Devil's Whisper

Styx sat in the middle of Haneda Airport, surrounded by hundreds of hustling and bustling Japanese people, right at the end of the worst day in her life. It hadn't been that bad to start, but the moment she entered the airport, looking to board her flight to Mongolia, things took a downward spiral straight to the pit of hell.

Firstly, she'd had to leave her weapons at home - the Black Tar mist wasn't an allowed substance, and her brass knuckles wouldn't even make it past the first checkpoint. Not that big of a deal, she could just buy another pair and make the concoction herself, but it was an annoyance she didn't want to deal with.

Mostly, though, it was the lines. The endless, interminable, exhausting lines. This was her third time flying, but neither of those times had been during the holiday season. It seemed like every line she got into led to another line, which led to another, which had some sort of delay going on, which meant she had to wait another thirty minutes, and it just kept going and going and going. Styx swore, she’d spent half the day on her feet, slowly inching forward. She’d endured crying babies, obnoxious businessmen on their cell phones, and people who turned their headphones up loud enough for everyone nearby to know what shitty music they were listening to. It was maddening, and if she’d actually had hair, she would've pulled it out by now.

If there was any bright side, it was that she now had a lot more hate stored up, ready to unleash it all on Adrian. She decided to keep it bottled for now, as she sat in the terminal waiting for her flight to be called. As usual, Styx’s clothing had a ‘Do Not Fuck With Me’ look to it - tattered jeans, leather boots, a black hoodie with a flaming skull on it, and Adrian's prized ICW/ICWA Tri-State Television title belt at her side. It meant that she had a nice little area all her own, as most people didn't dare to come within a fifteen foot radius of the big, scary, gaijin bitch. Just the way she liked it.

Styx kicked her legs up on the table and flipped through the newspaper, trying to find some way to amuse herself while she waited for her plane to be called.

Mongolia. Why Mongolia?

Alaina asked herself that question a few times as she hurriedly got herself through the airport. Alaina had her bags checked, and security lines cleared when she sat down, awaiting her flight. She was dressed in a pair of tight blue jeans, tan boots, and a pink winter jacket as she leaned back in her seat. She stuck out in the airport, as most women in Japan weren't quite as tall as her although at 5'8'' she was hardly a giant.

She looked over and saw someone who managed to stick out ten times more than she did herself. She knew the face from Friction, and knew that this lady was connected to Jessica Wright whom Alaina was on bad terms with to say the absolute least. "Great.... I get to share the terminal with Styx." Alaina thought to herself. She sat back and pulled out her phone, more than happy to check up on the news and ignore the towering tough as nails hardcore wrestler not far from her.

Styx wasn't paying that much attention to the world around her at the moment - in fact, if she hadn't chosen the exact right moment to look up from her newspaper, she might not have even known Alaina was there to be missed. But, as fortune had it, she glanced up just as the Co-Champion was looking her way, locking eyes with her. The Entropy champion didn't say anything, of course, which meant she didn't recognize Styx. Or, maybe, she did recognize her, and just knew better than to say anything. The latter possibility was far more interesting.

Styx could've just went back to reading about the incredibly banal history of some dead Japanese CEO. It wasn't like Alaina or her precious little half-title were on her radar. The tag match with Julia and Taylor had been more to backup Jessica than anything, and she wasn't intending on starting any real beef with the dojo while she had a hardcore title to win. But it had been a long day. She was bored out of her skull. The more she thought about it, the more ideas began to pop into her head. She needed to get some kind of amusement out of this.

She sat the newspaper down and leaned forward, bearing a calm, placid smile on her face. "Alaina Sanders, right?" Styx did her best impression of a friendly person. It came off well, despite the complete lack of practice for years.

Alaina had just finished looking over some story about the stock market when she heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to her in English. It could only be one person. Alaina looked up and her suspicions were correct.

While Styx words were friendly enough.... so far.... Alaina still had her guard up. "Yeah, thats me. How are you doing.... River Styx it is right? You have a match for the hardcore title coming up right?" Alaina asked, trying to sound as valley girl as she could. For her, it was easy. Rattling off question after question also allowed her to take a break from speaking. More importantly, she could observe Styx as the big woman answered. Alaina knew she was big, but damn.... Styx was a giant compared to the amazon.

"Hm?"

There was some slight surprise in Styx's voice, a little taken back to find out that Alaiana even knew that much about her. She didn't seem like the type to keep up with the hardcore scene. Heck, some wrestlers didn't even know the AFW had one.

"Just 'River' is fine. And yeah," She glanced at Adrian's belt. "I've got a little something like that going on. And so do you, right? Ms. Entropy Champion." Styx extended her hand for a shake, with a warm smile on her face. "Congratulations on the win. Good match. Great, really."

Had this been inside the ring, everything about it screamed "trap" to Alaina. However, this was out in public at a crowded airport. There was no logical gain River would have from attacking Alaina. She smiled and confidently shook her hand. Ok, River it is and thanks. I hopefully will take the 'co' out of co-champion over in Mongolia." Alaina said, looking River right in the eyes.

Alaina wasn't a hardcore wrestler although she had managed to fare halfway decent in those matches in her AFW stint. River however made brutality her hallmark. While Alaina wasn't expecting anything here she did her best to be ready for anything. "If you don't mind me asking, whats the appeal of hardcore style matches to you?"

"They're fun and I'm good at them."

Styx didn't say it as if she had some problem with the question or she was insulted - the way it came out, it was as if Alaina asked her what 2+2 equaled. She didn't have a problem expounding on that answer if pressed.

She shrugged and sat back, keeping her eyes locked with Alaina for a moment before casually looking off to the side. All friendly, here. "And I'm sure you will. Beat Julia, I mean. I can't lie, though, I'm a little surprised that it even happened that way." Styx looked back to Alaina with a raised eyebrow. "Not even so much the co-champion thing, that I get. Just how you got there in the first place. Sort of a two on one match, wasn't it?"

]"It was, unless you actually saw the match. I had both of them beat but they got bailed out. Julia was going to tap but Gwendolyn's little entourage did their thing and I had to take care of them. I took the fight to both of them." Alaina said confidently, bordering on cocky.

Alaina paused for a second. ".. You know, I just blew off a ton of steam. It wasn't some handicap match. Sure no one likes Gwenolyn but its not like we didn't beat on each other." Alaina said with a shrug before looking up at River. "I do believe we have a mutual acquaintance of sorts.... Jessica Wright...." Alaina said. She knew of the tag match they had against Julia and Taylor. Alaina had a history with Jessica and honestly felt like not being picked for that matchup was a bit of a snub. She left that part out....

Alaina was confident, and she had a right to be. Entropy champion - half of it, anyway - in her first year? Not bad. "Hey, hey," She held up her hands, going on the defense. "I'm not judging. You say that's how it was, that's how it was. You have to admit, though, the deck was pretty well stacked against Gwen, there. The chances of her keeping the title...not so good." She shrugged. "You've had the argument before, sounds like."

Styx reached into her luggage and started to fish around for a water bottle, but she paused when Jessica's name came up. She glanced at Alaina, then went back to searching, still placid. "'Mutual acquaintence'. Not the way I'd describe it, but close enough. What about her?"

"Jessica..." is a royal bitch who needs to get stomped out. Alaina kept most of that to herself before trying to give an appropriate response. River didn't want to start a scene, so neither did Alaina. "she's a great wrestler but I know she's ruffled some feathers in the past. Given that tag match you guys had against Taylor and Julia I am surprised you wanted to come over and talk to me honestly."

Alaina had seen enough of Rivers work to know that this woman was far from nice, no matter how civil she was being right now. In a way Alaina was more than happy to have a nice exchange... no matter how curious she was about Rivers intentions.