by The Time Trust
The day passed, and the body of Nowhereman lay unmoving during all that time. No one came by to find the body, and no one ever would. The garage that Nowhereman referred to as his Nowherecave was perpetually leased from the original owners, and Nowhereman had little to no personal contact with the outside world. If he died there, no one would ever know it.
The body lay there unmoving as, on the streets above, the people of Chicago went about their business, not knowing that one of the city's protectors was lying nearby in a pool of his own blood.
Nowhereman had nearly died on that night almost two years ago when the office of Arnold Julius Reiner had exploded. Reiner's secretary had survived the blast with only minor wounds, but it appeared that the president of AJR Innovations had died in the explosion. However, no body was ever recovered.
There was no body to recover. Nowhereman had disappeared at the moment the explosion occurred, only to reappear in a dazed state several miles away without any apparent explanation. Arnold Julius Reiner was gone, but he was now a part of Nowhereman; he had become one of the Madman's split personalities, a group they -- well, only Nowhereman -- had affectionately referred to as Nowhereman and the Insiders.
However, although Reiner had been absorbed into Nowhereman, he had become catatonic. He had become unconscious just at the point that he was about to reveal Captain Howdy's destiny. Reiner had remained in a catatonic state within Nowhereman's split personality for nearly two years until just before midnight yesterday, when he finally resurfaced. Then, just as Nowhereman re-enacted the scene, he was again shot at the very moment that Reiner was about to reveal Captain Howdy's destiny.
"Now..."
The word came as a whisper, barely a breath.
"Now... here..."
The body of Nowhereman stirred and slowly began to rise from the garage's concrete floor. A streak of blood seeped from a hole in Nowhereman's cowl, which exposed red hair. He brought his hand up to the wound, felt the blood, and looked at his fingertips in confusion.
"I'm... now here, man..."
Nowhereman had fulfilled his destiny -- he was dead. His split personalities were not. Captain Howdy's destiny was about to be revealed. It was exactly midnight.
The End