Bryan Payne

Payne, more Payne, and nothing but the Payne...

(episode one: My Brother's Keeper)--16 hours and change after Wildcard

It all seemed one big blur. Wildcard, Gardner-gate, Georgie stopping by in the aftermath, and the red-eye out of Vegas, and a short thirteen hour flight later he was back in Tokyo. Boy oh boy what a night, but at least this flight hadn’t been interrupted and he’d managed to grab enough sleep that he wasn’t totally spaced… just feeling like he’d slept in a hard uncomfortable chair while crammed into a flying sardine can with wings breathing recycled air. Now that he thought about it he wasn’t altogether sure that was much of an improvement. But he’d made it, and here he was. Here he was…

Bryan looked up, having lost track of time, as the guard approaching guiding his little brother Tim in handcuffs. The kid looked even younger than sixteen at the moment, obviously scared his eyes shifting about and when they fell on Bryan finally they seemed to get even more forlorn. Bryan shifted a bit, almost standing up before he realized they were bringing him right out to the table and plopped him down across from Bryan, attaching his handcuffs to the table itself before walking some distance away keeping an eye on the whole of the visitation area.

Bryan sighed a bit, taking off his shades slowly and folding the legs in before laying them onto the metallic surface of the table. He looked at his little brother then, who had his head down the long bangs of his dark hair falling down in front of his face hiding his eyes, and refused to look up even when Bryan cleared his throat a bit forcefully. Bryan sighed then and leaned back in his chair, looking at time while he ran a hand back though his hair.

“Are you ok, kid?”

Tim fletched as if the words were a physical blow and half looked up and gave a slight nod.

“Y-yeah bro.. I-I’m ok…”

“What were you thinking?” Bryan asked a little bit of helpless questioning in his voice very out of character for him.

“I… don’t know.. I.. “

“You know Mom hasn’t stopped crying since I stepped off the plane, she’s a wreck!” Bryan interrupted leaning across the table a bit with his elbows braced against the surface and his hands clasped together as he did so. “You are that woman’s whole friggen world kid, I think you can do just a little bit better than I don’t know Bryan!” The last was said with clenched teeth and with visible effort illustrated by the way the muscles of his jaw jumped out against the surface of his face Bryan forced himself to calm down.

“I,” Tim paused a minute looking around and swallowed heavily as he leaned forward his voice dropping down into a whisper, “I, went to work for Mr Hiri.. he s-said to.. steal him a car…”

Bryan paused, feeling a rising tide of white hot rage building up and he forced himself, willed even, it down to a controllable level to prevent himself from screaming like a mad man at his little brother.

“Are you insane Tim? You know what that man is, who he is, what he does. And you went to work for him?”

“You are not my fucking father Bryan!” Snapped Tim his head suddenly snapping upwards as little brother met older’s eyes unflinchingly the same fire apparently running in the family. “Besides don’t you care get holier than thou on me you hypocrite… you worked for him for years! Years! You don’t think I know where those cloths came from, you don’t think I know why you always had that money you’d bring home? Mom might not wonder how her money jar was always more full than she remembered, but I know!”

Bryan stopped, a little staggered and leaned back in his chair, the anger draining out of him leaving him feeling tired and suddenly much older than his twenty-one years.

“Kid.. I..”

“I’m not a kid! Quit treating me like one! If this is all you came to talk about I don’t know why you bothered, I don’t need your help.” He snarled looking at Bryan with something very near to hate in his eyes.

“You’re right.” Bryan said shaking his head a bit, his fingers playing with his shades for a moment while a few seconds of silence between them seemed louder than the near screaming of a few seconds before, “I apologize. But you are my brother k-… Tim, and if you expect me not to care that you’re in trouble, you’re going to be disappointed.”

Tim looked at Bryan then for a long minute, visibly trying to stay angry, he needed his anger it was what was seeing him though this, but slowly it started to ebb, the last week having sucked most of his energy out of him and it showed. His face was pale, and large dark circles under his eyes showed how little he’d slept. But he didn’t speak as Bryan continued.

“I know I made some choices I’m not proud of. I’m not here to say I was right and you were wrong Tim. I… did what I did to make sure we had a place to sleep, and you had cloths for school, and so… so Mom didn’t have to not eat so I could anymore. I did what I did to keep us together as a family because after Dad left we were all each other had. Maybe I was wrong, hell god knows I did worse than steal a few cars, and I got off really light for what I did, maybe I even deserve to be sitting where you are now instead.” Bryan paused shaking his head and closed his eyes for a moment taking a slow steadying breath. “But things are better now. I don’t have to do those things, you don’t have to do those things… I make sure of that.”

“Well who asked you…” Tim said between clenched teeth, “hell, you don’t even care about us enough to stay in Japan!” He spat out.

“Damnit..” Bryan said slumping forward a bit again. “Do you think I like not being here with you?... Do you honestly believe that?! Who took you to your first baseball game huh? Who taught you to play catch because we both sure as hell know it wasn’t Dad.. I might not be your father Tim, but I am your big brother and I have always been there for you!”

For the first time Tim seemed to look a bit guilty.

“I know…then why?”

“I’m doing this because its what is best for all of us. I’m making more money now than I ever could over here and I’m just getting started, I am building this family a new life… you’re going to go to college and make this family proud again. And when I’m all worn out and busted up you’re going to fucking take care of me.”

Both of them laughed a little then and Tim clasped one of Bryan’s hands and the clench lasted for a time Bryan’s other wrapping over on top of Tim’s holding it in place for a time.

“I…” Tim started, “Mom wanted… this dress…” he said swallowing and then shook his head. “No.. I mean it wasn’t important and she never said so but she’d always stop and look at it.. I mean always! And she’d never ask you for it.. hell I think if she could afford to pay everything herself she wouldn’t even take the checks you send.. but.. I thought I could.. get it for her, you know… that I could be the one to help.”

“Jesus kid…” Bryan said, and for once Tim didn’t snap at him for it, he just lowered his head his shoulders starting to shake back and forth a bit violently as a series of sobs escaped from the kid. Bryan reacted almost instantly pulling him forward a bit with the hand he still held his other wrapping around behind his head. “Shh.. shh.. it’s alright Tim, it’s going to be ok..”

“I’m sorry Bryan…” Tim shook his head still crying while Bryan tried to calm him down patting him on the back and his own head resting on the back of his little brother while he cried so hard his attempts to speak where broken up competing for air with the simple act of breathing. “I screwed up, I’m sorry I let you down..”

“No, no you didn’t let me down.. you didn’t let me down..” Bryan paused choking back a few tears of his own blinking until his eyes cleared of the mist and grabbed Tim by the collar forcing him to look up, the kids tear streaked face coming into view and he looked him dead in the eye. “Now you listen to me Tim, you listen up, I’m going to take care of this ok? I’m going to take care of this… and you’re never going to do anything this stupid again are you?”

Tim shook his head unable to respond and the two brothers slowly disengaged with the younger trying to wipe his face clear with the backs of his hands.

“W-what are you going to do Bry?” Tim asked when he’d regained something of his composure trying to speak quietly and quickly as the guards approached to take him back to his cell.

“That’s not something you have to worry about kid.. but I will take care of this, kid, don’t worry.”

“Just don’t do anything.. stupid Bryan I..” The kid blinked as the guard took his arm and the other undid the restraint from the table helping him stand while the other informed both brothers that the visitation time was over. “Bryan.. what are you going to do man?!”

“Don’t worry about it, I’m going to take care of this.” Tim jerked a bit against the leading hand trying to buy himself another minute.

“Bryan don’t do it, don’t throw everything away for this!”

Bryan sighed just a bit slumping in his chair as the guards pulled him down the hallway with him still screaming back over his shoulder at Bryan.

“Don’t have a choice kid..” he said softly, whispering as he picked up his shades and settled them onto his face again tightly over his eyes, “you’re my brother.” He stood up then taking a moment to draw a steadying breath before he dug his iphone from his pocket and dialed a number he wished he could’ve forgotten. “Yeah. It’s Bryan. Tell Hiri-san I need a meet… today. I’ll be there.” Bryan took the phone from his ear and killed the call and started walking back towards the front entrance. He had a meeting with a Mob Boss to get to.

(******)

Bryan blinked as dozens of headlights turned on all around him piercing the surrounding darkness all around. The pale illumination they provided sending sparkles across the mixture of sand and gravel in the bottom of the pit he now stood in. The grimy texture crunched beneath the soles of his boots as he shifted his feet feeling for traction and he flexed his hands the tape covering his wrists and knuckles drawing tight against his skin pulling at the small hairs on the back of his hand and wrist. His lip pulled back slightly as he brushed a bit of dust from his bare chest, his muscles rippling beneath the skin as he took a few experimental steps getting a feel for the size of the pit that he would soon be fighting in. The speakers that he could see several people setting up blared music loudly creating the mood that they desired for the gathering crowd of rich people who had nothing better to do with their money but to gamble it away… the same people who’s debts he once collected on. Needless to say this was one crowd he was not popular with; it was not a situation he was accustomed to. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7wOyL2alEk )

This was his penance, the price he had to pay to get Mr. Hiri’s help with is little brother. Win this fight and he would use his connections with the Prosecutors to get Tim out of jail and all would be forgiven. Then he could take his mother and his brother back to the States, let them start over fresh their and this would just be a bad memory. He drew a breath into his lungs and stretched a bit, the Dockers pants he was wearing were comfortable easy to move in, but they were not ideal fighting cloths. For one thing this gravel was going to shred the soft cotton fabric to pieces like it would his face if he wasn’t careful. For another they were too loose for someone who had grown accustomed to the skin tight material of his ring attire. Fortunately he had still had a pair of his old ring footware at the his mother’s house and while they didn’t match well with the steel grey of the pants at least he wasn’t trying to fight in loafers.

The rules in the pit were simple. Win and try not to get killed. Easy enough to remember right? He gave a bit of a nervous chuckle and cocked his head to one side, there was some motion at the far end of the pit, his opponent was arriving. Bryan shifted again and stepped towards the center of the pit into a roughly drawl circle about twenty yards in diameter, that was the fighting circle, if you stepped out of it, it was as good as a forfeit. The other ways to lose were giving up or knock out, the former of which insured you’d never be invited back to the pit again. So realistically speaking surrender wasn’t an option here, Bryan had to beat this guy as quickly as humanly possible and then start packing boxes… easy right?

“Let’s give a big Tokyo welcome home to Bryan Payne!” Screamed out the announcer holding a microphone a bit like a disk-jocky might at a club walking around trying to amp up the crowd; the more excited they got the more they bet, simple law of nature adrenaline equals stupidity. “He’s been off in the US playing big time star, but he’s back now looking for a fat load of cash! Mr Hiri has a special surprise, you see his opponent is none other than the undefeated… unbeatable Ojiwa!” The crowd erupted into cheers as Bryan’s opponent turned around shedding a small robe that had been wrapped around him by his handlers and shoved his fists, taped similarly to Bryan’s, into the air for their ovation. Ojiwa was a well muscled, slender man about 5’9” which put him about four inches shorter than Bryan. Bryan looked like a scaled up version of the guy, which gave him pause, he’s going to be faster than me… Bryan thought as he studied the man as he stepped into the ring, a little smirk coming to Ojiwa’s features as he looked at Bryan and gave him the thumbs down.

“Oh it’s time to get this kicked off! Bets are final, time to bleed!” A gong went off signaling the beginning of the match. There were no rounds here, no rest period, they would fight until one of them was beaten.

Ojiwa shifted his feet around shuffling from one martial arts stance to another changing styles as easily as breathing, but most of it looked like kickboxing or basic karate. Bryan grimaced a bit as slowly the circles they moved around each other got close and closer as they neared the center of the circle their eyes studying each other and then almost faster than Bryan could blink he found his head knocked to one side, his upper body turning with it until he was unbalanced toppling over onto the ground. A thick cloud of dust and grime was kicked up by the impact and Bryan shook his head to try and clear it, where the fuck had that kick come from?! Bryan spit to clear his mouth of the dust and shuffled back up onto his feet as quickly as he could, the second kick caught on his raised forearms, still hard enough to send a numbing shock though his limbs and make him stagger back a step. The third was aimed lower at his mid-section and caught him square in the abs a hiss of pain cleared Bryan’s throat as he doubled over just in perfect time to catch a rising knee into the bottom of his jaw which sent his head snapping back and then he felt the sensation of falling… falling as blackness threatened to close in all around him.

(**********)
(earlier that night)

“I’m glad you came to see me Bryan, it’s so good to see our local boy made good!” The incredibly fat man laughed and clapped his pudgy hands together and Bryan forced himself to smile and endure this whole elaborate dance once again. He didn’t make eye contact with either of the former Sumo wrestlers to either side of Mr. Hiri, for one thing they were both packing mac-10’s, for another they were dumber than dirt!

“I’m… very glad to be here, thank you for seeing me.” He sat in a chair across on one side of an antique desk that had to be more than seven hundred years old if it was a day, artifacts from Japan’s past littered the room, it was more museum than office, and Hiri played these things up as a way to show his power and wealth. The last time he had sat here was almost three years ago, the last time he’d been collecting for Hiri, before his wrestling career started to take off and John told him it was him or continuing to.. how was it he had put it… oh yeah, ‘playing gangster with jabba the hutt!’ Lovely way with words that John Henry.

“Not at all my boy! You made me good money, got what was mine.” He grew quiet for a moment and Bryan indulged him by picking up the small cup of Sake and drinking with him. He hated the rice concoction and hadn’t touched in five years, but now was not the time to be telling the men with the guns that drinking was bad for you, especially not when you wanted their help. “I heard your brother got arrested, very very sad..”

“Yes Mr. Hiri, that’s… actually why I came to see you.” Bryan swallowed a bit noticing that some of the humor had gone away from Hiri’s eyes, oh yes the fat man smelled a favor, and those were a currency of a kind. “I, need your help. My brother needs your help.”

Hiri sat back in his chair, which groaned in protest, and pursed his swollen lips while he studied Bryan for a moment. “I see, but I don’t know what I could do… you know as well as I do they pulled him out of that car, I mean he didn’t even try to outrun them! He as good as stole from me Bryan, that doesn’t sit well for a man in my position.”

“He’s a kid Mr. Hiri, a stupid stupid kid… not like you and I were, he doesn’t know these things I’ve kept him from them. Please don’t punish him for my failing Mr. Hiri. I will make good any debt you feel he owes you.” There, he’d said the magic words, now he just had to sit here and wait for the hammer to drop.

“Yes Bryan,” Mr. Hiri said as he leaned forward a wolfish grin coming to his face, “yes you will. One fight, one night, I’m going to put fifteen large on you my young friend.. oh don’t look so surprised, we all remember what you did to that piece of shit China man who thought he could steal from me!” Bryan felt sick but forced a laugh. “You win, I will do what I can for your brother… provided you get him out of my town, for good. You get me? If you lose… I’ll get him off, but you work for me again, until I think your debt has been paid off in full, do we understand each other?”

Bryan nodded, taking slow breath. “Yes sir, we do.” He felt the soft hand in his as they shook on it and his fate had been sealed.

“You need to get up Bryan…”

What was Hiri talking about? What was that noise why was it so loud?

“You need to get up Bryan..”

“W-what are you…” he couldn’t seem to talk, why did his arms feel so heavy?

“GET UP!”

(*****)

Bryan’s eyes flicked open feeling heavy as he felt his upper body struggle into a sitting position. Ojiwa crossed his field of vision a slightly blurry figure out in front of him with his arms in the air. He tried to get his feet under him, but they protested slipping out and dumping him not softly onto his knees, one hand reaching out to brace himself on the ground as he looked up, spitting a glob of blood onto the gravel. Ojiwa sneered in Bryan’s direction walking towards him with purpose. The beams of light coming down from the headlights above seemed to twist and blur in Bryan’s field of vision sending motes of floating dust dancing like stardust ringing around Ojiwa, he looked like the Angel of Death come to finish him off.

No!

Bryan gritted his teeth, willing his legs to obey his arms to work together with them. He braced himself waiting, and as Ojiwa approached he pitched himself forward again as though he were falling down and the smaller man laughed raising his arms into the air again and laughing at his beaten opponent. The crowd roared it’s approval, but it was shockingly premature as Bryan lunged forward his arm extended as his body left the ground catching Ojiwa around the neck and half spinning his entire body around as Bryan collapsed on the other side panting. Bryan then focused on lifting himself up off the ground and managed to stagger to his feet, still stumbling this way and that like a drunk on a weekend bender, but the more he moved the more he seemed to get his sea legs back under him.

Ojiwa yelled in fury as he got up to his knees, his fists rising into the air and slamming two small craters into the gravel and dirt beneath him as he stood up a new dangerous and murderous light coming into his features as he went at Bryan again pure attack. Bryan was forced to back up continuously keeping his arms between himself and the guy’s feet, kicks whip lashing into him from all sides. Sensing blood in the water Ojiwa faked a low kick and then with a scream jumped into the air his fist coming over hand out of nowhere to blast Bryan in the side of the face sending him stumbling down to the ground again, but this time he managed to wrap his arms around Ojiwa first bringing him to the gravel floor with him. Bryan ducked his head carefully protecting himself from the well aimed elbows the other man tried to land on him and wove his arms around Ojiwa’s head locking them around and flexing his more heavily muscled frame around it. The smaller man screamed twisting his lower body in time with his hands in an attempt to pop free of the hold but Bryan shifted his weight onto the guy’s back holding on for all he was worth using his weight to his advantage as best he could while he still cleared the cogwebs out of his head. It felt still like his head was stuffed with cotton.

Ojiwa caught a lucky elbow into the side of Bryan’s head and the two broke free from each other rolling away from each other as fast as they could and popping to their feet. But this time as they approached each other Ojiwa was a lot more careful. He aimed a few probing kicks and punches that Bryan warded off and even fired a few ineffectual punches back which were blocked with almost contemptuous ease. Then Ojiwa faked a left punch and gave a yell, his body spinning around to add torque as his right leg snapped up with a spinning roundhouse that looked to take Bryan’s head clean off! Ready for it, Bryan stepped inside the onrushing kick, standing up underneath the incoming leg and catching it on his shoulder, even that enough to send stars dancing in front of his eyes, but he did falter, his arms once again wrapping around the smaller man and clutching tightly. Ojiwa struggled again, but in a fraction of a second he found himself lifted into the air by Bryan and then slamming head and shoulders first into the gravel as he was suplexed into the unyielding surface.

Bryan rolled up to one knee, panting heavily willing Ojiwa to stay down. The smaller man lay in the gravel, his hands sliding back in towards his center of gravity and then started to push, a thin trickled of blood from his mouth sticking to a few of the rocks to the ground below creating a long chain as he rose steadily higher. Bryan shook his head and drew his fist back behind him his whole body lunging forward as he put every ounce of his strength and weight into a roundhouse punch that caught Ojiwa just below the left eye. There was a wet snapping sound, like breaking a branch right off a tree as Bryan felt the occipital bone of Ojiwa’s eye socket crack beneath his fist. The crowd roared in ghoulish delight as a spray of blood from his already bleeding face erupted on the steel gray of the gravel pit in a lurid display of gore as his face once again smashed into the ground and didn’t move.

Bryan’s torso slammed into the pit floor sprawled out as Ojiwa went limp and he lay still for a moment, his eyes drifted closed while he caught his breath, coughing as dust and grit were forcefully expelled from his lungs and then pushed off the ground. His fingers curled into the gravel gripping handfuls of it as he rose that slipped out of from between his fingers taking with it the blood and creating more little clouds of dust at his feet and then shoved both is hands, fists tightly clenched into the air for the crowd’s approval… whatever the reason Bryan did love to work a crowd!

“Oh me, oh my, and the guy gone Hollywood has done it tonight! Looks like Ojiwa is going to be out of action for a while so starting next week we’ll be looking for a new champion!”

That was one title Bryan had no interest in, and he shook his head as he walked towards the metal steps that would lead him out of the bottom of the pit, his shoulders brushing with half a dozen men holding rakes who immediately started smoothing the gravel and sand erasing any trace of the fight, the turned floor of the gravel pit even hiding the blood trail as Ojiwa’s limp unconscious body was dragged by it’s feet out of the pit by a pair of goons; the grips of their weapons visible as their jackets shifted with their movement.

“Bryan!” Boomed Hiri as he reached the top of the stairs, avoiding making a distasteful face as the large fleshy blob that was the underworld boss embraced him clapping him on the shoulders. “You just made me a fuck-ton of cash tonight boy!” He laughed again, leaving his arm around Bryan’s shoulders as he guided the exhausted young man away from the pit as the cars lining the edge were started back up the rich patrons.. some newly richer… most still cursing their bad luck started to leave. “Now what I was thinking for next week was..”

Bryan held up his hand stopping Hiri dead in his tracks causing one of the bodyguards trailing behind the pair to growl ominously. “Let me stop you right there Hiri… there’s not going to be a next week, or a next month, or a next anything. This was a one time deal… a get my brother out of jail card, you agreed to it. Now,” Bryan paused wiping his mouth with the back of his forearm oblivious to the fact that he’d just replaced the sweat with a layer of grey dust, “are you going to live up to your end?”

Hiri touched a hand to his breast looking the picture of effrontery. “My dear dear boy, I’m a businessman, and one must always keep their word. Your brother will be out of the jail tomorrow, you have my word on it. But.. um, you can’t blame a guy for trying eh?” He grinned shaking his head and then Bryan’s hand once again, both of his pudgy hands clasping Bryan’s in their wet and warm embrace. “Just remember, the offer is on the table, you’ve got to think of your future eh? Don’t worry, I know who you are Bryan, what you’ve done… and I know eventually you’ll come back to work for me, they always do.” The man laughed unpleasantly and made a waving gesture to his bodyguards who filed in behind him and then piled into his car. “Oh sorry Bryan… the car is for employees only, you understand.”

The door slammed shut emphatically, leaving Bryan standing on the edge of the gravel pit, still stripped to the waist covered in blood and dirt, watching as Hiri and company drove away. Then, with nothing else to do for it, Bryan began trudging his way back towards home. Or what he thought the direction of home was… he’d get to a phone eventually. Hell in all likelihood with the way Hiri worked, his brother was going to beat HIM home.

(**********)

(72hours later, San Diego California)

“Are you going to tell me how you got that shiner kid?” John Henry said gruffly as struggled carrying four suitcases full of cloths and personal belongings up to the small house. The house had belonged to Bryan’s father before he’d died in a car wreck several years ago. Bryan’s father had been an American serviceman who’d been stationed in Japan a total of eight years, during that time he’d fathered two kids… and then promptly left the country. Call it what you will, but when most father’s run out on their family’s they just left town, Bryan’s had flown halfway around the world. But then the Payne’s were not the kind of people that did anything half-assed.

After his death the house had been left in Bryan’s name, but he hadn’t had the heart to live there, besides at the time he was still struggling on the indi circuit in Japan, and then wrestling on the East Coast in the states, it wasn’t exactly an easy commute. But it did make a great place for his younger brother and mother to get a fresh start… away from the Mr. Hiri’s of the world. Oh, this part of the country had its fair share of those sorts, but none that had intimate previous business dealings with his family! The most difficult part of the whole thing had been convincing his mother, who spoke almost no English at all, that moving was a good idea. He’d finally had to resort to emotional blackmail, that she’d be closer to him and… the check-mate, that they could get Tim into a better college here without having to cut him totally loose on his own. Now the thought of living with his mother while going to college had mortified Tim, but considering he’d just been bailed out of jail by a known criminal, he didn’t have much bargaining power.

“I hadn’t planned on it.” Bryan said as he pulled the sheets off of the furniture in the house, the windows already open and his mother and Tim could be seen and heard in the background mopping and running a vacuumed to get up the worst of the dust that had accumulated over five years of disuse. Bryan did indeed sport a fantastic black eye, around the outside corner of his right eye a swollen rupture black and purple though turning yellow around the edges where it was beginning to heal, where he’d been busted open in the illegal street fight he’d had to win to get his brother out of jail in the first place. What one does for love.

John set the bags down, it was a bit of a struggle even to do that, and then limped over to Bryan, catching the smaller man’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and pulling his head to one side so he could look at the cut. “Good stitches.” He gruffed again, his eyes narrowing a bit, “I know a fight fix when I see one, kid. What happened over there?”

Bryan sighed a bit, tossing the heavy linen onto the ever growing pile of the stuff to be cleaned. “I did what I had to do to get Mr. Hiri’s help.”

“What?! What did I tell you about that guy Bryan!”

“I know John, but…” he paused jerking his head free and then looking over his shoulder to where Tim was dumping mop and glow onto the linoleum, “he’s my brother, what was I supposed to do, you know as well as I do that Hiri would’ve had him killed inside just so he couldn’t talk.”

John tried to stay angry, he really did, his large hands balling up into fists and then he turned suddenly letting out a bark of a yell and kicking the side of an easy chair hard enough that he then cursed, flopping down into the seat of it holding his foot.

“You’re a stupid stupid son of a bitch, kid. Do you realize what would happened if you’d been arrested over there? Jesus… We’d never have gotten that cleared up… if we even could!... before your match this week!”

“I wasn’t, and I’m here, he’s safe now… let’s move on.”

“Kid, love of God, will you at least acknowledge that you have a title match coming up in a very very short period of time?”

“I know John.” Bryan said giving his head a shake and then sat down onto the sofa he’d just uncovered coughing a bit as it kicked up a terrific poof of dust. “But I’m here now, and you can see I got quite a work out while I was over there so I’m not going to be lacking any conditioning. We’ve been breaking down film of Ruckus ever since I won the Legacy Tournament, hell you could give me the date and the preceding move and I could probably give you the play by play though the rest of the match. I’m ready for this. You act like it’s my first title match or something, I know what I’m doing.”

“Yeah..” John said. While Bryan had been speaking John had not sat idle, he had pried his wingtip shoe off and that was quickly followed by his sock and was now examining his toes critically flexing them back and forth swearing softly under his breath. “I know that… I do, but the other times your opponents weren’t as wired into the promotion as these cats are. Hell a word from Ryan and your opponent was kept secret from you… and we won’t go into Doug right now. Let’s not forget Ryan also has a nut job and your buddy with the steel chair fetish backing him up too.”

“And I have The Rebel Child in mine, I think I’m good.”

“Yeah? And Val and Jeremiah… how about Gateman? Hell kid, you’re acting like you and Ruckus are going to be the only one’s involved in this thing. Got news for you, this one is going to get ugly.”

“First of Gateman’s career is a damn memory by now. Second Doug has as much of a reason to want Ruck stripped of the belt as I do… he hates the guy and if I beat him, Doug’s got enough of an ego to think that opens the door for himself to waltz in and take it from me… yeah well let a guy have his delusions. Point is he’s got no reason to sabotage me, and every reason to make sure Ruckus loses. As for the other two…” Bryan shook his head a bit. “Any worry I had about Val was quickly demolished when she ran off and hid behind the Zombie. I mean really? Wrestlers make piss poor damsels in distress, and while she’s off playing one to Count Dorkucla, she’s only proven she really doesn’t have the metaphorical balls to earn the Global Title…. Besides which, she’s got Jack Sharp to deal with. You know the guy I’m talking about, the guy that can’t get term life insurance for his employees… the guy on America’s Most Wanted… the guy who week in and week out does a bad impersonation of the Emperor from Star Wars? But hey, it works don’t you see? A guy who talks about stealing souls, a soulless bloodsucking fiend.. see, it’s kismet! Hey, maybe since Val has a thing about “dead” they could just all three run off together and have little bat babies that fly around farting lighting from their asses and make mommy wear cast iron bras to prevent a bloody horror when trying to breast feed!”

“Good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor kid.”

“Fuck you.”

John laughed and hauled himself up out of the chair. “Come on, help me with this couch, your mother wants it moved.”

(************)

“I suppose I should be surprised.” Began Bryan, sitting with his right leg up on his left knee, his shades on his face hiding the fading remains of the bruise on his eye, “I mean that Ruckus would make sure the whole story didn’t get out. That’s the M.O. here right? Set a guy up to take a fall by pulling strings with management… especially when you know you can’t take them in the ring. All of you saw me beat the holy shit out of Gardener after the end of my match last week. It happened. No denying that and I’m not going to sit here and ignore it.” He paused then lacing the fingers of his hands together and then nodded.

“But as per usual, you saw what Chaos and Ruckus wanted you to see. They tried to paint me as the bad guy with Ruckus coming in to save the day. But who was he saving, and why was he saving him? His “little buddy” Gardner?” He shook his head bit and made a motion off to his left. “Let’s just take a look at another angle of the footage. Now what we’ve done here is slow down the video and take out most of the background noise so you can hear better what’s going on in the ring away from the mics and the crowd.

(The video opens with Bryan standing over Gardener, a look of still stunned shock on his face that he almost lost like that. He looked around a bit, one hand lifting to the back of his neck from that neckbreaker and then you see him look over towards his corner where John Henry stands yelling something, a hand pointing down to Gardener.

The Video slows some more and you can see Gardner isn’t completely out, one of his hands slipping something out from inside his wrestling tights, its a pair of brass knuckles! In an instant Bryan can be seen leaping on top of Gardner and something shiny flies off of the shot and into the crowd as Bryan starts to rain blows down upon a still prone Gardner. Then the video snaps to full speed and Ruckus runs out to the ring.)

“What a tangled web we weave… when first we try to deceive. So, once again we have one of Ruckus’ little buddies playing with things he shouldn’t play with. Looking to remove something that is threatening Ryan’s belt and A-A little click club. I’m sorry, but you’re not the good guys anymore. You’re a back of street thugs who’ve been cheered for months because the fans like you better than Doug and Wolf… and let’s be honest here how hard is that?.. and they had no alternative. Well my friends, now you do have a choice, you have the Revelation, you have the truth. How good am I? I’m not going to answer that question here in a rambling speech, I think you already know. I’m young, I’m hungry, and we’re on the cusp of taking one hell of a ride together folks.

“At Legacy I’m going to be going one on one with the one and only Ryan Ruckus, a man so covered in past glory as to be a shining beacon to this business. A man with the balls to put his belt on the line against anyone… who’s not in this company. A man who’s not afraid to show up for a fight… with Extream and Stu at his back. A man who runs to the defense… of people who try to take cheap shots at his future opponents. A man who is an example of team work… and is now the most hated enemy of a guy who used to be closer than a brother. A man who paints himself as anti-establishment… and then uses the GM to blindside me with hidden opponents.

“Let’s make one thing perfectly clear… Ryan Ruckus has gamed this whole thing from the start. He beat MDK, one of the biggest baddest mofos in this business, when he already had one foot into wash out lane, and then feels like it’s such a big accomplishment that he doesn’t have to defend his title against anyone within the company who might deserve it. Who you ask? Well let’s try the guy who actually beat MDK for it once… Jack Sharp, or let’s try the man who beat Jack Sharp repeatedly like a steel drum… Extream. No? Then we have the US Champion Valerie Lamb, new yes, but already belted, or the Wolf, or Doug himself… did he defend his title against any of these? No, of course not. He defended his title against opponents from outside the company who were vetted by Mr. Chaos and paid lavish appearance fees to come in here and lay down for him. Fighting champion indeed.

“Now I don’t know where Ryan went wrong. I don’t know the guy well personally, but I can read the writing on the wall as well as you can. They say if you stare long enough into the abyss it stares back into you… perhaps Ryan has just been fighting Doug so long that it’s rubbing off. Maybe the depths to which Doug will go to win and stay on top has just made something in Ryan’s head snap just enough to where he thinks he’s got to play with a slightly dirtier class of people in order to stay on top himself. I’m not a mind reader. I couldn’t tell you. But what I can tell you is that the shine has worn off the rose. The gold star, the white knight has fallen and in his place is a tainted title held by a champion covered in muck.

“I’m going to fix that at Legacy on Sunday. If I win, even if I somehow lose…. There will be no more doubts. Either Ryan will rise to the occasion and shed the filth that has weighed him down these last weeks, see the error of the path he has chosen… or a new Era will begin, and together with me SCW will enter Revelation. The Truth will be revealed and it will be Payne. Part of me hopes that in defeat Ryan will be able to redeem himself… see that this is the inevitable conclusion for someone who lives on the manipulation and entropy of others. That he’ll lift himself up off the mat, shake my hand, and start is journey back to reclaiming what he’s lost. That he’ll take a good long look at the people he’s surrounding himself with and ask himself if they represent who he is as a person and what he wants to represent as a man…and a former champion.

The light of Revelation is falling on you Ryan Ruckus, and in that light all truth shall be revealed… what you’re made of, what you can take. You will have to bring the Payne on Sunday because I promise you I will. The last week has been fraught with controversy for me there’s no mistake about that, but I have been preparing for this match my entire life. This week will pass, my brother’s legal problems will be handled, and once again people will see that there is a right way and a wrong way, a good path and a bad path. And I promise you Ryan… you and all of the SCW fans… that when the bell rings and the ref raises a hand high into the air and the announcer shouts out the winner… all will have been revealed. What are made of Ryan Ruckus? What is left in that heart of yours that you’ve sold to the highest bidder? Your sins are coming home to roost Ryan, and their deliverer is coming… on Payne of Death.”

“How do I know you ask? How can I be so sure that I’m going to beat a man with that much experience? Because I know no matter what happens in that ring, how many punches he hits me with or random objects I’m beaten with, to keep me down in that ring is going to take more fire, more passion, more heart than Ryan Ruckus has got left. I won’t stay down, not when ever fiber of my being is crying out saying this is my moment, this is my time. So Ryan, wherever you are out there, you said I wasn’t a priority until I was a priority… guess what time just ran out my friend. I’ve been warning you, I’ve been putting you on notice this day was coming every since I pinned Valerie in this ring. And this Sunday all my talk all my words come down to one match, one moment when SCW crowns a new Global Champion… Bryan Payne.”

(******)
(Episode 2: State of Sin)

“Welcome, Ladies and Germs, to another episode of the State of Sin, I am… if you’ve been living under a rock for the last two months, Bryan Payne and this is my Manager and Trainer extraordinaire… John Henry.” Bryan grinned broadly for the camera and spread out his hands so that the audience could take in the set, today it was done up to look a lot like the 70’s threw up all over it, line green shag carpet, burnt orange chairs and flower power slogans spray painted on the wall behind them. John sat in one of the chairs behind the computer screen and waved his own smile a bit weak as he went back to it. “Don’t be shy John, go ahead, say something, didn’t you know? This is the Pay Per View where the Managers get to do all the talking and the wrestlers just…. Drift along like they always have skating by doing just enough to stay halfway relevant by playing on past accomplishments. Where over paid, self-indulgent twats strut around using free-will as a defense for condoning the actions of a thug with a steel chair and the most meaningful victory one has, is over a burn out who hasn’t even so much as sniffed the air around the arena since he lost the title at Vegas Nights.”

“Now Ryan you can say you didn’t say those things, but this is one of those things I’ve been trying to get though to you these last couple weeks… you are judged by the company you keep. And apparently yours just keeps getting worse and worse. Hey I know, maybe you can let Jack into Anti-Hero’s next, because wouldn’t a mass-murder really just be the perfect piece to complete the set? You have the psychopath, the sociopath, the narcissist, and then you’d have your serial killer too… a full house, and the best part is YOU’D still claim their actions not to be your fault. When you work with someone you accept their actions, you take their…sins… upon yourself, for better or worse my friend. But we’ll talk more about Ryan later I’m sure, for now, let’s dive right into what we came here for… your questions!”

“Why should I say anything,” muttered John under his breath, “not like there’s any dead air to fill with you on the mic.”

“Trying to say I like to hear myself talk John?”

“What me? Nooo.. I’d never say something like that..”

“Hell I will, I never run out of things to say,” Bryan laughed a bit and then ran his fingers over the front of his shirt, he was wearing a long sleeve number with a low v neck complete with polyester bell bottoms! “That’s part of what makes me so… special.” He winked for the camera, his shades being the only thing visible other than the laptop that wasn’t vintage at the moment.

“Truer words were never spoken… anyway, the first question is about the set.. Nathan wants to know if you ambushed a Scooby-doo fan event.”

“No no my un-educated friend. All of this that you see here is to celebrate a very special week in American History, on October 15th 1969 22 million Americans took to the streets to take part in a National Moratorium in protest to the War in Vietnam. Why was that important? Well Henry Kissinger later revealed that this same protest discouraged the Nixon Administration from using Nuclear Weapons in the Vietnam conflict.” Bryan inclined his head just a bit, “so to celebrate we’re getting into the mood and the groove here on the set, but I drew the line at getting rid of my shades…and of course, my Sobe!” Bryan paused to take a drink. “Ahhh! That hits the spot.”

“I was against the wardrobe..” John muttered again, “polyester was brutal enough to live though once, thanks.”

Bryan just looked over towards John and rolled his eyes heavenward for a moment before motioning for the next question.

“Hmm, actually Bryan this one is for me, if you don’t mind?”

Bryan blinked a bit and looked over at John and then at the camera not quite sure how to react to this. “Uh.. no I guess not John, go right ahead.”

“Thanks. Well Jane here would like to know what I think about Hillman’s comments about me the other day.” John leaned back in his chair for a moment doing his level best Bryan Payne imitation, which got him a dirty look from across the room. “Well now. What do I think?...”

“Enjoying yourself over there?”

John picked up a pair of shades and made a rather large production out of putting them on. “I always enjoy myself, I’m the Hammer baby!” Bryan muttered under his breath and gestured to John to go ahead and answer the question already.

“Well, it’s like this. Bryan Payne and Ryan Ruckus have a date to do battle over the Global Championship. So I expect a certain amount of trash talk… it’s expected and encouraged. After all if you don’t think you’re better than your opponent and that you deserve to be a champ… you’re in the wrong business. You need to be somewhere, where desire to keep going though the pain and bad times isn’t so important. But when some old fat, flabby shyster takes a crack at John Henry, well then things get a little different don’t they? So, if you’ve got something to say to me Hillman, I’m not difficult to find, I’m the big bad son of a bitch sitting right here. And if I hear you talking about me again… in words anything other than complimentary… about how the hell I managed to keep THIS guy in check..” Bryan shouted “HEY!” at this point but John kept going as if he hadn’t said a word, “Well while our boys mix it up in the ring I’m going to be paying you a little visit.”

“Why stop there John? Why not just drag the little weasel into the ring and teach him a little respect?” Now it was Johns turn to glare at Bryan but then he nodded a bit and looked back at the camera.

“That’s not a half bad idea Bryan. You hear that Hillman? I’m going to consider the next words out of your mouth about me or my boy here and open physical challenge and if you won’t do it in the ring…. Well best make yourself absent from any SCW live event or I’ll just have to track you down and drag you into Chaos’s office and make you sign for the match.”

“See folks, THAT’s why he’s my Manager. The Aggression, the confidence, the willingness to sport a shaved dome!” Bryan laughed a bit as John took the shades off and tossed them down on the coffee table in front of the both of them. “So were you serious about that big guy? Do you want to fight Ruckus’ new manager Hillman now?”

“Yeah, I do Bryan. I mean this is just one of those situations where Ruckus is proving how gutless he really is. You talk a lot… a LOT. But you’re doing it and if they want to shut you up all they have to do is show up in the ring? But this clown? He gets his hired help to talk smack for him while pretending it’s got nothing to do with him. That’s not just gutless, that’s down right pathetic.”

“Well, at least we can be reasonably sure he won’t send Hillman out to fight for him too!”

John and Bryan both laughed this time and after a few moments John just shook his head a bit and looked back down at the laptop. “Ok, so Jason would like to know a bit more about Georgie Nickles being in your corner at Legacy.. I mean do you need it to take on Ryan?... what’s the deal?”

“Do I need back up for my match. No, I don’t need back up against anyone in a fair fight, I just don’t. Now I’m not saying there’s not someone out there who can beat me, I’m sure there is, hell I look forward to meeting them in the ring, and then in the rematch when I whip their ass. But what I am saying is that I don’t trust Ryan to keep it a fair fight. He’s manipulated Chaos, surrounded himself with low-lives and cut throats. The only thing left for him to do is crawl back to Doug on bended knee and at least be honest about who and what he is. So yes, my friend Georgie is going to be in my corner at Legacy. I consider it an honor to have an athlete of that caliber in my corner and anyone would have to be a fool to pass up an offer to watch your back from the True Expert! Now I think everyone knows Georgie well enough to know she won’t interfere in the match, she has too much respect for this business to do that, but they also know if someone wants to try and start extracurricular shit, they picked the wrong chica to mess around with.” Bryan laughed a bit and shrugged. “So yeah, that’s why the Rebel Child is going to be in my corner at Legacy because I don’t have a group of henchmen playing follow the leader… I have too much respect for my friends to ask them to do that.”

“Alright,” chimed in John, “I have an interesting question here. Jacob would like to know more about you feelings on the “Open Challenge” thing for the Global Championship that Ruckus has been waving around lately… if he’s so reluctant to defend it you see…”

“Well it had to happen. An apologist for Ruckus sending in a question, but I’m going to take it. Let me explain something about that open challenge my friend… his pal Mr. Chaos, the same guy who he talked into hiding my opponents from me in some kind of weird game, vetts the people who actually get a shot at this title. I mean Sgt Martins? Come on, a career jobber with a Full Metal Jacket fetish who is here challenging for this title because he knows he’ll never get a crack at one in his own promotion. So in order to get a rare taste of glory he’s here leading up to one of SCW’s biggest events taking a massive pay off to make Ruckus look good. And hey in his shoes a lot of declining talents might do the same, so I’m not knocking the guy, I mean even assholes have families to think about, right? So yes, Ruckus has defended the title since he… acquired it, I won’t say won it, against a collection of circus clowns being paid to take a dive for the wonder of the crowd… that’s what he’s made of and that’s why he’s not even close to ready for me.”

“Ok Bryan, it’s time for a special Pay Per View prediction. I hope you’re ready to wow us, you’ve only been slightly better than .500 with your predictions so far.”

“What? I left my crystal ball in DC… what can I say… Ok folks we have Legacy coming up, live from New York City, it’s going to be huge, epic, grand, life altering… well at least wallet lightening…” Bryan gave a little bit of a helpless shrug and dug out a copy of the match card and studied it for a few moments as was his custom then cleared his throat with another quick drink from the Sobe.

“First off we have a Fatal-Fourway for the women! Sounds like that video we rented in Tok-“

“Bryan!”

“Oh right..” Bryan cleared his throat, “Sorry, that’s for the women’s championship.. yeah.. little typo on my card. Black Rose © vs. Amber vs. Danielle Myres vs. Foxy Fox… would you call me too big of a wimp if I just said we were going to have a new champion and left it at that? Yeah probably so I’ll go out on a limb here… Danielle is going to walk away with this one. Why? Because in a division where the two best performers aren’t even interested in the title… she’s what’s left, and the gold goes where the talent is often enough that the smart money is on Danielle. Congratulations in advance, but no I’m not sharing ring time for my post win WildCard celebration.” He laughed a bit.

“Oh following that we’ve got a Triple Threat match for the Television Title, Droskarr © vs. J.T. Cash vs. JP McManus. What to say about this one. Droskarr finally getting the title back from Ashleigh, Cash selling out to Doug, the shit hot newcomer McManus roaring his way into a title match even faster than myself or Valerie did. One thing I think we can all agree on, is that Droskarr is redefining the phrase transitional champion. He’s going to lose, and McManus is going to become a belt holder at Legacy.”

“Next we have the Tag Team Championships on the line! Doug and Wolf against Extream and Stu Who…. Stu cashing in that title shot for a team effort against the hated Sin’s Elite. What’s this, special guest enforcer Andrew Clash! Wait a second, Andrew Clash? Isn’t this the yahoo who was knocked out by that walking stain Big Slick… in like five minutes flat in his return match? That’s like declaring you’re a terrorist and then cutting off the world’s supply of toilet paper… inconvenient… possibly a pain in the ass, but hardly awe inspiring. I’ve got a tough call to make here, tough tough indeed… but I think Doug has gone to the well one too many times, this time he comes up short and we have ANOTHER new champion… the boys from A-A, give it up.”

“We are just chock full of Title match goodness at Legacy… after that we have Valerie Lamb defending the US title against everyone’s favorite Prince of Darkness… no not Jeremiah!... Jack Sharp! Now last week had these two teamed up together, and we all know how well Val plays with others… and the habit anyone who works for Jack has of dropping dead… so there should be some bad blood between these two. But Jack is going to be disappointed here, because after months of trying to get back into the Global Title picture he’s going to fall short against Val. The US title is going to stay with Valerie Lamb for now, the only title I see still being held by who brung it so to speak.”

“Now, we have the culmination of the Vegas Cup Tournament! The only match that doesn’t directly involve a belt.. but it is for a title match challenging for any SCW title whenever they want it. I know! How awesome is that? We have the former TV Champion Ashleigh against our buddy James Anderson…. Oh sorry I didn’t mean to build it up too much for you, I mean we’ve been seeing variations of this match for two months now right? But this one is for keeps, these two are fighting for a shot at gold… I’m giving the edge to Ashleigh. I think she wants it more. She just lost to a guy who’s making a career out of “just ok enough,” that’s got to sting like hell. Well she has a chance to earn redemption, and get the shot at Val she’s always talking about, to prove she is, as she claims, the best female in wrestling. Well I think she’s got a long way to go before I’m ready to even come CLOSE to saying that…. I mean… Georgie Nickles, Krista Lewis… ring any bells people?... but, if she wins at Legacy she’s going to have taken a major step forward, and proving she’s the best woman in SCW is a step along the path to greatness. She wins, Anderson loses… let’s move on.”

“And then, we have my match people… the SCW Global Champion Ryan Ruckus against the Revelation Bryan Payne. Almost a month of hype has gone into this match can the two of us possibly live up to the billing? You bet your ass, Ryan has been around the block and he knows if he loses to a younger, hungrier wrestler now, it’s all she wrote, he might as well pack it in. So he’s going to come out swinging, I’ve made sure of that each and every week with what I’ve said about him. I want him to, I want him to come out and give me everything he’s got, because when the match is over I’m not going to leave a doubt in anyone’s mind. Not just who the better man is, I think we’ve established that already, but who the better wrestler is. And for those slow on the uptake, that’s me, Bryan Payne. In his day Ryan was a great champion, but that time has passed. Time, drama, and betrayal has turned him into a pale imitation of what he once was… once, I even called myself a Ryan Ruckus fan, but time and experience has shown me better. And Sunday I’m going to show he’s lost more than his ability to tell right from wrong, I’m going to show you he’s lost that spark. That Hunger, that drive that made him a great champion once upon a time. He’s going to look into my eyes again, and he’s going to see what he’s lost, it’s gong to drive him crazy as we fight back and forth across the ring, he knocks me down again and again but just can’t get the pin?... why oh why not?! Because you’re jaded Ryan, you’ve gotten cynical, made too many compromises to put together your stable and try to elevate your career with a blood sucking parasite. The amazing part about is… you don’t even realize it. But by the time the final bell rings, you will Ryan, you will…”

(*****)
(Episode 3: No Business Like Show Business)

(This is an intro for the second part, if you’ve never seen the Broadway Musical “Wicked” you will not get the second part of this rp unless you watch the youtube videos. At least the first one is 100% necessary.)

Bryan jerked awake with a snort, one of his hands rising up quickly to his mouth where he was embarrassed to note he found a little bit of drool. He blinked several times rapidly and looked over to his right where his brother Tim sat with a look of exasperated annoyance on his face.

“Wha?” Bryan half slured, sleep still causing his words to mumble a bit as he tried to clear the cogwebs.

“You fell asleep!”

“I did not,” said Bryan, manfully trying to lie.

“You were snoring!”

“I don’t snore.”

Tim snorted then and hit Bryan, with a rolled up program, loud enough to cause an abrasive pop that caused someone sitting in front of them to half turn in their seat and give both of them a dirty look. Both brothers gave identical helpless shrugs and Bryan frowned a bit as the person turned back around rubbing the top of his head.

“Sorry, Tim.”

“God, you make Mom and I move… and then you drag me halfway across the country to New York… and you fall asleep during a Broadway play.. geez.”

“Well honestly, it’s a prequel to the Wizard of Friggen’ Oz. I mean could there be anything more ridiculous?” this earned him another look from in front from a different person, but he ignored it. “I mean Star Wars, Star Trek, James Bond, The Terminator… now this? I don’t understand this fad, this fascination, I mean no one I know walks out of a movie thinking ‘Gee I wonder what happened before that?’ No they walk out thinking, I wonder what happens… NEXT! It’s like everyone’s afraid of taking a little creative initiative. And of course since everyone has to get a trophy and no one’s aloud to fail or be made to feel bad ever… now we have to go back and show that all the childhood villains are really just misunderstood. I think I’m going to puke. I can’t wait for the Manson Family prequel… The Beach Boys music made us do it!”

“If you didn’t want to come… you shouldn’t have offered to take me.” Tim said between gritted teeth, “I swear it’s like taking a bull to a china shop.”

“You mean insurance fraud?”

“Ugh..”

Bryan just grinned a bit and focused for a moment on the stage listening for a moment to what they were singing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1SaqeFXsXo

Huh, thought Bryan, she looks kind of like a deranged Barbi Doll and speed… He gave his head a shake and couldn’t help but snicker a bit, especially as Tim laughed along with the music. It wasn’t.. terrible, just not his usual cup of tea. Actually a little funny if you wanted to know the truth, it almost reminded him of… well.. wasn’t that interesting. Bryan looked over at Tim, smiling a bit to himself and then settled in to watch a bit more closely. Yeah, that could work…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWBaQfYoFhs

Gee.. it really kind of did remind him of it. And it’s not like they didn’t shamelessly rip off their whole gimmick from well a musical, right? So I mean what could be more appropriate?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlMBcTGJ4YM&feature=related

About half an hour later Bryan was still snickering to himself, not even pausing as he snatched the cigarette Tim was trying to light from his mouth and smashed it flat under his foot.

“Those will kill you.”

“Aw man, you’re as bad as mom I swear…”

Bryan laughed and looped an arm around his kid brother’s head giving him a noogie that the kid finally managed to free himself from.

“Come on, we need to get back to the hotel, I’ve got an idea I need John to help with. You can help too, you like all this stuff right?”

“Yeah…” said Tim a bit cautiously, suddenly slightly afraid of whatever it is Bryan might have in mind…

“Good.” Bryan laughed again and dug his cell phone out of his pocket quickly dialing John’s number. “Hey John, yeah, I need eight actors, a stage, and someone to re-write a musical score…. Does it matter why?... right, we’ll meet you back at the hotel in thirty, we’re going to stop by this place called the Star Light Diner… I hear they’ve got a lot of singers there..”

(*********)

Bryan held a microphone loosely, seated in a high backed leather chair and looked at the camera. “Friends, we find ourselves in New York City. Center of industry, Mecca of Modern America, center of culture… a signing symbol of what America is, was, and will be in the future. I’ve had a wonderful time here, sight seeing… I even took my brother to see a Yankee’s game. But there’s something else New York is famous for… Broadway!” He nodded a bit a slow smile coming to his lips as he stood up walking slowly over towards a table that was covered with keep sake items from one of said musicals. “Here we have tons of merchandise available at the Gershwin theatre where they are playing “Wicked” the musical. The story of a young woman who’s inability to find acceptance drives her to do… well, a few naughty things. A gross simplification perhaps but… questionable sources for tag team catch phrases aside, it did inspire me a bit, I have to say..”

Bryan reached over and picked up a t-shirt. “I mean look at this, a Something Wicked t-shirt… blast from the past right? No.. no wait..” he spins it around. “For the musical! Yeah I know, I bought fifty of these things going to hand them out for free at Legacy so get there early and bring your Bring the Payne sign if you want one.” He sighed then and set the t-shirt down crossing then to a TV which he leaned one elbow on the top of and crocked a finger in the direction of the tv camera. “Come on, in closer you’re going to want to see this..”

(The camera zooms all the way in on the screen which turns on to soft music playing in the background. A wrestling ring is revealed and in the center sitting Indian style is a depressed looking Doug E Fresh with his fists under his chin and a frown on his face.)

Voice Over Guy: Tonight, we’re going on a journey back in time, to relive one of the most important moments in the history of the Doug and Ruckus partnership! Doug is sad! He’s realized that the fans just don’t like him no matter how much he tries. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s allergic to a razor…. Or his personal hygiene? Who knows, but we joined our dynamic Duo with Ruckus entering to teach Doug a little lesson.

(The Doug sitting in the center of the ring sighs heavily and sticks out his bottom lip.)

Doug: Gee, I don’t know if the crowd will ever like me. I try and I try but I’m still not as popular as Ruckus.

(Ruckus dances onto the stage wearing a pink frilly dress number and heels prancing around the stage with a wig that looks like a half drowned rat)

Ruckus: Tra-la-la Tra-la-laaaa!!

(A laugh and track tape plays a crowd exploding into laughter and cheers)
Audience Member One: WE LOVE YOU RYAN!

Ruckus (pausing to pose): I love you too. Haha!
(he sees Doug sitting in the ring and rolls under the bottom rope pausing to look at him and then sits down beside him. He sits there in silence while Doug crosses his arms and looks off to the right, and then reaches over using his thumb and forefinger to force Doug’s frown upside down.)

Ruckus: I think someone’s a grumpy bear! Who’s my grumpy wumpie hairy bear… you are, that’s right, you are! What’s wrong chum!

Doug: Well…

Ruckus: Tra-la-la! (he gets back up and starts skipping around the ring again)

Doug: I just don’t understand how you’re so… popular. I mean.. how do you do it?

(Ruckus stops for a moment and clears his throat as the music starts to play in the background)

Ruckus: Ohh.. I’ve dreamed of this day.. (he jumps up and down excitedly) I know just how to teach you how to be more popular!

(singing) If you want to be Popular…. Like me.. hehe!
There are a few simple things you must.. dooo..eohwho whoo!

Doug (singing): But I just want to know what to do…

Ruckus(singing): To be… popular
You’ve got to have snaz… pazaz!
You’ve got to razzle dazzle ‘em.. be the man!!!
(Ruckus dances over to where Doug is sitting down and grabs his hands forcing him to stand up and become a somewhat unwilling dance partner around the wrestling ring.)
Give what they love, give ‘em what they want
Show them that.. you care!

Doug (spoken): B-but how do I DO that?
(sung): We fight hand in hand, glove to glove we’re closer than…
brothers…. But brother, I dunno what to do.
You get, fan mail. You get, groupies.
I get tons of crap loads of abuse, they say I drag
You
Down..

Ruckus: Ohhh but to be Popular… you’ve got to be popular..
It’s an art, but take heart I’ll show you want do..
Hehe..

(Ruckus starts trying to climb up the turnbuckles having to make a couple attempts before he’s able to get his feet onto the middle one, and then almost loses his balance doubling over which has the effect of making his dress flip up and moon the audience. The “tickle my elmo” silk boxers drawing another round of laughter from the crowd. Ruckus pauses to look back and hold a hand in front of his mouth as if he’s embarrassed before climbing onto the top rope and stands there posing, his fists on either of his hips like he’s just mounted Everest)

(singing continues): You see to be popular… brother
You’ve gotta give ‘em what they need… brother
You’ve got to FLLY!

Doug (spoken): FLY!?! Are you crazy.. get down from there you’ll break your neck what do you think you’re going to do.. Defy Gravity!?

Ruckus (spoken): Exactly!

Doug (singing): I think he’s lost…. His…. Mind! Coo-coo-cachuooo!

Ruckus (singing): That’s why I’m defying gravity!
You have tooo fly! And defy.. gravity!
It’ll never hold you down!

If you wanna be popular… bonzi!!
(Ruckus leaps from the top rope flopping onto the mat in an ungraceful heap.
Doug looks stunned, but somewhat inspired as he watches Ruckus stand up, swaying a bit and then sticks out a hand to make sure he doesn’t fall over flat on his face)

(spoken): See… (wobbling over to one side) That’s… all there is to it..

Doug (singing): So to be popular… if I wanna be popular..
(catches Ruckus as he falls down and ends up looking like a dip dance move and holds him there looking down at him)
I have to razzle dazzle ‘em.. and give ‘em what they want?

Ruckus: Exactly!!

(Doug drops Ruckus who gives a yell and smacks back down onto the mat. With a look of determination Doug starts to climb up the turnbuckles. One of his feet slips off and he dangles precariously his hands clutching the top rope as he hauls himself back right and then finally manages to mount the top rope both fists thrust into the air as Ruckus manages to get back to his feet and claps excitedly)

Both (singing together): That’s why you (I) must defy Gravity!
I’ve got to fly.. and defy gravity!
I’ll never hold you down… it’s all about

Popular.. I (you) wanna be popular!

(Doug leaps from the top rope and seems to hang for a moment before he smashes down onto the mat in a heap and bounces up on his knees extatic, he can’t believe what he just did and Ruckus falls to the ground beside him and the two cling to each other’s shoulders staring into each others eyes as the song fades out)

Doug: I did it! I did it! I’m gonna be popular!

Ruckus: Yeah you did pal (the two hug) We’re going to take the wrestling world by storm. Look out America, we’re going to be wicked aweseome!

Doug: What did you say?

Ruckus: Wicked awesome man!

Doug: That’s it! We’re something wicked!

(Ruckus gasps and the two embrace again Doug slapping Ruckus hard on the back and the two break apart one of their arms still around each other shoulders)

Ruckus: We’re going to be a hit! They’ll love us!

(Singing) NO REST FOR THE WICKED!
Everyones gotta fall!
Ain’t no rest for the wicked!

Doug: We’re gonna be… Popular! (they laugh)

Ruckus: Yes my friend.. you are going to be very popular!

(ruckus pauses to pose and then winks for the camera)

But not as popular as me!

(Ruckus turns to exit and the crowd again explodes into laughter as they see Doug snicker at the kick me sign he tapped to Ryan’s back while they were hugging)

Voice Over Guy: And so Something Wicked was born. And all across America it came… and then promptly went. But it was not a peaceful parting as we all know.

(The camera comes back up showing Ruckus and Doug standing with a small group of people around then on one knee looking up at them expectantly holding chains, bats, and one a steel chair. The music picks up as both men look over at each other and point at each other)

Ruckus: You son of a bitch

Doug: You had your chance!

(The group of followers around each man goes to one knee looking up at their leader singing in back up.)

Sins Elite: We're Sin's Elite and we're here to stay.
Doug is the best, whatever they say
We're going to get Ruckus yeah we're here to fight
So get in our way and we'll put out your lights!

AA: When you're in AA it's AA all day
From the nine-thirty group 'til therapy late
We're all kinda crazy and batty and wierd
But we'll bring the chairs and Ruck brings the beer!

(both men walk with over-elaborate stepping towards each other as both little posses stand to their feet dancing ballet style and snapping their fingers in time around the edges of the stage working back to flank their chosen leader)

Doug (sung):
Something has changed with me..
Something is not the same
I’m though with playing by the rules…

It got me no where, just second best!
I danced your tune now, bow like the rest.

Ruckus (sung):
I was your friend, you were mine too!
We had the everything until you went and blew that too…
I hope you’re happy.

Doug (spoken):
I hope you’re miserable

(both groups break apart for a long dance break seeming to be a very stylized and choreographed fight with Ruckus and Doug at the center. When Doug is winning so are his gang members and visa versa. Finally Doug breaks away from Ruckus and runs up a flight of stairs and stops at the top looking back at Ruckus at the bottom. Both men pause looking at each other with pure hatred in each other’s eyes)

Doug (sung):
I’m off, to win the title
There’s nothing you can do!
Go your own way be your own man play by their rules

Ruckus (sung):
I’ll be there to stop you,
This shall not pass!
In fact I know this because you’re second best!

Doug (spoken): Is that what you think Ruckus, that I’m second best, like all of them!?

Ruckus: No… we were partners, friends, don’t do this, come with me, we can still fix this!

Doug: No. (Doug starts to smile just a bit looking out over the crowd) I understand now. To be all I can be I have to go it alone. You care too much about what they think about you, you always have, you’re worried about being Popular. I only care about being the best!

Ruckus: But..

Doug (sung): Don’t you get it, don’t you understand?
I’ve found my path now, and it’s time to go at least.
It’s time for me, to Defy Gravity..
To just leap and Defy Gravity..
And you can’t hold me down…

(Doug moves back a couple of steps and then charges up them again and leaps into what looks like a black drop off and vanishes from sight leaving Ruckus leaping after him grabbing nothing but air and staring off to where he vanished a stricken look on his face.)

Voice Over Guy: And so, having lost his best friend. Ruckus and Doug went alone, with the break up of Something Wicked the copy-write lawsuit evaporated. Desperate to fill a void caused by the breach with his friend, Ruckus brought together a group of misfits and has beens trying to reclaim former glory whatever the cost. And so, became almost as much of a blackguard as his former friend. Be warned, take heed of the tale of Something Wicked… for when you lose yourself, there is no one left to pull you back from the edge.

Tune in next week when we see Valerie Lamb and Jeremiah Belmont in “Dracula Baby!”

(********)

(The following is a phone conversation between Bryan Payne and Georgie Nickles)

http://www.vimeo.com/7179707

(*******)
(31 hours Til Legacy)

Bryan sat alone staring off into the passing crowds of people. He wore a brown leather jacket that frankly looked like it had seen better days as a ward against the faint chill in the air and the damp. After two months in Vegas the air felt uncomfortably cool. So here he was, New York City. Tokyo, to DC, to Vegas, to New York in six months neck break speed. A Silver Weight title… no one had ever explained to him what Silverweight actually meant… then again he’d never asked, one collapsed federation and a hardcore handicap exhibition match later and he’s here in his second pay per view with SCW. Not only that but he was fighting for yet a third different title. But this time there was no Brandon Gateman waiting in the wings to decide that tonight was the perfect night to bash his tag partner in the head, make a lot of grand promises, and then promptly vanish from the face of the earth. All in all, considering how fast he’d tanked since hitting him with that belt, he couldn’t even work up any anger towards the man at this point. It was simply… over.

Then there had been ‘ole Robby McBride. Suspended from PWR that had become something of a haven for DEW’s left overs, for a substance abuse problem. Not his first if Bryan were to believe the rumors. Stuck in a rehab center somewhere and Bryan being Bryan he had to go galloping off to face the She-harpy known as the Desk Nurse at the place in Phoenix where they’d stuck him. He wondered how he’d liked the DVD and the card, not that it mattered much, but it would be nice to think it had been accepted in the spirit it was intended. Besides they were in completely different federations now, if that was a time to bury the hatchet and let the past be the past what really was. Then again he had accused McBride’s entire family of running a mail-order bride service and offering sheep to sweeten the deal… Bryan winced, oops. Then again, what a nation of male cross-dressers did for fun was their own business and Bryan for one really did NOT want to know.

Bryan shifted in on his park bench and watched several groups of people walk by, they came from every walk of life, every ethnic background, New York really was the melting pot that all of America once purported to be. He wasn’t sure exactly what that said about either place, but it certainly made for a variety of life and culture that was perhaps unique in the world. Some might disagree, he was sure, but then they weren’t sitting in this very park bench, watching the people walk back and forth, at this exact moment on a brisk October afternoon either. So they really couldn’t say what it seemed like to him right or wrong. The thought made Bryan smile just a bit as he reached up removing his shades and tucking them inside of his jacket, letting his eyes drift shut. The somewhat dim sun shed some of it’s last warming rays across his face and he drank them up, luxuriating in the feel of the heat against his face even while his fingers still felt like small blocks of ice.

Then there’d been Extream and Valerie. He wasn’t entirely sure what to think about that pair anymore when taken as a whole. They were actually a lot in a lot of ways, not really caring what anyone thought about what they did or didn’t do while at the same time playing to this mythic fan base that was supposed to just not care that they didn’t care about them. Go figure. Both seemed to see the whole of SCW as one plot to deny them their rightful place either out of spite or some freakish parody of a glass ceiling. It would be funny if it wasn’t so strange, but in a lot of ways Valerie was Extream as a woman and visa-versa. My my, too bad he wasn’t fighting one of them tonight, he could have fun with that, maybe get someone dressed up like the guys from that plastic surgeon TV show.. Nip/Tuck. ‘We Can rebuild him… we can make him curvier, paler, and with a build in excuse for behaving like an ass.” He snickered a bit and then looked up as he saw a ball bouncing toward him.

He blinked at the bright blue sphere for a moment as it rolled to a stop coming to rest against his shoe, and then leaned over picking it up. It wasn’t anything spectacular, just a soft plastic toy made to bounce. Throw it, kick it, dribble it, it didn’t much care it would just bounce. Bryan backed away from that philosophical musing, it took him down a road he really didn’t want to travel today, he was trying to keep his mind on Ruckus and the Global Title, but… maybe it was just being in New York.

“Excuse me, mister?” pipped a small voice, and Bryan looked up from the ball to see a small child, perhaps seven or so. “Can I have my ball back?”

“Oh… yeah..” He smiled a bit at the kid and gently tossed the ball underhand back to the kid who grabbed it under one arm and ran off in a slightly less than graceful gait common in children that age, when their arms and legs started growing faster than the rest of them and faster than their inner ears could adjust.

“Sorry about that,” replied a second voice, a woman, maybe five or six years older than Bryan, so we’d say twenty-six just in case she was a mind-reader though it was probably a couple more than that. “I swear sometimes he just doesn’t pay attention to what he’s doing.”

Bryan smiled a bit and nodded watching the kids playing for a moment. They appeared to be playing what amounted to… kill the kid with the ball… which made him wonder why they all seemed so eager to catch it themselves. But then, he thought upon reflection, is that so different from what I’m doing Sunday? Trying to get the belt that makes me the number one target for everyone looking to make a name for themselves. That didn’t stop him from wanting the championship so bad right now he could taste it, and it didn’t stop those kids from wanting to be the one everyone was chasing after, yearning to be.

“Seems like a good kid though…” Bryan said shifting his gaze back over to the woman just a couple seconds before the lapse into silence would’ve been uncomfortable, and was greeted with a nod in return. The woman sat down in the opposite side of the bench from Bryan and the two sat in silence for a good two or three minutes more watching the kids play.

“So you don’t sound like you’re from town, but I can’t quite place your accent. Something of a hobby of mine you see, I’m a language student at NYU.”

“I’m from Tokyo… by way of San Diego and Las Vegas most recently.” Bryan said with a faint little smirk and a rueful shake of his head. “I imagine that kind of thing does wreck havoc with my accent now that you mention it.”

“Uh, yeah, I’d have guessed more Mid-West… maybe Maryland or Nebraska. Maybe I shouldn’t quit my day job.”

“Oh I don’t know, it’s good that you have a goal,” said Bryan feeling the truth of the words even as he spoke them. It was good to have a goal… goals dreams, they were what strengthened us for the long hard nights when nothing seemed to be going right. It was part of what he’d heard in Georgie’s voice the other night, a loss of hope that things could get or be better. They can always get better… of course they can always get worse too, but that was neither here nor there right? Sometimes you just had to take it upon yourself to will something better to come into your life, and if that didn’t work ball up a fist and smash though whatever was preventing it.

“I guess,” replied the woman pulling a cigarette from her purse and lighting up. Bryan managed not to let the revulsion for the cigarette show on his face and succeeded, just barely. “Still,” she said between lung killing puffs, “it’s hard sometimes, with him, school, work… and I can’t help but wonder what he’ll think of all this when he gets older.”

“Oh, he’ll remember days like this well enough I think..” Bryan said, “I do, they were rare enough that they were special.” He paused a moment then and gave an ever so slight shake of his head.

“Do you have any kids?” She asked.

“Me? Not that I know of…” this caused a blink.

“Not that.. you know of?”

“Well, I could say no and leave it at that. But I’ve got a friend in the same line of work as me who used to say exactly that to that question. And then he got a phone call from his lawyer telling him that his girlfriend from seven years ago was now sueing him for child support…. For a kid he didn’t even know about. So with that qualification… no I have no kids.”

The woman didn’t seem to know if she should laugh or react horrified by that whole statement but instead settled for a noncommittal grunt and sat back against the hard painted surface of the bench behind them.

“You know, I used to think that people came from quiet out of the way places and New York made them weird… but I’m starting to think it might be the other way around..”

Bryan did laugh at that and shook his head.

“I never claimed to be normal. I mean you have to be a little weird to think what I do is a good idea.”

“You never did say exactly what that was.”

Bryan smiled. “You never exactly asked either.”

“Touche’”

“But,” said Bryan looking down at his watch, “I should get going, my trainer is probably turning thirteen shades of red because by now he’s realized that not only have I flown the coup as it were… I didn’t take my cell phone with me!” He stood up then and shook hands with the woman and then set off walking back towards the hotel he was saying in.

The hotel, otherwise known as Casa de la cucaracha, had few redeeming features, but it was close to both the Arena and a gym where he and John were able to get some ring time in these last days leading up to Legacy. What as there to say about that otherwise really? Besides the hotel didn’t have to be pretty, just had to have a bed and an alarm clock and it would get the job done… though his little brother did disagree as he was in the room next door.

Why had he brought his little brother with him to this? Well, why not? Their mother certainly had enough to deal with getting everything settled, and more of their stuff was being shipped over and a sulking teenager would not help her unpack any faster. Besides this way Bryan could keep an eye on the kid, I mean he hadn’t even been out of jail more than a few days and he still had something of that tired shell shocked look he had when Bryan first came to see him in the lock-up. The long and the short of it was that he knew the kid still had a lot to sort out, and what sixteen year old boy wants to talk to his mother about something like that?... not many.

He took a breath of the crisp air and paused to kick at an acorn and watched it skip along the sidewalk in front of him. The biggest shock about New York had been the surprising amount of green there were in some parts of it. They were even places where they were planting trees on the roofs of tall buildings so that from above it looked like there was a forest growing out of the concrete and steel of the city itself. Welcome to the twenty-first century indeed. What would that all amount to in the end he wondered, alternating roof top forests and solar panels as far as the eye could see, replacing the sky scape that once held the World Trade Center with a new age model of things to come. Maybe that was the real lesson of being here, now. That new things grow out of the old, when those who are visionary and passionate enough to grab a hold of them and push push with everything they had to make them a reality.

Thirty hours until the biggest match of his young career. Just over one single solitary day until he met Ryan Ruckus in the ring to fight over that Global Title. He’d read a lot, he was too green, he was too new, he didn’t have the in ring experience to rise to a challenge like this, the same things they’d been saying about him since the moment he strapped up his boots and stepped into the ring for the first time. They could keep saying it as far as he was concerned, because everyone who had said that about him had a single thing in common: a loss to Bryan Payne. He didn’t know how he’d do it, or how long it would take to pin Ruckus to the mat, or make him tap. But he knew he would do it, down deep in the marrow of his bones he could feel it, his time dawning. What troubled him now wasn’t if he could win. But what he’d do when he did…

Would he fall into the same trap so many seemed to? Would he go the way of MDK and Robb, burn out with no warning at all and then crash land into flames? Or would he drift along like Ryan compromising himself and his ideals along the way to “get the job done,” become part of the problem instead of the solution? Was there anything he could do to stop from going down either of those roads… or did all paths lead to one or the other if he didn’t fly off the handle like Doug or someone even worse?

He supposed he’d have to rely on those close to him. On John, and Tim. Trust himself not to make the wrong decisions about whom to trust, take a leap of faith that he would know when too far was too far, that he could control the anger and the demons inside him. That his passion would not dim, his fire wouldn’t sputter out when things grew grim. That when the day came that his fortunes turned he would not turn bitter, but would rise bloodied and stronger for it and soar to new heights though trail by fire. All of that, the answers the new challenges began in just thirty short hours. He smiled then pausing to look back over his shoulder at the kids playing one more time. After all, this was what he loved?... How many people could really say they got to live their dream?

(*********)
(Episode 4: Oh that smell (don't ya smell that smell?)--Hours Before Legacy

The scene opens with Bryan Payne sitting on the edge of a ring in the yet to be filled Madison Square Garden. In the background you can see techs and various members of the arena staff scurrying around getting everything ready for the night’s show. He’s dressed in simple jeans and a ‘Bring the Payne’ t-shirt, his shades pushed back tight around his face and the microphone held loosely in one hand. He’s quiet for a moment sitting there, with his feet dangling over the side of the ring, which looks odd as the ropes haven’t yet been strung up for tonight.

“Tonight SCW celebrates its history… its Legacy. Here in this arena, in just a few short hours, men and women will begin to take each other apart for the viewing public, much as we’ve been taking each other apart verbally for your amusement over the last couple weeks. Both are just part of the gig when you step into this ring, accept this life, it’s part of the deal.” Bryan paused for a moment his free hand lifting up to rub his upper lip. “Everyone who will come out here and into this ring accepts that deal, understands it, and to one degree or another gladly took it as a way to live a dream. Now that dream is different for a lot of people though… some are performers at heart entertainers who love a crowd any crowd, some are out for fame, others for money, and some are just competitors, but whatever their reasons whatever their methods… they know what to expect.”

Bryan got to his feet letting the camera pan around the arena slowly the empty seats giving the whole place a vaguely spooky feel. “Now I want you to picture these seats the way they’ll be tonight, thousands of wrestling fans chanting holding signs, “Pin me Val,” “To the Extream,” “Perfection Killer,” “Will you Marry me Ashleigh,” “Hey Doug, wanna get Fresh?” “Hillman kick Bryan’s ass!” wait.. what?” The camera spins back around to Bryan in the ring with a slightly confused look on his face as his free hand lifts up to scratch the side of it. “Oh that’s right, Hillman’s not IN this match. He’s just the guy Ruckus hired to talk for him… you know the one he hired to be the bad guy so he could keep his image from being tainted… or try to at least.”

“See Hillman did have a couple of things right. And I give him credit for that:

1) Ryan was a great champion, once upon a time. Before he… lost the ability to speak for himself? I don’t know, maybe he thinks he’s too good to do what all of the rest of us do, that he needs some kind of Hollywood image consultant to defend himself from mean ‘ole Bryan. Going to cry now? Run back to ‘daddy’ Hillman to come out here again and defend you? “Bryan’s being mean to me again Hillman he wants my title! Bwahaahaa” I guess that’s one theory of what being a man is, but it sure as hell isn’t mine! I do my own fighting and talking the same as everyone else back there.”

2) I do respect Doug E Fresh more than Ryan Ruckus at this point. And least Doug isn’t hiding behind his Manager, or letting them do all his dirty work for him. If Doug has a problem, trust that Doug will let you know in person… and sometimes quite violently. But at least he’s honest about who he is and what he stands for. He doesn’t say I have it all wrong and then send his image consultant out to prove me right about the people he’s surrounding himself with.

3) My trip to Tokyo. Yes, I did pull strings for my brother, and if anyone out there who’s a shred of a human being tells me they’d have done otherwise if they could for someone as close to them as my brother is, they’re a damn liar. I’m not proud of it, which is why I haven’t much talked about it since, and I’ll probably spend most of my life trying to make up for as I will other things I’ve done in my past. But that’s what sets me apart from some of these people. They think their current actions excuse their past ones. It’s just not the case my friend, everything you do you always own. Every cheap shot every dirty trick those are all yours for eternity. And the minute you stop trying to make up for them and thinking that the world, the fans, or anyone owes you a pass for them… you might as well just be honest with yourself and admit you’re not the man you say you are.

4) Yes, I do have a lovely singing voice.

“Wait wait wait… four things? Damn that man talked a lot to get four things right. Oh my god I just realized something Hillman is my Vader father! Noooo!”

Bryan rolled his eyes a bit and gave a shake of his head.

“I honestly don’t know why I bother, I mean seriously why should I when Ruckus’ own manager is going to come out here and prove my point for me? That Ryan has made choices that prove he’s not the man he pretends to be. I mean while Ryan’s in therapy for some bizarre clown fetish, personally I think it’s suppressed feeling for cross dressing Stu, Hillman is out running his mouth some more.. proving once again that the ‘company Ryan keeps’ is to prevent himself from having to do any work.” Bryan shrugged a little bit and hopped down from the ring and then slid over the barrier into the seating area that would very soon start filling with fans. He started to walk up the stairs towards the top of the arena while he continued to speak. “AA and Ryan Ruckus are just the latest in the sad tragic tail of superstars who make it all the way to the top only to find that they’re not good enough to stay there. So they make compromises they hire help, Ryan isn’t out here defending himself because he knows anything he says can and will be used against him with brutal force… by me. So he sends Hillman trotting out praying that I’ll spend so much time trashing his Manager that I’ll forget about the little man hiding behind the curtain yelling into the microphone. Yes another Wizard of Oz reference, live with it.”

Finally having reached the top of the stairs he turns around and the camera follows his gaze to take in the ring far below and the activity of the sound crew working on getting the speaker system wired up for the night’s pay per view.

“But you see Ryan. Tonight you can’t hide behind Hillman. He can’t help you once you’re in that ring with me. He can’t take the focus off you and make himself the bad guy to give you some kind of perceived immunity… poor Ruckus never said anything bad… Give me a break. The only person you’ve fooled in sending Hillman out here is yourself. But you see you and Hillman are going to trot out here and Hillman is going to have his own personal shadow the whole match just to make sure the little sleaze you’ve collected as you slither along though slinging your muck all over the Global Title doesn’t wash off onto Legacy. So yes, it’s just going to be you and me without anyone outside to interfere, that’s why I brought my own brand of enforcer to make sure of it, which is was you said you wanted all along right? Before playing poor set upon Ryan Ruckus as though everyone couldn’t see what was going on forever. I didn’t say anything new Ryan, not really, I’m just the first one with the balls to stand here and say it.”

“But be careful what you wish for Ryan. Because in just a few short hours it’s going to happen. You and I are going to climb in that ring and give these people the show of their lives… over there they’re going to be chanting Ruckus… over there AA… over there Payne, its going to go on and on and on. They’re going to have to retire the ring cut it up into small pieces and sell it on EBay. That’s what I expect from you Ryan, greatness… so far I’ve just been disappointed. And finally, the bell will ring, and a hush will fall over the crowd, the referee will pick up the Global Championship, and set it into my hands. Shocked stunned silence will echo around SCW, around the Experts, from New York to Vegas they’re going to know what happened here tonight.”

“And when you wake up Monday morning, you’re still going to hear them chanting… ‘bring the Payne… bring the Payne..” Bryan shrugged just a little bit and started walking back down the stairs drawing a deep lungful of air as he did so. “Because when you boil down everything AA… the myth of Ryan Ruckus it’s a combination of smoke and mirrors, and the Roman Empire. Wow Bryan, you’re thinking to yourself, how the hell do those two things possible go together?! Don’t worry so long as I have a mic in my hand you can be damn sure I’m going to take the time to tell you and length!”

“The Roman Empire wasn’t beaten by the outside world, not really, it ate itself alive from within. Over expansion, bad council, not supporting its army properly, and leaving itself open to attack from unexpected sources. Now no one expected in two short months for me to be fighting for the Global Title, but here I am… I didn’t ask to be in the tournament and probably the person who wrote my name down didn’t either, but I was damn sure going to take advantage of it, and I have. Meanwhile Ruckus has surrounded himself with talent past it’s prime, whose glory days are behind it, and like the Roman Legions of old sends it out to the slaughter when the old ways come up against new enemies they aren’t equipped to deal with. And so, Rome falls.”

“But the problem is everyone can see that it’s going to. You can’t let the people panic, so what do you do? Smoke and Mirrors ladies and gentleman. You hire people to tell them that nothing is wrong, that their proud legions will protect them from the horrible barbarians banging at the gate. The only thing to fear is fear itself, right?” Bryan paused and snickered just a little bit. “And so Hillman trots out to protect his meal ticket who apparently can’t be bothered to defend himself… let’s just hope he puts up more of a fight in the right shall we? This is a pay per view after all… and delivers gallons of verbal diarrhea by way of telling us what a good guy Ryan really is. Me thinks the fat man doth protest too much!”

“No friends. I’m sorry, but it just isn’t so. Not anymore. Oh he’s not a shameless blackguard, and he’s not the kind of guy to take cheap shots. But he’s something worse. He’s the kind of guy who turns a blind eye to what’s really going on. Instead of confronting what’s wrong with SCW and his associates he puts on his beer goggles and resolutely ignores them… so long as they benefit Ryan Ruckus that is. John Henry is my Manager, and I’m proud to say Georgie Nickles is my friend. Why am I willing to associate myself with them? Because I know neither one will ever give me cause to regret it. Both are individuals of the finest character, loyal and honest to a fault. Arguably they’re much better people than I am. That’s really the point Ryan, you surround yourself with those people who you admire, respect, who have some kind of personality trait you wish you could be more like. And you have. And in so doing you have revealed the kind of person.. not that you are, but the kind you want to be… and that is why I have led this all out offensive against you for the last month, to wake you up to the reality of the path you’re on.”

“But I understand now, I get it, and I didn’t at first. Everything I say isn’t going to get though to you, because you’re listening to it though the same filter that said hiring someone like Hillman was a good idea in the first place. Only what I do is going to show you how far you’ve fallen. So what I’m going to do, is what I set out to do in the first place, and that’s rip the Global Title from around your waist. I hope you haven’t been letting Hillman train for you too Ryan, because if you roll over and play dead in that ring I’m going to be very very disappointed. You come out swinging, you bring everything you’ve got left in that tank of yours my friend because at the end of the night the story is going to be the same either way. One Empire Falls, and another rises to take it’s place. On Payne of Death, Ryan Ruckus, the truth of Revelation will be told at Legacy.”

(**********)

“You ready for this kid?” Asked John, who was the one standing in front of the mirror tonight adjusting his suit for the most aesthetic hang on his shoulders. It still amazed Bryan that John could be so obsessed with his suits. Of course this was the same guy who still hummed a Bare Naked Ladies song whenever the subject of Sushi came up too.

“You know I am John.” Bryan said, hiding the little smirk he felt like bestowing on his manager behind double checking the wrapping around his wrists and flexing his hands to make sure he had enough flexibility. “You should be asking Ryan if HE’s ready for ME.”

“Yeah well I don’t think you have to worry about that. This isn’t his first pay per view main event… for a Global Title no less.” John turned around then and gave his lapels another pulling tug and then gestured as if to say ‘what do you think?’

“Oh, you’re a Lady Killer John, no doubt about it.”

“Asshole.”

“So people keep telling me.” Bryan laughed a bit and stood up and turned to his locker removing one of his pairs of shades from the top shelf and pushed them onto his face before closing it. “And don’t worry I saw Georgie a few minutes ago she’s waiting backstage, she’ll probably have carpel tunnel from giving autographs before the match starts.” John snorted in response and walked over to give Bryan one last look over.

“Ok kid. You are ready for this. We’ve been training for five years for this moment, tonight. It’s all been about getting us to this point. He’s been in the ring more than you, he’s got the experience, but trust your training. No one can keep up with your level of conditioning, trust it, lean on it, wear him out, and then go in for the kill. Don’t take him lightly, there’s a reason the guy’s won that much gold, but you’ve been in the ring with people just as or more skilled so don’t stand back in awe of him. Get his measure early in the match, see what he’s brought to the table, and then take him down.” John nodded once more and then slapped the smaller man on the shoulder. “Alright kid, let’s go.”

“Go ahead John, I’ll be out in a minute.”

“You sure? Ok kid, I’ll see you out there.”

John turned and walked out of the locker room leaving Bryan alone for a few minutes as a slow easy smile came to his face. As he walked over to the mirror studying his own features remembering the words of his father as they tumbled back though him over the years.

“Son, I’m not one to be giving lessons about life. I’ve made my share of mistakes and I know I’ve hurt a lot of people close to me, but if you don’t listen to anything I ever tell you I want you to remember this. Whatever you do, wherever you go there will be people who are going to tell you how they see you. How the perceive what you say and do and how you act. But what people say isn’t the measure of a man.”

“At some point, every man has to stand in front of a mirror and look himself in the eye, see who he is staring back at him. And if you’re honest with yourself, that’s when you know what kind of man you are.”

Bryan looked at his reflection for a few minutes removing his shades and then his smile slowly turned into the smirk that was almost part of his ring attire. He wasn’t perfect, not by a long shot, but he was someone who never stopped trying to be better. Who admitted his mistakes but didn’t let them stop him from trying to make those around him own up to theirs as well. Who fought his own battles, who would never stop trying to do what he thought was right. He was Payne. And now it was time to bring it.

“Hey Bryan man, it’s time.”

“Yeah, it is.” He smirked again and turned away from the mirror replacing his shades and walking to the locker room door and exiting out into the hallway, the sounds of the crowd outside steadily growing louder and louder as he moved.