Challenge of the Black Fang!

It had been a simple thing, really. All the Black Fang wanted to do was come out and issue a little challenge, set herself up with a match, build a little hype. It had been a while since her last bout with ‘Sien Tiest’ - if you could even call it a match, really. It wasn’t the most competitive bout, with her friend, AJ Shay, playing a supervillain for her to take on. But it was fun. It was damn fun. It was probably the most fun the Black Fang had ever had between the ropes, and her only regret was that she couldn’t drop the secret identity and thank her friend for it properly. Rules were rules.

But now she needed a real opponent, a real challenge to held pad out that WLD ratio, and an open challenge was a good way to get that started. So she came out, walked down to the ring, and that was when she heard the strangest thing.

”FANG! FANG! FANG!”

She was standing in the ring, kind of dumbfounded as the audience cheered her name. She knew her match with AJ Shay had been a popular one, but had it really drawn that much attention. She was still a fairly small name in the company. Didn’t have a title. Hadn’t even challenged for one, and was no household name. And yet, here she was, with a very vocal segment of the crowd behind her.

”Heh.” She bit her lip to keep a goofy smile from forming. ”Thanks, AJ.”

Okay. Deep breath. Here goes.

”Well!” She boomed into the microphone, giving it all her bass. ”You all seem excited tonight. It’s almost like you know where this is going and what to expect. Convenient. But, just in case there’s any confusion…”

She spun about and pointed towards the backstage, boldly thrusting her finger out. ”I am the Black Fang! The shadow that stalks in the night, the cold chill that creeps along the spine of all who think the night can hide their evil deeds. I am the AFW’s protector, its defender, and as such, I pledge my time to hunting down all those who would besmirch the holy name of wrestling!”

The crowd cheered along, way more into all of this than she could’ve possible hoped for.

”Now,” She swept her hand out as the audience quieted enough to hand on her words. ”Most often, I am the huntress. I seek out evil, going into the dark dredges, rooting out the weeds wherever I find them. But today, I feel like trying something just a little different - to those who wish to have their way with the AFW, I issue a challenge - come to me before I come to you. Meet me in this ring, show me what you're made of, try to stake your claim. This is your one and only chance to deal with a problem that’s going to eventually deal with you!”

The crowd - most of them, anyway, some of the less playful ones weren’t getting into it - went into a muttering frenzy, curious to see which of AFW’s many twisted villains would answer the call. The Black Fang just stood there with her arms crossed and her foot tapping, but on the inside, she was just as giddy as anyone. Both to see what her little challenge would dig up, and hoping that AJ was watching, so she could see the fruits of their match and enjoy the show.

The First Day.

It was the first day since Miranda and her “assistants” had joined the AFW’s Friction division. Their first day of picking out lockers in the locker room, free from the constant tours of room after room, facility after facility. The first day of planning how to worm a criminal organization into a company already wrought with its own corruption, as it had its own, the ease of Miranda and her cohort’s employment spoke volumes of that.

Each one of the trio had committed a number of crimes in the past, weather it was thievery, assault, arson, tampering with evidence, illegal substance production, it all meant the same thing to them. Hardly ever were they caught for their crimes, but they all still had records. Records that would have likely made a decent job in a respectable wrestling league impossible. That did not matter, they were hired, and that was all they needed, to get in.

Miranda had just finished setting her equipment in her locker. There were spare pieces to her costume, spare breathing masks, even a few personal books to read should she ever get bored. Her subordinates, Kristy and Bridgette, had finished cramming their stuff in their lockers long ago, not caring about organizing their stuff just yet. Apparently, Kristy was far more concerned with “glamorizing” her locker, filling it with photos of her and Bridgette and other frilly nonsense while Bridgette simply watched the television provided in the locker room.

Overall, the idea of moving into an operation like this didn’t strike Miranda as impossible, she already was a step ahead of most simply by having help. Kristy was enough of a people person to negotiate anything they needed, and Bridgette had enough muscle beat anything they needed out of someone should negotiations fail. Miranda had her tools, now she needed to wield them properly.

Just as she began to think of what her first steps should be, Bridgette began to speak up, eyes still on the television set,

“Hey Kristy! Check this out, we got a real life super hero in this place!”

The smaller woman walked over, leaning over the large shoulders of her friend, nail file in hand as she passively watched the woman on the television, announcing her name as Black Fang.

“Black Fang? Doesn’t that sound more like a villain’s name? Oh, and she wears a mask? You know that means she’s ugly. Anyone who is too shy to show off their face is almost always ugly, its almost a proven fact!”

Miranda stepped in close, watching the television from Bridgette’s other shoulder, the breathing mask on her face making Kristy’s previous comment awkward.

“B-but like I said, not everyone! You’re a good example Miran-“

“Quiet.” The ice-cold tone shut the energetic red head down completely.

Miranda was listening intently to what the woman who called herself Black Fang called a challenge. Apparently, she wanted to face some villains in the AFW, ordering them to just try and stake their claim in her ring. A plan had formulated in her head, and she soon straightened up, tightening the straps to her mask.

“Kristy, Bridgette, opportunity has knocked on our door step. It would be illogical to keep it waiting. Come with me…”

--

As Black Fang waited patiently in the ring, the overhead lights would flicker slightly, then begin to dim. Once the crowd had began to quite down, a slow, rhythmic piano began to play over the speakers. It cold, sad beauty rang low amongst the crowd. It was Clair De Lune , and as it played, smoke slowly faded in, along with three characters.

The first to step out of the fog was Miranda Blair, her attire giving a good hint as to what side of good and evil she was on. Her Scarlet eyes looked out towards the woman in the center of the ring as her companions exited the fog, each with a fairly nasty expression on their face. With a quick motion, Kristy handed Miranda a microphone, the breathing mask slightly distorting her voice as she spoke,

“Black Fang,” Miranda began, “We have heard your terms, and accept your challenge. If what you say is true, and you are really this federations protector, it would be foolish to let you run about when it would be all the more easier to simply stop you at square one.”

The trio began to walk towards the ring, Bridgette cracking her knuckles, while Kristy split off, going around the side.

“My Name Is Miranda, and I hide behind no pseudonym. I will be your opponent tonight, and we will stake our claim in this ring for all to see. If you really think otherwise,” She paused, jumping into the ring, “Then you are being illogical.”

This would prove to be an exciting First day after all.