Femme Furies (Selene/Fade): Get Out

Selene stares at her new phone, a used Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. She scrolls up and down her Youtube app, looking at the suggested videos she can look at thanks to her beloved algorithm. She isn’t impressed. Things have been slow going between Selene and Fade over the last few weeks or so. Daiichi has been forcing them to work out daily in large part because they hadn’t found a place to live and he was letting them sleep on his floor in his upstairs apartment above his dojo. He said the seven miles he made them run at 4AM every morning, followed by cooking breakfast for themselves, Daiichi, and Daiichi’s closest friend Keiji who manned the dojo alongside him, followed by two solid hours of drills until lunchtime. Any guesses on what they had to do at lunchtime? That’s right, prepare food for the four of them yet again. Same for dinner and any snacks. It was their job to clean the toilets, keep the mats clean, and otherwise make sure the whole dojo and apartment were as spotless as they could make it. There was something in there that felt sexist until they were assured all the students get stuck on what Daiichi lovingly called “booty duty” when they first arrive. She thinks about the really stupid name when she gets a little bell sound on her phone.

“Lucia, I have a notification.” she says, almost offhandedly.

Fade, who is in the ring opposite Selene and is also on her phone, casually holds her phone up to show Selene she also received a notification, albeit without looking up to her tag team partner.

“We’ve been gettin’ our asses kicked for weeks in this dojo, but it looks like PRIME wants us to do something in the ring,” Fade begins scrolling down the information on her phone, “Oh hey okay, yeah we’re booked!”

Selene stares at her phone as it takes its sweet, sweet time loading.

“My phone is still loading.” Selene says with a hint of resignation that she should have paid for a better phone with her magical bank account that has 240 dollars in it.

Fade finally glances up from her phone screen, which has already loaded because she’s not the kind of girl to be caught with a past gen device. It’s obvious they’ll miss the show if they wait for Selene’s phone to load. “We’re fightin’ Tony Gamble and Bobby Dean.”

Selene looks up from her phone and smiles, “Like the cook? The son of Paula Deen?”

“I get the feeling this guy probably heard that one before, Leen.”

“GIRLS!”

Fade and Selene turn their attention to Daiichi, who is dressed very professionally in a white tank top and black track pants. No shoes because fuck footwear. Beside him is his longtime friend turned foe turned friend again, Keiji Tokugawa. Keiji is dressed much better than Daiichi is, wearing a polo with their dojo’s name stitched into the left breast.

“Pack your shit,” Daiichi says as he marches to the ring, “It’s time you got the fuck out of this dojo and my house.”

“And go where?!” Fade stands up, already aggravated.

“We have been booked for a match, Daiichi!” Selene exclaims.

“I enjoy how clean you make the bathroom, little kurayami, but you can’t sleep on floors forever,” Daiichi slaps Fade on her shoulder, “So get the fuck out.”

He pauses, letting the silence fill the air between them as she is positively fuming.

Daiichi snaps his fingers and points to Keiji, “Please.”

Ignoring Keiji’s nod of approval over Daiichi’s manners, Fade shoves Daiichi’s hand off of her arm. She pushes past him and leaves the ring. She is mumbling something under her breath in Spanish.

“Very rude,” Daiichi calmly states, “speaking in a language your mentor does not understand.”

Fade stops and turns around to look at Daiichi. She puts her hand to her chest to feign shock to him. “You don’t know something? Whaaaat?! No fuckin’ way does the great Daiichi not know something so simple as Spanish!”

Daiichi cocks his head to the side as he tries to figure out how he wants to take the tone she’s taking. Keiji slowly walks over to Selene and motions for her to step out of the ring to him. Fade steps back into the ring and walks right up to Daiichi, her chest bumping against his gut as she glares up at his confused face.

“I said,” she clears her throat, “Fuck your fucking mother, you fat piece of shit.”

“Lucia, he is stocky but I hesitate to call him fat,” Selene interjects.

“Shut up, Selene,” Fade cuts her off, “This fucking guy has beat the shit out of us for weeks now. He won’t let us go in front of a camera, he won’t let us go a day without cleaning the piss puddles from around the fuckin’ toilets, he wants us to clean for him and cook for him so we can sleep on his fuckin’ floor like pets and now he wants us to get the fuck out? So, no, Leen, I mean it when I say fuck your fucking mother, you fat piece of shit.”

Daiichi nods as he lets the anger wash over him. It brings a small little smile to him.

“Get to that corner over there,” he commands, “You want to kick my fat ass? Come kick my fat ass.”

She says nothing to him but she definitely follows his command, storming over to the opposite corner and turning to glare at him.

“Great man once said everybody talks shit until they can’t talk no more,” Daiichi says, removing his tank top to reveal his stocky barrel chest. “Great woman once said knowledge only comes through suffering.” He spits outside of the ring and begins stretching against the ropes. “So let us see which of us will learn today.”

“Oh no,” Selene whispers. Keiji reaches over and takes her hand and smiles.

“Your friend…is angry,” Keiji whispers back to her, his English muddled and broken from lack of use, “Mad at him, mad at me…mad at you…mad at her.”

Fade rushes at Daiichi who scoops her up and slams her hard back down to the mat. She gets back up and locks up with him, only for him to push her against the corner. He steps back but not before a hard elbow to her collar, followed by a chop to her chest which takes the wind out of her. He grabs her by her hair and walks to the middle of the ring, hooks her head under his arm and then her arm around his head.

“My finish when I wrestled was called the Daiichi Bomb,” he says calmly, lifting her up in a vertical suplex, “Sounded like ichiban and I liked the way people bounced when I hit it.” Without any warning past that, he drops her into a seated powerbomb position. Fade lands excessively hard on the mat and bounces completely onto her front. Daiichi rolls away from her and gets back up with his point made.

“...fuck…you…your fucking…mother…” Fade grumbles, shaking her head to try and get the cobwebs and the blur from her vision. Daiichi walks over to her and picks her up. He looks at her for a moment before she spits at him. It misses but it makes him laugh.

“You’re really fucking stupid,” he says in a way that’s almost in awe of her than anything.

She slaps him across his face, finally regaining her footing. She’s still very much out of her head, but that doesn’t stop her body from standing firm. “And you’re really fuckin’ fat.”

Daiichi looks at Keiji and Selene. He motions back to Fade, laughing like he’s at a loss for words.

“Go pack your shit, kurayami,” he says, “I got you a place in a duplex about ten minutes from here.”

“You did?!” Selene exclaims.

“Yes,” Keiji replies, “You need your own place. We bought it for our students and nobody is there now.”

Daiichi pulls his shirt back on, “So what do you say now, little one?”

Fade staggers to the corner and rests her forehead against the turnbuckle. “I think…you’re a fat piece of shit.” She turns and looks at him, “But maybe not fuck your mother. Right now.”

Mr. Dean. Mr. Gamble.

We do not know one another and after this meeting, we need not acknowledge one another again until such time as PRIME demands we do so. That aside, let me introduce myself to you.

I am Selene. I have never wrestled in my life. Ever. All that I know about our chosen profession is what I have learned over years and years of study and training in the hopes of one day following in the footsteps of those that came before. I had dreams of setting foot where once the giants I looked up to had tread, but instead I find myself in a tag team against the two of you.

I suppose every path must be first walked upon by a single step.

It is just the way of chaos that we find ourselves locking up at ReVival. What is unfortunate for you is that you know nothing of us and we have so much more content to ingest of the two of you. What that does mean that falls in your favor is knowing that we have no idea how poorly we may perform as a team against two men who are not only allied, but sharing in such company as champions and have participated in countless battles here in PRIME.

Mr. Dean, Mr. Gamble, please understand this about me.

I have lived my entire life seeking a place to belong. A place I could not only survive but thrive. Until now, all I have done is survive. I have looked for a place to call my own and now I find it here in PRIME for as long as I am able.

But that is the thing, is it not?

I have found the place that I can possibly do more than just survive. I have found the place that I might be able to save money, buy a home, make a name for myself, start a career. All of that falls apart if I cannot do my part to make it so PRIME wants to keep the Femme Furies on contract. I must prove myself. I must prove myself and in order to do that, I must tear a hole through the both of you and with my partner, Fade, give the fans and give PRIME a reason to keep us around.

Mr. Dean, Mr. Gamble, perhaps the two of you know not what it is like to starve any longer. You have careers, your names are made, your whole existence as a team feels like an inside joke that I am not privy to, and when you see the two young girls on the other side of the ring from you you might scoff since there is little for us to show you or to show the world before our match.

But you stand in the way of not only my next meal, but being able to afford having a meal after that and after that and after that.

I do not know the etiquette of our situation. Do I offer you good luck? Do I give you my best wishes? Or do I tell you I will tear through the two of you and leave you broken heaps of man twitching and gasping for air as we set ourselves on our path to glory? I apologize, gentlemen, because I only know what I have learned in my years of solitude.

Perhaps when this is all over I can buy you a round of drinks or perhaps I can thank you for the opportunity.

As it stands right now, though, all I can offer you is the quickest defeat I can muster with my partner.

That will have to be enough.

Daiichi watches his students unloading the truck. Fade and Selene sit on the front stoop of the quaint brick ranch style home that was converted ages ago to hold two families. They watch as students Braddock Kyle and Fabian Kaye bicker about where to sit the chest of drawers gifted to the girls from Keiji. Daiichi takes a long inhale of his cigar and sighs as the smoke billows out of his nostrils. He says nothing as Keiji walks up to him and smiles. They speak to one another in their native Japanese.

“Was I too hard on our little shadow?” Daiichi asks his oldest friend.

“They are damaged, birds with broken wings,” Keiji replies as he watches the girls tease Braddock and Fabian. He glances behind the two of them and acknowledges the old Lumina pulling up. The driver, Vic, gets out and greets Keiji’s eye with a smile.

“Lindsay has quite the eye, doesn’t she?” he says to the two Japanese legends in their native tongue.

“I worry,” Daiichi says absent mindedly, “When Fade and Selene are finally alone with one another what kinds of demons they will seek to exorcize. That’s why I didn’t want them to move out this fast.”

“I know,” Keiji puts his hand on Daiichi’s shoulder, “But you cannot protect them forever. They needed to be out on their own to be ready for their debut with PRIME.”

“It’s also why you asked me to help bring them together,” Vic reminds them, “And why we’re going with PRIME instead of, you know, any place else. Lindsay will look after them.”

“Oh shit, it’s Vic!” Fade calls out with a smile in English, “I’m still not gonna fuck you just because I have my own bedroom now.”

“Disgusting,” Daiichi inhales more of his cigar, now speaking so she can understand, “I’m going to go see if those two dumb fucks in there might break something.”

Daiichi walks past Fade and Selene, not acknowledging them whatsoever. They hear him yelling at Braddock and Fabian. Fade daps Vic up and grins as he hands her a small envelope.

“What’s this?”

“House warming gift.”

She looks at the envelope and hands it to Selene, who opens it like a kid at Christmas. She looks at the card and opens it to reveal the gift card inside.

“It is to Home Depot,” Selene tells Fade.

“The fuck I look like? Tim the Toolman Taylor?” Fade shoots Vic a confused look.

“It’s not like I know you well enough to give you ladies something personal,” he admits, “Knowing Daiichi and Keiji as I have come to, I assumed they probably left you some issues to fix up in there. Tell you what, if you can’t do anything with it, let me know and I’ll come by and fix whatever.”

“Fuck that,” Fade fires back, “This bitch is about to learn how to fish, feel me?”

She laughs and daps him up again, pulling him in for a one arm hug.

“Thanks, my guy,” she steps back from him, “Come in, we’ve got a lot of furniture needs movin’ around.”

Vic looks at Keiji, who motions for him to start towards the front door. The four of them head inside the duplex and shut the door behind them.

I’m not Selene, so let me get that right off the fuckin’ bat.

I don’t give a fuck who your friends are, what your career is, or how it stacks up to either of us.

But what I do give a fuck about is how y’all stand in the way.

How does that feel, by the way?

You’re in a tag team division that was so low on PRIME’s priority list they straight up deactivated the whole division until just now. I’m sure the two of you don’t care about that but from an outsider’s perspective all I see is two vets who could have easily gotten their shit together, tagged, got the belts, and did some shit with the division.

Instead, according to the website the whole division was deactivated.

So here’s what I’m thinkin’ Bobby…Tony.

Y’all two need a wake up call. Hell, all of PRIME might. Tag team wrestling is one of the most important parts of professional wrestling and it wasn’t until Fade and Selene got a job that PRIME decided maybe they needed to bring that division to the forefront again.

I don’t have much else I need to say or even wanna say except this.

We’re here to become champions one day. We’re here to jumpstart our careers. We’re here because we need PRIME. We’re here because PRIME needs us, even if PRIME doesn’t know it yet.

Femme Furies are about to show this whole damn world what we’re about and try as hard as you want to, you’re not fuckin’ this up for me or for her.

See you soon, boys.

It’s 1AM.

Selene is asleep on the couch which isn’t even set up against the wall. Fade sits in their chair and a half, sipping on a mug of hot tea. She stares at her partner sleeping but to be honest, she may as well have been watching the wall behind Selene. The students and the teachers are all gone for the night. She is, effectively, alone.

Just her…and her thoughts.

Her heart starts beating even harder.

She might be home but it might be the last place she wants to be.

She wants to run away. Hide. Disappear into the darkness of the tunnels and never see the light of the sun again. She thinks she’ll be safe down there. She knows she’s wrong but nobody can tell her that any more than she already is doing to herself.

She takes another sip and realizes she’s out of tea.

With a sigh she sits the mug down and stares down at the floor. Nothing left to distract her now.

Just her…and her thoughts.

It’s almost too much for her to bear but bear it she must.

The alternative scares her far more than her current reality.

“Fuck,” she whispers to herself.

“Fuck.”