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In this seemingly stable well-developed city, of good profit and fine standards of living that were certainly better and brighter than his own Chicago, James felt he could live here for real. He wandered through the streets, greeted by people, market vendors clamouring to sell, warm smiles all around with the occasional pushy arrogant inhabitant shoving through the crowd. But overall, it felt a lot better than back home. After a while of pondering upon the possibility of living here, his mind started to think on two things. Firstly, did he even want to live somewhere else on a whole new world? Secondly, was he ever going to get the chance to go home? Despite having been away from his home for so long to already experience a rather strange exciting and stressful journey that he didn't even consciously set on, he felt two parts of him constantly arguing away in his head, weighing the arguments of both his pessimism and optimism. He sat down on a bench in the shade, facing the main waterway. It was as wide as a motorway, cutting the city into various quarters with riverways to the sides off of the main river itself. One side of him sighed and said: There's no way you're gonna get home James. Look, you tried, you can't keep doing this, you're stuck in these weird other places that you got no idea of, where everything's trying to kill you and what isn't trying to kill you always seems to want something from you. You might as well just give up. Just stay in a world that for once doesn't have everything trying to kill you, somewhere not that different from Earth, and try to live a goddamn life. What's even waiting for you back in Chicago that's better than this place, anyway? A ruined bar? A bunch of wannabe army pricks who'll make you into their personal people-butchering puppet so they can be ACTUAL soldiers?

And yet the other side of him said: Come on James, you can't give up now. You wanted to move on after Crossville, you can still do it! That wasn't your fault, that was all Bob, just move on! Look around you! Every world out there is filled with amazing stuff you can't even imagine, stuff you never even THOUGHT about or don't even exist back home! What if someone CAN get you back? Does it even matter if you understand how they do it? Maybe a wizard can magic you back, maybe a scientist can make his own dimensional teleporting thingy to shove you back home, it doesn't matter! You can still do it, Sarah's not so easy to take down, she'll be there! A li'l wounded, maybe, but alive, ready to open her arms, give you a knuckle to the head and hug you tighter than ever. "You okay sir?" The third voice that came to him was outside of his head, and broke his mental self-debate to see a small goat looking up at him, standing on two legs. The lad wore scruffy clothes with tiny little bumps on his head that would one day become horns, his hair white as snow and looking very soft. "Oh...uhh yeah kid I'm okay." "I heard ya muttering to yerself...are you in trouble?" "...a li'l." "Whatcha do?" "Well...I'm lost." James decided that if someone was going to ask, then maybe a little talk with someone could help him sort his head out. "Lost?" "Yeah...I can't find my way home." "Howdya do that?! Ya can't remember where ya live?" "Well...I woke up here, and I never been here before, I don't know where I am, well I know the name of this place now but...I don't know which way is my home or how to get there." "Cantcha take a spaceship?" "No, cuz I got no money and uh...I um...I don't know which way is home." "Where ya from, mister?" "Chicago." "Shikaaa-go? Never heard of it." "Exactly. It's not the fact I wanna really go home though, it's...I'm worried about my friend." "Yer friend?" "She got hurt when I ran away...I...I wanna know if she's okay." "You can't call her on yer phone?" "Nope." "Aww...I'm sorry." "It's okay, I'll find a way. What about you, where's your mum?" "I...I dun have one..." "Neither do I...wanna sit with me?" "Okay!" The billy goat perked up at the potential chance of friendship and sat up beside him. "My name's Alex! What's yours?" "James. Nice to meet you Alex."

Due to a mixture of street life, Sarah's more charitable side and never growing up with responsibility, James had something of a child's heart. As such, he understood the ways of children easily. And children in turn seemed to find him quite approachable due to his immature nature. "So...ya staying anywhere?" "The hostel round the corner, they let me stay there long as I do jobs for them." "Oooh okays." "I'm not staying long though, maybe in a day or two I'll leave." "You gonna keep tryin' to go home?" "I got nowhere else to go." "Why not live here!? Hillys is a great place!" "Really? But you're like on the street." "But people are so nice here! Even some of the Alpha soldiers, one of them gave me some chocolate and, and, he gave me a salute and was all 'Carlson and Peteeeeeeers!' and I said 'thanks mister!' and it was real tasty chocolate!" "Hahaha...awww...damn now I want chocolate." "Heeheehee!" "So...what do you do for fun here?" "Runnin'!" "Running?" "Yeah! There's some great places you can run an' jump off walls an' stuff!" "Oh my god, you do that too!?!?" "YEAH!" "Oh man, can we go do some running now?!" "Sure!" "Well let's go, come on, show me the place!" Being lead through the streets by Alex, James ran behind him excitably so, having flashbacks to when he practised his free running through the streets of Chicago with younger kids, always testing himself and having fun with younger faster opponents. It was one of the few skills one could learn on the streets that was not only completely legal, but also healthy and helpful, in the sense it kept everyone fit and was great to escape from the bad guys, whoever they would be. After a short navigating trek through some streets, they reached a rather cluttered but not impassable alleyway in the more run-down district of Hillys. Washing lines, windows and doors were all cramped up through one long snaking cobbled corridor, the sounds of various families and children tumbling out of doorways. "My friends musta gone somewhere else," said the billy goat, "we can have a race together then, on our own!" "A race huh? I warn ya Alex, I'm pretty good at this stuff." "Hehehe, but yer ooooold." "Hey I'm only twenty-four...I think!" "Hehehe, that's so ooooold!" "Pfft but you can't drink alcohol!" "But I can stay up late without bein' tired!" "Alright then kid, you're on, make me a challenge!" The billy goat pondered and looked around to see what would make a suitable goal, before something fluttering on the breeze caught his eye. A red cloth of some sort that had floated over to get caught on a chimney. From their distance, it looked the size of a large ant. "OOH, I bet you can't get to that red thing at the chimney over there before meeeee!" "Hah, alright, you're on! Any rules?" "No pushin' or hittin', but you can take aaaany way you want!" "Fair enough, any bets you wanna make?" "Uhhhhhh...If I wiiiiin...you gotta get me beer!" "Hahahaha, okay...but if I win...theeeeen you have to get me cookies!" "Hehehe, okay!" With his personal problems put aside, James set themselves ready for a race, limbering up as Alex counted down. "On yer marks...geeeeet set...GO!"

And so they ran, through the alleyway before them to try and traverse up to the red flag high above the rooftops in the distance. Alex knew this place like the back of his hand, so he had the home advantage in knowing exactly where everything was. Whereas James had longer reach and better grip with his claws. Their speed was evenly matched with James' natural abilities as a raptor, compared to Alex's youth. The goat raced along the ground towards a certain stack of crates nearly hidden from view, leaping up them in a scrabbling climb, while James found the alleyway to be just narrow enough to jump from wall to wall. Testing the grip on the stone before running to leap at one wall from an angle, he kicked himself directly to the other wall and upwards to a window he could grab on, turning around to push back up towards the first wall and upwards. With his double-walljump tactic, he reached the rooftops around the same time as Alex, who was ahead of him already. With a burst of speed the two ran across the rooftops, largely flat stone with the occasional slanting roof or outcropping of chimney. Thankfully their target did not require any huge jumps, pounding their claws and hooves upon the sunbaked roofs, racing their fastest possible speed. James was loving the thrill of parkour that he hadn't experienced in so long. One branching alleyway was easily navigable by their jumps, right over the washing lines and markets below, shadows flitting across the pavements to bring a few eyes glancing upwards. The sky was pure blue above them, with the oddest taint of green to it, the red cloth focused in their eyesight. They didn't even look at each other at this point, as the two runners saw one alleyway that was a little too wide to jump, but it thankfully had a slanted roof they could slide down to gain momentum and leap for the next roof. Soon as they felt the roof stop, they leapt and grabbed onto the other side of the street, clambering fast up a few windows, which gave James an advantage. He was up and running a second before Alex as he ran with a furious speed towards the red cloth, ever closer, keeping his eye out for any more gaps with only one more left to cross over.

Noticing a higher roof to one side, James ran diagonally over to it, pounding his bare feet hard on the stone. Clambering up with a running start, he leapt with all of his might over the next alleyway. It almost felt like slow motion. He didn't even look at Alex who had found his own way of crossing the gap with a window he had seen to leap at and climb up from, a big mistake when James kept his momentum up by rolling forwards when he landed to avoid damage. He was easily 2 seconds ahead of his opponent and straight to the red cloth, which he soon grabbed. "YES! YES! I DID IT! I WON! HAHAA! WHO'S OLD NOW, KID!?! WHO'S OLD NOW!?!" "Awwwwww..." The boy staggered up to him in a faltering stop, panting hard at the energy he'd put into it, head lolling back in exhaustion but smiling nevertheless. Even if he was a little disappointed to have lost, the two panted hard with congratulations. "That wuz...fun!" "Haha...oh man...it was. You're...good Alex...you're like...better than...any kid I know...in Chicago." "Hah...th-thanks...whoo...huuh...yer pretty fast for a grown up." "Y-yeah...hooh...huh...huh..." They panted at each other with a smile, James offering a handshake of congratulations which Alex shook eagerly. "Now...cookies." "Oookay...I knows where to get them...you wanna...sit here a bit?" "S-sure..." As they sat down to recuperate, James looked over the cloth, finding it to be nothing more than a scrap that had flown away in the wind from somewhere in the city, feeling it and turning it over in his hands curiously. "Maybe this'd make a cool scarf or something." "Ya think so?" "Sure...a li'l small for me though...maybe we can make it for ya? I bet you'd look pretty badass." "Ahhh...sure!" "Yanno a tailor or someone who can fix this up?" "Nah uh." "Hmmm...maybe someone at the hostel can..." "You'd make that for me!?" "Why not? It'd fit you." "Cool! But cookies first, okay?" "Oh totally, I need some chocolate nooooow...mmmm..." As they basked in the warm sun and sea-breeze of Hillys, the salt air refreshingly mind-clearing as James forgot all about his optimistic/pessimistic argument, they gazed out at the sea beyond. "I wonder what's over that horizon?" "I dunno...but nobody's allowed to go there." "Huh?" "The Alpha Sections, they said nobody's allowed unless they got special permits to go out to the sea." "Well, that's just boring." James was becoming more distrustful of the Alpha Sections, thinking back to the protesters and wondering if perhaps he was in some sort of militant state, a seemingly peaceful city with an underhanded underside. As he thought this, he felt images flash in his head, a woman and the colour green, someone he'd seen before but he couldn't quite place where. Eventually they rested enough, and got up to head back down off of the roofs by climbing down onto a balcony, to hit the streets.

Alex led his older friend through the streets once again towards a more busy market place, where vendors sold their wares in simple boxes for all to see with a variety of things for sale. Watermelons, cherries, bananas, chocolate, oysters, fish, meat, and all other kinds. They soon ended up near one stall where the chocolate was, a nice big batch of cookies in one box on the counter, the two licking their lips at the sight. "So how do we do this?" asked James. "I'm smaller so I'll take 'em, you gotta distract him." "Sounds fair, I'll see what I can do." James walked to the opposite side of where the cookies were and approached the portly human who ran the shop, thinking over an idea in his head to keep a conversation up. "Scuse me sir, you the owner of this stall?" "Why yes, I am." "You don't have a uh...brother at all, do ya?" "Mmmm nope." "You sure? Cuz I heard a guy selling chocolate round here did something with my sis...and I'd like to have a chat with him." To add emphasis, James pounded his fist into his palm, making the guy a little worried and confused. "W-woah now I've never been with your sister!" "Oh you know her then?!?" "N-no no! I don't even know who you are, I just sell chocolate!" "Well she said someone selling chocolate here treated her bad, you sure it wasn't you?! I just gotta ask around for half an hour and find out so you better not be lying." "No I swear, I never said a word, I never even met her!" Alex was hastily grabbing cookies as discreetly as possible, managing to sneak out about eight of them before he made a signal for James to go. "Alright..you look a cool guy, so listen. If you see another guy here selling chocolate, you lemme know. I'll be back tomorrow, maybe even buy some from ya. Okay?" "O-okay..." And with that James walked off, Alex having already gone into an alleyway to avoid suspicion where he sat with his cookies in his pockets, with James eagerly being given four of them. "Hehehe, that wuz cool!" "Yep it was." "Nice story ya made up James." "Well what can I say, I got a way with people sometimes." The two ate away at the delicious chocolate chip cookies, a very filling thick little snack that they enjoyed profusely. James moaned with delight at having not tasted chocolate in years, forgetting the cool sweet taste which was coming back to him in an instant. "Mmmmm, these are wonderful! That guy sure makes good cookies!" "Yeah, glad I wasn't caught this time!" "What happened when ya did?" "Beat me up...but thas whatcha get if ya get caught!" "Amen to that...mmmm...so...is there anything else to do in this city?" "Mmmm not unless ya got money." "Hmmm...well I guess if we got nothing else I suppose you can just show me around until I get tired?" "Okay!"

With their bellies a little more full of sugar, they walked around the city of Hillys, crossing over bridges to other quadrants they were allowed to be in, giving James a wider understanding of the place. From what he gathered by his observations and Alex's info, the city was more or less built around a large mining industry the Alpha Sections had installed upon this planet, where thriving businesses from all over handled a range of different things. There was also a network of people against them called the Iris Network, which intrigued James immensely and reminded him of back home with the Fishnet. Hearing more and more about Iris made James all the more wistful to go home, so he pleaded Alex to talk about something else as a distraction, which he did. Most children are masters of sidetracking. There were a few residental districts, industrial districts and the commercial district, all evenly panned out amongst the waterways and separated almost too neatly. Alex also talked about the races that went on, where crafts of all kinds could race through the waterways to earn prizes, and that anyone could join in them. "I used to be a racer yanno," added James. "Really!? Where?!" "Oh far away, we had this thing called F-Zero, I was getting to be pretty popular. We had these big cars that floated, like anti-gravity, I was gonna be a real winner!" "So...why'dya quit?" "I didn't quit, F-Zero quit me! Some jackass threw me off-course and I was in hospital a while." "Awwww...I bet yer an awesome racer!" "Hehehe, ohhh I am. I ride motorbikes too, now those I love." "Whassa motorbike?" "...well...it's like a bike, but with an engine in it, you don't have to paddle, you just rev it up and go VROOOOM and yer off!" "Wooooow!" "They don't have them here?" "Think so, I seen some like what you said but I dunno what they're called, the Alpha Sections got some of them." "Jeez do these guys own EVERYTHING?" "....yep!" "Hmm..." "Heeey...what's in yer li'l pouch?" "Wha?" "I never saw it before, what's in there?" "Not sure actually, found it and kept it with me, but not like I can trade it for anything...you never know though." "Kay."

He knew fully well what they were, but he didn't want to talk about guns to a nine-year-old street urchin. With the tour of the city over, and having little else to say, James felt tired enough from walking to head back to the hostel, with Alex leading him back to where they first met so the raptor could find his own way back, leading Alex in turn to say goodbye in front of it. "See ya tomorrow here if you want?" asked James. "Sure!" "I'll ask if they can make a scarf out of this cloth for ya." "That'd be awesome!" "Welp, g'night Alex!" "Night James!" And so they parted, with James walking into the hostel beaming with a smile on his face with one mission in mind, heading up to the walrus clerk Mr. Julian. "Ahh good evening Mr. Campbell, you were gone quite a while!" "The city's pretty big and I had a lot to see...I was curious on something though." "Yes?" "You uhhh...got anyone who can make a scarf out of this?" He produced the red cloth onto the desk, where Mr. Julian examined it over while rubbing his slightly hairy chin. "Hmmm...why do you ask?" "It'd be a nice gift to someone I know." "Ahhh...well, my mother was a seamstress so perhaps I could make something of this." "Really!? That'd be awesome!" "I would be glad to, I rarely get the chance to try tailoring anymore." "And what can I do for ya in return?" "Well...tell me, are you good with maintenance?" "Depends...why?" "I've been a little frustrated with the downstairs plumbing, the upstairs works fine but downstairs there always seems to be a...delayed clogging I could say." "Well I'm kind of an amateur at mechanics so maybe I can do this." "Wonderful! Let me show you." The clerk took James to the back rooms of the hostel where the staff would normally go, eventually shown the staff bathroom. It was certainly larger than the upstairs one, and a touch fancier with both a bath AND a shower instead of the shower alone. "The toilet sometimes doesn't even flush at all. It can be rather frustrating and I'm too afraid to touch anything, but I can't really ask a plumber." "Why not?" "Well...they can be expensive." "Say no more." James walked up to the toilet, checking it over, thankful that it had been flushed and was kept very clean indeed. He gazed under the rim, the rear, the pipes, his eye a little more trained than others in seeing technical faults. Eventually he opened the tank and gazed in at the valve, the handle, the ballcock and the float ball, all parts of every working toilet. Despite this however, he could see little in the angle he could get, so he plunged his hand in gently to feel along each part for any imperfections, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Until he felt something out of place at the very bottom, something that felt misaligned but wedged in. "Haaaaang on...what's this?" Gently pulling to see if it wasn't part of the plumbing itself, he found it could be aligned in another direction and pulled it out easily after a bit of effort, realising the problem when he produced a rather wide bottle of whisky. "Woah-ho-hoooo...here's yer problem." "Wh-what the!?!" "Seems someone tried to stash a li'l drink in here and forgot all about it, but he wedged it right against the valve. That's why it's been flushing wrong." "...well...don't I feel foolish for not checking." "Not your fault sir, you don't wanna go messing with something you don't know, fair enough." "Well, thank you James. As promised I will make you a scarf out of the cloth you gave me." "Awesome. Can you make it kid size?" "Say no more, I shall see what I can do and when done, I will deliver it to your room." "Sweet, thanks Mr. Julian!"