by T5 and The Eurostar
Edulcore Cicciotto:
"My dear friend, Eurostar, who is that strange man?" Naecken asks me in a female voice. "His soul shows great promise... a destiny of Biblical proportions." We look at Naecken, just shaking our heads. How can we figure out someone like that? It's the whole group's collective question. We all rise to greet the newcomer.
Naecken takes his hand and says, "It's an honor, sir." The newcomer, this Marv Velo, flashes a look at him as if he wonders who let him out of the loonie bin. "Is this a friend of yours, or...?"
"Naecken, I have never seen this man before!" I whisper in the ear of the angel. But Nowhereman seems to know the green knight, if I can refer to him in this way.
"Velo, old friend!" shouts Nowhereman, greeting the stranger. "Where have you been these two years?" he asks. "After that fiasco with the evil Kid Bucket, I thought we would never see you again!"
The man watches Nowhereman with wide open eyes that look at me as he moves his lips to form the words, "Who is this loon?"
I smile, and speaking louder, suggest: "Um, Nowhereman, I think your friend must have traveled a lot to get here. Maybe he needs some rest before the meeting."
Nowhereman thinks for a moment and says, "Yeah, you could be right. Eurostar, you're a cook -- prepare some meals for everybody. In the meantime, the angel will show me the features of this new headquarters."
Naecken turns around to say, with a thoughtful voice, "I just had a thought -- you may need places to sleep. I'll ask the Quadinc persona what to do."
As if in response to Velo's unspoken question, I merely shrug. "He keeps doing that. Zoning out, talking to himself. I wonder if he's all right."
A grinding noise and a few loud booming sounds echo through the rooms. "What in creation was that?" asks Nowhereman.
Naecken opens his eyes and replies, "Nothing to worry about. I asked the house if it could build additional apartments for us, and it complied." He smiles.
"Wow!" I exclaim. "What else can this house do, Naecken?"
"It has quasi-dimensional storage space, which is why the house isn't so large on the outside as it is on the inside. The Quadinc perfected this science a few years ago, he tells me. So now everyone can choose a chamber and ask the house to decorate it in the style of your liking."
Naecken rejoins Nowhereman and walks toward a big door, followed by the Brit. "Angel, show me the gym!" says Nowhereman, and the words echo in the vast chamber as they leave the meeting room.
M'xy guides me to the cooking facility, which is bigger than my own restaurant in Italy. Funny, it's the first time I've thought of it since I left my place that night. While I begin to check pots, pans and dishes, I talk to Velo. "So, how in the hell did you get here, man?"
The tall man seems to think, and then slowly responds, "I was actually looking for you. I've seen the news about your two fights with the feds, so I thought it was the right moment."
"What moment?"
"The moment the metahumans of this country will raise their heads and break the chains of slavery."
"And how have you found us?"
"I fled to Chicago, where you were last spotted, and, while I was hovering above this point of the lake, a vortex suddenly appeared on the surface. It was the moment you and your friend were arriving. I just followed you."
"My friend? So you don't know Nowhereman?"
"I haven't met him before, but I know something of him... and of many of you. I have done my homework."
"He seems like a total lunatic, but we have some... information that says he will have an important role in whatever we are going to do. And now, with what the angel has said about you, I don't know what to think."
"What do you know?"
"Ah, it is nothing, really. Danny is from the future, and remembers history notes about us."
"Mmm, well, the future is not yet set in stone, Eurostar. What the boy remembers might never happen."
"Ah, good. Well, one last question, Mr. Velo. Who the fuck are you?"