Knight Rider's Round

No, Triin had absolutely no aspirations of becoming anything represented by David Hasselhoff. Her idea of a Knight Rider's round was totally different. The main elements it consisted of were hours way past the usual bedtime, dark corridors of the AFW complex and a valiant knightess taking care of law and order prevailing.

Reality? Despite her fascinating fantasy, Triin's habits of killing time on sleepless nights included mostly roaming aimlessly throughout the various floors and basements of the AFW complex, trying to learn which way to turn and when in case of various irrelevant destinations becoming required to be reached for one reason or another, and just generally familiarizing herself with the area while playing with her knightess gimmick.

Triin Liiv - The Baltic Knightess:

This time's round was no exception. Tonight her patrol was taking her to the lowest floors of the basements. She was certain that there wasn't anyone there, and she could have all the time she wanted to explore the various rooms and dungeons. It also provided a neat opportunity to swish her sword around for a bit, immersing herself to her imagination that had just assigned her a task of slaying a dragon in the shadows...

Clara Gaster, on that day, had a different reason to be "haunting" AFW Complex's halls...namely, a medical check up.

She had received an emergency email about needing to have a look at any potential injuries she may have suffered in AFW matches...including ones that may not have been clear on the first check up after the match. In addition, since all doctors were busy during the day, she was asked to either come before the working day for AFW Complex began...or when it ended.

Although initially planning to come early, accidental oversleeping on the next day put a kebosh on that plan, meaning she would have to come right before the doctors' day was coming to an end, at around 10 PM in the evening.

Though not a fan of not being at home later than 7, the Brit obliged, and nervously drove into the AFW Complex at 9:45, worried that the results that could come up would be worse than she could ever expect...

The whole check took about half an hour, and she was told to come back for the results in 2 days.

As she got off of the check up table, and put her clothes on, she would ask one of the doctor's:

"U-um...why...did you decide to check on me so randomly?"

"We recently reviewed footage on your match versus Triin Liiv...in particular, the ending. A Piledriver and a Crossface is a brutal combination on the neck. Add to that you wrestling matches afterwards and taking hits to your skull...and we were slightly worried about damage to both your head and neck in the long term. We are just following the protocol. Unless you've been feeling pains you didn't report to us outside of matches, you don't need to worry".

Gulping, the Brit would answer: "I see...", still slightly worried about anything that could come up from the scanning.

Bidding farewell, to the medical staff, the raven haired Brit took for the corridor to get to the lift...

...and heard steps coming behind a corner of the corridor getting louder and louder towards her!

Not wanting any confrontation with a (potentially) brutal woman who wasn't sleeping well, she leapt towards a short passage leading to the toilet, curious to see who leaving in the AFW Complex had a bad case of sleeping tonight...

...and just as fate would have it, it was the woman that gave doctor's a scare with GASTER's health herself - Triin Liiv...

She was already angry at the Baltic Knightess over not just beating her in a match, but also rubbing insult to injury afterwards, placing her foot on top of the girl as if on top of a conquered mountain. Now, it was possible that the woman may or may not have (admittedly, accidentally) contributed to a possible injury!

She couldn't let her go off the hook for this...and she wanted her revenge as soon as possible.

Certainly, attacking Triin in the hallway late at night is not nice. As such, she had another idea. If she was indeed cleared to compete after her check up, she wanted to beat the Baltic Knightess in the ring, fair and square.

Making sure Triin couldn't see her, she quickly yanked her mask from her bag, and put it on. As Triin would walk closer and closer to her hiding spot, she would jump out of it once she got close enough, letting out a loud:

"MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!", as she did so!

Triin had not been catching the medical personnell's attention, but should someone had seen her behavior right now, there would have been a fair chance she would have been suggested to do so. Lurking alone in the dark, swishing her sword around and preparing to slay a dragon behind each corner was not exactly a combination commonly regarded as behavior of a sane person. But hey, who could have been there to witness?

As fate would have it, of course there was someone. And not just anyone...

Preparing to check another corridor for potential dragons, Triin was about to swish her sword right towards it - but then, suddenly a figure emerged, causing the knightess to let out an "EEK!" Not supposing anyone to actually be there, the Estonian's momentary fright was unusually visible this time.

Putting on a straight face as soon as possible again, Triin became somewhat puzzled as she started to recognize who exactly was the figure that had emerged from the shadows. What on earth was GASTER doing there? Had she been spying on her? Then again, she did call herself "Shadow Lord", so on the other hand it was just natural for her to be there...

"You?!? What are you doing here?" Triin started with a somewhat irritated tone, being slightly embarrassed to be caught while having some fun in the shadows like that. "Are you spying on me? Didn't you learn your lesson last time?"

"Heh...", GASTER would smirk under her mask, happy to have given Triin a scare by her actions.

"Me? I am a creature of darkness! I heal myself in shadowness of the architecture in this world...and it turns out you have damaged my body a lot more than I thought at first! To the point where I might have to retreat to my dimension for a little while...

...and it just would happen that just as I healed myself - you, the creator of my misery, were skulking in my shadows! You will pay for hurting and embarrassing me! I want a rematch as soon as possible, especially if I am to go to my dimension to heal!!!", she would loudly proclaim in the corridors of the AFW Complex, completely forgetting about her possible injury that might keep her from the ring...

As Triin had guessed, GASTER's answer to her question began by detailing various aspects that were naturally included in the life of a "Shadow Lord". While she found her words somewhat unsurprising and unimpressive, she had to also commend GASTER's determination to live up to her character. Triin cherished her own role as a knightess, and she apprciated others immersing in their own. And as she was listening to them, it was almost as if she could totally buy GASTER's words of being from another dimension...

Then, the masked girl's words of damage raised her eyebrows a bit. Had she actually injured her in the match? That was never the knightess'es goal, no matter how evil the opponent was. But then, GASTER started talking about a re-match, which Triin took as a sign that she could not have actually been seriously hurt. If anything, she was asking Triin to inflict more misery on her...or laying down more law on her, as the knightess preferred to put it. And sure enough, Triin was all ready for a re-match! Securing another win on GASTER's expense could not hurt her record after all...

"So, you want a re-match? You want another lesson from the mighty knightess? Fine, if that is what you desire, I'm ready to face you as soon as possible! I have to admit, I made one mistake last time, that I'd like to fix... And that mistake was not to cuff you and put you in collar and chains in the end, like you would have belonged!"

As Clara got fired up from seeing her rival in the hallways, she almost completely forgot the 1 in a million chance that the doctors could find something wrong with her neck, that might've put her on the shelf for a while...if not for ever...

Still, she herself was sure she was ok, and she wanted to beat Triin after the Knightess humiliated her with a boot on her chest, an image she saw quite a bit on social media after her defeat.

The match type the knightess offered was interesting. She got from her words that she wanted her in a handcuffs match.

...and Clara would nod, but add one more stipulation to the fact:

"Very well, Knightess! I would love to bring you to my domain of horrors in cuffs and chains!...but I also want to add 2 more rules to the contest:

One, I don't want you running away in the middle of the contest, so I demand that we fight in a steel cage!

Second, I am still very mad with anger at you for humiliating me how you did...as such, I want a privilege to say that I held my humiliator captive! I want to take you as a prisoner of this war!"

The first reason had more to do with the fact that, de facto - a handcuffs match had no-DQs. She wouldn't know how desperate Triin would get, so she would rather cut the Knightess's route to weapons off completely, especially since she herself wouldn't stoop to that, even in a no-dq contest.

As per the POW rule? Same reason as explained. A Shadow Lord taking a knightess captive would be the perfect price for humiliating her like Triin did...

So, the cuffs and chains? Frankly, Triin had almost regretted not using them the last time. She was actually quite proud of her performance in their previous encounter in the ring! It had been Triin's debut, and she had endured her way through many of GASTER's tormenting holds. All the way to a triumphant victory, which was sealed with a mighty victory pose over her devious opponent! Only thing that she considered now afterwards to had been left missing was the righteous knightess taking the Shadow Lord her captive - namely putting the villainess in cuffs and chains before walking her off the arena. That would have perfected the show.

Interestingly, GASTER was all too eager to accept that condition. In fact, she was even eager to make their match an outright POW match! Apparently she had also fantasies of getting Triin an captive of her own, and was confident that she could really achieve that.

If she really wanted that, Triin had absolutely no reason to not take up the challenge. She had been the one taking the win in their previous encounter, and there was absolutely no reason for Triin to believe that she couldn't repeat her triumphant victory this time.

There was only one thing Triin was not that sure of. A steel cage? While Triin had no definite and crystal-clear idea on how it would be like, it did sound somewhat dangerous to her. Something that could potentially be right up the Shadow Lord's alley...

But was Triin a coward? Never. She was a valiant knightess! Besides, she did like to wrestle in various different kind of places, and a steel cage could definitely be something to try out.

"Well, OK, one, I'm not sure how horrible your "domain of horros" can actually be, but I can assure you that neither are the places where knightesses take their captives cushioned or equipped with sofas... So rest assured, I'm not afraid!

Two, if you really think that I'm the kind of opponent who would run away in the middle of a match, you're terribly mistaken. And in that case, you should probably think about challenging me to a re-match one more time just for the sake of your own skin...

And three, we knightesses don't humiliate anyone any more than they themselves beg for, and as you seem to be longing for some privileges you'll never be getting, don't start crying when you become another prisoner of the Baltic Knightess, OK?"

On Triin's scale, that was already one lengthy speech, but this whole situation was really getting her adrenaline going...

Much like Triin, Clara was talking with her rival while adrenaline pumped through her blood. The lasting image of Triin's foot on her back burned deep in her mind. She wanted to avenge that loss by any means necessary, even ignoring a possible injury to do so.

Her heart was racing as Triin accepted the terms of the match, GASTER nodding at all 3 of her points:

"You say that...and yet I hear voices in this dimension telling how dominant you looked when you defeated me. Well, never again! This is ending with you locked in collars and cuffs and chains! And no takebacks when I win! I am taking you to my Shadow Domain of Horrors!"

"So. Do we have a deal for our battle?", GASTER would outstretch her arm, pumped up for another match against her rival.

As Triin had been speaking, she had been watching down right towards GASTER's mask. And between her nods, the existence of the mask had also raised her curiosity. Sure, it was a cool gimmick, and a natural one for a place like this. But she would have been extremely interested to see the person behind it too...

But then, GASTER's reminiscing of the Estonian's dominance had caught her attention. And it was difficult to hide the satisfaction it was bringing to her face... In the heat of the moment Triin had not really even thought how cool she had looked when she had done her victory pose, and the thought of it was making her proud now. And she definitely wanted to replicate that moment of a triumphant knightess having slayed down the Shadow Lord again!

As GASTER stretched her arm out, Triin was promptly doing the same, shaking the hand of her rival. She was absolutely ready to have another match against her. "Deal. Tomorrow night it is, then? And you better not start crying when I'll finally unmask you then..." the Estonian added, hoping to spice up her threats and increase the tension still just a bit.

"Yes, tomorrow is fine. Take solace in the land of dreams one last time, Knightess. After I am done with you, it will never be so sweet that you would dream of beating me...", GASTER would finish, as she released her grip from the handshake, brushed her shoulder on Triin's, and made her way towards the elevator.

Since the doctors didn't find anything, she was still clear to wrestle, so she was good to fight the Knightess and avenge herself tomorrow night!