A City Painted in Light

Canvas City never slept. Its towers curved like brushstrokes against a sky stitched together from a thousand colors — violet at the edges, deep blue at the center, and star-bright everywhere in between.

Twelve-year-old Marcus Webb — known to every rooftop and alley as Super Artist — stood at the wide window of his Solitude Art Studio and looked out at it all. His blue-and-black supersuit caught the glow of the city below. His red cape hung still. His blue sunglass goggles rested low on his nose.

The studio was a comfortable mess. Half-finished canvases leaned against the walls. Paint tubes crowded the counter. A half-eaten sandwich sat forgotten beside a giant sketchpad.

Marcus pressed his fingers to the glass. His hands left faint smudges of color — green, gold, deep blue — because that's just what happened when a superhero made of art touched things.

Outside, the city hummed. The deer-folk strolled the skywalks, their antlers catching lamplight. Humans laughed at the noodle carts below.

What the Night Lost

Marcus was still watching the deer-folk on the skywalks below when the drone showed up.

It was a small silver city drone — a round broadcast bot the Canvas City Emergency Network used for public alerts. It floated right up to his window, its speaker grille blinking orange.

"Three stars removed from Sector Nine sky grid," the drone said, flat and calm. "Cause unknown. Citizens advised to remain indoors."

Marcus squinted up at the sky.

Three black holes sat where stars used to be. Not dim. Not faded. Just — gone. Clean circles of nothing.

Then, while he was still looking, a fourth star disappeared.

A bang on the glass made him jump.

It was Opal. She was a humanoid deer — elderly, warm brown fur, short white-streaked antlers — who ran a little floating sky-cart market just outside his studio level. She pressed her hand to the glass and pointed hard at the sky above the floating islands.

"I saw something!" she said, her amber eyes wide. "A painted shape — moving fast between the islands. Right before the last one went dark."

Marcus pressed his hand flat against the window.