Marcel steps off the transport, waves bye to HotJack and the rest of team three who wish him luck on his first day of solo patrols. Normally, a different transport would have dropped him off, but they volunteered for today, wanting to see him off. Melodie says they will miss seeing him every day, and Johnny tells him to stop by his room later to hang out after patrols. Another transport will be picking him up, and so, Marcel is left alone in Keilah.
Wearing his armor, and a good pair of athletic shoes, Marcel begins his patrol. He was given a map of the area, and a specific pattern to follow every day. Up the first street he walks for thirty minutes, uneventfully passing several stores and businesses. Down the second, a residential area, he passes a couple, and remembers he is supposed to question the locals regularly about monster sightings or anything suspicious.
"Hello," he starts. "I'm Marcel, the new… local…" they ignore him with a dismissive wave and keep walking, "…hero." Marcel purses his lip awkwardly, and decided to keep walking too. He makes it to the third street about an hour later. This street is mostly used as a recreational area. There is a fair amount of open space used for sports and such. He sees a group of about six kids playing soccer, one of the oldest sports in human history, but still enjoyed by many. One of the kids notices him, and gives a small wave. Marcel waves back, and then continues his patrol.
The fourth street is another residential area, but has a central business center in the middle. Nothing special, just a grocery store, some kind of office space, a warehouse, and a small news station. His path has him walking up and down the area. And finally, someone stops to talk with him.
"Excuse me, young man." An elderly lady says, stopping Marcel outside one of the apartment buildings. "Can you help me. You're a hero, aren't you?"
"Ah! Yes ma'am. I am. How can I help?" Marcel says, suddenly on alert and ready to spring into action.
"Branches got stuck in the tree. Can you help?" She says.
"Branches… are stuck in a tree?" Marcel asks, confused.
"Branches is my little tabby. He used to be able to get himself down, but he's too big now. I've been trying to get him to diet, but he just cries and cries and it breaks my heart. And I know I'm supposed to not feed him so much, but his little face gets all-"
"Ma'am, I'm really only supposed to handle monsters. This sounds like maybe you should call the fire department."
"But… well, I think you're right. I shouldn't be bothering you. You have more important things to do than help a tottering old woman." She says, disappointed and laying on the guilt. She walks away with her shoulders slumped and her back crooked. Her steps are tiny and feeble. Two kids, who had been watching from a nearby stoop, shake their heads at Marcel.
"Okay, okay. Where is he? I'll get Branches." Marcel says, giving into the guilt tripping.
The elderly woman spins around and begins to stride powerfully towards the tree, her posture straight as an arrow. "Great, he's just over here!" Marcel's eyes widen slightly at the sudden change, and chases after her.
"She got another one." One of the kids says.
"Good, I was tried of climbing that tree every day." The other says.
Arriving at the tree, Marcel fills his body with Aura, then climbs up. The fat cat, perhaps used to being picked up, doesn't fight against Marcel's gloved hand, and is carried down the tree without issue. Marcel put him down… only for the cat to bolt right back up the tree.
"Oh no no no! You need to hand him directly to me, or he'll escape again." The old woman says. Marcel sighs, climbs the tree again, and once again, gets the fat tabby. This time, he hands the cat directly to the woman. "Oh Branches! Naughty kitty. You know you aren't supposed to be climbing the trees. Thank you, young man."
"You're welcome. I'm just happy to help." Marcel says.
"My name is Delores. I haven't seen you around before. I suppose you are replacing our old hero. What was his name? Mediocre?"
"I was told his name was Meteor." Marcel corrects.
"Ah, that's what it was. Well, my name suited him better. He never helped get Branches down once. He ignored everyone. Just walking up and down the streets, looking bored. Never saying nothing to anyone."
"Oh, well… I'll always be around if you need anything. And if Branches gets stuck again, just let me know."
"That's a relief, because Branches loves to climb that tree. I try to stop him, but he just bolts out the door between my legs when I go to take out the morning trash. The neighborhood kids always help me, but I'm glad a strong young man like you is here. I'm sure they were getting tired of it anyway."
"Every day?" Marcel asks, immediately regretting his words.
"Come inside. I made some cookies. Why don't you take a few? Do you like oatmeal raisin?"
An hour of chitchat with Delores passes, and Marcel excuses himself to finish his patrol. He leaves with a paper plate filled with cookies. Delores waves goodbye and closes the door. An elderly man sits on a doorstep nearby, and watches Marcel leave Delores's apartment, and chuckles while taking a puff of his cig.
"You got the cat." He says, blowing smoke.
"Yup." Marcel says. "But at least I got cookies."
"Those ain't cookies. They're rocks, pretending to be cookies." He says in a raspy voice. Marcel picks one up, and notices immediately how hard they are. "Delores can't bake very well, but she tries. Wish she'd stop, but she don't." Marcel fills his teeth and jaw with aura, and takes a very crunchy bite. The cookies taste fine, despite being rock hard. "Dadgum, kid, you brave." The man laughs.
"I'm Marcel."
"Kennedy." The two shake hands as Marcel balances the plate of cookies in the other. "You the new hero?"
"For a few months."
"What'd you do to get sent down here?"
"What?"
"Meteor, he rubbed his boss the wrong way, and got sent here. What'd you do?"
"Oh, nothing. I'm just hiding out from the media for a while."
"The media?"
"It's a long story."
"Well, you probably got to finish your patrols. But thanks for helping Delores out."
"Right. Happy to." Marcel says, then remembers this is a good opportunity to practice investigating the area by asking locals. "But, ummm. Have you seen any monsters or anything around. Anything I should know about?"
"Monsters? In Keilah? Nah… but if you wanna help, I do know one place that needs it."
"Really?" Marcel says, expectantly.
"Just around the corner; the Margrave center. They take care of the homeless population in this area. Get a lot of shipments, and they're always understaffed. They could use a hand." Kennedy says.
"Oh um…" Marcel pulls out his map and flips it open with one hand. He sees the center on the map, but it isn't marked as part of his patrol, but he isn't sure why. He weighs his options, thinking he will probably get in trouble if he doesn't follow his patrol path.
"Don't worry about it, kid. You go do your job. We can handle ourselves around here."
"… Which way was the center?"
Kennedy point Marcel in the right direction. A few minutes later, Marcel steps foot into the Margrave Community Outreach Center. It's filled with people, lots of people. Almost more than Marcel, having grown up on a ranch, has seen in once place before; outside of school. He can't help but notice how the people are crammed in like sheep in a herd, tightly packed together. But wherever he goes, people give him a wide birth. Everyone avoids eye contact with Marcel, only stealing glances when he isn't looking.
One woman, about thirty years old and wearing a long shawl and glasses, approaches Marcel and asks in a stern voice, "Can I help you, sir?"
"Hi. I'm Marcel. Mr. Kennedy said you guys needed a hand unloading shipments."
She eyes him suspiciously, then spots the familiar cookies he's holding. "Ah, well… if you're to help, follow me." The crowds of people part for them as she leads Marcel to a shipping bay outside. In the bay are three trucks waiting to be unloaded. "It's mostly food, but winter will be here soon, so no small part of it is warm clothes. Put the food there," she points to several metal racks, "but don't unbox anything. As for the clothes, stack the boxes in the corner along that wall. Don't worry about sorting, we'll handle that. Once the trucks are unloaded, put all these empty crates from the last shipment onto the trucks so they can leave."
"Alright then, I guess I'll get to work." The woman leaves and Marcel fills his body with aura. It takes him thirty minutes to do what would take three others two hours. First, he unloads the trucks, and puts the whole crate in the corner for later, then spends a few minutes carrying the piles of empty crates onto the truck. After finding the truck driver, who was surprised, either because he saw a hero loading up his truck or because his truck was done so quickly, and told him he was good to go. After that, he sorted the boxes as instructed, and piled up the empty crates for the next shipments to take away. The whole process took him less than one hour.
Stepping out of the shipping bay, he goes to find the woman. "Miss."
"Need to leave already? Well, any help is appreciated. How much were you able to get done?" She asks.
"All of it. I finished and sent the trucks off." Marcel says. The woman remains quiet for a moment, then rushes past Marcel to the shipping bay, thinking he'd made a horrible mistake. But once outside, she sees everything exactly as it should be.
"You really did finish…" She says.
"Yes ma'am. Now, if you'll excuse me. I need to go finish my patrols. I've put it off too long already. But if you ever need any more help. Let me know. I'll stop by again in a few days." Marcel says. She thanks Marcel, and says her name is Judy. With that, he leaves, and has a quiet patrol.
The next day is similar to the first. He walks around, helps get Branches out of the tree, talks with Delores for a while, waves to the neighborhood kids playing, and quietly finishes his patrol. The day after that, he stops by the MCOC again, helps them unload shipments, and talks to Judy as she inspects everything in the shipping bay.
"Judy, can I ask, why are there so many people here? Are there this many people struggling in Keilah? It was just as full last time I was here."
"A few of them are from Keilah, but most aren't." Judy explains. "We're the only center for the surrounding districts. So a lot of them walk here for supplies."
"Are they all homeless?"
"Unhoused. But no, most aren't. Just struggling. Especially after what happened with Salvation Forest and all." Judy says.
"What? What do you mean?"
"You didn't hear? Salvation forest had to be burned down. A lot of people were counting on the supplies from this quarter's harvest. Construction companies, paper mills, lumber yards; a lot of people lost their jobs or haven't been paid in a while. But with this quarter's profits gone, so are the investments."
"I didn't realize that many people depended on the forest." Marcel says, thinking about what happened. He doesn't blame himself, but is still reminded nonetheless.
The door to the shipping bay opens, and a woman sticks her head out. "Miss Judy."
"Yes Kate?"
"Nobody can find Tommy."
"He's probably hiding around here somewhere." Judy says.
"We've searched everywhere. I don't think he's at the center. What if he wandered off?"
"Who's Tommy?"
"A young boy with special needs. His parents are regulars at the center these days. Both are out job hunting, and left Tommy in the daycare the center runs. But he has a habit of hiding." Judy explains.
"Maybe I can help?" Marcel offers.
"Thank you, Marcel. Kate, go get a few others. Let's start by searching around the center. Remember, start with the places you wouldn't want them to be first. Start with the most dangerous and work your way down the list." Judy says. With that, several people began searching for Tommy.
Marcel starts his search in the daycare, deciding to use his tracking training and look for a trail. When he arrived, he noticed the kids were just getting done with snack time, and the trash bins were full of juice boxes. He goes to Tommy's cubby, and notices his shoes are missing, and there is dried mud inside the cubby.
"Was Tommy wearing his shoes?"
"I didn't see him put them on." The daycare worker says, uneasy and nervous. She was clearly worried, mostly for Tommy, partially that she'd be fired for losing a kid. Marcel walks over to the door, it has a child sized gate to prevent the kids from wandering off; in theory. He noticed chunks of dirt to the right of the door, and concludes that it must be from Tommy's shoes. He walks down the hall, and comes to a split in the corridor, then notices small drops of yellowish-red liquid moving down the split towards a set of double doors. He goes through them and finds several muddy shoe prints beside another door. Opening it, it leads to the children's play area outside. Marcel spends a few minutes looking in the various places a kid may hide on a playground: in the playhouse, the small jungle gym, behind large objects like slides. But near the gate he finds a discarded juice box. He checks the latch, and sees it's a little broken. Marcel pushes the gate, figuring that he may as well check the other side, and finds Tommy, playing with some toy trucks.
"Hey… Tommy?" The little boy looks up at Marcel and smiles, holding his truck in the air. Tommy is much bigger than the other kids in the daycare. They are an average of five or six, but Tommy looks to be eight or nine. "That your truck?"
"Yeah." Tommy says.
"You wanna go inside with me and show the teacher?" Marcel asks, trying to lead him inside. Tommy nods, collects the toys he brought with him, and walks back inside with Marcel. The daycare worker, after thanking Marcel and breathing a sigh of relief, calls Judy and tells her the news. Once Judy arrives, Marcel leaves for the day to finish his patrols.
Days pass before Marcel returns to the MCOC. When he gets there, he finds Judy waiting for him. "Marcel, I'm glad you're here. Tommy's father wanted to thank you for finding his son."
"That isn't necessary." Marcel tries to refuse, but Judy cuts him off.
"Ah, there he is." She gestures behind Marcel, to Steed, the man in Marcel's group in the Salvation Forest. Once they both realize who the other is, Steed thanks Marcel for finding his son, and thanks him again for what happened in the forest. Less than an hour later, nearly everyone in the center knows who Marcel is. From that day on, they don't avoid him or worry when he's around anymore, and he slowly becomes part of the Keilah community.
Oasis King watches the news, a story about Marcel. Four months have passed since he was assigned the Keilah patrol, and he's made the most of it. A reporter interviews him, not for some great deeds, but for numerous small ones. The tag line for the story is "Local Hero Steps Up."
"While the hero in question did not want to be interviewed, others have plenty to say about him." The reporter on the TV says.
"He's a good kid. Always helpful."
"He helps get Branches out of the tree every day."
"Our center has been better off ever since he showed up."
"Very friendly. He'll listen to anyone's problems."
"We here at fire station sixty-seven are especially appreciative for his presence, and his willingness to climb trees."
One by one, people are interviewed about Marcel, each with something kind to say. King turns and punches the concrete wall of his office in the base. There is a resounding crack, and he pulls his hand away. Instead of the wall being destroyed, like it would have been years ago, his hand is bleeding. He'd decided long ago that Marcel was a problem for him, and now was the time to act on it.
Ziba comes in, "Everything okay? I heard a noise."
"I just got some bad news and lost my temper."
"What happened?"
"I just found out there is some evidence to suggest that Marcel may have been partially at fault for what happened in Salvation Forest." King lies.
"What?" Ziba asks, shocked. "How?"
"I don't know for certain yet. But I intend to investigate this personally."