MMA System: I Will Be Pound For Pound Goat - Chapter 484

Chapter 484: Chapter 484: Off Script
When the cameras shut down, the studio lights dimmed just a little, and the room’s tension seemed to exhale all at once. The quiet murmur of the crew returning to their routines filled the space.

Damon sat in his chair for a few seconds longer, staring at the floor, his elbows resting on his knees.

He sighed, running a hand over his face.

Maybe I lost it a bit there, he thought.

Another breath left him, heavier this time.

What the fuck am I becoming.

For a moment, he just sat there. Still. Thinking.

Then he stood up, slowly rolling his shoulders, shaking off whatever weight was trying to settle there.

He was about to leave when he saw her.

Ava.

She was walking toward him, her steps uneven, but determined in that shaky kind of way people get when they’re trying to act like they’re not rattled. Like they’re not falling apart inside.

Her hands were clasped tightly together in front of her, knuckles white. She looked like she was trying to hold something steady that had already started to crack.

Damon stayed where he was, watching her approach.

Her show wasn’t big. That much was obvious. The studio was small, the cameras weren’t the high-end kind, and the crew barely filled out the space.

But when the organization behind the World MMA Tournament reached out and asked her to do an interview with him… she said yes. Of course she did.

The money was good. Better than what she was used to, probably.

And the publicity? Could change everything for her.

But she didn’t realize she was stepping into something bigger than she knew.

She didn’t know about the history. The politics. The unspoken lines.

And today, she crossed one.

Not because someone told her to. Because she chose to.

She was nervous. Scared she was going to blow it. And desperate to stand out, to rise up.

So she went off script. She asked the question they specifically told her not to. And Damon had handled it the way he did.

Now she stood in front of him. Still shaken, but trying.

“Hey,” she said, her voice softer than before.

Damon didn’t say anything. He just looked at her.

“I, uh…” Ava hesitated, cleared her throat, and forced herself to keep going. “I know that… maybe I overstepped. Or, yeah, I did. I did overstep.” She gave a shaky laugh that died almost immediately. “I thought I could….”

Damon’s expression didn’t change. His gaze stayed steady, unreadable.

Before Damon could say a word, the man Victor had sent, his stand-in for the day, stepped in between them. Calm, but direct.

“Thank you for having us,” he said to Ava, his tone polite but firm. Then he turned slightly toward Damon. “We’re done here.”

Ava flinched, the reality hitting her harder than Damon’s stare ever could.

There was nothing left to say.

The interview was over.

No reason to stay.

—

The car ride was silent for a while. Damon sat in the back, his gaze fixed out the window, his expression unreadable. The city slid by in a blur, but he wasn’t paying attention to any of it.

The man Victor had sent was the one to break the silence.”You want me to run this by Mr. Steele? We can file something if you want. Breach of contract is clear. Could make it stick.”

Damon didn’t answer right away. He let the offer hang there.

Then he shook his head.

“No.”

He exhaled slowly, settling back into his seat.

“For what?”

The guy nodded, saying nothing more. He understood. Damon wasn’t interested in dragging it out.

Damon stayed quiet after that.

He knew what happened back there.

She crossed a line, asked something she wasn’t supposed to.

That was on her.

But he wasn’t about to ruin someone’s life over one bad choice.

She was nervous. In over her head.

And he had made his point.

He didn’t need to make it worse.

He didn’t need to be that guy.

The car kept moving, the road ahead open and quiet. Damon didn’t say another word the rest of the way.

And if he was being honest, he’d overreacted.

The whole thing felt petty now.

As the days passed, Damon found himself watching for it, not obsessively, but enough to notice. He figured the interview would be out by now.

Maybe the usual clips chopped up and posted online, a few headlines pulling his quotes out of context, fans arguing in the comments. He’d expected it. Hell, he was already prepared for the usual noise.

But it never happened.

No announcements. No previews. No “coming soon” posts on their Chirper feed. Nothing. It was like the interview had never even existed.

The account that belonged to her show went quiet. The small bursts of activity they usually had, even on a slow day, just stopped.

For a while, Damon figured they were just sitting on it, maybe trying to figure out how to edit it. Maybe the higher-ups were arguing over whether to release it at all.

After what happened, he wouldn’t have been surprised if they were scrambling behind the scenes, trying to figure out how to spin it, make it presentable.

But as more time passed, it became clear there wasn’t going to be an interview. No footage. No soundbites. No carefully clipped moments to go viral.

It was just gone.

Buried.

Damon didn’t ask why. He didn’t need to. He already knew.

The whole thing was a mess from start to finish. She’d crossed a line she wasn’t supposed to. He’d called her on it harder than he probably should have. And when it was over, no one wanted to deal with it.

They hadn’t gotten the clean, marketable content they were hoping for. There was no neat, polished interview that would boost her show or promote the tournament. Just an awkward, tense conversation that made everyone involved look bad.

So they did the one thing they could.

They erased it.