Gemini vs. Lock and Key - Fresh Meat

Match Type: Standard Tag
Victory Conditions: Pinfall, Submission, or Knockout

***

”Gemini. Kelly and Eliot Gemina. Yes, that’s their real names. 18 years olds, fraternal twins, born in the United States. No  wrestling history that I could find, so they either haven’t had a match before or simply weren’t televised - given the age, likely the former. Lightweights, both of them, topping out at 63 kilograms and 1.67 meters, barely. High speed, hit and run tactics, I’d wager. Maybe high flyers. From what I was able to ascertain, they came under the AFW’s employ and caught Fairchild’s attention when they…”

Boredom. If Jack had one to use one word to describe his current situation, that would likely be it. He and his cohorts, Lock and Key, had found a nice secluded location in the gorilla position to hang out before the match, and Lock was currently standing before them, reciting her dossier while they sat on some equipment boxes and listened. Or pretended to listen, anyway.

He folded his arms, kept his eyes straight, looked right at her, gave the occasional nod, but all the lights weren’t on - a little trick he’d learned to endure his father’s lectures. Really, he didn’t see what the point of her going over this was. They weren’t taking on the tag champs, they weren’t taking on veterans, they weren’t taking on anyone near the top of the heap. It was too fresh-off-the-boat newbies. He was half tempted to just tell Lock or Key to hang back and let the other go out by herself. This wasn’t a contest, it was an insult.

Key didn’t even bother to hide her disinterest. She sat, legs splayed in a way that people wearing skirts were certainly not supposed to do, and was idly messing with her phone. Doing what? Jack couldn’t imagine, the woman hated social media with a passion, and even getting her to text was an exercise in frustration.

”Ophelia.”

Key’s eye shot up at the mention of her name, brow furrowing at the sternness in Lock’s voice. The two rarely used their real names these days, preferring to stay ‘in character’, as Lock put it. Bringing that out was a way to drag their compatriot’s attention straight away, and it worked. ”I’m listening.”

”Were you?”  She brought the folder down and placed her hands on her hips, giving Key her infamous schoolteacher stare. When she was actually dressed as a schoolteacher, it could be quite alluring, but any other time it was downright oppressive. ”Names. Who are we wrestling?”

”Gemini.”

”Their actual names.”

Key opened her mouth, then shut it and groaned, taking a moment to rake her brain for the proper answer, looking off to the side. ”Everitt or...Kellyanne.” She shook her head, shrugged and picked up the photo of Gemini Lock had given them at the start of this little briefing. ”As if it fucking matters what their names are, they’re bargain bin. They don’t even look old enough to be in the ring. Eighteen, my ass. Seen tougher looking kids out of primary school.”

”They are old enough to wrestle, I assure you, and we don’t know that they’re pushovers. We don’t know anything. Stop making assumptions. This is our debut match, remember what we’re here for.” She had a long huff and turned her gaze back to Jack, nodding his way. ”What do you want out of this match, Jack? Do you want us to go for the quick and dirty, or draw it out?”

Jack perked up at that, finally hearing something that concerned him. Truth was, he was of two minds. He wasn’t at all confident that these two could give Lock and Key a good match, and he was tempted to just let them run roughshod. But, on the other hand… ”Let’s make an example. Send them back in pieces. If Fairchild wants to send us cannon fodder, we’ll show her why that’s not a good idea.” He snapped his finger. ”Submissions or knockouts, don’t want pins, and I’ll buy you both dinner tonight if you can get them both at the same time. Oh, and uh, don’t get sexual with it if you’re not feeling it.” He picked up the picture and wagged it about. ”A little awkward with the young ones. Just my opinion.”

And so, the order was given.

A few minutes later and the pair were making their way out from behind the curtains, heading down to the ring with Jack flanking them and their shared theme pulsing out over the loudspeakers. Walking in time with each other, the two of them spared not a single glance at the crowd, most of whom didn’t know whether to boo or cheer the trio - opinions were still being formed, verdicts were still being formulated. Their history in the UK wasn’t well understood by the Japanese crowd, and what little they had done in the AFW so far left much to be speculated.

Jack had a feeling that would change tonight, though.

Eager to get the proceedings started, he walked about the ring and leaned against the barricade, looking on as Lock and Key made their way into the ring, daintily slipping through the ropes and crawling under the bottom rope, respectively. Lock was the soul of cool, as always, walking to the center in a casual stroll, while Key stalked about the edge like a lioness on the prowl, cracking her knuckles and rolling her neck every few steps.

Hungry, waiting, both of them. It would be  an entertaining show, no question.

Further backstage, in the common locker rooms, Elliot and Kelly were entering for the first time. The blonde twintail was focusing on getting ready into her ring attire, hiding behind the locker room door to avoid any prying eyes, while Elliot, the more excitable of the two ex-cheerleaders, was bouncing off the walls, eagerly looking all around at the various lockers and various wrestlers and production stuff in and out of the locker rooms, bright eyed and bushy tailed as he changed.

"Can you believe we made it here Kelly!? This is crazy! We're actually in AFW! Think about it, all those nights watching Sandy Starlight battling Mighty Yukiko and Masane Tajiri and Kirin Sumono, and we're actually here!"he said excitedly, barely able to contain himself.

Far more nervous and reserved Kelly nodded and smiled at her twin brother, but then touched his arm and looked him in the eye. "Elliot, aren't you nervous though? We've barely any experience except for practicing moves in the school gym, we've no idea what kind of crazy mean people we might end up fighting! Plus we're lying to mom and dad about being in college out here...I dunno if we thought this through all the way..."

But Elliot just pulled his long shirt on and pumped his fist. "No way, we got this! We can handle anything this league wants to throw at us, as long as we fight together! As for mom and dad, don't worry about that! Once we show them video of us kicking butt and winning the tag titles out here, they'll understand! What's important is this...I believe in you and me, and I believe we can do this! Are you with me?" He asked, looking his sisters way.

She let out a sigh, but nodded and bumped her fist into his. "Yeah, I'm with you, all the way!"

"Gemini? Gemini! You're up!" came the call from a production agent in the back, and with a nod, the blonde twins left the locker room and made their way through Gorilla, hearing the strands of their upbeat, positive energy music playing.

The crowd was...rather silent and indifferent admittedly as the two twins came running out onto the ramp...and immediately began going into a unique cheerleading routine, back-flipping, cartwheeling and twirling their way down the ramp with surprising precision and agility. Elliot dove through the middle and top ropes, landing and rolling forward onto his feet and turning to catch Kelly as she did the same dive, catching her by her feet and, after grabbing his shoulders for adjustment, he lifted her straight up, where she stuck one leg up, the skirt clad girl posing on just one foot as Elliot held her over head...then shoved her upwards, her cue to jump up and twirl rapidly on the way down, where Elliot would catch her and they'd pose together one more time, with a loud cry of "Team Gemini!"

With that intro done, they bounced to their corner, before looking over at their opponents, and noticing that they were rather...unimpressed. "Um...Hi there! I'm Kelly...this is Elliot. It'll be fun to wrestle you two today!" Kelly offered, while Elliot was blushing a little. "I uh...forgot how attractive women here can be...I've never actually hit a girl before...but that doesn't mean I won't!" He said, trying to sound intimidating.

Team Gemini was, in a word, energetic. They came to the ring with this sort of youthful vibrancy that you rarely saw in the AFW, the kind of happy energy that had usually faded from wrestlers long before they ever came to Japan. The smiles, the flips, the colors, the entire look to them, it all had this upbeat, cheerful vibe, radiating sunshine and rainbows. A stark contrast in the den of sin that was the Friction arena.

And Key hated them both immediately and with a fiery passion.

Lock and Jack both looked on, not sure what to make of the pair. They were agile, that was clear from the intro, but they were small, even smaller than Lock had seen from the photos. She was fairly certain she outweighed both of them, and she was not, by any real definition, a heavy woman. She had to admire their gumption, but…

Oh, well. This likely wouldn’t be all that competitive, but they could still make something out of this as a debut. Use it to send a message. That would work out just fine.

For now she hung back and let Key go forward, meeting Gemini in the middle with the referee. Arms folded, she looked down on them with a tight lip and a furrowed brow, not even bothering to hide her annoyance.

”Never hit a girl? Okay.” She let her arms down to the side, opened herself up, and tilted her head forward. ”Go for it. Right now. Free shot.”

"Heh-heh heh...wait what?" the orange and black clad blonde teenager replied, blinking his large blue eyes several times. Was she serious? The match hadn't even started and she was willing to give him a free shot?

His partner and sister, Kelly, clapped him hard on the back. "Cmon Elliot! You can do this! We've practiced for this, just pretend she's a dude and go kick her butt!" before backing away and climbing through the ropes onto the ring apron, letting her brother start things off.

Elliot nodded, taking a breath as the bell rang to start his first official match in the AFW, his first wrestling match ever, period! Rather than panic though, he jumped straight upwards, and kicked both feet out, trying to start things off by dropkicking the red-headed woman right in her chest!

Hm. A dropkick. Key had expected him to just punch her, but she supposed she left herself open for anything. Made sense, too. Little pussy probably couldn’t throw a good punch, anyway.

She saw it coming, braced her feet, hardened her chest, and took the strike head on. It was no light blow, either, slamming hard into her chest, making her upper body rock away, hair flinging back - but she endured. She took it. She stayed standing. And as she straightened up and looked down, she was gifted with the sight of Elliot on the floor, looking damn vulnerable. Too tempting.

She rushed forward, trying to pounce before he had the chance to get fully up. Her leg rose and came down, shooting her foot towards his chest in a harsh stomp, driving her weight into his chest to make sure he stayed on the canvas a little while longer.

For the first time he had ever actually struck a woman, Elliot had to admit, that was a good dropkick. That felt like a good dropkick. A strong dropkick.

Then he looked up, and realized that dropkick...hadn't had any effect whatsoever on the redheaded woman. "...Oh...crapbaskets..."

Just as he was starting to raise up, her foot came down, stomping onto his chest in a very hard stomp, driving him back down onto the mat and getting a gasp out of the blonde teen, while Katie yelped in the corner as she saw her brother. "Elliot! Are you okay!?" She yelled, already concerned with just how much pressure Key was putting into pressing her foot onto his chest.

”No,” Key answered for Eliot as she ground her heel into his chest, twisting it left and right to really pour on the pressure. ”He’s not.”

The smart thing for her to do would’ve been to move onto the next move right away, to get her opponent in some kind of hold - a real hold. Stomping on him was fun, but it wasn’t going to win the match. At this point, it was little more than humiliating...but humiliating was what she was going for. Seeing him squirm, that pained look on his face, his sister calling out to him, it was all enough to bring a little smile to her lips. As insulting as this matchup was, she could find ways to have fun with it.

Besides, she would only play with her food so much. After a few seconds of hard grinding, she reached down and gripped him by the hair, dragging him by the hair, forcing him to stand up, ignoring the referee’s protests all the way. She released him just before she could get disqualified over it, but that by no means meant he was off the hook - she lashed out, throwing a hard palm into his chest to knock the smaller boy into the nearest corner, putting him in a place with nowhere to run.

Whelp, first impressions were everything, and Katies first impression of Key was that...she was a very, very mean lady. Also that her and Elliot might in for a tougher time than they were actually expecting...

For his part, Elliot grit his teeth as he was pulled up, the short blonde slapped hard on his chest and sent staggering back to the nearby corner, yelping at how hard the slap at been against his chest, his shirt offering no protection.

To his credit though, Elliot would take a breath, before leaving the corner, charging right back towards the redheaded woman, this time dropping down and trying to dropkick her in her knee! True, he'd never hit a woman before, but he was just going to have to get past that!

Good impact. Solid. Key could feel the feedback on that one.

Yeah, Eliot would make a decent punching bag.

She wasn’t seeing much else the kid could be good for, and she wasn’t using the word ‘kid’ ironically there, either. She’d been expecting him to look young, but even now, she was dumbstruck by how fresh he looked, the green that was practically shining behind his ears. She knew Jack would be happy to add a win in their column, starting off strong and all that, but they’d paid wrestlers to take falls who gave them more fire than this.

Key moved and reeled back, fully expecting another opening to blast her foe with. Instead, she found herself on the receiving end of some offense, as her opponent came flying out of the corner and launched a low dropkick, an improvised missile that landed square on her kneecap. Key cried out, both from the shock and the pain, and it was enough to bring her down to a knee. Maybe not the opener he’d hoped for, but far more than nothing, and the growling grimace on Key’s face was strong proof of that.

Holy crap, that actually worked! He hit his first successful move in a wrestling match!

EEE!

"You did it Elliot! Now don't stop! Keep it up! She looks really mean!" His supportive sister yelled from her corner, keeping his head in check from getting carried away.

With a "Right!" in response, the former cheerleader put that training to use, tucking his legs in and kipping up to both feet in one seamless motion, his feet barely touching the mat before he was jumping again, this time swinging one leg out to try and catch Key in the side of the head with a jumping enzuguri!