Fight for Freedom

Chapter 5: New offerings

(a/n) Thanks for your great reviews. I do like John's character because he's got to learn if he wants to get out of here. So, special thanks to Dynamis, Lacrease and Cursor. I'm having real fun writing this, and finally John should be able to meet his team and get some team matches in, and maybe even something like a CTF Joust or an Instgib match to mix things up. Plus Onslaught matches should appear soon too. Ok so, read, enjoy, and review! :)

Phoenix was in his quarters that he had just received from beating Malcolm. There were pictures of him in his shining deep red armour raising his hand after he had just beaten Malcolm.

A large cabinet next to the pictures was fixed to the wall .It was full of old tournament weapons; the Enforcer, Plasma gun and the Ripper. All of them were fully loaded and ready to use. He liked that. Phoenix had to debate with Lauren and Brock to take this cabinet off Malcolm, a fight nearly broke out but Phoenix called some more Liandri troops to back him up and Brock and Lauren had to give it up.

He saw the hatred in their eyes when he left with the cabinet and the trophy, fortunately for all; there was a match next week between Fire Storm and the Iron Guard (a/n I kind of imagine Phoenix as Motig or something in deep red armour so he's in Fire Storm.)

He heard footsteps in the room; Phoenix spun around and saw his computer assistant was there. "Erik. You finished with the computer?" "Uh, yes sir I am." Erik replied in a small geeky voice.

They both headed down to the large computer room where screen and buttons flashed all sorts of different colours from yellow to white to green. Phoenix was impressed. This was the first time he had ever been down here and he liked it already.

Erik led him up to a large screen with a huge keyboard below it. "What does this one do?" Phoenix asked. "Well, this is the computer that will let you adjust the matches. You can change everything from how many respawns each player gets, to what weapons you can have in the match, everything really." "Everything." Phoenix said quietly. "Well, or course if you want to change something big then you need to consult the Liandri first."

"Well, they are just going to have to live with something different then won't they?" Phoenix said with a large grin on his face. "But sir, you can't do that. You have to resort to-"

"-Do I look like the kind of guy who wants to follow orders?!" Phoenix shouted as he interrupted Erik. "But..." Phoenix looked Erik right in the eye and took a step towards him and picked him up by his throat.

Erik was scared out of his skin and he was struggling for air. "Now, I'm going to do what I want with this computer and there is no way you, or anybody else is going to stop me. Do you have a problem with that?" Erik shook his head as much as he could, and he was about to faint. "And if you go and tell the Liandri what I'm doing, you know what will happen to you." Phoenix threw Erik across the room and he landed in a heap with blood coming out his mouth. Erik ran out of the room as fast as he could and Phoenix looked at the computer and smiled.

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John was in a small dark alley again. He heard shouting and screaming, and a gun shot broke the silence. There was laughing and John still couldn't see anything. He stumbled and leaned up against a wall.

Suddenly, in the distance, a blurry image came out through the darkness. It was the gang again, attacking that poor man in the exact same place. One of the gang walked up to John and they were face to face, it was a familiar face but he couldn't make it out. "Good night" he said quietly. Another gunshot rang out and John saw his leg and blood was gushing out of the three holes again.

John gasped and sat up on the couch. Sweat trickled down the side of his head. He quickly rolled up the right leg on his pants and saw the three holes and the gash up to his thigh. John let out a deep breath.

John had never had a dream like that before. But that face, it seemed so familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on it. It was only a dream though, and he couldn't let it get to him. John's father always told him that dreams were never real and never reflected life.

John swung his legs over and put them firmly on the ground. The TV remote lay next to him. John picked it up and turned the TV on. No matches had started yet, so a timetable of when different ones would start came up. John's was the second match of the day at 8:30, the match before him was between The Corrupt and Black Legion.

The TV flashed on and a match was underway. "Welcome sports fans to the first match of the day, and of course you can watch this match from any perspective at home if you want by hitting the 'cam' button twice and then your blue button."

"The Corrupt are now just getting underway in their first match of the new tournament, and the hottest news is available with us and we have heard that Xan Kreigor is going to return to the tournament this year, but he is 'sitting out' the first matches of the year because he says they are 'below his standards'. Confident words there."

The match started and there was an overview of the scoreboard and all the contenders were running around, jumping and shooting instantly.

John couldn't sit here and watch the match; he needed to get ready for his one. He headed into the shower and got ready.

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Lock had woken up and felt even more limp and weak than he did during the match, he had suffered some severe radiation damage, well that's what the doctor said anyway. The doctors in the Liandri are supposed to be the best in the world, and they need them because some bad injuries have come out of the tournament. It was a miracle Malcolm survived his injury. News on Malcolm had been that he was slowly recovering in hospital.

Lock had been challenged to a 1-on-1 match today at Idoma. Lock wasn't sure if he could make it there let alone fight a match. If he called it off then he might have to pay a 500 credit fine for not going, but his team was starting to lose more money.

Medical treatment cost the most, last match his team mate and friend Gunther nearly died as he had been injured to about 11% health. The treatment cost about 800 credits. He told his team to be more careful.

A doctor came into Lock's cell and asked him how he was. Lock could barely speak. His energy was non-existent and he found it hard to lift his head and look at people. Lock was in a real bad way. "I'm going to call off your match today Lock. You're in no condition to fight."

Lock let out a sigh of relief and flopped back onto the couch. The doctor left the cell, and Lock was on his own. He felt paralyzed, something much more than an explosion was in that Redeemer. It seemed unfair; he wished he had a second chance so he could have let himself die in the explosion as well so he wouldn't suffer like this.

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John was finally ready. I didn't feel right putting on his armour this time, that dream was still on his mind. He couldn't understand what it meant, why and how. None of it made sense to him.

"Red team is the winner!" the commentator broke John's chain of thoughts and he quickly went off to the lift outside.

The computer flashed green and the doors opened and the lift came down. The Corrupt team was on the lift. John took several steps back. He was scared and intimidated by them; the whole team must have been there, except for Xan of course. None of them made eye contact with John, well; John couldn't really make out where some of their eyes were. But at least he was slightly relieved that they didn't.

John rode the lift up and his chain of thoughts came back to him. He was still puzzled by that face, it was so familiar, but he couldn't recognize it at all. John went through all people he knew, but nothing, his mind so blank and clueless yet it was so obvious. The lift reached the top and he was snapped back into life.

"Welcome folks! This is the match that determines who moves up and gets to join a team, and who doesn't!" It seemed strange how the commentator could be so enthusiastic about something bad happening.

4 people came into view from the other lifts. There were two juggernauts and two Egyptian fighters. "In this match we have the undefeated Viper! Natron! Avalanche and Tranquility! The crowd was a mixture of cheering and booing with banners going up around the stadium.

John was more intimidated than ever. He had seen what some of these juggernauts did to people. Knock them hard into a corner and then shoot them repeatedly with a minigun. It was harsh. Avalanche walked up to the button with the crowd shouting insults and a beer can was thrown at him by an angry spectator, John sniggered as the can hit Avalanche in the back of the head.

Avalanche slammed down on the button and it stopped on Desolation. The crowd went wild and the commentator for once didn't say anything. "5...4...3...2...1...Begin."

John appeared on a ramp which had some form of see through material in the middle. He checked his wrist pad. Kill limit 15, which should be easy John thought.

He ran down the ramp and picked up a link gun. Natron came around the corner with his back to John as he was shooting at Avalanche. "Natron drew first blood!" the announcer said. Natron wheeled around and John fired a beam right into his stomach, making him keel over clutching the wound and then breathing out a long breath and collapsing.

John swapped his Link gun for Natron's minigun and ran headed through the middle of the arena. He ran over some adrenaline and then some health vials. He turned a corner and headed up another ramp. He found Perdition with a rocket launcher at the top of the ramp and he fired and hit John in the chest blowing him back down the ramp and he landed flat on his face.

Perdition fired again and John rolled to the side and the rocket missed. John rolled back over onto his back and let rip with his minigun. He burst holes in Perdition's armour, and his body flew back and then slid back down the ramp.

John headed up another ramp and turned a corner and saw Natron fly through the air and hit a wall and land in a crumpled heap with the sound of his bones being crushed. It made him jump and John nearly fell over. He turned the corner and saw Tranquility and he opened up with his minigun.

Flashes of gold went all over her. She turned to fire back at John but he ducked back round the corner. Several rockets hit the corner he was behind making John move away from it.

Natron ran up to the corner John was at and was blown back against the wall by John's minigun and was mangled by more bullets. John closed his eyes when memories of what he thought when Silhouette did that to him came back. He breathed out and headed back around the corner.

Perdition was there again and he shot away at him, half way through his burst, John ran out of ammo. He dropped the minigun and made a dive for a rocket launcher but failed when a rocket threw him off balance and he tumbled on to the floor. Another rocket from Perdition blew John to the side and into the wall killing him. "Ownage!" Perdition shouted.

The score was 4 to John and Avalanche was just behind him with 3. John respawned and picked up a Flak cannon. Tranquility turned the corner and was blown away by John; her body crashed and tumbled around the corner.

There was a large fire fight going on one of the upper levels. John approached it carefully and saw Avalanche fly off the side with a large explosion engulfing him as he hit the floor. These juggernaut guys are really heavy, that must hurt.

Soon after, Natron was blown off the side as well. Her leg clipped the side of the catwalk and made her land on her neck. Perdition dropped down and was blown away by John. Hot chunks of metal bounced off the walls around Perdition's dead body.

John headed up on the catwalk and looked down on the action. "You suck!" Avalanche said loudly. Tranquility headed up towards the catwalk and didn't watch her back. Perdition came from behind her and blew her up the ramp and she smacked face first into the wall in front of her.

John then opened up on Perdition and blew his left leg off as he lost his balance and fell over with blood pouring out where his leg used to be. Suddenly, Natron and Tranquility came round separate corners, they couldn't see each other, but they could see John. They both fired with their miniguns and tore John to shreds leaving a mangled torso behind.

"Die bitch!" Natron taunted in John's earphone. Natron was the one about to die next. John picked up a rocket launcher and scored a direct hit in his back and blew him to bits.

Through the smoke came Avalanche and he was blown away as well. His heavy body crashed into the side of the wall with a heavy thud. John gave a small smile as "double kill!" came through the earpiece.

John felt a stabbing pain in his left leg and fell on his hands and knees. He clutched the wound with his right hand as he took another hit in other leg. John made an attempt to crawl towards a med kit but his legs couldn't take it.

He didn't know where the shot came from but they were good ones. John was scared again, he could remember the pain in his leg from when he was shot by the gang. It felt the bullet had opened up old wounds. He felt like crying.

It didn't last for long, Avalanche finished him off. He respawned with his leg still feeling strange but he could carry on. He picked up the Link gun and some link charges and headed off to find the action.

John heard some fighting up ahead. A badly placed link shots went at John everyone missed. John wheeled around and saw Natron shooting at him. John fired a Link beam at him and melted away the armour and skin on his leg and Natron stumbled and fell flat on his back.

John only needed 5 more kills to win. He felt confident he was going to win. He grabbed a Flak cannon and saw Tranquility limping towards a med kit. "Oh no you don't" John said and fired a ball of metal at her blowing her to pieces.

John ran over some Flak ammo and loaded it into his gun. Perdition had a wound in his leg and was heading up the catwalk and John gave chase. He could catch up because of Perdition's bad leg, John caught up blew him away, making him fly off the side of the catwalk and landing with a sharp crack. Natron was back pedaling and didn't see Perdition's dead body and tripped over landing on her back. John saw his chance and killed her.

John again got the memories of when Silhouette was ruthless to him and wished he didn't kill Natron like that. He wanted to drop the gun and give up. Doing it once in one match was horrible John thought. But twice! He couldn't bare it. He would have to save his emotions until after the match.

Avalanche caught John off guard and fired at him with his minigun and hit John in the wrist pad smashing it and at the same time going through John's wrist. John retaliated and fired some red hot metal in Avalanche's face making both his hands grab his eyes instantly. John squeezed his eyes shut and blew Avalanche away again.

Only one more kill to go. Tranquility was the unlucky one this time. She had just finished off Natron and was blown away with one shot from John's Flak cannon. Her body was thrown around by each piece of shrapnel, including the ones that deflected off the wall behind her.

"You have won the match!" the announcer's deep voice boomed. John smiled and nodded. He didn't want to taunt, he wasn't in the mood. They all returned to the platform and people were cheering and whistling. "Viper! Viper! Viper!" He had heard it before, but he didn't feel proud of what he just did. He wanted to be left alone.

John went back down the lift ignoring the crowd and the doors opened at the bottom and a message was next to the ticket scanning machine.

"Congratulations. You have now been entered into the Unreal Tournament 2004 championships. Please take this card and show it to the person at the desk. He or she will assign you to a team of your choice." A small card popped out of the side of the machine and John took it. He then returned to his cell.

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John got back and sat down on his couch and sighed. He couldn't let these same emotions keep catching up on him. If he did, it wouldn't be long before he would be over powered by them and have a nervous break down.

John put his hand down by his side and felt a small note in between his fingers. He picked it up and looked at it. 'Room #262'. It was signed by Lock, John better head over there; he knew what it was going to be.

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John was walking slowly counting up the numbers as he went along. "259........260....261.......262." John peered around the corner and saw a whole different bunch of people in there. He couldn't see Lock or Rae in there at all though. He took his chances and asked the crowd of people.

"Hi guys. Um...is Lock or Rae here?" They all looked at John with a deadly stare. John took half a step back. All at the same time they pulled out Shock rifles and Miniguns. They cocked them and pointed them at John.

"Oh crap" John said. "Hold your fire boys!" a female voice rang out and broke the tense silence. A woman came out of one of the rooms. It was Rae. John let out a big sigh of relief.

"Oh my god Rae. You scared the shit out of me." John said nervously. Rae laughed and told the rest of the people in the room to put their guns down.

"Where's Lock?" John asked. "He's resting. He still has no energy from what happened in that blast. Even I feel a little weak today. He's a sleep in the little spare room we have. He told me to give you this."

She held out a small chip and gave it to John.

"Put this in the small slit in the back of your armour and it will change according to witch colour and team you are on. Lock would give it to you personally, but you know." "Thanks." John replied. He examined the chip and held it tightly in his hand.

"Now, let me introduce you to the rest of the team." Rae walked over to a tall man with a white colourless eye and put her hand on his shoulder which was almost above her head. "This is Gunther." He reached his hand out to greet John. John shook his cold metal hand and smiled at him.

Rae then walked over to a slightly shorter person with what looked like an orange one piece armour suit. "This here is Vick, or Whiplash, as he's called in the arena."

Vick wasn't as friendly as Gunther. He nodded at John and showed no facial expressions. A scar reached all the way from his temple to the side of his neck. John bet he looked quite intimidating in the arena.

Another woman came up behind John and nudged him on the shoulder. She looked at Rae and said: "Who the hell is this guy?" "This is John. John this is Amon." Rae said as if she was the guest at a party.

"Hi." She seemed quite a happy person considering her situation. "John shook her hand said 'hi' back. There was a moment of silence and John looked at Amon. She brown hair that came down to her shoulders just like Rae's, and she had her arms bare with a tattoo that covered most of her upper arm. It looked pretty neat. She wore heavy metal boots like Rae too.

"Well. So this is just about everybody here. Now you can go to the front desk and join the team. Go do it now, I'll tell Lock." John nodded and looked at everybody else and didn't get a reaction. He slowly moved his eyes towards the floor, and headed off.

(a/n) Well, sorry if that was quite a long chapter. Man, Phoenix does have a short temper. Something didn't feel right when I was writing that fight scene. Tell me if you can point out what it was or whether it was just me being self conscious. Phew! Two chapters in two days. Can't say anything about me not updating can you? Just kidding, well, please try to review and the next chapter should be on its way. :)