Darcy stared at the clock almost absentmindedly, the incessant ticking of the damned contraption forcing her into a state of constantly interrupted introspection. She had been in the hospital’s waiting room many times, but it was this latest one that weighed on her most. She was promised horrible news and life never seemed to underdeliver on such a vow it made to her. Each second crept by as if it were a sharp blade dragged across her skin, scraping the skin, but never plunging into the muscle. No sense of relief, only an agonizing build to a crescendo of ageny that lingered eternally. She tried to hold her breath, to keep these emotions that stirred beneath the surface submerged until the proverbial bubbles ceased to appear. Yet the panic was plain on her face. The worry brimmed to a point where it was about to overflow at any given second.

“Ms. Ellis,” A nurse had walked into view while Darcy’s anxieties simmered within, catching her slightly off-guard, “the doctors are ready to talk to you.”

The tone of her words revealed everything Darcy needed to know. Her sister’s condition was getting worse.

---

The Notorious Gym (CLOSED) 12:24 PM NYC

Ned lugged a large box up from the basement, huffing a tad with each step up the stairs, feeling the strain on his arms despite his physical shape. It was something he had struggled with since his younger years, being ridiculed and looked down upon for his relatively weaker upper body strength. He had been judged by a hell of a lot of people for years based on what his supposed capabilities were. aLthough, perhaps that wasn’t the exact term he would use when thinking of it. They judged him based on what they thought his weaknesses were. Based on his limits. Still, despite a mild amount of fuss, Ned managed to haul the box up to the main floor and place it on a table. Once removing the item inside, he got to see exactly why it was such a pain.

It was an ancient PC monitor. Not quite C64, but equally yellowed with the passing of time. After arranging a proper place for the device and an excessive degree of brushing away dust, he had managed to get the included tower connected to find out exactly what was hidden on this thing, but just as his finger hovered over the power button, the small chime of the entrance door sounded and as Ned turned, he saw Darcy, eyes somewhat watery and face stained heavily with tears. His hand recoiled from the machine as he stood up, his face stuck in an expression of shock. Sure, he had seen Darce “upset” before, but nothing to this degree. He had only known her for about half a year, but he was able to recognize how important parts of her image were, at least when she could control it. It reminded him of…

“So-uh…” she began, “I just got done at the hospital…”

“And?”

She shook her head, her voice still a little hoarse from an earlier influx of emotion that had been glazed over with a forced, cold expression.

“It doesn’t look good for her,” she mustered.

“Darcy, I-”

She held up a hand to cut him off, gazing at her feet as her head shook once more.

“Look… not right now. You’ve got your whole Battle Games thing and I’d really rather you just dealt with that, okay?”

Ned frowned, realizing the recent events of his life had caused him to neglect such duties as team captain more than he truly intended to. It wasn’t a desire for neglect, merely an attempt to be too many things at once. Furthermore, he had stood where she had, on the verge of losing those closest to him during turbulent and dangerous moments of his life. And everything since could be encapsulated best as learning to live in the aftermath of such a loss. The kind of thing a wrestling match doesn’t fix. A familiar ghost that haunts indiscriminately and wears on all it touches.

“That’s easier said than done, honestly,” Ned replied, slumping in his chair while she walked over, clearly in the pursuit of some normalcy. Ellis eyed the computer, clearly a little taken aback by an old ass computer having a place in the middle of a defunct gym.

“Well, it certainly looks like it is if that’s the kind of hardware they expect you to use for this thing.”

“Huh?” Ned gave her a confused glare until her words finally registered and he waved the comment off, “oh, this isn’t for that. I’ve just had it down there for a while and I was wanting to check it out.”

“Neglecting your captainly duties? That doesn’t sound very noble of you, hotshot.”

Clearly, at some level, normal for Darcy was picking on Ned. Not the most ideal situation, but ned was at least glad he could help a little in that department.

“It’s not like that… I just have a lot on my mind recently.”

Darcy sat beside him, composing herself as she slowly acclimated to the situation.

“Well… join the club…” after some hesitation, she added, “and share, if you need to…”

Kaye looked up to the ceiling for a moment, his eyes focused on the little patterns in the wooden planks hoisted above, his brain instinctively looking for meaning in the absence of any definitive source of it. And it was in this moment of thought that the words came.

“I’m worried.”

Darce’s head slowly raised, a look of befuddlement on her face as she attempted to try and understand what was going on in that wacky head of his.

“Why? What do you have to be scared of? You’re a popular wrestler, you signed a nice deal with that rich guy, you still have a ton of fans coming out of a really rough period in your life. Shoot, you could probably go for that multiversal champion thingie you wrestledudes want so badly. What does Ned Kaye have to be so damned worried about?”

“I mean, you touched on it there. I have made a lot of bad choices not too long ago. I’ve isolated myself from friends and allies alike just due to my own tendency towards lonerism. I’ve said and done hurtful things towards people I care deeply about and I’ve never gotten the chance to say sorry. I worry that I used to be someone who could lead people, but that I’m not anymore. That I’ll hold my team back instead of propelling them forwards. That my past defines me and that I can never outrun it no matter how hard I try to.”

Darcy thought for but a moment, letting his words hang before responding.

“So what?”

“Excuse me..?

“So what if tomorrow sucks or we used to be better than we are now? That doesn’t mean we’ll never be better again or even greater than we were. Sure, we can mope about the now all day and there are a LOT of reasons to mope, but I think you should leave the pain to the people experiencing it now. It’s like I said back in the facility, if you stick around in your past, it’s gonna literally kill you, Ned. That wasn’t a metaphor then and it hardly is one now. You wanna be a leader? Go be one before it’s too late. Or don’t and look at whatever it is this happens to be.”

Ned’s gaze shot back to the empty screen. Despite a level of denial, he was fairly confident in what was on the actual machine. A message from an old friend who built the path to redemption Ned seemed to linger at the crossroads of. He muttered underneath his breath.

“I’d have to fly out of state…”

“Then go to the terminal and get a ticket. Whatever it takes. I know you well enough, Ned, and I know you’d never forgive yourself for letting them down. So don’t. go wherever you need to and make em’ proud, Cap.”

Ned stood, taking a deep breath as he gazed at Darcy, her infectious enthusiasm somewhat dulled by the deep despair she seemed to shove beneath it all.

“Are you going to be alright if I’m just out of reach for a week?”

Ellis rolled her eyes at his question, his earnest concern giving her an overdo opportunity for maximum snark.

“Oh no. I am but a poor, helpless damsel who needs big, strong Ned to sort out all the messy shit in my life. Whatever will I do without a sadsack depressing up the nearest out of commission gym? C’mon, man. You don’t think that little of me, do you?”

Ned sighed with an exhale that was half relief, half exhaustion.

“I’m only asking because I care about you and I know how it feels to be where you are. I-”

Darcy interrupted him somewhat defensively.

“Look, I get why you say that stuff, but.. I just don’t know if hearing from you right now is great for me, okay?”

Ned gave a short nod, before reaching into his pocket and grabbing the keys to the gym, tossing them her way before heading for the door.

“Well, I better get going. Watch the gym for me, please.”

“W-wait-! You're leaving now? Just like that?"

“...yeah. you were the one who made such a big deal about doing it now, Darce.”

“Sure, but I figured you’d drag your feet a little bit instead of just passing off the keys to the stinkdome to me.”

“If I had waited, you were gonna grill me on that, too.”

“Touche.”

Ned was almost halfway at the door as he stated a few things.

“Just don’t burn anything down while I’m handling all this, okay?”

“It’ll be ash in a day.”

“Ha ha. Also, please stay off that computer. It’s kinda… private.”

Darcy shot a glare at him.

“...Gross.”

“Not like that!”

“You already made it sound weird, I’m just pointing it out.”

Ned exhaled deeply once more before beginning to close the door, hesitating for a moment to get one final thought out of his head.

“I'll see you when i get back, Darce, alright?"

A bit more somber than usual, she replied in a rather sober tone, “yeah, you too.”

As the door shot behind ned, Darcy’s eyes burned into the monitor, curious exactly what Ned was hiding on the machine as she almost impulsively reached for the power, managing to pull her hand away at the last second, but focusing on the old machine intently, her thumb beginning to slide over the plastic sitting just next to the button, curiously hesitant over what someone like Ned had left to hide…

---

“Meat Clowns? You went with Meat Clowns?”

Ned’s face falls somewhat snugly into his palm.

“You have Raion fucking Kido and Angie Vaughn on your team and you give them the least inspiring flag to fight under since Russia? Jenny, you didn’t always used to be this way. You had gotten out of the Chris Chaos cycle of personal dismay into utter bizzaro world, but you just couldn’t help yourself. You had to get my lly on your side and then show him such true and obvious disrespect that no one could possibly take you and my friend seriously. I mean, shit, was Mime Time taken? Was The IT Squad too high-brow? lead me into this thought process or, better yet, do not. I feel for you, Jenny, because I know you’ve been through a lot, but that doesn’t absolve you from the truly awful behavior you choose to embody from time to time. What happened to the woman who was interviewing big stars on Savage? What happened to the desire to really care about your image outside of a makeup style? This is honestly pretty damn sad even by your standards and that’s before acknowledging that you brought Elijah Martin on your side of things despite Cashe and I thrashing him about with Tact not too long ago at all. What strategy was at play here? What was the thought process? Where’s the meat to this clowning because it all seems very skin deep and I don’t have the patience for your nose honking antics. You’re better than this, Jen. Fucking act like it.”

“Elijah, I do not know what to say to you outside of the fact that the only reason you and the CCPE D-Team didn’t get humiliated entirely by Cashe, Tact, and I was because Peter pulled an audible and kicked me in the sack. My crotch had a bigger amount of influence on the outcome of a match than you did and unless you’ve magically found some inspiration to pull the shackles of that pyramid scheme off of you, I have a feeling the same will be true here. If the realization has yet to sink in, I suggest applying for the title of your team’s mascot because nobody quite embodies Meat Clown like yourself and if you’re going to embarrass yourself, I say you grab the reins and do it on your terms, buddy.”

“Angie, I can tell a lot of the fire that really drove you to finding initial success in the XWF has started to dwindle and I don’t want to disparage you for it. Wrestling careers are more of a marathon than people understand. However, I feel like you deserved a better low point than this. My suggestion to you is to text Sarah and take whatever she says as gospel. And after The Notorious Alliance defeats the worst side gig this side of a Mary Kay convention, you just stay with her for a good, long time so she doesn’t have an aneurysm. Hell, you could take her on a shopping spree and go do whatever it is you skin-deep consumerist types do to feel better because it sure isn’t winning matches.”

“Raion, I have no ill words for you. I think highly of you and what you stand for. In many ways, I see myself in you. The me I always think people desperately want me to be, but as time has gone on, I’ve realized it’s not nearly that simple. We are on two separate points in our journeys. You are young and hungry and ready, but you’re not as experienced as I am. You haven’t had to feel the same sting of defeat, but that lack of experience, while it may help your pride, doesn’t give you the leg up on preparation. Remember, Kiddo, I’ve stood where you stand and I know the tricks and tactics I was most susceptible to back in the day. That doesn’t mean I’m here to fight dirty. You’re a friend, an ally, and a rival of sorts. The wrestling we do in there will be clean, but don’t think I'm not gonna try to teach you some stuff. You’re a damn good wrestler, but you’ve not fought the wars of pure attrition I have. Let’s go out there and burn the house down and show them why we are the future of this company. Just don’t expect to outlast the flames.”

“Jason, Mac, RIng Master? I could easily explain why they are a worthy team and why I believe we’ll prove we’re the strongest team this year, but words mean far less than actions and the fact is that I’ve been doubting myself for too long and while they will not fail me, if i continue doing what I have been: staying in this cycle… I will fail them. That’s not an option. I won’t allow it to be one. I believe in my team and I will earn their belief in me. That's what it means to be Notorious.”






“...I’m never gonna get over that fucking Meat Clown name, seriously for God’s sak-”

"You can't run from yourself."