MapleSAP Special: Justice Arrow
Part 3: Put to Work

In the last issue of MapleSAP Special, Ross Kent and his team arrived in Henesys at the end of the day, noting
how happy most of the people were after work. Maria, a member of Kent’s team leads them to
her parents’ home, where they were let in.
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Maria’s mother and father are surprised at their daughter’s return,
however, her mom
seems to be mad at her. On the other hand, Balo,
level 97 ranger, was happy to have us.
As we remove our shoes and coats at the door,
Maria’s mother grabs her by the arm and leads her to
one of the bedrooms in a rough manner.
Balo gives us a grand tour of the place.
The interior of the home is all unpainted wood.
A few pictures, and paintings hang on the walls.
There is no electricity, but mallowsparen*
crystals glow brighter than light bulbs and light up the whole
place. In the living room, there is no TV nor stereo. Instead,
a piano sits accross from a sofa and rocking chairs.
In the kitchen, the appliances look quite different than back home;
The fridge is built entirely out
of wood, and heat suction crystals keep everything inside cold.
A 19th century style fire powered stove
is situated in the corner of the kitchen on a patch of stone tiles,
and the smoke stack rises above to the roof.
Balo explains that filters on the roof collect most of
the waste matter in the smoke and must be cleaned daily.
The beds in the house are sack like mattresses stuffed with feathers,
cotton and other soft materials.
As we talk at the table in the dining room, two kids show up carrying baskets of laundry.
“Meet Joel and Wasco. They are our community servants assigned to our home.”
Balo explains.
Hank asks, “How did they get their job?”
“They’re young’uns from Kerning City.
Lots of kids leave the childrens’ reserve up there and end up in danger
pretty fast. Our men go up there and collect a
bunch of these loose runaway kids and bring them home.”
Balo dismisses the kids with a wave of his hand.
They leave us without saying a word.
“Now sir,” Hank interjects,
“Lots of kids go outside of the children’s reserve-“
“Then they are at the mercy of the vile
vermin that pluage the city! MapleWorld’s promising
young blood, almost put to waste!
They are preyed upon by rapists, pedofiles, hackers,
those damn Permanoobs that fornicate with the hackers,
and the rest of the scum that seeps in from
the North! We rescue these kids from the
evils of the city and bring them home and give them
a future in the Light!” Balo snarls strongly. Hank is taken aback.
“The children’s reserve up there is currupt!
They literally spoonfeed the kids and noobs to the scum!”
“Sorry I-“
“Now, you know, my boy!” Balo grunts, his big black beard shaking with
every word.
“Everyone who comes to Henny thinks of it as slavery,
well let me tell you something! These kids’ minds
are plagued, so we have ways of clensing them,
be it harsh discipline and labor. It runs the mischief
out of them, and gives them a good sense of
value! Any kid who comes in here is put to work and given
to a home where he will serve his hosts.
They go to church to learn the ways and teachings of the
Universal Migrator and his Lord.
Then, when they are straightened out, we put them through the test
to see if they can become bowmen, if not, they will stay and serve Henesys.
The bereaucrats
in Orbis have been calling it slavery for years,
simply to try and shut us down.”
Suddenly there is a sharp rap on the door,
and Balo goes to answer. Six fearsome looking rangers
stand outside, fully armed.
“Bon-soir, Balo Windfeather.
We have a call from your wife saying you have
guests from out of town.
We’re under orders to escort them to the base.”
Balo nods with obedience.
“Yes, sir,” and he allows the rangers in. They take the manner
of police seeking arrest. The lead ranger,
wearing a maro cap looks at me. “You are under detainment!
You will come with us immediately!”
Before we can respond, the Rangers grabb me,
Hank, and Rannbo and clap us in cuffs and lead us out-
holding us by the arms in a bone crunching grip.
Maria’s mother comes out, shoving her towards one of the rangers.
“Take this one too! She is just
as filthy and despicable!”
Maria tries not to cry as her hands are also cuffed. We are taken
to a waiting truck and shoved in the back.
Two rangers start throwing us in by grabbing Maria and lifting her
by her arms and throwing her into the
back of the wood truck.

It is dark out, and the fields are hardly visible under the night sky.
25 minutes later, we are taken out and blindfolded
It is well below freezing out, and we are taken into a building.
Our blindfolds were removed and we were standing
in a bare room, where a big bald man sat at his desk.
We stood before him, flanked by the rangers.
“I am to understand you lot were looking to do an article on Henesys, eh?”
“Yes, sir,” I answered.
“All parties looking to create an article on Heneys are to
report to the office in the town square! Why didn’t you!?”
he roared. Maria shivered.
“Sir,” I spoke up, “We arrived in town at the end of the day.
We thought the office was closed. My friend Maria
invited us to stay at her parents’ home and go to the office tomorrow-“
“Ah, yes,” the Bow Master interrupted.
“Maria Windfeather, the call came from your mother. She was
very ashamed of you! You ran away because you were an ungrateful spoiled child,
failing to
realize how good you had it with your family!
You flat out disobeyed them when you said you
were not happy with an arranged marriage, and to show further
shame, you ran away! And don’t think
your family doesn’t know what you told KLON!
They came here looking to shame us because
you outright lied to them, saying that people
her abuse children! Shame on you!”
By now he was shouting at her and she started to cry.
“Oh hush up, you! You’ve got alot of brass to come back her
after what you did! It is an act of treason
and you know it! You commited sin, and I hope you roast
for all of eternity for it!”
“Sir, I-“
“Take her away! She must be booked and face the penalties of her crime!”
Two rangers grabbed Maria by her arms and walked her out of the room.

We looked at her with confusion. KLON Media’s TV
documentary showed Henesys in a positive light,
with no indications of child abuse or slavery or anything like that.
Surely KLON’s crew didn’t come her
on account of Maria’s testimony.
It was assumed they were invited by simple folk, and not the Justice Arrow.

“So what exactly are you people doing here?”
The Bow Master demanded. I spoke up:
“Sir, we came to write an article,
but with no intention whatsoever to run Henesys nor the Justice Arrow through
the ground,”
“KLON’s already got an article on Henny!”
“We wanted to have an article with a more indepth view of the ways of the townspeople,”
“Who sent you?”
“MapleSAP Magazine, sir. It’s a independent magazine company.
It’s popular in Kerning, and we wanted to
take advantage of that and show the good light that
Henesys truly shines.”
“Is it new?”
“Yes, sir, it is, umm if you don’t want-“
The Bow Master cuts us off with a sharp wave of his hand.
“You boys are confused. No doubt people go spreading
blashpemous rumors and stories like
that girl Maria has been. I saw KLON’s documentary on Henesy.
It shows the basic operations that
run this noble town and farms. Perhaps you should stay here and learn a
few things, and when comes press
time, your employer will make a damn fine article on the people-“
“You mean social dynamics and moral parameters?” I interrupted.
“…Exactly, my boy!” the Bow Master snaps.
“Everywhere in Victoria, lies and rumours about Henny flow
like piss, staining the Universal Migrator’s finest and most faithful folk, and bringing false scorn upon
the purest of the pure! Your work will break that down, and spread the good word and not the
lies!”
“Yes, sir,” I said nervously.
“You also seem to be curious about the great and godly Justice Arrow.
Fine, you will meet every single
member of the ‘Arrow, and realize that we are working to bring salvation.
YOUR salvation!
Of course, there will be absolutely no freeloading!
You’re going to working communty service
every day for the people, and at night, you will be assigned a home where you will show your thanks
by serving them well. You understand me!?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. Obviously, there was no getting out.
“Good! Now for your own work.
You have the same badges we gave to the Holy Watchmen, so the people
know you are subordinate to them and the Arrow.
After work hours, you may talk to the people as long
as you stay out of their way. If anyone feels suspicious,
they will report you immediately. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,”
“And be damn careful about asking of the lies. That will send you to the pits! If you want to ask
about the lies, say something like ‘people are misled’ or ‘We want the truth instead of false rumors
fed to us by the sinners. But you better not offend anyone. Understood?”
We nod silently.
“You have any recording gadgets with you?”
“We have photo and video crystals, sir,”
“Hand them over!” The Bow Master demanded. “Search them, boys,”
The rangers frisked us and pulled the small hand held
crystals out of our backpacks and pockets, and
handed them to the Bow Master. “We will hold these.
You may use them when we fell it is necessary.
I am assigning this hunter here to be your moniter.
He will keep you inline, and you ask him of any concerns.”
The Bow Master pointed to a short skinny guy.
“His name is Corncrow. As of now, he is in your crew.”

We were stripped of our name tags and separated;
moved to a detainment building by the barracks at Field E10, near the river. We were locked in small rooms for the night.
As I sat in there, freezing, I pondered how things were going to go now that we were stuck here.
Without our name tags, GMs would surely hunt us down. Maria was taken away, accused of treason.
It was going to be a long night.
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In the next segment, Ross’ team are put to work in the harvest, while the Justice Arrow scrutinizes
their intentions of making the article. After work, each member of the team is assigned to a home
in Henesys.

*Mallowsparen- a newly discovered element. Similar to white carbon in texture an appearance, mallowsparen has
a lower density than all of the elements except for hydrogen. Lighter than air itself, mallowsparen is found in the
floating rocks that hold Orbis.