AV 16: Jessica Wright vs. Alicia Wells

Jessica produced a noise, somewhat similar to a mix between a growl and a bark. Jessica's rampant narcissism rejected the notion that she could not kick whomever she wanted to, and Jessica's desire for violence was not sated when she only connected with Alicia's arm. Like a child having a tantrum, Jessica stomped. She wanted to win, and she wanted to win now, dammit. It wasn't right that Alicia could just block her attack like that. It wasn't right that Alicia was getting up.

Jessica took a few steps back, and tried to shake off her rage. That was not going to help her win. She had to be cool, to be collected, to trust her smarts and strength to get her through it. Jessica let Alicia get up, ropes and all, not out of a sense of charity or even sportsmanship.

No, Jessica was a woman with a plan. It took all of her restraint to hold back, to not rage at the redhead with all of her might. She was practically shaking with fatigue, or wrath, or desperation. No one could tell quite which, nor would it matter. Everything was coming to a head now. This was just the build up, the quiet before the storm.

The Violent Violet waited until she was all the way up, then she was going to do her damnedest to get her right back down. The second, the split second, that Alicia got on her two feet triggered her into action. She exploded forward, bringing her shoulder forward. It was a spear, no more, no less. The boom was lowered, and Jessica was giving it her all, tired and pained as she was.

While neither Alicia nor Jessica had spent much time in each other’s company before this match, aside of course from the disastrous photoshoot on the beach, a fight along these lines had a way of giving hints into a person’s character. Enough so that Alicia felt confident in thinking that her breathing space was about as temporary as temporary got.

Certainly, she had no illusions that Jessica was doing it out of some idea of fair play. Not that she knew why she was being allowed to stand up but the redhead wasn’t about to complain. Given the givens, being on her feet couldn’t hurt her chances. In other circumstances, she might have tried to turn it into a takedown or something along similar lines, turn her less than ideal circumstances into a counter attack, but she was way too shaky and she knew it.

So to her feet it was as fast as she could in the hopes of getting enough time to really reset her defence before Jessica came for her.

She managed the one but not the other. Alicia was just on both feet when the Violent Violet burst forward, shoulder down.

No time to dodge, all she was able to do was twist – but Alicia still took the Spear right to the midriff. Her breath blew out in one pained gasp and the redhead doubled over, only kept vertical by virtue of the ropes and Jessica.

Standing? No, not standing. Vertical. If not for the ropes, Alicia would have been doubled over on the mats instead.

There was a turn. That was what made the impact harder than she thought it should, and perhaps also why the redhead was not on the ground. Still, as she pulled herself all the way up again, she recognized that this much woman flying into you at full speed was not going to mean a boon for you. It was nice to see a contemptible woman such as Alicia in pain, but this was not the end of it. Rather, this was just a jumping off point.

The Violent Violet kept going. She was methodical with her movements, careful with the little energy she had left. Jessica leaned over slightly to get more leverage, and was grateful that she had moved back a little bit. It meant that her long right leg had more space to work with, and Jessica was going to use every last inch of space.

Her right leg shot up in the air. It was not moving too quickly nor too slowly. No, Jessica thought it was moving right on time. The Jessica's Leg Special, 9:30 to Alicia's Head. And this train was not going to be stopping for anything. The look of rage broke on her face. That had guided her so far, but now she needed to concentrate.

She bit her lip. Her purple eyes were like lasers. She stopped breathing. It was like watching a movie, and the anticipation was absolutely killing her. She had to know if the kick was going to hit home, to take her to the ultimate victory.

Given the Spear had merely driven her breath out, left her gasping and hung up on the ropes, it hadn’t done much to scramble Alicia’s thought process. Admittedly, the trauma of the belly to belly plus the battering of the match overall had done plenty along those lines. She probably wasn’t thinking as clearly as she thought she was, let’s put it that way.

Of course, being left gasping for breath and hung up on the ropes came with its own problems and Alicia was justifiably preoccupied in the wake of that Spear. It might be a simple move but, when delivered by someone built like Jessica Wright, it was an undoubtedly lethal one.

It wouldn’t take her that long, relatively speaking, to get back in the game. Her breathing was already starting to show the first signs of coming under control. Her posture was already starting to straighten, Alicia not willing to let herself be vulnerable for a heartbeat longer than necessary.

And yet, she wasn’t fast enough.

Jessica came back in, her body twisting to deliver a kick of her own, aimed high.

Last time, Alicia had been able to get an arm up, take the sting out of the hit.

This time, she couldn’t even do that. For the first time in the match, Jessica landed a strike cleanly and it was – as they say – a doozy.

Alicia’s sturdy legs wavered and then collapsed under her, the redhead toppling to the mats either like a redwood sliced through at the base or a puppet whose strings had been cut.

Either way, that kick had definitely landed as shown by the twitching form of the kickboxer laid out on the canvas.

Jessica followed through. She wobbled once she was at the end of it, but she followed through. When she found herself all the way done with the kick, she was facing away from Alicia. Jessica took another half-step forward, a quick one, just to be sure that she was still standing. She was. And her opponent was laid low. The Violent Violet took practically no time to marvel at the fact that she finally had a kick come off.

She did not know why it had come off. Maybe Alicia was too slow. Maybe she was tired. Maybe she was unready. Whatever it was, Jessica was on her two feet and Alicia was lying on the mat. This situation was not going to last forever. Jessica was aching down to her bones, and her muscles silently screamed out for rest.

Jessica could not give them rest. Just like the kick, she had to see this one through. Jessica quickly bent down, and grabbed at Alicia's head. It occured to her to go for the finisher, but she had second thoughts. One more ought to do it. Either way, she was coming back up, Alicia in tow.

And even then, it could be more than one. Jessica moved to tuck Alicia into her waist. She then made a grab with her free hand at the redhead's hips, to lift her up into the air. From there, she would attempt to drop her straight down, onto her head.

By the time Jessica was on top of her, Alicia was stirring but she wasn’t doing much more than that. While she might be taking an enforced rest, it wasn’t anything like enough to recover from that monster kick she’d just taken.

You took a hit like that to the head, and Alicia had doled out her fair share and then some, and you weren’t getting up in a hurry. Lots of people wouldn’t be getting up at all.

As it was, Alicia only made it to her feet because Jessica pulled her up, the redhead’s 160 odd lbs no obstacle to the Violent Violet’s raw power. She didn’t resist at all as the other woman reeled her up and in, tucking her in for the follow-up.

Which didn’t happen. At least, not immediately. As Jessica went to lift her up, Alicia resisted.

It was instinct as much as anything else, but some part of Alicia knew that she needed to avoid this. She couldn’t let Jessica pull this off or she’d be done.

Finished.

That was all she was thinking as she resisted, grabbing at Jessica’s own legs in an attempt to either stuff the move or take them both down again. She was aware, on some level, that she was in danger and she was going to do everything she could to keep herself in the match.

Jessica was ready to get Alicia all the way up, when she felt a little tug pulling down. Her purple eyes went wide with surprise. At first, she did not know what it was. Maybe the gravity of the situation had become real, and the world was pulling more. She quickly dismissed that. Perhaps she was simply tired, and did not have the strength to pull Alicia up. Jessica dismissed that too. Despite the advanced stage the match was in, Jessica was confident she had the strength to pull this move off. If she didn't she was in serious trouble.

No, Alicia was resisting. And resisting damn hard by the feel of it. Two strong hands accosted Jessica's legs, and tried to push Jessica back. Jessica nearly fell backwards right then and there, but quickly shuffled her feet so Alicia would have to make another go at it. The redhead's quick thinking that the move Jessica wanted to pull off was not feasible, but Alicia was not the only quick thinker in the ring.

There was no point in both of them going down, after all. She quickly placed both of her hands on top of Alicia's head, and forced it down as hard as she could. The Violent Violet all but threw her legs to both sides, hoping to free them of Alicia's grasp. She wasn't sure that what she was going for had a name, but it would force Alicia to the mat in short order. And if Jessica happened to land on Alicia with both feet, well, that wasn't so bad either.

Tugging at Jessica’s legs, Alicia only slowly became aware she’d managed a delay in her execution. There was the shift in her opponent’s positioning, a tell-tale giveaway but one that escaped her at the present moment. Still, she hadn’t been hoisted up and that was a good sign.

Less promising was what immediately followed.

Having exhausted her immediate reserves to stuff that first attempt, Alicia had nothing on hand to counter with. That meant Jessica’s push was sending her down, careening face first into the mat without even her hands to catch her fall. Admittedly, it could have been far worse. It was just a fall, with very little momentum behind it, but at this stage in the match it was still damage she could have done without.

And then things got worse when Jessica promptly landed on her, erasing any halting progress the redhead might have made towards movement. Caught underneath the Violent Violet, Alicia shook her head in an attempt to clear it, twisting as best she could to throw a sharp elbow back at her tormenter – a display of instinct as much as anything.

And one that could easily backfire if Jessica used it to get control of that arm. Which was why acting on instinct was not always a good thing in a fight.

Jessica was on Alicia's back now, standing up. She had managed to land on her feet, even at this stage in the game. It was what her instincts to do. It was better to be standing than it was to be lying down, better to be strong than to be weak, and better to be clearheaded than in a daze. Jessica was doing her best to be all of those things, but it was so difficult. Tonight, Alicia had taken a lot out of her.

And the redhead was still not quite finished. Just as Jessica was stepping off of her opponent, the tough English woman proved that she was not quite done yet. With a twist of her body and fire in her eye, Alicia sent a probing elbow that caught Jessica right at the back of the knee. She gasped, and started tumbling to the floor. Of all the things to take her down, it had to be this move. Something done out of sheer reflex, sheer instinct.

Unknown to her conscious mind, her body was moving. The animalian side of her was guiding her now, causing her to twist like Alicia. And like Alicia, the weapon of choice was her elbow. The redhead was the only thing between her and the ground, and Jessica was going to use her opponent, and that hard, sharp elbow of hers to break her fall. This time, she prayed to her dark gods that it was enough to keep her down for longer.