Valora’s Safehouse, Mexico City, Mexico:
Valora stands, her arms crossed over her chest as she watches Abbigail’s match on TV. For most of the match, though Valora is silent, her eyes give her feelings away as she watches like a proud parent.
In the ring, Abbigail lets out a cry of pure rage as she fights through the pain and the blood covering her face. Samantha glances over at Valora. “How the hell do you teach that?”
Valora smirks. “Can’t teach it, chica. You either got it or you don’t. The ol' crimson mask always seems to bring it out if you got it. You can smell the blood, taste it.. Feel it.. You either snap or panic. If you panic, you’re fucked.”
Valora continued to watch the match, her own rage seething to a boil as she watched Sato toy with her protégé and then finally end the match by trying to kill her. Valora cracked her neck slowly. Then her knuckles. “Pendejo wants my attention? Well he’s fuckin’ got it. Let’s show him what my attention means.” Valora turned from the TV and walked over, beginning to gather her pre-packed emergency trip bags. Samantha sighed. “You need to greet her when she gets back. If you’re not there, she’ll take it that she let you down again and her confidence will never recover.”
Valora paused. Stood up slowly, her back to Samantha, her black hair dotted with streaks of purple and blue hanging about her upper to mid back. Samantha continued. “Did you see her hair? I don’t know if you’ve realized this Val, but she doesn’t just look at you as a teacher, she’s looking at you as an older sister. Perhaps even a surrogate mother.”
Valora’s eyes look down at the floor for a moment, a tear falling before she composes herself. “Pfft, I’m not a mother, Sam.. I can’t even take care of myself for fuck’s sake.. To put me in charge of another human’s life… that’s cruel and unusual punishment for the kid...Text me the time she gets in. I’ll be there.” Valora turns to head out but is stopped by Samantha. “Val. I found something interesting. You did want me to search, look for any, how did you phrase it? Weak points. Found something interesting…” Samantha walks over and hands Valora a printed out copy of the fertility clinic form. Samantha nods. “You had some eggs removed and stored. You were thinking of being a mom at some point.”
Valora narrows her eyes and takes her shirt off, revealing her bra and torso. Her hand moves to the remnants of what must have been a nasty scar at some point. “Fenway Park. I fought a Texas Death match against the only woman who came close to my love and devotion to violence. She took a baseball bat with barbed wire and damn near eviscerated me. She also stabbed me. After the match, my medical training and that of my doctor agreed that it might be a good idea to take steps to save some eggs, because my penchant for hardcore matches was endangering my ability to have kids. Fuckin’ doctors thinking every chica wants to be a mother…”
Samantha smirks. “You did it though.. And come on, at some point most of us think about it.. Didn’t you have the baby doll from child psych class?” Valora nods. “... Mine died… only fuckin’ F I got all semester.. Nearly fucked my GPA.” Samantha pinches the bridge of her nose. “Of course, that was your only problem with the situation.” Valora shrugs. “Not like it was a real fuckin’ human!”
Samantha shakes her head. “Val, I love ya.. But damn. Let’s get back to the point. Have you done anything with your eggs?” Valora walks over and sits down, leaning back in the reclining seat and grabs a nearby bottle of water, taking a drink. “So you think I found a male sperm donor, then a surrogate mother, and that Abbigail was that girl?” Samantha shrugs. “Why else would you agree to train her?” Samantha took a seat and leaned forward, looking Valora in the eyes. “Well? Is she your daughter?” Valora narrowed her eyes. “I didn’t raise her. I didn’t feed her, I didn’t hold her at night when she cried. I didn’t wake her up and get her ready for school, I didn’t do any of that shit. Whoever did, they are her mother. If you mean genetically…” Valora sighs. “She might be. I need some more research done.” Samantha rolls her eyes. “Bullshit. You need a simple DNA test. One blood sample. One saliva sample. Either works.” Valora nods. “I know.” She says before taking a deep breath and standing up. “I need to get going. I’ll think about how to handle this while working on the new problem.”
Samantha moved her body and blocked the door. “I have an idea. Wait. Maybe some of your talents and abilities from your ‘other’ job can help Abbigail in and out of the ring as well. And if there is a chance…” Valora rolls her eyes. “She won’t hear anything other than ‘I am your mother.’ I will talk to her about it, when I have more definitive information. On the second point, you really think she wants to hear how to be an assassin? What possible skills could I teach her that would be useful? How to kill 3 people in a bar with a pencil?”
Samantha smirked. “For starters, how about, how to disguise yourself? How to make, and spot a fake ID? How to identify a threat? The Reinart twins are being followed by American agents, and Abbigail was framed and arrested once already. You don’t think she couldn’t use some training?” Valora was silent for a long moment, considering this and nodded. “Well.. you’re not wrong. Alright, we’ll give it a shot I do worry I’ve been shorting the kid on training anyways…” Samantha smiled as she looked over her friend. “She’s being trained by her idol. Pretty sure she’s living her dream. Now. How do you not know if she’s yours?” Valora sighed. “I had a large number of eggs removed. Some can’t be touched without my permission. Some I flagged as would be willing to donate to someone who wanted kids but.. You know…” Samantha let out a small laugh. “You know for all your bravado.. You really are a good person.” Valora scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Right. I’m a good psychopath.” Samantha shrugs. “Well you can make a case that the people you’ve killed deserved it.” Valora nods. “Until now.” Samantha raises an eyebrow as she listens. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Valora cracked her knuckles. “Takuma Sato. He signed an innocent woman’s death warrant tonight.”
Samantha had started to take a drink of water and spit it out in surprise hearing Valora’s words. “What? You gonna kill his mother or something?” Valora shakes her head. “No, in the fake honor society that Japan is built on, His mother being alive and refusing to acknowledge him as her son hurts him more than her death would.” Samantha grabbed a towel and wiped up her water and looked back. “Fake honor?” Valora nods. “You have fake honor and real honor. Kronin is a real honor kinda guy. He will always do what’s right. Even when it is detrimental to him to do so. Takuma Sato used to be a real honorable man. Now, well now he’s a whore who will sell out to anyone. Anderson. ROS. But, despite that, he still needs to convince himself and his fans he’s still the honorable ronin, wandering the countryside righting wrongs. That’s the difference. Fake Honor doesn’t demand that you be a good person, it demands the appearance of honor and respectability. As long as you pay lip service to the rules, you can do whatever you feel you can safely get away with. What’s important is that you maintain the appearance of honor and respectability. It’s how thugs like the Mafia and Yakuza can pretend they’re men of honor and not just parasitic scumbags preying off better people than themselves.”
Samantha smirked. “Some might call you a hypocrite..” Valora shrugged. “I never claimed to be a good person or an honorable one. I’m not. I’ll shoot someone in the back without a second thought. It’s the best time to shoot them. But I’ve always been honest about who and what I am. I am utterly ruthless. I will win by any means necessary. I am going to kill Takuma Sato’s puta for no other reason than to hurt him. When we get into the ring. I will break him. I’ll break an arm. Then a leg. Then the other arm. Then the other leg. I will make him beg me to end it. I will make him feel 10 seconds of utter humiliation and helplessness for every second he made Abbigail feel those things. He will beg me for mercy but he will find none, for he deserves none.” Samantha looked up, glancing at Valora’s injured arm and then looks at her. “You’re more upset about Abbigail than what he did to you.”
Valora scoffed. “I’ve been screwed over before. I take it as a compliment when my opponent admits their fear of me by trying to take me out. Abbigail.” Valora pauses and, gritting her teeth against the pain, rips the sling off her injured arm, forcing herself to clench a fist, her hand shaking with barely repressed rage and pain. “Abbigail deserved more. She deserved his respect. If he was half the man of honor he claims to be, he would have given her the respect she deserved.” Samantha nodded and stepped forward. “Trust me, wait for Abbigail to get back. You need time to come up with a plan anyways. I mean Sato is a lot like you, not many targets to attack. He’s pretty well isolated.”
Valora smirks. “I thought about that, and then I had a second thought. I have ‘Fuck You’ money. And what good is that kind of money if you don’t say ‘Fuck You’ once in awhile?” Samantha raised an eyebrow at this remark, crossing her arms across her chest. “How do you plan on doing that, exactly?” Valora was silent for a moment as she pondered. “I could… offer Dasha a nice cash bonus to beat the shit out of Takuma Sato.” Samantha nodded. “That might work. Dasha does seem to really like you for some reason.” Valora nodded. “We’re both strong women who have found success in a ‘man’s world.’ Also, I prove the propaganda she’s been fed her entire life right. I was born dirt poor. Ground down by the capitalist system of the U.S. I threw off the shackles and kicked Rich assholes right in the fuckin’ juevos” Samantha nods. “But now, you’re one of the rich assholes.” Valora shrugged. “I don’t oppress others. I share the wealth, I help the poor and the downtrodden. I empower others, not just myself.” Samantha nods. “And how does that differ from a Communist? Because you obviously have a problem with that too.” Valora leans against the wall and thinks for a moment. “Communists are assholes who pretend to be compassionate. A communist system says that the people own everything, but the government will run them and control them, on behalf of the people of course.” Valora rolls her eyes. “Fuck off. I’m a socialist. I believe power should rest with the people. I believe the government should protect people, should regulate business and corporations and the like, but that people who want to own their own business should be able to do so. I also believe we need to have a safety net and protections in place for people who hit bad luck, get a bad break or.. Lose. This isn’t the fuckin’ hunger games. You don’t let someone die simply because their business failed, or their job downsized, or some other shitty curveball hit them.” Samantha checked her watch as she nodded. “Makes sense, I suppose. Let’s get going. We wanna be there when Abbigail comes in.”
2 hours later, Mexico City International Airport:
Valora ‘sits’ in the chair, meaning her knees are up where the head should be as Valora hangs upside down. Watching the goings on from an upside down perspective, calmly and non-chalantly blowing a big bubble of her bubble gum. Samantha takes a picture of the scene on her smartphone and smirks. “You know, I wondered where Abbigail got that from.”
Valora raises an eyebrow, the eyebrow moving towards the floor given her position. “No shit? Huh. Interesting.” Samantha opens her mouth but Valora silences her with a look. “Not. In. Public.” Samantha shrugs and says nothing, just smirks as she watches. A short time later, people begin filtering in from the plane. Abbigail comes out last, walking slowly, arm locked close into her ribs and she is clearly having trouble breathing. Seeing how Valora is situated, she can’t help but smile a bit as she plops down into a seat and has to try and catch her breath.
Moving with a fluidity that is amazing, Valora goes from her previous position to her feet, pulling out a stethoscope and checking Abbigail’s heart. Abbigail opens her mouth to speak but Valora places a finger over it. “Shush. Listening.” She checks her watch, timing the heartbeat and nods. “Damn chica. Lil’ yellow bastard is gonna be pissed you’re handling his big shot so well.” Abbigail blinks. “That’s a bit racist.” Valora smirks. “I call him yellow not because he’s a Jap. I call him yellow because he’s a fuckin’ coward and proved that.” Valora smiles. “I’m fuckin’ proud of you. You gave that Goddamn piece of shit everything you had.” Abbigail smiles widely, proud that she’s getting a compliment finally. “I..I think I know what you and Sato meant when you both told me not to think. I always thought that was stupid but..” Valora smiles. “But you realize sometimes you don’t have time to think, you have to trust your instincts and react. I also told you that when the time was right, you’d understand.” Abbigail smiles and nods. “Yeah.. and omg… I dunno what happened when I snapped.”
Valora ruffles Abbigail’s hair a bit and smirks. As Samantha chimes in. “Ohh you shoulda seen Valora. She was watching you like a proud mother. I have video.” Valora grins. “I...might have gotten a bit into the match.” She says whistling and looking innocent.” Abbigail smiles and laughs a bit then groans. “ Owww… don’t make me laugh… Umm Val.. I think I need help with something.” Valora looks at her young protégé and nods. “You need a lot of help, chica.. But hit me. Whatcha need?” Abbigail smirks. “I hit him with bad magick. I was sure I had him..” Valora shakes her head. “Imma be honest. I like the move. It looks cool.. But it does no damage.. And the bigger your opponent is, the harder it’s going to be for you to control the move. After seeing you tonight, I think we can look into refining your move set a little bit.” Valora hesitates and a moment and nods. “If you want.. I’ll even train you as a Luchadora. Might even be able to get you your own mask and everything. But that’s down the road. For now, I think I got a move that might help you in the meantime.” She turns to Samantha. “Trouble in Paradise.”
Samantha turns her phone around and pulls up the video, showing it to Val and Abbigail. Abbigail watches Valora, aged 19-20 or so. She ducks under her opponent and leaps into the air, spinning around and nailing her opponent in the head with a vicious and yet beautiful looking jumping spin kick. “It looks simple, but it’s hard to do just right and when done just right, your opponent is out cold. I also called Padre Nate. He’ll hopefully be coming in to help you work on the heart punch. How to defend against it, and maybe he’ll even teach you how to do it.”
Abbigail absorbs the info and nods. “Is there anything I can do to make Bad Magick more potent?” Valora thinks for a moment. “I’ll give it some thought and see if I can come up with anything. Come on, let’s go.” Valora takes Abbigail’s arm and supports her protégé, letting Abbigail lean against her for support. Samantha takes Abbigail’s bag and follows after the two, smiling to herself as she watches Valora and Abbigail.
Valora’s safehouse, 1 hour later:
Abbigail and Valora walk into the house, Abbigail watching the video of Valora watching her match. “You think he was toying with me? Why?” Valora rolled her eyes. “You know he was too. As for why he did it. Two reasons. He wanted to make it crystal clear to you that you are not on his level. He can beat you whenever he wants, give you as many chances as he wants. Secondly, it’s a message to me. But he’ll regret that. I’m going to make him pay for that.” Abbigail nods. “How do you know what he was thinking?” Valora shrugs. “I used the same tactic in my younger days. I loved to fuck with opponents.. I wanted them to know just how much better than them I was. So I’m drawing on what I did in my younger days, adding in what I know about Sato. About the former relationship he had with you. So now he’s going to pay the price.”
Abbigail takes a seat and sighs, letting out a breath. “What are you going to do?” Valora gives an evil smirk. “First? I’m going to make sure none of my people works with the ROS. And I’ll make sure the ROS knows that Takuma Sato is the price of my cooperation. They can have him or they can have me and my people. Not both. I’m also going to call Dasha and work out a deal with her. The final part of part 1. Well, that requires me to take some direct action.” Samantha ended her phone call and nodded to Valora. “Dasha has agreed to meet with you on your terms. Just you and her.” Valora nods. “Good.” Abbigail starts to get up. “Come on, let me go. I can help.” Valora smiles and winks at her. “You need to rest. Trust me.. I’ve been hit with the Heart punch.. Padre Nate tagged me with.. Stopped my heart for a few seconds. That move is no joke. Rest. I promise you and I are going to be very busy soon. You’ve done a great job, chica. I’m proud of you.”
Valora heads out the door and Abbigail turns to Samantha beaming at her as she hears the praise. “I wonder why she always prefers to work alone.” Samantha shrugs. “Some jobs require it. Dasha is going to be very paranoid at the moment. Her country is moving away from her ideology and that makes her a liability to those in power. Maybe Val doesn’t want to make her any more nervous.” Abbigail smiles. “Not the task I was talking about.” Samantha smiles. “Ah. She knows you won’t approve of it.”
A couple of hours later, Valora had laid part of her plan in place. ROS would receive no aid from her people inside and outside of the United States as long as Takuma Sato was a member. Sato had declared war on Valora. He needed to learn what that meant. Now, now came step 2. She walked into the lobby of the hotel. She had to admit that Boris was better at his job than she would have thought given his size and how it makes one tend to stand out, but Valora nearly walked by him. She continued on. She wouldn’t point him out. He deserved professional courtesy and, Valora knew that it was not outside the realm of possibility that the Russians were being tracked. Valora made her way to the hotel bar and paused before going in, taking a breath. “Well, this should be interesting.” She said to herself as she walked inside.
To be continued in Dasha’s Roleplay: