Tag Elimination: The Valkyries Vs. Blaise Cameron, Amy Poford & Mariko Ishii

It’s all about persistence. Kicking Stone in the stomach was like kicking a brick wall, contact even rattling Amy’s bones a bit. Her knee to the same spot fared slightly better- that felt like striking a slab of frozen meat; at least, as far as she knew.

But Amy’s punch blew right past Stone’s proud abs and straight on through to her warm, squishy insides. It cracked her spine against the turnbuckle while simultaneously bringing her head down way low. It expunged crucial microliters of air from her stressed lungs, fleeing by way of Stone’s gasping mouth and escorted by bits of spittle, which found sanctuary all up and down the back of Amy’s T-shirt. It buried itself so deep into Stone’s middle that her hand could feel what Stone had eaten for lunch that day- ew, gross; never mind.

Most importantly, it shattered the notion that Stone was some sort of unstoppable, invulnerable juggernaut. Stone had barely reacted to getting her nose bloodied in Amy’s ground and pound- as far as the crowd could tell, she hadn’t even noticed. But this one punch demonstrated that, yes, Stone could hurt, and, yes, little Amy could make her feel that hurt.

So, naturally, there was a swell of human commotion in the arena in reaction to the rapid transfer of control of the fight. Amy already had the audience’s support to this point; now, though, the crowd could hope for more than a just a lucky upset.

Long story short, it was a good punch, and it deserved a fitting follow-up.

After taking half an instant to soak in the satisfaction of a successful strike, Amy spun in a tight circle, looking to rework the last traces of her forward momentum into a fierce spinning elbow aimed right at Stone’s freshly tenderized gut. But it turned out that Stone could react pretty quickly when she wanted to; Amy's elbow met, not with vulnerable jello, but with solid oaken forearms that jarred her teeth upon impact. Amy grimaced. Come on.

Experience had taught her that, if Amy pursued her instincts and charged in with a flurry of blows, she probably wasn’t going to do much more than chip damage. What’s more, if the person in the corner knew what he or she was doing, that Amy was going to leave herself open for a counter sooner or later. It was frustrating, but Amy would have to back off.

Or… Amy took a step back, seemingly allowing Stone some breathing room. But in the next moment, she was barreling forward again. She leaped up to the middle ropes, straddling Stone’s body against the corner. In one smooth motion, she tried to tuck Stone’s head under her arm while pushing off the ropes with her feet. With any luck, the maneuver would be too sudden for Stone to react, and Stone wouldn’t realize what was happening until after her head was already firmly planted in the canvas.

Training was kicking in. Even though Stone was thousands and thousands of miles away from the nearest battlefield, she still knew how to engage an enemy and how to operate when her back was against the wall. She just needed a moment to assess the situation and recuperate.

Getting that moment, though? That was turning into the harder prospect.

She saw her chance soon enough, as Amy backed away. It wasn’t for very long, but it was all the time Stone needed. She started to push out the corner and ducked low, looking to plow straight into the fierce little fighter and bring her to the ground. With the weight difference, one she got Amy down, there’d be no getting back up until she was ready. The perfect opportunity to end the fight, right then and there.

She expected Amy to keep on backpeddling, but the opposite occurred - she moved forward, and Stone felt her arm circle around her neck. Normally that wouldn’t have been cause for concern, but she was already heading in the same direction Amy was pulling. Gravity was against her. Momentum was against her. Her head was getting hammered into the canvas, and there was no getting around it.

It was a picture-perfect DDT, and the effects were immediate. Stone’s skull slammed into the floor and the rest of her body followed suit, rolling along with it until she found herself on her back once again, right in the middle of the ring. She groaned and rubbed her head, but her body was refusing to do much besides that at the moment.

For one horrifying moment after her feet left the security of the corner ropes, Amy worried that Stone had caught her again. Stone had been making a push forward just as Amy launched her own attack, and it wasn’t impossible that they were now taking the first in a long chain of quickening steps that would end with her slammed back-first against the opposite corner. The combatants continued to speed up toward the far post; Amy grit her teeth and tightened her lock.

Then there was a sudden sense of vertigo as the rotational force from her push finally kicked in, and, even as the slap of the mat stung her back, she breathed a sigh of relief. Thank god.

Once Stone’s body finally came to rest, Amy slithered over and hooked a leg, and the ref started the count. Pin attempts were risky with oversized opponents, but Stone’s groaning beneath her gave Amy a bit of reassurance. The chances that they could get to three were worth the risk.

1!

"Oh, come on!" Stone could hear Mako's distant cries, as she gave her the only sort of encouragement she knew how to dish out. "Get off your goddamn back and fight!"

She wondered if Divine had found Mako this annoying when she was the one getting clobbered from pillar to post. Probably.

When Amy came over her and lifted her leg for the pin, Stone didn’t try to power out right away. She couldn't. Her head was swimming, still groggy from the DDT, and she needed a moment to let her brain cells regroup.

”2…!”

But only a moment, and when that moment passed, she summoned her strength and jerked upwards along with the referee’s hand, kicking out with half a count to go. The audience sounded disappointed, thinking their little hero had pulled out an upset. Well, Stone hated to tell them, but if that was their impression, they’d better get used to being let down.

At this venue, in this ring, Amy was two and two. She beat Daisuke, she beat Blaise; she lost to Domino, and she lost to Army. But, win or lose, each one of her fights ended in a knockout. It was a curious little streak she had going, certainly not one that she’d intended to have. Now that she did have it, though, she decided that she wouldn’t mind if it were to continue for a little while longer.

So when Stone kicked out, Amy wasn’t heartbroken or anything; quite the opposite. Amy rolled to her back, got back to her feet, then shot a quick shrug Blaise’s way. She’d gone for the pin attempt because she was part of a team, and a pin was the smart move at the time. Now that she’d tried it, there was no harm in going for the KO, right?

It’s all about persistence. She’d get there. Amy returned her focus to Stone, who was still lying prone on the floor, but already quickly regaining her senses. Or maybe she’d get got. Either way, she wasn’t going to stop trying.

She grabbed Stone’s head and tried to pull her up to a sitting position, then backed on up a couple of steps; preparation for the running dropkick she was about to deliver to Stone’s lower back.

The way Stone was at the moment, she was starting to recall a time back in Afghanistan. She was in a transport - heading somewhere to do something, she couldn’t remember what at the moment - when her group ran over an IED. Loud, deafening noise, smoke everywhere, scared the shit out of her. It hadn't given her any permanent damage, but it messed up her equilibrium something fierce. While Amy’s DDT wasn't quite as devastating as an explosive device, designed to rip her to shreds, the result was similar: Stone was knocked for a loop.

She was coming out of it, though. Not easily, not quickly, but it was happening. She had enough wherewithal to realize that, when Any propped her up into a sitting position, it likely meant that something bad was about to happen.

She looked over her shoulder just as Amy began barrelling her way, and she had the minimum amount of time to twist out of the way, rolling to the side as Amy’s dropkick flew past her. She didn't have the patience for anything fancy in retaliation - no, she simply threw out her fist and tried to clock Amy in the chest with a wild punch as she flew by, throwing it as hard as she could from her awkward position.

Amy saw Stone look at her from over her shoulder, apparently clear-headed. Amy could have stopped. Amy should have stopped.

But she didn’t stop. Instead, she leaped early, jumping from a few feet further out than planned, hoping that she’d get there fast enough that knowing she was coming wouldn’t matter.

Sadly, her feet still met with nothing but empty air, and Amy fell clumsily to the mat. Stone had twisted deftly off to the side, throwing a punch as she escaped for good measure.

“Huk.” Amy pressed a hand to where she was hit as she rolled away from the blow in full retreat, making it all the way to the ropes, then back to her feet before she realized that Stone’s punch, for all its power, had merely glanced off of her body. There was a slight ache where the fist had landed, but she was fine.

In fact, she felt great, and keeping up the pressure continued to be her primary goal. She bounced off the ropes behind her and charged right back in, reattempting the dropkick that had failed just a second before.

”Damn it!” There was more than a little frustration and rage mixed into Stone’s voice, as her punch infective ly whiffed off target. She was beginning to understand how Mako had been so taken off her game by the battling blonde. She certainly had that effect on people.

Case in point: Stone got to her feet as quickly as she could, rolling along the canvas to her chest and rising into a squat. It wasn't fast enough - once more, she found herself with Amy’s shoes planted firmly in the middle of her chest, striking with startling force, like a human cannonball.

This time, she didn't go down, but it did force her to quickly backpedal as she struggled to keep her feet on the floor. her retreat only stopped when she found herself in the corner, with the crowd’s roar around her and Mako’s belligerent ranting nearby.

It was far from a good position, but it hardly meant she was defenseless.

Most of the force Amy flew with bled into Stone’s body through her feet, but Amy slapped the mat as she returned to her feet anyway. She had half-expected to miss again. Stone was mobile, after all, and clearly quick enough to dodge a dropkick. But Amy saw the opportunity, slim though the chances were, and she seized it, and God saw fit to reward her recklessness by pushing Stone right back into the corner. A second chance.

But Stone wasn’t reeling off a running combo of blows this time. The position may have been familiar, but Amy could see Stone’s eyes through the curtain of Stone’s hair. They were sharp; they were alert. Stone’s legs were slightly bent, tense, and her arms, ostensibly harmless draped like that over the ropes, were flexed as tightly as piano strings. Her body was on a hair trigger. Stone was waiting for her. Ready.

Amy took this all in an instant, eyes darting from body part to body part like a fly. Then she charged forward. It didn’t matter; Amy only knew how to do one thing, and that was just going to have to be enough.

She came in drifting right, dragging her fist behind. When she reached the edge of Stone’s reach, though, she stepped left, swung out her right arm across her body, and tried to nail Stone’s right flank with a surprise elbow.

Timing. That was what it all came down to. Timing.

Stone could hear the audience starting to clap as Amy neared, along with Mako’s shrieking nearby. Too much noise. Too many distractions. She tuned it out and focused forward as her opponent closed in, getting ready for the obvious punch she was setting up...which likely meant that it wasn’t a punch at all, given the way Amy seemed to like working.

Stone didn’t know where the exact would come from - that, she only figured out after Amy’s sharp elbow embedded dug into her stomach. As with everything the pint-sized panthress did, it hit for surprising damage and she immediately started to fold up, but not completely. Stone had her in range. Only for a second, but she wasn’t going to let the opportunity slip away this time.

Stone soldiered through the pain and grabbed hold of the ropes on both sides of the turnbuckle, gripping tight. She lifted up, getting a little extra oomph into her strike as she swung her knee into Amy’s ribs.