Para Bellum (Supreme Machine Arcadia #1)

WrestleWorld (offcam)
The basement of the Rivers Residence in Reno, Nevada was a place most people would avoid. Not just because it was dark and gloomy, but because of it’s resident, the unstable mountain of a man known only as Supreme Machine. He spent his days in the dark both to torment himself and to hide himself. But every once in a while the door that leads to the basement opened and steps came down the stairs that lead there. And this was one of these days as Supreme Machines sister and manager/handler Jennifer Rivers, or atleast her slightly unhinged Alter ego known as “Queen Machine” Jenny, or simply Queenie, pranced down the stairs like an excited little girl.

“Heeeeey, wakey wakey big guy, Queenie’s got something you wanna see!” She piped up into the darkness, not bothering to hit the lightswitch as she knew SuMa had broken the lightbulbs long ago. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs, scanning the surprisingly expansive room with a sharp look, searching for the distinctive figure of her brother.

As she caught no such sign nor did she hear a reply, she let out a frustrated sigh. “C’mon brother dearest, I know you’re in here. Trust me, you really wanna see this”

Finally she caught movement from the corner of her eye and hopped aside like a bullfighter as SuMa struck from the shadows like a coiled viper, his massive hand missing her head by a fraction of an inch. She let out a bright chuckle, which was cut short as SuMa’s other hand locks around her throat and lifts her off the ground with ease. SuMa slams her against the wall, leaning in until their eyes are less than an inch apart. Despite the crushing vicegrip constricting her windpipe, Jenny is smiling and winks at SuMa, never breaking eyecontact until she quickly taps on his arm, signaling her yielding. SuMa lets go, dropping the woman down, but she lands on her feet with almost feline grace and stands up, dusting off her leather coat and cracking her neck. “Score one for the big guy. Now will you listen to me?”

SuMa had lumbered to the far corner and slumped down on a seated position, his eyes fixed at the waiting form of his sister, before responding with a raspy voice. “What could you possibly have that is of interest to us…”

Rolling her eyes at the dismissive response, Jenny makes her way across the room and drops down to a squat, fishing an envelope from her pocket and dropping it on SuMa’s lap. She then crosses her arms and nods pointedly towards the envelope.

SuMa stares at her silently, before picking the envelope up and ripping it open, flipping through the stack of papers that it held within. “WrestleWorld?” He gave her an inquisitive gaze, holding a piece of paper with the words “WrestleWorld”, “ARCADIA” and “PARABELLUM” etched on it.

“Yeah. It’s a promotion. Holds crazy events on an island in god knows where. They invited someone from UPRISING to participate in this crazy match called Parabellum in their ARCADIA PPV. And I couldn’t resist throwing your name into the lot.” She spoke quickly with barely contained glee on her voice, her smile brightening up the dark room.

SuMa snarled. “Why should we care about some match on some island? We have our hands full hunting the Raven in UPRISING… Solstice draws near and we have little time to waste on pointless excursions…” he is about to crumple up the paper when Jenny snatches it from his grasp and gives a girlish giggle.

“Oh but puddin is there too! I mean, not in the match but he’s on the island and in the PPV.” She fishes out a poster from her pocket, showing the promotional image of “The Raven” Matthew Knox in all his facepainted glory. “See?”

Suddenly it looked like a fire was lit in the eyes of the large man. A deep growl emanated from his chest at the sight of the man who he had been hunting and fighting for the better part of 3 months. The man he was slated to take on at UPRISING’s next supershow, Solstice. He grabbed the poster and tore it to shreds as Jenny burst into another giggling fit at his reaction. Finally SuMa looked up at his sister. “Why would you do this? You told us you want nothing to do with our war with the Raven since it was complicating your career in LevelUp…”

Jenny shrugged and reached over to pat SuMa’s cheek. “Oh brother dearest. Even if I’m not the boring old Jennifer anymore and despite having my own fun over at Indy… I’m still technically your manager… and most importantly, your sister. This will be good for you Big guy, let you stretch your legs a bit, hunt some poor unfortunate souls all over an island for a few days… quench that bloodthirst of yours so you can go to Solstice with a clear mind and a clear purpose… and giving puddin a tiny little scare when he realizes you’re on the island with him is just a bonus…”

With that, Jenny got up and shuffled across the room until she reached the stairs. “I’ll tell them you’re game big guy, then I gotta start makin arrangements for your flight and lodgings. You do whatever it is you do here.” She blew a kiss to SuMa and disappeared up the stairs, leaving the large man alone in the dark.

Time passed as he just sat there, eyes fixated at the stairs until a voice rang in the dark. A soft, almost kind voice brimming with hesitation. “You… you think we should go?”

“A fresh hunting ground… unsuspecting prey… isolated and distant… Yes.” The beast growled in response, still staring at nothing.

“But we shouldn’t provoke the Raven… Even if we are far from Reno… Jackson told us to keep clear of him until Solstice…” at that point it became obvious that the quiet, soft voice was coming from SuMa’s mouth just the same as the deep, growling one. Two voices in one body.

The softer voices words caused the beast to grimace and he gave himself a stiff slap across the face, his head jerking to the left as he did, afterwards snarling menacingly. “Jackson has no power there weakling! And we aren’t going there to hunt the Raven… if we happen to run across him it will just be a fortunate coincidence... “

And just like that, when left alone the true nature of the massive man was revealed. Supreme Machine was two men in one body, two distinct personalities. One a cruel beast and the other a kind, emphatic man. The two have been locked in a constant struggle for dominance for a long ,long time with neither being able to assert complete control over the other. But for the most part the beast is the one in control. No-one with the possible exception of Jenny knows the true extent of his condition, for the general public the only hint that there is something up with him is the persistent and consistent use of plural when referring to himself.

And now he was headed for WrestleWorld and Parabellum.


Para Bellum (oncam)

The view opens in a darkened room, lit only by pale moonlight shining in from a small window near the ceiling. The sound of heavy breathing echoes from bare concrete walls, yet there is no visual indication of the source of the sound. Slowly the breathing turns into a deep chuckle and a gravely voice speaks out.

“To be free of these chains that hold us down.. To be able to stalk the shadows and hunt in the night like a boogeyman from the darkest nightmares… that is what Parabellum is for us…”

The shadows cast by the moonlight shift and we start to slowly see the figure of a massive man standing up and walking closer to the camera. As he straightens to his full 6’9’’ height, it seems almost as if the room got smaller. He steps into a ray of moonlight that illuminates part of the room brighter than the rest and we see that he is barechested, his muscular frame covered by skin carrying an intricate web of scars that covers his entire torso. The camera pivots upwards and we see that his face is hidden behind a cascading veil of greasy black hair, with only two eyes black as coal staring behind it.

“Our name has been whispered in fear in places far and wide. For over a decade we have wrought a path of destruction in our wake. No matter where we have gone, we have found ourselves perched atop the Deathmatch or Hardcore division… HiWF… EWF… EWC… GWW… OCW… and now UPRISING have hosted our rampages. You may look at us and dig deep to the weakest jokes you can find. Yet we care not what you might think about us. You may laugh. You may mock. But once you find yourself standing across the ring with us… your laughter will turn into whimpering, your joy into misery. We are Supreme Machine. And we are Destruction Personified.”

SuMa whips his hair back, revealing a black leather mask that covers three quarters of his face and cocks his head from side to side in a slow, measure manner before speaking up again.

“WrestleWorld hosts a man who knows how it feels to be on the receiving end of our wrath. Matthew Knox goaded us, dodged us and mocked us until we forced his hand into a confrontation and only the help of his friends saved him from a permanent fate. But we are not here to hunt The Raven… we are here for Parabellum. We are here to carve a new path of broken bodies and bloody tears. An island away from civilization, a match where we are let loose on the unsuspecting public with but one goal: Crush all those who cross our path. Be it the dark of the night or the height of the day, no matter who you are you will not see us coming. You will not hear us coming. You won’t even notice we are upon you until our hand closes around your neck and you find yourself dangling in the air, staring into our eyes as life slowly leaves you.”

He stretches his arms into a crucifix pose, muscles rippling with tension under the scarred skin as he does so. All the while he stares at the camera, his voice betraying no emotion whatsoever.

We are not a wrestler. We are not a fighter. We are a hunter. We hunt not for honor or glory but the joy of the hunt… We stand atop the food chain as the apex predator. And the more you try to defend yourself the more we will enjoy snuffing out you life. Parabellum provides the perfect stage for that… You can run but you cannot hide from us… Every corner you turn, every step you take… you will never know we are there. You cannot rest or we will be upon you. Ten will enter the contest… but one of then shall be a predator and the rest will be prey… Do any of you think you can survive against our wrath? We will cure you of that delusion… permanently.”

Suddenly the man rakes his own chest, leaving crimson trails that start to seep blood on his own skin. He wipes the plasma with his hand and stares at the viscous liquid that now coats his palm with curiosity before speaking up again

“Whatever any of you think you can do to us will be of no consequence. Anything you can do we have already inflicted upon ourselves… There is no pain, no injury we have not already felt on ourself.. Our bones have been broken only to heal again. Glass and metal have pierced and carved our skin only to heal again… We have fallen from heights and landed on concrete… and stood up to walk again. And all that has been done to us we have inflicted upon our prey a thousandfold… And we do not say this to brag… we are merely recounting facts... “

SuMa suddenly walks out of the light again and we can faintly see his outline slump down on the ground against the wall as his voice keeps ringing from the darkness.

“Parabellum means “Prepare for War”... and it is fitting because wherever we tread, a war ensues. Bodies get broken, careers shortened… lives ended. And at Arcadia as we are unleashed on the island it doesn’t matter who you are… you will fall before us. Because we are the Destruction Personified. We are Supreme Machine… and we… have arrived”

He suddenly breaks into a manic laughter as the view fades to black.