Dangerous Business
Chapter XXV
Liz pushed her brown hair out of her eyes as she watched Lita enter the ring, posing for the crowd. The title was loosely hanging on her shoulder, a microphone in her hand as she watched, jade eyes assessing every detail of Lita. It was an instinctive skill she'd long since picked up. The wrong grab on too-loose clothes could cripple both competitors. Bulky pads must be allowed room, or counters would be no good.
Silently running over the long epic list of consequences, she sighed, and raised the microphone to her lips. "I believe," she ran her tongue over her chapped lips, "That this belongs to you." She shrugged the Women's Championship off of her shoulder and tossed it. It landed face up between them. Lita took a small step forward, eyes keeping track of the brunette even as she looked down at the title. The redhead kicked the title to the side, stepped forward, and embraced her tightly. The cheers of the crowd were lost on them as they broke apart.
Liz nodded at Lita as they both backed away, slight smiles and grins vanishing, feral looks present now. Narrowing their eyes in concentration, they sized each other up, calming themselves as they circled like lions, waiting to pounce.
As the bell rang, they leapt toward each other. Liz jerked the slightest bit to the side. Lita, expecting her to meet her head on, kept in motion forward. As Liz reached out and looped her arms around Lita's neck, Lita couldn't do anything to stop the forward motion that sent her head over Liz's shoulder. The brunette leapt down, bringing Lita's chin to slam painfully into her shoulder, her head to her arms, and back again. The chin-breaker was a dangerous move-a lot of things could go wrong. Lita, like many others, met the move wrong. Body still careening forward, her left knee swung forward, landing a little past a foot ahead of her at the same time as Liz leapt down. The move brought Lita backward, but she was unable to bring her leg back because of the boots she was wearing. She gasped at the pain that tore at her muscles along her thigh and hip. Her head throbbed from the part of the move that Liz had intended.
Liz cursed as she stood. She had allotted what she thought was time and space enough for Lita's legs to go under her, but apparently she'd done wrong, and Lita was hurting because of it. The guilt left quickly. She could apologize later, but now she was focused on the match.
As Lita knelt upward, Liz bounced off the ropes and delivered a scissors kick to her head. Lita fell face forward. As her back hit the mat, Liz was careful not to let her head bounce to the mat as it usually did.
"Let's take a second look at that chin-breaker, King," J.R. was saying, shaking his head as his lips pursed, "That was a dangerous move and they-well, Lita-landed it wrong. That could've torn her muscle," he added.
As the reply was brought up, Liz and Lita both ignored it. Liz pushed Lita into the ropes, and Lita didn't counter. Liz rushed toward Lita when she bounced back, but the redhead smothered up strength enough to deliver a Hurricarana. She took in a sharp breath through her gritted teeth as she clutched at her head, all pain returned stronger now.
Lita, showing no remorse, tugged Liz up onto her feet and knocked her down with a dropkick. Liz kicked wildly as she went down, catching Lita in the knee, which gained her the time to recover from the dropkick. Head pounding, she managed to deliver a weak spear to Lita. Straddling the redhead, she grabbed a handful of her hair and slammed Lita's head against the canvas in an effort to gain even grounds. Lita rolled out from under her, disorientated at the least.
"You've got to wonder how much of this beating Liz can take," J.R. said as Lita reversed a throw into the turnbuckle. Liz's head crashed against the pad protecting the metal, but the pad hardly lessened the blow.
"J.R., what I can't understand is why she even went out here," King mentioned, "There's no way she's going to win this match. At best, she's at 75% and Lita's well past 100! Even when they're both doing great, Lita's a challenge."
Liz saw black dots appearing in her head, and she shook it as she stood. Lita speared her into the turnbuckle, but as she went for another offensive, Liz managed to kick her in the stomach.
The match continued back and forth for a minute, until Lita caught Liz into a DDT. Head spinning, Liz crumpled into a defensive ball as Lita pulled a few kicks. Lita was pulling Liz back up when Evolution's music started playing. The redhead, and now current champion, ignored the men strolling to the ring and lifted Liz for a suplex.
"1…2…" the ref counted as his hand slapped the mat. Liz managed to get a shoulder up, and rubbed at her head, and let a small sigh out. The makeshift stitches that the doctor had put in had fallen out. Small trickles of blood ran down her forehead as she struggled to her feet.
As Liz bounced back from the ropes, she dropkicked Lita on her left leg. Lita grimaced and fell to all fours. Liz, swaying on her feet, grabbed Lita's ankles and pulled them so that they were resting on her shoulders. Keeping a firm grip on her ankles, she place her feet firmly on Lita's chest, and pushed with her legs while pulling with her arms.
Liz dropped the hold long enough to give herself an advantage, and then stood up, looking for the ref, who had been 'distracted', so to speak.
Rick Flair had gotten up onto the apron, and was making motions to climb into the ring. As the ref tried to send him to the back, HHH and Randy slipped into the ring. Liz backed off, and crouched down as HHH rushed forward, aiming to hit her with the title. She ducked his coming high shot, but at the last second, he swung the title down to catch her stomach. She flipped over his arm and landed on her back, her head snapping backward.
Hunter grabbed her, and picked her up, easily keeping her elevated in the air as he stalked toward the ropes. He threw her over the ropes, her back slamming against the barricade; her head jerking back to slam against the top of it.
As Hunter shoved Liz back into the ring, Randy removed the cover to the turnbuckle. When Randy stepped back, Lita rushed forward, giving him a low blow. She staggered to her knees, and then tried to go after Hunter. Liz wriggled out of his grip and tried to kick him, but he grabbed her foot. She tried to kick him with her other foot, but he managed to catch her other foot. He swung her body around, Liz's body colliding with Lita's before Hunter let go. As he let go, Liz's forehead slammed into the uncovered turnbuckle. Her body snapped backward forcefully.
As the mat shook beneath his feet, Hunter turned to his title, and picked it up. Randy, after recovering, shot a withering look Lita's way and grabbed Liz's arms behind her and held them there as Hunter tightened his grip on the title. Rick Flair elbowed the referee, and climbed through the ropes.
Hunter smirked as he slammed his title into Liz's head. Deep crimson blood rolled slowly down her face, a mask of red. Her head lolled to the side, and HHH slapped her face lightly, mocking her as he did so. As she opened her jade eyes partway, he swung the title into her stomach again.
As he did so, the referee started regaining his bearings. Randy tossed Lita face first into the turnbuckle, and laid her body out on top of Liz's. Rick, Randy, and Hunter watched carefully as the ref counted.
"1…2…3!" the bell rang, but neither of the two opponents could acknowledge it. Evolution smiled as they headed backstage.
As they walked backstage, they ran headlong into a blonde. She stumbled back, and eyed them with fury in her blue eyes, before pushing past them, mumbling, "Assholes." Evolution exchanged a look, and wider grins spread across their faces. Randy and Hunter turned, following the blonde.
Hunter grabbed her shoulder and turned her around. "Dominique?" She slapped his arm away.
"Get your hands off, bastard," she snapped, and he smirked as her face changed quickly to pain. She fell limply forward, sliding down Hunter to the floor, blood gathering at the back of her head. Randy stood behind her, lead pipe in hand. Hunter grabbed her, slinging her motionless body over his shoulder.
"Hurry up," Rick said as they jogged to their car.
"DOMINIQUE!" As Randy slammed the door, the Hurricane came running out, just to see her head in Randy's lap, the blood spilling onto him, and the crude smile on Evolution's faces. Rick waved arrogantly as they sped away.
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Author's Note: Today sucked, but I figured I write something, seeing as it was the weekend and all… It's FINALLY the 25th chapter! Jeez… Took longer than I thought it would! Anyway, hope you like! Please review!!