Phoenix, Arizona

It has been over a week since Theo last saw Lila. Business; both that of the XWF as well as of Pryce Industries has kept Theo constantly on the go. Previously Theo and Lila had seen each other about 2-3 times a week. The visits weren’t always elaborate, sometimes it was just getting together to see how each other’s day went maybe share a bottle of wine and then hit the hay. Theo and Lila were supposed to get together later this evening but Sebastian Duke had requested Theo’s presence and while the King of the XWF doesn’t answer to the King of Darkness, Duke reaching out was intriguing to Theo and so to Connecticut he goes. It should be a quick trip; he will be back in Phoenix before Lila even realizes he left.

Except for one problem…as Theo Pryce is leaving the office, Lila comes strolling in.


“Lila, what are you doing here?”

“Well that’s an odd way to greet your girlfriend.”

“Is that what we are now?”

“Is that a problem?”

“No. I just didn’t realize it was official. Did you change your Facebook status?”

“What?”

“Oh come on Lila, you are part of the Facebook generation, you know as well as I do that nothing is official until it happens on Facebook.”

“I don’t have a Facebook account. I refuse to waste my time on sites like that.”

“Yeah uh….me either….”


Theo moves in closer and gives Lila a hug and then a kiss on the cheek.


“It’s great to see you but seriously, what’s going on? I was just about to step out for a meeting.”

“Oh really, can I go with you? I have some time to kill; I don’t have any classes for the rest of the day.”

“Well the meeting is in Connecticut and I am not 100% certain on when I will be back, hopefully tonight.”

“Connecticut? You just got back.”

“I know, and I’m sorry but business calls. You know I am a busy guy, I told you that from the very beginning.”

“Oh I know I’m not mad, just a bit sad that’s all.”

“Well do you want to come with me?”

“To the meeting?”

“Well, to Connecticut. You can’t really come to the meeting but I can bring you to Connecticut with me and then have someone drive you around for a bit; maybe do some shopping or something. You can use one of my credit cards.”

“I’m not really big into shopping.”

“Really? That’s great to hear. You have no idea how many guys want to hear their significant other say that.”


Lila tilts her head slightly while letting out a feint laugh.


“I would love for you to come with me, you are certainly welcomed to do so but I don’t know how much fun it will be for you. I have a few calls I need to make during the plane ride as well as some XWF promos I need to check out.”

“Promo? What is that?”

“Essentially all of our contracts require us to do a certain number of promos per match we take part in. And so I need to spend some time going over some of the promos that have been aired to see if there is anything specific I need to address.”

“I see. Well, why don’t you call me when you get back into town?”

“It could be really late, or really early.”

“I don’t mind. I just want to spend some time with you.”

“I’m so sorry I can’t stay. You know I want to.”

“I know you do. I’ll see you later.”

“Yes you will.”


Theo leans in, gives Lila a kiss on the lips and then watches as she turns and walks away, back out the main entrance of Pryce Industries. Theo then takes the elevator down to parking level 1, gets into the Black Escalade that is waiting to take him to the airport.

Approximately 45 minutes later.

The scene fades back in and we see Theo Pryce in the office on his private jet, he is seated behind his desk staring at the TV screen that is located about 25 feet away, mounted on the wall. Theo is just shaking his head. He lifts a remote that was located on his desk to pause the TV.

“Seriously Smoke, formerly Smoke Man. Maybe the next time you leave and come back you can drop the name all together and just go by a symbol. But seriously, Smoke, why are you making me waste my time talking about you and the things that come out of your mouth instead of focusing on the 17 people on the other team? Seriously, why are you making me do this?”

“First off, I didn’t kill 100,000 Japanese citizens. I’m not going to name the guy who did but unless you have suddenly become Ray Charles, you can watch the tape and see for yourself. I was nowhere near that event. I had nothing to do with sealing 100,000 people into the dome and letting them die. If it were me I would have dispersed the gas masks that were delivered to the venue in the event that something like that happened. You see Smoke, I always have contingency plans.”

“Now Smoke if you would just be so kind as to sit down, shut your mouth and listen for a little bit because you are getting ahead of yourself. First and foremost, you aren’t the biggest threat to Team Eli; you aren’t even in the top 5. But that’s ok. I didn’t pick you for my team because you were so great. Actually, I didn’t pick you at all. You picked me. Or maybe more to the point, you picked the team opposing Eli. You would do well to remember that. You are on this team because you wanted it. Not the other way around. You have no idea who Captain Congregation is putting in the first match. It could be Sid. It could be himself. It could be Griffin MacAlister, it could be fucking anybody. You have no idea. And neither do I. So I made a decision and I am sticking to it.”

“And you know what Smoke, that’s the thing about being a Team Captain. I get to make the decisions, and even better than that, I don’t have to explain those decisions to anyone. Not Mr. Supernova, or Weapon: Ashen and certainly not you Smoke. I told you that I respected you for offering to go in first, it was a ballsy move, but it’s not what I wanted to do. Maybe one day when you get to be the Captain of a team you can pick people to be on your team and you get to make decisions on your own. Oh wait; you did have your own team once didn’t you? You tried to start a revolution didn’t you? How did that work out for you Captain Revolution? Did you get people to buy in?”

“No, you didn’t. In fact, not only did your revolution fail miserably but you then you did possibly the first smart thing in your entire career here at the XWF, and that was tuck your tail and hide while the stench of your failed revolution dissipated in hopes that we would forget. We haven't by the way. And now here you are, back to take part in another revolution, but not one you started. No because that wouldn’t have worked would it? We saw how that film ended already didn't we? But I’ll be honest with you Smoke. We do need you on this team. In fact, I’ve never said otherwise. I thought that went without saying but if you need me to hold your hand, look into your eyes and tell you that this team needs you and wants you on the team then so be it. I didn’t realize you were the pampering type but apparently you are. So here you go Smoke, for the second time in as many minutes, in case you missed it the first time, this team does need you. Now that that is out of the way, please do me a favor and go focus on Team Bible as you called them. Oh and by the way, I’ll give you credit there, that was pretty funny. See look at that Smoke, we are getting along already. Do you want me to have my P.A make friendship bracelets that we can wear at the PPV so everyone knows how tight we are?


Theo reaches down and grabs his drink and takes a sip.


“Speaking of decisions, as per the rules of this Pay Per View, I need to put 5 names out there that will take part in Round Two. So let’s make this quick. The first two names will be Scorpio and Mr. Supernova, following them will be Michael McBride, Cam Lang and Swaggy SwagMire. There it is. That’s round two.”

“Now for all of you who may be wondering, even questioning why I am handing Eli my plans for the first two rounds without him even announcing his intentions for round one, it’s really simple. There are two answers, first, I can’t control what Eli does, I can only control the team I run and so I won’t bother losing sleep trying to figure out what Eli is going to do. And that leads into reason number two, because no matter what Eli does, it won’t matter. And the sooner Eli and his team come to grips with that reality the sooner they can start penning their list of reasons why they didn't win.”


Theo picks his remote up again, this time he points it at the camera and with one click the screen goes black.