An hour and a half before:

"Turner!"

"Ed!"

The two men shrugged in front of the other two Vanguardians, Priest and Phil Smith, which looked at the scene with big, wide open eyes.

"But... but..." said Phil.

Priest looked again at them, and then turned to Phil. "can you tell me what's going in their head?"

Phil shook his head. "No. Ed is shielded, and Turner seems to generate an electrical powered magnetic field that scrambles his alpha wave mind generated signals. That means I can get any readable line from both of them".

Priest shrugged. "Can you tow, then, tell us what's happening?"

Ed turned toward his friends. "Turner, here... is a friend. He helped me a lot when I was in the EPS... too badly, when we got to Chicago with the team I was under the spell of Ladnikia... things could have been different... anyway, I contacted him to tell I was going to have a new kid, and he has come for a little holiday... you know, to help with the restaurant opening and such..."

The last words had the deepest impact. "Help with the opening.... him?" Said priest, again.

"Hey, why not?" said the man in the Hawaiian shirt and cool sunglasses. "Do you think I can't enjoy a permanence on this island? The sun is great, the sea is nice... great for fishing, I have read... the money with which the restaurant has been built are half mines... I could think of moving here, after all..."

"It would be great, Turner..." said Euro.

"Yeah... but I would miss the wind down the towers..." said smirking Turner.

And Priest: "We have nice hurricanes here".


An hour before:

Sitting on white flax armchairs on the terrace, as the sun went down, the four men were sipping rum in front of the sea.

"You really want to talk of the team's future in front of an EPS?" said Phil, alarmed.

"Why not? He's a friend, and also Walker had infested the Complex with spy gadget to look over Eddie. He had always known what was going on..." explained Ed.

Turner nodded. "True. And I assure you nothing I will should hear here will ever be revealed to Walker".

Phil stood up. "Like you did not came here to put bugs all over this place. Euro can be blind, but don't think it's not obvious."

Turner smiled. "You're paranoid, Smith".

"Actually, Phil, I put myself control devices connected with the EPS here myself. It's a sort of agreement I had with Walker. Eddie is developing powers, the EPS help could be invaluable."

Phil opened is eyes even wider, if it was possible. "What! You bugged your own place and then invited me and Priest to talk about Vanguard knowing all it was broadcasted to Walker! Are you mad or what?"

"Actually, I asked you and Priest... and Turner, too... to talk about the situation in Manhattan. I don't know what we could say about the team... as there is no team anymore."

Priest looked at his wrist watch. "I am late for my party. Before you have your talk, I want to say two things. First, I am happy with your job offer, Euro. I love this island, and I love the people that inhabit here. I have come here for a mission, and although in a different way than I had planned, the mission looks to have been accomplished. I want to live my rest of the life happily here. Second, with the mission accomplished, it is also possible that time, re-alining itself, could cancel my existence. I mean, if what for I was sent here didn't happen, I can't be sent, so I will never arrive here. I don't want to disappear during a mission, when maybe you rely over my action. So, I don't know what you have in mind, Ed, but don't count over me. As much as I am sad to tell you this, yet I can't let any of your action fail for my cause."

"And what about the team, Priest?" asked Smith.

"There is no team, Phil. I will be here for any parties you want to held, and to help you anything should happen here. But don't ask me to come into missions abroad. I wouldn't come." and shaking his head, a sad face as Phil never saw before, Priest left the room.

Turner eyebrows went up. "I know him!" he said.

"Me too" said Euro, nodding. "Me too."

Forty five minutes later:

"You have Tweed in Manhattan?" asked Ed.

"Yes. He's there, invisible and intangible, totally undetectable, spying over what is happening" said Turner.

"Can't he kill whoever is the leader of that operation?"

"Hardly" said Turner. "The moment he return tangible, he could easily be killed before he can do anything. There is any sort of metas there. Mind readers, shapeshifters... who knows who is the true Ludlow? Also, it's a military organisation. An army. It will survive Ludlows death. It's like an organism, a cancer, it's spreading... soon it will saturate Manhattan and will explode on the outside world. But it will took a lot of time to get to that point. That's why Walker has not yet nuked New York."

"What?" shouted Smith. "It's your kind of joke?"

"Do you think I am joking, Smith?"

"Yes, he is" cut the conversation Edulcore, not too convinced of his own words. "The MBL... they are building an army... while Merlin has managed to blind us in the island, and the Strikeforce acts both as protectors of the inviolability of Manhattan and as ours jailers." He stopped, looking pensive.

"That's why we can't say just that there is no team anymore, Ed. We have to fight back. Sam has this island... we could build a new headquarter... rebuild a new company... me and Griss have enough money."

"No Phil. Rebuilding a Complex, even if on another island, is what exactly will bring the Strikeforce here again. And whatever they will do, whatever nasty thing they will be able to perform over us and the island, the world will believe they are the good guys and we are the baddies."

"And you want just to sit there, cooking and playing with your kids?2

Ed shook his head. "No. Don't get me wrong. I say there is no need of a headquarter, and no need for a company... but that doesn't mean the team is dead. Vanguard will be alive until the last of us will be dead. It's like the days of the revolutionaries... we had to hide, but that didn't mean we were not able to destroy the Tri-vex, or the Chicago demon."

"What do you have in mind?" The question was asked by both Phil and Turner at unison.

"Enjoy the sun. At day. Without giving the slightest hint of suspect to Merlin. Or Ludlow, in the case he's spying over us. And preparing for the War, at night."

Phil frowned. "Actually, I mean... "

Turner smiled. "He tends to be showy on these occasion... There are no cameras around, Ed."

Euro smirked. "Sorry. What I want you to do, Phil, is to mind scan Manhattan. My woman, Rose, is a mind reader like you, you know... not as powerful like you, sure, but she also is able to peer into possible futures... I am asking you to work with her, to explore the possible outcomes of an attack on Manhattan... reading the minds of the MBLers and seeing what the futures have in store for them."

"Reading their minds... from here?"

"I saw what you did on the Darkworld. And that's why I called Turner... with his electrical powers he can direct your probe along the magnetic field of Earth, up to the selected destination..."

The Unidentified frowned. "It's... it's interesting. I never though of doing anything like that without the use of technology..."

"That's the point, Phil. To win the war, we have to learn to use our powers at our fullest potential... that's the lesson the MBL gave us, we have to learn from that."

Phil Smith nodded. "I will think about it".

Now:

"Do you think he will agree?" asked Turner at Euro, after Smith was gone by some time.

"I don't know. He has too much faith in his .44 than in his powers. If not, he would be the best of us all."

Turner nodded.

Euro sat back over the chair, looking at the stars. "If only Mick would be still here..."