The set is quiet. Professional lighting. The Spinebuster PRO logo fills the backdrop. A monitor in the background shows the live show feed, its audio barely audible. JARVIS JOLT stands with a microphone, dressed sharp, looking slightly off-centre, the way interviewers do when they are not entirely sure what they are walking into.
VOX NULL stands beside him.
Six foot five. Three hundred and twelve pounds. Still. His arms hang at his sides. His expression is flat and unreadable. He holds his iPhone loosely in one enormous hand, screen up. He does not look at Jarvis. He does not look at the camera. He looks at the wall behind it, or through it, or at something that is not there.
The silence is already doing something.
JARVIS JOLT: Ladies and gentlemen watching at home and everyone gathered here at The Bayou tonight, I am Jarvis Jolt, and I am standing here with a man who, as of tonight, is making his first appearance on Bad Juju. He has not been seen in this building before. He has not been heard from. He has said nothing to anyone in the press, nothing on social media, nothing in the halls backstage. What we know about Vox Null you could fit on a business card. What we don't know could fill this building. Sir, if I can just start with the basics, and I appreciate you being here -- why Spinebuster PRO? Why now?
Jarvis holds the microphone toward him.
Vox Null looks down at it. Then at the phone. He types. Slowly. Deliberately. The screen brightness turns up so the camera can catch it briefly. He raises the phone to his chest. The text-to-speech voice emerges from the iPhone speaker, flat and synthetic, fed through a small portable speaker clipped to his waistband that amplifies it just enough to fill the room.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) Because something in this building makes noise. And I wanted to see what it was.
He lowers the phone.
The monitor behind them continues its soft, nearly inaudible broadcast. Jarvis glances at his notes.
JARVIS JOLT: Fair enough. And you have been booked this week in a match against a man who has made quite an entrance of his own. "The Winningest" Ike Gritsenko. Member of the Second-Wind Syndicate. A man who came into this building waving a clipboard full of stats and records. A man who is very loud about his own accomplishments. What is your reaction to being matched up with Ike Gritsenko in your first night here?
Vox Null does not type immediately.
He reaches into the pocket of his jacket and produces a small Bluetooth speaker, places it on the edge of the interview desk beside him, and connects it to his phone without looking at Jarvis or the camera. He opens an audio app. He plays a sound.
It is the sound of a phone call being connected.
Then, a busy signal.
Bleep. Bleep. Bleep. Bleep.
He lets it run for four full seconds. Then he stops it.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) That is what I hear when Ike talks. A line that goes nowhere. Someone trying to get through to someone who is not there.
Jarvis nods slowly, leaning in.
JARVIS JOLT: Gritsenko has made it very clear he believes his record speaks for itself. He carries documentation. He has presented those numbers to anyone who will listen. He describes himself as the most statistically accomplished man in this business right now. Does that concern you going into this match?
Vox Null looks at Jarvis for the first time. Just looks at him. Not threatening. Not aggressive. The way a man looks at something he is trying to decide if it deserves a full sentence.
He types. He plays it.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) I want you to think carefully about something. A man who has to write down how good he is. What does that tell you about what he sounds like when the room goes quiet?
Jarvis pauses.
JARVIS JOLT: What does it tell you?
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) That silence terrifies him.
Vox Null reaches back to the audio app. He plays a short clip. A crowd roaring. A triumphant horn section. Something that sounds like the opening of a sports broadcast intro, all brass and manufactured glory.
Then he fades it down until it disappears.
What is left is room noise. The faint hum of the monitor. Air conditioning. Nothing.
He lets it sit.
He types again. Longer this time. He reads it back before he plays it.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) Ike Gritsenko has a record that he wrote himself, on paper, in ink, with his own hand. He thinks he is already writing the result before the bell rings.
Jarvis opens his mouth. Vox Null is not finished. He holds up one finger without looking at him.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) I nothing to prove. Zero. I walked in here tonight with no noise attached to my name. And I want you to think about how loud this room still got the moment I walked out here. Not because of anything I said. Because of everything I didn't.
JARVIS JOLT: That's a fair point. There's a faction element here as well. goldFISH is part of the Second-Wind Syndicate with Gritsenko. That is a variable. There are two people in that camp and only one of you. Does that change your approach at all?
Vox Null scrolls through something. He selects a short audio clip. It plays through the speaker.
It is the sound of static. The kind between radio stations when the tuner moves through dead frequency. Just raw, pure, unresolved signal.
He lets three seconds of it play.
Then he stops it and types.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) Bring your pet goldFISH. I do not care. My point does not get quieter because there are more people in the room. My point gets louder.
JARVIS JOLT: And what is the point? If you had to summarise it for Ike Gritsenko specifically, in terms he could write down on that clipboard and take home with him after tonight. What do you want him to understand going into this match?
Vox Null is still for a moment.
He looks at the camera. Directly at it. For the first time since he walked onto the set, he is looking straight down the lens, at whoever is watching, at the monitor behind Jarvis showing his own face on a slight delay.
He types slowly.
He holds the phone up so the speaker faces out.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) You have been talking your whole career, Ike. Next week, someone is going to answer you. Not with words.
He pauses the playback. Types the next sentence separately. Plays it alone, giving it its own space.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) I am going to answer you with the last sound you hear before it all goes quiet.
He reaches over to the Bluetooth speaker. He plays one final clip.
A phone ringing. Once. Twice.
Then the text-to-speech voice, not from the app this time, but from the iPhone itself, placed directly in front of the speaker, turned up.
VOX NULL: (text-to-speech) Can you hear me?
The clip ends. The speaker cuts out.
Vox Null picks up the Bluetooth speaker. Puts it back in his jacket pocket. Takes the phone, locks the screen, and slides it into his other pocket. He straightens to his full height.
He looks at Jarvis once, briefly, with no expression. Then he steps off the set and walks out of frame without another gesture, without a look back at the camera, without a sound.
The Spinebuster PRO backdrop fills the frame. The monitor in the background continues to show the live feed. The room is completely quiet.
Jarvis Jolt stands there for a beat, microphone at his side.
JARVIS JOLT: Vox Null. Ladies and gentlemen.
He says nothing else.
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