One night, Plain-Man was out on the town, accepting any mission he could to keep raking in those friendly credits and stay on top of things. Rent had been increased for the fifth time that year and he wasn’t sure he would have enough by the end of the month, so he pushed himself to keep working all through the day and into the evening to make ends meet.

So far, he had emptied a dishwasher, vacuumed some guy’s floor, helped a lady remove a virus from her smartcabinets, painted an old fence, made sandwiches for kids’ lunches, and unclogged a toilet.

Now, his next task was to walk around the neighborhood nearby the community center to locate a housecat that hadn’t returned home that evening, leaving the owners worried sick.

“Here, Lucky!”

He called the feline’s name every minute or so without any results.

He walked up and down the street, checked under bushes, looked up into trees, and even peered behind people’s fences. He searched for an hour or more and the possibility of failure began to hang over him as he tried the same area twice, when, suddenly:

“You know cats don’t respond to their names like dogs do, right?”

Emerging from the darkness into the yellowish light of a streetlamp, a girl who wore a long, skinny black cloth wrapped around her face with two holes for her to see through like a bandit, a black and purple long sleeve jumpsuit, with skirt, boots, and a cape, and the letters ‘GG’ written large on her chest. She looked just barely beyond the years of being a teenager and had dark hair.

Plain-Man, startled at first, had to study this stranger for a few seconds to understand her appearance and the words she was saying.

“How did you know I was looking for a cat?”

“I got the same mission offer an hour or so ago. You’re still working on it?”

“You mean, you’re on the Quick! app too?”

“Well, obviously. Why else would I be wearing this get up?” she chuckled and arched her eyebrows at him, “Actually, I’ve been hired to check out this neighborhood. There’s reports of a strange man in a mask lurking around, looking into people’s yards…”

“Oh…”

“Looks like I’ve gotten this one taken care of. Unless… You’re not still going to continue looking for that cat, are you?”

“Yes.” Plain-Man said determinately, “I’m not giving up until I complete my mission.”

“In that case, I guess I’ll be forced to help you… My name’s Gloom Girl, what’s yours?”

“Plain-Man. Nice to meet you.”

“Plain-Man?” she chuckled again for a second, then stopped, “Why did you call yourself that?” She looked him up and down as if she could find the answer to her question written somewhere on his appearance.

“No reason. I just sort of chose it at random.”

“It’s certainly an odd name…”

Acting almost like she wasn’t even there, Plain-Man continued his search, looking behind a fountain that was on the lawn of the house he was in front of, and finding nothing, moved onto the next yard.

Gloom Girl slowly followed behind, just watching our hero get to his knees to look under the tall hedge that separated the two properties.

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“Lucky…” he whispered.

“I don’t know why you continue to keep looking. If you haven’t found the cat by now, you’re never going to find it, especially when it’s dark…”

“I can’t give up… I could really use the credits…”

“Suit yourself. Just don’t get annoyed when the sun comes out and you’re still out here searching… I don’t mind. I’m usually out all night anyways.”

Plain-Man stood up and faced the masked woman.

“How about you? Why’d you call yourself ‘Gloom Girl’ of all names? You don’t seem that depressed to me.”

“Oh, you should see me when no one is around. It’s sort of like a ‘tree falls in the forest’ type of thing. When I’m by myself, I can get real sad, real fast.”

Plain-Man wasn’t sure how to respond to this, so he kept walking down the sidewalk and Gloom Girl followed.

She continued, “Yeah, this hero gig work is really the only thing that keeps me occupied for the most part, these days. I sort of forget all my troubles when I put on the costume.”

“How long have you been doing it?”

“About a year now. I signed up when the beta for app first came out and been on every day since.”

“A year? I’ve only been doing this for a couple of months now…”

“Yeah, I can tell…” she grinned at Plain-Man with a playful look that hinted at cruelty as he picked himself up after looking inside a fallen trashcan.

“Hey, these people were really sad about their missing cat and I don’t want to go back there emptyhanded…”

Just then, shooting out from the trash bin he had just checked, an orange tabby cat came scurrying out, running in between Plain-Man’s legs and down the street.

“Lucky! Come back!” Plain-Man yelled as he sprinted right after the animal with Gloom Girl trailing behind at walking pace. When she caught up to him, he had stopped with his back to her in front of a house with no porchlight.

“What the heck, how did you catch that cat?” she said, baffled, as Plain-Man turned around, holding the cat in his arms.

“Kind of strange. After chasing it for a minute, it suddenly stopped and turned to meow at me, and then jumped into my arms.” Plain-Man said, looking down at the feline, “I think it’s time for Lucky to go home.”

“Hmm, it must be a friendly cat…” Gloom Girl went to pat the purring cat in his arms, when suddenly, it changed demeanors and hissed at her.

“Okay… I guess it just really likes you.”

“I guess…” Plain-Man said, now walking towards the house of the owner.

Gloom Girl followed behind.

“Oh my- You found him!” A little boy with spiked hair and glasses came running over the cobbled steps on the front lawn of his house to Plain-Man, who handed Lucky over. His mother and father appeared in the doorway and came rushing over too.

“Wow, I don’t know how to thank you!” the man said, shaking Plain-Man’s hand. “Lucky’s an indoor cat, so we were real worried when we figured out Johnny had left the backdoor open. We probably would’ve never found him if it wasn’t for you!”

“It’s no problem sir, just doing what you hired me for.”

The family embraced their cat, joyously patting and scratching him, while Lucky stared at Plain-Man with a mute expression, like he was wondering what he got himself into.

Gloom Girl appeared, walking up to Plain-Man’s side as the family waved goodbye and thank him one last time.

Speaking first, she said “You have perseverance, I’ll give you that.”

“Uh, thanks.”

“You and I should team up sometime, if you’re interested. That’s how you get the big bucks.” She said, ending with a confident grin.

“That’s not a bad idea. Here, connect with me so we can contact each other…”

When Gloom Girl saw Plain-Man take out his phone, she burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“I wasn’t expecting you to pull out that old thing. I didn’t know people still used junk like that when you can just get a vybe.”

“Yeah, I don’t want my smartdevices messing with my internal organs, especially my brain.”

“That’s nonsense. Vybes just read your brainwaves, and because they’re on the outside of your skin, they have no influence.” Gloom Girl said, matter-of-factly.

“I don’t know. I’m perfectly happy with my old phone.”

“Suit yourself.” Within her cerebrum, she felt the sudden request for Plain-Man’s contact information touch her visual cortex and accepted.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you around sometime.” Gloom-Girl slowly backed away, waving goodbye, smirking.

“See you later!” Plain-Man said.

Unexpectedly, the Quick! app notification rang in his pocket and he quickly took it out and immediately accepted.

[Quick! App update: Mission Location – El Toro Marine Base – Description: Trespassing–see Unknown for more details on request]

“They want me at the old air base?”