The train discarded him directly in front of the training room’s metal door. After the air boom passed, Jack stepped into the ghastly quiet hall. By the time his feet touched the ground, the train had already launched off into the unseeable distance.
He took a deep breath, preparing himself. Hound might be mad at him. Well, he was sure she was, but not entirely sure how mad. He was hoping Hound would be at the “I missed you so much let me give you a hug” mad, and not the other more violent and slightly property damaging one.
Oh well, what’s the worst that can happen?
Jack stopped his fingers inches away from the door. Instead of wandering into the den foolishly, he gently placed his ears on the metal gate. It wouldn’t be the first time that Hound would have ambushed him.
He heard nothing. Then a slight movement-- the sound of skin scraping against the floor, and then a quick and powerful movement, as if--
The door was kicked open, throwing Jack’s body back a couple feet in the air. He bounced off the ground badly, and before he could get his wits about him he quickly rolled to the side. A sharp metal object implied itself into the solid ground, where Jack’s body previously was. It was a scythe, one of Hound's favorite arms. Jack sprung up to his feet and took a quick step forward. The scythe swung itself from its previous position, a low cut aimed at his legs, but because Jack had moved forward, he was now within the attack range of the scythe’s sharp end. The scythe though would have hooked Jack’s leg, so instead, he placed his sole on the rod and used it to jump forward.
Except Hound let the scythe go at that moment. Jack's left foot, not finding the weight it expected, flopped in the air, causing Jack to be terribly unbalanced. Hound then rammed Jack with her shoulder, throwing him a couple feet into the air and across the railroad.
Fortunately, Jack was able to bring his right shoulder up in a guard against the ram. His arm was numb from the force. Jack rolled with the momentum, springing back up as Hound hounded (+1 author) him. A few short steps cut the distance easily, and Jack once again was pressured. This time though, he had the scythe at his feet. He had clutched it with his toes as he was flung across the air, and now kicked it to his hands to guard against Hound’s attack.
Using the rod, Jack was able to block Hound’s battering. Each jab reverberated Jack’s bones, rendering him unable to break free or bring up the blade down. She was far too close for Jack to make use of the scythe’s power. Each back step he took was aptly followed by Hound.
“I.Miss.You.Too.Lov-”
Hound caught the rod with one hand and pulled with enough force to sway Jack forward, but not enough for her to be thrown off balance if Jack let go of the scythe.
She threw a quick kick as Jack was in a deadlock with her, but he knocked it to the side with good inside kick, throwing her slightly off balance. Jack attempted to capitalize on the opening by throwing a heavy kick with his other foot while using the deadlock to balance himself, but Hound’s other hand was free and was able to throw a faster jab in the center of Jack’s chest.
From anyone else, a punch thrown at that terrible angle would not have done terrible damage, even if they were genetically specialized in strength. But because Hound was Hound, being off-balance and having no center of gravity meant little to her.
Jack stuttered backward from the force of the blow, letting go of the scythe lest he would fall down and be trampled. In less than a moment, Hound had flipped the blade towards Jack and swung diagonally with all her strength. Jack flung himself down as the sharp blade whiffed above his head, taking a few precious hairs, and using the strength in his quads he dashed forward. This was Jack’s moment, as such a wide attack had left her open. The force of the scythe would not allow Hound to stop the blade in time.
Hound did not stop the blade. Instead, she followed the force of the swing, turning her body to the side, and throwing a spinning back kick.
The only direction Jack could dodge the attack was down--everything else would take too much time. So Jack threw himself down and right under Hound. As he spun on the ground, he swiped Hounds' feat from under her. Her butt landed on top of his chest, her back towards him. She quickly hooked her heels under his armpits, removing the possibility of Jack throwing her off.
Unsurprisingly, Jack lost. Hound was roughly the same height of Jack, at about 5 feet 4 inches, and the same size too, but because of her genetic makeup her muscle and bones were much denser than normal, giving her a hefty 30 pounds of weight over Jack’s 130, and bluntly speaking, superhuman strength. From that position, all he could hit was her not so fragile sides from a poor position, while she could use the entire force of her body to pummel his guts and his more important regions.
He swallowed and did his very best to not open his mouth. There were many, many, many jokes Jack could think of about her straddling him, but nearly all would cause Jack a substantial amount of bodily harm.
He went quiet. Hound did not say anything either for a moment or two, as well. She glared at him over her shoulders. “What, no wisecracks? No insults? No puns? Even in this position?”
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Jack opened his mouth, remembered why he did not want it open and closed it. He opened it again when a really good quip came up, but thought better of it and finally closed it.
Hound pouted. She unhooked her heels, crawled forward-- giving Jack a wonderful view of her in shorts in the process-- and then sat on his crotch and threw her body back at him. He caught her back on his chest with a big “Oof!”
She leaned her head back and nudged her nose under his chin, giving him a few soft pecks on his neck. He held her tightly in return and tried to not sneeze as her short orange hair tickled his nose.
“Four months without a word, Jack, four months without a single message,” Hound whispered, her hot breath brushing his skin.
Jack slipped a hand under her shirt, resting it on her belly.
“One month, actually. I haven’t been in the capsule, so-Ah!”
Hound nibbled at his neck, this time not as gently.
“--I mean, ahem. After my duel with Blade Master, my character became permanently incapacitated, like I told you before I left. After that, I wanted peace and quiet, Ally, a break from all the killing and daily mayhem."
Hound flinched at that. She brought her eyes to his. They were a pretty green. Her hand rested on his collarbone.
“You? Jack In A Box? Jack The Bloodthirsty? Jack The Ripper? Time Killer? You, and peace and quiet? Rubbish. Absolute rubbish. In your final moments, you had been murdering someone. In the first training session we've had here, when we were kids, you had broken someone's neck. You ruined him, one of our guild’s pillars, and then you just left. The guild was never the same without you two. Gaia was never the same. And for the past couple months Raven has vanished, at the same time you did. And now you have the gall to say you want peace?” She said.
It was an odd thing, to look at a face so lovely and adorable with freckles, in a voice soothing and enticing, and to hear her such mean and brutal things.
“We dueled, Hound, and I won. I lost my character because of the after-effects of my skills. I did not permanently damage his character, as to per-rules. Anything he did beyond that is not my problem.” Jack replied in a matter-of-factly tone.
Hound’s fingers dug into his skin. She flipped her body to face Jack. “Won? Won?! You didn’t just win against Blade Master, Jack, you stuck your spear up his asshole. Repeatedly. You utterly humiliated him. You squashed his haughty demeanor, armor piece by armor piece, and you revived him just so you could do it again. You tore him to shreds. Reduced him to rubble in his own game. He was forever disgraced, Jack, and you knew how enormous and fragile his ego was. Doing that to him, in a broadcasted duel...You knew he would kill himself. Didn’t you? You planned for it to…"
Jack shrugged.
Hound looked at him, eyes wide open, mouth ajar.
She clutched Jack’s cheeks and pushed her mouth against his.
After a deep and ungentle kiss, she brought her wet tongue out, smiling widely.
“That’s so awesome! I’m so proud of you! I absolutely despised that pompous bastard!” Hound said joyfully as bellowing laughter rung throughout the halls. She then sunk her tongue back into him, as a sort of a reward, which differs little from her punishment kisses went. She danced and twisted and plugged excitedly, but stopped suddenly after a bit.
“Wait,” she said, “Weren’t you close friends or something with him?”
Jack gulped a breath. “Not really. It was only for about forty years or-ahhh!” L said, squirming as Hound’s tongue wet the inside of his ears. “I told you I didn’t like that! It feels so violating!” He held her hips and pushed, which really had the same effects of pushing the ground.
Hound smiled. “And I told you to stop being witty with me.”
“No, you did not. I specifically remember you telling me not to use my silver tongue to wiggle my way out of 'it,' as in coming to this gy-”
Hound did not care enough to listen, and had instead stiffened the minor annoyance by pressing her tongue against it for an indefinite amount of time. Jack let a groan escape his throat. After a while, he had given up and simply embraced Hound as she rummaged inside his mouth.
A pleasant time of kisses and inappropriate groping occurred before the red glaring and capsules interrupted their time of intimacy. It had informed everyone in the vicinity that it was in their best interest to clear off the railroad, as train with a nuclear reactor will be passing through them, and quite literally through them, at about a four hundred meters per seconds in approximately 20 seconds, depending on whether that 20 second was after the AI finished its warning, or whether it began to tick the moment the computers began to initiate the warning.
The two exchanged a couple more kisses before returning their tongues to their original positions.
“Carry me off like a princess and I’ll forgive your transgressions,” Hound said.
“What transgressions? I haven't fucked anyone in my absence. I told you I hadn't been Diving. And you don’t treat me like you're half the princess you say you are, so you carry me like a fucking princess,” Jack happily replied, with a safe amount of sass.
“We’re both going to die at this rate, though. We wouldn’t be the first to die like this, you know, so there is no achievement for that.”
“Suits me. You want to live more than I do.” Jack shrugged.
“Then I’ll just get off without you.”
“That would suck. For you. Cus’ I would die, and then you wouldn’t have anyone that’s as close to crazy as I am to you.
“Argh! You’re the only idiot who would kill himself just to prove a stupid point.”
“That’s the only reason we get along, dear,” Jack said as Hound effortlessly swept him off the ground and stepped over the railroad. Something whiffed noiselessly, which was appropriate when taking in the factor that the trains travel faster than the speed of sound.
The wind that caught up barely managed to stutter Hound’s steps.
“Goodness, I can never get my head around at how strong you are. What strength value do you usually start at?”
“Hmm, about 30? Why are you even asking that, you already knew-”
“Ah! How cute my overpowered girlfriend,” Jack said, smiling expectedly.
Hound stared at him.
“G-Get it? Because your character is unbalanced, and you’re petite size, but you are much stronger than your body’s si-”
Hound dropped him.
“The one thing, out of the many things, that I did not miss about you, is how utterly embarrassing your puns are!” She said as she marched off towards the open gym doors.
"Hey, your pun was pretty bad too!"
Hound paused. She turned with a perplexed face on her face. "What pun? I made no puns. Have you finally lost it?"
"No, Hound. You said I stuck my spear up his asshole."
Hound stared at him, still confused.
"My stick, my rod?"
No reaction.
"My penis, Hound, my penis! Spear can also mean peni-"
Jack started running.