Some more backstage drama, as well as Veronica's in-ring debut.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Mickie stood in DEAR's personal locker room, looking into the mirror with Maria as the two of them watched their reflections. Finally, Mickie turned around.
"I'm pissed."
"You have plenty of reason to be," Gail commented from her place at one of the couch's arms. "They interrupted your homecoming."
"That's not all, though. Who do they think they are, coming out there, and insulting all of us?" Mickie motioned between all of them. "I mean, really? Eye Candy, Ick-toria, Frail Kim… Cheat-a? Trashley?" She shook her head. "Whatever. Trish, I want to be in that match at Capitol Punishment."
Trish thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Done. It's done."
The next night at the SmackDown taping, Veronica ran up behind Victoria, who was grabbing a water from the snack table and was caught as she turned around.
"You know, Victoria, I'm sorry about what I said yesterday… it's just, I don't know. It's just weird to me, finally being able to look you in the eye. I let that take over me." Victoria remained indifferent, uncapping her water bottle and taking a sip of it. "I looked up to you when I was a kid, you know. You are the reason I wanted to become a Diva." Veronica smiled at Victoria, who shrugged. "Good luck in your match tonight against Natalya, Tamina, and AJ. I hear that Tamina's pretty angry…" Victoria still didn't respond to Veronica, instead opting to just stare down at her for a moment.
"Yeah, no, I don't care. I'm out." Victoria pushed past Veronica, who was seething as she stared after her former idol.
Before the match, Natalya, Tamina, AJ, and Kaitlyn stood in the Divas locker room.
Natalya sat down on the bench for a brief moment next to the other girls, before standing up. "I can't believe DEAR for what they did. Candice Michelle instead of Maria facing Kelly Kelly. That wasn't the deal. Ugh…"
"I wish there was something we could do…" AJ frowned, twirling the tips of her hair between her fingers as the door to the Divas locker room opened, and in walked Michelle McCool with the two new girls, Kennedi and Veronica.
Natalya glared at Michelle as AJ turned around on the bench to straddle it. "Where's Layla? Now you're just… Cool?"
Michelle looked down at AJ for a half a second, commenting, "She flew home for physical therapy." Then, her attention was on Natalya, and she walked over to the blonde girl, the only fellow blonde in the room. "Natalya. I know we've had our differences in the past, but … the enemy of our enemy is our friend, right?" Michelle held out her hand for Natalya to shake. "Come on."
After a moment of deliberation, Natalya shook Michelle's hand, and then smiled. "It was pretty brilliant, what you and Layla did to DEAR on RAW last night."
"I know," Michelle smiled, with a flip of her hair.
After quick introductions of Kennedi and Veronica to the girls-they apparently knew AJ and Kaitlyn from developmental and the like pre-WWE-Michelle turned to Natalya and raised her eyebrows.
"So. What's the deal? What have they been up to, the bitches, trying to screw us over these days?"
Natalya groaned. "Ugh. Pulling bait and switches. That's the main thing."
Eve walked into the room, all smiles. "Well, girls. Are you ready for the match?"
Michelle held up her hands as Natalya was about to respond. "Wait-I'm having an idea." She put her index fingers to her temples and closed her eyes, while Eve tilted her head to the side.
"What's wrong with her?"
Michelle shook her head as she came out of it, snapping her fingers and looking at Eve. "How would you like to do us a favor?"
Later, Gail Kim, Maria, and Victoria stood in the ring on SmackDown, glaring up at the stage as they heard Trish's music begin to play. Trish stood at ringside, snapping to attention forcefully at this happening as out walked none other than AJ-well, sort of.
AJ wore a blonde wig on her head, a cowboy hat, a Stratusfaction t-shirt and a pair of black leather pants, and put one finger in the air as the crowd cheered for her.
"I'd say that I'm having Mickie James flashbacks, Cole, but Mickie's in the ring."
"That's how spot-on AJ's outfit is. It's a nice choice."
"Definitely a nice choice."
She took the microphone she'd brought out with her up to her lips and, in her best impression of Trish herself, spoke. "Sorry, girls. There's been a bit of a change in tonight's plans." The crowd laughed, recognizing Trish's words, which garnered Trish's attention. "By orders of Commissioner Long-Natalya, Tamina, and AJ Lee won't be facing your girls tonight, Trish. Instead, AJ Lee has been replaced by none other than this girl." Natalya's theme music began to play, and AJ shouted, "Yee-haw!" before she put down the microphone.
Victoria frowned as out walked Veronica, vengeance clear in her eyes as she stormed down to the ring with Natalya and Tamina. The only thing that was on her mind was kicking ass, and she had a feeling she knew who was going to be accepting this.
The match went on as it normally did, with Gail starting off and taunting Natalya, then taking her down. Then, Gail tagged in Maria, who attacked Natalya. Natalya tagged in Tamina, who Maria also attacked, and then Tamina tagged in Veronica, who refused to get into the ring until Maria tagged in Victoria.
"Whatever, just maul the bitch and get this over with." Maria rolled her eyes and high-fived Victoria over the ropes and then moved onto the apron as her tag partner got into the ring.
Victoria watched Veronica as she got into the ring, observing her body motion. It was very fluid and together, and she seemed to have years of experience watching Victoria. What was it she had said, that Victoria had been her inspiration? How pathetic… but it also meant she knew how Victoria worked. If that was the case, then Victoria knew she had to be very careful here, as there was a girl who could potentially take them down.
Victoria lunged forward then, and locked up with Veronica, who wrapped her arms around her idol and belly-to-belly suplexed her, before climbing onto Victoria's back and pulling her back by her chin. Victoria crawled to the ropes and grabbed them, so Veronica got back off, but hit Victoria with a boot to the face, taking a page from Victoria's own book when she had attacked the returning Tamina.
Victoria stood up from that, Veronica standing over her with a smirk on her lips as the crowd got into this miniature rivalry, and did something she couldn't remember doing to anyone before. Veronica's head snapped to the side as Victoria slapped her across the face, and Veronica even fell to the mat in front of her.
Victoria was shocked with herself as she looked down at the petite natural redhead, and then took her by the arm and picked her up, continuing to beat her down for the next minute or so, continuously, until she was barely moving on her own.
From there, she grabbed Veronica and pulled her up, throwing her into the Widow's Peak position. She shouted, "Capitol Punishment!" before she felt her grip on Veronica loosen, and then felt herself hit the mat, shoulders down. Veronica had taken the Widow's Peak down in a backslide, and scored the pin for her team.
Before DEAR could get into the ring, Veronica was instantly out of it, leaving ringside with Tamina and Natalya at her sides. The three of them were slightly rushed as they walked backstage, shrugging and laughing as DEAR absolutely freaked out.
It was the first time that DEAR had been beaten in a match.
Victoria transformed into being absolutely crazy as everyone chanted "DEAR meat" in the audience, led by AJ, deer antlers and all. It was undeniably the return of psycho Victoria, until Trish managed to calm her down, and AJ laughed as she put her arm around Veronica.
"Sorry, Trish."
Two members of the official DEAR Capitol Punishment team had been declared, one of them without explicit permission but with understanding of the reason.
It was no question that the DEAR team was loaded, but could possibly be the losing team if Kennedi and Veronica got their acts together. The showboating had to stop, and the girls had to worry less about just getting themselves to the win, without their team. They had to worry about destroying their opponents.
What do ya'll think of Veronica's in-ring skills? She wasn't kidding when she said that Victoria was her idol. Are you excited for Capitol Punishment in the story yet? Review and tell me what you're thinking!