The first time the blonde boy went past the tour group, they had just been teleported in. He was running and then maybe he was tripping over something in the completely-level-newly-paved road and then he was running again because tripping is not very traumatic when you are nine, which is basically the same as being an adult. The blonde boy quickly homed in on the teleporter who’d just brought the group here. There was some Very Adult bouncing-on-heels. The teleporter grinned, and blinked out of existence.

For anyone who glanced back over their shoulder about the time the tour guide was pointing to the aeroponic crops strung like living walls over the sides of most buildings, they would see said teleporter return, sitting triumphantly on a pile of anonymous brown boxes. The teleporter and the blonde boy high fived. The blond boy missed.

That was first time.

Second time the blonde boy went past, he was walking very carefully and carrying a stack of much smaller boxes. They looked very expensive, and read wifi router. He was carrying so many that maybe at first he could be mistaken as a pile-of-routers-with-legs, which would not be the strangest mutation in sight. Probably this was very heavy for him but there was a spring-in-step as he carried them.

It would maybe not be hard to recognize this boy, and maybe some in the group did, elbowing each other and whispering as their tour guide paused to point out the architectural feat of the new Utopian Senate Building. It was metal and stone, living wood and unmelting ice. A building that only mutants could build, and only mutants could maintain, but only if they worked together. A symbol of unity for all their people--

The blonde boy was Panu Jaager. He had stood next to Ambrose Jaager on the televised stage weeks ago, as Utopia was announced to the world. He had been dressed in a suit then and his hair had been combed. Now he was dressed in an over-sized gray hoodie and black studio headphones. He felt out the first step up to the senate with his foot, then he walked with Much Purpose past the group. The automatic doors of the senate opened before he reached them, and closed neatly after he had entered.

That was the second time.

The third time was as the group toured the new housing complex. Each apartment glimmered in its newness, was resplendent in its amenities, until they came to a hallway that had a step ladder in its center. A young woman was at the top, poking buttons on a router that, given the plaster dust on the floor, was newly installed.

“Anything?” The woman asked.

The blonde boy at the base of the ladder frowned, and shook his head.

“Huh,” the woman said, and went back to pressing buttons.

The tour guide beamed a tour-guide-esk smile. “We’re still working on getting the colony-wide internet set up.”

“Is water and heat and electric and toilets,” the blonde boy said, his hands deep in his hoodie pockets. “Why is there not internet? Is completely unliveable, only octogenarians are want to move where there is no internet. Is okay, I will get fixed.”

It was clear that his promise of Wifi For All was just as serious as his father's proclamation of a mutant colony. There was an intentfulness shared by father and son. 

Okay, yes, the tour was great. Utopia was great. But did it have to be so long?

Astrid glanced around the area, drawn in by the tall building and the distinct lack of annoying people, save for the rest of the tour group. She just wished that she didn't have to keep listening to the annoying blonde woman standing in front of the group for much longer.

She desperately longed to fly around and get a better view of the place. Or to fight someone. Either would do just fine.

She tapped her toes on the pavement, imagining what would happen if she were to suddenly make a scene. The tour guide, Laurie, or whatever, would probably just pretend it was part of the tour, like she had done when a building that they were supposed to be touring turned out to be undergoing renovations. She had claimed something along the lines of, "wanting to keep the group on their toes."

Suddenly, something caught her eye. Well, it caught everyone's eyes, but she liked to imagine that she had a special ability to catch things, even if it was as far from the truth as one could possibly get. 

It was a little blonde boy. It was the second time that he had run by the group, the first time being when they first arrived. Astrid had payed little attention to him then, distracted by the rest of the scenery. The second time, however, she was bored, and he was carrying a stack of boxes taller than he was. What was in them was unclear, but just the fact that they were being carried by a boy under 5-foot made her very interested.

She strained her neck to watch the boy walk away. She remembered him from somewhere. Maybe it was... 

Oh! Astrid remembered suddenly. He was Ambrose Jaager's son. The one that had stood beside him in a little suit when he announced Utopia. She didn't normally like children (at all), but if he was connected to Jaager, then couldn't possibly be that bad, could he?

She slipped to the front of the group to get a better view of what was going on. The boy was talking to a woman on the top of the building in front of them. They seemed to be working with some sort of technology.

“We’re still working on getting the colony-wide internet set up.”

Internet. So that would be one of the amenities if she did decide to move into Utopia. She didn't have much experience with it beyond her trips to the library, nor did she want much more, but being able to say that she had regular access to it was appealing.

"Is the ordinat- computer - being money?" She asked the tour guide loudly, taking a minute to find the English word for computer. She didn't really want to buy one, so the internet access would only really be any use to her if there was some sort of tech included in the deal.  

The girl who spoke up was very very tall (everyone was, this was just the world Panu lived in) but did not look very old. She was even more white than he was and her wings were huge and fantastic and huge and he wanted to google whether they were the proper spread-to-body-weight ratio to really work but

No internet.

When she spoke not all of her words seemed like they were English. He had downloaded the English – Finnish dictionaries to his head before coming to this awful black hole of online civilization, but the only definition for ordinate involved an x-y axis so probably this was not right. It would be so easy to run the word through on its own and find out what language was native to her and then speak it but

No internet.

Her grammar sounded exactly like his grammar. Somehow this did not make it easier to understand her. The boy

“Unfortunately,” the tour guide said, “Utopia does not currently have funds to provide all immigrants with--”

Oh. Oh. So that was meaning? That she did not have? Panu focused harder on her area. Many people in tour group carried phones or exercise braclets. Many of these were slowly having battery death as they tried to connect to networks that had not been built yet (except over in the Argentinian base but they were not sharing because they were stingy). She, this girl with fantastic wings, had nothing. Nothing at all.

“Technology is Basic Human Right,” the technopath declared, cutting the tour guide off. “If you do not have I can buy. I have Jaager family credit card. We can go 100% right now, is travesty if you are not have anything.”

There was real horror in the Fin's voice.

"Have you ever been Japan? Is easy find good electronics in Tokyo. We can go now."

“Unfortunately, Utopia does not currently have funds to provide all immigrants with--”

Astrid had been about to shrug the comment off before the tour guide was interrupted. By the little blonde boy. Astrid blinked at him repeatedly. Was he seriously offering what it sounded like he was offering?

She didn't really want any technology - she didn't see any real use for it - but she also didn't not want it. It would be nice not to have to go to the library every time she wanted to check her, ahem, work email. Plus, it sounded like she was going to get it for free!

The winged teen looked scrutinizingly at the little boy. Why did he want to give her free things? He was a strange little boy; some sort of accent, grammar that sounded decidedly like her own, and a very rich father. She supposed maybe he got bored, or something, and want to spend some of his money. What a life that would be.

He did seem very adamant about the whole technology thing, though, so maybe that was part of it. There was really, truly horror in his voice when he spoke to her.

But... Maybe he was just a really good actor? What if he just wanted to get her somewhere alone and do something strange! Then again, he was also clearly under ten.

Astrid narrowed her eyes as she considered her options. She could a) say no and get none of the free things, or b) go with him and get all of the free things.

It did not take long after that for the very poor, unaccompanied minor to chose an option.

"Not been going to Toe-kee-oh. Want go now." She had almost added a thank you on the end, but caught herself. Ragnarok members obviously didn't say thank you. She assumed. 

He had no idea what the Panu was not 100% sure of what she said except that want go now was at the end and all those words made sense to him even without his own internal translator.

“Excellent,” he replied. He tilted his head towards the woman on the ladder, though he maybe did not get the exact location right, because looking at people is what people did when talking to them. “You will please to keep install lifeline to vital outside communication while I am gone?”

The woman gave a wave of her screwdriver, intently staring at the router's exposed wiring. Panu took this to mean yes.

Therefore: the blonde boy reached up and adjusted his headphones, just so, for battle. Then he marched over to the young woman and offered his arm. He was wear hoodie right now, but he was still gentleman.

“Please to come right this way.”

The teleporter wasn't hard to find; he hadn't gotten much further than his boyfriend in the aeroponics. He leaned against a wall as the other man worked, his elbow carefully slotted between the growing strawberry plants, a lazy grin on his face. The nine year old did not pick up on these cues. He walked right up to the pair.

“Can you please take us to Tokyo?”

The boyfriend hid an amused snerk behind a new seedling. Suffice it to say, the teleporter was eager to see them off.

Astrid had just been offered and arm. She had never been offered an arm before. She had half a mind to sniff it, like a cat examining a new substance. However, societal norms dictated that she instead simply stare at it for a minute before awkwardly straining to slip her elbow around his.

It was a strange thing, to be walking while in contact with another human being. It wasn't something she typically did, nor that she had planned on doing. But, it felt rude to not do it, and he was going to get her the Free Things.

It didn't feel very evil to be walking like that, though. It felt like the opposite, in fact. It felt like a thing for normal people to do when they walked somewhere. She wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that.

She followed him uncomfortably to see the same teleporter that had brought them to Utopia in the first place. He was leaning lazily with his arms between some strawberry plants, grinning at a man working on something. It was a happy - no, contented grin. 

Astrid scoffed at the pair of them. Being happy, leaning against things while they were supposed to be working. That did not reflect well on Utopia employees. What was he so happy about, anyway? The other man didn't seem to be doing particularly good work, and there was nothing exciting going on. The girl shook her head at them. Adults were strange.

"Sure, kiddos," the teleporter nodded, flashing one last smile at his boyfriend. That was at least a good sign. The employee was following instructions without asking too many questions. "Anywhere particular in the city that you'd like to go to?" A bubble had already started to form around them, indicating that they were definitely going to get their wish. 

Anywhere they would like to go? Let Panu just google--

He was so so so sick of no internet.

“Anywhere that cell phones have towers,” the dying-inside-every-moment-he-was-here technopath said. “...Also shops. Many electronics. My friend is need to buy computer and also cell phone and maybe more, I have not had chance to think.” It was so hard to think without searching the internet first. The internet would tell him if the things he was saying were stupid.

“Gotcha. Akihabara it is.”

The bubble collapsed, and then there were lights. So many lights. It was evening in Japan and all around were people speaking Japanese which he could translate and flashing signs and neon displays and multi-story shopping centers. America built its malls so that spread out like egg-dropped-on-floor. Japan built its malls to have small feet and stand tall.

“You kids need anything else?” The teleporter asked. Panu had maybe not even said no before he replied with, “Okay, cool. Have fun.” And was gone. Left behind were one technopath and one winged mutant, and a few Japanese school girls snapping pictures of the sudden newcomers. Now that he had google again, he could tell that they were just as excited about foreigners as they were about mutant.

A quick search (thank you thank you internet) told Panu that in Japan, mutants were mostly pop idols and guest stars on very strange TV game shows and also often mistaken as cosplayers, so probably this attention was okay.

Another quick search told him that ordinate was probably French, because the French translation was computer.

“That store looks maybe good,” the Finnish boy said, in French that was exactly as good as his English.

Panu had maybe forgotten to schedule a pick up time, or place. But it was okay, now he had internet, he could contact teleporter any time.

(It had not yet occurred to him that the teleporter had gone back to Antarctica, aka The Continent That The Internet Age Forgot.)

As soon as the bubble collapsed, they were accosted with an onslaught of bright lights and people. Astrid didn't know exactly what she had been expecting of the mysterious Tokyo, but what she was greeted with was not it. She almost missed the complete lack of people in Utopia.

She blinked at the change in scenery and tried to get a grip on her surroundings, dropping the blonde boy's arm in the process. There was a group of girls with their technological devices pointed at them. Astrid did what she usually did when people tried to take her picture: she transformed her wings and flashed a smile at them. The more pictures of her looking terrifying there were floating around, the better.

When she turned back around, the teleporter was gone. Probably to go back and waste more time instead of working, she assumed.

The noise of the city could not cover the sounds that came out of the small boy's mouth. Astrid whipped her head to the side to stare at him as he spoke to her in decent French. He could speak French! He really wasn't bad at all! For a child, anyhow. 

<Yes, it looks good,> Astrid replied cautiously, testing the waters for his understanding of her own perfect French. How did he do that? He hadn't been able to speak French before, had he? It was very strange, but she wasn't about to complain about not having to speak in the sad excuse for a language that people often called 'English'.

She strained her neck to get a full view of the store that she had just blindly agreed to. She wasn't sure what to make of it. The whole area was so surreal. But, it seemed like the boy - whom she did not have a name for - had a good handle on things.

<Do you have a name?> She inquired while taking a step in the direction of the store. 

Her French was much better than her English. Panu could tell this, because his translator had been like grinding gears with her English, but now it was only like a blender. This was the translator's fault, not her own.

<My name is Panu Harmaajärvi-Jaager.> He bowed, because this is what people did in Japan while introducing themselves, and even though it was his first time it was so so much better than shaking hands. Shaking hands meant he had to know where the other person's hand was, which was always hard to do when his main eye was on a camera phone hanging around his neck. <What is your name? Is French Best Language for you? We can switch again if it is better. But not to English please, is stupid language like trying to talk with mashed potatoes in mouth when probably a bug has died in it.>

The shopping mall tower had been arbitrarily picked at first, but now that he was using his internet like a smart boy, the place had okay reviews. First floor was home electronics, his brain sparkled and cracked with how smart they were, there was a microwave that you could start from your phone and he did not know why that was useful but it was cool. Second floor was were computers were. Third floor was… anime, manga, and figurines? This was strange country.

<You will want laptop, of course. Young woman with excellent sometimes black, sometimes crystal wings is know that desktops are stupid floor tethers. What are things you use internet for? Gaming, email, read book, watch cat video, make art?>

He asked this very politely and calmly as they walked in, and let her go first through doors. Even though they were self-open it was still polite to let Lady Go First.

(Also, if she went first, then he could walk behind her and get better view of awesome color-and-maybe-material-changing wings of ultimate cool that is was not at all polite to stare at while-she-could-see.)

His name definitely wasn't American. It sort of sounded European, but she wasn't quite sure.  Coupled with the fact that his first language wasn't English, she assumed that he hadn't been born in the country, just like her. There had been a boy in the orphanage with her that had a similar sounding name, but she couldn't remember where he had been from. Then again, she had spent more time sulking in a corner and observing him from afar than actually talking to him.

<Valkyrie,> she told him proudly, fluffing her feathers a bit as she told him her chosen name. It had gained a bit of weight recently, with her being in the news several times, and she held a not-so-secret hope that he would recognize it.

<French is my native language. English is a disgusting muddle of sounds strung together and we should never speak in it. What's your language of choice?> Astrid agreed with the boy, liking his word choice to describe the horrible mess of words she was forced to use on a daily basis. It was nice to be able to switch back to French, even if he couldn't speak perfectly.

Astrid didn't exactly know what the big difference between a laptop and a desktop was, but she nodded anyway, not wanting to seem ignorant. Clearly the tiny boy was smarter than his appearance would suggest, so he would get her something good. <I have an email. I don't use the Internet other than that.> Sometimes not even for email. It was such a hassle to go all the way to the library only to find out that a picnic had been pushed back, or something.

She trotted carefully into the building and took a right after going through the doors, toward what looked to be some sort of electronics store. She didn't know what they were looking for, but Panu had indicated that she was to walk first, so she pretended to know anyway.

<What's so great about this Internet thing, anyway? What can you do with it?>

<Valkyrie?> The boy repeated, admiring her wing-foof. <Is there some relation to excellent Valkyrie of Ragnarok, who is like Terror From Sky for stupid people on wrong side of history?>

He cross-referenced the codename with his database. She looked like match, and it would be strange for her to lie, especially in the middle of Tokyo with no one around but him to care. Quick internet search told him that English was most common subject taught in Japanese schools, definitely not French. Probably it was safe to keep speaking in this language. <If you are this Valkyrie, then I am Muninn. It is a pleasure to meet.> He gave another little bow. Bowing was awesome, why did the rest of the world not do this?

<Best language is Finnish, of course. I do not know why English exists, it is like someone took mutt dog from every nation and breed together to answer question of how-ugly-a-dog-can-we-make.> Panu had spent much time practicing how to properly express his loathing of the language, and was much pleased that never once had he repeated himself. It seemed that ways to express disgust were infinite as stars, except that if English was stars, then it was like stars reflected in holding pools at sewage treatment plant.

<I have an email. I don't use the Internet other than that. What's so great about this Internet thing, anyway? What can you do with it?>

The little tecchnopath froze in place, his blind eyes wide and unfocused, like there was eldrich horror behind her that only he could see.

Eldrich horror was phrase what's-so-great-about-this-Internet-thing.

What's so great about.

What's so great.

A visible shudder went up the boy's spine. Then he held out his hand, gently, like offering to help tottering old man cross a busy street.

<Please you are to come with me. We will get you All The Internet. Internet is life, you will see.>

Laptop first, then phone, then tablet, then smart watch, then--

<There is all the relation,” Astrid beamed, barely containing her excitement, <I am she.> She took up a haughty walk as she moved forward, incredibly encouraged by the little boy’s words. Terror from the sky. It had a nice ring to it.

She turned back to him with a quizzical expression as he shared his own codename. Muninn. She had definitely heard that name before, but she had thought the owner of it to be in a high-up position in the faction. The little boy in an oversized hoodie and headphones was not that had come to mind when she heard about his work.

However, he was also the son of a very powerful man, and he knew about Ragnarok. Some child without any connections to it wouldn’t have known about the faction or her work for it. Plus, he didn’t seem to be completely without power. She had just yet to figure out what exactly his power was.

Or, he could have just been a very well-informed boy that was lying to her. She decided to keep her eyes peeled for either option.

Either way, he supported her work, and he knew what Ragnarok was. So, she could talk openly to him. In French!

<Finnish… I don’t know any Finnish. But yes, English is… That.> She snickered, <like a lumpy smoothie of spinach, broccoli, and brussel sprouts. Sounds gross and tastes worse.>

Valkyrie placed her hand in his nearly-as-pale one. She nodded her head as he rambled about the internet, surprised by his extreme reaction. He was horrified. Absolutely horrified. Maybe the internet was actually cooler than she had made it out to be in her head.

She let herself be led through the stores, interested to see what would happen next.

Valkyrie began to walk with great confidence once her name was revealed. Clearly her other walk was just an act she put on, and this saunter was her true-and-awesome self that she had to hide from world to appear as normal boring girl. Panu tried to pratice her saunter for a few steps, but then he tripped on slight rise in doorframe and went back to walking normal but now with very warm cheeks.

Saunter was maybe not for blind boys.

<It is okay if you do not know Finnish. Is impossible to be perfect.> It was also maybe impossible to tell if he was joking, though her own English metaphor brought a quick flash of grin to his face. <Please you are let me know if I am butcher French too badly. If I talk slower I can make it sound better.> Slower gave him time to double and triple-check the translations and also pratice pronouncing things in his head, but it increased the lag in his replies. With English he did not bother because it was awful language already, but she might be upset if he treated French like McDonald's hamburger when it was clearly a finer grade.

Japanese department store was different than Amerian: vertical instead of horizontal. Each level had one, maybe two stores, but there were seven or eight or more levels. In this store there were home electronics on first floor, which were smarter than electronics in Jaager's house and he kind of wanted to look at them more but they were here for her not him. So Panu lead her up the escalators to the fourth floor (past the anime and manga stores, past the displays of plushie teddy bears who liked to relax and cats who were maybe also bean varities).

Computers surronded them. So many computers. So many computers and store clerks that did not look eager to approach the two forigeners speaking French. Panu broke the ice by marching up to one with his cell phone out. On the screen were computer specs.

<We would please like to see a laptop with these capabilities or better if it is not too much of a bother,> the little blonde boy said, blissfully unaware of how over-translating his politeness became when put into Japanese.

The shop clerk, blinking a little but recovering quickly, bowed and rattled off an equally polite return that eqauted to right this way.

The display they were led to had very shiny computers and very many zeroes in the price tags under them.

Panu turned back to Astrid, and switched back to French. <Do you want small screen, very portable, or large screen, very fun for watch movies? We will also get you phone for extra portable, of course.>

Astrid snickered behind her hand at both the boy’s fall and his poorly-delivered joke. Had either of the things come from someone else, there would likely be eye-rolling and stabbing involved, but since her ego had been stroked, Astrid was far more open to humour.

<It’s not great, but it’s better than anything I’ve heard in months, so I’m not complaining,> she shrugged at him. She would take slightly butchered French over English any day of the week.

Everything about where they were was foreign to Astrid. There were so many things that she had never seen before; that she didn’t recognize. To be fair, she was in a completely different country across the world with a total stranger, but she had thought she would be able to deal with it all a little better than she was. However, she wasn’t going to let anything slow her down and make her look weak. Especially not after hearing everything that Panu thought of her. She coughed and picked up her saunter, making a silent pledge to show the boy how it was done.

She followed closely behind Panu as he spoke in some foreign (which she quickly realized was likely Japanese) language and showed the store clerk something on his phone. To Astrid, it all just looked like numbers and shapes, but clearly it meant something to the clerk, as he ushered them forward.

They were led to a display of very fancy looking computers with very large price tags. Astrid’s eyes bulged a little. She hadn’t realized that it would be so expensive to buy something to seemingly useless. But, since she wasn’t paying, it wasn’t a big deal.

<Small,> Astrid said decisively. She had no idea if that was what she actually wanted, but she couldn’t let on that she didn’t know, so she pretended that she did.

She approached the display curiously and held out a pale hand to inspect a device close to her. <What about this one?> She suggested, pointing to a particularly shiny one with a mid-sized screen and one of the highest prices.