Radopolis was shiny and bright, filled with sunlight that glared down on every dark thing disapprovingly.
Matt was holding onto Digit's "pet compartment," and their few belongings, while Jackie and Inez held onto each other. After situating themselves, Matt walked up to someone walking down the street.
"Excuse me; do you know where I can find Samuel?" He asked politely.
"Sure thing, hon." The woman nodded. "That's his garage right there. He's a doll at fixing up cars, and his girlfriend's mighty good with plants."
"Girlfriend?" Matt's jaw dropped.
"Yeah, Kate, she's such a sweetie. Well, I've got to go, so good bye!"
Matt waved weakly, looking over to Digit.
"Slider has a girlfriend?" Digit mouthed in shock.
"Come on, Mike!" Jackie called.
Matt ran over and pointed to Slider's garage. Within moments, they were standing in front of it. They each took a deep breath, before Matt reached over and knocked.
The door flung open immediately, and a girl with bright blue hair looked at them.
"Matt? Jackie?" The girl whispered. She peered down at Inez and Digit. "Digit? Inez?"
"Creech?" Inez squealed.
"Um, Creech, can we come in?" Matt asked.
Creech blushed. "Oh, yeah, sorry."
As they entered the small garage, it seemed as though nothing had changed. It looked exactly as it had all those years ago, when they had last visited it.
"I knew you would come!" Creech bubbled up in enthusiasm. "When Sl – uh, Sammy told me you refused, I knew that it wasn't true."
Matt's face turned slightly pink. He wondered what exactly Slider had told Creech. He was afraid that when the truth came out, Creech wouldn't be so overjoyed to realize that he had initially refused Slider's offer.
"Sammy!" Creech, well, screeched, into the garage.
Slider seemed to pop out of nowhere. "Yeah, Ka –"
He froze when he saw them. Slowly, he started to grin. "Looks like you guys made it. I was worried for a bit."
"You don't ever have to worry when it comes to us." Inez stated proudly.
Slider grinned at her, but his eyes slipped to meet Matt's. Matt frowned and looked away, down at Digit's compartment. Quickly, he leaned down and undid it.
"Okay, man, what's the plan?" Digit burst out.
"Shh!" Jackie whispered, snapping back to security mode. She turned to Slider and Creech in a business-like fashion. "How safe is it here? How often are patrols? Do we need to use our assigned names? If so, we need to sit down and explain exactly who we are so no one messes up if we ever have company."
"Whoa, Jacks." Slider put his hand up defensively. "This is a safe house. Hacker and his goons raided it immediately after they took over, and haven't been back since. Our spies in the system say that whenever he raids a place, he never returns. It's not a good strategy, but it's good for us. But you're right. We need to know all of our safety names and stories. I'm Samuel, as you know. This is 'Kate.' She's my 'girlfriend,' for the time-being, since neither of us looks enough like the other to be considered related, like brother or sister. What about you?"
"I'm Jessie Chase." Jackie began nervously. "This is my, um, 'husband' Mike, daughter, Irene, and pet bird, Donald. He's a farmer, and I'm a seamstress. We came to Radopolis on the account of a family emergency."
Slider nodded. "Okay. Kate, do you think you can show our guests to their rooms? Mike, do you think you can join me downstairs? I want to show you something."
Matt handed Jackie all of the luggage, including Digit's pet carrier and swallowed down his pride. "Uh, yeah. Sure thing."