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Checkmate — Description
Rook tensed. The gargantuan man leering before her wasn't called Bruiser for nothing.

His bare muscular chest glistened and flexed underneath the pale orange street lights. Shirts, it seemed, were less of a fashionable clothing option for Bruiser and more like an overmatched opponent to be ripped and shredded by his stunning physique. He had a foot and a half on Rook, easy. At least a hundred pounds. And unlike Rook, who was still battered and gasping for breath, Bruiser had just stepped into the fight.

To make matters worse, many of the goons Rook had already knocked out or incapacitated were starting to stir. She had to end this fight quick, before she was hopelessly outnumbered.

Rook did have one advantage, though. A man who willingly called himself Bruiser was bound to be slow... and probably had the IQ of a steamed vegetable. A thug by her left groaned, slowly regaining consciousness. It was now or never.

She made the first move, sprinting straight towards Bruiser. The brute swung a spade-sized fist at her head -- a blow that would have spun her sideways had it connected. But Rook ducked low to evade his attack, then drove a fist into the unprotected side of his chest.

It was like punching a brick wall. The blow barely even fazed Bruiser; if anything, it seemed to make him even angrier. The brute countered with another massive swipe at her head, one that Rook just managed to avoid.

She lunged around back, hammering his other side with a couple of punches. All Bruiser did was grunt.

Rook pressed her advantage, delivering blows to his legs after she avoided another clumsy attack. Slowly but surely, Bruiser began to tire. His massive legs began to buckle, his fists resting uselessly at his sides. Rook delivered a series of body blows -- his legs, his chest, exhausting the brute through sheer repetition until his head started to sag.

Sensing the killing blow, Rook leaned back on her hind leg and launched through the air, her fist cocked back behind her chest.

"Uuunnngh!"

Perhaps Bruiser wasn't as dumb as she hoped he was. The giant was merely toying with her, waiting until Rook left herself open to an attack -- a nasty hook that impacted the whole left side of her face. Stars exploded across her vision. The world spun sideways as Rook clumsily landed back on her feet, a good two feet away from Bruiser, fighting to stay conscious.

Fight back! Her mind was screaming. You've got to counter with an attack before he...

Too late.

Bruiser had already managed to wrap his tree-trunk sized arms around her and lifted Rook into the air. For a moment she was kicking and screaming, trying to break loose from his loose bearhug. Then Bruiser started to apply pressure.

Rook had never felt such pain before in her life. It was like her whole body had been put into a trash compactor, one that wrapped around her midsection and was slowly crushing her like a vice.

"What's the matter, girlie?" Bruiser said, laughing. "Can't breathe?"

"Aaaaaggh!"

Rook probably would have had a much wittier response if the air wasn't being crushed out of her lungs. With her arms pinned firmly against the sides of her chest, locked inside Bruiser's humongous arms, there wasn't much she could except thrash her legs and scream... but even those screams stopped as she longer had the air to articulate them.

She had already lost her shoes long ago. Her pantyhosed legs kicked and turned, trying to use the ground as leverage. But Bruiser had lifted her a good two feet off the pavement. There weren't any objects or walls she could use to escape. Her vision grew hazy. There wasn't anything she could do except...

Rook rocketed forward, driving her forehead into Bruiser's massive grinning face. Big mistake. Stars exploded across her vision again, nearly knocking her out. And worse, the impromptu headbutt hadn't loosened Bruiser's grip one bit.

He was still laughing, somehow tightening his arms even further around Rook's thrashing body. She was only vaguely aware of the thugs around her, starting to circle around the two and muttering about what they were going to do with her.

Rook gasped for breath. It was no use... she was finished.

As her legs slowly shut down, her vision cloudy and her mind hazy, Rook was struck by the hopelessness of her current predicament. For all her dexterity, for all her combat skills and special gadgets, there was nothing she could do, no attack she could muster against Bruiser's crushing bearhug. She would lose every time... it was only a matter of how long she could hold out.

Her eyelids fluttered. An inaudible moan escaped her lips as Rook finally succumbed to the non-stop assault, falling limp in Bruiser's grip as darkness swiftly overwhelmed her.

Rook is the property of