Halo Over The Devil's Head
Chapter 8
Just as Stephanie had suspected, Eric Bischoff appeared soon enough in the ring, microphone in hand. He grinned triumphantly as he waited for the crowd to die down, ignoring their raucous boos. "Stephanie McMahon," he spoke, only to be drowned out by the fans. A moment later he started again. "Last week, Stephanie McMahon finally got her dues." Eric stepped backward, smiling at the audience's reaction to his words. "Stephanie McMahon never deserved to be a General Manager of the WWE. Just because you share the same name as the chairman doesn't mean you have the brains to run the job like I do," he straightened his leather jacket before continuing. "Last week, I showed Stephanie her lack of intelligence. Last week, I humiliated her in this very ring," he pointed a crooked finger downward, and then looked around at the audience, who had started a chant of 'Stephanie'. "Do you guys want Stephanie here?" Bischoff asked, receiving a cheer in reply. "Well too bad," he snarled, "Stephanie McMahon is not a part of the WWE, and never will—"
Stephanie's music throbbing from the speakers cut him off in mind-sentence. Eyes bulging, Eric turned toward the ramp, to see Stephanie walking down it. Her step was confident and cocky, just like her father's. "Eric, Eric, Eric," she murmured into the microphone, slowly climbing the stairs into the ring and crouching through the ropes to enter.
"Security," Eric shouted into the microphone, a smirk on his face.
Stephanie held up a finger. "I'd wait on that if I were you, Eric," she said with a falsely polite smile. There was a moment of nothing but tension as he glared at her. Stephanie pretended to be oblivious to the cutting gaze, her eyes instead roaming over the cheering fans. "I'll give it to you," she said finally, stepping up to Bischoff. "You outsmarted me last week, and you humiliated me." Eric Bischoff nodded quickly, chuckling. A minute later, Stephanie smiled. His leer slowly faded. "But I'm also here to inform you of the impending lawsuit on your stack of files to read."
"W-What?" Eric snapped. Stephanie raised her eyebrows, smiling. "I can't believe you would stoop this low," he fumed, "you can't beat me at anything, much less being a general manager, so you throw a lawsuit in my face!"
"I'll refresh you on the status of this lawsuit. I'm charging for slander and employee abuse. You know, a fine can reach up to eight hundred thousand dollars for that...and its money out of your pocket, not the WWE."
Bischoff grinned. "Sorry, Stephanie, but maybe you should've read the fine print. Employee abuse would only work if you were my employee," he pointed out truthfully.
Stephanie smiled. "I guess you didn't get the memo then."
"What memo?" Bischoff asked, trying to mask the panic in his voice.
Stephanie took a step toward him, a large smile on her face. "I'm Chris Jericho's new manager."
"Oh my god! J.R.! Stephanie is back! Puppies!" the King commented joyfully from his announcer seat.
"Calm down, King... I never imagined that Stephanie would come back after the disgrace she endured at the hands of her father...or that he would let her!" J.R. responded.
Hearing their comments from the ring, Stephanie couldn't help but smile. Bischoff gaped at her, his jaw hanging open. "W-Wha..." he tried to form words, but was relatively hopeless with it.
"Truth to be told, Bischoff, I've been dying to do this..." Stephanie trailed off, walking up to Bischoff until they were nearly nose-to-nose. He stared at her in pure confusion. The brunette grinned widely, keeping eye contact with him.
And in one swift movement, she kneed him in the groin. Eric fell to the ground with a yell. Stephanie's grin intensified, and she stepped away. With a fluid motion, she turned away.
She was meant with a sharp, nearly decapitating kick to the head by Rico. A cry escaped her lips as she snapped to the mat, her hands immediately reaching up to cradle her jaw. Pain spilt through her head. Instincts kicking in, she weakly tried to crawl backwards into a corner, but Rico was too fast. He grabbed her by her hair, pulling her to her knees. Just as he did so, he stumbled forward and fell, nearly on top of Stephanie. Stephanie pushed herself to the corner, despite the dizzying, splitting headache that had manifested itself in her.
Chris threw Rico to the ropes, and gave him a hard clothesline upon his return. Rico fell backward, landing nearly on his neck. The Canadian native grinned. His eyes snapped to the ring apron as Jamal appeared, eyes narrowed. Knowing that Rosie was most likely not far behind, Chris backed away, slipping out of the side of the ring closet to the ramp. With gentle hands he pulled Stephanie outside. As Jamal entered the ring, Chris backed up the ramp, Stephanie in his arms, her arm slung around his neck. Jamal alternated between sending the two glares and checking on Rico and Eric Bischoff.
Stephanie let her head rest on Chris's shoulder against his warm flesh. Chris looked down at her with an eye. She looked back at him innocently, and he smiled. Stephanie instinctively cuddled toward his body as he turned around, walking up the ramp to the back. "You better have a good explanation for this," Chris told her.
Stephanie grinned widely.
Did she ever.