Post by Shelly Diamond on Sept 26, 2016 1:45:37 GMT
Laura Howlett sat nervously at the end of a hospital bed leaning forward onto her hands as she observed the man who shaped so much of her life.
Jimmy Snart…
Zasshu told her what he did to him four weeks ago, she didn’t believe it, she had to see it for herself and there he was, still bruised and in a neck brace hooked up to two or three different kinds of monitors. Zasshu didn’t just work him over, it looked like he tried to kill him.
A part of her is proud of what he did, she knew he did it to defend her honor, what little of it she still had but the other part of her was terrified about what he was capable of. She had tried to mold Zasshu into her own personal monster but during that time he had become something so much more to her than another client.
She cared about him.
And if he could do this to someone, if he could nearly take someone’s life then maybe she had succeeded in creating a monster and maybe the man she cared about so much, Akihiro was truly gone and replaced…
”Heh… You’re the last… *coughs* Person I spected tah see…”
Even in a hospital bed with his body broken almost in half he still talked to her like the little girl he “saved” all those years ago with a certain amount of egotism in his voice.
”Don’t look to far into it, I’m just here to make sure he didn’t kill you.”
”No worries sweetie… I’m like a cockroach.”
”Trust me, I know.”
With her curiosity satisfied Laura started to get up out of the slightly uncomfortable arm chair she had been sitting in but Jimmy wasn’t done yet. Slowly the back of the bed started to rise so Jimmy was more or less sitting up.
”Hope ya don’t think this is over.”
”Are you kidding me? Zasshu nearly killed you.”
”Exactly an if ya wanna keep that little secret between the three a us… Then ya better pay attention.”
Both her fists clenched at the sight of the smarmy grin on the face of Jimmy Snart and that’s when she realized this is exactly what he’d wanted all along…
He played them all…
The scene shifts with a diagonal slide as Laura Howlett once more comes into focus with her arms crossed over her white skirt suit, platinum blond hair tied back tightly into a bun and beside her, her client, the masked man in black and gold, Zasshu.
”Later tonight my client will step into the ring with two other men, above them will be hanging the IWF Invictus Championship, OUR championship. These two men both played equal parts in screwing my client and the House of Howlett out of our property.”
“Chris King took advantage of the opening provided by Noah Field.”
“Noah Field in turn took OUR championship from the obviously weaker opponent.”
“I’m no stranger to foul play, in my time here I have done more than enough to prove that getting my hands dirty isn’t something that is going to keep me awake at night. I realize now that crying foul play over the obvious plan Noah Field put into place only serves to make me look like an idiot.”
Laura swallows deeply, likely she swallows her pride.
”I must congratulate the current Invictus Champion, he put a plan into place and executed it perfectly, while it’s not exactly what I would have done it was clearly effective. You are the Invictus Champion, whether we agree with that or not, it is an historical fact that you defeated my client…”
“But I had a plan too.”
“I allowed you to feel in control, I allowed you to steer the ship, I allowed you to think that everything was still going according to plan because I knew eventually pride and ego would get the better of you. And it did, instead of following through on a law suit that could have kept my client away from you for years I moved you into a position where check mate was the only possible out come.”
She smiled now, smugly.
”You made the match, thinking it was all your idea, thinking your incompetent thugs would be good enough to keep my client away but of course I knew better. My client has wrestled against some of the best that there have ever been, beaten all of them, I knew he could handle your body guard and stunt double. I knew you would make what seemed like a lopsided match expecting my client to be out matched.”
“I knew your plan would fail.”
“How does the sang go, fool me once?”
“You have no pawns left, Noah, no one to help you escape the ring with the gold still around your waist. All that stands between you and us reclaiming what is rightfully ours is a ladder and all my client has to do is climb it. You will try to stand in his way but it has already been established that you aren’t technically gifted enough to go toe to toe with my client. You will try to out run him but he is faster, he is stronger, he is more resourceful and above all else…”
“He has the House of Howlett.”
“He has me.”
“And I promise you Noah there is nothing I won’t do to make sure my client takes back our Invictus Championship.”
Laura smiles with an air of superiority.
”King, you’re essentially a non-factor in this match. You’ve been playing checkers while the rest of us are playing chess, too concerned with jumping Noah Field and completely ignoring the knight that is about to sweep you off the board.”
“You think you belong here, you think you earned this shot but the sad truth of the matter is the only reason you ever even stood in the same ring with my client the first time around is because Noah Field dragged you in there kicking and screaming. If it wasn’t for the egomaniacal pretty boy you would have never gotten close to my client, you would have been Wallace or Steele or Mason, just some loser fighting for a chance to stand in my client’s presence but failing miserably.”
“You’d have been a statistic.”
“And that is exactly what you’re going to become once you step into the ring with my client later tonight. You will be a statistic, another name on the list of many who have tried and failed to conquer the greatest Invictus Champion this company has ever seen. Another joke of a man punching above his station in the world of Imperial Wrestling who like all the others before him will be completely humiliated once the depth of the hole you’ve dug yourself is fully realized.”
“You will fail just like everyone before you.”
Her smug smile fades as she continues.
”MY CLIENT IS THE FUTURE OF IMPERIAL WRESTLING!”
“Chris King is an after thought. Hell, he’s not even a part of the conversation. Chris King is just some oversized kid with a dream who got lucky! This time next year you won’t even be a part of Imperial Wrestling while my client will have climbed even higher up the ladder. My client will be one of the men, like the rest of the House of Howlett who will carry this company on his back for the next five years the same as Spike Kane and Rob Diamond carried it before him!”
“Chris King will be buried under his boot tracks.”
“He’ll be among the wreckage of those foolish enough to think they have what it takes to oppose us. He’ll be room mates with Nighthawk! Steve Awesome! And Kathy Conway! He’ll be another name on the long list of victims to the House of Howlett! Someone who if he’s remembered will only be remembered for the brutal way with which he was driven from OUR COMPANY!!!”
“Chris King has no future.”
“You cemented your place in this companies past when you stole the Invictus Championship but that is the only thing you will ever accomplish in OUR RING! Those fifteen minutes are it Chris! From here on out you will only know pain, heart break and most of all failure because you do not have what it takes to compete with the epitome of professional wrestling!”
“You cannot compete with my clients!”
“And that will be made painfully clear later tonight when you step into our ring and my client, Zasshu, the greatest Invictus Champion of all time runs rough shod over you! You won’t even know what hit you until it’s too late.”
“And my client is once more the Invictus Champion.”
With a click of her heels Laura turns to her right and walks off camera. We focus in on Zasshu who is standing stone still, like a statue until his lips move.
”Tonight our paths cross for the last time. Tonight our futures collide. Tonight two journey’s toward greatness come to an abrupt and more than likely painful end. Tonight…”
“You will witness the Future…”
“And you WILL FEAR ME.”
Fade to black.
Jimmy Snart…
Zasshu told her what he did to him four weeks ago, she didn’t believe it, she had to see it for herself and there he was, still bruised and in a neck brace hooked up to two or three different kinds of monitors. Zasshu didn’t just work him over, it looked like he tried to kill him.
A part of her is proud of what he did, she knew he did it to defend her honor, what little of it she still had but the other part of her was terrified about what he was capable of. She had tried to mold Zasshu into her own personal monster but during that time he had become something so much more to her than another client.
She cared about him.
And if he could do this to someone, if he could nearly take someone’s life then maybe she had succeeded in creating a monster and maybe the man she cared about so much, Akihiro was truly gone and replaced…
”Heh… You’re the last… *coughs* Person I spected tah see…”
Even in a hospital bed with his body broken almost in half he still talked to her like the little girl he “saved” all those years ago with a certain amount of egotism in his voice.
”Don’t look to far into it, I’m just here to make sure he didn’t kill you.”
”No worries sweetie… I’m like a cockroach.”
”Trust me, I know.”
With her curiosity satisfied Laura started to get up out of the slightly uncomfortable arm chair she had been sitting in but Jimmy wasn’t done yet. Slowly the back of the bed started to rise so Jimmy was more or less sitting up.
”Hope ya don’t think this is over.”
”Are you kidding me? Zasshu nearly killed you.”
”Exactly an if ya wanna keep that little secret between the three a us… Then ya better pay attention.”
Both her fists clenched at the sight of the smarmy grin on the face of Jimmy Snart and that’s when she realized this is exactly what he’d wanted all along…
He played them all…
The scene shifts with a diagonal slide as Laura Howlett once more comes into focus with her arms crossed over her white skirt suit, platinum blond hair tied back tightly into a bun and beside her, her client, the masked man in black and gold, Zasshu.
”Later tonight my client will step into the ring with two other men, above them will be hanging the IWF Invictus Championship, OUR championship. These two men both played equal parts in screwing my client and the House of Howlett out of our property.”
“Chris King took advantage of the opening provided by Noah Field.”
“Noah Field in turn took OUR championship from the obviously weaker opponent.”
“I’m no stranger to foul play, in my time here I have done more than enough to prove that getting my hands dirty isn’t something that is going to keep me awake at night. I realize now that crying foul play over the obvious plan Noah Field put into place only serves to make me look like an idiot.”
Laura swallows deeply, likely she swallows her pride.
”I must congratulate the current Invictus Champion, he put a plan into place and executed it perfectly, while it’s not exactly what I would have done it was clearly effective. You are the Invictus Champion, whether we agree with that or not, it is an historical fact that you defeated my client…”
“But I had a plan too.”
“I allowed you to feel in control, I allowed you to steer the ship, I allowed you to think that everything was still going according to plan because I knew eventually pride and ego would get the better of you. And it did, instead of following through on a law suit that could have kept my client away from you for years I moved you into a position where check mate was the only possible out come.”
She smiled now, smugly.
”You made the match, thinking it was all your idea, thinking your incompetent thugs would be good enough to keep my client away but of course I knew better. My client has wrestled against some of the best that there have ever been, beaten all of them, I knew he could handle your body guard and stunt double. I knew you would make what seemed like a lopsided match expecting my client to be out matched.”
“I knew your plan would fail.”
“How does the sang go, fool me once?”
“You have no pawns left, Noah, no one to help you escape the ring with the gold still around your waist. All that stands between you and us reclaiming what is rightfully ours is a ladder and all my client has to do is climb it. You will try to stand in his way but it has already been established that you aren’t technically gifted enough to go toe to toe with my client. You will try to out run him but he is faster, he is stronger, he is more resourceful and above all else…”
“He has the House of Howlett.”
“He has me.”
“And I promise you Noah there is nothing I won’t do to make sure my client takes back our Invictus Championship.”
Laura smiles with an air of superiority.
”King, you’re essentially a non-factor in this match. You’ve been playing checkers while the rest of us are playing chess, too concerned with jumping Noah Field and completely ignoring the knight that is about to sweep you off the board.”
“You think you belong here, you think you earned this shot but the sad truth of the matter is the only reason you ever even stood in the same ring with my client the first time around is because Noah Field dragged you in there kicking and screaming. If it wasn’t for the egomaniacal pretty boy you would have never gotten close to my client, you would have been Wallace or Steele or Mason, just some loser fighting for a chance to stand in my client’s presence but failing miserably.”
“You’d have been a statistic.”
“And that is exactly what you’re going to become once you step into the ring with my client later tonight. You will be a statistic, another name on the list of many who have tried and failed to conquer the greatest Invictus Champion this company has ever seen. Another joke of a man punching above his station in the world of Imperial Wrestling who like all the others before him will be completely humiliated once the depth of the hole you’ve dug yourself is fully realized.”
“You will fail just like everyone before you.”
Her smug smile fades as she continues.
”MY CLIENT IS THE FUTURE OF IMPERIAL WRESTLING!”
“Chris King is an after thought. Hell, he’s not even a part of the conversation. Chris King is just some oversized kid with a dream who got lucky! This time next year you won’t even be a part of Imperial Wrestling while my client will have climbed even higher up the ladder. My client will be one of the men, like the rest of the House of Howlett who will carry this company on his back for the next five years the same as Spike Kane and Rob Diamond carried it before him!”
“Chris King will be buried under his boot tracks.”
“He’ll be among the wreckage of those foolish enough to think they have what it takes to oppose us. He’ll be room mates with Nighthawk! Steve Awesome! And Kathy Conway! He’ll be another name on the long list of victims to the House of Howlett! Someone who if he’s remembered will only be remembered for the brutal way with which he was driven from OUR COMPANY!!!”
“Chris King has no future.”
“You cemented your place in this companies past when you stole the Invictus Championship but that is the only thing you will ever accomplish in OUR RING! Those fifteen minutes are it Chris! From here on out you will only know pain, heart break and most of all failure because you do not have what it takes to compete with the epitome of professional wrestling!”
“You cannot compete with my clients!”
“And that will be made painfully clear later tonight when you step into our ring and my client, Zasshu, the greatest Invictus Champion of all time runs rough shod over you! You won’t even know what hit you until it’s too late.”
“And my client is once more the Invictus Champion.”
With a click of her heels Laura turns to her right and walks off camera. We focus in on Zasshu who is standing stone still, like a statue until his lips move.
”Tonight our paths cross for the last time. Tonight our futures collide. Tonight two journey’s toward greatness come to an abrupt and more than likely painful end. Tonight…”
“You will witness the Future…”
“And you WILL FEAR ME.”
Fade to black.
Well howdy there pardner.