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AerialKnight · **02-19-2015, 06:41 PM**

Johnathan is seen laying down somewhere that can't be described due to the current lack of light and objects nearby. It's nothing but an empty void, to the viewer.

"I'm not crazy, am I? No, I can't be. Everyone else has these kinds of thoughts in their head, don't they?"

Thoughts like these have plagued Johnathan in his sleep. Even in his dreams he can't seem to find any peace from the rampant emotions that have grown tired of his ineptitude. He often wakes up in a cold sweat due to how often he fights in a losing battle against not only his conscious, but also against opponents that are clearly better than him. They waste no time picking him apart for it every day and every night for blowing a match when victory is outright handed to him. The knight is sick of this treatment, even if he knows that they're right.

"I can only handle so much more of this before I snap. And when that happens...what will happen to me?"

The knight opens his eyes and sees that he's not in a hotel, nor does it look like he's anywhere on Earth. He appears to be trapped in some sort of cave full of xenolith deposits with no sort of light other than the flashlight emitting from the Cambot. Johnathan, feeling trapped, runs his hand across the wall, only to find no door, no window, and no sign of escape anywhere along the wall. He dashes over to the next wall, only to discover the same exact thing; no walls, no windows, and no sign of escape. The same is said for the other two walls along the path. Desperate, the knight bashes himself against the wall to see if he could break through to the other side. No luck, the structure is solid and doesn't look like it's about to collapse anytime soon. Since it can't be broken down with sheer force, he tries the next approach, at least one that makes sense to him, calling out for help.

"Hello?!? Can anybody hear me?!? I don't know how I got here and I want to get out!!!"

No response from higher ground. He grips his hair tightly out of frustration, thoughts are flying through his head at a thousand miles per hour and he can't calm down to organize them. Just then, a familiar figure can be seen behind the knight, watching him figure out just how he'll get out of this mess. Sensing a presence behind him, Johnathan turns around to find Fear staring at him with those bright, orange eyes. It says nothing, as it did when it first met him. Johnathan just stares at the being with wide eyes, now knowing that when it appears, bad things are bound to happen. Alongside Fear are Doubt and Anger, who are also staring a hole through his very soul. Doubt approaches the cowering knight, who does nothing but sit down on the rock surrounding him. The masked being kneels down and looks at him square in the face.

"When was the last time you won anything for yourself, Johnathan? Two, three months ago? Don't you miss the feeling of winning matches for yourself? The thunderous roars of applause you get for coming out victorious after a hard fought match? The approval of everyone in the back and the handshakes you'll receive from the wrestlers? I can tell that you do, otherwise you wouldn't be trapped here."

Johnathan focuses on the empty sockets of the entity in front of him, saying nothing.

"I can tell you want to be a winner for once in your life. All you have to do is put on the mask and let us take control."

"And if I end up dying before then? What will happen to you if that happens?"

Doubt scoffs before giving the knight a decent answer.

"Then there'd be no resistance for us, would there? Of course, you'd be reduced to nothing more than a walking, talking zombie, but we still have complete control over you know that you're out of the way."

Doubt then forces Johnathan up to his feet by picking him up by his shoulders. Not knowing what the fuck is going on, the knight keeps staring at Doubt, waiting for him to strike first.

"Besides, discussing your eventual fate is not what we came here to do. We came here to give you a taste of what you signed up for in this tournament. There are tons of fun little rules that you didn't know about. For example, your first round match has no disqualifications, which means your opponent can blindside you like this."

Without any sort of warning, Doubt shoots a knee straight into Johnathan's groin, flooring him instantly. He holds his joy compartment tightly as the masked being looks down on him.

"Attacks like those are legal in that match."

"You could have given me a better warning, jackass!"

Doubt ends up laughing lightly at the knight's inquiry.

"Now if I did that, you would've seen it coming. I didn't want you to see it coming, nor did I want to ruin the surprise."

Doubt then takes this opportunity to kick the knight upside the head.

"No one is going to be as honorable as you claim to be in these matches. You'll have to suffer through the worst of beatings if you want to stand a chance against Justin Sane. He's fought through some of the best athletes in this federation and has joined forces with Gator, the man who has proven time and time again that he is simply better than you in every way. If you want to prove everyone wrong, you;ll have to beat him in his own cell."

Doubt picks Johnathan up by the hair. He proceeds to stare at the knight with intense malice.

"But if you were to put on that mask, allow me to show you a sneak peek at what it'll be like to be the Blood Knight."

Doubt proceeds to place Johnathan's head on his bicep and proceeds to run up the xenolith wall, taking two steps before launching himself off the wall and sits down on the floor, sending shock waves through Johnathan's jaw. The knight bounces back and falls down to the floor, winded after a move like that. Doubt stands up with no problems at all. He then looks at the downed knight, who still hasn't recovered yet.

"That was the Fief. Funny how our current host is the one we showed the move to first."

Eventually the knight manages to shake the cobwebs out of his head and manages to get himself back on his feet.

"Again, we're not here to force you to put the mask on, not this time anyways. Now say you managed to survive the beat down you received from Sane and managed to move on to the next round by some sheer miracle. Your next match is first blood. Not only will you have to avoid being bloodied, you'll have to make sure that everyone else bleeds before you. Of course, with your fighting style, there's no way that will happen. In order to stand a chance, you'll have to channel your anger in order to bust people open."

Johnathan shakes more cobwebs out of his head as Doubt turns toward Anger, who's cracking her torn off appendages at the ground. Hearing the noise, the knight looks up to see her raring to go.

"Miss Anger, if you please."

"With pleasure."

Before Johnathan has time to react, Anger has already whipped out his legs from underneath him, forcing him to land on the floor, defenseless. Anger storms over to the knight and starts choking him out with the whip. His face turns blue as he's dragged ever closer towards the demonic creature, trying to scurry away but to no avail. When he's dragged close enough towards her, she stomps down on the knight's face with her incredibly huge feet.

"You haven't been channeling me in your matches or any other game you're in! It's because of you that I've grown to the size of a fucking giant! If you want to win in this match, you'll have to fight dirty in order to get out of this one victorious. And to fight dirty, you'll have to use me. Do you get how that works, pipsqueak!?"

She then picks the knight up and slams his face into the rock wall. Johnathan groans in pain, but anger isn't satisfied. She then proceeds to scrape his face across the rock wall until she sees skin remnants on the xenoliths. She then pulls him away from the rock wall to see a massive scrape across his face, but there's no blood. She then throws him aside over towards Fear and Doubt, who applaud her for her current efforts.

"You might have thick skin, but eventually, your skin will break, making lose like the chump you are. Do you think the business man would let you off easy? What about Australia's only pussy!? How about the nobody that's too obsessed with a fucking bird to focus on the likes of you?!? Hold him the fuck down!"

Fear proceeds to stomp down on his knees, forcing him to kneel down. Doubt holds his arms steady so that he can't block his face for the attack that's about to come. Anger cracks her whips once more, getting ready to strike Johnathan across his face.

"People can come running in to help their friend at any point in the match. You should expect attacks like these coming from a mile away!"

She roars as she lashes her whip across Johnathan's face, giving him a large gash across his face. Doubt lets go of Johnathan as he collapses to the ground, bleeding out on the rock floor before him.

"Excellent job, Anger."

The trio stare at the fallen knight, who is currently leaving a puddle of blood that's seeping out towards their feet.

"You might have killed him though."

Johnathan just starts to to push himself up, albeit slowly, to his feet. Doubt hears the knight's shuffling feet and turns back toward the bloody man, who can't seem to get his bearings on his own two feet.

"Never mind, he's standing on his own two feet like a baby. It's quite a sad sight, if I'd say so myself."

The knight wipes a large amount of blood off his face and looks at the trio with intense hatred.

"Is that all you have? Or is there one more trick up your sleeve that you wish to pull out while I'm trapped down here?"

Doubt and Anger laugh as a response to his questions.

"You know us all too well, John. Why can't you use some of that sense against some of your opponents? Anyways, if you manage to beat Justin Sane and somehow manage to not bust open in the second round, you'll have to climb the ladder of success to the title of your desires. Even though you'll only be facing one person in this match, you'll also have to deal with a man who has cemented the fact that he is not only just as tough as you, but, supposedly, just as good as you. The thought of you being called good is laughable in and of itself, but this is just an example, not a true fact."

Fear closes its orange eyes, which gets the attention of the knight rather fast.

"But who will you end up facing, perchance? Will it be Dr. Louis D'Ville, the man that can unleash us even if you don't want us to be exposed? Will it be the masked Satyr that has stomped all over the competition presented to him so far? Or will it be the Prince of the Illuminatis himself, Sebastian Duke, a man that can unquestionably dominate you in your current mindset? Only when the cards are played and withdrawn will you be able to find out the truth."

The knight suddenly starts to sweat and gasp for breath, as if something is draining his very life-force by the second. Just then, a hole appears from the ceiling, revealing a way out to Johnathan. A ladder subsequently falls down the hole with it, giving him a way to reach the exit. However, lava is also seeping through the rock walls around him. The knight panics and makes his way toward the ladder as fast as he can.

"Until then, good luck, and may you take this suffering as a learning experience."

The trio fade as Johnathan struggles to climb the ladder. Blood is still dripping from his face as he attempts to climb each and every rung. Lava is quickly surrounding the ladder and catching up to the knight, who is still struggling to climb it. Thanks to a mixture of heat and blood, he's unable to climb the ladder fast enough before the lava swallows his foot whole. He screams in pain and lets go of the ladder, falling into the lava back first, causing even more pain for the knight. He knows that none of this is real, but it sure as hell feels like it. All he has to do is to force himself awake somehow. Running out of time, the knight closes his eyes and counts backwards from ten.

10...

9...

8...

Johnathan's legs have been engulfed.

7...

6...

He's starting to sink into the lava as it continues to rise higher and higher.

5...

4...

3...

Only his head is left now.

2...

1...

He sinks into the lava.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Johnathan's eyes dart open as we see him laying half naked on the hotel bed before him. He's taking short, rapid breaths as he looks around the room, being unable to calm down after the nightmare he had just experienced. He looks like he's about to have a heart attack due to the amount of sweat that's dripping off of his head. He takes a pillow and wipes off the copious amount of sweat from his face after a few seconds of deep breathing. When he pulls the pillow away from his face, it looks like it came out of a flood. There's also some blood smeared on the pillow as well, just like he was left in his dream. To find out how much punishment managed to stick with him after the dream, he tosses the blanket aside to see if the burns from the lava have crossed over to the waking world.

Thankfully, all of his limbs are still attached and not burned as hell.

The knight sighs in relief as the scene instantly cuts to black.

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