Breaking the Tension! Episode 3: Melissa Sellers

Some day, decades from now, they were going to make movies and books and maybe even videogames about her. And when they did, this would be the climax of the film. This would be the best chapter. This would be the final boss.

Melissa Sellers. Melissa Sellers.

Patty stood out the office of the Tension GM, making the last preparations along with Ran. This time she wasn't going to come dressed in her usual, girly outfit - no, she was meeting the boss, she had to dress to impress. She was dressed in a dark grey skirt with a match blazer, and a light blue turtleneck underneath, looking like the upper echelon of journalistic integrity that she was well on her way to becoming. Eat your heart out, Barbara Walters. Suck it, Katie Couric. Choke on a bucket of ice cream, Nancy Grace.

Especially that last one. God, Nancy Grace was such a bitch.

"Okay, final check." She straightened out her jacket, made sure everything was in order. "Enough film?"

Ran nodded, double-checking the spiffy new camera they'd bought just for the occasion. Wide-angle lens. Fancy. "Yup, two hours worth."

"Mic check, one two, one two." She gave her shiny new microphone a tap on the top, making sure the sound registered. Ran made a few adjustments to her earphones, then nodded.

"Coming in good."

"Perfection!" Everything was perfect, in working order, as if this moment had been led to with divine will. One last thing. "Got my note cards?"

"Note cards?" Ran blinked and canted her head to the side as she looked up at Patty. "I didn't bring them, but - why do you want them? You weren't going to bring them into the interview, were you?"

A cold shiver ran up Patty's spine - she had been in such a rush to get ready for the interview that she hadn't had time to really rehearse her questions - it was a little unprofessional, but she had a prepared a bunch of notes with questions ready, so she wouldn't have to worry about fumbling. The AFW had a massive history and she only had a short time to get the basics down, the cards were meant to help her along and bring up key topics. It was a crutch that even the best in business had to use at times, or at least that was what her father told her. He would know.

"I...well...no!" Patty stomped her feet, summoning her deep reserves of resolve. Cards or no cards, she could do this. She was born ready. "No, I don't need them at all." She let out a laugh that had a little more nervousness than she would have liked. No turning back now. "Let's step into history, Ran."

When they were good and ready and had built up enough courage to give a knock, they found that Melissa's office door was not answered by Melissa herself but instead by a medium height blue haired woman dressed in fairly formal attire.. If Patty was up to scratch with her AFW history, she'd know the girl as the wrestler Nurse Nina... She hadn't been in competition for ages though now and was barely seen in public eye

The girl inspected Patty, holding an unrelated clipboard to her chest with both arms before giving her a slight smile

"You are here to see Ms. Sellers?"

Of course Patty knew who this was! Patty was a professional, through and through, and pressure was the mother of necessity. Or something like that, she couldn't remember the exact saying at the moment. The point was, she could count on her instincts to bring the knowledge she would need when she needed it, like right now. "Ah, Nursa Anna."

"Nina." Ran winced. "Her name is Nina."

"Oh." Patty played it off with a nervous laugh and looked over her shoulder. "Nina. Right. What did I say?"

"Anna." Ran shrugged and took a step back, doing a quick pan over the room. "I think you had a slip, because we were up all night playing Tekken Tag, and-"

"Ah ah ah ah ah." Patty shooed her off with a few waves of the hand. "Don't need to tell everyone our business, here. Keep it professional. Sheesh." She spun back to face 'Nina'. "Yes. I am here to see Ms. Sellers."

Nina tried to put on a polite smile as Patty made the mistake on her name and had to be corrected by Ran who appeared to be the camera crew... It wasn't the only thing that the interview didn't seem quite on the ball with.

"I'm afraid Ms. Sellers isn't in her office right now.." in fact she was rarely in her office at all, unlike her sister Cassandra who practically lived in her own one. "Really.. its always best to book an appointment ahead of time as Ms. Sellers like to busy herself..." although Nina used the term "busy" loosely, not to say that Melissa was lazy or unwilling to do work... But more that she took what would seem on the outside to be a rather laid back approach even while being fully occupied in affairs.

"I can call to see if she is still on the premises though."

Patty wasn't buying it.

She knew how this worked. Melissa clearly wanted to take her off guard, juke and jive, evade her like a gazelle with the ever-growing shadow of a cheetah behind her. She'd heard about Patty's show, seen the staggering 10,000 subscriptions, and she knew that the all-seeing eye of journalistic integrity was coming for her. She had cameras in the office, Patty was reasonably, seriously, completely sure. She couldn't not know about Patty's arrival!

She was running scared, but Patty wouldn't be deterred by such shenanigans. She had a high tolerance for shenanigans, and she refused to let this low a caliber of shenanigans sway her. Anytime, anywhere, anyone, she was ready.

"Very well!" She nodded and puffed her chest out, summoning her vast reserves of confidence. "We're ready to go wherever she is."

Nina smiled mildly, seemingly unaware of the battle of wits that was apparently going on between Patty and higher authorities.

"If you could hold on a moment.." She said before stepping back away from the door back into the room, pulling a mobile phone up to the side of her head. She spoke with a soft low tone, making it difficult for Patty to hear exactly what was being said with the distance now between them. After a few moments, Nina slipped the mobile back away and approached Patty and Ran once more.

"Ms. Sellers will be arriving out front in a short while... if you'd care to follow me.." Nina said as she stepped out of the Seller's office, closing the door behind her and then leading the way down the corridor

Patty watched Nina talking on the phone, unable to hear it even with her keen journalistic ear. Trying to exert a little pressure, obviously. Two could play that game! Or four, as the case was.

[size=65:2p50xc4c]"Ran, come here!" She moved close to her assistant, speaking low.[size=65:2p50xc4c] "Whisper with me!"

[size=65:2p50xc4c]"What?" Ran raised her eyebrow and brought her hand to the side of her mouth.[size=65:2p50xc4c] "Why are we whispering?"

[size=65:2p50xc4c]"To give them the impression we're formulating a plan, too." She glanced over her shoulder at Nina, then quickly jerked away, looking suspicious. [size=65:2p50xc4c]"Common tactic. My father called it 'fluffing'."

Ran blinked a few times, clearly astonished by this sudden peeking into the inner workings of their craft.[size=65:2p50xc4c]"I don't think that means-"

Nina came back before Ran could ask Patty to explain more, which she was certainly about to do, and Patty nodded emphatically. "I will care to follow you." She walked after Nina, the click-clack of her heels echoing throughout the corridor as they went.

While they walked, her inquisitive instincts got the better of Patty. There was a question begging to be asked, and her nature refused to leave it unanswered. "Nina, it's been a while since you were on the competitive scene. What have you been up to?"

The strategically planned whispering to out do Nina's conversation with Melissa seemed to go fairly unnoticed... Perhaps subconsciously Patty had managed to strike a fatal blow to Nina and by extension Melissa herself via the subtle changes in Nina's voice over the mobile... Probably not.

Nina led the way into an elevator... She seemed happy just to take them on their way in silence, not that she didn't want to talk to Patty or Ran... But still she was a little surprised that Patty decided to query just where she had been all this time.

"Oh.. Well, AFW Tension doesn't exactly run itself... Me and Nikki, my previous tag team partner, have both been buried under quite a lot of secretarial activities to ease the pressure off of Ms. Sellers and ensure everything goes smoothly around here." She remained silent for a moment "I'm afraid there not really much else to say... Maybe we will make a return to the ring someday." At that point the elevator doors opened out a lower section of something like a foyer... Of course Patty had already been here, it was the main entrance to the office complex of the Tension Arena. Immediately opposite the elevator was a reception hub and just past that was a set of enormous revolving glass door and windows that looked out onto an oval shaped drive way surrounding a fountain.

"This way..." Nina said leading towards the exit almost as if she were escorting the duo off the premises.

Aside from sating her insatiable curiosity, Patty engaged Nina as a way to sneak in a few more facts before she met with the famously infamous GM. After all, what better way to learn about a person than observing the company they kept? There was so much that could be gleamed. The way a person responded to certain questions. Things they avoided. Inflections in their voice. Anything and everything could become relevant.

Though, in this case, Patty couldn't really key in on anything of interest. She'd been expecting something a little more juicy - some sort of illness, a loss in the family, a personal identity crisis. Nope, none of that, Nina had just been filing papers. Boooooooooring.

Patty stayed close, though she couldn't help but notice that they were going rather far from the reservation. "What exactly was Ms. Sellers doing out here, again?" She glanced Nina's way with furrowed eyebrows.

"I did say she wasn't on the premises right now.. But she willlll..." Nina reminded Patty quite patiently.. And as if on cue at that point, Patty and Ran would be able to see through the glass revolving doors a black limo pulling up outside along side the mini island and fountain on the driveway. "Right now it seems." Nina led the way out of the complex, in the meantime the back door of the limo opened up ominously...

The angle was all wrong and it was far too dark inside the vehicle for them to be able to see the fable Melissa immediately, in fact the first figure they did see was a certain pink haired girl that looked all too familiar from the same days of Nina.. It was Nurse Nikki, dressed similarly to Nina in a suit and holding a note pad.. She seemed far too concentrated on jotting down a last couple of things with a pen to take much notice of Patty and Ran,

"Ms. O' Malley.." A silky smooth voice came from inside the limo.. Ms Sellers leaned forwards from her seat so that she could look out of the open door way.. Patty could see that Melissa was dressed seemingly to impress, just from the glimpse she could see, it seemed that the Tension GM was wearing a black evening dress and a simple but effective pearl stone necklace

"Care to step into my office deary?" she said before moving back to allow them access to the limo