Foxhunt: Not Actual Size

Orlok grinned from behind the visor of his newly created Meganob armour. A lot of people wouldn’t get the joke unless they played a lot of vintage Warhammer but whatever.

“Remember kids, use protection. Put your Nob in Mega-Armour.” He chuckled to himself as he stomped awkwardly through the corridor, four guys with guns following after him nervously.

He would have liked to get more done with the armour but time constraints had made things a little tough. Actually creating powered armour was little more than a pipe dream with what he had to work with but he was able to scrounge together a metal chest plate, some shoulder guards and a helmet.

He’d made sure to shape it like a skull and paint it white. He’d also tied the dead black mamba around himself like a belt. You never know when you need the corpse of a poisonous snake. Still, the armour was awkward as all hell and the knee-guards were of less than ideal quality. He could feel them slipping off him already.

He was led into a large amphitheater of a room and chuckled at the crowd. He waved a little bit at their roars.

“Mkay. Who am I fighting?” He asked cheerily.

Romero stood awkwardly looking the guy up and down in his makeshift armor and a literal snake belt. The Alpha raised his hand. “That would be me.”

Even though he was the only other person in the area Romeo figure that was no reason not to be courteous. “Armor huh? Gonna slow you down a lot you know.” He said with a raised eyebrow.

Orlok chuckled a bit and rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. “Yeah, I mostly just made it because I was bored. Still, I think I’d rather be slow than not have anything between you and my vitals. No offense.”

“None taken.” Romeo shrugged. “So … we just … start? There a bell or anything?”

“I think Rowan has to like, say something before we go. I don’t really know this place all that well. Oh, but word of advice. Don’t piss Rowan off. Crazy bitch likes to torture people. Yugh. It’s creepy.” Orlok made vague shooing motions with his hands.

“Tell me about it. Crazy ass women stabbed my pup in the damn foot.” Romeo snorted.

“Youch. She just pulled one of my fingernails off.”

Hmm. There seemed to be an awkward pause as they both waited for the magic space gods to write their destinies. Orlok scratched at one arm.

“So… what brought you here?” He asked jovially, gesturing to the arena.

“Foxhunt, got a reliable tip of a Neo in the area … found him in the club and now Rowen wants a show for safe passage outta here.” Romeo told his opponent.

“Lovely. Oh, look at that. My text seems to have turned blue.” Orlok said sarcastically and ignored his opponent’s confused expression.

“Hmm. So, know any good jokes?” He asked.

“Not really… how about we just get this started?” Romeo rolled his shoulder and made the first move, leaping forward to close the distance. He feigned a punch to only step in and slide up behind Orlock and deliver a quick kick to the back of the man’s knee. The Alpha wasn’t going to split his knuckles on the makeshift armor! Rather tire the man out and take apart in pieces!

Orlok grunted and fell as his knee was punted really hard. He growled and awkwardly leapt back on one knee, landing on his side. He unbuckled the snake from his belt and grinned.

“Your grammar is atrocious!” He accused and swung the snake’s head at Romeo’s face. The man dodged quickly, as was expected. One of the snake’s fangs  did  however graze him against the cheek.

A tiny cut was made and some clear fluid dribbled down Romeo’s cheek.

“What? You thought this thing was just for show?” Orlok chuckled.

“The HELL?!” Romeo said carefully wiping his cheek checking for blood. That was the LAST thing he needed! Explaining how he got poisoned by a guy armored in trash using a dead snake as a god damned whip! Also, the man was talking crazy … but that shouldn’t be surprising now should it? “Right … so it’s going to be like that … “

Romeo moved in again ducking under the snap of Orlock dead animal whip, rolled and went for a sweep.

Orlok laughed insanely and allowed the sweep the carry him to the floor, but not before dropping the snake and putting both arms around Romeo’s neck and pulling him down with him. They landed in a heap and Orlok somehow managed to get on top.

Only, he didn’t really know what to do after that. So he just went for repeatedly flopping down on top of Romeo like he was some kind of muscled trampoline.

Romeo fell pulled down by the weight of the taller man and his makeshift armor. Worse with all the flopping, Orlock wasn’t exactly taking advantage of his superior position. Romeo curled his arm in front of him and as soon as he had enough room went for the weak spot in Orlock armor … and throat punched him.

Orlok wasn’t expecting to get throat punched. He fell back with a start and suddenly Romeo was on top of him. He coughed once and then again as another meaty fist landed on his throat, throwing him back again.

“Oh, okay then. If that’s how it is.” Orlok reached for one of his knee-guards and tore it off.

He turned it over, revealing a series of plasma batteries and fuses he’d crudely welded to it. He chuckled, pressed the fuse and lobbed the knee-guard at Romeo.

Romeo was feeling woefully underprepared and ran for it to get clear as the makeshift bomb exploded sending him tumbling forward from the concussive force, ears ringing. “This is insane … Who does this on purp- … right, that would be me.” He grumbled as he shook his stuffy head from the effect of being too close to the blast.

“Aha! I have bested you, silly potato man! Now, I RUN AWAY!!!” Orlok yelled out and made a hasty retreat to the opposite side of the arena.

“This can’t be normal. This has got to be some kind of joke.” Romeo said noting the jeering and laughing of the crowd. He just didn’t want to be chasing the guy around the entire arena!

Someone in the crowd started barking, trying to spur the Alpha on, and pretty soon over half of the arena had joined in the chant. Money exchanged hands rapid fire, bets were taken, odds were being laid down. Now that there was real money involved, the crowd started to turn their attention to weapons.

AR Vendors offered a wide selection, and for a hundred or so creds, one decidedly biased OSEC opposer purchased a shiny set of throwing knives for the house fighter.

The vending slot down in the arena for Orlock lit up making a jackpot sound. Unfortunately, it looked like Orlock was going to have to get past Romeo to get to the weapon he was given.

Orlok was officially out of the tricks he’d brought with him into the arena. He sighed. He’d have to do this the old-fashioned way.

“YOU MAY TAKE MY LIFE!!! BUT YOU’LL NEVER TAKE MA FREEDOM!!!” He roared as he charged at Romeo.

The Alpha seemed so confused at this point, Orlok couldn’t blame him that he just put an arm out and clotheslined him. Orlok went down like a sack of bricks and clutched his bleeding and probably broken nose.

“Ow, my freedom!” He yelled out.

Orlok jumped back up dizzily and slapped Romeo in the face before he dived for the knives. He grabbed one, held it in a reverse grip and dived for Romeo’s face.

Getting bitchslapped was the literal last thing Romeo expected giving Orlock the time to grab a throwing knife with ease.

His arm snapped out with a flourish of sharp movements, each punctuated by him yelling out “Stab! Stab! Stab!” Romeo dodged every one.

“That is not - “Romeo said dodging the first stab. “-How you use -” He dodged the second stab. “-Throwing knives!!” He chided catching Orlock wrist on the last stab. With practiced ease, Romeo twisted Orlocks arm into an arm lock and kicked out one of his feet to unbalance him. With a jerk, he sent Orlock face first into the ground.

Before Orlock could recover Romeo took a step back and soccer kicked the Psycho right in the armored rib cage, denting the armor and sending Orlock skidding a couple of feet back.

That was going to leave a bruise on both parties! It was so worth it though. “Out of breath yet?” He asked coolly.

“Hardy hardy funny man.” Orlok sighed and threw a knife at Romeo’s head. He dodged it with ease.

Romeo started to approach his position on the ground slowly. Orlok grinned when a metallic screech rumbled out. Romeo looked up just as a massive ceiling light started to fall towards them both. Orlok ran.