BILLY STEELE: KID RANGER

The outlaw network was so secretive and vast, that the true identities of the masked Trinity Of Terror went undetected-the evil men behind the masks were always one step ahead of the lawmen bent on capturing them.

Col. Tim and his Holts Rangers, who worked out of Fort Yuma, tried to rid Paradise Valley and the American frontier of this overpowering menace. But the small outfit remained little supported for their massive undertaking by their political superiors. And they were instead forced to try and keep the peace between the white settlers and the Native American tribes. For relations between red and white men grew steadily worse and on the brink of uprising, while the outpost was under the corrupt administration of the territory supervisor Slade, and his henchman, a convicted con artist appointed sheriff, Whipjaw.

"Billy, Billy, your father, Col. Holt wants you. Better shake a leg, son," cried out Lester, Fort Yumas chief cook and bottle washer. The oafish man, dressed in the blue and gold cavalry uniform, and his oversized chefs hat, nearly tripped over his own feet as he ran to summon Billy to return to his adopted dad.

Billy stopped mourning his fallen loved ones, straightened up to his soldier stance as he wiped his tears away. Billy was a junior Ranger, dressed in the dark, blue, gold-stripped spiffy uniform of his outfit. Billys yellow cavalry hat had the crossed saber logo of his unit and its color matched his gloves and neckerchief. Billy saddled up on his golden pony, Swifty, and accompanied by his best pal, Lasses, his brown and white, flop eared puppy, Billy returned to Fort Yuma, where hoped to join his outfit on their next mission.

When Billy arrived at Fort Yuma, a wooden fortress and the last outpost for law, order and civilization in the wild frontier, he saw Col. Tim, Sgt. Big Boy, Jubilee Jones, and Salvation McCoy and the rest of Holts Rangers super troopers saddling up their horses to ride into battle.

"Wait, Col.," Billy shouted, "You forgot your flag bearer. I am ready to go Dad."

"Not this time. Son," Col. Tim sternly told Billy. "This mission is too dangerous. Besides, dont you have a math test at school today? A grade of one hundred would sure make me proud."

One of the Trinity Of Terrors masked minions, captured by Holts Rangers on the same day they saved the infant Billys life ten years ago, recently escaped from prison. Still a disciple of the Dark Skulls, the outlaw has taken on a new fiendish disguise, The Black Hangman. A hooded executioner draped in hellish dark attire, a noose in one hand and a six gun in the other.

Today, he and his devils saddle legion held the entire town of Mesa City hostage in an attempt to locate the mysterious black coin. The same relic which held the key to a supreme power source, the same secret object, which the Trinity Of Terror robbed from Billys birth parents a decade ago, and the same object which is Billys rightful legacy, left to him by his murdered mother and father.

Billy had somehow deduced the gravity of his units mission and virtually begged his soldier family to let him join the mission. "The Black Hangman will lead us to the secret identity of The Dark Skull and the secret map and black coin," Billy advocated. "That monster killed my mom and dad! Ive got to see who it is, Col. The black coin and the treasure it leads to, thats what my parents left me, please let me go along. Finding them will be finding part of myself."

"I want you to grow up to be a good soldier, but more importantly, a solid adult," Col.