Elijah Black vs Alexander Atwater

[PWXonline]

Singles Match
Elijah Black vs Alexander Atwater

Deadline: 3-11-14 at Midnight CST


Story: Ask and he shall receive. Elijah Black has been getting people to realize that he is "still here." Black and his partner, Daniel Everett, are in the Tag Team Championship match with Bad Company and awaiting one more team to join them. In the meantime, it looks as if Black has some work ahead of him as he's been put against the "Enforcer" Alexander Atwater. Atwater, who won perhaps the best Welcome to PWX match we've seen in history, will go in with a lot of momentum. This is one of those classic situations where momentum meets momentum. This match has all the ingredients to be a nail biter and to keep fans on the edge of their seats! Who will win in this momentous clash? Can Atwater keep up the impressive debut streak? Or will Black, who is definitely a veteran of opportunity, knock down the PWX rookie a peg?

[alexanderatwater]

(OOC Notes: Hope you guys are cool with me doing this different and kind of weird CD story. I promise, I'm going to start tying it to the present day/Alex's past. Either way, hope you guys like it.)


Dongguan, China
Bayi Rd, Engagement
March 21st 2028, 01:48 Hours

Atwater was rattled from his gaze off into the wooded area by the jolt of the brakes screeching the large deuce and a half coming to a violent halt. Fireballs shot twenty feet in the air as the deuce and a half in front of the one carrying him and part of his team; exploded into a massive hunk of flaming twisted metal. People were diving from the back of the deuce and a half, and the ringing in his head was unmistakable ”Enemies with high explosives in the sector, Alex. Targeting. The alarms were all to familiar, and the soft female voice had an urgency to it that was betrayed by how calm, cool, and collected it was.

”No shit! A truck just fucking exploded. Atwater said to the computer voice in his head.

Bailing from the truck, he swung his head forward and saw the targeting reticule pop up over the soldier in the window with the advanced stinger missiles. Atwater raised his rifle, and started to lick off shots at the soldier. His efforts were met with another rocket being fired in his direction. His pulse started to pound and the skin on the back of his neck felt the rush of heat. He was turning tail and running for cover like everyone else. He could hear screams and then the sound of another rocket being blasted off from an adjacent angle. Atwater looked around at the chaos and took a deep breath. He wasn’t functioning like he normally did and that left him at serious disadvantage as to how to handle this current situation.

”Hannah, where’s the nearest Allied Stronghold?” Atwater said, using the computer’s acronym to make it function

”Three kilometers north Alex. A new plasma cannon is waiting for you there.

Atwater smiles and aimed down the end of his rifle. The targeting reticule lined up over the target that fired the second rocket and unloaded a burst on the form in the window. Immediately the reticule went from green to red and all of the person’s vitals showed a flatline on his inter-ocular computer readout. Atwater laughed, but could hear the airborne drones and the sounds of boots marching on their direction. In the fifteen seconds this had happened, several members of his squad had already dropped. His XO, Karen Ying, was running towards the cover spot that Atwater had taken. Bullets licked at her feet as she beat pavement. Diving for the cover of the brick wall, a bullet slammed in the side of her canteen, spraying water everywhere as she slammed into the concrete and skid into the wall. She was breathing heavy as she got to her knee.

”They fucking got Shinzuke!”Ying shouted!

”Fuck! I liked that little shit! What’s the status.” Atwater asked.

”Fuck if I know! You’re the one with a fucking super computer in your head!”Ying shouted.

Atwater did not want to poke his head out from behind the wall, but there wasn’t a choice. He popped his head out from the wall, the computer in his head scanning the whole crowd ahead of them in the split second it took him to stick his head out. As he pulled his head back, bullets pelted the brick neck to where his head was. He took a deep breath and slung his rifle around the wall blindly and fired a burst down range, just to get the opposition to react. He looked at Ying and shook his head.

”Two rapier class drones, thirty eight ground soldiers, and an APC. Small battalion.” Atwater said.

”We’ve got maybe fifteen people left.” Ying said.

”Give me the smoke!” Atwater said

Ying had learned numerous battles before this to not question Alex when he asked for something. She had been skeptical about the pairing when she had been assigned to him; but she had learned that with all that was going on inside his head, it was better to just listen in the heat of battle. She handed him the smoke, and he ripped the pin on it, throwing it around the corner and halfway down the street towards the battalion of enemy forces. The canister bounced and started to spew gray smoke. Within moments, there was no seeing movements from anything without the air of optics. Alex ripped the fragmentation grenades from her chest and took off at a clip.

“Cover me Ying! Hannah, adrenaline dump!”Alex snapped loudly as he pulled the pin on the first frag.

As he walked out behind the curtain of smoke, he could feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins. His heart was beating faster and faster and the world was becoming slower and slower. Everything was beginning to move in slow motion. Chucking the first grenade down range, he continued marching across the divide towards the other store fronts. He continued to chuck the other three grenades as he went. Diving through the front window of the shop, he could hear the grenades explode and the sounds of screams from down range. He cautioned a chance to pop his head out and get another read.

”We’re down to twelve Ying!”Alex shouted across the street. ”Get on the horn and make whoever’s left start mopping them up. We need to get to Liaobuzhen!

”Roger that, Captain! Ying responded and got to work barking orders.

Atwater could hear the shouts, but his brain was running far too fast for them to even be processed. He was targeting, and releasing bursts of fire at the enemy, hoping to either mow them down or run them off. The drones wouldn’t do a whole lot of good if their ground assets were gone. Looking upward, he got a target on a drone circling overhead. Flipping the selector, Alex moved his grip down to the tube and aimed sky high. He hit the trigger and felt the mighty thwump of the grenade being spit into the sky. There was an explosion high over head, knocking the drone down from the sky; raining debris of destroyed unmanned aircraft raining down on their heads. He could hear the sounds of battle from both sides now, and the louder it got on his side of the street, the quieter it got on the oppositions. Alex stuck his head out of the storefront and scanned, seeing that there was only the one drone left in the sky.

”We are all clear except the single set of eyes in the sky! Let’s regroup troops!”Atwater shouted loudly, wanting to get everyone on the same page.


Super Promo Bonus Time 3: Fade to Black

The cameras come on in a gym just outside of Edmonton. The sounds of a heavy bag being beaten fill the air as the cameras work their way around the gym. As the close in on the heavy bag, we are afforded a shot of Alexander Atwater standing in front of the heavy bag in just a pair of shorts. He rifles off series of punches and kicks that leave the bag swinging wildy. His attention turns towards the cameras with a fire in his eyes. His body is clearly still a bit battered from the match the week before with TJ Codair, but he seems virtually unphased by it.

Alexander Atwater: You know, I knew what was expected of me. You go out and you fight. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not, you go out and swing for the fences, because you may never get another chance. TJ, I’m not going to stand here and lie and say I didn’t get my ass beat a week ago. You broke out the Kali Sticks and you got down and dirty. I’m not pleased about it, but I guess I can’t blame you. It’s probably something I’d be inclined to do if I were in your situation. But who won the match TJ? I did what I said I was going to do. You got dealt a loss. Which ultimately, leaves me coming out of that beating smelling like roses. Rhonin’s pussy ass ran off and quit on a the fight, and the boss fired his dumb ass over it. Me though? Shit, I must have done something right. I seem to be moving up in the world in Pro Wrestling X. Rhonin, a guy that two weeks ago, was a part of what’s being called the best Welcome to PWX match ever… is now fired for being a punk. And the guy that beat him is moving up and on to bigger and better things. Why? Because I’m not going anywhere. I’m not going to quit and walk away.

Atwater lays into the bag with a flurry of punches and then launches into a barrage of kicks to the bags. Atwater laughs as the assault dies down.

Alexander Atwater: So that leaves me in a better place this week. Elijah Black… a name that many in PWX know very well. And what can I say, even I should be impressed by who the guy is. Operative words in there being should be. I should be impressed, but I can’t honestly say I’m all that worried about it. A former two time PWX Champion, a man that could very easily end up as half of the tag team champions. And I’m still not feeling very worried about it. Maybe it’s the idea that I’ve managed to beat two credible people and make some headway into this business. Maybe it’s because I learned a few new tricks from getting my ass kicked. I don’t know what it is. But I’m just woefully underwhelmed by the prospect of Elijah Black. And I started to think about why? Why don’t I care about Elijah Black. Why? Because he’s a fucking chump. He’s a man that cares about the people. Who gives a shit about the people? This is a business, and businesses are about who’s the best and who makes the money. And I’m an earner. I’m a man that gets results. I handle what needs to be handled when it needs to be handled… and Elijah Black needs to be handled. Elijah Black needs to be put on the back burner and leave Mr. Hollywood one less rabble rouser to deal with. He’s got enough on his plate, dealing with the bafoons that are working against him.

Atwater turns away from the bag, rips off his gloves and tosses them down. He turns his attention back to the camera.

Alexander Atwater: Elijah, what do you have to gain from this? You beat me, it’s just another win against a kid that’s coming up in the rank. It’s what you’re expected to do. I don’t care if people are betting against me. It’s what I want. I want the whole world to think that they’re going to cash their chips in on you. Because they’re not. I have everything to gain from this. Fame, fortune, status. You’re my golden ticket Elijah. You’re my ticket to the next level of this business. Beat you and I get the pot of gold I’ve been after since I started this crazy dream several years ago. I was able to beat a hot prospect, I was able to take a victory against arguably, one of the best the business has ever seen. And now I’ve got a chance to knock down a former PWX World Champion. I’ve got a chance to knock down a guy that’s as close to the top of the mountain as you can get. I got a reward for showing heart and going after Codair. I got the reward for doing what it was that was expected of me. Rhonin, you can run off and lick your unemployed ass wounds somewhere else. You bitched out. I didn’t, and I won’t this week Elijah. There won’t be a whole lot of talk. There won’t be a whole lot of time to think. There’s just going to be a whole lot of action, and a whole lot of my fists and feet hitting the shit out of your face. I might throw a suplex I learned getting dropped on my head by Codair, but whooping that ass the best way I know how has gotten me this far. I’m damn sure going to ride the wave and let it be what carries me to victory again.

Atwater steps towards the cameras and gets in very close, the shot basically focusing in on just his face and a very small portion of the background.

Alexander Atwater: Do you think I don’t know my back is against the wall Elijah? This isn’t a desperate situation, this is every situation I’m in. I’m not working on a guarantee, I’m not working on a nice contract. I’m not secure. Every night is a roll of the dice. Am I eating tonight. Am I staying in crappy motel or is the flight to the next city the place where I’m laying my head for the next couple of hours. I don’t know when the big pay day is going to come, or if it’s going to come my way at all. For all I know, I’m coming out there and I’m going to blow my knee out and never be able to do this shit again. So it’s time to make the most of every moment and get what the fuck I came for. That ain’t those stupid fans. It ain’t the respect of the boys in the locker room. I came for that cash money, and I don’t mean the stupid ass wigger that mops bathrooms and gets beat up by girls. So Elijah, you get your shit together. You bring your tag partner. You do all your stupid little wrestling moves, and I’m just going to bludgeon you into submission. So you can do all the talking you want, cuz I don’t give a good god damn. I couldn’t care if you said my momma was a whore or if you said you were the greatest thing since your grandmamma sucked Elvis Presley’s tally wacker. At the end of the night, you’re going to end up on your back. At the end of the night, I’ll be walking off and heading off to talk to the boss man. See what another win can do for me in the money department. Until then, I guess we’ll have to sit back and wonder. Wonder what’s going to be said, what’s going to go down… you know what you’ll wonder about Elijah? That ringing sound and what it means. But I can tell you the answer to that right now. It means that your Oblivion Beckons!

Atwater shoves the cameras away from him and the camera man topples over. The feed fades to black on a shot of Atwater kicking the heavy bag so hard that the stand topples over onto the ground.

[Elijah Black]

[We’re inside the arena the night before the show so the ring is set up but the ropes haven’t been attached, and the arena itself is dark except for a few contractor lights, one placed at each corner, illuminating the two members of the Vox Populi as they stand in the empty ring, both wearing thick jackets to keep the cold out]

Black: It’s the night before the day after, and as you can see PWX has left their mark on the arena by placing the ring so it’s the focus of every sightline in the arena, but right now there isn’t a single wrestler, a single fan, or a single member of staff in the arena…except for us. And it’s no surprise because, when the lighting rig isn’t switched on, it can get a bit…

[Black breathes out, allowing a cloud of steam to exit his mouth]

Black: …like we’re in the Arctic Circle.

[Black snorts a semi-laugh]

Black: You see, this is what PWX looks like when you strip out all the extras: no wrestlers, no crowd, no commentators, no lights, no music over the PA system – it’s just a ring in the middle of a large arena, nothing more and nothing less. A pretty damn cold arena in this case, but when you strip things down to their bare essence you understand what they’re about.

Everett: You also find out that whoever PWX hired to provide arena security really phone it in. We didn’t see a single guy when we got to the arena, and we’ve been here a good ten minutes already and still ain’t seen no-one.

Black: That too. So much for people taking pride in their work. Apparently that only applies above a certain temperature…

[Black rolls his eyes]

Black: People are so easily distracted by the bright lights and loud music that they forget the whole point of why they paid to see the show anyway – and if you think I’m just talking about the next PWX show, then you obviously don’t know me that well.

[Black smirks]

Black: Different people are in the game for different reasons. Some are in it because they love wrestling so much that they want to be at its heart, while others are in it for the glory and think nothing of keeping their foot pressed firmly on the neck of those with more talent than they have just to preserve their place within the company. And then there’s some who treat it as a job – a job where you risk getting brained with a steel chair, but it’s a job nonetheless. And this brings me to the likes of Alexander Atwater, people who can’t see beyond their pay packet at the end of the night, who see nothing but stepping stones before them without realising that stepping on the wrong stone will see them slip and fall into the murky waters they’re looking to avoid. And I’m that slippery stone, Atwater, and this hasn’t occurred to you as you confidently stride forward right up to the moment you feel your momentum shift away from you.

As much as I hate people who pull rank for the sake of overstating their success for the sole purpose to belittling the success of those who seek to challenge them, but it’s in your better interests to sit down, shut up, and listen to what I have to tell you.

You see, a couple of years ago I made my way to PWX, when I got started the ladder had a whole lot of rungs stretching off into the distance above me, yet there were very, very few rungs below me. I didn’t start at the very bottom, because I had enough on my resume and a UWL Championship around my waist to say that I should be straight onto the main show at the earliest opportunity, but that miniscule concession was the only break I got.

Everett: Hell, I got better than that when I signed.

Black: When I stepped into the ring those first few times, I didn’t look at each opponent as a meal ticket up the food chain, or as another key to unlock the door at the back of the first room so I could step into the second room, because that way of thinking is far too capitalist for me – instead I took the route of the socialist, working my way up one step at a time until I reached the point where I wouldn’t have to beg for a shot at any opponent or any title that I had my heart set on, instead I made everyone’s minds up for them.

This is the point where it should dawn on you that you and I have a problem, Atwater.

I could look past your claims that you “don’t care” about me as so much bluster, but you didn’t stop there and you kept going, to the point you looked past me as if the match was a foregone conclusion and the bright future that awaits you is already thinking you’re running late. That’s pretty big talk for a guy who won the grand total of one match, especially when you consider the fact you were on the side of a handicap match where you could put your feet up and take a breather as your opponent did all the work.

Yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice that.

[Black gives a disdainful look down the camera lens]

Black: So that’s two strikes against you, but by now you were on a roll.

Just when you were running out of material to insult the intelligence of everyone who watched the last show, then you go and make some cheap jibes about me. And when I say cheap, I’d put them at a level marginally above shoplifting – because I bet you felt like a big man when you made them just as I’m sure you didn’t consider the consequences of what would happen when you got caught.

Let’s just think for a moment. Who gives a shit about The People? Well…

[Black pauses, looking to his side]

Black: Well, there’s me…

Everett: And there’s me.

[Black looks smug for a moment]

Black: I think you’ll find that, in a Democracy, we’re in the majority – two votes is greater than one, genius.

But let’s not stop there, let’s look a little further into this. Where does that oh-so-precious winner’s purse of yours come from, Atwater? Do you think that when nobody’s looking, somebody in the office starts incanting “Ia! Ia! Capitalism fhtagn!” to make the money magically appear out of thin air or something? It’s got to come from somewhere, and if you want to know where it comes from perhaps you should pause to take a look around when you make your way to the ring. You will see people who bought tickets, several of them wearing PWX merchandise, and that money flows into PWX…after the IRS takes its thirty pieces of silver, of course.

So, yeah, that was a real bright move by you saying that you don’t care about the people who pay your wages every week. I mean, can you imagine if there was a wrestling federation out there that spent more of its time and money actively going against what their paying audience wants to see and going out of their way to rub it in their faces?

[Black gives a shrug]

Black: You’d have to be a complete moron to operate that way.

That’s what you clearly do not get: no matter how much they want to deny it, the fact is that every business needs customers. Now, some of them have worked long and hard to convert their customers into consumers, mindless drones who hand over their money time and time again regardless of how little said business actually does for them compared to how much they spent on bright lights and loud music to convince them that the customers need them, but guess what? That’s not going to happen around here because I’m letting The People know that there’s more than one way to live, and of all the ways to live being a slave that throws their money at people who do nothing to earn it but everything to take it is not the one anyone should live, so you saying that to be on the PWX roster means that I should love money alone is the sort of comment that tells me everything about you to the point I may as well have not bothered scouting your match last week.

Just listening to you talk, and believe me that was as physically taxing as any match against you could be, told me so much more about you than having to watch Rhonin do your dirty work last week and get no thanks for it.

More than anything, though, you spent so goddamn long talking down to me that you neglected to do one simple thing: suggest a single worthwhile reason that I should even entertain the idea of respecting you.

[Black lets out a deep breath and stretches, before cracking his knuckles]

Black: Believe me, Atwater, it’s going to get a lot less pretty from this moment on.

[Black nods to camera, a malicious glint in his eye as he does so]

Black: I know exactly what you’re up to, Atwater – you’re trying to suck up to Brian Hollywood and Darin Zion in the vain hope that they’re looking for some dumb muscle to do their dirty work for them, but you’re so goddamn ignorant that you forget what that job really entails: getting your head kicked in so they don’t have to. Is that really all you see yourself as? Fodder for The Establishment? If so, I can tell you right now that you can put your hopes and long-term plans of career advancement on hold, because the second you sign up to be their whipping bitch you’re only going to go as far as they need you to go, and they’ll be sure to keep you there because they don’t like their dumb muscle to get ideas in their head and start to think above their station.

And that’s me being polite. And when I say “polite”, that means I’m allowing you to consider for just a few more seconds that I’m not going to destroy you during this job evaluation that you’re creating for yourself inside that rock on top of your neck before the reality kicks in that if there’s one guy you don’t want to get on the wrong side of around here, you don’t piss off the guy who shakes things up as a matter of principle. Doing that…well, you’re going to find yourself get shaken up a whole hell of a lot.

It doesn’t take a scholar to see that you a whole library of stupid comments, but more than anything else you made the most idiotic assumption by thinking I’d have one eye on the finals of the tag team grand prix, or maybe you’re hoping that I’d be distracted or taking it easy or any other belief you have that I won’t be giving it my all when we meet up. In other words, you didn’t think about asking the “men” you’re so desperate to appease a few pertinent questions about your next opponent, such as “When has he ever phoned in a match?” or “Is he fully rested after having the week off?” or maybe “If I run my mouth about him in the desperate hope to sound like the big man, what’s the prettiest colour my face will be the following morning?” All of them are important questions, and you didn’t ask a single one of them – but they will soon be replaced by new questions, such as “How much more of this can I take?” or “When will the pain end?” or my personal favourite “Was it my nose or my orbital bone that just went ‘crunch’?”

Quick FYI for the last one, it’s quite possible it was both…

[Black smirks]

Black: But you know what, I should probably take a page out of your book and make things easy for myself. You know why? Because right here, right now, there’s two of us and just one of you – so I’m going to let my compatriot Daniel Everett take up the slack for a moment, because I’m sure he can find plenty to say about you. Dogpile, bitch!

[Everett exhales loudly through the nose as he glares at the camera]

Everett: So you want to talk a big game despite the fact you’ve done the square root of jack shit do you, Atwater? It’s funny how the ones with the biggest mouths are the ones who cry the loudest when they get found out for what they are, a whole bunch of words and a whole bunch of nothing to back them up.

Yeah, I heard you deciding to go for broke and bitching me out when you were running your mouth, and I have to say that took balls. Problem is that you got your balls where your brains’re supposed to be, and listening to you jabber I can only guess that you do your thinking with your colon because you sure have shit for brains.

If you’ve got a problem with Elijah, that means you have a problem with me and if you have a problem with me…well, you got a problem because when they scrape what Elijah left of you off the mat and you still want to run your mouth and act like you’re Buddy Badass, you’re going to be feeling some warm breath down your neck because the Vox won’t be done with you. Insult one of us, insult both of us – and insult both of us, get “re-educated” by both of us, and if you’re lucky you can wish you kept your mouth shut rather than have it wired shut until your jaw is properly healed.

And what the hell, you asked for it: your momma was a whore. It sure explains why you turned out to be such a little turd…

[Black steps in before Everett starts to really unleash the profanities]

Black: As might just about be dawning on you, Atwater, you’ve made a couple of enemies with your bullshit. Not powerful enemies, as we can’t fire you for running your mouth, but we know plenty of ways to make you think twice about showing your face in the locker room for a few weeks. Then you’ll find that your back isn’t up against the wall – because I took your head, and rammed it into the wall repeatedly until you learned some manners and show me some respect. And when that happens, maybe I’ll knock one nugget of sense into you: you’ll suddenly start caring about me because when I walked through the door on my first day in PWX, it was a lot smaller than it is now. While the accepted version of events is that Nighthawk et al are the guys that built PWX, that’s ignoring the part where I was involved in the matches people wanted to see, I gave the people a reason to watch every week, and that means this one time I’m going to pull rank on somebody who doesn’t deserve it, because frankly they’re better off having some sense slapped into them so hard the handprint will be across their face for weeks.

You need to ask yourself what you’re possibly going to be able to do when you feel my knee smash into your face and when it happens you’re going to be pretty sure you heard the commentators say that I’ve never decked anyone with that move so hard in the past, but you won’t be sure because you’ll be seeing stars and blissfully unaware that the match is going to last mere seconds from that point and if you thought that crunch sound from either your nose or your orbit bone was the worst thing to happen, you’ve really not done your homework because with your face already a sorry sight, then it becomes a question of which method will I use to dispatch you: choke you out, smash your jaw or snap your neck. Better hope you haven’t talked your way into being a worthy recipient of Black State, because if you take that…yeah, you’re not going to look so tough in a neck brace.

Frankly, you’ve given me plenty of reasons to put the tag team grand prix at the back of my mind for a week as I re-educate you in the ways of the world, Vox Populi style, leaving you as little more than a highlight reel to warn people to think before they speak, because speaking’s going to be pretty goddamn hard with a broken jaw and your neck in traction when I’m done with you.

Just remember, to keep yourself from blacking out, just repeat “It’s only a wrestling match…only a wrestling match…only a wrestling match…”

[FTB]