AV 19 Hardcore Championship - Jessica Wright (c) vs. River Styx

Jessica was recovering. Her body was recovering from the sudden impact of the blow on her body, one whose sheer momentum sent the Violent Violet reeling backwards from her solid position. And her mind was recovering. River was going to be pulling out all the stops tonight, and Jessica was going to have to be ready for that. She did what she could to scramble up and cobble together some semblance of a defense when her former lover was already upon her.

River's force sent her flying back through the ropes. Landing on the concrete floor of the arena was bad enough, let alone when River Styx sent you through it to get there. Worse still, as she was being sent backwards, she had a nasty premonition that her former lover would be landing right on top of her. The tackle slammed into Jessica's stomach, ripping all the air from her immediately. Jessica didn't even have the lung capacity to breathe.

As she was flying backwards, her long purple hair was cast forward. Jessica did not look back. There was nothing for her behind her.

Yup, Styx was right on the money with her prediction - it sucked. Big time.

For her, at least. She was a little too preoccupied with gravity’s plans for her to really take notice of how Jessica came down. She was able to tuck her head in at just the right moment, keeping her skull from spiking on the edge of the apron, but her shoulder wound up taking the brunt of the impact. Nasty stuff.

By some miracle, Styx didn’t come down right on top of Jessica, instead landing on her back nearby, quickly flopping over to her chest in a groaning fit. Not the least bit pleasant, but she had to guess it wasn’t any more so Jessica. Which meant she needed to capitalize.

Knowing her time would surely be short, she reached under the apron and grabbed the first thing her fingers found - a ladder, as it so happen. Getting up to her knees, she began to pull it out, as she stood, looking to set it up on the outside and get some real carnage started.

Jessica had been functionally homeless for a few stretches in her life. Had her father been pressed, he would have come up with some address that he could call his, even if it was a run down apartment that they had been evicted from two weeks ago. Many people picture life in the American midwest as a mix of suburban and rural life, where the neat lawns give way to the vast plain, with overly polite people in overly neat houses decorating the land more sparsely the further you got out of town. Jessica had never known that life. The longest she had ever lived in one building was here in Japan, and that was an apartment, not a house. For most, ladders were an instrument of that easy Midwestern life in those lovely houses, where occasionally you would have to climb up and clean the gutters or get to one of the middle rungs so you could paint the window.

For Jessica, a ladder was an instrument of war. That was all that it had ever been. And given all of the places she had been, and where she was now, there was a very good chance that a ladder would be nothing more than a symbol of carnage for the rest of her life.

Jessica had hit the concrete hard. The laws of physics dictated that River was not coming from that particular interaction feeling like a million bucks, but there was no doubt in her mind that Jessica was the worse for the wear thanks to the tackle. The harsh landing stayed Jessica's progress up, but when she saw the ladder, she goaded her body into action. Jessica had a million things that she could do with a ladder. She could throw someone into it. She could slam someone with it. She could climb to the top and fling herself to the earth in a swan dive of agony at whomever she was facing.

As Jessica did her best to get to her feet, she tried to prepare herself for all of them.

Styx’s thoughts on the ladder were much more direct and practical, not having terribly much nostalgia for it. It suited her needs at the moment - big, solid, long, strudy. A weapon she could use to equalize Jessica at a distance, hammer, and even pin her down. At this moment, she wanted to keep the woman at a distance, keeping away while she gathered her thoughts. Make this as impersonal as it could be.

”All right, and…” She got the ladder out all the way and stood up, gripping two of the steps to hold it up horizontally. She threw a hard stare towards Jessica, watching as her opponent straightened up, trying her best to recuperate. The advantage was hers for the moment, but she had to make sure it stayed that way. Which meant using the ladder in ways that voided the warranty.

She leaned back then charged forward towards the rising Jessica, looking to hit her in the chest and drive the top of the ladder home. But she wasn’t just going to make that impact, she’d keep pushing and drove hard, attempting to sandwich her foe between the ladder, pin her tight against it and keep her under control.

Jessica dug her feet in. River was a night astride a horse, charging at her with a great lance stretching in front of the nose of some great steed, and Jessica was that wooden target with a red bullseye painted right on the chest. She knew that her attempt to do so may be quixotic, but she planted her feet anyways. Standing up to a charging River was not a task that many women would be jealous of, let alone a River with a ladder as a weapon. But Jessica did not feel the need to dodge. The Violent Violet wanted to prove that she could face down her fears, and stand tall in the face of overwhelming odds.

That desire to hold her ground demonstrated the intense folly of pride. Jessica was pushed back and pinned, grunting with pain. The agony of the previous encounter was still slowing her, and that was compounded by the fact that River was now attempting to drive the ladder through her chest. Her face screwed up with pain. She tried to grab the end of the ladder, and direct it to her side. She gripped at the metal. It was cold.

Most people would try - at least try - to dodge a ladder when it came their way, especially when it was being delivered by River Styx, of all people. But then, again, most people weren’t Jessica, and didn’t have the stones for it. It wasn’t even like she was too slow to dodge the attack, like she even wanted to avoid it in the first place. She almost seemed to welcome it.

But that was the Jessica Styx always knew. No fucks given.

Styx was more than willing to oblige her, ramming the cold steel home and pinning her up against the barricade. She leaned in, pressing her advantage, while Jessica squirmed and tried to push her off. She probably could’ve held her like that for a while, but it was pointless - after the initial impact, she wasn’t doing enough damage to warrant it. Time to switch things up.

Instead of fighting to hold on to the ladder, Stxy abruptly let go and allowed it to fall at Jessica’s feet. The moment she let go, however, she rushed forward with an outstretched arm, looking to swing it in Jessica’ s face and send into the crowd with a punishing lariat.

Jessica felt the ladder removed from her body, but did not for a second relax. There was too much on the line here. The Violent Violet was going to give nothing less than her best today in front of River. Her lover was not going to let the ladder go just to make life easier for Jessica. There was something coming. Jessica did not quite know what that unholy vengeance would look like, but she knew that something was coming.

The Violent Violet was as tight as a piano wire, and River was coming hard. The ladder in its distance granted her time to react, and Jessica was very grateful for that. She leaned against the barricade and sent a big boot up towards River's face. She was not sure what would happen given the rampaging River's momentum, but if she wanted to send Jessica over the barricade, then Jessica was going to do everything in her power to make it suck.

Styx was many things, but never a half-asser. When she committed to something - rare as that was - she went all in 100%, sink or swim, and that was the same case, here. She barrelled at Jessica with full speed, dedicating herself to the charge, determined to ram into her like a freight train and send her careering over the barricade and into the crowd. Maybe she’d even land on some of the moronic fans, as a neat little bonus.

That wasn’t to be, sadly. Instead, Styx got a boot to the face.

It would’ve been a nasty move to take in any circumstance, but it didn’t help that she ran headlong into Jessica’s foot, putting her own momentum behind the blow. She hit with a loud crack that echoed across the arena, spun about in a full circle, and stumbled back, so loopy that she would’ve fallen down all the way if she hadn’t wound up leaning on the apron, instead.

Jessica felt the reverberation throughout her entire leg. River had a very hard head once she made her mind up, and Jessica felt that now. The Violent Violet put her leg down to witness the carnage that she had just caused. Jessica had sent River loopy. As fun as it would have been to just lie back and see what she had done, she couldn't afford to do that. Jessica knew how dangerous River was, and was not prepared to do that.

She pitched forward, going all out as she charged at her opponent. Jessica had to give the ladder a wide berth so as not to trip herself up, but that just meant that she had a lot more momentum as she was barreling towards her ex lover. Her shoulder was extended forward as she leaped into the air. Flying spears sucked, and she knew that. What she was really relying on, was the feedback loop of Jessica's shoulder hitting River, River's body hitting the ringside and bouncing back a little bit to hit Jessica's hard shoulder again. That would really suck.

Styx leaned against the apron and tried her damndest to stay on two feet, attempting to clear her head and get back to reality. Jesssica’s boot had done a number on her, but she was certain it was nothing she couldn’t clear out of her head if she had time - if.

Sadly, she wasn’t given the luxury of that time, as Jessica was driven to bring the fight straight to her, cutting her off before she had any chance of recovery. The Violent Violet’s spear would’ve been a pain to take no matter where she hit it, but as it turned out, it was made all the worse because of the apron behind her. That resulted in her hitting the ring right after, sandwiched between the two inflexible objects, and it was, well, less than pleasant.

She fell to the floor a second later, rolling about in pain and grabbing both her chest and back in turn, unsure which spot on her body needed the most nursing. Gasping, too, as the impact sucked the air clean out of her body.