Not quite Iron Man (Vs. Jonathan Cable)
May 31, 2023 9:30:25 GMT -5
TheNewBreed and Jonathan Bacchus like this
Post by Devlin Knight on May 31, 2023 9:30:25 GMT -5
((NB: Continues on from - Am I Deserving? No, I'm more than...))
By the (duo) pale moons light…
The scene slowly opens from pitch black to white static… However the sound of the wind lets us know that it isn’t static at all, but snow and heavy snow at that. As we close in and push through, we find that what appear to be tracks or paths are flanked by mountains of metal, iron to be exact… Where these deposits, both large and minuscule, have come from we can’t be sure but they appear to be of all kinds. Further up the mountains there appear to be small structures that seem to just melt the snow and ice away, these structures are most likely Austenite… Something is keeping that iron above 720 Celsius and in the night sky we notice there are not one, but two shimmering moons.
As the wind continues to howl and the snow falls, we find ourselves inside one of these structures and now understand it is a domicile. It stands as a captivating blend of whimsy and grandeur and its architecture defies conventional norms… What looks to be the equivalent of a living room is adorned with paintings that appear to depict scenes of both joy and epic battles involving humanoid type beings and creatures that look to be similar to the Wheelers, in the Wizard of Oz. As we move along the corridor we see they’re also furnished with golden threaded woven tapestries, depicting similar tales and legends as the painting…
As we move further down the corridor we come to the realisation that just like the T.A.R.D.I.S, this home is bigger on the inside and just off to one side is a library with book shelves that soar high into the ceiling and in a corner sits an elaborate fireplace flickering orange, purple and blue flames welcome you inside. On the other side of the corridor, the kitchen is a haven of pure delectable delights. It is full of shining copper cookware and as we glance around, we notice one of the humanoid type figures from the paintings and tapestries is stirring one of the pots on a gleaming stove. A noise suddenly gets their attention and as they turn we notice they’re turquoise in color and house a tiny tail where the coccyx is.
She (the features tell a lot) walks into what is clearly a bedroom filled with more woven tapestries around the edging of the walls, with a bed against one of the walls, central to the room which is decorated in white and gold steel, the sheets, duvet and pillows made from the finest fabrics… In the bed, coughing and burning up a sweat lays a familiar figure… It is “The Kingdom” Fred Debonair. The unaccustomed female figure sits on the bed and takes a cloth from a bowl and dabs it on his head slowly… He opens his eyes a little…
As the wind continues to howl and the snow falls, we find ourselves inside one of these structures and now understand it is a domicile. It stands as a captivating blend of whimsy and grandeur and its architecture defies conventional norms… What looks to be the equivalent of a living room is adorned with paintings that appear to depict scenes of both joy and epic battles involving humanoid type beings and creatures that look to be similar to the Wheelers, in the Wizard of Oz. As we move along the corridor we see they’re also furnished with golden threaded woven tapestries, depicting similar tales and legends as the painting…
As we move further down the corridor we come to the realisation that just like the T.A.R.D.I.S, this home is bigger on the inside and just off to one side is a library with book shelves that soar high into the ceiling and in a corner sits an elaborate fireplace flickering orange, purple and blue flames welcome you inside. On the other side of the corridor, the kitchen is a haven of pure delectable delights. It is full of shining copper cookware and as we glance around, we notice one of the humanoid type figures from the paintings and tapestries is stirring one of the pots on a gleaming stove. A noise suddenly gets their attention and as they turn we notice they’re turquoise in color and house a tiny tail where the coccyx is.
She (the features tell a lot) walks into what is clearly a bedroom filled with more woven tapestries around the edging of the walls, with a bed against one of the walls, central to the room which is decorated in white and gold steel, the sheets, duvet and pillows made from the finest fabrics… In the bed, coughing and burning up a sweat lays a familiar figure… It is “The Kingdom” Fred Debonair. The unaccustomed female figure sits on the bed and takes a cloth from a bowl and dabs it on his head slowly… He opens his eyes a little…
Fred: ”…Aurora?”
Female: ”No… The name is Requiem…”
Fred opens his eyes a little, sees who’s in front of him and bolts up, scooting back against the pillows but trying to remain composed, Requiem chuckles…
Requiem: ”Don’t sweat it, I’m used to your kind freaking out…”
Fred: ”I’m sorry I’m just not even sure what’s going on, or where I am… My kind? You mean humans?”
Requiem: ”Well… If you’d like to be called that, of course but I more meant, people from the inner lands…”
Fred: ”Right… And you are?”
Requiem: ”I am Requiem and you’re currently on Rigel, an island in the lands of Orion…”
Fred: ”So, I’m on a planet that’s floating in the cosmos around Orion’s Belt?”
Requiem: ”No, listen to me… You’re in the lands of Orion, on an Island called Rigel. What’s your name?”
Fred begins to look around and take in the wonder of this room, then spots the corridor and everything that adorns its walls, suddenly he begins to cough again which catches him off guard. Requiem whips an empty iron bowl from nowhere and Fred begins to vomit into it, when he’s done she takes the cloth again and dabs it over his mouth, she smiles and he sees the tail quiver slightly.
Fred: ”I’m Fred Debonair… And I come from a place ca…-”
Requiem: ”America, as I said from the inner lands, judging by the vocal tones you’re giving off. We’ve had one or two of you here, but you’re the second only in my lifespan…”
Fred: ”Why are you being so nice to me?? Surely you consider me a foreigner or alien and would be naturally cautious?”
Requiem: ”Like I said a few of you have passed by and it’s always been by mistake, none of you have travelled here with the intention of harming us…”
Fred: ”That'll be a first…”
Requiem: ”I’m sorry?”
Fred: ”What? Oh, nothing… But if only a few of us have ever been here, how is it you know how to speak my language?? Or… Wait, do we speak Orionish on Earth? Erm, I mean the inner lands?! Orionish… Orionese?”
Requiem laughs and shakes her head, standing and beginning to walk out of the room. Fred goes to throw off the duvet, but checks he’s dressed from the waist down before he does; he is.
Requiem: ”It’s Oreon and no, we can understand each other because of a language dampener an inner lander named Richard Byrd created many-a-year ago…”
Fred: ”Byrd? Yeah he was one of our most famous explorers… Completely disappeared after exposing the lands beyond the Arctic ice-wall”
Requiem: ”Oh yeah he spent a long time here and on Saiph too, that’s another island to the south…”
Fred: ”What?! We thought our Government had him killed for explaining about the worlds beyond our own!”
Again Requiem laughs as she directs Fred to sit at a flamboyantly designed large dining table, he does so and raises an eyebrow at her laughter.
Requiem: ”I’m sorry that’s quite funny, Fred Debonair… Oh no, he was not killed… He was granted extensive travel to our lands and others, he probably has passed now though, as he would be how old? Thirteen and a half decades?”
Fred: ”One hundred and thirty five years old, so yep! Unless there’s a place out there with immortality…”
Requiem: ”You never know!”
Fred: ”So, have you always known about other places? Because I mean where I’m from, people still believe we live on this rock floating around in space with…-”
Requiem: ”Yeah I’ve heard that story, from so many of our elders too. We are apparently a cluster of three stars spiralling around a galaxy or something too… But we’ve heard about other lands yes, once Byrd came here and told us he’d been to a few but nowhere further than our land…”
Requiem places an iron bowl of what looks to be soup of some kind and an iron spoon, in front of Fred and then walks back into the bedroom. Fred takes the spoon and dips it into the bowl taking up some of the liquid and sips on it… A smile crosses his lips and his eyebrows raise in pleasant surprise at the taste of the liquid in front of him as Requiem comes back in carrying a photograph that she places in front of Fred…
Fred: ”What is in this?”
Requiem: ”It’s what we call, Dvlekishnam… Where you’re from it’s like a chicken broth, except our food of choice is a plekkafox…”
Fred: ”Errrm…”
Requiem: ”It’s just like a chicken, Fred Debonair… Chicken!”
Fred: ”Okay… And this?”
Fred takes another spoonful in his mouth and looks at the photograph.
Requiem: ”That’s my Grandfather, with Admiral Byrd…”
Fred: ”Wow… Amazing, hey! I just thought, you never actually told me how I got here??”
Requiem: ”In fairness you didn’t ask… But I found you not long away from here, you were fighting ReneGators…”
Fred: ”ReneGators??!?”
Requiem: ”Yes, they’re part organic, part iron beasts… When the story was first told the author couldn’t decide on Renegades, Regulators or Alligators…”
Fred: ”I think I remember, they’re like Crocodiles on skates right?!”
Requiem: ”I assume so, here follow me…”
Fred takes another couple of mouthfuls of the broth and stands from the table as Requiem walks towards the front of the house and the living room. She spreads her arms and a finger points toward one specific painting. The forefront shows an alien being, not unlike Requiem, it’s slim figure just radiating calm in the chaos. Fred slowly gets closer, peering over the imagery. The beings skin illuminates with an ethereal glow as it points outward. Facing it, is a mechanised Alligator, its body gleaming metallic and seemingly rolling on wheels not traditional feet… The battle evidently about to begin…
Requiem: ”That is a ReneGator… That is one of my ancestors battling it…”
Fred: ”That’s right! Three of these things just rolled up on me when I arrived here, I was trying to get home and the gate opened into the snow… I was getting them down but I’m sure the temperature is what rocked me…”
Requiem: ”That’s what it seemed like, when I found you… Got you on board my speeder and brought you here… So Fred Debonair what is it you do?”
Fred: ”I guess you could say I’m a warrior in my own right, Requiem… I battle week in and week out against people who deserve to be taken down… That’s why I’m trying to get back home, to the inner lands…”
Requiem: ”You have a battle?”
Fred: ”I do, against a beast of my own who goes by the name of Jonathan Cable…”
Requiem: ”And what did this, Jonathan Cable, do to you?”
Fred: ”Heh… What didn’t he do? You see John Cable seems to have this chip on his shoulder about everything… Everyone is out to get him, everyone is responsible but him, everybody else, not him, is at fault… And I’ve got to stand up for everybody who stands on the opposing podium, to John Cable…”
Requiem: ”It definitely sounds like this is something you have to go into and finish up…”
Fred: ”Oh, it is and that’s the reason I need to get home quick…”
Requiem: ”You’ll come back right??”
Fred is slightly taken aback by the question and tilts his head slightly.
Fred: ”…Are you here alone, Requiem??”
Requiem: ”I, well… On this island, yes. There are several other islands where my people live but they’re so hard to get to, I’ve been stuck here for the last three years… With, them…”
Fred: ”Yes, I’ll come back. I’ll come back and see you and we’ll figure out a way to get you to one of the other islands…”
They look at one another for a few seconds, before Fred notices Requiem begin to glow slightly, she stops suddenly and looks away, slightly embarrassed.
Requiem: ”Oops, I’m sorry.”
Fred: ”Wow, what was that? It was beautiful…”
Requiem: ”Oh it’s just a thing that happens to us when we get nervous… Or, happy… Listen go finish the rest of your Dvlekishnam and I’ll get you back to where I found you a week ago…”
Fred: ”Wait! HOLD UP! A week?!”
Requiem: ”Ah yeah I meant to tell you that part, sorry…”
Fred just stares into space and then chuckles, shaking his head and heading back toward the kitchen as the scene fades into nothingness…
Isn’t it iron-ic?
The scene begins to condense from black into what now seems to be an established scene, we find ourselves among piles and piles of steel, wrought and pig iron… The two moons in the sky are casting dual-light into the area and as Fred Debonair paces around, tapping his chin with his forefinger, he looks like Banquo about to perform a soliloquy in Macbeth… He stops and picks up an iron bar from the ground.
Fred: ”So, here we are… But is it, here we are “again”? Or here we are “finally”? You see this entire thing can go one of two ways, can’t it Jonathan Cable? Either we finally get into this and settle some scores or once more you fail to show up and we have to reschedule. Now John, I have no idea what your issue was with me on Brawl, when you decided to just show up unannounced and uninvited and physically attack me as you did, which by the way almost the entire Wrestling community tried to shun me for, when I took the same shot at you… But you claimed you were getting me back for having you attacked before our Tunnels of Terror match causing it not to happen, I’ve got to ask John… What in the world of Castle Grayskull are you talking about?!
Did you hit your head recently, John? Is that what actually happened? Maybe you were taking the trash out or something and a raccoon came out of nowhere and sent you flying into a pile of recycling and you then were considered missing for a while… I dunno, but accusing me of hiring people to beat you down so the match didn’t take place? Johnathan Cable I’m appalled, that is beneath even you, brother… Fred Debonair doesn’t need to hire anyone to take you out, John… If I want to beat you into oblivion I will relish the chance of doing it myself! The tunnels of terror match was my heaven hoss! It was a dream in a paradise land, where I’d be able to take you and break you into a million pieces… Why John? Well initially it was because I pictured you as a threat, the second I walked into the WGWF you were the big Non-CCPE guy to beat but now…? Now it’s so much more than that, now my reasoning includes the fact that I’m trying to survive here because you want me gone.
I can sense it John, whenever I look at you or listen to you speak, the fact you took things to a place you have recently with me that wouldn’t have even crossed your mind a while back… It’s all clear now, you wish to tear down The Kingdom! But John, I'm afraid the only thing that’s going to happen when we finally meet one on one at Wargames is that “The Beast” is going to be slain! And this is no longer because I want to punish you, this is no longer because I want to prove a point to the boys and girls watching at home… This is now because it’s something I HAVE to do, to maintain on the course I found myself and continue to prove to myself and everybody around me that I’m still capable of putting frauds like you… In your place.”
Fred swings the iron bar in his hand until he’s holding it like a javelin, then he launches it toward one of the iron piles and watches as it gets jammed between two of the objects. He climbs up another pile behind him, looking out into the distance and watches movement far beyond the horizon.
Fred: ”You know the same question is always put to me, whenever someone likes to come and interrupt me when I’m out with Aurora going to see a movie, going out to eat lunch with my boys, whether I’m visiting friends, they say Fred… What made you come to WGWF when your career had only just restarted? Why didn’t you just stay in one place and I always tell them the same thing. Because I don’t SETTLE! You’ve seen these guys in this industry calling each other “Carney” like it’s some sort of insult, well Fred Debonair is the ORIGINAL Carney and I am goddamn proud of it! I was already making my name in the Wrestling world… I’ve ALWAYS been synonymous with Wrestling but I don’t necessarily stay in one place, that’s why my contracts aren’t ever exclusive and Chris Page knew that when I came in…
I’ve always said, from the day I took out Samantha Voxx, just before the first time I beat Cable that I had a reason for being here in the WGWF and that reason was something known to me and me alone, nobody in CCPE knows it, including Page, not even my own flesh and blood know what my plans are, but believe me when I say that John Cable will be the first person that does get the memo, that I can guarantee you! But what I can’t guarantee John, is that after Wargames you’ll be walking again, I can’t guarantee John, that you’ll be signing autographs for fans again, for quite some time and in fact John Cable, I can’t guarantee that you will in any way, shape or form, be Wrestling again for the foreseeable future! Because you… You have brought this on yourself, an Iron Circle match? really? I mean you could have gone with anything… Falls count anywhere, street fight, Hell in a cell, a CABLE-TIE match, Dog Collar… Numerous different matches for you to show off to your fanbase against me… But you chose The Iron Circle…
John the IRONy of the situation isn’t lost on me hoss, the fact that this match is very likely a Cable special and one in which you aim to seek an advantage tells me everything I need to know. You’re afraid of Fred Debonair John… You’re worried that I might actually just do exactly what I say I’m going to do and that's to continue this tradition of what happens between us when we meet in the ring, isn’t that right? John, you hold a good decade over me in years on this plain we call home and you’ve done some serious winning in your career, you’ve got a locker full of ammunition even yours truly has raised an eyebrow at and I own a goddamn armoury! I do respect you as a Wrestler John, as a warrior, a competitor but John one thing you do not have, which is the same as everybody else I ever face off against and that’s the honor and privilege of being… ME!”
Fred looks around at the objects in the distance and they appear to be coming closer… At pace. He sucks in breath and slides back down the mountain of iron… He leans back against the pile.
Fred: ”You see Cable, you once made reference to things getting scary, you said the thought of me facing you alone without the interference of two or perhaps three others would be the real thing that would send chills up my spine and well… Here we are, brother let me ask you, is it anything like you thought it might be? I ask that because I happen to know for a fact John, that when you said those words you were projecting so I’m just wondering what kind of thoughts are going through your head right now? You had made some reference to Fred Debonair standing on the shoulders of others but John, can you tell me where that ever happened every time I put you in your place? Anyone who may have been there with us, got exactly the same treatment as you… Be it J Mont, Mac Bane, Voxx, Mark Cross or Mike Angelo in the end… I never had help from anybody shutting you down or shutting you up!
Yeah we were meant to meet back in February John, but I was just sick of everything being said, being done, behind the back of Fred Debonair and I took matters into my own hands… We were also meant to meet at WrestleWars 8, weren’t we John? But again something happened with you and so it ended up zero for two for either of us! And now John, we’re here…Third time lucky for you perhaps? Third time’s a charm maybe…? Who knows John, who knows…? One thing I do know though, is that anything you say you are, anything you say you can do… I can do better than you, I AM BETTER than you… And once and for all I get to prove to you, to the WGWF Universe, to everybody at home and in the arena who saw me almost pin Peter Vaughn last Brawl, that I can end this… And if I can't end this, I will end… You.
Because John I am not just coming out on Sunday night to “wrestle” you… I’m not coming out there to “fight” you, no hoss… I’m coming out there with one intention and that’s to make sure you never get in my way again! You’ve cost me a match or two since I’ve been here and tried to cost me others and yes I’ve taken you down a peg or two but what you’ve got to understand John is that, where you thought it was going to be me having second thoughts about this match and me being unsure as to whether I’m gonna even make it… To CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA! I’m thinking now brother you’ll be questioning it yourself… Because something tells me that THE GLORIOUS MANDINGO MANBEAST wants to keep on going once we’re finished in The Iron Circle, right my man? Something tells me that although he’s getting on a bit, half a century old, he’d rather not go out like this… Hmm?”
The noises grow louder, as does the laughter like chattering. Fred slides something out of his pocket and begins to type something rather quickly onto the device.
Fred: ”I wonder, John… Do you still think Fred Debonair is a coward? I guess you do considering you’ve recently accused me of sending people to attack you or something? I assume this was around the time we were supposed to have met underneath the tunnels of Las Vegas? As I’ve said if I wanted to end you, if I wanted to make an example out of you, do you really think I’d pay someone else and risk losing that credit, John?!? Come on man, use your brain! I would absolutely deal with you myself! I would want people to know what I was capable of, to know what I did… So no, Jonathan Cable, before WrestleWars 8, I did not pay any men, or women for that matter, to incapacitate you…
Something I recall when we first met John, was me asking you if it concerned you that you were walking into a pit of rabid animals… Do you remember? Well now you need to understand it’s just THE animal, me! With all due respect to J Mont, forget him… Peter Vaughn? Forget him, Mac Bane? Forget him… Whoever else you might have some kind of issue with… Forget them, because everything for you is ME, everything for you is Fred Debonair. When you’re eating, it’ll be me you see, sleeping, you’ll wake up from nightmares of me, when you’re trying to take a goddamn shower! I’ll be that bad energy that clings to you, that you just can’t scrub away John… I am nefarious, I am that I am! I am Acheron, the river of sorrow… I am Amon, the hidden one you’ll never see coming… I am Balam, the possessor already inside your head… I am Birsha, the son of wickedness… And I am Eligor Doyle, the unwilling dark stranger… And you, John Cable?
Are out of time…”
Fred jumps up just as one of the “Renegades” reaches the top of the iron pile behind him. A flashing, glowing, freestanding doorway appears in front of him. He smirks, salutes the creature and disappears leaving the scene to fade - to - black…