When its all said and done;
The rivalry with Cerberus was drawing to a close, for better or worse, it would soon be over, the enmity would remain, but an organisation like WZCW doesn't make money by letting people fight for ever. So, all parties would likely move on after this. That was fine for S.H.I.T, it was used to this song and dance, people would target each other, maybe trade wins and losses, and then move on to the next project. S.H.I.T couldn't deny that Cerberus had proved to be complete weasels throughout, actually that was unfair to weasels, creatures who had at least a shred of honour. The similarity was that a weasel would fight when cornered, something Cerberus had been trying to avoid since they won at Revolution, fighting well enough, although almost certainly capitalising on some hubris and relaxation on the part of their opponents.
Yes. Hard Metal Penetration had let themselves down. They'd won when it mattered, when Cerberus needed taking down a peg they'd been up to the task, they had defended the honour of Amber Warren, and then they'd soaked in the win while Cerberus became more dangerous.
Well that was then, and this is now.
Now, S.H.I.T had no idea where its tag team partner was. Believing like all rational creatures that, like a three headed cat, Alhazred was bound to turn up eventually, it had decided to train for longer than usual today. Its possibly surprising that S.H.I.T would need to train at all, but it does, usually these training events were uneventful and therefor unnecessary to catalogue since, training is what professional-wrestlers do, it goes without saying. Right now though, some poor sap was running the ropes, allowing S.H.I.T to perfect a hiptoss with as little expenditure of effort as possible while causing maximum damage. Such a thing makes a difference apparently, though for a robot its questionable how much, still, S.H.I.T is always willing to perfect its craft.
The dull thuds on the mat washed over the machine, this wasn't even second nature to S.H.I.T, this was nature. This is what it did. All that other stuff, rushing around with chainsaws, it was just window dressing to the fact that, when placed in the ring with anyone, it would destroy them as a matter of course. No mercy.
Ramparte was no different, for all his pseudo-intellectualism he was just meat, blood, and bone holding it all together. Same for Flex Mussel. Same for all its opponents in the end, although all must be, and were, approached differently, the end result was the same, visceral, to say the least. S.H.I.T thought back to the early days, back then opponents would underestimate it, laugh at its achievements, not take it seriously, probably use a prop cardboard box robot as an example of what they'd do to it, and inevitably it would destroy them. Now, things were different, El Swago had followed that formula to a tee, and somehow emerged with the victory. S.H.I.T could only place the blame on its own hubris, the same hubris that would lead to S.H.I.T and Alhazreds current downfall against Cerberus.
When its all said and done;
It doesn't actually matter, not really, S.H.I.T had learned not to get to even think about wins and losses, there had been time where it had gone cycles without defeat and its reward was another match up with another random competitor. What matters is who you know, who you are friends with, and yes, who your enemies are. Take Mikey Stormrage as an example, possibly being inserted into the World Title Match, S.H.I.T couldn't begrudge the man his opportunity, opportunities around here were like opportunities anywhere else, few and far between, and somehow still hoarded by the same people, yet there he was, getting into that match purely by virtue of having shared a ring with the people involved.
S.H.I.T transitioned to suplexes. Thud... Thud... Thud...
When Cerberus and Hard Metal Penetration were done, whoever walked out with the titles, the fact remained that the tag division only retained two teams, perhaps that is indicative of the current, incredibly selfish nature of todays stars, very much a group that cannot see the forest for the trees, thinking those smaller, individual glories were a greater achievement than giving the paying customer a reason to actually care. Perhaps S.H.I.T had reached veteran status and was getting, for lack of a better word, crotchety, but it had always invested time in what it had affectionately come to know as the swarm, reading them for better and worse. Did the swarm care that it had not helped Theron Daggershield? It was no doubt controversial, how much would they have cared if they had helped Theron Daggershield? Very little, long term, besides the initial cheer and then seeing the 6 man ladder match, perhaps the winning team would've raised each other hands, wouldn't that have been nice?
Truth is, and perhaps contrary to S.H.I.T's belief that it can read the 'swarm', S.H.I.T generally found allies to be distracting, it had worked, unwillingly, with far too many over the course of its time here. Alhazred was an exception, as was, from time to time at least, Barbosa, but outside of that S.H.I.T frankly didn't particularly care. It was concerned that it had left Theron to be destroyed by Cerberus, that was purely an oversight, but to have its success or failure riding on a sword wielding lunatic it neither knew or trusted wasn't something it was overly gleeful of.
Casually it signaled that it was time for the end, and its sparring partner left the ring. S.H.I.T absorbed it all for a while.
It had a match on Meltdown with Ramparte, its openings for leaving a mark on Cerberus were becoming fewer and fewer, this would in fact be one of the last. It had to make it count. Give the swarm what they want to see. A casual victory, fine, that might've been good enough for the old S.H.I.T that meticulously chalked up its wins and losses and scratched its head as to why it was on the under-card, better to shut that falsehood spouting mouth though, to tie him in knots and make him scream while in the Industrial Strength Vice, to give him and everyone else a preview of what awaits him and Flex at the next PPV.
To make Ramparte and everyone else realise, S.H.I.T has just gone down.
Now, where was Alhazred?
