Suzuki Adachi vs. Carmen Rodriguez - Blood in the Water

It wasn’t exactly a move that Carmen would be incorporating into her typical moveset, but the effectiveness couldn’t be ignored. She was hoping to take her opponent off guard and seize the moment, and it ticked both of those boxes at once - she couldn’t see the look on Suzuki’s face, but she would imagine ‘surprised’ would be a good way to describe it.

She looked over her shoulder, breathing hard, just in time to see the older woman trip over a weight bar that Army had misplaced in the middle of the floor - as irritating as it was to have her brother still not listening to her about putting up his stuff after a workout, it was working in her favor thise time, and she was quick to move in and seize the meager advantage.

She turned about and crawled forward fast, not even bothering to rise as she closed the distance, moving over her foe’s fallen body and straddling her waist. There were a lot of things she could’ve done from here. An armbar, perhaps, or maybe pull her into a guillotine choke. She could’ve even gotten fancy and rolled her into a Boston Crab or something like that.

Instead, Carmen went for simplicity - she reeled back and let fly with twin shots, throwing two straights in her foe’s face, battering her with some ground and pounding to keep her complacent. No sense in taking risks with this woman.

Suzuki was beside herself as she laid on the floor. If her head didn't hurt so much she would have been cursing without end at what had just occurred. Needless to say, the woman was embarrassed to have tripped and fell over something in the middle of a fight. Honestly the pain was secondary to her, while the shame she felt was far, FAR worse. And it soon became even worse as Carmen scrambled on top of her body and began to pound her face in.

On one hand, Suzuki 100% felt she deserved to get her face beat in after tripping like an absolute fool. Yet another thing that she and her daughter had in common. Both of them were incredibly hard on themselves whenever they fell short in some way. Most of the time finding physical punishments to endure just to make up for whatever blunder they had gone through. Of course she could punish herself any time. Right now she was in a fight, and it'd be even more dumb to simply let Carmen beat the shit out of her in the middle of it. Still the boxer was fast. She sent two hard blows down on Suzuki in the blink of an eye, barely giving the woman any time to raise her arms in defense. Carmen was certainly proving herself to be a worthy challenge. She could already feel her face start to swell from the blows, as well as the growing metallic taste of blood in her mouth. All she could do now was endure for the time being. Keeping her arms raised to protect herself until an opening presented itself.

Ground and pound. Not exactly something Carmen was taught in training, but she could do it well enough, something she had worked on since joining the AFW. She wasn’t in a position to deliver the maximum damage with her punches, but this was a case of quantity over quality, swarming her opponent with a hailstorm of blows. One after the other, left and right, alternating, drilling deep, cracking against her guard.

It worked well enough - at first. But there was always going to be a ceiling for it, and Suzuki was tough enough to force her up against it fast. Carmen clicked her teeth as her punches kept falling off the guard, not having much effect. She needed to change this up, bring this back to her terms.

”Okay…” Instead of throwing another punch, Carmen reached down, seized her opponent’s wrists, planted her feet and started to stand up, forcing Suzuki to come along with her. ”What’s wrong? Losing steam already, old woman?”

Despite the fact that her guard was blocking Carmen's blows, Suzuki could feel her arms wavering as each strike smacked against them. As she expected, the fists of an experienced boxer were not to be trifled with. The woman could only imagine the damage they could do if the barrage strikes were landing on her skull. But she could take it as long as her arms continued to block the heavy blows. What Suzuki really needed was a plan of what to do next.

Carmen was already ahead of her, though, as she suddenly ended her barrage and grabbed the older woman's wrists instead. After guarding herself from so many punches, there was no way she could simply break free from her opponent's grip. Noticing her current state, Carmen seemed all too happy to taunt Suzuki. Going as far as to suggest she was running out of steam, before flat out calling her an 'old woman'. Suzuki couldn't stop her eyes from rolling at the comment. It was something Mako would say often in their little family spats. Normally she'd just smack her head on the floor, or drive a knee into the young brat's midsection. Just normal responses whenever Mako ran her mouth while being on the losing side of a fight between mother and daughter. Not that they had a normal relationship as mother and daughter...it was too bad Carmen had her like this. She really had an urge to kick her ass for calling her old.

"...Fucking brat...you're not exactly a school girl yourself..." Suzuki growled at Carmen as she was pulled to her feet. Desperate for any sort of counter attack, she would try to drive her knee into the other woman's gut while their arms were occupied.

Yeah, okay, that was true. While she liked to think she did a good job hiding it, Carmen was on the waning side of her thirties, and middle age was coming up fast. She was starting to feel the effects, too, little by little. Things she could do with ease were becoming harder and harder. Running a mile took a bit more sweat than she remembered a year ago. Pushing weights required her to sacrifice more energy. She was even starting to see a few gray hairs sneaking in. Hard to find with what little hair she had, but they were there.

So the pot was calling the kettle black. A little. Just a little light ribbing, nothing too serious…but that didn’t mean Suzuki would take it that way. ”I’ve never tried on a schoolgirl outfit before, you never know. I might look half-decent in-”

For her flippancy, Carmen was rewarded with a knee to the stomach, coming in quick and sharp. The fact that she didn’t see it coming made the blow worse than it would’ve been, but it had a good deal of power beyond that, enough to knock the wind clean out of her. She staggered forward and brought her hand up, pulling Suzuki into a clench, just something to keep her close while she recovered and limit options.

Not bad for an ‘old woman’.

Despite taking a little offense from the woman's comment, Suzuki smirked as she heard her reply. In all honestly, she thought Carmen would probably look good in a school girl outfit. And without a doubt she'd look better than only half decent. If her daughter were here this would spark some sort of ten page response on just how good she'd look and why she had to do it. Suzuki wasn't so invested to get that excited, but she would keep that idea in the back of her head for later. And hopefully by the end of this fight it wouldn't get punched out of her head either.

Luckily for her, Carmen was caught off guard by her knee strike. The younger woman would lock them in a clinch soon after. Smart move. It kept her from getting some distance to recover. Both of the women were winded as they held onto one another. Locked in the clinch, Suzuki breathed heavily, still pulling herself together as she stared at her opponent. "Now that you mention it...I think I'd like to have a picture of that...thanks for the idea, sweet heart~ We can try that out after I knock your ass out~" Suzuki would say, teasing Carmen a little while they were locked up like this. However, since they were locked up, Suzuki would try going for another knee strike right into the woman's abs. "It's too bad boxing doesn't prepare you for these~" she would say, shortly before going for the second knee strike. If Carmen wanted a clinch, then Suzuki would keep her in one. As long as they remained like this, she could throw as many knee strikes at the woman as she wanted!

Putting Suzuki in a clinch like this seemed like a good idea on the outset. After all, while they’d both taken a good bit of damage in this fight, the older woman had weathered the brunt of it, and it had to be taking its toll, sooner or later. Carmen figured that, like this, she would be able to bully her against a wall, keep her there, and deliver some heavy damage while she had her pinned. The perfect way to pile on the hits without putting herself at too much risk.

Alas, it was simply not to be. She was on the way to deliver a right hook into Suzuki’s side, but she was just a touch too slow - a knee came into shook into her stomach and interrupted her flow, taking all of the sting out of it. Carmen winced, but she didn't have time to gather herself before another one came in. Sharp. Impactful. Fast. Suzuki drove them with a painful precision, one that had the former 24/7 Champion’s knees buckling.

Even through the pain, though, she managed a small chuckle. ”Heh…beat me and I’ll wear whatever you want.” Fun aside, this wasn’t a good place to be. Needing a retreat, Carmen pushed off Suzuki with her arms raised, putting up a good defensive wall as she made some space, trying to prepare for whatever was coming her way next.

Suzuki let out an annoyed grunt as she was forced away from her opponent after giving the woman’s abs two knee strikes. She had been hoping to land several more knee strikes. But now that Carmen’s guard was up her chances of succeeding were far more slim. Still she was interested in the woman’s proposal. Dressing up the loser sounded like a rather enticing wager. Of course there was no fun in a one sided bet. Both sides had to have stakes or it just wouldn’t be exciting.

”Heh! Sounds good to me, brat~!” Suzuki exclaimed, albeit more affectionately as she called her opponent a brat. Apparently Suzuki had found a nickname for the Puerto Rican that she liked. Not to mention the idea of dressing the cocky brat as a school girl sounded great. So, with her opponent’s guard up, the older woman would approach Carmen with her fists raised. Even if the woman’s guard was up, Suzuki wasn’t afraid to take her chances at breaking through it. She’d see how long Carmen could last as she took several swings towards the tough woman’s head.