The War in the Ward

Lydia took a long, deep breath as Colleen pointed her way. It was probably the last one she would get for a little while. She couldn't help but be a tad taken aback by Colleen's resilience, but in the end, it was just more fuel for her to use. If Colleen could do it, she could do it. As long as she told herself that, as long as she believed it, she could keep on going.

Colleen came in with hooks and Lydia gave them right back, trading blows at full force and speed. The sound of slapping leather filled the room, accompanied by grunts and muffled shrieks. But Lydia wasn't moving back. She refused to give ground. Instead, she planted her feet down, braced herself, and dedicated her entire body to hold the line. She picked two grey tiles for her feet to stand on and pretended everything else was lava. Something was going to give, and she'd be damned if it was her.

Carmen watched on from the side, throwing a worried glance towards Lorenza before focusing on the fight. Part of wanted it to stop, part of her wanted it to go on, part of her wanted it to get even harder, and she wasn't quite sure which was biggest.

This was it, and Colleen was determined to come out on top in this last exchange. She planted her feet and started swinging her gloved fists, slamming hook after hook into Lydiaâ€s pretty face and gorgeous breasts. Lydia would give as good as she got, and Colleen would groan and cry out into her mouthguard with every punch she took. But her feet werenâ€t moving back. They were staying on the two tiles they were on right now until Lydia dropped.

Black leather crashed into Lydiaâ€s cheek, sending spittle flying, and then white leather slammed into Colleenâ€s face to send her saliva flying as well. Again and again the two women bashed each otherâ€s faces and chests, with neither of them giving any ground. There were forty-five seconds left in the spar, but it wasnâ€t going to last that long. There was going to be a knockout, and soon. Colleen would do nothing but continue to throw hook after hook at Lydia, feeling herself get dizzier and her gloves get heavier as she became increasingly punch-drunk from Lydiaâ€s relentless assault. But she kept punching, and punching, and punching. Her glove met Lydiaâ€s flesh. Lydiaâ€s glove met her flesh. Neither one of them was giving each other any quarter.

Meanwhile, Lorenza was watching with growing excitement and growing concern. She shared that worried glance with Carmen as their lovers continued to go at it. At this rate, one of them, if not both of them, was going to be thrown for a real loop and knocked out. It was an incredible spectacle, but it was also very painful, even to a spectator. Lorenza wondered if everyone had this feeling when she and Carmen were going at it in the ring.

It was weird watching the fight from this perspective. For the first time, Carmen felt like she really understood where at least some of her father's reluctance in letting her fight came from. Boxing wasn't like basketball or football or even American football with all the pads and helmets. There was danger inside the ring, and no matter how well you trained someone, that danger would never go away. Even if it was the family's legacy, throwing someone you cared into the fray had to be a harrowing experience.

She was sampling it now, as Lydia and Colleen whittled away at their bodies, blow by blow, and her breath seemed to grow shorter with every second. She raised her hand, opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out...not just yet. But she was ready. The second they crossed the line, she would end it. Even if it meant getting out of the bed and stopping it with her own crippled hands.

Lydia didn't notice Carmen's move, not that she would have cared all that much if she did. She was in her own world, and she wagered Colleen was there, too. A world of pain and punishment, strife and struggling, risk and reward. Working almost purely on instinct, she broke away from the hook fest and tried to mix it up, throwing some solid uppercuts while Colleen continued to bash her head back and forth. Lydia couldn't even aim the blows properly, she had no idea what she hit, but so long as she hit something, she was fine.

Lorenza shared Carmenâ€s concerns. Slowly, she moved her body towards the edge of the bed, one leg almost hanging off of it, just in case she needed to put herself in between the two pugilists. Not that she expected it would be necessary—Lydia and Colleen were both smart.

But what you could do in the heat of the moment Lorenza knew all too well, and she wanted to be prepared to keep either girl from being seriously injured.

Colleen and Lydia kept at it, battering away at each other, swapping leather and bruising each otherâ€s breasts and faces with hook after hook after hook. After what seemed like an eternity of this, Lydia would break away and begin to mix it up, throwing uppercuts instead, which began to nail Colleen in her solar plexus and her tits, with a few shots managing to tag her chin or cheek, as well. Colleen, as punch-drunk as she was, had some far-off fear that there was something to Lydiaâ€s change in strategy, that maybe her opponent had all of a sudden figured out the key to victory. The pain which exploded in her body and which made her wobble on unsteady footing convinced her fully of this.

Well, Colleen would not allow herself to fall behind. Quickly, she began to launch uppercuts at Lydia, too, trying to match every blow which the tattoo artist landed with one of her own. Slowly, a vision of the decisive punch began to form in her mind: a clean, powerful uppercut right to the chin that would send Lydia flying backwards and which would drape the tattoo artistâ€s unconscious body over the foot of Lorenzaâ€s bed.

Colleen kept on pounding away at her opponent as the vision grew clearer. Just a few more seconds, just a few more blows to soften Lydia up, and then, she would end it…

Something was failing in Lydia's body. She had a hard time telling what it was exactly, but she could feel that something wrong was happening inside her. Her insides felt lose. Sloshing. Wrong. As much as she was trying to play at being a boxer and doing a better job than she'd dreamed, her body wasn't built for it. That was just the hard fact. There was only so long she could go before she reached the limit, and it seemed like it was rapidly approaching that time.

Lydia started to fall back as Colleen advanced, getting her guard in tight as the wily woman continued her barrage. She managed to block the punches successfully. She had to, really. One or two solid shots and she was definitely going down for the count. She was desperate to stay in. She had to survive, just a little longer.

She slid back a few steps, letting Colleen' wailed at her guard while she chomped down hard on the mouthguard to mitigate some pain. With only a few feet to go to the wall, she took a crazy and opened her guard, lunging toward Colleen with a maddening right cross. Almost certain to give Colleen a free shot, maybe even the crucial one, but she'd take the chance.

Colleen couldnâ€t believe it. She was pushing Lydia back. She was winning. Their exchange had been long, hard, and absolutely brutal, with both girls spilling blood, but Colleen had Lydia backpedaling towards the wall. The time was coming. The time was coming for that final blow. It had to be thrown before Colleenâ€s own body, which at the moment knew nothing except pain, could fail her.

And she saw an opening. As Lydia threw a right cross that would surely hit Colleen, the lighter-haired pugilist launched a hard uppercut aimed right at Lydiaâ€s chin…

…and missed.

She missed! Lydia moved faster than she had expected, and Colleenâ€s uppercut would only skid along Lydiaâ€s shoulder and cheek, perhaps smacking into her ear. Meanwhile, the right cross sent Colleen spinning, and very nearly falling to the tiled floor. She was lucky not to be knocked out by the blow. Something felt funny in her jaw. When she moved it, Colleen could swear she heard some faint cracking. That wasnâ€t a good sign. But she was still on her feet. As unsteady as her legs were, as shaky as her whole body now was, she was still on her feet.

Lydiaâ€s punch had forced the two of them back in between the beds. Time was beginning to run out, but the two of them still didnâ€t seem as if they would need the full three minutes in this final round. There was a knockout coming. Colleen wanted to be the one to deliver it, and not the one to receive it. With a loud roar, she would throw herself at Lydia again, giving no thought to defense as she threw hook, uppercut, and hard jab in random series, hoping that Lydia would drop before she did.

Colleen missed.

Lydia's eyes went wide as it grazed her ear, like she couldn't even believe such a thing was possible in this reality. It was a testament to how weary they both were, because she certainly hadn't tried to dodge that uppercut. She probably wouldn't have dodged it if Colleen had spent the entire day throwing the stupid thing. She was at the point where dodging wasn't an option. There was simply forward and back, attack and retreat. Anything else and she would have slipped right off the floor. Instead, Lydia's desperate blow was the one that connected, and both of the topless terrors were sent skidding back.

A moment's pause, a quick check, and they launched at one another once again. Possibly for the last time.

Colleen came swinging with all she had, lethal looking hooks and crosses, enough to knock Lydia flat. She could block, but that was getting riskier as her health dwindled. She could move back, but she didn't have the energy to do it fast enough. No, she needed something a little different, a newdirection besides back and forward - up.

She jumped towards Colleen, coming towards her with an overhand right that put her body weight into the force for added force. It was crazy, off-the-wall, dangerous. It left her exposed, and she'd surely take a debilitating blow in the process. She just had to hope she could deal out one of her own before she went down.

Colleen came at Lydia with all she had, and Lydia came back at her. Though time was running out, the two of them werenâ€t going to need the twenty seconds which remained. The time had come for the knockout blow. No more “soon.” The time was now.

Colleen would try that uppercut again. This time, she wouldnâ€t miss, she would bring her gloved fist up hard and fast, her aim true, slamming it into Lydiaâ€s chin, hoping that this time, finally, the tattoo artist would go down for the count. At the same time, Lydiaâ€s overhand punch came in, from a vector which Colleen never expected. She didnâ€t even see it coming before it slammed into her forehead, the debilitating blow landing powerfully to Colleenâ€s temple. All of a sudden, the wind went out of Colleenâ€s sails, and her vision suddenly went to black.

And then, through a dense haze, Colleen felt herself falling.

Lydia wasn't even really sure what happened. Had she connected? Had she missed? She didn't feel the impact, but then again, she didn't feel much of anything, She didn't see the punch that knocked her out, but she did get the pain from it. There was quite a lot to go around, too, right before the world faded to black.

Carmen, on other hand, had a perfect view. She saw their punches heading towards each other and reached her hand out, as if she could stop it with a gesture - but even if she could, she was far too slow. The blows connected and down their lovers went.

"Baby!" Carmen nearly fell out of the bed altogether as she rolled to her feet, the IV coming out of her arm as she dropped to her knees and checked her battered lover. Her body ached all over just from that little movement, but she paid it little mind as she shook Colleen about, lifting her up into a sit and patting her bruised cheek. "Baby, come on-"

While neither Lydia nor Colleen could know for sure what had happened to abruptly end their spar, the two boxers for whom they were fighting as surrogates could see full well what had transpired. The two amateur fighters slumped down onto the tiled floor, each beside her loverâ€s bed. Colleen was completely out of it, her head lolling back and forth limply as Carmen pulled free of her IV and got down to cradle her lover.

Lorenza, meanwhile, would slide out of bed, as well, getting down on her knees and crawling over to the downed Lydia. She was aching terribly, every movement causing her to wince. “Oh, mi reina,” Lorenza groaned, as she tried to lift up Lydiaâ€s head, perhaps try to prop her up against the side of the bed in a more comfortable sitting position. “Come on…”

The Mexican boxer would glance over at her rival. “Carmen, your IV came out…” she said. She sighed. “We let them go too far…”