Subject: When Glory Beckons - Vendetta I Mon Mar 18, 2024 9:59 am
Listless and chilly it was on the south end of Lake St. Clair intertwined with the mouth of the Detroit River. Sawyer eyed a great ball of mist hovering over the freshwater as if it were a demon of gray. As the wind played with his blonde locks nonchalantly, he squinted an eye and turned to Hayden. She sat adjacent to him, watching the lake with her icy blue eyes. She lifted her nose and sensed something in the air and so did Sawyer. She was constantly on guard; waiting for something to go down even if it never happened.
Sawyer's skin was dead pale against the bleakness of the sky and the fog. There wasn’t another soul for what felt like an eternity in miles. He picked up a flat rock and slung it towards the trembling mist, half expecting it to come skipping back but it never did.
“And so we march on to The Motor City. What used to be an automotive giant has deteriorated into a shell of its former self but the lifers stay true to form even if it seems bleak. It feels so lonely; if not unloved here and you can see it in the hardened scowls of those who dwell in the confines of the city. I stare into this snarling tuft of fog and I see the Chamber of Valor playing out before my very eyes. It is as invigorating as it is formidable. We are on the precipice of history by crowning an inaugural Valor Champion. Each of us has a story to tell and a yarn to spin about how we got here. Each of us has a case to plead as to why we deserve The Valor Championship.
But It is not deserved, it is earned.
The Valor Championship does not care about our hardships. It does not care about our backstories. It does not care if you ‘want’ or ‘need’ it around your waist. The Valor Championship serves only the courageous in the heat of battle. The Chamber of Valor is a deadly structure built to test the iron wills of whoever dares to enter. The second you show a sign of weakness or uncertainty is the second you are fair game to be unceremoniously jettisoned out of the belly of this beast.
A fate that none of us desire, but five of us will undoubtedly earn.
I look around this massive steel behemoth and I am taken aback by its spine-chilling aura as most are. It makes us feel microscopic by comparison. I won't pretend to know all the nuances of the Chamber of Valor. I won’t pretend to be an expert in the field, but I know one thing's for certain. It is unforgiving. The men and women placed around me inside this portal of hell know it too. It’s going to take all of us to conquer this monstrosity not in unison, but as sacrificial lambs except for one. The reward at the end is worth its weight far heavier than the Chamber of Valor could ever be. The only question that remains is who will defy the odds, who will defy the viciousness and malice within, and be the shining example of valor?
A contrast of styles will be pitted against each other in a war of attrition. The old guard - the seasoned veterans like Emmanuelle and Matt Miles? They’ve cut their teeth and paid their dues one way or another to get here but not without controversy nipping at their heels. Young lions like Jupiter King and myself? Ever so defiant to put our names on the map and in the stars. Dark horses such as Tomi Venus and TJ Alexander? They want to pull the rug right out from underneath everyone and defy expectations. Everybody has an agenda. Some are more cut out for this than others. The lines in the sand have been drawn.
I have no doubts that Matt Miles and Emmanuelle will peer down from their respective perches at me and brashly ask who I am. I have no doubts Emmanuelle especially will shove their accolades in my face as a show of force. I have no doubts they’ll say I’m green and with little experience. They’d be right. The only thing I can do is return with a question of my own. Emmanuelle is The Platinum Standard, whereas Matt Miles is The Gold Standard. Flashy nicknames to emphasize the status quo. The question I have is what about the standard of valor? Do either of you know what that entails? Emmanuelle’s penchant for having her name in the spotlight; to be revered among her peers as a measuring stick, while arrogance seeps from within has a shelf life. There is nothing wrong with being acknowledged as one of the faces of this industry but I march to the beat of a different drum. Fame and fortune are inconsequential to me. The Valor Championship holds so much more meaning than mere infamy, the grueling process, the actual hellish grind it will take to make it through the Chamber of Valor holds more value. It’s just as much about the journey as it is about the result thereafter.
The Chamber of Valor and The Valor Championship itself are not meant to pad your stats Emmanuelle. It is not just another vanity driven accolade to shove in your trophy case to collect dust behind a lock and key. It is to be valued, honored, cherished, and defended all at once. I will not let you tarnish its stature by your bloated ego and oversight. When the only reason you’re here is due to an unforeseen circumstance by an incompetent referee. You conveyed such emotion to Christopher Sabertooth, harping back on previous encounters and how much your match with him meant to you and your crushed pride. Yet you just as easily walked away with your hand held high despite robbing him blind, whether it was your fault or not is beside the point. As long as it benefits you. As long as you can ‘sleep at night’ it is justified. It’s a shrewd tactic that you can skip away freely from in a one-on-one situation, but in the Chamber of Valor, there is nowhere to kick your boots off and worry about it later. In the Chamber of Valor, I will drag you down kicking and screaming because your ‘pride’ means absolutely nothing to me.
Matt Miles also thrives on constant excellence and unlike Emmanuelle, I believe his battle against Nayati doesn’t sit well with him. Azazel has been a bitter and belligerent thorn in his side but that doesn’t matter to me. He will have to put him on the back burner because I am here to oust Matt Miles not as the poster boy of PCW, but as a warrior who out-dueled him on the biggest stage without deception or aces up my sleeves. But I will not enter this chamber solely for you, Matt Miles. I will enter this Chamber to capture the Valor Championship. I know you have gilded dreams, your thirst for gold is unquenchable and your work ethic is damn near unparalleled - but I do not aspire to match your thirst for gold, your unrelenting work ethic, or your dedication to your craft as that would accomplish nothing. Instead, I will surpass it and write my own saga in PCW. These are not promises to you or anybody else in the Chamber of Valor. These are promises to the Valor Championship itself. I will never question your reason for being here, Matt. I will, however, wonder what you’ll feel like to be humbled for the first time in PCW by the better man.
I am not oblivious to the brutality at stake either. This will not be pure in any sense of the imagination. I expect to leave this hellscape tattered and torn, but it’s not without reason and it’s nothing that can’t be undone by the Valor Championship. When I see someone like Jupiter King, weaponizing her body, throwing caution into the wind, doing everything in her power with reckless abandon to secure victory there’s part of me that admires her fire but at the same time - I think to myself how much longevity such a chaotic style has. She is young, she is naturally fearless and she wants as much blood to paint the canvas as possible no matter the source. Scrambling around like a headless chicken can and will backfire, but she is a free spirit, she doesn’t care either way. She will rush into battle with her sword drawn and a smile pasted across her face and she will end up another casualty to war. Another weathered corpse to stack and set ablaze on the pile of smoking limbs. You will get no pity from me, Jupiter when that happens. You aim for the head at all times, but I’m the one who will sever it off and leave no chance for failure. Barbarity does not excite me like it does you, it does not fuel me, it is a means to an end and that is what you are, Jupiter King.
For there are slithering snakes in this chamber. Tomi Saint Venus is one of them. And as fate would have it Azazel gifted your opportunity on a silver platter and why wouldn’t you jump on it? Like feces to a fly, you would gravitate towards taking the easy route. Azazel did you no favors as you’re led to believe. What he did was bait you into the lion’s den. Your delusions of grandeur have poisoned you, Tomi. When you shed your mask you may as well have shed your flesh from bone. Instead of taking accountability and working towards bettering yourself, you’re in denial over the Prodigy Championship. Now you insult your intelligence, believing you are a dark force when that couldn’t be further from the truth. You are a snake in the grass. You are a punchline. You are here by chance, not by merit but you will be vomited out of the chamber as soon as you step foot in it as you are not built for this, but above all else, nobody believes in you, not even yourself.
There is mutiny in the air and TJ Alexander has gone into business for himself. A once proud tag team - reduced to shambles because of his selfishness and sour grapes. What you did to Nobi speaks volumes about your character and the way that you got here is shameless but it falls in line with the attitude you have adopted and stored away the whole time. Nobi was a tool to you, but he was the one who did all the dirty work. You may think you’ve changed your tune, but I still hear the same mundane notes playing repeatedly. Everyone believes you’re a lackey, a shadow, a second fiddle and one crooked victory over Nobi doesn’t change that perception, it only reaffirms it. Now you waltz into the Chamber of Valor seeking gold and validation. You will find neither because I will find you first and when I do, you will resume your standing as ‘the other guy’, as the conniving turncoat who gambled on himself.
And lost.”
The sun burned through the mist like a flaming sword as Hayden trotted over to Sawyer, its vivid rays shimmered off her beautiful coat. The whole area sparkled and the sense of danger seemed to simply disappear into hiding.
“This city needs a guiding light. It needs a torch bearer. I will do everything in my power to make that come to fruition. I will raise Detroit from the dead and make history. It won’t be easy, and I never expected it to be but I will fight for this title the only way I know how. The only way it deserves to be fought for.
Yesterday at 8:26 am by 
Subject: When Glory Beckons - Vendetta I 
