“What was all that?!”
A calm, cool, and collected Nova flicks her gaze at Tanner as he glares at her. She keeps her steady pace on the treadmill up, her face betraying nothing, never missing a beat as she responds back to him. “What was what?”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about.” he grinds out, planting a hand on his hip as he stares at her. “You attacking Casie after your match. Then taking out the damn officials and anyone else who got in there. What the hell were you thinking Nova?”
“I was thinking that I was making a statement.” a vague smile flits its way across her face before disappearing, her serious demeanor returning once more. “And I do believe that the message has been received.”
“What was the message? I want to be fined out my ass?” he explodes, exasperated with her. “Because you are going to be really lucky if you get away without a hefty one coming your way!”
“I don’t care.” she gives a negligent shrug as she slows her pace, eventually coming to a stop and stepping off the machine. “The message is, I will do anything it takes to get what I want.”
“You already won.”
“So?”
“You already won!”
Nova laughs, a scornful sound as she grabs a towel, mopping her brow lightly. “Now people know better than to mess with me. They will pay for it in whatever way I see fit. Casie mouthed off, she doubted me. She said a lot of things that she needed to pay for. I extracted some vengeance for it. Simple as that. I am not someone to be trifled with.”
“You do that in the RING, Nova! You already had, racking up the wins. You were showing that you had the talent. You won the top belt for fuck’s sake! It makes no sense that you would attack...”
“Let me get one thing very, very clear for you...” Nova steps forward, shutting the trainer up as he watches her. “I am not there to make friends. I don’t care about a single human being on that roster. I am there to accomplish what I want, and that’s it. People get in my way, they speak against me, they try and stick their damn nose in my business... they are going to get the same damn treatment that Casie did. The nice Nova is gone...”
“There was a nice one?”
“...and if people don’t like my new attitude, they can take it up with me in the ring. They will learn really fast that the Era of Nova can be cruel if you make a misstep.”
“You’re starting to sound a lot like that crazy wrestler from the XWF from awhile back.”
Nova frowns slightly, staring off into the distance as her mind races back in time.
____________________________________________________________________________
“I got a surprise for you Nova.”
Nova looks up from the stretches she was doing, into the grinning face of her trainer. “For me?” she inquires, accepting his outstretched hand and climbing to her feet. He nods at her as she dusts herself off, her brows going up expectantly. “I hope you have no plans tonight.”
“I don’t... why?” she questions.
He reaches into his back pocket, and pulls out two tickets, which he presents to her with flourish. She peers at them, her hand moving slowly forward until she spies what is written on them. “Leap of Faith?” she shrieks, snatching them out of his grasp, quicker than lightning. She stares at them, eyes rounded, she looks up at him, then back down at the tickets. “How did you get these?!”
“I have connections in the business of course. Now hurry up, and get ready. We have to get to Moon!”
And they had. She had fairly vibrated in her seat as they waited for the show to begin. “I can’t believe you did this for me!”
“You are almost ready, figured it had been awhile since you had seen what it was all about. Give you a little motivation to work even harder.”
She had not had a chance to answer, music exploding through the loudspeakers, and the lights changing colors and starting to strobe. From the start she was enthralled, just as much as she had been as a little girl, sitting on the couch with her family watching everything on the television. Just as she had when her father had surprised her with tickets to another big fed when she was a teenager. Just like she had when they had all attended the local indy shows. It thrummed through her blood, pulsing in tune with her heartbeat, the fine hairs on her arms standing on end with expectation. She screamed until her voice went hoarse.
And then had come the cage match.
Not one, but two cages dropped over the ring.
The lights went black, and the howl of a wolf echoed throughout the arena, causing a chill to streak up her spine. Music hits as red and lime green pyros shoot off and she steps through the swirling mist. A condescending firmly planted on her face as she strolls down the ramp, her eyes skipping from one person in the crowd to the next before focusing on the cages. She is let into both, and it is locked. A hush falls over all those assembled... Until a wild cheer is set up, seeing her opponent already scaling the wall of the inner cage, flying off with a crossbody before the bell was even rung.
The no rules match was brutal, the hatred from him for the sapphire haired woman palpable. It was more a war than an actual wrestling match, each one wanting to hurt the other. He sunk his teeth deep into her shoulder, blood starting to pour from the wound. They drove each other into the unforgiving steel of the cages. Moves calculated and delivered with force, neither trying to escape the cages to win, just focused on each other and putting them down, for good.
Eventually, they had ended up in between the two rings, where he produced a blowtorch going after her, but some crafty moves keeps her out of his grasp. She follows that up with bringing a chair into play, punishing him for what he tried to do. Her partner, a large man called Marf had appeared using bolt cutters to make a hole in the cage to set her free, and win the match.
He had rallied though, and slammed the steel steps into her head, going after Marf and jamming his hand through the hole, directly into the mouth of her partner, ignoring how the cut chainlink tore through his flesh.
Then she had returned with the chair, the cracks sounding like gunshots. He couldn’t get his arm free, and was knocked out, hanging by his arm as her partner moves down and starts cutting once again. She had stared at her opponent, and bypassed the chance to just win. Instead, she had turned away from victory.
And then she had picked up a container of gasoline and poured it all over him.
Nova held her breath, her eyes wide as she watches the other woman go and pick up the fallen blowtorch, lighting it up and strolling back to where the man lay prone in his own blood, still dangling from the cage. She wouldn’t...
She did.
She dropped the flame down, fire engulfing the man as he writhed.
She turns her back and steps through the hole made by Marf and the bell rings. Officials rush the ring area, attending the man burning alive. Nova was horrified, thrilled, and sickened all at once. She drags her eyes away from the carnage of the man burning alive and desperate attempts at rescue going on, to look at the top of the ramp where she stands, covered in blood, the X-treme title belt that she had won dangling from her hand.
With a smirk, Lycana raises it high in the air.
____________________________________________________________________________
“Whatever it takes.” she mumbles under her breath, her mantra, given to her, and now fully embraced.
“What?” he stares at her, perplexed.
She drags her gaze back to him, shaking her head to clear the memory from her mind. He probably had intended that to be some sort of dig at her, but it wasn’t. Not in Nova’s mind. To be compared to someone that had a big impact on her, in a single night, was more a compliment than anything else. Now anyway. She had tried to remain what everyone expected her to be. Every single person seeming to want her to remain this happy go lucky, think positive, play by the rules being... albeit one who was a tad on the brash and cocky side. That was something she could never suppress.
But why?
Why be that when one could be so much more by embracing the blackness that resided in their soul?
Why pretend to be something she was not?
She had for so many years, the little outbursts bubbling over like a boiling pot that wasn’t watched when it all got too much to keep a lid on. It should have shown her long ago that it wasn’t the way. Not for her. She had a quick temper, and she had spent so much time trying to keep a tight rein on it, when she should have just embraced it, harnessed it, and released it this whole damn time. It had been seen in her, back then, even when she couldn’t see it herself.
“Whatever it takes.” she repeats, falling back in time once more.
____________________________________________________________________________
“I have one more surprise for you.”
“There's more?”
She didn’t think it could get better, after attending the amazing pay per view. They were climbing up the steps, after it was all over. He nods, but doesn’t respond, simply talking in low, muted tones to one of the staff standing guard, herding the crowds in the right direction. She followed obediently behind as they were pointed in first one direction, then the other, until finally entering a large room filled with people milling about.
Nova stops dead in the doorway.
A soft, strangled noise escapes from her and she flushes as a few curious faces turn her way.
A meet and greet. A few lucky fans mingling with a couple of the wrestlers, taking pictures and speaking to them. Autographs were being signed. Tanner gives her a nudge and she steps in, her feet uncertain, not sure where to go first. “Go on, I’ll be back.” he tells her, trotting off in the direction of someone who looked pretty damn important, clad in a suit. Suave. Wealthy. All business. Nova watches him go, then surveys the room.
She didn’t have the balls to approach anyone.
She creeps towards the back of the room, pressing her back against the wall, watching and half hoping she wouldn’t be noticed, half hoping she would be. She was never really this shy, she didn’t know why she had a sudden case of cold feet. This was her dream. This was her chance to pick the brain of people who were doing the exact thing she wanted to do, and she was blowing it by hiding in the corner.
“I expected different.”
The voice floats from the shadows, making Nova jump. Her head whips towards the darkened area, eyes narrowing as she struggles to see the vague shape that she had either missed, or had mysteriously appeared at some point. “Huh?” she responds, eloquently, to the disembodied voice. A low chuckle comes, and then movement. A shadow detaches itself from the others, emerging slowly into the light.
Her.
Long, bright blue hair. Gray eyes. Pale skin decorated with multiple tattoos. And a look of pure scorn.
“When I was summoned to partake in this...” Lycana looks around the room, her lip curling with derision. “Ah... event, to speak with you, I expected something a little more... worth my time.”
“You don’t seem like you'd attend this sort of thing.” Nova says, dumbly, the first thing popping into her head coming right out her mouth.
“I don’t.” she lets her eyes roam over Nova, before her gaze collides with hers. Emotionless gray eyes, both the color and temperature of the sky during a winter storm pinning her to her spot. “However, I was promised this would be something I would be interested in. So far, that has been proven wrong. Your trainer seemed to think you were watching me, and that I could bring something out of you.”
“Tanner?”
“If that is his name. Tell him that he is sadly mistaken. You will never amount to anything.”
“Excuse me?!”
Nova stiffens, her hands balling into fists at her side as the words slam into her with the force of bullets. Red hot anger rears its ugly head inside the pit of her stomach, as she tries to keep control. How dare she?! How dare this woman look at her and pass judgement on her? Who the hell did she think she was to tell her that she wasn’t going amount to anything? Her face flushes with heat as she vibrates, trying to keep a tenuous hold on her anger.
“Interesting...”
Completely unfazed, Lycana taps a fingernail against her lower lip while watching Nova at war with herself.
“Interesting?” Nova gasps out on a snarl. All she gets in response is a mildly quirked eyebrow from the sapphire haired woman.
“One cannot muzzle a wolf and call it a sheep, my dear. Why do you try and hide that part of you?”
“I...I...” Nova stammers. Lycana waves a hand in the air, trying to encourage her to just spit it out. “I don’t know. I always got into trouble for my short temper, and I did some pretty dumb things when I couldn’t control it.”
“Like what?”
“I hurt people.”
A gleeful little laugh, like the tinkling of a windchime greets this statement. “Isn't that the point?” her eyes sparkling, Lycana leans forward as she continues. “I stand by my earlier statement. You will not amount to anything... unless you let that little piece of blackness in your soul free. Let me tell you something little girl... Whatever it takes. That is what I live by. I go out there, and I do whatever it takes to get my point across, and I don’t mind maiming, breaking, or sending someone to the hospital to do so. Without that little piece of you, you will just be another pretty face in the crowd, unwilling to embrace the part of her that makes her unique. You will spend all your time trying to control it. Trying to erase a part of you that is as natural as breathing. You will eventually allow it to control your morals and you will be screwed over because of it. And it will be your own damn fault.”
Lycana paces slowly around Nova in a circle, like a predator stalking its prey.
“You let that quick anger free, and you might be a force to be reckoned with in time. You show them that you mean business, and that you will not hold back. That you have no soft side there to save them. And you will be feared.”
“I don’t want to be feared!”
“You will. It is much better to be feared, than coddled and used. You will learn such in time.”
“You’re wrong!”
“If you say so. Maybe you will look back on this, and realize that I was right, and my words will not have been wasted breath.” She tilts her head. “Perhaps not, and you will be doomed to be a nothing.”
With a shrug, Lycana tosses her hair and sails through the crowd and out the door.
____________________________________________________________________________
“Whatever it takes Tanner.” Nova tilts her chin up. “I will do whatever it takes in this business, especially now. I have the Ice Crown Tourney. If you don’t like it, that is too damn bad.”
“You’re being stupid Nova!”
She shrugs and turns away, ignoring him until he leaves, mumbling under his breath about her stubbornness. He was wrong. Lycana had been right all along. She had been pushing it down and pushing it down for far too long. She had not been a failure, but she had often felt herself wavering, almost not jumping in for a move, the sense of fairness at war in her head and heart. She had tried to push the words of others aside. The remarks that trickled her way through the grapevine. No longer. She had tasted the rich, inky, blackness of her own anger and reveled in it. The sound of that belt slamming into the skull of Casie had been divine. Ripping each little piece of her to shreds with a venomous tongue... Nova shivers. It was good to be bad, and she had learned that simply by talking to one of the best at it. And now with the tournament coming up...
Maybe it was time to pay another visit to the Dark Vixen of Violence.
____________________________________________________________________________
“Ah, the dawning of a new day.
With Nova Skye heading the IIW as it’s champion, after taking that setting sun and smashing it down over the head of poor, poor Casie.
Or perhaps that was just the lights shimmering off all that gold in my hand. Ha!
I warned you that it would happen. I spelled it all out for you leading up to the match, the fact that you didn’t deserve that belt. I had thought, for the briefest of moments that my words might cut what little heart you had for the sport right out of your body, making you slink off never to be seen again. But it seems they might have had the opposite effect. My goading and prodding may have actually fanned your tiny little smolder into a spark! Like the flame on the tip of a match! Nothing too impressive, but a step up all the same. You actually put some effort into trying to retain, likely your best performance that you have ever put on in your entire life.
All because of me.
You’re welcome!
Alas, it still was not enough from you and I emerged with my due... not that that was ever in question. It was a forgone conclusion that I would be a champion and it happening so soon simply cements just how damn good I am.
Oh yes... cocky, egomaniacal, presumptuous and lofty Nova Skye backs up all the shit she slings.
Something that everyone learns, sooner or later.
I’ve already started my beautiful list of names within the First Class sector of the IIW, so why not branch out a little bit and start testing the waters of what other places have to offer, right? It seems like a fun thing to do, see what other talents are out there to try my boundaries with. To teach them that the Era of Nova is not merely confined to one single federation, that it is possible for it to eclipse everyone, from everywhere should I ever choose to do so.
So, when the offer of this little Ice Crown tournament came sliding in front of my vision, you had better believe it captured my interest.
Sixteen people walk in, and only one walks back out after four rounds with the crown glittering on top of their head? Oh yes baby, I was all in. Looking at all the different names, those hungry for what a good showing in this event could mean for them. The ones who know they have no chance, but are risking it all for that against the odds moment, the ones who will be forgotten among the middle of the pack after advancing once... and then those who are at the top of their game. The alpha wolves all eyeing the rest, ridges raised upon their back as they assess the threat to their thrones.
Those are the ones I wish to play with the most.
Some names familiar to me, some are pure strangers. Faceless folk who I will be aiming to put directly into their graves at the conclusion of this. Many of my own are settled within the ranks, ones that I have long studied in my time in IIW, learning who would be the ones likely to pin my shoulders to the mat. I know them. They are prey to me. Habits known, and a typical hunt.
But those I don’t?
I must admit, there is a lure there.
An unfamiliar scent wafting on the wind that makes one's mouth water, drawing you in like a moth to the flame to see what all the fuss is about. I do love playing with new toys... it's not my fault if sometimes I break them beyond repair.
The sad part about this is, so many will go about their business, untouched by my hands, never knowing what could have been. Not allowing me chance to grind their hopes and dreams into the dirt where they belong. A true travesty that they be allowed to go off on their merry way without getting destroyed, and tasting what it's like to be in the ring with a real star. And they will never know how lucky they are.
A pity.
But for four of those names...
They will get to experience true understanding, what it is really like to lose. Not only a match, but your dignity, your spark, and your drive. The weak, too kind minded ones will get their hearts ripped from their chest by me, to hold in my hand, and squeeze until it bursts into a gory mess of shreds. Pathetic little weaklings that have no business being in the ring in the first place. This business is not one for those who are soft. You either harden up and thrive, or fall flat and quit. There can be no shades of gray.
But for those who are of a like mind, like me... those who embrace an obsidian part of them, well... I can only say I look forward to the war. You are the ones I am really in this for... as long as you truly are one with your not so sweet side. Far too many sheep play at donning the pelt of a predator, and pass themselves off as one until it is ripped from them and they are exposed, rolling over to show their soft underbelly... too late to stop the slashing fangs that come for them. Because mercy is for the weak.
Isn't that right Alessia?
You are one of those that fall into the latter category, and that fact in itself pleased me when I saw the pairing for the round one bouts. You are at peace with who you are, not trying to be the angel, the loving, meek little woman that the world might want you to be. Not settling within the confines of the box that some might want to place you inside and seal it up. You like to hurt people, you live for brutality, and you are not afraid to announce that to the world.
Delicious.
I’m very much into you bringing that to our match... I’ve learned recently that I like a little bit of the savageness myself and I have yet to go against someone who even had half the mettle I did, nevermind one who was of a like mind with what they consider to be fun between the ropes. I suppose poor Bellatrix was the closest, but we all saw what happened to her! That dark fire fizzled into a puff of smoke, drowned completely when I tossed her ass overboard and into the sea... never to be seen again.
Shall the same thing happen to you, my dearest Al?
May I call you Al?
I'm gonna call you Al.
Are you going to talk real dark and evil at me, only to swallow your damn tongue when you get in that ring? Or are you going to bring it there too, but cutting and running with your tail tucked firmly between your legs when you get trounced like the bitch you are? Or will you be a refreshing surprise, standing yourself back up after seeing stars, and going on to tear the throat out of someone else, just to show that you aren't the pushover I made you look like you were?
Please be that one, darling. I don’t know if I can stand any more of the other sort.
We need something more than yawn inducing, insipid fools adorning the roster.
I would have imagined, that perhaps one day we could have backed each other, being birds of a feather and all that nonsense but you had to go and do something extremely foolish awhile back, didn’t you?
Mmmmm, my big bad bitch of a woman... made a silly little error in judgement when she attacked Nova Skye.
So perhaps while you might be vicious, and immoral enough to even turn my head... You aren't the brightest crayon in the box, are you?
Nah, if you were you might have seen what lurked under the rather stunning looking exterior, if I do say so myself. You would have observed the raw talent. You would have understood that this was someone, who was not to be fucked with... and yet, you went and did it anyway.
I suppose that single brain cell of yours did allow you to make the bold move of coming for me AFTER I had been through a battle royale. Not nice and fresh. But you made your mark on me there Al, and not in the way you had hoped. I’m going to assume you wanted to impress people, to make some of the roster cower in fear of you.
With me, you accomplished neither.
What you did, was paint a big ol’ bright red target dead center of your forehead for me to aim towards.
A kill shot.
And I have been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Like I said, I have to teach you a bit of a lesson, get my vengeance and retribution on you. Make an example of you should any others get the notion in their head that I would allow such a deed to go unpunished. I can't have people thinking that I would offer forgiveness or have a soft spot in me anywhere, now can I? Of course not! So I cannot say this isn't personal darling, it is... very much so. You selected the wrong person to try and make a spectacle of... you were looking for the meek, lily hearted sheep that bleat around the back in damn flocks... Instead, you laid hands on the one who would turn and sink fangs into your jugular without a second though. Predator versus predator.
If I was willing to do what I did to Casie, and all those other idiots that came charging to her rescue... what do you think that I am going to do to you?
With any luck you will enjoy receiving as much as you do giving... in which case, we both win in a way, huh?
You get your ass handed to you on a gilded platter, and I get both my revenge, and to stroll out of the match the victor!
That sounds just peachy to me Al.
If it doesn’t to you... well that’s just too damn bad, because that’s the writing on the wall.
The only thing you have to look forward to, is possibly being the most fun I ever faced. That’s assuming you don’t end up just another disappointment of course.
Please don’t disappoint me, Al!
I want you to be the unholy and depraved degenerate you portray yourself to be. I don’t want that to be a veil like so many wrap around themselves, cloaking their true mediocre pathetic weakness. I want you to want to hurt me. Because I am looking to do the same. Blood should be spilled, and we can decorate the ring with glorious red blooms, like rose petals strewn about in the glory of our performance! This dance we will be engaging in, one for the ages. One that people talk about for ages to come as one that was unhinged, neither caring a single whit for the safety of the other or themselves, just looking to punish and obliterate the other...
All culminating in you with your back pressed firmly against the mat, as I slide over you and whisper sweet nothings in your ear as your journey within the tournament comes to an end.
There will be no other way this goes dollface.
After, well I suppose that can be your choice. You can mark me as your enemy once more... or you can do the smart thing and allow me to continue on my way, my path of massacring those who get in my way without painting yet another target on yourself.
Consider that a tiny little olive branch held in your direction...
Because if you fuck with me more Alessia, I have no problem doubling down and making it my goal to ruin your very existence, and to put you out altogether.
Do. Not. Try. Me.
It will be the very last thing you ever do.”
