Georgie Nickles vs Artemis Kaiser

[Alex Smiley]

Reminder:

- Word limit for Group Stage matches is 1500.
- 1 RP per wrestler per match.
- Deadline: December 30, 2018, at 11:59PM Pacific.

[Vonberry]

When the camera flickered on, throughout its static, a glimmer of gold shined brightly. When the image finally stabilized, the woman known as Artemis Kaiser was staring off at something that reflected off her eyes. Her expression was soft, yet bore certain grief among it. Soon enough, the camera retreated back to let the audience see what exactly she was gazing at. The proverbial glistening object wasn't the briefcase from Pulp Fiction but it was a trophy. It said among its nameplate not only Artemis Kaiser but that it was the award for Female Wrestler of the Year. The night before the recording was Phoenix Quagliaterre's year-end award show, the first of its kind, and with its proper controversy.

Yet, Artemis walked home the winner of the best female wrestler throughout a myriad of different federations if not all of the wrestling world. One would be elated to walk away with such an award. It wasn't a committee that decided the result but it was the world that decided to vote. She had a match of the year award as well but none of it brought a smile to her face.  Instead, she radiated melancholy for a second before she decided to set down the trophy.

"Georgie."

Artemis paused, staring down the trophy. She brought her finger up towards the head of the award and pushed it down with a small amount of effort.

"Nickles."

There was another break in her speech, where there seem to be a moment of recollection before she tilted her head.

"I don't like draws. It's the anti-climatic end to an otherwise brilliant night of fun and excitement. If I wanted to get lewd with the analogy, which fits the person I faced, then you could say that I'm feeling a little blue balled after my match with Scorpio. If it wasn't for that pesky time limit, he would have fallen," there's a latent sadness in Artemis' voice, something that didn't necessarily correlate with her statement. The heinous post-match beating, the continuing of the Crusades, and the final moment of Scorpio enticing her to do more, all of them crossed Artemis' mind.

"However, that put a small crack in your plans to stop whatever insanity is orchestrating around the tournament," the Last Empress sighed, "if I knew that there would have been so many politicians involved, I would have refrained from participating."

"Alas, it's only fair that I would stand on the other side of the anarchist--oh, I mean, the rebel."

"The Empress vs. The Rebel, that's a tagline for this match, but personally, I just want to get that win. I want to tear it from your hands and I wouldn't mind making your plans to get into the Elimination Chamber for the One Ring Circus...futile. It sounds heinous, yes, almost as if I was with your enemy, but I'm not. I don't play sides. I merely believe that your vision is a little off. You're looking towards the future that may not exist because of the destructive force that's right in front of you."

"I hate rebel types almost as much as I hate hero types," Artemis' original sadness turned into something else. She seemed to bear traces of pity in her tone and body language. Her eyebrows furrowed and her shoulders slumped. She still absently played with the trophy like a cat pushing it side to side with a dismissive attitude.

"Throughout my career, I've never bothered to be a rebel. That's because I went against the status quo with just my skill alone. That's how it always worked for me. I've had my share of horrible bosses or tyrannical stables but I never shoved a flag in the air and claimed myself to be anything but what I am. I fought against the system in my own way and that's by beating everyone that moved. If you were apart of some nepotistic regime, you got knocked out. If you were apart of a rebellious coalition, you still got knocked out."

"That's how you get control of things. That's how you change things, Georgie, you beat people, but I'm sure that you know that by now," Artemis shrugged, "but you won't be able to change your situation here."

"But you shouldn't worry," Artemis gave a soft smile to the camera, "because that's why I'm here."

"Despite the fact that you'll lose to me, you'll be able to know that the awfulness that's trying to hold the Extremes back and ruin the Elimination Chamber will be handled by me. Every problem from Jack to the Eternal Circle will be dealt with. While you sit on the sidelines, nursing whatever injuries I inflict upon you, you can know that everything will be just okay."

"But if I hate rebel types so much, then why am I helping you, even if indirectly?" Artemis asked, acting as though she did not know the answer.

"It's simple when you think about it and it's going to be your punishment, Georgie."

Artemis pulled the trophy back upright before turning fully to the camera. Her smile began to bring forth an ominous air, even with the slight cuteness that lingered in Artemis' features.

"What happens when I become your problem, your reason to rebel? What if I'm your dictator? Then does that mean you'll come after me? Does it mean that you think you can stop me? Since we're thinking about the future so much, Georgie, how about we make this match a preview for what will come over and over again when I'm the one to take over this whole entire thing."

"You'll fail here."

"You'll fail in the Elimination Chamber if you get there."

"And you'll fail every other time that you choose to stand in my way."

Artemis picked up the trophy entirely, stroking it lightly. Her anguish towards the trophy was found in her eternal need to get better. Even if it was for a year, to know that she was the best meant that there wasn't going to be anyone to stop her. In this tournament, Artemis was stopped once. Yet, that came before the award victory. As she looked onward to the camera, she asked herself quietly if she was the strongest there was. The very thought saddened her but she found happiness in the knowledge that Georgie Nickles needed her and Scorpio to survive this tournament.

"I will squash this rebellion before it even gets started."

[Rebel Child]

Returning to the 02 Arena had been a bittersweet homecoming for the Rebel Child.  A comforting embrace, but tentative in nature.  A reminder of what could happen if things were left unchecked, a warning for one such as Georgie Nickles.  Echoes of the past reverberated against her, crowding her, weighing her down.  In the end, there was no victory; there was no win, no celebration.  What was meant to have been the beginning of a historic return was nothing more than a simple little sigh, ending in a double knock out against Nariko.  While some would say that it was still better than a loss, it plagued her, taunted her.  Because she knew what should have been done, but she never pulled the trigger. 

Some could say it was a running commentary on how things had been for the month.  Couldn't seal the deal against the newcomer, couldn't get one over the United States Champion in EWC.

Close only works in horseshoes and hand grenades as her father would say.

After awakening several days after her EWC match against Ace King, there had been a moment of doubt inside, gently gnawing away at the grey matter.  The worried looks given to her by her friend Exile, the Silence™ that met him whenever he spoke to her, the warning that the doctors gave her even as they cleared her, that she had been lucky, it was all too much.   It made her second guess herself, second guess the moment she signed that dotted line, re-signed for 2019 in EWC; made her wonder if perhaps her brother had been correct; that her time had already come and gone.  Even as she and Exile boarded the plane headed for the states, the doubts followed behind her as if they were hounds of hell nipping at her heels, and the Silence™ remained.

As they flew over the ocean, which one – Georgie would never be able to tell someone if they asked, she sat in silence, earbuds in her ears blaring an eclectic mix of music that helped drown out everything around her, but it could not silence the little voice in the back of her head that told her to just give up, give in.  Bid adieu to EWC, go back to Windy City, and be content with what she does have.

"This is your captain speaking, we have been cleared for landing at Heathrow Airport. Thank you for flying with us."

Even over the din that was the music invading her senses, she could hear the captain's announcement.  Out of the corner of her eye she saw Exile glancing to the transfer tickets that would send them back to Chicago, back home.  There had been no discussion about stopping over in London for the Experts show.  There had been no talk about her opponent Artemis Kaiser.  There was a silent agreement one might say that there would be no show on the 30th, for the first time since she had ever entered an Expert's event... Georgie would not be competing when she was scheduled to.

Slowly reaching out, she grasped hold of the tickets he held which brought his attention solely to the blue haired woman who sat beside her.  Looking them over for a moment, she then removed the ticket that held her name and ripped it in two.  Handing it back to him, she settled back in her seat and closed her eyes. 

Her decision had been made.

~~

"Artemis Kaiser.  A woman who has the blood of wrestling greats, legends coursing through her veins."  Georgie Nickles voice, slightly more raspy than normal could be heard as the scene opens, showing the Rebel Child herself sitting in the corner of the Experts wrestling ring... arms resting on the ropes as her eyes slowly looked out over the arena, "but not to be contented with resting upon the roots of her family, she set her own course to become a wrestling great.  A legacy, a legend, a cataclysm of pain and blood, making a name for herself and leaving a wake of bodies trailing behind her."  Lips pursing momentarily, the wrestler gave a small nod of her head to herself, "and from what I've read, what I've seen – hell, she's just about done it.  So now she sets herself to the Experts, promising pain, promising blood, and what was it," The Rebel Child's head canting off to the side ever so slightly as if trying to recall the words, "decimate the competition before they can even get to the Elimination Chamber.  Because after all... How can there be a round robin tournament if there aren't enough people to go around."  A slow little smirk came to her lips, "but... That's not exactly how things happened, is it dear Artemis?"  Her eyebrow rose, "because... as try as you might, you just... Couldn't do it, could you?  You were met fist for fist, kick for kick by the People's Camp himself, Scorpio."  A slow soft little snicker comes forth from full lips as if she were truly amused, "oh, but I saw the anger in your eyes when you just couldn't get the job done.  I played it, I paused it, I played it back in slow motion, hell I even got the close up.  The moment the switch turned off," her fingers snapped, "and you went on autopilot.  But the Last Empress was not the victor.  She was not the one proudly standing with her arm raised and the point given," shaking her head, "a draw.  Oh that must rankle you sweetheart.  Someone who promised devastation and destruction just couldn't get it up when it counted the most."

Shaking her head a little bit, "but... That's okay, because it's a new week, and we're on equal footing, because you're not the only one who came out with a draw.  Now... Before you get it inside your precious fragilicious mind that I am calling us equals, and getting all up in your danders, don't worry precious, I'm not.  Because that is where the similarity ends, of this I promise you.  Because you see... Artemis, you tried so hard to end Scorpio, you gave it your all.  Every single Crusade that hit, you thought you were one step closer to making good on your promise.  You showed your hand too soon, got a little too excited, and blew your wad well before the big finale.  Whereas when I faced off against Nariko, well let's be honest.  I should have pushed harder.   A no disqualifications match, but I held back," shaking her head again as if she were dismayed at herself.  "See, I skirted around the darkness, slight little shades of grey..."  Her eyes flickered towards the camera, "my mistake.  Because let's be honest precious, I should have embraced it."

Reaching behind her, she slowly pulled out a black baseball bat with an anarchy symbol.  Well worn, and well loved, it was a piece of history, a piece of her history.  Fingers slowly moving across the bat as Georgie looked down upon it.  "I should have embraced it like the time I went for a grand slam hit against a man known as Legacy's mouth," a slow methodical smirk came to her lips, "like the time that I made Legion and his little band of merry fuckwits scatter like the cockroaches they are."  A sharp exhale, "you're so focused on winning the whole thing, you forgot that this is a marathon of pain, of blood, of expectations that only get higher and higher with every single fucking match, Artemis.  You're already counting yourself among the likes of Black Death, MDK, Doug E. Fresh, Jack Benevolence and... Yours truly," she motions to herself, "that you cannot see what stands before you."  Using the ropes, she kips up onto her feet, pointing at herself with the bat, "me.  Georgie Nickles.  The Real Rebel Child.   You only see the nickname; you only see what I stand for in this moment.  You do not know the history for which I fight; you do not know the blood, the sweat, and the tears that this house has been built upon, Artemis.  And I know you would tell me that you do not care to know the history.  And that's all right, darling.  Because I am here to help you.  Not by giving you a book and helping you study up.  But by imprinting that history upon your body," she grips the baseball bat, "by spilling your blood, by making you cry out in pain.  You will be given NO quarter, you will be given NO solace.  Fuck, you won't even be given a participation trophy to look upon with wistful regret.  Oh hell no.  There will only be you... another so called heir apparent to the throne ... Becoming just another casualty for the cause."  A steely look of determination glints in Georgie's eyes as the camera fades.