Melody and Domino - An Encounter in the Gym

[Vc0m]

As Melody would turn on her back, she would notice that Drake was taking his time for his attack...

...and after having that thought, she immidiately realised what that meant! She put her palms to the ring's mat, trying to push herself up before Domino did a top rope manuever. But as she tried to push herself up, she realised just how tired she was from the spar by this point, barely having enough energy to get her back to leave the mat below it.

As such, when Domino jumped Melody couldn't do anything as her opponent's elbow came crushing down on her chest, ruining her attempt to get back to her feet completely.

Not even having energy to scream, Melody laid spray-eagled on the mat, wondering if she could, somehow, manage to turn the spar around in her favor...or whether Drake would manage to put her down for good.

[CyanDimitrik]

The impact is a telling moment in itself - how much she bucks, cries out, writhes, these things paint a picture of how much she has left in the tank. He felt the hit reverberate through her, but heard nothing. And after the hit, she's just lying there. She seems finished. He could stretch himself across her chest for the cover, but she's been kicking out. It's time for a change.

Domino lifts to his feet, reaching down for her head and shoulder to haul her up as well. And as soon as she's poised on her feet, he'll spin her around to face away from him. No squeezes around the stomach this time, though. He presses his body tighter against her back, his chest against her shoulders, hips against her rear. His left leg hooks her left thigh, and he ducks himself under her right arm. His left arm extends over her shoulders behind her neck, and his right palm sets to her stomach.

"Ready for this?," he asks, warm breath whisking against her ear.

Suddenly, he twists and straightens his back, attempting to force her body to twist as well, putting all the strain along her stomach in an abdominal stretch!

[Vc0m]

Melody prepared for Domino to go for a cover, getting ready for a kickout before Drake would count for 3, feeling that somehow, she could pull through and beat her opponent.

However, that was the opposite of what Drake had in mind, as he would lift her back to her feet using her head and shoulders, before spinning her away from him. She could feel his body very close to hers, his left leg going around hers, left arm going to her shoulders...and his voice asking him whether she was ready, getting more and more scared of what was coming with each passing second...

...until Drake straightened his body up, forcing Melody up with him, painfully twisting her spine and stomach to do so, straining Melody's torso with an abdominal stretch!

"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!", Melody screamed with sudden energy, as her back and belly were forced to remember everything they went through in the match 10-fold.

She almost made a tap out motion with her free left hand at her foot, to show Drake that she gave up...before noticing that she was in a perfect position for her own finishing move!

Gritting her teeth, she tried to slip her leg under Domino's unnoticed, to get a good jump to ensure that this would get Drake down for sure. WIth her hand trapped, she would have to try pull Domino down with only her left hand...

If all went well, and Drake wouldn't notice the green-ette trying to escape from the hold, she would jump into the air with her hand around his head, trying to drive her opponent down head-first into the mat with her finisher - Leaf Blade!

[CyanDimitrik]

Seems she does have some breath left in her after all - enough to power a pained cry. To be fair, Domino isn't being gentle with her, as one might normally in a spar. This escalated to match-levels almost immediately and hasn't come down since. So he's looking for a submission - tap out or vocal, he'll take either. But a scream isn't enough.

He twists her a little further. "Still fighting?" It's all he has time to ask before she's making some very deliberate movements to adjust their entanglement. However, when she pops into the air, Domino's back arches and his hand presses tighter to her stomach to keep her elevated, denying her that satisfying plummet and reversal.

With a quiet growl, he tilts her onto her feet again, attempts to reassert the hold on her, and ramp it up to his own finisher. The hand at her midsection digs fingers into her abs, making use of her taut, exposed, and ultimately vulnerable belly. He twists, offering her no relief or opportunity to fold in and alleviate the pressure as the stomach claw clamps down.

This is it: the Sterling Stretch.

[Vc0m]

Just before she dropped on her back, just before the moment that would've changed the match entirely in her favour, Domino pressed his hand on Melody's stomach to deny her any higher altitude...

Before getting the green-ette back into the position for the hold.

And just before Melody would try to reverse the stretch the same way once again, Drake's fingers would suddenly dig at her stomach, and twist, causing hellasious pain at her belly as he combined both the stretch and the claw at the same time!

Not even able to scream at this point, only letting out short groans and moans of pain, Melody desperately tried to find someway, anyway to get out, to turn everything around...

...but with how badly Drake worked over her stomach and back, she couldn't focus on anything, except the pain...

Not being able to take anymore of Drake's finishing hold, she silently tapped out on her leg, with a loud enough sound for Domino to notice that she conceded the spar...

[CyanDimitrik]

The desperation to escape amounts to little more than squirms and grinds, Domino clenching steadily tighter on her stomach, keeping her body twisted back. But fortunately with her being unable to scream, he's capable of hearing the tapout enough to draw his attention. He immediately relaxes his fingers against her abs and eases the position on her, letting her straighten herself out, before finally de-tangling and stepping back.

"Well," begins Domino as he draws his hands over his sweaty face to slick his hair out of his eyes, "you definitely didn't disappoint." When the hands drop again, it's with a simple, even unassuming smile. "Y'okay?," is asked with the sort of tenor one wouldn't generally expect of someone who just attempted to gut a person with their bare hand.

[Vc0m]

Thankfully, it didn't take long for Domino to notice that Melody was giving up, as he would let her go less than a second of her tap out, Melody also taking a step away from her partner to recover from the torturous hold.

However, at the moment, all she could focus on was the still lingering pain in her stomach, and her still ragged breathing in the aftermath of the hold. Her back didn't take as much damage as it would in a match, but with how hardly Drake worked over her belly, it seemed to the green-ette that she would be lying in bed for the next few days with an ice pack on her bruised stomach.

Sadly, soon, the tidal wave of disappointment with herself that came from a loss washed over her. Though she was weirded out that this sort of thing came from a spar.

However, Drake's words that she didn't disappoint him cheered her up a tiny bit, as she turned towards him:

"More or less...", she answered him in a slightly raspy voice: "Nothing a few days in bed and an ice pack won't fix...".

As the pain on her stomach would settle down slightly (allowing her to move her hand away from it), she would remember once again that this turned more into just a spar, with both fighters seemingly going all out in their "match":

"Do you think we overdid our little "spar"?", she would ask Drake.

[CyanDimitrik]

Domino turns aside and stretches his arms back, allowing himself a moment to come down from the fight, the tension, the lot of it.

"Wait." He looks back at her. "A few days!?" Oh, crap. He overdid it. He was so focused on winning that the outside circumstances failed to register. It was a spar. Spars shouldn't require downtime afterwards. Especially at potential career cost.

He turns to face her, face marred in obvious self-loathing. "I don't know if you did, but I think I went way overboard. I wasn't thinking about when you might have your next match, or what your normal training requires, or-.." Breath. "I was stupid. Sorry."

[Vc0m]

Melody was taken aback by Drake's sudden apology. She really didn't think it was him who took things too far. If she didn't, then she would've been down for the count a while ago.

"I don't think either of us are to blame in the situation. I tried to beat you with everything I got, failed, and then tried to get through your attacks...and failed. You really shouldn't blame yourself here, mate"

"Don't worry about my next match either. I have a tourney and a hardcore match coming up in a few weeks, I'll definitely be fine by the time those roll around. I needed a good spar like that, so thanks! And don't blame yourself too much", Melody would finish, still breathing a bit heavily after the spar.

[CyanDimitrik]

"Yeah, I... I guess," submits Domino, hand placing to the back of his neck. She'd know better than anyone if there'd be a problem, so he'll stop fretting it and instead focus on the positive. "People like us, we don't believe in going tepid. When we fight, we're passionate about it."

He moves closer to her, a hand going for her shoulder. "Any time you wanna go a round. Seriously though, you're really resilient. Any number of guys I've faced in the past would've been out way before, or at least not bouncing back so fast." With a light smile, he adds, "So I was right about you. Totally would've had that other chick if she didn't go cheap."