Westwood stared open mouthed at the Puma. The pilot spoke to Westwood on the radio, "This is Maverick. Judging by your paint scheme I expect you know who I am. You're Larkham's boy right? I didn't mean to kill your father, so surrender now or the same will happen to you".
"Negative, you'll be lucky if I don't return the favour". From that moment the ice-cold Westwood ceased to exist. The old soulful Westwood was reborn, and he was ready to do some ass-kicking.
"Fine then, it's your funeral". With that the Puma ran at Westwood. Instead of running at the Puma, Westwood reversed out of the arches and down a steep incline. He knew that in a one on one against the Puma he was far outclassed in damage and range. Against this pilot he was outclassed in experience too. He'd have to use some inspired moves to beat this guy.
Even as the Puma sprinted at Westwood the crowd remained silent. This was the light mech duel of the century, and no one was going to miss this in a hurry.
Westwood glanced at his radar, still nothing. The Puma must be using passive sensors, which meant he was undetectable when he was over 250 metres away. Eventually a blip did appear, right behind the Owens.
Westwood kicked the Owens into high speed, just as a pair of blue rays shot past his cockpit. The twin PPCs that the Puma mounted were deadly to any class of mech, let alone light mechs. However they did have some big disadvantages. When they were used in unison they generated colossal amounts of heat. They also had a large recycle time, which Westwood would have to use as his advantage.
Westwood turned to face the Puma and fired all his weapons at the Pumas right arm. Its damage icon quickly turned to Orange, and after a few more clean shots from the large pulse laser it was red. Westwood was on the run to try avoiding the PPCs, but the Puma pilot was a sharp shooter. The PPC in the right arm fired at Westwood's right hand missile rack. He was using the same tactics as him, disable the weapons first.
The Owens' torso lurched sideways but Westwood soon corrected it. His right arm icon turned yellow too. The Puma fired his second PPC but missed. Westwood fired the pulse laser at the Puma's left arms this time. Combined with the SSRMS its icon turned red. Thanks to the bad recycle time of PPCs Westwood managed to get in a few more laser shots, turning the left arm's icon flashing red. A few more shots and it would be destroyed.
The Puma fired both PPCs this time, striking Westwood's right missile rack. This missile rack blew up and knocked the Owens' torso off course again. Westwood fired the left arm's SSRMs at the Pumas left arm. The arm blew up and the Puma's firepower had been halved. This battle was going to be close.
The Puma fired his remained PPC and accelerated into a walk. Both mechs had a torso twist range of 90 degrees each way, so they ended up circling each other in one corner of the Coliseum. Westwood fired his last 6 SSRMs at the Puma, this time at the centre torso. The Puma responded by slowing down to get a better shot at Westwood. He'd got him mad now.
The particle projection cannon spoke again, striking Westwood in the centre torso. The damage icon for the centre torso and more importantly the large pulse laser turned yellow. He returned laser fire at the right arm, otherwise before long he'd have no firepower left.
The pulse laser struck the right arm accurately 3 times and Westwood's hopes came true. The right arm fell off, completely disarming the Puma. The crowd cheered and Westwood stopped in front of the halted Puma.
"Ok Mav, you can surrender your mech to my lasers and I'll let you live. Move a muscle and I'll shoot the cockpit". Westwood grinned as he lined up the crosshair at the centre torso. But the Puma pilot had other plans.
"Negative Iceman, the match is over". Westwood didn't understand until a few seconds later the Puma's cockpit exploded and an ejector seat flew up into the sky. The crowd began booing the act of cowardliness. If the pilot ejected it didn't count as a kill, so ejecting when you had no weapons left could be views as extreme cowardice.
Amongst the booing Westwood could see a small boy in the front row shouting something at him. People around him looked at him and started yelling the same. Before long the whole Coliseum was chanting it.
"Go for four, go for four!" Although he may not have been able to avenge his father's death properly, the murderer's mech was unattended. Westwood closed his eyes and pressed the left most button on his control stick.
The crowd applauded as the large pulse laser slowly blasted the Puma apart. The laser's attack was relentless, the Puma was quickly engulfed in flames. The female voice inside Westwood's mech spoke up, "Warning, heat exceeding recommended level". The laser ceased.
The centre of the Puma was engulfed in flames. It was complete wreck. Both arms were destroyed. Westwood was about to fire again, but the Puma began to move. It tilted slowly backwards. Even its feet weren't flat on the floor. Comically the Puma accelerated backwards towards the floor and crashed down to the ground. That was a good enough revenge for Westwood. He was pleased, the crowd were over the moon, and he was pretty sure that wherever his father was he was pleased too.