It’s a funny thing how quickly the human body reacts when a foreign substance enters its complex system. I knew as soon as I got up from my meditation in the men’s locker room that I had been drugged. It seemed that Rupert was a vengeful man with little patience for the opposition. Our triumph over him to gain the roster healthcare insurance for injuries suffered in the ring had brought his wrath upon me as it had my manager Ivan Stricker a week ago. All I could think about as I stumbled forward toward the entrance to the stage was how I would miss my one chance to finally pay off my family’s debt. All I wanted to do was save our house and win back our freedom from the greedy banksters that had duped my father into that ridiculous refinance loan before he died.
My vision was blurry and my brain's receptors only processed what my eyes were transmitting to them at eighteen frames per second. The world around me was like a poorly made stop motion animation that I couldn’t turn off. As I reached the platform behind the stage curtain I heard my music begin to play and the roar of the crowd. The reverberation burned my eardrums like hot wax being poured inside of them. I managed to walk out onto the stage and I could see the energy flow from the fans out from their bodies into the air and subsequently into my nostrils as I sucked in their dynamism heavily into my lungs. Its yellow glow filled my body and charged my chi, but no amount of energy would expunge this poison from my bloodstream.
I thought I was walking into a beating that would surely leave me a crippled mess until I saw Valora suffering from the same effects. We had both been drugged and were suffering from the same afflictions simultaneously. Somehow I made it into the ring as Valora had, but the intensity of the drug was only growing with every minute that passed by. The referee’s words were lost to me and my vision was growing dark until the bell was rung and every nerve ending in my body was set on fire. I gathered what composure I could and Valora and I began our farce of a fight. I could taste the anger pouring out of her body and soul and her aura beamed red and orange almost blinding me. Anger not at me, but at the ones who had done this to us, and forced us to endure this embarrassment in front of our fans and the world watching us at home.
Five minutes into the match it was clear to both of us that we wouldn’t be able to keep this up. Our equilibrium was off and we had been sent into a spiraling cyclone of hell. I sprinted at her in attempt to land my heart punch to end the match quickly, but instead, I ended up running straight into her and we both ended up over the ropes and sprawled out onto the floor.
Paralysis was next to set in as Rupert’s lackey, Walter Reagan, vaulted over the steel guard railing and proceeded to beat us within an inch of our lives. As he plopped our useless bodies onto a wooden table that he had pulled out from under the ring. My memory of the following events is broken, the visual in slow motion flash photos, but I’ll never forget the helpless feeling of that three hundred and fifty-pound behemoth crushing us through the table under his weight.
Then it all goes black and I awake drifting through a void lit only by distant illuminations that I could merely describe as stars. I feel weightless as if I’ve left my physical body behind. Panic sets in, my mind races, and I cry out but no one answers. I am completely alone floating through the emptiness of dark space.
Have I died?
Where am I?
Is this all that there is after death?
My questions are interrupted suddenly by a strange voice that echo’s in my mind…
Mysterious Voice: Heh... Haha…Hoo! It is good to see you, young friend… It has been so many years.
Sato’s astral form turns 180 degrees as he rotates to see a giant astral projection of a much older looking Baron Vendredi. The visual of his floating colossal head frightens Takuma to his core as he gazes upon the strange-looking specter as it speaks to him.
Takuma Sato: Who or what are you?
Mysterious Voice: It is I! Heh… the Baron!
Takuma Sato: You look old enough to be Vendredi’s father! I demand you tell me the truth!
Mysterious Voice: Ahhh… you always were too smart to fool, however… I do not lie! I am the Baron! Ha! Haa! Just not the Baron of your world young Sato!
Takuma Sato: What do you mean not of my world?
Mysterious Voice: I am from a parallel world, from another dimension, one very similar to your own!
Takuma Sato: A parallel world?
Mysterious Voice: Yes my friend, Heh, there are many Earths'…. a multiverse! Think of it as an onion where every layer of the onion is a universe onto its own! Hah ha! Our layers sit upon each other and therefore we share many similarities!
Takuma Sato: What does that have to do with me? Why am I here? What do you want with me?
Mysterious Voice: Ooooh! The Baron is here because I’ve been given a rare opportunity to warn you that your world is in danger! Haha! Yes indeed! I’ve already made efforts to reach out to the Baron of your world! Heh hee… However, it would seem you have not been receptive to his effort to befriend you.
Takuma Sato: Why do you keep laughing like that? How do you expect me to take you seriously?
Mysterious Voice: The Baron laughs because it is all he has left to carry his spirits! Now listen closely! Your world is about to endure great suffering! You and Vendredi must help the peoples of America and the peoples of the world avoid a calamitous fate. The Sato of my world and I did our best but we failed… perhaps our approach was misguided heh… or maybe the Baron listened to his friends too much and should have led our movement instead of standing behind and following Ivan and Ares.
Takuma Sato: Ivan Stricker?
Mysterious Voice: Yes, poor Ivan…he was murdered by a very sad man who lost his family in the riots… a single man in a mask with a gun changed the course of our future forever that night. We had just won the election in Detroit, things were starting to go our way…
Takuma Sato: None of what you are telling me makes any sense you old fool! I am not from your world!
Mysterious Voice: THEN THE BARON WILL HELP YOU SEE!
Takuma Sato: What?
Suddenly I’m sucked into a black vortex and my astral energy is scattered and dispersed like light through a prism. My brain melts, my soul screams, and then with no warning, it’s over and I stand at the top of the Joe Louis arena steps in Detroit surrounded by chaos. The old Baron stands beside me in his ghostly form as we both watch rioters battle police officers through the city. Vehicles and buildings burn and fill the sky with smoke and the sound of panic and screams echo from inside the arena behind us.
Baron Vendredi: This was caused by us, a revolution by our group the Rebels of Society! Ares Metaxas and Ivan Stricker revolted against the big banks, the local government here in Detroit, and we successfully seceded Detroit from the rest of America. I felt we had gone too far in our war against corruption, but Ivan, Ares, and your alternate counterpart felt that blood needed to be spilled in the streets to save people from the tyrants ruining their lives.
Takuma Sato: This is madness… why would we do this?
Baron Vendredi: Ha! Ho! Heheh! Oh let me tell you young Sato… while our worlds are similar they are also very different. In our world President Obama was never elected, the banks were bailed out but the auto companies were left unsupported by the federal government and all three American manufacturers went bankrupt. Thousands lost their jobs, their retirement, their homes, it was a disaster unparalleled in American history. The country was thrown into a depression that made the great depression seem like a cruel joke. Society crumbled slowly as the wealthy turned their backs on the rest of humanity. We tried to unite the peoples, make peaceful changes, but no matter what we did things only seemed to get worse.
Takuma Sato: How could things get worse than this? They’re dead and dying all around us!
Once again I was transported through time and space this time I found myself in an urban battlefield in a dystopian looking Chicago torn to bits by war. Rebel troops from the United Rebel City-States battle US imperial soldiers with corporate hammer logos on their armor. The sight is horrific and had I a physical form a chill would have been making its way down my spine.
Baron Vendredi: A civil war broke out between US Forces and the rebel city-states. Our forces were led by General Kronin Reinhardt and Captain Eric Dillinger who were both close friends ours. At first, it looked as if we might have been able to overthrow the government and save the country, but the President enlisted the help of a ruthless mercenary corporation called War Hammer led by Allen Anderson. Heh hooo… noo… we were annihilated in just two months and those of us who survived were sent to Guantanamo Bay for our crimes against the American empire.
My surroundings change again and I now find myself in a cemetery filled with gravestones. At first, I pay them no mind, but the Baron points his finger to them and I quickly recognize many of the names. The tombstones read “Valora Salinas”, “Kronin Reinhardt”, “Brother Abishag”, “Ares Metaxas”, “Ivan Stricker”, “Dixie Clement”, “Nathan O’Connell”, “Ronald Washington”, “K.D. Bachus”, “Jack Burton”, “Chuluun Bold” and finally the last stone reads my name…Takuma Sato.
Baron Vendredi: These were our rivals in the ring and our friends outside of it. Some we disagreed with politically, but when push came to shove and things got really bad we united together to fight the good fight. I’m sad to say they are all gone now… this is what you must prevent… it will not happen the same in your world…heh, things are different there thanks to President McStrump Ha! Haha! Hehehe!
Once again I feel the pull of the vortex and we are sucked into what I can only assume is the present time in this fucked up reality. The old Baron Vendredi sits on a concrete floor prison cell looking into a makeshift fire he’s made to keep himself warm. He looks old, beaten, and at the end of his life span. His face is wrinkled and littered with regret of the past.
Baron Vendredi: The fires… they tell me secrets… but they do not tell me the future. I cannot see what is coming exactly for your world young Sato. All I can tell you is that it is coming and that it will take hero’s to guide humanity through it. You must stay vigilant and pure my friend… do not let the darkness consume your heart. You must not give in, you must fight the good fight to the bitter end.
The Baron’s tone turns very somber and the energy in the room is sucked out completely.
Takuma Sato: What makes you think that I wouldn’t?
Baron Vedredi: Because my friend you turned on us… something corrupted you… and you were never the same after it.
The Baron begins to weep, his breathing patterns change, and he looks up at Sato with bloodshot eyes and tears rolling down his face.
Takuma Sato: What are you saying? That I changed sides? That I fought against your insane revolution? That I came to my senses that this could only lead in death and destruction? How dare you criticize me, old man! Look at the world you’ve created! Look at your pathetic existence rotting in this prison on this godforsaken island like some terrorist!
Baron Vendredi: It was not like you say! The Baron tried to save you! To help you see the light! You turned on us all! You did not pick a side! The Blob corrupted you! You chose the destruction of everything! You wanted to see the world burn! I had no choice to do what I had to do!
Takuma Sato: The Blob? You mean that thing Abishag is always going on about in the locker room?
Baron Vendredi: Yes...it destroyed you from the inside!
Takuma Sato: What did you do Vendredi? Tell me! How did I die?
Baron Vendredi: It is not important!
Takuma Sato: TELL ME DAMN IT!
Baron Vendredi: Th…The Barron had to stop you… he had to do it…
Takuma Sato: You killed me?
Baron Vendredi: The Baron is so sorry my friend! So Sorry!
Takuma Sato: If I had my physical form now I’d beat you silly old man! Stay away from me! Do you hear me!
Suddenly I’m ripped from the other world back into mine and I awake gasping for air with plastic tubes down my throat. A male nurse forces me down onto the bed as a female nurse administers a drug to calm me down. I’m told that I’ve been poisoned and that I’ve had an allergic reaction to the drug and I am lucky to be alive. However, all I can think about is the experience I’ve just had and whether or not it was real.
** To be continued.**