Finally, after some time Lui was free of Atlas’ grasp. She held onto the bandaged half of her head gingerly as she walked away to sit on a spot in the circle, the kids had created. The bright light of a campfire, fueled by unknown sources, lit up the childish faces, and warmed them as well, as the only warmth they got in the cold forgotten spaces was some random pipe discharge every now and again. There was no telling if you should put your face or body anywhere near those.

Childish laughs erupted intermittently, uproarious joy echoed in the dark hollow gaps lost to the citizens of this enormous city. And the lost children lived their life happily over a warm bowl of food Atlas had procured with the money taken from the officers. He chomped down on a Yellow Pheasant, a common bird with magical properties in Hearth, at least they advertised.

“Wait, so Lui. You’re the same age as Cao?” Atlas asked curiously, eyes open wide.

“We’re both Fourteen. Wait, How old did you think I was?” Lui glared at Atlas with an ice cold stare. The limp smile on his face and his rapidly blinking eyes were all the answer that was needed. “Were you born here? In this city.” Atlas moved on before Lui could lunge at him and claw his eyes out for their mistake.

“All of us, that’s what lost children are. There are no orphanages so low in the Eternal City, if we’re left alone, the in between takes us. Whether that is out of kindness or out of starvation, I do not know. We do not hear of the latter often.” Cao answered. He chewed up a piece of his skewer slowly, his own words had taken the little fun he would have had in the juiciness of the rarely tasted meat. “Where are you from? You look like a kid from the Clans, or maybe the Ancients. You carry yourself with much freedom, as if you’ve not been torn up and consumed by the City.”

“That’s because nothing here binds me. I am from the other world, from Earth.” Atlas said, expecting much fanfare but was only met with with confused stairs. “The one that only recently connected with the southern portals.”

“Oh! Sorry, we didn’t really know it was a world, a planet like Hearth. To those leaving in Eternal City that word is, important. The only way I’ve heard Earth be mentioned is as the Escape, the Plains, Gateway to freedom. Stuff like that.” Lui eventually realized what Atlas was talking about. A weird flux of emotions flushed on her face. Only now understanding, and maybe still too soon for her age, the implications of the words of the adults.

“Yeah? But why escape? I know you can’t come into our world, into Earth because of the Seal. But why do you need to escape? Someone from your world? From Hearth is chasing you?” Atlas couldn’t help but ask one question shooting after another.

“Hearth isn’t our world. We’ve never been. We’re not allowed. This place. The Eternal City, according to legend used to be something else. The House of the Gods. The Tamers of stars that created Hearth. But now, they are nothing but a prison for criminals, political enemies, and losers, refugees. Those too weak to protect their homes. All caged up in this place.” Cao answered. “We are simply the unfortunate children born by parents that belonged to the latter side of the people that are locked up in here.” He continued with a low growl. Hate darkened the visage of the young teen. Only aged fourteen yet carrying the burden’s of many.

“And up until six months ago their life was this festering pool, no future, no change. You don’t go against the Wishes of the Six Clans and the Sects from here. You can’t. It was hopeless.”

“Ever since your world appeared, some quick minds jumped to the case, set up a trap and your army jumped straight in. Things have been changing. With every floor they clear people get more and more loose, as if a high is spiked in their brains. The economy is crashing, even druggies don’t do drugs anymore. There is nothing that can get them more high than seeing your camouflaged soldiers die for them.” Cao grit his teeth. A terrifying memory crossed his mind. “Gangs have gone crazy, losing their clientele has caused them heavy losses. Those at the top are not happy. And with all this turmoil… We can barely move about in the city. It was a Gang conflict that took…” Cao stopped himself as Lui gripped his arm so tightly it ached. Blood dripped down his forearm.

She stared at the ground, controlling her breath. “Sorry, I lost control. I shouldn’t have. It’s done. He’s gone. I failed to get his reward, but it’s fine. It has passed now. We should honor him by living on. It was my mistake for going off on my own. I’m sorry everyone.” Lui stared at Cao and the children with a fierce sincerity.

“Is this about your brother?” Atlas asked. Gingerly, softly.

“Yes. He took on a mission to dangerous for his own good. He traveled to the Border Slums to steal back a stolen artifact. He did it, but he never returned. The Heavenly Beast Sect never gave us his reward, because he wasn’t there himself to take it.”

“Now, I won’t promise the impossible. But I have a feeling that if you show me where this reward is, I can bring it back, in honor of your brother. I’ll retrieve it.”

“No, Atlas! You’ve already gotten too involved!” Carius turned around and grabbed Atlas’ arm.

“Where is the headquarters of those beasties?” Atlas shrugged Carius off, straightening. An unknown feeling bubbling inside him. His thoughts cleared up. He would do this for these children, forgotten by their people, thrust into a harsh changing world all on their own.

“You don’t have to Mister Atlas. Mister Carius is right, this is our matter, you have to warn your people.” Cao said as he stood up facing Atlas with an outstretched hand. Willing to shake hands right there and forget about it.

“My people already know. I am not concerned. After I get this place looking a little more like neverland, I’m gonna deal with the soldiers from the inside. Your existence, your eyes, they give me hope. Not everyone wants to go out there and ravage my world. They want to see the stars of the night sky, swim in our oceans, walk amongst our forests and smell the carnations, to build snowmen and tan on the beach, to see their breaths turn into white mist as it floats away with a gust of chilly wind. They can be reasoned with.”

“For now though. I need to punish some crooks and honor your brother and leader in the right way. So let us all go for an excursion to the outside.”

Carius swallowed up his thoughts and worries. It sounded sane. But his guts clenched up with every word Atlas spoke. The brighter his smile the deeper the pit grew in Carius’ innards. A catastrophe was approaching. He could hear its incessant droning in the background, growing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The group, out on an excursion, found themselves perched on the railing of a balcony some hundreds of meters above the ground. All in one line overlooking the sky bridges and Sky streets and the large balconies and humans flying through the air on spiritual weapons or beasts bathed in the sun, a set of privileges offered to the citizens of the floors in the Hundreds in the South Sector of the Heavenly Beast Sect.

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The sun was bright and clear, warm yet not too hot. Up here a breeze flowed through, and it was soft and cool. The deep red of the balconies on the pastel yellow of the walls of the buildings, those of this height, matched with the light blue of the sky, washed with the white light of the sun above. The Noise was of a different quality than down on the dark, shadowy surface. Whirls of Qi, ethereal noises beckoned from yonder, the giggle of fawning girls and the placating of wannabe grooms.

The thick smell of incense and perfumes, of oils lathered into the fanciful, bountiful attires worn by the people this high up, wafted hither with the breeze. Tunes from inside large and private gardens floated softly on the wind, dancing up and down the cityscape, a city atop another city. Life moved in this part of the world. It grew under the ever present sun, just like how water flowed down the artificial waterfalls and rivers supported by Qi formations flowing in between the many luxury apartments dripping from one to the other, washing the sky with rainbows and refreshing the people of the sky city. Polished wooden gondolas floated down floating rivers with no basin, boarded with a little pipe players, tutting their little tune for relaxation and entertainment. Not one person deigned to spare a glance to the dirty children with feet dangling off a precarious black railing on a random balcony. They had gone unnoticed in their climb. Just another quirk of this city.

Atlas shushed the giddy children as he hopped down onto a wooden roped bridge connecting the two massive skyscrapers. He walked across undisturbed, even waving hello to two young maidens going opposite to him, the bashfully his their powdered faces behind intricate paper fans. Soon enough he disappeared. All the children trembling with excitement, sending their nanny, Carius, through all kinds of worried states, looked on in anticipation through the large glass windows of the office. They gave a great, wide view of the whole floor. Only just cutting off every now and again to leave a small part of the wall as support.

And then, the fun begun. Suddenly all officers and office workers stood up with a startle, staring at the door on the far left side of the floor. “Woah!” The kids exclaimed in unison as the thick wooden door to the offices flew past tens of large window panes, like through the film in an old-timey camera before flopping to the ground, parts of the wall flying along with it. A certain officers bagel fell to the ground splattering its soggy coffee dipped contents on his large pregnant belly. Even that wasn’t missed by the children as the office moved to dry himself off, eating bits of his bagel as he went, forgetting their headquarters were being assaulted.

Atlas walked in, legs and arms spread apart, relaxed. He spoke to the whole department of armed and cultivating police officers of a city he knew nothing about. Carius bit off a few nails in pure anxiety. “Excuse me! Does this place happen to be where the loot from the Westside Paw Gang is being held?” He asked with a pleasant smile on his face.

“Of course.” Answered the bagel-less man, who appeared to be the chief on this floor. “Wait… Did you just bust our door off its hinges?” He continued, scratching the bold spot in between his white hair, at the top of his dome. His eyes switching between Atlas’ thin athletic frame and the really thick door and its hinges on the other side of the floor.

“No. Of course not. Some idiot kid did it, they have no limits these young one, everything is a prank to them. Am I right? Or am I right?” Atlas said. “Let me help you putting that back.” Atlas’s voice and then his footsteps were the only noise sounding through the massive office space.

The next second, Atlas turned to the children, he waved and flashed them a brilliant white smile. He then disappeared. He fizzled out into silver smoke as the first three window panes shattered, as a sonic boom traveled across the gap. Papers, desks, and fat police men more hairy than bears got knocked off the floor as Atlas begun wrecking havoc.

He lunged with incredible speed at every Heavenly Beast Sect man in sight. The children watched the slide show as Atlas faded in an out of view, everywhere he went men fell on the ground sleeping the deepest sleep of their lives. Roars and animal cries sounded out from the transforming cultivators only to end in muffled whimpers as the men were blasted in all their vitals by four deadly fingers, before they could do anything. Piercing spikes of silver Qi flashing on the other side of their central acupoints. They twitched, still standing as their eyes rolled back. Whole desks were then overturned and thrown at Atlas but none found their mark. They simply flew into the walls or through the windows, much to the surprise of any random onlookers and the glee of the Children who hollered and clapped in pure joy at the self-caused destruction.

Cao did spare a look to the falling tables, much to Carius’ relief at one person sharing his sanity. Only to be elated when he saw that all furniture would be falling on balconies or luxury apartments still high up in the sky, Carius did not know what to think.

It was in these seconds Cao had spent away from the action that Atlas had already reached the last window of the floor. Where he was fighting, toying with, the strongest person available at the office at the current time. That person flew in the crammed space with his hawkish body with terrifying speed, yet he did not manage to land a single hit on Atlas.

Who spoke to him words that the children couldn’t hear with a laid back smile on his face as he let the idiotic fighter tire himself out. Flying and diving in the crammed office.

“Do you happen to have the Key for your big old Loot Vault? It’d be a great help if you would give it to me.” Atlas teased, a cocky smile egging his hawkish enemy to lunge even more desperately forward, face sharpened to a cutting edge, feathery brows united into one fluttering mesh.

“You think you’re gonna get away with this? A bounty will be on your head by the end of the day! You won’t be able to go anywhere!” He lunged once more, Atlas easily dodged. “You’ll be captured, taken for everything you have…. And quartered.” The hawkman continued to speak through heavier breaths. “So wash your neck…” {WHEEEZE!} “And pra-!” Atlas pushed a pencil holder straight in the man’s face, shoving it inside his mouth and tossing him aside. “I get it.” Atlas said and gathered a dense glob of Qi in his fist. He jumped up and stretched his arm back. He descended on the man with the might of a titan. The floor cracked upon impact, windows exploded and a face was pummeled. Atlas checked for breath just to make sure and pocketed the keys to the vault while at it.

He beckoned the children over and they cheered in giddy excitement. They rushed over the sky bridge to the near destroyed floor and joined Atlas at the Vault. He opened the small wooden door under bright red shrine like pillars on the far side of the rectangular room and was blinded by the brightness of the treasure he found. Necklaces with studded crystals, Jade blocks and Jade trinkets, Rows upon rows of booklets and scrolls of uncountable, confiscated - Atlas chuckled - knowledge. Stacks of gold and silver taels on the far side with even a few gems and jewels and expensive cloths right behind them. And right under that pile of extremely luxurious Spiritual Beast cloth was a Crystal as red as the late evening sun as big as a human head wrapped tightly to hide its fiery light and pleasant warmth. Sparks and embers burned inside of it at random moments, as if alive.

“Well. I guess all that is left is to take whatever we can. And go party!” Atlas shrugged at the inevitability of the future he foresaw as the Children hopped and jumped in joy, cheering, and of course crying. One little fellow in particular had knelt near the Fire Stone, tears sizzling as embers congregated on the water on its surface, boiling it to steam. She clasped her arms tightly near her chest as she whimpered quietly. Cao standing awkwardly not too far away. Atlas slapped him on the back of the head and pushed him forward.

A bright red blush and a nervous smile were on his Face as he crouched next to Lui and moved her slick black hair out of her face and behind her ears. “We’re gonna take this back, and build him a massive shrine. We’re gonna honor him and he will never be forgotten. He saved us, every single day. It’s gonna hurt, and that’s good. It means he was a person worth to be hurt over, a great person, the Greatest I have ever known.” Cao said solemnly. In his mind the image of Peter, cast cast in shadow, eclipsing the light. The unruly black mane flying in the wind, and his back so broad it could cover the skies and shelter so many from the rains. Eyes shining like stars and a smile sweeter than honey, which he had only eaten today for the first time. Daring and charming, and funny, and strong. A great Boy indeed. A hero.