Summer Splash 2020: Belle Christensen vs Valeria Siamko

Belle had to reel it in and throw her punches without commiting all her weight behind them. Textbook strikes, quick, efficient, but most importantly safe. All it would take was one rumble for an opportunistic submissionist grab her and put her in a place she didn't want to be. Even then, she was able to drill her fist through the blond's guard, giving her a firm reminder just how strong she was. The two had only shared limited time in the ring so a brush up course was in order. She couldn't get too confident in her own stopping power. The blond trained with Tatiana after all. Her girlfriend might have lacked raw muscle but she packed serious power behind her strikes. Valerie knew how to take a hit.

Her fists shot back up in a defensive shell, glaring through her forearms at her opponent. She fought back the urge to pursue, even with the blond just a few steps away. She couldn't approach yet, too many variables right now. Walking into a sweep would be a fast track to failure. She had to stay light, nimble. The brunette took a short hop back, prepping a counter strike the second Valerie make a move, coming at her low.

Belle slipped her braced leg back, creating distance as she wound out to hammer the blond again. At the last moment though, they went high, slamming into her full force with a shoulder block. She braced to stand her ground, but her back leg was her injured one and the sudden weight slamming down on it gave it a painful tweak. With a wince, she stumbled back, forced to backpedalled without being able to strike back. She had the forethought to shoot a quick glance to the side and back, keeping herself keenly aware of the ring space she had to work with.

Hunting.

If Valerie had to choose one word to describe her style in contrast to Tatiana’s that would be. They both delved in acrobatics and relied on their speed, but her sister tended to treat wrestling more as a game, letting opportunities slip through her fingers. She, on the other hand, was nowhere near as wasteful. As she stalked Belle, she was on the lookout for opening to exploit, patterns to make note of, anything she could latch onto and start breaking.

When she hammered Belle, she expected the cost to be a blow in the face for getting so close, but no - the woman was too busy staying on her two failing feet to properly retaliate. It also made a momentary distraction, as she had to take her eye off Valerie for a second. A second too long, she would wager.

Valerie stayed low, going down on all fours, and went back into action as Belle stopped. She leaped at the woman’s side, rolling behind her, and shot her arms through her legs to grab hold and pull her over, executing a schoolboy maneuver. She wasn’t going for a pin, obviously, she just wanted to get Belle on her back, and in a position where her legs would be within reach. Despite her being the bigger woman between them, Valerie was confident she could take control if this turned into a ground game.

Belle's eyes snapped back to Valerie already in motion, seizing even the faintest sniff of an advantage. The brunette started to round away to circle wide but didn't have nearly the same mobility the scrambling acrobat was able to conjure. Before she knew it, she was being dragged backwards, head over heels to be rolled up onto her shoulders. Take. Off her feet, there was a sudden real panic. Belle's hands reached out, trying to grasp for the blonde wrist and forearm, trying to keep her arm pulled between the both of her legs to prevent the submissionist from locking in one of her crippling holds.

Belle brought her bad leg up, taking a moment to position it before swinging it back down, trying to catch Valerie in the head with the hard metalwork of her brace. She couldn't afford to give this woman even an inch while she was in a position like this. Even the simplest slip would leave her not only in a bad spot for the much, but in a prime position to be crippled. Valerie wasn't going to hold back.

Kaylee stood shoulder to shoulder with Tatiana, watching the match slowly inform from the back. They had both been given limited access to the arena to watch, with clear instructions not to interfere. There were times should they get involved, but the primary reason for them being allowed here was for the drama and ratings. A camera crew was on hand, watching both women for highlights of their reactions.

"Whats on your mind?" The blond social media star inquired softly, piercing jade eyes peering sidelong towards her newest client. This entire thing had come as a surprise to all of them. The timing had also been incredibly unfortunate. For Tatiana's career prospects as well as Kaylee's own on the title scene with the money in the bank briefcase in her possession. Still, the blond had been there for every step of it since that night they had dinner to seal the deal. A patient ear to listen, an insightful mind to advise, and overall a more level head than Belle when it came to morals support these more recent times. It seemed as though Belle had a dark cloud hanging over her, understandably so.

If Tatiana were being honest, she wished the camera crew wasn’t there. This wasn’t her at her best at all, not even close. Over the years, she’d gotten good at putting on a smile and brightening the room, trying to make everyone around her happy and being the light when there didn’t seem to be one. But she didn’t have that today, none of it. The two most important people in her life were tearing each other apart, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

But this was the life she’d signed up for, and it was the life that Belle had been in for so long, and it was the life that was going to bring them even closer as a couple. She could put up with it.

”Am I worth all this?”

It seemed like a silly question to ask at the moment. Belle and Valerie were tearing each other apart for her. They were willing to go at it for her, even if it wouldn’t solve anything. To be at the center of all this turmoil, to have all of this directed at her...it was a kind of attention that she could never have fathomed before, but this was happening. ”Worth this pain?”

Valeria, if she had been with them, would have answered that question in the affirmative, as she continued to bring the fight to Belle in her continuing efforts to save her sister. She made good progress on that front, too, bringing her foe down to the floor. She was more than eager to enact the second part of her plan, too, when the woman saw through her ruse and proceeded to send her bad leg crashing down on Valeria’s head. A wild move, an unexpected move, an effective move. It rocked her skull and forced her to escape, pulling away to rip her arm free.

Hissing as she rolled away and rose to her knee, then stayed there as she took a moment to rub her forehead, stunned and more than a little dizzy. She half-expected blood, thinking her head was busted, but no - no bloodshed, just yet. Shaking her head, she cursed under her breath and began to rise once more.

The social media star gazed at Tatiana for a long while with a cool demeanor but a softness to her eyes. It was apparent just how much this was eating at the acrobat even if she hadn’t said a word. Without much warning, Kaylee reached out to wrap an arm around the other girl’s shoulder, tugging her lightly to draw her in close for a small squeeze. A flash of a warm disarming smile which she held until the other woman looked her way. “You’re worth all the world’s trouble. This might be out of your hands but it doesn’t make you to blame. Try to remember that.”

The blond would give her client another small squeeze before loosening her own grip, allowing Tatiana to freely slip free if she so desired. If not, the social media start would keep her arm there and glance back to the screen. “They are stubborn women. Also strong. As bad as this might get, they will pull through.”

The heavy clank of metal on bone sent a vibration through the covered frame of her brace. The impact though had transferred in full, sending a tight squeezing sensation through her legs as if her nerves had just been sucker punched.Drawing in a deep breath through her nose, she did everything in her power to not scream out and make it known just how bad that gamble had been for her as well. Instead, she sat herself up and scooted away along her backside while her bad leg shook with a small numbness.

She kept the limb stiff and laid out before her, even as she started to awkwardly rise, trying to let the blood flow work feeling back into it. Thankfully, Valerie wasn’t moving particularly well either. It hurt to watch her just a few strides away, visibly reeling, and being unable to really push the advantage. If she had been fully recovered, something like this would have been so easy. Instead, when she planted her boots it took all her focus to keep her leg from locking up.

Easy steps… Inching closer, slowly like someone approaching a poisonous snake with visible caution. She kept her left arm up defensively, the right held forward and outstretched to meet any sudden approach from Valerie to keep her other limbs well out of reach. When she reached striking distance, Belle stutter stepped forward to close the left few feet, switching her arms around to take a heavy left hook at Valerie’s face.

Tatiana’s first instinct was to pull away from Kaylee’s touch, just a byproduct of all the tension that had been building up since...well, forever. There was still a small, distant part of her that viewed the blond as a threat, try as she might to snuff it out. It couldn’t be helped. Months and months of evading the woman’s gaze like it could her to stone had created this unavoidable sensation, her lizard brain telling her to hide whenever she was around.

But her bigger brain knew better, now. Kaylee had been a rock in this whole situation, Tatiana needed her now more than anyone else, and they both knew it.

Tatiana smiled - as good a smile as she could manage in the current situation - and brought her hand up to rest on the blonde’s, gently squeezing it. She was content to let her stay there, for as long as she liked. It was nice just to know she wasn’t alone, to have that sensation on her shoulder. ”Thank you. Thank you.” She nodded and sighed. ”You have a way of making everything sound right when you speak, you know that?”

Down below, Valerie was still picking up herself off, recovering from Belle’s volley. That hurt. More than she had expected it to. She knew the brunette was strong, she still remembered the last time they clashed, but she had thought that injury would dampen her enough. Apparently not. She still had a surprising amount of power in that body of hers, still dangerous.

With that in mind, Valerie came at her slow and cautious, as she did the same, the two of them approaching like wary duelists in the night. A step closer, a step closer, a step closer still...and then Belle struck. Out came a hook, one that came towards Valerie’s face with authority. She managed to raise her hand in a defense, but it was a close thing - truly close.

And even so, it wasn’t 100%. She blocked the blow, but the force still knocked her away and sent her into the ropes, forcing her to bounce back into Belle’s range. She brought her arms up in full defense now, prepared to endure more, looking for an opening to exploit.

Her wide hook had been intercepted but Valerie got a good taste of just how little that would help her in the long run. With a hard pivot, Belle threw her weight into the follow through, using the momentum to throw the blond I to the ropes, exactly where she wanted her. Limit her options, cut off her escape, rob her of damage advantage. Stepping in, the brunette led with her good leg, mindful to keep it far from a desperate lunge that could possibly come from her opponent. She muscled in close, throwing her hand out to grab for the back of the other womans neck, almost as if going for a standard tie up.

"No more fancy moves? I thought you were a performer." She wasn't of course, trying to pull the other woman close a d above her head down, robbing her off good visibility as she cranked back her other arm, bringing it down and around to try and blow out Valerie's stomach with a crippling blow, intent on hammering her for as many punches as she could manage if she could keep the blond pinned up against the ropes and grappled. There was no rope breaks here, no stoppages for excessive strikes on an defenseless opponent, she was going to milk this moment for all it was worth.

"You're welcome. I'm not saying anything that isn't true though." Kaylee remarked easily as if it were obvious, remaining at the redheads side as they watched the television feed together. It was an eerie sight to see the empty arena and miss all the sounds of the crowd. It was devoid of all the things she had seemingly grown to love about the sport over the past months, all boiled down to the raw carnage of the competition. In that silence was a sudden, faint hum.

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm.

Without missing a beat, Kaylee slipped her spare hand into her pocket and produced the top of her phone, tilting it slightly to see who was ringing her. With a small swipe she declined the call and tucked it back away, returning her attention to the match.

What did Tatiana even see in this woman?

That was the underlying question Valeria had been asking herself, nonstop, since she first figured out what was going on. She had honestly suspected that her sister was seeing someone behind her back - she was a notoriously poor liar, coming up with the flimsiest excuses whenever she was pressed on her whereabouts, and too often she came in with strange smells. Fragrances that smelled far too rich for her tastes, or the scent of foods they most certainly never had at their apartment.  It was nothing conclusive, but the itch had always been there, and it was what propelled her to check Tatiana’s phone in the first place.

But Belle? Valerie stared hard at the woman who was now clenching her tight, caught in this tight deadlock, grappling for supremacy.  Kaylee struck her as the brains of their little operation, and this woman was just a thug. Dumb muscle. Tatiana could do so much better than her, she had to know that. It had to be a trick, and if she could just get their claws out of her sister long enough for her to realize that.

Belle was strong, though, there was no denying that, as she lashed out with blow after blow, hammering her midsection. Their position and her injured leg kept the blows from being too painful, but it was still far more than Valeria was willing to take. She needed space, and she would have it.

”Whistling in the dark.” She hissed and pushed her way off the ropes, shoving forward with a strong step. It wouldn’t move her too far, and she doubted Belle would need more than a couple of seconds to reassert, but that was fine - all she needed was a little space and a little time. With her head already below her opponent’s, reached up, grabbed Belle by the hair, and dropped to her knees, slamming the top of her skull against her opponent’s chin with a jawbreaker.

The sight of it was enough to make Tatiana jump back with a quick squeak, looking on as the battle continued to rage on the screen. The worst part of it was that she could see some of her sister’s moves coming - that jawbreaker in particular was one of her favorite ways to escape every time she tried to get her in a clench when they sparred. A large and vocal part of her wanted to get down there so she could warn her girlfriend of what was coming her way, give her some tips on the fly, but she knew that would only make things worse. Still…

She perked up at the sound of a humming phone, patting her own pockets to make sure it wasn’t her, before she glanced Kaylee’s way. Whatever it was, it must not have been all that important. ”Who was that?” She asked out of a passing curiosity, almost glad for any reason to take her mind off things, if only for a few seconds.

While there was more to Belle than met the eye, something Tatiana had come to understand quite well over the months they had been together, Valerie wasn't too far off with her assertions. Belle had always been a "doer" not a thinker. Kaylee handled the books, managed the channels, and for all intents and purposes did most all the hands on behind the scenes work, hell, she even oversaw Belle's own side fragrance company. Up until Tatiana entered her life she had even less responsibilities, finding herself to the nearest bar to get blackout drunk on the regular just to get out there and feel something past the grind of putting on smiles for the camera. She couldn't deny she was a bit of a street tough, back then and now, but she had opened her heart and her mind to new things these days but blinded as she was by hate, the blond couldn't understand that.

The brunette had been hesitant with the first blow, throwing it with the idea that it might have been countered. But when it landed flush, caved in her opponent's soft belly, she started throwing her lunches to the fences. It wasn't a matter of style, it was about ruthless dominance. The faster she could put Valerie down for the count the safer her and Tatiana would be safe from the blade she hung over their relationship. More power, more recklessness, sloppy. She was unprepared for Valerie shoving back, the roles splitting the push. A half step back on her bad leg got a since from the awkward movement before she had to shuffle her feet to fix her stance but by then her wild mane had been snagged, pinched between clenched fingers.

Belle was in the process of pulling back another big haymaker, intent to earn her freedom by caving Valerie's skull in but the trained acrobat had a similar notion and beat her to the punch, or in this case, knee. Assisted by gravity the social media star was snapped forward, face crashing against the hard butter bone of the blond. The impact was sudden and immediately blinding as pain shot through her features making her see speckled dots slipping across her sight as she flopped backwards from the recoil, hitting the mat.

"Someone who can wait. I'm busy with my friends." Kaylee remarked quietly as she looked on, frowning at the most recent turn of events in the ring. Only a few moments later there was a soft chime from her pocket, one that was likely familiar from the time they had spent together recently. A text. Perhaps the same called. The blond actress didn't even humor it this time and left the device tucked away. "She's rushing. I told her to take things slow, her leg isn't going to hold out if she keeps pushing so hard."

Tatiana exchanged nervous glances between Kaylee in the ring, torn between watching the match proceed and wanting a distraction, any distraction. A real part of her wished she could be anywhere but here, that she could find her own little hidden place and just pretend that this wasn’t the way things had to be. That this wasn’t reality.

But it was. She was here, she was dealing with it, she had to face it. She was just glad she didn’t have to face it alone - she had people she trusted, she had Kaylee, and she appreciated the blonde more than she could put into words right now. Even in the short time they’d known each other, she knew how important time was to her new friend, how big of a sacrifice this was. One day, she’d repay her for this - she wasn’t sure how just yet, but it was coming.

”Thanks. And I’m so glad to be your friend right now, I cant-” She cut herself off, wanting to stop before she trailed off or started gushing. Now wasn’t the time, she had to focus. ”She gets like that when we spar sometimes, kind of pushes herself too hard. But she’s the strongest person I know, the strongest person I’ve ever met.” Tatiana wrung her hands and took a few quick breaths to bring her heart under control. ”One good hit. Even with her bad leg, if she can just land something solid…”

Tatiana wasn’t sure if she was saying all that to convince herself or if she truly believed it. It didn’t matter much at the moment, at any rate, since that ‘one good hit’ was out of Belle’s reach for the moment. She was knocked over by Valerie’s jawbreaker, laid out, and the blonde was quick to pounce right after.

There was a small hesitation, less than a second, but there. She wasn’t quite sure what to seize, being honest. The logical thing would’ve been to go for that bad leg, but it wasn’t what she craved. She wanted to crush the life out of this woman, to see her wither into nothingness, and she had a move in mind for that. The perfect candidate.

Valerie made her way up Belle’s body and mounted her chest, seizing her arm as she went. When she was in position, she fell to the side and pulled her opponent over on top of her as she rolled, then clasped her ankles behind the brunette’s head - a triangle choke, and the tightest one she could muster, too.