Supreme Championship Wrestling

2021 Trios Tournament

2 RP per character in Trios Tournament

3500 word max per RP

Deadline: 11:59:59 pm ET Wednesday, October 20, 2021

 
Chapter 12 – Part 1: After burns.


From the ashes, I will rise… Stronger than ever… a being of-
 
HA HA HA HA!
 
Oh my god, did you guys really think I was going to make that kind of joke? Who am I? Christian Savior?
 
Let me explain something to you. I never asked to be associated with fire and pyro. I didn’t say “you know what would be fun? Set my face on fire!”. It wasn’t some gimmick or schtick I did to gain extra viewers. I can do that a hundred different ways while so many people here in SCW only have one trick.
 
While others in SCW are either “evil masterminds” or “beauty queens turned evil” or “monsters from a bad horror movie” – and yes, I include my own partners, Minerva and Tsunami in that statement – while others are really cookie-cutter players with only one trick, I have made a career of adapting and evolving myself, my style – my very existence – into something new. I wasn’t the first person to wear a mask, but I was the one that did it the best. I wasn’t the first person to main-event Rise to Greatness but I did it the best. I wasn’t the first person that entertained the masses, but I did it the best.
 
That’s why I didn’t need some cheap trick like drinking too much or setting myself on fire or ‘turning face’, as it were, over and over again to get ratings or ‘heat’, as it were. I didn’t choose fire, fire choose me, do you understand that?
 
And I had a choice at Apocalypse. I mean, it was clear why Ace Marshall and Lexy Chapel – still sore from their Rise to Greatness loss, were trying to take their problems out on me. It was clear why they were changing the rules just before the show and adding fire into the mix.
 
They wanted to scare me. They wanted to trigger some sort of PTSD on me. More than that, they wanted to protect Ace Marshall. Think about it, guys. Ace flat-out said that night “We’re coming to take you out”, knowing that he could not beat me by himself so summoning reinforcements – and all he could do was put me through a flaming table… I was back the very next Breakdown, haunting the halls while seeking something that I believe should still be mine… that’s a topic for another time.
 
Now, was I somewhat apprehensive about being involved with fire again? Sure. Was it painful to go through multiple tables, one of which was on fire? Yes. It hurt like hell.
 
But… I couldn’t let the fire take more from me.
 
Like I said, guys, I didn’t choose the fire. And yet, to have my career be tied to that event – something almost as famous as headlining Rise to Greatness three times in a row – to have that moment in time forever hound you, that something like that has scarred your face… in a way, I never fully recovered from that. I never was the same “Shilo Valiant” ever again. It’s something I’ve lived with, something I had to accept, and I did turn it around to become World Champion again…
 
But if I let that match – going through that table of fire – slow me down. If I let it take me away from SCW. If I let it be responsible for taking more from me…
 
No, I just couldn’t do that. Sharper, or was it Knots, was right. Pride is a powerful thing, and I refused to give the fire the satisfaction. Ace could be smug with his dildos and little act of “I’m crazy”. Fact is? I walked out of our match. He was stretchered. I fought all my matches – he whine about breaking his dick…
 
Why am I mentioning injuries?
 
Well, there’s something to be said about “peace of mind”. Last I spoke to all of you, if you’ll recall, Nomas had essentially diagnosed my knee, telling me “Hey! You’ve got this condition… and it’s treatable! We can fix you!”
 
Now, say what you will, but I’m sure everyone has had good news like that in the past. How many of you got sick and feared it was COVID, only to be told it was the flu? How many of you panicked about a test or an assignment and did alright? That breath of relief… that feeling of joy that gives way to euphoria?

Well, that’s me. That’s still me. Because now I knew that there was a way. There was a way to fix me, and all I’d have to do is give up a few months of time in SCW.
 
So why haven’t I yet?
 
Oh, well, that answer is quite simple my friends… I didn’t want to. See, back at Rise to Greatness, where I lost the Adrenaline title, there were three things I knew.
 
First, I wanted to get back the Adrenaline title.
Second, Trios Tournament was coming.
Third, I wanted to put Ace Marshall through a table.
 
The third one was for me because, let’s face it, there’s few things more pathetic than seeing a grown man like Ace Marshall using that “supposedly” hyper-active dick of his to wet his pants.
 
But, moving forward, I accomplished one of those, and I wanted to see what I could do regarding the other two. So imagine my joy when I was drawn as one of the entrants for Trios…
 
Oh, lucky me!
 
Like I said, it wasn’t that I felt invincible in this matter. Fact is, I’ve never had such luck with Trios. I’ve never even won the damn thing – which is interesting when you consider what Ace Marshall has done with it… imagine what I could do with it. But the odds were heavy that with a sob story like Minerva and a “Hulk-smash” guy like Tsunami, I wasn’t really going to go far in this tournament, especially when dealing with the team I’m up against… but wait… you’ll see… I’ll get to that.
 
Fact is that I wasn’t desiring the surgery just yet. I wanted to see these last few months through, until SCW was either ‘no longer entertaining for me’ or could handle itself without me around for a while.
 
Well, the notion did not go well with Marina.
 
She had come with me to Apocalypse and had nearly suffered a damn heart attack at seeing me decide to go through this ‘fire-table match’ and then again when she saw me go through it. So, when I told her, while I was bed-ridden for a day or so, that I wanted to hold off on the surgery, of course she thought I was crazy.
 
“You’re crazy!” Marina yelled. See? I told you.
“I can see why you would think that…” I tried. “But hear me out.”

Memphis was at school and Marina had opted for a leave of absence (which, by the way, I am not sure is actually a temporary leave or she actually quietly quit her job as a social worker) to travel with me to the SCW shows – Hey! If Selena Frost can bring her wife… and Xander can bring his girlfriend or whatever Artemis is… and Gavin Taylor can bring his non-SCW titles… and Nicole can bring all her personalities… and Syren can bring her wife and her husband and her manager and her stylist and her mentor and her crystal-therapist and her TV guide… then I could bring my soulmate with me, right? Someone tell me I’m wrong here!
 
Anyway, Marina and I were going out for a walk around the neighbourhood of Guelph, taking in the cool, fall winds and seeing the many colors of the leaves. It was light exercise, something to better my healing after my match with Ace Marshall.
 
“I am listening.” Marina sighed. “I just don’t understand why you’re pushing this back.” She turned her head to me, her brown eyes searching my ugly face for some kind of understanding, as if it lay in the scars on the side of my face or in the weird blue of my eyes. “You do this now and you’ll be back in a few months. There’s no risk. You could be better than you are now. The more we push it back…”
 
“The more danger I am in.” I sighed, nodding my head. Nomas had given me a stern warning of similar note. At present, my knee had suffered some damage in terms of bruises and tension. Still, there wasn’t anything permanently damaging about it. However, the more I worked it, the more people learned about it… the greater risk of it becoming a greater injury.
 
“Marina…” I tried. “If I go under the knife now… then I’ll be out for at least three months. Which means, say bye-bye to any claim I have to the Adrenaline title, to any standing I have from holding a title for over six months. I’d have to start over from scratch.”
 
“So? You’ve done it before.”
“Yes… and it’s exhausting…” I sighed.
 
And truthfully, it was. I had been knocked off the totem pole and forgotten over and over again, forced to climb my way back to the top just to be reintroduced as one of the best icons in SCW history. From my face being burned, to retiring, to be pulled back to ‘make Aaron Blackbourne look good’, I had always had to start at the bottom – start from scratch while others would come back to instant success.
 
“Truthfully…” I whispered as we stepped over a curb to find ourselves back on the sidewalk. “I don’t think I have the ability to do it all again without some kind of… help.”
 
I could feel her eyes narrow at those words. To be clear, I didn’t mean help as in “someone running in on my matches” or ‘handing things to me’ like Infamous had done for years or most of those in SCW who are too scared to take the ‘L’, as it were. I meant help as in being recognized as a talent rather than a retired has-been. Someone that could come back at any time and make an impact immediately!
 
It was the reason I was happy to be in Trios.
“It’s the reason I’m happy to be in Trios.” I said out-loud.
 
I felt the wind pick up a little, blowing my black long-sleeve shirt around a little. “Long shot here, but if I win, there’s my insurance policy. I win that, then when I come back, I can have whatever the hell match I want!”
 
It WAS a longshot. Winning the Trios Tournament this year involved beating teams that involved the world champion and former world champion, the tag-team and United States Champion and so on and so forth. It was, according to some of the words I had heard from the SCW Universe/fanbase (all of you guys), one of the most star-studded and balanced Trios Tournaments in recent history. Add to the fact that I wasn’t even sure my opponents were going to DO anything? Yes, Tsunami was a powerhouse and Minerva was deranged, but it was a coin-toss on if they would even show up and I was certain they sure as hell weren’t going to trust me. On top of that, I was pretty sure Xander Valentine was going to be the biggest problem in the match – even if he had ‘seemingly’ been neutered after putting an end to the career of Regan Street. He was clearly the strongest and most accomplished compared to him, Gavin and Nicole, with me the only person surpassing him in accomplishments. Yeah, me winning the first round, let alone the tournament, was a longshot AT BEST.
 
Still, stranger things had happened in this world of SCW, hadn’t it?
 
“And what then?” Marina asked. “If you win, you can take a break?”
“Well…not exactly…” I tried to explain. “See… I kinda want to deal with Holly Adams first…”
“Why?!” my soulmate huffed, almost breaking her walking stride in her frustration.
 
“Honestly? That one is more my ego…” I admitted. Like I said before, pride is a powerful thing. “Because…” I explained. “I…I just don’t like the ending to be ‘Holly beat me’.”
 
Yeah, it was petty. But I never said that I wasn’t petty. Truthfully? I had beaten Holly straight up in a match where she tried to run, hide, and even have friends try and save her. And then, at Rise, the ONLY reason she had won was because I had been distracted with two other superstars, the changing of contenders, and she had scurried up and grabbed the belt…
 
In other words, she had beat me and I had beaten her. Unlike with her loss, however, I had not been given an instant ‘second chance’. I hadn’t been told my management that a rematch was in the works. Now, this isn’t a slam against them – we all know the infallible “SCW Guarantee” right? “The only thing guaranteed about SCW is that rematches are never guaranteed”. Am I right? Oh the people that had been pissed off for that one! The times champions, going on a tear, lose one match and are pushed to the back of the line for that one match, even if they were nigh untouchable for months – in my case, six long glorious months!
 
But the idea that Holly Adams was the Adrenaline champion, a title I had defended in ladder matches and Under the Big Top matches and more – the fact that she was parading around still with this “supreme champion” nonsense and that she had spent most of the shows running from a ghost.
 
I lost to that…
 
It still hadn’t sat well with me. If I had lost to Xander or someone through ability and them just being a better wrestler than me, I think I could have stomached that. But to lose to her and then to just be forgotten?
 
It had been what prompted to me use a ‘haunting’ method in the first place to get some attention back on me regarding the Adrenaline title. In much the same way I had been haunting Ace Marshall, I was now haunting Holly Adams, reminding her that I was still in the picture, despite her thoughts that I ‘no longer deserved it’ or whatever.
 
“You want to fight her again.” Marina rolled her eyes.
“I do.” I nodded. “For so long, she called me a coward who ‘dodged her’, then I beat her – only for her to steal the title from me… I can’t let THAT be the last thing about me before I leave for surgery. I just can’t.”
 
“Your damn pride.” Marina sighed, though her hand found mine, taking it in hers gently. “Does it have to be you that beats her?” she offered. “I mean, eventually, she’ll have to face someone of significant level…”
 
That much was true. Up to this point, Holly had fought only a rookie named Crystal and good ol’ Konrad – neither of which were ‘former World Champion’ level like I was. Was it because Holly was using her legal-wiles to protect herself? I mean, she had acquired some kind of contract for Asher Hayes to get a world title shot just like that, so maybe that was it. Still, I could not imagine her lasting long against the likes of someone like Xander Valentine or even Ace Marshall and his hoard, especially in a championship…
 
Then again, it wasn’t like I was beating guys of that level, per say. Still, the point that my ‘war’ with Holly was now a tie and that obnoxious girl was running around as arrogant as… well, me… because she won ONE match? Oooooh, it rubbed me the wrong way. It REALLY rubbed me the wrong way!
 
“If it was about her just losing the title…” I sighed, returning my attention back to my soulmate. “Then I would just wait until management had the balls to put her against a competent wrestler – someone that’s won more than just the Television title. So…not Gavin Taylor.”
“Who’s Gavin Taylor?”
“Precisely.” I smiled at my confused partner, leaning down to kiss her forehead just because. “Thing is, I don’t… I don’t even think it’s about the title as much as it could be. I just need to shut her up. I just need to beat her so I can move on. And if my Trios team can win… I’ll face her team next.”
 
“And we’re back to Trios.” Marina noted.
“Sort of all comes together, doesn’t it?” I smiled at her.
“But when all that’s done?”
 
“Marina…” I sighed. “I just don’t know. Truthfully, I thought before Rise to Greatness that that would be the end for me. I was expecting it. Now? I just…I’m going to lose step. I’m going to fall behind and if I’m going to do that, I need something to just keep me relevant there, you know?”
 
“No, I still don’t know.” Marina sighed as we made our way through the neighbourhood park. “Because all I can imagine is you facing Xander and him putting you on the shelf like he did to Regan.”
“That could happen whether or not my knee is better, Marina.”
“But it’s MORE LIKELY if you stay the way you are.” She countered.
 
I had to stop at that, feeling Marina inadvertently pull out of my reach, her hand leaving mine. Immediately, like a hopeless romantic, I felt the absence of her. She only needed a second or two to realize I had stopped she was no longer holding my hand, prompting her to turn around.
 
“Look.” I sighed. “I know I’m asking a lot here. And I know it’s dangerous given who I am going against. But this isn’t something that I decided on just because it was ‘fun’ or ‘entertaining’, Marina. I have been thinking about this every moment since Nomas told me. Do you have any idea how much I want to do this now? How badly I want to take those three months off?”
 
I felt a laugh escape me. “I mean… According to him, I could be better than I have been for years. I could be something like what I was long before. You don’t think I want that? To be able to move like I use to? To be able to wrestle like I use to? Forget the Adrenaline title, Marina, I could go for the World Title! You think I don’t think about that?”
 
She didn’t answer me, not that I gave her much time to do so anyway. “You don’t think that I don’t think about maybe being a better father to Memphis? I’ve been scared to be anything more than a stay-at-home dad to him. Because if he saw me weak. If he saw me unable to walk… what would he think of me? Hiding this from him… I just…” I had to turn my head away to gaze at the grass and to collect my thoughts. “I’ve hated every second of it. Cause I want to be there when he goes back to sports – hell, I’d love to coach one of his teams like hockey or something.”
“You don’t play.”
“I could learn to coach – and I would for Memphis.” I implored. “And you…” I laughed again, or was it more of a gasp? “I could dance with you again – do more than just walks. And I… I don’t even know what else… And the only thing that is in my way is an operation and a few months of rehab… you don’t think I want that?”
 
I could see the emotions shifting in her eyes and across her features. Being this real with Marina always brought a war of emotions through us both and I could feel my eyes fighting back tears.

“But something is telling me to what. Pride, hope, I don’t know them all but I have to. I have to wait and see these things through… And I need you to trust me on that. Trust me that I want everything that you want. I want all those things I’ve said.”
 
She stood before me, her eyes showing more tears than mine, but she was quick to rush into my arms and hold me tight. I felt my knee stiffen but I fought it with all I had, focusing only on my arms around her – my Marina. I don’t think she understood what I was feeling or what I was trying to achieve by delaying the surgery… hell, I wasn’t sure I could accomplish anything.
 
But, truthfully? I had to try. I had to, at least, try.