Lyra Heartfield vs Astrid Ostberg - Falls Count Anywhere Match

[Pegasus]

Lyra grinned as each chair shot made Astrid buckle further on the concrete floor. The crowd around them was worried for Astrid’s safety and the referee couldn’t even step in unless Astrid was expressing serious injury or wanted to call off the match. Cecilia took her turn, but it seemed Astrid wasn’t responding much to the chair shots as the pain was burning into her skin and sustaining itself. Lyra had considered going for a pin thinking this would be it, but Astrid’s willpower wasn’t to be downsized! She bursted up and through both women knocking Lyra and Cecilia to the ground silding the chair from either of their grasp! Lyra sat up on the concrete and widened her eyes looking up at Astrid’s towering frame as she was baffled for the first time in her life as a disciple how someone could withstand that much pain and STILL get up! Besides her master and lord, The Anomaly!

[CaptainL]

To say that Astrid had come away from the beatdown Lyra and Cecilia were unleashing on her unscathed wouldn't be accurate. Her body was covered in bruises, and she felt numb everywhere. Her chest rose and fell with every long, heavy heave she took in to try and get the air back in her lungs. Her head was throbbing and her ears were ringing - she heard the cheers of the fans as she fought her way back to her feet, but even that made her wince from the noise, and it was drowned out by the humming drone that rattled through her skull. Even on her feet, she swayed from side to side. The whole arena seemed like it was spinning; the outlines of the world blurred in and out. But she had still managed to fight her way back up - because she was driven to! She knew the Selection stood for everything she thought was wrong in the world of wrestling, and everything she stood opposed to. Worst of all, they had singled her out. They had made her a target, determined to leave her looking weak and helpless. Astrid couldn't allow that to happen - and she was going to fight with everything she had in her to prevent such a fate!

When her eyes locked onto Lyra, they narrowed into a glare, and her teeth clenched in a snarl. Lyra was behind all this. But what was more...Cecilia knew that Lyra was scared. If the fortune teller had banked on Astrid going down against her assault, then she was left breathless when Astrid proved that wouldn't be enough. And if she was standing there in shock, it meant she was wide open! Astrid had already proven to her that she wasn't going to roll over and take it so easily - now, it was high time for her to demonstrate just how wrong she was!

Letting out a battle cry, Astrid went barreling toward Lyra to close the distance. Her movements were slow and stiff, her body heavy with fatigue, but she wasn't going to let herself slow down when so much hung in the balance! As she came close, she drew back her arm, prepared to deliver a lariat across Lyra's chest! Cecilia snatched up the chair and took off running for Astrid, trying to intercept her - but the Norsewoman thrust her foot behind her and straight into the chair in Cecilia's arms, driving it into her gut and knocking her over on her back as she went down gasping and sputtering! Now, it was her turn to be on the warpath!

[Pegasus]

Lyra wouldn’t have the chance to counter as Astrid practically barreled right into her at top speed! She flipped inside out landing on the concrete gritting her teeth as fans moved away from the scene. However, if Astrid thought this was a bad place to be for Lyra and The Selection, it was far from it. Lyra giggled under her breath even as Cecilia got toppled over and she simply crawled on the concrete hacking a little, but laughing as she groveled. This is what she wanted to bring out of Astrid. Her master never told her to straight out win the match. Her plan was simply to bring out the darkness in Astrid.

Whether she won or loss was irrelevant, Lyra had already succeeded in driving Astrid back into anger. Simply by picking her brain and breaking the rules that she agreed to. Lyra just needed more anger to be driven out before this was over with. Lyra turned on her back grinning like a madwoman and stared daggers right at Astrid’s seething form.

“THIS IS WHAT I WANTED! FINALLY, YOU ARE GIVING IN TO THAT DARKNESS! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Lose control, Ostberg. Lose control,” Lyra pleaded.

[CaptainL]

No matter how sore she was, no matter how much her head was pounding - Astrid wouldn't let anything slow her down. Not when her own self-respect was on the line. In her mind, standing up to the Selection wasn't just her desire, but her duty - this was her standing up for what she believed in, for the good of wrestling, and sending a message that their tricks could never prosper! That motivation was all Astrid needed to carry her forward as she came charging toward Lyra, and with speed that by all means her body should never have been able to muster in such a state, her arm cracked out like a whip, clocking Lyra solidly upside the head!

And yet...when Lyra went down, she didn't go recoiling in pain. It wasn't the comeuppance, the moment of triumph and vindication, that Astrid had been hoping for. No, Lyra was laughing. Lyra, in her mind, had won. She had managed to goad Astrid into accepting the darkness, into giving into her violent urges. If Astrid was ready to unleash such a beatdown on her, that was exactly what Lyra had wanted.

It all hit her like a brick, then and there. Her whole body skidded to a stop, and she stared down wide-eyed at the woman beneath her - beaten, crumpled, but still laughing with uproarious glee. "I'm..." For a moment, Astrid asked herself if, just maybe...Lyra was right, after all. This had been her doing. She had gone outside of the ring, over the barricades; she was beating down on a woman who could hardly defend herself. Was this like her? Was this what Astrid Ostberg truly believed in - what she did?

She felt that throbbing in her temples. For a moment, her whole body bristled and tensed up as she grabbed at her head, trying to quell this feeling. But then, she told herself she couldn't do this. She couldn't give in! She already knew she was better than the Selection. She was doing this for a reason. She was doing this because they'd hurt her family! That alone proved Lyra wrong. She couldn't let herself be led astray. If she let her guard down because of her, that was only giving Lyra exactly what she wanted!

Gritting her teeth tighter, and letting out a roar, Astrid lifted her foot, prepared to bring it down onto Lyra in a powerful stomp! And if that worked, she'd follow it with another, and another! It didn't matter what she was doing now; she couldn't let Lyra get away with this! "SHUT UP!! SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UUUUP!!!" she bellowed, whipped into a frenzy. But in all of that, she wasn't watching her surroundings. She'd grown so wrapped up in punishing Lyra that she had forgotten, just momentarily, that Lyra wasn't alone - and in doing so, she was making a fatal mistake.

Through this all, Cecilia had a chance to catch her breath and pick herself back up. And when she saw Astrid with her back turned, she knew what to do. The Norsewoman could never see it coming - but Cecilia took off in a charge, closing in on her from behind. And when she came close, she gave a hard shove to Astrid's back, throwing her off her feet! With her balance suddenly swept out from under her, Astrid cried out in shock - but then, she fell forward, landing face-first into a row of chairs! She came crashing down with a loud clang, scattering chairs everywhere in her wake, and the fans jumped up from their seats to flee the scene as the action grew closer and closer - too close!

[Pegasus]

Stomp after stomp, every uttering word of destruction, Astrid unleashed her rage onto Lyra’s body. Lyra had to wheeze and wheeze after every stomp of Astrid’s boot hit her stomach brutalizing it. Even if Lyra could withstand the pain, she was still human and her bruises were only the beginning of her troubles. Lyra held her stomach as she tried moving away or at least crawl or roll, but her stomach brought her intense pain. Thank god for allies.

Cecilia had pushed Astrid into a row of chairs in the back row making fans get up in order to flee the scene. Lyra would be helped up by her friend and she wheezed holding onto Cecelia. She looked at the ice bitch and plotted their next move.

“We’re not getting over on her in this enclosed space. Milord told us once her anger is unlocked, she would be even tougher than before. We need to get back to Roxanne to have a better advantage. Follow me backstage!” Lyra urged as she pulled on Cecilia through the crowd towards the stage area and through the curtain to backstage.

[CaptainL]

Once again, Astrid had caught up to Lyra, and when she had the fortune teller in her grasp, she was going to spare her no mercy. She knew that Lyra was the cause of all of this - not only all the frustrations she had faced up to this point in the match, but all the threats that had been thrown at her family, and as a member of the Selection, Lyra also stood for everything the Norsewoman believed was wrong in the landscape of professional wrestling. She could never forgive her for that! Once again, Lyra was defenseless, with Astrid running over her with all the force of a steamroller. Against Astrid's rage, she could hardly fight back. But once again, Astrid had let herself get blinded to the rest of the world in her single-minded pursuit of retribution. And once again, Cecilia was there to back Lyra up, striking from behind when Astrid was least expecting it. The only difference this time was that, when Astrid was going to come crashing down onto a row of steel chairs, it was going to hurt even worse.

The chairs bowed and bent under her weight, dropping off their feet and going clattering to the floor. As soon as Astrid fell against them, the adrenaline rush she had sustained through her beatdown on Lyra subsided - and suddenly, she was reminded of just how much she hurt from the barrage of chair shots she'd taken before. Groaning and gasping, she began to kick her legs, grabbing at her shoulder and her bicep to try and soothe the pains that shot through her body. She knew she needed to get up - she knew that Lyra would get away if she didn't, and she could never allow her to slip through her fingers so easily. But at this moment in time, she didn't have the strength to so much as bend a knee. Seeing the mighty Astrid Ostberg - the woman who had once held the Heavyweight Championship - writhing in such agony had left the fans speechless, and they could do little more than stare blankly at what was unfolding in the rows before them. But the Selection's presence here was palpable, and no one dared to say a word.

Eventually, Astrid finally managed to roll herself over, getting on her hands and knees. Slowly, she pushed herself up to her knees; then she got one foot beneath her, and then the other. When she lifted herself higher, she swayed from side to side, and her shoulders and back heaved with every breath she took in. With one hand she clutched at her side, trying to dull the pain in her ribs. But she knew one thing. Even if her head was pounding, and the sweat from her brow was dripping into her eyes, Astrid wasn't going to let Lyra get away with this. She couldn't!

She looked up just in time to see Lyra and Cecilia disappear through the crowd and behind the curtain. She sucked in a deep breath, but then she pushed herself straighter and started to stomp off after the two in hot pursuit. The camera crew rushed to follow her - it was becoming clear that the entire stadium would become their arena!

[Pegasus]

Lyra pushed past the curtain as the camera feed switched on the titantron as many camera people were taking in every moment. Astrid wasn’t going to be too far behind and they were slowly swimming up a creek without a paddle. They started wondering the halls getting away as fast they could and tried to make Astrid play their game of Cat and Mouse. As the duo wondered the halls, they came upon three unmasked bodies that laid across the tile floor as the camera showed their identities to reveal Sarabeth and her friends, Jessie and Matilda. They were the ones that warded off Roxanne backstage, but it seemed the Jackals had became too much even with the numbers equaled.

Jessie laid against the concrete wall with her right eye blackened while Matilda laid at her feet with heavy breathing and some of her hair ripped out. Sarabeth was busy being thrown into a pile of trash cans by Roxanne as the loud clanging could be heard from any room in the arena as the daughter of Astrid was covered in metal cans. Her black attire was ripped and tattered exposing her under garments a little and scratch marks could be seen on her body and face. These three Young Lionesses took quite a beating from the Wild Jackals and now, it looked like the match escalated to 5-on-1 against Astrid.

[CaptainL]

Astrid should have known that, in going through the curtains, she was drawing herself right into the Selection's clutches - like an antelope going into a lion's den. But at this moment, Astrid was not thinking logically. She was driven by rage and rage alone - and she had already made up her mind that Lyra wasn't going to get away with her tricks. She was willing to go to whatever lengths she needed to if it meant seeing to it that the fortune teller was punished. Even if that meant she was going to have to expose herself to danger, she was sure she could handle it. That was, until she was confronted face to face with just what her opponents were willing to do.

Not even the sounds of thumping and rattling in the distance were going to slow Astrid down; her fists only balled tighter in a white-knuckled grip at her sides. But when she rounded the corner and saw Jessie and Matilda slumped lifelessly against the walls, everything ground suddenly to a halt. The Norsewoman could feel a chill run through her body; her face paled, and something dropped in the pit of her stomach. This, she realized, was what the Selection was willing to do to the people who she cared about, who were close to her. A moment ago, Astrid felt like an avenging angel of justice, about to deliver fire and brimstone upon the sinful...now, she was reminded of just how powerless she really was.

Nothing truly turned Astrid's stomach, however, quite as much as what she saw a moment later - when she looked over just in time to see Roxanne throw Sarabeth into the trash cans. The sound of the clattering of steel as cans were knocked this way and that beneath the impact made Astrid's whole body tense up with a shudder - but just a moment later, she planted one foot against the ground and took a stride forward, holding her head and shoulders high. "MARZIA!! STOP THIS!" she cried. "Leave Sarabeth out of this! We had a deal, remember!?"

When Roxanne's eyes met Astrid's, though, they were narrowed into a glare just as piercing, and she bared her teeth in a snarl just like the animal she'd named herself after. "STOP CALLING ME THAT, dammit!! I don't know what it's gonna take to get that through your skull, I'm NOT Marzia, and I never will be again! Get the fuck over it!"

Astrid sucked in a breath. Her eyelid twitched nervously, and she winced just thinking about hearing such things from someone she had long considered a friend. But she couldn't let that stop her now. She had to be ready, she told herself as she gulped down deep breaths. This woman was right - this wasn't the Marzia Astrid had befriended and trained beside. This was just another puppet of the Selection, another threat to be eliminated...

"Ooooh...is our friend Astrid scared?~" came the sickly-sweet voice of Miza from somewhere down the hall. The Norsewoman looked up, glancing left and right, but there was no sign of the woman who had once been Kyoko Kobashi anywhere. So then, how did she know how she was reacting? And where were those sounds coming from?

"I'm glad you liked our artwork, Astrid...but we aren't there, either. Keep looking..." Astrid glanced over to the other direction. There it was again - now it was Saka, but they still displayed that knowledge that they shouldn't have had. Were they watching her? And how? The more Astrid questioned it, the more her stance began to ease as the slack and the hesitation set into her body...which meant she was wide open as Roxanne suddenly punched her square in the face.

"Gah-!" Her head went cracking backward as she stumbled aside, her balance threatening to give way before she caught herself. Still, she rubbed at her face to dull the pain, looking back up with a huff to see Roxanne fastening a glove with bladed fingers on her hand, and narrowing her eyes on her with sheer hate.

"...your turn now, Astrid."

But Astrid's eyes only narrowed to meet hers. Whatever came next...she had to be ready. Roxanne came charging toward her, growling a bestial growl, but Astrid ducked down, letting her come charging into her shoulder so that she could shove herself back to her feet, grabbing Roxanne's arm, and catapult the Wolf backward and into the trash cans with a shoulder throw!

[Pegasus]

Roxanne would be thrown straight into the trash cans sailing over Sarabeth’s prone body towards another part of the arena. This time, into LAW’s production room where camera angles and feed for the show was being broadcasted to the world. Several production members saw the wolf disciple and leader of the Wild Jackals reeling as they decided to hightail it out not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. Three stayed behind as they couldn’t let the show go off the air prematurely even for just one match so they stayed in corners of the dark room hoping to not be signaled out. Regardless, Roxanne was taken care of as Sarabeth limped up over to her friends trying to get them to wake up.

However, that still left Lyra and Cecilia unaccounted for. They were really the ones Astrid was after, but they just seemed to disappear. That was up until Lyra brought a steel pipe around Astrid’s neck and started choking her out with it. Cecilia would take care of Sarabeth and keep her nose out of the match as the referee stood by monitoring everything. Lyra used her feet to climb Astrid and placed her feet firmly in the back of the Norsewoman and former champion pulling back hard on Astrid’s throat hoping to make her pass out!

[CaptainL]

Roxanne might have tried blindsiding Astrid with her charge, but even if the Norsewoman had been rattled by the threat of the Wild Jackals lurking in the shadows, she was ready for her. She managed to turn her momentum against her, grabbing her and ducking down for a shoulder throw that sent her hurtling through the air and into the production room. For those few seconds, Roxanne was out of the picture; Astrid didn't need to worry. She breathed out a sigh of relief, and she hoped to herself that her heart would stop pounding so fervently soon enough. When she saw Sarabeth rise from the pile of scattered trash cans, the tension in her body began to ease, knowing at least that her stepdaughter wasn't too hurt to get back up. Everything was all right now. She leaned closer to her, extending a hand. "Sarabeth! Sarabeth, are you-"

But it wasn't safe. Nowhere was safe when the Selection was around. Not in the ring, and not out of it - wherever they made their presence known, they were in control. For a brief moment, Astrid had forgotten that. But they were going to make sure she'd regret it. As soon as Lyra had slipped away from the forefront of the Norsewoman's thoughts, there she was again, springing up behind her and wringing the pipe around her neck!

Astrid didn't even have a chance to gasp in surprise - not when the pipe was pressing down into her airways, squeezing it tighter and tighter with each passing moment. She was wrenched back to her full height, pulled back against her foe. Only a hoarse, choked rasp escaped her throat, and her body began to twitch and tremble. But a moment later, when she looked back over her shoulder at Lyra, her eyes were narrowed, and her teeth clenched in a snarl. She couldn't let Lyra intimidate her like this, she thought - she was stronger than that. She was still going to fight back with everything she had, and her next move would stand as proof enough of that, as she reached up to grab at the pipe with both hands, prepared to shove it away.

But before she could, she stopped - as another voice cut through the air.

"Oh, dear. I wouldn't do that, if I were you..."

Astrid blinked a few times, as though trying to convince herself she was really seeing what she thought she was. There, standing right before her, was Cecilia - had she always been there, and if not, when did she come in? Astrid hadn't seen her at all. But the fact that Cecilia had snuck up on her was far less important than what she was doing now. She had Sarabeth's hair wrapped around one fist, hoisting her up into the air - and with her other hand, she placed her thumb beneath the girl's jaw, raising her other fingers toward her mouth, as though setting her up for a mandible claw. The whole time, though, there was no anger in her eyes, and her tone was flat and expressionless. Methodical - as though she wasn't in the least bit afraid of what Astrid could do.

"You make another move, and I'll have no choice..."

In that moment, the blood in Astrid's veins ran cold, and her whole body went tense. If she stayed here, she would be at Lyra's mercy - she'd have no choice but to let her strangle the last gasps out of her with the pipe. And that would mean she would leave herself to the Selection's whims. That in itself was a terrifying thought, but even worse was the fact that it would make a fool and a liar out of her. It would mean that she had challenged the Selection to this fight, intent on standing up to them and stopping them in their tracks and proving their reign of terror couldn't prosper - and in the end, she hadn't been enough. It would mean that she really was a poser; a washed-up has-been. The champion she was - the champion she should've been - surely wouldn't let this happen, would she?

But, on the other hand, if she did fight back, if she did fight to free herself, it would mean leaving Sarabeth in danger. Abandoning her own family to the very threat she had gone into this match looking to stop. Sarabeth looked up to her to protect her, to be the mother she always needed - and Astrid would be turning her back on her.

The very thought of it made Astrid quake in her boots. She felt sick to her stomach. It was between Sarabeth and her own pride - and as much as it made her skin crawl to admit, she valued both of those things equally. She couldn't choose.

But then, she realized...she didn't have to.

Astrid took in one last deep breath, filling her lungs with all the air she could in this state. If she had to choose...she'd choose both! Every muscle in her body went tense and firm, and her fingers dug down around the steel pipe in an ironclad grip. Then, she would use all the strength she had in her to try and spin herself around in place - hopefully bringing Lyra along for the ride with her, as she tried to toss her off her back and into Cecilia!