The Price of Honor

Chapter 1

Standing by the exit of the massive arena, Kevin Mask watched the sparring match between Kid Muscle and Terry with only mild interest. He wouldn't have been there at all had it not been for the 'special announcement' that was going to be broadcasted later that night. The young outcast had a bad feeling about it, but no matter who he spied on no one seemed to know what the announcement was going to be about. With a long, drawn out sigh he rubbed his eyes through the eyehole in his mask.

Throughout the past few weeks he felt so tired. Even now, the simple act of standing felt as if it required an unnecessary amount of energy. Dearly he hoped that time would speed up and the announcement over and done with so that he could leave.

"Hey Kevin! I didn't even see you over there!" the voice startled him, although he didn't outwardly show it. He lowered his fingers to see Kid Muscle standing in front of him. Funny, he hadn't even noticed that the match had ended…

"I'm here for the announcement. Nothing else," Kevin muttered coldly. Internally he hoped that the annoying young Kinnikuman would leave him alone. A growing weariness dulled his senses and he didn't wish to expend any more energy than absolutely necessary.

"Yeah yeah, geez…" Kid looked around and suddenly, his eyes landing on his precious Roxanne, he quickly left Kevin to stalk her. "Roxanne, my love!!"

As the young wrestler ran off, Kevin was suddenly so consumed with exhaustion that he was forced to lay his arm against the doorframe and lean on it.

What's wrong with me?

No matter what he did, what caffeine he put into his system or how much he slept, nothing would ease the endless fatigue he felt. At first he fancied it to be the beginning of a flu or something along those lines, but as days became weeks…

Shaking his head to clear it, Kevin walked to the bathroom with the hope that washing his face would help wake him up. However, as he opened the men's bathroom door he heard a shrill scream from the ladies room. He turned his head and looked at the door. Apparently something bad was going on inside, but investigating would mean…

He shook it off, figuring that the girl inside was probably suffering from PMS or such feminine rot. But as he stepped into the men's room, a man's enraged roar emitted from the women's bathroom. The sound made him stop.

There was a man attacking a woman inside. The coward…

Kevin's hands clenched into fists. He was no hero, but it was beyond dishonorable for any man to beat on a woman! With that in mind, he turned and busted into the woman's bathroom. Inside he expected to find some sniveling, skinny coward but instead what met his golden gaze was a man of decent build. He wore a camouflage-colored vest and pants, with a bandana around his sweaty forehead. Before him was a small woman, relatively petite in size, with bruises and marks of abuse all over her.

"Well, if it ain't Kevin Mask," He stated with a sneer. Kevin didn't recognize him, so immediately figured that the man knew him only by his legacy. "What brings you into the women's restroom? Didn't think you were freaky like that…"

The outcast scoffed at the statement. "You're quite the coward, preying upon those weaker than yourself. Don't you have any honor at all?"

The man laughed, passing a hand through his shoulder-length black hair. "Honor is for weaklings like you."

The girl remained in her fetal position down halfway beneath the sink, watching the confrontation with a mixture of fear and relief.

"Besides…" the man added. "Since when have you started to stick your masked nose in other people's business? Or is it that you want this girl to yourself…? I can share, you know…"

"Silence!" Kevin growled. The pathetic excuse of a man disgusted him. Tired or not, this was not a matter of heroism. It was a matter of honor, and the wretch before him had none of it.

Before he even had a chance to ready himself for a fight, the man quickly backed down. "If it's that important you can have the girl to yourself…"

With that said, the man ducked out of the restroom with surprising speed.

The girl watched her attacker's departure silently. Once he was gone, she slowly pushed herself onto her feet, using the sink as support. "Thank you-"

Before she could even finish, her savior was gone…

Kevin slowly walked back towards the main arena. He had not wished to deal with the frantic appreciation of the girl. She was safe, the attacker was scared off, he had done his deed for the day. Now his body was growing even more weary, his legs dragging like heavy weights.

"Hey!" The outcast inwardly cringed at he heard Kid Muscle running up to him. "Funny how we keep running into each other!"

"Why aren't you with that girl?" Kevin snapped. The young wrestler was exhausting enough to deal with once in a day, but this second meeting was taxing on his already thin reserves.

"Oh, Roxanne?" Tears formed in his eyes. "She said she had to go somewhere…I tried to follow her but she outran me…"

"Lucky her…" Kevin muttered. Before Kid could reply, the skies suddenly boomed with the annoying voices of the announcers.

"Now that you've all been waiting so patiently…"

Kevin scoffed.

"…we have a live video to show you. Please turn your heads to the hologram monitor above."

The two obeyed, looking up at the massive screen on the eastern wall, almost reaching the ceiling. On it displayed a small group of unknown wrestlers.

"We're officially taking over this company!" one of them declared. Kevin rolled his eyes, already determining that this was going to be nothing more then a bunch of wanna-be wrestlers attempting tyranny. What a waste of time. How many times has something like this happened? It always ended the same, defeat by the hands of Kid Muscle and his horde of misfits.

Kevin was about to leave when one of the wrestlers in the group caught his eye - it was the wretch that he chased away earlier!

"Perhaps we are getting ahead of ourselves…" the object of Kevin's disgust stated. "We should introduce ourselves… I am Terrance."

A man in crimson tights and tank top with a scorpion décor on one of the legs spoke next. "I am Scorpion and this is Executioner, Vampure, Poltergeist and Mech, respectively." With that said, he gestured to a large human-esque creature in black attire, a vampire in black tights, a black man with white face paint and trench coat and an average-sized man with a biker vest, jeans and shades.

"And together we shall take out the Muscle League!" Terrance declared.

"Can you believe it?" one announcer cried over the intercom.

"Nope! I sure can't!" the other responded.

"They can't possibly do this, can they?" the first one asked.

Kevin only watched in silence. Kid groaned openly.

Suddenly, the screen flickered and Vance McMahon appeared.

"As much as it irks me that you're making such a scene," the old man stated, rubbing his chin between his thumb and index finger. "This sounds like it would be an interesting series of matches."

"What?!" Kid cried. "You can't be serious…"

Kevin dug his hands into his pockets, continuing his silent observation.

"We're glad you agree," The screen shifted to show Scorpion nodding his head.

"Instead of boring single matches, we're going to have a tag team tournament," Terrance waved his hand. "If you win, we leave for good. If we win, we will replace you on the Muscle League roster. It's all or nothing. Which ever team wins advances on to the next match. Whichever tag team wins the tournament wins for their group."

Kevin rubbed his eyes with his hand with a mixture of annoyance and exhaustion. This has been done before, by wrestlers probably better and stronger than the pathetic lot on the monitor. Kid Muscle and the rest will easily take them out. There was no point in spending any more time there.

With that in mind, he left the arena.

As Kevin mounted his motorcycle and prepared to leave, a sudden wave of fatigue struck him hard. He suddenly had barely enough strength to kick the stand up, and that frightened him. Not wanting to risk an accident, he shut off the motorcycle and stepped off. Slowly he walked back towards the door, but stopped and just pressed his back against the wall to wait for the spell to pass.

"Man, that's a bunch of crap…" Terry growled as he suddenly stormed out of the arena. Apparently the announcement was over.

He was followed by Wally and Dik Dik. "How many times are we going to have to go through this?"

Finally, Kid Muscle, who was half crying. "I don't wanna fight those guys…"

Silently he watched them pass. None of them took notice of him, thankfully.

Watching Terry throw one arm around Kid's shoulders, Checkmate running out after them and Wally cracking some kind of joke that brought a laugh from the group evoked a small pang of loneliness from within the outsider. The moment quickly passed, as Kevin long ago decided that solitude was the best position for him. After he was sure they had left, he once again mounted his motorcycle. Fortunately, the fatigue had eased, even if only slightly. He kicked the vehicle into gear and sped off into the night…

Author's Notes: I'm not sure if everyone is entirely in character, or if this situation was entirely possible. I'm not an avid watcher of the show but I am a big fan of Kevin Mask. Don't worry, the original characters will not play an overly big role despite what this chapter may make one believe. The only reason I'm using created characters is because most of if not all bad guys I've seen eventually become good, so I couldn't figure out who to use. The matches themselves are really only a background story of a much greater story. ;) I hope I managed to keep it interesting. The next chapters should be better than this one, it was hard trying to figure out how to start everything. I'm using the English names simply because I'm more familiar with them. I have no idea where in continuity this story can be in. Haven't watched it enough to establish continuity. (Heck, this could turn out to be slightly AU) If anything about it is horribly off, then tell me and I'll try to fix it. Hope you like it!