The camera opens with Ben Jordan standing outside his house in Bar Harbor, Maine, his marital home with his wife Evie. The midday sun shines down on his skin as the brisk November wind blows across his face, forcing his hair to moves slightly.
"Bloody tatas out here." He comments to himself.
Ben looks up at the camera, realising that the recording has started. Biting his lip, he calmly shrugs, his thick green winter coat rising with his shoulders.
"Means it's bloody cold people." He explains.
A wide smile crosses the Cockney's face.
"Alright people." Ben say with a smile still on his face. "We've been here before, this is the intro before showing you some exciting stuff, but today, we're gonna mix it up just a little bit. I know, shocking stuff but in the house at the moment, Evie and me are getting ready for a local reporter to come sit down with us and have a little chat about us. I mean we're sorta like celebrities in this place these days. I mean I admit, there's only a few thousand people, but it's good to be known. I mean we're just trying to fit in like the locals but when you work for some place that throws ya on the box every week, people always wanna know a little more."
Ben waves his finger at the camera.
"You know me, I don't have having a rabbit with people." Ben says sincerely. "But this is where we change it up a bit."
He moves the hair from the top of his forehead, the wind picking up.
"Cause now, I'm gonna get the talking about the match out of the way right here." Ben starts. "I said I was far from done, far from picking up the gold clubs, far from spending the rest of my life sitting on me arse and stamp collecting and now we're back on the horse against Gamers Inc and I get to team with my lovely wife."
Ben smiles and nods.
"And not for the first time." Ben states. "Obviously the first time, you lot didn't know she was my wife but when the bosses wanted to play the let's shake it up game, they got me teaming with Eves against Jamie Dean and Amy Marshall, couple of me old muckers.... Alright, ain't taking credit for remember that, it was almost 2 years ago, so cheers Mercy for the facts."
Ben fires two thumbs up to the camera.
"But this is different." Ben says. "This ain't no bosses game, this has a means to an end from it. Brooke Saxon announced that teams who get three wins between now and Inception III get to go on against Team Eggplant at the supercard and I love a challenge and after a little Twitter exchange with both Lachlan and Sierra, I kinda want us to be facing them because one way or the other, it will be one hell of a match, a match the people want to see, so I think it's time we put our first point on the board and it's against the youthful, young, up and coming talented fellas and ladies called Gamers Inc."
Ben nods his head firmly.
"I'll be the first to admit that I don't know a whole bunch about them." He says seriously. "But I have run in to Jimmy Andrews, turns out his the nephew of my old rival, Travis Nathaniel Andrews. Man I miss wrestling that old git, gave me some of my best matches and if I get the chance to do it again, I probably would. Now Jimmy, if you have half the talent your unc did, you'll be alright in this business, you'll be very good in this business and have a bright future."
Ben pauses for just a few seconds.
"And your mate Jack Stewart, just being around you will help him grow a bit." Ben continues "but this is where things go a little bit dodgy for ya. Most people of your experience come in and build it up a little, get involved with smaller teams, work out what's what and although you've teamed more than me and Eves, we're the more experienced, the better equipped, the one's who know what it's like to get that feeling inside where you where gold is the ultimate prize. You might think that we're hurting a bit coming off of a couple of defeats but the fact is we lost to better people on the night at High Stakes VIII but me and Eves ain't the kinda people who go in to our shells like an Alligator Snapping Turtle..."
Ben nods his head.
"Yep, I've been being a fake cowboy on Red Dead Redemption 2." Ben admits. "You guys played that? What am I saying, of course you have, this is game of the century and you're gamers. If you work out a way to shoot one of those thing, let me know, bullets keep pinging off the shell."
Ben rolls his eyes at himself.
"Sorry, went a little off track." He says with a coy shrug of his shoulders. "Anyway, we're not the kinda people to hide away and melt. You guys could think this is the perfect time to be up against us, the absolute best time, but it's not because we ain't looking for two losses on the spin. We're obviously looking to bounce back to get back to winning ways so in realistic terms, this is actually the perfect time for us to be facing you, no messing around, no worrying, just a nice chilled out comfortable match for us."
Ben stops, looking away from the camera just thinking about his next words.
"I don't mean that in a disrespectful way." He starts. "Far from it."
Ben turns his head and looks towards the camera.
"But what I mean is that me and Eves need this one and we're up against a team that deep down in their heart of hearts, know they're up against things here." Ben explains. "You guys do know that right? Evie and I were two great single champions, held control over the Roulette divisions and we know that will be thrown at us. They're good singles but will they crack it as a team? Of course we bloody will for Christ's sake, we're a married couple, we know each other obviously better than most, so we will be stepping in to this one as confident as stepping in to any other match. We'll step in to it with only winning on the mind and nothing else. It's not about showing I still got it because come on, people thinking about my retirement was just their way of coming up with something to say about me, I'm not showing anyone I still got it cause deep down, I know I have, I'm looking at the prize at the end."
He shrugs his shoulders.
"Yes, I know I'm thinking far ahead." He says softly. "But come on, the chance to become a champion with the woman ya love is kinda a hard one to say no to. It's a goal that needs to be had and we want to get those three points and be mixed tag champions, who wouldn't want to be? The fact is Gamer Inc, I look forward to facing you but you're in the wrong place at the wrong time here and I can promise you, the fans, the world, that after Sunday, The Jordan's will have their first point in this competition."
The door behind him opens and Bear, his pet Akita dog walks through the door and barks towards him. Ben tilts his head and looks at the dog.
"What was that boy?" He asks with fake concern "Evie fell down a well?"
Bear tilts his head, almost looking back at Ben with confusion and barks again.
"Oh, time for the interview, gotcha." Ben says before looking back at the camera. "That is my cue to leave you lovely people and go for a chat elsewhere. Roll on Sunday, Gamer Inc, sorry it's us you're facing, just look at it as building big match experience."
Ben winks at the camera.
"Laters people." He says with a smile.
Ben turns around, following Bear in to the house and quickly unzipping his jacket. He pulls it from his shoulders and places it on a nearby hook and strolls through the house and in to the living room where he sees his wife, Evie sitting on the sofa opposite a woman with tied back neat blonde hair.
"Sarah." Ben says with a polite nod towards the reporter. "Glad you made it."
Ben takes a seat next to his wife as the woman sits in the arm chair nearby. Ben puts his hand around Evie's and looks across at the woman.
"Didn't think about warming your hands before grabbing mine?" Evie says looking at her husband.
"That's what I'm trying to do." Ben replies with a cheeky smile. "You've been in the house, I've been out there where it's a bit nippy, stands to reason your hands are much warming than mine so using your hands to warm up mine. Ingenuous, eh?"
Ben smiles towards Evie who tries to keep a straight face, but Ben's general radiating charm forces her in to a slight smile.
"I'll remember that when I've had my hands in the freezer." Evie fires back with a wink and a stare.
"Love you too Eves." Ben says with a grin, knowing full well it's a threat that she will most likely go through with.
Ben turns to Sarah sitting in the armchair and gives her a nod.
"You can ask away at any time." Ben tells her.
"Great." Sarah says with a warm smile. "Tell me, who are the Jordan's?"
"Couple of people, who try to be normal but often find themselves on television." Evie says with a straight forward tone.
"Does being on television hinder that normal life." Sarah asks.
"Of course" Ben replies "It's worse in a bigger city with lots more eyes on ya all the time."
"Is that why you chose to move to Bar Harbor?" Sarah asks.
"Partly" Ben responds. "It just seemed like a cool place to move, lot's of pretty scenery and this house was pretty perfect to move to."
Sarah smiles at the couple on the sofa.
"How did you find Bar Harbor?" Sarah asks.
"Google." Evie replies bluntly. "We were in New York, but my husband wasn't a big fan. He's always preferred quieter places. Even in London, he lived in a quieter part, then a quiet part of Canada, then a quiet part of Cuba, so we looked for a place where it was quiet that we could spend some time at from time to time, a way to get away from everything and found this place."
"But you moved her full time now?" Sarah asks Ben directly.
"Mostly." Ben starts. "Work takes us away from here at weekends, and we still check out the place in New York from time to time, and go on holiday a fair bit when we get time off of work, but we're here maybe ninety percent of the time. Love it here, second we got here, we see it was for us, so we're here a lot."
"Does working together add any pressure on your relationship?" Sarah questions.
"Nah, not at all. I love working with my wife." Ben says, glancing at Evie. "Happy working with her all the time. Even when SCW closed for a while, we still worked together."
"Oh..." Sarah says curiously.
SOME UNDISCLOSED EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRY.
A black tie gala event is what we flashback to where the camera focuses on two people with their backs to each other, one male, one female. The camera focuses on the woman in the red dress, her hair high on her head and glasses on her face. The camera moves in closer to see the woman as Evie Baang, or Jordan, dealers choice.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" She whispers, turning away from the crowd.
The camera focuses on the man with his back towards her, to show him dressed in a tuxedo, also wearing glasses on his face, the man being her husband Ben.
"Yeah. I'm bored since SCW closed and need something to do." Ben replies, not looking at Evie. "Besides, I always wanted to be a bit of James Bond type."
Evie rolls her eyes.
"This is not a game." She stresses. "This is a real life situation, you're not James Bond, all you need to do is distract the woman, try and get her to a much quieter place, I will then get what we need and we get out of here."
Ben looks disappointed.
"So no high speed chase in a super car?" Ben says disappointed. "No explosions, no gangsters with big guns and running away thinking they're really rubbish at shooting?"
"It's not a movie either." She sighs. "Just remember the camera in your glasses means I can see everything you do. The microphone in them means I can hear you too. I shouldn't even have you here, I could have done it on my own."
"You won't be saying that when I'm all ninja later." Ben says with a smirk. "Besides, all I gotta do is chat up some bird and sorted."
"I've seen your chat up lines." Evie replies with a smirk of her own.
"Worked on you, didn't they?" Ben quickly fires back.
"I'd been drinking at the time." Evie says with a smile.
Ben stands up disappointed, looking across at his target, a woman with flowing dark hair and a blue dress.
"Hurtful." Ben says. "Very hurtful. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to see if she's been drinking too."
Ben walks across the room towards the woman he is meant to distract.
"Theo Walden." Ben's voice can be heard say "Nice to meet ya."
A look of confusion crosses Evie's face as she listens in.
"Theo Walden?" She says surprised. "What the fuck kinda name is that?"
Ben looks across the room at Evie, his eyebrows lowered before looking back at the woman.
"Mr Walden." the woman says. "I've had my eye on you all night."
"Well I do have a face people are drawn to." Ben replies confidently.
Evie puts her finger in her mouth in the universal I'm gonna be sick sign.
"Cringe." She mutters. "Thank God you used better lines on me, or you'd be sitting at home on your own right now."
Again, Ben fires a look in Evie's direction but quickly back towards the woman.
"I could tell you was a man I wanted to know from the second I saw you." The woman say to Ben. "Maybe we could go somewhere a little more quieter."
"That was easy." Ben whispers to himself.
"Too easy." Evie replies apprehensively.
"What was that?" The woman asks Ben.
"Lead the way." Ben responds trying to cover his tracks.
The woman points to the side of the ballroom and leads the way, Evie stands up and moves towards them as Ben walks through the door but....
THUMP!
Ben's eyes start to blink as he wakes up in a completely different location. He looks around at his new surroundings, an abandoned looking building, water dripping down from a leaky roof, broken windows set high in to the building. Ben looks down, realizing that he's seated, his legs and wrists duct tapped to the wooden chair.
"Marvellous." Ben mutters to himself.
The woman from earlier steps in front of him, holding a long sharp machete in her hand, looking at Ben with evil intentions on her face.
"You know Mr. Walden, you really need to work on your covert skills a little more." The woman tells him. "When I heard someone may be coming here for what I possess tonight, it wasn't difficult to pick you out of a crowd and when you just walked towards me, I knew it was you."
"What can I say?" Ben replies "It's my first day."
"Comical." The woman says in a flat tone. "But now this is where questions get asked."
"I got a question for you." Ben says quickly. "Why an old abandoned warehouse to do these things in? I mean it's cold, it's dark, there's like a million ways to escape, the place is made of rotting wood for Pete's sake. I mean you can sneeze on this place and create an exit point. Why not like one of those luxury hotel penthouses where you need a key card to use the lift to get there, surrounded by your men making escape a little more impossible? Could order some room service and stuff."
The woman puts the machete in front of Ben's face as five strong looking men walk towards him, backing the woman up.
"Ok, maybe not room service." Ben says.
"Who do you work for?" The woman asks.
"Tough question." Ben says. "I mean I used to work for this big company, but they closed down a bit, and I'm now fielding offers for everything, from talk show host, to being in films, to even singing in the Eurovision Song Contest, but I don't think I got the voice for that and my country happens to be pretty rubbish at that."
The woman moves the tip towards Ben's throat.
"Enough of the bullshit Mr Walden." The woman says. "Who sent you here?"
"I'm just on holiday." Ben replies. "Sent meself here cause I heard you have some wonderful museums."
Without warning a clink can be heard on the floor and smoke starts appearing from a canister on the floor. As the smoke fills the room, Ben's chair starts to be pulled away from the debilitating smoke, causing the six people to start to cough. Ben looks backwards to see Evie.
"What took you so long?" Ben asks "And where did you get a smoke bomb?"
"Sorry Theo, I didn't know where they took you." Evie says rolling her eyes. "And I always got a couple knocking around."
"Abandoned warehouse." Ben says "It's always the abandoned warehouse. Besides, I'm wearing the glasses that showed you where I was. I mean looking around this place, you could probably tell it wasn't The Savoy."
"The camera broke when you got hit on the head." Evie tells him. "And it took a while for the tracker in your shoe to pinpoint where you were"
"You put a tracker in my shoe?" Ben says surprised. "Damn, no more sneaky pints for me when I tell you I'm at the shops."
"Be quiet." Evie tells Ben as she reaches down with a small knife, cutting the duct tape around Ben's wrists and feet. "You couldn't even break the duct tape."
"It's surprisingly strong." Ben replies. "That's why it fixed everything."
Ben stands up as the smoke clears, seeing the woman run away.
"You go after her." Ben says. "I'll deal with these clowns."
Evie darts off and Ben looks at the five guys and puts his hands up, his fist clenched.
"HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAAAAAAAAAW!" Ben screams out in classic kung fu mode.
Ben jumps at the men, throwing punches left and right knocking one man to the ground. He throws a back elbow at the second man, catching him on the nose and knocking him to the ground. The third throws a punch, but Ben ducks and hits him with a open palm to the chest, sending him away before turning to the forth man, jumping up and catching him with a flying kick to the face. The fifth man approaches but Ben puts his foot back and pulls the chair in front of him, flicking it up in the air and catching it perfectly before swinging the chair and breaking it over the fifth man's head. Ben looks around at the fallen bodies and puts his hands together and bows.
"Easy mate." He says with a nod.
SCRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAATCH!
The sound of a needle pulling across a vinyl record can be heard - Look it up kids - As the camera cuts back to Ben and Evie sitting on the sofa. Sarah sits wide mouthed, not believing what she's hearing as Evie looks at Ben with a stern look on her face.
"That is not what happened.... Theo." She says firmly.
"That is totally what happened." Ben says trying to be serious. "I used my great kung fu skills to take out five people like they were nothing. That is really what happened."
Evie shakes her head, looking at Ben with a firm look.
"Not even close." She tells him. "That hit you took on the head really scrambled your brains. You was never that calm, I saw it all."
"Prove it." Ben says to her seriously.
"You don't know kung fu." She tells him. "That is proof enough. You only barely made it off the chair."
"That's not how I remember it." Ben tells her. "I remember me just being awesome, then you wandering back with the tart and calling me your hero."
"That is NOT what happened...." Evie states firmly. "THIS is what happened...."
Wanna find out what really happened? Or might of happened? Or just wanna be really entertained? Go watch Evie's promo right now!
