Author's Note: This is weird, even for me.
Professor Ian McClaine returns from dropping his adopted son, Joe, off at school.
He's working at his desk, when he looks up and finds a man dressed all in black is sitting across from him.
The Man in Black raises his hands to show he is not armed and opens his coat to show the same.
The Man in Black tells the Professor he is only there to talk.
The Man in Black tells him of a future where he gets talked into letting Joe be used by the World Intelligence Network as a secret agent using BIG RAT.
The Man in Black tells him that this goes fine for a year or two, but ultimately gets the Professor killed.
The Man in Black tells him the BIG RAT causes Joe unseen brain damage – it becomes a constant source of frustration since the knowledge and skill it temporarily granted Joe seems to remain just out of reach for the rest of his life, and that it distances him from his humanity.
The Man in Black tells him that Joe ends up taking in an orphan of his own – the child of his third cousin who lost his parents at seven months old.
The Man in Black tells him that Joe did his best, but the aftereffects of BIG RAT hinder his ability to truly nurture the child, although he gave the child the best possible education he could.
The Man in Black tells him the child leaves at fifteen years of age, never having felt truly wanted.
The Man in Black tells him Joe fell into a depression and committed suicide shortly thereafter,
The Man in Black tells him the child felt responsible for that, and it affected his entire life.
The Man in Black tells him the child tried to do what was best for humanity, to protect his fellow men, to give all that he was since there was no one ever to tell him he was enough in and of himself, but only for what he could do.
The Man in Black tells him that the child eventually makes a grave mistake.
The Man in Black tells him that that mistake doomed the Earth, despite a valiant organization doing the best it could to defend it.
The Man in Black tells him that in a moment of strange grace, the child found a way to go back to try to stop the tragedy from ever happening.
The Man in Black tells him…
The Man in Black suddenly stops, and smiles as he fades from existence, and ghostly "Thank you" drifting in the air.
A few weeks later, Professor Ian McClaine kicks Sam Loover out his house and slams the door in his face.
In 2068, Conrad Turner-McClaine initiates peaceful first contact with the Mysterons.
More Author's notes: I really have no idea where this came from. One minute I was eating lunch and the next it popped into my mind that wouldn't it be weird if Joe McClaine from Joe 90 was the one to have raised Captain Black? And given my reservations about that particular series it all just came tumbling out.