NOTE:  Characters in this story are property of DC Comics.  No money is being made from this story, no infringement is intended.

*******

 Supergirl entered the wrestling ring in sandals and a robe of gold.  The robe bore her proud "S" shield in red on the back.  The crowd gave her a cheer--no, a standing ovation.  She turned and waved to them with a smile, one pretty foot on the bottom rope.  Beat that, Zora, she said to herself in pride.

 Then Kara doffed her golden robe slowly, giving everybody in the arena a look at her 34-28-35 figure, almost naked.  She was packed into a teeny bikini that left little to the imagination.  The bra was blue with a red-and-yellow "S" shield on her right breast and had golden straps.  The bottom was red, like the shorts or skirt of her superheroic costume...but it covered a lot less.

 Yet, while Supergirl and her promoter wanted to invoke the legend, she knew they were not watching the bikini...they were watching her body.  Golden hair, blue eyes, full lips, generous
breasts, flat stomach, great hips, long legs, beautiful feet, tanned skin.  Kara bent over to remove her sandals, giving them a good view of her lovely behind.  She was gratified by the wolf whistles.  She was the ultimate Wrestling Heroine.

 Her bikini, like that of her opponent, had to be made of a special material that adhered to the skin.  That way, it would stay on in battle.  And, while Kara didn't mind teasing the men, and
making the girls jealous-but-appreciative, she was there for the battle.

 Now, clad only in her bikini, Kara did a few limbering-up exercises on the ropes.  She had to admit that she loved the teasing and the adulation of the fans.  She loved the adrenaline rush of battle-anticipation.

 The wrestling ring was on Rokyn, home planet of the Kandorian survivors of Krypton.  Rokyn, like Krypton, orbited a red sun.  On this world, Supergirl had no powers.

 And, without powers, she was soon to meet and wrestle a two-out-of-three-submissions wrestling match, sans referee, with her hated enemy, Black Flame.

 A few months back, Supergirl has been badly and decisively beaten by Black Flame, aka Zora Vi-Lar, a sexy wrestling villainess who had once been one of her rogue's gallery.  The match had taken place in this very ring.  Kara had been physically punished and humiliated.  All her previous honors now seemed as naught to her.  From that moment to this, Kara's energies had been directed towards remaking herself into a wrestling warriorette, with an eye towards a rematch with the belle of Rokyn's ring of fury.
 

 Accordingly, Supergirl had gone into training with Wonder Woman and other Amazons on Paradise Island for a month, in the evenings and on weekends.  With these super-powerful women for sparring partners, she had opponents of comparable strength, and the Amazons were famous for their wrestling competitions.  Diana and her mother, Queen Hippolyte, had been only too happy to accomodate her.  Though Supergirl had a bit of an edge on Wonder Woman in strength, the Amazon had her in skills--until Diana taught them to her.  At the end of the month, Supergirl scissored Wonder Woman to a submission in a freestyle match.

 Diana and Hippolyte were both pleased.  "You've learned all we can teach you, Kara," Wonder Woman announced.  "But I warn you, we don't use moves as underhanded as those of your foe.  You need to be a tigress on the mat."

 "Then I'll start sharpening my claws right now," said Kara with a smile and a hungry eye-gleam.  Diana flinched.  If Supergirl was serious enough, she estimated that the blonde would indeed be a formidable opponent in the ring.

 That day, she had gone to the Fortress of Solitude, activated a computer link, and contacted Nar-Es, a Rokynian wrestling promoter.  She asked him to set up some matched for her on every weekend for the next two months.  Nar was at first flabbergasted, then turned on by the prospect.

 "But you've got to let me bill you as yourself, as Kara Zor-El, the real Supergirl," he insisted.  "I've gotta get big turnout to make money in this business, and for you, they'd walk barefoot across half the wastelands of Urr."

 "For me in a bikini, they'd walk across all the wastelands of Urr," purred Kara.

 "We gotta get pix of you in the bikini and the super-suit and put 'em on every holo in Rokyn," Nar went on.  "We gotta get you some fights and make sure you win.  The vids will eat this up on a platter.  You've gotta show me your moves in the gym, of course, and do some interviews for Ultisport--"

 "Wait, Nar," said Kara.  "I'll okay all of the above, except one.  That 'make sure you win' bit.  I won't take set-ups.  I don't want to fight Rokyn's Wendi Richter or Magnificent Mimi just yet, but the girls I do fight have to wrestle me on the level.  If they hold back, I quit.  Are we clear on this point?"

 Nar rested his head on his fist, sizing up Kara's image on his viewscreen.  Even though she was only a flat image, separated from him by millions of light-years, she knew he was making an accurate appraisal of her.  Not just her looks, but her strength and spirit.

 "Tell you what, Karaish," said Nar, using the -ish suffix that, in Kryptonian, was used for things affectionate and little.  "You come in tomorrow to my gym.  I'll have a girl named Tala
waiting for you.  If I like your moves--I'll let you know.  But."  He emphasized his point with a finger pointed at her.  "If I don't like 'em, if I don't think you have the potential, or that you

can't take it--forget it.  Okay?  Come here and show me.  That's what you gotta do."

 Kara smiled, with the look of confidence based on her natural ability, not super-powers.  "Nar--I will."

 -K-

  Supergirl had used a space-warp device in the Fortress to materialize at a WarPort in Rokyn.  She got through customs and processing with only a few nods and smiles to the administrators, and taken a landcar to Nar-Es's gym-and-office complex.  On the way she admired the city of New Kandor, which had been erected in only a few years from what had been open plains.  She emerged from the cab, duffel bag over her shoulder.  Nar and a woman were standing
at the door to meet her.

 Nar, a fortyish, blonde guy with thinning hair, silver headband and green-and-yellow suit, stuck out his hand in greeting.   "The big girl from the little planet," beamed Nar.  "Welcome back
to Rokyn, Karaish."

 "And welcome from Earth, Narior," said Kara, with the honorative suffix on Nar's name.  "The more I visit Rokyn, the more I make it my second home."

 "Ah, Kara, someday you should find a nice Kandorian boy and make it your first."  Nar had the demeanor of a Santa Claus when he wanted to, but he could be as hard as neutronium when it came to business.  "But I understand your gig.  Now, there is somebody you should meet.  Kara, this is Tala.  And Tala, this is Kara, the lovely Supergirl from Earth.  Shake hands, ladies."

 They did, firmly but not trying to crunch each other's fingers.  Tala, a black-haired, black-eyed 5' 6" beauty with dark eyeliner, was clad in a dark purple jumpsuit, had the pecs of a
bodybuilder, and gave no smile to Supergirl--only a neutral expression.  "Hello, Kara.  Nice to meet you."

 "Likewise, I'm sure," said Supergirl, smiling more widely just to spite her.  Nar caught the byplay and was pleased.  Aggravation lent spice to a match.

 "Okay, ladies, get changed and hit the mat," said Nar, lacing his fingers in front of his pot belly.  "And I warn you, Tala, Kara has asked you to give her a hard time."

 "She'll get it," said Tala, looking straight at Supergirl.   Kara should have felt intimidated.

 Instead, she felt excited.  Supergirl brightened up with eagerness, a reaction that left Tala perplexed.  A girl that wanted to walk to her own execution?  Oh, well...Tala was getting paid for
it, so she figured that she might as well nail Miss Honey-Hair's hide to the wall.
 

 It didn't work out that way.

 The blonde in the red-and-blue bikini had taken her share of bumps, all right.  But she gave more than her share back, especially after she'd had a chance to learn Tala's moves and gauge her power.  The brunette in the wine-red bikini was astonished to find herself actually groaning in the grip of the blonde wannabe's scissors!  Nar-Es, looking on, caught the expression of pride on Kara's face.  It was the pride of a woman using her natural abilities to compete, and winning.

 Kara had Tala gasping by the time she told her rival, "I think that's enough for now, don't you?"

 "Yeah.  Yeah, it is," agreed Tala, breathlessly, and Kara released her scissors.  Both women got to their feet.  Tala lunged at Supergirl, trying for a sneak attack.  She'd teach this blonde bitch never to take victory for granted!

 Kara stood her ground, grabbed Tala's hands, and got her in a finger bender.  "I gave you a chance to finish this match without losing, Tala," said Kara, her pretty face now grim.  "Now--you don't have that option.  Give!"

 Tala gazed at her foe in amazement.  The bitch was actually forcing her to her knees!  The bones of her fingers ached like they were caught in a vise.  She tried to kick Kara, but didn't have the position, and Kara had one knee up ready to smash her face if she tried anything dirty.  Tala was groaning and shaking her head from side to side.

 "Give it up, Tala," snapped Kara.  "I can break your fingers off...or make you wish I had."

 Pain overrode pride.  Tala moaned, "All right.  All right!  I quit!  Leggo, already!"

 "Do it, Kara," said Nar, speaking for the first time since the start of the match.  "If she tries anything, she'll never work for me again.  Let her go."

 Kara released Tala and stepped back, turning her hip towards her foe and raising a fist before her face in a martial arts stance.  The blonde looked glorious, a sweaty, 5' 8" Valkyrie
triumphant over a foe.  Tala was on her knees, massaging her hands and gasping in breath.  She didn't look up.

 Kara glanced at Nar.  She could tell that he was aroused by her half-nude body, and expected such.  She also knew that he was a gentleman, and didn't mix business with pleasure.  She also sensed something else in his appraising look:  acceptance.

 "You'll do," he said.

 So Kara had become a legitimate lady wrestler, carrying on her "civilian" life and her superheroic duties on the weekdays and warping to Rokyn to wrestle on the weekends.  Nar-Es had gotten her some tough opponents, and she didn't always win.  But she won more than she lost, and the crowds loved her.
 

 When she complained to Nar-Es once about what it did to her image as a superheroine when the bad girls made her grunt and groan, he gave her a patented Nar Lecture, and it worked.

 "Kid, you suffer well," he said, pointing his everpresent finger at her.  "Everybody wants to see a gal take a few bumps.  Especially if she's the good girl...what you'd call a 'face' on Earth.  The guys especially get turned on--and I mean turned on--when a face is getting it really bad from a heel, bad girl to you, and hollering like her arms and legs are getting ripped off.  Yeah, and put back on the wrong sockets.  You look sexy.  And you really look sexy in pain.  So don't fake it.  But don't be afraid of it."

 Kara sat there in her sweats in his office chair and assimilated what Nar had said.  "So...they don't think I'm a wimp when I'm putting on a howl?"

 "Nope."  Nar waved his hand dismissively.  "They think their darling little Kara is in danger.  You've got 'em eating out of your hand then.  But--don't.  Fake.  It.  This ain't Earth.  On
Rokyn, in this category, we wrestle for real--not the set-ups I was thinking about early on.  They can smell a phoney over here stronger than a wild Babootch in the jungle.  And I've got a nose
better than anybody else's.  You'll get hurt.  Don't you know why they ran so many pix in that wrestling mag of you taking bumps?  Your best-selling video is the one where you lost.   But I don't want you to lose too much."

 Kara remembered that fight.  Luma Lynai, wearing that white leotard, had gotten her in a bow-and-arrow and tortured her till she had to scream her submission.  Kara still wanted a rematch, but Nar wasn't scheduling it till after the Zora fight.

 But Zora Vi-Lar hadn't been lying idle all this time.  She was training like a Roman soldier, and fighting top-rank talent.  Nothing could be sweeter, or more satisfying, to her than to humble
little weakling Kara again--making her submit twice, rather than once.  And injuring her, if she could get away with it.

 Shortly before her initial fight with Supergirl, Zora had laid her ladies' championship strap on the line when she faced Vana Tri-Les in a rousing, difficult battle.  Vana, a powerful black-haired woman, had shown Zora a hard time of it in the ring.  But in the end, the Black Flame had resisted the urge to give in to Vana's punishing holds and had finally made her rival submit to a sadistic surfboard hold.  The black-bikinied brunette in the eyemask had lifted the ladies' belt high in one hand, her bare foot on the defeated Vana, and had shouted to the mikes above:  "I am Black Flame, the champion!  I am Black Flame, the Ultimate Woman!  Now, let Kara Zor-El face me and try to take this belt away--if she dares!"

 The sexy but chilling spectacle had caused a run of gambling in Rokyn's betting parlors.  High rollers raced to place their credits on the blonde challenger or the dark champion.  The rematch of Supergirl and Black Flame promised to be the sports event of the year.  Schoolgirls declared their allegiance for the Kara or Zora with special pins, and formed fanclubs for each.  At beaches, a rash of black bikinis and blue bras with red bottoms were seen.  But the wearers were only in fashion if they wore a black eyemask with the Zora suit, or had a red "S" shield on their left breast with the Kara bikini.  A new craze of beach-wrestling sprang up, with a "Zora" pitted against a "Kara" on the sand; results were mixed, and sometimes fixed.
 

 Nar-Es wasn't bothered.  He and Kara had authorized the Supergirl bikinis, raking in a share of cash for each one sold.   But only the real Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, could wear the red "S"
on her right breast.  Bootleg manufacturers who tried to switch the shield's side were nabbed and sued for fraud.

 Zora had been a latecomer to the merchandising, but quickly switched to a more stylized eyemask and a trademarked black bikini.  She did all right for herself, but Nar-Es and Kara were gratified to know that the late entry meant less cash for Zora.

 Supergirl herself was still lovely and sexy, but her body was now muscled like a fitness model's.  Nar had her on special diets, on constant exercise, and in daily matches in his gym.  She was even matched against male opponents, and was beating them after a shaky start.

 Nar-Es had also forced Supergirl to sit down and watch holovids of Zora in action.  The brunette could be hurt, could be beaten.  But, sitting beside her in the screening area, Nar noticed
Kara shuddering when Zora was putting a foe in a submission hold.  She was remembering the hurt.

 "Karaish, honey, lemme tell you this," said Nar, turning towards her.  "You're gonna get hurt.  She is not gonna let you get in that ring with her without you paying for it.  But remember--
the girl Zora fought then is not the same girl I'm talkin' to right now.  This girl, she's been in the ring for months.  She's learned how to take a bump, roll with it, and give it back.  Baby, you're
gonna hurt.  But you can make her hurt, too.  You can pay back that arrogant bitch for everything she's done--and then some.  Whaddya say, Karaish?"

 Kara embraced him and kissed his cheek.  Flustered, Nar could barely notice that her cheeks were tear-wet.  "Oh, Nar--if you didn't always know the right thing to say, I'd never get through this.  I love you so much."

 And for once, Nar-Es had nothing to say.

 -K-

 So now, here she was.  Barefoot, bikini-clad, alone.  Nar-Es and her handler would only be allowed in at the bell.  The crowd was kept back by security and a force-field.  There was no referee, and there would be none.  Kara stood alone, hands on hips, smile replaced by a grim expression of acceptance, looking towards the tunnel from which Zora would emerge.  Waiting, waiting.

 The hubbub had died down.  It wasn't the silence of a church, but it was as close to it as a wrestling crowd ever gets.  It became obvious that Zora wanted to make an entrance, and to psyche-out her foe with the long wait.  Kara, realizing this, waved her hand for the engineers to point the mikes down at her.

 She gave the crowd a big smile, turning 360 degrees as she spoke, waving to the fans with their big signs boosting Supergirl or Black Flame.  "I hate to tell you this, but I may catch cold if
I have to wait any longer."  Big laugh of relief from the crowd.  "I'm gonna give her ten more seconds, and then I'm catching a ride home.  Are you ready, folks?  Ten...nine...eight..."

 By seven, most of the audience, even the Zora fans, were doing the countdown.  It got down to three before a flicker of a shadow was seen on the wall of the tunnel.  Kara Zor-El stood in her power stance, facing the woman whom she had come to fight for her honor.   She suppressed a shiver.  Keep cool, Kara, she told herself.  The event is never half as bad as the anticipation...

 Zora Vi-Lar stepped into the light.

 There was a rush of noise from the crowd, a lot of boos, some applause and cheers, the latter especially from girls who wore black eyemasks.  But all were awed by the woman who calmly walked to the wrestling ring, who was the final component of the show.

 Zora wore a black-and-purple robe with a flared collar that came up to the top of her head.  It was belted in front, and she walked so that the onlookers got enticing glimpses of her bare legs.  Her eyes were half-closed, her mouth half-smiling.  She looked to neither left nor right, and walked almost like a queen.  Kara was reminded of the evil queen from Disney's Snow White.  The memory was a relief for a moment.

 Zora vaulted into the ring, her cat-quick, acrobatic move contrasting with her stateliness by design.  She motioned for the mikes herself, and when all eyes were upon her, spoke.

 "I am the Black Flame, the Ultimate Woman.  Before me stands a rather weak specimen of the sex, a wimpish blonde whom I crushed like a bug several months ago.  It should have been more satisfying.  Now I realize my mistake.  I let the little girl go too soon."  She stared straight at Kara, as cruel as a woman had ever stared.  "Tonight I demand full satisfaction.  I will break your body and spirit, little Kara.  I will crush you to the mat twice and listen to your moans of pain.  I will make you submit twice!  And each time, little Kara, will only be after I have punished you with the most painful holds in my repertoire for a full twenty minutes!"  Kara dropped her cool for a moment, and flinched.  The crowd was awed.  "After tonight...the career of Kara Zor-El, the wrestling weakling, will be over!  Tonight, you will see the ultimate female battle!  Tonight, the Black Flame BURNS!!"

 With that, Zora whipped off her robe.  The crowd was awed again, the men aroused by her powerful sex appeal, the women jealous and glad they didn't have to face this beauty-queen
Juggernaut...and all of them concerned for Kara.
 

 Zora Vi-Lar was dressed only in a black mini-bikini and eye-mask, with Roman sandals on her feet.  She removed the sandals, slowly, giving the men an eyeful.  She straightened, tossed back her hair, flexed on the ropes.  Wolf whistles went up.  Kara knew that she'd have to work to keep her supporters.  If only this bitch wasn't so darned sexy!

 The girls faced each other.  The bell rang.

 The match began.

 There was no time for fear, no time for anything but concentration on the other woman--how to break her, how to avoid her attack.  Kara and Zora circled, and within seconds were locked in cruel battle.  Both bikini-clad girls had their hands on each other, both were straining for an advantage, and each was trying to get in a kick or a knee to the other.  Kara was aiming for the abdomen, Zora a little lower.

 But Zora shifted her weight at just the right moment, threw Kara off-balance, and slammed her to the mat.  Zora tried a guillotine leg-drop to the neck.  Kara had her arms up and blocked it, then managed to get hold of Zora's leg.  Supergirl bounded to her feet, still holding Zora's left leg, and knee-dropped hard to her thigh.  The villainess yelped in pain.  Her expression of anger would have done a jungle cat proud.

 Still, Kara retained Zora's leg, and she smashed barefoot kick after barefoot kick into the back of her thigh, causing her foe to grunt in anguish.  Confidence leaped into Kara's heart.  She
grapevined Zora's leg and twisted hard in a devastating stepover toehold.  Zora grabbed her thigh in pain.  The crowd was going nuts, proud of their heroine's newfound prowess.

 "Ready to give, Zora?" grated Kara as she worked the bare leg harder.

 "You little bitch!" spat Zora.  "To think...that you'd have me...this early in the match!  Ohhh!"  With that, Zora grabbed at Kara's bare foot and, using her other leg, levered her down to the mat and was free.  Before Kara could react, the half-nude villainess grabbed her by the hair and threw her across the mat.

 This time, Kara didn't have a defensive stance when Zora knee-dropped across her chest.  A groan of pain went from the blonde girl's lips, and Zora smiled in satisfaction.  She straddled the
heroine's chest and smashed her head repeatedly on the canvas.  There wasn't any hard surface below, but Kara was getting plenty shook-up by the tactic.

 The wrestling villainess wasn't about to let up.  She gave Supergirl a vicious slap across the face, then reached back and pulled Kara's right leg up till it almost touched her chest.  Helpless, Supergirl groaned, provoking Zora to grab her other leg and do the same, still sitting on Kara's front.  In a few seconds more, Kara had managed to flex her leg muscles and throw Zora off,  but those seconds had been torturous.

 Got to get back in this match, thought Supergirl as she bounded to her feet.  It's time I showed this witch a few moves of my own!

 Zora, getting up, ran right into a flying dropkick from the blonde and was knocked flat on her back, much to the crowd's delight.  Kara did a body splash right across Zora's bare abdomen.
The villainess had tensed for it, but it still knocked some wind out of her.  Quickly, Kara wound her long legs about Zora's midsection and squeezed like a nutcracker.  She held one of Zora's
arms captive, putting all her strength into her legs.  Sweat began to dampen her neck and underarms, and her face showed the effort she was putting into the scissors.

 "Arghh!  No!  No!" howled Zora, unable to believe this wench was punishing her so brutally.  The brunette was bridging, lifting her rear end off the mat, but Kara punched her in the stomach to get her back down again.  This occurred twice more.  Zora finally stayed down.  Kara kept crushing her abdomen in irregular pulses, gratified to hear Zora's grunts of pain.

 The villainess was livid at her humiliation.  By her standards, Kara should have been a rag doll in her powerful hands, begging for mercy by this time.  But this!  She was taking more pain than she thought the blonde was ever capable of dealing.   Numbly, she also realized that Kara was enjoying her painmaking.  There are few things so pathetic as a sadist who learns what it's
like to be on the receiving end of things.

 But Zora hadn't become a champion by giving easily.  She worked on Kara's feet, managed to get them unhooked, and tried to tie them into a leg hold.  No such luck.  Supergirl kicked out, got to her feet, and smashed kick after kick into her foe's belly.  She got Zora against a ring post and sent her knee into the brunette's stomach repeatedly.  For the first time in ages, Zora appeared to be in bad shape.

 The villainess shoved Kara away, body-dropped across her back, and did little damage.  Kara, pressing her advantage, got up, hooked her foe into an abdominal stretch, and really put the
pressure on.  This time, Zora didn't hold back her groans of pain.   Supergirl was really hurting her, and there didn't look to be any way out of this except one.

 Drawing in a breath, Zora finally admitted, "I give!  I give!"

 "Are you sure?" asked Kara, still pressuring the painful hold.

 "Yes, dammit, I give!" hollered the brunette.  Kara released her, shoving her away, backing off, and striking her protective stance.  She didn't put it past Zora to try for a crippling strike between falls.

 Zora, for her part, shot a look of venom at Supergirl while bent over at the waist, trying to get her faculties back.  Kara affected her power stance for a moment before going to her corner.
A stool appeared, and a freshening spray descended from the ceiling to lightly spritz both ladies.  There would be three minutes between each fall, and both girls took every second of them to
recover from the fierce combat.
 

 Nar was elated, but cautious about displaying it.  He knew that there were two rounds to go, and Kara would have to take another one for total victory.  Too, Zora would be out to hurt his girl even more viciously now that she had lost a fall.  But Kara had won the fall!  Within himself, the promoter was ecstatic.

 Zora was no longer bent over by the end of the rest period.  Kara was wary, ready for whatever would come in the second fall...or so she hoped.  Both had been sitting back against the
ring corners, relaxing every muscle in preparation for the next onslaught.

 The bell sounded.

 Zora and Kara leapt out, filled with battle-lust.  Both met in center ring, disdaining the hesitant circling of the first fall, and entwined themselves in each other's body.  Zora had been
counting on Supergirl's fury.  Though their legs were entwined, she freed her right limb and, while getting Supergirl to concentrate on the test of strength they were having with their arms, drew back her leg and then sent her knee smashing right into Supergirl's crotch.

 Supergirl's eyes went wide as a horrible groan escaped her mouth.  Her legs felt like jelly.  The crowd echoed the groan, disapproving of Zora's tactic.  But nothing could be done.  Zora
freed one of her hands and sent a powerful fist right into Kara's jaw.  The blonde's eyes went up and she collapsed to the mat, face down as Zora got out of the way.

 The crowd was on its feet.  Nar was shouting for the match to be suspended, but it could not be.  Kara was not injured, just badly hurt.  She wasn't even unconscious, just dazed.

 Zora wanted it that way.

 The villainess knee-dropped to Kara's stomach.  The blonde's head came up in a gasp of air.  Zora backhanded her down.  Then she got up, stood over the wheezing Supergirl's legs, and quickly entwined them with her own in a figure-four leglock.

 Supergirl's groans could be heard all over the stadium.  The half-naked hellcat knew just how to use this hold to ultimate effectiveness, and she was doing just that.  Her shapely legs were
steel, pressuring the lovely legs of Supergirl in an agony-producing leglock.  To make sure Supergirl couldn't free herself, she held Kara's bare foot in her lap with both hands, and worked
on the foot and toes while she did it.  Kara writhed in torment on the mat, moaning and groaning in pain, a wrestling beauty in torture.  And Zora was the sexiest dominatrix in the world.

 Zora was varying the pressure on Kara's lovely legs, lessening it to give her a chance to recover, then upping it to make her howl.  She laughed sadistically.  "Oh, don't you just love it,
Kara?  Don't you love what I'm doing to you?  You could never win against me, and I can never be beaten--by you!"  Kara screamed in pain, her head thrown back and tears squeezing between the lids of her closed eyes.

 The Zora fans were on their feet, cheering.  The Supergirl boosters were desperately shouting for Kara to get back in the match.  But it seemed impossible for the blonde beauty to come back from Zora's torturing.  Some of the young girls with the Supergirl pins were even crying.

 Zora was up now, sitting on Supergirl's lovely back and twisting her bare foot to hear the heroine groan and to make her beat and kick the mat...an effect that couldn't be produced with
a figure-four leglock.  Hearing an opponent pound the canvas always turned Zora on.  Now she criss-crossed Supergirl's bare, beautiful legs at the ankles, bending them at the knees, and leaned in, putting her weight on the legs to max out the painful pressure.

 "Oh, no more...please, no more," begged Kara, past the point of pride.  Zora responded by sitting on Supergirl's crossed legs and working on her bare feet.  Kara buried her face in the mat and sobbed in pain.

 The agonized blonde came to a decision.  If she let Zora work her over any more, she might not be in shape for the final fall.  She was obviously not going to be able to pull this one out of the fire.  There was only one thing to do.

 "I give," muttered Kara.

 "What?  Say it loud!" snapped Zora, working on her toes.

 "I GIVE!" shouted Kara.

 The arena resounded with the boos of the blonde's boosters and with the cheers of Zora's adherents.  But above all that came the screeching laugh of Zora Vi-Lar, as she stood triumphant over her despised opponent.

 The bell rang for the rest period.  Nar-Es was on the point of cancelling the fight, but knew Kara would be hurt more by a forfeit than a defeat.  He began to fear for Kara's safety...perhaps, even, her life.

 The girls staggered back to their corners.  The fight had really taken a toll on Kara.  She had a tough time even getting up and dragging her body back to the force-stool for the freshening
spray.  Her breaths came in ragged gasps and she hurt in places she hadn't even been aware of before.  Supergirl had been beaten, perhaps more severely than in their first match.  The question in everybody's mind, including Kara's, was:  How can she come back from this one?

 For Zora, strutting nastily to her corner and then turning to regard her rival, it was:  how long can I prolong this match, and my ecstasy?  She knew better than to take anything for granted, but all her ring smarts told her that Supergirl was cake.  She sat and luxuriated in the freshening spray, ready to put the blonde away for keeps.

 Kara pushed the matted strands of her hair back into place.  The freshening spray was doing wonders with her appearance.  If only her body could benefit as well...  She looked on at Zora with not a little fear.

 What the hell was she doing wrong?  Should she go out there a third time, and get broken on the rack by this Amazon bitch?  Or should she just concede?  The pain was not something she wished to experience a second time.

 The bell sounded.  Zora arose and strode towards center ring.  Kara was still in her corner.  She didn't look at her opponent.  She just sat there.  There was silence for a heartbeat, then a
couple of voices called out to her.  "C'mon, Supergirl!  Get back in there!"  "Get after her, Kara!  Take that bitch and shove her legs down her throat!"

 She had to come up to scratch within ten seconds, or forfeit the fall and the match.

 And then one stern commanding voice, and she knew where it came from.

 "Kara!"

 It was Nar.  He didn't have to say any more.  Kara lifted her head, arose from the force-stool, stood up and faced the arrogant woman before her.

 There may have been fear in her eyes, but it was suppressed.  Coming to the fore was something else, a steel nobody had ever seen in Kara's demeanor.  The resolve of a woman who had learned what pain was, had learned what fear was, and was now learning about another thing, something only vulnerability could teach her:  courage.

 "I'm gonna bring you down," whispered Kara, and she knew Zora heard it.

 Zora stood still for a second, then retorted, "Come on, then, and let me butcher you like a hog!"  With that, she swung out her foot like a scythe in a deadly savate kick.

 Kara ducked, rolled, came up under it and behind Zora, and gave her a double-smash to the back.  The villainess lurched forward with a yelp of surprise.  The crowd cheered.  And Kara
continued the assault with a smashing kick to Zora's ribs, another double-fist to the head, and a headlock.  She ground away at Zora's jaw, and the woman in the black bikini couldn't hide her groans of pain.  Kara punctuated the hold with a jump-up that smashed her knee into Zora's body, and repeated the manuver twice.  Zora was enduring, but definitely hurt.

 The crowd was on its feet, Supergirl boosters shouting approval and waving their pins and signs, Zora fans (their number was shrinking to a hard core) demanding their champion get back in the fight.  But for his part, Nar sat still, intent on the action, knowing that there was a lot of fighting yet to get through until the end.

 The blonde, still holding Zora's head, rushed at the corner post and tried to bang her foe's head into the turnbuckle; it was padded, but there'd still be some impact.  Unexpectedly, Black
Flame pushed free, and Kara turned to contact the post with her back.  Zora grabbed her hair and smashed her back against the post three times, then kneed her twice in the belly.  The heroine was
aching from the torment.  But, before Zora could get her knee in a third time, Kara grabbed her leg, twisted hard, and upset her.  Zora went to the mat, turning over on her face.

 In a flashy move, Kara somersaulted over her foe and then knee-dropped to the back of her neck.  Then she wrenched Zora's right arm into a chicken wing, getting her leg into the hold.  The villainess howled in pain, kicking the mat and slapping it with her free hand.  "No!  No!" shouted Zora in unexpected anguish.  Kara took the opportunity to grab one of Zora's flailing feet and pull back hard on her opponent's leg, adding an improvised toehold to the punishment.  Zora was really hurting, and Kara was feeling her oats.

 But the villainess was a powerful woman in her own right.  She bulled free of the toehold and turned over, forcing Kara off the arm hold.  Then she grabbed Supergirl by the head, threw her onto the mat on her back, and body-dropped across her midsection.  Kara gasped in pain, fighting for breath.  Zora did it again, and Kara looked like a goner.  Smiling, Zora lifted her near-nude body and tried for a third crushing drop.

 This time, Kara had her knees up, and the villainess landed right on them, delivering a powerful blow to her own midriff and knocking her away.  Before Zora could get her feet back under her, Kara slammed a knee across her throat.  She let up, not choking her, but Zora was still grabbing her neck in pain.  Kara split Zora's long legs wide and then butt-dropped between them, landing on Zora's thighs and getting a scream from her foe.

 Kara was carrying the fight to Zora.  At long last, Nar knew that she had learned how to wrestle.

 Next, Kara turned Zora over and applied a double toehold, sitting on the brunette's crossed legs to keep the pressure up and working on her bare feet and toes.  Zora howled in pain and slapped the mat.  To think that this wench, this blonde bimbo, was punishing her this way!  Why, it...it wasn't even conceivable!   This fight wasn't going by the odds!

 Zora flexed her legs and threw Kara off.  Before the blonde could get up from her face-down position, Zora slammed her with a cross-body drop, accentuated by a hard-pointed elbow to the back.   Kara gasped in pain, her eyes going wide.  Zora smashed a knee into her spine, making the heroine whine.  Then she entwined their lovely legs in a figure-four, putting on crushing pressure and making Supergirl sob in agony.  The wicked, satisfied smile came back to Zora's lips.  This was the way it was meant to be.

 Rather than making Supergirl submit to the leglock, Zora decided to drag out the punishment.  She unwound their legs, keeping hold of Kara's right limb, and stood over her foe to apply a painful single-leg Boston crab.  Kara slapped the mat, kicked it with her free bare foot, and groaned.  Zora laughed nastily.  She sat down on Supergirl's rear, still holding the leg, and subjected her to an agony-producing foot twist.  When she combined it with toe twisting, it made Kara beg for mercy.  "No more!  Please, stop!  I--I can't bear it!"
 

 "Then concede!" snarled Zora.

 "No!" yelped Kara.  Zora responded with a twist that made Kara howl, but the blonde battler had made her decision.  She would pit her determination to endure against Zora's lust for her pain.  And it was proving to be a terrible contest so far.

 Zora, still retaining a grip on Supergirl's ankle, dragged her over to the corner, rolled under the bottom rope, and, bracing her bare foot against the ring apron, dragged Kara crotch-first into the ring post.  The pain was paralyzing.  Kara was unable to breathe for an instant.  Instinctively, she put her hands against the ring post and pushed back to keep Zora from injuring her pelvic bone.  Instead, the bitch banged her leg against the post three times.  Tears ran down Supergirl's face.

 Even Zora's supporters were now yelling for her to stop.  She did, but only to jump back into the ring, drag Kara up by her hair, and put her in an abdominal stretch.  Supergirl was almost beyond groaning, and knew that it wouldn't take much more to make her faint.  The camera caught the terrible look of pain on Kara's face, and the look of sadistic pleasure on Zora's countenance.

 Even at this instant, though, Kara's fine mind was analyzing the situation.  First, she had to admit:  Zora was the stronger woman, physically.  Second, it wasn't likely she'd be able to make
her concede, in her own weakened condition.  Third:  ...well, there had to be a third...

 Wait a minute!  What was that thought about fainting?

 Kara's mind raced back to her match with Tala.  After she had made the girl concede, Tala had sprung back at her for a sneak attack.  What if...what if she could make Zora think she was
unconscious, and then...?

 At that, Kara sagged limply in Zora's clutches.

 Black Flame was at first overjoyed, a terrible thrill bursting through her loins.  But she didn't want to make a mistake.  She pressured the agonizing hold for another ninety seconds.  Kara had not moved.  After that, she shouldn't be able to move, except straight down.

 So Zora let go.  Kara dropped to the mat like a sack of potatoes.  Her eyes were closed.  There was a silence all over the arena, in which, incredibly, the sounds of Zora's ragged gasps
could be heard as she stood over the motionless, bikini-clad body of Supergirl.

 Zora raised her arms to the heavens and screamed, a powerful victory-screech without words.  At last it had come to this.  At last, the blonde wimp had been beaten.  At last, Zora's
superiority, as a fighter and as a woman, was established.  She had won!

 Except that Kara chose that minute to jump up, grab her from behind, and lock on a body scissors and a sleeper hold.
 

 Both women fell backward to the mat.  The crowd roared, in a manner to shame Romans at the Circus Maximus.  Zora was unable to react.  Her brain simply couldn't process the data fast enough.   It was a reaction Kara had hoped for, and she was pressing her advantage as hard as she could.

 Every erg of energy in Kara's bruised, battered body went into the double-hold.  This one had to work.  If not, Zora would turn her into a grease spot on the mat.  The powerful villainess was already smashing at Kara's legs, spreading them further apart.  The torturing her legs had taken had made it impossible for her to pressure the body scissors as she had hoped to do.

 But her strong arms were still holding Zora's head captive in that sleeper hold, and the cameras could see what Kara couldn't:  that Zora was holding onto consciousness only by the barest of threads.  The woman had a will of iron, but even iron can be bent with sufficient force.

 And the girl who was pressuring her was a Girl of Steel.

 The mikes in the ceiling were primed to catch the slightest sound from either woman's lips now.  The gasps of both Kara and Zora were transmitted to everyone in the arena, and to all the
Rokynians watching the fight on their viewscreens.

 Kara's legs had fallen away from Zora's midsection.  The girl in the black bikini raised herself up to a sitting position, Kara still hanging on with the greatest desperation of her life.

 They hung in that position for five seconds, neither seeming to move nor breathe.

 Then Zora whispered, "I concede," and fell back in a faint.

 The crowd roared.

 Few cries of outrage were heard, even from the staunchest Zora supporters.  For once, it seemed as though everybody in the arena, everybody on Rokyn, was the friend of Supergirl.

 But Nar-Es clenched his fists in desperation.  Kara still had to get up and go to her corner within thirty seconds to collect the win.  The blonde had barely managed to disengage her arms from Zora's head, and was sitting in the middle of the ring with the brunette's head in her lap, focussing on nothing.

 "Kara!  Go to your corner!" shouted Nar.  "Go to your corner!"

 "Yeah, go to your corner!" hollered another guy in the crowd--one wearing a Zora pin.

 The crowd picked up the chant.  "Go to your corner!  Go to your corner!  Go to your corner!"  Kara looked up, stared incomprehendingly at the crowd, and then slowly rose to her feet.  She stumbled in one direction.

 "Not that one!  The other one!"

 Zora was beginning to stir.  Kara slowly turned around, stepped over her fallen foe, trudged like a zombiette to the corner of the ring designated for her.

 Twenty-five seconds.  Twenty-six...  Zora was starting to shake her head back and forth.

 Twenty-seven.  Kara was still ten feet away.  Twenty-eight...

 With her last effort, Kara threw herself at the ring corner, slid down the ring post, slumped to the mat with her head against the post and her arms hanging out of the ring.

 Thirty.

 Kara fell asleep.

 Even the roaring of thirty thousand people couldn't rouse her.

 And Nar didn't even try.  He was crying too hard.

 -K-

 The ring medics brought Kara back around in a few minutes, with Nar there to support her in his arms.  A medical scan determined that, after a day or two's rest in the hospital, she'd be doing fine.  The newsies wanted a quote from her.  What they got was, "My tongue is the only part of my body that isn't hurting right now.  I'm not going to put it under a strain."

 Nar didn't trust himself to talk in front of the reporters.  A ring official gave Kara the belt, and a couple of hangers-on propped her up between themselves while they buckled it around her.
She gave an exhausted smile and a V-for-victory sign with two fingers for the cameras, hoping it meant the same on Rokyn as it did on Earth.

 Zora would have to face a more Spartan existence from here on.  Her fan-base had dwindled, thanks to her too-vicious tactics in the fight and also to her loss.  Her manager served notice of his resignation.  Finding more matches would be a lot harder.  She wasn't quite a pariah, but they were working on it.

 When Nar and Kara were in the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms, away from the paparazzi and the newshounds and the hangers-on, he was struggling for words.  He wanted to tell the golden-haired girl of how he loved her like a daughter, how proud he was to have made her...no, helped her make herself...a champion, how he wanted to sweep her away and keep her forever on Rokyn as his dearest treasure.

 Then, there was another thread of thought going through his more practical brain-area.  What if Kara decided to hang it up with this match?  What if she decided that, after that terrible beating, wrestling just wasn't in her blood anymore?  What if she retired undefeated, with the strap still in her possession?

 Oh, well.  He shrugged.  It was her life, after all.   But...maybe he could visit Earth on a regular basis, pulling a few strings here and there, and drop in on Kal and Kara on a social basis.  If they'd have him...

 Kara turned her head to look at him, as they reached the portal of the dressing room.  "Nar?"

 Nar let silence hang for about three seconds.  "Yes, Kara?"

 She beamed at him, one hand on the door control, the other caressing his cheek.  "Get ahold of Luma Lynai and arrange a rematch."

 Then they went in.

 (next story)

 (HOME)