Fight for Freedom

(a/n) Thanks for all your nice reviews, Lacrease and Dynamis especially. Wow, didn't know that you guys hated Gorge so much. So, he's a stupid, fat, metal dumb ass. What's not to like? Heheh :) Well, Xan is back so you can bet Phoenix won't be happy about it at all. Plus Malcolm should be back soon, in time for the tournament finals. Things should be hotting up in the tournament now (my god, I sound like one of those annoying commentators). Read, enjoy, and review! :)

Chapter 7: Anti-Social Secrets

Xan jumped over the gap in the small narrow bridge and ran to pick up the super shield pack. He dropped down the side of the steps and ran through the archway.

He ran into the main blue area saw Gaargod. He quickly ducked behind a pillar and waited for him to run past.

As he did, Xan leapt on him and pounded him in the back of the head until he was barely alive, and shot him with his Shock rifle on the floor.

A bullet deflected off Xan's back and he wheeled around and found Skakruk with a minigun shooting at him. Xan fired and hit Skakruk in the head and he dropped to the floor dead.

Xan made a dash for the flag and grabbed it. He jumped off the small platform and landed on the floor, both his metal feet crashing down on the stone surface.

Gaargod and Drekorig leapt out from separate passages, they surrounded Xan. Virus came through the doors into the same room, creating the perfect distraction.

Xan spun and hit Gaargod in the face with his sharp elbow. Drekorig swung with the large blades on the end of his right hand. Xan ducked and the blades wedged into Gaargod's chest.

Green blood poured down the front of his chest and Drekorig tried to pull it out but it was firmly stuck in. He yanked it once more and the Skaarj's blood burst everywhere and the gaping wound in Gaargod's chest made him drop lifelessly to the floor.

Xan used the moment to shoot Drekorig in the face with his shock rifle and keep moving. He exited the room and Virus covered him. Virus went to pat Xan on the back and as soon as his hand moved anywhere near Xan, he batted it away and nearly made Virus fall over.

"Blue flag taken" the announcer said. Virus and Xan headed over the main bridge to the direct entrance. Guardian came out the opposite side with the red flag.

Xan saw him and ran faster straight ahead and smashed Guardian on the floor with his shoulder. Guardian fell on his back. Xan picked him up by the neck and hung him over the side of the bridge by his throat.

Guardian looked down the crevasse. He couldn't see the bottom, it faded out of sight. He growled and stabbed Xan in the chest with his claws and wrenched out some computer chips and wires.

Xan grunted in pain and dropped Guardian off the side. He disappeared from view. Xan's arm was out of control, Guardian must have pulled out some vital parts, but he carried on running.

Xan ran into his flag room and scored. "Red team scores!" the announcer said. The score was 3-3, and there was five minutes left. A Redeemer went off, making the ground shake. Xan felt the earth tremor and went out onto the direct route across the bridge.

He looked at the aftermath. Bodies slowly toppled off the edge of structures and fell into the crevasse. Cathode's body lay crumpled in a heap with sparks flying off her body.

Traces of Skaarj's blood were everywhere too, this meant that most of them would be respawning now, and Xan would have to face them all if he went in.

'I can take on two Skaarj, why not three or four?' Xan thought to himself. He would have to be careful and quiet if he wanted to make it back with the flag and score.

Xan went from pillar to pillar, they gave him good cover and he could pounce on any of them when he wanted. The doors to the blue flag room opened and all the Skaarj team ran out.

Xan ducked behind and called for back up. He could take most of them, but he wasn't stupid. Cathode, Axon and Virus came through the main entrance, they saw Xan and let rip on the five Skaarj.

Dominator was ripped to shreds by two miniguns and instantly went down. The Skaarj started to run up to the three mechs and missed Xan hiding behind one of the pillars.

Xan leapt on the back of the first one he saw. It was Skakruk; he wrapped his arm around Skakruk's neck and rolled sideways so he landed on top of him.

His plan went perfectly and he smashed the poor Skaarj's face in, and then killed him with a shot from his shock rifle.

Axon had just had his computer insides clawed out by Guardian and was thrown across the room. Drekorig had picked Cathode up off the ground with his claws embedded in her chest.

Sparks flew everywhere and bolts of electricity zapped Drekorig in the arm making him twitch. Virus was the only one left and fired a shock combo at Drekorig. It killed him, Cathode (she was as good as dead) and Gkublok; their bodies flying in separate directions and landing with their legs half gone and other limbs.

Xan saw the chance and climbed off the dead Skaarj and ran for their flag. His arm was still twitching, getting worse and worse all the time. He reached with his good hand for the flag and strapped it to his back.

Gkublok appeared from around a corner and Xan jumped on him. Xan's bad arm went wild when it touched Gkublok, sending hundreds of volts through both their bodies. It happened for a second, and they both dropped dead on the floor.

"Blue flag dropped. Blue taken!" the announcer said. It must have been Virus who took it, he was the only one there. Xan saw Virus running over the main bridge he grabbed a minigun to cover him.

Suddenly, Virus' head flew right off his shoulders and his body landed in a heap and slid off the side of the narrow bridge. Xan didn't seem surprised and ran to pick up the flag on the bridge.

He saw the Skaarj coming over in the opposite direction. Xan picked up the flag and turned around, when a pair of spikes burst through Xan's back and out through his chest.

Xan let out a scream of pain and it was Guardian getting his revenge on Xan for dropping him off the side of the bridge.

Guardian lifted him up; Xan was still screaming in agony, it was very unlike him. He lifted him up by the spikes over the side of the bridge. The weight of Xan started to affect the spikes, but they were held tight in position.

Xan was heavy and the spikes started to rip through his chest and up towards his shoulders. The weight was too much, the spikes ripped up and out of Xan's shoulders and he fell to his death.

"Blue flag returned" Xan was angry and his shoulders hurt from the wound. He grabbed a minigun and opened up on the first Skaarj he saw. It was Skakruk, bullets ripped through his skin and he fell to the floor.

Xan charged over the bridge, and made it into the red flag room. Dominator was guarding the flag; he didn't do much good at stopping Xan. He tore through him and Xan grabbed the flag.

"Red flag taken" the announcer said in Xan's earpiece. He ran along the side on the upper parts and ran past the Bio-Rifle, ignoring it.

Xan saw Cathode being blown into the air and collapsing on her head with a crunch. Guardian ran around the corner and took a few hundred minigun bullets in the back and fell right in front of Xan.

Gkublok had the red flag and was back pedaling when he bumped into Xan. Xan grabbed his shoulder, spun him round so he was facing him, and smacked him in the face. Gkublok fell and Xan blew his face off using the last bullets in his minigun.

Xan retuned the flag and ran into the room with his flag and scored.

"Red team is the winner!" the announcer boomed in his deep voice. Xan punched the air and laughed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Dammit!" Phoenix shouted as he banged his fist on the table in front of him. Phoenix had just been watching the match on Neurovision, he didn't want Xan to win, whoever won the capture the flag match would win the ladder and have a shot at him.

Phoenix was a coward, if anyone every said that to him they would be dead by the time they finished their sentence. He didn't want to face Xan, he was scared of him.

Phoenix's only hope was that Malcolm got Thunder Crash back up and beat Xan's team in the next capture the flag match. Xan had already qualified for a shot at Phoenix, but if Malcolm got there, then they would have to go head-to-head to see who goes through.

Phoenix would much prefer to face Malcolm than Xan, his brutality frightened Phoenix. He would admit that he was exceptionally brutal himself, but Xan surpassed his level of violence all together.

What he did to some of those Skaarj was unbelievable; some of them were treated immediately after they had come back out. Others had gashes of blood on their faces, and most of their faces had been smashed as well.

But then Phoenix thought, Malcolm would be worse for him because he beat him and critically wounded him last tournament. That would surely make him angrier towards him.

Phoenix thought hard on it, and his concentration was broken with the sound of Malcolm's theme tune was played loudly on the TV. Phoenix recognized the hard rock song instantly.

"And here we are fans! The surprise return of Malcolm, our ex tournament champion! He's here to regain his title after he lost it to Phoenix, and he's healthier than ever for this year. The only thing standing in is way though, is Xan Kreigor! This going to be one hot tournament this year!"

The commentator turned to his assistant and he started talking in the same way. Malcolm strode out calmly with Annika and Riker behind him. He was undoubtedly the coolest guy in the tournament, and the crowd was behind him all the way.

Phoenix smiled and sat back in his chair, he relaxed, got out of his chair, and headed down to the computer room.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Lock had called all his team together for a talk on how things were going in the tournament. John was the last person enter Lock's cell where they were meeting.

Amon and Gunther were talking and making jokes about each other.

"It doesn't matter anyway. Your head is so far up Lock's ass that the lump in his throat is your nose." She smiled and laughed at her joke.

"Oh come on! Hell, it doesn't matter anyway. Malcolm's gonna beat Xan and then we'll beat them, it's easy." Gunther said in a very relaxed tone.

"Thing is, it don't matter what we do. You just trust the guy next to you; you can do your job." Vick butted in quietly

"As long as he's Kill Switch." Amon finished off Vick's sentence.

"You say that Amon! Shit, you don't know the difference man! You know last match you nearly mistook Gorge for me god dammit!" Gunther couldn't stop laughing.

Amon smiled looked down and went quiet; Vick as usual didn't find anything amusing. John saw the conversation had stopped and entered the room.

"Hi guys. How's it going?" John said nicely.

"Hey John, what time you call this? Didn't think you would show up." Amon was happy to see John and greeted him nicely. Rae stood next to Vick as Lock stood at the front of the room.

"Well, glad to see you all showed up first. Now, the question that's on everyone's mind here is: who's gonna get a shot at Phoenix. Most people are pretty sure that it's gonna be Malcolm or Xan. We're fourth in the standings and the Juggernauts are right behind us, we beat them, so they are not a problem anymore. The real problem is The Corrupt, and Thunder Crash. Since Malcolm has come back, the chances are, that Xan and Malcolm are going to have a showdown, and that could take his mind off things, and we can swipe the title for the CTF easily."

Lock carried on talking. Amon scoffed and leaned over to Gunther and whispered in his ear.

"Yeah right, like we're gonna beat Thunder Crash. He didn't even mention that Iron Skull. We gotta get past them first."

"Shut up" Gunther said quietly and carried on listening.

"So, the overall point of this talk is simple." Lock continued. "We get this ladder; it should open up the Assault match ladder. I know most of you guys will specialize in these matches, seeing as most of your parents were in the operations, and have told you about it. We have got the Bombing Run and Double Domination in the bag, now we just need these other two. So, these next few weeks are gonna be pretty frantic, so I want you to train hard, and do your best. I'm counting on you guys out there."

Gunther was the only one who clapped, but it was half hearted and died out instantly. Amon laughed at him and they started arguing again. John rolled his eyes and went over to talk to Rae.

"Wow, Lock's pretty good at those kinda speeches huh?"

"Yeah I guess." Rae answered quickly and looked for somebody to talk to. She walked over to Vick. 'Vick is more social than me? C'mon.' John thought to himself.

Lock sat down and looked over the room. He felt quite proud of them, he was confident that his team was going to win, and take it all the way to the finals. John sat down next to him.

"Nice talk there." John said as he sat down. Lock smiled and lightly punched John in the shoulder.

"We need every man we can get right now. I'm counting on you." Lock smiled and got up to talk to Rae.

John sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He decided to head back to his cell. Soon after, the rest followed and Lock and Rae were alone in their cell.

"You still find it hard?" Rae said as she sat down next to Lock. She put her arm over his shoulder and looked into his eyes.

"I'm doing my best. I won't be able to keep this up long. Somehow I know it's gonna slip out and I'm not gonna be able to stop it. I mean, how am I supposed to help if when we're like this?"

Rae patted Lock on the back and kissed him on the cheek. "I know, it's gonna be hard. You're not going to tell, you're not saying anything, and if we do that then we'll be fine I'm certain. So, you ready for the big match tomorrow? Thunder Crash and The Corrupt, clash of the titans huh?"

Lock managed a slight smile. He couldn't seem to brighten up, not after what he and Rae had just talked about. "I'm going to bed" Lock said and walked towards his bedroom and shut the door.

"Oh boy." Rae said quietly and sighed. She lay down on the couch and fell straight to sleep.