Andropolis was one of the largest, most progressive, sprawling cities in the world. Over Six Million people hustled and bustled throughout the arteries of the city. The huge, downtown area, with hundreds of skyscrapers—none of them record holders, but several of them quite close—teamed with humanity. As many dwellings that existed in the monolithic, man-made mountains, the huge city could never hope to support the current population of commuters who took advantage of the mass transit system to get to work. Many of their homes lay in outlying cities, the burbs, and the more hip downtown parts of the cities that had puny-by-comparison buildings merely ten stories tall or less.

The cool air propelled the citizens with a brisk step as the sun shone on them. It had been balmy for weeks, and the ideal weather showed no sign of letting up.

The people moved quickly, but not hurriedly, industriously, but not in a mindless-lock step. Art, commerce, science, and spirituality all seemed to shine on the huge city and its people. Dozens of skyscrapers were being finished; a huge marathon was in progress; an outdoor music festival that shattered previous attendance records echoed through one of the largest parks in the middle of a city. It was the perfect day to live in Andropolis, a perfect beacon of man’s crowning achievement.

Then, a peculiar thing happened.

The sky went absolutely black, not even a star or the moon visible above. Then everything went back to normal a second later. Most of the citizens just thought they had a brief dizzy spell, or had low blood sugar or something. Then, as some of them got their bearing, they looked up and noticed the blue sky looked different. No cloud wafted by above, where previously, puffy, post-card perfect clouds dotted the sky. And were there, lines in the sky? Seams that ran up the edge of the sky…maybe contrails of a large jet?

A few hundred miles away from the downtown area, people in the burbs, rural areas, and outlying, smaller cities noticed a new phenomenon: a wall appeared out of nowhere. It was blue, and rough, and in some cases, bisected a neighbor’s house, or a larger vehicle, or even a river that seemed to run up to it and stop.

Left to their own thoughts, they contemplated what was going on, not much talking among themselves about the new occurrences. In fact, many of them—ranging in the millions—were busy enough inside that they didn’t notice any change at all.

Everyone in Andropolis, however, did feel the first resounding tremor.

It echoed through the city, a staccato CLACK that rang the windows on the skyscrapers like bells. Then, a low rumble followed that shook the buildings on their foundations. Many people lost their footing. Furniture fell over. Condemned buildings on the outskirts of the city that were scheduled for demolition to make way for a new museum crumbled in on them selves. A few dozen window washers, hanging on the outside of a crystalline skyscraper plummeted to their deaths.

Before the people of Andropolis could wonder what was going on… Another CLACK and rumble. Many more people fell down. After they shook off the slight pain they opened their eyes…looked into the strange, new sky, and saw Her.