Post by Mav. on Jan 25, 2020 6:37:48 GMT -5
Hunt What You Can't Kill
Chapter Two; Part Three
The scene begins with an old recording of the XHF Network news report as we see the moment that Maverick was crowned X*Crown Champion at A Very AWF Christmas, pinning Bobby Barratt in the middle of the ring after hitting Storm Zero and ending the match over twenty minutes in. The one screen where we see the news report being shown upon shuts off, leaving a reflection of the X*Crown Champion to show. He starts to speak as if singing but ever so gently.
“Here comes the bride… dressed all in light… Radiant and lovely she shines in his sight.”
We see from his reflection that he looks down at something, that’s when he raises it into view as we find it to be the customised X*Crown Championship, he places it on his right shoulder and then looks back into the blank television screen as it comes back to life once again.
Just like before, the screen shuts off but there’s no reflection, then the camera pans upwards to find Maverick looking down onto the camera, a look of displeasure along his face as we watch him knock the television over from its stand, the screen smashes to pieces with sparks beginning to fly out of the television itself. He takes a few steps around the television before placing one foot onto it and then looking up at the camera’s lens.
“Traitor.”
He shakes his head as he looks to his right before looking back into the lens.
“Tell me this, why do you hate me? Why do you think I did what I did? Do you think I was ready to move on once the glory was mine? Not at all, it’s quite the opposite. But let them sing in unison, let them chant it out loudly. The chorus of boos and the chants of traitor, let them sing it out. You do realise the person I am, right? I’m the same man who destroyed Jenny Stackhouse’s grave, I’m the same person who broke Eric Dane’s arm and yet it’s when I move back to AWF… You let your opinions be known loudly.”
A slight chuckle comes from under his breath.
“You still cheered me on. You will still cheer me on when I win, not if, but when I win. You can’t hate me… ever. So you may be cheering on for Mike Lio or for Death Trap or even Zoran Sainovic but let’s be real honest here, you’ll still love me when I walk in and out the champion.”
A devious smirk appears.
“It must be hard carrying the weight and pride of an entire promotion on your shoulders, David, I should know since I carried that same weight on mine back in October. It must be hard being the fan favorite going into such a match and having the pride of MCCW being already on your shoulders, it’s a wonder if you can do that, I know I couldn’t. But here you are, plans already in your head of what you’ll do as X*Crown Champion and yet you still haven’t been in the match and you still haven’t beaten me for it. Thinking of the success a bit too much, David, it’s getting in your head and you don’t know if you can keep it up. I know what I can do, I know what must be done. I know the weaknesses of having everything weighing on your shoulders, David, I’ve been there.”
He takes his foot off the television and heads over to his desk, the one placed right in front of the mural of championships that represent the X*Crown itself, along with the plethora of championships that Maverick has won in the past. His most current one is placed on a stand, resting on the desk itself with its center plates shining from the lights.
“Let’s see those plans, David, shall we? If you win, you might give me my rematch and then find an opponent for March and then head for The Rumble and win that. You, my friend, are thinking too long ahead of time. It’s a wonder if you think you know what’s going to happen, or it’s just one hell of a prediction on your part. If that’s a prediction, it’s a pretty wild one, not even I could give myself a prediction like so and I like to think I’ll stay champion forever.”
He shakes his head.
“But you said it yourself, David, we’re very much quite egocentric about ourselves, it’s something we do a lot… but even I know my limits, even I know how far I should go with things. I could tell you that I’m going to win at Supremacy but I ain’t going to tell you that I’m making my way over to The Rumble or to Night of Champions as the holder to this belt. But even if it’s hard to tell from your perspective, let’s tell those kids how you plan on making me tap out, I know you have done it before so maybe the future holds the same fate once again? ...no.”
He shrugs his shoulders as he places his feet onto the desk.
“David, you probably still see me as the man who left MCCW with a crumbling record and a string of losses that I still am very much embarrassed by, you still see me as the failure that I was and it’s not hard to see that. I might have gotten lucky with the gauntlet and then with Bobby, I might have gotten lucky with Eric Dane and hell… It might be the luck on my side to win at Supremacy but I don’t need the luck, I am not going to show you how lucky I am at Supremacy, what you’ll experience is the real me, the fighter and the killer… The Legend Killer.”
Once again, that same devious smirk appears on his face.
“If we could rewind to last year’s Supremacy last year, it was myself and MGK in a match I waited throughout 2018 for and I told him that The Legend Killer was coming… and he crumbled at my feet as I had my hand raised in victory, for you… It’s different. We’ve already acknowledged that your status as XHF Legend is questionable, so why should I bring back that moniker for you? The thing is, David… I need this win more than anyone else in this match. I need to bring back something I had success with at this exact same Pay Per View. Mike Lio might need this to bring everyone’s attention back to Destiny Wrestling but they still get a few thousand and hundreds of people into their venues, they don’t need it. Zoran might think he needs to live up to his promise of bringing SWAT out of its reputation but he’s adding fuel to the already burning fire.”
He lifts his left hand up, showing two fingers pointed upwards.
“And then you…”
He raises a third finger.
“You need this to bring yourself back to life, you need to show people that the Main Attraction still has it in him and you need to give people a reason to watch MCCW and not just because it has the stars of XHF’s past. I mean, that’s the vibe everyone gets from it, that’s what I was always told when I was on the roster. But what do I need to prove? I’m representing AWF, I’m representing the brand that’s been on top for almost three years, what do I need to prove for them?”
Slowly, a fourth finger is raised.
“It’s not for them.”
He shakes his head.
“It’s for me, it’s for the current champion himself. This match has me in a corner that I can’t seem to find a way out of, David. The more I try, the tighter the space is left for me to escape. There is so much for me to prove. I need to prove that my win of this precious and luxurious championship wasn’t just a fluke as many said it was.”
He says as he taps on the title’s silver front plate.
“I need to show everyone that I am a totally new man, I’m not the same person that either you or Mike Lio describe me as. I need to leave the losses in the past, I need to leave my past to die. The past that holds all those matches that everyone brings up, the past that showed me as your average Icon doing Icon things, the past of being in the shadows of two men who always had the keys to the kingdom but never once was I in their same spotlight. I need to break out of what people see me as, I need to prove to people that I’m not someone that crumbles at the top, I need to show you that I am the future of this title.”
He pauses for a moment, taking some deep breaths to calm himself down.
“David, let me speak to you man to man on something and maybe you, Lio, could listen in on this too.”
He takes the X*Crown Championship off his shoulder and lays it down on the desk to his right as he leans closer into the camera lens.
“I know how fun it probably is to talk about how many losses I’ve taken, how many times I’ve fallen at the better man’s feet but don’t you think it’s getting a bit old? I mean, every match I have seems to depict me as the guy who has those losses and then there’s the opponent. Does everyone think that my losses are something special? It’s just… Everyone, including you, sound like a broken record by bringing it up at each chance you have and you know what makes it worse? It’s always going to be that way, I could be holding this belt for almost a year and we could still have people screaming into the heavens that I lost to Seth Dillinger, Chris Card, Jack Diamond, Anthony Caffrey, JFK, Kuroi, Death Trap, Bernhardt Denzinger, Shawn Hatfield… The list goes on and on and that’s just in the last year!”
He shakes his head in disapproval.
“I’ve told Dane what’s made me immortal, I’m not going to repeat it again just for your sake of misunderstanding what I’ve become. But if you needed the hint, it involves still being here as your X*Crown Champion after all those losses I’ve listed. I’ve become the King when I won this title, I had my coronation just before you made your intents for Supremacy known. Yes, I have the natural charisma and I have the in-ring talent and that’s why I won this title. It wasn’t because Bobby wasn’t ready for me, he’s been ready for me since The Rumble last year… He’s been ready for me long before that… 2017 maybe? We were ready to clash and all it took was two years. If he wasn’t ready for me, would he really have won at End of Days? Would he really have taken the X*Crown out of my hands?”
His eyes roll, touting at Death Trap’s comment.
“I know my current situation is dangerous for me to play, I know it’s going to take a lot of skill and making sure I don’t turn my back at the wrong moment. It’s one pinfall that’ll cost me, it’s one man tapping out that’ll cost me if I am not too careful and knowing you, David, you won’t go for me… You’ll take the easy way out of it, you’ll go for someone weaker like Mike Lio or Zoran Sainovic but I’ve watched and I’ve studied you and it’s not past MCCW matches, it’s your old past too.”
He points to the camera and slightly shakes his finger.
“I know what I need to look out for, I know what moves you do to set up that Dragon Clutch submission, I know every single bit of detail about you and what you do… Can you say the same for me? I come out of nowhere, I strike at any point given, I spike your head onto the mat and you won’t even have a second to think of a plan out of it. So you want to tell me that you have your strategies? Well then, tell me. What strategies do you have for someone that’s unpredictable, what plans do you have for someone you can’t keep off the ground? If there’s anything I’ve learned from past experiences with someone like you, it’s survival. Let them waste their energy on trying to put you down and when they are weakened, attack. Pounce on the victim… and then go for the kill.”
He begins to chuckle to himself once more.
“You might think you have this set in stone but I’ve always been one step ahead of you, Mike Lio and Zoran Sainovic… who might as well be three steps behind us at this moment? We’ll see when the time comes. But for you, David, you need to realize you cannot hunt something you cannot kill. I’ve been to hell and back and he’s waiting to swallow you whole, so don’t keep the devil waiting, old friend. It’s time to burn everything you’ve built yourself up to and it’s time to end the legend known…”
The camera quickly cuts to black as we hear Maverick’s voice one more time.
“...as Death Trap.”
End Transmission.
The X*Crown Vaults. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
The scene begins with an old recording of the XHF Network news report as we see the moment that Maverick was crowned X*Crown Champion at A Very AWF Christmas, pinning Bobby Barratt in the middle of the ring after hitting Storm Zero and ending the match over twenty minutes in. The one screen where we see the news report being shown upon shuts off, leaving a reflection of the X*Crown Champion to show. He starts to speak as if singing but ever so gently.
“Here comes the bride… dressed all in light… Radiant and lovely she shines in his sight.”
We see from his reflection that he looks down at something, that’s when he raises it into view as we find it to be the customised X*Crown Championship, he places it on his right shoulder and then looks back into the blank television screen as it comes back to life once again.
Just like before, the screen shuts off but there’s no reflection, then the camera pans upwards to find Maverick looking down onto the camera, a look of displeasure along his face as we watch him knock the television over from its stand, the screen smashes to pieces with sparks beginning to fly out of the television itself. He takes a few steps around the television before placing one foot onto it and then looking up at the camera’s lens.
“Traitor.”
He shakes his head as he looks to his right before looking back into the lens.
“Tell me this, why do you hate me? Why do you think I did what I did? Do you think I was ready to move on once the glory was mine? Not at all, it’s quite the opposite. But let them sing in unison, let them chant it out loudly. The chorus of boos and the chants of traitor, let them sing it out. You do realise the person I am, right? I’m the same man who destroyed Jenny Stackhouse’s grave, I’m the same person who broke Eric Dane’s arm and yet it’s when I move back to AWF… You let your opinions be known loudly.”
A slight chuckle comes from under his breath.
“You still cheered me on. You will still cheer me on when I win, not if, but when I win. You can’t hate me… ever. So you may be cheering on for Mike Lio or for Death Trap or even Zoran Sainovic but let’s be real honest here, you’ll still love me when I walk in and out the champion.”
A devious smirk appears.
“It must be hard carrying the weight and pride of an entire promotion on your shoulders, David, I should know since I carried that same weight on mine back in October. It must be hard being the fan favorite going into such a match and having the pride of MCCW being already on your shoulders, it’s a wonder if you can do that, I know I couldn’t. But here you are, plans already in your head of what you’ll do as X*Crown Champion and yet you still haven’t been in the match and you still haven’t beaten me for it. Thinking of the success a bit too much, David, it’s getting in your head and you don’t know if you can keep it up. I know what I can do, I know what must be done. I know the weaknesses of having everything weighing on your shoulders, David, I’ve been there.”
He takes his foot off the television and heads over to his desk, the one placed right in front of the mural of championships that represent the X*Crown itself, along with the plethora of championships that Maverick has won in the past. His most current one is placed on a stand, resting on the desk itself with its center plates shining from the lights.
“Let’s see those plans, David, shall we? If you win, you might give me my rematch and then find an opponent for March and then head for The Rumble and win that. You, my friend, are thinking too long ahead of time. It’s a wonder if you think you know what’s going to happen, or it’s just one hell of a prediction on your part. If that’s a prediction, it’s a pretty wild one, not even I could give myself a prediction like so and I like to think I’ll stay champion forever.”
He shakes his head.
“But you said it yourself, David, we’re very much quite egocentric about ourselves, it’s something we do a lot… but even I know my limits, even I know how far I should go with things. I could tell you that I’m going to win at Supremacy but I ain’t going to tell you that I’m making my way over to The Rumble or to Night of Champions as the holder to this belt. But even if it’s hard to tell from your perspective, let’s tell those kids how you plan on making me tap out, I know you have done it before so maybe the future holds the same fate once again? ...no.”
He shrugs his shoulders as he places his feet onto the desk.
“David, you probably still see me as the man who left MCCW with a crumbling record and a string of losses that I still am very much embarrassed by, you still see me as the failure that I was and it’s not hard to see that. I might have gotten lucky with the gauntlet and then with Bobby, I might have gotten lucky with Eric Dane and hell… It might be the luck on my side to win at Supremacy but I don’t need the luck, I am not going to show you how lucky I am at Supremacy, what you’ll experience is the real me, the fighter and the killer… The Legend Killer.”
Once again, that same devious smirk appears on his face.
“If we could rewind to last year’s Supremacy last year, it was myself and MGK in a match I waited throughout 2018 for and I told him that The Legend Killer was coming… and he crumbled at my feet as I had my hand raised in victory, for you… It’s different. We’ve already acknowledged that your status as XHF Legend is questionable, so why should I bring back that moniker for you? The thing is, David… I need this win more than anyone else in this match. I need to bring back something I had success with at this exact same Pay Per View. Mike Lio might need this to bring everyone’s attention back to Destiny Wrestling but they still get a few thousand and hundreds of people into their venues, they don’t need it. Zoran might think he needs to live up to his promise of bringing SWAT out of its reputation but he’s adding fuel to the already burning fire.”
He lifts his left hand up, showing two fingers pointed upwards.
“And then you…”
He raises a third finger.
“You need this to bring yourself back to life, you need to show people that the Main Attraction still has it in him and you need to give people a reason to watch MCCW and not just because it has the stars of XHF’s past. I mean, that’s the vibe everyone gets from it, that’s what I was always told when I was on the roster. But what do I need to prove? I’m representing AWF, I’m representing the brand that’s been on top for almost three years, what do I need to prove for them?”
Slowly, a fourth finger is raised.
“It’s not for them.”
He shakes his head.
“It’s for me, it’s for the current champion himself. This match has me in a corner that I can’t seem to find a way out of, David. The more I try, the tighter the space is left for me to escape. There is so much for me to prove. I need to prove that my win of this precious and luxurious championship wasn’t just a fluke as many said it was.”
He says as he taps on the title’s silver front plate.
“I need to show everyone that I am a totally new man, I’m not the same person that either you or Mike Lio describe me as. I need to leave the losses in the past, I need to leave my past to die. The past that holds all those matches that everyone brings up, the past that showed me as your average Icon doing Icon things, the past of being in the shadows of two men who always had the keys to the kingdom but never once was I in their same spotlight. I need to break out of what people see me as, I need to prove to people that I’m not someone that crumbles at the top, I need to show you that I am the future of this title.”
He pauses for a moment, taking some deep breaths to calm himself down.
“David, let me speak to you man to man on something and maybe you, Lio, could listen in on this too.”
He takes the X*Crown Championship off his shoulder and lays it down on the desk to his right as he leans closer into the camera lens.
“I know how fun it probably is to talk about how many losses I’ve taken, how many times I’ve fallen at the better man’s feet but don’t you think it’s getting a bit old? I mean, every match I have seems to depict me as the guy who has those losses and then there’s the opponent. Does everyone think that my losses are something special? It’s just… Everyone, including you, sound like a broken record by bringing it up at each chance you have and you know what makes it worse? It’s always going to be that way, I could be holding this belt for almost a year and we could still have people screaming into the heavens that I lost to Seth Dillinger, Chris Card, Jack Diamond, Anthony Caffrey, JFK, Kuroi, Death Trap, Bernhardt Denzinger, Shawn Hatfield… The list goes on and on and that’s just in the last year!”
He shakes his head in disapproval.
“I’ve told Dane what’s made me immortal, I’m not going to repeat it again just for your sake of misunderstanding what I’ve become. But if you needed the hint, it involves still being here as your X*Crown Champion after all those losses I’ve listed. I’ve become the King when I won this title, I had my coronation just before you made your intents for Supremacy known. Yes, I have the natural charisma and I have the in-ring talent and that’s why I won this title. It wasn’t because Bobby wasn’t ready for me, he’s been ready for me since The Rumble last year… He’s been ready for me long before that… 2017 maybe? We were ready to clash and all it took was two years. If he wasn’t ready for me, would he really have won at End of Days? Would he really have taken the X*Crown out of my hands?”
His eyes roll, touting at Death Trap’s comment.
“I know my current situation is dangerous for me to play, I know it’s going to take a lot of skill and making sure I don’t turn my back at the wrong moment. It’s one pinfall that’ll cost me, it’s one man tapping out that’ll cost me if I am not too careful and knowing you, David, you won’t go for me… You’ll take the easy way out of it, you’ll go for someone weaker like Mike Lio or Zoran Sainovic but I’ve watched and I’ve studied you and it’s not past MCCW matches, it’s your old past too.”
He points to the camera and slightly shakes his finger.
“I know what I need to look out for, I know what moves you do to set up that Dragon Clutch submission, I know every single bit of detail about you and what you do… Can you say the same for me? I come out of nowhere, I strike at any point given, I spike your head onto the mat and you won’t even have a second to think of a plan out of it. So you want to tell me that you have your strategies? Well then, tell me. What strategies do you have for someone that’s unpredictable, what plans do you have for someone you can’t keep off the ground? If there’s anything I’ve learned from past experiences with someone like you, it’s survival. Let them waste their energy on trying to put you down and when they are weakened, attack. Pounce on the victim… and then go for the kill.”
He begins to chuckle to himself once more.
“You might think you have this set in stone but I’ve always been one step ahead of you, Mike Lio and Zoran Sainovic… who might as well be three steps behind us at this moment? We’ll see when the time comes. But for you, David, you need to realize you cannot hunt something you cannot kill. I’ve been to hell and back and he’s waiting to swallow you whole, so don’t keep the devil waiting, old friend. It’s time to burn everything you’ve built yourself up to and it’s time to end the legend known…”
The camera quickly cuts to black as we hear Maverick’s voice one more time.
“...as Death Trap.”
End Transmission.
