San Diego
“Firestorm” Johnathan Mills stands in the line up at a soup kitchen. He deals out dollops of mashed potatoes to homeless people, taking care to study the face of each person that walks by.
Johnathan Mills had reunited, however briefly, with his first cousin at the asylum on Killswitch Island. Now the only other living relative…that he knows of…is in the wind. He didn’t get the chance to ask Tabitha Osborne where his father might have gone to ground from the nefarious Armand von Krauss, but he was fairly certain that the man was going to go dark if he was going to go dark.
Thomas Mills, better known to much of the wrestling world as Troy Adkins, was a man who played the part of the homeless bum well. He may have had money from a small lab here and there that created designer drugs and booze, but he didn’t often take on a permanent residence.
That’s when things would happen that you really don’t want to know about. Johnathan knows for certain. He was in such a facility in Hawaii that mass produced drugs and fulfilled the other vices of tourists and locals alike when it was attacked and he was killed by a man called Hammerhand.
Killed. The concept still gives Johnathan pause as he tries with all of his might to remember how it is that he made it back to the plane of the living. He remembered everything going dark in Hawaii and then waking up hundreds of miles away with a verbal contract to a shitty wrestling company that never made it off of the ground. He even cut promos for that company for them to never have him even get into the ring for a single show.
It was something for another day. the mystery of his Rebirth was destined to be just that. A mystery.
So, Johnathan Mills began instead to try to find his father. Maybe his father would know something about his mysterious rebirth.
Not that it was an easy task to try to find someone who might not even be in the soup kitchen out of the many in the town. It might even be that he wasn’t even in San Diego.
Johnathan finished up working the evening and began going person to person as they ate their given food with a picture in hand.
JOHNATHAN MILLS: Have you seen this person? Thomas Mills? Troy Adkins? These are his names? Maybe even Raymond Lancaster?
The answer that Johnathan would get would be a steady “No” or “No, I didn’t see him”.
Johnathan began to give up hope and decided to make his way to a local gym instead so that he can work out instead of hoping that someone may have seen Thomas Mills or even purchased from him.
JOHNATHAN MILLS: Well, I guess I need to try a different place. Prepare for my tag team match with-
Johnathan looks up from his downcast gaze, nearly running into someone. He looks up to see Jessica Tendonin, nearly bumping into her.
JESSICA TENDONIN: Have you managed to find your father? I used the picture that you gave me, but I haven’t seen him at all. You sure that he’s worth all of this effort? I did see him in the ring before. Filthy.
Johnathan just smiles, shaking his head with a chuckle.
JESSICA TENDONIN: No worry. If this is what you want, I won’t stand in your way. A few years ago, when my jet went down, I thought I lost my cousin forever. Thought I’d never see her again. I cried for days. And then, she turned up. She was never on the jet. We’ll find your father.
Jessica reached out and put her hand on Mills’ shoulder, reassuring him.
Johnathan pats the hand on his shoulder with a warm grin.
JOHNATHAN MILLS: Thank you. Your support means a lot. Now we have a match coming up? A tag team match against who?
JESSICA TENDONIN: They call themselves Hellfire. Which is funny, because the only hot thing about their team is the fact that Emily Desmond is seemingly nearly as unstoppable as myself and Paige Lewis. They’ve been jockeying for the SCW World Tag Team Championship since it was introduced, but have as yet failed. It’s actually been a while since the belts were defended…
JOHNATHAN MILLS: Hellfire. Sounds like more villains in funny suits. Desmond sounds familiar though. I think I’m to be kicking her butt soon enough for a title. Alternative title?
JESSICA TENDONIN: Yeah. The kid has skill, though. Be careful. She’s surpassed my record for time as Champion. Of course, it could be argued that she only has the championship because I’m not after it. I built that belt up back in the day, though, and it’s time for someone else to raise it up.
Johnathan laughs, raising an imaginary title over his head.
JOHNATHAN MILLS: Alternative and tag team champion right he-
Johnthan stops talking when a homeless bum bumps into him from a dark alley.
BUM: Hey, Troy. It’s about time you came back. That fellow with the clowns get done with you? You bring the goods? I been feigning!
JOHNATHAN MILLS: I’m not Troy, I’m…wait. What man with the clowns?
Jessica raised her eyebrows, but said nothing. She remembered well the antics of her former partner.
BUM: The man with the clowns! I was in North Carolina when I bought from him last. He said he was on his way here when the man riding the motorcycle with the clowns took him! Who are you to be looking all like him?
JOHNATHAN MILLS: His son? Do you know this man? Tell me!
Johnathan grabs the bum by the front of the shirt, ready to bash him in the face when he begins to cower and cry.
BUM: I don’t know! I don’t know! If he introduced himself, I was fucking high! If you can get me high again, maybe I will remember…
Johnathan back hands the bum, sending him running.
JOHNATHAN MILLS: There’s a man who rides with clowns working for XCW. Gabriel Tuck. After the show, I’m heading for their location to find him. I’ll drag the answers out of him by force if I must.
JESSICA TENDONIN: Wait, Gabriel Tuck? I thought motorcycles and clowns sounded familiar. He was in SCW not too long ago.
Jessica wracked her brain, trying to remember the last time she saw him in SCW…it may have been early this year or some time late last year.
Johnathan nods with a grin.
JOHNATHAN MILLS: I saw that. I watched a good amount of the archived shows while getting ready to come work for the place. Wanna train instead of dealing with drama?
JESSICA TENDONIN: I thought you would never ask!