Sunday, March 17th.
Backstage at Climax Control. Max sits in the back staring intently at the backstage monitor, baffled at what he sees. On the screen... Aleksei, Karina, and Trevor stand united proclaiming their allegiance to Christian Underwood.
Max Burke:YOU’VE GOTTA BE SHITTIN’ ME!
Max throws his bottle of beer across the locker room, and it smashes with force on the wall.
Max Burke: What the fuck...
Max gets to his feet, and storms out of the locker room. He is pretty much in a full sprint when he reaches the gorilla position, just behind the curtain. He makes it just as Aleksei, Karina, and his partner Trevor Irons return to the back.
Max Burke: WHAT THE FUCK GUYS!?
Max shoves Aleksei hard into the wall. Trevor steps between them, and forces the separation before things can escalate. Unfortunately... they do.
THWACK!!!!!
Trevor gets absolutely drilled by his partner. Karina and Aleksei and look on in shock as Trevor reacts instinctively and shoves Max hard.
Trevor Iron: What the fuck man!?
Max Burke: Fuck you Trev!
Aleksei Koji: GUYS! STOP!
Max Burke: Fuck off Aleksei. Seriously, you can go fuck yourself.
Aleksei Koji: Hey now. Relax Max.
Max Burke: Why should I? Why didn’t I get the memo about your little pledge of allegiance to Christian. That’s bullshit guys! You know it. Why the fuck did I just have to watch that on a goddamn monitor? I thought we were a team. I thought we were a damn family.
While Max is on his verbal rampage, Karina attempts to calm down Trevor, before he loses his cool again. Trevor rubs his face where Max suckerpunched him.
Max Burke: Like seriously, why wasn’t I filled in on this?
Aleksei Koji: We talked about this Max.
Max Burke: Hold on a second there bud. Yeah, we BRIEFLY talked about it. I didn’t think we came to a final decision. Last I heard we were still weighing the pros and cons of each side. I’m sorry, but why the hell would we join Mark and Christian again? They’ve screwed us at every turn. You guys really didn’t think this through.
Trevor Irons: Max... chill.
Max Burke: Seriously? You guys go out there by yourselves, and not tell me you’re doing it... and you want me to chill? You’ve gotta be kidding Trevor. I thought we were partners. Fuck this... I’m out of here.
Max shoves his way past Aleksei, and leaves the remaining three members of the Party Horde staring on in disbelief.
---
Later that evening...
Max sits in a dark corner of the venue, ear to his phone. We hear only one side of the conversation.
Max Burke: It’s bullshit. Complete, and utter bullshit. I can’t believe they pulled this. I don’t understand man.
Max shoves his hair out of his face, and takes a swig from his quart of whiskey during a pause in the conversation.
Max Burke: I can’t believe they sided with Christian. I mean, what have they done for us lately? They’ve screwed us so many times. Time, after time we can’t catch a break with them. We deserved a one on one rematch with Blood Omen. Everyone saw that. But.... noooooo... triple threat. And now look... we can’t even take the fuckin’ straps from them now since Carter and Baldwin pulled that tonight. I’m so frustrated. Team Erik is looking REALLY good.
Max takes another long drag off his quart which reveals to now be empty. Max drops it in frustration.
Max Burke: Fuck, and now I’m out of whiskey. This night is a write off. Not to mention I already found out we’ve got Hope and Casper next week. What the hell is that? Why do those two idiots keep throwing us in there with random ass pairings? I really don’t want to go out there next week. This match makes no sense. I seriously doubt their faith in us. I doubt their faith, and vision for our division. I just can’t see us breaking through their little glass ceiling at this rate. I’m so frustrated man. I’m confused too. Now that the Party Horde is all “WOOO TEAM CHRISTIAN!!!!” I don’t know what to think. Fuck it. We’ll talk more later. I’m going to go find some more booze.
Max endeds the phone call, and tucks his phone in his pocket. He storms off.
