The sky had become tainted with an orangish hue that stretched out from the plunging sun dipping into the sparkling ocean that lay behind the hills to the slow growing buildings that blocked the flipside of the horizon where mountains should have been. Groups of people and individuals shuffled through the dying day, past the storefronts that were already closed and onto something else, while some entered the still open establishments. Outside one particular business, our hero, the man in the mask, Plain-Man, stood like an automated statue with phone in hand, scrolling to his heart's content, as the people passed him by.
There he waited, not for a mission or any trouble, but instead, for a reason that was much more personal to him. Months of playing the role of the hero every day had allowed him to feed and shelter himself and, at the same time, also help people out, which he was appreciative of having such an opportunity. Yet rarely did he have any time for himself, or time for others. Basically, when it came down to it, Plain-Man had no social life. Sure, he interacted with plenty of people each day and served others, but somewhere inside of him, under all the layers of the callouses of his personality, he craved for a more long-lasting relationship, someone he could hold a conversation with and talk about casual things, like the weather or religion or something. Someone normal.
Instead, he asked Gloom Girl to hang out, knowing no one else, who, much to his surprise, agreed. He was to meet her in front of the Burger Joint at the old Irvine Sprectrum, which at this time, he had fulfilled. Though, she was late.
He put his phone down and looked up at the huge flashing electric sign of a big cheeseburger above, searching maybe for some kind of divine inspiration.
“Hey, there you are!”
Plain-Man looked, and there was Gloom Girl, costume and all, striding over to him with an amused look on her face.
She continued, “You said you were going to wait in front of Sushi Rolls! What gives?”
“...I specifically sent you a text message saying to meet me here. Here, I can show yo-”
“No, no, it’s fine, I forgive you. Let’s just go inside and eat, alright?” Gloom Girl said, brushing aside his phone while opening the door.
Following behind, Plain-Man immediately took in the loud ambiance of the dozens of conversations being had inside and the many faces seated at the surrounding tables, realizing then just how busy the place actually was, and worried whether he should have gotten a table while he waited.
Gloom Girl could perceive his confusion through his mask and took him by the hand, somewhat roughly, and led him to an open table nestled between chattering groups of teenagers.
As they slid into their booths, the LCD screen on the table ignited, displaying the message ‘Welcome to Burger Joint, how can we serve you?’. A row of icons appeared showing every burger option they had, from the Peanut Butter and Jelly burger to their famous Pizza Burger.
“So, what made you want to take the night off?” Gloom Girl asked after getting settled in.
“I haven’t really gotten the chance to take off since I’ve started working, and I figured, I probably should. Don’t you take breaks?”
“I don’t know, I never really felt the need. There can be so much waiting time between missions, I just don’t see a reason why I should.”
“Don’t you ever think someone could go crazy by doing this all the time, wearing masks and doing all the wild stuff we do?”
“Plain-Man, let me just say it how it is,” Gloom Girl leaned over the table, getting real close and looking directly into his eyes, “Don’t you know? We’re already crazy.”
She leaned back with a sly smile, and then went about deciding what she wanted to eat.
Plain-Man looked at the young woman across from him, with her purple gloves, violet suit, and bandito mask, now selecting a burger square, and wondered how serious she actually was about all this.
“If you think this business makes you crazy, then why do it?”
Gloom Girl folded her arms and planted her elbows on the table, looking over at Plain-Man, very relaxed.
“Oh, I don’t think being a hero makes you insane. What I’m saying is, you were insane to begin with... Aren’t you going to select what you’re gonna get?”
Plain-Man reacted with his remembrance and then busily scanned over the food icons until reaching out to touch one.
“I’ll get the...Kentucky Fried Burger, that sounds good.” Plain-Man said as the graphic menu layout disappeared.
A few moments of silence passed between them, until Plain-Man spoke up.
“Do you really believe that? That we’re insane? Cause I’m not so sure I would–”
“Sure, why not? Isn’t everybody?” Gloom Girl looked around the room with an exaggerated expression and then shot her eyes down and began fiddling with a fringe on her glove. “People like to put us heroes down for not living what they think is a normal life. But they’re not ones to judge. I say, getting early up in the morning and doing anything could be considered crazy to some. It just depends upon how you look at the world. At the heart of it, we evolved from animals. To do anything beyond the necessities of survival, is kind of insane.”
The masked man thought this over.
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“Yeah, I can see what you’re saying... but to tell you the truth, I can barely get past the ‘necessities of survival’, if you know what I mean...” Gloom Girl suddenly laughed and Plain-Man paused for a moment in confusion, trying to understand what was funny, then continued. “What I mean is, all this hustle and bustle we all do to get friendly points, isn’t that just another way of adapting to the world and surviving? Sort of like bees and honey?”
“Well, I guess when you put it that way, yeah, it is a form of survival. But it sure is a weird way of surviving.”
Just then, the color of their table changed and there appeared two white circles in front of our heroes. Gloom Girl looked up towards the ceiling where a panel slide opened, revealing an empty darkness.
“Ooh, our food’s here.”
Emerging from the ceiling, two dinner plates floating on top of mini drones descended from above like angels descending from heaven or flying saucers, landing in an eloquent manner right before their eyes. Plain-Man rolled up his mask to his nose, picked up his burger, and took a bite. Chewing, he looked over at Gloom Girl, who was busy trying to get a packet of soy sauce opened.
“What’d you get?” Plain-Man said, after swallowing, then took another bite. Fried chicken grease rolled off his fingers onto the plate.
“Since you had me standing in front of that sushi place, I started getting a craving, so I ordered a Sushi Burger.”
“I didn’t know they sold that here. It wasn’t on the menu.” Another bite.
“It’s not on the menu, but that doesn’t matter. You can pretty much order any kind of burger you want, it’s all printed protein anyways. The AI takes any suggestion.” She finally got the packet open and squeezed it over the plump sticky rice buns and the soy sauce seeped into the tuna below, then took a bite.
After finishing their meals, Plain-Man and Gloom Girl fussed over who was paying for what and how, until Plain-Man finally was able to settle it. Then they both sat back and let their food digest.
“...Well, I appreciate it, Plain-Man. I know you’re always scrounging to keep up with rent. Speaking of which, how’s everything at home with all your roommates?”
“Can’t really say, I’m barely ever there. It does suck though cause I got to schedule to use the shower a week in advance... I always hate when I forget.”
“A week in advance? That’s ridiculous! Maybe you should think about finding somewhere else–” out of nowhere, a woman began screaming in the restaurant, interrupting Gloom Girl.
On the far side of the dining room, our heroes came upon a man and a woman wearing glasses, sitting in a booth, looking real nervous, while a tall, beefy guy with a sort of babyish face towered over them, sticking his arm way up high. He grabbed the two plates that were floating down and gathered the burgers together in his hands before taking a huge bite of one.
“Hey, you took our burgers!”
“And I appreciate your charity!” The big man said between in last bites of burgers he had just wolfed down before shambling away to the next table. He stuck up his hand again in anticipation of his next plates.
Plain-Man stepped forward and made his presence known. He held out his trank gun.
“Stop right there!”
The big man raised both hands in the air and waited. Suddenly, two more plates came down from the ceiling. The big man grabbed both and threw one like a frisbee at Plain-Man while scarfing down the other. The burger and plate swiftly soared through the air and quickly Plain-Man had to duck. Before he knew it, a huge force from out of nowhere pounded into his perception and he was knocked over.
Scrambling, Plain-Man crawled under one table and arose on the other side, trying to assess the position of his opponent. The big guy stood across and merely laughed before hoping up onto the table in a single bound. Plain-Man looked up and wondered what he was going to do, but right then, a huge boot came swinging from the table and kicked Plain-Man directly in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. Gasps were heard from all around.
He fell back and laid dazed on the clean restaurant floor for a few moments as the large man on the table continued to laugh.
“Anyone else?” He announced. The customers who hadn’t left already, sat quietly at their booths, wondering when this would be over. Then the large man got on his tiptoes and reached up to grab two more plates of burgers.
While he was busy chowing down, Gloom Girl snuck over to where Plain-Man had dropped his trank gun and was about to grab until suddenly a white projectile caught the corner of her eye. She turned to look and witnessed in a split second a plate soaring across the restaurant directly hitting the big guy on the head, immediately knocking him out. His large body wavered for a moment before collapsing onto the table and then sliding onto the floor with a loud thud. Everyone remained silent, unsure if he was truly out, until Plain-Man went over and began trying to drag the large lifeless body out the door. Some people cheered.
Gloom Girl came over and grabbed the other big arm that dragged behind, helping Plain-Man carry the hulking mass outside. They then leaned him against the wall and Plain-Man went about trying to bring up some identification on his phone.
“Let’s see, his name is Jacob Adams, age 22”
“22! He looks twice that age and some, except maybe for his face.”
“Hold on, there’s a special mark on his profile... it says he classified as a ‘Neg’”
“He’s a Neg? Oh, that makes sense. No wonder he didn’t feel the need to cover his face.”
“Yeah... I just can’t understand how someone could allow themselves to get that way... I guess at a certain point when you’ve lost so many friendly points, there’s really no way of getting yourself out of the hole.”
“I wonder what his balance is like...”
Still slumped up against the wall, Jacob Adams began groaning, coming to, and took in the blurry images of Plain-Man and Gloom Girl through his squinted eyes. He tried to pick himself up but then was stopped by Gloom Girl who held up the trank gun.
“Hold on, Jacob. One more move and it’s nighty night again.”
“Alright, alright, I’ll just rest here...” the big guy said sleepily and closed his eyes.
Gloom Girl let her arm fall and handed back the non-violent weapon to Plain-Man and said, “What are we going to do with him now? What can we do?”
“Well, I guess there’s nothing we really can do except release him and hope for the best... Maybe he’ll learn a lesson this time.”
“So, we just release him, and that’s it?”
“Yep. It’s not like there’s a jail anywhere for us to take him to.”
“Wow, that’s really messed up. We’re really living in some kind of weird wilderness where anything goes...”
Plain-Man put his arm over Gloom Girl’s shoulders and began leading her away from the scene.
“There will always be a wilderness of some kind, somewhere which we may or may not call our home. But I also know there’s something else that lies beyond this dog-eat-dog world. Civilization? Autonomous Governments? Sure, that’s what some people want to think of it as, but I think it could be something more. What we’re doing right now already bears some resemblance to what it could be...”
“...what are you talking about?” Gloom Girl pulled herself away from Plain-Man, chuckling, “Did you get hit on the head too?”
“No, I’m serious” Plain-Man said sort of chuckling as well, “The way we help people and get to know the community, I think that’s the true key to us all figuring out a way to get along. Not some super-computer watching us and acting like some kind of parent for us. It’s all about helping people out, that’s truest connection you can make with your fellow man.”
“...you must’ve been hit on the head. Here, I’ll help you get back home.” Gloom Girl said sarcastically, and put her arm around Plain-Man.
He sighed, following her lead, and then started laughing out of resolution.