Push it to the Limit

Bullet Ant seemed to shrink in her corner as Akashi barked at her for her fairly weak explanation. "I..." she tried to say, a hundred words swirling throughout her head as she tried to think of a reply "I..." the masked grappler stumbled, before her head fell. Akashi was right, she really didn't know what she was doing or why she was doing it. "I... you..." she whimpered before she stopped shaking

"You don't know me." She said firmly, raising her masked face as though she was glaring at the sumo straight in the eye. "You've never seen my face, we haven't spent that much time around each other and all we've freaking done is fight." Bullet Ant said coldly, her hands tightening into fists. "So where the hell do you come from, thinking you know every last thing about me, about what's going on in my life. You don't even know my real name! So cut it out with the warrior therapist crap!" She ended up yelling.

"I acted scared? Oh, little old me with one match under her belt in an anything goes environment might be scared of the fatty former champ who was probably looking for some fresh meat to eat to make herself feel better!? What sane person wouldn't be? And how is it when you go all out, nearly crushing me it's just being rough but when I get one over on you I'm the one going over board!? HUH? How am I supposed to know that you're not just throwing this whole thing on so when someone asks you how your day is you get to say 'I made someone leave Japan crying her pathetic eyes out' rather than 'I almost got choked out by a rookie'!" the masked girl ranted, the sadness bottled up all being released in a flood of emotions.

"My dreams, my reasons, my life: is my business. Stay out of it." the Ant growled at the sumo before slipping through the ropes and towards the showers. If nobody stopped her.

Akashi frowned when Ant stuttered. It made her heart sink. Someone with convictions should be able to speak plainly and Ant seemed like she was going to falter again. It would be up to Akashi to try and convince her to leave the business before she got hurt or hurt someone else. But then, Ant exploded. The big sumo was shocked by Ant's outburst and stood in stunned silence as she was berated.

Her mouth hung open as if she was trying to get in a word edgewise but she remained stoic while she was dressed down. Ant was definitely trying to find a place to jab that knife and Akashi had to admit some of the things she was saying stung a bit.

When Ant was finished, Akashi found herself panting softly as she watched the girl climb through the ropes. "Hey." She said softly to Ant. Akashi then took a deep breath and grinned. "Ari-chan!" She said. "That is the sort of passion that I wish you would bring to the ring!" She turned her head. "But... you're wrong.. that I ... about what you said!" She was trying not to sound hurt. "I was rough.. because I'm a big girl and I get excited and eager and go overboard. You were rough... because you were angry! Anger... and personal feelings... should be left backstage!"

Akashi then shook her head. She wasn't going to stop Ant. The girl needed to cool off a bit. "But... Don't say I don't know you, Ari-chan! If you want to get to know someone. If you really want to see what they're made of then there are two things you can do." Akashi held out her hand with her outstretched index finger. "You can make love to them." She extended her middle finger. "Or you can fight them! If you do that, you'll learn more about someone than you ever could any other way!"

Akshi nodded and let Ant go. She looked at Tina and grinned. "Well, sensei... I think that was the best lesson she's had so far!" She said with a big grin.

Bullet Ant's heart was racing as she stepped through the ropes, she couldn't believe she'd actually just done that to Akashi of all people: maybe she should speed it up when heading to the showers while the sumo still looked like she was processing what the fuck happened just then, involuntarily flinching when Akashi started speaking again. She was soo dead right now.

Which is why it took her off guard when Akashi smiled and complimented her. "What." She said flatly, was she being complimented for her outburst? Even after all the insults and accusations she'd thrown at the sumo? Okay, she had gone a bit overboard but... "Wait... so, the passion I showed by lashing out at you is a good thing but being angry is a bad thing?" the masked wrestler was really confused now.

"Yeah, yeah... what ever..." She sulked, shrugging off Akashi's advice on how to get to know people. She heavilly disagreed with Akashi's opinion on the matter, but she needed a break now and that was just going to descend into another argument which she really didn't need right now.

"Well... didn't see that coming." Tina admitted, speaking up for the first time: she had been aback just as much by her student's outburst as Akashi was, "and I don't know about the best, managing to get her to not freak out over chokeholds was pretty impressive too but that... that was certainly a lesson." the blonde told her as Bullet Ant disappeared into the shower area.

"Fighting someone to get to know them better? Pah..." Bullet Ant muttered as she began to strip, throwing off her boots first before reaching back to untie her mask taking a deep breath as her vision was now mesh-free. The cosplayer known as Adrian Kytes, shedding her disguise and heading into the shower, blissfully unaware of her surroundings.

Poison hid in a corner trying to look inconspicuous, something that was extremely difficult for a hair with pink hard and curves like hers, yet the target seemed to be too lost in her own problems to notice her and that worked perfectly for her. She waited patiently until she could hear the water of the showers and then took a quick peek to make sure the target was in there and, more importantly, that the target was no longer wearing the mask. It would be stupid to wear a mask inside a shower but who knows what went on the minds of those masked freaks.

"Hehehe...this is going to be fun" Poison told herself as she picked the mask Bullet Ant had left in the group, quickly hiding it inside her jacket and leaving yellow post-it in Bullet Ant's locker before disappearing through the gym corridors.

If you want to see your mask again, bug, call this number. 555478123123. Don't tell anyone or the mask is history... We know who you are."

Adrian showered in relative silence, hands running through brown, messy hair while she let the hot water soothe her aches and pains, thinking more about what Akashi said about how to really know someone. The first part was kind of a fair point, but making love was not something she could do to anyone randomly just to get to know them, she'd have to know them intimately to begin with which defeated the whole point. The cosplayer doubted that a drunken one night stand would count.

But about knowing someone through fighting? No way, this was wrestling: people could throw up personas with their own fighting style with a little practice, how they fought wouldn't be how they acted otherwise. Even though she herself cheated like it was crunch time at an exam she liked to think that maybe, beneath it all there was something good about her. Why else would Cecilia or Rebecca want to hang out with her if she acted as dirty as she fought.

...wait...is it me or does that sound pervy? she thought, de-railing her own mental train as she finished off shampooing her hair, letting the white foam clog the drain while she reached to turn it off and step out, her hair hanging down to her shoulders while she wrapped a towel around the rest of her, making her slightly more respectable as she tried to dry off and collected her stuff.

Everything seemed to be fine, chest tape, boots, bodysuit, tights... all there except the most important part. Where's my mask? the cosplayer wondered, she was sure she set it down with the rest of her clothes in the big pile she pulled out... maybe she just hadn't looked in her locker well enough. She'd just grabbed the pile not everything, Right? she asked herself, her own narrative sounding increasingly more desperate. As she went back to look, but still nothing there... except a small note.

Her scream was loud enough to be heard throughout the entire building.

Poison giggled as she heard what she guessed must be Bullet Ant's screaming, the fact she could hear it as she was leaving the building was a good indication of how much distress she was causing to the now unmasked freak. Poison didn't stopped and quickly climbed in the nice Maserati she had 'borrowed' from Sarah, hitting on the pedal to leave the vicinity of the gym. She drove fast towards her hideout, a wrecked apartment in the nasty part of town, and parked the car a couple of blocks away from it. She pulled out the also 'borrowed' cellphone and waited. It was just matter of time before the bug called.

Meanwhile she took out her other phone and dialed Sarah. "hey bitch! I got the mask" she said as soon as she heard someone on the other side of the line.

Akashi was enjoying her small talk with Tina as she toweled herself off and prepared to leave. She'd have another nice shower and head home where she'd probably get all sweaty again with her girlfriend. But then she heard a deafening shriek and her eyes wid4ened. She gave a look to Tina and then rushed towards the dressing rooms.

When she got there, she was shocked to find Adrian covered in only a towel screaming bloody murder.

Akashi stopped at the entrance and quickly her eyes darted around. She noticed thatno one was in the locker room and right near Adrian was the suit that belonged to Bullet Ant. Akashi opened her mouth. "A... Adrian!?" She shouted in a bewildered tone. Her fists clenching and unclenching as she tried to figure out how she was supposed to feel.

When Tina heard the scream, nothing more needed to be said: one look and the blonde was off with Akashi trying to find out what the hell had happened.

Adrian fell to her knees, her disguise just resting to her side while she stared off into her empty locker, crunching the note in her left hand "It's gone..." she said weakly. The main piece of her alter-ego: the dividing line between Adrian and Bullet Ant had vanished, her whole facade was breaking apart and to make matters worse it was already broken enough for whoever stole it to leave that note in the first place.

"What happened?" Tina asked as she burst into the shower room, assuming the girl kneeling in front of the lockers to be her protege, taken aback when Akashi shouted "You know her?" she asked back while the trainer put a comforting arm around Adrian. She had been in the company a while but didn't really know that many people there, nor did she consider whoever it was under the mask to be a different person than she was teaching. How much didn't she know?

"A-akashi..?" Adrian whimpered, turning to face her, shaking as she did so "Don't look at me!" She shrieked out, trying to hide her face from the sumo. Something Tina was kind enough to help with, throwing a towel over the cosplayer's head.

Akashi watched as Tina rushed over to Adrian. Her fists clenched and she frowned. "Of course!" She barked at Tina. She had a sudden urge to slap Adrian silly but when Tina put the towel over her head and cradled her tightly, Akashi let out a sigh. Suddenly Akashi chuckled.

"You look like a towel monster, Adrian-chan." She said suddenly. "But... there's no sense in curling into a ball now. I already know who you are and Tina-sensei doesn't know and probably doesn't care."

Akashi lowered her head. "Stand up and face me properly, Adrian!" She said and crossed her arms under her chest.

Tina grit her teeth as Akashi chuckled "What's so funny?" She asked in a threatening manner "Because it better be a joke from yesterday you just got and not the fact that she just lost something important!" the superstar roared before the sumo tried talking to Adrian. She was about to snap at Akashi again for asking so much of someone who was going through something that was to her traumatic before Adrian started to move.

"Sorry sensei..." Adrian mumbled between what sounded like sobs before she stood up, holding onto Tina's arm to keep her steady "So..." Adrian began, trying to seem calm to Akashi as she almost stumbled back down to the tiled floor "What do you want from me?" She asked, taking deep breaths and trying not to cry