Almost a year ago...

A man and a woman are lying in a bed, asleep. The woman mutters a name, semi-conscious. The man doesn't stir.

Two minutes later, the woman wakes with a start. Once again she repeats the name from before, but quietly, conscious of the man still lying asleep next to her. She turns to look at him.

'You've taken care of me and shown me so many new things I would never have known existed,' she notes to herself as the man instinctively turns over, now facing away from her, 'but you're still not him...'

MV1 COMICS PRESENTS		8
YEAR TWO	by Travis George	FEB

Previously: Quasar learned the fate of Vanguard and Presence, and decided to make new additions to his firm.

"Ok, bye Gomi. Keep in touch."

"So how is he?"

"Well, according to him. He's fine. His classes at Boston University keep him busy, he's met some people, made some friends."

"Any boyfriends?"

"No. Not yet. Not that he told me about, anyway."

"You sound worried, Ariel."

"I am. He wouldn't let me in on it, but I know something was bothering him. I could tell in his voice. There's something wrong, Chance. He left for BU right before we got the job working for Mr. Vaughn. Now that we've proved ourselves, maybe we should ask him to let Gomi work here, too. He could always transfer to one of the universities in New York."

"But why? Why would he want to leave his life there for this? It's boring. It hasn't been anything like what Quasar said would happen. We've been here for months, and we haven't once had any emergencies, like he warned us about. If I weren't a mutant, I would have quit and found a new job by now."

"You've got a point. But I still think we should check up on Gomi. Maybe we should ask for some time off and head over to Boston..."

Before either one can say another word, the boss walks in...

"Afternoon, Ariel, Chance."

"Hi, boss. How was lunch?"

"Fine. Any calls? And oh... is Ken in?"

"No calls, but there's a half dozen e-mails from potential clients I forwarded to your inbox. But it's spam if you ask me. And yeah, he's in KPTR."

"Then that's there where I'll be if anyone needs me."

Wendell walked into his office, and then walked all the way to a door on the far side. He opened it, and went inside. There was Ken, sitting in a wheelchair. This room was called Ken's physical therapy room, or KPTR for short.

"How're you doing, Ken?"

"I'm a little tired of the condescending way you ask that question, Wen."

"I'm sorry, Ken. It's just, I hate seeing you like this."

"I want to walk as much as you want to see me walk, Wendell. The doctors did say it might never happen."

"You have to think positive, buddy. That's an order."

"Right. I think I'm done with my exercises for today. I've got work to catch up on."

"Let me get the door f..."

"I've got it. I've really gotten good at this by now, you know."

"I know. Sorry..."

After Ken wheeled himself into the other room, Wendell buzzed Phil on the intercom.

"Yeah?"

"It's me, Phil. Could you come into KPTR when you've got a minute?"

Marlon, who was in the room with Phil, could have sworn he heard a sarcastic "Great" under Phil's breath.

*******

'Man, this is really getting on my nerves. Ever since we moved to this office downtown, I've had problem after problem with Phil. We just don't see eye to eye on how things should be done. It's time I was honest myself. If it wasn't out of some sense of guilt out of what happened to Ken, and the obligation I feel to honor Ken's decision to hire him, I don't think he'd still be working here. Sometimes I wonder why he doesn't quit himself.'

And as if precognitive abilities had been added to Quasar's repertoire, a knock is heard on the door to KPTR...

"Wendell, you wanted to see me?"

"Yeah. There's some things I wanted to talk about."

"Actually..." Phil interrupts.

"Uh, huh?" Wendell Vaughn, welcomes the interruption, relishing a battle with a super villian any day over having to deal with inter company problems.

"Well, where do I start? How about the fact that I'm sick of your decisions. Moving downtown, for instance. Sure, you got us away from the Thunderbolts, but it's not like moving away from midtown is going to protect us from every super-villian in town. There was that time all of Manhattan shook. That battle was more than 40 blocks from here, but we still felt it.* And then, of course --"
[* What is Phil talking about? You'll have to read Thor #507 for the answer. -TG]

"Listen, Phil... buddy. I hate to interrupt, but is this going somewhere?"

*******

'Well, that took care of that. Just two weeks, and Phil will be gone, and we'll finally won't have to worry about butting heads in the office. Now if Ken could only start walking again...'

Before he can form another thought, the Cosmic Avenger's quantum bands beep, signalling someone's attempt to contact him.

"Quasar! This is Captain Morfex of the Charter spaceship NCC-1701 calling Quasar of Earth. Can you read me?"

'Morfex! Haven't seen him since I said good-bye to the Starmasters.'

"This is Quasar, Morfex. I read you. What's up?"

********

"We've got an emergency, crew. Plan Alpha."

"You're kidding!" Even though Chance had learned a thing or two about how keeping the sarcasm level down helps improve office relations in the months she had worked at Vaughn-Tanaka, this was one opportunity for sarcasm she had held back too long to pass up now.

"And you thought it would never happen, Chance."

"I won't be satisfied until I see some action," Chance retorts, taking out her switchblade for all to see.

"Put that away. Where's HD?"

"She's --"

"Sick of those damned initials is what she is. So you're going off into space, Wendell?"

"Yeah, babe," Quasar said, kissing her good-bye.

"You want to be a little more discreet? Marlon's expecting some clients to show up any minute now. I thought you didn't want to blow the secret ID thing this time around," Ariel said.

"Sorry, Ariel," The woman they were now calling H.D. apologized halfheartedly. Turning back to Quasar she asked, "I suppose you want me to stay here?"

"You've got it, Kizzy. I would ask you to come with me, but hey, you know how it is. Vaughn-Tanaka Industries can't ever be complete without an H.D. Steckley in the accounting department," he joked, eliciting a groan reaction from Kismet.

"The back way, boss," Chance pointed to Wendell Vaughn's office door, just as he motioned to bolt through the window. Ariel accompanied him to the back.

'How I regret the day I ever agreed to use an image inducer and pose as the company's latest "Heroically Deadly Superspy" or HDS for short -- a *Vaughn-Tanaka tradition* he told me. Almost as much as I regret not being able to accompany my mate into space.' Kismet thought to herself, watching her boyfriend close the door behind himself and Ariel.

Less than a minute later, Ariel reappeared.

"Is he...?"

"I found a nice door that led out to one of the piers. By now, he's on his way out of the atmosphere, and heading off into deep space," Ariel answered.

"H.D. Steckley" sighed.

********

"Not so fast, Quasar."

"Numinus?!?" Quasar had just exited the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere, and was now officially in space, when the cosmic entity had materialized.

"I thought you could use some help for this mission. Believe me, you'll need it."

"Well, I guess... What did you have in mind?"

"Them." Numinus gestured, and a fissure in space became visible. Inside it were two figures. One was mostly a blur, while the other seemed to be traveling at super speed, but slowed down while emerging from the fissure.

"You look familiar," Quasar said to the bearded man, who was dressed in red. "Now I remember where I know you from. You were the mysterious guy who came out of nowhere to win the Runner's race!*" [* Check out Quasar #17 for the race as well as some hints to the man's identity. - TG]

"Yes. I'm called Fastforward now. I was on my way to Earth, still seeking to solve the mystery of my identity. I'd been trying to help Makkari get out of his perpetual superspeed state, but we're still no closer to solving the problem."

"Mak!"

"Hey, Quas!" The blur seemed to slow down for a moment and Makkari's features became visible at almost normal levels of perception, but only for a couple of seconds before speeding up again.

"I can't help him solve his super speed problems, but as long as he's within the fissure between time and space, the two different planes of existence you're on will be able to intersect briefly. But the fissure won't last indefinitely," Numinus told them.

"After this is all over, we'll find a way to get you back to normal, Mak old buddy. It's great to see you again."

"Same here, daddy-o!" Once again, Mak seemed to slow down, but only for a second.

"Numinus, is there anything you can tell me about what's going to happen? I'm guessing there's more to this than just the Starmasters being under attack if cosmic entities are helping me before it's even started," Quasar deduced.

"I can't. Sorry," she said without expression.

"It was worth a try. Can you at least tell me if there's a way to quantum jump the fissure along with us."

"I'm afraid not. But I can do this much." Numinus gestured once again, and the blur that appeared inside the fissure was now also visible on one of the cameo crystals on Quasar's quantum bands. "You'll be able to get in touch with Mak the same way you would Epoch or the Avengers. And it's the same for him. He'll easily be able to keep up with you, no matter how far you quantum jump. At his speed, he may just get there before you do."

"All right. What about you, Fastforward? Are you coming with us?"

"Yeah, I'll help you with this mission," the stranger from the Distant Cosmos answered. But after this, I'll have to be getting back to Earth. I'm anxious to finally find my real identity again."

'Wait until you realize where you come from*. It's too bad I can't tell you that it was my intevention that brought you here. That Crisis was a messy thing indeed,' Numinus thought to herself. Aloud, she said, "Well, my work here is done. Good luck with your mission in space, Quasar. Like I said, you'll need it." With that, Numinus disappeared, seemingly into nothingness. [* For that story, you'll want to check out Champions #29 and 30 - TG]

"Ok, ready to jump, Fastforward?"

The man who formerly called himself "Buried Alien" nodded.

VDOOOOOM!!!!

A few seconds after the two men's departure, an image of them appeared inside Makkari's fissure. This was accompanied by an instinctive directional sense provided by Numinus, letting the Eternal know exactly which direction to travel. He zoomed away in pursuit.

******

<"This one's purpose has been served. What should we do with it?">* [* Translated from an alien tongue - TG]

<"A very interesting vivisection this one will make. I've done lots with Kree and Skrulls, but I've never been able to examine an Axi-Tun up close. Put it on the other vivisection table. I'll take a look at it after I'm done with the other one.">

<"Yes, Insidio", the alien says with a grin.>

Travis George

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