Progress Report

[Mr. S£im Citrus 0]

*KNOCK, KNOCK*

 

Wildchild cracks open the door to the Commissioner's office and sticks his head in. "You busy?"

 

Mark Stevens leans back in his chair with a smile. "Wildchild! Come on in; I was hoping you'd pop in."

 

Wildchild blinks. "You... you were?"

 

Mark grins sheepishly. "Call it a hunch. But, first things first; what's on your mind?"

 

Wildchild walks into the office, carrying an manilla folder, and drops it on the Commissioner's desk. "Medical progress report. Doc says I'm probably gon' have t'wear dat t'ing another couple weeks."

 

Mark nods. "I appreciate you competing back on Storm; I know how upset you were when you had to have your title stripped back in April, but I couldn't exactly make you compete while you're in your current condition."

 

The Bahama Bomber rubs the back of his head. "Oui. Duran put me through de ringer..." He breaks into his trademark grin. "But I've had it worse."

 

"Glad to hear it," says Mark.

 

"I also wanted to ask you about dat issue we discussed last week."

 

Mark shakes his head. "Sorry kid; the board voted it down. They said it's not in the best interests of the fed to reinstate the LHW title right now; not financially viable, they said."

 

If Wildchild is upset, he does his best to conceal it. He with a smile, he says, "I guess I'm gon' have t'hold on t' dis belt for a while."

 

"Aren't you interested in advancing to a higher division?"

 

Wildchild shrugs. "Back when I was wrestling for Sunshine, de t'ing that attracted me to de SWF was de LHW title. When Pete came down t' talk t'me about joining de SWF, dat was de only t'ing on my mind. Needless t'say, when I finally got bumped, and de LHW title had been retired, I was a little bit... disappointed."

 

"Sorry about that, kid," Mark says. "There were just barely enough wrestlers in the weight class to keep it competitive, and after King took over... well, let's just say that trashing the LHW title was on his short list."

 

*SIGH*

 

Wildchild runs a hand through his hair. "Mark, I respect de history of dis fed, and I respect de World Title, but it just isn't part of my ambition. My goal for coming here to de SWF was to establish myself as de greatest light-heavyweight in wrestling."

 

Mark leans back in his chair, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Well, you know that you don't necessarily have to be the LHW champion to be the best LHW in wrestling. Take a page from ELM's book!"

 

Wildchild frowns, but does not appear to have dismissed the matter outright. "I'll t'ink it over."

 

"Glad to hear it," says Mark. "Now, about Smarkdown..."

 

At this, Wildchild flinches, and unconsciously starts massaging his ribs. "Are you sure dis is a good idea?"

 

Mark's eyes widen in surprise. "This isn't what you wanted? I mean, after Lockdown, I guess I sort of assumed that..."

 

The Bahama Bomber shakes his head slightly. "Old habits die hard, I guess. I mean, I didn't want to see Duran flatten him, but we haven't exactly buried the hatchet... not since he tried to bury a lead pipe into my ribcage..."

 

Mark frowns at this. "Look, Wildchild; we both know that Johnny was a jerk to you. Hell, I was a jerk myself, and I'm sorry. As far as I've seen, he seems to be sincere about making it up to you. Don't you think that you should at least try to get some closure between the two of you, if nothing else?"

 

Wildchild lowers his head. "Oui. He did save me from Justice Rule the other night; I guess I at least owe him a talk."

 

"Good idea," says Mark. "Besides, while you two are getting ready for your match on Smarkdown," he slides an envelope across the desk, "you should have plenty of time to talk about this."

 

The envelope has a slight bulge, about the size of a video cassette. Wildchild looks down it with a puzzled expression. "And what is dis?"

 

Mark looks at Wildchild with a thoughtful expression. "Pete sent that to me yesterday, express mail. It's a transcript of the last episode of Metal, along with a cassette of some activity that took place after the show went off the air."

 

Wildchild opens up the envelope and peers inside. Noticing a post-it note stuck to the side of the cassette tape, he pulls it out to look at it. As he reads the note, his eyes widen and his eyebrows shoot to the top of his forehead in a mixture of surprise and anger. "Do you mind if I..."

 

Mark shakes his head. "That's your copy to keep. I figured that it would be of particular interest to you..."

 

Wildchild nods. "Merci. If you'll excuse me, I think I need to go find Johnny."

 

Mark nods and Wildchild turns around absentmindedly, re-reading the note as he walks out of the Commissioner's office. Mark rests his elbows against his desk, leaning his chin on his fingertips. "Well," he thinks to himself, "I'll say one thing for this job: it's never boring."

[TheBostonStrangler 0]

I wonder there this one is going. The JL stuff is pretty intriguing, so I'm looking forward to seeing where that ends up. Good work, WC.