Out in the New Mexico desert, Gabriel Tuck lies next to a small campfire. He’s using his leather jacket as a pillow as he slumbers beneath the night sky. As he sleeps, footsteps disturb the camp as an intruder walks through. Gabriel instantly wakes, grabbing the heavy revolver by his head and pointing it at the intruder.
The intruder puts up his hands in a defensive motion and a blue light catches Gabriel’s eye.
Jeremiah Vastrix.
Gabriel Tuck - What the fuck, man? I nearly shot you!
Jeremiah just shrugs with a smirk.
Jeremiah Vastrix - You would have tried. I have good reflexes.
Gabriel sits up and shakes his head.
Gabriel Tuck - Why are you here? How are you here? It’s not like I’m at a hotel or told anyone where I am.
Jeremiah Vastrix - I thought we could travel together since you said you would get me in touch with Rob Riot. As to how? Dude, I have access to the most sophisticated satellite tracking system in the world! Finding you was easy.
Gabriel Tuck - So you went to people to track me down?
Jeremiah taps the side of his head with the cybernetic eye.
Jeremiah Vstrix - A small part of my brain was replaced. I have remote access to a lot of Warhammer systems. So, I didn’t go to anyone to find you.
Gabriel Tuck - Great. Grab that cooler by the chair and bring it over.
Jeremiah walks over to the fold up patio chair and grabs the cooler sitting next to it so that he can bring it to Gabriel, who grabs out two beers. He hands one to Jeremiah and pops the one he has open to take a slug from it.
Jeremiah looks at the beer and shrugs before opening it up and taking a drink.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Not bad stuff. Utter Brushit beer?
Gabriel Tuck - Yeah, Billy Fowler, who used to be with the Bastards, produces it.
Jeremih takes another draught from the bottle and smiles.
Jeremiah Vastrix - I normally go in for the fru-fru drinks, but this is pretty good.
Gabriel Tuck - Well, that’s all we got. What time is it?
Gabriel looks at his watch and sighs.
Gabriel Tuck - Three in the fucking morning? You couldn’t have waited a few more hours to wake me?
Jeremiah Vastrix - No. In fact, I’d like you to break camp and come into town with me to the hotel I have reserved for us so we can have breakfast and then find out where Rob Riot is.
Gabriel Tuck - How did you get here?
Gabriel looks around and then sees the limo that’s waiting by the road.
Gabriel Tuck - Jesus. A limo? You couldn’t have driven yourself?
Jeremiah Vastrix - Myself? Dude, I don’t drive. I’ve never had to.
Gabriel Tuck - Spoiled rich kid, I forgot.
Jeremiah finishes his beer and puts the empty back into the cooler with the other empties.
Jeremiah Vastrix - The youngest son of a paranoid business leader. You know I had two elder siblings? They’re both dead. Was Daddy involved in their deaths? I can’t prove it, but I feel it is so.
Gabriel Tuck - A murderous paranoid father. Have you met Armand von Krauss?
Jeremiah laughs.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Of course, I have. Let me help you break camp.
Gabriel nods as Jeremiah motions to the limo, the driver gets out and starts packing up things to put into the trunk of the limo. Gabriel watches curiously before he turns away and faces the slowly dying campfire so that he can pee on it to put it out. He then kicks sand onto it to make sure that it’s out.
In a few short moments, everything is packed away and Gabriel gets onto his motorcycle with Jeremiah standing by him.
Gabriel Tuck - I’ll follow you to the hotel.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Sounds like a plan, my man.
Jeremiah gets into the back of the limo and the limo begins going down the road with Gabriel Tuck not far behind them on his motorcycle.
They are driving for about ten minutes when several motorcycles and a jeep pull behind them. Gabriel glances back, seeing that they are armed. A man in the back seat of the unroofed jeep stands up with a light rocket launcher and prepares to take aim. Gabriel unclips the holster to his heavy revolver
Gabriel Tuck - This can’t be fucking good. I hope you’re doing something, Jeremiah!
The limo speeds up, leaving Gabriel behind. He sighs.
Gabriel Tuck - That’s something.
Gabriel pulls his heavy revolver with one hand and glances back at the jeep and fires without a lot of time aiming while the man standing in the jeep fires the rocket, aiming for the limo. Gabriel’s shot intercepts the rocket, causing an explosion that wipes out two of the four bikers. The man in the jeep ducks back down, presumably to reload. The remaining two bikers pull out their own sidearms and begin to open fire.
Gabriel Tuck - Fuck!
Gabriel ducks down to try to make himself smaller on the bike and then hits the brakes. One of the bikers nearly rear-ends him, coming along the side of him where Gabriel elbows him in the throat to take him off the bike…and crushing his throat.
The other biker and the jeep streak by and Gabriel puts on the gas again to catch up. The other biker drops back, but Gabriel is ready with a small iron rod that he pulls out of a long pocket along his calf and throws it in the back spokes. The iron rod catches and stops the tire, forcing the biker to be up-ended onto his back with the bike slamming on top of him.
Gabriel Tuck - Fuck you, that’s what we’re talking about.
The man in the back of the jeep begins to stand up again with the rocket launcher, but this time he is joined by a second man with a handgun who points it at Gabriel and fires. Gabriel swerves, avoiding the shot. He hits the gas again and begins to stand up on the bike as it slams into the back of the jeep so that Gabriel can leap into a drop kick to the man with the handgun to knock him from the jeep with a scream.
The man with the rocket launcher spins around to try to smack Gabriel with the weapon, but Gabriel ducks under the launcher and drills the man in the nuts with a punch using the heavy revolver that he follows with a single shot directed up from the crotch. The round goes through the man’s body, bursting out the top of his skull. The man falls from the jeep, but Gabriel catches the weapon. He looks back to see that there are two more jeeps and four more bikers.
The driver screams as he continues to make progress in catching up with the limo, though he has no remaining allies in the jeep with him.
Driver - Get out!
Gabriel Tuck - Drive or I shoot you in the head!
The two jeeps behind Gabriel have men standing up in the back with light rocket launchers. He reaches back and smacks the seat of the driver.
Gabriel Tuck - Drive faster or else you might be in a million pieces.
Driver - My allies wouldn’t - oh fuck!
Gabriel takes aim while the two rocket launcher-armed men take aim.
Gabriel Tuck - I hope you mother fuckers can’t drive!
As the men get ready to fire, Gabriel shoots his gun. He hits the passenger side front tire of the jeep to the left of the other so that it instantly swerves into swimming into the other jeep. Both rockets are launched. One at Gabriel and one directly into the other jeep so that both explode along with taking out two bikers in the wreck.
The other rocket slams into the ground to the right of the jeep causing the jeep to go up onto the left wheels and nearly topple over. Gabriel and the driver both scream with Gabriel throwing himself to the right side of the jeep to get it back down on all four wheels.
Gabriel gathers himself back up and looks out the back of the jeep to see that the two remaining bikers are catching up to them.
Gabriel Tuck - Your fucking friends are catching up, mother fucker. Can’t this piece of shit go any faster?
Driver - Not if you want it to stay in one piece!
Gabriel Tuck - Don’t worry about it. I got this.
He looks down to see where his gun has gone, only to see that he does not have it from when the jeep was nearly up-ended. With seconds to spare before the bikers pull up to either side of the jeep, Gabriel grabs the one weapon he does have.
The Rocket Launcher.
He pops a rocket in and stands up, aiming the rocket to behind the jeep where the bikers were, only they are not there. They are one either side of the jeep with weapons drawn.
Gabriel Tuck - This isn’t going to feel good.
Gabriel points the rocket at the biker to the right of the jeep and fires. The rocket catches the biker in the chest but does not explode on impact. It takes him off of the bike and he’s a good distance behind the jeep when the rocket explodes. Gabriel feels a sharp pain in his back as he is shot from behind by the biker on the left side of the jeep. He spins around to face the biker with a sidearm out.
Gabriel Tuck - Fucking fuck fuck fuck! Welp, this is gonna hurt some more.
The biker shoots again, but this time he misses and strikes the driver of the jeep in the back of the head. Gabriel Tuck leaps from the back of the jeep, spears the biker out of his bike and uses him as a makeshift sled as they skid and tumble along the pavement at at high speed.
Gabriel Tuck lies on his back in the middle of the road, bodies, and wreckage strewn across several miles of lonely stretch of highway. He feels warmth as the bullet wound that went through his side from the back bleeds onto the pavement.
Gabriel Tuck - That was a fine how do you do.
It isn’t long before Gabriel looks up to see Jeremiah Vastrix standing over him with the limo not far.
Jeremiah Vastrix - How are you still alive?
Gabriel tries to lift his head up off of the pavement but fails.
Gabriel Tuck - Fuck you and fuck your little assassin team too.
Jeremiah fades to black as Gabriel passes out.
Gabriel opens his eyes and looks around to see that he’s in a hospital bed. He looks around and sees Jeremiah Vastrix sitting next to him in a chair. He starts to sit up, but stops when he feels the pain in his side. Jeremiah looks at him and grins.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Hey, you’re up. The Doctors don’t know how it is that you are still alive. It boggles the mind how you don’t have any broken bones after the shit you pulled against that kill squad.
Gabrel just shrugs and winces. He looks down to see that his midsection is bandaged to cover his gunshot wound. He also has a number of other bandages and stitches across his body from scrapes and cuts from when he rolled on the pavement in taking out the last guy.
Gabriel Tuck - That’s nothing. Armand threw me off a bridge and onto a moving freight train once. I survived it too.
Jeremiah Vastrix - See, that’s not right. You should have died then too. That’s why I have brought something to experiment.
Gabriel Tuck - Experiment? What kind of-
Jeremiah brandishes a hammer that he brings down against Gabriel’s bare shin as hard as he can.
Gabriel Tuck - MOTHER FUCKER!
Jeremiah points to the bleeding bruise that is quickly forming.
Jeremiah Vastrix - See? No broken bones.
Gabriel clutches at his shin with both hands, blood trickling through his fingers.
Gabriel Tuck - You could have just fucking told me instead of fucking hitting me, you asshole!
Jeremiah grabs the call button and presses it. A nurse’s voice comes into the room.
Nurse - May I help you?
Jeremiah Vastrix - Gabriel is awake…and bleeding.
Nurse - Bleeding? We will be right there!
After some more stitches, X-Rays, and an almost call to the police, Jeremiah Vastrix is alone in the room with Gabriel Tuck again.
Jeremiah Vastrix - You wondered why you never transformed into a freak. That’s why. You have unbreakable bones. Which is how you dropped back and elbowed that biker without breaking every bone in your arm.
Gabriel just grins and actually blushes.
Gabriel Tuck - You saw that? I was just taking them down however I can.
Jeremiah Vastrix - You did that very well. Thank you for the help. So, in the end,you are a Freak.
Gabriel just grins.
Gabriel Tuck - Nah, man. I side with the clowns.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Well? You know where your loyalties are.
Gabriel Tuck - I do. Sticky the Clown, Hehehe, Hahaha, and the other clowns raised me better than Armand and Esmeralda did. They studied me. Maybe they knew that I had transformed in less visible ways. Maybe they didn’t. Doesn’t matter the whys and where fors now that we stand on opposite sides of the battlefield. You don’t want your father gone, but sometimes it becomes what’s right. What’s needed.
Jeremiah’s blue cybernetic eye dims a little as processing power is being used elsewhere. Once it brightens, he looks at Gabriel with a sad smile.
Jeremiah Vastrix - I think you are right, but one battle at time, my friend. Are you wanting to cut a promo for the CWF? I have your phone charged and sitting over here by the bed.
Gabriel Tuck - Yeah, I would like that a lot. Can you hold the phone after I set up FaceTwatter Live?
Jeremiah Vastrix - Yep.
Gabriel is handed the phone and he unlocks it, turning on FaceTwatter Live before handing the phone back to Jeremiah for him to be able to hold the phone to keep Gabrel in view. Gabriel smiles and waves at the camera.
Gabriel Tuck - Hi, Kara. How are you dong in preparing for me to come and kick your butt? An “I Quit” match? You know that neither of us will want to quit, but I suppose that’s the point. We aim to inflict as much pain on one another so tht we will give up…or pass out. I suppose I should bone up on some submission techniques. Jeremiah, you know many submission techniques to be able to get a woman to give up?
Jeremiah Vastrix - I’m God’s Gift to Women, Gabe. Of course I know some techniques, though I don’t know that they would be good in a wrestling ring.
Gabriel blinks in confusion before he connects the dots.
Gabriel Tuck - No, I misspoke. Kara and I are fighting and not fucking. Do you know any submission techniques that you can share with me?
Jeremiah Vastix - I do! We’ll hit the practice ring once you are better.
Gabriel Tuck - Just bring supplies to stitch me back up. We don’t have the time to wait until I am better to prepare.I won’t technically be “better” by the match.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Very well. You know you just gave her an avenue by which to hurt you.
Gabriel moves the hospital gown to reveal lightly red dressings around his waist.
Gabriel Tuck - So, a kill team from somewhere was sent after Jeremiah Vastrix and I stopped them, but I was shot during the fight. Now, I’m not gonna die or anything, but Jeremiah is right. You can hurt me through this wound that went through me. Happens. I’m not a submission specialist,but I’m going to try to learn as many as I can to be able to put the hurting to you to be able to get you to quit so that I can win the CWF Elite championship.
Gabriel coughs and his hand flies to his side as he winces in pain.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Are you sure that you’re going to be able to wrestle?
Gabriel Tuck - Tell them to throw me a bag of B positive and I should be right as rain.
Jeremiah Vastrix - You drink blood?
Gabriel Tuck - No. I’m just saying I might be low and could use a transfer. I suppose blood tests would sort that out.
Jeremiah Vastrix - Right. We’ll call the nurse right after this.
Gabriel Tuck - Now, you ask why it is that I thought that you weren’t human? I suppose after watching your matches that you could be a marvel of German engineering. Those androids in the Dragonball Z Saga were also partly human. Heck, Eighteen has a kid I think. So, you could be an android. Which by nerd speak I guess would really make you a cyborg? I don’t really know the difference. I know it will be an uphill battle for me to take you down, but you know I’m going to give my all.
By the end of the day, it will be just you and me. My clowns won’t get involved. Half of them went back to Armand anyway since that’s all they knew. I assure you that my other allies that I have made recently also will not get involved. It benefits them if I can pull my own weight. I guess that will see you in the ring and see where we go from there. You won’t go down easy, but mark my words. You will go down.
Jeremiah Vastrix - I thought you said this wasn’t sexual?
Gabriel Tuck - Damn it! Just cut…
The scene fades to black as Jeremiah cuts the feed.
