The Elements of Change (Part I)

[Stormm]

Earth

Weeks of sizzling days and sweltering nights in the midwest had left its landscape an arid waste. Dead. Hardly uncommon for this part of the country as midsummer approached. It harassed the equinox annually, and springtime saw very little of the year, per the norm. The winds howled across the badlands, crying for relief from the drought that left its surface scarred. Storms rolling through early in the season flooded the plains, but as the solstice approached, all that was left was a loaming cloud.

Everything browned.

Flourishing trees looked as if wintertide were on the horizon, and wilted. Meadows, from a distance, appeared as barren deserts. The ground was so parched you could lose yourself in the cracks.

The earth begged for solace.

And he dug.

“Is this really necessary?”

His white t-shirt as brown as the hardened crust the shovel he wielded chipped away at, while being as equally saturated with sweat. Perspiration dripped from his nose and beard, but the dirt left no evidence as it soaked it up. His jeans left tattered as he dug through root and rock, and his work boots would see their first scuffs.

Two feet. Four feet. He dug. Still dry. Six feet under the surface.

“Justin?!”

Finally, after digging through layers of rigid terrain, Justin’s shovel emerged with moist clods stuck to its face. But he was done. He’d gone as deep as he needed. “Very.” He finally replied to his wife as he pulled himself out of his hole by the thirst deprived ground above. “You know me, always taking it one step too far.” Lindsay rolled her eyes with her arms crossed over her tank top. Her tanned legs glistened as she too had began to sweat watching her husband do something she hoped he’d feel foolish for doing.

He would not.

The Force of Nature was not a man who embarrassed easily, or at all. He’d done things, and would continue to, that would make anyone blush. That tingle that most people get just thinking about doing something uncomfortable, the one that gives you that uncertain, should you our should you not feeling in your stomach? Justin doesn’t get that. He just goes for it, and waits to see what happens.

Wiping more sweat and dirt from his face on what appeared to be the last dry, clean spot on his short, he seemed pleased with himself as he picked it up. The Pure Class Wrestling International Championship belt. The very one he’d only “won” through the technicality that it was merged with the title that he’d actually won. “I didn’t need an audience, you could have stayed inside.”

“Izzy has the kids, and we need to let them get used to her since she’s, hopefully,” Lindsay uncrossed her arms while crossing her fingers on both hands, “going to be around them for a while.” Nodding with wide eyes, Justin agreed. “Besides, someone needed to be out here just in case you hurt yourself.”

His wide eyes rolled before he looked back, deep into the face of the International belt one last time, past his reflection, and watched as it fell into the hole. The desecrated ground in the middle of nowhere on the Michaels’ Manor estate is where he was leaving it.

Burying the past. That title being the only one in Pure Class Wrestling he’d never won, but that he’d always hoped to.

Burying the present. Carrying it with him just to be “that guy”, the asshole carrying a belt he hadn’t won, and disrespecting everyone who had, and everyone that had fought for it. Even himself.

“Well, that’s that.”

It was as far from the truth as possible, and they both knew it. Justin has a way of saying things out loud that aren’t always exactly what’s on his mind, but uses his sharp tongue as a segway to cut through the silence.

Grabbing the shovel, and moving the ground he’d spend the last hour digging out, he began to bury the International title, and every meaning associated between it and him along with it. But that wasn’t all he was burying that day.

“Even though it shouldn’t, your stubbornness still amazes me.” Lindsay, taking a seat next to the hole, tried to make the best of her own stubborn ways while watching.

Just a couple short weeks prior, Stormm had lost his chance, again, at advancing in the Icemann Invitational to Gabriel, the man he’d beaten to win the North American title in the first place. His road map back to the World title was cut short again. So with the International title belt, he was also burying his Icemann Invitational hopes.

Losing to Gabriel was kind of like being hit with the same rock twice in one fell swoop. His sights had been set at breaking the holiness apart, and getting him and Seromine back to their true selves since his return last year. He’d gotten complacent as of late, and while the Invitational had renewed his sights in their direction, it was too little too late. They would have to wait, or just implode on their own, as the Force of Nature had other fish to fry. So with the International title and his Iceman Invitational hope, he was burying his differences with Gabriel.

“Seriously, I don’t need an audience here.” His smile was slightly crooked, more of a smirk than anything, and then he winked. “Unless you want to help.”

Smiling her seductive smile in return, Lindsay was happy just spectating. “Nope, I’m good right here.”

After all, he was still North American Champion, and being out of the picture for the Icemann Invitation finals, he would still need to retain the right to call himself that. The Force of Nature versus The Divine. Stacy Jones would be the next competitor to stand in his way on what Michael Wryght prevented him from doing just a few years prior, breaking the North American title single reign record. Three days short to be exact.

253 of 256 began to haunt himt once more.

A win at Living a Legacy would put him one step closer to that again, putting his current reign at 183 days. But, again, he would need to get through Stacy to get there. How does one beat perfection by adaptation? They’d shared the ring twice before, once as partners in a losing effort, the other against one another along with Seromine and Grimm not long ago. Both had been distracted by the aforementioned others in the match, and had very little interaction.

Otherwise, Justin had only observed Jones from afar.

The list of differences between Stormm and any opponent he’d faced recently, and would continue to face in the future was no different here, and had become a broken record. There was no use in beating that dead horse there. Whoever leaves Living a Legacy as North American Champion is whoever wants it more that night. Everyone in Team Havoc could swear up and down that nobody wants it more than Stormm, while the same can be said about those on Stacy’s side.

It was a fickle profession, but in the world of wrestling when you face any two people against each other, there could be an infinite number of outcomes, and it would always be the smallest thing that turns the tide in one’s favor. Justin could only hope he ends up being the better “man” the following Sunday.

“Thinking about other women again?” Lindsay questioned with a giggle.

Justin ignored here, but gave her a quick glance out of the corner of his eyes while he continued to fill the hole, and pack the dry dirt in. “Only the ones I’m legally able to hit.” He joked. “Her, and, well, no, nevermind.”

“Johnny?”

He froze, and then nodded before his attentioned from her waned. Lindsay’s brother was not so much on Justin’s good graces as he was a few months ago, and no matter the reason that Johnny or his wife Stace had come up with, none mattered.

Johnny had abandoned his responsibilities… again.

Johnny had abandoned Pure Class Wrestling… again.

Johnny had abandoned Justin… again!

Other opportunities? Helping Stace in Texas? None of it mattered in the grand scheme of things. Stormm only came back to PCW because Johnny talked him into it. They came back together, but for the last couple of months there’s been nothing Notorious for the faithful to see.

It was damn near unforgivable. Being married to his sister was maybe the only thing keeping him from raining down on the man, but even that excuse was starting to wear thin.

But for the time being it would have to do. As he packed the final few shovels full of dirt onto the top of the pile, he figured, while he was burying things, why not let his anger for Johnny lay there too? Granted, it’s Johnny Matthews, there will always be a time and place to be angry at the guy, but it wasn’t going to help him at Living a Legacy to harbor that hatred against someone unrelated to the issue.

So with the International title, his Iceman Invitational hope, and his differences with Gabriel, he was burying the hatchet with Johnny.

Maybe not immediately or directly, but it was something he needed to do.

“Well, that’s that.”

As he took up the shovel in one hand, he admired his handiwork and couldn’t have been more proud of himself. Helping Lindsay off the ground, he took her in his other hand, and the couple made their way back to the manor.

Their new nanny surely had her hands full with the twins, and Lindsay had put up with him enough for the afternoon. There were also plenty of chores and many hours in the gym left to be had before the following weekend for Justin, among other things.

“You’re going to call him, aren’t you?”

Tongue in cheek, a smirk appeared, and he nodded.