Friday
8.3.18
Jet City, Washington
7:12am
“It’s Time!”
OFF-Camera
The bed shakes violently beneath the former SCW World Heavyweight Champion. Kris’ eyelids open in a panic, and he sits up in the bed. His hand goes over to the opposite side to find it empty, which leaves him confused about the source of the shaking. As he wipes some of the sleep from his eyes and looks around the room, he finds something to be off about it. The low light from the sunrise outside was barely enough for Kris to be able to make out the shapes of the furniture in the room, and the thing that was off about the room becomes crystal clear quickly. The man sitting atop the dresser directly across from the bed was a mirror reflection of Kris.
The Accident: Time to wake up...
Kris rolls his eyes, and lays back down on the bed. There was no panic left in his eyes, and he does not even seem remotely surprised to be seeing himself across the room. He does, however, appear to be done with the situation.
Kristopher Ryans: You’re not real. I’m still asleep. I would like to keep doing that in peace. Good riddance, bad rubbish!
The former champion shuts his eyes with a smile on his face, attempting drift away to more pleasant sleep. Without hearing any sounds of movement at all, Kris feels a tap on his forehead and his eyes snap open again. This time his duplicate is standing over him on the bed.
The Accident: I don’t think you understand. I didn’t ask a question.
The red hood of his sweatshirt was pulled over his head, but with the low light, Kris could not see into the eyes of the man in front of him. The whole thing felt more threatening now that he was trapped beneath the man, without being able to see intent on his face. He was not going to let himself be intimidated though, especially not by someone who was not actually there.
Kristopher Ryans: No, you don’t understand. I needed some time away before I slipped down the wrong road again. I needed to get away before things got bad. I was starting to recover slower, I was struggling to get around backstage. I was broken, and I wasn’t willing to let everyone see me backslide. It was a calculated break.
The real Kris attempted to close his eyes again, but the avatar above him grabs hold of the headboard and shakes it until Kris’ eyes open again. He squats down, leaning painfully close to Kris’ face, and pulling the hood back from atop his head. Kris realizes it was not the low light that had caused him to not be able to see the man’s eyes. Now face-to-face, Kris cannot help but notice it is because there is no light in his eyes at all. Where his eyes should be, are just dark circles.
The Accident: You were supposed to be the best of us….
Kris’ nose scrunches up, his eyes narrow, and his eyebrows move closer together as the confusion sets in.
Kristopher Ryans: Best of...
Before he can get the entire sentence out, the figure over him turns slightly and motions across the room. The space in front of the dresser was no longer empty. As Kris looked through the crowd, he realized that something about all of this seemed vaguely familiar. Almost like remembering a dream as soon as you wake up, but feeling it slip away as your body started to shake off the sleep.
The Accident: All of us.
Behind The Accident were four men that all resembled him, but were all so different from one another. The figure in all black, with a hood over his head was Nobody. To his left, stacking a deck of cards with a smile on his face was Discord. Pure leaned against the wall, the only one that had any light to him at all. They were all clear as day in front of Kris even though he knew that there was no way that it could be real.
Kristopher Ryans: I am the best of all of us...
The Accident laughed above Kris, and brought his hands together in front of his chest.
The Accident: Words. That’s all they are. SCW is moving on without you. Without us. It is time to go back. It is time to make them remember.
Kris nods his head, understanding exactly what the others were asking of him.
Kristopher Ryans: Kris is SCW.
The Accident shook his head.
The Accident: Close, but not quite. That’s where it started, but you need to reach higher. You are the only one that can. It’s not about what you are to SCW. It is about what SCW is to all of us.
An epiphany appeared to strike Kris, and The Accident nodded without even having to hear him utter the words out loud. As soon as Kris went to say them, the world seemed to spin away into nothingness, and just as the panic started to sink in, his eyes opened. This time it was not a dream. This time there was nothing strange at all about the room that he woke up in. He was home, and this was real.
Kristopher Ryans: Time to get to work...
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ON-Camera
“Mine.”
The camera comes to life on the smiling face of the former SCW World Heavyweight Champion, Kristopher Ryans.
”Is the SCW World Champion not the leader of the pack?”
He chuckles to himself lightly, and shakes his head back and forth a few times. A soft wind blows through his hair, and wrinkles the plain orange shirt that he is wearing. As the camera pulls backwards fans at home can get a solid look the former champion. He looks thinner than he had in recent months, but there was no noticeable limp to his movements. There was no cast covering any of his limbs. He did not appear to be struggling to be up and getting around, and from the smile on his face he was not in any pain at all. For all intents and purposes, he looked like the man that had quickly risen to the top of SCW in his latest run. He looked like The Miracle. Better yet, he sounded like The Miracle.
”I mean maybe for people like Gabriel, Nick Jones, Spike Staggs, Simon Jones, Drake Green, J2H and myself. You know, the people that not only managed to win the title, but hang onto it for a decent amount of time. People that managed to beat champion and challengers alike, and hang onto the greatest prize in this company or longer than a few days, a few weeks, or maybe just a month.”
He let his signature smirk linger on his lips for just a moment before shrugging his shoulders. He continued to walk along his path, with the camera pulling back even more to show that he is standing on some kind of boardwalk. The stores around him were closed, and the light around him was fading.
”The problem is, for every single one of those names that I listed, there are at least two more not worth mentioning. Goth, Kevin Carter, Gene Blanton Junior, Sean Jackson, Raab, and Dmitri only managed to hang on for around a month. Jeremiah Hardin only managed to hang on for a couple of weeks. Crimson, most famously, could not even hang on for longer than it took me to walk down an aisle.”
Throwing that jab out there caused a particularly smug brand of satisfaction to ooze out of the former champion. He had to push that thought away from his mind though, because he had a lot of ground to cover before getting to his nemesis.
”To answer Fenris’ question, no, having the strap does not make you the leader of the pack. Arguably, I was the leader of this company before I even obtained that championship. Nobody gave a shit about Calvin Harris’ title reigns. Everyone’s eyes were on the Roulette record until the moment that I broke it. Nobody cared about Crimson, which is why I blew the roof off of the arena when I made my return as champion. Absolutely nobody was rooting for Crimson to win our dome match, but that did not stop it from becoming the best match this company has ever seen. Those are the things that you need to be able to say if you want to call yourself the leader of the pack.”
He raises the index finger of his left hand up to his lips and taps at them a few times before shaking his head.
”Crimson and Ben Jordan are most likely both going to tell you this, Fenris, so let me say it in a way that can soften the blow. Sure, your reign is already longer than Crimson’s, and was from the moment you got back to whatever they were using for a locker room on that boat. Sure, you are an undefeated rookie with more to show for yourself in a handful of matches than Ben Jordan has been able to put together in years. However, the leader of the pack, you are not. You trained at the gym basically run by legends of this company. You got through Blast From The Past with a partner that I helped train. I got injured and you got to take on a fellow rookie who had already fought through a match earlier in the night to win a championship that neither of you have the resume to carry. From the moment that you signed your contract here, you have had one lucky break after another. For you to think that you come anywhere close to being the leader of this company is laughable. Don’t make that mistake. Don’t be that guy.”
He holds up both of his hands, trying to appear more innocent than his words paint him to be. He works hard to scale back some of the pointedness of his words.
”I don’t say these things to cut into you. I don’t say them to hurt any feelings, or to try and cause a rift for my team or anything. Instead, I say them so that Fenris does not allow himself to become like the list of subpar people that I was talking about earlier. I say these things to make sure that Fenris is grounded in some kind of reality. If he goes into this match with his head full of hot air, his bubble is going to get popped by one of the two men standing across from us. That is not a guess either, that is a promise.”
He brings his hand in to tap the center of his chest with a shrug.
”People worried about me fucking up the night for my team need not worry. I know what my position in this company is. I know that I am going to get my shot to take back my title at some point. I am also smart enough to know when and where things like that are going to go down. I am smart enough to realize that this match is neither the time, nor the place for us to function as anything less than an all-star team. I was part of Jet City, even while people were telling me to ditch my partner and go for the big prize. I never did anything to jeopardize my team, or our tag team title run, even after we took a week off to beat the hell out of each other on Climax Control.”
The fond memory of beating his brother Jason in the middle of the SCW ring brings a wide smile to his face, but he has to shake the thought away. He did not have time to dwell on the past when there was so much that he needed to get to.
”I know how to act as part of a team. I know how to be successful as part of a team, even when I do not like the person that I am teaming with. That is what makes the combination of me and Fenris so much more dangerous than Ben Jordan or Crimson will give us credit for. They expect me to be fully focused on regaining a championship that I already held for six months this year. They expect me to be mad that Fenris is trying to take my spot. They expect our eyes to be focused anywhere except for on this match on Sunday.”
He shrugs his shoulders again, and gives a slow shake of his head to tell the audience just how unlikely that is.
”See, before I was injured, Fenris and I had actually talked. We have hung out as champion and challenger before, albeit being on opposite sides of the equation at the time. Not only do we get along, but we understand each other. We do not mind competing against, or around each other. How could we not? You have Fenris who is built like a machine, has the best trainers, and also happens to have the most impressive in-ring stats that anyone could put up in their rookie year. Then you have me. I’m the guy that nobody thought would get to the top, but now nobody can deny that to get to the top, you have to go through me.”
He raises his left hand up again, this time holding the tips of his thumb and index finger together while extending his middle, ring, and pinky fingers up into the air. He holds his three extended fingers out towards the camera with a cocky smile on his face.
”Three men in that ring, and none of them have been able to go through me this year. I beat Crimson at Full Circle, and closed the door on this company with a smile on my face. A couple of months later when I kicked the doors back open with that same smile, I walked into a match that Crimson built himself, and walked away with the SCW Heavyweight Championship. ”
He lowers his middle finger, leaving just the ring and pinky extended.
”I pulled Ben Jordan out of the crowd so that he could give me his best shot, and he could not walk away with a win. Neither of us were prepping for that match. It happened at the last moment, to fill a void left in the show. He could not go through me then, and he cannot go through me now.”
He drops his ring finger down, leaving only his pinky extended in the air.
”Fenris needed an injury to strip me of the title before he could claim it. Could he beat me in the ring? I guess anything is possible, but the fact of the matter is, he hasn’t done it yet. When the stakes are this high, time and time again I find a way to come out the other side unscathed. That was how I went unpinned for over a year. That is how I broke the Roulette Championship record. That is how I held the SCW World Heavyweight Championship for six months. I didn’t do it by skirting around people. I did it by taking the fight directly to the people that thought that they were better than me, just because they were naive enough to let that thought cross their mind. Kris Is SCW is not some bullshit tagline. It is not something that I made up myself. It is a label that others put on me, and that puts me at the very top of the mountain, no matter who is holding my championship at the moment.”
The further he goes, the more frustrated the notion appears to make him.
”It took people less than a month to forget who I am and what I do in this company, and inside a six-sided ring. It took an injury to knock me off my perch, and I know people are hesitant to give me the benefit of the doubt before seeing me back in a ring. Sure, shit has been secretive about what was wrong with me, but that is for good reason. I didn’t just have one injury. I didn’t just have one problem. I had a whole list of issues from having the best matches in this company since Jet City made their debut. I was sprained, strained, bruised, beaten down, and worn out. Think about it though, in the last few months I have fallen from the top of a dome of death, gone through a car window, had a near simultaneous knockout with Ben Jordan, had a piece of my ear bitten off, and have spilled liters of blood requiring dozens of stitches, all in the name of entertaining myself and others.”
The hostility fades, and is replaced by the smirk that still rubbed everyone the wrong way.
”What I needed was a month to pull my body back together after the madness that I put it through this year. What I needed was a break so that I could mend my body the right way, instead of the way that the old Kris would have. I didn’t need some kind of immediately relief like I used to. I needed to step away, and do things the right way, so that when I came back, my ring work was just as sharp as what is going on up here...”
He taps his temple with the tip of his index finger.
”I came back to remind all of you, Fenris included, that Kris is SCW....”
His eyes narrow, and the smirk becomes more defined.
”...and all of SCW is mine.”
The feed fades out to black, and cuts off.
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Wednesday
8.8.18
New York City, New York
12:04pm
“The Best Bad Idea!”
OFF-Camera
Both doors of Kris’ car close at the same time, making them echo much louder than they should. Instead of walking towards the door, Kris stops, and pulls the sunglasses down off of his face to look at his trainee. Adam shrugs his shoulders, and motions down towards the car, already starting to plead his case.
Adam Wilson: You going to blame that one on me too? Come on! I don’t know why you’re so fucking on edge today, but I am going to need you to bring it down a few dozen notches, okay? This is not Nazi Germany, and I didn’t break your car door.
Kris circles around the front of the car, and looks down at the hood. It had been a few months since Adam had slammed into the passenger side wheel well on his bicycle, and put a huge dent in the hood when flipped over his handlebars and landed on top of it. The former champion does not even have to open his mouth to hurl the accusation at Adam.
Adam Wilson: Okay, but I am pretty sure that I have already worked that one off. I mean you chased me down, and Kyle kicked my ass. It was over a month ago man, you have to let that one go. Plus, I am pretty sure I have absorbed enough beatings in training since then to make up for it. You can’t still be pissed off about it, can you?
Kris’ eyes do not shift away from the car, but Adam’s is pulled away entirely as a hand clasps down on his shoulder. He had not even heard anyone walk up behind him, and in his surprise, shrugs the hand off of his shoulder and spins towards whoever was there, raising a fist to defend himself. It was not the smartest thing that he could do though, as his wrist is snatched out of midair. Before he even has eyes on his attacker, an arm hooks around his neck, and Adam gets flipped forward, back first onto the hood of the car only working to make the damage worse. When he looks up at the man that put him down, his jaw falls open in awe.
Jason Halich: First, never throw a punch until you have your eyes on your opponent. Second, you have no idea how long he can hold a grudge for even the pettiest of reasons. Third, shut up.
Adam’s eyes shift back and forth between the two brothers, and he is confused as to why he was the one lucky enough to be present for the Jet City reunion of sorts. The day had started of pretty terrible, but if Jay was joining in on their training, maybe things were about to actually get interesting. On the other hand, Kris did not seem thrilled to see him. He had already been looking over the top of his sunglasses, but now pulls them all the way off of his face to look down at his trainee on the hood of his car.
Kristopher Ryans: Adam, this is Jason Halich. He used to be a wrestler. He also used to own a wrestling company. He sucked so bad at both that he does not do either anymore.
Jason opens his mouth to take exception to Kris’ words, but Adam cuts him off.
Adam Wilson: Actually I already kne...
Neither brother looks down at him before they speak in unison.
Kris and Jason: Shut up!
Adam slams his mouth closed, and looks back and forth between the two brothers, realizing that he was not needed for this particular conversation.
Kristopher Ryans: How was the plane ride?
Jason laughed, but there did not seem to be any joy in it. It was more like one of those polite professional laughs people used to mask annoyance. The former SCW tag champion shrugs it away quickly though.
Jason Halich: For cramming 26 people onto the jet, not nearly as bad as it could be.
Adam looked to Kris’ reaction to try and figure out exactly what they were talking about. For some reason, Kris looked surprised by Jay’s statement, but it was anyone’s guess as to why.
Kristopher Ryans: Cool, that means that the kid can play zebra.
Both brothers looks down at Adam on the hood of the car, and he gives an awkward smile, and small wave to the both of them in response, not knowing if it was okay to speak up or not.
Jason Halich: So this kid messes up your car--
Kris does not even let him move onto whatever it was he was going to add to the thought before correcting him.
Kristopher Ryans: Twice!
Jason holds up his hands innocently, and starts over.
Jason Halich: Messes up your car twice, after calling you a dick...
Kris tries to interrupt again, but Jason waves him off before he can get a word out.
Jason Halich: I’m paraphrasing. Deal with it.
Kris closes his mouth, and Adam sees him defeated for the first time. It was almost impressive how Jay was able to shut Kris down so easily, when Kris easily knots up so many others.
Jason Halich: ...and you still bailed him out of trouble and started training him?
Jason shakes his head with a smile, and then offers Adam his hand. Adam is reluctant at first, but takes it and gets back to his feet just as a car pulls in on the other side of the parking lot.
Adam Wilson: Who’s that?
Both Jason and Kris look up in the direction of the car, and all joking evaporates out of the air. Kris nods in the direction of the vehicle.
Kristopher Ryans: That’s the guest of honor.
The car parks and shuts off as they speak, and as Adam turns his attention back to it, the doors pop open and the SCW World Heavyweight Champion Fenris, along with his brother Aron step out into the parking lot. Adam’s eyes go wide, and he takes a step forward towards them without thinking about it. He is only stopped by Jason putting a hand on his shoulder and directing him back towards the building.
Jason Halich: This one’s not for us, zebra. Let’s go get you a shirt.
Adam does not even try to fight the direction Jay was leading him, but did shoot a look back over to Kris and Fenris in the parking lot. The two competitors stopped to talk while Aron continued past them to the building. For some reason though, Kris did not seem irritated at all with the new champion.
Kristopher Ryans: Glad you decided to take me up on the offer.
The champion does not give Kris much to work with other than a small shrug.
Fenris: I don’t want it to be awkward.
Kris forced himself to look genuinely taken aback by the statement, and shook his head enthusiastically.
Kristopher Ryans: Just because you brought my title here instead of me? Nah, we are a team until Sunday.
It was Fenris’ turn to look surprised, and makes an attempt to correct Kris.
Fenris: Or th---
Kris cuts him off before he can finish the thought, knowing exactly where he was going to be taking the conversation and wanting to push it off to a time where they did not have so much to do. Now was not the time or place.
Kristopher Ryans: Oh right, nah… still no weirdness. We don’t have time for that. The reason I wanted you to come out was because we need to figure out how to work together, so I thought that maybe going up against Jet City would be a good start.
Again Fenris appears more confused than anything else.
Fenris: You and your brother are Jet City. How can you compete against yourself?
The smirk came back to Kris’ face at once, and he extended a hand up to drop onto Fenris’ shoulder.
Kristopher Ryans: Today is going to be so much fun...
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ON-Camera
“Team Least Likely”
”Crimson and Ben Jordan.”
The scene comes to life on the face of Kristopher Ryans, but he is not focused on the camera at all. The audience can only see the left side of his face as he looks away from the camera. We are also low to the ground, meaning that the former champion is likely sitting down. He is breathing heavily and there is a white towel wrapped around his neck.
”One is an all around nice guy. Someone that everyone in this company, and all of the fans, can’t help but respect. A guy that has always done everything the right way. The kind of guy that takes himself so seriously that he gets a little bent out of shape when people twist his words. Ben Jordan is the textbook good guy. That is why when he finally spoke up about his lack of opportunities, people stood up for him. Every person worth a shit in this company stood up for him. As the champion at the time, I extended my hand and told him to tear the roof off the arena with me in a show opener just for shits and giggles. I am immensely happy that the guy cashed in all of that momentum and won himself a championship in my absence. I mean, it is the Roulette Championship, so he is never going to get out of my shadow there, but still a championship.”
The camera starts to move around Kris, and the audience can see that there is a smile on his face. It is not just the half smirk he is known for either. The camera continues to move around him but he does not move with it.
”Sure, the guy ruined one of my main event matches on Climax Control with some inappropriately timed drinking. Sure, there was that time the ginger Bad Boy wanted to bang him, or at least I think I remember it that way. Despite some weird missteps, and Sausage Kings along the way, there is no arguing that Ben Jordan is a good guy. That is what makes his pairing with Crimson so laughable.”
The camera only stops rotating as his eyeline comes to the center of the frame. The smile fades off of his face as soon as his rival’s name comes out of his mouth. He sits back though, and tries to erase the expression from his face. After a deep breath, he replaces it with a smirk, and speaks in the same complimentary tone as before, despite it sounding more forced.
”As for Crimson, well I know what you people expect. You have seen it all play out just like I have. Every single fan in the arenas, and at home watching know that the two of us hate each other. He bit off a piece of my ear last time we were in the ring together, and that was in a losing effort. Imagine what he could have done if the momentum in that match was swinging the other way? Does everyone forget his last misstep in that match was an attempt to legitimately stab me? That is the man he is. He is the polar opposite of everything that Ben Jordan, and the #BenDeservesBetter movement stood for.”
Kris sighs and shakes his head though. The next words come out more labored than before, a sign that he really does not want to say them at all.
”That being said, if I really am the best in this company right now, it is because he is every bit as good as I am, and I am just the one that walked away with the last victory. If Crimson were champion, nobody could question his legitimacy. I have spent a lot of time trying to dismiss that. I have spent a lot of time ignoring it, or calling him garbage. He is much better than I was ever willing to give him credit for, but in my defense, it is because he is a really shitty person.”
He actually makes himself chuckle, and doing so shakes the labored tone out of his voice. He had managed to work around the compliment and bring it back into his wheelhouse where he was more comfortable.
”Crimson pushed me to the height that I was afraid to go to before he showed up. He gave me a reason to get there before someone else did. He gave me a reason to fight for this company. When I showed up at Full Circle, it was just as much for all of you as it was for me. I came back in January so that I could give the story a happy ending. I came back when the doors reopened to stop Crimson from claiming the top prize and running everything into the ground. I have only been around in SCW for nearly the last year as a means to stop him from getting to the top. He has been right about the two of us from the very beginning. Crimson said that we are going to do this forever, and he is absolutely right. He is the type that is never going to stop reaching for the top, and I am always going to be the person that is not going to stand around and let him have it.”
He laughs again, and gestures towards the camera, as if he suddenly remember what got him off on that thread.
”Which is why this team of Ben Jordan and Crimson is laughable at best, at least on paper. Ben should be on my side here. He should not be comfortable standing next to Crimson. He should know that as soon as he tags that monster in, he is going to break every rule, and shit on everything that this company is. Ben Jordan is going to stand on the apron and watch Crimson wreck a place that he has always helped to build, without getting any of the credit for it. On the flip side of that, Ben Jordan could carry someone like Crimson into the SCW World Heavyweight Championship picture with a win over the current champion, and the real champion.”
He pauses just long enough to wink at the camera with a smirk, likely directing the comment to Fenris more than the other two, or the viewers at home.
”On the flipside? Crimson has to team with the kind of person that he cannot stand. As much as he might hate me, he has to appreciate the fact that I do not always play by all of the rules. At the very least, he knows that I understand him. Ben Jordan is not that guy though. Ben Jordan is a guy that does everything the right way. Ben Jordan lets Despy negotiate his contracts, because that is just the kind of guy that he is. Crimson tagging Ben in goes against everything that Crimson believes. Ben not being willing to break the rules takes away the only advantage that Crimson knows he has against absolutely everyone.”
He shrugs his shoulders but looks confused.
”I don’t know how these two can work together, but I know exactly how Fenris and I are going to work together. Sure, there is this looming championship problem hanging over our heads, and I like to poke fun at him, but we both know that no matter what we do, that problem does not get solved tonight. We also already expected to square off against each other going back more than a month. We have been mentally prepared to fight over the biggest prize in this company whenever and wherever the powers that be decide that we are going to do it, and we have yet to come to blows with one another. We have yet to attack each other. We are not blindsiding one another with cheap shots, and we are not exchange vile words. Instead, we are training together as a team, and exchanging some friendly banter back and forth about the situation that my injury left us in.”
He brushes sweat away from his right eyebrow and looks away from the camera.
”Ben and Crimson have no reason to work with one another. I doubt that they have legitimately reached out to one another about this match, and I don’t think their philosophies can co-exist as teammates. They cannot trust each other just based on their personalities, let alone the fact that Ben was talking about smacking Crimson around only a week ago.”
He motions back at the building over his shoulder with a light laugh.
”Meanwhile, Fenris and I were friends in the lead up to Summer XXXtreme, and have been more than capable of functioning on the same page to do some real damage in the ring. We can trust each other, because the two of us know that there is no way that we are going to jeopardize our match with one another by taking our eyes off of what needs to be done this week.”
He takes the towel out from around his neck and whips it towards the camera as he stands to his feet. His breathing is a lot more normal now, and he seems to be catching a second wind.
”If we are talking about who the better team is on paper, it is Fenris and I. If we are talking about which team is going to function better together in the ring, that answer is the same. If this match goes by the book, Fenris and I win every single time. If not, and the match comes down to the first team to implode, I think we all know which team it is going to be.”
He shoots one last smirk at the camera before turning away.
”I can’t wait to see what happens….”
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Wednesday
8.8.18
New York City, New York
12:20pm
“We Are!!”
OFF-Camera
As Fenris and Kris come into the training center, Fenris starts to take note of his surroundings. Before he can ask, Kris fills him in on some of the blanks.
Kristopher Ryans: So i know it is not the technologically advanced, state-of-the-art kind of place that you are used to. Jet City shut down. This is kind of an adventure started by a friend, and we are just using the space for the day.
Fenris finally buts in to ask a question before Kris can answer it.
Fenris: What are we doing here that we can’t do anywhere else?
As they turn into the main space of the gym, Fenris’ question is answered. In front of him is a six sided ring setup with Kris’ brother Jason, and the trainee Fenris had seen earlier, although now he was wearing a referee shirt. The real sight was on the other side of the ring though. When Kris had said Jet City, Fenris had immediately thought of the team. When they were coming in, his mind had jumped to the gym itself. Now that he was standing in front of a sizable crowd though, he understood how wrong he had been, and why Kris said that today was going to be so much fun.
Kristopher Ryans: Jet City is not just me and my brother, and it is not a gym anymore. It is a lot bigger, and a shitload more mobile than all of that.
Kris climbed the stairs into the ring, and Fenris followed behind him. As they stepped to the center, he looked out on all of the faces in the crowd. Some he knew, but most were unfamiliar.
Fenris: Is this all of your students?
Kris nodded, but had to correct him a little bit.
Kristopher Ryans: Students. Trainers. Friends. Family. Everyone that was tied to the school was trained to compete at one point or another. A lot of them were teams.
Kris points over towards Porter and Killian Sweete, known as The Black Sheep in SCW. Next to them are the two members of Team Quik, and Awkward Inc rounded off the group.
Fenris: What are they all doing here?
Kris laughed without taking his eyes of the crowd, looking out through the people that had become in family over the last few years.
Kristopher Ryans: 26 people. That is thirteen teams. We are going to fight them all one at a time, until we beat all of them.
Fenris’ eyes open wide, and suddenly the idea was seeming less fun.
Fenris: Until we lose?
Kris shook his head, looking even more devious by the moment.
Kristopher Ryans: Today we are going to win a lot, and we are going to lose a lot. By the time we are done we will know how to win as a team, and no longer be afraid of losing. Maybe it will teach you some humility. If you were ever curious how I went from a nothing in this company to the person at the top, here it is.
Kris gestured out to the crowd of people.
Kristopher Ryans: You have heights ranging from the 5’7” Coby Quik to 6
5” Aaron Isaacs. You got people like Kyle Kavanaugh bringing 160 of high flying ability to the ring, and then people 353 like Parker Wayde that are going to try and pound you into the mat. This group of people is every style, every size, and ever trick that can be pulled on us as a team.
Fenris nods, starting to understand where Kris was coming from.
Fenris: This is Jet City?
Kris nods again, the smile on his face widening.
Kristopher Ryans: This is the only way we know how to do things. We go until we can’t answer a ten count, then we start again tomorrow.
Fenris looked from the crowd, and over to Kris.
Fenris: Until what?
Kris looked back at him with a glint of excitement in his eye.
Kristopher Ryans: Until we don’t even have to think about being a team anymore, it just flows.
Fenris nodded and reached out for Kris’ hand. The former champion quickly took and shook it as Jason stepped up to the group of competitors.
Jason Halich: Jet City! Let’s get to work!
