Sweet and Sour [for Alexandra]

The crowd had broken into the usual anxious murmur that it typically did in between matches, though to the ears of the redhead propped backstage with her hand propped on a red guitar and her white boot planted on an unused ladder, they sounded a little more chatty and loud than usual. Maybe they had heard a few things about someone who might just be showing up one of these nights during the show. It wasn't like the rock magazines hadn't interviewed her a thousand times in the past few weeks to ask her a million questions about that rumor. And it wasn't like the rock magazines had learned about that rumor because she had jabbed her finger out at the crowd at one of her concerts and told them that she was not soft and that she was going to prove that by getting back into the ring. People always assumed too much... Screw the fact that they had all assumed right.

The lights in the arena dimmed, and the redhead smiled at the gasp that shot through the arena. She dropped her foot down from the ladder step and swung the guitar over her shoulder, stepping her way towards the edge of the stage.

Short seconds passed before the arena's speakers ripped into a theme that only the most nostalgic members of the AFW crowd would recognize instantly, but everyone in the arena tore into a wild chorus of cheers. "~Let's have some fuuuuuun...~"

A moment later, the lights flashed on to reveal the pigtail-sporting redhead squatting on the stage, her elbow on her guitar and her head propped against her hand. Her eyes were half-closed, as if she was bored. She wore an outfit suited for a punky schoolgirl, complete with white, heeled boots up nearly to her knees, a short, plaid skirt that barely covered her butt, and a white top tied above her midriff and revealing a healthy amount of cleavage. "Candy Cane! You're back! I love you!", someone nearby in the audience screamed, and the redhead popped one green eye open, peering at the man with her mouth crooked in indifference. Weeeeell, he was a little too enthusiastic and didn't have a chance, but he did have oooone thing right. She was Candy Cane, and she was back in his little world of wrestling, because he sure as hell didn't look like a punk fan... That was two things, but who the hell was counting?

She popped up from out of her squat, heaving her guitar up over her head and throwing up rock horns to the crowd with her opposite hand. The generally positive reaction that she was getting was something she had grown used to not in Rumble Roses, where some hadn't exactly liked the fact that she was hell-bent on proving herself as the toughest girl around by any means necessary, but in her concerts, where the punk rock crowds were a loyal, rowdy bunch. Just being accepted back with this kind of cheering just because she was a big punk star didn't sit too well with her. She scrunched up her face in a scowl to make sure everyone remembered just how bad she really was as she held the pose, before she started strutting her way down the ramp, taking the guitar in both hands and smashing it once, twice, three times before it shattered into pieces. After smugly smirking at the still-intact neck, she peered up at the row of fans before her and pooched her glossy red lips thoughtfully, picking out a young woman in a ragged t-shirt and her own red pigtails to toss the neck to before she continued on down the ramp towards the ring.

She quickly ascended the stairs before swinging a leg up and through the ropes to the mat. She wasn't a sentimental woman at all, she told herself, but she couldn't help but feel a little sense of nostalgia as she hopped up towards the turnbuckle, landing on the second rope, and sashayed before spreading her arms wide to the arena, soaking in the crowd's cheers rather than their jeers. Dropping her arms back down to her sides, she bit her lower lip to contain her excitement at regaining this experience as she gazed around the arena, waiting for one of the staff members to hand her a mic as she remained up on the turnbuckle. She couldn't come across as gleeful, after all. The whole reason she was here was supposed to have nothing to do with excitement, but everything to do with reminding her stupid critics why they couldn't start throwing insults at her and hope to get out of the situation with their balls, or whatever they had or didn't have, intact. But really...it was actually nice to be here again.

To detract from any warm feelings, she glared down at the woman stepping over with the mic and urged her to bring it more quickly with an annoyed wave of her hand. The woman almost jogged over to push the mic up to Candy Cane. The redhead bend down, snatching it out of her hand and balling her fist around it. AFW had promised her a good few minutes to talk to these fans and inform them that she was back to kick some ass and make sure everyone knew she was anything but soft, and she planned to explain exactly how she would be going about proving that. She had big plans for her time in AFW, and they involved cleaning up the entire roster and hopefully avoiding any former teachers who were rumored to be hanging around Japan and wrestling in this promotion in the process. Recalling ol' "Teach" made the punk star grimace slightly, but she shook it off, bringing the mic up to her lips, hiding the slight pout that formed.

"So...", she began, and even that earned some cheers. "I think a few of you people know who I am, but for the losers who don't..." She jabbed her free thumb down at herself proudly. "You might've heard me deliverin' the most honest, in-your-face punk rock that's ever smacked you right in the eardrum, or ya might've seen old clips of me literally smackin' jerks in the eardrum a few years ago in a little promotion called Rumble Roses. Remember now? If ya don't, you'll know my name's Candy Cane soon enough!"

Dropping her arm back down to her side, she shrugged at the response she got at the drop of her name. Yeah, that had rattled a few noggins who hadn't remembered her. Good enough, they weren't all old and senile yet!

She hopped down from the turnbuckle, feet rattling the canvas as she landed. "You people who haven't been livin' under a rock for like, ten years, I know what you've gotta be thinkin'. 'Candy Cane, you're such a big hit out there, tellin' people like it is with your music. The hell are ya even doin' here?' That's not a bad question." As she turned to face another section of the crowd, she switched the mic to her other hand. "And here's your short, sweet answer. Those pigs in suits in the corporate world I'm always singin' about? Yeah, you know the type. They think, just because they have an opinion on some things, they should get paid for it. And someone else out there is crazy enough to agree with them! And some of those jerkoffs, sittin' back in their offices and lookin' over their pot bellies at a computer screen, think they have the right to go and tell people that people like me, the real badasses givin' people more than crap to read, are sellin' out or gettin' soft! Can you believe that, huh?"

Candy Cane shrugged more dramatically, getting worked up even thinking about the situation. "So yeah, long story short, that's why I'm back here in the ring, and I can guarantee ya that there's nothing soft about me. Me coming back to the ring is a chance for me to give a big middle finger to everyone who thinks I've gone soft. If some of you guys out there think that, tough, but you're getting it too." Instead of the boos she expected, she got something more along the line of "oohs," which made her roll her eyes slightly before she continued. "No doubt that some of those chicks in the back think so, too! That's why I'm making it my goal on AFW to plow my way through every single one of them, the big, the small, and the in-between, to show that I'm the strongest, baddest girl around. If I have to topple a few of the real soft chicks ya love so much to get to that point, then you're just gonna have to get used to them with their tails up to the crowd over the next few months." To add to the threat, she spread her legs and poked her own butt out from under her skirt, hoping that the fans from Rumble Roses could remember one of her old finishers. That did earn a few boos, but to be the toughest girl around, Candy Cane had to earn a few of those.

The redhead turned to face the stage, cupping her free hand beside her mouth. "Hope ya got that loud and clear back there! You don't wanna get in my way!"

Candy wouldn't have to wait long for an answer. In fact, she wouldn't have to wait at all for someone to respond to her threats towards AFW's roster.

The redhead's final words barely had time to leave her lips, before a certain familiar, rather funky piece of entrance music erupted over the arena's speakers. The audience began to whisper among themselves, the fans of the former Rumble Roses federation knowing exactly who that theme belonged to. They wondered just what it meant, that her music was playing now, a woman who hadn't been seen since almost a year and a half ago, when she had appeared from nowhere to inform the AFW fanbase of just what had happened to the former Rumble Roses company.

Much like Candy, they wouldn't be waiting for too long. After almost a full minute of the song playing, after enough time had passed to build up the proper anticipation for her arrival, Anesthesia stepped out from backstage, stepping out onto the entrance stage that sat atop the ramp that led down to the ring. She was dressed, as usual, in her pink nurse's outfit, the front of  the uniform as revealing as always, showing off a generous amount of her dark skin. Her eyes sparkled with a sly glint, and her lips were upturned into just a hint of a dark smile.

This was the moment she had waited for. She had bided her time for well over a year, waiting for the perfect time to strike, waiting for the right person to make just the right mistake, and at long last, it had happened. The situation couldn't have been any better for her. Candy Cane, of all people? One of the last members of the Rumble Roses to make her debut in the AFW? It was as if the perfect opportunity had just fallen into her lap!

She stared towards the ring, staring towards the redhead for what seemed like forever, her arms folded over her chest. She said nothing, she made no motions or movements. She simply stared down towards Candy with her piercing, intense glare. It wasn't until her theme music began to loop and start playing for a second time that she finally began to move forward, heading down the ramp and towards the ring, wondering just how the younger woman would react to her sudden, surprising appearance. One step at a time, with one confident, sultry step after another, she headed towards the ring, never once breaking her gaze away from Candy.

Anesthesia was here, and now? Things were sure to get interesting.

Candy smirked when she heard an instant, musical response to her barking (even if it was a crappy musical response), thinking that some goody two-shoes was going to come out here, thinking she stood a chance against a true punk rocker, and give Candy the chance to wipe the floor with her. That would be a hell of a statement to start her time on AFW, and the redhead crossed her arms under her chest smugly, waiting to see who dared come out and mess with her.

Her smugness faded slightly, however, when she listened a little more closely to the music. That music...she knew that she knew it. The first time she had heard it, she had hated it, not only because of how horrible it was, but because... because she did not like the person it was attached to at all. Two words crossed her mind: Crazy. Nurse.

Candy tried to keep up her ballsy disregard for the music as it continued to go on and on, but remembering that stupid, crazy nurse in pink was putting a real damper on her mood already. She couldn't even be sure that anything was going to come of the music, but if it did and that nutjob was here in AFW, it was going to absolutely suck. She'd rather Teach come out and give her a lecture...

But, sure as hell, there was that weirdo Anesthesia, stepping out onto the stage still looking like the crazy hack of a nurse that she had been when Candy had fought her years ago. "You mean they haven't stuck ya in a nut house somewhere... ?", Candy asked under her breath, the mic away from her lips, as she huffed out a loud sigh, her face no longer able to hide her despair and disappointment. Maybe she should have stuck with the music career. There were loonies, but they didn't come in sexy fake nurse form.

And she just stood on the stage and...stared. Candy gave a childishly sickened look she stared back, the arms that had been folded under her chest dropped to her sides before one recovered to rest on her hip. So the bitch was going to come out here, stare a while, and do nothing? Yeah, that was what normal people who should be allowed to be wrestlers did, sure. Those kinds of people should totally be allowed to touch other women... "Come on already, ya freak show..." If not because Candy wanted to know what Anesthesia wanted, but because she wanted that music to come to an end. Eww.

At least Anesthesia started to move when the music started again, otherwise Candy would have had to go to the stage herself and kicked the nurse in the knee just to see if she was still breathing and hadn't suddenly died of something. As Anesthesia approached, Candy started pacing by the rope, not wanting to reveal to the crowd that she was uncomfortable, because that would ruin everything she had just claimed she would do to the AFW roster. But still, she had bad memories of this chick...and she didn't want to repeat them.

As Anesthesia headed down the ramp towards the ring, her eyes never left Candy, gazing with dark intent at the younger woman. From the way that Candy moved and from the disgusted look on her face, she could tell that she had already gotten under the redhead's skin. It was perfect, completely and utterly perfect.

When she finally reached the ring, the nurse moved towards the ring steps, and one at a time began to climb up them. One by one, a slow step at a time, the nurse ascended onto the apron. walking about halfway down the length of it before bending off, her bottom sticking up towards the crowd as she passed through the ropes and into the ring proper.

She straightened back up, and stepped towards the center of the ring, affixing her gaze back onto Candy again. Her music finally began to fade back out, but even then Anesthesia remained silent, simply standing there staring at her fellow Rose, remaining quiet, unspeaking.

Candy had the microphone, after all. Why should Anesthesia be the one to speak first? Besides, she wanted to see how the redhead would react to being this close after all of these years. She had already gotten unsettled just from the nurse making an entrance. Anesthesia had no doubt that being this close would rattle her even more.

Ugh, what the hell was wrong with this chick? She was even more crazy than she was before, with the way she was doing nothing but staring as she hauled her wide ass into the ring. The redhead had stopped pacing as the nurse approached the ring, instead having taken to the opposite ropes since she was wary of Anesthesia trying to get some cheap attack off on her. She scowled into the nurse's face as the woman climbed in and the music finally stopped, but all Anesthesia did was put herself in the middle of the ring and keep on staring. So she was gonna come out here and waste everyone's time, but she couldn't even talk!?

Finally, Candy groaned and brought the mic back to her lips, trying to do something to get this fruitcake to do more than stand there and stare like the redhead was a painting on the wall. "Hey! Earth to the crazy nurse! Why'd ya come out here if all you're gonna do is stand and stare at me like an idiot?" More upset now than worried about what Anesthesia might do, she stepped forward and waved a hand in the direction of Anesthesia's eyes, trying to get her to rouse. "I couldn't get ya to shut up back in Rumble Roses, so what gives?"

When Candy began to shout at her, Anesthesia couldn't help but smile wider towards her, amused by the redhead's attempts at trying to get her to do or say something. Candy seemed to her to be as impatient as always. She may have been older now, no longer a teenager, but she still seemed to be just as immature as she was back during their Rumble Roses days.

When the punk's stepped forward, waving her hand in front of Anesthesia's face, that's when the nurse finally moved, finally decided to do something. Her own hand shot upwards, grabbing Candy by her wrist, giving it a tight squeeze. She held it up for a moment, staring straight into Candy's eyes, still saying nothing, still remaining quiet, just staring at her with the most drilling, intense gaze she could give.

Then, a few seconds later, Anesthesia quickly stepped behind the girl, twisting Candy's arm around behind her back. She leaned in close against her, her body just barely pressing into Candy's backside, and placed her ears right beside of the redhead's ear, finally speaking up with a soft, sultry whisper.

"Ten years, Rebecca. One would think you'd be happier to see me after ten years..."

Candy hardly even saw Anesthesia move to grab her arm. "Gyah!", she cried out in shock, her eyes shooting from the nurse's grip on her wrist to the nurse's face. Though her first instinct was to just clock Anesthesia across the jaw for daring to touch her, Candy paused and glared through narrowed features, thinking the bitch would finally tell why the hell she had come out here in the first place. But several more seconds passed, and the nutjob did nothing but stare back. Finally losing her cool, Candy dropped the mic and growled, cocking her arm to punch Anesthesia across the face.

The nurse moved at the same moment, and Candy's blow was interrupted before it even started as Anesthesia pulled her arm behind her back. "Ugh...nynnn!" Pain shot up her arm from wrist to shoulder, bringing a broad grimace to her face that quickly set back into a look of furious disdain as Candy swung her other arm back to try and peel Anesthesia off of her when she felt the woman pressing into her back, parts of the crazy nurse that Candy didn't want anywhere near her own body pressing into her back. Anesthesia's calm and her creepy whisper, though, made the redhead still to listen. With every word that dropped from Anesthesia's lips, Candy's expression showed more and more disgust.

"Yeah, and it's because of this crap right here that I'm not!" Too frustrated to care what else Anesthesia had to say now, the redhead snatched and pulled, ignoring the pain in her arm, and brought a heel up to try to stomp it back down on the nurse's foot to get her to leave Candy the hell alone and keep her distance.

Anesthesia had to admit: she was quite enjoying the moment. The closeness to Candy's body, pressing against her and holding her in place, listening to the girl's cries and sensing her anger and frustration. She loved it. He felt good to be in control, especially after biding her time for so long, waiting for this one perfect moment.

Her enjoyment of the situation was short-lived though, as Candy's heel came up and dropped back down, slamming squarely into her foot. With a sharp cry, Anesthesia dropped Candy's arm and took a quick step back from her, narrowing her eyes back towards the redhead.

"Naughty girl..." she cooed in her direction, trying to ignore the sudden pain in her foot as her voice began to adopt a stern, commanding tone, while still remaining soft, and quiet. "Am I going to have to teach you the lesson that your teacher never did...?"

Candy couldn't have heard anything better than Anesthesia's cry of pain when her heel smashed right into the top of the nutjob's foot, and she wasted no time slinging her arm away from out of Anesthesia's grip with a grunt of relief. The redhead took a few quick steps away and turned on the same heel, a touch of a cocky smile crossing into her scowl as she whirled. She was hoping to see Anesthesia completely thrown off her creeper game and reeling from the stomp, but all Candy got were cold eyes. Whatever. Anything worked better than having Anesthesia touch her like that... Sick.

Ugh, the freak would never get tired of hearing herself talk. "Ugh, shut up!", Candy exclaimed. "You're the crazy one. Let me teach you somethin'!" Fists raised, Candy shot towards the crazy nurse before stopping and planting for a roundhouse kick, wanting to send a heel right into the bitch's chin and kick her out of the ring for good. No one should have even let her back in it in the first place!

When Candy Cane's leg shot up towards her, the redhead firing off a quick, sudden kick towards the nurse, Anesthesia was ready. Candy was just as impulsive and reckless as she remembered the girl to be back from their Rumble Roses days. She was itching for fight, and Anesthesia was more then ready to give her what she wanted.

As Candy's leg snapped through the air at her chin, Anesthesia's arms suddenly shot up, the nurse trying to grab the long, bare limb and give it a sharp twist to the side, trying to send the punk twisting down towards the mat!