Inspiration For A Viper
What's in a name?
Warnings: Swearing and Bo
They met for their first practice. The arena was empty as Randy had insisted they get there early enough to get started without any of their fellow WWE Superstars hanging around. Too many of them were having fun at his expense. Oh, they would never laugh directly in his face, unless they were stupid (Reigns) or suicidal (Ambrose), but the smirking going on behind his back was intolerable.
In the middle of the empty ring, Randy started stretching, ignoring Bo as much as possible. He was focused on his shoulders, making sure he was ready to practice wrestling holds without the fear of dislocating them. As he waited, Bo leaned against a turnbuckle, his face scrunched up, thinking hard.
"I think we should we call our tag team RK Bo-Lieve," Bo said.
"No," was Randy's only response.
"The Bo-Lievers?" Bo suggested.
"No."
"Team Inspiration?"
"Fuck, no."
With a disappointed sigh, Bo said. "I suppose Creative will give us a name if we can't agree on one," Bo said.
Randy just grunted. He didn't care.
"Do you think Creative would mix our names together, like they did Rybaxel?" Bo mused. "I wonder if they will call us Bondy or Randbo?"
That pulled Randy right out of his recalcitrance. He froze in horror, his eyes wide. The terrifying thing was he could see Creative naming their tag team exactly something like that. Suddenly naming the tag team became the most important part of this meeting. "Shit," he said as he paced around this ring. He got right up into Bo's face. "Don't you ever, EVER say that out loud again. Shit." he repeated, stalking away again. He could feel panic starting to set in.
Bo, not really understanding what the problem was, watched him with wide eyes. "What about RK-Bo?" Bo asked, a bit timidly.
That...wasn't bad, Randy had to admit to himself. "Yeah, that one will work," he decided and Bo's face lit up like a light switch.
"OK! I will go tell Creative and they can get started on our opening," he said, and ran up the ramp to the back to find a member of Creative to terrify.
Randy shook his head and slumped against the ropes. What had he done to deserve this? he moaned to himself. Then he shook his head and stood up straight. OK, Orton, get a hold of yourself, he told himself in his best Scott Hall voice. You just have to find a way to turn this to your advantage. As much as he hated the idea, he needed to be nice...to tolerate Bo until he could figure out just how he was going to get back at Hunter for this whole stupid situation the COO had put him in.
After a few minutes, Bo came jogging back, a huge grin on his face. "Its done!" he reported as he jumped up into the ring. "And I found out who our first opponent is too!"
Randy raised an eyebrow but didn't ask. He didn't need to though, because Bo never needed encouragement to keep on talking.
"Its Slater-Gator!"
That was fine with Randy. Bo had beat Titus O'Neil in a one-on-one match earlier that year, and everyone had beat Heath Slater at one time or another. So for the next hour or so, Randy had Bo go over what he could do in the ring, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The kid was actually quite a talented wrestler. But no one could truly appreciate it because he was just so annoying. They discussed strategy and time went by surprisingly quickly, once Randy got Bo away from the constant inspirational tangents he tended to wander off on and focus on the upcoming match. "Save your inspirational crap for our opponents," Randy told him. "I already have enough motivation to win as it is."
Bo smiled. "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
"What?" Randy asked puzzled, then quickly shook his head as Bo opened his mouth to explain. "No, don't bother. I don't want to know."
All too soon other superstars started entering the arena for their practice time. Seeing John and Sheamus heading his way, Randy quickly vacated the ring and headed back to the locker room, not wanting to be around anyone right then.
He could hear sniggering as he left the ring area. But that was ok, because he would get them all back, and during the last hour while working with Bo, he now had an idea of exactly how.
Everyone was expecting Randy to act like a sullen and vicious prima donna that he had been labeled as. Well, Randy was going to surprise them. He couldn't wait to see their faces when they found out that what had started as a humiliating joke would become their biggest nightmare.
Vipers were patient. They were merciless. And they struck out of nowhere.
Yeah, they wouldn't see this coming.
TBC
Thanks for the suggestions for name of tag team! ~ Belle