Fight for Freedom
(a/n) Hello there, seeing as I finally got the last chapter up; I'm trying to keep going with it every week. This match will finally see an Assault game type, seeing as Kill Switch won the CTF trophy they are now able to get into the Assault cup, but that's not saying other legendary teams will be in there as well, just because Thunder Crash lost the CTF cup doesn't mean they aren't top of the Assault ladder too (hint hint). Anyway, I hope you enjoy this one, as I'm writing this I'm getting really excited already. I got lots of ideas floating around in my head. However, no combat in this one, but this chapter will be yet again another advance in the story and will set me up perfectly for the huge fight coming in the next chapter!
Dynamis: Great to hear from you buddy! Glad I managed to get at least one of the original guys back :). Thanks for the review. Yes, there definitely will be some friction in this chapter between Lock and Vick, but just how far will they go?
Read, review and enjoy :)
Chapter 16: Maybe...just maybe
Gunther and Amon were in John's cell all night just talking about things that had gone on in their lives. It was quite an odd occasion, the longest all three of them had spent together was in matches, and even then they would be coming and going all the time.
"What time is it?" Gunther asked pointing to his wrist. Amon shrugged and looked back at him. For once during the time spent together, silence drifted around the cell. John cleared his throat; somehow Gunther recognized it as a cue to speak.
"Man, I wonder what's gonna happen with Lock and Vick after yesterday" John said quietly whilst leaning back on the wall.
"Beats me, it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't even see Vick today in the match" Amon replied.
"There's a match today! Aww crap, I'm aching all over from the capture the flag. I gotta hand it to those guys though, they sure are tough." Gunther scoffed. "Sometimes I wonder how the hell we beat them"
"Amen" Amon chuckled. All three of them smiled. The TV in John's cell fizzed and produced a picture. 'Liandri News' it read on the screen. Gunther and Amon looked at each other and laughed. John looked puzzled and continued to watch, he still couldn't figure out what they were laughing at. They both broke John's concentration:
"I wonder what bullshit they have got for us this time" Gunther said. "What's the bet it's gonna be about us after the match yesterday" Amon stated whilst still laughing.
"It that what you two were laughing at?" John asked. "No don't worry, it's not that, we just…lets just say the team has been on this show, err, I mean 'programme' before." Gunther started laughing again as he said this.
"What for?" John said as he chuckled himself. He didn't get answer, all of them just watched eagerly to see if their own little incident would appear on the small news programme.
"Today, our main headlines within the tournament are: 'Kill Switch, the team that could fall apart from the inside, we have an exclusive interview with the leader of the team' the TV announcer said. It then babbled on about many other things to do with the tournament, but nobody was listening to it anymore.
"An interview with Lock? No way!" Gunther said when he had finally stopped laughing.
For a second it looked as if Amon was worried, if a proper interview with Lock was released, they could barely joke about it anymore. Most people actually within the tournament would pay more attention too, instead of stupid tabloid stories invented by journalists short of cash. It was likely that other teams could play off their dislike for each other and really capitalize.
All three of them waited in suspense for what they thought would be Lock's voice. Gunther held his breath just as the reporter on the TV said:
"And now to the captain of the team, Lock." The screen blanked out and a picture of the Kill Switch logo appeared. The picture stayed there whilst a voice was heard and Gunther, Amon and John let out a long breath.
It was nothing like Lock's voice. The group started to snigger, and then laugh out loud.
"See what I mean?" Gunther almost struggled to say over the laughter. John did get it this time, however, he didn't seem to find it as funny as Gunther and Amon did. The merely chuckled to himself and watched as the other two wet themselves laughing. It had only until now really occurred to John just how big and public the whole event was, and how all this fighting, killing and deceit was all just part of one big game controlled by super commercial powers.
John sighed and looked back at the screen. It was still the logo, the 'Lock' that was talking about how ashamed and embarrassed he was, and how he hated the fact of having another atrocious thing pinned on them again.
'Atrocious things?' John thought to himself. 'Is that what Gunther was talking about earlier?' So many questions filled John's mind at this point. 'But surely if they both say that it's all a lie then why am I worried? But could they be the liars themselves? No, that's stupid John shut up, don't go and get paranoid about everything.' John looked back up at the TV again. The fake voice continued:
"Of course this event is in no way linked to the other previous…ahem…incidents there have been in the past, and I assure you that nothing like this will happen again under the watch on the Liandri Corporation." It was easy to tell that they voice was fake, it kept mentioning things about Liandri, and anybody who knew Lock knew that he was one of the thousands who could not stand Liandri. The interview carried on and broke John's chain of thoughts.
"So you're saying the mass shootings outside of the tournament are not related to this incident at all?" the interviewer asked. "No not at all in any way, shape or form." The interview ended, and more news carried on with a droid and a human with a robotic arm sitting behind a desk tidying up their papers and pretending to laugh at one another comments on the situation.
Gunther and Amon had finally cleared up when John looked up from the floor. He smiled and looked at them, they both had tears in their eyes and were clutching their stomachs in pain. They looked at John, with a smile still in their eyes.
"You ok John?" Gunther asked as his face changed from a smile to concern. John nodded and put on a fake smile. He tried to put a slight happy tone in his voice and asked:
"Man that really is some bullshit. But what were they talking about previously that made you guys fall over the place?"
"Oh yeah that" Gunther couldn't help but giggled a bit more. "You hear that just then when it said: 'mass shootings'? That was one of the biggest, blown up stories the Liandri corp. ever had. Mass shootings." Gunther scoffed. "Is that what you call two injured gas station workers? Mass shootings…" Gunther scoffed again.
"Oh…" John replied softly. "How did they find out it was you?" he asked.
"Well, the first guy squealed to the cops straight away. Bear in mind this was after Amon and I were put in the tournament. We managed to get lose and hook up with our buddies who, as you've probably guessed are Lock, Rae and Vick. That's why they are in here, Amon and I just went on unpunished, merely a slap on the wrist." Gunther didn't look as happy about it as he was earlier.
"What about the other guy?" John asked.
"Beats me" Amon replied. "I guess he could be anywhere by now, who knows."
John was rather taken back by this. The two people he classed as the nicest guys on the team had turned out to have been involved in more than the stories they had told him. What's more, they both laughed about it, something that Johnmay have evenbeen involved in himself and cannot remove the scars mentally and physically.
The vision came back again. John finally thought he was starting to get over it, but it was back; but there was something so much more familiar about it; the voices of the gang, the figures. John clutched his right leg firmly and blinked very heavily. He let out a deep breath and looked towards Gunther and Amon who were sitting chatting for some kind of comfort.
John tried to speak, but only the random quotes from that night that scarred him came out. The more he looked at Gunther, the more the voice seemed to fit his. John shook his head violently and the vision snapped away from his mind. Gunther had his hand on John's shoulder and was literally shouting in his ear.
John snapped out of his trance. Sweat dripped off his nose, and he breathed in shakily and let it out. He came to the conclusion that it was because Gunther had been right next to him, that he was starting to get into his vision.
"John! John! Are you ok?" Gunther exclaimed into John's ear.
"Yeah yeah I'm fine… I just-' John was interrupted by the familiar voice of the announcer calling Kill Switch to the elevators for the assault match. All three of them looked up at the TV and stood up quickly. They all still had their armour on, they couldn't be bothered to take it off last night.
Suddenly, Lock poked his head around the corner and started shouting at them. "Let's go a little hustle here! Come on!" he shouted. He turned and walked quickly away from the cell and towards the elevator. Amon, Gunther and John soon followed.
Vick was already waiting up the top with Rae, she was keeping her distance, especially after the weird stuff that happened last time. Vick was staring at the floor and usual and keeping his eye on the elevator. Rae was mainly looking at the crowd and every few minutes quickly checking behind her to see if Vick was doing a repeat of last time without her noticing.
The crowd was no way near as big as the CTF trophy match, but that wasn't to say that it wasn't big. Kill Switch had gained a lot more fans since their famous win a day earlier. Many banners and crazed fans with Kill Switch spray painted onto their shirts were all huddled in one corner at the front. Most others were near the platform in the center where they could get a good view of both teams close to each other.
Rae and Vick both wheeled around as they heard the elevator come up. Vick looked back at the floor again quickly as he realized Lock and the rest of the team had arrived. Rae was relieved to see them; she walked over to them and greeted each one with a friendly nod.
The team huddled around each other and Lock started giving battle strategies out. "Keep together if you can, we have more chance of getting each objective if we move as one force. Now, I know that none of us have done an assault match before. But just remember that all the information that we need about objectives is on our wrist pads. We are playing the Convoy scenario, so stay with the vehicles and watch for the minigun turrets and another other things that can be a threat. Just keep it moving, and keep it tight we'll be fine. Ok let's go."
The team all stood up and relieved their backs from crouching over. Vick stayed crouching over for a few more seconds, but it was very noticeable. He finally stood right up and turned around face to face with Lock. It looked quite ironic that Vick was taller than Lock, but it was Lock who was giving the warnings.
John watched both of them look at each other face to face. He couldn't make out anything they were saying to each other, they were very silent comments. Vick was really staring hard into Lock's eyes, but Lock wasn't back down at all, suddenly, the threats were broken by a small shove from Vick.
Lock retaliated quickly with a sort of half-assed punch in the stomach then quickly turned away and walked up to John. John watched as he came towards him, he was about to ask if Lock was ok when, before he could speak, Lock figure appeared in his mind as the vision came back. The sound of the crowd mixed and melted together with the scarring sounds of the three gunshots that plagued John's mind.
John stumbled with one hand over his ear. He looked back up at Lock, he standing right in front of him, his mouth was moving but John couldn't hear anything. Suddenly, his ears started ringing uncontrollably, then a whistling sound emerged and everything was back to normal. Lock was there shouting his name at him and the other were looking on.
"John! You there!" Lock shouted. John snapped out of it and stumbled again.
"Getting nervous about the match?" Lock said. John nodded when he really was still half deaf. "Don't worry about it man. Just remember, this match is just like all the others. Come on we gotta get on the platform." John nodded again and followed Lock up to the platform.
Once all the fighters were in their positions on the platform, John glanced over Rae's shoulder to see who they were actually fighting. Punk rock hairstyles, odd spikes coming out from their shoulders and what almost looks like strange rags for armour; it could only be the Hellions.
John leaned over to Gunther slightly and inquired: "Theses guys won the CTF trophy! How the hell did that happen?"
Gunther chuckled and replied: "They didn't deserve it, but they managed to get it by beating Super Nova wouldn't you believe. Xan's team was out of action that year and Malcolm was struggling to get the original Thunder Crash back together, so Super Nova was the only thing standing in their way." Gunther chuckled again and focused back on the match.
This made John feel a lot better, he remembered beating them in the Onslaught match earlier in the month, he smiled and looked into the bright lights above them. Suddenly, the announcer's voice came on announcing that the map was AS-Convoy between Kill Switch and the Hellions. The crowd noise rose several decibels and banners and flags went up around the stadium.
A flash of light engulfed both teams. The match was on…
(a/n) Again I apologize for no fighting, but this chapter really sets me up for the next chapter, which is just fighting. Anyways, fighting on Convoy should be good fun, miniguns and sniper rifles galore anyone? Reviews would be great, thanks. Stay tuned for the next chapter coming out soon!
