by The Eurostar and Nowhereman
Nearly two years later:
The team formerly called the Revolutionaries -- now known as Vanguard International -- had come to Chicago to locate their old ally and former teammate, Nowhereman. They had come for information from the man who had always seemed to be aware that reality had somehow been altered.
The current members of Vanguard -- Edulcore "Eurostar" Cicciotto, Grimm, Priest, Banshee, Ozzy Baxter, Adem Different, Tayden, Phil Smith, and Drake Marshall -- now landed on the rooftop of the building where Cicciotto had first met Nowhereman. They descended the stairs into the garage below.
The garage, which Nowhereman called his Nowherecave, was dimly lit and stuffed with what appeared to be little more than garbage, an old car, some toys, a few pictures, and posters on the wall. Nothing had changed since Euro visited the place two years earlier. The Vanguardians looked around, more disgusted than surprised.
"It's strange," said Tayden. "It feels like a hypertime nexus point... but seems closed, like there is just a remembrance of the nexus."
"What do you want, Vanguardians?" Out of the shadows Nowhereman appeared.
Most of the Vanguardians looked puzzled at the man they had seen before only in pictures on the wall of the Complex. Out of all of them, none but Euro had met him before.
"Hi, Nowhereman," said Euro, extending his hand to the vigilante.
The man did not extend his own. "Nowhereman is patroling the city. What do you want, Cicciotto?" The voice was quite different from the one Euro remembered.
"Close your fucking mouth, Howdy!" said Nowhereman again, this time with a different tone of voice.
With the former voice, he quickly answered, "You shut up, Nasty!"
Euro was aware of the three split personalities of Nowhereman, who together formed a supposed team called the Insiders. The name was fitting, since each existed inside Nowhereman's mind. "Jack, I need to know if the MBL has been here. The world's existence is at stake," asked Edulcore, softly.
"Don't tell him!
"I'm gonna tell him. It could be my chance to be in Vanguard!
"You fucking moron!
"Close your mouth!
"Eurostar, the MBL came here. They want to find...
"Shaddap!
"Prometheus X! The one called Ritchie Stevens -- in New Jersey! He knows how to bring back the true continuity.
"Bastard! Nowhereman will kill you when he'll return, if I don't kill you first!"
The Vanguardians watched the unbelievable scene with a mixture of amusement and sadness. The monologue soon became indecipherable, and Euro turned toward his colleagues. Shrugging, he said, "I don't think we'll get much more from them... uh... him. Better leave. Hope there is just one Ritchie Stevens in Jersey."
Looking back at the black-dressed man, each Vanguardian left the garage for the roof, where they called back the hovercraft from the sky above the city.
Meanwhile, back in the garage, the man known as Nowhereman looked agitated as his true persona plus one more had resurfaced, and the resulting monologue became more and more incredible. The figure known by some as the Madman was re-enacting a scene that had taken place at the AJR Innovations building nearly two years earlier, a scene that had then been interrupted by a nearly fatal explosion.
"Fuck all this shit -- I'm gonna take the bastard down!"
There was a pause.
"What the fuck did you just do to Jack?
"Do not worry unjustly. I haven't hurt Jack. He is just fulfilling his destiny!
"What the fuck do you mean by that?
"Why do you idiots insist on such crass language?
"Are you taking the fucking piss?
"Shut it! Reiner, what the HELL do you mean by destiny?
"Here -- this should explain a few things!" He held up a book titled The American West, by Dee Brown.
"You want me to read about cowboys and fucking Indians?
"Page sixty-two. Look carefully at the picture.
"Yeah. I see a masked man who is one of my predecessors!
"Look carefully.
"It's Jack! The Nowherekid is Jack!
"As I said, he had a destiny to fulfill, as do you both. Now onto you, Captain Howdy!"
BANG!
The body of Nowhereman, now apparently empty of any identity, fell to the floor. A pool of blood enlarged under the tall, muscular, black-dressed body. It was exactly midnight.
Out of thin air, the massive body of a man in a jumpsuit formed, a smoking gun in his right hand. He shook his head.
"I don't know if you really hold the secrets to changing the course of the time stream, man, but you are too fucked up for me to let you live, if that's even just remotely true."
The man put the gun back in his holster, then vanished again. The agent known as William "Boss" Tweed headed back to EPS Headquarters, his mission completed.