Post by Deleted on May 23, 2018 19:08:53 GMT
“If you have to do it, then you're doing the right thing.”
As Nighthawk walks in the front door of the Wrestle Factory in Chicago to prepare for his 2-out-of-3 falls match against Jayson Matthews one can’t help but wonder if he really is willing to do the hard and painful work of finally letting his student and protégé go if he has to, or if there is still a part of him that will not be fully able to look at the man across the ring from him and see an opponent instead of someone he has to salvage.
Despite the open-ended nature of that posed question the “American Samurai” appears to be going about his work with the idea that he knows the answer even if it’s not one he particularly wishes for, and quite clearly appears to be treating the training and studies that he has to do for this match more like trying to figure out a puzzle which he never got the chance to even begin to solve.
While someone in his position may find themselves swearing holy vengeance for what was done to them the “American Samurai” is instead taking very serious care to ensure that he keeps his temper under control, thus making sure that he doesn’t fall victim to anger that might distract him from his primary goal.
But as Nighthawk puts his gear bag down on his hardwood desk, taking a moment to look at his forehead where his recently-removed stitches once reside, the door to his private office yawns open. Taking a moment to open up his gear bag and pull out everything he needs to run practice the “Wrestling Machine” begins to tape up his wrists and hands when he turns around and nearly drops the roll of cerulean-blue tape.
Because standing there in front of him, in a perfect single-file line befitting the discipline he has ensured they possess through both words and deeds, are every single one of his students, along with his trainer and friend Santos. Wiping a stray tear from his eyes Nighthawk cuts the tape off of his left hand before standing in front of his charges, his ice-blue eyes burning with joy at them standing beside him.
Nighthawk: “I know what he did to all of you was painful. We taught him what we could, welcomed him as a member of our family, and tried our level best to make a home for him here. And he’s walked away from us now. But, as is clear to me and should be clear to all of you, he didn’t do so because he wanted to. Somehow, somewhere, Angel Blake got to him. Got into the mind of the man who trained alongside all of us, and we need to break that control. But all of you, all of my students together, can’t get it done. I have to. I’m the only one who can free him from his burden. But just like you all can’t step in the ring and do what I can do alone, I cannot do that job without your help, your guidance. So please help me, just this one more time. Please help me prepare to bring our lost student back home.”
Ana Luciana Santiago Perez De Montes, an impossibly regal Spanish rookie: “How do you want us to help you, sir? Name it, and I am sure we can achieve it.”
Nighthawk, his ice-blue eyes flashing with determination: “Everything you saw him do, every trick he employed in classes when I was here and when I was not, we will study. Together, as a school, we will come up with a plan. If I have to go into the belly of the beast to save Jayson Matthews, we will all work to make sure it is as painless as it can be.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk walks into a pew at St. Michael’s Catholic Church to pray for some kind of guidance for the task that is in front of him one can’t help but see in his eyes the battle between knowing what he has to do, and what he wants to be doing instead. Quite obviously the “American Samurai” would love nothing more than to not be in this position, but now that he is here, his sense of duty and honor will not allow him to turn his back on someone that he considers a friend.
Nighthawk, his voice thickening as he finds new determination: “God, I know there are hours upon hours of psalms that tell me that I shouldn’t be fighting my brother. But what do you do, what is the divine guidance, when the only way to save your brother is to fight him? I can’t watch powerlessly as someone takes control of my brother because you say I’m not supposed to raise my hand to him to stop it. Well, that can’t be what I do. If it means I’m damned for it, if I become a fallen angel for it, I can live with that. I’m going to do what needs to be done, and this needs to be done.”
Leaving the church, the “Master of 1000 Holds” blows out a flickering candle before crossing himself in the threshold of the church.
>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk sits down at the departures section of O’Hare Airport, waiting for a flight to take him to McCarren International Airport, we see him trying to get his emotions under control. Clad in a white 4 Pillars of Heaven t-shirt, black leather pants with orange and white pinstripes up and down each leg, and black work boots, the “Wrestling Machine” leans back in the chair as his wife Sin sits next to him. Clad in a black Tokyo Sweethearts t-shirt, a dark-red leather wiggle skirt, and black kitten heels, the “Dark Princess” smiles and embraces her husband.
Nighthawk: “Wrestling, they tell you, is a cutthroat line of work. To be the best you can be, you’re told, you can’t have friends. You can’t have family. You have to be willing, at any time and for any reason, to break bonds, break your words, and do whatever you can to get ahead. I’ve never believed that’s the only way.”
Sin: “This week is about family. And if you understand why it’s so important, you’ll get why we have to do what we’re doing.”
Nighthawk: “I’ve always believed that you can make friends, and keep them, in this line of work. All you have to be willing to do is to stand by them, tell them the truth, and they will trust you. And this week, when I step in the ring against Jayson Matthews, I will do my best to be the friend he deserves. And I will do it by not treating him like the friend, and the brother, that he is in my heart. Instead, when I step in the ring with Jayson Matthews, I will treat him in the ring like any other opponent. Because if that’s what is needed to save my friend, and my brother, that’s what I will give him.”
Sin: “You are family to us, Jayson. No matter what happens in Las Vegas, you will always be family to us.”
Nighthawk: “And it’s because you’re family that I can say this to you: I will not treat you like Jayson Matthews, the brother I love with all my heart. I will not treat you like the man I stood alongside in IWF’s first-ever triathlon, the man who showed everyone what heart really is. I will not treat you like the greatest champion the Invictus division has never known. I will treat you, instead, like everyone else. Because this, Jayson, is what you wanted, what that vacant-eyed creature taking up your body at the moment seems to need to feel human again. You need, by your own words, to break me. I welcome your efforts to try. But I want you to understand something: You can’t. You won’t be able to.”
Sin: “Family or not, Jayson, the idea that you think you can break my husband is foolish. And at Night of the Immortals, you will see the error of that strategy.”
Nighthawk: “At Night of the Immortals, Jayson, I take you into the deep waters you’ve only seen me enter on tape. You think you know what I am because I’ve taught you? Remember, Jayson, you haven’t finished school. Everything I haven’t taught you yet, all those lessons you’ve been missing because you’re under the wing of a dragon, I will show you. And when I’m done, I will save you by taking something from you. I will take your arm. I will take your devotion to a cause. And when it’s done, when I bring you back to your senses by beating you in a match I’ve wrestled more times than any other, I will remind you of one other thing: As good as you think you are, Jayson, I’m better. And as much as I am going to hate doing it, as much as I wish there was some other way to handle this, at Night of the Immortals I’m going to show you. Be ready, Jayson. Because in Las Vegas, no matter how long it takes, I am going to win. And you are going to lose.”
Nighthawk and Sin: “Goodnight Jayson. May sleep give you the courage to go on.”
As Nighthawk walks in the front door of the Wrestle Factory in Chicago to prepare for his 2-out-of-3 falls match against Jayson Matthews one can’t help but wonder if he really is willing to do the hard and painful work of finally letting his student and protégé go if he has to, or if there is still a part of him that will not be fully able to look at the man across the ring from him and see an opponent instead of someone he has to salvage.
Despite the open-ended nature of that posed question the “American Samurai” appears to be going about his work with the idea that he knows the answer even if it’s not one he particularly wishes for, and quite clearly appears to be treating the training and studies that he has to do for this match more like trying to figure out a puzzle which he never got the chance to even begin to solve.
While someone in his position may find themselves swearing holy vengeance for what was done to them the “American Samurai” is instead taking very serious care to ensure that he keeps his temper under control, thus making sure that he doesn’t fall victim to anger that might distract him from his primary goal.
But as Nighthawk puts his gear bag down on his hardwood desk, taking a moment to look at his forehead where his recently-removed stitches once reside, the door to his private office yawns open. Taking a moment to open up his gear bag and pull out everything he needs to run practice the “Wrestling Machine” begins to tape up his wrists and hands when he turns around and nearly drops the roll of cerulean-blue tape.
Because standing there in front of him, in a perfect single-file line befitting the discipline he has ensured they possess through both words and deeds, are every single one of his students, along with his trainer and friend Santos. Wiping a stray tear from his eyes Nighthawk cuts the tape off of his left hand before standing in front of his charges, his ice-blue eyes burning with joy at them standing beside him.
Nighthawk: “I know what he did to all of you was painful. We taught him what we could, welcomed him as a member of our family, and tried our level best to make a home for him here. And he’s walked away from us now. But, as is clear to me and should be clear to all of you, he didn’t do so because he wanted to. Somehow, somewhere, Angel Blake got to him. Got into the mind of the man who trained alongside all of us, and we need to break that control. But all of you, all of my students together, can’t get it done. I have to. I’m the only one who can free him from his burden. But just like you all can’t step in the ring and do what I can do alone, I cannot do that job without your help, your guidance. So please help me, just this one more time. Please help me prepare to bring our lost student back home.”
Ana Luciana Santiago Perez De Montes, an impossibly regal Spanish rookie: “How do you want us to help you, sir? Name it, and I am sure we can achieve it.”
Nighthawk, his ice-blue eyes flashing with determination: “Everything you saw him do, every trick he employed in classes when I was here and when I was not, we will study. Together, as a school, we will come up with a plan. If I have to go into the belly of the beast to save Jayson Matthews, we will all work to make sure it is as painless as it can be.”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk walks into a pew at St. Michael’s Catholic Church to pray for some kind of guidance for the task that is in front of him one can’t help but see in his eyes the battle between knowing what he has to do, and what he wants to be doing instead. Quite obviously the “American Samurai” would love nothing more than to not be in this position, but now that he is here, his sense of duty and honor will not allow him to turn his back on someone that he considers a friend.
Nighthawk, his voice thickening as he finds new determination: “God, I know there are hours upon hours of psalms that tell me that I shouldn’t be fighting my brother. But what do you do, what is the divine guidance, when the only way to save your brother is to fight him? I can’t watch powerlessly as someone takes control of my brother because you say I’m not supposed to raise my hand to him to stop it. Well, that can’t be what I do. If it means I’m damned for it, if I become a fallen angel for it, I can live with that. I’m going to do what needs to be done, and this needs to be done.”
Leaving the church, the “Master of 1000 Holds” blows out a flickering candle before crossing himself in the threshold of the church.
>>>>>>>>>>>
As Nighthawk sits down at the departures section of O’Hare Airport, waiting for a flight to take him to McCarren International Airport, we see him trying to get his emotions under control. Clad in a white 4 Pillars of Heaven t-shirt, black leather pants with orange and white pinstripes up and down each leg, and black work boots, the “Wrestling Machine” leans back in the chair as his wife Sin sits next to him. Clad in a black Tokyo Sweethearts t-shirt, a dark-red leather wiggle skirt, and black kitten heels, the “Dark Princess” smiles and embraces her husband.
Nighthawk: “Wrestling, they tell you, is a cutthroat line of work. To be the best you can be, you’re told, you can’t have friends. You can’t have family. You have to be willing, at any time and for any reason, to break bonds, break your words, and do whatever you can to get ahead. I’ve never believed that’s the only way.”
Sin: “This week is about family. And if you understand why it’s so important, you’ll get why we have to do what we’re doing.”
Nighthawk: “I’ve always believed that you can make friends, and keep them, in this line of work. All you have to be willing to do is to stand by them, tell them the truth, and they will trust you. And this week, when I step in the ring against Jayson Matthews, I will do my best to be the friend he deserves. And I will do it by not treating him like the friend, and the brother, that he is in my heart. Instead, when I step in the ring with Jayson Matthews, I will treat him in the ring like any other opponent. Because if that’s what is needed to save my friend, and my brother, that’s what I will give him.”
Sin: “You are family to us, Jayson. No matter what happens in Las Vegas, you will always be family to us.”
Nighthawk: “And it’s because you’re family that I can say this to you: I will not treat you like Jayson Matthews, the brother I love with all my heart. I will not treat you like the man I stood alongside in IWF’s first-ever triathlon, the man who showed everyone what heart really is. I will not treat you like the greatest champion the Invictus division has never known. I will treat you, instead, like everyone else. Because this, Jayson, is what you wanted, what that vacant-eyed creature taking up your body at the moment seems to need to feel human again. You need, by your own words, to break me. I welcome your efforts to try. But I want you to understand something: You can’t. You won’t be able to.”
Sin: “Family or not, Jayson, the idea that you think you can break my husband is foolish. And at Night of the Immortals, you will see the error of that strategy.”
Nighthawk: “At Night of the Immortals, Jayson, I take you into the deep waters you’ve only seen me enter on tape. You think you know what I am because I’ve taught you? Remember, Jayson, you haven’t finished school. Everything I haven’t taught you yet, all those lessons you’ve been missing because you’re under the wing of a dragon, I will show you. And when I’m done, I will save you by taking something from you. I will take your arm. I will take your devotion to a cause. And when it’s done, when I bring you back to your senses by beating you in a match I’ve wrestled more times than any other, I will remind you of one other thing: As good as you think you are, Jayson, I’m better. And as much as I am going to hate doing it, as much as I wish there was some other way to handle this, at Night of the Immortals I’m going to show you. Be ready, Jayson. Because in Las Vegas, no matter how long it takes, I am going to win. And you are going to lose.”
Nighthawk and Sin: “Goodnight Jayson. May sleep give you the courage to go on.”
Well howdy there pardner.