Back in his room, he sat down and blew out his breath, looking up at the ceiling.
What a day!
Those damn Marines were starting to play dirty. He was pretty sure that they could tell that their stunt had thrown him off, but on the other side of it, he was positive that his retaliatory stunt got them and got them good. He took out his panel and brought it up, then had it contact the address of another panel with a few touches on icons on his screen and a few quickly typed commands. He knew that that panel was now ringing like a phone, waiting for its owner to answer his call.
Tim's face appeared on the window holding his call program. "Hey," he said. The view behind him told him that Tim was in his room, which was one floor up from his own.
"Thanks," he said.
Tim laughed. "I almost got in trouble, but that's alright."
"What happened?"
"An army chick caught me planting that plasma magnet," he answered. "She had me dead to rights, so what could I do? I told her I was helping you play a trick on the Marines, and she let me go ahead and do it. I think she doesn't like Marines," he chuckled.
"You can always count on inter-service rivalry," he answered with a short laugh.
"I'm surprised it picked up that hovercar."
"I'm more surprised that magnetic field density sensor worked," he answered. "If it had malfunctioned, they would have had to send a shuttle to retrieve it from orbit."
Tim laughed. "Man, you have any idea how popular you are at school now?" he asked. "Two blueskins following you around like lost puppies, naked as jaybirds? That was fantastic!"
"They were trying to embarrass me."
"Think you could convince them to try to embarrass you again tomorrow?"
Jason chuckled. "They'll be back, but two different ones. And I think if they found out how much the men on campus enjoyed the strip show, they probably won't do it again." He explained how they had come to be naked quickly, and his short chat with Ailan. "I found out that Faey aren't too solid on our idea of modesty, but if they find out that the humans think they were funny because they were naked, they won't do it again. That's digging into their pride, and these Marines have a great deal of that."
"What are you going to do tomorrow?" he asked eagerly. "Half the school is already laying bets on what's going to happen."
"I'm not sure yet. I'll think of something, though." He looked at the box of components laying on his bed, cast-off supplies and things that instructors had given to him to allow him to experiment on his own. So far, every device he'd built came out of that box of junk, but the pickings were starting to get a bit thin in there. He'd already used up most of the choice components. "It may not be very good. I'm running out of ideas and expendable equipment."
"Say the word, and I'll get anything you want or need," he said immediately.
"No, this is personal," he replied. "I cheated a little using you to plant that magnet, but I don't really want to get anyone else involved in this. I can deal with the Faey. I don't want others getting in trouble because of me."
"I'm already in it," he grinned. "I'm not afraid to be your gopher, Jayce. And a second pair of trap-laying hands will keep them off balance. After all, they're coming at you in pairs, so why not have an extra set of hands?"
"No, Tim, I'll handle it myself."
"Well, alright. But everyone's cheering you on, Jason, so do us proud."
Jason was a little surprised at that. "Why?"
"Because this little war between you and the Marines makes us all feel better," he answered. "Everyone looks at you and sees someone willing to take on the Faey, and so far, you've beaten them like red-headed stepchildren. After all the abuse they've put down on us, seeing them get theirs feels very good."
Jason said goodbye to him after that and turned on the TV, feeling a little foolish, and suddenly feeling quite dutiful. If his war with Jyslin made the other students feel better, then he wouldn't disappoint them. He had to study, but this had priority. He went over to the box of parts, rifling through them and seeing what he might be able to come up with.
He pondered on it a while, and came up with something that would at least get him through tomorrow. He set that aside and stood up, mentally telling himself that he'd have to get some new parts tomorrow at school. They went to school six days a week, a highly accelerated schedule, with only one day off. But, on the other hand, they got two weeks off between semesters.
It was a long, stressful day, and he felt dirty. He pulled his clothes off and threw his towel around his waist, then grabbed his shower kit. A long shower would be perfect just about now.
The door opened, and Jyslin stepped through, out of her armor, in the black tank top and shorts she wore when she worked out. She closed it behind him, then burst out laughing before she managed to get it closed all the way. "Jason!" she wheezed. "You're awful! Wow," she breathed in admiration as she looked on his bare torso. Jason practiced martial arts and he used to play football, so he was very well developed. But because he did play football, he was much, much stronger than he looked. Jason could bench press nearly four hundred pounds. His arms were muscular, but they weren't very large. His arms and body held a deceptive, monstrous strength that shocked most of his students.
"What?" he asked.
"Well, I'm looking at a dream, for one," she told him with open admiration. "But what you did to Sheleese and Ilia was awful! Throwing that stuff on them that destroyed their armor and making them walk around naked? That's vicious! Hilarious, but vicious!"
"They decided to do that themselves," he said defensively, "to embarrass me."
"True, but I'm talking about you doing it in the first place!" she said with another burst of laughter. "I thought you using that chemical spray on me was bad, but this, this is worse! You're terrible!" she accused, then she laughed even harder.
"Why is it so funny if you think it's so bad?" he asked testily.
"Faey love jokes," she said with a wink, "even when they're pulled on us. I knew you were smart, but you're proving to be a cunning little monster. Tomorrow it'll be Yana and Myri. If you can beat them, it'll be Zora and Mil on Monday, and on Tuesday, if you still haven't knuckled under, our Company Commander, Lieutenant Lana, is going to take a crack at you. Wednesday, you're mine. And on Wednesday, it's over. I guarantee it," she said with a wink. "Then it's our date on Friday."
"Keep dreaming."
"I am. Of you in high heels, of you in a maid's apron and nothing else, of you in a bra and panties, a dog collar, and of course, you covered in sweat and with a totally rapturous look on your face while we squeak the bedsprings."
Jason picked up a conduit bridge and threw it at her half-heartedly, which made her slide to the side and chuckle. "Behave," she teased him.
"Out," he barked, pointing at the door.
"You're no fun today," she taunted. "Then again, I feel a little jealous that you stared at Sheleese and Ilia all day, and you've never actually seen me naked. Just a memory of it." She reached down and grabbed the hem of her shirt meaningfully. "I'll take mine off if you take yours off," she said with a throaty purr.
"Out," he repeated sternly.
"Then again, I have two and you have one. That's hardly fair." With a quick motion, she whisked off her tank top, exposing her lovely, full breasts for his eyes to enjoy. "There, that's more even," she said with merry eyes, tossing her tank top onto the desk and hooking the waistband of her shorts with her thumbs. "Now then, do you dare take up the challenge, Jason?" she said with a wicked smile, pulling down on the waistband sensually, letting it ride down lower and lower on her hips, until the upper edge of the dark red hair under those shorts began to peek out over the waistband. "I want to see you, all of you," she breathed in a husky voice. "Show me your beautiful body, and I'll show you mine."
It was all he could do not to swallow and gape at her like a dying fish. She was evil! She was baiting him with the one thing he couldn't easily ignore!
"OUT!" he thundered, pointing at the door imperiously.
She pulled up her shorts with a seductive smirk, and half of him bitterly regretted that. Part of him-most of him-wanted her to go all the way, to take those shorts off and let him see for himself what she'd teased him with yesterday. But if she took off those shorts and got the towel off of him, got both of them naked, he knew that they were going to end up in that bed. She left no doubt in his mind that she wanted him, and he had to admit that he wanted her. And he couldn't allow that to happen.
She gave him a victorious, wicked little smile as she pulled her tank top back on, then she opened the door and sauntered through in a very seductive manner, making sure her hips swayed like a boat rocking in a hurricane as she took those three steps out the door. Then she turned to face him as she grabbed the door.
"See you on Wednesday. Wear clean underwear," she winked. "You won't be in them long." Then she closed the door.
Evil, evil woman, he grated to himself. That stunt of sharing the image of her nude body had caused him to admit to himself that he was attracted to her, both mentally and physically. And now she was starting to tighten the noose by getting more and more sexual with him, by making statements that he both did and did not want to hear, pulling off her shirt and letting him see what she was offering. She was right before in that his objection to her was philosophical, not personal. Truth be told, he rather liked Jyslin, but his pride and his sense of duty to the ideals he held dear would not allow him to associate with her. To get around that, she was using his attraction to her like a cudgel to beat the resistance out of him. Jyslin was beautiful, she was sexy, and she had a body most human women would kill for. And the fact that she was more than willing to strip and shove all kinds of exotic parts of her anatomy in his face made it very hard to ignore her.
But something told him that she wasn't going to push him. She was teasing him, baiting him, enticing him, but she wouldn't force the issue. She wanted him to come to her. That was why she didn't whisk off her shorts, yank off his towel, and use some highly aggressive techniques to try to seduce him. Had she done that, both he knew and she knew that she would have succeeded. No sane, healthy, heterosexual male could say no to a woman that gorgeous. She wanted to hear him say yes, and that meant that she wouldn't push too hard, so hard that her victory might be in doubt because of her own aggressiveness.
It would be a sweet loss, that was for sure. He couldn't deny his attraction to her, but at least he'd enjoy the agony of defeat. But he wasn't going to roll over and die just because he was attracted, because he wanted what she was offering, because he also wanted to maintain his ideals. A tryst with Jyslin would be a blow to those ideals, fraternizing with the enemy as thoroughly as one could fraternize.
He'd learn their language, he'd go to their school, but they wouldn't conquer him. No matter how long he lived. If he wasn't free in body, he'd be free in spirit, and part of that freedom was the right to say no.
Shower. Showering would be good right now. And he'd better make it a cold one.
Yana and Myri arrived an hour before class was to start, and they weren't taking any chances.
This one was as cunning as a tibaxi, and there was no telling what little surprise he had waiting for them outside of that dorm. After what happened to the others, they both agreed that staying in the hovercar until he came out and trailing him to the campus was the best move possible. After he got there, they could get out and start following him around, when he was surrounded by the other students and had fewer opportunities to get them.
It was funny, but on another tack, this was starting to get a little embarrassing. This little game had leaked out all over New Orleans, and the Army whores were starting to dig on them because they couldn't control a single native. Marines generally held the Army in contempt, because they were the grunts who didn't have what it took to be a Marine. Many of them were provisional, the personal troops of whichever noble controlled a sector, where the Marines were Imperial, serving the Empress directly. The Marines were here in part to make sure that the nobles and their troops did what the Imperium expected of them. If there were no Marines here, there was no telling what those greedy nobles would try to get away with.
Nobles always had to be watched. If they thought they could get away with it, they'd steal the Empire blind, and there had even been instances of nobles breaking away from the Imperium, trying to establish their own empires. Faey history was rife with civil wars, as much as it was little private wars between nobles who took offense to one another. Terra was under the control of the house Tarlinne, which was related to the throne by blood. That was the main reason they were given Terra, because they were very well trusted by the Empress Dahnai. The house sent a Duchess to rule Terra, Duchess Gwyn Tarlinne, and she had brought in her six children to govern the six continents. North America was the domain of Baron Olen, the youngest of her six children, and every state of the three major former nations were under the control of a Baronet or Baronen, with Olenas or Olenens controlling the provinces within those states. Zarinas and Zarinens were minor nobles that watched over cities or interests within those provinces, the lowest rung of the noble hierarchy.
Nobles. Sometimes Myri thought that the Imperium would be better off without nobles.
"Alright, what's the plan?" Yana asked. Yana was the youngest in the squad, just coming out of boot camp and still looking like a teenager with her relatively flat chest and narrow hips, but she was very smart, and she had awesome talent. Yana's telepathic powers outstripped just about everyone in the company. Despite that, she rarely used them, for some odd reason. Where most Marines sent nearly as often as they spoke, Yana virtually never sent.
"We wait," Myri answered. "I'm not getting anywhere near him until we're sure he's not packing a surprise."
"I thought this was a game to force him out on a date with Jyslin," Yana giggled. "When did it turn into a war?"
"The moment that little Army whore said that if they were doing this, they'd have him in a dog collar," she answered bluntly.
"They don't understand the rules."
"That doesn't matter. He's making a fool out of us, and we have to put a stop to it, even if we have to cheat."
"Where's the fun in that?"
"It'll be better than hearing those Army bitches ragging on us for the next six cycles," she growled. Myri was the oldest of the squad, the other squad Sergeant, and she had quite a reputation for a foul mouth.
Yana was about to say something, but something hit the roof of the hovercar with a thud, and almost immediately, water began pouring down over the windshield and side windows. They both looked around quickly, and found nobody around. "Some joker's throwing water balloons," Myri snapped in irritation, sending her mind out to find the little jokester. In the mood she was in, she felt that a serious chastisement was in order.
Odd...all she could find were human minds watching on in unsuppressed glee.
She started getting a little suspicious when the water cascading down the windows stopped, like it was frozen in time. Myri quickly reached for the door release button and pressed it, then pushed at the door to open it--
--and found it stuck fast!
That damned human dropped into sight from the roof of the hovercar, walking down the hood and to the ground with his pack slung over his shoulder. "Good morning, ladies," he said in a casual manner. Once on the ground, he turned around and held out a molecular cutter, then used it to carve a neat hole in the hood of their car!
"Hey, we signed this out!" Yana shouted at him angrily. "If you mess it up, it's our asses!"
Nonplussed, the human pulled the freed circle of hood away from the hole and reached his hand inside boldly. The car was running! Didn't he realize how dangerous what he was doing was!? Myri scrambled to turn the car off, but all the lights suddenly went out, and the car dropped to the ground with a clunk, clicking Myri's teeth together from the jarring impact.
The human pulled his hand out, and in his hand was the phase exchanger that fed power into the car's onboard computer. Without that exchanger, the car wouldn't do anything.
Without changing his expression, he put the piece of hood back exactly where it had been and annealed it back together. Then he took the exchanger and set it on the hood of the car, carefully placing it so they could see it, and it wouldn't slide down the sloped hood and drop to the ground.
Myri beat her shoulder against the door, but it was stuck fast, almost as if he had annealed the doors. But it wasn't annealing, it was that water, or whatever it was. It was unmoving, solid, and it was covering the top of the hovercar, preventing the doors from being opened.
He'd trapped them in their own car! And what was worse, he'd disabled it so they couldn't just drive back to the motor pool!
"Have a nice day," he concluded with two fingers to his forehead in some kind of salute, then he simply walked past the car, past the driver's side door, and started towards the campus.
Yana looked around wildly, looked at Myri, then burst into laughter.
Myri glared back over her shoulder, then she chuckled ruefully. "We didn't even make it out of the car," she sighed in lament.
Yana laughed a little more, then gave an amused sigh. "Oooh, my," she breathed. "Well, what do we do, Sergeant?"
"Send for help," she said with a rueful chuckle. "What else can we do?"
"True. I think Zora and Mil had better bring a tool bag with them on Monday," she said, then she burst into laughter again.
"They might need it," Myri agreed, then succumbed to the humor of it herself. "I just want to know one thing," she said after a moment.
"What?"
"How the hell did he get on top of the car without us noticing?"
"This one's full of surprises," Yana laughed. "What a man! Jyslin's got the luck of Zanya!"
School went in a blur, but at least it was a peaceful one.
The boys on campus were a little crestfallen that he wasn't going to have two naked Faey following him around, but the applause he got when he came on campus told him that they didn't mind all that much. Everyone on the street had seen him come out of the second story window of someone else's dorm room and circle wide around, then climb onto a large utility control box and jump over onto their car, which was parked right beside it. He'd used a little something he'd remembered from physics, adding a compound to the water in the large jug he'd brought with him that caused it to instantly "freeze" and turn into an extremely hard solid, like a super-strong ice. Just like ice, it would "melt," as the chemical broke down, which would allow them to get the doors open in about a half an hour or so.
They didn't come back until after his last class, Xeno I, where he spent all class practicing spoken Faey. In that one class he'd managed to get a firm grip on the pronunciations, and he could speak the language surprisingly well. Jason's mother grew up in France and as a result spoke French in addition to English, so he'd learned French as a child, and it had many similar sounds as Faey.
After class, he ran home, changed into his sweats, and rushed back to the campus gym, where his class was waiting for him. He'd missed their last appointment, but not this one. They bowed to him as he came in, wearing sweats, shorts, whatever they could find that was loose and comfortable. There were five men and three women in his class, and Tim was one of them. "Sorry I'm late," he said as he bowed in reply. "Now, let's stretch, and then we'll begin."
After stretching, he started them on their exercises. They were all beginners, so what he was teaching them first was how to fall, how to go to the ground without getting hurt, and how to control their bodies to be able to spring back up immediately. It was a critical skill in Aikido, protecting them from injury as they practiced the forms, and also giving them a powerful defensive weapon to use in case they were knocked down in a fight. After that was done, he instructed on the basic forms of wrist-locks, one of the more important ways to lock an opponent and force him to bend to their will. Aikido was a martial art of gentle persuasion, not an aggressive one, which used an attacker's own body and motion against him to control him and make him unable to do harm. He was well versed in much more aggressive martial arts, but Aikido had always been his favorite. Aikido allowed him to protect himself without doing anyone any permanent harm. It gave him an outlet to deal with braggarts who mistook his mild nature for cowardice. When a fellow was third string on a college football team, that happened more than he cared to admit. They didn't understand that he could have easily been first string, but he was more interested in the education than he was the football.
The familiar rhythms of teaching, of falling back into the Zen-like mental state required to practice the art, they relaxed him a great deal. It was a welcome break from the stresses of school and the building insanity concerning Jyslin and the Marines.
After their proscribed hour's use of the gym, they stretched once more and bowed, just in time, as the pick-up basketball had the gym in fifteen minutes, and the players were already starting to arrive. The Wednesday class took place out on the campus lawn, since they didn't have the gym, but the Saturday class they got one hour and fifteen minutes of gym time, from five o'clock to six fifteen. There was a fifteen minute cushion, then the pick-up games had the gym for the rest of the night.
"What you doing tonight?" Tim asked as they broke up.
"Dunno," he answered, cracking his knuckles.
"Want to go down to the quarter?" he asked. "I feel like getting drunk tonight."
"That actually sounds like a good idea," he said with a nod. "I think I'm in the mood for Patty O's."
"Piano bar?" he asked with a grin.
"You know it," he replied.
"I still can't believe they tried to get you to work there," he laughed.
That much was true. His mother was a music teacher, and because of that, her son absolutely had to learn how to play the piano. His very first memories were sitting on his mother's lap, looking at the keys. That was the one thing she had given to her son, the skill that defined his relationship with her, just as learning to fly planes had been the defining aspect of his relationship with his father. His mother had been so gentle, so kind, so beautiful. It had been a terrible blow to both him and his father when she was killed in an automobile accident, so much so that his father had resigned from the Air Force and taken a job as a flight instructor at a little airstrip in Auburn, so he could be there for his son. He still played, though he didn't have a piano now, only a little electronic keyboard that sat on the high shelf over his bed. But sometimes he felt the urge to play, and that required a real piano. There was one at a Catholic Church down Saint Charles, and they also had one up at the music shop on Claiborne. The week he arrived in New Orleans, he stumbled across the bar called Pat O'Brien's, or Patty O's to the locals. It was one in the afternoon on a Tuesday, so the place was pretty empty, and they had this room that they called the Piano Bar, which had two pianos on a stage to entertain the patrons. On weeknights and weekends, piano players would sit up there and play requests, which were written on napkins and passed up with a tip for the player. Playing Patty O's was not an easy gig, for their players were expected to be able to play any request. Most of their musicians had massive stacks of music books filled with sheet music for a huge number of songs. Well, he'd been feeling rather depressed because of being shipped to New Orleans, and after he bought a daiquiri, he asked if he could play. The piano bar was closed and the place was more or less empty, so the managers allowed it. They were shocked. Jason grew up with a mother who was a music appreciation teacher, and he had a vast repertoire of songs he could play. Most didn't think that a six foot two inch guy built like a football player would be able to play the piano. Playing the piano always cheered him up, and after he felt better, he bought another daiquiri, and they offered him a job. They'd just lost a player to the three month random farm allotment lottery, and they were looking for a new one.
Unfortunately, he wasn't allowed to work when he was in school. Then again, he wouldn't have had time for it anyway. He didn't work there, but sometimes when he went down, if they were short-handed that night, they allowed him to come up and play as a "guest musician." It wasn't work, but he was allowed to keep all the tips they sent up when he played requests. He did that every couple of weeks or so, earning a little extra money on top of the stipend he was paid as a full-time student in the Faey academy. That was how he could afford some of the parts in his little box, because he could buy them from campus workers looking to make a little extra money on the side.
"Let's go get cleaned up, and—" he started, then he trailed off quickly when six Faey filed into the gym. They wore the camouflage colors of the armor of regular Army, much like the Battle Dress that the American military wore before it was dissolved. They were all pattern Faey, with those pretty faces and sleek bodies, accented by that armor. One of them, he noticed, was carrying a length of chain.
"Well, if it's not the human making the Marines look like idiots," the tallest of them, a woman with raven black hair, announced loudly in English. "We're here to restore the honor of the Faey, since the Marines can't seem to manage it."
Jason looked her up and down coldly, steeling his mind against possible attack, starting the exercise that formed the wall of repetitive thought that would protect him from any attempt to invade his mind.
"We brought you a dog collar," she said with a vicious smirk, holding up a leather collar. "We're going to put you in it and drop you off at the Marine barracks with nothing but this on. After we have a little fun with you first," she said with a naked leer.
Jason brought himself up to his full height and stared at them. "Faey love games," he said in a quiet tone. "How about a little friendly challenge?"
"Really," she smirked.
"Whoever ends up with that dog collar around her neck has to wear it until Monday," he said. "The one collared becomes the property of the victor, and has to obey utterly until Monday. That means she does anything I say until Monday morning, when I go to school. Oh, and to make it fair, since the Marines aren't allowed to use their talent, neither are you. Think the six of you are enough to put that collar around my neck without using your power?"
"Six against one, and you think you have a chance?" she asked with a laugh.
"If you think it's a dead lock you'll win, then accept," he urged.
They looked among themselves for a second, obviously communicating with their telepathic gifts. "You have a deal," she said. "I'm going to enjoy having you as our personal squad mascot."
"I'm going to enjoy having a maid," he said, cracking his knuckles meaningfully.
Tim moved away and the floor cleared as the six camo-armored Army regulars moved to surround Jason, who spread his feet out a little and kept himself squarely in front of the one holding the collar. They all started taunting and calling to him, trying to distract and unnerve him, but his eyes remained solidly on the brunette and the collar in her hand.
The other five came all at once, seeking to overwhelm him by force of numbers and pin him down long enough for the brunette to collar him. That actually wasn't a bad idea, but they weren't ready to face him like that. He grabbed the one that reached him first and spun her into two rushing from the other side, making them crash to the floor in a tumbled heap of arms and legs, squealing hurting everyone's ears as their armor screeched against other armor. He surrendered the defense back to use that move, and the one behind him, the smallest of them all, crashed into him to try to knock him to the ground. He totally ignored her weight as he slapped aside the reaching hand of the fifth, then grabbed her other hand by the wrist and yanked on it. She was jerked in the direction he wanted her to go. With the sixth regular clinging to his back, kicking at him with her armored shins to get him to go down, he wove the one he had a grip on from side to side, not allowing her to regain her footing, exactly what he did to Jyslin, then spun her and crashed her into the heap of other Faey who were still sprawled out on the floor. A few slapping grabs at his flank got him a handful of armored shin, and he tore her off his back with main force. She clanged to the floor with her leg still in his grasp, but she took his shirt with her, ripping it off his back. He snatched the shirt out of her hands and let go of her, then advanced on the brunette quickly, wrapping the ends of a long strip between his hands. She backed up in surprise and raised both hands to protect herself, then her face hardened, and she attacked him with her telepathic power.
He'd never been attacked before, not like that, and it was something he never wanted to have happen again. The full force of her mind smashed against his own like a spear, trying to punch through the wall of repetitive thought he used to protect himself from probes. It was blindingly painful, like lights exploding behind his eyes, as he struggled with all his might to keep her out of his head, pushing back against that force with every fiber of his being. He'd been rushing forward when she struck at him with her power, and his momentum carried him right up to her. He could barely think, barely move, but he had enough presence of mind to lower his shoulder. She gaped in shock as he managed to resist her attempt to invade and take over his mind with her power just long enough to get close enough to her to do something about it. His shoulder slammed into her upper chest, and his weight sent her flying. That impact broke her concentration, and he felt the terrible weight of her mind lift off of him like pulling away a blanket.
Shaking his head to clear the cobwebs and the pain, he lunged down and snatched the collar out of her hands before she had the presence of mind to roll away from him. Her eyes looked a little glassy; maybe she hit the back of her head on the gym floor when she fell down. He was about to reach down and put the collar on her when two Faey jumped on him from behind, one grabbing the hand holding the collar as another wrapped her arms around his neck from behind and tried to tangle his legs up with her own.
She did pretty well, for he found himself unable to shift his feet. He yanked in the Faey holding his arm and then grabbed her, and they all fell down to the floor in a pile. There was a great deal of kicking, thrashing, even some biting taking place in that twisted mound of struggling bodies, but Jason was larger and much stronger than his opponents. He managed to grab the collar with both hands as the smaller Faey tried to cover his eyes with her hands and the larger one tried to wrest the collar out of his grip. He rolled over on the Faey on his back, got his weight on her, pinning her to the floor with his shoulders, then pulled the collar out of the other's hands with a fast snap of his arms. She tried to roll to her feet, but Jason used the Faey under him as a push-off to power himself up onto his feet in the blink of an eye. The Faey had her back to him as she tried to roll back and away to get distance, so it was a simple matter to whip that collar over her head, then pull it taut around her neck and close the ends.
There was a sudden eruption of cheering from the people watching this impromptu battle, after it became clear that the collar ended up snapped around a Faey's neck.
"Awww, DAMN!" the Faey snapped in frustration when her hands felt the collar around her neck. She stayed on her knees, and fixed the brunette with an impressively cold, murderous glare.
Jason panted, suddenly out of breath and keyed up from the adrenalin, then got himself under control. He gave that brunette his own icy stare. She had used her power against him, had cheated, and she should have been the one in the collar. She was the one he wanted, but he couldn't risk her doing that again when the other Faey had a grip on him. If she did, they would have gotten the collar around his neck.
"Don't ever do that again," he hissed at her savagely as he regained his composure. The one he collared got to her feet and turned around, looking suitably ticked off. She was a cutie, with a heart-shaped face and pouting lips. Her hair was dark blond, almost brown, cut very short, and she had large blue eyes. She crossed her arms and gave him a flat look, then she chuckled.
"Well, looks like we lost, and I got stuck holding the stick," she announced in thickly accented English.
"Strip," he commanded immediately. "All of it but the collar."
That got a roar of approval from the boys watching on.
She gave him a dark look, but did start taking off the armor.
He stalked over and snatched up the chain that was laying on the floor, and waited patiently as the Faey removed her armor, then stood there, her face turning purple in a blush—red blood flushing blue skin—as the boys in the gym whistled and clapped and generally embarrassed her half to death. He locked the chain to the collar with a smooth motion, then started towards the door, pulling her along. She followed, her head bowed and throwing dark looks at the brunette for getting her into this.