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It wasn't exactly rare for old men to be sniffing around the comic shop, but it wasn't exactly common either, at least not for this particular establishment. But this particular gentleman was acting... strangely, peering out the window. He was also dressed strangely in some sort of period costume but that was neither here nor there. It was suspicious, to be sure, but Neal wasn't particularly concerned, at least until some of the OTHER customers started giving him strange looks.
So Neal, as the only employee in the store, went to go confront him.
"Excuse me, sir... are you..." Neal stopped short upon getting a good look at the man's face, "Oh hey, I remember you! From the Murphy's!"
"Oh, that's right, your Sara's boyfriend aren't you, Neal from the Comic Shop correct,"
"Yes, and your Cavendish, you threw the table at the deadly vortex."
"Yes, and then we all played.... whatever that game was and won the gratitude of the Spaghetti people from another dimension."
"That was fun, we should do that again some time!" Neal said, a small voice in the back of his mind (probably Turdgenite Neal) asked him what kind of mad man would want to cross dimensions again, but that was drowned out by the rest of the Neal's.
"We should, it was quite enjoyable."
"So what are you doing," Neal asked, "I think you're kind of weirding out the other customers."
"Trying to figure out if that's a rogue time agent," Cavendish said.
"A rouge time agent?" Neal asked intrigued.
"Yes, that man looks just like a rogue time agent from my time..." Cavendish said, "He stole a large amount of time juice, and a significant amount of pizzazium infinionite, and wiped an entire year off the timeline for half the universe."
"How does that even work,"
"It's very technical stuff," Cavendish said smugly, "I studied for years to be able to understand it."
"So you do this kind of stuff a lot?"
Cavendish sighed, "Unfortunately not. My current assignment is with PIG... cleaning up alien trash."
"Alien trash?"
"A certain species of aliens seems to think our planet is perfectly suited as a garbage dump." Cavendish explained.
"Oh," Neal said, not entirely sure how to feel about that, "Well, it sounds important."
"I suppose someone has to do it," Cavendish said reluctantly, "Yes... unfortunately government work is still government work... even in the future. Not very interesting and mostly tedious."
"That's too bad," Neal said sympathetically, "Wait did you say future?"
"As far as things go this time period isn't a bad one to get stuck in." Cavendish says, overlooking Neal's question.
"You're from the future?" Neal repeated.
"Yes, I come from the year 2175... or at least that was the year when I left... I suppose it'd be 2176 now..." Cavendish said thoughtfully, considering the ever continuing march of time.
"Oh, the United States Quadricentennial."
"What?"
"That's the 400th anniversary of the founding of the United States," Neal says, "Quad as in four... centennial as in 100..."
"I yes, that was coming up. I suppose I'll miss it you know... being here. Such a shame really, I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it."
"You'll miss it?" Neal asked, "Why are you stuck here taking care of alien trash anyway then?"
"Uh... well... you see my former employer is under the impression that I'm an incompetent fool who cannot be trusted not to break rules and damage the space time continuum."
"....Well are you?"
"That's not the point, the point is we saved the world, and instead we ended up on alien trash duty. Stuck here away from the future."
"Why would they strand you here, and not send you back to the future?" Neal said, "I mean I've watched a lot of Dr. Zone, and that sounds like it's just inviting more time travel drama."
"An exile, I suppose, to where we can't break into BOTT." Cavendish said, "Though to be fair I would."
"Man, I'd be devastated to get stuck somewhere else forever. Away from my parents, my siblings, my friends, Sara of course. If I got stuck in the past I wouldn't even have Dr. Zone or any of my favorite comics. I don't think I would handle that very well," Neal said, not noticing that at some point, he had started leaning against a sturdy display shelf, "Don't you have family back in 2175?"
"My father died when I was a teen, and my mother died when I was in my 20s. And I was an only child, so really, Dakota's my only family left, and he's here with me."
"Oh, sorry to here that."
"Though, maybe "Only" Dakota is a bit much... after all there are 100s of him..."
"....well that's... nice?" Neal said, unsure of how else to respond to that.
"I suppose it's kind of... fitting," Cavendish said, "I was always fascinated by the past."
"Really? Why?" Neal asked, glancing around at the, all things considered, relatively boring comic shop.
"Well, not this time period specifically, but people of the past seemed cooler I suppose. They were at the whims of the universe, no time travel, no space travel. Just their own grit to protect the people they cared about. A wide variety of distinct cultures and languages and ways of life. All of whom played a part in making the future what it was."
"It's hard to imagine my life having any sort of significance," Neal admitted, "I'm not sure we have any more significance than you."
"I always wanted my life to be significant. To make a change. To save the world, save all those people who were at the whims of the universe. But I suppose you can't always have what you want..."
"Well, if there's anything comics have taught me, it's not to give up!" Neal said.
"Yes, you're right!"
"The other thing comics taught me is this is a recipe, for time travel paradoxes. What if you kill your great-great-great grandfather or whatever and would never be born?"
"Well I wasn't planning on killing anyone," Cavendish noted, "Killing people is only a last resort. Very important rule, not as important as the don't cross your timelines, but up there."
"Do you even know who your family is in this time period,"
"I can't say I do," Cavendish said, "Once you get this far back in time I'd have a few dozen ancestors alive, and it becomes impossible to keep track, so I've never looked,"
"I guess that makes sense, especially if you never knew how long you would be stuck in this time-period."
"It wouldn't matter much anyway. It's not like I could show up to their house and tell them that... and it'd be a pain to try and track down the documentation... all of that is in the future."
"Maybe you already know them," Neal suggested.
"Oh please, there are billions of people on earth, the odds of that are next to nothing," Cavendish scoffed.
"Well, I think your guy is leaving," Neal said, noting the mysterious man standing up and hurriedly heading towards the exit.
"Well, I best be off!" Cavendish said.
"Good luck!"
"I hope to see you again soon young man,"
"Same here," Neal said, as Cavendish exited the store.
What a strange man.