A Years Reflection
The scene comes into focus to reveal the MWA arena from the outside, with a large crowd outside. Large hordes of MWA and GOW fans are crowded around a smaller, but more menacing crowd of sports reporters and slack-jawed tabloid journalists. The buzz has been created by the upcoming MWA wrestling event, and everyone is watching the wrestlers.
As a limo pulls up, a parking attendant in a tuxedo walks up and opens the door, allowing an excited Elijah Archer to bound out of his vehicle and please the crowd with a usual myriad of cursing and drunken antics. Rhino climbs out of the vehicle slowly behind him, telling Elijah he needs serious help before marching into the arena in an all-business fashion.
The limo pulls away, allowing a taxi to pull up to the carpet. Fans and journalists alike look puzzled, but not as puzzled as Archer as his facial expression melts into a dumbfounded look.
Elijah struggles for a moment, but finds the words "Holy Fuck! No way some deushbag new guy showed up in a friggin taxi! I can't wait to see who this loser is..." finally. He turns to look for Rhino, but realizes he's already gone inside.
As the attendant opens the back door of the taxi, Cernaek Routh can be seen stepping out, wearing a jet black sweatband to hide the tips of his ears from the glaring eyes of the public. His outfit is nothing spectacular for his first appearance in MWA. A blue-grey muscle shirt covers his torso, while standard jet black officers pants and officers boots can be seen on the lower half of him. He looks around, noting all the attention his arrival has caused. His green eyes lock when they see Elijah however, instinct telling him to watch the man. He strokes his red beard in thought for a moment as he eyes Elijah.
Elijah, staring right back at Cernaek, laughs hysterically. "Well look what we have here... you ain't gonna last five minutes in this league fucker! Do you even know how to wrestle!? How about I welcome your sorry ass to the league with a Hero's Arrow for everyone to see!!" he exclaims, starting at Cernaek with a run after he stops talking.
Cernaek just stands, calmly, as Elijah approaches. Elijah grapples with Cernaek when he reaches him, but Cernaek easily breaks his grip and lifts Elijah up over his head. Elijah frantically kicks, shocked that this newbie can lift him so easily. Cernaek has Elijah directly over his head, lying on his back. Elijah tries to grab Cernaek's shirt as he gets thrown towards the door of the arena, however he misses, ripping the bandanna off Cernaeks ears. Elijah flies through the air a good 15 feet, before bouncing once and rolling most of the way to the door.
Elijah, stunned by the power he just witnessed, looks up from the ground to see Cernaek with no bandanna. His eyes fall on the pointed ears quite quickly, and he mutters "Space Charlie..." to himself as he stares in disbelief.
Cernaek is now panicing himself, realizing that everyone can see his very non-human ears. He backs away from the carpet, and darts down an alleyway. He pages Julie with his communicator when he is in the darkest part of the alley.
"Julie, emergency beamout... energize!" he says in a frantic whisper, and pauses to look back up the alley.
[The scene zooms and focuses on Elijah Archer as he runs to the end of the alleyway, stopping when he sees Cernaek crouched at the opposite end, talking to his chest. His eyes widen as blue sparks begin appearing around the half-vulcan, speeding up their movement and intensifying their brightness. Within seconds, Cernaek disappears, and a very shocked Elijah Archer stares in disbelief.]
Elijah just mutters "Rhino's never going to believe this..." to himself as others run up behind him, staring at the now empty alleyway he is staring at. Very few people seem to have even noticed or cared that Cernaek had pointed ears, what they did notice is that he lifted Elijah and tossed him like he was an 8 year old boy.
[The scene fades out as Elijah is bombarded with questions. As it fades back in we see Cernaek re-materializing at his base camp with Julie operating the transporter from the rear of the shuttlecraft. Their camp is still very stark, featuring the shuttlecraft and a small work shelter in which a variety of devices seem to be being built slowly. As Cernaek re-materializes Julie stands from the controls and heads in his direction.]
Julie looks puzzled as she approaches the commander. "Sir, that was either the shortest match in history.. or you never made it." she says rather bluntly.
Cernaek just shakes his head as he stands back up from the crouching position he was beamed in. He makes a motion to his exposed ears as he says, "Got into a tiff on the way into the arena.. that Archer character decided he was going to show off for the fans. I threw him back, but he took my headband with him... I had to get out of there quickly."
Julie ponders that for a moment before responding with "I suppose the media was everywhere too... GOW and MWA may be a bit to mainstream for you to start out in."
The commander nods his head in agreement. "Aye lieutenant, my thoughts exactly. I have no background story, and a 'deformity' that would bring up two many questions unless we work something out. Maybe I should start out in a smaller wrestling organization, and build a small career. We won't be able to afford the more expensive items we require for a year or so, but we can work on our shelter and increase our comfort level a bit in the meantime."
Cernaek walks over to a GOW poster and looks at the visage of Elijah Archer displayed on it. "We'll come back to GOW when we're ready." he says as his face becomes sombre, he adds "We also have a small issue.." He pauses before pointing to Archer and saying "He saw me, not only did he see my ears... he watched my beamout. Although no one else saw it and people will think he's crazy... he worries me."
The lieutenant just hums at this thoughtfully, twisting a bit of her long blonde hair in her hand as she ponders. She says nothing though, not sure of what to suggest.
[The scene blurs like a memory losing focus as the scene fades to black. The scene stays black for a moment before a new picture begins to blur into focus. Once again at the bottom of the screen the same stark white text appears, this time saying "Six Months ago..." ]
The scene focuses on a ring, revealing Cernaek wrestling some no-name wrestler in a minor wrestling fed, the likes of which is lucky to last six months in the cut-throat business of sports entertainment. The announcer can be heard as Cernaek easily throws his opponent across the ring into the ropes. He runs at his opponent, lifting him onto his shoulder, and executing the now famous 'V' cracker. The call of the announcer confirms what everyone already knew... Cernaeks opponent was finished.
Cernaek raises his hand in the traditional Vulcan salute, which his fans know only as the victory salute, as he walks around the ring posing, and allowing the crowd to get their fill. He's improved at the showboat routine over the last few months, building a name and a fan base for himself. No one cares about his pointed ears any-more, in fact most are under the belief that they are made of make-up and put on just for the show.
After returning to the change rooms, Cernaek finds a private location and requests a beamout from Julie, and dematerializes as he leaves the arena.
[ Quick scene change, fading from the change room to the camp in the mountains of BC. The camp is much more developed now. The shuttlecraft is housed in a garage, which is attached to a two floor log cabin that has been built over the last few months. The camp now looks like a property. The camera does a flyby into the main window of the first floor, revealing the living room and Julie stationed at what appears to be a computer desk. They have disguised their equipment to look like commonly found household items, however the transporter controls can be seen on one of the two flatpanel monitors Julie is sitting in front of. Cernaek begins to materialize in the centre of the room as Julie switches back to the screen she was working on. ]
Julie looks up from her computer when Cernaek finishes materializing. "Well champ, how was the match." she inquires, seeming to already know the answer.
Cernaek grins as he responds, "Too easy... again." He pauses as he grabs a water bottle he left on the table and has a drink. He then looks at the screen Julie is working on. "How is it going?" he asks intently.
Julie sighs a little as she looks back to the screen. "Making progress..." she replies, "Very slow progress." She pauses and takes a deep breath before continuing. "Ok, I've managed to recover the damaged memory modules from our rather rough landing 7 months ago. I'm piecing the information back together. Now I did find this, which is rather interesting.." she says, bringing up an image from scans the shuttle was taking when they were approaching Earth on their arrival day. The image shows the complex of Elijah Archer, complete with a smouldering crater from the dish impact, and all the windows blown out of the house. The skid mark from half the car can also be seen in the nearby field.
Cernaek raises a brow sharply as he sees the screen. "That's a hell of an impact... how is it this never made the news? That looks like the house of a rather wealthy person."
Julies face is just as bewildered as she responds. "I don't know sir, but all my searches of the internet and news articles reveal no mention of this ever happening. It was covered up. Now I have managed to figure out how to hack into the global satellite system so we can visually scan the surface, however I can stay in for longer than a minute without being detected.. that's still a work in progress..."
Cernaek ponders further as he muses, "I wonder who owns that house....."
[ The camera pans behind them and zooms in on the picture of Archers destroyed complex, and the scene blurs and fades once more. Once again as the scene fades back in, stark white text appears at the bottom of the screen, saying "One month ago..."]
The scene focuses on Julie working on the computer as Cernaek walks into the living room from the weight room on the west side of the building. He takes a sip of his water before looking to Julie and asking, "Well.. how goes the battle?"
Julie turns to him with a smile, "I won. I've been tied into the sattelite network for an hour now, and no detection. I'm currently bringing up the coordinates for the crash site." she says as she presses a few keys. The monitor displays the complex again, this time completely fixed and with no signs of the impact from a year previous.
Cernaek looks at the screen thoughtfully as he says, "Not only did the impact never make the news, but someone did a damn good job of hiding the fact that it ever happened... curious." He notices movement in the field beside the complex, seeing two people. One is just standing there, while the other seems to be running around, causing small explosions.
The commander notices the commotion and motions for Julie to zoom in on the scene. As the view enlarges, it can be seen that the person running around has a bow and arrow, and is firing explosive arrows at a ground hog he's chasing. The person looks up and appears to yell as he misses the groundhog once more. Cernaek speaks up at this point, "Hold image and zoom in on his face. I want to know who went to such great lengths to cover up that explosion."
Julie's fingers fly across the keyboard as she locks into the mans face and zooms in. As she does so, her jaw drops a little when she realizes who it is. "I'll send in that re-application for GOW right away sir." she says, getting up to grab the forms from another room.
Cernaeks face is a mixture of anger, frustration and wonderment as he sees the face up close. For the first time in a year, he knew who he was up against. His brow furrows as he speaks the name, "Archer."
[The scene fades to black.]
Comments
kt6550
By the way, Routh, good to have you back.
Dnavarre