Ghora ruled the City. The Rain outside the Great Valley had never ceased, but never affected the City. One day, it stopped. Later, during the Talcum Storm, the Enormous Cotton Bud came out of the sky, picked up Belly Fluff City, and moved it to a new home. Ghora named it Grand Rubbish Bin.

Sarah borrowed an exercise video from Natalie at work. She pressed play, and switched on the television. The exercises were extremely strenuous. Only after she'd backflipped twice and broken some of the furniture, did she realise she'd forgotten to select "video", and had in fact been watching an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Android PX-187 unplugged from the recharge bar, left a tip, and wheeled towards the night-club's exit. In a dark alley behind the bar, three older GX models surrounded PX-187. Red optic units glared. Motors whined, wheels spun, metal frantically battered metal. One GX spat some oil on PX-187's now dented, prone form. "Damn newcomer."

"I'll be rescued by a handsome saviour, then you'll be sorry!" Andromeda screamed as the villagers chained her to the rock. When the monster arose from the sea, they fled. "Don't cry," said the sea monster, whose name was Roger. He kissed her; she transformed into a sea monster. They swam happily ever after.

"Arlington Wolfe, we solve problems. How may we help?" asked the silky female voice from the telephone handset. Jack cleared his throat. "Damn police keep clamping my car wheels. There's no parking anywhere." "I understand, sir. We can rent you one wheel clamp, for moderate protection, or four, to completely prevent the problem."

"You can't tow my car while I'm sitting in it! It'd be kidnapping." I said smugly. "Yeah? Watch me." The tow-truck driver pressed a button and my car's front wheels raised off the ground. He tapped on my window. When I wound it down he passed me a ticket. "Here's your ransom note, buddy."

"They hate us!" Zosten the Spirlig addressed fourteen followers in a small room. A year later, they crashed an asteroid into Altair V, killing four billion. Galaxy-wide, Spirligs were beaten, shunned, and treated like pariahs. Zosten addressed ten thousand followers via a microphone. "Brothers, you see how right I was. They hate us."

Lorelei raised her arms desperately to the raging heavens, invoking her powers. It was her last chance; the ship was escaping. Dramatically, the storm intensified. Lightning flashed like an executioner's sword. The ship was struck! It began to sink. Hours later, cargo boxes floated ashore Lorelei's rocky island. "Pringles! Yum!" It was her favourite.

Gary had writer's block. The novel was going nowhere. Desperate, he took some Trax. He became a monkey, and started tapping away. Hours later, when human again, he read it: "Dsdsnmd xznbkiuq ewrs..." His editor hated it. "But it's art!" Gary protested. His editor took some Trax, became a goat, and ate the manuscript.

Agent Oliver, of Arlington Wolfe, re-read his brief. "Find my John for me," read the girlfriend's plea. He time-tracked him to an apartment above a 1920's dance hall. Oliver kicked down the door.
"Agent Sally! I don't understand...?"
"John here hired us to protect him after you found him. His girlfriend's time-stalking him."
"Alright."

Violet finished coding her game. A second later, the time-cops materialised in the room. "Violet Jones, you are charged with creating a computer program which uses a patented algorithm. How do you plead?" Violet hit delete, erasing her work. The time-cops de-materialised, as though they had never arrived. "Damn, have to find another algorithm."

"Anything or anyone not on the ship, or recorded by its computers, when it quantum-jumps to Canopus, you will forget. Understand?"
Hetty took Edward's hand.
"We have everything we need. We have each other."
Edward smiled wanly.
Moments before jump, Edward ejected in a life capsule, with the marriage certificate.
"Thank god for that."