Great to hear, dialyn. Thanks for the link. :) Sorry for the delay everyone. Finding a spare moment or two over the past few days was somewhat a challenge. Ok, prepare yourselves. :) STORY---------- 'Friend?' questioned Maddox, as he turned to look behind him. Thwack! A sharp blow to the head knocked him to the floor. Sandra began to scream. A dark and menacing figure loomed over Maddox as he fumbled around on all fours in a daze.    'You have kept me waiting far too long,' came a deep, hissing voice. 'Now you will suffer as I have been.' Thwack! A second blow knocked Maddox unconscious, sprawling him out face down on the carpet. The last thing he heard before the darkness overcame him was the sound of Sandra's muffled screams as she struggled for her life.    Hours later, Maddox's eyes blinked slowly open, his mind spinning as he tried to recall what had happened. Then it struck him. In a panic he staggered to his feet, his eyes darting around the room frantically; it was empty. On the bed lay a note:          'If you want her back alive, bring me Mayata. Crow's Tower Bridge. Tuesday 3am.' Mayata approached the collection of books and picked one from the shelf. She slid her fingers along the edges, marvelling at its elegant design and light weight. The front cover pictured Mayata engulfed in swirls of cloud, with a title below: 'Issue 27: Mayata - Lost In Time'. She dropped the book in shock. Upon hitting the ground it flipped open, revealing many hidden pages of hand-drawn artwork, together with scatterings of text. Mayata snatched up the book and stared at it in disbelief. She flicked to a random page and began to read: Mayata jumped onto a nearby table and unsheathed her sword, ready for battle. From her high vantage point she could see book shelves wavering to and fro as hundreds of people charged their way noisily towards her. As the first wave rounded the corner Mayata sprang forth into the air, performing an impressive triple somersault and vocalising her Xena-style war cry as she went: 'Aiyayayayayaiii!!'    Upon landing she growled angrily, ready to face the onslaught head on. She was surprised then to find that the hordes of people had stopped and were gathered around her with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Suddenly there was thunderous applause and cheering.    'Woohoo! Yeah!' came shouts of approval from the crowd. 'You rock Mayata!'    Mayata blushed a little, but kept her wits about her. An excited, little girl ran up and hugged her leg. She beamed with happiness as her mother took a photo.    'When I'm grown up, I wanna be just like you!' she said with a big smile, and ran back to join her family.    'Like me?' thought Mayata.    By this time the rest of the crowd had turned their attention to the books on display and were rummaging through them in a wild frenzy. Remembering what the small man from earlier had said about the books, Mayata sheathed her sword and stormed towards the rabble. Spotting an adolescent male holding several copies in his arms, she issued another war cry and pounced into action. To the male's alarm she performed a spinning roundhouse kick to his side, sending the books flying, and him through a nearby bestseller's book stand. Onlookers gasped. Mayata then proceeded to attack anyone she saw breaking the rules: grabbing people by the heads and smacking them together, twirling them through the air by their ankles, punching, kicking, headbutting, until all that remained was a pile of bodies and books. Mayata looked around in satisfaction, dusting off her hands.    At that moment the small man appeared. 'Oh my God! What have you done?!' he exclaimed, horrified. 'Security!'    Two burly security guards came trudging up behind him. 'Seize that woman!' commanded the little man.    Thinking quickly, Mayata kicked over one of the tall book shelves, causing it to fall into an adjacent shelf, then another one, and another, setting off a domino-style effect in the direction of the guards. The guards yelped as a ton of books fell upon them. 'Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!'    The small man shrieked. 'My books! My beautiful books!' he cried, whimpering. 'They're all ruined!'    Mayata used this opportunity to make her escape, but not without taking one of the Mayata books first. She grabbed the only one remaining on the book display, clambered across the room over the debris of literature and dove into an open book chute. Startled by the sudden roar of a stampede, Mayata quickly averted her gaze from the book and turned it in the direction of the calamity. Approaching from the front of the room came the sound of a disgruntled mob of people, storming their way through the maze. They would be upon her at any moment.    Placing the book to one side, Mayata jumped onto a nearby table and unsheathed her sword, ready for battle. ----------STORY Hey, why not just throw logic entirely out the window? I'm still trying to get my head around it. :) Over to you dialyn.

Drekinn
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"Let words be your palette."