SS 14 Best 2/3 Falls: Taylor Parker Vs. Adrian Kytes

Nothing beat the sensation of hitting a dive perfectly. No matter how much the landing hurt, if you had hit it perfectly you just knew it was perfect. The crowd knew it looked perfect, a fine tribute to both her deceased mentor and one of her inspirations. Now was the time to end it, re-adjusting herself so she laid on Taylor and hooked her leg. The crowd on their feet as the first fall looked to be over in a spectacular fashion. "ONE!" The referee called as Adrian pulled the leg tight, her side stinging from the landing.

Junko was smiling as Taylor had gotten the edge back. It looked like she was in control again.

And then Junko blinked.

She swore that's all she did and then Adrian was on top of the ropes, crashing her elbow into Taylor in even shorter order. Junko turned her head and covered her face with a deft flick of her fan. She didn't want to see it. The noise that sputtered from Taylor and crowd's cheer assaulting her ears told her more than her eyes could.

She frantically fanned herself until she heard the referee's count of one. She then snapped her head forward and pounded her fists into the apron. "KICK OUT, TAYLOR!" She screeched shrilly, trying to use all of her mom powers to yell Taylor out of her stupor.

Junko bit her lip as the arena lights gleamed off her spectacles. She'd seen Taylor take a lot of punishment, watching the Iron Maiden fight had surely taken a few years off her life but Adrian had been fast. She wasn't some lumbering brute and if she was skilled enough to string together a few good moves like that then both girls were a blink away from a fall. Junko just hoped that this blink wasn't putting her daughter in the hole one-nil.

"Two!" The referee's hand slapped the mat a second time, and the whole arena held their breath.

Taylor's mouth gaped open, her brow knit into a pained expression, while she struggled just to get air into her lungs. She was aware of Adrian's body draped across hers, of her leg pulled up over her, but in the moment she couldn't put together the implications.

Until she finally heard Junko, loud and clear, cutting through the noise with one very clear command. Her head was still swimming, but she pulled herself together, pulled her legs in, and kicked with everything she had.

"Three!" The referee's hand hit home a moment before Taylor could lift a shoulder. She laid flat on her back for a moment afterward, staring up at the lights in stunned silence. Had that really just happened?

She pushed up to a sitting position, one hand propped behind her and one to her aching head, and stared in slack-jawed disbelief at the referee, and at Adrian. It was true. It felt so surreal, but it was real.

She looked around for a moment, as if lost, before she found the corner where Junko was stationed. She crawled to her, unable to stand up quite yet. "Mom," she said, the shock of the moment giving her voice an unmistakeable quiver. "She beat me. I lost. It's over." She panted, half panicked. She willed herself, with every fiber of her being, not to cry, but that as often only ensured the appearance of the glistening drops around her eyes. "I'm so sorry."

Junko inhaled as she saw Taylor's body twitch. She swallowed back the breath, knowing that Taylor would kick out. But the slap came and then, that was that. Junko's body froze as the crowd erupted in shocking applause.

Junko felt a sorrowful rush sweep over her body until she caught the look on Taylor's face. She quickly hid her own face with her fan while Taylor crawled over to her. She took a moment and hoped that Taylor wouldn't think she was ashamed. She just needed a second to calm herself.

When she pulled the fan away, Taylor was close, pleading and nearly in tears. Junko, on the other hand, looked quite stolid and almost harsh. She was standing on the apron and stepped through when Taylor was close.

Junko Leaned forward and put a hand on Taylor's cheek. She softened her gaze for a moment and smiled. "Taylor-chan, I'll always be proud of you." She said sweetly.

Then, her face hardened again and she reached out and yanked on Taylor's ear and hauled her to the feet by it. "But don't tell me you're going to quit when you haven't even gotten a chance to feel what it's like to kick her ass when she can actually fight back!"

Junko then grinned widely. "Lucky you, you have two more falls to enjoy yourself, right? fufufu~"

"I... I..."

Taylor had no words. She was overwhelmed with grief and disappointment and shame for having lost to her rival, and on such a grand stage. She was silenced by Junko's kind words, and she blinked several times and smiled back at her.

"Ah, OW!" Taylor's neck cricked to the side, which hurt more than a little, and she winced as Junko helped her up by the ear. For a moment, she was a lanky, gawky teenager weathering a scolding from her mother. Only her mother had never encouraged her like that.

"What?" She said, uncomprehending. "I'm not gonna quit!"

Then she remembered. Two more falls. Two out of three falls. It wasn't over yet. She hadn't lost anything! And oh-my-gawd it was like Christmas morning. All she ever needed was a chance, and she had that.

Her wide-eyed look of sudden realization melted into relief, and then from somewhere beneath it surfaced a familiar grin. It tarnished somewhat by the beating she'd taken already, but it was reckless and eager and she was ready to get back to it. She nodded to her mother-in-law, and carefully rolled her aching neck, shook out her arms and legs, and before she turned back to face Adrian again, she hesitated. She stared Junko in the eye while she made her one last request.

"Slap me."

Junko chuckled behind her fan as Taylor sobered up and her vivaciousness returned. It melted her heart and put years back onto the seasoned woman. She knew Taylor was ready and her heart raced at the thought of watching her daughter in action.

However, when the final request came, Junko's eyes widened. She looked at her hands with the painted nails. They were dainty yet not without the signs of age and effort. She looked at Taylor's cheek and her shoulders fell. She pulled her hand into her kimono sleeve and leaned forward.

"Taylor-chan." She said, rubbing away at Taylor's cheeks like she had just scraped her knee. She wiped away the tiny specks of tears, the sweat and pushed her thumb into Taylor's cheek like she saw smudge. She then leaned in and kissed Taylor's cheek and carefully spun her around.

"You're not dreaming, Taylor-chan." She said. "You're flying."

Junko then turned and chuckled devilishly as she walked past Taylor, pivoting on her geta sandal, extending her hand and then quickly and sharply swatted Taylor's backside so there was a sharp crack from the swift swat.

"Fufufu, you didn't say where." Junko chuckled to herself as she stepped out of the ring and walked back down the chrome steps and to the apron. Surely it was the right spot to kick the punk in gear for the second fall of the match.

Taylor's face was set in an aching, fire-eyed smile as she unflinchingly held Junko's gaze. She stayed put as Junko walked past, only turning her head to watch as she-

"Eep!" She squeaked, and jumped in surprise. She covered her butt with her hands. "So not what I had in mind!" She protested, but she couldn't help but laugh.

Finally, she turned back to find Adrian. How smug she must have felt after making Taylor eat nearly every word she had ever spoken, standing there in her tank top and tight pants and stuff with her name written on them, in case she ever forgot it. She wondered if Adrian remembered her wager, about winning 2-0 or else... whatever she said she'd do.

She hurt, her neck and her head ached badly. She was in need of a chiropractor and a massage and lots of rest, but not yet. Pain was temporary. She could take it, because she only had one shot at tonight. She only had so many fleeting minutes to put everything to work, to fight and endure and win. She couldn't let a headache slow her down.

But she needed to slow down. Her hastiness was what had got her into trouble in the first place. Adrian was no longer a skinny kid playing pro wrestler. She was a crafty veteran, a skilled grappler, and a dangerous opponent, and she had proven as much. Taylor wasn't going to just be able to swarm on her and expect her to throw in the towel. She knew that there were things that Adrian could do better. She knew that Adrian could spring them on her at any moment... not totally unlike Cassie. She wasn't ever going to be out of the fight. Taylor was surprised by her resilience... she had half-expected her to break once she got her ass good and kicked. She didn't. Taylor was impressed.

"Two-and-oh, just like I said, right?" She grinned across at Adrian.

"Three!" The referee called a microsecond before Adrian was forced off Taylor and the former cosplayer couldn't believe it. She'd done it, after years of beating herself up over every time she confronted Taylor, she'd finally done it. Center of the ring, she had just pinned Taylor Parker 1,2,3.

"...Wow." She breathed as she rolled away and staggered back to her feet, still woozy as the adrenaline sapped away to leave a feeling of bliss. She'd fucking done it. "Wooo!" She called out, stumbling to one of the corners as the referee raised her hand and the bell rung. For that brief moment, Adrian was king of the world, standing on the bottom rope so she could bend over and wave to the cheering fans. Her cheering fans, she actually had fans! All the things she had zoned out and dismissed as 'never going to happen' was finally happening. She had a smile on her face when she turned back to see Taylor was back and ready to face her oh right, best two out of three. she reminded herself, but getting that all important first pinfall seemed to wash away all the anxieties, if not the pain. Pain was still there, but she'd been through one round of onslaught, she could last another. "Coming right up." She grinned back at Taylor, who seemed raring to go for the next round.

The former cosplayer started to circle around the ring, a little slower than the first time around but clapping in rhythm to get herself pumped up while the crowd clapped along with her.

"Maybe next time," Taylor said, stretching out her arms before she began to pace around the ring, circling Adrian.

As the second fall officially began, she was confronted with a unique problem. On the day of a fight, she ran on intuition and instinct and practice, and she very decidedly did not over think things. If you were thinking, you weren't doing, she thought. If you were thinking too hard, you were slow. But Adrian had beaten her, fairly, and now did she have to make adjustments to keep the same thing from happening again.

She felt the sharp pain in her neck, and reminded herself not to let that happen.

But if she second-guessed herself, would she lose her edge? Did she ever even have one? She looked Adrian over for any sign that she had hurt the girl. She vaguely remembered hitting her and... doing other stuff, but she couldn't specifically remember a moment where she had had her hurt. She thought that she had somehow always been matched up against the terminator.

She drew a slow, relaxing breath, and stopped in the middle of the ring. She set her feet wide and bent her knees, and issued an invitation by holding one hand up high toward Adrian.

Reflecting back on the first fall, it could have gone better for Adrian. Yes, she had picked up a big advantage in the first fall and now had a pretty obvious target to go for against Taylor, she had been on the receiving end for a good proportion of the match, and scooped up the victory with a few big moves mostly aiming for Taylor's neck and head while the blonde had hit the brunette pretty much everywhere. She could still go on fine and look like she wasn't hurting too badly, but everything was starting to add up. The landing of the elbow drop had pretty much completed the circle of both sides, back and front that ached on top of her head thumping, now potentially categorized into just being upper-body pain rather than anything specific.

She needed to get the adrenaline pumping again while she could, no time for a crash down in this match, instead of going slower: she needed to speed up and keep pushing herself. There was blood in the water, and she needed to be like a shark. She didn't have time for tests of strength right now and showed that to Taylor by simply kicking her in the gut when the punkette offered her invitation.