They ghosted into the city at 500 miles per hour. Sunny had her face pressed against the window looking up towards the sky in awe at the ethereal city of white arches and colorful flying cars rising in hundreds of multilevel platforms thousands of feet into the sky. The forest rolled directly up to the outskirts of the city, a city that reached upwards into the sky rather than sprawling outwards like cities had done in the distant past. Captain Vir leaned back in his seat eyes half closed as the rocket maglev rolled up towards the city. The captain said that maglevs used to be nearly as loud as jet engines, but sound dampening technology along the side of the rails had reduced the sound to almost nothing.

And the people, the humans were so odd compared to the Captain and the humans and Sunny had known. They were outrageously dressed brightly colored. Their hair was died, their skin was died, some of them wore massive clothing that billowed outward feet while others were barely wearing anything at all. A woman walked past as the train was beginning to slow, and, standing next to them, Sunny took sight of an intricate tattoo of a dragon winding up and down her arm in repeated arcs and spirals.

Outside the train windows a tunnel sucked them into darkness lines of lights rolling past the windows. They slowed, and came to the stop.

Please watch your step as you exit the train.

Captain Vir stood up and made his way off of the train with Sunny and Krill following behind him onto the underground platform of dark stone and thick, squat pillars. Bright holographic kiosks lit up the station with blue purple and warm red light. Lines of people walked up and down the terminal passing their wrists under microchip scanners.

They passed through a set of scanners, and Sunny watched in shock as an alien face stared at her from behind the security desk. A humanoid face but of metal and plastic. They moved from there stepping forward, and onto a purple symbol on the ground. Sunny nearly had a heart attack as they were pushed into the air rising up through tunnels in the ground and out into the blinding sunlight and the white city.

A massive holograph bust into light above them.

Welcome to Los Angeles the city of angels. The hologram burst apart and into a set of massive wings which flapped once and then exploded once again sending pixels out across the sky like a daytime firework. The pixels reformed themselves into a large screen a massive add for two people. The new fashion trend from Apple. The clothing was in grey white and black short sleeved, high collared, shirts that hung long about the knees. The look was very clean and organic, the humans depicted were the best of their species. Feed your fashion with Apple.

A few of the humans passing them turned to look on in curiosity at the strange alien visitors, an occurrence that wasn't particularly common yet. They looked up at sunny, some with interest, some with worry, and others with..... with something that made Sunny rather uncomfortable. She sped up to catch the captain as he stepped onto a light rail, which send them rocketing across the city on a pocket of blue light. They landed at a central terminal, and the captain motioned them to follow passing through hundreds of tall and imposing shops before ducking into a tight alley. The bright white lights of the soaring city broke down as they made they tunneled their way into the city's bones. The stark white walls of the soaring buildings and skywalks broke down into thick beams and burbling pipes: veins and innards creeping their way through the bones.

They slipped through another doorway and down a set of metals stairs into darkness. Even in the light of day, this part of the city was dark. They took another turn and cut outwards into another alley. The sound of voices spilled over them as they stepped into the city, and a dark marketplace. Sunny stepped a little closer to the captain eyes passing over the booths bathed in deep red lighting. From behind their stalls eyes peered out at her in interest. The one thing all these humans had in common..... well.... They weren't totally human. Robotic legs, robotic arms, robotic eyes.

They called at the captain as he passed in words that Sunny didn't understand. The Captain paused and pulled up his pant leg, flashing the dark metal of his prosthetic leg as the men who went silent and waved him on.

"Captain." Krill wondered quietly, "Where are we going?"

The man gave him a nonchalant wave as they passed down another line of booths. Prosthetic legs and arms hung from hooks on every side next to glass cases of various, shiny robotic upgrades, "I have a guy who owes me a favor. Thought if we were going to stay in the city that we might as well stay with friends." He took another corner walking them onto a wider, more inviting thoroughfare. Bright neon lights blinked above them. Music thrummed form the dark cavernous openings beneath the lights. Inside lights throbbed and beat.

The captain stopped before one of the doors, "Alright guys..... now Rocket is a friend of mine, but the guys he runs with are pretty weird. They're called slangers, so don't feel bad if you can't understand them."

"What's a slanger?" Krill wondered.

"You'll see." The Captain grinned, before turning around, shoving open the door and stepping inside. Music thrummed and throbbed outwards

*I've been to the year 3000, not much has changed, but they lived underwater*

"C'mon dude y'an't smak on these beats when they still rel'. Sunny turned her head thinking that her translator had just had a stroke. And when she looked, she was sure that her eyes had gone into stroke as well. This particular human had bright turquoise hair, numerous metal rods through his face, wore only a vest, and a set of massively flared jeans. The man next to him was nothing if not more ridiculous with odd white hair, ruffled collar, and enormous pants with buckled shoes to match.

"Tis you doth not know the truest meaning of art. Shakespeare would be caught weeping at this terrible violation of the ears." Down to her side Sunny watched Krill as he shook his head fiddling with the translation mechanism as all the humans turned to look at them. Distant lights flashed in the other room with the beat of the song. A large mirrored ball hung in the air. The dress code was non-existent.

The captain ignored the eyes and raised his voice over the crowd, "Yo, Rocket where you posted! said you'd be here if I came slidin'!"

The actual hell was that supposed to mean?

While they were waiting for a reply, one of the human females from the right lifted her head, half shaved half long, one half died black the other purple, "Sweet bod dawg, totally tubular you dig, pred." Sunny looked around not sure who the human was speaking to.

"Are you talking to me?" Sunny wondered.

The girl tilted her head again, "Yeah, who else?"

Sunny shuffled her feet on the floor pointing to the UV translator, "I.... don't understand."

The human rolled their eyes, "Peeps discriminating against the script....." She paused, "You look cool, kid, you and your Et friend." She said motioning down to krill who looked 110% confused.

"Erm, thanks...." The girl settled back into her seat and closed her eyes. Krill and Sunny exchanged a look as the blue lights flashed ad flickered over them. It didn't take long before a short-dark human slipped from the crowd. He was wearing soemthing that resembled a suit, but it was powder blue and came with a matching hat, and an odd cut. He grinned wide as he saw Vir standing there.

"Bro! Looking tight in the 2000s duds didn't think the burbs were so lit." The two of them embraced, "How you hanging, got jarred when I caught that you're still kicking it with the flyboys."

"Yeah, I uh....." The Captain sighed and gave up, "I got promoted, have my own ship and everything."

Sunny leaned down to Krill, "What is he saying?"

"Absolutely no idea, I'm not entirely sure they're speaking human. Most of those words aren't even words, and when they are words, they aren't used in context"

"Radical, just gotta nab a squeeze eh." He elbowed the captain in the ribs, but the man went white.

"I don't know about that." The captain said hesitantly nervously rubbing his arm as the man walked them further into the place passing the room with all the flashing lights. The mirrored ball sent pinpricks of light across the room. The floor flashed with multiple colored squares.

"Still getting' G-locked around chicks." The guy wondered thoughtfully passing through a curtain of beads.

"G-locked?" The captain wondered, "Can't say I've heard that one. I'm assuming it doesn't mean what it's supposed to mean."

"Coined it for you. Means to be a chicken around chicks." He threw an arm around the captain's shoulders, "You just gotta keep it liquid bro or you're fixin' to get juiced. Just be chill keep it basic, you know unless she's really high octave than even I'd be freaked. You snipe."

The captain closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his head, "Damn, Rocket. I can barely understand you these days, but staying "liquid" Isn't so easy."

A loud clatter broke through their conversation from across the room, "GET LOCKED you candy-ass Bieber, keep your crotch rot over there." And suddenly there was a sudden burst of limbs and fists, and a group of other humans ran to break up the fight. Rocket stood with his hands on hips as the fight was broken up motioning one of the humans towards the door

"What was that all about?" The Captain wondered.

"Well Steevie can be a real creeper, been tweaking, and you know I'm chill with the fam blazin' but getting iced is bad mojo. Got himself wrapped up with a hit last week and then nearly got trunked when the candy man didn't get his doe. And Candy man been kicking it with the Ice-Queen. Steevie's shit ain't cool for my rep. Tryna keep it clean."

The Captain snorted, and quickly stopped throwing an arm in front of Sunny.

"YEET!" A spray of objects went flying past them, and a group of humans followed dressed surprisingly similar to the Captain, who sunny was beginning to learn, dressed in a rather outdated style.

They stepped from one room and into a back room. The music was just a soft thudding now. Rocket took a seat at his desk throwing his feet up onto the desk.

"So, to what do I owe this slide, you here to throw shade or you need bailed out."

"We were actually looking for a place to crash." The captain said motioning to Sunny and Krill who stood by the door looking confused. Sunny could see that Krill was close to blowing a fuse. He looked at Sunny gesticulating angrily with one of his arms. He clearly didn't understand why the human would talk in a way SPECIFICALLY designed to be confusing. Sunny kind of understood the sentiment.

"Tight, sweet crew got yourself an Et and a Pred." He leaned in a little bit close, "You're not into a bit of that Pred tail, are you, Spine?"

The captain just looked at the man, "The F*** kind of question is that?"

Rocket just leaned back in his chair, "Cool your jets, ace you playin' like I'm giving you the third degree. Just asking, no shame in whatever you're sweet on."

The captain rolled his eyes ignoring the question, "Rocket this is Krill, he's my ships chief medical officer, and one Vrul surgical staff, and this is Sunny, my primary weapons specialist."

"Sup fam, any squad of Adam's is a crew of mine."

Krill crossed his arms, and sunny rubbed the back of her head, "Thanks.... I think..... do you mind me asking why you all, talk funny?"

"Well sheila-"

"In English, please."

The man sat back in his seat with a raised eyebrow, "A'ait, have it your way. I will lower myself to the common tongue to converse with you. We." He motioned to himself and the club around him, "Are Slangers, schooled in the specific are and complete use of slang words in communication. Slang if you do not know is a very informal way of speaking where words are used in different contexts and are usually specific to a certain type of group. This type of language evolves very rapidly, and is difficult to keep up with." He patted himself on the chest, "I have coined a few terms myself in the past. Including and not limited to G- lock, Locked, and Spine, however all forms and uses of slang words are accepted here. We have specialists in 1900s 2000s 3000s and so on."

The captain turned to Krill and Sunny, "You see, humans have this thing called counter-culture, where a specific group of people do things contrary to popular culture because maybe they feel like they don't fit in. Humans need groups, so it works out pretty well for everyone. Rocket is sort of a leading figure in counter culture these days, and some of it has sort of bled over into mainstream popularity. Like the army TOD tattoo."

"The what?" Krill wondered

The captain pulled down the front of his shirt where a small dark tattoo sat just above his heart. The tattoo changed every few moments counting through earth time, "It's a bio power tattoo the army started using in place of dog tags. The ink takes a bit of excess power from the body and uses it to work. When the body dies, the time stops giving you an accurate time of death."

Rocket was nodding, "I think we hittin' the same octave yarrn't crashing in a hood where you could get trunked or jacked. Honest, some pads can be real jank 'round here. I tell yah, one of my crew got clowned taking the tube back from burbs."

Sunny just stood there confused. She was 100% sure they weren't hittin' the same octave, whatever that meant.

As they were lead off to a quieter side room, Krill tugged on the captain's pants, "Captain, what's a clown?"

The man looked at them and shrugged, "Some kind of demon that wears face paint.... I think."