Before going dark to avoid being killed by the Yakuza Theo Pryce was able to get his company back through a series of unfortunate attacks that left his sister Erica Rayner unable to adequately complete her duties as the company CEO. Unfortunately Theo's second reign as boss of the company he built was short lived as days later he would disappear for three months. In the three month span in which Theo was gone and Erica was at the helm things for the company took a turn and not the good kind. The company made less money in that one quarter than they had in any quarter during Theo's time as C.E.O. Not only that contracts were being cancelled left and right and Erica had no idea why. No matter how much she begged and pleaded with the customers it made no difference. Clearly losing Theo at the head of the table was proving to be more difficult than Erica had envisioned, something she would never admit publically but it's obvious to anyone paying attention. But try as she might Erica just could not do what her brother was able to do and that was make Pryce Industries profitable.

Over the last several weeks Erica has invested heavily in Corporate Study done by an outside party in hopes that the study would among other things reveal ways that she could cut costs. Nothing was out of the question including a complete corporate overhaul. Something that would have been unheard of in Theo's day, but this isn't Theo's day. Not anymore. One of the things Erica is struggling with, something she didn't realize until very recently was that Theo's biggest strength, perhaps his only strength was his ability to sit back and let people do their jobs. Theo was many things but a micromanager was not one of them. He let people earn their paychecks and if for some reason they didn't then he terminated their employment. Something he took far more joy in than any human being probably should.

The phone on Erica's desk rings and like her brother before her rather than actually lifting the receiver Erica opts to hit the speaker button. On the other end of the phone is the sound of a familiar voice.


"Miss Rayner."

"Yes Isabel?"

"Uhhhh, I.....Uhhhhh....."

"What is it Isabel? What's wrong?"

"Well....there's someone on the phone claiming to be Theo."

"Theo? Theo Pryce?"

"Ye....ye....yes miss."


Erica stands up, the quickness with which she moved sends her chair rolling backwards several feet, only stopping when it comes in contact with the windows behind her. She looks around the room half expecting to see the ghost of her brother laughing at her.


"That's impossible."

"I agree Miss but, well....he sounds like Theo. Exactly like Theo."

"You're sure?"

"Very."

"Put him through."

"Very well."


There is a moment of awkward silence as Isabel connects the call. Erica paces around the office contemplating what to say to the man who may or may not be her brother. The silence is broken when the person on the other end takes it upon themselves to speak first.


"Erica."

"Theo?"

"The one and only."

"Is it really you?"

"Wow that's so horrible cliche but yes it is. And you could have seen to that first hand but apparently my access to the building has been terminated. My name is still on the building Erica, the least you can do is let me in the front door."

"I don't think that would be wise."

"Why is that?"

"Well for starters it would be horribly disruptive and secondly because I don't want you in here."

"Bullshit."

"I am very serious Theo. If you would like to speak to me we can meet somewhere else. Like your home. Or mine. But we will not meet here in this place."

"Erica let me be as clear about this as I possibly can. That is my building, my company. If I want to get inside I will. Now I will give you one final opportunity to do the right thing and that is let me walk in the front door."

"Out of the question. I can meet you at 5. At your place."

"My place? You mean the place that has absolutely no furniture because you had it all put into storage that place?"

"Yes that place."

"Fine. Five it is. And Erica. It's good to hear your voice."

"Yeah you too."

"Come now Erica. I don't need to be standing in front of you to know that you are lying."


Erica presses the speaker button and ends the call. She stands at her desk for a few more moments as she takes in what just happened.

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"What a fucking cunt. All I did for her and she won't even let me into the building? It's my fucking building. It says Pryce at the top of it. Not Rayner. Pryce. Fucking ungrateful cunt."


Theo paces around on the sidewalk out front of the building contemplating his next move. He stops pacing for a moment and just stares at the front of the building for what seems like an eternity and then the biggest shit eating grin the world has ever seen comes across his face as he then walks back to his car parked in front of the building, fires up the engine and begins driving.


"You know, I have a fucking match in Detroit tomorrow night. I was hoping to get this little meeting out of the way but no, Erica has to make things difficult as per fucking always. It's a good thing I am walking away from this fucking dumpster fire because I don't think I can handle having to see that ungrateful bitch day in and day out. Who needs that bullshit? I've got billions socked away in foreign bank accounts, houses all over the world, cars, boats, planes, I got it all, who needs that fucking place anyway? Honestly, I'd burn the place to the ground if I didn't get so much satisfaction out of seeing my name up there at the top of the building. Thought that could change after Erica and I have our conversation."


Theo reaches down and taps the display screen in his center console activating the bluetooth in his car. A few rings later and someone on the other end picks up.


"Yes Mr. Pryce?"

"Get the helicopter ready to go. I'll be there in 10 minutes."

"Who will be piloting it?"

"I will."

"Very good sir."


Theo presses a button his steering wheel to end the call.


"That's right. I can pilot helicopters. I bet you didn't know that. I bet Erica doesn't either. You see I am fairly certain that while she restricted my access to the underground parking garage and the front entrance she didn't do anything to stop me from entering the building from the top."

"But before we get to that let me throw out some final words regarding War Games. I've already spoken ad nauseum about my opponents and each one of them have proven themselves to be too chicken shit to respond to me and you know what, that's fine. Obviously every member of Team Morbid is too busy bitching about each other to even bother dealing with the single most dangerous opponent they've ever faced and that will cost them, dearly. But no, no I don't want or need to talk about them, especially when they won't respond to me anyway."

"Instead allow me to turn my attention to a few members of my own team. Proxy and Cain. For one night and trust me when I say this, one night only you and I are on the same team. But after tonight if you two should happen to survive and not, I don't know, accidently get tossed off the roof by one of the members of Morbid's team, or even by me, then you better hope and pray that you two never cross paths with me ever again. I don't want you two to even so much as look at me the wrong way because if you do I'll put you down faster than Eli "Cash In" James put down that bucket of fried chicken. Oh who the hell am I kidding? That fat fuck never met a meal he didn't like. Just look at him, all fat and hairy. You two are both on my shit list. I will never understand how you Cain, managed to become the number one contender to the Universal Title but seeing as who the current champ is I guess it fits. Nothing in this fucking place makes any sense any more. And you Proxy. You should have stayed where ever the fuck it is you were because you obviously weren't ready for War Games. It seems that while most of us were preparing for war you were too busy playing games. I hope everyone that paid you for your services got a money back guarantee because I have a feeling you won't be fulfilling any of the contracts you were asked to put out. Shit, I should have had you put out a hit on yourself but you probably would have forgotten to show up for that too you fucking good for nothing. Fuck both of you. Now if you'll excuse me I've got some business to attend to."

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The camera fades back in to Erica Rayner's office where she is once again seated at her desk looking over some paper work. The room is quiet and peaceful. Unfortunately both of those things are interrupted when the private elevator door in Erica's office suddenly opens up and out of it steps her brother.


"Rookie mistake. You should have had that elevator turned off. You didn't and now because of it we are going to have the conversation that you tried so desperately to avoid. Got anything to drink?"


To be continued...