“I want you both to know…”

Kai Scott spoke quietly.

“That I’m very proud of you.”

Kai’s back was recovering as well as could be expected.  He was still in a wheelchair, but was up and on his feet as often as he could manage, and the neck brace was gone.  

Claira St. Sure and Diane Parker didn’t answer him.  They just looked down at him from over the ropes of a wrestling training ring.

“Christian Light is one of the best of all time.  It’s no great shame to lose a match to someone like him.  Claira, in a high profile match you lasted nearly 25 minutes against him.  And Diane, you put together an excellent strategy for her.  Even if there are a lot of fans and wrestlers too stupid to notice your role in this match, the smart people, and the important ones, are the kind of people who will notice.”

The two girls glanced at each other.  Diane smiled just a little bit.  Claira said and did nothing.

“It’s still a tough loss.  When you throw everything you’ve got at someone and it isn’t quite enough, it’s discouraging.  That’s when it’s important to buckle down.  And I say this in full, glorious hypocrisy.  The reason Kai Scott has one regional heavyweight title and one World Tag Title to his name is because he was very good at getting discouraged, taking his ball, and going him.”

“But he was a dumbass, and now he’s a crippled dumbass.  He’s not going to let either of you two get away with sulkquitting or being a dumbass, either one.  And God willing, he’s not going to let either of you end up crippled.”

He left it there for the girls to take it as they chose, because he had a problem that he didn’t quite know how to solve.

He didn’t know how to train someone for a cage match when he’d never been in one himself.

It’s… almost weird, in a way.  Kai Scott’s been wrestling since 1996.  He’s wrestled in ladder matches, he’s wrestled in survivor series matches, he’s wrestled in deathmatches, he’s held Tag Titles, Trios Tag Titles, a regional Heavyweight Championship back in his interfed days, and even a Hardcore title for a little while.  He’s main evented entire pay per views.

He has never wrestled inside a cage.


=-=-=

“Christian Light.”

“Congratulations.”

“I want you to know that I am not mad and I hold no grudge.”

[Claira St. Sure is, for the second time in her career, talking strictly for herself.]

“Politics kept me out of TLC, and even though I been leading the league since I beat Adam Waterman on Week 3, I never headlined the big show.  What some of the people in EVO say, say about me, I know it is not without truth.  This was my first really big time match, Christian, and I did not win.”

“But I could have.”

“Anytime anyone gets in the ring and does not win, you can look at the tape and see your mistakes, and you want to hit yourself in the head because you can’t believe you made that mistake.  If I hadn’t rolled you into the ropes.  If I hadn’t aimed my suicida badly.  If I had even done a little bit of arm work so you couldn’t power out of the Truly Untouchabreaker.”

“But if I’d won, I know you would look at your match, and say the same thing about your game.”

“If, if, if.”

“We will probably get a chance to try it again later.  For now, I am just glad that I understand your wrestling as we step into War Games together.”

“I just wish I understood what you see in Michel LaLiberte.”

“If we were to get Jeff Andrews onto our War Games team, we would have a man who had already WON an entire War Games, and we would have someone who has the same committed hatred of Evolution League that we do.  Too many people don’t care about the leagues.  Jimmy Kort alone is proof that many people don’t understand what is at stake if we let Evolution win.  Jeff Andrews may be unpredictable but when the chips are down I’d rather rely on him than on some kid who has only won once since Week 2.”

“As for you, Ed, I admit I do not know you well.  I do, however, know that you reigned as World Champion in the Alliance while I was being mistreated in International Influence, and that you’ve been champion in Defiance as well.  And for that matter I’ve had no personal problems with Cancer Jiles.  But, whether it is Andrews, or Jiles, or LaLiberte, or Sawyer, or Box, or even if the front office recants and rehires Diamond Shazam, one thing I know.”

“We’ll be in better shape than Evolution League to begin with.”

“I think it is funny that both Alceo Dentari and Jimmy Kort characterize me as someone who has won no big matches.  As though I did nothing but beat Hollywood Jacks to lead the league.  As though I didn’t get to the head of the league by beating the previous league leader, Adam Waterman.  As though I didn’t prove my failure to qualify for TLC was a fluke by making Eugene Dewey tap out for the first time in his Defiance career.”

“Then again, nothing Jimmy Kort has ever said or done has lead me to believe he is particularly intelligent.  Confusing Christian Light with Dan Easton is bad enough.  But I watched the battle royal, you know, because I wanted to know who I would be fighting, and Heidi asked Jimmy a very reasonable question.  Why would he work with Evolution League in the first place?  Why would he antagonize Elijah Goldman by throwing a party in the parking lots and then insult the league and the people who are opposite him?”

“I think I know why.  It’s because Jimmy Kort wants something safe to rebel against.  Jimmy Kort could not play cowboy with Cito Conarri, because unlike so many heroes, Cito is the good person he says he is.  Working for Cito, Jimmy would have to abandon the rebel, and prove himself in the ring against the likes of Christian Light and myself.  I do not think it will go well for him.  Beating Heidi when she is overconfident and playing around is not the same thing as truly beating her in the middle of the ring, and excluding Heidi, Jimmy Kort has beaten no one.  That’s why he’s a three time Southern Heritage Champion, because he’s not good enough to move up.”

“Alceo Dentari is different.”

“Alceo Dentari comes to Defiance out of nowhere and he makes himself indispensible to Elijah Goldman, rides that to the top of Evolution League, hides behind Yoshikazu YAZ, and then bites the hand that feeds him.  He spends more time being irate with Goldman and YAZ than he does concerning himself with his opponents.  And then, he forgets that he and Jonny Booya are on the same side now… though it seems Jonny is not interested in working with him after all.”

“And credit where it is due, Alceo does rise to the top of Evolution at the expense of Heidi, but since that upset, what has he done?  Been exposed the first time the leagues meet and the best of Evolution meet the best of Heritage.  An while I been beating Waterman, JGX an Dewey, he been beating Rich Mahogany an Kevin Cage.  He’s the one gonna get exposed as a lucky wrestler with an easy run, not me.”

“Sam Turner, Jr., I give him credit for his strength but as I been saying, I’ve beaten men many times my size and strength all season.  He’s improved much since Defiance 1.0, I watched the tapes, but he, too, has been inflated by the mediocrity that is Evolution League.”

“And Yoshikazu YAZ I don’t know or care what is going on with him after those powerbombs, I don’t know why he’s not on the same page with his team, but I do know what happened between him and Diane Parker, and I will not hesitate to damage him if I get the chance.”

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