Showdown VI: Silver Ace vs Makie Akamatsu

It wasn't often that Ace went to the top rope for this move. She had, admittedly, only learned it for a title match that she knew Valley would be doing commentary for, wanting to surprise her lover by perfectly pulling off one of her biggest moves, though she decided to keep and perfect the move for situations JUST like this one.

Time seemed to slow, from Ace's perspective, as she leaped high upwards, flipping back, the entire world, the ring mat, the referee, the crowd, all flipped perspective, upside down, as Ace completed her flip and gravity finished taking hold, bringing her down towards the prone body of Makie...who had her knees up.

...Oh fuck.

Ace crashed down just as hard and impactful as she intended, only instead of a soft body to cushion her fall, she crashed down hard onto Makie's raised knees, which sunk into her abs and chest and caused Ace to bounce off of the woman, turning in mid-fall to land on her back, the wind completely knocked out of her as she grabbed at her stomach and chest, flopping about on the mat while making extremely pained gasping sounds, struggling to get any air!

Makie heard the entire crowd wince as Ace collided, chest-first, with her upraised knees. That had been way too close for comfort, Makie knew: had that airborne attack connected, she probably wouldn't have able to muster the energy to kick out. As it stood, she was still in this match...even if only just.

Gritting her teeth, she rolled over onto her hands and knees, breathing hard. Opposite her, Ace was on her back, hugging her chest as she gasped desperately for air. Ace had just literally been winded, but she wasn't going to stay that way for long, Makie knew: she had to get back up and try to find some way to finish this. Wincing, Makie would craw over to the corner post and start to climb the turnbuckle. Gingerly, she would start to climb up to the top rope, step by hurting step, all the while conscious that at this point Ace would probably be getting back up behind her.

But if Makie managed to get to the top rope uninterrupted, she would let out a loud yell before springing off, somersaulting through the air in an effort to nail Ace bodily with a sunset flip!

Ow. Ow. Ow. Fucking Ow.

That hurt. Like...jesus christ that hurt. That was brutal. How the fuck did Valley do that move for decades!?

It took time, but Ace was able to push herself up to her feet, slowly but surely, panting heavily the entire time. This match had been going on for a while now, the two women had taken and dealt serious damage to each other, and it was getting harder to keep going at a high level, Ace's body already starting to whine and ache, wanting her to slow down.

This was...not good. She needed to put Makie DOWN, and soon, because the more this went on, the harder it was going to be to be able to pull off the victory she was fighting so hard to get. She struggled up to her feet, looking around to see where her opponent went...only to gasp, her eyes going wide as she saw Makie in the air, flipping towards her, the tag champs back smashing into Ace's body and dropping her flat onto the mat, knocking the wind out of the Canadian woman as she was smashed back to the mat with Makie on top of her!

And then there was a crash.

The Makie felt her body smack hard into Ace's in a lung-bursting impact, a hard collision that wrecked the both of them. Still, it had been Makie who had been hurtling at Ace like a living bullet, and all of that kinetic force crunched hard into the Canadian champ, knocking her from her feet. For a few split seconds the two of them were airborne, Ace seemingly having been stunned by the flying impact even as Makie's body drove hard against hers.

And then, gravity kicked in with devastating effect as Ace toppled onto her back, with Makie on top. Breathing hard, the Japanese girl wasted no time in grabbing for one of Ace's silver-clad thighs to hook her leg, her head resting against the Canadian girl's shoulder as she breathed hard, all but spent after this brutal match.

In an instant, the ref came running over for the countdown. "ONE...."

Ow. Ow. Fuck. Ow. Did anybody get the number of that truck that smashed into her?

Needless to say, Silver Ace was not having a happy fun time after Makie's reckless flip attack smashed into her, the warrior in face paint's chest rising up and down in several short gasps as she tried to catch her breath, to very little avail, Makie's hard body having smashed into her at such high speed and impact.

For all intents and purposes, the Canadian fighter was down for the count, the Tension crowd cheering as their home-brand favorite hooked the leg for the pin, certain that things were all said and done as the ref's hand went up and down for a second time, with Ace still unmoving.

"TWO!"

The crowd chanted in unison, as the referee girl raised her hand a third time, letting it hang for just a second before bringing it down to end things.

"THR-"

Aces arm shot up.

Somehow, barely able to breath, her body feeling to heavy to kick out or buck her hips, Silver Ace, on sheer instinct and utter stubbornness, had forced one arm straight up, throwing it up hard enough to lift her shoulder off the mat, and break the pin count with just barely a half-second to spare!

Makie was practically hugging Ace now, her body compressed down tightly against the Canadian's as she hooked her leg back. Her entire body was hurting, and after what had only been a few minutes of she and Silver Ace knocking the ever living crap out of each other, she felt utterly worn out. And that was why, as she pressed down against Ace, she was mentally counting down with the ref.

ONE!

TWO!

THR--

And then Ace got that shoulder up. Makie nearly screamed in frustration as she rolled off of her opponent, slapping at the mat. She had been so close; only a few more seconds and she would have won this match. As it was, Ace was still able to keep going. As frustrated as Makie was, another part of her knew she would be disappointed if Ace decided to quit on her now.

Huffing, Makie clambered upright and began to head towards the corner of the ring. From there, she would climb to the top of the turnbuckle, and start clapping to the fans, urging them to start doing so in turn. And from there, she would launch herself backwards, aiming to come slamming down on Ace with a moonsault! Even if the move was successful, though, Makie wouldn't stop there: she would hop back up to her feet, climb the rope, and try to then hurl herself backwards in ANOTHER moonsault at her downed foe!

Then, and only then, would she once again press down against Ace's prone form and hook her leg for a pinfall...

Pain. Her entire body was pain. Between the moonsault failing and the follow up smash from Makie, the Canadian face-painted fighter was in an entire world of agony, and she wanted nothing, absolutely nothing, more than to take a hot shower and crawl into bed with Valley for a week.

But that came later.

For now, she needed to get up, she needed to move her body, needed to get back into the fight before Makie recovered from her attack...

But her body wouldn't budge, the Canadian's eyes opening from her grimace, as she tried to sit up, but she just couldn't do it, her body had taken too much damage, and the best she could do was slowly leaning upwards, only getting halfway up...when her eyes widened at the sight of Makie flying through the air again, only getting a second to react in shock and horror before Makie's body crashed down atop of the former Entropy and Hardcore Champion, flattening Ace down onto the mat and knocking the little air she had regained back out of her, leaving Ace gasping, her body shuddering, her final defenses smashed out of her and leaving her writhing.

...and then Makie hit the damn move again.

The second time knocked whatever fight was left out of her completely, to where her body didn't even move upon impact, letting out nothing more than a pained gasp and spittle. After all of Ace's bravado earlier, certain that Tension was beneath her, she had finally been put in her place by Makie, as her leg was hooked and the crowd counted along with the referee's pin count:

"ONE!"

"TWO!"

"THREE!"

And just like that, it was over.

When the countdown finally reached three, Makie couldn't believe it. Her body-- which had been pushed well past its limits in this hard match against a truly hard foe-- lay slumped against Ace's prone form, heaving ever so slightly as she caught her breath. She realized she had been tensing for a kickout that had never come; despite everything, Ace did not kick out, did not escape from her pinfall. Makie couldn't believe it at first.

Then, finally, she heard the crowd erupting into stunning applause, the roar around her deafening; more to the point, she felt the referee tapping at her, urging her to break the pinfall, telling her that she had already won. She had won: the words hung dimly in her tired brain.

With a groan, Makie rolled off of Ace, her chest heaving as she stared up at the arena lights. Weakly, she inclined her head towards the crowd and raised a hand to them, acknowledging their cheers, before slumping back down again, sucking in lungfuls of air. Somehow, she had just won against one of the absolute best wrestlers in AFW. As much as she couldn't believe it, it had just happened.

Weakly, she reached over and patted at Ace's shoulder. "Hey...you...alive over there?" she breathed, wanting to make sure the Canadian superstar was okay after the hell they had both just gone through.

Groaning, breathing shallow, hitched breaths as she struggled to get her wind back, the defeated Silver Ace, now humbled by the Tension Tag Team Champion, didn't respond for a couple of minutes as she got her breath back, before finally giving a weak thumbs up with one shaky hand.

"...You...got me. Hell...of a match Makie...Valley was...completely right about you..."

She said in reply to the victorious woman, reaching out with the same hand to weakly pat Makie back on the shoulder, the face-painted warrior giving her a grin.

"We should...hang out sometime...once my ribs heal...ugh..." She said, letting out a groan that was partially just for sympathy. Inside her ran a gamut of emotions. Disappointment for her defeat, for certain, as Ace never liked losing. But also a thrilling sense of excitement. When she had announced she was coming to Tension, she had expected to be met with just...pervy dude-bros and weak girls that couldn't fight off pervy dude-bros, and instead found herself fighting one of the toughest women she'd ever met in the ring.

If the rest of Tension was like this, she was going to have a good time here.

But for now...medical treatment. Ice packs. Cold bath. Lots of cuddling and massages from Valley tonight.

"...Can uh...Can you...help me to the back?" Ace asked Makie, a small tinge of pink on her cheeks under her facepaint. "Those moonsaults did...a number on me. Don't think I've the strength to get up by myself right now..."

Makie was still processing a lot of wild emotions that were happening all at once: excitement that she had just won against one of the most high-profile fighters in AFW. Enduring pain from the sheer number of bumps and slams she had taken in this match. Overwhelming happiness and a release of frustration over her victory. And more than a little concern for Ace, and a fear that she might have gone a bit overboard in fighting the feisty Canadian.

Ace, however, seemed to be alright. More importantly, Ace, battered as she was, still was able to look up, smile at her, and complement her...even saying that Valley had been right about her. Makie found herself immediately blushing at these words: Valley Doll was yet another of AFW's wrestlers whom Makie looked up to and respected, and she was now wondering what, exactly, the Californian superstar had said about her.

There were more important concerns at that moment, however: namely the fact that Ace still looked pretty hurt, and that she was asking for help heading into the back.

"S-sure!" Makie replied, taking Ace's hand and slowly propping the Canadian up her shoulder, with no small amount of weariness on her own part. "And yeah...we should absolutely hang out sometime. Heck, if you want to go do drinks after this, then I'm happy to buy."


And with that, the two wrestlers slowly dragged themselves out of the arena, all the while the audience continued to cheer for both of them over the exciting match that they had just witnessed.