Chapter 2

Dave grunted annoyed when someone started poking his side with a stick and he swatted at the offending object that was intruding is personal space. A cackling laugh had him opening his eyes. He stared right in a grey face with red tinted glasses.

"Not cool Rezi," he sighed tired, sitting up and grabbing his shades that were lying next to him.

Once his shades stood firmly on his nose again, he looked around curious to where he was (though no one would see that, he was a Strider after all). It all seemed strangely familiar, and with a quick look over he realized they were on the roof of an apartment building similar to the one he had lived in with his Bro.

Before he could stop it, a look of shock crossed his otherwise perfect pokerface. It lasted only a second, but that seemed to be enough for Terezi to notice.

"Dave?" she asked a little concerned, "what's wrong?"

Dave shook his head, meaning to say something, but a pained moan had him turning around. At first he thought it was John lying face down on the concrete, but the yellow outfit and lack of pants told him otherwise.

"Yo, Jake, get your lazy ass up!" Dave called out.

Jake shot up pretty fast. A little too fast apparently, because he grunted and grabbed his head.

"Ugh, my head hurts!" groaned.

By that, Dave lost his interest at the scene and he turned his head a little to find Terezi helping up the mayor. He turned away from them and walked toward the end of the roof. The city underneath him looked offputtingly normal. But he quickly discarded the feeling.

"Where are we?" he heard Jake whisper from behind him.

After a few moments of silence, he answered.

"Earth."

When he once again turned around to face the others, he found Jake and Terezi staring back at him with disbelief plainly written all over their faces.

"Impossible!" Terezi whispered shocked.

Jake on the other hand seemed ecstatic and jumped up and down thinking about all the adventures they could have here. The mayor had other plans, though. He had pulled out some of his crayons and started drawing on the concrete flooring.

"What are we waiting for? Let's go on an adventure and find the others!" Jake all but yelled in excitement.

"Don't think the mayor is planning on moving, dude" Dave said, pointing at the Carapacians, who was now scribbling street lines on the ground.

Cackling, Terezi took one of the crayons and helped the mayor drawing the outlines of a city. Soon Dave too was joining them, taking some empty cans out of his inventory to build houses and such.

"What, in Gog's name, are you guys doing?" Jake asked horrified.

"I know it aint exactly Can town, but hey, the mayor can't be mayor without a town right?" Dave snickered.

Jake rolled his eyes and glared at his three companions.

"How can you just sit there instead of exploring? We're in a completely new world for crying out loud!"

"Look dude," Dave started, "the mayor doesn't want to move and he's too awesome to just leave behind."

Terezi held out a crayon and shot Jake a shark like grin.

"C'mon" she cackled happily, "I know you want too." She said in a singsong voice, before grinning even wider.

After a deep sigh, Jake took the crayon from the blind troll and knelt beside her. They kept drawing for a long while, talking and laughing as they did so (except for the mayor he was completely quiet like usual), until Terezi started sniffing the air furiously.

"What's wrong?" Dave asked.

"I smell red!" she cackled.

Jake looked at Dave, who was wearing his red god-tier outfit.

"Not him!" Terezi said exasperate. "It's a different shade of red and barely noticeable over all the licorice."

Dave and Jake shared a confused look. "Wha…?"

"Uhum!"

Four heads shot up and stared at a red haired woman in a black jumpsuit and a man armed with bow and arrow, which were aimed at the teens and the mayor. The silence that followed was very uncomfortable and tense, so Dave just said the first thing that came in mind.

"Hey," he started, "wanna join?"