Operation: General Manager Ambush

"Still on for golf tomorrow, Greg?"

"You bet, 11:00 AM sharp. Don't forget to bring the putter I lent you."

The congenial banter between two sharply dressed co-workers gelled into the humming background noise of Tension's executive offices. Secretaries fielding questions and organizing schedules for the various managers, administrators and director's who keep Tension in the black and functioning properly. Two such chairmen bidding a fond farewell as one ended their conversation with a wave and the opening of the secure door that would need a a high-level key-card to enter, on his way towards the elevator. But as it began swaying backward to it's closed position...a sneakered foot would swiftly step-down and block the door from closing. No other suited chairman would notice this bizarre occurrence, or the head of Natsuko Arisawa peeking out from behind the door to make sure the coast was clear. A rapid shifting of her eyes from left to right confirming her good fortune as she stealthily sneaked into the bustling office space with an arched over posture, and...very...quietly...tip-toeing inside and past the secretaries desk until skipping into a hallway.

Spoiler:

*Sweetness~...Metal Gear Natsu has successfully infiltrated the enemy stronghold...actually, it'd be Solid Natsu...but whatever, I'm in~...* Natsu gleefully snickered to herself as she pressed her back to the wall while slinking and shifting alongside it. Desperate times had called for these exact desperate measures. The plucky school-girl grappler having endured one setback after another since first stepping foot inside Tension, the most physically painful being her first loss against the Rodriquez'zsz's...however you pluralize that. But the more emotionally painful setback being that her brother totally bailed on her and quit the next day...going off to fight in some street...fighting tournament headed by some weirdo dictator or something. Natsuko didn't get all the fine details. All she knew was that ever since than she couldn't get back on television to save her life, and just languished in the gymnasium while getting bored to tears.

But today was the day that all changed!!! All she had to do was find this Sellers lady and hash things out like two adult-

Natsuko perked up when she spotted a banging red-dress and immaculately shining blonde hair. Yep that must be her. Natsuko gulped down her last hesitations, took a deep breath and bounded cheerfully besides the, hopefully lenient towards trespassing, General Manager of Tension. "HiHi!!! You look like just the fancy-pants lady I'm here to see!!!"

Erica Fairchild was having a VERY busy start to her new career. Aside from having to quickly put together a title tournament for one title belt, and then find a replacement for one member, there was the issue of the Tension World Champion winning the belt and then taking on an extended vacation, and the hentai champion appearing to have done the same thing.

Ugh, so lazy and entitled these Tension wrestlers. Something indeed needed to be done about that. On top of that, there was about a dozen other things that needed to be updated or otherwise addressed. Contract disputes, searches for new talent, property rights in regards to the new beach ring, advertising for the upcoming PPV event...she had certainly been hitting the ground running, and that was on top of still trying to get familiar with the wacky world and rules of pro wrestling in the first place...not to mention the various legality issues of the hentai aspect of things.

Indeed, this was what brought her to Tension's corporate office today, having a video conference with Melissa Sellers about the direction she was planning on taking Tension and her ideas for the future. With that done, maybe she could get some coffee-when a sudden voice came out of nowhere to her right. Surprised, the blonde stopped, as some plucky young girl just...popped out from around the corner, nearly making her jump.

"Oh. Hello. " she replied, quickly regaining her composure, and taking a quick moment to shuffle through her various papers in her arms. "You're here to see me? I don't have any meetings scheduled for this hour..." She said, not seeing anything her notes...though she made a mental note to hire an assistant, immediately. She glanced over Natsu's attire, taking note of a couple things with her sharp eyes before replying.

"I don't see a name tag on your shirt or a keycard lanyard around her neck, so you clearly don't work on this floor, do you? A lower level employee perhaps...but your outfit is against dress code...I've never heard of a fan sneaking into the corporate offices, so I'm going to assume that you must be Tension talent?  Is that right Miss...?"

She stalled, waiting for this newcomer to give their name, curious as to the reason for this random encounter. After all, no fan ever came here, and she'd yet to interact with a tension talent outside of the Tension Arena itself so far.

Worn-out Nike kicks...comfortable slacks and snug, sleeveless top showing off her midriff...

It should be pretty obvious to anyone with a working pair of eyes that Natsuko dressed mainly for comfort and practicality should she ever be dragged into a fight on the street, as it were. Since it wasn't like she had any high-class business dress suits to help her blend into the Tension executive offices, she just settled for whatever semi-fashionable apparel she could scrounge up for what was planned to be nothing more than a sneaking mission. She honestly couldn't imagine how difficult it would be to pull off a sweeping roundhouse kick in one of those pencil skirts she spotted all these office ladies strutting around in...but unlike all of those other high-heeled secretaries, it was until Natsu strolled up beside the GM that she started to feel massively under-dressed. She just seemed to emanate class and sophistication without even really trying...with this fragrant perfume as if Natsu was frolicking in a pillowy cloud land of sentient roses all having a dapper tea party by moonlight~...

...which a far cry from the AXE body-spray and deodorant Natsu slapped on before leaving the house.

"Ah well ya see I tried to schedule-...N-Nametag?-....Wh-What's a lanyard?-..." Natsu nervously patted around her shirt looking for a nametag she's too frazzled to remember she never had in the first place "W-Well I do work for ya but-...I-I WAS a fan of tension-AM!!! AM a fan of Tension-!!!" Natsu blurted out the correction to her verbal slip-up after slapping her forehead and shaking her head around to get her thoughts straitened out. Passerby's raising an eyebrow at what was a spectacularly disastrous scene of the school-girl's first impression going down in glorious flames. Erica was shooting her down in a blitzkrieg of spammed observations and questions she answered correctly herself before Natsu could do it for her. Natsu's nerves were getting to her big time, and she hated how dumb she must look right now by coming off as a jabbering goof to her boss, of all people. "Well dya-I-I mean...GRAGH!!! Screw this, imma just start over." Natsu exclaimed while fervently ruffling up her hair with both hands. She took a step back and bowed deeply and solemnly in as formal a greeting a Japanese teenager could figure how to do before standing upright with a stiff upperlip as if she were addressing an army general.

"Arisawa. My name is Natsuko Arisawa, Ma'am. I'm on the Tension roster...the uhh...inactive, part. It's an honor and a privilege to meet you, Ms. Fairchild. And I just have to say...that red-dress looks bangin on you...uh Ma'am." Natsu cracked before stuffing her tomboyish rambunctiousness right back inside.

This was...definitely one of the odder meet up's she'd had since joining the AFW. Not quite as odd as when that Ryo fellow came into her office in a speedo, as casual as can be, and asked her out on a date. Honestly, that time, she wasn't sure if she was impressed by his sheer confidence or just wanted to grab her tazer and shock the hell out of him.

Learning to quickly look at a person and do a quick study of them was something Erica had learned through time and effort. Deductive reasoning was a Sherlock Holmes staple, and she had read every Sherlock Holmes book she could, and rewatched both the Downey Jr/Jude Law movies multiple times to try and learn the technique the best she could, as she found using it often flustered people...which was great for getting the edge in business dealings.

It might have worked a little too well, as the young girl in front of her went red and stammered and stumbled over herself before she finally came out with what she intended to say. Smiling, confident she now had the mental upper hand with this stranger, Erica shifted her papers to one arm and reached out to shake the girls hand.

"Well, Miss Arisawa, they say flattery will get you everywhere...and I'm inclined to agree." She let out a small, feathery laugh at her own joke, before continuing. "While I am busy today, I can spare a few minutes, I'm afraid I haven't had a chance to get familiar with all the wrestlers on the roster yet, and I've been wanting to get to meet a few and familiarize myself with some of them. So, what do you need to discuss with me? You mentioned you were on the inactive roster? Were you injured?" she asked with genuine interest, looking Natsu up and down, as if expecting to see a broken limb.

Well...Natsuko wasn't being "escorted" to the nearest exit by two of AFW's finest security personnel hooking their arms underneath her shoulders as her sneakers screeched along the floor. So all in all...Natsu thinks this act of brazen breaking and entering was going pretty damn swell, all things considered. Especially when one of the worst case outcomes was Natsu being booted on her perky keister out of the Tension office building and perhaps out of the entire wrestling league altogether. But these were just the risks she was willing to take if it meant salvaging her family's honor and just getting one more opportunity to erase the memory of her craptacular debut match and truly make a name for herself around here aside from just "the sister of the renowned Japanese martial Artist, Goto Arisawa." She had a lot riding on this one conversation taking place next to a water cooler.

...she just hoped her squeamish nervousness and cold sweat wasn't noticeable yet.

"Oh, Uh No Ma'am. I'm fit as a fiddle, cleared for in-ring competition, and in tip-top ass-kicking shape~..." Natsu enthusiastically spouted with a beaming smile while taking Erica's dainty hand for a hardy handshake that had the G.M.'s arm wobbling about. Natsu's grip may have felt uncomfortably strong to a non-wrestling civilian like the G.M...which was due to both her robust martial art's training, and just how fast her heart was racing knowing that she could NOT blow this. "Nah see, it's not that I'm injured or anything." Natsu stated after relinquishing Erica's hand and beginning to scratch the back of her head.

"Everything just kinda...went South after my debut match with my brother. First, we ended up losing...all cause a me bungling everything up...than my bro resigned altogether from Tension to go compete in some World Tournament or sumthin...than before you know it...I can't get a T.V. match to save my life, and I wind up watching the paint dry in catering and assigned to-"...*shiver*..."-laundry duty. Look, what I'm sayin is...I know you guys prolly jus signed me up...*sigh*...to reel in my brother...and with him gone, you don't think I have what it takes to be a top draw. But if you guys jus gimme one more chance, I promise to make one HELL of a statement, and knock it out of the damn park!!! So...whaddya say?" Natsu capped off her heartfelt plea by bowing her head and slapping her hands together above her head.

“...I can make wrestlers do laundry duty?”

That was Erica’s first question, as she freed her hand from Natsu’s grip and shook the feeling back into it. The second was why AFW even had a laundry room? Third was why wrestlers couldn’t do their own laundry?

Questions for later, she thought, with a quick snap of her head. Focus on the situation at hand.

While other GM’s first instinct would be to either call security or lecture Natsu on her inappropriate attire and lack of proper keycards and such, Erica’s first instincts had been to let the girl speak, and she was glad she had done so. While, admittedly, she was too new, and Natsu’s match too long ago for her to have seen and be aware of, and Natsu too low on the totem pole for anyone to bring it to her attention, she DID vaguely remember one of the board of directors mentioning something about putting in a contract clause forbidding any illegal fighting if a wrestler left the company, at least for a few years.

That aside though, the girl did seem to make an earnest plea...and while she had plenty of talent to work with as it was...part of her job WAS to rotate in new talent for the audience…

“Look, I don’t know who your brother is, so if it’s an opportunity you want, it’ll be entirely on your own merit, no ulterior reason. Now, while we DO have a pay per view event coming up soon...I am afraid it is pretty much booked up already…” Erika sighed, tapping her hand on her chin, legit interested in giving this girl a shot. “...But, how about this. Natsu, right? Natsu, I’ll call the bookers into my office tonight, I’ll make sure your booked on the next episode of Tension. I attend every show and watch them from my office at the arena. I don’t know who your opponent will be...but if you can impress, then I’ll see about getting you a match on the Showdown Pre-Show, alright? That’s the best I can offer for right now. Get on the pre-show and impress people watching...and more opportunities might arise, understand?”

She said with a coy look, before checking her phone for the time. “Ah, I’m afraid our minute is up, but, like I said, you’ll get a match, and you better impress, alright?” She finished, giving Natsu a brief pat on the shoulder and giving her only a second to reply before rushing off, legs moving in quick strides towards her next meeting.

Natsu certainly hoped that laundry duty was a typical task doled out to rookie Tension wrestlers in sort of a ritualistic bit of hazing of the young bloods in the federations. If not...well, she had to make a stop by the Tension locker rooms later on to dole out some serious pain to several obnoxious jocks who insisted to her that this was a common backstage initiation ceremony that all the veterans were subjected back in their early days. If that were the case, and she was bamboozled...well, she kinda only had herself to blame for being too naive and eager to make friends. This wouldn't be the first time she'd been hoodwinked like that, but it also wouldn't be the first time she whooped wholesale ass on several smart alecky pranksters either.

But right now, Natsu was devoting every fiber of her being into this one particular moment of earnest pleading for one more chance at redemption. One she knows she may not have earned, but one she hoped beyond hope would be granted to her through the good graces of upper management and the sharply dressed GM who smelled like lavender perfume. The school-girl brawler being on pins and needles as she clung onto every word of Erica's ebbing and flowing answer...doling out bad news about the PPV before raising up Natsu's spirit at the mention of her being not only booked on T.V., but suggesting that more opportunities could be on the horizon should she impress the powers that be. Natsu perking her head up with beaming jubilation from the good news as Erika tapped her on the shoulder and went on her merry way. She fist-pumped the air and bit down on her lips to suppress her elated glee as she watched the GM go on with her day.

"Yes ma'am!!!...Thanks bunches!! I'll impress for damn sure, you will NOT regret this!!!" Natsu called down the hallway as the classy lady departed, the school-girl merrily turned in place to strut down the hallway she came from. Gesturing a passing executive to raise his hand before jumping up and giving him a high-five on her way towards the exit, the poor businessman wincing from the impact of the slap and wobbling his hand while wondering what that was all about.