Author’s Note: Since I suck at writing fight sequences, my inspiration for Fem!Connor’s combat style is that she fights like Gina Carano in the movie Haywire. Mostly, she uses a lot of leg work and environmental opportunities to overwhelm her enemies. While it’s not the best film by a longshot, the fight sequences are the amazingly crafted and look exceedingly realistic. Especially because they don’t seem to employ any ridiculous little extra flourishes to them. They also contain whole lot of efficient brutality that makes you wince and squirm…like canon Connor’s moves. Particularly the ones that end in fatalities.
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She was still asleep when Hickey awoke the next morning. But she’d moved in the night, curling herself up against the wall. Her feet were still bound, as were her hands in front of her.
Judging by how the guard didn’t say a word as he pushed in his breakfast through the steel grate in the middle of the door, Thomas figured Haytham’s pockets must have run nice and deep for this level of bribery. From what he heard when they let him out for his daily hours in the prison yard (outside and away from the general, broke-ass prison population, of course), there had been no word of a prisoner escape. Meaning the guards knew that she wasn’t in her cell.
How fucked up was that?
In fact, he was so focused on the fact that Charles expected him to use her for a bit of fun that he missed that she still wasn’t on the floor when he returned that afternoon. It was his first mistake.
As soon as the door to his cell clicked closed behind him, his knee was kicked out from behind him. In the next split second, something wild and clawing then landed on his back, effectively knocking the air out of him. Within the blink of an eye, she boxed him twice the kidney. Nearly throwing up his supper at the blaze of agony that ricocheted up his side, he sluggishly crawled back to his knees, his fingers blindly clambering for purchase along the floor. Unfortunately for him, she briskly followed up her initial attack with a driving punch to the back of his neck.
As he once again hit the floor like a bag of bricks, a distant part of his mind had to give her some credit at her speed and efficiency. However, he was currently far more concerned with the rope that suddenly appeared in front his eyes. Instinctively throwing up a hand to protect his neck, he could do nothing else to stop her as she yanked it around his throat with vicious aplomb. Now, she was effectively strangling him.
Breath seizing and lungs on fire, his vision was already beginning to darken around the edges. If he didn’t do something quick, he was going to be dead in the matter of a few minutes. Probably sooner, judging by how she suddenly clutched his torso between her thighs and settled all her weight on his lower back. As his head jerked backwards, he knew all she needed was a little more force to allow her to cleanly snap his neck.
What a clever fucking cunt.
Without warning, he suddenly went limp. While it didn’t allow him to completely surprise her, it gave him the precious seconds he needed to slide his hand even further under her makeshift garrote. Ignoring the rope burn tearing into his hand, he rocked forward. At the same time, snapping his hips upwards threw her off balance. At least the rope was slightly looser now, allowing him to suck in a few desperately needed gulps of air. But her well-aimed hit to the back of his other knee sent him sprawling again. She must have connected with a nerve of some sort, as his thigh spasmed its own volition. His irate grunt echoing off the walls cell did nothing to slow how she wrapped both the edges of the rope around one of her hands.
At the same time, she bounced the side of his head off the floor with her other one. Light exploded in front of his eyes at the impact, making him roar out a curse of retort. Hands scrambling back, he viciously raked his nails down her arm. While he could feel himself drawing blood, she simply smacked his hand away while rocking back her weight again.
Holy shit, this bitch was serious.
Eyes desperately searching for anything to use to his advantage, he let out a gurgle of triumph as he spotted a loosened tile next to his nose. Grabbing at it, he yanked it from the floor. Reeling back, he smashed it into her thigh. While she groaned and seized when it shattered on impact, it didn’t cause her to drop the rope. But it was enough to force her to loosen a bit of slack while giving him the leverage he needed to struggle to his knees. He expected her to release him, what, with her equilibrium finally thrown off. But all she did was firmly wrap her legs around his waist and lock her feet together. Great, now he had the crazed savage on his back yet again. And she still had the bloody rope secured around his god-damned neck.
Enough of this bullshit.
Eyes darting around to get his bearings as he stumbled to his feet, he flailed backwards and hit the wall. Her snarled grunt of pain rang in his hears as her back connected with the stone. An idea swiftly forming in his head and realizing he likely had just under four stone of weight on her, he reared back and propelled her into the wall again. This time, with brutal intent and throwing his full weight into it. He was rewarded with her louder yowl and the feel of her feet loosening from around his waist. Pitching forward, he ran backwards yet again. The third time was the charm as she the breath was knocked out of her with a bellow of frustration, her grip on the rope finally faltering. Snatching it from around his throat, he hurled it to ground and doubled over. Shaking and gasping for breath as she slid to the ground behind him, he was forced to focus on not passing out.
That was his second mistake.
Did that bloody savage just launch 'erself off the fuckin' wall?! his mind reeled as she inexplicably appeared in front of him, letting out an eerily wolfish growl and shoving her shoulder into his chest. It was made even worse when her punch connected with his mouth, effectively splitting his lip. A little higher and she would’ve solidly broken his nose. Only luck allowed him to reach out and snatch her by the hair. But yanking her head back did nothing stop her hands from popping up through his arms and aiming a punch or two at his throat. Hell, she didn’t even shriek at the pain he know he was causing at almost tearing her hair out at the root.
Thank God he was a soldier, as a civilian would’ve contained laughably poor reflexes. Likely, he’d be currently choking to death in a vain attempt to get air through his newly crushed trachea. But he was used to attacks from his time in the field. So he jerked his head just to left, causing her first punch to land on his clavicle, the second on his cheek. Gritting out a litany of curses at he felt his face already beginning to swell up, he reached out and smacked her across the face.
She ducked about half of his reach, though her nose was bloodied, her teeth clattering at the impact so hard she bit down on her lip and drew blood. Yet it allowed him to snap his other arm around her neck and grind it down against her throat. Unfortunately, it still didn’t stop her next attack. In fact, she reared back to head-butt him. Only his height saved him, as well as the way he yanked on her hair again, wrench her neck backward and causing her to let out a hiss of agony.
She was still a whirling fury of spinning limbs. Changing tactics a third time, she kicked at the floor in an effort to get some momentum going. It wasn’t hard to tell that she was attempting to use his superior weight against him. Likely, in order to smash him back into the floor and finish off the job of throttling him to death. Frankly, he was a bit stunned that she wasn’t screaming and panicked. Outside of a swift babble of what he assumed were curses in her native language, she was silent. Doubtless, she wholly focused on killing him, the murderous little savage.
The chit had more balls than most men he knew, he had to begrudgingly give her that. But her game was getting old pretty damn fast. Thankfully, he was able kick a leg under hers and shove his legs further apart to better anchor himself. It prevented her from getting enough force to use him as a counterweight.
Somewhere in his brain, it clicked that he was pretty fucking lucky that she was probably not at her best due to being in prison. Or else he would’ve been dead in the matter of a few hits. A shame for her, though he’d never in a million years trade places with the little beast. It wasn’t his fucking fault that her luck had run out.
Her body went stiff when he pressed his arm even harder to her windpipe in warning. “Good,” he snarled, tongue licking at the blood trickling down his lip, the taste coppery and warm, “‘Cause if ya move one more fuckin' time, I’ll snap that pretty 'lil neck ‘o yours, yeah?” She remained silent, so he took it for acceptance.
Gingerly letting go of her hair to ensure she didn’t reel back for another blow, he still kept his arm solidly clutched around her neck. Swiftly reaching down, he retrieved the rope. Looping it around her hands, he double checked the knots. Looked like that blighter, Charles, was a solid fuck-up when it came to restraining prisoners. That had to be the only explanation of how she could’ve escaped her bonds.
“Now,” he huffed, “I’m gonna to drop ya to the floor. And ya ain’t gonna fuckin’ move, got it?!” Her body went even more rigid at that, no doubt rearing up for another attack. His ears ringing from his head getting shoved into the floor, he was in no mood for another fight. Not at moment, at least. And fuck, his throat hurt. So he settled for threats.
“Look ‘ere, ya ‘lil shit, ya try ‘n kill me again, God as me witness, I’ll give ya a sound beating ya won’t ever fuckin’ forget.”
In spite of his words, she still didn’t relax. Son of a bitch, what a stubborn little tosser. Well, time to step it up.
“And that’ll be after I stick my cock right up yer tight ‘lil rump for payment.” She certainly let out a hiss at that. “Then, I’ll hand ya over to the guards for their fun. And unlike most up in ‘ere, you’re a nice bit ‘o tits ‘n ass. So I wonder ‘ow long they’ll keep all their attentions focused on ya, eh?” His mother would’ve skinned him alive for such vileness. Then again, she never attempted to fucking choke him out. Besides, judging by the girl’s subtle nod, she was taking his words seriously. Good.
Feeling her relax, he let her go. She hit to the floor with little more than a grunt. Bringing his hand to his mouth, he inspected the damage with his fingertips. It wasn’t much. But his vision was swimming, the ringing in his ears hadn’t let up and half of his face was swelling up. His lungs also still burned from a lack of air.
Frustrated, he growled raised a hand to smack her across her insolent face. She didn’t even bother to flinching at his action. Stock still and bracing for the impact, her eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits of black. Her split lip curled with derision and teeth bared, it lent her the look of a rabid dog ready to rip his throat out at the latest provocation.
He surprised himself when he paused mid swing. She barely reacted to it.
Letting out a hiss of retort, he settled for shoving her cheek into the wall with a rough hand while scuffing at her calf with the edge of his boot. Outside of a wince and "oomph!" of impact as she connected with the stone, she said not a word. Crouching to where she was haphazardly slumped on the floor, he snatched her by the chin, forcing her to meet his incensed gaze.
“Now, stay put, ya daft ‘lil mongrel,” he growled, taking in the way her dark eyes narrowed at him, fierce and unbowed . Her swelling, bloody nose twitched, almost as though she was sniffing at him, the barbarous wench. “Daddy’s gotta see how much damage ya bloody wrought so he can go thinkin’ up the proper punishment, eh?” She still didn’t reply, save a mutter of foreign words.
Cuffing her ear for her efforts, he leaned down and tied up her feet as well. Considering he was due to be released today, there was no need to worry about her nearly escaping again. At least that’s what he had to tell himself as he doubled and tripled checked his knots. If only because he was dangerously close to getting killed just now. Way bloody close, in fact.
For the loved of fucking God, why in the bloody hell had Charles dumped this feral little bitch on his doorstep?
Re: FILL: Short Change Heroes, Part 4/?
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She was still asleep when Hickey awoke the next morning. But she’d moved in the night, curling herself up against the wall. Her feet were still bound, as were her hands in front of her.
Judging by how the guard didn’t say a word as he pushed in his breakfast through the steel grate in the middle of the door, Thomas figured Haytham’s pockets must have run nice and deep for this level of bribery. From what he heard when they let him out for his daily hours in the prison yard (outside and away from the general, broke-ass prison population, of course), there had been no word of a prisoner escape. Meaning the guards knew that she wasn’t in her cell.
How fucked up was that?
In fact, he was so focused on the fact that Charles expected him to use her for a bit of fun that he missed that she still wasn’t on the floor when he returned that afternoon. It was his first mistake.
As soon as the door to his cell clicked closed behind him, his knee was kicked out from behind him. In the next split second, something wild and clawing then landed on his back, effectively knocking the air out of him. Within the blink of an eye, she boxed him twice the kidney. Nearly throwing up his supper at the blaze of agony that ricocheted up his side, he sluggishly crawled back to his knees, his fingers blindly clambering for purchase along the floor. Unfortunately for him, she briskly followed up her initial attack with a driving punch to the back of his neck.
As he once again hit the floor like a bag of bricks, a distant part of his mind had to give her some credit at her speed and efficiency. However, he was currently far more concerned with the rope that suddenly appeared in front his eyes. Instinctively throwing up a hand to protect his neck, he could do nothing else to stop her as she yanked it around his throat with vicious aplomb. Now, she was effectively strangling him.
Breath seizing and lungs on fire, his vision was already beginning to darken around the edges. If he didn’t do something quick, he was going to be dead in the matter of a few minutes. Probably sooner, judging by how she suddenly clutched his torso between her thighs and settled all her weight on his lower back. As his head jerked backwards, he knew all she needed was a little more force to allow her to cleanly snap his neck.
What a clever fucking cunt.
Without warning, he suddenly went limp. While it didn’t allow him to completely surprise her, it gave him the precious seconds he needed to slide his hand even further under her makeshift garrote. Ignoring the rope burn tearing into his hand, he rocked forward. At the same time, snapping his hips upwards threw her off balance. At least the rope was slightly looser now, allowing him to suck in a few desperately needed gulps of air. But her well-aimed hit to the back of his other knee sent him sprawling again. She must have connected with a nerve of some sort, as his thigh spasmed its own volition. His irate grunt echoing off the walls cell did nothing to slow how she wrapped both the edges of the rope around one of her hands.
At the same time, she bounced the side of his head off the floor with her other one. Light exploded in front of his eyes at the impact, making him roar out a curse of retort. Hands scrambling back, he viciously raked his nails down her arm. While he could feel himself drawing blood, she simply smacked his hand away while rocking back her weight again.
Holy shit, this bitch was serious.
Eyes desperately searching for anything to use to his advantage, he let out a gurgle of triumph as he spotted a loosened tile next to his nose. Grabbing at it, he yanked it from the floor. Reeling back, he smashed it into her thigh. While she groaned and seized when it shattered on impact, it didn’t cause her to drop the rope. But it was enough to force her to loosen a bit of slack while giving him the leverage he needed to struggle to his knees. He expected her to release him, what, with her equilibrium finally thrown off. But all she did was firmly wrap her legs around his waist and lock her feet together. Great, now he had the crazed savage on his back yet again. And she still had the bloody rope secured around his god-damned neck.
Enough of this bullshit.
Eyes darting around to get his bearings as he stumbled to his feet, he flailed backwards and hit the wall. Her snarled grunt of pain rang in his hears as her back connected with the stone. An idea swiftly forming in his head and realizing he likely had just under four stone of weight on her, he reared back and propelled her into the wall again. This time, with brutal intent and throwing his full weight into it. He was rewarded with her louder yowl and the feel of her feet loosening from around his waist. Pitching forward, he ran backwards yet again. The third time was the charm as she the breath was knocked out of her with a bellow of frustration, her grip on the rope finally faltering. Snatching it from around his throat, he hurled it to ground and doubled over. Shaking and gasping for breath as she slid to the ground behind him, he was forced to focus on not passing out.
That was his second mistake.
Did that bloody savage just launch 'erself off the fuckin' wall?! his mind reeled as she inexplicably appeared in front of him, letting out an eerily wolfish growl and shoving her shoulder into his chest. It was made even worse when her punch connected with his mouth, effectively splitting his lip. A little higher and she would’ve solidly broken his nose. Only luck allowed him to reach out and snatch her by the hair. But yanking her head back did nothing stop her hands from popping up through his arms and aiming a punch or two at his throat. Hell, she didn’t even shriek at the pain he know he was causing at almost tearing her hair out at the root.
Thank God he was a soldier, as a civilian would’ve contained laughably poor reflexes. Likely, he’d be currently choking to death in a vain attempt to get air through his newly crushed trachea. But he was used to attacks from his time in the field. So he jerked his head just to left, causing her first punch to land on his clavicle, the second on his cheek. Gritting out a litany of curses at he felt his face already beginning to swell up, he reached out and smacked her across the face.
She ducked about half of his reach, though her nose was bloodied, her teeth clattering at the impact so hard she bit down on her lip and drew blood. Yet it allowed him to snap his other arm around her neck and grind it down against her throat. Unfortunately, it still didn’t stop her next attack. In fact, she reared back to head-butt him. Only his height saved him, as well as the way he yanked on her hair again, wrench her neck backward and causing her to let out a hiss of agony.
She was still a whirling fury of spinning limbs. Changing tactics a third time, she kicked at the floor in an effort to get some momentum going. It wasn’t hard to tell that she was attempting to use his superior weight against him. Likely, in order to smash him back into the floor and finish off the job of throttling him to death. Frankly, he was a bit stunned that she wasn’t screaming and panicked. Outside of a swift babble of what he assumed were curses in her native language, she was silent. Doubtless, she wholly focused on killing him, the murderous little savage.
The chit had more balls than most men he knew, he had to begrudgingly give her that. But her game was getting old pretty damn fast. Thankfully, he was able kick a leg under hers and shove his legs further apart to better anchor himself. It prevented her from getting enough force to use him as a counterweight.
Somewhere in his brain, it clicked that he was pretty fucking lucky that she was probably not at her best due to being in prison. Or else he would’ve been dead in the matter of a few hits. A shame for her, though he’d never in a million years trade places with the little beast. It wasn’t his fucking fault that her luck had run out.
Her body went stiff when he pressed his arm even harder to her windpipe in warning. “Good,” he snarled, tongue licking at the blood trickling down his lip, the taste coppery and warm, “‘Cause if ya move one more fuckin' time, I’ll snap that pretty 'lil neck ‘o yours, yeah?” She remained silent, so he took it for acceptance.
Gingerly letting go of her hair to ensure she didn’t reel back for another blow, he still kept his arm solidly clutched around her neck. Swiftly reaching down, he retrieved the rope. Looping it around her hands, he double checked the knots. Looked like that blighter, Charles, was a solid fuck-up when it came to restraining prisoners. That had to be the only explanation of how she could’ve escaped her bonds.
“Now,” he huffed, “I’m gonna to drop ya to the floor. And ya ain’t gonna fuckin’ move, got it?!” Her body went even more rigid at that, no doubt rearing up for another attack. His ears ringing from his head getting shoved into the floor, he was in no mood for another fight. Not at moment, at least. And fuck, his throat hurt. So he settled for threats.
“Look ‘ere, ya ‘lil shit, ya try ‘n kill me again, God as me witness, I’ll give ya a sound beating ya won’t ever fuckin’ forget.”
In spite of his words, she still didn’t relax. Son of a bitch, what a stubborn little tosser. Well, time to step it up.
“And that’ll be after I stick my cock right up yer tight ‘lil rump for payment.” She certainly let out a hiss at that. “Then, I’ll hand ya over to the guards for their fun. And unlike most up in ‘ere, you’re a nice bit ‘o tits ‘n ass. So I wonder ‘ow long they’ll keep all their attentions focused on ya, eh?” His mother would’ve skinned him alive for such vileness. Then again, she never attempted to fucking choke him out. Besides, judging by the girl’s subtle nod, she was taking his words seriously. Good.
Feeling her relax, he let her go. She hit to the floor with little more than a grunt. Bringing his hand to his mouth, he inspected the damage with his fingertips. It wasn’t much. But his vision was swimming, the ringing in his ears hadn’t let up and half of his face was swelling up. His lungs also still burned from a lack of air.
Frustrated, he growled raised a hand to smack her across her insolent face. She didn’t even bother to flinching at his action. Stock still and bracing for the impact, her eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits of black. Her split lip curled with derision and teeth bared, it lent her the look of a rabid dog ready to rip his throat out at the latest provocation.
He surprised himself when he paused mid swing. She barely reacted to it.
Letting out a hiss of retort, he settled for shoving her cheek into the wall with a rough hand while scuffing at her calf with the edge of his boot. Outside of a wince and "oomph!" of impact as she connected with the stone, she said not a word. Crouching to where she was haphazardly slumped on the floor, he snatched her by the chin, forcing her to meet his incensed gaze.
“Now, stay put, ya daft ‘lil mongrel,” he growled, taking in the way her dark eyes narrowed at him, fierce and unbowed . Her swelling, bloody nose twitched, almost as though she was sniffing at him, the barbarous wench. “Daddy’s gotta see how much damage ya bloody wrought so he can go thinkin’ up the proper punishment, eh?” She still didn’t reply, save a mutter of foreign words.
Cuffing her ear for her efforts, he leaned down and tied up her feet as well. Considering he was due to be released today, there was no need to worry about her nearly escaping again. At least that’s what he had to tell himself as he doubled and tripled checked his knots. If only because he was dangerously close to getting killed just now. Way bloody close, in fact.
For the loved of fucking God, why in the bloody hell had Charles dumped this feral little bitch on his doorstep?