Neon City

Droplets of rain hit the windshield as I drove along the neon-lit city streets in the late hours of the long night.

The rain doesn't affect the Navigation Enhanced Display that covers the windshield's duro-glass, as it guides me through the slick, wet streets; making my way home after my shift.

I let the Autonav take over the driving as my mind isn't on the road at all, but today's case.

I'd been a detective for thirteen years now and the details of this new case had shaken me like I was fresh out of the academy.

The images from the crime scene kept playing in my mind, and even though it had made my insides churn, I couldn't help but go over what I had seen; there was something I couldn't put my finger on, something very off.

The noiselessness of the vehicle's motion through the rainy night was too deafening so I turned the sound system on; playing some classic electronic music to help me zone out and try to see the missing puzzle pieces in my mind.

The motel room where they had found the victim was in that faux tropical theme that was making a comeback, only it had never been renovated, it had kept the same decor for so long it had come back in fashion.

The room would need a serious reno after what had taken place tonight however.

Body parts and internal fluids were strewn and spilt all over the place, staining the carpet, the walls, and the ceiling with spatters of dark, sticky patches.

How anyone could be so full of rage and hate to do that to another being was beyond me; I had seen many crimes of passion in my time, but this was something different.

A message perhaps?

Examining the images in my mind I tried to pinpoint the uneasy feeling I had had when I first inspected the scene.

The officers first on the scene weren't as good at hiding the fact that they were more than a little upset at what they have discovered; one was still retching on the balcony.

They didn't have to tell me the victim had been a young professional, new to the business; a more seasoned pro would never have been in a place like this, no matter how hard up they might have been.

Trouble is the only resident in places like this.

Going over the officers' reports as the car drove along the still busy streets, I remembered standing at the foot of the bed, trying not to step in any of what remained of the victim.

And then I saw it in my mind's eye; a differently coloured stain on the bottom corner of the bed sheets.

Enhancing the memory, I examined the details closer. Definitely a lighter hue than the rest of the pools of fluids covering the rest of the bed; a reddish brown instead of the inky black and gold that dominated every other inch of the dank motel room.

Asking the vehicle's central computer hub to analyze what chemical make up the foreign substance could have had my mind reel with implications.

As the data ran through to Police Central's mainframe, I already had a sinking feeling of what the results might came back as.

But how could that be possible, I thought. There hadn't been a report of any of them for decades now, not since the last wave of super viruses was thought to have wiped the last of them out.

The vehicle turned the last corner before entering the underground parking garage of my high-rise apartment building as the results came through on the windshield's heads up display.

With a sigh I read the analysis details and taped my fingers on my chin with the familiar metal tinkling sound that had always served to calm my neuro-net whenever something had agitated my circuits.

Not this time though; I doubted I'd be able to get a proper night's recharge for a week in the face of what the results meant.

Somehow, human blood had been spilt at the crime scene where a young robot had been torn apart, metal limb from metal limb.

It was just the beginning of a long night for me; nothing in my years of being a robot detective had prepared me for this.

The Boy With Rocket Hands

Once there was a boy with rocket hands.

He was otherwise a healthy, happy little boy, only instead of hands and fingers at the ends of his arms; he had cylindrical metal rocket boosters.

His parents loved him just the same as they would any non-rocket hands child, and other than some close calls with singed hair while he was a baby, they tried to give him as stable and caring life as they could.

When it came time for the boy to attend school, the boy's parents did not want him to feel any different than any other child his age, so they let him go off to learn with the other children.

Unfortunately, children can be taught to fear, shun, and ridicule those that are different from what everyone was used to, and so they made fun of the boy with rocket hands.

He had always known he was different from everyone else, but could not understand why that should matter, and why the other children would tease him so, just because of his rocket booster hands.

With tears in his eyes, the boy ran across the school yard, away from the cruel children. And, using his rocket hands to blast off the ground, he lifted off into the air.

High and fast the boy climbed into the sky until he was a mere blur against the cloudless azure backdrop.

The boy left the atmosphere and the Earth behind and made his own way, alone, throughout the galaxies.

He explored the cosmos and travelled to many planets, meeting many new species along the way; some friendly and accepting, as well as some hostile and quarrelsome.

Yet, he never came across anyone else who had rockets for hands.

Until, on one particular planet inhabited by a race of robots, the boy met a young robot who also had rockets for hands and they became the best of friends.

Together they went on many adventures; discovering new worlds, uncovering space treasures, helping others when they could; finding that a lot can be accomplished with the rockets they had been blessed with.

After some time, when the two friends had grown, they happened to travel near the familiar galaxy of the boy's home world and the robot convinced him to return, if only for a moment.

So it was that the boy with rockets hands came back to Earth, and destroyed it.

David the Mole

David the mole did not have many friends, and those that he did have were more just work acquaintances from his job in the tunnels rather than close comrades.

They were friendly towards him and would invite him out to drink with them at the watering hole just passed the farmer's field after their shifts ended but he would always politely decline and head home to his little burrow on the outskirts of the mole underground town.

Too busy working on his project, he would tell them, but never elaborate further.

So while his coworkers would go off to enjoy themselves, David the mole would go back to his mole hole alone and work on his mysterious plans into the wee hours of the day, before finally getting some rest and then heading back out in the early hours of the night to begin his shift in the tunnels.

The mole council had decreed it was too dangerous to expand the Mole Town tunnels any further to the west for fear of being discovered by the humans that dwelt there in the city at the base of the mountain.

Thus the tunnelling teams had to burrow through the rocky grounds to the east; which was slow and hard going due to the big boulders they would encounter, causing them to either have to find a way around or backtrack to start an entirely new tunnel.

Needless to say, it was an arduous task and many a mole had been injured, and even a few had lost their lives when a tunnel had collapsed when of a patch of loose boulders got hit upon.

Such losses were tragic, but the devastation that the moles would suffer if discovered by the humans would be even more catastrophic the council had ruled.

So the tunnel teams toiled on through the perilous nights to ensure Mole Town would stay secret and safe as more and more space was needed for all the new moles moving in from the dangerous wilds beyond the farmer's field.

But David the mole had thought of a better way, and it was to that end that he spent his many tireless days planning and calculating.

Until finally it was time to put his plans in motion.

In the early mornings after his shift tunnelling eastward, while the others headed for their post-work wind down, David the mole would go to the west end tunnel and begin burrowing in secret.

Towards the mountain base in the west he would dig alone into the late day until he was almost too exhausted to make it back to his burrow and pass out for a few precious hours of sleep before having to get up and dig at his actual job.

For months he went on like this, until his coworkers grew concerned he was becoming ill due to his weight loss and gaunt visage. But he would just say he had not been sleeping well and trundle off to his mysterious project.

After a couple of these explanations his tunnelling team members decided to see what was really happening.

Keeping their distance, they followed David after work one morning, through the maze of tunnels westward, until they reached what should have been the end of the boundary of Mole Town, yet there was a new tunnel that continued on under the forbidden human realm.

None of them had ever ventured this far west, burrowing under the human city above, but their curiosity and concern for what their enigmatic friend was up to drew them further on.

Up ahead they saw David round a bend and disappear.

Cautiously, they crept around the corner of the tight tunnel and were caught by surprise as they tumbled into a vast empty void that sparkled with refracted light coming from the exposed gem stones that littered the high domed ceiling of the space.

They all rolled out of the tunnel that dropped a ways down to the dirt floor of the shimmery arena.

David turned from his spot higher up the far slope in surprise himself at seeing his coworkers taking in the awe inspiring space.

Scurrying over to the huddled group, David tried to usher them back out the tunnel from where they had all come, but a rumbling had already begun to shake the subterranean room.

The group stopped stubbornly and refused to move until David explained what he was up to.

There was no time, he explained as the shaking intensified. The mountain, he shrieked, the mountain was coming down!

A huge piece of the rocky ceiling came crashing down beside them, shattering into bits and that was enough to get the group scrambling for the tunnel, with David leading the way.

Once in the cramped tunnel the team started to head back the way they had come, but David took them straight into a secret off-shoot tunnel that began to incline through the darkness immediately.

Up and up they climbed as the entire ground around them threatened to collapse and swallow them into the earth.

Finally they emerged into the bright midday air, momentarily blinding them all as the dust and dirt shot out of the tunnel behind them in a great gust air.

Once they donned their tinted work goggles in order to see in the intense light of the sun, the moles looked around at where they had escaped to.

With astonishment, they surveyed the area where the mountain had been just moments before, and the rubble pile that was previously the human city.

As the dust and debris settled they could see that there was nothing left of either the city or the mountain, only a fresh new pile of dirt, for as far as they could see to the west.

The tunnel team looked back at David who was fidgeting awkwardly under their gazes.

With a triumphant cheer, they all rushed to him and lifted him up onto their furry shoulders.

He had done it; quiet, shy David the mole had brought down the mountain and changed everything.

Now began the rise of the Empire of the Moles.

Power Pyramid

Waking up outside of the Sun Temple just before the dawn was Lenethal's favourite part of the day.

The long day ahead spent toiling in the quarry, loading carts with stones and pushing them up to the top of the rough incline to dump them over the edge of the great chasm and then back down again for another load, was all made bearable by watching with anticipation as the sun rose over the apex of the Temple's peaked roof.

The ancient architects that had designed the Temple had masterfully planned out how the building's sloped walls would align perfectly with the arc of the sun's ascent into the morning sky.

So as the golden light slowly crept up the backside of the Temple, the smooth onyx stones of which it was constructed would seem to radiate from within.

From his spot in the dusty field, front and center of the Temple, Lenethal could take in the full effect of the pitch black pyramid structure as the golden glow shone out from behind, causing the silhouetted horizon and Temple to seem as one; organically intertwined as if the Temple itself were a natural part of the landscape.

Just as the sun almost reached the pinnacle of the pyramid's pointed peak, the top of the Temple would open with a horizontal slice of light and lift off from the base; letting the sun shine directly through like an all seeing eye.

This moment Lenethal would await the most each day, for as the sun's rays were caught by the Temple's open oculus, they were amplified and a beam of pure light would blast out and down to the field full of humble workers below; engulfing one of them that had come to be chosen.

Lenethal watched, crestfallen, as the older man who had been only a few rows away from him, was blasted into oblivion by the Sun Temple's beam of light.

Once the light had faded and there was only a blackened mark in the hard sand where the man had stood, the Sun Temple's peaked top closed once more and the round, red sun rose peacefully into the sky above, the crowds of workers beginning to shuffle off, making ready for the day's hard tasks.

And Lenethal sighed as usual and started to slump off to his awaiting quarry cart.

Oh well, he thought with a sniffle, perhaps tomorrow I will be one of the lucky ones.

Cloud WIzard

Up through the clouds I rose; looking down passed my feet the hundreds of meters below to where I had, until a few moments ago, been standing on the sidewalk waiting to cross the street.

My stomach turned as I continued to ascend into the cold, crisp air where the wet wisps of clouds began to gather around me, obscuring the world far below.

Through my confusion I could hear a distant voice, booming yet froggy, seemingly uttering an incantation in a kind of a singsong cadence.

I drifted dreamily through the misty clouds, closer to the voice, spouting in unfamiliar languages as I drew nearer.

Breaking thorough the thick white cover, I came into an opening within the clouds, like a huge pocket hidden inside, and in the middle of the spherical area stood a bearded old wizard, wearing his tall wizard's hat and long wizard's robes.

The wizard waved his wooden wizard's staff back and forth as he continued his enchantment and I floated over to where he stood.

Landing tentatively upon the surprisingly springy cloud floor, I steadied myself as the dizziness from the height wore off unnaturally quickly.

The wizard went silent and regarded me; taking in my regular street clothes with his wizened-eyed gaze.

After an awkward moment of staring in silence I ventured a greeting.

"Hello..." I began.

"I have brought you here!" the wizard's voice boomed loudly and thunder rumbled through the clouds.

"Ahem," he adjusted his voice before continuing, seemingly as surprised at his volume as I was.

"I have brought you here to aid me in a task, mortal." He stated in his quieter, yet still deep, froggy voice.

"Okay, but..." I began again before the wizard cut me off, again.

"For many ages I have been exiled to this realm of clouds," he explained, "by my nemesis, the vile dark wizard, Hemel!"

He spat with rage as he said the name of his enemy; his eyes now filled with wild anger.

"The miscreant became jealous of the fact that I had gained the affections of a fair and powerful witch, and so he flung me here to the far reaches of the realm of winds and sky with an underhanded spell."

I listened to his tale with half interest as I was also concerned with not sinking into the clouds so I did not catch all of the sorted details of the wizard affair, until he got to the point of levitating me up here.

"And so, it is to you I ask for aid." The wizard addressed me directly again. "For I need a mortal's help in collecting the final item necessary to counter the dubious spell and allow me to return down to the surface below."

"Will you help me, my mortal friend? Will you be my champion and quest to retrieve what I need to complete my spell?"

The wizard's voice was regal and commanding, yet there was a hint of a desperate plea within, and I felt compelled to help the old fella out, despite being magically whisked up into the clouds by him, without my consent.

"Yeah, sure," I answered. "What do you need?"

The old wizard practically did a jig right then and there as he took hold of my shoulders and laughed gleefully.

"Oh, ho!" He exclaimed with a mirthful smile. "Thank you, my friend! Thank you!"

He spun around in kind of manic pacing and began to go through the planned spell excitedly, most of which was a mumbled mess in my ears.

"I have almost everything I need," he finished. "Yet, the last ingredient is most difficult, for I cannot simply harvest or cultivate it from up here on high. It maybe difficult to find, for in my time it was only found in the remote parts of an unexplored land, full with dangerous beasts and harsh landscapes."

I began to regret agreeing to help out so quickly as he listed all of the hazards that might be involved in retrieving this mysterious ingredient, until finally he said what the ingredient was and I balked in surprise.

"Wait," I interrupted his rambling explanations. "Do you just mean that sap they use for making chewing gum?"

The old wizard looked at me incredulously. "You know of the ancient Sapodilla tree?"

"Yeah, that's it!" I replied excitedly as the recollection of the name I had learned in high school science class. "They make gum with it. Here you go!"

I reached into my pants pocket and pulled out my packet of gum and handed it to the wizard.

"It's a little flattened because I was sitting on it, but will it do?"

The wizard took the slightly smashed pack of gum and read the ingredients on the back to himself.

"You mean," he started, a little dumbfounded. "You just carry around these little sticks made with the rare sap to chew on all day?"

"I don't know how rare it is, it might be synthetic nowadays, but yup. Is that it?" I asked helpfully.

"Y... yes, that's all..." He sounded deflated after his triumphant excitement of only a few moments ago.

"Alrighty, so can I go back down now?" I asked. "I was on my way to the movies and I should be able to still make it if you could zip me back down."

Still staring with astonishment at the pack of gum, the wizard didn't even look up as he waved his hand in my direction.

"Yes, of course, thank you again." He said distractedly as I was lifted once more into the air and began to descend back down through the clouds.

"Oh, wait!" I shouted to the shrinking form of the wizard as I was flung down from the cloud chamber. "Could you make me a magic potion!?"

My voice was lost in the rushing air as I zoomed back down to the Earth below.

Shoot, I thought to myself. I should have asked for it before giving him the gum. Oh well.

Night Fog

The creeping mists of the fog approached the train platform where he stood beside the circle of light flooding down from the lamppost, its grey metal pole reaching up into the night air.

Looking both directions away from the station he could see the empty train tracks stretch out into the darkness of the eerie, dense night fog.

Even though the winter night should have been cold and dry, the air around him was unusually warm and full of moisture, making him uncomfortably sweaty in his heavy parka.

The train was late, it had been a long day, and he was tired so the darkness and fog seemed to be playing tricks on his mind; they felt alive to him: a leviathan closing in on where he stood, threatening to envelop him into oblivion.

He knew this wasn't true; that he was letting his imagination get the better of him, but still, he moved fully into the sickly amber lamplight.

The light would keep him safe; he just needed to stay within the light.

But that fog still looked ominous; it continued to roll in, seeming to devour the train platform as it crept closer.

Soon there was nothing visible outside the scope of the lamppost's radiant circle of light.

Like in the mists of an intangible dreamscape, he was trapped by the dark grey mists that hemmed in around him.

There was a definite lumbering shape in the dense fog now, rumbling towards him like a nightmare creature come to snatch him away.

As the rumbling increased he began to yell out; scream out in unison with the deafening noise bearing down on him.

Rushing passed him, almost knocking him off balance with its gust of wind, the late night train pulled into the station, causing the misty fog to disperse in curling tendrils

As he realized it was just the train arriving, his screaming died away in the night air as the engine came to its squeaking stop and the doors slid open quietly.

To his side he saw the woman who had been standing on the platform with him the entire time and he motioned for her to step onto the train car first.

She gave him a worried look and opted to hop onto the adjacent car.

With a sigh he got on the train himself and slumped down into one of the empty seats.

It had been a very long day and he was very tired.

Shade

Once there was a little girl that lived in an old mansion at the top of a hill near the edge of town.
 

She wasn't like the other children of the town; while they went to school each day, and ran outside and played, she stayed inside the old house, with its high-reaching iron gates that gave it a foreboding and unwelcoming presence.

 

From a window on one of the upper floors she watched the goings on of the town's children, safely in the shadows through the telescope her parents had given her a long time ago.

 

She watched and observed them as they skipped happily to school with their friends in the mornings, and in the afternoons when their parents would come to meet them on their way home.

 

It was a very idyllic town and its townsfolk were happy and content, even with the looming shadow that old mansion cast down upon it from the hill above.

 

Her parents had been from a prosperous family that had founded and owned many businesses in the town, but as long as everything ran smoothly, they were content to leave the town's people to themselves; as long as the same consideration was given to them. And so they paid the mansion on the hill very little mind.

 

It did make for a solitary life, though not a lonely life per sae, for she had a very inquisitive mind and she filled her days poring over the vast library of books that took up almost the entire second floor of the big house.

 

The books ran the range of subjects from the sciences, to literature, to philosophy, to even the occult. And the petite girl devoured them all; spending whole days sitting in the library's old leather chair that made her look even tinier against its high back and arms.

 

On other days she would run experiments in the cellar's homemade laboratory her parents had commissioned built to fuel her inquisitive predisposition.

 

Finding an interesting idea or theory in one of her books, she would test and confirm the results, and even in quite a few cases, improve upon the original hypothesis.

 

Yet, when she did make her observations out of the window through the lenses of her long telescope, she did yearn to be able to get a closer look at her subjects; purely for scientific reasons.

 

Alas, because of her condition, she could not venture out into the light of day.

 

Very many of her scientific experiments revolved around the problem of her affliction, even if she wouldn't admit it to herself, yet the solution always seemed to elude her.

 

Until she came upon an antiquated book in the mystical section of the library that was a compendium of ancient folk lore and magic tales.

 

She sometimes read these books as a break from the headier subject matter she usually delved into, yet, one of the tales sparked an interest in her. For it might indeed lend itself as an at least aid to her condition.

 

Taking the large tome down to her workshop lab, she proceeded to gather the materials needed to create the described subject found upon the thick, yellowed pages.

 

The process took several days and involved a number of stages of setting and waiting for the setting to take hold, not to mention the numerous incantations that needed to be spoken aloud in the ancient tongues in which the book had been written in order to complete the entire process properly.

 

But being very studious and meticulous, of course the small girl recited them and performed the rituals proscribed perfectly.

 

Once she had completed the process, the girl had only to wait for the light of a specific phase of the moon to see if her efforts would be fruitful.

 

So one clear, midsummer evening, as she sat reading in the library, the moon shone in the night sky, its pale light flooding through the high paned windows, the sound of heavy clomping came from the stairs leading up from the cellar.

 

Marking her place and putting her book aside, the girl watched the doorway as the approaching footfalls came closer along the hallway outside.

 

Filling the entirety of the library's large doorway frame, a great clay Golem stood staring down at the tiny girl from out its hollow eye sockets.

 

With no hesitation or fear, she walked over to the humongous creature to inspect her work as a crafter would a piece of equipment they had engineered.

 

After looking the creature over thoroughly, she gave a nod to herself, satisfied with the results; so far. She would have to wait until the next day to really test her theory out.

 

With that, she bade the lumbering hulk to stand outside her bed chamber door, a silent sentinel as she lay down, unable to sleep in anticipation of the next day's potential.

 

By the time the dawn sun rose, she was cranky with no sleep, but arose quickly and dressed in the cloak and delicate lace veil her mother had given to her but she had never had the opportunity to wear except whenever she was restless to go outside and tried them on, only to be made upset at the fact she could not have used them properly.

 

But on this day! This day, she donned the outfit to go out into the world at last.

At least, she hoped.

 

Opening the door to the hallway, she found the Golem still standing as she left it, and motioned for it to let her step up onto its massive open palm in order to be able to reach up and place a tightly rolled scroll of parchment into its open mouth.

 

Stepping back down from its outstretched hand, the girl proceeded to head downstairs toward the front entrance, the big Golem lumbering behind with its clomping feet thumping on the hardwood floors.

 

Peering out the intricately blown glass windows of the double doors of the main entrance, the girl felt nervous at the prospect of actually setting foot outside in the bright sunlight, but her confidence in her methods bolstered her courage and she looked up over her shoulder to the big clay figure behind her and nodded to it, then opened the doors.

 

Stepping out onto the stone steps of the front of the house that led down to the seldom used driveway, the little girl was hesitant.

 

Then a shadow was cast over her from above and she looked back to confirm her Golem had taken out its gigantic parasol to completely engulf her in its shade.

 

Taking another experimental step out further into the outside, she heard the thump of the Golem's matching footfall.

 

One after the other, its foot steps matched hers in perfect synchronicity.

 

When she stopped, it stopped. When she started again, it started; all the while, holding the huge parasol aloft so that she always remained in its shade.

 

The industrial sized umbrella was constructed of heavy canvas and steel, which made it weigh too much for any normal being to convey.

 

Yet, the Golem hefted it in the air with ease, and so it made it the perfect companion to accompany the lone, little girl into the bright light of the world.

 

She looked out at the town that lay passed the wrought iron bars of the gates at the end of the drive and was filled with excitement at being able to open them and venture outside their confinement at long last.

 

After all these many years of living alone, she was going to be amongst the people she had only observed from her high window.

Within the shade of her Golem, the eternally youthful looking girl smiled broadly, her sharp, white fangs in stark contrast to her blood-red lips.