C3
Aug 9, 2017 6:57:45 GMT -5
Post by The Mason on Aug 9, 2017 6:57:45 GMT -5
August 3, 2017
Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Josh Polczynic held the large, yellow box boasting the name “F-CON” on the front. Raising a skeptical brow, he turned an eye toward Ashlyn De Luca as the two of them stood in the aisle in the Ajax Wal Mart, holding the box out toward her.
“Do traps like this even work? Like-- they say you never have to see the mouse with its neck and face all fucked up but without the satisfying snap, how do I really know?” Pause. “And what if I don’t even know it’s in there? What if I forget and it starts to smell?”
Ashlyn shrugged, looking at the mousetrap box and then up to him. “I don’t know. Do you have Febreze?”
“Uh. I have Glade.”
“Hm. Invest in Febreze.” Ashlyn angled her head a bit, looking at the more conventional, wooden trap. “But I’m with you. It is about the satisfying snap of the neck.” She exhaled, making a quiet whistling sound as she did. “Tough call.”
Josh placed the box down, picking up another-- eyes widening as they traveled over the words on the label. “An electric shock surges through the pest’s body killing it within four-to-eight seconds? What the fuck kind of monster designs this shit?”
So ultimately, Josh purchased the mousetrap that touted its ability to send an electric shock surging through the pest’s body and killing it within four-to-eight seconds. Sadistic, that.
Stepping out into the parking lot, Ashlyn’s eyes immediately drifted toward the area where Josh had parked his comically old Lincoln Towncar. He referred to it as “a classic” and Ash figured it could’ve been, were it not for the rust, the scratches, and the half-dozen dents scattered around it. Parked next to it was a navy-colored Nissan Sentra which would’ve, on any other day, never captured Ashlyn’s attention. But on this particular day, stood at the trunk of this particular Sentra was a familiar face. Sunglasses covering her eyes, dressed down in a faded four or five year old “Action Packed Wrestling” tank top and dark yoga pants was Cassandra McPherson. As if on cue, her gaze drifted from her trunk and she pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, smiling as Josh and Ashlyn approached.
“Well, well!” Cass slammed the trunk of the car shut, having retrieved a single hair tie from it, using it to wrap her hair into a ponytail as she half-jogged to the pair, wrapping her arms around Ashlyn in an embrace, though it was Josh she directed her words to. “Long time no see, stranger.”
“Shit. Yeah. It’s been… what… three years?” Josh muttered. “Time gets away.”
“What are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were gonna meet us back at the house,” Ash pointed out, stepping back to look at her friend.
“Ew, I didn't want to be alone in there with a rat. Where there's one, there's like five. You shouldn't have told me,” Cass stated.
“It's not a rat-- it's a mouse,” Josh corrected. “One mouse.”
“Mhm.” Ash raised a brow. “Whatever makes you feel better.”
“Shut up,” he muttered, reaching for his car keys as he moved past the two. “Ash, did you tell her the news yet?”
“Ooh, no, tell me the news. Tell me, tell me,” Cassandra said, giving Ashlyn a rapid-fire series of nudges.
Ash laughed lightly, moving out of range of her hand. “It’s one of those things that doesn’t sound as cool over a text message or a phone call.” She sighed, placing her hands on her hips, nodding toward the vehicles. “Probably better if we just show you.”
Eric Staunton ran against the ropes and came back, smashing into the outstretched arm of Josh Polczynic. Josh swept the leg, driving Eric into the canvas with his version of the STO. The regulation-sized ring in the basement of Josh's Ajax, Ontario home had an extra layer of blue mats on top of it, shielding the typical impact but Ashlyn could see Eric obviously recoiling from the impact-- shaken, but not harmed, from what she could see. With a frown, she shot a glare toward Josh.
“What?” Josh muttered, pushing himself to his feet.
Eric sat up, rubbing his head where it has impacted on the mats, which seemingly didn’t have quite the give he’d been expecting.
“Geez… If I’d known you were about to drive me in head first I would have braced up first.” Eric complains, “Ouch man. Not cool.”
“You’re okay,” Josh muttered with a slap on the shoulder and a wink. Josh pushed himself to a knee, raising a brow, looking back toward his audience for approval. His confidence grew, placed inside the ring he built, taking up the entire basement of his own house. “Is this ring the shit or is this ring not? Hm?”
Ashlyn rolled her eyes, arms folded. “That wasn’t a side headlock, FYI…”
“Clearly it was not.” Logan added, from where he was sitting beside Ashlyn, “It looked rather roughly performed as well. I have been doing it for years though, so I might be biased and opinionated.”
“Wha…” Josh looked dejected, dropping to a seat by the ropes, sliding out to the apron. “It-- I was trying out an STO. Was it not…?” He trailed off, catching Ashlyn shaking her head and rising to her feet. With a frown, Josh turned to Eric, who was looking back at him and frowning slightly. He then just shook his head for a few moments.
“Not a bad ring though,” Ashlyn said, pulling on the bottom rope. “Probably wouldn’t be the worst place to train every now and then. I mean… shit, we’ve got like three weeks before Chainsaw & Rowe?” Ash turned a gaze turned Logan. “From my experience, we need to be operating at better than a hundred when we see them.”
“Maybe at least one fifty…” Logan replied, “They are an experienced team. I’ve binge watched a bunch of footage of them. They aren’t perfect, but they are really good at what they do in the ring.” He blows out a breath. “Facing Aurora may have been our big emotional match in this tournament. It was the one that was going to be our big test, to see if we deserved to be here. But now, the screws are going to be a whole lot tighter. This is a seasoned and accomplished tag team we’ve got this time around… It’s going to be a lot tougher than what we’ve already been through. And Tommy and the Guns were no walk in park either.” He paused for several moments of consideration. “I have to wonder if three more weeks is going to be enough prep time…”
“Might be.” Ash moved a hand through her hair, watching as Josh rolled back into the ring, locking up with Eric. Though her eyes remained on them, she spoke to Logan. Visible along her arms, her shoulder, and even her neck, were the scars-- some faded, some fresh-- accumulated just during the calendar year. “Artemis Kaiser’s probably gonna be fucking hunting me the entire time though.” A short laugh. “So a fair warning; don’t be surprised if I get murdered before we even make it to this match.”
He smiled at that. “I know. You have commitments elsewhere, and I wouldn’t ever ask you to shrug them off for my benefit. We’ll simply take this day by day and do all we can to prepare for the challenges that still lie ahead of us.” He let out another breath. “It only gets harder from here on too. So, we’re going to have to work our butts off to get to the end.”
Ashlyn’s eyes drifted toward the ring as Eric collided with Josh in the center of the ring, sending him to the extra-padded mats with a well-placed shoulder block. Josh shot him a thumbs-up from the ground. “That was fu--AAAAUUUGGGHH!” Josh groaned as Eric dropped an elbow into his gut mid-sentence.
“Oops, sorry. Guess I should have warned you.” Eric replies, as he climbs back to his feet, smiling ever so slightly.
Ashlyn smirked, settling back into her chair beside Logan, eyes up on the ring. “The Godfathers are out of this. That still blows my mind, man.” She laughed a little, shaking her head. “Means… gah… means anything could happen in this thing.”
“Well, I’m willing to take that as a good sign, especially considering that we are on a steep climb from here.” Logan replied as he shot a glare at Eric once he caught his eye, in response to his stunt with Josh in the ring. “We’ve got a set of tag champs now, then we’re going to be facing another solid team if we win, in S.S. or Fight Club, then if we make it through that, we’ll be squaring off against a team that has scored a major upset somewhere along the way, regardless of who comes out on the other side of the brackets.”
“I still don’t think we’re likely to get to the finals… but since this tournament has gotten to the point where the unexpected can happen, that is exactly what I’m going to be trying to do.” he said.
Ash shook her head a bit, still reclining in the chair. Moments passed as Josh and Eric took time, pushing the protective blue mats out of the ring and rising to their feet, agreeing to run the ropes. She couldn’t tell how much time had passed. Maybe ten minutes… maybe fifteen… Josh and Eric had transitioned from standard bumps to sparring, laying into each other once again before Ash turned to her teacher.
“I get the realism,” she said with an almost-bitter laugh. “But I hate when you say that. That-- we’re not likely to make it.”
“Slow down!” Josh cried out from the ring as Eric came barreling toward him. Eric slowed to a stop , allowing Josh to catch his breath, looking down toward the winded former student with a half-smile.
Ash looked toward Logan then back toward her friends in the ring as she continued talking to him. “I accept that we’re considered underdogs here. But I didn’t sign up to make it to the quarter-finals. Or the semi-finals. Or the finals. I didn’t sign up to get my name out there, Logan. My name is out there.”
She sighed, watching again as Eric smashed into Josh, sending him into the canvas. This time, Josh continued to lie there sliding his hands behind his head, sucking in deep breaths.
“I signed up to win, and go to Patriot Games and then eventually-- for the first time ever-- become one half of the Tag Team Champions. And I know it wouldn’t be the first time for you, man, but I was hoping you signed up for the same.”
”Fuck!” Josh slapped a hand on the mat in frustration as he pushed himself to his feet, but staggered forward again into a lockup.
“I don’t care if we make it so far. It’s cool on a resume but it still makes us losers right now. And right now, I just want to win,” Ashlyn continued, not realizing that her voice had lowered to barely above a whisper as she watched the ring.
Josh’s breathing had become wheezing. He was red-faced but Eric looked fresh-- ready to go. Eric pivoted, shooting the ropes, ready to come back and smash into Josh again…
“It’s a habit I’ve picked up from my own experiences. When I keep myself grounded, I am far more effective out there in competition. A lot of people have taken for granted that they were going to ‘make it through’ or ‘win it all’ or ‘show that they were the best’. We’ve already had sixteen teams have their bags packed and get sent back home. Most of them bragged as long and as loud as they could about winning. They dug themselves into a hole before they’d even begun.”
...and again he did, driving Josh to the canvas. Josh lied there again and Eric paced the ring for a moment, catching his own breath as Josh remained sprawled out.
“GBH figured we were easy pickings for them. Aurora and Tommy didn’t really consider us a serious challenge. They were sure that they would win.”
Ash looked toward him, shrugging, the frustrated look returning to her face. “Okay. Like. Fine. They were super extra with the whole tank and the pizza thing but that wasn’t them not taking us seriously. If it was, then what were we doing out there the whole time?”
He smiled slightly as he looked over towards Ashlyn. “That was them treating this whole tournament like a joke… or at least treating the match with us like one. That was something that gave us an additional reason to go out there and beat them. Then look at a lot of the commentary going on about our match. Can you say that being written off by the majority of people looking at that match didn’t motivate you to win it that much more?”
Ashlyn sighed, not responding for a few moments, gaze falling downward.
“Believe me… I would love to win this tournament,” Logan continued. “It would be a huge accomplishment for me to come back to full time competition and win something like this right out of the gate. I might be able to make the argument that I want to win this even more than you do, Ashlyn. It’s been years since I had any kind of success to my name. This even carries the bonus of being able to do so with you as my teammate. I’d like to win this tournament for you, so that you can add the success to your growing list of accomplishments as well.”
In the ring, Eric coughed a bit, leaning against the ropes, grabbing his towel off of the turnbuckle and mopping the sweat off of his forehead, flashing a quick thumbs-up to Ashlyn and Logan before grabbing the second towel and tossing it down onto Josh’s chest as he made his way to his side.
“I just prefer to remain low key about all of this. Let our opponents build themselves up. I’ll give them all of the credit they deserve and then some. I don’t view anyone in this field as being beyond our ability to go out there and beat. I admit that we are lacking in key areas against many of these other teams of course, and pretending otherwise does us no favours. Preparing for the worst though is going to make you go out there at your best every time, and it’ll already have you in the mindset where you’re going to be thinking about have to dig deeper and work harder to get over the obstacles ahead of you.”
Ashlyn looked downward, but she nodded still. What he said made sense-- even the areas she didn’t want to admit.
“I--”
“Guys?” Eric called from the ring, eyes wide in panic.
Logan looked over towards the ring, picking up on the concern in Eric’s voice.
“He’s… not getting up,” Eric said, looking toward Logan desperately.
“What?!” Ashlyn pushed herself off of the chair with Logan rising alongside her. Moments later, they were up and climbed into the ring. Eric remained sat on his knees, eyes drifting to Ashlyn before he turned to Logan, eyes somehow growing wider.
“I wasn’t trying to really hurt him,” Eric insisted, speaking quickly. “I thought we were done! I-- I--”
The door of the basement opened. Ash could see Cassandra’s legs and without waiting for her to ask a question, Ashlyn shouted, “call an ambulance!”
“...what?” Cass muttered, more out of surprise than a lack of concern, still only visible from the waist-down.
Ashlyn could hear her own voice shaking. “Josh is hurt-- hurry up!”
Cass pivoted, running back up the few stairs she’d descended and charging back into the living room, searching for the landline. Ash turned toward Josh again, dropping to her knees beside her friend, moving a hand to his cheek.
“Josh? Josh!”
Logan looked over to Eric. “Eric. Upstairs now. Help Cass. Find the first aid kit. Get back here. Go.”
Eric nodded and scrambled out from the ring. Logan then looked back to Ashlyn.
“Ash,” he said to get her attention.
“Wh-- yeah,” she looked toward him, quickly.
“I need you to keep calm here. I’m gonna need your help and so will Josh.”
August 15, 2011
Stouffville, Ontario, Canada
“Remember, be calm and focused. If you plan on getting through this you’re going to have to help me. Josh needs your help too, cause you came into this together.”
Ashlyn stood across the ring from Josh, who looked at her with the same wide eyes and the same clenched jaw that Ashlyn had. Her head was throbbing from everything they’d gone over before. Her spine hurt. Her ribs hurt. Leaning against the ropes on the inside of the ring in Logan’s gym, Ashlyn gave her teacher a sigh.
“I just don’t wanna waste your time,” she said with a nervous half-laugh. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for us here, but--”
“You’re not wasting my, yours or anyone else’s time until you get to the point that you actually walk away from everything here.” Logan replies, cutting her off. “You’ve barely scratched the surface of things. Do you really want to hang it up already?”
“Yeah,” Josh agreed with a small laugh, gesturing toward Logan. “Look at the shit this dude’s been through.”
“I’ve already had a few dozen situations where I could walk away from everything.” Logan says, “Should have seen me at my lowest, seven months ago when I was rolling around in a wheelchair. You just need to find a reason to keep going.”
He moved along beside the ring on crutches and with a student on either side of him, ready to act if he should stumble.
“You’ve got potential. Everyone who comes here does. The question is, how much of it are you willing to try to dig down for? How much time and work are you willing to put into this? Yes… it’s going to get a lot harder before it gets easier, but the only real limits you have to deal with are the ones you’re going to put on yourself here.” He stops and looks at Ashlyn. “I can guide you, but you are going to have to help me make something out of you.”
Ashlyn took a deep breath, still leaning against the ropes. Her eyes drifted from Josh to Logan, and another breath escaped her lips. “You guys are gonna feel like the biggest cunts if nothing comes of this. If I walk out that door tomorrow.”
Josh winked at Logan. “Excuse her language. She’s usually really confident, I swear. It’s sickening, really.”
“He’s a pathological liar,” Ashlyn muttered, putting a leg through the ropes. “It’s sickening, really.” She rolled her eyes. “Look, man, thanks for keeping us around even when we ran out of money, but…” Ashlyn stepped out to the apron. “It was a fun few weeks, right?” She dropped to the floor, hands still on the ropes, gazing up at Logan. ”Sorry.”
Ashlyn pulled her hands away and stepped back. Josh groaned and dropped down, rolling out of the ring, realizing her exit meant his own.
“Don’t be sorry. Not yet anyway.” Logan turned away from her, “For now, if you want you can leave. Take a couple of weeks if need be. Clear your head and decide on what you want. If you decide that walking out of here is what’s best for you, no problem. I’ll cover your costs to get back home. But if you come back, it had better be for the long haul, because I don’t appreciate wasting my time.”
With that said, Logan and his escort left the room. There was nothing to follow it. No glance back. Just Josh and Ashlyn standing alone in the gym. She heard the lock on the door Logan left through slide into place. The only door left was the exit.
fin.
Ajax, Ontario, Canada
Josh Polczynic held the large, yellow box boasting the name “F-CON” on the front. Raising a skeptical brow, he turned an eye toward Ashlyn De Luca as the two of them stood in the aisle in the Ajax Wal Mart, holding the box out toward her.
“Do traps like this even work? Like-- they say you never have to see the mouse with its neck and face all fucked up but without the satisfying snap, how do I really know?” Pause. “And what if I don’t even know it’s in there? What if I forget and it starts to smell?”
Ashlyn shrugged, looking at the mousetrap box and then up to him. “I don’t know. Do you have Febreze?”
“Uh. I have Glade.”
“Hm. Invest in Febreze.” Ashlyn angled her head a bit, looking at the more conventional, wooden trap. “But I’m with you. It is about the satisfying snap of the neck.” She exhaled, making a quiet whistling sound as she did. “Tough call.”
Josh placed the box down, picking up another-- eyes widening as they traveled over the words on the label. “An electric shock surges through the pest’s body killing it within four-to-eight seconds? What the fuck kind of monster designs this shit?”
So ultimately, Josh purchased the mousetrap that touted its ability to send an electric shock surging through the pest’s body and killing it within four-to-eight seconds. Sadistic, that.
Stepping out into the parking lot, Ashlyn’s eyes immediately drifted toward the area where Josh had parked his comically old Lincoln Towncar. He referred to it as “a classic” and Ash figured it could’ve been, were it not for the rust, the scratches, and the half-dozen dents scattered around it. Parked next to it was a navy-colored Nissan Sentra which would’ve, on any other day, never captured Ashlyn’s attention. But on this particular day, stood at the trunk of this particular Sentra was a familiar face. Sunglasses covering her eyes, dressed down in a faded four or five year old “Action Packed Wrestling” tank top and dark yoga pants was Cassandra McPherson. As if on cue, her gaze drifted from her trunk and she pushed her sunglasses up onto her head, smiling as Josh and Ashlyn approached.
“Well, well!” Cass slammed the trunk of the car shut, having retrieved a single hair tie from it, using it to wrap her hair into a ponytail as she half-jogged to the pair, wrapping her arms around Ashlyn in an embrace, though it was Josh she directed her words to. “Long time no see, stranger.”
“Shit. Yeah. It’s been… what… three years?” Josh muttered. “Time gets away.”
“What are you doing all the way out here? I thought you were gonna meet us back at the house,” Ash pointed out, stepping back to look at her friend.
“Ew, I didn't want to be alone in there with a rat. Where there's one, there's like five. You shouldn't have told me,” Cass stated.
“It's not a rat-- it's a mouse,” Josh corrected. “One mouse.”
“Mhm.” Ash raised a brow. “Whatever makes you feel better.”
“Shut up,” he muttered, reaching for his car keys as he moved past the two. “Ash, did you tell her the news yet?”
“Ooh, no, tell me the news. Tell me, tell me,” Cassandra said, giving Ashlyn a rapid-fire series of nudges.
Ash laughed lightly, moving out of range of her hand. “It’s one of those things that doesn’t sound as cool over a text message or a phone call.” She sighed, placing her hands on her hips, nodding toward the vehicles. “Probably better if we just show you.”
* * * * *
Eric Staunton ran against the ropes and came back, smashing into the outstretched arm of Josh Polczynic. Josh swept the leg, driving Eric into the canvas with his version of the STO. The regulation-sized ring in the basement of Josh's Ajax, Ontario home had an extra layer of blue mats on top of it, shielding the typical impact but Ashlyn could see Eric obviously recoiling from the impact-- shaken, but not harmed, from what she could see. With a frown, she shot a glare toward Josh.
“What?” Josh muttered, pushing himself to his feet.
Eric sat up, rubbing his head where it has impacted on the mats, which seemingly didn’t have quite the give he’d been expecting.
“Geez… If I’d known you were about to drive me in head first I would have braced up first.” Eric complains, “Ouch man. Not cool.”
“You’re okay,” Josh muttered with a slap on the shoulder and a wink. Josh pushed himself to a knee, raising a brow, looking back toward his audience for approval. His confidence grew, placed inside the ring he built, taking up the entire basement of his own house. “Is this ring the shit or is this ring not? Hm?”
Ashlyn rolled her eyes, arms folded. “That wasn’t a side headlock, FYI…”
“Clearly it was not.” Logan added, from where he was sitting beside Ashlyn, “It looked rather roughly performed as well. I have been doing it for years though, so I might be biased and opinionated.”
“Wha…” Josh looked dejected, dropping to a seat by the ropes, sliding out to the apron. “It-- I was trying out an STO. Was it not…?” He trailed off, catching Ashlyn shaking her head and rising to her feet. With a frown, Josh turned to Eric, who was looking back at him and frowning slightly. He then just shook his head for a few moments.
“Not a bad ring though,” Ashlyn said, pulling on the bottom rope. “Probably wouldn’t be the worst place to train every now and then. I mean… shit, we’ve got like three weeks before Chainsaw & Rowe?” Ash turned a gaze turned Logan. “From my experience, we need to be operating at better than a hundred when we see them.”
“Maybe at least one fifty…” Logan replied, “They are an experienced team. I’ve binge watched a bunch of footage of them. They aren’t perfect, but they are really good at what they do in the ring.” He blows out a breath. “Facing Aurora may have been our big emotional match in this tournament. It was the one that was going to be our big test, to see if we deserved to be here. But now, the screws are going to be a whole lot tighter. This is a seasoned and accomplished tag team we’ve got this time around… It’s going to be a lot tougher than what we’ve already been through. And Tommy and the Guns were no walk in park either.” He paused for several moments of consideration. “I have to wonder if three more weeks is going to be enough prep time…”
“Might be.” Ash moved a hand through her hair, watching as Josh rolled back into the ring, locking up with Eric. Though her eyes remained on them, she spoke to Logan. Visible along her arms, her shoulder, and even her neck, were the scars-- some faded, some fresh-- accumulated just during the calendar year. “Artemis Kaiser’s probably gonna be fucking hunting me the entire time though.” A short laugh. “So a fair warning; don’t be surprised if I get murdered before we even make it to this match.”
He smiled at that. “I know. You have commitments elsewhere, and I wouldn’t ever ask you to shrug them off for my benefit. We’ll simply take this day by day and do all we can to prepare for the challenges that still lie ahead of us.” He let out another breath. “It only gets harder from here on too. So, we’re going to have to work our butts off to get to the end.”
Ashlyn’s eyes drifted toward the ring as Eric collided with Josh in the center of the ring, sending him to the extra-padded mats with a well-placed shoulder block. Josh shot him a thumbs-up from the ground. “That was fu--AAAAUUUGGGHH!” Josh groaned as Eric dropped an elbow into his gut mid-sentence.
“Oops, sorry. Guess I should have warned you.” Eric replies, as he climbs back to his feet, smiling ever so slightly.
Ashlyn smirked, settling back into her chair beside Logan, eyes up on the ring. “The Godfathers are out of this. That still blows my mind, man.” She laughed a little, shaking her head. “Means… gah… means anything could happen in this thing.”
“Well, I’m willing to take that as a good sign, especially considering that we are on a steep climb from here.” Logan replied as he shot a glare at Eric once he caught his eye, in response to his stunt with Josh in the ring. “We’ve got a set of tag champs now, then we’re going to be facing another solid team if we win, in S.S. or Fight Club, then if we make it through that, we’ll be squaring off against a team that has scored a major upset somewhere along the way, regardless of who comes out on the other side of the brackets.”
“I still don’t think we’re likely to get to the finals… but since this tournament has gotten to the point where the unexpected can happen, that is exactly what I’m going to be trying to do.” he said.
Ash shook her head a bit, still reclining in the chair. Moments passed as Josh and Eric took time, pushing the protective blue mats out of the ring and rising to their feet, agreeing to run the ropes. She couldn’t tell how much time had passed. Maybe ten minutes… maybe fifteen… Josh and Eric had transitioned from standard bumps to sparring, laying into each other once again before Ash turned to her teacher.
“I get the realism,” she said with an almost-bitter laugh. “But I hate when you say that. That-- we’re not likely to make it.”
“Slow down!” Josh cried out from the ring as Eric came barreling toward him. Eric slowed to a stop , allowing Josh to catch his breath, looking down toward the winded former student with a half-smile.
Ash looked toward Logan then back toward her friends in the ring as she continued talking to him. “I accept that we’re considered underdogs here. But I didn’t sign up to make it to the quarter-finals. Or the semi-finals. Or the finals. I didn’t sign up to get my name out there, Logan. My name is out there.”
She sighed, watching again as Eric smashed into Josh, sending him into the canvas. This time, Josh continued to lie there sliding his hands behind his head, sucking in deep breaths.
“I signed up to win, and go to Patriot Games and then eventually-- for the first time ever-- become one half of the Tag Team Champions. And I know it wouldn’t be the first time for you, man, but I was hoping you signed up for the same.”
”Fuck!” Josh slapped a hand on the mat in frustration as he pushed himself to his feet, but staggered forward again into a lockup.
“I don’t care if we make it so far. It’s cool on a resume but it still makes us losers right now. And right now, I just want to win,” Ashlyn continued, not realizing that her voice had lowered to barely above a whisper as she watched the ring.
Josh’s breathing had become wheezing. He was red-faced but Eric looked fresh-- ready to go. Eric pivoted, shooting the ropes, ready to come back and smash into Josh again…
“It’s a habit I’ve picked up from my own experiences. When I keep myself grounded, I am far more effective out there in competition. A lot of people have taken for granted that they were going to ‘make it through’ or ‘win it all’ or ‘show that they were the best’. We’ve already had sixteen teams have their bags packed and get sent back home. Most of them bragged as long and as loud as they could about winning. They dug themselves into a hole before they’d even begun.”
...and again he did, driving Josh to the canvas. Josh lied there again and Eric paced the ring for a moment, catching his own breath as Josh remained sprawled out.
“GBH figured we were easy pickings for them. Aurora and Tommy didn’t really consider us a serious challenge. They were sure that they would win.”
Ash looked toward him, shrugging, the frustrated look returning to her face. “Okay. Like. Fine. They were super extra with the whole tank and the pizza thing but that wasn’t them not taking us seriously. If it was, then what were we doing out there the whole time?”
He smiled slightly as he looked over towards Ashlyn. “That was them treating this whole tournament like a joke… or at least treating the match with us like one. That was something that gave us an additional reason to go out there and beat them. Then look at a lot of the commentary going on about our match. Can you say that being written off by the majority of people looking at that match didn’t motivate you to win it that much more?”
Ashlyn sighed, not responding for a few moments, gaze falling downward.
“Believe me… I would love to win this tournament,” Logan continued. “It would be a huge accomplishment for me to come back to full time competition and win something like this right out of the gate. I might be able to make the argument that I want to win this even more than you do, Ashlyn. It’s been years since I had any kind of success to my name. This even carries the bonus of being able to do so with you as my teammate. I’d like to win this tournament for you, so that you can add the success to your growing list of accomplishments as well.”
In the ring, Eric coughed a bit, leaning against the ropes, grabbing his towel off of the turnbuckle and mopping the sweat off of his forehead, flashing a quick thumbs-up to Ashlyn and Logan before grabbing the second towel and tossing it down onto Josh’s chest as he made his way to his side.
“I just prefer to remain low key about all of this. Let our opponents build themselves up. I’ll give them all of the credit they deserve and then some. I don’t view anyone in this field as being beyond our ability to go out there and beat. I admit that we are lacking in key areas against many of these other teams of course, and pretending otherwise does us no favours. Preparing for the worst though is going to make you go out there at your best every time, and it’ll already have you in the mindset where you’re going to be thinking about have to dig deeper and work harder to get over the obstacles ahead of you.”
Ashlyn looked downward, but she nodded still. What he said made sense-- even the areas she didn’t want to admit.
“I--”
“Guys?” Eric called from the ring, eyes wide in panic.
Logan looked over towards the ring, picking up on the concern in Eric’s voice.
“He’s… not getting up,” Eric said, looking toward Logan desperately.
“What?!” Ashlyn pushed herself off of the chair with Logan rising alongside her. Moments later, they were up and climbed into the ring. Eric remained sat on his knees, eyes drifting to Ashlyn before he turned to Logan, eyes somehow growing wider.
“I wasn’t trying to really hurt him,” Eric insisted, speaking quickly. “I thought we were done! I-- I--”
The door of the basement opened. Ash could see Cassandra’s legs and without waiting for her to ask a question, Ashlyn shouted, “call an ambulance!”
“...what?” Cass muttered, more out of surprise than a lack of concern, still only visible from the waist-down.
Ashlyn could hear her own voice shaking. “Josh is hurt-- hurry up!”
Cass pivoted, running back up the few stairs she’d descended and charging back into the living room, searching for the landline. Ash turned toward Josh again, dropping to her knees beside her friend, moving a hand to his cheek.
“Josh? Josh!”
Logan looked over to Eric. “Eric. Upstairs now. Help Cass. Find the first aid kit. Get back here. Go.”
Eric nodded and scrambled out from the ring. Logan then looked back to Ashlyn.
“Ash,” he said to get her attention.
“Wh-- yeah,” she looked toward him, quickly.
“I need you to keep calm here. I’m gonna need your help and so will Josh.”
August 15, 2011
Stouffville, Ontario, Canada
“Remember, be calm and focused. If you plan on getting through this you’re going to have to help me. Josh needs your help too, cause you came into this together.”
Ashlyn stood across the ring from Josh, who looked at her with the same wide eyes and the same clenched jaw that Ashlyn had. Her head was throbbing from everything they’d gone over before. Her spine hurt. Her ribs hurt. Leaning against the ropes on the inside of the ring in Logan’s gym, Ashlyn gave her teacher a sigh.
“I just don’t wanna waste your time,” she said with a nervous half-laugh. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for us here, but--”
“You’re not wasting my, yours or anyone else’s time until you get to the point that you actually walk away from everything here.” Logan replies, cutting her off. “You’ve barely scratched the surface of things. Do you really want to hang it up already?”
“Yeah,” Josh agreed with a small laugh, gesturing toward Logan. “Look at the shit this dude’s been through.”
“I’ve already had a few dozen situations where I could walk away from everything.” Logan says, “Should have seen me at my lowest, seven months ago when I was rolling around in a wheelchair. You just need to find a reason to keep going.”
He moved along beside the ring on crutches and with a student on either side of him, ready to act if he should stumble.
“You’ve got potential. Everyone who comes here does. The question is, how much of it are you willing to try to dig down for? How much time and work are you willing to put into this? Yes… it’s going to get a lot harder before it gets easier, but the only real limits you have to deal with are the ones you’re going to put on yourself here.” He stops and looks at Ashlyn. “I can guide you, but you are going to have to help me make something out of you.”
Ashlyn took a deep breath, still leaning against the ropes. Her eyes drifted from Josh to Logan, and another breath escaped her lips. “You guys are gonna feel like the biggest cunts if nothing comes of this. If I walk out that door tomorrow.”
Josh winked at Logan. “Excuse her language. She’s usually really confident, I swear. It’s sickening, really.”
“He’s a pathological liar,” Ashlyn muttered, putting a leg through the ropes. “It’s sickening, really.” She rolled her eyes. “Look, man, thanks for keeping us around even when we ran out of money, but…” Ashlyn stepped out to the apron. “It was a fun few weeks, right?” She dropped to the floor, hands still on the ropes, gazing up at Logan. ”Sorry.”
Ashlyn pulled her hands away and stepped back. Josh groaned and dropped down, rolling out of the ring, realizing her exit meant his own.
“Don’t be sorry. Not yet anyway.” Logan turned away from her, “For now, if you want you can leave. Take a couple of weeks if need be. Clear your head and decide on what you want. If you decide that walking out of here is what’s best for you, no problem. I’ll cover your costs to get back home. But if you come back, it had better be for the long haul, because I don’t appreciate wasting my time.”
With that said, Logan and his escort left the room. There was nothing to follow it. No glance back. Just Josh and Ashlyn standing alone in the gym. She heard the lock on the door Logan left through slide into place. The only door left was the exit.
fin.