Blue Thunder Mask vs. Stone - Duty and Honor

Stone didn’t want to seem overly anxious, but there was no denying that she absolutely was at this point. Her blood was pumping, her heart was beating, the sweat was coming off faster and hotter than she could ever recall. This was the sort of thing she’d been longing for - a real match. A real opportunity. It was taking a concerted effort to hold herself back and give Makio the moment he deserved to recover.

But she managed. Long enough for him to get a few words in and ask a question she knew would be coming sooner or later.

While she was iffy on divulging things about her past, Makio had trusted her this far, and he seemed reasonable enough considering the bind she’d placed him in. He trusted her, she should reciprocate. Stone would answer him, but she wouldn’t stop the match cold just to do it. She eased into her stance and started to circle him, closing in as she spoke, looking for opening, not giving an inch.

”Long story.” She shook her head, clearing some sweaty strands out of her eye. ”Longer than we have time for, now. Suffice to say, my country didn’t have much of a taste for me. So I tried another one.”

That was all the exposition she was willing to give at the moment, and she punctuated her sentence by lunging forward and coming Makio’s way with a low kick, trying to sweep his legs out from under him with a strong strike.

Blue Thunder Mask stood at the ready, any stolen moment he could siphon from their interactions. He had asked the question, though expected next to nothing in return. Stone didn't seem the type to freely volenteer things about herself. Either too personal or too painful he imagined, people like her just don't spring into existence like this. What he had gotten was more or less what he figured, vague nothing.

He couldn't say he was disappointed she hadn't humored him by laying off while they conversed. In truth he would have been pretty disappointed had things stopped dead for a sudden heart to heart. While he had been hoping to be the aggressor when they got rolling again, she beat him to it. Thankfully he had been ready, somewhat.

His snap reaction to the kick rounded at him was to quickly hop backwards, allowing her leg to slice through the air before him. In most circumstances it wouldn't have been ideal, being left off balance he would be a sitting duck while he recovered. He didn't try to however, sinking back where he landed before springing up off the canvas.

As he kicked off the ground he twisted his body, corkscrewing through the air as he launched himself at Stone's upper body with a flying shoulder tackle. He hadn't plunged at her dead on, instead trying to strike her from one side to he could continue past her after the blow to spring back to his feet as quickly as possible at a safe distance.

Swing and a miss.

Stone cursed under her breath as the blow wound up hitting nothing more than dead air, a total whiff. She was fast for her size, but Blue Thunder Mask was fast for any size, which meant she would be relying on the quality of her moves over the quantity. When she did catch him, she needed to put him down hard and make sure he stayed down.

Before she could make another try at it, Makio was on the move, coming straight at her before she could react, turning his body into a human cannonball. It was more than enough to knock her clean off her feet, and she was sent down on the canvas in a flop, enough of a crash to make the ring shiver on impact.

But she didn’t stay there for long. Knowing that was the danger zone, she was quick to rise back to her feet and turn his way, hoping to be ready before he had the chance to launch his next move, whatever that may be.

He felt the impact and knew in that instant it had been enough. His momentum carried him onward into the ground as well, but a far more graceful landing on her forearms and legs. Kicking off the ground, he scrambled up without even looking back. He was running towards the ropes, looking to keep a swift and effective offensive rolling to keep Stone off balance.

Turning on his heel, his back dug into the ropes before he sprang off. Stone was up again and waiting for him. It wouldn't deter him at all as he charged into the belly of the beast. He was slightly off path though, not dashing directly at her it seemed, almost like he was aimed past her.

As he neared, he took one longer stride before his boots left the canvas. He twisted in the air, launching himself sideways in her direction. He leaned himself back, legs flying high to try and catch the woman in her head or chest with the sides of his legs with a spinning wheel kick.

This was bad. Even before Blue Thunder Mask followed up with whatever he was aiming for, Stone knew it would mean serious trouble for her. She’d been in and seen enough matches to know when someone was well on their way to building serious momentum, and he had all the warning signs. The crowd was rising, his feet were flying across the mat, and it felt like the match’s pace had just raised up by a few notches.

She thought - hoped - she could get up in time to stop whatever he would be coming her way with next, but that turned out to be a faint hope, at best. He was coming at her from the side, which meant she needed a second to correct herself and come up with some sort of counter. It was a second that he took full advantage of, too. No rest, here. No respite.

He was leaping, he was spinning, he was kicking, and the blow caught her clean on the side of her head, hitting with enough force to put her on the mat. She rolled with it and let it take her under the ropes onto the apron, right on the edge of the ring. She didn’t fall off, though, and instead starting to pull herself up on the other side of the ropes, gripping them tight as she stood, shaking her head to clear the cobwebs.

It was a gamble anytime he took himself off his feet to launch his offense. He had of course, as he tended to do, had been very careful in his approach and choice of attack however to navigate the potential risks. Perfection was impossible, the best one could hope for was to have enough knowledge and muscle memory to fill in gaps with the most efficient action you could muster. He knew Stone was going to the mat the moment they made contact and his legs felt the give of her upper body. From there he lost sight of her as the two hit the canvas almost in unison. From his back he rolled to a knee and sprang to his feet, catching sight of his retreating adversary.

Circling, he moved away from her to put himself on a straight path from mid ring to where she was standing. From here he charged again, opting to avoid springing off the far rope to cut down on the time it took to get himself set up. As he came up towards Stone he dropped to the canvas, baseball sliding forward the remaining way. He was aiming to drive his boots straight into her chest like a spear.

While this was hardly a good look for Stone - she swore, she could hear Makoto cursing all the way from backstage - she realized that her getting knocked out of the ring wasn’t a purely negative development. The referee had already started counting, not even waiting for her to rise in full before she began. Not a problem. It would be a nice, slow count, and while she wasn’t going to milk it all the way, she would happily take a second or two to recoup.

It was just a shame that Blue Thunder Mask had other ideas. Whether he was just thorough or he feared her getting her wind back, she couldn’t say, but the reasoning didn’t matter. Either way he was driven to bring the fight to her.

Stone heard a commotion coming from the crowd, and turned quick, expecting to see Blue Thunder Mask in flight. She looked up, then looked down, and by then it was too late. His boots were only inches away from her chest.

If Stone had to describe the impact, she’d liken it to taking a battering ram to her chest. The blow knocked her clean off her feet and sent her crashing into the barricades, hitting with enough force to move them back and nearly knock a couple of patrons off her feet. Stone was able to stayed standing herself, but only because she was leaning against the barrier, supporting her as she shook her head and tried to blink away the stars in her vision.

Blue Thunder Mask lingered in his slide position after burying his boots firmly in Stone's chest. Like a lumberjack standing by to observe the tree fall. She didn't fall though. Not yet. He rolled out onto the apron and rose to his feet, staring down at Stone as the fans roared around them.

He was by no means a high flyer.  He could and did perform a number of moves that would technically fall under that broad term, but he wasn't one for rope play and death defying dives. The more tame things however, he could do.

Gauging the distance he bent at th knees and jumped himself up off the apron. Arms raised high, fingers intertwining, as he readied himself. He would try to land just in front of Stone, bringing his fists down in unison to try and crack her with a mighty double axe handle smash. Depending on how she was positioned by the time he got there, it would be for her head or chest.

Stone cursed under her breath, mostly in English with a little Japanese thrown in for flavor, as she struggled to stay standing on the outside of the ring. This was precisely the sort of thing she’d feared, letting Blue Thunder Mask run away with the momentum of this match, dictate the pace as he wished. If she wanted to win - which she very much did, if only for competition’s sake - she needed to come up with a way to put an end to this. Now.

She saw the opportunity when she looked to her side and saw Blue Thunder Mask getting ready to pounce off the apron. Stone had an idea. Not an easy idea, but an idea.

Instead of standing up when Makio launched himself into the air, Stone ducked down, dropping away from his double axe handle, and took a big step towards him at the same time, just enough to make him come crashing down on her shoulders, catching all of his weight. Once he was on board, she shot straight up, lifting him in a fireman’s carry, then kicked her legs out and turned him into her cushion when she flopped to the ground.

A Samoan Drop. On the floor. It would suck.

It was for precisely reasons like this, he tended to not make use of high flying moves. As he came down from his leap, he saw the sudden shift from Stone and was left helpless to react to it now that gravity had taken hold. He landed across her shoulder, bending in half against her broad frame as he let out a wheeze. The two of them dipped slightly before he was popped up, and quickly repositioned. It was a smooth transition, one he would have commended her on if he was able to at the moment.

His back splat against the lightly padded ground with a wet smacking sound that tended to only exist with bare skin on skin contact or when someone hit those less than forgiving mats just right. The masked man let out a growl of pain as he was laid out on his back. The sting of the flat fall, the weight that shook his body, the impact rattling his ribs. It was if someone threw open a valve and drained his momentum in one quick motion.