Chapter 23: A Challenge and A Cheap Shot

Jeff Hardy still laid in the ring as the Dangerous Alliance went on top of the ramp and they had a cage-like prison next to them. Trish was still in the chair, watching Jeff struggling to get to his feet as Paul E. started his talking again.

"You know Jeff, I feel bad about this, so I'm going to give you another chance at No Way Out. I'll give you a one on one match against CM Punk, but it's not going to be easy. See first, Trish is going somewhere more comfortable." Tomko and Snitsky grabbed her and pushed her with force into the cage. "See she's going to be in this cage until No Way Out. The match at No Way Out will be an advantage towards you, it will be a ladder match, and hanging above the ring will be this key. This key unlocks the cage lock that Trish will be in, all you've got to do is grab the key, and unlock her. But it won't be that easy either, see this cage won't be at ringside, it will be set somewhere else in the arena, and you won't know until the event itself. If you get the key and unlock the cage, then you get Trish back, and I will never bother and I will stay away from you forever. So do you accept?"

Jeff, who was still down on his stomach, got the mike and said, "yes."

"Good then the match is made, CM Punk VS. Jeff Hardy in a ladder match at No Way Out, if Jeff Hardy defeats Lance Cade next week in a one on one matchup!" Paul E. said smiling, as Jeff sighed and looked up frustrated.

"You've got to be kidding? Every time Jeff Hardy has a slimmer of hope Paul E. throws in another wrench into the plan. So if Jeff Hardy defeats Lance Cade, he gets a shot at CM Punk, I don't know if he can survive any more, he's fought them with all his heart and now he has to keep fighting even harder."

"Jeff Hardy is done, he should just quit." Coach said.

The Dangerous Alliance walked away with Trish being wheeled out by Tomko and Snitsky.

Backstage John Cena was walking with Shelton Benjamin; they were talking about later in the night and what they were going to do, when John saw his locker room, and told Shelton that he will see him later, and walked in, he closed the door and turned around and his eyes widened, as he stared in the face of Torrie Wilson.

"What do you want, Torrie?"

"I just wanted to talk to you."

"About what? Leaving me when I needed you, the fact that you started my downfall before I left? What do you want to say to me?"

"Why are you mad at me? I thought last week that you said that you were going to fight for me?"

"I did some thinking over the last week and I realized that if you hadn't walked out on me, then I wouldn't have left, if you stuck with me then none of this would've happened but no you walked out and forced me to leave."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, I'm right here now, you don't know how much it meant to me to see you come back, and then to hear the words you said last week, it made me feel good especially after all the things that Stacy said to me and Randy RKOing me and all the things that they said about you it's just that…" Torrie was frantic and obviously going crazy and was bawling in front of John, he walked over and held onto her and embraced her.

"Calm down, it's okay, I'm sorry I said those things just now, let's just move on, and focus on the things at hand, alright?"

"Alright." She replied smiling, they shared a kiss.

Evolution was in their locker room and they all seemed calm, despite the fact that John Cena was back and of course their tag team match at No Way Out.

"So what's going to happen tonight?" Batista asked.

"Apparently we have to listen to those guys talk again." Randy said with Stacy on his lap.

"I don't think so, I think you guys should do something about it." HHH said.

They looked at each other and nodded as they left the room wanting to make an impact.

In the ring Shelton and John with Torrie were standing in there, and they were ready to fight and talk.

"In 2 weeks at No Way Out, we have a little match with no rules and no boundaries against Evolution, the problem with that is, is that they think they can steam roll over us like nothing. But we're not going to let that happen." Shelton said.

"I don't think so, I think that they should be scared for their lives, but why wait till No Way Out, so Orton, Batista get your asses out here now!"

Within a few seconds here they came running out of the curtain and they went into the ring and the fight was on. Shelton and Batista, John and Randy, as Stacy and Torrie watched from ringside, cheering on. John and Shelton had the advantage and knocked them to the floor, they both grabbed steel chairs and went back into the ring as John and Shelton bailed out and grabbed chairs of their own and went back into the ring.

"Look at this stand off."

"Both teams have chairs and are squaring off."

Both teams were on opposite sides just staring at each other, then Evolution charged and swung their chairs but they ducked, then they tried to hit Evolution but they ducked as well, finally both teams starting swinging their chairs like swords and they were hitting each others' chairs. All 4 dropped the chairs because their hands couldn't take the pain any more. They went back to brawling, Stacy came in and low blowed John Cena causing him to go down, Torrie immediately came in and speared Stacy down as they rolled around the ring.

"CATFIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!"

They rolled around and Randy grabbed Torrie by the hair and lifted her to her feet, he started yelling at her again, it looked like a few weeks ago when he RKO'ed her, just as he was about to, Shelton came out of nowhere with a superkick to the face of Randy Orton knocking him down, Shelton turned around and was hit with a spine buster courtesy of Batista. John got up and hit an FU onto Batista and had Randy in his sights, Randy was in the corner backing off.

"John Cena wants to finish off Randy Orton before No Way Out."

Meanwhile on the rampway some one was running down with a bag or a huge sack, and he came into the ring.

"Wait that's Bob Orton, Randy's father, what's he doing? And more importantly what's in the bag?"

Bob Orton came in and turned Cena around and hit a forearm to the face, then another one that knocked him down. Bob went for the bag and tried to open it but Cena stopped him and grabbed him and nailed a huge right hand. John started working on Bob Orton, he started stomping on him, Randy on the other hand had the bag in his hands as John delivered another FU to Bob Orton, Randy saw this as an opportunity. He turned John around and nailed him in the face with the bag, almost immediately John was busted open. Randy left the ring with his dad, Batista recovered, as did Stacy and they all backed up the ramp with the bag still in Randy's hands. Shelton went in as did Torrie and they checked up on John.

"Cena is busted open bad, what was in that bag?"

Evolution was standing on top of the ramp, smiling feeling good, Randy held up the bag, as Torrie and Shelton looked at them. Randy opened the bag, and lowered it to the ground and laid down the sediments on the floor, those sediments were none other than thumbtacks. Shelton just shook his head as he saw all the tacks spread out on the ramp, and they were saying that that was just a piece of what they were going to do with the tacks to John Cena, Shelton grabbed the mic.

"Ha real funny, that was great, that was just a little bit of what you're going to do to us with those thumbtacks? Fine you want to play rough? Then we can play rough, next week, we reveal our weapon of choice and it will be more brutal, more devastating than those thumbtacks, and next week you will feel a piece of it, I guarantee it." With that Evolution looked worried as the show went off the air.

A/N: I know nothing exciting, just a way to set up and get you going till No Way Out. Any way I hope you like it and here's a preview:

Next Time: What will the weapon of choice be? Will John get his revenge with it? Plus can Jeff Hardy defeat Lance Cade and get his match with CM Punk at No Way Out?