"A friend is nothing but a known enemy."

- Kurt Cobain



Just south of Dallas, Texas
Sunday Morning

The bright sun this early indicates another scorcher in Texas today. The temperature has been in the upper eighties and low nineties, and will be in the foreseeable future. A single dirt road branches off of I-45 and goes deep through a bit of forest and then a quarter of a mile surrounded by corn. An old white warehouse behind a small abandoned farmhouse sits alone in the middle of the dense cornfield. Several farm vehicles are parked outside of the warehouse, along with three pick up trucks. Inside the building, there are bails of marijuana stacked nearly to the ceiling all around. Four cowboys stand among them conversing.

Outside another pick up truck pulls up to the house and another cowboy jumps out. He's wearing a small silver star on the breast of his denim shirt, the sure sign of a texas ranger. The Ranger creeps up to the warehouse and jumps on top of a large farm tractor. The side man door opens up to the warehouse and the four cowboys walk out. The Ranger jumps off the tractor and kicks the one cowboy so hard he flies back into a group of barrels and lays still.

Cowboy- Rangers!!

Another cowboy pulls his gun from behind him and fumbles it around. The Ranger ignores the gun and runs at the man, leaping into the air once again, and kicking the man back so hard against the warehouse man door that it nearly caves in. The third cowboy forgets about his gun all together and runs to the Ranger. He throws three punches which were all blocked by the Ranger and is then grabbed and thrown to the ground after being flipped three times. The fourth cowboy decides he is no match for the Ranger and flees from the battle. The Ranger reaches down and picks up and empty whiskey bottle from the ground, tosses it into the air, and roundhouse kicks it. The bottle travels at what seems light speed after the fleeing cowboy until it strikes him and shatters onto his head. The cowboy falls down in a cloud of dust.


Just south of Dallas, Texas
Sunday Early Morning

The Ex-Detective is awake.

Dallas. What the fuck. We're making good time for his stupid appointment in Houston and he tells me to pull off in El Paso. He gets out, hands me this package, and tells me to take it to Dallas. Wouldn't tell me what it was or who it was for. That'd I'd know what to do with it when I got there. I'm sick of his fucking riddles. Is he just fucking with me? And what about my entire reason for following his ass around? A follower. What the fuck ever. Now I'm his mail man. What next.

The Ex-Detective drives alone with his thoughts down I-40, south of Dallas. After delivering the Doctor's package he felt it was best to grab a drink somewhere. After three hours spent in one establishment, it was time to continue his venture back to Houston to meet back up with the Doctor. After traveling a short distance through the country outside of the city, his car begins to jostle around a bit.

Trevor- Now what. Get stranded out in the middle of fucking nowhere, great.

He pulls off onto a dirt road and slows down a bit. He sees far down the road there's a couple of buildings off to the left. As he approaches it in the dark he notices nothing going on. No vehicles, just old farm equipment and a warehouse. No lights, no music. The warehouse could be one hundred years newer than the house by it's looks. The Ex-Detective drives past the house and hopes his car remains alive. About another mile down the road and the car makes it's last sputter and comes to a stop. The Ex-Detective beats on the steering wheel and console. He steps out of the the car and begins walking back the dirt road to the house.




Old Farm House
South of Dallas, Texas
Sunday

The Ex-Detective wakes up.

He's lying huddled up on some old cardboard in the corner of the white abandoned farm house. It didn't look completely abandoned though, there were lights and tables set up all through it. It looked like a drug operation but he had no clue. It is still very quiet. Al though he thought he heard a crash outside a few moments ago, just to be safe, he thought he should check it out.

As he leaves the upstairs bedroom, he walks out into the hall way to be met with a full roundhouse kick the sends him flying about into a door to the bathroom. The door collapses behind him as he hits and and he falls onto the hard hard. Lying between a sink and a toilet, his vision is blurred and can make out a cowboy looking man kicking his ass. He tries to pry himself up between the small space, but is then grabbed and throw through the window to the outside. He lands on his back and rolls a few feet till get ends up on his feet.



What the FUCK was that??

The Ex-Detective waits like a cat waiting to pounce. He looks all around and neither sees nor hears anything. Suddenly, from behind him the Ranger has leaped into the air with another flying kick that hits him in the back of the head. The Ex-Detective lunges forward and lands face first onto the ground. The Ranger stands over him and introduces the situation.

Texas Ranger- Texas Ranger and you're under arrest!

Trevor- Arrested?! Arrested for what?! My car--

The Ex-Detective gets another roundhouse to the face and falls back down.

Texas Ranger- And you have the right to rema----

The Ranger freezes in his statement and is lit up like a Christmas tree. Smoke begins to rise from the top of the Ranger's skull as he stands and shakes uncontrollably. The Ex-Detective looks on as the Ranger falls face forward like a burnt piece of toast.

Doctor D'Ville- Hello, my friend.

The Doctor steps forward as the Rangers body falls to the ground. He holds a baton taser in his right hand and a smile across his face. He steps over the Rangers body and reaches down to pick up his associate.

Doctor D'Ville- Trouble seems to find you no matter where you are, Trevor.

Trevor- Yeah, you ain't shittin'. How did you get here, Lou?

Doctor D'Ville- You should know better than to question my ways, Trevor. Our ride should be arriving shortly. On ward to Houston!

The Ex-Detective brushes himself off and lights up a cigarette. He kicks the Ranger in the stomach a few times, even though the Ranger probably cannot feel it at the moment, it made him feel a bit better. The Doctor laughs.

Doctor D'Ville- A shocking turn of events for our ranger... I see a shocking turn of events for our rock-n-roll friend as well. Congratulations Mister Loverboy. Congratulations on your new bundle of joy. I do hope you plan on marrying that film star, after impregnating her with what would seem another species. How unfortunate though, right? A decision must be made now, a life changing decision. Are you the type of man that will continue his life on the road, leaving your new family behind. Or will you hang it all up. The music, the fighting, the whining. Hang it all up to preserve time with the ones you love. Is that even the case, Mister Loverboy? Is it love? Well, we'll leave that up to you and Miss Grey. I hope you two enjoy raising your abomination together. Now, as for our appointment. I'm glad to see, even with all of your extracurricular, that you've found the time to make it back to the correct country at least. Your time spent in Russia made me nervous as well, cancelling an appointment at the last minute, my boy, is never good. I trust you'll make it to Houston in time.

The Doctor walks through the small farm and watches the Ex-Detective stumble around noticing all of the other victims of the Rangers kicks. He enters the warehouse and a loud exclamation can be heard from the inside. The Ex-Detective maybe now realizes he picked the wrong abandoned farm to squat in for the night.

Doctor D'Ville- Don't venture off too far, my dear Trevor. We do have a bus to catch, and I'm sure our friend here came without informing any fellow forces. We'd best be looking ahead.

The Ex-Detective ignores the Doctor and continues to rummage around.

Doctor D'Ville- I see you're still stuck-fast on being cheated here in the XWF. Well, as you said, perhaps the officials overheard you complaining and crying out during Madness last week that they decided to hand you a title shot. Congratulations once again. It just shows all the newcomers in the XWF that it doesn't matter how great your are, coming off a loss or not, if you complain enough and make yourself heard, good opportunities will come your way. After all, you're a very valuable asset to this company, Mister Loverboy. It may fool you a bit with my Main Event status as of late, but I'm quite fresh on the roster here myself. I don't remember requesting any of those matches I was in. No demands. No crying. I just accepted what the XWF offered me with a smile, and here I am. And not to dwell on the past, but as I've said, my work with Gator and Todd are far from over. His time as Television Champion isn't over yet, and I can accept that. But that does not make that title safe. Not in the least.

A charter bus slowly approaches the farm house from a distance away. A cloud of dust from the road follows it and grows larger the faster the bus goes. The two men stand patiently and wait for the bus to reach them.

Doctor D'Ville- You would be the second consecutive jocose opponent that I've had in the past two weeks, Mister Loverboy. I couldn't take anything seriously that Gator said to me, especially with that butt of a joke Todd hanging around him all of the time. Now, between your pornstar lifestyle, your encounters with the unknown, and your few statements regarding your status in the federation and our session, I'm not sure who I would consider worse. You've taken a very serious moment in your career and placed it on the back burner. Do you think I'm just a mere stepping stone for you to climb to more fame? Do you consider me just a mark on your boot. Fail to realize who you're dealing with this week could be your destruction, Loverboy. You're focusing way too much on your match with Mr. WGWF. Not only is our match two days sooner, but did you notice something else? You go from the Main Event facing the Doc, back down to the midcard where you usually dwell. Isn't that something? Perhaps the officials in this company haven't overlooked anything. Perhaps it's just in who you're facing, my friend. If you think just any singles title is going to project your status and fame to knew heights, I believe your once again, mistaken. You carry three belts with you now and you still don't seem to get the attention you desire. It must be tough to be the sole-owner of a Trios Title that hasn't been thought about since you won the thing. I believe there's only one other group of three in the entire federation that could stand themselves enough to come after your title, and they're the ones you beat for it. So good luck in your future defenses with the Trios Title. And good luck to you in your future title shot against Guppy Parsh, whenever it is the officials finally decide to book it. Perhaps they promised you a shot just to shut you up a bit? Hold you at bay until you forget all about it and continue being the "Loverboy" everyone loves. But if the rumors are true, and you do receive your shot at Guppy Parsh and win... Well, after I defeat you this Monday that put me close to the top of the ranks for a shot at that said title, wouldn't it? Let's consider that, my friend. Hopefully your colors stay pink and don't fade to yellow. I'd hate to come after it without your consent. But until then, we'll just have to focus on our match now. No Television Title and no Guppy Parsh Title. Just the two of us with nothing but our futures in the XWF at stake. I wish you the best of luck, my friend. You will need it.

The bus stops directly in front of the two men, as if the Doctor called them up on the phone and told them exactly where to go. The two men load onto the empty bus and it drives away into a cloud of smoke. A few short minutes later over a dozen squad cars and pick up trucks fly down the dirt road from the direction the bus came. The police cars all slide into the farm and several officers jump out fully armed and run onto the property.




***The above banner created by Azrael Erubus.
**Song "Come As You Are by Nirvana performed by Civil Twilight.
*Song/Theme to "Walker, Texas Ranger".