Fissure (Price)

[Play.] We get a look back at ReVival 61 through a grainy television filter, watching a replay of Kenny Freeman getting a big win over Asher Creed through dubious means. We watch as Alexei Ruslan catches the debuting Creed with a spray of mace to the face, before Kenny Freeman rolls him up for the three…and just as Freeman starts to celebrate his first win in a long time? [Pause.]

And that, dear reader, is when we come to realize where we actually are: in an old, seemingly rundown home somewhere outside Moscow. It’s unclear when we are, other than sometime after PRIME’s visit to Sydney, Australia, but the question of why we’re here becomes evident very quickly as we see a hand setting down a remote control. An oddly familiar hand, for that matter, as we pan up to see one Kenneth Freeman, Esquire. “My, what a cunning young lad,” the gentleman remarks, his eyebrows raised at the sight of his doppelganger pulling off the sneaky victory. “Rather dashing too, if I say so myself.” From his lap we see Kitty Freeman looking up, the cat’s purring coming to a stop at what its proper pal had to say. “Don’t let that handsome face fool you,” the feline fellow replies. “That man is a menace, and we have to stop him.” The directive issued by his companion confuses the esquire, who looks at the cat with a sense of confusion. “Stop him? From what?” “He’s the reason we’re here,” replies Kitty. “I can just feel it in my gut. Speaking of…it’s feeding time.” “But I fed you an hour a--” Kenneth’s protest is met with a silent but deadly stare from the feline, forcing him to simply nod in acceptance before heading to the kitchen. Setting his compatriot upon the counter, Kenneth opens the fridge door to reveal an open can of cat food. He sets the can upon the counter, allowing Kitty to get its fill of the fanciful (yet unbranded) feast. Moments later, the young proverbial lion nods at Kenneth with what appears to be a wry smile. “Like I was saying,” Kitty states, resuming its speech from earlier. “The reason you and I have crash landed in this corner of the Multiverse is because of the man we just saw…and we have to stop him from breaking all of reality itself. I think. I saw it in a movie somewhere.” The conversation is put to a stop once more, this time by a sudden earthquake that rocks the area hard. The house begins shaking violently, the kitchen cabinet just about to tip over from the severity of the quake…and just as quickly, the tremors stop. As the pair recover from the surprise incident, we see the feral Randall Schwartz hiding in a bush somewhere, presumably rattled by the strange phenomena. We then cut to a few miles outside the Red Army Base, where one of the roads has been devastated by the sudden appearance of a fissure.

Pressure is a funny thing. The more you build yourself up, the higher those expectations get. It’s one thing to be at the bottom of the barrel, knowing that there are haters and doubters expecting you to fail…it’s another to be at the top of your game, all the while knowing that the pressure just mounts more and more. It’s the kind of thing that can make precious gemstones AND destroy egos, all at the same time. Which makes someone like Nate Colton calling himself the New Diamond a bit hilarious…that’s the kind of nickname that comes from a massive ego. An ego that could use a little busting, if I’m being real with you…and if there’s one thing you need to know about your boy Kenny Freeman, it’s that bustin’ makes me feel good. …I’m gonna workshop that one. The point I’m trying to make, Nate, is that this collision course you and I are set on? It’s a good long time coming, stemming back to when Starshy Praporshchik faced you last October. There are some within PRIME that would take a victory over Ivan Stanislav and brag about it forever and always…but not you, Nate Colton. You know better, because there is one giant asterisk over said victory. The referee raised your hand, but Starshy Praporshchik did not relent. You beat the Russian Bear from pillar to post, but you could not get him to waver in his resolve. It’s gotta be eating away at you, huh? Knowing you had to settle for what amounts to a referee’s decision, that keeping Ivan silent had to be the next best thing to making him say “I Quit.” I’m willing to bet that you’d love to take your frustrations out on little ol’ Kenny Freeman, but if there’s one lesson I’ve learned from Starshy Praporshchik, it’s that I cannot give up. I cannot surrender, least of all to a man so full of himself he has to call himself a diamond. The same pressure that helped shape you over the course of your career is going to break you inside that ring at Budokan Hall. Those fans watching in Tokyo will see some real fighting spirit on display when I take everything you try to throw at me, and I take you to your brink…and then nudge just a little more. You and I are in a curious place going into this match, Nate. The year is still fresh, the rankings are nice and shiny and new…and we are, for all intents and purposes, tied for first place. ReVival 63 is a chance for the front of the pack to break away from the rest, and that makes it all the more important for me to finish the job that Ivan started in October. I’m gonna break that diamond, take the #1 spot that I deserve, and continue to prove I belong with the top dogs of PRIME…and the fissure I leave behind is gonna swallow you whole.

“There’s a what on the road!?” A frantic Alexei Ruslan has been given the news of the freak geological occurrence, in a strange situation calendar-wise as the call comes just days before ReVival 62. In the midst of Ivan Stanislav preparing for his tag match with Jonathan-Christopher Hall and, inevitably, the big confrontation with Coral Avalon the following show for the Universal Title, Ruslan is a busy man just now receiving word from the base, all the while unable to process the news before turning his attention to Kenny and Randall. He starts to open his mouth, but stops short of an inquiry with the Masters of the Moscowverse. “There is no way,” Ruslan remarks to himself, shaking his head. “Surely a coincidence.” Unbeknownst to Ruslan and the Masters, the odd trio of Kenneth and Kitty Freeman and Feral Schwartz have slowly made their way across the fissure, staring at it for what seems like forever before finally setting course for the Red Army base as we fade to black.