1 Kebab Of Destiny
"Get out!" A young, elegantly dressed hostess demanded of the man who had entered the high-end restaurant that she was working at, after glancing at him just once. Her pleasant customer service smile immediately transformed into a frown.
The man looked unwell. His clean-shaven face was pale and clammy. His green eyes, watery. The blue buttoned shirt that he was wearing was covered in sweat stains, accentuating his beer belly and love handles. He understood that the hostess had most likely assumed that he was either sick, or very drunk, thus marking him as an undesirable in this establishment, but he was desperate.
"Please, I..." He began to plead, while running his fingers through his short dark-brown hair.
The hostess didn't even let him finish speaking, before pointing assertively towards the exit, with eyes full of disdain. The restaurant's patrons looked at him in revulsion, as though he was a nuisance, or avoided eye contact altogether.
The man slumped in defeat and turned to leave, stepping out onto the bustling, neon lit streets of Arcturus City. The colossal metropolis was named after one of humanity's most prominent leaders during The Great Fall, although, the city was more commonly referred to as The Arc, nowadays.
The Arc was a self-sustained megacity that housed and protected over forty million, tightly packed people, from the monster hordes and abominations that roamed a world in which humans were an endangered species.
It was the early evening hours and people were making their way back home after work, or visiting the many establishments that offered food, drinks and entertainment, in order to unwind from the daily grind.
The sweaty man might have ordinarily taken the time to appreciate such normalcy in a cursed world, as nothing short of a miracle. However, these sorts of high notions were currently beyond him, as he glanced around in despair, for he was standing on the precipice of shitting himself and there wasn't a single toilet in sight.
The man was called Noah Orvel and his troubles began earlier in the day, during lunch break. The noodle shop that he used to frequent was abnormally packed and Noah despised waiting in line, with people always cutting ahead and forcing him into awkward social interactions. Besides, he didn't want to waste his entire break, so, instead he circled back to a new kebab stall he had seen in the area.
As usual, there were only a few customers at the stall, but Noah decided to give it the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to the difficulties of starting out and gaining customers for a new business. The brown slab of meat turning on the fire didn't look like any cultured meat that he had seen before.
"What kind of meat is that?" He asked the rather shifty looking vendor.
"Yes! Meat!" The vendor responded, grinning and looking pleased with himself, his eyes beaming with anticipation for Noah's order.
Noah gazed at the kebab vendor for a few seconds, blinking.
'Ah, whatever. What's the worst that could happen?' He thought to himself and made his order.
The meat did have an enticing aroma and the place looked relatively clean.
Natural wildlife, as well as domesticated livestock, had for the most part went extinct during the cataclysmic Great Fall era, 400 years ago, when Earth had suddenly and violently merged with another, nightmarish world, presumably from an alternate reality. While some animals had been cloned and reintroduced since then, using old lab samples, unless you were extremely wealthy, you would consume cultured meat grown in factories and even then, it was quite expensive.
The pricing in this kebab stall was rather affordable, however.
'A bit suspicious...' Noah thought to himself while taking a hearty bite out of the warm pita bread wrapping the juicy meat, as he made his way back to work.
Initially, it appeared as though the lunch gambit had paid off, however, towards the end of the day, Noah's stomach had turned somewhat vocal. Working in Quality Assurance for a gaming studio, he had daily quotas to meet and thus ignored the ramblings of his belly.
After work, Noah rushed towards the train station, thinking he could make it home in time and avoid destroying the public toilet in front of a listening audience of his coworkers, but midway, his stomach began to spasm violently.
Now, unable to reach the station and being denied access to the bathrooms of the local businesses, Noah looked around, desperately.
'I can't believe I'm doing this...' He thought to himself, after heading towards a dark alley he had noticed off the busy main street. His stomach was slushing and churning with every waddle he made.
***
At the same time, two immensely powerful individuals were facing off on the windswept roof of a skyscraper, high above the clouds. One was a fair skinned young woman, breathing heavily, while holding a short sword.
She was wearing a close-fitting, black, heat retaining suit, under a rare and expensive Dark Steel coated polymer armor, designed to maintain maximum mobility, while still providing good protection. Her long raven black hair was arranged in a tight ponytail and her normally icy blue eyes were now glowing in a crimson light.
Opposing her was an older, bearded and broad-shouldered man, his bronze and rugged complexion appearing sun scorched, as though he had spent decades exposed to the elements. The black-haired man was wearing a simple robe under what could only be described as an armor made from different, mismatched bones, holding together somehow. Parts of his bone armor and robe were torn and missing, revealing raw, burnt flesh underneath.
Around them, across the windy rooftop, were corpses, or more accurately, skeletons, broken and shattered.
Despite his horrific burns, the man appeared calm and collected, with a hint of a smile, though a bitter one, on his lips. The young woman facing him, however, was distraught. Still catching her breath, her eyes darted across the corpses.
"Why..." She began to speak, but her trembling voice cracked, and she stopped. When she spoke again, she was furious.
"Traitor! I'll kill you!" She entered a fighting stance, pointing her sword at the older man.
The man, in turn, sighed like a parent reacting to a tantrum throwing child. His eyes began to glow in a sickly green shade, like flickering candles and the bone armor that he was wearing began to move. Quickly disassembling and then reshaping itself into a clattering bone whip, slithering about as though it had a mind of its own, as the man gripped it by the 'handle'.
The young woman took a quick step forward, before instantly vanishing, leaving only glowing red vapor in her place and appearing behind her opponent a split second later, again dispersing red vapor. Immediately she thrusted her sword forward.
The older man seemed to respond casually, his movements were minimal and precise. He easily deflected the short sword with his bare arm. When the bone whip landed on the ground, smashing the floor and sending debris everywhere, the young woman had already vanished and reappeared at a different angle, striking again.
The young woman continued her 'hit and run' tactics, with a furious expression. She managed to nick her opponent a few times, while avoiding his counterattacks, and yet she was the one who appeared to be at a disadvantage. She was sweating and out of breath, while droplets of blood trickled down from her nose. Despite the shimmering red vapor materializing with each vanishing act and swirling around her opponent, obscuring visibility for them both, her foe effortlessly blocked and countered her attacks.
"Traitor!" She cried out in rage and frustration.
The response was a large hand appearing out of the red mist and grabbing the collar of her suit. Before she had time to react, she was tossed across the roof and through the access door, taking part of the concrete support beam with her, as she crashed through it and tumbled down the stairs.
"Sorry about that, kid." The older man said in a gravelly voice.
The red vapors dissipated, carried by the winds, revealing the older man looking somberly down at the floor, as though he was seeing something through it.
"Looks like time's up..." He sighed.
The man breathed deeply and gazed up into the sky. Up here he could get a clear view of the heavens. The stars were visible and unobstructed by the sprawling urban jungle of The Arc. He nodded, and then the light faded out from his eyes. A sickly green, glowing orb appeared from his body and hovered for a short moment as the body collapsed lifelessly on the roof. The orb then proceeded to descend down towards the city streets.
***
'Why did I have to add so much hot sauce?!' Noah was pondering, while squatting down in the dark alley. He felt like an erupting volcano, with an endless stream of molten lava discharging out of him. 'What did that motherlover kebab vendor feed me...'
Noah glanced to his sides, making sure that no one was coming, before he looked at the omni device on his wrist and a holographic display popped up. 'Ah, I'm going to be late... I'll have to take the next train home.' He was unaware of the bright green orb descending down, towards him and felt nothing when it entered his body, through his head.
"What the duck?!" Noah exclaimed when a radiant red sphere suddenly appeared near him, in the alley and a young woman stepped out of it, breathing heavily, with blood trickling from her nose.
She looked at Noah with a burning hatred, gazing at his now, glowing green eyes.
