by the_indestructible_man, theory9 and kidbucket
Thunder City, MBL's world:
The crackle of lightning was appropriately heard over the damp streets of Thunder City as the villainous Theory 9 raced, winded, down the back alleys. In the flash of light from the sky, his pursuer appeared: Kid Bucket.
"Get back here, you!" yelled Kid Bucket. "You're going to answer for what you did to the MBL!"
"It wasn't me! When my Legion attacked, it was their own new time circuitry that tripped and set up the temporal fluxes all over the city that sucked them up!" Theory 9 suddenly realized he was trapped in the corner of an alley.
Kid Bucket: "Sure... I've tracked down the rest of your gang and dealt with them, but I saved you for last. Say good night..."
Theory 9 said, "Uhh... Good..."
Suddenly, a blue temporal bolt hit the spot where the two were standing, and they were tossed into the space-time ether. They were stunned from the assault on their stimuli, and fell into the fields of what looked like Kansas.
"...GOD!" finished Theory 9.
Seeing that Kid Bucket was still stunned, the villain got up and hauled tail away from the spot as fast as possible. Kid Bucket groggily stood up and tried to make out his surroundings. He saw a small monument and a familiar orange car.
Kid Bucket: "What the hell? Flintlock?"
He wandered out and indeed saw Flintlock next to the monument with a weird antenna.
Flintlock: "Kid Bucket? What the hell? How'd you get to this world?"
Kid Bucket: "World? What the...? You look younger than you should..."
Flintlock: "A space-time flux, eh? Well, welcome to Lebanon, Kansas, the exact geographical center of the continental United States. The Indestructible Man should be here soon to get you up to speed on our mission. Until then, let's get you inside and rested."
Kid Bucket: "Indeflagable Who? Man, even for an anomaly from your future, I've still been gone from the MBL too long..."
Meanwhile, Theory 9 ran until his legs gave out, then collapsed in the corn. Suddenly, he realized there was someone standing above him and looked up to see a man dressed in a green organic cloak and possessing odd metallic glowing eyes.
Killer Weed: "Greetings, visitor. If you're quite done running from the visiting team, the Meta Syndicate could use your help against the Indestructible Man and his cronies."
"I-Man?" said Theory 9, grinning wickedly. "Sure, just lemme know what you need me to do..."
He muttered to himself, "Yes, I am here, I-Man... Where good is, evil follows..." He turned back to Killer Weed and said, "Let's get this evil show on the road!"
A good night's sleep was deserved for Kid Bucket, as he was still suffering from the various ailments usually associated with dimension-hopping.
Inside a quaint Kansas farmhouse, a whole world of technogadgets and elaborate computer equipment was hidden. Kid Bucket awoke with a sharp pain in his head.
Flintlock: "Mornin', or should I say afternoon?"
Kid Bucket: "Yeah... thanks... wh-what time is it?"
Flintlock: "Almost half past three. You slept for a while, there."
Kid Bucket: "Half past three, three-thirty? Help me out a little bit. What... year is it?"
Flintlock: "Look, Kid, you've had quite a journey. You still need some rest. Here, let me get you..."
Kid Bucket: "WHEN AM I?"
Flintlock: "You're in the year 2000, in Kansas."
Kid Bucket: "What? I've only seen this place in pictures! I was... I used to live here... I was..."
Flintlock: "...Born here? Yeah, you were. In fact, you will be born in a few days now. You were not only sent through a dimensional rip, but also cast through time. The Kid Bucket that will be born in this dimension has been prophesied to be the war-bringer, the ultimate end of all things."
Kid Bucket: "What? But... how do you know?"
Flintlock: "Well, let's just say I got bored the night before and, dressed as a civilian, I joined the local farmers' poker game last night. The locals saw the flash when you arrived and started talking about the prophecy of Kid Bucket. They didn't believe it themselves, but I did. They quickly told me the gist of it before I raced off to find you."
Kid Bucket: "What... let me go back... I WANT TO GO BACK!"
Flintlock: "There's a reason why you are here, Kid. I'm not sure who send you or why... but there's a reason, and we're gonna help you out."
A light blinded Kid Bucket as a door far to his right opened up, and Disco Stave entered. "Hey, buddy... I heard you were back!"
Kid Bucket: "Disco!"
Flintlock: "We are both members of the Meta Board League, Kid Bucket. You were once a member of our ranks also, only to disappear last year. We weren't sure of your whereabouts, and still aren't sure. Through contacts with the future, we were able to trace your second birth to this city. How someone has the power to pluck you from your time and rebirth you in another is beyond us."
Disco Stave added, "But we will find out!"
Flintlock: "This may be a lot to take in, Kid, and we'll try to make more sense as the missions continue, but we have a feeling that you were sent here to help stop your impending birth, Kid Bucket. It's just another thing on top of all our crises right now."
Disco Stave: "It's a good thing we have the best people working on all of them, though. Kid Bucket... I want to introduce you to the new Meta Board League... and I will, soon. But I have to get back to the future. It would be a bad idea if I ran into my past self accidentally, even though I know he's on his way to Chicago. Seeya later!"
At that, Disco Stave exited through the same doorway and disappeared in a flash of bright light.
Some time later, as Flintlock and Kid Bucket sat in the living room of the farmhouse near the monument, eating sandwiches and watching the Meta Syndicate of Order News Broadcasting Channel (MSONBC), they heard a car park and the door open. In walked the Indestructible Man.
Flintlock: "Hey, I-Man! Took a while for you to get back."
Indestructible Man: "Yeah. I... uhh... had to pick up some old stuff from Berkeley on the way back from L.A."
Flintlock, finishing his lunch, said, "Oh, okay. This is Kid Bucket, an old MBLer who fell through a temporal portal from home, at least home in the future. He's got some wacky news."
Indestructible Man: "Hey. I'm the Indestructible Man, and welcome to the antimatter universe. I discovered your world from watching TV, and went there, to the place I called World Two, to recruit the MBL."
Kid Bucket: "Why?"
Indestructible Man: "Well, to make a long story short, I needed their help to defeat Hate Assbury's Meta Syndicate of Order, who've ruled this world with an iron fist for years."
Kid Bucket: "Okay..."
Indestructible Man: "So, we split up to deal with his lackeys first. Flintlock and I defeated Law Shark in L.A., and Dragnet Zero and Disco Steve have beaten Dr. Marten in New York City, and they've both left to help out Natsuko and Jenna in Chicago, tracking down Gun Runner. King Psionic and a newcomer called ORCA Chief are in New Orleans after Viet Khan, and Nowhereman and Smasher are in Las Vegas after Whore Babylon. After that, we'll head to the Capitol, and, with the security chips we can extract from the defeated MSOers' communicators, make our way in to face Hate Assbury and his sidekick, Killer Weed."
Kid Bucket: "Now it makes sense. I first met up with a hypertime duplicate of yours in a coffee shop, and that older you had said the MBL had been betrayed and defeated. But then I found that the MBL in my time had returned victorious from your world, along with you, after discovering the subterfuge in time."
Indestructible Man: "What do you mean?"
Kid Bucket: "Well, from the message that some joker left on my answering machine, Time Trustee Tempus and Medusa Lass had agents of evil in this case..."
Flintlock: "Aw, shit! And we left them back on our world, free to return to the headquarters."
Kid Bucket: "Yeah, but you'd flushed them out, and, after winning here, brought back temporal security devices to the base that malfunctioned in a battle with Theory 9's Legion of Evil Bastards and sent the MBL into a time shift, and sent me, and possibly Theory 9 himself, catapulted across space and time here..."
Indestructible Man: "So then, for us to win this fight, we're going to have to first win by exposing Tempus, and then install Assbury's time-tech in the MBL Headquarters, then get it trashed so you get sent here, and then receive your news so we can win by exposing Tempus..."
Kid Bucket: "Yeah, a vicious circle, eh?"
Indestructible Man: "Indeed."
Flintlock: "But what of TTT and Medusa Lass? They were in the headquarters, and who knows who else could wander in and get taken out by their treachery! We could only gather a few members before you brought us here. Hardy New-Born and the rest were still AWOL!"
Indestructible Man: "I don't quite know yet. Regarding our teammates here, I've lost contact with the Las Vegas, New Orleans, and Chicago teams, but Disco Stave and Dragnet Zero are en route to Chicago."
Kid Bucket: "Uhh... Of the folks you mentioned, only Nowhereman, Smasher, and Dragnet Zero had been seen around headquarters after this mission that I know of."
Indestructible Man: "All right, then. Disco Stave and Dragnet Zero will hopefully save Natsuko and Jenna, then, and I trust that Nowhereman and Smasher are meant to make it through this one safely."
Flintlock: "But K.P. and that ORCA guy?"
Indestructible Man: "My concern, too. I've got to remain here and get started on installing the MSO chips in the MBL communicators, but I need you two to head down to New Orleans and haul their asses out of the fire."
Kid Bucket: "I'm ready if you are."
Flintlock: "All right, then, let's head out. I'll keep in contact."
Indestructible Man: "Godspeed."
So the two ran out to the General Lee, started it up, and began heading down south at full speed. After they reached a certain speed, Kid Bucket opened up a hole in space on the highway before them. They drove through it and found themselves in New Orleans.
"Ain't teleportation glorious?" said Kid Bucket, winking.
After the General Lee rolled out with Flintlock and Kid Bucket, the Indestructible Man sat on the sofa working on the coffee table of the farmhouse near the monument, watching the news broadcast.
MSONBC newscaster: "In a released statement this morning from the office of Dr. Johann Marten, the doctor revealed that he would be out of the public spotlight for a time while working on an important experiment."
Indestructible Man: "Surrre..."
MSONBC: "This came only two days after District Attorney Rodericke Sharke, the self-styled Law Shark, dropped out of public sight himself. These disappearances are more likely in preparation for the upcoming thirtieth anniversary of our esteemed ruler's rise to power."
Indestructible Man clicked off the TV. He dialed his communicator and waited for the other end to pick up.
Indestructible Man: "Hey, Steve?"
Disco Stave picked up his beeping communicator as he and Dragnet Zero were flying across Lake Michigan. "Yeah?"
Indestructible Man: "How close are you Chicago?"
Disco Stave: "Over Lake Michigan now. We should be landing in the next fifteen minutes."
Indestructible Man: "All right. Gun Runner's base is in the northern suburbs. Most likely Natsuko's plane was brought down there. You'll have to fly low to evade radar, so watch it over the city."
Disco Stave: "Cool. We'll give you a call when we save the damsels in distress."
Indestructible Man: "Okay, and I've got Flintlock and Kid Bucket heading down to New Orleans to check on King Psionic..."
"Kid Bucket?" said Disco Stave, confused.
Indestructible Man: "Yeah, don't ask... later."
They hung up and went back to their respective tasks at hand.
Continued in Chapter 13: No One Knows More About Nowhere Than I