The year was 5862 and it was Peter Pan's birthday. Did he care? From an outside perspective, it would seem not, but Peter was thinking hard about his past life. He was remembering when he was on the island. Mollusk island. The beautiful canopies of trees, seeing the mermaids, and most of all, the Lost Boys. Tubby Ted, Prentiss, Thomas, and…. James. It was hard for him to think about the boys, especially James, because this was the day they had all celebrated before his encounter with starstuff. The horrible, evil, corrupting, starstuff. He scowled as he thought about it. Even his old friends, who had been on the side of the Starcatchers, had been corrupted with it. Tubby Ted, Prentiss, and Thomas had joined the Others, while James was.. Changed. He had morphed into someth-BEEP BEEP BEEP. Peter had to start thinking of regular daily things, such as his job, or what he was going to eat for dinner. If he thought about anything else, the MindScan would catch him. He couldn't let that happen. He had heard stories about what they did to you if the MindScan caught you. Anything bad or illegal would show up on the Enforcers screens. And once that happened… Peter had seen and didn't want to see anymore. Dragged, beaten, nearly killed on sight. One of his coworkers had once been caught thinking about how to make a bomb, and Peter hadn't seen him since. Peter wondered as he went through, What is dinner going to be? Peter wasn't worried obviously, because dinner wasn't dangerous. Unless you ate too much dinner, then you might explode. Peter's mind started to wander again. He left the building and started to fly. This was the only time that he felt free.
He didn't come back down for several hours. When he came down he decided that he REALLY needed to think about what dinner would be. Peter chose the closest place, which happened to be his favorite. One of the only places that didn't serve bland food. The taste was better than that of all the other restaurants, but nothing compared to eating with the Mollusks... Then he heard a voice," Hands up, turn around." He did so and saw an Enforcer. "What's happening?" said Peter. "Your worst nightmare," responded the Enforcer. Blackness enveloped Peter, and he heard the crack of the laser before he felt the pain. Even that was a short misery because he fell unconscious in front of the front door of Islander's Delight, the restaurant.
End Chapter 1