Thaddeus Duke
Lionhearted
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(cheered; very rarely plays dirty but isn't lame either; many likable qualities)
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08-03-2020, 06:43 PM
Veneres International || Arlington, Virginia
Before I allow Illuminatus business to resume, I take Liz for a weekend to Virginia to meet my father. Coincidentally, you remember Keith Rickle? That dude that I paid off his quarter million dollar debt for? Yeah, well he’s on a recovery retreat for the weekend and has saddled me with a nine year old. For the record, I’m okay with that. I like hanging out with Frankie. I get to do things with him that I never got to do before. When he’s around, I can be nine too. That said, the Compound really isn’t a place for kids anyway. There’s so much going on, armed men and women walking about the property and such, I just don’t want to give him some kind of culture shock.
”You ever been to Virginia?” I ask Frankie, looking at him in the rear view mirror as I slow the car to a stop in the underground parking garage beneath my dads building.
”No,” he says, wiping the sleep from his eyes after his hour long nap, my replica title belt lying in his lap. It’s a four hour drive from Brooklyn to Arlington, typically. Did you know that kids have to pee every time they get in a car? And they also have to do it often? Did you also know that they hold it and don’t say a thing until they’re about to piss themselves? Needless to say, the four hour drive was closer to five and a half and I couldn’t tell you how many guard rails and highway signs he watered along the way.
”I have to pee,” he says through a yawn as he drapes the title over his shoulder.
”Of course you do,” I say with a chuckle.
”Anyway, I don’t think I was ever out of New York,” he says as I kill the engine.
”Never?” Liz asks sweetly as he shakes his head. ”Aww baby boy, I’m so glad we could change that!”
We file out of the car and honestly, it feels right, walking hand in hand with my woman and the boy beside us. It’s kinda like a family, only not really. On the elevator, the floors roll on by with a ding… and a ding… and a ding while Frankie holds himself and practically bounces off the walls until the doors finally open. He bursts out of the doors but stops himself, realizing he has no idea where he’s going.
”Straight ahead,” I tell him and he bursts through the restroom door, hitting one of my dads employees as he’s trying to exit.
”Sorry!” he shouts as he runs for the urinal.
”It was a long ride,” I explain to the man as he nods. Following Frankie inside, I wash my hands first because I don’t want to get wiener covid or something and then head to the urinal beside Frankie where he’s still wizzing.
”Tell me something,” I say to him as I stare at the stupid duck painting on the wall ahead of me. ”How does a boy so small have to pee so much?”
”I don’t know, I just do,” he says with a relieving sigh. ”Maybe because I’m small so I can’t hold much,” he says as he finishes and flushes, then darts for the door.
”Wash your hands!” I shout just as I hear the door squeak open. It squeaks again as he runs back in to wash his hands. Heading into the hallway after washing my own, we head toward the back end of the building where my fathers gate keeper, the lovely and talented Janet Wilson recognizes that I’m here.
”Thaddeus Leander!” she shouts excitedly as she stands from her desk to come and greet me with a warm hug. She’s a lady in her late 50’s and I love her to death. She’s strong, but sweet. She ran out of fucks to give about two decades ago and takes zero shit from anyone, especially my father.
”I’m so happy to see you,” she says as she releases me and turns her attention to Frankie and Liz. ”Introduce me to your guests, Thaddeus. Don’t be rude!”
”Janet, this is Elizabeth Henry and this little dude is Frankie Rickle,” I say with a chuckle. ”Liz, Frankie… I give you the incomparable Janet Wilson.”
”It’s lovely to meet you both.”
”You as well, Miss Wilson. And just call me Liz.”
”Oh please darling, just Janet.”
”My father in?” I ask.
”Thaddeus honey… You drove all this way and didn’t bother to find out if he was even here first?” she asks. ”Frankie, do you like Reese cups?” she asks as she takes Frankie by the hand and leads him behind her desk. ”Your dad is in his office.”
”Frankie, don’t let my dad scare you about the candy. He has an addiction to Reese cups,” I warn him as I enter my dads office.
”The champ is here!” shouts my father from in front of his desk. Liz and Frankie, still carrying the replica title, file inside behind me. ”What the fuck is that!?” he asks pointing to Frankie.
I turn to look at Frankie, then back at my father. ”That’s a boy, dad,” I answer him, unable to contain a smile. ”Frankie Rickle.”
”Who the hell is she?” he asks, pointing to Liz.
”Liz Henry,” I answer him. It occurred to me that we haven’t really spoken much recently. ”She’s my girlfriend.”
”I thought you were gay,” he chimes in, causing me to sigh.
”Why the hell does everyone keep saying that!?” I shout out, partially out of frustration, mostly just joking.
”Hello sir,” Frankie says with wide eyes. It’s likely he’s never seen a man the size of my dad before, at least not in person. To a child that’s smaller than an average nine year old, he’s a damn monster.
”What the hell are you doing with those?” he asks of Frankie, referring to the Reese cups.
”Ummmm,” he says, growing more scared by the second.
”Stop scaring him, dad.”
”I gave them to him!” shouts Janet from where she’s clearly not eavesdropping. ”Sit down, Sebastian! You’ll scare the heck out of him! And watch your mouth!”
He shakes his head and rolls his eyes, pretending to mimic Janet.
”And don’t mock me!”
”Here,” Frankie says, handing my father his last Reese cup.
”Keep it, I was just playing,” he says to Frankie. He pops that final cup into his mouth then notices my dads trophy case complete with every title he ever held and his new Hall of Legends plaque.
”Wow,” Frankie says, dropping my fake title to the floor.
”Your damn right, wow,” says my dad as he saunters over and unlocks the case. He pulls out his Universal title and hands it to Frankie, almost making the poor boy fall over under its weight. Dad then retreats to take a seat behind his desk.
”Try not to break anything,” I tell Frankie as Liz and I take a seat. ”So how’s it feel?”
”How does what feel?” he asks, playing dumb.
”Finally being recognized as a Legend.”
”Legends don’t need to be called legends, they just are.”
”So you don’t even care?”
He’s silent for a moment.
”No, I care a great deal actually. I did a lot of work for the XWF over the years and it was a truly humbling experience to have people you respect tell you that you did a good job.”
”Annnnd! I won the TV title the same night!”
”Is everything about you?” he asks with a sigh.
”Pretty much,” I say with a smile. ”Your story is over, mine is just beginning.”
”Who said my story was over?”
”You’re in the Hall of Legends, what more could you possibly want?”
He shrugs.
”Never know. Maybe I want to be TV champ now.”
”You and about six other people. Anyway, the lot of you want it more than I do.”
”You’re a chip off the old block,” he states. ”I liked winning them, I didn’t really care to keep them.”
He’s not wrong. The chase is always invigorating. It’s satisfying in so many ways. Winning a title is clearly the apex of the chase and it’s down hill from there. I like winning titles because I know I can, to prove I can, but I have no real interest in hanging onto those titles once they’re mine. It just bores me.
”So do we need to call Tritter?” he asks, referring to my Intel chief.
”For what?”
Dad looks at Frankie, then back at me.
”Where’d you steal him from? Janet! Get me Lincoln Tritter!”
”No.”
”What? No!”
”Why do you always take me so seriously? Contrary to public belief, I actually do have a sense of humor.”
”A bland one.”
”Where do you stand with Alister Henry?” he asks, not really wasting a breath on anymore of his brand of humor.
”I don’t stand with him at all.”
”I wasn’t talking to you,” he says, turning his head toward Liz.
”Well… I…”
”Relax, I don’t have a hidden objective,” says my father, trying to reassure her. ”I’m just gauging whether or not I need to keep some eyes on him.”
”Dad, I can handle Alister Henry.”
He says nothing at first, but stands up and leans over his desk staring me down, making me SO fucking uncomfortable. ”When he has his boys car bomb you, you can’t fly bombers to New York,” he states pointedly. ”When he threatens you… or her… or the candy thief over there… You can’t send a thousand troops to his doorstep. Kid, when he has someone take a baseball bat to your knee caps, you don’t get to just climb in a tank and roll down his block.
“It’s not a war, Thaddeus.
“This is serious. Alister Henry might be small time compared to the world I built for you, but this isn’t that. You have very little real power to do anything about Alister Henry in the ways that you like to do things.”
”You don’t think I can get personal?”
He retakes his seat.
”I could have warned you about all of this ahead of time, but you chose to go off on your own.”
”You knew about him?”
”Your grandfather didn’t really let anyone in close without doing his homework thoroughly.”
It’s true. Asmodeus was a simple, yet simultaneously complex human being. He owned the Compound and the land it sits on yet himself, lived in a small shack on the grounds. Beneath that shack, the state of the art laboratory where I was born into this world. He had no use for cell phones or computers aside from that one time he was addicted to Bubble Shooter and had a high score battle going on with some narcissistic jerkoff named Neonero.
He was a brilliant man in many ways. He laid the groundwork for what the Illuminatus eventually became under my fathers leadership, and then mine. It was his baby. He birthed it. Nurtured it. Developed it. It was the honor of a lifetime to deliver to him victory over the Church.
”And the Ares Project?”
”What?” I ask, realizing I was stuck in my thoughts and not really paying attention.
”Where do you stand with them?”
”Tritter is tracking them.”
”That’s it? Tritter is tracking them.”
”What more do you want?”
”Listen,” he says as he leans forward. ”You didn’t want my involvement before and I can only assume that’s still the case. The fact of the matter is real simple Thaddeus. You keep putting them on the back burner, if you keep treating them like an afterthought… then there’s nothing I can do to save you. There’s nothing I can do to help you in any way. I can’t order your men at the ready. I can’t order your planes fueled and in flight formation.
“Thaddeus, you need to put it front and center. Frankie can wait. Liz can wait. Baseball and wrestling, it can all wait. If you don’t, they’re going to figure out a way to finally kill you.”
”They always seem to miss,” I reply with a bit more cockiness than I intended.
He shakes his head disappointingly. Thing is, I know he’s right. I’ve escaped death by some divine intervention, some miracle. The night they attacked the Compound, that big fucker should have killed me, but my lions saved my ass. I should have died when they brought down Illuminatus One, but I had the escape pod. Mufasa and Simba won’t always be there to save me. I won’t always have an escape pod to bail me out. Sooner or later, if I keep doing nothing, I will become nothing.
”Are you ready for round two?” Jim asks.
”Depends. Are you gonna insult me and hurt my feelings?”
”Probably.”
”Good. Bourbon is surprisingly boring the shit out of me.”
”You probably bore him to death because you’re ‘too serious.’”
I start ripping open the drawers in my desk and searching through. ”Shit.”
”What?”
”I’m out of fucks.
“Here’s the thing I’m realizing. In this business, I can count on one hand how many friends I have.”
”What’s that have to do with anything?”
”Being the good guy is a lonely place to be, Jim. In a business overfilled with lunatics and masked crusaders and over the top villainous tactics, I’m a minority. I’m disliked because I’m different. I don’t cater to my ego. I do this because I love it. I do this because it’s fun for me and no other reason.
“That puts people off because they don’t get it. Being the bad guy that all the fans love to hate is easy. It’s easier to give in to your worst instincts and terrible thoughts. It takes a certain amount of effort to overcome your darkest thoughts and desires to just be the same as everyone else, and be the guy that millions of kids turn to for hope.”
”How many friends do you have exactly?”
”Three.”
”That’s it?”
”There was Dolly Waters, but she vanished. And Corey, you know, the male vessel for Lux.”
”Didn’t you have a crush on him?”
”Bitch I might have, but anyway he’s gone now too. The one constant was James Raven, but even he has gone elsewhere.
“So like I said, its a bit lonely being the good guy.”
”You suck at this shit talking thing. You do realize that, right?”
”You my friend, are missing my point.
“Even the bullshit I was just spewing would have sufficed, Jim! I can’t even get a fucking mention from Robbie Bourbon! His cutting edge wit, his unrivaled superior intelligence, his sharp tongue… none of it can be found or heard as it relates to having a fucking match with me on Warfare. Of course he doesn’t care he’s facing me. I’m just some son of a legend that ain’t worth a shit and he’ll squash me with ease!
“I know this fucking game we play. The promo rules cater to this type of bullshittery, Jim! He knows that I can only say shit relevant to the task at hand, relevant to what he’s said to me, about me, or whatever AFTER we’ve both already promo’d once! So what does he do? Drops that fluffer garbage promo and doesn’t utter a fucking word about me all in hopes that I’mma do exactly what I’m doing now and promo again before he utters a single fucking intelligent word giving me no chance to rebut him. So that he can pick apart every little thing I say and I can’t say a fucking thing back.
“Why?
“Because he’s about to get showed up where it fucking counts. In that ring. In MY ring. On Warfare. I’mma kick his teeth down his fuckin’ throat Jim, then in the battle royal, I’mma do it again because I can. He’s big, he’s strong and on paper, he’d wipe the mat with what remains of my pretty face, but matches don’t play out on paper, Jim.
“I’m faster than he is, I’m more ring savvy than he is, clearly my heart is far healthier than his, and I’m better than he is and I plan on proving it at Warfare.”
”He’s going to pick that apart, you know that.”
”So be it.”
”You could have said anything you wanted about him, ya know? Anything he’s said previously.”
”I know. That’s boring. At least he’s not as shallow as Gage Gannon. Bourbon isn’t gonna change who he is simply because I call him on something. Gannon told the world his mom was dead and like any ‘good guy’ would, I made fun of him for it so by his next promo his mom turned out to be alive after all. I mean, he’s not gonna come out and be like ‘grizzly bear in a lucha mask? I never wore a lucha mask.’”
”You need a Snickers, mate!”
”I’m just ranting man. The powers that be just have this way of cramping my style all to hell. First they tried to get me on Savage without my consent… not gonna happen. They even gave me, a Warfare guy, Savage promo rules at Leap of Faith and I had the audacity to fucking win the TV title. Then they gave us two cold open orders for this Warfare.
“That’s not cold. That’s Covid. This is strangling me to the Nth degree. Just call it Covid Promo Rules or something.
“Give me that fucking Snickers you bitch.”
83-31-1
1x XWF Universal Champion || 3x XWF Xtreme Champion || 1x XWF Supercontinental Champion (First)
1x XWF Hart Champion (Last) || 2x XWF Television Champion || 1x XWF Tag Team Champion
1x OCW Savage Champion || 1x IIW Tag Team Champion || 1x AAW United States Champion
2x SOTM (9/20, 7/21) || 2021 Male Wrestler of the Year || XWF Hall of Legends
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