"This is the ship Bulk n' Skull. Do you read me, uh, dude?" said a perplexed. She noticed his backwards cap and sunglasses and his loose fitting plaid shirt on top of a tee shirt. I guess they dress similar to back home here, she thought.

90's Kid noticed her open jumpsuit and tank top and the strange necklace that hung from her neck. Her long bangs that she swiped to her sides and her messy ponytail. I guess they cosplay Portal in space there, he thought. "This is 90's Kid and what you see is what you get!"

She tried to sound professional. "I am a traveler looking for info about this place. What planet is this?"

"Earth! A Bodacious planet with babes, Sega and Rob Liefeld!" 90's Kid gushed. Of all the people and channels to hail, I found the village idiot ship, she thought. "Are you an alien?" he asked.

"I'm from a different...place." she hesitated. She was unsure how someone from Earth would take the thought of a dimension hopping woman in a spaceship. He was obviously on a ship by the looks of it. Maybe it was okay to talk about herself, but first she wanted answers. 90's Kid butted in before she could say more.

"Do you have cool technology and giant guns on your ship!?"

"Well, I don't want to brag bu-"

"Yes you do!" Telly chimed in. Melcandy glared at Telly.

"I'm a scrap seller." she began. "I find parts from old ships at junkyards and debris and sell 'em. I built this ship myself by working hard for years. There's military grade petit laser cannons I got camping out a space battle between two worlds. I did a few suspect things for the master cannon, but the ends justified the means. I got smaller weapons, torpedo launchers and built this ship to withstand a lot despite its size. I even gave it some unique abilities. I'm proud of my baby."

"To add to her excessive bragging, she programmed me from scratch. I'm Telly, the AI that keeps her alive and out of trouble." Telly bluntly added.

"I didn't program you to be my mom." Melcandy snapped.

"You wish your mom was this incredible."

"Like you wish you mom wasn't a TI-83 calculator?" added Melcandy. "Mel: 33 Telly: 194. Victory shall be mine!"

"Still winning." Telly reminded her. They both noticed 90's Kid laughing in the background. Melcandy blushed in embarrassment over this teenager laughing at their usual banter. She tried to regain her professional composure, but it was already gone after that moment.

"Man! That ship is awesome! It's half guuuuunnnnnn!" 90's Kid grinned.

"I also painted it red." Melcandy said.

"That makes it double hardcore! It needs a name like 'Bloodship' or 'Gunblow'!" He told her while putting up the horns. Melcandy giggled at his enthusiasm and silly names. "I'm trying to make this little ship hardcore too! I got tools, and wire and a Sega Genesis to put in it!"

Melcandy sat back with a smile. Talking to someone other than Telly was entertaining. His excited youthful demeanor was just what she needed to light up her life. "How about a deal? I'll help you with your project and you can tell me about your world and junk. We have a deal, kid?"

"That would be AWESOME!" 90's Kid agreed.

"90's Kid! Omelets!" said a voice coming from his pocket communicator.

"I gotta go, awesome lady!" 90's Kid grinned.

"Call me, Melcandy." she told him.

She turned off the screen, ending the conversation. "You ended that quickly. Aren't you gung ho about finding Jearis?" Telly inquired.

She rolled her eyes. "I'm not an idiot. Let's start running a scan on the planet and its surrounding area. My necklace anchor has a unique signal and he should have the exact same signal coming from his pocket watch since we're from the same world. We'll know if he's here within two days max. Maybe just one day. It would be faster if we had more power."

"Blame your lack of building and programming know how."

"Blame your mom! ...Wait."

"HA! As my programmer, doesn't that make you my mom?" Telly joked. "I believe it's Mel: 33 Telly: 195 now!"

In the geeky Minnesotan apartment the delicious omelet breakfast commenced. Harvey walked in the front door and was greeted by the smell of eggs and bacon. He sat on the couch next to Linkara who was half done eating his omelet. "Hey, Harvey. Can I ask you something?" he said.

"Sure, Kid. But get the cheese off your face." Harvey told him.

"Oh." Linkara mouthed as he wiped off his face with a sleeve. "Well, you know I'm trying to be friends with Jearis." Harvey winced at the mention of the name. He didn't like that gunslinger from day one whether he apologized or not. "Harvey, don't be like that. Anyway, it was kinda awkward at first, but ended okay. I just don't know how to be..." he paused and gestured as he tried to find the words.

"RADICAL!" 90's Kid interrupted from the kitchen as he grabbed his omelet.

"No one says 'radical' anymore, 90's Kid!" Linkara said peeved.

"Sadical." 90's Kid replied.

"Anyway, Harvey, I guess more casual and relaxed is what I'm getting at." Linkara continued.

"Just do that." Harvey said while taking him by the shoulder. "The more you worry about it, the less you are casual and relaxed."

"Ok." Linkara wavered. Showing doubt in his voice was odd for the normally loud, hotshot reviewer.

"Take him somewhere he would be comfortable. Did he mention anywhere?"

"The bar!" Linkara realized. "I can take him to my usual place! Great idea, Harvey!"

"No problem, Kid. But I am worried about that gun nut."

"We forgave each other." he reminded Harvey. "It's in the past. Anyway, I'm going to see if he wants to go tonight."

"Linkara! Dude! I need to borrow your sonic screwdriver! Bye!" 90's Kid yelled with his mouth full of omelet and he beamed away quickly.

"90's Kid!" Linkara shouted as he was beaming away.

"Well, I don't think he'll do anything bad with it." Harvey said.

"Nothing BADICAL!" Linksano chimed in from the kitchen. Linkara and Harvey shared a groan at the pun.

The late morning and afternoon was filled with tinkering and building. 90's Kid's pet project was starting to take shape. He hung from a harness under the scout ship and worked on what looked like an engine, looked at the glowing magical core, wondered if he could take the landing wheels and turn them into grappling arms and examined the weapon systems to see how hardcore they were compared to Melcandy's. Lastly, he drew what he hoped would be the finished product with the best technology Crayola could provide.

90's Kid's mind drifted to Melcandy while he worked. She was fresh, all that, a bag of chips and many other positive 90's slang terms that were synonyms for the word beautiful. Something about her made 90's kid just want to talk to her again. The first thing he did when he returned to the cockpit with a box of various controllers and items was to try to call her back. He was hesitant. Why, he thought. She's just a chick. Before he could the beeps started and he answered.

"Hello!" greeted Melcandy. "I was bored, so I called."

"Hey, Melcandy!" 90's Kid said excitedly. "Look what I got!" He held up a power glove and a Sega activator. "These are totally going in the ship controls!"

"How?" she asked.

"Uh, with science?" 90's Kid shrugged.

"He sounds like you when you started." Telly said. Melcandy shook her head.

"So, what is your goal? What are you trying to do?" Melcandy asked him.

"To make the most awesome, extreme, spaceship evvvvvvvverrrrrrrrrr!" he declared.

"That's... it?" she asked with some confusion.

"Yeah! Why not? I can go out and find alien worlds. Or just say I have a ship with lots of guunnnnns!"

Melcandy fought the urge to facepalm. Telly was correct in saying that's how she once was. When she was young, before she met Jearis, her sole reason for getting into her technology college was to do that very thing. Now her goal was much loftier and required more advanced thought, but helping him would be fun.

"Okay, let me see your files on your ship. Let's make the most awesome ship ever!" she told him.

"Really, awesome!" he said happily. "I'll totally add in scans of my favorite comic, Bloodspit Firegun and Bludgun! They're extreme!"

"Heh. I'll show you an extreme comic. Wait till you see this comic team. Tank Babes! They have adventures in a cyberpunk apocalypse searching for the best things in the world: brew, guns and music!" she said holding up a comic. "It's a guilty pleasure."

90's Kid heart skipped a beat for the first time in his life. He looked at her in a new light. If this was a movie montage, it would be playing Dreamweaver. If it was the movie about 90's Kid the song would be Smashing Pumpkin's Luna, or Mr. Big's To Be With You, but the closest song in his mind was Green Day's 2000 Light Years Away. His blue eyes fixated on her brown eyes. I could stare at her forever, he thought. You gotta like a girl who likes extreme comics.

"Uh, 90's Kid, you there?" Melcandy asked breaking him out of his daze.

"U-um yeah, dude." he stuttered. He hid his blush with a hand. "Let me send you that stuff. Uh, got a Dropbox?"

Another ship that was also a small house floated near Comicron-1. Jearis laid in bed and stared at the ceiling. Thoughts of his wife prompted him to pick up the tablet on his nightstand. He played a video from the old days of his wife at home. She wore a loose paisley dress, cowboy boots and her kitchen apron.

"Don't film me like this, Jearis!" Melcandy giggled.

"I just like to get lots of clips of you. Maybe I should get a nice view from below." he joked while pulling up her dress.

"If you weren't my husband, I'd hit ya." she flirted while grabbing her dress.

"In the nice way?" he asked seductively.

He stopped the video and put back the tablet. Tears started to flow from his eyes and he grabbed his pillow for comfort. He whispered her name while digging his face in the pillow. Her tomboyish demeanor, her love of creating things, her body, her hair, and her scent ran though his mind. He needed all of it.

"Master, you got a visitor." said Sierra over the sound system.

Jearis quickly put on yesterday's pants and ran out to the living room where Linkara stood waiting.

"I was wondering if you were up for going to the bar? I know a great place." Linkara asked. Jearis looked over at the empty liquor cabinet.

"Yes."

Two hours, five beers, two shots and a shared mojito later, a drunken Jearis was dancing to a song that reminded him of another song back home. Linkara laughed at his strange dancing and tried to show him how it's done. Pollo accompanied them as the designated "make sure we don't F up while drunk" guy and was secretly the "film embarrassing funny moments to put on You Tube" guy. At this moment, he was the latter.

"You got no good moves, Linkara!" Jearis shouted over the music while doing the running man.

"Actually, yeah I don't, but whatever!" he laughed as he did the cabbage patch.

They sat at the bar and resumed their drinks. A cute long haired girl sat next to Jearis.

"Saw your moves." she started. "Want to do some with me." Jearis looked at her. Her hair was in a ponytail and side bangs. It reminded him so much of his wife.

"No thanks, ma'am" he told her and she left.

Linkara saw this and was afraid to ask about his wife, but he was curious. "What is she like?"

"Like a ball of energy. A light at the end of a dark tunnel. A hot summer day. A determined animal. A punch to the face." Jearis answered. Linkara looked confused at his analogies. "Melcandith. Melcandy is her nickname. She's so beautiful."

He remembered the time they met. It was years prior to the events that took him far into space. He reviewed music and played in a band and lived in a college town filled with youths. It was a warm late summer evening and he was playing at a little bar and club called Scorpio. His band was called Xenon and he was the guitarist. It was a full club and as Jearis played he felt his foot step on something. It was a hand of a woman who was hanging on to the stage. She was energetic and sang along to the songs. He mouthed 'sorry' to her and she replied with a thumbs up.

They approached each other after show and had a conversation that kept them up late. They fell asleep in a diner booth and were dating by the morning. Their relationship continued and she joined him on the strange adventures this internet music reviewer somehow had. She had science and he had magic. She made technology while he made music. Their differences complemented each other. After two years, they married and made the bond that gave birth to his gun. Jearis' became bleak when he told that part. An old 90's song played and he continued his nostalgic stories about her till last call.

90's Kid was hard at work soldering a Sega Genesis to some wires. He finished it by placing it in a new case and hooking a controller cord into it. Melcandy was instructing him on the little things like how to tighten a bolt or making sure your plasma cannon won't overheat. His project was taking shape despite not having access to things she could easily get.

"90's Kid, I feel like we're making a work of art." she beamed. "This reminds me of what I did in college! I'm fangirling so much!" A Nirvana song came on in the background and Melcandy's mood changed.

"You like this song?" 90's Kid asked. She was quiet and focused on the tune and the lyrics.

"Hey." she started. "Let me send you this album. The band is from my home. They're called Xenon. It might be your thing. This song reminded me of them."

"Cool! I'll totally listen to it tonight!" 90's Kid said.

"It's late, so I think I'll sleep. Thanks again, 90's Kid." she said forcing a smile. 90's Kid noticed a change in her attitude, but didn't know how to address it. He simply waved goodbye and shut off the screen.

He jumped off the ship and pranced around. His cheeks were pink and his smile was wide. He raised his hand putting up the horns toward the ceiling. The ecstatic feelings would keep him up all night. 90's Kid realized how she made him feel. There was one person to ask about this.

Harvey smoked on the balcony of the apartment. The moon and his lit cigarette was the only light source. 90's Kid joined him on the balcony despite his dislike of the smoke and the chill air.

"Harvey, dude, I have to ask you something. About, chicks." 90's Kid confessed.

Harvey was surprised and a bit happy. Every man had to go through this talk and he never got to that point with his late son. He took 90's Kid by the shoulder.

"Well, you see, when a man and a wom-"

"No, Harvey, I learned that part in school. I want to ask a girl out, but I don't know how." 90's Kid explained.

"Oh. Well first see if the broad is on the market. You don't want to go stepping on anyone toes. If she's free just take her out and be cool. Ladies like a guy who's sure of themselves. Confidence is the way. Also respect. Respect her wishes." he told him. 90's Kid looked up at the moon and sighed.

"What if she's far away?" he asked Harvey.

"Long distance? Then be clear in how you feel. Maybe go to her before she leaves or to where she is. How long did you know her?"

"24 hours." 90's Kid said.

"I think you need to get to know her a lot longer th-"

"I might not have much time!" 90's Kid interrupted. "I need to say it!"

"You're young, 90's Kid. Fools rush in. You can take your time." Harvey assured.

"I might run out of time." he said and left the balcony.

"Kids." Harvey said to himself and took a puff of his cigarette.

Linkara sat on the couch. He was looking at his laptop and singing. "Come. As you are. As you were. As I want you to be. As a friend. As a friend. As an old enemy..."

"You like that song?" a confused 90's Kid asked as he walked through the living room.

"It was playing at the bar. It's fitting for the moment." Linkara answered. He looked down at the laptop and his eyes widened "How did this video of me and Jearis dancing get on You Tube! Pollo!" he hollered.

Melcandy tossed and turned in her bed. Her eyes were open despite being heavy. There was no trace of Jearis so far. She felt the empty space next to her and wished it was occupied by his body. The memories of playing with his hair, kissing his neck, having him spoon her as she fell asleep kept her awake. He wasn't close, but she wanted him to be. She finally fell asleep on a pillow damp with tears.

The screen on the main computer in the other room said: scan complete. 0 matches found.

End chapter 2