking for clues that signaled foul or stinky play. 
       Rich would grill (or at least toast) the President of the 
       "U" and Tony would attack the campus computers. The rest of 
       us headed for the dorms, we'd ask a few questions and get a 
       few answers.
       
            The dorms were unbelievable. The scene resembled only 
       what could be described as a set for a disaster movie. We 
       watched as people filtered in and out of the first floor 
       windows, using them like doors. Empty cans and bottles that 
       were obviously not used to hold fruit punch lay strewn and 
       stacked throughout. Our first encounter came with a tall, 
       blond, and over tanned youth who appeared to be cleaning his 
       room with a shovel and a large can of "Lysol", a bulldozer 
       would have been better. Special stepped forward and 
       attempted to communicate with the youngster.
       
       "Like totally, #%&$6754%&', and it's like rad too, dude." 
       
       "Dude?! Don't ever call me dude!" Screamed Special
       
            Just as I feared, as the words flowed out of his mouth 
       like an alien tongue, I realized that we were in the heart 
       of surfer/skater territory. The speech could be heard 
       filtering out of every nook and cranny of the building, 
       along with the giggles of inebriated, blond dames. Wild men 
       on boards raced by us with ever increasing velocity and 
       danger. Special stood perplexed as our "interrogate-E" 
       spewed out more skater speech. I stepped forward and got to 
       the core of the matter.
       
       "Ok guy, McCool, blah blah blah, blah totally thrasher." The 
       guy didn't know much, but said that somebody had been making 
       waves over at something called a "library." I thanked him 
       and gave him a buck for a real haircut. We headed back to 
       the rendezvous with our other team mates, Troy tripping 
       skaters as we went.
       
            Things didn't look good, Rich had found out that, the 
       president of the "U" had been paid to keep his mouth shut 
       about all the stuff he knew nothing about and wasn't 
       supposed to tell us. We walked back over to his office to 
       give him the billy club and rubber hose treatment only to 
       find him dead. Death by "Mr. Rodgers" overdose. He sat 
       strapped to his fake leather chair, eyes blood shot and 
       staring, a look of wholesome horror on his face.
       
       "Now boys and girls, can you say neighbor?"  I realized that 
       this was more than any person over four could take.
       
            This proved that there was something going on, more 
       than met the 'ol bi-focals. I rallied my troops and started 
       off for where Tony had been doing his job, my client keeping 
       a comforting arm around my waist. Our arrival was to late. 
       Tony lay face down on the terminal's keyboard, right hand 
       stuffed in the disk drive. Killed by a computer "virus"; but 
       I knew that someone had to have done poor Tony in. A scream 
       and a motion near the door alerted us that my client had 
       just been snatched and was being carried away by Tony's 
       murderer. I pulled my .50 cal. auto pistol from its holster 
       and laid out in hot pursuit.
       
            Down the stairs, down the the hall we chased the 
       assailant, as my client threatened to flay his various 
       private body parts with her knife. This made me and my men 
       mad, this guy had killed a friend and was making off with 
       the only dame in the story! We ran out the main doors, the 
       bright sun blinding us for a second. When we could see, we 
       realized things were going to be harder to deal with than 
       first expected. We were standing face to face with about 30 
       ultra right-wing republican neo-nazi bikers, Miss Hong held 
       in their midst! As the bikers slowly slid off their cycles 
       and advanced towards us wielding chains and clubs and 
       knives, I came up with our first tactic- "Run!"
       
            The four of us sprinted 20 feet and dove behind an 
       empty VW beetle. Troy, Rich, and Special opened fire with 
       their small calibre hand guns as at the same time the bikers 
       opened fire with their Acme Power Guns, slowly melting our 
       cover into a puddle of shiny slag. I set the selector on my 
       .50 cal. for "Stupid Radical Blasting Rounds" and opened 
       fire while I desperately tried to think of a plan to save my 
       client, and our necks, from these Lyndon LaRouche lovers. 
       Then it came to me. Several of the bikers were down, but not 
       enough of them. I leaped the beetle and ran towards them 
       firing away and calling taunts such as "Nixon in 88," and 
       "Mondale is God." They were taken aback by my courage and 
       stupidity.
       
            In their split second of indecision, we took the 
       initiative. Troy jumped around the car and let loose with a 
       searing blast of "Anarchy in the U.K.", by the Sex Pistols, 
       from his portable boom box. They fell back in horror, being 
       used to Lynard Skynard and Barry Manilow played at twice 
       normal speed; he followed up with several karate chops to 
       the knees. Yes, our opponents were weakening! Rich and 
       Special followed suit by laying down an incredible field 
       barrage of fire from their patented Acme Never-Empty 
       Hollywood revolvers. It was time to make my move. 
       
            I activated my Acme New and Improved Battlesuit and 
       flew towards the enemy. Accelerating to full power I crossed 
       the 30 foot wide area in five minutes and smashed in to the 
       line of bikes our foes had set up for the devastating domino 
       effect; paint chipped, and handle bars bent. That was it, 
       our attackers couldn't take any more of this sort of 
       punishment and  promptly surrendered. Glad my plan had 
       worked (?), I had meant to hit them! Faulty damn suit, 
       that's it I'm calling Consumers Report!
       
       Epilogue
            The bad guys were beaten. After rounding up these thugs 
       and seeing to Miss Hong's well being, we squeezed some info 
       out of the goons. It turns out that this group had been paid 
       by the mob to guard Jimmy Hoffa's brother. Which turned out 
       to none other than Elvis. Yes he was drugged up beyond 
       belief and believed that he was living in Graceland II, 
       located in Albecerque, New Mexico. Needless to say there was 
       great rejoicing across the country and Elvis was named 
       President of the U.S.A., that is until he was chalked up as 
       another sighting. As for my client, she was happy to see 
       that the place she was going to was allright, except for the 
       skaters, which she knew how to handle. We had all become 
       quite fond of her in our brief time together. It was with a 
       tear in our eye as we said "later" (never good-bye), gave 
       her a last fleeting hug, and watched her walk towards her 
       new home-away-from-home. Things would be a little duller 
       without her around but that was the way of things. She had a 
       bright future ahead, and we were but many of the supporting 
       characters in her life's play. With that we walked back to 
       the hearse and headed for home. "Stairway to Heaven" played 
       on the radio, and life as usual beckoned to us from afar...
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