Valora sat up, then down, up then down. Running through her daily exercise motion as she did sit ups. Hearing the door to her room open, she seamlessly dropped down, then sat up in her normal exercise motion, only this time a knife flew from her hand and slammed into the doorjam inches from Abbigail’s head as she tried to enter, the young protege’s eyes widening as she registered it finally, and then realized where that knife could have landed. Turning she saw Valora sitting there with a handgun leveled at her. Abbigail put her hands up. “Jesus Christ! Do you sleep with weapons?” Valora smirked. “Of course, not.” Abbigail sighed in relief and Valora continued as she walked around in the room. “You should have a bare minimum of 4 weapons on you at all times Never know when you’re going to need to kill someone.” Abbigail nods. “This is a conversation normal people don’t have.” Valora laughed. “Kid, I’ve never been normal. Well my mom convinced me to try once.. I was young and naive and stupid.. Kinda like you. My reward? Two LA cops nearly beat me to death because I wasn’t a whore and wouldn’t give them their daily blow job that they felt entitled to.” Valora stopped her walking and picked up her trademark lead pipe. “This saved me. Message was clear.. Always have a weapon.”
Abbigail nods, considering this. “Soo what happens when you’re not allowed to have a weapon?” Valora smirks. “I learned to use my fists.. My feet, my body itself as a weapon.. You’ve been to the gym.. You know about Hector.. He taught me to box.. Later I learned.. Other techniques…” Abbigail nods. “I...know the gym meant a lot to you.” Valora waves a hand. “It’s fuckin’ gone now! Just like my titles.. My awards.. The the awards Hector won.. The awards the fighters at the gym..” Valora punched the wall. “You know that’s the cruelty of Nuclear weapons.. It doesn’t just fuck your shit up. It vaporizes it. It’s the closest humanity can come to wiping someone away completely… Los Angeles and everyone that was there isn’t just gone.. It’s like they never even fuckin’ existed.”
Abbigail nods, opening her mouth a few times but not sure what to say to that. “You did everything you could, Val..” Valora turns and narrows her eyes at Abbigail. “I...fuckin’ hate this feeling. This.. this right here.. This is the reward for being a hero. You always lose. I’m frequently called arrogant. A gloryhound.. An attention whore, who just wants her 15 minutes.” Valora paused and sighed as she looked down at her clenched fist. “You know how much of a fuckin’ narcissist you have to be to look at millions of people dead and say that it’s okay?! That they died for a cause.. Part of that cause being your fuckin’ legacy as a hero.” Valora turns to face Abbigail. “My best, wasn’t fuckin’ good enough.. And some 6 million people are fuckin’ dead because of it. I don’t get to shrug and say “Opps. my bad.” Abbigail nods. “No.. you don’t. But you saved 4 other cities… put just about anyone else in your position and who knows how much damage is done.” Valora waved her hand dismissively and took the bottle of tequila sitting on the table next to her and took a big drink. “Yeah well.. You’ll just have to forgive me if I’m kinda stuck on the people who are dead.” It was right about here that Abbigail decided a change in subject was needed and she decided to move to work.
Abbigail looked over Valora’s body, clothed in her athletic, work out style gear. “Well we almost had a good plan at the match.. Just bad luck someone got involved. “No chica.. Luck is that some masked fuck decided to get involved in my match before I could throw you a beating for ignoring what I said!” Abbigail opened her mouth but Valora cut her off as she took a couple step forward. “Which fuckin’ part of no teaming did you not fuckin’ understand?!” Abbigail took a risk and put her hand up, holding Valora at arm’s length before responding. “No, you said that I shouldn’t waste my title shot trying to protect your title. You never said not to team up to eliminate the odd man out.” Valora thought about this for a second and took a deep breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’m beginning to see why most pro fighters don’t train proteges anymore.. Damn kids..” Abbigail crossed her arms across her chest. “I’d make a joke with you as a surrogate mother of mine, but I’m afraid I wouldn’t survive it and I’m having trouble coming up with a joke that’s good enough to justify dying for.”
Valora, in mid drink, pointed to her and as she finished nodded. “That’s the smartest fuckin’ thing you’ve said since you came in here.” Abbigail smirked. “Thanks? Soo.. what is the plan with our guest?” Valora nods. “Heh.. I’m gonna find out who he is. Then I’m going to hunt him down. Then I’m gonna fuckin’.. Cross him off.” Valora says, dragging her thumb across her throat for emphasis. Abbigail’s eyes widened and Valora let out a laugh. “You asked me to train you and you’re still squeamish over the thought of killing someone? You realize that is the job description for… people with my skillset, right? We solve problems. We make them go away.” Abbigail nods. “Yeah.. but all he did was interfere with your match.” Valora shook her head. “No it was personal.. He liked to talk.. And I listened as he attacked. I have an idea who it was. Now as for training you - “ Valora is cut off as the door opens again and Samantha Topher walks in. “Val, there you are.. Allan Andersen has just been named the VP of UOW.” Valora was silent for a few moments before nodding her head. “This actually works out to my advantage.. “
Samantha and Abbigail both turned and looked at Valora, the expressions on their faces making their surprise obvious. Abbigail speaking first. “How so?” Valora smirked. “If he’s working here, there’s a good chance Jeremiah Vastrix fired him from Warhammer. Those two never have seen eye to eye. Also, Andersen owes me.” Valora said as she removed her clothes as she moved to a dufflebag and took out new clothes to put on, Samantha tilting her head a bit. “Owes you? What for?” Valora looks up, the chesire smirk on her face seeming to grow a bit. “He owes me for not killing him in North Korea… and he hates being in debt.” Abbigail nods. “But he hates you too, right?” Valora pauses a moment, thinking about this. “Well, I’m pretty sure I’m not on his christmas card list but then given that he’s the kind of sick fuck he is that might be a good thing. Anyways, Abbs.. the question to ask isn’t if he hates me.” Abbigail looks at Valora blankly and gestures for her to continue and Valora nods. “The question is who does he hate more? Me? Or Jeremiah Vastrix.. And I know from working with him before it is without a shadow of a doubt… Jeremiah Vastrix.” Samantha chimes in here, walking over to Valora. “But that was before you killed Michael Vastrix.” Valora nods. “Yeah and you know what they were arguing about when I snuck up on them? Me. Michael Vastrix wasn’t taking me seriously enough. Allen Andersen was telling his boss not to underestimate me. He may not like me very much at the moment, but he respects my ability. I know how he handles himself in the wrestling business too. He’s going to want me on his side.”
Abbigail thinks about this for a second, looking back and forth from Samantha to Valora and finally speaks. “So… what? Am I hearing this right? The same woman pissed off that my first thought was to try and help her retain her title is now going to run to Allen Andersen and make a deal with the devil to get her belt back?”
Valora narrowed her eyes a bit and walked over to Abbigail. “I’m pissed off that you wasted your first title opportunity on a plan that was never going to work in the first place! God fuckin’ damn it! I told you how rare title shots are..” Both of her companions were quiet after the outburst and Valora looked them over. “Look.. it was a matter of time.. They couldn’t beat me fairly, so the fascists and racists were always going to screw me over. And what better time than a fatal four way hell in a cell match.. that is why I wanted you and Sato to focus on winning the title.. Better to have 3 chances to win the belt than all 3 fighting for 1 that was already a target.” Samantha nodded at this and looked at Valora. “Do you think Huckleberry was in on it?” Valora shook her head. “No, he strikes me as the type who’d be pissed if he knew someone helped him win.. He’s probably just a useful idiot.. A way to placate Mudcock who will be pissed.” Abbigail rolled her eyes. “Pissed? He hates you, Val!” Valora laughed a bit as she finished dressing and making her way over to the table, taking another drink of her tequila and nodding. “Yeah, he does… but he loves the ratings and money I brought him.. So whoever fucked me over has to hope that Huckleberry the wonder rube can replace the viewers he’s going to lose. I don’t think that’s going to happen because the people that Huckleberry would draw in… are already Mox news viewers. So Mudcock just lost a shit ton of ratings, money and now will have a lot of bad press to deal with for what went down in New York.. which means.. There’s every chance that I will be kinder to the person that fucked me over than he will.. I love karma..”
Samantha thinks about this for a second and nods. “Well.. you’re right about the bad press.. Social media has blown up and it’s definitely making news. That’s how I found out about Allen Andersen.. I was going to use your rematch clause.. Then I found out about the new hire and..” Valora nods. “I’ll see Andersen, this match up isn’t an accident.” Abbigail turns and looks at Valora as the latina fighter makes her way to the door. “What do you mean?” Valora pauses mid stride, turning her head back to look at Abbigail and Samantha with a smirk. “He picked this match for a reason. He wants to make Jeremiah Vastrix pay. He makes a match with me that seemingly Vastrix can’t lose. But he’s counting on me to find a way to make a robot tap out.” Valora said before resuming her previous course and heading out the door.
A couple hours later saw her sitting in the office of Allan Anderson. A large smile on his face. “Valora Salinas. Without a title belt. Once again, lesser people have taken from us and forced us to work with each other to get it back.”
Valora nods. “Call me stupid again and it’ll be you I kill, not the asshole next to you.” Allan Anderson laughed a bit and nodded. “I never called you stupid.. I called you short-sighted. You failed in North Korea because you re-act You need to learn to identify the problem and eliminate it before it becomes a problem.” Valora nods. ‘Maybe. Right now, you and I have the same problem.” Anderson smirked. “Jeremiah Vastrix. Tell me.. What ideas do you have so far for dealing with that?” Valora shrugs. “You can’t make a cyborg tap out.. Not in the usual way. I thought of a low grade EMP weapon, but I’m told it might kill him.” Anderson nodded. “It would, is that a problem?” Valora nods. “Yeah, Vastrix didn’t do anything to me. I got no problem with him.” Anderson rolls his eyes. “I like you better without the useless ethical restraints. You continue to deny your nature.” Valora rolls her eyes. “Then I thought electricity like the last time he and I fought.” Anderson thought for a moment. “Might work, but we did beef up his defenses against overload after you electrocuted him the last time,. Anything else?” Valora shrugs. “Hacking.. But I’m told by my computer girl that that would require getting up close and personal.”
Anderson nods and slides forward a small IPAD looking device with schematics of Vastrix’s cybernetics on it. “Give that to your ‘computer girl’ Samantha Topher was top of her class at MIT. I’m sure she’ll be able to glean the needed information from it and come up with something to.. Level the playing field between the two of you, so to speak.” Valora takes the pad and looks at it, memorizing the details of it as she looks at Anderson. “And for this?” Anderson smirks. “
“For now… the chance to savor the public humiliation of Jeremiah Vastrix will be enough. I want him to know he is vulnerable. The Romans had a practice… when a conquering general returned home and had his grand triumph, the victorious spectacle and parade through the city-”
Valora cut in. “They put a slave with the general whose sole job was to repeat the phrase ‘Remember thou art mortal.’ or something to that effect.. Everyone who quotes that tradition has their own phrase.” Anderson nodded. “Exactly. I want to remind Jeremiah that he is mortal and that I can end him. If we continue our partnership… we’ll talk terms later as things develop.”
Valora hesitates a moment and turns, heading out with the Pad. Anderson smirks as he watches her go.