Interstellar Arson - FIRE!! [D] vs Astra Nova

[Galahad]

Accepted submission match: The winner must accept the loser's submission for the match to end. No Holds Barred stipulations apply.

The weeks prior to Eimi Masuda’s debut for LAW were a little hectic. FIRE!! had been pretty pushy towards the division management concerning her first match, to her manager’s detriment. As she clearly stated in the meetings with her manager the debutant wouldn’t make her first appearance against, according to her words, “an absolute nobody”. Instead, Eimi had been pressuring the people in charge of match bookings for her to make her debut against a pretty specific kind a rival: a heroic face. In the blonde’s mind it was pretty simple: if she wanted to make an impression in the audiences she had to face one of the crowd’s favourite archetype of wrestler and defeat her in a sound fashion. That was the reason behind Eimi’s insistence on facing a very particular kind of rival, and the management had decided to humor her by accepting her request.

Spoiler

And so Eimi made it to her debut day. She was going to face a wrestler that made her appearances as an Interstellar Hero called Astra Nova, just what FIRE!! had been asking for. The blonde stood on the locker room making her final preparations as everything had to be perfect for her first time on stage. She wanted to look cool, act tough and win that match in a spectacular fashion to start getting that crowd rep she craved for. Nothing was to be allowed to go wrong or awry that night, Eimi would make sure of that.

Once her preparations were done and Eimi had made it backstage the lights in the arena dimmed, the spotlightst started blasting orange, yellow and red flashes as the ones from a fire just when a catchy entrance theme started blasting, with the addition of sound effects of motorbikes and engines. FIRE!! made her entrance and started walking down the ramp while the crowd cheered for the cool entrance of that debutant. Eimi conducted herself as someone trying hard to look both cool and imposing but not too haughty until she made it to the ring and she slipped between the ropes, moment in which she would struck a pose in the center of the ring as she crossed her arms over her chest and looked at everyone with a confident grin. From there and as her theme died out she would go towards one of the corners, one from which she could witness her rival’s entrance, and waited, barely capable of containing her excitement as her blood boiled inside.

[Jaystar]

Astra Nova was feeling pumped backstage - if not slightly nervous as well.

The Interstellar Heroine had been on a pretty good run in LAW lately. Well, not necessarily always results-wise, but performance-wise yes... And especially popularity-wise amongst the LAW audience. She had become the hottest, newest, fearless heroine that they had seen in the most recent times - or that's at least the impression that Astra had let herself to take - and the crowds were generally eager to see more of her heroics against mean villains plaguing the more honorable wrestlers of LAW. So having another match, and sensing her fans' support, was certainly getting the blonde heroine's heart pumping!

Why was she nervous though? There certainly were a few unknowns regarding this match tonight. First of all, she wasn't that familiar with this kind of rules... And they sounded like having pretty high stakes as well. "I Quit" -matches were already very familiar for her... But "Accepted submission"? That sounded like it held the potential for some dragging things out by dominant competitors... And especially painful or humiliating potential for dragging things out when dealing with evil villains. And truthfully, even if she was supposed to be a brave heroine ready for any kind of battle, the "No Holds Barred" -stipulation was also a cause for concern. This match certainly held potential to turn out ugly.

The other unknown making her nervous was that she knew this would be her opponent's debut. It meant that there was very little information Astra could have gathered of her beforehand... Truthfully, she had none. Having queried a bit from the management, they had only mumbled something about a fire... Which made no sense to the heroine. Was there going to be some pyrotechnics involved tonight? With all the things that went on in LAW, that would hardly be a surprise.

But was that even near to something that Astra couldn't handle? Of course not. What she couldn't really handle was if she lost tonight... She had such a positive momentum going on, that what would happen if she now lost to a debuting rookie? That would be a disaster! And that's what was really making the Swiss girl the most nervous of all...

Besides, ever since having fitted her heroic wrestling attire on just moments ago, she had had this nagging feeling that something was off. But she couldn't exactly point out what, or why...

Astra Nova - The Interstellar Heroine

Entrance theme: Paola - Interstellar Love

Astra had decided to make a bit of an exception, and already go deep into the gorilla position to take a peek of her opponent's entrance as well as she could. Luckily the spotlight wasn't on her, so she was perfectly free to do so... And speaking of spotlight, based on what she was seeing, her opponent was definitely loving to have the spotlight on herself! The vibrant colors, the loud noises of engines... Quite a unique entrance indeed! And based on what little she could make out from all the noises, the crowds were liking what they were seeing. What she couldn't properly see yet though was how exactly did her opponent look like, and her physique close by... And for those there was only one way to find out.

As the music had died down and her opponent had retreated to a corner, the more calmer, galactic tunes of Astra's entrance theme began filling the arena. She was already receiving cheers even before actually appearing on the ramp, which was good news... At least they were eager to see her. Taking a deep breath before revealing herself, the Interstellar Heroine wanted to show off some spunk and positive energy by rushing swiftly and quickly down the ramp, and sprinting energetically towards the ring! Wanting to showcase her speed, the young heroine ran around the ring one time before climbing and jumping up onto a turnbuckle opposite to the corner her opponent was occupying, and posing for a moment on the top rope while greeting and waving at the crowds. Then she jumped into the ring with a shooting star manouvre, landing firmly on her feet, and presenting a brief pose again in the center of the ring.

After all those acrobatics, the feeling that something was off was even more pronounced though. Like, the air was really tense and uptight... Or something. It really began nagging in the back of Astra's head... But this wasn't the time and place to focus on that. This was the time and place to start focusing on her opponent.

Finally Astra got the chance to take a proper look at her adversary of the night. She definitely was no giant, in fact, it appeared that she was even markedly shorter than Astra herself. But she also still seemed to have some curves, in all the right places for a wrestler... There most likely was a valid reason why she found herself in this ring in the first place. But she also did not look like this super mean villain, at least... While yes, Astra could tell that she was definitely no heroine, the jury was still out on exactly how evil this new foe of hers might turn out to be.

The best way to start finding out about that was to engage in a little banter. Remaining stoic in the center of the ring, Astra simply began addressing her opponent towards the corner she had been occupying during the heroine's entrance. "Greetings. That was quite an entrance... I'm surprised you didn't come here riding a motorbike. But please, do tell me... With whom do I have the pleasure of battling with tonight? You some kind of biker girl? Petty crimes, your deal?" Astra was trying to actively hide her slight nervousness with those seemingly confident words... Besides, this was the moment that she needed to leverage for gaining the mental upper hand over her opponent.

[Galahad]

From her vantage point Eimi could witness her rival’s entrance. She was quite eager to see what the LAW management was offering her. The blonde wouldn’t admit it but she was even a little anxious about, after all this was her debut and she wouldn’t have anything but a perfect rival and a perfect performance. When Astra’s more relaxed tune started echoing throughout the arena Eimi could start checking if her requests were listened. FIRE!!’s pushy requests for a face rival who looked impressive and was the epithome of the heroic wrestler trope couldn’t hold a candle to what Astra represented. The woman breathed heroism and charisma and the crowd knew it since they began cheering from the very instant she made her appearance. Her walk towards the ring wasn’t anything really flashy but she quickly made up for it with a tremendously spectacular and acrobatic way of making it inside the ring.

It was at that point when Eimi knew that she had got all that she wanted and more, and started acting accordingly to it. She crossed her armd over her chest and grimaced at Astra’s acrobatic entrance, as if telling her that she was a showoff. It was there when Eimi noticed something off with Astra’s movements. Surely someone like the heroine who had performed that entrance several times knew how to do it well, but something felt iffy about the way Astra moved, and that instantly got a mischievous grin of understanding drawing on Eimi’s face.

Astra was the first one to introduce herself, and god was that woman the pure definition of a goody-two-shoes. Her choice of words and her manners were exquisite to a point it made Eimi redouble her grimacing when she was talking, then came some words that made clear that Astra was judging her rival and that she wouldn’t stand for any unruly behaviour. “My deal? Let me tell you what my deal is: first of all, you can call me FIRE!! since that’s what I am and you don’t need anything else to refer to me. Second: my deal is dealing with goody-two-shoes like you so let’s end up with formalities and get to it!”, she finished holding her gaze at Astra while offering her a handshake. Of course she wouldn’t be planning any misdeed, right?

[Jaystar]

Astra was observing intently all the little reactions she could pick up from her opponent after making her entrance, and had even more ample time for just that while addressing her with her own heroic words. As she spoke, the Interstellar Heroine's confidence was actually growing... Firstly, she could tell that physically, her opponent surely looked like someone she could deal with. There was no obvious reason why she couldn't have ended on top... Unlike against some heavyweight powerhouse villains. But also, her body language was not overly dominant or anything either... With her grimace and motions more telling of someone who certainly was on the naughtier end of the spectrum, but more like in a bratty rather than a cruel way.

When she began speaking though, Astra couldn't help raising her eyebrows. Especially the declaration of the heroine's duty to simply call her "FIRE!!" was stunning the Swiss blonde, almost earning a chuckle out of her. She might have even ended up letting out one, had it not been for the brat's following sentence and calling her being "goody-two-shoes", which Astra couldn't help but take up as a verbal challenge needing a response of her own.

"Fire? Fire, you say? I'm sorry, but I can't hear any alarms going off..." the heroine began in a rather dismissive tone, signaling that she wasn't appreciating her opponent's attitude. "But if there's fire here, my utmost duty as the Interstellar Heroine would be to put it out as soon as possible... So I agree, we'd better get to it!" she concluded, while locking her eyes with the brat's own, and extending her heroine attire-clad hand to her flaming opponent for a shake.

[Galahad]

Eimi wasn’t known for being great at analyzing the situation, but even she could notice how Astra was heavily assessing her, trying to read every small detail in the way she moved and talked and that was a little unsettling, even feeling like an invasion. She was pretty sure about Astra going crazy inside her mind with thoughts of how to defeat her or which advantages and disadvantages she would have against Eimi, but FIRE!! wasn’t going to ponder much about her rival, but it was clear that the heroine didn’t like being called goody-two-shoes. Well, that only made FIRE!! smile of defiance grow wider.

What made Eimi’s smile turn into a grimace of upset was how quippy her rival looked like. Astra quickly found a way to not only redirect the debutant’s remark against her but also to look like the heroine had much more wit than her rival. When she finally extended her hand for a handshake, Eimi just gave her a quick high five while grimacing. “Jeeez, how long are you going to talk? You’re boring me to death!” Walking a couple steps back she looked to her rival, then to the referee. “Well, are we starting this or are we playing dumb games longer?” As she said this, Eimi would get in a guard stance while the bell rang. FIRE!! would carefully walk towards her rival, challenging her for a test of strength, a surprising way to go given the fact that she had size disadvantage.

[Jaystar]

Astra had already concluded that it would be very appropriate to label Eimi a brat. Thus, her little trick with the handshake, if you could call turning it into a rather low-five one, came to her as no big surprise. It was fine, she wasn't too bothered. If anything, it was going to give the crowds an even better idea of the true natures of the duo battling it out tonight, and only made the Swiss girl stand out as the more graceful and prestigious one of the two. Such an image never hurt a heroine.

"Attention-span of a five-year-old, huh?" the white-clad wrestler mockingly responded to her foe's lamentations, markedly raising her eyebrows as an accompanying gesture for the words. "We can keep on playing dumb games as long as you keep on inventing more dumb ones..." she then continued, while Eimi had already managed to convince the referee to start the match, with the ringing bell providing a nice closing for the heroine's words.

*DING!*

The fiery fighter seemed to had already taken a stance, ready to defend... But after the bell, immediately closed in on her opponent instead. Astra soon recognized from her body language that she was challenging her to a test of strength, and naturally, such a challenge was one that a brave heroine could never turn down. But if some were surprised to see the development, or thought that Eimi was doing something foolish, Astra certainly wasn't one of them. While yes, she held some height advantage over her foe, the fiery blonde was indeed having curves in all the right places, and the weight advantage was a genuine question mark. Besides, during her time in the local indie leagues of Japan, Astra had learnt the hard way that even small, seemingly less dangerous girls could actually pack quite a bit of strength in them, and most likely with Eimi being keen to engage in such a contest, she probably was no weakling.

With that in mind, Astra dutifully engaged in the grapple, locking her heroine attire-clad hands with Eimi's... And right from the start, tried to give quite a considerable push for her opponent! Of course, for one because she wanted to get a good start... But for two, also because lack of strength was one of Astra's weaknesses, and she considered there to be a genuine possibility that FIRE!! could start swallowing her.

[Galahad]

Eimi wasn’t one to admit that, but Astra’s in-ring banter skills were pretty good. She wasn’t one of those babyfaces too scared of getting dirty and starting some verbal fencing. The Cosmic Heroine had stood up to the challenge and passed with flying colors, always having some smart retort to anything FIRE!! had to say. Of course seen from the evildoer’s perspective nothing her rival said had any sense and was just noise, but the crowd would certainly love how both blondes could have a duel of wit, one that based on their replies Astra had won.

The ringing of the bell put an end to the two women’s bickering and the match properly started. Despite not having a size advantage and being a hot-headed one, Eimi was no fool and when she proposed starting the match with a test of strength it was because she was confident in her skill to pull through no matter what. Astra took the bait and accepted, locking fingers with FIRE!! before pushing with all her might. At first size and weight did their work and Eimi had to take one, then two steps back, but just when it looked like the Cosmic Heroine was gaining some traction FIRE!! planted her feet on the mat and started applying even more strength, which stopped her falling back.

For some instants both women were locked in a standoff. It looked like none of them was going to advance but now that she had a taste of her rival’s strength Eimi knew better, so she used the moment to tease her heroine rival a little. “That’s all? Honestly I expected you to be stronger...” At that point FIRE!! started gaining terrain, making her best to state her superiority by bringing that rival back against the ropes with a confident grin on her face.

[Jaystar]

It wasn't necessarily always that Astra managed to come up with witty comebacks inside the ring, but tonight she certainly seemed to be on a roll. Something about Eimi was just so suited for a little taunting, and especially considering the girl's physique, Astra was feeling quite confident against her. Surely she was someone the heroine could deal with! Especially with a brat like that... It was simply her duty!

Soon it was time to find out though, whether the Interstellar Heroine's dominance was all talk but no action. And unfortunately for her, she wasn't so confident on that any longer, despite Eimi being no giant. She could certainly be deceivingly strong... And there was only one way to find out about that.

The match started off with a very traditional test of strength, and Astra was happy to find that her fiery opponent wasn't having any tricks up in her sleeve. Villains could often tend to cheat in such battles, but maybe this brat wasn't such an evil one after all...

Unfortunately though, it soon turned out that she didn't even need to. Despite Astra getting a strong start, it wasn't enough to achieve any meaningful progress with pushing Eimi backwards... And soon enough the heroine could feel starting to get overpowered by the little brat. Eimi must have sensed it too, based on her smug remarks... While Astra's face turned into a grimace as she tried to exert all she could. But it wasn't enough... Slowly but surely FIRE!! managed to push the heroine towards the ropes, while the cosmic girl seemed almost uncomfortably stiff in her attire.

This was an embarrassing start for Astra Nova, there was no way around it. She eventually found her back getting pressed against the ropes, allowing the brat to showcase having superior strength over the supposedly mighty heroine. Blushing, she needed to resort to appealing to FIRE!! in hopes of getting out of her predicament. "Fine! You win... Will you let me go now so that we can start the real battle?" It was humiliating to utter those words, but trying something dirty on a brat like Eimi wasn't an option for an honorable heroine.