FIGHT THE POWER!

”DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!"

It was a bit of a stormy day in front of the Bettencourt mansion, but that wouldn't stop the environmental activists known as the Planeteers. even as the rain came down with a fizzy drizzle. The environmental group had been organizing this protest and Primol for weeks, drawing support through social media, and here they stood. Loud and proud, rowdy and ready, standing In the driveway of the machine. All five of them.

And there, mixed in with the throngs, wss Liberty ‘Libby’ Vella. Holding a sign up with an X through the Primol logo, wearing a black jacket over her usual outfit, chanting as loud as her boisterous lungs would allow. ”Down! With Primol! Down! With Primol!”

Liberty was a wrestler, but she was also an activist. An anarchist. A revolutionary. Though, she had to admit, she hadn't gotten much time to be those things since she’d gotten back to Japan after her little hiatus. Part of that was because she wanted to start making some progress in wrestling again, make up for lost time and regain the title she’d never really lost. But the other, bigger part had to do with the fact that Japan - while it was a capitalistic hotbed - didn't really have much in the way of greedy corporations for her to protest. It was a fairly friendly, progressive sort of nation. Not the best place to get her rebellious itch scratched.

But there was the Primol group. Slavedrivers. Taskmasters. Even though Liberty’s arm was still hurting from her last match, even though she was likely going to catch a cold from being out in the rain, even though she was starting to get a soak and slimy from all the rain and grime, there was no way she’d miss this.

As the protest rolled around to the second hour, she decided it was time to pump the energy up a little bit and made her way over to the front of the glitzy, golden gate. Fists in the air, she raised her voice to heavens.

”LOUDER! LOUDER!” Liberty turned  around and gave the gate a hard kick, getting an awesome sonorous crash. "Let me hear you screeeeeeeeeeam!"

”DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!"

The clacking of numerous keyboard strokes on a nearby laptop sounded off in conjunction with the operatic score playing at a subdued volume in the backseat of Gwens elongated and pearl white Rolls Royce limousine. Miniature flags brandishing the Primol logo would be situated on the roof of the imposing automobile above the headlights. The heir apparent to Primol Group was nestled away inside the cacophonous confines of the luxurious and intimidating vehicle, accompanied by her lady publicist furiously typing away on her laptop in preparation for the gauntlet of appointments the heiress had scheduled for her.

”DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!"

Gwendolyns ear twitched as she busily swiped away at her tablet and absorbed copious amounts of information at a remarkable rate pertaining to the equities on the Dow Jones and Nikkei 225. Her self-imposed exile and the rumors surrounding it had sent prices on Primol corp. shares down, and Gwen was duly fixated on enduring any tedious corporate meetings to restore faith in the company. Including attending an hour long shareholders meeting with the board of directors through a conference call.  Her silver tongue was thoroughly fatigued from putting their minds at ease in regards to the companies prosperous future and her position as it's successor.

”DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!"

Gwendolyn furrowed her brow before glancing outside to notice through the drizzled, blackened car window that her limo was creeping to a complete stop outside her mansions golden gates. Ignoring whatever meandering rabble was transpiring outside, Gwen returned her attention to her tablet and pondered onward in terms of how best to rejuvenate and rebound from her Entropy Title loss. Rekindling staggered momentum in this league was becoming quite the issue-

”DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!
DOWN! WITH PRIMOL!"

*CRASH*

...It was a slowly building crawl, but Gwens tolerance for the mongrel wretches defaming her company's illustrious name had reached it's utmost limits when she heard someone dare to stomp at her newly refurbished gated entranceway. Swiftly flicking the button to open the sunroof of her limousine, the heiress would stand tall and emerge from her waist on up outside the back of the limo.

"OH FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!!!! HAVN'T YOU PEOPLE MORE PRODUCTIVE USES OF YOUR TIME RATHER THAN BEING LOWLY AND PATHETIC DREGS OF SOCIETY!!!" Gwendolyn bellowed with her arms folded at the protesters blocking her rightful passage back into her ludicrously extravagant mansion. Her well dressed lady publicist would pop out of the back of the sunroof as well and open an umbrella above the heiress to prevent her ill-tempered employer from getting drenched in the frizzy weather.

Liberty’s eyes grew saucer-wide when she saw the fancy-schmancy car pulling up to the gates, watching with sheer excitement as the sunroof peeled back. She honestly didn't expect much facetime with anyone from Primol’s upper echelon. Nine times out of ten, they just sent their goon squad to take care of the unwashed masses, not wanting to see the people who had to live on the planet they continually raped. But this was different. They'd poked the bear enough times, and now they would finally hear the roar.

”Everyone, quick!” Liberty held out her hands, motioning for her fellow protesters to come in close. ”Human chain! Link up, just like we practiced!”

The other five looked understandably tepid - after all, this was just as new to them as it was to her - but when Liberty offered to be the center of the chain, they got some of their confidence back and joined with, blocking the gate sight their bodies. United. Strong. Totally righteous, ready to face anyone, even-

”Is that…” Liberty narrowed her eyes, but when she heard that familiar high-pitched shriek, she knew she wasn't mistaken.

As sure as shit, it was Gwendolyn Bettencourt.

Liberty didn't pay all that much attention the Entropy Title scene…or the hentai scene…or whatever the softcore title was about...or, really much of anything that didn't have to do with hardcore. But even she couldn't avoid getting wind of the infamous wrestling princess. She’d seen her face on the promotional pics, she’d even caught a few of her matches, like the one where she first won the Entropy Championship. It all came together to paint the picture you’d expect from someone who’d grown up under the Primol banner: a rich, entitled, snotty little brat who deserved a punch in the face. Or two. Or three.

Liberty was hesitant for a moment, not sure if she wanted to mix wrestling with her politics. But she was here. Gwen was here. No getting around it now, and she sure as hell was not backing down, especially not from someone like this.

”Hey!” She stepped forward, dragging the human chain along with her. ”DON’T YOU HAVE ANYTHING BETTER TO DO THAN RUIN THE ENVIRONMENT FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS, YOU GLASS-BOTTOM-BOAT-LOVING BITCH?!

The occasional rabble of bleeding heart environmentalists and liberal fanatics were as annoyingly irksome as they ever were, the heiress not remembering a time in her life when their wasn't someone clambering at her gateways and blaming her corporation and her family for all the worlds troubles. Like scurrying cockroaches who disperse when light is shined on them and reform in the darkness when her attention is diverted elsewhere. Dealing with these fanatics was perhaps one of the only definite downfalls Gwen could think of from being in the upper echelons of the social hierarchy.

Normally her security personnel would be handling this intrusion with all the requisite usage of mace and water hoses, but in as irritable a mood as she was caught in, Gwen took it upon herself to defend her family's honor until such armed personnel would be called. Her chauffeur dialing away at his cell phone for just that...

"Hmph~..." Gwendolyn gave an emphatic and pouty "hmph" with her snooty head held high to the long-haired degenerate mouthing off to her. The assumed leader of this slipshod protest rally was slovenly dressed with nary a hint of decorum to her vulgar tone. By this point Gwendolyn was beginning to strongly believe that she under some witch's curse that compelled her to attract filthy vagabonds to her. Not even granting the anarchist the common courtesy of addressing her eye to eye, the heiress would respond with her eyes sewn shut and her head tilted upward.

"Why yes, actually~...I'm dreadfully tardy for my meeting with my fellow nefarious cohorts in the Illuminati. We mean to discuss future Presidential appointments, political uprisings and our next planned environmental disaster~..." Gwen sarcastically mouthed off, honestly hoping these neanderthals wouldn't take her seriously. "Honestly, how delightfully convenient it must be to have so limited an intellect and narrow a thought process that you believe whatever frivolous tripe you read on some Marxist website instead of having to formulate opinions of your own. Why bother to exercise any semblance of your own free will when you can just blindly acquiesce to the deluded ramblings of some dreadfully under-dressed and grimy vagrant who unwarrantedly vilifies an exceedingly successful corporation with a spotless environmental record..." In her swirling spiral of words, Gwen intended to chip away at Liberty's human chain and and make them question if they were easily duped into joining her.

As Gwen spoke and said her piece using numerous, fancy multisyllabic words, Liberty kicked herself for not bringing a megaphone. She had a good, natural boisterous voice, but she could’ve been booming with just a little amplification, and the rainfall wasn't helping things.

As Gwen spoke with her honeyed words and her golden curls and her lilting voice, Liberty could see what she was doing, and it seemed to be working. She could feel the chain weakening. She could see a few seeds of doubt sprouting across the Planeteer’s faces. Liberty had to bring things back into focus, and the best way to do that was to take Gwen head on.

”Oh, blah, blah, blah, blah!” Liberty stepped away from the chain and reformed it without her, then stepped away and turned back to Gwen.

”First off, goldilocks, allow me to elucidate you on one salient fact that seems to have escaped your prescient vision.”

God, she hoped she used all those words correctly.

”I'm not a vagrant - I got a job. I'm a wrestler, just like you.” Liberty planted one of her feet on the car, making it bounce. ”And also just like you, I know how full of shit you are. We've seen the pictures. We have the stats! Everything is black and white, on paper for the whole world to see. We know the shortcuts Primol takes, the poor regulations, the paid-for scientists spewing out the company line. We smell what you're cooking, and it stinks!”

Liberty’s pumped her fist into the air and she got a tepid cheer from the Planeteers. They were behind her a bit more solidly now that she’d taken the bull by the horns, but there was still some trepidation in their voices. As long as Liberty stayed strong, she could keep them strong. No retreat.

The jostling reverberations from Liberty weighing down the side of the limo compelled Gwen to open her eyes and peer down towards the loud-mouthed ringleader. She was barely keeping the group banded together from what Gwen could see, the heiress at least now knowing who to target for her verbal tongue lashing before this group could disband and leave her property. Protesters getting pummeled outside her mansion was bad publicity. Gwen mockingly yawned against the palm of her hand before gladly retorting.

"...Honestly, your woeful ilk never cease to amaze me. You lament your own rotten lot in life with so much blinding bitterness that you allow radical conspiracy theories to validate your unjust claims with nothing but hearsay, conjecture, doctored photos, and unsubstantiated rumor-mongering. As a matter of simple fact, putting aside my company's immaculate environmental record and your baseless accusations from questionable sources...do tell me...how many more hours of standing in the rain do you think will it take before your goals are met and my dastardly corporation has seen it's last days? Gwen pompously smirked while extending her white satin gloved hand outward to catch a few droplets of rain.

"Like attempting to stop the rain from falling...or stopping the world from turning...you bleeding heart radicals and your archaic methods are so pathetically ineffectual when it comes to enacting true change that it's actually quite laughable. Even moreso than those tattered garbs you're wearing. One would think someone with a job, so to speak, could afford to have a rudimentary sense of proper fashion." Despite what she had said about so many of Liberty's traits being laughable, Gwen wouldn't be smiling one iota as she pulled back her hand and resumed folding her arms.

"And...whatever infinitesimally minute strand of fate you feel connects us...never...presume that you and I are equals in any fathomable way..." Gwen venomously responded in regards to their wrestling pedigrees.

Craaaaaaaaaaaap this was wrong. So very wrong.

Liberty had played this scenario in her head a thousand time over - one day, she’d make her way past all the gears of the machine and get to take on its beating heart, deal with the HFO - the Head Facist of Operations.  She’d fantasized the moment so often, but now that it was actually here, she felt like a little kid at the talented, underprepared and unready for the big stage.

”See?!” Liberty pointed at Gwen and turned back to the Planeteers. ”See what she's trying to do to us? She wants to talk down on you, make you feel like you’re worthless. Why? Why does she want to do that? Ask yourself, if we’re such little peons, why is she even taking time out from having her hair curled up and getting her nails did and walking poodles?”

Liberty pointed her finger into the air just as a thunderbolt cracked in the distance. Epic.

””It’s because she knows you’re a threat! It’s just five of you now, but tomorrow it could be six, then seven, then before you know, there’s a voice too loud to ignore! It’s happened before, and it can happen here!” Liberty took another step up on the car, planting both feet on the hood. ”Don’t let her stomp out the fire before it can spread, people!”

The crew still seemed a bit divided, but at least she’d kept them from a straight out mutiny today. They could always call it a day and come back later. Preferably after Liberty had done a little something to boost their morale.

”And as for you!” he swung her fist around and pointed it straight at Gwen once more, defiant to the last moment. ”You’re not the only one around here who’s had gold around her waist, okay? And unlike you, I didn’t need a small army to defend it!”

Liberty shot her arm out and slapped the inside of her elbow - a little Italian gesture that didn’t mean anything pleasant.

Steadfast and undaunted throughout the entirety of Liberty's electrically charged rhetoric, Gwendolyn remained eerily stone-faced towards the rebellious radical climbing atop the hood of her limo. Watching her resort to blatant pandering towards the shrinking crowd at their side confirmed that Liberty had nothing of any substance to contribute anymore, perfectly content with vilifying the heiress and her corporation as a lightning rod to pinpoint all her rebellious angst. But that delightful revelation, along with Liberty's obscene gesture, actually brought a creeping smirk to her refined facial features. Now feeling significantly justified in what she planned to do next.

"...Well~...I most certainly feel threatened. Don't you?" Gwen would turn to address her publicist who would nod affirmatively before the heiress would turn back to Liberty. "Yes...Yes, I most certainly feel as if I'm under the direct threat of a physical altercation~..." Gwen merrily said in her posh voice before unfolding her arms and extending her hand outward, an engraved and petite silver bell dangling in her dainty fingers. Upon shaking it emphatically, every door on Gwens limo would open simultaneously.

A team of four burly and imposing gentlemen dressed in black suits and darkened shades with ear pieces hanging from the lobes now made their presence known. Without any warning or hesitance in their actions, two of them would charge forward and attempt to tackle Liberty off the limo. Dragging her down and placing a knee to the back of her head while the other expertly applied some plastic handcuff restraints behind her back. The other half of the team would march towards the remaining protesters and reach inside their jacket pockets for pepper spray and tasers...but for all the protesters knew...they could be reaching for anything...

The rain was starting to clear up, and Liberty could feel her mood clearing along with it. This was her test and she'd. It hadn’t gone perfectly, true, but now she was in a good place. Perception was everything, and it looked like everything was on even level.

She enjoyed it for all of about five seconds before the goon squad showed up, coming out of the car and making a beeline straight for her. Never the most nimble woman, Liberty was caught between two surly gentleman who rivaled her own size. ”Hey! Hey! Off! I got rights, you corporate tool!”

She put up a crazy fight, twisting and wrestling and kicking elbowing and swinging around. She could've handled any one of them, easy. But two? Nope. The numbers game eventually got the better of her and she was forced down on the wet grass, covering her entire chest in mud while her arms were forced behind her back. The Planeteers immediately began to disperse, knowing things were quickly getting above their paygrade and not wanting to get to sprayed. Or electrified. Or especially not shot.

But Liberty stayed. Mostly because her hands cuffed and she had two brutes pinning her down, but even if she could have escaped, she wouldn’t.

”You want a physical altercation?” She glared up at Gwendolyn through the one eye that wasn’t covered in dirt. ”I’ll give it to you! I want you in a match, goldilocks! Just you and me, leave your little toadies behind!”

Being the sloe beneficiary to a multi-million dollar conglomerate tends to attract the wrong type of attention. From as early as she could remember, the threat of kidnapping through corporate espionage was a very viable threat to her well-being. Therefore, being escorted by a personal entourage of dark-suited gentlemen hired from a private security firm was simply a fact of Gwen's life. Gwendolyn forbid there presence in AFW functions and would prefer to only call upon them when absolutely necessary...or when someone was being particularly offensive and...irksome.

"...*sigh*...and the day was starting off with so much promise..." Gwen wistfully commented while ducking back inside the limo to emerge out the side door, her publicist following right behind her while holding an umbrella above her head. "Whenever a situation degenerates into such brute physicality, I find it constitutes a failure on my part..." Upon approaching Liberty, who was now getting a faceful of muddy compost from the knee in the back of her neck while getting drenched in the rain, Gwen would pace back and forth while continuing her soulful monologuing. Her arms folded without bothering to look down at Liberty as she spoke. "Regrettably, settling matters with eloquent discourse appears to be an unattainable phantasm since my employment within this league of woeful degenerates..." Gwen stopped herself and hopped up to sit on the hood of her limo, her legs crossed and now diverting her gaze down towards the filthy anarchist.

"However, today may just be your lucky day. You see, I am just so happening to be on the lookout for prospective opponents to bolster my win percentage and resuscitate my stalled wrestling career.  Therefore I may just be so inclined as to accept your rather crude offer...if, you reform your request in a more elegant fashion, as a lady of civility. Politely request that I grant you the honor of bathing in my heavenly glow and being bested through civilized combat...and the match may just yet be yours~..." While it wouldn't sway her decision one way or another, hearing this long-haired reprobate attempt to act like a lady could have made this entire interruption of her day well worth the time and getting slightly rained upon.