A Steel Town Girl on a Saturday Night...

Something about Jessica seemed a little...off. And it wasn't just the height difference, either. Blossom had faced tall people before, and while she hadn't won any of those matches, she'd long since passed the point where simply being smaller than her opponent was enough to shake her. Jessica was impressive, but she was no Death Bunny. Then again, no one was like Death Bunny.

But no, it was the look in her eye. The sneer on her face. How quick she was to accept the spar. It all put Blossom off a bit, and she couldn't help but give Jessica a wary look as her Blossom senses tingled.

She blinked at Jessica a few times and looked her over with a worried stare. "We can go like normal. Normalish, nothing too crazy. Do you want to spar on the floor or over there?" She thumbed to the side, right at a wrestling ring they had set up for this sort of thing.

Blossom seemed off her game. Good. She was reacting, not acting. The wary look raised the question. Although it might have been her irredeemable hubris speaking, she thought she detected a tremulous tone in her voice which removed all doubts. Jessica thought back to her adolescence and the long van rides between two horse towns. Her most prized possession was her portable DVD player followed by her collection of nature documentaries. Her favorites were always the shark ones. Although she was raised far from the foam capped waves, sharks held her attention like nothing else. A shark would flick its tail and change course rapidly. Dozens of fish in the school would move apprehensive of even the tiniest of movements. And then if the shark was quick enough, it was time for the frenzy. Jessica always wanted to be the shark. Maybe this was her chance.

Jessica would reach to pat the side of Blossom's face. Maybe sweet Blossom wouldn't react. Maybe she would. Jessica wanted to find out very badly. "Absolutely, dear. But you don't get to call in Buttercup and Bubbles." Jessica walked towards the ring without looking back. She thought she had been too aggressive, striking her combat-ready too early, too desperate for a response. Now it was time to play cool. Or at least try in vain to.

Blossom jumped back a little when Jessica reached for the pat, the predatory vibe getting stronger than ever before. She deflated when Jessica spoke next, though. Powerpuff Girls had a way of doing that to her.

"Oh, you're a PPG fan, too?" She strolled after Jessica as her smile returned, closer to the way it had started out. "That's neat, I never would have figured you for one." She hopped up on the apron and rolled into the ring, quickly bounding up to her feet and straightening out. She felt the canvas beneath her, reverberating as she bounced on her heels. Saw the ropes jiggling about. Felt the energy start to return, her instinct flaring up. It wasn't the real ring, it wasn't a real match, but her body was starting to have trouble telling the difference. Definitely a good sign.

She lowered down and got a wild smile on her face, feeding off the energy. Devouring it. "So." She moved into her grappling stance. Knees bent. Arms out. Hands open. Face forward. "Where'd you learn to wrestle?"

Jessica slid into the ring with a single smooth motion. Every bounce of Blossom's sent ripples through the mat and Jessica steeled herself, not wanting to waver on her jelly legs. Jessica turned to Blossom and saw her ridiculous smile again. What was with this girl?

"I was a big fan of it when I was younger, haven't seen it in forever though. I was eight and there weren't a lot of kick ass girls on television." Jessica replied. She hoped to annoy the girl to keep her off kilter. All she did was make her smile. Now she looked ready to wrestle and it wasn't the easy win she was hoping for. Even when sparring Jessica felt the need to triumph and dominate.

Jessica looked away for the second question. This was the first time at AFW someone asked about her past. Jessica looked back at Blossom. "Dad wrestled. Brothers wrestled. I learned from them." Neither her dad nor her brothers took her to the mats and taught her throws or escapes. They would throw her in a headlock and she would have to get out of it. So Jessica 'studied'. She watched, she practiced, she hit the gym. And now she was here. "None of them are any good which is why they are stuck in bumfuck Iowa. Where did you learn to fight?" Jessica mirrored Blossom's pose save her smile. A grim look appeared on her face. Jessica took several small steps to the right to begin a wide lazy circle. "Don't cross your legs." her father's whisky tinged voice told her. "It's easy to get thrown off balance when you cross your legs."

Jessica's stance brought Blossom back through time and put her right back at the state finals. She wiggled her fingers, slid her feet around the canvas, clenched her teeth. Last round, final match, and she was the only thing standing between a team victory dance and a bunch of sunken shoulders. She swore she could hear her heart beating, like it could thump its way out of her chest. And she'd seriously thought of quitting this? She must have had a temporary bout of insanity.

"Well, you had Sailor Moon and Totally Spies, too. Even dressed up as Jupiter for Halloween." And Christmas, and Thanksgiving, and other random days. But Jessica didn't need to know all that.

She mirrored Jessica's movements as they circled around the ring, keeping her distance. Occasionally her hands moved out, just to test Jessica's reflexes and guage her speed. "I never learned to fight." She took a quick step forward and tried to make her way behind Jessica, looking to grab her waist from behind and hold her tight."But I learned how to wrestle in high school."

Jessica continued her cautious circle around Blossom and reacted every time Blossom made a sudden move. The words Blossom said bounced off her ears and Jessica simply did not process them. Jessica was a firm believer in a second wind but she had not felt hers yet. Focus. A bead of sweat dripped off her chin and hit the mat. If it splashed it went unheard. Blossom wasn't that quick, probably about as quick as Jessica, but Jessica was too tired to move and Blossom safely sidled in behind her. "I could throw an elbow and get her face..." she thought. But no, that was later. Why ruin the climax if you could build up the foreplay?

Jessica felt a pair of strong hands wrap around her waist. Whatever. She could test the woman's strength by getting thrown. There were surely more elegant ways to find out but Jessica was feeling a bit bold. Jessica heard her second sentence but all she could do was grunt in anticipation of whatever was to come.

Blossom moved into position and gripped thighs round Jessica's waist, feeling the muscles underneath her skin and pressing their bodies close together. Blossom was strong for her size, maybe even one of the strongest small girls in the AFW, but Jessica felt like she was strong for anyone's size. Her skin rippled with dense muscle, like squeezing a fleshy brick wall.

Proceed with caution. All it would take was a few solid hits...

She planted her feet down, squeezed hard, and jerked back, pulling Jessica with a belly-to-back suplex and throwing her overhead. It'd be a mean landing, but if Jessica was a good as she seemed to be, she'd be fine.

Wall. Ceiling. The lights of the gym shone down on her. Damn. This girl was strong. An ache of pain coursed through her upper back as she propped herself up on her elbows to look for Blossom. She blew a strand of hair out of her face and grimaced. "I've always found wrestling will only take you so far." Jessica then smiled a wicked grin. "Sometimes you have to brawl."

Jessica found her feet and once again took up a ready stance. It was a good throw, sure, fundamentally sound and executed perfectly. Hell, she might have thought this girl was still in high school or just out of it. Apparently not. "Wanna make this more fun?" she asked, with a new found apprehension for her opponent.

Blossom knew it would take way more than that to get Jessica down for any real amount of time, but all the same, she couldn't help but be proud of herself. Inside her head, the crowd was cheering, chanting her name as she got the first move of the match.

Jessica's grin was a little worrying, as were the words that came with it. Blossom had upped her striking game, but it was still her weakest area by far, and against a girl with a distinct height advantage she'd get pummeled. She needed to be inside. But, at the same time, she couldn't help but be intrigued by the offer.

"Maaaaaaybe." She bounced back and forth, staying loose with a wild smile."Watcha got in mind?"

Jessica stood up straight for a minute. She pinched the side of her tank top and pulled it out. It rebounded back with a wet smack. "Looks like I need to do laundry, don't it? But, see, I hate laundry. And I need to work on my submissions. So if I can get you to yell from a submission, you're washing these. With girly shit, so it smells nice, too." Jessica tilted her head a little. C'mon fishy, I want you to bite, she thought. She wondered if Blossom would come up with terms of her own. Jessica wasn't worried about it. She had experience on her, she had weight on her, and she had height on her. Despite her aching legs, Jessica was confident. And this goofy ebullient girl might be a challenge but she could be overcome, just like all the others.

Jessica crouched down into her ready stance. Act, don't react, she thought. Play your game.