Chances, Part 3: Pain and Memories

[Rick Mad]

Chances, Part 3
Pain and Memories, Chapter 1

A door creaks open. We're at what appears to be an abandoned arena. There is still a ring set up in the middle, but it is dirty and there are several cobwebs. The same could actually be said about the rest of the building; while the seats have mostly all been removed, what is still left has obviously not been touched in years. From the open door steps Rick Mad, and behind him, Mr Hardkore. Kore is wearing a bloodstained pair of wrestling tights, and still has his head bandaged. Rick is also wearing his wrestling gear.

Rick Mad: Ugh. It STINKS in here.

Mr. Hardkore: Yeah it does. Worse than it used to, even. Thank God we walked here in our wrestling gear instead of changing here, I don't even want to see what those locker rooms look like.

Rick Mad: And thank God I'm not going back to my XCW Naked Madeon gimmick, I'd probably get a few VDs just by hitting that mat.

Mr. Hardkore: Ahah, Naked Madeon. Those were good times... good times.

Kore smiles and looks Rick over as he says this. Rick gets noticably uncomfortable but decides to ignore it. The two men head to the ring. Kore has a duffelbag which seems to be pretty heavy, but its zipped up and we can't see what's inside. The two enter the ring.

Rick Mad: And hey, did you catch what Corey Black had to say the other day?

Mr. Hardkore: No. Did you?

Rick Mad: Yeah.

Mr. Hardkore: How?

Rick Mad: I saw it on TV.

Mr. Hardkore: No, I saw Slam. Didn't hear Corey mention you, though.

Rick Mad: It wasn't on Slam. It was after that.

Mr. Hardkore: But WCF only has that one show!

Rick Mad: Hey, wait a minute. You're right. How DID I hear what Corey said?

Rick thinks about it for a second.

Rick Mad: Well this doesn't make any sense, but I'm going to not worry about it for now. The point is, Corey was talking to Nikki Venus. He starts off with this comment, "What does he think this is, 2003?" or something like that.

Mr. Hardkore: To be fair, that IS probably the last time you were relevant.

Rick Mad: It was six years ago!

Mr. Hardkore: Yeah....

Kore whistles innocently.

Rick Mad: Ugh, okay. Fine. Maybe he's right. But good, that'll make it all the better when I defeat him. Besides that, he insulted XCW! Brought up Death Weed and Gonz0..

Mr. Hardkore: Well, we WERE talking about your Naked Madeon gimmick earlier, so I mean.... and yeah, Death Weed WAS pretty horrible. At least he didn't bring up Tekdude.

Rick Mad: You leave Tekdude out of this. He was a close personal friend of mine.

Mr. Hardkore: Okay, okay. I'm just saying maybe he wasn't really all that off track with what he said.

Rick Mad: Okay, fine. Maybe you're right. Though still, besides the sillyness, it was a big part of my career.....

Chances, Part 3
Pain and Memories, Chapter 2

Rick Mad: Admittedly, XCW was a strange place. When I first joined I was part of the ill-fated WCW Faction, which Kore, I'm sure you remember. We were aligned based on the fact that we all loved the old WCW, though we were definitely in the minority. Once that was over, I was also a member of the Jibba Jabba Faction. That was also ill-fated, as most things named after Jibba Jabba are. But besides these factions, what matters was that I was able to win the XCW World Title from The Sandman. Not the ECW Sandman, mind you, a different Sandman. It was a World Title Triple Cage match. I remember it like it was yesterday...

Mad takes Sandman, and runs his head into the Cage. Sandman bounces off, and does a backwards roll. Rick climbs up the Cage, followed closely by Sandman. The two make it to the top of the third and final Cage, and begin the punching. Sandman takes the upper hand, and kicks Rick in the gut. Sandman hooks Rick in ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’, and leaps off the third Cage, down about 22 feet, to the top of the first Cage, and lands it!! Sandman bounces off the Cage like a super ball, and lands on his face.

Another few moments pass, and Sandman climbs up to the top of the third Cage once again... but Rick Mad comes out of nowhere and pushes Sandman off the third Cage, down to the top of the second. Rick grabs the Title!

Rick Mad: Oh, it was glorious, as being a World Champion is always glorious. But all things must end, all things must die. And my death came when I faced... Death himself.

Rick is down, but manages to again roll out of the ring. Death follows him, and grapples him from behind. Rick counters the grapple, though, and gets himself behind Death. He then executes a German Suplex, on the concrete! Death looks hurt, and Mad rolls him back into the ring. He then rolls over on top of him, making a pin.. 1. 2. NO!! Death, even after being German Suplexed on the outside, kicks out! He is showing tremendous heart, and Rick is again frustrated. He runs to the ropes and comes back, and attempts a Legdrop, but Death rolls away. Rick stands up...

And Death hits him with the Tombstone!!! He pins Rick. 1... 2.... 3? No. Rick got his foot on the ropes. Death stands up, thinking he is victorious, but the ref points out that Rick had his foot in the rope. Death swears under his breath, and goes back to Rick, who is beginning to stand... And hits Rick with ANOTHER Tombstone! He pins Rick, and becomes the NEW XCW World Champion!

Rick Mad: Death was a NOBODY and he was able to beat me. I don't think I ever quite bounced back from it, though it DID prepare me for my eventual huge string of losses to nobodies. And as I heard in a movie or something one time, "without the bitter, the sweet ain't as sweet."

Mr. Hardkore: That's from Vanilla Sky.

Rick Mad: Yeah, that's right. Anyway, the rest of my XCW stay was not super memorable. The loss to Death killed all my momentum, and although I did become XCW King of the Deathmatch, it was never quite the same. I even ended up running the place for a little bit, which was alright. I'm no Seth Lerch-

Rick winks at the camera.

Rick Mad: -but that was fun.

Mr. Hardkore: That's all well and good, but enough. The past doesn't matter, Rick. What matters is the right now, and you have work to do, and I have pain to inflict.

Kore unzips his bag, revealing a number of items. The top of which is a barbed wire 2x4. Rick swallows, nervous.

Rick Mad: You're right. Let's do this.

Chances, Part 3
Pain and Memories, Chapter 3

Kore pulls the barbed wire 2x4 out of the bag.

Mr. Hardkore: You're sure about this?

Rick Mad: Positive.

And with that, Kore swings the 2x4, hitting Rick in the side of the head. Rick yells and falls down, the barbed wire pulling a large amount of hair out from his head. Rick stands backs up, turns his back to Kore and puts his hands on the ring ropes.

Rick Mad: Again.

And again, Kore swings. This time he hits Mad directly in his back. Rick yells, but Kore swings again. And again. Kore pounds Rick from behind, harder and harder each time. Er, okay, let me rephrase that: Kore hits Rick's back with the barbed wire 2x4 over and over, increasing the strength of the hit each time. There, that's better. But eventually Rick signals Kore to stop. Rick's tanktop is torn up from the barbed wire and he has several cuts, with blood beginning to run through.

Rick Mad: Next.

This time, Kore pulls out a pair of iron knuckles and slips them on his hand. Rick stands, readying himself for the shot... and BAM!, Kore nails Rick right in the face. Rick drops like a sack of potatoes, hitting the mat hard.

Mr. Hardkore: GET UP!

Rick slowly begins getting to his feet, but as he's almost up, Kore punches him again in the head. Hard. Rick drops again.

Mr. Hardkore: I SAID GET UP!

Again, Mad starts getting up. Kore goes to punch him again, but this time Rick rolls out of the way, avoiding it. Kore goes for another shot, again Rick avoids it. Rick gets to his feet, Kore attacks again, Rick catches his blow and puts him in a Hammerlock.

Mr. Hardkore: Okay, okay. You pass this one.

Rick Mad: What's next?

Mr. Hardkore: This.

With that, Kore proceeds to spit a green mist into Rick's face. Rick again screams, and Kore hits a forearm to Rick's back.

Mr. Hardkore: What's wrong? Can't see? Work through it!

Kore hits Rick again. And again. This time, Rick is somehow able to dodge Kore's attack. Kore keeps going on the attack, but Rick keeps avoiding his attacks. For a second, Kore grabs something else out of his bag. Its a small little bag, but Kore opens it up and starts spilling tacks. He keeps trying to attack Rick, but as he does seems to lead him over to where he spilled the tacks. Eventually Kore grabs him, ready to throw him into the tacks... but as Kore goes to throw him, Rick catches a ring rope and uses it to avoid landing in the tacks, despite not being able to see them.

Mr. Hardkore: Good. You knew the tacks were there just by instinct.

Kore stops his attack and now pulls out a bottle of water and a rag from his bag. He lets Rick clean off his eyes.

Rick Mad: Damn. This shit still burns.

Mr. Hardkore: Deal with it. I have one more lesson for you.

Now, Kore pulls out a light tube.

Rick Mad: I knew that was coming.

Mr. Hardkore: Odds are, at XII, you're going to go through a whole cabin of these. So you have to be prepared.

Kore swings, hitting Rick square in the head with the light tube! Rick stumbles back... but manages to stay on his feet.

Mr. Hardkore: Very good. Rick, I lied. There is actually one more test you must pass.

Kore looks at his watch.

Mr. Hardkore: This ring is going to explode in three seconds.

Mad's eyes go wide and he dives out of the ring. However, after three seconds, nothing happens.

Mr. Hardkore: Nah I was just fucking with you. You pass.

Rick, looking annoyed, gets back in the ring.

Rick Mad: You're a crazy bastard, I thought you might've wanted to prepare me for an exploding ring or something, I could believe it coming from you. But thanks for the help.

Mr. Hardkore: No problem. I really think you're ready for whatever Corey has to throw at you.

Rick nods and puts out his hand to shake Kore's. Kore obliges him.

Mr. Hardkore: Now, about that job you said you might be able to get me-

Rick pulls Kore in, kicking him and then hitting a Mad DDT onto the tacks! Kore yells in pain and Rick quickly gets up.

Rick Mad: Yeah, I was lying. I've never liked you, you son of a bitch. Here's my lesson to you: don't trust anyone, especially me. You'll just get hurt in the end.

With that, Rick rolls out of the ring, walking towards the exit. He opens the door and leaves the smelly, dirty old XCW arena behind him.

Chances, Part 3
Pain and Memories, Chapter 4

Rick is met outside the XCW arena by Torture. Rick slaps Torture's hand and the two begin walking down the sidewalk. They get a lot of weird glances from people who see Rick's face covered in green goo and his back bleeding.

Rick Mad: The plan went perfectly.

Torture: Hahah, that's great. He really thought you'd get him a job?

Rick Mad: Yeah! What a sucker. He never saw the Mad DDT coming.

Torture: Good. Rick, you're important to me, I need you to be ready for this. Not too long after you fight Corey Black, I'm going to be getting into the ring with him at Till Death Do Us Part. I want you to soften him up for me. Hell, I want you to win the whole Death Match tournament, and we can have a nice respectful match for the World Title next month.

Rick Mad: You know as well as I do we'd both be fighting tooth and nail if that happened, Tort. We're the bad guys.

Torture: Haha, yeah, you're right. But Rick, we're friends and I want to see you win this. I want my group to be a group of winners, and I want us to come out of XIII looking like the gold that we are. Me beating Gravedigger, you beating Corey Black and all the other guys you have to fight.

Rick Mad: I haven't even given them much thought, actually. They're nothing to me. Kevin Hardaway? Like Corey mentioned, he's just doing this for a paycheck. He's not competition. Johnny Craven could be a problem, he was a former Hardcore Champ and he'll be well rested. I don't think he's in my league, though. Ryan Daniels and Shaun Wilson are relative unknowns to me... I know Daniels made a big name in GWC but eh, we'll see. And as for Logan... I know Seth has been training him lately, but the dude didn't even know what he was getting into when he signed up. If I get to fight him it would have to be in the finals, and Rick Mad vs Logan sounds like a perfect final match to me. And I'll finish what I started at Rebirth. I'll beat Logan, one on one, and claim my title as the WCF King of the Deathmatch.

Torture: Good to hear, man. Good to hear.

The two men stop at a car.

Torture: Look, I gotta get going, this is my ride. I'll see you at XIII okay?

Rick Mad: Huh? I thought we were going back to your place to chill for a bit.

Torture: Nah, well we were, but... there's someone else that wants some of your time, so I said I'd let them have you instead. Take it easy.

Rick Mad: Wait, what?

But it's too late. Torture gets in his car and proceeds to drive away, leaving Rick alone.

Rick Mad: What now?

Rick shrugs and keeps walking down the sidewalk, though soon another car pulls up next to him. He looks at the driver, who rolls down the window.

Danita: Hey, Rick. I thought we could talk.

Rick smiles, happily surprised. He runs around to the passenger side and gets in.

Rick Mad: At the start of this, I didn't really know how things would turn out. But... I think I have a chance after all.

And with that, the car speeds down the road. The scene fades to black.