The Underground Circuit

Chapter 1: A Letter from Who?

Well it was fun while it lasted. Standing in front of a locker looking rather dejected was the current reigning champion of the WVBA, Little Mac. Only a few minutes ago he announced that he would be going on one last stand. After losing three times he would be calling it quits and leave the WVBA. The press were rather shocked to hear the news. He'd been in the league for maybe eight months yet he was already planning to retire?

He never publicly stated why, but there were two reasons as to why he was leaving. The first, and probably most damning reason, was due to the pressure that came from being champion. Mac joined the WVBA when he just began his senior year of high school, and it was safe to assume he had no idea what he was getting himself into. He could've just waited for someone to take the title belt from him and continued to box, but it likely wouldn't have done anything to quell the paparazzi that would just straight up harass him. To this day he'll never figure out how Macho Man was always able to put up with them on a daily basis.

The second reason was because even if he did decide to stick around after losing the title, there was the fact that he just started to lose interest. He didn't entirely know why, but a while after becoming champion he felt like there wasn't much left to do other than keep up with every rematch he had. It's not to say his time as champion was boring by any means. Far from it, some of the rematches against his previous opponents were actually pretty fun. Though it was at least a little bit worrying seeing the lengths some of his previous opponents would go to take the title belt from him.

On one end, some boxers just trained harder to improve themselves... And on the other end was Aran Ryan managing to sneak a boxing glove flail into the ring. In hindsight, Little Mac was surprised he didn't retire sooner. He also questioned how he didn't end up dying before he became champion, but he was just thankful he was even alive in the first place. Right now he was about to get his things from his locker. None of his last stand matches have actually happened yet, but he wanted to get this part over with so he wouldn't leave anything behind.

When he opened his locker a white envelope fell out onto the ground. That's odd, did someone leave him fan mail or something? He picked it up in order to examine it a bit. His name was written on it in permanent marker, and spots of tri-colored paint faintly dotted the paper. Carefully, he opened the envelope and took out a folded up piece of loose leaf paper that looked to have been torn out of a notebook. It read-

"Hello, Little Mac.
Crazy to think that you're already retiring after eight months. I don't really blame you though.
Anyway, seeing as how you're gonna be leaving the WVBA in a while, I felt like it was the right time to write this.
Me and a couple other members of Division B decided to form our own unofficial group. We're a bit infamous for breaking a few specific rules.
You remember the old building the Minor Circuit used to be held in? Head there on Sunday at 4pm if you're interested in our challenge.
I hope I'll see you there. -Sparky"

An unofficial circuit made up of Division B's most infamous boxers? They could've just been exaggerating it, but with everything Mac has seen in the WVBA would it really be exaggerated? In all honesty, he might just check this group out just to see if they were as challenging as they claimed to be. He slips the note into the pocket of his hoodie. He was definitely showing this to Doc to see what he thinks.

After getting the few things he had in his locker, he grabbed his duffle bag and walked out the exit. He was just gonna go home and... Ok, outside of showing Doc that note he found in his locker, he wasn't entirely sure what he was gonna do later. Mac was gonna have to think about it soon though, because once he officially retires he's gonna have a lot more free time on his hands.

Getting home wasn't gonna be that big of a problem. Sure the bright lights and loud sounds of New York were a pain to deal with, but after a while he started to tolerate them a bit. Today though, he'd be going through a weirdly desolate alleyway behind the WVBA building. It was either that or trying to answer the many questions from the press if he left through the main entrance.

Right as he stepped into the alleyway, he was caught off guard from a distant hissing sound. Looking to his right, Mac had spotted someone holding a spray paint can painting one of the walls of the WVBA. They were wearing a grey hoodie that obscured their identity and a black leather jacket. Next to them was a backpack that was filled with a lot of spray cans.

Normally if Mac saw someone doing graffiti he'd just ignore it, but he didn't want them to get caught by anyone else. Despite being insanely loose with their rules, the WVBA were weirdly strict when it came to vandalism. "Hey, uh..." he attempted to talk with the masked graffiti artist, but they turned around in shock. What couldn't be covered by their hood was covered by a red plaid mask. Despite their face being unidentifiable, he could tell they were panicking.

They almost immediately bolted towards the end of the alleyway to find a way to escape, dropping their spray paint can in the process. "Wait! I'm not trying to get you in trou-" Mac tried to yell out to them, but they were gone before he could even finish his sentence. Left behind was their backpack and a bit of unfinished graffiti.

It was a cacophony of colors spout about with barely any cohesion. It seemed that before that mysterious artist had run away, they were just about to add outlines, based off the unfinished outline that surrounded what appeared to be a humanoid silhouette. Despite its unfinished appearance it actually looked kinda nice. Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was a bit off. It was only then that he could see some words just below it. Written hastily in red spray paint was the phrase "Don't trust Dreamland."

This surely didn't mean anything too important, did it?