L.A.W. - League of Anime Wrestling

Skylar Jones sat in the locker room, relaxing. She didn't have a match tonight, so right now, her only concern was chilling on a bench. She didn't technically have to be here, but she enjoyed the atmosphere of LAW's locker rooms. The hustle and bustle as women prepared for their matches, the chatting among colleagues, the last minute workouts, the showers... Not that a perfectly straight woman like Skylar would ever wanna peek in there. She yawned, sitting on a bench leaned against the wall, playing a video game. She'd already worked pretty hard over the past few weeks. She'd earned this! Over the course of the past three weeks, she'd wrestled the likes of Yoro Yobi and Jack the Ripper, topped off with a bloody war of a deathmatch against Yuzuha Takamiya. Now, she was officially qualified for Apex! Any day, she'd get an email with the date and details of her Apex match!

Spoiler

And then, her phone dinged... With a jolt of excitement, Sky pulled her phone from her pocket!

Notification

r/shitposting: Amber

Opening the notification, a wave of disappointment came over her... before she smirked, followed by a snicker. "Tsssss.. Heeheehee..." She chuckled, her eyes watering a little, before she burst out laughing! "BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" She laughed, prompting a few funny looks from the other athletes, not that she minded. "Hahhhh..." Sky sighed with a grin, before her phone dinged a second time, and this time around, it was exactly what she'd been waiting for.

This... this was supposed to be a moment of great excitement, one that would hype Skylar up for the match that would get her name in consideration for LAW's first World Champion, but instead, it filled her with dread. Her stomach was in knots, her finger trembling as she read the email. Her opponent for Apex... would be her own tag partner, Cecilia Lombard. She took a deep breath, trying to soothe the newly formed lump in her throat. She liked Cecilia, she was cool. A little rough around the edges, but, they got along well. They had a good thing going, and she felt they'd bonded a lot in their time tagging together. Now, their friendship was in the crossfire of their shared goal that only one of them could achieve...

She hung her head, tapping her foot. Fuck, fuck, FUCK! WHY!? Why did it have to be her of all people!? Sure they were already competing indirectly by being in Apex, but now they really had to fight each other! She let out a heavy sigh, trying to stay calm. Maybe... maybe she'd forfeit, sit this one out. Let Cecilia have this one. But as she thought of this, she remembered, she remembered the reason she wanted that belt in the first place.

She remembered being a little girl, playing in the driveway while her mom was at work. "Why's that little girl over there, playing alone?" A woman asked. "That's my whore neighbor's kid. It's sad. With a mom like that, she'll prolly be dead in the gutter by twenty." Her neighbor sighed. Skylar clenched her fists at the memory. She wished she coulda' pummeled that dick's face right then and there, but she was only a child. She didn't know how to speak up for herself, how to defend her mother, who had to spend her youth working to keep her fed. That was why she was here. She wanted to show everyone who ever doubted her how stupid they were. She wouldn't be dead in the gutter at twenty, no! At twenty, she'd be the Inaugural LAW Openweight Champion! She wasn't gonna hold back just cause her buddy was in her way. She was sure Cecilia would feel the same way.

She got up, walking through the locker room to find Cecilia, and tell her how it was. When she finally did find her, she put it in the most kind, tactful way she could. "Cecilia..." She took a breath, looking her partner, and soon opponent, dead in the eye. "I don't give a DAMN if we're friends! I will be the champion, and if that means kicking your ribs in, I don't give a FUCK!"

Finally, this was it. Apex was on the horizon, and the participants and their opponents had been declared. Cecilia had put in the effort to make it onto the card, and it had paid off well for her. She'd faced a number of opponents that tested her skills as she fought her way through the qualifiers, taking on Natalia Dominique, A I R A, and Anastasia Akira. In all of her matches, whether she'd won or lost, whether she'd dominated or faced an even battle, Cecilia had always been keen to let her greatest assets shine - her ferocity, her cold-blooded ruthlessness, her willingness to do anything to win, and her knowledge in technical wrestling and submission holds. All of those attributes could make anyone a successful wrestler in and of themselves - but Cecilia had them all, and every time she set foot in the ring, she was keen on bringing them all together into one cohesive, unstoppable whole. When she competed in her qualifiers, she wanted to show the world that those qualities would make her a worthy contender for the title of LAW's first World Openweight Champion - and now that all was said and done, she was one step closer to her goal.

Just thinking about it, Cecilia could feel her smirk growing a little wider. All her life, she had strived for success, reaching for bigger and bigger things. She had come from nowhere, having nothing, living with a single mother on the streets until she lost even that at a young age. As Cecilia saw it, the only direction she could go was up, and if she was going anywhere, she wanted to be on top. But now, she was finally a step closer to that goal. She'd worked hard, she'd faced crushing defeats in her career, but she'd just come back stronger, ready to put everyone who doubted her in her place. Now, all she needed to do was to win her Apex match, and she had a chance at finally achieving everything she'd always dreamed of.

That wouldn't be easy, of course. The announcement of who would face who had gone out, and Cecilia was up against Skylar Jones, the very same woman who was the other half of her tag team, the Street Dogs. With the two of them having trained and fought together, Cecilia knew well how tough Skylar was. She was almost as ruthless as Cecilia herself, and unlike the cool and calculating Cecilia, she was an unpredictable force of destruction who had shocked audiences with her displays of violence. Any match between them was sure to be nothing short of a bloodbath, and Cecilia knew she'd have to be on her guard.

But more than that...she would never admit it to anyone, but although she had first approached a partnership as strictly an alliance of convenience, and she had told herself she would be ready to betray Skylar as soon as she needed to...the time they'd worked and trained together had caused Cecilia to develop something of a respect for the girl. She wasn't about to say they were friends; that was ridiculous, but...Skylar had still been the only one who even cared enough to approach her, who had wanted to work with her. She was the closet she'd ever had to a friend in...all her life, really...

Now, as she stood backstage, preparing herself for a singles dark match she was booked for, Cecilia found herself questioning how she could expect to handle this. Whether she tried to or not, was she going to hold back, afraid to hurt the closest person she had in her life? And was that going to compromise her chances at the victory she so craved, that she so deserved? She stared into the mirror, braced against the counter as she was lost in her own eyes, with all of her fears and doubts running through her head.

Cecilia ducked down then, filling her hands with cold water and splashing it onto her face. She shook herself out, rolling her shoulders to prepare herself. She couldn't get lost in her thoughts like this, she told herself. The one thing that mattered, the one thing she was here for, was winning. And above all else, she wanted to win.

It was just then, however, that she heard a familiar voice come from behind her, one that made her stand up stock-still before she turned to face it. As if things couldn't have been more perfectly timed, Skylar was here. She wasn't even booked for tonight, and she had still dropped by - just to posit herself as better than Cecilia, at that! Just listening to her voice made Cecilia grow tense, her teeth coming together in a grimace. It was hard to say this about Skylar, but Cecilia was shocked by the audacity she showed! She didn't care if they were a team - Cecilia had to stand up for herself. This was her win, and she would accept nothing less!

"Excuse me?" Cecilia barked, crossing her arms as she spun back around to glare at Skylar. "You think you can beat me? Do you even know who you're talking to? You've seen what I can do to you, and you're that confident it'll be that easy? Skylar...you and I might be on the same team, but I'm here to win," she added, leaning in to grab Sky by the shoulder. "Don't you forget that."

Spoiler

Skylar bit her lip as the words left her mouth. She wanted to make a respectful but firm declaration that she had no intention of going easy on Cecilia, and that she didn't expect Cecilia to hold back in the slightest either. Instead, she sounded as if she was picking a fight. Tact had unfortunately never been her strong suit...

But before she could even open her mouth to try and correct what she'd said, and diffuse the situation, Cecilia spat out her response, and oh what a response it was! Sky grit her teeth at what her partner had to say, her hands forming fists. Cecilia was so damn quick to dismiss Sky as beneath her. If that was how it was gonna be, then...

"And you've seen what I can do to you." Skylar growled, hitting Cecilia's arm off of her shoulder with her forearm, before stepping closer to her, their chests pressed together. "If you underestimate me, Cecilia, you're gonna get hurt. Badly.

As she leaned closer to Skylar, Cecilia's eyes narrowed into a piercing glare, never leaving her partner's for a moment. She and Skylar might have been tag partners. The two of them might have grown closer to one another over all their time spent traveling together, training together, and wrestling together. And, whether or not Cecilia was ready to admit it, Skylar might have been the closest thing she had to a true friend in...well, all her life, really. But that did not mean that Cecilia was going to go easy on her. She had told herself time and time again that if Sky was anything for her, she was an ally of convenience. Cecilia wanted to shoot for the top, and she knew that she was destined to be number one in LAW - not anybody else, and she wasn't about to share the honors with anyone. She was sure a time would come where she'd have to throw Skylar to the side so that she could go after the top spot without her getting in the way - she just didn't expect it to happen this quicky.

Sky shoved Cecilia's hand off her shoulder, but it did little to slow her down. As the two of them leaned in closer to one another's, Cecilia pushed her chest up against Skylar's own, their busts flattening against each other and their foreheads meeting in the middle. Cecilia stared Skylar down, snorting a gout of hot air that the brunette would be able to feel when the two of them were right in each others' faces. If this was the way Sky wanted to play, Cecilia wanted to show her she wasn't taking her threats.

"You seem to be forgetting something," she growled. "I do know what you can do to me, Skylar. But here's the thing: I don't give a shit. I'm not like that Kazikura bitch. You're far from my first rodeo, and if you come out swinging, I'll be ready for you. So if you think it's gonna be that easy, get that thought out of your head now, before I have to do it with a chair."

The tension in the room grew a million miles per second. Skylar and Cecilia looked ready to tear each other to pieces as they exchanged words. Skylar started snapping her fingers at her side as she got angrier. Cecilia was pushing her fucking luck.

"Yeah? Well did it occur to you that maybe I don't give a shit either? I won't ever fucking deny that you're one a' the toughest chicks I've ever seen, but if you think I'm afraid of you, then I ain't the one who needs shit outta her head." She snarled pressing her forehead and bust against Cecilia's own. "Now, I'm gonna give you ten seconds to get the fuck out of my face, or else Apex won't be the only time I beat your ass this week." She growled.

Cecilia did have to give Skylar something - she wasn't one to back down. Most people, in the situation Sky was in, would have been intimidated into stepping out of Cecilia's face by now - Cecilia's reputation as a ruthless fighter had been well earned, and she showed that she knew it in every word she said and every move she made, being just as ready to use psychological weapons as she was physical ones. For the most part, that worked for her. Skylar, though...she was something else. It was going to take more than staring death in the face to get her to shut up. She did that on at least a weekly basis, after all. Hers was the kind of spirit Cecilia had to appreciate...were it not for the fact that right now, she was standing in the way of her achieving the title of World Openweight Champion.

In the midst of their staredown, Skylar and Cecilia inched in closer and closer until they had all but squeezed all the air out from in between them. Now they were pressed body against body - chest against chest, shoulder against shoulder; their firm stomachs were pressed against each others', as though they were contesting one another through their positions alone, seeing who would crumple first - who would flinch, or who would stray away. Cecilia wasn't about to show even the slightest hint of fear or hesitation; every muscle in her body was rigid, and she didn't move an inch, or even blink when it meant breaking her focus on Skylar. But her tag partner, and now rival, was just as motivated, and they shared a tense standoff.

Eventually, it grew too tedious for Cecilia. She let out a sigh, the slump of her shoulders at last breaking the tension. "You know what? Fine," she muttered, placing the palm of her hand on Skylar's forehead and giving her a shove backward. "You're wasting my time, anyway. I have better places to be." If Skylar wanted her out of her face, she could oblige.

Skylar's fists clenched tightly as she pressed into Cecilia, her eyes not leaving her new rival's own. This was exactly what she wanted to avoid, starting any sort of beef between her and her friend, but it seemed that was inevitable now. Sky wanted gold, and if she needed to tear through Cecilia to get it, then she was ready to do just that, and it seemed Cecilia was just as willing. This was gonna get nasty. It would be a brutal, bloody affair, but Skylar was determined to be the last one standing.

As Cecilia shoved Sky back by the head, all the adrenaline and anger that had been building up the past few moments hit a fever pitch. In the mood Sky was in, that kind of disrespect was the last thing she needed to calm down, and not to mention how it felt coming from Cecilia. She felt betrayed that someone she viewed as a close friend would dare to put hands on her like that. She snarled, her body shaking as she grabbed Cecilia's shoulders, and shoved her backwards, potentially causing her to collide with the sink behind her!

Both Cecilia and Skylar had been working together, but at the end of the day, their motivation was the same - they both wanted to win. When it came time for LAW to announce Apex, a competition for the ultimate prize, there was no question that both of them would throw their lot in to reach that goal. They would work through every qualifier match between them and the World Openweight Title with the utmost dedication, knowing what lay in store for them if they succeeded. That drive for success, for proving themselves, would take them to the top. But once they were there, they had to put aside any alliances. There could only be one of them who could be top champion, and both women wanted that to be them.

When the two confronted each other about the inevitable conflict of interest, the tension only grew greater and greater with each passing second. Sooner or later, it was bound to boil over - and it couldn't wait for the two of them to get in the ring. When Cecilia shoved Skylar aside, that was the last straw. In a moment, she was on her tag team partner, all but pouncing on her as she shoved her back into the sink!

Her teeth clenched in a grimace, Cecilia stumbled into the counter, landing against it with a thud. The reverberations of the impact ran through her, and her hand tightened into a fist as her body tensed. But then, through narrowed eyes, she looked back up toward Skylar, shooting her a glare that might as well have cut straight through her soul. Only two words left her mouth, but the tone in which she spoke was as cold as ice.

"Big. Mistake."

Grasping at the counter, Cecilia shoved herself off, throwing herself back toward Skylar. As she did, she drew back her arm, going to land a chop across the girl's throat! If Skylar had started this, she had better be ready to finish it!

WIth Skylar's powerful shove, Cecilia was sent slamming into the sink. Hearing the thud of her friend's back into the metal sink, and seeing her grimace as she clutched the counter, Skylar was for a moment horrified by what she'd let herself do. She wanted to apologize, to help Cecilia up, but before she could gather her thoughts, Cecilia's chop hit her right in the throat! She grasped her neck, grunting from the pain and taking a step back. As her vision cleared, her eyes focused in on Cecilia, rage running through her body. "You... FUCKING-!" With a roar, she grabbed Cecilia's top, flinging her fist right into the bridge of her tag partner's nose!

Cecilia would never admit it, but Skylar was the closest thing she had to anything that could be considered a friend. They'd learned all about each other through all their travels, and Cecilia could even see something of herself in the brunette - the same lingering hurting feeling, the same desperation to prove that there was something worthwhile in her. But it was those same shared circumstances that had fueled them on their climb to the top, and when only one of them could come away with the Openweight Championship, there was bound to be friction. Cecilia couldn't look as Skylar as a friend right now. She was just another obstacle to be eliminated to clear her path - by any means necessary. Skylar, evidently, agreed - from the way in which they fought, one would swear they were mortal enemies!

Even after Cecilia struck Skylar in the throat, leaving her gasping and sputtering, she still wasn't satisfied. She stared her partner down through a snarl, her fists clenching tight at her sides. As long as Skylar was still standing up and conscious, it meant Cecilia still had work to be done! She was already charging toward her, ready to hit her with her next attack - but Skylar was ready, too, as she pulled Cecilia straight into a powerful punch right into her face!

Cecilia's head turned to the side with a crack; she let out a hiss as her hair whipped through the air around her. But it wouldn't slow her down. There was too much on the line for this to stop her! She straightened herself out, looking back at Skylar and blowing a snort through her nostrils. Then, she threw her head forward, attempting to slam her skull into Skylar's own for a headbutt while the two were in close range. Hopefully, that would get Sky to back off - and if it created any distance, Cecilia would then swing a knee straight up into her stomach!