"You can't do this....I need this, I brought this team gold and I have given my life for this organization. You can't do this! IT'S NOT FAIR!"

Rom felt shattered, the news that came to him, that Cromwell had been, well, 'escorted' out of the country. His team in tatters, nothing was left for them, it seemed that everything was to change. Starting with him, he was being fired and let go from the now defunct Chicago Boston Celtics. After he gave his life for them, now it was all being taken away, all he could do was sigh to himself. It meant nothing any more, standing from his seat, his chair falling in the process as his anger came through. A soft growl leaving through his nostrils, it was all he needed to calm himself down. 

"Well, I hope you realize that this is more than the end of an era. You're going to be breaking a team that had one more run, that had another chance to show people that we were going to be taking the league by storm. Do you know what you are doing!? People like Ron Swanson and his unhealthy addiction to paintings and steak! People like Pablo Ryman_Branson, who gave it his all in a single game and has shown that he has it in him to become a fucking legend in the business. Sync, the man who has a weird fetish for cages, that's something I didn't need to know, but he shared it with the group! Finally, we have well, the rookies...no one else really played on the team...."

He paused for a moment, humming to himself as he stared down the board of directors. His eyes wild but holding such meaning behind them, he wanted them to know, he wanted them to know that this was more than a team. It was a family, regardless of the insults and dark looks he caught due to what he had done in joining this team. He became someone again, he became the best goddamn power forward in the country. Seven Rings meant something and it was all due to the support he had, the teammates that had come with him...it was certainly something for all of them. 

"Besides the point, you take away the CBC, the league is done for in Chicago. We have worked hard in putting ourselves on the map, you've seen what we could accomplish on our own. You even had your doubts, this team, what we've done for it...what we've done for the league as a whole. I can tell you that no other team will other accomplish for us. This is our last dance or was supposed to be, yet I can't even get the words because it's ending so abruptly."

Bowing his head, he scoffed again, he didn't expect to get anything from this. So he just raised his hands in a single wave. They had fired him because they knew that he was the signing that Cromwell made, they wished to distance themselves from him, he certainly knew how that worked.

Walking out, he decided to get a message to all of his former teammates, it was time for one last talk, a talk between all of them and how he wished the best for them. They would meet at Rome Park, the park that was supposed to play host to the next generation of Basketball Players for the league, that idea now fell down into the drain, never to return. 

"So here we are, all of us, drinking and in Ron's case, trying to embrace me. I always wondered about you, Ron_Swanson, you too Sync. Still, you two were the goddamn best teammates someone could ask for-"

Hearing a deliberate cough to the side, Rom turned his to find the rest of his team, each of them giving him certain looks as if to ask "What about them?" And all he did was give them a sly wink before moving back to talk with his boys. 

"As I was saying, you two were the best goddamn teammates someone could ask for. Just a few things, Sync you really needed to get involved with the game more and stop giving the women in the crowd looks, there are only so many husbands that me and Ron could save you from..."

Turning to face his other partner in this game of theirs, the man who had given him steak, the man who decided that he was worth having a picture with his famous' moustache embracing him. The inner connection of himself and Ron was purely...energetic, not helping himself, Rom rushed the man with a hug, who blinked before coughing ever so slightly. 

"Oh sorry, I know how you feel about those things, it's pretty well, awkward for you. Now you sir, well you seriously need to come through with that steak connection, otherwise, how can I be the greatest power forward alive? Other than that, you were pretty good, other than that whole...coffee shop thing with that green-haired man, I still have to wonder what you were doing there...be glad that no Feds saw you, cause that's just...."

Blanching with a bit green coming onto his cheeks, Rom swallowed whatever was rising in his throat as he found himself looking at all of them one final time, his brothers, his sisters, his team. With a final nod of his head, he raised his glass to all of them. 

"Ladies, Gentlemen, and rookies. This is the final time that we may come together and be a team for one final time, so I just want to say this, you were all great rotation players for me to get my shine on. I kid, of course. You were my brothers, you were my sisters, you were my family on this team. Never forget that, I hope you all realize that you have a great future ahead of you. That everything this team did, well, it's just the beginning of your careers....to us, to coach Cromwell, to the CBC! WHAT TEAM!?"

"WILDCATS, GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME!"

No one had even realized the moment they had said it but cheers went up as the Last Dance for the CBC commenced......

Cognito tried to hold back a tear that was starting to appear, his bloodline had spent a little time waisting away the hours as a towel boy for the CBC, once his patented "Pick, Roll & Flick" had earned him demotion to the bench. 

He didn't want to admit it, but he had shed a tear at how such a fine group of athletes could just be left, abandoned, soon to split there own way. 

Coach Cromwell had been a great leader behind closed doors, allowing for players to thrive, even those with little to no natural talent. Ushering them to practice, regularly sharing game tape & forcing the excess use of 'Performance enhancers'.

His extradition was shattering. 

Cognito paused & raised his glass: 

"To Coach, He gave more than he took, He will be missed"

Rons usual stoic demeanour slipped slightly as he remembered the great coach, his speeches, his tea parties and his 'special motivation'

He would miss the fine band of brothers and sisters who graced the courts as CBC and stood, head bowed in remembrance of the great man

May you shoot three's in the heavens Coach

Pablo Ryman sat on the bench with a towel over his head, coach Cromwell’s departure following his disagreement with the bigger organisation just before their last game had caused their season to end.  Despite giving their all, the team was destined to be split up; Romulus moved on to Detroit, Ron_Swanson was snatched up by @LogenNineFinger’s established organisation, Mercy_Fiorentino didn’t want to leave Chicago, Pablo Ryman and Allegra were drafted by the expansion franchise in the South Side.

This wasn’t how this team was supposed to end.  A dynasty was in the stars, title after title, a gravitational pull for all the best talent in the six cities to end up having towels handed to them by Cognito.  Now, it was over and like dandelion seeds they were all scattered to the winds.

RIP to the CBC