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21 October 2022
Brooklyn, New York City

"So, what gives?" I said, finally able to enjoy the gracious rest break given to me in between the light sparring session I was holding with my coach, Skyla Hawkins just a few moments ago. Christine was looking onwards from outside the ring, quietly noting everything going on as she had her manila folder at the ready. "You basically said you were planning on upping the ante for training and what not, but so far it's kind of been same old, same old."

Go figure - Skyla snorted at me in response, crossing her arms as her gaze forcibly held my own. "And here I thought I was doing you a favor by trying to get you warmed up by sticking to the basics with your head injury and all..."

The mere mention of the concussion I got caused me to flinch as my fingers grazed over the line of stitches I held in my head. She was right. This was a favor, but I also knew if I was going to be able to handle myself this next week with all four contests I had signed myself up for, I was going to need to try stepping on the gas here.

"Well, I suppose I'll get right down to business," Skyla said smugly as she puffed her chest with pride. "Considering the stipulations of your match with Raion Kido come the next Savage, I've taken the liberty of devising a training exercise over the course of today, at least, that will be sure to keep you on your toes. For you see, this will be about three things needed in order for you to stay afloat-"

"Speed!"

"Stamina!"

"And stepping outside of your comfort zone!"

"...Eh?" I felt a cartoonish question mark practically popping over my head at this point. Skyla was talking a big game, but not all of it was making sense to me. It was enough to get Christine's attention too, as she left her seat and came over to lean against the ring and listen closer. "I don't get it. There's not a situation in the ring I can't handle myself in. Why would I need to step outside of my comfort zone?"

"Not just physically, Finn, but mentally, too. The situations you can encounter in the ring can be strains on both. You hyper-fixate yourself on the notion of 'honor' and let that get to the point where your desire for a clean win, for instance, is something that can be targeted by a smart enough opponent. Or the fact that your match with Kido is taking place in a neighborhood. If you accidentally break through a wall and find whatever could be going on within a home, you need to learn to handle yourself well and not get distracted," Skyla explained. "Thus, I've devised this plan."

"Okay... I guess you have a point then," I said, allowing myself to be convinced in this case. "So what is this plan you've concocted?"

"Well, my stupid student, I'm glad you asked," Skyla said. I could tell the nickname was an attempt to try needling me, so I just let it wash off of me for now. "I've simply followed the rules of your Savage stipulations against Kido."

"Three golden XWF-branded candy bars are hidden across New York City, placed in hiding spots by me! And YOUR job is to try and find them as fast as possible, scouring the entire city to find them hidden in popular areas and try to find them! If you can find them fast enough, that's a win for you."

"So... it's a Halloween challenge, huh?" Christine commented from the outside. Seeing Skyla's satisfactory nod, Christine continued. "Huh. I guess... that makes sense. Hey, Finn - you should probably have a costume in mind if you're gonna be going Trick-or-Treating on Savage, anyways. What'd you have in mind?"

A... costume? That thought all this time didn't even occur to me. I wasn't exactly big on trick-or-treating when I was younger, but maybe I could try scrounging something up to make myself look like some sort of undead creature. The classics always worked out. But more importantly right now...

"I'll cross that bridge when I get to it," I said, ignoring Christine's unamused eyes at her frustration of being brushed off. "More importantly... you mentioned me winning. Outside of not finding the bars, is there a way I'd lose?"

"Why... I'm so glad you asked..." Skyla chuckled. Her grin was like that of a shark that smelled blood in the water, and it did not do well to ease me. She slowly turned around, bending over to reach outside of the ring. I went over after her to try and see what was up, and-


THUD!


...I didn't see that damn crimson spear Skyla always carries around with her being swung into my rib cage in time.

"Son of a BITCH - that hurt!" I managed to wheeze out. Even if she didn't attack my head - probably on purpose given my head injury - she still managed to knock the wind out of me completely with just one strike. How strong even was this woman?!

"I'd imagine my spear would be able to do that to you, yes," Skyla chuckled. "I will be chasing you the entire time with my spear. If I manage to tag you again, as I did there, then that will count as a loss for you. So for your sake, I hope you move fast enough and manage to find something... because this training exercise is about to start in the next thirty seconds. So you better make the most of your head start."

"Hey, wait a minute-" I said, holding an arm out to try and stop her. I still had so many questions - a hint on where to start, if there was any time limit... but she did not want to hear even a bit of it.

"One... two... three..."

Oh, shit. Before I could even have the thought of moving again enter into my mind, Christine had slipped into the ring, grabbing me by the wrist and hurrying me out of there and the ring as she spoke. "No time to chat - we gotta MOVE!"

"I'm with you - just... watch the arm!" I shouted back. Hurriedly, we exited the gym as we wasted no time, picking a street to head down and just moving as fast as possible.

Christine huffed at me as we walked in tandem. "Just so you know, I didn't do that for you. I just need you in good shape so Skyla doesn't kill you with her damn spear."

"Uh-huh." She was still grumpy about our earlier interaction, wasn't she? I couldn't blame her, but she wasn't giving me any opportunity to apologize to her, either. I looked back over my shoulder - still no sign of Skyla, but I wasn't sure for how long that would be lasting. Thirty seconds would soon be up if they weren't already, and if she just looked down here... No, I had to do something. I craned my head over, seeing a nearby alleyway. Nudging Christine on the shoulder, I nodded towards it. "Let's hide for now."

The alleyway was dark and cramped. The light of the outside world barely managed to peek in here. We didn't have enough room to cover even both of our wingspans, but it was enough at least for us to stand and walk. A deserted blanket stood at the end of the alley, indicating that at least one homeless man had called this place his home.

"We should try taking this time to start thinking of places Skyla hid the candy bars..." I sighed, pinching my brow.

"Well, Google Maps hasn't failed me yet so far, so..." With that, Christine popped open her phone, indicating on trying to scroll through and find a possible spot we could find even a clue to go off of for a candy bar. She didn't get far, however, before her eyes widened and looked up at me as she cursed under her breath. "Oh, fuck!"

"What's wrong with you?" I asked with concern all over my face.

"I left the manila folders back at the gym. It would have been a good idea to try and read up on Raion while we're trying to figure out a clue." As her app buffered, she leaned her head back against the wall and sighed. "He's so cute..."

"Cute and very taken," I quickly said to try and correct her. Honestly, after everything with some of my earlier opponents, this didn't faze me as much anymore... "It's fine, anyway. I don't wanna develop an overreliance on those folders anyway. I've seen enough of Kido between our old watch party session and these past few weeks to try and formulate an opinion on him."

"Oh, whatever, party pooper," Christine said again, turning her nose up at me. Of course, that only lasted for just a moment as my words and tone sunk in for her as she looked at me, bewildered. "Hey, wait. That didn't sound like a good opinion you had about him..."

I took a minute before speaking. "The fact of the matter is, believe me, I have all the respect in the world for Raion Kido as an in-ring competitor. He's skilled and talented, and I chose on my own to face him for a reason. But the thing is..." I took a deep breath, trying to figure out how best to word my thoughts.

"What is it? Spit it out." Christine said, her expression almost stone-cold as she stared at me from above the screen of her phone as she was looking through her map.

"...His entire shtick - this whole... anime superhero thing..."

"It feels fake. Forced. Disingenuous."

The bold claim made Christine pause her scrolling, again turning her head towards me. "That's... a bold claim."

"But it's true, I pointed out as I paced around as far as the safety of the alleyway would afford us. "Like I said, I never claimed to be any sort of moral police in this company. He's the closest thing to that though. He goes on about justice and bashing people for lack of humility, but... he's one to talk."

"This is the guy who calls himself a Lion. Christine, I'm sure you know what people commonly call a lion - people call them the Kings of the Jungle. He calls himself the SAINT OF A GODDESS. Every time he goes on a tangent to give some trash talk, he always makes sure his narrator goes on about how 'it's time for the cosmos to burn!' He declares his finishing move before he even hits the damn thing for extra dramatic flair! How do you look at someone like Raion Kido and think, 'oh yes, THIS is the man who's a paragon of humility and justice!'"

"He's not humble, sure, but I don't think even Raion Kido himself will be preaching something like that," Christine said as she leaned back against the nearby wall, getting back to scrolling while looking at me. "How else do you think he's fake?"

"...I still think that's simple. The Trilogy."

I let my words hang in the air for a moment, before taking a deep breath and continuing. "Like I said. Kido will pride himself on fighting fairly, and in the ring at least, he has been. But you know what they say - 'Birds of a feather flock together.' Do you know who else is in the Trilogy?"

"Jason Cashe. A man who has no qualms with getting dirty. A man who's done illegal tactics like low blows in the name of procuring victories. A man who's never apologized for the way he is and goes back to that well again and again and again. And Cashe isn't taking strays because I have some magical hateboner for him or whatever - I dislike the fact he's cheating, but at the end of the day, I'm not the one prattling on about how certain people are evil and I'm going to take them down in the name of justice or whatever."

"Raion Kido is."

"So how the Hell are we supposed to take anything he says in that regard even remotely seriously when he's done nothing to his own partner to show he's at least TRYING to bring him into line in regards to that? He may have never asked to be in a team with them, but it's his choice to remain in a team with them."

I was starting to really get into things now. I was still pacing, feeling my jaw subconsciously clench as thinking about Raion and his antics felt like they were getting my blood pumping. "...And for that matter. I'm sure you know who the mentor of the Trilogy is, yeah?"

"Theo Pryce. One of the top dogs of management."

"What, are you trying to go on like Flynn was about some sort of conspiracy? We both know he's basically insane." Christine was, once again, unamused by what I was saying.

"Nothing of the sort," I responded to Christine. I didn't even want to think about our current so-called 'Universal Champion' right now as I shook my head. "But how does Raion Kido want to preach about fairness, about justice, about honor and being a hero when he has one-half of ownership in his back pocket?"

"He's made the most out of plenty of the opportunities he's given, sure. And I'm not trying to deny his talent, it's there. But there's plenty of people who've been on the bottom for a long, long time despite their talent. Would Kido be one of those people if it weren't for Theo helping to book the matches and get him into the Leap of Faith match? Would Kido be one of those people if it weren't for Theo making sure Kido had that Universal title match at the Cannabis Cup?"

"I don't know. Nobody knows - that's the confusing beauty of 'what if' situations. But I don't think people can deny that it just places... a small asterisk on everything with him. Theo's the one booking the matches, so giving his own boy those nods is a clear conflict of interest. Anybody would be able to tell you that when they look at the situation from afar, but we just turn a blind eye to that. How can we do that? Why would we do that? Thing is, we shouldn't do that."

"I chose this match on purpose not just because of the fact that Raion is one of the top talents from an in-ring perspective - any former Universal Champion deserves that recognition. But the Road of the King chose him as this is a clash of Kings. So many people claim that title as their own, but I intend at the end of this road to make myself the true King, the Kaiser. I have nothing to my name - few accolades, few fans, few positive stats."

"But no matter how many people try to fell me, I have never stayed down. Raion Kido can try his best, but I will not stay down. Not now. Not ever. I'll show him the glow a mere King in Rags can hold."

"Well... if you're done with talking about Kido then..." Christine said as she looked back up at me. "I think we should start at Central Park. It should give you a good starting central location to work from, and I wouldn't be surprised if Skyla slipped a candy bar in there."

"Good idea," I nodded to Christine. "I'll have to try figuring out any other possible locations she might have tried hiding things at..."

Christine verbally paused as the two of us began walking out of the alleyway, a new goal in mind as we stepped forward in unison together. "Odd thought, but... maybe we could try outsourcing some ideas here?"

I furrowed my brow, confused. "The Hell did you have in mind?"

"Maybe... ask on Twitter for some good hiding spots around the city? It's worth a try." Christine shrugged. It was clear she wasn't thrilled about joining me on this journey, yet it wasn't like she had a choice in the matter.

And yet, such a suggestion earned a snort from me. "Twitter? I hardly use the damn thing!" I shot back at her. "So hard not to sound like an asshole on there, and if not an asshole, then so... so... wooden."

"Look, if you got a better idea on where to start looking after we're done in Central Park, then by all means. Otherwise, it's better than nothing." Christine had an underrated glare herself that she shot me, one that earned a nervous gulp from me as I nodded and pulled out my phone.

"Fine, fine. One Tweet coming right up..." I muttered, pulling out my phone. I was already signed in luckily, but I had to brush through the constant notifications popping up on my screen. Just open up a new Tweet, give out a small SOS message, try not to sound too desperate... and... done!

"Let's hope this actually helps us out..." I muttered as I kept walking. As soon as we crossed the nearby street though, it was almost like a foreboding sensation of dread coursed through our veins in unison. As if we were being watched. I could hear the sea of people starting to part behind us, and both Christine and I looked back over our shoulders...

...as we saw the figure of Skyla Hawkins chasing us with not one, but two crimson spears in her hands that had our names on it.

"OH, FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINN! YOU CAN'T ESCAPE ME FOR LOOOOOOOONG!"

As if we were sharing one singular connected brain cell between us both, Christine and I looked back at each other as inevitable doom was chasing us.

And we screamed.

"RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!"


(Word count - 2,995 per wordcounter.net)