Seasonal Yuletide Christmas Bash Extravaganza!

Seasonal Yuletide Christmas Bash Extravaganza
No Holds Barred Rules, Pinfall/Submission/Knockout.  Weapons provided as part of the decoration.

Greetings:

As a member of the AFW roster not currently participating in the Avalanche event, you have been selected to take place in a special exhibition Seasonal Yuletide Christmas Bash Extravaganza, designed to prepare our beloved fanbase for the Christmas season.  Congratulations!  This is a high honor for which many are considered, but few are chosen.

Please try to practice appropriate levels of Christmas cheer when participating in the Seasonal Yuletide Christmas Bash Extravaganza, including proper attire.  AFW has supplied an appropriately festive set of ring gear for your usage, found within this package.  Please try to return it without any damage or soiling.

Have a holly jolly time, and make sure to do some ho-ho-highspots!

Season's Greetings,
AFW Management

Abattoir's eyes flicked back to the top of the letter, and she read over it a second time, hoping against hope that she'd had some kind of brain aneurysm and it actually said something totally different from what she'd read.  It did not.

This was bullshit.  Christmas matches?  First of all, it was November.  Second of all, she was the last person anyone would ever want to charge with the responsibility of 'practicing appropriate levels of Christmas cheer'.  Had there been some kind of mixup in the computer systems?  Was the matchmaker smoking meth?  Now that she thought on it, how had they even found her?  It wasn't like she'd listed the address to her cellar on the employment forums.

Hang on, there was more in the box.  A layer of packing peanuts, and under them, some kind of fabric - ah, right, the 'appropriately festive ring gear'.  Abattoir grasped the outfit by its clips and lifted it up out of the box.

Spoiler:

Her shrieking was audible on the outskirts of the city.

===

The arena had been decked out in as festive a seasonal manner as one could hope for.  Tinsel was strung around the ring ropes, and brightly-wrapped presents and stockings adorned the corners.  A decorated Christmas tree was even sitting at the entrance, dangling ornaments and candy canes and sporting an impressively-glowing gold star at the top.  All around the ringside area, overhead sprinklers dropped a steady torrent of fake snow through the air.  It was all quite cheery.

Into this world of peace on earth and goodwill toward men stepped Abattoir, who was absolutely livid.

She had her reasons; the gimmick of the match aside, she was keenly aware of how ridiculous she looked in the holiday costume.  The nak muay had added an appropriately scarlet version of her usual mask, which stretched up the sides of her head and culminated in a pair of Krampus-like horns, but it didn't lend the look any dignity so much as it made her look even more bizarre.  As she stormed sullenly out to the stage with a large sack over her shoulder and a Jingle Bells remix of 'Hate or Glory' playing cheerfully on the speakers, the crowd was hard-pressed to suppress their amusement.

She slid into the ring, eyes burning with blatant hatred for everything and everyone in existence, and dropped the sack in her corner.  The skimpy Christmas attire was obnoxious enough on its own, but the added annoyance of trying to beat the living shit out of somebody without getting a wardrobe malfunction in the process was like a challenge mode to her career that she'd never wanted or asked for.

Fine.  They wanted their cheesecake holiday match, they were going to get it, but there'd be some razorblades in the cheesecake.

Abattoir folded her arms like a pouting child, glaring at the entryway as she waited for whoever else was supposed to be trapped in this fresh hell of a gimmick match.

Jessica had always hated Christmas. There was always something so fucking fake about being happy, pretending to enjoy the awful conditions outside, and the inevitably shitty presents under the tree. But most of all she hated being cooped up with her family. She had always had to fight off her brothers just to get her damn presents and then had to deal with everyone being drunk. Not that she wasn't drunk herself, but that was a different matter.

Jessica hated this particular Christmas for a different reason. It was only halfway through November and it was already ruined in Jessica's estimation. The letter was honestly one of the most insulting things she had ever received during her time in Tokyo and Jessica ripped it up after reading it. If anyone thought that Jessica was going to wear that absolute joke of a holiday costume then they were mistaken. Mistaken and probably beaten to a pulp if Jessica got her hands on them.

On top of that, there was the added fuck-you of not being invited to Avalanche. What did a wrestler need to do to go to the biggest event of the year? Jessica was still furious at this indignity and was going to take it out on whichever girl had the misfortune of stepping into the ring with her. It was no DQ and weapons were going to enter the fray. The Violent Violet was elated when she found those things out as it meant all of her frustations could be taken out in one glorious cathartic moment.

As she made her way to the staging area, many workers got out of the way. Good. The bag over her back was packed with all sorts of goodies and Jessica had a good feeling she was going to get to employ some of them to violent ends. Her usual outfit was tight on her body. When one of the execs looked like he was about to say some shit about it she just glared at him and that was enough to silence him.

Jessica's music hit the speakers and she walked down the entrance ramp. A hail of boos met her. She didn't know anything about her opponent, but standing in the ring, she looked mad. Wonderful. Jessica was not about to tolerate some stretchy submission bullshit. She wanted violence, fast and clear and painful.

The sack landed in the ring with a crash. Jessica had thrown in a second before she jumped in herself. She eyed the woman standing across from her. "Merry fucking Christmas."

Abattoir had started bouncing in place, warm-up style, like she usually did, but a couple whistles from the crowd later, that had turned into standing statue-still and a little red-faced and waiting for her opponent to show up.  And show up she eventually did, laden down with presents and looking at least as displeased to be shackled to this joke of a match as Abattoir was.  Good.  Styx was off doing an Avalanche match and meanwhile here she was, fighting singers and putting on candy cane-striped floss and a mistletoe belt buckle.  It'd be good to take all that out on somebody who could give as good as they got.

They'd both received their fair share of boos on the way in, but as the two girls eyed each other, the crowd began to shift into something approaching appreciation.  If nothing else, they were guaranteed some serious violence in the next few minutes.

"Yeah.  Happy fuckin' Hanukkah."  Abattoir lifted the sack she'd come in with and turned it upside down in the center of the ring.

The crowd didn't have to wait long for their pound of flesh, because out of the holiday bag spilled a shower of glimmering silver.  Thumbtacks.  Thousands and thousands of thumbtacks, scattering every which way and forming a shining carpet of pain in the center of the ring.  The ref, unfortunately attired as she was in a Santa's Elf costume, gave her a glance of abject, thousand-yard-stare horror.

"C'mon." Abattoir stepped into the mess, feeling the crunch of aluminum below her boots, and gestured to Jessica, beckoning her into the tacks. They were going straight to the fun stuff. "Fire walk with me."

Jessica didn't have any tacks and was practically kicking herself for not having brought any. Rookie mistake, she thought. And Jessica sure as hell wasn't a rookie. Her opponent at least seemed willing to dance the dance and Jessica was happy to be a hell of a partner. The bell rang with a certain clarity that only an portent of doom could bring and Jessica surged across the ring towards her opponent. The tacks stuck to her boots as she tore across them straight towards Abattoir.

The Violent Violet liked to begin her matches with a missile drop kick, but under the circumstances that seemed somewhat less than sagacious. So Jessica planted her left leg to get all the power she could behind a superman punch aimed towards Abattoir's face. Her fist ripped through the air like lightning as it attempted to find a home in her opponent's mouth.

Some might have called it a slow build but that would have been unwise. Jessica was furious for most of her her waking hours but tonight she was especially angry. That anger was a balled fist aiming to knock Abattoir's lights out and the knock was not very gentle.

Jessica was game, and this thing was on. As the massive windup gave way to a leaping superman punch, Abattoir was already sporting a huge grin under her mask. Already the night was starting to look up, despite its, uh...circumstances.

Granted, there'd be no time to enjoy the fun if she got blasted unconscious in the first seconds of the match. Abattoir was already moving in and to the side, and slipped the punch with a Mayweather shoulder roll, taking the whole thing on her arm. Granted, it was a hell of a punch to take (and her entire shoulder went numb for a few seconds), but it was better than eating it in the mouth.

The impact was so hard it actually spun her through the rest of the motion, and she continued her momentum into a spinning backfist aimed straight for the Violent Violet's chin. It'd have been fun to go for an STO or something and send them both crashing down into the tacks, but the way things were going, chances were pretty good they'd end up there in a minute anyway - she may as well enjoy slugging it out mano a mano before all the plunder got involved.

The grimace that crossed Jessica' face showed exactly how disappointed she was. Her ridiculous opponent apparently did not want to get clocked in the mouth as hard as possible straight away much to Jessica's annoyance. The masked girl did not come away completely unscathed and Jessica was sure Abattoir felt something, but it wasn't the start Jessica had hoped for.

Just as she landed something hard and fast collided with her chin. The Violent Violet stumbled backwards and tried her damnedest not to fall on the tacks. Her two wildly rotating arms helped her keep her balance and avoid that early defeat. She brought herself upright and surveyed the situation yet again.

Tacks on the ground, mean shot making her chin smart, and a very pissed off Jessica. Situation excellent. Jessica took a step forward and swung a strong leg skyward to try and catch Abattoir's head with a crescent kick. Time to see how the masked girl dealt with her long legs.

The arena held their collective breath, Abattoir included, as Jessica windmilled her arms and tried to stay upright. Sure enough, she came to a shaky halt and managed to prevent herself from toppling. It was an admirable display of balance, and bode well for the match.

Seconds later, the bigger girl was coming at her again, with the telltale step-up weight shift that suggested a kick. Abattoir popped a shin up to check the shot, but it wasn't the standard feeling-out type, it was a head kick - a crescent shot aimed right for her temple. And it collided with force, knocking the nak muay dizzy and nearly sending her tumbling over into the tacks. She could feel herself pitching to one side and barely managed to drop her weight, ending up in the sort of pose you might expect from a skateboarder landing a trick. Pushing her hands down on her bent knees, Abattoir was able to stabilize herself by a hair's breadth before she could fall into the tacks - she shook her head wildly, trying to clear the cobwebs, and then leapt up dizzily at Jessica.

One hand seized the strap of her opponent's barely-there ensemble, and the other turned into a barrage of elbows that rained down towards Jessica's head, neck, chest, shoulders - whatever Abattoir could reach, she was throwing elbows at. The pretense of niceties and finding range was over, and now it was time to go hog wild.

Jessica frowned. Maybe she could afford to do a few more squats, even if that kick rattled Abattoir's cage pretty good. The girl's balance ensured that she remained standing and that her body would remain thoroughly untacked. Then something crazy happened. After receiving what Jessica thought would be a powerful kick, the girl went on the offensive and went on the offensive hard.

The hail of elbows, even at the very beginning, almost proved to be too much. The incipient blows were dealt with with a blocking forearm. Jessica's thick arm still provided little solace from the pain. Then came a few from the other direction which Jessica ducked. Just as she was coming up to launch a countermeasure of her own Abattoir's elbow flew at her chin like a bullet. There was no time to react, no time to do anything. She was off balance too, given the fact that she had ducked to the side. The masked girl was clearly an expert in this brutal art and Jessica felt the full force of it.

She didn't even wobble. The elbow dropped her, face first, right onto the tacks. What felt like a million little metal bees stung her hard. Jessica tried to grab the part of the body that was effected most, but the problem with that was everything was effected most. Long ago she had taught herself not to scream even when enduring the worst pain and it took all of that training not to shriek here. For the moment, Jessica was down.

The repetitive thud of elbows against yielding flesh was a satisfying one, a feeling Abattoir loved to return to whenever she could. To her pleasant surprise, most of them were connecting; she'd gotten in tight on that headkick and started swarming. Her opponent was bigger and pretty muscular, she mused, maybe she just wasn't used to fighting somebody who could eat half a big shot and keep coming. The last elbow came in over the top and hit flush, and Jessica dropped - again, a shock (Abattoir blinked in surprise for a moment), but one she would be glad to capitalize on.

She took a step back, eyeing Jessica's downed form. A jackal grin crossed her mouth under the mask as she watched her opponent thrash for a moment. The girl was tough, though - no screaming, no histrionics, just acknowledgement that holy shit, tacks hurt. She'd probably be up in a few seconds, given time. Perfect. Abattoir wasn't going to give her that time, though.

"Don't hog all the fun."

Another step back, and then the nak muay launched herself forward into an elbow drop aimed for Jessica's shoulders. Hit or miss, this had the side effect of dropping her into the tacks as well, back-first, and a second after her landing, the fight was momentarily forgotten as she arched up in instant, glorious pain. The metal had bitten into her at what felt like a thousand tiny points of light, and her back shimmered in the arena's lights like a serpent's belly (along with the backs of her arms and legs, and even a couple points on her neck.

Regardless of whether the elbow drop had accomplished its goal, she was currently distracted by the wave of agony sweeping through her body. What a rush. Although it did leave her a bit less 'in the game' than she usually preferred to be...

Words reached Jessica's ears. She wasn't quite sure what they were or what they meant. The tacks occupied all her thoughts much to the detriment of her ability to react to the world around her. That specific gap in her awareness made unaware let alone unreactive to whatever it was that was slamming into her back. The Violent Violet had always had such discerning taste when it came to violence, but the hammer that swung into her back was inscrutable. It really did feel like a hammer and forced a thousand needles deeper into her chest and stomach and face.

Jessica had to let out a grunt this time. A thousand fire ants bit her in unison and she was still in the ant hill. A shifting weight next to her informed her that for whatever reason the masked girl was taking a little rest on the ground with her and from the writhing it felt like she had landed in the tacks as well. Enough nap time. The hour had come for Jessica to move and spread her terrible violence once again. She planted her hands, in the tacks much to her chagrin, and rose from the canvas.

The light glinted off of her, both the brilliant wrestling outfit and the thousand tacks that formed fish scales on her body. Jessica plucked one off of her face and cast it aside. She took a step forward and launched another probing kick, this time at Abattoir's upper body. Time to get some payback.