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For love of Friends
Darkness above and below, nothingness in a vast city of newfound death and despair. These were the new times; the times of children's nightmares, where there was no one to save or protect them, no one to comfort and shelter them, a free for all battle with all others alive, suffering and anarchy covered all cities and towns, various bands of people formed together, some falling apart before they even became solid, treachery and dishonesty taking it's toll against leaders and the weak minded or just generally shallow souls that existed within the world at that point.
Open fires rages across what was once a beautiful city, a surface city that Cucumba had learned to call home. Enormous skyscrapers reduced to nothing but smoldering piles of ash and rubble and any that did remain standing were targets to the evil that had swept the city and destroyed it, or were at a point where a strong breeze would cause a total collapse. The outer city was in flames, from above it was a burning ring accompanied by a halo of smoke and airborne ash. Bruised skies rained down on the city continually, ash clotting up in drainpipes and gaps in rubble forming shelters for the distressed and broken souls that huddled within the cold embrace of darkness.
This was the real definition of 'hell on earth'. The one thing that many had pondered and dreamed about, how would it all end, another ice age or the apocalypse? This was nothing like they had expected. Screams echoed throughout the burning wasteland at night time and through the day people scavenged around for what they could.
This was the time of head mod Cucumba, at the peak of the three warring factions; NoA, F : C, and EoL, and before the rumble changed everyone.
----------------------------------------------------
bwaa bwaa bwaa bwaa
The morning had begun the same as any other. Cucumba woke to the sound of his alarm clock buzzing at the usual time, eight o'clock. He had nothing to do today, no work, no social responsibilities, nothing, just his usual morning exercises that he couldn't go a day without doing. He had built his life around normalization, trying to assimilate himself into the society which he now lived in, although being big and green had it's distinctive disadvantages when it came to such things, Cucumba did his best.
It had reached a point where he was a normal sight amongst the people along the Forumscant, all with the exception of the young children who still hid behind their parents, pointed fingers and asked questions, but none of this bothered Cucumba anymore.
It was a bright sunny morning; a cool summer breeze blew through the crowded park that Cucumba always jogged though, carrying fallen leaves around the park before gently returning them to rest on the ground. Everything was as normal as any other day, the heavenly bliss that Cucumba had grown so fond of, the key reason he stayed here rather than in the main city. The warmth of the sun against what skin was exposed from his leather garments, the soft, cool breeze against his face and the constant hum of the city life around him all added together within Cucumba forming some strange peace-of-mind.
As always Cucumba was the overseer of the Forumscant and here in this place it was no different. He frequently assisted others with their problems, and even occasionally 'fixing' the rogue users whom enjoyed causing trouble here and there, but this was the life he had come to enjoy and nothing could destroy this bliss, even with the menace Smith sitting in the back of his mind with every passing moment, he knew that he wasn't alone in stopping him, the rest of NoA had always stuck along side him, Engar, Kelesk, Arthos and a few others that remained quiet about it; at worst there was always F: C to stop him, yet no matter how many times he thought about the whole problem, it always put a smile on his face.
He slowed down at the other side of the park and took a rest against lamp post, smiling contently as he watched the small children there chase after pigeons as old ladies threw bread out to the ducks that called the large pond in the middle of the city home. The citizens of the city greeting him as they passed, some who hadn't seen him since he was elected as head of the Forumscant congratulated him and gave their best wishes in his endeavors and continued on. Even a few friendly faces stopped to say him, Engar being one.
The young man nodded once at gesturing a hello and Cucumba did the same.
"So how have you been Engar. It's been a while since I saw you last. I trust Avenger didn't give you too much trouble at the airport?"
Engar chuckled heartily and shook his head smiling.
"A little maybe." He replied, still laughing.
Cucumba exhaled quickly, laughing to himself and patted Engar on the back.
"Let's go get something to eat." He said, his stomach speaking for him as it let out a low growl, Engar just smiled and nodded.
The two walked down the busy street, the murmur of people filling the air within the streets as they headed to the local diner that Cucumba enjoyed eating at. It was about the only place in town that sold 'healthy' breakfasts, half the reason Cucumba like it, aside that he had company, so he figured that going out for breakfast wasn't such a terrible idea.
After the third interruption via a citizen Engar giggled to himself and looked up at Cucumba.
"So, you're quite a star now Cuc eh?"
Cucumba smiled back down at him.
"Apparently so it seems."
There was a short pause before Engar stopped and shot up straight.
"Oh!"
Cucumba stopped and turned around to face him, ****ing his head to the side a little in confusion.
"Kelesk's little run in with Ravendust. ."
Cucumba's head tilted over a little further as he raised an eyebrow.
"What about it?"
Engar couldn't hold back any longer, smirking and almost bursting out in laughter.
"The lab is still a mess, but we got some new employees."
"Poor guys." Cucumba laughed.
The two finally arrived at the diner and walked in, being greeted by several more of the citizens, before finding an empty table and sitting down, Engar sitting opposite to Cucumba.
Nearly immediately a waitress came over and served them, Engar grabbed the menu and quickly read over it, ordering pancakes with ice cream. Cucumba looked over oddly at Engar as he told the waitress to get him the usual.
"Ice cream for breakfast?" Cucumba questioned.
"Sure why not?"
Cucumba slapped his forehead as Engar giggled to himself looking around. He'd never been to this place before, it had an old theme to it, 70's style, everything was bubbly and bright colored, not really his style. Pictures of old cars were hung from the wall, ones that only the most dedicated of collectors possessed now. Looking back at Cucumba he noticed a familiar face walk in, Arthos, who noticed him immediately and walked over and put his hands firmly on Cucumba's shoulders.
"How ya doin' big fella?" Arthos said excitedly.
"Not bad at all actually." Said Cucumba turning to look over his shoulder.
"Nice to hear!" Arthos replied, pushing off Cucmba's shoulders and patting Cucumba's head.
"And how's yourself?" said Engar, motioning to Arthos.
"Ahh, I'm alright I s'pose, a few problems back at base cleaning up Kel's mess and all but aside that all is fine." The three laughed amongst themselves for a while before Arthos spoke up again.
"Speaking of, have either of you seen Kelesk around? He asked me to do some fine tuning on his Rogue Scythe. Funny thing is he took off not long after."
"No. ." Engar shook his head, "You sure he didn't leave it somewhere for you? He's the type to do something like that."
Arthos chuckled, "What's that? Leaving and not telling anyone or leaving one of the more powerful weapons that exist lying around?"
Engar ****ed his head slightly and looked up at the ceiling as if thinking, looking back down at Arthos who was sitting down next to Cucumba, "A bit of both actually."
The waitress returned not long after, placed Engar's pancakes down in front of him and placed a second plate down in front of Cucumba. On it was a large omelet, the size of the plate, she turned around and went back to the counter, returning with a small bowel of yoghurt.
Engar looked over at Cucumba's food and smiled as he cut off a large bit of one of his pancakes.
"Well, your breakfast beats mine."
Cucumba smiled and unwrapped his knife, fork and spoon from a napkin that the waitress brought over and dropped the spoon into the bowel of yoghurt and began eating his omelet.
The three sat around and chatted for a while, the waitress occasionally coming back over to check if they wanted anything always to be reassured by Cucumba that they were fine. After around an hour Arthos looked down at his watch and shot up to his feet.
"****! Sorry guys I gotta run, previous arrangements!" Arthos waved back at the two as he ran into the door face first. Arthos rubbed his face and pulled open the door running down the street, attempting to wave down a cab.
Engar looked over at Cucumba and smiling, shrugging his shoulders, "Maybe he has a date?"
Cucumba smled back, "Arthos? I doubt it. He probably forgot to fix someone's ship or something."
Cucumba got up and looked over at the waitress who had been staring at him for a while now, "Just throw it on my tab!"
Engar looked at Cucumba curiously, Cucumba only noticing once he looked back.
"You have a tab now?"
---------------------------------
I had woken up the same as every other day for the past few weeks, nightmares, visions of things that were erased from my memory the second I woke, but still sat in the back of my mind, clawing away trying to reach the surface without avail.
Most mornings I was awake before Cucumba, usually standing around somewhere as he wandered from his quarters at the same time each morning, seemingly unaware of what was coming in the possibly near future; but perhaps Cucumba was not all knowing, perhaps he just has a sense of things and for this particular thing, he did not.
This morning I'd left the base in a rush, the helper bots didn't help any either . . I've been telling Cucumba to reprogram them so they stop annoying me every morning but I guess he just never has the time to. I had even made a list of all the stuff I needed to do that day, a rarity to say the least, and every time I seemed to get something completed another thing was added, I even got lazy and asked Arthos to fine tune my Rogue Scythe when he got the chance, forgot to tell him I left it in the Armory . . Oh well . . .
That day was mainly a day to try and get a hold on my nightmares, the dreams that wouldn't cease, fortunately I had an idea who I needed to talk to, however, actually getting him to talk was another thing in its own. I ended up watching over Cucumba to see if anything pinged his mind, but since he was with Engar, I doubt his mind would have been fully focused so it ended up being a waste of time, especially since they ended up having breakfast with Arthos which lasted the better part of several hours.
I eventually found myself leaning up against a light pole, staring at a newspaper which was caught up in the street gutter, the headlines reading, "Forumscant Rumble!"
All this talk about the old arena being used; this 'indestructible' arena atop Mount Noobus . . Ha . . .
But still nothing added up, I swear I stood there for hours before I decided to head back to the base, only to be greeted by one of those cursed Helper Bots and Arthos.
"Where have you been?!" he screamed, "I've been looking all over town for you!"
"Then you haven't been looking hard enough . . It's in the Armory, locker 309."
From there I turned and walked away, I wasn't really in the mood to be arguing, or talking to one of those god damned bots. Arthos took the hint and wandered off in the direction of the armory, the bot however decided to follow me around. Damn thing . . .
The next person I saw come in was Engar, who must've guessed I wasn't in a great mood considering he only shook my hand, gestured a hello and walked away; either that or something had happened between now and when I last saw him, which was the doubtful option.
Cucumba didn't return to the base until some time after, I had been standing in the lobby for a good few hours before he actually turned up, and believe you me, he wasn't looking so great, sort of like he was sick or something, but he never did say. Droplets of sweat rolled down his face, like he'd just finished a triathlon. Perhaps he'd finally got a vision similar to mine, who knows?
One thing is for sure . . No one had anticipated the events that followed shortly after. Not even in my most chaotic dreams.
Darkness above and below, nothingness in a vast city of newfound death and despair. These were the new times; the times of children's nightmares, where there was no one to save or protect them, no one to comfort and shelter them, a free for all battle with all others alive, suffering and anarchy covered all cities and towns, various bands of people formed together, some falling apart before they even became solid, treachery and dishonesty taking it's toll against leaders and the weak minded or just generally shallow souls that existed within the world at that point.
Open fires rages across what was once a beautiful city, a surface city that Cucumba had learned to call home. Enormous skyscrapers reduced to nothing but smoldering piles of ash and rubble and any that did remain standing were targets to the evil that had swept the city and destroyed it, or were at a point where a strong breeze would cause a total collapse. The outer city was in flames, from above it was a burning ring accompanied by a halo of smoke and airborne ash. Bruised skies rained down on the city continually, ash clotting up in drainpipes and gaps in rubble forming shelters for the distressed and broken souls that huddled within the cold embrace of darkness.
This was the real definition of 'hell on earth'. The one thing that many had pondered and dreamed about, how would it all end, another ice age or the apocalypse? This was nothing like they had expected. Screams echoed throughout the burning wasteland at night time and through the day people scavenged around for what they could.
This was the time of head mod Cucumba, at the peak of the three warring factions; NoA, F : C, and EoL, and before the rumble changed everyone.
----------------------------------------------------
bwaa bwaa bwaa bwaa
The morning had begun the same as any other. Cucumba woke to the sound of his alarm clock buzzing at the usual time, eight o'clock. He had nothing to do today, no work, no social responsibilities, nothing, just his usual morning exercises that he couldn't go a day without doing. He had built his life around normalization, trying to assimilate himself into the society which he now lived in, although being big and green had it's distinctive disadvantages when it came to such things, Cucumba did his best.
It had reached a point where he was a normal sight amongst the people along the Forumscant, all with the exception of the young children who still hid behind their parents, pointed fingers and asked questions, but none of this bothered Cucumba anymore.
It was a bright sunny morning; a cool summer breeze blew through the crowded park that Cucumba always jogged though, carrying fallen leaves around the park before gently returning them to rest on the ground. Everything was as normal as any other day, the heavenly bliss that Cucumba had grown so fond of, the key reason he stayed here rather than in the main city. The warmth of the sun against what skin was exposed from his leather garments, the soft, cool breeze against his face and the constant hum of the city life around him all added together within Cucumba forming some strange peace-of-mind.
As always Cucumba was the overseer of the Forumscant and here in this place it was no different. He frequently assisted others with their problems, and even occasionally 'fixing' the rogue users whom enjoyed causing trouble here and there, but this was the life he had come to enjoy and nothing could destroy this bliss, even with the menace Smith sitting in the back of his mind with every passing moment, he knew that he wasn't alone in stopping him, the rest of NoA had always stuck along side him, Engar, Kelesk, Arthos and a few others that remained quiet about it; at worst there was always F: C to stop him, yet no matter how many times he thought about the whole problem, it always put a smile on his face.
He slowed down at the other side of the park and took a rest against lamp post, smiling contently as he watched the small children there chase after pigeons as old ladies threw bread out to the ducks that called the large pond in the middle of the city home. The citizens of the city greeting him as they passed, some who hadn't seen him since he was elected as head of the Forumscant congratulated him and gave their best wishes in his endeavors and continued on. Even a few friendly faces stopped to say him, Engar being one.
The young man nodded once at gesturing a hello and Cucumba did the same.
"So how have you been Engar. It's been a while since I saw you last. I trust Avenger didn't give you too much trouble at the airport?"
Engar chuckled heartily and shook his head smiling.
"A little maybe." He replied, still laughing.
Cucumba exhaled quickly, laughing to himself and patted Engar on the back.
"Let's go get something to eat." He said, his stomach speaking for him as it let out a low growl, Engar just smiled and nodded.
The two walked down the busy street, the murmur of people filling the air within the streets as they headed to the local diner that Cucumba enjoyed eating at. It was about the only place in town that sold 'healthy' breakfasts, half the reason Cucumba like it, aside that he had company, so he figured that going out for breakfast wasn't such a terrible idea.
After the third interruption via a citizen Engar giggled to himself and looked up at Cucumba.
"So, you're quite a star now Cuc eh?"
Cucumba smiled back down at him.
"Apparently so it seems."
There was a short pause before Engar stopped and shot up straight.
"Oh!"
Cucumba stopped and turned around to face him, ****ing his head to the side a little in confusion.
"Kelesk's little run in with Ravendust. ."
Cucumba's head tilted over a little further as he raised an eyebrow.
"What about it?"
Engar couldn't hold back any longer, smirking and almost bursting out in laughter.
"The lab is still a mess, but we got some new employees."
"Poor guys." Cucumba laughed.
The two finally arrived at the diner and walked in, being greeted by several more of the citizens, before finding an empty table and sitting down, Engar sitting opposite to Cucumba.
Nearly immediately a waitress came over and served them, Engar grabbed the menu and quickly read over it, ordering pancakes with ice cream. Cucumba looked over oddly at Engar as he told the waitress to get him the usual.
"Ice cream for breakfast?" Cucumba questioned.
"Sure why not?"
Cucumba slapped his forehead as Engar giggled to himself looking around. He'd never been to this place before, it had an old theme to it, 70's style, everything was bubbly and bright colored, not really his style. Pictures of old cars were hung from the wall, ones that only the most dedicated of collectors possessed now. Looking back at Cucumba he noticed a familiar face walk in, Arthos, who noticed him immediately and walked over and put his hands firmly on Cucumba's shoulders.
"How ya doin' big fella?" Arthos said excitedly.
"Not bad at all actually." Said Cucumba turning to look over his shoulder.
"Nice to hear!" Arthos replied, pushing off Cucmba's shoulders and patting Cucumba's head.
"And how's yourself?" said Engar, motioning to Arthos.
"Ahh, I'm alright I s'pose, a few problems back at base cleaning up Kel's mess and all but aside that all is fine." The three laughed amongst themselves for a while before Arthos spoke up again.
"Speaking of, have either of you seen Kelesk around? He asked me to do some fine tuning on his Rogue Scythe. Funny thing is he took off not long after."
"No. ." Engar shook his head, "You sure he didn't leave it somewhere for you? He's the type to do something like that."
Arthos chuckled, "What's that? Leaving and not telling anyone or leaving one of the more powerful weapons that exist lying around?"
Engar ****ed his head slightly and looked up at the ceiling as if thinking, looking back down at Arthos who was sitting down next to Cucumba, "A bit of both actually."
The waitress returned not long after, placed Engar's pancakes down in front of him and placed a second plate down in front of Cucumba. On it was a large omelet, the size of the plate, she turned around and went back to the counter, returning with a small bowel of yoghurt.
Engar looked over at Cucumba's food and smiled as he cut off a large bit of one of his pancakes.
"Well, your breakfast beats mine."
Cucumba smiled and unwrapped his knife, fork and spoon from a napkin that the waitress brought over and dropped the spoon into the bowel of yoghurt and began eating his omelet.
The three sat around and chatted for a while, the waitress occasionally coming back over to check if they wanted anything always to be reassured by Cucumba that they were fine. After around an hour Arthos looked down at his watch and shot up to his feet.
"****! Sorry guys I gotta run, previous arrangements!" Arthos waved back at the two as he ran into the door face first. Arthos rubbed his face and pulled open the door running down the street, attempting to wave down a cab.
Engar looked over at Cucumba and smiling, shrugging his shoulders, "Maybe he has a date?"
Cucumba smled back, "Arthos? I doubt it. He probably forgot to fix someone's ship or something."
Cucumba got up and looked over at the waitress who had been staring at him for a while now, "Just throw it on my tab!"
Engar looked at Cucumba curiously, Cucumba only noticing once he looked back.
"You have a tab now?"
---------------------------------
I had woken up the same as every other day for the past few weeks, nightmares, visions of things that were erased from my memory the second I woke, but still sat in the back of my mind, clawing away trying to reach the surface without avail.
Most mornings I was awake before Cucumba, usually standing around somewhere as he wandered from his quarters at the same time each morning, seemingly unaware of what was coming in the possibly near future; but perhaps Cucumba was not all knowing, perhaps he just has a sense of things and for this particular thing, he did not.
This morning I'd left the base in a rush, the helper bots didn't help any either . . I've been telling Cucumba to reprogram them so they stop annoying me every morning but I guess he just never has the time to. I had even made a list of all the stuff I needed to do that day, a rarity to say the least, and every time I seemed to get something completed another thing was added, I even got lazy and asked Arthos to fine tune my Rogue Scythe when he got the chance, forgot to tell him I left it in the Armory . . Oh well . . .
That day was mainly a day to try and get a hold on my nightmares, the dreams that wouldn't cease, fortunately I had an idea who I needed to talk to, however, actually getting him to talk was another thing in its own. I ended up watching over Cucumba to see if anything pinged his mind, but since he was with Engar, I doubt his mind would have been fully focused so it ended up being a waste of time, especially since they ended up having breakfast with Arthos which lasted the better part of several hours.
I eventually found myself leaning up against a light pole, staring at a newspaper which was caught up in the street gutter, the headlines reading, "Forumscant Rumble!"
All this talk about the old arena being used; this 'indestructible' arena atop Mount Noobus . . Ha . . .
But still nothing added up, I swear I stood there for hours before I decided to head back to the base, only to be greeted by one of those cursed Helper Bots and Arthos.
"Where have you been?!" he screamed, "I've been looking all over town for you!"
"Then you haven't been looking hard enough . . It's in the Armory, locker 309."
From there I turned and walked away, I wasn't really in the mood to be arguing, or talking to one of those god damned bots. Arthos took the hint and wandered off in the direction of the armory, the bot however decided to follow me around. Damn thing . . .
The next person I saw come in was Engar, who must've guessed I wasn't in a great mood considering he only shook my hand, gestured a hello and walked away; either that or something had happened between now and when I last saw him, which was the doubtful option.
Cucumba didn't return to the base until some time after, I had been standing in the lobby for a good few hours before he actually turned up, and believe you me, he wasn't looking so great, sort of like he was sick or something, but he never did say. Droplets of sweat rolled down his face, like he'd just finished a triathlon. Perhaps he'd finally got a vision similar to mine, who knows?
One thing is for sure . . No one had anticipated the events that followed shortly after. Not even in my most chaotic dreams.