"This place is endless!"
Akua was both bewildered and annoyed by the size of Electown. He had been walking through the bustling streets for a few hours by this point, and he still felt as lost as ever. It was a completely new experience for the fisherman-grown teen, one that lit up his curiosity like the neon signs that lined the roads. Akua enjoyed every second of it, even if he didn't know where he was. Still, he pushed through crowded streets and flashing lights as he scoped out the different shops. A deli. An arcade. An antique shop. None of it followed a pattern, and all of it fascinated Akua.
"Who designed this city? Why would you put a fast food place next to a gym? Better yet, why bother putting a gym in the middle of town?"
City noises filled the air as Akua spoke, adding his voice to the cacophony around him. Di tried to answer his partner over the noise, but it too was mostly lost in the sound of the city. "That's the big city for you. If there's room for it, it'll be there. Makes you miss how much room there was back home, doesn't it?"
"Hah. Are you kidding?" Akua stopped at the changing of a streetlight. "This is awesome. I wish mom and dad would have taken me to places like this more often. There's way more stuff to do here than in our crummy little town. Hey! Check that out!"
The light changed and Akua dashed across the street, heading for the store at the corner of the building. In giant blue neon letters were the words "PET House" over black walls. There wasn't much else to the building's exterior, save for the massive sign on one side of the building. Even the door was painted black with a sign posted that read "Open 24 hours." Of all the flashing buildings, the sleek glass windows of other shops, this was the one that caught Akua's eye.
"Hey Di. What do you think this is?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," Di replied through the electronic speakers of the PET. "I can't see anything from inside this PET. I should have had your father go for one that had a camera, but I didn't think we'd end up in a place like this."
"Only one way to find out."
Akua grabbed the door handle and pulled. He was met with the dim lights of dozens of computer screens, with little else providing light to the large room. Computers lined the walls while tables with even more computers filled the floor space. Several people were sitting at computers with headphones in their ears, blocking out the rest of the world. For such a big place, it was pretty quite compared to outside. Akua still didn't have a clue where he was at.
"Well?" Di was being impatient. "What do you see?"
"Computers. Loads of them. I don't think I've seen this many in one place. This is pretty awesome." The possibilities finally hit Akua. "Oh! We can jack you into the Net and check it out! And we can spend as much time as we want! I haven't seen the inside of a big network like this, so it's bound to be cool. I bet even you'll enjoy it, Di."
"I doubt that."
Without a second thought, Akua rushed to the closest computer and sat down. He wasted no time in pulling out his PET and extending the long Ethernet cord before looking at the computer tower in front of him. His PET might not be wireless, but at least the computer had an Ethernet port in the front. No doubt for people like Akua. He plugged in the cord and went to it.
"Let's see what the cyber version of Electown is like!"
[Jacked In to Electown Net]