ON-CAMERA
The camera fades in on the face of the former FFW Champion Wendy Briese and slowly zooms out on the faces of Sunny Kyoun and Stephanie Dallins as they stare at her with narrowed eyes. Slowly the camera continues to zoom out on the three women as the Unity Tag Champions glare at the Indiana native, the Unity Championships on their shoulders.
“In Canada We Trust, huh?”
Wendy grins a bit meekly, shrugging.
“April Fools, everyone!”
Brief pause, neither Champion moves an inch, as Wendy begins to laugh a bit nervously. Steph lets out a sigh and leans on her heels before she pats the main plate of the championship belt on her shoulder and shoots a glance to Sunny. The Korean star stood with her hands on her hips doing her best scowl, which was pretty intimidating...if Hello Kitty was scowling or something.
“Why you have to play of fools on us!?! It was scary, thinking you not want to team but want stinky doodieheads instead.”
Wendy looks slightly nonplussed.
“Well, to be honest, I’m kind of surprised that it actually worked. I thought it’d have to be pretty obvious. I mean, it’d take a pretty big idiot to cast aside the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS for… well… despite what some of my rivals might proclaim… I’m not an idiot.”
“You did has Cody help with you. He is very convincing” Sunny’s face scrunched up as her attempt at being intimidating started to fail miserably. Steph didn’t fare much better because while she had a look of menace down, Wendy had at least five inches of height on her.
“Its true. You got Cody in on the joke and you were serious about it and all ‘I want to see if I can show them the right way’ and I mean what were we supposed to believe Wendy? You seem like you’d take the challenge of converting Mileena and Ashley! Sure we three have beaten a team paired with Tara before but that was a team who we could say we’ve never lost to in a one-on-one match. Well two-on-two in our case. The Rudos are a different story altogether! You talking about replacing us and stuff... I dunno. It made us all... Fidgety. Sure we’re the Unity Tag Champs but grabbing a different team to beat the Rudos...”
Stephanie stares blankly ahead and mutters after as if she realized the joke.
“...Who haven’t had any more success than we have with Rudo Galactica.”
With that, the powerhouse half of the Unity Tag Champs facepalms. Wendy sighs and shakes her head.
“First of all…if I even had that kind of power I’d… not sure what I’d do with it, but… NOT THAT.. Second of all… look, would it just be better if apologized for the stupid joke?”
Sunny crossed her arms and nodded. “Yes, then we can not be all grrr face, right Steph? My cheeks are getting tired and want to save energy for all the kick supers. There are going to be soooooooooo many.” The korean superstar sighed, making sure to emphasize just how many superkicks by letting those o’s go on for ages.
“Right, we can stop now.” Steph murmured reflexively before she pointed at the camera. “Let’s be real right now. Our teamwork, the three of us is proven is it not? We’ve shown time and time and time and time and... Hold on guys.”
Stephanie pulled back a sleeve and looked at a small, pretty-faced watch with leather straps before she glanced back up.
“...And time again that Sunny and I are the tag team to beat in FFW. Then you add who? Wendy Briese? The White Knight? One of the few women in this industry who can say they’ve been FFW Champion? One of the few women who have held the No Surrender Championship and the Evolution Championship... I mean really. What’s more to say here. The three of us together area walking ratings spike!”
“Look at Future Shock...” Sunny goes quiet. “Okay, maybe not END of season but rest of it was ratings win non-stop for Sunny. I had favored votes every round, add on all the kick supers, our background with Rudos Galastinkyia and super-awesome-Wendy (when she not playing jokes), we are force to be scared of!”
Wendy nods in agreement. “I’d like to think so. You guys have been phenomenal ever since you graduated from Future Shock, and while the Rudos needed an entire fake-abbey to become the Future Shock Champions, you guys beat them to the title. Honestly, I’ve never seen a tag team explode on the scene like you two have. You two are… honest to God prodigies with a bright future ahead of you both.”
“A bright future,” Stephanie whispered. “Probably but there’s still one hump we need to get over. One hump named Stardust and Meteora. Well I totes mean two humps but they kinda count as one... You guys know what I mean right? Look, there’s always been the question if we can take the Rudos one-on-one. You’re right Wendy. We are prodigies. If you will forgive a little bit of arrogance, you and all of you fans at home...
We are without question, without doubt, without denial the best tag team that Femme Fatale Wrestling has. We’re the best tag team that the wrestling industry has. On the microphone and more importantly in this ring. As it stands, as of our battle with Claire and Serafina...? There’s not a single team who can touch Sunny Kyoun and Stephanie Dallins... Except. For. One. One team. One single tag team that hitches our step. Just. One. You know what that team is, right Sunny?”
Sunny’s face scrunched up and she nodded, letting out a little sigh as her hands went into her pockets. The Korean superstar rolled on her heels to tip toes. “Yep yep. The team that has a donkey, that spent most of Future Shock season trying to cheat us out of everything and managed to cheat us out of what we WON in finale. A team that for what reason we not know has vendetta against us, a team that are a pair of hypocrites and jerkfaces. Rudo Galactica. You always there to try and trip us up, like you are jealous, or mad that we have success while you two “won” Future Shock. Well others have won the Future Shock and done nothing, you are not alone.” Sunny purrs and mouths ‘U mad?’
“Well, they haven’t done NOTHING,” Wendy reminds her partners. “They’ve had some pretty impressive wins in their own right, even if… they haven’t exactly come by the most… ethical of manners. But you are ONE team they can’t hold down.”
“..Well,” Stephanie started. “What about you Wendy? You and Tara to be more specific? If anyone talks about the story of Tara Thunder, you’re entwined no matter what you do. I guess one could argue you’re the one wrestler Tara can’t hold down or... Tara just doesn’t have the answer to you.”
“She does in tag matches,” Wendy points out with a shrug. “Her team beat mine at the last Unity special, if you remember. Of course, then I was tagging with Spectra Fantasia, who I either screwed up the chemistry of, or they were already falling apart. I’m not sure which… and then the other was in War Games. As far as one on one goes… well, I beat her up a ladder, and managed to trap her in the Gaspless. Not entirely domination, but people sure seem to like that narrative. Tara sure seems to think so… she’s STILL going on about how she’s NEVER beaten me, when it’s simply not true.”
“Well to be frank one could argue that she probably needs to tell herself that, y’know. Let’s be realistic Wendy. How many legitimate arguments in people’s promos have you heard come out of people’s mouths about you? Calling out I dunno...”
Stephanie looked over the former FFW Champion for a second as if trying to size her up and judging by the odd look on her face, she seemed to be failing fast.
“Uh... You’re very strict on the morals, a stickler for da rules, and slightly nosey and opinionated. Nothing I couldn’t say about myself to be perfectly honest.” Steph said bracingly.
“Wendy over the years people have said thousands of things about you to make themselves sound like they’re in the right when they face you. That you’re holding them down, that you’re arrogant or ridiculous or you’re mocking them or a complete and utter bore or you don’t want to reign in Pollaski or... God knows what else. Is it any surprise then many of the opponents who have faced you, including Tara would have to... Get uh...”
Stephanie made finger quotes in the air.
“Inventive?”
Wendy scoffs. “Yeah, well, how well does it ever work? I mean, think about everyone in FFW who has called me a fraud, and what ended up happening to them. They all either end up staring at the ceiling or tapping out. Meanwhile, think about who HAS beaten me. Serafina. Val. Scarlett. They never went that route. Maybe… that’s not a coincidence? Maybe if you have to INVENT a reason to beat me, you’ve already lost?”
“Sound like act of desperation, or delusion. Maybe sees self in you, or has deep regret for all success not being considered on same level as you?” Sunny pipes up out of nowhere. “Or she is just a doodiehead.”
“...Let’s go with all of the above,” Steph noted. “Though thinking about the number of people who has beaten you and how you can count them on one hand in recent memory makes me consider our running record. Sunny, how many teams have beaten us since we came onto the FFW roster? Seriously, the number will both shock and amaze you.”
Stephanie disappears off-camera and squeaky wheels are heard in the distance. It is most likely time for another Witches’ Brew chart. Sunny giggled and clapped a little, she loved the charts.
“Here is what am thinking, making excuse for not liking somone or wanting to beat them is like cheating at videogame. You put in cheat code, go in ahead and have no real satisfaction over what you did because what you did meant nothing in reality. But when you have real reason and purpose, like when Steph and I won belts” Sunny grins almost playfully. “That was greatest achievement of my life.”
Finally Stephanie came back with a giant chart on wheels that had a stick-figure drawing of the Brew and Wendy with smiley faces and a bar graph. The graph noted the number of times that Wendy had lost clean one-on-one and that Sunny and Steph had lost clean as a tag-team in Unity matches.
“One. One match. One single match against Of Poets & Prophets and Rudo Galactica. That... Is it. That is the one match in our career since we’ve hit FFW’s main roster that we have dropped and even then? We didn’t get pinned. Wendy’s matches throughout her career with clean... and I mean clean losses are what you could count on your hand. Five. As a team of the three of us? We’re undefeated... I mean if you guys want we could go after the Trios Championship and unite the two tag championships...”
Steph paused and looked between the other half of the Unity Tag Champions and the White Knight.
“No?”
Wendy smiles apologetically. “Um… well, thanks for the offer, but… I kind of already have a goal in mind, and I’d… rather not deviate from it at the moment. But honestly, I think you two could probably win the trios with pretty much anyone. You don’t really need me.”
Sunny just shrugged. “Am happy as we are for nows, need to stay focused. Rudos, super-dirty team who need to cheat and use donkey to steal wins over lack of ability. And Tara, submission and power, so focused and mean. We must be ready for them, and anyone else coming our way we need to keep eyes on. Unwavering, pure focus...much dangerous...” Sunny’s attention is brought back to the chart. “My hair looks pretty!”
...Stephanie remains silent for a few moments before she disappears back off camera and returns with a twelve pack of Vanilla Coke. She tears open the cardboard and reaches inside to toss a can at her tag partner before she disappears back off camera to put it away. When Steph returns she clears her throat lightly.
“I’d also like to point out the last time the Rudos decided to work with someone it didn’t end well. Does anyone remember Trinity and the Rudos? How that ended? Look I’ll give Meteora and Stardust one thing... One huge thing to their credit. They’re chaotic. I honestly do not think there has been one team as...”
Stephanie pulls out her cell phone and immediately shuts it off, possibly afraid of once again being called by Raquel Fair and Mickey Scarborough for the words that are soon to come out of her mouth.
“...I don’t think there’s a single team who has ever come to Femme Fatale Wrestling who can be as chaotic as Meteora and Stardust. No one even begins to match up but chaotic is far... Far from the pedigree and style that Tara Thunder has. The three of us though? Well let’s pretend for a second that we haven’t proved we can mesh well together already. We’ve got the ridiculous agility and hyperactivity of one Korean superstar. Check. We’ve got a pint-sized powerhouse in a former bartender. Check. We’ve got one of... If not the premiere technical wrestler... The... And God forgive me when Caroline sees this... The best technical wrestler that Femme Fatale Wrestling has. Period. We just... Mesh. We just... Work. We even have an official name!”
Steph reached over and flipped the chart to show a name written in multiple markers. ‘Wendybrew’ of course.
“C’mon! We’ve even got marketing on our side guys! MARKETING!”
Sunny just sips her vanilla coke, glancing from Steph, to the chart, to Wendy, who simply looks nonplussed.
“How…. how long do you spend making these things?”
“I don’t really know. Usually when I’ve been working too long at me and Sunny’s facility I just start... Making them. The last thing I usually remember is smelling marker and drinking my seventh Monster for the night before Sunny stops me from drinking the eighth.”
Wendy grimaces. “Do you have any idea how bad those are for-”
“Look, I only drink them when I’m at work,” Stephanie’s face faulted as she looked up at Wendy. “I need them alright! You know how hard it is to run that thing!? It almost makes me miss the bar if I didn’t love wrestling as much as I do now! ...You don’t know what it’s like to run out of flavors for Monster, Wendy. ...You have to start drinking Rockstar.”
Steph shuddered. Wendy blinked.
“I… I’ll stick with Diet Pepsi.” she says. “But it brings up a point, how far we’ve come since the last time we tagged. Six months ago. You guys were just starting your school. And no one really thought it was going to work… including myself. Now here we are, your school’s running full throttle, and you’re even better in the ring than you’ve ever been, and have the Unity titles. It’s been a heck of a six months for the Witches Brew. I doubt the Rudos have improved that much… or have given anywhere near that much back.”
“They seem same as always. Same jokes, same costumes, same tricks, same insults. They not changed one bit, they say insanity is doing same thing more than once and expecting different result. I say they crazy in the head...or maybe they just never heard that quote.” Sunny said softly, sipping at...a second can of vanilla coke.
“...Sunny where... How did you get that? I... I just put the cokes over... Over... You know what. Nevermind, I don’t even want to know. You’re right though. We’ve evolved. We have continued to get better with each match, getting stronger... Faster... Uh... Whatever comes after those. Though I swear I heard that quote from a movie once.” Steph glanced between her two tag partners.
“So then we will walk into Unity with all these advantages and what will we do then?”
“Exploit them,” Wendy says simply. “As well as exploit our opponents weaknesses. Like how Meteora and Stardust are as scatterbrained and unfocused as children. How Tara, who has just finished having to put up with several partners who were full of self-serving, ridiculous, completely asinine, counterproductive CRAP now has to deal with two more. Pardon my language…”
Sunny raised a brow, the case of vanilla coke now at her feet as she sipped on a third can. “He he, asinine...” The Korean wrestler giggled. “Tara always get crazies on side, and Rudos are like little jesters who want to be knights. They not know how things work, they assume it will be different. And you know what they say about assuming. You make yourself look like a Loveheart!” Sunny laughed, then went quiet when she realized she totally ruined that.
“Sunny!” Steph said equal parts discipline and sarcasm. “That’s a dirty word in wrestling... ‘Loveheart’. Basically comparing them to that. Now you’re just being insulting.”
Stephanie Dallins immediately mock sneezed in her hand, ‘completelyfuckingtrue’ before she rubbed her nose. “Excuse me. Sinuses.”
Wendy walks off the side of the screen, and returns with a box of Kleenex, which she gives to Stephanie. “I wouldn’t go THAT far, And you should probably take a decongestant, Steph. A cold in April… a bit late in the season. But you’re both right. Tara’s a bit on the… humorless side, so teaming her with such… whacky partners has to be irritating.”
“Speaking of Tara... If she really wants a reason to hate you,” Steph flashed a rather slick smile that was entirely too reminiscent of her husband. “She’s going to get about eighteen thousand reasons to hate you. There’s going to be eighteen thousand screaming uh... Wendy what do you call your fans? Squires? Knights of the Round? ....Wendynites? Anyway, there’s going to be eighteen thousand of them in the Bankers Life Fieldhouse come Unity and to be perfectly frank I’m happy to be on the side of the hometown hero if you get what I’m saying. We’ve seen what what can happen when you’re facing off against the team with the hometown advantage before... Elemental Fury against Sudden Impact number two immediately comes to mind. I mean hey... It kinda explains why Crystal claims like a thousand different cities as her hometown. The emotional and psychological advantage you get is amazing...
Though lucky for us we actually HAVE the hometown girl on our team.”
Wendy smiles softly. “They’re called Indianapolitans. And I do expect that they’ll probably be a bit… partial to me. But it is an advantage here. I haven’t lost yet in my hometown, and the fans certainly are a part of that. Doesn’t hurt either that you don’t have to travel, wake up in your own bed, train in your own gym. And it just… feels better. And I haven’t been here to wrestle since I faced Val and… well, I just want to send the fans home a little happier than they were the last time.”
“Hometown hero stand against the villains? Yes, I think they going to be much happier.” Sunny giggled. “And she has two strong, and reliable friends at her back...unlike ICWT....” The korean wrestler giggled a little.
Wendy sighed. “I’m not going to live that down for a while, am I?”
“Nope,” Steph noted airily. “You get what you pay for. Still, we will stand by you Wendy. Just like we did the last time.”
Wendy smiles. “Well then, I guess I’ll have to give you both the best I have, so you can get those pesky Rudos to stop being a thorn in your side.”
Sunny giggled, a smile pile of vanilla coke cans at her feet. “THEN WE GIVE THEM ALL THE KICK SUPERS! WE BANSHEE AND ADAVA KADAVRA THEM IN THE HOOHAHS!!!” Sunny instantly covers her mouth. “Too much sugar...sorry.”
“You mean not enough sugar! Alright then so we are agreed. The three of us will give everything I have... Hold on, I feel a Lyn speech coming on.”
Steph clears her throat.
“We’ll give everything we have, every drop of blood, every single tear, every bead of sweat we have to bring every single second of that match as a fight to Rudo Galactica and Tara Thunder and show them that they will learn what war is in Indianapolis. They will learn when they face the two time Evolution Champion... No! Two time No Surrender Champion! No! The Power Trip Slayer! No! The former FFW Champion! NO! Indianapolis’s Native Daughter! NO! The White-Knight-of-Right-and-Might-and-so-damn-out-of-sight-that-you-may-need-sunglasses-because-her-future-is-so-bright Wendy Briese. When they face the Korean Superstar, the hyperactive ball of energy, the student of “The Tsunami” Eileen Amaro. The single woman who a city could run a damn Power Plant off of if they supply enough Vanilla Coke to, the energy-burst-that-walks-like-a-woman... Sunny Kyoun and me... Well... The single student of the “Pain Train” Penny Buchanan, the pint-sized powerhouse... The most, and I’m taking a crack at myself here... The most temperamental, hair-trigger temper woman in all of Femme Fatale Wrestling...
...Me. Stephanie Dallins. So with all of those forces... What chance do you three have? I mean really... So with that in mind? See you at Unity.”
