MORTAL KOMBAT
A novelisation by Luke Fletcher. Based on the Mortal Kombat video games created by Ed Boon and John Tobias. All characters are the express copyright of Midway Games, Ltd. Prologue and chapter one based on Mortal Kombat Collector's Edition Comic Book by John Tobias. All remaining chapters are based on the Mortal Kombat video games but are the work of Luke Fletcher.
PROLOGUE - 500 YEARS AGO
The Shaolin tournament for martial arts was for ages a competition of honour and glory. Warriors from around the world and countless others were invited to take part. Hailing from the dark realm of Outworld, Shang Tsung was one of those warriors. Upon entering the tournament, he immediately won the title of Grand Champion. But, unknown to the Shaolin who were hosts of the contest, each of Shang Tsung's victories added to a hidden dark and destructive power.
Shang Tsung was cursed by his Gods and to appease them must not only take the life of an opponent, he must also take the soul. Through this unholy ceremony is Shang Tsung able to keep his youth. Tsung remained champion until the arrival of Kung Lao in the next tournament, fifty years later, a noble and mighty Shaolin monk. His strength and speed proved too much for the overconfident Shang Tsung. Lao defeated Shang Tsung via tournament battle and won the Grand Champion title that Tsung held so desperately.
Years later, after the "mysterious" death of one of the three tournament Grandmasters, Shang Tsung would return. Prematurely aged and weakened from the effects of failing to appease his Gods, Tsung invites an Outworlder and former pupil to compete another fifty years after his own defeat (for, as Grand Champion, Kung Lao was granted by the Elder Gods the gift of not aging a single day between tournaments).
Tsung's pupil's name was Goro. His speed was incredible, his strength unmatched. And although Kung Lao battled long and hard, Goro would prove the better of the two.
For this ancient tournament, Goro's victory and subsequent reign as Grand Champion marked the end of an era and the start of a treacherous new beginning- one that would alienate the Shaolin from their own tournament and guarantee Shang Tsung the immortality he so greatly desired as he himself would gain control of the tournament by killing the remaining Grandmasters, just as he has murdered the first.
It is known that ten consecutive Mortal Kombat tournament victories made by the same realm would unbalance the furies and weaken the dimensional barriers, allowing that realm to conquer the realm it had defeated. Now, five hundred years after Goro's reign began, Outworld requires only one more tournament victory and Earthrealm will be forever lost…