Showdown '19: Riza Hawkeye vs Army Rodriguez Best of 5 Match Series Finale: Last Person Standing Match

Oh no.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fu-"AGHH!"

There was no defense, no time to make a defense, or a counter, or an escape attempt. Within moments of her attempted dropkick, Army had her caught, had her on his shoulders, and she was swinging downwards, her back cracking onto the apron. The high pitched shriek that came out of her was worse than any cry in any of their matches so far, and it was the only sound that got out of her, as once she fell to the floor, all she could do was gasp and choke, her legs jerking and twitching in response to the devastating attack!

‘Oh fuck’ was right. You wouldn’t have thought someone with Hawkeye’s build could make so much noise when she came down for an impact, but holy shit, did she ever. It was a resounding crash, only drowned about by the anguished shriek that follow it, a howl the reverberated across the arena. Army threw his everything into that bomb, so much so that he wound up flopping to his back right after, joining her on the mat for a few moments.

But unlike Hawkeye, Army was able to grab the barricade and pull himself up, fighting back to his feet. He thought about moving in to attack her while she was down, but decided against it - first, because he was way too tired and needed a moment to recoup, and second because that had to do the trick. He’d just annihilated her back, that would make standing up kind of tough.

So, instead, he just sat down on the steel steps and took a rest, as the referee rolled out of the ring and started up the count, standing a few feet away from Hawkeye.

”1!”

Indeed, unlike Army, Hawkeye was unable to get to her feet so quickly. She wasn't able to get to her feet at all. She stayed on the floor, twitching, having minor convulsions, her back all but destroyed by the apron powerbomb. Even the starting of the ref's count did little to stir her, nor did the shouts of her supporters in the crowd, or the boos that came Army's way when he got to his feet.

"2!"

No, all the poor woman could do for now was sputter and twitch, eyes rolled in the back of her head.

You know, Army had often wondered why they didn’t do these Last Man Standing matches more often, but now that he was in one, he could kind of make sense of it. Being honest, they were a little bit anticlimactic. The action was fine, but the stopping and starting and stopping was getting to him a bit. Reminded him of boxing, but not in the best way.

”3!”

He sat there on the steel steps looking down at Hawkeye, taking it all in. There wasn’t much to do but wait for the counter to tick. That and, well…

[color=#ff0000]”Good fight, Riza. Really.”[/colo] Had he ever said her real name before? Couldn’t remember.

”4!”

”Good fight, but it’s over now.”

Indeed, Army's words seemed true, as the count continued, it seemed to him, to the referee, and to all watching, that this match, and the feud between him and Riza, was finally over, as the ref girl raised her hands again, spreading all her fingers on one hand.

"5!"

Then Riza started to crawl.

Exactly how, even she wasn't entirely sure. Her back was a mess, her ribs were certainly bruised, hopefully not cracked, she felt like hell. It would have been so easy to just lay down, let the count finish, end this match. She'd more than proven herself, after all.

But...that wasn't how she did things. So, with her eyes now full of her intense blue, instead of the white they were previously, she crawled, slowly, towards the steel steps, defiantly grabbing at the edge of the steel and, finding her feet, pulling herself upwards.

"6!"

"7!"

"8!"

"9!"

It took until the literal last second, but, panting, groaning, the blonde soldier, full of grit, leaning on the heavy steel of the metal steps, gave one last push on shaking arms and managed to make it to her feet, stumbling several steps and needing to clutch the bottom rope to stay upwards, but defiantly breaking the count!

Army found himself in the strangest position with this. Hawkeye was his opponent, and he’d gone through this whole thing with her through the matches. He didn’t come this far just to lose. He was bent on claiming victory here, whatever the cost.

But he had to admit, as he sat there and watched her climb up, defiant, showing that soldier strength, he was a little moved. A part of him wanted to root for her. He kept that part quiet for now, but it was still there. He sat up, looking at her, watching her rise, thinking she might not make, that she would, that she wouldn’t, and then…

”Huh.” He stared at her for a moment, wide-eyed, before shaking his and letting it go with a shrug. ”All right, all right.” Army pushed off the steps and rose to his feet. ”Back to it, then.”

He came her way from behind and dropped down, putting his head under her shoulder. He lifted her up, threw her into the air, and roughly dropped her down on her back, putting her back on the ring and the roughest way, before he pushed her back inside and rolled in right behind her.

Exactly how Hawkeye was still standing...she honestly didn't know. Maybe it was sheer grit. Maybe it was a stubborn refusal to lay down and die. Maybe it was a mix of pride and honor.

...or maybe she was just a goddamn idiot.

Whatever the reason, the blonde was given no time to contemplate on any of it, as Army was soon upon her, and within a second...she was airborne.

"W-wai-don'-AH!' she yelled, as he, ever the gentle giant, heaved her upwards and let her drop back first into the ring apron, before shoving her the rest of the way in the ring.

"...ughh...thanks for....the assist...jerk..." she hissed, writhing on the mat. Exactly why was she so enamored with him again? Oh right, dem abs. Regardless, while still in the fight, she was still at Army's mercy as well, as the match continued with her still stuck on the mat!

For some reason, even with all the pain he was going through at the moment, Hawkeye’s comment still managed to get a little chuckle out of him. ”Yeah, yeah, like you wouldn’t do the same if you could.”

He rolled in after her a moment later after and grabbed the ropes, using them for support as he got to his feet. It was a hard effort and he stumbled along the way, looked like he might keel over at any second, but he pulled it off by some small miracle. He would need to take a long, long rest when this was done, but he was fairly certain he had enough left in the tank to get things done. And he had a big surprise for her to go out with, too.

He came at her while she was down and grabbed her head, yanking her up and pulling her underneath his arm. He gripped tight and lift her vertical, holding her up for what would probably look like a vertical suplex - instead, it was a setup for a move he’d been flirting with as a new finisher, the Orange Crush powerbomb.

This was it, as Army stepped into the ring, his booted feet stomping onto the mat, Riza knew that this match was coming to an end. Army was coming to finish her off, and there wasn't anything she could do about it. He pulled her up to her feet, and for as tired and sweaty as he seemed, he still managed to haul her up, upside down, above his head, still an incredible powerhouse, ready to bring her down and end her.

...No.

She wasn't going down this way. She didn't fight and claw all her way back to AFW just to be proven inferior to Army once again! The former soldier threw her knee down, smacking it against the top of Army's head, repeating the blow a couple more times until he would stumble, and she could land on her feet, stumbling back a couple steps from the kneeling man...and then, with a loud roar of aggression, ignoring the pain in her battered body, she'd charge in, closing the distance between them and throwing her knee out to smash right into Army's face with another Hawk's Talon!

Army honestly wasn’t sure what happened. He just knew it involved lots of blows to the head.

He’d had Hawkeye held up, was just about to bring her down for the plunge and knock her clean out, when something clocked him square on the skull. At first he thought it might be the referee - as dumb as it sounded, he couldn’t see a hint of anyone else coming into the ring, so it was the only thing that made sense. But then it hit him again, a second rattling blow that left him seeing stars.

It was Hawkeye. She was kneeing him in the head while she was upside down. The moment he realized what was happening, it was already too late to stop it.

Army dropped to his knees, his vision a blurry mess. He couldn’t see where Hawkeye came down, but he could hear her feet touching the canvas, a sure sign that she’d come down upright in front of him. An extremely bad thing. What instincts he could muster screamed at him to cover his face, and he started to, but it was far too little, far too late.

Hawkeye’s knee crashed clean against his skull and sent him reeling. He would’ve gone down to the floor if he hadn’t had the good fortune of being so close to the turnbuckle. Instead, he wound up with his back against, sitting down, blinking rapidly. Out, but not in a position to be counted just yet.

”Fuck...Jesus fuck…” He reached up and wrapped his feeble fingers around the ropes above his head, his body moving on autopilot, just trying to do something to stay in the game.