05-21-2015, 06:57 AM
*BOOM*
Thundering sounds of the shinobi, colliding and exchanging blows rang throughout the Nexus, resonating for any who did harken the sound. The speed in which they possessed seemed unnatural; a remarkable display of haste, left to the untrained eye, were but a frenzy of swift, undiscernible blurs of color and although not quite an abnormality for those of Omni’s chosen, still quite the spectacle for any a Secondary who witnessed the two from the Leaf.
Obito, who had countered his fellow Uchiha, had unfortunately, in his indecision, let slip an opening in his opponent’s defense, something Sasuke immediately made the time-distraught Ninja regret. In fact, the impact of this mistake sent Obito flying several yards back, but no further. He had dug his heels in, halted his progression, and stood strong, almost defiantly against his opponent.
One eyed and pissed off, Obito shouted, “Hey! What gives?! Stop attacking me or I will be forced to attack back!-AND I don’t care who you are, you don’t want that!”
Sasuke, now but an empty vessel, unleashed a burst of speed he hadn’t displayed before, closed the distance between them, and in an instant, drove his knuckles into the sternum of the time-lost Uchiha.
Buckling over, Obito’s face revealed a crimson shade of red, as he lost his ability to take in oxygen. Sasuke stood over the youth; his expression lifeless as his fingers ran through his opponent’s hair, clenched a handful of it, and jerked his head upward; hard.
Obito’s one eye caught fire; his own pupil now going through a transformation of its own, as he withdrew a kunai from his pouch and drove it into Sasuke’s arm, restraining him no longer.
*CLASH*
Blood stained the white Nexus floor beneath Sasuke. He removed the blade from his arm, expressionless, displaying no evidence of pain felt, as he allowed the blade to fall. Still, with just the whites of his eyes, he crouched to the floor and began executing hand signs. Suddenly, a wealth of electric current exploded from within the palm of Sasuke’s right hand.
Obito took a step back, “Hey, wait a minute…”
No! This isn’t right! I seen him! He pushed me out of the way of that solider… He’s Uchiha, just like me! Why is he trying to kill me?… He’s trying to kill me!!! thought the one eyed Ninja.
A beam of red light struck the one eyed youth, directly in the shoulder, disrupting his train of thought, and sending him to the white Nexus surface with a thud. With his Uchiha confrontation drawing most of his attention, Obito hadn’t even seen the laser beam coming straight for him. His arm hurt; bad. He attempted to move it, but experienced a jolt of pain shooting down his spine.
More red beams of light flew across his field of vision as he kept his focus on Sasuke, who still seemed to be channeling even more electric-destruction. Overkill much?
“Sh*t.” Obito cursed. He was done for and he knew it. What a crazy place this was. This must be hell. What’s the point? To go through all this… and Rin’s not even here either…
Then something unexpected happened; Sergeant Commander, Arnold Hammond, of the Imperial Fleet, Division Fountain Detail, stepped directly in between the two war torn Uchiha.
“Alright now, son. Just turn off that power and let’s talk about this. This isn’t what you want.” Hammond began with reason, however was met with fury; Sasuke rocketed towards them, lightning in hand.
“Alright, have it your way.” the Commander smirked as he braced himself for impact.
Obito, alarmed, began to protest, “NO! Get out of the way!!! He’ll kill you!!!”
“Shut up, kid. Don’t ruin this for us!” the Commander snapped at Obito in frustration. Behind him, Obito noticed the Commander seemed to be holding something behind his back. Sasuke, within range now, arced his arm backward, allowing for more momentum gain as he drove his Chidori, head strong, into the Commander’s chest.
*BOOM*
A bright white light collided with a glowing aura of yellow. The Commander, in his last moments, had activated his own Deflector Shield, causing a golden hue of protective energy to envelope him. The sounds of a thousand screeching birds ate away at the shield, penetrating and breaking through, leaving Arnold in a pool of his own blood; Sasuke, exhausted, toppled over him.
In a wheezing fit, the Commander coughed up a thick red substance causing fear to ring throughout his mind. Not for himself, but for his beloved Margret. He dare not leave her, not just yet, and his children… No, they would not hold a funeral for Arnold Hammond, not today. Arnold shifted his weight, removing his hand from behind his back and with it revealed a small fire arm; the same pistol, with charge feature, he had used to down the two giant snakes from before.
Fully charged, he placed the barrel of his firearm to Sasuke’s Chest and pulled the trigger.
*CLICK*
Nothing happened.
Arnold’s eyes widened as a sense of panic overcame him. He tried and tried, but nothing. The colliding energies must have fried the blaster’s technology. “F*ck me.” he cursed.
Sasuke stood and, still without his pupils, started making hand signs once more and once more called forth a devastating, electric current into his hand. However, just before he executed the finishing blow on Hammond, he suddenly stopped. For no reason at all, he just… Stopped.
“…Make use of the technology available to us, such as the Dataverse. You’ll find it can be very useful for locating someone…”
An image of Itachi Uchiha flashed within the mind of the young shinobi.
His right hand fell to his side, the lightning dissipating as a dark aura began to surround the youth. Ill intention so dark and twisted it manifested itself into the physical world and enveloped Sasuke, and with it some sort of sinister, tribal looking marks began to invade his body and face.
“Mmmhmphhahahaha, HAHAHAHA... AHHahahahaaha!!!!” the youth began to laugh uncontrollably as he accessed the power coursing through his veins. “I’ll kill you alright. Mmmhmphha-hahahaHAHAHAHA!!!! And you,” he pointed to Hammond, “you’re going to help me!”
And with that the Uchiha’s unusual marks that had appeared so suddenly, likewise, disappeared in the same manor. His pupils returned to him and his consciousness with it, “Wha…” but only for a moment, as it then left again. The youth hit the white floor with a thud, unconscious from exhaustion.
“Well, I’ll be…” the Commander stated in disbelief.
“Commander!” came a familiar voice as Arnold felt someone left his torso up onto their lap. It was Cadet Anderson, covered in blood with scorched marks all over his armor. “We’re winning Commander. Most of them are retreating. They sent us a Prime Trustee and he’s slain more than his fill of insurgents! He’s one of those Camelot rejects, obviously, but he killed a ton!”
“Killed? UnderverseHell! We need them alive! Dead men don’t talk. What good’s a dead insurgent who can’t tell you who hired them?!”
“Well, uhh…” The Cadet stammered.
“JesusOmni! F*ckin’ Primes. TRUSTEE!!! GET OVER HERE!!!” Arnold shouted as he began to rise, with trouble.
Anderson resisted immediately, “Sir, don’t move. You’re hit!”
“Damn it son, get out of the way!” Hammond barked as he weakly shoved at the cadet.
“But sir, you’re bleeding!” the Cadet insisted.
“Ain’t got time to bleed.” Arnold stated, matter-of-fact-ly as he regained his footing. The admiration expressed on Cadet Anderson’s face made Hammond noxious as he pushed his Cadet aside to get to the rest of his men. Wasn’t it just hours ago he was pissing his pants out here? Now he was roarin’ and tearin’ down enemies with the best of ‘em. Well good. Arnold was tired of watching Cadet Anderson and those like him die under his watch. Looks like we won something out here today after all. I’ll have to tell Margret all about Anderson, she’ll like him. The thought of his wife brought him peace, grounded him, and kept him level headed.
Cody, Arnold’s second in command, approached Hammond with Prime Jon Snow in tow, “Here’s the Trustee. He seems to of slain quite a few of them, although, from the story I got from our scout, it appears as though they attacked him first. Seems they wanted to do him like they did that electric freak over there, but he got the jump on them.”
“Well, I guess the sun does shine on a dog’s ass every once in a while, ‘ey, Trustee?” Hammond seemed to be addressing Jon Snow.
“Come again?” questioned the sword wielding Prime.
Hammond eyed the Prime who was obviously more Camelot material than Empire before speaking again, “It’s lucky you weren’t turned. It’s a damn shame we couldn’t recover the serum they were using.”
“You mean this?” Jon Snow asked as he removed a cyan-green colored vial from his garb.
Cody immediately snatched the vial from Jon, stepped in front of him, and spoke to Hammond directly, “We did manage to recover their serum, sir!”
Jon expressed a ‘wtf seriously?!’ look on his face as Hammond chuckled at his Corporal, “Well done Corporal. How’d we do?”
“…We lost one, sir… Cadet Joe Sanders, sir. I’m sorry, sir.” Corporal Cody Smith answered.
“OMNI-F*CKING-DAMN IT!!!” Hammond roared in response to the news, let out a sigh afterward, thought of Margret, and continued, “Well, how about their side, are there any survivors?” as he finished his visor retracted, he sparked up a cigarette, and took a long hard drag.
“Sir, you don’t look so good…” Cody expressed concerns for his Commanding officer.
“Just get on with it.” grunted Hammond.
“Hey, I mean it, man. Margret would kill me if I let you die on us.” expressing concerns for his friend.
“Cody, just shut the hell up, will ya. I’ll get it looked at after we contain the situation. Now get on with it.”
“Alright, well, there’s just the one, follow me.” Cody stated as he led them to one of the insurgents who had been downed in battle, but not finished. The Trooper imposter lay in a pool of his own, violet colored blood, struggling for air in between breaths due to his own internal bleeding. He was obviously alien, but his visage, also a shade of violate, would have actually been considered quite handsome, at least structurally and of shape, however, an awful expression of pain stained his face, serving him no justice.
“This your handiwork?” Arnold asked, indicating Jon Snow. The Bastard from Westeroes simply returned with a puzzled look expression.
“You there. Who sent you?” demanded Hammond of the terrorist.
“F*ck you!” replied the purple perpetrator.
“That is not wise, my friend. In Coruscant we have Omni’s finest medical technology. You will survive this battle, but you may not survive my torture techniques. Now, I’m going to ask you again. Who is your leader?!” Hammond demanded once more.
The enemy trooper tried to spit on Hammond, but fell short. Corporal Cody planted the broad side of his boot into the upside of the insurgent’s head, “You’re to use respect when addressing my Commander, scum.”
Arnold, with a motion of his hand, ordered Cody to stand down; he did so. “Now,” Arnold continued, “who sent you?”
”Doesn’t matter who sent me! You’ll find out soon enough! You all will! Coruscant is infected and he’s here to cure the infection. Your Empire is a disease and after Dante’s Abyss you will all be eradicated! Aaaaahahahaha!!!” the terrorist mocked them.
Cody moved in for another strike, but was called off by Hammond, “Dante’s Abyss?”
“That’s right! Doesn’t matter if I tell you now, you’ve already lost! We’re entering Dante’s Abyss! And when we do, we’ll turn every single one of those Primes against your Empire! You’re dead, you are all going to fry!!! Ahahahahaha!”
“Now sir?” asked Corporal Smith.
“Wait, you said I would survive this battle!” squealed the terrorist.
“That was before you outlived your worth.” Arnold began as he, with trouble, managed to sit down next to the insurgent, “Smoke?” he offered his pack as he exhaled a cloud of his own tobacco smoke.
“I don’t smoke.” The purple perpetrator spoke as he eyed the Commander cautiously.
“That’s a shame.” Arnold said as he took a long drag from his own cigarette.
“Oh please, please don’t kill me!” squealed the imposter.
“Did you really think we were gonna just let you murder one of our men? I don’t know if you know how things work around here, but I’m kind of in charge of this zone, as far as the Empire is concerned. There is really only one guy I answer to and that’s the Judge.” Hammond explained, between drags of his cigarette, “-And see, the thing about that is, the Judge agrees. Just one of our soldiers are worth ten of yours.” He then began counting dead insurgents on the battle field, pointing them out as he counted aloud, “One, two, three… Here, count with me.” Arnold shifted his position, getting closer, alongside the terrorist as if to show him what he saw. The terrorist stared, confused and scared at the same time.
Arnold unholstered his firearm, placed the barrel to the temple of the insurgent, and said, “Count, or I’ll blow your head off, here and now.”
“One…” began the terrorist.
“That’s better.” Arnold stated as he holster his blaster, “One, two, three…”
Slowly they surveyed the battlefield, picking out the fallen false Storm Troopers.
“…four, five, six…” they were in unison.
Arnold took a long drag, bringing the ember all the way down to three fourth of the way.
“…seven, eight, nine…” now just the terrorist.
Arnold put his cigarette out.
“…nine…” the terrorist repeated himself.
“Yup, and that’s it…” Arnold stated.
The terrorist realized what the Commander was implying, “No, wait… One, two, three, four… There’s ten. Look, there’s ten. Five, six seven, eight, nine… nine…”
“I’m sorry friend. You’re going to die here today.” Arnold's expression was actually one of sorrow.
“NO! NOOOOO! NO, PLEASE NO! I’m a secondary! I don’t come back! NO!!! HAVE MERCY!!! PLEASE!!! No, no, no!” he sobbed.
“You know, if you really sit here and just look at it…. It really is beautiful. In its own way, I don’t think there is anything more beautiful.” Arnold spoke, ignoring his prisoner’s pleas.
“Wh-what are you tt-talking about?” the violet colored terrorist stammered as he wiped his eyes of the tears he’d cried.
“The fountain. Even from here you can see it. You know, they say the fountain is the only way back home. Some say it’s lucky to be a secondary.”
“Ll-lucky?” the criminal stammered.
“There’s an old urban legend in Coruscant. Almost a religion of sorts if you will, their mocked and no one treats them seriously, but everyone knows the story. They say it’s the Primes who are truly cursed. In their stories, when you die here, as a secondary, you get to go back home. You’re brought to the fountain, which is the last gate you’ll ever use in Omni.”
“You’re going to send me home?” squealed the phony Trooper.
“Sounds nice, doesn’t it?” Hammond smiled before continuing, “You know, in those stories… they say if, on the day you are fated to ‘go home’ (die) and you cast your look upon the shadow on that day, that you will see your home in the fountain’s reflection. I look at that fountain and that reflection every single day.”
“Man, I haven’t thought of home in ages. You know, I really would like to go home.” confessed the Trooper imposter as he looked off into the distant at the fountain.
Hammond motioned his Corporal, who assisted him in standing to his feet and then asked, in a volume only Hammond could here, “Now sir?”
Hammond spoke, “Now.”
Corporal Cody walked over to the violet-skinned terrorist who had slain one of their own and ended his wretched life with a point blank shot from his fire arm. He then turned to face Arnold, his Commander, “Order’s sir?”
Jon Snow, who had seemed to of become captivated by the death row conversation between the Commander and his prisoner, suddenly remembered his own agenda: Free himself of the Empire and getting back to the Wall.
Arnold looked his Corporal in the eye and said, “Right, release that other Ninja kid, the one with one eye, as far as I can tell, he didn’t kill anyone. The other two will remain indebted to the Empire.”
“Wait, excuse me sir. I fought for you. When I was attacked, I could have abandoned you, but I didn’t I am a man of my word and I defended you. I paid my debt to the Empire.” It was Jon Snow who addressed Hammond this time.
“While it’s true that you aided in our battle, and may have swung the tide in our favor, that doesn’t change the fact that you killed many of our only leads. Dead men don’t talk. So, unless you would like to be booked on new charges, obstruction of justice, for example, I suggest you fall in line. I like the way you have handled yourself and I can see you are a man of valor. In fact, in any other situation, I’d probably set you free right now, however, it appears as the fate of entire verse hangs in the balance. You probably have no idea what it is like to have to serve and protect a whole realm, but sometimes it means doing the dirty jobs no one want to do.”
Suddenly Jon Snow’s face began to resemble Cadet Anderson’s; full of admiration.
“Help me protect our city, our verse…. Help me protect our people… our families and I’ll free you and forget all about these murders.”
Jon Snow took a knee, “You have my Longclaw at you aid.”
Hammond grabbed Jon by the grab and lifted him to his feet, “Come on, son. Stand up, you’re embarrassing me. Your first and last mission is to join Dante’s Abyss. I want you to investigate the tournament and route out any terrorist that you can. I’ll be sending that other Prime with you.”
Hammond used his free hand to feel the flesh wound, left by the young Ninja before speaking again, “He is most certainly capable of handling himself in this kind of tournament and will be of great help to you. I will send him after, once he and I had had medical attention.” Hammond winced at his own injuries.
"What happened back there?" Jon Snow asked Sasuke as he arched his head slightly to a better look at the shinobi youth.
"My back was turned and I got stabbed with... something..." the ninja sighed, head turning away slightly. He was disappointed and angry to have been thrown off of his guard so easily and frustrated now to have someone question him on it. Truth was, he didn’t really know what had happened.
"I need to be able to trust you won't turn like that, again. I can't- "No, don't worry" the shinobi interrupted him. "It's all out of my system now, and even if it isn't, activating the cursed seal seems to... negate it's effects somehow.”
Sasuke’s eyes lit up. He hadn’t realized it until just then, but Orochimaru’s Cursed Mark had actually helped him. The Mark knew that killing Hammond would hurt our chances of finding Itachi. Our chances? Where did that come from?…
Sasuke shook off the foreboding feeling he felt and surveyed his surroundings. For all intents and purposes it looked as though a carnival or circus had graced the Nexus. There were tons of booths everywhere, and all seemed far more profession than the ones Sasuke had seen from the phony Storm Trooper’s he’d encountered earlier.
Speaking of earlier, he couldn’t believe how refreshed and restored he felt. “Whatever remedies those Troopers worked on me, it sure did the trick. I feel a million times better than before. Stronger even!” he spoke as he clenched his fist.
He couldn’t lie, the premise of the mission was very promising. Hammond was right, if ever he was going to find a lead for locating Itachi, this was it. All of the most powerful people who came to Omni would be here. If not Itachi himself, someone who would know of his whereabouts would be here, he’d just have to hunt them down… literally.
“Next!”
Sasuke stepped forward to the indicated booth that read, “Applicants” and behind the booth stood a young woman in her early twenties with ginger hair and cat like features, such as her cat ears and bushy tail. Sasuke was starting to get used to seeing oddities like this in the World of Omni.
What a place. Thought the young shinobi.
“Hi there! Oh, my, you’re cute! Did you come all the way over here just to flirt with me?” the young woman behind the booth question as she winked at the young Ninja. “It’s okay if you did, I could use the rescue from all these muscle bound oafs signing up for Dante’s Abyss.”
“I’m here to sign up for Dante’s Abyss” Sasuke stated coolly as he looked away from the flirt, not giving her the time of day.
“Awwww! Really?! What a bummer. Well here, feel this out and when you’re done I’ll come and get you.” She informed him as she indicated a place he could sit to do so. Sometime later, after he had completed the form, she returned and when she did she continued, “Okay, come on back!”
Sasuke was guided inside the tent, revealing a massively huge and open space. In fact, the space was too big to match the dimensions Sasuke had observed from outside the tent. They somehow had twice the space that should have been allowed. He wondered to what kind of power they had in order to pull off a neat trick like that, shrugged, and followed her to a trio of camera’s with lighting.
“Please, have a seat! Unless, you’re still considering blowing this off and sweeping me off my feet instead.” the woman said with another wink.
“Can we just get on with this? I don’t care about any of this. There is someone I must find.” Sasuke remarked with a hint of impatience as he took his seat.
“Gees. No foreplay, huh? I’m really not your type of gal? You sure? Baby, I could show you things no girl ever could. I’m sure you’ve seen how cats bathe themselves.” As she finished talking she crossed her legs, exaggerating the motion with seduction that did not go unnoticed by the Uchiha, he was male after all, and in retrospect, she did have a nice feminine form to her—
“I’m sure. How do we advance to the next stage?” he questioned, attempting to steer her back on track.
“Hmph! All the cute ones are always gay!” she pouted, but then went back to work as usual. “I'm going to turn this camera on, so we can record some questions. Is that okay?" She feigned politeness as she asked.
Irritated, he ignored her insult, “Yes, that’s fine.”
She continued, "Interview Subject S-148. Sasuke Uchiha. Okay, Mr. Uchiha, why do you want to compete in Dante's Abyss?"
“I already told you. I want to find someone.”
“Okay, but why are you here? If you want to find someone, you should just log onto the dataverse; try match.omni, or plentyofprimes.omni, I hear there’s a lot of potential for a soulmate out there."
Sasuke really had no idea what this blabbermouth was talking about and at this point, was starting getting frustrated, “I’m pretty sure I am in the right place.”
“Well, you are familiar with Dante's Abyss, aren’t you? You do know that this is a survival tournament, like, to the death, right? It's a violent program. We use violence to boost our ratings.
“Well, in that case you are going to want to keep your cameras on me. I have nothing but violence intended for who I am hunting.” Sasuke gave a cold, confident grin as he spoke.
She seemed to really appreciate that answer, because she shot someone in the background a look and they gave her the ‘ol thumbs up. "Well, what makes you qualified to compete in this tournament? There’s a lot of tough guys, a lot bigger than you, kid. What are your talents?"
“Kid? I’m not a child. The shinobi of the Uchiha clan lose that the day they are born. We are the mightiest weapon of the Leaf, the only shinobi strong enough to enforce the law over other shinobi. You want to see what the Uchiha are made of?” Sasuke questioned with a wild expression on his face as he began forming hand signs, inhaled copious amounts of air into his lungs, and then exhaled. A massive orb of roaring flame erupted from his mouth, engulfing the make-shift studio and all the cameras within it, disintegrating everything in its wake.
Sasuke smirked as the young woman interviewer, who had been giving him so much trouble, had bailed out of her chair and taken refugee under a booth. “Well, what say you? I think we’re done here, what do you think?”
“Yes, yes, Geez, yes, just go through that portal.” She panted as she fluffed her flame singed hair.
Sasuke chuckled and just couldn’t help himself, “So, uhh, you still want me to sweep you off your feet?”
“GET OUT!”
Sasuke’s laughter could be heard as he vanished behind the portal.
Thundering sounds of the shinobi, colliding and exchanging blows rang throughout the Nexus, resonating for any who did harken the sound. The speed in which they possessed seemed unnatural; a remarkable display of haste, left to the untrained eye, were but a frenzy of swift, undiscernible blurs of color and although not quite an abnormality for those of Omni’s chosen, still quite the spectacle for any a Secondary who witnessed the two from the Leaf.
Obito, who had countered his fellow Uchiha, had unfortunately, in his indecision, let slip an opening in his opponent’s defense, something Sasuke immediately made the time-distraught Ninja regret. In fact, the impact of this mistake sent Obito flying several yards back, but no further. He had dug his heels in, halted his progression, and stood strong, almost defiantly against his opponent.
One eyed and pissed off, Obito shouted, “Hey! What gives?! Stop attacking me or I will be forced to attack back!-AND I don’t care who you are, you don’t want that!”
Sasuke, now but an empty vessel, unleashed a burst of speed he hadn’t displayed before, closed the distance between them, and in an instant, drove his knuckles into the sternum of the time-lost Uchiha.
Buckling over, Obito’s face revealed a crimson shade of red, as he lost his ability to take in oxygen. Sasuke stood over the youth; his expression lifeless as his fingers ran through his opponent’s hair, clenched a handful of it, and jerked his head upward; hard.
Obito’s one eye caught fire; his own pupil now going through a transformation of its own, as he withdrew a kunai from his pouch and drove it into Sasuke’s arm, restraining him no longer.
*CLASH*
Blood stained the white Nexus floor beneath Sasuke. He removed the blade from his arm, expressionless, displaying no evidence of pain felt, as he allowed the blade to fall. Still, with just the whites of his eyes, he crouched to the floor and began executing hand signs. Suddenly, a wealth of electric current exploded from within the palm of Sasuke’s right hand.
Obito took a step back, “Hey, wait a minute…”
No! This isn’t right! I seen him! He pushed me out of the way of that solider… He’s Uchiha, just like me! Why is he trying to kill me?… He’s trying to kill me!!! thought the one eyed Ninja.
A beam of red light struck the one eyed youth, directly in the shoulder, disrupting his train of thought, and sending him to the white Nexus surface with a thud. With his Uchiha confrontation drawing most of his attention, Obito hadn’t even seen the laser beam coming straight for him. His arm hurt; bad. He attempted to move it, but experienced a jolt of pain shooting down his spine.
More red beams of light flew across his field of vision as he kept his focus on Sasuke, who still seemed to be channeling even more electric-destruction. Overkill much?
“Sh*t.” Obito cursed. He was done for and he knew it. What a crazy place this was. This must be hell. What’s the point? To go through all this… and Rin’s not even here either…
Then something unexpected happened; Sergeant Commander, Arnold Hammond, of the Imperial Fleet, Division Fountain Detail, stepped directly in between the two war torn Uchiha.
“Alright now, son. Just turn off that power and let’s talk about this. This isn’t what you want.” Hammond began with reason, however was met with fury; Sasuke rocketed towards them, lightning in hand.
“Alright, have it your way.” the Commander smirked as he braced himself for impact.
Obito, alarmed, began to protest, “NO! Get out of the way!!! He’ll kill you!!!”
“Shut up, kid. Don’t ruin this for us!” the Commander snapped at Obito in frustration. Behind him, Obito noticed the Commander seemed to be holding something behind his back. Sasuke, within range now, arced his arm backward, allowing for more momentum gain as he drove his Chidori, head strong, into the Commander’s chest.
*BOOM*
A bright white light collided with a glowing aura of yellow. The Commander, in his last moments, had activated his own Deflector Shield, causing a golden hue of protective energy to envelope him. The sounds of a thousand screeching birds ate away at the shield, penetrating and breaking through, leaving Arnold in a pool of his own blood; Sasuke, exhausted, toppled over him.
In a wheezing fit, the Commander coughed up a thick red substance causing fear to ring throughout his mind. Not for himself, but for his beloved Margret. He dare not leave her, not just yet, and his children… No, they would not hold a funeral for Arnold Hammond, not today. Arnold shifted his weight, removing his hand from behind his back and with it revealed a small fire arm; the same pistol, with charge feature, he had used to down the two giant snakes from before.
Fully charged, he placed the barrel of his firearm to Sasuke’s Chest and pulled the trigger.
*CLICK*
Nothing happened.
Arnold’s eyes widened as a sense of panic overcame him. He tried and tried, but nothing. The colliding energies must have fried the blaster’s technology. “F*ck me.” he cursed.
Sasuke stood and, still without his pupils, started making hand signs once more and once more called forth a devastating, electric current into his hand. However, just before he executed the finishing blow on Hammond, he suddenly stopped. For no reason at all, he just… Stopped.
“…Make use of the technology available to us, such as the Dataverse. You’ll find it can be very useful for locating someone…”
An image of Itachi Uchiha flashed within the mind of the young shinobi.
His right hand fell to his side, the lightning dissipating as a dark aura began to surround the youth. Ill intention so dark and twisted it manifested itself into the physical world and enveloped Sasuke, and with it some sort of sinister, tribal looking marks began to invade his body and face.
“Mmmhmphhahahaha, HAHAHAHA... AHHahahahaaha!!!!” the youth began to laugh uncontrollably as he accessed the power coursing through his veins. “I’ll kill you alright. Mmmhmphha-hahahaHAHAHAHA!!!! And you,” he pointed to Hammond, “you’re going to help me!”
And with that the Uchiha’s unusual marks that had appeared so suddenly, likewise, disappeared in the same manor. His pupils returned to him and his consciousness with it, “Wha…” but only for a moment, as it then left again. The youth hit the white floor with a thud, unconscious from exhaustion.
“Well, I’ll be…” the Commander stated in disbelief.
“Commander!” came a familiar voice as Arnold felt someone left his torso up onto their lap. It was Cadet Anderson, covered in blood with scorched marks all over his armor. “We’re winning Commander. Most of them are retreating. They sent us a Prime Trustee and he’s slain more than his fill of insurgents! He’s one of those Camelot rejects, obviously, but he killed a ton!”
“Killed? UnderverseHell! We need them alive! Dead men don’t talk. What good’s a dead insurgent who can’t tell you who hired them?!”
“Well, uhh…” The Cadet stammered.
“JesusOmni! F*ckin’ Primes. TRUSTEE!!! GET OVER HERE!!!” Arnold shouted as he began to rise, with trouble.
Anderson resisted immediately, “Sir, don’t move. You’re hit!”
“Damn it son, get out of the way!” Hammond barked as he weakly shoved at the cadet.
“But sir, you’re bleeding!” the Cadet insisted.
“Ain’t got time to bleed.” Arnold stated, matter-of-fact-ly as he regained his footing. The admiration expressed on Cadet Anderson’s face made Hammond noxious as he pushed his Cadet aside to get to the rest of his men. Wasn’t it just hours ago he was pissing his pants out here? Now he was roarin’ and tearin’ down enemies with the best of ‘em. Well good. Arnold was tired of watching Cadet Anderson and those like him die under his watch. Looks like we won something out here today after all. I’ll have to tell Margret all about Anderson, she’ll like him. The thought of his wife brought him peace, grounded him, and kept him level headed.
Cody, Arnold’s second in command, approached Hammond with Prime Jon Snow in tow, “Here’s the Trustee. He seems to of slain quite a few of them, although, from the story I got from our scout, it appears as though they attacked him first. Seems they wanted to do him like they did that electric freak over there, but he got the jump on them.”
“Well, I guess the sun does shine on a dog’s ass every once in a while, ‘ey, Trustee?” Hammond seemed to be addressing Jon Snow.
“Come again?” questioned the sword wielding Prime.
Hammond eyed the Prime who was obviously more Camelot material than Empire before speaking again, “It’s lucky you weren’t turned. It’s a damn shame we couldn’t recover the serum they were using.”
“You mean this?” Jon Snow asked as he removed a cyan-green colored vial from his garb.
Cody immediately snatched the vial from Jon, stepped in front of him, and spoke to Hammond directly, “We did manage to recover their serum, sir!”
Jon expressed a ‘wtf seriously?!’ look on his face as Hammond chuckled at his Corporal, “Well done Corporal. How’d we do?”
“…We lost one, sir… Cadet Joe Sanders, sir. I’m sorry, sir.” Corporal Cody Smith answered.
“OMNI-F*CKING-DAMN IT!!!” Hammond roared in response to the news, let out a sigh afterward, thought of Margret, and continued, “Well, how about their side, are there any survivors?” as he finished his visor retracted, he sparked up a cigarette, and took a long hard drag.
“Sir, you don’t look so good…” Cody expressed concerns for his Commanding officer.
“Just get on with it.” grunted Hammond.
“Hey, I mean it, man. Margret would kill me if I let you die on us.” expressing concerns for his friend.
“Cody, just shut the hell up, will ya. I’ll get it looked at after we contain the situation. Now get on with it.”
“Alright, well, there’s just the one, follow me.” Cody stated as he led them to one of the insurgents who had been downed in battle, but not finished. The Trooper imposter lay in a pool of his own, violet colored blood, struggling for air in between breaths due to his own internal bleeding. He was obviously alien, but his visage, also a shade of violate, would have actually been considered quite handsome, at least structurally and of shape, however, an awful expression of pain stained his face, serving him no justice.
“This your handiwork?” Arnold asked, indicating Jon Snow. The Bastard from Westeroes simply returned with a puzzled look expression.
“You there. Who sent you?” demanded Hammond of the terrorist.
“F*ck you!” replied the purple perpetrator.
“That is not wise, my friend. In Coruscant we have Omni’s finest medical technology. You will survive this battle, but you may not survive my torture techniques. Now, I’m going to ask you again. Who is your leader?!” Hammond demanded once more.
The enemy trooper tried to spit on Hammond, but fell short. Corporal Cody planted the broad side of his boot into the upside of the insurgent’s head, “You’re to use respect when addressing my Commander, scum.”
Arnold, with a motion of his hand, ordered Cody to stand down; he did so. “Now,” Arnold continued, “who sent you?”
”Doesn’t matter who sent me! You’ll find out soon enough! You all will! Coruscant is infected and he’s here to cure the infection. Your Empire is a disease and after Dante’s Abyss you will all be eradicated! Aaaaahahahaha!!!” the terrorist mocked them.
Cody moved in for another strike, but was called off by Hammond, “Dante’s Abyss?”
“That’s right! Doesn’t matter if I tell you now, you’ve already lost! We’re entering Dante’s Abyss! And when we do, we’ll turn every single one of those Primes against your Empire! You’re dead, you are all going to fry!!! Ahahahahaha!”
“Now sir?” asked Corporal Smith.
“Wait, you said I would survive this battle!” squealed the terrorist.
“That was before you outlived your worth.” Arnold began as he, with trouble, managed to sit down next to the insurgent, “Smoke?” he offered his pack as he exhaled a cloud of his own tobacco smoke.
“I don’t smoke.” The purple perpetrator spoke as he eyed the Commander cautiously.
“That’s a shame.” Arnold said as he took a long drag from his own cigarette.
“Oh please, please don’t kill me!” squealed the imposter.
“Did you really think we were gonna just let you murder one of our men? I don’t know if you know how things work around here, but I’m kind of in charge of this zone, as far as the Empire is concerned. There is really only one guy I answer to and that’s the Judge.” Hammond explained, between drags of his cigarette, “-And see, the thing about that is, the Judge agrees. Just one of our soldiers are worth ten of yours.” He then began counting dead insurgents on the battle field, pointing them out as he counted aloud, “One, two, three… Here, count with me.” Arnold shifted his position, getting closer, alongside the terrorist as if to show him what he saw. The terrorist stared, confused and scared at the same time.
Arnold unholstered his firearm, placed the barrel to the temple of the insurgent, and said, “Count, or I’ll blow your head off, here and now.”
“One…” began the terrorist.
“That’s better.” Arnold stated as he holster his blaster, “One, two, three…”
Slowly they surveyed the battlefield, picking out the fallen false Storm Troopers.
“…four, five, six…” they were in unison.
Arnold took a long drag, bringing the ember all the way down to three fourth of the way.
“…seven, eight, nine…” now just the terrorist.
Arnold put his cigarette out.
“…nine…” the terrorist repeated himself.
“Yup, and that’s it…” Arnold stated.
The terrorist realized what the Commander was implying, “No, wait… One, two, three, four… There’s ten. Look, there’s ten. Five, six seven, eight, nine… nine…”
“I’m sorry friend. You’re going to die here today.” Arnold's expression was actually one of sorrow.
“NO! NOOOOO! NO, PLEASE NO! I’m a secondary! I don’t come back! NO!!! HAVE MERCY!!! PLEASE!!! No, no, no!” he sobbed.
“You know, if you really sit here and just look at it…. It really is beautiful. In its own way, I don’t think there is anything more beautiful.” Arnold spoke, ignoring his prisoner’s pleas.
“Wh-what are you tt-talking about?” the violet colored terrorist stammered as he wiped his eyes of the tears he’d cried.
“The fountain. Even from here you can see it. You know, they say the fountain is the only way back home. Some say it’s lucky to be a secondary.”
“Ll-lucky?” the criminal stammered.
“There’s an old urban legend in Coruscant. Almost a religion of sorts if you will, their mocked and no one treats them seriously, but everyone knows the story. They say it’s the Primes who are truly cursed. In their stories, when you die here, as a secondary, you get to go back home. You’re brought to the fountain, which is the last gate you’ll ever use in Omni.”
“You’re going to send me home?” squealed the phony Trooper.
“Sounds nice, doesn’t it?” Hammond smiled before continuing, “You know, in those stories… they say if, on the day you are fated to ‘go home’ (die) and you cast your look upon the shadow on that day, that you will see your home in the fountain’s reflection. I look at that fountain and that reflection every single day.”
“Man, I haven’t thought of home in ages. You know, I really would like to go home.” confessed the Trooper imposter as he looked off into the distant at the fountain.
Hammond motioned his Corporal, who assisted him in standing to his feet and then asked, in a volume only Hammond could here, “Now sir?”
Hammond spoke, “Now.”
Corporal Cody walked over to the violet-skinned terrorist who had slain one of their own and ended his wretched life with a point blank shot from his fire arm. He then turned to face Arnold, his Commander, “Order’s sir?”
Jon Snow, who had seemed to of become captivated by the death row conversation between the Commander and his prisoner, suddenly remembered his own agenda: Free himself of the Empire and getting back to the Wall.
Arnold looked his Corporal in the eye and said, “Right, release that other Ninja kid, the one with one eye, as far as I can tell, he didn’t kill anyone. The other two will remain indebted to the Empire.”
“Wait, excuse me sir. I fought for you. When I was attacked, I could have abandoned you, but I didn’t I am a man of my word and I defended you. I paid my debt to the Empire.” It was Jon Snow who addressed Hammond this time.
“While it’s true that you aided in our battle, and may have swung the tide in our favor, that doesn’t change the fact that you killed many of our only leads. Dead men don’t talk. So, unless you would like to be booked on new charges, obstruction of justice, for example, I suggest you fall in line. I like the way you have handled yourself and I can see you are a man of valor. In fact, in any other situation, I’d probably set you free right now, however, it appears as the fate of entire verse hangs in the balance. You probably have no idea what it is like to have to serve and protect a whole realm, but sometimes it means doing the dirty jobs no one want to do.”
Suddenly Jon Snow’s face began to resemble Cadet Anderson’s; full of admiration.
“Help me protect our city, our verse…. Help me protect our people… our families and I’ll free you and forget all about these murders.”
Jon Snow took a knee, “You have my Longclaw at you aid.”
Hammond grabbed Jon by the grab and lifted him to his feet, “Come on, son. Stand up, you’re embarrassing me. Your first and last mission is to join Dante’s Abyss. I want you to investigate the tournament and route out any terrorist that you can. I’ll be sending that other Prime with you.”
Hammond used his free hand to feel the flesh wound, left by the young Ninja before speaking again, “He is most certainly capable of handling himself in this kind of tournament and will be of great help to you. I will send him after, once he and I had had medical attention.” Hammond winced at his own injuries.
***
"What happened back there?" Jon Snow asked Sasuke as he arched his head slightly to a better look at the shinobi youth.
"My back was turned and I got stabbed with... something..." the ninja sighed, head turning away slightly. He was disappointed and angry to have been thrown off of his guard so easily and frustrated now to have someone question him on it. Truth was, he didn’t really know what had happened.
"I need to be able to trust you won't turn like that, again. I can't- "No, don't worry" the shinobi interrupted him. "It's all out of my system now, and even if it isn't, activating the cursed seal seems to... negate it's effects somehow.”
Sasuke’s eyes lit up. He hadn’t realized it until just then, but Orochimaru’s Cursed Mark had actually helped him. The Mark knew that killing Hammond would hurt our chances of finding Itachi. Our chances? Where did that come from?…
Sasuke shook off the foreboding feeling he felt and surveyed his surroundings. For all intents and purposes it looked as though a carnival or circus had graced the Nexus. There were tons of booths everywhere, and all seemed far more profession than the ones Sasuke had seen from the phony Storm Trooper’s he’d encountered earlier.
Speaking of earlier, he couldn’t believe how refreshed and restored he felt. “Whatever remedies those Troopers worked on me, it sure did the trick. I feel a million times better than before. Stronger even!” he spoke as he clenched his fist.
He couldn’t lie, the premise of the mission was very promising. Hammond was right, if ever he was going to find a lead for locating Itachi, this was it. All of the most powerful people who came to Omni would be here. If not Itachi himself, someone who would know of his whereabouts would be here, he’d just have to hunt them down… literally.
“Next!”
Sasuke stepped forward to the indicated booth that read, “Applicants” and behind the booth stood a young woman in her early twenties with ginger hair and cat like features, such as her cat ears and bushy tail. Sasuke was starting to get used to seeing oddities like this in the World of Omni.
What a place. Thought the young shinobi.
“Hi there! Oh, my, you’re cute! Did you come all the way over here just to flirt with me?” the young woman behind the booth question as she winked at the young Ninja. “It’s okay if you did, I could use the rescue from all these muscle bound oafs signing up for Dante’s Abyss.”
“I’m here to sign up for Dante’s Abyss” Sasuke stated coolly as he looked away from the flirt, not giving her the time of day.
“Awwww! Really?! What a bummer. Well here, feel this out and when you’re done I’ll come and get you.” She informed him as she indicated a place he could sit to do so. Sometime later, after he had completed the form, she returned and when she did she continued, “Okay, come on back!”
Sasuke was guided inside the tent, revealing a massively huge and open space. In fact, the space was too big to match the dimensions Sasuke had observed from outside the tent. They somehow had twice the space that should have been allowed. He wondered to what kind of power they had in order to pull off a neat trick like that, shrugged, and followed her to a trio of camera’s with lighting.
“Please, have a seat! Unless, you’re still considering blowing this off and sweeping me off my feet instead.” the woman said with another wink.
“Can we just get on with this? I don’t care about any of this. There is someone I must find.” Sasuke remarked with a hint of impatience as he took his seat.
“Gees. No foreplay, huh? I’m really not your type of gal? You sure? Baby, I could show you things no girl ever could. I’m sure you’ve seen how cats bathe themselves.” As she finished talking she crossed her legs, exaggerating the motion with seduction that did not go unnoticed by the Uchiha, he was male after all, and in retrospect, she did have a nice feminine form to her—
“I’m sure. How do we advance to the next stage?” he questioned, attempting to steer her back on track.
“Hmph! All the cute ones are always gay!” she pouted, but then went back to work as usual. “I'm going to turn this camera on, so we can record some questions. Is that okay?" She feigned politeness as she asked.
Irritated, he ignored her insult, “Yes, that’s fine.”
She continued, "Interview Subject S-148. Sasuke Uchiha. Okay, Mr. Uchiha, why do you want to compete in Dante's Abyss?"
“I already told you. I want to find someone.”
“Okay, but why are you here? If you want to find someone, you should just log onto the dataverse; try match.omni, or plentyofprimes.omni, I hear there’s a lot of potential for a soulmate out there."
Sasuke really had no idea what this blabbermouth was talking about and at this point, was starting getting frustrated, “I’m pretty sure I am in the right place.”
“Well, you are familiar with Dante's Abyss, aren’t you? You do know that this is a survival tournament, like, to the death, right? It's a violent program. We use violence to boost our ratings.
“Well, in that case you are going to want to keep your cameras on me. I have nothing but violence intended for who I am hunting.” Sasuke gave a cold, confident grin as he spoke.
She seemed to really appreciate that answer, because she shot someone in the background a look and they gave her the ‘ol thumbs up. "Well, what makes you qualified to compete in this tournament? There’s a lot of tough guys, a lot bigger than you, kid. What are your talents?"
“Kid? I’m not a child. The shinobi of the Uchiha clan lose that the day they are born. We are the mightiest weapon of the Leaf, the only shinobi strong enough to enforce the law over other shinobi. You want to see what the Uchiha are made of?” Sasuke questioned with a wild expression on his face as he began forming hand signs, inhaled copious amounts of air into his lungs, and then exhaled. A massive orb of roaring flame erupted from his mouth, engulfing the make-shift studio and all the cameras within it, disintegrating everything in its wake.
Sasuke smirked as the young woman interviewer, who had been giving him so much trouble, had bailed out of her chair and taken refugee under a booth. “Well, what say you? I think we’re done here, what do you think?”
“Yes, yes, Geez, yes, just go through that portal.” She panted as she fluffed her flame singed hair.
Sasuke chuckled and just couldn’t help himself, “So, uhh, you still want me to sweep you off your feet?”
“GET OUT!”
Sasuke’s laughter could be heard as he vanished behind the portal.
Quote:Appearance –
Personality – He's like the The Fonze, only ninja style.
Possible Reactions – Sasuke has joined the Abyss, partially forced by the Empire, but mostly due to his search for Itachi. Upon encountering someone, he is more likely to try to 'beat answers out of' people he comes across. He wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone he could, and he wouldn't think twice about using anything to his advantage, save for betrayal. If the shinobi has actually offered you an alliance, he'll keep his word.
Relationships –
Jon Snow- Recently encountered Snow and doesn't know much about him, but he knows Jon is being forced against his will, like him, and so born of the same situation, Sasuke intends to help and receive aid from this person during the games.
Mami- First person Sasuke came across in the Nexus and also, in his opinion, the most equipped to handle themselves compared to any others he's encountered. He also finds her, as a person to be genuinely appealing, though he doesn't know why, but is drawn to her. If he comes across her, he'll more likely try to persuade anything outcome other than combat and would only do so if it mean elimination. However, if he must, he must, he will not lose Dante's Abyss over this fondness he has over her.
‘Combat’ Style – Sasuke is overly confident in his combat ability, however, being trained as a Shinobi, he is likely to access a situation before rushing off into conflict.... thought not always; he's really cocky. He is proud of his martial art skills and quick to display them. Likewise with his intellect, he is clever and quick in crafting a strategy on the fly.
Eligible Powers –
-Foresight
-Insight
Moves – Great Fireball Jutsu (?)
Super Moves –
Chidori
Transformations –
Cursed Seal of Heaven
ATK: 3+2 = 5
DEF: 0+2 = 2
SPD: 4+1 = 5
TEC: 3+0 = 3
Extra –
Bruh, Sasuke is da sh*t, just remember when you are controlling him... Be da sh*t. xD <3
Quotes –
"I am an Avenger and I am looking for someone."
![[Image: sasuke_pts___lineart_colored_by_dennisst...6af01w.png]](http://s93.photobucket.com/user/L0rd_dingaling/media/sasuke_pts___lineart_colored_by_dennisstelly-d6af01w.png.html)
Dante's Abyss 2015
GRAND CHAMPION
![[Image: Sasuke_DA_zpsb4vizgxd.png]](http://www.cytokineindustries.com/chevereto/images/2018/02/07/Sasuke_DA_zpsb4vizgxd.png)
Mark Twain Wrote:"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
![[Image: c1f25896-85f6-41b6-b294-c33e5d5737f8_zpsol2jguot.jpg]](http://i175.photobucket.com/albums/w135/Maximum008/c1f25896-85f6-41b6-b294-c33e5d5737f8_zpsol2jguot.jpg)