Boy Meets World

Spending a week in Los Angeles had not been on Indy’s radar when Christmas Eve rolled around, but a series of strange events that may or may not have been brought on by a serious concussion led him to grabbing life by the horns. For the first time in his young life, he put training aside and made the time to build upon his barren social life. Most of his days were spent at the bedside of his longtime friend and manager, Doctor Dalton Miyagi, the mid-card veteran who suffered a massive heart attack earlier in the winter. While Doc’s condition remained stable, the old man had still not recovered from the comatose state it had left him in. As such, there wasn’t much Indy could do but tell stories to his unresponsive mentor, hoping that at least some of his words were sinking in.

Yet not all of Indy’s time in LA was spent in the hospital. It also gave him the opportunity to learn more about Doc Miyagi’s long-lost daughter, Megumi Yamamoto. For Indy, meeting Meg was love at first sight, although he wasn’t optimistic enough to imagine she felt the same. Still, the evenings they spent together between Christmas and New Year’s Eve had given the young second generation wrestler a much needed break from his life in the business. It had also given him hope for the future, as their last evening together sealed Indy’s hopes with an innocent kiss.

Arriving back in Indianapolis on New Year’s Day, Indy returned to Doc Miyagi’s warehouse gym, happy to see everything as he had left it. His new friend, Julius, had indeed fed Fat Sammy, the alley cat that Indy didn’t even know Doc had until the old man wasn’t around to care for it himself. The second-floor window that he had stumbled through during his Christmas Eve hallucinations remained boarded-up, and was high on Indy’s list of things to take care of now that he was back in town. Yet before he could get down to business, he found himself surprised by a large package directly inside the warehouse delivery door. A quick glance revealed to Indy that it had been sent by his emotionally cold and distant mother, United States Senator Margaret Carmichael.

After dragging the small crate further inside the building and checking the attached note, he understood that it was filled with various personal items that had been discovered during a recent remodel of his mother’s home. While receiving anything from his mother was rarely a good thing, Indy was excited to see exactly what had been uncovered, assuming that his mother’s staff had thrown out the rest of his effects long ago. With the crate pried open, Indy began to search through its contents, discovering the first treasure hidden within to be an aged pair of blue wrestling boots. Holding the pair of worn leather boots in his hand, Indy felt a flood of recognition wash over him.

“Dad…”

After his parents split up when Indy was very young, Ms. Carmichael willingly signed over her custody rights to Clive Darling, a British immigrant and aspiring professional wrestler. Alongside his father, Indy received an education in the wrestling business at a young age, traveling from one coast of the United States to the other and all points in-between. From the ages of 5 to 12, Indy watched his father pursue his dreams, learning countless life lessons of his own along the way. After his father’s death in the ring when Indy was 12-years-old, hospital staff handed the boots over to the distraught boy, and they were one of the few physical mementos Indy had of his father. While he proudly wore his father’s blue-tinted aviators to the ring every night, he could not bring himself to wear the boots that his father had died in, partially because he felt that he would never be able to fill them.

He had tried to fill those boots during his much-anticipated tour of the United Kingdom early in his career, yet despite learning a great deal, Indy’s losses had piled up to the point where he accepted that competing in his father’s home country did not automatically ensure success. Gently sitting the boots at his side, Indy turned his attention back to the crate, wondering what other lost item from his past may be lurking inside. The next item to find his grasp seemed to be a simple piece of cloth at first, but upon unfolding it, Indy recognized the Lucha-Libre style mask immediately.

“No way…”

Stitched together out of shades of blue and white cloth, it was the mask he had worn during his first tour of Mexico, where he competed as Relámpago Blanco. Doc Miyagi had arranged Indy’s tour of Mexico after the aspiring wrestler received regular encouragement from Miguel and Carlita DeSantos, an immigrant couple who had worked for his mother and were essentially responsible for his his upbringing when Indy’s custody was forced upon the busy politician. Indy had managed to win his first championship outside of the United States during this tour, a Junior’s Trios Title, alongside Halcón Negro and Tigre Secreto. While he had lost touch with the pair of aspiring luchadores since that time, the brief bond he had with them remained an important memory for young Indy.

Placing the mask alongside his father’s boots, Indy returned both hands to the open crate yet again, this time feeling the texture of satin against his fingertips. He pulled the jacket out of the crate and held it in front of his face, admiring its silver surface, black stripes along the cuffs and collar, and the black longhorn logo over the left breast pocket.

“Ribera’s…”

He mentioned the Japanese Steakhouse with a smile, fondly thinking back to his tour overseas alongside Doc Miyagi. While he was far from being established at that point in his career, Indy had made a strong impression on his Japanese contemporaries. His matches had been praised not only by the Japanese Wrestling Media, but also by the competitors he worked with, who appreciated his ability to adapt to different styles in the ring. After his last night on the tour, Hiroto Taguchi, the promoter who had organized the tour of young American independent stars, treated them to a farewell dinner at the renown Steakhouse. It was the kind of treatment Indy was not used to experiencing from American promoters, and it made him think twice about returning.

After the jacket was carefully placed alongside the mask and boots, Indy peered into the crate and realized that he had reached the end of pleasant surprises. All that remained were pieces of mail that had not been properly forwarded, most of them being of little importance or out-of-date. Indy leaned back on the ringside couch where Doc Miyagi would often watch him train and flipped through the random envelopes.

“Junk, bill, junk, coupon, bill, bill, bill…”

It started to seem as if his joyous trip down memory lane would end with a number of overdue expenses, when one large envelope in particular caught Indy’s eye. He looked over it for a moment before tearing open the flap and pulling out a collection of official documents. With his brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed, Indy leafed through the pages in a momentary state of confusion.

“What the hell…?”

At first he thought it may be official documents from his current employers, but it didn’t take Indy long to realize that it was something else entirely. The packet was from another wrestling promotion of which Indy had become very familiar with in recent months, mostly due to the number of crossover stars from Project: Honor that competed there. It was an official notice that he had caught the eyes of management in Wrestle World, and that after receiving the support of an anonymous source, they had decided to offer Indy a contract to compete. No try-out, no interview, no negotiations...all of which had either been completed by his mysterious supporter or waived due to their strong recommendation.

Indy’s mind began to race as he considered the dual-promotion stars that he was aware of. Zane, Myojin, TJ Thompson, Kimberly Chase, Daniel Horror...none of which Indy considered himself close with...at least on a friendly level. There were other options to be sure, such as the man formerly known as Colton Saint or his sister, Lillie...but why would they go out on a limb to get Indy such a high-profile gig?

Even with the travel and lodging arrangements staring him in the face, Indy wondered if it was some kind of practical joke or even a mistake. If either was the case, he knew he would find out soon enough, because he wasn’t about to let an opportunity like this slip through his fingers. Laying the documents down alongside the souvenirs of his world travels, he could not help but consider the new challenges another promotion could bring and the world of possibilities that were now opening up to him...