Edgar Shaw vs. Felina Rodriguez - Never Back Down

Felina was groggy, but not so groggy that she forgot basics that had been drilled into her head since she could walk on two feet. Her mind was working over time, trying to find a gap in Edgar’s defenses, something that she could exploit and cut it with. The guy was good, but not perfect. Pristine, but not flawless. She just had to wait for the right opening had to let it produce. Patience, patience, patience…

There. Yes, right there. Felina lit up as she saw him moving back for a punch, one that left him wide open, and she might’ve just been fast enough to get a counter in and drop him, maybe, just maybe…

”Felina, no!”

From the sidelines, Army could see Edgar’s movements, and their familiarity clicked. He’d seen Carmen going into similar motions, knew what him dipping down like that meant, could read it well enough to make a strong guess what was coming, and he just so happened to be right - the Gazelle Punch.

It hit Felina dead in the face, crushing her, creating enough force to make her feet leave the ground. She went ragdolling, lifeless and free, only to hit the mat on the back of her neck at an awful angle that made someone in the crowd shriek in horror. When she hit, she didn’t move. Didn’t twitch. Didn’t stir. Didn’t do anything. She didn’t just look out of it, but much, much worse.

The referee ran over to her side to check on and Army followed suit a second later, moving over to her and giving her a shake. ”Felina! Felina!”

Leah gasped, clapping her hands over her mouth at the moment of impact, wincing along with the audience, sharing in their horror. The shot looked vicious, far more violent than she ever witnessed at the hands of her brother. Most of this match had been far more extreme from what she was most familiar with. He was NEVER like this in their spars.

He knew it was over before Felina hit the ground. In fact, he was almost certain he could pinpoint the absolute moment her brain had flipped itself off. He had knocked his fair share of people out, and every time it was just about the same. Their body almost folded inwards, arms came in close, legs pressed together. It looked unnatural. He didn't know the science behind it, but assumed it had something to do with muscles tensing up without anything at the core to control them.

He remain where his punch had connected, not moving until after the referee had come running in. He stood himself fully upright, shaking out his aching hand. He was going to need to ice his hands after this, he couldn't remember the last time he beat someone so hard he actually hurt himself, outside of a few bareknuckle bouts in the underground scene.

He glanced at Armando as he moved past, snickering softly as the man positioned himself next to Felina, giving her a shake. He didn't like this. He didn't feel bad for his opponent. She could have walked away at any time, she did this just as much to herself as he had done to her. He however, wasn't pleased with Army’s concern for her.

This woman he had laid waste to was someone's daughter, possibly this guy's sister, student, or lover, some sort of relationship he wasn't aware of. It made him uncomfortable and annoyed. When he beat someone down, he rarely had to deal with the humanizing fallout that put his victims into perspective. Why the hell was this blue haired guy even here, tarnishing his victory with making him feel guilty about winning? Fuck this guy.

His narrowed eyes fell back to Felina’s motionless body, mind internalizing his guilt to turn it to anger towards the helpless woman. He shook her head, turning to walk away he paused as he saw Leah coming to congratulate him. He sighed softly, holding out an arm to catch the hug she was likely to give him.

Only she didn't stop. She jogged right past him. Edgar’s brow furrowed as he looked back to his sister kneeling down beside Army, looking just as concerned about Felina. No congratulations. No hug. Why did he care? “I’ll be in the back.” He muttered to himself, leaving his sister behind. If he was t stopped, he would make his way to the back.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Army called himself that and far worse in his head, as he and the referee tried to get Felina back into the waking world. He could almost hear Carmen chewing him out already, and everything he imagined her saying was dead on - he should’ve stopped this. Shouldn’t have let it go nearly so far. Should’ve done something, anything to stop this before it reached the point of no return. But it was too late now, and this was the result - his cousin, on her back, a bruised and broken mess.

The worst part? He couldn’t be mad at Edgar for fighting and he couldn’t be that mad at Felina for just being her normal, stubborn self. There was only one way to point the blame, and he could feel it all coming down on him.

”Stupid, moron-” He’d just started to mumble when Leah came to his side, kneeling beside him, showing almost as much concern as he did. For a person she barely knew, had just met, even. The sight of it left him speechless for a moment as he stared at her, but before he could put coherent words together, Felina began to stir and demanded his attention.

”Army?” She opened her eyes, blinked, then hissed as all the pain hit her at once, her face turning into a hard mask of pain.

”Hey, hey, take it easy.” He let himself breath a sigh of relief and ease her back down to the canvas, stopping her attempts to sit up quick. She’d probably be good enough to walk, but he didn’t want to rush it. ”How are you feeling?”

She started to open her mouth, then closed it tight, taking a moment to run her tongue along her teeth and make sure everything was in proper alignment. Once she was done with that check, she looked up at him, started to open her mouth once more, only to close it again when she noticed Leah nearby. Felina turned sharp to her, looking up with raised eyebrows. ”H...hello?”

Leah had settled herself down beside Army, but remained back a few inches to give them all space. She wasn't sure if she would need to move for medical stuff. The blond had been watching Felina and Army in equal parts, frowning down at the seven until the brunette had spoken up enough to utter her cousin’s name.

She clapped her hands together once, excitedly that Felina seemed to be okay. Army’s questions were far more important at the moment, so she had remained quite in an effort to allow the two to speak uninterrupted. When the woman looked at her like that, she blinked right back as the worried look returned.

“Hello!” Leah raised a hand, giving a small wave with her fingers. “Can you hear us!?” She wasn't quite yelling, but she raised her voice a substantial amount. The woman's reaction to the two of them looking over her made her immediately assume there was a problem with the woman’s hearing. After all, what other reason could there be for her not to answer Army’s question?

...oh. Oh. Felina had legitimately forgotten who this woman was, but as her memories came back, she recalled seeing the blonde before, at ringside, looking on. She didn’t recall being told who she was, or even caring. Once the match started and Edgar started unleashing his true self, she had far, far more important things to worry about.

And now she was here. Right here. Even though Edgar himself was long gone.

Questions. She had questions.

”Yes,” She spoke just an octave higher than the woman did. ”Yes, I can hear you.” She hooked her arm with Army’s and let him help her stand up, pushing back up to her weakened knees. As much as she didn’t want the help, she needed. [color:a075=#Green]”I’m sorry, who are you?”

”Leah.” Army answered quick and put her arm over his shoulder, letting her leaned on her for support. Not the easiest thing. She was heavier than she looked. ”She’s cool.”

Leah moved to rise with the two of them, giving Felina a soft smile something she might have given someone who was sick with a cold or flu. Warm, but with a hint of concern. She didn't really have a good filter for hiding what was on her mind when it was something this straight forward. “Okay, good. I wasn't sure.”

“Leah." She chirped in unison with Army, almost as if the two of them had planned it all along. She visibly brightened, bouncing in place when she was referred to as being cool. Granted, Army hadn't meant it in the way she was envisioning the compliment, but it seemed to mean a lot to her even though they were still mostly strangers. “Super cool.” She flicked her finger out at Felina as if they were little pistols… then thought that might be inappropriate so she made a gesture as if holstering then again. “Sorry.”

She had slowly moved around to Felina’s other side, motioning to the woman's arm with a similar gesture to if she had draped the girls arm over her shoulder, though she waited for express permission to lend the two of them a hand. “You’re really really tough.” It didn't seem as if she was being sarcastic or simply throwing out a general complement. To manage to keep standing, let alone going in a match like that was really impressive, to her at least. She was fairly certain she couldn't take half the punishment Felina had endured.

Felina had known Leah for all of ten seconds, and she could already call her one of the oddest, yet simultaneously nicest, people she’d met since coming to Tension.

There was a comforting warmth to her, that much was hard to deny, as she gave off a pleasant smile and a pleasing demeanor, brimming and shining as she gingerly worked her way out of the ring. Kind of awkward with the finger gun thing, yes, but she seemed to mean well, at least. At this moment, Felina was perfectly willing to settle for that.

”Leah. Right.” She took the offer for assistance and put her arm over her new acquaintance’s shoulder. It wasn’t really that needed, Army could hold her easy enough all on his own, but it was the thought that counted. ”Thanks. I appreciate you saying that. Not that it did much good against your…” She was just throwing out a ballpark, but the two of them looked too similar to be cousins, so that left one option. “...brother, right?”

She shook her head as she made her way up the ramp, only stopping for a brief second when the audience started to swell up and clap for her. Pity claps. ‘You did your best’ claps. The last noise she wanted to hear, right now.

Leah slipped up beside and behind Felina, ducking down to cutely duck herself under the woman's arm as an easy way to drape it across her shoulders. She slipped an arm around the woman's back, beaming brightly, seemingly overjoyed to be of assistance. She was a bit wowed by how tone she actually was up close, her arm alone put Leah’s to shame. She didn't have too much trouble supporting her weight, especially with Army helping out.

“Yup, Ed’s my brother. I think you did pretty good though. I haven't beat him yet either and he doesn't even go hard on me like he did with you… sorry if he was a bit… Cactusy.” It never crossed her mind that Felina wasn't in on the conversation she had with Armando. “He really is nice when you get to know him. He just takes some time to open up. I think I am almost to that point.” Said the twin, who lived with him since birth. Good job Leah

She paused when Felina did, looking at the claps in a lighter more upbeat way. She smiled and waved to the crowd before turning back to the cousins. “You should get some pizza… or ice cream.” Her priorities we're a bit misplaced. Felina could likely do for some straight rest, some aspirin, and an ice pack instead. Several most likely.

For some reason, Leah’s description of her brother earned a laugh out of Felina. ‘Cactusy’. That was a nice way to put it. She, frankly, would’ve used much more vulgar words to describe him, but somehow, she wasn’t in a mood to stain this poor woman’s ears with them.

She kept her smile up as they made their way to the top of the ramp, though she had to wince when she came down on her leg in a poor way. Army moved in closer, supporting her ankle better as they came through the curtains. Nothing on her looked too serious, but all the same, they were taking a trip to the AFW’s on-call physician to get his opinion before they went home. No matter how little Felina liked it.

”Ice cream sounds nice, really.” Felina added in, after a moment to contemplate it. Leah seemed pleasant enough, and she had to admit, she would’ve like to make more friends in Japan. Any friends, really. She wasn’t about to turn anyone away, even if they had blood ties to a guy who’d just nearly caved her face in.

But not right now. ”Maybe we can meet a little later for it, though. I’ve got this date with some painkillers that I really need to get to, first.”

Leah’s eyes brightened up a bit. Her suggestion for ice cream had just been something for the cousins to do, not expecting to be involved at all. The prospect of hanging out with someone as tough and wildly as Felina instantly had her excited… she also loved ice cream so this was an all around victory. The blond gave a small cheerful hop, immediately grimacing since she was holding up half of Felina. “Sorry!”

She gave Felina a slightly confused look at her admission of her proposed evening plans. “Oh… I don't know if going on any dates right now would be a good idea. But it's good that you are feeling up to it.” She wasn't about to question who goes by the name of Pain Killers. It could have been wrestlers, or a rappers, maybe even a bikers… it wasn't polite to judge. Maybe the brunette just lead a far more exotic life than she did… Oh! They MUST be a band. How cool! She was sure Edgar would know who they are, she would ask him later.

Leah awkwardly fumbled over her person to find her phone, pulling it out with a small jingle of a few little charms attached to the bright pink case (which sported a few stickers). She would wait until they had gotten somewhere to seat Felina before sharing her info, likely getting odd glances from the medical staff. If there was no more words between the three, she would make her way off to not loiter around while the woman was checked out by the on hand doctor.