Putting Out Fire With Gasoline

Zoey’s declaration that she wasn’t fucking anyone got a dark chuckle out of Sin, and a genuine one at that. She hadn’t meant to imply anything of the sort, really, and she doubted it would be an issue. While she didn’t exactly keep a close eye on Armando’s career - or anyone’s really - she was aware enough of it to know that, traditionally, he wasn’t that sort of guy, and this wasn’t going to be that sort of match. The only bodily fluid Zoey was in danger of losing today was blood.

And, being honest, that was the way Sin preferred it. She’d never liked sharing her toys.

Sin had a long haggard sigh at Zoey’s estimation at her chances though, letting her hot breath cascade over the woman’s succulent neck. Low confidence on this girl. She had good tools, but they wouldn’t be worth shit if she didn’t start using them. ”Fight smart, you’ll survive. You think too straight.” She reached up and gave Zoey’s forehead a few taps. ”He won’t go for the kill right off. He’ll feel you out, see what you’re working with. Do him like I did you.” She stood on her tiptoes and threw a quick whisper in her student’s ear. ”Minus the sex. Just fuck his head. Let him think you’re one thing, paint a picture on you, then rip it to shreds.”

Sin gave Zoey a bite on her ear, digging her teeth in, then finally, reluctantly, pulled away from the woman, yanking on the lobe as she parted. She turned away from her fellow Korean and walked away, arms stretching high as she went, lightly hopping from foot to foot.

”And I’ve got my own entertainment, don’t worry. Putting me up against this new bitch, Blue Imugi. Short thing, but she did beat Armando, so…” Sin shrugged and spun back around on her heel. ”Either she’s got the good or Armando’s overrated as fuck. Guess we’re about to find out.”

From the sound of things, the fight outside had just ended - in brutal fashion, too, if that resounding thud and the crowd’s roar were anything to go by. They were amped, on high energy, and it sounded like the backstage crew was on their asses to get the mess cleaned up and keep the show rolling.

Arms folded, Sin smirked and nodded towards the ring. ”You’re on.”

Sin was the craziest woman she had ever met in her entire life. Probably the craziest she would ever meet. She was skilled, smart, lethal, and consistently teetering on the edge of insanity and nefarious to an unreasonable degree. Only someone like her would take Zoey to a place like this like it was a trip to the park for the sole purpose of watching her get torn apart.

She had the TKD girl wrapped around her finger and Zoey knew that all too well. That fact simultaneously pissed her off and pumped her up at the same time. It wasn’t a feeling that she could describe, but it was probably what made her chase after Sin when she finally pulled away. It was only for a second, a heartbeat where she found herself drifting from the wall on the end of a magnetic force, but it was the second that did happen. Undeniable.

And for some incomprehensible reason, that thought just spurred Zoey on all the more. That and the moist heat that blew over her neck. The worst part was that she was right. She had the tools to be so much more, but it took a mind like Sin’s to show her how to use them properly.

Zoey shook her head and listened to the crowd suddenly go wild. Sin confirmed what Zoey was already thinking and her heart immediately started to beat at twice its normal pace. Heat started to build in the muscles along her arms and between her fingertips. She curled her hands into fists and turned to walk. “See you in five.”

후배:

The taekwondo woman that stepped out of the shadows and into the lights for the underground crowd was as cool and confident as you’d expect. She blocked out the expected cheers and catcalls, she kept to the cage wall and tightened her gloves, she looked out at the dirty faces and dim lights with clear disdain and indifference. Like the fight was the only thing on her mind. On the outside, Zoey had it all together. On the inside, she was nervous as fuck. The tension was killing her and turning her feet numb at the tips with every step she walked as if she was pacing in a lull, But all she had to do was remember what her teacher told her. It was that simple. Wake the fuck up.

She walked up to the cage door but was stopped by a burly man almost twice her size who put an arm between her and the mesh. She looked up at him and he looked down with a deep voice that had clearly choked on a pack too many.

"Any weapons?"

Zoey shot him a look, cocked her head to the side, slapped her thigh with one hand, and flipped him off with the other. He creaked the cage door open for her with a none too subtle roll of his eyes. That was fine. She’d been getting shit like that half her life. Tonight was her time to give some of it back.

The Kick Chick walked right through the entrance and straight towards the center of the ring. She planted her foot, tucked a fist close, and threw it right back out with a single finger pointed to the lights with an ear-rattling shout. “I fucking want Armando Rodriguez!”

...

Imugi looked out from the stands and gave her shake another sip. "Someone's got your number."

”Back in five.” Sin muttered that with a little chuckle as Zoey strutted off, a sight that she watched from over her shoulder. She doubted it would be five minutes either way, but she’d give her chew toy a point for confidence. She was in the right headspace. How far that would get her, though…

Well, they’d see.

Fingers laced behind her head, Sin strolled off to the side, looking for some nice, dark corner to watch everything from.

...

A woman screaming his name, saying she wanted him.

Army was pretty sure that this would mark the third time something like this had happened to him, which was three more times than most normal people had in their entire lives, he was fairly sure.

”Yeah, I’ve got that effect on women. Just drawn to me. It’s a curse.” Army stretched out and stood up, rolling his neck around as he rose to get out any lingering kinks. He squinted his eyes and looked down to the ring - couldn’t get a good look at the woman from up here, not until they dimmed the lights a bit, but was she wearing puff pants? She sure sounded confident enough, too. Wondered if she could back all that up.

One way to find out. ”Back in five. Enjoy.”

Army made his way down to the ring to mild applause, giving a few fists bumps on the way. Nonchalant, he stepped into the cage, slipping off his shirt as he went, and took a second to get a good look at his opponent, Zoey.

So, those weren’t puff pants, looked like TKD gear. Kind of a familiar style, too, though he couldn’t put his finger on it. The woman wearing them was in a similar boat, too - he’d seen her before, heard that name, but not all the neurons were connecting just yet. Maybe a little fighting would get his memory on a jog. She looked like she was in good shape, though. Could be some trouble.

”Want me, got me.” He tossed his shirt off to the side and dropped down into his traditional boxing stance, primed and ready for the bell. Smirking all the way. ”What’s step two?”

She kind of sort of loved Army when he got like this.

It wasn’t much of an understatement to say Imugi had been keeping tabs on him since the night they met. She’d run through a fair share of his matches, one or two press spots he was in, even an obscure travel video some tourist uploaded of him throwing hooks in the background around his sister’s gym. He was such a nonchalant person it was a little hard for her to picture him getting serious about anything that wasn’t a fight.

But then he had these moments where he punched his gloves together and you could see him enter the zone. It was like magic. You could watch the shift happen, from the steely posture to that slight flicker in his eyes. Like no one could take him down.

Well, almost no one. Imugi smirked to herself, raising her cup to him as he went on his way down. “Go easy on her.”

…

Jesus fuck, this was not going to be easy, was it? Zoey knew what she was getting into the second she stepped into this cage. Sin had painted a decent picture of what her student should expect. He was a boxer and heavy hitter, which meant a big upper body with a lot of muscle that was used to taking hits. He was also named Armando, so that meant Spanish or whatever. And he was from Tension, which meant a 50-50 chance he was just a complete pushover. Even as Zoey bounced from one heel to the other and got her legs primed for action, a small part of her was crossing its fingers hoping it was the latter.

Not a chance. Armando showed up at that cage door in under a minute. She knew it was him the moment their eyes locked; half because he had that same look she did, mixing a casual familiarity with a more dangerous sense of excitement for the match ahead of them. And half because he had to be the biggest guy in the room. Fuck.

A month ago, she would have said Sin was trying to kill her. Hell, maybe she was still trying to do that. Get one last satisfying release at her expense. But at least she knew a little better now. Zoey curled her upper lip.

“Step’s right here.” Zoey raised one foot in the air just over her head, demonstrating some newfound flexibility as she pointed to the half-bare underside. “And it’s gonna send your ass right the fuck back to Mexico. Let’s do this shit.”

The cage door slam shut behind Armando. The clank of the latch felt louder than the crowd roaring all around them. Zoey took a moment to breathe and let her body move on instinct. She slid back into a stance she’d emulated thousands of times, but this time she made it her own. Front leg out, the other back and bent, arms up and at the ready. The usual move from here was to take it slow, feel out your opponent, and get an understanding of their style; how they fight, move, behave. Plan, second guess, double back, reapproach.

Overthink, overcompensate. Get hit. Try to withstand it. Fall. Beat down. Stay down.

Lose.

Regret.

Her face flushed with fire, baring her teeth with a snarl as she took a run at the six-foot boxer. Like...right at him.

Imugi was confused, watching from her perch with a pair of brows that had suddenly furrowed together at the sight. She wasn’t the only one. Just about everyone in the hall had expected the exact opposite play. The Korean-American looked fairly put-together from a distance, but she was almost half this guy’s size. Army should have been the one coming to her, trying to box her in. But Zoey’s eyes never even left him. She was a runaway kick train heading straight for him and just a second away from impact, so close she was nearly about to headbutt the Puerto Rican...she broke off.

Swiftly ducking under his right arm, Zoey aimed to drift by his side like a ghost in the wind to her true destination: the cage wall. She jumped up and kicked her front foot off the mesh, throwing herself straight back at Armando. She kicked her front foot out and tucked her other close underneath, going straight at the back of his head with a picture-perfect flying kick.

Ah, it had been a while since someone called Army a Mexican. To be honest, he’d kind of missed it. Always good for a chuckle, and this time was no exception.

He didn’t mind it. Being fair, it wasn’t like he’d never made similar mistakes since coming to Japan. Racist as it sounded in his head, he’d thought that all Asians looked alike before he came to the Land of the Rising Sun. His home island wasn’t exactly known for its burgeoning Japanese population - some were there, but you had to look hard to find them. And two seconds after coming off the plane he’d already met more of them than he’d seen in his entire life. But he’d been here long enough to notice things that most outsiders wouldn’t. To, say, tell the difference between Chinese and Japanese on sight. And, recently, he’d become some of an expert on Korean features, enough to know that Zoey was one, straight off.

Instead of pointing out something he knew she wouldn’t care about, Army just rolled his eyes and bounced on his heels, throwing out a few swift practice jabs, showing off his footwork while Zoey showed off her foot. She had the flexibility with that leg to back up her outfit, that wasn't for show. Good to know.

Army glanced back as the cage door slammed shut, and by the time he’d brought it back to his opponent, she’d already slipped into the ready stance. A solid one, too, if his experience was worth anything. He moved into his boxing stance, too, going orthodox, though he kept it light to start with. Go easy on her. He wasn’t the sort that got his rocks off on knocking women around, and Imugi wasn’t the type to get hers off watching it. This would give him a light sweat, but that was the only fluid he aimed to spill today. The plan was a simple one - he’d move in, work her around a bit, maybe lighten her up with a friendly bearhug, then put her down easy with a Hurricane Armando and take the W. Wam, bam, done.

By the time he took one step forward, Zoey had already taken five.

Army’s guard tightened up on reflex as he found his opponent in his face all of the sudden - right in his goddamn face. It was a comical sight on his own, a big bad Puerto Rican male recoiling from a woman whose weight he could probably bench one-handed, but there they were. He just didn't know how to react, and by the time he did, it was too late for it. She was already gone.

”The fuck-”

That was all he had time to to say, and all he had time to do was start to turn his head around before something - he was assuming a kick - struck him in the skull. The blo wasn’t enough to knock him down, but it did send him staggering and stumbling away. He even dropped to a knee for a hot second, before he got it together and pushed himself back up, spinning around with his guard up as he tried to get Zoey back in view.

"That worked?"

Imugi wasn't exactly invested in the private business of tooting her own horn, but she was pretty damn fast. Faster than Army, and definitely faster than whoever that girl was fighting him. And yet she nailed him. She nailed him good. That was a move out of her own playbook and not easy to copy. Maybe it just came down to perspective. It was easy to point fingers and call out mistakes from the comfort of her armchair. The match was just starting and both of them were still fresh. Imugi knew firsthand that Army could shake that off and flip this girl on her head two second from now.

And yet the little Korean couldn’t help having that kick on replay in the back of her head. She crossed one leg over the other and leaned back with her hands behind her back and a pair of eyes glued to the action.

Zoey felt that change in the atmosphere the instant her kick landed. No doubt, that was part of the plan. The bigger they are, the better she looks when she knocks them flat on their ass. Of course there was a pretty big chance that could have backfired horribly, but something told her that was also part of an alternative, unspoken plan.

Sin was a spontaneous trainer. You do it or you don't, nothing in between. That kick had laid her out and left her with a nice shiner over her right eye to boot for the next couple of months. Army didn’t get it nearly as bad, but then, Zoey wasn't Sin. Nobody was Sin.

Zoey came gently down on her feet and took a half-second for observation. She could be satisfied enough with the results she got. Army was in pain and backing away, clearly not ready for whatever came next, but his arms were going to his head on instinct. A delayed reaction by the body to address the pain the mind warned of too late. His brought his guard high, that meant she would go low. Zoey slowly stood upright and took off into another running start. She was back on him in a second, but she wouldn’t be passing him this time.

Instead she stopped at his side and threw herself into a 360-degree twirl, turning herself into a human spinning top, on the back end of which was a speeding reverse roundhouse kick aimed right at his exposed abdomen.

Army was kind of jealous of Imugi’s abs.

Granted, he never told her that, at least not in those exact words. She was perfectly capable of getting ammo to use against him without him throwing her freebies. But since they’d been going together, he’d always found a profound attraction to that midsection of hers, and it wasn’t just because she was so prominent in displaying them. They were one of his favorite kissing spots in sex, his go to when things got handsy, and a favorite target when they were getting rough.

It wasn’t anything deep or complicated, he just thought they were impressive, and kind of wished he could get his own looking that sharp. His own set wasn’t bad, but she’d reached bulletproof level definition, the kind he’d normally only see in bodybuilding competitions and overpriced workout magazines at the grocery store. He’d been working on upping his game since they met, but he still wasn’t quite there, not yet. Had to get his diet right, liked yakitori too much.

But all that training came in handy, because without it, he was sure that Zoey’s kick would’ve sucked so much more.

He’d thought he was in a good spot with his guard. Still a little woozy from that kick, but felt confident he could absorb whatever came next. Maybe he could’ve, too, if she’d tried to tag him up high. Instead, however, she went low, spun around and shot her leg out faster than he could adjust, hitting him in the breadbasket with a torpedo of a kick.

”Fuck!”

The blow hit with some real impact, enough to make him fly off the canvas - only a couple of inches, top, but no small feat given the size difference. He landed and took a stumbling step back, missing a lot of the air he had a moment ago, but this time he was lucid enough to strike back, and knew damn well that he needed to.

One punch. He threw out a solid right cross, going for her chest. She was quick with the kicks, sure, but if he could just tag her with a halfway decent punch, he’d knock the fight out of her and wrap this up quick.

One hundred kicks in the morning. One hundred kicks in the evening. On each leg.

Sin worked her like a mule and Zoey still had mixed feelings about it. She swore she could still feel some of the cramps as she laid still in bed at night. Her sleep schedule was thrown out of whack and she couldn’t walk straight for weeks. And even after all of that, it was as if Zoey’s body wasn’t used to inaction anymore. The added muscle made her limbs lighter even as they hit harder. Craving action, she started to develop a taste for what Sin must have felt every day. As much as she wanted to hate her teacher for the absolute whipping she’d given her, Zoey couldn’t knock the upsides from all that bitter work.

Army was built like a brick wall but he left the ground as easily as a feather. She watched her shin meld into his abdominals like a hot knife through butter and the rest of his hulking frame lift from that. There was a jolt of electricity that ran through her from the point of impact. All she felt from that point onward was singular and focused. No anxiety, no hesitation. Just a rush through her veins that spurred her on. Zoey felt a twitch at her cheek and the corner of her mouth start to crook into a smile. A smile that Army’s fist nearly wiped off in the half-second away from contact.

Her knee shot up on reflex; muscle memory from her close quarters training kicking in. She didn't read Army's fist coming at her face as much as she just reacted to it. Her body knew what to do even if her mind didn't. The result was that she was able to smack the underside of his knuckles, sending the boxer's fist into an upward trajectory well away from her while she stumbled back from the force and fell flat on her ass.

She recovered almost instantly, rolling with the motion off her back and popping up to two feet a few steps from the cage wall. Zoey shook her head and refocused, only half-certain about what just happened. But hell, she wasn’t going to question it. She upturned her chin and scoffed at him.

"Fuck outta here with that weak ass shit.” Zoey brought her hands up and bounced on her heels. She had a new energy in her step, like a kickboxer seconds before the bell. “The fuck did you learn to scrap? Chuck E. Cheese?"

From the shadows near the ring, Sin watched all of this unfold, getting close, but not too close. She could just as easily have watched this from the back and gotten a decent look, but no - she wanted to be close. Wanted to be near the action. Wanted to feel the impacts. More than anything, she wanted to see Zoey, and if all the training she’d put the little ringrat through had paid off.

So far, she wasn’t unimpressed. ”Zoey, Zoey, Zoey.” She smacked her lip and ran an idle hand over her chest, looking on as her pupil deflected the hulking brute’s punch. ”Dance for me.”

It wasn’t all perfect - Sin didn’t miss Zoey falling flat on her ass, and it took some effort not to burst out with a laugh and ruin her position. But she was seeing many, many of the right things from her favorite new pet. That look in her eyes, the way she moved, the way she was hungering for the contact. She knew this guy was strong, knew damn well he would wreck her with a few good hooks in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that danger was just the spice. Every time she hit him, tore into that toned body, it was like a quick hit off the best drug, and it would just leave her wanting more.

It was a crazy sight to see, watching as something more came out of Zoey, something better. But would she tap into enough of it to win? That, Sin wasn’t about to bet on.

Back in the cage, Army had doubts of his own, as he shook off the fist she’d just kicked. That was new. Definitely. He wasn’t the quickest puncher in the world, but his fists were too fast for someone to just kick away. That wasn’t dumb luck, either, and it wasn’t even just speed. You needed speed, precision, timing...it was like trying to hit a homerun on a baseball thrown from five feet away.

But she’d done it. Who the hell was this chick, again?

”Talking way too much shit for a girl who just fell on her ass, puffpants.” He gave his hand a good quick shake, straightened up, and went back into his stance. Tighter this time, gloves up, feet properly placed. Pure orthodox.

Army moved in again, starting with a couple of slow steps, nice and easy, before he powered forward with a burst of speed, trying to catch her before she could move away from the wall. This time he tried to mix it up, throwing out a feint towards her face with the left, before ducking down and trying to tag her with a right hook, going for those - well built, had to admit - abs of hers.

Puffpants?

Fucking puffpants?

For some reason, she was overcome with an even greater determination to kick his goddamn ass. Zoey had her guard up and was more than confident in her chances of evading a blow that came her way. There was space to work with and she was getting a feel for what it would take to knock Army around some. Her eyes were focused on his head, gauging the distance and whether she should bank a kick to the neck for an early win.

Her eyes were a solid two inches above where they should have been. Zoey stopped watching his shoulders, where his weight was going, and Army was quick to punish her for that.

It was an obvious feint, but Zoey fell for it hook line and sinker. Her body jerked to the left and by the time she realized she had to abort there was a hook inches from her stomach. Zoey leaped back with a sudden jerk behind and sucked in her stomach, dulling the blow with the bare minimum she could muster his knuckles smacked into her abdomen. The kick chick bit down and winced, feeling her ribs nearly rattle a bit. She didn’t expect that kind of speed and finesse from someone so damn big. And that power...

Zoey was eager to pay him back. After her feet touched the floor, she backpedaled towards the cage wall. Her hands pushed back against the wire mesh before dove forward right back at him. She wanted to catch him on the recoil, reaching out to the back of his head and leaping into a jumping knee to his breadbasket.