Nobu Tano vs Alicia Wells

“One...! Two...!” the ref had started to count, though there was no immediate response form Nobu, who remained sprawled out on the floor. Alicia was a different story, however. She was quick to head right out of the ring, momentarily stopping the ref’s count.

Nobu groaned, and finally started to shift around a bit, then felt something cold and solid against his hand. After wrapping his fingers around it, he quickly realized what it was. Before tonight’s show had started, Nobu had hidden certain props under and around the ring to use in his match, and this was one of his personal favorites.

He grunted and grimaced as a pair of hands grabbed tightly onto his hair and pulled him up. But as the boy went, he brought with him the object he’d found under the ring. And suddenly his hand raised to reveal an air horn! When it was right by Alicia’s head, he pressed the button, and an obnoxiously loud blast sounded out through the arena, though the redhead was no doubt was going to be getting the worst of it.

As far as Alicia could see, Nobu was completely out of it. He was barely, barely moving and the faint groans of a man on the edge of consciousness. She didn’t foresee any problems picking him up, dusting him off and getting the idiot back into the ring long before the count out hit. It did cross her mind to take advantage of some of the additional options presented by the hard metal floor and the barricade tantalisingly close but no, that wasn’t her style. Even if he did entirely deserve it for that stunt with the buzzer.

Alicia took her hand to hand combat very seriously, the result of both natural inclination and years of training. And she had no time at all for anyone who made a joke of it, no time at all, meaning that she had very little time for Nobu already.

Still, she checked the visible hand as she bent down – empty, uncurled. He looked limp as a dead fish as she bent down, got her hands in his hair and went to pull him up. Nobu didn’t resist or help but the Amazonian redhead easily pulled him up with barely a grunt of effort, earning a cheer from the nearest fans at her dominant display of physical power.

Perhaps not that impressive by Tension standards but it was still what they were there to see.

Alicia’s cold, violet eyes were fixed on Nobu’s and that was why the first warning she had of the air horn was when it went off right by her ear. Taken by surprise for the second time that night, she let him go, staggering back a step with her hand pressed firmly to her abused ear.

Once again the young man burst out into laughter at Alicia’s expression after setting that excruciatingly loud sound off right by her head. The blast of the air horn was quite loud to Nobu too, but he had the advantage of being able to mentally brace himself for it. And having it go off by Alicia’s ear rather than his own played a bit of a factor too. Regardless, the redhead seemed stunned, and finally Nobu found himself staring at a huge opportunity!

Hoping to capitalize on that, he tossed the air horn aside and moved to stand side by side with the staggering girl, while hooking a leg around hers and an arm around her shoulders. Nobu would then try to jerk his body back, thus sweeping Alicia’s leg out from under her and slamming her onto the thinly padded floor with a Russian leg sweep!

And all while this was happening, the ref was still counting from inside the ring!

“Three...! Four...!”

For the second time in the match, Alicia found herself caught completely off-guard. The big redhead was prepared for a lot of things when it came to a fight, because she’d chosen a federation where there were a whole range of styles to be thrown at her. It was clichéd in the extreme to say she tried to expect the unexpected but, at the least, she thought she thought she knew the sort of thing to expect. Strikes, slams, submissions… Weapons in a hardcore match, maybe.

Having a horn go off right by her ear was both deafening and shocking, leaving the big redhead confused and completely off her game. Suffice it to say she definitely hadn’t expected anything of the sort.

And that left her making egregious mistakes, the sort of mistakes that she’d kick her own ass for under any other circumstances. Like not keeping track of where Nobu had got to while she tried to get the ringing out of her ear.

Like not recognising the set-up for his move as it happened and letting a boy who shouldn’t have been any real physical threat to her that close.

Like letting her leg get swept out from under her and then the next thing she knew was the crack of her skull and back slamming against the barely padded floor. Completely unaware of the ref’s count, Alicia writhed, clutching at her head as she struggled to focus again.

Nobu brought the redhead crashing down with a loud smack that echoed through a good portion of the arena! His pranks might’ve seemed juvenile and downright unpractical to most during matches, and such tactics damn sure weren’t taught to aspiring wrestlers anywhere for good reason. But they certainly seemed to be helping Nobu now.

For the first time in this match he had Alicia, not just stunned, but grounded and writhing in pain. And, the ref was still counting in the ring!

“Five...!”

Nobu had one hell of an opportunity in front of him, and he wasn’t about to waste it. While Alicia was down, the boy crouched down and tried to roll her onto her front, and would then attempt to snake his arm around her neck to put her in a simple headlock. Nothing devastating, but he wanted his arms, coupled with the lingering effects of the air horn, to keep her from hearing the ref’s count for just a few seconds longer.

“Six...! Seven...! Eight...!”

There! The time had come, and Nobu would let go of Alicia’s head so he could hurry under the ropes! By now the crowd had picked up on his little scheme, and was collectively on its feet to see if the prankster was going to sneak out of this match with an early countout victory!

A Russian leg sweep wasn’t exactly a killer offensive move but a barely covered steel floor could make all the difference. While Alicia was only out of it temporarily, that was still more than enough time for Nobu to roll her over while she reeled. And then there was the familiar sensation of arms around her head – although it was nowhere near as painful as Carmen’s brother’s headlock. Nobu didn’t have Army’s power. This time, it was more of a distraction, blocking out the sounds of the ring, making her position awkward.

Stunned or not, Alicia still recognised the danger of letting Nobu anywhere near her neck. And, unlike Army Rodriguez, she had considerably more options here. Instinctively, her hands went at first to tug at the arm constricting her head before the big redhead began to push herself up off the floor. She’d made it to her hands and knees and was just about to look for the next step in getting this idiot off her when-

He let go.

Alicia wasted a heartbeat wondering what the hell was going on. Then it hit her. Count out. The ref would be counting and- Where had they got to? It didn’t matter.

The curvy amazon threw herself forward, managing to roll herself under the ropes literally half a second before the referee would have counted ten. She didn’t say a word but she didn’t really have to.

When her head came up, swivelling around to fix her deadly cold violet eyes on Nobu like a targeting sensor, she wasn’t smiling any more. Instead, the prankster was the recipient of the most lethal glare Alicia had been seen with since her arrival in the AFW.

“NINE...!” the ref had counted just after Nobu had gotten back to his feet in the ring. “Come on-come on-come on!!!!!” he muttered, anxiously awaiting the final count! He knew Alicia had been stunned by the Russian leg sweep at ringside, and possibly the airhorn as well. But had that all been enough to secure him a sneaky countout victory?!

No! Right as the ref was about to finish the count, Alicia managed to roll back into the ring! While a resounding and awe-filled gasp from the crowd filled the arena, Nobu groaned and put his hands on his head in dismay, slumping down to his knees. So close, but not close enough.

With a heavy sigh he looked back to Alicia...and found the most menacing and threatening glare he’d ever seen in his life looking right back at him. If looks could kill, Nobu would no doubt be a dead man right now. But her expression told him that might soon be the case anyway.

*Gulp*

What do I do now? Nobu thought to himself. Trying to attack Alicia right now seemed downright suicidal. He could get the hell out of the ring and run, but something told him he’d never make it to another useful tool like that airhorn before she got a hold of him - and ringside was an even worse place for her to get her hands on Nobu than in the ring.

Before he did anything else, perhaps an attempt to ease the mood could prove beneficial.

“A-almost had you there. Hehe...” he said with a nervous chuckle and an even more transparently nervous expression, very poorly masked behind a weak attempt at a casual and friendly smile. Nobu didn’t dare take a step closer to Alicia, but he did start to slowly shuffle around to start circling her.

It had taken Alicia a moment to process that. She’d just come within a heartbeat of losing to this clown. That would be bad enough, but he hadn’t even earnt it. Instead, he’d cheated, tricked her and nearly stolen a victory right out from under her before the match was five minutes old. If she hadn’t got back in the ring then and there, she’d have been the laughing stock of the locker room.

Alicia didn’t care that much what people thought of her, as a rule. But the idea of having her loss to Adrian at the PPV followed up with another loss to this idiot… She literally could not express how angry that made her. It made her angry to the point that she was no longer smiling and that was a very, very bad sign.

She didn’t hear the crowd any more. It didn’t even occur to her to protest to the ref about the lack of any punishment for the air horn or the buzzer; it probably wouldn’t have got her anywhere, but Alicia just didn’t think about it.

Slowly, menacingly, the woman Valley had dubbed the Scissor Queen rose to her feet in one smooth motion. Her eyes were still fixed on Nobu as she began to stalk towards him, dissecting him, contemplating exactly what she was going to do to him.

The red-haired Amazon closed the distance with long, swift strides, clearly not wanting to wait before getting her hands back on the annoying idiot. And when she got in range, Alicia dropped and shot forward, looking to get her arms around his legs above his knees. If she got that, she’d lift him up and slam him back down in an explosive double leg takedown.

Well, it didn’t seem Nobu’s attempt to keep the mood lighthearted had been very successful. Nobu teased, Alicia was silent. Nobu chuckled, Alicia just glared at him with a fury practically had the prankster’s legs shaking in fear.

He swallowed a lump in his throat as he slowly circles the redhead. Nobu had hoped that by now some sort of follow up plan would’ve come to mind. Nope. He was drawing a blank. But maybe after coming so close to an upset loss just moments ago, Alicia would decide to approach with caution and inadvertently give Nobu more time to think things out?

No luck there either. Suddenly she darted toward him, so abruptly Nobu hadn’t been able to even try moving out of the way! A pair of arms locked around his legs and up the young man went, only to be slammed down hard onto his back!

“UGH!!” he gasped out at the impact, which left him severely dazed below Alicia. Normally a simple takedown wouldn’t do so much damage, but she had slammed him down with some serious authority. His head whiplashed off the mat, and suddenly he found himself looking up at three Alicias instead of one. And he could’ve sworn there was some air in his lungs just a second ago, but much of it seemed to have been blasted right out of him once he was brought down. In the blink of an eye Nobu had gone from almost pulling off a monumental upset, to being in about as bad a position as he possibly could be against an opponent like this.

Alicia, beneath the rage bubbling under her icy exterior, thought she was starting to get the measure of Nobu. He was a male version of Adrian Kytes dumbed down for the kiddies – which made no sense whatsoever on Tension but it was the only explanation for why they had a clown on the roster. Oh, and minus all of Adrian’s already dubious fighting skills.

That just made her angrier, both at whoever had booked this thing and at Nobu himself for daring to nearly win. He was a – what did they call it? A jobber. Hence the sheer virulent power of the takedown and hence what she had in mind next.

Alicia was already moving as soon as she took Nobu to the mat, rolling off the prone prankster and grabbing at his arm. The arm he’d had the buzzer in. The arm he’d used to detonate (alright, she knew she was exaggerating a touch there but her ear drum felt that way) an air horn by her head. If she was able to get control of it, her next move would be to secure it so that his bicep was clamped at right angles between the redhead’s thick thighs.

Almost like she was going for an armbar. With one crucial difference. Alicia wasn’t looking for a joint lock. Instead, the British amazon’s legs would tighten as she did her utmost to simply mangle the idiot’s arm with the monstrous power of her lower body, all the while giving Nobu that cold merciless glare as she tried to pulverise his biceps between her big quads.