The room is dark and quiet but not for long.
“Gentlemen, what do you hear?” The Grand Mystique stands in front of a very solemn looking trio. “Do you hear adulation? Do you hear the screams of our victims? Do you hear anything?” A sarcastic smirk appears on his face before it turns into a scowl that is fuelled by the silence of his army.
“There is nothing to hear. We have failed gentlemen! You have failed me and that is unacceptable. You have allowed the fine work of Kingdom Come has been undone and now the company are laughing at us. In a company with idiots who think they are robots and aliens, we have become the laughing stock. Justin Cooper is s******ing at us; David Cougar doesn’t consider us a threat. I will not tolerate that any longer.”
He storms around the room.
“Do you understand what that means gentlemen?”
“We f-cked up, we get it. Chewing us out isn’t going to make us feel any better. How about you back off, accept that we all screwed up and make it right.” DC looks more pissed off than the others. Even Whitman looks different with a glimmer of focus in his eye. “We need to make a statement.”
Westhoff stands up to look eye to eye with his leader. “We have shown ourselves to be flawed gentlemen but we have given a chance by the Almighty to restore our faith, the faith in ourselves and in each other.” Keeping all three in his eyeline, he continues. “Gentlemen, we need to take this chance and come out of it with a stronger faith than ever before.”
“Mason, faith will not be enough. In fact, it won’t get you anywhere.” DC’s retort riles Westhoff and the cleric shows uncharacteristic passion by confronting his uncouth stable mate. “When it’s all you have left after sacrificing everything it is enough. But you don’t understand. You have everything you could possibly need. We have given you all the support and you piss it all away.” Unsurprisingly, DC pushes Mason away.
“I won the Kingdom Come match and I was proud to do it for us. The satisfaction from that win is literally the only thing that has kept me going. David and I have sacrificed it but you are the only one who doesn’t recognise it. Mason, you are a self-righteous ass - ”
“Enough!” The sheer volume of GM’s interruption is enough to pause the heated argument. The three men look at him. “Mason is right- ” DC attempts to react as Mason smirks. "But..." GM interjects “...we need more than blind faith. We must rediscover what made us the dominant factor in this company.” Mason steps back as GM openly questions his position.
“They have handed us our next victims without even knowing that they have sealed the fates of those so-called superstars. Some will be easier than others.” GM looks pointedly at Mason & David, knowing that Thrash and Drake Callahan would provide their own degree of challenge. “But we must not be stopped. Our cause saw a great victory at Kingdom Come but it was only a stop on our road to greatness. We are here to change WZCW for the better in the face of their misguided belief that the success of this company can only be brought on by those who fit in to their plan. No matter who they bring in, we must press on.”
“Garth Black will bring a challenge because he lost last week.”
“I recognise that name. He’s a druggie who bummed out of this place pretty bad a while ago. He went down in flames pretty spectacularly; I remember seeing it on the web.”
“He will try to convince himself that defeat was a blip but he doesn’t have the faith that proves to me that we will continue to win. He has no mental strength to speak of and cannot see the way out of the darkness that dominates his life. When I face him in the centre of the ring, he will realise how dark, how tough the reality of our world is. It is inevitable Garth Black will get a taste of the WZCW universe that will be dominated by The Sacrificial Altar in short time.”
“He is here to absolve himself of the sins that have plagued his career. He has been plagued by a complete lack of direction and he allowed himself to sin. That sent him down a road that had no room to turn. He is weak, so pathetic and frail minded that he will fall victim to sin again, time after time.”
Tension fills the room like an oppressive, poisonous gas. Do they choke on the fumes or breathe in its’ sweet fumes?
“So what’s next?” Whitman perks up and DC retorts quickly. “We grow, we attack.”
“We have to ensure that what we do next is beyond memorable. The entire roster needs to know what we are capable of.” Even Westhoff is able to get behind the motivation of this direction. GM is clearly satisfied.
“WZCW is vulnerable, the ivory towers are crumbling and they are blind to it. We must infect it and become stronger at its’ expense. This is not new information to you gentlemen but it is imperative that we succeed without hesitation, now more than ever before.” GM pauses, his three associates eye him with their undivided attention. “Your tasks are simple for this week. Find what made you all such crucial pieces of The Sacrificial Altar to begin with and show me why we can demonstrate our supremacy with immediate effect.”
In one sentence, the Grand Mystique has summed up what he expects from his horde. They are prepared for war.
War will follow. That is WZCW’s destiny.
