Spring Forward

A small, more practical part of Blossom’s brain was starting to key in on the possibility that Minerva might’ve been a bit more than she seemed and had unseemly ideas about what was going to happen here.  That part of Blossom’s brain typically went ignored, and this time was no different.

She liked to wrestle, and she liked to wrestle with beautiful woman, and despite losing so much, she liked a challenge. No problems here. Blossom eagerly met with Minerva head on, accepting the lockup.

Initially, she was pushed back a few steps. The Danishwoman was quite strong and she had a height advantage going on. That gave her more leverage, made it easy to push Blossom back from the get-go. But it was hardly the first time she’d been on the losing end of a strength contest, and she knew how to react.

Blossom stomped her feet, planting her feet down hard and stopping Minerva’s advance cold. From there, she began to push back in full, exerting maximum force with a grunt, trying to drive her busty foe away and score some ground.

Standing nearly a foot taller than her sparring partner, Minerva couldn’t have been much more confident in her ability to overwhelm Blossom with sheer, brute power. And after they locked up, for a moment it seemed the raven haired beauty was going to do exactly that as she drove Blossom back several steps. But then all her progress came to an abrupt stop.

Minerva blinked in a moment of surprise and confusion, before feeling Blossom pushing back against her. Suddenly Minerva was the one fighting not to be driven back! “Tch!” she grunted through grit teeth as she felt her foot starting to move back against her will. Despite the poor track record Blossom had spoken of, it seemed she knew her stuff better than she’d originally let on.

But that wasn’t going to discourage Minerva. She just needed to change tactics. Right when the foot moving back stepped down on the mat, she suddenly pivoted her hip and looped an arm under Blossom’s. Using the girl’s own momentum against her, Minerva attempted to send the brunette flipping forward and falling onto her back with a hip toss!

As much as Blossom missed being in the ring and desperately wished her career had turned out better than it did, there were benefits to having more time off and not having to conform to the demanding schedule of an in-ring competitor. More free time, primarily. Free time that Blossom had spent working out, pushing her limits and eating right. Times like this, it paid dividends.

Minerva was strong. Dang strong. Really Stronger like an ox - a big, sexy ox with a weird hairdo. Maybe even stronger than Death Bunny, the toughest wrestler Blossom had ever faced. But Blossom was powerful enough to hold her own in that weight class now, and judging from the look of surprise on Minerva’s face, she realized it.

Blossom always cherished that look. She’d seen it a lot, and it never got old. ”Heh. Not bad!”

But the feeling was fleeting this time. Minerva was quick to adapt, and Blossom soon found herself going butt-over-teakettle, getting launched by the deft hip toss. She took a hard fall, but it was early still, and she was fresh enough to recover fast. Blossom proved that when she quickly rolling over to her chest and reached out, trying to grab Minerva's ankle and tug it hard for a quick trip, pulling the rug out from underneath her.

Any piece of Minerva’s confidence that might’ve left her a moment ago was quickly restored as she tossed Blossom through the air and slammed her down onto her back. The fact that this girl had managed to stop the Danish amazon’s advance with nothing but brute strength and a bit of leverage had been impressive, but Minerva wasn’t going to let there be any question as to whose strength was superior.

As Minerva turned to face her downed foe, the smug smirk of hers had returned, though it didn’t stay long. Suddenly her foot was pulled out from under her, and with a sudden yelp the raven haired beauty took a less than graceful fall onto her shapely rump.

While Minerva was an efficient mat wrestler, even she would have to admit that making use of her strength was much more difficult to do down here. On the mat, her size advantage over Blossom hardly mattered. She was more than confident she could take the girl on regardless of that, but that didn’t mean she wanted to give Blossom a chance to surprise her yet again. So she quickly pulled her leg back and kicked it out at the brunette, trying to shove her back and create a bit of distance between them so she could get back up. Or at least, get into a less vulnerable position.

”Ha!”

It was hardly a major move, but Blossom couldn’t keep herself from having a short squeal of triumph as Minerva went down. Not only was it fun to watch, but it put her on a nice, even playing field with the taller woman. She was often the shortest woman in the room, but everyone got a lot shorter when they were on their back.

She rolled over and started to pounce, reaching out to grab her for a headlock, when she was intercepted by a foot, of all things. It wasn’t too painful, but it did knock her away and put her flat on her back.

A little annoying, but it wasn’t that big of a deal. Blossom rolled off her back, popped up to her feet, and rose with her hands at the ready and her legs bent.

Blossom held her hand out, offering another tie-up to Minerva. ”Nice exchange.” She did a quick bounce, then started inching her way forward. ”Try again?”

There was nothing fancy about a simple kick. But good timing could turn even the simplest of things into effective tools. In this case, it pushed Blossom back and gave Minerva the time and space to roll back to her feet again.

“Yes, not a bad warm up round,” Minerva replied. A part of her still almost felt as if she was being hustled somehow. In the brief exchange just now, Blossom hadn’t seemed at all like someone who’d need to retire for lack of skill. Was it a stamina issue that had plagued her? Or perhaps there were certain types of tactics she struggled to deal with that Minerva had yet to try to exploit. Whatever the case, bullying Blossom around with brute strength no longer seemed like a sound strategy. She knew how to hold her own in that area even when at a disadvantage. A change of tactics would be in order, but first Minerva wanted to see how Blossom would react when given the initiative.

Shuffling toward the brunette, Minerva gradually extended her hand to interlock the fingers with Blossom’s. Once they were locked in place, she’d bring her other hand forward to repeat the process on the other side. On its surface, this seemed like the setup for a simple test of strength. Though she highly doubted that’s all Blossom had in mind...

Part of Blossom was still trying to feel out Minerva as she neared for another tie-up, wanting to get a good sense for who she was dealing with. She was rich -  or, at least, she had more money than the average wrestler, with clothing like the kind she wore into the gym. The AFW had no shortage of that type, high class women who took up wrestling for the thrill, but she couldn’t think of any of them who had this level of pure strength.

Or skill. A hip toss was hardly a revolutionary move, but most AFW wrestlers tended towards the flashier stuff. Blossom had been around enough Greco-Roman wrestling to recognize a fellow student of the style when she saw one. This was no dainty heiress. This was a real power wrestler she was dealing with.

Oh, this was looking more and more fun by the second.

She locked fingers with Minerva, getting a solid grip with one hand, then started to extend the other. She began to reach for it, only half a foot away, before she switched tactics and instead went for something trickier. Blossom ducked under Minerva’s shoulder, keeping her grip tight and trying to twist the arm along with her. With a quick slide of the feet, she came out behind Minerva and tried to trap her with a hammerlock, standing on her tiptoes to keep it nice and properly applied.

Minerva was fully expecting Blossom to grab onto her hand, and for the two to start pushing and twisting against each other’s hands. Obviously just going along with that test of strength so straightforward would put the shorter brunette at a disadvantage, so she was bound to try to switch things up quick. Minerva thought she’d be able to mentally prepare for that, but she underestimated just how soon Blossom would pull the trigger.

Their second hand hadn’t even interlocked before Blossom was already behind Minerva, twisting her arm behind her with the hammerlock. The tall Dane winced in discomfort, noting her foe’s quickness on stop of the surprising amount of strength she packed given her size. Again, valuable, albeit basic skills being put on display.

But Minerva could deal with this. And after a moment or two, she’d abruptly drop down and twist her body mid-fall. One leg stretched out in front of Blossom’s shins while the other reached behind her legs and pushed, hoping to reverse the position with a drop toe hold.

”Aaaaaand gotcha.”

Blossom chirped with her usual infinite exuberance as she worked the hold. Not too tight, not too hard - after all, she didn’t want to do any real damage. Minerva seemed nice enough, if a wee bit on the haughty side, and she didn’t want to incur the wrath of management by injuring a talent by accident.

But it was nice to be on the advantage against a bigger opponent. She was relatively sure that she could hold this on Minerva long enough to transition into something a bit trickier.

MInerva’s technical prowess showed through once again, however, and she found the hold quickly reversed in expert fashion. Blossom managed to get her hand up and land on her palms, keeping the fall from hurting much at all, but the drop toehold wasn’t about damage. It was a setup move, which meant that it was in her best interests to get free before Minerva moved to phase two.

"Very slick, nice!" She congratulated Minerva, but that didn't mean she stopped moving. Pushing forward on her hands, Blossom tried to squirm her way out, hoping she could get free and roll away before Minvera could capitalize.

Minerva couldn’t help but grin a bit at Blossom’s compliment. The raven haired beauty viewed just about everything related to herself to be flawless. She took a great deal of pride in that, and it certainly didn’t hurt her overinflated ego to be praised by others, even for something just as simple as a hammerlock counter.

But taking Blossom down was only the start. The brunette was squirming and shifting with Minerva’s legs keeping the girl’s in place, but the Dane wasn’t quite going to let her go yet. She let go of her foe’s legs just long enough to throw herself forward to pounce on Blossom’s back. From there she’d attempt to lock her hands together in front of the girl’s face, and would start to wrench back to apply a crossface.