Xiao La Rouge vs Tabitha "Starlight" Aimes

Standard match won via pinfall or submission.

Spoiler:

In the back of the Friction lockeroom Xiao was preparing for her Friction debut, it had been quite some time since she'd joined on with the organisation. Truth be told she had been planning to travel to China and perhaps take up work as a model, or something else. She had one match, over in Tension against a man named Valyn Azora. Who had defeated the oriental rose, not exactly the way she intended events to go.

Leon had found out about it, and promptly created a GIF of Xiao getting hit by her opponent's finisher. Though a hard submission hold on those prized legs of the sneering hedonist quickly stopped that, here though. This was it, her Friction debut. A fresh start, they say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Xiao would disagree here, that match had been so long ago anyway.

She was prepared for this, Xiao looked herself over in the mirror one last time. Her instrument of choice ready, that was a part of her entrance. The oriental rose took a deep breath, and then turned from her mirror and left the room. She had kept up her training since arriving in Japan, eager for the time when she could display her skills and prove herself. Now was good a time as ever for it.

The crowd was waiting for the next match of the night of the night, and they'd wait no longer. The lights in the arena dimmed to black, and Xiao had taken up a spot near the entrance ramp. Where she took out an erhu violin, and mouthed a countdown to herself. Hubris began to play with Xiao playing the notes of the opening to it. After which it was given to a stage hand and Ms La Rouge emerged to the crowd, she bowed with elegance before making her way down the ramp. Giving a small spin with her sleeves moving in the motions of it.

Once she entered the ring Xiao would make her way to the far corner and remove her sleeves and giant hair extension, placing the sleeves under the bottom turnbuckle with the extension on the iron post. Before sitting in an elegant kneeling position as she faced the ramp, to see who her opponent would be for this evening.

Tabitha:

Tabitha Aimes was making her Friction debut as well. She had the pedigree of a name that carried some relevance still as her grandfather Colton Aimes was a prolific wrestler in his time. "Starlight" as she would be called in the ring, had spent the better part of two years after graduating college to become a wrestler to follow in her grandfather's footsteps.

Already having a background in boxing and kickboxing, Starlight would travel from gym to gym to learn about various methods of combat in an attempt to raise her game up to a level that she felt had prepared her for the big time. Many losses and many victories would be had while she had grown from the conflict. Now it was her time to see where she stood. It was her debut match and from what Starlight could tell, it was the debut match of her opponent as well in the Friction arena.

Waiting for her music to play, Starlight would show some nervous energy come and go. She wanted to do this and the feeling inside of her was nothing like she had felt before waiting for a match to start. Heading down to the ring she would be wearing a green sports bra and a pair of green shorts. Both parts of her outfit had black trim to them as well. As she walked to the ring she would notice her opponent already in the ring.

Starlight was older by 5 years and larger both in stature and weight. So she figured the best way to try to go about this match was to get hold of Xiao and try to grind her down. Now with both of them in the ring, they seemed to be unsure of what to do next. The referee would signal them forward to make sure they both knew the rules. Likely a reminder for their first time in the ring, but she would signal them both back to their corners and begin the match.

Starlight would not directly look to go right after Xiao, but simply circle around looking to see if she could notice anything about her opponent before attempting to engage in a simple tie up like most matches would usually start.

Xiao was perfectly still as she sized up her opponent, anything that revealed who she was and if there's anything that might serve to aid her. Such as a small limp or any hesitation, there wasn't anything like that right now it seemed. Regardless the enemy looked prepped for battle, with gloves and the shorts. The fact that there was a large amount of green on the opponent's clothing didn't escaped Xiao, the opposites was apparent. Tabitha was wearing something that was seen in a gym for example, but the oriental rose was dressed as the prime example of a lady of war.

The enemy was taller too, not by much unlike the men of Tension. Height mattered little to Xiao, everyone could fall after all. The ref signalled the fighters forward, Xiao stood up from her kneeling position and walked forward. When she was asked if she knew the rules and was ready Xiao simply nodded while looking at the enemy, if the oriental rose hadn't been ready she wouldn't have been here in the first place.

Ms La Rouge then went back into her corner, she took a deep breath to steady her nerves before settling into her stance. The one that she had gone into before battle countless times, and she then stated "I am Xiao La Rouge, prepare yourself."

When the match started the oriental rose took her steps, paced and assessed. Xiao was confident that her upper body strength would see her through this encounter, her gaze calmly fixed right on Tabitha. The opponent then seemed to offer a tieup, Xiao stood still for a second. Her eyes quickly looking the enemy over, the oriental rose decided to oblige Tabitha in this regard. To refuse and strike wouldn't be considered very noble in regards to the image she presented. To do so afterwards would be the way to go.

So Xiao would lock up with Tabitha, her face stoic and calm. The lady of war would attempt to move the enemy in this hold, to show that underneath the regal exterior lied a strong frame that wouldn't move to her opponent's whim so easily.

Starlight was having her first real match, and her opponent was as well. She seemed calm as a pond without so much as a single ripple of doubt in her confidence. Xiao had dressed in a stark contrast to Starlight, where Starlight had a functional set of gym wear, Xiao had an intricate costume. Starlight did not let this detail go unnoticed.

Xiao would meed Starlight in the middle and hesitate for a second. Was she trying to throw a strike of some sort to catch Starlight off balance? Maybe Xiao had considered it but after a while, they would tie up against each other. Xiao would try to assert herself in this match and push Starlight back into the ropes where the referee would call for a rope break. Starlight would release herself and put her hands up in a sign of wanting to break away cleanly while leaning backward into the ropes.

Even though Xiao was smaller, she had some strength to her. Starlight was hoping that the regal nature of her oppponet would compel her to break cleanly. Xiao would probably know that she had a slight advantage in strength between the two. So it would be interesting to see how she would proceed now that they had felt each other out. Starlight would want to circle about again to get herself off the ropes, though she wanted to let her opponent make the first move this time. This way Starlight could see what was on Xiao's mind for how she would approach the match.

Tie up's like this wasn't something Xiao normally did, though perhaps this was due to her not having much actual wrestling experience aside from watching matches on TV. Leon would never have done something like that as evident from their various fights, instead the Frenchman often trash talked his Sister. But it wouldn't work at the end of the day.

Still Xiao's upper body strength was apparent, she wasn't the most muscled girl in Friction. But she worked out, and that sleeveless outfit displayed the bulge of her biceps in the bright lights above the squared circle. In fact she got Tabitha right to the ropes, though if that was intentional or not wasn't clear. The ref called for the break and Tabitha was signalling peace, Xiao again would honour the request and back away.

The oriental rose huffed slightly before getting back into her stance, but still she wasn't going to back away for very long. Xiao kept her focus on Tabitha and her movements, let her get some steps away from the ropes. Before suddenly trying to rush in and deliver a swift double palm strike to her opponent's abdomen, strikes was the calling card of Xiao. And it was time to give her dukes a go.

Starlight would be granted a clean break. She realized that her opponent was honorable at the very least and almost regal in the way she conducted herself. A display of strikes was likely to unfold now as both Xiao and Starlight were fairly well versed in striking each other. Xiao would present a different angle than what Starlight was accustomed to, but she was able to deflect away the blow.

This would begin a back and forth exchange between the two that would possibly even see a few blows exchanged between the two almost as if it were a scene out of a martial arts movie. Xiao had the advantage of course, but it would take a little time before she was able to wear down a hole in Starlight's defenses and be able to exploit an opening to attack.

Xiao had been in several fights prior to attending Friction, she was trained from an early age to battle. Striking was what she had done since day one, and she had learned to do so with grace in a manner befitting her lineage. She had of course kept an eye out for other things she could learn and adapt into her future fights, but punching was her forte.

Still it seemed that Tabitha had been in enough matches to know how to handle strikes, good in Xiao's mind. She liked it when her opponent knew what they were doing, made the potential victory all the more satisfying. The enemy deflected the double palm strike of the oriental rose, Xiao's eyes slightly widened but she wasn't too fazed. After all Xiao had plenty more where that came from, it would just be a case of throwing more to the wall and waiting to see what stuck.

Xiao would move with the deflection, only for her nearest hand to suddenly ball into a fist and attempt to shoot straight. Right into that solar plexus of Ms Starlight, it was a sweet little target and could knock the wind right out the enemy's sails. Xiao tried to make her hits count, and attempting the sweetspot was what mattered.

Xiao's follow up attack would strike true. Starlight was unable to get away from the secondary follow-up attack. It was a quick blow from short range, but still very effective. Upon being hit, Starlight would stagger a few steps backward.

Having been forcibly moved backward Starlight would instinctively move one of her hands to cover and start to rub the sore spot a little. Starlight would now start to try to keep her opponent away from her. When Xiao would get close enough, Starlight would start to try to land a few leg kicks so that it would slow her opponent down a little.

That was the reaction Xiao wanted from the enemy, she tried to make her attacks count. Sure they might not be fancy like those of her Brother, but Xiao had the higher win ratio out of their spars since they were in their early teens. Tabitha had better prepare for if Xiao had her way in this battle the oriental rose would strike her and send her to the canvas, then that was when the coup de grace would be delivered.

Still one shot wasn't going to be enough of course, and though the enemy was sent reeling it didn't mean they would go down without fighting. Tabitha sent some leg strikes on the way of the lady of war, they would make their marks. Xiao had prepared herself as best she could, though the pain was still felt. Even so Xiao was grateful it wasn't Leon behind those kicks, as much of a dick as he could be he could back up his words.

Xiao would nevertheless try to press her attack, the next kick that got thrown the oriental rose would attempt to catch it. If the lady of war was successful she'd try to slam an elbow down near the knee, work down the opponent if she could. But still it was risky and could leave the oriental rose open for countering.

Xiao seemed to be getting the better of the exchange at the start, but was seemingly being kept at bay while Starlight would throw a few kicks targetted toward Xiao's legs. The thought behind this was that if Starlight could chop down Xiao's legs, then she would not be able to get into the favorable positions that she would want to strike from.

Starlight would try to use the air of superiority that Xiao had against her. Eventually Starlight figured that one of her kicks would get "caught" and it would not take long for her to be proven correct. Xiao would look as if she was going to try some manner of strike to disable Starlight's leg, but Starlight was hoping to beat Xiao to it by attempting an Enzuigiri kick by using her trapped leg to pivot and spin her other leg into Xiao's head.