Chapter Seven

Chris Benoit had met the Hurricane as he had raced through the mansion. In his arms he'd carried an unconscious Trish Stratus and Hurricane had wanted to show his appreciation for him staying to help (though he wasn't angry with Michaels and the Undertaker for leaving; they had fulfilled their obligation and he was grateful for that). He found himself lost in thought, however, as he regarded Trish with mixed emotions. Christian could very well have been lying about her intentions…but then again, he could have been telling the truth. Either way, Hurricane was getting very tired of being played.

All that would have to wait, however, as Benoit had reported the curious absence of Lita when he'd found Trish. Her scent (and Hurricane had reacted slightly to this but didn't ask) had been lingering of course, but that was the only evidence that she'd ever been present at all. In fact, as they worked together to locate Rosey and Molly, they discovered that the same was true for all the Coalition: each body had mysteriously vanished...

It was less than a month later when the last nagging piece of the puzzle had fallen into place and Christian – now Christian Cage – had debuted at Total Nonstop Action's Genesis pay-per-view. Hurricane had taken special note as Cage had turned on his old friend and colleage, Scott D'Amore, much to the delight of all the fans, and thereby instantly elevating his own status within the company.

"Holy revelation – a hit list," Hurricane had mumbled.

Molly had been sitting next to him with her head on his shoulder. Her eyesight had never returned, but as compensation she had developed a Daredevil-like ability to 'see' though echoes as sound waves bounced off objects around her. Having been a longtime Green Lantern fan, the Hurricane didn't exactly understand how this was possible, but the irony of Christian's notation toward heroes coming out stronger for facing bitter adversity had not been lost on him. In any case, he was happy she had adapted.

Now she sat up and cocked her head toward him. "What are you talking about?"

"I found a piece of paper in Christian's office with a bunch of names written on it," he explained. "Mine was included, but I didn't have any connection to the others so I didn't think anything of it. But after my name was Scott D'Amore – and earlier on the list was Kevin Nash…" he was suddenly remembering the photograph of Christian standing next to the Hummer.

And after D'Amore's name? Rosey's voice gently prompted in his mind. The big man's voice box had been well and truly crushed, but with his high level of psionic power he had formed a telepathic link to his teammates, allowing them to 'hear' his every word and sense every change in emotion. Now, behind the question, Hurricane understood Rosey's intention of diverting him from the train of thought he'd just been on.

"Jeff Jarrett," he answered, more than a bit reluctant to walk away from unraveling what was arguably professional wrestling's most nagging unsolved mystery.

"The NWA World Heavyweight Champion?" Molly recognized the significance of the name.

So that was the goal all along, Rosey mused. Build the Peepulation until he had power enough to challenge for the most prestigious title of them all.

"Clever bastard," Hurricane rubbed his chin, staring into Christian Cage's beady eyes on his television (and was it his imagination, or did Cage's stare right back for a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it second?).

He began to wonder if Christian had been telling the truth about Trish – or at least part of the truth. While it seemed pertinent that Hurricane had been out-of-commission for the Peepulation to rise, Christian certainly had no shortage of self-claimed nemeses that he would clearly stop at nothing to remove from his path of becoming World Champion. Perhaps Trish's motives to remove Christian from power had been less than the selfless act he had taken it to be and more to elevate her own status. Or perhaps, with no further need of the Coalition, and the next step being the jump to TNA, they had been working together all along. Christian had to have known that Hurricane would be seeking revenge on him – had he used that knowledge to his advantage? Had the Hurricane and his team done Christian's dirty work for him in removing the enforcers and then allowing him to leave unscathed? Had he ever been anything more than a pawn in this elaborate chess game?

Hurricane sat back into the sofa and draped an arm lazily around Molly's shoulders. With every question that was answered a new one was asked. It seemed that he would have to accept that there were some secrets that he was never meant to know, and that the lies and half-truths went deeper than he had first imagined. One thing he did know, however, that the ordeal had done some good in bringing his team back together. And with Chris Benoit on call as a loyal ally, and Stacey Keibler, who had politely declined retaking an active role in crime fighting but was working wonders for the tarnished PR of the world's superheroes, things were most certainly looking up.

Hurricane smiled as Christian Cage postured to the crowd in the Impact Zone that would soon come to be known as the 'Peep Zone'; he could wait.

THE END