Fight for Freedom

Chapter 4: New offerings

(a/n) I would like to thank Dynamis and Miranon for reviewing my story. I will try to get a fight in Rankin for you, and I'll try to update every one or two weeks, I have a lot of spare time on my hands at the moment, so I should be able to update quite often. I might have to skip a couple of qualification maps because I don't want to bore you to death with them and take up half the story. I'm having real fun writing this story too. Read, enjoy, and review! :)

Lock drifted freely up to the next platform. He was at his favourite arena. Morpheus3, the gravity was much lighter 12 miles high in the air than it was on ground. Lock found it easy to get the kills when people were exposed in the air.

"Oh yeah!" Rae taunted at Virus as his body floated off the side of the building. Lock smiled and spotted Abbadon in the distance. It was a two-on- two match, so he could take more time getting his kills in.

Abbadon jumped lightly into the next platform with ease, but as soon as he touched down, his head flew straight off his shoulders and landed next to his dead body. "Head shot!" the deep voiced announcer boomed in Lock's earpiece.

Suddenly, Virus jumped down right in front of Lock, he opened up with his minigun and hit Lock several times in the chest, knocking him to the floor breathing heavily. Virus stood over him and pointed the minigun in his face, he cocked it. "Die human" he said in a robotic voice. Lock closed his eyes, when a shot rang out and Virus stumbled and went on one knee, another shot came and he fell flat on his face. Rae appeared behind the dead body.

"Thanks." Lock said. Rae stretched her arm out and Lock grabbed it. A rocket flew in and hit the floor right next to them. Lock was killed instantly and Rae was thrown back against a pillar, she was then shot again and she slumped to the floor. "You suck!" Abbadon said.

Lock and Rae respawned near each other and decided to stick together. "Let's kill those bastards." Lock said angrily and they grabbed a sniper rifle each and headed up the ramp to the main level. Virus came into view instantly, Rae gave him one in the chest, and then Lock finished him off. They both glided onto another platform and saw Abbadon reaching for the Redeemer. "Shit" Lock said under his breath. He fired off a round and hit Abbadon in the arm he was using to grab the weapon, and then hit him in the chest. He fell off the top of the small structure and fell in a heap.

Meanwhile Rae had just killed Virus once more. She checked her wrist pad. 4 more kills to go before they won. She spotted Abbadon and aimed through the sight, took a deep breath and then-'click'. Rae swore and quickly ran up to get a Shock Rifle and some ammo for it. She drifted back down to where Lock was and saw a rocket hit him in the chest and he flew into a wall and was killed.

Rae gritted her teeth and fired a shock ball, and then shot it with a normal shock beam and a large ball of energy burst out right next to Abbadon making him execute a nice front flip. "Die bitch!" she shouted at him and moved on to get the last kills done. She heard Lock taunt at Virus, she smiled and jumped towards the next platform, she was picked off in the air by Virus and her body fell all the way down and smashed into the platform next the Ion Painter.

Lock grabbed the Redeemer and looked from his high vantage point for Virus or Abbadon. He couldn't see them anywhere. Suddenly, they both appeared from the edge off the platform he was on, they must have used the jump pad down below. He ducked behind the small structure, he could hold on with one hand because of the gravity. They landed safely on the platform. Lock popped up and fired the rocket and then ducked back behind the structure. There was a huge explosion, the whole place rumbled. "Double kill!" Lock felt weak and dropped to the floor.

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John was watching the match from his cell. He was sitting on the couch with his armour on and ready to fight in his match after this one was done. He had a weight in his right hand and he was lifting it slowly up and down. He wasn't as nervous as he was in his last match. He had won his last match in the Roughinery against two other people by only 1 kill which was a complete fluke.

Silhouette just happened to be in the wrong place when he fired a rocket at somebody else, but he ducked around a corner, and Silhouette jumped down and got it in the back.

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Rae shot Virus in the stomach with a Shock rifle three times, and he finally fell to the floor. "Blue Team is the winner!" the announcer boomed. They all appeared back in the stadium and Virus and Abbadon looked angry. They were shouting and cursing a lot and the crowd did not approve.

Lock was still very limp and weak after the explosion he suffered, but he wasn't hurt in any way. Rae put his arm over her shoulder and she walked with Lock who was limping back to the lift that took them down. The crowd was cheering for them, and Rae waved to them as the disappeared from view down the lift.

John smiled at the TV and put the weight under the couch and walked slowly out to the lift. He scanned his ticket over the computer and it flashed green. The lift came down and the doors opened. Rae and Lock were there. Lock just managed to lift his head, look at John and say: "Good luck kid." His head dropped again and he and Rae went back to their cell. John rode the lift up.

He got to the top and the commentator at least seemed a little more enthusiastic. "And in this match we have Viper, Silhouette, Hyena and Vengeance. They all came out different exits and the crowd cheered mainly for Hyena. He was the guy who John barely beat last match.

They all walked up to the platform in the middle and Hyena slammed down hard on the button and the map stopped on Trite. "Well fans! We have a good change here in the maps; this should be a good fight!"

"5....4....3....2....1....Begin!" John appeared in a small pool of water up to his shins and a Flak cannon lay in front of him. He picked it up and headed off to find somebody. Hyena jumped down in front of him. John closed his eyes and hit the trigger. "First Blood!"

He saw Silhouette fighting with Vengeance up above him on a catwalk and John saw his chance, but he didn't get very far. Silhouette had killed Vengeance and had her sights set on him. She fired her minigun at him and was a feeble shot. Bullets deflected off the metal around him causing sparks and creating a distraction.

He rushed towards her. Her weapon was out of ammo so she was easy pickings. John ran up and fired blowing her to pieces. Hyena came from around the corner and fired his rocket launcher at John. It hit him in the foot blowing him off the side of the catwalk, and fatally injuring him.

John respawned and saw Vengeance, he fired at her with his Assault rifle but didn't really do anything to her. Before she could react John ran around a corner and found himself in a small room with some health vials and armour. He picked them up and ran back out in the open to pick up a rocket launcher.

A lot of firepower was being exchanged up on the catwalk again. Hyena flew off the catwalk and then was volleyed off another rocket. It was hard to make out what was happening with all the smoke. When it cleared, only Vengeance was left so John fired a homing rocket at her and blew her to pieces.

John checked his wrist pad. Kill limit was 15. He was on 3 and Hyena was ahead with 5 and Silhouette and Vengeance were trailing with 1 each. He needed to beat Hyena and get a few quick kills so he could get a good lead.

The arena went quiet for a couple of minutes. John stopped and didn't hear anything. He ran up the catwalk again and picked up some adrenaline. He could feel his body getting pumped and ready. Suddenly, Hyena ran up the catwalk and John ducked around the corner. He waited for Hyena to come out and he fell right into his trap. He smashed him to pieces.

"You like that?" Silhouette taunted at Vengeance and she came into John's view. He fired away with his rocket launcher. Closing both his eyes with every shot. She collapsed on the floor was about to die when Hyena came into view and shot her on the floor.

"You bastard!" John said. He just stole John's kill right under his nose. "He's gonna pay!" John chased after him and found him dead with Vengeance running off around a corner. John chased and killed her, blowing her body across the room. His rocket launcher only had 2 rockets left. He didn't have another weapon after this one apart from his Assault rifle which was no good.

John released the two rockets in a tight spiral and a large explosion engulfed Vengeance. He dropped the weapon and ran up the catwalk. He turned the corner of the T junction at the end of the catwalk and grabbed a lightening gun. Not his favourite weapon of choice.

Silhouette came up the catwalk, John propped his gun around the corner and fired at her. She landed flat on her back and electricity flowed through her body making her twitch endlessly.

The score was now 8 to John and Hyena was last with 6. The other two had caught up; John couldn't under estimate them either. He still had his lightening gun; he saw Vengeance and fired at her. All he got was a flash of gold every time he hit her. She turned and looked at John. "Oh crap" John mouthed. He was blown away with one fell swoop from a Flak cannon.

John respawned next to a Flak cannon and took it gladly. He ran through the small pool and found Hyena with his back to him. John fired and blew him away with just a mangled body left behind. Minigun bullets chipped up around John's feet and he took cover.

He peered around the corner and took a bullet in the side of the head. He clutched the wound and let out a scream. Blood escaped the side of his head and seeped through in between his fingers. John looked around again nothing was there. It was hard holding the Flak cannon in one hand.

John was scared this time. This was the first time he had really been hurt. He wanted to stay in the corner and tend to his wound. But he had to win the match; he had to bring himself to it. He took a step out of the corner and saw Hyena; he fired at close range and blew him apart with his corpse smashing into a wall.

The power of the gun nearly blew his whole hand off, but John kept going. He still had his hand clutched over the side of his head and blood was still coming out of it. He was starting to feel faint. He needed to find a med kit.

There was a fight going on up on the catwalk again. John just fired a few shots off up into the fray and ended up killed Hyena. He ran around the corner and into a small room. There were some health vials and an armour pickup, but they weren't what John was really looking for. The health vials will have to do, they made him feel better, but the wound in his head was still throbbing. He ran out of the room and finally found a med kit. He felt very relieved when the pain in his head stopped hurting and he could carry on.

He only had to get 5 more kills to win and he needed them fast. Vengeance jumped down from the catwalk and was met by the barrel of John's Flak cannon. 4 kills left.

Hyena and Silhouette were in a heavy fire fight and they were both badly injured. John fired a ball of red hot metal in the middle and knocked out both of them with their bodies flying in opposite directions. "Double kill!" the announcer boomed.

John was running low on ammo and needed to get the last kills. Hyena was up on the catwalk reigning terror with a lightening gun and anybody who walked through this area was going to get their head blown off.

John made a dive to the ramp leading up to the catwalk and Hyena missed him. Silhouette was the perfect distraction. Hyena started firing at her and missed. John seized the chance and blew Hyena away, and the dropped down and killed Silhouette and her body neatly landed in the pool of water.

"You have won the match!" the announcer shouted. John wiped the sweat off his forehead. They appeared back on the platform and the crowd cheered for John.

"Viper! Viper! Viper!" they were chanting. Suddenly, the feeling he got in the arena was gone, and he wasn't proud or pleased anymore. He was confused, afraid and annoyed with himself.

John didn't wave this time. He went down silently. Memories of what happened on the night of the murder flooded back to him. He felt like he had done worse than what the gang had done to the victim. Tears stung John's eyes again. He couldn't let people see him like this. He returned quietly to his cell and sat down on his couch and put his head in his hands.

(a/n) Sorry again for making John a bit of a wuss out of the arena, but this shouldn't last for long. There will be a plot twist, but I'm working on how I will get it done. Thanks for reading. Please review! :)