San Antonio Airport
Some time before War Games

Saturday Night Savage had come and gone, and it was one more notch in the Dub column for the Vaughnemous One. Leading up to that particular hard-fought match, Angelica had made it crystal clear to herself that it was paramount she gained some momentum heading into War Games. And it hadn’t been easy, but her victory over Savannah and The Celt had given her exactly that. War Games was next, and she had been looking very much forward to it. For weeks and weeks, she’d had the event in her sights; from wanting to raise her draft stock, to eventually getting (in her opinion) underdrafted (to Jenny’s benefit), and doing all she could to head into the event as the strongest link in its chain.

However, there was no way in blimey heck that they were going to be able to just rock up to Switzerland and expect to take the cake, so to speak. Even an NFL team full of world class athletes needed training camp to be competitive, and it was no different for the Meat Clowns.

As Angelica walked through the terminal, her many, many suitcases and bags dragging behind her, she grinned at the name. She wasn’t sure if she liked it at first, but AXLY… clowns were her favorite part of the circus. Slipping on a banana peel? Totes hilares. Water squirting from a front pocket flower? Abs genes. And of course, one of her fondest childhood memories had been that one time a circus clown had made her a balloon animal. Well, it wasn’t so much a balloon animal as it had been a balloon crucifix, and it hadn’t really been a circus but the Canadian equivalent of Jesus Camp, but it was a memory she thought back on fondly, nevertheless.

As soon as Angelica was checked in and ready to board, she picked up her phone. She glanced at the message she had received not too long ago.

Quote:mEaT cLoWnS uNiTe! BiG aPpLe MeEtUp! MoRe DeEtS sOoN. bRiNg YoUr A gAmE i LoVe GaMeS!!!

Her smartphone dinged with a notification. Twitter this time. It was Jenny.

Quote:

@Angie_VaughnBMR I ADORE games!

— Jennifer Sambuca AKA Jenny Myst (@BrokenMyst) July 22, 2022

”Yessss, Jenny, I knoooooow! Everybody knows, trust me!”

It wasn’t the craziest text OR tweet she’d ever gotten from Jenny since she had rather reluctantly given her her phone number, but it was clear enough, in spite of Jenny’s weird insistence to alternate between normal letters and capital letters for some reason. Angelica didn’t know why, and she was pretty sure Jenny didn’t, either. And it’s not like she did it in every text either. It was all so… random.

Nevertheless, Angelica was looking forward to the meetup, especially with Raion. The Lion Kid had been good to her, and gracious in victory. However, with two other characters involved that had proven they could be… volatile to say the least… Angelica was grateful that she had four relaxing hours ahead. Four hours of careless flight, with nothing but soothing white noise and a young adult novel about a quarterback and a cheerleader falling in love with each other.

She was in a particularly good mood as she got on the plane. Her seat was near the back, which she liked, as it had less traffic in the aisles during the flight. However, her hopes of a calm and relaxing flight were soon dashed, as she saw a familiar face staring in front of her, as emotionless as a dormant demon door.

”Noes! Oh heck no, what is *SHE* doing here???”

Jenny Myst was already on the flight, which had apparently connected here from Vegas. Her title belt was sitting in the window seat, and Jenny had taken up the middle one. The aisle seat was free, which was probably for the best.

Angelica felt a bit bad about reacting the way she did. On one hand, she wanted to go over there and try and make nice with her team captain, but she had been soooo looking forward to reading her novel and having a few careless hours. And she knew that as soon as Jenny caught wind of her, those hopes would be thrown out the window. Maybe even literally, you never knew with her. Was that selfish of her? Maybe Jenny wouldn’t act quite so crazy all the time if she got the impression that there were people who genuinely cared for and about her. But for now, at least, Angelica couldn’t find the energy to absorb Jenny’s brand of crazy for four to five hours. She leaned back, hoping she wouldn’t be spotted and grabbed her novel as the plane departed for takeoff.

As soon as they got in the air, Angelica started reading, but she could barely even get to page ten before catching herself constantly throwing up wary looks. On one hand, she really wanted to find out how on EARTH the arrogant quarterback would EVER change his rude and arrogant behavior to win over the nerdy girl he secretly had a crush on, but she just couldn’t get into the story for now; much to her own surprise. And what made it all even worse, was Angelica’s realisation that…

”Oh noes… I really have to tinkle…”

Unfortunately, the way towards the plane’s toilet led right past Jenny Myst, and she did NOT want to have to go through all of that… Not yet anyway, they were barely an hour into a 5-hour flight, and she needed her fictional romance fix before going into an event that literally had ‘War’ in its name. Maybe… some sort of clever disguise was in order?

Angelica started rummaging through her hand luggage. A few more YA novels, her Nintendo Switch case, some emergency makeup, the latest issues of Vanity Fair and Elle magazine, an inflatable neck pillow, a hairbrush, a handwritten letter by Sarah ‘only to be opened in case of emergencies of dynastical importance’, some magnetic miniaturized versions of board games, and… BINGO! No, not a magnetic miniaturized version of Bingo, because how would that even work when you need balls to drop, but exactly what she was looking for.

”Hello, my beauties!”

She retrieved some (admittedly oversized) sunglasses and a scarf. This was exactly what they did in those Hollywood spy movies, so there was absolutely no reason why it wouldn’t work for Angelica… right? She bound her hair into a ponytail, wrapped the scarf around her neck and mouth, put on her sunglasses and stealthily, sneakily tried to make her way towards the bathroom.

What Angelica hadn’t anticipated however, was the attention a poorly disguised, rather tall woman of some renown would bring by slowly walking down the aisle of a plane whilst nearly in a full crouch. As the murmurs around her grew, Angelica kept shushing them to keep their voices down. That didn’t really help matters of course, and people started to take out their smartphones.

”No filming please, I’m just trying to get to the bathroom, I really need to pee!”

She said it in a hushed voice, but one that was easily louder than a normal speaking tone. She had, by now, gathered the attention of half the plane, and she was only yards removed from the bathroom, but Jenny was near… very near. However, she seemed lost in thought. Angelica was waiting for her to look the other way, out of the window or at her TV title.

“Miss Vaughn, is everything… okay?” a cabin crew member asked, doing her duty to ensure safety and normalcy on the flight. Angelica squeezed her eyes shut, her stealthy mission failed. And this wasn’t a video game. There were no do-overs.

She stood up, and tried to do the next best thing: run towards your target.

”SORRYGOTTATINKLE! REALLY… REALLY BAD!!!!!”

She prepared for a dash, but as she reached for the bathroom door, she suddenly felt a hard yank on her ponytail that pulled her back instantly. She could feel the roots of her hair almost being ripped from her scalp. It hurt tremendously.

”OWIE!”

She turned around and stared right in the beaming face of Jenny Myst, who was holding onto a handful of her hair. Her captain’s face was locked into an open-mouth grin, almost as if she was doing a mute giggle. She twirled the tail around her wrist and pulled Angelica closer and closer.

”OW Jenny, stop it, what are you doing? That hurts!”

But Jenny kept on twirling, pulling her closer and closer, until she eventually forced Angelica into the seat next to her.

”Jenny, let go, this isn’t a game!”

Suddenly, Jenny’s toothy grin disappeared and she let go of Angelica’s hair. Angelica made a mental note to make more use of that phrase in the future. After all, Jenny ADORED games. Making sure that whatever she was doing didn’t fall into that category seemed to work rather well.

”Thank you ever so much! Now, sers Jen, I’d love to stop and chat, but I REAAAAALLLY need to use the bathroom sooo….”

Angelica wanted to get up, but…

*DING*

The ‘fasten seatbelt’ light came to life.”

”Oh come on!”

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your Captain speaking, we’ll be experiencing some heavy turbulence in a bit, so please remain seated and fasten your seatbelt for as long as the sign dictates. Thank you.”

”Juuuuust… great!”

Angie put the seatbelt on. She noticed Jenny wasn’t doing the same however, so she reached over and did it for her. Better than the cabin crew coming to start an argument that couldn’t be won.

The turbulence kicked in soon and it was NOT helping Angelica NOT go… As the plane cabin started to shake like a theme park ride, often dropping several dozen feet almost instantaneously, Angelica’s knuckles whitened as she held on to her arm rests for dear life, whilst clenching her legs together even dearer. She hunched over, staring at the cabin floor, hoping this nightmare would end soon and she could breathe again without feeling excruciating knife stabs in her bladder region.

Jenny, who seemed unperturbed by the turbulence, tapped Angelica on the shoulder, before handing her a note.

”Really? NOW!!? Seriously?”

Angelica unclenched one hand and carefully opened the note. It merely said:

Quote: “HI ANGIE! *GIGGLE*”

”Um, hi? I’m sorry, now is NOT the best time!! Also, who let you bring a pencil on board? And why did you write ‘giggle’ in full?”

Rather than an actual answer, Jenny took the note back and scribbled something on the back.

Quote:”AREN’T YOU GOING TO SAY HI TO GOLDI TOO? IT’S RUDE TO IGNORE PEOPLE!

”Goldi? Wh-?”

And she noticed the golden belt next to her team captain.

”Oh, THAT Goldi?”

Jenny was obviously crazier than the one who flew over the cuckoo’s nest, but she was going to entertain her. They were going to have to work together after all. She’d dealt with a fair few brands of crazy over the years, she could handle this one.

She leaned over Jenny, and aimed her words at the inanimate object.

”Why hello there, miss Goldi ma’am, how are you AND OW EM GEE IS THAT AN EAR???”

Even in the turbulent cabin, that particular phrase drew quite a bit of attention. Angelica recoiled and straightened herself back into her seat. She hissed at Jenny through her teeth, disgusted by what she’d just seen. She couldn’t quite believe it.

”Are you AXLY CRAXY?? How’d you even get that on here, and why are you just putting it next to your title like that?? You’re gonna get us BOTH into trouble! What if the air marshal sees it?? I’ve NEVER been arrested, not once! If you REALLY wanna play games, I have chess, Connect 4, checkers and sudoku!”

That seemed to dampen Jenny’s spirits considerably. Those weren’t the games she was looking for… As the plane eventually calmed down, the seatbelt signed turned off and Angelica leapt out of her chair like a jane-in-the-box, making it just in time.

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”Hi-hiiii, all of my #Cool-as-flame Vaughnemites and Vaughnstars! It’s here, it’s finally here! We’re on the way to WAR GAMES, and I couldn’t be more excited. Getting to team with the Lion Kid for the first team is sure to be exciting, and Jenny and Elijah are purrrdy intredasting characters, to say the leastest! I’m totes going to do my very best to make it to the final and help us win it all, because winning War Games is one of those things that looks good on a resume, and then some!

But sers, like, everybody in this business wants to make a name for themselves. There are many ways of doing that: winning a lot of matches, winning a lot of titles, and the most obvs of them all: winning flagship events. And War Games is one of the #Coolest ones of them all!

It’s such a great opportunity to finally show everybody what I’m really made of. The tired ‘Lacklan-light’ rhetoric and jokes and gibberjabs have been bled dry by now, I would hope… Although I’m certain it will continue to be one of the go-to low hanging fruit targets that the uninspired and uninformed will continue to reach for. But I’m more than that. I’m not just a good wrestler in my own right, I am the best at what any team needs: I am a team player. I am concerned with only one thing: getting the entire team through to the final, and that is what makes me such a valuable asset that every team that let me slide will come to regret it! You could say I have a bit of a Pringles can on my shoulder as a result of that… But that’s fine. Our opponents can underestimate me at their own peril.

After all, I’ve beaten Ned before even though he wasn’t exactly himself at the time. He was a whole bunch of everything, but also nothing. I know I can expect a better version of you… the best one. Strengthened by a team of allies that you got to handpick. You’ll be dangerous, but I’ve felt the weight of your punches, the blows of your kicks… They’re remarkable, but nothing I can’t handle. Again.

As for the resident hobo Jason Cashe, yiu’ve been on quite a roll. Runner-up to my sister’s PP tourney isn’t… bad. It’s also not… great. Which I guess is a pretty accurate way to describe you. Now usually I don’t say this often, but I think I can beat you with my eyes closed. The weed smell coming off of you is so strong I can detect your movements with just my nose! I don’t judge people ‘partaking’, but sheesh, mister… Once you make something your whole personality, it’s hard not to frown. Imagine if I only talked about cats all the time! I don’t do that, do I?

…do I?

N-E-Ways, just saying, I don’t think it’s what Marie Juana had in mind when she wanted to prepare for her dances.

And Ringmaster, well… He’s been okay-ish but hasn’t really been at his best when the chips were down, has he? And this is a massive chip. A chip so big you could drop it in the ocean and float on it and never die of hunger when crossing the atlantic. So don’t color me too impressed

Mac Bane’s kinda cool, but not #Cool if you catch my drift. I like the Cowboy thing. After all, I AM from Texas these days. Cowboys are like the Highlanders, except they had cows and horses instead of sheep and border collies. Thing is, I beat a Highlander last week, and The Celt had me a lot more worried than you have.

Keep an eye out for the Meat Clowns, Vaughnstars! We’re gonna be #Vaughnemous!”

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Jenny was tapping her foot with her arms crossed, waiting for Angelica. Elijah was going to collect them to take them to their meetup place where they’d catch up with Raion. Jenny had no luggage for some reason, other than Goldi, while Angelica was waiting for the fifth of her seven bags. So. Many. Bags. The flight had been a small disaster, but now that she had boots on Terra Firma, Angelica felt her cheery side return.

She turned to Jenny.

”You know something, Jen? I don’t know what to expect from here on out, but I think it’ll all work out quite well. It’s gonna be just peachy!”

-fin-