At Raw, everyone had just finished the Heat taping when Flair got a knock on his door.
"Come in." It opened and Flair looked up. "You!" He stood up quickly.
The Rock posed arrogantly, "What's the matter Flair? You seem surprised to see me." Flair growled as Rocky smirked. "Well, surprise! Haha, I hope you don't mind if I have a quick little promo on Raw to announce our live event this Friday. Oh, I do hope you haven't forgotten."
"No, I haven't Rock."
Rocky gave him a smug look before turning to go, "I'll be seeing you later, old man." He laughed as he closed the door.
Flair growled to himself, "The Rock, here, tonight? No..."
After Raw went on the air, The Rock's theme hit. Everyone in the arena roared as the most electrifying man in sports entertainment came down the ramp as only he could. The superstars in the back sat on the edge of their seats as they watched him. What was he doing here, and better yet, why was he here?
Rocky lifted the mic to his mouth, "Now I'll just cut to the chase, not to make this short and sweet, but I know there are a lot of questions aroused up in the back with my presence. You want to know what I'm doing here? And let me tell you why, first off I couldn't dream of being away from this ring, especially here with the millions..."
"And millions!"
"And millions, of The Rock's fans, fans who I hope will stand behind me and support me for a special match Flair has agreed to have between me and the soon to be former world heavyweight champion, Edge. This Friday, live in Charlotte, South Carolina, we will be having a title match. Now see, this is a very special match, I will be fighting him by myself, but I invite any of his little crony friends, any of my enemies, hell the camera man's uncle here can come interfere on Edge's behalf and not get him disqualified! That's just how confident I am in my powers. And I hope to see you all out there in tv land next week on Raw when I have a new gold belt around my waist. I hope all of you in the South Carolina... no the Carolinas... no, the entire southern east coast, come out to see this, because friends, this is one match you sure dam hell don't wanna miss! If you smell, what The Rock, is cookin!" He did his trademark eyebrow as the crowd roared above his theme.
In the back, Edge growled angrily, "You... son of a! Does he want to expose himself, and us all? Why would he do such a thing?"
"I know why." Jericho lowered his eyebrows. "He wants to intimidate us. He thinks that the chance of our hidden powers being exposed to the world will keep us hiding, keep us locked away back here inside where we can't help you Edge. He knows he's stronger than us all, he knows that even with a combine effort we may not win, and he wants to take us all out with a bang, he wants to win the title, boom, like that."
"Then we need to up the antae on our training." Edge sighed. Flair overheard and began to think, he thought he just had an idea.
Tuesday morning, Mick Foley sat outside on the patio on what was an unusually warm day for him. He sipped lemonade as he took the morning newspaper off of the adjacent lawn chair for himself to read. Crash came bursting out the door.
"Aw come on, please!" He begged. "Train me, train me more!"
"I've told you a million times already." Foley looked over his sunglasses at him. "I've taught you all that I know about this. You have to remember, I wasn't in the blast, I don't have powers. All I could do was help you to harness them into that wave attack."
"Yes, and I thank you for that, but there has to be more training we can do!"
"Nope, not with me there is. Why don't you go hang out with Rey Mysterio or something?"
Crash frowned, "No way, we've both got different styles, I'd just get in the way..."
Rey Mysterio had gone back to his home in San Diego and was training out by the ocean early in the morning. It was still cool out as the morning fog hung by the breakwater on which he stood. He was doing what looked like karate yoga poses on the edgy rocks. A wave was about to crash over him when he dodged it by jumping back and flipping back down the breakwater towards the shore as the wave flew over the rock wall. Landing on his feet, Rey caught his breath as the wave went back out into the ocean.
"Concentration is the key, focus." He spoke to himself and took a deep breath to get his breathing back into rhythm. "Ok, got it." He opened his eyes. "Let's go!" He went back out again and wondered. "I wonder how the others are doing?"
RVD was outside of Chyna's house as Puar watched him do martial arts. RVD was great at all of that kind of stuff, a true master and not just in his own mind. Using his training along with his powers, he devised some new attacks and his concentration in yoga helped him to focus his power. The others at Chyna's house, however, didn't have such a slow, peace minded attitude towards their training.
"No, no, no!" Eddie Guerrero roared. "Again!"
Jeff Hardy groaned, "Again?"
"Yes, again."
"Fine."
Eddie folded his arms as Jeff sighed, "Now. From the top."
"Ha!" Jeff powered up into his Super Star state, Eddie did the same. Jeff went to punch Eddie but each time, Eddie would block it with a fist of his own, his forearm barely moved from the elbow and yet he blocked it all so easily with such speed. Jeff stopped again, panting. "Come on!"
"No, you come on! We won't stop this until we get it right."
"But please Eddie, I'm tired."
"You wanted me as a mentor, you brought the axe down on yourself. Now, from the top, again!"
"Arg!" Jeff rose his power level on anger and charged at Eddie. He went for a spinning kick but Eddie ducked. He went to punch Jeff before he could flip, but Jeff rolled to the side in midair and lunged at Eddie from behind with his elbow. Eddie flew into the wall of the house, causing it to shake. Jeff panted as he landed back in a pose, "There, are you happy now?"
Eddie panted and got up, rubbing the side of his mouth and smirked, "We're getting there."
"Again, from the top?"
"You know it."
Chyna came out of the house with Oolong to bring Rob a water when she noticed the duo, "Wow, Eddie sure is taking this seriously. I've never seen him so determined, especially when it came to making somebody other than himself stronger."
"I know." Chyna turned as she heard Rob come over, he took the water. "Thanks."
Chyna sighed as he drank it, "Why don't you go join them while Eddie's a bargain?"
RVD swallowed and closed the empty bottle, "No way, I'd just be a bother, I couldn't keep up with them if my life depended on it."
Oolong put his hands on his hips, "Now how are you supposed to defeat The Rock with an attitude like that?"
RVD smirked, "I can't become a Super Star."
Puar turned to him, "Well then you'll just have to find what your technique is."
RVD frowned, "But Jeff said that not everyone has a technique, maybe I don't." Puar sighed.
It was getting late in their third day of training, it was Chris Jericho's second only because Lita made him stay inside to recover. Chris Benoit and Edge were sparring quickly up in the air, Edge was in his Super Star state and Jericho was watching them. Benoit was fairing quite well against Edge, considering he couldn't become a Super Star. But he was fast, and that posed a threat to Edge's strength, so he used that for his training. If he could match Benoit in speed, he'd have a greater advantage than he did before training, and with Rocky, they needed any advantaged they could get. Finally they stopped.
"Whew." Edge rubbed the sweat off his brow. "Man, what a day, am I right?" His smirk changed when he noticed Benoit looking down towards the ground. Edge followed his gaze. "It's Jericho, isn't it?"
"Yea, I can't shake the thought of nearly loosing him from my mind." Benoit sighed.
"Listen, I know how close you two are, Chris is like a brother to me. I feel just as bad for being so far away on vacation when he needed me the most."
"Do you think he'll be ok by the time we fight Rocky?"
"I don't know..."
Benoit turned to Edge, "Listen champ." Edge turned to him. "You're the strongest out of us all, sure we'll all work together, but if Jeff says not even you can take him, what chance do we have?"
"Well, what's your point?"
"My point is, if we already know we're to loose, why bother trying? It'd be better to just call it quits not just for our own safety, but for that of Jericho and all the others."
"We're not to loose, who told you that? Jeff never mentioned anything in his vision about us loosing. We have a chance, and it's one I'm willing to take, if I have to go alone or not." Edge looked Benoit in the eye when he said that.
Down on the ground Jericho looked up at a sound of someone approaching, he turned to see Flair coming from a car. Chris stood up, "Ric."
"Hu?" Benoit and Edge looked down, when they saw him they went to the ground.
"What's up?" Jericho asked.
"I'm glad to see your health is one of them." Flair smirked, then turned to Edge and Benoit. "Listen, I already called Eddie and Jeff and they're on their way, but I came to speak to you in person because the phone lines are tied."
"Lita, no doubt." Jericho responded.
"On their way?" Edge stepped forward.
"On their way to where?" Benoit asked.
Flair nodded, "To my place. Listen, my location is remote, nobody will be able to find us there. We can train in secret and I've been able to devise a device that might be able to help us all."
"Oh?" The trio was intrigued.
Meanwhile, Chyna and Rob were left alone at her house....
"Look, why not go with them?" She asked as she lifted her coffee mug.
"Because I'm no match to compete." RVD growled as he crumpled a soda can and tossed it aside.
Puar caught it, "Oh Rob, don't litter." He put it in the trash.
"Then why not go along with Crash to see Mick? I'm sure he'll be glad to see you and Crash could use somebody to train with." Chyna suggested.
Rob thought for a moment, "You know what? You're right. I should make the best of my time and training alone is not only no fun but it's not smart. It takes two to have a fight."
"That's the spirit." Chyna smirked.
Puar looked at her, "But you'll be here all alone."
"Oh don't worry, I can always go to Ric's if I get bored." She winked. "Besides, I've got plenty to do here."
"Alright." Rob got up. "Come on Puar, we're going."
"Ok." He nodded and they went to the door.
Before leaving, Rob turned around, "Hey Chyna?"
"Yea?"
He paused and sighed, shaking his head, "Nothing. I'll see you later, ok?"
"Ok." She watched them go.
Rey Mysterio hung up the phone at his house, "So, everyone's going to Flair's hu? Maybe I should go too. If they're all training, even if the location is remote, Rocky could be able to find us with his senses. They'll need somebody to be on guard, especially if Big Show and Nidia decide to come into play." With that, Rey made his choice to go.
Big Show and Nidia were in fact coming into play. They yearned for revenge against The Rock. It was a coincidence that the house show on Friday was in Flair's hometown, that just gave the gang more time to train. But with Rob and Crash over at Mick's house, how prepared could they possibly get? And wait, why are Big Show and Nidia headed to that exact place? Are they finishing their job before going after Rocky, or are they looking for allies to take down The Rock? Find out next time in the next chapter of WWE Z!