The mission was set.

The two young men were set to free their fellow empowered brethren given strict orders from their commander, Inf. Cal Vari and Vic Tori were set to engage the enemy and bring them in for justice. Yet something just felt off for Cal. He stands outside his transportation vehicle with his arms folded and a puzzled expression.

“Why does this feel… too easy, Vic?”

Vic pauses and looks at him from the front of the plane where he had been fueling up.

“What?”

“Why does this feel too easy?”

Vic cleans up his hands from the grease upon them before throwing the towel away as he walks up to Cal Vari.

“It’s not too easy, Cal. We still have to infiltrate their fortress and find a way to get more information on their captures. I wouldn’t exactly call that easy without a morph in our group.”

“No, with Inf.”

Vic sighs and walks over to pick up the towel.

“Inf was basically ready to burn you alive, and you think that he was being nice?”

“How many times have I walked out of his office with scorch marks? How many times has our superior used his full fire on me as a living punching bag?”

Vic nods and begins counting on his fingers before laughing.

“Too many times for sure.”

“Exactly, but this time all he could muster was a little smoke despite us going against orders?’

“He’s just proud of us, Cal.”

“Why are you being so dense, Vic?”

Vic stops and takes a step back as if upset that he’d been insulted.

“I apologize, but you know as well as I do that his flames are tied to his emotions. Whether he’s jubilant or enraged, his flames are tied directly to his emotions. When he came back to the office after his daughter’s birth, he could barely contain himself and nearly burned the entire building to the ground. Yet when he met with us, he seemed… contained.”

“You’re looking very deeply into this, Cal.”

“And for someone who enjoys mysterious and conspiracy theories, you’re very uninterested in this.”

The two stop and stare at one another for a tense second before Cal’s eyes turn back towards the Divine Headquarters as his arms unfold and fall to his side. He begins to walk towards the building.

“Cal! Aren’t the lives of our fellow people in jeopardy by you going to chase your own tail?!”

Cal isn’t listening to him as he pushes forward until he feels invisible tentacles wrap themselves around him as his body comes to a halt. He tries to push forward only to be stopped. He knows this feeling as he turns around to see the sharp-edged and demonic appearance of his friend, Vic Tori who has reverted to his altered form to stop Cal.

Cal clears his throat as he speaks through a muffled tone.

“Didn’t I tell you that I could break out of this if I wanted to?”

Cal Vari’s body begins to tense as his entire form bulks up before a loud cracking sound is heard.

A burst of energy erupts from around Cal as Vic falls to the ground and Cal seems to have regained control of his movement. His eyes flash fury at Vic before he approaches him. He grabs him by his throat and lifts him up off the ground. He backs him towards the ship and slams him against the side of the vessel with his feet dangling.

“I’m going to ask you one more time, Vic Tori, and you better tell me the truth. Our friendship hinges upon this.”

Vic nods as much as he can while being held by his throat.

“Why are you trying to stop me? Why is Inf acting so peculiar? Why is it so imperative I go on this trip, NOW?!”

Vic motions towards the hand wrapped around his throat as Cal drops him to the ground. Vic breathes out raspy before looking up at Cal.

“You’re under investigation.”

“Investigation?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“For acts committed against The Divines by your father.”

Cal freezes for a moment. His father, Cal Med, was a mediator and peace advocate who disagreed with Cal on many different levels. Yet his father was known widely as being the best at keeping tensions at ease and getting different sides of the equation to come to an agreement. Despite all of this, his father disappeared two years ago on mission. Many believed him to be KIA yet no body was ever discovered.

“What does my father have to do with me? He’s been dead for years.”

Vic sighs as he rubs his throat.

“What aren’t you telling me, Vic?”

“Your father isn’t dead.”

Cal looks down at him with disgust.

“This better be some version of a sick joke. My father was vaporized on the moon of Malashar attempting to communicate with the inhabitants there. He was shot down in cold blood after one of our other superiors gave a distasteful remark to one of their leaders. We destroyed their whole moon as a counter-measure. Now you’re telling me that he survived the entire MOON being destroyed?”

Vic nods.

“But I wasn’t supposed to tell you this.”

“Then why are you, Vic?”

Vic rises to his feet as his hand caresses his throat.

“I… we’re friends, Cal. I value our relationship more than any ties I have to them. While we’re away on this trip, your desk, your computer, your files are being filtered through for pertinent information to your father’s whereabouts.”

“That’s a violation of the Privacy Coalition. No search can be done without express permission from the Divine Sovereign. And an unalerted search can’t be committed unless the threat is seen as one internal. Why do they want my father so badly?”

Vic’s eyes avert from Cal, but Cal snaps his fingers to focus him up.

“Don’t look away from me, Vic. If we’re truly friends, then you can talk candidly to me.”

“Your father is responsible for the moon of Malashar and an entire group of people. All I know is that the stories of his death have been… altered.”

“My father is an enemy?”

“I don’t know, Cal. All I know is that The Divines want him, and they need to search through your belongings to absolve you of it.”

Cal looks towards the Divine Headquarters once more with a sigh. He leans back against the body of the ship beside Vic and folds his arms over his chest as he’s lost in thought.

“So what do you think we should do, Vic?”

“We need to go on the mission and free our people. They need our help more than you need to be up there. Once we’re done, we’ll return and see what is going on.”

“Fine. Thank you, Vic.”

Cal extends his forearm which Vic smashes his own against as the two head into the ship. Vic resumes his seat at the front of the ship as Cal sits beside him in a somber state as he pulls a small badge of some sort from his pocket and begins to fiddle with it absent-mindedly as he stares ahead.

The badge reads Superior Cal Med.



Today…




“How nice to make your acquaintance, Scully.”

“It’s been far too long that I’ve dealt with those who have earned positions high above their true level of competency. Destiny basically bent over backwards to allow you a place at the table of immortality by allowing you the saddest of championship runs of all time. You may have defeated the man who runs the company, but you’re far from a man truly superior to him or any other.”

“You’re a charity case picked up by Destiny and chosen for greater things. I may have sugar-coated things for you when I first spoke of you, but your very actions have dictated that I handle you not with kid gloves.”

“Not man-gloves either, mind you. Somewhere in between where the doctors have to prevent you from licking too much precipitation off the windows of the small bus you ride.”

“The oldest comparison I’ve seen is attacking my name, a literal combination of my family and identifier name. It would be like trying to figure out the reason your mother and the dingo she fornicated with decided ‘Mike’ would be an accurate identifier for you. Can you imagine running through life with perhaps the most uninspiring name in the entire world… universe? It all makes sense why you denounced that name upon entering the XWF and donning the ever clever last name instead. Luckily for you, it was your dingo father who barked out the name Mike instead of the first word out of your mother’s mouth.”

“ .”

“A proper response it would have been upon seeing your face and watching you grow up. Imagine seeing the thing that exited your womb learn how to walk at the ripe age of manhood and discover his appendage in the same month. Barely able to walk, little Scully running through the halls of his school clutching his little member as the ladies cry and cover their eyes.

“Imagine being the mother that had to go to that school and have that conversation with the teacher who found you two inches deep in a locker because it ‘felt good.’”

“I have the utmost respect for your mother and any mother who can stand to raise a child as misfortunate as you. All of that hard work to watch you grow up to be nothing more than a parody of a person created within the shell of what seems to be considered normal.”

“My name originates from my birth the same as yours. My father, Cal Med, was a brilliant person able to alter the moods of others which worked well in his negotiations which he worked for The Divines. But now we can hopefully settle the issue of having a name that has some semblance to some historical, religious significance to you and your ilk.”

“But your ilk can’t possibly comprehend that. They can’t understand the reason why I landed here. Why I came to this planet. Why I came to the XWF. Why wrestling? Why is it I’m set across the ring from you, Scully?”

“It’s Destiny.”

“The very person you ignore while looking away when my music hits. The very person that allowed you to gain a title of such renown. You ignore her existence while she drives the wheel of your life from the womb to your grave. You try to grab control of the steering wheel only to be shoved back in your seat and told to enjoy the ride. It’s something that we must all accept, and it’s something that we must all recognize.”

“Destiny drives us and we must accept the destination as a fact of life.”

“It wasn’t until recently that my ride took me to the home of one, Mike Scully. At this special event, you won’t be just stepping into another match with a bell to signal the beginning and the end. You’re stepping into a war zone with a man powerful enough to snap you enough yet passionate enough to let you enjoy walking as much as you have from age sixteen.”

“It’s true that the XWF will never be the same after my emergence, but this has nothing to do with you Scully. Once more, someone feels as if their presence in my way is significant when it’s simply a stepping off point. My boot may touch your head as I climb over you, but you’re no more a threat than a gnat is to a human. With one hand, I will swat you away and keep on towards my path of righteousness.

“My path of redemption.”

“Whether you believe in my feats of strength or that I’ve wrestled with gods much more awe-inspiring than you, you will realize the foolishness of your actions when you step into the ring. I don’t just practice lifting trees; I master it. I don’t just practice destroying my enemies; I ensure their demise. M words are not to be taken lightly, and you’ll feel the full weight of them when I deliver my first strike.”

“When it was first announced that we were set across from one another, I saw it as another opening. It’s another opportunity for me to show my strength, determination, and fire to the world. It’s an opportunity to inspire the world at your expense. I said let the better man win, but consider that me practicing words of empowerment.”

“I want you at your best, Scully, just as Destiny would have it.”

“There’s nothing to be learned when you halfway attempt something and come up short.”

“But if you go all-in and leave everything in the ring and come up short, then life becomes a learning lesson. You learn either to adapt or evolve. Whether your breed believes in its existence or not, evolution has been studied since long before you existed and its proof will continue to be felt throughout the cosmos.”

“We meet in Australia home of the biggest cleanings that nature has to offer with a wildfire spreading across the entirety of the continent offering no reprieve from the insanity of the fire’s power. It’s on this barren wasteland that we will be sparring with the backdrop of Destiny’s rage spreading across the lands. Let me ask you something, Scully, do you think it’s a coincidence that it’s new meeting old in a place where the old is being burned away while the new takes over with a new plot of land?”

“Even the lands of the world are foreshadowing your retirement coming at the hand of one of the newest members of the roster.”

“Destiny has foretold your fall from fate, and I’m here to be her executioner.”

“This is Da End, but you will not be speaking when I am finished with you.”

“Destiny’s favor is over, and I’m going to put you where you belong.”

“Back in the archives with the rest of the dinosaurs.”