Luca and the gang blew off a chance to kill another of Heiman's associates to head to Central Park. While there, Luca found a letter from Victoria addressed to him explaining that Kyle had helped Nari and herself fake their own deaths. After meeting her at the safehouse she said she was at in the letter, Luca stumbled into a trap and was almost killed by one of Heiman's goons when Jared and Mero stormed into the house. After the three left the goons dead on the ground, Victoria revealed herself to be working with Heiman in an attempt to kill Luca. Needless to say, her little plan failed and the police intervened to sort out what caused the gunshots that came from the interior of the normally quiet house. Heiman's third plan caused the house to explode, allowing the three to escape but severely injuring Mero in the process. After hitching a ride in a taxi, Luca was followed by a Heiman family car before a semi crashed into the taxi. Heiman himself emerged and ordered one of his men to kill Luca right then and there, but stopped him at the last second.

Now, dazed, confused and on his way to the hospital, Luca wonders why Heiman wanted him to stay alive...





The blinding light greets the opening eyes of Luca with the intensity a thousand fiery suns forced into a tunnel about 8 feet away. Groggy, beaten and sore, he closes his eyes and presses the back of his head further against the pillow in an attempt to block out the world. Despite the pounding in his head that affects all 5 senses he hears the pitter-patter of shoes meeting tile floor, only amplified to 11. The closer the sound gets, the angrier he becomes. Opening his eyes once again in an attempt to identify the cause of the deafening noise that he's sure is keeping him awake, he sees the oh so familiar face of Renee staring down at him.

"The doctors said you were coming to. How do you feel?"

Covering his ears to block out the ear raping volume of her voice, Luca rolls over onto one side.

"What happened?"

"I don't fucking know! Lenny brought you in a few hours ago freaking out about how bad you were, if anything you should know what happened!"

"Oh yeah, because the guy in the hospital bed should know why he's here!"

"Fuck it. Mero still hasn't woken up, I'm worried."

Tears start to well up in Renee's eyes as she slams her fist against the wall just above Luca's head.

"Dammit! I am going to fucking kill Heiman!"

The man in the bed begins to laugh upon hearing that sentence leave her mouth.

"So now you see things my way. I haven't seen that fire in your eyes since just before you killed Lewis. What did he do to make it personal?"

"I think you know, Luca. Shut up before I punch right through that stupid looking face of yours!"

"I honestly don't know, Renee. If I did, oh I don't know, I WOULDN'T FUCKING ASK YOU!"

Without so much as a second of hesitation, Renee's hand shoots out and smacks Luca hard on his left cheek. Glaring at her, Luca attempts to stand but is cut off a burst of crippling pain that sends him right back to a laying position on the bed. With a sigh, the enraged woman walks out of the room into the hallway, where Luca loses sight of her in the sea of hospital workers and other patients.

Was it something I said?





The atmosphere inside of Mero's hospital room is much less confrontational than Luca's, as Mero's unresponsive body lays as peacefully as someone severely wounded in a house explosion could. Sitting in the chair next to his bed is a crying Lenny, hiding his face is a box of tissues as he struggles to keep his composure. Jared stands by the door leading out into the hallway, looking more pissed off than he usually he is. Renee is thought to still be visiting Luca, and is nowhere to be found in the room of the dying man.

"Oh man, Heiman is gonna fucking pay! I swear I'll kill him myself if I got to!"

"That's for fucking certain. I think all four of us have a legitimate claim to be the one to kill that motherfucker."

"Fuck man, Mero was my cousin! I'll fucking avenge him!"

From the bed came an open palm that lightly meets Lenny's face.

"What the fuck man? 'Was'? I ain't dead yet!"

In damn near perfect unison, both Jared and Lenny have the exact same reaction to Mero's sudden burst of life.

"Holy fucking shit!"

"You two should know, it'll take a lot more than some explosion to kill this motherfucker!"

"Damn right!"

"Say, where are Luca and Renee? I bet they'd like to see me."

"Luca's in here too, he got hit by a semi."

"WHAT?!"

"He means the cab he was in got hit by a semi, and this guy's in college?"

"Fuck off Jared!"

"And Renee?"

"She went to check on Luca, she's been gone for about 3 hours now."

"You'd think she'd be back by now."

"Yeah..."

Meanwhile at the Heiman estate, a knock at the front door startles the guard, who opens the door to delivery woman with a package in one hand and a clipboard clutched to her chest.

Delivery Woman: "Hey! I have a package for a Jeffery Heiman. Looks important to me, I just need someone to sign."

Guard: "I'll go get Mr. Heiman..."

He starts to walk off when the woman calls to him.

Delivery Woman: "Look, I don't have all day. Just sign here and bring it to him."

She hands the clipboard to the guard, who signs the papers without reading them and takes the package in his hands.

Delivery Woman: "Thank you! Have a nice day!"

Turning back to her car, the woman mutters to herself.

"And see you in hell..."



"Good Christ, how am I going to defend myself from this current of wave of goddamned idiocy that I'm faced with on Saturday? Danny Devia, Chester Brock, and Markus Conan, the three musketeers of stupidity and inferiority! This is all too much for me to handle at once, please, give me a moment.

Gather round kiddies, and hear the newest challengers to my title reign get put in their fucking place!

Hmm, where to start?

Oh yeah, the one who thought he would have a chance walking out of the last edition of Shove it with the NK title! Danny Devia, I can't seem to rid myself of you, can I? You're like a damned anchor, attempting to pull me into the doldrums you've been relegated to so you aren't so lonely at the bottom. How fucking sad, maybe this time we'll hear how hard your bones crack when I cut the chain and send toppling from the highest you'll ever be without a line of coke down to rock bottom. You have anger management issues? I don't deal well with idiots, so I can't help but be annoyed everytime I see your fucking name. Maybe I should dunk your ugly mug into the refuse filled toilet to confirm your shithead status...

Up next is Chester Brock, a man who constantly has to ask himself who he is. I too have to ask, who the fuck are you? I mean, this guy is legitimately so fucking boring and vanilla that he developed amnesia as a coping mechanism! I'm supposed to say something interesting about this guy? I'm good, but I'm not a fucking miracle worker! Fuck it, maybe I'll beat him so hard that he remembers everything again! Then he can tell us his story of how he taxidermised a squirrel or something to that effect. Who was I talking about again?

Was it Markus Conan? No, why would I talk about him? Oh wait, he's one of my opponents...

Fucking a, man. Where do I start?

No seriously, where? Has this guy done anything at all?

Oh yeah! He lost to the Crimson Dong!

That's right folks, this moron lost.

To the Crimson.

Fucking.

Dong!

Now he's challenging for my title?

I guess Shane wanted him to be punished for managing to fail that hard at such a simple task as beating the glue eating special needs kid of the XWF. Jesus, this will be fun! I love dealing with inadequate fucktards!"