Wolves Not Far

This was nice. This was really nice.

It was surreal to think that, at one time, Valley had hated taking this sort of roll with younger wrestlers, for reasons she couldn’t clearly fathom herself. Maybe she was afraid of helping the competition - wrestling could be cutthroat, and any advantage you gave someone could turn into your disadvantage later. Or maybe she wanted other women to take a harder path than she did, resenting some of the opportunities that came her way. Or maybe, just maybe, she hated the idea that she was supposed to naturally step aside and let others take her place. That one day she would have to stop doing the things she loved.

Those thoughts were always swimming around in her head, somedays louder than others, so it was a funny thing that the conversation turned as it did. Things were still friendly, but she could feel a slight edge in the air, the way she felt whenever a competitor was near. Manami was younger, fit, and had some ambition to build on. It wouldn’t be too weird to find themselves staring at each from opposite sides of the ring.

”The best?” She tossed a few errant hairs out of her face, showing the genuine smile she had over that comment. ”Well, you’re kind. Too kind, really, but I’ll take it.”

Valley signed another autograph and sent a man in a business suit hurrying on his way, heading back to the office with his lunch break running out, if she had to guess.

”That’s a heavy question.” She fold her arms and took a moment to think, truly think, of the best way to answer Manami’s query and satisfy that curiosity. ”I love wrestling. I tried to fight it when I was young, but it’s in my blood. So, one day, when I can’t go anymore and I can’t hang, then I might focus on teaching and raising up the next generation, sure. But I have a few years before that happens.” Valley leaned back in the chair and sighed, as if just getting these words out helped.

”So, I guess I’ll wrestle until I can’t wrestle, then help others wrestle after that.” She twirled the pen about her fingers and went in for another signature, giving the line a quick look to see how many were laugh. Not too many, she hoped. Would’ve been nice to speak with Manami more at a cafe. ”And don’t sell me short. I’ve done a pretty good job of holding onto this belt for a while now. Don’t expect that to change anytime soon.”

She really did have to do things like this more often. It was refreshing to simply talk and sit with new company for once, ones that didn’t share her malevolence towards the deserving world. Ones that had a different way of seeing things. How often did the hunter consult itself with the feelings of its prey, after all?

If it meant engaging with more individuals such as Valley, she may actually consider entertaining this approach more often. She was intelligent, had a decent understanding of her place in the larger scope of things and what that meant. It was rare to see someone that hadn’t succumb to delusions of grandeur in the seat she currently occupied. If anything, it seemed to make her all the more humble. As if it were a responsibility.

It was almost laughable.

She may have underestimated the woman’s passion for wrestling, however. ‘In her blood’? Interesting. This may have been one of the few times her expectations falling short may bear a positive consequence.

She nodded along to her words, allowing Valley to spell out the bigger picture for her. Sell her short? No, no. Never that.

“Of course not. Your accolades are yours and yours alone.” She folded her legs again as she faced the next person in line approaching. A young girl, a cute little thing that reminded the wolf of her years before the underground. When the world seemed so large and innocent. “But, I wouldn’t be so sure of that.” She said, averting her gaze once again and crossing one leg over the other. “Friction is changing in more ways than you realize. New groups entering, older ones leaving. It isn’t too uncommon now for a veteran of many years to be bested by some plucky upstart. It could happen some years from now, the next season, tomorrow…”

“...or, right now.” Her smile shifted into a wide smirk as she looked back at Valley, eyes drifting down towards her waist. “It does look just my size.”

Why not? She appeared dressed for the occasion.

Valley kept her smile on, stayed amicable, and have nothing but bright eyes and waves for both Manami and the upcoming patrons, but inside thing were a tad different. It was subtle. Slight. A tinge that could’ve wound up being nothing. But, for some reason, she could feel her hairs stand up on edge and her heartbeat begin to quicken.

She couldn’t put an exact finger on the reason why, either, but there was something subtlety off about Manami’s tone, the way she sat, the way she spoke, the way she looked. Even if she hadn’t said anything overtly threatening, there was a heavy weight in the air, and not one that was totally unfamiliar - it reminded her a bit of Natasha Han, the way she’d looked at Valley right before their Iron Man match.

Similar, but darker. Deeper. Wilder.

She brushed it off as she signed another poster, figuring it was nothing more than jitters between a champion and a prospective challenger. But that was when the conversation turned once more.

Subtlety was gone for the day it seemed, with Manami all but giving out a straight challenge for the belt. Valley couldn’t hate her too much for that, in all honesty. She’d made similar challenges when she was just starting out, which meant it was only fair she give a similar response.

”Does it? From here, it looks a little big for you. Doesn’t even match your hair.” Valley had a short lilting giggle and gave her own golden strands a playful flip. Keeping things light. ”But besides that, you’re not the only woman who wants to try it. You’ll get a turn, don’t worry. One day. Just not today.”

Seemed fair enough, and definitely not as a rude an answer as she’d gotten back in the day. Give Manami something to shoot for, to aspire to.

Shame. And they were having such a pleasant conversation.

Of course, no matter the direction, they were always going to end up at the same place. Even if Valley had accepted, thrown the table aside, laid down everything here and now in front of what number of her fans remained, and struggled until neither of them could stand, she was still going to find herself in the same helpless position. That was as Manami dictated, thus that was as things would have to be.

But how does the saying go? The journey over the destination? Manami couldn’t help but feel utterly disappointed on which road Valley had chosen to take.

She didn’t make it clear, of course. Not to anyone. She merely closed her eyes and smiled back appreciatively, bringing her poster up and tapping it against her shoulder. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. The sound echoed out of the funnel as reverberated off her shoulder blade. Hardly loud enough to be noticed by anyone close by. Unless they were looking for it, of course.

“Oh, my apologies.” She placed a hand against her chest and leaned in, opening her eyes to slowly point the poster towards the woman across from her. “That wasn’t a request.”

Two tanned, muscular arms of Fate came in behind Valley, tucking underneath her armpits and lifting her up and out of her chair. At the same time, the chair was kicked out from underneath her as the arms wrapped around behind the veteran’s necks, hands clasping together in a tight full nelson.

With a yank to the side, the arms would force the Californian to face the Wolf Girl as she continued to set in her chair, enjoying this pleasant afternoon. The figure behind her bending back only slightly, Valley would be elevated a mere inch off the ground. Just enough for gravity to assist in keeping her restrained.

“And to answer your question: Yuki Kitashima. Formal introductions are her forte.”

Valley was surprised - pleasantly - by the way Manami reacted to her rejection. It was certainly better than the way she’d done herself when she was turned down for a title shot out of the gate - no ranting, no demands, no accusations of people holding her back because of this, that, or the other thing. No, no - the woman seemed to accept it. Mature of her. Surprisingly mature.

Suspiciously mature.

There was something about the look in Manami’s eyes that she didn’t like at all now, and there was something even worse in what she’d just said. She had just enough time to raise an eyebrow and open her mouth, about to ask the younger wrestler what she meant about it not being a request, when the look of the fan in front of her took all her attention. The woman was older, around Valley’s age, enough that a few lines were starting to develop along her face. Those lines were stretched now, her eyelids widened to the size of saucers, her mouth gaping as she looked at Valley. Only she wasn’t looking at Valley, but behind her. Right behind her… ”What is-”

Two syllables. That was all she had time to get out before two steel girders disguised as arms reached under her shoulder and hoisted her up into the air, putting her into one of the tightest full nelson’s she’d ever experienced. The Entropy Belt flopped out of her lap as she was hoisted high in the unflinching grip, and she automatically went into a wild kicking fit that sent the table flipping over.

The crowd scattered like roaches when the light came on, not knowing what was going on, but knowing that it was probably something they didn’t want to be in the middle of. Screams. Shouts. Cries. The world became a hurricane of chaos, with the struggling Slamazon in the eye of the storm, jerking about like a fish on a hook.

The only person who seemed to have some semblance of reason about him was a AFW representative, some guy with a name that Valley could remember, a lanky fellow they’d assigned to help her set all of this up. ”Hey!” She could see him rounding the table and stepping over the fallen posters, moving like he was about to do something. What, she had no idea. ”Hey, let her go! Right now!”

Somehow, Valley doubted either Manami or ‘Yuki’ were the type to respect authority figures. Which likely meant the poor guy was going to regret his sudden notion of heroism.

Fucking hell, for someone her age, Valley had a lot of life in her. Yuki had put plenty of people in these locks before, to men and women twice the champion’s size with twice as much youth still left in them. Few gave her as hard as time as the blonde woman she had in her grasp right now, thrashing about like a wild tigress locked in a cage.

Didn’t mean she was going to get free though. Not a chance. She kept with the woman and her kicking fit as the table capsized and the crowd scattered. Valley’s shoe clipped her knee, causing the She-Wolf to wince. Alright. Done with this shit. She snapped her head back and threw it forward, slamming it against the back of Valley’s skull before tightening the hold again.

“Kick me again. See what happens.”

Through the whole state of pandemonium, Manami kept to her seat behind the table and the many posters now strewn out in front of her. Her leg stayed crossed over the other, enjoying the view, tasting the energy in the air. She sighed and let a wide smile overtake her lips, witnessing the sea “loyal” fans run for the hills, abandoning their idol to hide away from the big bad wolves. Utterly worthless, even in the direst of straits. Why Valley catered to these sheep was utterly beyond her.

She would have been content to enjoy the sight for a few moments longer until one brainless oaf decided to grow a spine. Her smile faded in an instant as she watched the man approach. Taller than her, but then most men were. Made it easier that way.

“Pardon? I didn’t quite hear you.”

From the dissipating crowds, a long, brown-haired woman stepped forth. She stretched her arms above her head as she approached, letting her large assets breathe free from beneath her tank top. As the man pointed his dainty, filth-ridden finger at the Wolf Girl, the woman stood still behind him for a brief moment before shooting a kick to the back of his leg, bringing him down to one knee and allowing her to fire another kick to the side of his head. She could have ended it there, but playing with her food was always a habit she never broke. She sat down and slide her iron legs between the man’s head, hooking them together and choking the life force free from him a triangle choke. She took care to admire the way he sputtered and gasped, kicked and fought, all the way until his struggles ceased. She then stood up and dusted herself off with a smile, looking down at him.

“Oyasumi.” Fumika giggled.

Of course, there was still the price to pay for defiance.

Manami stood up and folded the chair in her hands. She then walked over, raised it high above her head, and threw it harshly onto the man’s head, letting bounce off and skitter against the concrete. She cocked her head to the side, giving the nobody and nothing a once over before looking over her shoulder towards Yuki. “Now. If there will be no more interruptions...”

“Oh.” She leaned down, picking up the belt with her two hands and dusting the surface off, looking on with a twisted smile before gazing up at Valley. “Seems it wasn’t quite your size either, you little liar.” She let out a dark chuckle as she looked at the still assistant out of the corner of her eye, drawing her gaze back to Valley after a moment. “You really should thank that man when...if he wakes up. Thanks to him, your endless dribble has now become the second most boring thing for me today. ”

Slinging the belt over her shoulder, she walked up to the suspended champion. Yuki let out a grunt, tightening the hold just a tad to make sure her prey wasn’t going anywhere. Stopping just a pace in front of her, Manami would reach out and grab Valley by the jaw, forcing their gazes to meet as her eyes narrowed.

“You’ve been in this industry a long time. You understand what comes next, don’t you?”

Valley knew precious little about ‘Yuki’ the  woman who was holding her at the moment - heck, she wouldn’t have even known it was a woman if she didn’t feel the breasts on her back. That was the only real indication. Few women she’d met had this kind of raw strength, had arms like this, were capable of locking in a full nelson so securely. She’d been in this move dozens of times, but none of the past instance robbed her of so much leeway.

That didn’t mean Valley wouldn’t put a fight. Naturally, she kicked and squirmed and screamed for her life, puting all of her 130 pounds to good use - but it didn’t get her free, and when she took a hard impact on the back of her head, all that struggling came to an abrupt stop.

She limped, listless, held tight in her captor’s arms. She was still cognizant of what was going on, however, enough that she noticed the AFW rep coming to her, likely hoping that a voice of authority might get them to back off. More importantly, though, Valley noticed the woman coming up behind. Voluptuous, well-built, and far, far too calm about everything that was going on around. ”Behind you…” She muttered at first, as she came out of the daze, then spoke up as the woman closed in. ”Look out behind-”

It was over in three seconds. With two simple, but devastating kicks that reminded her eerily of Alicia Welles, the brunette dropped him to the floor, and the proceeded to remind Valley even more of Alicia when she used those jaw-dropping thighs to choke the life out of him. He kicked about, struggled, then faded to black in record time.

A horrific sight to see, but she was glad in a way. Happy that he was getting off relatively light. She’d seen worse things happen when non-wrestlers got involved in these things, and…

”Hey.” She turned her neck, confused, as she saw Manami standing up with that chair and folding it. That was distressing by itself, but what puzzled her was the way the young wrestler wasn’t moving towards her - she was moving to the representative. Her eyes widened and her mouthed gap as Manami lifted the chair in the air, and it became all too clear what was going to happen. ”Hey! No! He’s down, you don’t have to-”

Manami threw the chair hard into the helpless man’s skull, crashing right on his face and opening an instant gash on his forehead. Valley knew from experience the kind of damage a shot like that could do when you were prepared for it, but when you couldn’t move, couldn’t defend yourself? It churned her stomach just to watch it, and brought a whole new round of kicking and wiggling, struggles that Yuki shut down with her tightening grasp.

She was so wrapped up in her plight that she wouldn’t have even noticed Manami if she hadn't’ felt that hand on her chin. Her head was gripped tight, and when she looked towards the rookie - if she really was that - all that could be seen was a hardened face and a wrinkled grimace, seething with fiery rage. Imagening all the thing she could do if she could just free for a second.

So, when Manami asked her question, she had an answer ready. Indeed, she’d been in similar situations before, and she knew the routine.

”Something you’ll regret as soon as I get out of the hospital.”

Despite her best attempts to resist it, Yuki couldn’t help but roll her eyes at Valley’s bravado. The kicking was the worst part. She’d handled people well over two-hundred on the scale who put up less of a fight than this. Didn’t have the same amount of kick, quite the determination either. The She-Wolf was quick to shut that shit down.

She couldn’t give less than a care about the threats, though. A spit in the eye was always the last punch people in her position threw. She’d gone through this dance one too many times to give even the slightest bit of attention to whatever big words people wanted to spout. Their tune always changed when they realized the position they were in.

Manami, however, didn’t seem to share her cohort’s opinion. She merely looked on to Valley’s grimace and matched it with an elated smile. She peered into those cerulean orbs, delighting in the many emotions spilling forth, silently cursing and vowing everything against the wolf. As the two stared, Fumika sauntered behind the three of them, standing patiently some feet behind Yuki.

“We’ll see about that, Val~.” She said with a lingering, mocking grace as snapped her arm away. She brought her hand down to the belt, tracing a lie down its center with her finger, taking in its texture, absorbing the essence passed down from champion to champion upon its buckle. Her smile broadened before her eyes met Yuki’s and she nodded.

Quickly, Yuki unwrapped the full nelson and brought one arm instead to her neck, tightening a chokehold to keep her hoisted up. She looked over her shoulder, gauging the distance for a quick moment before tightening her grip and slamming Valley into the unforgiving concrete. Turning herself around, she'd crouch down and reach one hand underneath Valley’s arms and hoist her up onto her shoulders. Standing tall, the blonde bruiser would raise her high into the air in a crucifix position.

She looked up when Fumika whistled to her, seeing the other wolf wag her finger.

“All yours.”

Falling forward, she’d send Valley flying over her with a crucifix throw. As Valley came soaring over to her, Fumika slid her foot back slightly, eyeing her prey as she glided so ungracefully. Right until the last second, where she snapped that leg forward in a high roundhouse kick, accentuating her steel thighs and hitting Valley squarely in her torso mid-air to send her tumbling over to the side.

No, daring this woman was not the smartest move Valley had ever made, by a wide mile. Manami had her outnumbered, outmuscled, and outmaneuvered. The Slamazon couldn’t fight back, couldn’t call for help, and there was absolutely zero chance of anyone coming to her aide before these three had their way with. What was going to happen next would undoubtedly suck, and there wasn’t much to be done about it.

Call it stupid, call it petty, call it hubris, but Valley just did not want to give Manami any satisfaction that she didn’t have to. This woman - whoever she really was - seemed to get off on pain, and she would be getting her fill of the physical kind soon. She didn’t need the emotional stuff, too.

Manami let the moment linger, let it all simmer to a boil, and the rising tension had Valley’s heart pumping. It was the feeling of getting a shot times a thousand, the rising anticipation of the beatdown to come. She kept her eyes focused forward, not giving Manami so much as a blink, but she kept her teeth clenched tight.

In and out.

In and out.

Breathe.

Begin.

Valley hit the concrete with sickening force that left her limp, as Yuki’s knocked the fight out of her body in one brutal moment. The Valley Doll that was lifted into the air was a groaning, wheezing, aching shell, and it wasn’t about to get any better.

The Slamazon was sent hurtling into space a moment later, and her body jerked about as it flew, instinctively trying to correct itself. She was a queen in the so, There were dozens of ways she could’ve came down from this in a safe manner...but they all required that she have full control of her body in order to work, and that wasn’t something she could muster up, certainly not before that thick, muscular leg could connect with her body.

While she knew it was just a kick from a leg, it felt more like taking a hit from a led pipe, and a large one at that. The only minor saving grace was that she wound landing in the dirt, which was slightly soft and muddy thanks to a heavy rainfall yesterday, giving her a relatively soft surface to crash on.


Valley hurriedly pushed off the ground, looking like she might miraculously stand after that hellish assault, but then it was like her body remembered how much pain it was in and acted accordingly. She stumbled and fell forward to the dirt, where she made an effort to rise again, only to fail and flop again. The best she could do was get up to her hands and knees. Hardly a strong defensive position.

Though she never shared her thoughts about them, Fumika was very proud of her legs. The product of what felt like a lifetime of endless training and hard-fought battles, the destructive power latent within them was a thing rarely seen, but well-earned all the same. Too often she was forced to hold back for the sake of the Wolf Mother’s objectives. To keep intact what was best left in prime condition. When she finally earned the chance to demonstrate their full potential, it warmed her to the core.

Valley was feeling every inch of that enthusiasm now as she swatted her out of the air like a fly and sent her rolling away in heap. She finished the motion with a graceful spin on the tip of her toe before stopping firmly on both feet, facing the downed champion with a warm smile.

Yuki was of a more proactive mind. As soon as she heard the clap and saw her prey take that tumble, she was on her feet and making the short walk over to her. Fumika followed her lead but kept a bit more distance from Valley. No need to fight over her. Everyone would be getting their share eventually. Yuki reached down with both hands and yanked the Californian up by her hair and out of the mud.

“Here piggy, piggy.”

With a strong step to the side, she’d throw whip Valley over to her compatriot. The moment Valley came into her range, she’d snap forward with a spinning back kick to the champion’s gut, forcing her to stumble backward into a lariat to the back of the head already being sent by the bleached blonde behind her.

While her subordinates enjoyed their fun, Manami merely whistled to herself off to the side, not bothering to spare them a glance. Instead, she flipped the signing table back over, setting it back up for reasons known only to her...