Mariko Ishii vs. Armando 'Army' Rodriguez - Bow Down

Army rolled back into the room and punched the canvas, as if it was the source for all his current problems. Immature, sure, and he knew he’d get an earful from Carmen about it later - among other things. Couldn’t be helped. He was beyond frustrated. Mariko was like a fly that wouldn’t be swatted, only the fly was capable of beating him around the ring.

But that was the thing about swatting flies. It wasn’t easy, but if you got lucky, you could do it. Such was the case, now.

As he rose up, he saw Mariko having a much harder time with it. She was a good wrestler, sure, but it seemed like she was a glass cannon One of his favorite types in fighting games, but in real life, not the best option.

He had her. He knew he had her. He didn’t know how long he had her, though, so it was best he be quick about it, before he didn’t have her anymore.

”Having some problems, mistress?” Army got in a quick chuckle as he moved her way with some fast strides. He reached out and tried to grab her by the wrist, looking to twist around and send her flying with an Irish Whip towards the other side of the ring.

The moment Army spoke, Mariko knew he’d taken the bait. And it took a good deal of effort on her part not to crack a smirk too early and throw her ploy off. But she kept the act up while he quickly closed the distance and grabbed onto her.

But the second he started to whip her away, the anguish in Mariko’s expression vanished, and her lips spread into a big, wide grin.

Gotcha.

Mariko held onto the boxer’s strong arm as he tried to throw her, and used it to pull herself right back in toward him. Hopefully catching him by surprise, the vixen hurled the point of her knee as hard as she could right at the pit of Army’s stomach, attempting to blast the air right out of the big guy’s sails!

Army was confident. He knew he shouldn’t have been, but damn it, he couldn’t help himself. And he felt like he was justified with it, too. Sure, Mariko had been dominating so far, but that was all based on her staying one step ahead of him. Now he was seizing the lead, and there wasn’t anything she could do to stop his momentum...in theory.

So, when he lifted her up, he was confident. That confidence stayed with him as he tried to send her off with the Irish Whip. But when she came back and planted a knee deep in his gut, it immediately started to fade

The blow itself would’ve bad enough, but the way she came added some significant force to it, and wound up doubling Army over. He didn’t fall down, but that might’ve had more to do with the ropes he was leaning on than anything.

Ooohh, that had to hurt.

Mariko’s knee landed right on the bullseye and buried itself into Army’s belly, and it had clearly done its job to perfection. If not for the fact that he had some ropes supporting him, the big boxer easily could’ve lost his balance and collapsed.

As fun as that could’ve been, Mariko was glad he stayed up. He was in perfect position for what she had in mind next.

Trying to take advantage of Army while he was stunned, she moved in and coiled an arm around his head. Then after leading him a few steps out closer to the middle of the ring, she’d fall back and attempt to spike him right onto his forehead with a ddt.

It was kind of funny how a little thing like momentum could bite you in the ass. Army was tough, and he probably could’ve taken Mariko’s strike well enough under normal circumstances. But when you added in all his weight getting thrown into the move? Yeah, it sucked. More than you would expect.

The audience thought it was worthy of applause, but Army was much less enthusiastic about it. Particularly when she followed it up by grabbing him by the head and pulling him away from the relative safety of the ropes.

Still reeling, he didn’t have much energy for putting up a fight, not for a few seconds. That turned out to be all the time Mariko need to drag him out and execute the simplest and most effective of wrestling moves - a DDT. His large frame did little to help him as she spiked him on the mat, hitting with a hard blow that left him slumped and on his knees. It wasn’t a good look, but his brain was far too foggy to change it. He just needed a few, unmolested seconds…

The crowd unanimously winced and cringed at the impact of Army’s head against the mat. That was going to leave his brain scrambled for a good little while. And if the boxer was hoping for a few moments of peace and recovery, well...he was about to be disappointed.

“Don’t fall asleep on me, big guy. I’m not done with you yet~” Mariko said as she got back to her feet, then took a step toward Army before swinging a boot out to deliver a stiff kick to his gut, hoping to knock him over onto his back. While the kick itself would almost certainly hurt, that was just to get him in the position she wanted him.

If she could get him on his back, Mariko would then step over the boxer with a foot by either side of him, drop her rear down right onto his toned abs to knock some air out of him, and press her hands down over his shoulders to start a pin attempt. If Mariko could in fact get a three count here, naturally she’d take it. But she wasn’t expecting such a thing. There was something else going on in that devious head of hers as she waited to see which of the boxer’s arms would be the one to shoot up and break the pin.

Army didn’t remember Mariko kicking him over on his back, but she must have, because all of the sudden, there he was. Lying there like an overturned turtle, his ribs hurting a bit, while Mariko stood over him like she owned the entire world. He knew she couldn’t have been that tall, maybe five and a half, but as she loomed about him she looked like a living giant.

And then she sat down. Hard.

She was no Akashi, but even a little weight could hurt when it all came crashing down like that, and that was exactly what happened when Mariko’s butt slammed into his stomach. His body shot up and all the air went flying from his lungs. She pushed him down a scant moment after that, and the next thing he knew, the referee was dropping for the count.

”1…!”

She was good. Better than he thought. Better than him in a few ways. But if she thought she was going to get a pin off a DDT and a butt drop, she was out of her - admittedly pretty - head.

He jerked his shoulder up before the ref could get to two, pushing her off with his left arm in the same motion. ”Yeah, not that easy.”

The fact that Army was able to get a shoulder up and break the count didn’t even remotely come across as a surprise to Mariko, though a small part of her lamented she had to leave her comfy seat atop the boxer’s chiseled abs so soon. But just because she wasn’t going to be sitting astride Army anymore for now didn’t necessarily mean he’d be in a better spot for it.

In fact, if the next few seconds went her way, he was going to much prefer being pinned under Mariko to what was coming.

When the arm came up and shoved at her, Mariko’s hands left Army’s shoulders and latched onto his wrist. One foot rose and planted down on the mat beside the boxer to steady herself before she quickly spun her body to the side and dropped down again, now laying back with one leg draped over Army’s toned chest and the other right over his throat. If her little transition was a success, from there she’d keep her grip nice and tight on his arm while wrenching back to apply nice, tight armbar.

“I’m sorry, did you say something?~”

Even before Mariko went into action, Army knew something was wrong about this whole situation. It was that smile of hers. Granted, Mariko seemed to be perpetually smiling, as if she was constantly thinking about amusing things she wasn’t quite ready to share with the world, but it seemed be getting especially long and crooked as he reached up. As if he was about to fall into some trap that he hadn’t been aware of, and…

Yep.

He had a good idea of what was about to happen when Mariko grabbed his, but knowing and doing something about it were two different things. By the time he had the mind to pull away, it was over - Mariko was laying at his side, the hold was secure, and he was in a world as one of his two best weapons was put in serious danger.

”Nevermind!” He growled the word as he tried to slide away from her, gritting his teeth to keep from yelling out at the pain. One of the advantages of being such a big dude was that he had a lot of reach to work with, but even so, it was further to the ropes than he would’ve liked. He made a hard try for it, though, reaching out with his legs in a mad scramble to just tap the bottom rope...one little touch...almost there…

Mariko giggled a bit when Army quickly took his words back. She knew she had the armbar locked in nice and tight, but the boxer’s frantic struggling and anguished expression were enough to confirm that on their own. And just to have a bit of fun with it, she gave her hips a couple teasing rubs against the trapped limb.

“Why don’t you just submit and spare yourself the agony? It’s not as much fun playing with a broken toy, you know~” she said, then leaned her head down and took one of Army’s fingers in her mouth, briefly and teasingly sucking on it.

Of course, all good things come to an end. But Mariko’s fun with her hold came to a more abrupt end than she would’ve liked when suddenly….

“Rope break! Let go of the arm, Mariko!”

The vixen pouted at the ref’s words, but began to relent on her hold. But, before letting him go completely, she’d raise one leg up and bring it right back down, slamming the heel of her boot into Army’s gut! Not the cleanest of breaks, but that didn’t much matter to Mariko. It certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near enough to get her disqualified. And if it meant making Army’s road to recovery a bit more difficult, then it was more than worth the effort.