When Rivals Meet  
By Crossmanx
Late at night rivals meet to sort out their differences!

By Crossmanx at - crossmanx@hotmail.co.uk - comments and ideas welcome.

When Rivals Meet

The city was just settling down to its normal busy evening, the bars and clubs
where filling up and those people that liked a quieter evening where all at
home in front of the TV. One particular place was just closing up for the
evening, Terry's Gym; it was just off the beaten track, not hidden away and
not in your face either. It was a popular gym, with a certain group of people,
but not too popular, its reputation spread by word of mouth and had quite a
few fitness and muscle bound patrons who were there for the buzz and the
training. It also had some people who were there just as a way of releasing
some of that spent up energy, especially after a stressful day at work. And it
had some people who were there to loss some of that extra weight gained over
Christmas.

Terry's Gym was also home to a small group of people who belonged to the gym's
private club, a select few who enjoyed a physical challenge and pushed
themselves to the limit in everything they did. Not only did the gym have its
normal gym area for the everyday member and the private area for those
'special' people but it also had a full size boxing ring, its own arena tucked
away through one of the many doors that were scattered around inside and
outside the building.

As the duty instructor picked up all the towels and put them in the basket and
then went around making sure all the windows where closed and lights where
off, he then checked all the doors and finally headed for the main entrance.
He locked the door and checked to make sure it was indeed locked then made his
way over to his car; he looked over to the far side door with the very dull
light over it that flickered every now and again. He'd been told he didn't
need to check or lock that door tonight and he knew better than to ask why or
who was there. He got into his car, looked over to the door one last time and
then drove off.

The door was the outside door that lead into the large room, the arena, with
the boxing ring in it, normally it was used by a number of different clubs and
groups throughout the week, nothing unusual about that. But every now and
again it was booked for something else, on these occasion it was normally
booked out for the evening and there was always a bit of intrigue and
uncertainty about who and why the room was booked for a 'private' event and
unavailable for normal use.

Inside and the room was empty apart from one solitary figure, a man who was in
the ring, he was tall, quite well build, blond hair and dressed in a set of
dark shorts and a pair of fingerless gloves. His hands where on the top ropes
of the ring as he leaned back into the blue corner, his eyes where fixed on
the far door as he waited. The lights around the ring arena and where only
partial on, they were faint, producing a dull glow around the ring, that faded
away into darkness. The only other light came from around the doors, the one
on his far left that lead to one of the changing rooms that he had used and
from the door on his far right. His head was slightly tilted towards this door
as he watched and waited.

He didn't have long to wait as the door his eyes where fixed on opened, the
light for this second changing room poured out into the dimly lit arean, it
was as if the floodlights had been turned on for the arrival of the advancing
competitor! For the look on the man in the rings face said that whoever this
was they were someone that he had a bone to pick with. As the 'rival' entered
the arean the light shone around them, making them almost disappear into the
dark centre of the pool of light, making it difficult to see them clearly. The
man in the ring stood up, the doors to the far changing room closed and the
rival carried on towards the ring, the man's eyes got use to the dim light
again as his rival climbed up the steps and entered the ring.

Now the scene was set, the man in the blue corner and in the red corner was
his rival, she was almost the same height as him and about the same age, late
20's or so. A brunette, with her long hair tied back in a ponytail, and
dressed in a set of sports tight blue shorts and crop top. Like the man she
also had on a pair of fingerless gloves and was bare foot. The rivals both
stepped out of their corners and took a couple of paces closer to each other,
and then slowly they started to circle each other. Eyes fixed on each other,
on their competitor, on their rival, the man and woman circling, looking, and
waiting for the right moment.

Then without any warning the man struck out first, he leaped forward, spun and
brought his leg round THUD! His foot slammed into the woman, catching her on
her shoulder and sending her tumbling towards the rings ropes. He caught her
off guard; she was so fixated in looking into his eyes for that tell tail look
she though she knew. That look he normally had before he made a move, but
toady it wasn't there, he'd fooled her and got the first strike in. She been
knocked down, was on one knee holding onto the ropes, 'where was he?' she
quickly looked up and WHACK! His foot came round once more, another spinning
move where his foot had powered into the side of the woman's face, blood
spluttered out as she was dropped to the canvas floor. "Yes!" The man was
pleased with his start, he struck first, struck hard and now taken her down,
he clenched his first, flexed, gritted his teeth and said it again "YES!"

But he'd enjoyed the moment a bit too much and now taken his eye off her, even
though she was down, he was too close, she kicked out, her foot come up and
aimed straight at his groin THUD! OOOHHHHH! The sharp blow connected and
dropped the man to his knees; the woman swung her body round on the floor and
WHACK! Now her other foot now came round, and returning the complement, it
drove hard into the side of his head, dropping him fully to the canvas next to
her.

She rolled over and was soon back on her feet, the man down on the canvas
trying to recover from her strikes SMACK! Something else for him to cope with
as her foot slammed into his jaw sending him sprawling across the canvas
floor. She seizes the opportunity with him down and in pain, the woman rushes
up to him to follow up with more harsh blows but CRACK! The man is not that
out of it and slams his foot into the oncoming woman's kneecap, just as she's
about to jump and come down on him. The pain is excruciating as now she's the
ones who been knocked down and is on the canvas rolling around in agony.

The man drags himself up to his knees and crawls over to the women; she's more
interested in her throbbing kneecap, so when his strong arm reaches round her
throat, she taken by surprise. She tries to struggle but he locks in a sleeper
hold on her, his grasp on her is good, but she's a strong one and it takes a
great deal of effort to keep his grip. The woman rolls and rocks from side to
side in a desperate attempt to try and break his hold on her, but knows she
won't be able to do, unless ... ... CRACK! OWWWHHH! Her elbow is driven
backwards into the man's ribs THUD! She slams it back again and again,
determined to hurt him and break his hold, she has to break his hold or she's
done for. Her other hand grabs onto the clenched fist of the arm being driven
into the man, to give her greater leverage when driving the elbow into his
ribs and then his gut THUD! THUD! THUD!

Eventually she hurts him enough to break his hold on her, with the hold broken
she has more room to more and WHACK! Now her elbow is aimed at the man's head,
she catches him just right so he sees stars and falls back to the canvas. She
rolls away from him and kicks out at the same time connecting with his body
and giving her a couple of extra seconds to use the ropes to pull herself up
and back onto her feet. Once up she takes in a deep breath, trying to get over
the tight sleeper hold he had on her, she looks over to him 'Shit!' He's a
strong one alright and pushing himself up even now, still time to gain the
advantage, she runs at him, screaming, the man's reactions are surprisingly
quick he leaps to the side just as she on top of him. Both his arms, with open
hands, come round and slam into the side of the woman, pushing, throwing and
hurling the woman towards the nearby corner post CRUCH! Due to her running at
the man and his strong arms knocking and launching her away from him she hit
the post with great force.

The woman's stunned as the man's gets to his feet he reaches out and grabs her
by her ponytail ARRRRHHHH! He pulls hard on it, yanking the woman away from
the post and spinning her around by her hair, he manages to take her off her
feet then let's go. The woman tumbles and stumbles, heading straight for and
into the opposite ring post from before THUD! With his confidence boosted the
man seizes the chance to finish her off, he runs at her ready to throw his
body into her and slam her further into that post, hurting her, taking her
down and winning the match. He launches himself at her, a smile on his face
SMACK!

That was until he saw, at the last moment, the woman quickly raise her foot
that met with his face, another well aimed foot from the woman. The man
bounced off her foot, even if the force of that blow did jolt her already
aching knee, it was worth it. He fell back and down to the floor, head
spinning and hurting, she took a step closer to him OUCH! Her knee hurt like
hell, that jolt to it made it worse than she had thought. She hobbled over to
him, gritted her teeth as her next move would hurt her as much as it would
hurt him, but it would be worth it. She raised the damaged knee, as she needed
to balance on the good one, raised it high and CRUNCH! ARRRRHHHHH! OOWWWHHH!
She slammed her foot hard into the man groin as he lay on the floor, both
cried out in pain but for different reasons.

She leant back and fell against the ropes holding her leg and painful knee off
the ground; he rolled around holding his burning and painful groin. The man
tried to deal with his agony and put some distance between him and her. She
saw this and gently, but also as quickly as she could, limped painfully over
to him, as she got close to him he rolled once more, and like a shot his foot
came round and WHACK! He'd identified her weakness and struck the bad leg
ARRRHHHH! Only thing was she had already guessed that was what he was going to
do and she'd been ready, she just wanted to get closer to him. She was ready
to take the strike to her knee, even if it was going to hurt, as it meant that
she was now in the position to fall down and bring her elbow down into his
face SMASH!

As she made contact the blood sprayed out as his nose splattered across his
face. She landed next to the man and quickly followed up with raising her
clenched fist and slamming it down into his groin, her knee hurt and she was
determined to make him suffer for it. His hand lashed out instinctively and
caught the woman across her face, making her roll away from him and out of his
reach. She rolled some more towards the ropes and with determined grit pulled
herself back up, he was hurting too much to notice her, she hoped.

She paused to grab her breath, her body was aching and sweat was running down
it, but the man looked in a worse state, which only went to please her. But
too her surprise, again, he was trying to push himself back up 'determined
bastard aren't you' she thought. As he got half way up on one knee she throws
herself at him WHACK! As she fly's her fist powers into his bloody face,
knocking him down but she landed on her knee and rolls around in anguish. The
pair of them are on the canvas, they're hurting, in agony, tired and yet both
of them have a dogged determination to carry on until one of them has won.

They crawl towards each other, lashing out and striking each other at every
opportunity they get, they came together, grappling, grabbing, punching,
slapping and doing anything they can to hurt and beat the other. She slapped
him hard across his bloody face, he gave her a back hand that slit her lip,
she lashed out with a punch to his gut and he returns the favour as his fist
drives into her. Even with their strength drained during the fight each still
manages to find something hidden deep inside each of them to carry on, to win.
They grab hold of each other tussling when she digs her teeth in hard into his
shoulder, she bits even hard and draws blood from him, he cries out. He hand
comes round grabs her ponytail and wrenches the woman off him, tossing her
away and to the ropes.

She rolls over to where once more she can drag herself up to her feet. "Ready
to give up?" she calls out, he turned only to see a fist heading towards his
face WHACK! It struck hard as she dived at him, he's almost knocked out and
bearly with it, she's in not much better condition but is more with it, just.
The man is still on his knees but almost collapsed backwards, he balances
there only just, he coughs and blood splatters out, and it's the only sign
that he's still conscious. The woman uses his slumped body to climb up, to get
to her feet so she can end this.

As she rises over the man, her hand rests on his bleeding shoulder to steady
herself. It had been a tough, gruelling fight and for the last time the man
knelt there as the woman deals her final blow SMACK! Her knee came up into his
jaw and the man's send back down to the canvas for the last time, it had been
her injured knee but she wanted to feel the pain as her knee struck him. She
wanted to feel that pain to remind her how she'd struggled and won. The man's
head shot backwards, his body easily followed as it flops down to the floor,
as she struck him, and she'd struck him hard with everything she had left,
she'd fallen as well. She'd hit the floor but was still conscious, as she lays
there breathing heavily she looks over to him, finally he's out cold, finally
she has won.

The woman looked at the battered man, a grim smile as she knew she's beaten
her rival, beaten the man and she's won, the argument was over and from now on
the toilet seat would stay down! She slowly and warily pushed herself back up
onto her feet and staggered over to the ropes. Carefully she made her way
through them and gently down the steps, and then limped off towards the
changing room. Now she had won three out of their four disagreements, and this
had been the easiest out of them. But she knew that there was another argument
brewing and it would be about where they were going on holiday this year, and
she was determined to win that one as well. The woman wondered if there was
another way of solving their differences, but though if there was it wouldn't
be as much fun as this way ... ... !