Police Brutality
At some point, someone had called New York "the city that never sleeps." In light of the events of the past six hours, Kurtis Stryker had come to suspect that whoever had said that hadn't factored in whatever had occurred six hours ago.
The city wasn't sleeping right now, it was dead. It, the state, the country, and as far as he could tell, the rest of the world as well. One moment he'd been doing his rounds, the next, everyone was convulsing, caught up in a green light before they disappeared. Cars crashed. Planes fell out of the sky. The sky itself turned from blue to a sickly orange. And like some kind of macabre coda, a giant building had come to dominate the skyline – a temple with a giant face on it that reminded Kurtis of either something from the Maya or Aztecs (of fuck it, Incas), or a B-movie. Heck, maybe both. All he knew for sure was that building hadn't been there before the world ended, and that it was probably best if he didn't stick around. So when the visions had occurred, when that weirdo in the funny hat told him to head west and find the Resistance, who was he to argue?
So he continued trudging down the highway. Past the empty cars, past the pieces of scrap blowing in the wind, glancing at the sky every few minutes. It looked the same as it had when this had all started. By his watch, it was 4:28PM, but he wasn't fooled – this was no sunset. Six hours ago, the sky had looked like this, and six hours from now, he suspected it would still look like this.
Guess I might as well consider if this is Judgement Day.
If it was, God had weird sense in who got saved, he reflected. You didn't get to stay in the NYPD for any length of time and remain a saint. Although…He frowned, and picked up his pace as he kept walking. For all he knew, he was the one left behind not out of some goodness within his soul, but because he was just that bad. Maybe everyone taken in the green light had gone to Heaven, and he was fated to walk the Earth alone.
That the case big guy? He looked up at the orange haze that clouded the world. Am I the one sinner among saints?
The sky had no answer. Nor did the tower that dominated the sky in question, towering above even the Empire State Building.
Or maybe the Devil won, and he proved to be one sick bastard. Figures.
For all he knew, this was a trap. Maybe the guy he'd seen in the vision when the shit hit the fan had been part of this ordained scheme. Heck, maybe if he found this "Resistance," he'd get a cookie and a first class ticket on Pearly Gates Airlines. Or maybe he was dead, and this was Hell. Or maybe, maybe, maybe…
God damn it, what the hell happened?!
He didn't bother shouting it out. It hadn't come to that just yet. But while his rucksack had a healthy mix of supplies, ranging from granola bars to grenades (the precinct had been well stocked before he'd set off), it again occurred to him that "head west and find the Resistance" wasn't the most accurate set of directions in the world. Like, how far west? California west? China west? Heck, Alaska was west, provided you travelled north as well? Like, how the hell was this even meant to-
Holy shit!
He dove for cover as the projectile came down at him from the sky. It didn't hit him, but instead hit one of the many cars that had clogged the freeway up to this point. The car burst into flames and Kurtis drew out his pistol.
Alright Satan, give it your best…
He looked at the figure in the sky.
…shot.
He decided to hold out on shooting. Because tall, dark, and ugly was descending from the sky, and Kurtis had no doubt that he'd been seen.
"Human," it said. "How are you still here?"
Kurtis got to his feet, but didn't stop pointing his pistol at the thing in front of him. It looked human, walked like a human, but clad entirely in black, its only visible skin being a pair of sunken eyes above its mask but beneath its hood, Kurtis had no illusion as it to being a human.
"Are you among those the thunder god saved?"
Also, it didn't sound human either. Like, when you spoke with the dark, brooding voice, either you weren't human, or you were Batman. And as screwed up as New York could be sometimes, it was no Gotham City.
"Answer me!" The figure kept walking towards him.
"Don't come any closer pal." Kurtis aimed down the sights of the pistol. "Warning you."
He didn't expect that to actually work, as the figure in black actually stopped moving about fifteen feet before him. It stood there, silent in the wind.
"Yeah, so, how I'm here," Kurtis said. "Well, bit of a funny story. It all starts with this thing called the miracle of life, when a mummy and a daddy love each other, and-"
The figure dashed forward. Kurtis let out a yell and began to fire.
It happened so quickly, he didn't know if he was hitting the figure or not. If he was, he was screwed, because the bullets were doing jack point shit. If he wasn't, he was screwed, because the bullets weren't hitting him. And as the would-be assassin slammed into him, sending Kurtis back against a car with a mighty 'clang,' he realized that yes, he was screwed, unless he could unscrew this very quickly.
"Incredible," the assassin murmured. "Lord Raiden must be truly desperate if he saved you, among all the other denizens of Earthrealm."
Kurtis managed to get to his feet. "Listen pal, assaulting an officer is a felony and-"
The assassin dashed forward. This time, Kurtis didn't fire, but instead got into a defensive post, letting training take over. The assassin threw a punch, but he blocked it, and for a moment, he could see surprise in the demon's eyes. That surprise faded however, as he threw a series of punches and kicks as well. The assassin was driven back, but blocked all of Kurtis's blows with ease.
What are you? He kept punching and kicking. Now the assassin wasn't blocking them, he was dodging them.
What the hell are you?!
The assassin kicked him again, sending him back into a different car this time. Like before, it hurt like hell. Unlike before, Kurtis coughed up some blood.
"Incredible," the assassin murmured. "You are the species that drew the tournament of Mortal Kombat across nearly twenty generations."
"Mortal…whatsit?" Kurtis watched the assassin approach.
"You force the emperor to resurrect Queen Sindel in Earthrealm to deal with your defiance."
Kurtis, not even bothering to ask who Queen Whatshername was, drew his pistol, hoping that at such close range, there was no way he could possibly miss. But the assassin moved too fast, grabbing not only Stryker's pistol, but his hand as well.
He couldn't help it. As his bones cracked, he screamed.
"And herein lies at the truth of this realm," the assassin whispered. He leant down, his eyes meeting Kurtis's. "You're useless without your toys, aren't you?"
"Hey man, guns aren't toys, they're very dangerous."
The assassin snorted and tossed the pistol aside. "I beg to differ."
Kurtis wanted to say something, but the assassin's left hook did a doozy on him. So as he held the scruff of his shirt with his right, he wasn't able to say much.
"I should take you to the emperor," the assassin whispered. He glanced at the tower that dominated the New York skyline. "And in time, I will. Still, the few of you that are left have been even less capable of resistance than you have, so I'm going to have my fun."
Kurtis spat some blood upon the assassin's hood.
"Does that terrify you, human?"
Kurtis reached down into his belt.
"Well?"
He shot a taser into the assassin's stomach. The assassin looked down, then back at the officer.
"Tell me," it whispered. "Was that meant to do something?"
Kurtis, despite the pain in his chest and the blood in his mouth, smiled. "Not yet."
He activated the taser.
"Now it does."
The assassin dropped him and screamed. It appeared that for all its powers, it was still a creature of flesh and blood. Kurtis dashed forward as the assassin fought to remove the taser from its belly. Not an easy task, as it only had one hand to do it, as the other was trying to swat away the officer darting around him. But eventually, it managed it. It tossed the taser's tip onto the ground, and when it looked at Kurtis, the cop could see the fire in its eyes.
"I'm going to break you. I'm going to make you scream. I'm going to…to…what are you doing?"
Kurtis, who was holding a detonator in his hand, was standing there, smirking.
"What is that?"
"This?" He looked at the detonator, then back at the assassin. "Oh, nothing. Just a toy."
"What in Outworld are you-"
"Say high to Jesus for me, you prick."
He pushed the detonator and the assassin detonated in a shower of gore, a lot of which got on Kurtis himself.
Really should have stepped back a bit.
The assassin had missed that as he'd tried to get the taser out of his stomach, Kurtis had attached some plastic explosive to his back. So, he'd been far enough away to not get caught in the blast, but not so far that he wasn't covered in the blood of…whatever the hell that thing was.
"Huh. Nice fatality."
The fuck?!
Kurtis spun around.
"Or is that a brutality? Like, not a fan of police brutality, but hey, can't complain in this case?"
This…I don't…I can't…
"You okay pal?"
There was a man walking towards him. A black man with two cybernetic arms, because hey, why not? Wasn't as if there was a limit on crazy in this bloody city now was there?
"Major Jaxon Briggs," the man said. He extended a cybernetic arm towards Kurtis. "You can call me Jax though. I'd say my friends call me that, but seriously, everyone calls me that, so I can't really use that line."
"I…I don't…I can't…"
"Easy pal, you took out one of Khan's cronies." He smirked. "Got pretty bloody as well."
"This…this is too much…"
"Take a breath and count to ten. Worked for me when I first visited Outworld."
Kurtis collapsed on the ground. His head was spinning. His chest was pounding. His legs were aching.
"So, while you're counting to ten, I'll just explain that we're going to meet up with Sonya soon, then we're going to head west to see Nightwolf and the Resistance."
Kurtis looked up at him.
"Yeah," Jax said. "Bit of a safezone. Course, all of Earthrealm's being absorbed into Outworld, because Shao Khan resurrected Queen Sindel, and we've got centaurians on our collective arses, and the Lin Kuei are after Sub-Zero, which is making life really difficult for us, and that's not even getting to how Raiden can't do much now since Earthrealm's becoming part of Outworld, because hey, rules of the Mortal Kombat tournament don't count for shit anymore and-"
"Um, okay," Kurtis wheezed. "I'm just going to nod and pretend I understood all that, so…" He waved a hand and took a breath. "You just carry on like that and I'm going to find somewhere to lie down for a bit."
"Nup. Ten seconds is up."
"But it's only-"
Jax pulled him to his feet and Kurtis let out a yell.
"You okay?" Jax asked. Kurtis opened his mouth but he continued to speak. "Good. Cause we gotta get moving."
"Yeah, sure," Kurtis murmured. "Lead on, major."
Jax proceeded to do just that, heading off down the road, headed west. "What's your name?" he called out to the officer.
"Kurtis," he said, as he managed to keep pace. "Kurtis Stryker."
"So…Stryker then."
"No, my name's-"
"You ever heard of anyone fear the name of a guy called Kurtis?" Jax looked back at him and gave a wink. "Stick with Stryker. Sounds much better."
At this point, Kurtis couldn't argue.