“The Last Crusade.” — GUNS Valentine’s Day Special.
Feb 12, 2023 22:58:26 GMT -5
Mongo the Destroyer, Kira Izumi, and 2 more like this
Post by Mav. on Feb 12, 2023 22:58:26 GMT -5
Right as Supremacy was closing up with it’s main event.
JASON: I shall be seeing you all in March and I want all of you to bring the best of the best that you can give me. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Those happened to have been the final words spoken into the camera, recorded for the next upcoming TAPOUT Wrestling show at the end of the next month, but something clearly wasn’t feeling right inside of him – having to admit defeat to many who might not even see this until a whole month later. There was an uncomfortable feeling resting in his stomach as he slowly stood up from where he was seated along the hallways of the Ball Arena, knowing how the beginning of this year had gone for him, once again coming close but never gaining the prize at the very end. Another attempt made to finally be able to stand on his own two feet as a victor, as a champion, and yet, another failed attempt. Another repeat of the trial and error cycle, another rerun of the cycle, another attempt at trying to claw his way back to the top.
That’s how it’s been for the past three years. After losing the X*Crown Championship for the first time, it’s been the same process time and time again. No matter where he ended up wrestling in. Ascension Wrestling Federation, he failed. Sin City Championship Wrestling, he failed. Japanese Renaissance of Kakuto, he failed. There’s only been a four month period of where Long felt alive and even then, it’s lost into the abyss and footage has been lost. The final days of Destiny Wrestling were the better days that he’s had. TAPOUT Wrestling was meant to be the change in the narrative, a change to the mantra, but a poised attack to the knee by Diamond made sure that never came to fruition.
No matter what he could do for himself, he always seemed to become ‘the nearly man’. Someone who’d only come close but never gain immortality. A deep sigh, he stood inside of that hall and just allowed himself to clear his mind of the clutter that came with the loss to Jack. However, there came a voice that boomed through the hallways and echoed, a voice coming from inside of the arena itself.
BONNIE JENKINS: The winner of this match, and NEEEEEEEEEEW XHF X*CROOOOOOWN CHAMPION. DYLAAAAAAAAAAN BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!
Hearing his name being roared out was something that flicked a switch inside of Long’s head. The thoughts came rushing through his head, one final attempt to regain the crown – but with those thoughts, doubts followed very quickly. Long has had a rich history of pushing himself forward time after time again, doing whatever it takes to make sure that he secured a placement to get an X*Crown Championship, but he never came close. Not even getting into the main event. No matter what he did, it never worked out for him. He could simply just ask for this chance, he could just walk up to Dylan Black and ask for a chance to go one on one for the championship, but how could he do it when he couldn’t even defeat Jack Diamond just moments beforehand?
More doubts continued to fill his mind, he leaned forward and caught himself on the wall, his forearms providing comfort as they kept his head from hitting the concrete wall. All he could think about was his faults. All he could worry about was falling at the final hurdle once again, something that he feels as if he cannot afford to let happen anymore. Not when the chance to become X*Crown Champion was just in his reach. He’s got one shot to make it happen before Dylan leaves the arena, he’s already due to be hitting a post-show press conference after his win, it was in the cards to hear from the X*Crown Champion after the show went off the air.
Was he willing to risk it all for one final chance to become the X*Crown Champion?
The question ran rampant inside of his mind, it was becoming a plague just controlling everything he was doing, making a rush to the locker room – as fast as he could with his hurt knee – and busting right through the door, almost breaking it off of it’s hinges. He reached for his gear bag and grabbed the VICTORY Pro World Championship, a title that he debated heavily on cashing in only if he had actually beaten Jack Diamond, but now? His mind is solely focused on doing it. Even in defeat, even if it seems like denial from losing the TAPOUT Openweight Championship, there’s something inside of his head that’s telling him to do it. There’s something that’s telling him to cash it in and secure his place as an X*Crown Champion again.
Long took a seat, holding the championship and glaring down at it’s front plate, looking down at the reflection of himself in the golden material. All he can think about, in that moment, was his constant set of failures leading into tonight. All of the times that he set himself out into the vast amount of promotions within the XHF Network over the past three years, the amount of times he made a true impact in them all, and then the realisation hit – he was nothing more than an outsider at this point. A man who went to other promotions around the world, a man who created a name elsewhere, but when it mattered the most here? He never caught it.
This wasn’t who he wanted to be. He had to change that future. He stood up from where he was seated and headed out of the locker room, heading down the hall and – at the fastest that he could with his knee – headed right for the press conference room. He knew, once he stepped into that room, that it would be time to go big or to go home.
And he wants to go home, to where he belongs, back at the top of the XHF mountain.
* * * *
It’s been six years since I began my initial journey into professional wrestling.
I have spent all of those years climbing up the mountain and seeing if I could reach the pinnacle of my career, see if I could begin to finally see myself as one of the best to have ever done it, and for three years into my career? I thought to myself as someone who did it, I thought to myself as someone who reached his peak and never needed anything else. And the more that the years passed by, I really made that thought become a belief. But, you see, I wasted three of those years making myself turn from a rookie to something more seasoned, but after all of that? I was much more of a rookie than anyone else was. That remained for a long time coming and nothing was ready to take that away from me.
So, when I won the X*Crown Championship over three years ago and secured myself the reign that I fought for – I was left feeling emptied afterward, I was left not truly understanding what was happening to me. I became lost, I became directionless, I had nowhere to go and my hopes of going up were met with one final direction: down. I didn’t want it to become a thing so soon into my reign but eventually, the nightmare became a reality. Zoran Sainovic pinned me for the championship that night and he truly made himself an outstanding name that night. I was left to fall down the mountain, hoping to begin building myself up and see if I could work my way back up the mountain, but every climb that I took up that mountain was filled with constant slips over and over again. It never mattered which promotion I represented either, I always ended up falling behind. I always ended up stumbling and slipping down that mountain. The constant feeling of being unsure if I could hold myself up to that same standard was worrying, because I wasn’t sure that I had it in me to do it again.
So, I did what anyone else would’ve done.
I worked on becoming better.
The first three years of my career saw me trying to achieve one simple level and I did it– but the next three years have seen me go back to basics, back to the very beginning and work my ass off to even get onto the same level as where I once was beforehand. And yes, I have constantly played the trial and error game with myself. I have been doing everything to push myself into getting another shot at the X*Crown Championship over the past three years but I never even made it out of the playoff games, I was taken out in the qualifiers, and I realised my placement then and there. I knew every time that I’ve tried that I wasn’t really ready and that was fine, that was okay. I had no problem with that whatsoever.
I haven’t had a real chance at trying ever since the XHF Rumble last year because I said that I was either going to walk out of that Rumble as the winner or I needed to seriously reevaluate everything that I once thought of myself to be. The sixteenth eliminated out of fifty-four people who were thrown over the top rope. I knew, at that point, that I had a whole lot to think about. I had a whole lot of ground to cover when trying to improve on where I was at that time until this very moment right now. After that elimination from the XHF Rumble, I went right back to work on improvement. I became a better man out of it all, I became someone that wanted things to be better for me, and what was it all for? What made this change of direction happen for me?
The hunger changed me. The passion changed me. Back then, I was preaching about reaching a possible new immortality but I couldn’t even stand on my own two feet without being knocked down. That pissed me off, yes, but it made me see things from a different perspective. Things have become very different as we look around us, I have grown to be a better person that fights for everyone and fights for one thing: respect in this sport. That’s the kind of man that I have become and I can feel it inside of me, with that kind of passion running through my veins, that maybe I can do it. Just maybe I can do what might’ve seemed like an impossible task. Just maybe but I’d rather not get ahead of myself so soon. And as we speak about that Rumble last year, I want people to understand the kind of impact that fate always seems to bring to the table, because if it weren’t for fate?
This match wouldn’t seem like something of importance.
If it wasn’t for fate, it might’ve just seemed like two men who are hungry to be X*Crown Champion – but fate works in many ways, Dylan. After all, it was you and I who came onto the network at the very same time. It was you and I who fought to the very end of that gauntlet match three years ago to challenge Bobby for the same title we will be fighting for soon enough. It was you and I who shared the ring with one another and stood as Icon brothers-in-arms. And it was you who eliminated me from the Rumble last year to make me fall back into line, you were the reason that I changed completely.
The challenge towards you might’ve just seemed like it came from someone desperate to secure himself a real win, but no, fate always had this match on the cards – it was only waiting for the right time and the right place, and the end of Supremacy saw that as the right place to make it all come together. I could begin to add in all of the other factors that might’ve made things more interesting for us both. The fact that we’ve never shared the ring one on one that wasn’t in some kind of a gauntlet match or whatever. The fact that we’ve never faced one another for a championship before in the past. The fact that our paths have been so different and yet, it’s never led us to facing one another until now. The lists can go on and on again, for an eternity, but the only thing that is needed to make things right for us both?
It was fate.
See, I wanted to face you at the top of my game and at a point in our careers where we are labelled as one of the greatest to have ever done it and I feel as if this is the right moment to make this happen. After all, you’re a current three-time X*Crown Champion with your first reign lasting the longest ever in the history of the XHF as a whole. You’ve made it, you’ve gone clear, and you’re considered in that bracket. But what about someone like me? I’ve had to sit on the sidelines whilst you did everything to make yourself stand out, the standard bearer for anyone who held onto that title, and nobody – yet – has ever been able to replicate that same success. I’ve had to work my way up the mountain and I’ve tumbled, I’ve fallen underneath all of the pressure, and the only way that I’ve survived and adapted? I had to go elsewhere. Was that the best decision I could’ve made? No, it wasn’t. But, did it see me become a better person out of it?
Well, that’s what this challenge is about to prove, isn’t it? A question that I have constantly asked myself time and time again heading into next week knowing what’s at stake, knowing what can be achieved if I can secure the victory for myself, and what might be done if I cannot. A chance to finally be given that time to shine or a final ride off into the sunset knowing that I’ll never be able to achieve true immortality as X*Crown Champion. This is what I need you to begin understanding, Dylan. There is so much at stake for me heading into February 14th, there is so much that rides on me trying to win, and I have the pressure of the world on my fucking back because of you choosing the path that you have taken.
And I have to prove that this world will be much better without you.
* * * *
The days continued to count down, it was one final weekend to lead into the event – one that he plans to make history with – and all that he could feel as the hours counted down, as the minutes flew by, as the seconds ticked away until the bell would ring. All he could think about was the worry of not walking out as the X*Crown Champion. It’s not the kind of mindset that he wants to adopt heading into the 14th but it’s been one that’s grown onto him days after the match was made official. Any other day that has gone by, he’s done whatever it takes to take his mind off of the matter – whether it was by doing some sort of training for the big day or by even just focusing on other important matters, but not today.
Today, he sat inside of his home. Today, he sat in silence. He was alone with his own thoughts.
A terrible combination for him, to be left alone in silence and just his own deep thoughts, he’s spent the past six months trying his best to put his mind back together after everything he’s gone through for the past year – falling back into the void of the realms and finding himself stuck with the voices that drove him insane beforehand – every single day that he’s spent since then has allowed him to be kept busy, not allow those voices to get louder, not allow himself to hear what they spoke, but there was no choice today. No upside to the day. Nothing. He had nothing. He was left with nothing. This was the day that he worried about the most, having to let his past finally catch up with him, having to let everything that he’s let go finally catch up with him. Let his mind become clear for once, not a cluttered mess as it has been.
He found himself seated upon the couch, a same setting as it once were for his vignettes leading into Supremacy, championships draped over the couch behind him and himself leaned forward, but his dress shirt was unbuttoned a couple of times – he was a mess, of course. This was a man who walked into a war and came out of that same war with nothing but a slightly damaged knee. Jason closed his eyes, everything went to black, and he took a very long deep breath. Breathing in ever so slowly and breathing out the very same way.
JASON: Hello, Meli.
Jason didn’t need to see them with his eyes to know they were there, he could just feel the chill entering the room that they always seem to bring. He slowly opened his eyes and glanced around the room, his focus went right toward the built-in bar within his living room where the figure just so happened to have been. And there they were, Meliodas, in the flesh once again.
MELIODAS: Afternoon, Jason.
There was a slight smirk growing along their face as they stood behind the bar, pouring out themselves a drink – a glass of rum – and they finally stepped away from the bar, coming closer towards Jason who stood up from where he was seated and kept his eyes on the larger figure.
JASON: To what do I owe this pleasure of having you here – quite unexpectedly, as always?
MELIODAS: Hm. For once, you don’t seem to be wasting your time trying to figure it out yourself – now that is something new coming from you and I’m impressed, I see a lot has changed within you over the past seven to eight months, hasn’t it?
Jason simply glared toward Meliodas. They were very quick to take the hint, having to remind themselves of the last time that either man has seen one another, the day that Jason and his entity self formed together to become one. That smirk slowly grew back along their faces and took a gulp from the glass that they had in their hand.
MELIODAS: My apologies, Jason. I’ve been quite busy for the past couple of months, as you would know yourself, and some things just slip right out of my mind – but you want to know why I’m here right now, don’t you? Oh, Jason, I’ve been hearing about you becoming something better and finally finding some control over everything that happened to you but the past couple of weeks have become nothing but uncontrollable and I know there’s a mix of emotions in there that’s making it all turn to... well... as your people would say: shit.
JASON: Only momentarily.
Meliodas was quick to raise a finger upon hearing Jason speaking those two words out of his mouth.
MELIODAS: Is it really momentary though? As far as I could possibly tell, you’ve had this problem ever since everything seemed to have fallen apart for you. You found your balance and you found a footing for once that you’ve been able to keep in what might feel like forever for you, but someone took that balance you had and broke it – they made all of that balance seem unstable, cannot even seem to stand without going through the worry of falling once again, and that goes both ways if you want to see it in that manner, Jason.
They gestured towards the knee of Jason, the same knee that Jack Diamond targeted throughout their match.
MELIODAS: The attack on your knee seemed to have made you take your first fall in quite some time and now you don’t know whether or not you’ll be able to get back onto that balance, so now you made the ballsy move of just shooting a shot that you’re not even sure might work out, as seen with your challenge towards Dylan Black and the X*Crown Championship.
JASON: Okay, what’s your point? What are you trying to tell me?
A sigh soon came from Meliodas, shaking their head from side to side.
MELIODAS: Have you ever heard of the arrival fallacy?
There didn’t seem to be anything verbal to answer the question, he only responded to the question by shaking his head from side to side. Meliodas tutted to themselves and took a final gulp of their drink, placing the glass down onto the table below them.
MELIODAS: It’s something that I believe you’ve been suffering with for the past couple of months, especially as you formed with the entity self, and seeing how much you’ve changed and you seem to be hoping for something that proves that you’ve bounced back from your lowest of lows to reach the highest of highs. Arrival fallacy is the false notion that achieving success will lead to long-lasting happiness and that’s something that I believe that you’ve been dealing with and when you couldn’t achieve that happiness against Jack? You brought your focus onto the next big thing, which was Dylan and his newly-won championship.
After a pause, they began to twirl their hand around to think of more ways to explain themselves.
MELIODAS: Often when people reach the point that they believe brings them the happiness that they are demanding in their lives, they’re left directionless and they become unsure of what else they can do. I’ve seen many people in my time reach that point and because of the arrival fallacy, they end up going through a crisis in their lives. I know that you feel as if you’ve got a lot to prove upon yourself and you’ve got a whole lot to bounce back upon, but I don’t want to see you falling down that route, I don’t want you to win something and feel as if you’ve got nothing else to prove afterward, what else are you going to do after winning the championship?
JASON: I’m going to give myself the reign I should’ve had, that’s what I’m going to do.
MELIODAS: But is that really going to be enough for you? Sure, you’ve had a terrible reign as champion beforehand but what are you going to change from then until now? What has changed between the old you and the you that stands before me right now? Older and more mature? Having gained some more talent in his time? There’s a lot to think about here, Jason. I don’t want you to fail because I feel as if you need some kind of closure upon that chapter, but I don’t want you to end up falling down that path that I just described to you.
JASON: And you see this in the future, do you?
The question was left to hang as Meliodas just stood there, they didn’t have an answer to the question, or they did and they never intended to tell him about how his future is meant to be. The silence gave enough of an answer for Jason anyway. This was fate. There was going to be a future, one way or another.
JASON: There’s a lot to think about heading into this.
MELIODAS: And my only piece of advice to you is simple: don’t overthink it.
JASON: Seems a bit too late for that, don’t you think?
MELIODAS: It’s never too late for that.
Jason rolled his eyes, but there was a softened smile growing.
MELIODAS: One last thing, Jason. You cannot begin your evolution unless you know that you are willing to change.
Jason glanced toward Meliodas before looking away, shaking his head from side to side, but he opened his mouth to speak as he turned his head to face Meliodas once more — however, they were gone. Not a footstep heard, not a door opened inside of the house, they were gone in an instant. As if they were never there to begin with. He was back to the silence within the home, back to his thoughts, and back with the remarks made by Meliodas – a certainty in his future, an evolution that he needs to accept change for, and the arrival fallacy. He takes a deep breath as he circles through all of those thoughts running around in his head, a seemingly hard task for someone with a huge match ahead of him just days away.
But, that was the thing with Meliodas.
They wouldn’t have given him an impossible task if they didn’t know he couldn’t do it.
* * * *
“Why take your shot now– coming off of a massive loss to Jack Diamond and being pinned twice?”
It’s a reasonable question and one that, at a point, I wasn’t sure of the answer to. I wasn’t sure if it was simple jealousy on my part or just wanting to take a grasp onto something when I couldn’t even secure my own moment but recently, it hit me the most where it hurt. I became desperate. I didn’t know what direction to take, I didn’t know what else was left for me, and I wasn’t sure that I could just walk back to the TAPOUT shows empty handed. But, when I heard your name being mentioned over the speakers inside of the arena that night, Dylan? I contemplated just walking away and letting you have your moment. I contemplated letting you be given the moment to yourself because I know, deep down in my fucking heart, that there are better men who deserve the moment rather than a piece of shit scumbag much like you. There’s so fucking many who deserve it and I couldn’t just let the moment be passed up.
I sat down and I took in the moment, thought to myself of the amount of trials and errors that it has taken me to even be in the position that I am in right now, and what flawed me at the very fucking end of it all was a target – right on my knee – and a shooter who was willing to put every bullet into where it hurted the most. To this day, I still feel the fucking pain but you know what? I’m not going to stop for anyone because I know when the time is right, I know when to call my shot. I didn’t just sit there and thought to myself that I’m going to cash this championship in because I felt like it, I knew that if there was anyone that I wanted to fight for the crown? It was you, Dylan. And if there was anyone that I knew that I could beat for the X*Crown Championship? It was fucking you, Dylan.
Our history is limitless beyond comparison, our time together has shown great progression for the both of us – but I have been sick to my fucking stomach with the constant amount of disrespect that you show for this fucking sport, the amount of disrespect that you show for those around you, and the disrespect that I know you’ll throw towards me. I know you won’t see me as a likely challenger but as someone who couldn’t stand being out of the spotlight when someone like you is constantly in it.
And you know what, Dylan? You might be right on that – because the XHF, as a whole, has been my original home. This network has, and always will be, my first home and I will remain here until I either retire or someone fucking kicks me off of the damn platform. But, I’ve not been in the spotlight as much as I’d like to have been. I’ve not been in the spotlight as much as I should’ve been for someone that’s been pretty much here for the past over five years. All of the times that I could’ve been on the top, I never did because I was much preferably running away to go elsewhere and make a living off of that. I would’ve much rather focused elsewhere because I felt myself growing out of the old, focusing on making myself someone better and focusing on the new, and look at where it’s gotten me, Dylan. In the best shape of my fucking life and I feel like someone who can be on top of the world.
That’s why I want you one on one.
I want my home back, I want my place back, and I want to feel alive again on the network. And, it’s become quite clear that I cannot do that when there’s been one constant always becoming the roadblock along that path, that being you. You have become someone who would much rather wreak chaos and havoc over just trying to fight to prove yourself. Well, guess what, Dylan? I don’t need any of that shit to beat you. I don’t need to find ways around beating you, I don’t need to find ways of getting around anyone to beat them, I just kick their fucking head in and that does the job. And whilst you might not see yourself as someone who can fall victim to that, I know you will. I know that I won’t fucking stop until you do. I will go the extra mile to make fucking sure of it.
This is my last possible chance to really prove myself to everyone on the network, the whole world will be watching with a keen eye as they see Jason Long taking on Dylan Black – cashing in the VICTORY Pro World Championship and seeing if it’ll get him far – all just to see who’ll come out on top and who will really be the present era of the network. You know, I could’ve come face to face with you a long time ago but I chose not to, because I knew that I wasn’t ready to become the champion then, and the constant trials and errors leading out of those moments justified what I had already known. I’m trusting my own gut feeling on this one. I’m trusting everything on this one final shot. My last crusade to become X*Crown Champion and be given the reign that I should’ve had since the very beginning.
What I’ve wanted for such a long time, what I’ve sought after for three whole years, and what I know will finally bring me peace to an unresting part of my soul. I, finally, have some fucking closure and I cannot begin to thank you enough, Dylan. You made me realise what I’ve been missing. The years that I’ve spent watching made me realise what I should’ve had. And now, at the cusp of your record-breaking third reign, I cut it short before it can even truly take off.
For everyone, I am doing this before you run chaos right through the goddamn network.
Because the XHF doesn’t need a Daemon of Mayhem as it’s leader.
It needs a hero.
* * * *