Post by hawkeye on Apr 13, 2020 1:17:24 GMT
“Ladies and gentlemen, the following contest is scheduled for one fall and it is a Falls Count Anywhere Match. That means there are no Count Outs, No Disqualification and the participants go wherever their animosity takes them! Introducing first, hailing from Stillwater Minnesota, she stands at five feet five inches tall and weighs in tonight at one hundred and thirty-five pounds. She’s one Sweet Disaster… BRIDGET STROUD!”
BE LEGENDARY:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmidz2s4scM
Those gathered for March to War sprang to their feet when everything went purple and a dozen spotlights played over the crowd. Then the speakers offered up Pop Evil’s ‘Be Legendary’ and the ‘tron showed selections from Stroud’s ever lengthening highlight reel, as well as earlier footage from her rock climbing career. The chaotic sweep of lights continued through most of the first verse, though their pace seemed to increase as the sound system roared:
Our name in stone, forever more.
We want more!
We want more!
We want more!
BRIDGET STROUD:
The spots honed in on the entryway with the third recitation and Bridget exploded through the curtain, the former rock-climber turned indy wrestling darling turned FAWN breakout skidding to a stop at the top of the stage just to throw her arms up for a brawny double bicep flex. Chants of ‘SWEET DIS-AS-TER!’ rang out at once, a building roar crafted by fans of her indy stint as well as the new fans she’d made since hitting Orlando early last year.
Her expression intense upon first appearance, Bridget brightened at the reception of the fans and she offered them a quick smile before she pivoted ‘round on one heel and swung her hips in time to their chant while pointing to the ‘Sweet Disaster’ stretched across her purple briefs.
Another about-face followed shortly thereafter and the copper-skinned brunette hardbody took off down the ramp, Bridget going with arms outstretched to return the favor to everyone who greeted her so warmly. For what this last push to the top of the Mountain, Stroud wore her usual purple trunks, a halter-style bikini top with one cup done in matching purple and the other in a pumpkin orange, purple and orange armbands that crisscrossed at bicep and forearm to meet at wrist and shoulder, orange pads with a purple splatter pattern and purple wrestling boots that ended a few inches shy of her knees. A study in frenetic energy the entire way to ringside, Bridget made a high-speed circuit of the front row, then leapt to the apron to the top rope and stayed there for a several seconds to bask in the roar of the crowd. Once she hopped down Stroud made her way to Senior Official Nick Castle to check her pads and boots.
“Bringing out the big guns for this one, huh Nick?” she asked when he was done.
“Brass thought I should keep an eye on this one. Do me a favor, keep it out of the concourse, ok?”
“No promises, pal.” Bridget replied. “I’m gonna follow that brat wherever she goes.”
Mention of ‘that Brat’ brought the frown back to Stroud’s face and she broke away from Castle without further comment, Sweet Disaster settling into the far corner to await the arrival of the who’d made the first leg of her FAWN career so daunting.
“And introducing her opponent, hailing from Hobbs End, New Hampshire she stands at five feet-eight inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and thirty-two pounds. She is the Soul Survivor and the only Hope of a Dark Tomorrow, I give to you ‘BAD’ PENNY TREMBLAY!”
WALK ON WATER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8yo7l43Yoo
The house lights went dark as the speakers came on, the low hum of a guitar and a repetition of vaguely ecclesiastical ‘oh’s’ that marked the beginning of Thirty Seconds to Mars’s ‘Walk on Water’. The gloom was nearly omnipresent, and the combination of ghostly blue lights at floor level and a thin carpet of dry ice fog only added to the claustrophobic, disorienting atmosphere.
Can you even see what you're fighting for?
Bloodlust in a holy war.
Listen up hear the patriots shout,
'Times are changing.'
In the end the choice was clear,
Take a shot in the face of fear.
Fist up in the firing line.
'TIMES ARE CHANGING!'
PENELOPE TREMBLAY:
Bad Penny arrived with the chorus, the Angriest Acolyte rising up on a mechanical lift hidden in the dark so it looked as though she appeared from thin air. Taking up residence center stage, Tremblay raised a hand to shield her brow, then angled her gaze upward as if spying the top of a mountain. But then her attention shifted down, following the plummeting descent of something (or more likely someone) on the rocks far, far below.” Smiling nastily at that imagined impact, Penny started down the ramp toward the heathen she meant to punish so righteously.
For tonight’s wicked work she wore a midnight blue two piece consisting of a sports-bra top and strappy briefs, both edged in copper trim. Pads at knee and elbow were matte gray while her boots matched her trunks. Ignoring the reaching, judging hands of the basement dwellers (save to slap them away if one dared draw too close) Tremblay made her way down the ramp, then hurried up the steel steps, climbed onto the empty corner and sprang from there to the center of the ring, where she dropped to her knees facing the hard camera A detail noted by those with particularly sharp vision, Penny wore copper-colored eye shadow, a sartorial detail that made it look like the coins placed over the eyes of the dearly departed. Standing after an appropriate stretch of genuflection, Tremblay stood up and locked eyes with the other brunette. After a moment’s stillness, Penny lifted a hand to beckon Bridget forward. The set of Stroud’s jaw suggested it took a great deal of effort to resist the invitation, but resist she did. Disappointed by the heathen’s reluctance, Tremblay backpedaled to the opposite corner without once breaking eye contact.
Certain his charges would sprint straight at one another the instant the bell sounded, Nick called for it, then took a giant step back and felt a little foolish for doing so because neither Bridget or Penny so much as twitched. Stroud moved first, not really leaving the corner as storming from it. Reaching the center of the squared circle in a few long strides, Sweet Disaster raised both hands and beckoned her nemesis to do the same. “What are you waiting for, Penny?” she called. “The summit’s in sight and you’ve got a clear path… all you have to do is go through me.”
Penny took a step forward, but that was all. Shifting her gaze from Stroud to the ramp, she raised a hand and pointed toward the stage. “Go ahead, rock climber. Take your head start. I’ll give you ten seconds, just enough to get your adrenaline flowing.”
Bridget rolled her shoulders, gave the other brunette an incredulous look. “You really think I’d run from you? After everything you’ve put me through?”
The corner of Tremblay’s mouth crooked up in a malicious smile. “TEN. NINE. EIGHT.”
Stroud took half a step back, dipped down and swept a hand along the canvas to make sure her opponent knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
“SEVEN. SIX. FIVE. FOUR.”
Bridget straightened up, extended a hand over the line and crooked her fingers, once, twice, three times.
Just. Bring. It.
Unmoved by Stroud’s posturing or the roar of the crowd, Tremblay continued her countdown.
“THREE. TWO. ONE.”
The Last True Believer exploded in a dead sprint, Penelope clearly serious about running her prey to grou--“OOOOOOFFFFFFFFHHHH!” Bridget went low and launched herself at a near forty-five degree angle to BURY her left shoulder in Tremblay’s midsection with a devastating Spear!
Showing off her own vicious smile as the taller brunette folded around the encroaching joint, Stroud drove Tremblay into the deck with a shivery thud, then stretched out across her impaled midsection and hooked the far leg for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Penny kicked out and flopped onto her side, the gutted bendy-back instinctually turning away from her rampaging adversary. Beside her, Bridget slapped the mat with both hands, popped to verticality and bellowed, “C’MON!” at the top of her lungs! The FAWNatics roared right back and they got even louder when Stroud filled her hands with the other brunette’s long dark locks. “You want to give me a head-start, Penny? That’s so generous of you!” Stroud snarled in the midst of hauling Tremblay upright. “I think it’s only fair if I give you the same chance!”
Switching one hand from tresses to togs, Bridget wheeled around in a half circle, ran toward the edge of the ring and simply hurled her burden out into the void. Still sucking wind from that nauseating Spear, Penny could do nothing save brace for impact and what an impact it was, a heavy, bone-deep THWHUMP that earned groans of sympathy from those seated in the first few rows. Back in the ring, Bridget grabbed the top rope and mounted the bottom just so she could lean over as far as balance would allow. “TEN SECONDS STARTING NOW, BEEYOTCH!” Stroud roared down at her prey. “TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE!”
The Angriest Acolyte moaned, rolled over onto her stomach and struggled to all fours. From there she rose to her full height, though the willowy witch’s back was to the ring. Clearly infuriated by Sweet Disaster’s hot start, Tremblay whipped ‘round on one heel and made straight for “NNNNNGGGGGHHH!” She hadn’t made it two steps when Bridget flew through the ropes to meet her, the purple-clad brunette unleashing a gorgeous Suicide Dive that took both brunettes to the floor with Penny getting the worst of the landing.
SUICIDE DIVE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQNo1Mo40lo
Beaming in spite of the proximity to her arch-nemesis, Bridget scrambled to verticality only to spike a booming Elbow Drop onto Tremblay’s sternum. “Didn’t run fast enough, honey.” Stroud told the retching wrestler. “Now I’m gonna have to whoop your ass all up and down this mountERGH NNNGGHH!”
Penelope sat up, grabbed a huge handful of hair and pumped a fist into Bridget’s tummy. Another punch to follow up, then a violent tug of the hair, Tremblay wrenching her foe’s neck sideways even as she shifted her punchin’ hand into a deep delving Belly Claw. “Do you really think the threat of violence is a deterrent?” Penny worked her thumb into Stroud’s navel and pushed like she meant to gouge a hole through her fluttering midsection. “All the beatings, all the misery I’ve heaped upon you and still you don’t understand that there’s nothing you could do to me that’s worse than what the world has already NNNGGGHH AARRRRHHHHHH!”
Uninterested in breaking the other woman’s grip, Bridget answered with her own hair-hold, then yanked Tremblay forward and smashed a Headbutt between her eyes! As if that wasn’t enough, she opened up wide and chomped down on the bridge of Penny’s nose!
Outside since shortly after the Suicide Dive, Nick Castle cringed along with the rest of the crowd, but made no move to halt the mean-spirited mastication. Instead he asked, “What do you say, Penny? Need me to call for the bell?”
Tremblay shrieked something defiant, released her grip on Stroud’s hair and slapped the side of her head hard enough to make the heathen’s ears ring. Bridget grimaced and spat out Penny’s nose only to start gnawing on her forehead instead! “BYTCH!” the Angriest Acolyte roared in fury and pain. Forced to admit her Belly Claw wasn’t keeping up with her opponent’s toothy tactics, Penny abandoned the hold, curled her fingers into hooks and raaaaaaaaaaaaaaked her back no less than half a dozen times!
Bridget hissed, drew back a little and delivered a second Headbutt followed by a taunting kiss to the center of Tremblay’s forehead. “That all you got, punk?” she hissed in the other brunette’s ear. “All that talk about tearing me apart and you’re just gonna whimper while I eat you alivGGGAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!”
Penny slipped her thumbs into the corners of Bridget’s mouth and pushed back like she was trying to peel the flesh offa her foe’s head!
Now it was Stroud’s turn to pull hair and she did so like a woman possessed. This two-part torture test made both ladies shriek, but it couldn’t break their grips, not even after they’d clambered all the way to boot-leather. Maddeningly unable to sink her teeth into Tremblay’s digging digits, Bridget planted her right foot and pumped her left knee in Penny’s tummy once, twice, three times! The last shot sent Penny staggering, the separation allowing Stroud to spit out her attacker’s thumbs. Celebrating with another gaudy hair-pull, Bridget reeled Tremblay in close and “NNNNNGGGHHH!”
Penelope responded with a single Kneelift, though hers proved even more devastating because it connected with the center of Stroud’s trunks! Stroud’s legs turned to water and she sagged forward, kept from collapsing to her knees by the loose Bear Hug Penny slipped around her waist.
“Are you really so eager to discover my limits, or lack thereof?” Tremblay murmured in a tone of surprising gentleness. “Or perhaps you’d like to abandon this foolish climb on the spot?”
Bridget shook her head ‘no’. “Nuuuuhhhh… not a chance. “You want me gone? You’re gonna have to do it yourself. No way I’ll do it for you.”
Penny nodded in understanding. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. Really, I am.”
‘Am’ was still on her lips when she muscled Stroud into the air and sank to one knee, Tremblay callously driving the posted joint into her opponent’s aching crotch. Already shuddering, Bridget’s legs gave out entirely and she would’ve crumpled to her knees if Penny hadn’t kept her mostly upright by securing a tight Front Facelock. With Sweet Disaster’s noggin firmly under control, Tremblay slung the smaller wrestler’s near arm across her shoulders, then grabbed a handful of waistband and pivoted so that her back was pointed at the stage. Soon as her feet were set Penny dipped her knees and popped her hips to take Bridget up, over and down, Stroud’s sturdy frame just BWANGING atop the slight metal incline that separated the ramp proper from the flat cement span surrounding ringside.
The Snap Suplex jolted Bridget from one end to the other, but painful as it was the landing didn’t free her from the Soul Survivor’s grasp. Indeed, Penny tightened her control on Stroud’s head to make sure the smaller brunette came along for the ride when she kicked both legs up and barrel-rolled onto her stomach. Clambering to boot-leather a moment thereafter, Tremblay marched ‘em a few more steps up the apron, then turned around so Bridget’s back was once again facing the stage. From there she hauled Stroud all the way to high noon only to leave her there, Penelope shifting over to a bracing hand on Bridget’s thigh.
Though they hated themselves for doing so, the FAWNatics began to toll the seconds, their dutiful chorus equal parts chronicle and doomsday clock. ‘ONE… TWO… THREE… FOUR… FIVE… SIX… SEVEN… EIGHT… NINE… TEN… ELEVEN… TWELVE!’
Tremblay dropped backward at the stroke of midnight, Miranda’s Angriest Acolyte THWHUMPING her burden against the unforgiving ramp. Penny did release her hooks after the second Suplex, albeit only to float over into a snug Crossbody, the taller battler putting a domineering hand on shoulder and belly while Castle and the crowd counted out…
ONE…
TWO…
Stroud tumbled onto her stomach with a full second to spare, unfortunately she was still directly beneath her opposition, as she discovered when Penny snatched a huge handful of hair and BOUNCED her forehead against the bare floor! “Kiss it.” Tremblay moved one hand from Stroud’s hair to the nape of her neck so she could keep the heathen’s features smashed against the ramp. “Kiss the ground beneath my feet and perhaps I’ll show mercy.”
“Faaaaaaaahhhhhhrrrrrhhh--f*ck off!” Bridget snarled as emphatically as circumstances allowed. “You won’t make me MMMMRRRRGGGGHHHH!”
Penny doubled down on the hair-hold and began to sweep Stroud’s head back and forth, the aggressive abrasion earning groans from the crowd and a quick warning from the official. “Cut that shyt, Penny! No DQ doesn’t mean I’ll stand by and let you mangle her face!”
Tremblay sneered, then yanked Bridget’s head up and tilted it back far enough to cup a hand on her chin. She wasn’t surprised to see blood smearing Sweet Disaster’s mouth and nose, but that didn’t make her smile any less genuine. Leaning in so her forehead nuzzled Stroud’s temple, she murmured, “Do you want to give up, Bridget? Or are you prepared to spill more blood on this particular mountaNRRGGGH!”
Stroud twisted into her tormentor at the cost of several strands of hair and jabbed a quick Headbutt between Penny’s eyes. “Fine with me, bytch.” she growled in the midst of snatching a retaliatory handful of hair. “Can you say the saOOWWW DAMMIT!”
Penny answered the Headbutt with a thumb to the eye, thus scrambling Stroud’s defenses long enough for her to haul the both of ‘em to verticality. “After all we’ve been through, you’re still questioning my resolve?” the willowy witch hissed. “Sister, I’ll paint these walls red before I let you reach the summit.”
Bridget responded with a few enthusiastic but sloppy punches to the midriff that Penelope shrugged off before she stomped to the far side of the aisle and slung her prey into the barricade with a bone-jarring BWAAANG!
The impact got a shriek from Stroud and a yelp from several fans, as the force of impact drove the heavy guardrail back almost six inches. Sweet Disaster hit the floor with a damp thud and would’ve stayed there for several seconds if Tremblay hadn’t used that double fistful of follicles to set Stroud back on her feet. “I love hearing you smash into things, rock climber. It’s… musical.” No answer from Bridget now, so Penny moved a hand to her rival’s waistband, snatched hold and yanked up those purple & white togs in a derisive wedgie. Stroud hissed and went up on tiptoe, effectively providing a little boost for Tremblay when she charged across the aisle and slung Bridget through a somersault that would’ve been quite graceful if it hadn’t ended with her BWAAANGING spine-first against the guardrail!
Stroud landed stacked awkwardly on her shoulders, the former rock climbing standout crumpled into an awkward Matchbook that left her rump pointed at the rafters. Pleased by the sight, Tremblay dropped to her knees, laid claim to Bridget’s ankles and pressed down to keep her pinned in that ignominious arrangement for the..
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Stroud kicked / twisted out, uncoiling like a compressed spring with half a second to spare. “Do you imagine yourself as a mountain, Stroud?” Penelope asked as she filled her hands with the smaller brunette’s hair. “Something that stands strong and immutable against the wind and rain and other forces of eternity? I’d wager you do.”
Bridget’s response was a halfhearted shove against Tremblay’s belly, so the Angriest Acolyte slapped her across the face, then peeled her off the floor and unleashed a second slap for good measure. The palm-shaped welt on Stroud’s cheek was already pinking quite nicely, but Penny refrained from a third shot in favor of spinning her woozy adversary in a half circle. With both brunettes now lined up parallel to the guardrail, Tremblay looped an arm around Bridget’s waist while wedging her head beneath Sweet Disaster’s left armpit. Hooks set, she placed a free hand against Stroud’s tush and muscled her onto one shoulder for NO!
Stroud somersaulted offa Penny’s perch, landed on one knee and stunned her nemesis with an awkward albeit effective Headbutt to the small of Tremblay’s back! Penny grimaced, then stumbled into the barricade but grabbed hold to refrain from yielding anymore ground. This proved a gutsy and ultimately dangerous choice because it meant the former Churchgoer was close enough for Bridget to lunge in and secure her in the same predicament Stroud had so recently escaped! Well, not entirely the same. Where Tremblay had simply braced, Stroud snatched hold of her foe’s trunks to make sure there was no escape once she hoisted Penny up and BWAAANGED her down tailbone-first atop the steel barricade!
The crowd was overjoyed by this vindictive turnabout, though even the roar of their combined zeal wasn’t enough to silence Tremblay’s shriek of anguish. This didn’t bother Bridget in the slightest, in fact she was all smiles as she grabbed hold of Penny’s shoulder-straps and reeled her backward for a THWHUMPING Headbutt between the shoulders.
That earned another groan, as well as a sharp Back Elbow, Tremblay regaining a bit of her usual cold confidence after rocking Stroud back on her heel--“NNNNGGGGHHH!”
Bridget rushed forward and clouted her archrival across the nape of the neck with a Clothesline that left the bendy-back stretched out flat atop the narrow steel beam. Nodding to the fans as they applauded her efforts, Sweet Disaster took a moment to check her bloodied features and seemed remarkably unfazed when her fingers came away red. “I could probably smash your nose against the rail if I wanted to do this the easy way.” Stroud admitted to Tremblay after digging her fingers into the other brunette’s hair. “But easy’s your way, Penny. I prefer the hard way. It might require a lot more work, but it‘s much more satisfying!”
She hauled Tremblay to a seat on that unyielding steel hobby horse, took a big step back, then took to the skies in a vertical leap that ended with both boots THWHACKING against Penny’s mouth and nose! The Dropkick snapped Tremblay’s head backward and the rest of her followed, the willowy witch stretched out almost flat atop the barricade before she overbalanced and slopped to the floor on the aisle-side of the guardrail.
It was certainly a vulnerable position but Stroud didn’t try for a cover. Instead she buried both hands in Penelope’s hair and tugged her to a seat so she could drop to her knees, effectively straddling the taller woman’s thighs in the process. “Tasting blood yet, honey?” Bridget murmured to her grimacing adversary.
Penny smirked through the pain. “You tell me.”
Just like that the brunette pursed her lips and spat in Stroud’s face, Sweet Disaster twisting her head to take it on the cheek rather than square in the eye. Unaware of the thunderous ‘OOOOHHHH!’ from the crowd, Bridget yanked Penny’s noggin forward and drove it back into the barricade with a cringe-worthy BWAAANG!
“Forget about tasting blood, bytch.” Stroud hissed in her prey’s ear. “You’re gonna f*cking choke on it!”
The Angriest Acolyte hissed, raked her nails down Bridget’s forearms a few times, then clamped down on her wrists in hopes of making the heathen NO! Mindless of the spit easing down one cheek, a stone-faced Stroud BWANG-BWAAANGED Penny’s skull two more times and probably would’ve made it a full dozen if Castle hadn’t said, “Cool it with the head trauma, will you Bridget?”
This was answered with a baleful glare over one shoulder. “She drew first blood, worked my trunks and spit in my eye, Nick. A little head trauma is the least of what she deserves.”
“I won’t let you put her in a hospital.” the Senior Official said quietly. “I’d do the same for you if the positions were reversed.”
Stroud scowled, wiped the damp spot off her cheek and mashed that palm into Tremblay’s mug en route to regaining her feet. “Lucky for both of us you won’t have to save me from anything.” Bridget told him as she strode away from the wreckage slumped against that displaced section of guardrail. “Actually, that’s not entirely true.” Sweet Disaster tacked on after she’d finished ‘flicking’ her trunks back into place. “You might have to save me from myself.”
Nick didn’t get a chance to offer a response before Stroud whipped around and raced straight at Penny! Angle and velocity suggested she was thinking about a Kneelift delivered to the point of Tremblay’s chin butt in truth Bridget spun through another abrupt about-face and THHWUMP-BWANGED Penelope’s poor skull between her buns and the barricade! It slid back another six inches on impact and Penny went with it, the glassy-eyed grappler pooling out in the combined shadow of a whole section of FAWNatics.
RUNNING HIP ATTACK:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P0frcS4Zws
Ignoring the waves of disapproval she felt radiating off Castle, Stroud dropped into a seat upon Tremblay’s chest, hooked both legs behind the knee and pulled ‘em back in a Reverse Matchbook that earned a…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Penny grabbed hold of the barricade in both hands and pulled hard enough to bounce it against Bridget’s back, thus breaking the cover with almost half a second to spare. More irritated than hurt by the other brunette’s escape, Bridget scrambled to boot-leather and promptly planted a few stomps in Tremblay’s tummy to ensure she didn’t rise until Stroud scraped her up with a huge handful of hair. “Looks like the mountain‘s taking a toll on you too, honey.” Bridget tapped a finger to the rill of blood coming from the Soul Survivor’s nose. “But now that we’re on level ground, how about a race?”
Tremblay was in no mood for such frivolity and said as much, or at least she would have if Bridget hadn’t taken off up the ramp like a shot, Sweet Disaster using her stern hair-hold to drag Penny in her wake. Tremblay’s long legs looked uncharacteristically wobbly for the first half of the trek, though she’d regained her usual purposeful stride for the back end, which made it all the more galling (or satisfying, depending on your viewpoint) when Stroud hit the brakes and hurled her nemesis headfirst into one of the huge LED boards that lined the stage!
‘Bad’ Penny hit the lights with an odd crackling ker-unch that darkened a forehead-sized section of lights and made a whole army of FAWN technicians squirm in their seats. Tremblay’s reaction was far more visceral, she bounced away, staggered ‘round in a drunken half circle and lurched toward any part of the stage currently unoccupied by one Bridget Sto--“NNNGGH!”
Sweet Disaster pounced, caught hold of the other brunette’s waistband and reeled her in for a heavy Forearm Smash that THWAPPED across the Last True Believer’s lower back! It was a simple bit of offense, but delivered with such placement and force that it froze Penny in place. This didn’t bother Bridget in the slightest, she merely sidled in against the taller brunette’s right shoulder, dipped her head beneath that arm and curled her own right arm across Tremblay’s chest. With one hand free to do whatever she damned well pleased, Stroud caught Penny’s waistband again, only this time she pulled up rather than out, the rock climbing standout unleashing a truly vindictive wedgie so she could muscle her burden high into the air for another savage round of Rocked Bott--“EEERRRGGHH!”
Tremblay drove her right arm back, smashing the point of that elbow into the base of her attacker’s skull! Bridget maintained her grip but lost her balance, the purple-clad wrestler stumbling awkwardly even as Penny returned to the stage on steady footing. Segueing over to a Front Facelock to keep Stroud glued in place, the Angriest Acolyte balled her left hand into a fist and slammed it into the heathen’s ribs over and over and over again.
“Still so eager to pull my trunks, brat?” Tremblay raaaaaaaaked a talon across Stroud’s lower back as she noted this affront. “After all that’s transpired between us I’d have thought you above such petty affr--” she trailed off in a pained wince when Bridget doubled down on that stinging wedgie.
“Yuuuhhh… you started it, baby.” Stroud growled. “Couldn’t win a match without going to my trunOOOOOWWWWWWWWW FAAAAAAAAAHHHHK!”
Not content to simply answer with a wedgie of her own, Tremblay reached over the other brunette’s bent back and clamped a vicious claw between Bridget’s thighs! “Shouldn’t have reminded me, heathen.” Penny’s tone was almost demure as she attacked Stroud’s center with a nastiness worthy of the Dennehy clan. “Now you’ll suffer while I reacquaint myself with your blubbERRRRHHHH!”
Not about to play shrieking victim while Tremblay pillaged her togs, Bridget twisted her head within the confines of the Front Facelock and sank her teeth into Penny’s flank just above her hip! Painful as it was, the stalemate wasn’t long for this world because the Soul Survivor abruptly pounded a Kneelift into her penitent foe’s chest. Soon as those gnashing teeth fell away she caught hold of the heathen’s waistband and used it to haul Sweet Disaster off her feet, indeed those feet all the way up to about three o’clock before Penelope dropped to her back and PLANTED Bridget flush on her forehead! Well and truly impaled by Tremblay’s DDT of the same name, Stroud stayed right where she was in the wake of the head drop. It wasn’t until Tremblay hooked a Half Nelson to shovel her onto her back that she showed any signs of life and that was only to wriggle a leg in decidedly hapless fashion after Penny had hooked it in a snug cradle good for the…
IMPALER DDT @ 00:28
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLpFwC9YhDc
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Sweet Disaster avoided an ignominious end to the biggest match of her FAWN career by a whisper or less, the count so close Nick had to throw a confirmation to the Timekeeper just to ensure the action continued.
The near fall didn’t seem to trouble Tremblay at all, indeed the former Churchgoer looked downright beatific as she observed her rival’s freshly bleeding forehead. “The crimson mask looks good on you, rock climber.” Penny huffed. “Of course, you’ve worn it before, have you not? I believe Sutton Stonecliffe made you bleed like a stuck pig.”
Stroud groaned, braced her elbows against the floor and pushed to a seat. “Yuuuhhhh, yeah she did.” the bloodied brunette admitted. “And she almost talked as much shyt as NNNGGGHHH!”
Penelope interrupted with a brusque slap, pressed her palm to the side of Bridget’s face and shoved her down flat. “I don’t talk shyt, heathen.” Tremblay snarled as she tried her damndest to push Stroud’s face through the fine grating that made up the floor of the stage. “I speak only truth, though I understand how such a thing could devastate a pampered little bytch like ARRRRRRHHHH!”
Bridget couldn’t slip out from under her tormentor’s mitt, so she grabbed hold of two fingers and wrenched like she meant to snap ‘em off Tremblay’s hand! Penny reeled back like a coyote caught in a trap, but all her thrashing and writhing wasn’t enough to slip Stroud’s grasp. In fact her predicament only got worse when Sweet Disaster caught two more fingers and prized them in the opposite direction!
Clambering to boot-leather while maintaining her clamp on the taller woman’s fingers, Bridget flipped some bloody hair off her forehead and pulled hard enough to make Tremblay collapse to one knee. “Say it again, sweetie. I dare you.” Stroud went up on tiptoe and pulled even harder when Tremblay tried to claw at her thigh. “Call me pampered when I’m a heartbeat away from breaking your RRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!”
The Angriest Acolyte didn’t say a word but her actions spoke volumes, namely the short, heartless Uppercut she delivered to the center of Bridget’s trunks! Stroud’s legs wobbled and she took a few steps backward, yet she still didn’t give up her clamp on Tremblay’s fingers. Simultaneously astounded and disgusted by the heathen’s tenacity, Bad Penny struggled to verticality and ‘smecked’ her free hand to Stroud’s bloody forehead and squeezed hard enough to show white at the knuckles.
“Do your worst little girl.” Tremblay chided as she mashed the heel of her palm into the other brunette’s nose. “I only need one hand to crush your fragile little OOOFFFFHHHH!”
Stroud lunged and pivoted, bringing the tanned meat of her right thigh up across Penny’s midriff. “Stuuuhhhh… stronger than you, bytch.” Bridget rasped, her tone much more nasal than usual because of the encroaching palm. “I’ve always been stronger than OOOOOOOWWWWW FAAAAAAAHHHK!”
Tremblay spiked her opponent’s crotch with a vile Toe Kick that finally freed her other hand from the rock climber’s grasp. Gripping the wrist of her clawin’ hand as soon as she could, the Soul Survivor plowed forward, forcing Bridget to backpedal until she slammed into another stretch of LED board. Penny used the residual momentum to draw them both away, then moved her non-claw hand to the smaller wrestler’s waistband and yanked her into the sky, Bridget’s legs kicking frantically until Tremblay dropped to one knee and THWHAMMED her to the floor with an Iron Claw Slam!
IRON CLAW SLAM:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj053Jxlin0
Bellowing with insensate rage in the wake of that thunderous maneuver, Penny finally drew that injured hand to her chest, the willowy witch holding it close even as she bent over the fallen fighter and roared, “PAMPERED BYTCH!”
Castle thought Tremblay would try for a cover, but she did not. Rather she stepped back, claimed ownership of Stroud’s legs and raised them in a wide ‘V’. Bridget’s hands fluttered up in a weak plea, Sweet Disaster understandably concerned about another brutal attack below the belt. She needn’t have worried because Tremblay stepped through with her right leg, planting that foot beside the other brunette’s left hip. In the next instant she crossed Stroud’s legs around her own thigh in a snug Figure Four, Penny trapping Bridget’s left ankle in the pit of her right knee. Upon further consideration this was far worse than any low blow, as evidenced by the concern from the crowd and Stroud’s renewed flailing. Neither proved enough to stop Tremblay from turning her prey onto her stomach, nor did it prevent the Angriest Acolyte from drawing Bridget’s arms behind her back in a painful Double Chickenwing. Hands locked, Penny dipped low and muscled Stroud off the stage by a good six or eight inches.
LIAR'S CHAIR:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DQ12z25O6M
With Bridget strapped tight in the Liar’s Chair, Tremblay rocked the hold up ‘n down for several seconds before she glanced to Castle. “Ask her.”
“How you doing, Bridget?” Nick asked at once. “Need me to call for the bell?”
“Nuuuuhhhh… NO!” Stroud shook her head to make sure there was no confusion. “NO I DON’T TAAAAAAAAHHHH GOD!”
“What’s wrong, rock climber?” Penny hissed. “Not so easy to smile now, is it?”
“Fuuuuhhhh… f*ck you!” Bridget replied through gritted teeth. “Talk all the shyt you want, I won’t RRRRRGGGGHHHH STAAAAAAAAHHHHHP!”
Tremblay shifted her grip so she could maintain the Chickenwing with only one arm. With her free hand she snatched a huge handful of Bridget’s hair, though she made sure to drag her nails across the other brunette’s bleeding forehead first.
“Do you want to know what I hate most about you, Stroud? It’s that shyt-eating ‘everything’s gonna be fine’ smile. It’s the sort of expression only seen on the face of someone who’s never been told she should smile more. That everything awful in this miserable little world would instantly be better if she’d just smile from time to time.” Penny released the hair-hold just to rake Stroud’s forehead yet again, the Angriest Acolyte clearly trying to draw as much blood as possible. Bridget shook her head ‘no’ at another question from Castle, Sweet Disaster cringing as she felt blood streaming down her face.
“I… I don’t know what the hell you’re talking abouOOOOOWWWRRRRGGGHHHHH!”
Furious, Penny switched over to a three-fingered fishhook in the left side of Bridget’s mouth. “YES YOU DAMNED WELL DO!” Tremblay bellowed. “IT WAS THAT STUPID SMILE THAT GOT YOU ON THAT F*CKING GAME SHOW! IT CAUGHT LILY BURLINGAME’S ATTENTION AND IT GOT YOU THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR IN FAWN! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS SMILE AND IT OPENED. EVERY. SINGLE. DOOR!”
Penny took a deep breath, let it out slow. When she spoke again her voice was more controlled, but no less angry. “I never had a smile, Stroud. All I had was disappointment. And rage. And disgust. No one saw anything in me until Miranda. She saw… and gave me purpose. Can you guess it, Bridget Stroud?”
Sweet Disaster answered with a muffled curse, she was too busy trying to squirm free of the other brunette’s agonizing trap. “It’s simple, sister. My purpose is to show you what happens when a smile isn’t enough. I’m what happens when you smile at the world… and the world punches your teeth down your f*cking throAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHH F*CKING BYTCH!”
Bridget finally wrenched an arm free of the Double Chickenwing, but rather than brace it against the floor to relieve some of the pressure, she grabbed hold of Penny’s thumb and jerked it back toward her wrist! The sharp jolt of pain broke the fishhook and the Liar’s Chair, though Bridget didn’t look all that pleased with the result as she immediately curled into a shivering, near-fetal ball.
Upper lip curled in a hateful snarl, Tremblay kept her injured hand stuffed beneath one armpit while keeping close vigil on the other brunette. “Get up.” she said to no response from Stroud. “I SAID GET UP!” Bad Penny unleashed a flurry of short, sharp stomps, the willowy witch driving heel and sole into her opponent’s hip, shoulder, ribs, and glutes.
Eventually Bridget managed to roll to all fours, so Tremblay caught a double handful of hair and drew her into a Standing Headscissors. Soon as that was done she snaked her arms around Stroud’s waist and muscled / flipped the shorter woman up across the point of her right shoulder. The Canadian Backbreaker earned a sympathetic groan from the FAWNatics, but sympathy turned to breathless worry once Penny shifted her hands from Bridget’s waist to her biceps, the Angriest Acolyte hoisting her prey even higher with a Crucifix-lift.
Very much aware that Tremblay was facing the glittery expanse of the LED board, Nick Castle cleared his throat and said, “I know what you’re thinking, Penny and I’m telling you to reconsider. There’s easier ways to win this ma--”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking, Castle.” Penny interrupted with a chilling glare. “If you did, you’d be terrified.”
On that ominous note the bendy-back turned ninety degrees to the left. Now she wasn’t facing the wall, now she was pointed at the edge of the stage no more than five yards from their current position.
Nick’s eyes went wide. “Penny, NO! That’s a twelve foot drop onto god knows what, are you outta your-- oh f*ck.”
Penelope set off at a loping charge that quickly burned through the distance between the brunettes and the sheer drop off the stage. As horrified as Castle but unable to turn away, the March to War throng sucked in its collective breath and held on for dear life when Tremblay ground to a stop and hurlNOOOOO!
Bridget drew both knees up to her chest and fired off a mule kick that prized her outta Penny’s grasp. Landing safely behind her startled nemesis, Stroud spun when Tremblay did and earned a resounding cheer from the crowd when she THWHACKED a Rolling Elbow against Penny’s jaw!
Tremblay turned a drunken half circle and pitched forward, the toes of her boots dangerously close to the edge. Near silent only moments prior, the crowd bellowed for Sweet Disaster to give Penny a taste of her own medicine, so they were understandably surprised when Stroud caught hold of Tremblay’s waistband and reeled her back into a Waistlock. It only started as a Wristlock though, as Bridget halved her control to snatch Penny’s right wrist in her left hand. Putting her right hand between the taller wrestler’s shoulders, Stroud pushed her rival forward, stepped back and yanked the ripcord as hard as she could to ’OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!’ from those assembled when Bridget turned Penny inside out with a clavicle-smashing Ripcord Lariat!
RIPCORD LARIAT:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrT_s5tnWos
The force of it put Stroud on her knees and left Penny facedown on the stage, where she stayed until the bloodied rock climber tugged her onto her back and crumpled across her chest for the…
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Stroud forgot to hook a leg and the lapse allowed Penny to twist to one side without actually getting out from under her exhausted opposition. Bridget leaned back on her haunches, nodded to no one in particular and mopped a forearm across her brow. Seemingly unfazed by the red it showed, Bridget twined her fingers in Tremblay’s hair and slowly forced them both to boot-leath--“NGGHH!”
Penny raked her nails down Stroud’s face, shoved her away and lashed out with a vicious punt aimed at NOT TODAY, HONEY!
Bridget slapped the Low Blow aside and immediately delivered some long overdue karma in the form of her own kick between the willowy witch’s thighs! Penny shrieked, started to crumple, found herself straightened up when Bridget dipped beneath one arm. Holding the other brunette in place with an arm snugged across her tummy, Stroud reached behind, caught hold of Tremblay’s waistband and took far more joy than she cared to admit in yanking it north by almost eight inches. Penny went up on tiptoe to alleviate the worst of the sting and this proved her undoing as Sweet Disaster used that little extra height to lift her high into the air. With Tremblay temporarily unmoored, Bridget stomped to the edge, looked over and saw a rather concerned merch vendor fretting over several tables laden with FAWN tee-
Stroud tossed Penny down a good fifteen feet, the lissome brunette’s descent halted by the ever so slightly muffled thwhump-KERUNCH of two tables cracking, but not quite buckling beneath Tremblay’s weight. “GOOD LORD, BRIDGET!” Castle hollered over the thunderous roar of the crowd. “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, YOU COULD’VE-- NO DON’T OH HOLY…”
Paying the Senior Official no attention whatsoever, Bridget backed up a few steps to give herself a running start and leapt off the stage. Twisting a quarter circle as gravity rushed in to reclaim her, Stroud crunched in on herself and stretched out full length to ensure she had more than enough momentum toTHAWHAM-CRUSH Penny through the remains of those tenacious merch tables!
Currently beyond the point of rational thought, Bridget Stroud relied on base instinct to press a forearm across Penny’s cheek and cradle the far leg. The FAWNatics made it well past ten with no signs of life from Tremblay, but they happily reset their tally when a pale-faced Nick Castle finally made it down to his charges and brushed aside several California Quakes shirts to clap out a decisive…
ONE…
TWO…
THREE!
The ref popped to his feet, threw a signal to the Timekeeper and another to the medics. After a moment, the Announcer bellowed, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via pin-fall… BRIDGET STROUD!”
Sweet Disaster groaned, braced her hands against the shattered tables and clambered to her feet. She swayed unpleasantly, almost lost her balance, but managed to steady herself after Nick put a hand on her elbow. “Back up, Bridget.” he said quietly. “C’mon, let the medics get by.”
Stroud did as bade, though the stilted, almost robotic quality of her motions suggested the rock climber was on auto-pilot. She seemed to come back to herself when a quartet of EMT’s bustled in and set to work transferring Penny from the wreckage to a stretcher. “I threw her.” Stroud murmured. “I threw her off the top of the mountain… I can’t believe I did that.”
“Hey, she was going to do the same to you.” Nick replied. “Not saying it’s right, not saying you won’t feel bad about it, but no one’s going to blame you for doing what you did. I mean, just listen to that!”
Bridget finally tuned back in to the cacophony and was surprised to find the crowd chanting her name. She was even more surprised when the noise increased once Castle raised her hand. She nodded a few times, mouthed ‘Thank you’ to all her supporters, then said it again when Castle offered her a hand towel and a bottle of water. Half the bottle disappeared in a single gulp, the second half went into the towel so she could swipe the worst of the blood off her face.
Commotion behind her turned Bridget around seconds after the medics had straightened the stretcher carrying her battered nemesis. Stroud expected the battered wrestler to be unconscious or gazing blankly at the overhead lights, but Penny’s dark eyes were trained on her. For a moment her expression was grim as always… then she bared her teeth in a slow, evil smile. “Smile, Bridget.” Tremblay rasped as they carted her away. “You’re prettier when you smile!”
Bridget didn’t smile. Instead she raised triumphant fists to the rafters. “Enjoy the climb back up the mountain, Penny.” she said. “I’ll see ya at the top whenever you’re strong enough to try again.”
Tremblay started to reply, but a medic stepped in between and the quartet trundled her out of sight in a matter of seconds.
Feeling well and truly satisfied for the first time in months, Bridget looked around, spotted a tower of sound equipment and made several more technicians faint with concern when she scrambled and climbed her way to a perch at the top. Locking eyes with a camera angled up at her vantage point, Stroud called down to every woman in the locker room, “You can beat me down. You can make me bleed. You can even try to throw me off the mountain. “But I’ll never stop climbing. Penny tried… and failed. You’re welcome to try… but you’ll fail too.”
Message delivered, Sweet Disaster pumped a fist, stretched her arms wide and finally took a moment to enjoy the view from the summit.
********
BE LEGENDARY:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmidz2s4scM
Those gathered for March to War sprang to their feet when everything went purple and a dozen spotlights played over the crowd. Then the speakers offered up Pop Evil’s ‘Be Legendary’ and the ‘tron showed selections from Stroud’s ever lengthening highlight reel, as well as earlier footage from her rock climbing career. The chaotic sweep of lights continued through most of the first verse, though their pace seemed to increase as the sound system roared:
Our name in stone, forever more.
We want more!
We want more!
We want more!
BRIDGET STROUD:
The spots honed in on the entryway with the third recitation and Bridget exploded through the curtain, the former rock-climber turned indy wrestling darling turned FAWN breakout skidding to a stop at the top of the stage just to throw her arms up for a brawny double bicep flex. Chants of ‘SWEET DIS-AS-TER!’ rang out at once, a building roar crafted by fans of her indy stint as well as the new fans she’d made since hitting Orlando early last year.
Her expression intense upon first appearance, Bridget brightened at the reception of the fans and she offered them a quick smile before she pivoted ‘round on one heel and swung her hips in time to their chant while pointing to the ‘Sweet Disaster’ stretched across her purple briefs.
Another about-face followed shortly thereafter and the copper-skinned brunette hardbody took off down the ramp, Bridget going with arms outstretched to return the favor to everyone who greeted her so warmly. For what this last push to the top of the Mountain, Stroud wore her usual purple trunks, a halter-style bikini top with one cup done in matching purple and the other in a pumpkin orange, purple and orange armbands that crisscrossed at bicep and forearm to meet at wrist and shoulder, orange pads with a purple splatter pattern and purple wrestling boots that ended a few inches shy of her knees. A study in frenetic energy the entire way to ringside, Bridget made a high-speed circuit of the front row, then leapt to the apron to the top rope and stayed there for a several seconds to bask in the roar of the crowd. Once she hopped down Stroud made her way to Senior Official Nick Castle to check her pads and boots.
“Bringing out the big guns for this one, huh Nick?” she asked when he was done.
“Brass thought I should keep an eye on this one. Do me a favor, keep it out of the concourse, ok?”
“No promises, pal.” Bridget replied. “I’m gonna follow that brat wherever she goes.”
Mention of ‘that Brat’ brought the frown back to Stroud’s face and she broke away from Castle without further comment, Sweet Disaster settling into the far corner to await the arrival of the who’d made the first leg of her FAWN career so daunting.
“And introducing her opponent, hailing from Hobbs End, New Hampshire she stands at five feet-eight inches tall and weighs in at one hundred and thirty-two pounds. She is the Soul Survivor and the only Hope of a Dark Tomorrow, I give to you ‘BAD’ PENNY TREMBLAY!”
WALK ON WATER:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8yo7l43Yoo
The house lights went dark as the speakers came on, the low hum of a guitar and a repetition of vaguely ecclesiastical ‘oh’s’ that marked the beginning of Thirty Seconds to Mars’s ‘Walk on Water’. The gloom was nearly omnipresent, and the combination of ghostly blue lights at floor level and a thin carpet of dry ice fog only added to the claustrophobic, disorienting atmosphere.
Can you even see what you're fighting for?
Bloodlust in a holy war.
Listen up hear the patriots shout,
'Times are changing.'
In the end the choice was clear,
Take a shot in the face of fear.
Fist up in the firing line.
'TIMES ARE CHANGING!'
PENELOPE TREMBLAY:
Bad Penny arrived with the chorus, the Angriest Acolyte rising up on a mechanical lift hidden in the dark so it looked as though she appeared from thin air. Taking up residence center stage, Tremblay raised a hand to shield her brow, then angled her gaze upward as if spying the top of a mountain. But then her attention shifted down, following the plummeting descent of something (or more likely someone) on the rocks far, far below.” Smiling nastily at that imagined impact, Penny started down the ramp toward the heathen she meant to punish so righteously.
For tonight’s wicked work she wore a midnight blue two piece consisting of a sports-bra top and strappy briefs, both edged in copper trim. Pads at knee and elbow were matte gray while her boots matched her trunks. Ignoring the reaching, judging hands of the basement dwellers (save to slap them away if one dared draw too close) Tremblay made her way down the ramp, then hurried up the steel steps, climbed onto the empty corner and sprang from there to the center of the ring, where she dropped to her knees facing the hard camera A detail noted by those with particularly sharp vision, Penny wore copper-colored eye shadow, a sartorial detail that made it look like the coins placed over the eyes of the dearly departed. Standing after an appropriate stretch of genuflection, Tremblay stood up and locked eyes with the other brunette. After a moment’s stillness, Penny lifted a hand to beckon Bridget forward. The set of Stroud’s jaw suggested it took a great deal of effort to resist the invitation, but resist she did. Disappointed by the heathen’s reluctance, Tremblay backpedaled to the opposite corner without once breaking eye contact.
Certain his charges would sprint straight at one another the instant the bell sounded, Nick called for it, then took a giant step back and felt a little foolish for doing so because neither Bridget or Penny so much as twitched. Stroud moved first, not really leaving the corner as storming from it. Reaching the center of the squared circle in a few long strides, Sweet Disaster raised both hands and beckoned her nemesis to do the same. “What are you waiting for, Penny?” she called. “The summit’s in sight and you’ve got a clear path… all you have to do is go through me.”
Penny took a step forward, but that was all. Shifting her gaze from Stroud to the ramp, she raised a hand and pointed toward the stage. “Go ahead, rock climber. Take your head start. I’ll give you ten seconds, just enough to get your adrenaline flowing.”
Bridget rolled her shoulders, gave the other brunette an incredulous look. “You really think I’d run from you? After everything you’ve put me through?”
The corner of Tremblay’s mouth crooked up in a malicious smile. “TEN. NINE. EIGHT.”
Stroud took half a step back, dipped down and swept a hand along the canvas to make sure her opponent knew she wasn’t going anywhere.
“SEVEN. SIX. FIVE. FOUR.”
Bridget straightened up, extended a hand over the line and crooked her fingers, once, twice, three times.
Just. Bring. It.
Unmoved by Stroud’s posturing or the roar of the crowd, Tremblay continued her countdown.
“THREE. TWO. ONE.”
The Last True Believer exploded in a dead sprint, Penelope clearly serious about running her prey to grou--“OOOOOOFFFFFFFFHHHH!” Bridget went low and launched herself at a near forty-five degree angle to BURY her left shoulder in Tremblay’s midsection with a devastating Spear!
Showing off her own vicious smile as the taller brunette folded around the encroaching joint, Stroud drove Tremblay into the deck with a shivery thud, then stretched out across her impaled midsection and hooked the far leg for…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Penny kicked out and flopped onto her side, the gutted bendy-back instinctually turning away from her rampaging adversary. Beside her, Bridget slapped the mat with both hands, popped to verticality and bellowed, “C’MON!” at the top of her lungs! The FAWNatics roared right back and they got even louder when Stroud filled her hands with the other brunette’s long dark locks. “You want to give me a head-start, Penny? That’s so generous of you!” Stroud snarled in the midst of hauling Tremblay upright. “I think it’s only fair if I give you the same chance!”
Switching one hand from tresses to togs, Bridget wheeled around in a half circle, ran toward the edge of the ring and simply hurled her burden out into the void. Still sucking wind from that nauseating Spear, Penny could do nothing save brace for impact and what an impact it was, a heavy, bone-deep THWHUMP that earned groans of sympathy from those seated in the first few rows. Back in the ring, Bridget grabbed the top rope and mounted the bottom just so she could lean over as far as balance would allow. “TEN SECONDS STARTING NOW, BEEYOTCH!” Stroud roared down at her prey. “TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE!”
The Angriest Acolyte moaned, rolled over onto her stomach and struggled to all fours. From there she rose to her full height, though the willowy witch’s back was to the ring. Clearly infuriated by Sweet Disaster’s hot start, Tremblay whipped ‘round on one heel and made straight for “NNNNNGGGGGHHH!” She hadn’t made it two steps when Bridget flew through the ropes to meet her, the purple-clad brunette unleashing a gorgeous Suicide Dive that took both brunettes to the floor with Penny getting the worst of the landing.
SUICIDE DIVE:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQNo1Mo40lo
Beaming in spite of the proximity to her arch-nemesis, Bridget scrambled to verticality only to spike a booming Elbow Drop onto Tremblay’s sternum. “Didn’t run fast enough, honey.” Stroud told the retching wrestler. “Now I’m gonna have to whoop your ass all up and down this mountERGH NNNGGHH!”
Penelope sat up, grabbed a huge handful of hair and pumped a fist into Bridget’s tummy. Another punch to follow up, then a violent tug of the hair, Tremblay wrenching her foe’s neck sideways even as she shifted her punchin’ hand into a deep delving Belly Claw. “Do you really think the threat of violence is a deterrent?” Penny worked her thumb into Stroud’s navel and pushed like she meant to gouge a hole through her fluttering midsection. “All the beatings, all the misery I’ve heaped upon you and still you don’t understand that there’s nothing you could do to me that’s worse than what the world has already NNNGGGHH AARRRRHHHHHH!”
Uninterested in breaking the other woman’s grip, Bridget answered with her own hair-hold, then yanked Tremblay forward and smashed a Headbutt between her eyes! As if that wasn’t enough, she opened up wide and chomped down on the bridge of Penny’s nose!
Outside since shortly after the Suicide Dive, Nick Castle cringed along with the rest of the crowd, but made no move to halt the mean-spirited mastication. Instead he asked, “What do you say, Penny? Need me to call for the bell?”
Tremblay shrieked something defiant, released her grip on Stroud’s hair and slapped the side of her head hard enough to make the heathen’s ears ring. Bridget grimaced and spat out Penny’s nose only to start gnawing on her forehead instead! “BYTCH!” the Angriest Acolyte roared in fury and pain. Forced to admit her Belly Claw wasn’t keeping up with her opponent’s toothy tactics, Penny abandoned the hold, curled her fingers into hooks and raaaaaaaaaaaaaaked her back no less than half a dozen times!
Bridget hissed, drew back a little and delivered a second Headbutt followed by a taunting kiss to the center of Tremblay’s forehead. “That all you got, punk?” she hissed in the other brunette’s ear. “All that talk about tearing me apart and you’re just gonna whimper while I eat you alivGGGAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHHH!”
Penny slipped her thumbs into the corners of Bridget’s mouth and pushed back like she was trying to peel the flesh offa her foe’s head!
Now it was Stroud’s turn to pull hair and she did so like a woman possessed. This two-part torture test made both ladies shriek, but it couldn’t break their grips, not even after they’d clambered all the way to boot-leather. Maddeningly unable to sink her teeth into Tremblay’s digging digits, Bridget planted her right foot and pumped her left knee in Penny’s tummy once, twice, three times! The last shot sent Penny staggering, the separation allowing Stroud to spit out her attacker’s thumbs. Celebrating with another gaudy hair-pull, Bridget reeled Tremblay in close and “NNNNNGGGHHH!”
Penelope responded with a single Kneelift, though hers proved even more devastating because it connected with the center of Stroud’s trunks! Stroud’s legs turned to water and she sagged forward, kept from collapsing to her knees by the loose Bear Hug Penny slipped around her waist.
“Are you really so eager to discover my limits, or lack thereof?” Tremblay murmured in a tone of surprising gentleness. “Or perhaps you’d like to abandon this foolish climb on the spot?”
Bridget shook her head ‘no’. “Nuuuuhhhh… not a chance. “You want me gone? You’re gonna have to do it yourself. No way I’ll do it for you.”
Penny nodded in understanding. “I’m so glad to hear you say that. Really, I am.”
‘Am’ was still on her lips when she muscled Stroud into the air and sank to one knee, Tremblay callously driving the posted joint into her opponent’s aching crotch. Already shuddering, Bridget’s legs gave out entirely and she would’ve crumpled to her knees if Penny hadn’t kept her mostly upright by securing a tight Front Facelock. With Sweet Disaster’s noggin firmly under control, Tremblay slung the smaller wrestler’s near arm across her shoulders, then grabbed a handful of waistband and pivoted so that her back was pointed at the stage. Soon as her feet were set Penny dipped her knees and popped her hips to take Bridget up, over and down, Stroud’s sturdy frame just BWANGING atop the slight metal incline that separated the ramp proper from the flat cement span surrounding ringside.
The Snap Suplex jolted Bridget from one end to the other, but painful as it was the landing didn’t free her from the Soul Survivor’s grasp. Indeed, Penny tightened her control on Stroud’s head to make sure the smaller brunette came along for the ride when she kicked both legs up and barrel-rolled onto her stomach. Clambering to boot-leather a moment thereafter, Tremblay marched ‘em a few more steps up the apron, then turned around so Bridget’s back was once again facing the stage. From there she hauled Stroud all the way to high noon only to leave her there, Penelope shifting over to a bracing hand on Bridget’s thigh.
Though they hated themselves for doing so, the FAWNatics began to toll the seconds, their dutiful chorus equal parts chronicle and doomsday clock. ‘ONE… TWO… THREE… FOUR… FIVE… SIX… SEVEN… EIGHT… NINE… TEN… ELEVEN… TWELVE!’
Tremblay dropped backward at the stroke of midnight, Miranda’s Angriest Acolyte THWHUMPING her burden against the unforgiving ramp. Penny did release her hooks after the second Suplex, albeit only to float over into a snug Crossbody, the taller battler putting a domineering hand on shoulder and belly while Castle and the crowd counted out…
ONE…
TWO…
Stroud tumbled onto her stomach with a full second to spare, unfortunately she was still directly beneath her opposition, as she discovered when Penny snatched a huge handful of hair and BOUNCED her forehead against the bare floor! “Kiss it.” Tremblay moved one hand from Stroud’s hair to the nape of her neck so she could keep the heathen’s features smashed against the ramp. “Kiss the ground beneath my feet and perhaps I’ll show mercy.”
“Faaaaaaaahhhhhhrrrrrhhh--f*ck off!” Bridget snarled as emphatically as circumstances allowed. “You won’t make me MMMMRRRRGGGGHHHH!”
Penny doubled down on the hair-hold and began to sweep Stroud’s head back and forth, the aggressive abrasion earning groans from the crowd and a quick warning from the official. “Cut that shyt, Penny! No DQ doesn’t mean I’ll stand by and let you mangle her face!”
Tremblay sneered, then yanked Bridget’s head up and tilted it back far enough to cup a hand on her chin. She wasn’t surprised to see blood smearing Sweet Disaster’s mouth and nose, but that didn’t make her smile any less genuine. Leaning in so her forehead nuzzled Stroud’s temple, she murmured, “Do you want to give up, Bridget? Or are you prepared to spill more blood on this particular mountaNRRGGGH!”
Stroud twisted into her tormentor at the cost of several strands of hair and jabbed a quick Headbutt between Penny’s eyes. “Fine with me, bytch.” she growled in the midst of snatching a retaliatory handful of hair. “Can you say the saOOWWW DAMMIT!”
Penny answered the Headbutt with a thumb to the eye, thus scrambling Stroud’s defenses long enough for her to haul the both of ‘em to verticality. “After all we’ve been through, you’re still questioning my resolve?” the willowy witch hissed. “Sister, I’ll paint these walls red before I let you reach the summit.”
Bridget responded with a few enthusiastic but sloppy punches to the midriff that Penelope shrugged off before she stomped to the far side of the aisle and slung her prey into the barricade with a bone-jarring BWAAANG!
The impact got a shriek from Stroud and a yelp from several fans, as the force of impact drove the heavy guardrail back almost six inches. Sweet Disaster hit the floor with a damp thud and would’ve stayed there for several seconds if Tremblay hadn’t used that double fistful of follicles to set Stroud back on her feet. “I love hearing you smash into things, rock climber. It’s… musical.” No answer from Bridget now, so Penny moved a hand to her rival’s waistband, snatched hold and yanked up those purple & white togs in a derisive wedgie. Stroud hissed and went up on tiptoe, effectively providing a little boost for Tremblay when she charged across the aisle and slung Bridget through a somersault that would’ve been quite graceful if it hadn’t ended with her BWAAANGING spine-first against the guardrail!
Stroud landed stacked awkwardly on her shoulders, the former rock climbing standout crumpled into an awkward Matchbook that left her rump pointed at the rafters. Pleased by the sight, Tremblay dropped to her knees, laid claim to Bridget’s ankles and pressed down to keep her pinned in that ignominious arrangement for the..
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Stroud kicked / twisted out, uncoiling like a compressed spring with half a second to spare. “Do you imagine yourself as a mountain, Stroud?” Penelope asked as she filled her hands with the smaller brunette’s hair. “Something that stands strong and immutable against the wind and rain and other forces of eternity? I’d wager you do.”
Bridget’s response was a halfhearted shove against Tremblay’s belly, so the Angriest Acolyte slapped her across the face, then peeled her off the floor and unleashed a second slap for good measure. The palm-shaped welt on Stroud’s cheek was already pinking quite nicely, but Penny refrained from a third shot in favor of spinning her woozy adversary in a half circle. With both brunettes now lined up parallel to the guardrail, Tremblay looped an arm around Bridget’s waist while wedging her head beneath Sweet Disaster’s left armpit. Hooks set, she placed a free hand against Stroud’s tush and muscled her onto one shoulder for NO!
Stroud somersaulted offa Penny’s perch, landed on one knee and stunned her nemesis with an awkward albeit effective Headbutt to the small of Tremblay’s back! Penny grimaced, then stumbled into the barricade but grabbed hold to refrain from yielding anymore ground. This proved a gutsy and ultimately dangerous choice because it meant the former Churchgoer was close enough for Bridget to lunge in and secure her in the same predicament Stroud had so recently escaped! Well, not entirely the same. Where Tremblay had simply braced, Stroud snatched hold of her foe’s trunks to make sure there was no escape once she hoisted Penny up and BWAAANGED her down tailbone-first atop the steel barricade!
The crowd was overjoyed by this vindictive turnabout, though even the roar of their combined zeal wasn’t enough to silence Tremblay’s shriek of anguish. This didn’t bother Bridget in the slightest, in fact she was all smiles as she grabbed hold of Penny’s shoulder-straps and reeled her backward for a THWHUMPING Headbutt between the shoulders.
That earned another groan, as well as a sharp Back Elbow, Tremblay regaining a bit of her usual cold confidence after rocking Stroud back on her heel--“NNNNGGGGHHH!”
Bridget rushed forward and clouted her archrival across the nape of the neck with a Clothesline that left the bendy-back stretched out flat atop the narrow steel beam. Nodding to the fans as they applauded her efforts, Sweet Disaster took a moment to check her bloodied features and seemed remarkably unfazed when her fingers came away red. “I could probably smash your nose against the rail if I wanted to do this the easy way.” Stroud admitted to Tremblay after digging her fingers into the other brunette’s hair. “But easy’s your way, Penny. I prefer the hard way. It might require a lot more work, but it‘s much more satisfying!”
She hauled Tremblay to a seat on that unyielding steel hobby horse, took a big step back, then took to the skies in a vertical leap that ended with both boots THWHACKING against Penny’s mouth and nose! The Dropkick snapped Tremblay’s head backward and the rest of her followed, the willowy witch stretched out almost flat atop the barricade before she overbalanced and slopped to the floor on the aisle-side of the guardrail.
It was certainly a vulnerable position but Stroud didn’t try for a cover. Instead she buried both hands in Penelope’s hair and tugged her to a seat so she could drop to her knees, effectively straddling the taller woman’s thighs in the process. “Tasting blood yet, honey?” Bridget murmured to her grimacing adversary.
Penny smirked through the pain. “You tell me.”
Just like that the brunette pursed her lips and spat in Stroud’s face, Sweet Disaster twisting her head to take it on the cheek rather than square in the eye. Unaware of the thunderous ‘OOOOHHHH!’ from the crowd, Bridget yanked Penny’s noggin forward and drove it back into the barricade with a cringe-worthy BWAAANG!
“Forget about tasting blood, bytch.” Stroud hissed in her prey’s ear. “You’re gonna f*cking choke on it!”
The Angriest Acolyte hissed, raked her nails down Bridget’s forearms a few times, then clamped down on her wrists in hopes of making the heathen NO! Mindless of the spit easing down one cheek, a stone-faced Stroud BWANG-BWAAANGED Penny’s skull two more times and probably would’ve made it a full dozen if Castle hadn’t said, “Cool it with the head trauma, will you Bridget?”
This was answered with a baleful glare over one shoulder. “She drew first blood, worked my trunks and spit in my eye, Nick. A little head trauma is the least of what she deserves.”
“I won’t let you put her in a hospital.” the Senior Official said quietly. “I’d do the same for you if the positions were reversed.”
Stroud scowled, wiped the damp spot off her cheek and mashed that palm into Tremblay’s mug en route to regaining her feet. “Lucky for both of us you won’t have to save me from anything.” Bridget told him as she strode away from the wreckage slumped against that displaced section of guardrail. “Actually, that’s not entirely true.” Sweet Disaster tacked on after she’d finished ‘flicking’ her trunks back into place. “You might have to save me from myself.”
Nick didn’t get a chance to offer a response before Stroud whipped around and raced straight at Penny! Angle and velocity suggested she was thinking about a Kneelift delivered to the point of Tremblay’s chin butt in truth Bridget spun through another abrupt about-face and THHWUMP-BWANGED Penelope’s poor skull between her buns and the barricade! It slid back another six inches on impact and Penny went with it, the glassy-eyed grappler pooling out in the combined shadow of a whole section of FAWNatics.
RUNNING HIP ATTACK:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P0frcS4Zws
Ignoring the waves of disapproval she felt radiating off Castle, Stroud dropped into a seat upon Tremblay’s chest, hooked both legs behind the knee and pulled ‘em back in a Reverse Matchbook that earned a…
ONE…
TWO…
THRNOOOO!
Penny grabbed hold of the barricade in both hands and pulled hard enough to bounce it against Bridget’s back, thus breaking the cover with almost half a second to spare. More irritated than hurt by the other brunette’s escape, Bridget scrambled to boot-leather and promptly planted a few stomps in Tremblay’s tummy to ensure she didn’t rise until Stroud scraped her up with a huge handful of hair. “Looks like the mountain‘s taking a toll on you too, honey.” Bridget tapped a finger to the rill of blood coming from the Soul Survivor’s nose. “But now that we’re on level ground, how about a race?”
Tremblay was in no mood for such frivolity and said as much, or at least she would have if Bridget hadn’t taken off up the ramp like a shot, Sweet Disaster using her stern hair-hold to drag Penny in her wake. Tremblay’s long legs looked uncharacteristically wobbly for the first half of the trek, though she’d regained her usual purposeful stride for the back end, which made it all the more galling (or satisfying, depending on your viewpoint) when Stroud hit the brakes and hurled her nemesis headfirst into one of the huge LED boards that lined the stage!
‘Bad’ Penny hit the lights with an odd crackling ker-unch that darkened a forehead-sized section of lights and made a whole army of FAWN technicians squirm in their seats. Tremblay’s reaction was far more visceral, she bounced away, staggered ‘round in a drunken half circle and lurched toward any part of the stage currently unoccupied by one Bridget Sto--“NNNGGH!”
Sweet Disaster pounced, caught hold of the other brunette’s waistband and reeled her in for a heavy Forearm Smash that THWAPPED across the Last True Believer’s lower back! It was a simple bit of offense, but delivered with such placement and force that it froze Penny in place. This didn’t bother Bridget in the slightest, she merely sidled in against the taller brunette’s right shoulder, dipped her head beneath that arm and curled her own right arm across Tremblay’s chest. With one hand free to do whatever she damned well pleased, Stroud caught Penny’s waistband again, only this time she pulled up rather than out, the rock climbing standout unleashing a truly vindictive wedgie so she could muscle her burden high into the air for another savage round of Rocked Bott--“EEERRRGGHH!”
Tremblay drove her right arm back, smashing the point of that elbow into the base of her attacker’s skull! Bridget maintained her grip but lost her balance, the purple-clad wrestler stumbling awkwardly even as Penny returned to the stage on steady footing. Segueing over to a Front Facelock to keep Stroud glued in place, the Angriest Acolyte balled her left hand into a fist and slammed it into the heathen’s ribs over and over and over again.
“Still so eager to pull my trunks, brat?” Tremblay raaaaaaaaked a talon across Stroud’s lower back as she noted this affront. “After all that’s transpired between us I’d have thought you above such petty affr--” she trailed off in a pained wince when Bridget doubled down on that stinging wedgie.
“Yuuuhhh… you started it, baby.” Stroud growled. “Couldn’t win a match without going to my trunOOOOOWWWWWWWWW FAAAAAAAAAHHHHK!”
Not content to simply answer with a wedgie of her own, Tremblay reached over the other brunette’s bent back and clamped a vicious claw between Bridget’s thighs! “Shouldn’t have reminded me, heathen.” Penny’s tone was almost demure as she attacked Stroud’s center with a nastiness worthy of the Dennehy clan. “Now you’ll suffer while I reacquaint myself with your blubbERRRRHHHH!”
Not about to play shrieking victim while Tremblay pillaged her togs, Bridget twisted her head within the confines of the Front Facelock and sank her teeth into Penny’s flank just above her hip! Painful as it was, the stalemate wasn’t long for this world because the Soul Survivor abruptly pounded a Kneelift into her penitent foe’s chest. Soon as those gnashing teeth fell away she caught hold of the heathen’s waistband and used it to haul Sweet Disaster off her feet, indeed those feet all the way up to about three o’clock before Penelope dropped to her back and PLANTED Bridget flush on her forehead! Well and truly impaled by Tremblay’s DDT of the same name, Stroud stayed right where she was in the wake of the head drop. It wasn’t until Tremblay hooked a Half Nelson to shovel her onto her back that she showed any signs of life and that was only to wriggle a leg in decidedly hapless fashion after Penny had hooked it in a snug cradle good for the…
IMPALER DDT @ 00:28
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLpFwC9YhDc
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Sweet Disaster avoided an ignominious end to the biggest match of her FAWN career by a whisper or less, the count so close Nick had to throw a confirmation to the Timekeeper just to ensure the action continued.
The near fall didn’t seem to trouble Tremblay at all, indeed the former Churchgoer looked downright beatific as she observed her rival’s freshly bleeding forehead. “The crimson mask looks good on you, rock climber.” Penny huffed. “Of course, you’ve worn it before, have you not? I believe Sutton Stonecliffe made you bleed like a stuck pig.”
Stroud groaned, braced her elbows against the floor and pushed to a seat. “Yuuuhhhh, yeah she did.” the bloodied brunette admitted. “And she almost talked as much shyt as NNNGGGHHH!”
Penelope interrupted with a brusque slap, pressed her palm to the side of Bridget’s face and shoved her down flat. “I don’t talk shyt, heathen.” Tremblay snarled as she tried her damndest to push Stroud’s face through the fine grating that made up the floor of the stage. “I speak only truth, though I understand how such a thing could devastate a pampered little bytch like ARRRRRRHHHH!”
Bridget couldn’t slip out from under her tormentor’s mitt, so she grabbed hold of two fingers and wrenched like she meant to snap ‘em off Tremblay’s hand! Penny reeled back like a coyote caught in a trap, but all her thrashing and writhing wasn’t enough to slip Stroud’s grasp. In fact her predicament only got worse when Sweet Disaster caught two more fingers and prized them in the opposite direction!
Clambering to boot-leather while maintaining her clamp on the taller woman’s fingers, Bridget flipped some bloody hair off her forehead and pulled hard enough to make Tremblay collapse to one knee. “Say it again, sweetie. I dare you.” Stroud went up on tiptoe and pulled even harder when Tremblay tried to claw at her thigh. “Call me pampered when I’m a heartbeat away from breaking your RRRRGGGGGGGHHHH!”
The Angriest Acolyte didn’t say a word but her actions spoke volumes, namely the short, heartless Uppercut she delivered to the center of Bridget’s trunks! Stroud’s legs wobbled and she took a few steps backward, yet she still didn’t give up her clamp on Tremblay’s fingers. Simultaneously astounded and disgusted by the heathen’s tenacity, Bad Penny struggled to verticality and ‘smecked’ her free hand to Stroud’s bloody forehead and squeezed hard enough to show white at the knuckles.
“Do your worst little girl.” Tremblay chided as she mashed the heel of her palm into the other brunette’s nose. “I only need one hand to crush your fragile little OOOFFFFHHHH!”
Stroud lunged and pivoted, bringing the tanned meat of her right thigh up across Penny’s midriff. “Stuuuhhhh… stronger than you, bytch.” Bridget rasped, her tone much more nasal than usual because of the encroaching palm. “I’ve always been stronger than OOOOOOOWWWWW FAAAAAAAHHHK!”
Tremblay spiked her opponent’s crotch with a vile Toe Kick that finally freed her other hand from the rock climber’s grasp. Gripping the wrist of her clawin’ hand as soon as she could, the Soul Survivor plowed forward, forcing Bridget to backpedal until she slammed into another stretch of LED board. Penny used the residual momentum to draw them both away, then moved her non-claw hand to the smaller wrestler’s waistband and yanked her into the sky, Bridget’s legs kicking frantically until Tremblay dropped to one knee and THWHAMMED her to the floor with an Iron Claw Slam!
IRON CLAW SLAM:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wj053Jxlin0
Bellowing with insensate rage in the wake of that thunderous maneuver, Penny finally drew that injured hand to her chest, the willowy witch holding it close even as she bent over the fallen fighter and roared, “PAMPERED BYTCH!”
Castle thought Tremblay would try for a cover, but she did not. Rather she stepped back, claimed ownership of Stroud’s legs and raised them in a wide ‘V’. Bridget’s hands fluttered up in a weak plea, Sweet Disaster understandably concerned about another brutal attack below the belt. She needn’t have worried because Tremblay stepped through with her right leg, planting that foot beside the other brunette’s left hip. In the next instant she crossed Stroud’s legs around her own thigh in a snug Figure Four, Penny trapping Bridget’s left ankle in the pit of her right knee. Upon further consideration this was far worse than any low blow, as evidenced by the concern from the crowd and Stroud’s renewed flailing. Neither proved enough to stop Tremblay from turning her prey onto her stomach, nor did it prevent the Angriest Acolyte from drawing Bridget’s arms behind her back in a painful Double Chickenwing. Hands locked, Penny dipped low and muscled Stroud off the stage by a good six or eight inches.
LIAR'S CHAIR:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DQ12z25O6M
With Bridget strapped tight in the Liar’s Chair, Tremblay rocked the hold up ‘n down for several seconds before she glanced to Castle. “Ask her.”
“How you doing, Bridget?” Nick asked at once. “Need me to call for the bell?”
“Nuuuuhhhh… NO!” Stroud shook her head to make sure there was no confusion. “NO I DON’T TAAAAAAAAHHHH GOD!”
“What’s wrong, rock climber?” Penny hissed. “Not so easy to smile now, is it?”
“Fuuuuhhhh… f*ck you!” Bridget replied through gritted teeth. “Talk all the shyt you want, I won’t RRRRRGGGGHHHH STAAAAAAAAHHHHHP!”
Tremblay shifted her grip so she could maintain the Chickenwing with only one arm. With her free hand she snatched a huge handful of Bridget’s hair, though she made sure to drag her nails across the other brunette’s bleeding forehead first.
“Do you want to know what I hate most about you, Stroud? It’s that shyt-eating ‘everything’s gonna be fine’ smile. It’s the sort of expression only seen on the face of someone who’s never been told she should smile more. That everything awful in this miserable little world would instantly be better if she’d just smile from time to time.” Penny released the hair-hold just to rake Stroud’s forehead yet again, the Angriest Acolyte clearly trying to draw as much blood as possible. Bridget shook her head ‘no’ at another question from Castle, Sweet Disaster cringing as she felt blood streaming down her face.
“I… I don’t know what the hell you’re talking abouOOOOOWWWRRRRGGGHHHHH!”
Furious, Penny switched over to a three-fingered fishhook in the left side of Bridget’s mouth. “YES YOU DAMNED WELL DO!” Tremblay bellowed. “IT WAS THAT STUPID SMILE THAT GOT YOU ON THAT F*CKING GAME SHOW! IT CAUGHT LILY BURLINGAME’S ATTENTION AND IT GOT YOU THROUGH THE FRONT DOOR IN FAWN! ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS SMILE AND IT OPENED. EVERY. SINGLE. DOOR!”
Penny took a deep breath, let it out slow. When she spoke again her voice was more controlled, but no less angry. “I never had a smile, Stroud. All I had was disappointment. And rage. And disgust. No one saw anything in me until Miranda. She saw… and gave me purpose. Can you guess it, Bridget Stroud?”
Sweet Disaster answered with a muffled curse, she was too busy trying to squirm free of the other brunette’s agonizing trap. “It’s simple, sister. My purpose is to show you what happens when a smile isn’t enough. I’m what happens when you smile at the world… and the world punches your teeth down your f*cking throAAAARRRRRHHHHHHHH F*CKING BYTCH!”
Bridget finally wrenched an arm free of the Double Chickenwing, but rather than brace it against the floor to relieve some of the pressure, she grabbed hold of Penny’s thumb and jerked it back toward her wrist! The sharp jolt of pain broke the fishhook and the Liar’s Chair, though Bridget didn’t look all that pleased with the result as she immediately curled into a shivering, near-fetal ball.
Upper lip curled in a hateful snarl, Tremblay kept her injured hand stuffed beneath one armpit while keeping close vigil on the other brunette. “Get up.” she said to no response from Stroud. “I SAID GET UP!” Bad Penny unleashed a flurry of short, sharp stomps, the willowy witch driving heel and sole into her opponent’s hip, shoulder, ribs, and glutes.
Eventually Bridget managed to roll to all fours, so Tremblay caught a double handful of hair and drew her into a Standing Headscissors. Soon as that was done she snaked her arms around Stroud’s waist and muscled / flipped the shorter woman up across the point of her right shoulder. The Canadian Backbreaker earned a sympathetic groan from the FAWNatics, but sympathy turned to breathless worry once Penny shifted her hands from Bridget’s waist to her biceps, the Angriest Acolyte hoisting her prey even higher with a Crucifix-lift.
Very much aware that Tremblay was facing the glittery expanse of the LED board, Nick Castle cleared his throat and said, “I know what you’re thinking, Penny and I’m telling you to reconsider. There’s easier ways to win this ma--”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking, Castle.” Penny interrupted with a chilling glare. “If you did, you’d be terrified.”
On that ominous note the bendy-back turned ninety degrees to the left. Now she wasn’t facing the wall, now she was pointed at the edge of the stage no more than five yards from their current position.
Nick’s eyes went wide. “Penny, NO! That’s a twelve foot drop onto god knows what, are you outta your-- oh f*ck.”
Penelope set off at a loping charge that quickly burned through the distance between the brunettes and the sheer drop off the stage. As horrified as Castle but unable to turn away, the March to War throng sucked in its collective breath and held on for dear life when Tremblay ground to a stop and hurlNOOOOO!
Bridget drew both knees up to her chest and fired off a mule kick that prized her outta Penny’s grasp. Landing safely behind her startled nemesis, Stroud spun when Tremblay did and earned a resounding cheer from the crowd when she THWHACKED a Rolling Elbow against Penny’s jaw!
Tremblay turned a drunken half circle and pitched forward, the toes of her boots dangerously close to the edge. Near silent only moments prior, the crowd bellowed for Sweet Disaster to give Penny a taste of her own medicine, so they were understandably surprised when Stroud caught hold of Tremblay’s waistband and reeled her back into a Waistlock. It only started as a Wristlock though, as Bridget halved her control to snatch Penny’s right wrist in her left hand. Putting her right hand between the taller wrestler’s shoulders, Stroud pushed her rival forward, stepped back and yanked the ripcord as hard as she could to ’OOOOOOOOOHHHHHH!’ from those assembled when Bridget turned Penny inside out with a clavicle-smashing Ripcord Lariat!
RIPCORD LARIAT:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrT_s5tnWos
The force of it put Stroud on her knees and left Penny facedown on the stage, where she stayed until the bloodied rock climber tugged her onto her back and crumpled across her chest for the…
ONE…
TWO…
THRENOOOOOOOO!
Stroud forgot to hook a leg and the lapse allowed Penny to twist to one side without actually getting out from under her exhausted opposition. Bridget leaned back on her haunches, nodded to no one in particular and mopped a forearm across her brow. Seemingly unfazed by the red it showed, Bridget twined her fingers in Tremblay’s hair and slowly forced them both to boot-leath--“NGGHH!”
Penny raked her nails down Stroud’s face, shoved her away and lashed out with a vicious punt aimed at NOT TODAY, HONEY!
Bridget slapped the Low Blow aside and immediately delivered some long overdue karma in the form of her own kick between the willowy witch’s thighs! Penny shrieked, started to crumple, found herself straightened up when Bridget dipped beneath one arm. Holding the other brunette in place with an arm snugged across her tummy, Stroud reached behind, caught hold of Tremblay’s waistband and took far more joy than she cared to admit in yanking it north by almost eight inches. Penny went up on tiptoe to alleviate the worst of the sting and this proved her undoing as Sweet Disaster used that little extra height to lift her high into the air. With Tremblay temporarily unmoored, Bridget stomped to the edge, looked over and saw a rather concerned merch vendor fretting over several tables laden with FAWN tee-
Stroud tossed Penny down a good fifteen feet, the lissome brunette’s descent halted by the ever so slightly muffled thwhump-KERUNCH of two tables cracking, but not quite buckling beneath Tremblay’s weight. “GOOD LORD, BRIDGET!” Castle hollered over the thunderous roar of the crowd. “WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING, YOU COULD’VE-- NO DON’T OH HOLY…”
Paying the Senior Official no attention whatsoever, Bridget backed up a few steps to give herself a running start and leapt off the stage. Twisting a quarter circle as gravity rushed in to reclaim her, Stroud crunched in on herself and stretched out full length to ensure she had more than enough momentum toTHAWHAM-CRUSH Penny through the remains of those tenacious merch tables!
Currently beyond the point of rational thought, Bridget Stroud relied on base instinct to press a forearm across Penny’s cheek and cradle the far leg. The FAWNatics made it well past ten with no signs of life from Tremblay, but they happily reset their tally when a pale-faced Nick Castle finally made it down to his charges and brushed aside several California Quakes shirts to clap out a decisive…
ONE…
TWO…
THREE!
The ref popped to his feet, threw a signal to the Timekeeper and another to the medics. After a moment, the Announcer bellowed, “Ladies and gentlemen, your winner via pin-fall… BRIDGET STROUD!”
Sweet Disaster groaned, braced her hands against the shattered tables and clambered to her feet. She swayed unpleasantly, almost lost her balance, but managed to steady herself after Nick put a hand on her elbow. “Back up, Bridget.” he said quietly. “C’mon, let the medics get by.”
Stroud did as bade, though the stilted, almost robotic quality of her motions suggested the rock climber was on auto-pilot. She seemed to come back to herself when a quartet of EMT’s bustled in and set to work transferring Penny from the wreckage to a stretcher. “I threw her.” Stroud murmured. “I threw her off the top of the mountain… I can’t believe I did that.”
“Hey, she was going to do the same to you.” Nick replied. “Not saying it’s right, not saying you won’t feel bad about it, but no one’s going to blame you for doing what you did. I mean, just listen to that!”
Bridget finally tuned back in to the cacophony and was surprised to find the crowd chanting her name. She was even more surprised when the noise increased once Castle raised her hand. She nodded a few times, mouthed ‘Thank you’ to all her supporters, then said it again when Castle offered her a hand towel and a bottle of water. Half the bottle disappeared in a single gulp, the second half went into the towel so she could swipe the worst of the blood off her face.
Commotion behind her turned Bridget around seconds after the medics had straightened the stretcher carrying her battered nemesis. Stroud expected the battered wrestler to be unconscious or gazing blankly at the overhead lights, but Penny’s dark eyes were trained on her. For a moment her expression was grim as always… then she bared her teeth in a slow, evil smile. “Smile, Bridget.” Tremblay rasped as they carted her away. “You’re prettier when you smile!”
Bridget didn’t smile. Instead she raised triumphant fists to the rafters. “Enjoy the climb back up the mountain, Penny.” she said. “I’ll see ya at the top whenever you’re strong enough to try again.”
Tremblay started to reply, but a medic stepped in between and the quartet trundled her out of sight in a matter of seconds.
Feeling well and truly satisfied for the first time in months, Bridget looked around, spotted a tower of sound equipment and made several more technicians faint with concern when she scrambled and climbed her way to a perch at the top. Locking eyes with a camera angled up at her vantage point, Stroud called down to every woman in the locker room, “You can beat me down. You can make me bleed. You can even try to throw me off the mountain. “But I’ll never stop climbing. Penny tried… and failed. You’re welcome to try… but you’ll fail too.”
Message delivered, Sweet Disaster pumped a fist, stretched her arms wide and finally took a moment to enjoy the view from the summit.
********