Monday, January 14, 2019 | Bona Depello Group HQ | Arlington, Virginia
It’s been a long, hard ride for Sebastian Duke. Being the respected leader of an ultra secret society for more than a decade is a remarkable thing. You have dozens and then hundreds, followed by thousands answering your beckon call. They bend over backwards to earn your favor and do whatever it takes to earn your respect and please you. And pleasing Sebastian Duke has never been an easy thing for most people to accomplish. He demands absolute respect. He dictates his authority. He requires nothing less than 110% from those that follow him, or work for him.
Since the end of the war that saw him dethroned as leader of the Illuminatus, he wondered if it was all truly worth the cost. The goal of his Illuminatus was to expel the Catholic Church from Vatican City. It all started so quietly. Working within the shadows, waging their war and winning their small battles outside the prying eyes of the general public. All the while antagonizing the pontiff at every possible opportunity. Then things changed. His son Thaddeus was born and his father, Asmodeus- the founding father of the modern day Illuminatus, saw what could be rather than what was. Asmodeus would look into the bright blue eyes of his blond headed grandson and think about the ‘what if’s. What if they DID take the war public? What if they DID conquer Vatican City? What if they DID expel the Catholic Church? If he was honest with himself, while it was certainly a dream, he never actually thought it truly obtainable. With Thaddeus Leander Duke the second, he saw all the possibilities. And they were endless.
So, under Asmodeus’ guidance, the war went public and the dominoes started to fall in their favor. It began a few years back when Sebastian struck a deal with Theo Pryce, his half brother, to acquire a particular property in Death Valley. Below the desert, lay a secret underground facility where thousands upon thousands of highly trained elite warriors tested themselves. In that facility were all of the components necessary to stage a full scale military invasion. Tanks, planes, bombs, assault rifles- you name it, it was there.
It started with France, because why not? France became a reluctant ally in the early going, not wanting to make an enemy out of a relatively unknown military group aligned to no known nation or organization. They were merely used as a refilling and regrouping destination with little more than a phone call announcing their arrival at various air bases scattered throughout the French nation.
From there, it was basically a stones throw to Germany and a coup that included the decapitation of their government perpetrated by the son of their own Chancellor turned Illiminatus operative. Asmodeus assumed control of the German nation with some protest from other countries, mostly European for obvious reason. Through many meetings and discussions with several world leaders, the decision was made by those nations to not intervene in Germany, but of course they’d keep a watchful eye.
After using France as a launchpad and securing the German nation to use as one large military base, it became apparent, the Illuminatus needed to show their military might. They needed to show the world they were a real force to be reckoned with. But how? They had already been warned that any acts of aggression without provocation would be swiftly dealt with by world powers. That answer would come in the form of tragedy. Jacob Anderson, Sebastian’s best friend since childhood and closest adviser, was gunned down by an assassin, having thrown himself in the line of fire trying to protect the leadership. Out of death, sometimes comes life. Life for the Illuminatus Nation began with his death. Out of necessity, a story full of lies was concocted with falsified corroborating evidence to point the finger of guilt squarely at Poland. Naturally, the Polish government denied having anything to do with the attempt on the lives of the Duke Family. After sharing the false evidence to the world, war had been declared and the military was mobilized into action. The new Illuminatus Nation and its elite military made quick work of Poland- they surrendered in under a month.
They grew quickly. They conquered two nations in succession. There was but one place left to go: Vatican City. They then turned their attention solely on the Italian peninsula. This war was much tougher. Italy itself poses major challenges just from its location. You can really only access it through the border if you don’t have a Naval force. While they did have a Naval fleet, it wasn’t nearly large enough to surround Italy on all sides and intimidate them into surrendering. Invasion by air and land were the only viable options. The Italians fought valiantly with bravery, yet still, they were beaten back by the elite fighting squads of the Illuminatus Military. On December 24, 2015, the Vatican was surrounded. Ground troops with several tank squadrons parked outside the walls of the small city-state. Thaddeus Duke’s air force flew overhead. The small Navy sat at sea, ready to fire on the seat of power of the Catholic Church. Being surrounded by land, air and sea, the Church gave in and surrendered. Asmodeus’ Illuminatus had finally obtained what he always wanted and what he believed to rightfully belong to the Illuminatus.
Asmodeus was crowned King of the Illuminatus that night. A gesture, largely symbolic, afforded to him by those that loved him and admired him their whole lives. The celebration though, would be short lived as Asmodeus would pass away in his sleep that very night.
And that’s when the wheels started to come off. Sebastian Duke, not one to show much emotion, never really did grieve for his father, at least not in any meaningful or proper way. He made bad decisions and compounded them with worse ones, putting the entire existence of the Illuminatus at risk. Thaddeus, the self righteous prick that he is in Sebastian’s eyes, staged a bloodless coup, dethroning Sebastian as leader. With that, came a long and grueling war. One in which Sebastian Duke’s side of the Illuminatus lost. With that loss, he also lost any hope he had of obtaining what he feels was stolen from him unjustly.
He was no longer the man. No more ‘yes sir’, ‘no sir’, ‘can I get you anything else sir’ was afforded to Sebastian Duke and it was killing him. The former leader then pent up all of his frustration and let it out all over his son back at the Compound in Connecticut. He slammed the young man into a wall and nearly choked the life out of him before leaving. He vows to never return there.
Sebastian Duke sits in his executive office chair and stares out of his high rise office window. In the distance, Arlington National Cemetery spans the width of the window as his office phone begins to ring. He can’t help but think of those that gave their lives not only for him, but for his son, and most certainly his father. His phone rings again. Sebastian hears it, but it hasn’t yet registered since he’s been so deep in thought for the last several minutes. As he continues to stare, he wonders if any of it was worth the fight and worth the cost. So many men lost their lives for a cause he wasn’t even sure he believed in any longer. His phone rings a third time and he finally snaps out of it as he reaches over and hits the COM button.
”Yeah Janet?” he answers her politely.
”Sebastian, there’s a young man here to see you, but he doesn’t have an appointment,” she explains. She almost always refers to him by his given name or simply ‘Sir.’ She thinks formal titles like “Mr. Duke” are passe.
Janet Wilson is a woman of 54 that commands respect. Not only is she his personal secretary, but she also acts as a sort of chief of staff. She leads the staff through everything from their most mundane tasks to their tasks of utmost importance. She came with two highly regarded recommendations. That of his brother, and that of a certain unnamed Intelligence Director in the United States. She knows where to find the bodies, so to speak, and certainly knows where to hide them where no one can find them. In the line of work he’s now in, secrecy, go figure, is highly sought after. She also runs an extremely tight ship and no one, NO ONE, gets in to see the Chief Executive without her knowledge and approval.
”He says he knows you.” As she puts it, she was hired to be the buffer, she’ll BE that buffer.
To be Continued...
The more things change, the more they stay the same in the Xtreme Wrestling Federation. The roster may be entirely different than it was when I left a few years ago, but still, I’m the 6 foot 9 ass kicking machine I always was and always will be. Azrael Erebus still has his minions running around wanting to poke and prod yours truly to gain my undivided atttention. Vincent Lane still thinks he matters and his bitch still has that Acyclovir prescription. By the way, if Lane was any good at his job like Shane 
was, this company wouldn’t be on life support like it is now.
Job Ber Juan?
Honestly this is the dumbest fucking shit. It’s no fucking wonder why the pay per view buyrates have plummeted. It’s no fucking wonder why market share is at an all time low. It’s no fucking wonder why these stadiums aren’t as full as they look. It’s no wonder fewer people are tuning into XWF programming on a weekly basis. This place is a fucking joke and I truly and honestly regret coming back to watch it die its slow and painful death. Robert Main is the XWF Universal Champion. That’s the same guy that lost to a glorified curtain jerker named Cadryn Tiberius. This guy is the fucking champion of the company? Don’t look at this as an indictment of Robert Main’s abilities in the ring because it isn’t. It’s an indictment of the current roster and the entire company as a whole. Is Robert Main really the best in the company? Maybe he is. Present company excluded of course. I do have the feeling though, that Main’s success is less about him and more about the lack of competition.
Robert Main is a man that considers a jackoff like Chris Chaos to be competition and even took to the XWF website to call him out. But I’ll remind him, I watched my idiot kid pound Chaos from pillar to post multiple times.
Robert, my man, if competition is what you’re looking for, you’re getting it real fucking soon. Trust me, you don’t need to resort to calling out guys that were never that good to begin with.
See, I’ve been back less than 2 months and by merely existing, I am now poised to lay claim to the Universal Championship. I have no doubts that Robert Main will give me everything he’s got and I expect nothing less. But the fact is, I was put in this postion because someone needed to show these small fish how to swim in the deep water with the big boys.
Job Ber Juan, you’re not even fish, you’re plankton. And I’m offended that you get to share my ring. I’m offended that the man in charge of my show thinks you somehow even resemble legitimate competition for me. You are the actual personification of nothing and that pisses me off. He makes this feeble attempt to make this match mean something by stipulating that if, and its an extremely huge if by the way, that if Job Ber Juan defeats Sebastian Duke, laugh out loud, that he too would challenge Robert Main for the Universal title. First off, mister general manager sir, you can not hang a childs finger painting on the wall and call it a work of Picasso. It’s not abstract. It’s the very definition of stupidity.
XWF fans, I don’t blame you for tuning out. I would too, if I were you.
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