Crash Course

”Wooooooooo!”

Valley couldn't resist a little fanfare as she went flying through the air with the greatest of ease, even if there weren't any fans around to appreciate it. She couldn't resist, really. It had been far too long since she’d pulled out a good tornado DDT, and even longer since she’d had this much fun in a sparring match. Granted, the ones she and Haley had were great, too, but for wholly different reasons.

Valley popped up to one knee and looked down at Alicia, taking a moment, just a couple of seconds, to make sure the young talent was okay. As strong as she clearly was, taking a DDT like that for the first time had to be throwing her for a loop. Best she get used to it now, as opposed to in the ring with a real opponent

Nonetheless, it shouldn't nor wouldn't stop Valley from capitalizing. It was time to fly.

The Slamazon stood up and raced to the ropes, crossing over with a few quick strides. She leaped up, placed both of her feet on the middle rope, then backflipped off with a springboard maneuver. She soared through the air with a full arc and came down hard on Alicia’s chest, executing a picture-perfect lionsault.

Alicia, as was probably obvious, had never experienced a tornado DDT before. And she wasn’t exactly being given time to deal with the sudden and unexpected dose of head trauma she’d just been handed courtesy of Valley Doll. Her eyes had blinked back into focus just in time to see the blonde’s body seemingly poised in mid-air, about to come crashing down on her.

Her arms still weren’t doing what she told them. And she definitely didn’t have time to even try to roll out of the way.

Her only slight consolation was that this was going to hurt both of them.

And then Valley hit home, Alicia’s body jerking back to life for a second as the lionsault drove all the air out of her lungs. She tried to jack-knife instinctively, trying to protect herself, but the blonde was in the way. So the redhead slumped back to the canvas, groaning and trying to work out how her lungs were meant to work again.

Her world was the overhead lights and quite a lot of pain. Not that pain was anything new to her, but even her impressive physique could only cope with so much in quick succession.

Valley had been doing moonsaults since she stepped into a wrestling over a decade ago - in fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a match where she didn't execute the move. Sometimes she missed them, most of the time they connected. They always hurt, of course, but over the years she’d learned to deal with the pain and roll with it, bracing herself for the pain.

Alicia was a bit harder and heartier than the average woman Valley wrestled with, though, so it came down to a nastier landing. After she hit the move, she immediately sat up on her knees and clutched her ribs, still smarting from the damage they’d taken a minute ago - but she was functional, she was awake, and she still had enough wherewithal to followup. "Gotcha."

Valley laid on Alicia’s chest, hooked her leg, and started her own count. ”1!”

There was something she needed to do.

Alicia knew that, even through the twin hazes formed by her head being hammered into the mat and having a body driven into her midriff.

It was just remembering what. She was doing something. Fighting. She was fighting. She remembered the scissors, remembered her opponent’s body faltering as she squeezed. She remembered the rest too. But everything had turned into a blur…

Her leg was up. Huh. Someone was pinning her. Valley, right, the blonde.

She was counting.

Alicia blinked back to focus, kicking her leg out with all the strength she could manage and doing her utmost to get her shoulder off the mat before it was too late.

”2!”

The moment Valley said the word ‘two’ - the exact second, the exact moment, the exact millisecond the words left her mouth, before the sound had even properly left the ring - Valley was flung off by Alicia’s kickoff, going right on her back. Valley had won this little sparring match, sure, but it was more than a little clear that, if this had been a real match, she would still have quite a bit of wrestling to go before she was through the fiery redhead.

Valley grabbed the ropes and pulled herself up to her feet, looking Alicia over and taking stock. The woman was good. Damned good. She already had a better body than most wrestlers in the locker room, a unique mix of speed, size, and power that would take her far if given half a chance. With a few fundamentals and some experience in the squared circle, she could be a sight to see.

Valley wanted to see that. Valley wanted a real match with her.

She moved over to Alicia and extended her hand, offering to help her up with a soft smile. ”Great match. You’ve really got the goods.”

The pressure of Valley’s body on hers vanished as Alicia kicked out, but she knew she’d been a moment too late. Even if she’d literally sent the smaller woman flying, the match was over. Exhaling deeply, the kickboxer let herself slump back to the mat, staring up at the lights again with distinctly mixed feelings about that. Even if she felt like she’d had Valley on the ropes at times, clearly the veteran wrestler hadn’t had too much trouble turning things around. She didn’t mind losing – if anything, she was just disappointed it hadn’t gone on longer.

Still, that was just a measure of how much she’d enjoyed it. If every match she fought in AFW was like that… She’d be a very, very happy girl.

Valley’s compact figure interrupted her musings, the blonde stepping into view with an offered hand and words of praise that had Alicia’s still present smirk widening into something more like an actual smile.

Without hesitation, she reached up to grasp the hand firmly with her own and used Valley to pull her lengthy frame back to vertical.

”Thanks!” Alicia rolled her head around her shoulders, brought one arm across her chest and used the other to help as she started to stretch out some of the aches that were the inevitable result of a fight. ”That was awesome. I can’t wait for the rematch.”

Oh, they were having a rematch. It wasn’t even a question as far as Alicia was concerned – there was no way she wasn’t fighting Valley Doll again when she got the chance.

Alicia had, at least a good thirty pounds on Valley, so her trying to help the larger woman up was more of a token gesture than anything. Still, she wanted to be polite. Alicia was aggressive and eager, sure, and a woman of few words. But what little she said had been pleasant enough. Valley felt like she’d made a new friend, today.

”Same here. Next time I’ll take you all the way to three.” Valley patted Alicia’s shoulder, glad she was ready to go again, sometime. Really, she sounded like she was ready to go again at that very moment, and the idea was tempting, but she didn’t want to push either of them too far with a spar.

Valley bent over and gave Alicia’s thighs a playful little slap, admiring the twin beauties that nearly snapped her in half. ”So you’ve got some MMA backing you up, pretty obvious. Don’t see too many types like you come over - what’s bringing you to the AFW?”

That shark-like grin of Alicia’s made a reappearance at Valley’s claim, the big redhead smirking toothily as she felt the hand land on her shoulder. She didn’t say as much, but it was pretty clear what she was thinking – Valley was certainly more than welcome to try. She’d have one or two things to say about that, and she was already planning to work on the weak spots the spar had exposed in her game as it applied to mat wrestling. If nothing else, she clearly needed a way better idea of what people were going to throw her way while she was trying to boot their heads into touch.

Equally, she was glad Valley was up for a rematch. Caring whether her opponents had enjoyed their match as much as she had wasn’t big on Alicia’s list of interests. She cared about whether she had a good time, she assumed they’d worried about how much they enjoyed it (by which she meant whether they won or not) and that pretty much applied to Valley as well. The blonde seemed cool, true, but her interest was only really piqued because her chances of getting a rematch were far better if the other fighter had enjoyed it too.

Plus, well, she liked people who enjoyed a good fight and could give her one. Valley apparently qualified.

Grinning in a more friendly fashion as she felt the hand on her thigh, Alicia finished her stretching with a quiet grunt of effort.

”Honestly, I thought it’d be more fun. Seems like I got that right.”

Alicia’s comment earned a full laugh from Valley, though she doubted the rising rookie would fully appreciate why. She'd heard similar sentiments before, but they were usually from the opposite side - wrestlers trying to break into a ‘real combat sport’. Whatever that meant. It was a refreshing change to see someone from that side trying to get into the wacky, wonderful world of wrestling.

Valley made her way to the ropes and hopped on over with a single leap, swinging over with the rope and landing on the apron.

”Well, you came looking for fun? You will find fun. We have all kinds of fun, here.”

Valley chewed her lip for a moment, mulling something over, before she hopped off the apron and and made her way over to her gymbag. She took out a scrap of paper and scribbled on, then walked over to ringside and handing it to Alicia through the ropes.

”My cell. You ever run into any trouble, need a tag partner, having trouble getting a move down, whatever - call me, okay?”

Eyebrows rose in silent curiosity at Valley’s laughter, though Alicia didn’t take it amiss. It didn’t sound mocking and nothing the other fighter had done so far gave her any reason to think she’d start now. Not to say that she thought she knew the blonde, even if she did think she was starting to get an idea.

At the very least, she believed Valley Doll when she said she’d find fun here. Hell, she already had.

Striding to the ropes, the kickboxer leant casually against them as she watched Valley head over to her bag – presumably to grab it and head off. She was about to call a goodbye when she realised that the blonde was pulling something out. As she came back over, Alicia knelt down to take it.

It was a bit of paper with a phone number on it.

That was unexpected as was the offer that went with it. An offer she might definitely have to cash in sometime - at least, while she was learning the ropes here.

Eyes flickering between the bit of paper in her hand and the blonde, Alicia debated for a moment and then made her choice.

”Thanks. Mind showing me that kick you did out of the corner?”

She thought she’d got the basic idea but, coming in from directly in front and then getting two boot heels to the head meant she was a lot less sure than she might otherwise have been. And, while she definitely didn’t want to get stuck in a corner, it was a move she could see herself using. Kicks were her go-to option when standing and that one?

Well, call her full of herself, but Alicia was sure she could do more damage with it than Valley once she got the hang of it.