Chapter Fifty- three:
"Matt, you have your gauntlet match still ahead. Remember, you must grab the contract in each match to keep your job." Vince reminds them. "Your first opponent is…" Hornswoggle's theme music fills the arena. "Your opponent is Hornswoggle. Good luck." Matt smirks knowing that this will be a piece of cake.
The referee asks Matt if he is ready; he just smacks his hands away. The referee rings the bell as Hornswoggle charges at him. He hits his leg trying to knock him down. The impact does affect him quite a bit with him being already injured. Maybe when he is fresh it will be a piece of cake, now it is difficult than he thought. He needs to finish this match quickly to not exert too much energy. Matt tries to lift his leg, with Hornwoggle feeling like a ton of bricks, into the ring post to remove him. This action only loosens his grip on Matt's leg. He notices that it will take time and energy to achieve this, so he uses his strength to drag and carry Hornswoggle to the contract. After five minutes of this, Matt finally grabs the contract as he holds it on his chest.
"Your winner is Matt Hardy." Lillian announces. The referee grabs the contract from Matt to put it back on the pole.
"It seems Matt got lucky to rest during the commercial break. He seems more confident to fight his next opponent."
"He did, but I assume Lita and Vince have many more tricks up their sleeves."
"Let's find out." Lita's theme music echos through the arena.
"Hello Matt, congratulations of defeating Hornswoggle. I guess that match gave you confidence and energy back. That is great, but our gauntlet is about not testing your strength and mind, although it is a big part, it will test your emotional being." Matt looks at her weird.
"Let me bring out your next opponent." They hear a woman struggle to get out of someone's grasp.
"Let me go I am not participating." She yells trying to kick and move out of their grasp.
"I hope you are ready for your opponent." Christian and Edge come out with a woman that has a sack over her face. "Ooo… mystery." Lita chuckles. Lita lifts up the sack to reveal it is Mickie. Matt is in shock that he has to face his girlfriend.
"No, I am not fighting her now way." Matt objects.
"Wow, how sweet of you to not fight her." Lita awws.
"I'll fight anyone else besides her." He objects again.
"What do you think boys? Should we change the opponent?" She asks both of them.
"Yes we should." They agree as Matt breathes easy to not face Mickie.
"Okay, Matt here are you new opponents." All the women wrestlers come out to join Matt into the ring. "Matt you must fight each one of these wrestlers before even consider grabbing the contract. If you ever fail to beat anyone of them, that is not the first or last one, you will add as stipulation to Mickie's gauntlet match on Smackdown." She grins. "You will also have to give the girl you lost to a kiss. If you don't another opponent is added to your gauntlet. You have one more after this one, do you want to add more?" She questions. "To give you more reasons to win, Mickie will watch ringside with Edge and Christian.
"I'll give you one more chance to revert back to the first match. If you want the first match, you will raise your hand. If you don't raise your hand, we will proceed with this match. I will give you to the count of five. 1…2…3…4…5, what is your choice?"
"I will stay with the second match." Matt confidently answers.
"This surprises Mickie a bit. She thought he would choose fighting her. If he chose that option, he would only be touching and fighting her. The choice he picked, he will be touching many women and might have to kiss them. She is very jealous about that.
"As you wish, referee ring the bell." Lita orders. The referee rings the bell to have Victoria start off.
The match continues with Matt not having to kiss anyone yet. Five have been defeated and three are left, one of them being Trish Stratus. Torrie Wilson enters next with her puppy. Torrie shoves her into his face to speak that he is a bad man. Matt gently grabs the god and lays her on the ground. Torrie is appalled at this to start yelling at him. This irritates him so he kicks her in the stomach. Before executing his finisher, he mouths 'This is you.' to Trish who rolls her eyes. He executes the Twist of Fate on Torrie to get the victory, in Matt's favour, for the tenth time. For a celebration, Matt walks to Mickie to get a kiss from her.
"Your lips our mine, don't forget that." Mickie reminds him before giving him a peck on the lips. Edge and Christian both pretend to gag at this moment. This earns them scowls from Mickie before she continues to watch the match. The next woman up is Michelle McCool. Matt laughs at her which causes Michelle to slap him in the face. The slap gets him very angry to him try to kick her, but she grabs it. She puts a smirk on her face as she looks at the Matt. Matt pleads not to do that, but Michelle doesn't accept it. She kicks him in the jewels before making him do the splits. Michelle covers him to get the three count. Michelle and Trish both laugh at him. Mickie can't believe he lost.
"I guess the kiss didn't motive him to win." Christian acknowledges.
"Shut up." Mickie doesn't want to admit he is right.
Michelle picks him up to wait for his pecks on her cheek. Matt looks to Mickie who crosses her arms in disappointment.
"Come on I am ready." Michelle taps her cheek. Matt does a quick peck before wiping out his lips. Trish Stratus sees this to roll him up to get the victory. Matt can't believe he lost his job already. He things Trish is the last woman.
Jeff's theme song plays. "Hello brother, you lost to Trish. She is the last one out of here except for Mickie. Luckily for you we found someone who replace Mickie's spot. Here she is." Lita's music plays as everyone cheers.
Matt grins luckily he gets to get more revenge on her. Just as Lita enters, Trish handcuffs his hands together. Matt tries to struggle out, but he can't. Mickie tries to help, but Christian and Edge stop her. They duct tape her wrist to the arm rests.
Lita gives him a huge slap for the trouble he gave to everyone. Afterwards, she kicks him in the stomach for her own version of the Twist of Fate. She goes for a pin, but gets a two count. She tries again, however follows it up with a Lita moon-sault from the top rope. This gives Lita a two and three quarters count. Lita can't believe he kicked out. She ponders on what she can do to effect pain and insult to him. She looks around to see Mickie who gives her an idea. Lita goes to the contract to help Matt grab the contract. Afterwards, she brings Matt back into the middle of the ring, by the hair, to pull his head back. She blows a kiss to Mickie before she screams Last Kiss Goodnight. Mickie tries to stop it, but Edge and Christian are right there to hold her down. Lita pecks Matt on the mouth before she mic kicks him square in the face to pick up the victory.
"Aww nuts he got the contract before I got the victory." Lita snaps her fingers.
"Congratulation Matt, you have survived an Iron Man match, Hornswoggle, and eleven women, now your final match is the toughest one." Vince mentions. "You must physically grab the contract to save your job. No one can hand you the contract. If you try to reach it and it falls it doesn't count." Vince continues. "Your opponents are all the superstars that you have done wrong to. Those superstars include; Jeff, Lita, Christian, Edge, John Cena and Triple H. John Cena is defending Joan and Johnny's honour while Triple H is defending mine and Stephanie's honour. It will be a six on one handi-cap match. Everyone will be in the ring together with not tags. Now for Mickie, Matt lost two times, so you will have two stipulations added to your gauntlet. Since Christian and Edge are part of this match, Stephanie and I will be with you to watch the match. Good luck Matt. The match will start next." Vince finishes.
Matt laughs knowing that it is a four on one handi-cap match; Jeff and Lita are still in the hospital.
"What is so funny?"
"Lita and Jeff are not here I put them in the hospital. Plus, Jeff won't leave Lita behind at the hospital." He explains.
"Two of those statements are true. You did put them in the hospital and Jeff won't leave Lita behind. Furthermore, they are here." Vince reveals. He got a call from the hospital to inform them that there is no brain or head injury for Lita. Lita was unconscious from the sudden impact to her body. She may have some bruises and fractured bones, but she is free to leave the hospital.
"It can't be they can't be here." Matt is astonish not believing this at all.
"Seeing his believing, here you go." On the Titan-tron, a limo pulls up into the arena. Jeff comes out with Joan and Johnny; he closes the door. Joan pulls on her father's shirt to signal him back to the limp. Jeff thumps his forehead to have him open the other back door. It reveals Jamie with Michelle as they help Lita out of the limo. Lita has a neck brace along with a limp in her walk. Matt lightly smiles at his handy-work.
"Jeff, what are you guys doing?" Todd Grisham interviews.
"We are going to be part of the main event." Jeff answers as he leads them to the ring.
"You two just came from the hospital, do you think that is wise?"
"Us Hardy's, which includes my brother, has a never give up attitude. I like taking risks, so I am taking a risk now. My brother never gave up on his revenge, so I am going to return the favour.
"This is your health we are talking about, what about your children?"
"We had a discussion at the hospital, they want to hurt my brother as well. Todd, I am concern about my health as well as my family's. I offered to have them stay in the back. Before I finished the sentence, they shut it down. My brother has cost us some bad memories it is time to return the favour." Jeff finishes as he again leads his family to the ring.
"Thank you, Jeff. There you have folks, nothing will keep the Hardys down from business they have to take care of." Todd Grisham summons up.
Jeff's music plays to have the crowd erupt. Jeff along with John Cena, Edge, Triple H, and Christian come out to the stage. They soak up the cheers while they ramp to hear Lita's them song. The crowd goes ecstatic to the strength and bravery for them to come back. Lita is the last one to come out while some people stand to all clap as they all head down the ramp.
Jamie, Joan, Johnny, and Michelle have their seats next to the commentary table. King invites them to do some announcing.
"Hello, what is your name?" Cole asks.
"That is for me to know and you to find out." Joan answers.
"Joan, that is not very nice." Michelle utters.
"Yes, not very nice at all." Cole agrees.
"Auntie Michelle, I am a heel commentary, I am supposed to be mean." Joan explains.
"When you are older, you can. For now, just be your nice, adorable self."
"Yes, Auntie Michelle." She pouts.
"It is not going to work." Jamie and Johnny join in. Michelle looks away to see Cole and King pout as well. "Fine." They all cheer.
"It looks like Matt is getting what is coming to him." King calls the action in the ring.
"That he is king, no one messes with the Hardy family." Joan includes.
Everyone is the ring across from Matt. The referee rings the bell which signals them to surround him.
"Oh this is one of my tactics." Jamie speaks up excitedly.
"You plan this." King inquires.
"Yup, they always ask our opinions on everything." Jamie smiles.
"It sounds like a family we know." Cole points to Vince and Stephanie.
"Thank you for that, Michael. Now will you call the match, please." Stephanie speaks with her eyes still on the match.
"Ooo… someone got in trouble." Johnny teases. Cole sticks out his tongue which causes the three children to do the same action.
"Cole, please stop arguing the children and help call the match." King utters, even though he enjoys this batter between them.
Back in the ring, everyone takes turns to fight Matt. They take out their built up aggression on him. Matt doesn't have time to breathe with the movements perform back to back. After ten minutes, Matt is in the middle of the mat in pain. Each person leans on a corner and ropes to wait for Matt to get to a vertical base. He sees them watch him and puts his fist up for more actions. This doesn't affect them as they don't react to him. Matt is surprise by this and starts to head to the contract. Edge moves away from the corner to give him easy access to this.
"What are they doing? Are they giving him the contract?" King wonders.
"Just watch King, this is my tactic, well a mixture of me and my brother's tactic." Joan informs them.
Matt gets to the corner he looks back to see if this is a trap; everyone is still in their spots. Matt slowly climbs looking back at each step just to be on guard of an attack. When he gets to the last step, he finds out that the contract is not there. He has been so focus on being attack that he climbed the wrong corner.
"What, where is it?" Matt looks around to see Lita guarding the contract. He mumbles harsh words as he marches to the corner. On the way there, he gets tripped by Triple H.
"Sorry man." Triple H apologizes.
Matt gets in his face. "You better be. You know why you are on top." He looks at Stephanie before he continues to walk to Lita.
"Move Lita." He harshly speaks.
"You haven't changed at all." Lita shakes her head in disappointment.
"You haven't either being the same slut as you were. You got all of these men to follow and feel sorry for you. I bet you are screwing all of them behind Jeff's back." He chuckles.
"You wouldn't know because you didn't get any." She insults him before moving towards Jeff.
"Whatever." He shoves the comment off. Matt climbs up the rope to grab the contract. He screams in celebration. He shoves it in everyone's face to not notice that the bell didn't ring. "Where is my hand raise, I won?" He looks around to see everyone laughing.
"My brother, Matt, look at the contract." Matt looks at it to see just scribbles on the paper.
"What, where is the contract?" He looks around to see two; one above Jeff and the other above Triple H. He goes to Jeff first hoping he doesn't have to deal with Triple H. It didn't work as he hope; the contract is part of a book. He wipes his face with his hand as he looks over at Triple H. Triple H sinisterly smiles knowing he is going to make him work for it.
"Enjoy." Edge and Christian leaves.
"What?" Matt is very confused.
Triple H fights Matt for his job. The momentum shifts between them two every four minutes. Triple H is fighting for everyone's honour while Matt is fighting for his job. The match continues as Triple H does the pedigree on him. He waves the children to come to the ring for the pin while he grabs the contract. The children get off Matt to have Triple H rip the contract in half in his face.
"That is it Matt you lost." Vince acknowledges. "Matt Hardy, you are fired." Vince yells in the only way he knows how with authority and conviction. "Get to him out of the arena."
Edge, Christian, and Jeff have the honour to carry him out as the crowd sings the goodbye song.
