by Nowhereman
As the group moved off, they failed to notice that Nowhereman had slipped away.
In New York, a man looked at an object glowing on his wrist and spoke into it. "What do you want now?" said Captain Howdy.
"Cap," said Nowhereman, "things are worse than we imagined. Is Jack with you?"
"Jack's... uh... taking care of a little business." Captain Howdy glanced over to see Jack Nasty beating on some less-than-savory-looking individuals.
"Look, the shit has really hit the fan, and much as it pains me to say this, I need you two to back me up on this!"
Jack finished beating on the hoods and strolled over to Cap. "Yo Cap, what does HE want now?"
"Heh, he's actually begging for our help!" Howdy laughed.
"Look, enough of this fucking witty banter," said Nowhereman. "You know as well as me that I did not wanna work with the MBL again, but you got that tip-off that someone was out to get them."
Captain Howdy said, "Sounds about right."
Nowhereman continued, "Well, it would seem there's a bit more to it than we knew."
"What the fuck you rabbiting on about?" said Jack.
"None of the MBL appear to recognize me and don't seem to remember many of their past adventures!"
"They've got bad memories," said Howdy. "So what?"
"It's more than that -- they don't seem to see things as they really are, either!"
"What do ya mean?" asked Jack.
"Well, for a start, the Nowheremobile is a one-of-a-kind, hyper-tuned sports car, but they seem to view it as a family saloon car!"
"I might hate your guts, but one thing I've always liked about ya is your taste in cars," said Howdy. "No way is that beauty a family saloon!"
"Exactly," said Nowhereman. "Somehow I believe reality has been altered!"
"And what are we s'posed to do about this, exactly?" demanded Jack.
"Come on Jack," said Howdy, "even I can work it out. If we are the only ones not affected by this reality-warping thingy, that must mean we are impervious to whatever caused it, right, N.M.?"
Nowhereman was stunned. Captain Howdy was finally showing some intelligence. "Right! Now I need you two guys to meet me at the Chicago headquarters, then contact me when ya get there. Nowhereman and the Insiders are back in business."
"Shit," said Captain Howdy, "here we go again!"
Nowhereman hung up, then rejoined his erstwhile MBL.