UT Evangelion
Prologue: First Blood
ANGELS OF DARKNESS VS FREAKS OF NATURE, TOURNAMENT SEMI-FINAL CTF MATCH 1
Shinji Ikari, 22 years old and reigning champion of the Liandri Tournament, jumped backwards off of a metal bridge running between two towers over 50,000 feet above ground and fired his shock rifle in the process. The proton beam slashed through the frigid winter air and into the enemy contestant's head, blowing it off. Just as Shinji's booted feet landed on a narrower secondary bridge, the match's announcer took note of the killing and shared it with the viewing audience, in typical grandiose style.
"HEADSHOT!"
Above, the headless body shimmered green on its course to meeting the floor and disappeared, an effect of the Liandri Teleportation Respawn Device. In roughly five seconds that competitor would be back in the game, fresh with his head once again intact and with any luck a bigger temper issue than before. Not that Shinji really cared. An increase in anger would cloud his opponent's vision and make him easier to kill. With that in mind, he headed out along this smaller secondary bridge at a dead run. Along the way he ran through a glowing ammo hologram, resulting in more ammo being teleported into the shock rifle in his hands.
A lighting strike glanced off of the metal in front of him and discharged across his armor's chest plate. It stung, but not enough to stop his charge. Looking up while running, he spotted one of the opposing team's players camping atop a pillar with a lighting gun. Just as he looked, the sniper's head was blown off by another lightning bolt, sending his body off of the pillar and toward the ground far below until it was phased out by the body's LTRD. Following the trajectory, Shinji spotted two more of his teammates, Asuka Soryu and Kawrou Nagisa, running across the main bridge. Kawrou held the lightning gun responsible for the de-sniping in his blue gloves as he ran and it would be no surprise to Shinji if in the replays Kawrou had done that as a hip-shot.
"Saved your ass," Kawrou said over the radio link.
"Just get to the flag," Shinji replied.
With that he jumped over a low barrier and landed in the lower entrance to the enemy team's tower. Not slowing down, he rounded a corner and was confronted by a red armored combatant holding the bulky yellow form of a flak cannon. The combatant squeezed off a shot just as Shinji dived to the side out of harms way. The cannon's fragmented payload bounced off the angled wall behind Shinji and up into the passageway's ceiling. Now on his shoulder, Shinji fired a series of two shots from his shock rifle into his opponent's side. Stumbling back from the injuries, the flak cannon wielding human twisted around to aim once again at his target, his finger reaching for the alternate fire trigger.
Shinji pushed with his foot against the wall nearest him and slid across the floor. The flak cannon discharged and forced a large shell into the piece of floor Shinji had occupied a second before, blowing up and sending fragments in every direction. By this time, Shinji had stood up and gotten his shock rifle in line with his target's chest. He fired four quick shots that sizzled through his enemy's armor, into his body and out the other side, electing a scream out of the dying man. He was still crying out as he phased out of existence.
Shinji turned and resumed running through the hallways of the tower up to the flag room. He bounded into the room and immediately took in his surroundings. Just like the room's opposite on the other side of the canyon gap, the flag room was open and lacked any discernable cover. It also had four entrances, three of which were doors situated on the left and right sides with another at the rear of the room. The fourth entrance was a large gaping opening at the front of the room that overlooked the main bridge of the arena. This was typically used as an escape route for teams once they attained possession of the enemy flag.
Currently, Asuka and Kawrou were standing in the middle with their weapons, pouring fire into the hallways beyond the doorways to the right and rear. Asuka carried a tri-barreled rocket launcher and wielded it with deadly precision, or what precision could be attained with a weapon that relied heavily upon splash damage to kill its target. A red team member rushed Asuka, but bottled up in the narrow corridor made him ripe pickings for her explosive fury. Three rockets and one massive combined explosion later the corridor in question was covered with a bit more blood than before.
Kawrou jogged left to avoid a rocket and fired at its launcher with his lightning gun. The jagged beam of electric energy hit his target in the chest. The force of the blast drove the body back along the wall and at another member of the red team. The other member ducked reflexively in anticipation of the heavily armored dead body smashing into him at high speed. Just before impact, however, the respawning device kicked in and the body was reduced to some residual green lights that passed right over the ducking teammate. In seeming shock, the teammate looked up in surprise that the body hadn't hit him only to be rewarded with a shot in the head from Kawrou's lightning gun.
Shinji darted across the floor and touched the flag, which due to its holographic make up transferred automatically from its mounting on the pad located on the floor to his back where it would stay unless he removed it or he was killed. Using the barrel of his shock rifle as a help, Shinji hopped up and headed for the opening leading toward the main bridge. He passed Kawrou and then Asuka, continuing to run and jumped for the bridge. Behind him he could hear both rockets and lightning bolts being used to hold back the other team and buy him time to bring the flag home.
His boots clanged on the ground and he pumped his legs as hard as he could. Eventually he crossed the bridge without any opposition, which he found strange considering it was a semi-final match. Running up the tower, he burst into the blue team flag room to find Rei Ayanami still crouched in the center of the room, sighting across the bridge through her sniper rifle's scope. Shinji jumped onto the flag pad, heard the deep voiced announcer say 'FLAG CAPTURED' and turned to go again for the final capture when he noticed no gunfire coming from the other tower.
"Rei, what's wrong?" Shinji asked, stepping up next to the blue-haired sniper.
She simply stood up and handed Shinji her sniper rifle with a grim look on worn on her face. Confused, Shinji grasped the weapon and put it to his shoulder. He looked through the scope and zoomed in on the other tower. He saw Asuka kneeling beside Kawrou, who was on the ground with his chest torn open from a ripjack disc.
"Come on man," Shinji muttered, "Quit kidding around. Respawn man. Kawrou?"
Asuka's armored shoulders hunched as she bent over and buried her face in her friend's neck, crying. Blood continued to ease from Kawrou's dead body, but he remained there with no indication of respawning any time soon. Numbly, the sniper rifle fell from Shinji's hands and clattered to the floor, the sound ringing hollow in his ears.