Beat the Clock Challenge 3: Sandalwood Cooper Vs. Taylor Parker

Continued from here


The giant countdown clock on the AFWTron froze at one second under two minutes when Lukretia rang the bell after the three count was called. The General Manager stood up and clapped. "Gut, das gut!" She said and looked about to the audience. She raised her hand and outstretched it towards the giant screen.

"Now, you see how impressive our rookies can be. I vould like to show you ze gap between zem und our champion. Our champion has beaten ze rookie's time by nearly three minutes! Vhat an uncanny avareness of ze clock, Ms. Engel." She added, flashing a nod to Angel before continuing. However, it is not to disparage our new comers but instead to give zem a benchmark. Somezing to strive tovards. I hope zey vill take zis lesson to heart."

Lukretia nodded and looked to the last remaining rookie, Sandalwood Cooper, the hyperactive champion of the Portland City Woman's Wrestling League. A big fish in a small pond, or so she claimed. "It seems zat now ve only have two champions among us. No doubt zat Ms. Engel still has plenty of petrol in her tank. So, Fraulein, you have a choice. You may fight Angel to see if you can outlast her for two minutes, or you may slink avay to ze back. Zere vould be no shame in turning down a match against our champion, I assure you." Lukretia looked at Sandalwood with a malevolent grin that said shame would be the only thing she would receive if she didn't step up and take a beating from the champ like... well, a champ.

Sandalwood had not been happy about getting kicked out of the ring. She had not been happy when she saw Angel come down and fight Blossom, who had been her opponent. She was not happy when Angel put on a dominating performance. And she was not happy with Lukretia's tone. No, not happy at all. Sandalwood's microphone was tight in her hand as the redheaded wrestler rolled under the ropes, tilting her head and staring at Angel, lips pursed, sizing her up... before turning towards the audience.

"Wow, that was a great show, wasn't it?" She said, and the crowd roared back in response. "Yeah, yeah, a great show... if you like watching two minutes of one girl punching another! Y'know, totally one sided, totally without any, like, drama or shit, yeah? So basically, more like a terrible show!" The crowd cheered, louder. It seemed like the audience was just going along with whatever Sandalwood said. "I thought this was supposed to be showing off the newcomers, not stroking off your own collective company ego!" Sandalwood adopted a nasally, inaccurate version of Lukretia's accent. "Oh, zat vas very nice, vatching my precious champion beat up a poor, outclassed girl for two minutes, very stimulating, wunderbar, etc!" She shook her head, glancing over at Lukretia, a look of exaggerated disappointment on her face. "This kinda shit wouldn't have happened at my old league, lemme tell you that much..."

"But I guess I can't harp too much. Because if I was in the ring with Flower Power, that match woulda been thirty seconds!" The crowd roared! Sandalwood spun around, pointing at Angel, manic grin on her face. "Like, what, if I beat you here, to I get to be champ? That'd let me beat my own record! Jesus Christ, I'm going to be a legend! Lemme tell you this, so-called Angel; one way or the other, I'm coming for your title. Hope you enjoy getting your ass handed to you by Sandalwood Cooper, first of what I assume to be many, many times!" The crowd is going wild. And its a big crowd. Bigger than any Sandalwood's had before. Its electric, really; fire and thunder running through her as she puts her hands on her hips, confident glare on her face, staring Angel down like Sandalwood is the champion and Angel is a chump newbie who doesn't know what's coming for her. This was going to be epic, one way or the other...

Before Angel had a chance to respond, the mouthy newcomer's challenge was answered by the first notes of Taylor Parker's music, and then completely drowned out by the thunderous theme.

Lights hit at the top of the ramp just in time for Taylor to come bounding out from backstage, her golden pigtails trailing behind her and her big, punky grin shining brightly. She seemed to reach an uncanny height with each skip, floating as if she were not subject to gravity like everyone else. Over her ring gear, she wore a tight, white t-shirt with a crayon drawing of a raised fist inside a heart, and the words Love Changes Everything.

She paused for a moment at the top of the ramp with her feet spread apart. Her arms burst up into the air as she kicked a heel up behind her, and then more slowly she brought her arms out to the side while her fingers trickled down, like an exploding firework. She cocked her hips way out to the side and tilted her head so that her long bangs hung down, and gave the crowd a wink.

Then she was off, streaking toward the ring at bewildering speed. She leapt from the floor to the ring apron, and then again to clear the top rope. In a flash, she snatched Sandalwood's mic out of her hand and faced the crowd.

"HEEEEEEEY!" She screamed, and the crowd answered her. She danced across the ring and turned to Angel. "Hey, champ. Don't worry, I got this one. I wouldn't want everybody to have to sit through another half-hour of you botching a German suplex."

She dropped the mic for a moment and turned to Blossom, and in a voice that only those in the ring would hear she said "Dude, you need to find a new job. Please. No one wants to see you get really hurt. Again."

She instantly brightened up again and resumed skipping around the ring, intentionally colliding with Angel as she passed, her shoulder smacking against the champs. She flashed her a look without losing her smile, and they both undoubtedly knew what it meant.

"Whatya think? Can I beat Angel's time?" She crowed to the crowd. Their cheers were no answer to the question, but they were permission to try. "How 'bout you, Woody? I promise I'll have you home before dinner."

She gave Sandalwood a wink, with a sharp grin and a violent gleam in her eyes.

"The--what?" Sandalwood blinked, then tilted her head to the side. "Who the flying shit is this clown?"

The crowd roared Taylor Parker. Sandalwood glanced back at them, bemused frown on her face. Some sorta popular person, or something. Whatever. It didn't matter.

"Alright, shit, whatever, I don't care! You, Angel--I'll fight both of you! Right now! At the same time! Put up your goddamn dukes!" Sandalwood lifted hers; she didn't care if she had to fight the entire gorram roster of this dumb wrestling federation, she was going to rock this mat tonight! The crowd was roaring--if nothing else, this night was getting pretty damn hype!

Angel listened to Sandalwood as she ranted on towards her and Lukretia. It was amusing. The girl seemed eager, and full of energy. Angel just wondered if she could actually fight.

She opened her mouth to begin her reply towards the girl, when a theme that was all too familiar to the Latina hit the arena, a sound that caused Angel to roll her eyes, a deep groan passing her lips. Taylor. Of course it was Taylor, the last person in the world she wanted to deal with tonight. It was no secret to anyone how much Taylor had been trying to gun for her lately, and even after her beating at the hands of the champion, she still had Angel dead in her sights. Of course she would be out here tonight too.

She folded her arms over her chest, rolling her eyes again as Taylor addressed her. When Taylor bumped into her, she only replied with a sweet smile of her own, staring right into the blonde's eyes. Once Taylor was done speaking, she opened her mouth to reply to her, only to get cut off again, this time by Sandalwood.

This was getting annoying.

When Sandalwood bellowed out her challenge, Angel sighed, and shook her head, throwing up her hands. "Whatever. If Sparkster wants to fight you, then let her. Might as well give her a match she might be able to win, since she obviously can't do it against me."

She turned to Taylor, giving the blonde her usual cocky smirk, then turned away, going to slip out of the ring so they could properly get things started.

Taylor stuck out her tongue at the latina, and grabbed an imaginary pair of hips and gave the air one big pelvic thrust in her direction.

"Whatever, sistaaaaah. Just pay attention, you might learn something."

Lukretia waited for Angel to clear the ring and for Taylor to take one last barb at the champ. She had no issue with Taylor crashing her party. In fact, it was probably better this way. She loved it when she could count on her girls to behave exactly as she expected them to.

"Remember ladies. Ze time to beat is one minute und fifty nine seconds. If you go over, it is still a failure... for both of you."

And with that, Lukretia rang the bell.

"...Stop ignoring me!" They were ignoring her! They were sniping at each other and ignoring her! Sandalwood raised an arm--jeeze, she still had the damn microphone. She started to throw it at Angel, then stopped herself--these microphones were probably fricking expensive! She didn't want to get charged for that. She threw it at someone who was paying attention to her, instead. "Jesus Christ, you can't just--achh--" Sandalwood's shrill cry of annoyance was cut off as her throat went hoarse. Great. She had shouted all night and now she could only rasp. That sucked.

It didn't matter. The burning on the back of her neck, the frustration in her belly, the prickles running up her cheeks--none of that mattered. She didn't feel the fire and lightning any more, but that didn't matter. What mattered is that Sandalwood Cooper, Portland wrestling league champion, was finally, finally, after all this stupid drama that wasn't even related to new wrestlers or--or her, for that matter--was going to kick some arse. And arse kicking was something she prided herself on.

"F-fuck it." She wheezed, glaring daggers at Taylor, before charging the woman, a blue and red blur (she had some speed, to her credit), and leaped into the air, extending one leg in a flying sidekick, aimed directly at Taylor's chest! "Hiiiiiyah!"

"Mm. Mm."

Taylor danced and shook her hips in time to imaginary music while she stared at Sandalwood. Cool as a cucumber, and in no big hurry as the bell rang.

"Mm-mm."

Shake-shake-shake.

"Hiiiiiyah!"

Her opponent rushed straight at her and jumped. It didn't matter what kind of strike she was planning, Taylor's response was second nature. She took one fast step in, angled off to the side, and ducked to let the kick whoosh over her head.

She looked back over her shoulder, and as Sandalwood recovered from her missed attempt, she skipped a step toward the girl and fired a stiff high sidekick at her jaw, the ubiquitous Superkick.

This move, Sandalwood was infamous for. Most girls back at home just didn't have the knowledge or skill to respond to it. Sandalwood was good at it, too. She had heard on good authority that it hurt!

She flew through the air, goddamn majestic, and... missed? Wait, what? That's--what!? She missed!?!? That hadn't ever happened before!

Bomp. Sandalwood hit the ground.

Boomp! Sandalwood sprung up again, arms in the air. "I'm fine!" She called out in her shrill, hoarse voice, spinning around to face Taylor. "I'm fin--"

Crunch.

Sandalwood down like a sack of potatoes. She had been kicked in the face. Sandalwood felt funny, like she wasn't actually in her body right now, and the pain rocketing through her nose was someone else's. "Huh." Sandalwood-outside-of-Sandalwood said to herself. "That really hurt." Still, she wasn't going to let that take her down. Oh, no, no, these people were underestimating Sandalwood! She popped back up, stumbling from foot to foot, blinking away stars. "I'm--I'm still fine. Barely felt--barely felt that." She slurred, blinking. Were those... two people in the ring with her? "Two of you, eh? I see Angel took me up on my offer..." She blinked again. Why did Angel look just like Taylor?