MK Legacy, Episode 10: Kabal
by
Barakao1
OMG, I understand how lame this looks: here I am, 23 years old, going on 24, and I'm writing another fanfiction. Well, I just can't help it. So there.
This story is set after the 9 episodes of Mortal Kombat: Legacy, and deals with Kabal, from Mortal Kombat 3, remade in the reboot-canon.
Original version was uploaded on 10/20/11. Updated Version was uploaded on 11/4/11.
Kevin Tancharoen, the dude who made MK Legacy: I hope you somehow read this and enjoy it.
Ed Boon and John Tobias, who both made Mortal Kombat in the first place, I hope you also somehow read this and enjoy it.
Oh and a quick disclaimer, every character in this story was made up by me, with the exceptions of: Sonya, Kano, and Johnny Cage, from Mortal Kombat 1; Jax, from Mortal Kombat 2; Kabal and Stryker, from Mortal Kombat 3; and Kira, from Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. I also don't own Paris Hilton.
MORTAL KOMBAT: LEGACY
EPISODE 10:
"KABAL"
FADE IN to the title shots of the 11:00 news.
"DNN", or Deacon News Network, is the logo seen in the lower-right corner of the screen.
A blonde-haired reporter is smiling as she delivers the news to us.
REPORTER
Our first story tonight: a dog comes to a neighbor's rescue! Gives new meaning to man's best friend, to some. Jacob Ansley gives us this comment:
JACOB ANSLEY
See, I have asthma. I've had it since I was 5 years old. I require a puffer, uhh, an inhaler to live. But I dropped it on accident, and the metal part broke, and so the entire inhaler became useless – when I'd had a good 30, 35 puffs left on it before!
. . . Well, after it broke, I used my backup plan – the nebulizer treatment – and spent about 5, 10 minutes using up all the last of my solution. Then, that was out.
. . . Well, that dog acted when he did. He ran out. He ran to the friends, the neighbors, that we know. He barked and barked, and I swear, little Romper just knew that something was wrong!
The news' video shows us the scene of the backyard, where the man fell before.
MALE REPORTER'S VOICE
Jacob took a fall at about 7:30 p.m., after the inhaler broke, and after using up all his nebulizer's solution. Unfortunately, Jacob's insurance lapsed a month ago, causing his inhaler refills to now cost a lot more money than before. A new inhaler would be unaffordable for at least another week, which was fine, until his present inhaler broke, laying waste to 30 or more puffs of air. Yet when the dog, Romper, saw his master wheezing, and having medical problems, he would not stop until he had gotten somebody over to help!
Back to the female reporter.
REPORTER
Hmm . . . like a modern-day Lassie. In other news, is Paris Hilton dating Johnny Cage? Apparently the two were seen together outside a hotel in Vegas, Nevada. Whether this was related to filming shows for their two acting careers, neither one offered a comment, but Cage did go on record to say: "Anyone who knows me, knows I wouldn't touch Paris for a hundred bucks." Ouch!
The picture in the upper-right corner changes from the two celebrities to an image of a man wearing a large skull mask over his head.
MALE REPORTER
And in other news, in Chicago, the trial of costumed vigilante Skull-Man is still set for later this month. Skull-Man, as everybody knows, is the often violent vigilante who lives in Chicago, wears a mask of a skull over his face, and tracks down criminals to beat up badly. After 8 years of violence, Skull-Man will now be held accountable for everything in a court of law.
The image changes to Skull-Man, minus the skull mask, in a courtroom.
MALE REPORTER
The effects of Skull-Man's arrest have been felt everywhere across Chicago and beyond, from the criminals he beat up, to the cops who arrested him, to all the ordinary people in between.
SHERIFF BRADSHAW
Yeah? Well guess what? You can't just have vigilantes, not here in Chicago, no. You can't just have people like Skull-Man taking the law into their own hands, and breaking plenty of laws in the process. You have lunatics like himself and the Kabal out there and . . .
MALE REPORTER
Sheriff Bradshaw, when asked if he was afraid that there might possibly be a resurgence of crime following the arrest of Skull-Man, laughed it off, and said that the cops have always been the ones for the job. Perhaps only time will tell.
REPORTER
In other news, the Kabal is a name that has become more famous in recent weeks, especially following the capture and arrest of Skull-Man.
A photograph of the Kabal, wearing a gas mask over his head, appears.
REPORTER
Kabal, too, is a crime-fighting vigilante, who uses a gas mask to hide his face, concealing his identity. The Kabal is under investigation by the FBI, who are not entirely sure yet if the man is a common criminal, or a man trying to play hero and protect the innocent.
DETECTIVE PERCY (HOMICIDE DETECTIVE)
Now, I'm a homicide detective. So, I was called into this case for my job! I've linked three dead bodies to the Kabal so far – all of them criminals, thugs working in the Black Dragon gang. Now, whether the Kabal belongs to an enemy gang, and it's one versus the other, or if he's truly trying to be the hero and protect people . . . we can't quite figure it out yet.
PULL BACK to reveal a gloved hand pressing a button to turn off the TV. The screen goes off.
Two gloved hands. Ordinary khaki pants. An otherwise all-black sleeveless outfit. We look up to see a gas mask covering the man's head and face. The sound of his breathing is loud, and greatly exaggerated.
He clashes together his two metal hook-swords, one in each hand.
KABAL
They must never know.
PULL BACK to reveal that Kabal quickly climbs out an open window, then runs to climb the fire escape, so that he soon makes his own way to the rooftop of the building.
He makes a dangerous leap through the air. Grabs onto the pipes. Soon, he is climbing the pipes, climbing higher up the building. He must be insane.
A rock crumbles off the ledge, falling to the ground below. Kabal is startled at first. He looks down, to see the sight . . . the rock falling to its death.
Kabal gulps, then climbs higher, until he has made his own way to the roof.
Now he's all the way up. He stands on the rooftop – his favorite place to be. It's night time. The bright white crescent moon is visible in the sky.
The Kabal runs quickly across the rooftop. Then he leaps off.
NARRATION
I've got a city to protect.
Title shot: MK LEGACY.
Then:
24 HOURS LATER
We see an exterior shot of the DCPD (Deacon City Police Department) headquarters.
CUT TO: Lieutenant Stryker, of the Deacon City police, smacking the day's newspaper against the table.
THE KABAL STRIKES AGAIN, is the headline on the paper.
Stryker glares at the photo: a man lying on his back on the ground, badly brutalized.
Stryker spends a few seconds staring at the newspaper. He could stare at it for hours.
Sheriff Rickley enters.
STRYKER
Rickley?
RICKLEY
Hello, Stryker.
STRYKER
(nodding his head) Hello.
RICKLEY
I understand that, uhhh, just earlier today, you visited your friend in the hospital.
STRYKER
Yeah. Lieutenant Blade is . . . uhhh . . . it's gonna take a while . . . and Briggs? The other guy? . . . Even worse.
RICKLEY
Yeah, I, uhhh, I heard about Briggs. His legs got all messed up, or something? His arms?
Stryker looks toward the ground again.
RICKLEY
Anyway. I remember you said to update you, if anything comes up about Kabal? . . . Well, something came up.
STRYKER
Yeah – I've seen it already, in the papers.
RICKLEY
Yeah. Another dead body found. A body linked to the Black Dragon gang. Stryker . . . some of us around here are starting to believe that, one by one, he is trying to take down the entire Black Dragon gang.
Stryker's attention seems caught by that.
STRYKER
I thought he was just a nutjob going after everyone.
RICKLEY
Could still possibly be, but . . . we do know this . . . his ongoing pattern, his signature, is that all his victims are Black Dragon members. Working for Kano.
STRYKER
Kano is the biggest fish of them all.
RICKLEY
Yes, and it seems that, one by one, the network of people working under Kano is getting wiped out by this Kabal . . . ever since Kano went missing recently. The scary question is, who does he go after once he's done with them? . . . Still, though, we do believe now that he is trying to track down the big fish, Kano, too.
STRYKER
(shaking his head) No. A hunch like that, you can't go on. Look, we're gonna have to assign a task force to this Kabal problem, and it's that simple. We'll need to arrest him, just like how they arrested Skull-Man in Chicago.
RICKLEY
Stryker, the people are mad about the loss of Skull-Man. His arrest . . . it's come as a real shock, a real depression, to the city of Chicago. If you arrest another vigilante –
STRYKER
What do ya want me to do? Let these vigilantes control our city, and take all control away from us?
He groans, agitated. Then he rubs his eyes, stressed to the point of a headache.
STRYKER
I'm tired of being a cop, anyway! I'm ready to move on! Become something else! Graduate to something else!
RICKLEY
Oh, like what?
STRYKER
I don't know, I just . . . (sigh). I just miss the days when, at least . . . at least problems were normal enough.
We LOOK OUT the window. Out into the chaotic streets of Deacon City.
We start to look upward, toward the sky . . .
. . . and soon arrive at the docks, the piers, with all the boats, at the edge of Deacon City, where the land ends and the water begins.
Men walk in straight lines carrying boxes.
One man walks along happily, whistling.
Then, he is suddenly snatched out of sight by an unseen figure who moves very fast.
Inside the pier's building: in a room filled with wooden boxes and crates, the Kabal, still wearing a gas mask over his face, quickly pins the walking man, who has now dropped his package, up against the wall.
PIER MAN
Hey! What're you doing? What're you doing? You have no reason to –
Kabal uses his left hand to hold him up against the wall, by his neck. He holds his right hand up in the air ready to punch something.
The pier man shakes.
KABAL
(speaking with a voice-changer)
What do you know about Kano?
PIER MAN
(looking away) Kano? Who's Kano? I don't know any Kan-whoaaa!
Kabal quickly flips him to the right, causing him to fall onto his head.
Kabal quickly grabs the man by the shins, and pulls him up into the air, before he falls.
KABAL
I didn't hear you. Say it again? What do you know about Kano?
PIER MAN
Okay! Okay! I'll tell you! I'll tell you!
Kabal drops the man.
He spends a few seconds breathing heavily.
He sighs.
Then he kicks Kabal in the shins!
It hurts. Kabal grabs for his shins. The criminal swaggers left and right, back and forth, ready to get into a fist-fight.
KABAL
Fool!
Kabal jabs the criminal in the chest.
Then again in the shoulder.
Here, at the piers, Kabal is finding kombat: he is beating up the criminal until the task of crime-fighting is done. He gets close, and punches him a few more times. The criminal blocks each attack with his forearms, then quickly jabs Kabal in his right side with one fist as soon as he is left open.
Kabal steps back. But then he runs forward and delivers another blow to the head.
Then he grabs the criminal by the neck, and pins him up against the wall again, holding his neck with his left hand, ready to punch something again with the right.
KABAL
Now tell me what you know about Kano!
PIER MAN
What? He's just the boss. I don't really know anything about his boss-level stuff!
KABAL
Kano is a criminal. He's the head of the Black Dragon crime cartel.
Kabal grabs the criminal, pulling him closer.
KABAL
Recently, he went missing. Some say he's dead. Others, know him too well to think he could stay dead. You used to work for him . . . what do you know?
PIER MAN
What do I know? I don't know nothing! The guy's been missing for a couple of weeks. Hasn't told anyone nothing! It's ever since he broke up with that girlfriend of his, the red-headed crazy bitch, uhhh . . . KIRA! That was the one. Ever since he and Kira got into another bad fight, he's just been all sorts of whacked . . . and trust me, she's just as bad as he is – whoa!
Kabal slams the man's back against the wall. He's losing control already.
KABAL
Where did Kano go? Where is he right now?
The pier man is shaking badly now. Terrified.
PIER MAN
Who knows? My guess is, Honolulu!
The thug thinks about that for a second.
Then he starts to chuckle.
Kabal grabs the man by the shoulders, and he begins to hesitate, wondering if he should follow through with an act of violence.
No. He just throws the pier man to fall back to the floor, hurt, but not dead.
PIER MAN
You might as well just give up, "Kabal". Even if Kano is dead, he started something too big to stop!
Kabal gives the man one last look. Then he leaves.
The pier man looks at Kabal running. He runs so fast that, in only a few seconds, he is out of sight.
The pier man looks back at the wall, amazed.
PIER MAN
I should work out again.
CUT TO Kabal, running, running, running. He darts left to run in between two long buildings. Soon, he darts left again, trying to say out of public sight.
KABAL'S NARRATION
It stinks worse than the stench of rotting corpses in the graveyard. Kano is the enemy. Always has been. Yet I never seem to actually finish him off for good. No . . . there's no ending crime. There will never come the day when the War on Crime is finished and fulfilled. Never.
Kabal stops running. He can't take any more of it.
He stops to breathe for a second.
CUT TO a farther-away angle as he simply screams. He just lets out one loud, long, exacerbated scream of agony.
He kneels down, tired already. He grabs a bottle of water from a pocket. He opens the bottle up to the gas mask, and starts to pour the liquid directly in through it. Soon, he is drinking water like his life depends on it.
Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp. Soon, the water is all gone.
He stuffs the bottle back to the place from which it had come.
KABAL'S NARRATION
I don't like it at all. How long have I been tracking down Kano? Now he seems more far-away than ever. Some are saying he's DEAD. Some are saying not. The men who work for him, either don't know, or won't tell me. I can't take this much longer. How long until I just snap? And then what?
He looks out into the city again.
KABAL'S NARRATION
No. I've gotta stay calm. I've gotta get through this. This is just too important. I have to stop Kano. I have to find him. And I will do that. I swear to you, Kano . . . I swear, on my life . . . I will bring justice to this city. I will put you, and all those working under you, away.
He takes his two weapons out into his hands again: his two hook-swords.
Slowly, he drags metal across metal.
Then, he is ready. He hops onto his motorcycle and tears down the road, ready to dispense justice.
Within a few seconds, he has hit the major streets of the city again. We FOLLOW HIS MOTORCYCLE, but even still he is gone in a few seconds . . . tearing away in a flash.
To be kontinued . . .!