Tough Love

The Viking and Danys Vités were in Gorilla, while Wiley Morton talked excitedly with agents.

"I would have had him, if not for you," The Viking, his jacket in hand, pointed an accusing finger Vités, who was holding his own shirt.

"Triple T'reat rules, bruda!" Vités countered, shrugging before pointing both fingers, "You shoulda checked dat blind spot,"

"You got us both pinned in front of thousands of people!" Viking snapped, "I saw people pulling their phones out, now we look like jobbers to the marks online,"

"Wha'chu talking about?" Argued Vités, "That match was awesome! If anyt'ing dey're gonna wanna see us again,"

Viking threw his jacket down, "I'm not here to have 'awesome matches', I'm here to be the best and you screwed me!"

Vités is taken aback as are the agents and Morton. The speedster tries to play peacekeeper, "Dude, i's not that deep. Calm d-"

"Don't tell me to-"

"HEY GUYS!" Coach Alexa slid in between them with a wide grin. She spoke with the slower, more sarcastic version of her usual enthusiasm, "Great match,"

She grabbed them both by the wrist, "Come here a minute,"

The ceiling lights reflected on her glasses, preventing them from seeing her eyes. Her grip was as firm as her small frame would allow, but enough for them to understand that her 'smile' was anything but. Viking picked up his jacket as she led them out into the hallway as the next wrestlers entered.

Out in the hallway, they saw Coach Tonye, standing straight with his hands behind his back. The hallway was dark enough to cause his mask to cast shadows over his eyes. He wasn't smiling,

"So..." He said, "How was your first match?"

Viking and Vités looked at each other, unsure how to answer. Tonye didn't give them the chance,

"Get to the bus," He said with a harsh whisper through his teeth.

They didn't need to be told twice. Vités was already gone. Viking briefly stared the old luchador down before leaving as well.

He met Vités in a dark corner of the parking garage where a black 17-seat minibus with tinted windows was parked. The speedster had his shirt back on and was pacing anxiously, "Do you t'ink dey're mad?"

"Who cares?" Viking remarked, motioning to open the door.

"There you are!" Came the voice of Mostafa as he and Ramatla were being led to the bus by Joe and Monty, the security guards. Viking and Vités turned to see their fellow rookies. Mostafa continued his admonishment, "I hope you two are proud of yourselves. The coaches are pissed and-"

"Save it, wannabe politician," Viking cuts him off, "Something had to be done and-"

"There's an entire army of people who could do something about it," Mostafa asserted, "We were given strict instructions to stay out of sight and you two exposed us,"

Ramatla nodded in agreement with their hands on their hips. Vités rubbed the back of his neck, "In my defence, I was kinda caught up in the moment,"

"What's 'us' stuff?" Viking queried, "Are we a stable now?"

Mostafa frowned, "Yeah, 'us'. In case, you forgot we are all on probationary contracts and we are all about to get our butts kicked because of what you two did," He points a finger at Viking's face.

"Get your hand out of my face, pretty boy," The big man warned, inching closer. Mostafa didn't back down, but Ramatla stood between them.

"Hey man, chill," Vités said,

"Shut it," Viking spat, "Let me make one thing clear, to all of you. We're not colleagues, we're each other's competition," He looked between the 3 of them, "I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to make an impact,"

Before any of them could respond the door of the minibus slid open. Coach Daniel's huge frame stood in the doorway, holding a giant claymore in his hand and a murderous gleam in his eyes.

"Oh, you made an impact, alright," Standing over the rookies, his voice vibrating through bodies as raised and swung the sword, "Boeht what I want, right now, is fahr yooehr feet to make an impact wit de grooehnd all de way back to de Sammartino Centre!"

The rookies' eyes all widened.

"Coach, the Centre is 100 Kilometres from here," Ramatla pointed out, "It would take us nearly two hours to reach it on foot and it's the dead of night,"

"And I'm in a suit," Mostafa whined.

Daniel hopped off the bus, the sound of his feet echoing throughout the garage, 

"Ded. I. Stoehtter?"

"He was going to do much worse," Tonye said from behind them, "Consider yourselves lucky,"

Alexa walked with him, her faux -smile having faltered slightly, 

"Since you guys have so much energy, a hundred kilos is nothing! Plus, you can use those 2 hours to think about what you did,"

Viking clenched his fist and jaw, not liking being talked to like a kid.

"You gaht sahmethin you want to say dere, Mr. Impact?!" Daniel demanded, getting in the face of the Viking, who flinched and looked away from the taller man's intensity.

"No, Coach," He says, quietly.

"Are you sure?" Daniel got closer, "Because frahm in dere, it seemed like you 'ad a laht you wanted to get ahff de ahld chest. So, let's 'ear it,"

Viking looked at his fellow rookies, sorry, his 'competition', who all moved away. He then looked at Coaches Tonye and Alexa, the latter of whom was no longer smiling. The security guards weren't stepping in either.

"Nahthin?" Daniel asked. Viking closed his eyes and lowered his head. So the Irishman took it as a cue to continue,

"Alright den. Keep yooehr mooehth shoeht, ahpen yooehr ears and look me in me bloody eyes when I'm talkin to you,"

Viking obeyed, staring into Daniel's fiery glare.

"Oehntil de day de brass calls you oehp, you dahn't so moehch as sneeze oehnless we say so," He turned to the other 3, "And dat goes fahr all o' you!"

"Yes, Coach," They quickly answered with Viking doing so a second later.

"And you," Daniel turned back to him, "Oehntil soehch a time as you find yooehrself loehcky enooehgh to be allowed ahn TV, you and all o' dem are in de exact same boat and we are de captains. You disrespect dem again," He gestured towards Alexa Tonye with his free hand, "I will persahnally tahss you over de side. You gaht dat?"

Viking nodded, "Yes, Coach,"

"Get in line," Daniel ordered, pointing his sword in the other rookies' direction. Viking did so without his tail between his legs.

"Where's Suzanna?" Alexa asked, her anger replaced with concern. She looked to the security guards for answers. Joe coughed uncomfortably,

"There was an... incident in the bathroom," He said, eliciting varying responses from everyone present. Ramatla remained stoic while Vités' mind raced, the statement left a lot to the imagination. Mostafa scratched his head and Viking was still healing from the tongue lashing he just received. Daniel pinched his nose and Tonye squinted.

"What kind of incident?" Alexa implored.

Joe hesitated before saying, "She ran into Moolah,"

"WHAT?!" The coaches yelled in unison.

"Mama Moolah?" Vités asks, "De Jewell's champ?"

"GET ON THE DAMN BUS AND SHUT THE DOOR!" Daniel roared at them. The rookies quickly obliged.

"What happened?" Tonye asked.

"I don't know," Joe admits, "It was like a murder scene,"

"And you're just telling us now?!" Alexa demanded.

"Where is she?" Tonye sharply queried.

"Thompson stepped in and took her to the Doctor," Joe says, looking down in frustration, "Look Moolah, she did her... thing, okay? I couldn't stop her if I tried,"

Alexa started pulling her hair, "This is a disaster!"

Daniel walked over to Joe and Monty, "De 'ell are you stell standin 'ere fahr? Go find de dough girl, befahre dat she-beast combs back fahr secahnds,"

"She's over here, Old Man," Simon called out to them, with a duffel bag draped over his shoulder and motorcycle helmet in hand. Suzanna walked behind him, clutching the jacket that was draped over her tightly.

Alexa ran over to her in the blink of an eye, "Oh my God! How bad is it? Is anything broken? How many fingers am I holding up? Where else did she cut you?"

"I'm..." Suzanna tried to speak, but the rest of the sentence would not form.

"Alexa, cálmate," Tonye said, approaching them, "Give the girl some room to breathe,"

As they attended to the big girl, Simon walked past Daniel, who was still clutching the claymore tightly. They had another tense staredown before Daniel remarked, "Guess, you're good for something after all,"

"I have my moments," Simon replied.

"One o' dese days, Lad," Daniel promised, raising the sword, "You and me are goin to 'ave us a long chat,"

Simon hummed, "You will need a bigger sword,"

He put his helmet on and walked off, as Daniel walked over to Suzanna, who wasn't responding to anything

"Oi, Beg Bird, eyes oehp!" He said.

"Huh, uh, yes, Coach!" She responded.

Alexa wanted to say something, but Tonye halted her.

Daniel rested the tip of his sword on the ground and looked up at her, "You've joehst 'ad a sneak peek into 'ell. Now, are you gettin ahn dat boehs, ahr are we callin you a cab?"

She stepped back, perplexed by the question. She looked at Tonye and Alexa, who stared at her expectantly. The sound of a motorcycle engine caught her attention. It was Simon.

He rode past, briefly giving Suzanna a fierce look as he went. One she found strangely... encouraging. She pulled his jacket tighter over herself and quietly answered,

"The... bus, Coach,"

"Den get a move ahn," Daniel said, stepping aside. Alexa patted her on the back. As she entered the bus, the coaches and security guards still had one more issue to address.

"What are we going to do?" Alexa asked fearfully, "Moolah's marked her. She's going to be a target,"

"All we can do is talk to Gamal," Tonye advised.

"And then what?" She implored.

The old luchador sighed, "Trust Thompson, to get her ready and do our best to offer support,"

Alexa took off her glasses, " 'Trust Thompson?' Are you serious? After the stunt he pulled today?"

Tonye sighed and walked back to the bus. The two guards, Joe and Monty headed back into the arena.

"Cahme ahn," Daniel said to Alexa, "Let's get dese rookies 'ahme. Tahmorrow we poeht 'em throoehgh deir paces like never before,"

Alexa took a deep breath, put on her glasses and nodded in agreement before following him.