PERFECT STRANGERS
Oct 27, 2016 0:21:16 GMT -5
Post by Izzy Anders on Oct 27, 2016 0:21:16 GMT -5
FINAL WORD COUNT: 3,996
“My, oh, my, FGA has been turned on its head again.”
Izzy appeared before the rolling camera, fitting in tobacco into a filter. She rolled it effortlessly, showing clear experience in making her own cigs. When she was finished, she brought it into her mouth, followed by a lighter. She took a heavy drag from it, releasing the toxic smoke in a jet. She waved her hand to clear it from her face. She let the fading cigarette linger in her hand as she looked at the camera.
She had the camera’s viewfinder turned to her, in order to observe her own movements. An unexpected thing it allowed her to do is to take a glimpse of her current state. Last time she did, she saw her weight gain. She saw how damaged her past experiences had made her. Here and now, she looked stabilized. She still wore the eyepatch to hide the scar that she received along her eye. Her weight had now converted to muscle, giving her a stocky look than before. She flexed to show herself her progress. It gave her a glimmer of hope and confidence. She felt ready.
“One pay per view can change the dynamic of a company. One action can change the foundation of a roster’s motivations. Half of the roster are now looking upward into the heavens, seeing the chance to make themselves immortal. The FGA World Championship hangs in the balance. With that announcement, hopeful sparkles appeared in everyone’s eyes. Everyone thinks they can be world champion. Chandler and Zero are out of the equation. The New Kings are going to have to kill each other at some point. Everyone thinks they’re set to rule the world.”
“For you bastards that don’t watch the show, Zero McHannon walked out of Retribution as FGA World Champion, but then walked out of FGA altogether,” Izzy began to laugh so hard that she doubled over from it. When she reared up, she wiped a tear away from her face. “So management had to scramble around to figure out how to handle this? They made a tournament, go figure.”
“Now everyone is putting on their best clothes and smiles, like we’re at some beauty pageant or the school’s prom. They must look good for the grand ceremony. Who is going to be the new FGA World Champion? It's cute that everyone thinks that it really matters,” Izzy looked off to the side, her pale eyes narrowing in disgust of the FGA roster.
“Why does everyone think so positively when this world, FGA, is about to end?”
A derisive laugh followed.
“Because Izzy Anders is about to FGA World Champion. This isn’t some feeble hope. I’m not Karma, praying to all the gods that don’t exist to let his grandfather live one more time. Just so he can watch him lose again. I know for sure that I am walking in this tournament empty-handed and leaving the tournament with everything.”
“If you haven’t been paying attention, I said that FGA was under trial. I was the judge and the jury. I ruled that FGA was guilty of not supporting their talent, like trying to find where the hell I was. In exchange for their idiotic actions, I said that FGA gets the death penalty. I don’t just mean the company either. This goes for every member of this godforsaken roster. I’m the executioner and I plan to carry out with what I said I was going to do.”
She took another drag, another jet followed. “But I got to get through a lot of people to get to the thing I want the most. Fun idea that management came up with. Shove people together in these strange bedfellows matches and hope that a worthy champion comes out of it,” she snickered, shrugging her shoulders at the general idea.
“Of course they would throw Salem at me. They want to see if she can pick up a win against the woman who defined the very belt she holds now. Can Salem Cartier actually beat Izzy Anders? Oh, they think that Salem can do it. All the momentum is in her favor. She did just win a championship after all. Why not add the World Championship to it?”
“She had the fans on their feet after she beat Annie Zellor. FGA saw the stars aligning just for her, but they made the worst mistake they could with that decision. Because Salem Cartier is the worst damn person to be a champion,” Izzy looked off to the side while speaking. She took another puff. “I wonder if you know that too, Salem?”
“How did it feel winning that championship on that fateful night? You probably went home, cried, and banged your wife. But what happened the morning after? You woke up without any of that emotion left. It became another day in the life of Salem Cartier. You saw that golden moment as not the most important day of your life. You saw it as a normal Saturday. You woke up, poured your bowl of Cheerios, and just happened to remember that you won a championship. By the way, that is the one you fought three times for.”
“I was behind you that night, Salem. I wanted you to win, but then when you did, I realized how stupid that train of thought was. Because you don’t care that you won it. You smiled for the cameras, held up the belt with ‘so much pride’, but then you moved on. The fans were chanting your name, singing your praises. Everyone on the roster was doing the same. But it was just that one night. That one night? That is not all there is to being a champion or a competitor.”
“You risk making your reign absolutely forgettable with your attitude. You are too casual about everything. You joke and you laugh at every last thing. That is not cool; that is fucking stupid. It spits on the legacy of that championship you have on your shoulder. You spit on my amazing reign by acting the way you do. Act like you give a damn, because if you don’t give a damn, then I don’t give a damn. No one will give a damn. The fans that you act as sweet too won’t care either. At the end of the day, you will be another forgotten person. Because here is a wake-up call, Salem.”
“The fans have already moved on.”
“They wanted that moment, just like you. After that, they tuned into what came next. There was a bloody war right after yours that outshined you. Two dudes got thrown off ladders for a whole fifteen minutes after that. Karma fought his damn heart out. Finally, Zero finally silenced all his critics and walked the hell out. But guess what, Salem?”
“You will post another Fujiko Friday and act like it doesn’t matter, because it’s not your style to care.”
“So you think I will let you come into that ring and try to take the World Championship with that piss poor vision of yours? Fuck you. I have twice the passion than everyone in this match. Just because I want FGA gone doesn’t mean I won’t fight my damnedest to take that World Championship. I actually want that belt, not for the feel good moment or the fortune. I want to hold it lovingly in my arms in order to toss that bitch in a fire and watch it burn!”
“But if I let you, Salem, win the championship? People will forget about the most important thing in FGA. And that is damn tragedy.”
“You know what else is a tragedy? Nero Darling.”
“I was hyped for a moment when I heard ‘Nero’ announced. That dude that came in and terrorized Aries Reed? He was amazing. I liked him. I would be hyped to fight that freak. But then I heard ‘Darling’ right after that. Then I saw you post a tweet in that stupid way you do. Then all I felt was utter disappointment. Hell, I couldn’t even bother talking to you after the fact.”
“No, fank yew,” Izzy imitated Nero’s voice, before gagging loudly. “Fucking die, you vapid bitch.”
“There is a small part of me that feels bad for Salem. Nero, you are her partner. It is obvious that she will have to carry you. The saddest part about it is that if she can’t carry you to victory,” Izzy stopped midway, putting up her hands. “There is a shred of humor out of this.”
“You and Salem would make the perfect tag team. You two are the type to win the match and then fight teddy bears or some mess instead of each other. You both don’t seem to care about FGA as a whole or wrestling. You both are just two ‘cute’ faces that FGA can put on posters to attract fuckboys.”
“I can’t recommend you as Salem’s partner, though. You’re deadweight. More than Rubyway. More than Ryan LeCavalier,” Izzy named them off, dropping her cigarette to glare at the camera.
“Just as disposable as this cigarette right here. Not because you suck, but because you haven’t done anything for this company since you walked in. It’s annoying, because there were people like Evan Envi or even--” she once again paused, swallowing her own puke.
“Dom Harter.”
She paused again, regaining her composure.
“Both of those men have actually dedicated time to FGA. They put their bodies on the line. They actually give a fuck about this place. While you sat on the sidelines waiting to show up on some list. Congratulations, Nero, management thought about you. That is more than anyone else in FGA has done in the past few months. Hell, you and Jimmy Page has been around just as much, but we remember him. Why couldn’t he have your spot at the least?”
“At least he gives a damn. At least he wouldn’t just show up for a World Title shot and then disappear again if he lost. But if you don’t disappear like you usually do, Nero, you will show everyone what the MAL division is made of. Poor Salem, she has to defend her championship in the minor leagues now.”
“Salem, Nero, I personally have a grudge against you two, because you all will ruin what the Mid-Atlantic Legacy Championship is about. It is not a place where the kids go to play. When I held that championship, I fought future stars or already established people and beat them. That championship served as a gateway to what FGA really was, but you all will devalue that. And you two will sure as hell do the same to the World Championship.”
“You two will be the reason no one will think the MAL scene has no part in the World Championship situation.”
“Now let me turn my attention to my lovely tag team partner, Savannah Taylor. Just like Salem, you are one of the people that fell to that legendary title reign. You continued to stumble after that here in FGA, but something happened recently, right? At Retribution, you managed to knock out Magnus Gunner,” Izzy feigned shock.
“Good for you, sweetie,” she winked at the camera, before chuckling darkly.
“Was FGA too big and bad for you, Savannah? You couldn’t beat me, which is understandable. You couldn’t beat Annie, who I beat. You couldn’t beat Fujiko, who I beat twice. I asked you once about where the Las Vegas Siren, the EXODUS Pro World Champion, went. I come back and hear that she is back. I wonder why and then they pointed to Retribution.”
“You really had to go drag Gunner out of whatever hole he was in?”
“Savannah, you don’t have to try so hard. Strike’s retirement tour already stole your World Title shine. Only a niche group of people care that Magnus Gunner even breathed. And to the more informed? We know how sad that match actually was. Savannah Taylor may be good in EXODUS, great even, but in FGA...she’s the woman she used to be.”
“You had to fight Gunner because you felt comfortable fighting him. It is easy to fight against people from EXODUS, because you know them and they know you. You brought Magnus Gunner in of his retirement. You didn’t even fight the two-time EXODUS Pro World Champion, Christum Furor, an embodiment of hatred. You fought his nicer side at his weakest and won. To the ignorant, it is you conquering your demons. To me, it is you using that Gunner to get some pep in your step.”
“It will definitely be enough to beat Salem and Nero. You have that motivation you just got and you got me on your team. But you gotta realize that you are in the same situation you have been since you came to FGA. You are in someone’s shadow. Like I said, Chris Strike has already put you there. Now you will be in my shadow. Because I am going to beat you. And I am going to show you what the best wrestlers in the world do to people like you.”
“You should save your one good match for Salem for that belt she got now. If you are confident in yourself, you should use it in this tag team match. But let me tell you something right now, Savannah. I need you to listen and listen well. That ‘one good match’ coupon you got there? It will not work on me.”
“All that pep in your step, all that hope you got, it won’t be enough. Because beating Annie on a good night back when she had the belt or beating me during my MAL reign--”
She shook her head.
“No, facing me in general is more of a handful than Gunner will ever be.”
Beard oil? She thought that it was something that Zero made it up to sound even more pretentious. She scanned over the items in his bathroom, putting the demure bottle down onto the marble counter. Inquisitive, she was. While Zero slept, she had the opportunity to sit in silence and observe the internal aspects of her dear friend. He kept things clean, despite his outward personality. She believed him to be an unruly sort. At one point, she believed that he littered his home with empty alcohol bottles and unwanted mail. The messiest thing she was spotted on her scour was the turned over dog bowl. His dog was energetic, yes, but that was customary. Nothing to mind.
Her wanderings served more than to appease her curiosity. No, she silently overturned things in a search for one object in particular. If he awoke to her mechanisms, there may be a scuffle. And not of the variety that Izzy likes. As she moved through, she saw a glisten of gold out of her peripheral. There, in his duffel bag, she saw her target. She sauntered over to it and unzipped it. A key skill she learned was the ability to muffle the unzipping noise. She carefully extracted his World Championship from the bag. She lifted it up, letting the light refracture from what peeked through the slit of the curtains. As she held it, she felt something resonate in her heart.
For many, this championship served as the end of their journey up the tumultuous and tall mountain. Many marveled over the belt, only holding it for mere seconds. In many cases, those seconds were an eternity, an upsetting preview of what may come, or may never happen. She thought of some people like Tony Carmine and Cordy Stevenson. They have fought valiantly many times on the grandest level for what she held in her hand. Yet, they always came up short. They were never good enough that night. Izzy never cared for the championship. She knew of it as a goal, but not one she focused on at the moment. The most beautiful gold to her was the Mid-Atlantic Legacy Championship that she came to define, make relevant.
Now, she found herself pining for the championship she held tenderly in her grasp. Later that weekend, she would involve herself in a tournament that would end with a person being the FGA Champion. Despite all that Zero, who only stirred slightly in bed, said about the belt, Izzy wanted to win it just as badly as he once did. The imagining that she had for it could become reality. All she had to do was try and try her best. She could hold a belt just like this, the clone of Zero’s. For once, she was awestruck by the beauty of a material thing. She glided her fingers across the golden centerplate, feeling its grooves and pieces. It was a bigger feeling than how she felt when she gazed at the Mid-Atlantic Legacy Championship. That belt was only a taste, an appetizer to championship glory. This World Championship? It was the end of the road, the main course.
Crowd noise flooded her head. If she could win this belt, she would be the best. Believing is one thing, but holding the FGA World Championship was the capitalization point. No one could speak to her in any fashion. Tony Carmine could not boast about his lauding over her. Johnny Cannon could not speak down to her. Cordy Stevenson could not dare dream of being better. She would do it in her first try. Gluttony, Izzy knew the feeling as. The hunger and realization of the championship’s importance only lived its dream-like existence for so long. Soon after, it was forced to metamorphize into something entirely different.
This belt is the focal point of Frontier Grappling Arts, the very place that ostracized her and then forgot about her. Every day that she lived in fear of her own life or in a prison masquerading as a ward, hatred grew. She cursed FGA’s name every day and everyone in it. She had to watch as Dom Harter “turned over a new leaf” or Annie Zellor finally showed everyone the colors that Izzy preached about before. While this all happened, she sat idly by, hoping that someone in FGA would bother to find her, save her even. She did not have access to the outside world for a while, since she was set on a mission to destroy people for the Kaiser Family. She did not get to see anything; she only got to hear snippets from her annoying captor.
“They aren’t bothering to look.”
Fans did not hold up signs, begging for Izzy to come back. There were no movements, no attempts, not even a mention. The longest Mid-Atlantic Legacy Championship might be dead and no one bothered to care. All they cared about was Zero and his war with the New Kings over the very belt she held in her hands. If you do not hold this belt, you are nothing at all. You are worth forgetting. You could die and no one would care, unless you had this belt. That must mean that this belt has the power to change FGA, right?
Izzy’s eyes narrowed at it, a dormant fury surfacing over her nihilistic visage. Her grip on the championship hardened. It trembled as her hands shook. Izzy began to lose grip on her emotions. Fury and misery met in this moment, causing Izzy to want to hurl the championship out of the window. She was primed to, but a voice stopped her.
“What are you doing?” the voice belonged to Zero, who might have just woken up. Izzy liked to believe that he was awake the entire time, just watching Izzy in silence.
His words caused her to calm her brimming emotions, if only by a little. “I was about to steal this from you,” she said, frankly.
“You wouldn’t have gotten far,” Zero replied, shifting on the bed to get comfortable. His voice was hoarse, only aided by his earliest breaths of air.
“You don’t know that,” Izzy lowly spoke, moving her hair from in front of her face. She stared at the championship still. “I could have gotten away and you would have to come running back to FGA to get the belt.”
Zero sighed, “Think I’d be more pissed about having to roll out of bed to get it back. What if you lost it? Then I’d have to beat that person up and take it back. Then I’d have to beat you up for making me beat someone up. Talk about having my day ruined. The cycle would never end. You steal my title. I steal it back. You could have the little brother to that title soon enough without that hassle.”
While Zero spoke, Izzy rose to her feet, giving Zero a small gaze. When she did, she did not see the rage-filled man that everyone else saw. In that moment, she saw confusion and concern in his eyes. Even his tone did not reflect an accusatory standpoint. It may have been intrigue. Izzy held the belt by her waist, one hand clutched around a strap. She held it up, looking at his nameplate. When she lowered it, she stepped onto his bed, positioning herself above his body.
Zero’s confusion took over more. Izzy’s position did nothing to quell anything that he might have been thinking. Izzy rested her knees in between his arms, straddling his stomach. She positioned herself to gaze down into Zero’s eyes. She lowered her head down, to give him a faint kiss on the lips. When she raised back up, Zero no longer saw the Izzy Anders that he spent time with regularly. Instead, Izzy Anders, the Dreamkiller, rested upon him. Her eyes were wide with a strange essence, like an animal.
“You know what I want to do to FGA?” she told more than she asked.
Zero raised an eyebrow to Izzy and said, “Charge for parking?”
“I want to destroy this company. I want to raze it to the fucking ground,” she gritted her teeth together upon each word. “These bastards did nothing for me. Even though I have bled and lost my mind for this company. When I needed their help, they turned a blind eye all because of this fucking piece of shit in my hand.”
She hurled the championship next to Zero’s head. He moved swiftly, not wanting to get his face busted open from the hateful toss. “That belt, that fucking belt makes it so people like me are not cared about. Just because people like you and Chandler are at the top doesn’t mean I don’t matter. I can’t let a company that lets their workers be abused and fucking kidnapped exist. No, I’m not going to sit here and let some egotistical asshole and FGA keep doing what it damn well pleases.”
Zero’s eyes narrowed at her now. “Of all people, you don’t need to tell me that…” He paused, then continued, “Burn the fucking walls down and make them all watch while you do it.”
Izzy paused, before grabbing Zero’s face in her hands. “And…” she looked deeply into his eyes, that same, vacant stare on her face.
“If I must beat you too, I will do it. Because I have to beat everyone to be the best. Because when you’re the best, then no one can stop you,” she rose up, shifting her eyes away for a moment. “If beating you means that I get to destroy the very company that never cared for me, then I will beat you within an inch of your life.”
“So Zero, don’t get in my way. I like you. I would hate to have to rid of you too,” she said, the familiar teasing look coming back on her face.
An awkward silence lasted between them before Izzy got up and scurried off. “I’m hungry. I’m gonna make breakfast.”
She left Zero in the bedroom dazed and confused.
