Not Enough Room For Both of Us (Part 1)

[DSX93]

It was hard, looking down and seeing such powerful fear in that woman's eyes and knowing that he was the cause. It was threatening to soften his grip each and every second that passed, but he kept reminding himself: She broke into his room. She came here with the intent to hurt him, in more ways than the one. She took this thing too far.

He's just doing what he's gotta do.

He'll just choke her out, take her down to the lobby, let her sleep it off there, and be very, very thankful for the laws that protect combat professional wrestlers from any legal consequences from that. He could be doing a lot worse, and he still won't be touched in the aftermath. Not by the police, anyway. Maybe she'll think about that later.

And then came Mjolnir to smash the thoughts out of his head. Somebody had learned from Thor's mistake.

The world moved, it felt like. The floor came flying up, right into Severin's face. Everything turned into a blur, and it kept moving, turning his equilibrium into shit and making it impossible to get up as quickly as he knew he needed to. He was just started to make some headway when he felt a foot stomping down between his shoulders. It wasn't bare.

That should've told him what was up right away, but his brain had to make the trip back from tomorrow. Hearing that second voice sped up the journey, though.

They weren't alone.

His first instinct was to cover up for the follow-up blows that he knew were coming, but then this other woman called him filth. He wasn't fluent in Japanese yet, but he was putting the work in. His matches haven't brought him around to LAW's home country much, but he was putting in the work nonetheless, considering it another crucial step to take on his climb to the top.

This is going to hurt anyway. But he'll be damned if he lets them humiliate him, even if they're each other's only audience.

Severin pushed against that downward force. If they wanted him to stay down, they were gonna have to do a lot more than that!

[Weonna]

Akane felt the pressure shift beneath her sneaker — a subtle shift in resistance. He was trying to rise.

Her lips curled, just slightly.

“Tch… Baka...”

Without hesitation, she raised her foot again — and this time stomped down hard on the back of Severin’s head, slamming his face back into the floor with a heavy thud!

She didn’t wait for a reaction. She crouched down beside him, grabbing both of his wrists and yanking his arms forward, dragging him back up to his knees.

“くそ野郎…まったく、面倒くさい.”
(“Piece of shit… such a pain in the ass.”)

And then the kicks started.

THWACK!

The first shoot kick landed square across his chest, the rubber of her sneaker smacking into bone.

THWACK!
Another.
And another.
And another.

Four. Five. Six.

Spoiler

Each one echoed louder than the last, the sound bouncing off the walls. Akane’s movements were mechanical — no wasted energy, just perfectly-aimed strikes, her face unreadable as she punished his chest with a barrage of force.

And then she paused.

She stepped back just a fraction — just enough to draw her leg back for the final blow.

Her eyes locked on him with cold fury.

And with a final, sharp inhale — she snapped her leg forward.

CRACK!

Spoiler

The sixth and final shoot kick slammed across the side of his head! Her expression didn’t change, but her breathing grew slower, more measured.

She looked down at his prone form.

“下がってください…(Stay down).”

[DSX93]

That stomp came just as suddenly as whatever it was that he'd been hit with, and between the two, he couldn't decide which one hurt more. Either way, he was up there in a celestial realm. Set the first Resident Evil in space, mix it in with some of the first Space Jam, with a cameo from Mario, and give them a stage to Dance on: He was seeing all the stars.

Here comes the beatdown. Even in his loopy state, Severin knew damn well that this was only the beginning.

His second assailant ever so kindly helped him up onto his knees. Then BOOM! Her leg felt like a long hammer being slammed into his chest. A crushing blow that ripped the air from his lungs and rattled his bones, the impact thundering through the room. And another. And another! Another! Another! One more again, threatening to knock him on his ass, but he'd catch himself and correct his balance with a quick, if weak push off the floor. It wouldn't get him anywhere beyond his kneeling position. He ended up doubling over onto all fours to cough out his empty lungs. No blood, which felt like a miracle; his chest was all but caved in, and she'd just done something to his heart. It wasn't beating right.

All he could do was push himself back up onto his knees, just in time to see the final blow coming. Brown eyes burned into green. Defiant, daring the redhead to give him her best. Yeah, she got him. And she got him good. Brought him down fast. But this shit isn't over.

And then he was obliged, and plunged into darkness...

[Weonna]

Tia’s coughing finally eased into rough, shallow breaths. Her throat burned like hell, but she managed to pull herself upright, one hand bracing against the bedpost. She looked a mess — red-faced, hair in her eyes, mascara slightly smudged — but the glint in her eyes was pure fire.

“Crikey…”

she wheezed, wincing with a chuckle.

“You sure know how to make an entrance, mate.”

She turned her head and flashed Akane a grateful, if battered, grin.

“Cheers for the save. Reckon you just stopped me from takin’ a permanent nap.”

Akane, standing stoic as ever with arms crossed and eyes cool, gave a slow nod.

“…What now?”

she asked flatly, posture still ready for anything.

Tia rolled her shoulder with a grunt, glancing down at the twitching mess that was Severin.

“What now?”

she echoed, cracking her neck to either side.

“Now I beat the last bit o’ breath outta him. Just need the bastard awake for it.”

She stepped forward, barefoot and gave Severin’s cheek a light, almost teasing slap.

“Oi, rise and shine, ya mongrel.”

Tia then squatted low and hooked his near arm across her thigh, gripping his chin and locking her arms into place. With a smooth pull, she wrenched Severin into a deep abdominal stretch!

“Let’s see how bendy you are when the adrenaline’s gone, huh?” she taunted, gritting her teeth.

She cranked back harder, her muscles tensing as she dragged the stretch deeper, every movement full of control and contempt.

[DSX93]

Severin came to with a jolt, barely even registering the slap. His eyes snapped closed right after they first opened. With a pained groan, he brought a hand up to nurse his throbbing head. His mind wasn't assessing the situation yet, focusing on that overall feeling of having been hit by a car.

And then he heard that first woman's voice. Fucking hell.

He barely had any time to react before they picked up from where they left off, with the white-haired psycho twisting him into a variant of an abdominal stretch, testing his flexibility. He was actually more "bendy" than his chiseled musculature would imply, thanks to his yoga regimen. But it would only serve him well for so far.

She kept cranking the hold back farther and farther, tighter and more and more unforgiving, eventually reaching the point where discomfort turned into more pain and taking him even further beyond until he was just about bent in half, driving a cry to rumble in his throat. Despite his initial effort, it would slip out to reach their ears, giving them what he knew they wanted.

Fucking hell!

He turned his eyes to the ceiling, intentionally avoiding eye contact with the redhead as he redoubled his efforts, gritting his teeth as those cries turned into growls. A balled fist would slam into the floor. Rather uselessly, in terms of practicality. But that wasn't the kind of battle he was fighting here.

He knows how these people work. Shit like this -- watching people break -- it's what they live for.

No.

No!

He's spent so much of his life being a victim. To bullies at school. To his brother. To his father. In his relationships. And he'd just take it, and give them what they want, or try to, to make it all stop.

Severin would finally bring his eyes down from the ceiling, going from looking at nothing in particular to a gaze pointed right at the redhead again. He's not giving them that. He refuses to give them that.

[Weonna]

Tia felt it — the shift in his body. That split-second twitch, that telltale groan vibrating through his torso. The stretch had hit its mark.

“There it is…”

she said through gritted teeth, her lips curling into a grin.

“Thought I lost ya for a sec.”

Her bare foot planted more firmly into the floor as she cranked the abdominal stretch even tighter, dragging his body just that much closer to breaking point. His spine arched like a bow, ribs stretching wide and exposed. She heard the sound he didn’t want to make — that pained cry slipping out past his pride — and it made her grin wider.

"Aw, what’s the matter?"

she cooed in mock sympathy, brushing sweat-damp hair from her eyes.

"Thought you were gonna be the big bad message to the roster, yeah? But here ya are, bent like a pretzel."

His fists pounded the floor — defiant, but useless. That just made her enjoy it more.

Tia tilted her head slightly.

“Oi, Akane.”

Like clockwork, Akane stepped back into view — her red hair still immaculate, her black shirt hanging clean over her lean, lethal frame. She didn’t say a word. She simply walked up beside them and looked down at the exposed stretch of Severin’s body — open, vulnerable, already gasping for air.

Akane crouched, lined herself up — and then fired.

THWUMP!

Her knee drove into Severin’s belly like a piston, flattening it inward.

Again.

THWUMP!

Another one, just below the ribcage. No wasted motion, just clean, brutal strikes.

THWUMP!

A third, right to the gut — crushing the same spot Tia had been stretching.

Tia could feel his body jolt with each one.

She looked over her shoulder, smirking.

“Keep goin’ till he spits up lunch.”

Akane didn’t respond. She didn’t need to.

THWUMP!
THWUMP!

The knees kept coming. And Tia? She kept holding him in place — locked in tight, watching his face twist, daring him to look away again.

“You wanted to play rough, mate,”

She whispered near his ear.

“Now ya gettin’ it.”

[DSX93]

There was nothing Severin could do here but endure. Keep gritting his teeth, denying passage to the sheer magnitude of the agony that was fighting like hell to make itself known.

"Fuck you!" He spat out, to the woman who was currently testing the lengths his body could bend. To be completely honest, he was afraid. Along with seeing shit play out on TV, he's heard stories. Look at what the Ancestors of Isis do to guys. The Red Nation. eMpire. For all he knew, that's what they had in mind for him. And the majority of people would be behind them for it. Hell yes, he's afraid!

He hid that fear with fierce defiance, again meeting Akane with a challenging glare, putting it into words this time, through the strain that was being enforced on him. "You think you're bad? It...It took both of you...and a weapon...to bring me down! With a fuckin' sneak attack! Y'all ain't nothin'!"

Akane didn't respond, almost like he hadn't said a word. She just crouched down, set her eyes on her targets, and started throwing knees. The first one, he was ready for. Kind of. He did everything right: Knew the blow was coming and anticipated it, tightened his core, exhaled when it made contact. It sure as shit was no medicine ball, still bringing out more wind than he'd already expelled. But that, he could endure. For now.

Or so he thought. The next one caught him right in his floating ribs, pulverizing his insides on through to the other side. It was one of the worst kind of shots a person can take, aimed at one of the worst spots. Severin couldn't control his reaction, his body beginning to curl in response to the blow, but not as far as it tried in order to protect itself. Not with Akane's friend keeping that abdominal stretch locked in, leaving him vulnerable to more punishing knees.

Each one flattened his innards. Each one felt like it would be the one to give her what she asked for. And it actually would come up, but not out. By some miracle, he was able to swallow it back down, though when it went back down, it rather fervently raised the point that it would've been better off on the floor.

The next one struck him in a critical place. He was already losing air fast, but this one forced all of it out of him and left him wheezing, unable to breathe it back in.

And she kept going. And going. And going. And so was he, lights fading, his world turning into darkness.

Going...Going...

[Weonna]

Tia could feel every convulsion of Severin’s body through her hold — the spasms, the jerks, the way his chest tried and failed to expand under the mounting punishment. Akane was surgical with her strikes, each knee landing with brutal efficiency, but it was the sound — the lack of sound — that told Tia they were getting close.

The fight was still in him, yeah. He spat words like venom, desperate to project strength. But she could feel the panic rising underneath it. His breath was ragged. His body was starting to betray him. One knee from Akane had clearly found the sweet spot, and from there, it was all downhill.

Severin was going.

Tia didn’t need to say anything.

After the final, devastating knee left him wheezing — no bark, no snarl, no insult — Akane stood up in silence, her job done. She dusted her hands off on her jeans and stepped back, calm and cold.

That was Tia’s cue.

“Oi, that’s enough, mate,”

she muttered toward Akane.

“Don’t break all the toys before I get to toss ’em.”

She unhooked the stretch, letting Severin collapse like a pile of twitching limbs, then stood over him, cracking her neck with a tilt.

“Thanks for warmin’ him up.”

And then she bent down, her arms sliding under his limp frame with surprising strength, gripping him like dead weight. With a grunt, she hoisted him up into her shoulders, before flipping him to where his front was facing the ceiling!

And then—

BOOM!

Tia swung him down in one fluid motion, driving Severin’s body into the hard floor with a vicious Dominator!

Dominator

The whole room shook.

Tia exhaled through her teeth and stood tall over his flattened form, brushing her fingers through her hair like it was just another Tuesday.

[DSX93]

Severin couldn't breathe. He tried and tried, and every attempt would be met with protest with his ribs, even from as little as he was able to manage; it was like his body forgot how. And his mind was hanging in the balance. Half in, half out. He hadn't had it this bad before. For all he knew, this could be a rupture. But he was edging so close to oblivion now that he couldn't even think to be scared anymore. He could barely even follow their conversation.

Let alone resist when one of them lifted him from the floor, flipping him over like an omelet so he could face a blurry ceiling. His limbs were limp and useless in the air, doing nothing for him.

This is it.

He can't take this. He knows that. So he closes his eyes, and prepares himself for that dreamless slumber and-

Keira.

Her visage runs through his mind as he's violently whipped into the floor. The fear of God shoots through him like lightning just before the moment of impact. And now, more than anything, he dreaded not the imminent oblivion, but what could come if he emerges from it too late...

BOOM!

And he's out.

[Weonna]

Tia stood tall over Severin’s motionless body, one hand on her hip, breathing steady like she’d just finished a warm-up. She gave him a cheeky nudge with her barefoot.

“Oi... he’s out like a bloody light.”

Another poke — still no response.

“Reckon that’s the quietest he’s been all night,”

she chuckled, looking back at her partner.

“Wanna snap a selfie, or should we toss this sook where he belongs?”

Akane, already picking up her suitcase, shook her head slightly.

“No photo. Not cute face, we throw now.”

she replied

Tia smirked wide.

“Right then. Bin duty it is.”

With little ceremony, the two lifted Severin’s limp body — Tia grabbing under the arms, Akane taking the legs. He hung there between them, completely limp.

“Dead weight,”

Tia muttered.

“Figures.”

They carried him down the hallway, passing a couple of stagehands who made themselves very busy looking anywhere else. One poor intern nearly tripped trying to backpedal out of sight.

Out the back exit they went, down the loading dock ramp — until they reached the rear lot.

There it was: a big, dented green dumpster, half-filled with broken ring boards, old ropes, sweat-stained towels, and a busted folding chair poking out like a crown.

Tia’s face lit up like it was Christmas.

“Oi! Would ya look at that! It’s got his name written all over it.”

Akane eyed the pile with a blank expression and nodded.

“Rooku soft. Betteru than frooru”

Together, they heaved him up — and with one final swing...

THUD!

Severin would crash down into the trash heap, landing in a bed of crumpled cardboard, plastic wrap, and someone's discarded jacket.

Tia leaned on the side of the bin, staring down with a grin.

“Sleep tight, ya drongo. Let us know how the bin smells~”

Akane stepped beside her, slapping the dumpster’s edge with a dull clang.

"Trash where trash berong."

Then, with perfect sync, the two turned and walked off — Tia tossing her hair over her shoulder, Akane following beside her.

No guilt.
No rush.
No fucks given.