L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

At an hour like this, the park was only lit dimly by the faint reddish glow of street lights over a series of chain-link fences, with the only sounds being those of crickets chirping and the occasional car driving by somewhere in the distance. But that light was enough to illuminate Cecilia Lombard, one half of the Street Dogs, who leaned with her back against the fence, her foot up against it and her hands in her pockets. Her partner, Skylar Jones, stood just off to the side. Slowly, as the camera began to focus in, Cecilia lifted her head to look at it, her expression cold and stoic. As she took her hands out of her pockets to fold them over her chest, she began to speak.

Spoiler

"Hey. Let me tell you a little about what growing up was like for me. I don't think I've ever gone into it much, but I think it's about time I put the matter to rest once and for all. Just so you know what got me here."

"I never knew my father, except by what my mom told me about how he left the scene before I was born in some hospital the wrong side of Detroit. My mother had fallen on hard times, her apartment got foreclosed on, and she was left having to raise her child into a world where neither of them had any roof over their head. She had to get by couch-surfing and working for cheap just to make sure she could support me. I asked her, when she picked me up from school, how come I never had anything the other kids had. She just told me we had to focus on getting by for now, and to wait for some day, when it would all be better. But that some day never came."

Reaching into the pocket of her coat, Cecilia produced a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. She lit one of the cigarettes, twirling it in her fingers before placing it in her mouth and blowing a cloud of smoke toward the camera before she took it out again to continue.

"When I was 11," Cecilia said, letting out a sigh that left her shoulders slumping, "my mom fell ill to an infection that she could've gotten treated, but the hospital bills would've set her back to square one. She decided to try and last it out - and, in the end, the infection won. A lot of folks out there listening to this still have their parents in their lives, whether they like that or not - and I've gone more than half my life without them."

"They placed me in a city orphanage, where I kept to myself, for the most part. I was mostly just happy to know I'd be sleeping in the same bed every night - well, until I started getting bounced between foster homes, where I never managed to stay in one spot for long. Don't know if it was the anger issues that turned people away, or the fact I didn't want to talk to anyone. Maybe both. Hell if I care, though."

"Fact is, I didn't care what other people wanted out of me. I wasn't living my life to make anyone happy except for myself. I never got to have anything like happiness, or success, or a normal life as a kid. Everyone else out there had more than me to begin with, because that's just the way the dice landed. Why should I have to play things their way for their satisfaction? It was about time I got mine."

To the right of the camera stood Skylar, leaning against the fence, her right foot crossed over the other, thumbs sticking out of her jean pockets. The Brawling Puppet looked at the ground with a sneer, her eyes filled with bitterness and spite.

Spoiler

As Cecilia finished, Sky stepped forward, addressing the camera. "I grew up in a really ugly part of a really pretty town. Every house in my neighborhood belonged to the same dipshit landlord who charged too much to live in that shithole, but it was the only place me and my mom had to go."

"My mom was only sixteen when she had me. Didn't know who daddy was, so she had to take care a' me all on 'er own, even though she could hardly take care a' herself. She had to work three jobs to keep food on the table, and maybe on a good day, keep the lights on. But... that wasn't enough. The jobs didn't pay enough, so she had to start whoring around just to make a little more money. I remember when guys'd come over and I'd hear them from my bedroom. And every night after the guy left, I'd hear my mom crying in the other room..." She looked at the ground melancholically, letting out a sigh. She paused, before continuing.

"The neighborhood was shit." She started. "See, when most people hear the word neighbor, they think of a nice chubby guy with glasses who grills in his garden. When I hear the word neighbor I think of a fat guy in a filthy shirt who does coke and beats 'is wife. Onetime I was like ten, and I was riding my skateboard around. Two boys who were bigger than me decided to push me down and beat me up just for the hell of it. Thought it was real funny."

"Kids from places like us ain't s'posed to have futures." She scowled, her voice growing more tense. Eeeverybody told me I'd never be shit. They said I'd grow up to be a whore like my mom, or a drug dealer. Well look at me now, assholes!" She growled. "I don't think I'm too far outta line, to say that me, and this chick right here... She slung her arm over Cecilia's shoulder. "Are the toughest bitches this company's got!" She let go of Cecilia, stepping closer ro the camera. "I look at LAW's tag team division and I see a bunch of PANSY ASSES who don't know what it's like to lift their heads off the cement and keep on swinging, cause the only thing that can buy them a decent meal is in that motherfucker's wallet!

"We're the Street Dogs. We're hungry. We're angry. And we're gonna burn this company to the ground and raise our flag over it's ashes! And when all is said and done, we're gonna go down in history as the greatest damn tag team there ever was, and everyone, who said we'd amount to nothing will have to eat shit!"

And with that, the video faded to black...