001

January 29, 2014 (off camera)

The small office building of Carson Black Talent Agency had seen its fair share of traffic today, mostly involving potential clients coming by as well as the modest office staff making their usual daily rounds. Today, from all perspectives, was just another Wednesday for the agent. But a recent mystery had caused him to wonder if one of his clients was taking bookings and not telling him about them. As a result with the recent travels from the FFW Pay-Per-View and then Aggression from Monday, he finally got a bit of time to investigate. And the best way to do that was to invite the young woman in question. That young woman: one Kasey Summers, better known to the wrestling world at large as Summer.

Something hadn't added up from the reports he was getting, and when his secretary informed him Kasey had arrived, he instructed her to send her on in.

A soft clearing of a throat came from the vicinity of his doorway before the redhead lifted one hand in a happy wave. Carson Black was one of her favorite people in the world, and not just because he'd been her agent from almost the beginning of her FFW career— he was actually someone she trusted wholly in the business. "Carson! HI!" Her voice came out a little loud, accompanied with a bright smile before she almost bounded over to plop into the seat across from his desk. "What's up? What's new? Do you have something exciting to tell me? Maybe a cool endorsement deal— no wait— it's too early for that! God, I'm so dumb sometimes. I'm just...." she broke off to breathe, giving him a moment to speak.

"You're not dumb, I'm glad to see you. I had something that I wanted to discuss with you." He replied, his fingers playing with a little stress reliever toy sitting on his desk before he sat down across from her. "I just had a question to ask you. And depending on the answer, we probably have something to talk about." He squeezed the toy in his hand as he spoke, releasing the pressure and tightening it again. "Now when we resigned you back with FFW, you did know that you weren't to take any more indy bookings without company consent, right? I did explain that, didn't I?"

Kasey frowned, tucking her hair behind her ears before leaning forward to stare at him. "But I haven't wrestled anywhere else since... I dunno... I think it was back in August that I had that one match in Sin City Wrestling because Sabra asked me if I could fill in for a curtain jerker tryout for some girl name Rhonda Hardy and I totally thought she was going to be related to that awful Ryann girl that Jax used to be with—" she realized she was rambling, shaking her head. "I haven't been in a ring since When Worlds Collide II... and yes. You explained it. And I went over the fine print pretty thoroughly too."

"I thought I had. And I wasn't accusing you, but...well I want you to listen to something." Carson turned his attention to his phone and began to put in a sequence of numbers. "I got a voicemail today, two actually. I'll play you one of them. It was left about midnight on Friday morning." He tapped the speaker button as a rather husky male voice began to speak.

"Yo, Carson. This is Murray. Ya know I love when I get name talent here at my shows, but I think you might have a problem on your hands, boss. Your girl, Kasey, competed here last night in Dearborn, Michigan. And I don't know what her problem was, but she was...just fucked up and way off. Timing was shit, looked like she'd never been in a ring in her life. You might want to check with her, I think something is wrong. Let me know, boss."

Carson turned off the speaker, and returned his attention back to her. "That's Murray Kingston, he runs a local promotion up in Michigan. Sometimes I send him some of the people I represent who are trying to shake off the ring rust. I don't remember sending you there though."

"I've never even heard of Dearborn before," she replied with a puzzled look, "let alone been there. I worked off most of my rust with Christian before New Years and... wait... Friday morning? So like Thursday night I was supposed to be in Michigan? Pretty sure that's not quite possible since I was on my way to Milwaukee!"

Carson nodded at what he heard, turning back to the phone again. "I got this message when I arrived this morning. I think you'll recognize the voice." He tapped the button again as the voice of Samantha Star was speaking.

"Mr. Black, I'm not quite sure what the circumstances are, but I don't appreciate hearing about talent I've signed doing local independent shows without first informing FFW management. I know we just brought Kasey back, but a promoter for a company in Pennsylvania left a message with my office that Kasey made an appearance Wednesday night for a local show in Pittsburgh. I'd like to find out why she is taking appearances without approval. Also of question is why she apparently looks terrible in this appearance. The promoter thinks she's strung out. I look forward to your clarification."

Carson turned off the speaker and once more, directed his attention back to Kasey. "That was my least favorite message of the week right there."

All of the color had drained out of her face at the sound of Samantha's voice. "I... don't even... ohmygod... Pittsburgh? I haven't been there in years... and they think I'm on drugs? I don't even use Tylenol and they think I'm wrestling high? After all the shit I gave that freakshow Christina Hall in that other place for showing up to wrestle me all strung out on cocaine? Are you kidding me?!"

"I'm not accusing you, Kasey. Surely you can understand the confusion I have though. I didn't actually think you were violating the terms of the contract with FFW, especially not before you even got your first booking, which will be in Raleigh by the way." He added. "But someone clearly is posing as you and making appearances in your name at northeast independent wrestling companies. None of them even have local television deals. We're talking about National Guard armories and high school gyms here."

She made a face, wrinkling her nose. "Yeah, and you know the last time I wrestled in a YMCA was in that dumpster fire in.... where was that now? Colorado? Cleveland?" She shrugged, "isn't that illegal? I mean... if someone's out there using my name and pretending to be me... that's pretty much identity theft! "

"You're right, it is. But it's difficult to tell because these local promotions tend to pay in cash. So there's no check to trace. However, I did take it upon myself to send an email out to all the promoters I know who hold shows in the northeast and asked them to inform me if you were scheduled to appear for them." He said, seemingly a bit proud of himself for a half second. "And I already got a response. Apparently you are scheduled to appear Saturday night in Kingston, Rhode Island at the Keaney Gymnasium."

"Then I guess I need to pack my asskicking boots, don't I?" She looked like she was on the verge of leaping out of her chair.

"One step ahead of you. I've purchased two tickets to the show. You and I will be there front and center to watch you wrestle Saturday. Everyone should see themselves in the ring once." He said with a wry smile. "I'm sure you would love to see what you can do."

"And I'm sure after this loserface identity thief is done losing while on drugs, I can jump over the guardrail and kick her face off," she paused as though considering the ramifications of that. "Probably not the best idea, though... since this pseudo-me is already making FFW look bad. I'm sure Samantha would kick me out before I even make it to Raleigh if I pulled a stunt like that, huh?"

"I'll call her back in a bit and let her know the story. Oh! One other thing about this..." He opened up the laptop in front of him, swiveling the screen around as he made a video clip full screen. A grainy image at that of a small ring with maybe 150 people around watching as two women were in a collar and elbow tie up. Neither looked familiar except for one of them wearing a green plaid wrestling top and matching skirt. "That's her. One of the promoters sent me that. She certainly has your ring gear down."

Kasey squinted, pushing her glasses up her nose as she leaned towards the screen. "She's got bigger thighs than I do," the words came out softly, "but her hair color's close... I think. Hard to tell from this terrible video. Must've been taken with a stupid iPhone." As she watched the woman claiming to be her botch the hell out of an armdrag, she winced. "I'm gonna kill her. I swear to God, Mr. Black— Carson— I'm gonna kill her!"