((It's still the west coast...more specifically it's Malibu Beach, California. It's been his home for all his life. Born and raised right there in a beach house over looking the Pacific Ocean. Leaving his window open at nights...listening to the waves crash into the shore...inhaling the salt in the air. Waking just before dawn to stand barefoot on the moist sands, surfboard cradled under a right arm, and only a pair of shorts separating him from total freedom...he'd sometimes dream of things to be and things to come...))

((He remembers that first stab of cold as he'd hit the morning water...that first taste of salt in his mouth as he started to paddle out past the breakers...Sometimes he'd go out far enough just to straddle his board and look back towards the coast...towards his home, and watch the sun raising behind it.))

((And the nights...the nights were just as captivating. Laying on his side as the sun started to fall into the ocean, and the sky turned from blue to purple, and then eventually to black. He'd watch the purples, oranges, reds, and pinks sitting on the horizon until eventually it all faded away into a starry filled night sky. Then he'd fall to his back, and just watch the heavens...))

((Those were the memories he was fondest of. But things had changed so much, so quickly, that memories alone couldn't keep him there. Not when every second of the day he felt like an unwanted stranger. He needed something different...something new, only for awhile perhaps, but he needed it in the worst kind of way...He can still recall the conversation on that wooden deck looking out towards the west...))

Ransom: You're running away...you know that right?

((It was a cool April evening, the sounds of the waves rolling in still crisp in the air, and his father...biological, not fantasy, sat there across from him sipping on a bit of of something. He can't recall what it was...or even if he knew at the time. His mind had been on events that had transpired earlier that night...))

((He turned his head then slightly to his right, his cold, dark, eyes taking in his father bathed in light seeping in through the sliding glass door behind him...))

As opposed to just sitting there placid...like you?

((It was a little jab...just something to let his father know what kind of mood he was in. His father turned his head slightly...looking out across the dark waters. The moon hanging over head bouncing around across its reflective top.))

Ransom: It isn't like that. 

Then what is it like?

((There's a pause as his father took a sip then from his drink...he seems to remember steam rising from his top...coffee perhaps? Still it doesn't matter.))

Ransom: Just listen...I'll talk to Jeff tomorrow, and I'll see if we can't work something out.

((He turns his head away from his father, again returning his gaze to the ocean. His dark hair moving with the wind coming at him from the west. His hands grip tighter to the wooden railing.))

I don't need your help. I don't need pity. What I need is to get away. They made a mistake.

((He feels his father raise to his feet, a slight clink of glass as the cup is sit down, and then footsteps in his direction.))

Ransom: Just like the mistake you're about to make by turning your back on them?

((He spins his face feeling hot with rage. His father is there only a few feet away from him, and their gazes lock.))

They turned away from me first!

((His father shakes his head...a trickle of sadness in his old eyes.))

Ransom: They wouldn't do that, you're family...just...just you're not what Jeff was looking for.

((It hurts now, and it'll hurt more later, but he covers it up now with a small shake of his head and a small snort...))

Well fine...they're family then. Whatever. But I'm not sticking around...this place feels so hollow and dead to me now...  

((Greenville, North Carolina...It's been a week since he spoke those words to his father. A week and he now finds himself far away from the west coast. And despite that it's still warm...even in these early morning hours before twilight.))

((He'd expected it to be different...to be as cold and terrible as he thought all life outside of southern California was. He doesn't know why he thought it was so horrible, but he did. This place though...it feels, smells, and taste different...it's a nice change from the mundane life he'd lead for the last twenty-years or so.))

((With hands at his sides, a t-shirt covering his torso, he stands there upon a foreign beach looking out towards  the east...just waiting for the sun. Waiting for something different. It'll all be so different from now on. And he can't help but smile at that thought...))

November: Let me explain something to you if I might, Joshua.

((There's a brief pause as he turns his head in the direction of the camera. We find his dark eyes, and are captivated by them just for the briefest of moments...))

I want to hurt you in the worse kind of way, and I'm talking about serious physical trauma, but I'll refrain from causing any permanent injuries...because you do have the name now, and like it or not...on some small level you are a part of my family now.

((He turns his head again to look out across the Atlantic Ocean...back to the east. We notice a strong jaw line in his profile, and maybe we even notice he could do with a shave.))

And they are my family...if only by birth. But they are mine. Speaking of which...I hope you had a good time at the wedding...because I'm sure it was perfect.

((The sky to the east starts to glow pink...))

So...if you want a match...sure. You just tell me when big guy, and I'll make sure I'm there. There to outshine you, Drake...everyone. Because I have to be more then you now. I have to make sure they see their mistakes, and then rub their noses in it.

It's all personal...you do understand right? 

((It was one thing he always envied about Jeff...his ability to love so deeply. To look past the spotlight always shining in his eyes to Elisabeth, and ultimately it was that quality that allowed him to accept Jeff as The Charm. It was a quality that he couldn't find in Roe...in fact he didn't see much to Roe except a desire to be famous...))

((He pulled his thoughts away from that life...because it was far away now. So he turned his mind towards current matters. The reason why he was really hear now and in front of a camera longer then ten-minutes...))

One Night Only...I have to shake my head a bit at the "hardcore" influence surrounding this federation...this event, and while I don't prefer the whole "extreme" wrestling scene...I don't hate it as much as my counterparts on the west coast. It's just another aspect of the sport. An aspect that I've rarely explored, but then again I've only had one official match here in the AOWF...really anywhere for that matter. Sure I spar for hours on a daily basis...trying this move a hundred times...that move a thousand, but it's a poor substitute for the real thing...I was lucky at fall from grace 6.

Lucky that Joshua is just as inexperienced as I am...level playing ground there.

But I get that feeling as I look around at my VFS peers that I don't seem to be the only one lacking. With the exception of a few names, this seems to be step one in our respective careers. Could be worse...could be on the Spice channel in the LGW. 

Right so five-names: Jennelle, Angela, X-Stacy, Cicatriz, and Tommy...hmm. 

((He turns his head back towards the camera and runs a left hand through his thick, dark, hair. Everything's so much more different now...His thin lips part again...))

And then we reach that point where I should probably say something derogatory and stereotypical about my opponents,...but that's just not me. No...instead I'll just wait until we get into that ring, and then when I cover each and everyone of you for the three-count...yeah that there will be the deepest insult I could inflict upon you...

A lot more insulting then the word "suck" don't you think, Jennelle? Well that and making fun of ones name...because yeah...that always hurts me so deeply.

Good luck.

((The sun breaches the ocean casting it's first rays into the bluish/gray sky...In the silence that follows his words we listen to the tide crash into the shore...It's so different...black.))