15.10.2003 - 12:36 p.m.

As the city sleeps a shadowy figure leaps from rooftop to rooftop, pausing only to scope out the next waypoint on it�s nightly patrol. Without means of support it soars across the 400yard distance between the city municipal building and the Inter-Suisse bank in a graceful arc, landing without sound on an air-conditioning unit before jumping up into the night and disappearing from view.

One man looks from behind a large potted plant out through the plate glass window into the street, there�s no traffic at this time of the night, across the street some stragglers from one of the numerous nightclubs stagger their way home singing loudly but incomprehensibly. The man looks back towards the cashiers desks and to the broken door beyond, flashlights in the back room cast eerie shadows. A loud metallic sound rings out from the back room and the man cringes, there is a muted sound of laughter and hiss of escaping air followed by some clanking and banging of drawers being opened hastily. Minutes later two more men come out of the back room clutching holdalls, one whispers briefly into a walkie-talkie and they move towards a dark corner of the room while one man attaches a box to the lock plate of the main door and then runs to the others. The box issues an urgent hissing noise and starts to glow a dull orange, the hissing rises in pitch before ceasing completely, the box falls back onto the floor, the three men run towards the door and one pulls the handle, the door swings inwards silently.

A car pulls up outside the building with its lights off, as the men move to get in one jerks backwards and lands heavily against the cold stone of the building, he breathes out gently and then doesn�t move, the other two throw their holdalls into the car and raising their guns, look desperately into the street to find their attacker.

The plate glass window behind them dissolves into a cascading shower of falling glass raining musically off the pavement, and a shadow lands in a pool of light across the road. A blur issues from the shadow and slams into the back of the car, the boot flips lazily into the air and lands on the road, the rear of the car bounces up onto the pavement, the two men jump back and the driver gets out, gun aimed at the shadow. The street erupts into noise as all three open fire at their attacker, staccato shadows flit and dance from the muzzle flash, the shadow crouches and then is gone.

They look back to their comrade, a dark liquid is spreading on the pavement from behind him, there is a length of blood matted fur protruding from his chest. One shakes his head and motions to the others to grab the holdalls, all three run down a street behind them towards a diner. One runs into the road as a car approaches and raising the gun shouts at the driver, the car stops and the man opens the door and throws the driver to the ground, as the other two men run to the car a dark figure lands on the road behind the car and raises its arm at the car-jacker, he raises his gun and fires, the figure starts to move sideways and its form explodes into a moving cloud of darkness, the shots pass through one edge of the cloud and a window of the diner cracks. The cloud coalesces back to the figure on one side of the street and the gunman grunts and spins round as a projectile from the shadow thuds into his shoulder, an arm holding a gun flops down to the road twitching, and the man collapses, there�s a wriggling movement in the remains of his shoulder and a small ferret like creature runs towards the shadows of an alley.

The two remaining gunmen look at the figure looking at them, look at each other and drop their guns while raising their arms over their heads �what the fuck are you ?� says one,

�I am your worst nightmare� says the figure, a police car rounds the corner of the street behind them followed by an ambulance and stops in front of the gunmen, the headlights illuminate them as officers handcuff them roughly and throw them into the squad car. The ambulance picks up the bodies and leaves.

In the safety of the squad car one of the men looks out the rear window but the figure has already gone, he turns to the officer in the front and says �who the hell is that ?� the officer laughs and his companion laughs too, �you must be from outta town, you sad bastards� they continue laughing at the thought, �he�s looking after this city now, his name�s Fauna Man, he�s got the agility of a scared spider monkey on a kilo of amphetamine and a special light refractive suit that breaks up his form when he moves, your mates were hit by high velocity Pine Martens, you were lucky he didn�t paste you too�

The two would-be bank robbers look at each other, �when do we get our phone call, Pig ?� says one,

�Shut the fuck up Boyo, or I�ll put you out the car and let Fauna Man sort you out, capice ?�

�Yeah yeah, I get it�

The two officers start laughing again, and the car disappears into the night.