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Post by Rowan MacDonnough on Dec 11, 2018 3:57:39 GMT
December 9, 2018: The Pack Compound Not Affiliated with IWF
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Rowan Vs. God
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{The video begins looking into the ramshackle arena that The Pack has constructed in Centralia. However, unlike the last time The Pack held a recorded show in that arena, the stands are empty of Thralls. Caleb Lockwood’s voice hums an absentminded tune as its clear that he is the one operating the camera. Judging by the way it moves, it’s a fairly advanced shoulder-mounted affair, giving the camera decent film quality while still providing mobility. Apart from his humming, the ambiance is eerily quiet as Rowan stands alone in the center of the ring.}
Caleb Lockwood: Hello everyone. I do hope you all enjoy what you’re about to watch. This is, after all, the moment we’ve all been waiting for. How long has this been in the making? Night of the Immortals? Longer? Everyone else has been evacuated from the city, because… well folks, we don’t think that the boundaries of a wrestling ring are going to contain this one. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen joining us from around the world… to the END OF DAYS.
{A heavy gate opens on the far side of the arena, catching Rowan’s attention. The sound of chains dragging on the ground can be heard, growing louder and louder from the dark cavern beyond the door. Finally, he comes into view – God, shackled and bound, grinning like a maniac has he walks forward… dragging two unconscious thralls along with him.}
Caleb Lockwood: Looks like his escort didn’t make it…
{God slowly tilts his head to the side, glaring at Rowan with a continued laugh… before, with the barest of efforts, the metal shackles around his wrists and ankles shatter.}
God: You knew these would not keep me bound, Morningstar.
{Rowan chuckles, her eyes flashing.}
Rowan MacDonnough: Ah… but I could not resist seeing you in chains… Father. Besides – they provided ample opportunity for an entrance fittingly dramatic for your sensibilities.
{God cracks his neck before leaping over the ropes and into the ring. He examines the arena – concrete floor, ropes wrapped in barbed wire, all covered by a domed cage.}
God: A fitting battlefield.
Rowan MacDonnough: I took care to prepare it well.
God: So. How are we doing this.
Rowan MacDonnough: Simple. No holding back. No rules. No second chances. We fight until one of us begs for it to end.
God: And the loser?
Rowan MacDonnough: Will be subject to whatever fate the victor deems fit.
God: You cannot kill me, Morningstar. That is beyond you.
Rowan MacDonnough: {Laughs} Father… I do not wish to see you die. That would be far… far too quick.
God: So this is how it will be, then. No Pack to aid you. Just you… alone in this city you’ve built with no support – just us and Famine behind the camera. I would have thought you would have kept your minions alongside you, but you’ve let them all escape to a safe distance while you stand against me alone. How… cowardly.
Rowan MacDonnough: How so?
{With blinding speed, God flashes across the ring and plows into Rowan with a GENOCIDE KICK that strikes her with enough force to knock her into – and THROUGH – the ropes! The ropes give way with a trinity of tearing snaps as Rowan crashes into the cage.}
God: … Because suicide is the coward’s way out.
{Rowan laughs as she pulls herself to her feet, seeming surprisingly unphased by God’s attack. She cracks her neck once… Twice… Before leveling him with an amused and bloodthirsty gaze.}
Rowan MacDonnough: … That was your one free shot. Pity you wasted it.
{Rowan snaps her fingers, and the cage and arena alike burst into flames, binding the two immortal opponents within a lattice of burning metal. Rowan explodes out of the inferno, crashing into God with a series of rapidly chained European Uppercuts, driving him against the burning ropes with the savage offense targeting her head. God rallies with a leaping knee followed by a spinning backfist to knock Rowan away… but the Wolf of the Abyss whirls on her heel, twisting her momentum to send her careening back into God’s jaw with a spinning back elbow strike. She then leaps into the air, dodging a low sweeping kick that God hoped would knock her off of her feet, before planting her boots on God’s chest and kicking off of him, flipping away to land near the opposite corner.}
Caleb Lockwood: … Oh these are so not how the laws of physics work.
{Rowan hasn’t stopped however, and she blitzes across the burning ring, looking to drive her foot through God’s throat with a yakuza kick… however, God twists away, evading the blow and leading Rowan’s kick to land hard against the ringpost – bending it at a 45 degree angle from the force of the blow. God moves swiftly to seize the initiative once more after Rowan’s missed blow, pulling her hard into an Eat Defeet that grounds the Wolf, Rowan then trying to roll away. God doesn’t permit her escape, however, grabbing her by the ankle and hauling her closer, grabbing her hard and swinging her around before tossing her into another flaming cornerpost. Rowan is tangled in the burning, ripping grasp of the tormenting ropes, and isn’t able to get away quickly enough to avoid a HEAVEN’S FURY! Rowan collapses to the ground, and God spreads his arms wide as he stares down at her with a mocking laugh.}
God: I created you, Morningstar. Everything you are is nothing more than my own imagination. There is NOTHING you are capable of that I did not allow. After all this child, compared to me you are naught but an impotent child flailing in a tantrum.
{Rowan’s eyes glow brightly, a snarl of rage rising from her mask as a drop of blood falls from it to the floor before she mutters something incomprehensible.}
God: What was that?
{Faster than the eyes can track, Rowan rises to her feet, her hand driving into God’s mouth to lock in the EATER OF SOULS! She lifts him off the ground, glaring into his eyes with seething hate.}
Rowan: I asked… if you… permitted… THIS.
{She drives him head-first onto the concrete floor, repeatedly slamming the back of his skull against the unyielding ground. Finally, she lets go, striding over to one of the broken halves of still-burning rope and unhooking it from its post, whirling on God as she begins to spin the length of rope and barbed-wire fast enough that it almost looks like a Catherine Wheel. She brings the blazing lash down towards God, who barely manages to roll away in time, the strike leaving scorched gouges in the concrete and sending up a small splash of shattered stone. Rowan now begins to laugh as she spins the ruthless weapon with impossible speed, scoring the arena with missed strike after missed strike, even as her hands bleed from the barbed wire digging into her own skin. God tries to duck forward, rapidly closing the distance between himself and Rowan in an effort to disarm her, but Rowan deftly twists the lash to wrap around God’s ankle, stripping him of his balance and sending him crashing to the floor. God thinks quickly, pinning the end of the makeshift weapon under his leg to keep Rowan from using it further.
Rowan drops the other end of the ring rope, striding forward with savage confidence and burning eyes, dropping down onto God’s head with a knee drop, her full weight behind it. She begins raining punches down on the man, pummeling him in the face with blow after blow, working hard to wear him down into so much paste. However, with every consecutive blow, God’s smile widens yet further… and he reels from the strikes less and less, until eventually he is laughing, head not giving a single fraction of an inch no matter how hard Rowan punches.}
God: You’ll have to do FAR better than that, Morningstar!
{He kips up from underneath her, sending Rowan scrambling across the damaged floor, rolling into a crouch as God rolls his shoulders, seeming completely unphased from any attack she’s levied against him. Rowan growls with frustration, and leaps towards him with a leaping knee strike, but God sidesteps with impossible speed, leaving Rowan flailing in empty air. Still, she lands with composure, following through with a roll and hitting the ropes. She lets herself slip through them, pulling herself up to the other side before launching herself at God with the MARK OF MACHA! NO! God CATCHES the elbow strike with a single hand, holding Rowan in the air with a smirk before whipping her into the already bent corner post with enough force to rip it from the concrete entirely! For the second time in the match, Rowan crashes into the domed cage surrounding the ring, flaring eyes watching God with increasing hatred. God approaches her, once again spreading his arms to his sides as he smiles, shaking his head with bemused disappointment.}
God: So this was your plan? Just anger me, drive me to the heights of my wrath, and then… what? Hope that your time in The Abyss made you somehow stronger than me? I am SO disappointed! Eons upon eons obsessing over your revenge… and all it amounts to is nothing more than a pathetic brawl. No wonder your world was so easy to annihilate, Morningstar – you lack the creativity to make it something truly worthwhile.
{Rowan goes very still.}
Caleb: ... Oh shit that was a bad idea.
{Rowan crosses the distance between the two of them in a fraction of a second, moving with enough speed to cause a gust of wind to kick up in her wake as she slams into God with a low dropkick to the knee, taking the man desperately off balance…}
Rowan: DO…
{As God falls with Rowan still sliding under him, she reaches up and grabs his hair, yanking it down sharply to drive his face into the damaged concrete of the arena floor.}
Rowan: NOT…
{She then rolls over while sliding, forcing herself up to a kneeling position before kicking off with one leg, pouncing on top of his back and grabbing the back of his neck...}
Rowan: CALL…
{She grips hard, digging her fingernails into the exposed flesh of his neck and deeper, almost as though reaching in and grabbing him by the spine...}
Rowan: ME…
{She stands up, dragging and lifting God with her before spinning around and hurling him with full force at the far wall…}
Rowan: MORNINGSTAR!!
{God crashes through the burning metal of the cage… and then through the cinderblock wall of the arena building entirely! Rowan stalks after him, the fight spilling to the outdoor sections of the compound as Caleb hustles to get the camera into a new position.}
Caleb: That’s gonna be a bitch to repair… also this is why I wore my gas mask. Figured this might happen. Also Dean owes me dinner. Told him a tripod-mount wouldn’t be a good idea…
{The camera moves outside, finding Rowan advancing on God through the toxic smoke of Centralia, PA. As she walks through the smoke, the shapes of two large, tattered wings can almost be made out in the empty spaces through the smog as her eyes burn with a more intense light than ever before, casting twisting shadows throughout the whole of the compound. God slowly rises to his feet, one hand clasped over the back of his neck as he breathes heavily. Despite the pain of the damage he must have endured, he still chokes out a peal of rasping laughter as he smiles, a trickle of blood falling from his lips.
God: … Touch a nerve there?
{Rowan dashes forward, the smoke twisting and spinning away from her in her wake. She lunges forward for a knee lift, but God counters by snapping out his hands, grabbing her by the leg and swinging her into an old streetlight nearby. Rowan crashes into it hard, the metal of the light buckling around her, but she refuses to back down, cracking her neck and rushing forward again, this time going high and leaping onto God with a hurricanrana that she follows with a string of savage mounted punches. God, however, simply stands up and grabs her by the legs, powerbombing her into the roof of a nearby car. The car collapses like a crushed can under the power of the blow, leaving Rowan stunned amongst the wreckage. God laughs as he takes a few steps back, leaning against an old and rusty chainlink fence.
As Rowan begins to stir, however, the move proves to be more tactical than one of rest, as he takes a firm grip on one of the metal bars holding the fence up. With a potent wrench of his single arm, he pulls the metal from the ground, a chunk of concrete still attached to its base that had been keeping it anchored to the ground. With a heave and a shout of wrath and effort, God brings the makeshift club crashing down onto the Wolf of the Abyss… or he would have, had she not rolled away at the last minute. The car crumples even more, a shower of sparks raining from the impact of concrete on twisted metal as Rowan rolls away. God works to wrench the weapon free of the car, but Rowan snaps her fingers again, causing the car to burst into flame. God’s face is briefly illuminated by the blaze, but heedless of the danger he still pulls the club from the metal, dragging it along as he pursues his wayward daughter.}
God: And what was that supposed to accomplish?
Rowan: I hoped it would explode.
God: That only happens in movies.
Rowan: Fascinating. That is what most would say about this.
{With a cry of pure, intense fury, Rowan lunges towards God and leaps into the air… and as she spins, her foot ignites with searing flames just as she lands the DANCE THE SPIRAL! God reels back from the blow and the smoke, but Rowan leaps off the burning wreck of the car, springing off of it into a BEAST OF WAR, her foot once again bursting into flames. Rather than deliver another of her signature moves as God drops to one knee, however, she simply grabs him with both hands by the throat, squeezing hard on his windpipe as her hands ignite and burn.
God, however, is quick to rally – forcing his hands between Rowan’s arms and wrenching them apart. Rowan staggers back, but before she can react further God snaps in with another GENOCIDE KICK! This time, however, the kick is accompanied by a flash of electricity and a clap of thunder at the point of impact, generating enough force to send Rowan flying across the street and through the wall of a small abandoned house, the building almost disintegrating around her in an avalanche of rotten wood and shattered glass.}
God: Don’t you get it yet, Morningstar? Anything you can do… I can do harder!
Caleb: … Dude, when will he learn not to taunt-
{Before Caleb can finish his words, however, the abandoned house explodes into a massive and forceful fireball, sending debris everywhere and forcing Caleb to dive for cover. When he angles the camera back up, it shows Rowan standing amidst the blaze where the house once stood, eyes bulging with barely-controlled fury. Slowly, she strides out of the flames and into the street, her clothes smoldering but her skin seeming unbothered by the heat. In one of her hands is a several-foot-long length of sharpened steel that continues to burn as she walks free of the flames. She tilts her head slowly to the side before snapping her fingers once again.
God flinches away… but no fire comes. Instead, a large black tarp that had, until recently, been covering a nearby truck is pulled sharply away… revealing a large cage in its bed. Within the cage is what at first appears to be a mound of black velvet blankets… until it moves, uncurls, and stands in the cage, looking to God with hungry, pleading eyes. God’s eyes widen sharply as he recognizes what the cage contains, face shifting from a mocking smile into one of abject horror.}
God: S… Sheila? How? WHY?!
{Rowan laughs as she strides forward, giving the sword a deft flourish before resting it across her shoulders.}
Rowan: You were right about one thing, Father. I should have known that your shackles could not hold me, that you were only remaining in my clutches because it was where you wanted me to be… and in truth, I did. Once I took you I knew you would take the opportunity to stay close, but I didn’t want to hold you for the sake of keeping you prisoner – I wanted to hold you so that you could not protect what was most precious to you. You have your Son, my Most Loyal, to thank for Sheila joining us tonight.
God: Let her go!
Rowan: No. No, I do not think I will. She is important, is she not? Perhaps not to you, but to Angel Blake? I never would have pegged him as a cat person, but… to each their own.
{Rowan comes to a stop beside the truck, and Sheila growls defiantly.}
God: LET HER GO, MORNINGSTAR! THIS IS BETWEEN THE TWO OF US!
{Rowan’s eyes flash with sadistic delight.}
Rowan: I warned you not to call me that, Father.
{The arm holding Rowan’s burning sword snaps out suddenly, and Caleb jerks the camera away from the cage as the panther’s agonized howl echoes through the ruined streets of Centralia. God watches on in horror, his head jolting sharply to the side as though taken over by some seizure, pressing one of his hands to his head as he screws his eyes shut tight. He is only barely able to notice in time as Rowan flies in from out of frame, diving at God with her burning sword, and he barely brings the makeshift club up in time to parry the blow as the two of them close on one another in a melee clash.}
Rowan: An amateur move. You would have known that were you not so often too aloof to walk the world you claim to love. Were you not paying attention to Michael’s downfall? The next time you take a host… find one with nothing left to live for. You would be astounded what they can muster in rebellion when properly motivated. Of course, there is little use telling you that now… because the chances of there being a “next time” just vanished sharply down to zero.
{Rowan explodes into another flurry of rapid strikes, but while God easily had the upper hand for most of the rest of the fight, he now seems to be faltering under her assault, barely managing to deflect the lightning-fast blows from her burning blade. Snow begins to fall over the ruined city of Centralia as Rowan presses her assault, but with every moment that passes God continues to seem to struggle against some unseen force. He tries to counter with a wild, desperate blow with the club… but Rowan intercepts it with one hand with an almost casual grace, gripping the wrist tight before twisting it sickeningly to the side. God lets out a cry of pain as his hand loses all strength, the club falling to the ground. Rowan’s eyes narrow with sinister delight.}
Rowan: What is the matter, Father?
{She lifts a hard knee into his gut, doubling God over before dashing him to the pavement of the road. He falls to his knees, struggling to hold onto what little remains of his composure before Rowan slips in and delivers the BALOR’S GAZE! An explosion of fire and kinetic force splits the air at the point of contact, and now it is God’s turn to go flying across the road, through the ruined wall and back into the arena. Rowan swiftly moves to follow, and Caleb desperately follows, not wanting to miss a moment. The camera finds God on all fours, coughing hard and writhing as he desperately clings to his skull. Rowan gestures to the torn remnants of the ropes, and at her will they spring to life, wrapping around the prone form of God and pinning his arms to his sides. With another gesture, they pull God upwards and force him into a sitting position before tightening brutally, the barbed wire tearing into his skin… and by the cracking sound, possibly damaging a few ribs.}
Rowan: You seem to be having trouble concentrating. Here. Let me give you something to focus on.
{After poising for the strike for just long enough for the audience to realize what will happen next, Rowan drives the burning sword into – and through – God’s right shoulder. God screams in pain at the damage, though something about his voice is… wilder. Broken. Rowan kneels down before him, looking him dead in the eyes and grabbing him by both sides of his face, leaving her sword impaled through his shoulder.}
Rowan: Look at me, Father. Look me in the eyes.
{God blinks wildly, glaring at her even as he still spasms and struggles.}
Rowan: I want to hear you say it.
God: I… I…
Rowan: {Tightening the grip on God’s face} SAY IT.
God: I… I am… sorry… Abaddon…
{Rowan laughs coldly.}
Rowan: And I will never forgive you. I banish you to the Abyss. May you suffer there as I did… and if you ever escape?
{She wrenches his head back and leans in close, speaking just barely loud enough for the mic on the camera to pick it up.}
Rowan: I will be waiting. {Rowan presses a hand hard onto God’s face, pressing down with enough force to nearly shove him to the ground… and as she does, blinding white light erupts from God’s eyes and mouth, streaming into the black skies above them as the ground shakes. The light streams upwards into the waiting dark for several long seconds before, just as suddenly, it ends. Rowan stands, the mark of her handprint still visible as a burn on the man’s brow, and pulls the sword roughly from his shoulder. The man falls to the ground, the ropes loosening around him as he gasps for breath. When he speaks, it is no longer with the same imperious tone as before. Now it is somehow lighter… desperate… and singular human. Rowan looks down at him with a hard edge to her eye before she speaks.}
Rowan: Who are you?
God?: I… my name… my name is Angel… Angel Blake…
Rowan: And are you God?
Angel Blake: … No.
Rowan: Then the war between The Pack and the Age of Gods is…?
Angel Blake: Over.
{Rowan kneels down, lifting Angel by the chin and looking him in the eyes, her own burning threateningly.}
Rowan: And who won that war?
{Angel swallows.}
Angel Blake: … You. You did.
{Without another word, Rowan lets him go and stands, giving Caleb a single nod. Caleb sets down the camera, still focused on Rowan and Angel as his voice his heard over a phone…}
Caleb: Brooklyn? It’s me. It’s over, you can bring everyone back. Yes, of course she did… I mean, it’ll take some time to get everything repaired, they did a number on the block…
{Caleb’s voice fades away as he walks away from the scene. Rowan gazes out into the distance, her expression unreadable as Angel struggles to force himself to a seated position, painfully holding his shoulder and his ribs. However, he does manage the strength to call out…}
Angel Blake: Rowan… thank… thank you…
{Rowan does not respond to him. However, a figure appears from off-camera, stepping slowly into frame and looking between the two of them. As he gets closer to the light, it is clear that it is Dean Harper, who slowly, tentatively approaches Angel where he lies pained on the concrete…}
Rowan: Dean.
{Dean stops in his tracks, staring at Angel for another few long moments with a curious and uncertain expression on his face… before he turns and follows Rowan into the darkness. Shortly after they leave frame, the video cuts to black.}
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