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New Year's Eve, around midnight. ------------- Resolve Nothing changes on New Years Day. – U2, "New Years Day" Matt had intended to watch the usual New Year's Eve celebrations on TV, but the forced jubilation and banality of it all just made him depressed. There was always work to do with the Madcap outfit, so Matt made his way down into the lab and rolled up his sleeves. He'd spent the remainder of the evening cleaning the residue from the adhesive delivery tubes. The build-up of gunk in there bothered him. The tubes were lined with Teflon, but the stuff was still sticking. Matt starting making notes about milling his own tubes, and coating them with a new anti-adhesive. A swarm of molecules and diagrams consumed his attention… When Matt had moved into his father's old front business, he'd installed microphones by the door, so he'd know if customers entered the storefront while he was upstairs or in the lab. Sometimes, sounds from the outside filtered in, and it was such a sound – the blaring of a party horn – that let Matt know it was midnight. Happy New Year, I guess, he thought. He sat back from his scribbling and drank some water. With a stretch, Matt got up and wandered over to the rack holding the Madcap outfit. "Happy New Year, dad," he said, toasting the costume with his water bottle. He pulled over a chair and sat down. "Like what I've done so far? Me neither. I busted some of your old gang – which was dumb, because I should have been playing to them, getting more information about their activities, and not just getting them tossed in jail. I fought a couple of punk supervillains, in the middle of the night, where nobody could see, or care. The only thing I've done is to get on the radar of every super-hero who's aware of what you did. They think there's some sort of gang turf war going on. "And that's it. Pretty thin scrapbook so far. I'm trying to make Madcap a hero, and I can't even get on the front page." Matt sighed and spun the seat of his chair around. "So what do I do, dad? Can you give me a clue? How do I show the world that there's a Madcap - a Wyman, a you – out there who isn't a complete piece of – " Through the loudspeaker, a woman's scream of terror from outside interrupted him. Shoving the chair away, Matt scrambled into the Madcap costume, chuckling as he did so. "Subtle, dad, real subtle. I get it. Don't try to be, just do. Sounds like a resolution to me." He paused a moment before a mirror. "Look out, 2010. Here comes Madcap." With a grunt, he sprinted up the stairs, preparing to drop from the roof onto whatever assailant menaced the screaming woman.