A phone rings.

Two men stand in the midst of a crumbled city.

‘Is that your bloody phone,’ enquired the rasping voice of a man in a black cloak.

‘Oh shit, hang on I need to pause, it’s the old ball and chain, if you know what I mean,’ replied the other man who wore a white cloak. His voice of rolling velvet.

‘Yes, I guess our battle could do with a water break, probably don’t want to miss that call aye.’

The man in white pulled an old flip phone, one of those slick looking early 00’s phones. The edgy ones with the bright colours.

‘Hello Margaret, what seems to be…’ he began to say as he was cut off with a grimace on his face. A few minutes later he closed the phone.

‘So?’ asked the man in black.

‘She says we are making a bit of a mess.’

The two men looked around.

‘Ah, I see,’ said the man in black. ‘Seems we have once again wiped out a good chunk of humanity. The curse of immortality.’

‘The curse of immortality,’ repeated the man in white. ‘It was a jolly good old scrap though.’

‘A duel for the ageless.’

The man in white nodded in agreement and looked perplexed in thought before he came up with a marvellous idea, ‘I say, should we get something to eat then?’

‘Yes, let’s see what’s around.’

The two men did in fact look around. Rubble. An eerie silence except perhaps the screams of mortals dying. Dogs yelping. Cats clawing. The dull aroma of dust and smoke.

‘It could have been worse,’ said the main in black.

‘Indeed. A shame really as this was a rather splendid battleground. Great atmosphere, good crowd’

‘A sporting lot, a few little obstacles to keep the game full of surprises. I bless the rebuild.’

‘The rebuild be blessed.’

The two men smiled, nodded gallantly and launched into the air like falcons in rewind. They flew many times faster than the speed of sound, shattering any glass and any ear not already ruptured by the great duel. From there they raced across the earth scorching everything beneath them until they came upon a bamboo forest and suddenly stopped.

‘I say good chap, it’s bean a while since I had Chinese,’ suggested man in white.

‘Ah yes, I could also go for that myself.’

The men landed gracefully next to a big furry ball of black and white happiness chewing on a bamboo branch. They both smiled a glorious smile, a very satisfied smile.