24/7 Championship Match - Carmen Rodriguez (C) vs. Soledad 'Sola' Vega - Wake Up Call

Had Carmen been at her best, she would’ve still had trouble pinning down her wry and wiry opponent. Right now, aching for the hellacious abuse Soledad had heaped on her body, she was still nowhere near 100%. At best she was an even 50%. Not enough to hold down Sola. Not for long.

”Yeah,” Carmen grunted and pulled hard on the facelock, grinding into Soledad’s temples. ”Yeah, I’ll do that.”

Despite having a distinct size advantage, Sola was managing to make up for it with her meanness, surprising strength, and the fact that Carmen had been stomped into oblivion a minute or so earlier. Her chest was still aching, along with other bones. She couldn’t hold onto the feisty Latina forever, but she could let her go in a way that worked out for the better.

Carmen brought jerked forward and brought her knee up, shooting Soledad in the middle of her proportionally prodigious chest. From there, she swung around tried to throw her out of the kitchen and towards the hallway, hoping she could do some better work if things got into close quarters.

Plus, she had less valuable things in there.

"D-damn," Sola grunted, as Carmen's facelock grinded down at her. It was frustrating, going from what felt like such a sure thing to being put on the defensive. Sola squirmed and struggled in Carmen's grip, trying to pry away from her, to get back in a more comfortable "fighting range."

Given the chance, Soledad wanted to just go for the jugular. To tear into Carmen, give her one last round of beatdown that would, hopefully, give Sola the title, finally. But Carmen wasn't going to give her that chance.

Soledad was so focused on getting her head free that she wasn't paying any attention to what Carmen was doing, and Carmen was a full-body sort of fighter. Before Sola knew what was happening, Carmen's knee shot up, striking her right in the center mass of her chest. The young latina was hanging out of her tied-off top a bit, and was all-too vulnerable to the hard knee shooting right into her soft flesh. The wind was knocked out of her, as the hard knee sank right into her soft flesh, leaving her tender and aching.

"Uuughhh," Sola cried out, wincing in pain as she bit her lips in an attempt to choke back worse invectives. Reeling from that, it was all too easy for Carmen to fling Soledad right out of the kitchen, and into the hallway. "Merde!" she grunted, hitting the wall full-on. With one hand, Sola massaged her aching chest, body feeling tender and bruised. With the other, Sola balled her hand into a fist, and pounded it against the wall, letting her frustrations pound out on the wall while she struggled to catch her breath.

Carmen immediately fell to a knee after hurling Soledad off, putting far more strain on her back than she really should have. She could still feel the impact from getting slammed into the chair, her spine still  aching from the massive hit and all the smaller ones it incurred since then.

Eyes forward. Push past it. Focus.

Carmen’s gaze centered on Soledad, already making her way back up, looking like she could regain her poise if she was given enough seconds. Seconds that Carmen wouldn’t - could - let her get. Not for free.

She pounded the floor right after Soledad did the same to her wall and pushed up, forcing her body to commit despite its strong desire to just stay down. Couldn’t allow it. If she went down again, Soledad wouldn’t let her up for a long, long time.

Up came her fists. Her legs moved into the proper position.  One knee bent, the other straight. Feet light and swift. With an orthodox, if lagging, stance assumed, she stalked towards Soledad, cautiously nearing the wily youth, wanting to see how she handled things straight up.

Pushing some sweat-soaked hair out of her face, Soledad did her best to push back the frustration, and get herself back into the match. "Rrrgh!" she roared to herself, trying to psych herself up to get back into the fight.

Turning to face Carmen, Soledad was surprised to see the 24/7 champion coming up on her in a traditional fighting stance. Not as tight as Carmen's usual fighting stance would have been, Sola recognized that easily enough, but still a traditional fighting stance. Sola had expected Carmen to explode at her, to push whatever surprise she could get. Carmen was giving her a fighter, though. A traditional fighter, an experienced fighter. Sola choked back the surprise, gave herself a couple of hard pats across the face, and tried to get herself into the mindset for a fight.

It wasn't easy, though. She had to choke back a lot of frustration, a lot of pain, to get herself into a more competitive mindset. Biting her lip, Sola dropped low, and began bouncing on her heels. Sola didn't want to rush in, despite the pain and frustration that was threatening to boil over in her. Carmen had fought back from the very brink, pulled herself up off the tile floors of her own home to fight back. She clearly had the fighting spirit, clearly more to reckon with than even Soledad had initially thought. So instead, she tried to go the other way, to see how pissed off she could get Carmen.

"Come on, then, Carmen," Sola said, trying to affect a sneer as she waved Carmen forward with her fingertips, "what's the matter? Not feeling so ready to bring it in? Huh?" Meanwhile, Sola's eyes would be running up and down Carmen's body, waiting for the first tell from the champion that she was about to strike.

Carmen could do this. She could still make this into a win.

As she and Soledad squared off on an even plane, she tried to push the bratty luchadora’s words out of her mind. This girl was clearly more used to fighting on the streets than she was, but that didn’t mean she was going to just walk all over Carmen and take the title. Yes, she had her elder hurting, had made a wider gap in damage than any challenger so far, but Carmen had come back from worse before.

In a ring. When she was wearing proper boxing attire, and there was a referee and rounds and rules…

She shoved the doubts aside with a shake of her head. ”Tch.” Carmen’s face hardened as she neared Soledad, locking on her target. She only paused to wipe a sliced pickle out of her eye, then it was right back to the stalking. ”You talk too much, hermanita. Silly words from a silly girl.”

Carmen jumped forward, pulled back quick for fake-out, then jolted forward for real and threw out a right cross, going right for Sola’s face. The same cocky, annoying, smirking little face that she’d been wanting to punch since the first second this rat had the nerve to scurry into her apartment.

Soledad shook her head out, still trying and failing to push back the frustration. This was supposed to be locked down, dammit! She was supposed to be walkingout of here with her brand new damn title, already. Why the hell was Carmen being so belligerent, about this?

Squaring her shoulders, and resolved to throw herself right back into the fray. She'd come this close, walked right into Carmen's home and wrecked shop. She'd managed to get the legend hurting, managed to wreck shop in her own home. For a moment, Sola was distracted by what people back home would have thought, if they knew she was in Carmen Rodriguez's own home, having her run of the place, about to take her championship. That, at least, was something.

The teen streetfighter's ruminations came at the worst possible moment, however, as Carmen laid into the offence and snapped her back to harsh reality. The champion's right cross caught her right across the face, snapping her head back. Spittle and sweat flying as Sola's head was rocked off to the side, she stumbled back, falling against the wall.

Wiping her lips with the back of her fist, Sola shook the cobwebs out. Far from her first punch to the face, it was nonetheless a punch from the 24/7 Champion, from a Dominican fighting legend, and as such it hurt like a bastard. Hazy, Sola knew she had to keep herself in this fight, or someone like Carmen was going to have it completely turned around before she had a clue what was happening. Digging into the hallway floor, Sola snapped a leg forward, throwing all the power of her curvy hips into it, Sola swung a stiff kick right at Carmen's ribs, aiming her blow just a few inches past Carmen's body, on the opposite side.

Carmen could not, for the life of her, remember getting so much pleasure from the simple act of punching someone in the face. It should’ve been a routine thing, but with Soledad, after all she’d done to her apartment and the insults she’d heaped on Carmen and the damage she’d done, smacking her on the face was beyond cathartic. And she’d have more opportunities.

Quite a few more, most likely, because Soledad seemed capable of taking some real damage and backing up the junk she’d been talking so far. Carmen had to give her that much.

She took the right cross. Seemed like it hurt her, sure, but not enough to put her down completely. She was still coming, moving out with a swift kick that Carmen would’ve had trouble dodging if her body hadn’t been repeatedly hammered into the floor. It hit her ribs, the same ribs that Soledad had stomped relentlessly just a couple of minutes ago,land the effect was immediate - Carmen went down, dropping to a knee as she cradled her aching midsection.

Sola had already shown what she could do when she had an advantage, so Carmen knew it was in her best interest to be prepared. Her guard came up, ready for whatever was coming her way next.

Sola felt her leg sink into Carmen's toned body, and felt some relief. The champion was still hurting, was still reeling. Victory hadn't entirely slipped through the younger fighter's fingers, at least not yet. And, once again, it felt massively gratifying to land a real blow- an actual, palpable hit- on the legendary Carmen.

So good, in fact, that Sola didn't want to let up, from this point. Or it might have been that she knew she couldn't let up, if she didn't want the champion getting back on her feet and giving her another of those face-rocking blows.

"HAI!" Sola called out, loudly, ramming another kick straight into Carmen. Or rather, the guard that Carmen had raised for just that event. The latina street fighter paid it no mind, however- she was on a roll, at least in her head. Now, things became a contest between Carmen's endurance and defence and Sola's sheer striking power. Again, Sola swung a kick at Carmen's guard, and again she emphasized the strike with another loud "HAI!" Again and again, with a loud combative cry, Sola would strike hard at Carmen's guard, with no intention of letting up until she managed to get through to the champion, or until Carmen found a way to make her stop on her terms.

Carmen had known Soledad for a grand total of, maybe, six minutes combined, but that was more than enough experience to anticipate what would happen next.

She went down and Soledad immediately took the opportunity to heap more punishment in. The youth was energetic, impetuous - when she saw something, she went for it. Not the worst trait for a fighter to have, and to her credit, it worked. At first.

Carmen’s guard was thoroughly rocked, as it endured kick after kick. The smaller woman packed some serious might into each strike, and even though they were blocked, they still took a tool on the champion’s stamina. If this went on too much longer, it would be serious trouble.

But, as fierce as the kicks were, they were also predictable. Carmen just had to wait, endure four or five of the heavy blows, get the timing down, and when she was ready…

The sixth kick hit Carmen’s guard, and that was when she sprung into action. Instead of letting Soledad pull back for another kick, she reached under the younger fighter’s leg and held it in place, grasping it tight as she rose up. She brought her other arm up, draped it over Sola’s shoulder, and brought them together for a tight embrace. A very brief one, too.

In the next moment, Carmen twisted around, bent back, let out a hoarse scream and sent Soledad flying into her workout room with an exploder suplex. Not the most pleasant move to take even in a normal ring, and while there were mats on the floor inside, Carmen doubted it would make the impact any less painful for her wily foe.

"HAI! HAI!" With every kick, Sola's intensity rose. Every swing of her leg was given with more energy, more anger, more passion behind the strike. The first few kicks had been aimed at Carmen's readied guard. After that, they were aimed a few inches beyond it. The extra passion and energy carried through her entire body, a thin sheen of sweat forming on her skin with the effort. The motion, starting at her ample thighs and carrying through her entire body, turned her enough that her entire body was straining against the flimsy confines of her fighting gear. Each kick widened the grin on Sola's face.

The rush of each strike was intoxicating, Sola getting more and more excited at the thought of wearing down the champion to the point that she might take her down. She'd jumped the legendary Puerto Rican fighter, invaded her home, mugged her. But now, with this series of kicks, Sola was starting to get the rush of actually fighting her. Not fairly, that ship had sailed, but still actually meeting her as a competitor. It was exhilirating.

Unfortunately, the intoxication was just like any other- it overwhelmed, overcame her senses, led straight to stupid mistakes. As Sola felt the impact of her sixth strike, Carmen exploded into action. If Soledad had her eye on the prize a bit better, it might not have been so easy for the veteran to catch the leg, and keep hold, but there it was. Sola had committed hard to each kick, making it far too hard for her to recover from it in time to escape. "D-dammit!" Sola gasped, wide-eyed, as she realized how blindly she'd stumbled into Carmen's trap.

"Mierda, non!" Sola gasped, as Carmen swiftly stood, kept her leg trapped and hooked her around hte shoulder. Off-balance, the teenage street fight's body pressed firm and hard against Carmen's toned figure, trapped completely in her expert grip. Carmen's scream filled Sola's ears as she was hefted up and over for the exploder suplex, sent tumbling head over heels through the hall and tumbling into the gym area.

"GAAHHH!" Soledad cried out, as her back hit the hard flooring. "Aaaugh, m-madre ..." Sola hissed, pressing both hands into her lower back. Sola's aching spine, which had taken the brunt of the impact, was arching so heavily she was nearly in a perfect bridge, there on the floor. She pressed her hands into her lower back, trying to nurse a pain that had her completely immobilized.