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Thaddeus Duke · (09-14-2019)

[duke]11:54PM | Asmodeus Air Force Base | Berlin, Germany[/duke]

King Henry the Fourth of France, teenager. Wladyslaw III, King of Poland and later Hungary ascended to the throne at just ten years old. Augustus Caesar, 18 years old, founder of the Roman Empire. Scipio Africanus, 18 years old, military commander within the Roman Empire. Muhammad bin Qasim, 17 years of age, commander for the Umayyad Caliphate. Alexander the Great, the ancient Greek leader, seventeen years old and commander of a portion of his King fathers army. Do some of those names sound familiar? Some of them went on to become great leaders while ascending to military leadership while in their teen years.

French King Henry was assassinated when he was 56. Roman Emperor Augustus died of natural causes at 75. Scipio Africanus died at 53 under suspicious circumstances. Muhammad, 20, tortured and killed. Alexander the Great, 32, probable assassination. Being young and a leader such as this, has got to be more difficult than it would be for men of more, battle hardened and seasoned experience. With the exception of Augustus, each of those boys and young men that commanded armies and went on to lead nations, either died in battle, or were assassinated.

If Thaddeus Duke bares so much similarity to these characters, what stops him from suffering the same fate as those that came before? Maybe he'll live a half century like Henry the Fourth before being killed. Maybe like Muhammad, he'll be captured, tortured, and killed by his fathers forces at a ripe young age like 20. Or maybe he'll rule for a bit before being assassinated by his friend like Julius Caesar, his guards like Caligula and so many others.

This militant contingent that has made themselves known in recent months, seems hellbent on causing death and destruction to definitive end the Illuminatus Nation and its leader. Thaddeus, Sebastian, Jim... All of them. Here's the update: Lincoln Tritter, Director of Illuminatus Intelligence, uncovered strong evidence to suggest that the militant group has turned up to a dozen Illuminatus men against their leaders. One may wonder what the point of the quick little history lesson is, and it's this: Thaddeus Duke finds himself, after weeks and weeks of not taking the threat against him seriously, in the midst of twelve potential threats. That's 12 would-be assassins. Any one of those men, while mixing with his own, could strike at any given moment and they already have. Asmodeus Air Base is the largest air base in the entire Illuminatus and not only has one defector nearly murdered Thad's best field commander, but they now also have a shortage of 26 aircraft, destroyed by yet another unknown defector. Bravery and courage are staples of any organized military. While Thaddeus may not fear death necessarily, he's already died once, and he's in no hurry to do it again. What's more is, the longer this carries on, the more potential there is for more innocents to suffer or die.

[duke]"I'm reconsidering the end game,"[/duke] Thaddeus says, walking toward hangar number nine with his two lions flanking him on either side. The 'end game', as he calls it, is a reference to his original plan to execute every last traitor. Jim walks quietly along Thad's right side, still hesitant to come to close to the lions.

"Do you have to bring them everywhere?" Jim asks.

[duke]"I have lions Jim. Do you have lions?"[/duke]

"No," he answers quickly. "That's probably because I'm FUCKING SANE!"

Thaddeus stops. So do the lions. So does Jim. [duke]"If you had your own lions, you'd want them at your side too,"[/duke] Thad says lightheartedly before resuming his walk to the hangar where Commander Brunson has the men assembled in formation.

"If that's your decision, I can't stop you," Jim states, steering the conversation back to the traitors.

[duke]"I said I'm considering it. I haven't yet made up my mind."[/duke]

"Mate, this Lawrence fellow, do you think he might be able to aid us?"

[duke]"With what?"[/duke]

"Rooting out the defectors."

Thad scratches his brow as he walks. [duke]"I don't really see any way that'd work. If you recall, he said that none of the others knew of each other."[/duke]

"Yet supposedly they all knew of this Mason cunt."

Thaddeus stops in his tracks again.

[duke]"He's playing us."[/duke]

Jim stares at him blankly.

[duke]"He was just telling me what I wanted to hear,"[/duke] Thad surmises.

"They're all working together," Jim muses aloud. "I mean, I kind of expected that."

[duke]"Is he assembled?"[/duke]

"I thought it'd be better if he were," Jim answers. "If we decided to use him to our advantage, we couldn't leave him absent."

[duke]"Is he being watched?"[/duke]

"Like a hawk."

Without another reply, Thaddeus continues on into the hangar where nearly 12,000 men stand at attention in formation. Simba and Mufasa, the lions he saved from the circus, are in toe. Jim enters too, but stays by the door. Thad climbs the two steps leading to the podium. [duke]"Put your god damned arms down,"[/duke] he orders. The men obey quickly.

[duke]"There's no less than a dozen of you that defected and started working with those that aimed to kill us all. You. Me. Him. All of us.

"For the life of me I'll never understand why some people become so intent to harm their own cause, their own lives."[/duke] he pauses. [duke]"The easy thing for me to do is to pull you out here one by one and put a bullet in your head. And trust me, killing each and every one of you was plan B.

"I can not continue to have you traitors reveal yourselves as our enemies. I can not continue to have lives threatened here on base. I can not have you blowing up my fucking aircraft,"[/duke] he pauses and looks out over the sea of Illuminatus soldiers. [duke]"So what's next?"[/duke] he asks as he steps away from the podium and releases the microphone from its stand. He walks and talks. [duke]"Some of you here would rather I be dead and I can promise you, that isn't going to happen. Not here.

"Not now.

"Not any time soon.

"So I ask again, what's next?"[/duke] he asks as he stops in front of Lawrence, standing among the front row. Thad looks directly at him. [duke]"You're trying to play me, Lawrence.

"Step forward."[/duke]

Lawrence hesitates but ultimately does as he's ordered. [duke]"See, it sounds strange to me that Lawrence here would out himself as a traitor, and tell me things I want to hear. Lawrence told me that none of you infiltrators know of the others yet was quick to point out that every one of you knew of Mason. You either know of the others or you don't, Lawrence. Which is it?"[/duke]

Lawrence stammers, but ultimately fails to find any words.

[duke]"We're going to play a little game, to loosen things up around here.

"If I can't trust you, It only seems fair that you shouldn't be able to trust you either. From here on out, gentlemen, if you out your friends, I will grant you immunity and freedom. Freedom after the war, for clarity. I will house you, I will feed you, I will clothe you, and I will treat you like upstanding human beings. Get caught feeding me or my men false information and the game is over.

"You lose.

"Now for a demonstration. Would you like to see what its like to lose the game?"[/duke] he asks to no one in particular. [duke]"Of course you do."[/duke]

Thaddeus faces Lawrence at the front of the formation. [duke]"Run."[/duke]

Lawrence stares at Thaddeus and doesn't move.

[duke]"It's going to be a very short game if you just stand there,"[/duke] he says before tilting his head in the direction of Simba.

Lawrence's eyes grow wide as he turns to run. Simba pounces almost immediately and has his entire weight pinning Lawrence face down on the concrete. Lawrence screams for help but none of the other men move a muscle. Most of them barely even blink. He can feel Simba's hot breath on the back of his neck.

[duke]"Do you want to live, Lawrence?"[/duke] he asks rhetorically. The vast majority of people do not wish to die, obviously.

"Sir?" Lawrence asks, shaking with fear.

Thaddeus kneels over the enemy, Simba still perched upon his back. Lawrence squirms beneath the weight of the lion. Thaddeus Duke, for all his qualities and his big heart, he's a little tired of having his people hurt or killed by these militants. He's a bit fed up and if one wonders whether this type of aggression is a new trait, or if he has a little evil in him passed down from his father and grandfather, it is important to recognize that all human beings are capable of despicable evil. If Thaddeus were to follow through on this little game and see just how many can outrun his lions, would it be considered evil? Or is this yet another shade of grey? Another example of perspective? Is it evil to protect your family and those you love at all costs? Is it evil to make people pay for how they've wronged you?

[duke]"It's a simple question, really,"[/duke] Thaddeus says as he pats Simba on his head. Simba retreats from his perch atop Lawrence. [duke]"Either your work with the militant group that wants to see me dead is worth the cost of your life, or you've made a mistake and you wish to repent and change your mind and you want me to welcome you, like I have before, with open fucking arms."[/duke]

Lawrence continues to lay face down on the floor. The Illuminatus Governor General stands from his kneeling position. [duke]"Stand up like a man, Lawrence."[/duke] Lawrence hesitates but does as instructed. [duke]"So which is it, Larry? Can I call you Larry?"[/duke]

The man nods his head.

[duke]"I don't actually care. I'll call you Cindy if it pleases me.

"What do you have to say for yourself?"[/duke]

Thaddeus, still holding the microphone, hands it off to Lawrence.

"I admit it all, in front of all," he begins, tears rolling down his cheeks. "I was approached outside Paris by a man working on the Ares Project and he was going on and on about how evil the Illuminatus Nation is and I believed him. The more and more I spoke with him, the more I started to see his point of view. I didn't know at the time that he knew I was a member of this nation.

"I engaged in treasonous activity that endangered the lives of my leader, my friends and all of you here today.

"I accept the Governor's offer of immunity in exchange for the names of the other conspirators, in exchange for everything I know concerning the Ares Project."

Thaddeus grins pleasantly and rests his hand on Lawrence's shoulder. [duke]"That took courage,"[/duke] Thad offers him. [duke]"Go meet with Director Tritter in Conference Room D, Lawrence. He'll take your statements and make your arrangements."[/duke]

"Thank you sir," Lawrence says graciously.

Lawrence heads toward the door where Jim has remained standing. Once outside, Thaddeus walks faster to catch up to Lawrence. As he does so, Thad and Jim flank Lawrence on either side. The traitor walks timidly between them, unsure of why he now has an escort. Suddenly, there's a commotion behind him. Lawrence goes to turn...

[duke]"Stop here, turn around,"[duke] Thad instructs him. Lawrence does as ordered and looks back through the hangar door. Inside, 11 other men are being brutally murdered. [duke]"You realize that there is no immunity in treason cases, right?"[/duke] Thad asks quietly, pointing his mouth toward the mans ear.

"You said..."

[duke]"I mean I know what I said because I did in fact say it,"[/duke] he states facetiously. [duke]"Jim did I say it?"[/duke]

"You definitely said it mate," Jim replies.

[duke]"Truth is, we already had the names. Director Tritter really is quite good at his job. Since we have the name I guess we really only needed one of you."[/duke]

"Am I going to die too, sir?"

[duke]"No,"[/duke] he chuckles aloud. [duke]"You're not going to die today Lawrence. Maybe not for a long time.

"I suspect though that the quality of the rest of your life will be... a matter of perspective."[/duke]

"I'm not meeting Director Tritter though am I?"

[duke]"You are,"[/duke] Thad replies as he and his two companions continue to watch the bloody carnage unfold. [duke]"Though he's a big angry mother fucker and he hates it when his intelligence gathering gets interfered with by one of our own."[/duke]

"Governor, I feel like you're getting joy from this," he questions.

[duke]"On the contrary, this causes me a great deal of pain,"[/duke] he replies with cracked speech, showing his authenticity. [duke]"I never want to see my men bleed for any reason, but if there's one thing I've learned leading you all for these past several years its that, sometimes, as much as it hurts me, I can't be nice.

"Lawrence, you will live out the rest of your days as my prisoner. You will never again know the touch of a woman, or a man, whatever it is you were into. You will never know the birth of your first born or find love.

"You will spend your days righting the treasons you've committed. You will spend your immediate future helping us defeat this rogue army. You will give us all of the information you have on the Ares Project and what their plans are.

"You will die an old, disgraced man... in a prison cell. But at least you get to live.

"I mean, there had to be some perk for being the first to come forward."[/duke] Thaddeus turns toward his private bunkhouse. [duke]"Mufasa! Simba! Come!"[/duke] Thaddeus and the Lions head toward the bunkhouse as James escorts Lawrence to Lincoln Tritter.

[duke]This should be interesting. First of all Big D, I want to commend you on bringing your big boy pants this week. You wanna walk out as a dual champ and I get it. I really do. For all of the nothing you have accomplished and all of the instant classic matches you've never had you sure do talk a big game... But wrestling matches aren't won with words. On the surface, your words sound so cutting and you say them with such conviction that the conservative right in this country would probably want to put you in the White House. Like the current president though it all just hateful rhetoric that has very little if any basis in truth.

You wanna call me a

for having the name Thaddeus but I have to ask you Daniel, why are you so jacked? Is your dick that small that you have to compensate by having grotesquely huge muscles that certainly limit your ability to move in the ring? Which, by the way, when you're in the ring with me, your ability to get the fuck away from me quickly is kind of important. Also so what if I am a

? It shouldn't matter to you, I'm not fucking you nor would I.

Guys, seriously. This meathead is in over his head here. I realize its a deep history I have that has been told for years but please, do try and keep up here. Not everything about a person can be found by merely clicking on their XWF profile page.

I have delusions about my age because you're too damn stupid and thick headed to learn about it, and I'm stupid... or smart... he can't decide really, because I've gone to high school. Listen, Daniel, I'm not going to research me for you. I know my past because obviously I was there. I know all about my age discrepancy and I know why I'm in high school. You could know too if you bothered to learn about your opponents, but you don't and you didn't and that's why you always look like a fucking moron and that is part of why you never really get anywhere. If you want to spout off baseless lies about your opponents because you refuse to do your homework, I have a hard time imagining you watching tape to study your opponents.

See? A+B=Big Dumbass.

I have a question: why would my father need to train me to face people older than me? I've literally never faced anyone younger than me and I've done quite well for myself. Anyway...

Every Big D (I have my doubts about the authenticity of that claim) promo is simple, designed and produced for simple minded audiences. There's no depth to this man. He's as shallow a person as Jenny Myst is and that says a lot. Its always he's mad about something or crying over his failure to launch his XWF career over and over and over again while running off all of his accolades from other places that don't mean shit here.

Big D, one day you may etch your name in the history books of the XWF. One day soon even, you might become a legitimate XWF star, but it won't be at my expense. It won't be this week at Savage. Daniel, for all your talk and all your posturing, your insults and your lies, you're gonna learn the hard way that what I say is true and that is that I'm better than you.[/duke]

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