Choke Hold RP: Rebounds

[Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion]

Part 7: Rebounds

I had my wrist tape unwrapped from my hand before I even walked back behind the curtain. I had no intentions on sticking around the building after that match. I can handle losing; that is of no consequence to me. But it was the circumstances surrounding the loss. It was my second match of my career and I’m already one and one. It had no direct championship repercussions but you have to imagine that in terms of singles competition, my first match was a loss so no matter what happens in the rest of this Tag Team Tournament I’m still bottom of the rung in all other singles categories which is something I would prefer to be competing in myself. Above all of that though was the effort. I put my all into that match with Penny Shannon, it was an opportunity to show the world what Lucas Crowe was all about and even after pulling out all the stops, going for broke, and any other cliché phrase a person wants to use, at the end of the day it boils down to one thing. It boils down to the fact that a six foot ten, three hundred and ten pound monster got bested by a five foot seven, one hundred thirty four pound one eyed girl. That doesn’t just bruise a person’s man hood; that straight up fractures a person’s psyche. What kind of ing narrative is that? All I know is that I really just wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of here. I just want to get back to Justin’s, accept my dressing down for the loss and mentally prepare for the next round of the Tag Team Title tournament. Entering the dressing room, I do my best to not look at any of the other guys in there. I sense that my tournament partner Johnny Hess is sitting in his stall staring at me. that guy, I don’t have the patience to deal with him right now nor do I have any inclination to go over any kind of strategy with him. And even if I did it wouldn’t matter because his strategy is to get his ass handed to him and my strategy is to bail him out again and carry his ass to the tournament finals anyways. Without saying a word I grab my bag and my duster jacket and exit the locker room. As I exit the building and head towards my rental car I see a shadowed figure standing by it. Assuming it was Justin Tyme I mentally prepared myself for the dressing down I was about to take from a man who is paying me to do the opposite of what I did tonight. The closer I got though the more I realized it wasn’t Justin, this person had a more feminine frame than Justin has. Was it Penny waiting out here to rub it in? Or maybe she was out here to issue some false niceties. “Good match kid, you really gave it your all out there. Maybe next time.” her too. As I felt my mental state begin to degrade more, a familiar voice pulls me straight out of it.

Hey big guy.

Amy?

I squint my eyes in the darkness of the parking lot to try and see and as I get closer to the car I can see that the person was, in fact, Amy Sanders. It was strange, for all the mixed emotions I had been feeling towards her since I saw her at Kevin’s bar that day I felt myself legitimately relieved and almost happy to see her. Still, what was she doing here?

How did you-

C’mon Lucas, you told Kevin what you were going to be doing. He’s not exactly a locked vault you know. Besides, you’re on national television not in the witness protection program. Any person flipping through the channels would know where to find you.

I feel a smile come across my face. She’s right, I don’t know how I thought I could have kept her away from me just by not telling her what I was doing. Still though, there was part of me that wishes she wasn’t here. My head isn’t in the most stable of places right now as it is, I’d really prefer she wasn’t here to complicate things.

Why are you here Amy?

Because I know why you are here and I want you to know that you don’t have to take this career path. You can come home, back to Detroit and we can fix things that way. I know that a night like this had to have been hard on you after everything that you…. We have been through. Come home Lucas.

Maybe it was just my frame of mind but I found these words to be damn insulting. A person observing me from a third person would probably think that I’m bipolar when I’m interacting with Amy. One minute I’m happy to see her and the next minute she says something that is like digging a knife into my ribs. When you think about it, it’s really no wonder that we’re in the place we’re at in our life.

This is my home now Amy. I belong here. There are not a lot of things in my life that I’ve been good at but fighting is one of them. It seems to me like an awfully wasted trip to come from Detroit down here to Florida if this was your grand scheme. You just stretch out your arms and expect me to come rushing back home. Justin and I are changing the world here and at the same time I’m not just giving myself something to be proud of, and certainly not giving you something to be proud of but I’m going to be giving the city of Detroit another champion that it can be proud of. If you can’t see this then I’m afraid you’re just being selfish.

I’m the one being selfish? You’re the one throwing away all of his friends and family for this absurd hope to obtain some sort of modicum of fame.

She stops herself and exhales, attempting some sort of self-composure.

Look. I hoped that you would change your mind but deep down I knew that you wouldn’t. At the end of the day I guess I just wanted to take the two and a half hour flight down here to remind you that even though you want to cut all of us out of your life for this that the biggest fans of yours as a human being? They still live in Detroit.

I appreciated the sentiment as she turned and started to walk away. There are so many thoughts rushing through my head right now that I thought that it might explode but deep inside me I felt something I had not felt thus far in the couple weeks since I’ve started competing. I felt a sort of burning fire in the pit of my stomach. A renewed desire to make Amy and Kevin, my friends and family in Detroit proud of everything I planned on accomplishing. And not only that but like I told Amy, I was going to give Detroit another champion.

Amy, do you need a ride back to the airport?

No I have a taxi waiting for me actually. Take care champ, please come back home soon though, OK?

I smiled and gave her a wave as she turned and walked up the ramp out of the secured parkade of the arena. I tossed my bag in the trunk of my rental, got in the car and peeled out of the parkade.

Part 8: No Second Chances

When I got back to Justin’s mansion he was stoic. He didn’t say a word to me for a long while as he sat on the opposite side of his office from me. He just stared down at the folder, his hands placed on top of it. It was almost as though he was entranced by the contents of said folder. Finally he looked up at me and had a smile on his face. I couldn’t tell if it was a fake smile or not. If it was, he does an excellent job of hiding it. He broke his silence.

Oh well, can’t win ‘em all my friend. On to the next one.

I was taken aback by this as he tossed the folder onto my lap. For the first time I actually looked closely at the folder and saw scribblings on it. On the tab I saw scribbled down “Plan 1(a)” and below that I saw “Crowe W-L: 1-1” For some inexplicable reason it hurt more to see it written down than it did just actually feeling the three count happen. I emptied the contents and inside I saw the same thing as the last two folders I opened, two pictures and a written note. The pictures were pretty unnecessary inclusions as my next two opponents were people I had seen backstage at my last two events. One of them was WFWF World Heavyweight Champion Drakz, a guy that almost rubbed me the wrong way. He walks around like he owns the place just because he holds on to the crown jewel of the company. The other guy is also impossible to miss, standing over seven feet tall and weighing over four hundred pounds, Tugarin Zmey. I’ve felt an unspoken tension between the two of us since I showed up just based on the fact that two giants simply don’t coexist very often. I turned my attention to the note and instead of the usual typewriter typed memo of the last two matches, this piece of paper simply had two words scribbled on it.

You’re ed.

-Justin Tyme

Not exactly a vote of confidence here boss man.

Well let’s just be realistic here Lucas my boy.

Realistically speaking you should know not to discount my abilities.

And realistically speaking in a one on one situation with either of these two I wouldn’t dream of doing any such thing. However this is a tag team match situation.

That you put me in.

With a tag team partner that is essentially useless.

That you are directly responsible for saddling me with.

Can I finish, please?

I scoff and gesture for him to continue.

You are in a tag team situation with an essentially useless tag team partner. You are coming off a loss to a one eyed woman half your size and you are in a match with the WFWF World Heavyweight Champion and a monster bigger than you. How else would you like me to prepare you for this other than simply saying that you are completely, one hundred percent, unequivocally ed.

I prefer to look at it as if it’s the biggest challenge of my life.

Understatement of the century my boy! Tugarin is literally the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced in your life.

Can I finish, please?

Justin smirks and gestures for me to continue.

It is the biggest challenge I have ever faced in my life up to this point. Is Drakz the current World Heavyweight Champion? Absolutely. Is Tugarin literally the biggest challenge I’m ever going to face? You’re damn right. But you know what? I’ve learned something from that match with Penny Shannon. You can be behind the eight ball, tied to the train tracks with the big freight train barrelling in on you and have all of the odds stacked against you. If you are convinced that you are better than the person standing across the ring from you, you have already won half the battle. The next step is to choke out the dragon and prove a point to the WFWF World Heavyweight champion. Not just that but to put him on notice that someday soon, the next time he meets me in that ring it won’t be me eliminating him from a Tag Team Title tournament. It will be me standing over his unconscious body and hoisting his World championship over my head.

Justin rolls his eyes at this statement.

Is that not, at the end of the day, what you are paying me to do?

Absolutely it is Lucas my boy but if there is one thing I’ve learned in my career it’s that you never want to look farther than your feet can keep up with. It’s inspiring to see you all fired up though. Ooh someone must’ve paid you a visit after that last show.

Wait, you were the reason Amy came down to Florida?

I paid for her to come down here first class.

But why?

For that impassioned speech. It’s really easy for a person to lose focus, lose desire after a loss especially a loss that was a tightly contested as yours. I figured that you would need an immediate morale boost and what better than one of your dear ol’ sewer rat Detroitans to give you that pick me up.

I threw the chair I was sitting in back as I stood up and slammed my hands down on his desk. He sat there not breaking his expression. That smug grin. He gestures for me to relax.

I would like to suggest that you relax big guy. I meant nothing by it. I simply mean that those people are in your past now. Beneath you. Why fight for a bankrupt, corrupt city? What value do you gain from being a hero to them?

I compose myself, righting the chair and sitting back down. The stuff that he was saying didn’t sit well with me, I didn’t agree with him and I was still fuming at him calling Amy a sewer rat. But he signs my paychecks so I have to keep my temper in check.

Now then, your match with Drakz and Tugarin Zmey is, on paper, a tag team match but let us be realistic here. If your first round match is any indication then this is essentially going to be a handicap match. I’m not usually one for giving second chances but given the circumstances I will not be completely heartbroken at a loss in this tournament at this juncture. However if you and Mr. Hess do lose and Mr. Hess has a repeat performance from your first round tournament match I want you to do one thing for me.

I’m almost afraid to ask.

If the two of you do happen to fall to Drakz and Tugarin, I want you to make Mr. Hess keenly aware as to what happens to the people on the WFWF roster when they play spoiler to my endgame with you Lucas. And I want you to make sure that he regrets ever stepping foot inside of a WFWF ring. Can you do that for me Lucas?

I didn’t even have to think twice about it. Once again Justin knows exactly what to say to get my head back into the game even after pissing me off. My relationship with Justin is starting to seem about as bipolar as my relationship with Amy.

Oh I would be more than happy to oblige you JT. Hell, when I win this match I’m still going to make Mr. Hess keenly aware just how inconsequential he is to this team. I might even become the WFWF Tag Team Champion by myself.

Justin smirks his unsettling smirk as he kicks his feet up onto his desk and leans back in his chair. He appears to enter a state of daydreaming. I stare at the photos of Drakz and Tugarin now laying on the floor and enter a daydream of my own.

OOC: I feel like this is a huge step down but as I said, been running myself ragged for the last little while. Hoping I can return to form for the PPV though. Just glad I got this up.

[Mr. PerpetuaLynch Motion]

Promo coding:

Amy Sanders
Justin Tyme
Lucas Crowe

[Rated R]

I wouldn't say it's a huge step down really, this was still some pretty solid stuff and I enjoyed it from start to finish. My only problem with your pieces continues to be the block of narrative text you throw in at times because they just don't work with the flow of things, you've got to find a way to break up your descriptive moments a little even if it's just breaking them up into separate paragraphs. It might seem like a small thing but when the first paragraph of the piece is just one huge block of text it gives off a negative feeling before the reader has even started properly. Beyond that though and you've got all the trappings to make this character your most successful one yet with a bit of work.

[Drakz]

I agree, this isn't a huge step down by any means. I think you've got a good grasp on who Lucas is as a character and you're still working out the initial knots. This all flowed naturally and you covered all bases in terms of what's going on in the fed right now for Lucas. This is something a lot of people side step so kudos there man.

I'm looking forward to seeing Crowe in some more singles action after this tourney. We'll have a chat about where to take him next after results go up.

[Deleted]

This really wasn't a step down by any means. I thought this overall was rather solid, some of the dialogue in the meeting with Crowe and Tyme was a little lacking for me, but for what it lacked, the rest of the scene and the previous ones picked up in. Good work dude!