All's Fair in Love and War: A BFB FanFic

CHAPTER 12 - Preparing and Leaving

Group B rushed to the pod room, where someone was waiting for them.

"Hey! Where are you five going?" Woody looked at the person. He was a male with short-cropped pink hair, a pink hoodie, goggles on his head, and black gloves covering his hands. He was tall, taller than Woody by about 6 inches. "Hey." The taller male waved his hand in Woody's face. "Answer my question and stop staring." Woody shook his head, waking himself back up.

"Oh, uh, hi. Yeah, sorry. I'm Woody." He reached his hand out for a shake, which the taller male returned.

"Eraser." Woody recognized that name. Blocky had talked about him too.

"Yo, Woodster!" Blocky ran up to Woody. They had just boarded the ship for the first time.

The two had bonded during training and quickly became friends. Blocky talked a lot, a sharp contrast to Woody, who barely ever talked. "I just realized I never told you about my past outside of training!" Woody sheepishly laughed.

"I mean, neither have I." Blocky pushed him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, well, you barely talk at all, so you have a pass. I don't." Blocky sat Woody down and started talking. The main thing Woody caught in his rambling was that he was part of a small street gang known as the BEP Squad. He and two of his friends, Pen and Eraser, formed it, causing slight mayhem and havoc throughout downtown Yoyle City.

"Hey, what's going on?" When Woody stopped reliving that memory, he realized Eraser had grabbed his shoulders and had started shaking him. "You were in a daze, dude."

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's just... I recognized your name." Eraser looked taken aback.

"Oh, seriously? Wow... how?"

"A guy named Blocky-"

"Blocky?!" Eraser shouted. He pulled his hands through his hair, looking excited. "Dude! Blocky was one of my best friends! How is he? Is he doing okay? Where is he? I haven't seen him since I started training to go up here into space!"

"He, well, um, he's on the other side of the war." Eraser stopped talking. He backed up, looking confused.

"I... what? But... we..." He slammed his hand against the control station he was standing next to. "Goddamnit, Blocky!" He started pacing around the room, rambling about how the three of them were supposed to work together in this whole thing. As he was doing this, Leafy ran over the control module and started checking to make sure Eraser hadn't caused any damage. "And now, my boyfriend's in mortal danger! One of his best friends! What the fu-" Woody grabbed his shoulders, which was not easy, considering the very large height difference.

"Hey! Calm down." Eraser took a deep breath and pushed Woody's hands off of his shoulders.

"Sorry. I just got so pissed at Blocky. We were best friends." Eraser dropped to the ground. "I can't believe he would betray our trust, our pact, like this." His head slumped down. Woody sat down next to him.

"Look. I get it. I got pretty pissed at him too earlier today. Hell, I even yelled at him." Eraser looked up, surprised.

"He didn't kill you for that?" Woody chuckled and shook his head.

"Nah, we're close. Blocky is... a lot of things, but one thing he's not is angry." Eraser nodded.

"Yeah... even back in Yoyle City, all the pranks we pulled were harmless and out of boredom. We never hurt anyone or did it for revenge, just wanted to have some fun." The larger male looked up. "I miss those days when we could all just sit around and have fun. When we didn't have to worry about getting shot or killed, or maintenance of a giant ship, or managing an entire crew of young adults." Eraser chuckled. "I'm pretty sure not counting Four, Tree is the oldest one on the ship, and he's only 24." He turned to Woody. "You know what I mean?" Woody nodded.

"Yeah. I miss my hometown. Out in the middle of nowhere, Southern Goiky. All we had was a mom-and-pop grocery store, a small hospital, a bank, and a post office. And I think a Gelatin's Steakhouse opened up the week I left for space." Woody lightly gasped. "Wait, does Gelatin own Gelatin's Steakhouse?" Lollipop laughed.

"Yes, yes he does. He's a goofball, but he manages a restaurant chain. No idea how he does it." Woody nodded.

"I thought I recognized his name." He turned back to Eraser. "Anyways, as I was saying, everything before this was great. I mean, I didn't go out much or talk to anyone, but I loved it there. Now, I'm out in the middle of the vast void of deep space, with my parents not knowing if I'm okay. Hell, I don't know if they're okay." Eraser put a hand on Woody's shoulder.

"Yeah. It sucks. It does. It hurts. A lot. And some days, you just feel like you can't go on. But you have to. All of us had to learn that. And you did too. I can see it in your eyes. You're trying to hide the fact that everything hurts, everyone has to. We watch people die on the daily, bleeding out on the floor, bullets in their heads and their chests from people our age." Eraser exhaled from his nose. "And it sucks, not knowing whether you'll wake up alive or dead. But you have to push forward." Eraser shook his head quickly and stood up as Leafy pulled away from the control module. "Sorry, I got sidetracked. You guys had somewhere you needed to go?" Flower stepped out from the corner of the room.

"Yeah, we were hoping we could get a pod to the X Army's ship." Eraser was confused.

"What do you need that for?" This time, Woody answered.

"We're stopping the war. If we can convince the X Army to stop attacking, I think we can end all of this. All of the killing, all of the fear, all of the hatred. All of it. I know that it's a long shot. I get that. But I need to hope. I need to hope that I'm capable of doing this. You get what I mean?" Eraser contemplated for a few minutes before looking up and nodding at Woody.

"Yeah. Alright, let me get you guys a pod set up." He walked over to the module and started fiddling with all of the buttons and levers. Soon, some lights turned on above one of the pod doors. Eraser stepped back. "There you go. The pod should be ready. All you'll need to do is have one of you pilot the pod. Everything else is set up. You'll have a bunch of rations and other necessary equipment. You probably won't need it, seeing as though their ship is probably still pretty close after the attack, but you never know." Eraser saluted the five of them as they entered the pod. "Good luck you guys. I'm rooting for you." Woody smiled.

"Thanks." And with that, he closed the pod door, sat in the pilot's seat, and rocketed off into space.