The festivities were over. As the districts in Wrestlestock became more and more deserted, the Astro Creeps actually seemed to fit in. It was, after all, a desert. It was the perfect setting for horror. They sat around a makeshift campfire in what was their district before. Now, it was just sand. Tempest stared across at Daedalus.
"How close is the farmhouse from being finished?" he asked quietly. Daedalus exhaled loudly.
"It should be finished by the time we get back home," he replied. The fire danced in their eyes. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf howled. The four of them sat quietly for a long time. It was Pisces who spoke up.
"Do I get my own room... or do I share with Kosssssnar?" she said. She hissed his name and winked at him before spitting across the fire at his feet. Koznar lifted a single middle finger and grumbled under his breath. Daedalus and Tempest giggled.
"Depending on the state of the Labyrinth beneath it, you'll probably have your own room, my dear. Don't worry, Koznar. If the two of you are feeling frisky, she can always--"
"Shut the fuck up, D," Koznar said sharply. His eyes narrowed on Daedalus, who responded with a wink of his own. Pisces giggled, running her tongue along her lips as she squirmed in her seat.
"Oh, come now. It was just a little jab for funsies."
"Besides," Pisces giggled, "it isn't like you didn't enjoy it, you phucking phreak!"
She laughed obnoxiously and threw a hand full of sand across the fire. Some of it landed in Koznar's lap, but for the most part fell at his feet. He shook his head in annoyance.
"Don't worry, Koznar. It'll be a few weeks yet before we get back home, thanks to your boy getting tangled in the web that Bert McAlroy and Leveled Up weaved."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You naive little boy," he responded with condescension. "Are we not enough for you to consider the fact that you cannot trust anyone in this business? You think you can trust Bert McAlroy?"
Tempest thought about it for a moment, his eyes on the desert floor, and then said simply, "Yes."
Daedalus sighed and shook his head.
"I mean, he doesn't seem to be deceptive. Not like us."
"He couldn't give a shit about you, boy. His intentions are clear: he wants to embarrass you. He wants to embarrass us. In the name of the company he works for, so he can stick a flag into the ground of the Global Coalition in their name."
"So what? Since when did the Astro Creeps care about our public image? And we've never given a damn about whether or not we represent the Global Coalition with honor. What, you want us to go into this representing a company whose people spit upon us, who turn their heads and try to pretend that we don't exist? A company whose people think they're above us? Who think that we're just a dying flame on a candle that's running out of wax? The only interest they have in us is to watch us fail. Bert wants to beat me, sure. But I don't think he wants to run my name, or our names, into the ground in the process."
"I think he's kind of cute," Pisces blurted, giggling as Daedalus shot a sideways glare in her direction.
"You make good points, Tempest. But, I still wouldn't trust that he has good intentions for you. He wants to bury you. Just like JC did."
Tempest flinched at that. It had happened almost eight months ago, but it felt like years had passed since then. JC was the man... no, JC was the monster responsible for the destruction of their property. Their farmhouse... their drive-in theatre... their makeshift concession stand... their labyrinth. Their entire property had been destroyed.
"We haven't quite been the same since, have we?" Tempest said as he reflected. He glanced down at the championship belt across his lap. "I mean... I've won this, so maybe we're climbing back out of the grave he dug for us. But, we would be completely ignorant if we didn't admit that he took something away from us. He took away more than our farmhouse. He left a void in me."
"Not just him. Sloane Taylor, too. You've simply run out of play things. Well... not necessarily. There are play things for you, if you'd just open your eyes."
"Konrad Raab bores me," Tempest said. "He's not much fun."
"I'm not talking about him," Daedalus said matter-of-factly. Tempest looked up at him, squinting. Daedalus grinned. "We've got a lot to do, so I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. But, when we get back home, I'll show you what I mean."
"We have seen her fears," Pisces whispered, giggling as she stood. Daedalus joined her, stretching out.
"Let's get going. Riverdale is a long drive from here."
The others obliged, standing and following him to a white van parked near the road. They all got in and Daedalus turned the key. Glancing around, he smiled to himself.
"Oh! Can we get some fuckin' ice cream? We didn't get any at all this whole week!"
Daedalus turned around, glaring at him.
"Where in the fuck are we going to get ice cream?"
"Oh, come on, Daddy Day, there are always places to get ice cream on the road. And maybe do a little highway murdering while we're at it!"
Daedalus sighed and mumbled under his breath. Koznar stared at him knowingly from the passenger seat. Pisces and Tempest giggled in the back.
"So it's settled! Give those Astro Creeps their fuckin' marshmallow sundaes!"
"Marshmallow sundaes," Koznar growled in disgust.
"No ice cream! Fuck your marshmallow sundaes!"
"Fuck you!"
"Fuck you!"
"No, fuck you!"
"Hey!" Koznar roared. "Fuck all of you! We're not getting any fucking ice cream! Now shut the fuck up and go to sleep!"
---------------
Two Hours Later
The van rolled down the highway. Every so often, liquid dripped from beneath it. It was too dark to tell what it was, but it could be assumed that it was an oil leak. Couldn't it?
Inside the van, the Astro Creeps sat quietly. In the back, Pisces licked her ice cream cone as obnoxiously as she laughed. Tempest grinned as he took a spoonful of vanilla ice cream and marshmallow topping. Koznar sat with arm hanging out the window. Drops of blood ran down his arm to his fingertips, then dripped onto the highway. Daedalus looked around at all of them and rolled his eyes.
"Thanks Daddy Day. We knew you'd stop for us!"
"Go fuck yourself, Pisces. And stop calling me that." And then, under his breath, "Fuckin' ice cream."
---------------
Riverdale, UT
The sound of four sets of boots clicking against the shiny, freshly mopped floor could be heard. A little bit of sunlight was shining into the room’s only barred window. One chair was set with its back to the camera. There wasn’t anything special or fancy about the chair. It was just a chair, like one you might see in an interrogation room. It was difficult to say if this was one of those rooms. It could be. Or it could be a room inside an asylum. It was difficult to tell, but the atmosphere was unwelcoming.
The footsteps drew closer until all four people, three men and a woman, could be seen on camera. One of the men, with a gold plated championship belt slung over his shoulder, sat backwards in the chair, resting his chin against its back. The other three stood behind him in silence.
Daedalus, the shortest of the foursome, stood between Koznar, the humongous enforcer, and Pisces, a mysterious woman who recently seemed to appear out of nowhere… like the Dark Man himself.
Tempest was the one in the chair. Tempest was the one Bert McAlroy wanted. And Tempest was happy to oblige. He sat, petting the UGWC Cross-Hemisphere Championship, his newly earned accolade. Half of his face was painted, an ominous half-skeleton that peered out with gray-blue eyes.
“Hello Bert. This… this isn’t going to be a long, drawn out formula on how the Astro Creeps and I are going to crawl into your mind and make our nest there. For so many of my other opponents, that’s been our mantra. But you’re different… aren’t you?”
For a brief moment, he looked down at the floor, then brought his eyes back up to the camera that had been set on the tripod in front of him.
“You’ve approached me with respect. You’ve approached me with different intentions than anyone else has in the past. That alone makes you original. It makes you different from anyone else I’ve gone face to face with in over a year and a half. I feel like I can be real with you, Bert.”
Koznar stepped forward and appeared to hand Tempest a cigarette, who accepted it without looking. As he brought it to his lips, it was apparent that it wasn’t a cigarette, but a joint. He inhaled, taking it in and closing his eyes, before exhaling and gazing back into the camera.
“I’m walking into this match knowing I’m an outsider. I know I’m not welcome by most. The Astro Creeps, we’re not welcome by most. But, you welcomed us. You invited us. Well… You invited me. Koznar, Pisces, and Daedalus come with me, of course. As I said, though, you’ve nothing to worry about. They’re only here for moral support. You don’t treat me like the others do, Bert. You treat me like…”
He took another puff and held it for a long time, before exhaling.
“...like I’m human. Like I’m not inferior, or trash, or belong in the gutter. You treat me like I’m on the same level that you are. And even in the world of creeps, if you give respect… you get respect.”
He handed the joint back to Koznar, who took a puff himself.
“I know that this match is going to result in injury for me, perhaps for both of us. I also know that it won’t be done with malicious intent. Isn’t that kind of funny? We’re going to plan on hurting each other, not out of malice, but because we respect each other. We’re going to hurt each other, and we’re both going to love it so much. Then we’re going to walk away from it, regardless of who wins, with smiles on our faces. Don’t get me wrong, Bert, I want to win this match. I want to win this match, maybe more than I’ve ever wanted to win a match. I know you won’t take it this way, but if so, I beg you not to mistake my respect for weakness. I’m sure you won’t, though, will you? You can decipher between the two, unlike some of my… unfortunate opponents in the past.”
He smiled then, a genuine, creepy, knowing smile.
“And I know that you won’t be taking me lightly, either. I know that you’d love nothing more than to take down the monster that haunts the Global Coalition. It would be something for you to brag about. Bert McAlroy tames the monster, Tempest, in a Drive-In Theatre. The title is catchy, isn’t it?”
He nodded, smiling, then his smile faded.
“I prefer a different headline, though. Tempest wreaks havoc on Level Up, pulls Bert McAlroy into purgatory. McAlroy embraces the genetic manipulation, the Astro Creeps spread across multiple wrestling companies.”
He stared into the camera for a long time.
“I think you know what I’m hoping for. The fact is, Bert McAlroy, we’re both freaks. Outsiders. Creeps, if you want to call us that. Psychos, some might say. I would love nothing more than you to become one of us, and who knows? From time to time, you’d have a place to stay at our recently refurbished farmhouse, in Gnaw Bone, Indiana. Think about it Bert. We could haunt the business… together.”
He began to snicker, but stopped abruptly, a thought coming to him suddenly.
“Ohh. Speaking of Astro Creeps… Ragdoll. We’ll be watching you closely, beautiful creature. As long as we’re recruiting, we may as well extend an offer to a bird of the same feather, am I right?”
He giggled, his feet tapping the floor with joy.
“I’ve one request, Bert McAlroy. We’ve got this match, one on one, at this drive-in… why don’t you show me something I’ve not seen before? Why don’t you hurt me in ways I’ve never been hurt before? And I’ll return the favor. This is going to be bloody… this is going to be obscene… and this is going to be intended… for mature audiences. I look forward to seeing you, Bert. I look forward to hurting you… and for you hurting me.”
He stood from the chair and walked away, smiling. The Astro Creeps followed.