[color=gray][quote]Flor reached into the pile of drying cement and managed to pull out the wrench. Borrick's sobs quickly began to subside as he handed it to him. "Take care of this. I know you already do, but keep an eye out for the things around you too."
- Florence[/quote]
[quote]A tremendous bang echoed from over by the lifts. The workers all turned towards the sound. The old bearded fellow let the wrench fall to his side, setting it down carefully as he started to approach. Ethan grinned slyly. He touched another sigil, lower, this time imagining punching his boss in the face. He appeared right by the wrench, and he scooped it up, glancing around to make sure nobody saw. He pretended to be cleaning it off for a few seconds just in case somebody still did, but once he was sure, he slipped it into his coat. Then, he rushed towards the lifts like everyone else, as if to appear just as concerned. Hopefully he could avoid getting tazed again.
- Ethan[/quote][/color]
Only with Flor's encouragement did Borrick finally blow his nose into a sooty handkerchief and stifle his sobs. He breathed a bit more easily, though still with a shudder, and nodded, taking his beloved wrench into a ham-sized hand.

A thunderous BANG by the visitor lifts drew his attention completely away from the bits of drying concrete in his beard. He placed the wrench with care back into its slot in his toolbox and wandered closer to see who'd damaged what this time -- only to find that everyone below was just as confused about that noise as he was.

Borrick had barely turned his attention away from the lifts when he knew -- he [i]knew[/i] -- that someone had taken his wrench.

The shard of soul within that wrench belonged to Borrick himself, after all.

And so, as soon as the treasure hunter paused at the edge of the block, Borrick snatched Ethan's arm in a death-iron grip. He glowered at Ethan with a look of pure, murderous rage, amplified by the tear stains and red circles around his dangerous eyes.

[color=gray][quote]Personally he thought that it was crazy to be building a wall up this high. The Grit hadn't attacked in forever. Sure there were sightings, but at this point he began to wonder if they were myths or fantasy. Maybe there were some horror story made to get fearful children into line.
- Vincent[/quote]
[quote]"Isn't the Queens address system hard-wired? Hmm, pretty sure it's a closed circuit. I wonder who they're gonna fry for this hiccup?" He would attempt to humor himself in situations such as this. The alternative solution would be to investigate. "There was time when I would. Just let the engineers handle it, old fart."
- Otto[/quote]
[quote]"What was that? It sounded like thunder, but the sky's clear... And I'm sure I saw lightning in those clouds over the mine, but they're not storm clouds." She pointed to the nearby diamond mine behind Reina, which currently had a large cloud doing its best cotton ball impersonation sitting over it.
- Maria[/quote]
[quote]"I...I have the reports in order, and I've been tasked to--AHEM--to um, go over a few budgetary concerns that have come to light over the past few months, and, uh...miss...ma'am?" He could tell the forewoman's attention was wandering and he was subconsciously thankful for it.  Moth followed her gaze, out over the Wall, to an almost invisible hollow in the distant pastures.
- Moth[/quote][/color]
Something near the lifts made a broken noise, and Dazz started looking over to see who'd busted the cables again -- but instead, her eyes caught sight of the clouds over the diamond mine. A hollow circle of blue sky was expanding slowly, pushing those clouds out of the way.

Dazz had completely forgotten Moth was even talking, at this point. She whipped out her binoculars again, tapped the settings as close as they'd go, but there was nothing to see that was of particular cause for alarm.

[h3]BOOM[/h3]
That noise, straight out of the diamond mine, rumbled like a break in the sound barrier. Dazz gripped the edge of the wall and struggled to hold those binoculars steady.

Something sparked in the middle of that blue space in the clouds. A moment passed. In silence, Dazz saw the explosion of white electricity, like a little sun going supernova. The bright sky over the plains flickered.

She held her breath, and counted the seconds after a flash of lightning.

One . . . Two . . .

[h2]kkkzzzz[i]KA-BOOOOOOM[/i][/h2]
[b]"SOUND THE ALARM!"[/b] Dazz's voice was drowned out by the sizzle of lightning overhead. Electricity shot across the sky in a bright, spidering line.

Throughout the illuminated city, bells and beeps and howling alarms blared. The city folk stepped out on their porches and stared up at the sky, hands shading their eyes. Nobody had ever seen anything like this: a bright line of pulsing electric, crossing the whole sky from the west to the east, turning the blue sky white with its brightness.

Dazz abandoned her binoculars and ran for the building block, threw herself up the ladders, as if there was anything she could do.

[b]"EVERYONE GET DOWN! INSIDE THE WALL! OFF THE BLOCK! NOW!"[/b] At the top of her lungs, her orders were barely heard over the alarms and electric.

[h1][i]k-CRACK[/i][/h1]
It was a noise like an enormous egg being cracked.

Only, it was the sky that split along the line of lightning.

The southern half of the sky suddenly went dark, as if the light had been switched off to reveal the moon and the stars. The south side of the city was plunged into darkness.

North of the electric line, the sun still shone and the sky was blue.

Here, at the western point of the wall, night and day battled together in an ominous, electric twilight.

Dazz could only stand in shocked silence while a cold wind blew across the wall.

[h3]CRACK[/h3]
A bolt of lightning struck the queen's tower. Masses of crackling, spidery bolts erupted from the tip of the tower and rained down upon the city like a bright, endless hailstorm.

The screams of the city folk echoed on the walls that closed them in.

There was no damage to the city, though -- nothing burned, nothing broke, nothing splintered. To those high up on the walltop, it wasn't quite clear what the purpose of all this was, if it wasn't to destroy Periphery.

Something moved in the light-and-darkness out over the plains to the west. Dazz turned her head, and she saw a skittering mass of Grit emerging from the woods in the distance, crossing the plains fearlessly, like they hadn't done in thirty years.

[b]"GUARDS! WEAPONS --"[/b] Dazz started hollering, but her words were cut off as she was struck by lightning. One of those stray bolts from the tower had got her.

When the blinding flash was gone, Dazz had turned to stone where she stood.

All that was left of the foreman was a statue of herself in mid-holler, eyes open wide in fright and determination, a finger pointed out over the wall toward the incoming swarm of Grit in the distance.

In front of the statue's chest, something small floated, glowing pale pink. A little stone hovered close to Dazz, filled with a strange sort of energy.

Borrick, too, had been struck; his stone hand still gripped Ethan's arm, though the statue's expression was cast upward in terror. A pink glowing stone floated at his chest.

Electricity barraged the city, and the screams of the city folk began to go quiet as every single man, woman and child within the walls was turned to stone.

From the top of the wall, maybe you could see the little pinpricks of pink light scattered through the dark southern city.

After awhile, the rain of lightning subsided. The electricity in the sky dispersed and disappeared, leaving only a clean line between day and night where the sky was split in two.

A ball of lightning still crackled at the top of the queen's tower, illuminating the statues below.