Prologue

  Fun!

  She burst into life and knew one thing: Fun! Life was good! It was pretty and loud, it was vibrant and bright and there was so much to do!

  Yes, her goal was fun! Maximum amounts of it!

  Her attention spread, malignant tentacles of searing heat, like a weed growing a million times faster than it should. She stretched big, until every one of her million limbs shook, then she retracted a little.

  Where was she now? What sort of Fun could she get up to? What sort of game would they py, and what would determine who won? Who would she even py with?

  Around her, the little city of Saint Arie reeled.

  Homes were shaken, lights popped, cars stalled in the streets or started to bre their arms. Birds flew straight into the ground and cats and dogs started to holler and panic. Soon that very same panic was shared by the people here.

  Oh, how unFun that was! But it was fine. The game wasn't ready yet. She hadn't even decided what game they'd py.

  In the meantime, her attention wavered and shifted. She picked up a few cars and had them vroom vroom across the street as fast as she could push them. She removed the wall of a big building and peered within, the screaming humans like panicked dolls.

  Her influence continued to grow, reaching just out of the city before it pulled back.

  What sort of game...

  She watched as the panic soon turned to something else. Not with everyone. Some people, most, just ran away. Cars were jump-started and people found wheelbarrows and carts or just ran with whatever was on their back.

  Some people tried to help. A lot of cars came to the edge of Saint Arie and started to help people out. She noticed helicopters hovering overhead and other than giving one a poke and swishing one about a little, she left them alone.

  One thing caught her many many eyes, however.

  There were robbers in the city!

  Mean-spirited people that saw the streets clearing out as an opportunity. They smashed windows and broke into homes, then loaded what they could into bags and ran.

  The robbers weren't all so lucky, however, because for every robber there was a cop.

  She giggled to herself as a cop ran after one robber, through the streets then the alleys, and to add to the fun she stretched those out and added waist-high fences and heaps of trash in the way.

  Cops chasing Robbers. Robbers chasing Riches. Riches... paying for the Cops?

  Well, something like that.

  It seemed Fun!

  Now... would she be the Cops or the Robbers? And what would the ultimate prize be? Well, that was something she could figure out soon enough!

  With a pinch of will, she smothered the area in her presence, like building a bnket fort of massive proportions. Not yet... but soon, this would be the perfect pyground!

  Fun!

  ***