1 : A REALLY BAD DAY...
Shadowrun/Seattle 2057, early evening
Sound Track :Chariots of fire, Vangelis
A red motorcycle ridden by a brown haired figure in a business suit was being chased by a
pair of small helicopters, their miniguns chewing up the street around the bike
The day had started badly and rapidly gotten worse. The run had gone sour when a corp
decker had dumped their own netrunner, Soldier of Fortran out of the corp system and the
team had split up to avoid pursuit.
Fenris was the only one who had not made a clean break and was currently trying to lose
two Yellowjacket attack micro helicopters. His allied spirit, Angua, had laid a false trail
going a different direction diverting most of the pursuit but that left these two to deal with.
The ECM on his bike could spoof their sensors reasonably well and he could maintain
enough of an illusion to make him a difficult target. While the choppers had the edge in
speed, he was far more manoeuvrable and if he could reach the Barrans, he felt sure he
could break contact and escape.
The main problem was that they had miniguns, he had no weapons accessible able to
target a flying target other than a light pistol, offensive magic would drain him to
exhaustion taking out even one chopper, and he was still minutes away from safety!
On the good side, they had not seemed to realise he was subtly using illusion to spoof them
and currently had no astral backup.... DREK! he felt the spell anchor shatter and was
momentarily engulfed in flame as the fireball grounded out through it. So much for no
astral support, but they hadn't expected an initiate and his shields had held, mostly.
Surpressing a flash of rage, he switched the bike to autopilot and assensed... the attacking
wagemage seemed surprised at the speed of his reaction, and even more surprised when
his fingers blazed with fire and slashed through the mage's arm and chest, seriously
wounding him.
Elsewhere, the mage's body convulsed, matching gashes appearing on his body. People
didn't expect the magically active to have cyberwear, and combining retractable claws with
weapon enchantments gave him a weapon that was very close to hand, as it were, even if it
did ruin gloves.
He had a few problems now, his protective illusion was gone and on autopilot, the bike
was going straight and level, an easy target... Oops
He swerved as a burst ripped the road, too close for comfort. He had to get that illusion up
again and fast.
Fenris began to concentrate, singing under his breath as he weaved to evade fire. The
weave was almost complete and tied off when a lucky (or unlucky depending on your
POV) shot hit him in the back. The slug didn't quite penetrate the ceramic laminate back
plate of his body armour but it cracked a rib and punched him forward. He wasn't wearing
a helmet, and his chin hit the bike fairing, stunning him.
The spell, designed to move only his image was empowered but incomplete and activated
uncontrollably.
There was a red flash as the bike and it's rider disappeared. The choppers circled for a few
minutes before calling off the search for their quarry and returning to base.
++++++
Megatokyo 14 September 2033, evening
Sound Track : Terminator 2 opening theme
Another rogue boomer rampage.
The 55-C android was shooting up anything that moved with mouth mounted laser
cannon, it's objective to cause as much panic and damage as possible to drive down
property values. It was moving up the street at walking pace, most of the people in the
area had evacuated or taken cover to wait for the AD Police (or better yet the Knight
Sabers) to deal with the menace.
In the street in front of it a red glow began, grew to a pulsating sphere around 3 meters in
size, sheathed in tendrils of purple fire. A shape engulfed in red and purple flame
emerged at high speed, swerved to avoid a streetlight and bore down on the boomer
decelerating rapidly behind a blast of electronic noise. As it moved the flames rapidly died
revealing a red motorcycle ridden by a brown haired man with a ponytail in a suit. He
swerved again, missing the now confused boomer. Motorcycles were not supposed to
appear out of thin air.
"What was that!" the very confused shaman thought.
He had come to drifting in a white void on his bike with a cracked rib and a bruised jaw
and no clear idea how he had got there. This was not any metaplane that he had ever
experienced before, besides he appeared to be here in body rather than astrally. The bike's
systems were down, but his cyberwear seemed to function, perhaps because it was a part of
him... Fortunately, healing spells worked effectively in this environment, and he had the
strangest feeling that he was going somewhere...
After a while, he didn't know how long as his watch seemed to have stopped, he saw three
figures, a pair, and a singleton close to a cluster of what appeared to be shimmering
iridescent bubbles. The pair were a young man, black hair with a pack, wearing a
bandanna and a young woman, short, red hair, dressed in purple, also with a pack.
Behind was a blond woman in dirty, stained clothes. Before he could do anything, he was
drawn towards one of the bubbles. A purple haze enveloped him, there was a sense of
infinite speed and absolute stasis.
He found himself racing down a street that looked like a warzone towards a large full body
cyborg or robot, with the Collision Avoidance System almost throwing him off swerving
around an obstacle.
"Definitely NOT my idea of fun" he muttered to himself, downshifting and rolling the
throttle back against it's stop. The engine screamed and the front wheel popped off the
ground momentarily. The boomer, lacking any other targets of opportunity opened fire
with it's mouth laser.
"What tha.. ACTION! TARGET CYBORG AFT! RIFLE, SABOT! ENGAGE!" the
bike's computer accordingly loaded the rear facing rifle with APDS, and locked sensors
onto the boomer and waiting for a clear shot while the rider began casting (again) the
blurring illusion.
The boomer began chasing the rapidly accelerating target, popping vectored thrust nozzles
to get itself airborne. The boomer was getting more confused, it had lost it's datalink to
base in the jamming, and had got several clean hits on it's target to seemingly no effect... a
moment later it was pinwheeling into a storefront with one arm blown off at the shoulder.
"Well, scratch one cyborg... Hell's Teeth!" The boomer was getting up again and chest
panels were opening revealing a set of emitters.
Before he could react it fired, impacting where the illusion was. The blast blew him off
the bike. Gas canisters went off with a bang in the impact armour under the now shredded
suit and inflated a collar to protect his head and neck, deflating again when he slid to a
stop. He rolled behind street planter as a laser bolt impacted where he had come to rest.
His bike was 5 meters away, on it's side. It'd take too long to get to it and open one of the
panniers containing his heavier equipment, and the flechette loads in the light pistol he
had on him were only going to make it mad.
"Have to do this the hard way..." He muttered as he flicked his wrist and a small knife
popped into his hand He concentrated for a moment as the knife expanded into a full
sized katana which began to glow softly.
He could hear the boomer's approaching footsteps and got out a small mirror on a stick to
look for his attacker. He ripped up the suit trouser legs and took two small objects from
calf pouches and threw one each to the left and right, a moment later one detonated,
creating a smoke screen, the other began emitting high intensity flashes, which combined
with the jammer on the bike momentarily confused the boomers sensors.
It was 10 metres from the cover it's target was hiding behind when heard something
landing behind it and very fast running steps, started to turn, heard a shouted "HAI" as
half it's head and shoulder parted company. The remains collapsed.
"That jump spell certainly is useful..." Fenris thought to himself, breathing heavily. He
had gotten the idea from some Hong Kong martial arts films from the previous century,
designed the spell and quickened it, making it self sustaining only a week ago. It had
allowed him to distract the boomer with the smoke grenade and flash pack, jump 15
metres clean over it's head and destroy it, whatever 'it' was.
Not a cyborg, what had been in the thing's skull had never been human, but not a robot
either, too organic, so what was it?
"OK priorities" he muttered "no immediate threats, lets look around." The signs on shops
were a mix of English and Japanese, definitely Not Seattle, maybe San Francisco
Protectorate or a movie set?. He saw a newspaper hanging out of a demolished waste bin
by the rechargeable flash pack, went over picked up the pack and the paper and his jaw
dropped...
Tokyo D.T. Times 14 September 2033
The sound of approaching sirens and choppers shook him out of his daze, conditioned
reflex sent him sprinting over to his bike, and accelerating away
2 : WELL TOTO, WE'RE DEFINITELY NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE
14 September 2033, evening
"Well either I'm crazy, someone is playing an elaborate practical joke or something
REALLY strange has happened!"
Fenris had managed to evade the AD Police squads by simply ducking into an alley and
waiting until they'd gone past. He put away the torn suit and the rest of the disguise he
had been using for the disastrous run. The brown dye was magically stripped the out of
his hair, and got into his biking leathers, armoured jacket, what he thought of as his street
gear. Another spell changed the colour of the bike to dark blue.
He checked himself in a mirror backed shop window. A man in black and shades of grey,
not what you'd call handsome exactly, his face already marked lightly by stress and laugh
lines despite being in his twenties, but very alive... Interesting he had been told. Long
black hair simply tied back, watchful amber eyes under grey contacts.. very fit.. he smiled,
gave himself a half mocking salute and got on his bike.
He parked on a side street under a streetlight where he could sit and think, and study the
newspaper.
Interesting, that thing he had taken out had been a BUMA, a type of android, built by a
megacorp called Genom ... BUMA.... Yeah, Big, Ugly Mother of an Android. Seem to go
rogue regularly... They had an apparent level of self motivation simply wasn't possible
from what he had knew...
There were a few things he could rule out:, he didn't FEEL particularly unglued. The link
to his familiar seemed broken. It was not simsense as magic didn't work in a simulated
environment... although magic itself felt... sluggish, anything not aimed at himself felt as
if he was wading in honey, everything was a major effort... It was as if he was not attuned
properly or something. Even with his power foci and experience, minor magic was tiring,
a major working would be exhausting.
Unless someone had rebuilt the entire city very recently, along with that huge truncated
cone on the skyline, he wasn't in Tokyo, there was GPS but no Citynav feed for his bike's
nav systems which was world standard.
There were no Magic listings in the paper, Mages or shamans, when he assensed, there
was no glow of astrally warded buildings. There were no metahumans.. Elves, dwarves,
trolls or orks...
No mention of the Megacorps he was familiar with : Ares, Aztechnology, Fuchi, Saeder-
Krupp... Heck there was still a United States of America! What was going on!
"When you have eliminated the impossible... but what was impossible here and now, and
what merely improbable?"
++++++
Elsewhere Inspector Leon McNichol of the AD Police was thinking similar thoughts. A
boomer had been virtually cut in half by some guy with a sword! Someone who had
arrived in a ball of fire, who could jump 15 meters from a crouch and moved faster than a
weasel on amphetamines. The images from the surviving security cameras were at long
distance and degraded by smoke and interference, but the enhancement lab could work on
them later.
Either another boomer or another vigilante taking on boomers, first Knight Sabers, now
who or whatever this was... Sometimes he felt superfluous.
++++++
Fenris had found a public information terminal on a street corner, and after a little
experimentation he had got it to show him a map of where he was, and the location of a
nearby park where he could settle down and get some rest, it'd been a loong day...
He had got out a few toys, finished hiding the bike under a cammo sheet in a thicket and
was settling down to eat when he heard, and smelt someone, make that someones
approaching.
"Let's see, about a dozen, trying to move quietly, don't wash often, probably gangers.
Well, I'd rather deal with them than another android..."
He stood and clipped his submachine gun's sling to the epaulet loop on his jacket and
clicked in a Gel round magazine, no sense in killing anyone, yet anyway.
"These idiots should have brought a brass band with them. Amateurs" he thought
sardonically as they began to encircle him. When they stopped momentarily, probably to
rush him, he set off another flash-pack and jumped up into a tree to see what they would
do.
There were a shouts and a lot of stumbling around, as the gangers, their night vision
destroyed tried to find their target and each other. There seemed to be two with pistols,
the rest with clubs and knives. There was a faint clicking and tinkle of cartridge cases
followed by two thuds as he dropped the ones with firearms with surpressed three round
bursts. "I shouldn't really do this but..." he smiled ferally as he adjusted his gloves then
leaped down among the surprised, blinded thugs.
An hour later there was a row of thugs, nude, arms and legs bound with tape left by the
road. All had assorted bruises and contusions and a few broken bones and about half
conscious when the N-police patrol car drove up in response to an anonymous tip off.
There was no connection made to a boomer destroyed downtown.
"Well " he said to himself as he watched the paddy wagon leave "They seem to think this
is MegaTokyo 2033, even under the Pinnochio spell and Gamma Scopolamine, and I
doubt they have been pre-programmed... So I guess I'm in MegaTokyo 2033!... DREK!"
"OK then, lets evaluate resources : Bad : No cash other than the stuff I took off those
clowns, seems they don't use cred-sticks, and the corp-scrip is waste paper. No ID, No
contacts, No information on this... place. No Medicine Lodge..."
"Good : Enough equipment for a small war assuming I can find ammo, Magic... no visible
use of magic... " he smiled to himself "That makes things interesting... unsporting but
interesting, I've got enough gold, based on that paper's exchange rate to lie low while I get
information. First thing I need is a Fixer!"
3. JIGSAW
15 September 2033 - Mid October 2033
The next morning, Nene Romanova rushed through the doors of the AD Police
Headquarters, late again, to find Leon had already left a report on a Boomer incident on
her desk for analysis and filing
The 'man' who had destroyed the boomer leaped 15 metres from a crouch, landed and ran
at peak speed of well over 50 kph, then chopped the boomer in two with a sword in a little
over 3 seconds elapsed time
Bike not a production type, presumably custom with no registration plates.
The 55-C Boomer had one arm blown off by two hyper velocity tungsten carbide rounds,
probably sabot of non-standard type.
Odd, anyone using sabot rounds used depleted uranium rather than tungsten carbide.
There were traces of a _Silver_ jacket on the rounds, which was even odder.
The cut that had destroyed the Boomer had burnt it's way through, some sort of energised
blade presumably.
The obvious conclusion was that another boomer had destroyed the 55-C, but why.
Nene spent some time looking at the footage of the bike appearing, which had been
already dismissed as an effort at distraction by whoever had sent the boomer, after all,
motorcycles don't appear out of thin air.
She made a copy of the files and put it in her pocket, then completed the report... with the
obvious conclusion.
++++++
Fenris spent part of the day hiding up a tree and watching. He wasn't going out until he
felt confident he could blend in.
He waited until the lunchtime rush was over before carefully jumping down and walking
out into the street, he had repaired then morphed the suit into something that would not
look out of place *Love that Fashion spell...* he thought and went in search of jewellers.
Part of Fenris's gold was in jewellery, part in small bars, and part in Kruger Rands. He
converted some gold chains into a significant quantity of yen over several shops.
He saw a surprising number of these Boomers around, mainly dangerous or grunt work..
better than having humans do it, probably, but what about the humans displaced...
The bike was well concealed and guarded by a small spirit of the forest he had summoned
at dawn, much more tiring than he'd expected... The land slumbered, but the risk of
leaving it was less than the risk of riding it in daylight.
He bought some more food, wanting to keep his freeze dried rations for emergencies and
went back to the park to have a snooze in the sun and wait for night.
++++++
That evening, the Knight Sabers met, called by Sylia after reviewing the data Nene had
copied. The discussion was in full swing...
"Come on Sylia, I know bikes and they DON'T fly OR turn invisible OR pop out of THIN
AIR!" Priss was in full rant. The voice that could project to fill a club concentrated in the
small room...
Sylia opened her eyes, Linna still had hers screwed up, her hands over her ears
"Itte..." came from a stunned Redhead computer genius...
"Priss, that was uncalled for."
"Sylia, it's just not Possible! Things don't just pop out of nowhere! Some sort of stealth
system...."
"I cannot help feeling this is more important than it appears." Sylia stood and looked out
the window.
"Well at least he doesn't like boomers... whatever it is." muttered Priss
The discussion went round in circles for a while before Sylia finally called a halt.
"Without more information there is very little we can do at this time, other than keep our
eyes and ears open for anything unusual."
"Unusual yeh.... Oh well, I've got a rehearsal to go to" smiled Priss as she headed for the
door "See you all later"
"Nene, see if you can monitor vehicle registrations, if the bike is unregistered, he may
wish to do so"
"OK Sylia, I'll call if I find anything."
The meeting broke up. Sylia contacted Fargo, to keep his eyes and ears open too.
++++++
Same night, a figure in black was prowling the Shinjuku, looking for something, or rather
someone. The lesser predators and their prey looked over this new entry, and turned away.
He only had to bounce two muggers off a wall and they'd left him alone.
He knew the type of person he needed, and the sort of places they would be found. The
underworld is the same in it's essentials everywhere, and he had dealt with the Yak
before...
Later, his wallet considerably lighter, he had arranged for a fake ID with a Mr Ishikawa
that would last until he could arrange something more solid. The Pinnochio spell satisfied
him the deal was straight and that he wasn't being too badly ripped off for being gaijin.
He relocated to the partially abandoned Fault zone outside Timex City. It was still
unreconstructed from the quake. A safe place to rest up during the day, safe from
bothersome officialdom anyway. Next night he collected the ID and began negotiations
for a better one.
With the ID, he hired a lockup to store his bike and rented a small apartment nearby. He
spent a lot of time in the next few weeks at the local library, and researching security
systems. He needed a lot of background info to work out what was going on before going
to work.
With the complete lack of magic oriented security, there was very little he felt he couldn't
cope with, if he was careful and had the time to prepare. The trick would be to give people
_understandable_ mysteries, not completely inexplicable ones. This was going to be fun .
++++++
Weeks passed
He developed two main alter-egos, one Benedict Rowan, based on the new, more solid ID,
and another, Mack, as a shadowrunner. The initial ID he junked entirely, too many
strings on it.
Benedict was a persona he had used before in Seattle, a bit of a dandy with private means.
It was close to his own, as he would have to maintain it over long periods, and was kind of
fun. On the other hand, the face Takashi, his fixer saw was not a nice person. Mack was a
simple, one dimensional hood who had a proven talent for hurting people who annoyed
him.
He had compartmentalised Benedict and Mack, using the Pinnochio spell to assure himself
of the trustworthiness of the forgers, or at least they hadn't kept any 'spare' copies of the
IDs made. This gave him a window into the underworld and a reasonably safe cover ID.
This would allow him to work as a runner without compromising his other ID, and he
would need money for a place where he could study his predicament undisturbed.
He put out tentative feelers... and quietly began to work.. mainly locating or acquiring
items people wanted... a solo burglar on commission. He quickly built up a small
reputation for being able to find people and things... to get in anywhere.. the hard part was
leaving convincing evidence of a conventional break in. The N-Police went quietly wild..
calling him the Spectre.. as he seemed able to walk though walls.
The bike remained in storage, it was too risky to try to register it for now. He did begin
looking around for someone able to construct a street legal duplicate, which would let him
play the old shell game. Mack had a bike, nothing _too_ special, a high power production
bike and Benedict had a small car.
The closest he could find to the shadowrunning community he was used to was biker
gangs, and mercenaries. He didn't fit in with either very well. It was all to easy. He was
getting bored... and lonely..
Then there were the Knight Sabers, who were totally anonymous. They were interesting, a
bit flashy and melodramatic at times. Mercenaries who also appeared to do pro-bono work
by taking on rogue boomers. Worth keeping an eye on. The heels on the armour though...
4. NEW FRIENDS
Mid October 2033 - Mid November 2033
"OK" Fenris thought to himself "My stealth skills are getting quite a workout, but if I don't
practice my hitting people and shooting skills formally, I'll get rusty. Going out looking
fights isn't enough and it's stupid to take unnecessary risks. I need serious practice. There
must be somewhere..."
A few days later, Benedict Rowan wound up joining a fitness club, Phoebe's. It was
uncomfortably close to the AD police building, but he could live with that. There were
classes for martial arts as well as general fitness, and while he had to tone down his speed
to avoid too much attention, he was already as good as some of the instructors and it was
enough, he felt, to keep his edge.
Mack 'obtained' a variety of weapons he _could_ get ammunition for and insinuated
himself into a 'gun club' that didn't ask too many questions other than what colour your
cash was...
++++++
After a few weeks at Phoebe's, Benedict caught the roving eye of one of the aerobics
instructors... Linna Yamazaki.
She introduced herself in a practice session and they began sparring. Fenris quickly found
out she was, quite simply, able to throw him around the room with little effort until he
started using his enhanced speed to counter her higher skill. The match continued until
the next class entered and Linna called a halt
"Whoo! I _thought_ you were holding back before" she panted
"You certainly weren't Miz Yamazaki, I think you would have had me in the end... Ouch"
Fenris grimaced as he felt his shoulder
"Are you allright, that last fall you took... and call me Linna"
"I'll be fine thanks Linna, I've had much worse, just not recently. Thanks for the match"
he bowed and left the frustrated young instructor. *Hmm, I'm not sure he still isn't
holding back, his technique is a little sloppy, but his reflexes... and he could at least have
asked me out, he's a hunk*
At the door he turned and smiled "I noticed a place downstairs, would a cup of coffee be
out of place Miz Yama.. Linna?" when she nodded he added "Half an hour?"
"I'll see you there then" she answered, suddenly smiling.
25 minutes later, a spruced up Benedict in trademark plum coat and cravat smiled and
rose to greet Linna...
++++++
Over the next few weeks the two were often together, and Linna's friends began
speculating that maybe the arch nobbler had finally been nobbled herself...
"So how is your latest beau Linna, this must be a record... three whole weeks? And when
are we going to meet this man of mystery?" Priss smirked as they changed into the
softsuits they wore under their Hardsuits
"Yes when. He sounds _wonderful_" Nene sighed "Tall, handsome, well off..."
"You keep your hands to yourself Little Miss Cyberpunk, he's spoken for."
"This I gotta see. Bring him to the club Friday night, I'm on at eight, we can meet him
there.".... Priss cut off an indignant Nene while Sylia smiled quietly.
++++++
"You were highly recommended" Fenris/Mack in black leathers was talking to Doc Raven
over a set of photos and schematics of his bike.
"Not an easy job" commented the old engineer, "Lot of custom parts"
"Well, if you're not up to it..."
Doc Raven straightened and looked him with a jaundiced eye "Do you know how many
times someone's tried that line on me boy?"
Fenris smiled ruefully "Can't blame me for trying. Seriously though, can you do it?"
"Like I said, it's not an easy job..."
"If it was _easy_ anyone could do it. I know it's hard just working from photos, but it
means a lot to me."
"Come back tomorrow. I'll let you know then, and bring the cash"
"I wouldn't have it any other way. Until tomorrow then."
As Fenris put on his helmet and walked towards his bike, a figure on a red bike rolled in.
"Hi Pops, fillerup. A tank of Raven Special."
As he started his bike and rode out, he didn't notice Priss staring at the photos he had left
behind.
++++++
Fenris was relaxed as he rode back to the lockup. As Benedict, he had cached most of his
extra-legal equipment, it wasn't in persona, and he didn't want to have to explain why he
really did have a gun in his pocket , even though he was _always_ pleased to see Linna.
It was ...nice.. to feel like a normal human being for a change, to let his guard down some.
No-one was out to get him here, no pressure. He didn't want it to end.
++++++
Priss called Sylia showing her the photos and schematics.
"So he wants a custom motorcycle. It could be our Mr-X, the design is similar enough to
the security camera images. We will monitor him when he returns. Full spectrum deep
scan. If it is him, I want to know" *I'll have to get Fargo to look into this 'Mack'.*
++++++
Sitting in her apartment with a mug of coco, Linna was thinking. She was intrigued by
Fenris, he was very reticent about his past, and very good at changing the subject. Her
expression went goofy as she zoned out for a few moments remembering his
'distractions'....
He had actually talked her into going _camping_ over a weekend... They had sat out
there under the stars... so romantic... He saw the world differently and he said the
strangest things...
"Of all the trees that grow so fair
Old England to adorn,
Greater are none beneath the sun
Than Oak and Ash and Thorn.. Kipling ... such beautiful prose"
"A druid once told me.. Trees are partakers of mortality and immortality. Their roots lie
in the underworld, their trunks in the earth world and their branches reach to the sky... I
like trees."
...he certainly seemed a lot more at home there than in Megatokyo. But _Druids_?
He was well off, claimed to be retired, in his mid 20's! When they had gone swimming
once, and she noticed he had a few scars, they looked to her like knife and bullet wounds,
and his style of jiujutsu was odd, a lot more emphasis on hand strokes than normal... and
she was sure he was surpressing moves, killing and crippling moves.. she could see him
manoeuvring for them automatically before choking them off... it wasn't just a sport to
him.
*Possibly an ex-mercenary? I think he's wearing contacts but his eyesight is excellent, a
man of mystery indeed*
She grinned. *I wonder if Nene can dig up anything on him*
She felt on the one hand, safe around him, on the other, like she was dancing on a knife
edge. There was a fierceness to him she had never found before. He made her feel alive.
So many mysteries in him, she never really knew what he'd come up with next, and he
made her laugh.
The problem was her dual life. Linna Yamazaki and the Green Knight Saber... how
would he react to that, if she told him... would she have to give him up as she had so many
others, or her double life, or ... Live for the present that was the key, live for the moment.
++++++
Fenris was standing looking out over the city from his small apartment, the lights
glittering, drowning out the starlight...
*Linna* he thought... *Linna firedancer*, her scent, remembering the way she walked,
dancing to music only she could hear. He smiled fondly, then his face fell.
"What am I going to do, this is not my place, my home... I'll have to leave her, but why
does that thought hurt so much?"
++++++
It was night on Salisbury Plain, full moon and cloudless sky lent a dreamlike quality to the
scene. Above the ring of Stonehenge a bright blue actinide line appeared, hanging in mid
air. It seemed to widen as if something was trying to push through. After a minute a
shape squeezed through and fell to the ground. The line faded out.
After resting for a moment, the figure, a large canine, stood up and tested the air. It
seemed to shrug and trotted off into the night. An observer would notice the figure fade
from sight but there was no-one to see but the stars and the uncaring stones...
