12:15 PM
Synn sat back comfortably at the large desk set against the wall of his hotel suite in the luxurious Novotel Cardiff Centre in central Cardiff, Wales. Many of the roster of Sin City Wrestling had found themselves residing elsewhere while here in such a lovely country, but Synn had a penchant or making certain that the men and women he was responsible for was treated well, and this hotel certainly qualified for just that. The surroundings and decor was somewhat more modern and far brighter than Synn preferred for himself, but everybody that knew him, knew well enough that he did not book this hotel for his own personal pleasures.
It fit the colorful personality of one person, and one alone: the one that Synn loved above all others.
"Daaaad!" Despayre called aloud as the door to the adjoining room swung open and in bounded his son, his pride above all else, with that familiar plush form of the teddy bear known as Angel in his embrace. Synn knew that chances were that Joshua might find his way into his room to sleep when sleep did indeed come, but for the sake of giving him some needed privacy, he had booked a separate room that was adjoined to his own. Plus it might also help to keep him from out of any form of mischief that he tended to have a knack for landing in, with the assistance of Angel and Melody Grace, of course.
"Angel's hungry!" Despayre declared as he landed at his father's side and his gray eyes fell onto the screen of the open laptop in front of Synn and his eyes sparkled and face brightened when he saw the Skype program open and the familiar face of...
"Mom!" Despayre cried gleefully, his face alight with the joy of any boy would feel in reference to his beloved mom. He looked at the teddy bear in his arms and said, "Look Angel! Dad's talking to mom!" And then his arm with the bear swung outward in a wide arm, playfully clobbering Synn in the side as he reiterated, "Without us!"
Despayre sat his bestest pal on the desk (facing his mom of course), so that he might set his hands firmly on his hips and shake his forefinger at his father in a most playful scolding, "For shaaaame! You didn't tell us you were going to call mom!"
"It was a last minute thing, Joshua." Synn answered as Margaret, on the other end, watched on with a smile as her son read his father 'the riot act' for such a social faux pas. "I had to ask her a question, and this was far cheaper than phoning her long distance."
"Oh." Despayre blinked, unsure if whether or not any further chastising on his part was warranted or not. "Well okay, if you're sure. But you owe me an' Angel Panda Express for this."
"Fine." Synn sighed, knowing full well his son's voracious appetite for the Chinese fast food establishment. Whether one existed in Cardiff was a whole other story entirely, but for the sake of his own sanity, pun intended, he surely hoped so. "Now go get the others, alright? I'll join you in the hall in just a moment."
"`Kay!" Before he left, Despayre bent at the waist for a good view of his mother on the laptop's screen and he beamed with eager hopefulness. "Are we still on for breakfast tomorrow?"
"Of course, Joshy." Margaret answered. "Although your breakfast will probably be your grandmother and my lunch."
"You say potato, I say bacon!" Despayre turned about and hurried off. "Love you!" He called after him and swung the door of his father's hotel room leading to the hallway and his friends's own rooms shut.
Margaret watched after him and shook her head with a mother's smile on her face, then turned to meet Synn's eyes and she chuckled, "He has no idea..."
But Synn stalled whatever she was about to say, holding his hand up for a moment. He leaned aside in his chair and called out, "Joshua! Stop listening at the door!"
The door to the room opened ajar again and Despayre stuck his head in with a perplexed frown and he said, "Boy! You got radar in the noggin of yours, or what?" And he shut the door once again.
Once satisfied that he was no longer attempting to eavesdrop, Synn turned back again to address Margaret who finished what she was going to say previously, "He has no idea mother and I will be at that big show in a few weeks, does he?"
"No." Synn smiled. "I am amazed that for once I was able to keep a secret from him. The lad has a manner about him that he is able to find out even the most well kept of secrets."
"I can't imagine where he got that from." Margaret mused with a coy smile. "He seems even more excited than usual."
"Yes, he was given a bit of a treat for this Sunday." Synn stated. "He's been signed to a tag team match with Gabriel as his partner."
"Really?" Margaret said. "He gets to team with Gabriel after all this time? What happened to that friend of his? Bernard?"
"Best to call him 'B' if he's anywhere around." Synn answered. "But yes, Bernard. He's back in the states on some family business. It's pretty much why he hasn't been on television since their title loss. Plus, I think Bernard is blaming himself for the loss and has been avoiding Joshua."
"That's silly." Margaret said.
"That's Bernard." Synn smiled. "But this match will be a nice break from his rematch plans and the tournament with Amanda Cortez. It's been a long time since he's been able to team with Gabriel and I can't recall seeing him this excited in quite some time."
"Well, Gabriel means a lot to him." Despayre's mother pointed out. "I'm still new to your little family and even I can see that. I saw it from day one."
Synn smiled, and a softened chuckle escaped him. "Yes." Synn said. "I often think back to the first day those two actually met."</color>
03/2010
The red FT-86 slowed down to a crawl as it turned into the parking garage area in the small business district in midtown Manhattan. While New York City was a bustling metropolis of business opportunities, there were areas of the mot famous city in the world that was more quaint, more subdued, yet remained safe for the public that walked the streets, unlike the more unsavory areas of the city. That was where we find ourselves at this particular point in time, a point that is a fair number of years back before Sin City Wrestling had ever been a thing. Before the thought had entered into the mind of Christian Underwood and far long before Mark Ward had been pestered into submission and thereby agreeing to be a partner in the independent wrestling endeavor.
There were small restaurants lining this street district, many of them Italian, a Jewish delicatessen, one Cajun but all were relaxing in atmosphere and the perfect stop for the business men and women alike who would walk to this particular area from their work for lunch. In New York, the atmosphere was equal to, if not superior, to the food in the needs of the patrons who frequented their establishments.
Yet aside from the varied eateries, a lone law firm and small businesses, there was also a plaza with several small stores, a high end decorating firm, and on the far end, closer to the hub of the city traffic and just below a monorail that ran through this area, was an athletic gymnasium for the average weight lifter and exercise enthusiast. It was called 'Power Gym' and was owned by two of the best in the business of professional wrestling, a man known as Thunder, and one of his closer friends and peers in the sport, Titan.
"How come we're stopping here?" Joshua said meekly in a hushed breath, looking up at the front of the gymnasium with a slight tremor in his tone of voice. He pushed his clenched fists deeper into his lap, trying to stifle the discomfort that he was feeling at the experience of just being out in the open, in a new place and new surroundings. He looked down at the fists in his lap and shifted a sidelong glance at the man in the driver's seat as he turned the key of the ignition, shutting the engine off. "I thought we were gonna go to your home?"
"Our home, Joshua." Synn gently corrected him. "Remember, you'll be living there as well for the time being while we get you settled."
"Is it a nice home?"
"I'd like to think it is." Synn answered. "A bit small. Do you know what a brown stone loft is?"
Joshua, the young man who down the road would become known as the wrestling sensation Despayre, only answered Synn's question by shaking his head in the negative. Synn smiled and nodded, as if he had expected such an answer.
"Well not to worry." Synn stated amicably. "You will once we get there after this little stop."
Synn unbuckled his seat belt and shifted his impressive stature to accommodate his exiting the vehicle when he was given pause and glanced back into the passenger's side, and at Joshua who had not moved a muscle as of yet.
"Joshua?" Synn started to speak, and the young teen had flinched by sheer instinct, as he was prone to do whenever those brutal men who fancied themselves as doctors in Broodmoore would speak his given name. It always led to one thing or another, and each one quite unpleasant. He closed his eyes
How different this one was then compared to how he was a mere five years later in life, where we know him now as Despayre. He was just a boy then in age, as well as mentally. Yet his mind was not near so far along as his years were, and all due to a random act of chance with a drunken driver.
Joshua's eyes were closed tightly, his head bowed as if in submission. Perhaps in the broadest of senses, that was indeed where he was in his own mind. Waiting with a subservient attitude for what was to come, as he often did while he had been incarcerated in the walls of the asylum. Yet no harsh words or barking commands had been uttered as his ears were too often used to hearing. No shouts to orderlies to remove him from his room by force or to have him taken to the doctor's offices for his usual methods of treatments. No commands that it was time for his baths or meals, sometimes of which both were forced upon him when he had a mind to try and refuse. Try being the operative word.
Finally, realizing that no order or reprimand were forthcoming, Joshua's eyes opened and he turned his head to look in wonder at the man whom he saw as his 'rescuer' so-to-speak. Synn tilted his head forward in a questioning manner and asked, "Don't you want to come along?"
The lad's answer was an emphatic 'no', shaking his head and using his feet against the floor board of the car to push himself back further into the seat.
"Joshua..." Synn said, his voice low as he had been training himself to do ever since he first met the boy all those months back, when he had discovered a son he had never known existed before and sought to remove him from the torturous care of men who plied their trade with methods that resembled torture more so than it did any kind of medical treatments that he could ever imagine. The boy's eyes flicked away from him for only the briefest of moments before he looked once again to him, though admittedly his eyes did not meet Synn's own directly.
Synn continued, "I can understand your hesitation, your discomforts, but it has been some time since we have left..."
"The bad place." Joshua mumbled to answer for him.
"Yes." Synn agreed. "The 'bad place'. But you are no longer there, and you never will be again. I swore you that promise long before I took you away. I swear that with my life. But, you have avoided being around much of anyone, anywhere."
"That's not true." Joshua countered. "I went to McDonalds with you."
"Yes, and I am grateful for the company." Synn smiled. "But you yourself told me that you had wished you had been able to make friends when you were in ... Canada." Synn finished gently, avoiding the topic of Broodmoore being unearthed as much as was possible. He went on, "You wanted the same chances as everyone else to go out, enjoy the fresh air or what have you. Well?" Synn gestured away from the car and toward the gym. "This is just another chance."
Joshua blinked. He stared at Synn for what seemed like forever, and Synn was not in any hurry to rush his thought process and force whatever he was thinking to surface before he was ready. Then in a given sign of victory, Joshua reached down and with a click of his thumb against the release, the seat belt was unfastened from over his waist and shoulder and snapped back into place. Synn smiled as he stepped the rest of the way out as he watched carefully for Joshua to follow suit.
The passenger side door opened only part way, as if the thought of the one climbing out was to avoid damaging any other car near, despite the fact that the parking space at the car's right hand side was empty. Joshua then slipped both feet out and shifted his slim body into a contorted line to slide out ass carefully as he might, and then gently closed the door behind him. One might take a point of interest here that no teddy bear was removed from the car's rear seat nor found its way into the warmth of the boy's loving embrace. This was mainly because this unfolding scene we see before us was set a mere three months before the trio of Synn, Joshua and the man who would quickly become Despayre's 'big brother' by respect and love if not by blood, Gabriel, found their way into the Mall of America in Minnesota, and a certain 'best friend was brought to life in the mall's resident Build-A-Bear Workshop.
The air was still chilled here in Manhattan in this the month of March, and Synn walked around the car to join Joshua who huddled his arms against his body to try and shield himself from the cold air blowing in from across the Atlantic. A loud and thundering clattering rattled the area's comatose surroundings and almost sent Joshua into a panic attack, as he cried out in alarm at the noise that ambushed their ears. He fell back against the door of the car and quickly grasped the handle and tugged on it, but it had already been locked and he looked desperately at Synn who sought right away to bring him comfort.
"Calm down. Joshua!" Synn said in a commanding tone with the force needed to direct the boy's attentions. "Calm down. Calm. Down!" He grasped Joshua's arms and almost immediately he fell against him and wrapped his arms around Synn, as a child might a parent in seeking solace from something that frightened them. (Ironic, is it not?)
"It's alright, Joshua." Synn spoke reassuringly. His voice now brought down from where it had been in earnest. "There is nothing to be scared of. It was simply the monorail. That." Synn gently pried his arms loose and turned him just enough to see the elevated railway cars passing nearby. The sight alone was enough to open Joshua's eyes wide in amazement, and he took a step forward with his head craned back as far as it might to better glimpse this new 'thing'.
"Perhaps later when we're finished, we might take a ride on it?" Synn offered. "Would you like that?"
Synn's answer came in the form of Joshua shaking his head 'no' quickly and falling back against him.
"Alright. Alright." Synn again calmed him. "Perhaps another time when you feel better." And with that, Synn turned him around and escorted him towards the gym's entrance and they set foot inside.
Inside of the gym was a series of modern work out machines and free weights, stationed along the walls and at specific points along the floor plan. Yet most notably was what was set at the very center of the gym, one of the main business points of the gym itself; a full-sized wrestling ring.
"There you are!" came a booming voice and one of Synn's very first proteges, and to date his greatest achievement, 'Sxxxy' Shane Boswell, stepped away from the ringside where a sultry looking redhead, Fantasia to wrestling fans, was standing inside of the 'squared circle,' talking to a young man. The young man had a lean build, more of a swimmer's physique than any other but with proper training and the use of the offered weights, in time he would develop a more athletic build for the rigorous nature of the aforementioned sport.
No sooner did Shane approach the pair than did Joshua freeze up, staring with wide eyed fear at the sheer size of this mammoth of a man. Shane, at least initially, was ignorant of the boy's display of fear and what might be behind it and he smiled as he laid eyes on him. He looked at Synn and those pearly whites were warm enough to melt the polar ice caps as he motioned toward Joshua who was almost hidden behind the larger Synn.
"Is this him?" Shane asked, and Synn nodded.
"Yes," He answered. "This is Joshua. Joshua Young."
"Well! Pleased to meet you Josh..." But as Shane extended his hand, Joshua backed away suddenly in open fright, almost falling over a bench set behind him.
"hey, easy." Synn said as he caught him and helped him stand upright. Synn took note of Joshua's firm stance and stare at Shane, before he turned around to the 'Crown Jewel' of the Sins and he said, "Joshua is still getting ... used ... to things, including new people. He's still a bit uncomfortable around strangers."
"Understood." Shane yielded, holding his hands up in mock surrender. He turned his eyes back to Joshua and slowly lowered his hands. "Didn't mean to startle you, bud." Shane smiled, trying his best to ease the boy's mind. "I just like meeting new people and got a little carried away."
Despayre did not say anything in response, but the slight easing of his shoulders helped to tell the two men that Shane's words as well as his notable charm helped to set aside Joshua's fears, at least a bit and for the time being. Synn took this brief pause to address Shane, and nod towards the ring.
"How's he doing?" Synn asked and Shane nodded.
"Good." Shane answered as the men watched Fantasia scale to the top of the corner and after a brief pause, she launched herself backwards in a picture perfect display of a moonsault onto a large pad set in the ring. He continued, "Better than good, actually. Its not often you see someone with a natural affinity for the business. He's coming along well with the moves, but damn!" Shane did not notice the flinching displayed by Joshua for the uttering of the curse word. "This guy is a natural when it comes to the psychology."
Their heads turned again as they watched the young man follow suit from Fantasia's example set, and he climbed to the top of the same corner. Her hand steadied his own as he took a moment to balance himself, before he jumped backwards as best he could and landed on the mat. It was not as smooth of a moonsault as he was shown, but it was a fine start and in time, it would get even better.
The landing had rattled him somewhat, knocking the wind out of him despite the softened landing as opposed to the hard ring itself. As Fantasia lent him a helping hand to his feet, Synn noticed Joshua's eyes had been firmly glued to the proceedings inside of the ring and he asked him idly, "You said you are a fan of wrestling too, didn't you?"
"Mm hm." Joshua mused almost in a whisper. "I used to watch G.L.O.W. all the time."
"G.L.O.W.?" Shane turned to Synn questioningly.
"Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling." Synn answered. "An all-female promotion in the eighties that runs in syndication. Sort of sports entertainment meets Las Vegas show girls."
Hm." Shane nodded, as Fantasia and the young man in the ring arrived at their sides to join them. "I might just have to check that out."
"Nice attempt in there, just now." Synn said to the young man that now stood between Fantasia and himself. "You're getting better all the time."
"Should hope so." The man stated in a distinct British accent. "This one is running my arse ragged." Jetting a thumb towards a smiling Fantasia.
"Indeed. She has that way about her." Synn said, then noticed the man's eyes had fallen on Joshua and felt that introductions were in order. "Joshua, this is someone I'd like you to meet. The beauty there is Fantasia..." He gestured toward the fiery redhead, to which Despayre just idly twiddled his fingers toward her in a meek 'hello'. Synn then motioned to the young man opposite him and said, "And this here, is Gabriel."
Despayre's face lit with an interested smile, seemingly taking a liking to this 'stranger' more easily than any other, and before Gabriel's hand had even finished extending towards him, Joshua had grasped it in his own and shook it vigorously.</color>
"It still amazes me when I look back to those days, and they seem like only yesterday. I had worked so hard to get Joshua to trust me enough to even speak to me, and somehow, some way, Gabriel succeeded in mere moments where it had taken so many others days, weeks, and even longer. I had to admit that at the time, I felt a might jealous at how easily Joshua took to Gabriel, as if he had known him his entire life. Sometimes I wonder who had done him the most good at helping him to come out of his shell as much as he was able; Gabriel or Angel. It was even that first introduction that started to delve the young man who would become known as Despayre into the world of professional wrestling."
"It might come as a shock to many that initially, I had no intention for Joshua to set foot inside of a ring as a professional wrestler, but the more he watched Gabriel train, the more he himself wanted to be right there alongside of him, inside of the ring where he could help his new found friend the most. I tried to dissuade him. I tried so hard to talk him out of this sudden desire to put his body on the line for the sake of entertaining others, but he swore that above all else, Gabriel needed him. And, after a test run on an independent show, that would appear to ave become true. Gabriel got involved in some fisticuffs with the man he had just defeated and a second man that as friends with his opponent. Before I could even get inside of the ring, someone else had jumped the barricade and come to Gabriel's defense."
"Joshua. Despayre."
"From that moment on, I knew that I had to give the boy what he wanted, and that was a suit that follows me to this very day. It was the start of something epic, and never before did I see such team work as I did when those two worked together. They took to each other like a fish to water during those training sessions, and although Gabriel was admittedly not as enthused about the budding friendship as Despayre was, there was no denying the chemistry that existed between them inside of that ring. And after a bit of time and patience, and Gabriel coming to an understanding how special Despayre is, that very same chemistry extended from inside of the ring to their friendship out, and the two became like family. Brothers. Two men who would go to the ends of the earth for the other, and who would fight anyone that stood in front of them if it meant defending the other."
"That is quite the contrast from the team that Sean Jackson and Drexel Matheson find themselves in. Quite the different tale to tell where Sinful Obsession is concerned, and where this makeshift combination comes from. The fact that 'the Mental Rapist' is a former World Heavyweight Champion speaks highly unto itself, but the key word here is 'former'. Sean Jackson is not the reigning champion any longer. Gabriel is, and for the second time. Sean is impressive, indeed, but he is so far out of his element that I would be moved to pity him if he was not such an ignorant ass that answers to his wife's snapping of the fingers."
"Both men are, actually. Oh I saw the very atrocities that Drexel Matheson was capable of last week, and I dare say I doubt we may ever see Gavin Stephens inside of an SCW ring ever again. Drexel could be thought of as a career killer with a thirst for blood and violence, but like his partner, this is not where he belongs. Somewhere, somehow, Drexel must have pissed the wrong deity off and resulted in this match being signed."
"Place either Sean Jackson or Drexel Matheson in a singles match with championship gold on the line, and even I would be forced to admit that either would be a formidable opponent, but against Despayre and Gabriel, a team who has not been beaten in well over four years, almost five? Defeat should be all these two men hope to suffer at the sound of that opening bell."</color>
