Halted Progression.

"Mmm... Just a few small screws in the right places and I think we've got a little toy worth some appreciation..." Avril muttered to herself while carefully screwing some tiny connectors into position on an odd looking machine with the aid of a miniature screwdriver. The young tinkerer was hanging around backstage to see if anything was on the cards for her tonight, fully clad in her simple green wrestling attire with her rather large glasses on to help her see what she was doing. Considering she would have just been sitting around doing practically nothing otherwise the inventor was using the time wisely to put together one of her latest ideas, a small pen-like device which would administer a singular nasty shock if lightly jabbed into an opponent, perfect for close calls or more unsightly situations.

Avril:

"Come to think of it, the people who will really appreciate it are the ones which have it electrocuting them with around two seconds of fifty-thousand volts! Aha! I joke about it but in all honesty it'll really hurt." Avril momentarily paused from her work to talk with herself a little longer, breaking down into some oddly pitched laughter before managing to recover, muttering to herself a little more with a sly smile before going back to screwing. This thing might have taken mounts to plan out, and finding the correct materials might have been the worlds biggest pain, but after all that it would finally be worth it.

The various hardworking staff,  those little appreciated souls who kept Friction running behind the scenes, were quick to stay out of the way of the wrestling talent in general. They were especially quick, however,  to get out of Isa Kubota's way. She wasn't the biggest or most physically imposing wrestler on the roster by any means, but there was something about her confident baring, to the raw intensity in those fierce green eyes, that made most give her wide berth. She had an aura of barely restrained violence about her.  This was a woman who hurt people, and thought of almost nothing else. Even now she was on her way to the workout area allotted for the talent. Training and fighting seemed to be the whole of her existence. Well... that and scowling at people.

Isa:

As a rule,  Isa ignored every one and every thing around her that was deemed beneath her notice, an extensive list to be sure. An oddly pitched laugh gave her pause as she passed Avril. She gave the scrawny looking young woman a cursory glance, looking down at Macey as if she were an ugly bug. One Isa would have crushed,  except she didn't want to soil her boot.

"What are you playing with?" She asked, eyeing the object Avril held critically. "I rarely waste time giving advice, but I'm feeling magnanimous today. Spend more time in the gym, and less fooling around back here with useless junk. You'll last longer that way. You're not going to be able to get by on your looks, or the size of your breasts like some of the other weaklings here. You might actually have to learn to hold your own. Ask politely, and I might even help you get started. No promises, though. I'm not a miracle worker."

Though Avril was very much aware of Isa's presence before the intimidating woman said a word, she chose to keep quiet, hoping that if she remained silent enough and just carried on working that the other woman would just go about her business. This strategy proved to be an invaluable one however, as despite it Isa began to talk, and boy did she decide to choose some questionable things to point out. Insulting Avril's work, pointing out her obvious lack of physical capabilities, and highlighting her not so perfect appearance, especially her lack of any meaningful breasts, were all easy ways to get her temperature rapidly rising. At first Avril would rather blankly listen to what the other woman had to say, halting her work entirely to just take in all of what was being relayed to her. Eventually though, slowly, the self-appointed inventor would turn around to look up at her taller aggressor, a beyond irritated look plastered across her face.

"You seem like the kind of woman who has difficulty taking in the most basic of information, so I'll go about this slowly for you." Avril started off with a subdued growl, patiently pushing her large glasses up the bridge of her nose before continuing. "The machine which I've built from mere scrap is a handheld heuromuscular incapacitation device. I do not need to rely on strength, or the pointless ramifications of physical appearance, because I'm smarter than you could ever try to be. And on a final note, your advice and offer for help have the same impact on me as the barking of an annoying small dog, it is irritating to my ears and means nothing." With that Avril finally stopped, politely coughing into her hand before refocusing herself on Isa, carefully moving her glasses up once more. "Any questions?"

Isa listened to Avril impassively, until the girl was finished. At least, she seemed impassive. The woman was eternally angry and glaring, so it was hard to tell what effect the insults had beyond a few subtle cues in her body language, like the slight tightening of her mouth or a slight shift in her stance. She maintained a sense of calm control. 

Inwardly, however,  she was fuming. The nerve of this girl! The audacity! After Isa had been so nice to her, giving reasonable, practical advice,  only to have the little nerd throw it back on her face. Worse, Avril had basically called her stupid, which she most certainly was not. A true fighter simply didn't waste time building hero-muscular-whatever-stupid-thingies.

"Incapacitaton? You intend to use that thing during a match? It might give you an edge against other losers, but toys like that won't stop a real wrestler. It's no substitute for true strength. If you think otherwise, you're in for a hard, painful lesson."

After she believed that she had truly thrashed Isa's sense of worth Avril was hopeful that the rather scary glaring woman would finally go away. Unfortunately this isn't what happened, as apparently something the short nerd had mentioned hit it's own soft-spot with the other wrestler. Strange, she didn't seem like the type to care about the employment of weaponry during a match. However that wasn't the main issue, the main issue was that she was wrong with what she declared, and therefore she had to be corrected on her wrongdoings immediately.

"Of course I'll use it in a match, I'm not of the habit of electrocuting random passers by in the street!" Avril vocalised in her frustration, waving her arms in the air for a moment before allowing them to drop by her sides. "But that's besides the point. You said it yourself, I'm not the most gifted when it comes to brutish strength, and my inventions MORE than make up for it." She went on in outrage, putting extra oomph onto the word 'more' before casually stepping closer to Isa. "You may think what you like but without a shred of doubt you're wrong, and my so called 'toys' could easily do more than stop you. The varying degrees of pain involved in a lesson to do with the subject doesn't change the facts." Avril finished, chuckling to herself afterwards as Isa's idiocy did so amuse her.

More then mere anger flooded Isa Kubota's expression, then. Indignation shone in her green eyes and in the disapproving frown that further darkened her already sour expression. She looked upon Avril as if the girl had just openly admitted to committing a crime against humanity. Truly, she had, as far as Isa was concerned. Using that abominable thing in a match was unthinkable. She already possessed a decidedly low opinion of cheaters who felt the need to bring weapons into the wrestling ring, but to hang around backstage designing them in ones free time!? It was absurd! Even worse was the fact that Macey apparently felt completely justified in doing so, as if this dishonorable behavior was the norm, instead of a disgusting aberration.

"You think your toys could stop me?" She asked, though Isa never actually made an overtly threatening move, never stepped closer. She let Avril make that mistake. As the smaller girl drew nearer, Isa noted which of Avril's hands held the aforementioned 'toy'.

Without warning, Isa reached for the wrist of that hand, looking to keep Macey from bringing it to bear. If she managed to seize the bespectacled girls wrist, Isa's next move would be to lunge forward, seeking to collide with Avril, shoulder first, and violently slam the girl against the wall behind her.

Avril should have probably known better than to move so close to a wrestler who very clearly already didn't like her, especially considering that said wrestlers expression showed that she was far past just angry. But the young girl did not head any of the warnings which had been presented to her and instead stayed close, waiting for Isa to continue speaking so that she might present a more valid counter argument once again.

"Think? I already-" Avril started speaking once again, irritated by Isa's apparent ignorance when her wrist was abruptly seized, causing her to fall silent. "Uh oh." Was the singular thing which Avril decided to say in this moment of suspense, realising that she might have decided to talk down to the wrong individual, and that she might have just gotten in a whole heap of unwanted trouble because of it. "Now-AH!" Avril attempted to start speaking again to try and defuse the situation, cut-off with her own squeal of pain before she could say anything substantial, Isa turning to violence as she slammed the much shorter and weaker girl into the solid wall behind her, opting to use her shoulder to make it that much more painful.

"Only... Proving... Point..!" Avril managed to get out through the uncomfortable pain which was now upon her in such abundance. Not wanting to see what Isa had in store next, Avril attempted to wriggle her captive wrist free. The device she had been building wasn't currently in working order, but if she managed to buy enough time she might have been able to get it working, if only temporarily.

While arguments escalating into sudden violence wasn't exactly uncommon, the many wrestlers who populated the Friction roster usually kept their conflicts in the ring. 

That was generally true if Isa as well, despite the fact that her temperment seemed to have only three settings,  Intense, Angry and Intensely Angry. She couldn't help herself in regards to Avril Macey,  however. In this slight, spectacle wearing girl Isa found the living, breathing embodiment of everything she hated about their sport. Avril was a pollutant. A drop of rancid oil in a bottle of fresh spring water. She did not belong. 

"Yes. I'm proving a point." She felt Avril trying to twist out of her grip and tightened it,  squeezing with the steely grasp of a woman who deliberately trained for grip strength. Unpleasant, for certain, but the true threat came from a rising knee strike, aimed for the smaller girls stomach,  with the intent of forcing her to drop the pen-like gadget. 

Regardless of effect, Isa Kubota followed up by grabbing for Avril's other wrist and stepping forward to press the shorter girl back against the wall, pinning her there between its unyielding surface and Isa's decidedly curvaceous frame.  She leaned closer until they nearly nose to nose, her voice dripping venom and an icy contempt. 

"You have no place here. I've known wrestlers who cheat and take shortcuts... but they are still fighters underneath it all. You're worse then a cheat... you're a fraud. Take away your toys, and your nothing. No heart, no guts... no fighting spirit."

A faint grin replaced the usual grim frown. "But if I just ran my mouth off,  I'd be no better... so here's the deal. You and me, in the ring, no DQ. Bring your toys, the ref won't stop you. I'll break each and every one of them with my bare hands. Then... I'll break you. Do you agree to those terms? "

"What I meant is that you're only further proving MY point with your barbaric actions!!! Grrrah!!!" Avril growled in frustration as she started to try and wiggle herself free, Isa forcing an uncomfortable growl out of the weaker girl as she further constricted her already iron grip, causing Avril to give up on any hope she had of breaking her wrist free and fighting back against her current oppressor.

Not considering herself to be much of a threat at this point Avril didn't expect Isa to hurt her even further, but only moments later it was made evident that she should expect the unexpected. With far more force than was truly required the smaller Avril was nailed straight in her unprotected stomach with a devastating knee strike, an explosion of pain echoing through her as she tried to hunch over naturally despite Isa's tight grip on her, with one choked gasp she lost her device, the air from her lungs, and some of the spit which had been gathering in her mouth.  

Completely unable to even nurse the injury due to Isa angrily forcing her against the wall, Avril was forced to just stay standing and take it, her neck hunched over as she stared at the ground, her facial expression in heavy pain and her glasses beyond crooked as she did her best to regain the air she had just lost through heavy panting, all the while being forced to listen to her aggressors anger infused hatred.

"Y-You seem to talk a lot... As if you think that your worthless opinion means something..." Avril was forced to start off slowly, not yet having enough air in her lungs to be quite as energised as she usually would be when producing a counter argument.

"B-But here's the real deal..." Avril continued on, managing to fight the pain enough to look up and stare at Isa straight back through her crooked glasses, her expression showing that she was in pain, but that she was serious. "We'll have the no DQ match... I'll bring my 'toys'... And my guts... My heart... And above all... My fighting spirit... Then I'll kick your butt so bad the medical staff will be required to kart your worthless state out of there..."

For a brief moment the fierce hatred simmering in Isa's piercing green eyes all but vanished, replaced by a critical, searching look, as if wondering if Avril's declaration had come from someplace real. Most might have been taken aback by those words, or at the very least considered them a threat. Isa seemed neither worried nor insulted. In fact... there was the slightest hint of approval in her gaze.

"I don't believe you. I'm not convinced you even know what fighting spirit is." Isa spoke, finally releasing Avril's hands and pushed the girls crooked glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose properly with a finger. "But I'll learn soon enough. You can never know someone, truly, until you fight them. What's your name? I'll have to tell the main office if we're going to set this up."