Games were fun.
Attention stealing little apps made to pass time and temporarily stop the effects of boredom. Draven sat with a phone in his hand, the vampire had originally believed that smartphones and such were.. just stupid little toys for stupid little humans. That was until he found himself enjoying just as much, if not more. As he played one of those little puzzle games, his red eyes focused on the blue light that irradiated from the small device.
That was until he received a notification. He raised a dark eyebrow and it was well.. A video. A video of… The Convicted..? Whoever they were, challenging the Cure to a tag team title match for End of Days.
"Oh, Nathaniel~" The dark prince called out in a sing-song voice, slinging the tag team championship around his shoulder. "We've been dared!" He exclaimed melodramatically, the sarcasm was immense. "We've been challenged to the most difficult tasks! Either we fight the Convicted or we take the easy way out and be deemed.." Draven gasped, covering his mouth mockingly.
"Cowards! Outrageous, isn't it?"
Nathan’s eyebrow raises, as he kicks his rolling chair so it’s a bullet tossing in Draven’s way. With two fingers outstretched, he reaches for Draven’s phone to inquisitively read through this challenge made by a team whose name makes him mouth the word out loud…. Had he heard of them before?
“Living large? Egos? Money? F-R-E-E-D-O-M?”
Nathan scoffs, crosses his legs in his chair, and thumbs through Draven’s phone with no time to waste.
“I… don’t know. I like this message. I’m against fighting simply for money. I’m very against huge egos. I am pro-freedom. A-are we cowards?” Nathan asks, fangs drooling with sarcasm. “Team started around February… that’s when I debuted. Let’s see, what’re they doing with their freedom?”
“No peeps at the XHF Rumble, Battle of the Best, Night of Champions, nothing. Just… dwindling in SWAT. I remember sending an invite to their federation for a tag match when I was an Icon. So much care for freedom, but they don’t use it for anything? Draven, is that what you think of freedom?”, asks Drago, while setting his phone back in his hand.
He snickered, simply shaking his head in response. "Not at all. If anything, why didn't they strike around that time? ...Oh, don't tell me. Were they scared of the Icons and now that you've made another team, they assume we'll be an easier target? Tsk, tsk, tsk."
The vampire crossed his arms. "So, either you two or.. local 'indy' nobodies, right..?" Draven snickered quietly. "Well, as far as I'm concerned-.. You seem just that, nobodies. What is it that you two have been up until now?"
“Fighting and beating the unbeatable, unstoppable tag team champions, the Nihilists... No, that’s me. Fighting multiple teams to win the belt in a fatal four way tag match… no, that’s me. Tag fighting in MCCW… wait, me again. Handling tag matches in SSS, fighting world champions, making headlines all over the network… that’s us, it seems. One of these two Convicted has been in the network longer than the two of us combined, but it seems pretty uneventful.” Drago sighs, before reaching to the gold plated XHF Tag Team championship strapped around his waist. He removes it, shakes it, then holds it in front of his face to stare into the reflection.
“Oh magic 8 ball, what does control mean? What does autonomy mean? What does freedom mean? Do any of these have any meaning if you won’t use them? The Convicted are still convicts, institutionalized in bars in their own mind. Draven, we’re building an empire starting with establishing thrones for royalty. They’re building slums, starting with the prison. Is this your ideal of a kingdom?”
As if one cue, Draven picked up the other Tag Team Championship and briefly raised it with a smug expression, before laying it back on his shoulder. "Oh, no- Don't mention all that, Nathaniel. They said they didn't care about what we have previously done, remember?" The vampire rolled his red eyes. Briefly glaring.
"You're both free men, now. Isn't that right? Why did you film inside of a prison cell? Why are you wearing prisoner clothing? Don't make me laugh. Truth is, this is- If it is all about freedom.. Why do you both walk around with this constant theme of being captured criminals? You both call yourself the Convicted, even! Let's be honest, this is also about money. You're both trying to make money because this is probably the only occupation that would ever accept you."
Draven sighed, seemingly exasperated with even having to respond.
"Why is this tag team division a joke?"
“Oooooooooh. Don’t be like that, Vince”, Drago replies, with a hand on the other champion’s chest. “I’ve been in this division longer than you. The Nihilists were the sole thing keeping it alive for almost a year without a loss. Before them, the Vipers. There’s that team of robots with lasers and shit… the OG Icons used to keep this division propped up, too. We could be fighting network legends, fucking cyborgs, or one of the luchadors who kicked me in the face three times before I blinked. There’s a thousand paths to End of Days, Draven. These guys say we either fight them or take the easy way out? That’s the same path, guys. If this is the only way either of you two can go into End of Days, so be it. You’ve got the points. You’ve got a match. You managed to beat teams no one ever heard of. Plenty of you SWAT guys did it. The only difference is that you saved, stored, and stockpiled those points until you could cash your ticket to the biggest show on the network.”
Drago strokes that championship belt, then looks back to the camera.
“Your fifteen minutes of fame starts now.”
Suddenly Draven didn't feel too out of place knowing that cyborgs existed. Anyways...
Draven smirked, tapping the main plate of the belt of which he carried. "That is true, they want to cash in? Who are we to say no? After all, maybe they'll surprise us and put an exceptional fight! Though, they don't have a chance of winning- Fighting for freedom or not ...So, to answer the question that you have asked." He paused, the playful expression on the vampire's face faded into a serious glare. Baring his teeth with a little hiss.
"Yes, we accept."
End Transmission.