"We have with us tonight a new commentator, ladies and gentleman, a Miss Lily Stark, welcome Lily!" Jerry Lawler said from the commentators table, gesturing to a lovely woman to his right. She looked to be in her early 20's, long brown hair cascading over her teal dress, a headset on her head as she smiled and waved to the camera.
"Thanks Jerry, always a pleasure to be here in good old Louisiana," Lily replied as she pushed on her earpiece a bit to adjust the level of reverb she got.
"I hear it that you don't do any drugs or alcohol either, Lily, is that true?" CM Punk asked, looking at her as if he'd never seen a female so close in real life before, a sparkle in his eyes that was all too male.
Lily looked over at him and nodded politely, though she turned away as soon as she was through acknowledging that she'd heard him. "Yes, that's true, though I don't quite make as big a deal of it as some," she said, a little smile on her lips as she and Jerry Lawler shared a silent snicker.
CM Punk's face suddenly went red and he scowled for a moment before adding rather childishly, "I also hear you're an ex-girlfriend of one of the wrestlers, care to share who the not-so-lucky guy was?" he asked, folding his arms over his chest and staring her down smugly, pleased to have gotten one.
Lawler looked at Lily quickly, astonished at what he had just heard, his face a portrait of surprise.
"You never told us that, Stark! You have to share now!"
Lily glared at CM Punk, her brown eyes searing him like a hunk of misshapen meat. However, she was a lady and simply tossed her hair over her should in a way that was certain to catch attention, and replied, "Husky Harris and I were high school sweethearts. As you can see, he is no longer my type." She emphasized her point by looking up to the stage where Wade Barret and the Nexus were closing in on the ring with John Cena in the middle.
"You're pathetic, Wade," Cena taunted into the microphone to the crooked-nosed Brit across the ring from him. "You and your dog and the chick from Wendy's and the guy from Fashionable Male!" The large blonde with his buzzed hair and square chin plucked at his purple shirt and shook his head to Wade Barret. "Can't fight without them, can hardly fight with them, you are the most laughable group in the ring!"
The crowd went wild, the whoops for Cena reaching the ceiling and reverberating back until there was a perpetual roar in the background, rising every time Cena challenged the Nexus and their foul leader.
The greased-back British guido, Wade Barret, had a sour expression on his face as if he were watching awful things happen, like friendship and kittens and Christmas. His hand came forward and he pointed a finger at John Cena and his purple shirt, holding that pose in his black and yellow uniform before speaking.
"The Nexus are a strong group of strong wrestlers, who, I might add, have trounced you more than once, more than twice, Cena." Wade's voice rose in volume until he was shouting into the microphone, his finger jabbing the air in front of him as his point became increasingly accusatory.
Boos bounced around the arena as Wade turned around with his arms outstretched, obviously asking his fellow Nexus members to come closer and instill fear with their power in numbers, the only real advantage the Nexus had.
On cue, Husky came up and hoisted himself onto the ring, leaning on the ropes as if he were ready to be tagged in. McGillicutty came up on the other side, Otunga on the far edge, Gabriel on the right, and finally Slater sat on the corner of the ring with his legs dangling over the side, all of them watching Cena with hungry looks like a bunch of obedient mongrels.
Just then, the microphones let out a shrill shriek and both John Cena and Wade Barret looked into their hands with confused and annoyed expressions. Cena took a step back to see if they needed to put distance between themselves but as soon as his foot planted behind him, the lights around the entire arena flickered once and then went out.
Total blackness fell upon them like a dark blanket and the crowd became panicked.
Jerry Lawler's voice was heard saying, "Ladies and gentleman, please…" before it disappeared, the power supply to his headpiece cutting out as suddenly as sharply as a slap to the face.
The noises in the darkness were uncomfortable. People shifting, small children crying, adults muttering to each other about what could possibly be happening. Was this a ploy by the Nexus and Wade Barret? Would the lights come on and Cena would be missing? In the audience there was no way to know that the wrestlers and the commentators were just as clueless as they were, or that this wasn't all part of the plot.
Just as the fears and murmurs were starting to reach their peak, a voice was heard coming from all the speakers.
An unknown voice.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I hate to intrude like this but you see, I have personal business to attend to here."
The voice was distinctly female and sounded somewhere between girlish and mature, though lined with an edge of grit that foretold of a determination that would not be diluted.
"Wade Barret, I believe you have someone who belongs with me, and I am here to take him back. No matter the cost, no matter the obstacles, I have come for my brother and I will not leave without him!" the voice shouted.
Just then, the sound came back on, just in time for the audience to hear Cena and Barret stop arguing at the voice's implication. If she was there to quarrel with Barret then the Brit couldn't be the force behind this ploy, but if not him then who? It was preposterous to think that one of the Nexus had a baby sister who was hellbent on bringing him back home, and CM Punk was the first to point this out, his voice a nice change from the angry girl's.
"Wade Barret and the Nexus, do any of you have a snot-nosed little sister who has come to bring you home to mommy?" he asked, every word dripping with sarcasm. Lawler was chuckling into his hand but Lily, who had up until this point, shown great poise, was suddenly slamming her fist on the table and laughing as loudly as a hyena, though had the lights been on, it would have been obvious that she had started laughing before CM Punk made his snide remark…
The voice was not through, however, and all went silent as the mystery woman continued her speech.
"I have only one question now… " and she went silent for dramatic affect. "Who will oppose me?" she asked, her voice a growl into the microphone, wherever it and she were.
The voice stopped talking but the sound of footsteps was heard as the voice went silent. Every passing moment drew her nearer, whoever and whatever she was, she had captured the attention of a many-thousand crowd as well as put Wade and Cena on their toes.
Step, step, step, step
And finally, the lights came back on. Everyone, from the audience members to the wrestlers to the cameramen was looking left and right, trying to find where the girl was. There was no sign of a stranger at any of the exits, none of the aisles had stray figures in them, and even the sound of her footsteps had disappeared which meant one of two things: she had turned her microphone off or had stopped moving entirely.
Lily Stark was still laughing, clutching her sides as if this impromptu gag were the single most hysterical thing that had ever happened to her. She brought her nicely manicured nails to her eyes to dab the water there and she inhaled deeply to steady herself, shaking a bit of curled hair from her fair face.
By this point, Lily's reaction had caught the attention of all the wrestlers in the ring, though Husky was pointedly ignoring her, though doing so rather poorly. He stole glances at her whenever he thought she wasn't looking, an act that the cameramen exploited perfectly.
John Cena, who looked bemused, scratched his head as he lifted his microphone and waited for Lily to realize that he was looking at her. When it became clear, Lily's eyes went wide for a moment and her mouth shut rather quickly, holding inside the last remnants of her giggles.
"Stark, is this your doing?" he questioned, giving her those eyes that demanded she not lie to him.
Lily shook her head, but the cat-ate-the-canary grin on her face indicated that she knew more than she was letting on, a fact easily detected by Jerry Lawler. He leaned on his elbows and looked over at her.
"Lily, do you know who it is?" he prodded with a smirk. His gut told him that she probably had an idea as to who was behind the stunt and he went with it, carefully studying the young woman's reactions to gauge whether or not he had hit his mark.
Wade Barrett, however, was much less subtle.
"She hasn't got any sort of power to pull the stupid ploy we just saw. I say it was you, Cena! Trying to distract me and the Nexus with some blasted little girl…"
WHACK!
As quickly as he had started speaking, Wade Barrett stopped as a shoe came flying at his head from somewhere below him, somewhere out of the ring. The black, leather soled projectile connected with the front of his face, blasting him right in the teeth. His expression for the fleeting instance when he was not glaring at everything, was one of cross-eyed astonishment as the shoe fell to the ring, between him and Cena. The other members of Nexus looked around to where the shoe could have come from but nobody saw anything.
John Cena stepped forward and picked up the shoe, holding it up so that he could see it.
"Size 7?" he asked incredulously, looking it over, the shoe appearing to be very small in his enormous mitt.
"Yeah, size seven, Cena," the voice said, only this time much closer…
The audience gasped.
There she was. Standing with a hand on her hip, one shoe missing, was the owner of the voice. If her bark had been any worse then the laughter that followed would have been a thousand times stronger, but the girl who stood before them all was not at all as big as her voice. She stood a measly 5'2 but was glaring down Wade Barrett as if he were the foulest thing she had ever laid eyes on. Her curly blonde hair was pulled back into a simple ponytail. Her attire was almost as ridiculous as she was, but somehow just as serious. There were kneepads over her black capris, elbow pads, and a white hoodie with a pair of ears on the hood, which she wore over her head so that she looked like a very angry kitten.
"What is she wearing?" Lawler asked; gesturing towards her with his palms up and shoulder shrugged in complete confusion. "Does she have war paint on?"
In a clean hop she made it to the outer ring and scurried through the ropes to enter, pushing by David Otunga with a stiff shoulder into his ribs. Once she was in the ring, she stood in front of Cena, making it appear very much so that they were a team about to go into battle, and folded her arms over her chest.
"I'm going to take one of your men, Wade," she stated matter-of-factly, her eyes dead set on her British opponent. "I'm taking back my brother, Husky Harris!"
It was at this point that the crowd went wild, some applauding, some jeering, others laughing, but most of them were whooping and hollering. The noise became deafening but the commentators, who had not forgotten about Lily's confession, were now hounding her for more information.
"Did you know about this?"
"That's Husky's kid sister?"
"Why does she want him back so badly?"
"Do you know that shrimp?"
"What does she think she's gonna do?"
Lily settled them down by pushing her palms towards them to try and get them to back off to let her tell her story, but the girl in the ring answered for herself.
"CM Punk, I know exactly what I'm going to do. I'm taking my brother home, away from this stupid Nexus club, and anyone who stands in my way is considered an opponent," she challenged, looking each of the Nexus in the eye, even Husky, who was clearly not intimidated by his sister.
Wade glared at his new adversary and chuckled derisively as she yanked the shoe from John Cena's hand and shoved it back on her foot with a few hops to keep herself upright. Behind her, Cena was leaning comfortably against the ropes, watching the scene unfold with the utmost interest.
"A little girl is going to oppose me? ME? Wade Barrett doesn't fight little girls but I'll make an exception for you, pipsqueak." His eyes turned suddenly very cold and he looked up to Husky, who seemed not to know what to do or what was expected from him. He kept looking from his sister to Lily Stark, and then back to Wade Barrett. There was a war taking place inside of him: he didn't want his little sister to embarrass him further, but if Wade was going to hurt her…
The blonde girl stomped her foot on the ground and stormed right up to Wade Barrett, scarcely coming to the middle of his chest, but she glowered up to him like she was 7 feet tall.
"My name is Heidi "Hellcat" Harris, and you won't even know what hit you, just like that shoe!" She reminded, driving her thumb into her chest as she spoke her name.
"Wait, wait, wait, wait," Jerry Lawler said, throwing up his palms to get everyone to slow down. "Heidi, you can't just show up to every match that involves the Nexus, you're not a part of the WWE…"
DOO DOO DOO, DOO DOO DOO
The crowd and the wrestlers went wild as the arena played the noise that everyone knew to herald a message from the GM.
Michael Cole put on his glasses and stood up, making his way to the podium on tremulous feet. Whatever was going on was surely going to be put to a stop now. This girl, while spirited, had no place interfering in matches in the WWE! She wasn't a professional! Was she even of age?
Heidi was standing indifferently in the middle of the ring, staring down her brother like a lion would a disobedient cub. However everyone else's attention, Heath Slater, David Otunga, Michael McGillicutty, Justin Gabriel, Wade Barrett, and John Cena's were all zeroed in on what the message could possibly be. It had to be about the intruding family warrior, telling her that she had no place in a competition like this where she was likely to get hurt.
Clearing his throat, Michael Cole opened the laptop and clicked on the message.
"I understand, Wade, that you have just had a challenge posed to you and all of your men. Though many would like to see her succeed, everyone knows that it is impossible for a wrestler to compete in matches unless they are an employee of WWE."
The audience booed loudly and Heidi, feeling as if they were on her side, grinned from ear to ear at the warm reception she was getting already amongst perfect strangers. Lily, who had been listening closely, just rolled her brown eyes and slumped in her chair to show disapproval.
Michael Cole went on.
"However, seeing as how you and the Nexus show up to fights at which you are not welcome, I shall allow Ms. Harris to do the same. Until she interrupts as many fights as you have, I will look the other way regarding her illegal WWE status."
Michael Cole then took his glasses off, shut the laptop, and returned to his seat.
The arena was silent for a split second and then everyone erupted into riotous applause and boos alike. The Nexus were scrambling into the ring now, pushing John Cena out of the way to get to Heidi, to strike her down before she had the chance to inflict any damage at all. She was just a kid, after all, not a professional like all of them…
Three Nexus collided headfirst and went down, leaving only Husky and Heath Slater to try anything on Heidi, who had jumped at the last moment, right over the heads of her pursuers. As the injured ones rolled on the ground, Heidi scrambled between Heath's legs and then used her height to her advantage. With a sharp elbow to the inside of Heath's knee, Hellcat Harris brought him down and then wrapped her arm around his head in a lock that was squeezing the air out bit by bit, a savage look of glee on her face as she took out her frustrations on one of the stupid buffoons her brother hung out with these days…
But before Heath was spent, Wade Barrett grabbed a hold of the small girl and ripped her off of his lapdog with a slight jerk of his arms, holding her up by the back of her hoodie so that her feet dangled off the floor, like a dog carrying her young. Heidi took a number of swings at Wade but his reach was longer and Heidi was unable to lay so much as a fingernail on him, though she did struggle terrifically to get closer.
Husky was watching, holding up Heath as the redhead gained his breath back and rubbed his knee. The older brother just watched and shook his head. These people didn't know Heidi like he did, didn't know that she'd follow this course until it either killed her or she won. There was no retreat. There was no backing down. He was angry with her, furious even and soon he had worked himself into lather about his dumb kid sister's actions.
Heidi had finally stopped struggling so much now that the hoodie was beginning to cut off her air supply. Stubbornly she refused to make a big deal of her problem but the way she clutched at the neck of her garment and the flush of her face spoke volumes.
"Oh, this does not look good for Heidi Harris. A nice little stunt, but the kid is in over her head," Lawler said with disappointment as he watched the scene unfold between the large Brit and the gasping blonde.
"Actually, she's not a kid," Lily corrected calmly, though she was glued to the action in the ring, her fist clenching tightly as she watched that British prick practically strangle Heidi. "She's got to be 20 by now, maybe 21… COME ON, REF!" she shouted, standing up and slamming her hands down on the tabletop so that CM Punk, Jerry Lawler, and Michael Cole all looked sharply to their right at Lily on the end.
Heidi had a hold on Wade's wrist and was digging her fingernails into it as hard as she could, raking them towards her so that rows of his skin came up and blood started to pour from the wounds, but he did not relent. It seemed he too knew something about not playing by the rules.
By now, other wrestlers backstage had heard the riots and came out front, listening and watching with keen interest as the single most insane thing happened on RAW, even several from Smackdown were there, Jack Swagger being one of them, folding his beefy arms over his chest with a stupid look on his face.
"All right then, Heidi," he said, letting her drop to the mat where she rolled for a minute to catch her breath and then hopped right back to her feet. "I'll humor you. Go ahead and come to my matches. Go ahead and have your little game with all of us, but know that everything you do is going to come down on Husky's head!" he roared, moving swiftly and suddenly to throw Husky into a headlock and then slam his face into the mat.
Heidi had perhaps thought of doing just that a hundred times. She was undoubtedly the one person in the ring with enough history with Husky to warrant smashing his face into the mat. However, watching her number one enemy brutalize her brother was the single worse thing that Wade Barrett could have done.
A roar rent the air and Heidi, who had prepared for this very moment for months, sprung for Wade Barrett headfirst. Wrapping her arms around his legs, she snapped them shut so that he lost his balance and then fell over. Then, with surprising strength, Heidi Harris bent one of Wade's ankles and held him in an ankle lock, twisting with all her might to keep him pinned. She had not accounted for Wade's size, however, and he easily kicked his leg a bit and sent her flying into the ropes, spread eagle.
But fate was on her side…
Wade had not moved since his kick and Heidi volleyed off of the ropes back at her opponent, this time wrapping her whole body around his front. Gripping tightly, she clenched her eyes shut and brought her head forward, crushing her skull into his.
The cocky Brit wobbled for a minute and then fell down to the mat with a resounding THUD and brought his hands up to his skull to cradle it, rolling on his back like a baby in a cradle.
The ref looked to Cena who shrugged. Looked to Husky who was lying on the floor next to his boss. Looked to Wade who made no motion to get up. He then looked to Heidi, who appeared very pleased with herself and was jumping up and down in the ring with her arms in the air, hollering in the affirmative.
Sighing, the ref had no other choice than to grab Heidi's wrist, thrust it into the air and declare, "Tonight's winner is Heidi Hellcat!"
The mixed boos and applause nearly shattered the windows on the place as Heidi climbed up on the ropes and beat her little chest like a beast, whooping in her victory as the world of WWE was turned on its ear in the blink of her eye.