Come Together

Jessica didn't quite know how to take that. Usually when girls got their asses kicked they had something smart to say, or some defense of that. Abattoir apparently just considered it 'fun'. If Jessica had been beaten she would be like a raging animal. The Violent Violet reckoned that everyone around her was completely crazy. She leaned back in her chair and eyed the woman suspiciously. Jessica would have to keep an eye on her.

But Jessica would have to pay attention to River as well. If things fell through they could of course knock each other senseless which wouldn't have been a bad ending to the evening. But she felt that this could all be so much more.

"All ears," she said.

So far, so good. Now came the sell.

Styx opened her mouth to speak, but paused as a ambulance siren came shrieking by, drawing closer and closer, until it came to a stop just below them. Because of the recently deceased gentleman on the bottom floor, most likely. She shrugged it off and went back to it

”Short and sweet, right.” Styx took a quarter she’d missed off the table and let it dance along her fingers, just a little something to help her organize her thoughts as she spoke. ”Kelly had her whole Coalition thing going. She was stupid, but the basic idea wasn’t.”

She set the quarter on the table and let it spin around on its edge, watching it dance for a scant second before she continued. ”We’re all really good at beating the shit out of people. So what I’m suggesting is that we team up and beat the shit out of people together. We go out of there, we win matches, we mess up anyone who tries to stop us from getting anything we want.”

She canted her head towards Abattoir. ”You want fights? I’ll bring all the fights you want, right to you.”

Styx rolled it over towards Jessica. ”You want titles? I’ll get you titles. Tournaments. Money.”

She planted her palms down on the table and leaned forward with a wild glint in her eye, glancing between them. ”It’s nothing fancy. No big speeches, no settting up silly matches, nothing like that. AFW is unorganized, management doesn’t do a damn thing to protect anyone. If we team up, we can do whatever we want. No one can stop us.”

Jessica wasn't leaning back anymore. The two front legs of the chair hit the ground, although the noise was hardly perceptible over the wail of the siren. Jessica entered the Coalition to get herself closer to the title and ended up no better off for it. Her stupid saccharine face had been ripped off after Kelly had lost the title, and Conway was even further away now from where she needed to be. Jessica was similarly set back and very upset about it.

But this was different. River was someone she knew she could trust completely. Abattoir, on the other hand... Well, it didn't matter. This was real, this was palpable. This was the best opportunity that had come to her in her time at AFW, and Jessica knew she had to seize on it. "I'm in. No matter what we gotta do, no matter what happens. I'm in."

Jessica could see it now. A gleaming champion's belt around her waist, with River and Abattoir right beside her. They would wreck any girl who was foolish enough to cross their paths. They would break bones, stomp, destroy anyone. This was going to be a riot. "I'm in." Her voice was low and rippled with her conviction. There was no doubt in the Violent Violet's mind.

Abattoir did not jump at this offer the way one might have thought she would.

She had been around the block once or twice, and knew the route these 'if we combine our powers nothing can stop us' things always went. Three-on-one beatdowns, power politics, and the inevitable friction over conflicting ideologies. It was easy to misread her motivations, but she wasn't about the same things Styx and Jessica were. Power, money, titles, even victory in the traditional sense, none of these things moved the needle in Abattoir's mind.

At the same time, it was difficult to pursue her agenda on her own. One person could only do so much to develop the talent pool, and if she was arrogant enough to try to single-handedly manage it the coming storm would probably sweep AFW away like so much chaff in the breeze. Perhaps it'd be necessary to let some people in at arm's length after all.

None of this was evident, since she'd spent the last minute of thought leaned back in her chair with her head tilting ever-farther to one side in thought, like an owl. At last, though, Abattoir spoke: "I'll be there for the fights." There was a faint hint of emphasis - a nice attempt at speaking in a relatable way, considering her usual harsh monotone and dead-eyed stare had kind of a vaguely robotic effect. "You can handle the slaughters."

Abattoir was a difficult woman to read, and it wasn’t just because of the hardware on her face. Styx prided herself on her ability to gauge people, but she could never quite get a good read on her. Were they all on the same page? Were they even in the same book?

The way Abattoir talked, it seemed like Styx could get their interests to align long enough for theme to be of use to each. But it was also fairly clear that the end result would always be the same: this relationship would end in blood and mayhem. The only question was how long it would take to get there.

So, while Abattoir thought and queerly tilted her head, Styx kept her eyes trained tight on her. When her ‘partner’ finally spoke, the bald brawler didn’t immediately respond. Her face was calm and placid, as she mulled over Abattoir’s precious few words. The woman was succinct, couldn’t take that away from her.

”Fair enough.” Styx finally answered after five or so seconds had passed. She spoke like a boss addressing an employee, as professional as could be. The only thing off was the tilt of her head, ever-so-slightly canted to the side. ”And when the fights are over, you and I can finish our little business.” A fraction of a smile appeared on Styx’s face, then vanished. ”Good.”

With that out of the way, Styx sat up and drew a deep breath. She looked between her allies and nodded. ”I’ll have something for us soon, I’ll keep you both posted. Any questions?”

Jessica was a little impulsive and could have afforded to have thought things out in man different situations, but this was not one of them. This was a golden opportunity for her to move up in the world. When she tried to discern what was going on inside Abattoir's head, she came up with nothing. The world could be her goddamn oyster, sitting right there on a plate and all she had to do was grab it. But she didn't. The masked girl was inscrutable, and Jessica supposed that was one of the many advantages of wearing a mask.

The Violent Violet had to resist rolling her eyes. She would be there for the fights. As if Jessica and River would have tea parties in the interim. This masked girl thought she was above the slaughters? She didn't want to get her hands dirty? This would take a lot of smoothing out. Jessica turned to River and noted her tone. She had never heard her bald friend talk like that and it was almost unnerving. River, head of the HR department was a whole new River for her but everything flows, she supposed.

"Here's the deal. I am going to need certain, uh, assurances. I trust you completely," Jessica nodded towards River, "but you, not so much." Jessica turned towards the masked girl. "My back might be facing you one day. How do I know you're not going to try to get some licks back? Because if you try I will not fucking hesitate to kick your ass again." Jessica paused again. "This is not going to be glorious, honorable combat. We're all going to have to work." Jessica eyed Abattoir. Time to see how she would take it.

The room was tense, and Abattoir was the least qualified person on the planet to conduct diplomacy.

A maddening silence once again filled the room as she contemplated her response; the nak muay was, as always, content to converse at her own pace.  The initial answer - which was that if she'd wanted revenge on Jessica, she would've simply set fire to the Violent Violet's incredibly obvious ride out front, waited for her to investigate, and then assaulted her from behind when she came to investigate - was about three-fourths of the way to completion when something resembling empathy reminded Abattoir that most reasonable people would take that as a very blatant threat rather than an explanation.

Her answer, instead, was infinitely shorter: "You don't."

Unblinking and perfectly serene.  The invitation was there; if Jessica wanted to start something over it, Abattoir was more than ready to let their attempted alliance devolve into a circus of blood and glass, but she seemed content not to instigate.  The bluff was called, and it was entirely up to the other girls whether they wanted to ante up or back out.

A very weird thing was about to happen: River Styx was going to attempt to stop a fight from happening. Playing peacemaker. This whole ‘working together’ thing would be getting deeper into virgin territory than she’d originally anticipated.

”Babe,” Styx rapped the table with her fist to draw Jessica’s attention. ”You say you trust me, right? Then trust my judgment. I’m vouching.” She thumbed towards Abattoir. “You saw her in action, you faced it, you know Abattoir is tougher than about 95% of the little shits on the roster. She hurts in ways that we can't. She fills a niche. So when people start trying to retaliate and strike back at us, she's our edge. You and me can handle the fun parts, that’s just a matter of hitting them with blunt objects when they don’t see it coming. When they start coming back at us, that’s when numbers really matter.”  

Styx rubbed the bridge of her nose and put both of her elbows on the table. There was a very real itch in the back of her head that wanted the chaos this situation could bring, but she kept it in check. For the moment. After this was over, she'd have to find someone to unleash her pent-up aggression on. ”I’m not asking for a blood pact or a signed agreement or fucking pinkie swears. This isn’t the dojo. It doesn’t work, we split and kill each other. If or when it comes to that, we can handle it. But,” She held a finger up. ”Until that happens, we can use each other to get what we want out of this company. It’s simple.”

If this girl was anything, she was honest. She should appreciate that because of her Iowan upbringing, but she honestly didn't. It was useful when other people were honest, sure, but Jessica found the truth useful only rarely. The masked girl was right. She didn't know if she could trust her or if she would ever try to get back at her. If their match together wasn't enough though, Jessica wasn't sure what would be.

She turned to River as she spoke. The Violent Violet heard River out. If River thought she would be a good addition to the team, then so be it. Jessica could abide this woman's presence, even if she didn't particularly like it. Plus, it meant that Jessica got to play a little bit more offense which was always a whale of a time.

"Ok. You trust her, so I will, well, tolerate her." Jessica looked at her bald partner. Looked like she was going to have to go all in. Although she was still going to be her usual self. She cast her gaze towards the masked girl. "My advice for you is to not fuck up and not try anything too smart. Got it?" Jessica went back to leaning in her chair. From what she reckoned, the moment had passed. There would be no fight tonight. The Violent Violet was beginning to relax a little bit, even as she always noted what Abattoir was doing in the corner of her eye.

Jessica didn't even get the dignity of a smirk or an eyeroll.  There was a moment of dead staring, and then Abattoir simply glanced back to Styx.

"All right."

Truthfully, she had been...kind of spaced out for the last minute or so while the other girls were talking.  There was something of an inner conflict going on - not that it was easy to tell, Abattoir being inscrutable as always - based on the niggling realization that this thing would probably crash and burn really early if she didn't go whole-hog with it.  There would be targets on all their backs, regardless of what rules she was playing by.  And yet, this was something she had to reconcile with her purpose.  She'd been sent back for a reason.  Destroying AFW wouldn't make anybody stronger but her (and Styx and Jessica, she supposed).  It felt like a betrayal of her mandate.  Was she really ready to take that step, just on the chance that she'd find what she was looking for?

Abattoir closed her eyes for a half-second and, before she could second-guess herself made an abrupt decision.

"I'll be with you for...all of it, then," she said, nodding slightly to Styx.  "Attacks, and all."

There was, somewhere in that ghostly monotone, a vague hint of something unspoken: Be careful what you wish for.