Trying To Break Out (for Highfly)

"Now it's my turn to say that. This is a bad idea", Navi said, as she and Melody entered one of AFW's countless gyms throughout Tokyo. "It would've been one thing if she just beat me, then there wouldn't have been that much bad blood. But if you did tell Alaina the chair shot was an accident on your end, then I might be the one in trouble from that now..."

"Which is exactly why I think that this is a great idea! You'll apologize for trying to use the chair, we'll spar for a bit and then we'll all go home,  happy and improved!", Melody cheerfully replied to her friend as they entered the changing room with their bags.

Navi groaned slightly: "Honestly, I am afraid of even sparring with her. Seriously, even after the visit to the medics, my back hurt like hell. And I didn't even take her finisher like you did"

"Y...yeah...", Melody answered, remembering Alaina's Ama-bomb, and the subsequent 3 count in her match, as well as the back pain she had for a while after the match

"Anyway, my fears aside, any other reason why you decided to arrange this little meeting?", Navi said, as she started to change into her yellow sports bra and trunks for the gym

"2 reasons. One is, well, training with one of the top stars in Friction. Don't really need to say anything on top of that"

"The other? Well, I had a look at her matches she had recently outside of ours. And she lost in a lot of them. So I thought, maybe training together will lift her spirits? I mean on paper that seemed great, I'm in a slump, she's in a slump...this should work out.", Melody would explain while changing to a green version of her friend's attire.

"Hmmm...alright. When is she supposed to come?"

Checking time on her phone, Melody will answer: "If she's on time, she should be here in a matter of minutes"

Alaina artived at the gym, her bag over her shoulder as she walked on wearing a white sweater, sneakers and a pair of jeans. Melody sent her a message wanting to train and finally clear the air between Alaina and the little mouthy Navi.

As she entered the gym she didn't see either lady initially, so headed towarda the locker room. As Alaina entered she saw both women in their wrestling gear seemingly ready to go. Alaina had some training gear in the bag: tiger stripe boots, kneepads, sports bra and briefs. As she set hwr bag down and got ready to change she nodded at the two women. Out of respect for Melody she didn't shoot her own mouth off at Navi

"Hey guys, ready to do this?" She asked simply as she began to change herself.

"There she is! Hi, Alaina!", Melody would remark as Alaina entered the locker room, and would start to get changed for the potential spar. Navi got slightly uncomfortable as she entered

"Yep, we are! But before that...", Melody nudged Navi lightly with her elbow

After a small growl, Navi said to Alaina: "I am sorry about trying to use the chair in the match...

"And?"

Navi let out a much more audible, longer growl, and said in a much quiter tone: "I am sorry about the things I said about Entropy title..."

"Even though I still think it's stupid"

While Melody would've loved her friend to own up to her mistakes a bit more, trying for her to admit she was wrong is more difficult than it was worth. Even her current apology was a rarity that Melody barely saw.

Alaina smiled at Melody and got herself changed, ready for the ring. Her attention turned to Navi and initially the smile remained in place. "Thanks, I know how heated things can get and..... what was that last part? Alaina said, not quite hearing what Navi mumbled about the entropy title.

Her expression quickly looked a lot less friendly. Not hostile but far more serious to be sure. She crossed her arms as she waited for Navi to respond, if she would even respond at all.

"Okay then.... we are all here, so what did ya have in mind for training? I am up for whatever you guys want to throw at me."

"Nothing! It was nothing!", Navi tried to cover her insult about the Entropy title once the Amazon's expression changed.

"Smooth safe, Nat...", Melody thought to her friends comment, still keeping the smile on her face.

Once Alaina asked what the 2 of them had in mind, Melody thought for a few moments, but no clear idea other than 3 of them being in the ring at the same time came to mind. She was about to suggest that as well, however Navi already had an idea in mind for what she wanted to do: "Well...if I could offer something, maybe the two of us versus you?", she askedr: "I mean, you beat us both, more or less in a squash for me, might as well see what would happen if both of us try and beat you n a team"

In her head, reason for Navi asking for this kind of spar was twofold. In a way, she wanted to beat Alaina no matter what it took, but the other reason being, in any kind of spar, she would definitely come up short against the 2 women, since both Melody and Alaina proved that they are better than her in terms of pure skill. She didn't want to look bad in front of the 2 women.

Melody immidietely didn't like the suggesstion: "I...don't really think that would be a good idea...", she stopped, looking at Alaina, wanting to know her opinion of the suggesstion.

Alaina smiled once more, nodding with approval. "I have been in a nasty slump lately. I have gotten crushed in a match, blew it against Akiha Kosha at the last second... I need to challenge myself. I can't shy away from difficulty. Two on one is difficult and will either help me snap out of it, or just help me realize how much better I need to be. I'm in."

With that, Alaina made her way towards the ring, working her way to one corner. "I will let ya strategize for a few minutes and when you figure out who starts off with me I will be waiting." She said with a grin and wink.

Melody really didn't like to have an external advantage in a match, deeming that she wasn't proving her own skills in the ring. However, she reasoned with herself. Her and Navi haven't teamed up together ever since they joined AFW, and they were planning to get into the tag scene sometime soon. This seemed like a great opprotunity to brush up on their tag skills. Plus, this was just a spar, no reason for being so stubborn over her morals.

"Very well. Then I am in as well", Melody nodded.

All three women approached the ring. Melody and Navi picked one side of the ring, while Alaina would likely approach the opposite side:

"Are we going the usual strategy?"

"Yep. You go first. Then once you've taken control of the match, we'll go for quick tags and double team moves...any idea how to make the first part work? Sorry to say, but last time she schooled you...hard. That German was awesome though."

"Hmm...I'll figure that part out. Long story short, I won't try to overpower her... you still remember our main tag moves?"

"Let's quickly go over them"

By the time the two were done, 3 minutes already passed. Deciding not to let their sparring partner wait any longer, Navi entered the ring, while Melody stayed at the ring apron:

"Alright, let's go for simple handicap match rules, you need to pin or submit either of us to win, one of us needs to pin you for us to win. We can tag out at any time, and you know the rest."

"You ready, Amazon?", Navi asked Alaina with a smirk.

Alaina was focused and observed the two. When Navi approached and asked if Alaina was ready, the amazon simply nodded. She felt like she had to prove how dominant she could be. She had to win this soar. If Alaina was ever going to be the amazon of old, a title holder, she had to emerge victorious no matter what.

Ding ding ding!

Alaina moved in to quickly close the gap with Navi, reaching out to get hold of her in a grapple. If Alaina could wrap her up the amazons plan was very simple: Drive Navi straight back into the corner hard enough to stun the smaller woman!

With the sound of an imaginary ring bell sounding in both womens' heads, Navi and Alaina circled each other before grappling. The strategy of Navi going first mostly boiled down to her being able to take more punishment than Melody. During this time, Melody might make final fixes to their strategy if need be.

And with how things went with the opening exchange, it seems the fixes would need to take place. After the tie up, Navi tried to ground herself as much as possible to resist the Amazon's strength, but no matter how much she tried, the end result was the same as last time, and Alaina swiftly managed to drive Navi into the corner. Unlucky for her, since they circled the ring, Navi ended up in a wrong corner, with her partner unable to help her out of this situation easily

Alaina had Navi in the corner and now it was time for the amazon to use her strength and strikes to work her over. Alaina stwpped back only to ram a hard knee strike into Navi's abdomen! Alaina felt the impact and heard it echo.

If Navi thought Alaina would let up she was mistaken. Alaina stepped back again this time hammering that abdomen with a hard three punch body strike combo! She hoped that as well as the crash into the turnbuckle would soften her foe up quite a bit.