Post by SammieSinclair on Nov 9, 2014 16:01:55 GMT
The Announcer consulted his notes, saw what fate had provided and wisely chose to stay posted up by the Timekeeper. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Wheel of Destiny has decided that the following contest will be a First Blood Match! But unlike traditional First Blood rules, this match will not end when a competitor is bleeding. Rather it will only allow her opponent to attempt a pin-fall, submission or knockout attempt? Understood. Very well! Introducing first, representing the Church of Eternal Midnight, hailing from Raven’s Fair, Virginia, she stands at five feet four inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and nineteen pounds, she is the Straight-Edge Siren, the Prophet of Pain, the Beacon of Light in this sad, lonely darkness… MIRANDA WAINRIGHT!”
EAST JESUS NOWHERE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uA4cM1xrDI
Gloom descended upon the Madhouse basement even as the jeers rose to meet it. An angry, judgmental voice from deep back in the speakers promised, ‘And we will see how godless a nation we have become.’ From that bitter fruit blossomed Green Day’s ‘East Jesus Nowhere’, a simple riff that was repeated four times. Following every cycle a spotlight lit up to reveal a scarecrow-ish effigy mounted to a tall wooden stave that had grown up seemingly in an instant. The effigies, done up in a style best described as ‘Early American Psychopath’, were simple but easily recognizable. First came Nyssa Bloodwind, then Jenny Jacobs and Calliope. When the light illuminated an Eve-figure on the last stake the drums started to pound and a fifth spotlight revealed the Deacon of Destruction.
MIRANDA WAINRIGHT:
For her battle on this most sacred of evenings Miranda wore the night black version of her usual vinyl one-piece. Scooped low in the back and high over the hips, it was accompanied by clunky knee-high gray boots and black elbow-length mesh gloves. As for her hair, it was still a lustrous, gleaming gold, its radiance seemingly in defiance of all the vile filth surrounding her. Immune to the ranting and raving of that astounding number of heathens , Miranda started down the aisle and kept her eyes on the squared circle until she reached the foot of the steel steps. Taking them slowly, she reached the apron, dipped her head and carefully removed her hat, which she set atop the ring post.
Once in the ring, she turned to the stage and extended both arms out at shoulder level in a rough ‘T’. After a moment she brought her palms together as if in prayer and that was enough to make the quartet of effigies burst into flame. Smiling into the dancing fire, Wainright held her position until they were reduced to cinder and ash. Then she backed into a corner on the opposite side of the ring and allowed referee Craig Long to check her boots and pads. “Tell me, Craig. Are you squeamish when it comes to the sight of heretical blood spilled in copious quantities?”
He grimaced at the mental picture those words conjured up. “Ummmmh, can’t say I’ve ever seen blood, heretical or otherwise, spilled in copious amounts, Miranda.”
“Delightful.” she smiled. “Then tonight should prove quite special for both of us.”
Unaware of the gruesome conversation inside the ring, the Announcer went on. “And introducing her opponent, hailing from Arkham Massachusetts, she stands at five feet five inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and nineteen pounds. She is the Creeping Terror, the Lurking Fear, the Haunter of the Dark! Allow me to bring to you, EVE CHOLDSTONE!”
EVE CHOLDSTONE:
That special combination of syllables provoked a scream from the sound system, which in turn sent the Madhouse lights into a fluttering panic, each and every one of them guttering and sputtering as if in the grip of a daemonic wind. Adding to the overall strangeness was the sulfurous green mist seeping up through the floor of the stage. Over this eerie tableau came a warbling guitar and the FAWNatics bellowed a raucous cheer as ’Helter Skelter’ rolled on. Beatlemaniacs old and new sprang to their feet and when Sir Paul started to sing, they joined in.
HELTER SKELTER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=av4x6nZlefc
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and then I go for a ride
'Til I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeah, yeah, yeah!
The third ‘yeah’ summoned a shadow from the fog and a deeper, rumbling roar issued from the throats of those fans that liked their brunette’s wicked and their heroine’s anti. Outwardly bemused by but inwardly grateful for this support, Eve Choldstone paused atop the stage and said, “It‘s Halloween, people. Here comes your one good scare!” Then the black-hearted brunette threw back her head and pressed the tip of her left thumb against the right side of her throat. Twisting her head even as she drew the dagger across her neck, Eve bared her teeth in a wolfish grin then started toward the ring and the miserable pulpit princess that’d made her professional life a living hell as of late.
Seemingly imbued with the power of Halloween itself, Choldstone sported a black leather bikini emblazoned with an orange, wispy cobweb design. Her boots and pads were of the same glossy black and the look was finished with a battered pair of fingerless leather gloves. Moving through the fog like she‘d been born in it, (this might have been true for all the fans knew) Eve stormed up the steps, then wiped her boots on the apron and vaulted over the ropes. Storming straight to mid-ring she would’ve pressed on to Wainright’s corner if Long hadn’t stepped in her way and raised a hand. “No need to rush it, Eve. You’ll get her soon enough, I’ve just gotta check to make sure you’re not carrying any blades.” Eve rolled her eyes. “Now where the hell’s the fun in that?” Acquiescing only because it meant she’d get her hands on the zealot faster, Choldstone backed into the opposite corner and suffered through a few more seconds of non-violence.
Any normal woman would’ve been terrified by the mere prospect of facing Eve Choldstone at the Madhouse, let alone the reality of facing Eve Choldstone in the Madhouse at All Hallows Evil in a match that wouldn’t truly begin until one or both competitors had spilled blood on the canvas. And so it made perfect sense that Miranda Wainright pushed off the buckles and strutted to the center of the squared circle like she didn’t have a worry in the world.
Utterly fearless in spite of the ‘EVE IS GONNA KILL YOU!’ chants rained down upon her by the sinners, Miranda spread her arms wide and turned in a wide circle. “Do you hear them, Evelyn?” she called to the black-hearted brunette. “Can you FEEL them? Tonight, when you’re at the height of your powers, you have the chance to prove once and for all that I am nothing but a charlatan. A fraud and a huckster while you yourself are every bit the monster you claim to be. Will you do what needs to be done, Evelyn? Or will you fail, as you have so often done in the past?”
By way of answer Eve stormed out of the corner and walked straight into the Malevolent Moralizer. Chesting in hard enough to force Miranda back a step, Choldstone held her ground when the blonde returned her grind just as forcefully. “I don’t know if you’re a fraud Wainright and frankly I don’t give a shit either way. All I care about is how you and your friends have fucked with my life these last few months. For THAT, I will consecrate this ring with your blood.”
“It’ll take more than blood to put me down, Evelyn.” Miranda purred. “It’ll take a strong heart as well. And that’s one thing you’ve NEVER NNGGH!”
Eve slammed a Headbutt between Wainright’s eyes, sending her back several steps. The Prophet of Pain immediately checked her nose and lips and found no red there. Any relief she felt over this discovery was strongly tempered when Choldstone chided, “Don’t worry sweetie, I wouldn’t bust you open that fast. Wanna make sure your pulse is racing first, then these nice people will really get their money’s worth.”
Miranda wiped the sheen from her eyes, then stretched her arms wide. “Come to me then, you miserable wretch. Come to my Church and we shall give these baying hounds the blood they so des-”
Eve charged, sprang and would’ve put a boot in the zealot’s mouth if Miranda hadn’t dipped beneath it at the last second. Rolling through off the missed Heel Kick, Choldstone popped to verticality and immediately threw herself into a gorgeous bridge to avoid the Running Palm Strike Miranda hurled at her chin. Left on her palms and tiptoes in the wake of the evasion, the Fallen Angel pushed up and charged her blonde, who was just turning around. Taking to the skies again she meant to jam her raised knees into Wainright’s shoulders and ride her all the way to the canvas but the Malevolent Moralizer palmed her knees in mid-air and shoved back, forcing Eve to land awkwardly on the canvas before her.
Electing simplicity over finesse, Miranda spiked a Toe Kick into Choldstone’s navel, then turned around and ran the ropes to the vulnerable woman’s left. Wainright returned with a full head of steam, hopped up and raised her right leg that much higher, meaning to stamp down on the base of Eve’s skull. Unfortunately for her the Frightener twisted clear at the last moment, leaving the Churchgoer’s boot to THWHUMP! against empty canvas. Already in motion by the time Wainright’s boot hit the mat, Choldstone hopped onto her shoulders from behind, voluntarily assuming the dangerous Electric Chair position. Far from the act of a lunatic, Eve crossed her ankles to make the Headscissors that much more secure, then started PWAAKING short little punches into her opponent’s hairline.
Miranda, knowing how quickly a brawler like Choldstone could open a wound with knuckles alone, wasted no time in reaching up and grabbing two handfuls of leather briefs. “EEERRRGGGHHH BYTCH!” Eve snarled as the wedgie tore into her undercarriage. Shifting her grip the moment she felt Choldstone’s ankles unlock, Wainright took a few shambling steps toward the ropes and pushed as hard as she could, meaning to drop the heretic throat-first across the rubber-coated steel.
But Eve must’ve sensed those less than pure intentions because she raised her knees and pressed her feet against the blonde’s chest, which allowed her to kick off and knock Wainright back a few steps in the process. Adjusting on the fly, Eve landed with both feet on the top rope, looked over one shoulder and bounced back the way she’d come.
Genuinely startled by the brunette’s agile counter, Miranda slowed down just long enough for Choldstone to bust off a mid-air spin and land on her shoulders again, albeit from the front. No punches this time around, Eve only crossed her ankles and torqued her hips, swinging down and around in pendulum smooth half circle that flipped Miranda off her feet and onto her back with heavy THUD!
Too preoccupied with the preacher’s blood to pay any attention to the cheers of the inmates, Eve scrambled to her feet and bull-rushed the recovering blonde, bowling her over flat before she was halfway to boot-leather. Seated on her tush off to Wainright’s left (her feet pointed beyond the other woman’s head) Eve curled her left arm around Miranda’s neck and yanked her head off the mat. With the Churchgoer’s cheek stuffed against the swell of her breast, Choldstone resumed her previous task, just pounding and bashing away at her rival’s forehead.
Kicking and squirming, Miranda didn’t have much use blocking the blows with her hands, so she twisted her head to the side and burrowed her face into the hollow created by Eve’s armpit and breast. “That’s not exactly a sound strategy, sweetie.” The Monster tightened the Headlock and pulled Wainright’s features in a little deeper, earning a muffled squeal. “Just means you’ll be unconscious and smellin’ like my pits when I bust you OOOOOWWWWWWW FAAAAAHK!”
Miranda chomped down on the soft flesh of Choldstone’s underarm and while she didn’t *think* it broke the skin she wasn’t about to let the bytch keep chewing. Burying both hands in Wainright’s golden locks, she reared up then shoved down, just BWUNKING the back of her head against the canvas. “Gonna be good?” she muttered to the dazed wrestler. “If not I’ll happily rattle your sick little brains some AAAAAAHHH GODDAMMIT!” While Wainright’s vision was understandably impaired, her hearing was still doing just fine and focusing on Eve’s voice allowed her to raaaaaaaake her nails across the brunette’s eyes. The need to protect her eyes finally forced Choldstone to break the Headlock which in turn let Miranda scuttle to freedom.
Coming to rest with her back against the ropes, the smudgy-faced true believer wiped the scent and taste of blasphemer from her lips, all while never taking her eyes off said blasphemer. Right hand pressed to the pink crescent Wainright left in her wake, Eve got to her feet and started toward her rival but was intercepted by Craig Long. “Let me see, Eve. Did she draw blood?” She pulled her hand aside and raised her left arm, revealing an angry welt but no blood.
That satisfied the official so he stepped aside and let the Monster continue on her way. “Biting and clawing already, church lady?” Eve growled as she closed in on the seated blonde. “Sounds like someone who’s already feeling despEERRGGGH!”
Miranda pulled her right knee up to her chest then pistoned her foot forward and kicked the Fallen Angel square in the left shin. Leg thrown back by the force of the strike, Eve lost her balance and tumbled forward, a fall made all the more unpleasant because her throat TWAAANGED across the bottom strand. Suddenly short of breath, she tried to roll away only to find herself pinned to the mat because Miranda had straddled her back.
“You of all people have no right to accuse others of desperate behavior.” Wainright leaned over the second strand, grabbed Choldstone’s biceps and lifted them up n’ back, all the better to drape them across the ropes. “After all your entire existence is a study in desperation. Desperate to escape the mother who couldn’t stand you. Desperate to regain the father who couldn’t remem--”
“Don’t you EVER talk about him, bytch.” Eve growled through clenched teeth. “Not unless you want to scream so loud it EEERRGGGGGHHHH!”
With the brunette’s arms effectively neutralized, Miranda hooked her fingers into claws, slipped them into the sides of Eve’s mouth and reeeeeeeefed back on a brutal fishhook-augmented Camel Clutch. “Don’t think you can make demands of me, Evelyn. Not when I have the power to change what the mirror shows you every morning.” As evidence of her control she bore down on the Clutch and jerked back on her hooks to stretch Eve’s smile all the wider. “You see, little girl?” she purred after five more seconds of torture. “THIS is the power of Midnight. It cares not for what you claim to be, only what you truly are. And you are nothing more than a bawling child terrified to admit she’s afraid of the dark!”
Choldstone had no way of defending herself, be it verbally or physically, which was why the Malevolent Moralizer took so much delight in extricating one set of fingers from her foe’s mouth only to work them into her nose instead. Doing her level best to peel the skin from Eve’s face from two directions at once, Miranda ground the sturdy curve of her glutes into the small of the brunette’s back and kept pouring pressure into the Clutch. To her credit, Choldstone fought it every step of the way, but with her arms trapped by the ropes and the rules on this sort of match nebulous when it came to honoring breaks, she could do little more than writhe and groan while Wainright ministered to her.
“Beg.” Miranda murmured in her foe’s left ear. “Beg me for mercy this instant and you have my word I’ll honor it the instant your blood stains my hands or this canvas.”
Eve shook her head ‘no’ even though doing so sent an unpleasant twinge of pain through her neck. “Nuuuuhhhh…neeeffhheeer.” she gurgled. “Yullhaftagillmefirdbidge.”
Pretty face creased with a deep frown, Miranda asked, “Considering all the misery you’ve brought this world, what makes you think I won’t consiDEEERRRGGHHHHH YOU CRAVEN SAVAGE!”
Eve had finally managed to work Miranda’s intruding fingers between her teeth and bit down with every intention of giving the blonde that veteran woodshop teacher look. Miranda however was inclined to keep all her digits so she abandoned the nose hook and promptly raaaaaaaaaked her fingers across Choldstone’s eyes. That stopped the chewing readily enough, unfortunately for Eve it did nothing to alleviate Wainright’s rage, which burned brighter than ever.
Jerking her watery-eyed adversary out of the strands, Miranda marched her over to the nearest corner and BWUUUNGED her forehead against the top turnbuckle with a whole lotta spite. “All right Miranda, that’s enough of that!” Craig barked when it looked like the zealot was about to resume her face-shredding ways. “This is still a wrestling match and I will not have either of you trying to maim the other! Are we clear?”
Wainright didn’t bother to reply or even look at the ref until she’d turned Choldstone’s back to the corner. “I understand. You’re here to uphold the rules of this sacred battleground. So am I. But where your powers are limited to mere speech, I am allowed to punish those who would so defile these hallowed grounds. Take this pathetic creature, for instance. It’s time she learned a valuable lesson.”
Miranda reached out with her right hand and grabbed hold of Eve’s hair. “Repeat after me, Evelyn. See no evil.” The admonition was passing hr lips when she jabbed her left thumb into the brunette’s eye. Eve yelped and tried to reach for her watering peeper but Miranda brushed them aside and kept on sermonizing. “Repeat after me, Evelyn. Hear no evil.” Breaking the hair-hold she stretched her arms wide, then CLAPPED both hands against the sides of Choldstone’s skull with a nasty Ear Ringer. The black-hearted went to cradle her head again and this time Wainright didn’t interfere. Rather she resumed her own grip on Eve’s dark locks and used it to march her out into the center of the ring. Swinging around so the heathen was at arm’s length, Miranda delivered her last command. “Repeat after me, Evelyn. Speak no evil.” Then she flattened her right hand into a spade and jabbed the tips of her fingers into the hollow of Eve’s throat with a vicious thrust that brought the Monster to her knees.
Miranda nodded once, leaned over and quickly pulled her left kneepad down to mid-shin. “Very good, Evelyn. That sort of devotional showing is appreciated by the Church of Eternal Midnight. But if you want to prove your commitment you will have to bleed. And quite copiously, I should add.”
One hand on her burning throat, the other on her abraded eyes, Eve looked up at the Malevolent Moralizer and huffed, “I gotta know, what is in that fucking Kool-Aid and can you hook me up with your UUNNNGGH!”
Wainright grabbed hold of her hair, tugged her forward and drilled a bare Kneelift into her rival’s forehead. Hardly satisfied with a single blow, the blonde dragged Eve upright, then wedged in against her left side and slapped on a Half Nelson. Reaching around the back of Choldstone’s head with her right hand, Miranda captured the heathen’s twitching left wrist and pulled it snug against her neck to complete the Cobra Clutch. Neither lass had shed a drop of blood yet so Wainright didn’t waste any time trying to garner a submission. Instead she forced the trapped woman to bend over double, making her an easy target for the Kneelifts Miranda started thwhunk-thwhunk-THWHUNKING! into her forehead.
While you’d think series of blows to the head would be the last thing to clear it, Eve felt her earlier fogginess burning off as Wainright sought to bust her open. She defended against that eventuality with her free hand, but with the Cobra Clutch still doing its thing Choldstone knew she had to escape sooner rather than later. Taking a calculated risk, she let Miranda’s latest Kneelift strike her square in the forehead, then she groaned and dropped to one knee.
The Prophet of Pain paused and jostled the Clutch a little. “Seeing red yet, Evelyn?”
“Nuuhhh….nope.” Eve put a little extra groggy in her voice for good measure. “Gonna have to try harder, preach.”
The coil across her neck drew noticeably tighter. “Yes. It appears I will.” Miranda bent down to haul Choldstone up and that’s when the Fallen Angel hooked her right arm behind the blonde’s left knee. Surging onto her tiptoes as fast as she could, Eve swung Miranda down and sat out full force, just TWHAMMING the incredulous lovely into the canvas with a Sit-Out Spinebuster while still mired in the Clutch!
SIT-OUT SPINEBUSTER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvDEumcrmIo
That broke up as soon as the back of Wainright’s head bounced off the mat of course, but glad as she was to breathe freely again, Eve didn’t pause to savor it for more than a couple seconds. After that brief reprieve she laid her ankles atop Miranda’s biceps and reached through the blonde’s splayed legs to CRAAACK her across the cheek a few times.
“Tried to rip my face off, bytch.” Eve snarled. “Think that means I’m allowed to return the favor, no questions asked.”
That wasn’t quite true, as evidenced by the expression on Craig Long’s face, but the zebra didn’t immediately interject when the Haunter of the Dark laid one hand across Miranda’s forehead and crooked the other over her bottom jaw. Pushing up on the former while tugging down on the latter, Eve’s lips curled into a ferocious grin when Wainright started to thrash and gurgle. “Hey, I got an idea for your Halloween costume! You can be the world’s biggest, craziest judgmental asshole doing her impression of a Pez dispenser!”
Unable to use her hands to repel the heathen’s gnashing claws, Wainright jerked her head from side to side, but Eve’s hooks were set so deep she could exert total control by simply pulling a little harder. “So did you ever have your tonsils out?” Choldstone asked in a tone of jovial cruelty. “No wait, don’t tell me, I want to see for myself. Open wide and say aaaaaaaaaaahhhhmm a miserable bytCHHEERRGGGHH!”
Miranda crooked her left leg tight over Eve’s shoulder, then pulled her right foot back and kicked her square in the forehead. The brunette groaned and fell back, her face-shredding talons forgotten in the rush to make sure she wasn’t busted open. Her temples throbbed but everything else seemed to be intact, so Choldstone clambered to her feet and promptly planted ‘em both in the pit of Miranda’s stomach with a short Double Stomp.
“I keep trying to afford you the courtesy deserved by a woman of… whatever cloth it is you are,” Eve growled at the gasping blonde, “but you insist on doing everything possible to piss me off. So as of now the gloves are off.” She undid the Velcro strips at each wrist and peeled off her gloves one right after the other. “And the pads are coming down.” Sure enough she hooked a thumb into her left Kneepad and pulled it down, then repeated the process on its twin.
Meanwhile Wainright struggled to one knee and worked to catch her breath. “Removing the armor doesn’t make you more fearsome, Evelyn.” the blonde rasped. “Indeed it only shows the world just how vulnerable you are under all that trumpery YEERRRRGGGHHH!”
Eve lunged in, grabbed a double handful of hair and raised her right boot all in the same heartbeat. Stuffing the laces of her right boot against the side of the zealot’s face, the Fallen Angel stamped down, which in turn raaaaaaaaaked her laces from forehead to chin. “What’re you without your followers, Miranda?” Eve punctuated the question with another nasty Bootscrape. “Without your church? (SCRAAAPE!) Without your lies? (SCRAAAPE!) Without your voice? (SCRAAAPE!) I’ll tell you what you are. (SCRAAAPE!) Nothing but a rambling street corner prophet who couldn’t predict six at five thirty!”
Choldstone piled on another SCRAAAPE, then reared back with her right knee and THWONKED the Malevolent Moralizer just above her left eyebrow. Miranda sprawled onto her back in a heap and Eve was sure she’d drawn blood, but a quick inspection from Long proved the zealot’s face was merely pink instead of red. Sighing a combination of frustration and disgust, Eve circled around to Miranda’s noggin, snatched a handful of hair and dragged the woozy warrior to her knees. “Penance looks good on you, sweetheart.” Choldstone chided. “Any sins you’d like to confess while you’re down there?”
There was hair hanging in Wainright’s face but Eve saw the blonde’s shoulders twitch and she knew the bytch had snorted at her. “As a matter of fact, I do have something to confess, Evelyn.” Miranda raised her head and smiled sadly. “I’m heartily sorry I let you walk the earth unchallenged for as long as I NNNGGHH!”
Posted up at her foe’s two o’clock, the Haunter of the Dark braced flat on her left foot and THWAPPED a stiff kick across the Churchgoer’s chest. Miranda swayed backward, then forward, meaning she was leaning in when Choldstone THWAPPED her with the second kick. Three more followed with no resistance from Wainright, nor did any miraculously appear when Eve reset her feet and THWHACKED a Roundhouse off her prey’s skull.
CHOLD COMBO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FAufH7tGpU
Miranda’s head snapped to the side and she would’ve pitched to the canvas in a heap if the Monster hadn’t rushed forward and caught her in a loose Front Facelock. Kicking her right leg way back as soon as the grip was secure, Eve whipped it forward and laid out on her back to THWONK Miranda’s forehead into the canvas with a sawed off DDT.
SHORT DDT:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7EufKbsAdg
Wainright bounced over onto her back and Choldstone dog-piled at once, the black-hearted brunette snatching both her foe’s legs in a greedy cradle. Miranda was the perfect example of ‘shoulders down, ass up’ so where was her goddamned count? After four full seconds of nothing, she tossed Wainright’s gams away and bounded to boot leather. “What the hell, Long?” she shouted at the official. “Did you convert and not tell anybody?”
He shook his head and pointed a finger to the blonde, forcing Eve to follow along. “Her shoulders might be down, but she’s not bleeding. If she’s not bleeding I can’t make a count!”
Eve scowled incredulously. “The hell she isn’t! I teed off on her goddamned skull!”
“The arbiter is right, Evelyn.” The Prophet of Pain sat up and pressed one hand to the left side of her face, then held it out to her attacker, revealing a maddening lack of claret. “Unleash all the ferocity at your disposal but the blows of a heretic shall never bloody the skin of the truly devOOOFFFHH!”
Eve spiked a Low Dropkick into the pit of Wainright’s stomach, anything to stop her yammering for a few seconds. “All right, fine. If this heretic can’t make you bleed, she’ll have to find something that can.”
While Miranda’s hair seemed an odd place to start, that didn’t stop Eve from plunging both hands into her rival’s flaxen mane. Peeling the church-o off the mat, Choldstone cupped her at the scruff of the neck, charged to a corner on the far side of the ring and BWUUUNGED her into top turnbuckle. Miranda bounced, swooned and almost crumpled before she hooked an arm over the top rope. Satisfied the zealot could use a few moments to at least try to pray for deliverance, Eve looked over her shoulder and asked the ref, “This match is No DQ, right?”
Craig didn’t much like the implication of that question, but it was his duty to enforce the rules, so he nodded after a moment. “Yes. Long as you don’t try to tear her face off. Brass frowns on that sort of thing.”
“That’s just what I wanted to hear. Now give me your belt.”
“Excuse me?”
“Give. Me. Your. Belt. Or I’ll take it. And if I have to take it, I’ll do it in a way your girlfriend won’t like.”
The last thing Craig needed was a dark-eyed, dark-haired bombshell like Eve Choldstone trying to disrobe him while the GF was in attendance, so he reluctantly undid the clasp and handed it over.
“Good boy, stripes. Now just sit back and relax while I--” The Fallen Angel of Arkham whipped around, cranked back her arm and CRAAAAAAACKED a wicked leather kiss across the nearly bare expanse of Miranda’s back. Wainright jolted and shrieked all at once, but she didn’t drop to her knees, indeed she seemed to grip the top rope that much tighter. “ Sucking in breath through clenched teeth, she glared over one shoulder and asked, “Well? I don’t feel any blood flowing yet, Evelyn.”
Eve shook her head, genuinely stunned by the blonde’s gall. “You will, bytch. You will.”
After that Choldstone unloaded at a manic pace, lashing her foe across the shoulders and upper back almost a dozen times in less than ten seconds. Though the welts she left grew progressively nastier, Eve still couldn’t seem to break the skin and more to the point, her shoulder was aching something fierce. Half mad with determination now, she wrapped Craig’s belt around her right fist, then spun Miranda around to face her and hopped onto the middle turnbuckle. With the buckle wedged over a few fingers like an odd set of brass knux, Eve drew a bead on the blonde’s hairline and snarled.
“Buckle up, sweetheart. The first time can be a bit… messy.”
Then her punchin’ hand was pistoning up ‘n down, up n’ down, knuckles and buckle caroming off Miranda’s forehead until, “YEAH!” Eve stopped hammering and ran her thumb through the thin stream of red trickling from the cut above her foe’s left eye. Cupping Miranda’s skull at crown and chin, Choldstone pivoted to one side and stuffed the blonde’s cheek against her hip so the zebra could get a good look at her handiwork. “That good enough for you, buddy?” she demanded of the official. “Go ahead and get in close. Hell, have a taste if you’d like. I want everyone to know that isn’t corn syrup and red number WHOOAHH NNNNNGGGHHH!”
Miranda wrapped her arms around Eve’s upper thighs, took a tottering step forward, then pushed up on her toes and dropped Choldstone onto the glittering steel ring of the turnbuckle she’d exposed during her flogging. The Monster hit it full force, her head snapping back hard enough to buckle her knees. She was in the process of dropping when Wainright slipped an arm around her waist and muscled her back to boot-leather. Turning Eve around so her back was wedged roughly against the corner.
“It would seem you and I share a common injury, Evelyn.” Miranda put a hand against Eve’s brow, pushed her hair back and sure enough, there was a nasty gash dripping blood down the side of the brunette’s face. “But whereas you are content to draw first blood, I strive to draw the MOST blood.”
“Talkin’s not gonna get it done, bytch.” Choldstone growled as she tried to push free of her predicament, one hand instinctively hooking into a claw to worsen the wound she’d opened on the blonde. “And I bet deep down you’re a lot more squeamish than EERRRGGHHHHH!”
The Malevolent Moralizer POUNDED a Kneelift into her rival’s crotch, then piled on another simply so she could enjoy the anguish in Eve’s eyes a little while longer. Pressed in chest-to-chest with her shuddering prey, Miranda put her lips to Eve’s ear and whispered, “If you wish to have the slightest hope of defeating me, you have to accept one undeniable truth. I am not afraid of you, Evelyn.”
Choldstone started to respond but Wainright was far more interested in expounding than listening, so she took the brunette’s left wrist in both hands, stepped clear and hurled her across the ring on a sharp diagonal. Though her legs were considerably weakened following the low blows, Eve maintained her stride for the entire trip. In fact she maintained it a bit too well because the Fallen Angel didn’t even start to slow down until she’d turned around and BWUUUNGED against the opposite buckles.
Any relief Choldstone might’ve felt at maintaining verticality were dashed almost immediately, as she discovered Wainright only a few steps behind. Taking flight as soon as she saw the heathen’s eyes, Miranda landed with one foot on the middle rope and her other knee THWUNKED against the cut on Eve’s forehead. Helping herself to a Side Headlock even before she dropped to the mat, the Prophet of Pain took off back the way she’d came with Choldstone shambling along in her wake. Miranda sprang when they reached center ring, a high, vaulting arc that carried both women several more feet before gravity put the blonde down on her tush and Eve down on her face, the latter with a thunderous THWHAM!
HIGH KNEE & RUNNING BULLDOG:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-BsYU6ta44
Choldstone bounced up and flopped onto her back and since she finally could, Miranda spread out across her chest and cradled the far leg for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Eve shot a shoulder up and rolled onto her side to prevent an immediate follow-up. Confident that the non-believer wouldn’t be up and moving without some motivation, Miranda took the opportunity to dab at the cut on her forehead. While it wasn’t deep it was bleeding more than she would’ve liked, though thankfully the blood had traced along the ridge of her brow rather than trickling over and into her eye. When she’d wiped off as much as she could the blonde dragged Eve to a seat and applied a Half Nelson on her left arm. Then she grabbed that wrist in her right hand and jerked it across Choldstone’s throat, completing the Cobra Clutch.
Always willing to make things more painful if she could, Miranda planted her right knee behind the penitent battler and pulled her down and back, slowly streeeeeeeeeetching Eve’s spine across her thigh in a clever Backbreaker. “I’ve waited a long time to ask you this, Evelyn.” Wainright purred after several seconds of fitful struggle from the other woman. “Tell me, do you surrender?”
Eve waggled a finger ‘no’, but it was entirely for the referee’s benefit. To Miranda she offered nothing but another raised finger and a sharp handful of hair. Craig let her keep at it until the blonde yelped, then he patted Eve’s shoulder and said, “Off the hair, Eve. C’mon, you know you can’t--”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” Miranda interrupted in a tone of feigned sweetness. “Evelyn can pull just as hard as she likes, I want to make sure she’s satisfied she tried absolutely everything in her power and it still wasn’t enough to GGRRRHHHHH!”
Eve pounded a pair of punches against the zealot’s head, then hooked that hand into claw and raked it across opposing forehead again and again, the trapped lass working hard to get free or make Miranda bleed harder, whichever came first. Angered by what she viewed as cheap tactics, the Pious Punisher jerked Eve’s back onto her posted knee half a dozen times, each subsequent yank increasing the pressure on the heathen’s vertebrae.
And yet Eve refused to go gently into that good Midnight. Going back to Wainright’s hair when she understood Long wouldn’t or couldn’t call her for it, Eve fought her way out of that agonizing arch, then shifted her legs and put one foot flat against the mat. The crowd, sensing a resurgence in the making, lent their voices to Choldstone’s efforts and soon the Fallen Angel was rising despite the Cobra Clutch sank deep into her neck. Glad to be back on her feet again, Eve pushed onto tiptoes, then twisted her hips and laid out on her left side to sling Miranda across the mat with an improvised Arm Drag. On her feet in short order after the heathen’s escape, Miranda drew a bead on Eve’s bleeding pate and charged flat out, her right hand already drawing back for the Shotei that’d put her down for--
Eve slipped the blow, dropped down behind Wainright and hooked an arm through her legs, all the better to pull her down into a quick Roll-Up. Miranda was stacked firmly on her shoulders so Castle dove in to count but he didn’t reach ONE before the Monster grabbed a handful of her rival’s waistband and hoisted her from the mat to almost high noon in one colossal yank. Baring her teeth in a feral grin as the audience ‘ooohhhed’ and ‘aaaaahhed’, Eve rose onto her toes and slung Wainright forward and down, just THWHAMMING her against the thinly-sheathed plywood with a brutal Powerbomb. Falling across the splattered zealot in a loose Crossbody, Choldstone hooked one leg and held on through…
ROLL-THROUGH POWERBOMB:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAZP0hypT-s
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Miranda shoved her away and scrambled to all fours, the zealot abruptly eager to put some distance between herself and the black-hearted brunette. A good plan, alas she didn’t get too far before Eve pounced on her prone back. Scissoring her legs around Miranda’s waist in mid-roll, Choldstone trapped Miranda’s left arm in a Half Nelson and coiled her other arm around the blonde’s throat, miring her deep in the Katahajime by the time they’d stopped tumbling.
KATAHAJAME:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jszfrn23toM
Pouring a lot of her reserves into the simple crush / strangle combination, Eve kissed the top of Miranda’s head, then rested her cheek against it. “I get that you’re not scared of me, Miranda,” she grunted. “I may not like it, but I get it. This isn’t about fear, though. This is about you and Brewster and Mayes thinking you could put me and Calliope on the scrap heap without a fight.” She uncrossed and re-crossed her ankles, sinking the Scissors a little tighter as she did so. “You’re getting a fight now, aren’t ya? That whole recruitment angle bullshit you spout’s a whole lot tougher against someone who likes the dark just as much as you.”
Miranda didn’t answer, not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t waste any air on mere words. Silencing the question on the ref’s lips with a murderous glare, Wainright waggled a finger ‘no’ just in case, then crooked that arm at the elbow and slammed it into Choldstone’s ribs. Eve grunted, shook her head ‘no’ and reefed up on the Chokehold that much harder. “Fight it all you want Church-o,” she grunted, “it just means you won’t have the energy to stop me when I get my Gladiatrix shot.” She forced a strong pulse through her thighs and wrenched the Katahajime back ‘n forth, forcing a low groan from the usually stoic battler. “Blood loss and oxygen deprivation are a bad combination, Miranda.” Eve snarked in Wainright’s ear. “Hold out much longer and I could do some NASTY things to you after you’ve EEERRRGGHHH BYTCH!”
Though it was not nearly so elegant as she would’ve preferred, desperate times called for desperate measures and so the Malevolent Moralizer wedged her free hand behind her hips and grabbed hold between Choldstone’s thighs. Eve spat a vile curse but wouldn’t relinquish her own grip, she knew she had the bytch dead to rights and “AAAHHH GAAAAWWD YOU FAHKING BEAST!”
Not happy with the delay in her release, Wainright worked a few fingers through a leg hole and resumed the attack more emphatically than ever. Forced to admit she couldn’t defend against the Claw without some serious adjustment, Choldstone broke the Bodyscissors with a snarl, pulled one knee in tight against her chest and drilled it into Miranda’s back. The fire in her undercarriage dulled for a moment, only to resume stronger than before once Wainright collected her wits.
“Cuuuuhhh… caught in a noose of your own devising, aren’t you Evelyn?” The zealot’s usual subdued menace was back on display as she did her worst under the brunette’s trunks. “I can destroy you even when you believe yourself invincible, such is the power of my faithHEERRRGGGHH!”
Eve smashed away at her back three more times before rolling Wainright onto her stomach. Pushing onto one knee, she bore back on the choke until her foe’s face turned red and Miranda was forced to abandon her grip so she could claw at Eve’s stranglin’ arm. After the firestorm she’d endured below the waist, Choldstone endured the scratching with no grimace at all, in fact she smiled a little when Miranda tried to fight to her knees. “Never said I was invincible, Miranda. But I’m sure as hell tougher than you and that’s all I need tonight.”
Forcing the blonde to her feet when she did the same, Eve snuggled in against Wainright’s left side, making it that much more difficult for her to attack with an Elbow Strike or a kick. After several more hard-hearted yanks, Eve dipped her knees and popped her hips to take the Pious Punisher up, over and DOWN onto the back of her head and shoulders with a murderous Katahajime-plex. Miranda rolled through, fought to her feet and took a few shambling steps before timbering out on one side. The Suplex wasn’t an official finisher but she thought it’d done the job just fine to Eve crawled across the mat, shoved Wainright onto her back and hooked both legs for the…
BRUTAL:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKObLwjacxU
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Miranda bucked loose within an ace of defeat to earn a shocked jeer from the crowd and an incredulous snarl from Eve. Satisfied with the broken doll sprawl of her rival’s frame, the Fallen Angel got to her feet, picked out the most appropriate perch and trudged to it as quick as she could. Electing to leap from the canvas to the top floor without bothering to slip onto the apron, Eve swung around and stood tall, much to the delight of everyone who wasn’t Miranda Wainright.
“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SAY THIS,” Choldstone bellowed to the sea of FAWNatics, “BUT THIS CHURCH PICNIC IS ABOUT TO GET DIVEBOMBED BY A GARGOY--HEY! LONG, DO YOUR JOB AND GET HER OUT OF HERE!”
The ‘her’ in question was Adelaide Brewster, who’d materialized out of the front row only moments prior. Understandably distracted by the Queen of the Madhouse, Craig set to warning Adelaide away from any mischief, which meant he was oblivious when Tiffany Mayes sprang onto the narrow ledge just beside Eve. The Queen of Hearts grabbed Choldstone’s ankles and managed a couple sharp tugs before Eve plunged a hand into her hair and pulled her head straight up.
PPPHHFWWOOOOSH! She blew a cloud of portable midnight into Tiffany’s face, sending her tumbling off the apron in a shrieking tangle of girl-flesh.
“That’s one down. One preoccupied. And one…” Eve straightened up and looked down at Miranda, who was just regaining her feet. “…about to be flattened.”
Wainright looked up like the words were a talisman so the Monster leapt, raised her knees to chest level and--Miranda spun aside and struck the brunette’s lower back with both hands as she passed. Denied a viable target and spun wildly off course, Choldstone THAWHAMMED down on her back with enough force to make even the most jaded viewer groan in sympathetic anguish.
Miranda on the other hand felt only disgust for this mewling, bleeding creature that dared oppose her plans. Stalking the wounded brunette from afar, Wainright pulled her left hand back and raised it high, looking for all the world like a revivalist preacher looking to suck the wickedness out of some poor suffering soul. Who’s to say that wasn’t exactly what she had in mind? “RISE!” Miranda thundered from her canvas pulpit. “RISE EVELYN LILITH CHOLDSTONE AND OFFER YOURSELF TO THE STYGIAN DEPTHS OF MIDNIGHT!”
A short distance away Eve heard the taunt and hissed her rage. Shoving the pain aside to better focus on removing the zealot’s head from her shoulders, Choldstone rolled onto her stomach, then sprang to her feet and charged Wainright flat out. Right arm cranked all the way back, she swung a jaw-breaking Lariat at the spot that would’ve contained Miranda’s face if the blonde hadn’t dipped low at the last possible second. Rounding on a dime, Eve lunged and THWAAAAACK! Miranda’s left hand struck her chest like a lightning bolt, the weary Frightener turned upside down and inside out by the match-stopping power of the Shotei.
SHOTEI @ 00:25
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpoRt8nFd5E
Glaring down at the smoldering ruin laid at her feet, Wainright rubbed a hand across her forehead and back into her hair, leaving a vivid red streak that proved memorable enough to earn her ‘pic of the day’ honors at FAWN.com the next morning. “There have been many nights when I’ve been accused of spilling innocent blood, Evelyn. But tonight will not be one of them.”
No response from the bloodied Monster so Miranda helped herself to a double handful of hair and dragged her to all fours. This led to a Standing Headscissors which in turn allowed Wainright to wrap both arms around Eve’s waist and swing her up onto the point of right shoulder. Carefully halving her Waistlock, the Malevolent Moralizer tucked Choldstone’s shins against her thighs, then cupped the brunette’s chin, first in one hand and then the other. With the back of Eve’s neck and skull pulled snug against the crown of her head, Miranda pushed onto her toes and dropped to her butt. It’d been a while since FAWN had seen Thou Shalt Not! and absence has not made the heart grow fonder, if the deluge of boos were any indication. Poor Eve didn’t hear a single one. Whiplashed into next week by the vile Neckbreaker, her head lolled for a second or two while she slumped on her knees. Then she slopped forward onto her chest and didn’t so much as twitch when Wainright shot the Half Nelson. Straddling her victim’s waist, Miranda spread her arms wide and leaned her head back, turning the both of them into a suitable offering to the Goddess of the…
THOU SHALT NOT!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Czt7H-flQo
ONE…
TWO…
THREE!
Miranda looked ahead but she kept her arms stretched while the Announcer called, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via pin-fall… MIRANDA WAINRIGHT!”
She was still straddling the insensate brunette when she was joined by Adelaide and Tiffany, the latter looking bleary and furious after encountering the Black Mist. “Gonna enjoy a few laps, Miranda?” Adelaide asked with a smirk. “If she’s anything like the other freak she rides like a dream.”
Miranda sighed and shook her head ‘no’. “A bloodied heathen makes for a wonderful offering but a terrible throne. No, I believe there’s enough pride left in this one to warrant another sermon, one that will see her left in a pool not of blood, but of shame.”
This seemed to please Brewster, Tiffany on the other hand was still fuming. “Let me put her out for good, Miranda, please! This one’s polluted our darkness for far too long.”
“I agree. And we will. Just not tonight.” Wainright said soothingly. “After all, what’s the point of inflicting a wound if we never get a chance to see the scars they leave behind? Rest assured sister, this heretic and her pet lunatic have only begun to suffer. By the time we’re finished they’ll lament the fact that we didn’t destroy them tonight.”
Miranda raised a foot, placed it against Eve’s chest and held her arms at shoulder level. “Our faith in the Darkness has been rewarded twice tonight, sisters. Let us offer it the proper benediction. “Legends die when Monsters fall…” Brewster and Mayes mirrored Adelaide’s position and when the Church spoke next it was with one voice. “And Midnight comes for one and all.”
EAST JESUS NOWHERE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uA4cM1xrDI
Gloom descended upon the Madhouse basement even as the jeers rose to meet it. An angry, judgmental voice from deep back in the speakers promised, ‘And we will see how godless a nation we have become.’ From that bitter fruit blossomed Green Day’s ‘East Jesus Nowhere’, a simple riff that was repeated four times. Following every cycle a spotlight lit up to reveal a scarecrow-ish effigy mounted to a tall wooden stave that had grown up seemingly in an instant. The effigies, done up in a style best described as ‘Early American Psychopath’, were simple but easily recognizable. First came Nyssa Bloodwind, then Jenny Jacobs and Calliope. When the light illuminated an Eve-figure on the last stake the drums started to pound and a fifth spotlight revealed the Deacon of Destruction.
MIRANDA WAINRIGHT:
For her battle on this most sacred of evenings Miranda wore the night black version of her usual vinyl one-piece. Scooped low in the back and high over the hips, it was accompanied by clunky knee-high gray boots and black elbow-length mesh gloves. As for her hair, it was still a lustrous, gleaming gold, its radiance seemingly in defiance of all the vile filth surrounding her. Immune to the ranting and raving of that astounding number of heathens , Miranda started down the aisle and kept her eyes on the squared circle until she reached the foot of the steel steps. Taking them slowly, she reached the apron, dipped her head and carefully removed her hat, which she set atop the ring post.
Once in the ring, she turned to the stage and extended both arms out at shoulder level in a rough ‘T’. After a moment she brought her palms together as if in prayer and that was enough to make the quartet of effigies burst into flame. Smiling into the dancing fire, Wainright held her position until they were reduced to cinder and ash. Then she backed into a corner on the opposite side of the ring and allowed referee Craig Long to check her boots and pads. “Tell me, Craig. Are you squeamish when it comes to the sight of heretical blood spilled in copious quantities?”
He grimaced at the mental picture those words conjured up. “Ummmmh, can’t say I’ve ever seen blood, heretical or otherwise, spilled in copious amounts, Miranda.”
“Delightful.” she smiled. “Then tonight should prove quite special for both of us.”
Unaware of the gruesome conversation inside the ring, the Announcer went on. “And introducing her opponent, hailing from Arkham Massachusetts, she stands at five feet five inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and nineteen pounds. She is the Creeping Terror, the Lurking Fear, the Haunter of the Dark! Allow me to bring to you, EVE CHOLDSTONE!”
EVE CHOLDSTONE:
That special combination of syllables provoked a scream from the sound system, which in turn sent the Madhouse lights into a fluttering panic, each and every one of them guttering and sputtering as if in the grip of a daemonic wind. Adding to the overall strangeness was the sulfurous green mist seeping up through the floor of the stage. Over this eerie tableau came a warbling guitar and the FAWNatics bellowed a raucous cheer as ’Helter Skelter’ rolled on. Beatlemaniacs old and new sprang to their feet and when Sir Paul started to sing, they joined in.
HELTER SKELTER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=av4x6nZlefc
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and then I go for a ride
'Til I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeah, yeah, yeah!
The third ‘yeah’ summoned a shadow from the fog and a deeper, rumbling roar issued from the throats of those fans that liked their brunette’s wicked and their heroine’s anti. Outwardly bemused by but inwardly grateful for this support, Eve Choldstone paused atop the stage and said, “It‘s Halloween, people. Here comes your one good scare!” Then the black-hearted brunette threw back her head and pressed the tip of her left thumb against the right side of her throat. Twisting her head even as she drew the dagger across her neck, Eve bared her teeth in a wolfish grin then started toward the ring and the miserable pulpit princess that’d made her professional life a living hell as of late.
Seemingly imbued with the power of Halloween itself, Choldstone sported a black leather bikini emblazoned with an orange, wispy cobweb design. Her boots and pads were of the same glossy black and the look was finished with a battered pair of fingerless leather gloves. Moving through the fog like she‘d been born in it, (this might have been true for all the fans knew) Eve stormed up the steps, then wiped her boots on the apron and vaulted over the ropes. Storming straight to mid-ring she would’ve pressed on to Wainright’s corner if Long hadn’t stepped in her way and raised a hand. “No need to rush it, Eve. You’ll get her soon enough, I’ve just gotta check to make sure you’re not carrying any blades.” Eve rolled her eyes. “Now where the hell’s the fun in that?” Acquiescing only because it meant she’d get her hands on the zealot faster, Choldstone backed into the opposite corner and suffered through a few more seconds of non-violence.
Any normal woman would’ve been terrified by the mere prospect of facing Eve Choldstone at the Madhouse, let alone the reality of facing Eve Choldstone in the Madhouse at All Hallows Evil in a match that wouldn’t truly begin until one or both competitors had spilled blood on the canvas. And so it made perfect sense that Miranda Wainright pushed off the buckles and strutted to the center of the squared circle like she didn’t have a worry in the world.
Utterly fearless in spite of the ‘EVE IS GONNA KILL YOU!’ chants rained down upon her by the sinners, Miranda spread her arms wide and turned in a wide circle. “Do you hear them, Evelyn?” she called to the black-hearted brunette. “Can you FEEL them? Tonight, when you’re at the height of your powers, you have the chance to prove once and for all that I am nothing but a charlatan. A fraud and a huckster while you yourself are every bit the monster you claim to be. Will you do what needs to be done, Evelyn? Or will you fail, as you have so often done in the past?”
By way of answer Eve stormed out of the corner and walked straight into the Malevolent Moralizer. Chesting in hard enough to force Miranda back a step, Choldstone held her ground when the blonde returned her grind just as forcefully. “I don’t know if you’re a fraud Wainright and frankly I don’t give a shit either way. All I care about is how you and your friends have fucked with my life these last few months. For THAT, I will consecrate this ring with your blood.”
“It’ll take more than blood to put me down, Evelyn.” Miranda purred. “It’ll take a strong heart as well. And that’s one thing you’ve NEVER NNGGH!”
Eve slammed a Headbutt between Wainright’s eyes, sending her back several steps. The Prophet of Pain immediately checked her nose and lips and found no red there. Any relief she felt over this discovery was strongly tempered when Choldstone chided, “Don’t worry sweetie, I wouldn’t bust you open that fast. Wanna make sure your pulse is racing first, then these nice people will really get their money’s worth.”
Miranda wiped the sheen from her eyes, then stretched her arms wide. “Come to me then, you miserable wretch. Come to my Church and we shall give these baying hounds the blood they so des-”
Eve charged, sprang and would’ve put a boot in the zealot’s mouth if Miranda hadn’t dipped beneath it at the last second. Rolling through off the missed Heel Kick, Choldstone popped to verticality and immediately threw herself into a gorgeous bridge to avoid the Running Palm Strike Miranda hurled at her chin. Left on her palms and tiptoes in the wake of the evasion, the Fallen Angel pushed up and charged her blonde, who was just turning around. Taking to the skies again she meant to jam her raised knees into Wainright’s shoulders and ride her all the way to the canvas but the Malevolent Moralizer palmed her knees in mid-air and shoved back, forcing Eve to land awkwardly on the canvas before her.
Electing simplicity over finesse, Miranda spiked a Toe Kick into Choldstone’s navel, then turned around and ran the ropes to the vulnerable woman’s left. Wainright returned with a full head of steam, hopped up and raised her right leg that much higher, meaning to stamp down on the base of Eve’s skull. Unfortunately for her the Frightener twisted clear at the last moment, leaving the Churchgoer’s boot to THWHUMP! against empty canvas. Already in motion by the time Wainright’s boot hit the mat, Choldstone hopped onto her shoulders from behind, voluntarily assuming the dangerous Electric Chair position. Far from the act of a lunatic, Eve crossed her ankles to make the Headscissors that much more secure, then started PWAAKING short little punches into her opponent’s hairline.
Miranda, knowing how quickly a brawler like Choldstone could open a wound with knuckles alone, wasted no time in reaching up and grabbing two handfuls of leather briefs. “EEERRRGGGHHH BYTCH!” Eve snarled as the wedgie tore into her undercarriage. Shifting her grip the moment she felt Choldstone’s ankles unlock, Wainright took a few shambling steps toward the ropes and pushed as hard as she could, meaning to drop the heretic throat-first across the rubber-coated steel.
But Eve must’ve sensed those less than pure intentions because she raised her knees and pressed her feet against the blonde’s chest, which allowed her to kick off and knock Wainright back a few steps in the process. Adjusting on the fly, Eve landed with both feet on the top rope, looked over one shoulder and bounced back the way she’d come.
Genuinely startled by the brunette’s agile counter, Miranda slowed down just long enough for Choldstone to bust off a mid-air spin and land on her shoulders again, albeit from the front. No punches this time around, Eve only crossed her ankles and torqued her hips, swinging down and around in pendulum smooth half circle that flipped Miranda off her feet and onto her back with heavy THUD!
Too preoccupied with the preacher’s blood to pay any attention to the cheers of the inmates, Eve scrambled to her feet and bull-rushed the recovering blonde, bowling her over flat before she was halfway to boot-leather. Seated on her tush off to Wainright’s left (her feet pointed beyond the other woman’s head) Eve curled her left arm around Miranda’s neck and yanked her head off the mat. With the Churchgoer’s cheek stuffed against the swell of her breast, Choldstone resumed her previous task, just pounding and bashing away at her rival’s forehead.
Kicking and squirming, Miranda didn’t have much use blocking the blows with her hands, so she twisted her head to the side and burrowed her face into the hollow created by Eve’s armpit and breast. “That’s not exactly a sound strategy, sweetie.” The Monster tightened the Headlock and pulled Wainright’s features in a little deeper, earning a muffled squeal. “Just means you’ll be unconscious and smellin’ like my pits when I bust you OOOOOWWWWWWW FAAAAAHK!”
Miranda chomped down on the soft flesh of Choldstone’s underarm and while she didn’t *think* it broke the skin she wasn’t about to let the bytch keep chewing. Burying both hands in Wainright’s golden locks, she reared up then shoved down, just BWUNKING the back of her head against the canvas. “Gonna be good?” she muttered to the dazed wrestler. “If not I’ll happily rattle your sick little brains some AAAAAAHHH GODDAMMIT!” While Wainright’s vision was understandably impaired, her hearing was still doing just fine and focusing on Eve’s voice allowed her to raaaaaaaake her nails across the brunette’s eyes. The need to protect her eyes finally forced Choldstone to break the Headlock which in turn let Miranda scuttle to freedom.
Coming to rest with her back against the ropes, the smudgy-faced true believer wiped the scent and taste of blasphemer from her lips, all while never taking her eyes off said blasphemer. Right hand pressed to the pink crescent Wainright left in her wake, Eve got to her feet and started toward her rival but was intercepted by Craig Long. “Let me see, Eve. Did she draw blood?” She pulled her hand aside and raised her left arm, revealing an angry welt but no blood.
That satisfied the official so he stepped aside and let the Monster continue on her way. “Biting and clawing already, church lady?” Eve growled as she closed in on the seated blonde. “Sounds like someone who’s already feeling despEERRGGGH!”
Miranda pulled her right knee up to her chest then pistoned her foot forward and kicked the Fallen Angel square in the left shin. Leg thrown back by the force of the strike, Eve lost her balance and tumbled forward, a fall made all the more unpleasant because her throat TWAAANGED across the bottom strand. Suddenly short of breath, she tried to roll away only to find herself pinned to the mat because Miranda had straddled her back.
“You of all people have no right to accuse others of desperate behavior.” Wainright leaned over the second strand, grabbed Choldstone’s biceps and lifted them up n’ back, all the better to drape them across the ropes. “After all your entire existence is a study in desperation. Desperate to escape the mother who couldn’t stand you. Desperate to regain the father who couldn’t remem--”
“Don’t you EVER talk about him, bytch.” Eve growled through clenched teeth. “Not unless you want to scream so loud it EEERRGGGGGHHHH!”
With the brunette’s arms effectively neutralized, Miranda hooked her fingers into claws, slipped them into the sides of Eve’s mouth and reeeeeeeefed back on a brutal fishhook-augmented Camel Clutch. “Don’t think you can make demands of me, Evelyn. Not when I have the power to change what the mirror shows you every morning.” As evidence of her control she bore down on the Clutch and jerked back on her hooks to stretch Eve’s smile all the wider. “You see, little girl?” she purred after five more seconds of torture. “THIS is the power of Midnight. It cares not for what you claim to be, only what you truly are. And you are nothing more than a bawling child terrified to admit she’s afraid of the dark!”
Choldstone had no way of defending herself, be it verbally or physically, which was why the Malevolent Moralizer took so much delight in extricating one set of fingers from her foe’s mouth only to work them into her nose instead. Doing her level best to peel the skin from Eve’s face from two directions at once, Miranda ground the sturdy curve of her glutes into the small of the brunette’s back and kept pouring pressure into the Clutch. To her credit, Choldstone fought it every step of the way, but with her arms trapped by the ropes and the rules on this sort of match nebulous when it came to honoring breaks, she could do little more than writhe and groan while Wainright ministered to her.
“Beg.” Miranda murmured in her foe’s left ear. “Beg me for mercy this instant and you have my word I’ll honor it the instant your blood stains my hands or this canvas.”
Eve shook her head ‘no’ even though doing so sent an unpleasant twinge of pain through her neck. “Nuuuuhhhh…neeeffhheeer.” she gurgled. “Yullhaftagillmefirdbidge.”
Pretty face creased with a deep frown, Miranda asked, “Considering all the misery you’ve brought this world, what makes you think I won’t consiDEEERRRGGHHHHH YOU CRAVEN SAVAGE!”
Eve had finally managed to work Miranda’s intruding fingers between her teeth and bit down with every intention of giving the blonde that veteran woodshop teacher look. Miranda however was inclined to keep all her digits so she abandoned the nose hook and promptly raaaaaaaaaked her fingers across Choldstone’s eyes. That stopped the chewing readily enough, unfortunately for Eve it did nothing to alleviate Wainright’s rage, which burned brighter than ever.
Jerking her watery-eyed adversary out of the strands, Miranda marched her over to the nearest corner and BWUUUNGED her forehead against the top turnbuckle with a whole lotta spite. “All right Miranda, that’s enough of that!” Craig barked when it looked like the zealot was about to resume her face-shredding ways. “This is still a wrestling match and I will not have either of you trying to maim the other! Are we clear?”
Wainright didn’t bother to reply or even look at the ref until she’d turned Choldstone’s back to the corner. “I understand. You’re here to uphold the rules of this sacred battleground. So am I. But where your powers are limited to mere speech, I am allowed to punish those who would so defile these hallowed grounds. Take this pathetic creature, for instance. It’s time she learned a valuable lesson.”
Miranda reached out with her right hand and grabbed hold of Eve’s hair. “Repeat after me, Evelyn. See no evil.” The admonition was passing hr lips when she jabbed her left thumb into the brunette’s eye. Eve yelped and tried to reach for her watering peeper but Miranda brushed them aside and kept on sermonizing. “Repeat after me, Evelyn. Hear no evil.” Breaking the hair-hold she stretched her arms wide, then CLAPPED both hands against the sides of Choldstone’s skull with a nasty Ear Ringer. The black-hearted went to cradle her head again and this time Wainright didn’t interfere. Rather she resumed her own grip on Eve’s dark locks and used it to march her out into the center of the ring. Swinging around so the heathen was at arm’s length, Miranda delivered her last command. “Repeat after me, Evelyn. Speak no evil.” Then she flattened her right hand into a spade and jabbed the tips of her fingers into the hollow of Eve’s throat with a vicious thrust that brought the Monster to her knees.
Miranda nodded once, leaned over and quickly pulled her left kneepad down to mid-shin. “Very good, Evelyn. That sort of devotional showing is appreciated by the Church of Eternal Midnight. But if you want to prove your commitment you will have to bleed. And quite copiously, I should add.”
One hand on her burning throat, the other on her abraded eyes, Eve looked up at the Malevolent Moralizer and huffed, “I gotta know, what is in that fucking Kool-Aid and can you hook me up with your UUNNNGGH!”
Wainright grabbed hold of her hair, tugged her forward and drilled a bare Kneelift into her rival’s forehead. Hardly satisfied with a single blow, the blonde dragged Eve upright, then wedged in against her left side and slapped on a Half Nelson. Reaching around the back of Choldstone’s head with her right hand, Miranda captured the heathen’s twitching left wrist and pulled it snug against her neck to complete the Cobra Clutch. Neither lass had shed a drop of blood yet so Wainright didn’t waste any time trying to garner a submission. Instead she forced the trapped woman to bend over double, making her an easy target for the Kneelifts Miranda started thwhunk-thwhunk-THWHUNKING! into her forehead.
While you’d think series of blows to the head would be the last thing to clear it, Eve felt her earlier fogginess burning off as Wainright sought to bust her open. She defended against that eventuality with her free hand, but with the Cobra Clutch still doing its thing Choldstone knew she had to escape sooner rather than later. Taking a calculated risk, she let Miranda’s latest Kneelift strike her square in the forehead, then she groaned and dropped to one knee.
The Prophet of Pain paused and jostled the Clutch a little. “Seeing red yet, Evelyn?”
“Nuuhhh….nope.” Eve put a little extra groggy in her voice for good measure. “Gonna have to try harder, preach.”
The coil across her neck drew noticeably tighter. “Yes. It appears I will.” Miranda bent down to haul Choldstone up and that’s when the Fallen Angel hooked her right arm behind the blonde’s left knee. Surging onto her tiptoes as fast as she could, Eve swung Miranda down and sat out full force, just TWHAMMING the incredulous lovely into the canvas with a Sit-Out Spinebuster while still mired in the Clutch!
SIT-OUT SPINEBUSTER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvDEumcrmIo
That broke up as soon as the back of Wainright’s head bounced off the mat of course, but glad as she was to breathe freely again, Eve didn’t pause to savor it for more than a couple seconds. After that brief reprieve she laid her ankles atop Miranda’s biceps and reached through the blonde’s splayed legs to CRAAACK her across the cheek a few times.
“Tried to rip my face off, bytch.” Eve snarled. “Think that means I’m allowed to return the favor, no questions asked.”
That wasn’t quite true, as evidenced by the expression on Craig Long’s face, but the zebra didn’t immediately interject when the Haunter of the Dark laid one hand across Miranda’s forehead and crooked the other over her bottom jaw. Pushing up on the former while tugging down on the latter, Eve’s lips curled into a ferocious grin when Wainright started to thrash and gurgle. “Hey, I got an idea for your Halloween costume! You can be the world’s biggest, craziest judgmental asshole doing her impression of a Pez dispenser!”
Unable to use her hands to repel the heathen’s gnashing claws, Wainright jerked her head from side to side, but Eve’s hooks were set so deep she could exert total control by simply pulling a little harder. “So did you ever have your tonsils out?” Choldstone asked in a tone of jovial cruelty. “No wait, don’t tell me, I want to see for myself. Open wide and say aaaaaaaaaaahhhhmm a miserable bytCHHEERRGGGHH!”
Miranda crooked her left leg tight over Eve’s shoulder, then pulled her right foot back and kicked her square in the forehead. The brunette groaned and fell back, her face-shredding talons forgotten in the rush to make sure she wasn’t busted open. Her temples throbbed but everything else seemed to be intact, so Choldstone clambered to her feet and promptly planted ‘em both in the pit of Miranda’s stomach with a short Double Stomp.
“I keep trying to afford you the courtesy deserved by a woman of… whatever cloth it is you are,” Eve growled at the gasping blonde, “but you insist on doing everything possible to piss me off. So as of now the gloves are off.” She undid the Velcro strips at each wrist and peeled off her gloves one right after the other. “And the pads are coming down.” Sure enough she hooked a thumb into her left Kneepad and pulled it down, then repeated the process on its twin.
Meanwhile Wainright struggled to one knee and worked to catch her breath. “Removing the armor doesn’t make you more fearsome, Evelyn.” the blonde rasped. “Indeed it only shows the world just how vulnerable you are under all that trumpery YEERRRRGGGHHH!”
Eve lunged in, grabbed a double handful of hair and raised her right boot all in the same heartbeat. Stuffing the laces of her right boot against the side of the zealot’s face, the Fallen Angel stamped down, which in turn raaaaaaaaaked her laces from forehead to chin. “What’re you without your followers, Miranda?” Eve punctuated the question with another nasty Bootscrape. “Without your church? (SCRAAAPE!) Without your lies? (SCRAAAPE!) Without your voice? (SCRAAAPE!) I’ll tell you what you are. (SCRAAAPE!) Nothing but a rambling street corner prophet who couldn’t predict six at five thirty!”
Choldstone piled on another SCRAAAPE, then reared back with her right knee and THWONKED the Malevolent Moralizer just above her left eyebrow. Miranda sprawled onto her back in a heap and Eve was sure she’d drawn blood, but a quick inspection from Long proved the zealot’s face was merely pink instead of red. Sighing a combination of frustration and disgust, Eve circled around to Miranda’s noggin, snatched a handful of hair and dragged the woozy warrior to her knees. “Penance looks good on you, sweetheart.” Choldstone chided. “Any sins you’d like to confess while you’re down there?”
There was hair hanging in Wainright’s face but Eve saw the blonde’s shoulders twitch and she knew the bytch had snorted at her. “As a matter of fact, I do have something to confess, Evelyn.” Miranda raised her head and smiled sadly. “I’m heartily sorry I let you walk the earth unchallenged for as long as I NNNGGHH!”
Posted up at her foe’s two o’clock, the Haunter of the Dark braced flat on her left foot and THWAPPED a stiff kick across the Churchgoer’s chest. Miranda swayed backward, then forward, meaning she was leaning in when Choldstone THWAPPED her with the second kick. Three more followed with no resistance from Wainright, nor did any miraculously appear when Eve reset her feet and THWHACKED a Roundhouse off her prey’s skull.
CHOLD COMBO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FAufH7tGpU
Miranda’s head snapped to the side and she would’ve pitched to the canvas in a heap if the Monster hadn’t rushed forward and caught her in a loose Front Facelock. Kicking her right leg way back as soon as the grip was secure, Eve whipped it forward and laid out on her back to THWONK Miranda’s forehead into the canvas with a sawed off DDT.
SHORT DDT:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7EufKbsAdg
Wainright bounced over onto her back and Choldstone dog-piled at once, the black-hearted brunette snatching both her foe’s legs in a greedy cradle. Miranda was the perfect example of ‘shoulders down, ass up’ so where was her goddamned count? After four full seconds of nothing, she tossed Wainright’s gams away and bounded to boot leather. “What the hell, Long?” she shouted at the official. “Did you convert and not tell anybody?”
He shook his head and pointed a finger to the blonde, forcing Eve to follow along. “Her shoulders might be down, but she’s not bleeding. If she’s not bleeding I can’t make a count!”
Eve scowled incredulously. “The hell she isn’t! I teed off on her goddamned skull!”
“The arbiter is right, Evelyn.” The Prophet of Pain sat up and pressed one hand to the left side of her face, then held it out to her attacker, revealing a maddening lack of claret. “Unleash all the ferocity at your disposal but the blows of a heretic shall never bloody the skin of the truly devOOOFFFHH!”
Eve spiked a Low Dropkick into the pit of Wainright’s stomach, anything to stop her yammering for a few seconds. “All right, fine. If this heretic can’t make you bleed, she’ll have to find something that can.”
While Miranda’s hair seemed an odd place to start, that didn’t stop Eve from plunging both hands into her rival’s flaxen mane. Peeling the church-o off the mat, Choldstone cupped her at the scruff of the neck, charged to a corner on the far side of the ring and BWUUUNGED her into top turnbuckle. Miranda bounced, swooned and almost crumpled before she hooked an arm over the top rope. Satisfied the zealot could use a few moments to at least try to pray for deliverance, Eve looked over her shoulder and asked the ref, “This match is No DQ, right?”
Craig didn’t much like the implication of that question, but it was his duty to enforce the rules, so he nodded after a moment. “Yes. Long as you don’t try to tear her face off. Brass frowns on that sort of thing.”
“That’s just what I wanted to hear. Now give me your belt.”
“Excuse me?”
“Give. Me. Your. Belt. Or I’ll take it. And if I have to take it, I’ll do it in a way your girlfriend won’t like.”
The last thing Craig needed was a dark-eyed, dark-haired bombshell like Eve Choldstone trying to disrobe him while the GF was in attendance, so he reluctantly undid the clasp and handed it over.
“Good boy, stripes. Now just sit back and relax while I--” The Fallen Angel of Arkham whipped around, cranked back her arm and CRAAAAAAACKED a wicked leather kiss across the nearly bare expanse of Miranda’s back. Wainright jolted and shrieked all at once, but she didn’t drop to her knees, indeed she seemed to grip the top rope that much tighter. “ Sucking in breath through clenched teeth, she glared over one shoulder and asked, “Well? I don’t feel any blood flowing yet, Evelyn.”
Eve shook her head, genuinely stunned by the blonde’s gall. “You will, bytch. You will.”
After that Choldstone unloaded at a manic pace, lashing her foe across the shoulders and upper back almost a dozen times in less than ten seconds. Though the welts she left grew progressively nastier, Eve still couldn’t seem to break the skin and more to the point, her shoulder was aching something fierce. Half mad with determination now, she wrapped Craig’s belt around her right fist, then spun Miranda around to face her and hopped onto the middle turnbuckle. With the buckle wedged over a few fingers like an odd set of brass knux, Eve drew a bead on the blonde’s hairline and snarled.
“Buckle up, sweetheart. The first time can be a bit… messy.”
Then her punchin’ hand was pistoning up ‘n down, up n’ down, knuckles and buckle caroming off Miranda’s forehead until, “YEAH!” Eve stopped hammering and ran her thumb through the thin stream of red trickling from the cut above her foe’s left eye. Cupping Miranda’s skull at crown and chin, Choldstone pivoted to one side and stuffed the blonde’s cheek against her hip so the zebra could get a good look at her handiwork. “That good enough for you, buddy?” she demanded of the official. “Go ahead and get in close. Hell, have a taste if you’d like. I want everyone to know that isn’t corn syrup and red number WHOOAHH NNNNNGGGHHH!”
Miranda wrapped her arms around Eve’s upper thighs, took a tottering step forward, then pushed up on her toes and dropped Choldstone onto the glittering steel ring of the turnbuckle she’d exposed during her flogging. The Monster hit it full force, her head snapping back hard enough to buckle her knees. She was in the process of dropping when Wainright slipped an arm around her waist and muscled her back to boot-leather. Turning Eve around so her back was wedged roughly against the corner.
“It would seem you and I share a common injury, Evelyn.” Miranda put a hand against Eve’s brow, pushed her hair back and sure enough, there was a nasty gash dripping blood down the side of the brunette’s face. “But whereas you are content to draw first blood, I strive to draw the MOST blood.”
“Talkin’s not gonna get it done, bytch.” Choldstone growled as she tried to push free of her predicament, one hand instinctively hooking into a claw to worsen the wound she’d opened on the blonde. “And I bet deep down you’re a lot more squeamish than EERRRGGHHHHH!”
The Malevolent Moralizer POUNDED a Kneelift into her rival’s crotch, then piled on another simply so she could enjoy the anguish in Eve’s eyes a little while longer. Pressed in chest-to-chest with her shuddering prey, Miranda put her lips to Eve’s ear and whispered, “If you wish to have the slightest hope of defeating me, you have to accept one undeniable truth. I am not afraid of you, Evelyn.”
Choldstone started to respond but Wainright was far more interested in expounding than listening, so she took the brunette’s left wrist in both hands, stepped clear and hurled her across the ring on a sharp diagonal. Though her legs were considerably weakened following the low blows, Eve maintained her stride for the entire trip. In fact she maintained it a bit too well because the Fallen Angel didn’t even start to slow down until she’d turned around and BWUUUNGED against the opposite buckles.
Any relief Choldstone might’ve felt at maintaining verticality were dashed almost immediately, as she discovered Wainright only a few steps behind. Taking flight as soon as she saw the heathen’s eyes, Miranda landed with one foot on the middle rope and her other knee THWUNKED against the cut on Eve’s forehead. Helping herself to a Side Headlock even before she dropped to the mat, the Prophet of Pain took off back the way she’d came with Choldstone shambling along in her wake. Miranda sprang when they reached center ring, a high, vaulting arc that carried both women several more feet before gravity put the blonde down on her tush and Eve down on her face, the latter with a thunderous THWHAM!
HIGH KNEE & RUNNING BULLDOG:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-BsYU6ta44
Choldstone bounced up and flopped onto her back and since she finally could, Miranda spread out across her chest and cradled the far leg for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Eve shot a shoulder up and rolled onto her side to prevent an immediate follow-up. Confident that the non-believer wouldn’t be up and moving without some motivation, Miranda took the opportunity to dab at the cut on her forehead. While it wasn’t deep it was bleeding more than she would’ve liked, though thankfully the blood had traced along the ridge of her brow rather than trickling over and into her eye. When she’d wiped off as much as she could the blonde dragged Eve to a seat and applied a Half Nelson on her left arm. Then she grabbed that wrist in her right hand and jerked it across Choldstone’s throat, completing the Cobra Clutch.
Always willing to make things more painful if she could, Miranda planted her right knee behind the penitent battler and pulled her down and back, slowly streeeeeeeeeetching Eve’s spine across her thigh in a clever Backbreaker. “I’ve waited a long time to ask you this, Evelyn.” Wainright purred after several seconds of fitful struggle from the other woman. “Tell me, do you surrender?”
Eve waggled a finger ‘no’, but it was entirely for the referee’s benefit. To Miranda she offered nothing but another raised finger and a sharp handful of hair. Craig let her keep at it until the blonde yelped, then he patted Eve’s shoulder and said, “Off the hair, Eve. C’mon, you know you can’t--”
“Oh, I don’t mind.” Miranda interrupted in a tone of feigned sweetness. “Evelyn can pull just as hard as she likes, I want to make sure she’s satisfied she tried absolutely everything in her power and it still wasn’t enough to GGRRRHHHHH!”
Eve pounded a pair of punches against the zealot’s head, then hooked that hand into claw and raked it across opposing forehead again and again, the trapped lass working hard to get free or make Miranda bleed harder, whichever came first. Angered by what she viewed as cheap tactics, the Pious Punisher jerked Eve’s back onto her posted knee half a dozen times, each subsequent yank increasing the pressure on the heathen’s vertebrae.
And yet Eve refused to go gently into that good Midnight. Going back to Wainright’s hair when she understood Long wouldn’t or couldn’t call her for it, Eve fought her way out of that agonizing arch, then shifted her legs and put one foot flat against the mat. The crowd, sensing a resurgence in the making, lent their voices to Choldstone’s efforts and soon the Fallen Angel was rising despite the Cobra Clutch sank deep into her neck. Glad to be back on her feet again, Eve pushed onto tiptoes, then twisted her hips and laid out on her left side to sling Miranda across the mat with an improvised Arm Drag. On her feet in short order after the heathen’s escape, Miranda drew a bead on Eve’s bleeding pate and charged flat out, her right hand already drawing back for the Shotei that’d put her down for--
Eve slipped the blow, dropped down behind Wainright and hooked an arm through her legs, all the better to pull her down into a quick Roll-Up. Miranda was stacked firmly on her shoulders so Castle dove in to count but he didn’t reach ONE before the Monster grabbed a handful of her rival’s waistband and hoisted her from the mat to almost high noon in one colossal yank. Baring her teeth in a feral grin as the audience ‘ooohhhed’ and ‘aaaaahhed’, Eve rose onto her toes and slung Wainright forward and down, just THWHAMMING her against the thinly-sheathed plywood with a brutal Powerbomb. Falling across the splattered zealot in a loose Crossbody, Choldstone hooked one leg and held on through…
ROLL-THROUGH POWERBOMB:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAZP0hypT-s
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Miranda shoved her away and scrambled to all fours, the zealot abruptly eager to put some distance between herself and the black-hearted brunette. A good plan, alas she didn’t get too far before Eve pounced on her prone back. Scissoring her legs around Miranda’s waist in mid-roll, Choldstone trapped Miranda’s left arm in a Half Nelson and coiled her other arm around the blonde’s throat, miring her deep in the Katahajime by the time they’d stopped tumbling.
KATAHAJAME:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jszfrn23toM
Pouring a lot of her reserves into the simple crush / strangle combination, Eve kissed the top of Miranda’s head, then rested her cheek against it. “I get that you’re not scared of me, Miranda,” she grunted. “I may not like it, but I get it. This isn’t about fear, though. This is about you and Brewster and Mayes thinking you could put me and Calliope on the scrap heap without a fight.” She uncrossed and re-crossed her ankles, sinking the Scissors a little tighter as she did so. “You’re getting a fight now, aren’t ya? That whole recruitment angle bullshit you spout’s a whole lot tougher against someone who likes the dark just as much as you.”
Miranda didn’t answer, not because she didn’t want to, but because she didn’t waste any air on mere words. Silencing the question on the ref’s lips with a murderous glare, Wainright waggled a finger ‘no’ just in case, then crooked that arm at the elbow and slammed it into Choldstone’s ribs. Eve grunted, shook her head ‘no’ and reefed up on the Chokehold that much harder. “Fight it all you want Church-o,” she grunted, “it just means you won’t have the energy to stop me when I get my Gladiatrix shot.” She forced a strong pulse through her thighs and wrenched the Katahajime back ‘n forth, forcing a low groan from the usually stoic battler. “Blood loss and oxygen deprivation are a bad combination, Miranda.” Eve snarked in Wainright’s ear. “Hold out much longer and I could do some NASTY things to you after you’ve EEERRRGGHHH BYTCH!”
Though it was not nearly so elegant as she would’ve preferred, desperate times called for desperate measures and so the Malevolent Moralizer wedged her free hand behind her hips and grabbed hold between Choldstone’s thighs. Eve spat a vile curse but wouldn’t relinquish her own grip, she knew she had the bytch dead to rights and “AAAHHH GAAAAWWD YOU FAHKING BEAST!”
Not happy with the delay in her release, Wainright worked a few fingers through a leg hole and resumed the attack more emphatically than ever. Forced to admit she couldn’t defend against the Claw without some serious adjustment, Choldstone broke the Bodyscissors with a snarl, pulled one knee in tight against her chest and drilled it into Miranda’s back. The fire in her undercarriage dulled for a moment, only to resume stronger than before once Wainright collected her wits.
“Cuuuuhhh… caught in a noose of your own devising, aren’t you Evelyn?” The zealot’s usual subdued menace was back on display as she did her worst under the brunette’s trunks. “I can destroy you even when you believe yourself invincible, such is the power of my faithHEERRRGGGHH!”
Eve smashed away at her back three more times before rolling Wainright onto her stomach. Pushing onto one knee, she bore back on the choke until her foe’s face turned red and Miranda was forced to abandon her grip so she could claw at Eve’s stranglin’ arm. After the firestorm she’d endured below the waist, Choldstone endured the scratching with no grimace at all, in fact she smiled a little when Miranda tried to fight to her knees. “Never said I was invincible, Miranda. But I’m sure as hell tougher than you and that’s all I need tonight.”
Forcing the blonde to her feet when she did the same, Eve snuggled in against Wainright’s left side, making it that much more difficult for her to attack with an Elbow Strike or a kick. After several more hard-hearted yanks, Eve dipped her knees and popped her hips to take the Pious Punisher up, over and DOWN onto the back of her head and shoulders with a murderous Katahajime-plex. Miranda rolled through, fought to her feet and took a few shambling steps before timbering out on one side. The Suplex wasn’t an official finisher but she thought it’d done the job just fine to Eve crawled across the mat, shoved Wainright onto her back and hooked both legs for the…
BRUTAL:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKObLwjacxU
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Miranda bucked loose within an ace of defeat to earn a shocked jeer from the crowd and an incredulous snarl from Eve. Satisfied with the broken doll sprawl of her rival’s frame, the Fallen Angel got to her feet, picked out the most appropriate perch and trudged to it as quick as she could. Electing to leap from the canvas to the top floor without bothering to slip onto the apron, Eve swung around and stood tall, much to the delight of everyone who wasn’t Miranda Wainright.
“I DON’T KNOW HOW TO SAY THIS,” Choldstone bellowed to the sea of FAWNatics, “BUT THIS CHURCH PICNIC IS ABOUT TO GET DIVEBOMBED BY A GARGOY--HEY! LONG, DO YOUR JOB AND GET HER OUT OF HERE!”
The ‘her’ in question was Adelaide Brewster, who’d materialized out of the front row only moments prior. Understandably distracted by the Queen of the Madhouse, Craig set to warning Adelaide away from any mischief, which meant he was oblivious when Tiffany Mayes sprang onto the narrow ledge just beside Eve. The Queen of Hearts grabbed Choldstone’s ankles and managed a couple sharp tugs before Eve plunged a hand into her hair and pulled her head straight up.
PPPHHFWWOOOOSH! She blew a cloud of portable midnight into Tiffany’s face, sending her tumbling off the apron in a shrieking tangle of girl-flesh.
“That’s one down. One preoccupied. And one…” Eve straightened up and looked down at Miranda, who was just regaining her feet. “…about to be flattened.”
Wainright looked up like the words were a talisman so the Monster leapt, raised her knees to chest level and--Miranda spun aside and struck the brunette’s lower back with both hands as she passed. Denied a viable target and spun wildly off course, Choldstone THAWHAMMED down on her back with enough force to make even the most jaded viewer groan in sympathetic anguish.
Miranda on the other hand felt only disgust for this mewling, bleeding creature that dared oppose her plans. Stalking the wounded brunette from afar, Wainright pulled her left hand back and raised it high, looking for all the world like a revivalist preacher looking to suck the wickedness out of some poor suffering soul. Who’s to say that wasn’t exactly what she had in mind? “RISE!” Miranda thundered from her canvas pulpit. “RISE EVELYN LILITH CHOLDSTONE AND OFFER YOURSELF TO THE STYGIAN DEPTHS OF MIDNIGHT!”
A short distance away Eve heard the taunt and hissed her rage. Shoving the pain aside to better focus on removing the zealot’s head from her shoulders, Choldstone rolled onto her stomach, then sprang to her feet and charged Wainright flat out. Right arm cranked all the way back, she swung a jaw-breaking Lariat at the spot that would’ve contained Miranda’s face if the blonde hadn’t dipped low at the last possible second. Rounding on a dime, Eve lunged and THWAAAAACK! Miranda’s left hand struck her chest like a lightning bolt, the weary Frightener turned upside down and inside out by the match-stopping power of the Shotei.
SHOTEI @ 00:25
www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpoRt8nFd5E
Glaring down at the smoldering ruin laid at her feet, Wainright rubbed a hand across her forehead and back into her hair, leaving a vivid red streak that proved memorable enough to earn her ‘pic of the day’ honors at FAWN.com the next morning. “There have been many nights when I’ve been accused of spilling innocent blood, Evelyn. But tonight will not be one of them.”
No response from the bloodied Monster so Miranda helped herself to a double handful of hair and dragged her to all fours. This led to a Standing Headscissors which in turn allowed Wainright to wrap both arms around Eve’s waist and swing her up onto the point of right shoulder. Carefully halving her Waistlock, the Malevolent Moralizer tucked Choldstone’s shins against her thighs, then cupped the brunette’s chin, first in one hand and then the other. With the back of Eve’s neck and skull pulled snug against the crown of her head, Miranda pushed onto her toes and dropped to her butt. It’d been a while since FAWN had seen Thou Shalt Not! and absence has not made the heart grow fonder, if the deluge of boos were any indication. Poor Eve didn’t hear a single one. Whiplashed into next week by the vile Neckbreaker, her head lolled for a second or two while she slumped on her knees. Then she slopped forward onto her chest and didn’t so much as twitch when Wainright shot the Half Nelson. Straddling her victim’s waist, Miranda spread her arms wide and leaned her head back, turning the both of them into a suitable offering to the Goddess of the…
THOU SHALT NOT!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Czt7H-flQo
ONE…
TWO…
THREE!
Miranda looked ahead but she kept her arms stretched while the Announcer called, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via pin-fall… MIRANDA WAINRIGHT!”
She was still straddling the insensate brunette when she was joined by Adelaide and Tiffany, the latter looking bleary and furious after encountering the Black Mist. “Gonna enjoy a few laps, Miranda?” Adelaide asked with a smirk. “If she’s anything like the other freak she rides like a dream.”
Miranda sighed and shook her head ‘no’. “A bloodied heathen makes for a wonderful offering but a terrible throne. No, I believe there’s enough pride left in this one to warrant another sermon, one that will see her left in a pool not of blood, but of shame.”
This seemed to please Brewster, Tiffany on the other hand was still fuming. “Let me put her out for good, Miranda, please! This one’s polluted our darkness for far too long.”
“I agree. And we will. Just not tonight.” Wainright said soothingly. “After all, what’s the point of inflicting a wound if we never get a chance to see the scars they leave behind? Rest assured sister, this heretic and her pet lunatic have only begun to suffer. By the time we’re finished they’ll lament the fact that we didn’t destroy them tonight.”
Miranda raised a foot, placed it against Eve’s chest and held her arms at shoulder level. “Our faith in the Darkness has been rewarded twice tonight, sisters. Let us offer it the proper benediction. “Legends die when Monsters fall…” Brewster and Mayes mirrored Adelaide’s position and when the Church spoke next it was with one voice. “And Midnight comes for one and all.”
