"So, since that plan was a bust, what shall we do to pass the time?"
"Hey, don't give up. We came all the way to Japan to give that little adventure a go. We can't give up just because our first try didn't work out."
"You really think we can get him next time?"
"Of course! And we don't quit! They have a word for people who do quit, you know. They call them quitters!"
"I guess maybe it was a little too soon to try. But at least we flushed him out of hiding. The cheese sammich was gone after all! We'll just have to try again after we've rested and recuperated."
"Atta boy! No member of this team is a giver upper."
"Nope! No sir!"
"And besides, we can use the resting time to do more research on that sucker. After all, how many places can a sucker that big hide?"
"Not very many. He'll probably go back into hiding in the water in the meantime."
"You think so?"
"You saw the movies Synn bought us. He always does!"
"True! True. And he always resurfaces ready to wreak more havoc."
"Right!"
"We'll consult the journal where you took all your notes when we researched the movies. Plus, we should probably put in a little time focusing on your match next week."
"Why?"
"Why??? Because it's a very important match!"
"It's against NXT and the Dreamz Chasers! How 'very important' can that be?"
"Now, now! Be nice. NXT never did anything bad to us."
"I guess so. Sorry Casey and Aleksei in case you're reading this!"
"You mean watching this?"
"Meh. You say potato. I say Skittles."
".... My point being ... is that you and Gabriel have to be ready for anything! It's in a steel cage, you know."
"I don't want to fight in a cage. ... I don't want to be in that cage. I won't like it."
"Nobody is going to like it, buddy. That's kind of the point."
"Then why did Gabriel make the challenge for it?"
"He didn't do it to scare you. He did it to scare Sean and Anthony. You know how they've been using their numbers to attack Gabriel and when we bring the fight to them, how they run?"
"Yes?"
"Well that's why Gabriel pushed for this cage match. In a cage match, they can't do any of that. They can't run, and they can't bring in help."
"Ohhh yeah! That makes lots of sense! See? This is why you're the brains of this outfit."
"Oh go on with your flattery."
"No, I mean it! That's why I like these little pep talks. Synn and Gabriel are always trying to get me to think about the match and what I want to do when I get in the ring. Strategies they call them!"
"Well, it's like I told you buddy. Strategies don't really work because the other wrestler isn't going to be as accommodating in letting your plan to win play out. For example; what would you do in the ring with a guy Casey's size?"
"Punch him right in the bojangles!"
"Bojangles? You can't do that! That would get you disqualified!"
"Not in a cage match!"
"Ahhhh! I was hoping you'd catch that little detail! That's my boy!"
"Thanks! Besides, did you hear what he said about me? Here I thought he was starting to be a nice guy and then he goes and insults me. And worse than that; he insulted you!"
"Well, he's just jealous. He won and lost his Roulette Championship, but you and I have been champions for months."
"Yeah! You hear that Casey? Pththhhh!"
"Now, was that very mature?"
"No, but then again neither was he. And talking like that id a prerequisite of the average wrestling promo!"
"See? You're learning! You and Gabriel have got this one all sewn up."
"Yeah! We can't lose! Hey, I wanted to ask you a question."
"Shoot."
"Bang! Ha! (I've always wanted to do that!) Have you seen him lately? What do you suppose is on his mind?"
"Who? Gabriel? We know what's on his mind. We had that discussion after you walked in on Synn and Sean."
"No, not Gabriel! Synn! Look at him over there."
"Yeah, that's just not right. Maybe we should go and talk to him."
"Yeah!"
The sun could be setting over the horizon through the window of the spacious hotel room that Synn had made reserved for himself as well as his son. The Japanese did not do things in moderation, and the luxury of this suite could bear that as testimony.
<img src=http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v428/CMFrank04/condo01.jpg>
The lights inside of the room were dimmed, and the shadows grew across the furnishings as time passed while the sun sank further into the west. Synn was seated back on the white leather sofa, his dress jacket slung over the arm rest. His ankle was propped over his bended knee and with his free hand, he extended the remote toward the television and clicked -- repeatedly.
Although his eyes were on the screen, his attention was anywhere but and the flickering images of the channels on the satellite network passed him by without so much as a brief pause to see what programs they might relate to. It was only then that he felt a slight disturbance, the very same one anyone would feel when they had a subconscious sense that they were being watched.
From the corner of his eye he saw a slight movement and turned his head, and there was Angel's head peeking up at him from over the back of the couch, forcing a double take from the man who would come to expect almost anything.
"Joshua?" Synn said, shifting his eyes from the teddy bear's plush face to the back of the sofa. "Is that you?"
"No. It's Angel." Came the answer from right in the vicinity that Synn knew his son had been lurking.
Synn replied, "Indeed. But where Angel goes, so does Joshua so it only stands to reason that you are also somewhere nearby. So come on out."
"Aw, fudge." Despayre murmured as his head slowly rose up from the back of the couch, too, and he rested his chin along the back's cushioned edge and glanced sidelong at his bestest teddy bear pal. "He figured us out. I told you we needed to adapt our sneaky ways."
Synn smirked, a prideful gleam in his eyes at the antics of his son and he turned back toward the plasma screen fixated against the far wall and clicked through another series of channels, with Despayre's eyes glued to his actions.
Synn asked, "I'm glad you're back in time so that we can go out to dinner with the others. Did you have any luck in your quest?"
"No." Despayre sighed. "He got away. Took the cheese sammich and wooosh! I think Gabriel did too good a job at flushing him out. Scared the big guy. We had to kind of make a run for it."
"Oh?" Synn paused to look back at him and he quirked a brow. "Should I be worried? Will the police be knocking on our door any minute now?"
"No." Despayre shook his head, a thoughtful expression on his youthful face. "Those guys pulling those funny taxi carts can really book it when they got to."
"Becaks." Synn said, answering the actual term used for the carts men would pedal on to carry passengers in Asia.
"Be-CAW!" Despayre shouted, practically in Synn's ear and making the big man flinch back and turn to Despayre who looked on in innocence. Despayre blinked. "What? Did I lose the bird imitation game already?"
Synn shook his head and turned back to the TV and a few moments of silence was endured while Despayre watched between Synn and the TV screen, his eyes flickering back and forth at roughly the same rate that the channels were being changed.
"Whattya doing?" Despayre finally asked.
"Channel surfing." Was the answer.
"You don't channel surf." Despayre pointed out, his eyes watching the screen as a lioness savagely attacked a gazelle on some nature related program before the channel was switched. "You just watch the History Channel or the Learning Channel."
"Is that so?" Synn paused and looked at him, but Despayre took the moment to watch in confusion as a Japanese housewife sang the virtues of a floating soap bubble in some commercial. "Have I become so predictable?"
"Yeah." Despayre sighed. "You should change your routine more often. Keep people guessing. I recommend the occasional Spongebob Squarepants marathon."
"Well that would certainly make someone guess what I was thinking if they saw me doing that, wouldn't it?"
Despayre nodded, then flicked his eyes to the right and on his father.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Synn frowned and asked, "Wrong? Is there meant to be something wrong?"
"I `unno." Despayre shrugged. "Angel said you were thinking again."
"And that's bad?"
"If it has you channel surfing, I guess so." Despayre answered with his usual brand of logic.
"Touche'." Synn conceded and he was about to start pressing the remote again when Despayre reached over the back of the sofa and pulled it from his hand. Synn turned to him and said, "Joshua. Give that back."
"Nope." Despayre shook his head emphatically. "Not until you tell us what's wrong."
"Us?"
"Me and Angel." Despayre stressed. "Is it Stepmom?"
Synn mouthed, 'Stepmom?' and turned to look at him as if he had finally said or done something that he could not process. "Who is Stepmom?"
"Sean." Despayre answered, tilting his head to the side so it rested against the cushions while watching him. "Is it him?"
Synn took his foot from his knee and turned fully to the side, resting his arm along the back of the sofa to devote his full attention to Despayre. He asked, "And what makes you think I would be thinking about him? Or that these thoughts would be troubling me?"
"I'm not dumb." Despayre said suddenly with a hint of annoyance buried deep in his tone, his thin, black eyebrows lowering into a stinging frown.
This time it was Synn who frowned genuinely and he shook his head, answering the accusation with, "I know you're not. I never said that you were Joshua."
"Then give us a little credit, huh?" Despayre arched his brows in questioning. "You've had your mind on Sean ever since he started hurting Gabriel. He hurt you too, huh?"
Synn exhaled sharply through his nose and turned his head away from Despayre. This most definitely was not a topic of conversation he wanted to have with his flesh and blood. But if there was anything he knew his son to be, it was persistent when he had something in his thought process. Synn had little alternative but to admit, "Yes, Joshua. He did."
"He said the hate was over, didn't he? That our match was about respect."
"He did." Synn nodded and leaned back against the sofa and found himself watching one of those morbid Japanese game shows where contestants would take part in ridiculous and at times, dangerous stunts, for cash and prizes.
"You don't know if you can believe him, huh?" Despayre asked, reaching up with the remote just enough to give the power button a flick and the screen went void.
Synn had little alternative but to turn back to him and he gave himself a few moments to gather his own thoughts before he shook his head, "I don't know Joshua. I don't know what to think. I'd like to believe that all of this is behind us, but everything that has happened... everything that he did..."
"Like attack Gabriel twice." Despayre said.
"Yes."
"And insult me?"
"That as well."
"And saying you were dead to him..."
"Enough, Joshua." Synn said a little loudly and Despayre brought his head up from the sofa's cushions and he just stared at Synn who closed his eyes. "Sorry. I didn't mean to raise my voice. It's touchy subject."
"Boy I'll say!" Despayre agreed, wide-eyed. "Here I was being cute and helpful and you sassed me! Boooo! Hsssss!"
Synn closed his eyes and a smile came to his face, whether he wanted it to or not. It just seemed to be an adverse side effect to Despayre's mannerisms and actions. Synn opened his eyes and poked Despayre's shoulder, knowing the boy was slightly ticklish in that particular area. Despayre barked out in laughter and fell back and hit the floor with an audible thud. Synn couldn't help but chuckle himself and he leaned up over the back of the sofa and looked down to where Despayre was flat on his back, snickering.
"Are you okay?" Synn asked with a smile.
"Yeah!" Despayre called out as he reached for where Angel had landed, upright of course, and he drew the teddy bear close to his chest and cuddled him. He looked up at Synn and sighed. "So are you going to be okay?"
"I will be." Synn nodded.
"Maybe you and Stepmom should talk."
"I'm certain we will." Synn said. "But I believe his mind is focused on this match as much as your's and Gabriel's should be. There will be ample time for talking about what's happened."
"Can we go to dinner now?" Despayre asked in a dramatic flair of a subject change.
"Yes." Synn groaned as he forced himself to his feet and he walked around the edge of the sofa and to the back where he reached down and scooped his hands under Despayre's shoulders and hauled him up to his feet. "Let's go gather the others and see what we can find."
Kota Steakhouse
The Kota Steakhouse was a teppanyaki restaurant where the chef would prepare the food on a griddle that the diners were seated around while they watched.
At one such table grill, the entirety of the Seven Deadly Sins stable were seated; Synn, Gabriel and Despayre (with Angel on his lap and his very own bib), Shane, Fantasia, Rage, and Kittie herself, who although she was not an active competitor in her pregnancy, she was still an honoured member and a guest of theirs' here in the Orient.
The decor of the restaurant was quaint and calming, with ferns and bamboo the dominant aspect. The smells of the grills at each table wafted throughout and wetted even the hardest of appetites. Several steaks were seasoned on the grill and the chef treated each one with expert precision, turning each over in turn to ensure none would get burned -- save for Synn who preferred his well done.
Despayre was staring intently at the small bowl in front of him as the others chatted away. In the small porcelain dish was a serving of friend rice and he was glaring intently at it, holding a set of chopsticks in his right hand. He glanced up and watched as the others, even Rage himself, had seemingly mastered the use of these torturous (in Despy's mind) devices. He wanted to master them too.
Of course nobody told him that using chopsticks to eat the rice portion of the meal wasn't a prerequisite. Even Rage and Fantasia had chosen to forgo the chopsticks for that part of the meal and use their spoons instead.
But not him! Not Despayre! Angel egged him on to be the 'real' traditionalist and use the chopsticks for everything, and of course, he went along with whatever his teddy bear companion suggested. That's just what friends did, after all.
Carefully, he held the chopsticks, looking up to make sure how Synn and Gabriel were holding their own. Despayre used his free hand to try and fix the sticks in his fingers and pushed them into the rice (the chopsticks, not his fingers). He carefully lifted the rice out, a heaping mound, and just before he could get it to his open mouth, the chopsticks shifted and the rice poured through and onto his lap.
"Awww!" Fantasia said and the others' heads turned. "Sweety, you know you can use a spoon for the rice?"
"Nooooo!" Despayre shook his head as he tried his best to clean the rice from his pants and went to put it back in his bowl but Synn, at his left, covered the bowl with his hand to prevent him from doing so. In answer, the chef slid another bowl with rice before Despayre and only then did Synn remove his hand and the other bowl was removed. of course that didn't solve the problem of the rice in his hand so he just poured it from his hand onto the side of the table.
the chef had finished the cleanup and slid the steaks onto separate plates and set them before each Sin in turn. But before Despayre could make a move for his own, Synn slid his plate towards him and proceeded to use the steak knife to cut it himself. As was the norm, Despayre patiently waited, thinking nothing of this and neither did the others, knowing Synn didn't want the little guy handling any kind of sharp object -- especially a knife. Once finished, Synn pushed the plate back in front of Despayre who smiled gratefully at his father figure who smiled back.
Despayre then focused on the fresh bowl of rice and again looked up, this time at how Rage was holing his own while he chatted with Kittie. He turned and looked at his own and used his free hand again to try and fix the chopsticks the way the others were holding their own. While the others were now watching with a heightened interest, but not so obvious as so he would know, Despayre stuck the chopsticks into the rice a second time and tried to pull some out when his fingers 'clicked' and a shower of rice flew everywhere, scattering the grains across the grill as well as some of the Sins themselves!
Despayre huffed and shoved the small bowl aside and he grumbled, "I didn't want any rice anyway."
"Aw don't give up buddy." Gabriel said with a smile, trying his damndest not to laugh at the spectacle that his 'little brother' always seemed to draw when he went out in public. Gabriel slid his own bowl of rice in front of him and patted his shoulder. "Here. Take mine. I'm not a big rice fan."
"Thank you." Despayre said timidly and he looked down at the rice as Gabriel caught a look from Synn and he just smiled and winked in return.
They all now watched openly and with amused smiles as Despayre looked at the bowl of rice, and then the chopsticks in his hand. He frowned and just tossed the chopsticks down and picked up the bowl in his hands and lifted it to his mouth.
It was then he caught sight of the others watching him and he shrugged.
"What?" He asked. He looked down at the teddy bear in his lap and said, "Me, one! Japanese people, zero!" he brought the bowl to his mouth and asked, "Why didn't they think of this before?"
"I've been sitting back all of this time, trying to understand how any of this had come to be. I thought things were improving between Sean and myself, save for the personal shots that were being thrown between himself and Gabriel. I wanted it to end. I told them to end this, and things only grew worse and by far, out of hand."
"Sean, I literally do not know what to think. I have yet to contact you to have that talk we both agree we need to have, because I thought you needed the time to yourself as my own do, to focus on this championship match. yet mark my words, we will talk. Alone, with nobody else there to listen in or intervene. I had such high hopes, I must admit, when you started to say there would be no hatred and only respect, then why did you close your promo by referring to the current champions -- Gabriel and MY SON -- as garbage?"
"I do not expect you to hold back, Sean. I would be vastly disappointed if either you or your partner did. After all, champions are only as good as their challengers, and I want you both at your very best so when Sinful Obsession retains their gold, their will be no excuses. There will be no lies and no anger. This infantile feud ends once that bell rings, Sean."
"Anthony King, I'm not sure how you managed to work your way into this match as Sean's partner. As I see things, you are at the lowest spectrum of the Artists Formerly Known As the Dreamz Chasers. You have done nothing of note, but as of now, it's a moot point. You've sold your soul to the Devil incarnate, and once that door to the cage shuts, you'll only wish you had kept your mouth shut and allowed someone else to set foot in your place. Perhaps James Huntington-Hawkes III? Truth be told he would most likely be a more credible challenger than you."
"As for you Casey, what more can be said that hasn't been said already? Perhaps i can stress the fact that I don't believe you have any business being in this match. You put on the front of wanting to watch Gabriel's back when all you were truly concerned with doing is worming your way into another championship encounter. You must really be cruising to punish yourself with pain and humiliation, because that is the usual end result for your case whenever you even bother trying to chase after someone's championship. Part of me wishes that Gabriel had told you where to go when you asked to be placed in that cage along with the others, but an even bigger part of me is thrilled that you have backed yourself into a corner and you'll have nobody to blame but yourself when you end up flat on your back, wondering what happened? How you fit into the New Xtremes is beyond me. Spike, Odette, all of the others are respectable people as well as athletes. You, are a bottom feeder."
"And Aleksei Koji, I have nothing to say to you. Nothing bad, at least. this marks I believe the second time that you have found yourself opposite the Sins in a tag team title match and both times you have shown you have everything it takes to be a champion. Walking away with the Roulette title was a commendable accomplishment, and I predict the title will again be yours one day. but that would be the future. This is the present. Things will not change inside of the encaged Ring, Mister Koji. The end result will be the same."
"Violent Conduct is perhaps the most appropriate title for any event that Sin City Wrestling has handed us yet. One champion tag team, two challenging ones against them and each other. Other titles might end up changing hands, but not this one. hasn't anybody ever told you gentlemen that you can not defeat Sin?"</color>
