A Mask To Hide Your Face

Cassie was pissed. She was unsmiling as she strode down the ramp, passing by fans who were both enthusiastic and a little confused. She was a little confused, too. She wasn't herself, and it showed. She climbed up into the ring and took up a place at the center.

In her street clothes, a t-shirt and jeans and a knit hat over her short orange hair, she normally would have looked out of place. She was far too sweet and petite to fit in outside the Kawaii division. Today, she was a fighter. She had no real practice being like this, but she made up for her inexperience in other ways. She was pissed.

She got right to business. "Dark Angel, you absolutely suck," she announced loudly. The crowd gave a cheer and Cassie continued. "That girl with her stupid mask has made my life miserable. She's always after me, or my friends, or my manager. Well guess what, he's not my manager anymore!

"So now it's just Dark Angel and me. And I know I said a lot of things before about how I want to help the person behind that mask, because she obviously needs it, but... I think I've kinda changed my mind. As long as that stupid mask is on her face...

"Dark Angel, I know you're around here somewhere. You always are.

"I'm going to beat you, and I'm not going to be nice about it. I already tried that. With you, and with everyone, and people got hurt. The wrong people. This time the only one getting hurt will be you, and afterward I'm going to do you a favor and break your stupid mask in half.

"You're not even doing it right, anyway!" She raised her voice, and she was nearly shouting. "People wear masks so that people can't see their faces. You wear a mask so people will look at you. Really, we've probably all seen you before, but nobody cared about you then. I think you wear the mask so that people will think you're somebody, and that's really sad. You wear that mask so no one can know you, to cover up the fact that no one ever wanted to, and then you go home alone because no one wants you. Who would? The biggest thing you have going for you is a piece of plastic from the costume store. I'm going to take it away and show everyone who you really are. A coward, a cancer, and a loser."

Then Cassie was out of momentum, and the crowd was silent. She suddenly felt very awkward standing in the ring in front of everyone, like she couldn't possibly back up everything she said. That wasn't really her, after all, was it? She swallowed hard and moved on to her finale, and pointed up at the screen.

On it there appeared video clips from Dark Angel's matches. They showed her breaking the rules and ruthlessly abusing her opponents. Tatyina, who ended up in the hospital. Clyde, Drake, and Johnny Higurashi, who she could never have beaten if she fought fair. She watched as video of her own match appeared, and relived the moments when Dark Angel tortured her after she had already given up. She watched the masked girl bash Mamouru in the back of the head with a pipe and choke him unconscious with it outside the ring.

She was red and shaking by the time it was over. She slowly lifted the microphone back to her mouth, and in a low voice, quivering with anger, declared "I'm going to make you pay for every second of everything you've done."

After her almost entirely successful attack at Summer Splash, Dark Angel was feeling rather smug. There was no way Cassie could ignore her now. She was going to get her rematch, that was certain. But she hadn't expected Cassie to go as far as to walk into the ring and start a rant like that. Yes she was there. She always was. That was the only way she could guarantee getting the upperhand on people. This time, it was just casually in the dark backstage near the titantron. When Cassie started talking, Angel listened. Despite everything that had happened, Cassie had never trash-talked. At least not that Angel could remember. Even thinking that Cassie was just trying to rile her up didn't stop the brunette from biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. The threats were just threats. She didn't care about those. She still doubted Cassie was capable of carrying those out even after how much she had pushed her.

But the statements about her mask didn't bounce off. Every word made her fume with anger. They were words of truth, of course. But no one actually knew that. They had pretty good reason to suspect it but it was all just...uncalled for. Where did she get off saying such things? As the video of Angel's antics played, the masked girl herself emerged into the arena. She was wearing a simple gray hoodie over her mask and jeans. She hadn't planned for this, she kinda looked like Cassie. But she could work with this. There was no microphone in her hand, but she wouldn't need one. She didn't need to tell everyone. Just Cassie.

Angel casually strolled down the ramp and slid into the ring. She walked right up and into Cassie's face. Without even a blink, Angel stared from behind her mask right into Cassie's eyes. She wasn't sure what to say. Angel wanted to break Cassie's face in but that seemed a little inappropriate at this point. She didn't want to just solidify the orange-haired girl's claim of her pointlessly violent attitude on things. No. She had to be stoic for this one. "You're the one who tried to avoid this. And look what happened to that boytoy of yours. If you just faced me like you claimed you wanted to, I wouldn't have had to knock him around like that in the first place." At least she believed that part was true. "Though I'm glad it has finally brought the real you out." Angel took one deep breath in. "No more nice-Cass. The Cassie that hurts people. The Cassie that breaks people in half just because they disagree with her or are simply in the way. The real Cassie."

"Th-there's nothing in my way, now," Cassie said. She couldn't help stammering just a little, being face to face with that stupid idiot mask made her blood pump. She wasn't afraid, though. She was ready.

She tried to take a deep breath and settle down, but Dark Angel made her guffaw. "The real me?" She said incredulously. "What would you know about the real anything? Anyone who doesn't show their face when they're talking to someone should just shut up about being real."

She took a step back and looked up at the ceiling while she recalled her matches. "Let's see... Hitomi and the big weirdo I beat fair and square and everything was okay. I might've hurt Jocelyn in Hawaii, but I had to get rid of her fast, because of you! And... Well, I might've hurt my friend Talia once. But she was nuts! She was going after my best friend with a chair! She really wanted to hurt her, and anyone would've done the same thing!"

She hated having to look at that mask, and she hated the voice that came out of it. She hated the things it made her do, but she had to put a stop to it.

She scowled, and suddenly smacked her palm forcefully into the center of the mask, angling slightly upward to see if she could knock it off center, and to see how Angel's nose would feel about it. "You talk too much," she said, and walked past her on her way out of the ring.

Thankfully Cassie stopped mentioning the reason for Angel's mask. Otherwise, the brunette probably would've lost it. She wasn't exactly dressed for a brawl but it wouldn't matter if she was pushed hard enough. But then the orange-haired girl mentioned Talia. And how Talia was nuts. And how anyone would've done that in her shoes. Her blood boiled. She wanted so badly to break Cassie's pretty face. She found herself nearly hyperventilating. The whole time she was Dark Angel, her real name had never come up with anyone. Every person she ever targeted was someone who had wronged Talia. With the mask on, she felt like she was someone else avenging her old self. To hear something...negative said about her made her hand twitch.

Yet somehow, Angel didn't strike at Cassie. It may had been the hardest thing she had ever not done in her life. She hated Cassie at that moment. Oh so very much. But somehow she realized that she couldn't snap just yet. She didn't want Cassie to know who she was. Somehow that gave her enough willpower to hold herself back. At least for a few seconds. Cassie smacked her right in the mask. Angel took a few steps back in surprise. The hit wasn't really painful but it shocked her more than anything. By the time Angel readjusted her mask to the center of her face, Cassie was about to leave the ring. This time, her willpower didn't hold.

Angel reached out with both hands to grab Cassie by the back of her head. With one sharp pull, she tried to yank Cassie forcefully down to the mat by the hair.

"Iee!" Cassie let out a high pitched scream before crashing down onto the mat. She quickly rolled under the bottom rope and out of the ring before Dark Angel could get her hands on her.

She backed away from the ring, quickly at first but her pace slowed once she got a comfortable distance between her and the masked girl. She glared back at her and shook her head, but kept her mouth shut. There was nothing left to say.

As soon as she was out of sight, she started running. She wasn't even sure why, she just wanted to get away, far away, and as quickly as possible. She didn't want to see that stupid mask or the girl behind it again unless it was to beat her up. She didn't even want to think about her, but she knew that she would probably not think about anything else.

Angel leaned over the ropes and reached for Cassie as she retreated. She was furious and ready to brawl with the orange haired girl. All that held in anger and hatred was spilling over and Angel wasn't able to contain herself any longer. But the sight of Cassie running away partially calmed her. At least enough for her to calm down to the point that she just leaned over the ropes looking up the ramp at her enemy. She was breathing in and out heavily but managed not to show any other sign of emotion. She did what she always did and stared up at Cassie as she disappeared into the back.

Left alone in the ring, Angel continued to just stare up at where Cassie once was. She still remembered that day when Cassie came running down the ramp. Not to help her, but to hurt her. She thought attacking Taylor would make her pay attention to her. To ensure that Taylor didn't just brush her off. But that was a past thought to Angel. She really didn't care about Taylor anymore. Hell, she wasn't entirely sure why she ever did target the blue-haired champion from the start. It was the others that made her like this.

Cassie, Johnny, Akashi. All of them. They all casually brought Talia in when things were rough with Taylor. Then when everything got back to normal casually dumped her aside. Sure attacking Taylor was...misguided but if they really were her friends then they could've at least have talked about it afterward. But no. She was just...alone. And it made her realize she had probably always been alone. It made her feel horrible. Now the only thing she had to look forward to was making them feel just as bad. In her eyes, it couldn't get any more personal. Angel rolled under the ropes and walked up the ramp, not once looking away from the top of the ramp. It was personal.