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Remember to R/R, also keep in mind that I'll review your stories if you
review mine, wahaha...yeah...
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The Marine
-Chapter Two: First Blood-
Jack stepped into his rickety room, and wondered to himself mildly how anyone could ever live in a dump like this, especially the ones who were doomed to stay in this blasted Tournament for the remainder of their lives. It must have been horrible for the bottom feeders. Jack took a look in his bathroom and threw up; he couldn't take the stench emitting from the sink and toilet. Flies buzzed annoyingly all around. His flooring looked as if it were about to break with every step. A couch that looked fifty years old sat in the center, a television and some chairs adorned the room. A cot was in the corner, seeming out of the way. The only nice looking thing in the room was a table sitting against a wall near the door. A robot stood dormant on the table, a hologram of all of the teams qualified for the Tournament and the current ladder hovered over the sleek chrome body of the bot.
Jack read carefully every statistic he could about every major competitor. He'd learned a long time ago that the more one knows about his enemy, the better he will know how to defeat him. He spent hours studying the holograms, and then, near the early morning hours, decided to turn on the bot and see what it could do.
It flipped on and spoke in the ever-monotonous voice the robot's share, "Hello. I am a service robot certified under the use of....Mortiorchis. Welcome back, sir. You are currently in 26th place in the qualifications, due to your already existing credentials the Marines provide." Jack shook his head in disbelief. 'Nothing gets past them, does it?' thought Jack as he looked placidly on at the robot, awaiting it's next words. "You must win a minimum of four death matches on the solo level to move up to third place in the qualifications standings. This will allow you to reach the Team Qualifications round. Should you reach this next step, I will give you further instructions. It is recommended that you begin with a one versus one match-up. There are currently four available one versus one challenges on the grid for today. Matches begin at 8:00 A.M. Would you like to accept the offers for a one versus one match from..."
The robot stopped speaking for a moment and pulled up four holograms, each reading just the name of the opponent and their place in the qualifications at the time being.
Silhouette- 25th Place System- 10th Place Riviera- 17th Place Terran- 20th Place
Jack mused his options, scratching his head. He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking. He finally decided to take on a challenge, but not too tough of one. He figured that he could take on any of the four, but he wasn't sure, so he tapped his finger lightly on the picture next to Riviera. The robot nodded solemnly and said in the same monotonous voice, "Your match will begin at 8:45 A.M. Good luck."
The robot went dead and the holograms disappeared, besides the ever present ladder. He saw with a pang that Dante had killed a poor man in the qualifiers. It wasn't pretty either, he had brutally killed him, put him in critical condition. Jack decided that once he got into the Tournament and access to more devices, he'd investigate this 'Dante' further.
Jack looked at his clock. 8:42. He slipped on his body armor and walked out the creaking door and down the hall to where the spawning cage was. Jack noticed another woman walking up; she was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. Disgusting red spiked hair, she must have weighed 400 pounds. Jack wondered in amazement what she could have done to get in here. They both took their spots on the spawning selection. The announcer spoke through the intercom in Jack's helmet.
"Welcome to this one on one death match between Mortiorchis (26) and Riviera (17). This match will take place on map Idoma. Frag limit is 5. Good luck to each of you."
Jack felt himself dematerialize suddenly; it felt like he was being pulled apart into several hundred thousand pieces. He fell with a thud on the creaky wooden flooring of Idoma. He was shaking all over, but he took several breaths and calmed himself.
He looked at the crappy assault rifle he held carefully in his hands. He picked up his Shield Gun, for now it would provide protection in case Riviera found him first. He started trotting, but slowly broke into a run through the halls. He heard himself making noise, but right now he didn't care. He had to find a weapon, fast. He froze and his eyes went wide as he heard another creaking going along with his. She was behind him. There was a Flak Cannon just ahead; he had to get to it. Jack dove for it, but not before he felt the endlessly painful shards of bullets pumping from the Minigun into him. His vision began to blur, but he turned around and took aim. He fired the cannon just as he took a face full of Minigun.
Jack went black, but suddenly felt alive again as he respawned near the entrance. He heard a booming voice overhead, "First Blood!" Jack cursed and looked at the score, but he realized it was his cannon must have killed her too, as the score read 1-1. He felt less worried, but the pain in his face and back was still there. He bounded over to the Link Gun and picked it up. He turned around and started running, picking up health vials as he went. He was stopped in his tracks when a rocket flew in front of him, exploding into the wall. He was knocked over forcefully by the splash, taking some minor damage. Three charged rockets flew his direction, but Jack was able to roll and avoid them; again the splash hit him. After he got up and starting running he took a glance to the control panel of his armor and realized that he had just 28 hit points remaining. A Minigun stood in the corner, he stumbled towards it, picked it up and ducked behind the corner. Two rockets hit the wall where he stood two seconds before. He waited silently, back pressed to the wall. Riviera ran and took the corner without noticing him lying in wait. He opened fire with his Minigun, right into her back. She arched forward, screaming in the agonizing pain, before dematerializing. He picked up her dropped Rocket Launcher and went on, picking up a health cross restoring his energy partially. He felt more confident now that he had a lead.
Riviera was hiding in wait in the shadows. She was waiting for him to come through to pick up Launcher ammo, as she hadn't left it very full. She had the Rocket Launcher she acquired pointed straight at the box of ammo that was there. She couldn't wait to see his blood splatter across the halls of Idoma. She heard footsteps, so she crunched down behind the box, only the Launcher pointed out. Sure enough, Mortiorchis ran straight over, picking up the ammo. She fired the Rocket Launcher, but he heard the sound and jumped, taking only minor splash damage.
'I got him!' Riviera thought beaming with pride. She would fire the rocket where he would come down, and he'd be blown to pieces. Just as she pressed the primary fire trigger her eyes opened wide as she realized her gross miscalculation. The rocket didn't have enough room to get through, and it blew up in her face. Luckily, she had a piece of extra armor to help, but it was too little, too late. Mortiorchis had his launcher already pointed at the hole where she hid. Blood streamed into her eyes, burning them shut. Blinking rapidly, the last thing she saw before becoming plastered to the stone was the smirk on his confident, god forsaken face.
Jack sighed with relief that the rocket Riviera fired had been off target, he would have been a pool of blood had it not blown up. He knew that Riviera would not give up easily and would probably be after him with newfound hate in her blood. He confidently ran down the halls, picking up everything he found. He decided to pick her off the easy way, and rest his throbbing legs for a while. He found a Lightning Gun and a piece of extra armor in an alcove of Idoma, where he could oversee everything in the wildlife infested dungeon. He put down a few location placers near the entrance to the alcove so that he'd know if Riviera approached. He sat down and sighed at the relief of not running constantly. He needed the brief rest. He kept a hawk-like eye over the environment, a Flak Cannon next to him in case of an emergency. The Lightning Gun was a pinpoint weapon and wouldn't be very useful in an immediate need of quick aim, especially if he was moving. After several minutes he was growing tired of waiting for her to appear, and was annoyed at her hiding.
Suddenly, he heard something. It was his Locator; a detector he placed had went off. She was behind him. He quickly pulled out his Lightning Gun and waited for her to turn the corner. He entered the sniping alternate mode on the gun. His prey would be his, and he would all but lock in a win.
She had seen him with the gun from a far in her hiding spot and knew he would try and snipe her face based on her height and where she would come from. He'd know exactly where she would appear due to his annoying detectors. She thought for a moment, and then had an idea...
Jack was wondering why she took so long to turn the corner. She was running when the detector went off, why she would be taking so long was a mystery. His heart dropped like a stone with the sudden, horrible realization. He lowered the Lightning Gun, and heard the cock of a weapon that could only be the Flak Cannon. He turned, and was staring down the barrel of the weapon. His eyes flew open wide as he saw the shards of flak begin their descent into his face. He cried out as his entire head was blown away, his blood splattered across the room. Riviera laughed as the rest of his body dematerialized.
Jack swore under his breath when he respawned. He couldn't believe he had been fooled like that. He needed to get his last two kills quickly. He checked the score quickly; just to be sure he had it right in his head. He still held a slim lead of 3-2. Jack let out a quick sigh, then headed on. He grabbed the Link Gun and then headed down the ramp, picking up the health vials. He turned and glanced through a side passage to see Riviera running along the pathway on the other side. Jack got a plan.
He sprinted, trying to get there first. He rounded the corner and to his shock saw Riviera standing right there, Flak Cannon pointed at his face. His instincts gained in the Marines allowed him to duck and roll before being blown to pieces again. He came up right underneath her. He decided committing suicide with the Rocket Launcher wasn't a great idea. He pulled out the Link Gun quickly and fired the secondary fire straight up between Riviera's legs. She cried out with the agonizing pain of being annihilated from the ground up. Finally her spirit died and the bones collapsed on Jack. He shrugged them off and continued on.
Riviera's eyes were glowing red from anger and pain. The Link Gun fire through her legs sent a reverberating sting of pain throughout her new body. She had trouble running very fast, and she knew that she couldn't win like this. She simply wanted to cause him as much pain as possible before she left the fight. She picked up the weapon she knew would do it, too. Only the Rocket Launcher with a point blank hit to the face would give Mortiorchis the pain he deserved.
Jack was desperately running to find Riviera. His side ached horribly, the Flak Cannon shards had nicked him. He had to finish the match off quickly, or he might suffer some severe internal damage before the medics could get to him. He only had two shots with the Rocket Launcher left, and most of the ammo had been taken, so he had to use it well. He saw Riviera round the corner and jump down to his level. He took aim with the Launcher, and fired, but she rolled away and dodged. He was now standing in one place with her charging towards him. Jack swore and loaded up the last shot he had. Distantly he could hear the crowd cheering, they knew this would most likely be the final showdown. He took aim one last time and let loose the rocket. Time seemed to slow down to where every second felt like hours, Jack felt as if those four seconds lasted him a whole lifetime. The rocket seemed to move hardly at all through the air; Jack fell backward, once again, seemingly slowly, from the blast. Then, time sped up. He was once again aware. Riviera cried out, the rocket had landed! Unfortunately, she wasn't quite finished. Jack stepped back, he had no more ammo. Riviera was bleeding badly, her energy dropping rapidly. She didn't look as if she could make but two or three more steps. She staggered toward him, then took aim with the Rocket Launcher. Jack saw the three rockets loaded into the barrel. He knew this would be the definition of pain, what he was about to experience. He realized this horrible fact microseconds before Riviera released it. Three rockets exploded from the barrel and blew up into Jack's face. Since the rockets blew up so close to the gun, it ignited the other rockets loaded. A giant explosion in the halls of Idoma occurred. Jack took the initial blunt of it and was blown back fifty feet by the blast. He had nothing but his head, parts of his body, and half an arm left when he landed with a giant splattering thud. He felt a few moments of this agonizing pain before dying, and rematerializing at the gates of the Death Match. He felt like he'd been hit by a train, twice. He felt his side, and his hand came up with blood. He knelt, his vision blurry. He hardly heard the announcer proclaiming him the winner. Medics rushed to his attention. His final words before being taken by darkness were, "These had better not all be like that..."
----- Wow, this one's about as long as the other two put together. Ah well, no one's complaining, right? Please R/R, I'd appreciate it so much. K, Chapter 3, which will be longer than both of these put together, should be up in a couple of days. ------
The Marine
-Chapter Two: First Blood-
Jack stepped into his rickety room, and wondered to himself mildly how anyone could ever live in a dump like this, especially the ones who were doomed to stay in this blasted Tournament for the remainder of their lives. It must have been horrible for the bottom feeders. Jack took a look in his bathroom and threw up; he couldn't take the stench emitting from the sink and toilet. Flies buzzed annoyingly all around. His flooring looked as if it were about to break with every step. A couch that looked fifty years old sat in the center, a television and some chairs adorned the room. A cot was in the corner, seeming out of the way. The only nice looking thing in the room was a table sitting against a wall near the door. A robot stood dormant on the table, a hologram of all of the teams qualified for the Tournament and the current ladder hovered over the sleek chrome body of the bot.
Jack read carefully every statistic he could about every major competitor. He'd learned a long time ago that the more one knows about his enemy, the better he will know how to defeat him. He spent hours studying the holograms, and then, near the early morning hours, decided to turn on the bot and see what it could do.
It flipped on and spoke in the ever-monotonous voice the robot's share, "Hello. I am a service robot certified under the use of....Mortiorchis. Welcome back, sir. You are currently in 26th place in the qualifications, due to your already existing credentials the Marines provide." Jack shook his head in disbelief. 'Nothing gets past them, does it?' thought Jack as he looked placidly on at the robot, awaiting it's next words. "You must win a minimum of four death matches on the solo level to move up to third place in the qualifications standings. This will allow you to reach the Team Qualifications round. Should you reach this next step, I will give you further instructions. It is recommended that you begin with a one versus one match-up. There are currently four available one versus one challenges on the grid for today. Matches begin at 8:00 A.M. Would you like to accept the offers for a one versus one match from..."
The robot stopped speaking for a moment and pulled up four holograms, each reading just the name of the opponent and their place in the qualifications at the time being.
Silhouette- 25th Place System- 10th Place Riviera- 17th Place Terran- 20th Place
Jack mused his options, scratching his head. He ran his fingers through his hair, thinking. He finally decided to take on a challenge, but not too tough of one. He figured that he could take on any of the four, but he wasn't sure, so he tapped his finger lightly on the picture next to Riviera. The robot nodded solemnly and said in the same monotonous voice, "Your match will begin at 8:45 A.M. Good luck."
The robot went dead and the holograms disappeared, besides the ever present ladder. He saw with a pang that Dante had killed a poor man in the qualifiers. It wasn't pretty either, he had brutally killed him, put him in critical condition. Jack decided that once he got into the Tournament and access to more devices, he'd investigate this 'Dante' further.
Jack looked at his clock. 8:42. He slipped on his body armor and walked out the creaking door and down the hall to where the spawning cage was. Jack noticed another woman walking up; she was the ugliest thing he had ever seen. Disgusting red spiked hair, she must have weighed 400 pounds. Jack wondered in amazement what she could have done to get in here. They both took their spots on the spawning selection. The announcer spoke through the intercom in Jack's helmet.
"Welcome to this one on one death match between Mortiorchis (26) and Riviera (17). This match will take place on map Idoma. Frag limit is 5. Good luck to each of you."
Jack felt himself dematerialize suddenly; it felt like he was being pulled apart into several hundred thousand pieces. He fell with a thud on the creaky wooden flooring of Idoma. He was shaking all over, but he took several breaths and calmed himself.
He looked at the crappy assault rifle he held carefully in his hands. He picked up his Shield Gun, for now it would provide protection in case Riviera found him first. He started trotting, but slowly broke into a run through the halls. He heard himself making noise, but right now he didn't care. He had to find a weapon, fast. He froze and his eyes went wide as he heard another creaking going along with his. She was behind him. There was a Flak Cannon just ahead; he had to get to it. Jack dove for it, but not before he felt the endlessly painful shards of bullets pumping from the Minigun into him. His vision began to blur, but he turned around and took aim. He fired the cannon just as he took a face full of Minigun.
Jack went black, but suddenly felt alive again as he respawned near the entrance. He heard a booming voice overhead, "First Blood!" Jack cursed and looked at the score, but he realized it was his cannon must have killed her too, as the score read 1-1. He felt less worried, but the pain in his face and back was still there. He bounded over to the Link Gun and picked it up. He turned around and started running, picking up health vials as he went. He was stopped in his tracks when a rocket flew in front of him, exploding into the wall. He was knocked over forcefully by the splash, taking some minor damage. Three charged rockets flew his direction, but Jack was able to roll and avoid them; again the splash hit him. After he got up and starting running he took a glance to the control panel of his armor and realized that he had just 28 hit points remaining. A Minigun stood in the corner, he stumbled towards it, picked it up and ducked behind the corner. Two rockets hit the wall where he stood two seconds before. He waited silently, back pressed to the wall. Riviera ran and took the corner without noticing him lying in wait. He opened fire with his Minigun, right into her back. She arched forward, screaming in the agonizing pain, before dematerializing. He picked up her dropped Rocket Launcher and went on, picking up a health cross restoring his energy partially. He felt more confident now that he had a lead.
Riviera was hiding in wait in the shadows. She was waiting for him to come through to pick up Launcher ammo, as she hadn't left it very full. She had the Rocket Launcher she acquired pointed straight at the box of ammo that was there. She couldn't wait to see his blood splatter across the halls of Idoma. She heard footsteps, so she crunched down behind the box, only the Launcher pointed out. Sure enough, Mortiorchis ran straight over, picking up the ammo. She fired the Rocket Launcher, but he heard the sound and jumped, taking only minor splash damage.
'I got him!' Riviera thought beaming with pride. She would fire the rocket where he would come down, and he'd be blown to pieces. Just as she pressed the primary fire trigger her eyes opened wide as she realized her gross miscalculation. The rocket didn't have enough room to get through, and it blew up in her face. Luckily, she had a piece of extra armor to help, but it was too little, too late. Mortiorchis had his launcher already pointed at the hole where she hid. Blood streamed into her eyes, burning them shut. Blinking rapidly, the last thing she saw before becoming plastered to the stone was the smirk on his confident, god forsaken face.
Jack sighed with relief that the rocket Riviera fired had been off target, he would have been a pool of blood had it not blown up. He knew that Riviera would not give up easily and would probably be after him with newfound hate in her blood. He confidently ran down the halls, picking up everything he found. He decided to pick her off the easy way, and rest his throbbing legs for a while. He found a Lightning Gun and a piece of extra armor in an alcove of Idoma, where he could oversee everything in the wildlife infested dungeon. He put down a few location placers near the entrance to the alcove so that he'd know if Riviera approached. He sat down and sighed at the relief of not running constantly. He needed the brief rest. He kept a hawk-like eye over the environment, a Flak Cannon next to him in case of an emergency. The Lightning Gun was a pinpoint weapon and wouldn't be very useful in an immediate need of quick aim, especially if he was moving. After several minutes he was growing tired of waiting for her to appear, and was annoyed at her hiding.
Suddenly, he heard something. It was his Locator; a detector he placed had went off. She was behind him. He quickly pulled out his Lightning Gun and waited for her to turn the corner. He entered the sniping alternate mode on the gun. His prey would be his, and he would all but lock in a win.
She had seen him with the gun from a far in her hiding spot and knew he would try and snipe her face based on her height and where she would come from. He'd know exactly where she would appear due to his annoying detectors. She thought for a moment, and then had an idea...
Jack was wondering why she took so long to turn the corner. She was running when the detector went off, why she would be taking so long was a mystery. His heart dropped like a stone with the sudden, horrible realization. He lowered the Lightning Gun, and heard the cock of a weapon that could only be the Flak Cannon. He turned, and was staring down the barrel of the weapon. His eyes flew open wide as he saw the shards of flak begin their descent into his face. He cried out as his entire head was blown away, his blood splattered across the room. Riviera laughed as the rest of his body dematerialized.
Jack swore under his breath when he respawned. He couldn't believe he had been fooled like that. He needed to get his last two kills quickly. He checked the score quickly; just to be sure he had it right in his head. He still held a slim lead of 3-2. Jack let out a quick sigh, then headed on. He grabbed the Link Gun and then headed down the ramp, picking up the health vials. He turned and glanced through a side passage to see Riviera running along the pathway on the other side. Jack got a plan.
He sprinted, trying to get there first. He rounded the corner and to his shock saw Riviera standing right there, Flak Cannon pointed at his face. His instincts gained in the Marines allowed him to duck and roll before being blown to pieces again. He came up right underneath her. He decided committing suicide with the Rocket Launcher wasn't a great idea. He pulled out the Link Gun quickly and fired the secondary fire straight up between Riviera's legs. She cried out with the agonizing pain of being annihilated from the ground up. Finally her spirit died and the bones collapsed on Jack. He shrugged them off and continued on.
Riviera's eyes were glowing red from anger and pain. The Link Gun fire through her legs sent a reverberating sting of pain throughout her new body. She had trouble running very fast, and she knew that she couldn't win like this. She simply wanted to cause him as much pain as possible before she left the fight. She picked up the weapon she knew would do it, too. Only the Rocket Launcher with a point blank hit to the face would give Mortiorchis the pain he deserved.
Jack was desperately running to find Riviera. His side ached horribly, the Flak Cannon shards had nicked him. He had to finish the match off quickly, or he might suffer some severe internal damage before the medics could get to him. He only had two shots with the Rocket Launcher left, and most of the ammo had been taken, so he had to use it well. He saw Riviera round the corner and jump down to his level. He took aim with the Launcher, and fired, but she rolled away and dodged. He was now standing in one place with her charging towards him. Jack swore and loaded up the last shot he had. Distantly he could hear the crowd cheering, they knew this would most likely be the final showdown. He took aim one last time and let loose the rocket. Time seemed to slow down to where every second felt like hours, Jack felt as if those four seconds lasted him a whole lifetime. The rocket seemed to move hardly at all through the air; Jack fell backward, once again, seemingly slowly, from the blast. Then, time sped up. He was once again aware. Riviera cried out, the rocket had landed! Unfortunately, she wasn't quite finished. Jack stepped back, he had no more ammo. Riviera was bleeding badly, her energy dropping rapidly. She didn't look as if she could make but two or three more steps. She staggered toward him, then took aim with the Rocket Launcher. Jack saw the three rockets loaded into the barrel. He knew this would be the definition of pain, what he was about to experience. He realized this horrible fact microseconds before Riviera released it. Three rockets exploded from the barrel and blew up into Jack's face. Since the rockets blew up so close to the gun, it ignited the other rockets loaded. A giant explosion in the halls of Idoma occurred. Jack took the initial blunt of it and was blown back fifty feet by the blast. He had nothing but his head, parts of his body, and half an arm left when he landed with a giant splattering thud. He felt a few moments of this agonizing pain before dying, and rematerializing at the gates of the Death Match. He felt like he'd been hit by a train, twice. He felt his side, and his hand came up with blood. He knelt, his vision blurry. He hardly heard the announcer proclaiming him the winner. Medics rushed to his attention. His final words before being taken by darkness were, "These had better not all be like that..."
----- Wow, this one's about as long as the other two put together. Ah well, no one's complaining, right? Please R/R, I'd appreciate it so much. K, Chapter 3, which will be longer than both of these put together, should be up in a couple of days. ------