Post by Shelley Silver on Feb 16, 2017 21:47:48 GMT -6
((Pretty version can be found here. jsyk, I only read Sarah Lacklan's RP before coming back to post this. RP before coming back to post this. This RP features special guest handled by Mark Storm & Gabreal Martin, used with permission.))
Linkin Park - Faint
Unfortunately due to a number of things, including working for other companies, what was ideal wasn't going to be reality for Shelley Silver. That night she was in a tag team match with another friend. They won and in impressive fashion. Shelley got the pin over one of the nobodies. That didn't do much to alleviate Shelley's professional stress, though. In addition to having to worry about the I-10 Connection in #FSociety, Shelley's stable in EWC had completely crumbled over the course of a few months. The other two (active) members of Project: CHAOS were Mark Storm and Gabreal Martin. Shelley's male counterparts had acquired the tag team champions for most of 2016 while Shelley was their mouthpiece. Only as the months went on, Shelley began to feel that it was more about the two of them. They hadn't included her in anything, and they allowed one of the other members of the roster, Luke Wolfe, to get inside Shelley's head. Deep inside her head. In fact, he had nearly driven Shelley to madness. Unfortunately, she wasn't Wolfe's only victim.
As everyone in wrestling knew in the latter half of of 2016 Mark Storm had a brief stint where he wrestled for just about every company currently in existence, then he just... vanished. He didn't even tell his friends where he was. Let alone let them know if he was alright. Shelley would have been the first to look for him under normal circumstances. It was just that when Shelley should have been worried about Storm's whereabouts she was experiencing her month long "episode" followed by a subsequent Bipolar Disorder 2 diagnosis.While Storm was away a strange sequence of events lead to Gabreal Martin and Luke Wolfe being the new EWC tag team champions. It was assumed that the two men hated one another... yet they never really acted like it. In fact, they acted rather indifferent toward one another. That is until Wolfe disbanded and betrayed his previous stable and Gabreal showed his allegiance to his former enemy. No one was more affected by this than Gabreal's fiance, Olivia Saint. Olivia had been attacked by Wolfe recently, and it hadn't been very long since she had recovered.
The show had recently ended and Shelley walked out of her locker room, fresh from a shower, only to hear from a stagehand that her tag partner that night, Griffin Hawkins, had been attacked from behind by the new Television Champion, Megan Gunn. She couldn't do anything about it anymore, because Griffin had already made it back to the locker room area, basically unscathed. Shelley made to way to the parking garage where her manager, Sloane Cameron, was waiting for her when she saw a face that she didn't expect to see. Olivia Saint. Upon seeing Olivia, Shelley braced herself. She didn't know whether the younger woman was still a friend, or if she was now a former friend, who had pledged her allegiance to Legion behind the scenes? It didn't take Shelley very long to realize that the former was the true statement. Olivia looked a bit sheepish as she stood a few feet away from Shelley, a look of sadness and desperation in her eyes.
"I knew it!" Shelley whispered as she closed in the gap between herself and the younger girl, wrapping her arms around Olivia. "You had no idea, did you?"
Olivia hesitantly returned the embrace, feeling a slight sense of relief that the older woman hadn't automatically assumed that she had turned her back on Project: CHAOS, as well. She slowly pulled away after giving her friend a good squeeze. "Not in the slightest. A little bit of warning would have been great, but I got nothing." She sighed heavily, her eyes filling with tears.
Shelley shook her head, "I really don't get it. I mean, I had my suspicions early on, but when we had our match against each other as a punishment from your brother, he took all of that away. He talked about how much CHAOS meant to him, and how he wished that we were closer. I wanted that... It just happened to be a really bad time for me." Shelley explained, not sure if she really even had to do so.
"I know, I know," Olivia sighed. "I am starting to think that he believes that you and Mark abandoned him, and that he needed to align himself with Luke."
Shelley groaned in frustration. "I'm not the one who ignored CHAOS all year, except for when it got him a title. It's not like he doesn't have my number. Phones work both ways. All of this is really sounding like Luke got into his head, and it's not going to be easy to get him back."
"Something you would know about first hand," Olivia nodded. "Do you think that we can get Gabe back?"
"Luke Wolfe caused me to go into my first manic episode. It may have not been a traditional one, but that it what they are officially calling it," Shelley confided in her friend. "I still came back."
Olivia's jaw dropped as she began to stutter a bit, blinking. "M-manic… B-but doesn't that mean… Y-you're?"
"The official diagnosis is Biploar Disorder 2. Still not quite sure what the difference is, but that is what I have," Shelley sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. "That's why I was scarce for a while there. I was learning how to deal with it."
Olivia nodded, "so what do we do? How do we get Project: CHAOS back together?"
Shelley took a deep breath, "right now, it's just me and you. It's hard keeping track of Mark, and Jay and CBK haven't been heard from in months. There will be a day when the four of us stand tall together, just like we were meant to all along. CHAOS will reign supreme once more."
RainbxwChaser: Chris Night's goons…
RainbxwChaser: You're gonna have to rewatch some episodes of Anarchy, but they're not messing around. Trust me on that.
It wasn't much, but it was clear and concise. Kenzie could have given Shelley her version of what had been going on in #FSociety, but it was something that Shelley was going to need to see for herself. Simply telling her the type of people that these punks were was just simply not enough. Sure, Shelley had taken her eyes off of the prize for a moment when she began brawling with Sarah Lacklan outside of the ring, but had I-10 Connection had not stepped in, the match may have ended differently. She could tell that Melissa Reaver knew that. Sarah Lacklan, not so much. Shelley would have gotten in a few good licks on Lacklan and got herself back into the match. Unfortunately, they never got the chance for that to happen.
While Shelley was in Alabama, clearing her mind and getting ready for her match on Friday night, she had only through the first four episodes of Anarchy. She had seen the first signs of what was now known as I-10 Connection, but it was back when they were claiming to be hired by Robb Hardy, and were just simply known as "The Clowns". They had already administered a few brutal beatdowns on a few of roster members, and Shelley was already beginning to see just exactly what type of characters she was dealing with. It was beginning to give her flashbacks of the days of Luke Wolfe's former faction, Anarchy '16. Before a new member was introduced officially, he would wear a black hood and mask to conceal his identity. This coincidence, however slight, did not sit well with Shelley at all. So for the rest of the week, she chose to work out and prepare for her first upcoming match. Wanting to keep her head in the game for that one.
Shelley returned home to Seattle from Alabama mid-day on Saturday. After getting in a good workout and beginning to strategize and looking into what she wanted to do for her promo for the upcoming Tag Team Championship match in #FSociety she ate her dinner and went up to her office and began watching more episodes of Anarchy, just to see how things got to where they are today. She noticed the Clowns stating that they were there to create chaos. Shelley took that very personally. When the reveal that Bully McCarron was one of the Clowns, Shelley wasn't surprised at all. She just shook her head. Somehow, she saw it coming from the start when the Clowns first made their presence known in an earlier episode of Anarchy. This being, of course, after living the events of episode thirteen.
After finishing watching back Anarchy episode thirteen once more, Shelley sighed, scrubbing her hand over her face. She could now see what had lead to the point where they currently stood. Kenzie had done something that Shelley would have done just a year prior. Kenzie Rydell poked the bear. Shelley wasn't entirely sure what her tag partner's motives were in going after Chris Night. She just knew that was the reason as to why their match was interrupted by I-10 Connection in the first place. Shelley couldn't fault Kenzie for it, though. At the end of the day, Shelley saw herself doing the same thing. If Anarchy episode thirteen wasn't only her second show with the company, and she had any idea of the destruction that these cowards of men had caused to that point, she would have done the same thing.
She exited her browser and picked up her phone, opening her text messaging app. She tapped on her brother's name and began typing up a message.
Shelley: Big four-way tag match for the titles next weekend. One of the teams are a bunch of cowards who randomly attack people from behind. Is there any way I can get you and at least a couple of other guys to my house tomorrow for some sparring?
Shelley shut down her computer and picked up her phone, standing up and heading out of her office, flipping the switch to turn out the lights on the way out. She walked down the hall and retreated into her bedroom, getting ready for bed. Just as she was about to put her phone on the charger and turn in for the night, she received a response from her brother.
Johnny: If you are talking ninja style, I have just the guys.
Shelley: That is exactly what I am talking about.
Johnny: Good. I will see you at 1.
Shelley smiled as she plugged her phone in and crawled under the covers. She wanted to get a good night's rest before getting in some very necessary training. The next morning, she woke up early and ate a good breakfast before getting in a good weight training session. She ate a light lunch before showering and pulling out a pair of white baggy pants and a white robe, putting it on. She made her way downstairs, allowing Sloane to let Johnny and the other guys in, as she waited on her mat in her basement. As she heard the footsteps coming down the stairs, Shelley pulled a cage mask down over her face, and began slowly spinning a bow staff around. She took a couple of deep breaths as the four men surrounded her, all dressed in black. She began the attack, hitting the man to her right.
Sloane watched on as Shelley grunted and shouted, doing everything in her power to fend off all four men. The longer that the fight went on, the four men began to blend together. It began to feel like Shelley was taking on a much larger amount of men. Almost like as if it was out of an action movie. With each strike, Shelley saw all of her foes from the past. Each of her schoolyard bullies, every man who didn’t want to face her in a martial arts tournament, every feud that she has been in during her wrestling career. Leading up to Luke Wolfe, in her mind she kept seeing images of him and the things that he had done. All leading up to his recent words and the reveal of Gabreal Martin officially being a part of Legion. With that image, she struck one of the men so hard in the mid-section that the bow staff broke. She screamed in anguish, dropping to her knees.
Seeing his sister reaching a breaking point, Johnny pulled his mask off and held up his hand, signaling for the others to stop. He watched as Shelley removed her mask, following by the blindfold that she had been wearing underneath. She panted softly as the other men removed their masks with a look of shock on their faces before heading back upstairs to go on about their day. Johnny knelt beside his sister, wrapping his arms around her slender frame. He looked up to Sloane, who was still standing at the bottom of the stairs and mouthed "Find Mark" to her.
The doorknob turned and middle aged brunette man walked in. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Cameron?" Mark Storm's manager, Gregory Murphy closed the door behind himself and sat in the chair across from her.
Sloane took a deep breath, nodding. "This is slightly more personal than business. I assume that you know the current whereabouts of Mark Storm? Or at the very least, you know how to find him?"
"I do," Greg nodded. "By the tone of your voice, I feel that I can say that it's safe to assume that this isn't a favor for Shelley, seeing if there is any chance for romance?"
Sloane chuckled, shaking her head. "I believe that is the furthest thing from Shelley's mind right now. Aside from the fact that she swears up and down that she didn't miss Mark while she was away and things didn't end well in her previous almost relationship, she recently discovered that her first love had committed suicide."
Greg exhaled sharply, wincing. "Not the best things after her highly publicized month-long blackout."
"That is actually been officially been called a manic episode," Sloane paused, taking a deep breath. "Shelley found out that she's bipolar a few months ago."
"Seriously?" Greg blinked. "That... may change things."
"That's what I was thinking," Sloane nodded. "I've had this theory that the reason he pushes her away is that he's afraid that he'll scare her away when he's at his worst. She has tried telling him otherwise, and she experienced one of his episodes at Hope's baby shower."
The older gentleman nodded, having been told stories of what happened that day. "Knowing that she recently discovered that she has a mental illness, as well, may change his feelings about getting close to her," Greg smiled a little.
"Shelley needs Mark, Mister Murphy. As much as she has gotten better at focusing and keeping up with her meds, she’s still falling apart at the seams. Sure, she can go to therapy, even group therapy. I just believe that having a friend be there for her that understands may help so much more this early in her diagnosis," Sloane sighed heavily.
"I agree," Greg nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you so much," Sloane smiled brightly. "And oh… the whole bipolar thing isn't public knowledge. She's only told the Smalls Twins and Olivia Saint. In fact, she asked Olivia to not tell Gabreal in fear that he would tell Luke Wolfe."
"Of course," Greg pushed his chair back. "We know that we can trust Mark with the information, as well."
Sloane stood up, holding her hand out to shake Greg's. "Exactly. Thank you for meeting with me. Safe travels."
"I am the first lady of chaos," a smirk curled along Shelley's pale pink lips. "Oh what? Did anyone actually believe that The Clowns actually came up 'may chaos reign supreme' all by their lonesome?" She rolled her eyes with a scoff, shaking her head. "I sang that song for most of 2016. Hell, I even used that exact line as my secondary send off most of my time in NGW." She sighed in content, still smiling. "Not that my contributions to Project: CHAOS actually went noticed." She shrugged, showing extreme content with the subject.
"Sure, the I-10 Connection," she paused, clearing her throat, "slash Clowns have the super secret power of the sneak attack. But really... when it comes down to it? That is all that they have. Think about it. These men have paved a path of destruction all across #FSociety as the Clowns, but now that they have been revealed to be The I-10 Connection... let's look their contributions to #FSociety." She paused, tilting her head from side to side in mock thought. "Have... you two even won a match yet?" she scrunched up her nose. "Yeah, didn't think so. So what we have here is Chris Night throwing his weight around. As The Clowns, the I-10 Connection once jumped the current tag champions, Locke & Keyes. Caught them by surprise and beat them down. Last I checked, that wasn't how you earned a shot at any title."
"Another thing that they have going for them? They successfully distracted Kenzie and that cost us our first match as a team. Did you hear that, you Millennial Nitwit?" Shelley's voice rose in annoyed anger. "IT. WAS. OUR. OWN. DAMN. FAULT. WE. LOST. You didn't even have to call us out on that to get that reaction out of me. I know that it was our fault. I shouldn't have preoccupied myself with teaching you a lesson. I should have been focused on what was going on in the ring. That one is on me." She took a deep breath, pulling the coated rubber band out of her hair and throwing it down on the mat. "Someone was actually paying attention to more than who won and who lost in the end. Someone who knows that wrestling is so much more than that. Robb Hardy took my humble acceptance of our loss and turned it into a win. He announced that Kenzie Rydell and myself were also going to be a part of the tag team title match. He saw something in us, that we may not even see."
Shelley paced a little in the ring before taking a deep breath and continuing. "Honestly Sarah, I am genuinely surprised that you didn't have a full on shit fit that we have been included in on your title match. Well... maybe you did on Twitter. Let's not forget, Sarah Selena Lacklan is a flighty little millennial who literally only knows how to exist on social media. And as I have mentioned a couple of times before, Miss Lacklan must post nuclear launch codes on her Twitter. I say that because she protects her tweets, and I haven't bothered following her and asking her permission to view these holiest of tweets. Not that I'm sure that I wish to. All I would get is sassy little cat fight inducing insults, and I'm warning you ahead of time Sarah, you would not get your desired result from that. I would not fight back. Nope. Instead, I would respond in a way that you more than likely wouldn't understand, because we don't actually speak the same language, and move along. Well, if I even chose to give you that much. It is actually much more likely that I would just roll my eyes and keep scrolling." Shelley smiled, clapping her hands together. "I say this, of course, because your chances of winning the tag team titles have dropped from fifty percent, to only twenty-five. Robb Hardy's original intention was to have only one team face the current tag team champions. Only now, due to a series of unforeseen events, things have gotten... a little more exciting. See before, either you or Melissa only had to worry about pinning either Daisy Locke or Sarah Keyes. Simple. Safe. Concise." Shelley paused to chuckle, shaking her head. "Now not only do you have to worry about the adorable crime fighting duo, but I-10 Connection and the team of Kenzie Rydell and myself as well. So many things can happen in that ring, as well as all around it on Sunday night."
Shelley took a deep breath, tired of focusing on the easiest targets in the match. She refused to give I-10 Connection power by going on and on about them and their lame excuse for a career. Sarah Lacklan on the other hand? Sarah made it easy. Shelley knew that she had the tools to string out a long standing feud with this young girl, and force her to reach her actual potential. "What can I really say about Melissa Reaver that I haven't before? She is a singles competitor, much like Kenzie and myself are. However, she feels the same way about the tag titles as I do. A title is a title. I feel like the tag team titles are a stepping stone to so much more. Honestly, I am just surprised that this is my first shot at a tag championship in my career. It's not even that I don't play well with others. I just haven't found myself a partner that I can work with like I have found with Kenzie Rydell. Seriously, I don't know why we didn't team up sooner. Well... aside from that little mess at the end of my run with NGW. However, if we had teamed up before then, so many things could be different right now. Communication can be a bitch sometimes," she wet her lips, letting out a soft chuckle. "I'm not even sure Melissa is a fan of the name that Sarah has come up with for their team. I mean, sure, they got lucky the first time that they were thrown together. Even more so at Anarchy episode thirteen. I just can't help but wonder when the luck is going to run out."
Shelley popped her lips as she walked up to the ropes, leaning against them. "Now for the team to beat. The current tag team champions, Locke & Keyes. Daisy, Sarah, we haven't met. I am Shelley Silver. 29 year-old. Currently single. Seattle native. Half Native American, half Italian American. I still identify as a lesbian, despite dating a few men. Because it's all about how we personally identify ourselves these days, right? I've been only wrestling professionally for two years. I rode the indy circuit for a few years before that. I started training in various forms of martial arts when I was 12. Earned myself five different blackbelts since then. You may have heard that I am also an actress," she paused, shrugging. "I dabble." She gripped the top rope, leaning back a bit with a slight giggle. "You two are good. I'm not about to deny that. Much like I am sure that so many of the others in this match are going to without a second thought. Sure, you have this cheesy schtick where in your downtime, you are detectives, but you kick asses and leave the names behind in that ring. Jury is actually still out on whether or not Sarah Selena Lacklan can really say the same. Sure, she got Bart Skinner to tap in her #FSociety debut, but that was literally only after a Facial Deconstructor from Melissa Reeves. Melissa was a good sport in that match. She did all of the work. Like a true veteran, she let the rookie finish off the match, after securing the win for their team," she smirked with a shrug. "I would do the same for Kenzie. I just know that I really don't need to. Because at the end of the day, Kenzie may be a bit younger than myself, but we've been doing this about the same amount of time. Kenzie Rydell may actually be better than me," she paused, walking around the ring a bit before slowly looking toward the camera once more. "Maybe."
Shelley spun around a few times slowly, arms out, stopping when she was facing the camera. She took a few steps forward, a stone cold serious look on her face. "At the end of the day, rings and mats are my home. I am a fighter. Kenzie Rydell can say the same. Sure, we're not the best of friends, but we keep surprising each other. We admittedly had some misgivings of one another, but slowly, day by day, all of those are dissolving. Kenzie and I didn't set out to be a tag team, but we are making it work. We just need to think of a team name." Shelley smiled as the camera zoomed in on her, "also, I already suggested that we come down to the ring together for this match. Robb Hardy approved of the idea. Now comes my proposal, we go down to the ring using your entrance theme, Kenzie. I mean, hell... You are the reason that I came to #FSociety in the first place. You deserve it. You have earned your place in my life, Mackenzie. Together, you and I can show the world that they are wrong about our position in this match. Together, we earned this. Together, we can do it. Together, we can be #FSociety Tag Team Champions. What do you say girl? I can't do it without you." Shelley smiled, glancing off camera with a wink. She then looked ahead, into the camera once more, blowing a kiss. "See you Sunday, Raindrops!"
Linkin Park - Faint
Scene One: OFF Camera
February 10th, 2017
The Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, AL
Shattered
Ideally, Shelley Silver wouldn't have even been there. After what happened on episode thirteen of Anarchy, Shelley would have left the country. Civilization, even. She would have gone to the Tibetan mountains to train with monks, or something similar. It wasn't like she didn’t have the connections. She would have even invited her partner, Kenzie Rydell, to go with her. Both women had a lot of anger and other emotions coursing through their bodies, and that would be the best way to learn to channel it all properly. In an ideal world, that is exactly what Shelley and Kenzie would have been doing between Anarchy thirteen and Cold Dawn. Ideally.Unfortunately due to a number of things, including working for other companies, what was ideal wasn't going to be reality for Shelley Silver. That night she was in a tag team match with another friend. They won and in impressive fashion. Shelley got the pin over one of the nobodies. That didn't do much to alleviate Shelley's professional stress, though. In addition to having to worry about the I-10 Connection in #FSociety, Shelley's stable in EWC had completely crumbled over the course of a few months. The other two (active) members of Project: CHAOS were Mark Storm and Gabreal Martin. Shelley's male counterparts had acquired the tag team champions for most of 2016 while Shelley was their mouthpiece. Only as the months went on, Shelley began to feel that it was more about the two of them. They hadn't included her in anything, and they allowed one of the other members of the roster, Luke Wolfe, to get inside Shelley's head. Deep inside her head. In fact, he had nearly driven Shelley to madness. Unfortunately, she wasn't Wolfe's only victim.
As everyone in wrestling knew in the latter half of of 2016 Mark Storm had a brief stint where he wrestled for just about every company currently in existence, then he just... vanished. He didn't even tell his friends where he was. Let alone let them know if he was alright. Shelley would have been the first to look for him under normal circumstances. It was just that when Shelley should have been worried about Storm's whereabouts she was experiencing her month long "episode" followed by a subsequent Bipolar Disorder 2 diagnosis.While Storm was away a strange sequence of events lead to Gabreal Martin and Luke Wolfe being the new EWC tag team champions. It was assumed that the two men hated one another... yet they never really acted like it. In fact, they acted rather indifferent toward one another. That is until Wolfe disbanded and betrayed his previous stable and Gabreal showed his allegiance to his former enemy. No one was more affected by this than Gabreal's fiance, Olivia Saint. Olivia had been attacked by Wolfe recently, and it hadn't been very long since she had recovered.
The show had recently ended and Shelley walked out of her locker room, fresh from a shower, only to hear from a stagehand that her tag partner that night, Griffin Hawkins, had been attacked from behind by the new Television Champion, Megan Gunn. She couldn't do anything about it anymore, because Griffin had already made it back to the locker room area, basically unscathed. Shelley made to way to the parking garage where her manager, Sloane Cameron, was waiting for her when she saw a face that she didn't expect to see. Olivia Saint. Upon seeing Olivia, Shelley braced herself. She didn't know whether the younger woman was still a friend, or if she was now a former friend, who had pledged her allegiance to Legion behind the scenes? It didn't take Shelley very long to realize that the former was the true statement. Olivia looked a bit sheepish as she stood a few feet away from Shelley, a look of sadness and desperation in her eyes.
"I knew it!" Shelley whispered as she closed in the gap between herself and the younger girl, wrapping her arms around Olivia. "You had no idea, did you?"
Olivia hesitantly returned the embrace, feeling a slight sense of relief that the older woman hadn't automatically assumed that she had turned her back on Project: CHAOS, as well. She slowly pulled away after giving her friend a good squeeze. "Not in the slightest. A little bit of warning would have been great, but I got nothing." She sighed heavily, her eyes filling with tears.
Shelley shook her head, "I really don't get it. I mean, I had my suspicions early on, but when we had our match against each other as a punishment from your brother, he took all of that away. He talked about how much CHAOS meant to him, and how he wished that we were closer. I wanted that... It just happened to be a really bad time for me." Shelley explained, not sure if she really even had to do so.
"I know, I know," Olivia sighed. "I am starting to think that he believes that you and Mark abandoned him, and that he needed to align himself with Luke."
Shelley groaned in frustration. "I'm not the one who ignored CHAOS all year, except for when it got him a title. It's not like he doesn't have my number. Phones work both ways. All of this is really sounding like Luke got into his head, and it's not going to be easy to get him back."
"Something you would know about first hand," Olivia nodded. "Do you think that we can get Gabe back?"
"Luke Wolfe caused me to go into my first manic episode. It may have not been a traditional one, but that it what they are officially calling it," Shelley confided in her friend. "I still came back."
Olivia's jaw dropped as she began to stutter a bit, blinking. "M-manic… B-but doesn't that mean… Y-you're?"
"The official diagnosis is Biploar Disorder 2. Still not quite sure what the difference is, but that is what I have," Shelley sucked her bottom lip into her mouth. "That's why I was scarce for a while there. I was learning how to deal with it."
Olivia nodded, "so what do we do? How do we get Project: CHAOS back together?"
Shelley took a deep breath, "right now, it's just me and you. It's hard keeping track of Mark, and Jay and CBK haven't been heard from in months. There will be a day when the four of us stand tall together, just like we were meant to all along. CHAOS will reign supreme once more."
Scene Two: OFF Camera
February 11th & 12th, 2017
Shelley Silver's house in Burien, WA
Grounded into Dust
ShelleyRaindrop: What can you tell me about this I-10 Connection?RainbxwChaser: Chris Night's goons…
RainbxwChaser: You're gonna have to rewatch some episodes of Anarchy, but they're not messing around. Trust me on that.
It wasn't much, but it was clear and concise. Kenzie could have given Shelley her version of what had been going on in #FSociety, but it was something that Shelley was going to need to see for herself. Simply telling her the type of people that these punks were was just simply not enough. Sure, Shelley had taken her eyes off of the prize for a moment when she began brawling with Sarah Lacklan outside of the ring, but had I-10 Connection had not stepped in, the match may have ended differently. She could tell that Melissa Reaver knew that. Sarah Lacklan, not so much. Shelley would have gotten in a few good licks on Lacklan and got herself back into the match. Unfortunately, they never got the chance for that to happen.
While Shelley was in Alabama, clearing her mind and getting ready for her match on Friday night, she had only through the first four episodes of Anarchy. She had seen the first signs of what was now known as I-10 Connection, but it was back when they were claiming to be hired by Robb Hardy, and were just simply known as "The Clowns". They had already administered a few brutal beatdowns on a few of roster members, and Shelley was already beginning to see just exactly what type of characters she was dealing with. It was beginning to give her flashbacks of the days of Luke Wolfe's former faction, Anarchy '16. Before a new member was introduced officially, he would wear a black hood and mask to conceal his identity. This coincidence, however slight, did not sit well with Shelley at all. So for the rest of the week, she chose to work out and prepare for her first upcoming match. Wanting to keep her head in the game for that one.
Shelley returned home to Seattle from Alabama mid-day on Saturday. After getting in a good workout and beginning to strategize and looking into what she wanted to do for her promo for the upcoming Tag Team Championship match in #FSociety she ate her dinner and went up to her office and began watching more episodes of Anarchy, just to see how things got to where they are today. She noticed the Clowns stating that they were there to create chaos. Shelley took that very personally. When the reveal that Bully McCarron was one of the Clowns, Shelley wasn't surprised at all. She just shook her head. Somehow, she saw it coming from the start when the Clowns first made their presence known in an earlier episode of Anarchy. This being, of course, after living the events of episode thirteen.
After finishing watching back Anarchy episode thirteen once more, Shelley sighed, scrubbing her hand over her face. She could now see what had lead to the point where they currently stood. Kenzie had done something that Shelley would have done just a year prior. Kenzie Rydell poked the bear. Shelley wasn't entirely sure what her tag partner's motives were in going after Chris Night. She just knew that was the reason as to why their match was interrupted by I-10 Connection in the first place. Shelley couldn't fault Kenzie for it, though. At the end of the day, Shelley saw herself doing the same thing. If Anarchy episode thirteen wasn't only her second show with the company, and she had any idea of the destruction that these cowards of men had caused to that point, she would have done the same thing.
She exited her browser and picked up her phone, opening her text messaging app. She tapped on her brother's name and began typing up a message.
Shelley: Big four-way tag match for the titles next weekend. One of the teams are a bunch of cowards who randomly attack people from behind. Is there any way I can get you and at least a couple of other guys to my house tomorrow for some sparring?
Shelley shut down her computer and picked up her phone, standing up and heading out of her office, flipping the switch to turn out the lights on the way out. She walked down the hall and retreated into her bedroom, getting ready for bed. Just as she was about to put her phone on the charger and turn in for the night, she received a response from her brother.
Johnny: If you are talking ninja style, I have just the guys.
Shelley: That is exactly what I am talking about.
Johnny: Good. I will see you at 1.
Shelley smiled as she plugged her phone in and crawled under the covers. She wanted to get a good night's rest before getting in some very necessary training. The next morning, she woke up early and ate a good breakfast before getting in a good weight training session. She ate a light lunch before showering and pulling out a pair of white baggy pants and a white robe, putting it on. She made her way downstairs, allowing Sloane to let Johnny and the other guys in, as she waited on her mat in her basement. As she heard the footsteps coming down the stairs, Shelley pulled a cage mask down over her face, and began slowly spinning a bow staff around. She took a couple of deep breaths as the four men surrounded her, all dressed in black. She began the attack, hitting the man to her right.
Sloane watched on as Shelley grunted and shouted, doing everything in her power to fend off all four men. The longer that the fight went on, the four men began to blend together. It began to feel like Shelley was taking on a much larger amount of men. Almost like as if it was out of an action movie. With each strike, Shelley saw all of her foes from the past. Each of her schoolyard bullies, every man who didn’t want to face her in a martial arts tournament, every feud that she has been in during her wrestling career. Leading up to Luke Wolfe, in her mind she kept seeing images of him and the things that he had done. All leading up to his recent words and the reveal of Gabreal Martin officially being a part of Legion. With that image, she struck one of the men so hard in the mid-section that the bow staff broke. She screamed in anguish, dropping to her knees.
Seeing his sister reaching a breaking point, Johnny pulled his mask off and held up his hand, signaling for the others to stop. He watched as Shelley removed her mask, following by the blindfold that she had been wearing underneath. She panted softly as the other men removed their masks with a look of shock on their faces before heading back upstairs to go on about their day. Johnny knelt beside his sister, wrapping his arms around her slender frame. He looked up to Sloane, who was still standing at the bottom of the stairs and mouthed "Find Mark" to her.
Scene Three: OFF Camera
February 13th, 2017
Sloane's office in Los Angeles
Finding New Pieces
Sloane Cameron looked up from her desk as there was a knock on her door with a smile. "Come on in, it's open."The doorknob turned and middle aged brunette man walked in. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Cameron?" Mark Storm's manager, Gregory Murphy closed the door behind himself and sat in the chair across from her.
Sloane took a deep breath, nodding. "This is slightly more personal than business. I assume that you know the current whereabouts of Mark Storm? Or at the very least, you know how to find him?"
"I do," Greg nodded. "By the tone of your voice, I feel that I can say that it's safe to assume that this isn't a favor for Shelley, seeing if there is any chance for romance?"
Sloane chuckled, shaking her head. "I believe that is the furthest thing from Shelley's mind right now. Aside from the fact that she swears up and down that she didn't miss Mark while she was away and things didn't end well in her previous almost relationship, she recently discovered that her first love had committed suicide."
Greg exhaled sharply, wincing. "Not the best things after her highly publicized month-long blackout."
"That is actually been officially been called a manic episode," Sloane paused, taking a deep breath. "Shelley found out that she's bipolar a few months ago."
"Seriously?" Greg blinked. "That... may change things."
"That's what I was thinking," Sloane nodded. "I've had this theory that the reason he pushes her away is that he's afraid that he'll scare her away when he's at his worst. She has tried telling him otherwise, and she experienced one of his episodes at Hope's baby shower."
The older gentleman nodded, having been told stories of what happened that day. "Knowing that she recently discovered that she has a mental illness, as well, may change his feelings about getting close to her," Greg smiled a little.
"Shelley needs Mark, Mister Murphy. As much as she has gotten better at focusing and keeping up with her meds, she’s still falling apart at the seams. Sure, she can go to therapy, even group therapy. I just believe that having a friend be there for her that understands may help so much more this early in her diagnosis," Sloane sighed heavily.
"I agree," Greg nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
"Thank you so much," Sloane smiled brightly. "And oh… the whole bipolar thing isn't public knowledge. She's only told the Smalls Twins and Olivia Saint. In fact, she asked Olivia to not tell Gabreal in fear that he would tell Luke Wolfe."
"Of course," Greg pushed his chair back. "We know that we can trust Mark with the information, as well."
Sloane stood up, holding her hand out to shake Greg's. "Exactly. Thank you for meeting with me. Safe travels."
Scene Four: ON Camera
February 15, 2017
Gym in Seattle where Shelley trained
Putting it Together
It was late at night, and the gym was otherwise empty. Shelley silver stood in the middle of the ring with a single light shining down on her body. She was in her wrestling gear, right down to the sloppy ponytail and the MMA style gloves. She exhaled slowly as she looked up into the camera."I am the first lady of chaos," a smirk curled along Shelley's pale pink lips. "Oh what? Did anyone actually believe that The Clowns actually came up 'may chaos reign supreme' all by their lonesome?" She rolled her eyes with a scoff, shaking her head. "I sang that song for most of 2016. Hell, I even used that exact line as my secondary send off most of my time in NGW." She sighed in content, still smiling. "Not that my contributions to Project: CHAOS actually went noticed." She shrugged, showing extreme content with the subject.
"Sure, the I-10 Connection," she paused, clearing her throat, "slash Clowns have the super secret power of the sneak attack. But really... when it comes down to it? That is all that they have. Think about it. These men have paved a path of destruction all across #FSociety as the Clowns, but now that they have been revealed to be The I-10 Connection... let's look their contributions to #FSociety." She paused, tilting her head from side to side in mock thought. "Have... you two even won a match yet?" she scrunched up her nose. "Yeah, didn't think so. So what we have here is Chris Night throwing his weight around. As The Clowns, the I-10 Connection once jumped the current tag champions, Locke & Keyes. Caught them by surprise and beat them down. Last I checked, that wasn't how you earned a shot at any title."
"Another thing that they have going for them? They successfully distracted Kenzie and that cost us our first match as a team. Did you hear that, you Millennial Nitwit?" Shelley's voice rose in annoyed anger. "IT. WAS. OUR. OWN. DAMN. FAULT. WE. LOST. You didn't even have to call us out on that to get that reaction out of me. I know that it was our fault. I shouldn't have preoccupied myself with teaching you a lesson. I should have been focused on what was going on in the ring. That one is on me." She took a deep breath, pulling the coated rubber band out of her hair and throwing it down on the mat. "Someone was actually paying attention to more than who won and who lost in the end. Someone who knows that wrestling is so much more than that. Robb Hardy took my humble acceptance of our loss and turned it into a win. He announced that Kenzie Rydell and myself were also going to be a part of the tag team title match. He saw something in us, that we may not even see."
Shelley paced a little in the ring before taking a deep breath and continuing. "Honestly Sarah, I am genuinely surprised that you didn't have a full on shit fit that we have been included in on your title match. Well... maybe you did on Twitter. Let's not forget, Sarah Selena Lacklan is a flighty little millennial who literally only knows how to exist on social media. And as I have mentioned a couple of times before, Miss Lacklan must post nuclear launch codes on her Twitter. I say that because she protects her tweets, and I haven't bothered following her and asking her permission to view these holiest of tweets. Not that I'm sure that I wish to. All I would get is sassy little cat fight inducing insults, and I'm warning you ahead of time Sarah, you would not get your desired result from that. I would not fight back. Nope. Instead, I would respond in a way that you more than likely wouldn't understand, because we don't actually speak the same language, and move along. Well, if I even chose to give you that much. It is actually much more likely that I would just roll my eyes and keep scrolling." Shelley smiled, clapping her hands together. "I say this, of course, because your chances of winning the tag team titles have dropped from fifty percent, to only twenty-five. Robb Hardy's original intention was to have only one team face the current tag team champions. Only now, due to a series of unforeseen events, things have gotten... a little more exciting. See before, either you or Melissa only had to worry about pinning either Daisy Locke or Sarah Keyes. Simple. Safe. Concise." Shelley paused to chuckle, shaking her head. "Now not only do you have to worry about the adorable crime fighting duo, but I-10 Connection and the team of Kenzie Rydell and myself as well. So many things can happen in that ring, as well as all around it on Sunday night."
Shelley took a deep breath, tired of focusing on the easiest targets in the match. She refused to give I-10 Connection power by going on and on about them and their lame excuse for a career. Sarah Lacklan on the other hand? Sarah made it easy. Shelley knew that she had the tools to string out a long standing feud with this young girl, and force her to reach her actual potential. "What can I really say about Melissa Reaver that I haven't before? She is a singles competitor, much like Kenzie and myself are. However, she feels the same way about the tag titles as I do. A title is a title. I feel like the tag team titles are a stepping stone to so much more. Honestly, I am just surprised that this is my first shot at a tag championship in my career. It's not even that I don't play well with others. I just haven't found myself a partner that I can work with like I have found with Kenzie Rydell. Seriously, I don't know why we didn't team up sooner. Well... aside from that little mess at the end of my run with NGW. However, if we had teamed up before then, so many things could be different right now. Communication can be a bitch sometimes," she wet her lips, letting out a soft chuckle. "I'm not even sure Melissa is a fan of the name that Sarah has come up with for their team. I mean, sure, they got lucky the first time that they were thrown together. Even more so at Anarchy episode thirteen. I just can't help but wonder when the luck is going to run out."
Shelley popped her lips as she walked up to the ropes, leaning against them. "Now for the team to beat. The current tag team champions, Locke & Keyes. Daisy, Sarah, we haven't met. I am Shelley Silver. 29 year-old. Currently single. Seattle native. Half Native American, half Italian American. I still identify as a lesbian, despite dating a few men. Because it's all about how we personally identify ourselves these days, right? I've been only wrestling professionally for two years. I rode the indy circuit for a few years before that. I started training in various forms of martial arts when I was 12. Earned myself five different blackbelts since then. You may have heard that I am also an actress," she paused, shrugging. "I dabble." She gripped the top rope, leaning back a bit with a slight giggle. "You two are good. I'm not about to deny that. Much like I am sure that so many of the others in this match are going to without a second thought. Sure, you have this cheesy schtick where in your downtime, you are detectives, but you kick asses and leave the names behind in that ring. Jury is actually still out on whether or not Sarah Selena Lacklan can really say the same. Sure, she got Bart Skinner to tap in her #FSociety debut, but that was literally only after a Facial Deconstructor from Melissa Reeves. Melissa was a good sport in that match. She did all of the work. Like a true veteran, she let the rookie finish off the match, after securing the win for their team," she smirked with a shrug. "I would do the same for Kenzie. I just know that I really don't need to. Because at the end of the day, Kenzie may be a bit younger than myself, but we've been doing this about the same amount of time. Kenzie Rydell may actually be better than me," she paused, walking around the ring a bit before slowly looking toward the camera once more. "Maybe."
Shelley spun around a few times slowly, arms out, stopping when she was facing the camera. She took a few steps forward, a stone cold serious look on her face. "At the end of the day, rings and mats are my home. I am a fighter. Kenzie Rydell can say the same. Sure, we're not the best of friends, but we keep surprising each other. We admittedly had some misgivings of one another, but slowly, day by day, all of those are dissolving. Kenzie and I didn't set out to be a tag team, but we are making it work. We just need to think of a team name." Shelley smiled as the camera zoomed in on her, "also, I already suggested that we come down to the ring together for this match. Robb Hardy approved of the idea. Now comes my proposal, we go down to the ring using your entrance theme, Kenzie. I mean, hell... You are the reason that I came to #FSociety in the first place. You deserve it. You have earned your place in my life, Mackenzie. Together, you and I can show the world that they are wrong about our position in this match. Together, we earned this. Together, we can do it. Together, we can be #FSociety Tag Team Champions. What do you say girl? I can't do it without you." Shelley smiled, glancing off camera with a wink. She then looked ahead, into the camera once more, blowing a kiss. "See you Sunday, Raindrops!"