Blue Imugi vs. Armando 'Army' Rodriguez - Thunder and Lightning

It was weird, and maybe it was just the head trauma playing games with his brain, but for a moment, as she was jumping off his back and coming down on him, Army could’ve sworn that Imugi sounded...happy?

And not just the crazy kind of happy where she enjoyed beating the shit out of him, either. She sounded like she could’ve sliding down any number of water slides around the world, like she was genuinely having the time of her life. It was a stark contrast with the start of this match, with the two of them at each other’s throats, and numerous names being thrown his way with varying degrees of accuracy. Now things felt less personal, more friendly. They’d still beat each other senseless, but they were welcoming about it.

Not that Army was complaining, mind you. He much preferred this way. And…

He blinked. Blinked again. The world was coming into focus again, sense returning to him as he stared up at the lights. When had her rolled over on his back? And what was the weight on his chest? And what was-

”1…!”

His eyes shot wide open and he looked to the side, seeing the referee start up her count. Sure enough Imugi had him in a pin, one that was dangerously close to working.

2…!”

The referee had just started to lower her hand for a final time when Army shot his shoulder up, narrowly saving the day. He flopped back down a second, aching all over, but very much awake. ”Okay, I’m back.” He ran a hand through his hair. ”Did you just use my back to jump up and land an elbow drop?”

It was weird. Imugi should have been disappointed when the third count never came and Army sprung back to life just in the nick of time to save himself. She probably should have been worried that she now had to grapple with a two-ton man who moved like someone almost have his size. She could have at the very least emulated the crowd’s reaction, with a slackened jaw and brows furrowed in frustration.

Nah, she didn’t do any of that

When Army brought his shoulder up and the official quit the count, Imugi just looked back at him with a quirked eyebrow and a slight, upturned grin. Yeah, he was back alright. She knew he would be.

And honestly, she was kind of looking forward to it. She was having to break out bigger and bigger moves to force him down and, clearly, it wasn’t going to be enough. She was excited to see just how far he could push her. Just how many more times he was going to impress her tonight.

Imugi pushed herself off of him, twisting herself around to face him while down on one knee. She was thinking of a good way to keep things moving when Army hit her with the dead stop. She kept her hands on the canvas as she turned to him to look him the eye. She pursed her lips for a second, blinking her eyes a couple times.

“I just used your back to jump up and land an elbow drop.”

It was fairly safe to say that, at some point, Army had started to crush on Imugi just a wee bit. Maybe it happened at the start, and he was just realizing it now, or maybe it occurred during one of the numerous points where she was handing him his ass in grandstyle, but it was happening. No getting away from that.

The idea made him shake his head and smile. This would be the third women he’d had a thing for who was capable of kicking his ass. Safe to say he had a type, now.

Anxious to get back into the fray, he rolled over and got to his knees, rubbing his aching head along the way, before he found himself staring into a pair of glassy blue eyes.

She answered his question. He rolled his tongue over his gums, looking at her like she was one of the weirdest, yet simultaneously awesome things he’d ever beheld. Because she was. ”Cool move. Guess I’ve got to top it.”

Looking to see what he could get away with in this odd moment, Army reached out and tried to wrap her in a headlock, take her by surprise before she could get moving again. Even if she got away, there was no harm in keeping her on guard, making her give him some distance. In theory.

...was Army always this good-looking?

She’d picked up on it early on, sure, but she figured that was just par for the course in this promotion. Professional athletes and good looks were almost one in the same, bonus points for any genetics. It wouldn’t surprise her, either, if the scouting department favored guys that weren’t too bad on the eyes. Worked the same way in the idol industry, even before all the makeup and PR training.

This hombre, though? Suppose she’d just been missing it between them jumping around and slamming each other into the canvas. The height difference didn’t help either. But now that they were both on their knees, face to face, optimal headbutting distance, she was seeing way more features than she’d picked up on before. A lot that she liked. A lot that she wouldn’t mind getting a closer look at in the future.

Now about that headbutt.

She was just about to go for it, but Army was two steps ahead of her. In an instant, she felt those muscular arms clamp down around her head, much to the audience’s chagrin. But Imugi still had that same delighted smile on her face, grabbing the arm locked around her throat and trying to get some breathing room.

“No chance. I’m the Queen of Cool. Fan surveys.”

Imugi wriggled around in the hold, fussing this way and that on her knees and trying to find a way out of the iron lock. Nothing obvious was spelled out for her. Seems like she was playing to Army’s tune for the time being.

...was Imugi always this cute?

He’d never thought she was ugly or anything, but he hadn’t paid much attention to it before. Yeah, she had a great body, but well, pretty much every man and woman in the AFW did. She was a bit on the smaller side, sure, but aside from abs tough enough to grate cheese on, nothing stuck out.

But no, now that he was up close to her, could see her face when she wasn’t trying to cave his skull in, she was straight-up cute. Yet hot, too. Hotly cute. A strong mixed, but he dug it, and - unless he was really feeling things wrong, here - she could say the same in reverse. Assuming they were both conscious after this, maybe they could get together, have a little talk…

Now, about that facelock.

He managed to snag Imugi with it, more out of sheer dumb luck than anything if he had to guess, which meant it was time to dish out more pain. She struggled, and she was harder to hold down than he thought someone that size could ever be, but he wasn’t about to let her go anytime soon. She was eating this DDT.

That was what he was thinking, anyway, until she had to go and say that bit about being the Queen of Cool. ”Oh, really?” He snickered and wrenched the hold a bit tighter. ”Let’s see if this changes your ratings some.”

Army lifted Imugi straight into the air, holding her a 90 degree angle, perfectly parallel to his body. At first it looked like he was going for a vertical suplex, but that all changed when he let go of her head, kicked his legs out, and grabbed her by the waist on the way down, drilling her into the mat with a devastating Orange Crush Powerbomb, making sure to hold her legs right after the impact to secure a pinfall.

Imugi was actually kind of curious to see what Army had in store for her. She could see how an aerialist or someone a bit nimbler could try to up someone like her in this setting, maybe with fancier flips or higher jumps. But a big dude like him? Maybe a toss? Maybe a slam? The only thing that struck her as even relatively impressive would be lifting her over her head with one hand, but even that was stretching it given her stature over his.

But he managed to impress somehow. Oh, did he impress.

Her feet left the floor as she was suspended upside down for a couple moments. The blood rushed to her head at a rapid pace and she thought he was going for a simple piledriver to capitalize on that fact, but she wasn’t so lucky. She actually wasn’t sure what happened because it all happened so fast. He felt his arms around her waist, and then...

TWO!

Whoa whoa whoa. What happened to the first count? Imugi tensed her body, pronouncing her core and reeling her legs back before surging forth all at once, breaking out of the pin just in time to flop forward out of Army’s grasp and onto the canvas.

TH-

Alright. That may have actually knocked her out for a second. Imugi may have had a hard body, but she was still small and could only take so much force at once. Looked as though Army managed to find that limit with that...whatever the heck it was. Waist piledriver? Upside Down sitting powerbomb? Whatever it was...it was pretty cool.

She might have said something, except her body was still on reboot. All she did after breaking out of the pin was flop forward onto her face, arms and legs spread wide, with a steady rise and fall from her back. There was the occasional twitch of her body as the pain worked through her, but aside from that, she was like a fish out of water. She gave a quick thumbs up before letting her hand join the rest of her and fall limply to the floor.

This had to work.

Army was going to win. He was sure it the moment that he dropped her with the Orange Crush. It wasn’t his finishing move, sure, but it was other wrestlers’. He’d seen it done to men twice Imugi’s side, and it was always enough to put them down for a three count. This girl - right, woman, was good, she was freaky strong, but Army was mostly sure she was still a human being. She could only take so much.

He just had to hold her legs, press her down to the mat, keep her there for the one, two…

”What?” He flopped off of her after the kickout, and sat up, looking back at Imugi while the crowd roared on. Disbelief, confusion, amusement, all of those emotions went across her face, and for a moment, that was all he could do. Just sitting there. Watching as she gave him thumbs up, then flopped down.

For a few seconds, he just sat there, indian-style, drumming his fingers along his chin. What to do, what to do, what to do…

”Yeah.” He nodded and chewed his lip as an idea occurred to him. [color:beb9=ff0000]”Yeah, that’ll do.”

Army  slid over beside Imugi, grabbed a leg and an arm, and proceeded to drag her over to the center of the ring, where he promptly rolled her over, making her face the sky. ”You’re...you are something else, Blue.” He leaned down just enough to tap their foreheads together. ”But this is where you go down.”

Army gave her thigh a quick slap, then crawled over her and made his way to the corner. He pulled himself up as quick as he could with all the nagging pains, until he managed to make it to the top and spun about to face her, perfectly perched on the turnbuckle. He’d never done what he was about to do before, never even tried it, but it didn’t look all that hard.

Deep breath. Pause.

Army leaped off the turnbuckle, tucked his legs in, then shot them out as he came down on Imugi, attempting to hit her with a thunderous Frog Splash.

People were going to just have to believe Imugi when she how she was just as surprised as Army was when she managed to kick out of that pin. It wasn’t enough that that super powerbomb managed to knock her out cold, if only for a second, but it also had to absolutely ruin her body from head to toe. Whatever energy she used to kick out of that hold had to be the last of it, or at least close it.

Hence the current state of affairs. She was laying face down, sweaty and battered beyond belief in the middle of the ring, trying to regain control of her body. Despite the pleas from the crowd working their way to her ear, Imugi couldn’t manage much beyond the involuntary twitch. Raising an arm didn’t work. Turning her head barely worked. Even twitching a single toe inside of her shoe felt harder than usual.

The best she could manage was to flutter her eyelids open slightly as she felt herself being dragged towards the center of the ring. When her vision came back into alignment, she found herself staring at the strongest person she’d ever fought. Her mind was working overtime to repair the damage and she couldn’t find the strength to even utter two words to him. She was spent.

Knowing full well she wasn’t going to be recovering from a crazy move like that any time soon, Army seemed to have thought he had this match wrapped up with a little bow on top. And Imugi felt inclined to agree.

Then she felt something else.

When their foreheads butted and her eyes managed to find his, something seemed to have welled up inside of her. A spark that kindled the roaring fire in her gut. A burst of energy that ran up and down her body. It brought a weak smile to her face. She could still do this. She was going to do this.

She didn’t have to see Army to know exactly what he was planning to do. The crowd was giving her a big enough heads-up and, honestly, it felt like something she would have done. Imugi clenched her hands tightly into fists, furrowed her brows and grit her teeth. Her entire body wound tight like a spring, just waiting for the apex, waiting to see that shadow cascade over her. Almost...almost...there!

All at once, she shot to the side, rolling herself over three times in a scrambled heap to get as far away from the drop zone as humanly possible.

Flying was kind of fun. Army could admit that much. True, his style of wrestling didn’t lean on all the flips and dives and hurrican-whatevers, and he liked to keep it grounded whenever he could. He was a wrestler now, but that didn’t mean he was going to stray too far from his boxing roots. Striking, always striking. Slams. Maybe some chokes when he could get his opponents down. That was the order of the day.

That he felt the need to go this far out of comfort zone spoke to just what kind of woman Imugi turned out to be. He couldn’t just mounted her and finished her off with some punches, though that would’ve taken a long time, what with her being tougher than the average brick.

That wouldn’t do. If he was going to take her down, it had to be big, it had to be cool, it had to be worthy, and the Frog Splash checked all the marks.

Considering it was his first time, he thought he did a good job of it. Got good altitude, put those leg muscles toward. Extended his body in full, no hesitation, ready for the impact. Proper aiming, right on the mark, all of it.

There was just one thing missing in the equation, though: His opponent.

Imugi disappeared at the last moment, which meant that there was nothing Army could do but watch as the bare ground rose up to meet his face, slapping her right on the nose. The ring shook, the crowd winced away, and Army laid there, spread-eagled and stunned, his brain working on autopilot. Somewhere in the back of his brain, it registered that he needed to get back up - he didn’t know why or to what end, but it had to happen. Shaking it off as best he could, Army pushed off the mat, planted one clumsy foot on the canvas, then another after that, and started his ascent. All the while, he was trying to clear his thoughts enough to register where Imugi was and what she was doing, hoping he could figure out before it was too later...

She had to breathe deep after that one. Even if it missed her, the tremors she felt afterward were more than telling of the power Imugi had just narrowly escaped, like just managing to get out of the way of a speeding train, hearing it roar as it passed you by.

She shook off those jitters almost as soon as they came. This was her chance, probably the last one she had tonight, and she was going to make the most of it. It didn’t take a pair of eyes to tell that Army was hurting. A fall like that wasn’t one you just shook off, though it seemed pretty damn clear that was what he was trying to do. Imugi didn’t intend to let it get that far. Hit him hard. Hit him now.

At breakneck speed she took off towards the ropes to Army’s rear, turning herself around at just the last moment to bounce off of them and spring herself straight back at the boxer. She leaped up as he rose, swinging a fist right on the back of his head.

“K-”

As her feet met the ground again, she’d keep running, hitting the opposite rung of ropes with her back to bounce back again at top speed. The blue blur rushing straight towards Army leaned into her front foot and leaped up, spinning sideways like a shuriken through the air as she brought her arm out, attempting to slam it into and wrap around Army’s neck, bringing him straight down with her to the floor with a spinning sitout sleeper slam.

“-O!”

She threw his head back down with all the might she could muster with crushing force. She poured every bit of energy into the Coiled Serpent she still had remaining after building up all the momentum she could. This was the first time she’d tried this move on anyone, on anything, and she couldn’t think of a better target than the man she had in her clutches right now.