Despite All My Rage

[Cory Steel]

RAGE OF THE BEAR PART I

-Omar The Hammer- "Is that all you got Cory?!"

The loss at Trauma 154 still stung Cory, it was feeding this sudden burst of rage. The two men had been drinking and sparring since Cory left the PCW arena. Losing to Loki so far has been the biggest upset of his return because it could have cemented him as a worthy contender but just as his luck had always been Cory came up a buck short and not only that but he lost his ticket into the next round of the Icemann tournament! He yelled in anger charging at Omar his punches were wild allowing Omar to side step the first three, the Bear kept coming though bearing down towards Omar until Omar caught the Bears left arm, and he pushed Cory towards the large wooden wall. The Bear caught himself slamming both fists against the wall yelling again.

-Omar The Hammer- "You are fighting like a street thug Cory, sloppy."

Cory turns around pushing his long sweaty hair back from his face, he takes a deep breath, and exhales through his nose. This time Omar comes at Cory his punches were controlled making it hard for Cory to find a opening and forcing him to defend himself. Omar had been a prison buddy of his years and years ago, the two had trained together while they were locked up, it carried over after they had been released, and luckily for The Bear Omar agreed to help him get round the edges of what he already knew. Omar landed a low body haymaker to Cory's rib breaking his defense by lowering his shoulder, which with blinding speed Omar landed several jabs to Cory's already swollen eye.

-Omar The Hammer- "Are you even here Cory?"

As Omar goes for another body shot Cory slaps Omar's attack away and using his size he wraps Omar up in a bear hug. Omar squirms but isn't strong enough to break The Bears hold and is helpless when he is thrown into the wall! Cory raises his big boot into the air to bring down on the rib cage of his friend but Omar crawls quickly out of the way just as the foot comes down. Cory brings the boot up again but again Omar rolls out of the way just in time and scrambles to his feet returning to his offense. He smirks.

-Cory Steel- "That was the WORSE match I have ever been in, it was three minutes of me getting my ass kicked!"

Cory turns to the wall punching it over and over, over, over, and over until he falls to his knees hanging his head. Blood began to pour from his knuckles and drops into the sand below.

-Cory Steel- "I don't know if people take me for a stupid man Omar but all those comments from the fans, 'Oh it was a decent match Cory Steel looked good!' or 'Cory Steel gave Loki a run for his money!'"

The Bear laughs but it was dry and almost dead. Cory pushes himself to his feet and leaves the fight pit.

-Omar The Hammer- "Where are you going man? You need to work out some of that anger."

Cory doesn't stop but instead grabs the bottle of Jack Daniels and heads towards the front door of the bar.

-Cory Steel- "I'm going to work it out, goodnight Omar."

The Bear shoves the door open and the force causes the door to remain open. He turns the bottle up as he takes a seat on his bike and he slams the empty bottle down in the parking lot sending broken glass everywhere! Omar comes out the front followed by a worried Julie and Othello who starts a fast walk towards Cory as he fires the bike up.

-Othello Crave- "MISTER STEEL I HIGHLY ADVISE YOU STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING!"

But Cory smiles and burns off into the street putting the bike sideways cutting off a car in the process. He then takes off downtown the echo of his bike cutting into the silence of the night air. Trauma replayed over and over in his head, it didn't help The Bear to relax instead it made him push the bike harder, and made that lurking anger intense. He had to find a way to get relaxed and focused for the next Trauma, just because he had lost his chance for bigger things didn't mean The Bear had lost sight of his main goal. The Underground Championship.

However right now The Bear needed liquor or beer, he decided to go with the latter by pulling into a 7/11. Making his purchase of Ice House The Bear exited the store and began to arrange his booze in the saddlebag when his cell phone started ringing, fighting against the pain of his broken ribs he reached into his pocket and pulled the phone out and flipped it open.

-Cory Steel- "Its Cory."

The voice was femalr, soft, and angel like. It dulled the building anger.

-Cory Steel- "I can do it give me about twenty."

The Bear flipped the phone shut and tossed it into his saddlebag. He cracked the tab on his beer, sat back down on his bike firing the steel horse up, and turned it around heading back across town to meet up with Piper. Four beers later Cory pulls his bike off the road into a gravel lot where the beautiful Piper sat on the hood of her truck dressed in all black, her blonde hair hanging out of from under her hood, and a wooden bat resting across her lap. The Bear kills the bike, reaches into his saddlebag for another beer, his hockey mask which he sits just on top of his head, and he pops the top smiling at Piper.

-Piper Harp- "Sober enough to do this Mr. Steel?"

-Cory Steel- "I can handle my own Miss Harp, trust me I need this. So who else is coming?"

Piper pushes herself off the hood of her truck.

-Piper Harp- "Just the two of us."

The Bear throws his head back and lets out a roar of laughter. He then crawls off his bike pulling his mask down.

-Cory Steel- "Sounds good to me."

-Piper Harp- "A good old fashioned BATTLE ROYAL."

The abandoned factory that they approached seemed just that, abandoned, but Piper's crew found out that a upcoming rival gang had taken up refuge inside and were cranking out low quality meth. So the two of them made their way across the gravel lot when movement in front of the large door stopped them.

-Voices- "Yo Chino we got two people headin' this way!"

Suddenly the door began to open flooding the darkness with light. Inside were about 15 other men and of course a low level pitiful excuse for a meth lab. Some of the men came outside with weapons of their own but the biggest of them dressed in just jeans, no shoes, and covered from head to toe in prison ink stood just inside the door with his arms crossed smiling.

-Chino- "HHAHAH! What do we got here? You two love birds lost?"

Piper pulled her OWN mask down it was all white except where the black empty hollow eye slots were and the bright pink words 'MISS DEATH HARP' sprayed across the top. She titled her head then slowly raised a finger the smirk of the big man faded away and he snapped his fingers.

-Chino- "Kill them both!"

This made Piper choke up on her bat and The Bear cracked everything from his knuckles, to his back, and even his neck. The first of wave men rushed at them....

A GRIMM DREAM; A SECOND CHANCE

The Bear could taste blood in his mouth and that's what woke him, but he knew he wasn't awake like that but instead he was awake in his dream. He bawled his hands into fists full of dead dry leaves before pushing himself up after letting his eyes adjust he found himself in the woods. Not your average woods either but the thickest set of woods found only in one place around the whole United States and of dreams.

Cory Steel was in Grimm's woods.

The Bear looked at his handful of leaves and smiled rubbing them down his bruised bleeding face. Their was something about being so near Hangtown and even so nearer to his greatest obsession that gave Cory gooseflesh, but he didn't have dreams like this for nothing. Standing up and turning a circle he noticed many others with him Gem, Wasp, Andy D, and Showtime but they all either laid on the ground covered in leaves asleep or they also were standing asleep too. In the distance The Bear could here the sound of laughter? Or was it screaming? With it was also the dancing of light off the trees.

Something behind him moved in the brush but when The Bear tried to turn around he found that he couldn't! He struggled hard to move but his body wouldn't allow him too. A eruption of laughter blew through the woods causing Cory to cover his ears.

-Voice- "Are you back again boy?!"

The Bear had heard the voice before in a dream and he knew it was the dream Phinehas Grimm.

-Voice- "Not that you've earned this visit but fate is fickle and it puts you where it wants, the time has come Cory Steel that you and I along with a handful of others have been thrown into the pot together for a GRAND BATTLE!"

Cory's legs buckled and he landed on his face in the familiar wrestling ring. The sound of hooves paced around him and it breathed heavily, Cory looked up to see what beast stalked him but all he could see was a heavy outline of a massive creature, the steam of its heavy breathing, and fiery red hair. The more the Bear looked around he noticed many other in the ring but their faces to were hidden only their open mouths with their sharp teeth were clear.

-Voice- "You got one chance Cory Steel to prove yourself."

The beast stopped in front of Cory's face and the next thing Cory felt was his body being lifted by sharp claws into the air! He fought hard for freedom but the more he fought the tighter the grip got and Cory was brought up to the beasts face a thousand feet off the ground. It's hot sticky breath hit his face and the red hair wasn't hair at all but FIRE ITSELF! The Bear looked down and below he could see millions of open hungry mouths in a ring each one hungrier than the other waiting for their master to feed them.

-Voice- "Will you cower in fear Cory?! OR WILL YOU BE THE BEAR, THE EATER OF WORLDS AND WILL YOU EAT US ALL??!"

The Bear was dropped and he fell for what felt like forever towards the open mouths but as the ground got closer a light ate away at the darkness and CORY WAS THAT LIGHT! A roar that shook the Earth erupted from Cory's mouth but it wasn't Cory anymore it was THE BEAR and HE WAS MAD! He landed with a mighty thud knocking all the other monsters onto their backs, the fiery haired beast escaped in a cloud of gray smoke and laughter. The Bear was back in the woods standing tall over the woods and with another roar the woods were gulfed into flames!

The Sleeping people all woke and fled away from the flames but they were to slow, and the fire ate them too.

-THE MIGHTY BEAR- "I AM THE BEAR!

I AM THE EATER OF WORLDS!

I AM THE BANE OF GRIMM!

I AM THE PESTICIDE OF WASPS!

THE CRUSHER OF GEMS AND SAPPHIRES!"

-Voice- "Cory? Cory?"

Just like that the dream world went out like POOF and the one eye of The Bear's shot open. He was laying on his back and the bright sunlight blinded him for a second, he sat up letting his eyes adjust and standing in front of him putting her bra back on was Piper Harp. Cory's head pounded, the taste of blood lingered with every breath, and he was only wearing his jeans.

-Piper Harp- "Have a bad dream?"

-Cory Steel- "Yeah I suppose I don't remember. What happened last night?"

Piper giggled and turned back around to Cory pulling a shirt over her head. She had dirt and dry blood on her face, her bottom lip was busted, and she had a stitched cut above her eyebrow.

-Piper Harp- "Well as you kept yelling a 'battle royal! We're having a battle royal!'"

The Bear pushed himself up off the ground holding his broken ribs.

-Piper Harp- "Then we came here to your 'private spot' and got drunk. Fucked. Passed out that's about it, but forgive me if I seem like I got to rush off but I do got to be going before the boss kills me."

She stands on her tip-toes and kisses Cory on the cheek before running off towards her truck. Cory began to gather all his things taking in the scenery but his heart sank when he saw that little building sitting out in the middle of open woods. It was where he went to kill his best friend Slam junior, his little sanctuary dedicated to his obsession about Grimm, and the current holding cell of Vixen Kilshir. The Bear knew however that Piper never saw the inside of the shack or things would have went a lot different for him and her last night. Pulling his shirt over his head he quickly collects his messy wild hair and pulls it back into a ponytail. As he sits down on his bike his cell phone rings.

-Cory Steel- "Hello?"

-Omar the Hammer- "Cory good you're alive! I hope you got that shit out of your system because I got great news."

-Cory Steel- "Yeah, what is it?"

Cory could hear Omar pecking away at a keyboard, it made his head feel worse.

-Omar the Hammer- "Last Chance Battle Royal. Trauma 155."

-Cory Steel- "What about it?"

Omar sighed loudly. Sarcastically.

-Omar the Hammer- "You're in it dumbass! Along with Gem, Wasp, some Eden and Sapphire, High Tide, Tyler Scott, Crazy Boy, Andy D, also either Showtime or Majors, and the Lord of creepy fuckers Phinehas Grimm!"

-Cory Steel- "Holy shit that's great news! I finally get my chance to go head-to-head with Grimm for once and trump some worthy contenders. Fucking Andy D and Gem."

The Bear didn't tell Omar bye he just flipped the phone shut and fired his bike up spraying gravel everywhere as he raised hell down the private road. The thought of having another chance to enter back into the Icemann Invitational was a thrilling one and it even cured his hangover. He pressed the bike to its limits to make it across town dancing in and out of cars stuck in traffic, being on his bike was much like Cory when he was in the wrestling ring they were both HELL on wheels, and if the PCW world didn't think he was badass after 155 when he destroys 10 other men and woman then The Bear was going to be left with nothing else to give. It was make or break time. It was rage time.

The slumber of The Bear was over.

Cory whipped his bike into the back parking lot killing it so he could sneak in. As he walked up the stairs to the back door of his office he was caught off guard by Julie who stood at the top of the stairs looking at Cory as if she had lost her best friend.

-Cory Steel- "What's wrong baby?"

She didn't say a word but instead played a voicemail for Cory.

Piper Harp "Oh wow you are a big boy aren't you Bear man!"

Cory and Piper laugh between passionate but drunk kisses.

Cory Steel "My pops didn't give me his last name for nothing sugar."

Cory retrieves his cellphone and saw that he must have accidently dialed Julie during his rumpus with Piper. He goes to speak but Julie rolls her eyes and walks away. Cory follows.

-Cory Steel- "Julie wait! Please!"

She is through his office and walking out the front door of the bar when Cory makes it to the open office door. Omar sees that Cory has returned and slams his laptop shut making his way to Cory. The Bear grunts in frustration and punches the wall.

-Omar the Hammer- "Something going on?"

-Cory Steel- "No, lets just go to the pit. I got a battle royal to win."

RAGE OF THE BEAR PART II

The first wave was nothing Piper couldn't handle she rushed ahead of Cory to meet two of them. Her bat swung knocking the firsts bat out of his hand, she dropped low smacking the second attacker in the knee, and when she came up her bat connected with his jaw sending him to his back knocked out. As she got into a fight with the first attacker again Cory began to brawl with the third man. It was a fist on fist fight but the guy had no such luck against The Bear when Cory's hands closed around his neck lifting him straight off the ground and slams on his back. The Bear had no rest when two men rushed up to him grabbing him by his arms trying to pull him down, he simply planted his feet bringing them to a stop, and with ease slammed them into each other.

-Cory Steel- "COME ON SISSYS! THIS IS WHAT I DO FOR A LIVING!"

Cory laughs and heads towards the building grabbing a hooded man by the back of his neck and drops him with three sickening punches. The Bear spots Piper in hand-to-hand combat with a very large man like himself but before he can help her a smaller man jumps on his back locking in a chokehold.

-Cory Steel- "Seriously?"

-Small Man- "Fuck yeah man! I'm going to choke your big ass out WOOOO!"

The Bear reaches behind him grabbing the small mans legs and just like in the ring he throws himself into the air landing a sick sidewalk slam! Getting back to his feet Cory this time rushes towards the big man who now has Piper hoisted into the air and SPEARS HIM THROUGH THE SIDE OF THE BUILDING!! Piper lands softly on her feet and she to runs into the building. Once on the other side she helps Cory to his feet.

-Piper Harp- "You are crazy big boy!"

He pushes her aside delivering a big boot to the face of a man holding a chair!

-Cory Steel- "AND I LOVE IT!"

Suddenly they are surrounded by six men and it forces them back to back.

-Chino- "Give it up! GIVE IT UP there is no way you two are going to win."

Cory looks past the group surrounding them straight at Chino and points.

-Cory Steel- "Never doubt the Bear friend!"

-Piper Harp- "I think it is time for some Colossus and Wolverine action?"

Cory picks Piper up swinging her in a circle as she kicks each man in the face in step to the swing! The Bear then throws her up onto his shoulders where she then leaps into the air landing a missal dropkick on the last man standing!

BANG!

Chino is standing behind a knocked down Cory holding a chair.

-Chino- "Come on bitch me and you!"

-Piper Harp- "Do you mean, you and I?"

Chino grunts in frustration ad steps over Cory towards Piper and she backs up with each one of his steps until she hits the opposite wall. Chino blocks her escape by pinning her arms against the wall. He smells her.

-Chino- "Mmmmm so pretty and smelly, but bitch I am going to KILL you! "

As he draws back to punch Piper The Bear grabs Chino's fist and whips him around to face him.

-Cory Steel- "Not today mother fucker!"

Chino is surprised as he looks into the eyes of the Bear. Blood is trickling down his face but still The Bear smiles at Chino and kicks him the balls doubling him over, he then forces Chino's head between his legs where he goes to perform his signature PCW finisher! The first powerbomb is against the unforgiving concreate ground, the second powerbomb was through a table that held the contents of finished meth, and the last powerbomb with great strained effort was through a stack of wooden pallets! Exhausted Cory just rolled around from the lifeless body of Chino onto his knees holding his ribs. The pain made him yell out. He finally looked up at the chaos and mess to see Piper with her mask off staring at him.

-Piper Harp- "I think this calls for a drink?"

The Bears laughs and stands up slowly, a wave of pain from the top of his head makes him almost fall down, but Piper catches him.

-Cory Steel- "Make it a strong one and yeah I'll have a drink with you."

-Piper Harp- "But first lets get you outside, I have to take care of this lab."

As The Bear watched her drag each goon inside the building, he kept thinking to himself about how on the outside of the ring he was such a beast, but on the inside of the ring everything just seemed to make him a giant PUSSY. Things were going to change and he was going to force this change. The underground here and the Underground there were his! PCW is in dire need of his services!