Elizabeta licked her fingers clean of powdered donut and turned back to the clipboard an intern had handed her. She hardly understood all this astrological shit, but it did give a clearer picture of Contractor movements throughout the city. Apparently, or so Roderich had explained, a star's brightness peaked every time its Contractor used their powers. The chart showed a spike in brightness from two known Contractors, codenamed Ghost and Mime until their identities were confirmed. This corresponded quite nicely with the falling of another star, a certain Codename Pyro that they had been monitoring. Fine, let them kill each other. It makes my job easier. Roderich came up behind her and pushed his glasses farther up his nose to examine the charts.
"That's a new one. I haven't seen it before," he murmured to himself as he pointed down to another smaller jagged line. "There's a new Contractor in the city." His heels clicked across the floor as he headed to the door. "I'm just going to pop down to Astronomy and see what they make of it," he called over his shoulder. Elizabeta pushed her chair back and gave a stretch.
"I'll come too; I've been sitting here for hours." She grabbed the clipboard and followed him to the elevator. Roderich pressed the button for the top floor and they both stood in silence.
"Why are you here anyways, Elizabeta?"
"Huh?" she pushed a strand of long brown hair behind her ear and smiled. "I had more work to do."
"No, I mean, why are you working for the Pandora Police. A girl like you, you can't enjoy all this Contractor mess." She shrugged.
"Someone has to deal with it. And if I'm not here, what's to keep the Contractors from running wild?"
"I think if you get a few hours of sleep, the Contractors will still be waiting. The world won't crash down if you rest for a day." By then the door had opened and Elizabeta strolled into the Astronomy department. Men and women bustled about in lab coats, checking dials and monitors on tubes like crisp white ants. The ceiling was a curved dome covered in diagrams of the new night sky, marked with labels of important Contractors. Tubes lining the walls were filled with floating bodies, Dolls which were hooked up to a main computer to track the labeled Contractors of the city. The Dolls always set her on edge, their white eyes staring at her from all sides, but overall she enjoyed the bustle of the Astronomy department. It kept her awake on late nights. A young man sauntered over, tucking a pen back into his lab coat pocket.
"What can I do for you today, Liz?"
"Hey Feliks. It seems we have a new Contractor in the city, or so Roderich says. Have you noticed any unusual activity?" He chewed absentmindedly on his lip and twirled his hair around a finger. He always had a dreamy look on his face. He's stuck in the stars, that one.
"Well, nothing new as far as, like, stars, so it must not be, like, a newly created Contractor. But we have been noticing some sun spots. It could mean anything, or like nothing. But always good to keep in mind."
"Right, sunspots. I'll remember." She rolled her eyes at Roderich as Feliks turned around to check a monitor.
"Well, last time we had this kind of activity was, like, when Heaven's Gate disappeared, along with most of South America. We still can't get planes over it. It's still there somewhere; we just can't get to it." Just then, all the monitors across the room started beeping furiously, flashing red. Interns rushed to tubes, pressing buttons hurriedly. In the nearest tube, a Doll started to flail wildly, beating at the glass around them and ripping at its breathing tubes.
"What the Hell is happening?" She asked Roderich. He shook his head, dumbfounded as the other Dolls began to spasm. The whole room was filled with eerie beeping as interns stared wide-mouthed at the Dolls.
"They can't even move," Feliks gasped, turning round and round. "They can't move." One Doll began to shriek, an inhuman sound horribly muffled by the glass of the tube. The other Dolls took up the call, their bright white eyes flashing, fingers scrabbling at slippery glass.
"The world, it's burning," a Doll screeched. All the interns rushed over as one mob to stare at the tube. Another Doll across the room cried out.
"They're all falling. They're falling." A third,
"My eyes, they're falling in my eyes. The stars." Then the whole room was filled with the shrieks of Dolls.
"The sky is falling. The sky is burning. The stars are dropping like rain."