Sarah Gatt's Open Challenge (for Tatyina)

Sarah's breathing seemed to grow faster and harsher the angrier she got, like she was about to hyperventalate. This wasn't the way it was supposed to go, it was all going wrong! Even the crowd was turning against her. With the feeling of loss came memeories that she had tried to forget, when the had experienced her first loss, when she and her friends were seperated and hauled off to jail. It was a terrible experience, one that had happened all because she had lost. And now it was happening again....

A fierce and crazed look came over Sarah's eyes, and she suddenly undid the latch on the contrapment on her shoulders, and then threw it aside when it was off. Rika had to jump out of the way with a yelp before it hit her. The thing hit the mat instead, where the weight of it caused a small dent to appear on the surface. With an enraged yell, Sarah sent a straight and fierce punch straight into Akashi's face. With her training weights no longer hindering her speed and power, and her anger fueling her further, Sarah's punch may as well have been a bolt of lightning.

Akashi titled her head when she saw Sarah take off her weights, not really even realizing what they were. She was waiting for an answer but expecting what Sarah gave her. She wasn't expecting that kind of speed though and the punch hit her square in the nose. It sent her flat on her back with a dazed look in her eyes as she tried to blink away unconsciousness.

Sarah pounced on Akashi as soon as she was down, and sent another unrestrained punch into the woman's face, and then another one, that crazed look still in her eyes. It was at the second punch that the ref girl intervened, and tried to pull Sarah off Akashi before any more damage could be done. Big mistake. In a single devastating punch the referee was sent sailing backwards, falling to the mat unconscious. Once she was out of the way Sarah turned back to the sumo, and clamped her hands around her throat, strangling the life out of her. The dark look on her face showed she was fully intent on killing Akashi....

Akashi could do little to stave off the blows as they rained down upon her. She could feel her already sore face reel with even more pain. She could only look on through half opened eyes. Her nose was bleeding now, she was sure of it. She layed quietly on the mat when Sarah moved to punch the ref out, just trying to recover. She gave a quick glance to Rika. She would have shook her head if she could have brought herself to do it.

Akashi's eyes lit up when she was choked. Her hands instinctively came to Sarah's wrists but she could hardly defend herself at the moment. The most she could try and do was kleep Sarah from actually killing her. "Sa..rah..." She managed to get out the word weakly.

"Sarah! Stop!" Rika cried out, and leapt at her friend to pull her arms off Akashi, trying to stop her herself. It was at that moment a team of security girls swarmed out from the front entrance and charged for the ring to stop the situation before it got any worse. Rika, meanwhile, having ut up more of a fight than the ref did, managed to hold Sarah off Akashi until they arrived, before Sarah roughly threw her off. By then security had entered the ring, and all of them grabbed Sarah's arms. With their combined strength they managed to pull the enraged Queen of Brawl off of Akashi. Sarah kicked and screamed against them, flailing about like a wild animal. All traces of reason and understanding were gone; she wanted nothing more than to get loose and tear Akashi apart.

Rika slowly stood up after Sarah had tossed her aside, watching in awe fear as the security girls had trouble even holding Sarah back. She quickly went to Akashi's side, checking if she was alright. "Akashi, you better get out of here," she whispered to her.

Akashi coughed when she was free, getting to her hands and knees. She panted hard.Her eyes widened when she heard Rika's voice and she looked up with narrowed eyes as she slowly got to her feet. "Now what?" She practically growled. "Do you still feel the same as before now that you've seen her legitimately loose or will you be like her?" She stepped to the ring ropes, leaving. "I tried to understand the both of you because I thought that there was some way to reach out to both of you. I really did want to get to know the two of you and I thought if I beat her she would finally let me in... but I will never be able to understand someone who cannot even react properly to loosing. I thought you might be different and I still have hope. If I didn't have people I cared for too I would stay and keep playing her game... even if it cost me more than friendship but I won't let down the people I love by being stupid and getting myself killed."

She pulled herself out of the ring and began walking slowly down the arena ramp, wincing. "About halfway up the ramp she turned around. "For someone who acts like a child when they loose, I can't possibly understand them!" She shouted looking at Sarah. Her attention turned to Rika. "But I hope at least one of you comes to their senses!" With that she would turn to leave, not knowing or caring if she angered Sarah even more.

Rika stepped back when Akashi stood back up, and din't answer her when adressed, merely averted her eyes from her gaze. Sarah didn't even seem to hear the sumo, still snarling and screaming as she tried to get free from the security girls. She stomped on the foot of one of them, and with a yelp of pain she backed off, giving Sarah the chance to elbow straight in the face, knocking her out cold. Fortunately after their last encounter with Sarah security had taken precautions when dealing with the Queen of Brawl. One of them pulled out a taser, and before Sarah knew it it was pushed into her back. With a sharp gasp Sarah immediately stopped thrashing, going limp as a noodle, completely incapacitated. Rika winced when it hapened, but didn't try to stop them either. She knew it had to be done. Now that Sarah was more complacent the security girls dragged her out of the ring, the crowd booing her the entire way, and Rika following meekly behind.

An hour later Sarah was storming out of the AFW complex, fully mobile and on a rampage. "That fucking sumo bitch!" she shouted, heading to the parking lot where her bike was. "She just caught me off gaurd. I beat her once, I can do it again!" Rika was following her like always, but this time she seemed rather quiet.

"Yeah..." Rika muttered. She couldn't help but go over what Akashi told her in her head.

"Exactly. I'll show her. Akashi thinks she can just get lucky and then walk away? She's wrong! Get Nha and Sha, get Karina, get everybody you can. We're gonna show this bitch what it means to cross me..."

"No."

Sarah stopped walking, and turned to Rika to find she had stopped walking as well, and had taken to staring at her feet. "What did you say?" Sarah asked.

"I....I said no," Rika restated nervously, avoiding looking at her friend. "I don't want to do this.....can't you just accept that she beat you?"

"She did not beat me!" Sarah snarled, marching straight up to her.

"Yes she did!" Rika suddenly snapped, now looking at Sarah to glare at her. "I couldn't beleive it happened either but it did! And you what? I'm glad!" Sarah's eyes widened, and then they narrowed on Rika, almost demanding an explanation. "You win fights a lot, Sarah, and that's a good thing but.....the more you win the worse you seem to get. You think you're invincible but you;re not, and it's gonna get you in trouble one of these days." Rika's voice gained more confidence the more she went on. "That's why it's good that you lost, you needed someone to knock you off your pedestal, bring you back down to earth. Just like when that guy beat you the first time." Sarah's look grew dark and furious.

"Are you telling me," she growled, taking a step towards Rika. "That that guy beating me then was a good thing?" Rika nervously took a step back, swallowing hard.

"Y-Yes," Rika answered quietly. If Sarah's mugging days weren't brought to an end by that man, her spree would have continued, and her crimes might have gotten even worse until the day she was caught, or worse.

But Sarah didn't see that, and before Rika could react Sarah's hand clamped around her throat, pressing her hard against the wall. Rika coughed and gasped, squirming to break free but Sarah held on tight, squeezing her neck tightly. The same murderous look she had in her eyes when she strangled Akashi was there now. "Sa...rah," Rika wheezed desperately, looking up at her friend pleadingly. "Stop..." Sarah's intense gaze seemed to lessen the longer she looked into Rika's eyes, consciousness and reason returning to her, and her eyes widened in horror at what she was doing.

Abruptly she let go of Rika, and the girl collapsed to her knees, coughing hoarsly and holding her neck. Sarah stepped backwards, green eyes wide, unbeleiving at what she had almost done. Her hands were shaking at the thought of it. She looked down at Rika's small shivering form with heaping amounts of guilt. She had to get out of there, she just couldn't face her now. Before Rika could fully recover Sarah quickly ran off, and was out of sight right away.





Winner by pinfall, Akashi