Passion and Fury: Cleo Hulbury vs Aaliyah Jackson

[Bare]

Rubbing her face a bit still Cleo would roll over, grateful that her scorpion kick had hit and sent her opponent back, seemingly long enough for Cleo to recompose herself as she pushed herself up, looking at Aaliyah as she seemed to be doing the same. "Hmph, I was about to say the same to you." Cleo said back in response as she pushed herself up to a vertical base and began to circle her opponent who did the same, seemingly picking up more and more speed as she did so. Not matching her though Cleo would wait, maintaining an almost casual gait as she circled, waiting for Aaliyah to come close enough... Cause the moment she did Cleo would try and lash out with a quick scissor kick to try and get a quick hit off, or at least force Aaliyah to reconsider getting so close.

[BlackAkuma]

Aaliyah was still trying to get a read on Cleo, but so far, she liked what she saw. There was a refined air about her, strutting like a peacock with that wild outfit of hers, but that wouldn’t be a problem if she could back it all up - so far, that seemed to be the case. That weird kick had landed clean, and she wasn’t even sure she’d have the flexibility to pull it off.

The two kept a distance for the moment, cautious, but there was only so long that Aaliyah was willing to play those games. She dove in fast, looking to catch Cleo off guard - bad mistake. She went low, a double-leg takedown in the works, and ate a scissorkick for her troubles, a hard strike to the top of her skull.

That one left her seeing a few stars. Stunned, she stumbled back against the ropes and leaned up against them while she tried to shake it off, not too far from where Yo-Yo stood and looked on.

[Bare]

Perfect. Just as Aaliyah came in towards her Cleo would lash out with a lightning fast scissor kick that rang true right on the woman's skull, forcing her up and stumbling back into the ropes apparently dazed. Smirking gleefully at this Cleo wouldn't waste this golden opportunity as she rushed forward, leaping up as she neared and extending her knee out to drive it directly into Aaliyah's stomach with a knee lift!

As she did it though Cleo would grab and hold onto the top rope with one hand while perching her other foot on the bottom rope, keeping herself in place with her knee still embedded into Aaliyah's stomach. Then as she looked down and noticed Aaliyah's cute little cousin just below... Cleo would use free hand to blow the woman a kiss before lifting her leg up from Aaliah's stomach and over the back of the woman's head, pushing forward to send Aaliyah forward.

If successful Cleo would turn around while holding onto the ropes still, lifting herself further up to perch her feet on the middle rope while continuing to hold onto the top rope, taking aim before leaping forward, intending to drive both her feet into Aaliyah with either a double stomp if the woman was supine, or a dropkick if she was still standing!

[BlackAkuma]

Huh. This chick had moves.

Yo-Yo wasn’t an expert on all this flippy-kicky stuff, but she had seen Aaliyah enough to know what it looked like when someone knew their shit. Cleo knew her shit, and she proved that when she actually managed to beat her cousin at her own game, nailing her with that knee before she could recover from the kick. And then she got up on the ropes, and-

”Uh…hi.”

Yo-Yo gave a sheepish wave back at Cleo, once again taken aback by the attention. Cards on the table, it had been a little while since she’d gotten those kinds of look from another woman, and she definitely wasn’t hating it.

Meanwhile, Aaliyah had more pressing matters - namely, the knee deep in her gut. She had little time to process that pain before Cleo flung her back, leaving her to fall forward, coming down hard on her back. The pain wasn’t going to stop there, either - she looked up and saw the woman’s bare feet coming right for her chest on a nasty collision course.

Nope. Just nope.

Aaliyah threw her body about and rolled away at the last second, giving Cleo nothing, but empty floor to crash into. It was much, but she used the time to throw her legs up and rise with a kip up, rising to her feet in a swift motion. As soon as she was up, she returned to the attack, spinning about, leaping up, whipping her legs around, and trying to hit Cleo with a gamengiri to the face.

[Bare]

Smirking softly after kicking Aliyah down to the mat Cleo would offer one last wink to Yo-Yo before turning and taking flight, intending on dropping down hard onto the woman full force with a double stomp!

Unfortunately however her plan wouldn't come to fruition as at the last moment her opponent had rolled away, leaving Cleo to hit the mat feet first with a thudding impact.

Not enough to hurt but definitely enough to make her tsk in annoyance. Although that tsk would quickly turn to a grunt of pain as Aaliyah retaliated faster than Cleo could react, smacking her with a gamengiri! "Ugh!" Cleo cried out in pain, knocked backwards by the attack until she hit the ropes.

Growling softly while looking back up at her foe Cleo would push back on the ropes before rebounding off them for a quick burst of speed towards Aaliyah, jumping as she neared the woman and throwing a leg around as if to kick Aaliyah with a simple round house kick, but she would pull her leg in at the last moment, pushing it down to land on it as she'd then turn and bring her other leg about to try and lay in a kick onto Aaliyah's stomach to try and catch her off guard!

[BlackAkuma]

That had been close. Way too close for Aaliyah’s tastes, if she were being sincere. While she had only been dueling with Cleo for a little while, she could already tell that this woman had a nice set of legs, maybe as strong as her own, so the last thing she wanted was to have them crash into her chest at maximum velocity. She’d managed to escape that fate, but she took note of it for later - this woman would crush her, if given half a chance.

A good thing, then, that Aaliyah wasn’t about to give her that chance again. Her little trick kick scored paydirt, connecting clean on Cleo’s face and knocking her away for a spell. It gave her time to recover as well, and when the two met again, she was ready. Or so she thought.

Up came her arms as she prepared for an incoming kick, only to realize to late that wasn’t the real deal - no, it was a feint, and the actual attack was much more substantial. Aaliyah took that blow right on her guard, but it knocked her back anyway, forcing her to stagger away.

It was tempting to retaliate in kind, but Aaliyah sensed that wasn’t the wisest course of action - she didn’t like the idea of trading shots with this woman all night long. They’d each shown what they could do with strikes, but Aaliyah had more to offer, and now was as good a time as any to prove it.

She moved in again and reared back, looking like she was about lash out with a punch. Instead, Aaliyah threw herself in and tried to force Cleo to grapple with her, attempting to push her back hard towards the nearest corner and trap her there.

[Bare]

Launching herself at Aaliyah and throwing up one leg as a feint before pulling it down and swinging her other leg up to nail Aaliyah flush with a kick to the woman's stomach that knocked her back! As she landed and turned to look back at her foe Cleo would be mildly disappointed to see that her opponent had a guard raised to block the full force of the blow.

Despite that however it still effectively resulted in Cleo getting 'one over' on her foe. Knocking her back and catching her off guard and leaving Cleo with the advantage in a sense. But it was far from enough to win completely. Especially not as Aaliyah got back up and came towards Cleo, making the model narrow her eyes as she circled the woman for a moment, expecting another exchange of strikes between them.

At first that's what she expected to happen. Only instead Aaliyah would snap her arms up around Cleo, locking her in tight and pushing her back immediately afterwards! 'Shit!' Cleo thought to herself as she was pushed back, barely even able to get her arms up to try and resist against Aaliyah's offense! As such she was pushed all the way up against the corner! "Ngh! Ref!" Cleo yelled, holding her hands up as a sign of lack of resistance to try and get the referee to break the two up!

[BlackAkuma]

Judging from the look in Cleo’s eyes, she was taken off guard by Aaliyah's forward approach. More than likely, she was thinking the two of them would get into another striking exchange, blow for blow, that sort of thing. Not a bad way to go, and she was sure the two of them would throw hands more than a few more times before this match was through, but that wasn’t what she wanted to test out just right now - no, Aaliyah wanted to see how well Cleo could hang when it came to grappling.

By early reports? Not so well.

While they were close in terms of height, it looked like Aaliyah had a little more meat on her bones, as she was able to push Cleo back, back, back to the turnbuckle and keep her there. Probably could’ve done that for a while, too, but the referee had other ideas. ”Back off, Aaliyah!”

She held up her hands and started the count, but Aaliyah backed away before she had the chance, giving Cleo a pat on the chest and a smile as she backed away. She moonwalked her way to the center of the ring and held on her hands, beckoning her opponent to give it another go. ”Try again?”

[Bare]

Cleo was neither prepared nor willing to play Aaliyah's game of grappling on the woman's terms and as a result gave no resistance as she was forced back into the corner, letting the referee do her job for her by forcing her opponent to back up off of her. Of course that didn't stop Aaliyah from feeling as if she got one over on Cleo, even patting her chest to mock her.

"Tsk.. Maybe I will." Cleo said, approaching her opponent with her hands raised this time before darting in... and going low rather than high. Rather than try and grasp at her foe's arms Cleo was instead looking to grab Aaliyah's leg as she got behind her with a ankle pick! If successful at this then Cleo would give a hard yank backwards, trying to pull the rug out from under her opponent and send her toppling face first to the mat as a bit of payback!

[BlackAkuma]

”Maybe you won’t!”

Just a little playful taunting, nothing too serious. Aaliyah was enjoying herself so far - while she had no qualms running rings around her foes, it was nice to have someone who could keep up with her, more or less. She was more than willing to keep this thing polite.

Break was over, from the looks of things - Cleo was ready to engage once more. Aaliyah moved in to meet her, thinking they might lock up again and try their luck with that, but no, her opponent was going lower - much lower. She tried to correct and catch her foe, but it was too late, as she made her way to her backside and grabbed her by the ankle, pulling it and forcing her to fall forward.

Aaliyah came down on her hands and immediately rolled forward, rising to her feet with a quick kip up. It didn’t take long, but it was far more time than she wanted to waste when she was dealing with someone like Cleo, and she quickly spun around to hopefully get a lock on the woman before she took advantage.