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Climax Control Archives / A TRIPLE THREAT MATCH IS THREE TIMES THE FUN
« Last post by Andrew on February 13, 2026, 06:57:25 PM »
A TRIPLE THREAT MATCH IS THREE TIMES THE FUN AS I AM GOING TO WIN THIS MATCH

Narrator:  Here we are again with Bea Barnhart in a Triple Threat match. This time Bea’s Triple Threat match is against Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds with the Bombshell Internet Championship in play because the winner of this Triple Threat match tonight moves up to challenge Victoria Lyons for the Bombshell Internet Championship. I am absolutely positive that Bea will walk away as the winner of this match, and then move on to defeat Victoria Lyons to become the next Sin City Wrestling Bombshell Internet Champion. With that said I turn you over to Bea Barnhart.

The scene changes to a shot of Bea Barnhart standing outside of her assigned dressing room where an assigned camera person is there to broadcast her comments for her upcoming match. Bea is watching others walk by and then we see Bill Barnhart, along with their English Bulldog Iris, walk out of the dressing room and into camera range. Bill turns to the camera and smiles and waves to the viewers. Bill then walks into the dressing room with Bea and Iris behind him. Once Bill and Bea sit down on the couch, with Iris curling up on the dressing room floor, Bea begins commenting on her match for tonight.

Bea:  I wish to thank those who tuned in to this broadcast to hear my comments for my match against Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds. The three of us are in a Triple Threat match with the winner moving on to face Victoria Lyons for the Bombshell Internet Championship. Do you wish to make comments at this time Bill?

Bill:  Not at this time Bea. This is your time to talk about your match so I will try hard not to interrupt your comments.

Bea:  That is okay Bill. If I mention something that you wish to comment on feel free to jump into the conversation. In my match tonight I face Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds, in a Triple Threat match, with No Count-Outs and No Disqualifications. This means when the bell rings to begin our match the gates of Hell will be opened and I will step out of Hell and destroy both Alexandra and Amelia to move on to challenge Victoria Lyons for the Bombshell Internet Championship. Yes I plan on making quick work of Amelia and Alexandra and move on to challenge for the Bombshell Internet Championship. If you doubt me now then when the match is over and my hand is raised in victory you will have no doubt lingering concerning me and what I am capable of doing in wrestling matches.

Bill:  That was a nice lead-in segment comments for your match tonight. What are you going to talk about next?

Bea:  I will talk about my two opponents and how easy it will be for me to win this match.

Bill:  Who is the first on your hit list?

Bea:  I will get to that shortly but first I want the viewers to know who I am and what I am about. I am going into this match at 5 feet 5 inches and 130 pounds. I have a long record of wins over the other Bombshells with most of my wins due to making my opponents submit in the match. Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds are not exceptions to the rule of me destroying opponents. First I want to mention that Alexandra Calaway is coming into our match at 5 feet 6 inches and 125 pounds and that places us even as far as height and weight. The other participant in our match is Amelia Reynolds and she comes into our match at 5 feet 4 inches and 125 pounds. Again that makes both my opponents nearly equal with me as far as height and weight coming into our match.

Bill:  What do you classify as the item that gives you a huge advantage over the two of them?

Bea:  I have a Genius IQ and that allows me to out-think my opponents and that causes my opponents to make mistakes. With me making fewer mistakes than any of the other Bombshells in Sin City Wrestling that gives me the advantage in my matches and there is no exception to me having the advantage over Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds in our upcoming match.

Bill:  Anything else you want me to talk about to the viewers?

Bea:  Not right now but I will let you know when I want you to chime in. Now, girls. . .and yet I am calling you two “GIRLS” for two reasons. . .one reason is that you two are young and immature while I am older and have conquered all the nonsense and crap in the world to become extremely successful in real life and in the wrestling ring. Add to my success in the world as a whole, and with my success in the sport of Wrestling, I am ten times more effective than the two of you combined could every expect to be. Let me talk about a few items that favor me in our match.

Bea holds up one finger to indicate the first item she will present.

Bea:  I have been exceptionally successful in Hardcore Rules and No Rules matches in Sin City Wrestling. Due to the fact that I have more intelligence and wrestling ability in my little finger than the two of you combined have in your entire bodies. I have been exceptionally successful in Hardcore Rules and No Rules matches including matches that took place in a cage or other restrictive area.

Bea holds up two fingers to indicate the second item she will present.

Bea:  I carry a Genius level IQ that I get evaluated on and that places me in the GENIUS category with my 160 IQ. Extremely few people in the world have IQ scores that are higher than mine as most of the people on the planet have very basic IQ scores which range from around 110 and lower. So, Alexandra and Amelia, my exceptionally high IQ gives me the ability to easily out-think you two, and easily gain the win over you two ,and to receive my reward of facing off against Victoria Lyons.

Bea holds up three fingers indicating the third item she will present.

Bea:  Okay, girls, I have already informed you that I perform exceptionally well in Hardcore and No Rules matches. I informed you that I carry a Genius level IQ of 160 while the two of you have a combined IQ score lower than a pile of dog poop. I am able to easily out-think and out-smart you in our match as you will find out soon. You two are not able to out-think me or out-maneuver me regardless of what you try.

Bea holds up four fingers to indicate the fourth item she will present.

Bea:  The next item, my fourth item for you two to think about, is how I will out-perform you in our match. I have fantastic ring skills and I am able to know where I am at, and where my opponent, or opponents, are located ,at all times. I am also very quick to get around the ring and take advantage of my opponents. During our match if you blink you will have me attack you before you can re-open your eyes. If you charge across the ring at me I will side-step you so quickly and toss you over the ropes to the arena floor before you know what happened to you. If either of you are able to do a pathetic bit of offense against me I will counter whatever you try before you realize that I turned your pathetic attempt of offense into a liability for you.

Bea holds up five fingers to show she will present her fifth item for the benefit of Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds.

Bea:  My final comments will not be long to present. However what I say in my closing comments will be a longer length of them than the two of you will last in our match against me. HA HA HA!!!!! I will start by telling you two some Tagalog words from the language of the Philippines. When I get done beating you two down you two will be crying, which is UMIIYAK in the Tagalog language. You will be in extreme pain from the beating I give you in our match and that is the Tagalog word MASAKIT which means in extreme pain. You two will also be ABURIDO which is translated into PAINFUL in English due to the beating I will give to you two. And, finally, the last word is IPINAGBABAGSAK which translates to BEAT DOWN which is what I am going to do to you two. And, girls. . .yes I call you two girls because you do not fit the description of a woman. . .that regardless of which one of you I obtain the pinfall or submission against to win our match the bottom line remains the same. That bottom line is that I win our match, I advance to the next Supercard, and I challenge Victoria Lyons for the Bombshell Internet Championship. Will I run around the ring and celebrate my win over you two when I am declared the winner of our match? HELL YEAH!!! Will I dance around and taunt you two losers when I am declared the winner of our match. OF COURSE!!! Will you two hate me for the rest of your wrestling careers? FOR DAMN SURE YOU WILL!!!

Bea looks over at Bill.

Bea:  Sorry, Bill, that I didn’t give you much time to make comments. Anything you wish to add to what I said?

Bill:  Nope. You said all you needed to say and now it comes down to your actual match. I am sure you will be able to easily your match quickly which will leave Alexandra and Amelia in a state of shock over how quickly you destroyed them and won the match. That’s all I have to say. Thanks for asking.

Bea:  In closing I would like to comment on something. Whether you are a fellow wrestler in Sin City Wrestling, or you are a fan who watches Sin City Wrestling on television, or you come to the events in person, and whether you like and support me or you hate me and want to see my wrestling career ended, the fact remains that I am going to win this Triple Threat match against Alexandra Calaway and Amelia Reynolds and nothing anyone can do will change the outcome of my match that I will be the winner and go on to challenge for the Bombshell Internet Championship!

Bea motions to the assigned camera person that she is finished with her comments for her upcoming match. The assigned camera person notifies the Network and they cut the camera feed.

72
Climax Control Archives / Home is where the heart is
« Last post by Alicia Lukas on February 13, 2026, 06:15:04 AM »
Home is where the heart is

The first thing Alicia noticed was the smell.

It wasn’t the familiar scent of dinner simmering or the faint trace of laundry detergent that clung to their current house like a second skin. It wasn’t the comforting chaos of crayons and carpet and the sugary aftermath of whatever snack the kids had begged for. It was sawdust. Fresh-cut wood. Drywall dust. That sterile scent of something unfinished. It hit her the moment she opened the passenger door and stepped onto the uneven dirt where the driveway would eventually be. She stood there for a second, staring at the frame of their future home.

Their home.

The skeleton of it had been there for months. They’d watched it grow in slow motion, board by board, beam by beam, like something alive learning how to stand. Alicia had visited whenever she could, between training and school runs and grocery shopping and SCW travel, always feeling like she was checking in on a promise. Today, it felt different. Today, it felt close enough to touch. Austin shut the car door behind him and came around, his boots crunching lightly on gravel. He held a thermos in one hand and a clipboard in the other, because of course he did. He’d somehow become the kind of man who owned clipboards now. A man who said words like “permits” and “inspection schedule” without irony.

Alicia folded her arms across her chest and stared up at the house. The roof was on. The windows were in. The siding was halfway finished. It looked like a home from a distance. Up close, it still looked like work. She exhaled slowly. Austin’s voice was calm beside her. “Looks good, huh?”

Alicia nodded, but it wasn’t the automatic kind. It was hesitant. Like she didn’t trust herself to celebrate it yet. “Yeah, It does.”

Austin watched her for a moment. Not in the way that demanded answers. In the way that asked permission to notice. He leaned slightly closer. “You okay?”

Alicia’s mouth twitched into something almost like a smile. “I’m fine.” Austin gave her a look that said try again. Alicia sighed and turned her head toward him. “I’m… okay. I’m just…” Her voice trailed off.

Just what? Just overwhelmed? Just tired? Just afraid? Just carrying a thousand invisible weights that no one else could see? Austin didn’t push. He stepped forward and took her hand instead, his fingers warm and solid around hers. The kind of grip that didn’t hold her captive. The kind that reminded her she didn’t have to float alone. “Come on, Let’s go inside.”

They walked up the temporary wooden steps the builders had thrown together. The porch wasn’t finished yet. The railing was missing. The concrete hadn’t been poured. But the front door was there. Austin opened it like it mattered. Like it wasn’t just a door. Like it was a beginning. Alicia stepped inside and felt the air change. Cooler. Still. Quiet. The house didn’t have furniture yet. No couch to collapse onto. No toys in the corner. No photos on the walls. No laundry baskets overflowing with evidence of real life. Just empty space. Echoing space.

Austin’s boots thudded lightly on the subfloor as he walked in ahead of her, and Alicia followed, her gaze drifting across the wide open living area. The kitchen was framed out but unfinished. The island wasn’t installed yet, but she could see where it would be. She could see herself there. Cooking dinner while the kids fought over who got the last roll. Austin leaned against the doorway frame, looking around like a man proud of something he’d built with his own hands. Which, in some ways, he had. Alicia swallowed. “This is it…..This is our place.” Alicia nodded again. But her stomach was tight. Austin turned toward her, and she could see the shift in him. The subtle change from casual observation to intentional presence. Like he’d felt her pulling away before she even realized she was doing it. “You’re nervous,”

Alicia let out a breath that sounded too sharp to be a laugh. “No, I’m not.” Austin lifted his eyebrows. She rolled her eyes. “Okay. Yeah. I am.”

Austin smiled softly, stepping closer. “Talk to me.”

Alicia hesitated. Her eyes traced the empty walls, the unfinished edges of the room. She didn’t know why it was harder to speak here, inside something they’d been waiting for. Maybe because it felt too real now. Maybe because it wasn’t a dream anymore. It was a commitment. And commitments came with consequences. “I should be excited,” she said finally.

“You are,” Austin replied easily. “You’re just also terrified.”

Alicia looked at him, and her throat tightened at how casually he said it. Like fear wasn’t a weakness. Like it was just another part of living. She swallowed. “It’s just… a lot.”

Austin nodded. “It is.”

Alicia’s eyes flicked down to the floor. “I keep thinking about everything. The move. The kids adjusting. Money. Bills. Travel. SCW. Everything happening all at once.” Austin didn’t interrupt. He never did when she started like this. He let her build the bridge from her chest to her mouth. Alicia exhaled again. “And I keep thinking… what if I can’t keep up?” Austin’s expression softened. Alicia continued before she could stop herself. “Because I’ve been keeping us afloat. I’ve been the one bringing in the money. I’ve been the one making sure everything stays stable while you’ve been healing.”

The words weren’t accusatory. They weren’t bitter. They were just true. And that was the part that scared her the most. Austin’s shoulders lifted with a quiet inhale. He didn’t look offended. He didn’t look defensive. He looked like a man who had been waiting for her to say this. “Alicia…” he said gently.

She shook her head, her voice gaining speed now, emotion slipping out from under her control. “I’m not saying I resent it. I don’t. I love you. I love our kids. I love our life. But I’ve been carrying it. And now we’re moving into this house that we’ve been building for months and it’s beautiful and it’s ours and I should feel safe…” Her eyes stung. “But all I can think is, what if I drop it?”

Austin stepped closer, closing the space between them. “You won’t.”

Alicia let out a bitter little laugh. “That’s easy to say.”

Austin’s gaze didn’t waver. “No. It’s not. It’s not easy to say, because it means I’m asking you to trust me.” Alicia’s jaw tightened. Trust. She trusted Austin with her heart. With her kids. With her home. With her body. But money? Stability? The future? Those were different kinds of trust. The kind built through repetition and proof. And Alicia had spent her entire life believing she had to be the proof. Austin reached up and brushed his thumb lightly across her cheekbone. “You’ve been doing everything. And you’ve been doing it like you had to prove something.”

Alicia blinked. “I do have to.”

Austin shook his head. “No. You don’t.”

Alicia stared at him, and her voice dropped to something quieter. “If I don’t… then who will?” Austin didn’t answer immediately.

Instead, he took her hand and guided her deeper into the house. They walked down the framed hallway, past what would be the kids’ rooms. Past the bathroom that wasn’t finished yet. Past the doorways that were only outlines. Austin stopped in the master bedroom. Or what would be the master bedroom. The room was empty, unfinished, but the window was in, and sunlight spilled across the bare floor like it belonged there. Austin turned toward her. “You know what I’ve been thinking about?”

Alicia’s brows furrowed. “What?”

Austin nodded toward the window. “Standing here. Months ago. When it was just studs. Just a frame.” Alicia’s eyes flickered across the walls. She remembered it. The way the wind had cut through the unfinished structure. The way the house had felt fragile. Austin’s voice was calm. “You looked at me and you said you wanted a place where the kids could feel like they didn’t have to choose which side of the family they belonged to.”

Alicia’s throat tightened. “I remember,” she whispered.

Austin smiled faintly. “You said you wanted a home that didn’t feel temporary. A home that didn’t feel like it could disappear if life got hard.” Alicia looked down. Austin stepped closer. “You did that. You made that happen. Not just with money, but with who you are. With the way you fight for us.”

Alicia’s lips trembled. “I’m tired of fighting.”

Austin nodded. “I know.” Then he exhaled, and there was something different in it. Something heavier. “And I’m tired of watching you fight alone.” Alicia’s eyes lifted to his. Austin’s gaze was steady. “My shoulder’s almost there, I’m not saying I’m rushing. I’m not saying I’m going to be stupid. But I’m close.” Alicia’s chest tightened again, but this time it wasn’t anxiety. It was relief. Real relief. Austin continued. “The physio said if I keep progressing the way I am, I’ll be cleared to train full-contact again soon.”

Alicia blinked. “Soon?”

Austin nodded. “Soon.”

Her voice was careful. “How soon is soon?”

Austin smirked slightly. “You want the honest answer or the ‘don’t worry, babe’ answer?”

Alicia rolled her eyes, but it was softer this time. “Honest.”

Austin’s expression warmed. “A couple months. Maybe less if everything stays on track.” Alicia stared at him. The air in the unfinished room felt lighter. Austin added quietly, “And when I’m back… I’m back.” Alicia’s mouth opened slightly, but no words came out at first. Her eyes burned with emotion that had been building for months without her acknowledging it. Austin reached for her hands again. “You’ve been carrying this family on your back, You’ve been carrying SCW. You’ve been carrying pressure and expectations and the weight of being the one everyone depends on.” He squeezed her fingers. “And I’ve been sitting on the sidelines feeling useless.”

Alicia shook her head instantly. “You’re not useless.”

Austin gave her a look that said he appreciated the lie but didn’t accept it. “I know you don’t see me that way. But I’ve felt it. And I’m done feeling it.”

Alicia swallowed hard. “Austin…”

He leaned closer. “I want to be your partner again. Fully. Not just emotionally. Not just as a dad. But in the ring. In SCW. In everything.”

Alicia’s breath hitched. Because she wanted that. God, she wanted that. But fear had a way of poisoning even the things you craved. She looked away toward the window. “That means we’ll be working together,” she murmured.

Austin’s voice softened. “Yeah.”

Alicia’s laugh came out small and nervous. “For the first time since we got married.”

Austin smiled. “That’s the part you’re nervous about?”

Alicia turned her head toward him. “I don’t know what it’s going to be like.”

Austin shrugged slightly. “Probably loud. Probably chaotic.”

Alicia snorted. “That’s not comforting.”

Austin stepped closer, his tone playful but sincere. “Come on, Alicia. You know what it’s going to be like.”

Alicia raised an eyebrow. “Do I?”

Austin nodded. “You’re going to go out there and be Alicia Lukas. The woman who doesn’t back down. The woman who makes everyone else look like they’re moving in slow motion.” Alicia’s lips pressed together, trying to hide the smile. “And I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to do what I do best.”

Alicia tilted her head. “And what’s that?”

Austin smirked. “Stand beside you. Make sure nobody gets too comfortable thinking they can take what’s yours.” Alicia’s smile faded into something softer. She stepped closer, resting her forehead against his chest. For a moment, she just breathed. Austin’s hand slid gently to the back of her head. “You don’t have to do it all,” he whispered.

Alicia’s voice cracked. “I don’t know how to stop.”

Austin kissed her hair. “Then we’ll learn. Together.”

She pulled back slightly, looking up at him. “What if we’re not good at it?”

Austin smiled. “We’re already good at it.”

Alicia blinked. “No, we’re not.”

Austin’s expression turned serious. “Yes, we are. You know how I know?” Alicia waited. Austin’s eyes flicked toward the hallway, toward the empty rooms that would soon be filled with beds and clothes and toys and arguments and laughter. “Because those kids are happy, Because even in the mess, even in the hard days, they feel loved.” Alicia’s throat tightened. “And because…..you and I… we’re still here. We’re still choosing each other.”

Alicia stared at him. She’d heard vows before. She’d said them. She’d meant them. But hearing Austin say something like that, something simple, something true, hit harder than any grand romantic speech ever could. Alicia swallowed. “I’m scared I’m going to fail you.”

Austin shook his head immediately. “You can’t fail me by being tired.” Alicia’s eyes welled. Austin’s voice lowered. “You can’t fail me by needing help.” Her shoulders shook slightly as she tried to keep herself composed. Austin’s thumb brushed under her eye, wiping away the tear that escaped anyway. “You’ve been the champion, Not just in SCW. In life.”

Alicia let out a shaky laugh. “I didn’t ask to be.”

Austin nodded. “I know.” Then he smiled, and there was something warm and boyish in it, something that reminded her he wasn’t just a husband or a father. He was the man she fell in love with. “But you don’t have to be alone at the top anymore,”  Alicia stared at him, the words settling deep. Alone at the top. That was exactly what it had felt like. Austin leaned in and kissed her gently. Not hungry. Not demanding. Just a kiss that said I’m here. I’ve been here. When he pulled back, he rested his forehead against hers. “So, we move in a few weeks.”

Alicia exhaled, her laugh small. “Yeah.”

Austin’s eyes flicked down toward her hands. “We’ll get the kids settled.” Alicia nodded. “We’ll set up the rooms, We’ll argue about where the couch goes.”

Alicia’s lips curved again. “You’re going to lose that argument.”

Austin scoffed. “Says who?”

Alicia pointed toward the imaginary living room. “Says the woman who’s been paying for it.”

Austin laughed, and it was real. The kind of laugh that broke tension like a hammer through glass. Then he sobered again, just slightly. “And when the time comes, I’m going to walk back into SCW with you.” Alicia’s heart thudded. Austin’s voice was firm now. “Not behind you. Not riding your coattails. With you.”

Alicia stared at him. The thought of it made her chest tighten in a different way. Not fear. Anticipation. Alicia swallowed. “The locker room is going to lose their minds.”

Austin grinned. “Good.”

Alicia laughed softly, shaking her head. “They’re going to say we’re an unstoppable power couple.”

Austin leaned in. “Are we not?”

Alicia hesitated. Then she smiled, and it wasn’t nervous this time. It was real. “It’s just…I don’t want it to change us.”

Austin’s expression softened. “It won’t change us, It’ll just show them what we already are.” Alicia’s eyes flicked down. Austin tilted her chin up gently. “You know what I think?”

“What?”

Austin looked around the unfinished room again, like he could already see the life they were going to build inside it. “I think this house is the first thing we’ve done that isn’t about surviving,” Alicia’s breath caught. Austin’s voice dropped lower. “It’s about living.” Alicia stared at him, the words landing in her chest like something she didn’t realize she’d been waiting to hear. She didn’t respond immediately.

Instead, she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him tightly. Austin’s arms closed around her instantly, strong and sure. And for the first time in months, standing inside a house that didn’t even have floors finished yet… Alicia felt safe. Not because everything was perfect. Not because she had control. But because she wasn’t alone anymore. Outside, the wind rattled through the unfinished siding. The world still moved. The world still demanded. But inside, in the quiet frame of their future, Alicia rested her head against Austin’s chest and let herself believe something she’d struggled to accept for most of her life. That building a home wasn’t a test. It was a promise. And this time…She didn’t have to carry it by herself.

Champion vs champion

”Hilarious….”

Alicia can’t help but laugh to herself, the look on her face can be described as mild amusement mixed with arrogant acceptance. The long hair flowing down her back and shoulders as a braid goes from one side of her hair down behind her ear.

”Inception VIII. What a night. I told everyone that coming out of that show I was still going to be the roulette champion. And I’d like to think that most people, most smart people, put their money on me. Hell, we were in Vegas. It would be a great idea to have gone down to one of the casinos walked into a betting pit and drop money on me to beat Alexandra. In fact the only person in the world who I believe thought Alexandra was going to win was Alexandra herself. All of her friends and even her significant other LJ all knew that she was screwed. From the second she wanted that rematch with me we all knew that she was going to fail because that’s what Alexandra does when it comes to facing anyone who is better than her.”

“She fails time and time again to rise the occasion. That’s the difference between people like her and people like me. You see the way Alexandra thinks of herself is how I am. She believes herself to be some kind of legend where she is respected because she has this amazing career. She believes that professional wrestler the world over in other companies will sit there and think about her. But really the only people who know about her are her friends and family and people who are forced to go up against her like I was.”

“And she failed”

“ Where is Chanel? What is Alexandra doing? Well after losing to Me it seems like she’s been given another opportunity to try and get a shot at a championship. The Internet championship. And doing so she has decided to pick on Bea Barnhart. And yes you heard that right she is going after one of the most pathetic women in this company to make herself feel better after she failed to beat me. Good work Alexandra. I’m sure that’s going to work out great for you when Amelia beats you both and goes on to get her opportunity at the Internet championship. Now, meanwhile I get to go on to face the Internet champion Victoria Lyons…”


She can’t help but chuckle shaking her head before adjusting her leather jacket and staring straight forward refocusing on the problem at hand

”This is where we find ourselves right Victoria? This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. In fact it seems to be a tired old trope that this company trots out when they run out of ideas. See you are waiting for your next Challenger. There is a triple threat match where one of them is going to end up being your number one contender and for me I’m being told that Cassie Wolfe could be my next opponent. So what to do with two champions who are waiting to see who they are going to defend their championships against the blaze of glory? Do they put us in a tagteam match against our contenders when they’re figure out? Do they try and schedule us in some kind of interview so we can talk about our titles and where we are going?”

“No of course not. Instead, they put us against each other. And what does this really do Victoria? What does this prove? You and I are already champions. I have the roulette championship and you have the Internet championship. We have proved ourselves in the eyes of everyone to show that we are two of the best in this business and in this company. Putting you and I against each other does nothing but waste both of our times.”

“And it can also do damage to us”

“I have all of this earned momentum from beating Alexandra. But now I’m facing you. And if I lose to you on the one hand, I’ve just been beaten by the Internet champion someone who is one of the best in this company but it also disrupts my momentum going into any defence that I could have a blaze of glory. Whether or not that’s against Cassie or someone else if I lose to you it automatically puts me on the back foot and I simply cannot have that. And the thing is Victoria I don’t dislike you, I don’t think that you are some kind of fluke I don’t think that you are some kind of Nepo baby. I don’t think that you are a failure to your family. I look at you and I see someone who has real talent and has done everything she can to make the best of certain bad situations”


She pauses for a moment and takes a deep breath

”You have reason above every negative that has been thrown at you from family members up and leaving to family members talking shit about you because you don’t conform to what they believe you should be. You have done everything in your power to step up and be true to you and for that you have my utmost respect.”

Alicia nods slowly and takes a deep breath before continuing

”However, the fact remains that I don’t want my momentum being affected with a loss to you. That does unfortunately mean I’m going to have to do the same thing to you. But let’s be honest to Victoria I lost to Me is a little bit easier to the stomach than it would be losing to you. You are a decent professional wrestler. You are definitely a step above certain other women in this company and you are one of the best. But you are not in the Hall of Fame. You are not a former world champion. You are not on the same level as me.”

“I came into this company and set it on fire. I became the world champion and I broke records while beating some of the best of the best and as such I was able to become a Hall of Famer. And after all of that, after everyone told me that my career was over and I should just leave wrestling and SCW to go home and be your mother, that I was no longer the woman that I used to be and that I was going to end up like Mercedes Vargas or Sam Marlowe, I stood up and became the roulette champion and proved once again that I am still one of the best that this company and this business has to offer”

“And that isn’t anyway near the end of this”

“See, my plan is to defend this championship against everyone until I either clean the division out or someone worthy beats me. And then I’m going back after the bombshells world championship. I want to become a four-time champion. And I’m not going to let a throwaway champion against champion showcase ruined my momentum and ruined what I want to do. So come at me with everything you have Victoria. Because I plan damn well I’m doing the same.”
73
Climax Control Archives / Chapter 10: By The Time I Get To Phoenix
« Last post by Frankie Holliday on February 06, 2026, 11:57:26 PM »
Oh hi.

I bet you forgot about me, didn't you?

All this time away and I've been sitting here, wondering what is next. Especially after Christian Underwood tried to dangle a Bombshell's title match in front of me like we were negotiating the price of a fucking Ford Mustang. I must say I loved the idea of trying to take a championship match they say I earned, away from me because... I say the painful truth on twitter.

I told you it was going to be a re-run. I told you that it would fail and Crystal would repeat the same cycle. But no, just scold me and threaten to take a championship match away from me. And then jump the captain back in front again just to spite me.

I don't care.

I will bide my time. I enjoyed this little timeout session you gave me, Boss.

I told you once, and I will say it again.

I am inevitable.

Now... let us continue the story, shall we?





Once again, I was on the move. It was a short 5 hour drive to get from L.A. to Phoenix. There was a lot of thinking done. The first was just how I hadn’t ever had a true place to call my own. I was a fucking nomad at this point. I very rarely was able to shower outside of a few stays at a hotel while Levi and I were moving from place to place. Staying at a motel for only a couple days at a time. I thought about Heather and her boyfriend a little bit. I wonder what she was thinking. I left, and I know they figured I was in L.A. I got the job and I was working for Glen. But then, maybe they saw it on the news that Glen was dead. But I couldn’t contact them anyway. I had a new phone and I had forgotten her number since I didn’t really call or text her that much.

I didn’t think much about my parents.

Neither of them ever checked on me anyway. I don’t know if they even noticed I was gone. My school probably asked them once or twice if I was coming back to school. I can only imagine. Now, if he wanted, Charlie could probably again have what he wanted: My mother, all to himself and no one to take care of. Though taking care of her was a full time job anyway.

I didn’t know how to really feel about them at this point.

On one hand, they are my birth parents. They raised me as best they could, I suppose. Well no, it could have been better, easier, more loving, more attention. But that’s not what I got. In the back of my head I began to wonder how I would react to one of them actually dying or something like that. It was bound to happen. Charlie and Sarah were both on drugs, they were just addicts but using legally. Part of me wanted to help. But I needed to be here, on my own.

The drive was rather peaceful. A long moment for all the commotion to die down. We were on the lamb, but nobody knew but us. We passed mountain, flat terrain, mostly on a two-lane highway. Finally as we reached more populated areas, we drove over the Colorado river and before too long, we found ourselves in Arizona and passing Maricopa county, and heading into Phoenix shortly thereafter.

But we kept going, and then finally we were off the highway, and onto the main roads, and then off of them, into a rural area. I wasn’t aware Arizona would have a fucking sticks section, but it did. We saw the sign for Tonopah and a few more miles until we pulled down a dirt path. The sun was finally setting.

A singular house, isolated from everything.

We pulled up and parked. There was a truck pulled up to the house itself.

“This is my uncle Mal’s place. If he’s still here.”

“If he’s still here? You don’t know?”

Levi sighed.

“He’s … he’s sick. So he needs care.”

“What ki-”

I didn’t get to finish my sentence before a disheveled man rushed out of the house, waving a double barrel shotgun in out direction. He was in a bathrobe and sandals. His hair was long and greasy.

“GET OFF MY PROPERTY!” He shouted, aiming the shotgun.

Levi stepped out of the car, hands in the air.

“Uncle Mal! It’s me, Levi! Your nephew!

“GET THE HELL OUTTA HERE! I DON’T KNOW YOU!”

“Levi, maybe we should go!” I said frantically

Then another man burst out of the house grabbing Mal and the gun and they struggled for it for a few seconds before the other man finally took the gun.

“Stop this Mr. Boardman! Stop it!  He shouted at Mal, who was still agitated.

“Sorry about that folks. Look, Mr. Boardman isn’t well and he needs -”

“I know. I’m his nephew. Levi!” Levi said, slowly lowering his arms, trying to keep the situation calm.

“Oh. I’m Issac. I take care of Mr. Boardman. Can I help you?”

“Yeah, uh… We just… we need a place to stay for a few days. Just a few. Then we’ll be gone.”

“DON’T YOU LET THEM STAY HERE ISSAC!’ Mal shouted. “I DON’T KNOW THEM!”

“Calm down, Mr. Boardman. Just calm down.” He turned to Levi. “You say you’re kin to Mr. Boardman?”

“Yes, I’m his nephew. His brother Thad’s son. He knows me.”

“Just give me a minute.” He turned back to Mal and touched his shoulder, to ease him. “Come on, Mr. Boardman, I will check on what this boy says, and if it doesn’t check out, we’ll send them on their way. Come on, let’s get you inside.”

It took a minute before Mal complied. And then he walked inside with Issac.

“Levi, I don’t know about this.”

“It’s okay.”

Issac came out about 3 minutes later.

“Sorry about all that. Mr. Boardman still has some family photos and you do look like the boy. Do you have any I.D.?”

Levi reached into his pockets and had a wallet with an old school ID and a few photos of his parents. Issac studied them.

“Okay, look, let me get Mr. Boardman to bed, and we’ll settle this in the morning. For now, just wait. There’s a room on the second floor. You can use that. Just let me get this all taken care of.”

“You got it.”

Issac walked back into the house and then we were alone.

“Levi, this was a mistake. That guy isn’t going to let us stay here. You know that! He’s crazy!”

“He’s not crazy. He’s sick. I know it’s not looking great, but just trust me on this. It’ll be fine.”

It took a long time. It was now dark and we were still sitting in the driveway. Issac finally came back out.

“Mr. Boardman is asleep. Please, just be careful and quiet. The second door on the right on the second floor. Once you go in, please lock it.”

“Got it.”

We quietly crept into the house. By this point, we were experts at sneaking into a house. We crept up the stairs and into the bedroom. It was small, but it was a bed. Most of the time, we were sleeping in the car. So the bed was just amazing. It was a long drive, we were exhausted. The adrenaline of almost being shot was dying down. Finally, we got to rest.

Or, so we thought.

It was 3AM when the door knob was jiggled. The turns were subtle at first, but then more direct. The turning was fast.

*THUD.*

Someone was shouldering the door trying to open it. Then the banging followed.

“WHY IS THIS DOOR LOCKED!”

It was Mal. Issac was right in advising us to lock the door. Issac came from another room and began yelling and arguing with Mal. Finally, he calmed him down and he was back in bed. The rest of the night passed without incident, but we didn’t sleep much.

The next morning, Levi and I took showers for the first time in a while. We took some of those mini bottles you get from motels and used them. We put on different clothes and came down the stairs slowly, not knowing what to expect.

But there he was. Mal and Issac were sitting at the kitchen table, laughing, joking and having a grand old time. Mal noticed us and turned with a big smile.

“LEVI!”

Mal got up and walked over and hugged Levi tightly.

“Boy it’s been years. How have you been?”

“Good, uncle Mal. Good. This is Franchesca. She’s my girlfriend.”

“Nice to meet you!” He said sticking out his hand for a handshake. I shook it and nodded.

“Hello.”

“When did you get in?” Mal asked.

“Last night.”

“Oh, well hell, you should have told me. I’d of prepared the place for you. We got a room upstairs, nice and cozy.”

“That’s great.”

“How long you staying?”

“Oh, just a few days really. We just needed a place to rest up.”

“Oh, to hell with that. You stay here. No sense in you trying to stay at some fancy hotel and wasting your money. We got everything you need and it’s a short drive away from town if you need anything.”

“Thanks uncle Mal.”

“Well, sit down, have some breakfast! Ike makes some damn good hash browns and gravy!”

It was so crazy. He was like a different person. He just acted like we just got here and that whole thing with the shotgun didn’t happen. He didn’t even acknowledge it.

We ate breakfast and it was surprisingly good. Mal excused himself and went towards the rest room.

“So… what is his deal?” I asked, probably too bluntly, but I was curious.

“Mr. Boardman has… what they call “Sundowning” He becomes increasingly agitated and confused at night. Hence the situation last night. But during the day, he’s mostly okay. He remembers things, talks about things, and is generally pleasant.”

“Uncle Mal has dementia, it’s a byproduct of it.”

“Oh.”

Mal came back, and I learned more about Levi and his family. Turns out Mal was short for Malachai and I just thought that was a cool name. A couple of days went by, and there was another episode where Mal got angry and confused and yelled. Levi and I stayed in the bedroom at night. Away from him so he wasn’t agitated any further. But each day, it was like he reset and was perfectly fine.

It was so strange, I ended up doing a ton of research on this whole thing, but with his round the clock care from Issac, it was pretty much a done deal. This is what he was. He loved to play chess and watch TV. He had a bunch of history and some… less than ethical books. He had the Anarchists Cookbook in his collection. Lots of books on war, politics and sports.

We spent a few days and then I was thinking that maybe I should get a job. But places would be looking into my school records to see if I graduated and whatnot. And… I hadn’t. I hadn’t had a job since I left Burger King back home.

But, through sheer luck, it turned out that you didn’t need to be a resident of Arizona to get a GED there. So that became the new goal.

Mal seemed to be getting used to us and the flare ups were less frequent, but they still happened.

If this was home… It felt pretty familiar. I had to go ahead and embrace the chaos once again.





It’s pretty obvious they had no idea what to do.

I beat their golden child. I beat the new shiny toy and they had no choice but to scramble and try to silence me. I know how the game is played. Then after they looked like idiots a second time after giving Seleana a Bombshell’s title match for no good reason, and it blowing up in their faces and we got the re-run I called from the fucking jump… Here we are.

I told you that this is how it was going to go.

And now, they actually put me on the show. And they give me… Harper Mason.

I feel like you should understand this more than anyone Harper.

You have been here a long time. You’ve raised your voice and tried to stand out. Doesn’t it bother you that for everything you have done, you have been stifled? Doesn’t it bother you that people who you know you can beat, who you have beaten, just get treated differently, and you’re stuck begging for scraps? I mean, you were trained by Team Hero. They got a lot of great treatment and you can’t get any of that.

I mean, maybe you just suck shit and that’s the main reason, but you have to see this, right?

I was very close to implementing a brand new order. I tried to change things for the better around here and they sent the old timers who cheated to beat me, and they are trying to remove all the progress I made. You understand this feeling Harper. I know you do. How many world title opportunities have you had? How many times were you given a chance? Not that many, right? One? Two? Do you honestly want to keep it that way?

Don’t you want to make Team Hero proud of you? Don’t you want to achieve the heights they did, on a proper even playing field? Don’t you think you could thrive in that environment? That is what I’m offering when I get the Bombshell’s title back. I’m out to make this place better. I’m out to give you the chance to earn it, rather than wait around and force you to raise your voice. I don’t need you to scream and holler. I listen. I hear you. I hear you loud and clear. I might be the only one who does.

You see what happens when you speak up? Nothing. You get yelled at and people act like they know better and put you in this spot they see fit for you.

I was going to do that, but then it dawned on me that what I need to do is shape the field itself, and then people will fit everywhere. People will get chances. People will earn opportunities. That’s the Sin City Wrestling we need!

And I could use a superhero person to help show them the way.

But, I feel like you’re going to stick to that honor and discipline nonsense that put you where you are right now. You’ve had your chance to stand out, but you fall in line. That is why you’re not making any progress. In fact, I have to ask this question even after all this time.

“Who are you?”

Who is Harper Mason?

What is it you do that makes you stand out? All I ever see from you is vlogging about bullshit and giving an effort that your trainers should be ashamed of. And more importantly, YOU should be ashamed of it. Do you think they taught you to be middle of the road? No, Harper, They taught you better than that. They fucking had to. And thus far, you have shown and proven to be nothing more than a woman trying to ride their coattails instead of standing out. You’re happy with what you know.

You’ve become complacent.

And that is why you are going to lose to me, Harper.

And you won’t care. You won’t do anything about it. You won’t show me or anyone else your true passion or fire. You will just continue to wallow in mediocrity. I should be slowly getting where you are now, and you should be where I am already. Challenging for the top spot. But unlike you, I didn’t rest on my laurels and my trainers' reputation. I did what needed to be done. You have won a title and acted like you made some kind of history, and then pissed it all away and you’ve been struggling to do anything ever since.

It would be funny isn’t wasn’t so sad.

Maybe this will be a lesson for you to finally wake up. I shudder to think about how many others have tried to get you to do the same thing and failed. Because no one can make you great, Harper. No one can make you stand out, but you. And you have been failing at doing it this entire time.

I’m going to beat you, and leave you in the dust yet again.

I really hope that you are paying attention and listening, but I know you’re not. You’ll do what you always do and then wonder why you are where you are. It’s what you do. It’s what you’re good at. Go, film another vlog after I beat you about how tough it was and how you’re one or two wins away from really making an impact. I don’t know how you can look into the camera with a straight face and say that type of shit, Harper.

Team Hero deserves better than you.

And you know it.

But, because I can be a benevolent force, once I am in charge again, I will again offer the same opportunity, and you will still be able to take those opportunities. I just expect a thank you for making one last attempt to open your eyes and stop wallowing in complacency.

This beatdown you’re going to get is for your own good.

Trust me.

74
Climax Control Archives / Careful what you wished for...because you got it.
« Last post by MiloKasey on February 06, 2026, 11:53:24 PM »
Backstage
Two Weeks Ago

The locker room was quiet when he finally sat down.

Too quiet.

Miles stared at his hands. The knuckles were already swelling, skin split in two places. He didn’t feel it yet as he knew that the pain always came later. Right now there was only the aftermath, that hollow space where adrenaline used to live. He already started calculating in his head what he should have done. The way he was feeling recently, he knew that he could have easily pushed it even harder.

He could have fucked Jones up even more if he wanted too....but sometimes it was nice to have a toy to play with.

His thoughts got yanked away from him the moment that the door opened and Carter stepped inside.

His beautiful blonde husband just looked at him, he didn’t yell. He didn’t rush to him and he didn’t flinch when he saw the blood on Miles’ hands.

He just closed the door behind him and for a long moment, neither of them spoke.

Then Carter said, quietly, “You okay?”

Miles laughed once, it was sharp and humorless, with a shake of his head. “No.”

Carter nodded, like that answer made sense. He crossed the room and stopped in front of him, resting a hand on Miles’ shoulder.

Maybe this would be a good time to note that there were reasons why Miles never wanted to even entertain the things that Alex said. He WAS that guy once upon a time, in a life that he had long left behind. But when one is backed against the wall...

“You didn’t lose who you are tonight,” Carter said, knocking Miles from that thought process again, “You just stopped pretending you were fine.”

Miles finally looked up at him. His eyes were red, not with tears, with something harder. Of course sleep for both of them had not come easy at all lately but with how life has been lately, Miles had no spoons left to give except for the loves of his life and that was all.

“I don’t regret it,” he admitted. “I regret that it took this long, I honestly should have done this a lot longer but no, my fucking outstanding moral fiber just had to hold on a little bit longer....”

Carter squeezed his shoulder once. “I know.”

Miles exhaled slowly. The Internet Championship is gone and with it so were the old rules.

The silence didn’t break right away.

Carter stayed where he was, hand still resting on Miles’ shoulder, not squeezing anymore, just there. An anchor. Miles’ breathing gradually slowed, the sharp edge of adrenaline dulling into something heavier and harder to carry.

Eventually, Carter glanced down at Miles’ hands.

“You’re bleeding.”

Miles followed his gaze like he hadn’t noticed. The skin across his knuckles was split, red blooming in thin lines that traced the story of what he’d done better than any replay ever could.

“Yeah,” Miles said. “That tracks, forgot about it honestly.”

Carter reached into the small med kit he’d grabbed on instinct, the same one that had lived in their bag for years, through injuries, matches, and worse. He knelt in front of Miles without ceremony and took his hands gently, like he was defusing something fragile instead of cleaning blood.

The sting came immediately and Miles hissed through his teeth, shoulders tightening.

“Breathe,” Carter murmured. “Don’t be dramatic.”

Miles huffed a weak laugh. “Coming from the man who has his entire wardrobe color-cordinated...”

“That’s not dramatics, that's responsibility."

Miles didn’t argue.

They worked in silence for a bit. Carter cleaned, wrapped, taped as efficiently as it could get and honestly very familiar. It wasn’t caretaking born from panic, it was just how their partnership and life worked. Something practiced and something earned.

“You know,” Carter said eventually, not looking up, “He’s going to try to spin this.”

Miles snorted. “Oh I am sure he will....he always does.”

“They’ll say you snapped. That you couldn’t handle losing the title. That you embarrassed the company.”

Miles stared at the far wall, jaw tightening. “Fucking. Let. Them.”

Carter paused, finally looking up at him. “You sure?”

Miles met his eyes. “For the first time in a long time? Yeah. I don’t give a flying fuck if Alex days from now goes onto his precious X account and demands my head on a silver fucking platter...”

That earned a small nod. Carter went back to taping, “We both know you didn’t lose control,” Carter said quietly. “You made a choice.”

Miles swallowed. That distinction mattered more than Carter probably realized, “Alex didn’t beat me because he’s better,” Miles said. “He beat me because he needed it more than I did.”

Carter didn’t interrupt.

“I did need that belt once,” Miles continued. “I needed it to prove I wasn’t wasting my time. I needed it to justify every compromise I made just to survive in their world.” His mouth twisted. “But somewhere along the line, it stopped being about proving something and started being about carrying something.”

“The division,” Carter said.

“The people,” Miles corrected. “The ones they keep telling to wait, to shrink and to be grateful for scraps.”

He flexed his fingers experimentally. The pain was setting in now. Good. It meant he was still here.

“And tonight,” Miles said, quieter now, “I realized I don’t need a title to do that.”

Carter finished the last wrap and leaned back on his heels. “Are you sure you’re ready for what comes next?”

Miles didn’t answer right away.

Because what came next wasn’t abstract. It had names like suspensions, fines, meetings, statements, and headlines. There would be disappointed voices, a few angry ones. Some pretending to actually have concern while sharpening knives behind their backs. But there would also be people watching, people who’d seen someone finally stop asking for permission.

“I’m ready,” Miles said at last. “Because whatever they throw at me, at least it’ll be honest. No more pretending I fit in a box they built to outgrow.”

Carter stood and offered a hand. Miles took it, letting himself be pulled up.

“You know,” Carter said, voice light but eyes serious, “For a guy who ‘lost everything,’ you look a lot steadier than most former champions I’ve known.”

Miles smirked faintly. “Funny how that works.”

There was a knock at the door then. It wasn’t frantic or aggressive, just a reminder that the world outside hadn’t stopped.

Miles straightened his shoulders.

“That’s probably Kevin wanting to make sure we’re alright,” Carter said.

Miles nodded once and moved toward the door. Before opening it, he paused.

“Hey.”

Carter looked up.

“Thanks for not telling me to be better.”

Carter smiled, “Well, babe, you’ve always said that sometimes you have to be the villain in someone’s story..”

Miles opened the door and held it open for his husband and on the other side was Kevin waiting for them.

“Ok good, I was hoping I had the right place.” he said in his shy voice, “Are we going?”

“Yeah...let’s go home.”

And now we finally get just a man who finally understood exactly who he was, and wasn’t going to apologize for it anymore.

------------

Home Isn’t Quiet Anymore
Las Vegas, Nevada

Night used to mean rest. Now it meant vigilance practically every night since the attack.

Miles woke before the nightmare finished unfolding, not because of sound, but because he felt Carter change beside him. The air shifted. Breathing hitched. Muscles went rigid like a body bracing for impact that never came.

Carter bolted upright with a sharp, gasping inhale that tore the silence in half.

Miles was moving before thought caught up, already sitting up, already there. A hand pressed firm between Carter’s shoulder blades, grounding pressure, the other bracing his chest. This had become routine and Miles would have done anything to get just a peak into what was happening, but instead he just had to be there for him.

“Hey,” Miles whispered, low and steady, even as his own heart hammered. “You’re here. You’re safe. I’ve got you.”

Carter shook his head once, violently, like he was trying to dislodge something lodged behind his eyes. Sweat slicked his neck, his hair damp and tangled, breath scraping raw through a throat that still hadn’t forgiven the chemicals burned into it weeks ago.

“I couldn’t...” His voice broke. “I couldn’t get the door open.”

That sentence hit Miles harder than any punch ever had. But at least it was more than just a head nod on this round.

He leaned in, pressing his forehead against Carter’s temple, breathing slow on purpose, counting it out so Carter could steal the rhythm if he needed it. “The front door’s locked. Deadbolt’s on. Chain too. Security’s outside. No one’s here but us.”

It took time. Sometimes it always did.

Carter’s breathing eventually stuttered back into something closer to normal, though his hands still trembled where they fisted in the sheets. He scrubbed a hand down his face, anger flickering in his eyes, not at Miles, but at himself. At his own body for betraying him in sleep.

“Sorry,” he muttered hoarsely. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

Miles tightened his arm around him, pulling him in until Carter’s weight sagged into his chest. “You never have to apologize for being scared,” he said quietly. “Not to me.”

After a few moments, he decided to throw on a pair of shorts and pull Carter out with him so they could get some water and take a step away from it all. They both stood there in silence in the kitchen in the dim light, nursing a cup of tea before they both heard a soft creak coming from the hallway.

Miles already knew who it was. Kevin stood there in the dim light, hoodie sleeves pulled down over his hands like armor, eyes wide and too old for sixteen. He hadn’t meant to hover, he just couldn’t stay in his room anymore.

“Is he okay?” Kevin asked, barely above a whisper.

Carter lifted his head, forcing something that tried to pass for a smile. “I’m okay, kid. Just my brain being a dick.”

Kevin didn’t smile back. He stepped closer instead, cautious, like he was afraid sudden movement might shatter something fragile. Miles caught his eye and opened his arm.

“Come here.”

Kevin hesitated for a brief moment, that old reflex, the fear of taking up space, then crossed the room and perched on the edge of the counter. Miles reached out and rested a hand on the back of his neck, thumb warm and steady against skin gone cold with worry.

Kevin swallowed hard. “I thought someone came back,” he admitted. “In my dream.”

Something twisted low in Miles’ chest. He should have known that the attack on Carter would only trigger something within him too. He swore under his breath and made note that whomever was responsible was going to pay far more than getting tossed in jail.

“They’re not,” Miles said firmly, with a conviction he needed to be true. “And they won’t. I won’t let them.”

Kevin nodded, but his eyes stayed glassy. Trauma didn’t obey promises, even good ones.

Morning didn’t arrive so much as it crept in, thin gray light filtering through the blinds like it wasn’t sure it was welcome. The condo felt tense even awake, like the walls themselves were holding their breath.

Miles stood in the kitchen staring into a mug of coffee gone untouched and cold. He couldn’t remember pouring it.

Kevin sat at the counter, cereal soggy, spoon idle in the bowl. Carter leaned against the island, arms folded tight across his ribs, flinching when a door closed somewhere down the hall.

Every sound was too loud and every silence too sharp. It was getting to a point where they should just start playing music all the time just to cut the silence and not make the echos so loud.

Miles hated this feeling more than the fear. It was the sense that the world had marked them, that something unseen was circling, patient.

The knock came just after ten.

Three precise raps. But they weren’t aggressive but not friendly.

Professional.

Miles felt it in his gut before his brain caught up.

“I’ll get it,” he said, already moving, though every instinct screamed threat.

The petite brunette woman outside was calm, composed, clipboard tucked under her arm like a shield. Her eyes were observant without being cold, the look of someone trained to see what people tried to hide.

“Mr. Kasey-McKinney?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Hi, I’m Rachel Monroe. I’m with the Clark County Child Protective Services.”

Kevin froze behind him as the woman flashed her badge. Miles felt it without looking, that sharp intake of breath, that old fear snapping awake.

Carter stepped close, shoulder brushing Miles’, showing silent solidarity.

“May I come in?”

Miles stepped aside and allowed her to enter. The condo felt suddenly smaller even with her tiny frame in the room. Almost like it was too exposed.

But Miles and Carter offered her a seat in their wide open living room and Rachel took in the room with a practiced glance, of course she took note of the security officer that stood just on the other side of the door, cameras now at their front door, in the hallway in the corners and in the living room, the lived-in chaos of a family that hadn’t had time to tidy itself into perfection.
“I want to be clear,” she said as they sat. “This is not an accusation but more like a precautionary visit. Given recent and very public events involving an attempted violent crime against a guardian, we’re required to perform a welfare check.”
Kevin’s fingers twisted in his sleeves.
Miles folded his hands carefully in his lap, keeping his voice even. “We understand.”
Rachel nodded, opening her folder, grabbing her pen and looking like she was pressing recording on a device, “Kevin, would you be comfortable answering a few questions?”
Kevin looked at Miles first and Miles met his eyes. “You’re okay. Say whatever you need to.”
Kevin straightened. “Okay.”
Rachel asked about school and how he was doing and whether or not he was making friends. She asked about meals especially the meal preps that the doctors had given him after the hospital. How he felt about all of the safety precautions and about whether Kevin felt secure in the home.
Kevin answered honestly and of course, carefully.
“They take care of me,” Kevin said at one point, eyes flicking briefly to Miles and Carter. “They always have.”

Rachel watched him closely. “Do you feel safe here?”

Kevin hesitated, but just long enough to be honest.

“I’m scared of what happened,” he said. “But not of them. I mean who wouldn’t. I’ve come to really care about them both and they care about me. They have seen to my every need and even a few things I feel like I didn’t really need but they did it anyways.”

Miles felt something loosen in his chest.

Rachel nodded, scribbled notes, then looked at them both. “I won’t pretend this is easy and once again I am sorry about it,” she said. “But from what I see, Kevin is loved, supported and of course protected. I won’t say that I won’t be making some more visits of course but for right now...well...anyways.”

She cleared her throat, "“There will be follow-ups,” Rachel continued. “Given the nature of the attack, we may recommend counseling services for all three of you. Trauma has a way of rippling outward.”

Miles nodded and glanced over at Carter because that was a conversation that still needed to be had but for right now to appease.... “We’re already looking into it.”

Rachel stood. “Good.”

She stood as did Miles and he walked her to the door. At the door, she paused briefly and looked at him, “I’ve been made fully aware of the case and what lengths you went through to make sure that he had a safe place to be. From a personal and professional view, you’re doing right by him,” she said to Miles. “Don’t let fear convince you otherwise.”

Miles didn’t trust himself to speak but said thank you. When the door finally closed behind her, Kevin exhaled like he’d been underwater too long.

“Did I mess it up?” he asked quietly.

Miles crossed the room in two strides and pulled him into a hug, tight and fierce. “You did everything right.”

Carter wrapped his arms around both of them, careful but firm. For a moment, the world stayed outside.

But Miles knew better than to believe this was over. The danger hadn’t disappeared, it had just changed shape and if the world thought it could take his husband or his kid from him?

It was going to learn just how hard Miles Kasey fought when everything he loved was on the line.

----------

Miles stands alone.

Just him.

He doesn’t look at the camera at first. When he finally does, it feels like a mistake for whoever’s watching.

“Do you know what it’s like,” Miles begins, voice low and rough, “To wake up every morning wondering which part of your life the world is going to try to take from you next?”

He breathes out slowly through his nose.

“Because that’s where I’ve been living for quite some time and it has begun to peel back a part of the world I left behind, the part that I left back in the UK when I came to the states. I didn’t want to be that chav brash prick any more, but apparently we’re going to just say ‘fuck it’ and just let it all out.”

A pause.

“I lost the Internet Championship. Fine...just whatever at this point because titles come and go. I’ve bled for them, I’ve carried them, I’ve handed them over when it was time. I can live with that.”

His jaw tightens.

“What I won’t live with....is men mistaking that loss for weakness.”

He lifts his head fully now.

“So let’s talk about the two of you pricks that Carter and just cannot shake off.”

“And we’re going to start it RIGHT THE FUCK OFF with Alex Jones.”

Miles’ mouth twists, not angry yet. Disgusted.

“For absolute fuck sakes it feels like I am constantly having to repeat myself with you....You love to talk about standards. About legacy. About how things are ‘supposed’ to be done. And the funniest part? You really believe you’re the authority on it.”

He shakes his head.

“You call yourself a legend, but every word out of your mouth reeks of insecurity and CONSTANT HYPOCRISY!!! Instead you live in a world of double standards, screaming at me to be this thing and then when you FINALLY GET WHAT YOU WERE FUCKING WISHING FOR YOU WANTED ME SUSPENDED?!?! Nah bruv, you know damn well this company wasn’t about to give me the vacation I so earned. You don’t get to get the easy way out of getting every fucking thing that you fucking deserve TEN FUCKING FOLD after what happened at Inception. You needed my championship like oxygen because without it, you were just another old man shouting into the void, begging the past to remember you. Congratulations...you got what you wished for.”

His eyes sharpen.

“You didn’t take that belt from me to elevate it. You took it to validate yourself, to prove you still mattered and to convince yourself that the world hadn’t moved on without you. Congratulations, you got what you wished for.”

He steps forward slightly.

“And while you were busy running your mouth about my marriage, my manhood, and my ambition, my family was under threat. My husband was targeted. My home stopped feeling safe. My kid started looking over his shoulder again.”

His voice drops.

“So understand this, Alex, you didn’t just step into my division. You stepped into my life. And now you don’t get to play the disappointed mentor or the noble veteran.”

His eyes burn.

“You’re the man who lit the fuse that I had to constantly stomp out because I didn’t want to BE that anymore...and bitch, we have only just begun. Two weeks ago? That’s going to be a full on walk in the fucking park on a Sunday afternoon after what happens Sunday at Climax Control. CONGRATULATIONS, MR. JONES, YOU GOT WHAT YOU WERE EXACTLY FUCKING ASKING FOR!”

Then Miles turns, just slightly, as if addressing a second presence.

“And then there is Alexander Raven. The man that has decided to refuse to take getting his ass beat not once...twice......maybe three times now? I don’t know...I’ve lost count... But you’re not loud like Alex. You don’t rant much.... You don’t posture like a peacock like Jones.”

Miles nods once.

“Instead...You’re worse.”

He folds his arms.

“You hide behind this strange silence and call it intelligence. You let other people burn bridges while you stand back and pretend your hands are clean. But I remember last year. I remember the sneak attack. I remember how quickly you disappeared when the consequences showed up.”

His head tilts.

“And now suddenly you’re standing shoulder to shoulder with the same man you blindsided, expecting trust to just....exist?”

A humorless laugh slips out.

“That’s not a strategy, that’s desperation. And if you BOTH are actually somehow trusting one another, you are both fucking fools. Even for the quote-unquote bad guys of the match, there is absolutely ZERO honor amongst the thieves between the two of you and we ALL know that you both would stab your own mother in the back for a sniff of a better life.”

Miles steps closer.

“We are going walking into Climax Control with Blaze of Glory looming on the horizon, with you thinking you’re studying Carter, measuring him, figuring out how to dismantle him piece by piece. What you don’t understand is that Carter doesn’t fight alone and neither do I. Not when it comes to something like this.”

He gestures to his chest.

“You’re not just facing a champion. You’re facing a family that already survived what should’ve broken us. And you? You’ve never survived anything you didn’t plan an exit from. BUT if you want this Raven, if you want to call your shot? You are going to have, for once, NOT RUN and actually face the facts that you have been royally FUCKED by getting assigned this match and your partner.”

Miles straightens fully now, voice steady but blazing.

“So here’s the truth neither of you seem ready to hear. I’m done asking for space. I’m done explaining myself. I’m done shrinking so men like you can feel important. This match isn’t about just the stipulations that we may get. It isn’t about chess moves or alliances or who turns on who first.”

He looks straight into the lens.

“This is about consequences.”

A final step forward.

“You assholes wanted my attention? Congratulations you tossers, you’ve got all of it now. I guess you should have been more careful about what you wished for.”

Silence.

“Too late now.”

And nothingness.
75
Climax Control Archives / "Kill Mode Activated"
« Last post by brandonhendrix on February 06, 2026, 11:52:33 PM »
[Brandon walks from the stage through the curtain, Angelo flanks behind him as the blood is still fresh on the hands and chest of Brandon Hendrix. One of SCW’s camera men come running up to catch footage of this for the show’s content team, but instead the camera is grabbed by Brandon Hendrix himself who yells into the camera.]

Brandon Hendrix: “I FUCKING TOLD ALL OF YOU! EVERY SINGLE ONE! HIS BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!”

[Brandon pushes the cameraman away as Brandon marches off. The cameraman is helped up by Angelo, who pats his shoulder.]

Angelo Caito: “My apologies. Just be happy he didn't do to you what he did to LJ Kasey and Ciarán. Have a good night.”

[Angelo gives the man a nod before walking off, following the Killing Machine that just claimed another victim tonight.]

[Last Climax Control]

[Brandon and Angelo, despite not being booked, still arrived at the show to watch LJ Kasey’s match. But the one thing that bothers Brandon more was the fact that LJ Kasey challenged Brandon to a match at Blaze Of Glory XV. He stands up and he tosses the TV stand over, yelling as he then gets in Angelo’s face.]

Brandon Hendrix; “WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!? I CAME BACK TO BECOME WORLD CHAMPION! NOT FIGHT THE UNDERCLASS EVERY WEEK!”

Angelo Caito: “Now Brandon, you know legally he cannot give you a world championship match off the bat like that. It can cause many lawsuits and you'd be out of this multi millions of dollars contract fast. Now we need to be smart about this and think. LJ Kasey has just disrespected you, once again may I add. He disrespected you the moment he stepped into the SCW ring, YOUR ring may I add. He has disrespected the decade plus you took to tone your craft and become the Greatest Professional Wrestler of All Time. He has disrespected you, and more importantly he disrespected your daughter, Raelynn by calling you out. Now, he made it personal. You know what you will have to do: eliminate LJ Kasey permanently and then we can get to the World Championship.”

[A graphic then shows that next week, Brandon Hendrix steps into the ring with Zayvion Lyons, newest member of the Lyons Den.]

[Two days before Brandon Faces Zayvion. Off Camera at the Hendrix Compounds]

[Brandon is sitting out on the back of his Compound in San Antonio, Texas. He stares at the open field, looking at the deer walking by on his property, enjoying the corn that was laid out. Suddenly jumping on his back is the reason for all his hard work, his soon to be ten year old daughter, Raelynn.]

Raelynn: “GOT YOU DADDY!”

[Brandon chuckles as he pulls her to his lap and gives her a kiss on the forehead.]

Brandon Hendrix: “Yes you did, princess.”

Raelynn: “What's wrong, daddy? You don't happy.”

[Brandon sighs. His daughter has always been so much smarter than she should be this young, but she always reads her dad’s eyes like a book.]

Brandon Hendrix: “You see, princess…
 Someone at Daddy's work has done something very bad, something that does bad to me and you. Now Daddy has to do something bad back to him.”

Raelynn: “Oh okay, daddy. You think you can come to my school Daddy And Daughter dance??”

[Brandon chuckles and nods as he rubs her back.]

Brandon Hendrix: “Of course, princess. You know I'd never miss it.”

[Raelynn giggles and hugs Brandon before running off back to the house. Brandon watches her run off before turning his head back forward and stares straight ahead.]

Brandon Hendrix: “...... It's personal, boy… it's personal.”

[Today: Live Feed From The Hendrix Compound]

Angelo Caito: “LJ Kasey. You really fucked up, didn’t you? You went and challenged my monster. But I can't have Brandon thinking of you when he has to deal with… A Den. Zayvion Lyons, what do you see when you see Brandon's name next to yours on the match card? No fear, right? Maybe you should, though? You see, Brandon Hendrix is now at the point of no return. Everything that comes his way, he's taking personally and that is all because of the man you and everyone else want to advocate for. And since you want to be in the corner of LJ Kasey, you make yourself a target. This is not a case of a school bully putting people in lockers or a gym rat just being annoying to the point of not wanting to come back to the gym. This is six foot five and two hundred and near seventy pounds of a brute. Ciarán stepped up and was left a bloodied mess that needed his jaw relocated back to its original position. Zayvion, this match is not the match for you to play hero because you're new to the scene and want your big break. Trust me, as someone that started in the business with no major company to sign me off the rip, I know what it's like to be in the low lights, wanting to feel that big push true stars can do.

But this is not for you. You're going across a man who doesn't care that he can get the point of pinning you, making you tapping out. He would get himself DQ’d in order to put a beating on your ass, son. Speaking of son, how's the old man? How's Zachary Lyons holding up? Is he still out there? Bringing more diseased children to this earth to say he has one hundred kids? Hmm?”

Brandon Hendrix: “What about Mama Lyons?”

Angelo Caito: “She died.”

Brandon Hendrix: “Good. Because I'm sure she’d rather self delete then see the punk ass bitch standing here today that shares her DNA. But then again, I'm sure that even she couldn't teach you right. After all, all the research I had to do to find out she was shot just by accident and yet she couldn't teach you to mind your motherfucking business is beyond me. But don't worry sorry, your mama is looking down…… excuse me looking up at you and shaking her head, wondering where she went wrong.”

Angelo Caito: “You're 21 years of age, you got younger siblings that need you. But you're making a foolish hero mistake. You're about to erase yourself from their lives with this match, Zayvion. You're about to leave them with no capable adult anymore and they're only going to blame you. Brandon will be your judge, jury, and death wish, but you could have avoided this by simply going the other way. You couldn't do that, couldn't you? You let that pride get yourself killed and it won't be on our hands, it'll be on your whore daddy and dead mommy’s hands for failing you. And if he doesn't kill you, he's going to send you back to the drink, making you drown yourself in your own sorrows for not defending your dying family’s name against my monster.

Brandon isn't going to bully you, that's middle school level. He's going to body you and end your career before it could even get started. Kill Mode has been Activated and you're his first victim. And once again, do not blame me or Brandon for when your family gets that phone call letting them know of your early demise.”
76
Climax Control Archives / mirrors ★ 04.2 positioned
« Last post by Amelia Reynolds on February 06, 2026, 11:17:22 PM »
mirrors
04.2 positioned





★★★★★★★

06 february 2026
new york city

Kallie taking the kids to the park changed the entire apartment in a way Amelia couldn’t explain without sounding ungrateful.

It wasn’t that the noise had been unpleasant. If anything, the little chaos had been a kind of camouflage. Baby gates, squeaky toys, tiny voices that rose and fell like weather. It had made her feel less visible. Less available to her own thoughts.

But once the door clicked shut behind them and the hallway swallowed the stroller wheels, the quiet returned with teeth.

New York still existed outside the windows, but inside Aiden’s place, the silence rearranged itself into something watchful. The air held the faint sweetness of sunscreen and the clean, powdery trace of child shampoo. A tiny sock lay abandoned near the couch like evidence of a life that moved on without permission. On the counter, a sippy cup sat tilted on its side, cap ajar, as if it had been dropped mid-sprint.

Amelia stood at the edge of the hallway, barefoot, hoodie pulled on, her hair still damp from a shower that hadn’t made her feel clean so much as awake. She hadn’t meant to eavesdrop.

It just…happened.

Aiden’s voice carried from the kitchen…low, clipped, careful in a way it rarely was. Not the broad, bright performance he used when he wanted to make a room safer. This was something else. The cadence was different. The language was different.

Japanese.

Amelia froze without realizing it had happened until she’d already stopped breathing.

She couldn’t understand most of it. Isolated words, familiar sounds, the rise and fall of a conversation that felt like it belonged in a different world than this sunlit apartment with magnets on the fridge and toddler drawings taped to the wall. Aiden’s pronunciation wasn’t perfect, but it was practiced. Intentional. Like he’d put hours into it. Like he’d wanted it to be taken seriously.

She heard him say, “Hai,” with a firmness that didn’t match the lazy slouch he wore like armor. Then another phrase she couldn’t catch. Then, clearer, “Wakatta.Understood. A pause. Aiden’s footsteps shifted, soft against the kitchen tile. His voice dropped again, lower, more controlled. “…mise,” he said. Restaurant. Maybe? She wasn’t sure. It sounded like that.

A longer pause followed, someone else talking on the other end, and Aiden’s silence became heavy enough to feel from the hallway.

Then, “Arigatou.

Another pause, and Amelia heard the smallest exhale, the kind that wasn’t relief so much as weight being lifted and replaced with something worse. Aiden spoke again, quicker now. “Kore wa mada…kakunin dekinai.” She didn’t know the words, but she understood the shape of them. Not confirmed yet.

His tone sharpened on the last syllable like a warning. The call ended. For a few seconds, nothing moved. The apartment held its breath the way Amelia did when she expected a door to open that shouldn’t.Then Aiden’s “normal” returned. Too loud, too sudden, a switch thrown hard enough to make the lights flicker in her head. He opened a cabinet with unnecessary force. Something ceramic clinked. He whistled a tune Amelia recognized from childhood, a ridiculous little melody he used when he wanted to pretend there wasn’t a problem big enough to swallow him whole.

Amelia stepped into the kitchen.

Aiden was at the counter with his phone in hand, thumb still hovering over the screen like it didn’t quite believe the conversation was over. He looked up the moment he sensed her, because she’d always been the one person in his life he couldn’t ignore when she went quiet.

His face brightened like he’d been waiting for an audience.

“Well,” he announced, “look who decided to join the living.”

Amelia didn’t answer. Her gaze went straight to the phone.

Aiden followed her eyes and, with the reflex of a guilty man, set it face-down on the counter like that erased what she’d heard.

He grinned anyway, leaning into it. “Before you judge me, I want it noted for the record that I am bilingual. Sophisticated. Cultured. International man of mystery.”

“You were speaking Japanese.”

Aiden blinked, then shrugged in exaggerated nonchalance. “Was I? Crazy. Must’ve been the caffeine. Sometimes my brain just…goes worldly.”

Amelia stared at him long enough that the grin began to strain. “Who was it?” she asked.

“A friend,” he said immediately.

Amelia didn’t move. “What friend?”

“A…very responsible friend,” Aiden tried again, voice rising half an octave in the way it did when he was about to sprint into humor to avoid a real answer. “A friend who cares deeply about – uh – culinary experiences. You know me. Big food guy.”

Amelia stepped closer to the counter. Not threatening. Just close enough that her presence became unavoidable. “Aiden.”

He sighed dramatically, as if she were asking him to do something immoral. “Yes, Amelia. What can I do for you on this blessed, child-free morning. Would you like a latte? A muffin? A motivational speech about the importance of family–”

“Stop,” she said, quietly. The word landed without heat, which made it worse. It wasn’t a fight. It was a line.

Aiden’s expression softened a fraction, then he tried to salvage the moment with a grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “You’re intense when you wake up. It’s kind of terrifying. Like a small elegant assassin.”

“I heard you,” Amelia said. “I heard your tone. That wasn’t a food call.”

Aiden’s shoulders tightened. He reached for the coffee pot as an excuse to move, to make noise, to keep the air from turning honest. The smell of coffee filled the space, dark and bitter, like it could act as a buffer.

Amelia watched him pour a mug he didn’t need. Then she asked, very evenly, “Does Dickie know you’re doing this?”

The coffee stream wobbled slightly.

Aiden recovered quickly, but not fast enough. He set the pot down, lifted the mug, and took a sip that burned his mouth. Amelia could tell because his eyes watered for half a second and he refused to acknowledge it. “He knows I exist,” Aiden said. “That’s basically the same thing.”

“Aiden.”

He gave her a look of wounded innocence that had gotten him out of trouble in three different decades. “What? I’m just standing here. In my house. Drinking my coffee. Living my life. Being handsome.”

Amelia didn’t smile. The quiet grew heavier. Aiden’s joke hung in the air and slowly began to die from lack of oxygen. Amelia’s voice didn’t rise. “Why isn’t he speaking to me?”

Aiden’s grin twitched like it wanted to survive. “Because he’s a man.”

“That’s not an answer,” Amelia said.

“Because he’s a stubborn man.”

“That’s also not an answer.”

Aiden sighed again, louder this time. He leaned back against the counter and looked at the ceiling like God was personally testing him. “You’re really committed to ruining my morning.”

Amelia’s gaze stayed on his face. “It’s been nearly a month.”

Aiden’s eyes flicked to hers, and something raw flashed there. Concern, guilt, protective anger he didn’t know where to put.

Amelia kept going because if she stopped, she would feel it too sharply. “The last thing he told me was, ‘I got handed a syndicate,’” she said. “That was it. No context. No explanation. No…anything. And before that,  I told him he didn’t get to love me and keep me ignorant, and—”

Aiden’s jaw tightened at the exact phrase, the way someone reacts when they recognize a trigger they’ve been trying to avoid.

Amelia’s voice held steady. “—and he hasn’t said a word since.”

Aiden’s mouth opened. Closed. He tried to keep it light anyway, because that was his instinct.

“Well,” he said, “maybe he’s just taking your advice very seriously. You said pick one, and–”

Amelia’s eyes narrowed.

Aiden rushed forward, hands lifting. “Okay. Okay, sorry. That was…bad timing. Too soon. My apologies.”

Amelia stared at him, and the emotion in her eyes didn’t spill into tears—it hardened into something far more dangerous: restraint under strain.

“You know,” she said.

Aiden blinked. “Know what?”

“You know what it means,” Amelia replied. “You know what he’s involved in. You know something, because you just took a call in Japanese like it was normal, and I’m standing here like I’m watching my own life through glass.”

Aiden’s humor failed for a moment, and in that moment she saw it—how tired he looked when he wasn’t performing. How tightly he was holding himself together. He tried to put the grin back on. “I’ve been watching anime.”

Amelia didn’t even blink. Aiden’s grin died again. Amelia stepped closer, close enough now that she could see the fine tension around his mouth, the way his throat worked when he swallowed. “Tell me what you know,” she said.

Aiden’s voice dropped. “I can’t.”

Amelia’s eyes sharpened. “Why?”

He looked away. That, more than anything, made heat flash behind her ribs.

“Aiden,” she said, and it was quieter now, but it carried the weight of history. “You are my brother. Not his. Not the syndicate’s. Mine.”

Aiden’s face tightened with pain at the word brother. He rubbed his hand over his jaw. “Amelia…”

“You made me live here,” she continued, because it came out like that sometimes. Clean, sharp, unfair. “You and Kallie. You said I wasn’t alone. But I am alone if you’re keeping his secrets like I’m not allowed to know what’s happening around me.”

Aiden’s eyes flashed. “I didn’t make you live here.”

Amelia didn’t back down. “Then stop acting like I’m a guest in my own life.”

Silence. Aiden breathed in slowly through his nose, then let it out like he was choosing not to explode. He tried one last joke, weak and desperate. “Would it help if I told you the Japanese was mostly just me asking where the restroom is?”

Amelia’s expression did not change. Aiden swallowed. She reached out with one hand – not violent, not frantic, just deliberate – and pinched his nipple through his T-shirt with the calm precision of a woman who had run out of patience. Aiden made a sound that did not belong to a grown man with children.

AUGHH! AMELIA! WHAT THE HELL

She didn’t release. Her grip wasn’t cruel. It was effective.

“Information,” Amelia said evenly. “Now.”

Aiden’s eyes went wide. “Ow, ow, OW – okay, okay, okay – Jesus Christ, you are a menace – fucking Mike Wazowski over here–”

Amelia kept her hand exactly where it was. “Talk.”

Aiden’s voice shot upward in pitch. “You can’t just assault people in kitchens!”

“You can when they’re your brother,” Amelia replied, utterly calm.

“Ameli–” Aiden grabbed her wrist, not to hurt her, just to try to pry her off with the dignity of a man who had none left. “Please. Please. Release the nipple—”

“Then stop lying,” she said.

Aiden froze. For a fraction of a second, the humor was gone entirely, and something bleak surfaced underneath it. He let go of her wrist. He stopped fighting. The surrender was immediate, and it was not because of pain. It was because of the look in her eyes.

Amelia released him. Aiden sucked in a breath and adjusted his shirt with offended dignity, rubbing a hand over his chest like he’d just survived a battlefield. “You are getting excommunicated from polite society.”

Amelia didn’t apologize. She just waited.

Aiden’s gaze dropped to the counter again, to his face-down phone, to the quiet space where the children’s noise had been. The apartment felt too open. Too bright. Like truth had nowhere to hide. He spoke carefully, like each word had to clear a minefield. “Someone reached out to me,” he said. “Someone…connected. Lower rank. A kobun.

Amelia’s brows knit. “A what?”

Aiden’s jaw tightened. He hesitated, then pivoted slightly, trying to keep her from grabbing that word and weaponizing it.

“Someone under someone,” he said. “Someone who hears things and wants to be useful.”

Amelia watched him. “Useful to who?”

Aiden met her eyes, and his loyalty was visible there, stubborn and infuriating. “To Dickie.”

Her voice turned flat. “So you are doing things for him.”

“I’m trying to keep him from doing them alone.”

“That’s different. Because he doesn’t even want you involved either.”

Aiden’s silence confirmed it.

Amelia’s stomach tightened. “He’s cutting everyone out.”

Aiden’s voice went low. “Yes.”

Amelia’s hands curled into fists on the edge of the counter. “Why?”

Aiden shook his head once, small and sharp. “I can’t. Amelia, I can’t give you names, okay? I can’t give you structures. I can’t give you the…big picture.”

Amelia leaned in. “Because of him.” Aiden didn’t answer. Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “Because of what he’s becoming.” That made Aiden’s face go still. His humor didn’t return. He looked, for a moment, like someone standing in front of a locked door with smoke seeping out underneath it. He swallowed and chose his words with care.

“He thinks he can’t tell you,” Aiden said. “He thinks the moment you know what it is, you’re part of it. And once you’re part of it, you’re not safe from it.”

Her breath caught. “So he just…what? Leaves me in the dark?”

“He thinks the dark is mercy.”

Amelia stared at him. The phrase I got handed a syndicate rang in her skull again – so casual, so impossible, so incomplete. A grenade tossed into her lap with no explanation of the blast radius.

“And you,” she said quietly, “are standing in the light with him.”

Aiden’s throat bobbed. “I didn’t ask for this.”

“But you want it,” Amelia said, and there was no accusation in it, only a terrible clarity. “You want to be his second hand. You want to be…in. That’s why you were speaking Japanese.”

Aiden’s eyes flickered, guilt and determination tangled together. “He’s my best friend.”

Amelia’s jaw tightened. “And I’m your sister.”

“Yes.”

Amelia leaned back slightly, as if she needed physical distance to keep from doing something regrettable. “So what was the call,” she asked, slow and sharp. “What were you trying to find?”

Aiden hesitated again, then tried to soften it with a half-joke that landed dead on arrival. “A restaurant.”

Amelia didn’t blink. “A restaurant.”

Aiden’s shoulders sank. “A place in Queens. Could be nothing. Could be…could be a location people move through. We don’t know. The guy said it might be a hideout. Might. That’s the key word here.”

Amelia’s eyes narrowed. “A hideout for what?”

Aiden’s mouth tightened. He looked like he was choosing between two terrible options: telling her too much, or telling her nothing and watching her walk away from him. He chose the only thing he could. “A threat,” he said.

Amelia’s voice turned colder. “A threat to who?”

Aiden met her eyes. “To you.”

The words landed like a slap. Amelia’s chest rose and fell once, controlled. She did not cry. She did not break. She simply looked at her brother with a steadiness that felt older than both of them. “You’re telling me I’m in danger,” she said softly, “and you’re still refusing to tell me what any of this means.”

Aiden’s voice cracked slightly. “Because the moment you know what it is, you’ll try to help. You’ll try to go with him. You’ll try to carry it. And he…he doesn’t want that. He doesn’t want you in it at all. He doesn’t want me. He doesn’t want his friends, his family – anyone. He wants it cut clean.”

Amelia’s eyes flashed. “Like Kei.”

Aiden went still. Amelia didn’t even need confirmation. She saw it in his face, the way that name changed the air. The way Aiden’s gaze flicked, involuntarily, to the front door, to the locks, as if checking them without admitting it.

She inhaled, slow.

“So,” Amelia said, voice almost calm, “he heard me say I wouldn’t live ignorant. And he decided the solution was…silence. Because he thinks he can’t tell me. And he thinks he can’t let me stay if I don’t know.”

Aiden’s eyes looked pained. “Amelia…”

“He chose,” she finished, flatly. “He chose keeping me ignorant.”

“He chose keeping you alive.”

Amelia’s jaw clenched hard enough to ache.

For a moment the kitchen was too quiet. The refrigerator hummed. Outside, a car horn barked once, impatient, then faded. The sun on the counter looked too clean for this conversation, too ordinary. Amelia stared at her brother, the only brother who used to cover for her when she was a kid, who used to pull her out of trouble and lie to their parents with a straight face and then make her laugh afterward. The brother who now knew things he wouldn’t tell her because another man had asked him not to.

“You understand what you’ve done to me,” she said quietly.

Aiden’s throat tightened. “I never wanted–”

“You’ve put me in a position,” Amelia continued, calm and lethal, “where the men in my life decide what I’m allowed to know. And you’re helping them.”

Aiden looked like he’d been punched.

Amelia’s gaze didn’t soften. “I’m walking into SCW alone. Twisted Sister. A qualifier. A company that last watched Frankie Holliday dismantle me and decided I wasn’t worth remembering. And I’m doing it while the person who is supposed to be my home won’t even speak to me.”

Aiden’s voice cracked. “He loves you.”

“I know,” Amelia said. “That’s the problem. He loves me like I’m a thing he can lock away and protect.”

Aiden started to speak. Amelia raised a hand – small, contained, final. “Don’t,” she said. “Don’t make it sweet. Don’t make it noble. It’s not noble to keep someone in the dark. It’s just…control with a prettier name.”

Aiden’s eyes were wet, but he didn’t let anything fall. He was her brother. He would rather die than cry in front of her. “What do you want from me?”

Amelia’s voice stayed steady. “I want you to remember,” she said, “that you don’t get to be his second hand if it means you stop being my brother.”

Aiden flinched, like the truth had found a clean place to land. Amelia stepped closer again – close enough to reach out if she wanted. Close enough that the threat of another nipple-twist hovered in the air like a promise.

“You tell him one thing,” she said.

Aiden swallowed. “What?”

Amelia’s eyes held his, unblinking.

“You tell him that silence is not a solution,” she said quietly. “You tell him that if he’s going to cut me out of my own life, he should at least have the spine to say it to my face.”

Aiden’s jaw tightened. “That’s going to make him move.”

Amelia’s voice didn’t waver. “Good.”

Aiden stared at her a long time, then nodded once, slow. “Okay.”

Amelia exhaled through her nose. Controlled, almost calm. Then she reached for her phone, not because she expected a message, but because holding it gave her hands something to do besides shake. Her screen stayed silent.And in the quiet that followed, Amelia understood something with brutal clarity…whatever Dickie had stepped into, it was big enough that it had swallowed her brother, too.

She looked up at Aiden, and her voice was low, final. “If I have to twist your nipple again to get the truth,” she said, “I will.”

Aiden let out a pained laugh that sounded more like a surrender. “You’re an actual criminal.”

Amelia’s expression didn’t change. “No,” she said softly. “I’m just tired of being treated like one.”


★★★★★★★


Twisted Sister.

Two words that read like a joke until you realise they’re not branding. They’re a warning.

Because this isn’t one of those matches where I get to pretend we’re both here for sport and stories and the purity of competition. You don’t operate on that frequency. You don’t arrive with a game plan, you arrive with an impulse. You don’t look for openings, you look for damage. And you don’t “win” so much as you survive long enough for someone to call it in your favour.

I’ve seen your work.

I’ve seen the hair, the chains, the neon chaos. I’ve seen the way you turn a ring into a kennel and your opponent into something you drag around by the scruff of their neck. I’ve seen the pattern: you brawl until someone snaps, you pull hair until someone swings back, you choke until a referee has to make a choice. And when the bell doesn’t go your way, you make it irrelevant. You turn disqualification into a strategy and fines into a receipt. You treat consequence like it’s part of the entrance music.

And the thing is… none of that shocks me. Not anymore.

Because SCW is not the place where you get a gentle climb up a ladder. SCW is the place where you are tested for how badly you want to be here. It is a company that will let you bleed out in silence if you aren’t shiny enough. It will watch you lose and then measure your worth by how quickly you disappear afterward.

I disappeared.

I’m not proud of that, but I’m not going to lie about it either. Frankie Holliday beat me badly enough that I stopped showing my face because I didn’t know what version of me would walk back through those doors. The confident one who believes she belongs here? Or the one who gets quiet and lets the machine decide she’s easier to forget.

And then this tournament happened.

The Road To Blaze Of Glory XV, the Bombshell Internet Qualifiers… all these little doors opening, one after another, and you can either walk through them or stand in the hallway and tell yourself you’ll try next time. And I’m tired of being the woman who “could have been,” the woman who “had potential,” the woman who “just needed one more moment.”

This is the last qualifier. The last door. The last chance to take control of my own trajectory before the bracket becomes someone else’s story and I’m just a footnote watching it happen. And standing in that doorway is you, like a nightmare made real, like the kind of match that was supposed to light the fuse two weeks ago and finally detonates tonight.

Couldn’t have landed at a worse time, could it?

Because here’s what’s true. I’m walking into this with my life stretched thin. My brother isn’t in SCW anymore. The people I used to lean on aren’t standing beside me the way they were. I’m still sleeping in a guest room that isn’t mine, surrounded by someone else’s family life, trying to act like I’m not homesick for a person who won’t speak to me.

I won at NYWA. I retained the Gotham Crown. I did the work. I carried the responsibility and I proved I’m still dangerous. And it felt hollow anyway.

Because when you’re missing your person, victories don’t land the same. They don’t echo. They don’t fill you up. They just sit there like a fact, heavy and incomplete.

So yes, you caught me at a worse time. But you also caught me at a clearer time.

Because I’m not coming into this match with illusions. I’m not coming in thinking I can out-wrestle you with technique you don’t respect. I’m not coming in thinking you’ll suddenly decide to be civil because the bracket says “tournament” and not “street fight.”

You are a brawler. A wrecking ball in boots. A loud, chaotic, power-forward piece of violence that pretends to be entertainment. The Omega Driver isn’t a finisher, it’s a statement. The Rubik’s Cube isn’t a clever name, it’s a reminder that you like to compress people until they stop making sense.

I understand exactly who you are.

And you should understand exactly who I am.

I’m not built for chaos, but I’m not fragile either. I’m the woman who keeps showing up even when the room decides she’s easier to ignore. I’m the woman who doesn’t get to hide behind a tag partner or a brother or anyone else’s shadow right now. I’m the one who has to walk into SCW and make people remember I exist.

And I’m Australian, Twisted Sister – meaning I was raised with a particular kind of practicality about threats. Spiders and snakes, ya know? When something dangerous is in your path, you don’t talk it down. You don’t moralise it. You don’t bargain with it like it has a conscience.

You plan. You brace. You adapt.

And you handle it.

You want to turn this qualifier into your personal dollhouse…that’s what the tagline said. You wanna drag me around by the hair, smash me into walls, make me snap so you can point and laugh and call it “fun.” You want to make me a highlight reel for the wrong reasons. You want to make the last qualifier about you.

But this isn’t about you.

This is about the bracket.

This is about the climb.

This is about the fact that if I beat you, I am not just “back.” I’m positioned.

Because if I get through you, and then I get through the rest…that is the opening. That is the hinge point. That is the moment where SCW has to stop treating me like an optional part of the women’s division and start treating me like a contender who is willing to walk through fire for relevance.

You don’t have to like that. You don’t have to respect it. You just have to live with it.

Here’s what you need to understand…your biggest weapon is that you make matches ugly. You make them lawless. You make them emotionally exhausting. You make your opponents spend energy just trying to stay upright, trying to stay sane, trying to keep their own hands clean while you claw at their face and laugh.

You’re counting on me to flinch. You’re counting on me to get frustrated. You’re counting on me to lose my patience and give you the disqualification you’re so comfortable living in.

That’s where you’ve got it wrong. I don’t need this to be pretty. I don’t need this to be respected by purists. I need this to be won.

I need the qualifier. I need the bracket. I need the next match. I need the chance to stand across from Victoria Lyons and look her in the eye and tell her, with my body and my work, that I did not crawl my way back into SCW to be small again. So if you want to brawl, we brawl. If you want to swing, we swing. If you want to test how much pain I can take, I promise you – pain has never been the thing that stops me.

What stops people like you is control.

Not the kind you think you have when you’re screaming and thrashing and being dragged down the ramp in a straight jacket like it makes you untouchable. Real control. Control is knowing what you’re trying to accomplish and refusing to be baited into anything that doesn’t serve that goal.

Control is not getting hypnotised by your chaos. Control is letting you spend all your fuel trying to make a spectacle while I spend mine doing the only thing that matters: staying intact long enough to beat you.

Because I’m not fighting you for fun. I’m not fighting you to prove I’m brave.

I’m fighting you because this is the last door, and I’m done standing in hallways. Sunday, you can scream. You can thrash. You can swing wild and drag this match into the gutter if that’s where you feel most at home. But understand this…

I’m not here to survive you.

I’m here to pass through you.

And when that bell rings, the bracket doesn’t care how loud you are. The bracket only cares who advances. So go on, Twisted Sister. Make it ugly. I’ve got a qualifier to take, a path to climb, and a date with Victoria Lyons that I intend to earn.

And if SCW wants to know whether Amelia Reynolds can get back up to the top, this is where I start reminding them.
77
January 12th
Las Vegas University Hospital

It was the day after Inception and Crystal opened her eyes. She had no idea where she was and to be honest everything from the night before seemed to be a blur. She looked around and noticed the IV that was attached to her arm. She heard the beeping from the machine reading her vitals and she could see her name written on a dry erase board along with a chart of care for the day. That is when it finally dawned on her that she was in a hospital. Her head felt like it weighed a ton as she had a headache that just wouldn’t subside. However what really caught her attention was the beautiful blonde that sat next to her bedside and was sleeping peacefully in the chair. That blonde was none other than her estranged wife Seleana. Crystal grimaced in pain as she tried to move and the slight movement disturbed Seleana enough that she woke up. The green eyes of the Swedish beauty gazed into those brown eyes of the Bombshell Champion. There was silence between them as they could only gaze upon one another with a stare. Finally Seleana stood up as she hovered over the bed and looked down at her wife.

“Are you okay chickie?!”

Crystal looked confused as she struggled but tried her best to sit up but Seleana was quick to take care of the Latina beauty.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be okay?! I still don’t understand what’s going on… It feels like I got hit by a moving truck. I have a headache that won’t go away and I really don’t get why I am in a hospital…” Crystal replied back but Seleana just shook her head as she kept her eyes on Crystal.

“Christina, you just need to stop moving and get your rest. You don’t remember anything that happened do you?!”

Crystal just shrugs her shoulders as she sighs in return. “Not in the least. The last thing that I remembered is that Mercedes and I were going to take on you and Zenna in a wrestling match for the World Championship. Other than that fact everything honestly feels like a blur to me…Considering I am sitting here in this hospital bed I take it that the two of us had that wrestling match and I am going to guess that Zenna put me here because I have been treating you rudely as of lately…”

Seleana shakes her head as she looks down at Crystal sighing. “No, that’s not what happened at all. You really don’t have a clue about anything do you?! Seeing as you don’t know, let me fill you in. Truth is we did have our wrestling match and your team was able to win. Mercedes was being a sore winner and she wanted to do more than just win the match. She wanted to end my career but more importantly she felt like she was entitled to holding your championship. So she snatched it out of the referee’s hand and she smashed it over your head. She hit me with the title too but she used you to make an example. She set up a chair and sent you crashing down on it head first with Black Rose Overdrive…”

Seleana gets choked up as she begins to cry as tears flow from out of her eyes. Crystal just looks at Seleana and holds her hand gently.

“Please don’t cry Seleana, you know I don’t like it when you cry…”

Seleana begins to scream as she gazes down upon her wife. “I was afraid! You weren’t moving and I had to watch EMTs carry you out of the arena. I didn’t know what to think but the only thing that ran through my head is why did all of this have to happen to you. In reality it should have been me! Mercedes was going to end me but you stepped up and protected me but I don’t understand… Why did you save me when the only thought that constantly has been running through my head is from our little fight in Mexico all of those months ago…”

Seleana chokes up as she continues to share her emotions.

“You told me that you didn’t want anything to do with me. You told me you were through and you stormed out. From that day the two of us haven’t been together, and I knew I just couldn’t stay in any of our houses anymore. I took the kids and I left. I didn’t know if we would find our way together again or if I would even find love again. I had offers but I didn’t want anything but to be a mother and to be there for my children…. Our children… I have so many questions but the main one is why did you save me?! I want to know what changed that made you save me and put yourself in harm's way just to protect me from all people…”

Crystal struggles some more but she slowly sits up and moves her feet so that her feet are dangling off of the bed. Seleana keeps her tears flowing as she still gazes into Crystal’s eyes.

“Chickie, you really shouldn’t move. Just stay in bed, you suffered a major concussion and…”

Crystal just shakes her head in return as she forms a serious expression and replies back to her wife.

“To be truthful and this is something I do remember. Mexico I was just fed up with how people viewed me. Between having to deal with Alex constantly questioning me if I was having an affair with Mercedes, and you not trusting me feeling that I would pick up on drinking or drugs again, I just really lost it. I take my sobriety very seriously. I will admit sometimes it does get hard and I do go through my share of battles and challenges but I try my best to get through it. I just want you to trust in me but you being direct just set me off. I felt like it went totally against you trusting me as my spouse. I can understand questioning if I had something going on with Mercedes but to question me destroying my commitment of being sober just pushed me over the edge. It was like a direct attack on my character…”

Seleana just grabs Crystal’s hand and holds it tighter.

“But here’s the thing Christina… I would never try to do anything to hurt you or say something that would offend you. As your spouse however it is my job to check you, and I was simply being direct. After all, you and I are married to become one person. So if a piece of me isn’t doing the right thing I want to make sure I am doing all of the right things to make sure you are in the best position. I also can incorporate all of my resources. I have family, extended family, and friends who have all struggled with addictions and alcohol so I would get everybody involved so we can come to a solution. Nothing was ever meant to hurt you…”

Seleana squeezes even tighter. “We have children and I just want them to be in the best environment where they could see their mother defeating all of her demons so she could be the best woman that she can be…I am sorry for making you feel like I don’t trust you. The truth is I trust you with everything. You are my other half and life just isn’t the same when you aren’t a continuous focal point in my everyday life. There were things I have done that you didn’t even see to protect you. I dealt with drug dealers trying to extort our family among other things but I overcame them to protect you…”

The tall Swedish woman offers more tears as she has become a sobbing mess but Christina is able to finally sit up and she wraps her arms around Seleana and squeezes her as tightly as she can. She refuses to let go as she just gazes up into the woman’s beautiful green eyes.

“You want to know how I feel Seleana?! Honestly the moment I walked away I was afraid… I was afraid of everything. I know we haven’t been together since September but honestly it goes well beyond that going back to July when it seemed like I forgot our anniversary… I really didn’t forget it but I was a scared little girl. I really can’t believe that I am in a relationship where I have been a married woman for eight years. Do you know how crazy it sounds that a couple who met through the wrestling business have been married for eight long years?!”

Crystal giggles as she speaks some more.

“That’s not something that seems common anymore, unless you are Christian with his husband or even Roxi and Keira… The two of us have been married for eight years and we have been together for longer than that. You are the longest relationship I have ever been engaged with and I woke up on that day in tears because I couldn’t believe that I found somebody that was willing to put up with a selfish and entitled woman with low self-esteem issues from inner city Detroit… Yet you see me as a Queen and it makes me feel like I am the most beautiful woman in the entire world. I was afraid of feeling that because I don’t do emotions well. That’s the real reason why I picked up on acting or even wrestling because on a movie set or inside the wrestling ring I could channel somebody else…”

Seleana cuts Crystal off as she speaks back in return.

“Christina here is the thing that you need to understand though. I know it’s hard to escape and to run away from your emotions, but with me you don’t have to do any of that. I didn’t marry the actress and I certainly didn’t marry the woman inside the ring. I didn’t marry you for the cars, the money or even for the attention. I married you because of the person underneath and for the woman that you are behind all of that. That is who I see when I look at you. I see Christina Hilton Lopez-Zdunich. I see my vulnerable wife and you don’t ever have to act like somebody that you aren’t because I love you for who you are, complete with the flaws and everything. Those quirks and flaws make you perfect and beautiful in my eyes and that’s all that matters to me…”

Crystal is finally able to become a wrecked ball of emotions as the tears get the best of her. She just lets the tears fall rapidly down her cheeks. She doesn’t even try to hide them or wipe them away as she replies back.

“Sel I just want to apologize for the way I have been treating you. I love you and you are the best thing to happen in my life. You want to know what changed?! It’s the fact that I don’t ever want to lose you, and I feel my life feels more complete with you in it than you not in it. I just want you to always be by my side and I never want you to leave me. I am sorry for making you think that something was going on with Mercedes and I. She was just a friend or at least I thought she was but I guess I was the gullible one for assuming that she was looking out for my best interest when in reality she was just using me to bring more attention to herself. I hope you can forgive me and that we could perhaps eventually get back to where the two of us used to be…”

Seleana just hugs Crystal tighter than before as she looks back into her eyes.

“Christina, I forgive you… Thank you for loving me. As far as what’s next for the both of us the doctors said that you suffered a major concussion… Which means you are out on medical suspension for at least three weeks, four weeks if they don’t see any improvement…”

Crystal raises her eyes in disbelief as she just sighs in return.

“Three to four weeks?! That’s a long time, you know how much I love wrestling and I don’t want to be away from the sport for that long…”

Seleana nods her head. “I know… To be honest the recommendation is that you shouldn’t really wrestle anymore considering all the concussions you have suffered throughout your career. They are recommending that you should perhaps retire while you still can. You are at a good place and they just want you to live the rest of your life peacefully…”


“Seleana…”

Is the only thing that Crystal can say, but Seleana puts a single finger over her lips as she continues to look into the Latina’s eyes.

“However I know you better than anybody and despite what the medical professionals might say I know that will never be the option that you choose because wrestling is where you feel like you…”

“No Seleana, that is where you are actually wrong. Wrestling isn’t where I feel like I am me. The only place that I can feel properly like myself is right by your side. Now, forever, and always…If this is what it will come too I know what I will do. It’s the only correct decision to make. I will call Christian during the week and tell him that…”

Seleana once again quickly shakes her head as she finishes Crystal’s statement for her.

“What you ARE going to do is take it easy for the next few weeks. You need to rest and I have a feeling that you will have a hard time doing that considering you like to move and bounce around so much. To make sure that you get the proper rest and you pay attention to the doctor’s orders, myself and the kids are going to move back in. We will all make sure that you do the right thing so that you can properly heal and get back to the ring in the best way that you can…You have a World Championship to defend and you will definitely have your share of challengers that will line up to take it away…”

Crystal is dumbfounded.

“Wait, Sel does this mean what I think it means. If you are moving back in does that mean that we are?!”

Seleana smirks looking back at Crystal.

“Ja… It means we are back together. I need to keep my eye on you Christina and the only way that I can do that is if I am right next to you. After all we did say for better or for worse in our vows didn’t we?!”

“Yes Seleana, we did say that… I really don’t deserve you…”

“Just promise me one thing when you return. I don’t ever want to see you in this position ever again but you have a whole list of challengers rising up. You need to overcome them all and it might be time to channel the one thing you refuse to channel. Mercedes worked so hard to bring her out but perhaps you should give it to her and everybody who has ever wronged you… It’s time to bring out Crystal Hilton…”

“Wait, are you absolutely sure Sel… Do you even know what you are asking of me?!”

“Ja, but you don’t need to be afraid. You just need to not unleash her on your loved ones. I know you always say about trying to figure out who you are but the truth is all versions of you are all part of you. That’s the version that I know is dominant in the ring. As long as you know boundaries and don’t hurt the ones who are supporting you. You have nothing to be afraid of… I support you no matter who or what you become…”

Crystal grins. “Well if that’s what you want, that’s what you are going to get. Hell will hath no fury on all those who ever wronged me. I feel like the Bride from Kill Bill and perhaps it’s time to start a list to get through everybody and anybody that told me I didn’t matter. Thank you Sel for being the best wife ever. I love you more than life itself. Let’s go tear some stuff up…”

The married couple just hug one another as there is peace and finally reconciliation between the two love birds. As they continue hugging a familiar voice calls out to Crystal. It’s that of Crystal’s longtime frienemy Despayre. He has a whole cart of flowers and balloons.

“I hope you feel better Crystal! Me and Angel saw what you did… You were brave to save your wife so Angel and I wanted to give you this entire cart of flowers and balloons and we hope you recover quickly…”

Crystal gives him a stare.

“...Despy did you just swipe a cart of flowers from one of the vendors at this hospital?!”

Despayre just smirks.

“Actually it was Angel’s idea and…”

Crystal feels something and she quickly turns around in her bed to spot about ten stuffed bears in her bed. She can’t help but giggle.

“What is all of this?!”


Despayre smiles. “Angel said because you were so nice some of his family want to stay here with you until you recover… You deserve the best Crystal!”

Crystal and Seleana can only giggle in return. Maybe doing the right thing had its benefits and winning the appreciation of Despayre again was definitely one of them. It felt good being a good girl…







The World Bombshell Championship.

It’s been a main staple of SCW since the very beginning and it’s definitely had its share of contenders who have come and gone. So many different people have risen up through the ranks in order to be the cream of the crop, to be the very best woman that this company has to offer. Now I will be the first to admit that the title might have been part of a shitshow for the past few months but make no mistake I am ready to take my place as a fighting champion and I am ready to overcome whoever might wish to rise up to the challenge and will do whatever is in their power to take this championship away from me.

I know being the champion comes with a lot of weight but make no mistake about it. The moment I took the title off of Frankie’s hands was the very moment that I knew I was going to be a target with everybody gunning for me. If I can be completely honest. I love this feeling and I never want it to end.

I somehow made it past my first defense but that’s more so because Mercedes was able to strike the blow against my wife and her sister, and she personally retained this title for me. That is not how I envisioned things going with this title but now it’s time to rectify this and bring the division back to its premier glory. A glory where Roxi Johnson could smile because she appreciates seeing the garden that is the Bombshells division in full bloom, and one where women will constantly rise up to the occasion because they all want to be the next thing in this division.

Now that I am not fighting with my wife anymore and things are definitely much better at home I can now focus on the task that is in front of me and that’s stepping into a ring with a very dangerous woman in the form of Kayla Richards.

To be honest I have always come to admire Kayla Richards. We have come to have a respect for one another although sometimes I know she thinks that I am gullible and can’t see that she is actually insulting me to my face and then adding onto the fact that some of her other friends are rubbing it in my face. I get it… In this wrestling business it’s a cutthroat business and it’s either step up or get stomped on.

I learned that lesson at Inception by letting my guard down and fully trusting in Mercedes even though everybody, their mother, and Stevie Wonder were telling me that they could see what was going to happen but I was the ONLY one who was just too naive and couldn’t see it.

I needed to experience it for myself.

Am I furious about the entire situation, of course I am but to be honest what happened definitely needed to happen because I know I did the same thing to so many different people throughout my career.

It was a hard dosage of reality that I needed to feel and it’s a reminder why I don’t ever wish to become that woman ever again. The same woman that people always preached about but I was just too much into myself to really care for any of it.

For the first time ever I truly feel like I am developing my character and I want to do better and be better. I want to show a change and work on making this a consistent thing. Now as far as Kayla goes the two of us go way back. We were involved in different companies and have gone to war with each other, and hell I might as well go even further and say that I have had my ass handed to me by her older sister in the form of Amber Richards on many different occasions.

Kayla has grown and developed as a wrestler in SCW and she has really stood out on her own. No longer in any of her sister's shadows she is now a woman who can beat anybody that crosses her path and doesn’t give a damn at all of the dreams she has to kill in order to get what she wants.

In 2022 she starts to really take off in this company and showcases she is a dominant Internet Champion that won’t be denied. In 2023 she becomes an even better Mixed Tag Team Champion and the two of them just completely dominate an entire division. I doubt there is anybody on the planet that could step up the two of them when they are on their game.

By 2024 she goes on to prove that she hasn’t stopped growing as a competitor when she goes about and defeats Julianna for her first World Championship for eight months, losing it, and then regaining it to hold it for another six months in 2025.

Damn Kayla, within three years of being in this company you are already a multiple time Internet Champion, multiple Tag Champion, and a multiple time World Champion. That in itself is the pure definition of domination and impressive. Kayla has done it all and has held the division down as its main star for over a year or two. Controlling the Mixed division and being the top champion, and even being woman of the year.

Congratulations, but as much as there’s a respect that I will have for the way you have carried the division, the truth is there is somebody that you have yet to really beat in this company and that’s me.

You have beaten everybody put in front of you, you went through a gauntlet of women. I know you have constantly beaten people like Alexandra, Bella, Harper, and so many women like that over and over again. That sounds good on paper but the one woman who has eluded even being in a singles match is that of me.

I will admit that in the time that you rose through the ranks and made it to the top I wasn’t at my best. I was a woman who didn’t give a damn about anything. A woman who was considered a flake at best. A woman who was on the verge of being fired on a week to week basis, and I know that the entire roster didn’t want me around.

Hell I didn’t want me around. These last five years were the toughest for me and they were filled with relapsing and picking up on drugs again. It was about drinking and becoming my own biggest enemy. I know I couldn’t be trusted to do anything and I certainly couldn’t carry a company on my back like you have.

In that way you were better. I know my ceiling these last few years was merely being a Roulette Champion at best and that’s why there were no real plans for me past that point.

However something changed within me. I actually started to give a damn. I put the drugs and the alcohol down, and I focused on being the best version of myself. It may not always look good in my relationships but in that ring I can’t be touched and I feel I am so much better than I was five years ago when I last held the World Championship.

To be honest Kayla when I look at things now you aren’t even on my level. You may have had the best year that you have ever had. You have held that title for a good fourteen months within the last two years which is good but it’s not the best.

What you experienced is something I already did back in 2015 when it was the summer of 2016 when I was most improved and woman of the year in the same year. The difference between the two of us is that I have managed to rise to the top of this company on six different occasions and that’s something that no other man or woman has ever accomplished.

You can be the best for a year or so but I am the best of all time in this company, and I was a Hall of Famer but you were even under contract. The women that you constantly beat over and over again are the same women that I managed to beat when SCW had that tournament to determine who would challenge Frankie next.

Alex, Bella, Harper, I managed to get past them all and you were ousted in the very first round when you lost to Victoria Lyons. I summed up what people have seen from you in a span of two months.

These Bombshells know that I am not the same Crystal that was getting beaten on a weekly basis, it makes a big difference when I am clean and sober, and I actually manage to give a damn at what I am doing.

Long behold let’s all get out of Kayla’s way because she feels she needs to be the focal point of a division. She plans to come in and save the day but if you were really as good and as great as you were you would have beaten Victoria and would have found your way back to EARNING a shot.

No, the only reason why you are here is because you are OWED a rematch and now that you are getting a rematch you want to act all high and mighty.

Excuse my language but you can go royally F*&^ yourself. The world doesn’t revolve around you, but it revolves around me and that’s because I have the title that states I am the best. This is my division and if you want to make yourself seem important you need to get through me to prove that you belong.

I watched a lot of Kayla’s problems and honestly you would think she comes across as a severe alcoholic or a diabetic patient who needs insulin, especially considering all she seems to do is take shot after shot at random people regardless if they still work here or not.

She doesn’t know what it means to move on.

I am not like that because I appreciate everybody who came through these doors. It doesn’t matter if it was Evie Jordan, Melody Grace, Mikah, Sam Marlowe, or Roxi Johnson.

All the way to Andrea Hernandez, Frankie, Bella, and even Alexandra, or even Mercedes old ass.

Tempest, Jessie Salco, Keira Fisher

The truth is I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t have tough competition that brought out the best of me on a weekly basis. They all pushed me to my limits and they all are the reason why I am able to push onward and to keep on fighting.

It’s all for the spirit of a good fight. On Sunday you are in for a rude awakening, and I doubt you are going to kill anybody’s dream unless it’s your own. You won’t be beating me. Not now and certainly not ever.

I am the World Champion for a reason and you are going to be introduced with a one way trip back to the bottom of the pecking order. After twelve years in this company I am still accomplishing new feats and people have a hard time at catching up, yourself included.

Come Sunday you will merely be a footnote in my career, but just now when you are on your back glaring up at the bright lights that you aren’t in one of my movies. This is reality and you certainly weren’t good enough.

I will put an end to this charade. I am Crystal Hilton. I am the best and nobody can touch me. Not now and certainly not ever.

Step up or get out of my way Kayla…

Lights

Camera

Action

It’s Showtime…. Time to roll the credits…





 



 

 
78
Climax Control Archives / “Out of the Frying Pan………….”
« Last post by Harper Mason on February 06, 2026, 10:57:16 PM »
While Harper lost her match against Mercedes it was under controversial circumstances as Mercedes hit Harper with the very World Bombshell Title that she had stolen from Crystal at Inception VII but now, two weeks later Harper had a chance to bounce back, there was one slight problem however because Harper was going from a former World Bombshell Champ who had stolen the title to someone who Crystal had defeated to win the title in the first place.

That’s right, it’s Frankie Holiday! The Wisconsinite had been on a tear since she lost the title including chasing Candy out of the company and winning most of her matches since then, including a win over Amelia Reynolds at Inception VIII and this match happened to be her 2026 Climax Control debut, can Harper get the win?

Harper’s Loft, Las Vegas, Nevada
Monday the 2nd of February 2026, 13:00pm

How is it that things have been this crazy when we’re not even that far into the second month of the year? Honestly!

I’m not even talking about SCW (and don’t get me wrong, things have been unhinged in SCW as well), between Jessie’s health scare and me trying (and failing) to get my stuff together in SCW while Cassie is lined up to be Alicia’s next challenger for the Bombshell Roulette Title? Yeah, the year’s not off to a great start for me when you factor in the fact that Mercedes had to attack me with her stolen title to beat me.

And now I’m facing Frankie Holiday in singles action, fun!

Frankie joined SCW last year as part of the Blast from the Past Tournament and, well, she went from being a new face in the tournament to winning the damn thing and later hold the World Bombshell Title, something that not even Victoria can brag about!

So yeah, it’s like I’m going from a little ember to a god damn inferno!

”Seems like I’m being thrown to the wolves, huh Logan?” I asked the older of my two Labradors who lay down at my feet, before I could dwell on it any more though? There was a knock at the door and Logan and Xavier, being typical Labradors, rushed towards the door. ”I’m coming, I’m coming!” I called out before I reached the door and answered it, in a bit of a repeat from a couple of weeks ago? Jessie stood there. ”This is feeling like De Ja Vu Jess.”

”Nice to see you too Harper.” Jessie greeted me dryly before the dogs circled around her before coming back in the loft, tails wagging all the way. ”Can I come in?”

”Sure, come in.” I responded before letting her in and closing the door behind  her, we sat in the living room while the dogs started to work off their excitement. ”Been a crazy first couple of months, huh?”

”You can say that again, but I at least have some news about those scans I had the other week.” Jessie responded and it didn’t take me long to realize what scans she meant, how a routine scan during a checkup with a sports physician had led to a cancer scare. ”I’ll go ahead and say it, I was never in danger of getting cancer.”

”Oh thank god!” I exclaimed with a massive sigh of relief. ”So what was up with the scan? You said they found lumps in your bones.”

”Yeah the doctor I saw had something to say, basically? Those lumps were just wear and tear but given what it looked like? The worries were valid.” Jessie commented as she ran a hand through her hair. ”That said? Probably won’t make a wrestling comeback this year, cancer scare put off any plans I had for training for it for obvious reasons.”

”Hey, between your wrestling comeback being held off by a year and you having cancer?” I asked as I shook my head and it didn’t take Jessie long to figure out where I was going with this. ”I’ll take the former any day of the god damn week!”

”I’ll drink to that!” Jessie quickly nodded in agreement before sighing. ”But yeah, my advice from all this? Don’t take anything in life for granted Harp.”

”Unfortunately I learned that the hard way a few years ago.” I commented as I shook my head. ”When my parents were murdered.”

”Yeah, that’s valid as shit.” Jessie admitted before the conversation drifted off.

Josh’s Gym, Las Vegas, Nevada
Friday the 6th of February 2026, 14:00pm

Now that Jessie’s health scare was officially behind me (and Jessie obviously) I could now focus on my pending match with Frankie which I have been for the past week or so.

I mean, if this week ends with me getting a win over a former World Bombshell Champ? I’ll fucking take it because that would be a perfect way to end he week after everything that’s happened but even so, I need to focus.

“I bet Jessie’s relieved to get the news.” Josh commented as he watched me do some pull ups on the floor. “And I bet Shane and Jake are too.”

”Haven’t really had a chance to talk to Jessie’s husband or brother but I bet they had a big meal to celebrate,” I nodded in agreement after finishing my pull ups and resting my arm on my raised knee as I turned to Josh. ”And given that Shane is a good enough home cook that he was nearly on MasterChef twice? I bet it was delicious.”

“If I remember correctly? He didn’t make it onto Season 6 and 7 because they thought he wasn’t TV ready.” Josh commented before shaking his head. “Whatever that means considering he had been on Climax Control a few times.”

”Maybe they meant Reality TV ready? Which does raise some questions about the contestants that did make it onto those seasons.” I muttered before shaking my head. ”Either way, I’m glad we’re talking about a once great cooking show that lost its way after the pandemic and not cancer!”

“At least you have MasterChef Australia instead.” Josh commented as he shook his head. “That show only got better after the original hosting trio were fired.”

”That we’re agreed on, now if you excuse me?” I asked before getting in position to start the pullups again. ”All this talk about food has me wanting to train more! Don’t ask how that makes sense!”

“I wasn’t going to.” Josh chuckled before I picked up where I left off.

Harpin’ On With Harper, Josh’s Gym, Las Vegas, Nevada
Friday the 6th of February 2026, 16:00pm

*on camera, start vlog, promo time*

Yeah, I have a lot on my mind heading into this promo.

”First I face Mercedes in a match I only lost because she thought my face needed an intimate meeting with the very title she stole from Crystal and now?” I scoffed as I shook my head. ”Now I’m facing another former World Bombshell Champ and someone who doesn’t need to cheat to win matches for that matter! Well, unless you count brutalizing your opponents as cheating.

Frankie, part of me is tempted to do a Frankie Goes To Hollywood joke but relax, just do it because it’s not like two tribes are going to war and that’s literally all I know about that band.”
I added before shaking my head. ”Anyway, in terms of rookie years Frankie? It’s like Victoria walked like you could run like Usain fucking Bolt!”

Yep.

”I mean, within a month of your debut you had won last year’s Blast From the Past and won the World Bombshell title a few months later, how else am I supposed to describe something like that?” I asked rhetorically as I threw up my hands. ”But as impressive as that was, I gotta wonder one thing: did you burnout too quickly?”

Good question.

”Granted the only match you lost since Crystal took the title off you was to Bella Madison and Bea Barnhart and, well, Bea was pinned in the most predictable match outcome in recent SCW history!” I commented as I shook my head. ”But how long can you keep it up?”

It’s that simple.

”I mean I thought Amelia was going to break that streak of yours at Inception but here we are!” I added with a shrug of my shoulders. ”But it’s not like I haven’t pulled off upsets against former World Bombshell Champions Frankie and this Sunday? I might just pull it off against you!”

And with that I decided to wrap things up.

”No former champ is unbeatable after all, hell I’m living proof of that these days and while I will be Out of the Frying Pan this Sunday? I will bring the fire as I defy the odds by getting my first win of 2026 over you Frankie!” I added as I flipped some hair over my shoulder. ”Because the world needs a new hero and her name is “The Slaytanic Avenger” Harper Mason!”

I turned off my camera as the scene fades.
79
Climax Control Archives / Three Stages of Suffering
« Last post by Alexander Raven on February 06, 2026, 10:53:33 PM »
“I remember that night a little more these days.” Alex said softly, lifting a pint to his mouth. He took a long drink of it, looking out towards the street next to them. Alex had broached the topic recently. Resentment was too much of a thing to hold onto. Resentment was eating away at him. It wasn’t a pretty topic. It wasn’t one for good times, or bad. It was just one that needed to be had.

Luna understood, she always did. Too good for him, that was for sure. She wasn’t that woman anymore, he knew that. He knew with all the good left in him, that she wasn’t that woman anymore. But he was fighting a battle with his own mind. He was seriously unwell, that was the truth of it. Unwell and unable to really escape himself.

But she listened, she talked and she understood. She let him have his moments and asked nothing in return. Nothing but that he be honest. That he does not lie. That he does not hide behind omissions and half-truths. So he was honest, with his doubts. With his moments of resentment. With how his memory hides from him to protect his fragile mind. His fragile psyche.

“You know, James, he beat Leon black and blue after you left. I thought he was going to kill him. I thought you might at the time, actually. I don’t know why you didn’t.” Luna spoke softly in return. She was in a lighter mood tonight, so it was a cocktail kind of evening for her. The espresso martini was always the starter. Always the lifter of energy and keeping her sharp. She took a small sip.

“Sometimes I wonder too. Shock, maybe. I don’t really remember it so well anymore. Enough to be tortured by it, I guess. Repressed memories my psychologist would tell me. The mind protecting itself. Protecting what I have left.” Alex said gently, nodding a little as he took another mouthful of his beer. Some crappy house lager, but it was enough. Enough to keep him steady, to keep him from losing himself to himself.

“I think, if anyone had told me. I probably would’ve killed him. There on the spot. Ruined my life, but, in that moment, I would’ve felt right. Not sure what I ever did to him, to make him hurt me like he did. Time and time again, but he’s gone now. Hell, most of them are. Guess we were all a little screwy in the head.” Alex said, rubbing his temple with the back of his free hand. Shaking the cobwebs from his mind.

“I think James might’ve taken the bullet on that one for you. You should’ve seen him that night Alex. I’ve never seen him lose it like that. Never saw it again. Absolutely full of biblical rage that night. Would have given you a challenge on your worst nights. I’m sorry, Lexi. I know it is just words, but. I’ll be making my amends for the rest of my life for that.” Luna said again. It was a tired dance, but one they needed to have. For him to be honest, and for her to have the honesty she demanded of him. It was just the way things broke down in the end.

“I know, Lu. I’m sorry I’m the way I am. I don’t think anyone would care if I wasn’t half as fucked up as I am. A normal, boring man, with a burning chip on his shoulder from a childhood half-lived and half abused. Ego, maybe. I don’t know. Gotta be seen, curse of the curse.” Alex said, reaching out for the packet of cigarettes that sat on the table. He took one, placing it to his lips, offering the pack to Luna. She in turn took one. He placed it back on the table and pulled a lighter from his pocket.

“I knew that soft boy, Alex. I just wish that hard ass girl had been a better one for you. I knew you before it all went topsy turvy. I cared, Lexi. I always cared. Helped thaw your heart, even if I was the one who froze it. I care and always will.” Alex lit her cigarette for her, before lighting his own. She took a long sharp inhale of her cigarette. He rose his glass to hers, clinking them together for a moment. Taking a long drag of his own cigarette. His eyes moving from the street to fixate on her.

No resentment today, just acceptance. Acceptance of the woman she was, not hating her for who she once was. He could feel the scratching of nails behind his eyes, the screech of a voice deep in his mind. The Lost attempting it’s best to get out. To try and get past his flimsy mental walls to drag him into that hallway.

Not today, he thought to himself. Not today.

He ran a hand over his forehead for a moment, breathing deeply. Taking another mouthful of his beer as he watched Luna drink her own. The two of them looking at each other, a moment of quiet acceptance. A quiet look of love. A quiet moment of being present with each other. Acknowledgement of who they are. What they were. Where they existed in the world today.

“Sometimes I wonder, if running all the way across the world when we did was the right call. I wouldn’t have met Lauren, but in the same vein. I wouldn’t have had to deal with half the shit I ended up dealing with. Wouldn’t have met Adrienne. Probably still would have got me hooked on the Ketamine. Both of us, really. Wonder how much difference it would’ve had made. Probably be sadder.” Alex said softly, a little bit of cheek hidden in the truth of it.

She smiled, that soft, gentle smile. The one that cut to the depth of his soul. The one that reached her cold and piercing eyes and gave them the softest of glows. A look that he never saw her give to anyone else. Not Leon, not Sullivan or Harrison. Not even her own brother. That loving and deep smile.

Peace was in the moment, and sometimes that was all he really needed. A moment of peace to remind me of the times that were good. Not for the one time that was bad. The years that bled over from the one moment of terrible. He had to be happy in the peaceful moments. He had to be better. He had to push that resentment aside, or it would fucking kill him.

Or her.

And if she was gone.

Well, he didn’t have the slightest idea what life would look like beyond that moment. He didn’t deal with loss well. Didn’t deal with heartbreak well. Life would end that day, and him with it.

That was the truth.

And then…



“They say insanity is doing the same thing, over and over, and expecting a different result. Not sure who they are, but they sound like people who’ve never experienced out business. Never trained in a skill. Never had to develop a talent or technique. I would fear the man who has practised a kick ten thousand times, more than the man who has practised ten thousand kicks once. Contradictions are a plenty in the world that we find ourselves in. People who live by one philosophy or another but refuse to look at the threads that run between them.”

“Refusing to look at the men and women demanding they follow one ideology more than another. The sycophants who would spit upon them if they just deigned to think outside the box they want to keep them in. Conspiracist is what they call me, have always called me. For simply pointing out the fallacies in their thinking. In the way they present themselves. I am the wrong and the right at the same time, for some I speak only the truth that they want. Others hate me for it.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t subscribe to either camp fully. I don’t wish to be the conspiracist, but I will be an illuminator of truth. I will be the one who continues to speak my truth, for better or worse. The insane man, doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. Except, the results are different, aren’t they? The more I talk; the more people have to mull it over. The more I talk the harder it becomes for them to just ignore what exists right in front of their face.”

“See, that’s the thing that really boils Carter. The thing that gets under his skin more than anything else. I talk, people listen and they ask questions. They ask what could be different, what is different, why they are so unable to pull themselves away from men like us. From the speakers of truth, and those who scream so heavily to break away from that we accuse them of. There are men, like you Carter, and men like me. Men like Alex Jones. People who see through you veil of bullshit. Who aren’t enraptured and enthralled by your lies and façade.”

“Speaking of men like me. Alex Jones, they think they’re so smart, don’t they? Strange bedfellows, that would do anything to get recompense for the actions either of us have taken upon the other. Like does not enter this equation, and yet. Respect can. Respect for what the other knows, for what they see. We see the bullshit and lies that flow from the mouth of Carter. The bullshit and lies that flow from a man who is nothing more than a pretender to the throne. Who speaks on high horses and pretence, yet time and time again, he gets by, by the skin of his teeth.”

“A man who sees right through you Carter, and it upsets you. It upsets you because you can’t lull us under your control. Under the abuse of power that you throw around like the maverick you are becoming. The more you fight it, Carter, the more truth it becomes. See when people like me, like Alex Jones, when we talk. People fucking listen, right? Even if it is to denounce everything we say. They struggle to stop listening, because as much as they want to deny us. As much as they try, they can’t help but seeing just a droplet of the truth.”

“Which is why I think it boils you so deeply when we talk. When we point out the failings, you have around your dear sweet partner. Does it boil you too, Miles? When we point out the fallacies of it all? You are denied time and time again your opportunity at the top. Too piss weak to step to your husband. Too piss weak to even be in contention. You and your like-minded kin. A brother so fancifully useless that in comparison he makes you look like a true contender. But you’re not, and part of that is your own fault, Miles.”

“Only part though. No a lot of it has to do with your choice in partner. Your husband, Carter. The man who you dote upon, who is the doted. The man who every time you’ve faced each other, has found a way to belittle you. The finger injury, the refusal to wrestle the match that Victoria put you in. Now he holds you back and relegates you to the Internet division, to deal with his problems. Problems he doesn’t have time for anymore. So proud and brave is little Miles Kasey, calling people a bitch. Attacking a man to make a point. Playing the games of the gameless.”

“You burn me, Miles, for your ineptitude. Your complacency and acceptance of being lesser than. Your acceptance of living in shadow. That’s what this all has boiled down to. Picking at the scraps because the head of the table won’t give you a slice of bread. You were once contended at the top with Austin James Mercer and Michael Harris, and now. Now you are nothing but the errand boy, Miles. Do you think that Carter sees you as an equal? I have to wonder. I have to question whether or not he thinks of you at all. A mirror for his ego and vanity, that is what you are for him, Miles. A mirror for the narcissist to put his image into and feel grand.”

“That is all you are to him, Miles. A mirror. But even a mirror has its uses outside of standard vanity. A reflection of the enemies moving in. A weapon in the most desperate of final moments. But you see, the problem with mirrors, is if you can see me, I already have seen you. I’ve seen you for years, Miles. Seen you clamber and crawl and try and dig your way to the top. Just to allow yourself to be complacent because the man who stands in that spot now, you love. Love is not a dictator of business. Of choice in one’s own growth. You are stagnant and you let yourself be. You’ll never beat me; you’ll never beat Alex Jones. That’s the simple cold hard truth of it all, Miles.”

“You just aren’t quite fucking good enough.”

“See Carter too umbrage with what I had to say. Poked and made fun of my lowliness, of my softness. Of my irritation at the feckless bickering of a bastard. A man who jumps at shadows now because he has upset someone even more than me. I only threatened to take everything he loves. Maybe, just maybe, the shadow man has it right. Nothing he loves more than himself. Take away that which makes him himself and now… Now he has nothing. Because not even all your love is enough to make him listen. To make him do what would be a good idea.”

“No you see, Miles. You’re not even worth doing the right thing for him. How low that must make you feel. How painfully unloved you truly are. You’re not worth hurting to hurt him. You’re not worth giving a shot at the top because that would mean he sees you as an equal. How fucking unfortunate for you.”

“But Carter, there’s stakes here isn’t there? It was going to be two out of three falls. I think I like the idea, but… but there’s more to be had here, isn’t there? A pound of flesh for a pound of flesh. I’ve participated in many a horror. Many a match of agony, of brutality. I participated in a three stages before, a little bit different, but the same otherwise. I retained my championship that night, nearly ended the budding career of a man who was the sycophantic child of another narcissistic bastard.”

“But it lends an idea, and idea I’m sure you’ll come to love. See I’m not going to tittle about and pretend that I’m hemming and hawing at a plethora of ideas. No, see I’ve got my little ideas, and I know how I want my pound of fucking flesh, Carter. But I’m no tyrant, no I’m good, giving man. One for me, one for you, and one for the world. The three stages, but a little left over each time. I’m going to make sure you understand the pain and agony of what you’ve done.”

“Stage one, barbwire massacre. My personal little favourite playground of violence and decay. Ropes of barbwire, instruments of violence and torture all adorned with the blood drawing cattle deterring steel. That way, no matter what comes next, there will always be more blood to be drawn. You’ll never escape the barbwire. Those ropes, the lasting agony. It’ll be with us, all night.”

“Stage two, Carter. Stage two is one for you, I promise. Stage two, a little nicer. A little more loving. The one that ensures it comes down to just us. They’ll lower that cage and capture us. A steel cage to hold the barbwire massacre inside. To keep outsiders where they belong. Out. Luna will not be there; Miles will not be able to save you. Just you and me. But there will be no escape, no. That’s not sporting behaviour. It is a chamber to keep us in and the world out, but not to escape. No they will lower that cage, and the only way to win? Pinfall or submission. I’m a little bit old school in that regard.”

“The final, should it be required. Something for the world. For the ravenous bastards who flock to see the pain and agony. To see two gladiators locked in combat eternally. Our two broken and beaten bodies, struggling to survive. They’ll lock that collar around our throats, and it’ll all come down to which dog wants to break the bitch more. Barbwire Massacre, a Steel Cage and finally, a Dog Collar. For our own sakes, I think it best if we don’t get that far, don’t you?”

“Stacking the deck, is what they call it, but I want to give you just the mildest bit of reprieve. Three Stages of fucking hell, Carter. That is what I will be picking. I hope you’re half as fucking willing to go the full length, or I’m going to be disappointed. Disappointed in the doldrums of our failing little World Champion. A man who has nothing to give but empty promises and words of anger. Yet not willing to take his pound of flesh.”

“Take the flesh, Carter. Or be forever the worst World Champion that Sin City has ever had.”

“Alex, we don’t have to say much. They think this is their advantage, but the two of them aren’t half as good together as we are on our own. Men with something to prove, men with a passion. That is what we are. Men who can move past actions of the past when the present demands it. Ego is our game, and ego is what it will always come down to. But Climax Control, we will be the better men. We will be the one’s who stand at the top and look down upon the lower filth this time. I hope you choose to break Miles, just like I intend to break Carter.”

“We will win, because they cannot hope to stop us both. We will win, because that is what I have fucking decided. I don’t care who gets the victory, I don’t care who takes the fall. We will beat them, that is all that matters. So I can take my fucking pound of flesh, and this time. There will be no distractions. There will be no one to save him. I will crucify the bastard for what he has become, to remind him. Remind him that in the game of giants, he is nothing but a simpering stand-in for those who deserve it.”

“Miles, have you been listening?”

“Carter, I know you’re listening. You can’t stop it now.”

80
Climax Control Archives / Bully Beatdown
« Last post by Zayvion Lyons on February 06, 2026, 10:26:22 PM »
It didn't take long for Zayvion to be greeted warmly by his grandmother Miriam, almost as soon as he walked in the door of her home.

“Hello?” he called as he entered.

“Zay?” her voice came as she entered the family room and saw him there in the doorway, “Is that my baaaaybeee?”

He smiled and greeted her warmly with a hug.

“Hey Big Momma.” he said. “How is everybody?”

He always thought that the Big Momma nickname was somewhat ironic because his grandmother was a small framed woman, the nickname was really more of a cultural thing.

“We're all doing good.” she replied “We watched your big debut, we're so proud of you.”

“Thanks Big Momma.”  he said "I promise there's much more to come.”

“Just promise me you'll be careful.” she said “I don't want you to hurt yourself.”

“I will Big Momma.” he said “I can't promise I won't get hurt, but I can promise I'll be careful. If I get hurt I won't be able to wrestle and I ain't trying to do that.”

“And maybe talk to your brother?" she said in a way that was meant to drop a subtle hint.

“What did Malik do?” Zayvion said, picking up on it instantly.

“He looks up to you, you know.” she said “You're his big brother and he wants to be like you, but I can't have him jumpin’ off my furniture, and the other day he jumped off the playground structure onto one of his little friends at school.”

“Oh my God..” Zayvion said “Did anyone get hurt?”

“Just a few scrapes thankfully.” she said "But they did send Malik home for the rest of the day.”

“Alright, I'll talk to him.” Zayvion said “He in his room?”

“Yeah he's back there playing one of his games.” she said “I didn't punish him, but if he keeps it up then I will have to put him on punishment.  I just think he'll listen to you. You're a hero you know, he tries to act and dress just like you.”

“Yeah I know, I know.” he said “Don't worry I got this Big Momma.”

“Thank you Zay.” she said "I'll be checking on the baby if you need me.”

Zayvion nodded, and made his way down the hallway toward his kid brother's bedroom. His sisters weren't home at the moment, Kaelani had likely taken Saphira to soccer practice.

“Knock knock!” he said through the doorway lightly knocking on the door.

“Zaaaaaaaaaay!” in the excited voice of a young Malik as soon as he saw his older brother's face peeking in.

Malik jumped up from his Mario Kart game and ran up, nearly leaping into Zayvion's arms.

“Whoa hey hey, take it easy little man.” Zayvion said.

“I saw your match!” Malik said “You looked so cool, and you beat that big scary guy.”

“Hey, thanks little man.” he said “It wasn't easy though, that big mean guy beat me up pretty good.”

“Yeah but you won.” Malik replied

“That I did.” nodded Zayvion as he took a seat on Malik's bed “Come sit here let me talk to you for a minute.”

“Am I in trouble?” Malik asked.

“Naw.” Zayvion said, “I just got to talk to you about somethin’, what's this I hear about you jumpin’ on one of your friends at school?”

“We were playing SCW.“ replied Malik with a smile.

“I see.” nodded Zayvion “You do understand that's very dangerous right?”

“Mighty Malik laughs in the face of danger.” said Malik.

“Mighty Malik?” said Zayvion “Is that your wrestling name?”

“Yeah. Do you like it?” asked Malik

“It's a great name.” said Zayvion “But you still can't be jumpin’ off stuff, you gonna hurt yourself,  and you can't be jumping off Big Momma's furniture either. What I do takes a lot of practice. I've been practicing and learning for an entire year, and I still have a lot to learn.”

“Can you and Miss Cleo help teach me?” asked Malik

“We might be able to teach you a couple things.." said Zayvion “But a lot of the cool stuff you have to wait and be bigger. But I promise, when you are bigger we will definitely help teach you if that's what you still want.”

"Okay." said Malik "When I get big like you you and Miss Cleo get to teach me to wrestle."

“Okay.” said Zavion "But only if you promise to stop jumpin’off Big Momma's furniture. I want you to be safe. No jumping on your friends at school either. You lucky Big Momma didn't take your game away this time, but she is gonna put you on punishment if you don't stop."

“Fiiiiiiiine.” said Malik

“I'm serious.” since Zayvion “I don't want you to hurt yourself,  because when you get big The Flyin ’ lion is finna need his tag team partner, Mighty Malik.”

Malik's eyes widen.

“We could be tag team partners?” he said

“Absolutely!” replied Zayvion with a smile “But you have to wait and finish school and get big like me first. Miss Cleo and I will teach you a few things along the way.”

“The Jefferson Brothers.” said Malik

“Come again?” said Zayvion curiously

“That's going to be our tag team name.” replied Malik “You know because it was mom's last name, and we're brothers because of her even though our last names are different but we can use hers.”

Zayvion smiled and rustled his brother's hair.

“That's pretty good.” he said “You think of that yourself?”

Malik nodded.

“Then the Jefferson Brothers it is.” replied Zayvion. “Everybody better watch out because when Mighty Malik gets big, it's on.”

“Like Donkey Kong.” Malik said with a laugh.

“Speaking of Donkey Kong…” send Zayvion “Pass me your other controller, let me get it on this Mario Kart.”

Malik happily obliged and the two brothers spent the next hour or so playing Mario Kart until their sisters came home and they were called in for dinner.

__________

The cameras fade in on Zayvion leaning against a chain link fence in a casual relaxed posture, Cleo Phillips also leans nearby against the fence, her presence casual with the central focus remaining on Zayvion, a casual smirk appearing on his face as he begins speaking.

“So y'all saw what happened.” he said "They put me in there with Bill Barnhart, a dude that looks like he eats dumbbells for breakfast. I stood across from him thinking man they're really trying to feed me to a bear on my first night, but at the end of the day I put that bear down.”

He nods confidently.

“Now it appears I got another big mean bastard to deal with.” He continued,  “But Brandon Hendrix to me, is nothing more than a bully and I know how to handle bullys.”

“Tell em.” adlibbed Cleo

“Where I come from, we don't play that shit.” Zayvion continued, “You ain't finna punk me like you did Ciaran Doyle. You ain't going to throw a tantrum and get yourself disqualified because you can't handle somebody fighting back. That kind of shit doesn't make you tough or dangerous.

“Just emotional.” said Cleo

“Exactly.“ Zayvion continued "It's that my little brother just unplugged the game console type of energy. That's all it is no Killer Instinct just you losing control then there's the whole deal with LJ Kasey.”

He shakes his head, showing his disapprovement.

“The man won his match and the bell and rang.” he said “And then boom here you come in a mask and jumpin’ him from behind. Like what the hell kind of corny shit is that are you really that desperate Brandon?”

He pauses for a moment as he and Cleo look at the camera like they're on an episode of Dora the Explorer waiting for a response.

“The thing is a bully only feels tough when the other person ain't lookin” he said “But once someone take that power away and square up to them, they fold. They like to prey on who they think are weak. If you square up with them they ain't going to fuck with you. Now I can't speak for Ciaran Doyle,  but I saw the fire in LJ Kasey's eyes and that boy is pissed off. I think you done fucked with the wrong one.”

He shrugs.

“But that's LJ Kasey's problem to solve, right now you gonna to deal with me.” he continued “And what you ain't going to do is try to make me some sort of example and do what you did to them to me.  You look at me and you probably see a smaller,  vulnerable dude, but I've been dealing with bullies like you my entire life. Bigger kids with loud mouths thinking they got something to prove, they all thought they were scary until I smacked them straight in the mouth.”

His eyes turn serious.

“So when I see you Brandon.” he continued “All I see is the same dude I used to take my lunch money back from. You don't intimidate me, and you don't scare me. In fact I dare you to try and pull some punk shit on me. Try and pull some foul shit on me and see what happens. See if I don't smack you straight in the fucking mouth and dislocate your jaw.”

He raises his palm, miming a smack at the camera.

“See while you out here tryin’ to scare people.” said  Zayvion continued "I ain't got to try,  because where I come from there ain't no referees, just consequences. Guys like you grow up to be bullies thinking you the big dog cause nobody ever checked you, and nobody ever stood up to you looked you in the eyes and said naw not me, I ain't the one”.

He pauses.

“I've been telling guys like you not me my whole life.” he said “And I always find that the loudest in the room, is usually the softest. That all the toughness they portray themselves to have is nothing more than theater. You ain't a menace Brandon, you're just a dramatic soap opera villain.”

He smirks, Cleo chuckles.

“You got disqualified against Ciaran because you couldn't handle him fighting back.“ said Zayvion “And you jumped LJ cause you couldn't look him in the eye and face him like a man. When you get in there with me you're going to find out that I'm way meaner face to face then you've ever been from behind. Don't get it twisted because I like to smile and make some jokes. That's just me being me dawg, but when it's need to go time, I'm finna knuckle up  and handle business.”

He forms a fist with his hand at the camera.

“I came to this company to make a name for myself and get my bag.” said Zayvion “And I'm not going to let no punk ass like you try and push me around and prevent me from that. I got too much to prove to show that I'm more than just the new guy, or or some secondary talent from the Lyon's Den.  You saw me deal with that walking refrigerator Bill Barnhart, and now that same fire and energy is coming for you and I bet deep down somewhere that worries you because you have an image to maintain. Someone like me coming along and whooping that ass it's just going to expose you and ruin this whole monster image of trying to create for yourself. If you fancy yourself a monster I'm going to show the world that you're less of a Godzilla and more of a Scooby-Doo villain that I'm going to pull the mask straight off of.”

“Kind of reminds me of Cookie Monster with anger issues.” Cleo chimed in “Or a Monchichi with an attitude problem.”

“The hell is a Monchichi?” Zayvion asked curiously.

“I'll show you later.” said Cleo

Zayvion shrugs, giving Cleo a suspicious look.

“But you see what I mean.” Zayvion said “My manager is over here comparing you to Sesame Street characters, that's how not scary you are my boy. That's just the truth of the matter you don't intimidate me because underneath all the jokes the flat truth of it is I don't like bullies it's that simple and I'm not someone who lets bullies push me around I'm someone who stands up to them because like I said when you do that they fold every single time and that's exactly who you are Brandon."

He pauses

“You're no monster.” said Zayvion “And you damn sure ain't no killer. You're just some loud dude hoping nobody calls your bluff, but I'm the wrong dude to try that on because I actually enjoy fighting. When Sunday come around, I wake up smiling, I eat good, and I play my hip-hop music loud with the windows down.”

He speaks proudly with a confident smile on his face.

“So just know when that bell rings I ain't going to be jumpin’ you or blindsidin’ you." Zayvion said, “I ain't going to be looking to get myself DQ'd. I'm going to stand right across from you look you dead in the eyes, and tell you exactly what time it is."

He pauses

“It's time for the block party.” he grinned.

“And you ain't invited to the cookout.” said Cleo.

“So I'm going to do what I have to do” Zayvion said “And bounce you right on out it. I'll see you soon bully."

“Bet.” said Cleo.

The camera remained focused on them for a moment before it all faded to black.
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