The One & Nicole Kinneck vs. The House of Frost

[TheOne]

Note: I had a second scene planned, but between losing a member of my family, and the stomach bug making the rounds in my house, I don't want to just rush it together.  Looking forward to working with Nicole more!

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{JUDGES: Chapter Three}

Everyday I spend more and more time creating and developing my own "compound within the compound," the more and more power I feel like I am gaining.  The scariest part of the whole ordeal is that I am truly beginning to enjoy it.  What I'm also enjoying is the rumors, the mystique, the lore, everything that is surrounding the compound among the people of the community, as it becomes less and less capable of being hidden from the public.  Too many patrons, too many "ins and outs," people have begun to take notice and the comparisons to "compounds" of history have begun.

The rumor mill isn't a mystery to me either.  I hear the people saying that we are secretly another form of an FLDS or Branch Davidian cult.  I hear the rumors that children are harmed, that we have caches of weapons, and are preparing to fight and die for our beliefs.  The reality is, there is no massive stockpile of weaponry.  The Prophets have a couple hunting rifles that they use to hunt on the property when nobody is around, and use the meat for special meals and events, and yes, I possess a tazer, on the off chance things were to go awry.  But this idea that we have some arsenal and are preparing for war, to me, is just a comedy in and of itself.  But this rumor mill has created a definite sense of fear among the masses, and in turn has led me to having to develop more and more security protocols just to ensure that there is no risk of any kind of outbreak of violence on my watch.

But the one thing I haven't done, and I still never will, is impose that kind of martial law on the kids.  For them, I've continued to everything to keep my promise and keep my word.  I have done everything to keep the young ones oblivious for now, and enjoying their time, and for the elder kids who know the truths, keep them in the same boat... Not feeling like prisoners, but instead as patrons themselves.  Why?  Because I remember where I came from.  I remember that feeling of captivity.  I've created a greater expanse of area for them to roam around and enjoy themselves in.  I've tried to make sure they realize I'm not my predecessor, but someone who has a heart, and understands them much better than anyone else on the premises.

Having said that, though... There has to be the other side of The One...

Because I do wield such power, there are times when I have to exact power and authority.  I have to be the security figure that I took over being.  And I have to be willing to get my hands down and dirty should the situation, or The Prophets, call for it.

Inside the "Compound" of The One, a day of relaxation and normalcy quickly is thrown off when The One receives a call from the main building.  Surprisingly, it's from The Prophets themselves.  They request her presence at their offices inside the main Compound facility.  The One is quick to jump up, and knows that this is typically an indication they they need a very specific errand or situation handled in a very specific way.

As she arrives at the main building, she simply walks in and goes through the various rooms toward the back, where the offices of The Prophets reside.  Without hesitation, and upon arriving at the border of their entry way, The One knocks.

Male Prophet: Come in... Come in...

The One promptly opens the door and sees both Prophets at their respective desks.  She walks up to right between them both, looking at each.

Male Prophet: Please... Have a seat... We have some important business to discuss...

The One pulls a chair up from the back of the room and sits between the two desks.

The One: Everything OK?

Female Prophet: Unfortunately no...

Male Prophet: We've been made aware that there is apparently a mole inside our ranks...

The One's eyes go wide, completely blindsided by the idea of someone having infiltrated The Compound under her watch.

The One: Seriously?  How is that even possible?  I've PERSONALLY cleared every, single, person, since they day I came on duty...

The Prophets quickly wave their hands, trying to calm The One down.

Female Prophet: No no no... This person has been here since your predecessor ran things.  He's the one who allowed this person to slip the through the cracks...

Male Prophet: But to give him at least a little credit, this person had come with plenty of relevant documentation to make him a believable patron.  Everything he had checked out with our background screenings and he's been a regular ever since.

The One: Then how did we find out they existed?

Female Prophet: Turns out this agent has a big mouth.

Male Prophet: Yeah... See he didn't understand how far our reach within the city really was, and thought the local authorities were on his side.  He made a couple stupid statements to reveal himself, thinking he could be trusted, and ultimately our insiders got word back to us that he existed.  They also brought us a photo of him...

The male Prophet pulls the photo from his desk, and hands it over to The One.  The One looks at the man and immediately recognizes him as one of the older, and in her opinion, more creepy patrons she sees go in and out.

Male Prophet: ... From what he said, and what we now gather, this agent is gathering inetl on us for his agency, so they can try to move in and raid us, eventually.  I'm sure you've heard the rumors about what we supposedly do here, versus the reality?

The One: I'm assuming you mean the Kool-aid drinking death cult rumors?

Female Prophet: Pretty much!

Male Prophet: The good thing is, we have our own set of intel on the guy, now.  Not only do we have a photo of him, we know where his apparent base of operations is out of.  Our informant followed him to the local Microtel, and saw him enter into a first floor room.  And of course, we want to know what he has, what he's after, and why he thinks we are something more than what he's obviously experienced himself.

Female Prophet: My only assumption is he thinks of us what he does based on The Oracle.  Yet I'm sure we have records of him financially benefiting as well.

Male Prophet: I can almost guarantee he's not as clean as he tries to portray... But nevertheless, we want to know what he's trying to bring us down on.  And that is where you come in...

The One slowly turns her head in the male's direction and stoically looks at him, as if an agent herself, receiving orders from her superiors.

Male Prophet: What we need from you is simple.  Find out everything you can.  Get us the answers we need.  Shut him and his investigation down at ALL COSTS, so he is out of our hair, but understand this... And I'm going to be direct, OK?

The One: I'm listening...

Male Prophet: ... You getting this information CANNOT give him more cause to move in on us faster.  That means, no "strongman" tactics, no threats of violence to him or his family, none of that.  But you're smart enough to find ways to get him out of the big picture so it's one less thing for us to worry about, am I right?

The One nods.

Male Prophet: Good...

The One: What else do you have on this guy and where he is?

The Prophets hand over the rest of the information they were provided by their informant within the local authorities.  The One takes a brief scan, and says she's going to go back to her quarters to begin sifting through anything else she may have that may prove beneficial to her in pulling this off.  The Prophets excuse her and she makes her way back to her facility, where she is quick to pull the man up, including all of the documents he forged to pass the old background checks they used to run before she took over.  She sees he does have a fingerprint on file, and based on what she knows from interactions plus the data they have logged, she begins to create an idea of the "profile" of the man in her head, and knows exactly what her next steps will be.

How could this have happened, or continued to happen on my watch?  How could someone have infiltrated and continued to infiltrate my defenses that I put up?  I don't care that he did it before I was in charge, I should have been able to root him out with the protocols I put in place.  What it tells me is this isn't some yokel who is trying to make a name for himself, but someone who has been studying The Prophets, the other patrons, and even me, this whole time, and because of that, he may very well have a leg up on me and anything I can do to counteract the measure.

But that's part of being The One...

Adversity is possible at any moment...

This guy has now pushed me and my ability to call myself The One to a brink where I have to step up and take him out of the equation before anything further happens, and try and destroy his advantages before he can use them against us.  If I don't succeed, I risk everything.  I open myself up to challengers who see weakness in my abilities.  But if I succeed, I cement my legacy as The One who ensured the safety of those who allow me to live a "high life" in return for safety, security, and anonymity.

A couple of days after The Prophets gave the information to The One, this man in question walks down the corridor of the local hotel in which he was suspected of staying.  He approaches a door on the first floor, and casually looks around before using his key and entering his room.  He quickly does, as anyone should, and locks the door behind him.  The curtains are still pulled shut and the room is barely lit by that of his laptop, which immediately is something that he recognizes as wrong.  He looks in its direction and single red line painted down the screen, resembling the mark going down the eye of The One.  Behind the paint he sees a command prompt executing command after command, doing things too fast for any naked eye to discern.

His eyes go wide in fear.

He quickly makes a move toward the device, when out of the shadows, from behind where the device sits, a figure emerges, staring him down, obviously showing him he's not alone, and in the presence of The One.

The One: I would highly advise you to stop right there, and make no more movements toward your device... And if you play your cards right, and are smart, nobody will be getting physical or getting hurt today...

Agent: How?

The One: How what?

Agent: How'd you find out?

The One smirks.

The One: Sometimes it's not WHAT you know, sir, it's WHO you know.  And you know, I would think, for a special agent like yourself, trying to get all of this information on us, you'd keep it a little closer to the vest... Much like your CAC [Common Access Card] Card... It's just not the brightest of ideas, is it?

The One holds the card up.

The One: I mean... The wrong people could get ahold of it, and be able to access some sensitive information, you know?

Agent: What do you mean?

The One smirks again.

The One: Don't play dumb with me, not now...

The computer chimes as the black box vanishes from the screen and returns to his desktop.  The One then reaches down and pulls out a USB drive, and throws his CAC card onto the desk.

The One: ... And besides, now everything you've worked for is now, POOF, gone.  Everything you had on your computer and on your agency's servers are basically on the verge of becoming fully corrupted and unreadable.  It's as if you never found out anything with us.  So I would highly suggest you begin practicing the kissing of asses up the "food chain" because your world is about to get mighty ugly.

Agent: You really think you got everything?  We have redundancy.  We have backups.  We have everything protected from people and tools like what you probably used...

The One chuckles.

The One: Oh I know.  I saw everything on the backup drives as well.  I was surprised that nothing like tape backups were used because it was easy to find them all and ensure they slowly became injected with the code as well.

The agent looks a bit unnerved.

Agent: What did you do?

The One: I just made sure that The Compound, once again, became a thing of legend and lore, rather than something anyone had anything concrete on.  I made sure we continued to live as rumors, and nothing definitive.  I didn't mess with anything else, because I didn't need to.  And thankfully you're simplistic manner of saving files made that easy for me.  You made it easy for me to make life difficult for your agency, and the files to be unrecoverable.

Agent: We have protections against all of that...

The One: Heh... Yeah... Sure you do...

She holds up the USB drive and waves it at him.

The One: It's amazing what power one little USB drive can wield over the bigger threat, isn't it?

As she says those words, the agent's cell phone rings and The One smirks.  She sees his eyes go wide and knows that he just saw his entire world begin to spiral out of nowhere.  The One then says she will see herself out, and suggests that he really keep his loose lips moisturized because of the large amount of sucking up he will have to do in order to save his job.  She walks by him as it keeps ringing and chuckles as she opens the door, and leaves, as she can hear the agent answer his phone and begin pleading immediately.

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{PROMO}

Along the banks of the river splitting her hometown down the middle, The One sits, with the moonlight illuminating the water, and a defined chill in the air.  For the first time ever, she isn't alone, flanked on the bench by a woman, identified from her past just as "Hailey."  The One stares out, knowing that there is a camera slowly zooming in on her from apparently the river itself, but able to hear her every word.

Isn't it amazing how things continue to change within the world of Supreme Championship Wrestling?  Isn't it amazing how the sunlight looks a little bit brighter, for the first time in several years?  And isn't it amazing that someone, like me, with no experience, has walked into the pinnacle of this industry and not only turned heads before I even debuted, but then won gold, and stepped up to the challenge of teaming with two individuals whom I shared no relationship with, and was able to find that common ground to achieve the ultimate SCW "Golden Ticket?"

And I've done it with my back PERMANENTLY against the proverbial wall...

When I first showed up, I made it clear what I was here to do.  I made it clear what I was out to achieve.  It wasn't about the W's and L's or accolades, but the riddance of those who had created a shadow of gloom and doom in a place that was once revered for its competitive roster, and true ability to create new talent.  I wanted to bring that allure back.  I wanted to clear the skies of the darkness.  I wanted to show the world that you don't get to just succeed if your from one specific family, or only friendly with specific people.  It was time for the underdogs to be able to shine once again.  It was time for the surprise victors to take their spot in the limelight.

Days were gone where you only got to travel along a certain "Street" in order to be a champion, or consider yourself "Infamous."

The days of carbon copy creations and single family championship reigns were going to be a thing of the past...

And let's be real, that attitude caused a lot of people to immediately label me a problem, a cancer, a bad person, and someone who could ultimately "hurt" SCW.  I heard the gossip.  I have ears in places people don't understand.  And I let the gossip motivate me further.  I let it be my guide because I went out there and I hurt people.  I went out there I began to put people to sleep.  I began to do WHATEVER it took in order to get the attention of those I planned on making a statement out of.

And let's be real... It didn't earn me much in the way of praise...

I was booed... I was jeered... I was put into a category that many consider "disliked" among the fans and my peers because of my brash commentary and unbridled disdain for so many who had brainwashed others in order to become "beloved."  But I expected it.  I expected that reaction.  I expected to initially be seen as the enemy.  It is that visceral reaction that I was given that is part of human nature.  You don't like someone coming in and telling you everything that you have come to believe, accept, and acknowledge as factual is false.  You don't like being told that what has made you "happy" has all be an illusion, fabricated by people who ONLY have their own personal interests in mind.  You don't like finding out that your mind is not as strong and instead, far weaker than you ever believed.

And yet, things around you are changing.  Those changes are ones you can only deny for so long.  They are ones you can only attribute to being "temporary" for so long, before they start to become "everyday."  It's then you are given the open-mindedness to actually take a second and start to question things.  It allows you the RIGHT to wonder if you have been wrong all along.  And it makes the boos, the jeers, the hatred, it makes it all begin to become quieter and quieter because you finally realize someone isn't trying to play you for a fool, but instead allow you to begin to find yourself and make your OWN opinions.

It's that ability that led me to realizing that sometimes in order to get to the "head" of the creature you're trying to slay, you have to tickle the tail, and make it turn around toward you... It's why I started with Beard in SCW, and used those closest to him to get his attention.  I made those people carry my message.  And then when the Chamber came, I saw the next moment where things could begin again, and I could begin to send a message, this time, directly to one of those individuals who represented the past that need to be TAKEN OUT of SCW, once and for all, Selena Frost...

The One goes to continue, before looking at Hailey, who smirks at her, and she smirks back.

I'm sorry, were you expecting me to say Deanna Frost?  Were you expecting me to say she has been the target all along?  Deanna Frost is a mere pawn in the larger picture here because it's been Selena Frost and her long history in SCW that has, in my opinion, fallen into the category of "the same" as those others I mentioned before.  This is one of those "families" who just are expected to be "given" greatness, rather than earning it all on their own.  And when it clicked that Selena was the "Head of Medusa" that needed to be severed in order to take out the entire Frost family, I began to look and find what her weakness was.

And her weakness is one that, I'll be honest, many of us have... Family...

You see, in that Chamber Match, when she saw Deanna, writhing in pain, screaming for help, on the cusp of begging for their mommy to come and save them, she reached in and tried to help her herself.  She reached in and tried to grab Deanna's hand.  She tried to pull her to some kind of safety.  And the problem was, she failed.  She didn't save her sister.  Her sister has been favoring that arm since that day, and any time I have had an opportunity to further that pain, I've done so.  And I've done to continue to get under the skin and in the head of Selena.

Why?

Because her being part of the darkness that is slowly fading away from SCW, I can tell you exactly what motivates her, and it's greed...

So I knew I needed to begin to nip at her heels.  Make her begin to turn her own head, and eventually turn around and have both she and Deanna facing me together... Which leads me to answer the question that many are wandering right now... Why Nicole Kinneck?

To many, my choice in partner is one that makes me look like I am going for a wacky and unpredictable individual.  It makes me look like I'm going for someone who has been around, and knows the Frosts well.  Only half of that is true.  Yes, she knows the Frosts well, but I didn't get anyone wacky.  I am not walking out there teaming with someone is silly or kooky, or even timid in nature.  Instead, I went out and chose someone who, yes, knew the Frosts, but could handle them like I plan on handling them... Like a "Pro."  See, many of you don't know this woman like I can promise I do.  I can tell you that what you have seen is something far different from what you and the House of Frost will see when the bell rings.  They won't see a girl skipping around the ring, being silly, and trying to throw them off their game.  They won't see a woman afraid to fight them tooth and nail.  They'll see someone like The One, who isn't afraid of fucking with the status quo, and wanting to throat punch a bitch at a moment's notice...

And the best part about this "Pro" is simple... She doesn't trust me, and quite honestly, I don't trust her...

Trust is an overrated aspect.  Trust is something that people break on a whim.  But what she and I have in this matter is a common desire to take on those who we see as problematic in the world.  We want to be the type of people who SHAPE SCW, and not simply be the ones who conform to its current or past identity.  That's stronger than trust.  The DESIRE to not become those people of the past, who never became anything, and just kissed the rings of those who were "handpicked," is not in our repertoire or vocabulary.

OUR DESIRE is to make the House of Frost fall the way of the "'Streets' of Rage" or the "Infamous Mobb..."

The One grins.

How does that feel you two thawing bitches?  How does it feel knowing that there is someone of the days of yore in SCW and the days of the future, BOTH, looking at you as a cancer and a detriment to the success of SCW down the road?  It should read true, and should read fearful.  You should understand that two people, representing the "Days of Future's Past," have set their sights on you, and everything you crave.  And we know that is those championships around your waist.  We know that it is what you both feel DEFINES you and your success in the annals of SCW.  We know that it is ALL you base your careers upon...

You two are THAT petty...

For you it's all about the accolade, it's all about the title.  For "Pro" and I, we look at it from a much different mindset because of the fact that we know if we take those championships from around your waists, you will be forced to reconcile that you have nothing left.  You will have nothing to rest your laurels on.  You won't be able to say how great your family lineage on because it's ONLY been defined by title belts, and you would have just lost them to someone brand new, and someone who has greatly reigned herself in.

The fact is, Deanna and Selena... "Pro" and I have found ourselves as equals in a battle for something BIGGER than ourselves.  We have found that there is something out there that will give us greater joy, greater happiness, and a greater HISTORICAL REMEMBRANCE, than what you two have done.  And we will have shown the world that we know how to exploit and defeat those who have tainted the pool of talent in this place, and ultimately led it to where it is now.  And you two won't have anywhere to run...

You won't be able to make excuses...

You won't be able to claim you were robbed...

Your entire careers have been spent resting on the belts which you now wear, and that's it.  Nothing more.  You haven't defined your career by anything more than being one of the "four families" of the late 2010s, that drove away many of those who helped SHAPE SCW, and create a FUTURE for people who wanted to enter the business, like me.

And I want to put you out like Old fucking Yeller, and ensure that there is one less group who holds that kind of power...

And you may think it's because we want it... You may think it's because we want control... No... I'm sorry you two dumb bitches.  I'm sorry you look at it from such a simple mindset.  Power isn't everything, nor is it the only thing.  In fact, it carries far less weight than the two of you may believe.  What carries weight is lore.  What carries weight is CHARACTER.  What carries weight is the road you pave behind yourself.  What you two have done have simply made more "Streets" in SCW.  They may be icier than the original, but they still are the same thing underneath.  What we are striving for is to build the "Interstate."  We want to build something bigger, and longer lasting, that people don't look on with disdain.  And when "Pro" and I finish the House of Frost off, and show the world that it wwas nothing more than a glorified icicle, you two will get to make the decision of a lifetime...

Join us in rebuilding the infrastructure of SCW... Or forget the snow tires and skid off your own road, and be another "victim of ice..."

The decision is yours.  I don't personally care.  I don't think my partner does either.  In fact, I personally wouldn't mind seeing you both disappear into oblivion, and allow SCW to once again grow itself anew, and become exactly what it is SUPPOSED to be in 2023, rather than what you wish it could remain, so only you could benefit...

And if you doubt that's the case... I say this... It IS as much the TRUTH as death, taxes, and THE ONE!

The One looks down, and Hailey reaches over and pats her on the back, rubbing it gently as someone who cares would.  The One takes an obvious deep brath, as the camera slowly zooms out and fdes to black.