It had been a long time since Maverick had been to her hometown. Now that she was standing here in the dark streets under the distant glow of neon traffic overhead, she realized just how long she had been gone/

Almost a decade.

The last time she had stepped foot in this city humanity wasn't even sure aliens existed, and now some of her best friends were aliens. They were in the mid city now, where the foundations of the new city rose high into the air as great metal pillars. From here, Maverick could see the glowing butts of lit cigarettes flaring quietly in the darkness where the vagabonds and homeless spent their night under the massive city pylons.

She watched an old homeless women in a long shawl come trundling out of the darkness pushing ahovercart before her. The cart was half broken, and one of the gravity coils had clearly gone out causing the cart to list heavily to the side. Maverick couldn't tell what she was carrying, and didn't wish to know as she vanished back into the darkness.

"You lived here?" Ramirez asked incredulous.

Maverick gave a ghost of a smile. It must be shocking for someone like Ramirez, who had grown up in a loving home in the suburbs to see this.

"There are so many of them." Ramirez whispered, "Isn't there any place for them to go."

"There are." Maverick said taking Ramirez by the arm and leading him further into the dark, "But its more complicated than that."

"More complicate? I don't understand. I thought.... Well I thought this problem had been eradicated in most major cities...."

Maverick snorted, "Not likely, those people just don't know where to look." She led him up a small incline, scrambling over some loose concrete blocks before making it to the top of the pile, and what they saw at the top made Ramirez gasp quietly in shock. Maverick turned, sweeping her gaze over the view, and tried to imagine what it looked like from his yes.

Second city.

Home of the homeless.

Underneath the pylons, stretching out for miles in every direction was a massive encampment, lit by barrel fires and the occasional hand crank lamp. Tents were erected in haphazard rows in all directions, voices rose in a quiet murmur into the sky where it mingled with the flickering orange haze of the fire. Shapes, bundled in rags and old clothing sat hunched next to t their tents or their fires. Some rocked themselves gently back and forth, others sang or muttered. On occasion a bout of manic laughter would spark up somewhere and then die off.

"A la mierda." Ramirez muttered, "There are so many of them." He turned to look at her, "But, isn't there someone who can help them." The earnest expression on his face was endearing to be sure.

She shook her head at him, "There are plenty of people who can help, plenty of people who want to help, but it isn't that simple. Drug addiction is a real problem in second city, drug addiction combined with poor mental health and its sort of a disaster." She sighed looking out over the fires, "You can't get drugs at the places where people are going to help you. So the drugs are easier to find down here, and then, more often than not keeping certain people on consistent medication schedules is almost impossible. They go off their meds and vanish into second city and its almost impossible to get them back or find where they went. You can get lost down here for years if you try hard enough."

She spoke from experience of course.

"Then of course there is the problem of placement. There are places you can go for help, but they don't often have beds immediately. Sometimes you have to wait weeks to get placed into a treatment program, and by that time..... well its just too late." She motioned a hand out over the encampment, "The doctors come every so often to give out treatments and do examinations. Once or twice a week nonprofits will come down here to distribute food. You can get a shower and a haircut if you want, and that has helped but it doesn't fix the problem."

Again Ramirez shook his head, "So you.... How long did you live here."

Maverick laughed, "oh, here, no I never lived here. First city isn't a place you want to be as an adolescent girl. At least, not where I wanted to be." She motioned to the town, "They have their own sort of hierarchy here. Somewhere down there, there is a man who calls himself King of first city, and he takes protection tribute to anyone who joins his camp. Sure you can sneak in or out without paying tribute if you are just passing through, but if you become a familiar face, they are sure to find you . he will take payment off you in plenty of ways, drugs, cigarettes, cash. " maverick motioned to where they could see groups of women loitering by some of the fires, bare skin visible even from here,

"Not to mention.... What would a place like this be without the oldest trade in the world. A lot of the young people I knew turned to it to feed themselves." She turned and clambered down from the rubble feet thudding softly against the dirt. Behind her Ramirez followed wrinkling his nose at the smell that washed up from the camp.

"Don't worry. You get used to that. Hygiene is one of the first things to suffer when the head isn't in he right place, but you get used to the smell."

And before they knew it hey were making their winding way through the little tent city past figures hunched on the ground, and watching eyes peering at them from the dark. Ramirez kept a hand hovering near his gun, but Maverick new better. If someone was going to come after them, she would know in advance. Her instincts for a place like this were just that good.

"Hey darling, care for some company."

Took a moment for Ramirez to realize the women was talking to him, "Er, maybe some other time."

"Not asking for much." The woman insisted.

"This one's already taken." Maverick snapped at her. The woman grumbled but slipped back into the shadows.

"Did you really have to be so harsh?"

"Its nothing personal. Down here you need to say what you mean and men what you say. It's nothing personal, and people tend to get the memo."

They cut through a cloud of sweet smelling smoke and then out into the darkness once more. They had only been forced to walk through a portion of the camp, but still she could sense Ramirez's discomfort with the whole situation. "It's always hard to tell what time it is in first city since its located primarily under the upper city. It's basically dark all day and night so time becomes relative." She waved a hand into the darkness, "There are encampments like this all over first city different factions and groups, some are better than others but I wouldn't recommend any of them on trip advisor."

Maverick slid down a bit of concrete, dropping with a thud onto wet concrete. Ramirez followed behind," So you weren't a part of one of these factions."

"No, not really. I was friendly with a group in the east corner. They were mostly street kids like me. They did their best to stay clean and keep other street kids safe, There were never very many of them at one time because they did what they promised to do. If you wanted out of first city, they could get you out and into one of those programs I mentioned."

Up ahead she could see the glow of the night market, red and blue I the darkness.

"Why didn't you ever...."

"Oh I did. I got a bed a few times. I even got a jo on one or two occasions, but that didn't really last long."

Ramirez shook his head, "Why not?"

"Odd things happened around me. Most of the time my employers got tired of it and gave some reason to fire me. In the end it was just easier to navigate on my own in first city where no one could get hurt." A slow beat rose up in the distance, and the flashing lights became more apparent as they made their way onto the night market street. Buildings rose up around them on either side, and a crowd pressed in from all directions. Glowing neon lit faces from all directions, blacklight tattoos glowed around faces and eyes.

As Maverick stepped into one of the blacklight beams, she heard Ramirez gasp in surprise.

"Maverick, you're."

She reached up a hand, touching the side of her head where the blacklight tattoo now showed, "Yeah, I got a couple."

"You never.... Told me."

She shrugged, "Never came up in conversation."

"I want a blacklight tattoo" he muttered, which was funny coming from someone who actually didn't have any tattoos. Of course, he had the TOD (Time of death) tattoo on his chest just like every other marine , but weirdly enough he was absent of anything else. Even Adam had more than Ramirez did, and as far as Maverick was concerned, Adam was the vanilla one out of all of them, The music rose around them, and lights flashed from a nearby buildings.

Overhead scantily clad men and women leaned out of upper windows waving onto the street

Across from them another doorway hung open with a big burly bouncer standing next to the door.

"They call this redlight row." She said over the roar of the crowd, "It has the highest concentration of brothels in first city. The one on your right is just one of your regular ones, but up the street there is a VR brothel, and next to that they have exclusively robots. Then you have the tattoo shops, probably the most reputable places here actually. I know for certain a few of them are chain businesses that have clientele in the upper city."

They pushed through the crowd and headed onto he next street where the neon was replaced by dimly glowing market stalls, where men and women sat plying their wares. Ramirez was almost shocked to see some of the thing they had on display. They walked past one stall with an eerie glowing blue light emanating from inside, and when he turned his head he leapt back into Maverick, who caught him by the arms, "An Organ fence, they're pretty common in the city these days."

Ramirez backed away a bit, eyes fixated on the wall full of massive glass tanks inside which grew dozens of human hearts, kidneys, and livers.

"Cheaper than you might think. Save up long enough and you can replace the liver you damaged while drinking." She motioned up the street, "They have a chop shop up on the corner where you can get the procedure done."

"Um... did you just say chop shop.... And I'm just supposed to sit here and act like that's not the most horrifying thing I have ever heard."

"don't worry, the doctor ho runs it probably has his medical license."

"Probably!"

She shrugged, "yeah, an upper city surgeon looking for a little extra cash. Or maybe they pay the guy in drugs. I don't know, But I suppose its better than the alternative."

Ramirez grabbed tight to her arm as they continued their way through the city.

'So you becoming a marine...." The gears in his head churned hard as he tried to make sense of what he was seeing, tried to place a young maverick into this situation, young and alone and.... Followed by.... Something.

"Becoming a marine was the best decision I have ever made." He closed her eyes and the expression on her face was one of pure bliss. Ramirez could hardly imagine what she could be thinking to make that expression, "You remember those old mental bunk beds they had us in in boot?"

He nodded once.

"Most comfortable bed I had ever slept in. It was bliss. Everything was so clean and warm. It was the safest place I had ever been, the people were relatively all easy to deal with. And all I had to do was work hard." She laughed, "It was the best decision I had ever made, and the FOOD!"

Ramirez made a face, "You mean that pig swill."

Maverick snorted, "Sorry I didn't grow up with abuela's cooking, but to me it was bliss. Eight hours of sleep three square meals a day, showers more than once in a blue moon. Bootcamp was like heaven to me."

Ramriez shook his head slowly, "Getting off earth was the best thing that ever happened to you."

She turned her head to smile a little sadly at him.

"Afraid so."