What woke Plain-Man up from the short nap he had taken on the dirty floor of the e-bus was a combination of the vibrations and chime alerts buzzing from the phone in his pocket, and the voice of a stranger he didn’t recognize. Taking out his phone first, he pushed a button to silence the protruding sound while simultaneously trying to discern the pop-up his fuzzy vision tried to make out.

[Quick! App update: Mission complete! Were you satisfied with your mission?]

This time Plain-Man chose the frowny face icon, matching his own current expression.

[Quick! App update: Congratulations, You have received 10.35 friendly credits!]

“Well at least I got that…” he said, while rubbing the back of his head out of anguish. Then he suddenly became aware someone had been standing over him this whole time and looked up to see who it was.

Standing above him, wearing a double breasted water repellent cotton blend trench coat that stopped at the thighs, white dress pants that came a little short over the ankles, and high-heels, a woman, who appeared to be about a decade older than Plain-Man, looked down upon him with a friendly, but disappointed expression on her face.

“You okay?” were the first words he could make out from her.

“…Yeah, just a little sore, that’s all…” he said. Then suddenly he remembered this was the woman who he originally saw being harassed, and then the entire incident with the Purple Morph Gang flashed before his eyes.

“I’m the one who originally put out the alert on the Quick! app.”

“Oh you’re… Kelly, right?”

She nodded, now turning her gaze from side to side as if she was still on the alert for anymore threats.

“It’s hard to believe there’s a group of savages running around our city like that. I can remember a time when it wasn’t always like this…”

“Are you okay, ma’am? They didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“No, fortunately. Only a few scratches and bruises, though they did steal my purse with all my expensive makeup in it. However, some of the other passengers weren’t so lucky. A teenage girl had to be rushed to the hospital due to a bad blow she received on the head. Possibly a concussion.”

The more Plain-Man arose out of his dazedness and pain, the more he started to feel anger about the whole situation that had transpired.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I’m surprised they didn’t steal my phone… then again, they probably don’t care for this sort of old technology.”

“It’s just shocks me that someone would have audacity to cover their faces like that and do such horrible things. Don’t they know the argus system will eventually catch on to them and figure out their identities? You guys on the Quick! app should be the only ones who are allowed to cover their faces. Thank God you were here when you were. I don’t know what would’ve happened if you didn’t show up… You saved me. I don’t know how to thank you…”

“Oh, it’s no problem, ma’am. That’s what you hired me to do. Though, I wish I had done a better job… I don’t think I’ll ever allow myself to be that naïve again.”

“Well, you did fine considering it was 1 against 6…” the woman said.

At this point, the bus had been idle since Plain-Man regained consciousness but then suddenly lurched forward. “Arriving at Irvine Industrial Complex – East” the robotic voice that haunted through the long chain of bus compartments announced.

“This is my stop.” Kelly R. said, “Thank you for your help again… maybe I’ll see you around sometime.” She smiled at Plain-Man and stepped through the doors that had opened and onto the sidewalk outside.

Plain-Man waved goodbye and grinned under his mask, even though no one could see. He then sat down on one of the seats on the bus that had jolted back into motion and let out a big sigh. He took out his phone and opened up the Quick! app to check on his balance when suddenly he realized there was a new mission being offered to him on the screen.

“Ugh.” He said out loud, obviously being exhausted from his previous mission, though he ignored these feelings, pushing through his mental and physical fatigue and accepted the mission.

[Quick! App update: Mission Location – Gigamart Supercenter – Description: Missing child–see Jacquelyn M. for more details on request]

“Missing child? That’s new.”

A second wind was beginning to make itself known in Plain-Man’s physiology and his weariness began to fade. He sat back on the bus and relaxed in anticipation of his next stop and mission. All of a sudden, a loud metallic sound came emanating from his feet. Startled, he looked down to see the cause. Rolling past his desert boots, a medium-sized spray-can that that Purple Morph used on him and made him lose consciousness.

He picked it up and read the label. Knockout gas. It felt like there was still at least half of the can left.

“Hmm… This could be useful someday…” Plain-Man said, sticking it in his inside jacket pocket.

Feeling satisfied with that, he sat back again and began to rest his eyes, waiting.

The bus stop for the Gigamart was located on a very busy public street, and in between it and the store, a vast black and cracked parking lot that was for the most part empty other than the line of driverless cars that were on one side dropping off dozens of arriving customers, and on the other, awaiting to pick up those whom had finished their shopping and were willing to pay the extra friendly credits to have a vehicle all to themselves.

Plain-Man exited the bus and started his trek through the quarter-mile of asphalt and painted white lines that were once used a long time ago by private car owners in order to get to his destination. When he came to the area in front where people were boarding the cars, a person called out to him, saying something at first about his mask.

“Get a life, loser!” the man yelled, right before ducking into an autonomous car, which quickly peeled out of its idleness and almost looked as if it was going to go after Plain-Man. But instead it quickly passed by him, but not quick enough for Plain-Man not to notice the man making an ugly, funny face at him behind the window. Plain-Man got the urge to reply back, but by then he had gotten used to such harassment that he brushed it off and returned his focus to the task at hand.

In front of the Gigamart, a long line of customers were waiting to verify their membership with store’s authentication kiosk at the entrance. Plain-Man, being officially on duty and was obviously not a shopper, strolled on by the automated security and entered through sliding doors no problem, into the vast, sprawling interior of the hypermarket.