Mark “Coop” Cooper

Location: Stewart-Benning Training Center, Earth, United Commonwealth of Colonies

Coop couldn’t keep the grin off his face. He’d won his first fight, which automatically put him in the top half of the class when it came to kicking ass.

Despite the win, Coop’s ego was still a little raw after the SSG Cunningham’s assertion that none of them knew how to fight.

While everyone else was able to move to the medics under their own power, Davenport was not. A team of four medics jogged over to him with a stretcher, stuck him with a few needles, and then carried him off the floor. Coop passed by the barely conscious jackass as he walked across the mats toward his next match.

Winning this next match would put him in the top quarter of the class. Coop knew it was sappy shit, but he really wanted to impress his squad leader. He’d been with her long enough to know she only wanted to deal with the best.

The holographic number 12 was bobbing up and down at the corner of the combat-square. Coop entered the square and closed his eyes. Despite the ass kicking he’d given Davenport the fight had been too close for comfort. Coop had been careless and let Davenport get in and score a nearly crippling blow. Coop couldn’t have that happen again. If he was facing a bigger, stronger opponent he needed to approach the situation more rationally.

“Shit, Coop, you look like you walked through a slaughterhouse.”

Coop opened his eyes and saw Eve Berg grinning at him from across the combat-square.

Coop thought, which would have been a great sign of their growing relationship.

But then he looked at where she was standing. Eve was inside the combat-square, and there was only one reason she’d be standing there.

“You’ve got to be shitting me.” Coop couldn’t help but voice his thought.

The grin Eve had been wearing a second ago transformed into a glare. Coop had gone and stuck his foot in his mouth again.

“No. . .sorry. . .that’s not how I meant it.” Coop scrambled. “I just hoped I wouldn’t have to fight you.”

“Why? Because I’m a girl. You don’t think I can hold my own in a fight?”

Eve had her hands on her hips with one hip cocked out to the side. Despite her being pissed, Coop’s eyes couldn’t help but linger on those curves for a second too long.

“No.” Coop knew that Eve had seen him staring, and that only made things worse. “It’s because you’re my squad leader.”

“Sure,” Eve scoffed, glaring daggers into him. “As your squad leader, don’t think I won’t knock your ass out.”

Coop knew what he shouldn’t do. He knew it in his bones, but he couldn’t help himself.

He couldn’t stop the chuckle from escaping his lips.

If Eve had been glaring at him before she was straight up murdering him with her eyes now.

“Eve, come on.” Coop tried to salvage the situation. “It’s not about being a girl or a guy. It’s about me having fifteen kilos on you and almost ten centimeters. You’ve got to see that right?”

“Oh I see it.” Eve might have been nodding yes, but her eyes were not agreeing with Coop’s assessment of her disadvantages. “But you’re also pretty fucking blind.”

Coop took a second and thought about Eve’s statement. Then he really looked at her. There were always telltale signs of how someone had done in a fight, even if they won. Coop looked at Eve’s face for any swelling or the beginnings of a shiner. It was tough to look past her fierce beauty, even if she looked like she wanted to punch him in the dick. She didn’t have a mark.

Next he checked out her hands. He checked for signs of swelling from punching someone wrong. Again nothing. He checked for split knuckles, or anything to show how she’d beaten her last opponent.

She was spotless.

Lastly he looked at her body, but only in a mildly voyeuristic way. It was tough to ignore her curves, but he was more interested in any areas that might be injured. She was shifting from foot to foot, cocking opposite hips in frustration, but she didn’t seem to be favoring anything. For all Coop knew, it looked like Eve hadn’t even been in a fight.

Coop remembered.

“Thirty seconds!” the SSG yelled, as she circled the floor.

“Ok, fine.” Coop tried for a second time to salvage the train wreck that was their pre-fight conversation. “You won your first fight so you deserve to be here, but don’t think I’m going to go easy on you. You might be my squad leader but I’m going to win this thing.”

Coop expected at least grudging respect for his determination. He didn’t expect Eve to just laugh in his face.

“You think you’re going to beat me?” She rolled her eyes like it was the funniest thing she’d ever heard.

It almost threw him off his game.

“You couldn’t beat me if you tried.”

“Wanna bet?” Coop didn’t plan on saying it, it just slipped out.

It surprised him even more when she nodded.

“I get my pick of your MRE snacks when we’re out in the field next.” Coop thought of the best thing he could. Those MRE snacks could be the difference between a good and bad day.

“HA,” Eve barked a single laugh. “That’s small time, Coop, and I don’t want to take your lunch like some schoolyard bully.” She started to shake out her limbs in preparation for the start of the fight.

“I tell you what, Coop.” She was grinning mischievously now. “If by some miracle you can beat me then I’ll fuck you.”

“Ready. . .set. . .begin!” The SSG counted down the last three seconds, but Coop didn’t even move.

It was like he’d just won the fucking lottery.

Coop had trouble concentrating as images of her naked body writhing rhythmically beneath him as he thrusted into her kept popping into his mind.

“Hey! Commonwealth to Coop, we got a deal?” Eve was waiting with her hands on her hips, and her foot impatiently tapping the mat.

Coop couldn’t keep the grin off his face. “Deal.” He said, then charged her.

The tactic might not have worked out so well against Davenport, but Coop was bigger and stronger than Eve. Even if she was able to land a hit it probably wasn’t going to do much good, and she’d given him enough motivation to do just about anything.

Eve tried to dodge to the side and circle around him, but he got a hand on her. Her jab hit him square in the chin, but it didn’t do anything to stop his momentum. They fell twisting to the side, and rolled over a few times; both trying to use their body’s momentum to end up on top.

Coop won the battle, and found himself in the exact position he envisioned himself in less than ten seconds ago. The only difference was the clothing.

Coop tried to rise up so he could punch down at Eve and knock her unconscious, but she had her legs wrapped tightly around his midsection and her hands clasped firmly behind his neck and pulling him down. She was hanging onto him like a clingy spider-monkey.

Coop would be lying if he said he didn’t like the feel of her body pressed against his, but being in this position wasn’t getting him any closer to boning her.

Coop braced his arms at his side against the mat, brought both him and her off the mat, and then slammed back down. He knew the blow hurt, because Eve let out a painful grunt; so he did it again. The second time he felt her grip slacken. The third time he braced to lift them both she let go before he slammed her back down. She went to grab one of his arms that was braced against the mat, but he was too quick. Coop pulled himself up as high as he could go, so that Eve couldn’t get her hold back.

He was now clear to punch down at her and win the fight. In preparation for the strikes she knew were coming Eve was already covering up to protect her head.

Despite being in a similar situation less than ten minutes ago, Coop did not feel the overwhelming urge to turn a human face into mashed up hamburger meat.

Even though he didn’t want to repeatedly punch Eve in the face he knew he had to. If he didn’t Eve would be pissed at him for treating her like a dainty, helpless woman; although they both knew that wasn’t true. Also, he would like to see her in this position again, without pants, and panting like a dog in heat as he fucked her silly.

Coop first punch hit her forearms. It wasn’t as strong as the ones he’d throw against Davenport, and her successful block told him he would have to hit harder. His second punch was more forceful. It landed, and he heard Eve’s muffled curse. His third battered through her defenses too, and he felt her face give way under his fist.

Coop mentally pleaded with her. This wasn’t nearly as much fun as it had been with Davenport.

On his fourth strike things changed. Just when his fist was about to smash into her defenses again Eve shifted to the side, grabbed his arm as it hit nothing but air and trapped it. The move caught Coop completely by surprise, but it wasn’t as surprising as when Eve thrust her hips upward around his neck.

Coop thought as he felt the pressure building.

Somehow Eve had snaked both legs around his neck. One leg was pressed against the side of his throat and curled around the back of his neck at a ninety degree angle. Her other leg had trapped the arm he’d used to punch her with. It was squeezing that arm against the other side of his throat and had locked down the other leg by securing it in the crook behind her knee.

It took Coop a second to realize he’d gone from being in total control, and punching Eve in the face to Eve choking him with his own arm.

Coop’s vision was beginning to blur from the lack of oxygen, and to add insult to injury Eve was using her free hand to pull down on the back of Coop’s head, further tightening her unusual choking technique.

His one arm was trapped and wasn’t going anywhere. He tried to reach up and dislodge one of her legs with his free arm, but it had a vice-grip on his neck. It wasn’t going anywhere.

Coop acted out of desperation and went for the Hail Mary.

With his last bit of strength Coop got his feet underneath himself and started to lift Eve off the ground. The only solution he had was to pick her up and slam her back into the ground. He just didn’t know if he had the strength to get her high enough to break her iron grip on his throat.

Coop only had Eve a few inches off the ground when she reacted. As he focused on lifting her, Eve snaked an arm around one of his ankles and pulled. The awkward angle of the lift, and Coop’s rapidly degrading mental capacity resulted in him falling backward.

Eve road the fall like a surfer riding a wave.

One second Coop was on top of Eve ready to smash her into the ground, and now she was on top of him.

Coop was on his back now with his arms only weakly responding to his mental commands, while Eve still had her choke securely locked in.

“Nice try, Coop.” She turned her head to the side and spit out a glob of blood. “You might be bigger and stronger, but you’re forgetting one very important variable…skill.”

Coop didn’t have enough oxygen in his lungs or flowing to his brain to respond.

“Shhh go to sleep. I’ll tell you where you messed up when you wake up.” She patted him on the head.

Coop’s chance to bone his super-hot squad leader was slipping through his fingers just like his consciousness. Coop’s body went slack as he blacked out.

There were worse ways to go than being choked out by a woman sitting on your face.

***

Eve Berg

The moment Coop’s body went limp Eve released her triangle choke. Her number two had lasted a lot longer than most people who fell into the ju-jitsu technique, but he didn’t have the knowledge to get out of it. Trying to pick her up and smash her had been a lucky guess, but she was ready to counter that type of attack.

“Medic,” she called over, waving a soldier over to Coop’s motionless body.

Looking down at him, Eve couldn’t help but blush. The fight had been a rush, in more ways than one. Her first fight had been boring. She’d landed a simple one-two-three combo and knocked a girl from fifth squad out in the first five seconds.

Coop had at least lasted longer and put up a fight. She massaged her jaw gently. But it wasn’t only the fight that had her excited. Sure, fighting always got Eve riled up, but never like this.

Eve shivered and had to shut down the memory.

Hot and bothered did not even begin to cover it.

The real question was what to do now. If she just went and fucked Coop she’d get on the SSG’s bad side, and maybe even get booted out of basic. She couldn’t have that, not after her talk with her brother. On the other hand, if she just ignored it, there was bound to be awkwardness on her part, and a degradation of her unit’s cohesion.

A medic showed up in the middle of her quandary. He pulled out a stick of something from a polyplast tube and waved it under Coop’s nose. Coop’s whole body jerked as the odorous chemicals shocked him back to consciousness.

“Head over to the tables, Recruits, and get checked out.”

Eve didn’t wait for Coop to get up and join her. She needed time to think, and having him in her immediate vicinity made her think of only one thing.

Despite everything, Eve couldn’t get the image of her straddling a naked Coop out of her head.

Check out my website for more details about me, more web serials, and my random thoughts that I occasionally post. Also, vote for Two Worlds on Topwebfiction here!

If you like my writing check out my debut novel, The Harbinger Tales out now for only $3.99.