Post by TheNewBreed on Jan 21, 2018 4:58:07 GMT -5
Johnathan Cable slides the drawer closed under the left side of his desk as Citizen stalks his way through the door and towards him across his office floor.
“What the hell do you think you're doing going back out there? You haven't let your injuries heal yet and you have a match for the WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP in a couple of weeks in case you've forgotten... not to mention you haven't even stopped to rest in the last two months, and if you aren't careful out there, you're going to die... alone... in some aliens dimension... bleeding out with no way to let us know you're even out there dying!” Citizen shouts at him as he slams his hands down on the desk and leans across the polished wooden top to get as close to John's as face as he can.
“Did you forget the stitches I had to put in your ass a week ago after that monster ripped you apart in 36729B? Or maybe the ribs you broke the second week out there in the multiverse when the Counsel of the Grobodon had their Royal Centurions jump you during the meeting because you burped and it offended their elders? You almost didn't make it out of THERE alive, and you've been in a whole lot worse situations lately than that one!” he screams at him again as John goes about his business without even looking up from the folder of papers in front of him.
“Do you even hear me, you son of bitch? You're going to DIE OUT THERE!” He screams at him again.
John looks up, smiles at his friend, and then slides the folder across the desk for Citizen to look at. He turns the folder towards him on the desk and flips the front cover over to see what's inside, fuming the entire time. Then... as he reads the document inside the manila folder, his shoulders slump and he looks up at John across the desk before sliding his fingers under the edge of his mask and lifting it over his head.
“I didn't ask for this, John.” he says as he bright blue eyes shimmer, tears forming at the edges before rolling slowly down his very tan cheeks.
“I know you didn't. You're the best man for the job. If I DO manage to get myself killed, someone is going to have to take over for me, and there isn't anyone I trust more with the Foundation than you. You have been behind me in this venture since the beginning. The Foundation WAS mostly your idea anyway. Besides... you have always shown me your loyalty, even when I was battling with your sister and that bitch, Andrea, and if nothing else, I know you will take care of the company and the people the Foundation helps around the world better than anyone else would. This is why I can't let you come with me when I go back out there. I need you here to make sure things are going as they are supposed to. You're the only one I can trust with this.” John says as he hands him a pen to sign the document.
“Aaron, this is what I need you to do to help me fix this...” he says softly as Citizen takes the pen, and with a big sigh, signs the dotted line on the last page of papers.
It was risky, but it was worth it so far... now if his luck could hold out for a just a little while longer, maybe he could finally put this Wonderland War behind him, and get back to his regular life again.
* * *
December 5th, 2017 – Counsel of Shane Dimension
The swirling purple portal whooshes open in the control room, and John Cable steps out of the whirling maelstrom, his boots clacking on the metal floor loudly in the empty room. Suddenly, red lights begin to flash, and a loud siren begins to wail, deafening John as the blast door opens into the hallway and four of the Shane-Gaurds file in with laser rifles drawn on John.
“Get on the ground, Johnathan Cable Designate 023Prime! You are under arrest for crimes against humanity and are ordered to appear before the Counsel immediately!” the guard up front shouts at him as they circle John in the small control room.
“That is actually exactly what I came to do!” John smiles at him slyly as he makes his way a couple steps forward towards the man.
“STOP RIGHT THERE!” the guard shouts at him, trembling in his boots.
“if you remember correctly, the last time I was here... I killed a lot more than four of your order, so I suggest we keep this civil, and I'll happily go talk to your replacement Counsel. It IS what I came here for in the first place, so... if you don't mind...” John growls at the man as he steps even closer to the guard, calling his bluff and daring them all to open fire as he motions towards the doors behind him.
After a moment, John realizes the Guard isn't going to fire. None of them are... and then he presses on past them haughtily making his way towards the door and beyond the terrified guards now following him, laser rifles trained steadily on his back, heading into the Counsel chambers not far away.
* * *
E-Mail Correspondence
Dear Dawn,
I know it has been a while since we spoke... and I'm sorry about that. Some thing have come up that have kept me pretty busy around here, but hopefully, some of my time will free up soon. I know you understand, and I appreciate it. Glory to the life of luxury, huh? LOL... anyway, like I said... hopefully some of my time will free up soon so we can go out on another date like you deserve?? Where to this time?
Yours truly,
John
* * *
“Your murderous ways are unacceptable! You, Johnathan Cable Designate 023Prime, also known as 'the Beast'... are hereby sentenced to DEATH!” a Kyle Counsel member shouts from behind a pulpit raised high above the chamber floor on a semi-circle dais. His spongy pink brain crackles with little blue sparks under a glass dome as his metallic arm points down at John before him. The other Counsel members nod their strange metal encased faces with glass domes exposing each of their crackling pink medulla oblongata as they stare at him in contempt.
“Well... really... the thing about that is this: If you do carry out that sentence, the things I have already set in motion across the Multiverse will come to a frighteningly horrible conclusion and you won't be able to figure out what they are until it is far too late... OR... you can hear me out, and help me before I make what Kyle Shane did to the Multiverse look like an episode of 'Gumby and Friends'. The choice is yours.” John says to the Counsel before him smugly, seemingly unafraid of the sentence being handed down from the creatures here in this pocket dimension created by the collected efforts of the Multiverse of Kyle Shane's who would protect the Multiverse from the terrible destruction that could envelope us all at any moment.
“You have done no such thing! You are lying, and we see right through your bluster to the truth... that you are trying to preserve yourself, and nothing more!” another one of the crackling-brained metal cases with strange face masks shouts down from the dais.
“Can you afford to take that chance?” John asks calmly before the collective Counsel turns to look at each other in turn, contemplating his preponderance.
After what seemed to be an eternity, the first Counsel member turns back to face John on the floor below him.
“What is it that you have done, exactly?” the Counsel member asks him slowly, his strange robotic eyes narrowed at him, judging his every breath to see the truth through his words.
“Oh... now I can't tell you that, now can I? If I did, you would just go try to fix it, and I need to make sure you help me before it's too late. If you go rushing off to fix the issues I may or may not have created in the multiverse, then you won't have the time or resources to help me out, now would you?” he says with the voice of a man who knows he's won already but still stand on thin ice staring death in the face.
“What do you require?” the Counsel asks in unison, their strange metallic voices intertwining among one other in a harmony of electronically lilting tones.
“Now... that's better. Come with me... and I'll explain on the way.” John says to the Counsel as he turns to walk back out of the Counsel Chambers and pushes through the array of Shane-Guards waiting to carry out his sentence as the Counsel concedes to hear him out for fear of what may happen if they don't.
* * *
E-Mail Correspondence,
My Dearest Johnathan,
I know you're a busy man. My family didn't make their money jet-setting and partying, silly. They worked for decades to make it where they are now, and while my father surely had it easy, his great-grandfather didn't, and we all learned very young that money doesn't wait for men to fritter their lives away. Besides... the Foundation helps so many people that I really do admire your efforts. You know that.
As for where to go when you finally do come home...?
I have a few ideas, but you'll have to wait until then to find out what they are... OK, Beastie?
XOXO
Dawn
* * *
As the blast door slides open and John saunters into the portal control chamber followed by the Counsel of Shane's and several of the Shane Soldiers, John looks over his shoulder and sighs.
“I know what you must think of me. I do.” He says sadly.
“You are a murderer, and a terrorist.” the lead Council member says to him coldly as they follow him into the room.
“Every man who has ever stood against another man has always thought they were right... but history only tells the tales of the winner as they see themselves. It is the way History works. The fact is, that both sides believe in their righteousness in the beginning, and it is only when one of them ceases to exist that the side that History takes is decided. Until then, who is right is always up for debate.” John answers.
“Our work here is of paramount importance to the survival of all things... all thing...and yet, here you are, with the future of the Multiverse dangling over a proverbial roiling volcano, prepared to sacrifice it all to the ashes of oblivion for the sake of your single minded, insignificant, selfishly disastrous needs, and then you have the gall to offer a philosophical quandary as the excuse to validate your actions? You deserve to die.” the Shane Council member states as he stares at him in horrified disgust.
“Truthfully, by your own theories, your work here has not unequivocally proven to have prevented any disasters from actually destroying the existence of all things. By theory, it can't prove it's own working, because that, in and of itself would mean that in a parallel existence, one without you in it, any number of disasters would've already befallen all of existence, and we would, in essence, have already been destroyed long ago. And... in fact, I will bet that some among you have contemplated your effects on the multiverse and it's progress forward, but have dismissed this theory, however likely it is to be true, simply because of your own self righteous determination to succeed at your own agendas. You have killed countless men and women across infinite realities for the sake of saving existence, so do not... ever... tell me that my intentions are without their own merit. I know what you see when you look at me, but know that what I do I do for a truly worthy cause... to save my friends. You can view that as you want to... but you will help me, no matter what it takes.” John explains slowly as he points his finger into the metallic face of the Council member before poking it in the dome over his brain and sending it reeling across the floor.
“So... Johnathan Cable... Murderer... Terrorist... what are your demands?” one of the other Counsel members asks haughtily as the other members envelope the one John shoved into them and fold in around it.
“I need you to download your Destination Codex into this unit.” John says as he taps the bracer on his forearm.
“Never.” the excited whirring of the Shane Counselor clicked and buzzed... offended that he would even say such a thing as to give him access to the untold numbers of destinations within the codex, and astounded that he had even figured out that he needed that information in the first place for the Teleporter to work unhindered as he would need it to to travel across the Multiverse unimpeded.
'You will... or you won't make it to find out what I did to the rest of the worlds out there.” he says coldly as he pulls a metallic cylinder from inside his vest with a flashing red button on top.
The Shane Guards rush forward, throwing the council members to the floor in the hallway outside as they draw their rifles on John.
“NO! DON”T SHOOT HIM!” one of the Counselors shouts over the commotion as the Guards take aim and John presses the button down, holding off the activation of the thermal detonator with the pressure of his finger alone.
“If you shoot him and he drops that Detonator we are all dead.” The Counselor says as he looks up from the floor beneath them at Johnathan across the room.
“Very well... Beast. We do not keep the entire Codex here in a form we can transfer to your Bracer. We have separated the Codex Cubes across the Multiverse for safekeeping... so... unfortunately, you will have to go get them... if you still want them, of course. Once they are collected, they can be re-assembled and 'downloaded' to your bracer.” the Councilman explains coldly.
“So you can't transfer the database from the portal controls here?” John asks pointedly.
“No. The control database is not capable of downloading it's information in any capacity. It would be pointless to hide the Codex across the Multiverse and then still have a singular retrievable source in this location to be taken by anyone who should happen to take a Bracer from a slain soldier and return here... as you did. Do you think us idiots? We have been prote...” he stammers incredulously at John before he cut off abruptly.
“OK... where do I go to get the Cubes?” John asks bluntly.
“It is a dangerous thing you intend to do.” the Councilman says flatly in his electronic hum.
“I don't care. Tell me where to go, and I will. I'm not trying to destroy the Multiverse, no matter what you think... but if you don't help me... I will. I intend to do what I have to do to save the people who matter to me and get my life back to normal for a change, and I will not wait. There are people's lives at stake, and we are already out of time. I'm sorry, but I have run out of options.” John replies grimly.
* * *
The blood red light cast from an overlarge moon above a snow-swept mountainside welcomes Johnathan Cable to it's harsh precipice. It's jagged peak towers above him as he scrabbles down it's harrowing slopes towards a strange and alien forest of tendril like trees in a myriad of colors. A blazing asteroid flashes across the scarlet sky, it's teal flames licking at the edges of the far off atmosphere high above.
-
When the flash of light subsides, a mass of azure tentacles writhe and grasp at Johnathan now, struggling for footing in a scummy pond of bright orange fluid with tufts of blue vegetation covering it's surface, thrashing back and forth against the might of the monster in the strange swamp. Desperately he wrestles with one muscular, flailing tendril as it wraps around his waist, while another lashes over his shoulder and yet another wraps swiftly around his leg as the suckers latch on with tiny toothy maws.. In the struggle, Johnathan succumbs to the weight of the creature as another tentacle grasps his other leg, and they fall into the pond with a massive splash as they thrash around in the water.
-
As the coppery water rushes away, we see Johnathan Sprinting through a lush tropical jungle. His BDU pants are torn and bloody scratches leak red droplets along his thighs just under the tears. His bare chest is torn open and a ragged cut across his abdomen is bleeding into his belt-line as he vaults over a downed tree in his breakneck dash through the underbrush. From behind him, the whooping calls of a multitude of high pitched hoots and hollers can be heard like hundreds of howler monkeys chasing him. As John sprints from one tree to another trying desperately not to run headlong into a tree in his determined escape from whatever it was that was chasing him. John looks behind him as he rounds a tree and three pygmy Paul Frosts in grass skirts and bone necklaces swing in from the trees around him slashing at him with tiny wooden spears tipped with jagged teeth. John dashes off again and quickly gets ahead of them as several more join the pursuit. A few get close again, but John makes a few swift maneuvers through a fairly dense copse of trees and he buys himself a bit of space as he sees a clearing ahead, where a wooden bridge spans a wide gap in the trees. He rushes onto the end of the rope bridge, and kicks the supports free as he grabs onto the rope handrails and swings out over the river far below, waiting until he is as close as he is going to get and letting go... falling into the rushing waters below as the tribe of pygmy Frosts hooted and whooped at him as the water swooshed in around him.
-
As the bubbles clear, we see John swimming with a beautiful mermaid with flowing green hair and crystal blue eyes. The shining city below them on the unending oceans floor was majestic and pristine in it's natural beauty and balance with the coral reef that it had been built into. The bright pearly walls of the cultivated corals and the rainbow of iridescent corals that laid out the castle at it's center were exquisite, and the water was luxuriously warm. A school of fish with long, fluffy, delicate frills in reds and oranges swim past and then dashes away in a riot of waving fins and bubbles.
-
John wipes a swath of foamy purple drool from his vision as he raises his right arm, pressing upwards against the throat of slobbering pink and yellow baboon faced gremlin that was easily twice his size, bearing down on him with his mouth wide and spit running down his massive teeth. The fetid breath of the overly hairy monkey creature with patches of brown scales peaking from beneath the pink matted fur stank of death and decay, and John scrambled to defend himself from the wickedly curved daggers inside of it's mouth. Another glob of frothy drool splashes onto the face of Cable as he struggles against the monster in the dusty Savannah flatland under a wide open green sky.
-
Puddles of sticky green gore splatters on the rocky ground beneath John's feet as he lops the head off of a massive pig headed behemoth with eight fat legs and tusks the size of samurai swords with a two foot long machete with a massive spiked handle made of hammered steel. His head and shouldered are covered in what looks to be a giant three headed anaconda skin draped from his head to each shoulder and trailing behind him like some sort of superhero cape. A wholly red kilt is secured around his waist, and a giant red turtle shell pauldron adorned with a huge ivory horn is strapped onto his right shoulder. After a few moments, natives with purple rubbery skin and several sets of arms and legs begin to emerge from camouflaged dirt trapdoors in the dusty ground and peak their heads out, to see if it the titanic war between the Beast of Far Away Land and the Indomitable Grumpbumpler was all over. As they realized that the Beast had beheaded the dreaded monster who plagued their lands, a wild cheer arose among them as they began streaming out from underground by the thousands. Soon, a midst all of the cheering, loud booms were heard overhead as the flashing lights of fireworks exploded overhead. Their colors were brilliant and the crowd ooooo'ed and awwwww'ed with every one. Finally, the sky lit ablaze with colors as the grand finale drown out all else.
* * *
The swirling purple maelstrom of the portal swooshed into being within the giant oval frame inside the control room as Johnathan Cable steps through and brandishes the Thermal Detonator as he makes his way into the room, a large burlap sack slung over his shoulder. Seconds later, the blast door slides open and Shane Guards file in with laser rifles drawn. Behind them, the council enters slowly as John glares at them all with a flash of warning.
As they finish entering the room, John upends the sack, dumping a pile of glowing blue stone cubes out onto the floor at their feet.
“Now... do what you need to do and do it now.” John says.
* * *
I think I finally figured it out.
No... really this time.
I get it.
You see, Tristan... when you were AWOL for months... I picked up the team, and I made damned sure the New Breed's mission around the WGWF was a success. I didn't ask for the praise you gave me for it, but you did anyway, and I appreciate it... it was my job. I didn't need a hero cookie for doing it... but it was nice to hear it from you when I got it.
You know what I didn't do?
I didn't get my panties up my ass and let you take one for the team to prove a point.
But you know what? I get it. I do.
See... everyone thinks I'm just your lap dog, and I think, even though you say I am deserved of my place here right now, you think I am too. But... it isn't just me. It's everyone. You think the whole world should bow to your Glorious-ness and I have to ask, Tristan... why? Why should we? What have you done for anyone but yourself in as long as you can remember? What? Everything you do is about you, Tristan, and honestly, I get it... I can see how being a selfish prick of an undeserving asshole could happen to a guy like you.
I do...
But... I have a broader picture kind of view than you do, Tristan.
I have a wider scope of influence than you do to, and it gives me an interesting perspective... and it's why I get you as well as I do.
You have only ever had to worry about yourself.
Your entire life, it's just been a string of 'What's good for Tristan Slater today?' kind of thinking, and honestly, it's done your career wonders.
It has.
The Belts you have held in your time inside of this ring would fill a small mansion!
The accolades you tout and the achievements you can name that you have earned remind me of the 'Begat' chapter of the Holy Book itself!
But what has that done for you? What has it earned for you outside of the ring? What do you have to look forward to when the lights shut off and the ring's loaded up and the crowd has left to go home for the night? What kind of face stares back at you in the mirror when you climb out of the shower in your hotel room at the far ends of the planet?
Loyalty Tristan.
Loyalty and trust is what makes us brothers, Brother.
I thought I had that from you.
You had it from me.
I have spent the last two months trying to do the very thing you asked me to do... and you let that match get taken from us for your selfish pride... to teach me that you aren't going to carry the team alone, and that I need to pull my own weight?
After everything...
I have put my life on the line across the God damned Multiverse trying to get the knowledge I needed to get you where you needed to be...
I have sacrificed my very moral fiber for some of the things I've had to do to make this work and get you back to your mother... to save her... because it was the right thing to do... and this... this is what I get for that?
This was my spotlight moment, Tristan... my chance to earn my very first World Title Belt in my entire twenty plus year career... and not only do you leave me to fate on BRAWL for your pride's sake... but you make sure that even after I beat you for the Number One Contender spot clean in the middle of the ring... that you get your place in the match anyway.
Well, Tristan... let me assure you... I'm not even mad about it.
No, really... I get it.
It's who you are inherently, and I know that about you.
You're a selfish, egotistical child the likes I thought I had seen the last of in my younger years in the orphanage... but I grew up... and I realized that those same mean spirited selfish little bastards at the home just grew into selfish mean spirited bastard adults who had more sway with more people and could use that power over others to their advantage.
But again... I knew this about you... and I understand it.
I'm not mad.
Hurt...
I'm hurt, Tristan.
I'm hurt that you didn't trust me at my word when I told you I was going to help you. I'm hurt that you didn't even bother to ask why we hadn't gone yet or what the hold up was... just if I was even going to help you.
At no point did you even give me a chance to tell you that there was a process to doing it... you just hassled me about getting your results.
Thanks.
After everything... all you gave a shit about was getting what you wanted, when you wanted it... just like everything else in your life... especially the World Heavyweight Championship.
The last time I had a chance to cut a promo about you, Tristan, I explained how I respected your accolades, and knew that our match up was going to the best show out there ever seen no doubt... and I heard the internet bitching about how they just knew I wasn't going to go into that match with everything I had... that I went soft on you then, and that I just didn't want it badly enough to get that win when it mattered.
They were right. I wasn't focused on the World Heavyweight Title then... and you were. I had Kyle Shane locked in my sights, and there wasn't anything else that mattered to me then.
Then, a few weeks ago... when we were dropped into a Number One Contender match on BRAWL, I stunned the world when I came up with what you called an 'Upset Win' in a promo you shot right after that match where you also praised me for earning my chance at the World Belt... finally.
The difference between those matches, Tristan... was focus.
Before, the World Belt wasn't what I was after. I was after the best competitor in the WGWF... hell... in the World... and it wasn't you or MDK.
I didn't need to beat you to get what I wanted... I needed to fight Kyle Shane.
When I beat you for the shot at the Belt... that was me showing you what I can do when I want to win... and shocking the world while I did it.
The only way for me to find the best competitors Tristan, is to wear the belt that matters most.
I know that now.
I also know, in all honesty... that another run with Tristan Slater as the WGWF World Heavyweight Champion is not what this company needs... and there are a lot of reasons why.
Mainly... and I talked about this a year ago when I was getting ready to step into the Rumble Match, and it's even more true today... You don't know what it is to be a Champion, Tristan. Not like you used to. You've let your ego get the better of you since you lost the Belt, and your obsession with overcoming MDK to regain it has gone too far.
The WGWF... the guys in the locker room... the Breeders out there in the WGWFUniverse... they deserves the best Champion they can have and I think you have a lot of shit to make up for and figure out before I think you're 'the Guy' that should represent our brand again.
Now... all of the opinions I have on what's best for the company and the fans aside... none of that means I can beat you for the belt. It doesn't. All the words I can blather on about pile up to a hill of hot air and bullshit until that bell rings... but you know me, Tristan. You know how badly I want to beat on MDK and show him just what kind of a piece of shit I think he really is... and at the West Coast Rumble... I intend to take that chance, and take away the World Heavyweight Championship from MDK in the process.
It's time the WGWF had a Champion they could be proud of again, and that Champion is me.
You hear that MDK?
You're a pile of steaming, festering shit rolled up in a spicy enchilada of napalm and stinking stripper gear and desperation.
True talk.
While Tristan IS selfish and ignorantly oblivious to the effect of his childish obsession with the glory of himself (at times with horrifying consequences to his knee jerk decisions)... he isn't an open faced bag of garbage marinading on a barge sailing through New York City on a summer day like you are.
Oh no... you sir... are an odious waste of space that should have been scrubbed from the ass crack of humanity with a steel grill cleaner ages ago... and I will be more than pleased to finally... finally... shut you the fuck up if I have to walk right over Tristan Slater to do it.
I am tired of seeing this company brought down to the gutter level it's in because of assholes like you swaggering around here with your World Title like you deserve to have it. What have you done with it since you got it? Wave it around in Slater's face and call me a potato?
Fuck you MDK.
Harder than an endless Raziel Parade, fuck you.
I am not going to sit by one more day and watch the likes of MDK and Tristan Slater... or anyone else for that matter... tell the world how they are the greatest Champions of all time when neither one of them even understands what it is anymore to be a Champion.
There's a reason that the match I had with Kyle Shane for the WGWF Intercontinental Title overshadowed every single Title and feud on the network for months before it happened and was one of the highest rated shows in the history of the company, and it wasn't because of MDK or Tristan Slater.
It wasn't because two arrogant assholes where fighting over a Title for months with nothing to show for it but a lot of the fans wasted money...
No one gave a damn about that because they were all busy watching two men who knew what it meant to put it on the line and go out there and BE CHAMPIONS for their fans, for their company, and for themselves... and do what Kyle Shane and I did best... be CHAMPIONS.
Now... it's no different. No one in the whole world gives a damn about Tristan Slater vs MDK.
The whole world wants to see what happens between Tristan and me after the last BRAWL, and they want to know how it all plays out for the Belt when I FINALLY get my hands on MDK where he can't run away from the big bad potato.
They're out there watching me... just like you two... and for damned good reason.
Monday night... we all get to find out what happens when I take you both to church and beat your confessions out of you with my bare hands... and when I walk away the NEW... WGWF World Heavyweight Champion, I'm going to show you BOTH what a REAL Champ looks like.
I'm done with the games... I'm done talking about what my Legacy is going to look like when I get there.
This time... at the West Cost Rumble... I'm going to finish what I started... for the Breeders and the haters alike... and I'm getting my name in the WGWF Hall of Fame by knocking down the both of you on my way up the Ladder!
See you in the pews...