Outgunned, Outmanned, Outnumbered... Outplanned?
Apr 14, 2016 19:59:30 GMT -5
Post by Ruby Tyler on Apr 14, 2016 19:59:30 GMT -5
April 11, 2016
Somewhere in Maryland…
"Mail call!"
An older man in a flannel jacket and jeans stood in the yard in front of the cabin, grinning at the young woman seated in the worn Adirondack chair on the porch. Ruby pushed herself up and smiled back at him, descending the couple of crooked steps to meet him.
"You know you can just call me, right? My cell phone works just fine, even out here."
"But then I wouldn't get to see you roll your eyes at me when I say how much I like the walk up from The Way Station."
To her credit, Ruby did not roll her eyes at him this time, but it was an impulse she had to put some effort into controlling. She took the few envelopes from him and flicked through them, dismissing all but one as junk mail.
"How's things down the hill? Anyone interesting show up lately?"
"We did get this one kid in there on Sunday. Looked like a hunter, was hanging out with a hunter, but I dunno about him..."
"Johnny, that was me and my partner. You know I'm training a rookie up here. What else you got?"
"That's about it. So who is he?"
"The guy who brought me out of retirement."
"C'mon, Ruby, you know as well as I do that there's no walking away from the game, not when you've been in it. One way or another, the weird and dangerous shit will always find its way to your doorstep."
"This from a guy who hasn't been on a job in how long?"
"Fourteen years and counting. Running the Way Station keeps me in it though. Pretty sure every hunter on the East Coast has been through here at least once. Including you and the kid you're training. So what'd he do, pop a doorway open with a Ouija board? How'd you find him anyway?"
"You got time for a beer and a long story?"
"Sure. Lead the way, princess."
That time, Johnny got his eye roll as Ruby ushered him through the door and kicked it shut behind them. Once they were settled at the little kitchen table, Ruby launched into the sordid story of how she had come to meet and nearly kill Kevin Hardaway and how out of that their mutual hatred of one another had developed into an antagonistic partnership. She left out that night with him in the motel, and the night that started in the movie theater and ended in the woods. Only she and Hardaway knew those events had taken place and that was the way she wanted to keep things.
“So the kid lost his wife to demons, ends up with a necronomicon on his doorstep, and you join forces with him to help him take them down?”
“Yeah and not a minute too soon. I'm still having repairs done from a few weeks ago. Fucking thing got in and he decided a baseball bat would be an effective weapon. I really gotta show him where I keep my guns if this happens again. Or just make him go watch sports games somewhere else.” Ruby sighed heavily, leaning back in her chair as she looked at Johnny.
Johnny nodded. “He's gotten himself deep in it, that's for damn sure. How're you handling it?”
“Oh you know me, Johnny. I can handle just about anything. And when I get annoyed with him I just throw paper balls at him. I figure eventually he'll learn to duck, but I don't want to tell him it's a training exercise. It's more fun this way.” She laughed, smiling to herself despite her professed annoyance with Hardaway’s presence in her cabin and in her life. “Look, at the end of the day, he's got a little girl at home that needs protecting. So as long as I get him back safe to her, then I consider it a win. And working with him in the ring, well… that's coming along too.”
“Yeah, heard you mention something about a big show coming up somewhere in Pennsylvania?”
“Yup. Gold Rush Rumble on the sixteenth. So not only do I have to work with him, there's also the distinct possibility I'll have to throw his ass over the top rope to get my shot at a title match.”
“Huh. Sounds like a good time. I'll throw it on in the Station. Show these bums you can be a hunter and still keep a day job instead of running up tabs you can't pay.”
“You could just stop letting people give you IOUs for their room and board. Or teach them to hustle pool like you did for me and Lila. Great way to get some quick cash on the road.”
“Hey, do I come in here criticizing your business model?”
“Nah, you just give me shit for thinking I could retire at twenty-five.”
“Since your dad passed and you think you don't need to talk with your mom, someone's gotta look out for you, Ruby.”
Her expression hardened at the mention of her mother, but Johnny didn't take his eyes off her.
“I know you think you're protecting her. But sometimes the more you try and protect someone, the more you hurt them. And as much as you believe you don't need anyone, nobody is an island. Think about that for awhile, will you?”
“Yeah, I will,” she responded automatically, even though she already knew she was doing what was best for her mother and her stepfamily.
“All right. Good luck on Saturday, kid. Give ‘em hell.”
Johnny stood to leave and Ruby walked with him to the front door.
“That's the plan, Johnny. Give me a shout if you ever need someone to keep you company down the hill.”
“I always like having people around, Ruby. Try not to let any more demons loose up here. This is an old cabin.”
“I'll do what I can. No promises on Hardaway though.”
“Hah, all right. Take it easy.” He waved as he started walking back to the Way Station and Ruby watched him go, enjoying the waning light of early spring. It wasn't like being out in Tujunga, surrounded by mountains and desert canyons that turned to rivers when the rains came. There weren't fires here, or the vicious Santa Ana winds that drove them. Instead she was surrounded by the kind of fairytale forest she had dreamed about as a child. All manner of things could be lurking in the woods, but Ruby felt safe where she was. There was a feeling of certainty here, like this was where she was supposed to be, and she was experienced enough to trust that gut instinct implicitly.
She had another gut feeling as she stood on her porch and lit a cigarette.
After Saturday, nothing would be the same.
So here I am in my very first Rumble match. It's me against nineteen other people, all of us clamoring for the same prize.
A few I know pretty well from having worked with them before.
Most, I've only watched from backstage.
A couple I only know from seeing tape of prior matches.
And there's one that I know intimately, who I've beaten to a bloody pulp on more than one occasion, and who has repaid me in kind.
But I’ll come back to him later.
See, in this match, the odds are against me. I'm outnumbered and with only a few matches under my belt here in FGA, there are a lot of people who don't quite know who Ruby Tyler is. Not that I blame them - if you weren't watching Exodus this last year, you'd have no idea. There are much bigger names than mine in this match and they're the ones I'm sure the fans are rooting for to go all the way and capture that shot at either Cyncity or Zero McHannon. But this isn't the first time the deck has been stacked against me, so I mean hey, go ahead and underestimate me right up until you get thrown over that top rope.
The whole point of being a hunter is that your target never sees you coming until the last possible moment, and by then it’s too late for them to do anything about it. With this many people in the match, it’ll be chaos. Everyone’s got a score to settle with someone else in that ring. Everyone wants to be the last one standing in the center with their hand raised in victory and their shot at glory cemented.
I was told awhile ago that I had a record to beat. Seven eliminations in the Gold Rush Rumble.
Eliminating seven targets is what I call a slow Tuesday. I’ll give you eight without breaking a sweat.
It’s been made clear to me that my lack of name recognition should be something I take as an insult, but it’s like I said… I don’t mind not being in the spotlight. It makes my job easier both in and out of the ring.
However.
Since people like Tony Carmine are too lazy or too apathetic to Google me, let me give you a refresher course on Ruby Tyler.
I’m the woman who went over a year without being pinned or submitted in singles competition, a run which came to a screeching halt when FGA’s own Dudley Do-Right, Annie Zellor, took advantage of Yun Goeun distracting me.
And with both Yun and Cami in this match, I like my odds at beating both of them twice in one night. First in the tag match, then individually here in the Rumble. They’ve been giving me hell since I arrived in this company and it’s time I deal with them both once and for all.
Then there are names like Aries Reed and Savannah Taylor… names I’ve been familiar with for awhile now. Aries Reed, the Silver-Tongued Devil himself, got served a nice steaming hot cup of shut the hell up by me when he tried to get his hands on my title.
And speaking of that title, it’s one that Savannah Taylor took from obscurity to relevance, that can’t be denied. But Savannah’s a woman who’s never satisfied with what she has, and she’s always going to be wanting more because this business is how she measures her self-worth. It’s why she keeps talking about having a feud of the year even though I can think of a couple of other people who went at it harder, longer, and more violently than she could have ever imagined.
Which brings me to the man who broke Chandler Scott for that title, the one that Savannah dropped to her boy toy.
You’re looking at the woman who took FGA’s inaugural Pride Champion to his limit and beyond it over the course of the last year. I took that title from him and in return, he almost broke my neck with a chair. So I beat him bloody in a Chairshot Survival match. And then I did it again, only that time I threw him in a casket and put him in a hearse.
So what have we learned here, ladies and gents?
That Ruby Tyler is the woman who runs headfirst to a challenge and succeeds in beating it.
That Ruby Tyler has not, and will not, ever give up in a fight.
That when you least expect it, the Huntress will be waiting to strike.
And that when this Rumble is over? It’s going to be Ruby Tyler holding that title shot in her hand.
You may not know my name now.
But I promise you, at the end of the night?
You’ll never forget it.
Somewhere in Maryland…
"Mail call!"
An older man in a flannel jacket and jeans stood in the yard in front of the cabin, grinning at the young woman seated in the worn Adirondack chair on the porch. Ruby pushed herself up and smiled back at him, descending the couple of crooked steps to meet him.
"You know you can just call me, right? My cell phone works just fine, even out here."
"But then I wouldn't get to see you roll your eyes at me when I say how much I like the walk up from The Way Station."
To her credit, Ruby did not roll her eyes at him this time, but it was an impulse she had to put some effort into controlling. She took the few envelopes from him and flicked through them, dismissing all but one as junk mail.
"How's things down the hill? Anyone interesting show up lately?"
"We did get this one kid in there on Sunday. Looked like a hunter, was hanging out with a hunter, but I dunno about him..."
"Johnny, that was me and my partner. You know I'm training a rookie up here. What else you got?"
"That's about it. So who is he?"
"The guy who brought me out of retirement."
"C'mon, Ruby, you know as well as I do that there's no walking away from the game, not when you've been in it. One way or another, the weird and dangerous shit will always find its way to your doorstep."
"This from a guy who hasn't been on a job in how long?"
"Fourteen years and counting. Running the Way Station keeps me in it though. Pretty sure every hunter on the East Coast has been through here at least once. Including you and the kid you're training. So what'd he do, pop a doorway open with a Ouija board? How'd you find him anyway?"
"You got time for a beer and a long story?"
"Sure. Lead the way, princess."
That time, Johnny got his eye roll as Ruby ushered him through the door and kicked it shut behind them. Once they were settled at the little kitchen table, Ruby launched into the sordid story of how she had come to meet and nearly kill Kevin Hardaway and how out of that their mutual hatred of one another had developed into an antagonistic partnership. She left out that night with him in the motel, and the night that started in the movie theater and ended in the woods. Only she and Hardaway knew those events had taken place and that was the way she wanted to keep things.
“So the kid lost his wife to demons, ends up with a necronomicon on his doorstep, and you join forces with him to help him take them down?”
“Yeah and not a minute too soon. I'm still having repairs done from a few weeks ago. Fucking thing got in and he decided a baseball bat would be an effective weapon. I really gotta show him where I keep my guns if this happens again. Or just make him go watch sports games somewhere else.” Ruby sighed heavily, leaning back in her chair as she looked at Johnny.
Johnny nodded. “He's gotten himself deep in it, that's for damn sure. How're you handling it?”
“Oh you know me, Johnny. I can handle just about anything. And when I get annoyed with him I just throw paper balls at him. I figure eventually he'll learn to duck, but I don't want to tell him it's a training exercise. It's more fun this way.” She laughed, smiling to herself despite her professed annoyance with Hardaway’s presence in her cabin and in her life. “Look, at the end of the day, he's got a little girl at home that needs protecting. So as long as I get him back safe to her, then I consider it a win. And working with him in the ring, well… that's coming along too.”
“Yeah, heard you mention something about a big show coming up somewhere in Pennsylvania?”
“Yup. Gold Rush Rumble on the sixteenth. So not only do I have to work with him, there's also the distinct possibility I'll have to throw his ass over the top rope to get my shot at a title match.”
“Huh. Sounds like a good time. I'll throw it on in the Station. Show these bums you can be a hunter and still keep a day job instead of running up tabs you can't pay.”
“You could just stop letting people give you IOUs for their room and board. Or teach them to hustle pool like you did for me and Lila. Great way to get some quick cash on the road.”
“Hey, do I come in here criticizing your business model?”
“Nah, you just give me shit for thinking I could retire at twenty-five.”
“Since your dad passed and you think you don't need to talk with your mom, someone's gotta look out for you, Ruby.”
Her expression hardened at the mention of her mother, but Johnny didn't take his eyes off her.
“I know you think you're protecting her. But sometimes the more you try and protect someone, the more you hurt them. And as much as you believe you don't need anyone, nobody is an island. Think about that for awhile, will you?”
“Yeah, I will,” she responded automatically, even though she already knew she was doing what was best for her mother and her stepfamily.
“All right. Good luck on Saturday, kid. Give ‘em hell.”
Johnny stood to leave and Ruby walked with him to the front door.
“That's the plan, Johnny. Give me a shout if you ever need someone to keep you company down the hill.”
“I always like having people around, Ruby. Try not to let any more demons loose up here. This is an old cabin.”
“I'll do what I can. No promises on Hardaway though.”
“Hah, all right. Take it easy.” He waved as he started walking back to the Way Station and Ruby watched him go, enjoying the waning light of early spring. It wasn't like being out in Tujunga, surrounded by mountains and desert canyons that turned to rivers when the rains came. There weren't fires here, or the vicious Santa Ana winds that drove them. Instead she was surrounded by the kind of fairytale forest she had dreamed about as a child. All manner of things could be lurking in the woods, but Ruby felt safe where she was. There was a feeling of certainty here, like this was where she was supposed to be, and she was experienced enough to trust that gut instinct implicitly.
She had another gut feeling as she stood on her porch and lit a cigarette.
After Saturday, nothing would be the same.
So here I am in my very first Rumble match. It's me against nineteen other people, all of us clamoring for the same prize.
A few I know pretty well from having worked with them before.
Most, I've only watched from backstage.
A couple I only know from seeing tape of prior matches.
And there's one that I know intimately, who I've beaten to a bloody pulp on more than one occasion, and who has repaid me in kind.
But I’ll come back to him later.
See, in this match, the odds are against me. I'm outnumbered and with only a few matches under my belt here in FGA, there are a lot of people who don't quite know who Ruby Tyler is. Not that I blame them - if you weren't watching Exodus this last year, you'd have no idea. There are much bigger names than mine in this match and they're the ones I'm sure the fans are rooting for to go all the way and capture that shot at either Cyncity or Zero McHannon. But this isn't the first time the deck has been stacked against me, so I mean hey, go ahead and underestimate me right up until you get thrown over that top rope.
The whole point of being a hunter is that your target never sees you coming until the last possible moment, and by then it’s too late for them to do anything about it. With this many people in the match, it’ll be chaos. Everyone’s got a score to settle with someone else in that ring. Everyone wants to be the last one standing in the center with their hand raised in victory and their shot at glory cemented.
I was told awhile ago that I had a record to beat. Seven eliminations in the Gold Rush Rumble.
Eliminating seven targets is what I call a slow Tuesday. I’ll give you eight without breaking a sweat.
It’s been made clear to me that my lack of name recognition should be something I take as an insult, but it’s like I said… I don’t mind not being in the spotlight. It makes my job easier both in and out of the ring.
However.
Since people like Tony Carmine are too lazy or too apathetic to Google me, let me give you a refresher course on Ruby Tyler.
I’m the woman who went over a year without being pinned or submitted in singles competition, a run which came to a screeching halt when FGA’s own Dudley Do-Right, Annie Zellor, took advantage of Yun Goeun distracting me.
And with both Yun and Cami in this match, I like my odds at beating both of them twice in one night. First in the tag match, then individually here in the Rumble. They’ve been giving me hell since I arrived in this company and it’s time I deal with them both once and for all.
Then there are names like Aries Reed and Savannah Taylor… names I’ve been familiar with for awhile now. Aries Reed, the Silver-Tongued Devil himself, got served a nice steaming hot cup of shut the hell up by me when he tried to get his hands on my title.
And speaking of that title, it’s one that Savannah Taylor took from obscurity to relevance, that can’t be denied. But Savannah’s a woman who’s never satisfied with what she has, and she’s always going to be wanting more because this business is how she measures her self-worth. It’s why she keeps talking about having a feud of the year even though I can think of a couple of other people who went at it harder, longer, and more violently than she could have ever imagined.
Which brings me to the man who broke Chandler Scott for that title, the one that Savannah dropped to her boy toy.
You’re looking at the woman who took FGA’s inaugural Pride Champion to his limit and beyond it over the course of the last year. I took that title from him and in return, he almost broke my neck with a chair. So I beat him bloody in a Chairshot Survival match. And then I did it again, only that time I threw him in a casket and put him in a hearse.
So what have we learned here, ladies and gents?
That Ruby Tyler is the woman who runs headfirst to a challenge and succeeds in beating it.
That Ruby Tyler has not, and will not, ever give up in a fight.
That when you least expect it, the Huntress will be waiting to strike.
And that when this Rumble is over? It’s going to be Ruby Tyler holding that title shot in her hand.
You may not know my name now.
But I promise you, at the end of the night?
You’ll never forget it.