When we last left our hero, he took to the streets to dive a little deeper and take a closer look into the malicious, mysterious criminal underworld. With a little inside information, he managed to locate and infiltrate one of the more popular hang-outs of the city's most wanted.

The place was locked up tight and came equipped with a near if not taller than seven foot bouncer at the door to screen the visitors. And by screen we mean a secret password to get in that changes per visit. Lucky for the Blue Tango, he managed to squeeze the right information out of someone earlier in the night and use that intel to gain easy entry.

He walks past the bouncer with his head down and his face hidden under his hood. It didn't bother the big brute in the doorway because they never bother ID'ing anyone on their way in due to their villain status. Thus, the secret password.

Tango reaches the door at the end of the hallway and reaches for the doorknob. He can hear chatter and music from the other side and can only imagine the evil, down-right no good deeds and horrors going on inside. He pushes it open to find a small lounge with a bar, a line of booths, a jukebox, and a couple of couches placed somewhat randomly against the four walls. The place is flooded with the typical, every night street thugs that Tango was used to beating the tar out of on a regular basis. They were either your freelancing mercenary types that just did the petty stuff then you had your dedicated followers that have a leader that barks orders out to them from what person, place or thing they were knocking off next to what they were having for lunch.

Then, there's the big wigs.

Smoker is sitting alone at the bar choking on his own breath. The Fiddler sits in a corner booth next to his cousin Trauma-Bone, the Brass Lass and they're having a conversation (Yes, for all those first time watchers, they communicate solely through their instruments.). Evil Egyptian (Not PC and he knows it. Evil bastard! Plus, he's 13.), Ratter, and Sackman sit around a table playing what looks to be an intense game of Go-Fish as Kevin Spacey stares from a booth while stirring a drink. Toxicity and

Smoker sat at the bar alone choking on his own breath. The Fiddler sat in a corner booth, far from the jukebox, so he could carry on a conversation with his cousin, Trauma-Bone, the Brass Lass. (And yes, in case this is your first time watching, they communicate solely through their instruments.) Evil Egyptian (not PC and he knows it, evil bastard, but he's 13.), Vain, Rattler, and Sackman all sit around a table playing what looks like Go-Fish as Kevin Spacey stares from a booth while stirring a drink. Toxicity, Richie Dick, and Pussywhipped argue politics in their own booth off in the distance by themselves.

Not exactly the evil lair our hero expected.

Regardless, he nonchalantly walks in and towards the bar where one of his archest of nemeses sits.

"What're ya havin'?"

The one-eyed, one-arm bartender asks, appearing out of nowhere. Tango slightly looks up from his hood and peers over to Smoker, who's in the process of rolling up a cigarette on the bar and paying no attention to anyone else around him. He's struggling a bit, it looks like he's had too much caffeine or something because he's shaking so bad that he can barely contain the tobacco on his paper.

"I'll have a tonic water."

He pauses.

"And something for my friend here. Whatever he's having."

Tango sends a nod towards Smoker which makes the bartender narrow his one eye.

"I haven't seen you around here before. You new or what?"

The bartender says and he whips out a small bottle of tonic water and a glass of ice. Tango lowers his head further under his hood and hunches his shoulders.

"You could say that."

"Say what? I know I haven't seen you. So, you're new?"

Smoker nearly jumps out of his stool and slams his fists down on the bar throwing tobacco everywhere.

"Are *COUGH!* *HACK!* *WHEEZ!* you going to keep asking *COUGH!* questions or get me that drink?!"

The bartender scowls at Smoker then, without looking, grabs a glass and a bottle of liquor and starts to pour. After two long pours he places the bottle back where he got it and slides the glass over. Smoker snatches it immediately and throws the liquid into his mouth and down his throat then slams the glass down. He has another huge coughing fit before and shoots a glance over to our hero.

"Gee! *COUGH* *GAG* *HACK* *WHEEEEEZ!* Thanks, pal! You're the first person to even come near me tonight. *GAG*"

"It's because you reek, Smoker!"

Toxicity, the snarky lady in green, shouts from across the room.

"Seriously, you're actually making this entire room smell like those…. nasty THINGS."

Vain adds as he leans back trying to catch a glimpse of Rattler's hand who hisses and pulls his cards into his chest.

"No love. Hehehe… *COUGH* *HACK* ehehe…" He turns to the crowd. "Hey! I've tried quitting! The patch doesn't work! And Cialis only made me MORE anxious and want to smoke even more!"

"You don't take Cialis to quit smoking, you moron. It's Chantix!"

One of the goons sitting down the bar from them speaks up. Like a perfectly natural reaction, Smoker pulls out a revolver from inside his jacket, takes aim, and fires. The goon flies off his barstool and lands on his back with a smoking bullet hole in the center of his forehead. Only one person out of the entire room reacts and it's Richie Dick, who jumps up from the stool and stomps across the room.

"Damn you, Smoker! That's the second one this week!"

"It was an accident! The guy got in the way of my bullet!"

"You've got problems, buddy! Real problems! You know how hard it is to keep a full roster of henchmen these days?! They don't fall out of the sky, you know!"

"Maybe not out of the *GAG!* sky, but HE flew off that barstool pretty far! Hehe… *COUGH!* ehehe!"

"You dirty, rotten…"

"Oh chillax!  Or...  Chantrix!  Don't be a rich, Dick! Err.. You know what I mean! Besides, HE made me do it!"

Smoker points to Tango, who manages to play it cool and just takes a sip of the tonic water. Richie Dick pays no attention to the bogus accusation at first, but then focuses his attention on the new, unknown "villain" that stands before them.

"Do I know you?"

Asks Richie Dick.

"You seem familiar to me, but I can't put my finger on it. Are you a henchman? Who do you work for? Are you looking for work?"

"Hey, now, just *COUGH!* back off, alright? I saw him first!"

Smoker steps forward and balls his fists.  Everyone else continues on about their business, as if this is a common thing to happen.  The two villains come close to throwing fists when an explosion blasts from one of the walls  When the smoke clears, a giant man with shimmering armor emerges from outside.  His body is covered head-to-toe in shimmering, silver armor and a large, skull-like, horned helmet rests on his head.

"Enough of this nonsense."

His voice is deep and disturbingly frightening, but calm. It drones through your brain and leaves static in its wake.  He removes the helmet from his head and rests it under his arm.  His face is human-like, but has features that could have easily been otherworldly. With glowing red eyes and a deep grimace, he takes a long deep breath and growls out to the crowd before him.

"This charade of evil will be coming to an end. I've sat idly by for too long and watched as all of you, in your disgusting gimmicks, constantly fail time and time again."

He stops, breathing heavily through his nose, and continues to just stare into the crowd. The crowd of evil villains continue standing in awe at the sight of the beast of a being. Tango continues to shroud himself under his hood while taking small peeks around the room to see everyone's shock… which was quite unsettling for our hero. The stranger from the balcony takes another deep breath and grumbles.

"I think what's best for now is a soft reset."

He holds up an open hand then clutches his fist.  All of the so-called "free-lancing" henchmen turn to the super villains and attack!  Tango ducks low and quickly tries making an exit.  He reaches the door and as he grabs the handle there's another explosion!  Some debris from the blast catches Tango in the head and knocks him completely unconscious!



"Last time, I talked about how this was merely a training exercise to prepare me for some more important business down the line. How Mastermind, his misfits, and McBride wouldn't come close to even standing a chance of taking me down individually and, if they were smart, would join forces to get the job done. It would have been a perfect opportunity to get into tip top shape for me and A-Bomb's big Tag Team Title Bout coming up! Well, it looks like I won't bother looking forward to THAT. More potential disappointment there, even though I thought these guys never had the smarts or strategic intuition to pull it off anyway."

"It's hard to be disappointed when you expected nothing from the start, ya know? Not that I thought they were going to be completely silent for two weeks, but the fact that nothing that Mastermind or McBride let spill out of their mouths would matter towards this match in any way. Even if Mastermind would have filled us up with his same old boring drivel that doesn't even go in circles but absolutely nowhere, nothing would change what's going to happen Saturday night when he comes face-to-face with the Blue Tango. Even if McBride would have babbled on and on about how great it is to be back in the XWF for the fourteenth time and soon hopefully get back into the groove of things, it wouldn't change that this will be just another match that ends with him on his back."

"I'm more excited now to get this match behind me more than anything. Not that I'm looking forward to what's to come, even though I am, but to hopefully forget it even happened. This is one of those situations that no matter the outcome, you come out smelling the same as you went in. I know I said this match is supposed to help build me up for the upcoming challenges, but I just don't know. Maybe my optimism is getting the best of me once again and I'm giving these guys, even though it's very little, too much credit. Maybe because of the other participants in this match, it'll actually hurt my credibility going forward. Oh! You beat Mastermind and Michael McBride in the opening match for Warfare?! Give this guy a metal, right? I could wipe the floor with both of these guys at the same time and the only thing it's going to do is add another ticker to my win column. It's not going to make me any type of contender for any other titles and it sure as heck isn't going to be included on my list of accolades when it's all said and done. And in a couple of weeks and Batty and I are hoisting up our newly won Tag Team Titles for the first time, I certainly won't be thinking back to the time that I beat both McBride and Mastermind without even breaking a sweat."