Freaks' Amour

April 18, 1988. Caliban's night. An ordinary frame house on a shabby block in a decaying New Jersey city explodes suddenly "puffing a furious gassy fallout" into the mushroomed sky. In the days and weeks that follow, the Blofied Street blast is duly investigated (Verdict: Not Enough Data), the dead are counted... and the irradiated survivors miraculously mutate, creating a small new race of "mystery" Freaks. Charles and Alan Fistick — Grinner and Flourface, fraternal twins, bitter rivals — grow up in the virtual quarantine of the Freaktown ghetto, where it's safe. As safe as any place can be when you're stange and the world is paranoid, terroized by hot wars, rampaging nihilist gangs and the orbiting nuclear arsenals of a dozen international powers. At least in Freaktown, the Normals can't hurt you. Not without a little effort.