Fight for Freedom
(a/n) I'm glad you liked the random act of violence I wrote on the Overlord map, I knew something was strange about Cathode in Blood Fist, I just always associate her with the team because she is a mech, so from now on she'll only appear when she's either being hacked up, mangled, slaughtered or cut up into handy bite-sized pieces, but anyway, with thanks to Miranon, Dynamis, Lacrease (you finally came back!), Ashsalve DT and Baronic who are keeping this story alive! Today's action-packed fight will see Kill Switch getting a shot at the CTF trophy, but Thunder Crash stands in their way. Will they make it? Read and find out!
Read, enjoy and review! :)
Chapter 12: So close, yet so far...Part 1
John trudged slowly from his cell up towards the lift at the end of the corridor. His back, his head, and just his overall body hurt from the Deathmatch in Rankin. He didn't realize how much he needed to get some rest with all the cheers and celebrations that followed his very close second in the match.
Gunther was waiting for the lift impatiently; he was tapping his foot and looking around the area with a sharp turn every time he moved his head.
"C'mon for Christ sake." He said to himself, he controlled himself from kicking the machine and breaking it. John came up to his side smiling.
"Hey Gunther. How long you been waiting for? 2, 3 seconds?" John chuckled, Gunther barely accepted the joke.
"Ha-ha, very funny." Gunther said sarcastically, when the lift finally came down. John flashed his wrist pad along the sensor machine and it acknowledged him, Gunther got on the lift, and John followed, just catching it as it went up.
John stretched his stiff arms and legs, shaking them about and hopping on the spot. Gunther watched him doing this, looking slightly amused. The lift reached the top, quicker than usual; Lock was there first, as always.
He turned his head and acknowledged them both, he was looking slightly nervous and relieved by their presence. John glanced over Lock's shoulder and saw the crowd; it was the biggest he had ever seen.
Thousands of fans here, most to see Thunder Crash in action. People were packed into the stadium, each with about a couple of inches between themselves and the person next to them. It was strange people crammed themselves into such a small space just to see a match they could have watched at home.
Lock saw John looking over his shoulder and turned to face in the same direction. "That's a hellova' crowd out there today, I'd say about 75% are here from Malcolm alone, no one cares much for his team, not since he broke up with Brock and Lauren." He turned his head back to Gunther and John.
The lift came up again, this time with Vick and Amon on it. Vick's foot was lightly bandaged so it would fit in his boot, his limp had been reduced to slight unbalanced in his stride. He could only walk a few steps normally, but after that the pain started to affect the way he walked.
Vick figured he could ask to go on defense for the match, therefore he wouldn't have to run anywhere in a hurry. He knew Lock would appreciate a break from his normal aggressive approach.
Amon saw the crowd in the stadium; her eyes lit up and she smiled uncontrollably. She was desperate to get out there and show off. A small speaker on the corner gave the team a message. "Thunder Crash has given the message and is ready" the announcement ended.
They were just waiting for Rae now, and as they were thinking of her, she came up from the lift and walked into the middle of the group to observe the crowd. "Ok, let's go!" Lock said over the noise of the crowd. The team walked forwards into the main part of the stadium, and so did Thunder Crash at the opposite end.
Thunder Crashes' theme tune was played. It was a heavy rock tune, but with a good beat. They only played a theme tune when they were obvious favorites to win, but in any case they would play it, just because they are who they are.
Amon was instantly waving and blowing kisses to all the fans here to see Kill Switch fight. The size of the crowd there to see Kill Switch was tiny compared to the amount of people who came so see Thunder Crash.
John looked across at the walk way Thunder Crash was coming down. Malcolm was at the front, with spectators behind the barriers reaching out their hands, hoping that he will notice one and slap it or hold it momentarily.
Behind Malcolm were his fellow teammates: Annika, Tamika, Riker, Othello and Aryss. Each one of them highly ranked and feared, but none of them looked particularly angry or short tempered. All of them acted as calmly as Malcolm, John admired them for it.
Their theme tune still echoed throughout the whole area, it was literally deafening. John looked at his team compared to theirs. Lock and Rae were up at the front, looking around and waving, whilst Vick and Gunther were not displaying much emotion towards the crowd, they wanted to get the match started. John was at the back with Amon, waving at the crowd whilst still walking towards the platform at the end of the walk-way where the two paths met.
Malcolm and the rest of his team lined up on the platform and waited for John and Amon to join up with the rest of their own team. Finally, they were in place, Amon waved one more time as the commentator's voice came on and Thunder Crashes' theme tune faded away.
"Well, hello sports fans! We have an absolutely earth-shattering match for you today! The fight for the CTF top spot and trophy!" the announcer shouted and the crowd cheered even louder. "The challenging team: Kill Switch has come far since its early days when it was just fighting for survival at the bottom of the CTF board. But now with its newest and brightest addition to the team Viper, whom we all know for his sensational performance in the randomly picked match, they have risen up the board and almost dominated the whole section. But of course luck has to be involved in here somewhere, and the only reason Kill Switch have not had to fight The Corrupt, is because as you know Enigma, Virus and Xan have suffered some injuries in their last match, and Enigma was badly damaged by Skakruk in one of the main highlights of yesterdays random-picked match!" The crowd cheered and jeered some more.
"And, now without further a due, let's get this match started! So, would Malcolm please come up into the center and hit the button. I'm sure you don't need me telling you this but its Liandri regulations that I do!" the commentator finally stopped talking and let Malcolm chose the map without any interruption.
Malcolm strode calmly into the center of the platform. He looked at John, he smiled slightly and nodded at him. John did the same back. Gunther looked at John for a moment and then looked back at Malcolm.
Malcolm took his sunglasses off and raised his fist in the air. Then he brought it down hard and the map was...CTF-January. Malcolm smiled with satisfaction and walked back towards his team. John overheard Lock saying "shit" after the map was displayed; it was obviously not one of his favorites.
A small floating camera whirred over John's head and then came round and did a front on view on the team, and then it did the same to Thunder Crash, except it zoomed in and did a close up on Malcolm. The team was teleported into the arena in flashes of white, red and blue.
"5...4...3...2...1...Begin" the announcer said.
"I have a bad feeling about this one." Gunther said as he cocked his Assault Rifle. It was the first time John had ever heard Gunther say anything truly pessimistic, but John sensed it too. It all seemed a bit too sudden, from fighting for survival to clashing against the champions.
January was a map like most others, a main fighting area, with the actual bases just being opposites of each other. The main action area was on a large submarine, which the map is built around. An under water passage was another way through, then the bases were a basic, small system with the actual flag being raised on a small catwalk at the back of the base. However, to compensate for the simple layout the map was certainly quite big, but it could be conquered, especially by Thunder Crash.
Lock's voice came over the radio: "Gunther, Vick! Defend the base. John, Rae and I will attack, Amon, you can roam around and mop up what's left of em'!"
The radio was a series of 'Roger that' and 'I hear ya'. John was slightly surprised that Lock gave the order that let him go up front. He was excited and nervous at the same time, he was about to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the whole Tournament.
John was thinking all of this whilst he was running close behind Rae, with his Shock rifle in hand, with Lock and Rae with rocket launchers a few steps in front of him. The trio turned the corner and looked down a short and wide corridor which then went off to the left and into the main area where the submarine was.
At the end of the corridor was a large pipe, where a sniper rifle lay underneath it, and just beyond there was a health pick-up, and some stacked boxes hid some adrenaline pills just incase.
John (as usual) didn't have much time look at much else, as the fighting had already begun.
A spiral of three rockets raced in from the opening on the left side of the corridor, a blossoming explosion knocking Lock back a few steps, but he wasn't hurt. Riker leapt around the corner, but was met with a shock rifle beam in the chest, hitting him in mid-air.
He fell flat on his back, and was shot again on the floor, blood spraying upwards as the body lay very still.
John didn't even have time to raise his weapon by the time Riker had been killed. "Oh boy" John said under his breath. "This one might be hard" he said as he turned left out in to the middle section.
Malcolm was in mid-air as he had just jumped from the submarine onto the blue side on the arena. John saw him and almost admired him for a split- second before a rocket narrowly missed John's head and exploded on Lock's chest.
John delayed reactions made him duck well after the rocket had gone past. He turned quickly and saw Lock flat on his back, motionless. John turned back and fired at Malcolm, he hit him in the chest just as he touched down.
Rae fired too and a blow to the side of the head finished him off, his body being knocked side-ways off the side of the path and into the water, his body floating to the top and his famous navy beret sliding off his head and floating along side the body.
Rae peeled off to the right and made her way towards the jump-pad. John followed her. He stepped on the yellow square on the floor and his body was ejected up and across onto the submarine.
John spotted Othello on the other side of the submarine and fired a shot at him, it missed him by a few inches and Othello returned fire.
John ducked behind the raised section of the submarine and bullets riddled the other side of John's cover-spot. John turned back around from his cover and fired two shots at Othello; he had made a run for the flag whilst still facing in John direction.
The second shot hit Othello in the side of the head, but Othello got a shot in with his minigun moments before John's shot killed him. One of the armour piercing bullets ate its way through John's shoulder, knocking him back a step.
John didn't realize how much the side of the sub dipped away, and lost balance and ended up toppling into the water head first with his legs almost going over his head. John's shins smashed into the sharp side of the red platform as John splashed into the water.
John's shin armour had taken most of the force but it still hurt his legs. John shouted in the water to relief the pain, nothing but water bubble pouring out of his mouth. John swam towards the surface to try and carry on.
Rae was watching John when he fell into the water. "Well, you've really excelled yourself there John" she said sarcastically. She watched for John to submerge before she went on.
John's head popped up and Rae smiled at his stupidity. "I'm afraid our judges only gave that dive a 4.7 John!" she shouted over to him and laughed slightly, whilst quickly checking to see if anybody had emerged from the red base.
John heard the joke and raised his middle finger at her and laughed himself. His laughing only lasted a few seconds when a shock beam burst out from underneath him, another followed quickly and hit John in the leg.
John let out a cry of pain as blood stained the water around him, then a rocket hit him in the back and blow him up and out of the water. "Shit!" Rae shouted and yelled down the radio.
"Guys we got people coming through the water! I'm gonna go after 'em, but if I don't make it you godamn better be there for when they get inside!" Rae shouted into her headset and dived head-first into the water. She saw Malcolm, Riker, Othello and Annika swimming through the tunnel, most of them slightly weighed down by their weapons. Rae had an advantage with her light shock rifle. She quickly swan after the squad, out-numbered, but she was going to give it a shot.
She fired at Annika who was at the back of the squad, the beam hit her in the back, blood calmly leaking out of her body and filling the water with a thick red screen that seemed to cover the rest of the advancing team. Rae fired a shock ball into the crowd made a powerful combo using the shock beam. The explosion sent rippled through the water, and killed Riker in the process.
Rae quickly pursued the rest of the team, and caught up a lot and saw them all submerging and attacking the base. Rae wasn't far behind, and submerged seconds afterwards. Only to be met by Othello and his sniper rifle barrel pointing straight at her. He was obviously expecting her.
Rae didn't have time to open her mouth or widen her eyes, when the hi- velocity bullet ripped through her skull and burst out the back of it, smearing the wall in blood behind her. Othello smiled with satisfaction and ran after Malcolm hurriedly.
"Vick, Gunther, you better get ready for some defending! You're the only thing between them and the flag!" Lock shouted bellowed down the radio as he discovered Rae's floating body near the minigun.
"Roger that" came both replies. Gunther went down on one knee and aimed his Flak cannon so that anything that came around that corner would get a flak ball wedged in their mouth. Vick did the same with his Shock Rifle. Sweat dripped down Gunther's nose, strange seeing as he had had barely done anything this match, he was just plain nervous.
Vick was more worried about his lacking ability to run and catch somebody without Lock or Rae finding out about his 'incident'. But it was suddenly cut out of his mind as Gunther let a ball of flak loose on the approaching Thunder Crash members.
The ball of flak was dodged effortlessly by Malcolm, but Othello took a shard of it in the chest, nearly piercing his armour. Gunther fired a normal shot at both of them, again, Malcolm dodged, this time sustaining damage, but it was only his arm. But Othello was hit cleanly by a hail of red hot metal, tearing through his flesh and bones, leaving his body sliding down the ramp, on which Malcolm lunged towards the flag on.
Vick fired a shock ball Malcolm, hitting him directly and injuring him a bit, Gunther's flak narrowly passed Malcolm's head as he grabbed the flag, right in front of Vick and Gunther.
Malcolm sprinted up the middle ramp, with Vick firing shock beam at him, one hit him in the back, knocking him to his knees for a second, but he was back up and running again in no time. He disappeared over the top of the ramp.
"Quick! Go get him!" Gunther said to Vick without looking at him. Vick didn't move. "Are you deaf? Go get him!" Gunther shouted and turned to Vick
"You go get him, I'll stay here!" Vick replied calmly. Gunther looked confused and at the same time angry, but he didn't want to argue whilst Malcolm was getting away. "Whatever" Gunther said and sprinted up the middle ramp.
Vick breathed out and glanced at his foot, he moved it sharply, and it stung badly. Vick squinted and breathed in with a 'hiss' sound. He just hoped Gunther would catch Malcolm in time.
Gunther saw Malcolm run around the corner and down a small set of steps towards the submarine area. He was slightly injured, so Gunther could easily catch him up. Gunther leapt around the corner and fired a ball of flak just inches in front of Malcolm.
Shards burst everywhere as Malcolm body was pushed backwards from the force, killing him, and most importantly, dropping the flag. Gunther grabbed it and ran back to defend the base. He passed John on the way; they smiled at each other and kept running.
"Now what the hell was so hard about that Vick?!" Gunther shouted in his mind in anger. He came up the left hand ramp towards the flag, boisterously seeming out of breath. "
"Now why the hell couldn't you do that?!" Gunther said as he pretended to pant. Vick turned his head away rather immaturely and aimed his rifle at the entrance, still ignoring Gunther. Gunther didn't bother asking him again, he stopped panting and did the same as Vick.
Malcolm and Riker used the jump-pad to get onto the sub. Malcolm was armed with a rocket launcher and Riker had a minigun, but it was low on ammo. They both jumped onto the blue base level and ran towards the flag.
Riker covered the corner as Malcolm moved towards the small flight of stairs. He leapt up them, and Riker quickly followed, Malcolm picked up some health vials and grabbed a shock rifle and handed it to Riker, he would use it after he ran out of ammo for his minigun.
Malcolm and Riker both pulled out their Translocators and teleported themselves straight up through the hole above them, they both made it and charged down the middle ramp.
"Shit, watch out!" Gunther shouted as he saw and pointed at Malcolm and Riker. Malcolm launched three rockets at the flag, trying to hurt both Vick and Gunther in the same blow. But Gunther and Vick were better than that, they leapfrogged out the way of the blast, rolled and returned fire.
Riker sprayed the area with what he had left in his minigun; he hit Vick in each shoulder, knocking him back against the wall sitting upright. Gunther fired a flak ball near both of them; it killed Riker, and severely impeded Malcolm's progress, shards hitting him in the chest and legs.
Vick fired a shock beam into the side of Malcolm's head, killing him inches away from the flag. Gunther wiped some of Malcolm's blood off his arm and jumped down below the flag to get some flak ammo.
Vick started firing rampantly again, and Gunther realized that Othello and Tamika were now attacking them, Gunther ran under and up the ramp when a stray shock combo went off, not very far from him.
Gunther was knocked flat of his back, blood dripped from his temple. Gunther struggled to get up and looked at where the flag was. "Blue flag taken!" the announcer shouted. And Gunther saw Othello standing with the flag, waiting to get a clean shot at Gunther.
Gunther could just peek over the edge and not be seen, Othello must have been pretty dumb, maybe it was those sunglasses. Vick was dead, his legs blown clean off, and Tamika's body lay in a crumpled heap to Othello's left.
Gunther took a chance and lunged forwards at Othello with his flak cannon and fired before Othello could react. His whole upper body was shredded and ripped apart in a flash; Gunther watched the pair of legs slip off the side of the ramp and land almost standing, as if some miracle had kept them alive. Gunther returned the flag.
"Blue flag taken!" the announcer said.
"What the fuck?!" Gunther said aloud and turned to see Annika sprinting up the middle ramp. Gunther clenched his fists tightly around the gun and ran after her. As she was just jumping down the hole to make her escape, Gunther fired a shot at her, it hit her in the back and she smashed her face on the side of the hole, killing her and splattering blood all over the side of it.
Gunther returned the flag and headed back up to defend. "Hey guys. I'm gonna need some help up here, I don't think I can hold out much longer!" Gunther said breathlessly down the radio.
"Roger that!" Lock shouted over the sound of gunfire. "John, go back and defend the base with..." There was a scream heard in the background. "Oh...err...yeah he'll be with you in a couple of seconds." Lock chuckled slightly and let rip with his minigun, cutting up Aryss and Tamika.
Gunther smiled and saw John running up towards him. Gunther nodded at him and smiled. "What's it like over there?" Gunther asked eagerly. John shrugged, "It's ok, we're holding them off, but when they break through..." John clutched his side. "It hurts."
Gunther shrugged. "It's been pretty wild on this end, and it's even harder when Vick doesn't do anything."
"What?"
"He keeps making me run after the flag instead of him, but he knows perfectly well he could do it himself. I always thought he like saving the day for our team. Oh well."
A bullet chipped off the wall next to Gunther's head, taking a chunk out of the wall behind him.
"Ok, here we go." Gunther said very calmly and patted John on the shoulder before opening up on Malcolm and Othello who were charging towards them. Gunther fired a shot with his Flak cannon, hurting Malcolm but not seriously.
Malcolm fired a shock combo into the middle of John and Gunther, it knocked them both to the floor, John still firing with his minigun, he hit Othello in the chest, but Othello had already fired that shot that would kill John.
A single bullet from Othello's minigun pierced the side of John's head and burst out the other side, killing him. Gunther swore and carried on firing, killing Othello with a hail of flak to the head and chest, his body dropping in front of Malcolm, who effortlessly hopped over it and grabbed the flag, and in the same motion, wheeled around the shot Gunther in the head.
As soon as this instant happened, Vick came up to the flag areas for support, and saw Malcolm running up the middle ramp and heading home. "Vick, Vick! You need to stop Malcolm before he gets back to his base! You gotta do the work this time! Go! For Christ sake go!!" Gunther bellowed down the radio at Gunther.
Gunther looked as Malcolm disappeared from view over the top of the middle ramp. He breathed out, and glanced at his foot. "Oh shit" Vick said.
(a/n) What's Vick gonna do?! Is he gonna pluck up the courage and save the day, at the risk of Rae or Lock finding out? Or is he gonna hang back and risk his entire relationship with the team?
Ahem...sorry, well I guess that is something to think about. I put this chapter in two parts, mainly because it's gonna be a hellova' fight, and because in my last story it was 15 pages, and couldn't fit in some of the '' so some people got confused. Oh well, until next time!
Please review! :)
(a/n) I'm glad you liked the random act of violence I wrote on the Overlord map, I knew something was strange about Cathode in Blood Fist, I just always associate her with the team because she is a mech, so from now on she'll only appear when she's either being hacked up, mangled, slaughtered or cut up into handy bite-sized pieces, but anyway, with thanks to Miranon, Dynamis, Lacrease (you finally came back!), Ashsalve DT and Baronic who are keeping this story alive! Today's action-packed fight will see Kill Switch getting a shot at the CTF trophy, but Thunder Crash stands in their way. Will they make it? Read and find out!
Read, enjoy and review! :)
Chapter 12: So close, yet so far...Part 1
John trudged slowly from his cell up towards the lift at the end of the corridor. His back, his head, and just his overall body hurt from the Deathmatch in Rankin. He didn't realize how much he needed to get some rest with all the cheers and celebrations that followed his very close second in the match.
Gunther was waiting for the lift impatiently; he was tapping his foot and looking around the area with a sharp turn every time he moved his head.
"C'mon for Christ sake." He said to himself, he controlled himself from kicking the machine and breaking it. John came up to his side smiling.
"Hey Gunther. How long you been waiting for? 2, 3 seconds?" John chuckled, Gunther barely accepted the joke.
"Ha-ha, very funny." Gunther said sarcastically, when the lift finally came down. John flashed his wrist pad along the sensor machine and it acknowledged him, Gunther got on the lift, and John followed, just catching it as it went up.
John stretched his stiff arms and legs, shaking them about and hopping on the spot. Gunther watched him doing this, looking slightly amused. The lift reached the top, quicker than usual; Lock was there first, as always.
He turned his head and acknowledged them both, he was looking slightly nervous and relieved by their presence. John glanced over Lock's shoulder and saw the crowd; it was the biggest he had ever seen.
Thousands of fans here, most to see Thunder Crash in action. People were packed into the stadium, each with about a couple of inches between themselves and the person next to them. It was strange people crammed themselves into such a small space just to see a match they could have watched at home.
Lock saw John looking over his shoulder and turned to face in the same direction. "That's a hellova' crowd out there today, I'd say about 75% are here from Malcolm alone, no one cares much for his team, not since he broke up with Brock and Lauren." He turned his head back to Gunther and John.
The lift came up again, this time with Vick and Amon on it. Vick's foot was lightly bandaged so it would fit in his boot, his limp had been reduced to slight unbalanced in his stride. He could only walk a few steps normally, but after that the pain started to affect the way he walked.
Vick figured he could ask to go on defense for the match, therefore he wouldn't have to run anywhere in a hurry. He knew Lock would appreciate a break from his normal aggressive approach.
Amon saw the crowd in the stadium; her eyes lit up and she smiled uncontrollably. She was desperate to get out there and show off. A small speaker on the corner gave the team a message. "Thunder Crash has given the message and is ready" the announcement ended.
They were just waiting for Rae now, and as they were thinking of her, she came up from the lift and walked into the middle of the group to observe the crowd. "Ok, let's go!" Lock said over the noise of the crowd. The team walked forwards into the main part of the stadium, and so did Thunder Crash at the opposite end.
Thunder Crashes' theme tune was played. It was a heavy rock tune, but with a good beat. They only played a theme tune when they were obvious favorites to win, but in any case they would play it, just because they are who they are.
Amon was instantly waving and blowing kisses to all the fans here to see Kill Switch fight. The size of the crowd there to see Kill Switch was tiny compared to the amount of people who came so see Thunder Crash.
John looked across at the walk way Thunder Crash was coming down. Malcolm was at the front, with spectators behind the barriers reaching out their hands, hoping that he will notice one and slap it or hold it momentarily.
Behind Malcolm were his fellow teammates: Annika, Tamika, Riker, Othello and Aryss. Each one of them highly ranked and feared, but none of them looked particularly angry or short tempered. All of them acted as calmly as Malcolm, John admired them for it.
Their theme tune still echoed throughout the whole area, it was literally deafening. John looked at his team compared to theirs. Lock and Rae were up at the front, looking around and waving, whilst Vick and Gunther were not displaying much emotion towards the crowd, they wanted to get the match started. John was at the back with Amon, waving at the crowd whilst still walking towards the platform at the end of the walk-way where the two paths met.
Malcolm and the rest of his team lined up on the platform and waited for John and Amon to join up with the rest of their own team. Finally, they were in place, Amon waved one more time as the commentator's voice came on and Thunder Crashes' theme tune faded away.
"Well, hello sports fans! We have an absolutely earth-shattering match for you today! The fight for the CTF top spot and trophy!" the announcer shouted and the crowd cheered even louder. "The challenging team: Kill Switch has come far since its early days when it was just fighting for survival at the bottom of the CTF board. But now with its newest and brightest addition to the team Viper, whom we all know for his sensational performance in the randomly picked match, they have risen up the board and almost dominated the whole section. But of course luck has to be involved in here somewhere, and the only reason Kill Switch have not had to fight The Corrupt, is because as you know Enigma, Virus and Xan have suffered some injuries in their last match, and Enigma was badly damaged by Skakruk in one of the main highlights of yesterdays random-picked match!" The crowd cheered and jeered some more.
"And, now without further a due, let's get this match started! So, would Malcolm please come up into the center and hit the button. I'm sure you don't need me telling you this but its Liandri regulations that I do!" the commentator finally stopped talking and let Malcolm chose the map without any interruption.
Malcolm strode calmly into the center of the platform. He looked at John, he smiled slightly and nodded at him. John did the same back. Gunther looked at John for a moment and then looked back at Malcolm.
Malcolm took his sunglasses off and raised his fist in the air. Then he brought it down hard and the map was...CTF-January. Malcolm smiled with satisfaction and walked back towards his team. John overheard Lock saying "shit" after the map was displayed; it was obviously not one of his favorites.
A small floating camera whirred over John's head and then came round and did a front on view on the team, and then it did the same to Thunder Crash, except it zoomed in and did a close up on Malcolm. The team was teleported into the arena in flashes of white, red and blue.
"5...4...3...2...1...Begin" the announcer said.
"I have a bad feeling about this one." Gunther said as he cocked his Assault Rifle. It was the first time John had ever heard Gunther say anything truly pessimistic, but John sensed it too. It all seemed a bit too sudden, from fighting for survival to clashing against the champions.
January was a map like most others, a main fighting area, with the actual bases just being opposites of each other. The main action area was on a large submarine, which the map is built around. An under water passage was another way through, then the bases were a basic, small system with the actual flag being raised on a small catwalk at the back of the base. However, to compensate for the simple layout the map was certainly quite big, but it could be conquered, especially by Thunder Crash.
Lock's voice came over the radio: "Gunther, Vick! Defend the base. John, Rae and I will attack, Amon, you can roam around and mop up what's left of em'!"
The radio was a series of 'Roger that' and 'I hear ya'. John was slightly surprised that Lock gave the order that let him go up front. He was excited and nervous at the same time, he was about to go toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the whole Tournament.
John was thinking all of this whilst he was running close behind Rae, with his Shock rifle in hand, with Lock and Rae with rocket launchers a few steps in front of him. The trio turned the corner and looked down a short and wide corridor which then went off to the left and into the main area where the submarine was.
At the end of the corridor was a large pipe, where a sniper rifle lay underneath it, and just beyond there was a health pick-up, and some stacked boxes hid some adrenaline pills just incase.
John (as usual) didn't have much time look at much else, as the fighting had already begun.
A spiral of three rockets raced in from the opening on the left side of the corridor, a blossoming explosion knocking Lock back a few steps, but he wasn't hurt. Riker leapt around the corner, but was met with a shock rifle beam in the chest, hitting him in mid-air.
He fell flat on his back, and was shot again on the floor, blood spraying upwards as the body lay very still.
John didn't even have time to raise his weapon by the time Riker had been killed. "Oh boy" John said under his breath. "This one might be hard" he said as he turned left out in to the middle section.
Malcolm was in mid-air as he had just jumped from the submarine onto the blue side on the arena. John saw him and almost admired him for a split- second before a rocket narrowly missed John's head and exploded on Lock's chest.
John delayed reactions made him duck well after the rocket had gone past. He turned quickly and saw Lock flat on his back, motionless. John turned back and fired at Malcolm, he hit him in the chest just as he touched down.
Rae fired too and a blow to the side of the head finished him off, his body being knocked side-ways off the side of the path and into the water, his body floating to the top and his famous navy beret sliding off his head and floating along side the body.
Rae peeled off to the right and made her way towards the jump-pad. John followed her. He stepped on the yellow square on the floor and his body was ejected up and across onto the submarine.
John spotted Othello on the other side of the submarine and fired a shot at him, it missed him by a few inches and Othello returned fire.
John ducked behind the raised section of the submarine and bullets riddled the other side of John's cover-spot. John turned back around from his cover and fired two shots at Othello; he had made a run for the flag whilst still facing in John direction.
The second shot hit Othello in the side of the head, but Othello got a shot in with his minigun moments before John's shot killed him. One of the armour piercing bullets ate its way through John's shoulder, knocking him back a step.
John didn't realize how much the side of the sub dipped away, and lost balance and ended up toppling into the water head first with his legs almost going over his head. John's shins smashed into the sharp side of the red platform as John splashed into the water.
John's shin armour had taken most of the force but it still hurt his legs. John shouted in the water to relief the pain, nothing but water bubble pouring out of his mouth. John swam towards the surface to try and carry on.
Rae was watching John when he fell into the water. "Well, you've really excelled yourself there John" she said sarcastically. She watched for John to submerge before she went on.
John's head popped up and Rae smiled at his stupidity. "I'm afraid our judges only gave that dive a 4.7 John!" she shouted over to him and laughed slightly, whilst quickly checking to see if anybody had emerged from the red base.
John heard the joke and raised his middle finger at her and laughed himself. His laughing only lasted a few seconds when a shock beam burst out from underneath him, another followed quickly and hit John in the leg.
John let out a cry of pain as blood stained the water around him, then a rocket hit him in the back and blow him up and out of the water. "Shit!" Rae shouted and yelled down the radio.
"Guys we got people coming through the water! I'm gonna go after 'em, but if I don't make it you godamn better be there for when they get inside!" Rae shouted into her headset and dived head-first into the water. She saw Malcolm, Riker, Othello and Annika swimming through the tunnel, most of them slightly weighed down by their weapons. Rae had an advantage with her light shock rifle. She quickly swan after the squad, out-numbered, but she was going to give it a shot.
She fired at Annika who was at the back of the squad, the beam hit her in the back, blood calmly leaking out of her body and filling the water with a thick red screen that seemed to cover the rest of the advancing team. Rae fired a shock ball into the crowd made a powerful combo using the shock beam. The explosion sent rippled through the water, and killed Riker in the process.
Rae quickly pursued the rest of the team, and caught up a lot and saw them all submerging and attacking the base. Rae wasn't far behind, and submerged seconds afterwards. Only to be met by Othello and his sniper rifle barrel pointing straight at her. He was obviously expecting her.
Rae didn't have time to open her mouth or widen her eyes, when the hi- velocity bullet ripped through her skull and burst out the back of it, smearing the wall in blood behind her. Othello smiled with satisfaction and ran after Malcolm hurriedly.
"Vick, Gunther, you better get ready for some defending! You're the only thing between them and the flag!" Lock shouted bellowed down the radio as he discovered Rae's floating body near the minigun.
"Roger that" came both replies. Gunther went down on one knee and aimed his Flak cannon so that anything that came around that corner would get a flak ball wedged in their mouth. Vick did the same with his Shock Rifle. Sweat dripped down Gunther's nose, strange seeing as he had had barely done anything this match, he was just plain nervous.
Vick was more worried about his lacking ability to run and catch somebody without Lock or Rae finding out about his 'incident'. But it was suddenly cut out of his mind as Gunther let a ball of flak loose on the approaching Thunder Crash members.
The ball of flak was dodged effortlessly by Malcolm, but Othello took a shard of it in the chest, nearly piercing his armour. Gunther fired a normal shot at both of them, again, Malcolm dodged, this time sustaining damage, but it was only his arm. But Othello was hit cleanly by a hail of red hot metal, tearing through his flesh and bones, leaving his body sliding down the ramp, on which Malcolm lunged towards the flag on.
Vick fired a shock ball Malcolm, hitting him directly and injuring him a bit, Gunther's flak narrowly passed Malcolm's head as he grabbed the flag, right in front of Vick and Gunther.
Malcolm sprinted up the middle ramp, with Vick firing shock beam at him, one hit him in the back, knocking him to his knees for a second, but he was back up and running again in no time. He disappeared over the top of the ramp.
"Quick! Go get him!" Gunther said to Vick without looking at him. Vick didn't move. "Are you deaf? Go get him!" Gunther shouted and turned to Vick
"You go get him, I'll stay here!" Vick replied calmly. Gunther looked confused and at the same time angry, but he didn't want to argue whilst Malcolm was getting away. "Whatever" Gunther said and sprinted up the middle ramp.
Vick breathed out and glanced at his foot, he moved it sharply, and it stung badly. Vick squinted and breathed in with a 'hiss' sound. He just hoped Gunther would catch Malcolm in time.
Gunther saw Malcolm run around the corner and down a small set of steps towards the submarine area. He was slightly injured, so Gunther could easily catch him up. Gunther leapt around the corner and fired a ball of flak just inches in front of Malcolm.
Shards burst everywhere as Malcolm body was pushed backwards from the force, killing him, and most importantly, dropping the flag. Gunther grabbed it and ran back to defend the base. He passed John on the way; they smiled at each other and kept running.
"Now what the hell was so hard about that Vick?!" Gunther shouted in his mind in anger. He came up the left hand ramp towards the flag, boisterously seeming out of breath. "
"Now why the hell couldn't you do that?!" Gunther said as he pretended to pant. Vick turned his head away rather immaturely and aimed his rifle at the entrance, still ignoring Gunther. Gunther didn't bother asking him again, he stopped panting and did the same as Vick.
Malcolm and Riker used the jump-pad to get onto the sub. Malcolm was armed with a rocket launcher and Riker had a minigun, but it was low on ammo. They both jumped onto the blue base level and ran towards the flag.
Riker covered the corner as Malcolm moved towards the small flight of stairs. He leapt up them, and Riker quickly followed, Malcolm picked up some health vials and grabbed a shock rifle and handed it to Riker, he would use it after he ran out of ammo for his minigun.
Malcolm and Riker both pulled out their Translocators and teleported themselves straight up through the hole above them, they both made it and charged down the middle ramp.
"Shit, watch out!" Gunther shouted as he saw and pointed at Malcolm and Riker. Malcolm launched three rockets at the flag, trying to hurt both Vick and Gunther in the same blow. But Gunther and Vick were better than that, they leapfrogged out the way of the blast, rolled and returned fire.
Riker sprayed the area with what he had left in his minigun; he hit Vick in each shoulder, knocking him back against the wall sitting upright. Gunther fired a flak ball near both of them; it killed Riker, and severely impeded Malcolm's progress, shards hitting him in the chest and legs.
Vick fired a shock beam into the side of Malcolm's head, killing him inches away from the flag. Gunther wiped some of Malcolm's blood off his arm and jumped down below the flag to get some flak ammo.
Vick started firing rampantly again, and Gunther realized that Othello and Tamika were now attacking them, Gunther ran under and up the ramp when a stray shock combo went off, not very far from him.
Gunther was knocked flat of his back, blood dripped from his temple. Gunther struggled to get up and looked at where the flag was. "Blue flag taken!" the announcer shouted. And Gunther saw Othello standing with the flag, waiting to get a clean shot at Gunther.
Gunther could just peek over the edge and not be seen, Othello must have been pretty dumb, maybe it was those sunglasses. Vick was dead, his legs blown clean off, and Tamika's body lay in a crumpled heap to Othello's left.
Gunther took a chance and lunged forwards at Othello with his flak cannon and fired before Othello could react. His whole upper body was shredded and ripped apart in a flash; Gunther watched the pair of legs slip off the side of the ramp and land almost standing, as if some miracle had kept them alive. Gunther returned the flag.
"Blue flag taken!" the announcer said.
"What the fuck?!" Gunther said aloud and turned to see Annika sprinting up the middle ramp. Gunther clenched his fists tightly around the gun and ran after her. As she was just jumping down the hole to make her escape, Gunther fired a shot at her, it hit her in the back and she smashed her face on the side of the hole, killing her and splattering blood all over the side of it.
Gunther returned the flag and headed back up to defend. "Hey guys. I'm gonna need some help up here, I don't think I can hold out much longer!" Gunther said breathlessly down the radio.
"Roger that!" Lock shouted over the sound of gunfire. "John, go back and defend the base with..." There was a scream heard in the background. "Oh...err...yeah he'll be with you in a couple of seconds." Lock chuckled slightly and let rip with his minigun, cutting up Aryss and Tamika.
Gunther smiled and saw John running up towards him. Gunther nodded at him and smiled. "What's it like over there?" Gunther asked eagerly. John shrugged, "It's ok, we're holding them off, but when they break through..." John clutched his side. "It hurts."
Gunther shrugged. "It's been pretty wild on this end, and it's even harder when Vick doesn't do anything."
"What?"
"He keeps making me run after the flag instead of him, but he knows perfectly well he could do it himself. I always thought he like saving the day for our team. Oh well."
A bullet chipped off the wall next to Gunther's head, taking a chunk out of the wall behind him.
"Ok, here we go." Gunther said very calmly and patted John on the shoulder before opening up on Malcolm and Othello who were charging towards them. Gunther fired a shot with his Flak cannon, hurting Malcolm but not seriously.
Malcolm fired a shock combo into the middle of John and Gunther, it knocked them both to the floor, John still firing with his minigun, he hit Othello in the chest, but Othello had already fired that shot that would kill John.
A single bullet from Othello's minigun pierced the side of John's head and burst out the other side, killing him. Gunther swore and carried on firing, killing Othello with a hail of flak to the head and chest, his body dropping in front of Malcolm, who effortlessly hopped over it and grabbed the flag, and in the same motion, wheeled around the shot Gunther in the head.
As soon as this instant happened, Vick came up to the flag areas for support, and saw Malcolm running up the middle ramp and heading home. "Vick, Vick! You need to stop Malcolm before he gets back to his base! You gotta do the work this time! Go! For Christ sake go!!" Gunther bellowed down the radio at Gunther.
Gunther looked as Malcolm disappeared from view over the top of the middle ramp. He breathed out, and glanced at his foot. "Oh shit" Vick said.
(a/n) What's Vick gonna do?! Is he gonna pluck up the courage and save the day, at the risk of Rae or Lock finding out? Or is he gonna hang back and risk his entire relationship with the team?
Ahem...sorry, well I guess that is something to think about. I put this chapter in two parts, mainly because it's gonna be a hellova' fight, and because in my last story it was 15 pages, and couldn't fit in some of the '' so some people got confused. Oh well, until next time!
Please review! :)
