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- Part One -

“MEMORY LANE”

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It was just running past five o’clock in the evening when the train whistle blew. It shook me awake from my seat, which was fine, it gave me time to gather my few things before everyone else started flooding the aisle, racing to the front exit to get off this thing. My legs were cramped up from sitting so long, it wasn’t the most comfortable ride, so I stumbled as I got to my feet. It took a moment for the feeling to return, old injuries and age both played a part in the delayed use of my legs.

I’ve put the sauce behind me. That just means I’m left with a quarter drank bottle of cranberry juice and too much on my mind. I actually have the ability to sleep again, too. Real, normal sleep. Almost too much, sometimes, actually. After a long battle between having insomnia for weeks at a time or dark, burning, screaming-awake nightmares, too much normal sleep was nothing. The nightmares were part of the reason I indulged so much. You don’t usually dream, or at least don’t remember them, when you’re blacked out drunk. These days it's like I’m making up for all of the years of insomnia all at once because sometimes it’s all I do. Sometimes that’s all there is to do.

As I snoozed on the train, I dreamt of what brought me to drop everything, gather my things, hop on a train, and head back to the XWF. I’ll give you three reasons. Tall, blonde, and beautiful. No, that’s not really why, but she definitely got the ball rolling again for me. I was sitting there minding my own business in my office the other day. Things have been slow and I haven’t had a lot of call-ins lately. No call-ins, drop-ins, passerbys, hellos, good-byes, in and outs. No stops, no one lost, no one angry, no one sad, not even a kitten in a damn tree… Nothin’. Until one day a tall hourglass silhouette appeared through my door. I noticed her there before she knocked, but waited for the soft, unsure taps anyway.

“It’s open.” I mumbled across the room. I think I was half-curious and the other half-excited. Nervous, maybe?

The door cracked open and a blonde head poked through.

“Is this… Dedntik Investigations?” She said with the softest voice as she squeezed through the small opening she gave herself and allowed the heavy door to close behind her.

I suppose I could have made it more obvious for everyone. There’s no sign or plaque outside my office to say it is indeed my office. Only a fogged up, dirty window with a large, shitty looking eyeball with a magnifying glass around it. Not my design.

“It sure is, tootes. Come on in. Have a seat.” I smile and wave her in.

She was dressed to kill in all black with a dark, see-through veil covering her face draped down from a hat. She carried a small purse that looked like it was stuffed with tissue paper that she would pull from and dab her nose with and sniffle. The girl looked distressed.

“Thank-you.” She said and quickly walked across the floor towards my desk.

Her heels made their very own, unique clap that echoed off the floor with every step she would take. Taking a seat across from me at my desk, she introduced herself. She went by the name Roxy Cotton… And as sweet as she was… Something about her story just smelled rotten. I pulled a box of cigarettes out from my desk and offered her one. Smiling, she removed the veil from her hat. It looked like she was crying for a while judging by the trails of black mascara that was running down the sides of her cheeks. I struck a match and lit hers before mine. Her cherry red lips puckered around the butt of the cigarette and she coughed slightly as she exhaled. They definitely weren’t the best quality out there… She also didn’t seem anymore than a social smoker at best. Maybe it helped her relax because she just held it while she went into her story. Her boyfriend, or husband, she never really specified, has come up missing. “Her Vinnie”, she referred to him as, just disappeared.

“It’s not like him to just get up and go. He wouldn’t just leave his life behind… I’m afraid something terrible has happened to him.”

“Is there anyone you know that would want to hurt, Mister Lane?”

I knew of Vinnie… Not that I knew him well, it was a long time ago and long before he owned the company… I was still hiding from my demons while he was doing battle with some of his own. He was a nice enough guy, but couldn’t keep his mouth shut back then creating all kinds of enemies. I can only imagine what he’s like years later after taking over.

“I… I’m not sure.”

She didn’t seem to think too hard about it, but I’m sure she’s already ran some options through her head. I doubt coming to me was in the top five, either. Lane was a powerful guy and to say he hasn’t made a few enemies along the way would be crazy-talk. As dangerous as a situation like this could be, I guess I’m glad she did. I’ve been around this crowd of folk once before and I know that trust isn’t something handed-out or even earned on a regular basis there. Everyone is at each other's throats at any given time, most of the time. I suppose if anyone can try and get some information from any of these clowns it could be me… You could say my time spent here last time taught me a few things about the mind that I didn’t learn at the academy all those years ago.

“Have you contacted any other authorities about this missing person? The police?”

She shakes her head and dabs away another couple of tears.

“No… I… I don’t think it would be good to get out. The media would tear this apart.. Maybe, if we figure out what’s going on, we could keep it from getting out to the public. I would hate to hurt the integrity of the XWF with all of this…”

Interesting.

So, I agreed to take the job. What was odd was I was thinking about the place earlier in the week. When I made the agreement with her, I was staring down at the newspaper that came a few days before that I, for some reason, held onto…

This.

I knew that I shouldn’t care anymore, but the sight of this headline made my stomach churn. It was one thing for the old man to play War Games or take a Leap of Faith, but this? To reclaim, as He likes to put it, His UNIVERSE? Why? I can’t get it out of my head. Not again. How could anyone there even allow it? Have they forgotten? For years, it seemed His desires for it were long gone. He wasn’t dormant or sidelined, by any means, but whatever has gotten into Him lately, I’m going to find out what it is. While I thought I put all of this behind me and I would never step towards that fire again… I almost feel I hold a responsibility when it comes to this. Is it possible that Lane going missing and Him fighting for the UNIVERSE going on at once is just a coincidence?

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That old familiar hallway.

The long walk. A corridor that tolerates no breaches. Straight and narrow. Ever forward. Upward and onward. Tally fuckin’ ho.

If it’s your first time, fret not; all is welcome down this hallway. As unwelcoming as it seems it may lead to exactly what you’re looking for, or perhaps, everything you’ve ever wanted, or even better… What you’ve needed all along..

There’s nothing worse than an uninviting corridor. The ceramic flooring is a faded, very dirty, whitish color and most of the tiles were shattered or torn out and never replaced. Watch your step, please. The fluorescent lighting does what fluorescent lighting does and flickers all the time and most don’t work, which, of course, makes it extremely difficult to see too far ahead. The walls are worn, weathered, tattered, and torn and feel like they’re closing in… They push you further and further, ever forward, as you wait for the end.

Finally, a light at the end of this tunnel. Not so much a light, but a door. A red door. A red wooden door. No markings on this door, not-uh-one. A single light looms above it, shining down on its threshold. The door opens.

Inside, the room is only lit by a fireplace. Its ominous glow stretches across the floor and bounces from the walls lined with shelves of books and old portraits of… You know who. A thick layer of smoke floats above causing the air to be thick and heavy to the point you could chew on it. The large mahogany desk sits in its place between a tall leather chair and a long couch. A stream of cigar smoke from behind the chair adds to the cloud, keeping the scent in the room bittersweet with some of the most pungent, best quality ‘bacci ever grown. A voice hums and mumbles in the background as the chair slowly turns to face the desk.

Sitting in the chair taking a long drag from the cigar, if it hasn’t been obvious already, is none other than Doctor Louis D’Ville. Not the same doctor that you might have come accustomed to seeing these past few months. Not at all. But the doctor you may remember before. Not the king decorated in gold armor, nor the smoldering ash that king became.

The pearly white suit seems to create its own source of light that makes the doctor glow where he sits. His attention appears to be elsewhere for a moment until his cold as ice glare meets you and sends an appropriate, stabbing shiver through your bones.

##Wayward steps taken
Ever forward through the dark
Never are we lost##

Hello, my friends.

It is I, Doctor Louis D’Ville, and I must apologize. I feel I just haven’t been myself as of late. I’ve been a fool. My focus has been blurred and my own priorities and desires, at the very least, have been compromised. The precious void that I’ve taken so much shelter and comfort in is the exact thing that I’ve been trying to fill. Unaware that the emptiness within it is something that has been haunting me all along. The nothingness that I’ve retreated to time and time again was the symbol of what I lost long ago and never restored. Now, here I stand on the threshold of a possibility to reclaim something that I thought, and even told myself, I did not and would never miss, and never look back..

I’ve been a fool.

It was late November when things took an odd turn, wasn’t it? The “puppet show” as we’ve come accustomed to calling it. A story where I found myself partnered with a Universal Champion.

Don’t think that I’m here to dwell and I am not here to reflect, but we DO have some things to cover real quick then we’ll move on, Scout’s Honor.

That silly story, to this day, still makes me laugh. That silly story, from the start, was about something destined to come crashing down. At no one’s fault but my own, though. You all can spread whatever slander you like of me sucking the life out of everyone around me and taking everything for myself, but that silly story tells something different.

I was a fool.

I was not the cancer inside Conundruum and if it was ever obvious or plain as day it's now, am I right? It didn’t take War Games to prove that there is certainly some tears and love lost between my former partners. Which was and still is none of my business. Whatever was going on between the two of them stayed pretty strict to the two of them and I worked when I was asked to work. Spoiler alert, that’s how it was supposed to happen.

I resurrected the boy for a reason and don’t forget that he never had to agree to side with me against his tormentors. But he did. Of course, he did. I took matters into my own hands, grabbed him by his, and got the job done. The two fakers never joined forces again so you could even say that we abolished Caddy-chism. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was all for having someone along for the ride, but the boy’s pick I knew would’ve just been a distraction. Low and behold, we lose the Universal Championship that we worked so hard to gain and then in the same breath give up the Tag Team Championship. Months later? Drama, drama, drama. Never another thought of reaching the top. Never another attempt to get another hit in. Never a second wind. Never a last laugh. Only to move on and follow his Hart, or worse, pick up on new catch-phrases like, “In like Flynn”.


There’s a point to this silly story.

I’ve been a fool.

To still say that I’ve tried making the boy my puppet is just absurd. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it once more, I’ve merely attempted to light a fire within him. I attempted filling what I thought was missing through someone else’s actions thinking that a Universe controlled by him was just as good. Foolish.

If I’ve learned anything through the experience I would say never send a boy to do a D’Ville’s work. He may be beginning to understand and finally see what I’ve been trying to do and what I’ve been about all along, but it's a bit late for that now. I’ve already made up my mind.

I know I have a lot to make up for. March Madness was really the last time I’ve seen any of you and, again, I apologize.. The tournament brought you everything, if not more, than you expected. That’s the name of this game, is it not? To exceed expectations? I had a mountain to climb and there was nothing in this Universe that was going to stop me. Some claim the only reason THEY were not crowned King that night was because they just chose not to participate. Well, that’s no rain on my parade and it certainly takes nothing away from all of the people I left in the dirt that night.


You would think that May Day was the real turning point in the XWF. Not to toot my own horn, but I’m certain we can all agree there was a lot more than the Xtreme Championship on the line that night. I showed up at the Orphan House as a King that no one wanted with the simple task to snuff out a fire before it got out of control. A simple brush fire that started with a simple spark.

I was stopped. The fire spread. And many have suffered because of it.

The fire spread through Savage and through Warfare. It spread through War Games. It's continuing to spread and there isn’t anyone, including myself, who has even slowed it down.

He calls it “surviving”.

He “survived” War Games.

Interesting.

For someone with such an appetite, he’s awfully humble, is he not? After I put my neck out for the boy and watched him bungle it up, then watched the next travesty take place until this fiery new wave of destruction swept through, it’s enjoyable to see someone thrive so much and consider it just surviving. To me it says at any minute he knows he could just not survive. He knows the end could just sneak up on him and it could all be over. Que sera, sera. Even with an instant dagger to the back looming in the background, he confidently continues, ever forward, through the fire.

Which brings us here, doesn’t it? I didn’t really know how to ask for a session of this proportion though, ya know? Making you want in more and more each week just seemed the right way to go about it. The wait. The anticipation. At May Day, I feel that I didn’t give you what you needed that time around. I feel that you were robbed of what you were truly looking for and that is a true session with Doctor Louis D’Ville. Not the King decorated in gold plated armor, not the smoldering ashes that he became… But what you were hearing everyone talk about before. You deserve it. You’ve proven that there is nothing else in this Universe that can hold a candle to you and I apologize to YOU personally for not giving you what you wanted up front. Things will be different this time, I promise.

It’s not going to be like the pissing contest you just had. I’m not going to attempt to exploit your few missteps or try and get you to say something contradicting. I’m not going to pick apart whatever it is you have going on and whatever it is you truly are looking for. You’ve been searching for answers long before you took control of the Universe and stars. If I don’t solve them for you I’ll give you a few clues as to where you can stop looking for them. It won't be a mercy killing, either. Not that you should expect that one. I'm not here for mercy and I'm not walking away from this without the Universe strongly back within my grasp.

I’m not here to make excuses. About before or anytime. I put forward my best effort to make something great out of something and what happened? I attempted to stop the ever forward progression of a future Universal Champion and what happened? I’ve admitted to my faults and I’m here to correct them. The platform I’ve been given is more than I could ever ask for and we have an entire Chicago Speedway to settle this once and for all. This is being called the biggest Main Event anyone has seen at Relentless since anyone can remember. The biggest match at the biggest stage reserved for the two of us. Even after my apologies, you all know that I know how to not disappoint and I fight best with the gun against my head. Now more than ever do I feel that. You’ve had your purpose all along, whatever it may be and whether you know what it is yet or not, but ever forward you’ve proceeded. Ever forward through anyone and everyone that has blocked your path. I sense my purpose was lost long ago and it took you, a snake, and the boy to finally help me remember where I truly belong.

Doc smiles before sitting back in his chair. Across the room, the fire begins acting out. Sparking, poofing, ploofing, and snapping... A gust of wind blows through the office as if the walls took a break and a fireball burst out of the fireplace and rolled across the floor. An soot covered, ashy ball sprawls out on the floor... The creature gets up and brushes itself off and looks to the good doctor and smiles.

Sorry I'm late.

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I step off the train and exit the station out the front entrance. When I get outside, I light up a cigarette and look around at my options. In the distance, I think I can see the main tower that is the XWF Headquarters, and it seems too far to walk. It sits just outside the city limits atop a hill, looking down at it like a giant watchtower. Unlike most train, plane, or bus depots I’ve been to, there is no public transportation outside. No taxis, Ubers, nothing. I can’t fathom everyone in the city owns a vehicle, but who am I to say?

I was about to ring the broad who brought me here, but I nearly dropped my phone on the ground when a loud *POP* or more of a *BANG* happened nearby that made me duck and cover. It turned out to be a rundown car that was barely running in one of the spaces off to the side. It was spray painted yellow with G-Uber written across each door and the hood, which is open. Running towards the car carrying a two-liter of what I would assume was water, the red-suited man begins to pour the water into his radiator. I hesitated, but I wasn’t sure how else I was going to get across town to the tower. What could it hurt to ask for a ride anyway?

“Excuse me?” I say as I approach the red suit. And when I say red suit, I mean jumpsuit, boots, mask… The whole spiel. He pays no attention to me.

“Ya know, it’s really dangerous to add water to your radiator with the car running like that.”

He got lucky this time as the car must not have been hot enough and nothing happened. Screwing the cap back on he slowly peered up to me with narrow eyes and a cigarette hanging out of the bottom side of the mask from his mouth. He slams the hood shut and tosses the empty two-liter over his shoulder and heads back to the driver’s side of the car.

“Umm… Are you an Uber? I could really use a ride?”

“Fuck no I’m not an Uber!” He literally screams at the top of his lungs at me. “What does the car say?”

“Uh, Goober?”

“G-Uber. It’s like an Uber, but owned and operated by ME, GATOR!” He says pointing proudly to his chest.

“So… Can I get a ride?”

“Shit yeah! Get in!”

I head to the back of the car to place my couple items in the trunk as he hops into the car through the driver’s side window. I can’t help but feel stupid as I stand there for at least ten seconds before he sticks his masked head out the window and yells at me.

“What in Chris Chaos’s confused wardrobe are you waiting for?!”

“Can I throw this stuff in the--”

“It’s full. Just hold that crap on your lap or on the seat or something. Christ..”

Full? How he was running an Uber, or G-Uber, service like this is crazy. I took one last look around for any other possible option, then piled in the backseat. To no surprise there were no seatbelts in the back. I didn’t even bring it up because I figured I would be told to work it out or something anyway. I just held on to the bar on the door and for dear life as the car zoomed back at close to thirty MPH, over a curb, and into traffic to the sound of several angry beeps from other on-goers. My driver paid no attention to it and sped away.

On the back of the seat was this guy’s ID. “Todd Moschitti” was his name and, well, he wasn’t wearing the red-suit get-up in his picture. It gets better, it says the guy is five foot something while this guy was clearly over six. The idea of getting robbed or worse crossed my mind, but worried me very little. The advance that Roxy gave me was locked up tight within my briefcase, while a few dollars were left crumpled together in my pocket. Surely enough to reach my destination under normal circumstances… Which these were not.

As we sped down the road and around the corner of an intersection, I held on not to slide across the seat. He went to flick his cigarette out the window, but it came back in and hit me square in the forehead.

“Hey, uh, aren’t you going to ask me where I’m going?” I say as I brush the hot ash away from my face.

I must have startled him because he jumped and looked in the rear-view mirror like he was surprised to see me. Before I know it he brakes and whips the car one-hundred eighty degrees around and parks it perfectly by the curb.

“Oh yeah! Sorry, mate! I forgot you were back there! Where to?”

I had to take a couple moments to catch my breath before I could answer. He had his arm propped up on the seat and I think he was smiling…

“Uhh, uh.. XWF Headquarters?”

I could see his face crinkle from under the mask as he turned around and put the car back into gear. He pulls out and turns at the next intersection towards the tower which we could plainly see in the distance.

“The fuck you wanna go there for?”

“I have some business there.”

“Ooooohh!” He said mockingly. “What kind of business?!”

I didn’t plan on starting my investigation until touching base and at least meeting Roxy Cotton again, but who knows? Maybe the guy has some info.

“Well, I’m here to investigate the disappearance of Vinnie Lane.”

The brakes slam down again and I catch myself on his seat before slamming into it with my face. He slowly turns around and faces me again.

“LANE’S MISSING?! SINCE WHEN?!”

“I’m not certain about that yet. I was contacted two days ago regarding the matter. When was the last time you’ve seen Mister Lane…. Mister, uhh.. Moschitti?”

“What? Oh yeah. Uhh… I don’t really remember.”

“A couple days? A week, maybe?”

The car starts down the road again.

“Yeah!”

“Yeah?”

“Yep.”

“Yeah, what?”

“A couple days or maybe a week. He’s kind of a cunt. I don’t talk to him much anymore.” He shrugs.

“Have you….” I look down at the license again to the heavy-set fellow in the picture and back up to the back of the red head in front of me. “Seen anything suspicious?”

“Ha!” He laughs. “You have no idea what you’re asking, mate. This is the XWF…. Suspicious and weird shit is kind of it’s “thing”.”

“I get that.”

I could see him look back at me over and over again.

“Something wrong?” I ask.

“You’ve been around here before, haven’t you? You look kind of familiar.”

“A long time ago… I, uh, don’t really like to talk about it.”

“Ohhh… Bad experience? Or did you just suck?”

“Nothing like that. Well, maybe a bad exp--”

I’m cut off when the car’s engine light blinks on. This guy driving panics and immediately whips the car into a small convenience store parking lot between traffic.

“WHAT THE FUCK?!” I scream out loud like a little girl.

“Chill ya fucking cunt. Engine light is on. I need to cool this fucker down with some more water.”

“You just filled the fucking thing at the train station? Do you have a hole in your radiator or what?”

Of course he didn’t answer me and Dukes of Hazard’d out of the driver’s seat through the window and headed into the little market. I sit back in the seat and look out towards my destination. The tower isn’t far now, just a few more blocks away. I close my eyes, I feel like I could sleep again already. Maybe stress is the cause of my tiredness all of the time now, who knows… But a hotel, well… I’m sure I’m going to have to settle for more of a motel… Regardless, a night in a bed with clean sheets sounds perfect right about now.

As I slowly drifted, there was a sudden pounding at my back from behind my seat…. From the trunk! I scurried to turn around, thinking at first that I was daydreaming, but then it happened again. Then, a voice! I couldn’t make out what they’re saying but it’s obviously someone in distress! I opened the door and fell out onto the pavement then hurried to the front and opened the driver’s side door. Pulling the latch for the trunk it sprung open and a guy popped out gasping for air! It’s the man from the picture on the license in the car! He, too, fell out onto the ground. Like a baby calf he crawled around, covered in sweat and God knows what else… . It looked like he was in there for a while… I rushed over to him to see if I could be of some assistance to him.

“Are you okay?”

“Do I fucking look, okay?! Oh God! Who are you?! Where is he?!”

“Who?!”

“Gator!”

“The guy in the red suit?”

“Yes!”

“He went into the shop to get some water for the car.”

“My car?”

Todd stepped out to the side and got a good look at his car.

“WHAT THE HELL MAN?!”

“HEY!!!!”

Gator’s out of the shop now carrying several full cups of water. He dropped them all to the ground when he saw his apparent captive out walking around.

“WHY THE FUCK DID YOU LET HIM OUT?!”

“What did you do to my fucking car, Gator?! I’m gonna get fired! I can’t drive around like this!”

“Fuck Uber! You can work for me now!”

“GOOBER?! WHAT EVEN IS THAT?!”

“It’s G-Uber, you cunt!”

Gator shoves Todd with one-hand in turn the fellow from the trunk doesn’t back down and shoves him back. I feel it would probably be best if I removed myself from the confrontation. I didn’t want to end up in the trunk next. While the two of them argued, I quickly grabbed my bag and briefcase out of the backseat and started down the road towards the tower.

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TO BE CUNTINUED