Author's Note: I guess it's about time I gave some thoughts on this and explained just what the hell I'm doing with everyone's favorite pilots. I'm trying to write a fic based around the morals of Unreal Tournament's story, and doing it from the perspective of the most emotionally diverse characters ever concieved probably makes it more interesting. Aside from who you've seen thus far, other characters from the show are going to appear. Namely Misato, Gendo, Yui and Kensuke. Also, if you read it please give me a little review. Just a couple of sentences so I know your thoughts, good, bad or ugly. Thanks, now on with the headshots!
UT Evangelion
Chapter 2: Let There Be More Light
Asuka Soryu, age 30, stood three feet away from Savage, the captain of Heavy Hitters. From this distance she could see every dent, scrape mark and bullet impact point on his gray armor, purposefully left there to give his attire a rough, worn-in look. If this were to impress the fans or intimidate his enemy's, Asuka wasn't sure. However, if she had to guess it would be the second. Juggernauts weren't exactly known for their willingness to play in the Tournament and were usually only there because the Liandri corporation had a deal with them: play in the Tournament for x amount of years and receive a get out of jail free card.
Asuka's armor, like the rest of her team's, was smooth and without any of the superficial damage of Savage's. The need to please fans wasn't lost on them at all. Asuka, for one, had her taunt stomach, lower back and shapely legs out in the air, uncovered and unhindered by heavy armor. Her breasts were covered with a mockery of swimming attire and her private region was covered in the same fashion. The 'straps' of the upper piece of her armored 'bikini' connected to a hump of armor on her upper back that covered the back of her head from injury and contained the personnel portion of the respawning device. Other than that she wore armored gloves that extended back to her mid-forearm and knee high boots to keep snow out in case of an arctic arena.
Needless to say, sales of Asuka posters to teenage boys were raking in quite a bit of cash.
"Hey Savage. Have you been on a diet?" she asked.
"No," the stupid Juggernaut replied, "Why?"
"Didn't think so," she said offhandedly.
The crowd sitting around them in the stadium cheered. In all honestly, she expected this to be a pretty one-sided trash talking session. Savage just wasn't cut out for going head to head with her conversational intellect.
"See you brought your new android with you," Savage sneered, gesturing to Casper where she stood behind Asuka, "What's the deal? You need to hide behind a robot's skirts?"
Everyone in the audience wearing a Heavy Hitters T-shirt went wild as a side effect of their favorite player's successful insult, which could be considered a rarity at best.
"Yup, I need to hide behind Casper's skirts," Asuka said, calming the audience, "As it'll just help me snipe you with all the ease of squishing an annoying housefly."
The crowd went crackers, cheering and throwing popcorn into the air.
"You're a bitch," he growled.
"See, judging by how my team destroyed your team last time we met, I had you pegged as the bitch," Asuka smarted.
Savage growled and clenched one of his fists.
"Oh, better save that anger for the match, Savage," Asuka warned mockingly, "You're gonna need it."
"I'll crush you," he threatened.
"Whatever," Asuka said and left the stage, winking at a hovering camera on her way off.
She walked down a secondary ramp through the infield of the stadium, where below her over a thousand clamoring fans reached up and called praise for the media-made demi-gods on stage. At the end of this ramp was another stage, small enough for just one team to stand on. In its center was a smooth silver steel podium and atop it, one big red button. Since Angels of Darkness had won the last match between themselves and Heavy Hitters, it was their right to choose this match's arena. With the rest of her team behind her, Asuka stepped up to the podium and rested both of her gauntlet-covered hands on the button, not pressing it but keeping it in her grasp.
Across the stadium from her, Savage and the other three members of Heavy Hitters stepped onto their own platform, minus the podium. Savage himself was walking back and forth, shouting at his team. From where she was, Asuka couldn't hear it but could still guess that it had something to do with the status of her in-match head and what should happen to it. Just then, several large screens around the stadium turned on. On them was a picture of one arena, which Asuka recognized as the Dingo Flats; a nasty dirt covered arena on the ass end of nowhere.
She didn't click the button and the picture changed to another arena, and then it changed again. Soon the pictures where flashing into and out of existence faster than any normal human brain could decipher the information it was being given. Obviously, being in the Tournament since she was eighteen had made Asuka's brain quicker than any normal human. In fact, machine testing had revealed that when put under sufficient stress, such as that which occurs in every match, her brain functioned just as fast as a modern grade Liandri combat droid. Well, maybe with Casper as an exception.
Abruptly, Asuka pushed in on the selection button. The screen automatically froze on an image of steel corridors and metal ramps with no railings. With her mouth twisted into a wry smirk, she turned to the nearest camera and raised her eyebrows in mock innocence.
"Cold Chambers. That's an interesting choice. Malcolm?" asked the robotic announcer.
"Makes sense. Its fairly narrow in some spots, it'll make it hard for the Heavy Hitters to maneuver without bumping into each other. Basically, with this choice Asuka has given herself a tactical advantage, just like she should," Malcolm explained.
"Truly a legendary captain," added his synthetic friend.
"Now let's not jump the gun on that," Malcolm started, but was cut off as the live feed switched back to the staging area.
Each team's individual platform lit up from within and a droning hum pervaded the audience. Asuka could feel her hair standing up as static electricity gathered around the platform. There was a loud crack and a flash, then both teams were gone. The teleportation of both teams sent them across the galaxy in an instant, reducing their bodies to mere bits of energy and then materializing them on scene in the barren cryogenic research station known as Cold Chambers. Aside from hosting Tournament matches every so often, the deep space relic didn't do much besides circulate air throughout itself and keep its nuclear reactor running. Overall not a terribly demanding existence.
After spawning into the area, Asuka stood patiently still in anticipation of the ritualistic signal to begin the slaughter fest. Soon enough, it arrived.
"TEAM DEATHMATCH!"
Instantly, the Angels were afoot. With Asuka just behind Toji in their line that ran at full speed through the corridors of the arena. Asuka ran through the pickup spot for a flak cannon and the weapon was automatically spawned into her right hand. No sooner had the flakes of the spawning wore off then one of Savage's goons burst into the corridor holding a ripjack in one hand. Toji whirled around, his newly equipped link gun in hand, and fired a blast. The Juggernaut took the hit in the stomach, winced a bit but was still able to fire his ripjack. The high speed spinning saw blade sliced through Toji's leg armor and ripped his right leg off from the knee down. He fell into the second shot, which severed his head from his neck and sent him falling over backwards, dead. Just as the respawning device dematerialized his dead body, the announcer cut in.
"FIRST BLOOD!"
Asuka fired off two quick primary fire shots with her flak cannon in the direction of Toji's killer. The first blast missed and its projectile cluster rebounded off of a wall behind the Juggernaut. One of those yellow-hot projectiles hit the big armored man in the ankle, blasting out the joint. In pain, the Juggernaut groaned out loudly. That was until Asuka's second blast blew him apart. Fleshy blood covered chunks of muscle tissue splattered across the floor, walls and ceiling of the chamber. Another Juggernaut jumped into the area from an opening above the corridor, a shock rifle clutched in his grip. Asuka pivoted around and fired her flak cannon one handed. The blast blew the second Juggernaut apart just as effectively as its predecessor had the previous one and another coat of red was applied to the corridor.
"DOUBLE KILL!"
Toji ran up to them, respawned anew and with a link gun in his hands.
"Sorry about that," he said.
"Whatever," she replied, "You stick with Rei, freeform patrol. Casper, with me."
"Roger," the female android replied, hefting her rocket launcher with one hand.
With that the two halves of the team split up, electing to double-team any opposition. This was a standard small arena deathmatch tactic straight out of the Angels of Darkness play book. That play book, more or less, was still dominated by tactics out of the mind of Shinji Ikari, despite his eight-year absence. Though she would never admit it to anyone, Asuka rarely ever thought outside of the metaphorical box. Together, Asuka and Casper burst through a doorway and into the largest room in Cold Chambers. Situated at the center of the arena, it had six entrances. Three of them were located around the bottom level and the other three around the top ramp that ran all the way around the room.
"Kill them!" boomed a voice.
Looking up, Asuka saw Savage aiming a stinger minigun down at her. She flinched as a barrage of bullets from the weapon ripped into her chest, splitting open her lungs and causing her heart to burst. With blood spurting weakly out of the holes, she fell backward toward the ground. Just before her back touched, however, she respawned. Now standing up once more, Asuka ran through a hologram of a bio rifle. The bulky bulbous weapon appeared in her grasp just as she stepped onto a lift. The lift moved upward quickly, bringing her into a corridor that led to the upper center deck of the arena. She ran down it while a large green glob of explosive material gathered at the front of her bio rifle.
Before her, with his back turned, was Savage. He stood in exactly the same spot as he had been before, shooting down at Casper. The android was dancing back and forth, dodging the Juggernaut team leader's horrible aim when Asuka released her weapon's payload. A twelve-pound glob of green ooze impacted Savage's back and wrapped around his chest, embracing him in a lethal hug. The large man spun around and looked at his killer, who blew him a kiss, just before exploding into bits of bloody meat. Without its owner there to hold it, the stinger minigun clattered to the floor. Asuka picked it up, her bio rifle teleported out of the map until she called for it again.
Below where she stood, she could see Casper jump sideways through the air, evading a shock rifle core with feet to spare. The high-tech android landed on the fingers of her left hand and balanced herself perfectly upside down, taking careful aim at her attacker with her rocket launcher. She fired one rocket, which flashed across the distance between herself and the target in no time at all. It hit him in the waist and blew him in half, his upper body smashing against a wall while his lower body was reduced to goo.
Just then, Toji and Rei ran into the lower area, he with his link gun and she with a sniper rifle. Toji squeezed his secondary fire and a beam lanced out of his weapon and touched a Juggernaut. He held it there for a few seconds before the Juggernaut's armor, flesh and muscle was burned off, leaving behind a bleached white skeleton.
"Ha, ha! Bring it!" he taunted.
A shock rifle bolt hit him in the head, blowing it off and sending his body across the area. Rei responded by firing a round out of her sniper rifle in the attacker's general direction.
"Rei!" Asuka shouted, kneeling down and reaching toward Rei with her left hand, "Get up here!"
Rei turned and jumped up, reaching for Asuka's hand. Glove touched glove and Asuka clamped down on her teammate's hand. She started pulling her up the ledge. From the right, Asuka heard the sound of a ripjack blade slicing through the air. The jagged-edged piece of circular metal cut through her arm at the elbow, severing it and sending Rei falling back down to the floor. The blue haired sniper landed on her back, and looked up just in time to see Savage's boot come down and crush her skull. Up above, Asuka screamed as she spun around and fired the stinger minigun at the ripjacker with her one remaining hand. Bullet's tore into him and pushed him back through a doorway, bleeding profusely. He fell to the ground and shimmered green as the respawner kicked into action.
"Take it!" she shouted, spit flying out of her mouth and onto the metal grating below her boots.
Below her, Savage fired off a rocket aimed in her direction. Halfway there, a shock rifle bolt impacted it and it detonated in mid-air. Angry, Savage followed the trajectory of the bolt to find Casper aiming at him. The android fired a shock core next to him and chased it down with a shock bolt. The two combined and created a large dark matter orb, which collapsed upon itself and pulled a screaming Savage in with it. Casper turned toward the nearest floating camera and smiled in accordance with her programming.
"Liandri brings you tomorrow, today," she said punctually.
Up above, Asuka was venting blood out of her ruined arm like a busted fire hydrant. Shouting in a mixture of pain and anger, she held down the trigger on her minigun. Another one of the Heavy Hitters fell under her barrage, but not before he lobbed a bio rifle glob towards her. The superheated glob hit her directly in the face and latched on, not letting go for anything. Its heat melted her eyes, causing her once-warrior like scream to take on a quality reminiscent of panic. She dropped her minigun and clawed at the glob, trying desperately to remove it even though she knew it wouldn't come off. Then it detonated, and she stopped screaming.
Asuka respawned with an Enforcer pistol in her hand. Up in front of her she caught the tail end of Rei as the mainstream sniper disappeared around a corner. She set off again in the direction of the middle, picking up a link gun along the way.
Casper jumped off of a wall and toward a Juggernaut. Although her light colored body didn't show it, she weighed upwards of a ton in heavy durable metal and processing crystal. Needless to say, even this opponent faltered under the impact. The two sprawled to the ground, punching and kicking. The Juggernaut ended up on top of Casper, but not for long. Using her robotic strength and flexibility, she wrapped a leg around her enemy's back and pulled in toward her. Vertebrae snapped and the Juggernaut let out a groan before dying.
"There's the bot!" shouted another Juggernaut to his teammate as the two entered the hallway.
Casper rotated her foot around 180 degrees and used it as a hook to throw the dead weight atop her to the side, where it disappeared for respawning. She dodged a ripjack blade and spun up to her feet, materializing her shock rifle in hand at the same time. Another blade spun toward her head. She ducked down and to the left, evading the blade before putting a shock bolt into the shooter's forehead with a kind of precision only a robot could muster.
"DOUBLE KILL!"
The second Juggernaut bounded toward her and fired his flak cannon. Casper jumped over both the blast and the man who fired it, spinning around in mid air and coming back down with the Juggernaut's back clearly in her line of fire. She aimed and squeezed the secondary fire trigger on her shock rifle, sending a purple orb into her opponent's back. The Juggernaut let out a pained cry and whirled on her, bringing his flak cannon to bare again. This time she took no chances, putting two more primary fire bolts into the target's chest.
"MULTI-KILL!"
Casper took three long strides down the hallway and entered the Heavy Hitter's respawning area. Her first two victims were already back from the dead, each holding Enforcer pistols in their oversized steroid-produced hands. In unison, they saw her and fired their starting weapons in burst mode. The collective six rounds were sidestepped with ease, leaving Casper to fire a shock core in between the two Juggernauts. She then shot it with a normal shock bolt, morphing it into a massive dark matter hole that sucked in the two bulky competitors without a problem before exploding.
"MEGA KILL!"
"ULTRA KILL!"
Then her third original victim reappeared before her. Three shock bolts entered his brain before the residual green light from the respawner had worn off.
"MONSTER KILL! ONE KILL REMAINING!"
Asuka burst into the center room with an Enforcer in each hand. Rei was beside her with the sniper rifle she almost always possessed in firing position. On the other side of the room, Savage entered with a rocket launcher pointed in their direction.
"Rei, you distract him and I'll flank left," Asuka said.
"Yes," Rei replied.
The sniper fired one round toward the Juggernaut's head. Savage threw himself to the side, evading the shot and fired a rocket at Rei. Still reloading, Rei ducked just far enough for the rocket to lash over her hair, close enough to make a few blue strands blow about in reaction to its passing. Rei finished putting another heavy caliber round into the chamber and fired from the hip. The bullet smashed into the ground below Savage, breaking it apart and sending fragments up into collision with his knee guard. This went unnoticed to the massive man as he calmly used his launcher's secondary fire to prepare three rockets at once. Knowing she couldn't dodge those homing shots in such close quarters; Rei simply reloaded her weapon.
The bolt locked into place just as the trio of explosives came hurtling for her position. Rei fired and hit the center rocket in mid-air. The other two, however, hit her in the gut and blew her apart. Savage began to laugh as his rocket launcher smoked in silence. Suddenly, Asuka appeared upside down before him, her feet locked in between to coolant pipes on the low ceiling. A barrage of six Enforcer pistol rounds smashed into his face, burying themselves and spurting blood out in their wakes. He remained standing, however, until Asuka jumped down from her position and kicked him in the chest. Savage slammed onto his back and weakly looked up as the red head fired a final bullet into his forehead.
"GAME OVER!"