Chapter 83 (Daily)
"So why'd you invite yourself to join me shopping, kid?" Mana asked Carly just as they went through the marketplace area.
"I thought we might want to discuss our strategy for Xtrema Against the World." Carly replied. "I mean, we don't know who our opponents are yet and I don't know who I'm facing in a singles match. The best I think we can do is figure out what to expect."
"Well, that's certainly a good thought," Mana said, "But there's no way we can predict anything unless we know who we're up against. I already know I'm going against Viper Takagi in a singles match, but nothing's been decided about who else we're facing. But since it's you, it's probably someone from your days at WWE."
"I hope it's one of the Won Sisters. They have it coming" Carly said. "Or perhaps Charlotte Flair. I swear, that muscle-bound, blond, self-proclaimed queen is getting a push that she doesn't deserve."
"What'd you say about me?"
Both Mana and Carly stopped and turned around. Much to their surprise, they saw a certain GWM diva standing there.
"Queen Elizabeth?" Thunder Mana asked.
"What was that, pipsqueak," Elizabeth threatened, "About me being a 'muscle-bound, blond, self-proclaimed queen who's getting a push that she doesn't deserve'?"
"Whoa! Take it easy!" Carly yelled out.
"She wasn't talking about you, Elizabeth." Mana said. "She was referring to Charlotte Flair, that wrestler in WWE."
"Oh, her." Elizabeth said. "I hate being compared to her. Anyway, good to see you again, Mana."
"What are you doing here?" Mana asked.
"She's with us."
Once again, Mana and Carly looked on over to find other women who were from GWM.
"Payne? Eihmir? Rin? Aoife? Ray? Didn't think I'd run into you here."
"We were just having a girl's day out." Payne said.
"It is good to see you again, Mana." Aoife greeted in a friendly tone.
"Really?" Mana asked. "Even after what happened at Olympia?"
"Hey, you showed guts and I respect that. I can't stay mad at you."
"Maybe YOU can't." Eihmir said.
"So you're all the GWM divas?" Carly asked.
"Not all of us." Dynamite Rin shrugged. "We're pretty much the only girls who can tolerate each other. I mean, why would we bring over the little toothpicks like Candy Pair. Just thinking about them gives me a cavity."
Payne chuckled. "Good one. I'll have to remember that. Speaking of little, where did you come from, little girl?"
Carly's eyes widened. "Little girl? I'll have you know that I am Carly X!"
"She's Miss X's kid." Mana introduced.
"Miss X has a daughter?" Eihmir asked.
"I'm more than just that!" Carly X said. "I used to be a Diva's Champion in WWE."
"Congratulations. You used to be hold a WWE championship that doesn't exist anymore." Queen Elizabeth said. "Look, kid, why don't you go find a playground or something? The adults are talking."
"What?" Carly asked angrily. "Hang on! I'm not some kid you get to push around! I'm an Xtrema wrestler! I'm also Thunder Mana's partner!"
"Seriously, Mana?" Payne asked. "You're reduced to partnering with juniors now?"
"Trust me. The kid's tougher than she looks."
"She's a pre-teen." Dynamite Rin said.
"No, I'm 17." Carly corrected. "You know, about forty years younger than you."
All the GWM wrestlers clearly took offense to that. "You wanna say that again, half-pint?"
"Alosersayswhat." Carly said quickly.
"What?" Eihmir asked. Both Mana and Carly chuckled at that.
"I think I've made my point." Carly said smugly.
Both Queen and Payne approached the two Xtrema wrestlers.
"You know, the last little girls who insulted us ended up in a one-sided beatdown by the GWM Tag Team Champions, us." Queen said. "In fact, why don't we treat you and the sell-out the same way?"
"You want to challenge us at XAW?" Thunder Mana asked. "I don't know, Queen. Won't you need the energy to face off against Bee in your final match."
"Final match?" Queen asked.
"Well, I've heard that Tiger Mask has reestablished his friendship with NJPW and is helping them with their contest against GWM next week. Now, I have confidence that NJPW will pick up the final win, no matter how many tigers Mr. X has up his sleeve. And if they win, GWM shuts down and you'll be out of a job, which will make your match against Queen Bee your last match in GWM. Do you really want to risk a loss?"
Queen Elizabeth gave a fierce growl. "Shut up! I don't care what you say! GWM will win! I will squish that bug once and for all! And I will be more than happy to add you two to my win record! Right, Payne?"
"I'm in." Payne said.
"Fine." Thunder Mana said holding out her hand. Carly did the same. "I will see you at XAW." Queen Elizabeth shook Mana's hand and Payne Fox shook Carly's.
"Think this is a problem?" Ray asked.
"Nah!" Dynamite Rin replied in confidence.
After that, Mana and Carly walked away. Mana leaned over to Carly. "All right. We gotta get to training as hard as we can."
"I figured." Carly agreed.
Lyra Booker took a deep breath before she entered the large, newly-built building in the middle of the city. The sign above the front door read "HARDKOR". Once she was inside, she got cleared by the front desk before proceeding deeper into the building. And what she found was a lot of stuff that horrified even her.
Other than standard gym equipment, there were about five wrestling rings around the large room that had barbed wire instead of ropes. There were also an assortment of weapons nearly everywhere. In some of the rings, there were other girls wrestling when they weren't working out. Lyra was creeped out by the sight of the wrestlers brutally sparring each other. But that was innocent compared the brutal acts caused by different wrestlers around her. Then, she found what she was looking for.
At the most center ring, Lyra set her eyes on Fiona Fangs who was in a very brutal sparring session with Jintana Mookjoi. Jintana had straddled Fiona pounding her face in over and over again until the champion grabbed her arm and pulled her in for a hammerlock/dragon sleeper. It was so hard, a cracking sound was heard coming from Jintana's wrist. That's when Lyra intervened.
"Fiona, stop!"
Fiona eased her submission hold before turning over to Lyra. She smiled as she let go of Jintana.
"Sorry, Jin. Gotta catch up." Fiona said. "Better get that looked at."
"Don't worry about it." Jintana said holding onto her damaged wrist. She and Fiona left the ring. While Jintana went to the infirmary, Fiona approached Lyra.
"So you finally came." Fiona said smugly. "I had a feeling you might."
"Well, you did call me over, and what do I find? A hellhole of pro wrestling."
"Now, Lyra, it's not that bad."
"Not that bad? Fiona, I saw you get put into a near coma during your match against that Tigress girl. And yet, the next day, you present yourself to the crowd, and there's not a single scratch on you. How is that possible?"
Fiona shrugged smugly. "Our doctors are just that good."
Lyra raised an eyebrow. "Do you really think I'm that stupid? How have you recovered overnight?"
"Sorry. Can't tell you. You gotta be a member of Hardkor if you want to know. As a matter of fact, that's why I called you here."
"What?"
"Now that we're public and official, Hardkor has gone through some changes. We've got this sweet official building now instead of that dead basement-looking den. And we are open to more wrestlers, and guess who I recommended."
Lyra dropped her jaw. "You can't be serious."
"She is." Lyra turned to see Yami approach her. "You must be Booker. Fiona seems to think you make a fine addition to our league."
"I'm sorry, but the answer is no." Lyra said.
"No?" Fiona asked. "Come on, Lyra. This place is perfect for you. And hey, you can live the dream you always wanted. I know how you wanted to own your own intense promotion."
"That's different." Lyra said. "Look, Yami, I don't know what all this is, but it's not the pro wrestling I intend for. It's chaotic, unhinged, and these women have no restraints."
"That's Hardkor." Yami said. "Everything is allowed. Everything is encouraged."
"Yeah, I heard your speech," Lyra said, "And in my eyes, there may have to be some exceptions to that."
"Since when are you this chicken?" Fiona asked.
"Since when did you become cruel?" Lyra returned. "Fiona, I taught you better than this."
"You got me started on pro wrestling." Fiona said. "I got into the rest all on my own. And now, I'm the best of the best, and I did it without your help."
"Enough!" Yami snapped. Her yell made the entire room go silent and it spooked everyone, even Fiona and Lyra. Yami cleared her throat and continued speaking calmly. "Ms. Booker, if you do not wish to join us, that is your choice. Just know that there will always be a spot open for you."
"Consider it closed." Lyra said. She looked back at Fiona with a disappointed glare and walked out.
"You do know you just let go of a hot meal ticket, right?" Fiona asked.
"Ms. Fangs, you continue being the top of the roster and leave the recruiting to me and Jessica." Yami advised.
Fiona sighed. "Yes, ma'am."
"OOF!" Kaito yelled out just as Queen Bee swung her top-covered boobs across his face. He fell to the ground and Queen Bee jumped up before landing butt-first on his chest. "GAH! Dawn, why do you keep using your sexy parts?"
"Kaito, your XAW opponent is a former Keijo player." Queen Bee reminded. "Those ladies are trained to use their boobs and butts to fight. You gotta train against them."
"I know, but if a man keeps getting hit by a girl's boobs and butts, they're going to get a little fluster… AAH!" Queen Bee grinded her butt deeper in Kaito's chest.
"Well, know this. If I catch one sign of enjoyment from another woman's tits and/or ass, then Ran Aeko will be the least of your problems."
"Noted." Kaito grunted. Queen Bee got off and helped Kaito back up to his feet in the middle of her private ring. "Still, even with endurance training, I have a feeling it's not going to be easy. I'm going to need a finishing move. Do we know Ran's?"
Queen Bee pulled out her phone and did a search. "Give me a minute… Oh, seriously?"
"What?"
"Her finishing move's called Asstomb. She holds her opponents legs with her breasts and her heads with her ass before dropping them in a piledriver."
"She's really committed to using her butt, isn't she? I've already got the Skunk bothering me with hers."
"Look, all you need to do is come up with a finishing move."
"How?"
"Look, a finishing move is all about using what you're best at. For me, I thought it was a sharpshooter. Sure, I pull a mean one, but after my match against Hornet, I realized that my enzuigiri kick had a special sting in it. Hence, the Queen's Sting."
"Only problem is, most of my usual moves don't affect my opponents much. How am I supposed to find out which is best?"
"Don't worry, sweetie. We have until the weekend to figure it out. There's no need to panic." Just then, Queen Bee got a notification on her phone. She looked at it and widened her eyes. "Uh, oh."
"What?" Kaito asked just as his phone made a similar sound. He looked at what he was just sent and widened his eyes with more fear behind them than his girlfriend. "Our tag-team opponents are… Digger Yamamoto and Hornet? One's your enemy and the other's almost as big and just as nasty as N-Bomb! And I'm fighting them with you?"
"Okay. Maybe there's a little need for panic." Queen Bee said nervously.
*Xtrema Shorts*
The crowd cheered just as Chibi Monica Everly made her entrance. She stepped up to the main stage where she was sitting next to a Chibi version of Mercy.
"Welcome to Xtrema Shorts! I'm Monica Everly, and here tonight, here's Xtrema's army monster from Germany… Mercy!"
"Can we get this over with?" Chibi Mercy asked. "I hate being this short."
"It's supposed to be cute." Chibi Monica said.
"Do I look like I do cute?"
"Honestly, I can never tell with you. Anyway, you know the drill (pardon the army pun). Standard questions followed by personal questions asked by Awesome ax10. Got it?"
"Just fire away." Chibi Mercy sighed.
"All right. First question… How long have you been wrestling?"
"Just three years."
"Do you have any dream opponents?"
"Not really. That would imply that any of these freaks are worth my attention."
"How do you feel about your fans?"
"Again, not worth my attention."
"What's the toughest match you've had so far?"
"If I had to choose, it would be my street fight against Liza Surkova. That match really had me at my limits."
"What do you do for fun?"
"I implement my military training into my morning routine. Push ups. Sit ups. Pull ups."
"What do you think makes a great wrestler?"
"I've always had the resolve to bring pain to my enemies. That should imply here too."
"Do you have any interests besides wrestling?"
"I don't really do much else other than keep up my military training."
"Now, for the personal questions. What's life like in Japan living with your cousin?"
"Torture. Sure, my cousin, Emma, ain't no angel, but she's a lot softer than my old superiors. I'm a soldier. I shouldn't be living in the suburbs."
"Who reported your intimidation tactics in the military getting you expelled?"
"I never did figure it out. My commanding officer never told me who it was. But when I find out, I'm going to hunt him down, castrate him with a rusty butterknife, and shove that I cut off down his throat. Then, I'll make him suffer."
Chibi Monica gulped. "That's quite the imagery, Mercy."
"That's just off the top of my head. I'm sure I'll come up with something more creative later."
"Okay then. Moving on. Have you ever had a flag match? If so, how was it? If not, would you be interested in one?"
"I haven't. Nobody was as passionate about their home country as I was. But then again, I would very much like to be in a flag match as long as I can burn the flag of the loser."
"How do you grade your Xtrema co-workers based on military training?"
"In general, they are all too soft on themselves. Why settle for mere weights, treadmills, and sparring sessions? And how does that make any of them worthy of being an Xtrema wrestler? They should push themselves beyond their limits as I do. I train until I can't feel my muscles, and then I just keep training. The only one with an adequate training regiment I can acknowledge is Diana Diaz. After all, look at where she is. I'd say the results speak for themselves."
"Thank you, Mercy. Thanks for… And she's gone already. Wow, she sprints really fast. Anyway, thank you for all your support, loyal readers. Any and all comments are welcome."