"Why would you ask?" She said in abrupt denial, a lump forming in her throat. He mugged, she was trying to make him look stupid."Because you've been stalking me like a creep?" He said and heads turned. He remembered the day he got the stomach flu and she had the camera flashing in his face. He was not afraid to cause a scene."All right, before this gets more embarrassing than it already is...I was only taking photos of you because...I have an art project and I needed a model. I guess I got carried away with...references." She let out hiding behind a history book. "I figured it would be better to take photos of you under natural circumstances where I...can...capture real emotion...""Like that one..." She muttered."What a relief." He said folding his arms. "Maybe find someone else and quit bothering me!"She bit her lip when he pushed past her and resorted to borrowing the books instead..... In the late hours of the afternoon. The mimic threw the battered merchant into the trash

"Yeah, sure, go ahead.""Can you fly without wings?""What?" He said in the heavy breeze. "Can you fly without wings? Like a sparrow or a hummingbird! That sort of stuff." He winced. "I never thought of that and I don't even plan on trying." He added sternly and she dropped her finger pouting."You're fun at parties." She muttered."Hey, the worst that can happen is a broken neck. Oh and my bills. Months of recovery. Which I don't have_time for.""Okay, just say when." She asserted and he mugged. They walked through the park where the dust storms plagued them the most. The trees were coated by dust and sunlight crept into their faces while they strolled. She marvelled at the webs covering the branches like canopies. "It's that time of the year yet? Nasty." A man grumpily swept patches of colorful latex on the floor by a cart while the officer wrote a ticket. They moved past a tree with porcupine quills embedded on it. Artemis kicked up a balloon with the back of her heel while s

He rubbed his head. "Nothing expensive, Vic."Victor blinked. "That's fine, it's nice to have a change of scenery though.""I guess." Maks reclined on the stairs. He turned edgy at Dom approaching. He tilted his head upwards with a smirk on his face. Maks's face twitched when he frowned."What's up, M*nnie Mouse?" He hollered and Maks stood up, Dom towered over him. "What do you want?""Whoa, watch your language, buddy, I just came here to apologize." He touched his chest. "I understand I haven't been very fair to you and I was kind of a jerk. But we can all look back someday and laugh."Maks looked unphased, there could be more of Imago's offspring living inside him for all he knew. "How's your head?""Fine." His ears turned pink. "Look." He raked his hair and Maks got a glimpse of the nasty scrapes on his temple. He had a bruise on his cheek and chin too. "I understand we haven't been on friendly terms a lot, so...I'm gonna leave you on a good note, I won't...bother you anymore."

He lurched at the sea urchin rolling away, a temperamental octopus blazed violently with colours and dragged by the rocks. Amid the rocks, the creature opened its eyes watching the strange silhouette meander. It crept out of its cavern going after him. He thought he heard a dolphin close by or an orca whale. He whirled around in the murky waters and caught its webbed hands in his grip. He grunted and it hissed trying to make minced meat out of his face with its razor-sharp teeth clattering like a piranha's. It had the face of an angler fish except it had no outgrowth, its eyes instead were two bulbs of glowing bacteria, it had the body of a woman, skin and a tail as coarse as a goliath grouper. It had arms. It made a piercingly loud sound like an alarm. More rose from the caverns. Maks stuffed its mouth with a rock and lanced it with its own fang, the others lunged at him and he spread out in the fashion of a Portuguese Man-of-War. They were hydrozoans. The groupies looked stunned

It jumped out of the sewers in liquid form, he digressed from its path and gazed at the cars coming in haste. Horns tooted.The metal man ran on two legs with arms like skewers. He knew he was done for. There was a car rushing in urgently and he picked up speed and hightailed it behind the car to the other side. He prompted it to give it a try. A truck rammed the Death Metal out of his view and his eyebrows rose while the truck whizzed by, the bonnet was in Flames and the driver alighted running for his life. The engine overheated and detonated blasting him out of its radar. Maks scoffed watching it melt, twitching. The metal man was red hot. It tried to regenerate but its hands melted like goo. He backed away from the scene before things escalated again. He happened to be passing by the cabin and noticed the new trees planted with stilts to support them. Most of them were dying already. The land looked overturned and richer. He saw what he thought was a pile of dried leaves, he look