"We have a special guest with us at the LeBelle Theater of the Fine Arts: the one and only who made this all possible. He demands absolute silence for his speech, but once he finishes, I ask that you all give a round of applause for the man who made tonight's performance. He is an ambassador from France, and a professional wrestler for WZCW. Please, allow us to welcome Xander LeBelle."
Although he would make himself welcome wherever he went, The LeBelle Theater of the Fine Arts was the one place Xander was always truly welcomed. A place this fine could only exist in France. As he stepped on the stage to the requested silence, the lights in the theater dimmed. A spotlight shone on The Class Act,giving him an almost-heavenly appearence.
"Tonight's play, The World's Greatest Mind began, "is the tale of one Don Quixote, the Spanish story that created the modern day satire, about a withering old man who uses the last of his time on earth to become the hero he had dreamed about."
Xander pulled out a ragged copy of the book, one so aged you would swear the copy held in his gloves was the original.
"It is one I hold very fond memories of reading, since the day I found it in my family's library. It is the story of a foolish man who searched so hard for an adventure in his mundane life that as an elderly man he made up his own adventure to let himself live out his fantasies. But one must never interpret him otherwise. In the end, it will always be okay to believe that it's never too late to follow a path you wish to pursue. After all, without returning to WZCW, I would never have acheived the accomplishments of becoming an Elite Openweight Champion. That is not where Don Quixote went wrong, however. Where he went wrong is a problem of the society of today, but it is one that has been rooted into society for far too long."
Looking intensely at his copy of the literature, Xander stared at the image of the knight on the front cover.
"Mankind chose to believe there was a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, because they wanted to believe in something more than what they were told. However, they lack any real perception. As such, their own perception of realities became quixotic. It took some time to realize, it wasn't a mask that I wore when I became a vigilante, it was a blindfold. It made me believe that the world really was as pure as I wanted it to be, and instead prevented me from realizing instead that I could mold it into whatever that I wanted it to be."
He pocketed his copy, and grabbed at the invisible blindfold tightened around his face.
"Everywhere I go, I find people who act like this, and it pains me that I see shadows of the person I once was telling me that I will pay for my actions. Why, my next opponent is the very definition of a self-appointed hero who believes my defeat will fix the world. She feels this even though I am part of Vis Imperium, and there is no chance that I will go anywhere, win or loss. She feels her actions will for sure be the ones that will make me turn over a new leaf. I know the kind of person Yemrez Reqonic is all too well, and it takes only one sentence to break a person like this: she is of no consequence. Speaking from experience, I know exactly what it is like to obsess over punishing the wicked and sinful,. but no matter how long she continues it, eventually she'll come to realize that she hasn't changed a thing. She can't change the course of history. Simply put, unless you have the resourches to make change a guarantee rather than a possibility, everything you want to be will be...
Xander closed his hand into a fist, grasping at the air.
"...just out of your grasp. So take in this story well, and remember, a 'good person' is up to anyone's personal opinions. Who is a 'hero' will always be the one whose actions speak louder than words. Without further ado, I present to you 'The Ingenious Nobleman Mister Quixote of La Mancha'."
Although the crowd didn't know quite how they felt toward the Class Act's message, they all clapped. Satisfied, Xander returned to his seat. He was well on his way toward building the metaphorical ark that would keep him afloat, but as for Gold Rush, Yemrez Reqonic may well have been trying to fight windmills.
