Willow's eyes dart around the semi-lit room. It is loud, as bullets collide with metal and concrete. Willow and MacCready can only be thankful that it's not their own skin being pierced. She swallows, and then her wide, green eyes fall on Maggie, who is hiding behind an old piece of pre-war machinery. "Over here!" she calls out, waving her arm, and Willow bolts.
"This way!" she says to MacCready, but the man doesn't immediately follow her. He stays put for a moment and assesses his surroundings, makes sure the path to the machine is safe – makes sure there is no one lurking in the shadows behind the machine. Only when he knows the coast is clear does he follow after Willow, gunshots grazing him as he sprints to where his impetuous employer has lead them.
The machine provides good cover from the men pursuing them, but he knows they're surrounded. "Well, boss," his tone is icy, sarcasm dripping from each word like acid, "you have any genius plans now that our cover is completely blown?"
Willow grits her teeth, glaring towards him. "Don't act like this is my fault." she snaps, and MacCready scoffs.
"Oh, no. No way you're gonna pin this on me." he says before aiming his gun upward and shooting a raider who has made the mistake of stepping onto a platform above them.
"I told you I didn't want you to- ugh!" Willow grunts and reloads her rifle. "Nevermind!"
She has far more important things to do right now than argue with MacCready. Namely, attempting to stay alive as footsteps close in on them. She lifts her gun offensively and steps boldly out from behind their protective steel shield, where she immediately comes face to face with a raider. She scowls at the ratty woman and steps back out of range of the tire iron she brandishes, then gets her point blank with her gun. The raider stands no chance at that range, and goes down with a satisfying wail as the scent of burning flesh permeates the air. But there is no time for Willow to relish in her victory, as she can already see two more of her scumbag colleagues rapidly approaching, and a third readying a shot from a distance.
She makes an attempt at the raider further away, and she thinks she hits him by the way he cries out but she can't be sure because a closer raider is then on top of her with a switchblade. She ducks quickly away from his attack, the blade only just catching her shoulder in a way which does not even pierce her thick coat. And as the raider stutters and tries to stop himself mid-swing, Willow uses the opportunity to slam the butt of her gun right into his side and knock him back away from her a few steps.
That's when she hears the sound of heavy feet hitting the ground, rapidly approaching from behind. She gasps and manages to tuck herself out of the way and watches as a wooden board pummels the ground where she was just standing. She can hear the sounds of raiders shouting on the other side of the machine, of gunshots and Maccready shit-talking his opponents. He is cocky, even in battle, but he seems to be doing well at least. Willow doesn't have time to speculate any further – she has two raiders before her who need dealing with.
And so, she blasts the one wielding the board and the beam sears his metal chestplate. The force of the impact sends him stumbling backward, which, in tandem, causes the second raider to bumble over him and fall to the ground. She laughs snidely at the sight. "Enjoy your trip?!" she spits, and the raider who has just fallen growls.
"You're a funny little bitch, huh?!" he says and attempts to scramble to his feet, but Willow is faster and has a lazer beam through his skull before he can.
"Yeah, I like to think so." she scoffs as his corpse falls halfway atop his companion, who she quickly silences before he too can retaliate.
Her eyes drift quickly to the darkness behind the machine, and she looks for MacCready but doesn't spot him. Then, she feels a sharp pain in her back and all of the wind is knocked from her lungs as she stumbles forward onto her knees.
Shit, she had forgotten about the raider on the platform across the room. She doesn't feel any blood wetting her clothes, and is thankful for the thin leather armour she wears beneath her thick coat, but she is still in pain and every movement has her spine throbbing as she fumbles in her attempt to pull herself to her feet. So instead, she rolls onto her back and sits up slightly, face twisted in pain as she shakily aims her gun toward where she had seen the raider before.
She spots him and takes her shot, but it is wasted on the wall behind him and she can hear him cackling as he prepares his next assault on her. Before he can attempt it, however, MacCready steps in front of her, effectively shielding her and sniping the raider right off of the platform. He hits the ground hard, and chokes out one final gurgled breath before his body goes limp.
MacCready quickly grabs Willow's arm and pulls her to her feet, and her breath catches in her throat at the pain that rips through her but at least it is starting to subside. "You need to learn to be more aware of your surroundings." he chastises her, and Willow frowns.
"Shut up!" she replies, "I had it under control."
"Like hell you did." MacCready chuckles incredulously and tips his head, gesturing for her to follow him. He leads her through a convenient trail of shadows, managing to avoid triggering the spotlight, then pulls her in against a wall. Only a few metres away is a ramp which leads up to the platforms where the remaining living raiders, including Randall, are. Willow peaks out from behind the wall and figures the path is clear enough for her to stealth her way up the ramp, but MacCready grabs her arm before that train of thought has a chance to leave the station.
"Turret." he notes, and Willow follows his gaze up to the aforementioned. She heaves a frustrated sigh and grunts lowly as she brings the scope of her gun to her eye, squeezes the trigger, and... misses. MacCready rolls his eyes and pushes her lightly out of the way, then puts several holes right through the turret's hull before it can so much as fire a single shot.
"Whatever." Willow scoffs, and MacCready raises an eyebrow.
"You're welcome." he retorts, and Willow shakes her head. There is another ramp across the room, and another turret, and right now, flanking the remaining opponents seems like a decent approach, and far preferable to staying and fighting directly alongside MacCready.
MacCready draws in a sharp inhale to call out after Willow as she takes off, but he bites his tongue. He's quickly losing his patience with her, which is a damn shame because before this she'd been rather fun. Oh well, he supposes, this is the job. At least if she dies, he's already paid. Still, he keeps an eye on her as she works on the second turret, and then moves on to begin his own ascent up the ramp on his side. Combat is something MacCready has been doing for a long time – since he was only a child – and he has the skills to show for it. He has no problem dropping raiders as he spots them, all while he is vigilant in trying to keep track of where both Willow and Randall are.
At least, he thinks to himself as he casually takes the life of yet another chem-addled young man, raiders are easy to kill. They are stupid, reckless, and weak, and thus MacCready has no problem staving them off. He tries to keep a decent distance, but when one slips by his defenses and gets too close for a ranged attack, he is also readily well-trained in melee combat. He is wiry, lean, quick, and he deftly jumps out of the raider's grasp and spin-kicks him to disarm him. Then, he grits his teeth as he uses the raider's own dropped tire iron against him, bringing it down into his face. As the metal crunches into the bone with a sickening squelch, he laughs in self-satisfaction. "That's what you get when you mess with the best." he says to the corpse, before wiping his hands and moving onto his next victim.
The factory grows progressively quieter, until finally, there is only one man left standing up in the middle of the raised walkway.
Randall grips his gun as MacCready approaches him from one side, but is confused when the merc looks past him, and so he turns and spots Willow who has come up from behind him. Willow locks eyes with MacCready, who gives her a sarcastic look and makes a small sweeping motion with his arm as if to say, 'it's all you'.
Willow holds MacCready's eye contact for a moment, and nods to him, before she hollers out a battle cry and runs at Randall. Randall aims his pistol with wide eyes, but MacCready grabs his wrist from behind and twists his arm, prompting him to drop his gun with a cry of pain. Then, he shoves the older raider toward Willow, who tackles him to the ground and straddles him.
"Randall." she greets him coldly, eyes wild like a feral animal. Randall looks up to see the barrel of a sniper rifle pointed directly at his forehead.
"Move and you're dead, pal." MacCready warns him, and Randall casts his fearful gaze back to Willow.
"Who are you?!"