Dean and Sami try to deal with Ruthless Aggression. Randy takes a trip through his past.
The Second Looper: Randy Orton
It is several dozen baseline loops, just as many baseline variant loops, and quite a few fused loops before they get another looper. By this time, Sami had become just as versed in the looping world as Dean himself. They were still babies by looper standards, and lightweights as well, but compared to the natives they were practically god-like both in ability and age.
During this time, Sami had come to realize why Dean had taken off so much time from wrestling. As wide as the wrestling world was, beating up your body day in and day out got tiring real quick when you kept doing it for more than one lifetime. After doing his own loops-long tour around the business, Sami had absconded to greener pastures and tried other ventures. He had found, much to his dubious merit, that he made quite the effective lawyer, and had delved into a number of occupations that geared towards knowledge of law and politics.
After a number of these loops, Dean and Sami had elected to take residence in a small town during a baseline loop and see if they could transform it into a city. They had mostly succeeded, and were in the process of creating a new charter when the loop ended. Sami Awakened to see a very unfamiliar ceiling above him.
"Sami?" Dean had Awakened as well, and he was looking blearily at him. That was odd. He wondered what kind of loop they were in to make them roommates.
"On it." He sent out a ping, and got none in response. So it was only him and Dean. Okay, nothing unusual. He then checked the loop memories.
He blanched as the images coursed through him.
"OVW. In 2001."
"The InVasion. The bridge between the Attitude Era—"
"—and the Ruthless Aggression Era." Dean felt like his head was about to burst. "This is not good. Not good at all."
Sami could understand the sentiment. If even half the stories about this era were true, this would not be a pleasant loop. He was tempted to ditch OVW immediately with Dean and head to Korea, where they had been planning to visit for their next vacation loop. Anywhere but here would be better than dealing with this.
Before he could open his mouth to suggest exactly that, there was a knock at the door. The loopers exchanged looks, and as one, got up and opened the door in tandem. On the other side was a face that was both familiar and not: Randy Orton. Clean-shaven, young, with more hair than either of them had ever seen him with. Only those icy-blue eyes remained the same.
Well, that and the ever-so disdainful look on his face.
"I'm pretty sure you two shouldn't be here for another ten years." The third-generation superstar derided them with pleasure.
"Got proof?" Randy said once their explanation was finished. Dean didn't hesitate — seconds later he was igniting his light saber.
Randy observed the laser sword for a moment. "Okay then. I believe you."
"You're taking this surprisingly well." Sami commented, a little miffed.
Randy gave him a deadpan look. "Sami, by the time you were signed to WWE, I'd been a top star in this company for over a decade and had feuds with the Undertaker and Kane. This is hardly the strangest thing I've seen or been through. Granted, it's much…grander in scope, but, well." He shrugged. "No point in complaining if you can't change anything about it."
"Funny." Sami snarked. "That's what he said." He gestured to Dean, who was deactivating his light saber and placing it back into his pocket.
"Then he's smarter than I gave him credit for."
"I heard that." Dean said, joining in on the conversation. "Though I will ignore it. The question is — what are we going to do this loop? You," He pointed at Randy, "need a crash course in looping, but after that we're basically home-free. We could either stay in OVW, get called up, and live through the Ruthless Aggression era, or I can sell some of the stuff in my subspace pocket and we can spend the rest of the loop in Tahiti or something. Either one works for me."
"I'm staying." Randy replied immediately. "I've got some unfinished business here. I won't blame you two if you leave though. You stick around here and you'll realize how spoiled the two of you were back in the first timeline."
"Baseline." Sami corrected.
"Whatever."
"Thank you for your input, Randy." Dean announced loudly before Sami could throw himself at the other man. "But Sami and I will make our own decisions after we're sure you won't be unprepared for your next loop. If that means sticking around OVW for a while, well, we've been through worse."
Randy snorted. "I doubt it."
"Why is Cena acting like a robot?" Sami asked incredulously as he, Dean, and Randy drove away from the arena. They had just finished a show, and were heading to get some food, preferably away from the rest of the roster. Money wasn't an issue — Dean had made it first priority to sell some of his goods to get them some 'get the hell out' cash in case it was needed.
"That was not Cena." Randy amended. "That was 'The Prototype', one of Cena's old gimmicks. He didn't start rapping until late 2002."
"Forget Cena, what about Lesnar?" Dean grimaced. "You were right when you said we were spoiled in baseline. Our Lesnar is a ruthless mercenary — this one's an asshole."
"Yes. And the worst part is that we have to deal with this one every week." Randy sighed. "Not to mention what we'll have to deal with when we get to the main roster."
"Hunter?"
"Hunter."
"Stone Cold, too." Sami noted. "And The Rock, when he's not filming movies. Batista and Ric Flair as well."
"And Edge." Dean closed his eyes. "Watching it on TV is one thing, but seeing it all in person — I'll never be able to look at all those people the same after this loop, am I?"
"Nope." Randy said mercilessly. "Don't worry, I'll try to protect you." He didn't sound very sincere.
"What a relief."
It's hard to keep their heads down in OVW while still standing out, but they manage, somehow. Randy gets called up and joins Evolution, while Dean and Sami go to SmackDown as a tag team. They win the titles a few times, try to stay relevant long enough not to get cut, and succeed…until Sami accidentally wins the 2003 Royal Rumble.
"Congratulations." Randy all but snarled. "What happened to keeping a low-profile?"
"It was an accident!" Sami almost yelled back, a little hysterical.
"How do you accidentally win the Royal Rumble? A Royal Rumble that has a young Brock Lesnar and a prime Undertaker?"
Sami pointed to Dean. "Ask him!"
Randy turned to Dean. At his questioning look, Dean shrugged. "I accidentally won the 2015 Royal Rumble once. I was aiming for Roman to win, but then he got eliminated and I eliminated those who eliminated him in return. Next thing I knew, confetti was raining down from the sky."
"Really?"
"Really."
"What am I going to do?" Sami almost whined, interrupting the byplay.
"Easy." Randy said, completely unsympathetic. "You either give up the match to someone else, or you try to make it to WrestleMania to face a prime Kurt Angle, while every main event talent on SD sees you as an easy target. Take your pick."
Sami, knowing Randy's infamous lack of kindness, turned to Dean instead. Dean, unfortunately for him, agreed with Randy's assessment of the situation. "It's your choice Sami. Though I will say that if you somehow make it to WrestleMania, it's unlikely you'll get released now." Having decided that they were sticking around this loop, the current goal had been to see how long they could last before Vince decided he wanted to be rid of them. This wasn't the New Era, after all.
"Fine then." Sami threw his hands into the air. "WrestleMania it is."
"You'll do." Dean hid his wince as he watched Chris Benoit walk away.
"That must've been awkward." Randy commented. He had come up behind Dean, only making his presence known after Benoit had left.
"On every single level." Dean agreed, nodding. "I'll end the match as quickly possible for that alone."
"Good. As for me, since I avoided injury, I've decided which match I want for WrestleMania this year."
"You're not going after Hunter's title early, are you?" Dean asked suspiciously.
Randy shook his head. "Nah. I can do that later when I go after Goldberg. I'm challenging the Undertaker instead."
Dean blinked.
"What about A-Train and Big Show?"
Randy snorted. "What about them?"
Dean sighed. "So your goal is to break the Streak early?"
"Nah." Randy denied, momentarily surprising Dean. "Even with all my experience and this younger body, there's no way in hell I'll be able to beat 'Taker when he's in his prime at WrestleMania. No, my goal is to get cred. If I can put up a decent enough fight, then people will take me more seriously when I go after the title." He then shrugged. "Besides, beating 'Taker's streak this early will make Hunter jealous, and I have no intention of doing that this early. It'll already be bad enough when I beat Goldberg."
"Hah!" Sami pointed victoriously in Randy's face. "Who's the screw-up now?"
Randy growled. Dean sighed. "Sami, shouldn't you be getting ready for your own match? You're in the main event, remember?"
"Oh, right!" With that, he fled towards his locker room. Dean watched him go before turning to Randy, his face betraying his own amusement at the situation.
"He's got a point, though. Ending the streak eleven years early." The Lunatic Fringe shook his head. "Even I haven't done a big change like that in a while."
"Good for you." The Viper — no, Legend Killer, grit out.
Dean tilted his head. "I thought you'd be happier about this, even if it was against your plan. Your career is skyrocketing even faster than it was the first time around. Now everyone will take you seriously when you challenge for the title."
"You don't have to deal with a jealous Hunter every week." Randy glared at him. "It won't be long until Evolution kicks me out, and when they do, I've got to deal with an unfriendly locker room on my back again. By myself."
"Che, you'll live." Dean waved off his fellow looper's worries. "You aren't that wide-eyed brat anymore. You haven't been him in a long time. You know what it takes to survive here, and you will."
"That's a lot of faith in a person you barely know, Dean." Randy observed, now smirking.
Dean shrugged. "Your a looper now, Randy. You and I and Sami — we've got the rest of eternity to figure it all out."
"I beat Goldberg." Randy's voice came over the airwaves. Dean and Sami, who had been snacking at their hotel room while watching RAW's latest PPV, stacked the cellphone between them. Even with speaker on, it was hard to hear their the Viper's voice. Curse early 2000's technology.
"So should we expect you to be beaten up by Evolution on RAW soon?"
"Yes. Can I crash at your guys' place?"
"We've already got a room set up."
"Well, at least this year's WrestleMania won't be as painful to rewatch." Randy commented as he and Sami watched Dean walk back towards gorilla on screen.
Sami glared at him. "Too soon, Randy. Too soon."
"Just saying the truth."
"I got to wrestle Eddie Guerrero." Sami said proudly, hands on his hips. "My life is complete."
"You lost." Randy pointed out. Next to him, Dean was fiddling with his own world title, now the only one between the three of them. Maybe he should keep this one…
"So? It's Eddie Guerrero."
Randy sighed, pinching his nose. "Trust me, I know."
"So how was your first loop, Randy?" Dean asked, knowing it was best to move to another topic before the two of them started arguing again.
Randy smirked. "Fun. I gotta admit, you brats made these years hell of a lot more interesting than they were the first time around."
"Who the hell are you calling a brat, Randal?" Sami bared his teeth. "We've been looping for hell of a lot longer than you have. If anyone's the brat here, it's you."
As the two descended into another row, Dean watched from the sidelines with a small quirk of the lips. Yeah, he could get used to this.
A second later, the loop ended.
"Where the hell are we?" Randy snarled out. He was now a pony. So were Dean and Sami.
Dean sighed. "Welcome to Equestria, everyone."
Next to him, Sami was attacked by a bunny.
Not as long as the first two, but this is going to be the standard length of chapters. The first two have a lot of exposition in them. Here, no need for explanation, just establishing character dynamics.