Kasper's eyes opened slowly but she snapped them shut as soon as the drowning light of the windows inside her hospital room. The pounding in her temples spread through every pain receptor in her brain, Kasper cried out and touched her head. She felt the bandages and then the staples, panic set in and this time when she tried to open her eyes they only opened so far. Feeling down her face Kasper felt large lumps, tender busted skin, and both her eyes were swollen just like her nose bridge.
Slam2: ”Whoa there kiddo, take it easy you're preettty fucked up right now…”
Kasper: ”Was I hit by a truck?”
Slam 2 chuckled.
Slam2: ”A Crane to be more accurate…”
Kasper attempted to sit up on her own, but her body felt so beat her weak attempts made no difference until Slam helped her.
Kasper: ”I can't remember much, Crane and me brawling in the crowd was the last thing I remember.”
Slam2: ”Well that tracks, grade two concussion, 32 stitches, and four staples…the man wrecked you Kasper. You lost. But…you gotta get back up and go full force!”
Kasper sat up in her elbows having to steady herself for a moment as the room began to spin.
Kasper: ”I'm..I'm leaving Crane alone, he proved he was better..”
Slam 2 looked baffled, then quickly shifted to anger.
Kasper: ”For now…for now. I don't have a leg in this race for the title again, opportunities are dry and physically I'm spent Slam…spent.”
Slam2: ”So you're quitting? Why the fuck did you come looking for me then? Wasting my fucking time…”
Slam stood and appeared to turn and head toward the door but paused.
Slam2: ”Die first and then admit defeat…that's the Slam way, and you ain't no Slam..”
Kasper: ”I'm not quitting, I'm not dead and I ain't admitting defeat..I mean I was beat and I've been beaten down, but those were just battles we still have a war…I just need to find another strategy.”
Slam looked back over his shoulder, eyeing his wounded yet still willing to fight daughter. Kasper climbed out of her hospital bed.
Kasper: ”Crane and his goons have their own shit, LD is occupied with shit, and I think while they figure their shit out I can figure out my shit….can you trust me to approach this my way?”
Slam turned to face his daughter and for once in his very delinquent life the look in his cold gray eyes was bright. Looking down at the child he had saved from his own miserable hell, she was shaking and her eyes rolled in head because he was sure that concussion had rattled her real good. Her nose bled a little and for the first time in a Fatherly manner Slam crossed the room to Kasper picking a gauze up on his way to her, gently he dabbed at her nose. Kasper recoiled a little, mostly from how foreign the feeling or action was but also because her head screamed out with pain.
Slam2: ”You're bleedin’, listen kid, I hear your conviction and shit it makes sense…you gotta little further to go to prove yourself but you did it Kasper, you ran with the big dogs for a while you can do it again..let's see what you do with it yeah? Maybe some advice won't hurt if you ask for it…”
Kasper: ”Die first…then admit defeat.”
...days before Legacy 30...
Kasper sat on a weight bench still looked worse for wear days leading into Legacy 30, the doctor had advised against competing but Kasper swore she was fine. Blood had booked her against Doc Holiday at the next Legacy, she was going to be there and damn the small lingering side effects of her match with Wespus Crane. Like she told her Father, Kasper was putting her vendetta with Crane and her hunt for the WUK title on the backburner. She had her angle. Kasper was focused now and the first step was beating…
Kasper: ”Doc Holiday…first and foremost I'm going to apologize now because you aren't getting me at my best, if you are as astute as you claim to be Doc you've paid attention to my downfall as former a former champion.”
Kasper hung her head, her dark wavy hair hung over her face, the light of the camera reflected off the staples in her head, and the bandages wrapped around her were stained in a light brown old blood.
Kasper: ”It's happened time and time again; Fowler, Havok, Watts, and Hunter are all footnotes on a web page ran by a bunch of fucking nerds. Statistics. All of them are nothing now, the exception so far has been Wesley Crane! Have you watched my downfall? Show after show I've had my ass handed to me, so I know you might be thinking…’I'm hot shit. I'm going to kick Kasper while she's down; keep her little sad train rolling'...I get that confidence. I do.”
Kasper stands with a growl. Fists clenched into fists.
Kasper: ”But don't let that swell your head Doc! Don't forget I am a former Champion, I was rookie of the year, and I walked into a steel cage designed from Hell itself against some of the fiercest former WUK champions…to keep that title! If Crane is the exception, Doc SO AM I!”
The lights around Kasper seemed to glow bright for a moment, an aura of her own grew around her.
Kasper: ”To let some SCAB from the outside come waltzing in my backyard and letting him think I'll be some push over! I'd be a fool! Don't think it is personal Doc Holiday…KNOW IT’S PERSONAL!”
The previous intensity died, but Kasper was shaking. Her teeth were gritted tightly together.
Kasper: ”Prepare for war, because this IS war...and in war you die first, then admit defeat…”
[Fade]
