A single leaf detached from the stalk of an Oak tree drifts slowly to the ground. On it's journey it passes the huge red illuminated letters that spell out Taverbrook Presbytarian Hospital, where the camera attaches itself. It's night and the entrance way is quiet with only the odd patient passing through back into the free unsanitary world and intern nurses and doctors buffering the stress of their career with unorthodox combination of cigarettes and fresh air. Their faces gaining detail with every proceeding step. One young nurse exiting simultaneously as the camera enters greets the holder warmly and pre-emptively directs him to the reception desk.
Leon Kensworth promptly passes before the lens over to the middle-aged lady directing traffic, followed shortly by his stooge.
“Hi, we spoke on the phone I …...think?”
“Mr. Kensworth.........” she drops the post-it note which her thick rimmed glasses scoured over, and bends down to retrieve it. ”....sorry, Kensworth? From the wrestling place is it?”.
Proudly he announces “yes that's me”.
“Third floor Ward B, which up the stairs in the corner and left as you go through the double-doors until you see the blue sign on the door frame”.
“OK, thanks. Are we OK to take...”
“Yes, I'm sure you'll be fine. Mr Cooper is not in the emergency ward any more”.
”Right, well thank you”.
Leon manages to decipher her inaccurate directions and passes through the corridor, with the tangy medical aroma, to the blue sign he'd been told to find. Barely halting for a second, he continues on his search for the hospital's VIP patient.
“Nurse, we're here to see Mr Cooper” he cries out a little bit forwardly.
She looks at him confused.“Excuse me, but he already has a visitor. You gentlemen will have to wait here."
“Already has a visitor? But who w-”
As he ponders, the unmistakably frame of Cooper's recent amity launches himself out of the rest place and down the corridor with no attempt to so much as acknowledge his colleagues. Unrecognisable to even those that know him, he is cloaked and his head swaddled, revealing only his mouth about his face and very little, aside from his towering height, which might help to distinguish him. More likely an act to disguise himself for the sake of self-consciousness than to protect his identity. The two tracker's have to rile themselves into nothing short of a jog to keep up with his driven strides. He even passes the staircase, at which point Leon turns around showing the camera his look of total bewilderment, only finally stopping almost instantly by the twin elevators.
“Mr. Agony can you comment on the health of Justin Cooper at this time, and bear in mind we are filming here”
Silence. He reaches for the button to call the lift.
“What about the proposed relationship between you and him, some saying that you had formed some sort of friendship or alliance before this tragic incident”
Again, greeted with no reply. 5........4........stop.
“Have you got anything at all to say?”
4............3..*PING*. The doors open slowly and out comes a nervous looking teenager and an elderly man with low mobility being helped out by a young doctor. All contained persons becoming visibly more anxious with the sight of the hooded man facing them as they leave. Leon orders the lackey to turn off the camera but gestures out of the line of sight to in fact keep rolling and just hold the camera by his side. The Agony rushes in, followed by his irremovable limpets.
“So..... off the record what's going on up there? Is he OK? Will he be able to come back? It was quite a bump he took last week.”
The man's thumb completely covers the circular button marked 1 and presses down. The doors close behind them.
"First, turn off the camera"
"Oh...right. Sorry" He gestures to the technician.
“He is not good.”
“Well yeah, he is at the hospital after al-” His head point's with an assumed stare towards the quick-tongued journalist. “Sorry”
“He says....... that he isn't coming back. Not for a while anyway”
“Why not? Is it because he's too banged up or...”
“No. He needs the rest he said. He could be back soon because he's going to take the opportunity to work on his personal life”.
“Ahh right OK.”
Knowing he'd pried all the necessary information from the man, an uneasy thick intensity diffused through-out the lift with the accompanying knowledge that it was essentially a journey with a mentally-unstable leviathan as the only travelling partner. Despite such obviously dense atmosphere, a bolt of noise cut through the shaft in the form of a whimper. A simple “sorry”, escaped from the mouth of none other than the big man, before the end of round 1 could be signalled by another *PING* and separating doors onto the relatively busy ground floor scene.
Kensworth allows himself to smirk at the implication, Agony alluding of course to his hasty attack on the committed reporter during their last meeting. Barely waiting for the doors to open, the big man rushes straight into the busy reception area and then out the building. Leon who clearly had no intention of tailing the man any further, is won over by evolving thoughts that following the creature still further may prove highly useful, not to mention have him heralded for his above the call of duty journalism and intuition. Such positive thoughts coerce him into action, and without warning he darts out of the hospital to stay hot on the trail of the behemoth, not that a man of his proportions disappears with ease.
At first glance......... nothing. But careless voices are always happy to oblige.
“Well I don't know where he was going Bill, there's nothing but forest there as far as I know”
The ambulance medics's description could fit only one guy. Leon gives the order to switch the camera to night-vision and steeled himself for the impending darkness momentarily and carried on into the partially wooded area. Further and faster the pair ran, detecting no signs of Agony or where he could be headed, but the opportunity was indeed too good to waste. After what seemed like about 5 minutes, the wood was dissected diagonally by chain-link fence. After closer inspection, one joint in the fence had been force-ably ripped to leave an opening, requiring the men to crouch somewhat as they passed. No sooner than they had were they then stricken by bewilderment.
A narrow alleyway with litter, dimly-lit. The back-door to a building also characterised the walkway. And following the path the whole way down to it's conclusion there was, traffic? When they had scaled it's entirety and come to the mouth, a road sign greeted them with the names 32nd and Williamson.
“But this is...... in the city?” asked the cameraman before Leon had the chance. “How did he know to get here. In fact why is he here, I thought he didn't like the light?”.
“It's because he's here” rasped a voice from behind them. Out lurched their target with an almighty rage about his face. “He's here, and I won't let him get away with it”.
“Sorry, who's here?”
I don't know his name, the one that put my friend in the hospital. He's here and he's going to pay.”
“You mean King Shabba is.....” he pauses “......wait, what building is this then?”
“Regency hotel, biggest suite. He, he comes here with his hatred for all American things and takes our rooms, uses our resources, belittles our people. He's content to lambaste our society one minute and sponge off it the next. And he.....is here.......NOW!!”.
“W-well hold up a minute y'know. You can't just go charging into a 5 star hotel busting down doors demanding to see someone. Think about it. He'll have you arrested. What he did was in the ring, this is assault”.
Leon can see the mechanics in his mind grinding to an answer, the information Leon provided him with coupling with his prior knowledge that he was, of course, correct. And as clear as a lightbulb appearing over his head, the spark left his eye and he began to calm down. His fists unclench and his breathing becomes more regular and shallow. He placed his right hand on the rim of a dumpster and removed his hood to reveal the unique features he possessed.
“For a while now Cooper had been coming to me, wherever I may have been. He'd just come every now and again and we'd talk. Well, he would talk but company is company nonetheless. And he spoke about all of his ideas, his plans for what he'd do in the ring, how he would win, where he would go from there. He was as ambitious as anybody in the company I assure you. And somewhere along the way we hatched this idea that we would take over the tag team division, with our combination of size, strength and cunning we could take on anybody and make fools of them. He promised that when we got there we would be the perfect vehicle for my aim, to help, and he in turn would help me fulfil that goal. And all this would be announced as soon as he got through his last singles match, he just had one more match he needed to take care of, win or loss, and we could get on our way. And to think now he's just.......... helpless.” His last statement summoned only more lethargy instead of rage. “And I am that close, I could do something about it”.
Leon struggled but settled upon what felt like just the right words. “Look, you've got him in a match this week. Just think about that.”
And over the consideration of these words a sly smile spread ear-to-ear across the face of Agony, even permitting a chuckle at the sheer potential.
“Your not wrong Leon”
He stood fully upright again under his own strength.
“Within the confines of the squared circle I can do anything......I will do anything I feel is necessary. To win, or to torture into submission. As far as the viewers are concerned it's the same thing. I get him one on one and he wont be able to back away. Unlike in his private life he won't have that luxury, in fact he'll be so far gone from luxury he'll be dreaming of the sort of places I inhabit for a morsel of peace. All this and more I can inflict upon him”
He breaks into a more serious voice momentarily. “For attacking my only friend. The only friend I've had since....... as far as I can remember. I will construct a sanctuary of suffering, and the screams of agony that escape your twisted body will be met with callous laughter and locked doors. The whole world will watch me do to you what you would do unto others. And nobody will run to save you, because there is nothing worth saving”.
“What" So- so where are you going now?”
“I'm not going anywhere”
“But you can't just stay here. What if someone sees you? What if you work yourself up into a fit of rage, you might do something crazy?
“I'm not moving an inch”
Mr. Kensworth reluctantly concedes he can't do anything to appeal to his better judgement. The final shot is Agony hunched up behind a dumpster whilst in the background Leon and his associate hail a taxi and it fades to black.
