Written by: Anonymous
Date: January 27th, 2010

Round One
Tina arrived just in time to see Lei Fang sweep towards Helena while the Frenchwoman darted behind her gracefully. Lei spun around, her speed clearly diminished while Helena remained fresh, striking her face with a half-closed palm.

Lei sank to the ground, shaking her head. Tina cursed under her breath: the fight had begun without her and things were not going well for her partner so far. Helena darted back out of the ring while Kasumi, clad in a white outfit, tore from the sidelines. Lei Fang pushed herself back onto her feet. To Tina’s eyes the tai chi genius looked worried.

Lei Fang swept at Kasumi, her leg arcing quickly but not quick enough; Kasumi merely reared out of the way before spinning and stabbing out with her fingers at Lei’s neck. Lei responded in kind, deftly avoiding the blow. Tina whistled, impressed, remembering the last time she had fought the ninja.

Lei darted forward and Tina winced: Kasumi was faster, and the ninja sank low, sweeping Lei Fang’s legs out from under her in a heartbeat. The impact never came however – the tai chi expert smirked, righted herself and swung her body through the air. One foot landed hard on the danger zone’s floor, then the other, and before the kunoichi could right herself Lei Fang was on her: the ninja’s movements were all Lei needed as she seized Kasumi’s wrist, pulled her in and down, and rammed her shoulder up into her foe’s chest. Off her feet, Kasumi was flipped hard onto her back. Tina winced with a smile as she remembered her own disorienting experience with the heishin-geki.

Tina jumped down and forward, eager to help her bruised partner against the spry ninja. Lei Fang leapt back. “It’s about time,” she called out, “And watch out!”

Tina didn’t need to be told that. Her memories were still fresh enough. Something white blurred before Tina’s eyes in an instant. Fast – she’s very fast.

Tina’s leg snapped out, but the ninja ducked beneath the blow and Tina staggered back as something snapped into her face. The wrestler stumbled back, disoriented, her face in pain as realization dawned that the ninja had struck her with a hiryu kick. Shaking her head she tried to focus on her foe. Tina blinked and Kasumi shot forward,

her hands stabbing chin, upper and lower chest. Tina gasped, reared back, but Kasumi sank low, her legs too fast to dodge, and struck the wrestler’s legs, knocking her to the ground.

Tina fell hard, but knew the ninja wouldn’t give her any time to rest. Only now did the real pain catch up to her body. Gritting her teeth she jumped back to her feet; if she’s be going down, she’d at least give the ninja a bit of pain to remember her by for the next few days.

“Come on girl, warm up’s done.”

Kasumi lunged forward, her eyes dead. Her hand swept out. Perfect, Tina thought, grabbing it out of the air. But Kasumi jerked back, throwing the wrestler off balance and arching her body. Her leg shot up slower this time, enough for Tina to see it coming but do nothing. The heel of the ninja’s sandal drove up and into her face as Tina threw her head back trying to avoid the blow. She felt the foot connect and swore inside her head. Suddenly she felt her body jerk forward and suddenly she could only see the ceiling. Tina had a moment to wonder what had happened when the danger zone’s floor smashed into her back. Tina felt her limbs go slack and her eye bulge as the impact shuddered through her bones and then something blue flashed above her and the air was driven from her lungs as Helena’s knees drove themselves into her gut.

The Frenchwoman back flipped off of her prone body, the arc of one high-heeled foot smashing nearly missing her face. The situation was almost funny.

Pain wouldn’t stop Tina though, who shoved herself back to her feet. Something stabbed through her abdomen, but the blow had already been given and presently the best thing she could do to ease her wounded ego was lay a serious beating down on both of her enemies. Helena was nowhere to be seen. Tina lunged forward, swung a fist high and then immediately ducked low, swung her leg around aiming to hit the ninja’s gut and return the favor. The leg connected with the ninja’s arms, absorbing the impact of the blow which Tina felt rippling through her leg. For an instant she expected something, some reaction, but the kunoichi only locked eyes with her, looking too focused to be alive.

Tina didn’t see Kasumi’s leg move, hitting her knees out from behind, but she felt the sting and then the blunt pain. She wasn’t going down again though, not yet anyways, and so she staggered back as best she could, desperately placing one foot behind the other trying to keep herself up. Kasumi hopped forward a half step; again Tina’s head whipped back as the ninja’s leg snapped into her face.

Tina had enough time to realizes she was starting to get pretty pissed when something stung her chest, snapping her body backwards and her legs and head out before her like a jack-knife. The impact of Kasumi’s elbow really hit home a moment later, but Tina was unable to focus on it: the konuichi arced her body, twisting. Tina felt the ninja’s solid, hard, shin and shin-guard smash into her face.

Tina spun, her legs moving without her command. Her head rang and she tasted blood. She sensed something rush towards her, and spun drunkenly around once more, this time with one leg slashing out through the air. Her ringing ears heard a muffled grunt and her leg felt the impact of soft cloth and toned muscle. Tina grinned as Kasumi stumbled back, doubled over.

For an instant Tina considered lurching against her enemy, but Kasumi’s reflexes were sharp, a blow like that wasn’t likely to really hurt her much, and she didn’t trust her own sense of balance at the moment. With relief, she felt Lei Fang’s hand on her shoulder shove her lightly back. She took the hint and let the two younger girls go at it.

Any hope that Lei Fang would finish off the ninja was shot down at once. The tai chi queen lunged for the ninja, her hands ready to stab at the doubled over girl’s head, but once again the ninja was just too damn fast. In a blink Lei Fang’s blows bounced off the ninja’s wrist guards and her wrist was seized tightly. Kasumi jerked Lei’s arm forward and spun. Tina cursed mentally and bit her lip as she saw Kasumi’s leg sweep up, her knee aimed squarely for the back of Lei’s neck. The Kasumi-Kyoka ended painfully as the ninja drove Lei’s neck into the ground with nearly all of her weight behind it. With a twist of the prone girl’s arm the ninja rose, pulling the moaning tai chi queen up with her.

With an almost shrug-like shove the kunoichi pushed back Lei Fang without letting her arm go. Lei stumbled backwards, clearly still disoriented as Kasumi lunged for her with a single step. Kasumi clutched Lei’s wrist, arcing backwards as her leg flew up. Lei Fang’s body shrugged off its feet as the ninja’s foot smashes against her foe’s face.

With a sudden jerk of arms and legs, the ninja flipped Lei Fang over her shoulder. Tina winced again in sympathy as Lei Fang collided hard with the danger zone’s grated ground. A sharp grunt of pain escaped her.

A flash of blue darted into the fight suddenly. Tina swore surging forward, but she was still too disoriented herself and too slow. Helena vaulted forward, flipped over her partner’s shoulders and swung over hard driving both knees into Lei Fang’s torso. The Tai chi queen’s body jackknifed suddenly, agony stamping itself onto her face. As Helena wheeled off of her prone body, Lei’s head fell back to the floor, her eyes closed.

Tina jumped forward; she wasn’t about to be disqualified for hesitation after all. Somewhere along the line this friendly competition had gotten personal and she wanted to see Helena get taken down a peg or two.

She lunged forward but Helena might as well have been a fresh fighter. She blocked Tina’s strike with ease, and then spun backwards with a flourish. She gestured theatrically while Tina lunged for her, but wheeled on the wrestler, wrist firmly caught Helena pulled Tina’s arm, jerking her enemy in closer. Tina tried to pull away, but Helena turned, swung her other arm around and shoved Tina’s face.

Tina contorted her back for a moment trying to stand. For an instant she smelt cherries and sweat and felt something rushing at her. She swung around as best she was able and Kasumi seized her other arm. Caught between the two, Tina tried to shake them off, but both Helena and Kasumi held on and pulled both of Tina’s arms back and out as one. Tina gritted her teeth as their bodies arced in near unison as each one drove a shin into Tina’s chest which exploded in nauseating agony. Before she could cry out, in the same instant, both women’s legs swung up and over behind her head. Tina had a split second of crushing pain as both legs crashed into the back of her head before the impact of her face to the grated floor of the danger zone knocked her into a moment of blackness.

See images of the fight here (Currently N/A)