Monday soon came.  And with it came five excitable boys, two girls and one young adult raptor masquerading as a teenager, all wearing backpacks and standing before a standard yellow bus.  The doors vacuumed themselves open, an imaginary light radiating forth, beckoning the young gamers in.  They were a little panicked from excitement, but eventually they bustled in, ordered into single file as they sat themselves down next to each other, chatting excitably, James keeping his head down to keep up his autistic act and shying away from everyone else before sitting down with his friends.
The bus soon set off 20 minutes after their arrival and straight on down the road.  Onett slowly began to fade from behind them, and Team Shoryuken sighed a collective sigh of relief for having finally reached past some sort of border in their plan.  The road was long, but they were assured that they would reach Fourside by the evening with all-expenses paid in a relatively good hotel, which quite frankly surprised James that they would make such efforts for a videogaming tournament.
Nevertheless, he was happy to finally have the chance to explore the rest of Eagleland from the windows of a bus, the countryside slowly passing him by, changing into another more autumnal terrain as Onett disappeared, and Twoson slowly hovered into view an hour later.

Compared to the first town, Twoson appeared to be less busy to the raptor's eyes.  The houses were more spread out to a more rural country spread, but he imagined there were more stores here or so, such as the department store, bicycle shop and the Chaos Theater down the road.  There was even a market in the south of the town, bordered by trees where people sat and sold their many wares.
The bus soon stopped at a bus station near the Polestar Preschool and the kids were given a chance to stretch their legs if they wanted to for an hour.  Team Shoryuken also overheard the adults discussing the situation in Threed and whether it was safe or not to pass through.  For some reason Roy was wearing a baseball cap very low over his eyes, to the point he had to keep looking down to see where he was going.
	"Told you there were zombies," said Tommy confidently.
	"Threed's always been weird," said Jack, "it's like they're trying to win the weirdest town award."
	"There's an award for that?!" asked Roy with surprise.
Jack stared with a credulous stare.
	"...no."
	"Oh...hehe..."
At the sight of Roy's head turning upwards, the raptor noticed something odd near one of the young boy's eyes.  Knowing kids had a terrible tendency to be unable to avoid things well, he casually asked:
	"What happened to your eye, Roy?"
The boy looked up to reveal quite a surprisingly bruised right black eye, enough that Roy had to keep it slightly closed to avoid hurting it.
	"U-uh...I uh banged my head against the wall this morning..."
	"...really?"
	"Y-yeah."
	"Damn you should be more careful then, I mean I know you're excited and all but we don't wanna lose our youngest scrapper right?"
	"Right, hehe!"
James gave him a small harmless noogie, secretly knowing that wasn't the kind of bruise from banging into a wall.  Judging from the look on his friend's faces at hearing Roy, they probably suspected the same but said nothing.  He decided to let it be, and walked around Twoson with them, heading towards the market.

There was certainly quite a small mixture of items to buy such as fresh eggs, "defence sprays" and travel charms for those passing through.  But the boys decided to keep their wallets tight, saving them up for Fourside, as well as the arcades.  Yet despite the hustle and bustle of commerce, the town had a strangely empty air about it, and several locals would walk past them looking rather confused and distorted, enough for James to say:
	"You guys talk about weird towns but this place is pretty weird too."
	"Oh yeah," said Jack, "there was some kinda group here that was kidnapping people and forcing 'em to pay for being kidnapped.  Then they made 'em do weird things like trying to paint the world blue.  Look.  Hey there!"
One local looked towards the boys with a glazed look over his eyes, barely able to stand with such little energy.
	"Blue?  H-hands of...blue...two by...two..."
	"See?"
James heard about something like this before, something Sarah had told him in one of the more interesting records from way back history, making his eyes slowly widen.
	"...ohhhhh shhhoot you guys have scientologists?!"
	"...uhhhh...no they're Happy-Happyists, what the hell's a scientologist?"
Jack felt proud for himself being able to say such a word first time.  Roy looked away as James explained.
	"Some weird cult that kidnapped people, separated families and made them pay for it out of their wallets."
	"Did they wanna paint the world blue?"
	"Nah, they were basically scamming people who were either too confused about life or easy to fool 'cause they were like, grieving or something."
	"Wow, that sucks."
	"Yeah, but they're not around in my world anymore."
	"What happened?"
	"I dunno, the hell do I care?"
Shrugging with clearly no more information, the boys got onto the subject of religion as they walked, talking about the little they knew of God, Jesus, or at best, Santa Claus.  James did his best to not mention anything similar, so all he could do was explain about the two other religions of the anthros of his world.

From what he could remember, there were two main religions that came with the coming of the anthros in his world, which for the sake of narrative he described as the only two religions of his "alien" world.  Karenniology, which sounded like a more scientific-based Christianity.  And Pangaeism, which came from old tribal memories and philosophies genetically handed down through the more ancient-based reptiles, such as himself.
He didn't want to confuse them so he merely skimmed the details, and ended his diatribe with the fact that he himself was ambivalent to either, simply agnostic out of disinterest.  The boys were the same, but Jack confessed that he grew up in quite an evident Orthodox family.
Soon however they were interrupted by a local who walked behind them on the street.
	"Um...h-hello there."
The boys turned to see a rather...mild unassuming local guy with red hair and a bristly chin.  He held his hands together, wore a rather terrible grey moth-eaten jacket with greyer jeans and smiled in a way that slightly unsettled James.  Roy however was more friendly than them.
	"Hi there!"
	"What's a bunch of fine young lads like you doing in Twoson?  I never seen you before and I know all the boys and girls in town."
	"We're stretchin' our legs cuz we're going to the videogame tournament in Fourside!"
	"Ohhh that's wonderful!"
He shuffled a little closer.  Jack and James were wary, as was Tommy slightly.
	"I bet you must have very good hands, very fast and skilled hmm?"
	"Hehe, m-maybe I guess."
	"Oh now don't be modest.  You know, if you kids are bored, I have a bunch of games at my house, lots of 'em, all the latest.  I love playing games myself but I...don't really have anyone to play with."
	"Awww...we wouldn't mind playin' with you!"
	"Oh good!"
The man's eyes lit up.  Tommy nudged Roy cautiously to remind him at least two reasons they couldn't go.
	"...buuuut we kinda have to go to this tournament real badly so I'm sorry, we can't really come."
	"Aw...that's a shame.  It's been so long since I've had a nice young boy around my place.  But it won't take long really, only twenty minutes...ten if you're really quick."
	"Uhhhhhh-"
	"Why don't your friends go and wait at the bus stop, and you can come with me instead?  Only need two to tango, huh?"

He chuckled with a little pathetic cha-cha-cha to soften up their disposition.  Roy didn't even smirk, merely looking at him oddly.  The general demeanour of this strange man however made James start to tense up with an instinctive flare.
	"Uhhh that's great but we really gotta go to thi-"
	"OH!"
The man just noticed the black eye as Roy looked up.
	"What happened to you boy?!"
	"Uhm I just banged my head into a wall, n-nuthin'..."
	"That doesn't look like nothing, that looks quite bad.  Maybe I should take you to the hospital."
	"N-no it's okay, I'm good thanks mister!"
	"Really, only ten minutes I swear that's how long it'll take, then we can just sit down, relax and play together and you can go back to your friends an-"
	"No, I don' wanna!"
	"Hey!"
James decided enough was enough and stepped forwards defensively.
	"You heard him, we DON'T want to play with you."
	"Oh...you're quite a big boy aren't you?"
	"Don't matter.  We're busy."
	"Not too busy to play with a nice man like me?"
	"Nice?"
He walked forwards sternly, a little shorter than him but fiercely enough to startle him, grabbing the neck of the sweater before lowering his voice.
	"What do you REALLY want from them huh?"
	"W-w-whu-"
	"Don't play with me old man, you're either just a weirdo or a 'bad' man, right?  Which is it?"
	"H-h-hey now, I don't know what you're-"
	"What if we didn't like games huh?  Were you gonna offer crappy candy from your van?"
Both of them knew clearly what was being referred to.  The middle-aged man looked rather disdainful and had no idea what to say next.  He didn't expect a teenager to be so confrontational.
	"Hhhhahah...s-silly boy, what are you thinking of, you must be imagining things now.  Are you playing some kind of dinosaur?  That's uh...a pretty cool mask ya got there."
	"It's not a mask."

To prove his point, he snarled at the unassuming "friendly" man with a primal growl, frightening him immensely as he started to shake and panic.
	"Now...tell me the truth.  You don't have any videogames at all, do you?"
	"...n-no."
He pushed his snout right up against the quivering nose, whispering harshly to make sure the other three didn't hear.
	"Then get...the fuck...out of here.  And if I see you leering at any little kids while I'm around, I won't report you."
	"Y-you won't??"
	"I will kill you.  Now...walk away slowly, and say goodbye.  DON'T run."
The older man gasped and started to hyperventilate as James let go of him and let him walk away with a rather timid goodbye, before he started to stride off in a clearly fearful panic, whimpering for his life before the raptor returned to his friends.
	"Whut happened?!" asked Roy, clearly not realising what went down.
	"Heeee didn't really know how to say no, but I eventually got him to go."
	"Oh, okay.  He seemed kinda sad I couldn' play with him."
	"Uuuugh Roy, don't you get it?" groaned Jack disdainfully, "he's one of those bad strangers your mom an' dad warn ya about."
	"Uhhhh, Jack?"
	"...oh...sorry Roy."
	"It's okay...but...ohhhhhhh stranger danger, like they told ya at school?"
	"Thassit."
	"R-right...thanks guys."
	"We're always here for you Roy."
Tommy patted the youngest boy's shoulder before they headed off again to explore the town.  They checked around the stores, refraining from ice cream or such when they had packed lunches for later, as well as to save their money for the more luxurious Fourside.  More strange locals would pass by, but only of the formerly-indoctrinated sort, murmuring about a whole blue world and such, but they were largely harmless.

The town's atmosphere was blank to say the least.  It had no lasting impression yet it unnerved James without any reason, the feeling of confusion and thoughtlessness permeating through the air.  He would not miss this town, but he was not sure if he would forget it anytime soon either.
Eventually they returned to the bus with time to spare and the adults had finally assessed the situation properly.  That Threed was now safe to pass through but they would not be stopping for long in case.
The bus now had more occupants, the two winning teams of Twoson coming on board to represent their town in the tournament.  Friendly rivalries occurred, home fronts were represented as the bus chugged away along down the road, leaving the strange-feeling town of Twoson behind.
	"So," said Tommy to the raptor quietly, "whatcha gonna do when yer done helping us?"
	"Well you said Fourside is a big place, so there must be something that'll help me get home without causing too much suspicion."
	"I heard that there's been something weird in Fourside too," said Jack.  "Like, some kinda big company takeover and rumours about a statue the past few days."
James looked quizzical.
	"A statue?"
	"Yeah, they said they found it in Onett and it got moved all the way to Fourside, makes people weird around it."
	"So it's cursed?"
	"Maybe.  I don't believe in that stuff normally but the way they talked about it, well..."
	"Who's they?"
	"The papers, duh."
	"Oh...right."
	"Jack, why you always read papers?" said Roy jokingly.  "Yer gonna be an old man like my grampa, all ooooold with an ooooold cap and an ooooold jacket and an ooooold face-"
	"Shut up."
	"Hehehehe!"
	"Still older than you, an' I get to boss ya around right?!"
He quickly grabbed Roy into a chokehold and began to noogie the hell out of him, making the boy squeal and giggle and writhe in his arm grip.
	"H-HEY, HHHhahaha-STOP it Jack!"
	"Say uncle an I'll letcha go!"
	"N-NOOOOOoooooohhhhahahahaha-"
	"Say iiiiiiiit!"
	"Alrigh' alrigh' uncle, UNCLE, okay!?!"
The boys laughed as Roy was released and he blushed with a smirk up at them, passing the time with various lighthearted tales of youth.  James had to make up his own versions to be more alien but overall stuck to the truth, leaving out the more dire and serious parts.  They didn't even notice how long it took them to reach Threed, and by the time they did, it was already 1pm.

Threed was noticeably more darker than Twoson, not just in its colours but also in its atmosphere.  Despite the clear absence of zombies that were apparently reported by Tommy's cousin, the town still seemed to be in recovery from some sort of stupor.  The people wandered the streets just as glass-eyed and half-distraught as those of Twoson, but in greater numbers.  The main street had its drug store, pizza parlour, a hospital and a bakery.  James found it amusing that they put the hospital right next to food stores.
There was also a large circus tent in the middle of the town, behind the main street, resplendently amber with a few carriages littered around.  The circus seemed to be rather busy in trying to set itself up and the boys were more or less excited about the sight of it.  Even if they knew they would not get the chance to see it in their ongoing mission to reach Fourside.
Walking around the town while the Threed contestants were picked up, they also noted a large graveyard in one area of the town, shuddering at the idea of zombies in a place like this, which would be easy with a spawning point such as a graveyard.  They quickly hurried onwards and made their circular route back to the bus.  But on their way back, they happened to pass by a TV store.
A movie was showing on several screens, each with a short delay of a second apart.  The raptor paid little attention at first, some sort of animated film with two mice riding a large bird.  As he was just about to pass it by, the second verse of a song slowly filtered through the display glass.  A song that made his eyes slowly widen and hastily run back, much to the surprise of the three boys who turned to see their alien friend.  He was staring towards the TVs, a witness to an incredible revelation.
The song played over fading images of what appeared to be the two mice flying on the back of an albatross, across cities and fields, through sunsets and thunderstorms that did not even dare break the song.

	"Come alooooooooooooong
	Til there is sunshine shining when we find the silver lining, come aloooooong
	Sing a soooooooong
	When today becomes tomorrow, weather fine, joy or sorrow, sing a sooooong
	Is it wroooooooooong?
	To put our hopes together and wish for something better, is it wroooooong?
	To belooooooong
	To face the future with another who means more than any other is to belooooong.
	Weeeee'll paint the grey clooouds with pretty rainboooow huuuuues,
	And weeeee'll brush the glooooom away and save it for a rainyyyy daaaaaaay
	Rainy daaaaaaaay, ohhhhhh to saaaaaave.
	When troubles cast a shadow and shadows make the sun afraaaaaid to staaaaay,
	Why it's okaaaaaay
	Til there'll be sunshine shining and we'll find the silver lining another daaaaaaaaay
	Tomorrow is another daaaaaaay
	How I hope you'll alwaaaaays staaaaaaaaaay..."

Tears began to well up in his eyes.  Somehow, the song reached deep within his memories, unlocking itself with a sudden flash of an image long faded in the back of his mind.  He remembered the faintest image of a face, eyes of pure warmth gazing down upon him from a blurred face like his own, singing the song to him.  He couldn't stop himself.  Before he even realised it, his knees buckled hard in front of the TV store, gently placing his head against the window.  Tears rolled down his face.
	"S-...s-s-song...I know it..."
	"James?"  Tommy asked first.  "...you okay?"
The kids crowded around him slowly as he tried to reply sensibly, taking a deep breath as the song began to finish and the movie made its transition to another scene.  The song faded away as the soft sunset imagery was replaced by a far darker scene, of a broken-down steamboat in the midst of a lagoon.
	"I...I-i know that song...oh god it just hit me.  I...I saw something."
	"Saw what?"
	"I...I remember something.  I think...someone used to sing that to me, when I was a baby..."
	"Really?  Your mom?"
	"Yes...I...I think.  I can't remember my parents.  I can't even remember what they looked like but...that song, they must have sang that song to me when I was little, I know it.  I just know it!"
	"You sure about that?" asked Jack surreptitiously.  "Either that or that's one heck of a coincidence."
	"No, no way, there's just NO way that song is a coincidence, it can't be, it was like...like a lullaby."
His voice was sullen, the surprise and emotion knocked out of it, but not for long.  Jack believed him, he had no reason not to from the state he was suddenly in.
	"Wow...I wonder why they picked that song."
	"I dunno!  How do they even know this song!?  W-what movie's this!?!"
The kids crowded around the TV store to try and recognise it.  Roy was first to pipe up with his freshest of memories.
	"Uhhhhhh-OH yeah, isn't that The Rescuers?!"
Tommy and Jack soon caught up.
	"Yeah, I watched that when I was li'l!"
	"Me too!"
	"The Rescuers?"

James turned towards them with tear-streaked cheeks, sniffling back his remaining composure.
	"What's it about?"
	"It's one of those Disney movies," explained Tommy, "these mice are in like some kinda rescue society and they rescue kids who get kidnapped by bad guys."
	"Right.  But...how did they know this song...Is that song only in this movie?"
	"Uhhhh...I think so yeah, I never heard it anywhere else."
	"Maybe they heard it on our airwaves or something?" asked Jack, "I mean, don't you guys tune into our stuff sometimes?"
	"No, no that's not possible, not for me."
	"Why?"
	"It just isn't!  There's no way they would know this song!  No way!"
	"Uh...okay.  Sorry."
	"...let's keep going."
The raptor got up and continued walking, trying to ignore what he had just experienced, the most powerful sense of deja vu.  An incredible awakening of a memory that brought with it a most unexpected reward.  He could just imagine seeing the face of another raptor, singing that song, throbbing like a painful bruise within his mind.  Jack decided to change the subject to lighten up.
	"Guess they got rid of the zombies huh?"
	"I heard from some guys at the circus," replied Roy excitably, "that it was a kid with a baseball cap and a bat!  I think ya all know who THAT'S gotta beeeee!"
	"Hah, I knew it!" crowed Tommy, "That's gotta be Ness, kicking butt all the way!"
Hearing more of this mysterious other boy, James had to ask:
	"Ness sounds awfully powerful for a human kid."
	"Oh yeah, he's like a real warrior, we all knew he was gonna be somethin' BIG!"
	"Yeah!" said Roy excitably, "an' they say he's psychic too!  Like, he's always had these weiiiiird powers all his life, but he kinda keeps quiet about it."
	"Psychic?!  What like...making things float and shi-stuff?"
	"Oh yeah!  But he's a cool kid, everyone likes him cuz he's always nice to everyone, an' everyone likes him!"
	"Almost everyone," said Jack flippantly, "What about Pokey?"
	"Heh, you mean Porky right?" replied Tommy who made them all laugh.
	"Hhhaha, yeah...god he's such a pig, didn't he like disappear after that meteor came down?"
	"Yeah I think he tried to do what Ness did an' have his own adventure but...well I dunno where he went."
	"Eh, who cares, he's a fat butthead anyway."
With that, they headed back onto the bus and on their way to Fourside, the way apparently having been cleared of zombies and ghouls.  All they had to do next was traverse through the desert and across the bridge, with two more teams in tow from Threed.  Their pallour was more pale than the other children but still determined to represent their hometown best, in the art of gaming at the big city.