24/7: The Brat Pack (Izzi & Cham Cham) vs. Carmen Rodriguez

Hardcore match
In a boxing gym for the Tension 24/7 belt
Pin or submission to win

It was getting into evening time on a Wednesday, most of the shops were just closing for the night. Down one of the less commercial roads, a number of small "customers" were inspecting a certain small time gym.

"It's closed... But I think I can see someone working inside.." Izzi said, her face up against the front glass door and hands cupping around the sides of her head so that she could see.

"Well it does say right here on the sign.." Dani was stood behind her alongside Cham Cham, the obligatory special ref for 24/7 contests and camera crew. The waitress indicated to the "closed" sign hanging on the front door "We should really come back during its open times."

"Open times?!" Izzi spat as she turned on the ditzy waitress.. Cham Cham shrugged the 24/7 belt up on her shoulder so that she could keep a hold of it properly, but as Izzi was no longer looking through the door she promptly went to snatch it back away from the feline.

"Hey!" Cham Cham piped indignantly, the succubus continued to address Dani though "I suppose I should book an appointment as well while I'm at it? huh?"

"Well.. That would be polite, I mean she might have other activities she needs to atten-"

"Wake up! this is a 24/7 ambush! We're gonna attack when we want not when is good for her diary. And we want to attack now.."

"Why not just knock"

"No Chammers.. I want to catch her by surprise..."

"Then the back door?"

"If no knock on front door, why we knock on back door?"

"No silly, I mean we could try the backdoor.."

"See... I knew there was a reason why I brought you along... come on.." Izzi said, giving Dani a gentle push on the shoulder so that she could lead the way around towards an alley that ran along the side of her building and out behind. There was indeed a back door as Dani had foretold, the waitress promptly went up to pull the door open.. only to find it wouldn't budge.

"It's locked..." She said looking around, her eyes finally falling on the window just to the side of the door that appeared to be open a crack. "But maybe someone could squeeze in through that window and open it from the outside.." All three of the brats looked at each other, Mexican stand off style

"Not it!"
"Not it!"

"Not- oh.."

"Looks like you're up."

"hey.. Hey! Wait a minute, I'm not even gonna be part of this match, I don't even hold the 24/7 belt!"

"Yeah well.. Brats gotta pull their weight, get in there." Dani grumbled at how she got into this, now she had been roped into this breaking and entering... Well, the window was open so it wasn't like she'd be breaking anything... Holding onto the windowsill with both small hands she carefully lifted herself up and slipped herself headfirst through the gap under the window... However as her trail leg came up, it hit the glass pane hard with a loud *crack*. Squealing out, she toppled the rest of the way in through the back window with a loud clatter of what sounded from the outside to be metallic objects. I guess that was the brat's sneak attack out the window...

A few moments later the back door opened inwards with a grinning Dani behind it, rubbing her head

"Silly me, the door wasn't locked.. I pulled when I should have pushed.."

"You idiot! Why did I even bring you along with us anyway?" Izzi said as she stepped into the back room of the gym with Cham Cham closely behind, wondering if she could still salvage the sneak attack as she approahed an interior door, intending to have a look through the main gym area, if she wasn't interrupted by someone before that

Carmen sat on a bench by the side of one of her rings, with a vacuum cleaner at her side and a bottle of Powerade in her hands. Her clothes were ragged - a plain white t-shirt that would likely become a dishrag someday and blue and black trackpants she never wore in public anymore. Both of them tattered. Good clothes for getting dirty in.

She'd been up since, what? Four AM? At least. Couldn't sleep, so she decided she might as well be productive and get an early start on the paperwork. She'd cleared that out of the way, then headed to the gym for her daily training. Worked out, practiced a few new moves with Army, then had some of her girls over for classes in the afternoon. Army had a date with his new girlfriend, Amy, and as much as she wanted to rib him for leaving her with the work, Carmen was too happy about him actually trying the single life to really get in the way of it. So, she'd been stuck cleaning. Cleaning the free weight area, cleaning the machines, cleaning up all three of the center rings, replacing a few of the sandbags, trying to figure out why the air conditioning was on the fritz for the fourth time this week.

Busy, busy, busy. Carmen swore, her life had been less hectic before she heard of the AFW. She'd trained as a boxer full time, had over a dozen bouts, went through a grueling regimen to get ready for the Olympics, and for a year it felt like she spent most of life either working out in the gym or traveling to places around the world...so she could work out with the people there. It was a crazy, convuluted life, and that was before you considered all the micromanaging she had to do with sponsers and her agent and setting up public appearances.

That was years ago, now. She was settling down in Japan. No more traveling, just sitting still in one place. Wrestling and trying to get things up and running with her gym. Two simple things, but everything they both entailed...

She was glad for little moments like this. Times where she could just sit back and watch the sunset and the world was so quiet. The only sounds were the faint crackles of the gym settling into the foundation, the low whine of her barely-fuctioning air conditioner trying to function, and the occasional slurp from her drink. Peaceful. Serene.

And then came the bump."Jesús mierda!"

Carmen jumped out of her seat and nearly spilled her drink, having to frantically fumble to keep it upright. She looked towards the back and took a few cautious steps that way, not sure what to think. Could be just something that fell back there, like a shelf that just taken too much for too long and decided it was time to crash. Or...

No. She could hear voices. Someone was back there.

This wasn't the first time she'd been in a situation like this. Back in Puerto Rico, someone had tried breaking into her father's gym when she was training there alone one night. Probably thought the place was emptied out, didn't hear her jumping rope. Just yelling at the guy had been enough to make him run off. Maybe it would work this time, too.

Carmen took out her phone and got ready to dial. "Whoever's back there, leave, right now!" She groaned after a second passed and she realized that, whoever this was, the chances were that they didn't speak English. Japanese was more likely to get a response. ["Go away, now! I'm calling the police!"]

Luckily Dani didn't understand Japanese, the English version was scary enough to her without the mention of police being involved

"You've gone and got me into trouble again.."

"Chillax.. its not like they are going to camera's recording to provide video evidence in a place like this."

"Uhm.. we are already rolling back here.." The cameraman piped in

"Shhh! She'll hear you..."

There was silence for a moment and then the door open up a creak, Carmen might just be able to see the side of someone head.. they looked small and seemed to be wearing cat ears?!

"Cham Cham think she knows we're here.."

"Alright screw it.."

There was a loud "Weow!" As the feline was pushed aside from the door and then suddenly it burst inwards as an impish blond twin tailed succubi girl in purple lycra bikeshorts and tube top kicked the door in. She hit a rather obnoxious looking pose, pointing one finger straight at Carmen while holding placing the other on her hips

"CARMEN SANDIEGO! I HAVE FINALLY FOUND YOU! THE DAY OF YOUR WRECKONING-" Yes Izzi actually did mean a day of being wrecked as well as a day for punishment for past deeds "IS NIGH! I, IZZI OF BRAT PACK INCORPORATED, HERE BY CHALLENGE YOU TO A DUEL!!!"

"... stealthy..."

Carmen stared. And stared. And stared.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence as she looked at the intruders and her mind tried to process what she was seeing. There was a girl. Two girls. One of them was dressed like a cat. They were both absurdly short. There was a referee. A cameraman. The girl was yelling at her, introducing herself, challenging her. The other one had...was that a championship belt?

Carmen's mind reeled, as she tried to process everything she was seeing and convince herself that this was not, in fact, a dream. No, there was still that niggling little ache in her neck from the last match, so this was real. There was something familiar about these girls, but her mind wasn't up to the task of properly analyzing it yet.

She stared. And stared. Then blinked, held it for a moment, opened her eyes...yep, still there. "I'm sorry..." Carmen canted her head to the side. "What?"

Carmen didn't seem to get it which was just fine by Izzi, Puerto Rican didn't need to get anything except Izzi's boot through her face...

"YAAARRR!!" Izzi yelled out in a battle cry as she rushed forwards, running straight at Carmen without really concealing her intentions to hurt the other woman.. Straight forwards, but then again perhaps Carmen was befuddled enough by the situation and the impish girl's declaration that such a straight forwards attack would prove effective.

As the blonde little succubi ran her way across the gym, she moved the 24/7 belt off her shoulder and into her hands, holding it by both its tails ends so that the front plate was dangling beside her. When the gap had closed sufficiently, Izzi swung the belt up and leaped into the air and allowed her momentum to carry her into the Puerto Rican. With a faint grunt she swung the belt forwards, trying to whack the metallic plate straight into Carmen's forehead as her small body was set to collide with the bigger woman's front

Carmen was, admittedly, confused by the intrusion, but there was a big difference between being stupefied and being stupid. Very few things in life are less subtle and more noticeable than a screaming blonde girl running at you with a gold belt that's almost bigger than she is.

Carmen stepped to the side at the last moment and let Izzy fly past, only to reach over as she passed and come at her from behind with a rear naked choke. As it turned out, she was starting to remember who these people were - she'd watched the match where they stole the belt from Clyde, and she'd heard about the Brat Pack being in 'action' at the tag tournament. As near as she could decipher, she was in the middle of a championship match.

There was just one thing she was still trying to process. "Okay," She sighed with mild exasperation, accepting the situation. "Why me?"

Izzi's sneak attack ended up not being not quite as sneaky as the little succubus had planned, she had to quite frantically abort swinging the belt for the non existent Carmen's head so that she could catch herself upon landing and not go plowing straight into a wall or some of the metallic work out equipment. As soon as she landed however Carmen snatched her from behind, sinking her forearm straight into the front of Izzi's throat in the rear naked choke hold.

"Ack!" Izzi spluttered out, dropping the belt in favour of grasping at Carmen's arm

"You.. are... the... enemy!" Izzi struggled to get the words out as Carmen's hold continued "Chammers...!" But even before Izzi called out to her partner, Cham Cham was already rushing in from behind the Puerto Rican. At the last minute the feline dropped down to her hands and knees, allowing her own momentum to carry her forwards as she aimed to slam her shoulder straight into the back of Carmen's knee joint.. It seemed that like it or not, this handicap match was on!

Spoiler:

Carmen had a short and exasperated sigh - given what she knew about the group, that was about the response she expected it. The 24/7 rules were a bit foggy to her, but she was reasonably sure she didn't have to accept this and the option to just kick them all out of her gym was wide open...and she might've just done that, too, if the circumstances had been a little different. But they did have the belt, and she did want to get a little payback for what they'd done to Clyde - both of those would've been good enough reasons to accept, and together they made the fight undeniable. It was on.

"All right, suit your-" Carmen was interrupted by a hard blow to the back of her leg, making her jolt forward and crash to her knees. She instinctively let go of Izzi, propped her hands down on the floor to keep from faceplanting, and shook her head with annoyance and pain. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Carmen let herself get careless. These two were small, weak, and crazy, but there were still two of them, and having a numbers advantage could make up for a lot of things.

Izzi was released from the choke hold gratefully, grunting out gruffly as she stumbled and slumped forwards away from the big woman... Using her hands so that she didn't go face first straight into a wooden bench at the side of the room. Cham Cham moved up from her hands and knees after making the save on her team mate and taking Carmen down to her knees...

"Weow!" The frisky feline roared out as she grasped her tiger gloves into the back of Carmen's short dark hair, trying to rear the big woman back and then throw her face first down into the hard floor below as the ref and camera men came fully into the gym area and set up in position to capture the match unfolding

On paper, this probably didn't look like such a bad match up. Carmen was bigger, stronger, and more experienced than both of these girls put together, so you'd think that, even with the numbers advantage, she might not have that much of a hard time with them. But they did have the element of surprise on their side. And there was the fact that this was the first hardcore match Carmen had really gotten around to, despite wanting to participate in one for a while now. A fact that was made painfully apparent when her face was slammed into the floor she'd just finished mopping.

The impact rocked through her skull and numbed up her face - no bleeding, not yet, but much closer than she would've liked. Carmen cried out and flopped over to her back while her face screwed up tight, rocking from side to side with the pain.