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MV1 #84 Late October Year 3

starring X-Man   by Al Ritter

Nate was home.

For the first time in his four months of traveling his surroundings suited him. Prior to arriving in New York he spent most his time hitchhiking across the country, mostly in the boondocks. He found work were and when he could get it. Once in a while his travels would bring him to some larger towns. But now he was in the city. New York City. More specifically, Central Park. And for the first time in as long as he could remember he felt a sense of belonging.

X-Man: Burning Down the House

“Wow, its such a beautiful day Nate!”

“Yeah Tiffany, the kind that makes you glad to be alive.”

Chris Diamond choked down a foot long hot dog. "Man, some real weirdoes hang out around Central Park.”

“That’s a good thing Diamond,” said Nate suppressing a sigh. “That means we’ll blend right in.”

Nate had a point. Had they been anywhere else the trio would have probably garnered more that a few double takes. A large burly truck driver, an attractive former exotic dancer, and a time displaced heartthrob mutant teenager from an alternate post Apocalyptic reality. Anywhere else they would have been out of place. But in New York, they fit right in.
 
 

Nate sat down on a park bench and took in the sites and sounds of the park. “This is it. Everything seems so familiar. Like I’ve been through here hundreds of times before. It seems like an old friend.”

Suddenly a voice came calling from behind the trio.

“Nate?”

Diamond turned towards Nate. “Hey maybe this is one of your old friends!”

“He doesn’t look that old to me, Diamond.”

“That’s not what I meant.”

Nate smiled and punched Diamond on the arm. “I know, I couldn’t help it, you left yourself wide open for that one.”

Diamond was surprised. Nate was actually smiling and cracking jokes! He must really like being in New York.

The man that yelled at Nate ran right up to him and started shaking his hand enthusiastically. “Wow, its really you! Aint seen you in a while! But its really you! Its Nate! Nate the Great!

Tiffany started giggling. “Nate the Great?!?”

The man turned to Tiffany, seriously. “Oh, yeah, this guy and his girlfriend helped so many people around here.”

Tiffany cocked her eyebrow and looked at Nate. “Girlfriend?”

Nate was surprised too. “Hey, uh, listen...

“Gary”

“Gary. Listen Gary, I’ve had an accident recently and came out with a slight case of amnesia. You seem to know more about me than I do right now. Do you think you can help me out?”

“Help Nate the Great? After all the times you’ve helped all of us I’d be glad to!”

Nate was slightly embarrassed that this man was making a big deal out of him. Being called “the Great” didn’t help. “All right Gary, just tell me everything you know about me. And maybe I’ll be able to regain some of my memories.”

“OK. Lets see, your names Nate. I don’t know you’re last name. You and your girlfriend...

“All right hold on a sec Gary. You said something about that before. What girlfriend?”

“Oh, she was dark skinned, with long hair. I think she said her name was Thenordy or Thermality or something. Anyway she’d usually warm up the crowd before you showed up. She was a good showman. Had a lot of flair and a way with words. Then you’d make some kind of amazing entrance and give advice to people in the park and tell fortunes and stuff like that. You brought a lot of hope to some of the people around here. Uh, nobody really knows much about you outside of when you come to the park. Sorry.”

“That’s OK Gary, you’ve been a big help.”
 
 

Now Nate was slightly confused. These new revelations didn’t strike even one cord of familiarity. He had been a street clairvoyant, dispensing advice to the masses of New York? And he had a girlfriend? Nate couldn’t recall any of this but somehow he could tell Gary wasn’t lying to him.

Diamond watched Gary walk away. “Huh. Well, that was interesting.” He turned back to Nate. “Now what?”

Nate shook his head. “I don’t know Diamond. I guess I should try to get a hold of that girlfriend he was talking about. I have no idea how to start looking though. We don’t even have a sure first name let alone a last name. With my luck it would probably be Smith or Johnston anyway. I don’t know what we should do next.”

For the second time in as many minutes a voice came calling from behind them.

“I might have a suggestion for what you should do next.”

Nate and Diamond looked over their shoulders to she a red head standing next to Tiffany. Nate recognized her as one of the two thugs helping Solarr with the robbery yesterday. (a..k.a. Marvel Fanfare # 82) Then they noticed she had a silenced gun pressed against Tiffany's stomach. “Why don’t we walk someplace a little less ... public, and we can talk about what happened yesterday. And no funny stuff or the bimbo gets it right now.”
 
 

Now, something that should be noted about Chris Diamond. He’s slightly delusional. He’s a nice enough guy, who’s heart is usually in the right place but he sees the world just a little different from most other people. The first thing he thinks of in a given situation is usually not the first thing everyone else thinks of. Most people would play along with Jody’s demands but Diamond has something different on his mind. Without warning he leapt forward and kicked the gun out of Jody’s hands. While Jody was momentarily stunned at the fact that someone with the physical build of Diamond had just managed to pull of a feat like that, Tiffany stomped on Jody’s toes. Hard. She let out a yelp of pain and stumbled backwards. Tiffany snatched a briefcase off of the park bench and smashed Jody across the back of the head. Diamond was impressed. “You’ve got quite a mean streak there kid!”

Tiffany was about to respond when several shots rang out. Jody’s accomplice, Sid, was standing across the park shooting at Tiffany. Total pandemonium ensued. Everyone in the park was screaming and running around, blocking Sid from getting a clear shot. In the confusion Diamond grabbed Tiffany by the arm as the two of them and Nate ran out of the park. As they hit the street Nate stopped for a minute and visually scanned the area. Nate motioned for Diamond and Tiffany to follow him. “This way!”. They ducked into one of the apartment buildings lining the street and pushed the door shut.

“You know what? Maybe I don’t like New York as much as I thought I did.” Nate mused.

“Hey Nate, stop jabbering and help me with this thing!”

Diamond was trying to slide a soda machine out of the lobby to block the front entrance. Two kids were watching him with some interest.

“Whatcha doin mister?” asked one of them.

“Nothing. Go away kid, its dangerous around here.”

With some effort Nate and Diamond managed to slide the machine in front of the door.

“Hey mister why you blockin the door?” the first kid persisted.

Diamond growled at the kids. “I told you two to get out of here, its dangerous!”

As if on command, several shots rang out, penetrating the glass windows on the doors and the soda machine sending Mountain Dew and Pepsi spraying in every direction.

Diamond dove for cover. “Damn! This just keeps getting better and better doesn’t it!?!”

The two kids finally decided to take Diamond’s advice and ran off up the stairway, screaming.

Nate and Tiffany fell back into a corner knocking over some potted plants. Suddenly Nate’s head started buzzing with pain. Tiffany saw that Nate was hurt and started to get worried. “Now what do we do!?!”

Diamond looked around the apartment trying to figure out what to do now. No back way out. Looks like the only way to go anywhere other than where they were now was to go up the stairway. Once they got on the roof they could jump from building to building just like in the movies! Diamond liked that idea. “OK guys, I got a plan! Follow me!”
 
 

Tiffany helped Nate through the doorway at the top of the stairs and looked at her new surroundings. “Um, Diamond? We’re on the roof.”

“Yeah I know. Come on. If we jump over a few buildings we can loose those two punks.”

“Diamond, look at Nate! He can barley stand, let alone leap tall buildings!”

“You guys don’t want to leave now anyway, the party is just getting warmed up!”

Diamond turned around and saw Solarr floating in the air. “Its that guy from the robbery yesterday!”

“Solarr! My name is Solarr! As soon as you, and the Punisher, and the Goblin are out the way the whole world will never forget the name Solarr! I’m going to be major player! I’m going to be a big name! I’m going to rul... hey come back here!”

While Solarr was ranting Diamond, Tiffany, and Nate made a break for it.

“Hey come back, this party’s about to really get cooking now!”

Solarr let loose with a blast of superheated energy, trying to incinerate the trio. Nate heard Tiffany scream again and his head exploded with pain. Diamond, who fully expected to be char broiled, was quite surprised to see the energy blast flow around them like water in a stream flowing around a large rock.

Solarr too was quite surprised. When he saw what had happened he let go with a steady stream of curses and obscenities. Diamond noticed some tools spread around to roof top. He picked up a hammer and tested the weight. “Perfect” he thought. Solarr was screaming something incoherent when Diamond let the hammer fly. It stuck Solarr in the side of head causing him to fly out of control. Diamond lost sight of him when he went down several blocks away.

“Hey, did ya see that! Pow! Just like Thor with his mystical hammer! That was great!”

“Yeah, thats great Diamond.”

“And the way you pushed up that force field was great. We make a pretty good team.”

Tiffany wasn’t so sure about that. “What do mean the way I pushed up the force field? I didn’t do anything!”

“Come on, you gotta be a mutant and just don’t know it. The way my truck flew? And how that bullet stopped that was going to hit you? (Premiere #79 and Fanfare #82) And just now? It wasn’t me. And Nate’s in no condition to... Damn! Nate, you look like crap!”

Nate smiled weakly. “Considering how I feel, thats a compliment.” Nate was so pale he was almost pure white. And blood was streaming out of his nose. Tiffany helped him sit down by the door they came out from. No sooner did he sit down than the door started to open.

“Oh man, I forgot about those two punks.” Diamond kicked the door shut as hard as he could, smashing Jody in the face and knocking her out, sending her and Sid tumbling down the stairs.

Sid cleared his head and saw his gun a few feet away. He was about to reach for it when he saw Diamond was standing above him shaking his finger like he was telling a small child not to do something the kid knew he shouldn't be doing in the first place. Before Sid could react Diamond reached back and punched him right between the eyes. Sid whole world went black.

Epilogue One: Sid & Jody one hour later.

Sid slowly swam back to consciousness. He had one hell of a headache. He looked at his surroundings. He was still sitting in the stairwell. Jody was laying next to him, but she was still out. The guns were gone. And two kids were gawking at him.

“Gee mister what happened to you?”

“Nothing kid. Now go away you bother me.”

Sid picked up Jody and slung her over his shoulders. It was going to be a long walk home.

Epilogue Two: Solarr seven hours later.

“Just a minor setback. They may have knocked me down, but Solarr will keep on getting back up! Punisher couldn’t do it! Green Goblin couldn’t do it! One day my name will be recognized and feared around the world! Do you hear me world! You will never forget the name... SOLARR!!!”

A light turned on in one of the windows of the building that made up one side of the ally that Solarr was standing in.

“Keep it down you lunatic! Some people are trying to sleep you know!”

Suddenly Solarr got struck in the head by a flying shoe.

“Fine, you can force me back to the shadows for now, but like the sun Solarr shall rise again.”

Epilogue Three: Nate & Co. eight hours later.

Nate sat on the hotel bed trying to relax. He had an icepack on his nose, and his headache was dissipating, but listing to Diamond and Tiffany argue was preventing it from disappearing entirely.

“I’m telling you I’m not a mutant!”

“I bet you are. We should take you to someone who can tell us for sure.”

“Actually,” broke in Nate, “Thats not a bad idea. I’m ready to leave New York anyway.”

“Well,” said Diamond, “Its not quite that easy. We’re REALLY low on cash. New York’s a hard city to get out of if you got no cash. We got this hotel room for another two weeks anyway. I think we should find some jobs for a month or two and then pool our money and hit the road again. I’m not to keen on staying in one place for too long anyway.”

“Good enough for me.” said Nate. “Its not like I’ve got anything better to do.”

“You guys have been so good to me so far.” added Tiffany. “And Its not like I can go home again. I’m in.”

“Well looks like thats settled!” exclaimed Diamond, popping open a can of beer. “Heres to a new beginning!”

End.

Wow, its the end of Nate Grey's Fanfare tale! Again big ups to my friend Chris for helping me edit the darn thing, he actually had less work to do on this one! Yeah! Whats next for Nate Grey and company? You never know with these guys, keep an eye out 'cause they're sure to pop up somewhere in the near future!