Creeping Madness

Subject: Creeping Madness Fri Sep 19, 2014 6:33 am

Moments after the opening of Impact, the lights cut out in the arena and there is dead silence -- put for stirring in the crowd as the audience grows restless. This silence sits for several seconds before being pierced by a sudden, shrill and familiar cackling that cuts through it like a knife.

EEEEEH HEEEEEE HEEEEE HEEEE...

A second passes, and then the TitanTron flares to life with scenes of a madman -- the Wall Street Warrior -- and his music kicks in, barely drowning out the boos and shouts of discontent from an increasingly hostile audience.

Red light washes from behind the Tron onto the stage, and out staggers the madman himself, heavily favouring his right leg. As he slides down the ramp and toward the ring, a red spotlight follows from the rafters, and as audience members hurl insults at him from behind the barrier he turns, growls something inaudible at them, and then leaps up onto the barrier and makes biting motions in their general direction. Then he skips along the barrier to the ring steps, leaps across to those, and snakes up them and over the turnbuckle into the ring. He collects a microphone from the corner nearest the Tron before sauntering over to the one opposite and slumping into it.

WARRIOR
Turrrrrrrrrrnerrrrr... Where is he? Where is he Kansas City? Has anyone seen that filthy... stoopit... PART-TIMER?

The audience boos as if on queue as Warrior insults the returning Dave Turner. He makes eye contact with several of the booing fans before diving back into his tirade.

WARRIOR
So stoopit he challenges me... hee hee... he challenges me! As though he has any way of controlling his fate. As though he has any understanding of the forces that play against him? He is dust in the wind. (Off-tune, singing in parody of the song) All we are is... dussssssst... in the wind. See Turner... see the truth. OPEN YOUR EYES, PART-TIMER. As Wyatt opened mine. You stand in an asylum. We are all condemned to madness... hee hee... heeeeee... only some of you are too STUPID to REALIZE it.

Out of nowhere, the Warrior starts to crawl backward up the turnbuckle, and when he reaches the top he handstands on it. The microphone is clenched between his teeth as he hand-walks along the ropes to the corner to the right of the one he was in, and then he flips down and onto the mat, landing on his feet.

TAZ
Y'know Cole, this kid's mental, but he's got some athleticism in him.

COLE
That's one of the reasons he's so frightening, Taz.

When Warrior brings the microphone back to his mouth, he nearly swallows it, his heavy breathing washing over the audience before he slides it back out to continue his diatribe.

WARRIOR
No matter. NO MATTER. See, Wyatt opened my eyes Turner. And now I get to open yours. Through all the blood and spit and sweat and piss you will see it... you'll see that this world is BURNING, Turner, and you're here, in the center of the blaze. With all of the rest of us. Hee hee... hee... hee hee! See! See it Turner! See the truth. See the FIRE. OR BURN IN IT. That's your future... the only future I know.

Warrior, done his speech, hits himself over the head with the microphone three times and then turns, throwing the thing like a dart at Taz at ringside.

TAZ (ducking)
Whoa, look out!

COLE
You all right?

TAZ
For sure. His aim's as off as his brain.

Warrior practically leaps out of the ring, and then begins to skip up the ramp, his music starting over again as he makes his way out of the arena. The feed takes the audience elsewhere.