Party Hard vs. Novae - Starstruck

”Drop...the...beat?” Valerie rolled those words around on her tongue. Her understanding of American slang was, at best, rudimentary, and pretty much just came from what she’d picked up from Tatiana by osmosis, but she did not like the sound of those words.

Tatiana liked them even less, because a) she had a better understanding of what they meant and b) she would be on the receiving end of said ‘dropping beat’. She squirmed as Belle lifted her up, enjoying the way their chest rubbed against each other, but dreading what would be coming next. Up she went, held aloft by those inflexible arms, suspended high and brought into…

...an Oklahoma Stampede?

Valerie was confused as Belle drove hard towards her. The crowd was confused, breaking into confused murmurs. Kaylee was confused and livid. Even the referee, impartial as she was, couldn’t hold back a cocked eyebrow. She hammered Tatiana into the corner, right in front of Valerie, almost as if she were daring her to make the tag.

Overconfidence or stupidity? Though she’d known them for all of four minutes, Belle had struck Valerie as the smarter half of Party Hard. After that blunder, it was a more difficult position to hold. Either way, she was taking advantage of it, slapping Tatiana’s back before she was slammed into the canvas.

She couldn’t stop that from happening, but she could take advantage of it, and she moved into position as Belle turned. With her hands on the top rope, she pulled back, then jumped forward, propelling herself into the ring with a slingshot maneuver. Valerie twisted her body about in mid-air, held her arm out while she kicked up her legs, and attempted to come down on Belle’s back with an elbow drop, hoping to catch her unawares before she could get back up from her own move.

As Belle brought Tatiana off the turnbuckle, she twisted to pop the girl up just a bit before slamming her down to the mats, going down to rest on top of her. She hadn't heard or seen a tag in the moment. Had she missed it? She pushed up off Tatiana, taking a moment to visually check on her before moving to rise.

With a gasping cry, Valerie's elbow drop hit her with perfection, that sharp pinpoint blow sending a ripple through her spin as she dropped, slumping back down over Tatiana. She grit her teeth hissing though them. "Damn it." This was ultimately what she got. By all accounts she had made a rookie blunder or one of the cockiest shows of force possible. Valerie had jumped on that, as she should. The sister had more sense about the match than she did, honestly. Had the rolls be reversed, she was fairly certain she would have done the same.

Kaylee steamed, red faced she threw herself into the ring, booking it over to the three in the corner. The Official caught sight of this and met her half way in the ring, cutting her off. "They are cheating!" She threw her accusatory finger out over the ref's shoulder, pointing at Valerie. She hadn't seen the tag either. The official, ever the professional just stood her ground as the blond woman thumped into her a few times. She gave a hand gesture that a tag had been made before ushering Kaylee back to her corner through the protests. "Are you bribing officials now too?! Omaigawd! I can't even believe this right now!" The ref did get a bit more forceful at their values being called into question, giving Kaylee a slightly harder shove as she crossed though the ropes onto the apron. The nerve!

"Get up Belle! Kick her ass!" She called across from her corner. She kicked a leg up onto the second rope, bouncing a bit in place. She threw her arms up, appealing to the crowd again to drum up support for Belle. It was a very "lend her your power" moment that went over pretty well with those in attendance. Somehow Kaylee had manages to steal away a good deal of the attention from the actual wrestling. Both impressive and disrespectful. She did things her own way, regardless.

Doing what Valerie did was a gamble. A big one, in fact. She was banking on the referee seeing her hasty tag, banking on Belle not being able to move in time, and banking on it not hurting Tatiana through the Partyer’s body. By some small miracle, all three bets paid off, and she wound up crashing down on Belle without a hitch. Well, without any major hitch.

There was, of course, the loudmouth to deal with. Kaylee barged her way across the ring, storming and spouting nonsense about cheating. Baseless accusations. Whatever her concerns, they would’ve been better aimed at her teammate. She was the one making the mistake, and she would be the one paying the price. Valeria was simply the arbiter, here.

She looked at Kaylee and pulled her eyelid down for a brief moment, indulging in a flash of satisfying taunting, before she went to the task at hand. Grabbing Belle’s arm, she hauled her foe up as Valerie rolled away to the apron under the ropes so she could recover. It was brief, but she could've sworn that her sister, normally the soul of good humor in these
matches, looked more than a bit saddened to be out of the ring. An odd feeling, given the beating she had took only a moment ago.

”I’m not sure what your game is, tovarisch.” As she pulled Belle up, she twisted that arm around and tried to catch her with a hammerlock, wanting to keep her in control and begin work on weakening those impressive arms of hers. ”But if you’re underestimating us, I think you’ll find that most unwise. And unhealthy.”

Kaylee had caught Valerie's look while she was being ushered back to her corner, almost kicking and screaming the entire way. She was positively livid at this point as she failed to reason with the official and Valerie had full reign over Belle. What the hell was her partner doing! Why had she even gone over there.... Did she think that was their corner? Was Valerie stealing her identity now too like some horrible carny pod person?!

Belle lifted herself slightly on her hands and knees, letting Tatiana roll herself to the apron. She underestimated how much that elbow hurt her, finding it hard to force herself to her feet. Valerie was more than willing to help it seemed, wrenching her arm up and into her back with a painful twist. She let out shocked grunt as she fumbled to find her footing after being yanked upright. Writhing and twisting into the hold, she was finding it hard to break. She had it locked in good, damn good. She really wanted to know what this woman called her, but it didn't seem that important in the grand scheme of things. She let out a small cry as Valerie torqued her arm, arching her back to the side to try and find some form of relief but none was to be had.

"Just... wanted a chance to cave your skull in instead..." She labored to get those words out, screaming as she made the grip on her arm worse by twisting the opposite way, trying to throw back an elbow at Valerie, trying to hit her wherever she could She wasn't picky at the moment. If she made contact with the woman, and the hold didn't get worse, she'd try to strike her again with an elbow, as many as she could to break herself free.

As the two of them struggled, Valerie threw the occasional glance towards her sister, switching her focus in flashes. Tatiana was a woman who seldom hid her emotions, and today was no different. She had her brows furrowed, her lips pouted, a clear sign of earnest concern, but it wasn’t meant for her. After all, Valerie was doing well at the moment. Her opponent was under control, she had yet to incur any damage, and they were well on their way to isolating one half of Party Hard, even if it was all happening because of the brunette’s slipup.

No, this concern was meant for Belle. In a flash of realization, things were beginning to make a little more sense.

There was precious little time to contemplate this, however, as her momentary distraction turned out to be a moment too long. Wily and fierce, Belle’s struggles bore fruit, as she slipped around and managed to clock Valerie on the side of her head. It wouldn’t have been enough to make her let go on its lonesome, but the followup hitting in the same place with the same force pushed things over. She shoved Belle away and stumbled back, shaking her head as she tried to get some sense back into it.

Her elbow was sloppy. It had to be. Anything more and she would have just wrenched her own shoulder out of the socket and saved Valerie the trouble. She felt the effect take almost immediately, And so would the woman holding her. Having distracted the submission artist at least a bit, she was able to throw back her second elbow with a bit more bite. Rearing back she threw a third but she was shoved away, twisting her body to narrowly miss clocking Valerie with a third. She stumbled back trying to maintain her footing from the shove and failed elbow.

She steadied herself close to mid ring, clutching her shoulder as her fingers flecked. That had been bad, if her hammerlock was any indication the older sister knew how to lock in a convincing submission. There was a chance she was just lucky to have caught Belle like that, but she wasn't that naive to believe that for an instant. She had been in enough scuff UPS to know that lock wasn't normally that painful. She nursed her shoulder, grunting. She should tag Kaylee, but she wouldn't. Valerie was still an enigma, she wouldn't put Kaylee in hards way just yet ,not until they learned something from her.

She flexed her arm, rolling her shoulder painfully as she stared across at Valerie. Keeping low she assumed her earlier stance. Arm up, head tucked. She led with her good side, choosing to protect the target of the earlier submission. Her immediate concern was the woman's reach. It was safe to assume she would be as quick as Tatiana, both seemed acrobaticly gifted, she need to get in close. If she could stay on her feet, she could go forever... That is what she was telling herself. "Hitting me from behind, bad form." She tossed Valerie a smirk, trying to down play how roughed up she was between the two of them.

Valerie had plans with that submission hold, was looking to lock Belle into something far more damaging and painful when she had half a chance. Unfortunately, ‘half a chance’ never came, as she learned a lesson about her opponent in the worst way: the woman could hit. Hard.

Perhaps it was merely Valerie’s imagination playing tricks on her, but Belle was far stronger than she appeared at first blush, that sort of power reminding her of something that would have come from Sergie, the man who trained them in wrestling a year ago. She would not have guessed one of these internet darlings could strike like a man, but there it was.

From the sidelines, Tatiana chewed her lips, watching on as her sister squared off with Belle. The brunette was capable, that much was clear, and tough than any eye could guess...but she knew Val had broken down bigger prey, that she could be ruthless when she wanted to. A sad tidding for whatever she was trying to make with Belle. She had a feeling that, if Valerie snapped an arm, it might make things a little sour between them for a good while…

Would it come to that? They were in the process of finding out, as the two combatants faced off. Valerie started to circle around Belle, changing speeds in a heartbeat, going slow one second, then as fast as she could in another. She continued with that, trying to throw her off, before she charged in quick and ducked down low. Reaching out, she attempted to grab  Belle’s legs, in a wild attempt to get her back on the floor with a single-leg takedown. There, she could do her best work, operate on her own pace.

Belle tucked in her head behind the palisade that were her forearms, eyes locked to Valerie as the woman circled her. She remained steadfast where she stood, bouncing slightly to keep her body moving, reflects on alert. She lunged out with a jab here or a hook there, but each time Valerie had deftly slipped away, dancing around her reach.

Her frustration was growing, worn on her shoulder readily seen. Her focus broken as Valerie circled past Tatiana. Her eyes left her opponent for just a moment, checking on the other girl before shifting back to her sister. The immediate threat.

"Keep moving" Belle heard her partner shouting from the sidelines... She was right. She joined in, staying opposite Valerie. She was keeping up easier now. Another straight thrown and missing. She almost had her. She just needed to land one blow to get herself rolling. As Valerie dipped out of her latest burst of strafing speed, Belle stepped charged the space between them, arms flung wide to collapse around the older woman like a trap freshly sprung.

Gone, again!

This time was different. This time the woman had capitalized on the opening she had left, grabbing hold of her leg. She was pushing into her... She knew she couldn't keep her balance, she was going down. In a desperate move as she tried to hop on one foot to remain upright, she drove her elbow down at the woman as hard as she could with no real foundation behind her blow, it was not nearly as powerful as it would have been had she been planted.

Gravity and Valerie both took her yet, body slamming backwards against the mat. Depending on how effective her elbow had bee , she was likely in for a world of hurt.

When it came to strategy, there was no question who the responsibilities fell to in this tag team. Tatiana was not some idiotic waif, but when it came to mapping out a plan or thinking of what to do about the next move and the next move beyond that, she was always left. Forward thinking fell to Valerie.

As she circled Belle, she was thinking. As she weaved around the strikes, she was thinking. Her goal wasn’t just to fight this woman, but to frustrate her, make her open up a nice, big gap in her defense, causing her problems.  Sure enough, it bore fruit.

Valerie almost - [i]almost[/b], mind you  - started to crack a grin when she made Belle whiff her grab, and she yanked her by the leg and brought her to the floor. Success. And all it cost her was getting clubbed in the back by Belle’s biting elbow.  It was a watered down version of the elbow, but even so, it was enough to bring her down to the floor, coming down right on top of her, making a messy pile..

An awkward situation, but one where Valerie could work a few things. While her ultimate goal was to get an armbar or something along those lines, she would work with what she had. Wrapped her legs around one of Belle’s thighs and grabbing the other with her arms, she put on a tight grip and began to force them into a leg spread, pushing her foes’ flexibility to the limit. Not the biggest move, but it had the potential to help her into bigger and better things.

Belle jerked to initially tug at her leg as Valerie's legs wrapped around it. A leg lock? That was nothing. She was going to kick the blond woman off of her, then turn the tables. As her second leg was grasped, she was only confused. When the pain reached her, being tugged on either end like a wishbone she let out a cry. She twisted from side to side, trying to bend at her knees to pull herself loose but stretched out against Valerie's own from, she couldn't buckle her. She had never been put in a hold like this before. She didn't know how to combat it, she didn't know how to lessen the pain.

She attempted to sit herself up, perhaps if she could grab her own thigh she could wrench herself free. The pain though, she couldn't manage to get herself up to even try it. She wasn't terrible flexible. That was Kaylee's thing. Belle? She could barely manage to touch her toes, and that was if she cheated by rocking her weight into it. She struggled to exert her strength into her legs, trying to lessen the pain, to make it more difficult to pry her apart like this.

She had to get to the ropes. Valerie would be like dragging a ball and chain, but she didn't see any other way. She planted her palms, digging them in as she pushed them away from her, slowly dragging herself towards the ropes.

As the official had turned their attention back to Valerie and Belle to be on hand for a submission, Kaylee had other plans. She knew well enough that Belle wasn't good with these sorts of things. They had trained together after all. The few times they had sparred to an actual mock match finish, when Kaylee managed to win it was with locking Belle up in a submission. Neither of them were particularly gifted with them, but anything Belle couldn't power through was always an issue. All power, no finesse.

The blond gripped the ring post as she swung herself around to the other apron, moving swiftly along the edge of the ring. When she was confident enough the two were in range, she planted herself. With a leap she jumped herself up into the ropes, springing off them once, she twisted in the air, putting her back to the ring as she landed on them one more. Crouching herself down a bit further, her form coiled up tightly. As she flew from the ropes, flashes speckled the audience as pictures were being snapped throughout the arena. She had a certain angelic quality, her features serene, body locked into a human crucifix as she moonsaulted down in a deadly arc to come crashing down across Valerie to break up the submission.