Atlanta stood beautifully at night, the lights of the large city made it all more so under the cloudless starry sky, the full moon hanging high. In the outskirts of the city towards the more natural element, the reminisce of the WCW headquarters and the Power Plant training grounds still stood, fenced off to the rest of the wilderness that concealed the concrete jungle. It was dead still, almost like a huge gravesite memorial in a cemetery. The tops of the trees began to rustle in the wind as a sound of footsteps was heard through the long and short grasses, finally a man pushed his way out through the shrubs and bushes and stood at the top of the cliff overlooking the place he once lived to work for. He was the newest of the developmental talent from OVW, and he was headed for the WWE…
The WWE didn't have any house shows scheduled after the tapings that week, so everyone was free to do as they pleased. But a small handful of superstars stayed in the north east, in Stamford, CN to be exact, the home of the WWE Headquarters. Lance Storm was shoving his way down the street, it was crowded on the sidewalks and the people he pushed through were in as much of a hurry to get where they were going as Lance was to his destination. The others were behind him, Chris Benoit, Trish Stratus and her now about seven, eight year old son Tony Lee holding her hand down by her side. She and Chris Benoit had been more or less together since she and Jericho had gotten a divorce. The two weren't necessarily engaged, but, they weren't not engaged either.
Trish sighed as she looked up at the partially cloudy sky, thinking, "The others said to meet us at the HQ, but I can't see anyone else around. I wonder if Lance is leading us in the right direction, this part of town doesn't seem very familiar. I wonder if he's up to something."
"I doubt it." Benoit walked with his arms folded across his chest, his eyes closed peacefully. "Lance knows what he's doing."
"Hey what the hell do you think you're doing?"
"Hu?" Benoit and Trish looked up at the voice to see Lance Storm standing in a grocers box of produce.
"That shipment just came in this morning, you ass!"
"Sorry, my bad." Lance was rubbing the back of his head as he stepped out, his boots and bottom half of his pants covered in an attempted fruit and veggie smoothie.
"You know you'd think a guy like that would know better, but…" Trish just sighed.
"I'll pay you, get you tickets, give you autographs." Lance was begging.
"What a bastard." Benoit just slapped his forehead as he grabbed Lance by the collar and dragged him off.
"We'll talk Monday!" Lance called, holding up his hand like a phone to his ear as the store owner just rolled his eyes and began to sweep up the mess.
"I wonder where the others are." Trish looked around as the traffic of people on the side walks grew thinner. "I still can't see anyone or anything familiar."
"Well you have to remember, we aren't here a lot, plus we've been to so many cities, everything starts to look the same." Lance advised.
"Maybe they're hiding?" Tony Lee spoke up.
"Why would they hide from us?" Benoit snorted.
"Chris." Trish growled in the same voice she'd once commanded her other husband with.
"I'm just saying, maybe they're cowards, all cowards ever do is hide?" Tony Lee continued on his theory, causing Benoit to stop abruptly.
"Hmm, Chris?" Trish asks as the other stop curiously.
Benoit doesn't loose his temper over his son to be, he just sighs and regains his composure, "Look, can we just move on?"
Tony speaks smartly, "Maybe they're planning something for us, they're knowing we're coming so they're hiding and are gonna pop out with a cake and presents?" Benoit just moans and groans loudly.
Trish senses the hostilyt, "Alright son, come on now and leave him alone."
"But I…"
"Stop it."
"Yes mom…"
"There's a good boy." Trish looks up at Benoit. "And you, stop your whining, we're almost there." She walks off, this time in the lead, as the boys follow once again. Finally they reach the HQ just moments before the time they were scheduled to be there. Trish holds up two fingers in a victory sign, "See, never doubt a women's intuition." They go inside, but it's fairly empty, and head to the training room. "McMahon told us to come scout the developmental talent right?"
"Right." Lance nodded.
Benoit looked around carefully, "Then where is everyone, why is nobody here?"
"Mom, I'm scared." Tony Lee hugged Trish's leg.
"It's ok." Trish looked up, something wrong was going on, even her son had dropped the hiding for a surprise idea and could sense the eerie tension in the air. They look around and finally Trish's voice breaks the silence, "What in the world could be going on?"
Ashley Marie was running through the Turner owned land outside of the old company. Five years had passed, Ashley was now a lovely 24 year old young woman. The two suits her father usually sent after her has been lost somewhere in the wilderness behind her. The wind is blowing harder at the top of the trees, but the rustling isn't loud enough to drown out the stomps through the grass behind her.
Ashley looks up at the sky, "Who is he and what in the world could he be doing here, what does he want?" She comes up to the cliff overlooking the Power Plant and gasps as she turns around, hearing the heavy panting growing closer. "Oh man, here we go!" She jumped down and skidded and jumped down the cliff until the reached the bottom, rolling and getting up on all fours, looking up. "Did I loose him?" The figure of a man appeared at the top. "Doh, oh no!" She scrambled to her feet and continued running. "Almost six years later and I'm still at this, ugh!" The whole area has a strange feeling to it, she could sense that something was going on, but she had on idea who or what it was all about.
Ted Turner was at his mansion in a more suburban area out of Atlanta, he stood in his main office looking out the big window overlooking the land heading out towards the old WCW area. He surveys the area and his eyes finally stop wandering. Two more black suites stand in the back of the room by the door, awaiting any orders or instructions.
Finally Ted speaks up, "Our territories are being completely overrun, somebody, something is out there annihilating it all, trying to destroy us, and the company. Me, my family, my staff, the very land the buildings stand on as well."
One of the men steps forward, "Half of the area has already been scouted and been riddled with damages. We've heard that a man was spotted out over by the Power Plant, do you think he could be one of this gang?"
The other man steps forward, "They're destroying everything that they can, what are they up to? We can't catch them with our security on our own, do you think we should get help?"
"No, I do not want to get any officials into this, this is our empire and as its leader I'm the chief in command. Understood?"
"Yes sir." They both nodded.
"We can't beat them alone, but…" Ted stops in mid sentence to think. "But we can't necessarily…"
"Father!" Ashely Marie bursts through the door panting. "Somebody is following me, I found him around the Power Plant!"
"The Power Plant?" Ted asks.
"It must be the man we picked up on our scanners earlier." One of the men replied.
"What do we do, should we help?" The other man asked.
Ted looked outside as the computer showed signs of a security breach, "Get everyone in the house to safety. Ashley you stay up here with me."
"Yes sir!" The two men ran off to contact everyone and get to work.
Ashley watched her dad walk across the room, "Papa…?"
"Ashley." Ted turned around and stood before his desk. "There's something I need you to do." Ashley furrowed her brow slightly, what did he have planned for her this time?
Ashley Marie stood awaiting expectantly across the room from her dad, and finally after the ominous pause, Ted Turner spoke up, "We can't do this alone, we need… Chris."
"Chris?" Ashley's word was almost a gasp.
"Chris Jericho."
"But…" Ashley's eyes shook. "I couldn't get him to pay the time of day to me before, so then how, why do you expect to think that now he'd…"
"Ashley…" Ted turned around to cut his daughter off. "That was five years ago, times change, and…" Ted smiled warmly, which caused Ashley to be taken back for a moment. "And so do people. Do you understand."
Ashley paused but then nodded, "Yes sir."
"Good. He doesn't have to join us, we just need his help, he can't refuse an offer like that."
"I see, I understand." Ashley stared at the floor, breathless in her own mind but only for a moment, before a growl came out of her throat.
"Aha!" The voice caused Ashley to gasp and turn around as Ted looked up taken in shock.
"Ah, it's you!" Ashley cried out at the man who stood in the doorway, it was the man who was after her earlier that day.
"What, how did you get passed security?" Ted pushed the call button on his desk. "What? No reply!" The man laughed. Ted growled and looked up, "Well, well, Jonathan."
"John?" Ashley turned from her dad and to the man, she squinted her eyes at him, something about him seemed familiar.
The two suits ran in, "Sir, are you alright!"
"Yes, we're fine. Is everyone secure?"
"Affirmative." The first nodded.
"But, how did he get past the security?" The second one asked.
"Look, just split up, secure the area, others might follow."
"Right." They both ran off.
"Go on now Ashley, get."
Ashley gasped and turned to her dad, "But papa…!"
"Go on Ashley Marie." John cracked his knuckles. "The grown ups need to talk some business."
Ashley growled, "Grr. I am not, a child anymore!"
"Ashley!"
"Uh… alright." Ashley turned and ran out the door, leaving the two men in the room, staring down the other. John began to walk towards Ted, but Ted stood his ground firmly and growled, he wouldn't back down, not without a fight he wouldn't. "What is going on here, what is all this?" Ashley wondered as she ran. "Why are they doing this?" She rushes outside and the glass from the window above shatters as a chair is thrown out the window. Ashley gasps in horror as it falls right in front of her, she looks back up, it'd come from her dad's office. Her eyes welled up as she turned to run back, "Dad!"
"What on earth, what in the world is the meaning of this Jonathan?" Ted growled.
"So you remember me huh, I am very flattered."
"Of course I remember you Jonathan, you used to work for me long ago when WCW was still around and thriving."
"Yes, but now I work for Mr. McMahon."
"What?"
"Yea, that's right, I just got a developmental contract right outta OVW. I get dark matches on Velocity and Heat and everything, haha! So what do you think of that?"
"Well I don't know, I…."
"Ever since WCW closed I've been out of a job and starving, living out of my camper, I went to all the independent leagues and ate everyone up, but still it got me nowhere and nothing. But a few years ago, I finally go the WWE's attention and I got a five year deal in OVW. And now I've come back to rub it in your face."
"Oh is that all?" Ted backed up as the man cornered him against the bookcase, some of them falling off the shelves.
"And also, for some payback."
"Pay, back…?" Ted gulped, John sneered and raised a fist. Ted's body cringed as he closed his eyes.
"Hiyaaaaahhhh, papa!" Ashley burst into the room and jumped onto the attacker, digging her nails into his arms, her arms wrapped around his neck, her head butting into the back of his skull. "Dad, get out of here now! I'm a diva, like it or not, you're not a wrestler, you don't stand a chance at your age!"
"Ashely Marie…!"
"GO!"
"Sir let's get you out of here to safety!" The suits ran back in and pulled him out of the room.
Ted turned back to see his daughter struggle with his former employee, she punched him in the back and he threw her onto the ground, she did a spinning kick, causing him to trip as she crawls back to her feet panting, "ASHLEY!"
Meanwhile, elsewhere… Chris Jericho looked around the back yard area of the Stamford training center, Edge and Christian stood at each of his side. Jericho growled, "He was here a second ago and now he's gone. Guys like that just don't disappear into thin air!"
"Chris, your reading too much into this." Christian said, grabbing a water.
Edge wiped his mouth after taking a drink, "I know you can sense something is wrong, but if there's nothing we can do about it, then…"
"But we can Edge, at least, I can that is."
"Hey!"
"We just have to concentrate, we can find this guy alright?" Jericho growled and closed his eyes, coaching himself on. "Come on Chris, focus, you can do this."
Edge turned to Christian, "Do you know where he might be?"
"No, don't have the slightest clue."
Jericho growls with frustration and looks back to the building, "Why does this feel so strange?" The thoughts of Ashley Marie Turner trying to convince him to marry her flashed through his mind. "Her, after all this time, why is all I can think about her? This isn't Turner territory, it's McMahon, so then…" A thought hit him. "That man, could he be somehow connected to that guy from over half a decade ago?" He looked down at his left hand, the wedding band no longer on his finger, "I would've gone with her, if I'd known all of this would lead up to something." Jericho growled to himself as Edge and Christian ran over, "I've got a bad feeling about this, I can sense a disturbance in the air."
"Doesn't he mean, the force?" Christian whispered and Edge snickered.
"Hey! Come on now, this is serious!" Chris growled, focused. "Something wrong is going on..."
The blue curtains were starting to turn a purple brown with the blood from the fighting. Ashley Marie Turner continued to battle the man, Jonathan, as the suits rushed her dad as the last of the people out of the building area. The man finally threw Ashley down against the desk where she cried out and cringed in pain, he looked out the window and saw Ted Turner getting into his car.
"Oh no you don't, not so fast." He sneered and rushed out of the room.
Ashley struggled to try to move, "No, d-daddy…!" She growled.
"I'm gonna get you." John laughed as he made his way down the stairs and burst out the front doors. "Aha!"
"No!" Ted gasped as the suits next to him whirled around.
"Haha, and now I…" Jonathan didn't get to finish.
"Gotcha!" Ashley landed on top of him.
"What, Ashley!" Ted looked up and realized she'd jumped out at him from the window above.
"Now daddy run, go, get away!" Ashley screamed as she struggled to keep on the man, piggy back style as he flailed her about. Finally she gets flung off and lands on Ted. She gasps with concern as he groans, "Dad, are you alright?"
"It's alright, I'm just tired, that's all…" He gritted his teeth in pain.
"Here sir, try to stand up." The suits try to lift him up to his feet, but he cries out in agony and collapses again.
"Dad!" Ashley is even more concerned now. "Hang in there." She looks up growling upon hearing John laugh with amusement. The two suits behind her growl as well.
"This is too close for comfort, we have to get him out of here with the others." One suit whispered.
The other nodded, "I agree, but we'll need to buy some time to get away."
"You can't do that, leave it to me." Ashley's eyes tightened with rage. "He'll be in trouble if he stays here, get him out of here now."
"Listen Ashley you're not even supposed to be here, don't you have a quest to fulfill?"
Ashley's tightened fist lowers to her side, "But…"
"You go, we can hold him off until the limo driver gets your father to safety with the others. We are, after all, bodyguards."
Ashley smiled meekly, "Thank you." She looked back down at her unconscious dad laying in the back seat, she closed the door. "Good luck, father." The limo drove off.
"Go Ashley run now!"
"Right." Ashley nodded and took off as the two suits began to go on the defensive.
"We can only hold him off for so much longer, we need him, we need you to get… Chris Jericho."
"Everyone must get away from this monster and to safety. That's all that matters now."
Ashley stopped on top of the hill before the mansion, she could see the faint outlines of the two men battling the large wrestler, "I have to stop this, but they've already jumped and put their plan in motion." Tears start to well in her eyes. "You both… you're sacrificing yourselves to… you won't make it, and you know it… I can't let your sacrifice go to waste!" She growls in determination as the tears go down her cheeks. "Chirs is the only one who can help us now." One of the two suits finally begins to fatigue, panting heavily as the other one runs to his aid. Jonathan attacks and the two scream out in agony as one gets punched in the back and the other in the stomach. "No!" Ashley closes her eyes, frozen as she ran onto the scene.
"Oh no you don't, hold it right there!" A figure jumped out and took out Jonathan with one kick to the side of the head. The two men looked up and gasped, Ashley opened her eyes and gasped. John lay frozen in shock at the attack on his side as the man lands. The two men look up at him in shock. "Hey, are you two boys alright?"
They nod shakily, "Y-yes, Chris."
Chris Jericho nods and leers at the attacker, "So, we meet again."
"Chris Jericho." John got up. "It's been over half a decade."
"You speak as if it matters Joe."
"It's John! And oh but it does now." John pulled out a paper. "See this? It's a dark match contract, I just graduated from the developmental OVW, now I'm gonna be on Heat and Velocity."
"So." Jericho scrunched his nose. "Vince finally took notice to you eh? Well I better get your name right, cause now you've caught my attention and I aim to put a stop to that."
"Big talk from such a small man, maybe it's time for me to show you how much I really have improved."
Jericho crouched down in a battle pose, "I would like that."
"AH!" They both run at each other and Jericho takes him out with one powerfully swift blow, the man falls in a pained heap to the ground, sweat falling off his face.
Jericho stands and folds his arms, "Over already? Man Vince will thank me for this." He picked up the contract and tore it in half.
"What, no!" Jonathan's eyes widened but he moaned again in pain.
"You shouldn't carry around something of so much worth that is tangibily so fragile."
Edge and Christian go over to the men panting, "Hey are you two alright?" They look up as Jericho approaches.
"Thank you Chris."
"For saving us."
"I'm surprised, you guys are one to talk." Chris approached.
One man looks to the ground, then speaks up at him, "You took such a great risk coming here, but if not for your efforts… ugh."
"Hey, are you alright?" The other one closes his eyes, his vision blurry. Jericho looks at him and his face softenes, they may have been workers for the Turner corporation but they were still only human and gave their hearts to protecting all the innocent people. "Ted tried to send Ashley to find you Chris, but she kept coming back to help us, she was determined to fight."
Jericho looked closely at silent Ashley who was focused on the two men, he understood, "I…"
One of the men smiled, "I'm glad we could've met you again Chris, you look wonderful, you've grown up so much, I'm glad you made a successful life, with McMahon." Jericho's face softened again at the man's comments. "We had to abandon our area and run for our lives…"
"What are you running from?" Jericho asked.
The other man continued weakly, "From that man, he came from out of nowhere. He used to work in WCW and he wanted revenge after signing with the WWE and drove to take it out on his former boss and employees. We've been getting a lot of trouble lately with some people breaking in through security, he must be one of them, they all must be uniting over a the similar motive."
"Meaning that there's more?" Edge and Christian looked at the unconscious man.
"He just started destroying everything and hurting everyone he could get his hands on, hell bent on vengeance."
"I see." Jericho thought about what the suit said. "I think I understand what's going on now with the mindset of these people." The two men began to moan and groan and Jericho clenched his jaw as the two pass out.
"No guys, wake up, oh please be ok!" Ashley begs, down by their side.
"We should call for help for them." Edge speaks up.
"Right, I'll call for an ambulance." Christian pulled out his cell.
Ashley looked over at John as he lay on the ground, "Oh, now what do I do?"
Jericho looks over at her, his eyes shaking slightly, "Now… we're going to go."
"Where are we going to go?" Edge asked as Christian spoke on his phone.
Jericho stands determined, "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
Edge pulled out his cell phone, "Hey a message… from Chris Benoit. Huh, looks like they're coming?"
"Here?" Jericho growled, he knew Trish Stratus would be with him.
"There's no mistaking it." Edge closed his phone.
"The ambulance is coming here now." Christian spoke up after shutting his as well.
"Alright then." Chris replied and took one last quick glance over at Ashley who was still sullen on the ground. He thought to himself, "I refuse to have them all see each other again, I don't want either side to know anything that's going on with me and the other." He ran off. "I'll have to beat them to the meeting."
"Wait!" Edge runs off.
"Come back!" Christian follows.
"Hu?" Ashley looks up as the trio disappear, she sighs to herself, now what was she going to do?