[centre][b][h1]Pansy Spitz[/h1][/b][/centre]

The afternoon air was cool on Pansy's face, which had become quite flushed in the back room of the bakery. He clutched his basket of bread close to his body and stopped a moment, listening hard. There wasn't a sound for miles - not a bird sang, not a child shouted and it seemed as though the whole town held it's breath for something. He walked cautiously down the street, as if terrified that something bad was happening. He had walked this street millions of times over course of his life but never had it felt so silent and tense.

The sound of rapidly approaching footsteps around the corner made him jump slightly. A short, light-haired girl covered in muck and grass gave him a quick wave and a "Hello!" before continuing past him without breaking her run. Pansy recognised her, somewhat vaguely - it was Emery Cooke, the girl who worked with his sister, Tulip, at the mechanics. By the time he had caught on to who she was, she was already out of earshot down the street. "Oh, Emery!" he began, taking a step back towards the bakery. "Ohhh....never mind, then". A paranoid part of the baker said she was running from something and judging by the state of her clothes and face, it could be believable. But the friendly greeting and wave said otherwise. He shook his head, wondering where she was off to and continued towards the Simmons' household.

It wasn't that far, theoretically, anyway. The Simmons' were a local family unit. Two children, a father and a mother made up the close family unit. There wasn't particularly anything strange about them. They were a rather plain yet happy family that were famous for the brown hair, brown eyes combination that was in every generation. They were also one of Carmena's favourite customers, hence the reason she delivered much of their bread.

Ah, bread. The smell of freshly-baked bread still had an almost drug-like effect to Pansy, even after nine year working in a bakery. As a child, his mothers bread had been delicious and one of Pansys goals in life was to some day reach the same level of bread-making as his mother, who refused to hand down her secrets. Although, Pansy was almost sure she hid the recipes in her journal under the-

A quiet hum came over head as a sleek, silver ship flew over the town. Pansy's eyes widened at the sight and the bread basket fell to his feet, instantly forgotten. This was no normal trade ship or even a pirate ship - it looked much more powerful than that. For years, the crazy men with signs on Kuiper had often shouted in his face about invaders from outer space. At the time, he had laughed off their ideas as silly or unrealistic. But now, seeing a sleek silver ship, with [i]no deck[/i], not to mention the strange insignia, set his heart racing. 

Emery running. A sleek ship. Everyone disappeared. It all made sense. Krukow was being invaded by aliens.

Horrible things came to mind just at the thought of aliens - green men with guns, people shot, injuries, the way of life ruined forever and worst of all, death. The stories told in the Kuiper newspaper, that his mother had often read and believed, told story of skiffs, completely abandoned, washing up in docks with no signs of struggle and they often suggested aliens.

Pansy gulped as he saw the ship lazily turn and land somewhere behind him. His heart rate increased, his tongue became dried and heavy in his mouth and he could feel his left leg beginning to shake. These were the first signs that he was scared. So he did the thing he always did when scared - he started running to find his mother. He set off at a lumbering pace but got faster as thoughts of aliens with laser guns killing his entire family drowned out all other thoughts. A small part of him said to scream for help but then he realised that was probably what everyone else in town had done. And he couldn't see any of them. He ran full pelt for several minutes, his heart feeling  

He slowly trotted to a stop at a corner and leaned on it with one arm on his knees, panting hard. "Oh my Gods...Oh my Gods..." he murmured between breaths, his heart rate nearing that of a marathon runner. His chest felt tight and the muscles on his legs burned He glanced into the sky behind him, wondering if aliens would spare a black man and his small family if he offered to cook bread for them.

Something hit him straight on in the chest, almost making him jump out of his boots. It bounced harmlessly off him, thankfully. He still gave a small yelp as the girl who had run straight into him hit the floor in front of him. "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry" he said, covering his mouth with one hand in shock. 

The girl shoved herself to her knees, a scowl on her face and pointed a finger at him. A frightened look crossed his face as she did so. Was she an alien about to kill him? Or even worse, anally probe him? Although...

"“Who do you think you are, you-you [i]pansy![/i] Do you have any idea who I am? Running into me like that! Ha! I should show you what to run into!” she snarled at him. "Bu-but you ran into me..." his voice trailed off to nothingness as she crossed her arms and fumed. She looked rather familiar. Pansy had seen the girl around town several times but he couldn't put a name to her face. And Pansy Spitz knew [i]everyone[/i] on Krukow worth knowing about.

“Didja see those Crucible ships, huh, beefcakes? We don’t have time to be dawdlin’!” she said suddenly. "Crucible ships? But those are obviously-Ohhhhh, gosh, I'm such an idiot!" his sentence ended in a short laugh, ignoring the nickname she had thrown at him. He was silly to believe such stories - green men from outer space would never invade a small island like Krukow. But this relief was short lived when he remembered that while an imaginary threat wasn't, a real threat [i]was[/i].

To emphasize her point, the smaller girl gave him a slap on the bicep. Pansy flinched, even though it didn't hurt him (much) but she seemed to do the same, almost hopping back to avoid his reach. "Damn it all." she murmured to herself. Pansy looked slightly uncomfortable and rubbed his arm, pouting slightly.

"Erm, okay. The Crucible is here, are they? Well, that's bad..." A chilling gunshot echoed through the empty streets from the centre of town, confirming Pansy's theory. The Crucible were here and it was bad. Very fucking bad.

"Oh, my gods..." he whispered, his eyes meeting the girls and widening in fear. "Le-lets get out of here". He set off on a jog down the road, careful not too make too much noise. The gunshot set his pulse racing and all sorts of theories raced through his head to it's source. Who had fired a gun in this town? More importantly, who had they fired it [i]at[/i]? The Crucible seemed like the obvious answer but still more questions spun in his mind. What were they doing here, of all places? What would they do to the inhabitants?

Why here? Why Krukow?