Post by Mongo the Destroyer on Oct 29, 2020 20:42:50 GMT -6
If you want to see if real prettylike go to this link drive.google.com/file/d/0B-8YUmKSXvLBa1lsYUdDUWRzczQ/view?usp=sharing
That's the PDF version of the show and is downloadable. Shows even come with mp3 files built into the pdf for a more immersive viewing.
Onslaught #4
The Long Game: Of Kings and Pawns
Thamptis sits at his dining table alone.
If by alone, you mean being waited upon hand and foot by dozens of servants who bring him course after course of food and drink. He sits while regarding a red wine in a glass as he swirls it around.
Druscilla Bathory has broken her bonds to him and has swept Britain out the alliance with her.
Tsar Ionis Miranov is becoming more liability than asset with his inability to control his own nation.
Valora Salinas is still loyal with her nation, but how long before she becomes powerful enough to desire being on her own? Her rule is already drastically different than those other beings that has placed into positions of power.
As Thamptis muses over what move to make in the future, he rips into a haunch of veal with his teeth.
"You seem as if you need something to help you knock down your enemies one by one."
Thamptis looks around to see the intruder, but then goes back to his meal with a smile.
Thamptis: "Show youself Sikarin Tsooth. I recognize the tell tale of your power."
A blue mote of light floats into view before becoming the full form of Sikarin Tsooth with a bright flash as he appears in the seat by Thamptis. He looks over the food and drink with a chuckle.
Tsooth: "I had never gotten the feel of eating food or drink. I can do it, but it gives me no pleasure or nutrition."
Thamptis: "Did you come here to share the burdens of being a Immortal shapeshifter? I have things to do."
As Thamptis reaches for the veal again, Sikarin smirks. The roasted veal changes shape with popping noises as bones break and reform until the Eternal City of Asgard is represented in roasted young bovine flesh.
Tsooth: "I can deliver you passage into Asgard. You know when they defeated Hoskuld Lokison and his half-hearted attempt to raise an army of Uru transformed warriors that the defeated near invulnerable warriors were placed in a dungeon deep under the city? What could the Dark Warlock do with warriors with skin that nothing can pierce? Warriors beyond what you or your Little Brother could create?"
Thamptis narrows his eyes.
Thamptis: "The Uru of these warriors had been transformed into steel to ensure their defeat. I watched the battle."
Tsooth: "If you fall for one of Loki's more simple tricks, how can you consider yourself ready to bring Asgard down? It was an illusion. The warriors thought their skin was as steel. They thought that they died. The Uru warriors are stacked up like cord wood in the prisons below. They are ready for fresh minds to be placed inside of the bodies so that they can follow your commands."
Sikarin waves his hand and the corpse model of Asgard begins to burn with dozens of metal figurines bursting from the bottom of the city.
Tsooth: "An invincible army. Yours. What price would you pay for such a boon?"
Thamptis: "How can you get me into Asgard? I do not know the way and attempts to capture the Valkyrie wench have failed so far."
Tsooth: "You face your enemies head on. I find that doing such a thing is a waste of a valuable ally. Your enemies will do much for you in the name of heroism."
Thamptis flicks his wrist and the burning veal explodes into ashes that are taken by the wind out through a window.
Thamptis: "Why? Assuming that you can get me into Asgard. Why do you seek to help me? Am I the enemy doing your work for you or are the Asgardians doing your work for you? Is all this a plot to regain your apprentice?"
Tsooth: "My apprentice still has a part yet to play. She is of more value to me in Asgard than on Earth. No matter where she is, she yet remains mine. Can you say the same of yours?"
Thamptis slams his fist down onto the table, scattering the dishes there everywhere as his fire bursts into a green flame.
Thamptis: "I am at my full power now, Sikarin. Do not think that if I used it against you now that you will fare as well as you did five years ago."
Tsooth: "You do not make me fear. You throw your power around like a thug using his club. No finesse with you. As powerful as you say you are and yet you act like a common schoolyard bully on a larger scale."
Thamptis: "Stop this nonsense. Stop it or else!"
Sikarin chuckles, his form rippling and opening up rifts across his body with sound coming from each until his laughter is as a chorus.
Tsooth: "You'll do what? Hmm? Destroy another island to show your anger? Bring down another Stone Rain?"
Thamptis: "If I direct my power upon your Citadel, your secret source of power will be destroyed."
Tsooth: "Don't be silly. And should you dare send a whisp of power at my Citadel. You'll see my power at last. The mystics I gather and have used. The power I gain from them is pleasure at their pain and a power source that masks my own. Tell your reborn Dread Dragon that she isn't stealthy."
There is a scream of rage off to the side of the room and a flash of blue light. Tendrils of stone turned liquid drag a knocked out Tabitha Osborne to the table before lifting her up and tossing her into a chair. Thamptis can see that the tendrils are connected to Sikarin Tsooth himself as they are drawn back into him.
Thamptis: "She was drawing on the power of the Dread Dragon! She wasn't playing mortal like she does in that wrestling ring! It took armies and weapons of great power to-"
Tsooth: "Don't lecture me on power, boy. What I want to know right now is if you want the way into Asgard and if you can meet my price."
Thamptis looks away from the downed Tabitha. She was bringing up her power gained from her merging with the Dread Dragon when she was beaten.
Thamptis: "What is your price?"
Tsooth: "Finally. When the time comes and the portal to Asgard is clear for you to to sends your hordes, I want you to actually leave this castle and do something for yourself for a change. Lead the fight to the Asgardians personally."
Thamptis seems to consider for a time before smiling.
Thamptis: "I have not been personally on the field of battle since...a very long time. This is a strange cost, but it is one that I find acceptable. Do you need anything else? When can this portal be opened?"
Sikarin motions to the empty silver platter where the veal had sat. The surface of the silver platter seems to shimmer as a miniature version of the sun rises on one end of the plate, travels through the air in a high arc, and sinks back into the platter as a miniature moon rises. It too arcs through the sky, setting as the sun rises. The process of day and nights speeds as Sikarin whispers in a language older than even Thamptis could understand. When he is finished, he smiles at the Dark Warlock.
Tsooth: "It might be a number of months to complete the ritual to exploit the weakness I have seeded. I have one remaining artifact that a champion of mine is getting ready to go get."
Thamptis runs his fingers through the silver platter, noting that the fluid runs deep and is cool as fresh spring water.
Thamptis: "Dare you not go and get this relic yourself? You do have the power to do so?"
Sikarin leans back with a laugh. He utters a word that solidifies the silver platter. Thamptis pulls his fingers out of the platter with a curse before anything bad happens to his hand.
Tsooth: "And what would be the fun in that? It is thought that this artifact can only be touched by a Man of Faith. The advantage of having been around before mortals began documenting history is that I can create all the myths and legends that I want and pass them down through my different shapes to listening ears. Oh the lies I have told just so I could have things play out in the way I wanted them to thousands upon thousands of years later. It's beyond your narrow view of the long game."
Thamptis grits his teeth, weary of being insulted by the sorcerer.
Thamptis: "Then you will contact me when you are ready with the portal?"
Sikarin's eyes blaze bright red as he smiles. A sense of triumph is there. It is plain, but why? Little has made sense since he had entered the room.
Tsooth: "If we are finished here. I must be on my way."
Sikarin Tsooth stands up and turns as if to walk away.
He began by insulting and belittling the power Thamptis had. The price he wishes for his help does not directly benefit him. Nor does it indirectly since he stands to gain little.
Lilly was his. His master still dead. He had stated that he had little interest in the Dark Warlock's war before.
What is the missing link?
"Why?"
The word slips out of Thamptis's mouth before he could stop it and stops Sikarin Tsooth from leaving as it were a blade pressed to his heart.
Tsooth: "When you set things into motion over five thousand years before. You sometimes want to see them through."
Thamptis stares at Sikarin Tsooth as he fades away. Was that an answer? Was that anything? A clue?
Thamptis cries out in rage, destroying all of the gathered dishes on his table with a fiery spell. He sits back down in his seat. He notices that his table has been scorched with his spell and sighs as he tries to recall the simple spell it took to make the repairs.
It has been so long since he repaired. Since he healed. It has been war, destruction, vengeance, and murder since...since...
Since he was forced out of Memphis with his brothers so long before. So very long.
Thamptis sits up as he sees the scorch marks on the table slowly move. Table burns as table heals, smoke slowly trailing into the air as a picture starts to form and move.
Moscow, Russia...Vladomir Putin stands and watches reports come in that nothing had so far stopped Carthage in its march from Egypt on its way to Rome. A man brings a paper report to Putin. He seems to look at Thamptis himself once the report is delivered and his eyes change if only for a second.
Sikarin Tsooth
There is no sound, but Thamptis can still determine what was said.
"The Americans say that it will require a volley of many nuclear missiles to bring the castle down. If we fire ours, then they will fire theirs. The United Nations will be forced to follow through with the plan or else it may not work."
Sikarin Tsooth wanted the Stone Rain? How did he know how Thamptis would react to the assault?
The scorch marks shift yet again.
A man meets with Khonsu and selling him the location of the Sunstone. Again, this man who looked different from the one who had advised Putin, looks "off camera" at Thamptis and shifts just enough for him to know.
Sikarin Tsooth.
What's going on here? Why is he involved at all?
The burns scars on the table change once again.
This time a raiding party strikes at the Vatican City. A man in the trappings of a barbarian on a horse with a sword held in the air leads the charge. He's calling for the capture of the Sunstone to sell to one of the alternate names used by Khonsu over the years. The battle was the latest in a series of attacks that prompted the Sunstone being moved to what later became Ireland.
Thamptis: "So, he had manipulated my freeing and the ruin of this world."
It still begged the simple question.
Why?
As the scorch marks change once again, Thamptis watches with anticipation.
The scene changes to a young apprentice in the House of the Jade Tiger being taught different spells. But the spell book he is given is different. There is a hand written spell at the back of the book. A spell not shared with any other students. Thamptis feels his anger build as the teacher looks at the camera and recognition of the young student comes to him. The very spellcaster who had cursed him!
The scenes start changing faster now as secrets are laid bare on the burnt table one by one.
Cato the Elder looks upon the camera as he begins his crusade to destroy Carthage.
Different Roman politicians as their petty jealousy for the growing wealth of Carthage is made worse by a single man.
A respected man in Luxor as he exposes the Three Brothers for their powers and capitalizes on the fear of the people to get the Three exiled.
In the depths of an ancient arena in Luxor as Sikarin Tsooth himself does the finishing spells to create the portal to another world.
As the burn scars in the table fade away as if they were never there, Thamptis stares out into space.
The Long Game...everything has turned out the way Sikarin Tsooth has wanted it to. What will he gain from the destruction of the Asgardians? Or has he gained anything from these manipulations over the centuries?
Tabitha Osborne sits up with a moan, holding her head.
Osborne: "Where did that little bastard go? I'm gonna cut him! Hey, Big Bro? Where did he go?"
Thamptis: "Leave me, Tabitha."
Tabitha stands up with her knife in hand and a snarl.
Osborne: "No one calls me by my-what?"
Thamptis looks at Tabitha, anger clouding his features. She sees a sudden burst of green fire.
Thamptis: "LEAVE ME!"
We go to the outside of the castle where a green fire explosion from within comes out from near the middle of the castle. A lone projectile is sent through the air where it flies for nearly a hundred miles before slamming into the ground like a missile.
Tabitha rolls onto her back inside of a deep crater. She smiles even as the effort cracks open burnt skin.
Osborne: "Now, we're cooking with gas..."
The New Apex Aquadome
From the Shadows
Deep beneath the Irish Sea, a British Luxury Submarine glides through the still waters. Drsucilla sits at the large port to loo upon the sea floor below. At her side is Lord Nebiryau of Carthage. This despite Druscilla's betrayal of Carthage at the Conflict for the Crown.
Druscilla: "Your siblings would not be very pleased with you being here at my side as we inspect the rebuilt Apex Aquadome. Shouldn't you be planning to invade my country and make me pay once again?"
Nebiryau smiles, laying his hand upon Druscilla's. He feels the warmth of her blood and knows that he had his own hand in transforming Druscilla into what she is today.
Nebiryau: "My siblings know where I am. They probably assume that I am working to convince you to come back into the fold. To realign with Carthage."
Druscilla: "Is that what you're doing?"
Nebiryau: "No. It is not what you want and I wish no more to try than I would seek to drink the ocean this vessel glides through."
Druscilla smiles, looking through the window once again. She frowns as she sees nearly flat discs upon the floor of the sea.
Druscilla: "When Terel Walker ordered that the Apex Aquadome be rebuilt, I thought it would at least be as large as the last. I had people come down here to seize control, but they did not say that the venue was so small. Which one of these tiny locations you suppose he managed to fit an arena in?"
Nebiryau sakes his head with a light chuckle. He presses a button on a cell phone to send a message.
Nebiryau: "I had only done some light reading on the man and even I know better than that. Walker was a man who didn't do things in half-measures."
Druscilla: "Then where is-what?"
Druscilla watches in wonder as great towers of steel and glass begin rising up from the sea floor. She grips Nebiryau's hand painfully tight as the towers slowly rise from the sea floor to break through the surface of the Irish Sea.
Druscilla: "You kept this secret from me. It's why you are here!"
Nebiryau: "I wanted to look upon you as you saw this for the very first time. It's a wondrous thing here."
Druscilla looks down to see Nebiryau holding both of her hands. He isn't looking at the Apex Aquadome at all as he speaks.
Nebiryau: "There are few beings in the world or the next that bring such unimaginable passions from me as you do. Bitter hatred, spellbinding lust, blazing anger, and love so deep that the center of this world could not reach its depths. We are at war, and yet I cannot bring myself to leave your side. My loyalty is to my siblings as it is to you. I cannot convince you to bring Britain to Carthage, but I can try to convince my Elder Brother to cease this senseless war and destruction. It will bring nothing but sorrow to us all. My sorrow would be without end should harm come to you most of all."
Druscilla seems spellbound as Nebiryau speaks, though no powers have been used to try to sway her.
Druscilla: "What are you saying?"
Nebiryau pulls a hand away, sliding from his seat to one knee as he draws a small box from a belt pouch. He opens it to reveal a golden ring with a Black Hole Diamond set upon it.
Nebiryau: "Be my bride, Druscilla. Let none question our love and let it be the reason this war ends."
Druscilla's face pales and for the first time in centuries, for the first time in nearly a thousand years, she trembles.
Druscilla: "I-"
Coin of Faith and Willpower
As the plane powers down inside of the hangar for the Tower of Faith, Father Nathan O'Connell, Mary, and Father Abnar Kareem step out of the plane to be greeted by a man in the armor of the Inquisition. An Elite Shocktrooper in dark armor that is engraved in symbols of faith with golden chains with crosses and small parchments with Bible passages written on them decorating the armor. He takes the helmet off as he sees the trio, hoding it under his arm. He is a pale white man with sandy blonde hair. He smiles at them.
"My name is Burt Williams. The Cardinal was not expecting anyone to come from the church at this time, but he is willing to meet with you in his office upstairs. I'll just take you too him."
As Burt turns to walk, Father Nathan cocks his head to look at him.
Father Nathan: "Shouldn't you check us for weapons or the like?"
Williams: "Why? Do you mean the Cardinal harm?"
Father Nathan: "Well, no. But-"
Williams: "I'm sure you're fine. Besides, there are few weapons on this world that might give the Cardinal pause..."
Father Nathan, Mary, and Father Abnar Kareem follow Burt Williams to the elevator. Father Nathan keeps glancing to Father Kareem, remembering words told to him by Daniel, the Angel of Death, before he met the Ethiopian Priest to begin this journey.
Daniel: "If you go on this quest, do not give the coin to Father Kareem. He is far more than he seems and less than he reveals. Mariano Urizar should not have the Coin of Faith and Willpower, this much is true, but neither should Abnar Kareem."
Once they all get into the elevator, Father Nathan places himself between Mary and Father Kareem. Out of instinct mostly, since he hasn't really said anything or even looked to Mary that much that he knows of.
The elevators open to reveal Cardinal Urizar's floor sized office. The man himself sits at his desk in the center of the room where he looks up from a lap top screen with a smile.
It is not a smile of warmth and welcome, but more of the calculating smile of a predator.
Urizar: "Father Nathan. I have heard much about your talents. I am honored to have this meeting with you today. What is it that you have come so far to see me about?"
Mary: "We have come because the church needs a magical coin that you have found to become strong again. We could sit around here all day and exchange pleasant lies, but we have come to ask that you hand over the coin in peace."
Father Nathan shakes his head. The woman doesn't have a single bone of guile or tact in her body.
Father Nathan: "What she means to say is-"
Urizar: "You want the Coin of Faith and Willpower? You think I should just hand it over to the church? The coin that has increased my own power here?"
Father Nathan: "Well-"
Mary: "Yes! Can we have it?"
Mariano reaches into a desk drawer, pulling out an old coin. He motions for Father Nathan to come over and simply hands him the coin. Father Nathan can hear the slight gasp behind him coming from Burt Williams as it seems that he really had not expected this to happen.
Urizar: "My Faith is unshakeable, no matter what happens. The Church on the other hand, needs what they can get. Use it well, Father Nathan."
As Father Nathan turns around, he sees Father Abnar Kareem standing before him with his hand out.
Kareem: "It was a far simpler job than I had thought. Now, give me the coin and we can go home."
Father Nathan shakes his head, placing the coin in his pocket.
Father Nathan: "I don't think that I can do that. Who are you really, Father Kareem? Someone who works for Carthage?"
Father Abnar Kareem lowers his hand, his expression growing darker.
Kareem: "I would not work for such short sighted fools and their brute of a leader. I work for my God surely as you work for yours. Now hand me the coin."
Father Nathan: "Your God, My God? They are the same are they not?"
Father Abnar Kareem laughs, shaking his head.
Kareem: "Oh would that it be only true, Father Nathan. Then we would not be standing here and having this discussion. Give me the coin."
Urizar: "I will not have False Priests in my office. I would expect that you would reveal yourself for the truth, Kareem. If you will not, then Burt Williams will be forced to fill you full of blessed lead."
A tendril of inky darkness shoots from Father Abnar Kareem's back to speak Burt Williams into the crotch and out through the top of his head. He grabs Marry, pulling her backwards before revealing that he has a knife to her throat. The tendril quickly retreats back into his body.
Kareem: "I do not take well to threats, Urizar. Father Nathan, hand me the coin, or else your little friend dies."
Mary struggles to get away, but finds that she cannot get out of Abnar Kareem's steel grasp. Instead, she screams.
Mary: "Don't give him the coin!"
Mariano Urizar stands up from his seat.
Urizar: "What is the meaning of this?"
Father Nathan doesn't spend much time in consideration. He hands the coin over to Father Abnar Kareem, who begins laughing as he releases Mary who rushes to Father Nathan's side.
Kareem: "Do you think that little Mary here would also be planning on just asking for Terel Walker back, or did you plan on evading guards to go down below to search?"
Urizar: "What?"
Father Abnar Kareem's features seem to melt and reform with a long wooden staff that's topped with a dragon claw holding onto a blue glowing sphere with a human skull within that seems to be laughing. By the end of the transformation, we can see that it is Sikarin Tsooth.
Tsooth: "Come now, Father Nathan. The truth worked for Mary. Didn't it? Maybe he is tired of playing with Walker and just gives the man up."
Father Nathan spares a glance back at Cardinal Urizar and notes the rage building up in the man. This is going to get unpleasant really quick. He summons his cross into his hands, changing it into a gun before pointing it at Sikarin Tsooth.
Father Nathan: "We don't have time to waste with words. Give the coin back."
Cardinal Mariano Urizar walks around his desk, standing off to the side between Father Nathan and Sikarin Tsooth.
Urizar: "Why are you here, Sikarin? You wanted the coin? You could have just asked for it, you know. I owe you so much in favors."
Tsooth: "I know, but this was more...satisfying. Now that I have the coin...Father Nathan and Mary also wanted to get Terel Walker from your clutches. Chew on that info."
He turns back to Father Nathan with a laugh.
Tsooth: "That gun won't hurt me, boy. If you get past the Cardinal here, you won't be able to use the elevators to get down. I'll repay you for your help in getting me the coin."
Sikarin waves his staff and a bolt of blue energy strikes the floor. The explosions can be heard floor by floor as the bolt speeds down into the unholy depths of the Tower of Faith.
Tsooth: "Goodbye, Nathan. I'll let the church know that their hero did not die in vain."
Sikarin Tsooth fades away as Father Nathan opens fire. He turns, but is lifted up when a large hand grasps the barrel of the cross. He quickly finds himself looking into the eyes of Cardinal Urizar with his feet at least a good two to three feet off of the ground.
Urizar: "Did Anderson send you? Was the three legged swine too cowardly to return to my sanctum on his own and send you here to die in his stead?"
Before Father Nathan can reply, Mariano lets out a grunt of pain, dropping Father Nathan back to the floor. He looks back to see Mary holding onto a bloody knife.
Urizar: "I like my guest right where he is. Oh the glorious pain I have inflicted upon him for his trespass with my own hands. He will find his way into Heaven soon enough, but not before I burn the last of his sins out of him."
Father Nathan: "It doesn't work like that. Nothing you do here works like that! You do not do God's work! Now release Terel Walker or I will shoot you where you stand! This has been granted to me by Daniel. It is a weapon that you should fear."
Cardinal Urizar places a hand on the end of the heavy cross with a dark smile.
Urizar: "Who do you think helped me build this place? These people work themselves to their graves and die for the cause. Their blood and cancers are spilled upon holy ground so that their souls can be cleansed of their sins at the last. They rise to Heaven while I maintain this mortal Hell on behalf of Daniel and God!"
Father Nathan opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. Mary, on the other hand, has no such qualms.
Mary: "He lies!"
Mariano sneers, shoving Father Nathan backwards by the gun to slam into the desk. He turns, backhanding Mary to send the knife spiraling out of her hand. He catches it, though it looks more like a toy in his large hand.
Urizar: "You can ask him when I kill you both."
Father Nathan stands up, his fists glowing bright. He strikes Mariano in the jaw, knocking him back a few feet. He launches in to continue his assault, but Mariano catches a fist in his hand.
Urizar: "Power of the Divine channeled through your body. Do not be fooled, you strike not a follower of the Enemy. You strike at one of God's Most Faithful!"
Mariano crushes the fist in his hand, bringing Father Nathan down to his knees.
Urizar: "Let's play a game. Shall we? You get Walker and get him back up to the hangar where your plane awaits. I will let you go. I shall send Mary to the plane to await news that you had died..."
Mariano lifts Father Nathan up by the hand, and tosses him into the hole made by Sikarin Tsooth.
Urizar: "Take the short way down, O'Connell."
Mary picks up the cross left behind by Father Nathan and points it at Mariano. Tears rolls down her cheeks as she readies to open fire.
Mary: "That was no game! You killed him!"
Urizar: "You fire that and I will kill you. Go down to the plane and wait for news. Your Father Nathan might yet live to see why he will never leave here with my prize...down from in the depths of Faith."
Opening
The lights in the arena go out and everyone mills about in silence as they wait for proceedings to begin. A glowing static begins to fill the air, not from the JumboTron, but holographic projections into the very air above the heads of fans that reveal the sea around them in all of its glory from the floor up with oceanic life swimming in and out of view.
The crowd seem to all hold their breath at the same time before letting it all out in an overwhelming cheer. This is when the JumboTron lights up with one of the most unusual (and light hearted) songs for an Onslaught opening.
Once the song is finished, the JumboTron and Holographic Light Show fade with the lights turning back on. We go down to ringside where sit Jane Coughlin and Neil Dizon.
Dizon: "That was...wicked."
Coughlin: "Walker spared no expense in getting this place built to eclipse the last place."
Dizon: "I think Anderson and Warhammer Wrestling were footing the bill for the rebuild and so Walker wanted to stick it to the man for getting the first Apex Aquadome destroyed."
Coughlin: "That might be. Well, we have some debut matches tonight. We have a long awaited tag team match of Kronin and Lilly against Valora and Zolothach. And our main event features the return of Jessica Tendonin to the ring in defending her IWA Bloodstain title against Iro Waters!"
Dizon: "Cyborg against Dragon Lady. It'll be a bloody one! Buy your splatter guards!"
Coughlin: "I'm sure it won't get that bad."
Dizon: "You remember how bad it was when Iro took on Zolothach? Yeah, it can get that bad."
Coughlin: "Well, 'et's head down to the ring where we have Red Mantis debuting against Brice St Vient. Both men are waiting in he ring for the bell to ring to start the match!"
St Vient vs Mantis
As the bell rings to start the match, Brice St Vient seems to be just holding the corner up. He stands leaning forward with both of his hands on the ropes while facing the corner. Red Mantis comes up behind him, but Brice backs out of the corner with an elbow to the side of Red's head. He spins around while grabbing Red's arm, and pulling him into a short arm clothesline.
Coughlin: "I heard that Druscilla made a special stipulation for this match."
Dizon: "Do you remember what it was?"
A boy and a girl stand at ringside while holding hands. Brice St Vient stops beating Red Mantis into the mat long enough to look at them.
Dizon: "Where the heck did they come from?"
Coughlin: "No idea."
Boy and Girl: "We came to sing!"
Dizon: "*Beep!* Don't people tend to die when they sing?"
The boy and girl point at Brice St Vient, who stands and watches them while ignoring Red Mantis.
Boy and Girl: "He's coming to kill you!"
Two steel chairs flash over the security railing to brain both the boy and the girl. They crumple to the mat as man and a woman step over the railing. Security just nod at them as they lay into the unnatural children with the chairs. They are joined by more people, all armed with steel chairs.
Dizon: "A ring invasion and security does nothing?"
Coughlin: "I would say that this has been passed by Druscilla."
Brice is caught by Red Mantis pulled over into a back suplex with a bridge for the pinfall.
One...Two...Brice kicks out.
Both Brice St Vient and Red Mantis stand up to continue fighting, but Red Mantis catches a steel chair to the back of the head. Brice turns to see more chair wielding fans come into the ring, but they ignore him.
Fans: "We come to sing!"
Red Mantis slowly starts getting up, but is planted onto the mat with another chair shot, and another, and another.
Fans: "We come to sing in harmony with our chairs!"
Dizon: "Umm..."
Coughlin: "Just watch..."
Red Mantis starts to rise again, but nearly a dozen chair shots put him back on the mat with blood streaming from several wounds. One of the fans rolls Red Mantis over with his foot to get another location to strike as the fans hit him over and over with steel chairs. Then, as one, they back away to allow Brice St Vient to go for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Brice St Vient slips out of the ring, heading to the back while shaking his head.
Dizon: "I still don't get it."
"Bloodlines" by Slayer begins...
Coughlin: "I think you'll find out now."
Druscilla walks out onto the entrance stage as Red Mantis starts slowly pulling himself up by the ropes.
Druscilla: "Red Mantis. Welcome to the IWA. I know it isn't the kind of welcome that you thought that you would get, but it is no less than what you deserve. You had a grand old time during the Conflict for the Crown when my security was uncertain of who they would be calling boss. Didn't you? You thought that you could cut a quick promo to help bring yourself into the company. This was fine. Cutting a bloody swath through my people was not. Hundreds dead. Then, you thought you could murder some of my staff while we were readying for this show! The fans in the ring with you now are some of my strongest supporters who lost family during your little self-introduction. They want to share their loss with you by taking away any chance you might have had for a debut win here. You will live, but you will wish you hadn't. You may continue..."
Druscilla turns and heads to the back. Red Mantis backs into the corner, looking around him at the fans with blood stained steel chairs close in on him.
Fans: "We sing a song of vengeance!"
We go back to Jane Coughlin and Neil Dizon as blood splatters across the floor from in the ring to land on the table.
Dizon: "Gross..."
Coughlin: "You think that Mantis learned something here?"
Dizon: "Was it cut new and different promos instead of rehashing the same thing over and over? Or was it the killing?"
Coughlin: "I think it was the killing? What about the promos? Was that important?"
Dizon: "You know what? He'll figure it out."
Down in the Depths
Father Nathan is falling.
That he is falling is certain. Where exactly he is falling to is not. The floors within the Tower of Faith pass by in a blur.
That he is falling as fast as he can possibly fall is fact. He would consider what this deadly falling speed is by name, but names really don't matter by this point. Only that when he lands, if he lands, that not one piece of him is going to remain connected to another piece of him.
This must have been how Lucifer felt when he was cast from the Heavens.
While he can't make out details in the individual floors as they slip by faster than the eye can see, he notices a color change. Where the upper floors were a lot of whites and golds, it has changed to tans and steels to reds and brass.
Father Nathan feels piercing pain in his back in a pair of locations at his shoulder blades and a whisper in his ear.
"Where is your God now? Does he send his Angelic Host to come save you from your impending doom? Will he save you at the last moment by stopping the very Law of Gravity so his champion might live to save the day?"
Father Nathan frowns. He saw the sorcerer leave. How is he-
Father Nathan: "Sikarin Tsooth?"
"When your God sent his most beloved champion down from the Heavens, do you think he spared a single thought to whether or not the Angel who stood at his right side would survive the fall? That he would care that the being that most understood His Will in the entire cosmos would last beyond the impact from the Fall?"
Father Nathan: "God did not banish Lucifer to watch him die! He-"
"Just didn't care once Lucifer was beyond his Heaven. He didn't care that the Angel that He loved the most amongst His entire Host would exist anymore. You are not even loved to that extent. You are but a single mortal amongst the trillions that have already passed through His Golden Gates. Why would you matter to one such as Him?"
"It was the divine flesh that made up all angels that allowed Lucifer and his brethren to survive the Fall. Since He who you send your Faith to will not spare a single mote of energy to keep you alive long enough to serve Him in the capacity that He has chosen for you. I will!"
Father Nathan feels a burning pain in his shoulders as they seem to grow until his downward momentum is jerked upward for a second. He spares a look over his own shoulder to see obsidian wings sprouted from his back that help him glide to the bottom of the hole.
Once his feet land on the floor of an empty room, the wings begin to fade.
"You would do well to remember who saved you on this day, O'Connell. It was not the being that you send your Faith and Love, but a being that you send your Hate and Disdain. One day I will call upon you to repay this favor. And repay you will or break your pact with your God forever for that one last act of defiance. Then He will care about you even less than He does now. You know what He hath done to the Angel he had loved the most, what will he do to the single mortal soul that he loves the least?"
Father Nathan feels his pain subside as the wings fade away into nothing, though the words spoken echo in his mind and in his heart.
A lesser man might have broken. A lesser Priest might have fallen into despair at the "truths" spoken.
Father Nathan is neither of these. His Faith remains strong in the face of lies. In the face of such twisting of words and intent that the beginning of his speech met the end of it several times before it was over.
He looks around the room to see that the walls are a dark red with brass trim. Combine that with the increased temperature of the room makes it seem as if he had indeed fallen into Hell itself. The decor of the room would make one think of a small office, though the desk that would have been in the room is shattered into smoking pieces along with any other furniture in the room. The floor is a large scorch mark that has burnt paint away to reveal the very bedrock of the Earth.
He opens the one door into the room and it leads out into a long hallway that is full of doors off to the sides. There is a door on either side of the hallway, though one is of plain wood with the symbol of a stairway and other other is a dark brass that's stained with the passage of countless years.
That seems like the way to go.
As Father Nathan walks down the hallway, he hears muted typing and conversations from the rooms that he passes. To what end these office workers and working toward in the bowels of this unholy place is anyone"s guess.
He arrives at the door and notes with curiosity that the door is not locked with any security measures. Though, he does consider the simple fact that if one has made it down to this dire level of the Tower of Faith by normal means that it is because that they have the proper security credentials to enter this room...
...Or are being dragged into it.
Father Nathan slowly opens the door, grunting as he is greeted by a blast of thick humid heat that brings a sheen of sweat upon his skin on contact. This is followed by pained screaming and wailing that stab at his soul.
It is not without effort that Father Nathan fights off the wave of dizziness and nausea to enter the hall and close the door behind him.
The hallway is dimly lit by electric torches, the light flickering through a near tangible haze against the dark red paint and tarnished brass in the hallway. The hallway is lined with doorways, a cacophony of terrible pain and anguish coming through barred windows of tarnished brass doors.
Thinking through scriptures of the Bible and stories told to him as a youth, Father Nathan could not imagine a place that more personified Evil and Hell than the place he was now standing in.
The enormity of the task now facing Father Nathan was enough to give him pause. There was nearly two dozen doors that he could see along with many hallway junctions that led to even more rooms by no doubt. There could be many more such doors with prisoners being tortured by Urizar's people for one slight or another. How was he to find Terel Walker and escape with him? How was he to even consider leaving these other poor souls behind, who were probably just as innocent as Walker of the crimes they were condemned to such a horrible fate for?
Father Nathan began by looking through the barred window of the closest door. The sight made him want to turn his head and vomit.
Two dark mishapen beings stood on either side of a man, he supposed that it is a man, and work on stripping him bare to the bones layer by layer. They have left his face free and so Father Nathan could see that he was not Terel Walker. He could not imagine the kind of pain that this victim was in with layers of skin and muscle being hung up on a line next to the tortured man with clips for display of what they have taken from him.
Father Nathan closes his eyes, uttering a silent prayer to ease the man's pain. He knows that even if he were to free the man now, that he would not survive long as too much damage had been done to his body.
He walks across the hall to the door mirroring the first. He feels his gorge rise even higher, but keeps control of himself. Two more dark misshapen beings hold a wooden bowl each. One pours a black tar-like ooze into a man's forced open mouth and one holds a bowl by the naked man's ass.
One the foul liquid is all poured in, the man screams in pain, blood pouring out of his mouth and dripping off of his chin. Within seconds, the man by his ass collects the foul substance into his bowl. The creatures exchange bowls and the process begins again.
Father Nathan shakes his head, backing away from the door. This isn't going to be the way that he can find Terel Walker before being discovered because he let loose the sickness he has been trying to hold back or letting out a shout of rage.
Father Nathan stands in the middle of the hallway and shuts his eyes and tries to block out the sounds of suffering around him so he can focus.
In the absence of all Light. When one is surrounded by an Evil so deep and dark that there seems to be no way through to see the morning, then there is only the Light of Faith left. If his own eyes would fail him, the his Faith in God could guide him.
Father Nathan walks blindly down the hallway and turns. He walks straight down a side passage, turns, and stops. When he opens his eyes, he can see Terel Walker laying in a bed with four dark misshapen things around him. A screen above the bed is positioned with a built in webcam. Presumably so that the Cardinal can visit with Walker without actually having to come down here.
Terel Walker lays on the bed with his clothes neatly folded onto a nearby table. A lot of wires hand down with little glittering spheres on the end. On many, the ends cannot be seen as they have been inserted into various shallow wounds on the man. He thrashes about as one being turns to a monitor, pressing some buttons. Father Nathan can hear the high pitched tone of electricity being poured into Walker's body in short bursts.
Father Nathan tests the door and opens it slowly as to not alert the creatures in the room. He slowly closes the door behind him. When it clicks closed, one of the dark creatures looks to the door to see him.
Father Nathan can see the creature for what it is. A humanoid creature mishapen by a life of being tortured, skin darkened by a deep burn scars and cancers, and eyes with a swirling madness.
Father Nathan gets into a fighting stance, but the creature does not come at him. It instead turns the screen to face him. The grinning visage of Cardinal Mariano Urizar is plain to see.
Urizar: "My little Lucifer has survived his fall! Your little friend who has your gun will be most pleased to see you one last time before you die. I have placed a few phone calls around the world to reveal your treacherous ways in attempting to murder a high placed man of the cloth. Even after you die here, your name won't amount to soiled toilet paper!"
A small smile crosses Father Nathan's face.
Father Nathan: "Those of True Faith will only need to look into their hearts to see what is true. They will know what you are not."
Cardinal Urizar sneers.
Urizar: "It matters not! You will not survive hundreds of floors to get back up here to your girl! And when you are dead, I will tell her of your death myself, and then she will join you in the afterlife!"
The four dark beings turn as one and launch themselves at Father Nathan.
He catches the first one with a right cross across the jaw. Blood and other dark fluids erupt from the ruptured skin.
One of the dark beings slams a fist into Father Nathan's chest with enough force to knock him back into the wall. The other two come at him with blades and bring two of the hanging wires.
He sidesteps one slash, grabbing the creatures arm, and slamming the knife into the underside of the jaw of the other knife wielding creature. He grabs the dying creature's knife and sweeps back to open the first one's belly with a diagonal sweep.
He takes the knife, throwing it to sink it to the hilt in another creature's eye.
The last creature backs away from Father Nathan to stand by Terel Walker. He holds the control panel with a growl.
"Your friend will die if you come any closer!"
Father Nathan shakes his head.
Father Nathan: "Step away and you can leave in peace."
The creature looks at Father Nathan in shock.
"You won't kill me?"
Father Nathan: "Not if you don't attack me. I am here to get him out of here, not cause bloodshed."
The dark creature slowly steps away from the table and to the door. When he sees that Father Nathan doesn't strike him down, he produces a card from his robe.
"This will get you to floor just below the ground floor in the main elevator. That is the top level of the Depths of Faith and is the highest that me and my people can go."
Father Nathan accepts the card with a whispered blessing of thanks as the creature leaves the room. He walks to stand next to Terel Walker, removing the wires one at a time, and sewing closed the wounds.
Once the last one is closed, Terel opens his eyes and smiles.
Walker: "Hey, Nathan. If this is all to ask about a raise...you got it."
Father Nathan shakes his head with a chuckle.
Father Nathan: "We can discuss financials later. Let's get you dressed and up first. We have just a few floors to go to get to the plane at the hangar bay."
Terel sits up on the side of the bed, looking through his clothes to start getting dressed when he does a double take.
Walker: "The Hangar Bay? You know how far up that is from here? I was given a wheel chair tour of this place before they began the torture! I'm pretty sure I saw strange window things that showed lava flows outside of this building down here in the Depths-"
Father Nathan: "Of Faith."
Walker: "What?"
Father Nathan: "The Depths of Faith. Both the Cardinal and one of the creatures here with you called it that. All of the basement floors in fact. The Depths of Faith. There is no Height of Faith that can be without comparison to the Depths. No Heaven without Hell. To rise above this, we must have Faith in ourselves. Ourselves and this key card..."
Terel looks at the car with a grin.
Walker: "Whatever raise you were thinking of asking for? Double it."
Father Nathan: "This doesn't get us to the Hangar, but we will be closer. We'll move once you get dressed."
Father Nathan looks out through the door and into the hallway as Terel gets dressed. The hallway is clear and so getting to the elevator might be simple enough. Though once they get to the top level of the Depths of Faith, they will need to find another card or another way to continue up. It doesn't sound like it will be a very fun time.
Father Nathan: "Lord, protect us. This will be a journey most perilous..."
Hudson vs Zadian
Theobald: "This next match is scheduled for one fall! Featuring first, hailing from Moscow, Idaho...Stephanie Hudson!"
"I Will Not Bow" By Breaking Benjamin begins playing as Stephanie walks out from the back and to the ring. The crowd stare at her silently as she passes, unsure what to make of the newcomer.
Coughlin: "Really a strange one there."
Dizon: "The real question is why is she here in the IWA? Her fiance is in the ASA."
Coughlin: "Fiance?"
Dizon: "Elliot Lytle, otherwise known as Ironman."
Coughlin: "Oh right. I knew that."
Theobald: "And her opponent, hailing from Tampa, Florida...Samuel Zadian!"
24 Hours by Wretch 32 starts playing. A silhouette of Samuel Zadian appears at the top of the ramp. At the 0:17.5 second mark of the song, Sam walks in, revealing himself. He walks down the ramp, sometimes looking around and staring at the audience. He walks up the steel stairs and goes in between the middle and top rope. He climbs two corners, raising one arm to the crowd at each one. He walks to an empty corner and gets into a boxing stance.
Dizon: "Not creepy at all is he?"
Coughlin: "Sometimes people look at the crowd."
Dizon: "Yeah. He looked like he was thinking of eating the crowd there."
As the opening bell rings, Samuel Zadian nearly launches himself across the ring to strike Stephanie in the jaw with a punch that sends her to the mat so fast that the ring resounds from her impact. Samuel holds a fist in the air, diving down to strike another blow to the underside of Stephanie's jaw.
Blood splatters up from the impact as she bites her tongue. Samuel applies a rear naked choke with a laugh, blood from her mouth washing across his hands as he chokes her out.
Coughlin: "Samuel Zadian rushing into this to show his brutality in the ring."
Dizon: "Depending on the woman, it doesn't show much on Samuel's part that he can beat one up."
When the ref tells Samuel to break the choke hold, he pulls her up into a standing position. He holds onto her shoulders and delivers a mighty headbutt. Then another. Then another. The last strike, shatters Staphanie's nose, spraying Samuel down with blood and mucus. He laughs as he slides around to behind her to apply a full nelson that he doesn't hold onto very long as he turns it into a suplex. He holds it in place for the pinfall.
One...Two...Samuel lets go!
Dizon: "He had this match won! Why would he do something as stupid as letting go of him?"
Coughlin: "Because he's an idiot?"
Samuel pulls Stephanie to her feet, measures her out while laughing, and-
Coughlin: "Superman Punch! Or that's what he calls that move at the very least."
Dizon: "He could go for the cover right now, but is he really trying to bring her to her feet?"
Samuel pulls Stephanie to her feet, but she falls back onto her back as if dead. Samuel frowns as he stands over her.
Zadian: "Get up! This isn't the grand way I wanted to end my first match!"
Samuel goes in to kick her, but the ref intervenes. He shakes his head, signaling for the bell.
Theobald: "The referee has determined that Stephanie Hudson cannot continue this match. Winner by knock out...Samuel Zadian!"
Dizon: "I don't think this is how Stephanie expected her first match here to go either."
Coughlin: "Medics are on their way down to try to wake her up and see if she can make it back down to the back on her own power. A pitiful debut for her, but not bad for Samuel."
The Shadow of Aka Manah
The elevator doors open and both Father Nathan and Terel Walker step out, looking around.
The key card had gotten them up countless floors from what seems to have been the very heart of the world to the floor below ground level. It isn't as if there were stops along the way.
Office workers, messengers, and Shocktroopers of several types had entered and left the elevator at different floors. When they had arrived at the floor they were at, the key card started beeping and would not allow the elevator proceed up until they got out of the elevator. No one remaining on the elevator said anything, but it was clear that they wanted Father Nathan and Terel to leave so they can go about their business.
Walker: "Wouldn't you think that there would be an alarm on? Maybe a message out to security to look out for us?"
Father Nathan: "I wouldn't go looking for trouble where none is."
The floor and walls begin to creak from vibrations as something large comes down the hallway and into view.
A nine foot tall humanoid monstrosity with three heads, six arms, and six legs. As if three large humans were torn apart and joined into a single grisly puzzle by inhuman scientists. It holds three giant clubs and three giant axes as the heads bellow with a stupid rage at the intruders.
Father Nathan slowly turns to Terel Walker, shaking his head with a sigh.
Father Nathan: "Clearly, you have watched no cliched movie ever."
Walker: "Weapons?"
Father Nathan points up.
Walker: "Your only weapons are provided by God..."
Father Nathan: "That and it's either up with my friend, Mary, or with our mutual enemy, the Cardinal."
Walker: "I'm open to suggestion then. Plan?"
Father Nathan ducks a club blow which causes him to also dodge an axe blow to the midsection. Both weapons sweep through the wall as if it were made of paper. Terel sidesteps an uppercut with a club and an axe, turning sideways for the weapons to pass to either side of him.
Father Nathan: "I'm thinking of something."
Walker: "Is it run?"
Father Nathan: "Yes!"
After slipping by several death blows from the giant creature, the two begin running quickly down the hallway away from it. Naturally, the creature gives chase while bellowing in an unintelligent chorus.
Walker: "Had you given much thought on how you were ever going to get me out?"
Father Nathan: "Honestly?"
Walker: "No, lie to me!"
Father Nathan: "Then...of course!"
Walker: "Crap."
Terel Walker stops in his tracks, turning back to face the charging monster with a look of determination. He points his finger at the monstrosity with his hand in the shape of a gun.
Walker: "Stop or I will shoot each of your heads with this handgun!"
Father Nathan stops, running back to Terel's side.
Father Nathan: "Are you insane?"
The creature stops, all three heads looking curiously at Terel's hand. It takes a step back, but then a chorus of roars nearly blows both Terel and Father Nathan backward with foul stench.
Terel points his "gun" over one of the creature's shoulders and yells as loud as he can.
Walker: "BANG!"
The creature drops one of its axes to feel the shoulder that Terel "fired" over in concern as if it really felt a bullet whiz by.
Walker: "I will shoot you! Get back! Drop the weapons!"
The three heads of the creature seem to confer in grunts and snorts before dropping the weapons and backing away.
Terel edges closer to Father Nathan, whispering out of the side of his mouth.
Walker: "Now what?"
Father Nathan: "Keep your gun trained on it."
Father Nathan slips forward, picking up one of the axes with a grunt. It takes both hands to hold it up, and the weight makes it rather unwieldy.
Walker: "Now, what?"
Father Nathan: "Send it away?"
Walker: "Go get yourself some lunch and bring me back some hot wings when you get done! Good monster. You've done good!"
The heads look at each other again, speaking in grunts and snorts before looking back at Terel Walker with childlike glee and clapping all three pairs of its hands. It storms down the hallway while shrieking in unholy delight.
Father Nathan raises an eyebrow at Terel.
Father Nathan: "Hot wings?"
Walker: "What? I'm allowed a racist comment now and again. Besides, I'm hungry! They've only allowed me to eat lovely bags of intravenous fluids since I've been here...however long that has been."
The two walk down the hallway, most ignored by workers that they find. They see a stair well, but to access it also requires a key card.
Walker: "So where do you think we can get a new key card?"
"Leave one behind and one may rise. One Key Card, One Soul."
Father Nathan and Terel Walker look around to the sound of the voice to see the hallway darkening even more than what it was. A humanoid with a head like a goat, pale white skin, a black suit, and a marionette of a pale little girl in his right hand.
"You know what is right to do for yourselves. Saving another life is too dangerous for the situation you are in right now. If one of you were to betray and murder the other at this very moment, the other will be given a ticket to get to the ground floor."
Terel Walker and Father Nathan step back away from the creature.
Walker: "What?"
Father Nathan: "Aka Manah. A foul demon who enjoys tempting others to not follow through with the good deeds they are attempting to do. In this case, he wants me to give up trying to save you. Or tempt you away from trusting me to help you."
Walker: "So, are you going to kill me?"
Father Nathan chuckles.
Father Nathan: "And lose my promised raise? No chance."
Aka Manah looks from one to the other while dangling his pale puppet in the air.
"Choose while the ability to do so still sings through your veins."
Father Nathan brings the axe up high, looking at Terel Walker.
Walker: "Strike true and get out of here. You are much more valuable than I am."
Terel closes his eyes, but the expected blow never lands. He opens them as Father Nathan swings the axe, burying the axe into the chest of the demon.
The impact of the weapon sends Aka Manah backwards by several feet, wrenching the weapon from Father Nathan's hands.
"You have chosen Death. Our Father will be most displeased to see the grasping claws of my fallen brethren drag your souls down into the Abyss once I have slain you both, but he knew better than allow foolish mortals like you to come face me."
Terel Walker rolls underneath a swipe with a clawed hand, slamming into the wall beside Father Nathan as he does so.
Walker: "Our father? You and him brothers? As you can tell, he isn't black by any stretch of the imagination."
Father Nathan deflects a blow, hissing as contact with demon flesh makes his skin blister and burn.
Father Nathan: "Our Father as in God, who is Father of all beings. He was an Angel once..."
Walker: "Oh right."
Terel lunges in, sinking blow after blow into Aka's midsection. The striking fists have little effect on the demonic flesh.
Aka Manah grabs Terel by the front of the shirt, lifting him up, and slamming him into the wall with a sickening crunch.
Father Nathan strikes at Aka, but he swerves to put the puppet in front of Father Nathan's face.
The puppet opens it's soulless eyes to stare at Father Nathan. It let's out a soul shattering shriek that sends Father Nathan stumbling backwards to the floor, blind and deaf.
Aka Manah picks Terel Walker back up from being sunk into the wall.
"My Brothers will enjoy tormenting your curious soul."
A sound like thunder fills the hallway that is joined by a chorus of voices that start out as a roar.
"Put down friend!"
Aka Manah turns and is bowled over by the three headed giant creature with a styrofoam container hitting the floor behind it. Terel Walker lays against the wall, watching how Aka turns to avoid getting the puppet harmed from striking the floor.
The creature rips Aka Manah up from the floor with four hands, laying into it with thunderous punches to the midsection.
Aka plunges his hand into one of the heads while using his fingertips like a dagger. His hands sinks in to the wrist before pulling it out while covered in gore.
This causes two of the arms holding Aka go limp so that the demon can go free. As the demon falls to the floor, he slams a head butt to another head with enough force to crush it.
Once Aka Manah's feet hit the floor, he holds the puppet in front of the final head. The puppet opens its mouth.
Father Nathan sits up with his eyes wide open.
Father Nathan: "Terel, the puppet!"
The puppet opens its mouth, unleashing a piercing shriek that rips through the torso of the creature. Terel scans around quickly for a weapon, but finds nothing that he can lift. He jumps up to grab the doll with both hands and-
A headbutt shatters it into pieces.
Aka Manah let's out a howl of pain as his body explodes. Terel falls back against the wall, sliding to the floor as his face is covered in blood. The creature falls backwards onto its back.
As the key card to continue their journey slowly falls to the floor, the disembodied voice of Aka Manah can be heard.
"This will allow you to continue your journey, but you will will fail when you meet He who hath stood guard at the Tree of Life since the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden."
As the foul laughter of Aka Manah fades away, Father Nathan slowly gets to his feet. He helps Terel Walker get to his feet with Terel picking up the key card on his way up.
Walker: "That was not very fun. I have a killer headache."
Father Nathan pats him on the back with a chuckle.
Father Nathan: "Not many can boast defeating a demon with a headbutt. So what's the key card say?"
Terel Walker reads the card and smiles.
Walker: "This card says it will take us to the Karman Line and not the ground floor. Is that good?"
Father Nathan: "It's the line between the Earth's atmosphere and space. In our case it is probably the line between Earth and Heaven."
Walker: "And this guardian that Aka spoke of?"
Father Nathan: "Let's get to the elevator and I will tell you a story about the angel known as Zophiel and his Flaming Sword."
Walker: "I'm not going to like this story, am I?"
Father Nathan: "No."
To Rend a Heart in Twain
Before the before the show...
Nebiryau stands on a beach in Ireland. He looks off into the South-East as the Flying Castle retreats back towards the mainland before Britain orders the stronghold to be fired upon.
He isn't supposed to be here. That much is certain. British Imperials could try to kill him, but that would be an error that would leave many widows.
He had come to see Druscilla as he knew more than many that his side was often as not was with her. Did it matter that Britain left the alliance and was now at war with Carthage?
It should. He should kill her for her betrayal. He should lift her head high to the masses of Britain and declare that the whole lot will be executed if an oath of loyalty is not sworn to Carthage.
"To see the Dread Lord of Monsters in such a battle within the confines of his own heart does one proud to know that humanity can be found even in the darkest of places."
Nebiryau smiles, but does not look back at the source of the voice.
Nebiryau: "You know that the heart that beats within was not always so dark. Aren't you in danger just by being here, Oracle?"
Jade walks to stand hy Nebiryau.
Jade: "I am in no more danger here than you are. The result of their assault would be much the same."
Nebiryau: "This is true. That being said. Why are you here?"
Jade moves to walk around Nebiryau to stand in front of him.
Jade: "I came because you called."
Nebiryau frowns. He doesn't remember calling anyone.
Nebiryau: "I had not called for you. I had not called for you since..."
Jade: "Since you were over your head in battling a man who would become a God in India. He transformed the bodies of his victims as if they were putty and drank them in liquid form to empower himself with their souls. Did you call to me for aid then when you knew me not?"
Nebiryau smiles. That had been so long before. Though, it was still after the Curse of the Sunstone. He had gone to what is now known as India in search of a mystic to help him accelerate the maturation of the Sunstone once he had it in his possession. Things quickly changed when he discovered the mystic was a nihilist and a genocidal madman who sought to sacrifice millions into himself to become a True God.
Nebiryau: "I did not call you then. I could not, for I knew not of you or your power back then. You had only told me that despite my not knowing you, my need was great and reached across the world to summon you. I had not expected to find help from a Dragon in human form and a Goddess of Olympia, but I was grateful then. As I recall, you refused to use your Oracle abilities for me then when I needed so desperately to know how and when my brother could be freed from his Curse. Has this changed? Will you use your power for me today?"
Jade sighs sadly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Jade: "If I had told you then, what you know now. Would you have done something different? Would you have allowed to world to come to the state of ruin it now sits?"
Nebiryau: "I...I needed by brother. I needed my family to be reunited!"
Jade: "Millions, if not billions, have died since the start of this. It has gone beyond simple vengeance. Would you have changed anything had I told you that this would be the result?"
Nebiryau: "I would have thought you a liar! No one person could cause this much destruction and misery without losing their soul! Without retaining their sanity! My brother remains with his sanity clutched close to his heart, does he not?"
Jade shakes her head.
Jade: "You know the answer to that question. The reasons matter not, but you know the answers in your heart."
Nebiryau clenches his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid letting even a single tear escape.
Nebiryau: "If I could have seen this world now as I stood then. If I had known that to save my brother that I must leave him in his prison forever...I would have done things differently."
Nebiryau turns away from Jade, pulling back from her reach. He glares at her in a sudden anger, tears threatening to spill forth as if a flood peeking out over a sand barrier.
Nebiryau: "Is this why you have come here? You've come to torture me?"
Jade: "No. I have come to you as I have come before. Your need calls out to me across the cosmos. The threat you face is not from without, but it remains no less deadly. I have come to help you see your choices laid out before you."
Nebiryau: "Fine. Tell me my future. What will happen?"
Jade: "If you do not seek to end this war, your brother will inflict ever greater attacks upon the world. When will he become so mad that he would pluck the very Moon from its orbit to hurl it at his enemies? I can see this war ending only in tragedy, Nebiryau. You brother will die by the end, but will there be much of the world left?"
Nebiryau: "What of-"
Jade: "Dead at the hands of your brother. A spell so destructive that her soul will be out of even your reach to bring back to your side."
Nebiryau: "He could do this? He would do this? Druscilla is-"
Jade: "A cunning enough of a foe that Thamptis would seek to defeat her with the moon. Think of what he has done so far! The Tsunami, the Stone Rain, and the near extermination of the Gods of Olympus! Keep Druscilla near and work toward bringing peace to this world. Your brother must stop his bloodthirsty ways or else there won't be a world left."
Nebiryau: "I will. I have something to help change...everything. Can you tell me-"
Jade: "Some things. Some things should wait for the moment it occurs for good or ill or else the moment will be forever spoiled."
Nebiryau smiles while shaking his head.
Nebiryau: "You know I hate you."
Jade: "I know you lie rather poorly. Farewell, Dread Lord of Monsters. Keep to your heart and all will be well."
Nebiryau glances up to see Drsucilla's helicopter starting to descend even as their luxury submarine arrives. He looks again to see that Jade is gone.
Nebiryau: "How can I follow my heart when my heart is split in twain?"
The Flaming Sword of Zophiel
As the elevator moves up the final few floors to the final few floors to the Karman Line floor, Terel Walker nervously giggles while wiping at blood still trickling down his face.
Walker: "I don't suppose Zophiel would just give us a key card and tell us to have a nice day?"
Father Nathan opens his eyes from whispering a silent prayer.
Father Nathan: "I am going to say no."
Walker: "I think one of the guys that went to a few floors down said that the Karman Line floor was an open Observation Deck. You could see all of Desolation from the floor and beyond. Not that you could see or want to see the real Desolation through the smog. They have dead bodies instead of grass, Nathan! Maybe this Zophiel would be busy using his flaming sword on someone else to bother us. We could just scam a key card from some sadistic schmuck and move on!"
Father Nathan: "Didn't you learn from the last-"
The elevator doors open up and not twenty feet from the door is an angelic being dressed in a bright white tunic, white feathered wings, a gleaming golden halo, and a fiery sword.
Father Nathan: "-time. Terel, we are going to have to have a discussion at a later date about this. That is, if we don't die."
Zophiel: "You go no further than this point!"
Father Nathan and Terel Walker cautiously step out of the elevator, allowing it to close behind them
Father Nathan: "Cardinal Urizar is allowing us back up to the Hangar Bay to leave. Just allow us to go there and everything will be fine. We are on the same side in the end."
Zophiel shakes his head.
Zophiel: "There is no side here, Nathan. There is duty. I have come here as a favor to ensure that no one trying to go beyond their key card allowance does that. If the Cardinal would have wanted you to pass me, he would have given you the proper key card or have informed me. Otherwise, we have ever been on the same side since the very dawn of time in our service to our Father. My duty was to ensure Adam and Eve left Eden and guard the Tree of Life. For this moment, my duty is to guard the upper floors. If you respect that, then we have no quarrel. You will go no further."
Father Nathan frowns. This is annoying when you get away from shades of gray and into simple black and white.
Walker: "Don't you know that you're working for a very evil man? You should let us go up and ace that guy for ya! Send him on his journey to Hell!"
Zophiel stares at Terel for a long time. He swallows hard.
Walker: "Wrong thing to say?"
Zophiel: "There are many ways to perform the Will of God. Do you know the Will of our Father so much that you can say that the Cardinal is such an evil man that he deserves to have another of our Father's laws broken to have him killed before our Father has seen fit to bring him home for his Judgment? Would you be such a law breaker? A sinner before the eyes of one of His first born?"
Walker: "I...that is..."
Father Nathan steps in front of Terel as Zophiel grips the hilt of the flaming sword tight.
Father Nathan: "What he means to say is that he is mortal and cannot begin to guess at the ways of even our Father's first born, much less our Father Himself. What we know is this. We must pass through to the above. I have come here to save Terel and I will go up to greet my other friend, Mary. We will do this with or without your blessing."
Zophiel smiles, waving a free hand to a column on the floor where a open closet is. There are several bits of equipment there. Equipment for climbing the side of a skyscraper, oxygen tanks and masks, small explosive charges, and swords.
Father Nathan: "An odd assortment for an Observation Deck."
Terel Walker walks over, selecting a sword. He waves it in the air a few times while Father Nathan selects a sword.
Walker: "So, Zophiel. Once we defeat you, we'll get the last key card?"
Zophiel glides his sword through the air a few times leaving fiery after images. He chuckles though.
Zophiel: "There is reason why mankind has never returned to the Tree of Life. I do not lose."
Terel lowers the point of his sword, looking uncertain.
Walker: "Maybe a nice game of chess instead?"
Zophiel: "Die well, Terel Walker."
Zophiel swings his sword at Terel, but the fatal strike is blocked by Father Nathan.
Father Nathan: "Get in it, Terel!"
Terel nods, launching his own pattern of slashes and lunges that coincide with Father Nathan's attacks.
Zophiel easily blocks the attacks without giving ground. He spins, knocking Father Nathan down to the floor with a wing and disarming Terel.
Zophiel goes for a finishing slash, but Father Nathan throws his sword to distract Zophiel to make him dodge the thrown weapon.
Terel grabs one of the explosive charges and sets it. Father Nathan grabs Terel's sword and stands between Zophiel and Terel, going on the defense as Zophiel rains down blow after blow.
Walker: "Shit! Aka Manah followed us from below! He's coming through the window."
Father Nathan: "What?"
Zophiel narrows his eyes, but looks back at the window behind him for just a second. Terel scrambles past Father Nathan, planting the explosive between the wings of the distracted angel. He turns, hooking Father Nathan by the elbow, and runs.
Zophiel turns back to the pair, realizing what has happened. No, he looks very displeased.
Zophiel: "Treachery!"
The explosion sends the angel flat against the window with the flaming sword spiraling through the air and sinks into the floor.
Zophiel falls from the window, landing on the floor with smoke curling up from his back.
Walker: "Is he dead? Should we search him for a key card?"
Terel Walker starts toward the downed angel, but Father Nathan pulls him back.
Father Nathan: "He isn't down for the count."
Walker: "Then how do we get up to the hangar bay?"
Father Nathan grabs an oxygen tank with mask, handing it to Terel.
Father Nathan: "God provides. Zophiel is guarding against people from proceeding up beyond this point without proper key cards through the elevator. We won't use it."
Terel looks at the equipment with wide open eyes.
Walker: "You want to scale the outside of the building?"
Father Nathan: "We're above the poisons. The oxygen is because of the thin air."
Walker: "Aawww...this is. This is..."
Zophiel slowly stands up, grabbing his flaming sword.
Terel starts putting the equipment on along with the climbing gear.
Walker: "It's a fine day to risk falling into Hell!"
Father Nathan grins, putting his own equipment on.
Father Nathan: "I'm not doing two falls in one day."
Walker: "Two?"
Father Nathan: "A story for another day, but it does involve that hole over there."
Terel looks over to the other side of the room where there is a large hole in the floor and ceiling.
Walker: "You fell-"
Father Nathan places an explosive on a window.
Father Nathan: "Are you coming, or you going round two with Zophiel?"
Terel notices the not very happy angel coming his way. He salutes the angel.
Walker: "Sorry about the dirty trick, sir. We will not trouble you for a key card."
Zophiel sheaths the flaming sword, smiling.
Zophiel: "Good luck, Terel Walker and Nathaniel O'Connell."
The charge that Father Nathan goes off, shattering the window panel and creating a strong wind as everything starts being sucked out through the window.
Walker: "I guess this is where it sucks!"
Father Nathan looks at Terel as he tries to get out onto the side of the building.
Father Nathan: "Really?"
Father Nathan gets out onto the side of the building, and helps Terel Walker get to the outside. As they begin climbing the last many floors on the outside of the Tower of Faith, Terel dares a glance down.
The tallest of the factories can be seen piercing through the veil of death far below.
Walker: "Well, if you fell through the building...you were spared driving through the gloom like Anderson and I did. It was. It was..."
Father Nathan: "One day this place will be cleansed. One day people will speak of Desolation in hushed whispers in myth and legend as a nightmare long past."
Walker: "So, the Cardinal will just let us go once we make it to the Hangar Bay?"
Father Nathan: "So he said. We'll see when we get there."
j0ker vs Korbin
Theobald: "The following contest is scheduled for one fall! Introducing first, from parts unknown... j0ker!
"Turn You Inside Out" by REM begins playing as j0ker makes her way to the ring. Some of the crowd boo, most dare not even make a noise. j0ker climbs into the ring and stares vacantly under her hood.
Coughlin: "joker was conspicuously absent at Conflict For The Crown. Any idea what she's been up to the past two months?"
Dizon: "I think it's better we don't know. She gives me the heebiejeebies."
Theobald: "And her opponent, from Ipswitch, Massachusetts, by way of Ireland!... Weighing two hundred and seventy-five pounds... Zareth Korbin!"
Unlikely cheers emanate from the crowd as the lights go completely out. As "Hall Of The Mountain King" by Apocalyptica starts, dark green lights flash to the opening beat, and then die out as the song slows. The lights return as Zareth Korbin stands atop the entrance ramp. He raises his warhammer towards the ring as the song once again picks up, and flames shoot from each post. Korbin stalks down to the ring, ignoring the cheering fans and everything else as the lights continue to flash. Korbin pulls himself up onto the ring apron and removes his armor, stretching his arms out in a crucifix position as the song ends and he steps inside the ring.
Coughlin: "A much warmer reception than Zareth usually gets. His fake death ploy and the switch to Druscilla's ranks was instrumental in the British's victory over Carthage at the wild end of Conflict."
Dizon: "Oh you know he's gonna pay for turning on Apathy. He might not need to fake a death tonight if j0ker's in the wrong mood."
Zareth turns his head to listen to the crowd for a moment, before shrugging them off and looking at j0ker. An odd smile creeps under j0ker's hood as the bell rings.
Zareth starts the match by swinging at j0ker, but he stops when red hair spills out from under the hood as it's being drawn back to reveal a young pale skinned girl with long red hair.
Zareth Korbin takes a few stumbling steps back with wide eyes.
Krobin: "Lady Casidhe? Why?"
Dizon: "What the heck?"
Coughlin: "Zareth is betrothed to Lady Casidhe. I guess she's secretly been j0ker all this time? That doesn't seem right."
j0ker attacks Zareth with a palm strike to the side of the face with a cackle. She follows his up with a few more solid strikes, backing Zareth up into a corner.
Casidhe: "Who could love a brute such as yourself? You think to lie to me and call yourself a Protector?"
j0ker hits a few elbow smashes before pulling Zareth out of the corner with a northern lights suplex. She's up and kneeling over Zareth's stunned form.
Casidhe: "You think I don't know that you really wanted to bed Devereaux? I'm your third choice! You would have married the *beep*ing Devil over me if it brought you more power. Do you want to know what real power feels like?"
Korbin: "Casidhe...I don't-"
j0ker places both palms against Zareth's chest, sending electricity through his body to bring out a scream of pain. The act is a give away though as she tosses away two devices on her hands.
Korbin: "Casidhe wpuld not have needed...who are you?"
Zareth grabs the long red hair as she pulls away. A realistic mask is removed to reveal...
j0ker smiles, unmasked for the very first time. Her voice still comes distorted.
j0ker: "This was fun. Shall we play some more?"
Zareth Korbin casts the mask aside and stands up. Yes, he looks quite angry as his face begins to redden.
Korbin: "I'll crush you!"
j0ker tries to side step Zareth's grasp, but is caught and body slammed with enough force to bounce her back up two feet into the air where Zareth catches him again. j0ker lays back in Zareth's grasp as if dead. When this gives Zareth pause, she gouges him in the eyes, and drops back to the mat. She rolls to her feet, but brings Zareth down into a small package.
One...Two...Zareth kicks out!
Dizon: "j0ker is doing some serious mind games and dirty tricks here!"
Coughlin: "It's what she does!"
j0ker: "You know how this should play out, Korby. You know how you react to things you can't understand..."
The referee turns to look at the crowd where he begins yelling at a fan to be quiet.
Dizon: "What's going on?"
Coughlin: "I don't know?"
Zareth Korbin sees the distraction with an angry smile. He grabs his hammer, slamming it into the side of j0ker while the ref isn't looking, and then quickly puts it back. He goes for the pinfall as the ref turns around.
Dizon: "Why is j0ker bleeding down by her neck instead of her head where she was struck?"
Coughlin: "I have a bad feeling about this..."
One...Two...Three!
Zareth Korbin stands up and smiles as he celebrates his win.The ref shakes his head, pointing at j0ker. He frowns, looking down at j0ker, noticing the out of place blood trail. He tugs at j0ker's blonde hair, removing a mask where long red hair spills out of it and the side of her head is bloody. Zareth stumbles backwards until he falls in shock.
Korbin: "What have I done?"
The ref pulls the red hair to reveal it's a torn mask to reveal-
Dizon: "Who's that?"
Coughlin: "I don't know. I don't know what she looked like in the first place."
The ref then peels off a mask to reveal...j0ker?
j0ker: "Good win, mindless brute! We should play again sometime!"
j0ker puts her robe back on as Zareth screams in rage and throws his hammer. It passes through nothing as an empty robe drops to the mat.
Dizon: "That was..."
Coughlin: "Freaky."
Asgard vs Carthage
Theobald: "This next match is a tag team match scheduled for one-"
Dizon: "Stephan? Hate to be a bother, but I think they're already fighting backstage."
Theobald: "Bastards..."
Coughlin: "And let's look to the JumboTron to see the action. Will it make it to the ring? No clue."
Dizon: "Unless it's become a pinfalls count anywhere thing, they'll need to if they want to win the match."
The JumboTron lights up to reveal Kronin and Lilly in their dressing room with Valora and Zolothach as they battle at each other.
Dizon: "They just couldn't wait to get to the ring, could they?"
Coughlin: "No, they couldn't."
Valora grabs Kronin by the back of the head, slamming his face through the dry wall of the dressing room. Tabitha grabs Lilly by the shoulders, falling backwards to do a back roll throw to send Lilly through the door of the dressing room and into the hallway.
Valora rips Kronin out of the wall, bulldogging him onto the vanity. Tabitha walks out into the hallway, but is caught by Lilly with a kidney punch and a back suplex through the opposite wall into an empty dressing room.
Valora rolls Kronin over, straddling his chest, and raining down a few punches before laying her hands on the side of Kronin's face. She leans down to where her face is inches from Kronin's.
Salinas: "So full of life for someone who died, old friend. You think that your Lilly would still love you as a dried out husk of a man?"
Lilly starts to step through the hole in the wall to follow Tabitha when two hands grab her and drag her into the room. Lilly is thrown into the mirror of the vanity, shattering the glass and driving the shards into her back.
Osborne: "Send a little Romani to fight a Priestess of Cthulhu. You were outmatched before you even stepped foot in this place."
Dizon: "This match isn't looking very good for Asgard."
Coughlin: "I bet they have some tricks up their sleeve. Oh and this has been made into a pinfalls count anywhere match. They don't have to even go near the ring."
Kronin grasps Valora by the arms.
Kronin: "You want a taste of Asgardian power?"
Salinas: "Yes!"
Kronin: "Ask and-"
Valora is thrown backwards through two dressing rooms to the side by a thunderous blast of lightning. Kronin stands up, following through the holes in the wall, waving away at clouds of dust from the drywall.
Tabitha grabs Lilly by the hair, slamming her face into the floor. She places a knee into the small of Lilly's back, grabbing one of the mirror shards and twisting it. Lilly lets out a scream of pain as it tears into her flesh.
Osborne: "You have more power than you used to have, but still less than me. Did you expect to defeat me?"
Lilly: "Yes."
Lilly twists to bring a shining palm to the side of Tabitha's head, knocking her away. She rises, gathering her power.
Lilly: "Let me show you what I can do..."
As Kronin steps through the last hole, Valora catches him with a huracanrana. She brings him down to the floor, and hooks both legs for a pinfall attempt. As if by magic, the door opens and the ref comes in the count it.
One...Two...Kronin kicks out.
Dizon: "How did he know that someone was being pinned?"
Coughlin: "He's a good ref."
Valora gets up, pulls Kronin up, and drags him into the hallway before tossing him down the hall into a large room. Kronin rolls to his feet and waits for Valora to come to him.
Dizon: "I'm not sure I can follow the heck is going on. Why don't they all at least get into the same room?"
An explosion later, Kronin is bowled over by a flying Tabitha. They land in a heap on the floor.
Lilly walks through the hole just made with her eyes wide.
Lilly: "Oops..."
Coughlin: "And there you go."
Dizon: "Yay!"
Lilly meets Valora with a spear, knocking them both through a table. Kronin and Tabitha stand up with Kronin grabbing Tabitha and dropping her to the floor with a belly to belly suplex.
Lilly cinches in a Romani Lock on Valora while Kronin applies an Achilles Leg Lock on Tabitha.
Dizon: "Double submission hold in play! Who will give up first?"
Almost as one, both submission holds are broken.
Coughlin: "Neither."
The two teams separate to either sides of the room, glaring at each other while deciding how to proceed.
Osborne: "You Asgardian fools! I've had enough of rules and regulations! This ends NOW! Valora!"
Lilly holds up her hands, glowing with power as she readies a counterspell.
No attack comes thoigh. Instead, Tabitha begins to bleed? Her skin begins cracking as if a broken porcelain vase. She begins to swell, and as the skin begins to come apart...black scales can be seen.
Lilly: "Kronin! This isn't a match anymore!"
Kronin: "I see that, Lil'. We can take her down!"
Lilly: "This room isn't going to hold her!"
A bifrost opens, revealing Lenneth. She locks eyes with Valora, who begins cursing.
Lenneth: "Another time, perhaps."
The bifrost opens again and all three are gone. Valora curses loudly, pressing her hands to Tabitha's broken flesh. As she draws energy from Tabitha, her swelling goes down and her flesh heals until she is whole again.
Tabitha falls to the floor once released by Valora. She looks down to see if she's seriously harmed Tabitha, but the girl is on her back in giggles.
Osborne: "Did you see them run away with their tail between their legs? Sheer gold!"
As Tabitha stands back up, Valora backhands her with a sneer.
Salinas: "Too soon! You played that card too soon! We could have had all three if you had done it right!"
Tabitha considers fighting, but holds her face with the expression of a hurt little girl instead.
Osborne: "I'm sorry...I just got too excited with the bloodlust and all. You can understand, right?"
Dizon: "Are you serious?"
Coughlin: "What?"
Dizon: "Touchy feely conversations between these two women instead of bloodshed? It's all wrong!"
Valora glares at Tabitha and really looks as if she's going to backhand her again, but shakes her head.
Salinas: "I can understand the feeling. We need to be on the same page next time. Clear?"
Tabitha brightens right away.
Osborne: "Clear!"
Dizon: "This is just...shut that off!"
Coughlin: "Aww, you missing your bloodshed? The Bloodstain title match is next."
Neil Dizon smiles as the JumboTron fades.
Dizon: "Yes. That will make me happy."
The Fiery Mountain
Mary sits in a chair by the plane that brought her and Father Nathan into the Tower of Faith. On occasion, she watches as transports land on the pad outside of the bay itself to load and off load troops before heading out again. Cardinal Mariano Urizar walks over to stand by her with a cruel grin.
Urizar: "Your friend managed to make it to the top of the Depths of Faith. I don't know how he survived the Fall, but he won't survive Aka Manah."
Mary watches the Shocktroopers with Father Nathan's cross on her lap. Aka Manah...a terrible demon from Lucifer's horde.
Urizar: "My Shocktroopers go out to different theaters of war. They attack Tsar Miranov's twisted new forces as they try to sweep Russia clean of all life not loyal to him. They snipe at Carthage in different outlying lands. This war is now costing me money, but I will do as the Circle of Fire commands."
Mary: "If you are on the same side now as everyone else, you could have just released Walker?"
Urizar: "No. Walker is an idiot who stands in place of Anderson in my wrath. He dared to insult me and blackmail me. I do not let these slights go unforgiven."
Cardinal Urizar looks to the elevator from time to time. It's not something that goes unnoticed.
Mary: "You expecting to see Father Nathan through those doors? He has gotten past the demon. Didn't he?"
Urizar: "Do not test me. You will not want my wrath either."
"The Wrath of the Cardinal is great! He thinks he is as our Father from the Old Testament. He will be swept away in the end, as all old evils will be."
Cardinal Mariano Urizar turns around to see Father Nathan and Terel Walker dropping their climbing equipment and oxygen tanks to the floor. He stares silently at them.
Father Nathan: "No words? We can still take our leave of you, yes?"
Walker: "It's been fun, but I think my wife might be missing me about now."
Urizar: "You...Aka Manah..."
Terel rubs at his head where dried blood coats it.
Walker: "We broke his dollie and he went away."
Urizar: "Zophiel..."
Father Nathan: "Guarded the elevator and not the sky."
Father Nathan and Terel Walker join Mary at the entrance to the plane as Cardinal Urizar stands and watches them with clenched fists.
Urizar: "You think you can just escape me?"
Terel turns around, anger coloring his features.
Walker: "We are not just escaping. I will be contacting some friends. You know the Order of the Dragon? The people who brought down the Dread Dragon years ago? They will wipe this place off the map like toilet paper!"
Terel hears Father Nathan groan behind him.
Father Nathan: "And we almost got away..."
Urizar: "You threaten me? YOU? You won't be my prisoner this time around!"
Cardinal Urizar grabs Terel by the front of his shirt, pulling him back through the air, and slamming him into the side of the plane.
Urizar: "I am of the Faithful! Your pagan Dragon bitches can't touch me! THEY CAN'T STOP ME!"
Mariano throws Terel across the room where Terel hits the floor, nearly sliding to the edge of the platform. Father Nathan leaps out of the plane, striking Mariano in the side of the head with a punch to send him backpedaling down away from the plane. He follows with a series of punches that knock the mammoth man back, drawing blood as he splits the Cardinal's lip open.
Mariano comes back with a punch to the midsection that sends Father Nathan through the air and into the side of the plane, nearly sliding over it.
Urizar: "Have you any idea how many have tried to kill me? All have died in the attempt!"
Mary: "Leave them alone!"
Mariano looks at Mary, who once again is pointing the cross gun at him.
Mary: "Leave them alone or I will shoot you!"
Cardinal Urizar grins at Mary, sadism dripping off of his every spoken word.
Urizar: "Do it, you little bitch. I sense an unnatural purity in you. Take my life and ruin that forever. You will become of the Enemy and will be destroyed by the Faithful! My place in Heaven at the side of my Father will be secure. You will forever swim in the Lake of Fire!"
Mary steps back away as Mariano advances. He plucks the gun from her hand, tossing it over his shoulder with a cruel laugh.
Urizar: "Let's see how long that purity lasts in the Depths of Faith..."
Mariano staggers as Terel leaps on him, holding on with his legs as he pounds on the Cardinal with lefts and rights.
Walker: "You leave the girl alone, monster!"
Mariano elbows Terel in the rib cage before palming his face to lift him into the air.
Urizar: "How noble of you. Will your sacrifice get you past Saint Peter you think?"
A gunshot causes Mariano to drop Terel to the floor. He turns around to see Father Nathan standing with a smoking barrel from the cross gun.
Cardinal Mariano Urizar grits his teeth through the pain, feeling the blood pour down from the wound in his back.
Urizar: "You won't win!"
Mariano leaps at Father Nathan, taking a further two shots to the chest before he plants a palm onto Father Nathan's chest, and smashing him into the side of the plane.
The cross gun falls to the floor as Mariano lifts the Priest high into the air, shaking him like a rag doll.
Urizar: "Tell me you though you would live through this!"
He slams Father Nathan into the side of the plane again, smashing in a large dent.
Urizar: "Tell me you thought you were going to win the day!"
Father Nathan: "I didn't think."
Father Nathan's fists begin shining bright white as he strikes Mariano across the jaw with enough force to force the Cardinal to release him.
Father Nathan: "I have Faith in my victory!"
Father Nathan goes for another punch, but Mariano catches his fist. Then the other. Father Nathan's fists still glow bright, but then so do Mariano's as he drives Father Nathan to his knees.
Urizar: "This again. I told you before, I do the work of the Angel of Death! I wipe away the evils of mankind away so that they can be saved at the last. You think that your Faith is greater than my own? Our Father has charged me with bringing the masses around to His Glory! You are a mere pawn..."
Father Nathan grits his teeth as he starts to slowly stand up to Mariano's amazement.
Father Nathan: "You cover genocide up in a blanket of Faith and say that you are doing His work. You have broken the Laws of Our Father more times than even Lucifer himself in your blind pride. You are not worthy of His Glory. You are not worthy to bow down at His feet. You will sup at the same table as those of the Fallen!"
Mariano shouts in rage, throwing Father Nathan near the hole in the floor.
Urizar: "I am a Cardinal of the Church! I would not bow at Our Father's feet! I would sit at his side and we would share His Glory!"
Mariano grabs Father Nathan by the front of his shirt, slamming him with his fist into the side of the head, and sending white sparks everywhere. He hits Father Nathan again and again.
Urizar: "I shall be exalted above all! I will-"
Father Nathan catches Mariano's fist in his hand, rising though it is hard for the Priest to see through a mask of blood and rapidly swelling features.
Father Nathan: "There was once an angel who had such a position and was filled with such pride and vanity that he thought he was Our Father's equal. You know his name! Say it with me!"
Urizar: "Never! I am not Him! I am not the Enemy!"
Father Nathan: "Oh you are. You are the Enemy of all Mankind. You will Fall just as He did. Though you will not fare so well as Our Father's most favored angel. Say His name!"
Father Nathan stands, holding both of mariano's hands and crushing them in his grasp. Mariano's glow of Faith has faded, leaving behind a man in fear who has not known it for a very long time. His voice comes out not much louder than a whisper.
Urizar: "Lucifer."
Father Nathan squeezes harder, feeling the bones in Mariano's hands crumble under his grasp.
Father Nathan: "Louder! Say it with meaning!"
Urizar: "Lucifer!"
Father Nathan: "You will share His fate! The fate you tried to inflict upon me!"
Urizar: "No!"
Father Nathan lifts Cardinal Mariano Urizar up over his head, and throws him into the hole.
Father Nathan: "You try the Depths of Faith..."
Father Nathan picks up his cross, joining Mary and Terel Walker on the plane. Mary wakes the pilot, who had been sitting asleep since his arrival.
Mary: "Time to go!"
Everyone in the plane reach for support as the building rumbles.
Walker: "Let me guess. Mariano had a plan to take everyone out if he died. Like exploding the building and all of Desolation..."
The rumble becomes louder as a series of explosions begin to shake the building.
Father Nathan: "We've talked about this, Terel!"
Everyone takes seats and strap into seats as the plane takes off.
Moments later, they look back as the Tower of Faith begins to fall as if in slow motion. Bright mushrooms appear all around the base of the tower as mammoth factories begin exploding.
Father Nathan: "Mary, look away."
Mary looks away, but Father Nathan and Terel Walker watch Desolation is consumed by fire.
Walker: "And in his arrogance, the Kingpriest of Istar angered the Gods so that they threw down a fiery mountain and sealed the fate of an entire empire, changing the world forever in a single stroke."
Father Nathan: "What?"
Walker: "Nothing."
Bloodstain Championship
Theobald: "This next match is scheduled to be a Tartarus Death match and is for the IWA Bloodstain championship! Featuring first the challenger, weighing in at two hundred and thirty pounds...Iro Waters!"
"Built to Last" by The Protomen plays as Iro Waters walks out from the back. He looks around at the cheering fans and smiles as he makes his way down to the ring.
Coughlin: "It's my understanding that Iro Waters is considering making his way into the Flying Castle to confront Thamptis himself on the Stone Rain and claim vengeance for those he had lost."
Dizon: "That doesn't sound like a brilliant thing to do."
Coughlin: "No, it doesn't."
Theobald: "And his opponent, weighing in at one hundred and ninety pounds, she is the IWA Bloodstain champion...Jessica Tendonin!"
Imaginary fills the arena as the lights go dim. After a few seconds, Jessica steps out onto the stage, nodding to the crowd and smiling. She taps both shoulders and looks down at the ring. She then shakes her wrists, loosening up. The lights brighten and the crowd begins cheering louder as Jessica begins walking down the ramp. Looking at the fans on either side of the walkway, Jessica waves to them, her smile delighting them, her waves enchanting them. Stopping in front of the ring, she looks at it, her smile fading ever so slightly.
Jessica walks to the corner and goes up the steps before bending over and into the ring over the second rope. She runs to the farthest corner and climbs the turnbuckle, folding her arms across her chest and looking at the surrounding faces of the fans. She steps off the turnbuckle and looks at the referee, waiting for the action to get going.
Coughlin: "The fans look happy to see Jessica Tendonin back."
Dizon: "After her last match in the ASA, I'm really surprised that she came back at all."
Iro Waters and Jessica Tendonin stand on opposite sides of the ring as the cage is lowered and charged up with violent power.
Dizon: "This match is just insane. Electrified steel cage, Texas Death with barbed wire covered everything, c4 in the turnbuckles, and random blackouts...and I see there's the giant stuffed animated teddy bear outside of the ring. It gives barbed wire hugs..."
As the bell rings to start the match, the two meet in the center of the ring. Jessica shakes her head with a smile.
Tendonin: "I am more powerful than you could ever imagine. There's nothing you can do that will really harm me."
Waters: "Oh yeah?"
Tendonin: "Yeah."
Iro Waters looks to the crowd, who cheer him on. Iro strikes Jessica across the chest with a European uppercut with the left arm. The impact makes Jessica frown before she notes the arm with a chuckle.
Tendonin: "Not even whole, are you? Let's see about taking the rest of you apart, shall we?"
Jessica takes a swing at Iro, but he knocks the arm aside with his right arm, sweeps in to grab Jessica with a headlock, and take her down to the mat. He cranks on the headlock a bit, but Jessica slowly rises up to sink in a few elbows to get Iro to break the hold. Iro breaks away, bouncing off of the ropes, and returning to hit a jumping reverse elbow that knocks Jessica back down to the mat.
Iro Waters waits for Jessica to get back to her feet before slipping behind her and bringing her down with a knee Crusher. Jessica holds her knee in pain as Iro quickly climbs to the top rope.
Coughlin: "Iro looking to make this a quick match, though I don't know if this is a good idea."
Dizon: "Explosives in them turnbuckles. I'm surprised Iro didn't get caught by the barbed wire laden ropes."
Iro is careful to avoid standing on the turnbuckle as he waits for Jessica to rise again. He leaps off of the top rope and the arena goes dark.
There is the sound of a solid impact. A flicker of light as someone slams into the turnbuckles and a resounding boom as someone slams into the mat hard. The lights come back on to reveal Jessica Tendonin is standing over a downed Iro Waters, who has smoke trailing from his back.
Coughlin: "With the first of many black outs, it looks like Jessica has stopped Iro's momentum."
Jessica reaches down pulling Iro up by his chin to look him in the eyes.
Tendonin: "You aren't even in my leag-"
The lights in the arena flicker as Iro holds Jessica's bare midriff with his left hand and grasps the electrified steel cage with the other. Jessica pulls away to break the connection, leaving Iro to fall down to his knees. She gets back at him, pulling him up just enough to slam a knee into Iro's gut and bring him flat to the mat with an elbow strike to the back of the neck.
Jessica takes a couple of steps back as Iro starts to rise again. She rushes in, hitting a punt kick to the side of Iro's head that sends him bodily into the side of the cage. He hangs there against the side of the cage, electricity arcing across his body for a moment before the arena is once again plunged into darkness.
Dizon: "Here we go again."
Coughlin: "I don't like this black out thing, though I understand that it represents the darkness of Tartarus."
A solid impact of metal striking something solid is heard. When the lights come back on again, Iro's cybernetic arm is shifting back from being a baseball bat to a normal arm while Jessica is entangled in the barbed wire of the rings. She grits her teeth as her flesh tears from the barbs, bleeding onto the mat.
Once she's free, Iro nails her full on with a drop kick that sends her back over the ropes to be twisted into the barbed wire again and slam into the cage. She lets out a shout of pain as the electricity flows through her body and through the barbed wire around the ring. The ropes begin smoking from the power being forced into them in places.
Coughlin: "Jessica Tendonin can't be happy about her return match here."
Dizon: "She's being shocked, cut, and burnt. I wouldn't be happy either."
Jessica Tendonin lets out a shout, a shockwave leaving her body as she does so. The area around her is incinerated as she not only gets to her feet, but hovers a good two feet off of the ground with a glowing nimbus around her body. The ropes go slack, falling down to the ring apron as the ropes near Jessica are burnt away.
Dizon: "That was...odd."
Coughlin: "But not shocking."
Jessica launches herself through the air at Iro Waters, taking him down with a belly to belly suplex that she hooks the leg for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Coughlin: "Looks like Jessica has managed to score the pinfall first in this match. Now, can Iro Waters make it back up before the ten count?"
Dizon: "From that display of power? I wouldn't."
One...Two...Three...Four...
Coughlin: "Iro doesn't seem to be moving."
Dizon: "He's a smart boy."
Five...Six...
The lights in the arena go out. A small area is lit up from the glowing nimbus of Jessica Tendonin's body, but it doesn't go far enough to light up where Iro is laying.
Seven...Eight...
Dizon: "How does the ref know that Iro is still down?"
Coughlin: "No idea."
Nine...the lights come back on to reveal Iro Waters standing there. The crowd begin to cheer as Iro Waters smiles at Jessica Tendonin.
Waters: "Try that again?"
Tendonin: "Gladly."
Jessica Tendonin rushes at Iro, but he easily side steps. She lifts through the air in a backflip, swinging both knees in to catch Iro in the midsection while placing both of his hands on his shoulders.
It seems to happen in slow motion as Jessica pushes Iro away from her and he slams into the middle of the cage.
Iro Waters shines like a newborn star for a few precious seconds from the power being forced through his body before he breaks through the cage and flies into the crowd to slam into B-section.
Dizon: "What the hell?"
In a blur of motion, Jessica brings Iro Waters back through the hole in the cage that she had melted. She brings him up nearly six feet into the air, and drives him to the mat with a piledriver before going for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Coughlin: "After that offensive, it really would be best for Iro Waters to stay down."
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Iro Waters stands back up. He wipes at a bloody mask with his right hand and grins.
He doesn't have the time to react as Jessica grabs him, slamming him down with a pump handle slam. She stands over him with a smile.
Tendonin: "Nothing you can do to win this match."
Waters: "Yeah?"
The lights in the arena go out. There is a flash of light in the center of the ring as if from an explosion and the sound of a body hitting the mat. When the lights in the arena come back on, Iro is seen going for the cover over a very bloodied Jessica. The ref gets into position.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "Is Iro's arm shifting back into an arm again? Is that from the form of some kind of gun?"
Coughlin: "Sure looks like it."
Iro Waters stands up and backs away so that the ref can begin is counting.
One...Two...Three...
Dizon: "Yeah, it looks like Jessica's been shot by a number of small pellets that went all the way through?"
Coughlin: "A lot of damage fast. I wonder if Jessica can get back up from that?"
Four...Five...Jessica gets to her feet. She regards the damage done to her body and sneers.
Tendonin: "We've been babying things a bit, but it looks like you want to get rough."
Coughlin: "What Jessica has been doing so far has been babying it?"
Dizon: "I guess that's how she beats babys."
Jessica comes at Iro, but is brought down with a dragon leg screw that sends Jessica face first into turnbuckles to explosive effect. Iro starts picking Jessica up, but is grabbed and brought down for a jawbreaker. She picks him up onto her shoulders for a Helislam, sending Iro into an unexploded corner. She drags him into the center of the ring to go for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "If I were Iro, I think I would stay down this time."
Coughlin: "He has more courage than he knows what to do with."
One...Two...the lights in the arena go out...Three...Four...
There's a flash of light and a flicker of an explosion that casts the entire arena into light for a few short seconds before fading back into darkness.
Coughlin: "What the Hell? Did Jessica just..."
Dizon: "Blast Iro? I think so."
The lights come back on and the ref is seen not counting. In fact, he stares at Jessica Tendonin.
Dizon: "Someone was busted!"
Coughlin: "I would say so."
The ref turns back from glaring at Jessica to Iro Waters while shaking his head.
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...
Dizon: "The ref restarted the count?"
Coughlin: "You don't strike your opponent while downed."
Six...Seven...Eight...Nine...Te-Iro gets back up!
Dizon: "What the Hell is wrong with him? I would have stayed back down after that last shot!"
Iro Waters stretches as Jessica comes in for the attack. He catches her off guard with a left hand to the gut before picking her up for a pumphandle slam. He spins her around though instead of just slamming her down and sends her into up into a corner of the steel cage.
Dizon: "OH *BEEP*!"
Electrical arcing turns into an explosion as the joints of the cage are ripped apart by Jessica's impact. With a series of loud metallic pings and groans, the entire cage falls apart. The electrified steel walls slam into the crowd. Jane Coughlin and Neil Dizon duck under their table to avoid being smashed.
Dizon: "Turn the cage off you *beep*ing idiots!"
The cage is quickly shut off and hooks start coming down with maintenance scrambling down to the ring to get the cage walls hooked up to lift them away. Then the lights go out...
Dizon: "Oh *beep*! Couldn't we put that on hold for just a moment?"
Coughlin: "They're idiots."
There's a loud crashing noise and when the lights come back on, the walls of the cage are on their way back up to the ceiling, but one of the walls is only hanging by half as it's being dragged across the crowd. Iro Waters can be seen hanging in the air with the hook connected to the chain with the chain wrapped around his throat. Jessica Tendonin stands in the middle of the ring, waving a friendly goodbye.
Dizon: "What?"
Coughlin: "Jessica is hanging Iro to try to beat him!"
The ref yells to the maintenance to lower the chain, but they tell him that would cause all of the walls to come back down on the crowd. The ref then turns to Jessica and orders her to get him down or she will lose her title. Jessica sneers at him, but sends a single bolt of energy through the air to shatter the chain and bring Iro back down to the mat.
She doesn't let him hit the mat as she launches through the air to hit a spear in the air. They soar across the arena until both impact the wall by the entranceway with a impact that buries Iro partway into the wall and sends a shockwave through the wall that makes the entire arena rumble. She drags him out of the wall, letting him fall to the floor. She waits patiently for the ref to come down the aisle before going to the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Jessica Tendonin rises from pinning Iro. She pats him on the chest with a chuckle.
Tendonin: "Stay down this time, boy. It'll be good for you."
One...Two...Three...
Dizon: "Sound advice if I ever heard it."
Coughlin: "You think Iro will take it?"
Dizon: "No. He's an idiot."
Four...Five...the lights in the arena go out...Six...
Dizon: "Hopefully, Jessica can consider not blasting Iro this time."
Seven...Eight...Nine...
Coughlin: "Shouldn't the lights be coming back on now?"
Dizon: "Gods know. Maybe they broke too."
Ten!
The lights in the arena come back on and Jessica raises her hands in victory, but Iro Waters is gone!
Dizon: "Where the *beep* is Iro?"
Coughlin: "Both the ref and Jessica seem to want to know that too. I guess he's up someplace?"
Up is the word for it as there is a shout...from the top of the JumboTron?
Yes. Iro Waters is standing on top of the JumboTron.
Waters: "Miss me?"
Jessica looks up in shock at Iro Waters standing on top of the JumboTron when he was essentially knocked out on the floor. She growls and streaks through the air. Iro points his left palm at Jessica and there's a flas of blinding light! Jessica flies off course and goes THROUGH the JumboTron. Iro lands on her back as she comes out the backside of the giant video screen, using her hair as reigns, and sends her though the wall!
Iro lands on his feet, looking at the large hole in the wall with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck.
Waters: "Oops?"
There's a loud metallic groaning and Iro looks up with wide eyes as the JumboTron begins to sway.
Dizon: "RUN YOU *BEEP*ING IDIOT!"
Iro Waters looks like he might run, but covers his head with his arms as if that might really protect him. The JumboTron comes down with a crash, sending broken bits of equipment and glass everywhere. Iro looks around and at himself. The JumboTron had not fallen on him, but he had been at the exact location of the hole that Jessica Tendonin had made.
Coughlin: "If he isn't the luckiest man on the planet right now..."
Iro Waters walks over to the hole, peering in to see a supply room for props and such for the show. Jessica Tendonin reaches in, grabbing him by the throat, and drags him through the hole. She flings him into a pile of scaffolding with a crash.
Dizon: "How is she even walking?"
Coughlin: "She is very tough."
Jessica picks Iro up and piledrives him into the pile of scaffolding. She stands up and sees that the ref hasn't caught up with them yet so she rips him off of the pile and throws him face first into the wall. He falls back onto the pile of scaffolding, sliding to the floor.
Jessica rip Iro up by the first to be face to face where she sneers at him.
Tendonin: "You wanted to play with the big dogs. This is your chance!"
Iro mumbles something back, his eyes unable to focus on Jessica's face.
Tendonin: "What? What was that?"
Waters: "You can take the man out of the electrified steel cage..."
Iro places his left hand on Jessica's bare collar bone. She shrieks in sudden pain as electrical power shoots through her body. She releases Iro and falls to the floor, twisting and twitching.
Waters: "But you can't take the electrified steel cage out of the man. Does that even make sense?"
An energy beam catches Iro Waters full in the chest, sending him through several walls to where he lands in front of a great glass window (ok imagine the three people were not there...I forgot to remove them). Jessica Tendonin walks into the room, not on the flooring like most normal people, but along the glass window that looks into the Irish Sea. Blood drips from her like rain, but she notices it not.
Dizon: "Are you sure they should be allowed to stay in this room with all of the damage they've done so far? We all know what happened to the last Aquadome..."
Coughlin: "We'll have the ref get them out as soon as possible."
Jessica Tendonin stands over Iro Waters with a smile.
Dizon: "No, I won't ask how in the heck Jessica is doing that."
Coughlin: "She's flying right now, but with her feet against the glass."
Dizon: "Yup. I knew that."
Jessica drops down, hitting Iro in the jaw with a superkick that smashes his face against the floor. She drops down and goes for the pinfall as she sees the ref get into the area.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "I think this is it. No way that Iro can get up after taking all of that punishment."
Coughlin: "Don't underestimate him."
One...Two...Three...the lights in the arena go out.
Coughlin: "Ok, seriously? Shutting the lights off here doesn't effect them since they left the arena."
Dizon: "LIGHTS!"
The lights come back on.
Four...Five...Six...Seven...Iro Waters stands up. Jessica Tendonin looks at him with her head cocked.
Tendonin: "Time for the Paraguayan Imprint to really finish you, eh?"
Jessica pulls Iro to his feet, but Iro drops down to his knees. Jessica smirks at Iro's weakness, lifting him back up, but Iro launches himself up. He catches Jessica under the chin with his left palm, brings her up into the air, turns, and throws Jessica across the gulf between hallway and glass to smash Jessica's face against the bay window. Jessica falls for what seems an eternity, leaving behind an ever spreading network of spiderweb cracks.
Dizon: "Are you *beep*ing serious?"
Coughlin: "Maintenance are on their way to get that sealed. It'll be ok. If there's a major problem, there are security gates that will close and seal the flooded area off."
Iro looks over the railing, frowning as he sees Jessica stand up slowly and go through a doorway leading to a side stairwell.
Dizon: "Where does she think she's going?"
Coughlin: "No idea, but it looks like Iro is going to follow."
Iro Waters holds his hand up, firing his hand into the air to grab an overhanging support. He grabs the ref and leaps over the railing to be lowered down to by the stairwell. His hand retracts to his arm and he starts heading down the stairs.
Iro Waters walks out of the stairwell onto another platform with small windows by the floor of the sea. Jessica Tendonin leans against one of the windows, having left a trail of blood behind her. Iro Waters walks over to stand nearby her, waiting for her to see him.
Dizon: "Don't be an idiot! Attack her!"
Coughlin: "He doesn't want to sneak attack her?"
Dizon: "Considering how much damage she's absorbed? I would jump on that bitch with a *beep*ing nuke!"
Coughlin: "I probably would too, but neither of us are Iro Waters."
Before Iro can react, Jessica turns and has him in a choke hold. She grunts in pain as she quickly lifts him up into the air, chokeslaming him onto the platform.
Tendonin: "Stay down this time."
As Jessica leans down to go for the pinfall, she notices a tiny mechanical arm ending with a needle come out of the shoulder of Iro's left arm. She pauses as she thinks the needle is for her, but the needle plunges itself into Iro's neck, sending in its contents, and retracting back into the arm.
Tendonin: "What?"
Iro Waters lunches up from a laying position and-
Coughlin: "Calamity Trigger! Iro is going for the pinfall!"
Dizon: "He nearly took Jessica's head off with that one!"
One...Two...Three!
Iro Waters stands up, backing away from Jessica as the ref starts counting.
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Jessica begins glowing...
Dizon: "I don't like it when she starts glowing."
Six...Seven...Jessica gets up. She stands and glares at Iro Waters, her glow changing to a golden. A number of wires begin sliding out of Iro's left arm with tiny drills on it. They slip through the holes of the platform and fall straight down until they find a main power cable and drill their way in through the shielding.
Tendonin: "I won't be denied my victory!"
Waters: "Your denial is in the mail."
Dizon: "What?"
Coughlin: "Iro's wit not working for you?"
Jessica leaps at Iro as his left arm shifts once again into the barrel of a gun.
The blast sends Jessica flat against the port window before she falls, smoking, to the platform. Iro rolls her over to go for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "Maybe this-OH MY *BEEP*ING GOD!"
Coughlin: "What?"
Dizon: "Another window is breaking."
One...Two...Three...
Far from spiderweb cracks, larger cracks begin forming in the window.
Four...Five...Six...
Water begins streaming from the window.
Seven...Eight...Nine...
Just as it seems the window is going to totally implode, a metal curtain slams down in place to seal the window off.
TEN!
Dizon: "She stayed down?"
Coughlin: "Yes."
Dizon: "She stayed down! Iro Waters has done it!"
Coughlin: "Yeah, after destroying everything in sight."
Theobald: "Winner of the match and NEW IWA Bloodstain champion...Iro Waters!"
Coughlin: "That's all the time we have tonight, folks. As always, stay safe!"
Dizon: "That's an understatement."
That's the PDF version of the show and is downloadable. Shows even come with mp3 files built into the pdf for a more immersive viewing.
Onslaught #4
The Long Game: Of Kings and Pawns
Thamptis sits at his dining table alone.
If by alone, you mean being waited upon hand and foot by dozens of servants who bring him course after course of food and drink. He sits while regarding a red wine in a glass as he swirls it around.
Druscilla Bathory has broken her bonds to him and has swept Britain out the alliance with her.
Tsar Ionis Miranov is becoming more liability than asset with his inability to control his own nation.
Valora Salinas is still loyal with her nation, but how long before she becomes powerful enough to desire being on her own? Her rule is already drastically different than those other beings that has placed into positions of power.
As Thamptis muses over what move to make in the future, he rips into a haunch of veal with his teeth.
"You seem as if you need something to help you knock down your enemies one by one."
Thamptis looks around to see the intruder, but then goes back to his meal with a smile.
Thamptis: "Show youself Sikarin Tsooth. I recognize the tell tale of your power."
A blue mote of light floats into view before becoming the full form of Sikarin Tsooth with a bright flash as he appears in the seat by Thamptis. He looks over the food and drink with a chuckle.
Tsooth: "I had never gotten the feel of eating food or drink. I can do it, but it gives me no pleasure or nutrition."
Thamptis: "Did you come here to share the burdens of being a Immortal shapeshifter? I have things to do."
As Thamptis reaches for the veal again, Sikarin smirks. The roasted veal changes shape with popping noises as bones break and reform until the Eternal City of Asgard is represented in roasted young bovine flesh.
Tsooth: "I can deliver you passage into Asgard. You know when they defeated Hoskuld Lokison and his half-hearted attempt to raise an army of Uru transformed warriors that the defeated near invulnerable warriors were placed in a dungeon deep under the city? What could the Dark Warlock do with warriors with skin that nothing can pierce? Warriors beyond what you or your Little Brother could create?"
Thamptis narrows his eyes.
Thamptis: "The Uru of these warriors had been transformed into steel to ensure their defeat. I watched the battle."
Tsooth: "If you fall for one of Loki's more simple tricks, how can you consider yourself ready to bring Asgard down? It was an illusion. The warriors thought their skin was as steel. They thought that they died. The Uru warriors are stacked up like cord wood in the prisons below. They are ready for fresh minds to be placed inside of the bodies so that they can follow your commands."
Sikarin waves his hand and the corpse model of Asgard begins to burn with dozens of metal figurines bursting from the bottom of the city.
Tsooth: "An invincible army. Yours. What price would you pay for such a boon?"
Thamptis: "How can you get me into Asgard? I do not know the way and attempts to capture the Valkyrie wench have failed so far."
Tsooth: "You face your enemies head on. I find that doing such a thing is a waste of a valuable ally. Your enemies will do much for you in the name of heroism."
Thamptis flicks his wrist and the burning veal explodes into ashes that are taken by the wind out through a window.
Thamptis: "Why? Assuming that you can get me into Asgard. Why do you seek to help me? Am I the enemy doing your work for you or are the Asgardians doing your work for you? Is all this a plot to regain your apprentice?"
Tsooth: "My apprentice still has a part yet to play. She is of more value to me in Asgard than on Earth. No matter where she is, she yet remains mine. Can you say the same of yours?"
Thamptis slams his fist down onto the table, scattering the dishes there everywhere as his fire bursts into a green flame.
Thamptis: "I am at my full power now, Sikarin. Do not think that if I used it against you now that you will fare as well as you did five years ago."
Tsooth: "You do not make me fear. You throw your power around like a thug using his club. No finesse with you. As powerful as you say you are and yet you act like a common schoolyard bully on a larger scale."
Thamptis: "Stop this nonsense. Stop it or else!"
Sikarin chuckles, his form rippling and opening up rifts across his body with sound coming from each until his laughter is as a chorus.
Tsooth: "You'll do what? Hmm? Destroy another island to show your anger? Bring down another Stone Rain?"
Thamptis: "If I direct my power upon your Citadel, your secret source of power will be destroyed."
Tsooth: "Don't be silly. And should you dare send a whisp of power at my Citadel. You'll see my power at last. The mystics I gather and have used. The power I gain from them is pleasure at their pain and a power source that masks my own. Tell your reborn Dread Dragon that she isn't stealthy."
There is a scream of rage off to the side of the room and a flash of blue light. Tendrils of stone turned liquid drag a knocked out Tabitha Osborne to the table before lifting her up and tossing her into a chair. Thamptis can see that the tendrils are connected to Sikarin Tsooth himself as they are drawn back into him.
Thamptis: "She was drawing on the power of the Dread Dragon! She wasn't playing mortal like she does in that wrestling ring! It took armies and weapons of great power to-"
Tsooth: "Don't lecture me on power, boy. What I want to know right now is if you want the way into Asgard and if you can meet my price."
Thamptis looks away from the downed Tabitha. She was bringing up her power gained from her merging with the Dread Dragon when she was beaten.
Thamptis: "What is your price?"
Tsooth: "Finally. When the time comes and the portal to Asgard is clear for you to to sends your hordes, I want you to actually leave this castle and do something for yourself for a change. Lead the fight to the Asgardians personally."
Thamptis seems to consider for a time before smiling.
Thamptis: "I have not been personally on the field of battle since...a very long time. This is a strange cost, but it is one that I find acceptable. Do you need anything else? When can this portal be opened?"
Sikarin motions to the empty silver platter where the veal had sat. The surface of the silver platter seems to shimmer as a miniature version of the sun rises on one end of the plate, travels through the air in a high arc, and sinks back into the platter as a miniature moon rises. It too arcs through the sky, setting as the sun rises. The process of day and nights speeds as Sikarin whispers in a language older than even Thamptis could understand. When he is finished, he smiles at the Dark Warlock.
Tsooth: "It might be a number of months to complete the ritual to exploit the weakness I have seeded. I have one remaining artifact that a champion of mine is getting ready to go get."
Thamptis runs his fingers through the silver platter, noting that the fluid runs deep and is cool as fresh spring water.
Thamptis: "Dare you not go and get this relic yourself? You do have the power to do so?"
Sikarin leans back with a laugh. He utters a word that solidifies the silver platter. Thamptis pulls his fingers out of the platter with a curse before anything bad happens to his hand.
Tsooth: "And what would be the fun in that? It is thought that this artifact can only be touched by a Man of Faith. The advantage of having been around before mortals began documenting history is that I can create all the myths and legends that I want and pass them down through my different shapes to listening ears. Oh the lies I have told just so I could have things play out in the way I wanted them to thousands upon thousands of years later. It's beyond your narrow view of the long game."
Thamptis grits his teeth, weary of being insulted by the sorcerer.
Thamptis: "Then you will contact me when you are ready with the portal?"
Sikarin's eyes blaze bright red as he smiles. A sense of triumph is there. It is plain, but why? Little has made sense since he had entered the room.
Tsooth: "If we are finished here. I must be on my way."
Sikarin Tsooth stands up and turns as if to walk away.
He began by insulting and belittling the power Thamptis had. The price he wishes for his help does not directly benefit him. Nor does it indirectly since he stands to gain little.
Lilly was his. His master still dead. He had stated that he had little interest in the Dark Warlock's war before.
What is the missing link?
"Why?"
The word slips out of Thamptis's mouth before he could stop it and stops Sikarin Tsooth from leaving as it were a blade pressed to his heart.
Tsooth: "When you set things into motion over five thousand years before. You sometimes want to see them through."
Thamptis stares at Sikarin Tsooth as he fades away. Was that an answer? Was that anything? A clue?
Thamptis cries out in rage, destroying all of the gathered dishes on his table with a fiery spell. He sits back down in his seat. He notices that his table has been scorched with his spell and sighs as he tries to recall the simple spell it took to make the repairs.
It has been so long since he repaired. Since he healed. It has been war, destruction, vengeance, and murder since...since...
Since he was forced out of Memphis with his brothers so long before. So very long.
Thamptis sits up as he sees the scorch marks on the table slowly move. Table burns as table heals, smoke slowly trailing into the air as a picture starts to form and move.
Moscow, Russia...Vladomir Putin stands and watches reports come in that nothing had so far stopped Carthage in its march from Egypt on its way to Rome. A man brings a paper report to Putin. He seems to look at Thamptis himself once the report is delivered and his eyes change if only for a second.
Sikarin Tsooth
There is no sound, but Thamptis can still determine what was said.
"The Americans say that it will require a volley of many nuclear missiles to bring the castle down. If we fire ours, then they will fire theirs. The United Nations will be forced to follow through with the plan or else it may not work."
Sikarin Tsooth wanted the Stone Rain? How did he know how Thamptis would react to the assault?
The scorch marks shift yet again.
A man meets with Khonsu and selling him the location of the Sunstone. Again, this man who looked different from the one who had advised Putin, looks "off camera" at Thamptis and shifts just enough for him to know.
Sikarin Tsooth.
What's going on here? Why is he involved at all?
The burns scars on the table change once again.
This time a raiding party strikes at the Vatican City. A man in the trappings of a barbarian on a horse with a sword held in the air leads the charge. He's calling for the capture of the Sunstone to sell to one of the alternate names used by Khonsu over the years. The battle was the latest in a series of attacks that prompted the Sunstone being moved to what later became Ireland.
Thamptis: "So, he had manipulated my freeing and the ruin of this world."
It still begged the simple question.
Why?
As the scorch marks change once again, Thamptis watches with anticipation.
The scene changes to a young apprentice in the House of the Jade Tiger being taught different spells. But the spell book he is given is different. There is a hand written spell at the back of the book. A spell not shared with any other students. Thamptis feels his anger build as the teacher looks at the camera and recognition of the young student comes to him. The very spellcaster who had cursed him!
The scenes start changing faster now as secrets are laid bare on the burnt table one by one.
Cato the Elder looks upon the camera as he begins his crusade to destroy Carthage.
Different Roman politicians as their petty jealousy for the growing wealth of Carthage is made worse by a single man.
A respected man in Luxor as he exposes the Three Brothers for their powers and capitalizes on the fear of the people to get the Three exiled.
In the depths of an ancient arena in Luxor as Sikarin Tsooth himself does the finishing spells to create the portal to another world.
As the burn scars in the table fade away as if they were never there, Thamptis stares out into space.
The Long Game...everything has turned out the way Sikarin Tsooth has wanted it to. What will he gain from the destruction of the Asgardians? Or has he gained anything from these manipulations over the centuries?
Tabitha Osborne sits up with a moan, holding her head.
Osborne: "Where did that little bastard go? I'm gonna cut him! Hey, Big Bro? Where did he go?"
Thamptis: "Leave me, Tabitha."
Tabitha stands up with her knife in hand and a snarl.
Osborne: "No one calls me by my-what?"
Thamptis looks at Tabitha, anger clouding his features. She sees a sudden burst of green fire.
Thamptis: "LEAVE ME!"
We go to the outside of the castle where a green fire explosion from within comes out from near the middle of the castle. A lone projectile is sent through the air where it flies for nearly a hundred miles before slamming into the ground like a missile.
Tabitha rolls onto her back inside of a deep crater. She smiles even as the effort cracks open burnt skin.
Osborne: "Now, we're cooking with gas..."
The New Apex Aquadome
From the Shadows
Deep beneath the Irish Sea, a British Luxury Submarine glides through the still waters. Drsucilla sits at the large port to loo upon the sea floor below. At her side is Lord Nebiryau of Carthage. This despite Druscilla's betrayal of Carthage at the Conflict for the Crown.
Druscilla: "Your siblings would not be very pleased with you being here at my side as we inspect the rebuilt Apex Aquadome. Shouldn't you be planning to invade my country and make me pay once again?"
Nebiryau smiles, laying his hand upon Druscilla's. He feels the warmth of her blood and knows that he had his own hand in transforming Druscilla into what she is today.
Nebiryau: "My siblings know where I am. They probably assume that I am working to convince you to come back into the fold. To realign with Carthage."
Druscilla: "Is that what you're doing?"
Nebiryau: "No. It is not what you want and I wish no more to try than I would seek to drink the ocean this vessel glides through."
Druscilla smiles, looking through the window once again. She frowns as she sees nearly flat discs upon the floor of the sea.
Druscilla: "When Terel Walker ordered that the Apex Aquadome be rebuilt, I thought it would at least be as large as the last. I had people come down here to seize control, but they did not say that the venue was so small. Which one of these tiny locations you suppose he managed to fit an arena in?"
Nebiryau sakes his head with a light chuckle. He presses a button on a cell phone to send a message.
Nebiryau: "I had only done some light reading on the man and even I know better than that. Walker was a man who didn't do things in half-measures."
Druscilla: "Then where is-what?"
Druscilla watches in wonder as great towers of steel and glass begin rising up from the sea floor. She grips Nebiryau's hand painfully tight as the towers slowly rise from the sea floor to break through the surface of the Irish Sea.
Druscilla: "You kept this secret from me. It's why you are here!"
Nebiryau: "I wanted to look upon you as you saw this for the very first time. It's a wondrous thing here."
Druscilla looks down to see Nebiryau holding both of her hands. He isn't looking at the Apex Aquadome at all as he speaks.
Nebiryau: "There are few beings in the world or the next that bring such unimaginable passions from me as you do. Bitter hatred, spellbinding lust, blazing anger, and love so deep that the center of this world could not reach its depths. We are at war, and yet I cannot bring myself to leave your side. My loyalty is to my siblings as it is to you. I cannot convince you to bring Britain to Carthage, but I can try to convince my Elder Brother to cease this senseless war and destruction. It will bring nothing but sorrow to us all. My sorrow would be without end should harm come to you most of all."
Druscilla seems spellbound as Nebiryau speaks, though no powers have been used to try to sway her.
Druscilla: "What are you saying?"
Nebiryau pulls a hand away, sliding from his seat to one knee as he draws a small box from a belt pouch. He opens it to reveal a golden ring with a Black Hole Diamond set upon it.
Nebiryau: "Be my bride, Druscilla. Let none question our love and let it be the reason this war ends."
Druscilla's face pales and for the first time in centuries, for the first time in nearly a thousand years, she trembles.
Druscilla: "I-"
Coin of Faith and Willpower
As the plane powers down inside of the hangar for the Tower of Faith, Father Nathan O'Connell, Mary, and Father Abnar Kareem step out of the plane to be greeted by a man in the armor of the Inquisition. An Elite Shocktrooper in dark armor that is engraved in symbols of faith with golden chains with crosses and small parchments with Bible passages written on them decorating the armor. He takes the helmet off as he sees the trio, hoding it under his arm. He is a pale white man with sandy blonde hair. He smiles at them.
"My name is Burt Williams. The Cardinal was not expecting anyone to come from the church at this time, but he is willing to meet with you in his office upstairs. I'll just take you too him."
As Burt turns to walk, Father Nathan cocks his head to look at him.
Father Nathan: "Shouldn't you check us for weapons or the like?"
Williams: "Why? Do you mean the Cardinal harm?"
Father Nathan: "Well, no. But-"
Williams: "I'm sure you're fine. Besides, there are few weapons on this world that might give the Cardinal pause..."
Father Nathan, Mary, and Father Abnar Kareem follow Burt Williams to the elevator. Father Nathan keeps glancing to Father Kareem, remembering words told to him by Daniel, the Angel of Death, before he met the Ethiopian Priest to begin this journey.
Daniel: "If you go on this quest, do not give the coin to Father Kareem. He is far more than he seems and less than he reveals. Mariano Urizar should not have the Coin of Faith and Willpower, this much is true, but neither should Abnar Kareem."
Once they all get into the elevator, Father Nathan places himself between Mary and Father Kareem. Out of instinct mostly, since he hasn't really said anything or even looked to Mary that much that he knows of.
The elevators open to reveal Cardinal Urizar's floor sized office. The man himself sits at his desk in the center of the room where he looks up from a lap top screen with a smile.
It is not a smile of warmth and welcome, but more of the calculating smile of a predator.
Urizar: "Father Nathan. I have heard much about your talents. I am honored to have this meeting with you today. What is it that you have come so far to see me about?"
Mary: "We have come because the church needs a magical coin that you have found to become strong again. We could sit around here all day and exchange pleasant lies, but we have come to ask that you hand over the coin in peace."
Father Nathan shakes his head. The woman doesn't have a single bone of guile or tact in her body.
Father Nathan: "What she means to say is-"
Urizar: "You want the Coin of Faith and Willpower? You think I should just hand it over to the church? The coin that has increased my own power here?"
Father Nathan: "Well-"
Mary: "Yes! Can we have it?"
Mariano reaches into a desk drawer, pulling out an old coin. He motions for Father Nathan to come over and simply hands him the coin. Father Nathan can hear the slight gasp behind him coming from Burt Williams as it seems that he really had not expected this to happen.
Urizar: "My Faith is unshakeable, no matter what happens. The Church on the other hand, needs what they can get. Use it well, Father Nathan."
As Father Nathan turns around, he sees Father Abnar Kareem standing before him with his hand out.
Kareem: "It was a far simpler job than I had thought. Now, give me the coin and we can go home."
Father Nathan shakes his head, placing the coin in his pocket.
Father Nathan: "I don't think that I can do that. Who are you really, Father Kareem? Someone who works for Carthage?"
Father Abnar Kareem lowers his hand, his expression growing darker.
Kareem: "I would not work for such short sighted fools and their brute of a leader. I work for my God surely as you work for yours. Now hand me the coin."
Father Nathan: "Your God, My God? They are the same are they not?"
Father Abnar Kareem laughs, shaking his head.
Kareem: "Oh would that it be only true, Father Nathan. Then we would not be standing here and having this discussion. Give me the coin."
Urizar: "I will not have False Priests in my office. I would expect that you would reveal yourself for the truth, Kareem. If you will not, then Burt Williams will be forced to fill you full of blessed lead."
A tendril of inky darkness shoots from Father Abnar Kareem's back to speak Burt Williams into the crotch and out through the top of his head. He grabs Marry, pulling her backwards before revealing that he has a knife to her throat. The tendril quickly retreats back into his body.
Kareem: "I do not take well to threats, Urizar. Father Nathan, hand me the coin, or else your little friend dies."
Mary struggles to get away, but finds that she cannot get out of Abnar Kareem's steel grasp. Instead, she screams.
Mary: "Don't give him the coin!"
Mariano Urizar stands up from his seat.
Urizar: "What is the meaning of this?"
Father Nathan doesn't spend much time in consideration. He hands the coin over to Father Abnar Kareem, who begins laughing as he releases Mary who rushes to Father Nathan's side.
Kareem: "Do you think that little Mary here would also be planning on just asking for Terel Walker back, or did you plan on evading guards to go down below to search?"
Urizar: "What?"
Father Abnar Kareem's features seem to melt and reform with a long wooden staff that's topped with a dragon claw holding onto a blue glowing sphere with a human skull within that seems to be laughing. By the end of the transformation, we can see that it is Sikarin Tsooth.
Tsooth: "Come now, Father Nathan. The truth worked for Mary. Didn't it? Maybe he is tired of playing with Walker and just gives the man up."
Father Nathan spares a glance back at Cardinal Urizar and notes the rage building up in the man. This is going to get unpleasant really quick. He summons his cross into his hands, changing it into a gun before pointing it at Sikarin Tsooth.
Father Nathan: "We don't have time to waste with words. Give the coin back."
Cardinal Mariano Urizar walks around his desk, standing off to the side between Father Nathan and Sikarin Tsooth.
Urizar: "Why are you here, Sikarin? You wanted the coin? You could have just asked for it, you know. I owe you so much in favors."
Tsooth: "I know, but this was more...satisfying. Now that I have the coin...Father Nathan and Mary also wanted to get Terel Walker from your clutches. Chew on that info."
He turns back to Father Nathan with a laugh.
Tsooth: "That gun won't hurt me, boy. If you get past the Cardinal here, you won't be able to use the elevators to get down. I'll repay you for your help in getting me the coin."
Sikarin waves his staff and a bolt of blue energy strikes the floor. The explosions can be heard floor by floor as the bolt speeds down into the unholy depths of the Tower of Faith.
Tsooth: "Goodbye, Nathan. I'll let the church know that their hero did not die in vain."
Sikarin Tsooth fades away as Father Nathan opens fire. He turns, but is lifted up when a large hand grasps the barrel of the cross. He quickly finds himself looking into the eyes of Cardinal Urizar with his feet at least a good two to three feet off of the ground.
Urizar: "Did Anderson send you? Was the three legged swine too cowardly to return to my sanctum on his own and send you here to die in his stead?"
Before Father Nathan can reply, Mariano lets out a grunt of pain, dropping Father Nathan back to the floor. He looks back to see Mary holding onto a bloody knife.
Urizar: "I like my guest right where he is. Oh the glorious pain I have inflicted upon him for his trespass with my own hands. He will find his way into Heaven soon enough, but not before I burn the last of his sins out of him."
Father Nathan: "It doesn't work like that. Nothing you do here works like that! You do not do God's work! Now release Terel Walker or I will shoot you where you stand! This has been granted to me by Daniel. It is a weapon that you should fear."
Cardinal Urizar places a hand on the end of the heavy cross with a dark smile.
Urizar: "Who do you think helped me build this place? These people work themselves to their graves and die for the cause. Their blood and cancers are spilled upon holy ground so that their souls can be cleansed of their sins at the last. They rise to Heaven while I maintain this mortal Hell on behalf of Daniel and God!"
Father Nathan opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. Mary, on the other hand, has no such qualms.
Mary: "He lies!"
Mariano sneers, shoving Father Nathan backwards by the gun to slam into the desk. He turns, backhanding Mary to send the knife spiraling out of her hand. He catches it, though it looks more like a toy in his large hand.
Urizar: "You can ask him when I kill you both."
Father Nathan stands up, his fists glowing bright. He strikes Mariano in the jaw, knocking him back a few feet. He launches in to continue his assault, but Mariano catches a fist in his hand.
Urizar: "Power of the Divine channeled through your body. Do not be fooled, you strike not a follower of the Enemy. You strike at one of God's Most Faithful!"
Mariano crushes the fist in his hand, bringing Father Nathan down to his knees.
Urizar: "Let's play a game. Shall we? You get Walker and get him back up to the hangar where your plane awaits. I will let you go. I shall send Mary to the plane to await news that you had died..."
Mariano lifts Father Nathan up by the hand, and tosses him into the hole made by Sikarin Tsooth.
Urizar: "Take the short way down, O'Connell."
Mary picks up the cross left behind by Father Nathan and points it at Mariano. Tears rolls down her cheeks as she readies to open fire.
Mary: "That was no game! You killed him!"
Urizar: "You fire that and I will kill you. Go down to the plane and wait for news. Your Father Nathan might yet live to see why he will never leave here with my prize...down from in the depths of Faith."
Opening
The lights in the arena go out and everyone mills about in silence as they wait for proceedings to begin. A glowing static begins to fill the air, not from the JumboTron, but holographic projections into the very air above the heads of fans that reveal the sea around them in all of its glory from the floor up with oceanic life swimming in and out of view.
The crowd seem to all hold their breath at the same time before letting it all out in an overwhelming cheer. This is when the JumboTron lights up with one of the most unusual (and light hearted) songs for an Onslaught opening.
Once the song is finished, the JumboTron and Holographic Light Show fade with the lights turning back on. We go down to ringside where sit Jane Coughlin and Neil Dizon.
Dizon: "That was...wicked."
Coughlin: "Walker spared no expense in getting this place built to eclipse the last place."
Dizon: "I think Anderson and Warhammer Wrestling were footing the bill for the rebuild and so Walker wanted to stick it to the man for getting the first Apex Aquadome destroyed."
Coughlin: "That might be. Well, we have some debut matches tonight. We have a long awaited tag team match of Kronin and Lilly against Valora and Zolothach. And our main event features the return of Jessica Tendonin to the ring in defending her IWA Bloodstain title against Iro Waters!"
Dizon: "Cyborg against Dragon Lady. It'll be a bloody one! Buy your splatter guards!"
Coughlin: "I'm sure it won't get that bad."
Dizon: "You remember how bad it was when Iro took on Zolothach? Yeah, it can get that bad."
Coughlin: "Well, 'et's head down to the ring where we have Red Mantis debuting against Brice St Vient. Both men are waiting in he ring for the bell to ring to start the match!"
St Vient vs Mantis
As the bell rings to start the match, Brice St Vient seems to be just holding the corner up. He stands leaning forward with both of his hands on the ropes while facing the corner. Red Mantis comes up behind him, but Brice backs out of the corner with an elbow to the side of Red's head. He spins around while grabbing Red's arm, and pulling him into a short arm clothesline.
Coughlin: "I heard that Druscilla made a special stipulation for this match."
Dizon: "Do you remember what it was?"
A boy and a girl stand at ringside while holding hands. Brice St Vient stops beating Red Mantis into the mat long enough to look at them.
Dizon: "Where the heck did they come from?"
Coughlin: "No idea."
Boy and Girl: "We came to sing!"
Dizon: "*Beep!* Don't people tend to die when they sing?"
The boy and girl point at Brice St Vient, who stands and watches them while ignoring Red Mantis.
Boy and Girl: "He's coming to kill you!"
Two steel chairs flash over the security railing to brain both the boy and the girl. They crumple to the mat as man and a woman step over the railing. Security just nod at them as they lay into the unnatural children with the chairs. They are joined by more people, all armed with steel chairs.
Dizon: "A ring invasion and security does nothing?"
Coughlin: "I would say that this has been passed by Druscilla."
Brice is caught by Red Mantis pulled over into a back suplex with a bridge for the pinfall.
One...Two...Brice kicks out.
Both Brice St Vient and Red Mantis stand up to continue fighting, but Red Mantis catches a steel chair to the back of the head. Brice turns to see more chair wielding fans come into the ring, but they ignore him.
Fans: "We come to sing!"
Red Mantis slowly starts getting up, but is planted onto the mat with another chair shot, and another, and another.
Fans: "We come to sing in harmony with our chairs!"
Dizon: "Umm..."
Coughlin: "Just watch..."
Red Mantis starts to rise again, but nearly a dozen chair shots put him back on the mat with blood streaming from several wounds. One of the fans rolls Red Mantis over with his foot to get another location to strike as the fans hit him over and over with steel chairs. Then, as one, they back away to allow Brice St Vient to go for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Brice St Vient slips out of the ring, heading to the back while shaking his head.
Dizon: "I still don't get it."
"Bloodlines" by Slayer begins...
Coughlin: "I think you'll find out now."
Druscilla walks out onto the entrance stage as Red Mantis starts slowly pulling himself up by the ropes.
Druscilla: "Red Mantis. Welcome to the IWA. I know it isn't the kind of welcome that you thought that you would get, but it is no less than what you deserve. You had a grand old time during the Conflict for the Crown when my security was uncertain of who they would be calling boss. Didn't you? You thought that you could cut a quick promo to help bring yourself into the company. This was fine. Cutting a bloody swath through my people was not. Hundreds dead. Then, you thought you could murder some of my staff while we were readying for this show! The fans in the ring with you now are some of my strongest supporters who lost family during your little self-introduction. They want to share their loss with you by taking away any chance you might have had for a debut win here. You will live, but you will wish you hadn't. You may continue..."
Druscilla turns and heads to the back. Red Mantis backs into the corner, looking around him at the fans with blood stained steel chairs close in on him.
Fans: "We sing a song of vengeance!"
We go back to Jane Coughlin and Neil Dizon as blood splatters across the floor from in the ring to land on the table.
Dizon: "Gross..."
Coughlin: "You think that Mantis learned something here?"
Dizon: "Was it cut new and different promos instead of rehashing the same thing over and over? Or was it the killing?"
Coughlin: "I think it was the killing? What about the promos? Was that important?"
Dizon: "You know what? He'll figure it out."
Down in the Depths
Father Nathan is falling.
That he is falling is certain. Where exactly he is falling to is not. The floors within the Tower of Faith pass by in a blur.
That he is falling as fast as he can possibly fall is fact. He would consider what this deadly falling speed is by name, but names really don't matter by this point. Only that when he lands, if he lands, that not one piece of him is going to remain connected to another piece of him.
This must have been how Lucifer felt when he was cast from the Heavens.
While he can't make out details in the individual floors as they slip by faster than the eye can see, he notices a color change. Where the upper floors were a lot of whites and golds, it has changed to tans and steels to reds and brass.
Father Nathan feels piercing pain in his back in a pair of locations at his shoulder blades and a whisper in his ear.
"Where is your God now? Does he send his Angelic Host to come save you from your impending doom? Will he save you at the last moment by stopping the very Law of Gravity so his champion might live to save the day?"
Father Nathan frowns. He saw the sorcerer leave. How is he-
Father Nathan: "Sikarin Tsooth?"
"When your God sent his most beloved champion down from the Heavens, do you think he spared a single thought to whether or not the Angel who stood at his right side would survive the fall? That he would care that the being that most understood His Will in the entire cosmos would last beyond the impact from the Fall?"
Father Nathan: "God did not banish Lucifer to watch him die! He-"
"Just didn't care once Lucifer was beyond his Heaven. He didn't care that the Angel that He loved the most amongst His entire Host would exist anymore. You are not even loved to that extent. You are but a single mortal amongst the trillions that have already passed through His Golden Gates. Why would you matter to one such as Him?"
"It was the divine flesh that made up all angels that allowed Lucifer and his brethren to survive the Fall. Since He who you send your Faith to will not spare a single mote of energy to keep you alive long enough to serve Him in the capacity that He has chosen for you. I will!"
Father Nathan feels a burning pain in his shoulders as they seem to grow until his downward momentum is jerked upward for a second. He spares a look over his own shoulder to see obsidian wings sprouted from his back that help him glide to the bottom of the hole.
Once his feet land on the floor of an empty room, the wings begin to fade.
"You would do well to remember who saved you on this day, O'Connell. It was not the being that you send your Faith and Love, but a being that you send your Hate and Disdain. One day I will call upon you to repay this favor. And repay you will or break your pact with your God forever for that one last act of defiance. Then He will care about you even less than He does now. You know what He hath done to the Angel he had loved the most, what will he do to the single mortal soul that he loves the least?"
Father Nathan feels his pain subside as the wings fade away into nothing, though the words spoken echo in his mind and in his heart.
A lesser man might have broken. A lesser Priest might have fallen into despair at the "truths" spoken.
Father Nathan is neither of these. His Faith remains strong in the face of lies. In the face of such twisting of words and intent that the beginning of his speech met the end of it several times before it was over.
He looks around the room to see that the walls are a dark red with brass trim. Combine that with the increased temperature of the room makes it seem as if he had indeed fallen into Hell itself. The decor of the room would make one think of a small office, though the desk that would have been in the room is shattered into smoking pieces along with any other furniture in the room. The floor is a large scorch mark that has burnt paint away to reveal the very bedrock of the Earth.
He opens the one door into the room and it leads out into a long hallway that is full of doors off to the sides. There is a door on either side of the hallway, though one is of plain wood with the symbol of a stairway and other other is a dark brass that's stained with the passage of countless years.
That seems like the way to go.
As Father Nathan walks down the hallway, he hears muted typing and conversations from the rooms that he passes. To what end these office workers and working toward in the bowels of this unholy place is anyone"s guess.
He arrives at the door and notes with curiosity that the door is not locked with any security measures. Though, he does consider the simple fact that if one has made it down to this dire level of the Tower of Faith by normal means that it is because that they have the proper security credentials to enter this room...
...Or are being dragged into it.
Father Nathan slowly opens the door, grunting as he is greeted by a blast of thick humid heat that brings a sheen of sweat upon his skin on contact. This is followed by pained screaming and wailing that stab at his soul.
It is not without effort that Father Nathan fights off the wave of dizziness and nausea to enter the hall and close the door behind him.
The hallway is dimly lit by electric torches, the light flickering through a near tangible haze against the dark red paint and tarnished brass in the hallway. The hallway is lined with doorways, a cacophony of terrible pain and anguish coming through barred windows of tarnished brass doors.
Thinking through scriptures of the Bible and stories told to him as a youth, Father Nathan could not imagine a place that more personified Evil and Hell than the place he was now standing in.
The enormity of the task now facing Father Nathan was enough to give him pause. There was nearly two dozen doors that he could see along with many hallway junctions that led to even more rooms by no doubt. There could be many more such doors with prisoners being tortured by Urizar's people for one slight or another. How was he to find Terel Walker and escape with him? How was he to even consider leaving these other poor souls behind, who were probably just as innocent as Walker of the crimes they were condemned to such a horrible fate for?
Father Nathan began by looking through the barred window of the closest door. The sight made him want to turn his head and vomit.
Two dark mishapen beings stood on either side of a man, he supposed that it is a man, and work on stripping him bare to the bones layer by layer. They have left his face free and so Father Nathan could see that he was not Terel Walker. He could not imagine the kind of pain that this victim was in with layers of skin and muscle being hung up on a line next to the tortured man with clips for display of what they have taken from him.
Father Nathan closes his eyes, uttering a silent prayer to ease the man's pain. He knows that even if he were to free the man now, that he would not survive long as too much damage had been done to his body.
He walks across the hall to the door mirroring the first. He feels his gorge rise even higher, but keeps control of himself. Two more dark misshapen beings hold a wooden bowl each. One pours a black tar-like ooze into a man's forced open mouth and one holds a bowl by the naked man's ass.
One the foul liquid is all poured in, the man screams in pain, blood pouring out of his mouth and dripping off of his chin. Within seconds, the man by his ass collects the foul substance into his bowl. The creatures exchange bowls and the process begins again.
Father Nathan shakes his head, backing away from the door. This isn't going to be the way that he can find Terel Walker before being discovered because he let loose the sickness he has been trying to hold back or letting out a shout of rage.
Father Nathan stands in the middle of the hallway and shuts his eyes and tries to block out the sounds of suffering around him so he can focus.
In the absence of all Light. When one is surrounded by an Evil so deep and dark that there seems to be no way through to see the morning, then there is only the Light of Faith left. If his own eyes would fail him, the his Faith in God could guide him.
Father Nathan walks blindly down the hallway and turns. He walks straight down a side passage, turns, and stops. When he opens his eyes, he can see Terel Walker laying in a bed with four dark misshapen things around him. A screen above the bed is positioned with a built in webcam. Presumably so that the Cardinal can visit with Walker without actually having to come down here.
Terel Walker lays on the bed with his clothes neatly folded onto a nearby table. A lot of wires hand down with little glittering spheres on the end. On many, the ends cannot be seen as they have been inserted into various shallow wounds on the man. He thrashes about as one being turns to a monitor, pressing some buttons. Father Nathan can hear the high pitched tone of electricity being poured into Walker's body in short bursts.
Father Nathan tests the door and opens it slowly as to not alert the creatures in the room. He slowly closes the door behind him. When it clicks closed, one of the dark creatures looks to the door to see him.
Father Nathan can see the creature for what it is. A humanoid creature mishapen by a life of being tortured, skin darkened by a deep burn scars and cancers, and eyes with a swirling madness.
Father Nathan gets into a fighting stance, but the creature does not come at him. It instead turns the screen to face him. The grinning visage of Cardinal Mariano Urizar is plain to see.
Urizar: "My little Lucifer has survived his fall! Your little friend who has your gun will be most pleased to see you one last time before you die. I have placed a few phone calls around the world to reveal your treacherous ways in attempting to murder a high placed man of the cloth. Even after you die here, your name won't amount to soiled toilet paper!"
A small smile crosses Father Nathan's face.
Father Nathan: "Those of True Faith will only need to look into their hearts to see what is true. They will know what you are not."
Cardinal Urizar sneers.
Urizar: "It matters not! You will not survive hundreds of floors to get back up here to your girl! And when you are dead, I will tell her of your death myself, and then she will join you in the afterlife!"
The four dark beings turn as one and launch themselves at Father Nathan.
He catches the first one with a right cross across the jaw. Blood and other dark fluids erupt from the ruptured skin.
One of the dark beings slams a fist into Father Nathan's chest with enough force to knock him back into the wall. The other two come at him with blades and bring two of the hanging wires.
He sidesteps one slash, grabbing the creatures arm, and slamming the knife into the underside of the jaw of the other knife wielding creature. He grabs the dying creature's knife and sweeps back to open the first one's belly with a diagonal sweep.
He takes the knife, throwing it to sink it to the hilt in another creature's eye.
The last creature backs away from Father Nathan to stand by Terel Walker. He holds the control panel with a growl.
"Your friend will die if you come any closer!"
Father Nathan shakes his head.
Father Nathan: "Step away and you can leave in peace."
The creature looks at Father Nathan in shock.
"You won't kill me?"
Father Nathan: "Not if you don't attack me. I am here to get him out of here, not cause bloodshed."
The dark creature slowly steps away from the table and to the door. When he sees that Father Nathan doesn't strike him down, he produces a card from his robe.
"This will get you to floor just below the ground floor in the main elevator. That is the top level of the Depths of Faith and is the highest that me and my people can go."
Father Nathan accepts the card with a whispered blessing of thanks as the creature leaves the room. He walks to stand next to Terel Walker, removing the wires one at a time, and sewing closed the wounds.
Once the last one is closed, Terel opens his eyes and smiles.
Walker: "Hey, Nathan. If this is all to ask about a raise...you got it."
Father Nathan shakes his head with a chuckle.
Father Nathan: "We can discuss financials later. Let's get you dressed and up first. We have just a few floors to go to get to the plane at the hangar bay."
Terel sits up on the side of the bed, looking through his clothes to start getting dressed when he does a double take.
Walker: "The Hangar Bay? You know how far up that is from here? I was given a wheel chair tour of this place before they began the torture! I'm pretty sure I saw strange window things that showed lava flows outside of this building down here in the Depths-"
Father Nathan: "Of Faith."
Walker: "What?"
Father Nathan: "The Depths of Faith. Both the Cardinal and one of the creatures here with you called it that. All of the basement floors in fact. The Depths of Faith. There is no Height of Faith that can be without comparison to the Depths. No Heaven without Hell. To rise above this, we must have Faith in ourselves. Ourselves and this key card..."
Terel looks at the car with a grin.
Walker: "Whatever raise you were thinking of asking for? Double it."
Father Nathan: "This doesn't get us to the Hangar, but we will be closer. We'll move once you get dressed."
Father Nathan looks out through the door and into the hallway as Terel gets dressed. The hallway is clear and so getting to the elevator might be simple enough. Though once they get to the top level of the Depths of Faith, they will need to find another card or another way to continue up. It doesn't sound like it will be a very fun time.
Father Nathan: "Lord, protect us. This will be a journey most perilous..."
Hudson vs Zadian
Theobald: "This next match is scheduled for one fall! Featuring first, hailing from Moscow, Idaho...Stephanie Hudson!"
"I Will Not Bow" By Breaking Benjamin begins playing as Stephanie walks out from the back and to the ring. The crowd stare at her silently as she passes, unsure what to make of the newcomer.
Coughlin: "Really a strange one there."
Dizon: "The real question is why is she here in the IWA? Her fiance is in the ASA."
Coughlin: "Fiance?"
Dizon: "Elliot Lytle, otherwise known as Ironman."
Coughlin: "Oh right. I knew that."
Theobald: "And her opponent, hailing from Tampa, Florida...Samuel Zadian!"
24 Hours by Wretch 32 starts playing. A silhouette of Samuel Zadian appears at the top of the ramp. At the 0:17.5 second mark of the song, Sam walks in, revealing himself. He walks down the ramp, sometimes looking around and staring at the audience. He walks up the steel stairs and goes in between the middle and top rope. He climbs two corners, raising one arm to the crowd at each one. He walks to an empty corner and gets into a boxing stance.
Dizon: "Not creepy at all is he?"
Coughlin: "Sometimes people look at the crowd."
Dizon: "Yeah. He looked like he was thinking of eating the crowd there."
As the opening bell rings, Samuel Zadian nearly launches himself across the ring to strike Stephanie in the jaw with a punch that sends her to the mat so fast that the ring resounds from her impact. Samuel holds a fist in the air, diving down to strike another blow to the underside of Stephanie's jaw.
Blood splatters up from the impact as she bites her tongue. Samuel applies a rear naked choke with a laugh, blood from her mouth washing across his hands as he chokes her out.
Coughlin: "Samuel Zadian rushing into this to show his brutality in the ring."
Dizon: "Depending on the woman, it doesn't show much on Samuel's part that he can beat one up."
When the ref tells Samuel to break the choke hold, he pulls her up into a standing position. He holds onto her shoulders and delivers a mighty headbutt. Then another. Then another. The last strike, shatters Staphanie's nose, spraying Samuel down with blood and mucus. He laughs as he slides around to behind her to apply a full nelson that he doesn't hold onto very long as he turns it into a suplex. He holds it in place for the pinfall.
One...Two...Samuel lets go!
Dizon: "He had this match won! Why would he do something as stupid as letting go of him?"
Coughlin: "Because he's an idiot?"
Samuel pulls Stephanie to her feet, measures her out while laughing, and-
Coughlin: "Superman Punch! Or that's what he calls that move at the very least."
Dizon: "He could go for the cover right now, but is he really trying to bring her to her feet?"
Samuel pulls Stephanie to her feet, but she falls back onto her back as if dead. Samuel frowns as he stands over her.
Zadian: "Get up! This isn't the grand way I wanted to end my first match!"
Samuel goes in to kick her, but the ref intervenes. He shakes his head, signaling for the bell.
Theobald: "The referee has determined that Stephanie Hudson cannot continue this match. Winner by knock out...Samuel Zadian!"
Dizon: "I don't think this is how Stephanie expected her first match here to go either."
Coughlin: "Medics are on their way down to try to wake her up and see if she can make it back down to the back on her own power. A pitiful debut for her, but not bad for Samuel."
The Shadow of Aka Manah
The elevator doors open and both Father Nathan and Terel Walker step out, looking around.
The key card had gotten them up countless floors from what seems to have been the very heart of the world to the floor below ground level. It isn't as if there were stops along the way.
Office workers, messengers, and Shocktroopers of several types had entered and left the elevator at different floors. When they had arrived at the floor they were at, the key card started beeping and would not allow the elevator proceed up until they got out of the elevator. No one remaining on the elevator said anything, but it was clear that they wanted Father Nathan and Terel to leave so they can go about their business.
Walker: "Wouldn't you think that there would be an alarm on? Maybe a message out to security to look out for us?"
Father Nathan: "I wouldn't go looking for trouble where none is."
The floor and walls begin to creak from vibrations as something large comes down the hallway and into view.
A nine foot tall humanoid monstrosity with three heads, six arms, and six legs. As if three large humans were torn apart and joined into a single grisly puzzle by inhuman scientists. It holds three giant clubs and three giant axes as the heads bellow with a stupid rage at the intruders.
Father Nathan slowly turns to Terel Walker, shaking his head with a sigh.
Father Nathan: "Clearly, you have watched no cliched movie ever."
Walker: "Weapons?"
Father Nathan points up.
Walker: "Your only weapons are provided by God..."
Father Nathan: "That and it's either up with my friend, Mary, or with our mutual enemy, the Cardinal."
Walker: "I'm open to suggestion then. Plan?"
Father Nathan ducks a club blow which causes him to also dodge an axe blow to the midsection. Both weapons sweep through the wall as if it were made of paper. Terel sidesteps an uppercut with a club and an axe, turning sideways for the weapons to pass to either side of him.
Father Nathan: "I'm thinking of something."
Walker: "Is it run?"
Father Nathan: "Yes!"
After slipping by several death blows from the giant creature, the two begin running quickly down the hallway away from it. Naturally, the creature gives chase while bellowing in an unintelligent chorus.
Walker: "Had you given much thought on how you were ever going to get me out?"
Father Nathan: "Honestly?"
Walker: "No, lie to me!"
Father Nathan: "Then...of course!"
Walker: "Crap."
Terel Walker stops in his tracks, turning back to face the charging monster with a look of determination. He points his finger at the monstrosity with his hand in the shape of a gun.
Walker: "Stop or I will shoot each of your heads with this handgun!"
Father Nathan stops, running back to Terel's side.
Father Nathan: "Are you insane?"
The creature stops, all three heads looking curiously at Terel's hand. It takes a step back, but then a chorus of roars nearly blows both Terel and Father Nathan backward with foul stench.
Terel points his "gun" over one of the creature's shoulders and yells as loud as he can.
Walker: "BANG!"
The creature drops one of its axes to feel the shoulder that Terel "fired" over in concern as if it really felt a bullet whiz by.
Walker: "I will shoot you! Get back! Drop the weapons!"
The three heads of the creature seem to confer in grunts and snorts before dropping the weapons and backing away.
Terel edges closer to Father Nathan, whispering out of the side of his mouth.
Walker: "Now what?"
Father Nathan: "Keep your gun trained on it."
Father Nathan slips forward, picking up one of the axes with a grunt. It takes both hands to hold it up, and the weight makes it rather unwieldy.
Walker: "Now, what?"
Father Nathan: "Send it away?"
Walker: "Go get yourself some lunch and bring me back some hot wings when you get done! Good monster. You've done good!"
The heads look at each other again, speaking in grunts and snorts before looking back at Terel Walker with childlike glee and clapping all three pairs of its hands. It storms down the hallway while shrieking in unholy delight.
Father Nathan raises an eyebrow at Terel.
Father Nathan: "Hot wings?"
Walker: "What? I'm allowed a racist comment now and again. Besides, I'm hungry! They've only allowed me to eat lovely bags of intravenous fluids since I've been here...however long that has been."
The two walk down the hallway, most ignored by workers that they find. They see a stair well, but to access it also requires a key card.
Walker: "So where do you think we can get a new key card?"
"Leave one behind and one may rise. One Key Card, One Soul."
Father Nathan and Terel Walker look around to the sound of the voice to see the hallway darkening even more than what it was. A humanoid with a head like a goat, pale white skin, a black suit, and a marionette of a pale little girl in his right hand.
"You know what is right to do for yourselves. Saving another life is too dangerous for the situation you are in right now. If one of you were to betray and murder the other at this very moment, the other will be given a ticket to get to the ground floor."
Terel Walker and Father Nathan step back away from the creature.
Walker: "What?"
Father Nathan: "Aka Manah. A foul demon who enjoys tempting others to not follow through with the good deeds they are attempting to do. In this case, he wants me to give up trying to save you. Or tempt you away from trusting me to help you."
Walker: "So, are you going to kill me?"
Father Nathan chuckles.
Father Nathan: "And lose my promised raise? No chance."
Aka Manah looks from one to the other while dangling his pale puppet in the air.
"Choose while the ability to do so still sings through your veins."
Father Nathan brings the axe up high, looking at Terel Walker.
Walker: "Strike true and get out of here. You are much more valuable than I am."
Terel closes his eyes, but the expected blow never lands. He opens them as Father Nathan swings the axe, burying the axe into the chest of the demon.
The impact of the weapon sends Aka Manah backwards by several feet, wrenching the weapon from Father Nathan's hands.
"You have chosen Death. Our Father will be most displeased to see the grasping claws of my fallen brethren drag your souls down into the Abyss once I have slain you both, but he knew better than allow foolish mortals like you to come face me."
Terel Walker rolls underneath a swipe with a clawed hand, slamming into the wall beside Father Nathan as he does so.
Walker: "Our father? You and him brothers? As you can tell, he isn't black by any stretch of the imagination."
Father Nathan deflects a blow, hissing as contact with demon flesh makes his skin blister and burn.
Father Nathan: "Our Father as in God, who is Father of all beings. He was an Angel once..."
Walker: "Oh right."
Terel lunges in, sinking blow after blow into Aka's midsection. The striking fists have little effect on the demonic flesh.
Aka Manah grabs Terel by the front of the shirt, lifting him up, and slamming him into the wall with a sickening crunch.
Father Nathan strikes at Aka, but he swerves to put the puppet in front of Father Nathan's face.
The puppet opens it's soulless eyes to stare at Father Nathan. It let's out a soul shattering shriek that sends Father Nathan stumbling backwards to the floor, blind and deaf.
Aka Manah picks Terel Walker back up from being sunk into the wall.
"My Brothers will enjoy tormenting your curious soul."
A sound like thunder fills the hallway that is joined by a chorus of voices that start out as a roar.
"Put down friend!"
Aka Manah turns and is bowled over by the three headed giant creature with a styrofoam container hitting the floor behind it. Terel Walker lays against the wall, watching how Aka turns to avoid getting the puppet harmed from striking the floor.
The creature rips Aka Manah up from the floor with four hands, laying into it with thunderous punches to the midsection.
Aka plunges his hand into one of the heads while using his fingertips like a dagger. His hands sinks in to the wrist before pulling it out while covered in gore.
This causes two of the arms holding Aka go limp so that the demon can go free. As the demon falls to the floor, he slams a head butt to another head with enough force to crush it.
Once Aka Manah's feet hit the floor, he holds the puppet in front of the final head. The puppet opens its mouth.
Father Nathan sits up with his eyes wide open.
Father Nathan: "Terel, the puppet!"
The puppet opens its mouth, unleashing a piercing shriek that rips through the torso of the creature. Terel scans around quickly for a weapon, but finds nothing that he can lift. He jumps up to grab the doll with both hands and-
A headbutt shatters it into pieces.
Aka Manah let's out a howl of pain as his body explodes. Terel falls back against the wall, sliding to the floor as his face is covered in blood. The creature falls backwards onto its back.
As the key card to continue their journey slowly falls to the floor, the disembodied voice of Aka Manah can be heard.
"This will allow you to continue your journey, but you will will fail when you meet He who hath stood guard at the Tree of Life since the exile of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden."
As the foul laughter of Aka Manah fades away, Father Nathan slowly gets to his feet. He helps Terel Walker get to his feet with Terel picking up the key card on his way up.
Walker: "That was not very fun. I have a killer headache."
Father Nathan pats him on the back with a chuckle.
Father Nathan: "Not many can boast defeating a demon with a headbutt. So what's the key card say?"
Terel Walker reads the card and smiles.
Walker: "This card says it will take us to the Karman Line and not the ground floor. Is that good?"
Father Nathan: "It's the line between the Earth's atmosphere and space. In our case it is probably the line between Earth and Heaven."
Walker: "And this guardian that Aka spoke of?"
Father Nathan: "Let's get to the elevator and I will tell you a story about the angel known as Zophiel and his Flaming Sword."
Walker: "I'm not going to like this story, am I?"
Father Nathan: "No."
To Rend a Heart in Twain
Before the before the show...
Nebiryau stands on a beach in Ireland. He looks off into the South-East as the Flying Castle retreats back towards the mainland before Britain orders the stronghold to be fired upon.
He isn't supposed to be here. That much is certain. British Imperials could try to kill him, but that would be an error that would leave many widows.
He had come to see Druscilla as he knew more than many that his side was often as not was with her. Did it matter that Britain left the alliance and was now at war with Carthage?
It should. He should kill her for her betrayal. He should lift her head high to the masses of Britain and declare that the whole lot will be executed if an oath of loyalty is not sworn to Carthage.
"To see the Dread Lord of Monsters in such a battle within the confines of his own heart does one proud to know that humanity can be found even in the darkest of places."
Nebiryau smiles, but does not look back at the source of the voice.
Nebiryau: "You know that the heart that beats within was not always so dark. Aren't you in danger just by being here, Oracle?"
Jade walks to stand hy Nebiryau.
Jade: "I am in no more danger here than you are. The result of their assault would be much the same."
Nebiryau: "This is true. That being said. Why are you here?"
Jade moves to walk around Nebiryau to stand in front of him.
Jade: "I came because you called."
Nebiryau frowns. He doesn't remember calling anyone.
Nebiryau: "I had not called for you. I had not called for you since..."
Jade: "Since you were over your head in battling a man who would become a God in India. He transformed the bodies of his victims as if they were putty and drank them in liquid form to empower himself with their souls. Did you call to me for aid then when you knew me not?"
Nebiryau smiles. That had been so long before. Though, it was still after the Curse of the Sunstone. He had gone to what is now known as India in search of a mystic to help him accelerate the maturation of the Sunstone once he had it in his possession. Things quickly changed when he discovered the mystic was a nihilist and a genocidal madman who sought to sacrifice millions into himself to become a True God.
Nebiryau: "I did not call you then. I could not, for I knew not of you or your power back then. You had only told me that despite my not knowing you, my need was great and reached across the world to summon you. I had not expected to find help from a Dragon in human form and a Goddess of Olympia, but I was grateful then. As I recall, you refused to use your Oracle abilities for me then when I needed so desperately to know how and when my brother could be freed from his Curse. Has this changed? Will you use your power for me today?"
Jade sighs sadly, placing a hand on his shoulder.
Jade: "If I had told you then, what you know now. Would you have done something different? Would you have allowed to world to come to the state of ruin it now sits?"
Nebiryau: "I...I needed by brother. I needed my family to be reunited!"
Jade: "Millions, if not billions, have died since the start of this. It has gone beyond simple vengeance. Would you have changed anything had I told you that this would be the result?"
Nebiryau: "I would have thought you a liar! No one person could cause this much destruction and misery without losing their soul! Without retaining their sanity! My brother remains with his sanity clutched close to his heart, does he not?"
Jade shakes her head.
Jade: "You know the answer to that question. The reasons matter not, but you know the answers in your heart."
Nebiryau clenches his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut to avoid letting even a single tear escape.
Nebiryau: "If I could have seen this world now as I stood then. If I had known that to save my brother that I must leave him in his prison forever...I would have done things differently."
Nebiryau turns away from Jade, pulling back from her reach. He glares at her in a sudden anger, tears threatening to spill forth as if a flood peeking out over a sand barrier.
Nebiryau: "Is this why you have come here? You've come to torture me?"
Jade: "No. I have come to you as I have come before. Your need calls out to me across the cosmos. The threat you face is not from without, but it remains no less deadly. I have come to help you see your choices laid out before you."
Nebiryau: "Fine. Tell me my future. What will happen?"
Jade: "If you do not seek to end this war, your brother will inflict ever greater attacks upon the world. When will he become so mad that he would pluck the very Moon from its orbit to hurl it at his enemies? I can see this war ending only in tragedy, Nebiryau. You brother will die by the end, but will there be much of the world left?"
Nebiryau: "What of-"
Jade: "Dead at the hands of your brother. A spell so destructive that her soul will be out of even your reach to bring back to your side."
Nebiryau: "He could do this? He would do this? Druscilla is-"
Jade: "A cunning enough of a foe that Thamptis would seek to defeat her with the moon. Think of what he has done so far! The Tsunami, the Stone Rain, and the near extermination of the Gods of Olympus! Keep Druscilla near and work toward bringing peace to this world. Your brother must stop his bloodthirsty ways or else there won't be a world left."
Nebiryau: "I will. I have something to help change...everything. Can you tell me-"
Jade: "Some things. Some things should wait for the moment it occurs for good or ill or else the moment will be forever spoiled."
Nebiryau smiles while shaking his head.
Nebiryau: "You know I hate you."
Jade: "I know you lie rather poorly. Farewell, Dread Lord of Monsters. Keep to your heart and all will be well."
Nebiryau glances up to see Drsucilla's helicopter starting to descend even as their luxury submarine arrives. He looks again to see that Jade is gone.
Nebiryau: "How can I follow my heart when my heart is split in twain?"
The Flaming Sword of Zophiel
As the elevator moves up the final few floors to the final few floors to the Karman Line floor, Terel Walker nervously giggles while wiping at blood still trickling down his face.
Walker: "I don't suppose Zophiel would just give us a key card and tell us to have a nice day?"
Father Nathan opens his eyes from whispering a silent prayer.
Father Nathan: "I am going to say no."
Walker: "I think one of the guys that went to a few floors down said that the Karman Line floor was an open Observation Deck. You could see all of Desolation from the floor and beyond. Not that you could see or want to see the real Desolation through the smog. They have dead bodies instead of grass, Nathan! Maybe this Zophiel would be busy using his flaming sword on someone else to bother us. We could just scam a key card from some sadistic schmuck and move on!"
Father Nathan: "Didn't you learn from the last-"
The elevator doors open up and not twenty feet from the door is an angelic being dressed in a bright white tunic, white feathered wings, a gleaming golden halo, and a fiery sword.
Father Nathan: "-time. Terel, we are going to have to have a discussion at a later date about this. That is, if we don't die."
Zophiel: "You go no further than this point!"
Father Nathan and Terel Walker cautiously step out of the elevator, allowing it to close behind them
Father Nathan: "Cardinal Urizar is allowing us back up to the Hangar Bay to leave. Just allow us to go there and everything will be fine. We are on the same side in the end."
Zophiel shakes his head.
Zophiel: "There is no side here, Nathan. There is duty. I have come here as a favor to ensure that no one trying to go beyond their key card allowance does that. If the Cardinal would have wanted you to pass me, he would have given you the proper key card or have informed me. Otherwise, we have ever been on the same side since the very dawn of time in our service to our Father. My duty was to ensure Adam and Eve left Eden and guard the Tree of Life. For this moment, my duty is to guard the upper floors. If you respect that, then we have no quarrel. You will go no further."
Father Nathan frowns. This is annoying when you get away from shades of gray and into simple black and white.
Walker: "Don't you know that you're working for a very evil man? You should let us go up and ace that guy for ya! Send him on his journey to Hell!"
Zophiel stares at Terel for a long time. He swallows hard.
Walker: "Wrong thing to say?"
Zophiel: "There are many ways to perform the Will of God. Do you know the Will of our Father so much that you can say that the Cardinal is such an evil man that he deserves to have another of our Father's laws broken to have him killed before our Father has seen fit to bring him home for his Judgment? Would you be such a law breaker? A sinner before the eyes of one of His first born?"
Walker: "I...that is..."
Father Nathan steps in front of Terel as Zophiel grips the hilt of the flaming sword tight.
Father Nathan: "What he means to say is that he is mortal and cannot begin to guess at the ways of even our Father's first born, much less our Father Himself. What we know is this. We must pass through to the above. I have come here to save Terel and I will go up to greet my other friend, Mary. We will do this with or without your blessing."
Zophiel smiles, waving a free hand to a column on the floor where a open closet is. There are several bits of equipment there. Equipment for climbing the side of a skyscraper, oxygen tanks and masks, small explosive charges, and swords.
Father Nathan: "An odd assortment for an Observation Deck."
Terel Walker walks over, selecting a sword. He waves it in the air a few times while Father Nathan selects a sword.
Walker: "So, Zophiel. Once we defeat you, we'll get the last key card?"
Zophiel glides his sword through the air a few times leaving fiery after images. He chuckles though.
Zophiel: "There is reason why mankind has never returned to the Tree of Life. I do not lose."
Terel lowers the point of his sword, looking uncertain.
Walker: "Maybe a nice game of chess instead?"
Zophiel: "Die well, Terel Walker."
Zophiel swings his sword at Terel, but the fatal strike is blocked by Father Nathan.
Father Nathan: "Get in it, Terel!"
Terel nods, launching his own pattern of slashes and lunges that coincide with Father Nathan's attacks.
Zophiel easily blocks the attacks without giving ground. He spins, knocking Father Nathan down to the floor with a wing and disarming Terel.
Zophiel goes for a finishing slash, but Father Nathan throws his sword to distract Zophiel to make him dodge the thrown weapon.
Terel grabs one of the explosive charges and sets it. Father Nathan grabs Terel's sword and stands between Zophiel and Terel, going on the defense as Zophiel rains down blow after blow.
Walker: "Shit! Aka Manah followed us from below! He's coming through the window."
Father Nathan: "What?"
Zophiel narrows his eyes, but looks back at the window behind him for just a second. Terel scrambles past Father Nathan, planting the explosive between the wings of the distracted angel. He turns, hooking Father Nathan by the elbow, and runs.
Zophiel turns back to the pair, realizing what has happened. No, he looks very displeased.
Zophiel: "Treachery!"
The explosion sends the angel flat against the window with the flaming sword spiraling through the air and sinks into the floor.
Zophiel falls from the window, landing on the floor with smoke curling up from his back.
Walker: "Is he dead? Should we search him for a key card?"
Terel Walker starts toward the downed angel, but Father Nathan pulls him back.
Father Nathan: "He isn't down for the count."
Walker: "Then how do we get up to the hangar bay?"
Father Nathan grabs an oxygen tank with mask, handing it to Terel.
Father Nathan: "God provides. Zophiel is guarding against people from proceeding up beyond this point without proper key cards through the elevator. We won't use it."
Terel looks at the equipment with wide open eyes.
Walker: "You want to scale the outside of the building?"
Father Nathan: "We're above the poisons. The oxygen is because of the thin air."
Walker: "Aawww...this is. This is..."
Zophiel slowly stands up, grabbing his flaming sword.
Terel starts putting the equipment on along with the climbing gear.
Walker: "It's a fine day to risk falling into Hell!"
Father Nathan grins, putting his own equipment on.
Father Nathan: "I'm not doing two falls in one day."
Walker: "Two?"
Father Nathan: "A story for another day, but it does involve that hole over there."
Terel looks over to the other side of the room where there is a large hole in the floor and ceiling.
Walker: "You fell-"
Father Nathan places an explosive on a window.
Father Nathan: "Are you coming, or you going round two with Zophiel?"
Terel notices the not very happy angel coming his way. He salutes the angel.
Walker: "Sorry about the dirty trick, sir. We will not trouble you for a key card."
Zophiel sheaths the flaming sword, smiling.
Zophiel: "Good luck, Terel Walker and Nathaniel O'Connell."
The charge that Father Nathan goes off, shattering the window panel and creating a strong wind as everything starts being sucked out through the window.
Walker: "I guess this is where it sucks!"
Father Nathan looks at Terel as he tries to get out onto the side of the building.
Father Nathan: "Really?"
Father Nathan gets out onto the side of the building, and helps Terel Walker get to the outside. As they begin climbing the last many floors on the outside of the Tower of Faith, Terel dares a glance down.
The tallest of the factories can be seen piercing through the veil of death far below.
Walker: "Well, if you fell through the building...you were spared driving through the gloom like Anderson and I did. It was. It was..."
Father Nathan: "One day this place will be cleansed. One day people will speak of Desolation in hushed whispers in myth and legend as a nightmare long past."
Walker: "So, the Cardinal will just let us go once we make it to the Hangar Bay?"
Father Nathan: "So he said. We'll see when we get there."
j0ker vs Korbin
Theobald: "The following contest is scheduled for one fall! Introducing first, from parts unknown... j0ker!
"Turn You Inside Out" by REM begins playing as j0ker makes her way to the ring. Some of the crowd boo, most dare not even make a noise. j0ker climbs into the ring and stares vacantly under her hood.
Coughlin: "joker was conspicuously absent at Conflict For The Crown. Any idea what she's been up to the past two months?"
Dizon: "I think it's better we don't know. She gives me the heebiejeebies."
Theobald: "And her opponent, from Ipswitch, Massachusetts, by way of Ireland!... Weighing two hundred and seventy-five pounds... Zareth Korbin!"
Unlikely cheers emanate from the crowd as the lights go completely out. As "Hall Of The Mountain King" by Apocalyptica starts, dark green lights flash to the opening beat, and then die out as the song slows. The lights return as Zareth Korbin stands atop the entrance ramp. He raises his warhammer towards the ring as the song once again picks up, and flames shoot from each post. Korbin stalks down to the ring, ignoring the cheering fans and everything else as the lights continue to flash. Korbin pulls himself up onto the ring apron and removes his armor, stretching his arms out in a crucifix position as the song ends and he steps inside the ring.
Coughlin: "A much warmer reception than Zareth usually gets. His fake death ploy and the switch to Druscilla's ranks was instrumental in the British's victory over Carthage at the wild end of Conflict."
Dizon: "Oh you know he's gonna pay for turning on Apathy. He might not need to fake a death tonight if j0ker's in the wrong mood."
Zareth turns his head to listen to the crowd for a moment, before shrugging them off and looking at j0ker. An odd smile creeps under j0ker's hood as the bell rings.
Zareth starts the match by swinging at j0ker, but he stops when red hair spills out from under the hood as it's being drawn back to reveal a young pale skinned girl with long red hair.
Zareth Korbin takes a few stumbling steps back with wide eyes.
Krobin: "Lady Casidhe? Why?"
Dizon: "What the heck?"
Coughlin: "Zareth is betrothed to Lady Casidhe. I guess she's secretly been j0ker all this time? That doesn't seem right."
j0ker attacks Zareth with a palm strike to the side of the face with a cackle. She follows his up with a few more solid strikes, backing Zareth up into a corner.
Casidhe: "Who could love a brute such as yourself? You think to lie to me and call yourself a Protector?"
j0ker hits a few elbow smashes before pulling Zareth out of the corner with a northern lights suplex. She's up and kneeling over Zareth's stunned form.
Casidhe: "You think I don't know that you really wanted to bed Devereaux? I'm your third choice! You would have married the *beep*ing Devil over me if it brought you more power. Do you want to know what real power feels like?"
Korbin: "Casidhe...I don't-"
j0ker places both palms against Zareth's chest, sending electricity through his body to bring out a scream of pain. The act is a give away though as she tosses away two devices on her hands.
Korbin: "Casidhe wpuld not have needed...who are you?"
Zareth grabs the long red hair as she pulls away. A realistic mask is removed to reveal...
j0ker smiles, unmasked for the very first time. Her voice still comes distorted.
j0ker: "This was fun. Shall we play some more?"
Zareth Korbin casts the mask aside and stands up. Yes, he looks quite angry as his face begins to redden.
Korbin: "I'll crush you!"
j0ker tries to side step Zareth's grasp, but is caught and body slammed with enough force to bounce her back up two feet into the air where Zareth catches him again. j0ker lays back in Zareth's grasp as if dead. When this gives Zareth pause, she gouges him in the eyes, and drops back to the mat. She rolls to her feet, but brings Zareth down into a small package.
One...Two...Zareth kicks out!
Dizon: "j0ker is doing some serious mind games and dirty tricks here!"
Coughlin: "It's what she does!"
j0ker: "You know how this should play out, Korby. You know how you react to things you can't understand..."
The referee turns to look at the crowd where he begins yelling at a fan to be quiet.
Dizon: "What's going on?"
Coughlin: "I don't know?"
Zareth Korbin sees the distraction with an angry smile. He grabs his hammer, slamming it into the side of j0ker while the ref isn't looking, and then quickly puts it back. He goes for the pinfall as the ref turns around.
Dizon: "Why is j0ker bleeding down by her neck instead of her head where she was struck?"
Coughlin: "I have a bad feeling about this..."
One...Two...Three!
Zareth Korbin stands up and smiles as he celebrates his win.The ref shakes his head, pointing at j0ker. He frowns, looking down at j0ker, noticing the out of place blood trail. He tugs at j0ker's blonde hair, removing a mask where long red hair spills out of it and the side of her head is bloody. Zareth stumbles backwards until he falls in shock.
Korbin: "What have I done?"
The ref pulls the red hair to reveal it's a torn mask to reveal-
Dizon: "Who's that?"
Coughlin: "I don't know. I don't know what she looked like in the first place."
The ref then peels off a mask to reveal...j0ker?
j0ker: "Good win, mindless brute! We should play again sometime!"
j0ker puts her robe back on as Zareth screams in rage and throws his hammer. It passes through nothing as an empty robe drops to the mat.
Dizon: "That was..."
Coughlin: "Freaky."
Asgard vs Carthage
Theobald: "This next match is a tag team match scheduled for one-"
Dizon: "Stephan? Hate to be a bother, but I think they're already fighting backstage."
Theobald: "Bastards..."
Coughlin: "And let's look to the JumboTron to see the action. Will it make it to the ring? No clue."
Dizon: "Unless it's become a pinfalls count anywhere thing, they'll need to if they want to win the match."
The JumboTron lights up to reveal Kronin and Lilly in their dressing room with Valora and Zolothach as they battle at each other.
Dizon: "They just couldn't wait to get to the ring, could they?"
Coughlin: "No, they couldn't."
Valora grabs Kronin by the back of the head, slamming his face through the dry wall of the dressing room. Tabitha grabs Lilly by the shoulders, falling backwards to do a back roll throw to send Lilly through the door of the dressing room and into the hallway.
Valora rips Kronin out of the wall, bulldogging him onto the vanity. Tabitha walks out into the hallway, but is caught by Lilly with a kidney punch and a back suplex through the opposite wall into an empty dressing room.
Valora rolls Kronin over, straddling his chest, and raining down a few punches before laying her hands on the side of Kronin's face. She leans down to where her face is inches from Kronin's.
Salinas: "So full of life for someone who died, old friend. You think that your Lilly would still love you as a dried out husk of a man?"
Lilly starts to step through the hole in the wall to follow Tabitha when two hands grab her and drag her into the room. Lilly is thrown into the mirror of the vanity, shattering the glass and driving the shards into her back.
Osborne: "Send a little Romani to fight a Priestess of Cthulhu. You were outmatched before you even stepped foot in this place."
Dizon: "This match isn't looking very good for Asgard."
Coughlin: "I bet they have some tricks up their sleeve. Oh and this has been made into a pinfalls count anywhere match. They don't have to even go near the ring."
Kronin grasps Valora by the arms.
Kronin: "You want a taste of Asgardian power?"
Salinas: "Yes!"
Kronin: "Ask and-"
Valora is thrown backwards through two dressing rooms to the side by a thunderous blast of lightning. Kronin stands up, following through the holes in the wall, waving away at clouds of dust from the drywall.
Tabitha grabs Lilly by the hair, slamming her face into the floor. She places a knee into the small of Lilly's back, grabbing one of the mirror shards and twisting it. Lilly lets out a scream of pain as it tears into her flesh.
Osborne: "You have more power than you used to have, but still less than me. Did you expect to defeat me?"
Lilly: "Yes."
Lilly twists to bring a shining palm to the side of Tabitha's head, knocking her away. She rises, gathering her power.
Lilly: "Let me show you what I can do..."
As Kronin steps through the last hole, Valora catches him with a huracanrana. She brings him down to the floor, and hooks both legs for a pinfall attempt. As if by magic, the door opens and the ref comes in the count it.
One...Two...Kronin kicks out.
Dizon: "How did he know that someone was being pinned?"
Coughlin: "He's a good ref."
Valora gets up, pulls Kronin up, and drags him into the hallway before tossing him down the hall into a large room. Kronin rolls to his feet and waits for Valora to come to him.
Dizon: "I'm not sure I can follow the heck is going on. Why don't they all at least get into the same room?"
An explosion later, Kronin is bowled over by a flying Tabitha. They land in a heap on the floor.
Lilly walks through the hole just made with her eyes wide.
Lilly: "Oops..."
Coughlin: "And there you go."
Dizon: "Yay!"
Lilly meets Valora with a spear, knocking them both through a table. Kronin and Tabitha stand up with Kronin grabbing Tabitha and dropping her to the floor with a belly to belly suplex.
Lilly cinches in a Romani Lock on Valora while Kronin applies an Achilles Leg Lock on Tabitha.
Dizon: "Double submission hold in play! Who will give up first?"
Almost as one, both submission holds are broken.
Coughlin: "Neither."
The two teams separate to either sides of the room, glaring at each other while deciding how to proceed.
Osborne: "You Asgardian fools! I've had enough of rules and regulations! This ends NOW! Valora!"
Lilly holds up her hands, glowing with power as she readies a counterspell.
No attack comes thoigh. Instead, Tabitha begins to bleed? Her skin begins cracking as if a broken porcelain vase. She begins to swell, and as the skin begins to come apart...black scales can be seen.
Lilly: "Kronin! This isn't a match anymore!"
Kronin: "I see that, Lil'. We can take her down!"
Lilly: "This room isn't going to hold her!"
A bifrost opens, revealing Lenneth. She locks eyes with Valora, who begins cursing.
Lenneth: "Another time, perhaps."
The bifrost opens again and all three are gone. Valora curses loudly, pressing her hands to Tabitha's broken flesh. As she draws energy from Tabitha, her swelling goes down and her flesh heals until she is whole again.
Tabitha falls to the floor once released by Valora. She looks down to see if she's seriously harmed Tabitha, but the girl is on her back in giggles.
Osborne: "Did you see them run away with their tail between their legs? Sheer gold!"
As Tabitha stands back up, Valora backhands her with a sneer.
Salinas: "Too soon! You played that card too soon! We could have had all three if you had done it right!"
Tabitha considers fighting, but holds her face with the expression of a hurt little girl instead.
Osborne: "I'm sorry...I just got too excited with the bloodlust and all. You can understand, right?"
Dizon: "Are you serious?"
Coughlin: "What?"
Dizon: "Touchy feely conversations between these two women instead of bloodshed? It's all wrong!"
Valora glares at Tabitha and really looks as if she's going to backhand her again, but shakes her head.
Salinas: "I can understand the feeling. We need to be on the same page next time. Clear?"
Tabitha brightens right away.
Osborne: "Clear!"
Dizon: "This is just...shut that off!"
Coughlin: "Aww, you missing your bloodshed? The Bloodstain title match is next."
Neil Dizon smiles as the JumboTron fades.
Dizon: "Yes. That will make me happy."
The Fiery Mountain
Mary sits in a chair by the plane that brought her and Father Nathan into the Tower of Faith. On occasion, she watches as transports land on the pad outside of the bay itself to load and off load troops before heading out again. Cardinal Mariano Urizar walks over to stand by her with a cruel grin.
Urizar: "Your friend managed to make it to the top of the Depths of Faith. I don't know how he survived the Fall, but he won't survive Aka Manah."
Mary watches the Shocktroopers with Father Nathan's cross on her lap. Aka Manah...a terrible demon from Lucifer's horde.
Urizar: "My Shocktroopers go out to different theaters of war. They attack Tsar Miranov's twisted new forces as they try to sweep Russia clean of all life not loyal to him. They snipe at Carthage in different outlying lands. This war is now costing me money, but I will do as the Circle of Fire commands."
Mary: "If you are on the same side now as everyone else, you could have just released Walker?"
Urizar: "No. Walker is an idiot who stands in place of Anderson in my wrath. He dared to insult me and blackmail me. I do not let these slights go unforgiven."
Cardinal Urizar looks to the elevator from time to time. It's not something that goes unnoticed.
Mary: "You expecting to see Father Nathan through those doors? He has gotten past the demon. Didn't he?"
Urizar: "Do not test me. You will not want my wrath either."
"The Wrath of the Cardinal is great! He thinks he is as our Father from the Old Testament. He will be swept away in the end, as all old evils will be."
Cardinal Mariano Urizar turns around to see Father Nathan and Terel Walker dropping their climbing equipment and oxygen tanks to the floor. He stares silently at them.
Father Nathan: "No words? We can still take our leave of you, yes?"
Walker: "It's been fun, but I think my wife might be missing me about now."
Urizar: "You...Aka Manah..."
Terel rubs at his head where dried blood coats it.
Walker: "We broke his dollie and he went away."
Urizar: "Zophiel..."
Father Nathan: "Guarded the elevator and not the sky."
Father Nathan and Terel Walker join Mary at the entrance to the plane as Cardinal Urizar stands and watches them with clenched fists.
Urizar: "You think you can just escape me?"
Terel turns around, anger coloring his features.
Walker: "We are not just escaping. I will be contacting some friends. You know the Order of the Dragon? The people who brought down the Dread Dragon years ago? They will wipe this place off the map like toilet paper!"
Terel hears Father Nathan groan behind him.
Father Nathan: "And we almost got away..."
Urizar: "You threaten me? YOU? You won't be my prisoner this time around!"
Cardinal Urizar grabs Terel by the front of his shirt, pulling him back through the air, and slamming him into the side of the plane.
Urizar: "I am of the Faithful! Your pagan Dragon bitches can't touch me! THEY CAN'T STOP ME!"
Mariano throws Terel across the room where Terel hits the floor, nearly sliding to the edge of the platform. Father Nathan leaps out of the plane, striking Mariano in the side of the head with a punch to send him backpedaling down away from the plane. He follows with a series of punches that knock the mammoth man back, drawing blood as he splits the Cardinal's lip open.
Mariano comes back with a punch to the midsection that sends Father Nathan through the air and into the side of the plane, nearly sliding over it.
Urizar: "Have you any idea how many have tried to kill me? All have died in the attempt!"
Mary: "Leave them alone!"
Mariano looks at Mary, who once again is pointing the cross gun at him.
Mary: "Leave them alone or I will shoot you!"
Cardinal Urizar grins at Mary, sadism dripping off of his every spoken word.
Urizar: "Do it, you little bitch. I sense an unnatural purity in you. Take my life and ruin that forever. You will become of the Enemy and will be destroyed by the Faithful! My place in Heaven at the side of my Father will be secure. You will forever swim in the Lake of Fire!"
Mary steps back away as Mariano advances. He plucks the gun from her hand, tossing it over his shoulder with a cruel laugh.
Urizar: "Let's see how long that purity lasts in the Depths of Faith..."
Mariano staggers as Terel leaps on him, holding on with his legs as he pounds on the Cardinal with lefts and rights.
Walker: "You leave the girl alone, monster!"
Mariano elbows Terel in the rib cage before palming his face to lift him into the air.
Urizar: "How noble of you. Will your sacrifice get you past Saint Peter you think?"
A gunshot causes Mariano to drop Terel to the floor. He turns around to see Father Nathan standing with a smoking barrel from the cross gun.
Cardinal Mariano Urizar grits his teeth through the pain, feeling the blood pour down from the wound in his back.
Urizar: "You won't win!"
Mariano leaps at Father Nathan, taking a further two shots to the chest before he plants a palm onto Father Nathan's chest, and smashing him into the side of the plane.
The cross gun falls to the floor as Mariano lifts the Priest high into the air, shaking him like a rag doll.
Urizar: "Tell me you though you would live through this!"
He slams Father Nathan into the side of the plane again, smashing in a large dent.
Urizar: "Tell me you thought you were going to win the day!"
Father Nathan: "I didn't think."
Father Nathan's fists begin shining bright white as he strikes Mariano across the jaw with enough force to force the Cardinal to release him.
Father Nathan: "I have Faith in my victory!"
Father Nathan goes for another punch, but Mariano catches his fist. Then the other. Father Nathan's fists still glow bright, but then so do Mariano's as he drives Father Nathan to his knees.
Urizar: "This again. I told you before, I do the work of the Angel of Death! I wipe away the evils of mankind away so that they can be saved at the last. You think that your Faith is greater than my own? Our Father has charged me with bringing the masses around to His Glory! You are a mere pawn..."
Father Nathan grits his teeth as he starts to slowly stand up to Mariano's amazement.
Father Nathan: "You cover genocide up in a blanket of Faith and say that you are doing His work. You have broken the Laws of Our Father more times than even Lucifer himself in your blind pride. You are not worthy of His Glory. You are not worthy to bow down at His feet. You will sup at the same table as those of the Fallen!"
Mariano shouts in rage, throwing Father Nathan near the hole in the floor.
Urizar: "I am a Cardinal of the Church! I would not bow at Our Father's feet! I would sit at his side and we would share His Glory!"
Mariano grabs Father Nathan by the front of his shirt, slamming him with his fist into the side of the head, and sending white sparks everywhere. He hits Father Nathan again and again.
Urizar: "I shall be exalted above all! I will-"
Father Nathan catches Mariano's fist in his hand, rising though it is hard for the Priest to see through a mask of blood and rapidly swelling features.
Father Nathan: "There was once an angel who had such a position and was filled with such pride and vanity that he thought he was Our Father's equal. You know his name! Say it with me!"
Urizar: "Never! I am not Him! I am not the Enemy!"
Father Nathan: "Oh you are. You are the Enemy of all Mankind. You will Fall just as He did. Though you will not fare so well as Our Father's most favored angel. Say His name!"
Father Nathan stands, holding both of mariano's hands and crushing them in his grasp. Mariano's glow of Faith has faded, leaving behind a man in fear who has not known it for a very long time. His voice comes out not much louder than a whisper.
Urizar: "Lucifer."
Father Nathan squeezes harder, feeling the bones in Mariano's hands crumble under his grasp.
Father Nathan: "Louder! Say it with meaning!"
Urizar: "Lucifer!"
Father Nathan: "You will share His fate! The fate you tried to inflict upon me!"
Urizar: "No!"
Father Nathan lifts Cardinal Mariano Urizar up over his head, and throws him into the hole.
Father Nathan: "You try the Depths of Faith..."
Father Nathan picks up his cross, joining Mary and Terel Walker on the plane. Mary wakes the pilot, who had been sitting asleep since his arrival.
Mary: "Time to go!"
Everyone in the plane reach for support as the building rumbles.
Walker: "Let me guess. Mariano had a plan to take everyone out if he died. Like exploding the building and all of Desolation..."
The rumble becomes louder as a series of explosions begin to shake the building.
Father Nathan: "We've talked about this, Terel!"
Everyone takes seats and strap into seats as the plane takes off.
Moments later, they look back as the Tower of Faith begins to fall as if in slow motion. Bright mushrooms appear all around the base of the tower as mammoth factories begin exploding.
Father Nathan: "Mary, look away."
Mary looks away, but Father Nathan and Terel Walker watch Desolation is consumed by fire.
Walker: "And in his arrogance, the Kingpriest of Istar angered the Gods so that they threw down a fiery mountain and sealed the fate of an entire empire, changing the world forever in a single stroke."
Father Nathan: "What?"
Walker: "Nothing."
Bloodstain Championship
Theobald: "This next match is scheduled to be a Tartarus Death match and is for the IWA Bloodstain championship! Featuring first the challenger, weighing in at two hundred and thirty pounds...Iro Waters!"
"Built to Last" by The Protomen plays as Iro Waters walks out from the back. He looks around at the cheering fans and smiles as he makes his way down to the ring.
Coughlin: "It's my understanding that Iro Waters is considering making his way into the Flying Castle to confront Thamptis himself on the Stone Rain and claim vengeance for those he had lost."
Dizon: "That doesn't sound like a brilliant thing to do."
Coughlin: "No, it doesn't."
Theobald: "And his opponent, weighing in at one hundred and ninety pounds, she is the IWA Bloodstain champion...Jessica Tendonin!"
Imaginary fills the arena as the lights go dim. After a few seconds, Jessica steps out onto the stage, nodding to the crowd and smiling. She taps both shoulders and looks down at the ring. She then shakes her wrists, loosening up. The lights brighten and the crowd begins cheering louder as Jessica begins walking down the ramp. Looking at the fans on either side of the walkway, Jessica waves to them, her smile delighting them, her waves enchanting them. Stopping in front of the ring, she looks at it, her smile fading ever so slightly.
Jessica walks to the corner and goes up the steps before bending over and into the ring over the second rope. She runs to the farthest corner and climbs the turnbuckle, folding her arms across her chest and looking at the surrounding faces of the fans. She steps off the turnbuckle and looks at the referee, waiting for the action to get going.
Coughlin: "The fans look happy to see Jessica Tendonin back."
Dizon: "After her last match in the ASA, I'm really surprised that she came back at all."
Iro Waters and Jessica Tendonin stand on opposite sides of the ring as the cage is lowered and charged up with violent power.
Dizon: "This match is just insane. Electrified steel cage, Texas Death with barbed wire covered everything, c4 in the turnbuckles, and random blackouts...and I see there's the giant stuffed animated teddy bear outside of the ring. It gives barbed wire hugs..."
As the bell rings to start the match, the two meet in the center of the ring. Jessica shakes her head with a smile.
Tendonin: "I am more powerful than you could ever imagine. There's nothing you can do that will really harm me."
Waters: "Oh yeah?"
Tendonin: "Yeah."
Iro Waters looks to the crowd, who cheer him on. Iro strikes Jessica across the chest with a European uppercut with the left arm. The impact makes Jessica frown before she notes the arm with a chuckle.
Tendonin: "Not even whole, are you? Let's see about taking the rest of you apart, shall we?"
Jessica takes a swing at Iro, but he knocks the arm aside with his right arm, sweeps in to grab Jessica with a headlock, and take her down to the mat. He cranks on the headlock a bit, but Jessica slowly rises up to sink in a few elbows to get Iro to break the hold. Iro breaks away, bouncing off of the ropes, and returning to hit a jumping reverse elbow that knocks Jessica back down to the mat.
Iro Waters waits for Jessica to get back to her feet before slipping behind her and bringing her down with a knee Crusher. Jessica holds her knee in pain as Iro quickly climbs to the top rope.
Coughlin: "Iro looking to make this a quick match, though I don't know if this is a good idea."
Dizon: "Explosives in them turnbuckles. I'm surprised Iro didn't get caught by the barbed wire laden ropes."
Iro is careful to avoid standing on the turnbuckle as he waits for Jessica to rise again. He leaps off of the top rope and the arena goes dark.
There is the sound of a solid impact. A flicker of light as someone slams into the turnbuckles and a resounding boom as someone slams into the mat hard. The lights come back on to reveal Jessica Tendonin is standing over a downed Iro Waters, who has smoke trailing from his back.
Coughlin: "With the first of many black outs, it looks like Jessica has stopped Iro's momentum."
Jessica reaches down pulling Iro up by his chin to look him in the eyes.
Tendonin: "You aren't even in my leag-"
The lights in the arena flicker as Iro holds Jessica's bare midriff with his left hand and grasps the electrified steel cage with the other. Jessica pulls away to break the connection, leaving Iro to fall down to his knees. She gets back at him, pulling him up just enough to slam a knee into Iro's gut and bring him flat to the mat with an elbow strike to the back of the neck.
Jessica takes a couple of steps back as Iro starts to rise again. She rushes in, hitting a punt kick to the side of Iro's head that sends him bodily into the side of the cage. He hangs there against the side of the cage, electricity arcing across his body for a moment before the arena is once again plunged into darkness.
Dizon: "Here we go again."
Coughlin: "I don't like this black out thing, though I understand that it represents the darkness of Tartarus."
A solid impact of metal striking something solid is heard. When the lights come back on again, Iro's cybernetic arm is shifting back from being a baseball bat to a normal arm while Jessica is entangled in the barbed wire of the rings. She grits her teeth as her flesh tears from the barbs, bleeding onto the mat.
Once she's free, Iro nails her full on with a drop kick that sends her back over the ropes to be twisted into the barbed wire again and slam into the cage. She lets out a shout of pain as the electricity flows through her body and through the barbed wire around the ring. The ropes begin smoking from the power being forced into them in places.
Coughlin: "Jessica Tendonin can't be happy about her return match here."
Dizon: "She's being shocked, cut, and burnt. I wouldn't be happy either."
Jessica Tendonin lets out a shout, a shockwave leaving her body as she does so. The area around her is incinerated as she not only gets to her feet, but hovers a good two feet off of the ground with a glowing nimbus around her body. The ropes go slack, falling down to the ring apron as the ropes near Jessica are burnt away.
Dizon: "That was...odd."
Coughlin: "But not shocking."
Jessica launches herself through the air at Iro Waters, taking him down with a belly to belly suplex that she hooks the leg for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Coughlin: "Looks like Jessica has managed to score the pinfall first in this match. Now, can Iro Waters make it back up before the ten count?"
Dizon: "From that display of power? I wouldn't."
One...Two...Three...Four...
Coughlin: "Iro doesn't seem to be moving."
Dizon: "He's a smart boy."
Five...Six...
The lights in the arena go out. A small area is lit up from the glowing nimbus of Jessica Tendonin's body, but it doesn't go far enough to light up where Iro is laying.
Seven...Eight...
Dizon: "How does the ref know that Iro is still down?"
Coughlin: "No idea."
Nine...the lights come back on to reveal Iro Waters standing there. The crowd begin to cheer as Iro Waters smiles at Jessica Tendonin.
Waters: "Try that again?"
Tendonin: "Gladly."
Jessica Tendonin rushes at Iro, but he easily side steps. She lifts through the air in a backflip, swinging both knees in to catch Iro in the midsection while placing both of his hands on his shoulders.
It seems to happen in slow motion as Jessica pushes Iro away from her and he slams into the middle of the cage.
Iro Waters shines like a newborn star for a few precious seconds from the power being forced through his body before he breaks through the cage and flies into the crowd to slam into B-section.
Dizon: "What the hell?"
In a blur of motion, Jessica brings Iro Waters back through the hole in the cage that she had melted. She brings him up nearly six feet into the air, and drives him to the mat with a piledriver before going for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Coughlin: "After that offensive, it really would be best for Iro Waters to stay down."
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Iro Waters stands back up. He wipes at a bloody mask with his right hand and grins.
He doesn't have the time to react as Jessica grabs him, slamming him down with a pump handle slam. She stands over him with a smile.
Tendonin: "Nothing you can do to win this match."
Waters: "Yeah?"
The lights in the arena go out. There is a flash of light in the center of the ring as if from an explosion and the sound of a body hitting the mat. When the lights in the arena come back on, Iro is seen going for the cover over a very bloodied Jessica. The ref gets into position.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "Is Iro's arm shifting back into an arm again? Is that from the form of some kind of gun?"
Coughlin: "Sure looks like it."
Iro Waters stands up and backs away so that the ref can begin is counting.
One...Two...Three...
Dizon: "Yeah, it looks like Jessica's been shot by a number of small pellets that went all the way through?"
Coughlin: "A lot of damage fast. I wonder if Jessica can get back up from that?"
Four...Five...Jessica gets to her feet. She regards the damage done to her body and sneers.
Tendonin: "We've been babying things a bit, but it looks like you want to get rough."
Coughlin: "What Jessica has been doing so far has been babying it?"
Dizon: "I guess that's how she beats babys."
Jessica comes at Iro, but is brought down with a dragon leg screw that sends Jessica face first into turnbuckles to explosive effect. Iro starts picking Jessica up, but is grabbed and brought down for a jawbreaker. She picks him up onto her shoulders for a Helislam, sending Iro into an unexploded corner. She drags him into the center of the ring to go for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "If I were Iro, I think I would stay down this time."
Coughlin: "He has more courage than he knows what to do with."
One...Two...the lights in the arena go out...Three...Four...
There's a flash of light and a flicker of an explosion that casts the entire arena into light for a few short seconds before fading back into darkness.
Coughlin: "What the Hell? Did Jessica just..."
Dizon: "Blast Iro? I think so."
The lights come back on and the ref is seen not counting. In fact, he stares at Jessica Tendonin.
Dizon: "Someone was busted!"
Coughlin: "I would say so."
The ref turns back from glaring at Jessica to Iro Waters while shaking his head.
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...
Dizon: "The ref restarted the count?"
Coughlin: "You don't strike your opponent while downed."
Six...Seven...Eight...Nine...Te-Iro gets back up!
Dizon: "What the Hell is wrong with him? I would have stayed back down after that last shot!"
Iro Waters stretches as Jessica comes in for the attack. He catches her off guard with a left hand to the gut before picking her up for a pumphandle slam. He spins her around though instead of just slamming her down and sends her into up into a corner of the steel cage.
Dizon: "OH *BEEP*!"
Electrical arcing turns into an explosion as the joints of the cage are ripped apart by Jessica's impact. With a series of loud metallic pings and groans, the entire cage falls apart. The electrified steel walls slam into the crowd. Jane Coughlin and Neil Dizon duck under their table to avoid being smashed.
Dizon: "Turn the cage off you *beep*ing idiots!"
The cage is quickly shut off and hooks start coming down with maintenance scrambling down to the ring to get the cage walls hooked up to lift them away. Then the lights go out...
Dizon: "Oh *beep*! Couldn't we put that on hold for just a moment?"
Coughlin: "They're idiots."
There's a loud crashing noise and when the lights come back on, the walls of the cage are on their way back up to the ceiling, but one of the walls is only hanging by half as it's being dragged across the crowd. Iro Waters can be seen hanging in the air with the hook connected to the chain with the chain wrapped around his throat. Jessica Tendonin stands in the middle of the ring, waving a friendly goodbye.
Dizon: "What?"
Coughlin: "Jessica is hanging Iro to try to beat him!"
The ref yells to the maintenance to lower the chain, but they tell him that would cause all of the walls to come back down on the crowd. The ref then turns to Jessica and orders her to get him down or she will lose her title. Jessica sneers at him, but sends a single bolt of energy through the air to shatter the chain and bring Iro back down to the mat.
She doesn't let him hit the mat as she launches through the air to hit a spear in the air. They soar across the arena until both impact the wall by the entranceway with a impact that buries Iro partway into the wall and sends a shockwave through the wall that makes the entire arena rumble. She drags him out of the wall, letting him fall to the floor. She waits patiently for the ref to come down the aisle before going to the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Jessica Tendonin rises from pinning Iro. She pats him on the chest with a chuckle.
Tendonin: "Stay down this time, boy. It'll be good for you."
One...Two...Three...
Dizon: "Sound advice if I ever heard it."
Coughlin: "You think Iro will take it?"
Dizon: "No. He's an idiot."
Four...Five...the lights in the arena go out...Six...
Dizon: "Hopefully, Jessica can consider not blasting Iro this time."
Seven...Eight...Nine...
Coughlin: "Shouldn't the lights be coming back on now?"
Dizon: "Gods know. Maybe they broke too."
Ten!
The lights in the arena come back on and Jessica raises her hands in victory, but Iro Waters is gone!
Dizon: "Where the *beep* is Iro?"
Coughlin: "Both the ref and Jessica seem to want to know that too. I guess he's up someplace?"
Up is the word for it as there is a shout...from the top of the JumboTron?
Yes. Iro Waters is standing on top of the JumboTron.
Waters: "Miss me?"
Jessica looks up in shock at Iro Waters standing on top of the JumboTron when he was essentially knocked out on the floor. She growls and streaks through the air. Iro points his left palm at Jessica and there's a flas of blinding light! Jessica flies off course and goes THROUGH the JumboTron. Iro lands on her back as she comes out the backside of the giant video screen, using her hair as reigns, and sends her though the wall!
Iro lands on his feet, looking at the large hole in the wall with a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his neck.
Waters: "Oops?"
There's a loud metallic groaning and Iro looks up with wide eyes as the JumboTron begins to sway.
Dizon: "RUN YOU *BEEP*ING IDIOT!"
Iro Waters looks like he might run, but covers his head with his arms as if that might really protect him. The JumboTron comes down with a crash, sending broken bits of equipment and glass everywhere. Iro looks around and at himself. The JumboTron had not fallen on him, but he had been at the exact location of the hole that Jessica Tendonin had made.
Coughlin: "If he isn't the luckiest man on the planet right now..."
Iro Waters walks over to the hole, peering in to see a supply room for props and such for the show. Jessica Tendonin reaches in, grabbing him by the throat, and drags him through the hole. She flings him into a pile of scaffolding with a crash.
Dizon: "How is she even walking?"
Coughlin: "She is very tough."
Jessica picks Iro up and piledrives him into the pile of scaffolding. She stands up and sees that the ref hasn't caught up with them yet so she rips him off of the pile and throws him face first into the wall. He falls back onto the pile of scaffolding, sliding to the floor.
Jessica rip Iro up by the first to be face to face where she sneers at him.
Tendonin: "You wanted to play with the big dogs. This is your chance!"
Iro mumbles something back, his eyes unable to focus on Jessica's face.
Tendonin: "What? What was that?"
Waters: "You can take the man out of the electrified steel cage..."
Iro places his left hand on Jessica's bare collar bone. She shrieks in sudden pain as electrical power shoots through her body. She releases Iro and falls to the floor, twisting and twitching.
Waters: "But you can't take the electrified steel cage out of the man. Does that even make sense?"
An energy beam catches Iro Waters full in the chest, sending him through several walls to where he lands in front of a great glass window (ok imagine the three people were not there...I forgot to remove them). Jessica Tendonin walks into the room, not on the flooring like most normal people, but along the glass window that looks into the Irish Sea. Blood drips from her like rain, but she notices it not.
Dizon: "Are you sure they should be allowed to stay in this room with all of the damage they've done so far? We all know what happened to the last Aquadome..."
Coughlin: "We'll have the ref get them out as soon as possible."
Jessica Tendonin stands over Iro Waters with a smile.
Dizon: "No, I won't ask how in the heck Jessica is doing that."
Coughlin: "She's flying right now, but with her feet against the glass."
Dizon: "Yup. I knew that."
Jessica drops down, hitting Iro in the jaw with a superkick that smashes his face against the floor. She drops down and goes for the pinfall as she sees the ref get into the area.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "I think this is it. No way that Iro can get up after taking all of that punishment."
Coughlin: "Don't underestimate him."
One...Two...Three...the lights in the arena go out.
Coughlin: "Ok, seriously? Shutting the lights off here doesn't effect them since they left the arena."
Dizon: "LIGHTS!"
The lights come back on.
Four...Five...Six...Seven...Iro Waters stands up. Jessica Tendonin looks at him with her head cocked.
Tendonin: "Time for the Paraguayan Imprint to really finish you, eh?"
Jessica pulls Iro to his feet, but Iro drops down to his knees. Jessica smirks at Iro's weakness, lifting him back up, but Iro launches himself up. He catches Jessica under the chin with his left palm, brings her up into the air, turns, and throws Jessica across the gulf between hallway and glass to smash Jessica's face against the bay window. Jessica falls for what seems an eternity, leaving behind an ever spreading network of spiderweb cracks.
Dizon: "Are you *beep*ing serious?"
Coughlin: "Maintenance are on their way to get that sealed. It'll be ok. If there's a major problem, there are security gates that will close and seal the flooded area off."
Iro looks over the railing, frowning as he sees Jessica stand up slowly and go through a doorway leading to a side stairwell.
Dizon: "Where does she think she's going?"
Coughlin: "No idea, but it looks like Iro is going to follow."
Iro Waters holds his hand up, firing his hand into the air to grab an overhanging support. He grabs the ref and leaps over the railing to be lowered down to by the stairwell. His hand retracts to his arm and he starts heading down the stairs.
Iro Waters walks out of the stairwell onto another platform with small windows by the floor of the sea. Jessica Tendonin leans against one of the windows, having left a trail of blood behind her. Iro Waters walks over to stand nearby her, waiting for her to see him.
Dizon: "Don't be an idiot! Attack her!"
Coughlin: "He doesn't want to sneak attack her?"
Dizon: "Considering how much damage she's absorbed? I would jump on that bitch with a *beep*ing nuke!"
Coughlin: "I probably would too, but neither of us are Iro Waters."
Before Iro can react, Jessica turns and has him in a choke hold. She grunts in pain as she quickly lifts him up into the air, chokeslaming him onto the platform.
Tendonin: "Stay down this time."
As Jessica leans down to go for the pinfall, she notices a tiny mechanical arm ending with a needle come out of the shoulder of Iro's left arm. She pauses as she thinks the needle is for her, but the needle plunges itself into Iro's neck, sending in its contents, and retracting back into the arm.
Tendonin: "What?"
Iro Waters lunches up from a laying position and-
Coughlin: "Calamity Trigger! Iro is going for the pinfall!"
Dizon: "He nearly took Jessica's head off with that one!"
One...Two...Three!
Iro Waters stands up, backing away from Jessica as the ref starts counting.
One...Two...Three...Four...Five...Jessica begins glowing...
Dizon: "I don't like it when she starts glowing."
Six...Seven...Jessica gets up. She stands and glares at Iro Waters, her glow changing to a golden. A number of wires begin sliding out of Iro's left arm with tiny drills on it. They slip through the holes of the platform and fall straight down until they find a main power cable and drill their way in through the shielding.
Tendonin: "I won't be denied my victory!"
Waters: "Your denial is in the mail."
Dizon: "What?"
Coughlin: "Iro's wit not working for you?"
Jessica leaps at Iro as his left arm shifts once again into the barrel of a gun.
The blast sends Jessica flat against the port window before she falls, smoking, to the platform. Iro rolls her over to go for the pinfall.
One...Two...Three!
Dizon: "Maybe this-OH MY *BEEP*ING GOD!"
Coughlin: "What?"
Dizon: "Another window is breaking."
One...Two...Three...
Far from spiderweb cracks, larger cracks begin forming in the window.
Four...Five...Six...
Water begins streaming from the window.
Seven...Eight...Nine...
Just as it seems the window is going to totally implode, a metal curtain slams down in place to seal the window off.
TEN!
Dizon: "She stayed down?"
Coughlin: "Yes."
Dizon: "She stayed down! Iro Waters has done it!"
Coughlin: "Yeah, after destroying everything in sight."
Theobald: "Winner of the match and NEW IWA Bloodstain champion...Iro Waters!"
Coughlin: "That's all the time we have tonight, folks. As always, stay safe!"
Dizon: "That's an understatement."