"Someone must have a future career in mind for me."

[Bring that shit in.]

[DEFIANCE promo booth. Heritage logo on the back wall.  Nothing else in sight except...]

[Well, it’s the Last Nighthawk, but the finest attire Men’s Warehouse has to offer is an unusual change of pace for the normally casually-dressed Christian Light.  The gray-with-white-pinstripe suit harkens back to Christian's days as an administrator in Carson City Wrestling, and the ensemble is topped off with a white collared button-down shirt, matching gray tie, and black wingtip shoes.]

"The Last Nighthawk" Christian Light:
First, Heritage has me working with Canadian-born Michel LaLibertie to give him some quality in-ring experience.  Now, we have here The Mighty Impala, fresh off the plane from Equatorial Guinea and ready to take on the world of professional wrestling.

Starting with li’l ol’ me.

Cito must fancy me as some kind of international welcoming committee.

[A weak smile from The Last Nighthawk as he adjusts his tie.]

Light:
So might as well play the part.  I've been looking for an excuse to pull out this ol' suit after I hit the road and this is as good as any.

Let me be one of the first people in Defiance to welcome you to the world of professional wrestling in the United States of America.  Sorry if the finest accommodations of our locker room aren't up to your palace's standards, but the promoters are running a wrestling show and not a Hilton.  Not that the environment’s bad; quite the opposite, actually.  Cito actually runs a pretty talent-friendly backstage area. One tip though...do not get stuck behind Jan Gin Xiao in catering.  You'll know him when you see him. Even when he's not brawling with The Mastodon of the Mountains, he pretty effectively destroys the buffet table's contents.

[A rueful shake of the head from Christian, indicating he's speaking from experience.]

Light:
But we’re getting a little off track here.  After all, the lockers rooms aren't the important thing here. What really matters is what happens when we enter the ring.  Our time will be when the spotlight is on and we step into the spotlight in front of the thousands of fans in attendance and the millions watching at home and we lock eyes, beginning the combat. That's what the fans are here for.

And that's when I go to work.

[And it's here that Christian takes the suit jacket off, turns, and lays it on the chair we couldn't see (since, y'know, he was standing in front of it). The tie follows quickly after, and the top button of the shirt is unbuttoned, loosening the collar.]

Light [unbuttoning his shirt as we speak]:
You see, I'm not here to be some kind of foreign ambassador. Not only do I not have the interest in it, but I don't have the people skills or the ability in intrigue required to survive. I'm also not here to make jokes about Chevrolets and the price of gas at your expense; that kind of cheap shot can be left for a wrestler who hasn't got anything useful to say. I'm more of a straight-forward, honest kind of guy, and I’m hiping to get an answer to my one straight-forward question.

Can you fight?

[And with a small flourish, the unbuttoned shirt is laid on the chair on top of the tie and jacket.  Light now stands before Impala with no shirt on.]

Light:
No, really. That's the question I need answered.

Sounds simple, right?  I can almost hear you firing up the camcorder to record that easy slam-dunk. Before you get set to air footage, however, let's see if I can't cut off the obvious answer. After all, I didn’t waste your time with cheap shots, so let me help you in not wasting my time.

You’d get in front of the camera and tell me that it’s a stupid question.  Maybe laughing, maybe not.  But either way, you’d reiterate that you’ve been trained by the best people your family’s money could buy.  Maybe throw in a generic anti-American insult, and that bullet point is covered, right?

[Light shakes his head.]

Light:
Had you responded with that gem,  you would have proven that you missed the point entirely. Of course you're trained to fight: Cito wouldn't have signed you up otherwise.

But being trained to fight is completely different than being able to fight.

What happens when you're locked in hand-to-hand combat with someone like me?  You know, someone with more training, more experience, and just as much athleticism as you?  How will you handle the shock to your system of taking your first real hit from someone you’re not paying to spar with?  How will you handle someone like me who’s made a living of taking an opponent’s game plan and throwing it clear out the window?

[A pause as Light rolls his neck with an audible cracking noise.]

Light:
There’s more little questions, too.  Questions of the how and the “what-will-he-do’s” that I’m sure will be answered in our match.  But it all comes back to that one simple query.

Can you fight?

Do you have the heart of a fighter?

Maybe you do.  Maybe you were born to fight in the squared circle and all the training you bought and paid for have made you a force to be reckoned with.

Speaking from my heart, I sincerely hope you've "got it" and I am meeting a fellow warrior in the ring here in Casper, Wyoming.

[Pause.]

Light:
Because if you don’t have it ...and you step out into the spotlight against me, in front of all of the DEFIANCE faithful...

[Christian pauses slightly, a thoughtful look on his face.]

Light:
...well, let's just say there’s no hiding something like that.  Try and fake it all you want if you’d like, but we’ll all know.

See you soon, Impala.

[End.]

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