L!GHTS OUT #27 | MALCOLM DRED-KING vs BLAKE ARCHER

A fight from a Dream
"Even when I am awake I feel I am dreaming, sometimes things are pleasant and other times they are hellish and I feel like I am stuck in a nightmare. I don't want to get up everyday, but I do. I've come to find that I can't hide behind that mask forever. No matter how much Levinator has tried to press me to becoming that monster I haven't. When enemies have taken my wife away from me I am still continuing to do my job. I had forgotten what it was like until now. A solder doesn't go in with the thought of failure, but still it sinks into his mind. That is what keeps him alive. Tomorrow I fight Malcolm Dred-King, tomorrow my mission becomes complete. Victory or defeat, how will it end?"

The projector wheels it’s fan as it is turned on. From it a light carrying photoshoots across the dark room onto the large white screen. Blake walks in looking like only a large black silhouette. This appears to be home movies from back when he was fourteen years old. Part of the circus, this time of year was spent traveling. Clips of Raven standing next to the BULLDOG as Blake was known back then. Lakeland Florida, the real birthplace of The Wicked one. Every year the young man named Alex came to the circus it was the wrestling shows that always got his attention. Blake fought Bears, and Tigers, anything back then. His oldest daughter walks in behind him and he shuts the projector off taking out the reel and looking to her as she hands him a new one.

Rain- "This is the one you wanted Daddy?”

Blake: "Yes. I know a lot of them were destroyed, but there are still some things that prove where I used to be. Twelve years, I’m still stunned at the time that has passed Mary-Jane. I had a pair of twins I didn’t know about. Levinator wants to make me the bad guy, all his transgressions against me against our family he says is just. Nothing justifies kidnapping you Rain, or taking MJ hostage like he did in XWA. Whatever his weird fetish is with me it is going to end.”

She keeps her mouth shut about it and looks over at Josie who has been getting bored reviewing these tapes with him.

Josie- "You are so sure about that?”

Blake: "Yes Josie I am sure, why do you have to sneak around like this?”

Josie- "I want to make sure that you get your butt to the gym on time and the venue. I really didn’t think it was true but you are packing on pounds and fast without Mary-Jane around. You need to have somebody get you back in gear, I guess I will have to do in her absence.”

Rain laughs, but I don’t find it too funny. I also am not totally opposed to having Josie watch my back in case Levinator is stupid enough to comeback to Union Battleground. Josie takes a seat next to him while Rain leaves. He hits the play switch on the projector now looking at clips he’s spliced together of the workhorse of GWP. (as Blake knew him) The press conferences that Jeremy Peters held the only person he cared about was Malcolm.

Josie- "Is this guy really that impressive?”

Blake: "As impressive as I am from my point of view. There could be tricks of the trade that he knows that I don’t. Our histories are almost parallel he has more experience with exposure than I do.”

Josie- "I think Peters just over hyped him.”

Eh what does she know? I continue to watch the history I’ve compiled. Submissions? I love submissions, I never wanted to be trapped by someone so I studied ever hold I ever came across perfecting ways to escape from them. Why you might ask? Because I had nothing but time.

Josie- "Why are you watching these tag team matches when you guys are fighting in a singles match?”

Blake: "That is what brought home the bacon for the both of us. That’s something that is a double edged sword for the both of us if I had to guess. Perhaps I can catch what he has in tag team format that he doesn’t when going one on one?”

Josie- "Perhaps…”

The scene slips off into my memory. the days melt into each other so much so that I am not even able to count down the days until I face off against the man I have been seeking. I find myself in a taxi cap driving through New York. I am here to finally talk with Jeremy Peters and find out what is going on with the sanctions on my World Heavyweight championship? Getting to the building you can tell it is dead. A for lease sign sits in the window.

"You know, perhaps I was too ambitious. Marc Anthony did not seek to take Ceasar's place he just fell into it. That was what happened to me at GWP, it is things I remember and yet have trouble finding. Still, the memories are in my head and they are what brought me here. A place where I could defend a title that Jeremy Peters so greedily wanted to control. Where is he now? When I joined the Tv Champion was all that talk, I believe the words were that is MDK's boy! Who was MDK I kept thinking why do so many of the people in the locker room speak about him? Malcolm your work ethic and drive are legendary even people you manage seem to absorb some of what makes you such a draw. Those are things I also want to instill in my character. When people think of Blake Archer I want them to think of the stubborn jackass that never stops. He doesn't quit and he becomes better for it. Fact or fiction that is my reality."

I stop listening to the traffic sounds behind me. This is where all the dirty dealings went down. That world was so confusing to me and it still is. A sinking feeling goes through the pit of my stomach, the thought of how things could remain so broken comes to the forefront of my mind.

"I think the two of us read out of the same book. Our work is that fight between the bells. There have been people in Union Battleground that see fit to exterminate me. It makes me laugh because short of decapitating me I don't see it happening. That won't be our focus though will it? Our fight is more like Rocky and Apollo. Hold for hold. Punch for punch. If the two of us are able to keep our mentality the fans could very well be on the edge of their seats throughout our entire match."

Slowly I start to smirk. I put my hand up against the stone wall of the abandoned building. Things stopped before they ever got started, perhaps that is the story of my life?

"Perhaps it is because I feel you are worthy of fighting, that this energy is restored to me? I felt that way with Josie, I felt like it with Finn, I felt like it with Joe, and Alex. I felt each match in Union Battleground was important, but those are the ones that stuck to me like fly paper. I thought stuff with Kai Stevens was actually going to go somewhere and instead some critics just seen it as more dirt on my grave. I am not dead inspite of the efforts of some, and I don't plan to enter that eternal slumber any times soon. My plan is to keep being me and that is simply Legendary."