Close your eyes…
Go to sleep.
Imagine a lush, rolling savanna at sunrise. Wild animals roam the terrain at will, birds glide in the air, and the red sun slowly rises high above them.
In the heat, a lone figure presides over his world on his rock high above the savanna. He’s the king of the jungle. That lion sits, puffing his big, dark mane out, asserting his dominance over them all.
Then everything goes black.
Wake up.
That lion, who once commanded his entire world now finds himself in the dark surrounded by cold, hard steel.
He’s been captured.
Growing hungrier and hungrier, he lies in wait inside this new, unfamiliar environment for another sign of life; he lies in wait for his next meal.
His captor jingles the keys outside the cage before unlocking the door. He steps inside to face what he thinks is his weakened catch…
But he’s about to face a caged animal.
This has happened once or twice to you, hasn’t it Perseus?
You’re an APD officer. You pursue Arcadians on all levels to ensure the only king of our jungle is Zeus. If enforcing that means subduing and locking up your subjects, then that job falls on you.
Uprooting Arcadians from their natural habitats and putting them behind bars in shame for all to see must give you a big, hard Johnson, Jackson. You like to come out on top, taking down the biggest, baddest and most ruthless animals out there so that in your mind you’ve kept the general public, and most importantly Zeus, safe.
It’s dominance in the name of justice, but what you still don’t seem to grasp, after all your failures, is that your actions are reckless, and it’s only a matter of time until you unwittingly cage the wrong animal.
See, when you cage a wild animal and put their back against a wall, taking them out of their element, something called a fight-or-flight instinct kicks in, and trust me, you don’t want to be the person sandwiching that animal with that wall.
But that’s where we stand this week. Me, trapped inside a steel cage and you, my captor, joining me.
And you know what’s going to happen when that steel cage door shuts behind you?
The same damn thing that happened to that lion’s captor:
I’m going to maul you to death.
You’ve given me no choice. You took me away from my clinic and locked me up in here, starving me and surrounding me in cold, hard steel. So when my fight-or-flight instinct kicks in you’ll finally understand too late that your brash actions have led you to your destiny.
Because I’m Old School Wrestling’s apex predator. I’m the OSW World Champion. And it doesn’t matter if I’m in my clinic, the savanna, or inside a steel cage— if you try to cage this animal you’re the one who’s going to get eaten.
And I can’t wait to pick your bones one by one when I’m done with you.
Now take a deep breath and close your eyes…
See you on the other side, Cade.