RANKED 1st BY VOTERS IN CHARACTER CREATION CONTEST #74!
| Date | Paulette & Chaffin: | View | Read the... |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06/26/18 | The Death of Sun Tzu, Part 2 | (Blog) (Forum) | Disclaimer |
| Rating | Rating Explanation | Last Issue: |
|---|---|---|
| T | Murder. Mild cursing. Nothing gory. | Part 1 |
“Who else we got?” Mary asked her partner.
“The Doc... Real name Wayne Ronson.”
“The Doc, over there,” he said as he pointed a couple of rows away from the turnbuckle; about twenty feet from the body of Sun Tzu. “Real name Wayne Ronson.”
Mary couldn’t see the wrestler as a few people were gathered around him. As they walked over, she told her partner, “My nephew used to like Rulk Rogan when he first started.”
“Oh yeah? He was a Rulkaradical, huh?”
“Nah, he just liked comics. So he liked Rogan because he was called Rulk.”
“Ah,” said Gragg with a grin.
They gradually heard sobbing coming from the direction of the group. As the detectives reached them, Mary said, “Excuse me? I’m Detective Paulette. Is The Doc here?”
The small group parted to reveal a tall, muscular man who seemed to barely fit in the theater style seat. His face was covered by his hands, and he was crying aloud while a member of the POW medical staff wrapped his ankle in a bandage.
“Are you The Doc?” asked Mary.
“Doc’s in the training room. I’m Jimmy Chalmer."
“Nope. Just a medic,” replied the staff member. “Doc’s in the training room. I’m Jimmy Chalmer. How--” he stopped as he looked up at Mary. “Oh. You... you meant The Doc, didn’t you? It happens more often than you think. Why, there was this one time that--”
“Hey! Chalmer!” barked another wrestler. Chalmer looked at him, and the wrestler growled, “She gets it! Are you done?”
Chalmer looked at the wrestler nervously, then at The Doc’s ankle. Putting the clip in the bandage, he said, “Yeah, Cleve, that’ll do it. See the doc later, Doc. That is... y-you know what I... I’m going to go now,” and Chalmer grabbed his medical box and retreated up the aisle.
Looking back at the injured wrestler, Mary pushed her glasses up her nose, and said, “So you’re The Doc then?”
The man drug his hands down his face until his fingertips were just below his eyes, barely quieting to blubbering sobs as he looked at the detectives.
“You don’t recognize The Doc?” said Cleve rather gruffly. He wore his wrestling trunks, boots, and a leather jacket that wasn’t zipped up, exposing his bare chest.
“She’s not a fan,” said Gragg, sticking out his hand, “but I am.” The wrestler shook it firmly. “Mister Fraustin, I’m Detective Chaffin. Can you tell us what you saw here tonight?”
“Hell no, I can’t tell you!” barked Fraustin.
“Hell no, I can’t tell you!” barked Fraustin. “I was backstage!” Slapping The Doc on the shoulder, he said, “Time to dry it up, you pansy ass! Tell these folks what happened.”
The Doc looked up at Fraustin momentarily before his face completely dissolved into more crying and tears.
“Aw, come on, Wayne. I was only messin’ man. We’re all gonna miss Kung,” said the wrestler.
Wayne cried harder.
“Oh, for the luvva...” Going to one knee, Fraustin put one hand on the sobbing wrestler’s shoulder, and gently pulled The Doc’s hands away from his face with the other. “Wayne, hey. Come on, man. No one’s blaming you for this.”
Wayne took a few quick breaths, then said shakily, “J-just a few million fans! Did you hear the things they were yelling as they left?”
With true compassion in his eyes, Fraustin said, “Heat of the moment... It was fresh... Hell, fans are fickle, Doc. The truth comes out about how this happened? They’ll forgive you. You’ll see,” he said, shaking Wayne’s shoulder lightly. Doc calmed visibly, and Fraustin smiled and patted his cheek.
Doc sniffled a little bit, took a few deep breaths, then looked at Mary and Gragg. He bit his lip momentarily, and clearly trying to hold back more tears, he asked, “H-how can I help you, detectives?”
“We need to know what happened tonight,” answered Mary.
“We need to know what happened tonight,” answered Mary.
“Folks, we’re going to have to ask you to step away while we speak with The Doc,” said Gragg. As the people started up the aisle, he said, “Mister Fraustin, can I speak to you over here, please?”
Bone Cold turned back in surprise, then stepped a few rows down from The Doc, where Chaffin had indicated.
***
Up with The Doc, Mary listened to his version of the events. “It was a Round-the-Ring match,” he said quietly, no longer crying, but his voice still shaking from the adrenaline of it. “Th-that’s our term for it behind the scenes. It means the match is going to spill out of the ring into the walkspace around the ring. We bounce each other off the outside of the turnbuckles, the edge of the ring, and even off the steel stairs.”
“That’s how Sun Tzu wound up at the stairs?” asked Mary.
“Sun Tzu- h-he... he wasn’t supposed to get up.”
“Y-yeah,” The Doc said, looking at the body a few rows below. “I’d bounced his head off the stairs... choreographed, of course,” he said. Then I went in for the back stomp. You know- bring the foot down on him, but mostly stomp the mat- or the floor in this case- to make it sound bigger. It’s a precision move- it has to be timed right.” The Doc squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, then shook his head sadly. “Sun Tzu- h-he... he wasn’t supposed to get up.”
“I’m sorry?” asked Mary.
***
Looking at a replay of the match on a cellphone with Detective Chaffin, Bone Cold said, “Ah, man. Why’d he get up?”
“He was supposed to stay down?” asked Chaffin.
“Wayne was doing the Take Two Stomp.”
“Wayne was doing the Take Two Stomp,” said Fraustin. “That’s a precise move. Ronson has to make contact with his back, but bring most of the weight down on the floor at the last second. Sun flops like a fish to make the contact look brutal. Doc’s going to do it twice though, because--”
“--Because ‘Take TWO’--”
“--Yeah, I heard your impersonation earlier- not bad- but yeah, because of that. Sun tried to get up after the first one though. That would’ve messed Doc up, and more of his weight would come down on Sun’s back. We’re fit and strong and all, but a blow to the back like that can still break it. Sun Tzu didn’t have a chance.”
“Could The Doc have stopped it?” asked Chaffin.
“It’s fake, but it’s still athletic,” answered Fraustin, “which means adrenaline and all that. Plus, we have to put on a show- we’re thinking about a lot when we’re mid-match. Kung wasn’t supposed to get up, so Wayne wasn’t expecting him to. I don’t see how he could have seen it in time to stop himself mid-stomp.”
“Is that how he hurt his ankle?”
"He’ll probably have to take a beatin’ from some of the guys though.”
“Yeah, it’s easy to sprain an ankle if you make contact sooner than you’re expecting to,” said Bone Cold. “That’s going to put him out of action for awhile. I’m sure they’ll write him some backstage story while he recovers though. He’ll probably have to take a beatin’ from some of the guys though.”
Chaffin looked at him curiously.
“You’re a fan- you know how it is,” said Fraustin. “It’s As the Ring Turns backstage. That soap opera crap gives the matches some context.” Smiling foolishly, he waves his fingers in front of him, and says, “It’s all smoke and mirrors, my friend.”
Chaffin chuckled.
It was Cleve’s turn to look curious. “What?”
“It’s just weird, man,” answered Gragg, shaking his head. “You on TV, and you in real life seems completely different.”
"Who the hell walks around calling themselves ‘Bone Cold,’ y’know?"
Fraustin scoffed. “We’re playin’ characters, man. Who the hell walks around calling themselves ‘Bone Cold,’ y’know? But it sounds better than just ‘Cleve Fraustin.’ Like I said, smoke and mirrors.”
“Yeah, about that- ‘Cleve?’“
He laughed. “Short for ‘Cleveland,’ where I was born. Gotta represent,” he said, pounding his chest twice, then winking at the detective.
| Next Issue: The Death of Sun Tzu, Part 3. | - |
| 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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