Party Hard vs. Novae - Starstruck

If Valerie had still been around, Valerie knew her sister would be berating her from their corner, none too pleased with what she was seeing. While she didn’t have a problem with flash in a match - that was practically their entire theme - she would’ve wanted to be serious, not waste a single moment. Moves like the Koppu Kick were risks. Unneeded risks.

Not in Tatiana’s mind. It was like Belle said - this was her time to shine. And for her, that meant throwing every single thing she had at the brunette.

Besides, it worked, better than she’d even hoped. The move brought Belle, strong and sturdy, Belle, down to a single knee and left her dazed, a good position for Tatiana as she rolled passed and popped up to her feet. ”Thanks!” Tatiana chirped as she prepared to come at her foe from behind, readying a kick to her back. ”Not holding anything-”

Tatiana saw Belle’s backfist coming out of the corner of her eye, too late to do anything but raised her shoulder for a last-second defense. That helped take the bite out of it, as the blow had to go through that before it collided with her face. Kept her standing. In the end, though, she was still sent stumbling back to the ropes, and had to lean on them for support while she rubbed her jaw. ”Wow, you hit hard.” She shook her head. ”I mean, I knew, but wow.”

She felt herself catch part of Tatiana before she saw he driven back, throwing her left arm to her side to shake off the impact. "You're no slouch either." She brought her arms up, flexing her fingers into a curled fist. She bounced once on the balls of her boots before ducking in, taking long lunging steps to close in the distance. She had a wide smile on her face, barely visibly through her usual shoulder guard tactic. Her body swiftly bobbed to the right, preemptively looking to skirt any opening gambit from Tatiana before tossing another quick left jab up at her face. She expected a block, it's what she wanted, she didn't want the redhead to see what was coming next.

"Focus." She stepped in again, throwing her right arm wide almost as if she was coming in with a hook. It was an open palm though, aimed to get around a frontal guard to seize Tatiana by the neck and hurl her towards the corner in one massive sweep motion. If Tatiana managed to duck her, the massive follow through would leave Belle's upper body twisted and exposed to a counter attack. If she had landed the juggernaut throw, Belle would be only a few steps behind her, coming on to corner her at the turnbuckles, one place she really wouldn't want to be with the brunette brawling breathing down her neck.

Tatiana was having fun. That was a weird thing to think while she was getting smacked in the face by a backfist, that facted occurred to her, but she could ignore the truth of it.

For the first time in the match, this felt like what she wanted out of wrestling: real competition, a real challenge, a chance to test her skills and show off and just enjoy the ring. There was no Valerie screaming in her ears, no Kaylee cheating and wailing on her. The match was blonde-free and better for it.

Up came her arms, blocking a quick jab, but that wasn’t the real threat. No, what she needed to be worried about was what came next, as Belle at her from the side with a wide, dangerous looking holding. Tatiana saw it coming at the last second and just managed to ducked under Belle’s arm, dashing behind her in the next instant. ”Focusing!” She chirped with a short laugh as she kept in motion.

She was in Belle’s blindspot. Not for long, but long enough to do something with it. Going for something simple, she dipped and swung her leg around in a quick arc aimed at the back of Belle’s knee, attempting to floor her with a sweep. It wouldn’t hurt much, but if it got her down, the move served its purpose.

Belle jab hit a solid guard, even the quick punch had a bit of her bote to it. She twisted coming around hard with her grab, Tatiana deftly vanishing beneath it as her arm traveled wide. She grunted, eyes darting to follow the girl before she left her peripheral vision. After everything she had been put though, she managed to keep her speed. She couldn't keep it up forever though, could she?

Belle yelped in surprise, before she had even recovered Tatiana's leg hooked her from behind, tucking her leg away from the ground to send her slipping to her back. Her legs had flown upright at a steep vertical angle before clattering down after her.

She couldn't help but be a bit taken aback by how easy the fall had been. Of all the things she could have done, all the ways she could have kicked her legs out from under her, this one had been surprisingly gentle. She couldn't help but grin... Why? She had just been put to the canvas after all.

Surely Tatiana would capitalize on this, there was no reason for her not to with having Belle on the defensive on the ground. If she didn't immediately act on it, Belle would try to rise though.

Tatiana hopped back at the kick floor Belle, both surprised that it worked and that it worked so damn well. Belle was floored, and while she hadn’t taken much damage from her tumble, it didn’t seem like she would be getting up for a second or two. This match was wearing on her.

But it was wearing on Tatiana, too, so much that she wasn’t sure she could do what her instincts told her to do. What if she botched it? What if she came down wrong? What if she just didn’t have the energy for a full rotation.

No. No, she could do it. Her time to shine, right?

With a deep breath, Tatiana leaped forward while she threw her chest backwards, backflipping as she move upwards and forward. She did a complete rotation in the air, her red hair flying about, before she came down and landed hard on the fallen Belle, chest-to-chest, crashing into her with a Standing Shooting Star Press. Not the most energy efficient move, but she had a bunch of stars all over her costume and her team named ‘Novae’. She was kind of required to do the move at some point.

Belle had started to push herself up when she caught Tatiana take to the air. It was a familiar move to her... not that she could ever do something like that herself. It was however in Kaylee's impressive list of various flippy-flop type moves. She had taken them a good bit as part of their training. Two fold was it that they practice their move set, and take bumps from one another to acclimate themselves quickly. She could maybe manage to move away, but doing so might get her caught. Landing that move bad would hurt both of them. The outcome was uncertain which one would come out worse.

Begrudgingly she didn't push up any further, not wanting to risk either of them to what failure might have brought. The press flattened her partially risen body to the mat, even with being ready for it, it left her winded, wincing as Tatiana slammed down on her. Her legs popped up again with the impact before she flattened back out along the canvas. She groaned softly beneath the smaller girl, coughing out a small rather lighthearted "Ow." Short and rather concise she almost laughed at herself at how poorly it adequately expressed how it felt to take on her weight like that... She wasn't the best when it came to expressing herself with words.

The referee tossed herself down to the mat on her hands and knees, in a better position to watch Belle's shoulders as she slammed the mat with a palm.

"...1...!"

It worked? It worked!

Oh, ouch, it worked!

No, falling from about five feet down onto someone’s chest was never fun, not for the person taking it and not for the person doing it. It especially didn’t help that she was still feeling some of the damage from the beatdown Kaylee had given her a little while ago, and that her crash had made some of that flare up.

But, hey - it worked. That was all that mattered. ”Gotcha.” She whispered, a mischievous grin sliding across her face as she looked down at her foe.

She was in position for a pin, so that was what she went for, pressing her chest against Belle’s and...huh, she had quite a chest to push again. Nice, plush, soft, pleasing. Tatiana couldn’t help but rub into it a bit, nestling in. Hopefully, she’d have more than two seconds to enjoy it.

”2…!”

Belle had started almost right away to control her breathing. While being pinned was a taxing process, not kicking out right away has it's own merits. It have you just a few seconds to recover, assuming your were crammed into a uncomfortable position. Her head was tilted back, eyeing the referee as she watched carefully to know when she was good to raise her shoulder. It wouldn't be hard to get up, Tatiana hadn't even hooked her legs. What was she... doing? She could feel the redhead squirming on top of her a bit, pushing down on her. Her cheeks took on a faint bit of color at what was surely just the other girl recovering from her flip. She was so distracted she almost missed her cue!

Belle threw up her shoulder at the last possible second, to the uproar of the crowd. She hadn't even intended for it to be that close, she could have thrown Tatiana off after the first count but she had somehow almost handed the other girl the win. For what? She was still partially below Tatiana, she hadn't thrown enough force to fully dislodge her. She peered back in mild bewilderment up at her before trying to gab for the redhead's shoulders and push her off so Belle could in turn roll off to the side to start her ascent to her feet again.

"Almost... got me there." She could feel a bit of heat in her face, she was going to play it off as if it were nothing. "All you people and the flippy stuff really do a number." She wiped at her brow, grimacing. She had almost blamed her hair being in her eyes... boy that would have fallen flat with it tied back. That had been nothing... she was reading into it all again to much, that was it. She was just a bit too invested in this match, what with Tatiana being a fan. Nothing more.

In hindsight, it was more than a little silly for Tatiana to think that pinfall would’ve worked on Belle. This match had gone on for, what, ten minutes? Fifteen? Long enough for her to know that this woman was a walking tank, that it would take more than your standard Shooting Star Press to put her down for a three count, and that she still had plenty of work to do before she could be taking this match.

So. Back to it, then,

There was a moment where the two stopped and stared right after the shoulder came up, but it ended when Belle pushed off and rolled away, knocking Tatiana on her back. She didn’t stay there for long, though - it was all too clear that this was, perhaps, the one chance big chance she’d be getting. It was not slipping out out of her fingers.

She came at Belle from behind and wrapped an arm around her neck, pulling her in close for a tight headlock, and began to rise her feet, trying to keep her foe controlled as they rolled. ”Don’t worry.” She whispered into the brunette’s ear as she pulled her up. ”I’ve got plenty of kicks and punches, if you get bored with the flips.”

She just couldn't shake Tatiana, the girl was all over her at every turn, as much as she hated to really admit it, she thought she... might actually enjoying it though. She grunted softly as Tatiana wrapped her arm around her throat. She hunkered down at first, hands coming up to grip at the encroaching forearm to try to hold it at bay. She was slowly and steadily pulled to her feet though. She wasn't really sure how, Tatiana was in no way stranger then her, even with the arm around he neck, it shouldn't have been that easy. Has she let it happen? She winced as Tatiana  and her stood up against one another, the redhead finally able to cinch the hold in properly now that they were upright. She could feel her the other girl pressing flush against her back.

She remained quiet for a long time after she had been whispered to, putting up what only Tatiana would know was a rather poor attempt at struggling free. Something wasn't right in Belle's head... maybe that kick had knocked something loose early in their exchange. She was just having a hard time willing herself to break away, even as she felt her strength being choked away. She wouldn't stay like this forever, she couldn't. She let out a ragged huff, one that had been of defeat... In that instant though, the thought of just giving in set her back in motion.

"Oh yeah?" She choked out in a soft horse murmur. "Show me."

She snarled as she planted her feet, stomping steps backwards to try and power through the hold. rather than break it, she was going to backpedal Tatiana to the ropes... or try. She moved slow at first, but unless stopped would pick up enough steam to try and drive them back. She didn't have much control over where they headed, she couldn't see. Either way she was going to try and trap the redhead against a turnbuckle of the ropes before attempting to break herself free. She needed to make sure the girl couldn't keep her controlled by having full mobility.