Really, it was just a bad day for the human race.

No one would ever be able to say what caused the accident at the CERN facility in the hills of southern Switzerland, for there was no survivors. Perhaps it was as simple as a coffee mug carelessly set down on the wrong button. There's no way to be certain.

All that is known for sure is that shortly past noon, just before news of the carnage in London went out over the BBC for the five desperate moments before Broadcasting House was obliterated, a blinding white flash overtook the city of Lugano. Those who looked skyward perhaps saw the massive form rising above the hills and heading south faster than the eye could see. Firefighters responding found only a smooth crater where once a particle accelerator had been.

Mere minutes later, a massive shadow passed over the Porta Nuova district of Milan, accompanied by a shockwave that shattered windows and knocked pedestrians to their feet. As they began to pick themselves up and wonder what happened, a massive bulk slammed into the Palazzo Lombardia, shearing off the top six floors of the building to fall to the streets below.

It was then that anyone got their first clear look at the creature. It was gigantic, with bulging eyes and a long, prehensile neck, brown and gray feathers the length of buses. It spread its massive wings atop what remained of the skyscraper, putting a battleship in the mind of everyone who looked at it.

And then the attack truly started.

Thousands attempted to flood out of their offices in a panic, only to be trampled or crushed under falling rubble as the second-tallest building in Italy crumbled under the weight of the massive vulture, filling the streets with a cloud of flying debris. The creature hopped lightly through the district, buildings ripped apart by the passage of its capricious talons. Commuter trains full of helpless people were crushed like empty tin cans as the monster waded through Milano Centrale, one of Europe's busiest rail stations. Occasionally, the long neck of the creature would dip down, the toothy beak closing on some cowering pocket of people. It was hard not to see a malevolent grin on its face throughout the duration. 

It was barely ten minutes later that the creature lifting off in a flapping of wings that flattened small buildings with hurricane-force winds. But the damage had been done. Responders would eventually find nearly eleven thousand to be dead and wounded in what remained of downtown. 

The creature headed south, unseen on radar and easily outrunning Tornados scrambled from Ghedi Air Base. It was last seen passing over the seaside town of Bogliasco, the wind of its passage strong enough to uproot trees and overturn automobiles, south into the Ligurian Sea.