“When I was a child, my father-  George Cade, made me carry a box of weights up the stairs to the second floor of our home.”

“I can still feel it now, the way my knees buckled trying to lift that burden, how the old wood left splinters in my palms.”

“‘Dad,’ I asked, ‘why are you making me do this? The box is so heavy, can’t you help me?'”?

“And that old man? He looked at the tears welling in my eyes, heard my ragged gasps for air, and chuckled as he told me no. He told me that, one day, he wouldn’t be around anymore. That, like it or not, I would need to be strong enough to make that journey to the top alone.”

“There wouldn’t be friends who would share my burden, no family to rely on, no tools to fix my problems.”

“Just me, my two hands, and the will to climb those steps.”

“So I did.”

“Step by step, sweat pouring down my face, heart beating in my ears like gunshots.”

“Yet I climbed.”

“And as I reached that final step, the summit, I collapsed in a heap.”

“Angry, exhausted…”

“Accomplished.”

“Alone.”

“At Ascension I find myself staring up at another insurmountable goal. At the Invasion Briefcase high above the ring.”

“Only this time it’s not just me climbing those steps, is it? Five others are gunning to be at the top of those steps, to lay claim to the prize up top.”

“Yet, I don’t believe any of them understand just what that climb asks of you.”

“Because ever since the beginning, you’ve all relied on something to bring you to your goals.”

“Whether it’s Klaus demanding his freaks bear his burden as to not scar his hands.”

“Tombstone’s chains empowering him to climb towards the peak.”

“Or even Nox using Doom and Narcissa to hoist him up that corporate ladder.”

“Every last one of you has relied on someone else,  anything else, to achieve your goals. And as we all stare up at the  summit, I have to ask.”

“Do you have what it takes to do it alone?”

“To dig your fingers into that box and force your body upwards rung by rung as everything around you is just begging to pull you back to the mat?”

“Or will you collapse beneath the pressure?”

“Crushed under expectations you could never hope to defy.”

“No freaks at your side, no chains in your hands, no friends in your corner…”

“No family to support you.”

“George was right, in a weird way.”

“Because today is the day that I have to finally do it without him.”

“No father, no brother, no tools.”

“Just me.”

“No matter how bruised and battered I get, how many splinters shred my skin, I’ll keep climbing.”

“Step by step, rung after rung, I’ll drag my body up that ladder until my heart gives out!”

“I’ll do what I always do.”

“And as I stare down from atop that ladder, briefcase in hand. Just know.”

“No one is above the Law.”

“And I am the Law.”