An Offer of Temporary Peace

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On Camera

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The building is simple and plain.  Some would argue that this rectangular, large, red brick building is quite frankly too simple and too plain of a building considering what goes on inside.  And what goes on inside this quadrilateral shaped building, you ask?  The sign above the double doors at the front give you the biggest clue: “Braddock Wrestling School” in big bold lavender and underneath a subtext in smaller font saying: “We’ll make men out of you!”

Yes, this is Glenn Braddock’s legendary wrestling school, and yes, he completed this while he was still in his chauvinistic male mindset of men wrestle, women don’t.  He has since changed his mindset, obviously, but the grizzled veteran is too lazy to change his sign.

The camera moves closer towards the front doors and a hand pushes them open.  We enter the doors and follow along inside where we see a nicely set up workout area.  The concrete floor is gray and the walls are painted an off white color.  There is a standard wrestling ring set up near the center of the room and weights are scattered all over the floor.  A heavy bag is hanging down as well.

Just then a figure steps out into view.  He has silvery gray hair and he is wearing black pants, a black jacket, and a white shirt underneath.  His aged yet battle-worn features tell us that this is none other than the famous owner of this wrestling school, Glenn Braddock.  The man known as Britain’s Best steps up in front of the ring where he stops and turns to face the camera.  The camera zooms in to get a better look at Braddock.

“I don’t think I need to remind any of you who the hell I am.” He says in a moderate yet booming voice that seems to echo his intensity. “I am Glenn Braddock and I am not being arrogant when I say that I am a legend in European wrestling.”

Another figure steps into view and stands next to Glenn.  This figure is wearing purple dress pants, matching purple jacket, a purple vest, and a white silk button up shirt underneath.  This is none other than Dr. Henry Van Stanton.  A somewhat smug grin is on his face as he stares into the camera.

“I must admit that Glenn here is far more famous than I am, so while it was definitely unnecessary for ‘Britain’s Best’ to introduce himself, it may be important for yours truly to introduce myself.  I am Dr. Henry Van Stanton…”

The man decked out mostly in purple chuckles lightly under h is breath as he nods his head.

“Yes, Van Stanton, as in Mason Van Stanton.  Poor, ridiculous Mason is my younger brother.  I apologize for his existence, by the way.  But the truth is that Van Stanton is our mother’s maiden name.  We adopted that as our family name, disassociating ourselves from our father, Thomas Gage, who was responsible for inflicting the injury upon Glenn Braddock here that ended his legendary career just short of the pinnacle, just short of the Olympics.”

Glenn’s eyes narrow. “I didn’t give up.  I opened this wrestling school and I continued to train the absolute best wrestlers in the business today.  To date, every single punk ass kid who walked their happy ass into my school eventually would go on to become a champion in professional wrestling.  And now I train my niece, Julia Braddock.”

“And I am Julia’s agent and manager, the one who shall guide her career to greatness.” Henry smirks. “And what does this prove? This proves that two individuals who should hate each other, or at the very least have a great distrust for one another, can not only get along, but can work together for a common goal.  And if Glenn and I can work together, then Julia can work with anyone, including Cassandra Mason.”

“That said,” Glenn’s booming voice echoes throughout the gym “I want you damn turkey suckers to sit back, relax, and listen to my niece, The Kensington Knockout, Julia Braddock…”

At that moment Julia Braddock steps into view from stage right.  The beautiful blonde bombshell is wearing a pair of strappy silver sandals with a slight heel, blue denim jeans, and a purple t-shirt. Her long golden locks of hair are pulled into a ponytail in the back.

“I think I have read this script somewhere before.  We have two teams and the members of both teams do not like one another.  This sounds oh so familiar to me, I just can’t quite put my finger on it…”

She shrugs her shoulders “oh well!  Not that it matters, because whether you are little Miss Princess Scandal hanging out with New Eden, whether you are a self-described vegan GOOD girl, whether you are a bi-polar, schizophrenic ex hood rat who loses her damn mind at the drop of a hat…”

Braddock motions to herself “…or whether you come from a famous wrestling family, trained by arguably the best wrestler to come out of Europe, managed by the best manager in this industry today, and because of all of that you have so much pressure upon you, pressure to perform, pressure to redeem herself and fix her past mistakes…whether you are The Kensington Knockout Julia Braddock…”

She shakes her head “…it really doesn’t matter who you are and it doesn’t matter who you are partnered with, we all want a win and we all need a win.  That leads me to you, Cassandra.”

Julia points a long slender finger at the camera, as if pointing at Cassandra herself.

“You can be just as scandalous as you want.  I’m a pretty free-spirited, liberal-minded individual.  I’m not going to judge you.  And I know we had a fight last month in January that ended with a draw and no real conclusion.  I know there could be some temptation to want to finish it once and for all but I’m telling you right here and right now that there is a time and a place for everything and the time and the place for that is not this coming Uprising because you and I are faced with a tough task, a very difficult challenge in the form of two reigning champions in this sport, Alana Starr and Tina Valentine.”

“Do they like each other?  No.  Hell, they are scheduled to fight each other coming up to unify their championships.  But one thing they have going for them that we don’t is the tag team experience.  They were both part of The Good Movement.  So while they may not like each other now, they at least have the tag team experience going for them.  You and I have nothing, Cassie.  The only thing we have is one match last month, a match that ended in a disappointing draw.”

“If you want to punch me in the mouth, that’s fine, if you want to kick my ass, that’s fine.  We can beat the crap out of each other all we want, Cassie, but all I ask from you is one thing…how about we save it until after the match is over?  You come from a great family of wrestlers, too; you are a former champion from Cartel:NxtGen , and that is evidence enough that you can get the job done against anyone.  It doesn’t matter how good Alana Starr is.  It doesn’t matter how sparkling Tina Valentine’s record is.  Together, I know we can beat anyone.  Together, we WILL win this match on Uprising.”

“I will do my job, Cassandra.  I will do my part and I will carry my weight in this effort to gain the victory.  If you do your part, if you do your job, no one will be able to stop us.  That’s why I ask you to stand with me to put our differences aside for just one night…”

She holds up one finger “…just one night to stand side by side and fight this battle against two of the best on the Uprising roster.  The fact is that it will take us being at our very best and it will take us being on the same page in order to get the job done.  Not only are Alana and Tina good but they know some of the dirtiest tricks in the book, despite one particular athlete’s claims to being GOOD.”

“Oh but I know the reality that I am facing.  My partner prides herself on being the most scandalous one alive.  She actively looks for scandal.  Despite my pleas, despite my offer of a one night only temporary peace between the two of us, I recognize that Cassandra very well could do what she no doubt would consider to be the scandalous route and just walk away, leaving me to the wolves.”

Julia shakes her head. “That’s not the scandalous route, Cassandra.  That’s the cowardly route.  The truly scandalous thing to do would be to actually work with me for one night only, because after all, who would expect you to do that?  Certainly not IWC.  They want us to implode.  Us imploding would be a ratings grabber for them.  It’s what they want.  The scandalous thing to do would be to stick it to them by giving them exactly what they do not want.”

“But if you decide not to accept my  one night only offer of peace between us, that’s fine, I will go out there anyway and I will fight Alana and Tina by myself, because giving up is not in my vocabulary.  Surrender originated as a French word and I am British, damnit, and I never ever surrender, I never ever give up!  So if I take an ass kicking, fine, I’ll take the ass kicking, but I’ll go down swinging…”

A grin forms across Julia’s face “…just ask Tina.  You don’t know me that well, Alana, and knowing you, and your ego, you probably don’t think I’m worth getting to know.  That’s fine.  Think that way if you want.  But I’m warning you, because you are overlooking someone very special.  Just ask your tag team partner.  Isn’t that right, Tina?”

“I took you to your limit, Tina.  You threw everything you had at me, you threw your very best at me and I threw it all right back in your face.  When it was all said and done you barely walked away with a victory and you damn sure didn’t walk away smelling like a rose.  It was hard fought, it was brutal, and I damn near had you.  I gave you more than you expected.  I gave you your due and I’ll give you your due once again, you are a tremendous athlete, you and Alana both.  Neither of you need to resort to the tactics you resort to in order to win.”

“Up until that point we had never fought, Tina, and yet I still recognized your talent and I was willing to point it out.  Now that we have tangled one on one and I know a little bit better about how you operate, I know I can beat you one on one and as for Uprising, I’m going to be a little more bold than I was last time…”

Julia smirks “…the only way you and Alana win this time, Tina, is if my partner walks away.  Cassandra is good, damn good, and so am I.  And if we both show up, like I know I will, then there is no way you two can defeat us.”

The camera fades to black.