This is my second Fallout story, at seven in the morning this time. (The same morning as the previous one) picking up where my character (Ariel) continues to wander the wastes with her respective NPCs. How annoying can I be?
Lo Pan
Cassidy nervously looked around him as the crowd began to thicken. His sniper rifle suddenly felt very small; He only could kill as much as six people before his clip was empty, and then there'd be havoc. His sidearm, a Desert Eagle with an expanded magazine rested at his side in its holster, but he had a feeling that if provoked, this crowd would trample over him and any resistance that his bullets could offer.
Lenny and Vic were scared. Simple as that. Vic had his Pancor Jackhammer out, his finger curling nervously around the trigger as the people started chanting the name of their champion. Lenny looked as if his eyeballs were going to pop out. No, wait. Lenny looked as if his eyeballs were going to pop out again.
Sulik was talking to Ariel, who was, at the moment removing her armor and any weapons she was carrying. Cassidy couldn't hear what was being said, but it looked like he was trying to talk her out of it. She replied in a no-nonsense manner, and continued to strip down to a faded pair of trousers and a white shirt that was torn around the sleeves. Cassidy was scared for her. Back in New Reno there had been rules. And padded gloves. Now she was fighting some Chinese dude who looked as if he could take on a mutant and win with one hand tied behind his back.
The crowd was growing even louder now. The chants of 'Lo Pan! Lo Pan!' were growing in volume, and Cassidy could vaguely see the aforementioned person standing inside the small ring marked with metal railings. It formed an area about fifteen feet square, and the guy was wearing a leather jacket and some black material as pants. Ariel handed her last grenade to Sulik, who was carrying her stuff in his arms, and walked off to the ring. Cassidy pushed his way through the crowd towards Sulik, who was looking at Ariel as she valiantly made her way to the improvised ring.
'If he's winning, I'll shoot him.' Cassidy proclaimed, checking to make sure that his gun was cocked. 'What about you?'
'We and I be with you, fren.' Sulik replied. 'As soon as we get to the car.'
'Always the reassuring one, Sulik.' Cassidy said sourly just as Ariel made her way into the ring.
Lo Pan was a good 6' 3", rather tall for a Chinese man, but Ariel was only 5' 6" to his massive frame. She was outsized, and he could move like lightning, so it would take a lot of guile to see this bout through.
Ariel jumped over the metal rail on the opposite side of the ring as Lo Pan, and he immediately raised a hand to signal silence in the crowd. The people fell silent slowly, and he spat out a string of words in Chinese, all of which were unintelligible to American ears, and then turned to Ariel, a look of complacent smugness on his face.
'You have challenged the honor of Lo Pan.' He said in his badly accented voice, 'Have you any last words, bitch?' He spat the last word like it was a hot potato in his mouth.
'Just one thing.' Ariel said, putting her fists up and arranging her feet in a fighting stance. 'Haiya.' Her sarcastic tone was so sharp it could have cut cheese.
Immediately Lo Pan charged her, sweeping low. She jumped up and back, both feet landing on the rails, using inertia to propel herself forward over his head. She landed a good four feet from him, again raising her fists to fight.
He followed up with a double roundhouse kick, one leg following the other as he spun in the air like a human action figure. Ariel dodged both, and when he landed she planted a punch square on his jaw. Stunned by this move, he staggered a bit before charging and sweeping again.
To this, she simply skipped up her legs, returning them to the ground immediately after his legs had passed beneath her. When he got up, she hadn't even moved from her position. Seemingly enraged at this, he threw a series of kicks in her general direction. She backed off from every single one, his feet meeting with air. When he stopped to gather his bearings, she hit him again, just once on the jaw. His head was thrown back by this simple move, and he took one step backward. Ariel didn't advance, instead she just stood there, waiting for him to recover from the blow. He did, and once again threw up a barrage of kicks, sweeps, and the occasional punch or so. All of which missed.
As he was recovering from a particularly finesse kick, Ariel roundhoused him once on the face with her heel. He was sent sprawling, and it took him more than two seconds to get up. The crowd was really wild now, watching their great leader being beaten by a woman less than half his size, and a round-eye, to boot.
When he did get back on his feet, he was almost boiling with rage. Ariel on the other hand, looked as fresh if she'd just got out of bed. With a mighty war cry, he rushed towards her, preparing to knock her out with another array of martial arts.
Before the crowd could see anything, Lo Pan was once again sent to the ground, but this time Ariel hadn't even punched him. In fact, she hadn't even moved, save for that now she was facing the opposite direction. This time he stayed down, trying to get up, the crowd roaring support all around him. When he did get up, he was leaning against the railings for support and he was pissed. So pissed, in fact, that he immediately reached into his jacket and pulled out a Magnum.
Cassidy immediately raised sniper scope to eyeball, but in Lo Pan's disorientated state, Ariel easily moved over to him, front-kicked the gun out of his weakened hand, and kicked him again in the chin.
He staggered back, his body falling against the rails as Ariel caught his gun by the barrel. She flipped it so that the grip rested in her palm as she put her finger on the trigger, the gun pointed at Lo Pan's forehead.
He was too disorientated to get up, but he could still see what she was doing.
'Finish what you start, American bi-' He started.
'First off.' Ariel interrupted him, pulling another, smaller, gun from the back of her pants. Cassidy recognized it as the Needler she'd taken off Myron's cold dead hands. 'You started it. So I take it on me to finish you.' She cocked her head to the side as she said the last word.
'She won't do it.' Vic's voice appeared beside Cassidy's ear. 'I know her. She'll kill in self-defense, but she doesn't murder.'
'Oh yeah?' Cassidy shot back. 'Metzger? AHS-9? The mutants in the military base?'
'Yeah, but-' Vic was lost for words at this point.
'So go ahead and do it!' Lo Pan shouted, not even making an attempt to get up. Man, these Chinese really go for the honor thing, Cass thought.
There was a pause of about two seconds.
'Nah.' Ariel said just before she kicked him in the jaw real hard. 'Not worth the ammo.' She tossed both guns onto his unconscious form and vaulted out of the ring. A sort of path cleared before her as she walked to Cassidy and the rest of her crew.
'Take five steps, then run for it.' She whispered as she procured yet another gun from somewhere on her body. 'They don't look too happy.'
'Right.' Cassidy said.