APRIL 21, 2010
GUISEPPI'S PIZZA PARLOR
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA
11:58 AM EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME
Jake Donovan arrived a little early at the pizza parlor and ordered a root beer seeing as how it was only noon. He thought about a beer though, and nearly changed his order twice before finally deciding to just take the root beer and sit down. He thought about ordering pizza, but not knowing what type Wendy would like, if any, he decided to wait for her to arrive. If she arrived. He hoped she would arrive. After three minutes he went back to the counter and ordered a beer, then leaned back against the wall, sipping it and staring out the window, waiting for her to arrive, the letter sitting like a hot coal in his jacket pocket.
The whiny pitch of a vespa engine grabbed Jake's attention, and he looked up as a lithe figure riding a green motorscooter pulled to the curb, and stopped. He saw the figure dismount and remove their helmet, revealing a flame-haired young woman underneath. The woman took off her gloves, and put them inside the helmet, walking inside.
In just a few short moments, she was at his table, smiling shyly at him. She quickly took off her jacket, revealing a pale yellow shirt to complement her blue jeans. Putting the helmet in an adjacent seat, she hung her jacket over the back of her chair and sat down.
"Hello, Jake," Wendy Briese-Thompson said.
"Hi Wendy," Jake said, "Would you like to split a pizza?"
He glanced at the helmet. Something he saw made him look at it more and he reached towards it and traced one of the patterns. "He did good work, didn't he?"
Wendy nodded silently, watching as Jake traced his fingers. "He did," she agreed softly. "Its a shame i never got to see more of his..." there was a pause, as Wendy stared out the window soberly.
Finally, she started, as if just remembering Jake's presence. She smiled meekly at Donovan. "And yes, I'd love to split a pizza."
"What kind would you like?" he asked, giving her a reassuring smile.
Wendy shrugged. "I'm not picky, but nothing too spicy. If you're going to insist that I pick, though, supreme would be fine."
He chuckled.
"Supreme will be just fine." he said and headed back over to the counter, putting the order for the pizza in. "Pepsi, Dr. Pepper? Root Beer? Crush?" he called across the room to her.
"Do they have Diet?"
"Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Pepsi and Diet Crush." he called back.
"Wow," Wendy exclaimed, surprised at three diet sodas to choose from. "Diet Pepsi, please."
When he came to the table, he set her Diet Pepsi down in front of her, then settled down across from her, strands of his hair falling forward in his face, forcing him to brush the tangled mess back. He looked, not only younger, in that action, but also very much as his mentor used to with all that tangled black and red hair that had once fallen into Rick's eyes.
"I was afraid you wouldn't show." Jake said. "You seemed hesitant about meeting me."
"Well, the first time I saw you on television, you weren't exactly giving a 'welcome to the WWA, gee, I'd like to talk to you' vibe," Wendy explained simply.
"Honestly," he said "Seeing you accept Mandrake as a partner was a bit of a shocker, I didn't particularly feel very welcoming towards either one of you. It was like you were saying the past didn't matter, and everything he did for you didn't matter."
"It matters, Jake. It matters a lot." Wendy said quietly. "I sided with Mandrake for the same reason Rick did... the alternative was to watch someone I care about suffer."
"I'd ask how that guy constantly got away with that shit, but I've heard the stories. Rick wrote him a letter too, lord only knows why but I'm in no big hurry to meet that big bastard face to face and deliver it." Jake admitted.
"Stay away from him, Jake." Wendy warned "If... if he knew... what you are..."
Jake chuckled.
"So you've figured it out?" he said "I kind of suspected you had when you saw me at the show."
Wendy nodded. "I could... you look so similar. He was bigger, but..." she paused. "He never mentioned you."
"When you knew him, he didn't know where I was, or even if I was still alive. I found him in Japan, and I didn't know myself, until he took one look at me and told me exactly who I was. And proved it to. That day changed my life." Jake said. "Hell, he saved my life over there. Talk about being a stupid rookie, Japan is not the place to be ignorant, of anything. I got to see the belts you two held together."
Wendy smiled at the memory of her winning the BPP All-Asia Tag Championship those years ago, in an exhausting one night round robin tournament. Her own belt sat on her dresser, next to her other awards and trophies.
"I always managed to do well in Japan," she finally said.
"I never expected the level of violence." Jake admitted. "I remember this one match, was like my second match over there, and they had strung barbed wire around the ring. I about died, I mean, I was scared to even get in there, I felt like a coward standing on the ramp, waiting to go down there. Then here HE comes, he looked at me, he looked at the ring, and then he walked down there with me, without a word, and tore the barbed wire down. He looked after me from then on out."
Wendy shook her head in disgust. She always detested the type of wrestling that glorified sadism over pure technical ability. "The trick was to know which feds were okay, and which ones weren't. Burning Phoenix wasn't like that. I faced some very tough challengers there, but I was never in one of those idiotic 'deathmatches'".
Jake nodded
"That's what he explained." Jake said. "I could see the scars all over him, and he explained many of them, the matches, how he'd gotten put in them, and then something I never thought I'd hear, and that was how much he'd hated those matches. I asked why then was he always in them, and he said that once he'd gotten torn up in enough of them, it didn't matter anymore, he was already a freak. But he didn't want that for me, and he found me another place to wrestle, one that didn't have barbed wire and death matches."
"Rick Logan was NEVER a freak," Wendy said fiercely. "He was a human being, just like you, or I. He... just had a couple of chunks taken out of him."
Jake smiled.
"I know." he said. "But you never could tell him that, especially not after that last fed here in the US and that last World Title. It destroyed him both physically and mentally and he never recovered from that. He was facing retirement and he couldn't see how there was any life left for him outside of the ring with all the damage the years had done to him. I wish you could have talked to him, I wish he would have called you, maybe, I don't know, maybe he would have listened to you."
Wendy immediately looked away, out the window, and Jake could tell she was fighting tears. "I wish he had too," she said quietly. Finally, she looked back at Jake. "Mandrake says he killed himself because of me. He said I put so much turmoil into his mind, then abandoned him to his own fate, that he just couldn't deal with it anymore."
"That's bullshit." Jake said. "Rick pulled the trigger for one reason and one reason only, and that was because he was never going to be allowed to wrestle in another sanctioned match and he could not handle it. He thought his life was empty and meaningless without being able to get into the ring himself. He thought it made him nothing, and he couldn't accept the loss of it. Neither his music nor his art could replace what wrestling was to him, mainly because he felt he wasn't "good enough" at either one to make up for what losing wrestling would cost him. And with his wife gone, and his kids gone, he thought he had nothing to live for."
"Even so," Wendy said bitterly. "I should have called him sometime. I knew how unstable he was, and I couldn't be bothered to make ten minutes out of a week... out of even a month. Just to let him know that someone besides you and Victor cared for him."
"He figured you didn't call because of Terrence." Jake said. "He'd told me once he'd wished he could have come to the wedding to see you walk down the aisle but knowing how Terrence felt about him..."
"Terrence never liked him, but I don't think he hated him either. The wedding was small, just Dan and Terrence's Uncle Steve attended. We just wanted it... private."
Jake nodded.
"I think he just wanted to see you happy." Jake said. "He snuck into one of your performances once. He made a collage of the program and some pictures he took. Said he felt like a stalker having to do it, but he'd wanted to see you."
"He better not have used flash photography," Wendy tried to joke lamely. There was a pause. "I'd like to see that, sometime."
Jake laughed.
"I have it, I have all his artwork, and that Harley he loved." Jake said "I'd be happy to show them to you sometime."
"I'd love that," Wendy said, smiling. "But you said you had something for me?"
Jake nodded and reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a letter with Wendy's name on the front. It was sealed with red wax that bore the emblem of a wolf.
Wendy took a look at the letter and smiled at the wax seal, so much more inviting than the sinister black M that had dotted the last letter she had opened. Carefully, she tore the envelope open, pulling out its contents. The first thing that slid out was a photograph, it was of Rick and Wendy in Japan with their tag titles, posing with a young fan. The second was a sketch of Wendy sitting on a park bench, from the blooming flowers behind her, it would have been in New Orleans. The third thing however, was a letter. In careful handwriting Rick had written.
Dear Wendy.
Even as I write these words to you, I have this mental image in my head of you with your hands on your hips, your face turning as red as your hair, your eyes narrowed as you glare at me and tell me you cannot believe I could be so unbelievably stupid. Well, I never did have too much in the brains department , so, I guess you have a right to be mad. I pulled the trigger, that or I drove my Harley off the side of that hairpin turn leading down from the Berkshires. I love that spot, you can see the whole valley when you stand there. I prolly didn't wreck the bike off of it though, you know how much I love that damn thing, Destroying it would piss me off, even as I was dying, so more than likely someones called and told you I pulled the trigger. I know you're disappointed. I am sorry for that.
Oh, Meet Jake. He's a good kid, watch out for his sense of humor though, it's a bit dark, wonder where he got that from.
Anyway, where to begin. I've missed you these past few years, I wish the BWA had never closed and we didn't all have to go our separate ways, your friendship always meant allot to me. So much has happened, I won another world title, can ya believe it, and the band was actually doing well for awhile, I wish you could have come to hear us play. I doubt you would have liked the music, we were a bit loud, allot dark, and really heavy, but it was fun while it lasted, and like so many other things, I wish I could have shared them with you.
I wish, at times, that certain things had never marred our friendship, like Victor and that unholy alliance that I made with him. I want you to understand something about that, I always felt bad about how guilty you felt over the whole thing, when I tied myself to Victor. First you have to realize that once I'd given him my word, there was no way I was going to look for a way to break it, though there were times when I almost wish that I had. I valued his friendship, in some strange, twisted way, Victor was my friend, just as you were. It didn't start out that way, it just developed down there in the dungeon. It took quite a few years before I understood why. Victor always said that I was caught between the two of you in some sort of a moral dilemma. The funny thing was, it wasn't a moral dilemma it all, it was more like an emotional one. A part of me only felt happy when I gave in to the very things that Victor wanted me to give into. Rage, Hate, they needed an outlet before they consumed me from the inside out, while another part of me wanted to be "normal," wanted to be someone that the fans, the people looked up to.
Shades of gray, I guess i tried to live my life only in shades of gray. I didn't want to chose because I didn't want to lose either part of myself, they were both important. I couldn't be good all the time, and I couldn't be bad all the time, so I guess I was never going to fit on either side.
The funny thing is, I don't want that for Jake, I've tried to keep the "badness" from him, protect him from the evil that I would have done had he not been watching. So in the end, I guess I did finally get to be the hero for once. Jake is so much the me that I wanted to be when I was that age and just starting out and had so many stupid dreams and ideals about what I could be in the business before I allowed others to twist those visions. In the end, I think I just wasn't strong enough to find one path and stick to it. I've an addictive personality, I'm too easily swayed, by music, by drugs, by booze, by wrestling, and by the people who are close to me. Not really a life worth saving, when you think about it. So I don't want you to mourn for me and I don't want you to feel like you let me down. I don't want help at this point, I just want to silence all the conflicting voices in my head that are driving me mad. Hell, and they said the damn drugs were supposed to silence them. They lied.
I saw you with your little girl, at the theater, she's beautiful, just like you. Your lucky, they are such joys, children, I loved being a dad. I miss them. I miss allot of things. Take care of yourself Wendy, and drop in on my pain in the ass little brother every once in awhile, he could use a friend or two.
Bye for now Wendy, and remember, death is only the beginning.
RICK
The tears ran freely down Wendy's cheeks as she folded the letter up, and placed it, the photograph, and the sketch in the envelope. "Thank you, Rick," she said, sniffling all the while.
Jake reached across the table and gently, if not a little awkwardly patted her hand.
"I cried when I read my letter too." he said softly.
Wendy nodded, and wiped away her tears. "He always... had to do everything on his terms. I guess dying shouldn't have to be any different."
Jake nodded.
"I miss him." he said softly "But I guess I can't really see him sitting on the sidelines growing old either, though I wish he'd have stuck around longer. I still have a million and one questions."
"Honestly," Wendy replied. "I think he knew there are just some things you have to find out for yourself."
Jake chuckled.
"Yeah." Jake agreed. "I bet he did. Your not going to tell anyone, about, the link between him and I?"
"Of course not," Wendy said. "I know Rick had many enemies, and I know at least one that would be very interested in you. Besides, I know how proud you are to be Rick Logan's brother, and that's your song to sing to the world, when you feel ready."
Jake nodded.
"Thank you for that." he said. "Your right, I'm very proud to be his brother, I still can't believe how lucky I was to find him. All my life I thought I was just an outcast, that there was something wrong with me that I didn't fit in with the rest of my family, now I know it was because they weren't family at all."
Wendy shook her head. "Blood isn't what's needed to make a family, Jake. Just love."
"If someone loves you, they don't lie to you." Jake said. "And all the people who adopted me seem to know how to do is lie and try to cover up lies."
Wendy waved her hands in a placating gesture. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. It really isn't any of my business, and even if it was, this is an argument for another day."
"It's alright." he said. "I try not to let anything about them upset me anymore. I hope you will meet me again, when you have time and all, I'd love to show you the artwork you asked about."
"I'll let you know the next time I'm in the area," Wendy promised, as she pulled out her money to pay for the pizza that had come, and been devoured, without either Jake or Wendy really noticing.
Jake pulled out money as well, looking at the empty tray.
"Funny, I didn't taste a single bite." he said shaking his head. "Well, if it wasn't very good, least we didn't notice."
Wendy laughed, and stood up, grabbing her jacket, and the helmet. As Jake rose as well, Wendy's phone went off, a short high pitched ring.
Wendy took out her phone, and read the text message. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed
"Is everything alright?" Jake asked her, looking concerned.
Wendy looked directly at Jake, her eyes wide open in astonishment. "They just declared the World Tag titles vacant."
"They can DO that?" Jake asked, showing his youth and naivety.
Wendy nodded absently, her gaze having shifted back to her phone. "They can... and I suppose with all the chaos surrounding the situation, there was no other choice. I just wish I knew who 'they' were."
"What happens now?" Jake asked, then his green eyes widened and he smiled at Wendy. "Hey, that means you're no longer tied to Mandrake."
Wendy stared at Jake like she had never seen him before, then finally broke into a smile. "You're right," she whispered. "I'm free!"
Jake smiled even brighter.
"Be safe," he said as he held the door open for her. "Don't let him back you into a trap again, i doubt you'd be so lucky a second time."
"I won't," Wendy promised, heading for her bike. "See you around, Jake."
"See ya Wendy," Jake said as he headed for the rebuilt Trans-Am. The engine, when he started it, roared to life. Wendy watched him pull away, then retreated to her own Vespa, a smile on her lips.
==================================
APRIL 22, 2010
KOA CAMPGROUND
CORAOPOLIS, PENNSYLVANIA
10:46 AM EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME
(So we open in the WhirlyBirdz RV, which really needs a much cooler name. The camera has been placed on a tripod in the middle of the main cabin, and its pointing at the couch that doubles as Cassie's bed. On that couch, sits Wendy Briese, wearing a dark green shirt, and a long black skirt. As usual, her hair is tied back in its customary ponytail. Behind her, the window shades have been pulled up, so we get a glorious view of the KOA campground behind her.)
(As usual, Wendy sits up straight, her hands in front of her, holding a small, taped up box. Wendy looks down at the box, and sighs.)
Wendy- Well, I suppose by now you all can guess what's in here. The World Tag Team Championships have been declared vacant, and I have to return mine to the alliance corporate offices. So, yes, after I'm done with this interview, I'm off to UPS. I promised to return the belt if it turned out it wasn't mine, and I intend to keep my word.
(She looks down at the box, and shrugs)
Wendy- I'm sure most people are wondering how I feel about it, and, well, its bittersweet. On one hand, I did really want to be the World Tag Team Champion again, and I suppose it was nice to think that I was for a month. On the other hand...
(Wendy breaks into a smile)
Wendy- I am now free of Victor Mandrake's hold on me. Now, I'm not so naive as to think that I'm never going to see that monster again, especially after that spectacular stunt my husband pulled a couple days ago.
(Wendy rolls her eyes and sighs in exasperation, which is a much calmer reaction than her initial one when she heard about Terrence clubbing Mandrake with a baseball bat.)
Wendy- Still, what's done is done, and I can't change the past. I am however, more than relieved that I will never be forced into a situation where I have to trust Victor. He will not have my back in a match, and I will never have to force myself to touch his bloodstained hands to tag out. As far as I'm concerned, the loss of this belt is more than ample payment for my freedom, especially considering that Terrence and I are more than capable of winning the tag championships, whether WWA, PWX, or anywhere else, on our own.
(Wendy pauses, and sets the box aside, then turning back to the camera.)
Wendy- But I've got more pressing issues to deal with, mainly my upcoming match with Lust at High Stakes. Now, this match should be an interesting challenge for me, as so far the PWX has seen no less than five seperate incarnations of Lust. I guess you can say that Lust is like a box of chocolates, you'll never know what you're going to get!
(Wendy laughs weakly at her own joke, grinning sheepishly at the camera.)
Wendy- Now, with five Lusts I could possibly face...
Male Voice (from somewhere off screen)- Make that, seven, biatch!
(Wendy jumps, startled by the interruption, then looks over at the source. Her eyes immediately go wide in horror, and her face pales.)
Wendy- (weakly) Oh, God. Please, no!
(From either side of the camera, two masked figures appear. On Wendy's left is a taller, well-built man, wearing a #9 Kasey Kahne Budweiser T-shirt, and a pair of jeans. Obviously Terrence "Twister" Thompson, Wendy's husband, but his face is covered by a Jason Vorhees mask.)
(On her right is a stocky gentleman, in a red hawaian shirt and a pair of khaki shorts. Again, obviously Daniel Pollaski, but on his head is a Barak Obama mask)
(Wendy, knowing full well that Pollaski is a staunch conservative, expects absolutely nothing good to be coming out of this.)
Wendy- (covering her face in her hands) I'm going to be fired...
Pollaski- (In a fairly awful imitation of Barak Obama's voice) I... uh... certainly hope that is... uh... not the case. Our, uh, unemployment rate is, uh, high enough, uh, already.
(Please send all complaints to pollaski@gmail.com)
Wendy- Why are you guys even doing this?
(Twister shrugs)
Twister (in his normal voice)- Because we thought that, as cool as FIVE lusts were, SEVEN would be even better! I mean, then there'd be one for each continent!
(Wendy sighs, and again covers her face.)
Wendy- Why me?
Pollaski- (still using Obama's voice) We, uh, thought that, uh, now, that we are members of the, uh, Lust, we could,uh, use it to benefit, uh, National Security. We are, uh, fully committed to contribite, uh, to their cause. We, uh, even got them a new Slave!
Wendy- (now in absolute full-fledged panic mode) NO!
(Pollaski reaches behind him and pulls out a toy spaceship. Star Wars fans would recognize it as Jango Fett's ship from Episode II)
(For those of you who aren't geeks, the ship was named the Slave I.)
Wendy- (with a mixture of revulsion and relief) That's... a... stretch.
(But completely nonoffensive!)
Twister- Yeah, but its way cooler than hanging out with an androgynous anorexic in a gimp suit.
(That too)
Wendy- (softly) Terry, Dan, could you please go away so I can-
(Girl, interrupted)
Twister- And what's REALLY cool about this whole Lust thing is that they sometimes speak in rhymes.
Wendy- No rhyming... please, just no...
(Twister, obviously ignores her and continues)
Twister- We can promo in couplets, which we have never TRIED.
Pollaski- We'll be, uh, just like Fezzik from, uh, The Princess BRIDE!
*SMACK*
(That would be the sound of Wendy's palm smacking her forehead)
Twister- And they say that Lust could never beat Wendy, we could not come up with a PLAN.
Pollaski- But, uh, I say to all the cynics out there.... YES WE CAN!
(Ha!)
[B] SNAP [/B]
(That would be Wendy's patience.)
Wendy- WILL YOU TWO PLEASE GET OUT OF MY PROMO!
(Wendy stands up, glaring at both her husband and her manager.)
Pollaski- (back in his normal voice) Uh, dude, we better go. .. she's got that gleam in her eye.
(It should be known that Wendy, as kind and nice as she is, does have a temper. Generally, this comes in the form of indignation. However, sometimes things just really aggrivate her to the point where she can get a teensy violent)
(Like deck half the rosters of two entire regions with a signapore cane violent)
(Now even though Wendy's hardly an expert in the usage of weapons, getting hit by something swung by her is gonna hurt. But what's even worse about the meltdowns is that when Wendy comes out of her rage, she feels amazingly guilty)
(Most of her victims found the two weeks of incessant apologies WAY more annoying than whatever the hell she hit them with in the first place.)
(So unless you enjoy being hit with something, and being nagged for forgiveness for a good fortnight, its best, when you see that "gleam", to leave)
(Like, immediately)
Twister- Ooh, good point. Let's go. Hey, uh, want us to take your package and mail it while we're out?
(Wendy slowly nods, and Twister and Dan quickly pick up the package, and make their exit)
(The redheaded woman, watches them go, and sighs. Slowly, she sits back down on the couch, and turns back towards the camera.)
Wendy- Sorry, where was I?
(Lust)
Wendy- Right. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, I have really no idea who I will be facing this week. I could be facing the one who appears to be the leader. If so, I will have to rely on my speed and reflexes, playing a game of cat and mouse; get in, do what damage I can, and get out before he catches me with a devastating move.
(Wendy says all this matter-of-factly, without a trace of fear, she's become an expert in using her mobility to defeat larger, stronger opponents)
Wendy- Or will I face the larger Lust, who is well over twice my mass? In this case, I'll have to destroy his mobility with leg kicks and submissions, then wear him down once he is unable to move. A daunting challenge, yes, but I've defeated giants before.
(This part was said with a little trepidation, after all, one big move from a 300+ opponent, and she can end up in pretty bad shape. Even so, Wendy does know how to beat giants, and she's done it before.)
Wendy- Or maybe I will face the female Lust, in which case I will likely find my speed advantage gone, but have my full arsenal of moves available.
(Wendy said this with a bit of disgust. Obviously, she's faced other women before, and she has a stellar record against females. But Wendy also saw Lust's last promo and, well, let's just say she didn't like it. At all.)
(Still, Wendy just shrugs, and continues.)
Wendy- Or will it be a Lust I know nothing about, and I'll have to improvise a strategy on the fly? Whichever way, it should be an interesting challenge for me. And I'm ready for a good challenge. With all due respect to The Fallen, my first two matches were somewhat... lacking in the challenge department.
(Wendy shifts uncomfortably... it never suits her to talk bad about her opponents wrestling abilities.)
Wendy- We beat the Fallen in part because Grayson Willis forgot that chivalry has no place inside of a wrestling ring. And Mercedes Morgan, with all due respect, was obviously overmatched to the point where we should consider ourselves fortunate she wasn't seriously injured.
(Another small shrug, and a smile)
Wendy- But I can sense that Lust will be a much stronger test for me, but it is a test I fully intend to pass with flying colors. I came to the PWX with the expectation that I will contend for championships, and I am slowly working my way up the ladder. Beating Lust should accelerate my climb, and that's what I'll do.
(Wendy smiles)
Wendy- So Lust, whichever one it will be, will bring their "A" game, and of course, I'll bring mine. But in the end, I will be the one walking out of High Stakes the winner. I need this too much for the result to be otherwise.
(Now, a big grin)
Wendy- Its time to remind the world just what exactly Wendy Briese is capable of.
(The scene fades.)
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