Marcus awoke a bit earlier than usual. He knew that he needed some extra time to find Steel and meet up with him. Marcus got off his bed feeling a bit tired and sore, he could still feel a slight ache from his shoulder and knee. "Perhaps the feeling never went away?" Marcus thought as he grabbed his phone from his nightstand.
He began by searching Detective Logan Steel on the internet but he got no results, which wasn't much of a surprise to Marcus. After all, Steel did have to keep his identity more secretive than an average person. Marcus then decided to look up apartments near his school. If his intuition was telling him anything, it was that Steel would choose to rent a location near the school so that he could easily travel there and observe.
Luckily there was only a single apartment complex near Marcus' school. "I guess I need to head there right away" Marcus thought as he grabbed his backpack and a duffel bag. Inside his backpack, were the usual school supplies he needed for classes but the duffel bag was full of his clothing for Steel. Marcus made sure to check his room before leaving, after all he wouldn't be coming back for a week and he didn't want to leave behind anything important. After a lengthy observation, Marcus made his way downstairs, his parents have already gone to work which made it easier to leave.
After the usual 15 minute walk to school, Marcus continued to walk past the school until he reached the apartment complex. It was a shabby decrepit two-story building, with multiple apartments. Marcus tried to view each individual apartment, hoping he could try to guess where Steel was. But after failing to find anything noteworthy, Marcus decided that he would have to knock on each individual apartment door.
"Watcha' lookin for kid?" A husky voice with a Boston accent asked behind him. Marcus jumped and turned his head around to see Steel walking from the shadows and to his current location.
"Just observin ya" Steel said as he approached Marcus. It seemed that Steel had been testing him by finding his location. Marcus grinned in delight, he was feeling pretty successful not only having convinced his parents to stay with Steel but also finding him.
"What ya folks say?" Steel asked him inquisitively.
"They said it was okay for me to stay with you as long as I called home every day" Marcus responded. He felt that it was an incredibly small price to pay to get to stay with Steel.
"Must be nice t' have folks so trustin' " Steel said. "Now follow me, we need to get started". Steel then began to walk up the stairs next to the complex, and to the third room on the right. Marcus followed right behind him making sure that he didn't his head on the door frame as he entered Steel's apartment. It was an incredibly small apartment, that was worn down and barely had any room for more than three people.
"Ya take the AC-3?" Steel asked him as he made his way to the kitchen and began to drink from a mug. Marcus hoped that he was drinking coffee, he didn't want his body back and have himself start to crave alcohol.
"Yep! I made sure to take it before falling asleep like you said" Marcus said smiling, He was incredibly eager to see the AC-3 take effect soon.
"Atta boy! Now considerin' ya took it last nite den it should take effect in a hour." Steel said as he took multiple sips from his mug.
"Wait an hour!" Marcus said in surprise. It was so sudden! Did this mean in an hour he would start to look more older. Besides there was also the fact that his mind would gradually begin gaining the characteristics of Steel.
"Whaddya worryin' f'? Still takes a week t' fully work" Steel said without a hint of apprehension. It seemed to Marcus that Steel had been used to dealing with this sort of work before. Perhaps it wouldn't be as bad he thought?
"So what the plan?" Marcus asked him as he sat on the old beaten up couch in the living room.
"We make everyone believe yer doing d'career fair this week. Den by next week when da AC-3 has fully taken effect, I'll live yer life for a week or until I have enough evidence against Whitman" Steel responded. Steel looked up from his mug to directly look at Marcus. "Yer not having second thoughts kid right? Cause' t' late fer dat!"
"No I'm not! I'm just a bit surprised but I can manage" Marcus said his voice haltering a bit. He sounded incredibly scared but in reality Marcus was in anticipation from excitement. He couldn't wait until the week had passed and he fully looked like Steel.