Showdown VI: Silver Ace vs Makie Akamatsu

In her locker room, Makie slid the straps of her leotard over her shoulders, the red garment fitting snugly over her body. Glancing at herself in the mirror, she sighed, and figured that she really needed to think about getting a new outfit soon-- some variety would be nice, and maybe something a little less...well, showy was in order. But that could wait until after she had beaten the silver-haired masked Canadian wonder she was about to be fighting.

Silver Ace. The Silver Ace. Kyo had been lucky enough to fight the former Entropy champion Valley Doll, in a match that had been as epic as it had been brutal. Now Makie had the honour of fighting Valley Doll's girlfriend, who was herself a former Entropy champion and a veteran of the ring. Makie would be lying if she had said that Silver Ace wasn't one of her favourite Friction competitors, a girl whose style and in-ring ability she admired. She would be further lying if she said she wasn't anxious about this match.

Spoiler:

Taking a deep breath, she turned and exited the locker room as her music began to play. Kyo, for a change, would be in the audience tonight instead of fighting by her side, and he had already wished her luck. Mako, of course, had sent her encouragement in a very lengthy and very descriptive text that had made her smile. As she strode out into the arena, the pyrotechnics blazed, and her fans erupted into cheers. Flashing the crowd her trademark V-sign, Makie burst into a run, high-fiving her fans as she went, before rolling under the top ropes and standing in the corner post, continuing the gesture now with both hands.

After a few seconds of absorbing the crowd's applause, Makie moved back to the centre of the ring, and waited for Ace to show up. After their brief exchange on Twitter after their matchup had been announced, Ace would no doubt be expecting Makie to put up or shut up, and Makie aimed to please tonight.

Backstage, in a private dressing room prepared just for her arrival, Silver Ace was already in her ring gear, the mask of Silver King propped up on a mannequin head to keep its shape, and was putting the finishing touches on her face-paint, mentally preparing herself for the match ahead.

In truth, Ace had never considered wrestling for Tension. The male wrestlers she had seen were either unimpressive, or just these giant beasts that raped everybody. Given her lack of interest in men, that seemed like something to avoid, but in truth, she had looked down on Tension a lot of them, disregarding it as a lesser brand. It wasn't until her lover Valley started wrestling there that she started thinking it might be an interesting experience to go down to Kyoto herself.

Her opponent was especially interesting. Makie Akamatsu was one of Tension's longest lasting stars from their early days, part of a tag team with her brother, and Valley had already vouched that the brother was a top level talent, and that she should be careful, as the sister was as well.

Well, since Valley was in a hentai match tonight, Ace would be the judge of how good Makie really was, wouldn't she? The two already had a fairly heated twitter exchange, showing the girl wasn't afraid to throw barbs and had no intention of backing down.

That was good, neither did Ace.

Finally ready, she grabbed her mask and jacket and made her way to Gorilla, and when Her new theme, "Survivor", started playing, she made her way out on the ramp.

The Kyoto crowd, getting their first taste of the famous Friction babyface, roared in approval as she came out onto the ramp, clad in her silver jacket, red and silver ring gear, and her deceased mentor Silver Kings mask on her head, worn in loving tribute to the man who trained her as a teenager.

Raising her fist to the crowd, she charged down the ramp, leaping from the floor to the ring apron in one step, and slipping through the ropes to enter the ring, moving to the corner and standing on it, pulling the mask off of her head, revealing her painted face to more cheers. Giving the mask a kiss, she placed it with respect onto the top of the metal turnbuckle pole, then raised her arms up, pointing two fingers down with one and and crossing them with the index finger of her other hand, making an "A" symbol to the fans before hopping off the turnbuckle and taking her jacket off, tossing it to the ring bell holder for safe keeping.

Finally, she turned towards her opponent, offering Makie a cocky smirk. "Alright, time to see if either of us are as tough as our twitter game. You ready for a good hard fight Makie? I don't wanna come all the way to Kyoto just to be disappointed after all..."

The crowd roared as Silver made her grand entrance, that masked wrestler striding into the ring to the cheers of her fans. Makie couldn't blame them: there was an easy confidence to the silverette's stride as she made her way down the ramp. Silver's fanbase had come to watch her in action, and, having seen Silver's bouts against the likes of River Styx. Alaina Sanders, and a lot of other Friction big names, Makie knew that she was going to be in for a really tough battle ahead. And, quite frankly, she wouldn't have it any other way.

As Silver strode into the ring, she removed her mask-- there was a history to that mask, Makie just couddn't remember what-- and made a show of setting aside her jacket and her title belt. And then she turned to Makie. Up close, Silver's height advantage was plain to see, though Makie was used to being the shorter girl. What really took Makie aback by was the casual confidence that the Canadian still displayed. It was an attitude which told Makie that Silver had taken on and beaten more fearsome competitors than her, and that she wasn't fazed in the slightest.

All the same, Makie tried to match Silver's smirk with one of her own. "Last thing I'd want is to disappoint you," she replied. "Beat you down and pin you, maybe, but disappoint you? Never."

Ace, honestly, was more curious about Makie than actually thinking of her as a threat. Ace had literally started her career in AFW fighting the best wrestlers in the company, she had, like coal being ground into a diamond, got her start walking through fire as the company paired her against the biggest and best competition right off the bat, so no, she wasn't taking Makie seriously, since as far as she knew, Frictions sibling promotion didn't have the same level of talent involved.

But...maybe she was wrong. Maybe Makie would show her something unexpected after all. The girl was certainly full of spunk and vinegar, as old people liked to say, and Ace respected that.

"You know, you've got a lot of gall...I admire gall. Lets hope you still have it after a superkick or two."

She said back teasingly. For what it was worth, Ace walked up to the center of the ring, and stuck her arm out, fist balled up, offering Makie a respectful fist bump between the two of them. After Makie either tapped it or ignored it, Ace would get her arms up in a grappling stance, waiting for the bell to ring to start things off for them!

Makie had followed Silver Ace's career quite a bit, and had watched more than a few of the Canadian's matches, so it was more than fair to say that she had a great deal of respect and admiration for her opponent. Neither this respect nor this admiration, however, was going to allow Makie to lose face in front of her, and so Makie matched Silver Ace's trash talk with some of her own, expecting that the start of the match would begin with the two of them just trading insults.

Instead, to her surprise, Silver Ace stated that she admired Makie's spunk. Despite herself, Makie found herself blushing at the comment. As Silver Ace raised her hand for a fist bump, though, Makie quickly put aside her awkwardness, confidently stepped forward, and tapped her fist against Ace's. The crowd cheered, as right off the bat, these two were showing a mutual respect for one another.

And then the bell rang: Ace was already circling, moving into a grappler's stance, and Makie was quickly to mirror it. Edging closer, Makie watched Ace carefully, before darting in for a collar and elbow lockup, wanting to see how Ace would react...

Makie was confident, she could see it in her eyes. Good. That meant she came to fight, and Ace wanted to see just how good the competition was here if she was going to show up in Kyoto more often.

With Makie coming at her for a lock up, Ace obliged, locking up with her in a collar and elbow tie up, each girl pushing against the other one, trying to see who would budge the other in terms of strength!

"Nice form! You've been doing this for a while, haven't you?" Ace quipped, as if making casual conversation in the middle of a fight was as common as a discussion around the water cooler at work.

For a moment, Makie was afraid that Ace was going to turn down the lockup, or worse, fake her out and attack her. She didn't think that Ace was the sort to resort to dirty tricks like that-- far from it. But she knew full well that Ace was a wrestler first and foremost, and that she had come here to win more than anything else, and that she was a high flying striker, just like her. It would be upsetting, but not surprising, if Ace forwent a pure test of strength.

But no: instead, Silver Ace came right at her, accepting the lockup. In an instand, the two wrestlers were pushing and twisting against each other, forehead to forehead, as they grappled for control. Makie gritted her teeth as she pushed against Ace: for the moment, the two of them were deadlocked.

"Heh, long enough...to know you're not half bad at this either," Makie replied back through clenched teeth. She remained smiling and nonchalant, but inwardly, she was jumping with excitement at the fact that Ace had just complimented her. She suddenly twisted her body sharply. "But let's see if you're as fast as you look on TV!" Twisting sharply, she would whip Ace towards the ropes: as the Canadian rebounded, Makie would try run up to meet her with a spinning kick up to her face!

This was going well so far. Makie had a good wit, and if she could wrestle as well as she looked and talked, this was going to be a fun match. Good. She wanted bigger challenges, and if Makie and Tension could provide that, nothing would make Ace happier.

Suddenly, just as Ace was stepping forward to push harder, intending to push Makie back towards the ropes, the woman switched up on her, and suddenly Ace found herself whipped towards the ropes. No problem, just a quick rebound and she'd take Makie-"GAH!"

The face-painted Canadian woman had turned her body to rebound off the ropes, off impulse, when she was met with a brief glimpse of Makie's foot before it smashed into her face, with enough force that it send the former Entropy and Hardcore champion tumbling over the ropes backwards, falling onto the padded concrete below, to the surprise, and cheers, of the crowd!

The match had started off with a bang. The moment the bell had rung, Makie was in motion, grappling with Silver Ace for a short but intense couple of seconds. It was a deadlock that Makie was quick to break, however, spinning around to whip Silver Ace across the ring. She knew how proficient and experienced a wrestler Ace was, knew from watching a lot of her matches that she was not one to be underestimated. Which was fine-- Makie had no qualms with showing Ace that she wasn't to be trifled with either.

As Ace rebounded, Makie nailed her with two boots to the face that sent her sprawling outside of the ring! Exhilarated that she had gotten the first kick in, Makie rolled back up to her feet, raising her hand and eliciting cheers from her fans in the audience, before turning back to Ace as she lay sprawled outside the ring. "Hey, you okay down there?" she asked, half concerned, half taunting, all smiles. She didn't pursue Ace, instead patiently waiting for her to get back in the ring: it was early in the match still, and nothing was to be lost from a bit of sportswomanship.