Showdown '19 Alice Gaster (C) vs Drake Fond: 24/7 Championship Match

It didn’t take much effort for the large muscular man to lift the masked woman off the ground and slammed her into the nearby wall. Originally, he had lashed out simply because he thought GASTER was making a move to attack. It was an aggressive opener, especially considering the overwhelming advantage one side has over the other. None of that seemed to matter now, as the wall shook from the violent impact like it was undergoing an earthquake. GASTER only had time to grunt out in pain before her sister turned to look at her sister.

Instantly Alice realized her mistake, and returned her gaze just in time to take a face full of blinding powder courtesy of Drake. The one eyed-man chuckled as his scummy trick worked already. Alice was essentially a sitting duck, with not even a sister to be an ally to come and help her. The Pale Rider was in serious trouble, but while her eyes were dulled, her wits were still as sharp as ever.

Before Drake’s baton could find its mark, Alice dodged out of its reach. All he could do was click his tongue in irritation before yelping out in surprise of his own! The wooden sword carved through the air, nearly smacking Drake across the shoulder. His cowardice was the only thing that saved him, but it prevented him from pressing his advantage as well. With every swing, Drake backed away. Annoyance ran throughout his expression, his glare flicking over towards the kendo stick, watching it come down yet again.

His Baton stick moved in to block the kendo stick, careful to hold his tongue to keep his location a mystery to the blind woman. If he were to start yapping now, then there would be little point in blinding her. Drake spied that his armored ally was moving in, walking over towards Alice. He seemed to be sneaking behind her, looking to wrench her weapon free from her grasp if he could get close enough.

As Clara was pinned to the wall, in her head, she was cursing everything. Alice for inviting her, herself for believing Alice was simply taking her to Showdown, Drake for angering Alice to the point of inviting her here...

...and naturally, she was cursing the man who crushed her back against the wall, and was practically squeezing the life out of her. Curses relaxed her mind, however, she had to find a way out. She had little doubt that if she were knocked out, Brutus would leave her alone...and focus his attention on Alice. Since she got into this mess, she might as well help her sister by holding one of Drake's goons off...even if the goon in mind would be her last pick as to who to fight in the room, including her own sister.

With that, GASTER attempted to throw the lower half of her body upwards, trying to ram her feet into Brutus's solar plexus!

Alice meanwhile, continued her sword duel with Drake, growling in irritation as her own Kendo Stick whiffed through the air...though she could tell it only barely missed. The vision was returning to the Pale Rider to see very faint outline of her opponent...but not to the point where she could tell where his arms were.

Still, Alice continued to swing, moving herself forward all the while, pressing her advantage to try and drive Drake back...and to potentially nail a hard shot to solidify her momentum at the start...

However, while her initial stratagem seemed smart, she was quite accounting for the man sneaking behind her. With her complete focus on Drake, Alice was completely blind to Kaine jumping her, as she felt sudden tug of her weapon as she tried to swipe it overhead!

But rather than fight the force invisible to her, she instead let the weapon go. If she focused on that, Drake would have a clean shot in on her, and she would've lost her Kendo Stick anyway. Instead, Alice rolled away to avoid the potential attack from Kaine, Drake, or both...

GASTER, or whatever Drake had been calling her, wasn’t that hard to deal with. In fact, she was probably the easy opponent Brutus had to deal with in a very long time. The girl felt like she weighed practically nothing, and pressing her against the wall was an easy way to eventually make her pass out without doing anything too serious. It wasn’t that he cared what happened to the masked woman, but he had learned long ago that making less of a mess made things much easier in the long run.

She was wiggling around a bit, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t handle by applying a bit more force on her, and that was what he did. Eventually, she would pass out or grow weak enough so that she wouldn’t be a problem, and then he could help the others with the littlest of the duo. This was probably going to be a steamroll of a fight if he had ever seen one. Even if Rin was staying out of things, these two girls were hopelessly outmatched.

Meanwhile, Alice was still swinging wildly with her kendo stick. She would make wide swings in an attempt to snuff the one-eyed man out, or strike him, but Drake had learned long ago when to make a strategic retreat. He would consistently move aside before any swing could hit him, or otherwise use his baton to block the wooden sword. Meanwhile, Kaine was sneaking up behind Alice, looking to snag her only weapon away from her and render her helpless.

Naturally, he managed to snag ahold of Alice’s kendo stick, stopping her attack dead in its tracks and created an opening for Drake. Without hesitation, Drake dove in to attack Alice! He had assumed that Alice would fight back, try to retain her weapon and greatest defense against Drake and his goons. Instead, Alice would release her Kendo stick to Kaine’s grip, rolling to the side and away from the two men. Unfortunately, Drake never thought Alice would be so dumb, and was in the process of swinging his baton down on her. Now that she was out of the way, Kaine was all that was left to take the baton strike.

“GAH! Fuck Drake! What the Hell?!?”

“Eh? What? It was an accident!”

“You hit me in the fucking shoulder! Right in the collarbone!”

“What the hell are you guys doing over there?”

The commotion of his two allies managed to drag Brutus’s attention away from his trapped victim, giving GASTER the opportunity to swing her legs around and kick the large brute in the solar plexus! This surprised him, actually making the larger man stumble backwards and dropping the masked woman in surprise. His once placid expression soured almost immediately, immediately glaring at the red lensed mask on Clara’s face.

“You annoying little-“

“Brutus.”

The man’s name seems to strike him like a frozen arrow as it was launched by the then entirely silent woman. Rin’s freezing, uncaring gaze watching his giant form and GASTER as though they were simply ants marching along the ground to her own tune.

“Stop playing around. Hurry up so we can finish up here.”

“Tsk! I know that! You don’t have to tell me!”

As Brutus turned his attention back towards GASTER, Rin turned back towards Drake and Kaine, who were closing in on a now unarmed Alice. Kaine was leading the advance, still grumbling about the sore shoulder Drake had given him while his boss seemed to stay a few steps behind him, perhaps in attempt to be apologetic and remain out of his employee’s way.

The loud smack of Drake's baton, and the subsequent angry screams, cries, ows, and so forth let Alice know that she was free to rub her eyes to regain her vision. Though water-y, within 3 seconds of firm pressurized movement on her eyes, the Pale Rider had her vision back, and smiled at the dissention in the enemy team. Sure, she might've lost her weapon, but she didn't take any major damage in the match so far...and her plan was still yet to be executed. All she needed was to thin the numbers just a little bit, at least by one person...

And this is where Clara came in handy.

The firm kick to the solar plexus to the distracted by the in-fighting Brutus gave the Shadow Lord her ticket to freedom, and Clara was breathing heavily, both in relief and fear. She caught her sister's pleading gaze, and, though scared and irritated, knew what she wanted her to do.

Turning back...she caught one of her foe's intense, heavy gaze on her masked face, an expression seemingly able to tell the invisible fear underneath the mask...

...and despite that fear, GASTER still had the bravery to nail a quick kick to the big man's knee, before:

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!", the Shadow Lord wildly screamed as she hoped this angered Brutus enough. If the man took her confusion of the heavy air right before the match as a declaration of aggretion, kick to one of the most painful points of the body, and another to his leg was surely going to make him angry enough to force him to chase her down as she headed down the hallway.

If successful, that would only leave 2 to 3 people for Alice to deal with, depending on Rin's subsequent actions. Alice promised to herself to buy something for her sister for this favor (perks of a 24/7 champ - more cash) as she got her attention back to the two men in front of her.

Kaine started to come forward towards the Pale Rider first, and Alice would practically leap to her feet in an attempt to dash towards Kaine, trying to nail a harsh knee to the goon's face!

Brutus had planned on simply smashing Clara against the wall until she passed out. He had planned to stay away from any attacks that might seriously injure the much smaller woman, as well as keep her face intact for whoever has to see it once the mask was off. Small mercies, perhaps. But they were generous considering what Clara was up against.

But all that changed as the girl suddenly lashed out like a snake in the grass and kicked the taller man in the leg. Instantly, a fiery explosion erupted in his limb! She must have struck a nerve, the pain crawling up his leg all the way to his ankle and his knee.

“AAARRRRGGGHHHH! GOD DAMN IT!!!”

Brutus gripped his damaged leg, hopping in place as he continued to curse the masked girl! Before he could recover and attack her, the girl screamed and ran away! She was howling like a frightened banshee! She just kicked him and ran like a child in grade school! What the actual hell?!

“WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING?!? GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!”

As soon as Brutus’s foot hit the floor, he charged after GASTER! Like an enraged bull, he smashed everything in his way! His footfalls were like miniature earthquakes as he raced away, catching the cold gaze of Rin. She looked as though she were about to call out to him, but the very instant she opened her mouth, he disappeared around the corner.

“Tsk!”

Now she had a choice: Go after Brutus and drag him back here to keep him from killing that girl and finish the job, or watch over Drake and Kaine to make sure they could handle things. Judging by the fact that Alice was now unarmed and Kaine was a decent combatant on his own without Drake “assisting” him, there was a good chance they would emerge victorious even without her help. Still, her primary concern was Drake.

However, her concern waned as both men advanced on Alice, each with his own weapon. They could handle things without her, even if it was only for a while.

So, without a word the black suited woman walked down the hall after Brutus and GASTER.

Drake and Kaine were nearly upon Alice, who had hopped up to her feet after clearing the dust from her eyes. She was smart enough to take advantage of the two’s argument, but the odds were still against her.

Apparently, the pale rider saw fit as to charge the two men. She seemed to think that Kaine was just a goon, like the thugs Drake had hired back at the mall the day this whole feud started. He quickly proved her wrong, slipping out of the champions way and actually dashing behind her. Instantly, he swung her Kendo stick behind him, looking to score a quick shot to her back as Drake took advantage of the pincer situation Kaine had made by throwing a kick of his own right at the poor girls stomach!

Gasping at Brutus's rough, loud words, Clara immediately increased her run...all the while screaming in fear. While last scream was more to draw attention to herself, this time? It was a simple shriek of terror:

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

As she ran, her mind raced through all the possibilities of what she could do. She realized that the corridor she was running down was the same one that she arrived to the men's locker room from...one that lead to the main entrance area of the arena where she was buying snacks not too long ago.

One idea that flashed through her mind was simple - take off her mask and hide. Drake knew her real name, but past her early career, she avoided unmasked photoshoots, meaning it was hard for the eyepatched man to easily track her face down, meaning he likely didn't show to Brutus what she looked like

Problem came down to how Brutus would react to that. At best, he would just leave and focus her attention on Alice, making this stratagem of her's practically pointless. At worst? While she doubted she angered the muscled giant to that point, he might start suspecting any English or masked woman in the arena her size to be her. In addition, Drake seemed the sort of person from what Alice told her about him, that even if he did, in any way, attack the fans in the arena, he could bail him out no matter what.

Taking the mask off was a bad idea no matter what. As she came towards the door leading to the main area of the arena, she simply decided to hide. She quickly popped out of the door, and slammed it shut, buying herself precious seconds for her next move.

Thankfully, because everyone could catch up on the match by simply watching it on AFW's app, everyone found it a perfect opprotunity to grab snacks while standing in large ques, watching the match either on the tvs in the arena or on their phones. Clara quickly dove into a nearby que leading to a popcorn stand, forcing herself right in the middle of it, while apologizing to the fans in the back...who very quickly recognized who she was, and asked her for her autograph, the que losing their focus from popcorn onto her, surrounding her with papers, t-shirts, and pens to sign, much to her surprise and anxiety...

Meanwhile, Alice would miscalculate the situation on her end, with Kaine stepping out of the way of her flying knee strike, leaving Alice to try and recover from her mid-jumping position!

Though she managed to land on her feet, managing to keep herself upright from trying to fight her forward momentum took a split second too long, leaving her wide open for a hard shot from the Kendo Stick in Kaine's possession!

"GYAAAAAH! Fuck----GUAAAH!"

In addition to that, Drake would score a hard shot into the champion's gut, Alice falling on all fours as she was left coughing and wheezing, the match quickly turning against her...

“GET BACK HERE, YOU FILTHY FUCKING COWARD!!!”

GASTER’s screams of terror gave her position away for the rampaging brute that gave chase to her, and he gave her enough of a reason to be absolutely petrified! His footfalls were heavy and loud! So much so they shook the floor, giving the masked woman the impression that he was right on her heels as he bulldozed his way through anyone that got in his way! A cart that the masked woman had to jump over was thrown aside by Brutus in his violent pursuit of the Gaster sister!

He stopped at an intersection in the hallway, his enraged eyes darting down each and every path to try and discern which one she might have tried to hide in! By the time his head craned to the third hallway, he heard a door slam shut down the fourth! Somebody had slammed the door to the main entrance to the arena! The slippery little coward must have thought she could escape in the crowd if she went sans mask! Well, he didn’t plan on making her escape easy!

The door didn’t stand in his way for long. With a full forced charge, the thin slabs of metal swung wide open! It was lucky no one was beside them, otherwise someone would have surely been hurt. Of course that wasn’t on Brutus’s mind at the moment. The only thing he wanted was to pay GASTER back for what she did to him!

And he wouldn’t have to wait long.

If GASTER was hiding, then she chose the wrong spot to do so. A crowd had gathered up in the center of the lobby, and he was willing to bet it was because she popped in here a minute ago. From what he gathered on Drake’s spiel earlier, GASTER was at least somewhat popular around these parts. Nothing got a crowd going like that unless there was either a celebrity or a fight going on.

“Fucking hell!”

Getting to the center of the circle wasn’t all that hard. Those that didn’t immediately back away were thrown or otherwise shoved to the side. Pretty soon Brutus has carved a path towards his prey, finding GASTER sitting pretty right in the center!

“Nowhere to run now, Kid!” he growled. Taking a step forward, his arms reached out to snag GASTER by the shoulders, but maneuvering through all these people was making any speedy movements difficult for the lumbering giant!

--

Kaine and Drake seemed to have the upper hand as the man in body armor used Alice’s own weapon against her! The kendo stick lashed across her back, leaving her wide open for the one-eyed fiends sneaky kick to the stomach! Before she knew it, Alice would be on the floor, gasping and wheezing for air! She had fallen in front of what might have been the most dangerous thing in the building at the moment, as Drake’s smug smile crawled back onto his face like some sort of insect mimicking human joy!

“They’ll just give anybody a belt these days.”

Again, his boot came swinging in, this one looking to slam the toe of his shoe across Alice’s jaw as Kaine jabbed her body with his stolen weapon.

“Really, this all just a bit too much! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry for you, Alice. I mean, I would have let this go. Really I would have. I mean, our first meeting was interesting, sure. Unforgettable, well...maybe for you. Truth be told I can’t even remember the finer details of that fateful day you so utterly disappointed and disillusioned me. I mean, I thought I had plans for that little trinket you cling too so desperately, but after that first encounter? Well, any one with an ounce of motivation and a severe need of an ego boost can take it! There's no negotiation power or reputation behind it...well, none worth fussing over anyways.”

As Drake talked, Kaine would occasionally give Alice a sharp kick to the ribs or a heavy stomp to a random spot on her body.

“But you used your championship to call me out here, agreed to my terms, which were honestly really shitty, no question about that! I thought you would negotiate a bit, but that's how I knew you took what I did so very personally! You even dragged your sister into this! I figured you might, but you didn’t even let her know what was happening until she walked through those doors, did you? Well, now you get to see her get beaten down yet again, but this time it's all thanks to you-”

Drake suddenly stopped as he turned around to see absolutely no one behind him. No GASTER, no Brutus, not even Rin! He blinked his eye once, then twice before he groaned in annoyance.

“What the-? Where the hell did they all go?”

GASTER's heart skipped a good number of beats as the door she exit just a split second ago opened with a loud clap. On instinct, she pulled her head down, the fans around her just continuing to stick notepads and smartphones in her face to get her autograph. With the heavy footsteps, vibrations of which she could feel even in the large entrance of the arena, she realized that her attempt to hide was for naught, and attempted, to walk backwards to hide further down in the entrance hall...

...only for the crowd of fans to surround her from behind as well, practically making an inescapable wall for the Shadow Lord.

A second after she tried to escape, Brutus's "Nowhere to run" simply froze her in place as the massive behemoth of a man, one standing heads and shoulders over all the fans in vicinity...yet he still struggled to reach the Shadow Lord in the sea of people.

With Brutus's difficulty to escape, Clara forced herself to turn around, and tried to roughly push through people. She tried her utmost to be polite to the fans, but when her health was on the line, she could afford to be slightly more rude. Still, she apologized to the confused crowd. A secondary cameraman still didn't reach GASTER and Brutus, so all attention was on Alice vs Kaine and Drake, and the fans just didn't realize just how much danger the masked chuuni was in.

"Excuse me, please let me...AAAAAAAAH!!!", she screamed in terror, feeling large hands around her shoulders, as she continued to try and push through the people. If Brutus did the same...she didn't want to think of the possibility of what would happen if he caught her...

--

Meanwhile, Alice was left a gasping mess on the floor by her assailants, with Drake continuing to belittle her as the champion:

"Shut the fu---MMMGH!", she tried to say, before quickly rolling her tongue back in her mouth as the eyepatched man kicked her in the jaw, lest she bite her own tounge off. The kick to the bottom of her face would daze the Brit however, making her see double, and making her hearing rather muffled.

Drake would speak while Kaine took his turn to attack the Pale Rider, not letting her to speak back to his boss, as he continued to belittle her, criticizing for accepting his terms, and dragging her sister into this...

As Drake realize Clara wasn't being beaten senseless by his goon, however, the smaller woman couldn't help but chuckle, despite the pain from Kaine's sharp kicks to her ribs leaving her almost breathless.

Brtus finally had his sights on the small masked girl that had given him so much trouble by running away. Already, a number of naty thoughts danced through his head as he lunged forward to try and catch GASTER once and for all! But as soon as he spotted her, she began to flee into the crowd once more! Like a chipmunk fleeing for its hole, she was quick to bury herself with the surrounding crowd in a swift attempt to flee once again. This only served to stoke Brutus’s temper, and he growled in annoyance as his hands just brushed against her shoulders, but didn’t get any grip.

“God Damnit!”

Once again, GASTER’s scream rang through the hallway. Her smaller frame made it easier for her to maneuver through people, but Brutus wasn’t nearly as cautious as she was. By the time GASTER was free from the crowd, only a few people were between the raging brute and her. And that number was quickly declining.

“Get outta the way! Fucking Move!”

Brutus was roughly shoving people out of the way, knocking them over like bowling pins and stepping over them without a second thought. Nobody stepped in to stop him...many were too scared or freaked out by the sudden events, while others thought it was all part of the show. Not even security stepped in, though it was hard to think they would otherwise.

“Keep running, you freak! I’ll catch you! And then when I finish with you, I’ll bring your broken mask back to your sister!!!”

Around this time would be when the entrance door would open once again, Rin catching the violent outburst as she strolled into the lobby. Her gaze fell on a few of the knocked over fans and the fleeing chunni, a small twinge of irritation boiling in her gut.

“Moron.”

__

“Tsk! What's the point of bringing backup if said backup walks off?”

Kaine kept his eyes on Alice, who only squirmed on the floor after she had endured such a harsh beating. Drake, however, seemed to be finished with her. He collapsed his baton, and slipped it down his sleeve while mumbling about his missing grunts. In a scene reminiscent of their first encounter, Drake walked away from a fallen Alice,writing her off as just another memory soon forgotten.

“Anyway...I’m done. I wish I could say this was fun, but it was just business...If Clara hasn’t gotten broken in half by the time I find Brutus and Rin, then I’ll call them off.”

Drake chuckled to himself as he adjusted his suit jacket, his eye mocking her in a superior manner.

“Oh, hey Alice...Let’s never see each other again, kay?”

Kaine grunted, before snapping the kendo stick over his leg like Drake had done before, causing the one eyed man to snicker at the woman’s misfortune. The armored man tossed the pieces aside before stepping over Alice to join his retreating employer.

GASTER, despite being a millimeter away from Brutus earlier, was now almost free of the giant on her heels. She was breathing heavily from fear, Brutus's loud voice, knowing that the giant would follow up on each and every threat he made if she were to get caught.

Soon enough, however, she got out of the sea of people, and continued to run farther. She was in full view of Brutus, so there was no hiding from him right now...just running. But at least the sea of people she got through would impede his progress...

"...?!"

She made a mistake of turning back, right as the giant got so angry, he just started to viciously push people out of the way, forcibly making a path for himself towards the masked chuuni!

People were running and stepping out of the way of Brutus, the giant still roaring threats towards the smaller girl, as Clara just ran as far as she could see...but the amount of people in the entrance hall was too large for her to manuever through quickly, causing her to waste time while Brutus simply cut his path forwards through the crowd...

-----

Meanwhile, as Drake and Kaine seemed to have had their fun, the eyepatched man would seemingly call the match off, Drake retracting his weapon and leaving under his underlings, telling Alice to not see each other again. With the two men leaving the champion humiliated once more, Alice had some words towards Drake:

"Coward...", the small Brit would say as she sat up, wearing a wide grin on her face despite the pain throughout her body, holding her hurting stomach, as she took the belt off her body to show it to her foe:

"I let you do everything you wanted for this match. Bring your goons, your own weapons...I am practically giving you the belt on the silver platter. But you don't seem to be confident enough to simply put your foot on my chest and take the belt. You brought 3 people with you to make sure I "knew my place" or whatever, and yet, 2 of them bail on you, and suddenly, now I am not worthy to be beaten by you? Now you are happy with knowing that this match will end with you being tauted "Colonel Runaway"? Because you haven't beaten me, one-eye. Not at the mall, and not here and now...", she spoke, stepping towards a nearby turn at the corridor while keeping her attention on Drake and Kaine, speaking each word as loudly as she could to make sure they heard her, even with their back to her.