It had been about thirty minutes since the two sharply dressed cronies of a mysterious Miss Chase whisked away Avery Martin Alden and his wife Isabelle from the large, mostly empty main room of an abandoned warehouse in a less than stellar part of Detroit and brought them to a large office building in the heart of town. Thirty minutes of awkward silence as the pair found themselves in a lavishly decorated office, which just so happened to overlook a city almost literally drowning in debt. However, after what had felt like an eternity to both parties, the door leading into the office swung open, and in stepped none other than XWF PR Specialist extraordinaire - Coraline Chase.


"Avery and Isabelle Alden, I presume?"

Avery nods and smiles at the approaching woman of the hour, while Isabelle looks up from the floor with eyes wide and recoils slightly at the sight of the woman, half expecting her to turn into some hideous she-beast at the drop of a hat. Coraline laughs and offers her hand to Avery, who accepts it. Predictably, when she does the same to Isabelle, she shakes her head and sticks her hands in her pockets. Rolling her eyes, Coraline shoos the two mooks out of the office and gestures for the pair to take a seat on the burgundy sofa behind them, which both do with varying levels of reluctance. After a few seconds of even more awkward silence and prolonged eye contact by the two women in the room, Coraline walks over to the left side of the couch and takes a seat on the arm, beside Avery. Flashing a reassuring smile at the increasingly jealous wife, she turns her attention to Avery.

"Avery Martin Alden. You'll have to forgive me, I'm a little surprised to have you here in my office."

"Hmm?" Avery offers as he tries to come up with the right words for the situation. "I don't quite understand. Why is that?"

"Don't play stupid. I remember a few months back, we were scheduled to have a meeting alongside those wacky censorship freaks regarding marketing said censorship movement, and oddly enough not a single one of you had decided to show up. Now, I'm sure there's good reason for that, there always seems to be, but forgive me if I was a little skeptical over whether or not this meet would turn out the same way."

"Hence the escorts?"

"Correct! You do catch on fast, don't you? I had thought of that one about a week ago, when I had to call in security to wake up and subsequently remove the menace in out of season fashion who disguised herself as a secretary and was assigned to me. Norma. I'm sure you saw the little witch on the way in. Anyway, she had fallen asleep in the filing room, again, and wouldn't wake up no matter how hard I kicked her in the ribs. Of course I wasn't lucky enough for her to be dead so I called security to escort her back to her desk and thought about all the other ways they could be used. Thus, they came and collected you. Rather effective, if I do say so myself."

She smiles as she lays one hand on Avery's leg, which garners more than a little bit of ire from Isabelle, whose demeanor went from anxious to annoyed in under a half second if that. Coraline flashes a snide smile at the woman sitting just a few inches away from her, almost daring her to do anything about it. A line that doesn't get crossed as Isabelle sits on her hands.

"Speaking of the escorts, how were they? They weren't too rough on you two, huh?"

"I think the girl had Ebola," Isabelle interjects, speaking flatly without keeping eye contact with Miss Chase, instead looking at the gray wall behind her.

"I can assure you, she didn't. In any case, I can't help but feel we should be getting to the point of this meeting."

"Let's," Avery says with a hint of glee, hoping that keeping focused on business would quell the constant tension flowing through the room or at the very least, bring it down to a manageable level as opposed to the way things were right now, which felt to him like being stuck in a gas leak where the slightest spark would cause a massive explosion.

Both Coraline and Avery look over at Isabelle who shrugs and slowly nods her head, a baffled look on her face.

"Very well, let's get on with it. I must say, you've made quite an impact in such a short time, Avery. What with standing your ground against the likes of Mastermind and Jack when some others would cower, tuck their tails inbetween their legs and run off but at the same time I worry about how much of that is actually about you in particular. As opposed to that attention falling squarely on the shoulders of the people you're facing. Take Mastermind for instance, he surprisingly has a large fanbase despite his lack of talent. And Jack, who conveniently enough would have a huge following in Detroit, if we cared about marketing to the homeless."

"So, you're worried I don't have the sheer force of personality to command attention?"

"In a nutshell, yes. I've caught a couple of your promos while preparing for this meeting and I have to say; there's very little about the type of person you are."

"I figured that much was irrelevant."

"You figured wrong. If no one knows you, no one cares about you and believe me, you aren't interesting enough to pull of the mysterious shitck so please, portray yourself a little bit more. You seem a decent enough person, so getting people to like you shouldn't be hard."

"That's why you're stroking his leg?"

Coraline looks down and laughs, which causes Isabelle to roll her eyes in disgust.

"Could very well be."

"Anyway, now you've piqued my curiosity Miss Chase. Is there anything else you want to recommend or is that it?"

"Two things. Don't be a bust. I don't think I have to show you data about how many potential stars who lose their first match never recover fully. Second, don't flake out again. I know your history of rash decisions, Avery. Hurried departures. Don't do that here, again, or I will drag you back into this office by the scruff of your neck. I see something in you Avery--"

"That much is obvious," Isabelle utters in disgust.

"Don't make a fool out of me. Furthermore, switch it up a bit. You can't just film yourself behind a black backdrop every time. That's how people start to see you as stagnant and lose interest. Keep it fresh."

"Is that all?"

"For right now? Yes. However, should you prove to be as much of a success as I believe you can be, I imagine there'll be a lot more meetings in your future."

"Great."

Coraline finally takes her hand off Avery's leg and stands up, walking over to her desk. Isabelle shoots right out of her seat and takes off for the door, ready to get some fresh air and much needed distance from the cause of her sudden increase in blood pressure. Avery meanwhile gets up at a turtle's pace in comparison and doesn't even make it halfway to the exit before Coraline offers one last quip for him to remember her by.

"I've heard so much about you. Don't disappoint me, Mr. Schuyler."

Avery freezes in place for a moment, half caught up in wanting an answer to how she knew that name and half wanting to get out as fast as possible. As he stands in that one spot, unmoving, unblinking, and even unbreathing, the former desire begins to win out in the mental war going inside his skull. He slowly and shakily turns on one heel over to the beaming Miss Chase and as he begins to open his mouth, she cuts him off by leaving her desk and walking over to him.

"No need to worry," she says as she approaches him and grabs his hand, looking around to make sure the wife couldn't see. "Your secret's safe with me."

A promise signed with a kiss.

As she breaks away from Avery, he finds himself on weak knees. Shaking his head to knock himself out of whatever trance came over him, which to be honest with the shock of the last fifteen seconds, finding the exact cause would be like finding a platinum needle in a stack of silver ones, he turns and makes his way out of the office, to find Isabelle waiting outside.

"Well sheesh. I have to wonder if she does to everyone because that woman is a walking sexual harassment suit. I felt like she was sizing me up in there and I wasn't the one being groped!"

"Yeah, she's definitely an interesting case, I'll give her that much."

"Interesting's not the word I'd use."

"I presume most words you'd use wouldn't be suitable for television?"

"Only a couple. Can we get out of here?"

"With pleasure."

And with that, the pair makes their way out of the building, and the more distance they put between themselves and the office, the lighter the weight weighing down on both of their shoulders becomes, for two totally different reasons. For Isabelle; she was no longer in the same room with someone she assumed was a sexual predator and for Avery; he was no longer in the same building as someone who connected the surname Schuyler with him. However, there was a thought nagging away at the furthest corner of his mind.

How did she know?

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I'd like to just record a voice over right now, as opposed to filming a video response if that is very much okay. Let's have a chat, Jack. First off, thank you for the apology. With the level of egotism displayed by most in this federation from what I've seen, anyone with enough humility to admit their own mistakes is a breath of fresh air. However, there was more to what you said and those things, I don't feel I can just excuse, in any capacity. At least not without a response of my own, though if you've listened this far I'm sure you caught onto that.

This isn't a personal affair? Good, I had hoped not to make personal enemies. Only professional ones, seeing as though this business is based on the foundation of battering your opponent to the point wherein they can't muster up the strength to force a shoulder off a mat before the count of three. Yes, there are other ways to achieve victory, but all of them require a sufficient amount of violence and there's no way you can use such force without creating an enemy of some sort. Be it professional or personal. However, I'm going off on a tangent now.

Allow me to get back on track.

Lack of combat training? In the realm of wrestling, yes. In realm of combat? No. However, that's hardly a mistake considering that I haven't been exactly forthright about my history so I'll let that one slide. Though I do have to wonder about the comment regarding hiding behind my books? A shot at my way of speaking, playing the psychological game of one upsmanship? If so, okay then. I hardly see how an ability to speak is indicative of a lack of ability to defend myself physically but if that's what you believe, I'll really only be able to make you believe that once we face off in the ring, though you've gone on to make claims about that as well. I'll get to that however.

What about my age? Yes, I'm older than most, however you really don't tell me why that's a disadvantage. So, why don't you tell me why that is? Why don't you elaborate on this thought instead of asking a rhetorical question as if it in any way makes a valid shot.

Yes, I am new to the world of professional wrestling. I believe I've made that clear enough. Though you're wrong on one account. 'Being in a ring where you fight men that could legitimately kill you'? Wrong. Give or take the ring part, but this isn't the first time I've stared down adversaries with both the physical and psychological capacities to take my life. I'll leave it up to your imagination to conjure up whatever you want about how I've experienced that before. That's what all this is about, right? Intimidation? Scaring me right out of here with the threat of grievous bodily harm and death? Death doesn't scare me, Jack. It really, really doesn't.

I think my therapist knows that too, or else he wouldn't have urged me towards this profession, and as the days pass I'm beginning to see more and more, that he was absolutely right.

I am going to like this a hell of a lot more than accounting.