RANKED 1st BY VOTERS IN CHARACTER CREATION CONTEST #74!
Date | Paulette & Chaffin: | View | Read the... |
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06/26/18 | The Death of Sun Tzu, Part 1 (of 3) | (Blog) (Forum) | Disclaimer |
Rating | Rating Explanation |
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T | Murder. Mild cursing. Nothing gory. |
The stadium was all but empty now, but an hour before, it had been chaos. The glorious, fan-filled chaos of the Planet of Wrestling- POW to its fans. Now however, it was the scene of a homicide. Officers had cordoned off the area around the ring, and cleared out any stragglers. CSI was attending to the scene around their victim, and coroners were standing by for the okay to take the body. Ringside, two detectives were just arriving to talk to POW president “Dowdy” Dotty Viper, dressed in her trademark plaid suit with checkered blouse.
“Ms. Viper, I’m Detective Paulette. This is my partner Detective Chaffin."
“Ms. Viper, I’m Detective Paulette. This is my partner Detective Chaffin. Can you tell us what happened to...” she hesitated as she looked at her pad.
“Sun Tzu,” Ms. Viper finished for her.
Paulette raised her eyebrows as she looked up from her pad.
“You know... ‘The Artist of War?’ He’s been our biggest hit since last season.” She looked at the detective with confusion; baffled that she hadn’t heard of the star.
“Uh, Mary,” said Chaffin. “Sun Tzu came on the scene last year. He spent the entire season systematically dismantling every wrestler the POW had. There wasn’t a single signature move he couldn’t counter.”
Dotty smiled. “Oh. You’re a fan, Detective Chaffin?”
Mary looked at her partner dubiously.
"He was the world heavyweight champ.”
Chaffin shrugged. “It passes the time. Anyway, it drove fans nuts- some loved it, some hated it- but he took it all the way to the title. He was the world heavyweight champ.”
“Was?” asked Mary.
“Well, the former champ, ‘Bone Cold’ Cleve Fraustin, didn’t like the change,” Dotty sighed. “He signed a contract just like everyone else though,” she added hurriedly. “The signature moves were getting stale with the fans,” she said. “Sun Tzu was scripted to beat them all so that we could come up with something else for this season. Bone Cold and The Doc beat us to it though.”
“The Doc?” prodded Mary.
“My,” said Dotty with real dismay. “You’re really not a fan, are you Ms. Paulette?”
“Detective Paulette,” Mary corrected, “and no. Do you know how many bar fights I’ve had to break up over Rebel ‘Restler wannabes?”
“Ah. The Rebel ‘Restler. That takes me back.”
Dotty closed her eyes and smiled. “Ah. The Rebel ‘Restler. That takes me back,” she said wistfully.
“The Doc?” Mary said again.
“It was great,” chuckled Chaffin.
“Gragg,” snapped Mary. Chaffin looked at her questioningly, and she said, “Do you mind letting Ms. Viper tell it?”
“Oh, please. Call me Dotty,” she said with a wave. “Cleve waited until the Monday Live Lockdown, and went off script. He came down to the ring unannounced, and challenged Sun Tzu to a Battle for the Belt. We were live, so we had to roll with it. Bone Cold was relentless. He fought like he had never fought before, and he was more than holding his own. The Doc ran out from backstage though, jumped in the ring, and they brutalized Sun Tzu- nearly put him in the hospital.” She nodded at her story to emphasize the severity of it.
“Take TWO, and calllll me in the morninnnn’!”
“Yeah, The Doc finished it off with a double-haymaker,” said Chaffin. “Then he grabbed a mic, stood over Sun Tzu, and waving a fist in the air, yelled,” imitating the wrestler, “Take TWO, and calllll me in the morninnnn’!”
Dotty smiled at the detective’s passable impression. Mary silenced her partner with a look, turned back to Dotty, and waited.
“They used all new moves,” she shrugged, “and that’s what we were going for this season, so we let it slide.” Mary looked incredulous, but Dotty assured her, “It’s in their contracts, sweetheart. Adrenaline gets going, you can never be sure of anything, so these guys have to waive their rights to sue POW or their fellow wrestlers. That’s why grudges get settled in the ring so often.
“Anyway, the Sun Tzu story was always meant to be a two-season rise-and-fall. He comes out of nowhere the first year, dominates the ring, defeating all the moves, and wins the belt at the end of the season. This season, he comes back, and gets a bunch of comeback bouts.”
Mary rolled her eyes. “Just to clarify- ‘comeback bouts?’“ she asked.
“Sun Tzu looks like he’s winning the first half of the match..."
“Sun Tzu looks like he’s winning the first half of the match. Same reason as always- he knows their moves. The second half, his opponent throws a move of another wrestler. Sun’s not expecting that, falters, and they fight a little more. Then they unveil new moves. Sun doesn’t know what to do with it, and they wipe the mat with him.” When Mary said nothing, Dotty added nervously, “The fans have really been eating it up. The new moves were just what we needed to put some life back into the POW.”
Looking back to the body of the wrestler, Mary said, “Well, not for everyone.”
“Yeah,” said Dotty, disheartened. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this.” She shook her head as she bit on a long fingernail.
Turning back to the Planet’s president, Mary said, “What is Sun Tzu’s real name?”
“Oh. Kung Pao,” said Dotty.
Mary took a deep breath, and twisted her neck to one side until it popped.
“Uh, Ms. Viper,” started Chaffin.
“Dotty.”
“Dotty,” he repeated with a strained smile. “We need his real name.”
“Since ‘P.O.W.’ is also known as ‘Pow,’ Kung Pao as the rising star played very well with them.”
“That is his real name,” she said assuredly. “He had to change it legally as part of his contract. He thought it would be funny if this ‘master of war’ was a ‘chicken’ in his ‘real’ life. I tried to convince him to go with General Tso- more in keeping with the war theme- but he thought Kung Pao was funnier. We were paying him a lot of money to be a two-season throwaway, so I figured I’d give him that. It was a good move too,” she said, nodding. “Since ‘P.O.W.’ is also known as ‘Pow,’ Kung Pao as the rising star played very well with them.” She smiled, clearly pleased at the unintentional boon to the company. “And an Asian champ?” she asked. “Just the shot of diversity we needed in these times.” She nodded again.
Mary blinked at her a few times, and then turned her neck in the other direction until it popped again.
“Ms... Dotty,” said Chaffin. “Here’s my card. Call us if you think of anything else. We may be in touch with you again.”
“I can go?” Dotty asked.
“Don’t leave the arena,” said Mary, “but we have to tend to some other things here at the moment.”
“Oh. Okay,” Dotty said agreeably. “Thank you, detectives. I’ll have my assistant bring you one of my cards,” she added, and walked towards the backstage area to go to her office.
They were just about to turn towards the body when a man stood up a couple of rows back from the ring. “Excuse me, detectives,” he said leaning over the row in front of him, holding out a card. Mary leaned over the front row to take it from him. “I’m Dayton Thyme, the assistant Dotty just went to look for. Here’s her card in case you need to reach her.”
Mary nodded.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’ve really got to go catch her. She’s more upset than she’s letting on.” He smiled politely, then hurried down the row and to the aisle, rushing after his boss.
“You really don’t like wrestling, do you?”
Both watching him hurry away, Gragg said, “You really don’t like wrestling, do you?”
“It’s not that,” she said, jutting her jaw a little bit.
“Then what is it?” he asked.
Pointing a finger in the direction Dotty had gone in, she groused, “She called me ’sweetheart.’“
Gragg couldn’t completely stifle his chuckle. Mary punched him in the arm, and stuffed the business card in his shirt pocket.
Next Issue: The Death of Sun Tzu, Part 2. | - |
Please let me know what you think, and thanks! -cb | Originally Presented In: CCC #74. |
Story and characters owned by Chris Bishop, copyright 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022.
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