Fenix Rising

[url=http://afwrpg.informe.com/forum/the-ring-f8/vida-fenix-vs-stone-w-mako-the-fine-art-of-fair-play-t10615.html:bl71ztwz]Continued from here...[/url:bl71ztwz]

Stone followed the medical crew as they carried Vida through the back, staying as close as they'd let her. The place had a good staff, quick on the response, and from the looks of things, they were well-trained. Given how dangerous even a standard AFW match could be, they would have to be the best, wouldn't they?

It took quite a deal of convincing for them to let her stay anywhere near Vida while they did their work and looked her over, but finally they just figured out that if Stone was really interested in hurting the younger wrestler while she slept, she'd already be doing it and there wouldn't be a damn thing they could do to stop her. She wanted to be here. She needed it. This was her mess, and even though it was Mako who did the damage, the fact of the matter was that Stone allowed her to be there in the first place. If Stone had a crazed dog on a leash and she let him go, the blame would be on her when he went off and bit someone. The same concept applied here. Stone wasn't sure she could even set things right at this point, but she had to try and make it happen. Somehow.

They attended to her leg, got it wrapped up, and as near as Stone could tell from the technobabble, it wasn't a serious injury. They'd run more tests after she woke up, which shouldn't have been too long.

Stone decided she'd sit and wait for it. After all, she didn't have much else to do - she wasn't driving home with Mako, not after the crap she pulled in the ring. In fact, as much as she loved being a Valkyrie, today she didn't even feel like being one. She just wanted to be Stone, the up-and-coming wrestler for a little while and see how that would work out.

She sat by Vida's bedside and leaned back, closing her eyes and starting on a little nap. When they both woke up, there would be plenty to talk about.

While there was a level of concern, backstage, Vida's extraction from the arena was nothing too far out of the ordinary. Particularly for those who had seen why the girl had gone down towards the climax of the match. Still, with the rookie having passed out to Stone's aplty-applied sleeperhold, getting her assistance to the back at least seemed like the best way to get things cleared out, for the next match. Hopefully, whoever had the ring, next, would be able to do something with the chorus of boos raining down, after that finish.

Once Vida had been laid out on a cot, her boot was removed and a bag of ice affixed to her ankle. The swelling was noticeable, but for now there didn't seem to be much, by way of lasting damage. The medical staff had certainly seen worse, at least. There had been more of a buzz, really, about Stone's commitment to staying backstage, next to the opponent she'd just laid out. Still, the calm and reasonable attitude Stone seemed to be taking, coupled with the fact that nobody on the medical staff could really make her leave, if she didn't want to, led to a general consensus that there was no harm in her staying.

It was some time after the initial concerns had all died down, that Vida's eyes began to open. Groaning groggily, the latina took a few minutes to look over the room, utterly confused by the change in her surroundings. The anxiety of waking up in a completely unexpected place was stressful enough. However, turning and immediately seeing the woman who had just put her to sleep didn't help matters, at all.

“Eep!” Vida squealed, shooting up off of the cot. An act she immediately regretted, as her still-aching leg immediately flared in agony. “Wh-what's going on?” she asked, not taking her eyes off of Stone, as she tried to reposition her leg comfortably. While still trying to adjust, and get herself settled in, Vida was hoping that Stone wasn't noticing quite how badly she was freaking out, at the moment.

Stone was just starting to nod off when Vida's shriek brought her back to reality. She nearly fell out of her chair from the shock and stood up fast, shaking her head from side to side to jog some sense back into it. "What what what?"

She looked at the panicked expression on Vida's face and softened. The girl was scared. Of course she was scared. She was in a room, alone, with a giant woman who's just knocked her out. There was all sorts of implications she could draw here, and most of them involved things that were patently illegal.

"It's okay, it's okay!" She held out her hands, looking to reassure the young luchadore. Worth a shot, at any rate. "It's cool, we just took you back here after the match, looked your ankle over. You're in a safe place, don't worry." Said the woman who choked Vida out just a little while ago. Yeah, that would go over smooth.

Feeling her heart beating up into her ears, Vida tried to adjust herself comfortably on the cot, once again. “Ah, s-sorry,” she stammered, just a few seconds before she realized she wasn't certain why on earth she was apologizing. The last few moments before everything went dark were still a complete blur, but from what her mind was hurriedly trying to piece together, it seemed like Stone was the last person Vida should be apologizing to.

Vida could remember the match, remembered feeling good about how things were going, when suddenly things had gone south. It was hard-earned, but she was actually on top of things. Then, her ankle felt like it exploded, and suddenly she was on her back. There was somebody else there, at ringside, viscous looking woman. And before she knew it, Vida was getting crushed between Stone's powerful limbs, as everything went black.

Carefully, Vida edged her way back, away from Stone. She looked down at her carefully-bandaged leg, before looking back to Stone. “Wh-where are we? What's going on, here?” The panic was clear in her voice, and the girl looked like a frightened animal, down on her cot.

For some reason, it hurt Stone to see Vida edging away from her like that. She didn't blame her. She understood the reasons. But it still hurt.

When Mako first suggested they come into the AFW, Stone thought it would be a pretty simple thing. They'd fuck up a few people in Tension, handle some of their usual business, and she'd get to do her own career on the side. Wrestling looked like fun. Real, genuine fun, something her life was severely lacking these days. Meeting beautiful women was a nice bonus, too, but she was really just on the lookout for a good time. This was a place that celebrated women like her - strong, independent, fierce women who were always looking for competition.

Why couldn't she have that? Just this once?

"Calm. Down." Stone put her hand on the bed and leaned forward, looking Vida right in her rather lovely eyes. "You're in the med bay. Still at the arena. They're just looking at your leg, okay? You're going to be fine." She looked with some shame for a moment, before mustering enough courage for the next part. "I swear, I'm not going to hurt you. I swear."

Try as she might, Vida was struggling to put herself at ease. Stone was coming forward on her, now, which momentarily wasn't helping matters. Part of Vida was telling Vida, on no uncertain terms, to run screaming out of that room. Part of her, however, knew that one of her key running bits was iced and thoroughly wrapped up and that would be a horrible idea, right now. So, in compromise, the young latina simply sank further into the cot, and tried to piece together more of the puzzle that was scrambling through her head.

Vida could feel her heart pounding in her ears, which only made things more difficult. Still, as she studied Stone's face, she could see that the fit young blonde meant her no harm. She even seemed to be feeling badly about something, which pulled a twinge of sympathy from Vida. Seeing that reluctance in Stone's posture caused Vida to settle down, some, and try to release the tension in her arms and shoulders. While her eyes were still darting back and forth, much of the young woman's body seemed to relax. And as she did so, more of the recent events of their match came into focus, and Vida felt suddenly, visibly guilty.

"Okay, okay, yes," Vida said, her furrowed brow turning from Stone to look down to her bandaged foot. She was beginning to remember, now, how the match had gone. How things had felt, leading up to those final moments. How Stone had taken no shortcuts, no cheap shots. How Vida wasn't just excited about the prospect of winning, but about facing an opponent that truly respected her. She was shaking, a bit, from the stress, but she still couldn't figure out how she'd gotten from there, to here. "What," she asked, "what happened? How am I here? Wh-what happened to ... to my ..." she asked, trailing off, clearly a bit frightened at the prospect of lasting injuring havng been done to her suffering ankle.

Those were actually hard questions to answer, because Stone wasn't 100% sure what had happened, herself. It had all been a blur. She'd been so wracked by the pain and the adrenaline and the rush of it all that she hadn't even started connecting the dots until after the bell rang, which was just a shining example of how dull her skills were getting, these days.

Stone wasn't a detective, but she did know Mako and she knew full well what the fun-sized terror was capable of. Putting two and two together wasn't hard. Maybe she couldn't figure out exactly what she did, but she did something.

She groaned and rubbed her shoulder as she leaned back in the chair. Might as well be comfy. "I'm part of a gang, and that woman at ring side, she's my leader. She interfered, somehow. Messed up your leg. I didn't even figure it out it until you were, you know..." She pantomimed choking Vida's little head out.

"She shouldn't have even been there, my stupid mistake." Stone groaned and ran a hand over her face, as if she could just rub the shame off. "How's the leg feel?"

Vida could see that Stone was feeling rather uncomfortable, even if she probably wasn't feeling as vulnerable,at the moment. Vida sat and listened intently, eyes fixed on Stone, as the muscular wrestler began to expound on the possible causes of her current injury. "I see," Vida said, as Stone gave her explanation. The rookie's face burned, a bit, feeling like this was information she should have been privy to, before the match started. "A gang, huh?"

The more she thought about it, though, the harder it was for Vida to remain angry with Stone. The powerful young blonde had treated her with so much respect, in the ring, in a situation where she really hadn't been forced to. And she was here, now, offering Vida her condolences during her recovery. Besides, it seemed like there was another target for any lingering anger that the latina had. A target who wasn't getting nearly as much scrutiny as she might need, at the moment.

Despite her grim mood, however, Vida couldn't help but find herself laughing, as Stone re-enacted choking Vida out. While the latina warrior partially felt like she was being mocked, it felt good to be able to laugh with it. Vida's sweat-drenched bangs hung over her eyes, swaying back and forth, as she leaned back and snickered helplessly at Stone's act. In any event, it was a massive help to Vida's getting more comfortable, in the cot. "Her mistakes aren't yours, right?" Vida said, still trying to catch her breath, from the outburst of laughter. "Besides, the sisters would never let me live it down, if I didn't forgive you," she said, with a laugh. "And my leg's okay. I mean, it hurts super bad. So bad, actually. I can't really move it, right now, it is kind of very bad, so maybe it's not exactly okay, but I'm sure it will be," Vida said, as she returned to nursing the wounded joint. "Thank you, for asking ..."

Yeah. A gang.

It occurred to Stone that, if she ever made contact with her parents and bothered explaining what she'd been doing for the past years, then they would likely have about the same reaction...assuming she didn't just lie about it, which she'd likely do. Hard to believe that a little Mormon girl from Utah could somehow wind up as part of Tokyo motorcycle gang. It was a long, weird, often depressing story.

She pushed those thoughts aside and focused back on the young thing in front of her - this conversation was going a lot better than it probably would with her parents. Vida had been cheated, hurt, and a lot of the blame laid on Stone. She had every right to be mad. But she wasn't.

Stone allowed herself to return the smile as Vida laughed. She had a nice laugh, lilting and cute and infectious. "It sort of is my fault, I shouldn't..." She let chuckle fade off into a laugh. "She shouldn't have been there. So. Sorry. I'll probably be saying a lot of sorrys in this conversation. Sorry for that, too." She canted her head to the side at the last thing Vida said - that was intriguing. "Sisters? You mean, like, biological? Or nuns?" The latter would hardly be surprising. Vida had a saintly vibe about her.

As she managed to get her heart rate back down to a reasonable rate, Vida settled into the cot. Looking at Stone a bit more reasonably, now, the rookie began to settle down. Stone sounded level-headed, non-aggressive. If she'd wanted to come at Vida, there was certainly nothing the ailing rookie could do about it. However, Stone simply sat back, and offered her apologies.

Vida felt a twinge of guilt, for the way she'd initially reacted. She offered up a nervous chuckle, and muttered, “Heh, yeah …” when Stone pantomimed the choking. If there was one thing that Vida could starkly remember about what had just happened, it was the feeling of those powerful arms, closing down on her neck.

“Well,” Vida said, leaning forward, a bit, “it stings. Especially when I move it. And I can feel it swelling, but it's not as bad as when I had my boots on. That, was the worst!” Vida ran her hands down her leg, to tentative attempt massaging the injured joint. She was flexible enough to reach it, but she was afraid to risk putting more tension on the muscle. “And … You can't blame yourself for your leader, there. You didn't know that she was going to … Do whatever she did.”

“Can I ask you a question?” Vida said, turning up to face Stone. “How are you two … friends, I guess? You seem so nice, and ... respectful. And powerful, but in a really honest way. And she …” Vida's eyes darted back and forth, looking for the right words. “She doesn't.”