Fifteen years ago…

The guild bustled with life, freshly painted buildings reflected back the pride that was felt by all involved in the place. The air hit the face with a snap and nipped at exposed body parts with a frigid chill. The various doctors were bundled up and fires roared toastily in fireplaces while the smoke columns can be seen throughout the guild. In the Great Hall, stew was bubbling merrily over a fire while the chef sang jolly shanties. The tower was free of vines and the roof stood strong in wind or weather. And oh the garden! The garden was well tended even in these cold months and a few evergreen trees harbored singing birds.

Underneath the laboratory building was the cozy hideaway of a certain slavic doctor. A warm fire kept the winter chill out of the air. Even though various parts of machinery lay scattered around the sturdy wooden benches there was a system to the chaos. The blueprints for a large machine lay unfurled partly on the main workbench, held down by various tools and parts. The resident doctor hummed happily while he worked on tightening some bolts a little ways away from the benches, most of his project lay covered under a white cloth.

The shrill whistle of the coffee pot announced break time! Standing up and wiping oil spattered hands on a cloth, the doctor made his way over to the stove. He fixed up a cup of steaming coffee just how he liked it–mostly sugar and cream with some marshmallows bobbing on top–and sat down in his armchair by the fire.

“I sure hope Chronicus likes his birthday gift! It has been an absolute nightmare getting this hunk of junk ready in time…” The doctor mused with a smile and a twinkle in his Heterochromic eyes of blue and green. He brushed back his messy brown hair out of his eyes and sighed deeply, leaning forwards to poke the fire with a stick.

“He needs to live a little, stuck up in that tower all day. I mean I get it, he’s the guild leader and all that, but still. Chronicus needs a hobby and probably a girl.” Thinking out loud in an amused tone and shaking his shaggy head with a snort, eyes twinkling as a grin flashes across his handsome face.

After finishing his coffee he set the cup down and pulled his tall hat firmly onto his head, “Back to work then!” he said with a hop, skip, and a jump.

He lays down on the dolly and rolls himself under the covered machine with a socket wrench, whistling merrily. Putting the finishing touches on his creation lovingly. He rolls back out and wipes the sweat from his brow with a towel, beaming at the finished machine. The covering is ripped off revealing a giant cylinder and a control panel with various tubes and wires running down to a wooden platform with straps. 

“Heheheheee!” A chuckle of mirth is released with a gleeful clap.

The doctor rolls up his sleeves and wiggles his fingers just above the control panel, “I’ll just test this bad boy out…”

He pulls down the lever and a rod extends up and out through a window, into the sky where swirling storm clouds were forming. He bolts to the window to watch with wide eyes and a grin the results of his invention.

“Hahahahahaha! It works!!! It works!!”

He rushes back towards the machine, hair blowing wildly in the wind. He closes his eyes to revel in the wind and the rain of the storm when a bolt of lightning strikes the rod, traveling down into the giant cylinder where it gets brighter and brighter. The doctor leans forwards in awe and wonder, reaches a hand for the cylinder and feels the energy surging beneath the glass. 

“Wow…Chronicus is going to love this.”

Another bolt strikes the rod, traveling down into the cylinder, wide eyes watch as the cylinder explodes violently with a loud sound. Molten shards of glass and a ball of lightning is thrown into the face of the startled inventor who recoils with a scream. He is thrown backwards into the wall, face disfigured horribly and eyes melted from their sockets. The doctor’s head hits the wall and he slides down limply to the floor.

Dr. Chronicus is busy in his tower when he hears the explosion of the machine. Rushing to the window he sees the laboratory up in multicolored flames. He sounds the alarm and swoops upwards through the roof, smashing through the tiles and emerging covered in dust before diving through the rain towards the lab. Shoving aside flaming beams of fallen wood and broken pieces of stone he finds the inventor and drags him from the wreckage. The distraught guild leader quickly examines the injuries of his friend and looks backwards towards the wreckage of the machine.

“Cogsgear what were you doing..?” is asked with a low tone, as the leader tends to the inventor’s wounds.

The fire brigade and the rain work together to put out the flames. The smoking wreckage laid as testament to the horrible accident. The lab was totaled, the inventor’s workshop was destroyed, the machine laid there in ominous pieces.

Sometime later…

Dr. Chronicus followed his friend’s spotty instructions and discovered a way to permanently fuse a mask to the melted visage of the once handsome Dr. Cogsgear. Light up bulbs were inserted into the empty eye sockets and wired to the brain. The leader stepped back to look upon the new appearance of his friend, shaking his head with bitterness.

“Cogsgear, can you see?”

“WHOAOOOOOOOOOAHAHHHHHH!!!” Multicolor lights flicker on, looking around googly eyed.

Cozzy gives a few fast nods, before reaching towards his face, tapping the glass lenses with a gloved finger with a giggle. “CoZzyUS Can SEeeEeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Oh boY oH BoYY!”

He latches onto Dr. Chronicus with a screech, giving him a big hug. “CozZYuS ThanKS YoUUu!”

Dr. Chronicus nods and tries to remove the clinging doctor from himself, wings shifting uncomfortably. He looks down in surprise when he hears muffled crying.

“COzzyUs sOrry…tHe mAchiNE BrOke. WaS SuPpoSed tO bE A biRthDAy PrESenT. To HeLp YoU CuRE PatIeNTs!” Multicolored lights flicker and dim like a candle with the emotions, voice hitching.

The leader smiles, eyes speaking the depths of his sorrow, “What matters is you are alive.”