Petey reached his hand across the ropes for a blind tag, nodding in satisfaction. He slid into the ring, gesturing that Bobby would be the next one in. He grabbed hold of AJ just as Eric did the same with Daniels. Petey worked his opponent into the opposite side of the ring for his foot stomp anthem song while his fellow Team Canada member nailed Daniels with a series of punches. Petey called out to Eric, then grabbed hold of AJ's hand and shoulder, starting to whip him towards the centre of the ring. He found himself cursing softly as the move got switched on him and the last thing he saw before the world went dark was Eric careening towards him.



Bobby swore under his breath, then he and Alistair dove into the ring to pound on their opponents until the bell rang. Bobby clotheslined AJ out of the ring, even though the jerk managed to land on his feet, Bobby didn't care. He knelt beside his captain, tapping his cheek and was relieved when he moaned and started squirming around. "Come on," he addressed Alistair, going over to Eric and hefting him over his shoulders like a bag of potatoes as Alistair picked up their captain in a modified fireman's carry. "Let's get them checked out in the back."



Petey groaned as he woke up, feeling as though he was being pelted in the face by a thousand beavers. He'd either been smacked in the ring or he was never going out drinking with his teammates again. Sitting up slowly, he put a hand to the side of his head and glanced around, spotting his team in their ring gear. "Ow," he muttered and apparently it was enough to get their attention because Bobby and Coach D'Amore turned to look at him. "You okay there?" Coach asked. "That was a hell of a run you two had at each other."

"Mmm yeah," Petey rubbed a hand across his eyes. "Damn AJ," he muttered. A sudden warmth caught him off guard and he looked down in surprise to see Bobby's hand covering his own and he looked at him with a wide eyed expression; what in the hell would Eric think? The moment he thought of his teammate, he drew away, then tried to peer over their shoulders. "Hey, A1," he said, clearing his throat, trying to sound normal again. "How's Eric doing?"

Alistair looked over at him with an expression of shock quite similar to the one that Coach and Bobby were fixing him with. Feeling awkward, Petey drew back a little. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Maybe he's hurt worse than we thought. Coulda gotten his brain scrambled a little from that shot to the head, eh?" A1 asked, earning him a sharp glare from Bobby. "Whoa, man, I'm just saying. I mean it isn't exactly normal that he thinks that he's…"

"Thinks that he's what?" Petey demanded, clearing his throat again, sliding off the cot and stalking towards Alistair; "Listen, damn it, I am your captain and I demand some answers, right now!"

"Well, okay…" A1 said. Instead of speaking again, he took a couple of steps to the left, revealing the unconscious face of …



Eric grunted and rubbed his head, sitting up and looking around blearily. "What's going on?" He asked, noting the shocked concern on the faces of Coach, Bobby, Eric and Alistair… wait, what? Slowly, like a character in a horror movie, Eric tried to look without turning his head until he made eye contact with what were supposed to be his eyes. Letting out a rather high pitched shriek, Eric dove behind the bed, putting his back to the wall. "What's going on here?"

"That's what we'd like to know." Bobby muttered.

"Okay, everyone just calm down, calm down!" Coach D'Amore said firmly, waving his hands in the air. "All right, I'm sure there's a perfectly logical explanation for this. We have to find it, that's all."

"Perfectly logical," Petey cleared his throat again, so unused to hearing a strange voice when he spoke. "For the reason that I'm--" he stalked over to a mirror and sure enough he was greeted by short blond hair and bright blue eyes that were definitely not his own. "What the hell is going on?" He demanded, trying to keep his voice from rising to a squeak. "It's me, right? You guys know it's me, right? I'm Petey."

"Well there's one way to find out for sure," Coach pinched the bridge of his nose, then pointed towards the far wall. "What's that?"

Sure enough, Petey was treated to the sight of his body shrieking and leaping into Bobby's arms.

"Well that settles that," Bobby muttered as he set Eric down.

"Okay," Petey began to pace, clearing his throat once again. Ugh, he was going to have a hell of a time getting used to this. "Okay; I don't think we should try and worry about why this happened. Let's try and get things back to normal as quickly as possible so nobody can find out about this." He didn't even want to think of the consequences of that happening, especially if certain people got hold of the information. "Now this happened out in the ring, right? Eric and I got knocked into each other." He looked down where his watch was supposed to be, then grumbled looked over to the clock hanging on the wall. "The ring should still be set up; let's see if we can make this happen again."

"You heard your captain!" Coach snapped. "Let's get out there."



"Feels weird without the theme music doesn't it?" Eric asked, looking around. "I mean, it's weird walking down the ramp and everything and there's no music… and no people. It's quiet, you know? Like way too quiet." Eric bounced on the balls of his… well Petey's feet. "Hey, you know it's kinda weird to be this short."

Bobby pinched the bridge of his nose, "Well don't get used to it," he said. "We'll have this fixed up in no time."

"Good."

Bobby blinked when Eric suddenly took his hand and he found himself pulling away just like Petey had. "Look not now, okay?" At Eric's hurt expression, he hastened to add, "You kinda look like Petey right now, okay? And he's the captain and that'd just be weird."

Petey looked over his shoulder; it was so weird to see himself trailing behind everyone else. But if he had to admit it, being this tall was pretty damn cool. "Damn straight," he called out to them. "We can't afford to let people see anything weird going on, okay? We're training that's all. So try to act natural."



Several minutes later, a number of people backstage heard a shout of, "I'm not letting you put your foot there!" coming from the ringside area.

Those curious enough to venture out saw Petey Williams and Bobby Roode trading weak looking blows in one corner while Eric Young stood poised over Alistair, the latter of whom was in the tree of woe position. Each time Eric tried to approach, A1 would swat him away like a teenage girl in a cat fight, seeing as that's all he could do while hanging upside down.

"Damnit, A1, it's for the good of the team!" Coach shouted from outside the ring.

"Oh fine!" Alistair snapped before allowing himself to hang limply.

"What are they doing?" Sabin muttered.

"Who knows?" Raven shook his head as Eric stomped his foot down his teammate's groin and began to sing the national anthem. "It's probably some weird Canadian right of passage." He rolled his eyes and then left.

Chris shrugged and continued to watch, making a note to ask Petey about it when he got through with whatever this was.

"Three, two, one!" Alistair and Bobby launched their teammates across the ring towards each other. They collided fairly hard, but Bobby could see that they were instinctively trying to protect themselves from any injury.

"This isn't working!" Petey snapped, running a hand through Eric's blond hair, grimacing a little. "And haven't you ever heard of conditioner?"

"Do you have any idea what sorts of stuff they put in conditioner? I've read all kinds of things on the internet…" Eric retorted. "And at least I don't use up all the hot water in the shower room!"

"Hey," Petey snapped. "That's the captain's prerogative! And your pre-shower inspection takes so long that all the water comes back anyway."

Bobby rolled his eyes and started towards the two quietly; although their argument was escalating so rapidly that he doubted that they'd notice if he pulled up to them in a tank. Taking a deep breath, Bobby lashed out suddenly, grabbing both his captain and Eric by the hair, wrenching back and then smacking their heads together. The two hit the ground seconds later, both clutching their foreheads and cursing.

Well that was certainly one way to keep them from protecting themselves."Good work, Bobby," Coach called out, as he came rolling into the ring. The members of Team Canada helped the others to their feet. Coach D'Amore took a deep breath and backed up a step. "Okay, which one of you is Petey?" He rolled his eyes when Eric's hand came up.

"Well, I mean, I'm Eric, but I'm in Petey's body and…" Eric shook his head and lowered his eyes. "I'm Eric. And I still don't like being this short."

"Would you quit it with the short jokes?" Petey muttered, starting to pace. "Maybe I don't like being this…. blond. Now we have to focus, we have to figure out how to get things back to normal."

"Yeah," Eric nodded firmly. "Wait… you don't like my hair? I knew it!"

"How did… why would…?" Bobby pinched the bridge of his nose. "This is insane!"

"You're telling me," Eric and Petey muttered in unison.

Read Chapter Two of Working Minds