Waking up on the floor with a man wearing a burlap sack on his head, staring down at you is fucking terrifying. That single, solitary eye-hole, only makes it that much worse. Why is there just one? He has two eyes. It doesn't make any sense. It's like he did that on purpose for the sole reason of being frightening. Full disclosure, after witnessing that as my first conscious sight, I gotta admit his plan is working. I know that Mr. Satellite is my father from the past but holy shiza, when I opened my eyes and saw him standing there, my heart literally stopped beating and I almost pissed myself. There is a real possibility that I might have screamed a little too. By a little, I mean a lot.


That's right. I woke up and screamed like a small child. Not one of my most masculine moments but in my defense, I was not expecting to see Mr. Satellite, looming over me when I woke up. To be fair I also didn't anticipate fainting as a direct result of a panic attack either. On the plus side though, seeing Satellite made me momentarily forget that I was an awful father that lost his child, in his own apartment. So I suppose there's always that. Except, that brief lapse in memory didn't last long and when it subsided, the fact that it occurred became another bullet point on the list of why I'm a shitty parent. With a slight wince, I rose gingerly to my feet. I couldn't remember the last time I passed out from anxiety. While it felt like forever ago, the throbbing pain in my head made it rush back to me, like it was yesterday. Nothing like cracking your skull on the floor to really put things into perspective.


- "Are you alright?"


The metallic drone of Mr. Satellite's robot speaking for him, called my attention to the fact that he was still standing next to me. Why was he even here?


"No, I'm not. I'm really, really not."


Turning away from him abruptly, I cast my gaze around the apartment in a desperate search for my brother.


"Ezra! Come on, man! Where the fuck are you?!?!"


My words came out far more frantic than I intended. I couldn't help it though. Ordinarily I wasn't the biggest fan of Satellite lurking about. He was like the dark, nightmare version of the father, I was only beginning to know. The one armed freak that crawled out of the sewers. With everything that was going on, I wasn't in the right place mentally to deal with him, in this current moment.


"What's up?"


Oh thank jeebus. Ezra's voice came from behind me as he quickly approached and my focus went straight to him.


"What is he doing here?"


"You mean, Mr. Satellite?"


"No. The robot. I'm talking about the stupid robot. Satellite's cool, it's the robot that I'm having issues with. Damn, Ezra. Of course... I mean, Satellite."


"I asked him to come here to help. You passed out and I didn't know what to do, I got worried so I contacted him."


"You contacted him?"


"Yeah."


"How?"


"By using a communication device that can splice through space and time. I found it in dad's lab and I figured since technically Satellite invented it anyway, he should have it in case we needed to get in touch with him."


"Why would we ever need to do that?"


"He is already helping us with other things."


"A decision that I didn't have a say in, you all made the call, I had to shut my mouth and accept it. Well not today. My son is missing and there's something really fucking weird going on. I can't handle the mute, one armed wonder with a sack on his head, right now."


- "Excuse me. Is there a problem?"


"Is there a problem?"


Was he seriously asking that question? I felt my eyes slightly narrow in anger as I spun around to face Satellite.


"Yes, there's a problem. You. My son is missing, I don't know where he is and I can't stand the sight of you. Beneath that burlap sack and weird fucking cloak, Azrael Erebus might be under there but not the one that I know. The man from the stars that I fought evil aliens alongside. You're barely a pale comparison to that spaceman. While being the same alien, the two of you couldn't be more different from each other. I don't know what happened to create this demented version of you or how you eventually snapped yourself out of being this way but you aren't welcome here like this. I have enough to contend with, I don't have the want or the patience to add you and your robot pal, to the list. Okay. So thanks for coming to my aid but no thanks. Your brand of help isn't required, needed or desired. Go back to wherever or whenever, you came from. Things are bad enough as it is without having you around, to add that extra creepy vibe to it all."


Satellite lowered his gaze to the floor for a second, then with a small nod to himself, he straightened up taller. Usually hunched over, he always sort of kept close to the ground. Making his small stature seem even more stunted and compact. Of course, this was all his own doing, his choice to make his form this way. It probably had a lot to do with his missing limb, never growing back like it should have, melded with the fact that he lived in the sewer for decades. To transform from being seven feet tall to 5' 9" by choice. That had to be the reason, it was the only thing that made sense. It was some type of freakish coping mechanism or something. However, that all went out the window after I told him off like I did and now, I found myself looking up at his imposing, seven foot tall frame. In one quick motion, he tore away the burlap sack, revealing his true face.





"Better?"


He spoke down at me with a subtle smirk, tossing his robot's remote control off to the side.


"Am I worthy of your respect now?"


Almost in the same fashion that a snake sheds its skin, the black cloak fell off, landing in a heap on the floor as Satellite stepped away from it. Simultaneously, when this happened, he also became adorned in black trousers and a loose fitting, long sleeved, black button down shirt. Covered with a red cape that was accented by black leather straps and finished with a pair of black boots. With the exception of only having one arm, Satellite was a flawless picture of Azrael Erebus. The version I had grown accustom to seeing, stood before me and that's when I understood the error of my ways. Mr. Satellite and Azrael Erebus, were the same man, split from separate portions of time. Part of me could comprehend that, respectively I even referred to them as such, yet I was treating Satellite like an aberration and a weirdo, when without this version, the Azrael that I met wouldn't exist. Whatever trauma that created Mr. Satellite, set the stage for who he would become and the way I treated him was wrong.


"By the sanctioned gods. If you weren't my future son, I'd..."


Sudden silence as if he bit his tongue.


"You'd?"


"Nothing. Nevermind. That's not me anymore."


Deep sigh.


"Look, I know I am not the Azrael that you want but I'm all that you've got, so it is what it is... I just hated being talked down to like I was a different fucking being altogether. Imagine how that would make you feel. Unrecognized and rejected, by your own flesh and blood. I have had a great many people mistreat, shun and speak to me like some side show attraction but that right there was too much. I wanted you to see... I needed you to see that even though your father and I might be different in many ways, we're still the same man. I'm still Azrael Erebus. Only slightly broken. If you want me to leave and never return, so be it. I will respect your wishes. Even if I think it's fucking stupid and a huge mistake because without me, you'll never find your son."


"What do you mean? Are you telling me that you know where Arkin went?"


"Yes."


"Well, where is he?"


"Right here in this apartment. Well... sort of."


"What? Both Ezra and I searched the whole place, we couldn't find him anywhere."


"That's because you didn't know where to look."


Azrael reached his lone hand out and spun me around to face a mirror on the wall.


"What do you see?"


"I don't know. A mirror."


Still taken aback by what Azrael said, I couldn't see what he wanted me to notice.


"There."


Slowly stepping past me, he brought his finger directly to the mirror and placed it in the middle of the reflection. That's when I finally seen Arkin, with the foot of a stuffed bear in his mouth. Sitting on the carpet. A few paces away from me. Witnessing what was literally right in front of me, yet went unrecognized for so long, sent me into a state of shock. I couldn't speak, all I could muster was a gasp. What did this mean?


"I don't understand. Is he in the room? Like is this some sort of power manifesting? Super early? Is he invisible? What's happening?"


"He's not in this room, Arkin is in that room."


Once again, Azrael put his finger on the reflection. This time he gave it a soft tap to emphasize his words.


"Arkin is inside the mirror?"


"In a way. Yes. It's really a tad more complex than that. Arkin seems to have gone through the mirror, he's in this apartment, only reversed. Understand?"


"Not at all. It sounds like you said the same exact thing that I did. How do we get him out?"


"We go in and bring him back."


"We go inside the mirror?"


"Technically, we won't be inside the mirror, we'll be on the other side of it. We have to pass through it, to get to the other side. To reach the reversed version of your apartment."


"How do we do that?"


"Leave that one up to me."

---

"So I'm just another hombre loaded with excuses. That's funny. Since I never once made an excuse for myself. Not once in my entire promo. I suppose briefly mentioning Ezra, must have thrown you off and confused you though. Right? I talk about my brother and suddenly that means, I'm speaking about myself. Nevermind the fact that I said that we're different. Nah. That doesn't matter. Not to you anyway. That's why you mention us as a group, instead of speaking directly to me, at all times. This is a fight between Donovan Blackwater and Hanari Carnes, no? Well then why even bring them up at all?"


"Oh right because I spoke on Ezra's behalf. Okay. Valid theory but if we balanced out the content, it would definitely be seen that the scales tip drastically in your direction. You consistently lump us together. As if we're a single entity. At one point you even say - 'Hanari wants to see what the Blackwater brothers look like when they es "paying attention", mang.' Why? Also what's with the whole talking in the third person? You do it through your entire promo. It's creepy. You're like the foreign version of Jack Nicholson in the Shining, except instead of wielding an ax, you're just and talk like a crackpot."


"All the contradictions too. I felt like I was hearing the verbal version of ping pong. First I'm sticking up for my brother, than I'm downgrading him. I've done nothing, yet you respect my title reign. I'm a former champion that's been reduced to nothing but I have this shot at your belt. Oh but that's merely luck. You want me to talk smack at you and tell you how I'm going to tear you apart. Explain how I'm ruthless and I'll take you to the limits and back. Don't talk about myself though and build on how great I am. How do I say I'm capable of utterly destroying you and not sell the fact that I'm awesome? It doesn't make sense. Nearly every statement that you make gets reversed. You know who does that? People with the brain capacity of a fruit fly. They can't remember the stuff they say from one instant, to the next and yet, they keep talking. Do you understand how annoying and utterly exhausting it is to listen to an imbecile drone on like that? It got so bad I wanted to smash my own head into a wall and render myself unconscious, just so I didn't have to hear you anymore. "


"Worst yet was you comparing our title reigns. We both won titles in our second matches. Yay! Except I carried my title for 84 days. I'm fifth on the list of longest running X-Treme Champions. I was booked in fights and I had assholes attacking me... twenty four, seven. No exceptions. No restrictions. No special time limits. Meanwhile, how many times did you defend your title? This is your second defense, is it not? Yet you're coming at me like you're some hardcore badass. Please. Don't be ridiculous."


"You want to know what I'm going to do to you? I'm going to break you. In every way possible. There won't be limits to test because you'll be pushed past whatever sorry excuse you have for a boundary. You'll wish that there wasn't a fifteen minute time limit. Crave the ending to come swift. It won't though. No, I'm going to make our time together last. This will be something special. We're going to have so much fun together. This I promise you. I will systematically dismantle you, piece by piece until there's nothing left for you to give. Till you're rendered into nothing more than a sad, pathetic, crushed, shell of a human. The degree of your suffering will be legendary. And when it's over, you won't be able to exit the ring of your own accord, much less lift the weight of your own sorry, worthless head. You say you're going to pull my arm out of its socket, well this Saturday, I'm going to make you beg for the pin, just to put an end to the torment and then, I'm taking your title."

Donovan Blackwater
Former 1x...