AV 16: Jessica Wright vs. Alicia Wells

Whiff. The sound of the mighty kick slicing through the air hit Jessica's ears, and for a split second, Jessica breathed a sigh of relief. She was tired and the kick was mighty, so threatening that Jessica was sure she was wont to lose her dinner had that kick hit her stomach. But it didn't. Thanks to Jessica's quick movements and the instinct that guided them, Jessica was still standing by either pure luck or the graces of some dark and capricious god. She set her feet again, and took a half step forward, her guard up.

And Alicia was still on the move. The redhead was twisting and turning like a whirlwind across the Great Plains. The successful dodge gave her hope, and Alicia's activity gave her pause. The Brit was still throwing everything that she had at her, at this stage in the match, and Jessica did not even want to wager on how much Alicia had left in the tank. Her instincts told her that another kick was coming, and that strikes from down low were her opponent's bread and butter. She dropped her hands down, and got her legs up, ready to swing skywards and block a kick.

At which point, she paid for her poor estimation of Alicia by getting clocked directly in the face. Spittle flew from her lips and her head jerked to the side unnaturally. Jessica was going down before she even knew what was happening, her firm body falling to the earth at a constant rate. The Violent Violet's eyes were wide. She could hardly believe anything that had just transpired.

Jessica, as it turned out, was right to guess that a kick was on its way. Sadly for her, less so for Alicia, the vicious wrestler had guessed the target wrong and badly so.

This time, there was no escape as Alicia’s booted foot ploughed into Jessica’s skull like a battering ram. It was a tribute to some combination of the length of the match, the angle at which the blow struck home and Jessica’s uncanny durability that the Violent Violet didn’t exit consciousness stage left there and then. But, however she managed it, it didn’t keep her on her feet. Down she went, her body going limp and boneless for a heartbeat before plummeting to the mat.

Above, still standing, Alicia swayed slightly on her feet for a moment, gathering herself. While not an all or nothing shot, it had still been a gamble of an attack and one that – at this stage in the battle – was well and truly tapping into her reserves. But she knew that she wasn’t done yet and that Jessica could almost certainly still turn this around if she was allowed to regroup.

That was fine. Alicia had no intentions of letting her regroup.

Moving to behind the American, the curvy redhead dropped down, looking to cinch her legs around Jessica’s trim waist from behind in a body triangle. At the same time, her arms went to catch the other woman’s and yank them above her head in a Full Nelson. Of course, as always with Alicia, the greater threat came from those massive thighs. Unless Jessica was quick on the uptake, she’d find herself caught in the redhead’s deadly ‘End of All Hope’ finishing manoeuvre, that big calf and bigger thighs crushing her waist from all sides while her arms were held helplessly above her head.

With the control the hold gave her, Alicia would also try and roll them away from the ropes, intent on denying even that sanctuary to Jessica.

It was so hard to think. That was the hard part. She honestly could not recall another time where she had been in a situation like this, where she got clocked this hard. There were no instincts to deal this, no experience to call upon when she was in a similar condition. Even if the crowd was not roaring with delight, the ringing in her ear made it nigh impossible to have even one thought, let alone the complex and strategic thinking the problems she was facing called for.

And Alicia obviously had little reason to let her rest. The redhead got down on the ground right beside her, and sped her thinking considerably. Jessica breathed in as deeply as she could, and mentally prepared herself to weather the storm that was coming. The legs clamped around her waist, and there was precious little she could do about that. She recognized it, and did not fight it.

There were other things she could fight though, like the attempt to grab her arms. She would not allow herself to get grabbed. As if possessed by a caged and cornered wolf, Jessica thrashed. But her thrashing was not the wild twists of a caged and cornered animal, it was that of an experienced wrestler. The elbows she threw back pried for and pounded any parts of Alicia's body which were not defended.

Jessica was not going to go down without the fight of the century.

On Alicia’s part, she felt a savage thrill as her legs closed about Jessica and she wrenched the hold tight. Now she was going to be able to lay down the hurt on the Violent Violet and part of her hoped that Jessica wouldn’t tap, letting her work the hold for just a bit longer.

Except that her opponent hadn’t got that memo. Certainly, Alicia had been able to lock on the scissors but she wasn’t able to secure Jessica’s arms despite her best efforts.

And Jessica made her pay for that, thrashing around and hammering the British amazon’s body everywhere she could reach with elbow after elbow.

True, the angle was awkward but Jessica was a strong woman and the damage would soon start to add up.

Much as she’d love to crush Jessica out, the redhead had to accept she wasn’t going to manage it. At least, not right now and she had no reason to sit there and let Jessica batter her until she couldn’t move.

Giving Jessica a last vicious squeeze, the kickboxer disengaged her legs and scooted back, following up with a vindictive forearm aimed at the back of her opponent’s head. That ought to at least keep Jessica disorientated while she worked out how to proceed.

Normally, there wouldn’t have been that gap but, well, Alicia wasn’t firing on all cylinders either.

Whatever it was, Jessica had avoided it. Jessica was haughty, pompous, and downright cruel, but she recognized that she had just gotten out of something that was going to sink her. Alicia was not going to give her a moment's rest, and hit her with a little something across the back of the head as she was letting go. As much as it hurt, Jessica recognized that it was greatly preferable to whatever else it was that Alicia was doing.

That is not to say that she liked it. It prevented her from thinking totally clearly, but Jessica was still cognizant enough to recognize that she needed to get the hell out of Dodge as fast as she possibly could. The Violent Violet all but dove forward and rolled in the opposite direction of where she thought Alicia would be, and stood up. She wheeled around to stand up, and try to pick apart what had just happened.

As she stood, her leg quivered. It threatened to give out, but Jessica would not let it. She had suffered an ordeal just now, been through to much in the match so far, had too much on the line as a whole to just let her body fail. The Violent Violet steadied herself, and did her best to try and cobble together a fighting stance. Years of training made the stance look impressive, and Jessica was in the same form as she was in the start of the match now. It was almost as if she were back to square one.

Only, there was no going back to square one.

If Jessica was dragging herself to her feet on one side of the ring, Alicia was doing the same on her own. Stretching as best she could, working out the kinks and bruises that littered her body, the redhead was in no mood to leave off. She left it no later than she dared before stalking back towards her opponent with violence naturally on her mind.

Rest was something she could do without, when that rest would benefit Jessica more than it would Alicia herself.

While the kickboxer hadn’t seen the tremor that had threatened to put Jessica back on the mat, she didn’t exactly need to in order to guess that things wouldn’t be well in the other woman’s legs and lower back. Having been on the receiving end of a Boston Crab or two in the time since joining Friction herself, Alicia knew full well the torture it could inflict on those parts of the physique.

Therefore, it was no real surprise that she might target them. Advancing on Jessica, the big kickboxer snapped her leg up, twisting her hips into the blow as though she was targeting her head.

But, as her foot reached the peak of its arc, Alicia snapped her hips hard – changing the angle to turn it into a punishing downward roundhouse kick aimed squarely at Jessica’s knee.

If she could land one good hit, if she could take Jessica back to the mats, she wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.

Jessica's mind raced as the redhead advanced on her. It half occurred to her to go forth and meet Alicia at the center of the ring, but that instinct died quickly. Her intuition and her pride had gotten her into this mess, and she really doubted they were going to get her out of this. Her fists were clenched, and her knees were bent. She was ready to explode forward, or explode backwards, depending on how the situation went.

Pit. Pat. The sound of Alicia's footfalls on the soft canvas came with the consistency and potency of church bells ringing. Jessica was tense. Very tense. The Violent Violet made a conscious effort to be as loose as possible, but the pain in her legs and back would have her straight as a board. She ignored it, or tried to. There were so many things going on, so many things to consider. Pit pat. Alicia was getting closer and closer with every passing second, and all of the tenseness in her legs, all of the thoughts in her head, all of the pain and weariness in her body would be for everything or nothing in one second.

Her eyes narrowed. Jessica had decided on her plan.

She measured Alicia's steps, and when she thought the time was right, she took a big step forward and closed the gap. The Violent Violet did not need to see Alicia's hips rotate, because she felt it. Alicia was going for the kick of the century, and Jessica read it. Every wrestler goes back to what they know best when the chips are down, and Alicia knew kicks really well.

But Jessica knew herself. She knew she had those nice long legs that could get her in range in one step, just as she knew she could capitalize on the surprise and get her arms around her opponent. From there, she would summon her strength straight up, and then straight down for a belly to belly suplex.

Given the way things had gone so far, it was perhaps forgivable that Alicia was thinking her striking ability trumped Jessica’s. So it wasn’t really a mistake to go with what she knew, more a mistake to try to be clever as opposed to just going for it.

She should have just gone for it.

Instead, she tried something tricky and missed.

To give her credit, Alicia didn’t fumble. With Jessica not there, she might have fumbled the kick, stumbled, put herself in an even worse situation. Well, perhaps. Perhaps not. But she was able to get her leg back down, reasserting her stance for a heartbeat.

Reflex. Not a terribly useful one in the present situation, however, as she almost instantly found the Violent Violet’s arms wrapping around her waist. Match fatigue showed again, Alicia missing any chance to dissuade Jessica with some elbows before the belly to belly suplex hit.

In a show of strength, the American promptly took the Brit up and over and back down, Alicia landing on her shoulders and neck with a grunt of pain. In the aftermath, she’d try to roll to her side and force herself back up slowly and steadily. It was tempting, so tempting to give in, but she knew she had to keep moving or Jessica would be all over her.

But she was nowhere near as fast as she had been, the kickboxer’s movements increasingly sluggish as the punishment mounted further.

Jessica was moving. Jessica was rolling. Jessica was relentless. Buoyed by the fact that she did not have the living crap kicked out of her and that the belly to belly suplex went off, the Violent Violet tucked herself and did one tumble before getting up to her feet. There was still pain. Her adrenaline was not enough to totally ignore that, but there were greater things at play now.

There was a way forward now. In the hold, getting hit by strike after strike, it all just seemed so hopeless. But a new dawn, a great and terrible one, was coming, still inchoate and tinged with the rage that burned everlasting in Jessica's heart. The rage was not cooled, but tempered, vulcanized, galvanized by refreshed thoughts of victory. Moments ago, her eyes would have swirled around following a pretty little head on a swivel, but her response was more measured now. Jessica took a deep breath in as she turned around.

Whereupon she spotted her opponent. The redhead was getting up, suffering the same agonies that Jessica had moments ago. She was keen on propagating those pains and bringing about the addition of new ones. With a few swift steps forwards, she bounded forward and got in range.

Her legs were long, yet they accelerated quickly. Jessica was going for a kick, rather similar to Alicia's kicks in many ways. There were a few small, subtle differences, however. Usually, Alicia kicked her opponents as they were standing, but Jessica very much hoped Alicia would still be picking herself up. And the redhead's kicks did not come from anything other than a steadfast desire for honorable victory, whereas Jessica was aiming to try and break a rib.

The downside of a hit to the head- Well, one of the downsides of a hit to the head was the risk of being increasingly ‘out of it’, distanced from the very real need to keep her head in the game.

Here, it was kind of debatable what the redhead could actually have done even if she had been aware quicker. Being caught halfway between standing and crouching, there was just only so much she could do. Maybe drop again but that wouldn’t solve the problem she was facing so much as postpone it for a few moments.

And Jessica was just moving so much faster than she was. Between that and the power she packed into her strike, the kickboxer’s options were few and very far between.

At the last moment, Alicia was able to interpose an arm, putting the limb between Jessica’s incoming foot and her vulnerable side. That protected her ribs, possibly saving her from one or two cracking, but the force of the impact sent a shiver of pain down her arm. If it hadn’t bruised muscles, she’d be lucky, and her ribs still ached.

Not to mention, of course, that the blow sent her right back down to the mat in a tumble. For a moment, at least, and then Alicia was grimly starting to climb back up again. This time, she had a rope to help her on her way, and she went about it as fast as she could.