Disclaimer: I do not own, know, or represent anyone from any real world wrestling organization. This is just a fan fiction, and the portrayal, likeness, etc are just character depictions and in no way represent the actual personalities of the men and women in the stories. It's just a little story.
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Chapter 4; Counter-Twin-Magic
There were weeks left until the Royal Rumble…, and Melina had not said a single word to Shelly since the big battle royal yesterday. Shelly tried to talk to her, but Mel kept her distance as much as possible. She was informed by Booker T that despite their failure to produce a promotional video, they were still going to be allowed to compete in the tournament. That was a good thing, but her proposal to have a replacement partner was turned down due to the need of Shelly's signature as well. She needed to sign off on leaving the tournament, and Melina knew that was not going to happen.
Furthermore, the two of them had to travel together from Los Angeles to Seattle to prepare for next week's Smackdown. Thank goodness they were not obligated to participate in the non-televised events due to each woman's need to prepare for the big tournament and be in perfect sync and health.
Rather than share a hotel room with Shelly, Melina opted to stay in the rental car and sleep. She couldn't go to John's room – he was assigned to a different hotel entirely, and Shelly decided that she was going to take the keys with her to the room to make sure she had a ride tomorrow.
Mel was in a deep sleep for several hours bundled up in the back seat of the rental rather uncomfortably, but she got some much needed rest none the less.
She dreamed she was on a boat sailing over the vast ocean and towards the WWE Championship which was the size of a mountain. On the shores in front of the mountainous title, there was Randy Orton and John Cena brawling in…loin cloths for some reason. As the two men wrestled in the sandy shores, J-Mo appeared literately out of nowhere with a moonsault to topple them both down.
Things started getting weird from there when Sable appeared next with a steel chair and smacked Orton over the back with it. When Randy went down, Sable pulled Morrison over to her and power bombed him through a table that seemed to magically appear.
The ship was going faster now, and Melina, who was now dressed like some odd cross-over between Wonder Woman and Captain America, decided to call forth her Star-Logoed Shield and prepare to throw it at Sable.
The dream felt so real, especially the speed and bumpy waves beneath the massive…pirate ship…that she…was on.
Now she was realizing it was a dream, and the entire 'reality' she created was breaking apart. Especially when the mountain cracked open with the sound of Shelly's voice echoing through her imaginary world.
"I think I'm cute!" Shelly's voice echoed.
"…Oh no." Melina watched on in disappointment as she was stirred to wake up.
"I know I'm sexy!" As Melina woke up, she saw Shelly in the driver's seat with one knee on the bottom of the steering wheel and a tall chilled coffee in her right hand topped with whipped cream with a green straw protruding from the top. "I've got the looks! That drives~ the boys~ wild!" She rolled her shoulders as she continued along what was apparently a highway of some sort. Shelly was belting out an above-average version of Shawn Michael's theme song while 'driving'. She was also having entirely too much of a good time.
Melina groaned as she tried to cover her head with her pillow. "…Take me back to the hotel, Shelly."
"You're finally talking to me now?" Shelly looked back at Melina for a second, finally lowering her left leg and took hold of the wheel with her left hand as well. "But you're hiding still. So, til you're ready to talk, we're still going where I wanna go."
"…I'm not hiding." Mel sighed.
"When it comes crashin' down and it hurts inside!" Shelly started singing again, this time, it was Hulk Hogan's old theme song. "You gotta take a stand, it don't help to hide! If you hurt my friends, then you hurt my pride!" Then Shelly added her own lyrics. "Brie Bella's a man! I can't let it slide! I wanna be a tag champ~ion! But Mel~ina's not very in! I wanna be a tag champ~ion! Yeah that's right! Tot-tall-lee psyched!"
Melina pulled the pillow off of her head and clutched it firmly. She wanted to throw it at Shelly, but she thought ahead enough to know that could lead to a fatal car crash. She instead rolled over onto her side and kept low against the seat so that she would not be seen and stir any watching police to pull them over.
"Can you cut the singing, Shell?" Melina was clearly agitated at this point. "You do not want to be a tag champion, okay?" Melina's words prompted Shelly to stop singing. Mel was shocked, but she kept trying to drive her point home. "We had that match won. If you would have been smart you wouldn't have gone for that chair. You shouldn't have tried to duke it out with Kharma at all. You cost us the match, and now we're not looking good as a unit in everyone's eyes. You didn't train, you made us look bad by not being on time to do our video, and if you checked the website at any point, we are number seven in the tag team rankings! Seven! We're not even top five of sixteen! We are almost in the bottom half!"
Shelly remained quiet.
After a few moments, Melina continued. "So, please. Take me back to the hotel so I can get ready for my training day and focus on whatever we have ahead of us. That is, if you're not planning on dropping out because you're holding your partner back."
"First of all, I was knocked out cold." Shelly defended herself a bit. "It wasn't my fault we lost. Anyone could have lost that, Mel. Secondly and most importantly, I told you I'm playing this smart." She glanced at Melina from the rear-view window. "I'm sorry, okay? I messed up."
"..It's fine…" Melina said half-heartedly. "Can we go back to the hotel now? Where…are we anyway?"
Shelly paused for a moment as she began taking the exit to get back into the city. "We're on the way to the hotel." She clicked her tongue over her teeth and took a sip from her iced coffee treat. "I got the tournament brackets in my e-mail this morning. Next Smackdown!, we're going against the Brie and Nikki Basham." Shelly made a small, obscure joke in reference to the 'male version' of the Bellas from the mid 2000's. "So I did a little research like I mentioned. First form of warfare is finding the enemy's weakness!" Shelly paused. "…I think."
Melina was intrigued now. "What's their weakness? I've beaten them before. Wasn't…that hard." She twisted her lips as she stared at the side of her partner's head from her 'backseat bed'.
"There is some tension in Bella-land." Shelly explained. "Nikki…I think she's the one with J-Cena. There's some tension there about old exes of his popping up. She gets distracted easily with personal matters and sometimes she even skips out on training sessions with her sister. Brie on the other hand, is the more…responsible of the two. She's the accountant of the team and she pays in cash when they rent out private space to train and work-out together. Her Achilles heel is the fact that she can't trust Nikki with ten cents; she'll spend any dollar or card she gets her hands on. When Nikki steals cash…uh...borrows some money…Brie gets royally P-O'd. I'm talkin' to the point it gets on Twitter here. Clearly the internet is serious bid-ness, Mel."
Melina wasn't sure how Shelly got this information, but she did say before that she was a 'student of the game'. Maybe, just maybe she was telling the truth. "I'm not seeing how that's going to help us in a match."
Shell grinned like she had an orange slice in her mouth. "Leave it to Shelly 'Hit Woman' Martinez, Mel." Shortly after she finished speaking…she took a sip of her coffee. As the adrenaline rushed through her, she made a loud screeching noise like a long guitar riff…and began 'singing' the original theme song of Bret 'Hit Man' Hart as obnoxiously as she possibly could.
"Oh…my…god." Melina covered her head with the pillow again, praying for mercy and a speedy arrival to the hotel.
After a few minutes of driving, they finally arrived in the parking lot of the rather fancy high-end hotel. It was a lot better than Melina remembered, but she wasn't going to complain. Despite being in her pajama pants and Matt Hardy 'I WILL NOT DIE!' T-Shirt…with her fuzzy Hello Kitty slippers included, she walked into the lobby as if it was her own house. Shelly carried Melina's bags inside and headed straight to the elevator.
Once they reached the fourth floor, Shelly walked them right to their room, room 412.
Shelly dropped the bags beside the door and took a deep breath as she fidgeted with the key she had. "Hey, Mel? Is that Batista over there?" She squinted as she looked down the hall and away from the door.
"Wha?" Melina snapped around immediately and saw no one in the hall at all. She also heard a loud crash as the door was seemingly broken open by Shelly. "What the hell?!" She turned back to her partner with wide eyes.
Shelly was holding the door knob and removed the key to slip back into her pocket. "What? The door gets jammed sometimes, I was told." Shelly did a good job at blocking out the door frame from Melina's sight…so that she wouldn't see that the door had been kicked open.
Melina stepped inside and cupped a yawn in her hand. "Gonna take a shower. Be back in a bit." Melina grabbed her bags and pulled a few items out for her shower and headed straight into the bathroom.
"Take your time, Melly." Shelly said sweetly as she shut the door best she could behind her.
After her shower, Melina dried off and got dressed for the day. She had plans on doing some cardio work today so she didn't wear anything too heavy. Her coat would have to do if it got chillier during the day. As she did the finishing touches on putting her ponytail in a scrunchie…she heard Shelly yelling at the top of her voice…
"Hahaha! I'm rich, bitch!"
Melina departed from the bathroom with her old things and walked right to her bag to put them away. She saw Shelly putting down one of the mattresses inside the room while stuffing stacks of money into her shirt and pockets. She was smiling like Cody Rhodes looking at his own reflection. Clearly she was excited about her money.
"…Uh…what's going on?" Melina finally got the nerve to ask once her bag was zipped up. Her eyes noticed the damaged door frame…and slowly her eyes shifted back to Shelly. "...Shelly…why is there money under the mattress?"
Shelly finally put the last of the stacks of hundreds into her shirt and cackled. "This is the Bella's room. Not even our hotel."
Melina…
…
.. Had a miniature heart attack right then and there. Her face got red and her breathing started to intensify greatly over the following three seconds. "I'm-sorry-What?!"
"Causing a rift between 'em so they're unfocused on Smackdown!" Shelly explained with sheer excitement in her voice. "Okay, get your stuff," She spoke while fixing the bed she just thoroughly searched for the cash. "And let's get the hell out of here."
Melina wasn't sure if she was still dreaming or not, but she knew for certain this experience was rapidly becoming a nightmare. "Shelly! This is a crime!" Even though the words of disbelief left her mouth she was quickly gathering her bag to get as far away from the room as possible. "I just took a shower in there! They could be back any minute now!"
Shelly swung the door open and motioned for her partner to hurry along. "Don't worry. We were never here."
"They have security cameras, Shelly!" Melina argued while thinking of her career going down the drain.
"It's just good T.V." Shelly giggled while dragging Melina out into the hall while shutting the door best she could behind her.
"This-is-a-crime!" Melina fussed back silently. She wanted to run as far away from Shelly as possible now. She could already see herself going to prison in the same fashion Shelly did before they reunited.
Shelly grabbed Melina by her shoulders and shook her firmly. "Last night someone entered our assigned hotel room and trashed it before we arrived. When I opened the door, all kinds of crap was spray painted on the walls, and threats were left pinned to the door. Thanks to the more than generous front desk man, I found out that two twins asked about our room just an hour before we checked in. I did the math, and here I am." She released Melina, keeping an intense gaze on her. "They ate the little chocolates the hotels leave on the pillows too, Mel. This means war."
It was at that very moment that Melina was starting to realize Shelly may have just been a genius or an absolute idiot. She wasn't sure if she was telling the truth but she looked serious enough about it. If the Bellas were trying to shake them up before the tournament, it was good to show them that their tactics were not going to disrupt their success.
"Those motherf-.." Melina was interrupted when she felt a rather…tall presence behind her. Shelly's eyes were wide as she looked up at the person towering behind Mel.
It took a lot of courage, but slowly Melina turned to come face-to-chest with the demonic Kane.
He, of course, was dressed in his ring attire as he normally was unless attending one of his many weekly dates with people he'd met online or perhaps a talk show of some sort. The masked man looked down to the two women with a grin on his face and a deep chuckle bellowing from his powerful chest.
"Good morning, ladies." Kane spoke as Shelly and Melina flinched back away from him. "I couldn't help but notice your quarrel that transpired just moments prior to my advent. Is everything satisfactory in your union?"
Melina cleared her throat and began coughing into her fist. She ducked behind Shelly and pushed her forward to deal with Kane.
"Uh…" Shelly tried to fix her hair up quickly. She figured that humoring Kane with conversation may give them leeway to escape. "Yeah, everything's cool. We're in a hurry so…"
Kane smiled and slowly nodded. "…It's fine. I understand." He did not budge just yet. He continued looking down to the two of them. "If you are at all interested, I am hosting a classic movie marathon in my hotel room today. I've sent several invitations. It is a fantastic opportunity for us as a locker room to bond over cinema...and freshly baked frozen pizza."
Melina spoke up with a single finger raised. "Thank you so much, Kane. Shelly and I are really busy today though. We're uh…training today."
Once again, Kane's smile returned to his masked face. "Perhaps after I list the cinematic epics, you will reconsider my offer. Today will begin with a viewing of the critically acclaimed Double Dragon on crisp VHS, followed by the smash hit Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Following these films we will view current classics such as The Chaperone and Spider-Man Three, and we will complete our adventure with a Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson film from my collection followed by the international action classic… Dragonball Evolution…" Feeling proud of his selection, Kane chuckled. "Twelve hours of pure classic entertainment…"
Both Melina and Shelly were wide eyed at the…'unique' selection Kane had planned for the day. The two women responded with "Pass" at the same time.
Rapid footsteps approached from behind the women, as former champion, Mickie James wrapped her arms around the now screaming Melina from behind.
"Omigosh! Yew guys!" Mickie had her billion dollar grin on her face. Again, to Melina, Mickie's words sounded a little different than anyone else probably heard. "Shelly! Hey!" She released Melina, then threw an overly tight and slightly uncomfortable hug on Miss Martinez as well. "Yew too, Kane!" For Kane, Mickie jumped up and clung to him while he simply stood there accepting the embrace.
Once Mickie was down, she draped her arms around the shoulders of Shelly and Melina. "I'm here, Shelly! Just like you asked!"
"Excuse-me-what?" Melina said as she now turned her eyes onto her partner.
"Yeeeah~!" Shelly had another plan that Melina wasn't informed of. Then again, she hoped they would be long gone before Mickie arrived. "I'm glad too! 'Cause Kane here was having a big movie party and we can't make it…"
"Omigosh," Mickie cupped her hands over her mouth. "That's tonight?! I better bring The Marine!"
"That would make it fourteen hours…" Kane said with a slight sigh. "It's one of my personal favorites. The fact John was not nominated for an Oscar is pure robbery. Perhaps we can fit it in before Dragonball Evolution…"
Melina silently tugged at Shelly's sleeve to try and sneak off. Things…got a little worse though.
Shelly saw Nikki and John Cena exiting the elevators. Quickly, Shelly pulled Melina back and leaned against the door frame to hide the fact it was smashed up a little bit.
"Omigosh, Jawn!" Mickie screamed out at the top of her lungs as she rushed the large man and jumped into his arms similar to how she did Kane just moments prior. The only difference was that she threw a deep, passionate kiss to his lips that had Nikki Bella in a completely understandable uproar.
"What the hell?!" Nikki shouted as she yanked Mickie off of the now clearly petrified leader of the Cenation. "What are you doing here?!"
Mickie had a wide smile on her face, as if she was a fan meeting her favorite wrestler of all time. She was hopping up and down as she looked at Nikki with wide nearly deranged eyes. "Kane's having a big movie night! Jawn said that if we won last night, which we did, he'd hang out with me! So, we're going to be at the big party later! You're coming too, right?" She stopped jumping just to gaze endlessly into Nikki's eyes. Despite her smile, she was challenging Nikki for territory.
Sensing the fight preparing to break out, Cena spoke with his arm around Nikki's shoulders. "Uh…of course she is!" His charm was turned on instantly. "Wouldn't have it any other way. We're always doing things together and…what-knot."
"Great!" Mickie clapped her hands. "Tew bad Shelly and Melina can't make it. They called me all the way over here to invite me to a party I was already going tew!"
That was when Cena's eyes darted over to the partially hiding tag-team. "Right." John turned his attention to Nikki then. "Let's uh…go see about that thing I was talking about before we come back here, okay?" It was of course just code for 'lets get the hell out of here'.
Nikki agreed and started to depart from the overly-eager Mickie James who was waving with both of her hands.
While Kane's back was turned, Melina and Shelly were sharing a silent…wide-mouthed laugh. They were doubled over as Cena stared at them.
Shelly held her stomach as she stood up straight…then she gave him a firm salute…! Immediately after her hand touched her forehead, both hands went into the air and came down with a good ol' D-Generation X worthy crotch chop in his direction!
That motion elicited a louder laugh from Melina that caused Kane to turn around. Once he glanced at the two women, they were standing by idly as if they were checking their nails rather nonchalantly. Once he turned away…the two women fled out of the hallway laughing silently still.
Melina was certain then Shelly was in fact a genius. Not only did she successfully anger Nikki Bella, but she condemned her to a possible night of hanging out with Mickie James and Kane if Cena lived up to his word. What Melina didn't connect just yet was the fact Shelly drove a deeper wedge between the Bellas by taking the money Brie was holding away from her sister. It was possible that Brie may have thought Nikki 'borrowed' from her again. That was, if Shelly's logic proved effective…despite the fact they were recorded and such documentation could be accessed anywhere.
Melina seriously was starting to consider how bad things could backfire on them as they drove back to their real hotel. In fact, she face-palmed herself when she realized that Shelly's plot wasn't going to in any way shake the Bellas up.
They still had some serious training to do as well!
…
…
Oh well…, at least they had a little fun.
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A/N: Here's the tournament bracket!
ROUND 1
SnM (Shelly and Melina) vs The Bella Twins
The Shirai Sisters (Mio and Io Shirai) vs AJ Lee and Ayako Hamada
Sereena Deeb and Kana vs Molly and Maryse
Daffney and Isis The Amazon vs Christina Von Eerie and MsChiff
Naomi Night and Cameron Lynn vs Shaul Guerrero and Charlotte Flair
Jazz and Tamina vs Gail Kim and Victoria
StocKharma vs Divas of Doom (Beth Phoneix and Natalya)
The Beautiful People (Velvet Sky and Angelina Love) vs Maria and Lena Yada.
Just having a little fun before the action returns. Shelly and Melina may not be perfect just yet but there is hope they can get on the same page in the ring! Will Shelly's plan shatter the Bella Twins?! Find out next time on Dragonball…Z!
..Oh wait. Wrong story again.