Maria's new life
by C2K, c2k@cwc.org.uk

This is a preview of my O.C. Maria Carabella, a.k.a. Black Mary. I did once write a proper story of the events that let up to Maria's current situation, but lost the nearly-completed story in a hard-drive disaster, I've never been able to face starting from scratch.

Buried in this story is my homage to a gem of British Cinema. Can you find it?

Warning: this story has contains some brutal action and somewhat disturbing themes! I'd suggest not reading if this might offend you or if you are younger than 16 in United Kingdom or a corresponding age of consent in your own country

Maria Carabella looked out of her hotel window, and was overcome by a feeling of sadness. She had her life turned upside down at an early age, and always thought she would get her revenge, but now, the true events seemed to blur into a mist of fact and fiction and she struggled to separate the two. And somehow, a sequence of events had led her to be in this hotel in the city of Oakchester, with no home in this country, but a large sum of money at her disposal. But no family, no friends and far from home. She pondered on what might become.

After some time, she decided it was time to move. She had noticed a lane across the road, and in the distant darkness, a pink neon sign flashed on and off. There was something that attracted her to the sign and she made to go out. It was a cold, winter night, so she thought it wise to dress heavy. Leather trousers and boots covered her lower body and the top half consisted of a T-shirt, her heavy black jacket and her leather coat. To be sure, she grabbed a maroon scarf and wrapped it around her neck. Feeling dressed appropriately, she headed out.

As she headed out, she became aware of a disturbance, then a female voice crying out, beyond the entrance to the 'pink neoned' establishment. Maria pulled her scarf up to cover her nose and mouth and increased her pace. There were three men standing over a scared looking woman. One clutched a copper pipe and Maria couldn't be sure he didn't intend on using it. She felt that she was now within range and increased her pace to a couple of running steps and jumped up, throwing a kick to the copper pipe. The pipe flew out the bearer's hand and landed with a clatter on the ground behind. He stood for a second, shocked, just long enough for her heel to come crashing down onto his nose, breaking it and sending a trickle of blood down his face. The other two looked in surprise for a moment. However, they did not react quick enough to each of them receiving a kick to the head. Maria kicked a crescent kick to the closest man's jaw. He dropped like a sack of rags to the ground, knocked out. A spinning back kick to the temple knocked the last man out cold. Maria was careful to only use enough force to incapacitate them and no more. The man with the broken nose looked at her in fear and quickly ran away from the scene. Maria went over to see to the woman on the ground. She reached down for her but when she touched her arm, it seemed as though a demon had possessed her.
She leapt to her feet and yelled, “Get away from me!”
She sprinted away back up the lane and contined to shout, crying, “Leave me alone!”
Maria shouted back, “I was only trying to help!”
The woman gave no reply but kept running. Maria felt a bit hurt but mostly confused as she entered the shady-looking establishment.

Inside consisted of a dusty, wooden, slightly run down looken bar with a seating area, but the main attraction seemed to be the boxing ring further down with two men slugging it out with old fashioned leather boxing gloves, in what was certainly the best lit area of the establishment. She went to the surprisingly quiet bar and was about to speak to the barman when a smack of leather rang out, followed by a loud cheer from the punters. Maria turned round just in time to see a driving punch from the larger of the two men, and clearly the one with the advantage, slam a driving punch to the other's head. The other man fell to the canvas and stayed there. Maria turned back to the barman.

“Crowd favourite?” she asked.
“Slugger Malone?” replied the barman, “oh yeah. Kinda dirty but he's never been beat.”
“Oh here we go,” he continued, “I don't think we'll get many more takers.”
As the prone body was dragged out of the ring, another man with a microphone got up to speak.
“Any more takers, gentlemen?” He asked the assembled punters.
A muffled silence covered the establishment.
“Gone all quiet now?” the man asked.
He continued, “Very well, the offer is doubled to anyone who feels like stepping up.”
Maria shouted out, “And what offer would that be?”
The man in the ring looked over to the bar followed by the entire assembled group. This time, the silence was more pronounced.
“This doesn't concern you , lady,” he reprimanded, “Go back to your apple martini.”
Maria smiled to herself.
She shouted, “I'll tell you what, forget the offer, I'll fight anyone who's up for a scrap.” The man laughed.
He referred to her Geordie accent, “I can tell you're not from this part of the country.”
He continued, “Round here, we keep women in their place.”
“Where is that,” she asked, “on top of the so-called men in this knitting club you have here?”
She laughed, but the victor from the previous fight stepped forward.
“Scrap?” he shouted, “I'll scrap with you if you want.”
“My prize, you under me,” he laughed.
“Fair deal,” she said with a smile.
She walked to the ring. One punter looked awestruck as she walked by. She noticed and turned to him. She took off her scarf, coat and jacket and placed them on the table.
She instructed, “Look after these.”
She moved on and climbed into the ring where her opponent was standing there pounding his gloves together. The other man called for another set of gloves and he caught the pair that were thrown into the ring. He noticed that Maria seemed impatient as he fastened them on her hands. Far from being worried about the upcoming fight, it seemed as if she was willing it to start soon. He finished and left the ring. Her opponent stood like with a manacing grin and remained pounding his gloves together in a threatening fashion. He now had a good look at her. She appeared to be much stronger than he thought. She had thick arms for a girl and muscular stomach and body and her perpetual smile carried a lot of confidence.
“Pah!” he thought, “She's just some kinda fitness chick, may with some boxercise training or something.”
His grin left him and he took up his stance, now replacing his expression with a mean glare. Meanwhile, Maria continued to smile and adopted a loose stance. The other man rang the bell. The man seemed to take his time and measure up Maria. She thought that he might actually be a fighter after all. He through a couble of jab, cross combos that Maria easily avoided. A few more combos followed, again that were avoided by Maria.
“Give up?” she asked, with the same smile.
He threw a few more combos, and this time, Maria parried one blow with her left hand and drove an uppercut to his stomach, followed by a left jab to his chin, then a right hook to his jaw. Despite their incredible speed, the blows were powerful enough to drop the big fighter to his knees. He looked up as Maria stepped back and struck a double bicep pose. Her biceps flared up and she turned to show off to the spectators. Her opponent was down but most definitely not out as, while her back was turned, he got to his feet and lunged at her back. But before he made contact, she spun anti-clockwise, driving a spinning backfist to his nose. His nose nose broke immediately and the force knocked him to his back. Now she lost her smile, but looked rather concerned for her injured opponent. He got to his feet quickly and Maria saw that his nose was now bleeding freely.
“I'd say that nose is broken,” she advised, “let's just end this before you get hurt anymore.”
“Hurt?” he asked.
And continued, “Bitch, I'm just getting started.”
Maria thought, “Damn, I've got to end this.”
He approached her and through a jab followed by a driving punch to Maria's midsection, which she easily blocked, but that allowed him to clinch with her and he attempted a headbutt to her face, but Maria caught it on her shoulder. She now grabbed his hair and pulled his head back and drove one of her own, this time crushing his nose yet further, causing blood to smear across his face. The bell rang and the other man climbed through the ropes, running to intercept the two fighters.
“That's one warning to you for unsporting play,” he announced.
Maria then realised that he was actually speaking to her.
“Wait...,” she started.
He interrupted her, “My decision is final.”
He then left the ring again and rang the bell. They slowly came to the centre. Maria thought that it may be best to let him tire himself out. He obviously thought that sheer bombardment would win the battle and he unloaded a series of powerful blows to her stomach and sides. She was able to block most and her powerful abs withstood the blows to her stomach that weren't blocked. Getting frustrated, he took a step back and launched a powerful front kick at her body, but she was still too fast and sidestepped his kick, grabbing his ankle. She launched herself into the air and towards him and drove a left roundhouse knee strike to the side of his ribcage. Two of his ribs cracked and he backed away. Once again, the bell rang and the other man entered the ring.
He looked at Maria and announced, “This is your second warning. One more and you'll be disqualified.”
With that he left the ring again. By now Maria realised that the outcome of the fight has already been pre-arranged. She wondered if that was the way here or if they just didn't appreciate her presence here. The bell rang again. Once again Maria's opponent tried to pound his way to victory, but ended up clinching with Maria. Once again, despite this being a boxing match, there was no sign of this being broken up or him being warned. Maria knew what she had to do and she also knew she wouldn't be afforded the same liberal enforcement of the rules that her opponent seemed to be enjoying. She removed one of her gloves.
“Here goes,” she thought.
Maria threw an elbow strike to the side of his head immediately followed by a palm strike to his chin as he was forced to back off. Those two blows left him nearly out on his feet. Maria finished with a snap kick to his jaw that didn't look very powerful but when he dropped to the ground, he was completely out cold. The bell rang again and the other man entered, this time with a grin on his face. Clearly she would now be disqualified and he was happy about it. She pulled off the other glove and threw it to the ground. She stormed past the other guy and pushed him out of her way. She looked at the man 'tending' her other clothing and clenched her fists. He handed over her items with a sheepish smile. She put her jacket, coat and scarf back on and left the establishment.

Back outside, Maria took one last look back at the door of the establishment. She put it out of her mind and walked back up the lane.
“And you think you're going where, bitch?” came the voice behind her.
Maria sighed, then turned round slowly, pulling the scarf up over her nose and mouth again. Standing further down was one of the men from earlier, holding the discarded copper pipe, and hitting it of the ground repeatedly. Maria shook her head and turned back and continued to walk towards the entrance of the lane. From a doorway ahead, stepped out another of the men from before. He was brandishing a length of wood the that he hit off the brick wall.
“I see,” she said.
She smiled and said, “No hard feelings?”
In truth, she didn't really expect that it would be that easy, but she was tired after the events of tonight and maybe a little worried about what may happen to the two aggressors in her current state of mind. She thought a more direct approach may be better.
“I'm tired,” she explained, “if you get out my way now than you and your friend can go home unhurt.”
The man ahead of her laughed.
“Look around you whore,” he mocked, “how am I gonna get hurt? I suppose I'll just run face first into this wall here. Or maybe I'll beat myself on the head with this wood.”
“Yes, you should do that,” Maria replied with a smile, “might jog your memory from earlier.”
“Caught us off guard,” he replied, “that ain't gonna happen again.”
She disagreed, “Really, you should forget this just let me by.”
“Enough talk,” he snapped and ran at her, brandishing his weapon high.

Although he was closer, Maria was aware of the other man running at her from behind. She moved towards the first man, and while he brought down his weapon, she quickly moved close to him, grabbed him behind the neck and thrust her knee up hard to his groin. He gasped and dropped his weapon. Changing her grip slightly, she pulled his head down to her rising knee, which struck his jaw, knocking him to the ground. As the other man run up to her and as he became in range and started to swing his weapon, she quickly span and delivered a spinning back to his chin that knocked him down and out. Maria turned and walked away. As she walked past the first man, she had to jump as he flung his weapon close to the ground, sending it spiralling across to where her legs were, and then passing under her feet, moving quickly across the ground like a propeller that has come off it's axis. The length of wood clattered into a large plastic receptacle. Maria turned, as the man got slowly to his feet. He obviously wasn't out by a long way.
“Whore messed up fun with slut,” he said as he got to his feet, “now whore take slut's place.”
“What?” asked Maria.
“I mean we're going to have fun with you instead, stupid bitch,” he laughed.
“Wait,” she said, “you were going to assault that other girl.”
“Dead girls don't say no,” he laughed.
Maria gasped in horror and took a step back. By now he was at his feet. He lunged at her and threw a driving punch to her stomach. Although her leather coat and jacket absorbed the blow, he felt like he was hitting something as hard as a block of glass under her clothes. Maybe it was her disappointment of the night so far, or having to abandon her home, or the sheer disgust at the evil intentions of these men or, most likely, a combination of all three. But something gave. Maria decided that it was not enough to escape these men. She let go of her deeply held belief that she should not seek out to use her strength or skills to hurt or injure. No, she decided that these men should be made to pay. The first man didn't have much time to dwell on the hardness of her abs as almost immediately, she drove own fist hard into his stomach. He was a big man, but he was out of shape and her fist sank deep into his large stomach.
“Ooof,” he let out but she gave him no time to recover.
She quickly followed up with an elbow strike to his eye. The blow cracked his eye socket and she knew the swelling would start soon. Quickly she followed up by driving her knee to the side of his ribcage twice in rapid succession. Each strike broke one of his ribs. He gasped in pain. Maria had already slipped her hands behind his head. As he opened his mouth in pain, she drove a headbutt to his nose, crushing it. He staggered back, clutching his busted and now bloody nose and she drove a hard kick between his legs, the toe of her boot compacting his genetals and he dropped to the ground, breathing heavily. She turned to attend to the other man, who was still on the ground. She pressed her boot to his groin.
“Get up.”
He groaned in pain but she ground her foot harder. He sqirmed away from her, her foot quickly rose above her head and before he knew what was happening, her heel had driven hard to his groin in a powerful axe kick. The pain took his breath away and he reached both hands both to cradle his ruined manhood and to protect himself from more abuse, but Maria grabbed his arms and lifted him to his feet. She pushed him back hard and agaist the wall. The force of his back slamming against the brick wall knocked the wind out of him. Somehow, despite this and the incredible pain he was in, he swung a clumsy punch at her head. It may have been his last attempt for survival, but the attempt was in vain. She evaded his punch and grabbed his passing arm, wrapping her arm around and locking the move with her other arm. She jerked up, snapping his elbow with a noticeable crack. His pain-filled shout echoed from the other wall.
The other man had got to his feet and by the time she broke this man's arm, he was close behind her.
“Poor sod,” he thought, “but this is my chance to get the bitch.”
He swing a discraded weapon at the back of her head, obviously thinking that she was distracted with injuring his 'friend'. But she was aware of his presence and when he swung an overhead strike meant for the top of her head, she moved quickly to the side, causing him to miss and strike himself in the knee with his weapon. He staggered, off-balance, his leg unable to support his weight.
“Let me correct that,” Maria said.
She kicked two rapid back kicks, delivered in less than a second. The first to his other knee cap that did no real damage but weakened his other leg. Her second kick was more powerful than it must have appeared as it drove deep into his stomach. His body was bent around her leg for a moment before being driven back onto his back by the force. He rolled onto his side and lay opened-mouthed, clutching his stomach and gasping for air.
Satisfied that he was incapacitated for the time being, Maria turned her attention back to the man whos arm she still held locked and broken. She had turned her attention away from him for little more than a second but it was time for him to get her full attention again. Holding his arm locked with one arm, she drove two rapid palm strikes to his nose. They were delivered quickly but with so much power that the first broke his nose with a crack, and with a crunch, the second flattened it against his face. She released the lock on his arm but held the arm and raised it up. She threw three knee strikes to the side of his ribcage, each one a little further up. Each strike broke a rib and her cried out in pain.
“Why?” he cried out.
“Why that girl?” she replied.
She raised her knee to his groin and jumped up, her other knee connecting with his chest, breaking two ribs. He yelled out in pain and she spun around driving the back of her elbow to the side of his eye. His eye socket cracked. In a flash, her other elbow has found the same target and another elbow strike demolished his already busted nose, splattering blood outwards. She took a step back and kicked straight under his chin, just stopping before she connected and held his head up with her foot. His nose was a bloody red blotch and blood was welling up in his already blown up eye. He grabbed her foot, both holding himself up and trying to move her foot but if her ever had the strength to shift her powerful leg, it certainly was not now. She was aware of the other man getting to his knees again.
“He's certainly tough,” she thought, “or an idiot.”
She made the decision to finish off this one with a display of her impressive legs in action, as witnessed by anyone who had seen her train.
“Here goes.”
The man heard this and lost control of his bladder, in fear of what was to come. The next thing he knew, he was struck in the head hard, six times in rapid succession. On the most part, Maria had held back the power on her kick. The first was a kick to the side of the other eye. Maria quickly chambered her leg and unleashed two side kicks, the first to the same eye, and the second to his mouth, the heel of her boot bursting his lips open and cracking the teeth behind them. Once again, she kicked the side of his head, this time the toe of her boot cracking his cheekbone as it made contact. This time, she followed through and as his head was spun to the side she brought her boot back across his mouth with a hook kick, sending blood and teeth flying. For the first time in five kicks, she quickly lowered her leg and her other leg cam up and round in a roundhouse kick to his jaw that dislocated his jaw and spun him around in contrary rotation to her own as she followed through.
She turned on the other man to find him on his knees, catching his breath.
“Back for more?” she asked.
He weakly held his hand up.
“No more.”
He tried to get to his feet. but when he was halfway to his feet, Maria ran at him and launched at him with a jumping knee drive that impacted with his chest, breaking two ribs and driving his upper body up and back, making him stagger to the wall behind. As his back landed against the wall, Maria grabbed his shirt and pulled him back, stepping back herself then showed off her impressive strength by throwing him back against the wall. As his back slammed against the wall, she spun on one foot and threw a spinning back back that buried her boot in his stomach. He let out a deep groan and could seem to catch any breath. She stepped in and drove a left to his stomach. Another groan. Then a right. Groan. She found that she wasn't actually hitting him anymore but rather individuals that come into her mind.
“That one was for my father,” she thought as she ripped another punch to his stomach.
“That was Don Clementucci.”
“That was for the guy in that 'establishment' tonight.”
“And this one is for you and your 'friend'.”
She drove an uppercut deep into his gut and he coughed up a mouthful of blood that landed on her coat sleeve.
“Eww.”
She stepped back and he dropped to the ground. She then realised that only her fistic barrage had been keeping him on his feet. She wiped her coat sleeve on his shirt and looked around.
The man on the ground next to her sported a swelling eye and busted nose but was now lying on the ground unconscious and coughing up blood so that a small pool of blood now lay around his head. She moved towards the other man. His face was in a bad way. Both eyes were swelling badly and one was bleeding where she had shattered his eye socket. His front teeth were partially broken, leaving sharp stumps and his lips were badly split and cut leaving a bloody-red mouth, which matched his 'nose', which was now a bloody patch of tissue. His jaw was also dislocated and mis-shapen. He arm was bent the wrong way and Maria went up to it and applied light pressure with her boot. The pain brough him to, albeit in a groggy state. She motioned a phone signal with her hand and he slowly reached inside her jacket and produced his mobile.
She bent down and spoke in his ear softly, “If you ever think of harming anyone again, I'll find you.”
So he could see, she dailed '9-9-9' on the phone and placed it into his hands. His dislocated jaw made it difficult for him to speak, but as she walked away back up the lane, she should hear him trying to ask for an ambulance inbetween pain-induced cries.

That night, Maria did not sleep well for she could not let the events of that evening leave her mind. She had allowed her emotions to take over and if she was completely honest, it actually felt kind of good having two 'human punchbags'. The deeply troubled her as she had never fought outside of sparring or organised matches and always took pride in respecting and preserving the welfare of her opponents, only exerting just enough force to win the match. Thoughts ran through her head until nearly dawn when she fell asleep.

It was late afternoon before she woke and again, she found herself overcome with thoughts of last nights street fight, or street massacre, as was the case. Once again she thought of her father and of Don Clementucci, whom she blamed for being in this situation. Before she was overcome with emotion once again, she switched on the small television set that sat on a corner shelf, high up. The news was being broadcast. After some meaningless reports, her ears perked up at the mention of the last night's situation.
“...were taken to hospital in a serious condition. One man suffered a broken arm, major concussion and requires considerable facial reconstruction. The other also suffered some facial injuries but sustained severe internal injuries and remains in a coma. His condition is critical. Police are requesting that anyone who may have...”
Maria sighed. She was glad she hadn't killed those men. At least not yet. It was then that she resolved to put the events behind her. These men were in the process of committing a particularly heinous crime and who knows, it may not have been the first time.

For the most part, Maria managed to put her treatment of the two men behind her and spent most of the next week finding out about places nearby and the general area. It was exactly the same news broadcast time, one week and one day later when she heard that the girl that nearly became a victim that night came forward and identified the two men that were taken to hospital as two out of the three that had assaulted her. It turned out that those two men were responsible for a string of sexually-oriented murders across the city. A shiver went down Maria's spine when she heard the report. She wondered what part the third man played, and how she might react if she ever came across him again. But in general, her mind had been made up. She still had plenty of funds at her disposal and had no need to settle down yet. She thought of her father once again. Then thought of Don Clementucci. She decided that “bad people”, as she put it, who got by victimising those less able to defend would not get away with it. She would take them down.
“Bad people,” she said to herself, “Beware.”

[END]