Halo Spotlight: Talitsa Nights

The rain beat down hard in the neon lights of Talista, as it usually did. There were seven brutish men in a circle, knives at the ready, their breathing not quite steady. Riker and Dyne stood in the center, back to back.

"Do you get this often?" Riker asked, standing fairly relaxed despite being surrounded.

"Too much, honestly," Dyne replied, "They never really learn."

Riker sighed. He looked at their assailants again. All knives, apparently. Light body armor as well, but nothing substantial. It looked like one or two might have a gun holstered on the rear of their hip, but they refused to draw it. Idiots, Riker mused.

"Go ahead and surrender, and we’ll do this as smoothly as possible," said the seeming leader of the group. Riker could tell the thug was struggling to keep his composition. The merc wasn’t sure what exactly he was up against, but he knew it was more than he should be mixed up with.

"Sure, surrender." Dyne was smirking now, shaking his fists lose a bit. Riker couldn’t help but tell that the kid’s fighting stance didn’t look very Spartan like. Typical of a Three. "Because that’s what the stronger force usually does. Surrender. Sure..."

Riker grunted, appreciating the humor just ever so slightly. "You ready?"

"I was waiting for you, old man."

Lightning lashed out, as did the Spartans. They snapped at their foes, catching them completely off guard with their speed. Dyne disarmed the first man and flipped him over into the nearest foe, toppling them both. Riker accidentally broke the forearm of his opponent as he wrested the knife away, then broke a few ribs as he kicked him into a nearby wall. Two others tried to latch onto Riker’s back, but Riker dodged one and threw the other across the alley, where he collided with another thug rushing Dyne.

Dyne threw several kicks at his remaining foe, and then spun to see Riker punch the other man to the ground. The thug reached for his gun, but as he threw it up to fire, Riker grabbed the barrel and thrust it sideways. A single shot spat out and buried itself in an alley wall, but before the second could fire Riker squeezed down. With a loud screech, the barrel of the gun twisted sideways and sealed, leaving the terrified thug with no weapon. The ruffian almost passed out in fear, but Riker made sure his punch knocked him out before he could.

The thunder clap finally rolled in, but now instead of seven armed men surrounding two, the alley held two warriors drenched in water and blood stains alongside seven unconscious, wounded fools.

Dyne stood as he finished robbing the last of the men’s bullet clips. "So... what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"