Alicia Wells vs. Makoto Aihara - Boot to the Head

Once again, straight to the point. Valley had to give Alicia credit, she didn't like to waste much time.

There the two of them stood, as the crowd watched on, intrigued by the dynamic. The champion: veteran and tested, agile and skilled, proven through dozens of matches, unbeaten in over a year. The challenger: strong and relentless, young and dangerous, with one of the only two women to beat her standing right there, with a championship belt on her shoulders.

It was a great setup, and Valley would be lying if she said she wasn't getting goosebumps. The crowd gave Alicia a fresh round of boos after her challenge, but really, the full-bodied Briton had every right to step up. She'd had more than her fair share of matches, won them decisively, and had proved she was on the championship level in impressive time. She was worthy, there was no question there.

That wasn’t to say Valley would just give her the match she wanted. Not exactly.

The Slamazon held her ground as the larger woman moved closer, close enough that things would’ve became quite awkward if Valley hadn’t had the reduction surgery. She had to raise her head just for the two of them to make eye contact, but she held her ground all the same. Champions didn’t retreat.

”I suppose I do owe you a rematch, huh? Kind of works out fine for me, too - I was going to do another open challenge at Summer Splash in a few weeks, but I’ll take you on there, instead.” She nodded towards her belt and gave the faceplate a couple of pats. 4

”But,” She held up a finger. ”If we’re going to go, let’s go. You. Me. Total Victory match.”

That little addition gained a mixed reaction from the crowd - some cheered, some were just confused, and she didn’t quite blame them. It was an important from Valley’s Slamazon days, and the only people who’d done it in the AFW before were her and Ace. She was proud of that match, it was one of her personal favorites, but it hadn’t been for a title and it tended to get lost in the shuffle when awesome Silver Ace and Valley Doll matches were mentioned.

”Simple rules: Best two out of three falls. First fall is pinfall only, second fall is submissions, third fall - if it goes that far…” Valley’s own grin took a little twist. ”Only by knockout. Falls count anywhere, no disqualifications.”

She stood up on her tiptoes, getting high enough for them to meet forehead to forehead and eye to eye. ”Sound good?”

Say what anyone might about Valley Doll, the blonde champion didn’t mess around. There might have been a bit too much talk about it, she’d have preferred a straight ‘yes’, but Alicia wasn’t kept waiting for her answer.

True, there was also the patting of the belt, which the redhead was basically not interested in at all – but she was aware enough of how things worked not to say as much. As far as she was concerned, Valley didn’t need to put the damn thing on the line and she’d be happy to tell the veteran that once they were backstage.

In fact, she was already doing Valley a favour – at least this way the blonde was getting a good match out of it, rather than whatever idiot decided to run out.

Then Valley dropped the bombshell.

A Total Victory match…

Alicia raised her eyebrows, immediately curious. She’d not been looking for a particular style of match, had to admit to being wary even, but she trusted Valley enough to at least hear her out. The crowd’s uncertainty added to her curiosity, the mix of cheers and awed hush making her wonder just what the blonde had in mind.

And then Valley laid it out in short, simple strokes and Alicia-

Well, she didn’t normally go in for the gimmicks that Friction seemed to insist upon. But, in this particular case, she was all for it. Best of three rounds against Valley, while the first would be a write-off, was about as good a deal as she could imagine.

And two of the three were well and truly up her street. In fact, it was perfect because it was almost certain that they’d go to the full three rounds – just what Alicia would be hoping for.

”Sounds like fun,” The curvy kickboxer agreed, and that was putting it lightly as her expression showed.

Alicia’s smile was a slow, predatory stretch of the lips, less an expression of humour than one of dominance. Without taking her eyes off Valley’s, their gazes remaining locked, the fire-haired Brit tilted her head slightly off to the side. Indicating Makoto’s still limp form.

”Just do better than that.”

Did she mean Makoto’s performance when she said ‘that’, or did she mean Makoto herself? Valley’s mileage might well vary.

While Valley wouldn't claim to be super BFFs with Alicia or anything, she'd known the redhead long enough that she felt she could make some accurate predictions on the way she would act in any given situation. The things she liked. The things she didn't like. All in all, it was a reasonable bet that what Alicia liked most in the world was competition. Plain and simple, the girl liked to fight.

So, when she threw down a gauntlet in the form of a Best 2 out of 3 - the most hellacious sort of standard match out of the Iron Man - she had a good feeling that Alicia would accept. Sure enough, the bait was taken and promptly gobbled up, with that familiar smile of her growing even wider and more devilish.

She took a quick look to the side, scanning the audience, seeing some doubt in their eyes, and on the surface she couldn't blame them. Pinfalls, Valley could do. Most of her wins had been with them. But Alicia had already racked up an impressive list of submissions in her ‘rookie’ year, and if Valley had any doubts on her ability to knock someone out, all she had to do was look at her side and see Makoto’s limp body. A sad reminder that one kick in the wrong place at the wrong time could end any match, especially when it came from legs like that.

But she didn't became the champion for an easy ride, did she? She wanted to face the best.

”Oh, I'm sure it'll be a blast.” Valley nodded, took a deep breath and acknowledged Alicia’s little comment on the end. ”As for Makoto...I'm not Makoto. I'm Valley Doll. The Entropy Champion.” She held her belt high in the air, garnering the appropriate applause. ”I beat you once. It was hard, but I did it, and I'm better now than I was back then. So you'd better be, too..”

Valley gave Alicia a playful poke on the shoulder, then held that same finger up for a moment. ”Now, this would typically be the part where the challenger says something tough and walks out to her theme music, but since you don't have any…”

The backstage crew picked up on Valley’s cue, and sure enough, her music once against blared out over the speakers, filling the arena. She gave Alicia a sly wink, then turned about to make her exit from the ring, confidently strutting all the way.