May 30th, 2008, 9:35 AM Central Time, Davenport, Iowa, Rollins Family Living Room
Seth groggily came downstairs to see an older woman with dark hair, who appeared to had been crying very recently. She stood in front of his parents, who were on the couch, looking like they had just received shocking news.
"What's going on?" Seth asked.
The unfamiliar woman walked over and hugged him.
Seth awkwardly hugged back. He had know idea what was going on, but he could sense the depth of the situation somehow through the woman's aura.
"Have a seat, Seth." The woman said.
He looked at his parents, attempting to read their faces. His father seemed like he didn't want to be there, as if he was sitting trial on jury duty, and his mother seemed deeply regretful, as if she had done something wrong. He looked at them a bit more before sitting down in between them on the couch.
"How do you know my name?"
"You've never met me, I'm Zahra's mother."
"...nice to meet you." Seth said, suspiciously.
"I don't know what you know about me."
"She's never really talked about you, she always changes the subject when you come up."
"Yeah we... we didn't... our relationship wasn't the best... we had fundamental disagreements."
"Had?"
"Well, no well... okay, Seth, last night... there was... there was an indictment... do you know what an indictment is?"
Seth shook his head no.
"Well, basically... it's when the police plan to... arrest someone... they indicted a drug dealer named Adam Copeland... one of Zahra's friends...
Seth sighed, figuring that Zahra had been arrested in the indictment.
"But when they arrived to arrest him, they found his house already broken into..."
Seth froze, his heart racing.
"The officers searched the house and found the drug dealer dead... they also found Zahra at his house and..." she trailed off and began tearing up again.
Seth's eyes got huge, as his mother put his arm around him.
"I'm sorry, Seth." she said, tearing up herself.
May 30th, 2008, 11:00 AM Eastern Time, Washington, District of Colombia, Mr. McMahon's Office
Vince stood in front of a room of government scientists, giving the PowerPoint presentation on his plan to construct his superhero.
"What I am about to present to you... is the result of 24 years of careful research, planning, and logistics graphing, and will potentially eliminate all plausible threats to the United States of America for the foreseeable future."
The group of skepitcal scientists looked around the room amongst each other, before turning their attention back to Vince's presentation.
"National security is a major concern of our government, and with more and more dangerous threats that have less and less information known about them arising by the day, it's only right that we elevate our national defense regimen beyond what's typically understood. We must think outside of the box. We must innovate."
Vince hit a button on the remote control device in his hand, and a long haired football player, who had what appeared to be a Samoan tribal tattoo on his chest, shoulder, and arm appeared on the screen.
"This is our test subject, former NFL prospect Joesph Anoa'i. Mr. Anoa'i is 23 years old, he stands at 6 feet, 3 inches tall, and he weighs 265 pounds. He has agreed to undergo the experimentation in which he will artificially be given super human abilities comparable to the natural abilities of The Nature Boy. Now in order to- yes?" Vince asked, stopping to acknowledge the one scientist who raised his hand.
"Do we even know how The Nature Boy's natural abilities work?"
"I'm glad you asked that." Vince said.
He smiled and pressed the button to go to the next slide of the presentation.
"The Nature Boy gets his super human abilities from natural crystal energy, 6 specific forms of crystal energy. The Amethyst Crystal Energy is the source of The Nature Boy's electricity and lighting based powers, it manifests itsef in the physical form with a purple-ish hue. The Chrysoprase Crystal Energy is the source of his super speed, super strength, and general hyper athleticism, its physical form has a green-ish hue. Then there's The Amber Crystal Energy, which is the source of his heat based and fire based powers, the physical form of it has an orange-ish hue. We have The Azurite Crystal Energy, the source of his water and liquid based powers, in all states, including gas/vapors and ice, it's hue in it's physical form is blue. There's also The Ruby Crystal Energy, which gives him the ability of flight, slight time reduction, and energy detection, the physical form of this takes on a red-ish hue. The 6th form of crystal energy is currently unknown, all that's known about it is that it manifest in the physical form under a black color. Unfortunately since we know very little about this mysterious 6th crystal, we will be unable to replicate it's effects, however the first 5 have been studied in-depth, and we have the scientific abilities to reproduce these powers. These experiments would take place over several years, stagnating Mr. Anoa'i's exposure to each form of energy, in VERY safe doses, in order to not over expose or harm him, and so that it could easily be extracted in case of emergency."
The scientists, even more skeptical and now fully convinced that Vince McMahon was insane, continued to listen despite not quite understanding or believing him.
May 30th, 2008, 12:38 PM Central Time, Davenport, Iowa, Rollins Family Front Door
"I'm sorry, Dean, Seth just... he's really not in a state where he can have company right now." Phoenix said, sadly, standing in the doorway.
Dean simply nodded, standing on the front porch.
"I understand Mrs. Rollins."
"I'll tell him you stopped by."
"Thank you."
Phoenix went back inside the house and Dean sat down on the front steps, running his hands through his hair. He appeared to be stressed out. He rammed his fist into the steps before standing up and walking away.
May 30th, 2008, 4:02 PM Central Time, Davenport, Iowa, Davenport Police Station, Detective Michaels' Office
"You called me in here?" Officer Helmsley asked, entering the office.
"Yeah, before this gets released as a press statement, I figued you'd wanna hear it." Shawn said, as Helmsley sat down at the chair across the desk from him.
"What is it?"
"Well you may have noticed the Adam Copeland murder has a lot of similarities to the Marcus Owens murder."
"Drug dealer robbed, skull and neck twisted and snapped." Helmsley said.
"Exactly... well... we have a suspect in the Marcus Owens murder, a known affiliate of Owens was questioned and all we got out of him is that Owens was expecting to meet up with a Brock Lesnar."
"Name sounds familiar."
"He was a standout wrestler and football player at the high school, he was expelled during his senior year for a fighting incident, kid had severe anger issues, he was in a juvenile detention center once for a gruesome assault with no real motive found."
"Do we think he's behind the murders?"
"He's at least involved, he was the one that lured Owens to that location, I don't think the murder was a coincidence. I don't understand how he could have that much brute strength to actually commit the murders in the way they clearly happened, however the guy does weigh anywhere between 250 and 290 with a very low body fat percentage, he's definitely a strong motherfucker."
"You're announcing him as the prime suspect?"
"The only suspect. We have 0 other leads."
"...Lesnar..." Helmsley repeated.
"The investigation unit is tracking down-"
"Oh, I know."
Shawn sighed.
"Just reminding ya, Hunter, you get a little... hands on with certain cases... we got this one."
"...Lesnar..." Helmsley repeated again, leaving the office.
Shawn facepalmed.
May 30th, 2008, 11:02 PM Central Time, Davenport, Iowa, Seth's Bedroom
Seth sat at the foot of his bed, intently staring at the television screen. His eyes were bloodshot red from sobbing. He hadn't left his room to eat, drink, or talk to anyone for the entire day.
"Both 37-year old Adam Copeland and 25-year old Zahra Schreiber were found dead inside Copeland's home during the indictment. Both deaths were ruled to be murders during the process of a robbery, with no suspected foul play on Copeland's part. It appears the two were attacked by an unknown number of assailants as Copeland's home was broken into and the cash and narcotics that were intended to be confiscated in the indictment appeared to had been already stolen. Both Copeland and Schreiber's skulls were brutally twisted 180 degrees, snapping their vertebrates, much in the same way as Marcus Owens was found behind the Carlito's Cabana across the street from Velocity Gas Station. The only suspect in the Owens murder is former local high school athletic standout Brock Lesnar, who Owens was intending to meet behind the restaraunt."
Seth's breathing became heavy as a picture of Brock appeared on the television screen.
"Lesnar was a D1 recruit expected to graduate high school in the class of 1995 when he was expelled from Franklin C. Williams during his senior year due to several issues regarding violent outbursts of anger. Local authorities are currently looking to locate him and bring him in for questioning. If anyone has any information on Lesnar's whereabouts, please call-"
Seth stormed out of the bedroom and ran down the staircase. He then walked towards a door that led to the garage.
May 30th, 2008, 11:10 PM Central Time, Davenport, Iowa, Rollins Family Garage
Seth, in a blind rage, sorted through different junk in the garage. The adrenaline that took over his body was similar to what he felt in the gas station when he apprehended the gunman, except times 10. He didn't know quite what he was looking for, but if the man who killed Zahra was walking around Davenport, he was going to find him before the police would, because in his mind, what he would do to him would be way, way worse. He found a boxing or wrestling helmet and tossed it to the side to seperate it from the pile, incase it came in handy. After some more searching, he also found a metal medieval vest that seemed to be a part of some knight's armor, and tossed that to the side as well. Seth didn't even question why it was in his parents' garage. He found a two sets of brass knuckes and pocketed them, envisioning smashing each of them into Brock's face. He had no way of knowing whether Brock was actually the culprit or not, however he was the only face attached to the crime, and he is who Seth decided he'd take his anger out on. Afterwards, he went into the kitchen and grabbed a steak knife, before returning to the garage. He put on the vest, helmet and both sets of brass knuckles on each hand, before leaving the house, knife in hand.
May 30th, 2008, 11:27 PM Central Time, Davenport, Iowa, Helmsley's Squad Car
Helmsley drove around, with Officer Orton in the passenger seat.
"Keep a look out for Lesnar." Helmsley said, handing Orton a photograph.
Orton didn't take it and after a while Helmsley turned to face him.
"Don't need it." Orton explained.
"Don't need it?"
"I graduated with him."
Helmsley nodded, putting his picture back in his pocket.
"I thought the investigation unit was taking care of thi-"
"So what do you know about him?" Helmsley asked, not taking his eyes off the road.
Orton sighed.
"Welp... in school he was a bully... real bad temper... a lot of shit he did got swept under the rug... bad grades, beating up kids, skipping class, they pretty much let him do whatever he wanted because he was the school's star athlete. Best wrestler in the state and a 1st Team All-State defensive lineman... only reason he got expelled is because he finally fucked up a kid who's parents couldn't be paid off."
"What about after high school?"
"I've only really seen him hanging around known drug dealers. I never knew if he was using or selling... I do know he was on steroids in school which would explain the connection, you gotta know a guy."
"Last time you saw him?"
"Riding through a bad neighborhood with you a few months ago."
"What neighborhood?"
"Outside the store on Legacy Drive." Orton said, rolling his eyes, knowing Helmsley would immediately drive there.
"Swinging by there can't hurt."