Rite of Passage Day 1 (Thursday, September 21st)

BEEP BEEP BEEP

9:02AM

Thursday, September 21st 2017

Sleeping in his bed and suddenly awaken by the sound of an alarm clock, Corey Black jolts up into a sitting position in his bed. He swings his arm over to basically knock the alarm onto the floor, stopping the noise it was making. His phone, on a nightstand beside his giant purple colored bed, blinks with notifications from the night. He opens it - 22 text messages, 1009 Twitter notifications, 287 Facebook notifications and a single missed call. Not bad. Still, he groans as he works his way through clearing all the messages and call from his cellular device. Not today. Corey chucks his phone onto the bed as he stands up and stretches, many of his joints pop as he does. The Hypermedia Champion leaves his bedroom and walks out into his open floor plan apartment at the top of a skyscraper in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He looks to his right and can see US Bank Stadium. To the left is the Target Center. Floor to ceiling windows give a great view of the dark and cloudy morning. A light rain. Basically fall in Minnesota.

Corey walks over to his kitchen area and opens a box of cereal, pouring it into a bowl and splashing a bit of milk inside. Then he gets out a glass of orange pineapple juice and pours a glass of that to drink. Black takes his breakfast over to the couch, in front of him sits a giant television set that nearly goes floor to ceiling like the windows. He flips the TV on, surfing through channels until he finds a program he wants to watch. A local news station's morning show, talking about the events from the night before. A mugging in downtown Minneapolis left a man hospitalized. The suspect was described as a young black man, long dreadlocks, tattoo on his face. Corey stops eating his breakfast and looks behind him, he puts the cereal on the coffee table and walks to the back of the apartment. Corey places his hand on a large painting of The Avengers at The Last Supper, it swings open on a hinge and reveals a black suit.. but he quickly closes it. He shakes his head no, he's given up being a vigilante that goes out at night looking for nefarious people. He's not The Avenger anymore, hell, he's only a pro wrestler for a few more short months. On the wall to the right are replica title belts he has won throughout his career, there's dozens and dozens. He pauses to take them in, but then shakes his head at that as well before heading back to the couch. He finishes his breakfast and continues watching the news.

11:18AM

Corey is about out the door of his apartment, now wearing a black hoodie and gray workout pants. He's now on the sidewalk walking down, passing by a lot of different people making their way to their respective destinations on this day. Corey's destination is close by - just a few blocks down. He walks into a gym, greeting the woman working the front desk with a smile. He walks through without issue, heading into the cardio room. A push of a button later, and Corey Black is jogging on a treadmill with his purple headphone drowning out the rest of the world. His pace never slows, not for the entire duration of the session - which is an hour and a half. He then heads across the hall into the weight room, where he spends most of his time doing push-ups on a couple of dumbbells that he rolls back and forth in a butterfly position while doing the push-up. After a half hour here, Corey heads down the hallway and into the boxing room, where he unloads strikes into a punching bag. Not just punches, but mainly elbows, knees and kicks. Most of Corey Black's strike based offense isn't punches, the elbow works better for him than any jab will. It's now 1PM, Corey has finished his hard day at the gym. And he hasn't looked at his cell phone since around 6AM, an unspeakable amount of time in this day and age. He leaves the gym and walks the block and a half back to his apartment.

3:10PM

The elevator ride up to his home is a long and sometimes annoying battle. The skyscraper he lives on is filled with offices below his apartment, so at any time someone could need the elevator to go up, causing multiple stops. Every time someone comes into the elevator when Corey is inside it, they smile, ask for a photo or autograph. Corey Black, while he seems like he's a prick to anyone that even comes into his vicinity, is actually a fairly good ambassador for professional wrestling. He's friendly with most fans that politely ask for a memento of meeting the King. Some days it gets a little bit much, but he'll fight through it. As the elevator empties and heads to the top floor, a key is required to open a heavy door right outside the elevator. There isn't even enough room for a human to stand between the door and the elevator door. Corey opens the security door and heads back into his apartment, right back to the kitchen for a pre-made spinach and chicken salad. He puts his fork into the meal but hears his cell phone ringing from his bed. He walks toward his room and looks at the phone.

Call from...
Seth Lerch

Corey pushes the red "end call" button and goes to toss the phone back on the bed when he notices a rather peculiar text message.

Message from: Nikki V
"Hey, Corey, don't forget about today!"
Sent at 12:22PM

Black lets out an audible "SHIT!" as he tears his sweat soaked clothing off while running into the bathroom. The door slams behind him, and the sound of rushing water coming from the shower fill his apartment. It would appear as if he did, in fact, forget about today.

4:24PM

Fresh out of the shower and dressed, Corey rushes to his door and is met with the sound of the elevator raising up to his level - the door opens and out steps Nikki Venus. She walks in, placing her finger to Corey's chest and dragging it along to his shoulder. She saunters into his living room wearing a short black dress, her shorter purple hair bouncing as she walks. Nikki sits down on Corey's couch and beckons for him to some sit beside her. He sighs, walks over and sits.

"Now, I know you didn't forget about our meeting," Nikki exclaimed placing her hand on Corey's still wet hair. He knocks her hand off of him with a quick backfist to the wrist.

Corey explained, "of course I didn't, I was just running my usual schedule and got caught up at the gym. Why did you NEED to meet with me today anyway?"

"Our relationship has become strained over the last few months, I want to mend the fences. I know I was the cause of the whole fiasco.." she trailed off, but Corey interrupted.

"Fiasco? It was beyond fiasco. You nearly brought hell itself upon Earth, Nikki, it was Armageddon in the flesh."

Corey is, of course, speaking of Dethwar. An event that reshaped many people associated with the events, none more than Corey himself. The entity known as Creeping Death was removed from his vessel and transposed into the body of Kevin Bishop.

A look of worry washes over Nikki Venus' face, she knows full well the scope of her actions, but she spoke again; "I know, I know. I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose you."

"Lose me? Nikki, you nearly KILLED me. You almost unleashed a force that would have wiped out everything anyone has ever known. And I'm just supposed to forgive you?"

"I hoped so, but I suppose it's for the best."

"Look, it isn't like I don't need you. You've been there for me through all this, you've never once backed down. You're fucking insane, Nikki Venus, but I'm just not me when you aren't around."

Nikki nearly leaps forward and embraces Corey, he looks surprised but eventually he brings his right arm around and pats her on the back. Her lips are right next to his ear, and she whispers, "but what about Taylor?"

Oh that did it. Corey stands up and Nikki falls onto the couch, Corey's hands go into the air and he shakes his head. "You know what the situation is Nikki, you've been there for the entire thing. We weren't ever anything more than associates. You ran the Global Wrestling Coalition, you needed somewhere to go when it closed, and I brought you along with me because you're a fuckin' insane businesswoman."

"I know but I see how you look at her.." Nikki peers deep into Corey's eyes. He looks at the floor. She continues, "..do you think it'll really last?"

Corey puffs his chest out, exasperated by the grilling. "I don't know Nikki, but you seemed perfectly fine with it when we all lived in Denmark. Why is it such a big deal now that we aren't all under one roof? Because you can't keep an eye on me? I'm a grown ass man, I have grown ass man problems. You see the schedule I'm expected to keep up? Wrestling in two companies, training in Pennsylvania four days a week, traveling back and forth to Japan for shows.."

Nikki butts in, "Corey stop, I didn't mean it like that."

"Yes you did. Maybe you should head back home and we can pick this up some other time, I have some other things I need to do today.."

"Yeah, you're right. I'll call you?"

Corey shakes his head, "maybe a text would be best. I'm not the best at watching my phone lately. Everyone needs something, ya know?"

"I know. See ya around."

Nikki pouts her way toward the door, holding back tears. She turns the handle, but at the same time turns back to Corey. "I could work, you know."

With his attention on something else, he comes back and responds, "I know it could. You'd have to stop being so jealous first."

He's right and she knows it. Nikki nods before heading out the door, closing it behind her. Corey sighs, looks at a clock.

5:45PM

He walks toward his couch, leaps over the back into a sitting position on the cushion. He lays down, turning the TV on. Not even paying attention, his world spins as he thinks about everything that has happened to him in the last few months. Slowly Corey Black drifts to sleep.

11:57PM

Sweat drops from the brow of the King of All Wrestlers as his eyes snap open, quickly adjusting to the dark apartment with a glow coming from the TV. The rainy day has turned into a full blown thunderstorm outside, lightning streaking across the sky. That must have been what woke him up, but the puddle of sweat on the leather couch tells the story. Nightmares, and a whole lot of them. Corey sits up and places his hands on his knees, breathing slowing to a calm pace. The salad he was going to enjoy earlier sits on the counter, he walks over to it and finally has lunch. After finishing his meal, Corey walks into his bedroom where his phone rests. Dozens more messages, more missed calls, but he doesn't care. He ignores every single one. He walks over to the window and opens the curtain, looking out across Minneapolis, thinking about where he's been and where he's going. This life he's made for himself seems like the stuff of legend. However, every night ends the same for Corey Black.

Day in and day out, the nightmare his life has been haunting him.