Beep.











Beep.






The black screen presented slowly begins to display a green line moving vertically across the screen. In time with the beep, the line jumps up and down before resuming its normal progression. The camera continues moving out until it shows a bed with a darkened curtain surrounding the entire bed. One hand extends from the curtain. Limply hanging, the hand is slowly lifted by a pair of black gloves. As they lift the hand up, the left hand begins to slowly caress the hand emitted from the curtain. The scene continues to expand until the person wearing those gloves is revealed.

Hysteria is revealed.


Husssssh, little baby, don't sssssay a word…

Papasssss gonna buy you a mockingbird

And if that mockingbird won't sssssing,

Papasssss gonna buy you a diamond ring

And if that diamond ring turns brassssss,

I’m going to kick some asssssss.

Bahamahaha!


Oh, my friend, how tragic it is to see a good friend of mine laying in a bed. How tragic…

Sebastian Duke.

Ahhhh, we meet again! Hysteria and Duke. Duke and Hysteria. We seem to be interlocked in fate as of late haven’t we? The Illuminatus. The Asylum. You have your family. I made mine. The Higher Power worked through me to reach out and draw the masses. We wanted to reach everyone. Everyone. Now, Mr. Duke, now that I’m no longer busy with ensuring a certain transaction goes through… My focus is on you.

So are you prepared, Mr. Duke? Do NOT take me lightly. I may have been distracted upon our last encounter, but now I am bound and determined.

That title? It’s coming home to Hysteria.

But yes. Our fates have been rather intertwined. You wanted to take out CorVus. I wanted to take out CorVus. I’m not even mad about you doing the deed. I got the trophy after all.

A deep chuckle comes from the mask.

Two lives intertwined.

Well, my friend, it’s time to go.

Hysteria pats the hand and stands up before leaving the room and shutting the door behind him.

The Church of the Higher Power

Hysteria is shown walking into the front doors of the Church. All of the people within the confides of the building look at him with a mixture of confusion and disbelief. Slowly they begin to move over and embrace their prophet with open arms. Hysteria laughs wildly as he embraces his family.

Children, children! I am BACK! They thought they could hold me down with a briefcase bashing?! They thought they could end the The Prophet to the Higher Power? They thought they had taken a shot to The Asylum? HAHA! Little did they know. We struck back. Their own manager directed me to where I could go to pick up the limp corpse of that revenge-obsessed lunatic, CorVus.

You see, I knew about CorVus. Well I barely know CorVus. You see, when running a group of traffickers in Las Vegas, I met that snake in the grass. He joined our leagues just to spy on me. He thought he could pinpoint where I would be. What that buffoon didn’t know was that the operation he overheard was a ruse. I always tested the people who I brought into the inner circle. Never had I run into that issue.

Thank God, I have trust issues. I brought up the meeting in front of him. I ‘disguised’ it by lowering my voice and he fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Kudos, CorVus. He proved to be the most lacking adversary I’ve ever had. Lucky for me, we had our basement equipped just perfectly for a detainment facility. Chains, uncomfortable benches, and cockroaches to boot! Just what any good dungeon needs.

Bahahamahaha!

Now my children, letssssss discusssss whatsssss next for ussssssss. My children. Defiance is weakened. One of their strongest members is now our captive. Celebrate, worship, praisssse! But next, next we take something to make us stronger.

We shall take gold.

We were unstoppable with the Prophetic Belt. UNSTOPPABLE! But that was used as a sacrifice to the summoning of The Higher Power for his ultimate moment. Hehehe… they thought they could stop us there, didn’t they? Gator decided to try for a rematch. How’d that work out, hmmmmmmm?

Fantastically for you. You, on your back. Doc with his arm raised above his head.

But back to it. My children, we’ve been gifted an opportunity to reclaim our dignity and our prominence this week. In Hysteria’s return match, I will be facing none other than… The Intercontinental Champion Sebastian Duke. I hope you have enjoyed your little reign Duke, because I am going to erase the record books showing you as the current champion. In 8 days’ time… I will be the second ever Intercontinental Champion.

As he finishes his speech, Cory Scarecrow comes to the front and shakes the masked man’s hand before speaking up.

O Mighty Prophet. I do have a question. Why the mask? Why conceal your face with all due respect?

Hehehehe. A fair question Cory. A fair question indeed. You see…

Hysteria steps through the crowd and walks up to the front of the church and stands behind the stand at the center of the stage. He thumbs it with a familiar pattern.

Whenever I came to all of you, did you know Hysteria was LH Harrison? No. No, you didn’t. You had no idea who was the face behind this mask yet you followed me because you felt the strong ties that this had developed. But the reason I chose to don the mask was because with it… I feel more powerful. I feel more twisted and quite frankly… I feel more confident.

And confidence is key to winning championships.

Now my children, let’s discuss this unholy dictatorship I am juxtaposed to.

Sebastian Duke. Hello friend. You are the Intercontinental Champion! What an accomplishment. Thanks to me. That’s right. Without Doctor D’Ville and myself showing up for that show, we basically HANDED you that belt. Yet no thanks? No thank you for The Asylum making it easy for you? Bah. How unappreciative. A simple thank you note would have sufficed.

But I understand that Duke. I understand that you’re a classless, unintelligent slob. Who knows? Maybe Dimourdow was onto something. Perhaps you are just a homo. Now, now don’t get your panties in a wad. There’s nothing wrong with being homosexual. After all, The Asylum accepts people of any sexuality. The problem you have Duke, is that you’re in denial. You secretly like the attention your men give you. The warm feelings…

It’s okay! Embrace it! Embrace your love of men.

Hehe I can imagine you’re seeing this and just rolling your eyes. That’s okay. Nobody cares about that. In fact, nobody really gives two shits about Sebastian Duke. Remember when people called you the greatest wrestler? Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s never been said. No one respects you. No one fears you. No one even wants to be in your presence. I mean… ask Theo Pryce. Ask Cain.

You disappear and The Brotherhood disappears with you. Cain drowns after all of your claiming that he’s the new Sebastian Duke. Enigma/Theo is nowhere to be seen. No doubt he’s off snorting cocaine off of John Samuels’ dick while John Madison is stuck here babysitting his ass client. Let’s face it. The Brotherhood was a failure. Almost as much of a failure as Defiance is going to turn out to be.

But the real failure this week will the no longer reigning Intercontinental Champion, Sebastian Duke. You see this is 2 out of 3 falls. That means you get to see me not only pin your ass to the mat… but twice.

Oh and Duke? How the fuck do you lose a baby through a black hole in the time period paradox? I mean you just lost him! But then you decided to go to find him and you did. Thennnn you left him alone. Like any good dad, right? Yeah just leave your son Thaddeus alone in that timeline. Oh great job there, DAD. Great job. We do remember what happened right? You let him stay in that timeline while dealing with some shit in our timeline. Why would you do that as opposed to just bringing him back to your time period immediately? Or telling him you were his father so he would?

You were afraid. You displayed cowardice. You were too afraid of your son to tell him the truth. To tell him that the reason he grew up fatherless was because you let him slip through a time portal. But that’s okay, Mr. Duke. It’s okay to be a fuck up. It’s okay to miss the boat.

After all, in a week, you’ll be reacquainted with the feeling once I pin your ass to the mat twice.

But congratulations Duke. Just keep holding on to that title. Cherish it to your heart’s content. That’ll make me taking that from you even sweeter.

Now if you’ll excuse me… I have a prayer meeting to conduct. Now, my children if you’ll turn to Chapter 4 Verse 11…



Fade Into Nothingness…