The Arisawas vs. The Rodriguezes - World Warriors

Carmen was no slouch when it came to speed, but Natsu was a bit of a different beast. As accustomed as she’d become to wrestling since she joined the AFW, this MMA style stuff was new hat to her, and the smaller brawler seemed adept at using it. And transitioning. The exact moment that Carmen was preparing an attempt to push out and make her escape, Natsu was already moving on to the next move, grabbing her arm, pulling it to the side, and starting up what had to be Carmen’s least favorite aspect of wrestling: submission holds.

Natsu was targeting Carmen’s best weapon with her solid armbar, which was bad enough all by itself. But she had the 24/7 champion in a bad spot, stuck in the middle of the ring, too far for even someone her size to reach. The position was too good, and she locked it in well enough, so for now Carmen couldn’t do much more than push against the leg on her face and tighten her arm, resisting the hold as best as she could.

The whole time, though, she kept her breath steady and didn’t struggle too much, chosing to kept mostly still in the hold and not waste her energy. She was waiting. Holding on. Biding her time.

'Vertically challenged', would be how Natsu would coin her diminutive stature. But no matter how you wanted to rephrase it, Natsu knew from her very first schoolyard tussle that she would always have to compensate for that...'shortcoming', by being relentlessly aggressive. Especially once her opponent was on their back and grounded, where that height advantage didn't mean diddly-squat. It was where she could have free reign over them and unleash her inner perky brawler. Opting to either pound them in the face, or more preferably wrench out a submission to prevent her opponents having to leave a match missing a tooth.

"C'mon Carm...Hope you’re not refusing to tap just cause I'm the new girl..." Natsu teased with a chipper tone in her voice. She tensed her own taut leg muscles around the Tension champion's arm and bucked her hips up gradually to slowly introduce the horrid, stinging pain that came from hyper-extending your elbow. Her entrapped wrist rested against the schoolgirl's modest chest as she crossed her legs and pressed her thigh back down against Carm's face to curtail her resistant movements.

Natsu couldn't help being just a little ecstatic that she was working over the Tension 24/7 champion so masterfully in her debut match. She just hoped her stuffy bro was watching, cause she was going to make sure to bring up this moment if he still thinks she's not tough enough to hang with the Tension roster, especially if she makes the Tension champ tap out in her debut match. Oh, the bragging rights would be delicious~…

Carmen wasn’t exactly immune to tapping out. While she was having a little trouble remembering specifics at the moment - what with her arm in being in danger of getting wrenched clean from its socket and all - she knew she’d tapped out at least once before, to Clyde. There was a precedent to it, and it wasn’t like she was too proud. Her livelhood came first, her championship came second.

But that was to Clyde. A former champion. A veteran. And while she liked Natsu and respected her and wanted her to get off on good start, that didn’t mean she was going to let the new blood have a golden moment at her expense. Not today and not on her.

Carmen stiffed her arm and started to pull it in, resisting the hold. Her other arm pushed against Natsu’s thighs, as she pushed against the hold, surged into it, slowly but surely turning her body against the armbar. The audience saw her rally, and a steady clap began to accompany her turn.

Just a little more...just a little more…

Carmen got up as much as she could, stacking Natsu’s hold and fighting her way on top. When she was in good position, she threw a fierce cross towards Natsu, putting all the power she could muster behind it.

Brief daydreaming tangent about bragging rights aside, Natsu remained resolute in wrenching Carmen's arm enough to squeeze out a submission out of the 24/7 Tension Champion. After having practiced this maneuver on numerous school bullies, she knew how dangerous it could be if applied haphazardly. So she gradually applied pressure to the hold as opposed to going full throttle and risk doing some permanent damage. She was fairly certain Carmen wouldn't want to shake hands afterward if that happened...or do much else with that arm.

Though once Carmen started mounting a comeback with encouraging and rhythmic claps urging her on, Natsu scrunched her face from the renewed tensing of her muscled thighs around the twisted joint. Bucking her hips sharply upward to strain Carmen's entrapped arm and have her reconsider countering the maneuver if it was going to be this painful to work through it.

"Awwcomeoncomeonjustappleasepleaseplease!!!" Natsu pleaded at a motor-mouthed pace as beads of sweat started forming on her forehead, wincing her eyes shut as if in a silent prayer throughout the majority of Carmen's expertly applied counter-balancing movements. Intentionally blinding herself perhaps not the brightest idea. Carmen's vicious right cross now coming off as more of an unforeseen shock before clocking Natsu in her cheek. The schoolgirl relinquishing her hold immediately to nurse her sore cheek while rolling over to her front, on her knees and humbly bent over herself from the jarring strike. Her brother can stop watching now...

Carmen had to give the younger warrior credit - it was smart of Natsu to go after her arm from the start. Very keen.

As much as she wanted to resume her offense the moment she stood up, her arm hurt far too much to allow it. Carmen hissed as she made her way back up to a knee, clenching her fist. Open. Shut. Open. Shut. Each movement sent a little burst of pain through her veins, tested her muscles. Her right arm, too. Her best arm. It wasn’t completely useless, but she’d need a minute or two before she could get the most out of it again. She’d have to fill those minutes with offense. Offense without her best offensive weapons.

Luckily, she had three other limbs and a body to work with. Maybe a head, too, if it came to headbutts.

Carmen got back to steady feet and went into motion, taking a couple of steps back until she hit the ropes. She ran back to Natsu, leaped up, kicked her legs out and came down on the smaller, spunky fighter with a back body drop, crashing right on her spine with her full weight.

Carmen had a proficiency with strikes that Natsu was well aware of before having stepped into the ring with her tonight, something that the spry schoolgirl had long since noticed from seeing her wail into her opponents since first joining Tension. However, there was a fine line between seeing them on T.V. and being the first hand recipient of one such walloping fist. Silly her for thinking that a little old armbar would have gotten Carmen to settle down, Natsu still squinting her eyes shut from the aching pain in her jaw.

"Sheez..." Natsu mumbled out while remaining on her hand and knees, still nursing the bruise on her cheek and too stunned from the jarring impact to even assess her immediate surroundings. Torquing Carmen's arm into a disjointed position didn't work out quite as she planned, the Tension champion proving to Natsu that her left cross was just as deadly as her right.

She was only just starting to regain her shaken senses when Carmen would flatten her back to the canvas and keep her pinned beneath her. The schoolgirl's limbs jerking up before slumping down along with the rest of her before attempting to shuffle onward from under Carm and hopefully be given the breathing room to at least crawl to the nearby ropes.

Goto had been watching with a disapproving scowl on his face. Natsuko had done well at first, but now Carmen's superior striking were getting the better of the inexperienced younger Arisawa. He crossed his arms under his chest. This was exactly what he did NOT want to see from his sister. There was already a bruise forming on her pretty face. How was he going to explain this to their aging mother and deceased father?

Shifting uncomfortably, leaned forward. s much as everyone wanted the spectacle of Goto fighting Carmen, Goto was far more concerned with getting his baby sister out of harm's way.

Army leaned on the ropes, keeping a close eye on the match. He looked back across the ring and saw Goto mean-mugging Natsu and Carmen, not blaming him one bit. If the positions were reversed, he’d be just as worried. He knew from experience - many painful experiences, in fact - that Carmen was capable of generating some real impact with her precise punches. It was the sort of power that got her close to the championship, won her a silver medal, and put the 24/7 belt around her waist.. She'd knocked him on his ass a few times. Seeing as Natsu was clearly not a six foot tall, 200 plus pound Puerto Rican man, he could only imagine how she was taking it.

Carmen, on the other hand, didn't have to imagine anything. She could very clearly see how Natsu was feeling, and she had every intention of capitalizing on the moment.

The crowd was growing a bit silent, unsure who to cheer for - the plucky, cute newcomer or the hardened veteran. Carmen didn't pay it much mind - there was work to do, and she was set on it. She stood back up, took a moment to roll her shoulder and get a few more kinks out, then went back to business. She reached down, grabbing Natsu by the head and roughly hauling her up to her feet, making sure to grip her hair tight along the way. If her seriousness wasn't clear before, Carmen wanted to drill in the message.

Natsu had taken her fair share of backyard scraps and walloping fists to her kisser. Way more than her older brother would be comfortable knowing about, but she just figured that for every time one of those bullies got in a lucky strike, she'd be that much more prepared to absorb the next one and be raring to return the favor. Regrettably, taking a direct blow from someone whose' job it is to knock someone out...there wasn't much a scrappy schoolgirl could do to prepare for that.

"Owowowowow..." Natsu repeated while scrunching her face from the searing pain in her scalp due to Carmen's hair pulling. She begrudgingly ascended upward until she was on her feet in a slouched stance, clearly under Carmen’s control with her rattled head tilted down and both her hands grasping at the tugging grip in her scruffy hair.

Natsu hadn't noticed it until now, but Carmen had never said a peep throughout nearly the entirety of their time wailing away at eachother. She was eerily stone-silent...Natsu wasn't sure what that meant yet, so she focused on something else. Namely by digging deep, balling her fist and peppering Carmen's abs with a few steady strikes. Hoping to get Carmen to loosen her grip just a tad and back up off her.

Methodical. Measured. Controlled.

Carmen was never known for being a brawler in the boxing ring. She’d made her bones by being a more thoughtful, strategic sort of boxer, earning the nickname ‘the Surgeon’ for her precise punches. That was the same approach she was bringing to this match, as she raised Natsu up for another round of punishment. It wasn’t the nicest approach to things, but Tension wasn’t about being nice. Natsu would have to get accustomed to it, and now was as good a time as any.

Carmen got ready to grab Natsu’s arm and send her off with an Irish Whip, but before she had the chance, the feisty young fighter fought back with a flurry of fiery fists, crashing into the 24/7’s hardened stomach. They weren’t bug bites - Natsu was the smaller woman, but she could get some surprising power in her punches. Each one made Carmen bend over further and further, as more and more air was knocked out of her lungs…

...until Carmen reeled back and retaliated, paying Natsu back for her resistance with a swift, solid uppercut, targeting the stomach and looking to dig in deep.