Entering the backstage area at Full Sail, Sonya felt excited for the night ahead. She and Mandy had talked about little else all day, so hyped had they been about what might be in store for the Golden Gloves on the three episodes to be taped that night.
"I've got a feeling this is going to be a good night, Son," Mandy said.
It hadn't taken long in their relationship for Sonya to learn to trust Mandy's intuition. If she had a good feeling, or indeed a bad one, about something, it usually turned out to be accurate.
"What do you think is going to be good about tonight?" Sonya asked. "Obviously we know we're performing because we were told we're going to beat down Daga. But you're thinking of something more than that."
Mandy nodded. "I am. But I don't know what that something is."
"Now I'm intrigued," Sonya said.
Moments later, they reached the locker room. Sonya pushed the door open and was halfway inside when she froze in her tracks. She stopped so quickly that Mandy walked into the back of her.
"Oh my God," Sonya said, trying to keep her reaction in check as best she could. There was no mistaking the person standing with her back to the door. A white baseball cap with two dark brown pig tails poking out from under it could only belong to one person.
Hearing the door open and Sonya's expression of surprise, Clementine turned around. In the act of doing so, she revealed that Trish Stratus, her tag team partner and the other half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, was also in the room. Two of the main roster's most popular superstars were standing in the locker room at Full Sail as if they had never left.
"Hi, we haven't met," Clementine said with a warm smile, stepping forward and offering a handshake to Sonya. "Clementine."
Sonya realised that she was standing with her mouth open, looking like she was catching flies. She managed to accept the handshake and pull herself together a bit. "Sonya. This is Mandy." She gestured to her girlfriend and looked at her, seeing a dumbstruck expression on her face.
Clementine offered her hand to Mandy. "Call me Clem."
"This is... Great to meet you," Mandy said, stumbling over her words.
Trish came over next, and further humbled them by her choice of words as they shook hands. "I've been looking forward to meeting you guys. I've heard great things."
"That means the world to me... us," Sonya clarified.
"Pick your chins up off the floor and get that door shut," Sasha Banks said from the back of the room.
Glancing behind her, Sonya saw that she had left her travel case standing in the doorway, and it was propping the door open. She quickly moved it, and the door closed itself.
"Why are you guys here?" Mandy asked, at last able to speak legibly.
"Before we won these," Trish said, patting her recently-won championship belt that she had been showing to Bayley and Becky before Golden Gloves' arrival, "Ms Thorne told Clem and I that beginning with our reign, the women's tag titles will be defended on all brands, including NXT."
"We're making an appearance on the show tonight to make that announcement," Clementine said. "It's been kept quiet, so it'll be a total surprise for the fans when we go out there. I have goosebumps thinking about it."
"Girl, that's nothing like the goosebumps we'll have, or those fans will have to see you back on NXT," Bayley said excitedly.
"Yeah, this is a genius idea from Thorne," Becky added.
The door opened, and Zelina walked in, carrying a cup of tea. Sonya realised she must have arrived earlier, and had just been down to catering.
"Ah, here you are," Zelina said pleasantly to her two teammates. "I bet you didn't think we'd be working with these guys tonight, did you?"
Zelina had plainly been referring to Clem and Trish, which started Sonya's head spinning. "Working with... What are you talking about?"
"We hadn't quite gotten that far," Clem said, smiling. "After Trish and I have made our announcement about defending the tag titles on all brands, you guys are going to hit the ring and kick our asses."
"Pretty cool, huh?" Zelina asked Sonya and Mandy.
Sonya couldn't help thinking that someone was about to come into the room and laugh at them for falling for a rib. But no, she realised, Clementine was for real. That actually was what was laid out in the formats for that night. The Golden Gloves really were going to beat down Trishentine, as the popular team were unofficially known. There could be no doubt about it, Zelina and the Golden Gloves were being taken very seriously by management. Sonya wondered if Lucy Thorne had any say in it, or if it was Hunter's idea. Either way, it was a massive opportunity for the new team to make a name for themselves. Possibly the best part of all was that there seemed to be no reluctance at all from Trish or Clem to put them over.
"Why don't you get yourselves sorted out, and we can get together and lay something out," Trish suggested.
"Thank you, yes, we'll do that," Mandy said.
Following Zelina and Mandy over to their lockers, Sonya made eye contact with her girlfriend and they exchanged a 'holy shit' look. "I'm never going to question your intuition about anything again," Sonya muttered. "'I've got a feeling this is going to be a good night.' You weren't kidding."
"I can't wait!" Mandy replied, managing to put an exclamation on it even though she was whispering.
"I need to order more sets of gold ring attire," Sonya said to Mandy. They were walking with Zelina to Gorilla, not far behind Trish and Clementine. It was time for their second segment of the night, which would be a part of the second episode of three being taped that night. Earlier in the show, the Golden Gloves had attacked Elena D'Agostino while she had been giving a backstage interview. With Zelina issuing maniacal instructions, the NXT Women's Champion had been kicked and punched into submission before being smashed into a steel door and left lying on the floor in a heap. It had been quite a statement.
More was about to come, when Trish and Clem became the next recipients of a Golden ass kicking. Before the violence started, Trishentine were to go out to the ring, surprising the audience, and announce their intentions regarding their newly-won Women's Tag Team Championships.
"Your gear is fine," Mandy replied to Sonya. "But yeah, it wouldn't hurt to have another couple of sets to vary it up a bit."
"I'll have to get some on order, sooner rather than later," Sonya said. She knew she was babbling irrelevancies, it was coming from nervousness. The fact that they were going to work a segment with Clementine and Trish at only their second TV taping was still blowing her mind. But she had to focus. There was no room for looking or acting star struck. Out in the arena, the Golden Gloves had to treat the Tag Team Champions with utter disrespect and give them a serious beating.
Reaching Gorilla, Sonya made eye contact with Trish and they smiled at each other.
"This is going to be a lot of fun," Trish said.
"Enjoy, guys," Zelina said, with one of her dazzling smiles.
Trish and Clem always entered together, to Clementine's music. Moments after Zelina spoke, it began to play. Everyone waiting behind the curtain heard what could best be described as a roar of surprise and delight from the crowd. Main roster talent showing up on NXT was rare in the extreme, let alone main roster champions. Furthermore, the two in question happened to be among the most popular people to have come through the developmental brand.
"Wow," Clementine said as she followed Trish through the curtain, in awe of the reception they were getting. The wall of noise somehow got louder upon their appearance in the arena.
"Listen to that. I have goosebumps," Mandy said.
"Do you think a crowd will ever pop like that for us?" Sonya wondered.
"I hope not, we're heels," Zelina said with a laugh.
"We might not always be," Mandy pointed out.
The conversation stopped because they wanted to enjoy Trish and Clem's moment. The two champions went through their usual entrance routine, Trish standing on the middle turnbuckle in one corner of the ring, pointing out at the fans on the hard camera side of the ring, while Clem made her familiar diamond pose in the same manner that DDP once had. She had thrown her cap out into the crowd on her way down the ramp.
"Such a cool pose," Mandy commented. "Honestly, Clem's such a talent. Some of the crowd responses she gets are unreal."
"Yeah, she is," Zelina agreed. "Stars like her don't come around all that often. But there are three standing right here," she added.
Sonya smiled, but she was more focused on the thunderous 'holy shit!' chant that was now reverberating around the Full Sail arena. Lucy Thorne had wanted the fans to be surprised, and she had certainly gotten her wish.
Watching on a small monitor, she saw that Trish and Clementine were now standing in the middle of the ring, looking around at the standing ovation they were receiving. As one chant began to die, it was replaced with another. 'Welcome back!' was soon echoing around the arena.
Trish fetched two microphones and handed one to her partner. After their music faded out, she was the first to speak. "Wow, Clem, we're back on NXT!"
Another loud cheer came from the crowd.
"We are back, and it feels great!" Clementine exclaimed. "But I'm sure everyone wants to know why we're back."
Trish nodded, a smile on her face. "I'm sure they do. And the answer is quite simple." She patted the title belt that she had put over her shoulder. "Trishentine are the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. These titles mean the world to us, and NXT means the world to us."
"Yes it does. This place, and you guys, will always be so special to us," Clem said, motioning to include the whole crowd, who cheered in appreciation.
"That is why we've decided to make a revolutionary decision," Trish said. "The reason we're here tonight is to announce that we're not only going to defend our championships on Raw. We're not only going to defend them on Smackdown. We're also going to defend them right here, on NXT!" Unsurprisingly, the announcement was met by another cheer of approval.
"That went over well," Sonya commented to Mandy and Zelina. Their cue to rush the ring would soon be coming.
"So," Clementine said, "every woman in WWE and NXT now knows they can get a shot at us. The only thing they should keep in mind is that while Trish and I are happy to defend our championships against all comers, we have no intention of losing them. So before anyone challenges us, they should think..."
During her final sentence, Clementine had taken in that the crowd were booing all of a sudden. Sensing someone entering the ring, she had turned to face the entrance side of the ring. She was cut off mid-sentence by a bicycle knee from Mandy, striking her in the side of the head.
Meanwhile, Sonya had also hit the ring. She took Trish down with a stiff clothesline.
Stratus quickly got up, only to take a superkick from Zelina.
While that was going on, Mandy had been kicking the hell out of Clementine, who was curled up, doing her best to protect her body from the blows. Boos rained down on the ring.
"Get her up!" Zelina ordered Sonya, referring to Trish.
Sonya obeyed the instruction, then handed Trish over to Mandy, who loaded her up for A Bed of Roses.
"Do it!" Zelina yelled.
Mandy lifted Trish into the air, then slammed her to the mat with a powerful impact.
In the corner of the ring, Clementine was using the ropes to pull herself to her feet.
"Choke her out!" Zelina instructed Sonya, pointing at Clem.
Only too glad to oblige, Sonya walked up behind Clementine and grabbed her in The Devil's Grip.
Unable to breathe in the chokehold, Clementine flailed around desperately as she was dragged down to the mat. She tried to prise Sonya's arm away from her throat, but the lack of air was already making her fade towards unconsciousness.
"That's it! Choke her out!" Zelina screamed wildly, standing over Clem and looking down at her without even a hint of sympathy.
Only once Clementine had passed out did Sonya release the hold and get up.
Looking satisfied with the work done, Mandy had a nasty sneer on her face as she stepped up next to Zelina. Sonya joined them so that the trio were standing in a line, the bodies of the Tag Team Champions lying before them.
"This is what the Golden Gloves can do! And we're only just getting started!" Zelina shouted at the crowd. Standing in between the two members of her team, she raised their hands in celebration.
Inside, Sonya was buzzing with excitement and delight. For her, Mandy and Zelina, another TV taping was over with, and they had accomplished two beat downs, both of them on people with names much bigger than their own. The Golden Gloves continued to make a statements of intent. But where was it all leading? Sonya couldn't wait to find out.
A/N: Many thanks to everyone who left a review on the previous chapter. Your support means so much to me.
It's been a while since I let you guys have a say on something in a story, so I'm going to change that today. I'm going to let you choose a partner for Zelina. Who would you like to see her dating? Leave your suggestion in a review!