Chapter 4: EVO33

Matthew reclined in his chair, reading through the influx of messages he had received in the short amount of time he had taken away from the Interwebs. Most of them were from his business; the people of the P.N.W.A. were proud to boast some of the only land in the world left wild and untouched by warfare. And like they had years before, they were itching to get out into it. Grizzies had seen some rough times, but it was excelling now more than ever.

Finally, he had received a message back from the Montana council. It seemed they had deemed archery as a sport necessary to bring back in order to help people focus. One of the drawbacks of the Muskian Interwebs was a lack of focus and attention to detail when people were working their every day jobs. They spent all their energy building their online empire and personas in their alternate realities. The Governor hoped that bringing back sports, such as football, basketball, and even the lesser known but more focus-driven sports like archery, back into society as pastimes. Grizzies had sponsored shooting contests for years, but now they had the funding to reach the whole P.N.W.A.

"Archery is about to take this place by storm." Matthew thought to himself as he smiled. He thought back to his predecessors, the men who had molded the business and whom he modeled himself after. They had been told to keep archery alive for one day; it would do more for the people then anybody would ever. The man who said that was his great grandfather, Archy, and was also the man who had told him about what had gone down in P.N.W.A. history. There was a legendary archer whose name was mentioned right along with the name Archy many times; it seems they had been rare international war buddies in WWIV. That name was Strider of the Aragonian clan.

Matthew's eyes drifted over to a profile he had inherited but rarely used except to honor Archy's wishes. Ever since Archy,the owners of Grizzies had always helped an international business named A.S.M. If he recalled correctly, the last contact he had received back from A.S.M. was from a man named Elbaf. It seemed archery was lost to the Aragonians, even though the history books claimed that because of Strider, his people had safeguarded archery and were the reasons it was still practiced to this day. Matthew smiled at the sad irony, for it seemed the two sides had switched roles. He clicked the profile and scrolled through the old messages. Most of them were just invoices of things they had sent. He browsed back to the top. Matthew had decided with a reluctant heart to make the most recent shipment their last due to the lack of communication from A.S.M. and the resurgence of archery in America; he couldn't afford to honor the past anymore.

Matthew did a double take and tapped the side of his head to make sure he was seeing this display right. The latest invoice actually had a reply; it was the first contact he had seen from them since Elbaf had sent a sad message declaring the Aragonians’ deviance from their mission twenty-five years ago. He had claimed that archery was a couple generations removed from general practice, and the way of the bow had been lost. Which probably made that Strider character the last one that stayed true to the way of the bow.

Matthew opened the new message and read it. It seemed this Duran of the A.S.M. had fallen on hard times, and the Aragonians his grandfather had spoken so highly of were all but defeated. The bit about this apparent brother-in-law interested him. The business could use more money and more attention, especially to bolster the launch of the archery program that Matthews hoped was about to explode. An ironic thought slipped into Matthew’s mind.

"The fall of the Aragonians - the saviors of the P.N.W.A, the former protectors of the way of the bow - would lead to the rise of archery once more. Whether they meant to or not, it seemed some type of fate had kept the Aragonians from abandoning archery completely." Matthew smiled. He resolved to pass on the codename EVO33. The Aragonians had saved not just Grizzies in the past, but the whole of America. He wouldn't leave them to slip through the cracks of history - not if he could help.

He stood up from the office chair, which overlooked the archery range built into the warehouse. He watched his daughter sling arrow after arrow downrange. Or so it appeared. She wasn't actually shooting; she was just their poster child - the Grizzies model, you could say. She loved how passionate her father was about archery but didn't have the strength to actually shoot herself - a travesty, really. It would seem a dishonor to the name EVO33 if its next bearer couldn't even properly shoot. The name had inherited a power and reputation of its own, especially given the recorded history. In addition, since the latest message seemed like further interactions with the now E.A. Sports would put the young family in danger, Matthew thought it was best to just deal with this Escanor fellow for the time being. His eyes flicked over to his granddaughter, barely old enough to walk on her own.

"Maybe, just maybe, she would be the one to lead the next generation to archery.” He mumbled out loud to himself. He then laughed at himself; he knew he was thinking too far ahead, but he couldn't help but wish that she would grow up to be big and strong. Strong enough to carry on his love for the sport. With that, he turned and headed down towards the range. As much as he loved his daughter and what she brought to the table, he would show the paparazzi the true breathtaking art that archery could be. Matthew knew that he couldn't capture the religious and ceremonial beauty that was eastern Kyudo, the art that Archy had seen in the East and was personified in Strider. Matthew worked his shoulders back and forth. Even if he probably couldn't rival the fabled Strider, he would have no problem putting on a show.