It's been six months since Ashlee was rescued from Joey. Test is still the Intercontinental Champion. Stevie is still recovering. He can walk with the use of crutches and will probably be able to go back to wrestling again in about 3 months time. Other than that, all is well in their 3 worlds. All is well, until one night on Smack Down!....
* * * * *
"Ooh, that's gotta hurt!" Jerry Lawler cries as Test slams Edge's face into the turnbuckle.
"No doubt about it, King! Edge is a great athlete, but even getting your face slammed like that has got to hurt!" JR notes.
After slamming his opponent into the turnbuckle and knocking him to the mat, Test climbs the ropes and prepares to fly down at Edge. Unfortunate for him, Edge recovers quickly and knocks Test down, outside of the ring.
Standing ringside, Ashlee runs to Test's aid and helps him up. Seconds later, Edge is flying through the air, aiming to hit Test. Ashlee quickly pushes Test out of the way and Edge crashes down onto the English announce table. The impact causes the booth to come crashing down. Test runs over and picks Edge up and throws him back into the ring. Once inside, the IC champ grabs his opponent and puts him in position for the Pump Handle Slam. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Mark appears and runs toward the ring. Ashlee spots him and runs into his way, blocking his path. This is exactly what he wanted.
The two get into a loud verbal confrontation that distracts the ref. By this time, Test has executed the PHS and is awaiting the count. He looks up and frowns when he sees the ref's back to him. He stands up and approaches him. Just as he goes to tap the ref on the shoulder, another person enters the ring: Christian. In his hand, he's holding a metal chair. He steps toward Test and BAM! The chair cracks against Test's skull and knocks him out cold. Christian pulls Edge's arm across the IC Champ's body.
He runs and pins the ref around, forcing him to look down at Edge. The ref quickly goes to count the pin. Ashlee runs next to the ring and grabs for the ref's leg, but Mark pulls her back. She breaks free but is too late.
"Your winner, and NEW Intercontinental Champion, Edge!"
Christian grins gleefully and helps his confused brother up. He grabs the IC belt from the ref's hand and hands it to Edge.
"Congrats brother, you're the new champ!" Christian tells him, patting him on the back. Edge grins and holds the belt up.
"Where's Mark?" he finally asks, lowering the belt. Christian points to ringside, where Mark is arguing with Ashlee.
"You bastard!" She shouts. "It's your fault Andrew lost the belt!"
He shrugs. "So what? That's just the first step of my plan."
She glares up at him. "What plan?"
"You'll find out.. shortly."
She goes on to say more, but is interrupted by Shane running past her and into the ring. He's quickly followed by Rodney and Pete. She turns around to watch them and to her horror, she sees them attacking the unconscious Test.
"HEY!" She jumps into the ring and pulls Shane back by his collar.
He turns around to face her. "Yes?"
"Just what do you think you're doing?"
"Ohh.. just beating up your loser boyfriend." He turns back around and starts to stomp on Test.
She growls, frustrated. She pushes Shane away from Test and goes to shove Rodney, but two strong arms grabs her and picks her up.
"Stop it child. You're too weak to go up against us all." Mark tells her.
Shane watches her struggle to free herself and laughs. He grabs a microphone and addresses the audience.
"You are all probably wondering just what is going on here, right? Well, I'll tell you. You see, this all started six months ago when our little Ashlee here got married to Joey. Oh-speaking of Joey... Joey, could you come out here please? I know you've been quite depressed for the last 6 months, but I got a surprise for you." Shane says, waiting for Joey to come out.
A moment later, the Posse music starts up and Joey makes his way down to the ring, a frown on his face. He walks up to the ring and looks up at Shane from ringside.
"Joey, you miss Ashlee, don'tcha?" He nods sadly.
"We-ell, I've got some good news for you. She's all yours again."
Joey's eyes light up. "Really?!" He jumps into the ring.
"Yep." Shane motions toward Mark, who's still holding Ashlee. Joey runs over to her and pulls her into a bear hug and showers her with kisses. She shudders in disgust.
"Now, where was I? Oh yes... You see, these two here got married - in fact- are still married and everything was fine for the first couple of nights. Then, Jericho had to stick his nose into their business, and well, he paid for it. So after that, we thought they were fine. No more interruptions, no more rescue attempts, no more nothing. Then, on the second night, while Ashlee and Joey were just about to do their thing, who shows up? Stevie the Hero. Joey, of course, overpowered the twerp and had everything under control. That is - until Andrew showed up and completely ruined everything! Ashlee got taken away and that began Joey's 6 month long depression." Shane explains, glancing over at Joey as he says the last sentence.
"He thought he'd never see his loved one again, but, lucky for him, we have Mark as a friend. This brilliant man came up with an idea that was foolproof." Shane's eyes gleam evilly. "What's that idea you ask? Well, I'll tell you: Ashlee's going to be the newest member of the Corporate Ministry. Once she comes over to the darkside, she'll never want to go back."
Ashlee watches Shane, her mouth open in horror. He's got to be kidding me.. There's no way I'll ever join the Ministry...
Her thoughts are broken up by the sound of Triple H’s music. She glances down at the ramp at him and looks at him confused.
“You know Shane,” he starts. “You come out here talking about your Corporate Ministry this, your Corporate Ministry that, but nobody really gives a crap! I mean, please, you actually think Ashlee wants to be a part of the Ministry and be stuck with that ugly goon Joey? You better just let her go Shane, before I’m forced to beat your ass!”
The Corporate Ministry laughs hysterically at this. “Hunter, do you really think you could overpower us?” Shane asks, motioning at himself and the rest of the CM.
“Shane, don’t worry about it. I got my backup.” And with that, DX music blasts throughout the arena and Billy Gunn, X-Pac and Road Dogg make their way out.
“As I was saying Shane, how about you and your Posse buddies against the 4 of us? Winner gets Ash there.” Hunter suggests.
Without hesitating, Shane answers, “Sure, Triple-H.
We’ll be glad to kick your sorry
asses!” Hunter grins and spins around,
then heads backstage. His DX buddies follow, after throwing a few
crotch chops towards the ring.
“Shane!” Joey runs over by Shane, dragging Ashlee along. “Are you crazy? What if they win? What if-“ Shane puts up a hand to stop Joey.
“Don’t worry about it. I have it all figured out.” He assures, smirking at Ashlee. “She’s not going anywhere.”
Ashlee bites her lip fearfully. I don’t like the sound of that. She looks around at the rest of the Corporate Ministry, her eyes lastly landing on Mark, who when he notices her looking, blows a kiss and grins evilly. She shudders in terror.