Post by Michael Bishop on Feb 27, 2022 1:50:52 GMT -5
| Archangel War Journal |
"Rebirth"
“When you step off that bus, when you step into these halls. You will no longer be the same person you were when you walked in. Through Fire!! Through Blood!! Through agony you will be broken down and destroyed-”.
"Rebirth"
“When you step off that bus, when you step into these halls. You will no longer be the same person you were when you walked in. Through Fire!! Through Blood!! Through agony you will be broken down and destroyed-”.
(Viktor remembers the day he joined the Russian Military. Life was hard, so he chose a warrior’s path. 6 years ago, he got off a mildew smelling bus that drove him and dozens of others out to a compound in the east. It was raining as they were all forced off… in front of them was a red line, and a set of steel doors leading to a concrete building. A military officer paces back and forth, as the deafening rainfall hits the ground).
“This is your REBIRTH!! The road will be hard, and you will want to quit every single day!! You will dream of quitting, you will hunger for the taste every day… and yet. You will not eat. You will not taste. You will carry on because that is what the world demands of you. You will persevere for those behind you… for those who depend on you. I do not fucking care what brought you here, you do. And it with the burden you carry, you will step across this line. It is for the fight you must win, you will take that step forward… anyone who does not, should never have come… because when you are down on the ground in the eleventh hour, you will quit!!”.
(He was 18 at the time. He barely knew or cared about the government that abandoned him and his mother to a filthy city like Volgograd was. What he did know, is he came here to seek a new future. A new rebirth)
“Now…-STEP FORWARD”.
Life does not care about how right you think you are.
If you let it, Life will leave you to die face down in the gutter,
Or life will let you watch your brother in arms burn to death in an armored BTR on a road long forgotten.
That is what the Cage Brothers do not understand. What is failure, Tyler? For some it is an endless pit that they will forever fall deep down into without any hope of ever coming out, for others, it’s the chance to start anew and learn. We are not the same. Not just you and I, but the men who stand to our respective lefts and right. You say you were built for combat, built for war… and yet when we locked swords your fight quit all too easily. I do not doubt you Tyler, I never did… you are six foot, you are two hundred pounds, you have a boxing record. Young, old, skinny, built, I see every single person put into the opposite corner as someone who could take us down from the very moment that bell starts if we let them.
If we let them.
But that didn’t happen, did it Tyler. You say you got close, and yet you didn’t. You got a good hit, you almost had me rocked, and yet we both learned that when we are bogged down, when exhaustion sets in, the Cage Brothers are nothing more than the ones who die for someone else’s story, someone else’s cause, someone else’s war. When it came down to just us, You quit. You didn’t tap out, you didn’t go on a shield, You slapped your hand and you submitted to me.
After all of that talk, after all of that shit you said… You pledged to knock me out, send me back to my home country, and yet when we met it was I who came out on top. Because I wanted it more. Because I was the hungrier man. That is the different from our two upbringings… your laid the foundation for you to be a hero, mine did nothing but try to make me into a statistic. But tears do not win victories, do they Tyler? Your brother has obviously taught you that. We can either stay down and let the flames of the world consume us, or we can strike out. It wanted me to be a statistic, the only way out it gave me was by a filthy organization led by tyrants who wanted to turn me into nothing more than a machine… I served 6 years with a flag on my shoulder, believing I was doing something. When I learned I wasn’t… I was lost. All of the blood, all of the pain, for nothing.
…But it didn’t have to be for nothing, that’s what I learned. The world had hardened me, made me into the stubborn, ruthless creature you see before you. When I tore that flag off for the last time, and journeyed to foreign shores to make a new name for myself… I met a man who said he could help me use my anger, my ruthlessness to be not just another statistic.. But a beacon of hope, to help those back home in Volgograd.
(Viktor’s mind flashes back to 2020… After a strong, but rough boxing career he arrived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in front of the OWAPC. There… he meets an old fighter turned coach outside. Michael Bishop).
The Greatest Fighter in the World put me through a different rebirth. This time… it showed me that the callus that had formed around my soul was not for a war lost, but a reminder to have purpose walking into different ones. He was brutal, harsh, and yet when the time came and that bell rang, I demolished every single son of a bitch in the ring or die trying. Because we don’t always every one, Tyler. I didn’t. In fact I got choked out in my debut too… but the difference is, I kept going and I made something from the ashes. Will you? I don’t think so.
Not too long after… I met what would be my biggest rival. A young man from similar roots in a city riddled by filth. Born from a different country, he chose a different path, and the Old Fighter decided for us to settle our differences the old fashioned way. The warrior’s way. Our way.
(Viktor thinks back to 2021… He stood across a training ring, fists taped, from a man shorter, and lighter than he was, but only just. Nathan O’Connor. The Young Irish man stares back at the Russian with venom in his eyes. Bishop stands in the middle, checking both and gesturing for them to fight. Both charge in, nothing held back…).
I learned from my time in the army that the closest brothers are made in the trench, near death, under constant threat. I learned in the ring that respect is earned through significant strikes and the amount you bleed. I was cocky when I met Nathan. I thought I would crush him, and yet. He did not break. But neither did I. We kept going for an hour, throwing everything we had at each other… I burst his speen, he kick my head. I crank his neck, he twisted my arm. We kept going until our muscles overheated, and our vision was blurry… a Stalemate.
And yet… from it, we gained an understanding. Respect. I think it was when we collapsed on the opposite turnbuckles, he gazed over and smiled with blooded teeth. A nod to each other, that was how it started. Since then… Let’s just say I do not doubt the prowess of one of the best in the world. I would trust Nathan to have my back any day of the week and I would go through hell for him, his family, his child. Anything. Anyday.
You ties were formed from blood, forced to cooperate, forced to fight together. Our ties were formed from a different kind of blood. Forced to overcome the other, then understood we were stronger together. You say you show no mercy? Bullshit. He has come up against opponents twice your size, twice your ferocity, twice your ability to stave off tapping to a rear naked choke like a fucking chicken, and he has overcome. I have danced in the ring with monsters, titans, men who shatter bone with a punch, beasts who threw me on my head, beat the life out of me- and yet I claimed victory in the end.
All Attitude might be a team of untapped potential but that is because they can not get past the ego drenched minds that run it. You have athletic ability but no motivation. You have wants, but no desire to truly get to them. You have potential… but no drive to work to get there. We are potential personified, we are the unsung boys left to rot that forced the will to bend with our bare fucking hands. That is No Quarter. That is Nothing held back. That is No Mercy.
You doubted me once. Hilarious, foolish- arrogant. You tried to make it about Nationality, and then failed to learn I am the epitome of refusing to be what they wanted me to be. A forced rebirth through willing my future through my own power of fucking will. Same as Nathan. And then you say it’s not my fault? We all have choices to make, Tyler, Justin….
I chose to step across the line,
Nathan chose to walk into his gym,
We chose to stand against each other,
We chose to fight with each other.
You chose to tap out like a little fucking Bitch Cyka.
And now we are going to chose to remind you about it again, and again, from bell to bell, from minute to minute. You might be a boxer, but in this ring? You are a fucking victim. You might have the support of mindless drones on social media…. But your fans cannot fight for you, merchandise cannot win your battles, and your silent tears you shed every night of your loss to me cannot save you from the fact you will have a repeat performance failure.
And every single day after this, when you train together, when you fight together… you are going to be reminded of the following battle as we absolutely, utterly, and fucking decisively beat you. Hell, you keep talking all that smack- We might just wrap our arms around your necks and map you both tap out. Because we chose to, and when you chose to simultaneously tap out, it will be your fucking fault. And you will remember that choice every single day as you hit those speed bags, as you pedal those bikes, as you drink and play while we fight and train, forever being potential, while we are realized.
You are All Attitude.
We are cruel reality.
