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The next two weeks became rather strange whenever James took a step back and actually looked at what he was doing. He was helping three kids try to win an arcade tournament, while he himself was on a clearly human-centric planet that seemed devoid of any anthros, much to his disappointment. He had hoped that he had returned to some pokey little town back in his own world, but he knew in his heart it wasn't. Food packaging would never lie to him. He hung out with the boys while in disguise, learning to play at the arcade better and better, his reflexes adjusting sharply to the speed of the pixellated lasers and fists that flew across the screen either vertically or horizontally. He was also given a place to sleep in the boys' treehouse, with a spare sleeping bag to stay out of the way of the locals. The boys themselves would do their best to keep up their own gaming skills, taking turns with each other's quarters, sharpening their hand-eye coordination. Tommy was the worst despite being their leader, his hands just not quick enough to keep up, and clearly a better strategist than a fighter. Jack being the oldest was the second-best, due to his patience allowing him to see shots that were coming before they hit him. Roy however was the best, being the youngest with the fastest hands of the three. But James had them all trumped with literally inhuman reflexes, slowly crawling up the high points scoreboard rank by rank, all while the local tournament crept closer and closer. All they had to do now was plan out how to make James be able to enter it without anyone realising. "Okay," began Tommy, "We're gonna be split into different age groups at the tournament. Roy, you represent us in the under 10s." "Got it!" "Me an' Jack'll handle the 10-13 groups, double dragon style. We were gonna lie about Jack's age and rank him up into the older group but I'm gonna need some help."

Jack nodded with all the solemnity of a soldier before the big charge as Tommy added: "James, you handle the 14-17 group." "No problem." "Once we win that, we get to Twoson an' join the rest of 'em, all the way up to Fourside. Hopefully nothin'll happen to stop it cuz they said no matter what, the tournament's gonna keep going at Fourside." "And your parents are alright with this?" asked James. "Uhhh YEAH. Come on we're almost outta school, specially Jack." "Just making sure, I need to know all the details in case anything goes wrong." "Right, and yeah they're cool with it, we told 'em and they signed us on even." "Wow. You got awesome parents." "Yeah...so, James, you remember what you gotta do?" "Lots of clothes, head down, mumble." "Anyone ask what your problem is, you say...?" "Asperger's Syndrome." "Wow, that sounds cool!" piped up Roy with genuine praise. "Where'd ya read that up Tommy?" "I went to the library and found a book about autism, didn't wanna just say that so I read a li'l further and Asperger's seemed a good one." "What if they actually know what Asperger's is," questioned Jack, "and they get wise about him?" "Please, nobody knows what the heck autism is, even the book I was reading was like all dusty and everything. They're not even gonna care about some weird li'l condition about it, right?" "We should still be careful just in case." "He's right," said James in order to curry favour from Jack, "we can't take any chances so let's make my act as convincing as possible." "Alright alright." Tommy sighed and rubbed his forehead, trying to focus and remember what he read. "Okay...socially awkward." "Check." "Obsessed about something in particular." "Check." "Hypersensitive?" "Wha?" "Like, you hear or feel things a LOT more than other people would, so every li'l thing sets ya off." "Ohhhh gotcha." "Don't like being touched, at all." "Got it." "Talk really emotionless and like, repeat facts an' stuff." "Right." "And...uhhhh think that's it. A good lie's all about the details, so you just keep that up, but play like a pro an' we'll definitely win this for sure!" "Damn right!" "Make sure to keep up your act even when you're playing," said Jack cautiously to the raptor. "Even if you win, remember, you're still uh...special." "No worries, leave it to me. So, when's the tournament starting again?" "This weekend," said Tommy. "So we got three more days to shape up our game big time, 'specially me. We keep at it with the quarters we stored up an' come Saturday, we're gonna rip 'em apart!" The group cheered to themselves with excitement, even the adult raptor who was getting into their childish mindset more easily than he expected. He felt that it was a way to make up for a somewhat lost childhood.

During the next few days however, Roy was the most curious of the three about their new ally and while the other two were busy sharpening their skills, he had all sorts of questions for James, which they talked about over cola. Likewise, James would be able to gleam more information out of the most trusting lad. "So," began Roy with quivering cheeks, "you just escaped from those other aliens?" "Yep, all I'm looking for is a way back home, and maybe your world has one." "You mean like some kinda spacegate thing?" "Yeah, something like that." "Yanno for an alien you speak pretty good English!" "Hah, thanks, I studied the language a long time, pretty fascinated with your world and what you humans do." "Oooh ooh! Can ya ask me stuff about Earth? I always wanted to talk to aliens about it!" "Sure, since your pals are busy." This'll also give me a better idea on their level of technology, thought the raptor. "Okay! Hit me!" "Alright lessee...how long you had television for?" "Uhhh I had it for years!" "I mean humanity itself." "Ohhhhh...uhhhhh...I dunno, pretty old, maybe...fifty years?" "Hmm not bad. How about radio?" "OH that's waaaaaay older, maybe like a hundred years!" "Nice...who rules your planet?" "The president, course! But he only rules one place, other places 'round the world got their own rulers like uh...kings an' queens an' dictators." "Alright." "Hey how much you know about Earth anyway James? No wait, why you called James? That's a human name!" "Well uh...my real name is a lot more difficult to pronounce, James Campbell is the name that I was uh...gonna use when I infiltrated your society. Was the only one I could fall back on." "Ohhhh...so...what is your real name?" "Uh..."

He struggled to think up something alien-sounding, or at the very least weird enough to mispronounce easily, his tongue soon taking a mind of its own. "...Chhhhuuu-luub-kah?" "Chuloobkah?" "That's kind of a short name, like how Jimmy is for James." "But...Jimmy's longer-sounding." "Well you get the idea, point is just call me James, makes it easier to blend into the names they're probably tracking right now." "Ohhhhh gotcha." "Roy, yer up!" Tommy called from the Street Fighter II cabinet, the boys swapping places with high-fives almost gangster-like which made James chuckle. Jack stayed beside the arcade machine as self-appointed coach, while Tommy sat down. "How's the training going?" asked the "alien". "Uhhh not bad," said Jack, "still can't deal with Zangief, stupid Russian jerk always grabbin' me all the time!" "Yeaaah wrestlers tend to do that. I wanna get better as that Vega guy." "You been tryin' him all week, you sure you'll be good enough fer the tournament?" "I can't keep using Ken, I need something more unpredictable. Hadoukens and Shoryukens are good and all but Vega's harder to predict!" "Yeah but he's harder to use as well. Stick with Ken. Everyone uses him but at least it's just skill that counts when you got someone less crazy." "Nnngh yeah...hey Tommy." "Yeah?" The leader turned in his seat towards James. "You said your parents signed you on the tournament right?" "Yep." "...what about me?" "Wha?" "Well...don't I have one?" "OH I forgot! We got one for ya too, it's at my house with all of our permission slips, you gotta sign it!" "Uhhh don't I need a parent's signature?" "Well...you can just make one up? Not like anyone knows yer here?" "Iiiii suppose, sure. Never really forged anything myself though." "Oh it'll be easy for ya, if ya know how to write like a grown-up." "Uhhhhhh...I guess?" "Great! When we're done here we go back to my house an' I get you yer slip to sign." "Sweet."

A while later, when it was Jack's turn to practice his Chun-Li, the arcade would soon get a little more tense as a shadow fell over the doorway. The young gamers looked up to see a gang of punks in leather jackets crowd themselves in, certainly not kids but more around the age of 17. James tensed himself up, knowing trouble when he saw it. Jack kept playing while Roy and Tommy sat close to the raptor, who murmured: "Who are they?" "Street Sharks gang," said Tommy in the same tone. "But," whispered Roy, "I thought Ness dealt with 'em Tommy." "Maybe they're getting cocky again. Police are useless an' Ness is outta town so who's stoppin' 'em?" "Who IS this Ness anyway?" asked James to Tommy. "Real cool kid who left Onett to deal with the aliens invading us. Total. Badass. Nobody messes with him." "Damn...so what do we do?" "Okay, you keep yer head down an' act like we told ya, this'll be good practice." "Alright." The gang crowded around arcade machines, shoving others out of the way and taking over at least four of the cabinets, forcing kids to stand by and accept a forced game over. Jack however was a little more resistant when one high-schooler tried to move him away. "Hey, I wanna play." "Play somewhere else." "...whut?" "I said, play somewhere else, I'm busy." "Busy bein' a girl." "I can still beat yer face in." "Wanna bet?" The two stared at each other, a foot of height difference between them, but Jack stood firm as the gangster put his coin in and made himself a new challenger, choosing a burly green-skinned beast man. It was on. A crowd started to gather partially. The fight started simple enough, rolling attacks from the beast man to be knocked away by rapid-fire kick attacks, followed up by spinning bird kicks. The gangster wasn't too bad a player himself as he made leaping attacks to counter back, flying over Jack's fighter to attack from behind quickly. The two did well enough to win a round each, and shit did not get real until the last round when a deadly combination of rapid-kicking kikoukens and spinning bird kicks had the punk's beast man on the ropes. Life bars knocked down from both sides until finally the teenager had enough, and decided to employ his deadliest tactic. A single sweeping kick. To Jack.

Struck in the back of his knee, Jack fell onto the arcade floor and lost his control, with poor Chun-Li a sitting duck for a brutal electrocution attack. Her synthesised cries rang throughout the arcade, accompanied by mocking laughter from the gang. "You. Lose." "You cheated!" "Not my fault yer clumsy, did anyone see me cheat?" The other gangsters shook their heads and mumbled in agreement, until Roy stood up with a sudden burst. "I SAW YOU CHEAT!" "R-roy, the heck you doin'?!" Tommy tried to sit him down but the youngster wasn't having any of it. The Street Shark turned round with a smug sneer. "Well lookie here, Dough boy here thinks we cheated too." "You think you can get away with that here but not in the tournament! You can't cheat so easy, you cheater!" "Oh, you think you can do better? Hey guys, I think we got ourselves a rival!" They laughed derisively but Roy stood defiant, clearly half their height as evidenced by one of the gangsters walking up directly to him. "You think you can beat us in the tournament?" "Nuh uh, I KNOW we will, cuz we're gonna win fair an' square with nuthin' but skill, like a REAL gamer!" "Yeah?" The gangster suddenly gutpunched Roy, twisting his fist into the pudgy stomach, blasting the wind out of him and pushing the kid back into his chair with one arm. Roy did all he could to not cry, despite the wheezing whimpers and tears squeezing from his clenched face. James did all he could to not leap up and slash them. "Siddown and shuddup, piggy. Why don't you kids go home an' play with yer pony toys like the li'l pussies you are? Maybe these games are too violent for ya." With another round of mocking laughter, they turned back to their games, leaving Jack and Roy to nurse their wounds. The four seethed in silence before the gang left the arcade an hour later. "You okay Roy?" asked Jack. "F-fine." "The hell they think they are?" snarled James, showing his teeth a little. "They're a local gang who think they own the place. I thought Ness dealt with 'em after dealin' with their leader Frankie." "Wait how old is this Ness kid?" "Maybe ten?" "...damn that must be some badass kid." "Oh you got no idea. But yeah." "Maybe this isn't Frankie's work," said Jack, "maybe he quit an' someone else took over. Not like anyone's stopping them, all the grown-ups are useless here." "Got that right," murmured Tommy. He looked over to the winded but stabilising Roy, the younger boy saying nothing as he clutched his stomach. James couldn't stand it, his heart was screaming for a fight, for some kind of justice. With a strong deep sigh, he got up as Tommy asked: "Hey where ya going?" "Thought I saw an offer at the pizza parlour, gonna check it out. Be back in a few."

Leaving the three to tend to themselves, he left the arcade to look for the Street Sharks, seeing them heading round the corner to a basketball court within an alleyway behind one of the larger buildings. The six of them were smoking and joking between each other with occasional sips from beer bottles. James readied himself for what he knew was a stupid idea, but he also knew that if he did nothing, the guilt of letting them get away without repercussions would eat away at his insides. That and he really wanted to punch their goddamn faces in. He decided to start with a good harmless appearance, something to give him practice on his act like Tommy wanted. "Hey." "Hmm? ...hey, the hell you want?" "You hurt my friends." He mumbled and stood sluggishly with a seemingly unfocused and unconfident aura, his stance lurch-like and unwavering, head looking downwards. "I don' like it when you hurt my friends." "Whut you gonna do about it huh?" "The hell's his problem?" "HEY, what's your problem!? You spastic or sumthin'?" "Mom said I was special," murmured James. "Oh yeah? I bet she says that to everyone." James readied himself for the first one to come over, the punk striding over with a cigarette in his mouth trying to be the coolest motherfucker on the planet, shoving James back. "Come on big guy, you wanna be a crybaby next huh?! You gonna cry now? Lessee you cry, special boy!" "Ahm not gonna cry. "Yeah?" "You are." With a grin, he grabbed the bully's arm and sent a brutal knee thrust straight into his crotch, the cigarette falling from his mouth in a wheezing gasp of painful disbelief. His friends were a little surprised, but they only realised what was going on when James sent another knee thrust into the stomach, before he was shoved down on the ground. "Wh-whut the shit is his problem!?!" "Thassit retard, yer goin' down!" "I'm older than you," said James with a snarl.

Keeping the same voice and demeanour to put them off, he waited for them to rush at him, dodging to one side before delivering a brutal kick to one's leg, sending him down hard before a hammer fist on the back of his neck sent him down fully. The third punk tried to slam a haymaker into James' hooded face, but he dodged before delivering his own roundhouse punch into the teenager's nose, grabbing his jacket while he was stunned before throwing him hard across the alley. The other three decided to get serious, one of them grabbing a short lead pipe from nearby and rushing towards James to give him a good beating. The heavy uncoordinated swings from the gangster made easy prey for the hooded raptor to disarm him. Soon as he swung, James slapped one hand on the wrist with a fist straight into the upper arm, bruising the muscle. A temporary spasm of pain made the punk drop his weapon, before receiving a hefty elbow to the jaw. The remaining two went at him together, hoping that he couldn't handle two at the same time. One swung his fist out hard, but he was blocked and thrown off his balance, receiving a hefty knee thrust into his side. The other one managed to take opportunity of his opponent's distraction and get a lucky punch right in the face, hard enough to throw the hoodie off to find a shocking surprise. "W-WHAT THE-" Before he could even register the sight of a wild-eyed dinosaur's head underneath the hood, he received a brutal straight jab that blackened his eye, before a kick to the back of his knee sent him down hard to the floor. Giving James enough time to cover his head again for two of the bullies to recover, they tried to fight again. "Give it up bitch!" "Why? I'm winning."

Angering the teenagers, they tried to rush him against a wall, but James decided to trick them up by running to the wall before them and leaping off of it. Gliding past their sides with a horizontal wall-kick, the bullies nearly hit the wall with their faces, before the raptor came up behind them and slammed his fists into both their heads. The crack of noses on solid mortar knocked them out, to join the rest of their friends on the floor. "Wh-...the...shit is your deal? Dick." James decided to drop the autism act and say: "You wanna be dicks and bully kids huh? Not while I'm around." Taking an opportunity, he ruffled each and every one of their jackets for change, keeping them down with a hand on the back of their heads. Deciding that some thievery would make a nice addendum of punishment for the bullies, he took away something around $16. Then he decided that they needed a good motivation to scare them on the straight and narrow. He went over to where they'd been drinking and grabbed a near-full bottle of beer, walking back in front of them and pouring a whole line of beer from wall to wall of the alleyway, far away enough from the gang groaning on the hard gravel, so they wouldn't get hurt by his next trick. Throwing the bottle far down the alleyway with a satisfying clinking smash, he brought out one of his hands and stood on the other side of the beer-spilt line, aiming a palm towards the ground and focusing his energy, willing fire to come out of it. He tried to imagine it in his head, burning purifying fire with all of its blazing heat, his hand warming up with tingly fingers, blue sparks striking between them. Soon enough, fire shot out from just above his palm's flesh like a miniature flamethrower, setting the beer alight across the alley's width, creating a wall of fire that both amazed and terrified the wounded gang. They tried not to whimper, watching the fire before them burn enough a distance from them, forgetting for a few seconds that they were not actually trapped.

"Take my advice," said James with all the coolness he could muster, "Stay away from kids and drop out of the tournament. Or else...I'll kill every single one of you. Got it?" Seeing them nod very softly through the flames, he walked back towards the arcade, the Street Sharks eventually managing to get up and run out of the other end of the alleyway. They left their beer and the fire unattended to nurse their wounds and their pride, as well as their sanity for at least two of them trying to forget what they thought they saw. The alien raptor soon sat back down with the three kids, trying to not smile immensely at his little victory. "Hey, where'd ya go?" asked Roy who seemed to have recovered his wind. "Pizza parlour, thought there was an offer on but guess not." "Awww...we could get some if ya want?" "Well sure, maybe we need a break. Hey, how about we all go out for some, it's on me." "Really?!?! COOL!" "Uhhh do you even HAVE money?" asked Tommy surreptitiously He was trumped however by James bringing out a pile of small dollar bills and quarters. "This enough?" "W-woah, where didya get that?!" "What? You think I just loaf about in the treehouse all day when you guys aren't around? I have my ways." "Why didntcha tell us before so we coulda used it on the arcades?!" "I wanted to surprise you in case you got low on change, like backup money." "Well...I guess that's okay, cool." "No worries. So, you guys ready for some pizza?" "YEAH!" said all three eagerly.

Their confidence was now fully restored, especially James who felt more useful an asset to the three than they could imagine. He would have bragged about taking down the Street Sharks in the alleyway, but he wasn't entirely sure how they would react due to his past times of boasting to Sarah not always ending well. He decided he would tell them when the time was right. The pizza parlour was a small but lively place, certainly popular amongst all age groups, a healthy mixture of adults and kids on lunch break biting down on some mozzarella-covered crust. James hadn't had pizza in years and he had to confess, it was his favourite food. He was even more excited when he saw his favourite flavour on the menu. The four ordered individual smaller pizzas for themselves. Tommy had the Meat Feast with mixtures of bacon, pepperoni and beef layered on it. Jack had the Deep Crust Hawaiian Special, a filling thick-layered pizza of pineapple and anchovies. Roy had the classic pepperoni pizza, and James had what he'd been wanting for years. Pepperoni and mushroom. As they ate and talked happily to each other, with James trying to keep his voice down to not look even more suspicious to the other patrons, the day went by until the pizza crusts turned lukewarm in their boxes, and the afternoon sky turned dim towards 5pm. It was time for the three to head back home before their parents worried about them, and they parted ways. James had a small look back to the alleyway to find the teenagers gone, and the fire burnt out either by itself or by responsible others. "Watcha think of me now, Glenn?" He said this to himself with a chuckle as he made his way back to the treehouse discreetly. For the rest of the night, he read up on a map of Eagleland he had borrowed from the information office, to see for once the routes that went through the other towns.