The team of young hero's had welcomed a new comrade into their group a year after the incident occurred. Tori Filman, a 23 year old from Texas, who was specially trained in fighting. They welcomed her almost immediately, she fit in with their seemingly degenerate group. She was the perfect package for them. From her boob length blonde hair, to her toned physique, her nice facial features, all the way down to her very sarcastic humor. Cassie and Tori got along phenomenally, though when they did argue, it was terrifying. They all declared it was simply a Leo thing.
Cassie walked into the bunk they all were sharing together, "Alright everyone, new orders from the General".
The small bunker was soon filled with groans, they had all worked relentlessly for weeks without a day off. They were exhausted and didn't see a need for going on another petty mission.
Cassie leaned against the door frame, arms crossed, and a tired expression on her face. Cassie then looked at Tori, a desperate look for help was written all over her.
Tori acknowledged her look with a loud sigh. Sitting at the edge of her bed, elbows rested on her knees, she began to rub her hands on her face in a tired and frustrated motion. She stared at the floor for a moment, not wanting to ever get up.
Cassie huffed, "Look, I don't make the rules, guys. I just follow orders, lets just get to the main base camp and get this over with".
Tori rubbed the side of her head and looked over at Jin, he gave her a nod and rolled his eyes along with her.
Sighing again, Tori stood up and looked around the room. "C'mon, guys. Let's hurry this up so I can come back, sleep, and hopefully never wake up".
"Sleeping for an eternity?", Jacqui spoke up, getting off the bed she was currently sharing with Takeda. "Now that sounds like something I'm down for".
Takeda slowly sat up and rubbed his eyes, "You think the General is going to send us back off to Fort Charles?", he asked.
Cassie groaned, "God, I hope not. Last time she sent us there, I thought I was going to die from boredom".
Jin shook his head, agreeing with her, "No joke. Nothing happens there. I'd rather be out fighting than sitting on my ass all day".
Tori yawned, "Sitting on my ass sounds pretty appealing right now".
Takeda chuckled, "Guess it's a good thing you didn't take up the Grandmasters offer on becoming Lin Kuei".
"Shit, no joke", Tori agreed, "He would have been working my ass harder than they do here".
Cassie began snorting, "Yeah he would have, in more ways than one".
The room was filled with everyones laughter, except for Tori's. She stood there, leaning against the wall, and an unimpressed look across her face.
Jin smirked, "Oh C'mon, Tori. You have to be fully aware of his attraction to you".
Tori rolled her eyes, "Whatever, don't ya'll think it's about time we headed out? General Blade isn't exactly know for her...patience".
"Fuck me", Cassie cursed, "We should go before she kicks all of our asses".
The walk from the bunker to the main camp was a short one. There were hundreds of other soldiers and other people of importance walking around the grounds. The meeting room was in a big tent that had a long table, many screens and computers operating for anything you could possibly imagine, crates with guns, and generators. They all walked into the large tent and were greeted by General Blade.
Her arms were crossed, and she had an agitated look on her still pretty face, " Glad to see you and your team could make it, Sargent Cage", she sarcastically remarked.
A look of distress was slapped across Cassie's face, "Good to see you too, mom".
Sonya's face softened, "Sorry, Cassie. But I need you and your team to be here pronto after I call for you".
Jin stepped forward, placing his hands on Tori and Cassie's shoulders, "Sorry about that wait, General. We won't let it happen again".
Tori looked at Jin with the corner of her eyes, "Well look at you", she thought, "Always being the reasonable one".
Sonya let out a silent sigh, and turned around back to the lit up table, "Everyone, line up at around the table. I have assignments for each of you".
The young team gathered around the table, waiting to hear orders. Tori wasn't really looking forward to what was coming up next. She could tell right away that they were being split up. Depending on the situation, it either made the mission slower or faster. Typically, slower though, they all functioned better together.
Sonya stood at the front of the table and began pointing to spots on the map. "Cassie and Jacqui, head to the north side of camp. They need some help out there. Takeda, I need you to head to the Sky Temple and confirm some things I'll fill you in about with Raiden. Tori and Jin, we received an anonymous tip about illegal trading with Earthrealm and Outworld. I need you two to head to Outworld and confirm this."
They all nodded, though Tori felt nervous about her mission. She had only been to Outworld once, and that was for only 25 minutes at the docking area for a mission they did over a year ago. Earthrealmers weren't exactly welcomed in Outworld. From what she had heard, they never really were, but after the drama 2 years ago, they were even more unwelcomed. Despite her nerves though, she was thrilled Jin would be accompanying her. He was great with talking to people, he always knew what bullshit to feed them to get them off their backs.
"Is everyone clear of their new assignments?" Sonya asked, looking around the table.
"Yes ma'am", they all said at once.
Sonya nodded, "Good, head out then".
Jin and Tori walked side by side, heading over to the area that had the portal machine. Tori was still feeling a bit nervous, but was doing her best to hide it. She was working with the military after all, and had been through vigorous training with all the fight clubs she had been in. The last thing she ever wanted to be associated with was a coward. She began to think of ways to bring things up, without it sounding like she was scared. Perhaps some knowledge about what they were getting into would help settle her nerves.
"How many time have you been to Outworld?", she asked.
Jin looked over at her, "This will be my fourth time. I'll let you know now, it's not always enjoyable. Most of the Edenians are pleasant towards us, but certain other things aren't. Depends on your luck of the day".
"Good to know", she responded. "So how are we even going to find out about this "illegal activity" ", she asked.
"Unfortunately for us, we have the pain in the ass job. We have to ask around and hope someone can fill us in and maybe catch something in the act. Besides that, that's pretty much all we can do", Jin informed her, with a slightly upset look on his face.
"Of course", Tori groaned out loud. "The one day that I just really need sleep, we get the long job".
"I feel your pain, Filman", Jin agreed, "Looks like we're here".
Tori looked ahead and saw they were now in front of the portal area. Jin walked away and went over the man in control to inform him they were ready to be let through.
She yawned again and began to stretch her arms out, something she did out of habbit when she was nervous.
Jin began to walk back towards her, an eager look on his face, "You ready, Filman?".
Tori nodded, and began walking next Jin. Up ahead, the big, bright circle opened. A black hole with a bright light lining it, stood before them.
Jin put his arm around her, "Let's get this done, Tori".
"Yes", she responded, putting an arm around his waist, "Let's".
Outworld was not nearly as exotic and pretty as she had expected. At least not this part. The docks were somewhat nicer, they were near a jungle and the area was green smelled clean. This area however, wasn't much to run home about. They were walking through the Outworld Marketplace, and it was nothing but sand and tall buildings. Thousands of Edenians were crowded around them, all in a hurry to be somewhere.
"I have a feeling this is going to take longer than we expected", Tori pointed out.
Jin nodded in agreement, "No argument there, so many people here, it helps distract from most of the illegal activity".
They continued to walk and observe the area, in hopes that they would catch on to suspicious activity themselves. After about 5 minutes of spying on every single Edenian working a stand, none seemed to be guilty of this crime.
They stopped in the middle of the road and looked at each other, looking around a final time.
"Well", Jin started, "Looks like we're going to have to go with plan B".
"And what exactly is that?", Tori asked, confused.
Jin looked down at her, a small smirk on the corner of his lips, "Plan A was to catch them with just our eyesight and luck. Plan B is where we actually go and talk to the residents here and hope someone can help us".
"Oh, well you know how much I loved talking to people!", Tori chimed sarcastically.
Jin laughed, "Ha, you know i'm not crazy about talking to people either. Especially these people, they all seem to be jerks. Must be something in the water".
Tori raised her brows at him, she wasn't looking forward to this at all. "So how would you like to go about this?", she asked.
"There are a ton of Edenians out here, we will cover more ground if we split up".
Tori nodded at him, "Ok, lets go ahead and start now. The quicker we figure this out, the quicker we go home".
Jin gave her a small smile, "Alright, we'll meet back her in the next hour and a half. If anything happens, come look for me. I'm going to talk to people on the south side".
Tori acknowledged him with the "A-ok" sign, and turned around to walk down the north side.
30 minutes had gone by, and Tori's luck had been nothing but shit. No one seemed to know anything about any illegal trade happening, or at least they weren't fessing up if they did. She had talked to about 10 people at this point and no one was helping her get back to her bed. She sighed, and began to walk towards a stand that was selling all kind of fruit. She approached the stand and noticed they had an abundance of raspberry's. A bald man in his late 40's approached her with a smile on his face.
"Can I help you with anything, Miss?", he asked, a very polite tone in his voice.
She was just about to ask him the same question she had everyone else, but then decided on taking another route.
"Can I get a bag of raspberry's please?", she asked, sweetly.
He nodded, and began to bag up her raspberry's. She had figured if she bought something from him and sweet talked him a little, she would get more info on what she needed.
After he bagged them up, he handed her the plastic bag. Tori then flipped him a couple of gold coins, thankfully the base camp hooked them up before heading here.
"Thank you, ma'am", he said, a big grin on his face. He then slowly allowed a curious look to come upon it. "If you don't mind me asking, are you not from Outworld?", he asked.
Tori had already dug into her bag and was stuffing her face with the red berry's, she looked back up at him and did her best to hold back her cheeky grin. "No, I'm from Earthrealm".
He scratched the top of his head, "Earthrealm, huh? I went there once, seems a lot more care free there than here...you best be careful, hun. I wouldn't let too many people find out where you're from".
She gave the man a fake look of confusion, "What do you mean? Why?", she asked, playing stupid.
The man began chewing on his lip nervously, "Because they wo.."
"Because Earthrealmer's are not welcomed here", a deeper voice said behind her, cutting off the sentence the bald man started saying.
Tori sat up straight, caught off guard by the rude voice. She kept her cool though, and only slightly turned her head towards the voice.
There stood a man, probably in his early or mid 30's. He was tall, muscular, and dressed a lot like a cowboy. He wore leather pants, with boots, a vest, a pancho and a Stetson hat. He had a mask that covered his face from the nose down, he had what appeared to be kohl, heavily smudged around his eyes. And a holster around his waist that carried firearms and a few other weapons she didn't recognize. She then noticed he had dark blonde hair, coming out from under his hat. He had a powerful presence. He was also good looking, from what she could tell at least.
Around him, were what appeared to be guards of some sort. They wore skeletal masks, and each one held a weapon, ready to attack if given the cue.
Tori scoffed at the rude stranger, "Didn't your mother ever teach you to not interrupt others when they are talking?".
The man gave her a sour look, "I don't have much room for manners when Outworlders break the rules".
Tori glared back at him, "Don't be a dick, you don't even know the situation".
The man furrowed his eyebrows at her, a vex look appeared in his eyes. He started to walk towards her, one hand on his belt, the other free next to his side.
The bald man began to cry out, "Pl..please, Erron. Sir, I was just about to tell her to leave. She's done no wrong, give her a chance to atle..".
"Shut your mouth!", the man she now knew was named Erron, yelled. "You'll be lucky if your execution is quick".
Tori raised a brow, completely shocked. Executed? For not reporting that an Earthrealmer was here?!
She was about to object, before he cut her off.
"State your business, lady", he demanded aggressively. "I sure hope it's something good too, you'll be lucky to walk out of here alive if not".
"Excuse me?", she retorted. Anger was building up in her, "Who the fuck do you think you are exactly?".
Erron took another step close to her, only a couple of inches were between them now. The same sour look was on his face, and his eyes glared down at her.
"You best listen up, beautiful", he demanded once again. "I work for Kotal Kahn, and if you weren't aware, he makes the calls around here. I'm in charge of making sure pests like you don't come across here without the proper permission. So I suggest you use that pretty mouth to start explaining what the hell you're doing here".
Her eyes were wide with shock, "What the actual fuck?", she thought.
She began to look around for Jin, she didn't see him anywhere in sight. He was probably farther down the road, and completely out of sight of seeing the display of crazy going on.
She looked back at the crazy cowboy, and took a deep breath. "Keep calm", she thought to herself.
Looking him in the eyes, she spoke up, "I'm here on behalf of General Blade. We were given information about the possibility of illegal activity, involving your realm and Earthrealm. I was sent here to help investigate".
Erron kept the same unamused look on his face, "I've heard about no such thing, sounds to me like you're a stowaway".
This caused Tori to laugh out loud, "Ha! Yeah, cause I would totally want to run away from Earthrealm to live in this shit hole filled with douche bags like you".
This caused his look of anger to increase, "What is your name?", he asked, a tone so dangerous, she was surprised he didn't have venom dripping out his mouth.
"Tori Filman", she simply responded, crossing her arms.
His feary eyes focused on her more, "Well, Miss Tori Filman, you're coming with me".
Her eyes widened, "Wai...what?!".
He reached over and violently grabbed her arm, it hurt like hell. This caused her to react quickly, and using her left arm, backhanded him with her fist. This clearly caught him off guard, due to the look of surprise on his face.
Yet, it wasn't enough to get him to let go. In fact, he squeezed harder. She wanted to yelp, but she refused to let him have the satisfaction of knowing he hurt her.
He pulled her in closer to him, causing her to be pushed up into his muscular chest. Leaning in by her ear, in a raspy voice, he said, "Do that ever again, and I swear I will make you the most miserable human on Earth. Death will sound like Heaven compared to what will be happening to you".
Standing back up straight, but no letting her go, he began to drag her behind him. "Do not make me force you to walk right", he threatened, "I swear I will.."
"Holy fuck, fine!", she yelled, picking her feet off the ground and walking with him.
He looked over at her and gave her a dangerous glare.
She returned it, an nudged him in the side, "I promise I won't try anything, but you're going to have to let go of my arm, dude".
They were surrounded by the guards in a circle, it wasn't like she would be able to get far anyways.
He clenched onto her tighter, "Try anything and I will take this pistol and shove it up somewhere you don't want it and fire".
"Damn, with the fucking violent threats", she thought. "I did not sign up for this bullshit".
"Yeah", she responded, "I won't".
He then let her arm go, and gave a shove to get her moving quicker.
As he walked by her, she turned to look at the man at the fruit stand. He had a sad and guilty look on his face, she felt horrible. She hoped that they would forget about him.
She looked ahead, "Why are all the hot guys, dick bags?", she wondered.
"Where are you taking me?", she asked.
"Kotal Kahn will decide what to do with you", was his simple, cold answer.
"Greaaaat", she said aloud, sarcastic as ever. "What a fun day this turned out to be".
"Kung Jin", she thought, "Where the hell are you?".