Waiting at the bus stop one morning, Plain-Man stood with a half-dozen other commuters who were all wondering about the e-bus that seemed to be now three minutes late. They silently shifted their eyes back and forth on the warming asphalt of the street and the adjacent commercial buildings as if they could find an answer to their trepidation with their vision. Plain-Man standing at the end of the bench, instead was looking down at his phone, pulling up the Quick! app to read again the description of the mission he was on.

[Quick! App update: Mission Location – Ocean Institute – Description: Attempted assault– man throwing sharp objects(WARNING! Use extreme caution!)–see Michelle C. for more details on request]

This might be a dangerous one, got to be careful, he thought to himself as he slipped his phone into his pocket and looked up at the people next him. Each person looked back in Plain-Man’s direction, though their attention was now on to something past him.

“Finally!” A few of them said, or something like that, as the commuters picked up their bags and briefcases and readied themselves for the now arriving shuttle bus. No one got off, and hastily the passengers boarded the e-bus and paid their fare. Being the last one up, Plain-Man failed to find a seat in crowded compartment he had entered, and the next, and it wasn’t until the one after did he have any hope of finding a seat.

On the opposite side of the carriage he noticed a few empty seats and headed to take his place when suddenly he had a flash of recognition. Sitting window side, a man with a headband under long dark hair wearing a black martial artist’s uniform and who sat meditatively with his arms folded and eyes closed. Though it had been dark last time, Plain-Man could clearly recognize this one the same guy he had fought on the airfield.

“Hey… Fight Man, how’s it going?” Plain-Man said, finding himself a seat on the bench just opposite of him.

Fight Man opened his unmasked eyes and looked to see who was bothering him.

“…Oh. It’s you.” He said, closing his eyes again, “What do you want?”

“Nothing. Just so happened to be taking this bus too.” Plain-Man sat back and relaxed, “Are you on a mission?”

“Perhaps.”

“Well, what is it? Maybe we’re on the same one again like last time…”

“There’s no way I’m teaming up with you, so you can just forgot it.” Fight Man said, opening his eyes and staring Plain-Man down.

“Okay. That’s not what I was getting, just curious…”Plain-Man said, “You see, I’m on a mission right now and I’m kind of baffled by the objective. I’m supposed to take care of this guy throwing axes or something–“

“Don’t tell me.” Fight Man interrupted, “You’re not going down to the Ocean Institute, are you?”

“Yep, how did you know? You have the same mission?”

Plain-Man could only take his silent brooding as a yes.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Obviously if they sent out multiple requests it’s a big enough issue that it would take both of us to handle, so I wouldn’t worry too much about a pay cut…”

“Credits aren’t an issue to me. What I don’t want is to have some pansy standing around getting in my way and preventing me from doing my job, especially when its someone like you.”

“What? What did I do?”

“I can tell you’re the type of person who does nothing but blathers away and lives off of dreams. In this world, there’s only one real way to communicate.” He held up both of his fists and shook each individually in the air, “This one means yes, and this one means no. And that’s all there is to say.”

Fight Man punched and jabbed at the nothingness in front of him while Plain-Man wondered to himself if he was being serious or not.

“Now arriving at Dana Point Ocean Institute.”

The salt air immediately penetrated through the opening door as the bus let the people off in front of the dock, right at the seafront. Mostly tourists were getting off as the masked men followed behind and began looking around at their surroundings. Fight Man peered out onto the shipyard where rows of small boats and yachts were tied up and began walking in that direction. Plain-Man yanked lightly at his Gi, getting his attention, and pointed to a sign in the form an arrow that said, “Ocean Institute.”

“Leave me alone.” Fight Man said coldly, now following the sign.

A seagull or two began wailing in the sky that was quickly followed up by a distance boson.

Plain-Man caught up and walked at his side. “Sure is quiet… Nothing here seems to be out of the ordinary.”

They crossed the parking lot, passed the huge, beached ship that was in long need of repair, but now abandoned, towards the big institute building. Outside the entrance, alone, a woman in a blue button stood anxiously looking around, rubbing her arms out of nervousness, until she both of them masked men, immediately dropping her arms.

“Thank God you’re here…” were the first words she said.

“Ma’am, are you okay,?” Plain-Man asked.

“I am now, but I nearly got murdered by a wild man in broad day light almost an hour ago.” She began rubbing her arms again.

“Can you tell us what happened?”

“Well, I was outside right here, sweeping up the entrance, getting ready to open up, when, all of a sudden, this axe comes flying through the air and nearly hits me in the face.” She pointed to an open gash in the wooden wall next to the sliding glass doors.

“After that, a shirtless man came running over and pulled it out of the wall, and looked like he was about to take a swing at me. He then started yelling at me about how evil we are at the Ocean Institute, warning that we needed to close down immediately, or else.”

The woman put her face in her hands like it was too much to handle.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that, ma’am. Has anything like this ever happened here before?”

“We’ve been getting flak from city council and the locals ever since we relocated the institute here, but nothing like this. I just don’t understand why these people don’t get that we just want help out the local ecosystem and keep the ocean clean, that’s all. We have no nefarious motivations.”

“Just point to me where this guy ran off to and I’ll take care of him.” Breaking his solitude, Fight man said.

“It happened so fast, I’m not sure what direction he went.” She nervously covered her face again.

“It’s alright ma’am.” Plain-Man said, “We’re going to patrol the vicinity and ask around and see if we can get this lunatic so you won’t have to worry.”

“Thank you, thank you.”

“For now, how about you go inside and try to stay calm while we handle this.”

“Okay, good idea. I will” And with that, the lady entered the Ocean institute.

Turning to Fight Man, Plain-Man started to say, “How about we try splitting up and–“ until suddenly something flew through the in between the two masked men. Sticking out of the wall next to the gash the woman pointed to before a sharped axe-like object with a handle sticking out lay lodged in the wood.

A voice hollered at them from about thirty yards away from Plain-Man and Fight Man.

“Surender now! Or there’s two more tomahawks here, each one ready for your head!”