Post by 💀 ＡＰＯＫ 💀 on Aug 14, 2020 16:43:32 GMT -5
When I first came to SFT… you all saw me as Apokalypse… this big, bad, brooding monster who was almost entirely unstoppable. What if I told you now about the origins of the man you call Apokalypse? Will you treat me differently if I go over my life story? Will this revelation do any good on my quest toward the SFT World Championship?
Only time will tell.
Let's take you back to the very beginning.
June 6, 1983. A beautiful baby boy was born to a couple in Queens, New York. The couple were high school sweethearts and had just recently graduated high school. That fall, the father began training to be a professional wrestler.
May 15, 1985. A beautiful baby girl was born to that same couple. They had outgrown their tiny apartment in Queens, and the money the father made as a pro wrestler allowed them to purchase a two story home in Ozone Park.
July 12, 1986. The three year old son went missing from their yard and was never seen again. A police investigation failed to provide any information on the whereabouts of the child. The father began drinking heavily to cope with the loss of his son.
January 1st, 1987. On their way home from a New Year's Eve party, the inebriated father lost control of their station wagon, driving off of a bridge. The mother passed away before EMTs could arrive. The father carried that guilt for the rest of his life.
September 12, 1992. The father married his girlfriend, a fellow pro wrestler, also adopting her three year old daughter.
March 22, 1996. The couple welcome twin boys into the world.
April 20, 1999. The mother lost her battle with cancer, leaving the father to raise all four children on his own.
June 29, 2003. The father was invited by an old rival to compete on pay per view in Death Valley, California. When he arrived and met with his opponent backstage, he instantly felt a strange connection with the young wrestler, who was the son of the promoter.
Through talking about their history in the business, the young man told the tale of being adopted by this man's rival when he was three years old. He was raised believing that he was abandoned by his birth family in Queens, and told stories of how mistreated he was as a baby.
The pieces started to fall into place. The seasoned veteran started to realize that the young man was the son who had gone missing seventeen years earlier. When the promoter was cornered by the two wrestlers about it, he finally came clean about everything. In a drug-fueled plot for retribution over losing the top spot in a national promotion, he indeed abducted the boy from his own yard.
That was the night that I stopped being Kevin Victory, son of the legendary Apocalypse… and I continued going by my birth name… Kevin Schorg, son of Aj Nin Red Rum. By then… my birth father was a multi-time World Champion… and world renowned as one of the greatest of all time. I grew up watching him on television and I idolized him.
I was twenty years old by the time I was reunited with my birth family, but they were all complete strangers to me. My sister Jane was only a year old when I went missing. My step-sister Sara was not even born for another three years. Naturally my half-brothers Chris and Ricky were born a decade after I went missing. It's been seventeen years since we were reunited… and at times they still seem like strangers.
Maybe I'm the one who is a stranger. I have spent half of my life traveling the world, building my own legacy as Apokalypse. Until recently… I only saw my family a few times a year. Then in March… I moved back from Japan and I've spent more time with my family this year than my entire life combined. Oh, I also joined Strike Fantasy Towers, a place my father once called home.
You know the rest of the story because you lived through it as a viewer. What you weren't aware of was my family history… or that my brother-in-law passed away… live on pay per view… on July 26. Yes, SFT Hall of Famer Nathan Gust… is dead. He thought I was insane for coming here when I could've gone literally anywhere else and faced tougher opponents.
I've had enough of a challenge recently. Rumpke. Candace. Cypher. Impact. Emerson. My final… and potentially greatest challenge… is a man named Lucas Balkan. Balkan has been around the block enough times to have worked with my dad and Nathan in their prime. Two quick reigns as United States Champion in 2004. A quick reign as Intercontinental and World Champion in 2017. Now the Lethal Lottery Winner and current World Champion in 2020.
Impressive track record for a man who has devoted his life to this sport. His journey in a way has mimicked my own. We both ended up right here at the same time… racking up impressive victories… until it was finally time for us to face off. This final battle was inevitable. I am thankful for this opportunity, especially after some recent detrimental losses to Candace and Impact.
You may be wondering what was up with the last six months of my promos. I said a lot of wild and crazy shit. It was all an attempt to further myself from my true identity. I needed to create this totally unhinged character who was probably insane and definitely dangerous. Don't get me wrong. I absolutely am dangerous. Now more than ever… whomever holds the crown is in grave danger of bowing to my feet.
That man is Lucas Balkan… a man who has amassed several victories on his way back to the top of SFT. Now he is fated to take on a seemingly indestructible force called Apokalypse. Notice I did not say unbeatable. A few have beaten me this year, and I commend their efforts. Balkan is tasked with something unlike all others this year. The only way to keep me from that World Championship… is to kill me.
My father held it thrice. My sister held it once. My brother-in-law held it once. That belt and my family have such a unique relationship. It's only right that I challenge for it at Titans 91. I had hoped to draw out my mysterious act until Titans 100 but then Nathan died… and my desire to keep up the facade quickly died, too. Now you get the real me. You get the bad-ass ass-kicker who was born to a legend and raised by a psychopath. You get the Forgotten Son of Aj Nin Red Rum.
Lucas Balkan… when we meet up at London Astoria… you will get Apokalypse in all of his destructive glory. Wait a minute. London Astoria? Why does that sound familiar? Lemme check right quick. Oh. That's interesting. It was demolished eleven and a half years ago. Well… it'll be interesting to wrestle in a building that no longer exists. Are we fighting in a parking lot or in the middle of a field? Are they throwing hoods and taking us to an undisclosed location again?
I don't know about you, Lucas… but I don't like being abducted. It's all based on… you know… my childhood. Perhaps it was a mistake to say we're competing in an invisible building. I'm just a stickler for details. Like how you first came to SFT when you were, what, 16 years old? That's rather impressive. Labor laws must've been different back then. I mean… I was training under the psycho who abducted me around that age… but I certainly wasn't signed to anywhere as a teenager.
You've had a long journey in this business… but only three short runs here in SFT. Where else would we have seen you work in between those runs? Personally… I spent most of my career in Japan doing deathmatch stuff… so if you dig deep enough on the internet… you'll find my work. The SFT Intercontinental Championship was my first major title in the United States. That would make your current title my second major title in the United States.
Get where I'm going with this? At Titans 91… wherever we are in London… your reign as SFT World Champion ends before it even has the chance to soar. You're in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn't matter if the end of the road was you or Emerson or Jack Jones or even Chimpo the Chimp. The moment I become champion was written in stone the moment I signed with SFT. Everyone has known it all along. It's finally time for the prophecy to be fulfilled.
Do you believe in fate, Lucas? Do you believe fate brought you back to this place where you first arrived as a teenager? Do you believe winning the Lethal Lottery Tournament was fate? I sure as hell do. I believed that one day I would work for the company that my father helped put on the map. I believed when I came here that I would be World Champion one day. Then as the tournament began… I believed it was the wrong time for me to fulfill my destiny. Now that the smoke has settled… I believe it is my time.
That championship is my birthright… and I will stop at nothing to be hailed as champion at the end of Titans 91. If I have to break your bones… so be it. If I have to strangle the life out of you… so be it. You're an honorable fighter, and if you dig deep… you'll find that I saw you as a worthy challenger to my Intercontinental Championship. Then Candace came along with a heart full of endless passion… so I pulled my punches and allowed her to be champion.
Our situation is quite different because you have something I desperately need… and I have nothing left to lose. Everything ends with our battle at Titans 91. My six month journey has brought me to this destination. Body after body I stacked in the street. All to get to you, Lucas Balkan. Well, it was supposed to be Emerson… so I did take great pleasure in defeating him at Titans 90. It was very nice of you to come see me after my match, by the way.
You needed to see up close just one time what you're up against. You needed to see how destructive my finisher is. You needed to see how quickly I can recover from a grueling match. You needed to see… the man called Apokalypse. You have every right to feel intimidated by me, Lucas. You're outmatched in height, weight, experience. Those attributes aren't everything though… and you know it. You've got an endless cavern of heart… and I admire your dedication to this craft.
You've trained hard to get to the top of the mountain again. All of the burpees in the world cannot prepare you for what's to come. There's a monster waiting for you at the summit… and his name is Apokalypse. He has torn through this roster and left very few survivors to tell the tale. How will you fare against him, Lucas?
Only time will tell.
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Our adventure begins in Ozone Park, New York at the home of Aj Nin Red Rum, which he signed over to Nathan Gust and Sara Pettis five years ago. The entire family is moving out of the house because the city bought out the whole block. It truly is the end of an era for all of them. One member of the family who only spent the first three years of his life there is Kevin, and he is now loading up stuff his father saved for him.
Kevin: Is this all of it?
Will: Should be. If I find anything else once I get settled upstate, I'll let you know.
Will (Aj Nin) is moving into his cabin near Niagara Falls. His friend Dan (Kabal) is going with him. Dan has lived in the loft above their garage for several years, having never returned to Yorkshire.
Dan: I have one last thing for you, Kev.
Dan walks out from the garage and he hands Kevin a beat-up steel chair.
Kevin: This is… uhh…
Dan: This is the chair your dad wrapped around my head in XCW that gave me a career-altering concussion. With you carrying his torch of violence in the business… I wanted you to have it.
Kevin: Oh wow! Thank you, Dan!
Sara walks into the scene.
Sara: Yeah. Thanks, Dan. It's not like I'm doing anything violent these days.
Dan: You've got a great thing going in Action Wrestling, Sara. Your torch is very different than Kevin's.
Sara: I know. I was just kidding.
Kevin: Were ya?
Sara: Of course. What you're doing in SFT… and what I'm doing in AW… are night and day different. What's important is that we're all carrying on with the family legacy in our own way.
Will: Our family has been through… a lot… and we always find our way back home.
He looks back at the house that has been in their family for thirty-five years.
Will: In a few weeks… the city will flatten the whole block…
Sara: It's a good thing we'll all be outta here today. At least you're going to the cabin. I'm only a few miles away.
Sara and her daughter Stephanie have already settled into an apartment in Bayside. Will's twin sons are living on the road in a Winnebago RV, wrestling all over the country. Also on that journey is Lexi. Meet Lexi…
Lexi: Hi, gang! Lunch is ready!
She calls from the backyard, where she has been slaving away over the grill. The family heads to the backyard for eats. One by one they load up their plates.
Lexi: I hope everything is cooked enough.
Sara: Looks great!
Lexi came into their lives a year ago when she found out she was the illegitimate daughter of Nathan, who had encountered her mother after a show in Chicago many years ago. When she moved to Ozone Park, she was trained by Nathan and Sara, making her the first ever third generation wrestler in the family. Anyway… they all sit down on lawn chairs…
Will: Thanks for taking on grill duties, Lexi. I don't mess with propane. That new grill is just too complicated for me.
Dan: OK, boomer!
Everyone but Will laughs.
Will: You're six months older than me, doofus.
Dan: You're only as old as you feel.
Will: Then I'm one hundred and five.
Sara: First thing in the morning you look like it!
Everyone but Will laughs.
Will: Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up.
Kevin: Okay. We will.
Will attempts to change the subject.
Will: Kev, when's that wife of yours coming around?
Kevin: Not for a while. She's out in LA auditioning for a big budget Marvel movie. I can't tell you which one.
Lexi: Is it Black Panther 2?!
Kevin: Wow. That was quick.
Lexi: Yeeeahhh. We've been texting.
Kevin: Well… then yes… it's Black Panther 2. The whole thing is hush-hush as far as what her part is… but it's all very exciting. She's on a shortlist for whatever role it is.
Will: That's great, son.
Dan: I still don't get what she sees in you.
Will: Dan!
Dan: Sorry…
Kevin: Don't be. I also don't see it. I definitely married up.
Will: So did I. So did… Nathan…
There's an awkward silence.
Sara: It's okay.
Will: It still doesn't feel… real…
Sara: I wake up every morning… expecting him to be there. Even in the new apartment… it feels like he's still… there…
Lexi: I'm so thankful to have spent a year with him. Even just a year.
Sara: So was he. You were quite a surprise… for all of us… but you're family. You're in this for life.
Kevin: Yep. Look at me. I spent the first half of my life not knowing they existed.
Will: And the second half traveling the world.
Kevin: I'm here now, dad. Jo and I are here to stay.
He met his wife Josie in Japan. She was modeling for vending machines. Don't ask. They moved back to the states in March, and have been staying in Manhattan.
Will: Change is hard for me. I've lived in this house for thirty-five years. I raised my children here. Two of them never left.
He points over to a bench where his twin sons are both playing on their phones.
Will: It was hard enough when Jane got married and moved out to San Diego. Now everything else is changing all at once.
Sara: We're only one call away… and Dan will be there when you forget how to unlock your phone… again.
Will: That was one time!
Everyone but Will laughs.
Kevin: It's okay, dad. People your age are---
Will: Enough!
The scene fades to black…
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The heat is on. Are you sweating yet, Lucas? You should be. Your first challenger is a badass motherfucker who is willing to die to take your place. I have great admiration for what you've accomplished and how hard you've worked to earn that World Championship. All pleasantries will be smashed to pieces when that opening bell sounds. That is when my knuckles will become intimately close to your face. Try not to hold me responsible for the damage I will cause at Titans 91.
I have yearned for that title for six months, but I've also been eyeing it since I broke into the business. The man who raised me also worked for SFT… but never made it to the top. Being World Champion would be the ultimate slap in the face. It's too bad that bastard is six feet under so he won't be able to see it happen. Nonetheless it needs to happen. I need to prove to myself that I'm better than that monster. I also need to prove to my family that I can carry on our legacy with pride.
For my family… and especially for myself… I need to beat you to the ends of the Earth and back. All your championship are belong to Apokalypse. It's the only way to bring balance. Let's imagine a world where Apokalypse does NOT win the SFT World Championship at Titans 91. The London Astoria will be demolished all over again… and this time it'll be permanent. Whomever is tasked with counting the fall will end up in the morgue and his family will go penniless.
As for you, Lucas? You'll be physically safe… but I will haunt your dreams… and during the day I will be a living nightmare. Every shadow will be me. Every whisper will be me. Every chill will be me. Then when you least expect it… I will strike with great vengeance. Your next defense will be ruined by me. The one after that will be ruined by me. Your entire career will be frozen in time until the next time we meet in the ring… and then I will take a machete to your hopes and dreams.
Isn't it best for you to just accept fate and inevitable defeat at the mighty hands of Apokalypse? We've all known since I first arrived in March that I would be coming for what you currently hold, Lucas. I had hoped to end Emerson's strong reign… but then Lethal Lottery began and I had no interest in winning the tournament. So I waited until it was time for my shot… and here we are.
You and me.
One on one.
London Astoria.
Allegedly.
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And we're back. The last of their belongings are packed away to go to their new homes. Will pulls Kevin aside. They sit down on the stoop.
Will: So… Sara told me you've got a shot at the SFT World Title coming up…
Kevin: Sure do. It's no big deal though.
Will: Of course it is. That's a prestigious title with nearly two decades of history.
Kevin: This isn't the same SFT you dominated back in the day, dad.
Will: I know. Back in the day… the roster had dozens upon dozens of superstars… and we had up to five shows a week.
Kevin: And now there's maybe a dozen stars… and one show every other week. It was much harder for you than it has been for me.
Will: But I still won that title three times. My reigns weren't legendary… but they were enough.
Kevin: It's been a pretty easy run so far… but Balkan is still as tough as they come.
Will: Lucas Balkan?
Kevin: Yeah. You remember him?
Will: Vaguely. He was around for a year during my title runs. I'm sure we faced off… but that whole era is a blur.
Kevin: If only someone had backed up all of the events so we could relive the history.
They both stare ominously at you, the viewer… and then back to each other.
Will: Where are you wrestling Balkan?
Kevin: London Astoria.
Will: Impossible. That place was torn down over a decade ago.
Kevin: That's what I said!
Will: Some things never change.
Kevin: Any advice for my match?
Will smiles.
Will: You've never asked for my advice before.
Kevin: I've never had so much at stake before.
Will: I've got nothing useful to tell you that you don't already know. Go do what you've been doing all year. Since you cut back on the deathmatch stuff… your work has been solid. You take your time. You don't overthink it. You make every move count. Do all that against Balkan… and you've got nothing to worry about. Get to work. Darkness Falls. New champ. Simple as that.
Kevin: Thanks, dad.
Will: Anytime, son.
The scene fades to black.
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Hello, Strike Fantasy Towers. My name is Josie Schorg. My husband is the man you call Apokalypse. For the last six months, I have witnessed him throw himself into his work like never before. Luckily he has only had to work once every other week, or else the pressure he puts on himself to succeed might have destroyed him by now. There is nothing he wants more than to win your World Title. I will never understand why this is so important to him but I respect his devotion to his profession.
I'm just happy he isn't doing all that blood and guts stuff anymore. Thank you for providing him with a canvas to explore his art. This has been a great year for both of us… and I would love for him to return from London happy. You have no idea how much of a pain in the ass he'll be if he comes back defeated. It's best for everyone if he makes it out of there as your World Champion.
Lucas, I'm told you're a talented and proud champion. I'm sure all you've wanted was to be the face of SFT or whatever. It is in your best interest to not make my husband angry. You won't like him when he's angry. When you're out there for your match with him… try to enjoy what's left of your time as World Champion. Cherish your reign for what it was… instead of beating yourself up for what it wasn't.
Best of luck in your future endeavors, Lucas.
