One day, while getting his gear on in the base, after four months and twelve days of patrolling Keilah, Marcel's daily routine changes, as he is called to go see Oasis King in his private gym at the far end of the base. He decides to see Oasis King before getting all his armor on.
He walks in and finds King training with a spear. Not his usual weapon, but Marcel had seen him use one before. The spear has a dark brown shaft and a bronze tip. He is drilling thrusts and swipes against a training dummy made to loosely resemble a monster. The dummy is wooden primarily, but each part has a thick rubber shell that the spear strikes again and again.
"Sir, you wanted to see me?" Marcel says, standing outside the training mat. King ignores Marcel, continuing to strike the dummy. His strikes increase in power, nearly tearing the protective shell off the wooden frame. King finished with an overhead slash, and the wooden shaft breaks. "Sir?"
"Marcel, how are you?" King asks, feigning interest. His breathing is labored from the exertion. He glances at Marcel.
"Oh… I'm doing good sir. How are you?"
"The media has finally died down around you, hasn't it?" King asks, examining the broken weapon with sharp eyes, as if almost happy in some way that it broke.
"Yes sir. I think you were right back then. Getting away from it was a good idea. It gave me time to think about what kind of hero I want to be."
"How's the patrol going? Anything interesting happen?" King asks, walking to the weapon storage on the other side of the room.
"Um, not particularly. Very quiet lately. I've gotten to practice my tracking a bit." Marcel thinks to himself if he should follow King, but, unsure of if he would want that, continues to awkwardly stand at the other side of the room.
"That's nice." King says, arriving at the weapons storage. He picks up a new spear, and runs his thumb against the blade, checking its sharpness.
"I did stop a burglar a while back. Sort of… the guy surrendered as soon as he saw me." King stops for a moment when he hears that, just staring at the spear.
"Marcel, will you do me a favor."
"Sure."
"Will you use your sling to make an attack against that dummy? I want to see how strong your attacks are these days." King says.
"Are you sure? If I miss, it could damage the wall."
"Don't worry about the wall. It's reinforced. Stronger attacks than yours have tried and failed to break them. So, give it everything you have."
Marcel loads a ball bearing into his sling, charges it and the sling with aura, and whips it around. A split second later, the shot tears through the dummy entirely, and hits the wall behind it. Having hit the dummy first, the shot lost most of its energy, so instead of breaking straight through the wall, it only knocks a half a meter wide chunk of debris from it. The shot then ricochets off the first wall, and buries itself into the other side of the training room. As chunks of debris fly around the room, some smaller pieces bounce off Oasis King, but he doesn't seem to notice them, only staring at the damage to the wall and the dummy.
"Oh! Crap! Are you okay sir?" Marcel calls out and starts to run over, but is stopped when King raises his hand.
"I'm fine. Thank you, Marcel. I appreciate that." Without another word, King raises his spear, aims at Marcel and throws it with all his strength at his head. Even at a distance, it is a fast attack. Marcel ducks under the spear, and his world slows down. After the fights with the amarok and all his training had beaten one singular lesson into his skull, when attacked, react fast. Marcel doesn't know what just happened and doesn't have time to think about it. He just reacts. He fills his body with aura to speed himself up and buy himself a split second to think. But the only thought he can muster when facing the Oasis King is RUN.
He turns as King grabs another spear, both men moving as fast as they can. Just as King takes hold of another weapon, Marcel body slams the door and crashes through it, continuing to run. King grits his teeth and gives chase.
Running madly, Marcel turns down corridors, and remembers his training. The best way to cover your tracks is to create false trails. He kicks open a door, and then runs the other direction, making it seem as if he went though the door in a rush. King, following behind, comes across the broken door, and takes the bait. If it had been anyone else, he wouldn't have fallen for it, but he underestimates Marcel's abilities, having been a hero for less than a year. Marcel dashes for the nearest spot he can think to hide, Johnny's room. It's then he hears a siren blaring, just as he ducks into Johnny's closet.
Outside the door, he hears people running and shouting, then hears the door open, and peaks through the crack to see who it is. To his relief, it's Johnny, putting his armor on. Marcel steps out of the closet, and Johnny yelps in surprise.
"Dadgum it, Marcel! You scared the crap out of me! What are you doing in my closet?" Johnny says. Marcel starts shushing him.
"Keep it down. I'm hiding." He whispers.
"Hiding? Why?" Johnny whispers back.
"Your dad tried to kill me!" He says urgently.
"What? Why?"
"I don't know. We were talking in his training room, he told me to attack his training dummy with everything I had, and he attacked me for no reason after." Marcel explains.
"Is that what all these alarms are about?" Johnny wonders.
"You gotta help me get out of here!" Marcel says, still half hidden in the closet.
The doorknob turns and Marcel pulls himself back into the closet. A Melodie's voice comes from the doorway. "Johnny, good, you're here. We're all meeting in the mess hall. Get your armor and come on."
"Okay, I'll meet you there. Any idea what this is about?" Johnny asks.
"No clue. Have you seen Marcel? He wasn't in his room, and he's still part of my roster, so I need to bring him too." Melodie says.
"Haven't seen him." Johnny lies.
"We'll fill him in after then. I gotta go get HotJack and Crasher next. See you there." With that, she leaves.
Marcel peaks his head back out. "Thanks."
"Of course. Where's your armor?"
"Still in my locker."
"The locker room will be crawling with everyone. We can't get your stuff unnoticed… Here. Take this." Johnny says, and pulls out his own armor that he was going to put on. "Put it on, and head to the west of the compound. Everyone will be going east to the mess hall, so I'll draw them further by saying I spotted someone hopping the east gates. That'll buy you time."
Marcel suits up in Johnny's armor, a set of heavy plates with mail at the joints. But Marcel can barely fit into it. While he and Johnny can perform feats of strength and speed at about the same level, Johnny is much larger since he lacks aura like Marcel's.
"It's too big. Thanks, but I'll just have to rely on my aura." Marcel says, taking the armor back off.
"You sure?"
"Yeah. Besides, they'll probably wonder where your armor is if you show up without it. Anyway, my aura has gotten me this far. I'll just keep trusting it."
Johnny puts the armor on, and hugs Marcel. "Wait two minutes, then run for it." Marcel nods, and Johnny leaves. For the longest two minutes of Marcel's life, he waits. Then opens Johnny's window, crawls out, and makes a mad dash for the west gates. Over the PA system, he hears the announcement.
"All heroes, remain on alert. Marcel David is to be captured and put into custody. He is considered armed and dangerous. Last spotted at the east gates." With that, Marcel fills his body with aura, hops the gate, and runs at top speed towards the city, heading for Keilah, the place he knows best, to disappear.