Last One Standing
It had been a long time since the three of them had been together. The three Maxwell siblings. Zoey, Alicia, and Josh. Alicia smiled and sat back, a peach iced tea in her hand as Josh popped open a beer and handed it to Zoey. Alicia was the oldest and the only one still in wrestling.
Josh had stopped first. After going to Japan and trying the same path Alicia walked he had come back to the US and never got the same opportunities.
Zoey had also recently stepped away. A promising career that burnt bright for a few months. One where she had shown the world how good she was and how she might be the next big thing, only to get stopped dead in its tracks. She had spent the last few months rehabbing a shoulder injury and spending time with her boyfriend Aron.
Alicia had returned. She always knew she was going to. But it had caused a rift between herself and her mother. Her siblings though….they understood.
Josh smiled and shook his head, he was tall, muscular, and had a head of long blond hair. He looked so much like their father Jason. A man who had made his name in Japan. A man who was a successful professional wrestler but a horrible father. It was with a great sense of irony that all three of his children followed in his footsteps and became wrestlers like him.
”She really flipped out huh?” Josh found it amusing. The entire situation. Mainly because if he had done it their mother wouldn’t have cared. At all.
But that wasn’t the way with Alicia. ”Yeah. Asked me why. I don’t think she liked my answers. But, I wasn’t really expecting anything different.” Alicia chuckled to herself, Josh shook his head and took a sip of his beer as Zoey crossed one leg over the other and gave a small smile. ”Maybe you should try and get back into the business. Then you can have her on your ass.”
Josh shook his head. ”Nah, I’m not sure I was ever good enough to do what you’ve been able to accomplish. I can’t live up to Dad‘s last name. And I’m not gonna change it like you two did. Besides, Mom doesn’t give a shit if I go back in the ring.”
Alicia laughed. Josh was right Alicia looked over her sister who had been remaining rather silent. Something that was very uncharacteristic of her. ”And what about you? When are you coming back to work?”
Zoey takes a deep breath, sitting back and shaking her head with a small smile ”I don’t know. Truth is? It might be never. I was ready, ready to take everything by storm. Shit, you saw it, but sometimes one loss can change everything.”
Zoey trial off. Her right arm moved and twitched as her left hand found her shoulder rubbing it lightly. Alicia paused for a moment, thinking about what to say next. Her sister was right, she had the entire wrestling world by the balls. She was winning matches, beating women who were former world champions, and in The SCW Hall of Fame. But one loss seemed to derail her, it sucked all the momentum out of everything. ”Yeah…it can…”
Zoey shook her head and sat forward. ”But, you might have a chance to get revenge for Me. You’re facing the woman who gave me that loss. He stopped my momentum right in its tracks.” Zoey's voice lowered. She was trying to keep the anger down. The frustration that had clearly been eating away at her over the last few months.
The only problem is, while Alicia understood her sister‘s frustration and anger not all of it needed to be put on Tempest. ”Look, I understand what it’s like to lose. Losses happen. But letting it overtake everything. Letting it destroy your Love for something. That I don’t understand. You need to get back into the ring. Snap out of this.”
Josh seemed to agree, giving a small knot as Alicia spoke. Zoey shook her head and sat back drinking the rest of her beer. ”Easy for you to say. You’ve had a career that most could only dream of. Maybe one day I’ll get back in the ring, but right now? I just can’t. She took that away from me.” Zoey trialed off, Alicia raised her eyebrows, realizing that it must’ve cut her sister deep.
She decided to drop the subject, drinking more of her peach-iced tea as Josh started cracking jokes. The siblings enjoying what time they had left together, the next day Josh was going to leave New York he was going to go back to Georgia, and Zoey? She was going to go back to rehabbing her shoulder, spending time with Aron, and attempting to figure out the rest of her life and what she wanted to do.
Alicia traveled back, back to the house that she shared with Austin. The entire drive back she was silently thinking to herself. Lost in all of her thoughts going over what her sister said and realising that she was going to have to face the same woman who broke her spirit. And not just that, it was a woman who was Austin‘s best friend and tag-team partner. And he was also the special guest referee. He was going to be in there with them both and put in an impossible situation. But, Alicia needed to make a few things clear and she needed to do it now.
As she walked in Austin was sitting there, tinkering with a new coffee machine that they had purchased. He plugged it in and smirked flicking through the manual. Alicia walked up to him and put her arms around his waist. He looked down and gave her a small kiss on the forehead. ” How's your brother and sister?”
Alicia sighed heavily. She didn’t exactly know what to tell him. ”They’re fine. Zoey is being Zoey. Josh thought my mother’s reaction to Me returning to wrestling was hilarious.” Austin laughed, Alicia sat down across from him watching as he finished setting up the coffee machine. He turned to face her his face changing and showing that he knew there was something on her mind. ”So, the match.”
Austin nodded slowly. ”I’m surprised you didn’t want to talk about it. The second we found out. And just so you know, I had no input with this whatsoever. It was just as big as a surprise to me as was to you.”
”Oh I know” She laughed, sitting back and shaking her head before taking a deep breath and refocusing on what she wanted to say. ”Look, I need you to be completely impartial.”
Austin leaned back against the bench, his large arms folding over his chest as he tilted his head and looked Alicia up and down ”You think that I’m going to lean toward Tempest?”
Alicia laughed to herself and shook her head ”No, I think that you are going to try and call it down the middle, but your impulse is going to be to subconsciously lean toward Me. I know Tempest and you are very close, she’s one of your best friends in this business. But you and I are in a relationship. we live together, and we see each other every day, at home or the gym. But just know that as long as you call it down the middle there will be no problems from Me. Just let myself and Tempest do what we do.”
Austin stayed silent, thinking about everything in the position that he had been put in. After a few moments, he finally gave a small nod before walking around grabbing Alicia, and kissing her again. He smiled and ran a hand through her long blonde hair. ” At least I get a front-row seat to what’s probably going to be an epic match…” Alicia smiled, Austin stepped away and moved toward the back of the house. Alicia sighed heavily with a small smile coming across her face. She believed him, believed that he would just do his job and call it down the middle. Now it was time to look forward to the match and what the two women could accomplish.
Conflict of interest
”It’s great when people run their mouths and only get proven to be wrong isn’t it?”
Alicia off to herself, her long hair flowing down the sides of her face and her back. She wears a black and red Wolfslair shirt and tight-fitting black jeans with black and white Converse.
”Harper Mason tried to say and do everything to get under my skin. And I want her didn’t I? I told her what would happen if she decided to go down that road when it came to talking about Me. She gave me no respect and gave my legacy no respect. So then when I beat her, what happened? She sat there and told the world how I was exactly like Mercedes Vargas now. A former fading legend who couldn’t stand up to the new breed here in Sin City wrestling. Because right before I left, right before I decided to take some time off and heal my body and get rid of all those nagging little injuries that we all pick up I went on a little bit of a losing streak.”
“Losses happen. A cruel fact in this business that Harper now knows. But aside from that, she wound herself up so tight in needing to beat me that when she failed nobody was going to bat an eye. Everyone except Harper knew I was going to win that match. She is the only one who was walking around that cruise ship with any type of confidence that she was going to be the one to beat me.”
“And that was the biggest joke of all.”
“Now, if you go into a match with someone and you spend that entire time telling the world how they don’t have it anymore and how you’re going to destroy them and you win? Then you have just belittled a future opportunity for yourself to say that you beat someone who is a legend. And make a mistake, I’m a legend. But if you don’t win well. that’s even worse. See Harper now you know that when I warn you about something and I try and use this as a teaching opportunity that you should open those ears and listen. Because now? Now your career is in the toilet and maybe one day you’ll understand what I was trying to do…”
“I doubt it. But what can I say? I’m an eternal optimist.”
She can’t help but laugh to herself and shake her head refocusing on the current situation that she finds herself in.
”But we all have to move forward. And in moving forward I’ve been put in a match and a situation that I never thought would happen. But before I get into how this affects me, I want to focus a little bit on how it’s going to affect the special guest referee in this match. Austin James Mercer. First off I don’t know who in the front office decided this would be a good idea, but it’s not. You are taking one of your biggest stars, a former world champion, someone who you have belittled and beaten down by putting them in impossible situations and not even booking half the time in matches and making them be a special guest referee.”
“Not just that but you are putting him in a situation where he has to referee a match between his tag team partner, a woman who he considers to be one of his best friends on this planet, and Me the woman who he is in a relationship with. Do you think this is funny? Do you think it’s appropriate to have one of your biggest stars referee a match between two women that he has a personal relationship with?”
“Do you find this entertaining? Do you think it’s appropriate that you put him in the situation?”
“It’s amazing how little forethought goes into things like this. The truth is the Tempest and I could have a hard-fought match where we beat the living hell out of each other and it would be entertaining without the added drama of putting Austin in this situation. Congratulations. That’s the only way you could get him on the show? Have him put on a referee shirt and stand there ready to count the three or count outs or enforce the rules. That is the only thing you have for that man to do? that’s pathetic. And your little game here in making this drama happen? I’m not gonna fall for it and even though Tempest and I aren’t best friends I know for a fact that she isn’t stupid enough to fall for this either.”
Alicia is clearly angry, her nostrils flaring as her hands ball into fists. She takes a deep breath trying to calm herself down. Austin can be seen just to the side finishing making a coffee as he moves it closer toward her and then sits to the side staying silent but being an observer to everything that is being said and done
”With that being said I’m looking forward to this match. For many different reasons. Number one Tempest is going to be an actual challenge. You see everything that I said about Harper, or everything that I said about Seleana, doesn’t apply to Tempest. You see Harper is one of these new generation type women who came into this company while I was gone. She honestly believes that she should be at the top of the card even though the only reason she got her contract is her cousin begged for it and gave it to her upon completion of her training at whatever loser gym she trained at…”
“Tempest, you earned your spot in this company. You earned it by coming in and being an absolute eastern destroying most of the women who have been put in front of you. You and Austin became the mixed tag-team champions and you’ve also won singles gold. You have shown that you could carry this entire division on your shoulders.”
“And unlike other women in this company, I seek out challenges. I seek out women who are going to push me to my limit. I went after Harper because I thought I could teach her something and get her to become one of those women. But all of my effort was wasted as she didn’t learn a damn thing. now, you might not be able to learn much from Me. You seem to have it all figured out. You use your size and incredible, athletic ability to smother opponents into submission.”
“But… have you ever faced someone like me?”
She chuckles getting more aggressive as she takes a sip of coffee and puts it back down on the bench
”You haven’t. But I also want to be very clear on this. I respect you, Tempest. I respect what you’ve been able to accomplish and I also respect the relationship you have with Austin. The bond that you have that no one else can understand. I don’t have a personal problem with you. I’m looking forward to getting in the ring and seeing what you’re capable of. But I would be doing a disservice to the story of this match if I didn’t mention something.”
“My sister Zoey.”
“She joined this company right before I needed to take some time off. She then went on an amazing win streak destroying anyone who was put in the ring with her. She looked like she was going to be the new bright shining star of the Sin City wrestling bombshell division. Right up until she ran into you. then all of her momentum ended. And due to that momentum being taken from her, her motivation started to suffer and now with an injured shoulder and no motivation to come back to wrestling she is nothing but a shell of herself.”
“And it all started with you.”
“Now, I’m sure some people are going to frame this as a revenge match. Away for me to get revenge for my sister. The only thing is, as far as I’m concerned, you did nothing wrong. My sister needs to learn how to deal with big losses and come back stronger and if she can’t do that then she has no place in this business. I’m not out for revenge, I’m not to take anything from you. I’m out to see if I can still hang with the best that this division has to offer in 2024.”
“And one of the best right now…is you”
“So, if I want to prove that I can still hang with the best I have to make sure I keep winning. But, I also know where you want to go Tempest. I know that you want to continue climbing that ladder. And Truth Be Told, Tempest as the Sin City wrestling bombshell champion does have a nice ring to it. But me? I’m looking to go after the Internet championship or the roulette. Both championships that I’ve never held. But in my world, a world you know very well, you earn everything you get. So I have to keep earning my shots by beating people like you. It’s not personal Tempest it’s all just business And I look forward to facing you”
