February 28, 2012 – 12:30 PM (Central)
CAMDEN BREAKERS APARTMENTS (Apt. 102) – CORPUS CHRISTI, TX

My name is Andreas, and I’m just a simple man—a gentle giant to be precise. Yet the sad thing in all of this is simple: I have no other family.

My parents were Belgian immigrants who moved to Japan in search of a more peaceful existence. I was born in Okinawa on January 5, 1993, but I never realized that my life was going to be full of sorrow, death, and despair. I have strived to overcome the odds that have been placed before me, but as I savored my large plate of chicken and white rice (my favorite food), I started to think about my parents even more. At the age of 21, I felt as if I had a long life ahead of me, but looking back on that day of terror has caused my thoughts to become darker in tone.

JOHN GILLMEN: Andreas, you’re feelin’ a bit edgy today. What’s up?

The guy that just spoke to me—the one who lives as my roommate in this spacious two-bedroom apartment—is John Gillmen. He’s a colorful human being, and even though he’s only 5’11” and 191 pounds, he’s got the biggest heart that I’ve ever seen. John’s a man who’s fought his own battles in a wrestling ring, and I’m very honored to be his friend. He got the chance to know me last year while teaching English for a semester in a small Japanese town called Mizuho, and he helped to bring me out of a proverbial shell and make me see the world from a different point of view. These days, the man who defeated Frankie Bones and Wren Chesney in early 2011 works in the TAMU-CC Writing Center as a proofreader and tutor towards international students like myself. Anyways, I told John that I was reflecting on my parents, but he was quick to remind me that we had a schedule to keep.

JOHN: Eat up! Yuko’s coming to pick us up and take us to campus in fifteen minutes.

Yuko was John’s girlfriend as well as a professor of Asian History at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi; I am going to school there to pursue a Bachelor’s in Communication Media studies. Even though Yuko, with her 5’8” stature and puppy dog blue eyes, was my History 1301 instructor, I also considered her to be a friend. Today, despite plentiful sunshine in the Coastal Bend, was a quiz day in Yuko’s class, and she makes them damn things hard as hell. I scarfed down on my chicken and rice—the ONLY thing that John can cook—but my mind continued to focus more on who my parents were and how they died so tragically.

JOHN: Ya know Andreas, it would help if I knew who your parents were in the first place.

I had no choice but to tell John the story of my birth, but as I put my plate in the dishwasher and grabbed a can of Pepsi from the stainless steel refrigerator, I felt tears coming down from my own eyes.

It was a story that I thought I would never tell anyone, but I couldn’t hide it any longer.

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~EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO~

January 18, 1994 – 11:00 AM (Japan)
TANAKA’S OLD HOUSE – NAHA, OKINAWA, JAPAN

I was born Christmas Day in 1993 to Belgian immigrants who wanted to move to Japan in order to find a more peaceful existence.

Truth be told, my parents worked for the EAST-WEST INTERNATIONAL AGENCY, an international advertising firm owned by Mr. Shingo Tanaka, a bald-headed, blue-eyed 55-year-old businessman who made a fortune despite the recent recession that hit Japan hard back in 1992. His clients included such clientele as Nike, Apple, McDonalds, and Bell Atlantic—the American-based phone company that would eventually become Verizon Wireless. While my parents worked in Tanaka-san’s downtown Naha headquarters, they left me to be cared for by the wise mogul, whose office was based out of his home. Tanaka-san was a kind and gentle man who went out of his way to help those who were less fortunate, but on a chilly winter’s day, the peace that resided within Tanaka-san’s soul was shattered when a chilling news broadcast played from a living room television set. To this day, I still get chills from listening to the soft voice of a female British anchor as she read the grim report.

NEWSANCHOR (voice): Four people were killed just moments ago in a horrific triple murder and suicide at the headquarters of the East-West International Agency, a world-renowned advertising firm located in Naha, Japan. Japanese police and emergency officials have identified the three victims as Jean-Claude and Fernanda Lemmer, Belgian immigrants who worked for the advertising firm as advertising agents, and Maiko Tanaka, the wife of East-West founder Shingo Tanaka who co-owned the agency with her husband since its formation in 1986. Witnesses describe the shooter as a 35-year-old American Army Major who appeared to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome after serving in Iraq during Operation Desert Storm; investigators report that after shooting his victims at random with a .45 caliber handgun at point-blank range, the major turned the gun on himself…

As I slept peacefully in a wooden crib that once belonged to Tanaka-san when he was born, the once-proud businessman—now a shell of himself—fell down to both knees and cried out to the heavens in deep anguish and despair. In a matter of five minutes, three people died a senseless death at the hands of a madman, and it would eventually plant the seeds of what I was about to become. Eventually, the police officers came to check on and console Tanaka-san following the vicious crime, but it was too late: he had lost everything that meant so much to his life: his wife, his son, and most importantly, his Belgian friends that were my parents. Eventually Tanaka-san would adopt me and care for me. With him around, I felt as if I were at peace, but now he’s gone. It is a given fact that when the people I know and respect are out of my sight, bad things tend to happen—and nothing can stop me from destroying anyone who opposes me.

It’s all part of my supposed “duality”—I can be gentle at one point, and I can be vicious at the other.

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~THE PRESENT DAY~

February 28, 2012 – 10:00 PM (Central)
SHORELINE BOULEVARD – CORPUS CHRISTI, TX

The nighttime sky was cloudless and moonless, and I strolled down Shoreline Boulevard with a hint of fury in my eyes.

Master Gillmen and Mistress Yuko—now fully cloaked in their respective black and red cloaks—talked to each other about my performance over the past three weeks, and we all came to the reasonable conclusion that the journey never ends until We got what We wanted. The Master and Mistress worked together as a team; they agreed to be more directly involved with how I trained and operated. Yet as We saw the confused looks on the faces of those puny mortals who are called “fans,” We realized that no one truly knew who We were and what We are really after. This week, Josh Cantrell is in my sights, and Master Gillmen was very quick to point out some things that I can exploit.

MASTER GILLMEN: Lord Khan…Josh Cantrell is your next victim. I will caution you by saying that Mr. Cantrell is very resourceful and intelligent. He will try to come back at you with everything he can muster, but that will only cause you to beat him HARDER than you’ve ever beaten anyone else before. He has the skills that are necessary to try and take down a man with your size and stature, but We will help improve your ability to counter his moves and match him at every turn. He claims to be a product of lust and hatred, but his heart holds a very dark secret that can—and will—destroy his future in wrestling and in life.

MISTRESS YUKO: We all know Mista Can-a-trell’s little secret…

I watched Master Gillmen and Mistress Yuko deliver sinister grins and cackle with an aura of demonic glee. I LOVED those two, and their interactions with one another was the main reason I decided to join their cause—to annihilate the men and women who treated them as nothing more than outsiders in society.

MASTER GILLMEN: You see Lord Khan…Josh Cantrell murdered a referee in cold blood after a match I witnessed years ago, and he’s forgotten the old facet of human civilization: “an eye for an eye.” Josh Cantrell isn’t driven by hatred as he claims to be; he’s driven by his foolish emotional outbursts and rampant fear of heights. You will lift Mr. Cantrell high above your head, and…I want you to hear him scream for mercy before you drop him on his head and END his miserable existence on this planet! You are the Lord of Destruction, and when the smoke clears, We will all stand above the battered, broken, and bloodied corpse of Josh Cantrell as he writhes around the ring, screaming for his Maker to come get him and ship him up to the skies above.

MISTRESS YUKO: Can-a-trell will suffer at Our whim…

As I continued my slow and arduous journey down Shoreline, only one thing popped into my head as Master Gillmen continued to advise me on what I was doing wrong: when this week’s over, I will make sure that people get to know who I am.

My name is Khan—Dragon Khan—and even though I’m just a simple man with a simple purpose, I am NOT a gentle giant. I have no family except for Master Gillmen and Mistress Yuko.

Josh Cantrell might be “driven by hatred,” but I am the Manifestation of Hatred itself.

May he burn through the Flames of Perdition and suffer for all Eternity.