I woke with a start, nearly falling off the couch in the main room as a gunshot sounded over the television, drawing me instantaneously from my slumber and forcing my heart into a marathon race. I could feel my pulse ringing throughout my head as I stared, dazed, towards the television screen with both a sense of momentary fright and partial hatred for the abrubt awakening it forced upon me.

"Jesus f'ing Christ..." I mumbled under my breath, grabbing for the remote and lowering the volume on the old western playing on the TV.

'Atleast it explains the dream...' I sighed, looking to the ceiling fan spinning around overhead. I could hear the groans of a dying man coming from the screen as I sat and thought, before casting a glance back down towards the television. On the screen, the antagonist was on his knees clutching at a bleeding wound in his chest, as the lone cowboy protagonist stood with emotionless eyes, before slowly turning and making his way off into the sunset, a young lady pulling at his arm to stop him from leaving.

It would appear that, as to be expected, the good guy won again.

Turning off the television, I stood from my spot on the ground and stretched myself out, yawning loudly and then turning towards the open bedroom door...ready to make my way off to a more decent place to sleep.

However, the dream continued to play over in my mind. That final gunshot continued to ring in my eardrums, as I wondered briefly just who won in the altercation before myself and Lambert. If one were to follow the classic story of a western movie, one might assume that in my shoes, I would have won. Being the protagonist of a story does, in fact, have it's advantages.

Of course...the NLCW was far from a classic story. I had already proven twice that I was no flash-in-the-pan when I took down Sean Galen and Ethan Andrews one week after another. Now, only days after that...I would be going on to face a man that had pressed my best friend, Chris Champion, to the limits.

It would indeed be yet another speed bump on my quest to reach the top of the NLCW platform.

Stepping to my bedside and looking down on Suki, who was lying silent as she slept, gave me time to rest my mind and prepare to go back to the land of dreams that so often entertained my mind.

For a short while, the NLCW wasn't registering in my brain, nor was the names of Lambert, Galen or Andrews. It was all blank, but as I drew back the covers it was as though I'd unleashed the storm of information to flood back into me. My mind was preparing to pick through a select number of things to entertain itself with during my slumber, and I could only pray that this time it wouldn't be based on my surroundings.

Derrick Lambert is not a person I'd like to wake up next to in the morning, that's for certain.

Lying down on the bed and drawing myself closer to Suki, I closed my eyes and heard one final gunshot go off within my eardrums, a final reminder that my dream was warning of what may happen at Havok. I had the chance to fire one last shot to be heard 'round the world for awhile...but Lambert had the opportunity to stop a rising star in its tracks.

And all it took was 3 seconds to draw the proverbial gun.