Masked

Chapter 7

            The woman watched; smiling at Eric Bischoff's shocked face.  She tossed her hair back over her shoulders, waiting for a response from Bischoff.

            Suddenly his face changed.  The wheels in his sick, twisted mind began again, and another smile covered his face.  "You just made the biggest mistake of your life!"  She cocked her head, eyeing him lazily.  Because of his own word, she was safe in the ring.  He paused, and then asked, "What will Smackdown come to when their General Manager is in the hospital?" 

            Stephanie McMahon simply smirked at him.  "Eric, I'm going to walk out of this arena with a win over Steven Richards to my credit.  I'll go to summer slam, and win the title."

            His voice dropped to a low note as he growled, "What makes you think that you're going to walk out of this arena tonight?"

            Stephanie shook her head as if dealing with a child, "Eric, Eric, Eric…  You said yourself that my match with Steven would be a no DQ match-up."  She took a side glance at the six women, and continued, "I've got reassurance that you won't be able to try and tip the odds in your favor." 

            Eric sneered, "So you got some bodyguards, huh?  Newsflash-they're all girls.  Worthless."

            Chyna took a threatening step forward, but Stephanie stopped her.  "Eric, I'd watch your words."

            "Why?" Eric laughed, "I can throw them out whenever I want!  Hell, SECURITY!  Get out here!"

            Stephanie's face dropped, and Eric smiled confidently.  Slowly, Stephanie brought the microphone to her lips.  "I know you sign a lot of documents a day-less than I do, I admit, but somewhere near it.  You can't take the time to read them all-you've got too much to do."  He froze, mentally going over every document that he had signed.  But what Stephanie had announced was true-he never found the time to read them.  Kat handed over an envelope to Stephanie, and she opened it.  Eric paled when he saw the RAW logo across the top.  "You see, Eric.  When you signed this, which was in your stack of papers in your box, you just gave me 50% of RAW."

            "No…" Eric shook his head desperately. 

            Stephanie felt her face twist into an evil grin as she locked eyes with him.  "Eric Bischoff, I am going to destroy your show.  I'm going to take your smart superstars to Smackdown and belittle Monday nights.  RAW will be nothing compared to Smackdown.  And when it's finally done and over with, I'll take it back.  Put RAW back on the air, under my name.  I'll fire you."  She walked back to her group of females.  "But not now.  Not quite yet.  I'm going to kill you and your show slowly."

            "You can't!" he stuttered.

            Stephanie smiled thinly, "You have about a snowball's chance in hell of convincing me otherwise, bitch-off."  At his silence, she turned around, relishing in the cheers that were ongoing.  "My first order of business is to contract these six women."

            "You need my signature to do that!" Eric howled.

            "I already have it," replied Stephanie.  "On each and every contract that these women will sign when we go into the back." 

            Eric closed his eyes, pressing his hand to his head, trying to figure out a way to outsmart his rival.  When he opened his eyes, he saw Stephanie leaning against the ropes, arms folded on the top rope as she grinned at him.  Finally, he raised his own microphone to his lips. 

            "This means war."

            Stephanie gave a small superior shake of her head.  "Eric, I have you in a nice maze.  Whatever way you go, your show will die.  If you don't move, it will die slower.  You're surrounded, Bischoff."  She leaned forward.  "Checkmate." 

            "On the contrary, Stephanie, you've gotten yourself into a trap," he paced on the wide section of the ramp.  "All I need to do is injure you so bad that you can't perform manager duties."  He paused, "And where will your superstars think your loyalty will lie?  You left them for RAW."

            "I am with them, Eric.  They know that the only reason that I'm here is to tear RAW apart.  And if a few superstars come over here, their careers will die with yours.  And, about getting hurt that bad, not to perform manager stuff?  I can do that from a hospital, Eric.  You'd have to kill me before something like that happens.  Plus," she added, "I have half control over any superstar that attacks me.  I can do whatever I want to with them.  Draw them out of matches, replace them." 

            "I'm going to make you a promise, Stephanie McMahon.  You will not be able to walk out of this arena.  You will be carried out on a stretcher, a bloody mess."  His lip curled upward, "And if I had it my way, you wouldn't make it out of the arena alive."

            "How utterly touching," she replied sarcastically.  "As much fun as it is to watch you make empty promises, I have to go get ready for a match.  Which, by the way, I will win." 

            "Not if I can help it!"

            "That's just it, Eric.  You can't help it."

            One of the women beside Stephanie, a tall blonde, leaned over to her, "We should go.  Evolution's coming through the crowd."

            "They won't attack us, Faith.  He said that we weren't to be attacked until we hit the backstage area."

            She shook her head, her gray/blue eyes serious, "So what's his word good for?"

            Stephanie bit her lower lip, but nodded to Faith.  "All right." 

            Eric sneered at them one last time, and disappeared.  After a moment, Stephanie and the six women followed him to the back.  As they slipped through the curtains, Stephanie froze, looking down the narrow stairway.  Several superstars-many of the ones that had come after her the week before-were mingling by the stairs, crude weapons in hands. 

            Kat grabbed Stephanie and pulled her back behind the curtains before any of them saw the brunette.  "We have to stay here," she told her.  "If we go out there, we're outnumbered, and they have chairs, pipes, and God knows what else."

            Stephanie stared back at her determinedly.  "We're going back, Kat.  If I stay here, it's giving Bischoff a victory, knowing that we were too afraid of his numbers to go back to our room."  She stomped past the curtains, Chyna in front of her. 

            Faith passed a look at the superstars gathered.  Glancing to the side, she caught Evolution bursting through the curtains.  She wrenched a loose bar off of the railing and gripped it in her hands, turning to face them.  "We've got company!" she cried. 

            Stephanie grimaced as Chyna was hit in the back of the neck with a lead pipe.  As she heard Faith's cry, she realized the stakes.  Eric had counted on her pride.  They were outnumbered, and circled.

            And there was no way out.

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A/N:  Please review!  I hope y'all don't mind that I used Stephanie!