Chapter 12: The Mental Elite
By: Jay Winger
Note: this is set the Thursday after "Chapter 11: Playing the Game."
To recap: Shane's Faction (Billy Rose, Brick, Rhino, and Team ECK) arrived at the arena, only to be approached by Mick Foley, who told Brick to take the night off and get lost. Brick, at Rose's okay, did so. Foley then told Rose he'd been booked against Triple H, a match which Rose approved of, since it would give him a chance to prove he's part of the "mentally elite." At the hospital, the Storm tried (without success) to keep Rain from going to the arena to confront Rose, and when she left, he called up his friends Roger Ziger and Mike Zahn to keep an eye on her. During the Triple H/Rose match (which Foley had declared zero-interference to Hunter's Alliance and the Faction), Rose held his own and had Triple H poised for a Thorn powerbomb when Rain ran out and flattened Rose with a Windfall, then turned him over and put him in the Twister Anklelock. Triple H looked on with a smirk, then intercepted Rhino when he ran out to assist Rose. Rain escaped through the audience, but was caught backstage by Rose and Rhino -- who gored her and prepared to hit her with a steel chair. At that point, Roger and Mike came to the rescue, chasing off the two attackers, then doing the Good Samaritan thing, giving Rain a lift back to the hospital, since Rose and Rhino had smashed up her car. There, the Storm surreptitiously thanked his friends for helping Rain without letting on to her that he'd told them to help her out.
Teaser: Billy Rose is infuriated by the Storm's continued mind games, and the two vie to prove who is smarter.
Rating: R - for violence and profanity
Disclaimer: All things WWF are property of Titan Sports. The characters of Matthew "the Storm" Skinner, Claire "Rain" Whittaker, Billy Rose, Brad "Brick" Dickerson, Roger "Zed" Ziger, and Mike "Zeta" Zahn are completely fictional. I do incorporate a few traits from existing WWF wrestlers, but for the most part, they're my creations. The lyrics to Brick's entrance theme were written by myself as well. (For those who are curious, I title his theme "Breaker.")
THURSDAY: Smackdown!, 6 July
Mick Foley ambled through the backstage area, wondering what his favorite targets were up to, when he happened into the garage area. There, he found two people standing around. One was seven-foot-one and was leaning a 2x4 on his shoulder, and the other about six-three and pacing, glaring up the entrance ramp, as though waiting for someone. Foley grinned a bit, and said, "Hi, guys!"
Billy Rose and Brick looked over at him. Brick made a low sound in his throat, not unlike a growl. He turned toward him, but Rose grabbed his wrist and shook his head. "No, Brick. No smashy-smashy." Brick grunted and relaxed slightly. Rose glared at the commissioner. "What do you want, Foley?"
"You wouldn't be looking for a certain young woman from Texas, now would you?" Foley inquired.
"What business is it of yours if we are?" Rose said.
"Because I don't want things escalating in the backstage area," Foley said. "The people who paid good money to come see us--" He paused and glanced over his shoulder at the corridor. "--right here, in Chicago, Illinois!" There was a distant cheer. "Those good people paid to see matches in the ring, Billy, and that's just not going to happen if you keep beating people up backstage."
"If you ask me," Rose said, folding his arms, "you need to book a punishment match for a certain young woman from Texas, for blatantly violating your orders last Monday."
"What orders -- that I decreed nobody from Shane's Faction or the Alliance could interfere?" Foley asked. "She didn't violate it. She's neither a member of your Faction, nor a member of the Alliance."
"Don't you give her a damn loophole, Foley!" Rose shouted. "You've punished people for defying your edicts before, so don't go setting a damn double standard! Unless you punish Rain tonight, Brick and I will take matters into our own hands."
Foley stroked his beard. "All right," he said after a moment, "I'll give her a match tonight. And it'll be against... uh, it'll be against Ivory! And just in case you're getting ideas of interfering tonight, I'm again decreeing no interference from your Faction, the Alliance, and even Right to Censor."
"Fair enough," Rose said. "But rest assured, Foley, I will get vengeance on her. Maybe not tonight, maybe not next week, but I can be damn patient."
* * *
From the hospital, Matthew Skinner watched this exchange with a frown. Claire had left for the arena before the show began, and she was due to arrive any moment. And knowing Billy Rose, the man known as the Storm was willing to bet he had an ace up his sleeve. He picked up his cell phone again and dialed a number.
"Joe's Taxidermy," the voice on the other end said. "You snuff `em, we stuff `em."
"Mike."
"Yo! Rog, pick up!" "`Zup, Skinner?"
"Guys, you watching the monitors there?"
"Yeah. You want we should keep our eyes on Rain again?"
"Yeah. We are dealing with Prick Bastard here, and I doubt he's going to let her off that easily."
"Sure thing, Skinner. You want us to be careful, as usual, right?"
"Right. No sense in tipping our hand before we're ready. Remember, it all has a system."
* * *
"The following contest is scheduled for one fall," Tony Chimel announced. The Lone Star theme started up, and then Rain walked out in her own I am a Force of Nature shirt. The bruise from her black eye was nearly gone, and she tightened her fingerless gloves as she headed down to the ring. "Introducing first, from Dallas, Texas... RAIN!"
Rain climbed into the ring, then went to the corner and raised a fist in the air, then pointed it around in a quarter circle to the OvalTron -- mirroring the pose that the Storm did exactly. She jumped down as "South Texas Deathride" trailed off and the obnoxious klaxon of the Right to Censor's "music" played. Ivory walked out in her ultra-conservative attire, raising a hand in the air. "And her opponent, she is a member of Right to Censor... IVORY!"
Ivory walked down to the ring, went to the ropes and raised her hands in the air, posing like a demagogue probably would when addressing his (or her) minions, and that's when Rain attacked her. Ivory shouted in surprise as Rain clubbed her with a forearm, then got whipped across the ring. As Ivory came back off the ropes, Rain floored her with a hard forearm smash. Rain started putting the boots to Ivory, who scrambled toward the ropes. Rain didn't let up, crouching and pushing Ivory's throat against the ropes. The referee pulled her back, and Ivory got up shakily, croaking as she rubbed her throat.
Rain came back over and grabbed Ivory by her hair, then "hair-mared" her to the mat. Ivory clutched her head in pain, but the Texan woman didn't let up. She hauled Ivory up, threw her into the corner, then hoisted her up top to execute a back superplex. Ivory wasn't moving much, while Rain continued to put the boots to her. Finally, Rain stood up, then raised her hands up in the air, getting a pop from the crowd. A bigger pop followed when Rain wetted a finger and raised it in the air. She went to the corner, ascended, and leaned back, holding the ropes for balance as Ivory unsteadily got to her feet. She turned to face Rain, then got flattened by the Windfall. Rain lay atop her for the pin. The ref started the count, but it stopped as the white-clad censor brigade charged the ring, heedless of Foley's decree.
Rain got up and started to back away as Val Venis and Bull Buchanan entered the ring, but Steven Richards had emerged from the crowd behind her. As she turned to escape through the ropes, Richards nailed her with a Censorkick, knocking her back. Rain pinwheeled her arms to try and stay upright, but she backed right back into Venis, who hoisted her for a Censorbomb. Ivory was helped up by Buchanan and the Goodfather, and she snarled and started screaming at Rain. She looked to Venis and made gestures with her hands, and the former porn star looked to Richards, who gave a nod. Rain was pulled to her feet, and Val prepared to lift her into the piledriver position. Boos cascaded from the stands.
That's when two forms came sprinting from alongside the ramp. Rain, despite being upside down, recognized them -- Roger Ziger and Mike Zahn, the two good Samaritans who had saved her from a beating at Billy Rose's hands on Monday. Roger slid into the ring and decked first Buchanan, then the Goodfather with huge right hands. Val dropped Rain, who landed gingerly on her back, to go after Roger. Mike, meanwhile, charged at Richards nailed him with a spinning heel kick. Roger waded into Val with a series of gutshots, then suddenly grabbed him in a snap suplex position. Rather than just snapping him back however, Roger swung his leg back, then forward, and completely swung Val off his feet and down into a powerslam.
Mike, meanwhile, had Richards against the ropes and was nailing him with forearm shots. He grabbed his wrist, then whipped him across the ring. While Richards was doing this, however, Mike shot himself off the ropes, and caught the rebounding censor with a twisting body attack. By now, the only censor left in the ring was Ivory, who was looking on with shock. She watched as Val, Buchanan, and the Goodfather all rolled out of the ring after Roger's attack, then dropped her jaw in disbelief as she watched Mike floor Richards. They turned to her, and she started backing away, but by now, Rain had recovered. She grabbed Ivory from behind and gave her a Downdraft. Ivory lay in a pile, and Rain kicked at her until she rolled out of the ring, where Richards collected her and retreated up the ramp.
Roger and Mike paced in the ring, looking at the censors with unpleasant intentions, then turned to Rain. "You okay?" Roger asked while Mike whipped off his knit cap and yelled after Right to Censor, "Come back and put your sacks where your mouths are, ya friggin' lame-wads!"
"I'm fine," Rain said. "What're you guys doing here?"
"Just being good Samaritans again," Roger said. "We were backstage and overheard that prick bastard Billy Rose telling those poindexters he'd make it worth their while if they violated Mick Foley's orders."
"Yeah," Mike said, coming back. "Frickin' over-critical bastards like them," he jerked his thumb back at the retreating RTC, "deserve every beating they get."
"Well, thanks--" Rain was starting to talk when cars crashed on the OvalTron. All three of them turned to look at the screen as Mick Foley walked out. He came down the ramp and rolled into the ring, nodded to Rain, then looked at Roger and Mike.
"Well, I'd have to say thanks to you guys," Foley said, "for helping to enforce my decree of no-interference, and also thanks to you, Rain, for putting that, uh, overly-dressed shrew in her place." Roger and Mike grinned at each other, tapped fists and muttered Snoogans to each other, but then Foley kept talking. "However, you should be aware that because of your actions--"
Foley was cut off as the OvalTron lit up with the sounds of the Union Underground. "How long? How long? -- I said how long? I said how long? I said how long? Until you crack..." Billy Rose walked out, eyes burning, wearing his Every Rose shirt. He had a microphone in his hand and glowered at the people in the ring before raising his mic to his lips. Before he even got one word out, the fans were making their opinion of him quite clear: "BASTARD! BASTARD!" He scowled at them, then back at Foley, Rain, and the two Samaritans.
"What the hell is this?" Rose inquired. "You're just going to let these guys off, Foley? I was just backstage -- Val's got a goddamn concussion from that slam that big guy gave him, and Stevie's neck got snapped back from that whatever-the-hell-it-was the crackhead gave him."
"Hey!" Mike grabbed the mic from Foley and yelled, "I ain't no goddamn crack-head, ya bleach-blond moron!"
"Hey!" Rose shouted back. "I wasn't talkin' to you. You shut your word-hole. You're not allowed to talk until I say so."
"Listen here, pansy-ass--"
"What did I just finish telling you?" Rose interrupted. "Foley, I don't know who the hell these guys are, but I do know this -- I spoke to the censors backstage. And Bull, Goodfather, Brick, and myself will gladly take on those two retards and the partners of their choice on Monday."
Foley looked at Roger and Mike, who blinked in surprise, then spoke to Mick. The Commissioner waved them off and said, "Well, Billy, I'd like to give you that match, but I can't do that -- because Brick will have his own match on Monday. So I'll make it, uh, you, Right to Censor, and Rhino against these two men and the partners of their choice. That okay?"
Rose scowled, then muttered that he agreed. He pointed at the two Samaritans. "You two just watch yourself. I am not a man you want to piss off. I have beaten men bigger than you -- I beat the Big Show, I've beaten Test. I control the big man Brick -- and together we broke the King of the Ring, the Force of Nature his very self, the Storm!" There was a mixture of cheers (at the mention of the Storm) and boos (because of Rose's boasting) to that remark. "I am the mental elite, and you can be damn sure I'll prove it when I break you two by my damn self."
Mike and Roger just smirked a bit as Rose left.
* * *
"What the hell are you guys doing?" Rain asked of the two Samaritans as they drove her back to the hospital to see Skinner. "Billy Rose is definitely not someone to mess with. I know, believe me."
"And believe us, Claire," Roger said with a smile, "we know how much of a prick and a bastard Rose is."
Rain blinked. "How do you know my name?"
"Skinner told us," Mike replied. He turned in his seat and offered his hand. "Mike Zahn. But I'm better known sometimes as Zeta."
Rain blinked again at him, then it seemed to sink in. "You're..." She looked at Roger. "So you must be--"
"Roger Ziger, better known as Zed," Roger replied. "We're your boyfriend's buddies from CIW."
"Matthew told me about you guys," Rain said. "He said Billy Rose did just as much crap to you as he did to him. How come he didn't recognize you?"
Roger (or Zed) explained, "After we left CIW--"
"--which was shortly after Skinner left," Mike (or Zeta) added.
"--we went on to other feds and stuff. I went back to boxing for a couple years, got a few more bruises and got my face messed up pretty good. That's why Rose didn't recognize me," Zed finished.
"And me, I grew out my hair and dyed it and stuff," Zeta said. "Neither of us looks the same as we did back in California."
"See, Skinner called us up a little while back and had us get ready to sign with the WWF," Zed explained. "But we haven't finalized the deal -- we'll do that on Monday."
"Why didn't you finalize it?" Rain asked.
"Simple enough," Zeta said. "Once the contracts were signed, they'd be in Mr. McMahon's hands, and soon enough they'd be in Shane's hands. And who do we know who's in Shane's faction?"
"Rose."
"Exactly," Zed replied. "And if he'd seen our contracts -- especially with our wrestling names on them -- he'd've put two and two together, and that would spoil things."
"What do you mean 'spoil things'?" Rain asked.
"Trust us, Claire," Zeta said. "Now that we've told you, Skinner'll explain everything. Like he's told us -- it all has a system."
-more to come-
Next: Billy Rose takes on Zed & Zeta while Brick goes up against Kane and the Storm shows how "It All Has a System."
If you have any ideas for who you think the Storm, Rain, Zed & Zeta, Brick or Billy Rose
should team up with or go up against, drop me a line at jay_winger_2k@hotmail.com.
