Threaded Mode | Linear Mode

Thaddeus Duke · (02-10-2021)

On Board Illuminatus Two || FL150/Vector 112 || 12:22 PM

Incoming bullets continued to spray the 747 as Frankie and I took off from Tennessee. Engine four was destroyed in the process, but wounded birds can still fly. While I’m a pilot for sure, I’ve never flown a jumbo jet and while it’s not particularly difficult, not having an actual co-pilot to give me a hand does increase the chances of human error.

Frankie has sat still and mostly quiet since take off. I don’t know what to say to him to make him feel better and more over, I don’t think there’s anything I can say to make him feel better. He’s just been through a rather traumatic experience and turned out to be a little hero on top of it. Part of me is angry that he exited the safe room on his own volition in the middle of a fire fight, but had he not, I have serious doubt that I’d even be here right now. What he did, in and of itself, is a problem and I don’t know how to address it. I don’t know if I’m even equipped to address it.

”Hey babe,” I say into my headset, every now and again looking to my right at Frankie.

”Oh my god you’re safe,” Liz says with a sigh of relief.

”Yeah,” I say with a somberness that really can’t be understated. This plane is littered with bodies, ours and theirs.

”Thad!” Frankie calls out in a panic as he stares out the window, his face pressed against the glass. ”The plane’s on fire!” the worry and fear in his voice are very evident. As he alerts me, the engine four warning lights and buzzers go off on the control panel.

”What’s going on?” Liz asks.

”Just a fire in one of the engines, no big deal,” I try to set her at ease. Despite the worries of the general population of world travelers, a fire in an engine on a plane isn’t much to worry about and it’s a simple fix. ”Bub look at me,” I say to the scared ten year old. ”I’ll need your help for this because I can’t reach.”

In all honesty, I can do it from my seat, but I think he needs to feel like he’s in control of something. Anything, really.

”Baby how’s he doing?” she asks like any worried momma would.

”See the flashing light that reads Engine 4?” I ask him, ignoring Liz for a moment. Frankie spies the light and nods. ”Push that.”

Frankie presses the button and kills the annoying warning buzzer.

”He’s...” my voice trails off as I try to answer Liz’s question. ”I don’t know how else to say it hun, he’s seen and done things he shouldn’t have and he’s gonna need some help.”

”Uggh that poor baby,” she says as Frankie looks at me wide eyed after looking at the burning engine again. ”I figured he saw some things, but what did he do?”

”See the switch to the right that reads ‘fuel cutoff E4’?” I ask him and he nods his head vigorously. ”Hold that down for ten seconds. It’s kinda stiff though so press hard.” With haste, he uses both of his little thumbs to press down the button as he watches the flames shooting from the engine to his right.

”I don’t want to answer that question right now,” I inform Liz. I’m really not in a hurry to remind him of what he did. Preferably, I’d like to keep him distracted and keep his mind off of what happened today.

Frankie watches the flames flicker as he releases his hold on the button. For several seconds, flames shoot from the engine before turning to random flares as the remaining fuel in the lines burns off.

”Can I talk to him?” she asks with a sniffle as she imagines in her mind what her future son has gone through today. Not to mention what he’s gone through just in the last year of his life.

”The fire is gone,” he says quietly. ”Still smoking though.”

With Frankie calmed down, I decided to kill the engine myself.

”Can we make it on three engines?” he asks with some panic as he quickly turns to face me, his eyes widened again with fear.

”Put your headset on Bub,” I instruct him. ”We can make it anywhere we want to go on three engines,” I set him at ease as he puts his headset on. ”Liz wants to talk to you.”

”Hey Liz,” he says with a small uptick in his joy. Not that there was any to begin with.

”Uggh, hey baby boy,” she greets him with another sniffle. ”You okay baby?”

”I’m fine,” he lies as he turns his head to the right, staring off into space out the window.

”Do you wanna talk about it?”

”I don’t know if...”

”Avoiding it doesn’t make it go away, Baby,” she interrupts me. She’s right, as usual.

”Ummmm, not really,” he answers her as he continues to stare aimlessly.

”Frankie honey, it’s okay to talk about it,” she says, giving her best efforts to reassure him that he’s safe. ”I love you, Thad loves you. All we want is for you to be happy and safe and...”

”I shot someone,” he blurts out, interrupting Liz in the process. He tries hard to hold them back, but silent tears roll down his cheeks.

”Baby boy,” she begins but pauses. I can hear the heartbreak in her voice and at the same time, I can feel my own. ”You didn’t ask for any of this and I can promise you that you deserve none of it. Frankie baby, you’re so special to us. You’re kind, you’re sweet, you’re loving and protective… if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were Thad’s son by birth. You’re so much like he is.”

Engage autopilot.

”He likes killing though,” he says quietly.

”No baby he doesn’t. He does those things because he has to, not because he wants to.”

”I guess I do now too, huh?” he surmises, mostly to himself I gather, but certainly out loud.

For what it’s worth, this is entirely my fault. As good as I am at a lot of things, holding people accountable for failure is something I have been failing at. Within an organization such as this, failure starts from the top down. How many times can I think to myself that I need to do better, then never actually do anything to be better? And now my failures are coming to haunt Frankie for probably the rest of his life. That’s on me and no one else. I can try to pass the buck all I want, but facts matter. Whatever failures there are in protection protocol that allowed that asshole to board my plane, it’s me that’s to blame. I’m the one that set protocol.

”Frankie honey,” Liz begins. She has to pause to sniffle and I’d imagine she’s searching for the right thing to say to him. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s anything she can say. ”I know its hard to understand right now,” she begins again. Apparently she found something. ”But as you grow older, and as you gain life experience. Baby, you’re gonna learn that people protect those they love even if it means you have to do something bad in order to do that.

“It sucks and it’s horrible to go through the things you have. What you did today doesn’t make you a bad person. What it does is let the world know there is no force in the universe stronger or more powerful than love.

“What you did took courage,” she says to him and I can hear her breaking down on the other end of the line.

Noticing him starting to tremble as he tries so hard to be brave and strong, I stand from the pilots seat and unbuckle his seat belt. After lifting him out of the seat, I sit with him on my lap. I owe this poor child my life and he’s breaking. Holding onto him tight, with my arms wrapped around him as if I was trying to hold the pieces of his figurative body in place so that he doesn’t have to.

”Let it out,” I say to him in his ear, reminding him he’s safe and never alone. Reminding him that being brave or courageous or that even being of the male gender, doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to have emotions or to share them. He throws off his headset and leans forward, cupping his face in his hands as he begins sobbing uncontrollably.

Despite my love for Frankie, I can’t help but wonder if maybe he’s not better off with someone else, some place else entirely. I’m entirely responsible for what happened to him today and for what he felt he had to do. The life I lead is no place for a child, especially one so traumatized as Frankie has been. My entire life, I have been a target and now that he’s in my life, he too is a target. Ares Project be damned, if not them, it’ll be someone else. Then someone else. Then someone else after that. It’s a never ending story of people and groups or entities that want to see me dead for this reason or that and a result of that is that his life is now in danger and as long as I live, that won’t ever not be the case.

”Is he okay?” Liz asks.

I shrug in response, as if she could see my body language. ”His plane was hijacked Liz,” I begin to reply, inadvertently being a dick in the process. ”He was stuck in a god damn room for landing and you know how much that scares him. Then he killed a man trying to protect me so do you think he’s okay?”

”I know Baby,” she says with more sniffles. ”My heart just breaks for him. He’s too precious and innocent for this world, Thad.”

”I know he is,” I agree in response. With Frankie still sobbing quietly, his body convulses as a result. Turning him on my lap, I pull his head to my chest and just let him keep on going. Other than being here for him, holding him, I really don’t know what else to do. His tears soak through my shirt as he grips me tight with his free arm. Not long after, his sobbing stops and he sits motionless in my lap. Craning my neck to look at his face, I notice he’s fallen asleep.

”I’m gonna hop off here Babe,” I whisper into my headset.

”Approach?” she asks. ”Why are you whispering?”

”He fell asleep.”

”Uggh, that poor boy,” she remarks. ”I’m having the plane fueled up and ready Hun, I’m coming home.”

”No stay there,” I argue back. ”Your mom needs you.”

”And so do my boys and right now they’re more important,” she fires back and really, that’s a hard point to argue… but I’m still gonna.

”Liz, your dad is dying,” I try to retort. ”Ginny won’t ever admit it but she really does need you. Comfort, support, all that. We’ll drive down in a few days.”

”Frankie needs a mothers love right now Thad,” she fires back quickly. ”You’re not equipped to be mom.”

”Berta’s there.”

”It’s done,” she states. ”Dad still has some time left and Frankie needs me. I’m coming home and that’s it.”

”Alright,” I relent. ”See ya in a few hours.”

You know what can’t be taught? Through all the trials and tribulations and all the different successes and failures as it relates to being in this business. Through all the training we go through along the way, the thing that can’t be taught and no one really talks about is the fall. When you reach the top of the mountain, when you’ve reached the pinnacle of your profession and you’re riding the wave and high on life, there’s no other place to go but down.

And it’s unavoidable.

All reigns end eventually.

No one reacts to it the same way and each and every person that reaches the top whether they’re perceived as good, upstanding men and women or the exact opposite, the fall is most certainly inevitable. It isn’t the fall that matters in my opinion, it’s how one reacts to it. Some blow their lids, unable or unwilling to accept that someone might have beaten them because just maybe they weren’t fully on their A game. Some scream at the top of their lungs that the rules aren’t fair. Some disappear for months on end only to come back later and expect to be tossed right into the mix to get right back to the top. Some change up their entire identity. They change who they are because they think that whoever they used to be wasn’t good enough so they overreact and go a different direction when they come out the other side.

None of that is me. For better or worse, like me, love me, hate me, I have always just been Thaddeus Duke and that’s not changing simply because my reign is over and I no longer sit atop the grandest mountain in the industry. A year ago or so, I definitely might have fallen into any one of the mentioned categories but this isn’t then and in a manner of speaking, I’m not exactly the same person I was. Mentally speaking, I’m in a far better place than I was then and I know just what and who I am and that’s nothing short of the gold standard of excellence.

Despite the perception of how I rose to the top, despite the claims of my opponents and my own fucking teammates alike…

He pauses for a spell and gets out of his directors chair and walks off before coming back and sitting again a few moments later.

The fact is that I was proud, and still am proud, that I was the Universal Champion. While the reign was shorter than I would have liked, the fact that I got there, the fact that I held it in the way that I did, the fact that I was a fighting champion no matter how long or short my reign was, is something I’ll always be proud of. And it is somewhat depressing that it’s over, I won’t lie. But I loved every minute of it and there’s nothing I would change from start to finish. People might think well his star fizzled out just like his reign and if you’re one of those, then I’ve got some bad news because Duke Nation doesn’t submit to a god damn thing and we rise as one. Over and over and over again. Together, we conquered the Universe and sometime down the road, together... we’ll do it again.

I’d like to ask now, is this the moment people stop claiming I’m gonna leave the company after I fail at something? Or is that gonna continue to be a narrative because in case the viewers and the roster haven’t noticed, I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying right here in the House That Duke Built because if for no other reason, if there’s not a Duke around, who’s gonna say Warfare is the House That Duke Built? I’m staying here to kick more ass, add more names to my list of defeated opponents and just keep on piling up wins because its just what I do. And if you hadn’t noticed, I’m pretty god damn good at it.

It’s unfortunate really, that Marf Swayson is on deck for me to smack him out of the ballpark too. The reality of the situation is good ol’ Smokin’ Bob apparently hates title matches. I offered to team with D’Ville and defend them and either he’s too damn stupid to book that shit or the roster is too chicken shit to step to the plate and take on the insurmountable. Either way, that’s bad news for Mr. Swayson. Either way, I’ll be arriving in my home away from home. Either way, I’ll be taking a little frustration out on someone at bell time and that someone is Marf Swayson.

What the fuck kinda name is Marf anyway?

Jesus Christ we’re really scrapin’ the bottom of the barrel here aren’t we Smokin’ Bob? Was there no one else more on my level? Was there no one else available to face not only the best showman on the entire roster, but undoubtedly one of the best in the entire fucking world? Instead here I am going from the penthouse to the outhouse, going from selling out Lambeau Field to somewhere in the middle of Warfare against a man that just ain’t got what it takes to be put in his position.

I guess being the biggest box office star for half a god damn year does have its perks… I basically get the night off.

Relax, I’m kidding.

Mostly.

See Marf Swayson called me out way back in the promos for High Stakes because I wasn’t paying him any attention and why should I? He wasn’t anyone and I have always been somebody. Being the gracious and giving competitor I am, I did pay that deer on the side of the highway a visit, albeit briefly, and he naturally squandered away that opportunity because he wasn’t equipped then and he isn’t equipped now to step to a plate of this size.

Sure, he had a nice showing at Snow Job, but just like I did, he came up short. While that’s certainly a similarity, there is undoubtedly a stark contrast between the two of us. He’s made a career out of comin’ up short so far in his stay here in the XWF and I’ve… well… when I get knocked down, I have this tendency to knock the dust off rather quickly and in convincing fashion which is why I’m the star that I am he’s the… whatever it is that he is.

Being ‘First Blood’ may tickle his fancy and it’s true that I’m a mat specialist and a high flying guru, but don’t let that fool you Marf. Don’t look at the pretty face, the great hair and the disarming smile fool you. I’m as tough as anyone on and not on the roster and while other brands of matches may be my specialty, I have never had an issue bringing the fight when the match calls for it. Just because I’m pretty, Marf, doesn’t mean I won’t enjoy spilling your blood from post to god damn post.

Threaded Mode \| Linear Mode Aftermath Part 1: RP #1
Author	Message