We're on a corridor, and it's quite late. The lights are on and it's deserted. Or, rather, it is currently. It only takes a few moments for that to change.
"Oh she move like the diva do... I said 'I'd love to dance like you'"
Singing along, very quietly as she makes her way down the corridor, Emery Layton wears a kimono and is carrying a bottle of Kraken dark rum, singing along to herself in a whisper as she walks on, still singing. Em turns and opens the door to her hotel room.
EMERY LAYTON: "Oh it's gonna be the way you always thought it would be But it's gonna be no illus--" Oh My God! Jesus. What the fuck are you doing in here, man?
As soon as she enters, she nearly jumps out of her skin. She holds her chest, breathless as she finds Adam Fenric sat in a chair at the end of the room. The man affectionately referred to as "The Plague Doctor" sits with a book in his hand, waiting with his infamous, despondent glare.
ADAM FENRIC: Waiting for you. And you're late.
He throws the book to the side and stands, beginning to pace. Em sits on the bed, kicking her red shoes off.
EMERY LAYTON: Hate when you do this. The 'turns-up-out-of-thin-air' thing. I dunno what your car looks like, you never text, you never call. Do you just get summoned or something?
ADAM FENRIC: I am summoned in the absence of common sense.
EMERY LAYTON: Oh wow, that was an actual joke. You alright after that? Didn't find it too painful, did you? Anyway, least gimme warning you're gonna show up. Especially in my fucking hotel room, Jesus. How'd you even get in?
ADAM FENRIC: I have my ways. My hotel room was too small and it began to irritate me. I deemed the peak of my irritation as the right opportunity to discuss our Battalions tournament match, but you weren't here. I only did what you would do.
EMERY LAYTON: Yeah, well I went out.
Em pulls out her hip-flask and opens it but as she's about to take a swig, Adam swipes it out of her hand, shaking his head as he holds it.
EMERY LAYTON: Hey!
ADAM FENRIC: No. You've just been out. You're barely in peak condition and I need to speak with you. I am nauseated by your nattering even in a sober condition. I have no desire to speak to you while intoxicated.
EMERY LAYTON: Well, you're too late for that.
ADAM FENRIC: Stands to reason.
Emery lies on the bed, looking up at the ceiling.
EMERY LAYTON: Can you wait till morning on this?
ADAM FENRIC: No. Tell me about Tweeder.
EMERY LAYTON: I'd really like to wait till morning.
ADAM FENRIC: Tweeder. Details. I need to know what he's capable of.
EMERY LAYTON: Two in the morning, Adam.
ADAM FENRIC: Emery, you once called during the early hours of the morning to discuss whether Kermit the Frog would win in a fight with Fozzy Bear.
EMERY LAYTON: It was pissing me off, and I needed someone clever to give me an answer.
ADAM FENRIC: Emery, focus. I need your expertise. I can only prepare a half-strategy for this, we will need to improvise some parts of our plan. I'm hoping that--
BANG.
Adam turns around. Emery is not on the bed. She is, instead, on the floor, face down. He stands up, looking over her, watching as she drools into the carpet. He looks off to the side, letting out a short, annoyed breath.
ADAM FENRIC: Brilliant.
**** The NEXT MORNING.
*Tap! Tap! Tap!*
The first thing we see is an eye- constantly moving and full of life, but with very heavy black eyeliner around it. And a finger, jabbing us over and over. The figure moves back, to reveal red hair and a paler face. Guess who.
EMERY LAYTON: Alright it's doing a thing now...
ADAM FENRIC: What thing?
EMERY LAYTON: There's a red light. Ooh, does that mean it's working?
ADAM FENRIC: Emery, leave it. We've wasted twenty minutes on this already. Step away from it.
EMERY LAYTON: Okay. Stepping away, not gonna touch it...
Emery moves back, not touching what we can assume is a camera. They are both stood in front of a brick-wall. Adam is stood tall, a more disciplined stance, where as Em has just dropped down onto the floor and is sat cross-legged with a bottle of Lucozade.
ADAM FENRIC: Excellent. My name is Adam Fenric, XWA Television Champion. With me is my partner, Emery Layton. Together, we are the XWA Tag Team Champions. We felt this was a perfect opportunity to address the Union Battleground roster ahead of our entrance into the Battalions tournament.Today marks the first day in our excursion to rule over wrestling. Layton & Fenric are a force that have swept across the XWA and wrestling. Many regarded tag team wrestling as something of the past. However, the past did not count on facing a genius mind such as mine. As Leader of Layton & Fenric, I have single-handedly--
EMERY LAYTON: Wait, stop. We've been over this, Adam. You can't lead a tag team.
ADAM FENRIC: Elaborate.
EMERY LAYTON: It's a tag team. There's two of us.
ADAM FENRIC: Well you’re not going to lead us, are you?
EMERY LAYTON: Well no because that's not how it works!
ADAM FENRIC: Hrm. Anyway...I am aware of the statistical disadvantage we are placed at by the fact that we are yet to find out the identity of one half of our opponents in this first round, however I do not see this as a detriment in our--
Adam stops, as he hears a noise to the side of him. Snoring. Loud, cartoonish snoring. Adam turns and looks down, scowling as Emery loudly continues on. As Adam goes quiet, Em looks up.
EMERY LAYTON: Oh. I'm sorry. I'm just doing an impression of everyone watching this.
ADAM FENRIC: Perhaps you have something you would like to say?
EMERY LAYTON: Yeah, actually, I do. And people would actually listen, too. I think you just gave everyone a headache. I had a hangover earlier, now after hearing that I feel like someone's hit me in the head with a pan.
ADAM FENRIC: One can hope.
EMERY LAYTON: Oi!
ADAM FENRIC: Well perhaps I should do this like you would. Perhaps I should talk about "bringing the savage craic" or some ridiculous shaggy-dog story that ultimately leads to me falling over myself. That's how you talk.
EMERY LAYTON: Nice. Real nice, fella. Leave the sassy shit to me, yeah? And y'know what? You're wrong. I got more to say than that, actually.
ADAM FENRIC: Oh, is that so?
EMERY LAYTON: Yeah. Like how I know how dangerous Tweeder is. I ain't built much in my life, I can barely work out Lego, but I often think Union was built by Dick, Tweeder and Me. We're the three at the top. And I dunno if you realise this, Adam, but Tweeds was the first Union Battleground Champion, just like I'm the first Trench War Champion. Know how he got there? He beat me. I was this close, man. I was this close to beating him and he had the edge. That was the last time we met in a tournament to crown an inaugural champion. I ain’t gonna let that happen again.
She stands now, looking a bit more fired up than she was several seconds ago.
EMERY LAYTON: And now, I got Adam Fenric with me. Yeah, he's a condescending prick who thinks he's always right--
ADAM FENRIC: I resent that.
EMERY LAYTON: Shut it. He might be all that, but he's one of the best technical wrestlers in the world today. This guy here's like a fucking snake, know what I mean? He'll work you out. He'll figure out what you can and can't do, and then when you think you've got him beat, he'll snap on that Goodbye Cruel World submission and make you pass out in seconds. Me? I don’t quit for nobody and I’ll fight anyone I gotta fight. So Tweedle-Dee, bring your mystery guy. You bring ‘em. Cos Adam’ll have you figured out more than you got yourself figured out and me? Well...you guys know me, right? I ain’t gonna back down. So bring a friend, Tweeds, and we’ll dance.
ADAM FENRIC: Union Battleground, Layton & Fenric are part of the Battalions tournament. If you’ve any plans of stopping us, you Must Try Harder.
Em claps her hands.
EMERY LAYTON: That went well, I thought! Post-promo drinks?
ADAM FENRIC: No. See you at LiGHTS OUT.
Adam strides off. Em looks to us as she continues to talk, reaching behind the camera.
EMERY LAYTON: Oh come on! Not even one?
ADAM FENRIC: NO Emery!
EMERY LAYTON: Listen, man, I found this great bar while I was out last night, you’d love—
Much has been questioned what happened to Tweeder after Fall Out. That marked the end of a disastrous two months. In an unlikely manner, Tweeder lost three matches in that time which has not happened since he first started out in the wrestling business. What stung the most is losing to an inferior opponent in Aries Reed who boasts like he won the lottery. Then losing in the first round of the Monarchy of Anarchy, an idea he had when many had him pegged to make it to the finals. To top it all off, Dick Devereaux stole the Union Battleground title from him at Fall Out. After this, no one wanted Tweeder booked for their shows. Some would say the king is dead and has been taken to the pasture like a horse. No this isn’t the Battle of Thermopylae where Tweeder takes one last stand to stop, but reviving the punishment of unit decimation.
Just when you thought you could get rid of me, I come back. Now people are all assuming that I am just here for a pay check or because I can’t cut it anywhere else. Yes the last few months were rough, but that doesn’t mean I can’t hack it. Well that has been said many times before, but they were proven wrong. I remember when the Championship Wrestling Council thought I along with the other members of Carnage Wrestling were the toys from Misfit Island. They didn’t want us because we weren’t like the Belmonts, Brian Hollywood, MDK, Thatcher Rex, and others. Yet when I look around, I see Rex and the Belmonts at the wrestling retirement home. Brian Hollywood is hanging out with his friend Darin Zion trying not to get fired. The only name I know from CWC that might still be around is MDK. Yet, here I am standing along with Carnage Wrestling.
Now you might be wondering what that has to do with Union Battleground and it is very simple. After becoming the first ever champion in Union Battleground and then losing it later, Dick Devereaux thinks he has sent me packing. He thinks what everyone of you is thinking and why did I come back. It is very simple, I have some unfinished business to deal with, but then I heard about this little tag team tournament. I figured I helped build up the name of Union Battleground before, why not give the place even more exposure. People might think I was insulted when he suggested I had a few screws loose. Of course I am insulted because he said that! How dare he say I have a few screws loose when in reality it is more than a few. You don’t get to where I am without losing brain cells. That is why my idea of going into this tournament alone is actually a sound plan. Not only does it create news which Axel wants, but it gets people to become overconfident. They think they will be able to wear me down and it will be an easy victory. I love it when they are overconfident as it makes victory that much sweeter. Then again maybe I will bring in a tag team partner who some might be familiar with. He or she could potentially help increase viewership. You will just have to wait and see.
Oh Emery Layton, do you think I have forgot about you? It would seem that while I have gone, you have found yourself an Italian boy toy or maybe he is a Guido who failed to make the cast of Jersey Shore. It looks like you have done alright for yourself and I am a bit surprised you have been arrested yet. It seems all I hear is you getting pissed and then doing something stupid. I will give you some credit because you have been taking the Trench Warfare title to other places and defending it. However you are no Amy Jo Smyth who is a triple crown champion. You also don’t do have the intellect either seeing as she was a cop, graduated high school when she was 16, has a PhD in chemistry, and was a Pharmacological Chemist. Then if you try to compare yourself to another friend of ours, Lucy Wylde, you are shit out of luck. She has won more titles in OWF than you will win in your life time. I could possibly invite my adversary, Kyra Mohr to my tag team partner who is crazy as fuck in her own way. The essential point is you talk a good game and try act care free, but you have standards that you can’t reach. No matter how high you get, you won’t get to their level. If you can’t get to their level, what makes you think you can get to mine? Maybe the night where I advanced to the finals in the first tournament Union Battleground should have the clue you needed. However I have a feeling that you have forgotten that lesson and now you need a reminder. Oh Emery, don’t you worry, I will provide the reminder that you so desperately need.
So why you and Fenric are doing your little tour together, you might want to buy tickets to see either Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade in Still Game or Derek "Del Boy" Trotter and his brother Rodney in Only Fools and Horses. They could teach you a thing or two, but then again, you rather find a partner that sounds like he belongs in The Hunger Games. So Emery, you unknowingly offered your partner as tribute where there will be a pool of blood. There might not be a sword or spear, but I am sure I can find something to make him bleed. So Fenric from District 8, the odds are not in your favor. Emery really should have told you that when the bracket was released. I don’t know what she told you, but from where I stand, you are going to learn your place. You have been caught up in something you know nothing of and will see a pool of blood from the outside.
Many have tried to keep me down by saying I can’t do it. Many of those people also fell on their own swords when they realized what a grave mistake they made. Now Emery and Fenric, you can’t say I didn’t warn you on what is going to happen. History is going to repeat itself Emery and I am going to laugh once again because you thought you could beat me.
I am your judge. I am your jury. I am your executioner. Welcome to Ultra Violence.
