Post by Arcadia on Sept 13, 2008 2:41:00 GMT -4
The Greyhound's engine rumbled to a halt as the driver put his foot down on the brake, releasing the air with a swoosh. A petite woman peered out of the lightly tinted window with little interest, her only enthusiasm about the next transfer being the chance to stretch her legs for more than the thirty seconds to took to walk to the bathroom at the end of the vehicle.
The platinum haired woman at the window waited patiently at the window for the rest of the passengers--cramming themselves into the aisle; gathering bags; pushing each other for that extra inch lead towards the exit as if the driver would simply lock them in if they didn't draw first blood to get to the door; shuffling their books and music and games and all the other things they brought with them to keep them amused in the mindless tedium of this small, transitional universe they all currently shared, stuck in the Twilight Zone between where they were, where they are and where they are going to be--to file off the bus and into what passes for their real lives.
Katrina Olivetti stood up and stretched, taking the time to gather her senses before joining the lemmings jostling each other for their chance to escape. Patience was not a virtue she had possessed at the beginning of the summer. It was now something she had in abundance. Katrina had learned the hard way that sometimes, you need to take the time to heal, to learn, to trust. Sometimes, you need to take A LOT of time to trust. Especially to trust in yourself again after you've let yourself fall so hard.
As Katrina stepped onto to sidewalk and waited for the driver to pull her bags out from the undercarriage storage space, she thought back to her former mentor and his words to the crowded arena on the last occasion that she had seen him. "Now that I've gotten that crap out of my life..." Kenny's voice boomed through the speakers and boomed through her head, echoing over and over. Perhaps that one phrase is what finally killed her confidence in herself and her wrestling abilities. Perhaps it was her loss to Dr. Phate that had started her downward slide, or maybe it was being attacked from behind twice over by Fyre Angel that had first ignited her self-doubt, regardless of the fact that that had led to the match of her career. Ultimately though, it was Kenny's offhanded way of discarding her as if she was nothing more that a pair of old, worn socks.
"Hey!" Katrina shook herself out of her reverie and grabbed her bags from the outstretched hands of the bus driver, who had called out to her and was now looking at her strangely. "You okay, miss?" he asked with his Nashville accent. Katrina nodded and kept her eyes downcast. "You sure?" he looked skeptically at her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just the heat." Katrina said, shaking her head.
"Okay. Maybe you should take that mask off. You wouldn't want to pass out from heat exhaustion or nothing."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the ride." she replied.
"It's my job, miss. You be careful now, you hear?"
Katrina turned turned and walked into the bus depot. Careful. Yeah. She had learned to be very careful...another one of those hard lessons. You can't always rely on your instincts. Sometimes you have to stay down. Sometimes you have to realize that to fight smart would be to fight another day.
She sat down on a wooden bench that ran down the middle of the terminal, staring at the time table, only looking with half an eye, not really seeing, and listening to the announcements with half an ear, not really hearing. She let her memories sweep through her, dragging her back to the beginning of June.
The Church of Kaos was in their locker room, celebrating the recent victory of "The Jesus of Wrestling" Micheal Lively as the new Overdrive champion. Even his mother was there, cougar-ing her way over to Vin E. Lambardo like he was a piece of prime rib. All of them with their belts, Diana Steel and STJ with their tag titles, Michael Lively with his new Overdrive title, and of course, Lord thy G-d of Kaos, Sgt. Kenny Lambardo himself with his sparkling World Heavyweight Championship title belt slung over his shoulder.
Vin E. had gotten over the loss of his winning streak the week before and his loss of the chance to hold the Extreme title to Tony Blackwell, but Katrina "Arcadia the Divine" Olivetti was still smarting from the beating she had taken at the hands of Dr. Phate. Not only had she lost her own win steak, but she had lost a little of her pride, as well. You would, too, if you had you very first L to a cross-dressing schoolgirl with split-personality disorder. But she could still be happy for her stable-mates, and was genuinely proud of them for winning their matches and their respective titles.
"So what are you planning next, Kenny?" Vin E. asked his brother.
Kenny put down his Monster BFC thoughtfully. With that trademark grin on his face he said, "Next?...I think it's time to renovate my Church." The door of the locker room opened and Tony Blackwell walked in with the Extreme title over his right shoulder. Vin E. jumped to his feet, enrages that this man would once again enter their domain without a by-your-leave.
"What the hell-" was all Vin got out before getting pounded into the floor with a powerful Jeigerbomb from the Extremist. Katrina jumped up to help her sometimes tag partner, trusting her stable to have her back when suddenly the ceiling and the floor violently switched places on her as Arcadia received an RKO from her mentor.
"Lesson Number Three: Manipulation." The Champion said in her ear, crouched next to her dazed form. He stood and turned his back on her to speak to his stable. "Welcome our newest member. Tony Blackwell, Extreme Champion. With all the titles in my stable, I am now, truly and completely, a WRESTLING G-D."
Katrina shook her head and got to her knees, crawling towards her betrayer. He turned and gave her a swift boot to the side. She land hard on her hip, her arms wrapped around her stomach in pain. Kenny turned back to his stable and continued with his 'I am G-d, heed my will!' rant. Arcadia saw Vin E. back out of the locker room. declaring his revenge on the fake messiah, slamming the door behind him. Kenny mumbled something about not needing a family and building a new one before he once again noticed Katrina trying to get up and come towards him. He stomped her in the small of her back, sending her sprawling again, and just for good measure, bounced her head off the concrete a few more times.
The sergeant leaned in close to her and the last thing she heard before the world faded to black was the Judas, Kenny Lambardo's voice saying, "You're not worthy of my COK anymore." She received one last big boot to the face and then blackness.
When she awoke, she found herself face-down on the mat of the ring, surrounded by the vacated arena seats. The contents of her locker had been unceremoniously deposited at her feet, along with one tattered and torn black and silver lucha mask. Katrina had grabbed her belongings and used them to cover her face, now exposed to the thankfully empty room. But who might have passed and seen her? To perfectly capture her ultimate humiliation, her former stable-mates had not only tossed her out on her hide, literally, but had possible ruined her honor by relieving her of her mask without anyone having had earned the right be fighting her for it.
She did what she could. She replaced her mask with another just like it (she had a few) and tried to carry on. But her body hurt, her pride hurt, and she was completely off of her game. It had become GAME OVER for Katrina "Arcadia" Olivetti and she knew it. She completely floundered in her last match, not having the motivation to get on camera or in the ring and try to trash-talk her way through a promo. She didn't have the drive to take home a win over her opponents in that Fatal Four-Way. She didn't even have the heart to make it look good for the APW faithful who were watching. No, she had well and truly hit the bottom.
After her defeat in the Second Chance match, Katrina realized she still had some lessons to learn. She found a new school to retrain at, The Blackwell Academy (after all, "the enemy of my enemy" and all that). She started again at the bottom, rebuilding herself as a stronger, tougher , and more resilient woman. Along the way she rediscovered her self-confidence with every 'job-well-done' she received, relearning why wrestling was her passion. She also learned that sometimes it takes longer to heal soul injuries than to heal physical ones. But she had pulled through, with goading and encouragement and tough love, thanks to her 'drill sergeants' Glove Guy, David Xavier Christensen, and Fallen Angel. And now it was time to come back.
So here she was, Katrina "Arcadia-No-Longer-The-Divine" Olivetti, standing in front of a bus terminal, about to board the vehicle which would take her on the last leg of her journey to California and APW once more. She was no longer Kenny's first student, the future of his wrestling school. She was no longer the naive girl from Mexico who spent too much time trying to make others proud of her. She was Katrina "Arcadia" Olivetti, trained by Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Rey Mysterio Sr, Sgt. Kenny Lambardo, and by the Blackwell Academy.
Katrina had learned the hard way that sometimes you shouldn't trust your instincts. Sometimes you have to stay down. But it had become time to stand up and fight once more. It had become time for Katrina to prove herself again. It was time for her to grab hold of that extra free life and take the controller back into her own hands. She was a force to be reckoned with, and it was time to show that to the wrestling world once and for all.
She stepped onto the Greyhound, finally looking forward to this journey's end and the next one's beginning, with a glint in her eye and a grim look of determination on her face. The Hardcor-a Luchadora was back.
The platinum haired woman at the window waited patiently at the window for the rest of the passengers--cramming themselves into the aisle; gathering bags; pushing each other for that extra inch lead towards the exit as if the driver would simply lock them in if they didn't draw first blood to get to the door; shuffling their books and music and games and all the other things they brought with them to keep them amused in the mindless tedium of this small, transitional universe they all currently shared, stuck in the Twilight Zone between where they were, where they are and where they are going to be--to file off the bus and into what passes for their real lives.
Katrina Olivetti stood up and stretched, taking the time to gather her senses before joining the lemmings jostling each other for their chance to escape. Patience was not a virtue she had possessed at the beginning of the summer. It was now something she had in abundance. Katrina had learned the hard way that sometimes, you need to take the time to heal, to learn, to trust. Sometimes, you need to take A LOT of time to trust. Especially to trust in yourself again after you've let yourself fall so hard.
As Katrina stepped onto to sidewalk and waited for the driver to pull her bags out from the undercarriage storage space, she thought back to her former mentor and his words to the crowded arena on the last occasion that she had seen him. "Now that I've gotten that crap out of my life..." Kenny's voice boomed through the speakers and boomed through her head, echoing over and over. Perhaps that one phrase is what finally killed her confidence in herself and her wrestling abilities. Perhaps it was her loss to Dr. Phate that had started her downward slide, or maybe it was being attacked from behind twice over by Fyre Angel that had first ignited her self-doubt, regardless of the fact that that had led to the match of her career. Ultimately though, it was Kenny's offhanded way of discarding her as if she was nothing more that a pair of old, worn socks.
"Hey!" Katrina shook herself out of her reverie and grabbed her bags from the outstretched hands of the bus driver, who had called out to her and was now looking at her strangely. "You okay, miss?" he asked with his Nashville accent. Katrina nodded and kept her eyes downcast. "You sure?" he looked skeptically at her face.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just the heat." Katrina said, shaking her head.
"Okay. Maybe you should take that mask off. You wouldn't want to pass out from heat exhaustion or nothing."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the ride." she replied.
"It's my job, miss. You be careful now, you hear?"
Katrina turned turned and walked into the bus depot. Careful. Yeah. She had learned to be very careful...another one of those hard lessons. You can't always rely on your instincts. Sometimes you have to stay down. Sometimes you have to realize that to fight smart would be to fight another day.
She sat down on a wooden bench that ran down the middle of the terminal, staring at the time table, only looking with half an eye, not really seeing, and listening to the announcements with half an ear, not really hearing. She let her memories sweep through her, dragging her back to the beginning of June.
The Church of Kaos was in their locker room, celebrating the recent victory of "The Jesus of Wrestling" Micheal Lively as the new Overdrive champion. Even his mother was there, cougar-ing her way over to Vin E. Lambardo like he was a piece of prime rib. All of them with their belts, Diana Steel and STJ with their tag titles, Michael Lively with his new Overdrive title, and of course, Lord thy G-d of Kaos, Sgt. Kenny Lambardo himself with his sparkling World Heavyweight Championship title belt slung over his shoulder.
Vin E. had gotten over the loss of his winning streak the week before and his loss of the chance to hold the Extreme title to Tony Blackwell, but Katrina "Arcadia the Divine" Olivetti was still smarting from the beating she had taken at the hands of Dr. Phate. Not only had she lost her own win steak, but she had lost a little of her pride, as well. You would, too, if you had you very first L to a cross-dressing schoolgirl with split-personality disorder. But she could still be happy for her stable-mates, and was genuinely proud of them for winning their matches and their respective titles.
"So what are you planning next, Kenny?" Vin E. asked his brother.
Kenny put down his Monster BFC thoughtfully. With that trademark grin on his face he said, "Next?...I think it's time to renovate my Church." The door of the locker room opened and Tony Blackwell walked in with the Extreme title over his right shoulder. Vin E. jumped to his feet, enrages that this man would once again enter their domain without a by-your-leave.
"What the hell-" was all Vin got out before getting pounded into the floor with a powerful Jeigerbomb from the Extremist. Katrina jumped up to help her sometimes tag partner, trusting her stable to have her back when suddenly the ceiling and the floor violently switched places on her as Arcadia received an RKO from her mentor.
"Lesson Number Three: Manipulation." The Champion said in her ear, crouched next to her dazed form. He stood and turned his back on her to speak to his stable. "Welcome our newest member. Tony Blackwell, Extreme Champion. With all the titles in my stable, I am now, truly and completely, a WRESTLING G-D."
Katrina shook her head and got to her knees, crawling towards her betrayer. He turned and gave her a swift boot to the side. She land hard on her hip, her arms wrapped around her stomach in pain. Kenny turned back to his stable and continued with his 'I am G-d, heed my will!' rant. Arcadia saw Vin E. back out of the locker room. declaring his revenge on the fake messiah, slamming the door behind him. Kenny mumbled something about not needing a family and building a new one before he once again noticed Katrina trying to get up and come towards him. He stomped her in the small of her back, sending her sprawling again, and just for good measure, bounced her head off the concrete a few more times.
The sergeant leaned in close to her and the last thing she heard before the world faded to black was the Judas, Kenny Lambardo's voice saying, "You're not worthy of my COK anymore." She received one last big boot to the face and then blackness.
When she awoke, she found herself face-down on the mat of the ring, surrounded by the vacated arena seats. The contents of her locker had been unceremoniously deposited at her feet, along with one tattered and torn black and silver lucha mask. Katrina had grabbed her belongings and used them to cover her face, now exposed to the thankfully empty room. But who might have passed and seen her? To perfectly capture her ultimate humiliation, her former stable-mates had not only tossed her out on her hide, literally, but had possible ruined her honor by relieving her of her mask without anyone having had earned the right be fighting her for it.
She did what she could. She replaced her mask with another just like it (she had a few) and tried to carry on. But her body hurt, her pride hurt, and she was completely off of her game. It had become GAME OVER for Katrina "Arcadia" Olivetti and she knew it. She completely floundered in her last match, not having the motivation to get on camera or in the ring and try to trash-talk her way through a promo. She didn't have the drive to take home a win over her opponents in that Fatal Four-Way. She didn't even have the heart to make it look good for the APW faithful who were watching. No, she had well and truly hit the bottom.
After her defeat in the Second Chance match, Katrina realized she still had some lessons to learn. She found a new school to retrain at, The Blackwell Academy (after all, "the enemy of my enemy" and all that). She started again at the bottom, rebuilding herself as a stronger, tougher , and more resilient woman. Along the way she rediscovered her self-confidence with every 'job-well-done' she received, relearning why wrestling was her passion. She also learned that sometimes it takes longer to heal soul injuries than to heal physical ones. But she had pulled through, with goading and encouragement and tough love, thanks to her 'drill sergeants' Glove Guy, David Xavier Christensen, and Fallen Angel. And now it was time to come back.
So here she was, Katrina "Arcadia-No-Longer-The-Divine" Olivetti, standing in front of a bus terminal, about to board the vehicle which would take her on the last leg of her journey to California and APW once more. She was no longer Kenny's first student, the future of his wrestling school. She was no longer the naive girl from Mexico who spent too much time trying to make others proud of her. She was Katrina "Arcadia" Olivetti, trained by Jushin "Thunder" Liger, Rey Mysterio Sr, Sgt. Kenny Lambardo, and by the Blackwell Academy.
Katrina had learned the hard way that sometimes you shouldn't trust your instincts. Sometimes you have to stay down. But it had become time to stand up and fight once more. It had become time for Katrina to prove herself again. It was time for her to grab hold of that extra free life and take the controller back into her own hands. She was a force to be reckoned with, and it was time to show that to the wrestling world once and for all.
She stepped onto the Greyhound, finally looking forward to this journey's end and the next one's beginning, with a glint in her eye and a grim look of determination on her face. The Hardcor-a Luchadora was back.
