"A friendly spar right now, best two out three: first to get knocked on their butt." Jack smiled, "I win: you stop bullying; you win: I give you Violets number and say I was lying about you being a bully, I'll call it a prank or whatever works." Jack held his hand out his hand lazily to shake in agreement.
The fire behind Mor'du's eyes turned in to a spark of hope. "You'd do that for me?" His shoulders slumped out of their aggressive stance.
"I don't know, would you defy Hans? Would you turn your life on its head for the chance at a girl?" Jack locked eyes with Mor'du while he considered the implications of losing.
When Mor'du smiled mischievously and went to shake Jacks hand, Jack pulled his hand away, "Violet already knows most of the terms of our arrangement, if you break your end of the deal in any way, she will be the first to know." Jack tapped his temple with his finger indicating that he had memorized her number and could call her from anywhere. "She'll never look at you the same way again if you do. Do you want to risk that?"
That was like a cold bucket of water on Mor'du's excitement, his face sobered as he realized that if he lost he would have to keep his word. Mor'du looked at his hand and weighed the odds, he looked conflicted and Jack wondered if he would still go for it.
"I've tried everything else," Mor'du held out his hand for Jack to shake. When Jack smiled and shook it Mor'du held it in an iron grip and squeezed, "I won't lose."
We'll see... Jack smirked as Mor'du pulled his phone from his pocket and one of the ear buds from his ear. He wrapped the earbuds around his phone and set them on the outside corner of the boxing ring while he waved over another muscle bound member of the gym to referee for them.
Violet is going to kill you if you lose, you know. Cole reminded Jack the possible consequences of his actions.
I'm not going to lose. Jack reassured Cole as he walked around the ring to grab some gloves while Mor'du was explaining the rules for the spare to the newcomer. I've got an ace in the hole.
When they stepped in the ring together the newcomer came over to Jacks side to talk to him, "are you sure you want to do this, Mory is a beast, and he has never lost a match."
"Well we are going to put a blemish on his record today." Jack winked.
"Fine," the newcomer held his hands up in surrender, "as long as you know what you are getting into."
Jack stretched as he looked across the ring and saw Mor'du strapping on his gloves. He had flashbacks to sparring with North who was twice the size of Mor'du and one hundred times more experienced. North and Bunny had knocked him on his butt more times than he cared to mention, but they had taught him to fight, fair and otherwise. North's specialty was boxing since it was some kind of custom where he was from, so that is what they spent a good deal of their time doing. North enjoyed having a boxing partner and sparred with Jack as often as he could and as long as Jack's body could handle it.
North had taught him how to throw a punch, but more importantly how to roll the punches off his body and how to avoid being hit all together. All of this added together ended up making Jack a fair competitor, so much so that he found himself knocking North on his butt more than once, which only made the Russian want to spar more.
Jack finished stretching and rolled his shoulders to help him relax his muscles.
Jack and Mor'du locked eyes and when the referee told them to "Fight" they launched from their corners and clashed in the middle of the ring. When Mor'du threw a punch that would have landed Jack in the hospital, Jack duck and nailed Mor'du in the gut using his speed to land another punch as he spun around him. Mor'du turned around he looked surprised that he had missed. Jack took advantage of his shock and socked him twice in the face before Mor'du was about to bring his fists up and counter attack. Mor'du was slower than Bunny in almost every respect, and he couldn't take a hit as well as North, Jack grew more confident in his ability to defeat Mor'du.
Cole was faster and surprisingly more skilled than Mor'du expected. He wasn't prepared to fight as hard as he was and he never expected to be hit so hard. This warrior in front of him definitely wasn't the same Cole that cowered whenever Hans would walk through the halls, this Cole fought like a demon. For the first time he worried that he might lose. To Cole of all people!
Mor'du stepped around and made sure that he was blocking the view of the fight from the referee enough and he gave Cole a couple quick jabs, none that hit, and then threw his elbow into the fight, this time connecting with bone instead of air. That blow sent Jack reeling and caused him to fall to his side.
"That's one," Mor'du announced.
Jack looked up to see the referee on his phone completely ignorant of Mor'du's illegal strike. "Ref!" Jack called.
"It was clean, one point to Mor'du." The referee said without even looking up.
"Not so cocky now, are you," Mor'du taunted as he returned to his corner.
Ok, that hurt, but I guess we both knew he was going to cheat. Cole groaned.
Jack rubbed his jaw, it had taken the most damage from the strike. Luckily, all his teeth were still secure, if a little rattled, and his jaw still felt attached, barely.
Well we both were going to cheat, I was just waiting for him to do it first. Jack crawledto his feet and returned to his corner.
What do you mean?
Jack summoned the power from within him and the stardust formed powerful stardust magician gloves within his boxing gloves, he then created a layer of ice around his knuckles to give them a little more kick.
When the next match started Jack flew at Mor'du even faster than the first time, when Mor'du threw a jab, Jack launched his attack by stepping inside of it and throwing two punches at the same time, one for the open side of his face and the other for his gut. Both made contact, it was Jacks turn to send Mor'du reeling and he was impressed with how much strength the stardust gloves and the ice gave him as Mor'du slumped back into his corner after only one attack.
The Ref looked up from his phone long enough to see Cole put Mor'du to the ground. It came as such a shock that he dropped his phone and the ear buds attached to his phone were yanked from his ears.
"One to one, pick yourself up, we have one more round." Jack rounded the ring to his corner, making sure to keep one eye on Mor'du in case he tried something.
The Ref wasn't the only one who noticed what had happened, nearly half the room stopped what they were doing when Mor'du fell and Cole walked away, a few in the crowd knew the pair in the ring and that surprised them even more.
Suddenly, the boxing ring was the center of attention, a few of what only could be considered Mor'du's workout buddies came to his aid and helped him get to his feet. Even the owner of the Gym came out of his office to find the source of the ruckus. When he saw a scrawny kid in the ring with Mor'du and winning, he leaned against the doorframe to watch the rest of the match.
Jack, noticed the increasing attention that he was getting and toned down his powers a notch by getting rid of the iced knuckles but keeping the stardust 'on hand'. He couldn't guarantee that Mor'du wouldn't cheat again but it seemed less likely with the crowd. While Mor'du was getting pulled to his feet the rules of the match spread through the gossip vine like wild fire, but what appeared to be the bigger upset was the tie. Nobody believed it at first but the Ref swore that the score was right and that the scrawny kid and taken 'Mory' down with one move.
Jack couldn't help but relish in the attention, he had mixed feelings about being visible but he was getting used to the idea of being liked and rooted for as the underdog.
Taunts erupted from the crowd as the next match started, this time both Mor'du and Jack approached each other slowly. This was the tiebreaker and they both knew it, and now with an active audience the tension was palpable.
Mor'du was the first to charge, he threw two jabs and a cross. Jack dodged and countered with two jabs that landed ineffectively against Mor'du's guard. Jack wasn't going to find an opening anytime soon, he had been able to gain an advantage with sheer shock and awe but now Mor'du was braced for the long haul, which meant that jack had to be too.
Mor'du threw two crosses and an uppercut, Jack ducked from the first two attacks but took the upper cut right in his guard. He wasn't going to last long if they kept this up he would have to wear Mor'du down if he was going to make any progress. Jack endured four painful minutes of Mor'du's assaults, Cole wasn't in the same athletic shape he had left Wintercrest in, but he could take a hit just as well if not better. Jack faked exhaustion and let himself be hit a few times, it was a strategy he had used with North to make him overconfident.
After another five minutes of a painful back and forth he felt Mor'du tire as his punches softened and became more carefully placed. He guard slackened and he was sweating profusely, Jack staggered to test Mor'du and created an opening that Mor'du wouldn't have missed, out of the corner of his vision he spied Violet who was now shamelessly watching their fight and winced every time Jack took a more devastating blow. Jack slumped and watched as Mor'du saw a chance to end this fight he wound up for a finishing blow and Jack slipped out of the way before unleashing a wave of attacks that awakened the crowd.
He easily knocked away Mor'du's guard and flooded his face with a gourmet platter of knuckle sandwiches, but Mor'du wasn't going down easily, he renewed his advances with a counterattack but Jack never paused as he besieged Mor'du. Both of them were wearing down but Jack's resolve only strengthened as the battle wore on, Jack rediscovered his true nature as a warrior in this match, the longer the battle dragged on the more excited Jack grew. Mor'du may have been an animal but he was no fighter by nature, Jack was, and soon the battle became one sided as Jack rose with a second, third, and fourth wind. His energy and stamina just seemed to increase where Mor'du's drained.
A cool winter breeze wafted through the gym, only a few people noticed it but most thought it was the A/C but at the center of the breeze was Jack who was becoming a storm in his own right as he towered over Mor'du. One last uppercut and Mor'du's feet actually left the ground as he was sent flying onto his back. The breeze settled and after a few moments of shock, the Ref checked on Mor'du who was catching his breath but healthy he then grabbed Jack's hand and raised it above his head.
"The winner, Mory's record is finally beaten!" The Ref announced.
Cheers rang out around Jack, apparently it had been a good match because they were all shouting compliments at him. Jack was exhausted but he didn't have a chance to catch his breath, he still had something to workout.
Jack stood over Mor'du and let the stardust gloves dissolve inside the boxing gloves and held a hand out to Mor'du to help him to his feet. "Good Match."
Mor'du looked at Jack for a long moment before taking his hand. "Where did you learn how to fight?" Mor'du grunted when Jack pulled him to his feet.
"Let's just say that there is a lot of things you don't know about me." Jack laughed.
"Fair enough, but don't think I am about to back out of our agreement." Mor'du took a few breaths and finished his statement. "I am a man of my word."
Mor'du stood up straight and held his hand out to shake Jack's, Jack took it and shook it.
"I trust you, don't let me down."
Mor'du actually smiled, "I won't, but I expect a rematch. That was the most fun I've had in a long time. Plus I can't have people thinking that I've gone soft, I've got a title to defend after all."
"Maybe, but is being soft so bad?" Jack waved at Violet. And out of the corner of his eye he saw Mor'du stare at her.
"Maybe not," Mor'du said too low for anyone to hear, but Jack picked it up and smiled in victory.
I've never seen him smile, or compliment me... us... how did you do it? Cole asked.
Easy, some guys only respect you after you've thrown them on their back enough times.