Post by Deleted on May 25, 2018 19:37:22 GMT
“If this is my last war... then I know I've found the only cause worth dying for.” - Nathan Summers
The portal sent them spiralling into a collection of debris and concrete, buildings shelled out and crumbling and surprisingly bereft of life. They’d been in this blasted waste land of ash and dust for a few days now and the brimstone kissed clouds made the appearance even more daunting.
Bertie was lingering behind , looking around as he mutters.
“Well, there’s no law so you chose a good place to land, why was it you said we aren’t leaving again Cap’n?”
Thaddeus was crouched over what remained off a concrete support examining what was left of a person , or the outline of what had once been life left behind and musing.
“Because Albert, this juncture interests me and…I haven’t seen another soul but yourself in a few days, the dogs don’t count.”
It was then the sound of footsteps permeated their reverie, the two fellows going silent as striding up the middle of the broken street emerged a figure clad in leather and patchwork, blonde hair tied tight behind her head, features worn from the elements. Muscle definition highlighting her every movement as ice blue eyes and a broken nose helped enhance her almost Nordic features.
At her hip lay a chipped but well maintained sword currently in a sheath and an axe , yet she moved with the grace of a woman who heard a constant drum beat.
There was something, familiar yet strikingly alien about her , but these ice blue eyes pierced a hole straight through Thaddeus.
Thaddeus blinked even as he stood slowly with a smile and speaks even as she closed the distance with ever growing footsteps.
Thaddeus blinked even as he stood slowly with a smile and speaks even as she closed the distance with ever growing footsteps.
“Good day Miss! We are but humble Travell--“
That’s when she hit him, once square and firm across the jaw and he wobbled and somewhat impressively stood his ground ,even if he was a little wobbly.
Bertie chuckled.
“Oh, she likes you.”
Thaddeus lifted a hand towards Bertie even as he looked back and shook his head to look towards the lady who had most grievously assaulted him his senses coming to the fore.
“I’m sorry Miss I’m not sure I deserved that, also you need to rotate a little extra into your hook that way you will get the power you require in your base to knock your foe to the floor.”
Somewhere behind him Bertie face palmed as The woman just smirked and finally spoke.
“Thanks for the tip.”
Thaddeus Smiled.
“Quite welcome Miss now cou--“
The lady was an ample and avid student of pugilistic advice, because the second punch was form perfect and very much had the desired effect.
We fade in on the Union Jack, the strains of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ playing before the picture gets fuzzy, the flag becoming Sepia tones as we fade in to clips of the Joker in The Pack matches of the past.
Warren Kane, Devlin Raine, images of the competitors of this year, visions of the spots and scars taken in each Joker in the Pack before we cut suddenly and violently to Thaddeus, sitting atop a ladder , sipping a cup of tea as the ladder sits in the ring, fully assembled, the camera zooms in slowly to Thaddeus face sitting there deep in thought before a female voice cuts in from the base of the ladder.
“See the great thinker, pondering on his latest problem, see the professor of pugilism, and how he puts a mind dedicated to science towards the over complicated proposition of facing men, demons, heroes and potentially gods.”
Hariett Du Lac stalks under Thaddeus her form strapped and pulled into corsetry , leather and lace, her eyes looking into the camera as she smiles seductively and pale fingertips play over the steel, a breath taken as her bosom heaves for emphasis.
“He would speak himself however the problem is so great he has instead dictated to me these passages for which to read, so you may understand the complexity of the issue.”
She reaches hand from around her back and slowly withdraws a envelope and opens slowly with a small knifelike envelope opener and she coughs all gentle like before speaking.
“Dear Plebeians of the Imperial Wrestling Federation. Even as this letter is being spoken to you by my emissary, you will find me deep in the complex ruminations of cognitive combat before I engage in the battlefield that is the Joke In The pack match a virtue of the highest honour, I feel it would be remiss of me to not discuss my opponents, thusly I have drafted this missive.”
She looks up with a beautiful smile before she reaches off camera and pulls up a chair to take a seat.
“I will first address my dearest fellow, the Student of suplexes himself, the man of broken wings and peace the one who sits on the warpath, Pax Stormcrow.”
She looks down and touches her cheek lips with the letter opener teeth playing with the steel and edge with those pearly whites before she speaks and flicks the opener in the air casually as if conducting each word.
“We have faced each other often, and many times, and always I have found your measure, but these are unique circumstances, of all the men within the ring in this man I understand you more than most, I would say we lay our feud aside and works as allies, but I doubt your cognitive reasoning would consider the notion I am of no illusion that of all the men in this match I stand alone, considered folly a mockery of this fair institution.”
She sighs a bit and seems to nod in pitying agreeance before she turns the page.
“Henceforth, I let it be known that despite your opinion of me Stromcrow I consider you to be a gentleman of the highest honour , but I cannot treat you as such. I shall have to lay defeat to you ,lay defat to all on my path it is nothing personal, however your sacrifice shall not go unnoticed when the Union flag flies over the Nevada desert and so I say to you goo d day sir and we shall meet on the field of honour.”
Harriet drops the first page with a smile and sticking the letter opener into the chair she clicks her fingers and a small steam powered robot rolls into shot, a trolley wielding the mightiest of beverages Those delicate fingers withdrawing the china cup as her takes a sip and clicks her fingers again as the robt rolls the opposite way and she picks that opener out the chair again as she continues.
“Secondly, I speak to the singular egoist, a man of compare a man with a storied history and the man who would steal fire form Olympus it’s self if you believed a word he said and that would be Xavier cross, a man who surveys all ahead of him with a level of disdain I would be assuredly proud of, but matches enough the views that lay upon him and the h derision for his disappointments, and yet he is wrestling twice this evening.”
She looks at the camera with a pointed smirk.
“You once stated that you don’t know what a plebeian is, allow me to educate you, slowly, and painfully by drawing your dullard senses over the ladder that you wish to ascend. Allow me to share with you a history of painful extrusion gained form years of scientific experimentation allow me to show you the true horrors of this age. For there are far worse thing than being forgotten Xavier Cross. Being forgotten is naught to being remembered as a laughing stock and as of yet that has been your legacy.”
A pause.
“A legacy of regrets and lies built on the foundations of a man who shifts like sand and therefore. Will never grow anymore, my foundations are made of the very roots of the Earth, mine are the foundations that build empires and conquer nations mine are the foundations that shake the very gods themselves because there are no gods, only the natural wonders of science and I will disprove there is no such thing as a miracle, no such thing as a magic solution there is only entropy, and good planning.”
Harriet turns the page over shuffling as she coughs once more.
“Speaking of magic, and the idiocy it purveys. Allow me to direct your attention the Most Loyal of a Harpy’s hounds; Dean Harper.”
Harriet smirks.
“If anyone, anyone among the Imperial Roster is ambulatory proof that simple mind tricks are a recipe for greatness it is The Pack who with the simple chicanery of a few lighting effects and optical illusions has convinced a large swath of the Plebeians, the unwashed masses that they in possession of some otherworldly force, this is simply put nonsense, there is no mystical force that controls my destiny simply put, God? Is dead and so is all the sorry mythology he carries with him, there are no angels, no Saint Nicholas , the Easter Bunny is a lie and Faerie tales are concocted by Opiate users.”
A small smirk and a sigh.
“Yet you use this as an excuse to purvey the most dire transgressions, kidnapping, grievous bodily harm, if you simply admitted you required psychiatric evaluation and accepted the lobotomy you surely all deserve we would have much quieter lives, but what am I too expect? The best parts of your country and your people have all perished under the weight of ignorance and ‘fake news’.”
From atop the ladder Thaddeus rouses and waves a hand.
“IT’S A BLOODY DISGRACE!”
Harriet waves a hand and makes a few peaceful gestures ‘shhing’ him and Thaddeus returns back to his thoughts before Harriet drops the page.
“Where was I? Oh yes, next page.”
She coughs a little and adjust herself for the next page.
“Which I feel is enough to write any success Mister Harper has had off as sheer fluke and I shall now promptly address the other miscreant of a dead, decrepit faith , Mister Ulf Hendir.”
Harriet nods her head genially and waves the pages.
“Much like everyone else I somewhat expect you to look past me to focus on those you feel are ‘more’ of a threat you have much anger towards Mister Harper, and your past allegiance to Xavier Cross will no doubt taint proceedings, ill you call on your heathen faith to save you when you release you cannot get your errands done by yourself? You call yourself a man of honour but I only see an easily lead and eluded fool, brainwashed by the idea he is some manner of saviour.”
A cough and a little giggle.
“He is more a buffoon than Mister Harper for the lessons of antiquity should inform him that The cyclical nature of time requires that his own efforts are worth nothing in the eyes of his own deities, not that they exist of course. Drunken tales to justify the natural order of the world and given meaning to short, brutal lives claimed by the seas And the elements glorifying a way of life that ended it’s time on my own green and pleasant land and settled into a life of peace where their blood lines helped forge the mightiest Empire in the world. Ultimately Mister Hendir ,you are nothing but a reminder of a time long passed and time that is no longer required of we enlightened men. So you will fail and will continue to do so.”
Harriett nods with a wrinkle of her nose turning over that last page.
"This leads me to the former champion, the man with the most the gain and the most to lose, the man who has fallen out of grace with himself. Andrew Jacobsen.”
Harriet beams.
“I’m no fool, despite what you all may think, I’m aware how dangerous each and every one of my opponent’s is, but perhaps the great tragedy is Andrew’s , who has fallen so far, so very far and is now in this match with perhaps the most engaging of opponents, having to juggle the wheat from the chaff and much like anyone he will be resolute.”
she sighs a bit, aywning before continuing.
“But Mister Jacobsen, it worries you doesn’t it? That you’ve fallen away from the light so quickly? That you have to keep pushing once more that Spike ane, of all people is stood where you once were and challenging the man who beat you? I take nothing away form your accomplishments, but you failed at the roulette, what now? Survive the Joker In The pack? You have watched friends leave over smaller things, if you can call Mister Raine a friend. I won’t threaten you Mister Jacobsen, you are already a legend in your time, but your time is over allow someone else to come forth, or continue to fight at your own peril.”
Harriet drops the page and holds up the last page with a wry smile.
“So, gentlemen, I leave you with this, there are those among you who have already written me off, my arrival ahs been inauspicious and my actions have been grand but I have since dealt with the impostor who fialed to see the true vision, I will no longer be a mockery in your eyes after This night of Immortals, I shall ascend the ladder and claim my prize, not for England, not For some antiquated notion of patriotism, but simply because I am better than all of you. Better than demons, better than faith and better than gods.”
Thaddeus now rouses from the top of the ladder again and turns to face the camera.
“Nobody will defy me, England and the House of Bancroft will prevail.”
And so we fade out.
Later that Evening Harriet had snuck into the Workshop whilst Thaddeus slept, hands thinking with wire s and cogs, muttering to herself.
“I hope you can find your way home Captain, there is much to discuss, where are you Thaddeus?”
The machine clicked and whirred and illuminated her face with a green glow as the signal few out into the ether travelling among time and space to find it’s owner.
In another time, in another place where Thaddeus was slowly rousing from being unconscious a blue winged butterfly flapped it’s wings.
A storm was coming.
Well howdy there pardner.