Land of Shadows (1.08) Shadow of the Evened Odds

[Stormm]

The reflections stared back at Justin, like daggers flying through the air they burned at his skin from every angle. Just like the last time he found himself in the basement of the late Wayne Michaels, better known as Damian Sorrow, that specter of the Hangtown Horror loomed around every corner.

The last time the Force of Nature found himself in the nightmarish funhouse of a basement was nearly a year prior, just before his last showdown with Grimm. The Gingerbeard Man had chosen Stormm and his North American title as his next conquest after winning the previous year’s Icemann Invitational. Just like the boogeyman haunting a child’s dreams, he came to Stormm in every reflection while putting to rest the memory of Dr. Sorrow.

Little did Grimm know that his quest to finally claim the North American title would end to the contrary to what he’d hoped.

What did his vision signify this time?

As the state of Pure Class Wrestling was a little different than it was nearly one year prior. Stormm was not holding onto something that Grimm wanted, in fact, it was the exact opposite. Not only that, but it would appear that the Force of Nature had signed a death wish with his attack following Grimm’s successful title defense against Gerard Angelo.

Perhaps Justin thinking he saw the man in every reflection was just his mind playing tricks on him with his head on a swivel after attacking one of the most dangerous men in PCW history. Perhaps Grimm was actually watching the Force of Nature from Hangtown through some ritual that had been passed down from one Dillinger generation to the next.

The only thing for certain was Stormm had laid the World Champion out, and called his shot. His sights set on fighting for the World title for the first time in over six years, and with any luck, claim the federations top prize for the first time since his first reign over eight years prior.

While it would be more certain than certain that Grimm would want to deny Stormm the one thing he wanted most, just like Stormm had done to him, the Force of Nature was tired of waiting for someone to see his worth, and see him given an opportunity. So, whether Grimm, or had Gerard reclaimed his prize, or if anyone else had walked over to grab the World Championship belt, Stormm wouldn’t have cared. He would have left sapphire imprints on anyone’s forehead that night.

He would have left an impression on the Faithful they would not soon forget.

He would have gotten the attention of the entire PCW locker room.

He would have called his shot against anyone, because he knew he deserved it, and needed everyone else to see that.

Stormm had taken the first steps, the next step was being forced into a tag match with longtime rival, and sporadic, short-time friend, Jason Willard. Just like the booking team to distract from the bigger stories in PCW with a match like that. One that only made a little bit of sense.

Instead of putting Stormm and Gerard Angelo opposite one another, with Willard and Majors going toe-to-toe earlier in the card in another singles match, just throw them all together in one match.

The Force of Nature had no skin in the game when it came to Willard and Majors, and as far as he was concerned, he laid to rest any rising heat between Angelo and himself at Return to Glory. Yet, here they were, thrust into the mish-mash Trauma booking. The Anarchist and The Force of Nature, just a little crazy short of a societal nightmare; versus the Hero who had squandered his chances at being on top, and a man who has been on his last leg since his first match in Pure Class Wrestling.

All that and a World Champion without a match, what could go wrong?

Stay tuned!

...Shadow of the Evened Odds...

You know your Aunt Morgan’s house? The one in Silent Grove that she lived in for a while? Well that used to be the home of my Great-Uncle Wayne. Yes, the crazy doctor, Damian Sorrow. Well, after it was handed over to me, but before Morgan moved in, we used it as a kind of, well, let’s just say it was a “safe house” of sorts. With the Black Hand on my heels, claiming to have had a part in your Uncle Johnny’s death, and me fearing for you and your Mom’s lives, something had to be done. My old co-worker, Madison, and I had kidnapped one of their own, and were doing all we could to even the odds; and, well, we had kind of stashed him in that house for awhile.

“I’ve been telling that crazy bitch for the last month that you’ll never get anything out of me.” His thick accent did not distract from the angry tone in his voice. But Justin knew the Black Hand agent was getting tired of saying the same thing over and over. Tired of telling the same lie day after day.

But rather than call him out on it, Justin simply stared back at the man, leaning up against the doorway into the room of mirrors, deep in the basement of his former tormentor. “I guess it’s a good thing she’s not here, now isn’t it?”

“Are you going to come down here for an hour every day for the next month and ask me the same three questions too?!” He screamed back at Justin. Obviously tired. Obviously hungry. Obviously missing something other than his freedom… someone.

“You tell me.” Justin responded back while glancing into the eyes of each reflection of Grimm on every mirror inside the room. “Am I leaving you down here for another month to soil yourself, eat scraps, and repeat the same nonsense for an hour every day? Because the guy we’ve got upstairs to keep an eye on you and keeping things tidy doesn’t ask questions, and enjoys the paycheck to watch you suffer.”

The Black Hand agent shifted his eyes from side to side, trying to see what Justin was looking at in each of the reflections, more uneasy about his captors shifting eyes than anything else. “You have my wallet, so you can find out everything you need to know about me based on that.” The same nineteen words he uttered to Madison everytime she asked him a question.

“Oh, come on! Make this more fun for me! At least have an imagination, make some shit up, and give us some fake people to chase after, or something.” Justin said back with a smile. “Protecting ‘him’ is only going to end poorly for you, after everything he’s put me and my family through.”

“And he’s not done, yet, either!” The Asian man blurted back suddenly, before quickly shutting himself up.

“I don’t plan on making a habit of saying this, but I will kill him if I have to, and I’m sure there is someone who would miss you dearly if you get caught in that crossfire, I can see it in your eyes.” Justin propped himself up from his leaning position, and inched towards his captive with a smirk.

The visions of Grimm shifted in the mirrors, and drew his attention away from the man for a second, before their gazes met once more; again, making the agent more uncomfortable. “You have my wallet, so you can find out everything you need to know about me based on that!” He blurted once more, hoping to force Justin out of the basement. In the month he’d been held at his will, Madison had never made him feel this uneasy, and the Force of Nature had done it in less than fifteen minutes.

Pushing himself back to an upright position, the force used to do so pushed the chair across the tile, and came to a stop against one of the mirrored walls. “You know what Jimmy, I think you’ve been down here long enough, don’t you?” Justin questioned, and the Asian man’s eyes widened. “Oh, come on, you didn’t expect us to really believe your name was Jiang Min Jin, did you?” He asked rhetorically. “Your fake accent isn’t fooling anyone, and you aren’t even Chinese.”

Justin produced two items from his front jeans pocket and flipped them into the man’s lap. The first, the fake I.D. they had taken from his confiscated wallet, the second was a picture of the man, and a woman; an obvious love interest. “You have... my wallet... so you can find out everything you need to know...” He paused, and tried his best to hold back his emotions. “You haven’t done anything to her, have you?” His accent was gone, and so was his hardened Black Hand exterior.

“First, how the hell did a Vietnamese American find their way into the Black Hand?” Justin pondered.

“Kinzo and I go way back, before he got involved in all the guns and drugs and Black Hand nonsense, I spent a few years in Japan with my parents growing up. Listen, I was just doing him a favor.” The man, whose name Justin had uncovered to really be Jimmy, hung his head. “He just wanted me to keep an eye on a few people, report back to him, and he paid me a ton of money to do it.”

“And what the hell did you need all that illegal money for?” The Force of Nature queried.

“She’s sick.” There was a long pause that followed while Jimmy contemplated all the outcomes. “Unless you put her out of her misery, she’s been battling cancer for years, and I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand, but it cost regular people like us a lot of money.”

“She’s fine.” Jimmy looked back up at Justin, who had known all along, and was just looking to see if he would finally speak some truth. “And a lot of her medical bills have been taken care of. You see, I’m hoping to get through all this without stooping to Kinzo’s level.” Justin was the one to pause this time. “Without stooping too far to his level, that is.”

Jimmy struggled to break free of his bonds. “So, what, you swoop in and clear up some doctor’s bills and expect me to thank you?” He spit on the ground at Justin’s feet. “We were doing just fine without your fucking charity, you entitled white boy!”

Justin laughed. “I understand the need to provide for and protect the woman you love, but your anger is misplaced. Besides, your father may have been born in Viet Nam, Mr. Nguyen, but don’t forget that he came over to America with his parents before he could walk, and your mother.” He chuckled. “She’s a white girl from New Jersey.” Jimmy opened his mouth, but was speechless. “Just because life has treated us differently, doesn’t mean we have to be different. I’m not throwing my money at Jimmy and Anne Nguyen for some sort of recognition, it’s going into the Havoc Foundation books as a donation to a former wrestler, and his family in need.”

“And?” Jimmy asked.

“And I sure as hell didn’t come down here to threaten you or your sick wife to try and get my way, but instead, try a different approach to get you to realize that you are working for a sociopath, and that there are better ways to go about helping your wife.” Justin walked over to the man, still bound to a chair, and pulled a knife from his other pocket to start cutting away at the ropes. “You see, we’ve known about you for a few weeks now, and were hoping you would come around on your own, hoping we could come to an agreement. Instead, we’ve come to this, an understanding that we both know how I can hurt you if you go back to the Black Hand, and your partial freedom. You’re free to go”

Finished with the last rope, Justin side-stepped, taking another glance up at the mirrors, only half of which where now filled with images of Grimm. With an outstretched hand, he offered the way out for Jimmy, who stood up, and took three quick steps towards the door before stopping in his tracks. “He’s not the same Kinzo I remember. He’s not even Kinzo anymore, he’s this Xiaolong character.” Jimmy stated before turning his attention back over his shoulder to the Force of Nature. “I love my wife, and know the treatments she’s getting is only going to give us a few more years together, but I had to do something.” He sighed as he swallowed his pride. “Is it too late for me to help out, and for us to come to an agreement?”

Justin smiled, and shook his head.

I’m not proud of it, but I also never thought he’d think so poorly of us for that long before coming to his senses. In hindsight, there were probably better ways to go about doing what we did, but the Black Hand had also just said they killed your uncle, so I was taking a little bit of my frustration out on him as well. You guys never got to know Anne, she was an incredible woman, and really was the best thing that ever happened to Jimmy. But you know all about the good things he went on to do after she was gone, and to this day, still honors her by staying single. We helped her live four more good years longer than any doctor ever expected, while at the same time, getting Jimmy out from underneath Kinzo’s thumb. In the process, we had made a friend of someone who probably shouldn’t have known as much about the organization that tormented us as he did.