No Pains, No Gains! (for TheLoneWanderer)

"The AFW circuit has plenty of business, deals, and events managed on a daily basis. With as many talents as it has, gets, and leaves, it would only be fair to assume that just as much burdens, responsibilities, and time is spent by managers of all sorts, whether for talents, events, or the training rooms.

One such managers decisions and deal was why in one of these smaller training mat rooms, a young Japanese American man with red hair, of 19 years of age, was currently stuck in a Gogplata from a much older looking Indian woman in a black leotard and kneepads who despite her face having some wrinkles as a sign of age, her body was still very athletically built and in fine shape. Not that the young man was any less athletic, he was quite a fine specimen of a human being. The woman lay on the mat and the young man stood on his feet, his arm trapped in her grip in an armbar, while her legs had hooked themselves and locked in around the mans neck, keeping him hunched forward and stuck in her submission hold. It was like her body had snaked up along his arm if someone hadn't seen how she had initiated the move.

The older woman, identified in the Tension roster by her namesake, Queen Cobra, politely asked the young man, "Too tight?", as she blinked, the eye lenses that made it look like she had snake-like eyes glinting in the rooms light.

On Senji's list of expectations, Senji Takijima wouldn't have expected this sort of occurrence. He had been set up for a session with Queen Cobra by the powers at be, the managers that governed those who did not have dedicated people in their corners. Unfortunately for him, she was looking to be quite good and technical at her job. It had been a good mid-air transition, where he was desperately aiming to pull his arm up but he couldn't do it very easily with her having the advantage in leverage and gravity. The right arm had been the target, it looked like, which meant Cobra's right shin was the one slotted underneath his throat. That was wear he found himself, perfectly fitted to be choking on a foot. For attire, he'd gone topless to stave off the heat but kept the red and black spats. The colors weaved around each other, just as the balance of power between them shifted back and forth. His drowsy gaze was gained by Cobra asking him the question, which he responded to with difficulty.

"You-you can go a bit harder, I think."

He murmured that out from above, lingered with strain. There were more pressing matters to attend to. His soon-to-be cherry-colored face was the most prominent. The weight he was wearing made his knees wobble, until he steadily slumped to sitting on the kneecaps with her hips settled on his groin or lap, depending on one's preference of word choice. For the resistance, Senji put up a basic one of trying to use his free arm to reach down to the armbared limb and interlock the ten fingers with each other. As one could expect, he'd put all his effort into yanking his right arm off to his own left to, at least, nullify her gamble for a hyperextension.

Cobra had kept the hold tight, and it seemed Senji was fine according to his words, even as his face was getting red. She shrugged, keeping the hold up even as Senji slowly sunk to his knees. She wasn't sure what to make of this overall thing, but so far, Senji hadn't been disappointing. She could see the potential in the man, there was a reason the manager had contacted her for this, her history with instructing, sparring, and raising gym talents was there on her resume. As Senji extended his free arm in an attempt to at least reduce some stress from the circumstances he was in, Cobra used the opportunity to shift gears!

She let go of Senji's arms, and in a deft motion with her legs wrapped around Senji's neck, proceeded to twist her legs and arc them in a throwing motion, in an attempt to throw Senji to the mat in a twisting motion! If this worked and Senji got floored, she would ask him, "You good?"

With a "CRACK" of the back meeting the floor, Senji found himself disposed of her in a fluid motion just as he was dealing with the situation of nullifying the Armbar. The throw was quick and rough, stunning Senji for a second. That was further accelerated by her shin being forced into his throat within the initial slam. Senji choked and sputtered on his words, a bit of drool leaking out of the corners of his mouth from the chokehold. He felt the saliva trail down the edges, before wiping them away with the sleeve of his now freed arm.

He aroused to attention when she spoke to him, flipping himself over onto his stomach with a simple push of the palms. There, he ascended onto his knees before taking a crouched position. He was breathing hard, but other than that, he felt as fine as one could be after selling such a takedown. It'd take more than that to really tear into him. Senji gave the Cobra a thumbs up with his hand, going to slither towards her front, step by step. He cleared his throat with a cough before proceeding with his offensive. Senji tried to reach directly down and perform an ankle pick. That is, grab the back of Cobra's left ankle and yank her foot forward so she'd lose her balance and trip onto her back. If she was adept enough to fall for it, then Senji's right sole found purchase on the mat before pushing him off the ground.


This would have the result of exposing his back due to the deep, low position he threw himself in but would grant the benefit of being able to hug her left knee for a takedown where he'd find himself between her legs if all went well.

Cobra, on recieving  the confirmation that Senji was fine, said, "Okay. Now try and take me down," as she stood up and prepared her stance, her arms up ready for a grapple.

For this round, Senji definitely seemed much more pumped and prepared. His offensive approach worked well; the ankle grab and pull disbalanced her, leaving her vulnerable for a moment! As Senji moved in and got closer, holding onto her left knee and going for the takedown, bringing them both down to the mat; in a quick motion as they were about to hit the mat, Cobra brought her other knee up, using it to push Senji off, with her knee still in Senji's grip. This would cause both of them to roll forwards, and Senji ending up now on the mat and Cobra on top of him. In the same half second as it happened, Cobra wrapped an arm around Senji's neck and, pulling him in for a headlock as she sat on top of Senji's stomach! Her free arm went for a grip onto his hair to get a proper grip onto him.

As she held the grip tight, she said, "Not bad!"

On hearing Senjis response, Cobra gave a bemused answer, "The wrinklier the raisin, the sweeter the fruit."

The grapple went on, and Senji attempted for an exit, managing to turn both of them on their sides, while having applied some pressure on Cobras throat during the momentum of the turn. Cobra let go of the headlock as they both fell, and just as seamlessly as earlier, got off Senji and yanked his right arm off. Straightening herself with her back on the mat, she pulled at Senjis arm in an armbar, wrapping one of her arms around Senjis right shoulder as a leverage and grip, and pulling with her other arm!

"Thad duzzen mean anything! ann raisins arr nassy."

Translation:

On and on it went, with them locking up repeatedly. As he repeatedly drove his core from side to side in a manner to get her off, Senji HAD succeeded in removing her from being on top! However, he came upon a grave epiphany. Cobra had went along with the motions, instead of being thrust off by force. As she shifted towards his side, Senji picked the quicker option of rolling with the motion to shift his body while raising his chest up and moving his legs beneath his body to stay in a kneeled position. He was trying to maintain the momentum so that his movements combined with Cobra's would allow him to end up with her gripping his arm but with her lower half suspended off the ground despite her calves burrowing into his face. Turning his gaze to watch the Armbar finish, Senji tried to twist his trapped arm towards his left so his thumb wouldn't be pointing up. Therefore, Senji's elbow joint wouldn't be experiencing so much bone-crushing harm from her hips.

His free hand slithered along her waist, then to her chest, to reach around the queen's legs to try to grasp that hand and wrench his arm back towards his chest. Perhaps he could make her give up on the Armbar this way, if he was not able to fully extract his arm from her hands. At the end of it all, his back was on the verge of facing Cobra's side, position-wise, due to him pulling so violently and wasting stamina to keep her advantage in leverage from tying the knot and getting a tap.

Even with a tough armbar applied, Senjis willpower and fortitude was something else! He had been put through one hold to the next this whole session, but not once did he seem like slowing down or getting tired. To say the man oozed potential would be an understatement.

As he managed to power up enough through Cobras armbar, trying to reach to his trapped arm to free it, Cobra kept the grip up tight, and building force on it, which Cobra was resisting at first....before letting go of the armbar, and letting the force of Senji trying to free his arm do the rest as she sat up, running a hand through her hair.

A meaty "SLAP" resounded into the air as Senji's fist hit his own palm. The Cobra had disengaged. A deception! The momentum of the pull guided Senji's body back, forcing him to settle on his rear. He panted softly, reeling from the interruption. The woman was old, but good at what she did. He pursed his lips as he remained uncomfortable at this standstill. His fingers, eager to massage his elbow, moved along the freed arm to do just that. She hadn't broken it, obviously, but she had been on the road to do so had he not stopped her or she got a tap. Senji ran his right arm through his hair. The hot-red tresses ran slick with grease and sweat.

The slowed rhythm of the battle helped him in another way as well. His heart started to calm down as it was getting closer and closer to that clean THUMP-THUMP-THUMP that granted his body equilibrium. A variably serious condition that he had no control over but had been told to be careful about nonetheless. Still, his family believed in him. All that remained was to whether he got to realize the innate potential or not.

His winded gaze looked at Cobra in front of him soon after collecting himself for a few seconds before debating on whether or not to make a preemptive strike before choosing to let his tutor set the pace for them. Sticking by his decision, he relaxed and sat back while using his elbow as a support to keep him held up on his side.

"Are you good to go? You didn't have to stop--."