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Prince Adeyemi · (03-25-2023)

Episode I - The Hunted Hunter

play the damn song.

Winners – Vagabond and Isaiah King

Isaiah rolls off Barney’s disgustingly sweaty body as quickly as he got himself on it as the bell rings. The referee reaches for his hand, but Isaiah keeps his limbs to himself and rolls out of the ring while the ref raises Vagabond’s hand alone.

The deed was done. They prey had been hunted.

Vagabond… Was not quite worth his time.

Isaiah makes his way up the ramp, shaking his head aggressively to get that eerie voice out of his head.

“Felt good to hunt, didn’ it? Go wilder, stalk deeper, crush harder.”

The haunting face of his coach was always at the edges of his vision, always egging him on and feeding his hunger.

Isaiah had spent the last few Warfares stalking his prey. Eyeing up the impression competition XWF had to offer. The likes of SAGA’s Raion, Thaddeus Duke and Ned Kaye, CCPE’s Peter Vaughn… Charlie Nickels. People he hadn’t beat – people he wasn’t sure he could beat, people he had to devour to claim his throne.

So, he fed his impulses, he chased after every next piece of succulent meat. Every well-cured, well-bred A5 professional wrestler. But none of them seemed… Quite it. He needed that first, addictive bite so that his hunger would go from unbearable to insatiable. So he’d never feel failure again, so he’d never experience that heart-wrenching thought of not having done enough.

So, when the call came from Theo to set up this match… His tastebuds were initially confused.

Jay Omega.

A man he had paid no attention to in the last few weeks, a slightly less familiar name than the likes of his other potentials.

Yet, it was a name that lasted far longer in the tournament than him. A name that defeated even the likes of Ex-King, Bobby Bourbon.

It was a name that reeked of strength, and Isaiah needed strength if he ever wanted a seat on the throne. His very own dose of high-quality, isolated protein.
The champions could wait.

It was time for the space gladiator course.

Omega was on the menu, and Isaiah had to prepare.

“A great feast requires grand preparation.”

A flickering fluorescent light reveals a dirty and cracked cement wall. It had LED’s plastered to it in geometric patterns. You hear the feint sound of a breathing apparatus KE-SHHH….KE-SSHH. The LED’s blink red and blue, a whole… is that cardboard??? dashboard of switches and dials brrr and beep behind him.

”Lord…King, the coordinates are set and we are prepared to leap into hyperdrive. On your command sir.”

The camera zooms out even further, to reveal a haphazardly put together grey… throne? Really it was a plastic chair with a grey sheet stretched over it and random planks for armrests. Isaiah is seated on it, wearing an ill-fitting nylon and spandex suit, with familiar silver, green and maroon trimmings.

“Wonderful, but do you think we can pitstop somewhere for me to pick up a beautiful, inter-galactic warrior-goddess to turn my couple into a… throuple?”

A slipper comes flying out from the side of the frame, striking Isaiah squarely on the forehead.

"But how come he gets…"

A flash of fear. He glances to the side of the camera and smiles apologetically.

“Read you loud and clear captain, no tentacled maidens this time. Ahem. Set course to our next target, coordinates ARR.L1NG.T0N, T3XA5. damn that was a mouthful. QUARTERMASTER!! Is the N.E.R.D ready for deployment, we have no time to waste upon touchdown.

Isaiah only gets silence in response.

I SAID QUARTERMAAASTER!

Yes, Is- Lord King, it is.

You can almost hear him roll his eyes.

“Wonderful, this pesky ol’ Omega isn’t going to know what hit him. All these years of traversing the multi-dimension, multi…space? Multi-uni”

“Multiverse.”

”Thank you. All these years traversing the multiverse has made him quite the slippery bit of prey, but a true hunter will find even the trickiest game!”

Isaiah places the dollar-Boba Fett helmet over his face, and it barely fits, cracking uneasily.

”Bear with me, the budgets been a little tight with the lack of my winner’s bonuses. That last match with Vagabond barely paid for the training camp. Even with a budding state like me in it, nobody really wants to see 4 mismatched men thrown into a ring together.”

King clears his throat once more and whips out a toy blaster from his waist, pointing it at the camera.

”Mr Omega, your days are numbered. You can fly from planet to planet, marry and woe as many-tentacled allegedly female women as you’d like but I will hunt you down. Sure you’re being paid to actually come to me, but work with this metaphor for a second, will you? I’ve put in some effort after all.”

He indicates at hos really low-effort cosplay.

”I’m not quite as well-connected in the intergalactic space, but based on your releases a lone it seems like you’re one to not be messed with. A man with many familiars, many victories across cultures and species. A man who has shared that same success, though to a lesser extent, here at the XWF.

You once said only the arguably legendary Corey Smith and Mark Flynn could take you down… But it seems like that list is growing.

Don’t get me wrong, you had me believing you when you dethroned the king himself Bourbon - I was excited to see another up-and-coming talent come and establish himself by taking some BIG names.
But then you stood across Sidney Grey and that rocket-powered trajectory came to an unfortunate halt.

Your arrogance led to engine failure.

Like the Columbia Space Shuttle, they sent your career to my doorstep.

Some of those other losers got given straight up title shots after being kicked out of the tournament.

You found yourself at the end of my blaster.

For contendership of a title that I’ve already won.

A title which led to my rise and my fall.

A title that started it all for me.

My first bounty, my first reward.”

Isaiah feels himself get carried away, leaning forward on his creaking throne and glaring into the camera directly.

”Defending that title at the grandest show of it all, the end of the year - the final show of its kind… And losing to Ned Kaye? Thats what broke me. Its what proved to me that trajectory is never what it seems - that there’s always an asteroid or faulty screw that can get in the way.

That can blow the WHOLE ship to smithereens.

It began my downward spiral into space.

Without an engine, navigator or destination - I spiralled.

Locked in carbonite, I couldn’t perform.

Ned Kaye, Jenny Myst… Dolly Waters.

Shot after shot that led to loss after loss.

They had to give me the non-team of Calypso and Barney to make sure the few fans I had left wouldn’t forget my name.

My captain… Chae had to beg Theo for a match.”

Getting those last few words out made Isaiah’s stomach curdle.

“And so we find ourselves in quite the similar predicament.

In the same… Trash compactor you might say.

Sure, you might try and fight it. You might say Sidney was just a bump on the road.

I know the rhetoric.

But really - we’re both on a one-way road to oblivion unless something changes.

Unless our shuttles run so hard into each other that your courses change forever.

…Ignore that slightly homo-erotic mental image you might’ve gotten.

But it’s the truth.

I need something to change and chasing after you is going to do it.

A few weeks ago, I trusted my gut and hunted Calypso and Barney to decimate them in a ring they’ve called home for far longer than I.

I trusted my gut and leaned into my instincts.

And my instincts tell me you’re the bounty to hunt.

You’ll be my way back to the prize I lost.

The title I lost to start this downward spiral.

It’ll put me BACK across the ring with Dolly Waters.

Your bounty will pay for my ticket to redemption.

I will conquer you Jay Omega and you’ll have absolutely nowhere to run come March Madness.

Get ready this bounty hunter’s insanity.”

Isaiah squeezes the trigger, expecting a large pop and something to fly out. When nothing happens, he looks down at the gun annoyed and chucks it at the camera. Knocking it back, before its caught by the comforting hands of Chaeryoung, his girlfriend and assistant.

The camera blurs out as it stumbles but you can still see Chae rolle her eyes as she steadies it. She has spacebuns on and looks like the most beautiful Princess Leia cosplay you’ve seen… Even though she didn’t spend any time on screen.

”Uhm, Isaiah, I’m not sure you can trash our equipment until you get a win… Either in the ring or outside of it. We’ve been taking too many losses, hun.”

Isaiah speaks up from somewhere off frame. The fun, laughter and eccentricity is no longer in his voice.

”Yeah, I’m aware. I’m working on it.”

Zeke, the second of Isaiah’s life-long friend and his sparring partner, speaks up.

”Was all of this really necessary Isaiah? Don’t we have better things to be spending our time on, like chasing down whoever is screwing with us from Empire.”

”Yeah why am I dressed like this, you didn’t even need me.”

”Step by step. First Omega, then Dolly… Then my title… Then.. HIM.”

[pink]”We have more worries than just your ring career, though.”

”I need to get back to winning - and I can only do that if you both let me focus.”

”This is what you call focus? This dumb Star Wars analogy??”

”I gotta get in his headspace if I want to hunt him. I’m a broke as kid from the hood, he’s some space-jumping superhero, if I gotta bring him down to earth, this is how I’m going to do it. Trust me.”

”We want to trust you… But, you’re not doing us any favours with all this… Odd behaviour.”

”You still hearing voices?”

”Ooh, they must’ve heard you talkin’ to me boy.”

”No, I’m done with that.”

”Nobody likes a liar.”

”Well if you’re not losing your mind, I think we’d both appreciate it if you acted like it. Stop with the stalking, the clownery… All of this. And lets actually strategise.”

”I have to get back to that ruthless killer that I used to be, back when we were ontop of the boxing world, back when we were running the streets, back when we had Pop’s-”

”POPS? You want to go back to brainless slave soldier Isaiah? Him dying was the best thing that happened to us.”

”You’re worrying us Iz.”

”Get off my back, I know what it felt like to be at my best - let me do what i gotta do. If you can’t find it in you to trust me now… I’ll jus thave to prove it. Be there in the front row at Arlington, I’ll show you why you can trust me.”

A computer begins to beep furiously.

”Damn, they’ve found us. Get your shit, Empire’s here.”

BLACK

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