#meteorgalaxy

It's a quiet night. No monster attacks, just two friends watching the stars light up the sky.

"You know, Ryusei, it's always amazing to think about. The Earth is spinning extremely fast around the Sun, and the Sun and everything is moving at its own speed around the center of the galaxy, which is also in motion. And yet, at least for now, the stars hold to a pattern in the sky."

"The pattern of the stars is caused by the light from star hundred of millions of lightyears away refracting through the Earth's atmosphere. Most of those stars probably died a long time ago." Ryusei answers.

Gentaro takes out his phone and sends off a text to Ryusei.

Tomoko sits in her front lawn, a laptop computer on the table in front of her, flanked by her tea set and notes on the world she's created.

"It's no good. There's too many holes here to make this work." She taps the  top of her computer.

The publisher for Tales of Heroism wanted to see a story about a martial artist, one who could save the day without guns. For her part, Tomoko has only seen a few martial arts movies, and that was during movie night at the Hutch. She's not sure how accurate those are.

Anyone else would probably just fake it. But she wants her stories to have as much verisimilitude as can be possible in a world of guardian spirits and airships.

As she looks up from the screen, she notices a familiar face.

thatothercosplayer

silveradventurer

meteorgalaxy

He lines up his stance in the cage, looking down at the pitching machine.

Clunk, Whirrr. PFFT! SWISH!

Clunk, Whirrr. PFFT! SWISH!

Clunk, Whirrr. PFFT! SWISH!

Three balls drop from the hopper, spin up and fly towards Gentaro. Each time, he's too late on his swing and the balls bounce harmlessly off the back of the cage. He readjusts his stance, and waits for the next pitch. But the sound of an approaching motorcycle drowns out the mechanical sounds and he misses a fourth time.

He doesn't turn at the sound of the cage next to him opening up. He just wants to hit something. But he should still be civil, even if he doesn't feel like it.

"All right everybody. I'm going to need to ask you all a few questions about what you saw during this fire." He points across the street to the burned out hulk of the consignment shop, as if that motion was necessary.

Aya's still in the final say on the new gadgets for Skyforce. Today, she's testing a device similar to a rope dart, launched from a port atop the wing gauntlet. However, this device has a bit too much kick. The recoil drives Aya back and the dart flies fifty yards downrange, landing four yards from another person.