Project Boussh: Obligatory Fight Scene
by Josh Nolan

Brad stood arrogantly and took a step forward.  "Take me to the
Admonitor, Lieutenant," he said, his tone at odds with his demeanor just
moments before.  Josh was no expert at reading body language, but enough
was wrong with this picture so that he lifted his heels off the ground,
just leaving the balls of his feet on the ground.

At that moment, Brad exploded into action, hammering his right fist
towards Josh's solar plexus.  Josh rolled with the blow, lessening the
impact from a severe winding to a small sting, bringing his own right
hand to grab Brad's upper arm just below the armpit.

Josh yanked on Brad's arm, regaining his balance at the expense of
Brad's.  He hammered a left into Brad's kidneys, causing his enemy to
cry out in pain.  Capitalising on the weakness, Josh smashed his right
elbow into his enemy's face, then slammed his right knee into the
traitor's groin.

As the enemy doubled over, Josh threw him to the ground and kicked him
in the ribs.  The enemy writhed gratifyingly, but Josh was not about to
let up yet - he was a soldier, and this was war.  Dropping to his knees
- which incidentally landed on the enemy's ribs, something that made
Josh very proud - he rolled the enemy's torso onto its back, and slammed
his left fist into the enemy's face, Josh's knuckles connecting with a
glorious crunch on the bridge of its nose.

"Josh?" called a voice at the edge of his awareness.  He would attend to
it later.  He had work to do.  If one could call such a pleasant job
work.

He had established his dominance.  Now it was time to deal the enemy
what it deserved.  Only one thing was fit for a defeated enemy.  Josh
raised his left fist again, his gaze zeroing in on the enemy's
windpipe...

"Soldier!  Stand down!" barked a commanding voice.  Immmediately, Josh
leapt to his feet, feeilng a twinge of disappointment that the top brass
had seen fit to interfere with such a joyous assignment.

"Back away from the prisoner!" barked Ooryl again, and Josh did as he
was ordered - he was a soldier, after all.  Nick moved in between Josh
and the moaning prisoner, placing his hands on Josh's shoulders.  As
Ooryl moved to check on Brad, Nick locked eyes with Josh.  "I thought
you were just going to restrain him if he tried anything, Josh.  What
the hell was that?"

Josh felt the events of the last thirty seconds or so finally catch up
with him, and his jaw dropped.  "I - I was going to restrain him.  Right
up until he hit me."  He broke Nick's gaze, and glanced down at where
Ooryl was checking Brad, and back at Nick.  "But once we started
fighting, the adrenaline kicked in, I guess..."  He dropped his eyes.
"And the stormie took over."

Nick quickly took his hands off Josh's shoulders and glanced down at
Brad.  "I thought you had it under control."

"I thought I did, too," said Josh, raising his head to meet Nick's eyes
again.  "I started thinking of him as 'the enemy', not 'Brad', and...
well...  I forgot about restraining him, and started trying to kill
him."

"It is good you did not succeed at that," said Ooryl, rummaging through
his medkit.  "But I think your methods of restraining captives need more
work."

Nick stared Josh in the eye for a moment, and then said, "All right,
Josh.  No more of your bright ideas, okay?  Not unless you run them
*completely* past me first.  Deal?"

Josh looked down at his left hand, where the middle knuckle had split
and was bleeding.  "Deal."