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X-treme Wrestling Federation »   » Archives » Relentless Day 1 RP Board 2021
Legends Never Die: RP #1
Author Message
Sebastian Duke Offline
Registered but either hasn't added self to a roster yet or doesn't RP



XWF FanBase:
Very random

(heel alignment but liked by many; has earned respect despite breaking the rules often)


#1
09-14-2021, 06:02 PM

Prologue:

For several years now, I’ve mostly sat the sidelines. In the interim, I’ve made sporadic appearances, but sparse in nature. I’ve been content watching arguably my greatest creation rise to the top of this business. He has his ebbs and flows like anyone else, yet his greatest gift, in my eyes at least, is how well he stays relevant. No matter who he faces, who he beats, who he loses to no matter the infrequency of such failures, he maintains his spot.

Maybe I’m biased… but the kid is a unique talent. Generational, even.

I haven’t laced my boots or put on my cape in nearly a year. My last official appearance was against Charlie Nickels in a buried alive match. I lost. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it was anything more than what it was: Sebastian Duke, one of the most dominant forces the XWF has ever seen… merely giving back to the company that gave him the canvas in which to make himself a star.

With Thaddeus carrying my name and carrying it well, I’ve felt no desire to step into the ring. I didn’t miss the crowds or the atmosphere. I didn’t miss the travel. I didn’t miss taking the bumps. I just didn’t miss it. I didn’t miss anything about it… until a few weeks ago and the birds started relentlessly singing their songs.


Veneras International || Arlington, Virginia || 3:44 PM


When my men are out on a mission, it’s always the most stressful time for me. From the moment they reach their insertion points until the moment they depart, I’m entirely in the dark. Sometimes its hours, sometimes its a couple days. Regardless, not knowing whether you’ve sent men to their deaths or not, is incredibly stressful.

Keeping late hours during missions, I’m often in the office before four in the morning and I normally don’t leave for any reason until midnight. I’m different than Thaddeus. He’s willingly rushing to the front of the lines with his men and women in uniform. Me? My expertise is more rational, more cerebral. He’s good at what he does, but I’m better suited these days, behind a desk.

”Sebastian,” Janet, my gatekeeper calls from the doorway. Turning in her direction, I merely stare my acknowledgment. ”I tried calling but you weren’t answering.”

”I didn’t hear anything,” I tell her with a perturbed look on my face.

”I called three times,” she informs me.

”What’s up? You need something?”

”It’s your brother,” she answers with a smile. Theo and I… we’re both very busy men and we don’t see each other all that often these days. Once in awhile we exchange a text, maybe a quick call. Probably not often enough.

”What line?” I ask, picking up my office phone.

”He’s here,” she informs me.

I’m not a stupid man.

I know what season it is.

Fuck.

No.

For a moment though, my gaze veers to the right. Displayed prominently on my desk is a picture taken from Savage. December 12, 2020. My son, my brother, and me… the three of us holding our Universal titles in the air completing a dynasty. Little Frankie of course, holding Thad’s tag belt. A better script and a more fitting date in which to celebrate this dynastic lineage could not have been written.

Eight years to the very day of my XWF debut.

”Should I send him in?” Janet asks, awakening me from my spaced out gaze.

”What?”

”Should I send Mr. Pryce in?” she repeats.

”Hell yeah,” I fire at her. ”My brother shows up here, he doesn’t wait. No matter what I’m doing Janet, he’s to be let in.”

”Mmmhm,” she replies before departing.

She won’t listen.

She never does.

Next time he shows up here… he’ll wait again. I’m not real sure how it happened but I apparently hired my own boss and also pay her salary.

”Brother,” he greets with a smile and an extended hand.

”Theo,” I shoot a smile of my own while gesturing toward the chair across from me. Taking our seats, we stare at each other in a bit of an awkward silence. ”What brings you to Virginia?” I ask, cutting through the silence. Though, I already know the answer.

”Well, as you know, Relentless is...” Sighing deep, I close my eyes and lean back in my chair. ”What?”

”Relentless is around the corner, blah blah blah, we want you to have a match, blah blah blah… does that about cover it?”

”Yeah pretty much,” Theo says with a bit of a laugh.

”The answer is no,” I tell him emphatically.

”There’s nothing I can say to change your mind?”

It’s a fair question to be sure. His job as one of the owners of the grandest company on the planet, is to put together the best card, or in this case, cards, that he possibly can. My days of in-ring competition though, are long gone.

”It’s a young mans game,” I answer him, without really answering him. ”I’m a grandfather now. Besides that, wouldn’t four matches at Relentless with the name ‘Duke’ kinda be overkill?”

”There’s only one Duke match,” Theo corrects me. ”As much of a workhorse as Thaddeus has been for us, even he has decided to scale back some this year and is entirely focused on Mark Flynn.”

”Mark Flynn!?” I say incredulously. ”When the hell did he come back?”

”Thad called him out for two months and the son of a bitch answered the challenge.”

”I guess it’s true,” I reply with a pause. ”When Thad talks people listen.”

”When does he not talk?” he asks jokingly. ”It was true for you too. Still is.”

Leaning forward, I run my fingers through my hair a little then rest my elbows on top of my desk.

”The Duke name still carries a ton of weight in this industry.”

”That’s flattering, but...”

”He requested you,” he interrupts, causing me to stare at him.

”Who?”

”I told him I didn’t think you’d do it, that you were happy in retirement...”

”Who requested me?”

”That you were content with your career being over and letting...”

”Theo!” I shout, trying to stop him from talking in order to answer the question. ”Who requested me!?”

”He went so far as to go onto the XWF website and call out Duke for Warfare and Savage...”

Manipulative bastard.

”Thad of course, he chimes in… but the man said he wanted the quote… “better Duke”...”

”Kind of missed the ball there didn’t he?”

”Yeah basically,” he agrees.

”You really think he’s better than I was?” referring to my son.

Theo pauses. For a moment I regret asking that question… Theo is nothing else but bluntly honest.

”Different skill sets but overall… yeah he’s better than you were.”

”Theo,” I say, feigning hurt. ”That really hurts.”

”You get the last laugh though,” he chimes in. ”No matter how good he is or may one day become, he’ll never have a place in the Hall.”

”Kind of unfair though isn’t it?”

”It’s just the rules.”

”Who wanted to face me?” I ask, reverting the conversation back to the unanswered question.

”I had to ask, right?” he says as he stands up, preparing to leave. ”I gotta run though. More business to take care of and a killer Relentless to get planned and booked.”

”Who asked for me!?” I shout out, my anger starting to rise.

”He thought, and I agreed, that a Legend versus Legend match at Relentless, and for the only time ever, would be a great way for him to go out,” he says as he reaches the door.

Jumping to my feet, I rush over and slam the door shut just as Theo is opening it.

”Mother fucker, you’re not leaving here until you tell me who it is that wants to face me at Relentless.”

He smiles. He thinks he got me.

”John Samuels,” he finally answers and opens the door. Passing through, he gives a little wave to Janet on his way to the elevator.

He might have me.

”Theo!” I call out as he hits the ‘down’ button for the elevator. He looks in my direction. ”How long do I have to decide?”

”Few days,” he answers as the door slides open. ”A week at most. He wanted you, I told him I’d ask, but ultimately its your call.”

My brother steps inside the elevator, leaving me standing in front of Janet’s desk with my thoughts.

”What was that about?” she asks but I ignore her entirely. ”Sebastian?” she calls to me, snapping me from my trance.

”He wants me to get in the ring at Relentless,” I answer her. ”More accurately, John Samuels wants me in the ring at Relentless,” I correct myself before retreating into my office. Back behind my desk, I spin my chair to stare out the window across the expanse of thousands of dead soldiers.

Picking my office phone up, I dial out. Of course my intended recipient, busy as he is, didn’t pick up and it goes to voicemail. ”Hey………… its your dad………. Call me back.”

It’s tempting, I think to myself while laying the phone back down. To lace ‘em up for the first time in several years, I mean seriously this time, does have its merits. I attempted a comeback a few years ago. To be honest, even then I wasn’t sure what I had left in the tank. What I found was I had quite a bit more than maybe anyone thought.

Desperate for stars, I mean real stars, they wanted to thrust me into a main event scenario against then-Universal Champion Robert Main.

I pulled back.

I won the match for the right to face him.

Ultimately, I said no and rode off into the sunset once again.

It wasn’t because I thought I couldn’t beat him. I knew I could and had I gone through with the match, Robert Main’s stellar reign as Universal Champion would have been short circuited before it really even got started. What I didn’t want was to be the champion of a low rent version of what the XWF used to be and is once again.

Just now my cell rings on my hip. Pulling it from my holster, I take a look.

Thaddeus.

”Hey,” I say to him.

”What’s up?”

”Thought I’d check in… that’s all.”

”Uh huh… check in about what?”

”Oh you know… Talon, Frankie, Caitlyn… the usual.”

Silence.

”What?”

More silence.

”You never call to check in on the kids, Dad. What’s up?”

I knew I should’ve said something about Flynn.

”Theo dropped by,” I finally tell him.

Even more silence.

”Apparently John...”

”Let me guess, your brother filled your head with delusions that you still got it? With thoughts that you can still hang with the best of the best? That people will pay big money to see Sebastian fucking Duke one more time because… oh I dunno… they haven’t paid to see you a hundred times before?”

”He didn’t say...”

”Jesus fucking Christ dad, what the fuck else do you want to take from me?”



What?

”What are you even talking about?”

”I mean it wasn’t enough that you took my mother based on false information, and you’ve already taken the Hall of Legends from me when... I mean let’s face it… If there was a Hall of Pretty Good, you’d be the poster boy but Legends?

“Get real dude. That’s me, not you.”


Silence.

Followed by more silence.

”I just wanted your opinion is all,” I tell him. I don’t want to show him that what he just said kind of hit me in the soul. Maybe he doesn’t respect it, but I’m damn proud of the body of work I put forth in my XWF career.

He sighs deeply.

”You came back last year and what happened dad?”

”I know what happened...”

”You shit the bed against Idenhaus, you shit the bed against Nickles… fuck dude, I beat Charlie Nickles three fucking times and I didn’t even break a sweat doin’ it.”

”That’s not what hap...”

”Yeah yeah yeah,” he pauses for a beat before adopting a mocking tone. I was giving baaack.

I sigh.

”All you did was take a legacy I was cementing and take a giant shit on it,” he says convincingly. ”Nickles? Okay I can kind of understand that one. He was new to the XWF and you wanted to help build him up but I got news for ya Dad, NOBODY could build that dumbass up because he didn’t know what the fuck he was doing and he crumbled under the weight of being an overnight success story.

“Idenhaus though? For fucks sake man, that dumb bastard wouldn’t know what to do with stardom if you wrote him a book and titled it ‘Mein Kampf’.

“In German!”


Clearing my throat, I’m a little bit speechless.

”You got a lot of nerve, boy!”

”What did you expect me to say Dad? I’ve always been a little unfiltered and I say what I mean to say,” he pauses. ”You haven’t done it for real in like three years. You’re a grandfather...”

”That’s your fault,” I remind him. ”I’m not the one that dumped...”

”Yeah yeah yeah, we know how its done… Who was the opponent?”

”John Samuels,” I answer and that comes with its own silence.

”Just stay away man,” he says while attempting but failing to adopt a more even tone of voice. ”Your prime is long gone and that’s probably not what you want to hear, but its the truth.

“Stay away and save yourself the embarrassment.”


”Look! I know you’re good kid! I know you’re...”

”Dad stop,” he interrupts. ”You left a mark, you left a legacy that most men and women would kill for. The best thing you ever did though, your greatest contribution you ever gave to this industry was the day you stepped aside and handed me the reigns.

“Do yourself a favor and just stay away. You just don’t have it anymore.”


Without another word, Thaddeus ends the call leaving me equal parts shocked, stunned and saddened by the manner in which he views me. Gently laying the phone in its cradle, I sit in deep thought for a moment before standing from my seat and staring off out the window over the cemetery.


He’s wrong.

I never lost a step.

When my name is in the lights and the music hits, I go to a different place. I find the darkness the lives deep within my soul and become one with myself. When the bell rings, the switch is hit and I just enter a different zone that most men and women that enter this business just don’t have.

I’m a legend.

I earned that title through years of putting my body on the line and outworking everyone else. And there’s no amount of doubts professed to me by my own blood, no amount of shit talking John Samuels that’ll ever get me to see me less than what I am - One of the greatest to ever do it.

It’s been a long time since you’ve had me, XWF.

I mean, the real me.

You see me now in things my boy shows you. You see me joking around with the young boy and you see me holding a couple infants ever so gently. You see me choking back emotion whether I’m burying my wife or in a deep conversation with my son.


Things aren’t always what they seem though, are they? They’re not always what they appear so don’t let a false sense of the way he has been presented cloud your judgment on the real him. Don’t let what you think dissuade you from what you really know.

You know him.

You hated him long before you ever loved him.

You know what he’s capable of.

You know how dark his heart truly is because you’ve seen it first hand.

You’ve all forgotten who he really is, but he never has.

The King of Darkness never died, he was just dormant, laying in wait. He was just waiting in the shadows for the right time. The right victim. And now he’s found both the time and the victim.

John Samuels thinks he wants him. John Samuels, the white then black and now white again former Senator from the state of Texas thinks he wants the lasting final image of his own legend to be flat on his back, staring up at the lights in defeat.

Be careful what you wish for, Senator, for your wish is his command.

His heart is cold, it’s black, it’s shriveled with decay and corrupt with the purity of evil. He knows it appears that he has softened with age but not even age can kill a legend. Not even age can stop the King of Darkness. Because…

Legends.

Never.

Die.

And now he’s coming back.

One.

Last.

Time.
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