AV 16: Jessica Wright vs. Alicia Wells

Jessica was red, all over. Generally it was just the face that got red when one was exerting oneself, but Jessica was putting her all into this. It looked like the redhead was putting her everything into this as well, and Jessica felt her opponent shift around in the hold. The fact that Alicia could move at all was a testament to her incredible core strength, and the fact that she moved so much was incredibly worrisome for the Violent Violet.

But still, she did her best to hold the bodyscissors. Jessica was not going to let this one go, short of a magnitude 8 earthquake. Even as she was flipped around, she held her legs tight. She was on her front now, trying to get them back around to get more of a handle on the situation, when a magnitude 8 earthquake hit. Alicia managed to spread her legs just enough to pull her into a Boston Crab.

And now it was Jessica's turn to feel the squeeze. She completely relinquished the bodyscissors as she was put in the submission hold, as if she had any say in the matter. There would be no cracking ribs, no tap from Alicia. Right now, there was only pain, as both of her legs were put in a tremendous amount of pain. The Violent Violet grimaced and closed her eyes, as the aching in her legs was becoming more and more acute.

It was a slow and painful process, Alicia’s torso feeling like it had been put through a mangler by the time she was done rolling Jessica over. And then she still had to get the Violent Violet into the Boston Crab, only then feeling the release as the bodyscissors fell apart.

That had been far too close for her liking, her ribs feeling like they had indeed come close to cracking before she’d freed herself.

All of which meant that, for once in her career, Alicia was indeed very interested in some payback on her opponent.

Growling under her breath, the big redhead widened her base and reefed back on the other wrestler’s legs, doing her best to wrench Jessica’s legs and lower back. She knew she wasn’t an expect at this hold by any means but she was still going to give it a good old British try.

Besides, it was a pretty straightforward hold and she’d been on the receiving end – she felt she knew what to do well enough.

And she had plenty of frustration to work out on Jessica. Try and beat her with a bodyscissors, would she? Well, as far as Alicia was concerned, that was the last scissorhold Jessica would be applying in this match.

This was far from ideal, in Jessica's not-so-humble opinion. Had Alicia escaped from the scissors, that would have been bad enough, but the redhead had the audacity to turn it right around on her, slapping a Boston Crab on her. Even if Jessica was staring at the ground below her, she was not given much of an opportunity to reflect upon this sudden negative change of fortune due to the massive pain coursing around her body. Her eyes were narrowed, and her teeth were bared. No one could see them, however, due to the fact that she was face down, with nothing but the white expanse of canvas below her.

Jessica focused on enduring. With everything she was dealing with, there was little else to focus on. She formed a fist with her hand and pounded the mat once. That made everyone in the crowd cheer, and made her swear softly. It was a she had to give this Brit the satisfaction that Jessica could, in fact, be hurt. Her legs were solid and thick, and now totally out of her own control.

But it did not have to be this way, strictly speaking. She could get out. It would take a whole lot of strength, and a whole lot of pluck. The Violent Violet raised her head, and opened her eyes. Jessica reached one of her strong arms forward, dug into the mat as much as possible, and tried to pull them both forward. If that was successful, she would try again with the other arm. And even if it wasn't, she would try again anyways, as she was a terribly stubborn and willful woman.

With the boot back on the other foot, Alicia naturally had a vested interest in keeping things the way they were. And Jessica equally naturally had a great interest of her own in changing them.

Hence the sudden shift as the Violent Violet started to try dragging the both of them to the freedom offered by the ropes. The redhead’s inexperience with the hold showed at first, letting Jessica gain several crucial inches before the Brit shifted her stance to stop or at least stall the American’s progress.

But then Jessica just kept on trying.

Alicia gritted her teeth in turn and did her best to keep them away from the ropes. That meant digging her heels in, meant resisting Jessica’s slow crawl with every thing she had left to give. All she had to do was keep Jessica away from the ropes until Jessica either tapped or Alicia felt ready to switch to another hold.

Though, of course, she was also thinking of the other options. Even if Jessica got out of this hold before Alicia was ready, the longer the kickboxer could keep her in it the more damage she’d be doing to the other woman’s lower back and legs. And the better Alicia’s position would be when the fight resumed.

She might not be a powerhouse fighter herself but she was more than aware of how important the lower back was for that sort of move and throwing based style.

Progress. It was incredibly slow, and it was incredibly excruciating, but there was progress. She felt like a soldier crawling through the mud somewhere, and the pain she was in was akin to if she were being shot, anyways. Her back and legs were still exploding from the intense pressure Alicia was applying to her. She put her head down again, with her purple hair falling forward, concealing all of the pain on her face. The moment was intense, and Jessica was breathing hard.

She looked up. Even with the redhead's heels dug in, they were not so far now. She could make it. Or she would die trying. The way there got tremendously tougher, but Jessica was tougher still. With every movement forward, a hundred years of pain rocked her lower back. She was a grunting mess, and the looks on her face did little to conceal the pain she felt from the predicament that she was in.

But still, she moved forward. The Violent Violet was incredibly close now. She stretched one of her long arms forward, stretching for everything that she was worth...

This was where Alicia’s inexperience with the hold was showing. If she’d been more comfortable with it, it might have occurred to her to simply stand and try to drag Jessica right back to the middle of the ring. As it was, all the redhead knew to do was fight every inch of the slow, painful drag across the mat to the ropes.

She would do just that, contesting each and every movement Jessica made, but there was a distinct inevitability to their progress. Sooner or later, they were getting to those ropes and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

True, she could release the hold but she was less interested in tactics and more into hurting Jessica right now.

Alicia leant back as far as she dared, doing her best to do every single bit of damage she could before-

”Break!”

The redhead immediately obeyed the ref’s command, releasing Jessica’s legs and stepping clear. Though she did turn immediately, making sure that Jessica wasn’t going to get a clear shot at her back, she didn’t expect the Violent Violet to be up quite that quick.

It was very tempting to just grab those legs, pull her opponent clear of the ropes and go right back to work. But Alicia took a deep breath, raked a hand through her hair and forced herself to wait.

Alicia held it until the very end. There was something to that, Jessica thought. It would have been painfully easy to simply recognize that a simple release was the easiest way out of it, but Alicia was burning with hatred. She released her dark passions on Jessica, and the Violent Violet suffered for it. But through the suffering, through the pain, through the incredible weariness she felt due to the match, she soldiered on. And she made it. Reaching the ropes was a unique catharsis, and she could not resist grinning like a bobcat when she finally reached that lovely cloth covering the metal.

Alicia released immediately. That was terribly decent of her. Jessica was as free as a bird now, and placed both hands on the white canvas. With a deep breath in, she began working herself upright, although she was taking as long as humanly possible to do it. It wasn't very sporting, but Jessica was not the most sporting sort of girl, which is what caused all of their problems in the first place. She was halfway up now, her muscles fatigued, but her mind was fresh, ready, eager to pick this redhead apart until there was absolutely nothing left.

There she was, standing at her full height when she turned around. She put on a brave face and did not show how tired, how pained she was. Jessica popped her neck left and right, as if that accomplished anything, then dug in her heels.

In half of a split second, she burst forward. A throaty yell escaped her lips as she sent a punch forward at Alicia's head. There was something left in the tank still, and Jessica wanted to let it all explode towards Alicia.

Unusually for her, very unusually in fact, Alicia almost went for a sneak attack while Jessica’s back was turned. It was just so tempting, given how the Violent Violet had treated her, to continue to pay her back in her own cheating coin. She’d shifted, about to attack, but the ref girl had stepped in the way – clearly she was looking to regain control of this match and picked this moment to do it.

Jessica probably would have just kept on rolling. Alicia blew out a frustrated snarl and backed up.

It didn’t help that Jessica was being smart, eking out every last second of recovery she could as she rose and forcing Alicia to wait… Wait… Wait…

The redhead wasn’t grinning when Jessica finally stood but she was ready, settled in her fighting stance as the purple haired wrestler turned. She too was not as fresh as she had been at the beginning of the match but, unlike Jessica, she hadn’t just had the ‘pleasure’ of being trapped in an agonising submission. Not to mention that the hold and the time after had left Alicia free to recover some of her own energy as well.

That meant that the kickboxer was still more than ready for the punch that came whistling towards her head. It was almost enough to make her smile – clearly Jessica still hadn’t learnt. She just wasn’t going to beat Alicia with striking.

Seeing the punch coming, the big Brit sidestepped the blow, pivoted and threw a sharp elbow out in an attempt to knock Jessica back a step.

Then she’d be able to follow up with a much more powerful side kick to the gut.

Yelling was a bad idea. Throwing the punch was a bad idea. The jury was still out on whether or not coming to Canada at all was a bad idea, and part of her was really starting to reconsider. Jessica was just a schoolyard bully who lacked the common sense to know when not to throw a punch. It had honestly never occurred to her that there were some occasions when the all out attack was not the best course of action, so when her punch totally whiffed her eyes went wide. The whole thing seemed so glorious: the big bad, Jessica Wright, getting back into it the same way she always did, with a devastating strike.

Then Alicia struck back. A sharp elbow slammed into her chest and sent her reeling for a second. The Violent Violet felt a great temptation to just go down, what with her weary legs and all, but resisted that urge with every fiber of her being. Falling now, with everything that had just happened, meant oblivion. So wobbly, livid, pained, she stayed standing and her purple eyes quickly honed back in on the red head who stood before her.

The Violent Violet was not stupid. Sure, going for the punch may have been a bit misguided, but that was just one mistake. An error after the elbow might prove to be fatal. With her eyes strained and her whole body trying to focus itself despite the pain, Jessica tensed. Another blow was coming, surely. Probably a kick. There was a little bit of space between them, but Alicia's legs were long, and thick. A chance remained that she could reach. As soon as she saw Alicia turn her hips to launch a kick, Jessica practically threw herself back. In normal circumstances, she surely would have dodged the kick easily, but her legs had just been basically tortured. Still, she had to hold on hope that she could get out of the way of the awesome kick in time...

It was fair to say that, by this point, neither woman was at her best. Two warriors out of myth, they’d hammered at each other with everything they had but unlike goddesses or ancient heroes they only had so much to give.

If Jessica was slowing down, so was Alicia – only a decade’s worth of striking experience keeping her in the moment instead of trying to just batter her opponent into the ground.

The elbow strike had served two purposes, really. It had been meant to short-circuit any more punches Jessica might have been planning to throw and it was also meant to clear the other woman back. It served both perfectly, giving Alicia both the space and time she needed, meaning that it was followed in short order by a sharp sidekick.

One that did not land this time. It was a close run thing, Alicia’s foot all but brushing Jessica’s abs as the WAR member threw herself away, but close didn’t really count.

Still, that was fine. Refusing to let that frustrate her, the big redhead planted that foot back down, shifted her weight and turned her hips into a ferocious roundhouse aimed this time at Jessica’s head.

Maybe it’d hit. Maybe Jessica would dodge. But Alicia fully intended to keep the pressure on, because she was aware of something that her opponent might have forgotten in sudden desperate need to dodge something.

Not all that far away, behind Jessica, there waited the ropes.

And if Jessica threw herself into the ropes, only to bounce herself right into Alicia’s kick…

Well.

That’d be a lot of fun. As far as Alicia was concerned at least. For the Violent Violet, it was unlikely to bring anything but a great deal of pain.