Post by bigfan on Aug 7, 2017 0:30:27 GMT
The house lights of FAWN Arena dimmed, leading to the requisite hoots and hollers from the amped throng. A white-hot spotlight broke the darkness, falling upon the upper stage and a lean, lithe brunette gracefully floated into view.
Having survived an Inquisitor, the crowd was excited to lay eyes on the dangerous diva and see if she could continue to deny Church hierarchy. They offered an ovation worthy of Pavarotti. The PA was quick to announce the dark-haired grappler’s arrival before she began her breathtaking warbling.
“Our next match is scheduled for one fall with a twenty minute time limit. Hailing from London, England, at five feet eiht inches tall and one hundred and twenty-two pounds…she is the sublime soprano, the British Blackbird…ELIZA BLISSSS!”
ELIZA BLISS:
A sweet melodious set of notes reached to the heights, the highest high of soprano superlatives couldn’t describe the beauty of the operatic ecstasy. Nor did they do justice to the woman who delivered such auditory delights to the ears of all those within range of her powerful pipes.
Eliza raised her arms dramatically and serenaded the FAWNatics with her own entrance accompaniment, no one else able to reach the perfect notes of sweet rapture. Blissy set herself on the upper stage. The long locks of the slender, sinewy brunette fell in great cascades, Bliss clad in a lacy black one-piece that clung to her lightly tanned form; curious, futuristic, metallic wristbands, glittered from each wrist to only a few inches short of her elbows. Below, she wore tempting, knee-high black leather boots. The Englishwoman strode down the aisle belting out the concluding aria of Giulio Cesare, the opera that had made her famous or infamous, depending on fan or foe.
Her checkered past now long forgotten, the loyal fans of the Blackbird have taken Bliss under their protective wing after her time astray.
Eliza’s singles’ career finally seeming to blossom after dispatching of FAWN’s most hated traitor and troll and Eternal Midnight’s crossexaminer, the long ago Lightweight champion seemed especially buoyant, her vocal chords providing instant ecstasy as had her victory over Tiffany Mayes at the previous Pay-Per-View.
As Bliss strutted to the ring, waving and smiling, she finished her beautiful verse and slapped hands with those lucky enough to be on the aisle.
Reaching the squared circle, Eliza circles, making contact with the crowd, particularly pleased with a placard that noted: ‘For Miranda, Eliza’s verse will be same as the first!’
The radiant brunette nodded in agreement as she’s handed a microphone.
“I made it clear to Tiffany my talents are not about to be mislaid on the altar of ignorance,” Eliza affirmed. “But apparently Eternal Midnight must be confronted and defeated at its source.” The crowd was silent, its rapt attention provided.
“And so Wainright, come down and hear me sing the final hymn of your misguided mass.”
The sinewy soprano handed over the stick and turned to the squared circle with an eruption of applause. She skipped up the steps, slid through the ropes, and kept an eye peeled as she moved to her corner.
Bliss still owned the ‘stage’ in every sense of the word, even without belting out one further note. A performer of unequalled beauty and poise, Eliza flexed and stretched, preparing to end the attempted conversion once and for all.
Taking a moment to steady his nerves as he always did when this particular woman was close by, the Announcer raised his mic and began again, “And introducing her opponent, 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 Dark in this sad, lonely light… MIRANDA WAINRIGHT!”
EAST JESUS NOWHERE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHnPUDRMdA
Gloom descended upon the FAWN Arena 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 Lily Burlingame, then Chloe Fields and Wendy Bunny Cooper. When the light illuminated a eerily accurate Eliza-figure on the last stake the drums started to pound and a fifth spotlight revealed the Septa of Sorrow.
MIRANDA WAINRIGHT:
For tonight‘s dose of faith and violence, Miranda wore the pitch 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 Merle the referee to peruse her boots and pads. He found nothing of course, not that the absence of a weapon eased the official’s nerves. If anything it worried him all the more, the idea that Wainright had some trick up her sleeve, one hiding in plain sight. “Calm yourself, arbiter.” Miranda said without letting her attention leave Bliss. “This is not an inquisition or even a trial, I am simply here to show sister Eliza what glories await her at the side of Eternal Midnight.” With that settled, the Messiah of Misery backed into the opposite corner and settled in to await the trumpet of the opening bell.
It CLANGED scant seconds later and Eliza was out of her corner in a trice, not on a beeline for Miranda, but a careful, looping arc that allowed her to keep the blonde in sight while giving her much more room to maneuver. Probably an unnecessary precaution, yet Bliss was of the mind that there was no such thing as ‘too much’ caution where the Church of Eternal Midnight was concerned. Miranda noted the Briton’s quick start with a faint smile and nothing more. If asked she could have told Eliza that the rest of the congregation was backstage, but she hadn’t and the Deacon of Despair enjoyed watching Bliss’s imagination run wild. Still, there was work to be done, so she pushed off the buckles and strolled to the middle of the ring, where she stopped and laced her hands behind her back, a surprisingly prim gesture coming from one of the most disconcerting presences in all of FAWN.
“Care to join me, sister?” Wainright asked when Bliss took no immediate action. “Or perhaps you’d like to converse at, what I presume you believe is a safe distance?”
The Renaissance Woman closed the distance by more than half and raised her hands in anticipation of a lock-up, but she stopped shy of an actual grapple. “I didn’t come here for conversation and a pamphlet, Miranda.”
Wainright looked to her left, then to her right, seemingly in search of the conspirators Bliss watched against. “Are you sure of that, sister Eliza? You claim an interest in violence, and yet you have made no move against me. Such hesitation leads me to believe one of two possibilities. One, you’re concerned about what might happen should you take up arms against my sisters and I. Two, and I find this far more likely, you are indeed quite interested in continuing the conversation Tiffany started last--”
Eliza pounced, the former Lightweight Champion’s fingertips actually brushing the smaller woman’s shoulders before Wainright dipped low and swung around behind her. Wainright didn’t claw or slap or even poke, she only traced a few fingers along the curve of Bliss’s hip, a touch so light it couldn’t be anything other than deliberate.
Anger was a spark on Eliza’s face, one that died long before she rounded on the Prophet of Pain. “It’s possible your Inquisitor garbled my first answer,” Eliza murmured, “after all, I had jammed a Cleft Note down her throat. So allow me to repeat myself. I find your doctrine oppressive and your tactics reprehensible. In short, I will never, EVER join your cause and if you don’t start respecting that decision this very second I will have no choice but to kick your cryptic, puritanical arse from one end of this ring to the oth--”
Miranda came in showing clinch only to drop low and take the brunette’s six for the second time in as many minutes. No feathery tease now however, Wainright shaped her hands into blunt blades and gouged the edges in deep just above her hips. Bliss grunted, threw a Back Elbow that flew over the blonde’s head and paid for the error when Miranda clamped down on her sides and stepped into a Headbutt that THUMPED the small of her back. Bliss yelped, straightened up and would’ve rounded on the truest of the True Believers if Wainright hadn’t bogged her down with a Half Nelson on the Englishwoman’s right arm. Palming the nape of Bliss’s neck with that hand, Miranda crooked her left hand into a fist and pwak-pwak-PWAAAKED it against Eliza’s kidney. A Kneelift to the back slowed her further still, and made it possible for the blonde to wedge her right knee into the pit of Eliza’s right knee. Doing so forced Eliza into an unwanted genuflection, which in turn allowed Miranda to reach around and claim the Songbird’s right wrist in her left hand.
A worried buzz from the capacity crowd as the Messiah of Misery secured the Cobra Clutch. Though it wasn’t her actual finisher, Wainright used it to segue into more than a dozen maneuvers including Swords to Ploughshares, a hold that’d forced a surrender from almost every lightweight on the roster. Thankfully it was still only a Cobra Clutch at the moment, not that it kept Eliza from struggling to craft an escape. Bracing her left hand against the mat for extra leverage, Bliss got a knee under her and started to rise only for Wainright to force her back down with a whipsawing back n’ forth shake.
Leaned in with all of her weight bearing down on the taller woman’s shoulders, Miranda looked up from her work to find Merle drawing closer to his charges. “You’re more than welcome to ask for submission.” she said benevolently. “I very much doubt she’ll offer it, though the responses of heathens sometimes surprise even--” Wainright hissed in unhappy surprise as Bliss reached up with her free hand and grabbed hold of her attacker’s blonde locks. Regaining her composure almost at once, Miranda eyed the official and added, “Illustrates my point rather nicely, don’t you think? Would you be so kind as to warn her of the infrac--”
Eliza released the hair-hold without so much as a word from the official so she could seek out the far more effective (and perfectly legal) three-fingered C-prong rip that was the hallmark of her Cleft Note. Far from unprepared for such a tactic, Wainright twisted her head away from the Englishwoman’s scrabbling fingers, yet this defense forced her to shift her weight, which in turn allowed Eliza to clamber back to boot leather. With Miranda off balance guarding against her claw, Bliss leaned forward and stamped her way over to the nearest set of strands. “Break!” she grunted as soon as her one-armed death grip was secure. “Get her off of me, Merle. I’m in the AAARRRHHH!”
Miranda leaned in and bit the brunette’s ear. The infraction drew a quick response from the zebra, unfortunately it also loosened Bliss’s grip on the top rope to almost nothing. Prizing the taller lovely loose with another nasty little shake, Wainright dragged her out into the deep end, then leaned forward and snapped back to THWHUMP her foe to the deck with a modified Russian Leg Sweep. As tenacious in the ring as she was behind her pulpit, Miranda somersaulted through the landing so that she ended up on her butt and Eliza was stretched out on her tummy. Seated beside the grounded Songbird, Wainright kicked both feet forward and bridged back as far as she could to wrench Bliss’s upper body off the mat at a horribly painful angle.
COBRA CLUTCH LEG SWEEP & GROUNDED STRETCH:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-T9OSIbd0Y
Left hand once against driven into the canvas like a kickstand, Bliss panted, “No, no, no!’ like a mantra when Merle asked if she’d had enough. And that was certainly true, Eliza hadn’t dropped two evil sawed-off blondes just to choke against a third, yet she couldn’t exactly afford to spend any more time choking on her own bicep. Aware that Wainright had very cleverly returned them to the center of the squared circle, Eliza clenched her jaw to stifle the groans as she pushed the both of them straight backward. The awkward scooting / crawling across the canvas left ugly welts on her thighs but her progress was blessedly quick because it tended in the same direction as Wainright’s tugging. Then one of her boots smacked against the bottom rope and Eliza wrapped both ankles around it as tight as she could.
“Let. Me. Go.” she directed the demand at Miranda rather than Merle.
Wainright leaned forward, then reefed back for two long seconds before releasing the hold without a word. Free from the fanatic’s grasp, Eliza slid out under the bottom rope and took a breather against the barricade.
Miranda didn’t pursue, in fact she sank into a cross-legged seat in the middle of the ring. “Take all the time you need, sister Eliza.” she called over the roar of the crowd. “I want that legendary voice of yours to be strong and fully rested when it’s time to sing the praises of Midnight.”
Bliss pushed away from the steel barricade and walked around a corner. Wainright not only didn’t rise from her Indian-style seat, she didn’t so much as spin to keep face forward with Eliza. The Brit hopped to the apron and still the head of the Church didn’t flinch.
“Are you ready to be on my right hand?” the blonde asked serenely, raising said palm.
“Not hardly,” the soprano replied, slipping through the ropes, but hesitant to attack, sure there’s some type of trap set.
“Get up!” Bliss demanded from a few feet away and Miranda obliged, leaping to her feet and spinning ninety degrees to face the Blackbird. She extended her right arm and closed an upturned palm to motion Eliza forward.
Bliss didn’t delay, charging into a Collar & Elbow Tie-Up. The diva used her height advantage to work some leverage out of the lock-up and twisted Wainright, capturing the blonde’s noggin in a Side Headlock. She ground Miranda’s braincase against a hip.
Wainright moved her hands to either side of the brunette and shoved her foe off, Eliza using the offered momentum to race to the ropes in front of her. Blissy bounded into the cables and sprinted out in a u-turn, then lowering a shoulder and burying it into Eternal Midnight’s Archbishop.
The sound of back THWAPPING against canvas followed closely, bringing a cheer from the crowd and a gleam in Eliza’s eyes.
“Only the weak want to be your sheep,” Bliss informed as she hovered above Wainright. She skipped over the splayed Miranda and headed for the strands once more. As she did, Wainright scrambled to her feet. Miranda seemed ready when Eliza returned, dipping and reaching. The Brit leapfrogged over and continued on, speeding into the ropes again.
On this return, she lifted into a precise Dropkick to the chin of the spinning Churchgoer, taking Miranda off her feet. Wainright clambered back to vertical quickly, only to be taken down again with another Dropkick. Eliza kipped up to the roaring crowd and was ready with a Toe Kick to the blonde’s belly when she rose.
Foe doubled and groaning in front of her, Eliza snatched the blonde baptizer in a Front Facelock and graced the FAWNatics with a perfect-C note. She raised an arm high to signal difficult times for Wainright. Eliza vaulted into the air, ready to knock sense into or out of Miranda’s gray matter with a Leaping DDT.
But before the soprano could spike Wainright’s skull into the deck, Miranda shoved her off. Eliza managed to land on her feet, but the lead clergy of Midnight had a scythe-like Clothesline at the ready. She swung with her right arm but came up empty as the taller brunette was able to Matrix underneath.
As the crowd ‘oooohed’ in wonder, Bliss straightened as quickly as she bent, spinning and clamping onto Miranda from behind. Blissy’s arms snaked around the neck and head of the flaxen-haired Churchgoer, quickly securing a Sleeper hold that instantly altered Miranda’s generally stoic demeanor. There’s more than a hint of concern in Wainright’s eyes as the Blackbird bore down behind her, Eliza using the height advantage to bring her mass to bear on the back of the blonde’s neck.
Miranda’s raised arms started to flutter then grasped weakly to pry at Eliza’s guns. It’s then Bliss got big, ripping Miranda off her shoe leather with a Sleeper Suplex that DROVE Wainright’s noggin into the canvas.
SLEEPER SUPLEX:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37H3tq68OEo
Miranda back flipped the rest of the way to her destination, ending on her chest. She absently flopped to her side, baby blues with a heavy glaze. Meanwhile, a delighted Eliza barrel rolled to her chest and plopped her chin between cupped and joined palms.
“You need more than faith,” the Songbird tweeted, pushing to her feet and stalking Wainright as the Bringer of Darkness had flickering lights to work through.
Eliza helped her foe up from all fours and delivers a wicked Uppercut Throat Thrust. It isn’t exactly Cricket, but the open hand shot certainly wasn’t a fist so Merle didn’t complain. As Miranda staggered away from the impact gagging and retching, Eliza followed, her focused ‘game face’ in place.
Coming in from Miranda’s six, the skillful Blackbird captured Wainright in an intricate Cravate grip from the left. Bliss workED the lock, drawing a pained mewl from Miranda, but Blissy wanted a more impactful performance. Using her length, she dipped, laid out and heaved Wainright across the ring with another perfect Suplex, the blonde baptizer landing HARD on her head and neck, the Church leader planted like a lawn-dart by the Melodious Maiden.
CRAVATE SUPLEX:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uCbiEgcjs
The crowd groaned in momentary sympathy from the fearsome force of the impact and a dazed Miranda remained facedown on the canvas, unable to even turn her head. A moment later, Eliza forced her, shoveling Wainright to her back and pressing tight with a Crossbody pin for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOO!
The crowd sighed more than groaned, knowing Miranda had more than a bit of Lazarus in her bones, not expecting for her to be put down for good that early. Wainright showed it by throwing a shoulder up and rolling to her side. But Bliss wasn’t a bit perturbed, quickly capturing Wainright’s head in a tight two-hand grip and tugging the jelly-legged blonde to unsteady feet.
Again getting her foe in a Side Headlock, Eliza’s roughhousing got interrupted when Miranda threw an elbow, jabbing it into Blissy’s bosom. Eliza released her grip and sent a pounding forearm between the blonde’s shoulderblades as punishment. Miranda was thrust forward, her back arching.
“Ever hear of karma?” Eliza asked. “Much more reliable than anything created by your little cult.”
Sliding beside the pained Churchgoer, Miranda’s preaching silenced for the time being, Eliza slipped her head beneath the limp left arm of her foe. The Blackbird wrapped one arm around the back of her would-be pastor and the other under her near buttock. With a grunt of effort, Eliza shot a startled Miranda HIGH into the air, soles pointed to the rafters for a split-second. Down from the heavens comes Eternal Midnight’s Moses; down on bended knee, Eliza ironically genuflecting in order to put a serious kink in Miranda’s spinal column with a Backdrop Backbreaker.
BACKDROP BACKBREAKER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uCbiEgcjs
The pierced Wainright sloughed off Eliza’s knee from a slight shove by the Brit. Miranda spilled to her back, wincing, backbone arching. Blissy pressed her flat with another tight pinning predicament, Eliza hooking the far leg for…
ONE…
TWO…
Miranda kicked out and a few loud ‘AMENS’ erupted from the audience, Wainright showing she had a few FAWNatic followers to the Church’s name.
Bliss turned her head to the sound and found two twenty-somethings in the first row, pressing their palms together in prayer. Eliza rose, scoffing at the men. She grabbed the top rope with both hands and leaned over toward them.
“Pray all ya like,” Blissy scolded. “God isn’t coming to save her and he’s the only one who could.”
Eliza turned and strolled to Miranda, who’s made it to her knees. The Blackbird sank her claws into Wainright’s golden locks in preparation of yanking her up again, but when the Churchgoer rose, she wrapped her arms around the lower curve of Blissy’s gluteus. She lifted the disconcerted Eliza off her feet, scooping her into the air.
Before the soprano could react with a blast of battering fists to Miranda’s back, the Bringer of Darkness pirouetted 180 degrees and laid out. While the crown of Wainright’s skulls grazed against the bottom rope, Eliza’s throat hotshotted across the middle. The brunette was flung away from the impact, rolling as she choked and gasped, grabbing at her reddened neck.
Miranda took the opportunity for a spot of quiet reflection. Leaned back on her knees, the black-clad blonde closed her eyes and enjoyed the sounds pouring in around her: the declaratory bark of the official’s count, the worried buzz of the heathens that filled the cavernous arena, the whistling rasp of sister Eliza’s pained breathing and of course, the inexorable murmur of Eternal Midnight. Quite refreshed by this brief contemplation of the universe, the Septa of Sorrow crawled over to Bliss, cupped her by the ears and dug in just hard enough to make sure the Englishwoman knew she had no choice when Miranda suggested she rise.
“Your voice is beautiful, sister.” Wainright exclaimed as they both returned to boot-leather. “It is in fact, the primary reason I’ve invited you to join us. And yet, as is often the case with those who possess extraordinary gifts, I fear familiarity has dulled your own appreciation. Thus I have taken it from you, if only briefly, so that you may better appreciate what has been given OOOFFFFHH!”
Bliss might’ve been short a high note at the moment, but she was still quite capable of throwing a punch, as Miranda discovered when she buried a strappy hook in the blonde’s ribs. Rising to her full height as Wainright stumbled back, the Songbird put a hand to her throat and rasped, “You’ll never take anything from me, understu--” THWHACK!
The Deacon of Despair lashed out with both hands, clapping them to Eliza’s ears with a Bell Ringer that reduced the Brit’s hearing to nothing but a high, reedy whine. “Hear no evil, sister.” Miranda intoned as she grabbed a handful of hair. Both Merle and Eliza protested the infraction, alas neither possessed the authority to stay the blonde’s other hand, which raaaaaaaaaked the Superlative Soprano’s eyes at viper speed. “See no evil, sister.” Indeed, Bliss could see very little of anything, which made it that much easier for Wainright to jab thumb and forefinger into the taller woman’s mouth. Catching the tip of Eliza’s tongue with terrifying ease, Miranda pulled and twisted, earning a distorted warble of displeasure even as the Prophet of Pain finished, “Speak no evil, sister.”
She closed with a quick, heavy Kneelift to Bliss’s tummy that left the willowy warrior doubled up and gasping in the center of the ring. Wainright nodded approval, wheeled around and ran the ropes to her opponent’s left. The FAWNatics, far more capable of verbal gymnastics than Bliss at that point, warned the Songbird as best they could, alas her ears still buzzed and she remained oblivious to the threat until Wainright slammed a second Kneelift into her chin. Rocked up on her heels by the power of that precision strike, Eliza’s situation grew all the worse when Miranda cupped her chin in both hands and laid out full force to THWHUNK the back of her foe’s head and shoulders against the deck with a big Reverse Neckbreaker.
KNEELFIT & REVERSE NECKBREAKER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T01YUIBXpo
Eliza bounced hard, tumbled over onto her belly and cradled her head in her arms while one foot tapped an erratic message of hurt to anyone who would listen. Of course Miranda Wainright always had time to listen to a soul in pain, in fact she had so much time that she wedged a knee against the side base of the Blackbird’s neck and grabbed a double handful of hair, all the better to craaaaaaaaaaaaank her foe’s neck at an ugly angle.
“Off the hair, Miranda!” Merle warned at once. “You know better!”
Wainright jerked Eliza’s locks, forcing a pained yelp from the taller woman. “Just as you know not to bother me with such trifling matters when I’m in the midst of a great spiritual conflict, do you not?” The ref wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, thankfully the malevolent minister relinquished her hair-holds for perfectly legal control of the brunette’s head and shoulders. Not that this meant an improvement for Bliss’s situation. Truth be told it grew that much more dire as Wainright rose into push-up position and proceeded to THUMP her right knee into the base of the Englishwoman’s neck once, twice, thrice! Bliss protested every bit of it, thrashing and scratching at her attacker, but Miranda endured the welts and stilled Bliss’s nerves with a double handful of hair and another THWHONK of forehead on canvas.
“It is Midnight in your heart, Eliza Bliss.” the blonde said after she’d brushed off her hands and stood. “I see it in your eyes every time you secure the Cleft Note or drive some poor unfortunate’s skull into the mat with a Decrescendo. Open yourself to it and I promise the songs you sing will make all your previous efforts look like so much tin-eared warbling.”
Eliza didn’t look to be open to much more than a handful of Aspirin and some water, so Wainright turned on her heel and made another visit to the strands. Moving fast but with no particular sense of urgency, the Messiah of Misery closed on her prone prey, took to the skies in a gorgeous vertical leap and kicked both legs out in front, all the better to drop the right flush against the back of Bliss’s noggin. Eliza jolted, made a feeble attempt to slide free and got her hair pulled for the effort. With the pit of her right knee snugged against the curve of her opponent’s skull, Miranda wrenched the Blackbird’s head back just far enough to slide her left leg in beneath Bliss’s chin. Ankles locked, the blonde offered the FAWNatics a contemplative smile, then rolled over onto her belly and pushed up in a deft display of fitness that also exacerbated the growing kink in her adversary’s neck.
HANGMAN'S HEADSCISSORS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxd1Pp3hk6U
“Nnnnnnnnnnggggghhhhhhhh…” Bliss’s normally angelic tone was thick with pain and frustration as the Hangman’s Headscissors bit deep into her windpipe. At first she pushed and prized at the blonde’s ankles, alas the torque on her neck and back soon grew to distressing levels and she was forced to brace both hands on the canvas to alleviate the worst of it.
“How you doing, Eliza?” Merle asked after approximately ten seconds of the neck-straining punishment. “Do you need me to call for the bell?”
Shaking her head ‘no’ was out of the question and Bliss hated the sound of her voice at the moment, so she raised one hand and waggled a finger for the official. “Bother us no more, arbiter.” Wainright said following the negation. “Eliza needs your ministrations not and when the time does come for her surrender, she will deliver it unto… that’s an unfortunate choice you’ve made, sister.” Miranda’s voice was even, but the pain underneath was evident, understandable considering the hooked fingers Bliss worked beneath the back of her kneepad. Far from willing to end the hold under any terms other than her own, Wainright abruptly whipped back to a sitting position and in so doing THWONKED Eliza’s forehead into the canvas in a truncated DDT! The Renaissance Woman bounced, flopped onto her back and was immediately pinned by the blonde, who straddled her chest.
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Bliss bridged hard and shoved against Miranda’s glutes, forcing the true believer onto all fours with half a second to spare. Miranda sighed, rose to one knee and buried a hand in the potential convert’s dark hair en route back to her feet. A Kneelift to the belly and a Forearm Smash across the back of the neck kept Bliss distressingly pliant as Wainright reeled her into a Front Facelock and hooked one leg behind the knee. Tugging the Englishwoman’s captured stem off the mat, Miranda said, “I appreciate the resistance, sister, but this is energy better spent in service to NGH! NGH! NGH!”
Eliza pounded a fist into the blonde’s ribs until she was able to squirm loose and create some distance with a rough shove. Wainright stumbled, caught herself, regarded the Briton with narrowed eyes. “You’d be wise not to test my patience, sis--”
CRAAACK!
Eliza turned her foe’s features sideways with a Bytch Slap much appreciated by the capacity crowd. “Trying YOUR patience?” Bliss huffed. “I’m the one who has to bloody listen to--”
The Prophet of Pain swung on her with a brutal Palm Strike, mercifully Eliza dipped under the blow and hooked her right arm across Wainright’s chest. Then there was a TWHUMP followed by a THWHONK, as Bliss dropped to one knee, popped up and snapped backward, the Backbreaker & Reverse STO combination known as Encore, Encore leaving her foe stretched out flat on the mat! Bulling the woozy battler onto her back, Bliss slid over her chest and snagged the far leg for…
ENCORE, ENCORE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro8E3HZ6Db4
ONE…
TWO…
There would be no holy trinity as the Septa of Sorrow brought that namesake to the crowd, denying them the joy of a huge win for FAWN’s favorite diva.
But the Superlative Soprano didn’t let her patrons down for long, rising to her feet and putting the boots to Wainright’s bosom and midriff until the Churchgoer was persuaded to roll to her chest. With Miranda facedown, Eliza moved to a standing reverse straddle of her foe’s ankles. She collected both of Wainright’s stems and knotted them around her left leg.
With the blonde’s lower limbs immobilized, Eliza dropped into a flawless bridge that brought her arms within reach of an inverted Crossface grip and Blissy wrenched away on Wainright.
Miranda bit her tongues instead of speaking in them, but a anguished mewl snuck its way from between her lips when the Blackbird amped up the pressure of her Double Aria.
DOUBLE ARIA:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOyjJ-GMzbU
Merle dropped to ask if the irreverent reverend wanted to call for a cease to tonight’s services. She seemed to consider, a palm hovering over the canvas, threatening to drop, but a shake of her head several seconds later convinced the Brit she won’t be able to hold her bridge long enough to force a surrender from Miranda.
Releasing her grip, Eliza rose hands-free, untied her leg from those of Wainright and focused on a single ankle as she circled and surrounded the remaining stem with both arms. Her Fortissimo locked tight, a focused Bliss turned Miranda’s left foot like she’s trying to remove it and drew some prayerful cries from the Prophet of Pain.
FORTISSIMO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFJwrMBAff0
“One way for the prayers to get answered,” Eliza shouted, “give me a beat on that canvas to which I can sing my victory song.”
Again, Merle got in the grill of Sister Superior and asked for her confession. A less than happy Miranda took a wild swing at Friar Schmuck and, after missing with her swipe, dug her nails into the mat and desperately made her way to the ropes before her pain receptors gave her too much to handle.
Despite Blissy’s best efforts, Wainright refused to capitulate. The blonde survived the trek through the proverbial desert to reach the Promised Land. Miranda wrapped a palm around the bottom rope and emphatically called for her release. Eliza was less than anxious to provide it, delaying a full four-count before lifting Miranda’s stem and SLAMMING her knee into the canvas.
Wainright yelped in pain as she pulled the leg in close with one arm, the other coiled tightly around the safety of the rubber-coated steel strand.
Bliss hovered close, Merle doing his best to keep her back, wedging in between.
“You will atone, Eliza,” Miranda growled as she limped to her feet with the help of the cables. “No one can continue to fail in abiding my authority without consequences.”
“And yet,” Eliza responded, peering around Merle’s shoulder, “I seem to be doing just that.”
Unable to wait any longer, the Blackbird propelled Merle out from between her and her foe. Bliss moved to reclaim Wainright as Miranda thrust a thumb at the diva’s left eye. Eliza deftly ducked the sanctimonious shortcut and dug the beginning of a Cleft Note into Miranda’s maw.
Acting as if she’s seen the Light and it will devour her, Wainright flailed wildly in a frantic attempt to escape. Latching onto the top rope behind her, Miranda gurgled piteously for release, somehow able to pull the upper half of her frame between the middle and uppermost cable, making particularly plain she’s earned her freedom from the heathen.
At four, a smirking Bliss released the hook in her fingers, drawing them out over Wainright’s quivering lower lip. Unfortunately for the Churchgoer, she simply switched her control to a Dragon Sleeper grip on Miranda’s noggin, pulling the back of Wainright’s neck over the top rope. The lithe Songbird dropped to her pert backside and reverse hotshotted the entwined blonde, Miranda’s head snapping forward from the slingshot effect of the cable.
Eliza’s inquisition continued unabated, the petulant Blackbird not backing away from Wainright, Miranda hanging loosely over the middle rope at the waist, like laundry on the line. Blissy snatched the blonde’s braincase and spun her atop the middle rope so her noggin was leading into the ring rather than out. To the delight of the fans, the Superlative Soprano dragged Miranda across the cable from her navel to her ankles, until her boots hooked, Eternal Midnight’s choir leader extended as far as her frame will take her.
With Eliza in control of her foe with a Front Facelock, there’s little mystery in where she’s going with her recruiter and, after allowing Miranda to consider the error of her ways, Bliss SPIKEF the blonde’s forehead into the deck with a rope-assisted DDT.
With the Archbishop of Eternal Midnight facedown and twitching, Eliza sitting next to her, Bliss shoved the flaccid blonde to her back and leaned leisurely on the demolished Miranda, propping on an elbow placed in the cleft of the blonde’s bosom for…
ONE…
TWO…
THREE was denied the careless Blackbird, Blissy perhaps trying to convince the other members of the Church a woman who could so easily pin their leader should never again be approached for enlistment.
Almost immediately, Eliza came to regret the cavalier cover. But there are ways to put the beleaguered Messiah of Misery into a state of unconsciousness where a pinky would do for a pin.
Bliss rose to her feet and held a curled set of digits high. The crowd responded like she’s completed the most beautiful aria ever, a rousing ovation for the diva. Meanwhile, Miranda continued to show her faith in Eternal Midnight, struggling upward. As Wainright slowly rose, Eliza raised her opposite hand and extended an index finger, giving it a waggle. Just teasing the Cleft Note, she turned to the Churchgoer, Miranda’s back to her.
The Blackbird curled her wings around those of Wainright, hooking her foe’s arms. She spun away from the reeling true believer, the back of Miranda’s dipped head pressed tight to Eliza’s spinal column, Bliss ready to dispatch the Prophet of Pain finally and completely with any version of the Decrescendo she chose to employ.
But before Eliza could bring down the curtain, Miranda flailed to life and shook her way free of the Superlative Soprano’s grip.
A startled Eliza spung to face the freed Wainright and Miranda locked her arms around her foe’s neck and left arm and RIPPED Eliza down with a Reverse STO that DROVE the diva’s flawless features into the canvas with righteous force.
REVERSE STO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aT_XQeAn-Q
The impact sent Bliss flopping to her back and Miranda dove atop, limply laying on the splayed Brit for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOO!
Bliss shot a shoulder into the air and in doing so turned onto her stomach, presumably to prevent Wainright from trying an immediate follow-up pin. Alas while it defended against covers it did nothing against the blonde’s actual plan as she discovered when Miranda snuggled in beside her and slipped her right arm under the brunette’s chest. In the same breath she kicked her hips up and brought her left leg over and around, effectively wedging the Renaissance Woman’s chin into the pit of her knee. Hands locked in an S-grip against the base of her prey’s neck, Miranda puuuuuuuuuuulled those hooks and puuuuuusssssshed with her leg to put immediate fight-winning pressure on her foe’s slender throat.
KOJI CLUTCH:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy4AqLp_8I
Eyes wide and shocked, pretty face already flushed pink, Bliss gouged her right elbow into the mat and reached for the ropes with her right even though they were well out of reach. Miranda noted the taller woman’s burgeoning panic and jostled the hold that much harder. “The middle of the ring belongs to ME, sister.” the Deacon of Despair cooed as the crowd did their best to steady Eliza with a ‘PLEASE DON’T TAP!’ chant. “Beautiful though your voice may be, it is still so much ugly croaking when compared to the majesty of Eternal Mid--” Wainright shut up and twisted her head to the left as Bliss came lookin’ for the Cleft Note from a truly disadvantageous position.
Desperate to fight off the increasing weight of her flailing legs, the former Lightweight Champion sought Miranda’s lips for almost fifteen seconds and when that yielded no results she hooked her fingers into the zealot’s nostrils and pulled as hard as she could! Miranda voiced a nasal shriek and bore down hard enough to turn the Blackbird a frightening shade of red, yet in the end the nose hook proved too much to endure and the true believer broke the Koji Clutch to tend to her own aches and pains. Strangled to semi-consciousness by the tenacious head case, Bliss put one hand to her throat, curled an arm over the back of her noggin and simply sucked wind while the official burned through the standing ten count. He’d reached ‘SIX’ and Eliza felt better but she decided to hold off until ‘EIGHT’ to get as long a reprieve as “UUUUNNNNNNNNNGGGGGHH!”
The Briton jolted like a downed power-line as Miranda brought her back to the light with a heavy Mushroom Stomp between the shoulders! Twisting sideways even as the blonde skipped clear, Bliss was right back to feeling miserable by the time Wainright hauled her to boot-leather. A savage backhand across the mouth turned Eliza in a half circle and allowed the Prophet of Pain to worm her head under the brunette’s left arm. A half Waistlock and a bracing hand on Blissy bum provided all the support Wainright needed to muscle her burden up onto the ball of her right shoulder. One side of the arena got a brief but excellent view of the Songbird’s backside, then all four sides groaned in sympathy when Miranda bounced the backs of Bliss’s legs on the top rope and used the extra momentum to take her brunette up, over and DOWN onto the back of her head and shoulders with a brutal Backdrop Suplex. Rolling to her knees beside the facedown heathen, Miranda grabbed Eliza’s far side and pulled her onto her back before hooking the far leg for…
SLINGSHOT BACKDROP SUPLEX:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCoMt10FGU0
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Bliss twitched free of the cover with a heartbeat to spare, showing a resilience that Wainright would have found most irritating if she wasn’t actively trying to convert it to her cause. Rising to her feet without so much as a word or prayer or condemnation for her wayward sister, Miranda backed off several steps and raised her arms wide. Quite unaware of this looming thunderhead, Eliza rolled onto her stomach, put both hands to the mat and slowly pushed herself to one knee. She knew she had no idea of Wainright’s location and she knew that was a very dangerous state of affairs, but at the moment she was only concerned with taking that nauseating waver out of the world. Eyes closed, breath coming in slow and deep, Bliss clambered to verticality and “GUUURRRHHHK!”
Miranda closed in, secured the Half Nelson on her Briton’s right arm and quickly yanked the captured limb across her own throat. In no mood or condition for niceties, Bliss raised one foot and brought it down hard, meaning to stamp on the zealot’s toes. Intention and result were often two very different things however and such was the case here, as Wainright pulled her boot out of the way and made Bliss pay for the slight with a stiff Kneelift between the cheeks. Eliza gurgled, fashioned her free hand into a desperate claw and jabbed it over her shoulder, once again seeking the blonde’s poisonous maw.
“Too late for that, sister.” Miranda squeezed the simple hold even tighter, shook it back n’ forth and kept her head turned to one side to avoid those wicked digits. “The only way out for you is supplication… or darkness. Either way you will know the power of Eternal Midnight.”
The Renaissance Woman jabbed a few elbows into her foe’s ribs, leaned forward as best she could and managed several shambling steps toward the corner. “FUUUUHHHH…. FUGGGHHHH YOOOUU EERRRRGGGGHHHH!”
Gasps of worry from the crowd as Bliss’s legs gave out and she crumpled to one knee. “Surrender, sister.” Wainright cooed as the Englishwoman slumped forward to brace her free hand against the deck. “Give me your word and I will return your song stronger than evWHOOOAAAAAHHH!”
Powering to verticality in direct defiance of her tunneling vision, Bliss charged at the corner, but rather than hook an arm over the ropes she sprang up and planted both feet against the top turnbuckle. Wainright’s weight against her back forced Eliza’s knees dangerously close to her chin before she pushed off with a choked scream and drove the both of them back to the middle of the squared circle. Blessed with the strength of her convictions, Miranda bore down on the Clutch even after she lost her balance and went down with Bliss landing heavily on her chest. Kicking her legs up in search of a Bodyscissors, Wainright grunted in irritation as Bliss somersaulted clear of the attempt. It was only then she noticed the increased pressure on her shoulders and the insistent slap of the arbiter’s hand striking the canvas…
ONE…
TWO…
THREE!
The Deacon of Despair released a heartbeat to late and though Eliza was little more than ragged deadweight beside her, it didn’t stop the Announcer from confirming, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via pin-fall… ELIZA BLISS!”
Merle stepped between blonde and brunette, as if that would somehow save the Blackbird from Miranda’s wrath. Imagine his surprise then when she stood up and backed off without a murmur of complaint. Careful to keep an eye on her, the ref laid a hand on Eliza’s shoulder and kept it there until she managed to make it to one knee. “You are even more resilient than I’d imagined, sister.” Miranda noted once the Englishwoman made it to her feet. “It’s a quality I admire, but don’t think for one second that a simple trick of leverage will dissuade me from my goal. There is a darkness held within those lovely notes and I mean to set it free.”
Eliza said nothing while Merle raised her hand. It wasn’t until the roar died down that she replied, “Try me again Miranda and you may very well experience more of my darkness than you’d like. Though I have been told that fading consciousness adds a lovely, haunting effect to certain of my arias.”
Wainright only smiled and dipped her head ever so slightly. “Sunlight loves the songbird’s call, yet Midnight comes for one and all.”
With that she turned around and exited the ring, leaving Eliza to celebrate her victory and contemplate future conquests, all with the faint but implacable tick of the Doomsday Clock deep in the back of her mind.
Having survived an Inquisitor, the crowd was excited to lay eyes on the dangerous diva and see if she could continue to deny Church hierarchy. They offered an ovation worthy of Pavarotti. The PA was quick to announce the dark-haired grappler’s arrival before she began her breathtaking warbling.
“Our next match is scheduled for one fall with a twenty minute time limit. Hailing from London, England, at five feet eiht inches tall and one hundred and twenty-two pounds…she is the sublime soprano, the British Blackbird…ELIZA BLISSSS!”
ELIZA BLISS:
A sweet melodious set of notes reached to the heights, the highest high of soprano superlatives couldn’t describe the beauty of the operatic ecstasy. Nor did they do justice to the woman who delivered such auditory delights to the ears of all those within range of her powerful pipes.
Eliza raised her arms dramatically and serenaded the FAWNatics with her own entrance accompaniment, no one else able to reach the perfect notes of sweet rapture. Blissy set herself on the upper stage. The long locks of the slender, sinewy brunette fell in great cascades, Bliss clad in a lacy black one-piece that clung to her lightly tanned form; curious, futuristic, metallic wristbands, glittered from each wrist to only a few inches short of her elbows. Below, she wore tempting, knee-high black leather boots. The Englishwoman strode down the aisle belting out the concluding aria of Giulio Cesare, the opera that had made her famous or infamous, depending on fan or foe.
Her checkered past now long forgotten, the loyal fans of the Blackbird have taken Bliss under their protective wing after her time astray.
Eliza’s singles’ career finally seeming to blossom after dispatching of FAWN’s most hated traitor and troll and Eternal Midnight’s crossexaminer, the long ago Lightweight champion seemed especially buoyant, her vocal chords providing instant ecstasy as had her victory over Tiffany Mayes at the previous Pay-Per-View.
As Bliss strutted to the ring, waving and smiling, she finished her beautiful verse and slapped hands with those lucky enough to be on the aisle.
Reaching the squared circle, Eliza circles, making contact with the crowd, particularly pleased with a placard that noted: ‘For Miranda, Eliza’s verse will be same as the first!’
The radiant brunette nodded in agreement as she’s handed a microphone.
“I made it clear to Tiffany my talents are not about to be mislaid on the altar of ignorance,” Eliza affirmed. “But apparently Eternal Midnight must be confronted and defeated at its source.” The crowd was silent, its rapt attention provided.
“And so Wainright, come down and hear me sing the final hymn of your misguided mass.”
The sinewy soprano handed over the stick and turned to the squared circle with an eruption of applause. She skipped up the steps, slid through the ropes, and kept an eye peeled as she moved to her corner.
Bliss still owned the ‘stage’ in every sense of the word, even without belting out one further note. A performer of unequalled beauty and poise, Eliza flexed and stretched, preparing to end the attempted conversion once and for all.
Taking a moment to steady his nerves as he always did when this particular woman was close by, the Announcer raised his mic and began again, “And introducing her opponent, 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 Dark in this sad, lonely light… MIRANDA WAINRIGHT!”
EAST JESUS NOWHERE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtHnPUDRMdA
Gloom descended upon the FAWN Arena 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 Lily Burlingame, then Chloe Fields and Wendy Bunny Cooper. When the light illuminated a eerily accurate Eliza-figure on the last stake the drums started to pound and a fifth spotlight revealed the Septa of Sorrow.
MIRANDA WAINRIGHT:
For tonight‘s dose of faith and violence, Miranda wore the pitch 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 Merle the referee to peruse her boots and pads. He found nothing of course, not that the absence of a weapon eased the official’s nerves. If anything it worried him all the more, the idea that Wainright had some trick up her sleeve, one hiding in plain sight. “Calm yourself, arbiter.” Miranda said without letting her attention leave Bliss. “This is not an inquisition or even a trial, I am simply here to show sister Eliza what glories await her at the side of Eternal Midnight.” With that settled, the Messiah of Misery backed into the opposite corner and settled in to await the trumpet of the opening bell.
It CLANGED scant seconds later and Eliza was out of her corner in a trice, not on a beeline for Miranda, but a careful, looping arc that allowed her to keep the blonde in sight while giving her much more room to maneuver. Probably an unnecessary precaution, yet Bliss was of the mind that there was no such thing as ‘too much’ caution where the Church of Eternal Midnight was concerned. Miranda noted the Briton’s quick start with a faint smile and nothing more. If asked she could have told Eliza that the rest of the congregation was backstage, but she hadn’t and the Deacon of Despair enjoyed watching Bliss’s imagination run wild. Still, there was work to be done, so she pushed off the buckles and strolled to the middle of the ring, where she stopped and laced her hands behind her back, a surprisingly prim gesture coming from one of the most disconcerting presences in all of FAWN.
“Care to join me, sister?” Wainright asked when Bliss took no immediate action. “Or perhaps you’d like to converse at, what I presume you believe is a safe distance?”
The Renaissance Woman closed the distance by more than half and raised her hands in anticipation of a lock-up, but she stopped shy of an actual grapple. “I didn’t come here for conversation and a pamphlet, Miranda.”
Wainright looked to her left, then to her right, seemingly in search of the conspirators Bliss watched against. “Are you sure of that, sister Eliza? You claim an interest in violence, and yet you have made no move against me. Such hesitation leads me to believe one of two possibilities. One, you’re concerned about what might happen should you take up arms against my sisters and I. Two, and I find this far more likely, you are indeed quite interested in continuing the conversation Tiffany started last--”
Eliza pounced, the former Lightweight Champion’s fingertips actually brushing the smaller woman’s shoulders before Wainright dipped low and swung around behind her. Wainright didn’t claw or slap or even poke, she only traced a few fingers along the curve of Bliss’s hip, a touch so light it couldn’t be anything other than deliberate.
Anger was a spark on Eliza’s face, one that died long before she rounded on the Prophet of Pain. “It’s possible your Inquisitor garbled my first answer,” Eliza murmured, “after all, I had jammed a Cleft Note down her throat. So allow me to repeat myself. I find your doctrine oppressive and your tactics reprehensible. In short, I will never, EVER join your cause and if you don’t start respecting that decision this very second I will have no choice but to kick your cryptic, puritanical arse from one end of this ring to the oth--”
Miranda came in showing clinch only to drop low and take the brunette’s six for the second time in as many minutes. No feathery tease now however, Wainright shaped her hands into blunt blades and gouged the edges in deep just above her hips. Bliss grunted, threw a Back Elbow that flew over the blonde’s head and paid for the error when Miranda clamped down on her sides and stepped into a Headbutt that THUMPED the small of her back. Bliss yelped, straightened up and would’ve rounded on the truest of the True Believers if Wainright hadn’t bogged her down with a Half Nelson on the Englishwoman’s right arm. Palming the nape of Bliss’s neck with that hand, Miranda crooked her left hand into a fist and pwak-pwak-PWAAAKED it against Eliza’s kidney. A Kneelift to the back slowed her further still, and made it possible for the blonde to wedge her right knee into the pit of Eliza’s right knee. Doing so forced Eliza into an unwanted genuflection, which in turn allowed Miranda to reach around and claim the Songbird’s right wrist in her left hand.
A worried buzz from the capacity crowd as the Messiah of Misery secured the Cobra Clutch. Though it wasn’t her actual finisher, Wainright used it to segue into more than a dozen maneuvers including Swords to Ploughshares, a hold that’d forced a surrender from almost every lightweight on the roster. Thankfully it was still only a Cobra Clutch at the moment, not that it kept Eliza from struggling to craft an escape. Bracing her left hand against the mat for extra leverage, Bliss got a knee under her and started to rise only for Wainright to force her back down with a whipsawing back n’ forth shake.
Leaned in with all of her weight bearing down on the taller woman’s shoulders, Miranda looked up from her work to find Merle drawing closer to his charges. “You’re more than welcome to ask for submission.” she said benevolently. “I very much doubt she’ll offer it, though the responses of heathens sometimes surprise even--” Wainright hissed in unhappy surprise as Bliss reached up with her free hand and grabbed hold of her attacker’s blonde locks. Regaining her composure almost at once, Miranda eyed the official and added, “Illustrates my point rather nicely, don’t you think? Would you be so kind as to warn her of the infrac--”
Eliza released the hair-hold without so much as a word from the official so she could seek out the far more effective (and perfectly legal) three-fingered C-prong rip that was the hallmark of her Cleft Note. Far from unprepared for such a tactic, Wainright twisted her head away from the Englishwoman’s scrabbling fingers, yet this defense forced her to shift her weight, which in turn allowed Eliza to clamber back to boot leather. With Miranda off balance guarding against her claw, Bliss leaned forward and stamped her way over to the nearest set of strands. “Break!” she grunted as soon as her one-armed death grip was secure. “Get her off of me, Merle. I’m in the AAARRRHHH!”
Miranda leaned in and bit the brunette’s ear. The infraction drew a quick response from the zebra, unfortunately it also loosened Bliss’s grip on the top rope to almost nothing. Prizing the taller lovely loose with another nasty little shake, Wainright dragged her out into the deep end, then leaned forward and snapped back to THWHUMP her foe to the deck with a modified Russian Leg Sweep. As tenacious in the ring as she was behind her pulpit, Miranda somersaulted through the landing so that she ended up on her butt and Eliza was stretched out on her tummy. Seated beside the grounded Songbird, Wainright kicked both feet forward and bridged back as far as she could to wrench Bliss’s upper body off the mat at a horribly painful angle.
COBRA CLUTCH LEG SWEEP & GROUNDED STRETCH:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-T9OSIbd0Y
Left hand once against driven into the canvas like a kickstand, Bliss panted, “No, no, no!’ like a mantra when Merle asked if she’d had enough. And that was certainly true, Eliza hadn’t dropped two evil sawed-off blondes just to choke against a third, yet she couldn’t exactly afford to spend any more time choking on her own bicep. Aware that Wainright had very cleverly returned them to the center of the squared circle, Eliza clenched her jaw to stifle the groans as she pushed the both of them straight backward. The awkward scooting / crawling across the canvas left ugly welts on her thighs but her progress was blessedly quick because it tended in the same direction as Wainright’s tugging. Then one of her boots smacked against the bottom rope and Eliza wrapped both ankles around it as tight as she could.
“Let. Me. Go.” she directed the demand at Miranda rather than Merle.
Wainright leaned forward, then reefed back for two long seconds before releasing the hold without a word. Free from the fanatic’s grasp, Eliza slid out under the bottom rope and took a breather against the barricade.
Miranda didn’t pursue, in fact she sank into a cross-legged seat in the middle of the ring. “Take all the time you need, sister Eliza.” she called over the roar of the crowd. “I want that legendary voice of yours to be strong and fully rested when it’s time to sing the praises of Midnight.”
Bliss pushed away from the steel barricade and walked around a corner. Wainright not only didn’t rise from her Indian-style seat, she didn’t so much as spin to keep face forward with Eliza. The Brit hopped to the apron and still the head of the Church didn’t flinch.
“Are you ready to be on my right hand?” the blonde asked serenely, raising said palm.
“Not hardly,” the soprano replied, slipping through the ropes, but hesitant to attack, sure there’s some type of trap set.
“Get up!” Bliss demanded from a few feet away and Miranda obliged, leaping to her feet and spinning ninety degrees to face the Blackbird. She extended her right arm and closed an upturned palm to motion Eliza forward.
Bliss didn’t delay, charging into a Collar & Elbow Tie-Up. The diva used her height advantage to work some leverage out of the lock-up and twisted Wainright, capturing the blonde’s noggin in a Side Headlock. She ground Miranda’s braincase against a hip.
Wainright moved her hands to either side of the brunette and shoved her foe off, Eliza using the offered momentum to race to the ropes in front of her. Blissy bounded into the cables and sprinted out in a u-turn, then lowering a shoulder and burying it into Eternal Midnight’s Archbishop.
The sound of back THWAPPING against canvas followed closely, bringing a cheer from the crowd and a gleam in Eliza’s eyes.
“Only the weak want to be your sheep,” Bliss informed as she hovered above Wainright. She skipped over the splayed Miranda and headed for the strands once more. As she did, Wainright scrambled to her feet. Miranda seemed ready when Eliza returned, dipping and reaching. The Brit leapfrogged over and continued on, speeding into the ropes again.
On this return, she lifted into a precise Dropkick to the chin of the spinning Churchgoer, taking Miranda off her feet. Wainright clambered back to vertical quickly, only to be taken down again with another Dropkick. Eliza kipped up to the roaring crowd and was ready with a Toe Kick to the blonde’s belly when she rose.
Foe doubled and groaning in front of her, Eliza snatched the blonde baptizer in a Front Facelock and graced the FAWNatics with a perfect-C note. She raised an arm high to signal difficult times for Wainright. Eliza vaulted into the air, ready to knock sense into or out of Miranda’s gray matter with a Leaping DDT.
But before the soprano could spike Wainright’s skull into the deck, Miranda shoved her off. Eliza managed to land on her feet, but the lead clergy of Midnight had a scythe-like Clothesline at the ready. She swung with her right arm but came up empty as the taller brunette was able to Matrix underneath.
As the crowd ‘oooohed’ in wonder, Bliss straightened as quickly as she bent, spinning and clamping onto Miranda from behind. Blissy’s arms snaked around the neck and head of the flaxen-haired Churchgoer, quickly securing a Sleeper hold that instantly altered Miranda’s generally stoic demeanor. There’s more than a hint of concern in Wainright’s eyes as the Blackbird bore down behind her, Eliza using the height advantage to bring her mass to bear on the back of the blonde’s neck.
Miranda’s raised arms started to flutter then grasped weakly to pry at Eliza’s guns. It’s then Bliss got big, ripping Miranda off her shoe leather with a Sleeper Suplex that DROVE Wainright’s noggin into the canvas.
SLEEPER SUPLEX:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=37H3tq68OEo
Miranda back flipped the rest of the way to her destination, ending on her chest. She absently flopped to her side, baby blues with a heavy glaze. Meanwhile, a delighted Eliza barrel rolled to her chest and plopped her chin between cupped and joined palms.
“You need more than faith,” the Songbird tweeted, pushing to her feet and stalking Wainright as the Bringer of Darkness had flickering lights to work through.
Eliza helped her foe up from all fours and delivers a wicked Uppercut Throat Thrust. It isn’t exactly Cricket, but the open hand shot certainly wasn’t a fist so Merle didn’t complain. As Miranda staggered away from the impact gagging and retching, Eliza followed, her focused ‘game face’ in place.
Coming in from Miranda’s six, the skillful Blackbird captured Wainright in an intricate Cravate grip from the left. Bliss workED the lock, drawing a pained mewl from Miranda, but Blissy wanted a more impactful performance. Using her length, she dipped, laid out and heaved Wainright across the ring with another perfect Suplex, the blonde baptizer landing HARD on her head and neck, the Church leader planted like a lawn-dart by the Melodious Maiden.
CRAVATE SUPLEX:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uCbiEgcjs
The crowd groaned in momentary sympathy from the fearsome force of the impact and a dazed Miranda remained facedown on the canvas, unable to even turn her head. A moment later, Eliza forced her, shoveling Wainright to her back and pressing tight with a Crossbody pin for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOO!
The crowd sighed more than groaned, knowing Miranda had more than a bit of Lazarus in her bones, not expecting for her to be put down for good that early. Wainright showed it by throwing a shoulder up and rolling to her side. But Bliss wasn’t a bit perturbed, quickly capturing Wainright’s head in a tight two-hand grip and tugging the jelly-legged blonde to unsteady feet.
Again getting her foe in a Side Headlock, Eliza’s roughhousing got interrupted when Miranda threw an elbow, jabbing it into Blissy’s bosom. Eliza released her grip and sent a pounding forearm between the blonde’s shoulderblades as punishment. Miranda was thrust forward, her back arching.
“Ever hear of karma?” Eliza asked. “Much more reliable than anything created by your little cult.”
Sliding beside the pained Churchgoer, Miranda’s preaching silenced for the time being, Eliza slipped her head beneath the limp left arm of her foe. The Blackbird wrapped one arm around the back of her would-be pastor and the other under her near buttock. With a grunt of effort, Eliza shot a startled Miranda HIGH into the air, soles pointed to the rafters for a split-second. Down from the heavens comes Eternal Midnight’s Moses; down on bended knee, Eliza ironically genuflecting in order to put a serious kink in Miranda’s spinal column with a Backdrop Backbreaker.
BACKDROP BACKBREAKER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uCbiEgcjs
The pierced Wainright sloughed off Eliza’s knee from a slight shove by the Brit. Miranda spilled to her back, wincing, backbone arching. Blissy pressed her flat with another tight pinning predicament, Eliza hooking the far leg for…
ONE…
TWO…
Miranda kicked out and a few loud ‘AMENS’ erupted from the audience, Wainright showing she had a few FAWNatic followers to the Church’s name.
Bliss turned her head to the sound and found two twenty-somethings in the first row, pressing their palms together in prayer. Eliza rose, scoffing at the men. She grabbed the top rope with both hands and leaned over toward them.
“Pray all ya like,” Blissy scolded. “God isn’t coming to save her and he’s the only one who could.”
Eliza turned and strolled to Miranda, who’s made it to her knees. The Blackbird sank her claws into Wainright’s golden locks in preparation of yanking her up again, but when the Churchgoer rose, she wrapped her arms around the lower curve of Blissy’s gluteus. She lifted the disconcerted Eliza off her feet, scooping her into the air.
Before the soprano could react with a blast of battering fists to Miranda’s back, the Bringer of Darkness pirouetted 180 degrees and laid out. While the crown of Wainright’s skulls grazed against the bottom rope, Eliza’s throat hotshotted across the middle. The brunette was flung away from the impact, rolling as she choked and gasped, grabbing at her reddened neck.
Miranda took the opportunity for a spot of quiet reflection. Leaned back on her knees, the black-clad blonde closed her eyes and enjoyed the sounds pouring in around her: the declaratory bark of the official’s count, the worried buzz of the heathens that filled the cavernous arena, the whistling rasp of sister Eliza’s pained breathing and of course, the inexorable murmur of Eternal Midnight. Quite refreshed by this brief contemplation of the universe, the Septa of Sorrow crawled over to Bliss, cupped her by the ears and dug in just hard enough to make sure the Englishwoman knew she had no choice when Miranda suggested she rise.
“Your voice is beautiful, sister.” Wainright exclaimed as they both returned to boot-leather. “It is in fact, the primary reason I’ve invited you to join us. And yet, as is often the case with those who possess extraordinary gifts, I fear familiarity has dulled your own appreciation. Thus I have taken it from you, if only briefly, so that you may better appreciate what has been given OOOFFFFHH!”
Bliss might’ve been short a high note at the moment, but she was still quite capable of throwing a punch, as Miranda discovered when she buried a strappy hook in the blonde’s ribs. Rising to her full height as Wainright stumbled back, the Songbird put a hand to her throat and rasped, “You’ll never take anything from me, understu--” THWHACK!
The Deacon of Despair lashed out with both hands, clapping them to Eliza’s ears with a Bell Ringer that reduced the Brit’s hearing to nothing but a high, reedy whine. “Hear no evil, sister.” Miranda intoned as she grabbed a handful of hair. Both Merle and Eliza protested the infraction, alas neither possessed the authority to stay the blonde’s other hand, which raaaaaaaaaked the Superlative Soprano’s eyes at viper speed. “See no evil, sister.” Indeed, Bliss could see very little of anything, which made it that much easier for Wainright to jab thumb and forefinger into the taller woman’s mouth. Catching the tip of Eliza’s tongue with terrifying ease, Miranda pulled and twisted, earning a distorted warble of displeasure even as the Prophet of Pain finished, “Speak no evil, sister.”
She closed with a quick, heavy Kneelift to Bliss’s tummy that left the willowy warrior doubled up and gasping in the center of the ring. Wainright nodded approval, wheeled around and ran the ropes to her opponent’s left. The FAWNatics, far more capable of verbal gymnastics than Bliss at that point, warned the Songbird as best they could, alas her ears still buzzed and she remained oblivious to the threat until Wainright slammed a second Kneelift into her chin. Rocked up on her heels by the power of that precision strike, Eliza’s situation grew all the worse when Miranda cupped her chin in both hands and laid out full force to THWHUNK the back of her foe’s head and shoulders against the deck with a big Reverse Neckbreaker.
KNEELFIT & REVERSE NECKBREAKER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T01YUIBXpo
Eliza bounced hard, tumbled over onto her belly and cradled her head in her arms while one foot tapped an erratic message of hurt to anyone who would listen. Of course Miranda Wainright always had time to listen to a soul in pain, in fact she had so much time that she wedged a knee against the side base of the Blackbird’s neck and grabbed a double handful of hair, all the better to craaaaaaaaaaaaank her foe’s neck at an ugly angle.
“Off the hair, Miranda!” Merle warned at once. “You know better!”
Wainright jerked Eliza’s locks, forcing a pained yelp from the taller woman. “Just as you know not to bother me with such trifling matters when I’m in the midst of a great spiritual conflict, do you not?” The ref wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, thankfully the malevolent minister relinquished her hair-holds for perfectly legal control of the brunette’s head and shoulders. Not that this meant an improvement for Bliss’s situation. Truth be told it grew that much more dire as Wainright rose into push-up position and proceeded to THUMP her right knee into the base of the Englishwoman’s neck once, twice, thrice! Bliss protested every bit of it, thrashing and scratching at her attacker, but Miranda endured the welts and stilled Bliss’s nerves with a double handful of hair and another THWHONK of forehead on canvas.
“It is Midnight in your heart, Eliza Bliss.” the blonde said after she’d brushed off her hands and stood. “I see it in your eyes every time you secure the Cleft Note or drive some poor unfortunate’s skull into the mat with a Decrescendo. Open yourself to it and I promise the songs you sing will make all your previous efforts look like so much tin-eared warbling.”
Eliza didn’t look to be open to much more than a handful of Aspirin and some water, so Wainright turned on her heel and made another visit to the strands. Moving fast but with no particular sense of urgency, the Messiah of Misery closed on her prone prey, took to the skies in a gorgeous vertical leap and kicked both legs out in front, all the better to drop the right flush against the back of Bliss’s noggin. Eliza jolted, made a feeble attempt to slide free and got her hair pulled for the effort. With the pit of her right knee snugged against the curve of her opponent’s skull, Miranda wrenched the Blackbird’s head back just far enough to slide her left leg in beneath Bliss’s chin. Ankles locked, the blonde offered the FAWNatics a contemplative smile, then rolled over onto her belly and pushed up in a deft display of fitness that also exacerbated the growing kink in her adversary’s neck.
HANGMAN'S HEADSCISSORS:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxd1Pp3hk6U
“Nnnnnnnnnnggggghhhhhhhh…” Bliss’s normally angelic tone was thick with pain and frustration as the Hangman’s Headscissors bit deep into her windpipe. At first she pushed and prized at the blonde’s ankles, alas the torque on her neck and back soon grew to distressing levels and she was forced to brace both hands on the canvas to alleviate the worst of it.
“How you doing, Eliza?” Merle asked after approximately ten seconds of the neck-straining punishment. “Do you need me to call for the bell?”
Shaking her head ‘no’ was out of the question and Bliss hated the sound of her voice at the moment, so she raised one hand and waggled a finger for the official. “Bother us no more, arbiter.” Wainright said following the negation. “Eliza needs your ministrations not and when the time does come for her surrender, she will deliver it unto… that’s an unfortunate choice you’ve made, sister.” Miranda’s voice was even, but the pain underneath was evident, understandable considering the hooked fingers Bliss worked beneath the back of her kneepad. Far from willing to end the hold under any terms other than her own, Wainright abruptly whipped back to a sitting position and in so doing THWONKED Eliza’s forehead into the canvas in a truncated DDT! The Renaissance Woman bounced, flopped onto her back and was immediately pinned by the blonde, who straddled her chest.
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Bliss bridged hard and shoved against Miranda’s glutes, forcing the true believer onto all fours with half a second to spare. Miranda sighed, rose to one knee and buried a hand in the potential convert’s dark hair en route back to her feet. A Kneelift to the belly and a Forearm Smash across the back of the neck kept Bliss distressingly pliant as Wainright reeled her into a Front Facelock and hooked one leg behind the knee. Tugging the Englishwoman’s captured stem off the mat, Miranda said, “I appreciate the resistance, sister, but this is energy better spent in service to NGH! NGH! NGH!”
Eliza pounded a fist into the blonde’s ribs until she was able to squirm loose and create some distance with a rough shove. Wainright stumbled, caught herself, regarded the Briton with narrowed eyes. “You’d be wise not to test my patience, sis--”
CRAAACK!
Eliza turned her foe’s features sideways with a Bytch Slap much appreciated by the capacity crowd. “Trying YOUR patience?” Bliss huffed. “I’m the one who has to bloody listen to--”
The Prophet of Pain swung on her with a brutal Palm Strike, mercifully Eliza dipped under the blow and hooked her right arm across Wainright’s chest. Then there was a TWHUMP followed by a THWHONK, as Bliss dropped to one knee, popped up and snapped backward, the Backbreaker & Reverse STO combination known as Encore, Encore leaving her foe stretched out flat on the mat! Bulling the woozy battler onto her back, Bliss slid over her chest and snagged the far leg for…
ENCORE, ENCORE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ro8E3HZ6Db4
ONE…
TWO…
There would be no holy trinity as the Septa of Sorrow brought that namesake to the crowd, denying them the joy of a huge win for FAWN’s favorite diva.
But the Superlative Soprano didn’t let her patrons down for long, rising to her feet and putting the boots to Wainright’s bosom and midriff until the Churchgoer was persuaded to roll to her chest. With Miranda facedown, Eliza moved to a standing reverse straddle of her foe’s ankles. She collected both of Wainright’s stems and knotted them around her left leg.
With the blonde’s lower limbs immobilized, Eliza dropped into a flawless bridge that brought her arms within reach of an inverted Crossface grip and Blissy wrenched away on Wainright.
Miranda bit her tongues instead of speaking in them, but a anguished mewl snuck its way from between her lips when the Blackbird amped up the pressure of her Double Aria.
DOUBLE ARIA:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOyjJ-GMzbU
Merle dropped to ask if the irreverent reverend wanted to call for a cease to tonight’s services. She seemed to consider, a palm hovering over the canvas, threatening to drop, but a shake of her head several seconds later convinced the Brit she won’t be able to hold her bridge long enough to force a surrender from Miranda.
Releasing her grip, Eliza rose hands-free, untied her leg from those of Wainright and focused on a single ankle as she circled and surrounded the remaining stem with both arms. Her Fortissimo locked tight, a focused Bliss turned Miranda’s left foot like she’s trying to remove it and drew some prayerful cries from the Prophet of Pain.
FORTISSIMO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFJwrMBAff0
“One way for the prayers to get answered,” Eliza shouted, “give me a beat on that canvas to which I can sing my victory song.”
Again, Merle got in the grill of Sister Superior and asked for her confession. A less than happy Miranda took a wild swing at Friar Schmuck and, after missing with her swipe, dug her nails into the mat and desperately made her way to the ropes before her pain receptors gave her too much to handle.
Despite Blissy’s best efforts, Wainright refused to capitulate. The blonde survived the trek through the proverbial desert to reach the Promised Land. Miranda wrapped a palm around the bottom rope and emphatically called for her release. Eliza was less than anxious to provide it, delaying a full four-count before lifting Miranda’s stem and SLAMMING her knee into the canvas.
Wainright yelped in pain as she pulled the leg in close with one arm, the other coiled tightly around the safety of the rubber-coated steel strand.
Bliss hovered close, Merle doing his best to keep her back, wedging in between.
“You will atone, Eliza,” Miranda growled as she limped to her feet with the help of the cables. “No one can continue to fail in abiding my authority without consequences.”
“And yet,” Eliza responded, peering around Merle’s shoulder, “I seem to be doing just that.”
Unable to wait any longer, the Blackbird propelled Merle out from between her and her foe. Bliss moved to reclaim Wainright as Miranda thrust a thumb at the diva’s left eye. Eliza deftly ducked the sanctimonious shortcut and dug the beginning of a Cleft Note into Miranda’s maw.
Acting as if she’s seen the Light and it will devour her, Wainright flailed wildly in a frantic attempt to escape. Latching onto the top rope behind her, Miranda gurgled piteously for release, somehow able to pull the upper half of her frame between the middle and uppermost cable, making particularly plain she’s earned her freedom from the heathen.
At four, a smirking Bliss released the hook in her fingers, drawing them out over Wainright’s quivering lower lip. Unfortunately for the Churchgoer, she simply switched her control to a Dragon Sleeper grip on Miranda’s noggin, pulling the back of Wainright’s neck over the top rope. The lithe Songbird dropped to her pert backside and reverse hotshotted the entwined blonde, Miranda’s head snapping forward from the slingshot effect of the cable.
Eliza’s inquisition continued unabated, the petulant Blackbird not backing away from Wainright, Miranda hanging loosely over the middle rope at the waist, like laundry on the line. Blissy snatched the blonde’s braincase and spun her atop the middle rope so her noggin was leading into the ring rather than out. To the delight of the fans, the Superlative Soprano dragged Miranda across the cable from her navel to her ankles, until her boots hooked, Eternal Midnight’s choir leader extended as far as her frame will take her.
With Eliza in control of her foe with a Front Facelock, there’s little mystery in where she’s going with her recruiter and, after allowing Miranda to consider the error of her ways, Bliss SPIKEF the blonde’s forehead into the deck with a rope-assisted DDT.
With the Archbishop of Eternal Midnight facedown and twitching, Eliza sitting next to her, Bliss shoved the flaccid blonde to her back and leaned leisurely on the demolished Miranda, propping on an elbow placed in the cleft of the blonde’s bosom for…
ONE…
TWO…
THREE was denied the careless Blackbird, Blissy perhaps trying to convince the other members of the Church a woman who could so easily pin their leader should never again be approached for enlistment.
Almost immediately, Eliza came to regret the cavalier cover. But there are ways to put the beleaguered Messiah of Misery into a state of unconsciousness where a pinky would do for a pin.
Bliss rose to her feet and held a curled set of digits high. The crowd responded like she’s completed the most beautiful aria ever, a rousing ovation for the diva. Meanwhile, Miranda continued to show her faith in Eternal Midnight, struggling upward. As Wainright slowly rose, Eliza raised her opposite hand and extended an index finger, giving it a waggle. Just teasing the Cleft Note, she turned to the Churchgoer, Miranda’s back to her.
The Blackbird curled her wings around those of Wainright, hooking her foe’s arms. She spun away from the reeling true believer, the back of Miranda’s dipped head pressed tight to Eliza’s spinal column, Bliss ready to dispatch the Prophet of Pain finally and completely with any version of the Decrescendo she chose to employ.
But before Eliza could bring down the curtain, Miranda flailed to life and shook her way free of the Superlative Soprano’s grip.
A startled Eliza spung to face the freed Wainright and Miranda locked her arms around her foe’s neck and left arm and RIPPED Eliza down with a Reverse STO that DROVE the diva’s flawless features into the canvas with righteous force.
REVERSE STO:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aT_XQeAn-Q
The impact sent Bliss flopping to her back and Miranda dove atop, limply laying on the splayed Brit for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOO!
Bliss shot a shoulder into the air and in doing so turned onto her stomach, presumably to prevent Wainright from trying an immediate follow-up pin. Alas while it defended against covers it did nothing against the blonde’s actual plan as she discovered when Miranda snuggled in beside her and slipped her right arm under the brunette’s chest. In the same breath she kicked her hips up and brought her left leg over and around, effectively wedging the Renaissance Woman’s chin into the pit of her knee. Hands locked in an S-grip against the base of her prey’s neck, Miranda puuuuuuuuuuulled those hooks and puuuuuusssssshed with her leg to put immediate fight-winning pressure on her foe’s slender throat.
KOJI CLUTCH:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy4AqLp_8I
Eyes wide and shocked, pretty face already flushed pink, Bliss gouged her right elbow into the mat and reached for the ropes with her right even though they were well out of reach. Miranda noted the taller woman’s burgeoning panic and jostled the hold that much harder. “The middle of the ring belongs to ME, sister.” the Deacon of Despair cooed as the crowd did their best to steady Eliza with a ‘PLEASE DON’T TAP!’ chant. “Beautiful though your voice may be, it is still so much ugly croaking when compared to the majesty of Eternal Mid--” Wainright shut up and twisted her head to the left as Bliss came lookin’ for the Cleft Note from a truly disadvantageous position.
Desperate to fight off the increasing weight of her flailing legs, the former Lightweight Champion sought Miranda’s lips for almost fifteen seconds and when that yielded no results she hooked her fingers into the zealot’s nostrils and pulled as hard as she could! Miranda voiced a nasal shriek and bore down hard enough to turn the Blackbird a frightening shade of red, yet in the end the nose hook proved too much to endure and the true believer broke the Koji Clutch to tend to her own aches and pains. Strangled to semi-consciousness by the tenacious head case, Bliss put one hand to her throat, curled an arm over the back of her noggin and simply sucked wind while the official burned through the standing ten count. He’d reached ‘SIX’ and Eliza felt better but she decided to hold off until ‘EIGHT’ to get as long a reprieve as “UUUUNNNNNNNNNGGGGGHH!”
The Briton jolted like a downed power-line as Miranda brought her back to the light with a heavy Mushroom Stomp between the shoulders! Twisting sideways even as the blonde skipped clear, Bliss was right back to feeling miserable by the time Wainright hauled her to boot-leather. A savage backhand across the mouth turned Eliza in a half circle and allowed the Prophet of Pain to worm her head under the brunette’s left arm. A half Waistlock and a bracing hand on Blissy bum provided all the support Wainright needed to muscle her burden up onto the ball of her right shoulder. One side of the arena got a brief but excellent view of the Songbird’s backside, then all four sides groaned in sympathy when Miranda bounced the backs of Bliss’s legs on the top rope and used the extra momentum to take her brunette up, over and DOWN onto the back of her head and shoulders with a brutal Backdrop Suplex. Rolling to her knees beside the facedown heathen, Miranda grabbed Eliza’s far side and pulled her onto her back before hooking the far leg for…
SLINGSHOT BACKDROP SUPLEX:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCoMt10FGU0
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Bliss twitched free of the cover with a heartbeat to spare, showing a resilience that Wainright would have found most irritating if she wasn’t actively trying to convert it to her cause. Rising to her feet without so much as a word or prayer or condemnation for her wayward sister, Miranda backed off several steps and raised her arms wide. Quite unaware of this looming thunderhead, Eliza rolled onto her stomach, put both hands to the mat and slowly pushed herself to one knee. She knew she had no idea of Wainright’s location and she knew that was a very dangerous state of affairs, but at the moment she was only concerned with taking that nauseating waver out of the world. Eyes closed, breath coming in slow and deep, Bliss clambered to verticality and “GUUURRRHHHK!”
Miranda closed in, secured the Half Nelson on her Briton’s right arm and quickly yanked the captured limb across her own throat. In no mood or condition for niceties, Bliss raised one foot and brought it down hard, meaning to stamp on the zealot’s toes. Intention and result were often two very different things however and such was the case here, as Wainright pulled her boot out of the way and made Bliss pay for the slight with a stiff Kneelift between the cheeks. Eliza gurgled, fashioned her free hand into a desperate claw and jabbed it over her shoulder, once again seeking the blonde’s poisonous maw.
“Too late for that, sister.” Miranda squeezed the simple hold even tighter, shook it back n’ forth and kept her head turned to one side to avoid those wicked digits. “The only way out for you is supplication… or darkness. Either way you will know the power of Eternal Midnight.”
The Renaissance Woman jabbed a few elbows into her foe’s ribs, leaned forward as best she could and managed several shambling steps toward the corner. “FUUUUHHHH…. FUGGGHHHH YOOOUU EERRRRGGGGHHHH!”
Gasps of worry from the crowd as Bliss’s legs gave out and she crumpled to one knee. “Surrender, sister.” Wainright cooed as the Englishwoman slumped forward to brace her free hand against the deck. “Give me your word and I will return your song stronger than evWHOOOAAAAAHHH!”
Powering to verticality in direct defiance of her tunneling vision, Bliss charged at the corner, but rather than hook an arm over the ropes she sprang up and planted both feet against the top turnbuckle. Wainright’s weight against her back forced Eliza’s knees dangerously close to her chin before she pushed off with a choked scream and drove the both of them back to the middle of the squared circle. Blessed with the strength of her convictions, Miranda bore down on the Clutch even after she lost her balance and went down with Bliss landing heavily on her chest. Kicking her legs up in search of a Bodyscissors, Wainright grunted in irritation as Bliss somersaulted clear of the attempt. It was only then she noticed the increased pressure on her shoulders and the insistent slap of the arbiter’s hand striking the canvas…
ONE…
TWO…
THREE!
The Deacon of Despair released a heartbeat to late and though Eliza was little more than ragged deadweight beside her, it didn’t stop the Announcer from confirming, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via pin-fall… ELIZA BLISS!”
Merle stepped between blonde and brunette, as if that would somehow save the Blackbird from Miranda’s wrath. Imagine his surprise then when she stood up and backed off without a murmur of complaint. Careful to keep an eye on her, the ref laid a hand on Eliza’s shoulder and kept it there until she managed to make it to one knee. “You are even more resilient than I’d imagined, sister.” Miranda noted once the Englishwoman made it to her feet. “It’s a quality I admire, but don’t think for one second that a simple trick of leverage will dissuade me from my goal. There is a darkness held within those lovely notes and I mean to set it free.”
Eliza said nothing while Merle raised her hand. It wasn’t until the roar died down that she replied, “Try me again Miranda and you may very well experience more of my darkness than you’d like. Though I have been told that fading consciousness adds a lovely, haunting effect to certain of my arias.”
Wainright only smiled and dipped her head ever so slightly. “Sunlight loves the songbird’s call, yet Midnight comes for one and all.”
With that she turned around and exited the ring, leaving Eliza to celebrate her victory and contemplate future conquests, all with the faint but implacable tick of the Doomsday Clock deep in the back of her mind.