Tension Tag Tourney Round 2! United Kingdom Elite Vs.The Valkyries

Stone hadn't been in the best of moods when this match started, and getting kicked in the face didn't exactly ameliorate the tension. Not the worst blow she'd ever taken, but the blow and the fall out on the canvas had left her reeling for the last minute, and she'd only gotten her shit together well enough to make it back to her corner just now.

Fortunately, 'just now' turned out to be a very good time, as she saw Mako crawling her way on hands and knees. Satisfying sight, really, but she committed it to memory and leaned on the ropes, stretching out her hand for the tag.

Close. Closer. Almost...

"Gotcha!" She tagged out with Mako and jumped over the ropes, entering the ring officially. The prudent thing to do would be to try and stop John before he could make the tag, but he was probably too close for that. Besides, Stone wanted to play this clean. As clean as anything with Mako could ever reasonably be.

Stone made her way  to the center of the ring and waited for John to join her, hands on hips and her head cocked to the side.

John wasn't looking back, best not to think about the worst case scenario. After all he knew that Mako wasn't going to forget him anytime soon, based off of her reaction to his sudden belly to belly counter. The crowd was clapping over and over and John lept forth and slapped Ryan's hand, he then landed on his belly and rolled to the apron.

Mr Knight then jumped over the top rope in a stylish fashion, and ran a hand through his blonde hair. He looked down at John and said "Nice work my friend, take a break." to which John responded by giving a caveman like grunt and decided to lie on the apron. Just to catch his breath of course.

Ryan then focused on Stone, sizing her up. The crowd was really looking forward to this exchange, and truth be told so was the paragon of Britain. He was smiling and getting himself ready for this encounter.
"Man listen to that crowd, gotta say I've heard good things about you. Don't disappoint." Ryan said with a smile as he offered Stone a test of strength lockup, to see how Stone could do against the might of the United Kingdom!

Mako could not wait to forget about this match completely. Soon, she'd be one step closer to winning the tag team titles. The Valkyries would go from being relatively obscure threats to something worth fearing. They could start making big moves, establish dominance. And all they had to do was beat four idiots, hook or crook. Couldn't be simpler.

Stone, on the other hand, was busy wondering where, exactly, Ryan heard 'good things' about her from. She hadn't seen too much action in the ring since they'd come to the AFW, and what little she'd gotten had been in Friction. She simply wrote it off to Ryan beng a gentleman. Or a loony. Or both.

Hardly mattered. It was go time.

She brought her hands up and accepted the test of strength. Stone planted her feet down hard, flexed her chest, and put her all into pushing forward, showing the paragon of Britain what the paragon of Utah had to offer.

Ryan was waiting for this with bated breath, you could think of Ryan as both a gentleman and a bit of a loon. But it was the "Eccentric millionaire" kind, in case the limo and wine glass and rapier weren't proof enough. Next time he might come with a row of British royal guardsmen, he just might if he and John go to the finals of this tournament.

In the ring Mr Knight certainly felt the immense strength of Mako's enforcer, the only person who could match this would be Ryan's adoptive old man. He was even more built than Stone was, Ryan wasn't feeling disappointed so far.

In fact a wicked grin was on his regal features, Ryan skidded back ever so slightly. But that was all, Mr Knight was in peak shape of course. And then he yelled out "John! Do you see this?! What do you think?!

John had now managed to prop himself up now in a standing position, holding onto the ropes and said "I dare not avert my gaze, fantastic sir." with one hand holding his head, trying to numb the pain that Mako had so gracefully bestowed upon him.

Ryan then began putting all his upper body focus into the hold, Stone was worthy no doubt. Ryan and Lucy's Father would no doubt be watching at home in awe. "Have at you!!!" Ryan yelled out, the British aristocrat was grounding himself while trying to push his arms to their peak. The crowd was in awe and holding it's collective breath.

Stone couldn't help but notice that John and Ryan seemed to be close. Oddly close, even as tag team partners went. It could have just been her imagination, but the way Ryan seemed so eager for John to behold his sculpted body and the response he got pushed her mind into that territory. "Just curious," She paused to grind her teeth down and push back even harder, leaning into the hold to apply some more power with her weight backing it up. "Are you two a couple?"

Stone winced as Ryan started to advance in the hold, partly from the increase in pressure and partly from the way he yelled in her ear. She was starting to understand Mako's reluctance in dealing with Ryan - even as wrestlers went, the guy was just weird. Being odd didn't make him weak, though, and Stone wasn't sure she could overpower him.

Not that she had to. Not when she had better options, like pulling back on his arms, falling on her back, planting her feet in Ryan's gut and trying to send him flying with a monkey flip, looking to drop him flat on his back.

Upon hearing the words that Stone said John's eyes went wide and he shouted "Oh you better not have said what I think you did?! I'm straight as an arrow."

Ryan's response was to give a bellowing laugh and say "The answer is no lady, we both have girlfriends. But we won't tell you, cause then you might try to kidnap them. And then we'd be very, very cross...." The Knight's face turned icy cold at that point, the last thing he wanted was to give his opponents any ideas on how to try and ruin him further.

It seemed like Stone was having trouble coping with the might of Britain's paragon, Ryan certainly lived up to that name in the ring. Indeed Ryan was actually quite pleased with Stone's performance in this test of strength, certainly did better than most at least. Although it was coming back to bite Ryan as he was putting his might forward and trying to make Stone budge, that it was all too easy for Stone to bust out her monkey flip.

The eyes of the British aristocrat went wide, landing promptly back first on the mat with a thud. Ryan let out a small audible wince at the impact and moved to get back up, rolling to the left and on one knee while one hand was on his back to try and soothe the pain.

Mako's groan could be heard across  the ring. If the audience hadn't been booming, you could have heard it all the way to the rafters. "No one gives a fuck about your girlfriends! Stop bringing that shit up!"

While Stone wasn't quite as vocal as her fearless leader, she shared the sentiment.  They had plans, but so far as she knew, they didn't involve whatever Ryan seemed to think they might involve. At the moment, the entire 'plan' consisted of them working their way through the tournament and getting some recognition.

On that note, Stone felt like she was making a gain in the right direction with the monkey flip. It wouldn't keep him down for long, but it didn't need to. She was already preparing the next move by the time he landed, quickly rolling to her feet and turning around in preparation.

She jumped towards him with a dropkick as he turned around, trying to plant both of her feet in his chest and get the bulk of her momentum into the move.

"Hey she asked and he answered. No one was wanting your opinion." John snapped back at Mako form across the ring, sticking out his tongue at her. John was wondering what Mako might do if she and her enforcer lost, maybe meltdown and try to eat the ring? Perhaps, in fact John being the artist he was pictured the thing occurring in his noggin. And he grinned as he did it.

Meanwhile Ryan knew the situation wasn't good, he was on the opposite side of the ring from his tag partner. And Stone was already trying to plow into the paragon of Britain, Ryan gave credit where it was due. Stone knew what she was doing, if the roles were switched Ryan would most likely do the exact same thing.

But Ryan wasn't going to take this lying down, he quickly raised his toned arms in front of his chest. His upper limbs forming a wall, and Stone's dropkick went right into it. Mr Knight winced loudly, the muscles screaming in agony from the might of the attack. Ryan wasn't knocked down right to the mat, but he was still knocked on his arse. Mr Knight tried to scramble to the ropes on his right, he knew that Stone wasn't one to be taken lightly. And whatever she tried next he'd need to find a way to deal with, else the Valkyries would be the ones controlling the pace of the match.

Tune out the chatter. Ignore Mako. Ignore John. Ignore the crowd. Focus.

Stone centered her mind and pushed out the intereference, centering on the tall task of taking Ryan down. She'd already accomplished it...sort of. The blow didn't drop him flat like it would've for just about anyone else, but Ryan was on his ass, he was stunned and the momentum was all hers for the seizing. She just had to keep the pressure on.

In fact, when she saw him heading to the ropes and pulling himself up, Stone got an inkling on the perfect way to do just that.

She ran towards Ryan's side and leaped, turning her body sideways as she flew so she slid through the top and middle ropes. Stone grabbed hold of them before she could go fly towards the outside, swung around, and tried to slam into Ryan with a tiger feint kick, hoping to take him off guard with the manuever. Not something girls her size typically did, which was one of the reasons Stone had practiced it so much.

Ryan wasn't liking his chances or his situation at this moment in time, right now it had been Stone leading the pace of the battle. Not to mention Ryan wasn't in his team's part of the ring, oh how he really wished Lucy would come down from her VIP booth to start trolling. That would have been very useful right now, but nope she was there with red wine and Scottish shortbread. No way was she gonna get off her arse anytime soon, bugger.

Mr Knight was keeping a close eye on Stone, watching her movements for even the slightest chance for a counter. Stone might have gotten a couple of good moves on him, but Ryan was nothing if not durable. One counter, one counter was all he could need to turn things around for the best of Britain.

A tiger feint kick eh? Ryan had seen the move in action several times, usually when sparring with Lucy. And a couple of times back in Asia's indie circuit, it wasn't something he would expect from someone like Stone. But then again she didn't expect that lovely flying kick that Ryan delivered to her a while back. Mr Knight needed to stop this attack however he could, with that in mind he set about doing it.

The paragon of Britain got his arms ready, and tried to clamp them down onto the legs of Stone. Wrapping his arms around them as he tried to stand up with them, and try to yank her away from the ropes. Although he would bet his Kawasaki Ninja motorbike that Stone would try to cling on for dear life, or at least try to force Ryan away somehow. But the bottom line was Ryan was trying to prevent the attack from connecting, this was desperation that Ryan was thinking of.