The Next Challenge

It was just a few minutes before nine oâ€clock at night, and the eveningâ€s Friction event was a little more than halfway through. Before the next match could go on, the lights dimmed, and a very familiar chant began which heralded the arrival of the Entropy champion—Lady Lakota.

Janet strolled out onto the ramp, earning a warm welcome from the AFW crowd. She was not wearing her usual Lakota costume, which had caused some fans a little confusion upon her entrance—without her tribal regalia, Janet was still beautiful but was not necessarily instantly recognizable. She was wearing one item by which she could be identified without fail: the Entropy title belt. She strode down to the ring, waving to the fans as they cheered her. She slipped inside of the ring, and caught a microphone that was tossed in her direction.

“Hello, there, everybody,” Janet greeted, earning her another loud round of applause. She held a hand up. “Thank you, thank you. If all of you would indulge me for a moment, I have an announcement that I want to make. Thereâ€s a little bit of background to this announcement, so please be patient with me.” She chuckled, and the audience laughed along with her.

“Well,” Janet continued, “as you know, I am the Entropy champion.” She paused to give the audience a chance to cheer her. They did not disappoint. “And, after taking care of Gail Hatzis in what was admittedly an…awkward match, Iâ€ve been looking for another opponent to take on. I was flipping through the Friction roster. There are a lot of great wrestlers. I was looking for a particular type of girl, though…I canâ€t say exactly what type of girl, but a very particular type. And I think Iâ€ve found someone who Iâ€d be interested in giving a shot at the title.” Janet took a piece of paper out of her pocket. It was just for show—she had memorized the name of the girl she was going to call quite a while back.

“Cally Dayson, if youâ€re interested, would you come out here please?”

Cally sauntered into the ring, her eyebrows arched at the Lakota. "What's this I hear about you wanting a fight?" She called, looking down the girl's body. Her eyes stopped at the title belt. "...Nice bling..." She commented.

Janet was a little bit surprised when the smaller girl just entered like that, no excitement or anger or really much of anything evident on her face. A few seconds after the girl climbed into the ring, the Lakota champion couldnâ€t even remember what Callyâ€s entrance music had been, or if there had been any entrance music at all.

While cute, Cally could stand to be a little more dramatic. If Janet was going to give her a title shot—and Janet had already had some doubts about it, seeing as how Cally hadnâ€t really won a match before—she needed to step up her game, big time. “Well, yes,” Janet replied, feeling a little bit of the wind go out of her sails. Come on, whatâ€s wrong with you? she mentally broadcast at the kawaii-sized girl. “I guess I might as well explain my choice, huh? See, Entropy is a belt for up-and-coming wrestlers in AFW. Itâ€s not of those belts that you need to be a superstar to get—I wasnâ€t a superstar when I won it. I had more losses than wins, actually, though mind you I did have a couple of wins. Still, the Entropy belt is a big responsibility. Itâ€s a springboard for bigger and better things. Just look at some of the former winners: Akashi Tanikaze. Brittany Luvve. Taylor Parker.”

“So, Iâ€ll tell you, I was impressed by the way you comported yourself in the Hentai Blitz Royale. I thought you had promise. And so I figured I might give you a shot.” Lady Lakota smirked. “Of course, I donâ€t intend to lose to you, but just having a title match should get you plenty of exposure and lead to bigger and better things for you.”

Before Cally could get a chance to speak back to the champion, someone else entered the ring. And she didn't look nearly as happy as the other two. Gail wasn't all that interested with getting involved with anything to do with Janet again, but the things she was saying pissed her off too much to ignore.

"Bigger and better things"? Never mind that she blew her one big chance at it, Gail hadn't gone anywhere but even further down since she lost (in probably what was the most one-sided title match in AFW history, but that wasn't important).

"Hey!" Gail shouted aimed more towards Janet than Cally. Honestly, she seemed like she was lost. She didn't have an air of... anything, really. She did recognize Cally of course, the Blitz was a pretty big event after all, although by face only. "Is this how you spend your days as champion now? Call out girls who can't fight?" To say that Gail was still bitter about the match was an understatement. Although she lost, Gail never really accepted it. She could totally have won the fight, she just... let Janet win.

"I mean, yeah, you're the champ, you get to choose out of all the wrestlers here, big names and everyone else... And you choose her? I'd kick her ass in a second!" Gail rolled her eyes. "You call yourself a champion? Why not fight someone who deserves that title?" The audience had already started booing her at this point, the word "hypocrite" was audible among the boos, but Gail would ignore that.

Before Gail, Cally or Janet could talk further the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoUCyrg5Syo:125rbpny]theme song[/url:125rbpny] of Lucy Grange began to play, although it would stop after about 45 seconds as the blonde girl arrived.

"Shut it off! Shut it off!" Lucy said as she walked through the crowd, the people parting as she was small at 5,3. She was dressed in her usual attire of a waistcoat and skirt, looking rather casual indeed.

She leaped over the audience guard rail, she knew what she was doing was risky. But it had been a while since she'd been in friction, although she was rather well known. Her popularity increased even more so following the creation of the team she had joined, so Lucy figured now was the time to make her mark. She just hoped her old man was watching at home.

"Hope you don't mind me crashing this little wine and cheese fest, Ms champion. But I need to tell you something right off the bat, if you're going to pick anyone. Don't pick Gail, cause...ya know...I whopped in my debut, and in avalanche too! But I think she gets off on it, closet type you know." Lucy said as she entered the ring on the other side.

Britain's baby girl then turned to Cally and would say "And you, uh no offense or anything. But I don't know anything about you, so I don't think you should be given the benefit of the doubt. And considering that Lady Lakota here curbed stomped you Gail....The best choice is me! Lucy Grange!" she had an ear to ear grin after hearing the fans in the audience.

Cally woke from the strange daze she seemed to have fallen into. She shook her head, taking in what the girls were saying. "Sorry 'bout that...you were saying about not losing to me?" She smircked. Snapping her fingers, her [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Tq-UsaRchI:2v1uin1c]intro[/url:2v1uin1c] ramped up over the speakers. Turning to the Brit, she cocked an eyebrow. "And I too can fight. I survived Akashi in the Blitz didn't I?" She walked up and poked Gail square in the chest. "And if you so want to fight, why haven't you done anything but talk?"

She strolled over to Janet and shook her hand. "Challenge accepted, although I gotta say-as good as the belt looks on you, I think it'll look better on me." She smircked.

Gail admitted that her appearence here wasn't doing herself any favours right now. And Lucy of all people coming out... this was basically a showcase of "People better than Gail!" Lucy literally ignored her presence there, which didn't help much.

But she couldn't exactly back out here. She gave an extra annoyed look at the suddenly active Cally. "I'd kick your ass! And both of yours!" Gail said, only for the audience to laugh and boo her again. Given her current record, Cally's description of "nothing but talk" was all Gail was.

Things seemed to happen fast after Janet brought Cally out into the arena. Just as she was wondering whether she might have made the wrong choice with this girl, out came Gail, yelling at Janet about the weakness of Cally and how she could kick the girlâ€s ass in a second. Janet would turn her attention to the girl, about to mention the title match they had already fought and the almighty beating she had dealt out to Gail, when someone else came out down the ramp.

Janet raised her eyebrows, trying to figure out who this girl was. If she were honest, she didnâ€t recognize her. “Who…” Janet began, but the girl launched into a speech, telling her not to pick Gail, and not to pick Cally, and to instead pick her. She gave her name, which Janet was thankful for.

“Now, see—”

Cally seemed to wake up, then, and accepted her challenge while disparaging the other two girls. Gail then promptly declared that she would kick everyoneâ€s asses. This was getting quite out of hand, and Janet would raise her arms into the air, palm outwards, trying to get everyone to settle down. The audience included. “Okay, okay, hold on. Now, Gail, I would love to give you a shot, but we already fought, and you would have to convince me that youâ€re deserving of a second one before I give it to you. And you—Lucy, right—I went through a lot of potential wrestlers for this. I chose Cally. I know that she might not exactly be a popular choice, but do you have a really good reason why I should choose you instead?”

In response to Ms Janet's question Lucy leaned back on the ropes, cracking a Cheshire cat grin as she did.
"Well my dear, it's simple and it goes down like this...." she started, giving a minor pause for dramatic effect.

Then she'd point the finger at Cally and say "This one time I was browsing fan art of the AFW, just so I know they all care about us hard working gals." pausing again to let the crowd cheer in response to being acknowledged.

Lucy would then go on, pointing at Cally once again. "Thank you all, anyway where was I? Oh yeah, and now that I think on it I remember seeing you. Or rather your bottom, you had one of them life rings stuck on to your backside. That and I think you got buried alive at Avalanche. Long story short I just don't think you're number one contender material, but you know one thing? Pretty sure you'd be better than Gail over there. No offense to the pair of you."

Britain's baby girl would then turn back to Lady Lakota and say "Now as for the reason you were asking me about champ, here's my justification. I want to put myself up against the best of them, my old man taught me if you don't know your limit you won't know where the limit is. I travelled the world, wrestling all over Asia. Took my licks and paying my dues, so I want to try my luck with you."

Cally's nostrils flared as Lucy mentioned the tire incident. "Why you little..." she growled. As the Brit turned her back it was all the brunette could do to not tackle or pants her right there. She fumed, listening to her brag to Janet, before stepping forward. Wrapping her hands around the girl's shoulders, she put her lips near Lucy's ear. "I may of been buried, but I made the great Akashi scream like a bitch beforehand." She whispered sharply. "There's a lot I can do that you know nothing about."