Putting away his phone, Plain-Man let out a big sigh after finishing his previous mission and stretched his arms up over his head and was about to leave the outdoor mini-mall, when suddenly, he heard a commotion.

People began turning and shouting, and through the crowds, something galloped in and out of shoppers’ ways. Just then, passing right below him, a larger than average dog ran passed Plain-Man heading towards the scented candle shop and beyond. Before he could even react, he already felt the vibrations from his phone making him aware of a new Quick! alert.

[Quick! App alert: You have a new request! Please accept the mission or the mission will be offered to the next best Hero]

Of course, he would accept.

[Quick! App update: Mission Location – Tustin Outdoor mini-mall – Description: Missing dog–see Carleton E. for more details on request]

Putting his phone away at once, Plain-Man ran in the direction he last saw the dog go and began to see the wake of the loose animal had left behind. He came across a plus sized man picking himself up from off the ground, very disgruntled. Around him lay a tossed pink box with donuts scattered everywhere.

“Someone get that dang dog!” the man yelled furiously as he looked at himself and his dropped donuts.

As Plain-Man passed the man, he came across more scenes of where the dog had been, seeing a fallen flowerpot, a kid crying over a spilt ice-cream cone on the floor, and a woman screaming, pointing in the direction he could only assume the dog had went. His pursuit led him to the end of the mini-mall, yet he found no sign of the dog. A man with sunglasses stood in front of a hat store with a real confused look on his face. Plain-Man went up asked:

“Excuse me, have you seen a dog go by here?”

The sunglasses man, looked up at him, hesitated and then pointed.

“Yeah, he went that way over the bridge.”

Plain-Man gave him a thumbs up and headed that way.

On the other side of the bridge, which led to a paved trail next to a suburban neighborhood, Plain-Man again saw the dog racing towards who knows where. Suddenly, it came to a halt behind the fence of someone’s backyard and remained still. When he reached the canine, Plain-Man realized it had stopped for a drink at a broken sprinkler leaking water everywhere.

Slurp. Slurp. Slurp. Slurp.

Cautiously, our hero slowly snuck up to the drinking animal, but as he neared, he started thinking to himself he might have an issue.

“How am I going to get you home?” he said more to himself and less to the dog. He stood next to it, brainstorming, when the dog suddenly stopped and turned to Plain-Man. It wagged its tail at him and stood up on its hind legs, just tall enough to get up and lick Plain-Man on the mask, which he had not expected. Confused for a second by such a random act of affection, it took Plain-Man a few seconds to realize the dog had run off again and immediately threw his body in the direction it went.

After pursuing the animal through backyards, playgrounds, neighborhood gardens, and outdoor pools for a half-hour, Plain-Man began to second guess himself and wondered if he could actually catch this dog. But just then, as he breathlessly ran about 15 yards behind the dog, he realized the street they were on led to the entrance of the neighborhood and opened onto a busy street. Immediately, Plain-Man began get real worried the dog might get frightened and run into traffic.

“Stop! Stop, you dog!” he yelled, having no effect.

It ran at full speed towards the zooming vehicles and looked like it was just about to jump in the street. He almost couldn’t bear it and was about to close his eyes when the dog took a sharp turn and ran up the sidewalk, out of sight.

Coming out of the neighborhood, Plain-Man in a panic, frantically searched for the dog when, out of nowhere, he saw a car pull over to the side of the road. One of the doors opened and Plain-Man watched the dog jump inside.

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“Wait! Don’t go! Keep ahold of that dog!”

Expecting someone to have received his pleading in the car, he instead found nobody but the canine inside, whose tongue drooped from its mouth, panting. Plain-Man leapt inside the vehicle as well and shut the door, which immediately set the e-car into motion.

Five minutes passed as he rode along in the private car next to the heavy breathing dog and he wondered what had just happened. Suddenly the screen on the back of the seat in front of him turned on and displayed an unfamiliar male face that stared into the interior of the car.

“Great! You found Yasha! I don’t know how we can ever thank you!”

Plain-Man observed the features of the man, who had a skinny face, pencil mustache, upward turned eyebrows and a sparkle coming from his iris.

“Uh, it’s not a problem, sir.”

“I mean it! You really saved the day! We sent Yasha to get her paws done at the Robo-Doggy Daycare and Groomer and she must’ve gotten loose somehow! God knows what sort of trouble she got into.”

“She’s a good dog.” Plain-Man said politely, petting Yasha who then came over and started licking his mask again.

“Well, when you get here, I’ll have to think of some way to reward you for your act of kindness.” The man said with a smile.

“That’s okay, sir, the friendly points are fine enough.”

“No, no, we’ll have to think of something… Oh, when you get here, could you bring Yasha up as well? I can’t trust the doorman to do his job correctly anymore after this…”

“Sure!” Plain-Man agreed, wondering where ‘here’ meant for him.

“Great! I’ll see you soon when you get here!” And with that, the screen clicked and the man disappeared.

Through the car window, Plain-Man observed the towering building they drove up to on a horseshoe driveway. In large neo-art deco font, the words ‘Emmanuel Building’ were displayed above. They pulled up to the front where a man in a uniform approached and slightly opened the door.

“You– you found Yasha! Thank God! I don’t know how to thank you!” the worried door-man immediately said to our hero, “Wait! Don’t get out yet, she might run again.”

Plain-Man, who was about to stick out his foot, but then stopped and wondered what he was supposed to do.

“Is there some kind of rope or leash around here, maybe?”

All the doorman could do was look worried and shake his head, until “I’ve seen them pick up the dog and carry it usually.”

“Carry the dog??” Plain-man looked over at the still panting German shepherd-looking dog who mirrored the attention he gave it. After a second, he decided to just go for it, thinking of no other way.

“Alright, I got it… Can you get the door for me, please?”

“Of course,” said the doorman, “That’s my job.”

Wrapping his arms around the dog like he was giving it a hug, with all his might, he pulled the dog close to him and lifted him in the air, and struggled to carry him like it was an overgrown child. Yasha with a friendly expression continued licking Plain-Man on the face, approving of the treatment it received.

“This way, sir” the doorman said, swinging open the double-door to the building, “You’ll want to head for that elevator and it should take you to the top.”

“The top?”

The doorman nodded, as the elevator doors shut, leaving only him carrying the dog inside.

Right away, the dog squirmed out of his arms, dropping to the floor and then immediately went to licking its rump. There were thirty floors to this building that Plain-Man passed on his way to the top and he began wondering who exactly the owner to this dog could be. They had to be somebody to own a private car and live in a building like this.

When the elevator doors opened, the dog all of sudden rushed out and Plain-Man was about to react by chasing after it again, when he realized there was someone standing outside.

“You must be Plain-Man!” the man from the telescreen with the pencil-stache said, greeting him.

Plain-Man, still not taking his eyes off the dog, watched Yasha run over to an automatic water/food dispenser and fervidly began slurping as much as its tongue could carry to its mouth.

“Yes sir. Glad to see Yasha is happy to be home!”

“She’s not the only one,” he said with a friendly grin, “I’m not sure if I introduced myself, but my name is Carleton Emmanuel. Pleasure to meet you…”

Emerging from around the corner next to what looked like bar lounge, a woman in a demure dress sauntered her way over.

Carleton turned to her, “Look honey! This masked man brought home Yasha, can you believe it?”

Speaking like he had said nothing, the woman replied, “Carl, the hot water isn’t working for the massage tub; I thought you were going to have it fixed soon.”

Turning back to Plain-Man, Carleton said, “This is my wife, Stacy. Stacy, meet Plain-Man… you wouldn’t happened to know anything about fixing jacuzzies, would you?”

He shook his head.

“Ha! That’s no problem! You’ve already done enough for us today!” he said, grinning more than ever at Plain-man. “Speaking of which, I mentioned something about a reward…” he said, and started going through his pockets.

“No, that’s fine. I don’t need a reward. Seeing your dog safe at home is reward en–“

“Nonsense! I must give you something… Here!” he handed Plain-Man a card, “That’s an e-card. If you ever get in trouble or need something, contact me and I’ll do whatever you wish.”

Plain-Man took it and examined the words written on it, which said only ‘Carleton Emmanuel, artist, philanthropist, entrepreneur.’ and stuck it inside his jacket.

“Well, I appreciate your kindness.” was all Plain-Man could think to say.

“Of course, of course.” Carleton said, “How about I show you around and you can look at some of my paintings?”

“That’s nice of you to offer, Mr. Emmanuel, but I really should be getting back on the streets. There might be someone out there who needs help.”

“How noble! Well, it was still nice meeting you! Thank you so much again for finding our dog, you really saved us!”

“Anytime!” Plain-Man said, stepping back into the opening door of elevator.