The Knight’s Quest continues! The polarizing Intercontinental champion marches into another PPV ready to take on all challengers; who will take up on her offer? The possibilities are endless if rumours are true; management did not take Victoria’s public criticism of their choices for opponents likely and is now picking wrestlers with the express directive of taking the belt off the Deutschland Dominator. The Latvarian Monster Vlada Victrovich and her repulsive manager Claire Cotsworth weren’t up for the task, perhaps Commissioner Bethany Christain’s next choice will be the one? The fans won’t have to wait long to find out; the champion’s operatic music starts to trickle in making the FAWNatics scramble to their seats.
TURNADOT- FINALE
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoTa-b7cUw0The air fills with a full orchestra playing alongside powerful, classically trained singers. The audio of Giacomo Puccini’s three-stage opera feels perfectly appropriate with the sight of the stage illuminated with blinding white spotlights. All focused on the towering sentinel that is the Intercontinental champion.
VICTORIA HACKENSCHMIDT
Victoria drinks in the uproarious response the FAWNatics give her; most to all of them will change their attitudes once the bell rings, but they always love her when the music’s playing. Hackenschmidt takes a calming breath through her nose and sets down the ramp. The German giant stands tall and armourless for the second time in her career, except for her head. She wears her usual silver Corinthian helmet that protects the back and sides of her skull but leaves her high-boned cheeks free with a strip of metal stretched down from the center opening to cover her nose. The helm is smooth other than an artful etching that circles the top of the skull resembling a bejewelled crown. The most crucial thing on Victoria’s person is around her waist, the Intercontinental Championship belt. Under the spotlight, it shines as the brightest beacon to any potential challenger, employed by FAWN or not, to try and pry it from The Valiant One’s grasp.
Head bowed in silent prayer; her hands clutch a cross-hilted broadsword nearly four feet in length, a replica of a family heirloom that hung over the fireplace in her family estate in Hesse. One of two, the other now in possession of the World Champion, Dayna Erza, having defeated Hackenschmidt for it at March to War.
She WILL wrest her honour from Dayna’s grasp, but that’s something to think about on a different night. Shaking off negative thoughts with a mighty roar, Victoria flexes her powerful arms and hefts the replica blade up to a cheering audience, then onto her shoulder before beginning her march towards the ring, the spotlights following her every step.
"Standing at 5 feet 11 inches and weighing in at 152 pounds!! From Phoenix, Arizona, by way of Hesse, Germany!! She is The Valiant One!! The Intercontinental Champion, Victoria “The Knight” Hackenschmidt!!!”
Constant bedevilment from a toxic wrestling fanbase and upheavals in her personal life led Victoria to make some changes to ease the pressure on her soul, such as removing most of the armour from her entrance. The IC champ marches to the ring in her white halter top, revealing miles of lightly toned, pale tummy with matching boy-cut shorts that cling to her tight hindquarters. White boots and knee pads looking newly shined, and an elbow-length fingerless white glove on her right arm; all her gear has thin black lines that weave and intersect to resemble the plate armour she usually wears to the ring.
Before the bell, Victoria tries to keep her mind on the match ahead, but she still reaches her free arm out to Hi-Five FAWNatics, leaning over the guardrail. The Valiant One briefly detours to a set of steel steps where a solid-looking metal box with a small slit cut into the top sat by the ring apron. Hackenschmidt takes the sword off her shoulder and swiftly swings it in a broad circle before plunging it down into the box with one smooth motion.
As her music dies down, the entrance euphoria dies along with it. A switch flips for the Orlando audience, and the air fills with a cacophony of noise; the majority of the FAWNatics boo and jeer the Towering Teuton. The feral fans want a champ that shows a little more skin or has a colourful demeanour. Since splitting from her tag partner, Danica Dadal, the audience dislikes Hackenschmidt’s ‘boring and prudish’ personality. At least, that’s how they describe it in the hate mail sent to the arena, the league's headquarters, her home, and on every social media platform.
As she finds her corner, Victoria scans the crowd and sees some pockets of support amongst a sea of jeers. A few signs bear her name or image, many of them displaying a new moniker she has mixed feelings about, Blood Knight. She shrugs to herself, “Well, support is support. Better this than the usual negativity or training bras mailed to my home.”
An attend sprints to the ring from backstage and hands a few cards to the announcer. Confused, he reads them over before raising the microphone to his mouth.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the stipulations of this match have changed.”
Victoria stands straighter in surprise as she and the ref exchange bewildered looks as the crowd murmurs in the background.
The announcer continues, “This match will now be NO DISQUALIFICATION.” The audience roars! They can sense things are about to get rowdy; Victoria stomps to the ropes and shouts down to an employee wearing a headset at ringside, “What is Bethany thinking? I did not approve of this!” The communicates her displeasure through a middleman as more bad news is announced.
“-And is this will now be a Handicapped match. If Victoria is pinned the opposing team will become Co-champions.”
Victoria whirls back with that announcement, halfway between shocked and offended, “VHAT! Was zum teufel? I did not agree to this! Who am I even fighting?”
The Knight’s question is answered. The lights go down, save for the twinkle of flashbulbs and cellphones. The smoke machines go into overdrive as the entire entrance area becomes obscured by a hazy fog. Spotlights shine into the oblivion, creating an ominous aura. A dark, haunting, digitally distorted voice speaks through the darkness via the arena speakers.
"We are The Revenant."
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ByeBe8_TJoThe crowd comes alive! Most of this Florida crowd recognizes this entrance, which has not been seen in Florida for nearly a decade. Slowly, "Bad, Bad Love" by Alexander builds through the speakers.
"We are The Mummer."
A figure appears from the fog. A woman, 5’2, dressed in jeans and a hoodie. Her hands are in "skeleton finger" gloves and her face is covered by a "Punisher logo" bandana.
"We are The Messenger."
Another woman appears, 5’6, She looks squarer than the first girl...better built. She wears the same outfit, down to the gloves and bandana. Both of them are smaller variations of their giant stablemate, The Rider, who Victoria defeated at Spring Break.
"We are The Revenant. We are the horror you made."
"We are The Revenant. We are the evil you courted"
The two masked invaders stalk down the ramp with a menacing darkness where their eyes should be. Victoria takes center ring and braces herself for the coming war she'll have to wage to keep her title. The Revenant stops at the ramp’s end and just stares at the champ, the bloodthirsty fans the arena start chanting their name.
REV-EN-ANT!!
REV-EN-ANT!!
REV-EN-ANT!!
REV-EN-ANT!!
Victoria tries to block the FAWNatics out, a little infuriated that they find the thought of her losing the title through managerial chicanery,
"I worked trained myself till my bones cracked to learn proper wrestling technique, and yet they'll cheer these violent schweinehunds who haven’t had a match in FAWN in 10 years?" She asks herself incredulously. As she ponders this The Messenger points a finger at Hackenschmidt as The Mummer slowly moves to the other side of the ring, disturbingly high-pitched chuckling leaking out from behind the shorter Revenant’s bandana, “Ohohohoho…”.
The Messenger speaks her prophecy "You rail against an ocean of rejection. Your golden raft will not keep you afloat and you will drown."
Victoria barks "Spare me your juvenile mind games!" She shifts her gaze back and forth between her adversaries trying to keep both in her field of vision, she catches a flutter of the apron in the FAWNtron. The Messenger has something. A weapon, but what kind? Victoria's fists tighten as The Revenant still down at ringside maneuvers to the left and right of the Towering Teuton, there's a pause of tense stillness before the violent duo bust into action!
They slide into the ring and launch themselves into a run at the champion. The Messenger pulls a large metal ring behind her back, and raises it high- Hackenschmidt catches her in the face with a Big Boot. She throws an elbow behind her and nails The Mummer in the mouth, Victoria's a tornado of pain; throwing fists, kicks and elbows back and forth to keep the enemies at bay. The Destroyer from Deutschland is successfully beating back The Revenant, but for how long? Victoria can't fully turn away from a challenger without exposing her back to the other, as strong as the champion is, she can't get enough momentum in her blows to do real damage. Eventually, The Revenant finds their opening; Messenger blocks a big left to the face and catches Victoria's wrist leaving miles of vulnerable hardbody for her partner to attack. Mummer slaps her hand over Victoria's liver and the big blonde starts shuddering violently!
A liver claw is a potential match ender but The Mummer isn't applying a claw? The malady mystery is solved for the younger fans when The Mummer pulls back her cap and hood revealing the terrifying visage of a clown from a child’s nightmare. Badly dyed green hair, a face obscured by badly applied makeup, smeared red lips and white pancake facepaint that looks blotchy and cracked. She has blue eyeshadow trailing towards her cheekbones mixing with remnants of tears on her overly rosy cheeks. The gag is clear, Victoria's the victim of a joy buzzer turned taser.
The Mummer’s chuckling mutates into disturbingly high-pitched laughter that sounds like cries of a hurt dog, “HAHAHA! You’re like a rat that chewed through a wire!”
Thankfully for the Knight, the joy buzzer has a limited battery life and dies after a few seconds. Victoria The Valiant turns rubbery and drops to a knee, but swiftly and staggeringly rises to standing. Her fists are raised but the German is twitching and blinking unevenly, her medium-cropped hair slightly frizzy. The Messenger brings the metal ring down on Hackenschmidt's head and neck, and pulls the giant into some deadly kneelifts. Victoria doubles over with a guttural noise and thrusts out her firm ass to be captured in perpetuity by professional-grade flash photography.
Victoria amazingly has the fight to claw at The Messenger’s face and halts The Revenant’s barrage with catfighting tactics, something not usually in her wheelhouse. Unfortunately, The Mummer interrupts before she has the chance to explore this side of herself, she starts clubbing the Towering Teuton in the back of the neck with Forearm shivers till The Messenger can get her hands on Victoria’s arm. The Mummer follows her partner’s lead, and the violent duo starts battering the Towering Teuton back first against the buckles. Like a demented game of Red Rover, The Revenant slings Victoria backward into the corner
Bam! They jar The Knight twice more against the leather padded steel
Bam! Bam! before they let go of Victoria, the champ teeters forward a step when The Mummer knocks her to the deck with a Clothesline.
youtu.be/9TwX3PdRfVw?t=11Victoria rolls onto the apron and sloughs off the edge and falls onto the floor. The match has barely begun, and Victoria's looking like she's been mugged and left for dead. The carnage-loving clown half of the challengers slides out of the ring and stomps the hell out of the downed blonde while The Messenger exits from a different side and pulls a switchblade from her boot, and cuts the canvas from the corner. The ringleader rolls back part of the canvas revealing the hard plywood of the ring’s floor, a bad omen for Victoria’s future. While The Messenger prepares a future horror, her partner grabs The Knight by her hair. The Mummer starts dragging Victoria by the locks forcing her to keep up on her hands and knees or risk tearing her scalp. The entire degrading walk, The Mummer is cackling her shrill pitch, “Broken toy! Broken toy! Hahaha!”
The Messenger stands by the Japanese Commentator’s table waiting like a monolith in desert, only with clear sinister implications. The Mummer practically throws a struggling Hackenschimdt into her partner’s clutches, shrieking “Broken toy! Broken toy!”
The Messenger bends down to wrap her arms around Hackenschmidt’s middle, “Toys, be it for dogs are children, are meant to be abused and broken, and eventually forgotten.”
The Messenger flips the larger woman up her body and onto a shoulder, placing her gloved hands under each armpit to keep a wriggling Victoria in place for a Crucifix Powerbomb.
“That’s what your pain is, a passing amusement for strangers.”
The leader Revenant sends Victoria crashing through the table with a loud
crunch! youtu.be/gLi1xR6JMw0?t=145The beleaguered champion lies among the wreckage, thankfully no shard of the table broke her skin, but shards of wood dig painfully into her body like hellish acupuncture. The Revenant press their foreheads together and discuss their dark work while The Valiant One pitifully rolls face down in the debris. The Orlando crowd is still awed by the returning team’s presence and entertained by their violence, they chant the challengers' names in an echoing chant.
REV-EN-ANT!!
REV-EN-ANT!!
REV-EN-ANT!!
Victoria, still face down on the table’s remains, goes deathly still, her expression hidden. This moment will later be labelled by fans as ‘The calm before the storm.’ The Revenant ceases their planning and grabs the unresisting Knight by the arms and drags her closer to the nearest set of steel steps. Victoria’s boots noisily skid across the firm pads covering the arena's concrete floor.
The Revenant hauls the gigantic German to her feet but keeps her bent over to take in a dual headlock; each takes some material at Victoria’s hips and starts to lift champion for a Double Suplex. They get her a couple of inches into the air when Victoria flutters her legs and forces herself back on solid ground. The Revenant redoubles their efforts to fling the blonde overhead, but Hackenschmidt’s body turns to iron and cannot be moved.
“Rrrrrragh!”
With a mighty roar. The Valiant One reverses the Suplex and heaves Mummer and Messenger skyward, flipping at least 220lbs of sadism in the air and slamming them on the arena floor.
youtu.be/ICN0y9f5Kio?list=PLeRPsdtvusXiROvHPBxh0BXVkuPhU_QUs&t=241Hackenschmidt lumbers to verticality much faster, and much more focused than anyone would expect. She towers over the members of The Revenant with a pitched, frightening expression of barely restrained fury, seen only in gladiatorial pits of ancient Rome or on the faces of affluent women as they tear into a barista. Hackenschmidt raises a boot and starts stomping several mud holes in the opposition as they try to get up; these heavy, hateful stomps turn two dangerous women into a pile of groaning and cursing mush. Victoria has no love for either of her opponents, but it was the clown that shocked her with that ridiculous Joy Buzzer. She gives both of them one more stomp between the shoulders before taking The Mummer by the hood and waistband and lifting her off the ground like a bag leaves. The Teutonic Terror shows off that eerie strength of her to the crowd by chucking the urban acolyte under the bottom rope and skidding into the ring, the FAWNatics give the feat a 10/10 scoring and their cheers communicate it! Victoria stalks up the steel steps and fixes her hair as she re-enters the ring, her rage has given the Knight her a powerful second wind and it looks like the assault she just suffered by The Revenant was a mass hallucination.
The Mummer stands up as Victoria gets inside the Squared Circle and dashes forward with thumbs aimed at the Destroyer’s eyes- and eats shoe leather, Victoria flattens The Mummer with a Pump Kick and seamlessly follws up with an Elbow Drop to the heart. Victoria stands up and drags The Mummer with her; she forces the air of The Revenant member’s body with a Broadside Kneelift and takes a handful of The Mummer’s green hair to keep her doubled over. Hackenschmidt pulls the clown’s hoodie to the forefront, and spitefully uses it to wipe The Mummer’s face free of the terrible makeup. It’s only smudging it worse, but it makes Hackenschmidt feel better to take away her mystique.
“I came here for competition, and all I get are personalities, catchphrases, T and A, and violent morons!”
Victoria pulls back on The Mummer’s hair to straighten The Revenant up as she rears her head back. The Knight whips her head forward and clonks it against The Mummer’s with a Glasgow Kiss, the demented challenger’s hands drop and she wavers on the spot. Just outside Victoria’s peripheral vision; a folded steel chair is slid into the ring…. The Mummer’s sees dead canaries fly around her head while Victoria forces her to bend over and puts her in place for a match-ending Powerbomb.
CLANG!OOOHHH!!!
The Messenger swings a second steel chair, and it connects with Victoria’s head echoing, sickening force! Thousands of people in the stands gasp, flinch or cover their mouths in worry; The Knight is blasted onto her heels freeing The Mummer. Somehow Victoria remains standing by windmilling her arms, but the startled animal look in her eyes says she’s unaware of what just happened. The still stooped-over Mummer finds the chair on the mat, and her violent instincts take over. Like a sprung trap, The Mummer flashes to her full height with the chair raised over her head and brings it down hard on Victoria’s skull!
youtu.be/Oa7peUZ1wAE?t=43There’s a ringing in Victoria’s ears as she back peddles from the metallic beating. She reaches for the cables and misses leading to an ungainly tumble out of the ring. Luckily, Victoria grabs the apron’s edge and awkwardly cartwheels onto her feet before staggering with the momentum. Victoria took those chair shots in the exact, right spot on her skull to avoid getting knocked and averting any lasting concussion issues, but this match needs to end fast before her adrenaline wears off and The Knight starts feeling the hurt.
This is No Disqualification, and I’m outnumbered thinks Victoria as she stumbles to her destination, and her hand grips the handle of her sword.
I must start fighting steel with steel.The Revenant slides out of the ring with foreign objects in hand and approaches Hackenschmidt from behind. The Mummer’s back to her incessant chuckling, while The Mummer belittles the champion’s existence, “Nobility is a delusion. Classism and narcissism disguised as morality, all you've been taught is a-"
SSHING!The Knight around to face her attackers, drawing her sword of its holder and wielding forward as a challenge. It's unclear whether the crazed look in Victoria's eyes is anger or just a symptom of the horrific chair shots freshly suffered.
"Would you like to see how to really use a weapon?"
Most wrestlers when faced with a b-very large-b medical weapon, even a replica, would give pause and perhaps rethink their situation. The Revenant are not most wrestlers. The Mummer fearlessly darts into the fray and clangs her chair against Victoria's sword. The blood-crazed clown engages The Knight in the strangest and most violent melee fight most of these people will ever see, most of them but not all, this Florida after all. The Mummer throws her chair in wild, furious swings while Hackenschmidt parries and batters with her -sword name- with precise and calculated movements. Steel meets steel in violent, loud bursts, this duel is technically a stalemate, but Victoria's weapon looks pristine while The Mummer's chair is increasingly bent and broken!
As this strange edition of Soul Caliber goes on, The Messenger has her Chair up and ready. She sidles up in the engaged Knight just outside of the danger zone of flying metal. Like a hyena circling its prey, she waits for an opportune moment.
Krunch!!OOHHH!!!
The fully packed FAWN arena shouts simultaneously when Hackenschmidt brings her breitschwert down the center of The Mummer’s chair and dents a wedge so deep the back becomes a V! The demented clown looks at her mangled weapon, confused by its state of it, “Is it real or am I fake?”
While The Mummer is awed to stillness, Hackenschmidt swings back her sword over a shoulder for a big horizontal slash. The Messenger sees an opening and dashes at The Knight with the rim of her chair pointed at The Knight’s navel, thinking the sword is too big and slow to swing defensively in time. The Messenger is correct, but Victoria wouldn't bring a weapon without knowing how to use it. Sidestepping away from the chair thrust Hackenschmidt pivots and bops the bottom of the sword’s handle into the bridge of The Messenger’s nose.
“Gah!”
Sharp, explosive pain erupts from The Messenger’s proboscis and her eyes instantly water. She drops the foreign object letting it clatters to the floor so The Mummer can tend to her hopefully not broken nose. Hackenschmidt performs a horizontal slash that sinks into The Revenant member's side and bashes her against the commentator's table. The Mummer crumples to the floor holding her side like her innards might spill out. The skin hasn’t broken; the edge of the blade is dull because it’s just a replica, but the challenger will lucky if she's not sporting a couple of broken ribs by the end of this. The Mummer closes in to save her partner and gets checked in the chin with an extra-sized Superkick!
The harlequin's feet leave the ground, and she goes fully horizontal in the air before she lands on the firmly padded concrete in a spread eagle. Victoria stares down at her writhing opponents and deftly swings her breitschwert in circles with one hand like a lifelong gambler with an ace of spades, and drives it down into its holder with one smooth motion. Even staunch Victoria-haters must admit it was a sweet move and applaud the dominant champion.
If she were in her usual state of mind, Victoria would have gladly acknowledged those cheers after with so much hate. But Victoria isn't; right now the Blood Knight is at the forefront and demands retribution. She grabs The Messenger by the scruff of the neck and tosses The Revenant member like a sack of garbage under the bottom rope into the ring. The dominant IC champion rolls into the ring and flashes to her feet. As Victoria strides over and collects The Messenger, the FAWNatics have fully come over to the German Giant’s camp.
VIC-TOR-IA!!
VIC-TOR-IA!!
VIC-TOR-IA!!
VIC-TOR-IA!!
The Messenger feels Victoria lifting her by the hoodie and throws a heavy uppercut, it’s too late for a low blow, but it digs in just above the champion’s pelvis. Victoria bleats and doubles over partially brought out of her anger haze by the strange ache. The Messenger quickly takes her in a Side Headlock and pumps fist after fist into the crown of the blonde's head, “All this hate and violence you emit in your darkest moments, that’s the real you.”
Messenger stops bouncing her knuckles off Hackenschmidt’s skull and takes her by the wrist. She takes a big step back and pulls The Knight into an Irish Whip. Hackenchmidt bears down once their arms get taut and reverses the throw, flinging the much smaller woman to the cables. The Messenger rebounds back to a bowed champion read to send her flying with a Back Body Drop. The Messenger shows she’s not all weapons and mindfuckery, and Leapfrogs over the champion, with an assist. Victoria straightens up the moment she feels the challenger’s skeleton gloved hands on her back and acts as a springboard for The Revenant member, firing The Messenger like a missile to the other side of the ring. At that moment, The Mummer has willed herself up from the Superkick and is on the apron, climbing the ropes to stand up. As she gets to her full height, The Mummer raises her head in time to see her partner flying at her for a split second before
Clonk!youtu.be/BngemrD1EAQ?t=157Demented minds collide! The Mummer falls back to the outside in a heap with church bells going off behind her eyes. In the ring, The Messenger lands on her feet and stays there, but there's a visible waver in the challenger’s legs as back peddles away from the crash site and turns back to Hackenschmidt, who immediately nails her in the gut with a Kneelift. She forces the stooped Revenant’s head between her legs and takes her arms in a Double Underhook.
“You should consider philosophy as a career,” Victoria grunts as she flips The Messenger onto a shoulder, “You’re not strong enough for professional wrestling.”
Victoria releases the right Underhook and pulls her arm back like she’s drawing a bow, and fires it up at The Messenger’s head. Turning with the motion, Victoria forces her opponent through a violent Corkscrew Neckbreaker that ends with a Powerbomb!
MJOLNIR FALLS
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pZq_k-w4e0It’s a rarely seen move, but it’s always a crowd pleaser! FAWNatics jump from their seats watching Victoria turn a dangerous challenger into a human shape bag of bones and meat. Victoria throws herself atop The Messenger in a cover; pulling in one loose leg by the knee and pressing a hand against The Messenger’s cheek to squash her face against the canvas as the referee counts a perfunctory ONE! TWO! THREE!
DINGDINGDING!!!“Your winner and
still Intercontinental champion…. Victoria Hackenschmdt!!”
Victoria tosses the stem aside and stands up bruskly, not wanting to touch The Messenger longer than she had to. She walks over to the center of the ring and receives her title belt feeling the glow of victory start to erode the rage. The official is reaching for her hand when Victoria spots movement in the FAWNtron; she shoves the official aside and jukes out of the way of a charging Mummer with her mangled chair in hand. The blood-starved clown is laughing even in loss, and laughs still as she trips over the mound of canvas The Messenger cut from the ring earlier. The Mummer falls into the corner hitting the top buckle with her face, and dropping the chair, it makes a racket as it clangs off the apron and down the stairs.
The Mummer stumbles back holding her painted face when Hackenschmidt turns her around by the shoulders and puts a fist in her gut. The Giant German shoves The Mummer’s retching face down and between her legs. With a smaller woman’s speed, Hackenschmidt presses her belly to the clown’s back, wraps her arms tightly around her waist and raises The Mummer boots to ceiling. The Knight jumps into the air and hammers The Mummer’s head into the plywood with a Snap Piledriver!
youtu.be/5TWigo-Y000?t=183OOOHHHH!!!
The fans, the ref, the timekeeper and anyone conscious in the building shudders seeing Victoria enact some very out-of-character postmatch violence on her opponent. The Mummer spools to the ground limbs akimbo and out like a light; medics sprint to her as Victoria reaches over to pick up the IC belt off the mat and lunges forward to scream at The Revenant member, bringing the faceplate close to The Mummer’s sleeping face.
“Ich bin der Meister! Ich bin der Meister! Ich bin der Meister!”
Hackenschmidt bolts up and heads to the nearest camera, stepping on The Messenger's stomach along the way,
“You want to stack the deck against me, but these are the wrestlers you choose?! I am not asking for better competition Bethany! I demand it!”
