[MAIN STORY]

DATE/TIME: 6:15 AM, Sunday, August 10, 2008
LOCATION: Police Station, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

[CAST]

“McNamara! Your limo service has arrived. Thank you for choosing the Philadelphia Hilton, do stay with us again.”

That was not, believe it or not, the voice of any staff member at any Hilton hotel in Philadelphia. Instead it was the incredibly sarcastic, booming voice of a police officer manning one of the many smaller stations around the Philadelphia metro area.

As one might have guessed, it wasn’t too often that Steve Jason had any particular reason to visit Philly’s boys in blue, and he certainly wasn’t here on any of his business. On the contrary- he had come solely because he had received a call at five o’clock in the morning from this very station, pulling him out of what he’d hoped would have been a proper night’s sleep, informing him that one Douglas Henry Phidippidies McNamara III had spent the last several hours in lock-up after some kind of escapade at Club Lust which had resulted in the entire club being depopulated, and the heinous crime of several alcohol bottles broken. All in all, Steve wasn’t too surprised- this hadn’t been the first time he’d bailed Dougy out, and it was far from being the last. But he still didn’t know exactly what was going on.

This part of the station, set up for holding prisoners, was simple enough- there was a main ‘desk’ with various lockers and shelves used for storing prisoners’ belongings out the front, and behind that, protected by a number of officers acting as guards, were barred off cells usually used to detain drunks and people who had committed minor misdemeanors who probably wouldn’t be charged with anything. Most of those cells were empty, but the one furthest to the right was occupied by an irritated-looking Dougy McNamara, decked out in an alcohol-soaked purple short-sleeve palm shirt, stonewashed jeans and his always-present red cap. His face was a little pale, and he was rubbing at his forehead and avoiding the light- clear signs that he was hung over.

“About bloody time!” was Dougy’s gracious reply, “I told you incompetent donut-lords that I’m innocent! I didn’t bomb nothing! I just said ‘bombs away’! I was drinking a reverse jagerbomb! What the fuck was I supposed to say? This is a friggin’ outrage, persecuting innocent men who are just out to have a good time and get bladdered!”

“You wanna shut up, or you want me to leave you in there for a little while to get all that anger out of your system?” Steve replied casually. He was still not in the best mood, and he was tempted to seriously give Dougy a piece of his mind one he got him out of his holding cell. The police officer at the desk, however, chuckled quietly.

“We just wanted to make sure that you had a safe trip home, Mr. McNamara. You had quite a night, and we figured you’d need friends to take care of you.”

“You incompetent wankers could have done that three hours ago when I told you I was innocent!”

“Can it.” Steve shot off harshly before turning to the officer and shaking his head, “I’m really sorry about this, officer. I didn’t even know he was at Club Lust. Can’t take him anywhere in this town without him causing some kind of high-level ruckus.”

“Don’t worry, sir. You’re not his keeper.”

“Sometimes I feel like I’ve been his keeper for the last twenty-seven years…” Steve sighed dramatically, touching a hand to his head. The officer only laughed quietly as the cell door was finally unlocked and Dougy marched out of the cell, muttering various curses to himself. The officer merely grinned and reached through one of the lockers, producing a tray of items and placing them on the desk for Dougy.

“One set of mirrored sunglasses. One ‘Bundaberg Rum’ wallet. One shark-tooth necklace. One commemorative Steve Irwin playing card. One… packet of slim tampons…”

A brow on the officer raised, and the rest of the police collapsed into amused laughter. Steve simply smirked, while Dougy scowled at all of them, his face flaming.

“Hey, shut up! They’re not mine! They’re my wife’s…” Dougy protested, but the howls of laughter from the police indicated that they weren’t going to let that fact get in the way of their amusement. Dougy just scowled, then snapped up the tray with a sour look on his face.

“Alright, McNamara, you’re free to go…” the officer informed him, trying to keep a straight face, “Just don’t let me catch you back here next week, huh? And try to avoid making any more social faux pas that might be misinterpreted as a terrorist threat. You were very lucky that SWAT didn’t come after you, and let me tell you, if they had it would be a lot tricker for you to explain- and Mr. Jason here would have a far longer drive to get to Guantanamo Bay. OK?”

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. But you'll have to deal with my lawyer next time..." Dougy began to retort hotly before Steve rather firmly grabbed his friend's arm hard and began to frogmarch him away from the desk to keep him from getting himself into any further trouble. He did, however, grin apologetically back at the desk officer.

"Sorry for the trouble, officer, and thanks for letting him go..." he said, trying to patch up Dougy's coarse mouth before firmly shoving him forwards back towards the labyrinth of corridors that would lead both men outside the police station.

While it was still early in the morning, the blessings of summer meant that the sun was coming up early. It had just come up in the last quarter of an hour, and as a result the sky had that deep blue that wasn't quite full-blown daylight, but was still a far, far cry off from night. The sun itself wasn't visible, instead shielded off from Steve's and Dougy's eyes by the towering buildings around them outside the precinct. Despite that, it was already warming up and no doubt preparing for a pleasant summer day as both men headed straight for Steve's car, parked on the side of the road- a cobalt blue 2008 Chevrolet Corvette Z06, with the hood down. Steve opened the door and hopped into the driver's seat, strapping himself in and turning the key. 'Courageous' by Alien Ant Farm suddenly reverberated from the car's speaker system as Dougy casually jumped the door into the passenger's seat. As soon as Dougy was in and strapped, Steve gunned the car into motion, smoothly pulling the car out onto the main street and quickly picking up a steady speed, cruising along the road towards the heart of Philadelphia proper.

"Alright, you wanna tell me what this was all about, Dougy?" Steve asked casually, keeping his eye on the road.

"Honestly, it didn't seem like it was going to be much of a problem at first..." Dougy assured him, snapping his sunglasses on and not-so-subtly leering at a couple of attractive young women on the sidewalk while defending his case, "Tals and me wanted to go out to Club Lust, so we did. And while we were out there, Raziel was there. We decided to catch up- hadn't seen him for a while, you see. Anyway, it turned out that Raz wanted to try to challenge my drinking supremacy, so naturally I tried to match him. Then suddenly, when we're in the middle of it all, some lunatic starts screaming on about bomb threats and the entire club got evacuated."

"I think I can see where this is going..." Steve commented dryly.

"Anyway, me and Raz decide to take a few bottles for the ride, and I wind up stacking it, then Raz stacked it and all the bottles got broken. We decided to just make good our escape not long after. We all got loose and headed back to Raz's place, and... well, the rest is a blur. The next I remember, I'm in a jail cell and being accused of terrorism. It was all a big misunderstanding though."

“And pray, tell me, how many drinks did you have in the course of this harmless misunderstanding?”

“Not too many. Over the course of half an hour… um… one Bundy, one double of Bundy, one quad damage of Bundy, and a Jager Nuke.”

“That would be…” Steve mentally ran the calculations through his head, “Fifteen standard drinks. In thirty minutes or less. Are you a complete moron, Dougy? It's bad enough I've got to fight a retard this week, I've also got to deal with one here?"

“Hey, I was defending my nation’s honor!” Dougy protested vehemently, “And it’s something you would do well to remember, because you’re going to have to defend the exact same thing against Pete Ebdon! It is a national tradition that Australia annihilates the Poms in just about every sport known to man- the cricket, the rugby, the Olympics- and our honor rests on your shoulders and demands you do the same!”

"I don't care about that." Steve snapped sharply, "Ebdon's nationality ain't important to me right now. And neither is mine. When I go up against that man, there will be far, far more at stake than such petty things."

Dougy opened his mouth to protest, but the stormy look on Steve's face quickly seemed to change his mind. Instead, he seemed to rethink what he had to say before picking a much more suitable topic.

"Anyway. Guess who got a job?"

"You got a job?" Steve blinked, "With who?"

"Raz, would you believe it. He's bringing the V.I.P franchise to Philadelphia, thinking of opening a club here. He's enlisted me as public relations. Basically, I will be utilizing my beershake in bringing all the hot girls to the yard, and damn right, it's better than yours. And other such things. Basically, I'm promoting."

"Interesting..." Steve raised a brow at the sudden involvement Raziel seemed to have with Steve's best friend- something that was a little curious, "What about Talia? Wouldn't she be pissed that you're going up against the Richards Conglomerate's competitor in V.I.P?"

"Ah, and that's the beautiful thing, mate!" Dougy disagreed, "Talia and Raz have entered a partnership. She's got a 50/50 share in this thing! The Conglomerate would back this fully, and they'd consider Raz a partner now. Interesting, huh?"

Of course it had Steve interested. This time last week, he hadn't seen or heard from the man they called Raziel in days. Then suddenly, out of the blue, Justin Jones showed up to get a PDW contract- and then in a matter of hours, he'd caught up with Steve at Selters Hotel and Casino, free of his dark past as part of the Order and even going to far as to offer Steve aid against the Pantheon- a move that had very, very deep implications for Raziel straight off the bat. And then all of a sudden, Steve suddenly discovered that his best friend was suddenly working for Justin- and more to the point, he now appeared to be working jointly with Talia in getting a foothold for the V.I.P franchise in Philadelphia.

Steve honestly didn't have a problem seeing his friend again- if anything, he welcomed it. It had just been all so sudden- and even a tad shocking- at how abruptly Justin Jones had been injected back into Steve's life. If Justin was working close with Talia, it would mean that he would be interacting with Steve quite regularly. It was unavoidable. If you got drawn into Talia's circle, sooner or later you'd interact and work closely with all the others in that circle. It almost seemed as if the hand of fate itself was playing all of these circumstances- as if it were somehow determining that Steve and Justin needed to be on good terms and needed to be locked in each other's orbits at this current point in time.

Alright, so for all of Steve's scepticism, he still had some belief in destiny and fate. Could one blame him?

"It's... curious." Steve left a lot of his true feelings unvoiced, wheeling his car sharply around a turn and cruising back out towards a longer stretch of street surrounded by larger high-rise buildings, "I should probably talk to him about it. It could involve me directly, you know..."

At that, however, there was a movement out the corner of his eye that demanded his direct attention. He had been driving past a plaza building in-between high-rises- a one laid out with beige and red bricks, raised up into several 'steps' before broadening out to a wider general plaza at the top. Nobody seemed to be there... except for four men at the center of the plaza. One particular man struck Steve as very familiar, as if somehow he knew this man from somewhere. He slowed down suddenly, squinted his eyes, then set his jaw. He knew him.

"Oh my God, it is him..." Steve muttered, "Dougy, we're pulling up here. Don't do anything stupid."

Without even waiting for an argument, Steve suddenly wheeled the car across several lanes and pulled up along the side of the plaza, slamming on the brakes and bringing the car to a jerking halt. He opened the door, then quickly hopped out of the car, legging it up the plaza steps before emerging out onto the flat high point. Sure enough, it was precisely as it seemed. The three men- rough types, with white suits, black undershirts and broad-brimmed hats with gator teeth rimming them were facing off with one lone man. He was tall- even taller than Steve, he had to be about six foot five or so- and appeared to be of Asian descent, with a shaved head and an oddly calm, at peace expression. That clashed with his tall, well-muscled physique- as did his attire, which appeared to be an azure-blue version of the classical Buddhist monk robes.

It was Temujin. What he was doing here was anyone's guess, but judging by the menacing expressions from the men who were staring him down, he was about to find himself in very serious trouble. Steve didn't even think about it, clenching his teeth and watching his former co-student as he began to creep up slowly on the three men. Possibly he could defuse the situation- or if it went out of control, he could provide aid long enough for Temujin to escape.

Steve's aid, however, did not seem necessary. One of the thugs moved in to try to grab at Temujin- and that happened to be a very big mistake. The large man moved amazingly fast- that part of him had never changed from the times spent training with Kanetatsu, evidently- and his hand flared out to grab the thug by the shirt before hurling him to crash on the bricks of the plaza. Steve drew in his breath as he moved closer again as the second thug now went for a haymaker on him, only for Temujin to block it with a spin of his wrist, his other hand flaring out to jab at the thug's throat. He doubled over- but Temujin had no time to follow up, spinning with a blur of his leg to boot the third thug back hard in the chest, sending him crashing into the first thug, who was struggling to get to his feet.

That move should have been familiar- it was the same crescent kick Steve had plowed down several PDW stars with.

The second thug had recovered and reached into his suit to pull out a butterfly knife, snapping it open and grinning viciously at Temujin- but at that precise moment Steve was there, stepping beside his old friend with a smirk crossing his face.

"Take your pals and go." he said casually. Temujin almost jumped out of his skin, gaping at Steve in surprise- but the thug seemed to re-think his strategy, eyeing the odds game, and the considerable ability of Steve and Temujin combined, and then pocketed the knife and backed away, rousing his friends to their feet. All three stared up at the two men, then they backed down the plaza steps before turning and high-tailing it towards the street. At that precise moment, Dougy arrived.

"Holy crap, that was awesome! That had to be the coolest thing I've seen in ages! Who in the heck are you, man?"

"I know who he is..." Steve replied casually, shooting a glance over to Temujin and finally addressing him for the first time in almost ten years, "Hello, Temujin."

"Steve Jason..." Temujin began in a surprised tone, looking down at Steve, "It's been a very long time."

"Tell me about it. You want to tell me exactly what's going on here?"

"Diablo. James Augustus Diablo. I'm not sure if you know who he is or not... but those were his men there. I have a certain... opposition to Diablo right now, without going into too much detail, and his men finally caught up with me. Fortunately, I was able to withstand them."

"Diablo?" Dougy drew in a sharp breath, "Oh, Christ, not him again! He tried to put the squeeze on us a while back. Tried to make me give him my club, and we had to hire Russian security guards to get him to back off. Kinda disappeared, though. Why would he go after you though? Steve? Any idea?"

But before Steve could respond, his eyes suddenly tracked down to Temujin's arm. Something was there, and it was something that Steve most definitely should have recognized. Sure enough, on his wrist was a black arm-band- and on that band was a logo that was eerily familiar.

It was a simple enough logo, really- the cyan outline of a blue circle, inside of which was a downward-pointing triangle. To most people it wouldn't even have been noticed- or it would have been shrugged off as a brand logo. Steve, on the other hand, knew exactly what that logo was, and just seeing it caused him to catch his breath, his eyes narrowing and his mind switching straight into interrogation mode. Temujin seemed to notice and flinched, drawing his sleeve up over the band, but it was too late.

"Alright, Temujin, game's up. That's a Richards Conglomerate Security logo."

Steve had expected denial. Or possibly open belligerence. But his friend was above that. He obviously knew the game was up, and he nodded solemnly at that, his eyes meeting Steve's with an odd kind of honest admission.

"Your eyes are as sharp as ever, Avenger."

"OK, first of all, we can stow the 'Avenger' crap." Steve said flatly, more than a little annoyed to hear a name that he had long since relinquished, "That title is long redundant. I'm not that person any more, and if you've come here to bring him back, then you might as well go back to Las Vegas right now."

"My apologies." Temujin shrugged, "That's what they used to call you, so that's what I thought you were going by. Steve... obviously, you know I'm here under the auspices of the Richards Conglomerate."

"I've been hearing that name a few too many times today..." Steve muttered ominously, "I can forgive Talia not telling me that she was going to enter the Conglomerate into a business deal with my friend and a fellow wrestler, I can work around that- but she didn't tell me that she'd recruited one of my old friends who I was told to search for."

"You don't think Talia has anything to do with this, do you?" Dougy protested, shaking his head vigorously, "No way, man. She wouldn't do that without telling you. She'd have had to lie to you to know your pal was here under her employment while you were looking for him, and she wouldn't do that. She'd never betray your trust again. It couldn't be her."

"Then who? There's only one person who could have done this without running it by Talia, and that would have been..."

"Nestor Richards." Temujin interrupted suddenly, speaking the name of Talia's father- and the ultimate chairman of the Richards Conglomerate- in a matter-of-fact tone, "I'm able to tell you that. I can't tell you why I'm working with Conglomerate Security at the moment, and I won't tell you all of what I'm here to do, but I can tell you that Nestor sent me here. He contacted me not long after I arrived in America, actually. He needed somebody to do some... very important work for him. One aspect of that work was to eventually, when the time was right, find you, Steve. I was supposed to wait longer, but Diablo was getting too close. Those men were his."

That almost brought Steve into a rage of frustration. Nestor Richards barely every sought Steve Jason out. During Steve's whole time knowing Talia and even while working for her organization, Nestor had only spoken to Steve a handful of times. Every single time, it had been about things that... Steve was now trying to forget about. One thing was for certain- when Nestor Richards sought you out, it meant that something big was about to go down, and odds are you were about to be trapped right in the middle of it all. But why now of all times? Now that Steve was so close to the Platinum title, with almost all distractions out of his field of vision, this had to happen. And it even had to involve Jim Diablo, a name which Steve hadn't heard for months- but a name that was still a hostile one. Were those thugs his as Temujin had said?

"I'm busy. Tell Nestor to leave me alone." Steve replied flatly.

"I can't. He told me it was of absolute importance and that I was not to take no for an answer." Temujin seemed almost apologetic at that, "I know you have a lot to deal with. And I know this is exactly the kind of thing you were trying to run away from, but there's really no other choice here, Steve. Nestor wants to see you, and he's made it clear that he absolutely must make his case to you. In case you haven't noticed, my presence here means that the Conglomerate is coming east. So either you see him, or he'll come to you."

"Goddammit, Temujin, what part of 'I'm busy' don't you understand?" Steve almost snapped at that, the dual rage of his business being disturbed and of feeling once again like he was losing control of his path and destiny by Nestor's intrusion pushing him into a very rare state of anger.

"I understand. But Nestor does not, I'm afraid. He wants you to come and see him in Nevada. It doesn't have to be this very second, but sometime very soon, he wants you to visit him at the Home Office. I'll be going with you, too. If I were you, Steve, I'd just hear what he has to say. It might be that you don't have to do anything or that it might not disrupt what you're doing here, but one thing's for sure, trying to avoid this meeting will do nothing." He sighed, regret obviously written all over his face, "I'm sorry, Steve. I wanted our reunion to come under better circumstances, but I have no real choice. I'm afraid I must insist."

"Excuse me?" Steve eyed his friend incredulously. Temujin, on the other hand, just stared back with implacable calm.

"I must insist."

With a vast amount of frustration, Steve finally threw his hands in the air, reining in his breath and resisting the urge to curse.

"Alright then, fine. If you're going to be that way about it, then I'll go and see what he wants. But it had better be good- and he had better not be trying to rope me into doing some favor that he doesn't want to get his hands dirty doing. Because I'm done with that part of my life, Temujin. So do me a favor and warn your boss in advance that he's wasting his time if that's his intention. Got it?"

"Got it." Temujin nodded solemnly, rising up to his feet, "Once again, I am sorry. I hope we can move past this, however- in spite of these circumstances, it's been a long time and I do actually look forward to catching up with you. Perhaps we can still do that."

"It'll depend on the mood I'm in..." was Steve's reply, directing a level gaze at his friend that screamed that now was not the time for it. Temujin flinched, then nodded slightly.

"At any rate, I cannot remain here- and neither can you. Diablo's thugs are no doubt about to report what's happened here- and they're also no doubt about to inform them that we are here. Better not to take any chances, and I need to report to Nestor anyhow." He flickered a glance left and then right, making sure that there was nobody getting too close for comfort, "It's also better we split up. I'll be in contact."

"You don't have my phone number." Steve pointed out.

For the first time since they'd met, Temujin laughed- a quiet, rumbling kind of laugh, "Oh, believe me, Steve- if I want to get in touch with you, I can."

Without so much as a word after that, Temujin began descending the steps of the plaza, leaving Steve and Dougy standing alone amidst the fallout of the... downright bizarre incident that had just taken place.

"The hell was that all about?" Dougy blinked in confusion.

"I don't know..." Steve shrugged, making his way down the steps back towards the car, Dougy following shortly afterwards, "But I've got a bad feeling about this. The old man never contacts me. Never. Every time he does, it means something pretty bad's about to go down- something that I might not want to have anything to do with. I was serious when I was lashing out at Temujin. I don't need this right now, I really don't. But I doubt I have a choice."

"I'm not so sure about that. If Nestor's suggesting something you don't wanna do, then you don't do it. But yeah, you're right- he'll find you if you don't find him. Try not to think about it, eh?"

That was easier said than done. But at the same time... there certainly were far more important things weighing down on Steve's mind now. This upcoming match was... absolutely vital in his campaign against Ebdon. Vital. The sheer advantage a victory could give him now was not to be ignored. It could effectively be the final glancing blow to the side of Ebdon's head before the killing blow was struck at the pay per view... or it could be a grim omen that Steve's fight ahead at the PPV was going to be nigh on impossible. All depending on how he fought, this could make or break the next couple of weeks for him. That was far too imperative to allow anything to get in his way.

Then there were the people in Steve's life who'd become rather important in the last few days. Raziel seemed to loom as one of the most prominent. Obviously they had been thrust together, and Steve would no doubt have to meet with his friend once again to determine what precisely they were going to do- both out of the ring and inside the ring. An alliance seemed to be on the verge of happening, but Steve would have to think about that seriously before he committed himself. Justin claimed defiance of the Pantheon, but Steve knew that any friendship with their most dear enemy would put him at risk. He'd have to think just a little more before getting back to him with a yes or no.

Christ, and then there was Angel to consider on top of that. There was no hiding it now, something was going on between the two of them. It wasn't just scuttlebutt any more, both of them had all but confirmed it between themselves. Ebdon was already showing signs of using it against Steve, it was that obvious. Was he stupid enough to try to follow Payne's example? Steve knew he'd send him the way of Payne if he even considered it, but he had to be sure. And to boot... he and her had to work out where they were going next. If things were going to get serious, they'd get serious pretty soon...

"SJ, what in the blue fuck are you doing?" Dougy suddenly snapped him out of his reverie as he realized that he had literally walked into his car door. A shooting pain shot through Steve's kneecap as he grimaced and winced, then chuckled awkwardly.

"Sorry. Dozed off."

"When I said 'try not to think about it', I didn't literally mean 'stop thinking'..." Dougy smirked, hopping the door into the car on the other side. Steve simply opened the door and slid back into the seat, gunning the engine. At the same time, he pulled loose his phone and punched some numbers in. The phone began to dial out for several seconds, then finally the click of a pickup on the other side could be heard. Steve cleared his throat, then spoke.

"Raz? It's SJ. We gotta catch up, mate..."

[CLICK TO CONTINUE: Undeniable Words Continued]