Nikolette Tessla Vs. Cassie Elliot

Nikolette's eyes widened as Cassie's feet slammed into her stomach. She could do nothing besides crumble to the floor beside Cassie and cradle her stomach.

Cassie expected Nikolette to be right back up with her, and she was surprised to find her still on the mat. She hadn't thought she'd have hurt her that badly, nor did she really intend to.

"A-are you okay?" She asked, and then mentally kicked herself for saying it. This was a fight! She had to be mean! But... it was hard. She wasn't mean.

She raised one arm up for the crowd to try to cover up her concern for her opponent and walked a quick circle around the ring. She figured that letting Nikolette recover somewhat made them even. When she came back to her, she grabbed her by the hair and under her chin and started to pull her forward and up to her feet.

"Darnit." Nikolette groaned as she rolled onto her hands and knees, clutching her stomach with one hand. It didn't seem as bad now that a second or two had passed and the mechanic flushed with embarrassment at how badly she flopped. She glanced upwward and saw Cassie was parading around. Her cheeks flushed even more. "How embarrassin." She muttered as waved Cassie off. "Ain't nothin but butterflies darnit!" She said with a smile. She let Cassie pull her up to her feet, not taking advantage of the girl's kindness until she was on her feet. She then gave Cassie a shove to separate the two of them and grinned back at the red head.

"Don't worry about me. This is a fight darnit! We're supposed ta be knockin each other around. Ya ain't gonna bust me that easy ok? I'm a tough gal!" She then put up her fists and closed the gap between her and Cassie and attempted tio aim a hook into Cassie's side.

Cassie smiled and stumbled back from Nikolette's shove. She was feeling a bit too relaxed, and it made her a little uncomfortable. But then maybe relaxation was the key to putting on more entertaining matches, the way she wanted to. She didn't have to always go straight for the ground to use her juijutsu. She was trained in pro wrestling, after all, and had a lot more experience with kickboxing. She could fight on her feet.

Her eyes widened as Nikolette came at her. She'd put in some training with brawlers just to prepare for these sorts of situations, and instead of freezing or ducking under for a takedown, she threw a long front kick with the ball of her right foot, pushing her hips forward with it, aimed for Nikolette's belly. Hopefully, it'd stop her advance and disarm her hook. If not... she'd think of something.

When Nikolette rushed in, she was surprised to see Cassie go for the kick. She wholly expected some sort of take down maneuver from the red head. it seemed to be her expertise after all. She couldn't, or didn't want to waste her momentum by stopping or dodging so she turned her body and tried to latch onto the leg, hoping to minimize the damage by taking it int he side and slowing it with her arm. It would put Cassie in the same predicament that Nik was in at the start of the match if she was successful. The mechanic would be ready for an enzuigiri if Cassie tried it.

"Oh! Tricky."

Cassie didn't really like the position she was in now, but she was as flexible as she needed to be to get close to her opponent, which was where she always wanted to be. Whenever she wasn't comfortable in a situation, she immediately went for her comfort zone, which was in close contact and grappling.

She bent her captive leg at the knee and coiled it up to pull herself close to Nikolette, then wrapped one hand around the back girl's head. Cassie swung with her elbow at the girl's face while using her other hand to pull her into it. "Ha!"

Nikolette felt Cassie reach for her and push her in. She was stunted by the elbow but grinned through it. She swung her other leg out to kick at Cassie' only standing leg while she tried to push Cassie. She hoped to drive them both to the mat with Nikkolette falling hard on top of the two. That would be worth taking the elbow at least. Even though she knew she wouldn't be entirely int he best position, maybe if she could turn it into a slam she would have a few moments to continue to attack. At the very least, she would push her head further down and if toppling Cassie worked, then she hoped to drive her head into Cassie's sternum.

Cassie knew what to expect when Nikolette shook off her elbow. She kept hold of the back of Nik's head and added her free hand to tightly control where her head went. As she fell, she braced herself for the impact. It took some of the wind out of her, especially with her opponent crashing down on top, but it was a position she'd been in countless times. She yanked Nik's head to the side as they fell and immediately slid her hips to the side, bracing a knee against Nikolette's side and pushing to get her body out from under her.

As Cassie scrambled to her feet, with Nikolette still partly horizontal, she threw a quick kick at her belly with the toe of her boot. The irony that the brawler was doing more grappling and the grappler was apparently brawling was not lost on Cassie.

Nik felt Cassie try and wrestle herself off of her and was would have liked to have pressed the advantage but Cassie proved to be slippery and was already standing up before she could even do anything. But Nikolette wasn't the one who had the wind knocked out of her and was up as Cassie was as well. Seeing Cassie's quick strike, Nik tried to dodge, pulling her body back, sticking her butt out and sucking her belly in while throwing her arms up.

"Woah there!"

It was an awkward dodge if it succeeded but it would hopefully set her up to try and spear herself into Cassie's chest or stomach once more. If she could manage, she would try and drive Cassie backwards and back down to the mat hard again. As far as Nik was concerned she had been out muscling Cassie with her techniques. The irony was a little lost on the mechanic.

Cassie's kick deflected harmlessly off of Nikolette's forearms, and then the girl was again taking her down. She'd have been more concerned with staying on her feet if she didn't think she'd be winning the fight from the bottom anyway, so instead of defending the takedown she wrapped one arm around Nikolette's neck. She wrapped her legs around Nikolette's body as they hit the mat, and she clasped her hands together so she could squeeze the girl's throat between her upper arm and forearm. She knew she had the girl wrapped up pretty well, so she didn't try to burn her arms out all at once, but she still squeezed nearly as hard as she could and arched her back to add more pressure to it.

"I really like your hair." Cassie said while the two of them were close. "Um, don't forget to tap before you go out."