Requiem for the Wrestling Few

By Son Rhandi

Chapter 02: 'A Wrestler's Carnival'

"Hello, hello, Earth citizens! This is Tamerlion, coming to you live from my vessel, Gamera. Some of you may have seen its decent yesterday. Happen to notice a turtle-looking thing in the sky? Well that was us, my friends..! We represent the Animus School of Professional Wrestling and have come in hopes of finding potential students. According to the data we have on this planet, we've landed in the island nation, Japan, so, resident Japanians, we'll be at your local IWF center approximately three hours from now, so if you'd like to visit with us, you're certainly welcome! We now return to your regularly scheduled programming."

Harabote sprayed his coffee onto the screen. "Those degenerates! Pirating the airwaves?! This is... This is just the kind of behavior I was afraid of! Meat! Meat!!"

Harabote hollered through the halls of the IWF, his feet thwapping the linoleum, his mustache moist with sweat. With all his might he pushed open the doors to the training area, finding the four of the Earth Team working out, Meat with Mantaro. Harabote dashed to the miniature manager, snatched him up and retreated to office.

"What's the idea, Harabote?!" Meat wrangled out of his grip in a huff, readjusting his scarf."

"The Animus School just took over the airwaves to announce that they're coming here..." The old man took out a handkerchief and dabbed at his brow. "It's just you four here right now, so don't attempt anything. I'll have to call the reserves and put them on standby."

Meat scratched his head. "Not to sound doubtful or anything, 'Bote, but do you think all this is necessary? I mean, they haven't given us a reason to--"

"Their reputation alone is reason enough to worry!!" Harabote roared. "Tell those four boys to be ready in case they find trouble in this. We can't stop them from coming here, but we can see to it that they don't start a ruckus."

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"Great job, everyone! Our rehearsals really paid off!"

"But don't they speak mad different languages on this planet?"

"Relax. We only isolated the waves in this region, and the one we used is a common language."

"Let's celebrate! We'll throw a party! Let the Japanians join in, too!"

"I think the correct term is 'Japanese'..."

"Whatever. Now, let's get set. We've only got three hours partying time before we show up on the Muscle Leaguers' doorstep..!"

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"Take a breather, boys. I've got some news for ya."

The four gathered to him "What's goin' on, Meat?" Terry popped the question.

"We might have a bit of trouble on our hands. Harabote's up in arms over it... Seems we've got some visitors comin' to IWF in a few hours, not necessarily welcome ones..."

"Who are they? dMp?" Seiuchin asked. Meat shook his head.

"Hard to say. Remember that turtle ship we saw yesterday? Well, that was a ship from the Animus School of Pro Wrestling. "

"Animus? Never heard of it." The Texan scratched his head.

"Neither have I until today. Anyway," the miniature manager continued. "They're supposed to be comin' down here in three hours, so Harabote wants us on our toes in case of trouble."

"Trouble?" Terry flexed his arm and patted his bicep. "Well, if it's a fight they're lookin' fer......"

"Hold on a minute, Terry," the pinniped interrupted. "Why are they coming, Meat? Do they want to challenge us?"

"'Bote says they're lookin' for new students."

"Students?" Gazelle Man said with a bit of a chuckle. "What's the problem? I mean, we've already graduated from the Hercules Factory, so what's he have to get worked up about?"

"Animus doesn't take 'no' for an answer..."

They all became silent. Well, not totally. The sound of Mantaro's knees knocking filled the room. Oh, man..! He thought. More bad guys..?! I just beat Scarface a week ago! This isn't fair!

As the Muscle prince continued his mental whining, the others prepared for the possible threat of the Animus School.

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"Block party! Block party! Have some fun with us!!"

In about two hours, they turned the downtown Tokyo area into a one-float parade. A man sporting a long, red coat with a pale yellow trim and gray tight pants along with a very stylized mane with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache to match roared into his megaphone as his men-- a man-dog in a white tank top and blue gym shorts and a man-bull with red shorts to differ--tossed bags of candy and noisemakers to the people of the crowd.

"That's right, folks! Come have a ball with the Animus School! We'll only be here a short while, so party while you can!"

"Uh, Tamerlion," the dog spoke. "Is this really necessary? I mean, this big of a fuss is kind of ridiculous..."

"Shut up, Huskitooth," spat the lion, being sure to take the phone away from his mouth. "How else can we direct attention to the school?"

"Well, we could build a website..." The manbull, Minotoro, suggested, tossing another few noisemakers to the throngs.

"Will you two be quiet!! We're not only here to promote ourselves, you know! Or have you forgotten we're here on this planet to get our fellow beasts?!"

"Oh, yeah..!" The two addressed said simultaneously. "I can't wait to meet Seiuchin! He's my hero!" Huskitooth grinned. Minotoro swung his fists in the air. "I want to have a match with Terry the Kid!"

"We're not here for pleasure, morons!!! Keep passing out those goodies!!!"