The Floating Fortress Premiere! Rebecca Owens vs River

Match Type: Floating Fortress
Match Type: No holds barred
Victory Conditions: Pinfall, submission, or KO.
Match Overview: The ring is replaced with a smaller enclosed “bounce” caster suspended in the middle of a large pool. The walls of the fort are loosely secured and can be knocked down, allowing the walls to become extensions of the floor. If an opponent is knocked off into the water, they must return to the ring and allow their opponent to perform any move they want on them (This cannot be used to throw the opponent back into the water again) before resuming the match properly.

The structure itself is a large inflated surface, providing poor bouncy footing, and is slicked when wet. Slams and other moves that rely on throwing opponents tend to be less effective here given the far softer landing, meaning strikes and holds will be more effective.

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River:

Delicate fingers traced over the water's surface as she watched her touch cause ripples into the distance, faint but still visible along the deep waters. She wore a simple smile on her face as she enjoyed the sight of the ever expanding rings she had caused until they cascaded into the floating structure which remained anchored in the pool's center. Vibrant colors in a vast expanse of blue, the warm glow of the sun shining down upon her. She felt a certain oneness of mind in the presence of her own ideas coming to fruition. Standing up from the poolside, she made her way around its length to where a small catwalk suspended over the poor via a crane overhead, making a path to the fully formed structure without disturbing its unique properties. It was quiet here, serene, as the trial run of her floating fortress was held outside of a live audience but would be broadcasted to AFW's programming instead. Perhaps the management hadn't been too keen about hosting a match where the competitors in theory could be hidden from view the whole time if the walls remained upright. Quite understandable.

Her loose attire fluttered about her shapely form as she ascended the catwalk stairs with delicate steps. Her palms running around the railing as she moved out over the water to approach the massive floating structure. The walkway moved directly over all the sides of it and stopped where there was no roof. A rope later hung to allow the contestants to climb inside. River canted her head at that, lightly prodding the yellow plastic rope of the ladder. With a soft chuckle, she turned on her heel and put her back to it all, stretching her arms to the side.

Closing her eyes she absorbed the moment and let herself lean backward. The sensation of gravity taking her made the rookie's heart race, dropping into a freefall into the structure. She landed among the center with a muted thud, her slender form sinking into the center of the inflated flooring. She bounced once… twice… and settled on the third time. Unharmed by the large drop, she opened her eyes with a bright smile. This was perfect, just as she envisioned. Rather than rising, River folded her hands behind her head and lounged where she had drooped herself waiting patiently for the woman that was to face her.

As a young girl, Rebecca had spent most of her life living in Rome. But every summer, her parents had taken time off to take her to Marsailles, home to one of the most beautiful beaches in the world...In her mind at least. This had created in the Warrior, a love of the water and the sea, and while this pool was certainly no sea, it was close enough to allow those memories to surface.

This was certainly an oddball match, but all the more fun for her regardless. Over a pool, locked in a fortress that was falling apart, she smiled just thinking about the possibilities. She walked across the catwalk, her outfit what it always was, a strapless red bikini top with the symbol of the fleur-de-lis emblazoned blue on each bust, and white bottoms with the same symbol right on her butt. As she made it to the other side she looked down and said, you may want to move so I do not squish you. Then once the coast was clear she hoped down, doing a superhero landing before bouncing up, her larger form needing 4 bounces before she came to a halt.

River didn't respond right away, enjoying the moment. The sound of the water sloshing about, the gentle rocking of the whole structure. It was all worth taking in and she wasn't allowing Rebecca to rush her through the experience. After a long pause, one eye popped open to look up at Rebecca, enjoying a different view from below. She gave the redhead a small smile. "Very insistent to carve your own path. Headstrong, direct, with no time for simple pleasantries… well, until they are mentioned. I am sure you will be quite cordial now that I have said something. We have never met and yet I already feel I know you so well."

River had a gentle tone, a soothing one that had an almost dreamy quality to it that made all her words seem as comfortable and soft as a bed of clouds. After making her observations she leaned over onto her side, scooting away from the center of the ring to give her opponent plenty of room. The weight of Rebecca's impact was enough to spring River up off the inflated ring again, bouncing up where she lay a few times though she seemed to land each time with an easy elegance that left her lounging comfortably on her side with her head propped up in her hand.

"What fiery hair you have, a lovely hue." River mused softly as she pushed herself to sit cross-legged along the inflated walls. She steepled her fingers, resting both hands within her lap in a very meditative pose. She was adorned in loose flowing garments that left little to the imagination as well as ceremonial looking magatama and crystals woven into thin ropes that hung from her neck and coiled around her thighs and arms. A figure of otherworldly serenity that seemed slightly out of place in the bright floating construct.

Approve a mechanical whirring could be heard as the catwalk was lifted up and slowly pulled away, leaving both women traveled alone inside the structure for now.

"Thanks, it is a pleasure to meet you as well." Rebecca was about to talk more, however the other girl entered a meditative pose and the Redhead was loathe to interrupt her at that moment. She just seemed so peaceful and calm that the Warrior, as eager for battle as she was, did not want to break it, it just felt...wrong somehow. So she would look up, watching a pair of birds wheeling about in the sky and unconsciously playing ith the tip of her braid. Rebecca never really thought of herself as a beautiful woman, oh she knew she was pretty enough, her husband never stopped mentioning that. However she did not believe herself beautiful...except for her hair, that fiery red color, cascading down her back or tied up in a fierce braid...it was that that she loved about her body, so the compliment to her hair was appreciated more than River would know. Thus Rebecca was willing to wait until she was ready, to get the match started.

River stayed for a long moment seated like that in silence until the distance sound of the crane had finally stopped. The dark-haired woman uncoiled her legs and sat herself up, managing to somehow get to her feet without much effort despite the unstable nature of the inflatables mat between them. It was a large spacious interior, roughly the size of an actual wrestling ring while the walls were still up.

“I hope you came here today with an open mind and a clear conscience. It is my intention to explore who it is you are by the time we conclude today, in all things mental and physical. Are you ready?” River tilted her head with a smile as sweet as honey. She stood balanced with a great deal of poise, hands clasped behind her back.

It was clear to Rebecca that this girl was a spiritual one, that was fine with her and she shot back a smile of her own. "A warrior Mt dear, does all her exploration on the battlefield. I don't enter a battle without being ready." She tried to center herself a bit on the bouncy ring, but for someone like her use to something a bit more solid, it was difficult for her to get her "sea legs". So while River seemed all to comfortable here, it would take the Redhead a minute or two to adjust, time she did not have as the bell rung.

“While violence has never been my preferred method of inquiry, our profession does demand a level of brutality to reach a conclusion. I hope to see everything you have to offer.” It hadn’t escaped River’s notice Rebecca was having some measure of difficulty keeping solid footing. The smaller wrestler appeared slightly amused by the fact as she started to circle the redhead, with a giggle. She took purposefully prancing hops as she moved, making sure the inflated floor bounced between them to keep her opponent from getting a good foothold. She didn’t appear to be in a rush otherwise, at least not at first…

With a sudden burst of movement, River tossed herself into one of the fortress walls, springing back with greater speed than if she had simply charged. Dashing towards Rebecca with long nimble strides she was on her in mere moments, ducking low and two the side to avoid any blow that would try to catch her on the approach, trying to slip past the larger woman and send a side kick at the back of her knee to try to bring her down to a more manageable height.

On a normal day, Rebecca would have been able to easily keep pace with River as they circled each other. But with the other taking really good advantage of her current stumbling and swaying, she was not able to do much to react when River suddenly shot at her and caught her leg a good blow. She sunk to one knee but not for nothing was she one of the tougher girls on the roster. She would from her kneeling position to grab River about the waist, then send her flying towards the wall of the fortress with a release snap suplex.

While River was far from the most powerful striker in AFW, it didn’t take much to exploit the weaknesses of the human body. Funnily enough, her intimate knowledge of the human body for her unconventional healing methods was a great boon when it came to breaking down another people’s body in more than one way. Her heel dug into the soft tissue, bringing the mighty redhead down to a knee, rocking the entire structure.

She immediately moved to slip around Rebecca but one of the other woman’s arms intercepted her. The nimble nymph of a woman was easy enough to draw in with all those folds of fabric making her simple enough to grab. Pulled back to her foe, she didn’t resist at all, knowing full when she was caught.

River slammed into the side of the fortress wall far harder than she had previously bounced off to it. There was the sound of snapping cable as the wall collapsed into the water, extending the floor of the fortress with another section of open air. River went tumbling along the new expanse of ground nearly slipping off the edge of the inflated platform. She dug her sandals in and pressed her psalm down, stopping on all fours.

River glances up from the ground with a small smile, giving her head a small toss to whip some hair from her face. “Very impressive.” Pushing off the platform she bounced back up to her feet, brushing her flowing garments down with the flats of her hands.

Up until this point Rebecca had not fully understood just how precarious this whole structure was. When she had first saw it, it looked, well, like a fortress, strong and unbreakable. With a suplex that had been more a work of muscle memory than intent, she had thrown her opponent, thinking she would bounce off and return to her. Only instead of being a boomerang, River had unintentionally become a siege projectile, breaking down the first wall with little effort and almost giving her a free move.

Understanding now her peril, normally she would rush to meet her foe, but caution was a better aid in this battle and she would instead wait inside the perimeter of the 3 remaining walls, waiting for River to come to her. If she predicted right, the River would again exploit her familiarity with the scenery to unbalance her and then try to take her down. Well Rebecca would hopefully be ready to time to try and catch River before then, once she got close.