Turkey Luchadors 2: Electric Boogaloo

The sun's burning bright over Vegas, warmth flooding the gaudy little dust bowl that plays host to Peregrina Loca's suspiciously nice apartment. The front gate leads into a beautiful little courtyard, decorated with bright ornamentation and plenty of greenery, the quaint pastel furniture standing out boldly against the terracotta-painted stone. Into this homely area, she's presently ushering Araña Oscura, who's dressed 'down' in a gypsy top and pleather pants.

Already waiting inside are little Guadalupe, swinging her feet to-and-fro, tongue protruding from one side of her mouth as she focuses on a finger painting she's currently doing with RAZOR's errant interviewer Brick Kind... who's the mirror image of the tiny girl, his tongue out also, but his own face far messier - as he lacks the girl's finger-painting discipline. Oh, Brick.

"Well, you didn't mess it up, so not only did I decide to let you live; I prepared a feast for us all."

There's a gasp as Pera enters with this proclamation. Lupe looks up with her eyes wide and bright.

"TURKEY LUCHADORS?!"

"Hooray!"

Brick waves his arms excitedly, splattering paint across the courtyard. Pera instinctively cringes.

"No, Lupe. But very close; luchadoras de pollo. In honor of you--" She pauses to 'boop' Araña, who blinks in surprise. She's still not used to that. "And in honor of our Italian friends; espagueti rojo. Because we need our carbs, and we're going to make those Steel Rockers bleed... figuratively speaking..."

Araña looks concerned - not at this last piece of news, but at what preceded it.

"Erm, I've sort of been watching my waist..."

"Sí, but we're going to be working our culatas off as soon as we're done here. You won't gain a pound, Araña. Not before you've earned several pounds of gold."

Grinning, Pera turns smartly and saunters off through the glass-panelled doors into the kitchen.

"Do you really think that's going to happen?"

She stops inside the doorway, tugging on an apron and tipping a wink to her tag partner.

"It's a Peregrina guarantee."

"A Loca guarantee."

Frowning pointedly, Araña circles her ear with a finger. Pera laughs and twinkles back at her.

"The line between madness and genius is tinier than your waist is ever going to be."

"¡Ayay! You don't need to be mean!"

"Too much like Craneo?"

"Sometimes I think, anything like Craneo is too much like Craneo..."

Pera nods thoughtfully, as she busies herself just beyond the doorway, reaching into the oven to pull out dinner.

"It's possible, Araña. There's something else on your mind though?"

The younger Destructora sighs, moving to take a seat with the re-focused Brick and Guadalupe. She peers at what they're drawing with marginal interest - noting they sure seem to be using a lot of red.

"Sí, there is. The face of this company is changing, and I want to be part of it, but..."

"You don't want to abandon your family? However like Craneo they might be?"

"Not just... them. Zilpah fought like a demon, and now she's organising something. With Freya and the others. I don't want to oppose that. I respect her. Maybe, maybe I respect all of them."

"But?"

"But I want to be part of whatever's coming. I've never won anything, and winning felt--"

"Bueno."

Pera starts setting down plates, clink-clink with each syllable of the word.

"More than good; I don't want to go back to what I was, I want to push forward. With you."

"Araña, I'm not here to turn RAZOR Wrestling on its head - I'm here to turn the heads of the fans, to gift them excitement. Electricity. The goal of any true luchadora should be to show people things they've never seen before."

"They'd never seen me win before..."

Pera nods firmly.

"¡Exactamente! Now, we could argue until el chupacabra shows up that they've never seen you win twice, either, but we need to aim higher than that. Last week, you spent all that time in the ring, alone. You endured terrible things, and the people loved you for it. This time we're going to work together. You set them up, I take them down; bait, switch, trigger."

Oscura eagerly sits forward.

"I think I can do that!"

"Early on, we go for quick tags - Campbell works like Craneo, he'll use any trick he can, and he's desperate after their last couple of showings. Let me handle him, and don't you so much as look at his little vixen at ringside. ¿está claro?"

She gets another quick nod in response.

"Colby's got spirit, and he'll want to prove himself. He also cares about his tag team partner."

"I care about you!"

Pera opens and closes her mouth, and smiles in the most fucking motherly way to hear that.

"So, we're going to focus on stretching him out. Hurting him. Keep him close to our corner, work him over with holds."

Araña mulls this over, wrinkles her nose.

"I heard he smells bad."

"Many wrestlers smell bad - you should know that, with how often you've been underneath them."

That gets a pout, and a tickle of giggles from Brick and Guadalupe. Pera hushes them, frowning.

"Lo siento, Araña, I shouldn't have said that."

The young woman shakes her head.

"No, it's true. Just like Metz said... but I'm ready to prove her wrong."

Peregrina takes a breath and nods; back to business.

"Bueno. So, we work him over, and when the boy tags back in, you do what you did so well last week."

"Get beaten up?"

"Endure. He'll be pushing you, so let him push; until he over-extends, then we close the jaws of our trap."

She's been following so far, but Oscura looks confused now.

"What's our trap?"

Knowing she would be, Pera's already grinning.

"The 1-800-DESTRUCT."

She says it matter-of-factly, and more than a little smugly, before setting down the last two plates and clapping her hands.

"Come on, finish your dinner and I'll walk you through it, pollita."

They all tuck in, a perfect little found family...