The storm clouds rolled over the warm, summer waters of Wickham Lake, bringing much-needed cool air and the promise of rain. Lightning flashed from cloud to cloud with a growing sense of urgency as the entity inside it searched for the perfect spot. It had come to this planet, to this very town, in the 1950s - learning human language, customs, and ideas. More importantly, it had learned the basic biology of the species. All living things on Earth were carbon-based and their molecules were easy for the entity to manipulate. Its first attempt had been crude and left the victim scarred. That would not happen again. This time its approach would be more subtle. In the same way humans kick over a fire ant bed to watch the little insects swarm, the entity wished to see how the people of Wickham would react when it destroyed their little nest.

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Target acquired, the being gathered itself and rode a lightning bolt straight into the shallow part of the lake. There it found a small, simple creature and willed its consciousness into the thing’s body. Normally, lightning would have killed anything in that part of the water, but the entity quickly reshuffled the critter’s molecules to form a cyst that would keep it safe until the proper time.

Now all it needed to do was wait.