Ivan had been in his castle, wondering what to do next, when...

"Ivan..."

Ivan: "What?"

Random Soldier: "Some sheet of paper with Friction on it just came in..."

Ivan: "Well...?"

Ivan was visibly irritated.

Soldier: "Here you go..."

The soldier was incredibly reluctant to give Ivan the fixtures, but did anyway. He soon regretted it as he might have thought when Ivan sent his foot through a nearby table with a strong axe kick, and then saw the fixtures get ripped to shreds.

Ivan: "Are you trying to play some kind of trick on me?!"

Soldier: "No..."

Ivan opened a portal and stepped through it. On the other side was...

Stern: "What are you in here for?"

Ivan: "What kind of trick are you playing at?!"

Stern was visibly confused, but Ivan continued.

Ivan: "I just got the fixtures for Friction. And they said that you teamed me with Steelfist!"

Stern: "Yes."

Ivan growled so loudly that many people in the vicinity had to cover their ears.

Ivan: "Your insanity will be your undoing."

With those words, Ivan left.

Meanwhile...

***

Steelfist looked at the fixtures for Friction, and he became exceedingly frustrated.

Steelfist: "What is this?!"

Steelfist stormed out, marching toward the arena.

Steelfist arrives, and storms into Sterns office.

Stern: "Your frustrated because I teamed you up with Ivan, right?"

Steelfist: "Yes. How'd you know?"

Stern: "Ivan came in and said he was frustrated that he was teamed up with you."

Steelfist: "Fine..."

Steelfist left, visibly frustrated.

Right after the show...




"Get off of me!!!"

David Hardy struggled to break free of the security staff restraining him in the narrow hallway. About twenty feet down the line he could see more staff gathering around the corner. Hardy couldn't see, but he knew exactly who was around that corner.

"Get that son of a bitch out here!!!" he screamed.

His weak, bloodied body pushed and shoved as best it could, but his injuries were taking their toll on him. He couldn't even think straight now; his mind was a big spinning mess. He whipped his head around, sending drops of blood all over everything around him. Highone opened him up good; he always did know how to swing a chair. Hardy screamed again as the security pushed him back into the main backstage area. He backed up and lifted a table off the ground, ignoring the massive jolt of pain burning through his bullet wounded hands. He tossed the table into anyone he could hit, taking out several security guards in the process.

Hardy had finally snapped. After all the attacks and backstage bullshit over the past several months, it wouldn't take much to push him over that line. But the return and betrayal of his own best friend sent him further over that line than anyone could imagine. Now all of his thoughts were clouded with pain, rage and confusion. He quickly picked up a chair but before he could use it, he was tackled hard from behind by several people. It didn't take long for several more people to dog pile him to hold him down.

"I'll kill all of you!!" he screamed his mad delirium.

He continued to struggle, but it was no use, he was just too weak. He could feel the blood ooze out of every wound in his body, causing massive dizziness. Over the shoulders of the security staff, he could see Valerie Stern looking on. She had something of a confused, concerned look on her face. Hardy fixed his hurt gaze on her and would not look away until Stern finally frown and turned, walking the other way until she was out of sight.

"Why is this happening!?" Hardy roared.

But he got no answer. He finally stopped moving and let his head rest on the cold cement floor.

"I give up... I fuckin' give up..." he sighed.

The security staff picked him up by his limbs and carried him down the hall, like some tribe carrying their kill to the fire. Hardy closed his eyes and tried to make sense of it all...

When he reopened them, he could see the ceiling of his locker room. With a groan, he slowly sat up to find he had been placed down on a practice wrestling mat, which now was covered in his blood. He winced as he ran his hand over his slowly recovering bullet wounds. The bandages were completely soaked in blood and it stung just to touch them. He had made plans for Drako to pay for these scars dearly, but now Hardy had other things on his mind.

Why would Highone do this to him? They had always been best friends and never had any sort of falling out that would lead to this. Granted, they hadn't really kept in contact in Highone's absence, but Hardy couldn't imagine that would be enough to lead to this attack, could it? Hardy coughed suddenly and a sickening stream of blood left his mouth and landed on his pants and floor.

He slowly stood up but instantly stumbled into the wall. The loss of blood was really taking its toll on him. He dropped down to the locker room bench and gently edged his way over to his gym bag. His vision was going blurry again and he desperately needed to see a doctor, but in his mind, getting answers were more important. He reached into his bag and pulled out his cell phone. He wiped the bit of blood from his eyes and began to browse through the phone menus before finding the right number; Highone's.

Hardy coughed up another stream of blood and doubled over, letting more blood drop from his mouth and head onto the floor. He breathed heavily as he pressed a button and put the phone to his head. He rested back against the wall and closed his eyes as he heard the ring tone. Suddenly, the locker room door flew open...