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X-treme Wrestling Federation »   » Archives » Bad Medicine 2021
"I want to make you..."
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Tara
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#1
11-21-2021, 03:55 PM

[Image: alissa-white-gluz.gif]

As much experience as Tara has in the industry, there were quite a few things that she had not done; stepping into the octagon was one of those things… Despite it being a new territory for her, Tara retained a confident stance. Tara was well-versed in mixed martial arts; she was a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, and, of course, she knew how to wrestle. Standing across from her was the person whom she had fought at the Tara Fenix Charity Cruise, Shouta was their name, but better known to the industry as MYŌJIN. Shouta is an experienced MMA fighter which was why they had excelled in the industry, and was such a quick learner when Tara had helped them transition; however, the roles were reversed… Shouta was the trainer, and Tara, the student.

Outside of the octagon were the rest of the people in Tara’s training camp: Emmanuelle from Project: Honor, WrestleWorld, SSW, and LAW; Kat Jones of XWF, and Virginia Stepanov of IWF. There were more people outside, but none of them were as focused as those three; they were the trainers hand-picked by Tara to assist her in preparing for this contest. Everyone else were family or friends, just there as moral support.

The two did not have to give any indication to signal that they were about to start; Shouta charged out from their side of the octagon and without hesitation, Shouta leapt for a running bicycle knee with full intent of connecting with Tara’s face! And it does! Shouta, being experienced, was able to pull away to not cause as much damage but Tara’s face was still reddened where Shouta’s knee struck, and Tara still tumbled backward and landed on her back.

“That is Atara’s go-to!” Shouta reached a hand down to help Tara to her feet. Tara dusted herself off and let out a frustrated sigh. She knew that the knee was going to come even without Shouta having to tell her.

The first strike… You know her, and you know what she’s going to bring to this fight. Deep breath.

“The moment your fight starts, she can come out with it… And she would be foolish not to, so you need to be looking for it. There is a method that I would like to teach you to counter this…” Shouta stood in a defensive stance for a moment, “Come at me with a knee.”

Tara obliged, but Shouta easily stepped to the side. Shouta went to retaliate for a sweeping kick toward Tara but pulled the kick at the last second, “You want to come away from her at a forty-five degree angle, that way you are ready to press the attack with a sweep, with a takedown, or anything. She is not fully off-balance here so I would recommend a takedown, but there is a better technique to counter--” Shouta shot back and back into a fighting stance, “--come at me with another knee.”

Tara obliged a second time, and this time Shouta stepped off from their right but lunged forward with a palm strike which knocked Tara back a step and completely off-balance, before Shouta fired in for a kick to her midsection but again pulled the kick at the last second. “You knock her off-balance with that one, and you step forward to land a strike of your own. Okay? Now full speed.”

She and Shouta stood across from each other again. Both gave a nod, and Shouta charged back out of their side to go for a running bicycle knee; Tara answered in the same fashion that Shouta had just taught her; a slight step to the side, while coming forward with a palm strike to the chest and firing with a kick to immediately follow-up.

“Good! Just so you know… You didn’t deserve him.” Shouta said under their breath before lunging forward; Tara remained focused during the flying knee, and did as Shouta instructed; a forward palm strike to knock them off-balance, and firing for a kick which Shouta was able to catch. “They were playing you from the start!”

Shouta shoved Tara backward so she landed flat on her back, but Tara raised her legs; Shouta went for the ground and pound anyway; Tara wrapped her legs around Shouta to prevent them from gaining any distance; she grabbed for Shouta’s wrists but Shouta pulled them back to try to continue striking. Shouta continued shouting things at Tara, every attempt to get into her head and force her to make mistakes, but it seemed as if Tara was focused solely on the fight. Nothing else mattered. After several attacks, she pulled Shouta’s arm through, and transitioned into an armbar; she held to not commit it too tight, ultimately letting go as Shouta regained their footing. Tara remained on the ground for a moment, but Shouta claps a few times. “Very good!”

They continued their sparring session which lasted for several minutes, but Shouta was careful as a trainer; they did want to drain Tara to the point of exhaustion.

“Let’s take five.” Shouta said.

The door for the cage was opened by Virginia as Shouta walked toward it, leaving Tara in the octagon; Edward, Tara’s youngest son, was the one who walked into the cage with a reusable water bottle; he handed it to her. “Thank you,” she said before taking it and sipping slowly then pouring some over herself. She took a deep breath before handing it back, “I need a moment, baby--” she said while kneeling down so she was eye level with him, “Do you want to go over the strategy with Shouta?”

“I can help with that.” Edward said.

“I would appreciate that!” Tara answered and stood back up. Edward walked back to the cage door leaving Tara alone in the octagon. Tara walked over to the cage wall and leaned toward it, facing it, while her fingers interlocked in the cage. She closed her eyes briefly as if to familiarize herself with the cold steel that she had only felt during certain matches in her profession; different styles, but the same cold texture. Despite the routine that Tara had been going through, her breathing was relatively calm. She opened her eyes, the piercing blue eyes looking toward the camera that watched from the other side of the cage; she cocked her head to the side, expressing her traditional smirk, and placed her hands at the top of the cage before speaking.

“It’s come to this…” Tara said with a heavy sigh.

“I knew this day would come, but I didn’t want this. At least, I didn’t want this to be a fight that was fueled by hatred for each other--” she couldn’t keep herself from sneering. She put her head against the cage and closed her eyes to be lost in thought for a moment. I didn’t want this. I didn’t want to hate you. I enjoyed your company; I enjoyed being your friend. Despite all of the bumps in the road, I still called you my best friend… but now… there’s nothing.

“--I wanted this to be about just finding out who is better.” Tara snickered. “It would be a mistake not to address the elephant in the room… What should have been something that was just a goddess battling the Goddess; don’t think that I’m going to disrespect you in that sense, darling, you are still a goddess. You are still damn good at what you do. There’s no way that I can take any of that away from you. There is a key difference between both of us, though; I gave up the moniker for a couple of reasons… But let me go ahead and tell you the primary reason that I gave it up: I didn’t have to remind these people what I am.” Tara said while cocking her head to the side, and letting out a light chuckle, “You have to remind them every time you march down to the ring that you are a goddess. But me? They know. But there’s no way that I can dismiss your ability and claim that this is going to be easy--” I couldn’t keep the smirk from widening a bit as I couldn’t hide from myself the desire to break her in the first round; force her to tap out in the first round. “--it’s not. But the problem that I have is that it has been… overshadowed… This went from what should have just been a battle for superiority into people under the delusion that I want Jason back.” Tara shrugged. “I don’t. He’s all yours. What did bother me was the disrespect that you showed me. Sure, whatever; I understand that you’re going to go off and say that I did it first… But here’s the problem: I went based on what he told me. He told me there was nothing between the two of you. He said he was not interested in seeing you as more than just a friend, and you took it out on me.”

There was a clear expression on her face of the disappointment that she felt in who used to be her best friend. There was anger in that expression as she slowly tilted her head one way, and then back the other one, her hand clenched on the cage for several seconds until she finally did loosen it… It was important to her: remain tact. Remain focused. She took a deep breath, to exhale the negative energy that could cloud her mind before finally answering.

“There was always a question between us though. The question always was which one of us is better? The problem: neither one of us wanted to play second fiddle.” The mere thought of it disgusted her, “Both of us came up in the industry being recognized as one thing: the alpha. And neither one of us were willing to let that slip away.”

She let her hand trace along the steel, letting her gaze falter for a moment. Her face scrunched with what she had contemplated, and after running her tongue across her bottom lip, and just as she was about to continue there was a shout from the other end of the octagon…

“Break time’s over!” shouted Emmanuelle while clapping her hands to acquire Tara’s attention as she, Virginia, Kat, and Shouta all marched into the octagon. Tara pushed herself from the cage and walked toward them, “I think we need to figure out what your plan of attack should be… Atara has a strong grappling game. A gifted striker. But the thing that I believe you have the edge over her on is submissions.” Emmanuelle boasted with confidence.

“Lie down.” Emmanuelle spoke sternly while pointing to the mat.

“What for?” Tara asked in turn; Emmanuelle took her role as one of the trainers seriously, and scowled her.

“You need to be ready to get a hold locked in while you’re in a vulnerable state. Now lie down!” Emmanuelle repeated. “Virginia, care to help? North-south.”

“My pleasure…” Virginia said; she was an experienced MMA fighter and the ground and pound game was one of her specialties.

Emmanuelle moved to the side and leaned forward with her hands to her knees. She had three previous encounters with Tara at Project: Honor, and knew just how tough Tara was; each match was highly contested, so it was easy to say that out of the four… Emmanuelle probably understood Tara better than anyone else. Even better than Shouta.

“In this position, you are most vulnerable; your opponent would have full control over you but it’s important that you stay calm. I’ve seen that triangle choke of yours; once you have it in, the fight is as good as over! What you need to do--”

“What I need to do is break her fucking arm.” Tara said through gritted teeth.

“You’re better than that,” Emmanuelle scoffed, “Don’t get me wrong. If she doesn’t tap, then yes, do as much as you need to make her tap. Do what you have to do. But come on… don’t hope for that.” Emmanuelle said with a bit of distress now.

She was right… I had to stay focused with this. If I was going into the octagon with the goal of just hurting Atara, then it could affect the outcome. It could cloud my judgment. I needed to approach this as I would any other match: it’s just a match. It’s just the one person standing across from me. Prepare. Conquer. Tara drew in a deep breath and nodded her head to Emmanuelle; she closed her eyes and held them shut for several seconds.

“I just want you to be ready to get the triangle choke in from any position, and if you can get it in from here, then there’s nothing stopping you. You need to create some separation, so get your arm between your neck and her arm--” Emmanuelle instructed, and Tara followed through with it. “Good! Good! Now start pushing her up and away from you, but as you do, bring your legs back--” Emmanuelle is pacing beside them as Tara follows through with the instruction, “--around her neck--” Emmanuelle continued, and Tara with a hold on one of Virginia’s arms and now with her legs wrapped around her neck, she spun around until it appeared as if the hold would be locked in! “Perfect! And then you PULL! You SQUEEZE! Until she taps!” Emmanuelle said and it looked like Tara was about to…

“Hey! Not right now!” Virginia shouted in retaliation. Tara released the hold and Virginia went back to a standing position while Tara laid on the floor.

“Yeah, yeah. Not right now.” Emmanuelle continued. “That was executed perfectly, and a difficult position to get that hold locked in. That’s what I want you to look for to close this out!” Emmanuelle and Kat stepped forward and reached a hand down to help Tara back to her feet.

“Finish the job.” Kat said as words of encouragement.

“We aren’t exactly friends, Tara, but I want you to shut this bitch down.” Virginia said and nodded to her as well.

“Let’s take another couple minutes and then we have to work on the striking game; Kat can help with that, and I think Virginia would do well to help with more of the ground work.” Shouta said.

I heard each of them walk out again and head over to the tape… They wanted to find every way that I could exploit Atara at Bad Medicine. I let each scenario race through my own mind. Watch the knee. Play it safe; wait for her to make mistakes, and look for the counter. I rolled my wrists inside of the octagon, still getting myself familiar with its dimensions. It was larger than the ring, much larger, and the shape was different. I knew from watching it enough times that controlling the center was crucial. Atara was not going to be easy to hold that over.

After several seconds of pacing around the inside of the octagon, Tara returned to the cage wall to answer again.

“There was some… delusion… running through your mind for the longest time. You were under some sort of impression that I want to be you.” Tara couldn’t hold back the laughter, “Please! I’ve got my own shoes; I’m not trying to fit in yours. Let that diminish your own ego just a smidgen. There is no part of me that wants to be you. I created my own path, I created my own legacy, and it’s one I’m fucking proud of. For twenty-one-years, I have been doing this! For twenty-one-years, I have been viewed as one of the best to ever do it! And I step out of my comfort zone… I step out of my territory… to fight you in yours. To fight you in a battleground that I’ve never been in before. Do you want to know why that is, Atara?”

Tara took a momentary pause and licked her lips as if to wait for Atara to give her an answer. She sneered while she thought about Atara watching from whatever device she chose… The smug look on her face that Tara couldn’t wait to erase.

“Because I’m me. Because I know what I can do. Because I know that I can get into a ring, or an octagon, with any motherfucker and walk out with my arm raised as the winner, because wrestling… fighting… it isn’t just a career for me. Being ready for every fight? It’s a lifestyle. I can be ready to go at the blink of an eye. By challenging me to this… you just gave me time to prepare. You just gave me time to perfect.

You’re a strong fighter, Atara. You make everybody turn their heads to see what you’re going to do next. You have the ability to end a match with a single knee. You attract the masses to come out for you.

But everything you are… I am better. And I think that kills you a little inside. I think that’s why you’re so desperate to end me. I think that’s why you’re so desperate to attempt to embarrass me in front of your crowd, but you’re a mere goddess stepping into the ring with the true Goddess, and let me just tell you my goal…”
Tara paused again to lick her lips, and cocked her head to the side.

“Force you to tap out in the very first round! I know it’s something that you don’t want to see… I know it’s something the fans don’t want to see, because they paid to see a fight. There’s no doubt in my mind that we are the headliner of the night. But this isn’t about them… It’s about us. And bitch, I want to make you fucking kneel and admit to yourself and to the crowd: you will never be me. Smooches… Darlin’.”

Tara blows a kiss to the camera. End.
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