Anthology of Anything

Miraculous Symbiosis

There was something on the dark side of the moon.

It had no form, at least not the traditional kind. No eyes, but it could see. No arms and no legs, but it could move. No mouth - but it had no need to speak. No corporeal body to speak of, only a liquid mass, black and blank as the sky around it.

This mysterious thing, no bigger than a common house cat, peered around the moon and watched the Earth spin. Never in its existence had it seen a world with such vibrant blues and greens in its existence. Simplistic, yet beautiful.

Simple and teeming with life - new hosts. It needed to survive. To survive, it must find a host. But how could something so small and amorphous get to Earth without burning up? Simple as its own shape: it wasn't on the moon's surface.

It had arrived weeks ago on an asteroid that it deemed a temporary home, enough to keep from freezing to death in the vacuum of space.

Slowly, it ambled toward the earth, drifting for what seemed like forever. As it entered the atmosphere of Earth, it ignited in a ball of flames. As the asteroid picked up speed, fire engulfed the surface ferociously, appearing to a spectator as merely an innocent falling star.

The creature braced for impact just as the meteorite crashed into several trees, exploding into a crater on the forest floor in a shower of debris. Gusts of steam billowed and belched out of the space rock. Slowly, it started to split, cracking open like an egg. Inside the meteorite, dark as night, were small crystals; black diamonds with the slightest hint of purple.

The crystals began leaking out some kind of liquid as if it were bleeding from a wound. But out of the rock came this creature - in a multicolored body. In the light, a golden shimmer coated its left half, its right a purple shade; the rest was coated black and red. Its liquid body shivered as the breeze passed through it. With its small tendrils, it reached out and dragged itself forward. 

This world was much more beautiful than the alien had realized. Birds were singing away, and fall was beginning to make the leaves change, which the alien tried to mimic.

However, it needed to focus on finding a new host - or it would die, like so many others.

As it walked into a clearing, the ground began to get harder as if it were a path made from stone. One of its tendrils poked it a few times before deciding it was safe. It walked out into the open road, gradually making its way to the other side.

Suddenly, the creature heard a loud roar.

It was promptly flattened by a mechanical contraption - specifically, two of the four wheels that moved the great thing.

Large wheel impressions had been left all over the creature. Thankfully, it had no skeleton, so it was not majorly injured - before another passed right on top of it, this time with an even bigger wheel. Its tendrils twitched nervously, playing dead as a third metal vehicle passed overhead before shooting one of its limbs out and peeling itself off the ground. The alien creature recovered as it clung onto the rear bumper of the vehicle, watching as forest turned into a beautiful, bustling city.

From the rear of the vehicle, the alien spotted a tower in the distance. However, the iron structure was not nearly as interesting as the smell of smoke or the sounds of fighting drifting through the air. The creature detached itself from its unwitting ride and made its way toward the chaos. It wasn't looking for violent restrictions, but it needed a host - and soon.

Its thoughts were interrupted by an earth-shaking boom! Brick and glass exploded out from the adjacent wall, and a girl in a full-body suit and mask flew through the air, splattered in blood.

A Few Hours Earlier

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was hard at work in the family bakery. Wearing an apron over her clothes, she carefully kneaded the dough; Marinette knew that if she made a mistake, it could spell out disaster - air pockets and bread did not mix!

The Fall Pageant was being hosted at the nearby Bourgeois Hotel, and her father's bakery had been hand-picked by the mayor's personal chef to supply all the bread for the event.

Though baseless rumors weren't uncommon, Marinette had been hearing that Adrien Agreste would attend alongside his father: the renowned - yet reclusive - fashion designer Gabriel Agreste. That alone gave her the motivation to bake her best.

Just as she slid one large mound of dough into the oven, her father and acclaimed baker, Tom Dupain, walked over to inspect her handiwork. Peering inside the massive oven, he could see the dough beginning to take on the right shape and size for a fluffy inner texture.

"Looking good, Marinette," he said, patting her on the back. "I think you're almost ready to start your own baking company."

He swept his hand through the air as if painting a picture. "I can see it now: 'Marinette's Baking Company'! It'll be a franchise talked about for years to come- mark my words, my dear."

Marinette laughed, smiling up at her dad, the best baker in town. Her mother Sabine was just as tickled, walking over to her husband and planting a kiss on his cheek.