Could this be the end of... THE BLACK FANG?!

The day had finally come. Alexa had spent the last forty or so minutes huddled in a bathroom stall reading a small bundle of notes she had prepared. She still didn't have the script down, but her promo spot had already been booked and she wasn't about to blow it. She glanced up as she heard the door crack open but no footsteps.

"You okay in there?"

"Yes... thank you!" She couldn't help but redden slightly. "Everything is A-okay! Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Everything is FINE."

"...Okay." The creak of the door closing echoed in the tiled bathroom.

Opening up the handicap stall she slipped out into the common restroom area staring at herself in the mirror. She looked so different dressed like this. She could hardly recognized herself once she put the rest on. It was perfect. Holding her head high she unclasped a set of bizarre goggles from her coat lapel, sliding them on. She was a new woman now. She didn't have the problems AJ had, no. She didn't have any problems at all. Save for one... getting her hands on The Black Fang. She grinned devilishly into the mirror. "Mwa... Mwahaha.. Hah... ha?" She needed to work on that. The door creaked open again

"Are you sure yo-... okay." As they met eyes, the woman at the door blinked before sloooooowly backing away to let the door shut.

---

This strange woman nobody seemed to recognize strolled through the winding backroom halls, long white coat billowing behind them. Those who caught her eye received a glare. Most seemed to steer clear, not because she was exceptionally dangerous looking, mostly because she was striding up the middle of the hall, taking up most of the room. As she reached gorilla position she waited for the track she had given the sound team to play.

Theme Music:

The Mystery challenger:

As the track began to play she slipped through the curtains into the various strobe lights. She hadn't been able to procure an pyro or smoke for this little promo, but they were more than happy to flick  few switches on and off for her.

She took long strides, absolutely CHEWing up the scenery, her stark white lab coat billowed in her wake making her look far more menacing then she would otherwise. She moved closer to people on the aisles making a show of analyzing the crowd with a small digital watch with a directional light, pretending she was scanning them.  Some guy in the front row was flashing a pair of thumbs down at her. Reaching into her coat she withdrew a alien looking gun, a small noise and light maker she got from the prop store. In her hands it was a death ray in which she threatened the man convincingly enough he held up his hands in surrender. She upturned her chin at him, the bigger woman in this exchange.

As she made her way into the ring, she stalled to look out over the crowds. There we so many people. As she slipped between the first and second rope, she motioned for a mic to be brought to her, which she took with a soft. "Thanks" outside of earshot of any of the onlookers. She gave the mic a few taps with a finger until she head a bit of feedback, it was on.

"Ladies and simpletons, in the audience and the back. You may not know who I am." She made her way to the corner, propping a boot up on the lowest turnbuckle. "I, am Madam Sien Teist! And I am here today, because I have created the ULTIMATE WRESTLER!" She scanned the audience, brows furrowed, eyes narrowed behind her swirl-eyed goggles. She was trying her best to grin like a crazy person. Hopefully it was working.

 "The most powerful, the most DOMINATING, the most LETHAL, being to ever set foot into the AFW ring... or any other anywhere in the world!"

She threw opened her arms, cackling madly. In the moment, it sounded pretty good, she thought. The crowd was booing her... that's what she was going for, it seemed to be working.

"There is however, a problem. For you see, when I sequenced they genetic code I missed one thing... and that is why I am here today. To claim the last of what I need, to finish my work, and to LAY WASTE to the entire AFW!"

She ran from one side of the stage to the other, pointing up the ramp. "A rare genetic marker from the fangs of justice... Black Fang! Come out here and face your end, and herald in a new age of wrestling destruction!"

”I am the huntress of evil, the answer to all those who cry out for justice, the-”

No, no. Too hammy. Or not hammy enough.

”I am vengeance! I am the night! I am-”

Nope, not that, either. It sounded familiar, but Ryoko couldn’t quite remember where she’d heard it from.

She’d commandeered one of the locker rooms, coming in early to the Friction arena so she wouldn’t have to worry about being disturbed. Ryoko was already in character - the boots, the makeup, the hair, all of it on and ready to go. While she usually liked to put on her outfit a couple of hours before a match started so she could get properly acclimated, she’d never done so at the start of a day before. But this was a special sort of day and a special sort of match, wasn’t it?

She turned about in front of the tall mirror, trying out a few different poses. She was partial with standing straight and shooting out the peace sign, maybe taking a little from Trigun. But she probably reminded people more of Sailor Moon, so it would make more sense to take from that. And there were a few Super Sentai poses she really liked…

Ryoko was in the midst of striking a classic Kamen Rider pose - legs wide, one arm  drawn in, the other reaching to the sky - when she heard the door creak behind her. She looked over her shoulder and met eyes with a woman coming into the locker room. Maybe a janitor, maybe a fellow wrestler, maybe an exec who’d taken a wrong turn. Whoever it was, Ryoko didn’t have long to process her before she sighed and closed the door, muttering something about how the place was ‘full of freaks’ as she left.

---

Ryoko - no, the Black Fang didn’t know what to say to all of this, unless you counted the single word that escaped her lips when it was all done.

”Wow.”

She’d been hanging around the backstage area, clad in a black robe in case she just so happened to come across Shay while she was wondering about. She expected her opponent to come out like everyone came out - the song, the walk, the high-fives, maybe do something crazy to get inside the ring, with a possible first-timer promo

Boy, oh boy, had she underestimated Shay’s creativity. The Black Fang thought that she had the theatrics market fairly well cornered in the AFW - she wore a mask, a rarity these days, and she was one of the few AFW wrestlers who had a character, as opposed to most of them, who were. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but she liked to keep things old school.

Shay, however, put her to shame. The get-up, the angle, the so-cheesy-it’s-awesome story...everything was perfect. Vintage wrestling. The whole shebang left her feeling a tad inadequate, like she should’ve come up with something extra to match. Even if she would’ve been a little suspicious if she’d shown up with a big intro to greet someone she’d never met before, the Black Fang found herself wishing she’d at least splooged on some pyro.

But, oh well, there wasn’t any time for regrets. This was showtime.

Her own theme music started blaring out, and the Black Fang came bursting out from behind the curtain the moment the pipes began to pick up, not wanting to waste a single second. She kneeled and  shot her hands into the sky, making a perfect V shape, looking like a falcon bearing down on its prey. While the Black Fang wasn’t exactly the most popular star on the roster and didn’t have the biggest fan following, the crowd was eating this all up, digging the whole act. They were off to a good start.

Her music faded away, right as a stagehand moved over to give the Black Fang a microphone, probably while the cameras were doing a reaction shot of the AFW’s newest antagonist.

”Now, this is surprise.” The crowd murmured amongst themselves, as the Black Fang spoke an octave lower than usual and sounded like she had a slight sore throat going on. ”I thought the AFW was completely filed up with hooligans and bullies and women of ill-intent, but that doesn’t seem to be the case - apparently, they had one more opening, Ms. Tiest…Sien Tiest...”

The Black Fang’s masked eyes widened with realization, as she put together the pun behind the name, and mentally slapped herself for not seeing that sooner.  

”I am curious on how you plan to acquire my DNA, though. I must warn you,” She wagged a finger at the villainess. ”I don’t do hentai matches. The only way you get what you want is by making me bleed, and I don’t think you have the stones for that.”

She had held her finger outstretched as if she were a statue, hoping... really hoping that The Black Fang was actually in attendance tonight. Wouldn't that have been something... All this for a no show? She really should have made sure the heroine was set to be in the arena.

She jumped at the sudden theme music, that OH SO FAMILIAR MUSIC OOOooooOOoooo! She had listened to it so many times now. Every time she watches one of the older matches it never got old. She even found a recording of it online so she could listen to it on repeat when she had been planning all of this. It took intense focus to keep every fiber in her body from rebelling against this act she had on and just squeal with delight.

She didn't though. She couldn't. This was too important to let it slip away. She was staring at the only thing she wanted right now and her heart was racing.

"That's Madam, to you.... To all of you!" She threw her hand wide, waving it out over the crowd to another lovely chorus of boos for interrupting. She was doing her job right... But it felt a bit wrong being booed. She hoped that she'd get to see the other end of things once she was herself. Twirling on her heel, she had done a full spin before facing The Black Fang again. Trying to look as smug as she could. The goggles had been a very good idea. Not only to hide her identity, but they made up for the lack of her actual nasty bad girl expressions.

She hadn't been ready for that, the comment about hentai matches. Up until recently, she didn't even have any idea what that had been. It was only after looking through the rest of the Summer Splash matches on her browser that she had found out. She had never turned a wrestling match off faster in her life... or deleted her browser history so aggressively. She was red faced, stricken with embarrassment at the thought alone. "No no no... yes, bleeding... is what I was going for... yes haha! Blood, all of you blood, I'm going to just... take it! Gwahaha"

She was starting to see the downfall for having prepped with a script. What were you suppose to say when you didn't know what they were going to. Acting was hard. She adjusted her polka dot tie, composing herself. Think. Villains. Bad guys say mean stuff. Say something really evil. "Once I have bested you in this ring, nothing will stop me from taking what I want from you, Black Fang. This is becoming rather... long in the tooth. So come face your imminent demise!"

Would things have been a wee bit weird if the Black Fang had gone downt to the ring and hugged her newly found archnemesis? Yes. Yes, that would be exceedingly weird, she decided. Nonetheless, she was sorely tempted to do just that very thing. This whole scenario was what Ryoko had wanted for so long, the sort of thing she dreamed of when she first took to the ring, and to have this play out with a person she really liked…

Well, she was thankful that the mask kept people from seeing the faint hints of tears welling up around the sides of her eyes.

By some miracle, the Black Fang managed to keep a straight face as AJ spoke in her silly accent, though she almost lost her steel facade when she did her silly spin about. She’d put a lot of thought into this, far more than most wrestlers did with their schtick, and Ryoko made a mental note to ask her for some pointers when this was all over.

Later. They could be good friends, later. Now they were two mortal enemies, fighting for dominance of the ring, and perhaps, the world itself. Heroine and villainess. Epic stuff.

”You’re bold, Teist, I’ll give you that much. But you’ll need more than that if you want to take me down. If you want me, you're about to get far more than you can handle.” With her legs wide, she shot her hand up and pointed to the sky. ”Get ready! When these fangs sink into you, they never let go! It is time. For. Action!”

Without another pause, the Black Fang tossed the microphone back to the stagehands and dashed hard down the ramp. She slide into the ring and immediately popped up to her knees, looking AJ’s way with a wide smile that she hoped her friend didn't recognize. At both the situation and the outfit that AJ was wearing, which actually seemed like she'd done the sewing herself. Ryoko was dedicated enough to craft, but sewing? That was a high level of boredom to overcome.”You ready for me?”

Alexa had placed in a national tournament back in her amateur wrestling days, arguably the greatest accomplishment to her credit. She considered that a solid second place now to this. She had only found out about The Black Fang about a week or so ago at a tiny cafe. Since that day though, she had become an instant fan. The idea she could be here now, face to face with the actual masked wrestler... the fact she was about to have a MATCH with the woman. This was diffidently first.

She had to keep herself reigned in, it was so difficult. She wanted to just shout down the ramp how much she moved her work, how much she had been robbed of her previous victories. She couldn't do that, here, in front of all these people. She could gush after the match. She wanted to see if she could get a word in with The Black Fang anyway before meeting up with Ryoko after the show. Hopefully, she'd have something to show for all of this.

Alexa grimaced hard an wide, doing everything in her power to mug for the crowd while keeping her excitement in check. The rallying speech, the poses... it was almost too much. She had to stop being AJ the super fan, and start being Madam Sian Teist.

Deep cleansing breath... Should she say something? She wanted to say something. SHE WAS GOING TO SAY SOMETHING!

"Ah ha! You haven't seen even a fraction of my potential, nor will you. I can defeat you with just... 30%!" She set two fingers between the lenses of her goggles, nudging them up the bridge of her nose. The arena lights hit them just right, a sharp white glint rolling over them. "You aren't worth more to me." She threw wide her arm, lab coat fluttering dramatically to the side. "Clearly my influence over you is already taking hold. That sounded an awful lot like you were going to use an.... illegal move. Gwahahahaha!"

She shuffled back, making room for Black Fang while trying to make it look like she was retreating a bit. She was smiling at her... She thought that was a good thing. It didn't look particularly malicious. Thank goodness. She raised the mic one last time. "Ready for you?" She placed the back of her hand to her mouth. Ohh hohoho! I scientifically augmented myself to be ready for you... with SCIENCE!" She threw up a fist, shaking it to the heavens as she gave the mic a toss... and it hit the ring with a loud crackling burst of feedback before it was cut off. She winced, glancing sidelong to where it landed as an official rather casually came in to retrieve it.

No matter! She threw her arms back, flapping out the slack of her lab coat again before striking her own pose at The Black Fang. "Tonight, I burn this arena down, and from its ashes will arise my new wrestling order!"