Fight for Freedom

Chapter 3: Let's go!

(a/n) Hello again. Thanks for the reviews (thanks Dynamis) that decided to make me carry on with this story. In this chapter John will tell people why he is actually in here in more detail, and he should also get his first qualification match in. So hope this one is more interesting. Please review and enjoy. :)

John was trying on his new armour that had just been delivered to his cell. He clipped on the buckles on the side of his chest armour and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked pretty good; he was surprised that he didn't feel any heavier either. There was a small screen built in to a plate of armour around his wrist. His touched the screen lightly with his finger and it glowed a bright green and a notice saying: 'scoreboard is not available' came up. John was impressed with is so far.

The armour was a navy green colour and left his arms bare with just a plate around his wrists and some gloves to protect them. Boots came to his knees, and then there was a plate to cover them, and then navy trousers underneath. More buckles kept them in place, and then there was a torso armour piece and went around his whole chest. In the middle of the chest piece there was obviously a place for a certain symbol to go, he would get that when he joined a team.

John liked the armour, and he felt ready for anything. His match was starting in a couple of minutes, so he had to get ready so he could just get in and get out quickly without getting hurt. He glanced up at the big screen in the corner, and saw what looked like a Last Man Standing match. A mech called Matrix appeared back in the stadium and said in a robotic voice: "My victory, your death". It seemed kinda scary to John that that mech had been programmed to say that and it doesn't even have any feelings when it says that.

The commentator didn't seem very enthusiastic about this match or indeed announcing the next match. "The next match is a qualifying match between our new competitor Viper and the person who has never got out of here before: Silhouette!" The crowd cheered weakly and most of them left. "Ok, here we go." John said to himself quietly and walked towards the lift outside his cell.

He showed the small scanner next to the lift his ticket and the computer accepted and gave it back to John. He left it on the desk and stepped onto the lift. He was nervous, he didn't know what to expect up there. On TV it looked fun and exciting to do, but when you are there, all you want is to just get out. The elevator reached the top and there was a small crowd that all turned to stare at John at the same time.

"Viper! Our new competitor for the tournament who is looking for glory!" the commentator said normally. The crowd clapped lightly as John walked up to the platform in the middle and waited for his opponent to come out.

"Now we have Viper's opponent, Silhouette!" The crowd started booing and shouting insults at her. John felt sorry for her and wished the crowd would treat her better, but she obviously didn't have a good reputation. She walked quickly up to the platform, obviously to get away from all the bad things people were saying about her. John nodded at her when she looked him in the eyes, she didn't respond. She slammed down on the button and the large screen above John and her and it stopped on a map called 'Idoma'

"Looks like its Idoma again folks!" The commentator shouted. Then a woman's voice came on and said: "Match begins in 5.....4.....3.....2.....1....Begin."

John had appeared standing in a puddle of water just outside a corridor that ran under a bridge. John looked at the pad on his wrist and tapped it with his finger. A score board came up with Silhouette's and John's name on it. Kill limit 5 it said. John looked up and ran down the corridor. He had is assault rifle ready and carefully checked that nobody could see him. There was a shock rifle in front of him, he picked it up and ran towards some health vials picking them up and they gave him a boost of energy. He knew what most of these things are as John had watched it on TV so many times.

John went up a wooden ramp and turned the corner to see Silhouette standing there with a rocket launcher. John was startled and took a step back. Silhouette cocked the rocket launcher and was about to fire but John closed his eyes and hit the trigger. The first shot hit her in the leg, bringing her down on one knee. He fired again and hit her in the chest, she fell on her back and pointed her rocket launcher at John, she fired at him and John's first instinct was to duck and hug the wall. She fired again and one was going straight for John's face but he ducked again and he popped up and fired a shot into Silhouette's rocket launcher just when she fired and hit her rocket when it was still in the barrel and blew her arm clean off. "First Blood" the announcer said.

John carried on running and picked up a Flak Cannon around the back of the map, he loaded it up and was ready to find Silhouette and get the job done before he got hurt. Silhouette was hiding around a corner waiting for John to appear, but John was exploring parts of the map that were empty and ended up right behind her. He didn't know what to do, he would have to kill her, but he didn't want to like this. He couldn't sit there and think about it for too long otherwise he would be killed himself. He pointed the Flak Cannon right next her head and closed his eyes and fired. Blood went all over him and the surrounding concrete walls were decorated with smears of red.

As soon as John moved Silhouette was back with a minigun and opened up on John, he was out in the open and he couldn't go anywhere. He was riddled with bullets and thrown back against the wall. Silhouette showed no mercy, she had obviously been stuck in here for a long time and wanted to get out. She opened up again and John was killed.

There were flashes of blue and red and John had respawned back. His body hurt a lot and he had a ringing headache, and there was a sensational stinging pain in his back. He limped towards a Link gun and picked up some link charges too. Silhouette turned the corner and John blasted her away angrily. What she did to him hurt a lot and he wanted her to pay. Her body slid down the wooden ramp and landed face down in a puddle. He looked at his wrist pad, he only had to kill her 2 more times and then he would win.

A large armour pick up lay in front of him and he ran over it, a flash of gold went over him and he knew this would help him. Silhouette spotted John and fired at him with her rocket launcher. One hit John in the back whilst another just went over his head; John was knocked forwards onto his hands and knees and turned around to have a rocket land right next to him, blowing John to the side. His armour was taking most of it, but it was basically all gone from the blows with the rocket.

John scrambled up onto his feet, he had been knocked off balance and fired in Silhouette's direction, he wasn't being very accurate with the link gun primary fire, so he used the secondary attack and a long green beam stretched across the hall and hit her in the head. John held down the trigger until she has melted into a skeleton which crumpled in a heap.

"One more kill" John said to himself. "Then it will be over just one more kill" He picked up a minigun and dropped his link gun on the floor, bullets were lying around the gun so he picked them up as well. He didn't have much health and he needed some quickly or he would be blown away, he ran towards a health pack when he heard that noise again. A rocket was flying in his direction. John spun round to face Silhouette and rolled to the left when the rocket was coming at him. John let rip with his minigun and tore her to shreds.

"You have won the match!" The announcer boomed into John's earpiece making him jump. "Oh yeah!" John shouted, he couldn't help it. They both reappeared on the platform and he could see Silhouette was ashamed of herself and she walked off slowly with the crowds booing and shouting at her even more. John did feel sorry for her, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. Instead he just raised his arm and the crowd started to cheer for him. Then he decided to walk back to his cell.

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John sat down on his couch and put his head in his hands. He was over the moment that he got in the match, and he finally realized what he had really done. His normal thoughts flooded back to him and his mind was full of guilt and questions.

John sighed and thought to himself: "how did I just do that? What have I just done? That wasn't me in there, that was someone else, a monster." John stamped his foot and looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath, he needed to calm down.

"Nice match there man!" it was Lock again, but this time he had someone with him. Lock always made the same entrance, the type that startled John when he wasn't expecting it. John was still looking at the ceiling. "You alright?" girl with Lock said. John looked up at the woman. She smiled and said, "hi my names Rae. You must be Viper, or John as Lock likes to call you."

"Thanks. Yeah I'm John nice to meet ya'" He shook her hand weakly and looked back up at the ceiling. "You ok?" Lock asked. "Yeah, I'm fine" John replied quietly. Lock looked at Rae and made a gesture that she should leave him and John alone to talk. Rae nodded, Lock stood up and kissed her, and then she left.

Lock put his hand on John shoulder. "Really, what's wrong?" John sighed and looked at the floor, trying not to make eye contact. "I....I just can't believe what I just did in there. The way I was so brutal in there."

"Well, I mean in here, you have to be brutal to stay alive. Hell, that's the reason most of us are in here right? I mean you must have done something bad to be in here. I mean-"

"- yeah but that's where your wrong!" John stood up angrily and looked at Lock who was still sitting down. "I wasn't put in here because I hurt anybody! I'm here, because that asshole Phoenix, framed me, and just wanted a few more people like me so he could torture them in here! In that court room, I tried to defend myself, I had evidence to prove it! But they still turned me down and put me in here."

"Well, what happened then?" Lock asked cautiously. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I was working an extra shift at my job, there was a small alley around the back where I was going to take the garbage out and put it there. Then, my memory goes, I remember, I remember a gang. They were attacking some guy and beating him up real bad. I asked them what they were doing, and they attacked me, then I can't remember anything else, a gunshot, then they must have dumped my body with the weapon and victim and left me for dead."

"Even the CCTV got it on camera, but nobody would pay attention. They thought it was a way of making murder look innocent and like an accident when they say it was all planned. I mean how the hell do you plan this?"

John took of his right boot and revealed three gunshot wounds, and then a gash going all the way up his thigh. "You call that an accident?" John shouted. Lock didn't know what to say. "Oh my god" he said quietly. "Exactly what I said" John said quietly. He sat back down.

"So that's what you said about Phoenix. Yeah that makes sense. At least I'm in here for a decent reason." "What's that?" John asked. Lock closed his eyes. "I don't wanna talk about it." He left the room silently.

(a/n) Well, don't worry, you will find out what happened to Lock and why so bear with me. I made the first match a little shorter with the kill limit, mainly because I didn't want to go on and on about the fighting. They will get a lot bigger later on though, and don't worry if John seems like a bit of a wimp at first, things will change. Please review. :)