The first rays of light of the year 2000 dawn and cast tall shadows on the wreckage of the once fabulous and storied War Room. As the dust settles on the debris, a lone fan can be seen rocking back and forth holding a piece of the 100 List Silly Stick. The fan is cradling the large piece as though it is a charm, a talisman of protection against the destruction. His quiet sobs can be heard echoing throughout the countryside, as not another sound can be heard.

Out of the wreckage a few more people stir, severely injured fans crawling weakly out, some trying to plead for help but unable to draw any attention, and so all that can be heard is quiet sobbing being carried on the winds.

Deep underneath the wreckage in an area where neither sobs nor rays of light can reach, Tridus struggles to his feet. He looks around and sees an emergency light that was still partially functioning attached to a fragment of what used to be a wall. He sees that he is in a cavern, the pieces of the room falling in such a way as to give him some room to maneuver. Tridus climbs to his feet, noticing that his head falls just shy of touching the roof of where he is standing. Ducking down, he looks around, but the silly stick is nowhere to be found. Continuing his search, he finds nothing but destruction. No members of the Corporation, the NWD, nothing…

Tridus pauses for a moment, then looks around once again. He looks around, trying to figure out which way his wife was sitting from where he was standing, but the thought makes his head throb in agony. Raising a hand to his head in the area where it hurts, he feels the sticky sensation of blood.

‘I have to find her’ is the only thought that comes to his mind as he picks a direction, turns to the left, and forces his battered body to start moving pieces of brick, mortar, steel, and other wreckage aside to try and find the way to his wife.

Outside, Death~Lizard and Peak_Man drive into the parking lot eager to celebrate the NWD’s sure victory with the other members. They get out of the car, and look at the destruction Peter’s bomb caused. Peak_Man looks at Death~Lizard with a confused look.

"Lizzee, wat happnd?"

Death~Lizard looks on in dismay, seeing the mess and the few people crawling out of the debris. He sees no celebration, no dead Corporation members, and no celebrating NWD. Thoughts of the possible reasons fly through his quick mad scientists mind and he realizes the possibility of a Y2K terrorist attack on the most prolific arena in Forum Entertainment.

"Peak_Man, run over there and start moving that rubble out of the way until you find the other members of the NWD!"

Seeing an opportunity to go play in all the neat stuff that stands where the War Room used to be, Peak_Man squeals in delight and runs head long into the carnage, throwing things aside looking for his NWD brothers.

Digging for what seems like an eternity, Tridus stops to rest for a second. He has no idea what time it is, where anyone is, or if there is enough air in the cavern to keep him alive long enough to find a way out. He isn’t even aware of these things. All that enters his thoughts is the throbbing in his head, the dulled pain scattered throughout the rest of his body, and the thought that his beloved wife is somewhere in all this. The pain is drowned out in rage and despair, and he resumes his tunneling with the only thoughts being of his wife.

Flutie 3:16 is laying half conscious in a rather awkward position buried underneath a door and some other wreckage. Trying to move, he discovers that he can’t even budge the debris. He sits back, resigned to the fate that has befallen him, when all of the sudden the door starts moving. Looking up, Flutie sees the huge form of Peak_Man looming over him moving rubble. Peak_Man has a huge smile on his face, Flutie notes. ‘Well, he would. I bet this is really funny to that simpleton…’

Peak_Man removes all the rubble away from Flutie then lifts him out and stands him up. Flutie rather casually dusts himself off and gives Peak_Man a pat on the back. "Good work Peak, now go see if you can find miss Y2T. We wouldn’t want my favorite girl trapped in this."

Flutie isn’t sure if Peak even hears him, as the big man just gleefuly goes back to tossing wreckage out of the way. After a moment Flutie’s eyes adjust to the morning sun which is starting to come up now, and he heads for where his girlfriend was sitting, thinking about how grateful she’ll be for him having saved her.

Master Sidious awakens to find his leg trapped underneath several fans. Trying to kick the fans awake with his free leg, he discovers that several of them are either dead or too injured to move. Sighing, he slumps over and uses his arms to move the top couple bodies away, thereby allowing him to pull his other leg free. He pulls it out, tries to get to his feet, and collapses as his formerly trapped left leg buckles underneath him.

Getting up more slowly this time, he feels tremendous amounts of pain anytime he puts any weight on his left ankle. Shifting his balance to his right leg, he looks around and sees Peak_Man and Death~Lizard on the far side of the War Room, and several fans closer to him partially buried. Sidious makes his way down slowly and very painfully to those fans, doing his best to help get them out to relative safety.

Shortly into this process, some of the rubble seems to throw itself aside. Sidious looks over at this rather odd occurrence happening just to his left and sees DebtAngel abruptly sit up and look around. Rising to his feet, DebtAngel reaches down and pulls Sid6.9 out with him. DebtAngel drops Sid, who falls with a thud, then gets back up and surveys the area.

"My god… what happened?" Sid asks.

Sidious looks at him. "I don’t know. I remember the new year hitting, and then an explosion, and then this…" Sidious pauses for a moment, then resumes. "I’ve managed to help a few fans get out, but my ankle is sprained, maybe broken. Peak_Man and Death~Lizard are here, on the far side of the grounds. Maybe more, I don’t know. We should probably get out of here and call in the emergency crews."

Sid laughs. "Emergency crews? They won’t come here anymore. Not since that one riot where the fans attacked them… we’re on our own here."

Sidious replys grimly… "Oh… well… I guess we had best try to dig out as many people as we can then, although we aren’t in much condition to be doing it ourselves…"

DebtAngel and Sid nod, and the three of them set to digging people out.

Shortly after beginning, Sid6.9 makes a rather grim discovery. Removing a light fixture, he discovers the limp body of SM_007. Sid quickly unburies SM and tries to get a response out of him, but is unsuccessful. Sid looks around quickly for help and sees a man dressed in the white clothing of a doctor with a surgical mask covering his face poking around the debris.

"Doctor!" Sid yells.

The man walks quickly over to where Sid is standing over SM’s body. The doctor grimly looks down at the limp figure, then kneels down to check his pulse. After a moment, he sighs and shakes his head.

Sid looks dismayed at this. "DAMNIT! This is not the way things were supposed to happen at all… damn damn damn!"

No one really notices Sid’s dismay as there is so many limp forms half buried around them. After a moment Sid moves on looking for new people. Amid all the bodies and the work of digging them out, no one notices the doctor pick up SM_007’s body and drag him away…

Searching through the debris in the morning sun, Flutie has left several fans behind in his search for his girlfriend, stopping only long enough to help British out. Kicking over a seat, Flutie sees a small but beautiful hand with a large golden ring studded with Diamonds and Emeralds. Recognizing the ring and the hand it is on, Flutie immediately screams…

"NARRI!" as he races to dig her out. The scream draws the attention of the nearby fans as well as Peak_Man, Death~Lizard, British, Sid6.9, Sidious, and DebtAngel, who all stop what they’re doing to turn and look in Flutie’s direction. Flutie gets the rubble removed from atop Narri and once doing that, reaches down and gently scoops her up. Her eyes flutter open and she stays huddled up in Flutie’s arms for a few minutes, before he sets her down gently on her feet. The two look at each other…

Kicking aside a piece of a concession stand, Tridus pushes out some pieces of wall and suddenly daylight breaks through and hits his face. Shielding his eyes from the bright light, he pushes aside more debris and makes the hole big enough for him to crawl out of. Crawling out, he settles on his knees and lets his eyes adjust to the bright light.

As things come back into focus, the first thing Tridus sees is his wife being set down onto her feet by Flutie. As the two of them look at each other, the throbbing in Tridus’ head increased to the point of where it drowned out any attempt at thought. All it left behind was the sight of the two of them together… and the rage that it created.

Tridus rose to his feet, seeing, feeling nothing except the burning need to destroy this man. The thirst for his blood was all that there was in the world as Tridus made his way towards them.

Flutie heard a blood curdling scream and looked past Narri to see Tridus running at the two of them. He had just enough time to push Narri out of the way as Tridus flattened him with a "Trident Spear", sending both of them down to the ground. Flutie rolls with it and lands on his back, and tries to get back up but is pushed back down by Tridus jumping on him and reaching for his throat. Flutie uses his vastly superior strength to push Tridus back off him and roll over so Flutie is on top of the pile. He reaches down to try and pin Tridus’ arms, and takes a few fast punches to the face for it, dazing him. Tridus kicks Flutie off and gets back up, only to be grabbed from behind and held by the monstrous form of Peak_Man. Unable to move, Tridus is left staring at Flutie who is staggering back to his feet.

Flutie walks over to check on Narri, and helps her back to her feet. Then he turns and looks at Tridus again, who is trying rather ineffectively to get away from Peak_Man. Seeing the short brawl going on over here, British, DeathWish, Death~Lizard, DebtAngel, Sid6.9, and Sidious are all making their way towards it.

Flutie looks at Tridus. "What the hell is wrong with you!? Do you think this is some kind of game!? I saved her life damnit! You should be thanking me!"

Tridus stares at him with pure hatred shown in his burning eyes. Narri sees this and walks over to Flutie, whispers something to him, and then steps away. Flutie nods and motions for Peak_Man to let Tridus go. "Lets get out of this fucking mess." With that, Peak throws Tridus down several feet away and starts walking off with Flutie. They meet up with the rest of the NWD and all go to their respective vehicles, most of which are still in reasonably good condition.

Tridus is helped up by Narri as the rest of the Corporation gathers around them.

Tridus turns to Sid, and very quietly makes a request. "I want a match against him on Friday. No interference from anybody or else they get killed."

Sid looks around at the former Arena. "Have you looked around yet you dolt? Its over! There is no War Room! There’s no ring! There is nowhere to have a death match! Its all over…" Sid starts to walk away.

Sidious returns to trying to help unbury people as DebtAngel walks off. Tridus looks around slowly, seeing a young fan rocking back and forth holding something. Tridus walks over to the young fan and looks at him.

The fan looks up at who is casting the shadow which just fell over him and sees Tridus standing looking down at him. The young fan looks up and smiles, seeing his hero right there. He takes the piece of the silly stick and holds it out to Tridus, who takes it.

Tridus looks at it, turns it over in his hands, then hands it back to the boy.

"Tell your friends that Tridus gave that to you." He smiles. "Now c’mon kid, I’ll give you a ride home."

The fan gets up and follows Tridus and Narri to their car, feeling great at getting a ride home from his hero.

Meanwhile, the sun peeks up and shines down on the area formerly known as the War Room, on the people digging their friends out of the debris, and on those poor souls who were not so lucky and were killed by Peter’s wrath…