A look into a possible future...

[Geordy]

Barrymore was in a hurry. Actually so much so that he found himself running, his tailcoat was already bulging behind him. But there was no other way there were news that his master was on his way to the throneroom - fast. And Barrymore had to be there first. He only thanked the Titans that nobody could see him moving through the royal chambers in this unworthy manner. He were just in time to grab the doorknobs and open the two large ornated doors as the man rushed into the room:

"King Tramennis, ruler of Jetstone!", Barrymore yelled into the room. The king stopped in his movement and turned towards him. He looked absolutely and totally fabulous in his royal... dress which was richly and cleverly adorned with radishes. His Highness just looked like the old days back when he was Prince. But there was more. His body language showed signs of deep concern and in his face one could make out delicately chiselled features of worry. The burden of a whole world seemed to rest on his shoulders. After he recognised Barrymore he added some warmth into his general expression.

"My dear Barrymore, we talked about this before. There is no need to announce me." With a wide gesture he turned to the crowd, a bunch of regular figures that usually populated the throneroom. "Im pretty sure everyone in here knows who I am." "Yes, Sir, excuse me. This is all very new to me." Barrymore slightly bowed. "Dont worry", the king said, "the recent turn of events kind of overwhelmed us all. But we will adapt." Barrymore bowed again. "I understand, your Highness."

Now the sorrow had found its way back into the kings voice. "Did the messenger this morning tell you when and where our thinkamancer has to listen to?" "Yes, he gave exact and detailed instructions. The transmission is about to begin." Tramennis nodded but it looked more like his head had become too heavy to hold it up straight. He was about to turn away from his servant but said servant addressed him again.

"Good Sir, may I speak freely?" Surprised Tramennis looked up and into his butlers eyes. He noticed that Barrymore was very nervous afraid of crossing a line here and that he lowered his voice in order not to break protocol too much. Tramennis came closer to him, put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Of course. What is it, John?" Barrymore straightened up, honored. "My wife..."

This word sounded quite awkward. During the old days relationships between ordinary units were plain nonexistant. The terms "wife" and "marriage" were only used if two mayor royal sides arranged for a marriage between their male resp. female offsprings. But this was more like a formal thing strengthening an alliance and such. The whole concept of a relationship between units actually adds nothing to the war effort, hence nobody ever even considered it.

Not so King Tramennis. From that day on he had a chance to speak to that "extraordinaire" Lord Hamster - back when Spacerock fell - the king came up with more and more out-of-the-line ideas inspiring all around him. It was said that Lord Hamster mentioned the whole relationship thing as a sidenote making something the king later called a "snappy remark" about it. Unfortunately the king never had the chance to discuss these things any further with the Lord Hamster as the second time they spoke the subject was too severe and serious to discuss other things only out of curiosity.

[Geordy]

However, the king later on followed the idea of relationships between units and encouraged his "teammates" as he sometimes called them to explore them. Yes, these were very interesting times under King Tramennis - difficult sometimes but more often very interesting and ... fresh. At times Barrymore felt like chains dropping off of him as if he were locked in a cage before and now could walk freely.

The installation of relationships between units lead to some very real changes. Namely the stats of the units were affected. Loyalty climbed up due to the trust their leader had in them and the freedom over their own lives he was willing to grant them. On the other side Duty suffered a bit as the effort of maintaining a working relationship subtracted from the war effort. But the units were more than willingly working on handling both effectively. Out of love for their loved ones... and the King.

Another result of this new program was Barrymore's wife. And he thanked the King everyday for her. "Ah yes, Eliza, how is she doing?" said King said.

"She is fine, Sire. She gave me very strict order to draw your Majesty's attention to the cup of tea she sent you as a sign of our gratitude." Barrymore watched Tramennis turning around to the escritoire and indeed - there was a gently steaming cup of something to be seen. "Splendid!" said the splendid man. All grief fell from the ruler and a bright smile conquered his face.

This was another evidence of how Lord Hamster influenced this world. Rumour had it that he dropped a line whether they should postpone their talks because it was time for their five o'clock tea. "Tea" was nothing to be known in Erfworld. Usually at dawn your personal rations simply "pop" and thats that. Hamster continued that you cook tea out of a certain kind of leaves and added that the greatest leaders in history were obsessed with tea, like all the British ones or Captain Picard. Although Tramennis never heard of this Picard he was immediately impressed.

A couple of days later King Tramennis entrusted Eliza with the quest for the leaves. Before she had given this order she were a botanist responsible to find propper material for when armies had to encamp in the open during the night or longer. You cant build a palisade out of everything. To create and build a camp out of the nothing was a very difficult task that required a lot of responsibitly and knowledge about the flora, the natural things that grew around you. And that was what Eliza was for.

Today, her tea was waiting to be tasted in that bellied, fully red cup. It resembled a radish with a handle. And the King was already holding it up from its mat. "I am so Delighted, Barrymore. I am sure this potation will be most Delicious. Tell your wife I am D...."

[Geordy]

And then the lights went out. Other servants had closed heavy royal curtains in front of very tall and large windows locking out the daylight. Barrymore hurried to attend to the last of the windows. Just before the last curtains were closed he noticed the Thinkamancer raising her hands forming the typical rectangle with her fingers. But this time this was no usual two-way direct connection she was holding up. She was listening to and delivering a worldwide transmission broadcasted by the one side that had it all. They had sent a messenger this morning inviting them to watch the worlds biggest news since the day the messias entered our world.

Colors and undefined shapes appeared on a large area on the opposite wall quickly forming a coherent view. A large crowd appeared obviously in a good mood. They were cheering and applauding some of them swayed their hats or even flags. Flags with Gobwin Knobs crest on it. The sky was completely filled with dark blue and heavy clouds although all in all it was irritatingly bright. A forceful wind was shaking the masses but they didnt notice. All they had in mind was to jubilate. In front of the crowd there was a large podium filled was lots of famous and prominent figures.

Of course the first ones Tramennis made out were Ansom and Ossomer. Both of them were showing no signs of neither a cheerful or bad mood they were simply sitting there, existing. Even now after a long time it made Tramennis sad to see them like this. Then there was this jerk Stanley. Behind the podium he was standing on a small pedestal. No scratch that. He was standing on a very large pedestal even larger than himself. Because there was no way he could allow anybody to appear taller than him. At first notice Tramennis observed that he was not holding his Arkenhammer.

Which all of a sudden turned this scene from an awkward comedy into a very threatening sight. That guy was never to be seen without his plaything. Then Lady Firebaugh appeared. She was standing in the very center of the podium now addressing the crowd and the world. The... camera?... was zooming in on her finally showing a closeup of her face. Seeing her like this immeadiatly instilled anger in Tramennis. That witch was unnatural raising the dead from their well-earned peace. She created the Ansom and Ossomer zombies, these... these... abominations. No, she herself was an abomination!

And then she was a fanatic, too. She was so convinced that we all are just fulfilling our destiny, she believed in Fate so much that she became a horrendous threat to friends and foes alike. Tramennis firmly believed that fanatic people in general are a very dangerous bunch because they lost contact to reality and their beliefs offer them justification for literally everything. Yes, looking at her was filling him with nothing but hatred.

Or was it? There was something else... her beautiful long black hair that was so playfully, so... bedazzlingly blown into her face by the breeze. Into that sweet, pale face that so daintily contrasted her hair, that face, home to the deepest pair of eyes Tramennis had ever seen, like deep wells ready to encage the will of every man alive. Or like little vacuum cleaners that suck...

[Geordy]

Wait! Vacuum cleaners? Another one of Lord Hamsters oddities. Tramennis rebuked himself. What was he thinking? But he couldnt resist looking at Lady Firebaughs breasts that were so mindalteringly heaving and lowering on and on under her enchanting dress. Tramennis imagined how it would be like feeling them, touching them...

NO! The king forcefully shook his head. This couldnt be. This woman was his sworn enemy the origin of all the evil he vowed to end. Having fantasies about her definitely didnt fit the role he played. He chose to play! Nothing could interfere with this eternal quest of his. Nothing!

The face on the wall showed small signs of dissatisfaction. Very hard to make out, almost subliminal but Tramennis saw them. Maybe because her underlings didnt manage to calm down the crowd fast enough to her liking. But finally the noisiness died down and the Lady began to speak.

"All rejoice! Today is the dawn of a new age. Fate led us a long way but finally our destiny will be fulfilled, my world will be complete. Today what was broken becomes reunited. Today the many become one!"

Croakamancy was a huge feat to choose. Tramennis was pretty sure that in order to be able to become a croakamancer you have to choose a negative feat for yourself. In the case of Lady Firebaugh this definitely was the inability to speak well in front of huge crowds. What a terrible speech that was. And on top of that he had no clue what she was talking about.

Then she clapped her hands and Lord Hamster appeared. He strode somewhere on the side of the podium towards some undefined pile of rubbish holding something even more undefined in his hands. What was it...?

The radish fell in front of the throne and broke violently spilling hot peppermint tea all over the floor. The king has risen from his chair rapidly forcing his way through the bystanders towards the screen. "No! No, please, this cant be! Dont let this happen! Dont tell me they found it..."

Now all was clear. Of course! This whole ceremony was Firebaughs idea. She once made a deal with Hamster to perform such a farce should the unthinkable happen. The unthinkable here being the fourth Arkentool. Tramennis had a long talk with Hamster about it when they met the second time. He was very much against the thought of bringing them all together but Hamster didnt listen. No, that was unfair. Of course Hamster listened, he was not the type to ignore any information even if it comes out of the mouth of the enemy. But he decided not to follow the kings reasoning. Because he needed Wandas assistance during that time and because of his nature he was more curious than terrifed about the combination of the Tools. So he agreed to Wandas proposal.

And now the whole world witnessed the "dawn of a new age". The pile of rubbish of course was actually a pile of arkentools: Hammer, Dish, Pliers - they were all there. And Hamster was about to place the Tool in his hand on top of them. The wind became really strong now tousling Hamsters hair like it was on fire. In the background a lightning went down and due to the camera angle it looked like it was hitting the Arkenpile.

Tramennis sank on his knees. This was no sign of respect or how humble he was for the Titans - this was a pure sign of resignation. This was defeat. This was the end. His head sank on his chest and the king started to cry.

With a stern look Hamster stretched forth the fourth Arkentool. He kneeled down in front of the Arkenpile and it just happened. He placed the last piece into the puzzle and then there was nothing. The transmission had ended very abrupt and all in the throneroom fell into a deep darkness. There was nothing but black.

And a deep sob from the king.