[center][h2]BACKSTAGE[/h2][/center]

[center][img]https://i.ibb.co/4n9mGT0s/IMG-2635.jpg[/img][/center]

Fiona waited backstage with Kendra, just moments to go before she'd be heading out to battle. It had already been a wild night of fights, and while Fiona was curious about the results and who was moving on to the semifinal round on both the men's and women's sides, she forced herself to ignore all of it, to stay focused on the task at hand. It was just the second extreme rules match of her career, and unlike last time, where Kendra ran out to assist her against the Beatifics, this time Fiona would have manage alone, against a rival that had her number so far.

"Remember, try to go for her legs," Kendra advised. "That's where her power comes from, and she won't be expecting it, it's not your usual approach."

She was repeating the same strategy they'd gone over a number of times already, but Fiona found it helpful all the same. It kept her mind from wandering, kept her imagination about what was about to happen in check.

"Don't try to slug it out with her, don't trade blows," she continued. "If she gets her hands on you, if she hits you hard, try to get some distance. No countout rules, either, so you can go under the ropes if you need to, buy yourself some time."

"And that's probably where I can hit Tanya hardest, too," Fiona finished.

Kendra nodded. "Yup. We've been practicing with weapons all week. It's time to put it to use. Everything's legal, so do what you have to and get the win. You've got this."

One week of training for extreme rules hardly felt like enough now that the match was minutes away, but there was only one way to get the kind of experience Tanya already had: the hard way. It wasn't the way Fiona wanted to fight, but even she could acknowledge that trying to fight clean in an extreme rules match was a surefire way to get destroyed, especially against someone like Tanya, who wouldn't be holding back in the slightest. She'd promised her fans in her promos she was ready to get extreme. Now she had to prove it.

[url=https://img.roleplayerguild.com/prod/users/019ce9df-5d88-7263-b5be-0231c688b276.webp]Her gear for the night[/url] was her fairly standard mix of bright colors and black, her booty shorts and top both an eye-catching metallic mix of light blue and violet, a thin silver chain with a few dangling elements fastened around her waist as a belt. The rest was black, from her semi-transparent, longsleeved spandex underlayer on her upper body, to her fishnet tights and usual tall boot covers, and sleek midlength fingerless leather gloves. She was expecting the usual tough, no-nonsense, military inspired look from Tanya, and expected her own look would contrast well by being more youthful, stylish, and a little sexy.

She knew many of the fans were dying to see the upcoming clash between Raven Veyn and Isabella Cadiz, two titans of the women's division in an extreme rules brawl to the finish, but she hoped just as many would be invested in the rivalry about to continue between Fiona and Tanya. [i]Rivalry... probably need to beat Tanya once before she'll consider me a rival.[/i]

"Ugh," she groaned. "This commerical break is taking forever." She shifted in place, putting her weight on one leg and then the other, rolling her wrists, loosening her neck. "Network's gotta get their money's worth out of this show, I guess."