Dirk Lewser vs. Lady Torment - A Change of Pace

The air of the coming match had a very different air to it than usual.

Most matches have an air of people expecting a fight, an energy ready to watch a battle. But that air was quite absent this time, no, the air was expecting something quite different. There was people talking with excitement and some with a sense of humor. Some had huge grins on their faces, like they were expecting a comedy show. The vibe was just different, and everyone knew why; Lady Torment was going to fight another non-heel. Whereas her battles against heels had her working and stretching them around like a pretzel, inflicting as much pain as possible, to non-heels, she was pretty much the opposite. And it was specifically for that reason that everyone was excited to see what was going to happen this time today. What was Torment going to do THIS time?

The challenger for her was about to make his entrance, as Modest Mouse's Float On started to play on the speakers. The lights became flashy as they signalled his arrival, and the announcer began his speech, "Weighing in at 166 pounds, with a skill in defense as fast as it is deadly, beware all foes that face it head on, watch as the Secret Weapon unsheathes himself, DDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIRK LEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWSER!" stage lights went crazy as they turned in to look at where Dirk would be making his entrance from.

Dirk was in an open part of the backstage are performing a handless neck bridge. Passers by can tell he's been doing this for a while as his body was beginning to fidget. After reaching a set amount of time that only he knew, Dirk would roll onto his hands and feet before rising up thanks to the help of grabbing a nearby rack of metal chairs. The rookie stood up and began stretching his shoulders before doing a couple hops on the balls of his feet. He also took this time to think about his opponent for tonight.

"Lady Torment..." He said to himself. That was a name he heard only in small mentions. He did hear that she was slowly becoming a name around AFW. Particularly, for her mannerisms and her high pain tolerance. He also heard that she competed in an electric ring match! A match that he didn't even know existed here! Despite being here for a couple months now, Dirk was still trying to get to grips to the more "outlandish" aspects of AFW. He began to wonder if he even had anything in his kit that was capable of putting the mysterious Ms. Torment away for the 3 count. But, he quickly reassured himself that he got this far. It would be stupid to start doubting himself. I mean, he was a 3-way for the Nekketsu Title Belt for godsakes! It was obvious that he was slowly becoming a name himself!

Dirk quickly shook his head and quickly smacked his cheeks with his taped hands to try to shut out those thoughts of self doubt. "Pull yourself together! No matter who you face & no matter what happens, put in %110!" Remembering the words of his amateur wrestling coach, Dirk clenched his fists and began his walk over to the gorilla position. It's wrasslin' time!

Soon, as the familiar tune of Modest Mouse's Float On played, Dirk would wait for his cue before stepping out from behind the curtain and walked to the top of the entrance ramp. He looked around at the live crowd with a grin on his face. He knelt down for a bit and waited for the exact moment the announcer called his name. Then, in time with the call, Dirk leapt off the ground and threw a makeshift haymaker punch with his right hand. While he did that, he would shout "YEAAAH!!"

Dirk quickly walked down the ramp, giving a couple fans some quick high fives. Once he arrived at the ring, he would climb up the steel steps, dust off the bottom of his boots and slung himself into the ring over the top rope. Once in the ring, he would begin unbuttoning his white polo shirt as he walked to one of the farther corners to get ready. He removed his shirt, neatly folded it up, removed and set his glasses on top of the shirt and handed them both to a ringside attendant. Then, he would start hopping on the balls of his feet and wait for his opponent.

Soon, Dirk's music would stop and be replaced with the sound of the announcer saying...

"And his opponent...!!

As soon as the moment the word "opponent" ended, the entire arena went dark as the lights died, but the crowd erupted in cheers and excitement. A single light came on, shining on the edge of the ring, as a creepy music box started playing on the speakers.



With each tingle of the chimes, Dirk would see a hand slowly emerge from the corner of the ring. First some fingers that were wrapped in bandages, then a whole arm, jerkily moving like a stop motion figure to the rhythm of every chime, as another hand emerged (unbandaged) as both arms slowly pulled a blonde figure up. As the woman slowly crawled her way in, she then began to jerkily stand up like as if her bones were readjusting to shape a person. Until eventually, standing in front of Dirk was a tall, masked woman.

Spoiler:

She brought her hands up and cupped her face, as the music ended, the lights went out again, and all Dirk heard was a single noise from the woman through the cheering before feeling the ring lightly vibrate from movement.

"He...hehehe..."

The lights came on, and now the woman was standing in the middle, leaning forward, her face still cupped in her hands. The way she was just...staring at him was like a living statue looking at him, completely motionless.

The lights suddenly went out in the arena and yet, the crowd cheered in excitement. Despite usually doing his best to put on a brave face, Dirk couldn't help but feel a little unnerved by the sounds of cheering despite the darkness. Then, Dirk's attention was immediately taken by the shine of a single spotlight at the edge of the ring.

As the song played, Dirk would watch nervously as a hand slowly rose until a whole arm that was wrapped in bandages was revealed. Then, in the exact same way another arm would appear without the bandages. Soon, Dirk's blonde haired opponent would reveal herself by unearthly crawling into the ring. Dirk himself however couldn't believe what he was seeing.

The weird jerkiness of her movement, the eerie and unsettling creepiness of the music that was playing. And top it off, the feeling of the unknown secrets that lied behind that smiling mask. It was like Dirk had somehow stepped into a horror flick! He could only watch in awe (and partial fear) as his opponent crawled into the ring and rose to her feet in a way that could only be described as "doll-like". Once she stood up, Dirk got a good view of his opponent. She was tall, taller than him even! Her choice of gear was very interesting as well. He was sure most people would be very attracted to the statuesque Lady Torment.
But, Dirk's brain wouldn't muster any thoughts of attraction right now. Instead, the only thought that occupied his mind was, "who or what exactly was standing before him?"

As her theme came to a close, Lady Torment would cup her hands around her masked face and tilt her head slightly in Dirk's direction. The smile of the mask and the pose she was making made the rookie think that she was happy in this moment. But, was she truly..?
Was she happy to be facing someone new? Or, perhaps, was she happy to be stepping in the ring with her next victim? Two questions Dirk may never know the answer to.

Suddenly, the lights went out once more, reducing the spotlight to total blackness. Dirk could only feel the vibrations of the ring as someone or something was on the move in the ring. Unnerved and still creeped out, Dirk instinctively took a step back and quickly looked around to try to locate to his opponent. The crowd again cheered in reaction. It was apparent to Dirk that Lady Torment was quite the spectacle indeed.

"What in the Bray Wyatt is going-...?"

Dirk's question that he asked to no one in particular was immediately cut off by the unmistakable sound of a woman's giggle. The calmness and clearness of it all despite the loudness of the crowd only unnerved Dirk even more. Once the lights came back on, Lady Torment stood in the middle of the ring in the same happy pose. Only leaning forward a bit. Still staring at him, but standing completely...motionless...

With his vision finally restored, Dirk would turn his head to the right slightly and walk backward to the ring ropes while still keeping his eyes firmly locked on his mysterious opponent. His slowly upper body slightly rising and falling as he took this chance to catch a few reassuring breaths to calm his nerves down. Trying to assure himself he was not about to face a demon in the form of an incredibly tall athletic looking woman with a creepy mask.

Once he finished getting his head in battle mode, Dirk would slowly make his way to Lady Torment and slowly reach his right hand in her direction in a show of good sportsmanship.

"N-Nice to meet you, Ms. Torment. I-uh...w-wish you good luck."

Lady Torment just stood there at first, seemingly not reacting to the show of good faith from Dirk at first, until her head slowly craned down to look at the handshake, and then look back up at him. It was a moment of silence, only the cheering audiences being any source of noise at all.

Then Torment, in a single swift motion, raised a hand forward, one of her other cupped hands moving behind her, and she stood up straight, now perfectly showing the height difference between the two as she firmly gripped Dirks hand and shook it. As if to further seal the deal she even gave his hand the sideways slap of the "hey bro" greeting followed by a fist bump. A rather out of nowhere interaction from someone who looked like that but that's what people came to see when it came to her.

After this short, peculiar interaction, Torment would moonwalk over to her ringpost corner. And when we say moonwalk, we don't mean do a Michael Jackson, we mean walk backwards yet make it look like she's walking forward with how her body moved. You had to hand it to her, she must've done a lot of practice.

Dirk could feel a bead of sweat roll down the right side of his face as his masked opponent continued to stand completely still, not reacting to his sign of good sportsmanship. He was beginning to wonder if this was all a ploy to get him to lower his guard. Or worse, his show of good faith pissed her off somehow. He silently gulped and clenched his body, preparing for the worst.

But, his thoughts of activating the aggro side of this person were soon dashed as Lady Torment quickly stood up straight, showing just how tall she was compared to him and proceeded to give Dirk a firm handshake. Not only that, she even gave him a very friendly version along with a fist bump! It was like the two wrestlers knew each other for a while and were interacting again! Dirk was absolutely flabbergasted from the interaction. Not even a couple seconds ago, Lady Torment had arrived in the ring like she had just stepped out of a horror film! Now, she was giving him the side five fist bump combo? How bizarre.
Welp, one things for sure. That was probably the nicest interaction he's had with a woman in AFW yet. A lot nicer than some others...

Either way, Dirk slowly regained his composure. This woman may seem like a gentle giant during the handshake, but there's no telling what kind of twisted up hill battle he was about to face. As for now, he needed to switch from nice guy to competitor mode.

"Well-uh- AHEM! Th-thank you." Dirk would say before the handshake came to end. After the fist bump ended, Dirk looked up at the "eyes" of his opponent one last time before getting ready to his corner. "Good luck tooooooooo...."
The rookie's sentence lagged and froze one word from completion as he took notice of Lady Torment's next trick. She would immediately start moonwalking backwards from the middle of the ring to her side of the ring in the corner opposite of Dirk's! Not only that, she wasn't doing it in your usual style. She was moving backwards, but her body looked like she was walking forward! In Dirk's mind it was like he was looking at a video game character who had their walk forward and walk backward animations switched. Thing is though, ITS HAPPENING IN REAL TIME! Dirk watched as she made her way over to her corner and stopped.

"-oooooo you..." The rookie's brain caught up with the rest of his body and he was finally able to finish his sentence. He sighed, turned to his corner and made his way to it. Once he arrived, he reached into the pocket of his wrestling shorts and pulled out his mouthpiece and stuck it on his upper row of teeth. Finally, he did a couple rope pulls and turned back around to face his opponent. 'Oh, Derek Echard Lewison, what have you gotten yourself into today?'

He jogged in place and flexed his neck until the bell rang.

And as they prepared, the Bell rang!

Torment would walk out from her corner, now approaching Dirk in a peculiar way; her arms were stretched out and her hands were in a grappling hand stance but the way her hands were stretched out made it seem like she was trying to make herself look bigger than she actually was. A bit of psychological warfare, but frankly nothing too out there at the moment. The only thing really accentuating Torments little threat was both her actual size, and the creepy mask she was wearing.

The bell rang and Dirk stomped both his feet to hype himself up! He leaned forward and lowered his center of gravity with his hands also pointed forward in a usual grappling stance. He noticed Lady Torment slowly heading him. Jeez, she was so tall. But, Dirk couldn't let himself be intimidated now.

"No matter how creepy your entrance was. In this ring, all are equal! Its just a matter of finding what makes you falter..." The Secret Weapon thought to himself as he stared at the 6'4' masked beauty dressed in bandages and getting closer with every step.
Once the distance, reached a certain closeness, Dirk would quickly sidestep to his right and spin completely around and reset his stance.

Then, after a few idle seconds, Dirk would charge-in, ready to grapple with his opponent. If Lady tried to grab him, Dirk would quickly drop step underneath her grapple attempt, get behind her, wrap his arms around her stomach and try to lift her up for a mat slam takedown attempt! Kinda early in the match, yes, but he wanted to experiment to see what he was working with!

As Dirk moved around Torment, he'd notice that...Torment kept her stance up but now it was her head that was rotating to keep track with him...and kept rotating, even when he spun around the woman. Her upper body rotated a bit, but the neck was turned almost a complete 160°; that was SO not normal. And her arms just...stayed open like that like as if she had never intended to grapple him in the first place.

Nonetheless, Dirk courageously pushed in to try and grab the strange woman, and that's where she showed off more of her startling tricks! For as he moved his hands closer, where her stomach should've been grabbed, he saw her stomach and upwards just suddenly go limp as it fell seemingly lifelessly backwards, her legs swerving around to move out of the way, before her upper body swerved around up and straightened itself as Torment stood a while stride away from where Dirk had attempted to grab her!

Torment raised a hand up to where her mouth would have been, before giggling. She then took a step back, standing with her side facing Dirk, a hand on her hips, and her other dangling freely, almost like she was waiting for Dirk to try again.

Just when it seemed like he would take the advantage early into the match, Dirk found out that it wasn't going to be that easy. For starters, as he drew closer to Lady Torment, she would only follow him with the turning of her head only. Even when he managed to get behind her!

As he got behind her, she didn't seem to want to try to grapple back or escape. And within seconds, she managed to slither her way out of his grip like she was made out of rubber.

After escaping and standing a safe distance away, Lady would raise a hand up to the "mouth" of her mask and giggle a bit. Dirk stared at her, stood up straight and audibly sucked in air through his nostrils and shot air back out, just a tad miffed at his opponent's taunt.

"Alright then. How about...?" Dirk thought to himself before charging at Lady Torment again! This time wanting to try a double leg takedown, amateur wrestling style! However, once he was close enough he would immediately shoot his upper torso up and bring his right leg up and feint his dash into a running upward knee strike! Dirk wondered if she had the foresight to see this coming!