Butting Heads

Jessica Wright was back. Not back in the ring, unfortunately, but prowling around the AFW arena liked she owned the place again. The vaunted halls that once were here territory was becoming her territory again. Others started noticing her return as well as they got out of the way of Jessica's straight and upright walk. Good. All of the others had to learn to fear her again. All of the others had to learn that Jessica Wright was taking no prisoners, fearing nobody, and going forward to wreck every damn girl in this fed.

The Violent Violet looked the part too. She had been in the gym every day since her loss to that redheaded bitch and was more than happy to take care of her. Her red tank top showed off her rippling muscles and quite a bit of her ample chest. Her jeans barely contained her now gargantuan thighs and her new black Converses practically shone. All night long she had been turning head for one reason or another and Jessica was really enjoying her notoriety. Some looked at her with disgust and some looked at her with fear. However they looked they were still looking and turning to their little buddies and whispering. Isn't that Jessica Wright? Isn't that the girl who...

Yes, yes it was. She was happy to get out and about and show her face again to the world, to AFW. It was a proud face, a serious face. A face hardened by the tasks of the Coalition and the prospect that she might not actually be the best. Jessica closed her eyes and tried to shake those thoughts away. There was no way she could afford to think such things any more.

Jessica looked around. She was in the locker room area, watching the tech crew run about trying to get everything set up while wrestlers flowed towards and away from the arena. The managers constantly harassed and harangued all the wrestlers and she was again happy that there wasn't some dweeb trying to tell her what to do in the ring. She smiled. Jessica wasn't necessarily looking for trouble tonight but if she found it, well, that wouldn't be so bad.

While the Violent Violet was enjoying her well deserved notoriety, Irene Inger was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to notice or care. She was embroiled in a conflict of her own – a fight to pull herself out of the string of losses that she had accrued in her early AFW career. In fact, “career” was too generous a term, since Irene was a full time college student with her AFW employment simply serving as an entertaining means of income. Consequently, the young scientist had been facing the harsh reality of what often happened when fighting people who were fully devoted to their practice of this brutal sport.

Recently, however, things had been looking up for the underdog. Her spring semester was finished and there was no summer school term in sight for her. For the first time since her arrival in Japan, Irene had months that she could spend doing nothing but honing her skills in the ring. She had taken a hiatus from the Tension arena in Kyoto, avoiding the place where all her early losses had originated in the hopes of making a fresh start here in Tokyo. Every day, she exercised and sparred in the Friction gym. Her capabilities as a wrestler had improved across the board, and her frequent disregard for the rules of the ring had earned her some limited success in matches against people who were seemingly her superior. Of course, it also meant enduring the sour grapes of wrestlers and fans who decried her for her cheating ways, but she wasn't about to let any of them dictate how she chose to fight.

Today was a day like any other. Irene had finished a training session in the gym and was paying her locker a visit to put her street clothes back on and collect her belongings. Her workout attire was utterly unassuming, with a dark green sports bra, matching gym shorts, and black boots covering little of her sweat-drenched body to keep it as cool as possible during her intense exorcise routine. Irene was in a hurry to get home and rest for the evening, so she walked briskly to her locker without paying any attention to her surroundings. She would have been content to ignore the women in her vicinity, but a rather bulky one with violet hair was standing right in front of Irene's locker. Jessica Wright's identity didn't register in Irene's mind, as the smaller girl had too little interest in whoever she was to do anything except have her move over a bit.

“Excuse me,” Irene uttered as she tried to softly nudge Jessica aside in an effort to reach her locker.

Jessica was honestly a little bit surprised. Not only did some pipsqueak think she could boss her around, she had the nerve to lay her hand on Jessica. The girl looked completely unassuming, in her forest green outfit. Irene had clearly just been in the adjoining gym as she still reeked of sweat and probably wasn't thinking about what a big badass Jessica was. That, she simply could not forgive.

The Violent Violet cocked her head to the side and looked Irene up and down. Maybe Jessica had seen this new girl before but she couldn't quite place it. The green wood nymph was shorter than her by half a foot at least and a little less heavy too. If she thought she could pick on Jessica that meant she had a lot of faith in her skills as a fighter. Maybe she thought her technical skills could help her carry the day against bigger badder meaner girls. That was something Jessica was more than happy to disabuse her of.

"Excuse me what?" Jessica kept leaning against the locker and smiled. The challenge was clearly there and Jessica was mighty curious to see if she would take it. She stood up a little straighter just to make their height difference that much more obvious and flexed her biceps just a bit. Let's see just how brave this girl is....

The crowd in the room still flowed in and out, blissfully unaware of the mini showdown that was taking place against the locker.

Irene had never been the most socially aware girl, and she was pretty wiped out from her training, so if Jessica's refusal to budge had an ulterior motive, Irene didn't notice it. Years as a top tier college student had imparted on her the somewhat arrogant tendency to assume that people around her were idiots, so she assumed that Jessica was simply too dense to get why Irene needed her to move. She explained...

“That locker you're leaning on is mine,” Irene pointed a slender finger at the tall, metal storage container that Jessica was resting on. “I need to get my stuff so I can...”

Irene went silent as she moved to stand face to face with Jessica, realizing with horror that the very top of her head barely reached Jessica's shoulders! Being short and light enough to qualify for the Kawaii league, Irene thought she had made peace with the fact that all the women in the standard division were bigger than her, but this one was huge! Irene had to crane her neck up just to look into this woman's violet eyes, and as she noticed the woman's effort to show off her muscular frame, Irene finally realized that her refusal to move was no accident.

“You're looking at me as if I should know your name, so why don't you tell me what it is?” Irene asked impatiently. She had definitely seen this woman somewhere before, but she was having trouble recalling the details.

Jessica sneered. The girl didn't really seem to get what was going on. For many of the girls here, getting picked on was a rare event. So maybe they didn't recognize it when it happened to them. The girl dully explained exactly what she was trying to get out of their little meeting but Jessica wasn't really having it. Then a creeping realization seemed to wash over Irene and Jessica's cruel sneer turned into a crueler smile. Yeah, honey, taller and bigger and stronger and meaner by a lot, she thought.

It was almost adorable how little and frail she was. Jessica reckoned she could go through her like a hot knife through butter. Irene might have recognized it too but decided to give a little lip. Her nose scrunched up and she felt a pang of doubt. Surely this girl knew who I am. She is just messing around. Jessica shook her head. Yeah, she knows who I am...

If this girl was going to mess with Jessica, then Jessica was going to mess back. What was the mood called...jocular? Yeah, that was it. She raised up three fingers and cocked her head to the side. Her violent eyes did not waver and she stared Irene down. "Three guesses." She leaned back against the locker. No, you can't get in you locker, sweetie, she thought.

Irene frowned bitterly as Jessica continued to toy with her. This woman was astoundingly annoying. “Oh, don't make me play this game,” she droned as her dark purple eyes rolled around in her head. “Just let me get my stuff so I can leave, and then you can go back to surveying your kingdom.”

As much as Irene wanted to be rid of this person, it didn't seem like she was going anywhere until Irene figured out who she was. For a moment, Irene wondered fearfully if Haruna Saitou had come back to torment her. She had purple hair like this woman did, and both women treated the others in this league with contempt and arrogance. Alas, Haruna wasn't as big as this woman, so no dice. While Irene racked her brain, another name would come to mind, but it wasn't Jessica's.

“I think I remember you from one of Kelly Conway's promo events. You're one of her Coalition underlings, right?” she queried. Recent weeks had brought a lot of drama and bloodshed between Kelly's Coalition and Taylor Parker's family dojo, and Irene scarcely remembered this violet-haired lunatic being involved with one of them. Still no name...

Jessica snickered. It didn't take that much to get this girl flustered apparently. That or Jessica had become really good at getting under people's skins. Either way, Jessica was content with either one and wanted the game to continue. "Nah honey, where is your sense of adventure? You came all this way just to be boring? Really?" Jessica's eyes flashed with scurrilous delight.

And then it all came crashing down. One of the Coalition's underlings? Like she was just come thug that went around and beat people up when Kelly demanded it? Jessica stopped leaning on the locker and stood up straight. Those weren't quite fighting words but they were getting there. This girl had given her nothing but lip. Time to see if she could check that.

"I would watch that mouth of yours if I were you. Are you one of those little kawaii fuck toys? Because you sure as hell look the part." Jessica's smile turned into a sneering look and her voice was almost a whine. She had just been reminded that she wasn't the top dog, at least not yet, and that didn't sit well with the Violent Violet at that particular moment.

Her mouth twitched. She didn't want it to twitch but it twitched nonetheless. It was a harsh reminder, too harsh, and Jessica was feeling less than accommodating. Jessica subtly checked her surroundings. There wasn't so much to use as a weapon in the even of a brawl, but it didn't look like Irene brought any friends along. So it would be one on one if anything.

Jessica kinda wanted it to come to that.

Social cues weren't always lost on Irene. When Jessica went from smugly teasing Irene to openly threatening and insulting her, she knew that her Coalition comment had struck a major nerve. The woman's twitching and shift in posture said it all. If Irene's insinuation had managed to wound her pride this badly, that could only mean that she was correct. Once that fact had been established in Irene's mind, the list of possible identities for this woman had shrunk dramatically. Process of elimination would tell her who this woman was, as she sifted mentally through all the promo events that the Coalition had been involved in, trying to recall this woman's role.

“Oh, I'm no Kawaii. Standard Friction and Tension divisions for me. Like it or not, I'm on the same tier as you for the moment,” Irene stated, speaking calmly even though the other woman's increasing irateness was evident to her. “Not a fuck toy, either. I don't mind a little hentai in my fights, but I am a fighter. I've only ever been with one person – a guy over in Tension who beat me in the ring and invited me for a little 'rematch' at his place. If any woman ever pops my Friction cherry, it'll probably be for the same reason. Doubt it'll be you, though. How good a fighter could you be if you resorted to whoring yourself out to Kelly's band of pathetic cowards?”

Irene wasn't sure why she was going so far to wind this stranger up. Maybe she just hated the Coalition and wanted to call them out for the rotten things they had done, to Taylor Parker...and Avery Shields, who one Coalition girl had seemed to hold a grudge against...all for the crime of beating her in the ring. Irene remembered the fateful match, but what name had been on the card along with Avery's?

“Jessica Wright...that's your name.”

Usually when Jessica threatened she got her way. She was tall and strong and not really afraid of anyone in a physical sense. Bullying girls and boys of all ages had been her MO since forever and she was damn good at it. The problem was that this girl was not responding. Not by her face, not by her tone, nothing. Jessica practically lived underneath other people's skins and she was a little perplexed as to why she couldn't get under Irene's. There was a sinking feeling that Irene was under Jessica's. And it sucked.

"Somehow I doubt that. But not to worry. Even AFW has its jobber girls. What's it like getting fucking pasted week in and week out? Ever been stripped like a little slut?" She asked pointedly. Hentai. Of course she did hentai. That's why half the arena was filled every night. Jessica had never been in a proper hentai fight, but she had made a few of her bouts hentai. Whether her opponent wanted to or not. Jessica relaxed a little bit. This girl wasn't an Akashi or a River, that she had to go 100% in order to beat. But there was something to be said for being a little bit on guard.

Jessica smiled. Here she was, getting underestimated. Again. The Violent Violet would have been beyond happy to show what she could do. "Whore myself out? You're dumb or you think I am dumb. Moving my way up the ladder, getting closer to that belt is whoring myself out? Why are you in fucking Japan if you don't want to win?"

The smile became disfigured and the churlish look returned to her face. "You're goddamn right I am. Jessica Wright. The Violent Violet. The future champion. The fucking queen of this whole damn fed and the baddest bitch in the world. At your service." Jessica mocked a curtsy before standing back up and leaning against the locker again. "And who the fuck do you think you are, exactly?"

When Jessica asked if she had ever been stripped before, Irene couldn't stop a glum expression from crossing her face. One of her more recent matches had been with a sadist named Haruna Saitou, who had reveled in hurting Irene and had, among other things, forced Irene to strip herself. It was a low point in Irene's career, and she prayed that Jessica would never be made aware of it.

“Been stripped before, been fucked before,” Irene said, speaking of it as though it were like any other 9 to 5 job. Even though she didn't want to give Jessica any specifics, she didn't mind conceding that she had been made vulnerable in the past. “It's a risk that comes with every fight, and it's nothing to get deterred over.”

Irene sneered and shook her head dismissively when Jessica defended her choice to lick Kelly's boots. She seemed to think it would get her somewhere in life, but what Irene wanted to know was: “Have you really gotten closer to the belt? Taylor held onto it before you and the others started letting Kelly stand on your shoulders. I don't know exactly what you did in service to her, but what tangible benefit did you see from your labor in the end? Kelly is the champion now. Not you. You'll never touch the gold belt, and Conway knew that when she recruited you. You're not a queen, you're just a pawn.”

By the time her speech concluded, Irene's sneer had turned into a bitter glare. “It's nice to meet you, Jessica. My name is Irene Inger, and I'm a girl who fights her battles in the ring and takes her lumps like a woman. Unlike you, who felt the need to try to end a better wrestler's career just because she trounced you in the ring. Compared to me...” Irene took a step toward Jessica and leaned up to look into her searing violet eyes, “...you are nothing.”