First thing in the morning, quietly, Carroll and Harvey, in civilian attire, discussed the plan at a low-rent bagel place that Harvey favored. “I tell you, Care, this is the most legit bagel joint in the city. I swear there’s negative leavening in the these savory donuts and if we wanted something heavier they got like a hundred different bagel sandwiches.” Both dressed in their better clothes but Harvey in particular looked fashionable (or so he thought) in a black turtleneck.

“Yeah, well, after last night the last thing I want is a big meal. Nothing but nightmares..

Harvey smirked. “Nightmares in my guest bed? Impossible. About what?”

Carroll finished chewing the bite of blueberry bagel he’d taken, shrugged lightly, then replied. “Mostly memories. My folks giving me shit, I dreamed of them finding out what I do too. which is something that didn’t happen.. Oh, and our first meeting.” Carroll took a deep pull on his coffee. “Honestly, after that first impression, it’s a wonder we wound up working together.”

Chuckling, Harvey spoke without swallowing the bite in his mouth first. “Yeah, you seemed like a full-on spastic. Freaked me out.” Retorted Harvey, his Everything Bagel destroyed, looking at the menu again.

Blowing a raspberry, Carroll shook his head. “I meant how you introduced yourself by way of a brutal assault.”

“Please. He had a knife.”

“No, Harvey, I had the knife. You waited until he handed it over to tackle him into a brick wall.” Carroll couldn’t help but laugh. “And then you … you stomped him!” After their recent close call these past and petty disagreements felt familiar; safe. “It was like you were trying to kill a very tough bug.”

“Yeah… So how’s that Willie guy doing now? Still homeless and smelly?”

“Disrespectful, Harv. Honestly, Willie wasn’t around much longer. He was already afraid of Johnny and, after that day, he saw you around every corner. Said something about ‘the tunnels’. Someone at the shelter said there was a homeless colony, basically, in some abandoned subway tunnels he used to stay in. Like a city underground where everybody’s homeless? Does that make sense?”

“Everybody knows about the Mole People, Care.”

“No, uh, not just the fact that there are people in the tunnels. Like a city. Organized.”

“Sure, maybe.” Pausing, Harvey lowered his sunglasses, squinting. “That’s Sierra House, right?” He pointed out the window.

Carroll didn’t even have to look, knowing his old stomping grounds so well. “Yup, we’re basically there.” Sierra House was a diamond in the rough (rougher part that is) of the Bronx; a large converted schoolhouse surrounded by a small park of fields and scattered trees. “We can walk right in right now if you’re not getting seconds.”

“So convenient that there’s a Feivel’s Bagels is just across the street. Weird that I never put it together.” Harvey caught himself, Carroll’s words sinking in. “Oh, but yeah, let’s go do this thing. Make some first contact.”

Making their way across the street Carroll swung open the wrought iron gate, which moved silently due to regular maintenance, and made for the front door. Dozens of men and women moved about the park, some just getting some sun and fresh air, others helping with the maintenance of the grounds. For Carroll this would always be home, an irony he couldn’t express in words.

“Funny. I didn’t even realize where I was until you, well, you drove me off I guess. Saw you and that Willie guy from across the way and one floor up. Place is so nice. Didn’t realize it was full of unwashed nutjobs.”

They were inside the facility by this point and Carroll grimaced at Harvey’s description of the people. “Nix that right now, Harv, these people are here for help. Don’t denigrate them.” It was an impassioned plea loaded with earnest emotion. “Not everyone has inherited millions and lives off dividends.”

Smirk fading, Harvey nodded slightly before breaking eye contact. “Yeah, no, I get it. So … where’s Johnny?”

“It’s just about lunchtime. I say we check the cafeteria.”

“Carroll?” came a woman’s voice, tinged with surprise. “Carroll Avery? Where have you been!?” Whipping his head around, concerned, Carroll made eye contact with the owner of that voice. It was Laura Goldstein. Laura was a nurse by training but came from money so, rather than become a cog in some hospital system, she devoted her time to helping those in the most need.

“Laura! Hi!” Carroll’s voice raised to an obnoxious high pitch. The woman fairly dove on him, squeezing him around the neck hard. “How are you!?”

“How am I?” she jabbed back, grabbing him by the shoulders and sliding her hands down to grasp his. “I’m worried, Care! Wondering where my friend went! Like a year ago you say you have to go do this job, very hush-hush. I thought you were coming back in, like, a week or something!” Turning, she noticed Harvey. “Hi, I’m Laura,” she said without emotion. “Are you here with Carroll?”

“Ah, yes, yes I am.” Harvey was thrown. Usually, when he went out in civvies, especially with Carroll, he got all the attention. Thickly muscled, several inches taller than his smaller partner, he never saw Carroll as competition. He actually saw him as feminine, overly sensitive. The fact that this well-built if plain brunette with no makeup had flipped the script was throwing him. “Nice to meet you…?”

“Oh, sorry!” Carroll stepped in. “Harvey, Laura. Laura, Harvey. Harvey here has, uh, well … he’s missing his … brother.”

“Really!? You mean he thinks he might be here?” Laura replied, looking back and forth between the two men.

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Harvey grimaced, gritting his teeth, eyes flicking about furtively. After too long a pause he gave a slight nod.

“Yeah, oh, it’s so sad. His big brother, like four inches on top…” Carroll waved his hand up over Harvey’s head, indicating a taller man.“ … on top of him. Just, great big guy. I guess he had memory problems.”

Laura gasped, grabbing her own face. “No. No way … do you think it could be Johnny!?”

Frowning slightly, Harvey locked eyes with Carroll, giving a little shake of the head. He’d never seen his partner manipulating someone before. He felt disapproving yet … proud? Regardless, Harvey was certain there was a German word for it.

Didn’t matter though; Carroll was unrepentantly proud of himself at this point. “Oh, I don’t know! Johnny? Johnny who?”

Laura put her hands on her hips. “C’mon, Care, give me a break. You don’t remember the great big guy? Looked like a body builder?” If she were any bubblier she laura might start to fizz.

Carroll kept matching her energy. “Well, I have been gone for awhile.” To most people his tone would be cloying, patronizing, but Laura was clearly eating it up. “Where is this Johnny right now anyway?”

Laura giggled. “Geez, uh, I’m not sure. Any time a volunteer needs something heavy lifted, moved, whatever, they grab Johnny. He’s so strong, sometimes we wonder if it’s, y’know, normal…” Laura’s suspicions seemed naive; Johnny was like a chiseled statue and not clever about covering up what he could do.

Still, Harvey went along with it. “Okay, yeah, real powerhouse. Can we maybe start looking for the guy?” barked Harvey, losing some of his cool. Best to avoid talk of their ringer being Altered, even if the people here must have figured it out already.

Carroll looked at Harvey, minorly annoyed at his curt tone, but Laura clapped a hand over her mouth in dismay. “Oh, I’m so sorry! For us this is, like, a reunion but you’re still missing your brother.” She grasped Harvey by both shoulders and squeezed. “But maybe it’s a reunion for you with your brother too!” Laura gave a little squeak, far too happy at the potential future joy of family.

With a grunt Harvey stopped breathing, his mouth a tense pucker. With all his will he pushed himself not to show just how badly this little woman was hurting him. Apparently his night of brawling with a seven-foot powerhouse supervillain had taken more of a toll than he’d originally thought. “It’s … okay. Just, y’know, miss my little—big brother. So…?”

Luckily Harvey’s verbal stumble was misinterpreted to his benefit. “Yes, of course. Heh, little-big brother. I was wondering. I mean, you’re definitely the older brother so when Care said ‘big brother’ that threw me.” She released Harvey who pretended that he’d meant to say ‘little big’ all along though the hint that he looked old definitely stung. “Let’s go see if Johnny’s having lunch. Lot of folks do this time of day.”

Taking the lead Laura gave the two guys room enough to talk. Carroll was the first to break the silence. “You okay? Your knees started to buckle when she grabbed you.”

“Yeah, fine. Just … more hurt than I thought. What about you? You slept like a coma patient but now you seem normal.”

“I know! It’s amazing. My, uh, my hair is, y’know, weak, but no, I’m pretty much normal now.” He shuddered. “Coma patient, huh? Yeah, that explains all the nightmares. Like I was trapped in dreamland.”

It was a short trip, past a stairwell and gendered rest rooms, and the trio walked through an arch to enter the cafeteria. Harvey stifled any urge to call it a soup kitchen, but this obvious high school cafeteria, virtually unchanged from when students and not crazy homeless people wandered the halls, certainly looked the part. He opened his mouth, struggled to find the words, blurting simply “Wow, this really was just a school wasn’t it?”

“Yup!” exclaimed the exuberant young lady. “They moved a few blocks away like a decade ago and we moved in. Oh, hey! There he is! Hold on, let me make contact first, okay?”

“Why?” asked Harvey. “Is he dangerous now or something?”

“Uh, well, no… C’mon, help me out here, Care.”

“Yeah. Yes.” Stammered Carroll. “It’s, ah, coming back to me. Yeah, y’know, Johnny’s kind of a gentle giant but, y’know…”

“What? No. Carroll, you’ve been gone too long. We’re responsible for the people here. Jacob says we have to act like buffers here unless people are family. We don’t know if Johnny’s who we think he is yet and he doesn’t remember his life before anyway so … buffer.” Laura was clearly disappointed in her old friend but it didn’t slow her down. She came up to the over-muscled, tall and lean man in the A-shirt and shorts, chestnut hair falling around his shoulders, using a round path to come at him from the side. The two conversed as Carroll and Harvey stood back and observed.

Harvey was visibly uncomfortable. “So what’s the plan here, Care? You didn’t tell me this guy was an amnesiac.”

“I know, I know. But the thing is, if you talk to him for awhile, you realize he’s not lacking memories, Harv. He’s got too many memories.”

Blink. Blink. He wasn’t sure what to make of this. “That makes absolute zero sense.”

“Well…” Carroll thought hard. “He told me he knew Abraham Lincoln. Also he’s a little boy who loved cartoons in the nineteen-eighties. He told me about futuristic stuff too. Drones you drive as cars, stuff like that. He’s just confused, needs some guidance and I don’t think he’s getting that here.”

“But that’s not why we’re talking to him today, right?”

“What?” Carroll looked around, honestly confused.

“We’re here because he can help us, right? Not to save him so bleeding heart Carroll Avery can feel good about himself.”

“No. Nonono. C’mon, Harvey. If anything I want to get him out of here before he wrecks the place.”

“What!?” Harvey hissed, but it was too late, the conversation cut short, for Laura led Johnny back to them. Harvey looked up into the blue, empty eyes of a beast of a man with flawless features set in stone; ageless. Tucking his chin in apprehension he realized that this was a familiar face. Then, jaw falling open, eyes wide, he remembered from where he remembered this face.

Laura broke the tension. “Well, Harvey, what do you think? Can we call off the manhunt?”

He couldn’t help himself, Harvey swallowed hard, in sudden terror, recognizing whom he was standing before. “I, uh, I definitely recognize that face!” he said in a voice that was far too loud.

Carroll jumped in, perhaps sensing Harvey losing control a little. “Yes! Finally, the search is over! You’ve found your brother!”

At this Johnny seemed to wake up a little. Cocking his head to one side he, too, seemed to find something in the back of his mind that was familiar. “My bro?” He said, a strong valley accent penetrating. Grasping him by the shoulders, far tighter than little Laura had, he pulled Harvey in for a hug. This, too, was far too tight and the pain caused the air to sparkle in Harvey’s vision.

Laura jumped on Carroll again, dangling, both of them whooping it up in celebration of this reunion of two strangers, much to the horror of one Harvey Weir. As it turns out Johnny was, indeed, a stranger to Harvey, who struggled to breathe in his grasp. It would get worse, however, as Johnny breathed in, relief within reach, before the man he recognized as the Jersey Turnpike Butcher murmured into his ear something that would shock him to his core. “My big bro is the Bouncer…”