Afternoon, officer. Hot enough for ya? Officer Daniel Svoboda rumbled a chuckle in return.

A little too hot, for my tastes. But I hear it's a lot hotter back in Africa right now. The Grand Center in Vienna was the seventeenth urban bombing in four weeks blamed on separatists* I hear that, replied the street vendor. Daniel smiled in return, then looked around the neighborhood. Two blocks down, someone had managed to open up one of the fire hydrants, and several children were dancing in the spray of water. That was a violation of the law. It was also 98 degrees out. The lion debated it briefly inside his own head, then decided to let it slide. It had rained the other day, so conditions weren't exactly dry. And it was oppressively hot out. If he got asked about it, he'd explain himself to his supervisor. The UN Security Commission remained in closed session tonight following-* Here. On the house. Danny turned back to find the street vendor proffering a large cup of flavored slush. Thank you! said the lion as he dug into one of his pockets. The vendor waved him off. At least your mother tipped well! exclaimed a canine male to a vulpine female on the television. She slapped his face; he slapped hers. Two seconds later, and they were in one another's embrace-* Thank you more! The lion took a sip, and as he did so, a woman screamed out loud. My purse! A desert scene played over the television, as a narrator announced, Harsh, unforgiving wilderness-* Officer Svoboda took several steps forward towards the incident. A young raccoon, maybe fifteen years old or so, was hauling tail down the sidewalk towards him. When he finally saw the police officer, his eyes widened sharply as he-* Channel 56. A roomful of people were doing some kind of exercise. Bicycle kicks, mayb-* I'm not gonna hurt you! shouted Svoboda, putting out both paws, fingers splayed out. At six feet and three inches, and half that across the shoulders, he knew that he was rather intimidating. But the kid didn't know that he knew that. All he saw was a uniform, a badge, and a gun. He hesitated for an instant, then darted into the street-* Channel 88. An ancient jalopy loaded with organ pipes rolled across the screen, while toddlers' play blocks sat in the background. A dinosaur the color of the International House of Pancakes laughed aloud as-* **RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTTTTTTTTK!** Danny would never forget that sound for the rest of his entire life. The driver of the old-model Chevrolet literally stood on his brake, leaving long black marks on the road as he tried to-* -paint some happy trees, murmured the artist as he nudged his canvas with his brush. It shouldn't be

possible, but damn if they didn't look like trees-* The purse went soaring into the air like a long bomb football throw. The 'coon kid flew less far from the impact, and landed right in front of him in the street-* Soybean futures are up thirty-two cents after-* Afternoon, officer. Hot enough for ya? The lion growled heavily, and threw the remote at the television. The flatpanel TV rocked backwards a little bit, while the remote bounced off of it and landed on the floor with a dissatisfying *thmp*. Not sleeping again? asked his wife, as the vixen slid her arms over his chest from behind. Do I look like I'm sleeping? said the lion, as he hugged the arms slid down his chest. Maria pressed a kiss to his lips, which he met in full, and with interest. You look like you're in pain, she said, softly. Daniel growled gently. I'm fine. I just need some time t-* We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special bulletin. Both lion and fox blinked a few times, as they each gave their attention to the television. A graphic showing, Special/Broadcast/Alert on three different lines showed on the television, along with a short, stirring measure of music. About half a minute later, both faded to reveal a black fox behind a desk, having what looked like a rather heated argument with a youngish corgi. There was no sound for the first few seconds, until the mic abruptly turned on. --nonsense an eighth-grader would come up with! Go find a better source! The fox blinked once, as he realized that he was on the air, and cleared his throat sharply, while the corgi promptly retreated and fled offscreen. Good morning, I'm Charles Faultner. We apologize for interrupting your regularly scheduled programming to bring you breaking news. Charles glanced down at his tablet in front of him, and frowned for a brief moment before looking back up at the camera. The city of Lagos in Nigeria, on the African continent, is currently, he glanced down at his tablet once more, before looking back to the camera, under a rather unusual attack. The information available at this time is currently somewhat conflicting, however, we... He glanced down at his tablet for a third time, just before the video feed from the studio was replaced by an obviously amateur shot from atop a large building in an urban setting. Some two blocks away or so, a wolf of unreal proportions was screaming. Unreal, as in he seemed to be larger than most of the buildings in the area. His eyes, ears and nose were all bleeding profusely, while his fur writhed and squirmed visibly. He swung a massive arm right into and through an adjacent building and screamed again. Silence reigned in the news studio for several more seconds, as the wolf continued his rampage. Finally, Faultner spoke up. ...Evidently the reports of an attack by a titanic alien were actually correct. Once again, dead air came across the audio feed, as the wolf staggered towards the tallest building in view, throwing his arms through most of the other buildings as he passed by. He seemed to

be trying to do as much damage to himself as he could. The video feed shifted and jostled as the person holding the camera (probably a smart-phone, thought Daniel) ran forward to the very edge of the rooftop he was on. The new perspective gave a better display of the street, and the many dozens of people fleeing the area on foot or by vehicle as rapidly as they could. A few, here and there, paused to turn back and gawk at the impossible sight, which caused others around them to pause, turn, and gape upwards as well. The wolf staggered and stumbled as he moved down the street. At times he held a hand to his head, or his heart, or clutched his torso with both arms. Upon reaching the huge, white building, he began to promptly smash his forehead against the exterior wall. Chunks of debris of widely-varying size rained down to the ground below. The megawolf seemed to be even larger than he had been at the beginning of the video stream. Apparently unsatisfied, the wolf plunged both arms into the skyscraper, and began to climb up along the wall. Many times more debris dropped down on the street like a waterfall as it was dislodged. The video angle zoomed in and out at random intervals; at one point it zoomed in rapidly to show a female of some kind in a bathtub. She visibly screamed as the flooring and walls collapsed in front of her, and screamed even louder as the bathtub she was in started sliding right along with the debris towards the ground. The video feed promptly snapped back upwards and panned back to focus on the titan. He continued to climb up the building, moving ponderously. He slipped on occasions as the faade crumbled under the weight of many times more than it was designed to have to ever deal with, but the interior support beams were, apparently, just strong enough for him to grab hold of. The video feed panned back still more, showing the huge spire that topped the building. The titanic wolf's gaze seemed to be locked on that spire. Eventually, he reached the top of the building. There were still no words from the studio, as he crested the top of it. His fur continued to writhe and squirm (was he even bigger than he was at the bottom?) as he hunched over the top of the spire. One's mind would fill in the sounds that were absent as the gigantic wolf lunged his torso down on the spike at the top of the spire. It didn't go in very far. The wolf lunged harder and harder with increasing desperation. His rippling arms flailed and reached further downwards along the spire. At long last the spire snapped off completely, and the titan fell off the top of the building to the ground below. The view panned back to minimum as the titanic wolf hit several buildings, sending many times more debris into the air. Then it cut back to the media studio. We... said the fox before faltering. He was looking down at his tablet once more. He stroked his finger over the display multiple times. After several moments, he finally looked back up at the camera, his ears gone pale. We're receiving reports that this very same thing is also happening in Cairo, Kinshasa, Johannesburg, Khartoum, Mogadishu... He trailed off, while off-camera, someone cursed aloud. It wasn't bleeped out, nor were there any admonishments given. Just silence. The video shifted again. A different city, a different culture. A mind-bendingly massive female gecko staggered along a street somewhere, crushing cars and trees underneath her feet. Her skin was visibly breaking out in boils and pustules, and she seemed to be screaming even harder than the wolf was.

*shift* A supermassive silverback gorilla screamed at the sun with intense rage, before staggering down the street. Entire buildings crumpled and collapsed as enormous arms swung through them. He soon fell to the ground, taking out multiple parked vehicles and several trees. He deliberately smashed his face against the pavement. Many cracks formed, but the street held. He smashed his face downwards once more. The street collapsed. The gorilla then proceeded to worm his way downwards, crushing and crumbling the road as he writhed towards the center of the Earth. The carnage went on for another hour. The lion and vixen remained glued in their seats, unwilling to even use the toilet. One feed was being taken in the air; a titan was wading through collapsed buildings, heedless of the destruction it wrought, or even of its own footsteps. It was so badly disfigured that it was difficult to tell what species or even gender it used to be. Heedless, until it abruptly dropped to the ground, hugging itself. It curled up even more tightly, arms around its legs as it assumed the tightest fetal position that it could. The scream of pain that emerged shattered every nearby window, and knocked off some smaller branches on nearby trees. Its pelt boiled and writhed even more than ever before. And then it just stopped. Blood flooded the city streets as seemingly every single cell in the titan's body came apart and collapsed entirely. It was fully half a minute before Charles spoke up once more. We're receiving reports that this is also happening in some of the cities which have been under attack. The video feed switched back to the studio; the anchorman was rapidly swiping his finger over his tablet. Actually... More finger strokes, and then he looked back at the camera. This seems to be occurring in every single city that suffered this assault. The giants' bodies appear to be breaking down rapidly. The vulpine pressed a hand to his ear as he listened to his earpiece and nodded once. We now bring you to one of our best reporters, Annette Gorra, who happened to be in Cairo at the time of this attack. Annette, what can you tell us about this incident?