There is a small uproar as a crowd of children are all sitting around in a circle. Even for a bunch of tiny humans, they are awfully loud. From their seat about fifty feet away, Kyra and Ken Davison are eavesdropping, listening to the youngin’s tell their stories.

“Well I know of someone even stronger than that!”

The small yet powerful voice is definitely commanding attention.

“Oh yeah?  Who?!”

“Well… A lot of people call her ‘Fire-Tongue’.”

“Fire-Tongue?”

“Don’t make fun of her!” the loudest of the voices shouts. “She’s the strongest person in the world and she could beat up anyone!”

Laughter was followed by a sharp stomp of a foot. 

“I said don’t laugh!  She.. She’s the best warrior in the world.”

“Nuh-uh. Prove it!”

“Fine!  She had to teach herself to fight from when she was a kid, but her Mommy and Daddy didn’t help her so she had to run away from them and learn on her own.  And when she grew up she was known everywhere because of how strong she was and how many people she hurt!  And it was a LOT of people!   She was always beating people because they were all mean just like her Mommy and Daddy were!”

Soft murmuring surrounds our story-teller. Even some of the parents seem to be getting roped in.

“So?”

“So?!  She STILL fights people today and she’s STILL the greatest!  There are lots of mean people that try to stop her and she’s gotta stop them!”

“She doesn’t get hurt too?”

An exasperated sigh follows. 

“She gets hurt all the time!  But.. But she doesn’t stop!  She just keeps fighting because she has to protect her family!”

“Her Mommy and Daddy?!”

“NO!  She met a King… And he was different from all the other people so they got married and they had a baby!  So she had to keep fighting to keep them safe!”

“Did she?”

“OF COURSE she did!  But the king left…”

The others surrounding her gasped.

“He did?!  Why?!”

“I don’t KNOW!  But he did!  So she was all by herself with her baby and she was mad!  So she had to protect her baby and she didn’t trust no one for a very long time!”

“How long?”

“I DON’T KNOW!  But it was really long… like twenty years or something!”

Another gasp followed. 

“That’s a LONG TIME!”

“I know it is, stupid!  So she got into more fights because there wasn’t anyone that she could trust.  Like anyone!   But then.. Another King came along and she thought maybe he was a nice man.. And he was for a while but then he left too… and she was sad because she didn’t like being left.  BUT THEN HE CAME BACK!”

“He came back?!”

Our storyteller nods her head excitedly. 

“He came back!  But he was different when he came back and my mo–Fire-Tongue could not trust him anymore so she left too!  And she didn’t go back!   But she did fight him and she WON!  She beat him real good!   She made him feel really bad for leaving her and making her sad!  She sure showed him that he wasn’t a nice guy at ALL!”

“So she never found a king?”

The storyteller shakes her head. 

“No!  But she found someone even BETTER than a stupid old king!  He was a warrior too and he was gonna marry a very pretty maiden and they were going to have a baby but an evil dragon TOOK THEM AWAY and he lost everything too!”

Another gasp from the audience spurred the storyteller to continue. 

“So he was all alone and by himself and he couldn’t trust anyone either!  Sir Elderraven was across the world from Fire-Tongue and neither of them knew about the other one until they fought each other!”

“Oh my GOSH they fought each other?!”

“Yeah!  Sir Elderraven wasn’t very nice to Fire-Tongue at first and they were not friends at all because they were both upset and sad and mad about all the other stuff!  So they hurt each other a bunch but Elderraven told Fire-Tongue that she was very strong and she didn’t need a stupid king because she was stronger than them anyway and now they fight together because they love each other!  And they love the baby and I think they’re gonna have more babies but I don’t know because they sure do like fighting together…”

“How many?”

“I don’t know, like twenty?! As much as they want. But, there’s more. They’ve been fighting together forever. They’ve fought all sorts of bad guys, too. There have been time travelers and a magician with a scary doll and there were some fire people and an evil lord of two of his friends. One of the evil lord’s friends, he was a fortune teller. He warned about this Tempest guy, saying he was some kind of demon that was going to cause a play…plug… he was gonna make bad things happen in the kingdom. Well, since the evil lord ain’t around no more, and the fortune teller needed help, he went and found himself a big, ol’ scary demon of his own.”

The children listened, completely enthralled and hanging on to the storyteller’s every word.

“But if he’s fighting a demon, why would he find a demon?”

“HUSH! I’mma gettin’ to that. See, the fortune teller knew that Fire-Tongue and Sir Elderraven were going to fight him again and he knew that people say fight fire with fire so he figured he’d need a demon to fight a demon. But he ain’t gotten to that first demon yet. First he gotta get through Fire-Tongue and Sir Elderraven cuz he knew they were gonna try and stop him and they ain’t gonna let that happen.”

“Of course not. They’re the good guys.”

The surrounding children all join in a chorus of cheers.

“Yeah, cuz not only are Fire-Tongue and Sir Elderraven fearless, but the fortune teller was stupid. He thought that his demon would help, but he was really slow and even stupider than the fortune teller. The fortune teller’s demon couldn’t defeat the big bad demon and Fire-Tongue and Sir Elderraven were gonna beat the fortune teller and his friend again and it didn’t matter if the fortune teller brought a lord, a demon, or even a dragon because the good guys always win.”

“But that doesn’t really happen,” one of the other kids argues.

“It does with Fire-Tongue and Sir Elderraven because they have been fighting and fighting and fighting forever and they won’t let nothin’ happen to each other.”

“Yeah, but they’re not real!” The amount of sass in whatever little boy is arguing with the storyteller is palpable.

“Yeah they are, cuz they’re right over there!”

The crowd of children turn around in unison, and in doing so, separate enough to reveal that this is apparently “Storytime with Adina Johnson.” The children run over and swarm Kyra and Ken all asking a million questions, rapid fire, catching the couple completely unawares. They look at one another with looks of utter confusion at the anarchy around them.

Ken and Kyra seem to have decided not to clean up after Adina’s birthday party, at least, not yet. Considering the youngster’s penchant for swinging chairs at her classmates, the Davison’s didn’t expect the turnout that they actually got. Adina is inside the house, passed out on the couch after all the excitement of the day. Outside, where the two of them have set up a camera, the Baltimore Elite aren’t acting like their usual selves. Instead, Ken and Kyra are in the bouncy castle jumping up and down, laughing and giggling like the youngin’s were earlier in the day. Kyra stops first, landing ass first and sending Ken in the air, off balance, causing him to land on his side next to her a couple of seconds later. Kyra hops on top of Ken and kisses him before rolling backwards and, in one fluid motion, twisting her body, somehow managing to land so she is perfectly seated with her feet on the ground. Ken, being older and, well, that’s it, he just fucking old, crawls over and takes a seat next to his wife.

Ken begins to speak, but Kyra pushes him down onto the inflatable step.

“I’ve got this, babe.”

Ken sits up and simply smiles, obviously amused by all of this while Kyra takes a deep breath and pushes her hair out of her face.

“We said something a few months ago, and we thought that everyone heard us loud and clear. Ken and I have run roughshod through the Cooperative Division since we took the titles off of Gabriel and Eden way back at Infinity. Five defenses. We’ve defended these belts five times, something that hasn’t been seen since the Thames Valley Hit Squad did it way back in 2011. Sure, since then Donovan and Kenzi Grey got close with four but we’ve been the only team since them.. THREE YEARS ago that has any chance of surpassing the seven defenses that the Thames Valley Hit Squad had, and we told all of you that we wanted to face the best. We wanted to defend these belts against anyone and everyone that wanted a shot… And what did we get?”

Kyra shakes her head.

“We got Ezra and the retired guy that barely even wanted to take part in the match and now? Phrixus picks another partner and tries again. What, beating you and Donovan wasn’t enough, Fear? You fittin to go through the entire roster until you find the one person that can finally get you these belts? I don’t get it. I thought you were all about the Cross-Hemisphere Championship? I thought you were all in on your little prophecy about Tempest and the World title. Why aren’t you focusing a little more on stopping that masked little freak and a little less on us and the two belts that you ain’t never acted like you gave one flying fuck about? Don’t get me wrong, if you wanna step up – I’ll be glad to send your ass packing all over again because as far as I’m concerned, we’ve been here and we’ve already danced this dance and quite frankly… Holden Orson ain’t gonna make one bit of difference this time around.”

“My turn, mama.” Ken says as he pushes Kyra down, returning the favor with a laugh.

“Kyra and I decided we’d pull back the curtain so to speak and allow you to see a different side of us. Because that’s what we want, we want something different. I understand that we’ve gone through most every team here, but give us something other than what we’ve seen before. For me, this is Phrixus round three. Phrixus and Hastings. Phrixus alone. Win and win. Same name. Same game. Not a damned thing changed… and THAT is the exact problem.”

Ken turns around as his ass lifts up onto the air. Kyra is back in the castle, bouncing around.

“The fuck you doing, woman?”

“Backflips.”

“Why?”

“Why not?”

“Okay, then,” Ken says as he shrugs, turning back to the camera. “We all know that Phrixus is going to do his whole his whole ‘Embodiment of Fear’ bullshit like Batman ordered Scarecrow from Wish. Holden might have gotten one over on the Missus, but I put him down just like I put down his partner. Right now the score is three to one, so I really like our odds.”

Ken gets bounced upwards again, this time using the momentum to stand up.

“The one thing that I cannot and will not allow to be done differently is how we handle our business in the ring. You know our or story. We fought too long and too hard to lay down for the two of you. In our entire run here, when Baltimore Elite have stood across the ring from any other Cooperative teams, we’ve only directly taken the loss once. In over a year, only one team has been able to pin the Baltimore Elite. Let that sink in. In fourteen months, only one team had taken us down. Incendium, Piercing Media Empire, the Tragedy d’el Fart or whatever the hell they call themselves, teams that are far superior and far more proven than the two of you are, have failed. And you think the two of you can succeed? Bitch, you almost made me laugh.”

On cue, Kyra lands haphazardly beside Ken and sits up, brushing herself off.

“That’s what they all think though, isn’t it? They think they’re gonna be the ones to finally knock us off our throne. And while I don’t like that I’m responsible for the ‘one’ in three to one, I suppose I gotta give Holden his due. I can respect that someone who seems like he doesn’t take anything seriously enough to actually succeed… Actually fucking succeeded in beating me. That’s all I can really say about you, Holden. That’s all I know about you.. You act like you’re above what the rest of us are doing, scoffing like an entitled little bitch.”

She shrugs her shoulders.

“Yet here you are… If none of this matters then why the fuck are you here? That’s why we are where we are. This matters to us. Not just holding these Cooperative titles. But being here. Being able to do what we love, and being able to do it together is the icing on the cake. Being able to dominate this division the way we always knew we could. It’s just a shame we keep having to do it against teams that don’t have any business attempting to stand across from us.”

Ken reaches down, placing his hand on Kyra’s spine and giving her a gentle squeeze.

“Don’t think I care about Holden Cox…”

“Orson!”

“That, too. Don’t think that Holden Orson should think he has any kind of advantage because he beat Kyra. Eden and Gabriel both handed me losses in singles matches before we took took titles off them. It wasn’t that we felt more motivated to prove ourselves. Even though we did, that’s not why we managed to beat them. It’s because Kyra and I are the single, solitary, most cohesive tandem in this whole company.”

Kyra smirks.

“If you don’t believe us by now, we’ll be more than happy to give ‘Fear’ another long, hard look.. And help poor, poor Holden reevaluate his decisions. We’ll see you two on Monday, but for now… the old man and I gotta go play.”

She winks and stands up, tugging on Ken’s arm.

“Who you calling old?” Ken questions as he falls into the bouncy castle, grabbing Kyra by the ankle as he lands. She loses her balance, landing horizontally across Ken’s chest. She playfully counts her own pinfall as the camera fades to black.