WANTED: For Being A Hero

Chapter 3: Ready For Work

The door to the house opens, and in walks an almost-lifeless goat. Rami comes inside and closes the door behind him. You can tell just by looking that he is drained of all energy he had. He looks over to the couch and sees that they have a visitor.

This is a black crow. Bright, glowing green eyes, a top hat with horns coming out of it, and a beak that rivals the shade of khaki as Rami's fur. He looks at Rami with half pity and half confusion. Rami nods at him.

"Hey, Ori." he says.

Ori is Reid's co-worker. They work in the same studio, and have become pretty close. He does visit a lot, though. So much so, that there were discussions about him moving in with them. But right now, he lives on his own.

"Hey, man. Long day, I suppose?" Ori says in response.

The goat nods. "Yeah, this is the third day in a row that we've skipped our lunch break. We're just trying to get this thing done because of the weight of the pressure that's been put on us."

Reid walks into the room. "Oh hey! Wow, you don't look too good. You sure you're alright?"

Rami shrugs. "Eh, I should be fine. Tomorrow, I'm taking my lunch break."

The deer crosses his arms. "You skipped again? Rami, you know you need to eat. You can't work on an empty stomach. There's food in the kitchen. Why don't you go eat something?"

Rami sighs. "Yeah, that's probably a good idea." he walks through the room and into the kitchen to grab food before he goes to bed.

* * *

The next morning, Rami wakes up at his usual time of 6:30am. He had a shower last night before bed, so he just heads to the bathroom and grabs his fur brush. He brushes his fur for roughly 10 minutes. He leaves, and puts on a pair of comfortable shorts and a no-sleeve shirt.

He goes into the kitchen and grabs his favorite mug from beside the sink. He washes it every day, but choses not to put it in the cabinet. He takes his kettle and starts boiling water. During that time, he makes a light breakfast. Usually toast or an egg in some way.

Once the water is ready, he pours some into his mug, and places a tea bag inside to wait for it to steep. Once it is fully brewed, he adds a bit of sugar and a touch of lemon juice to his mug. Lemon is one of his favorite flavors, proven by his love for the delicacy that is lemonade.

He sips his tea while eating his breakfast. During this time he checks his phone for any emails he may have received for this upcoming workday. This is how he gets his assignments, or instructions for the day.

Today he has an email that is labeled "New Evidence" and upon opening it, he sees a new list of specimen that they must run tests on. One of these includes the nectar from a flower that is pretty common around town, but also grows in the summer in his own backyard. The common name for this flower is the Huckle Daisy. They are a vibrant yellow, and grow in patches. They tend to be unpredictable in their growing areas, and can be seen speckling a lawn or two.

The commonness of the flowers means that they're usually neglected. People don't like them to grow in the middle of their lawn, so they're usually cut when the grass is mowed. They weren't the prettiest flowers, but Rami, being a botanist, he loves them. He loves all flowers. However his favorite are pansies. He likes pansies because of the darker-pigmented insides. This darker tone develops in a pattern that resembles a butterfly or a face in some cases.

Summer only started a couple weeks ago, but he does remember seeing a couple little Huckle Daisy buds growing already. He closes the email and checks outside. Looking out his backdoor, he sees about 3 or 4 little growing buds, but they aren't ready to be picked and don't provide any nectar in this early stage.

They usually grow to full size within a week or two, so unless he sees any on his route to work, he will wait until then to bring them into the lab for testing.

* * *

Rami's typical work clothes, consist of a black T-Shirt and either black or khaki slacks. He gets to the lab, and he can put his lab coat and other gear on.

Reid was already gone to work at this point, so Rami had the house to himself until he left. With about 15 minutes before he had to leave, he decided to wash the few dishes left in the sink and change out the garbage bag in the kitchen.

Once it was time to leave, he turned out all the lights, shut the door, and walked to his car. The car was always kept as clean as possible, both inside and out. He was proud of it, as he should be. It was his baby.

He drives a yellowish-gold classic muscle car. It has black racing stripes on the hood, and a black roof to match. He didn't want a super fancy car, but wanted one that was a classic that he could keep in pristine condition. He didn't know a lot about cars, but he did know a few people who were experts in the maintenance of these classics. He trusts their word enough to go to them if he needs anything.

He got into the car, and put on his seatbelt. The weather was very nice outside, so he chose to roll down both windows. This is the one thing he would change about the car if he could. He would wish for a convertible, but this hard-top was enough for him. Other than that, he had no complaints.

Rami enjoyed his peaceful drive to work every day. Sometimes he would listen to music, but usually it was his time for some quiet self-reflection. He was happy. He had a best friend living with him in a house of their own, well technically. It was rented, but it was still a house and not some dinky little apartment.

He does own his car though. Bought with cash about 2 years ago, so he doesn't have any car payments to make, which is another incentive to keep this car in the best shape possible.

Finally pulling up to the lab, he notices the large gate that usually closes off the lot to be wide open. It's almost always closed and locked, needing a special access code to get inside. But maybe it just jammed and was stuck open. He'll have to talk to Shaggy about this, and maybe they can get it fixed.

He parks in one of the few dedicated staff parking spots at the side of the building, rolls up the windows, and steps out. He locks the doors behind him before making his way to the side door that he usually uses, since it is just a few steps away from the lab on the other side.

He started pressing the buttons on the number pad to open the door, when he suddenly felt arms wrap around him, a leather-gloved paw covering his muzzle. There was a sharp pain in his right shoulder and he was struggling to free himself.

His movements were futile though, as within a couple seconds, his vision slowly faded away, as well as his hearing. His sense of smell also seemed to fade in an instant and his whole body became numb.

He had no time to think before he was enveloped in darkness.