Read Part 1 Here!

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21 October 2022
Brooklyn, New York City

The smell of dirt and freshly cut grass clung to my sinuses, and I felt myself intermittently having to snort out molecules of dirt that tracked themselves into my nose. Looking down at myself, I grumbled as I noticed the variety of deep grass stains along my clothes. They were probably completely ruined by now. There was only one thing that made that journey into Central Park - the XWF-branded golden chocolate bar in my hand.

Prying myself away from the tagline 'The Chocolately Action NEVER Stops!', I turned to Christine. "You still have my phone after I went diving into those bushes, right?"

"Yeah. I mean, I know you hated that and all, but... it worked out, right?" She should be counting her blessings that the camera wasn't rolling during that. If they saw how close those thorns had been to making a tear in my pants... "Anyway, I think your Tweet got some responses. Let me look for you..."

"Please..." I said, giving Christine a small sigh as we continued walking.

"Let's see here..." Christine murmured as she looked through the responses. "...Oh. Akasha Monroe tweeted and tagged Austin Ramsey to try and help." Looking over at me and seeing my confusion, she simply ignored me. "They've both been around the block. Anyway, Austin says... to talk to him offline, he knows all the hiding spots but doesn't wanna post them on Twitter..."

That earned another loud grunt from me as we continued. "How the Hell does that help me out now?" Chrstine just gave a small shrug in response. At least she wasn't as distant as before - I guess digging through the dirt had some effect on that. "Who else chimed in?"

"Well... an R.J. Bondurant chimed in! She recommended talking to this odd, strange group of hunters called the 'Wolves...' but it seems they're not in the City right now. They offered to have you call them though - I think they like you..."

Another frown came about from that one. "If they're not in the City, there's only so much they can do. From the sound of things, they kind of give me the creeps." I took a deep breath, before adding, "I will keep them in mind in case I'd need help later, though."

"Fair enough. Well... Oh! Atty chimed in! She recommends the subway!" Christine said as her face lit up as soon as she read it.

An actual suggestion? That earned a small sigh of contentedness from me as I nodded in response. In truth, I had considered the subway, but the scale of the NYC metro system was offputting from that task. So many stops to go through and check... But hearing that being written down...

"It's worth a shot," I admitted. "We got anything else?"

"Well... Oh!" Christine exclaimed as we made our way to the nearby subway entrance. "Chris Page actually chimed in! I think he kinda took notice since you're going against the Trilogy... Anyway, he suggested checking out the Velvet Rabbit! Honestly, that's a good idea. I mean, it's such a huge nightclub, and there's bound to-"

"Absolutely not," I shook my head fervently. That earned me a bewildered look from Christine whose eyes were screaming that I must have had three heads at that moment.

"Why not?" She said. "Finn, if it's about the ruined clothes, I'm sure they won't complain too much if at all. Besides, we can just... say we're dressing up as hobos for Halloween and getting a head start on that!"

"That's probably the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard today," I groaned as we reached the bottom of the subway stairwell, weaving through the crowd. We quickly got to work, trying to inspect every nook and cranny down there. Behind the piles of trash, underneath the benches, in the trash cans...

"Well, if it's not the clothes, then what is i-" Christine looked at me again, and proceeded to connect the dots as she noticed my cheeks were flushing. A large grin settled itself around her face as she let loose a quiet laugh. "Finn... you wouldn't happen to be nervous because it's mostly a strip club, wouldn't you...?"

"N-No, of course not!" I shot back, quickly looking away to keep looking for the candy bar.

"C'mon, Finn!" Christine said, actually able to laugh now. "It'll be fine. It's just a bunch of half-naked people shaking their asses. It's not like they'll hurt you or anything..."

No response from me. Christine finally sighed as she came over to me. "Finn, do you want to get the candy bars or no-"

I held up a hand to make her pause, before pointing down towards the rail line itself. Just barely visible right off to the side of the rails, somehow not having gotten run over yet, was another golden candy bar.

"Holy shit."

There wasn't a subway present yet, and it didn't sound like there was one nearby whatsoever. The gauge between the platform and the rails was about five feet, and the candy bar wasn't near the rails. I knew what I had to do.

"I'm going in," I told Christine. "If I hear the subway coming, I'll drag myself up."

"B-Be careful!" Christine told me as I slowly began to lower myself, shrugging off the concerned looks from onlookers. "If you need me to, I can lift you up."

"Thanks," was my only response as I managed to sit back down and slowly scoot forward. I landed down into the gauge with a metaphorical jolt running through my body on impact. The candy bar must have gotten swept down here somehow by the wind...

Didn't know, didn't care. What I did care about was I was quickly able to run over and snag the bar and began running back to the platform-

The sound of the subway barreling forward forcefully pulled me from my thoughts as my eyes widened.

"For fucks' sake-"

"Finn!" Christine nervously yelped, getting down and offering her hands to me. I eagerly took the lifeline offered, pushing off towards the ground to try and get up on my feet, but the subway was starting to pull in-

Just as I managed to get back on the platform, the loud screeching noise heralded the sound of the metro car pulling to a stop. I managed to take a deep breath, satisfied that I had dodged a bullet.

"Let's... hop on board. Maybe a change of scenery will help us out..." I said, dusting myself off. A few people were trying to talk to me about what the Hell just happened, but I simply brushed them off. What mattered right now was the fact that I had two candy bars - I couldn't let fear get in the way of myself.

"Sounds like a plan!" Christine said, heading over to the door of the subway ahead of me. "We can head over to the Rabbit, and-"

The doors opened as Christine looked inside.

Skyla Hawkins' ferocious grin was inside, wielding both crimson spears in her hands as she was like a lion that had a gazelle right in its sight. The hunter stepped forward.

"Hello, Christine."

"Oh, shit."

The two of us spoke in unison, knowing what was about to come as Skyla raised one of her spears. Christine looked at me one last time, looking as if she had seen a ghost. "Finn! Keep goi-!"


THUD!

THUD THUD THUUUUUUUUUD!


The spear mercilessly hit Christine on the top of her skull, before Skyla brought her other spear across, hitting her across the face again, and again, and again. She slumped over, drool escaping from her mouth as she fell unconscious.

My heart froze in my mouth, feeling my palms run slick with sweat as the same onlookers from before screamed in horror, starting to run for their safety. Skyla turned her head to me, offering a smile as sickly sweet as candy.

"I'd start going along with them too, if I were you."






My legs kicked off the ground, trying to push me along as fast as I was even capable of running at that point. I could hear my heart in my ears, pounding like a war drum as I kept moving as fast as I could. My adrenaline was a propellant, allowing me to also block out the noises of the passersby as I darted up the stairs. The only noises I could hear were my heart, my scrambling feet, and Skyla's own legs.

It's odd. I don't think I've ever run this fast before. I manage to come out of the staircase in a few seconds flat, moving beyond the capabilities Finn Kühn has been capable of doing to this point. And yet, judging from how I hear her behind me, the fact that she was still capable of keeping up with me despite her far shorter legs was almost unfair. She was easily gaining on me as it wasn't long after I was running on the sidewalk that she was right behind me, with crowds of people parting for us.

I could calmly analyze that I would only be able to stay ahead of her for the next fifty meters. After that, I wasn't sure what could happen next. So I had to lose her in the next fifty meters. A long stride with a heavy step interrupted my thoughts, and I quickly turned back over my shoulder to see what was happening.

Skyla was almost floating in the sky. Her spear was being tossed from her hands, eyes trained on me with that damned smile. The spear coursed through the air, its target already decided with my foot.

This exercise was about to be over, and I saw the scene play in slow motion before me.

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Present Day


"If I have not been thinking things through in the recent day, Raion Kido, then you have not been thinking things through at all for quite some time, haven't you? I point out your flaws, and that's apparently got you more riled up than you've been in some time. Is that fact that I pointed out that maybe the knight in shining armor isn't all he's cracked up to be needling that hard inside your brain in spite of it being a road others went down with you?"

"Maybe, instead of babbling on about how I must apparently know nothing about you despite the fact that I said I challenged you largely because of your skill and your position at the top, maybe you can do the world a favor and watch the product you claim you try to be making the best possible for once."

"After all... I'm not the one who gets match results wrong."

Raion Kido in Reignite, on October 10th 2022 Said:“Finally, we have Buster Gloves, the one that debuted at Relentless with a win.”

Relentless Night 3 Said:

Winner: Finn Kuhn!

"I'm not the one who babbles on about being some sort of superhero who punishes villainy and disregards the own dirty tactics of my own partner at the same time simply because we're part of the same group."

Anarchy Results on September 15th, 2022 Said:Cashe runs with the momentum into the corner - WHERE HE’S ABLE TO PICK UP THE BOOT FROM EARLIER AND THROWS IT AT LSM! LSM catches it in mid-air though, looking angry! The referee quickly mouths off to Cashe, who holds his hands up innocently! He takes the boot from LSM, who brings it outside of the ring-

LOW BLOW TO LSM BY JASON CASHE! SHE CRUMBLES IMMEDIATELY FROM THE IMPACT, MOANING AS SHE DOES SO!

"And I'M not the one who looks at all the opportunities, all the blessings, all the advantages you've been gift-wrapped on a silver platter to by Theo Pryce and have your head so far up your own ass that you can't admit the fact that you have actively benefitted from it! It's not enough that this man gets to be blessed by a goddess, no, instead he makes excuses and fallacies saying that SOMEHOW each of the owners of the company he works at wouldn't have signed off for and pushed for a championship defense at a cross-promotional event!"

A long pause ensued, only broken up by the deep breath that rattled through into the camera before things continued.

"For someone who loves to go on about how I don't know a damn thing, you've shown time and again you know less than that."

"I owed up to the fact that I couldn't handle things before and ran. I've never shied away from that fact, and yet despite the fact that I haven't won a match ever since Relentless... I'm still here."[/i]

"And maybe... just maybe, if you saw even one single Finn Kühn promo instead of just watching your anime series, you'd know I've never been content to just survive. You'd know I've never even once hid my ambition behind humility unlike what you claim, even at my lowest point. You would know I have almost nothing to my name, but I've still been saying the same thing in every single one of my promos. You'd know, in fact, what my goals have ALWAYS BEEN."

"It's that I WILL BE-"

Finn Kühn in A New Start on August 22nd, 2022 Said:"I'm ready to correct my own wrongs. The first step is everything here, and I'm going to make it a successful one. And I'm going to kick, and fight, and claw my way back to getting the opportunities I squandered in my past."

"-THE BEST-"

Finn Kühn in A King Without a Crown on September 7th, 2022 Said:"Because it's about to be twenty-eight years. Twenty-eight years I've been alive, and I only have one accolade in this company among all that time I can show for myself. That's going to change... but I'm going to prove to myself first I have what it takes in order to stand among the heights in the XWF. Then, and only then, can I say this place is my empire, and I am the Kaiser."

"-OR I-"

Finn Kühn in Bullfighter, Part 1 on September 15th, 2022 Said:"I want to face this man at his best, so I can show him just what exactly this company has. We're going to steal the show together, and win or lose, I'm going to expand my own limits and get closer to figure I want to be - the Kaiser."

"-WILL BE-"

Finn Kühn in The Road of the King after the October 12th, 2022 Edition of Warfare Said:"I am going to face as many champions as I possibly can - current, prior, perhaps even future, you name it. Every show I place myself in for, I will be there and I will show everyone in the damn company just what I can do, what I am capable of, of showing the heights I will continue to be pushing myself towards while I have my ultimate goal in mind."

"-BROKEN!"

Finn Kühn in The Pursuit of Power on October 21st, 2022 Said:"I want people to look at this profession and think to themselves, 'Wow! That's what I want to do!' I want them to look at us and chase after the same power we're chasing now in this company and raise the bar higher and higher for years on end!"

"I want... to face the best. To put on matches that are the best. I want to make a new, brighter future for everyone possible."

"That is the Road of the King. The road of creating a new domain, one that is brighter for everyone."

"...That is what I am about, Raion Kido."

"Because no matter what I said... I still respect you. I respect what you're able to do in the ring. I respect that you've been able to go against the best. And I even respect the fact that, especially in comparison to many of the characters we have in this company... you as a human being almost always mean well. That is why I chose to face you. I'm choosing to have you be the one I challenged first on the Road of the King because I knew I wanted this to be against someone I had that burning respect for at the top of the company."

"...But you don't respect me. In fact, your words leading up to this showdown have been anything but respecting me. You've never once considered the possibility that you'll lose. You've never even once considered me as the opponent you need to worry about. In fact, all you've been wanting to talk about in the lead-up to this match is Bad Medicine and the man who's not even employed by the company and how you'll surely beat him."

"Raion Kido..."

"If you continue that mindset while we are fighting each other, you will lose."

"Because you can rattle off every match in a list you want to. You can rattle off every accomplishment you've gotten under the sun and compare it to my own puny list. But when we face off in that neighborhood..."

"I will spit in the face of that list and I will make you tap out."

"I've never been intimidated by an opponent. I will not start now. Raion Kido, I promise you, I will look you dead in the eye come the Nightmare on Savage Lane, and I will give you every ounce of what I am capable of. And I will keep fighting no matter what happens. Because the road to the top is a slow one, but I am a very patient man. Even if the world itself is against me, even if I were to take a dozen losses straight... I will keep climbing."

"Win or lose, Raion Kido, I will make you respect the name of Finn Kühn."


(Word Count: 3,000 per wordcounter.net)