Mortal Kombat: Vengeance

Chapter 1: Third time is the charm

Commander John Mathews was finally off duty and was flying home to see his 8 year old brother, Daniel. Ever since his parents and his pregnant wife were murdered by the infamous Black Dragon gang, he devoted his life to the military hoping that one day he might be called to them. While he was on active duty his friend Amanda watched over Daniel. More than once he cursed himself, that he was hardly ever home for him. Daniel was the only blood family he had left. He decided that he was going to make this visit special, he would do whatever Daniel wanted to do today. He fought to stay awake on the plane, but forced himself to sleep so he would be awake for Daniel. He hated sleeping because whenever he did he would have the same nightmare he always did of himself being tied up and stabbed in the gut and his wife pregnant wife being stabbed in the stomach then again in the heart, and what for? The paper in their wallets and the 52" TV in their living room. When the plane finally landed, he got off as fast as he could and raced to the doors of the airport, almost forgetting his luggage but went back for it. He walked into the parking lot and saw his familiar red Miata waiting for him after 6 months. He unlocked the door and threw his bag in the back, then got to the front and turned the key and drove out of the parking lot. As soon as he got to Amanda's, a smile went across his face and as he walked to the door he tried to predict what he and Daniel would be doing for the day. He knocked on the door eagerly, and was quietly wishing for Amanda to answer the door quicker. The door opened and John saw his familiar blue eyed brunette friend. "John it's good to see that you are back." Amanda said. "Daniel has been asking about you every day for the past week. He's dying to see you." "Speaking of which, where is the little guy?" asked John eager to see his baby brother. "He's in the kitchen eating some chicken fingers and fries." "Let's go see the little guy." Amanda escorted him to the kitchen. John saw his little brother, sitting at the kitchen table dipping a chicken finger in a small pool of plum sauce. "Hey who's this little buds?" he asked to his little brother. "John!" Daniel shouted as he threw his chicken finger back on his plate, and then ran to his brother and hugged his older brother. He couldn't feel the hug that well through his heavy military uniform but he could tell he was ecstatic to see him. He hugged his younger brother back and said, "It's good to see ya little guy. How ya been?" "Good. Did you bring me anything?" asked John with a cheesy smile on his face. Amanda chuckled. "As a matter of fact," he said reaching into his large jacket pocket. He pulled out an odd looking device and handed it to his little brother. "How cool are these?" asked John as Daniel took the device out of his hand. "What are they?" Daniel and Amanda asked in unison. "They're night vision goggles. You can see in the dark with those." "Sweet!" Daniel and Amanda said in unison. "I'll show you how to use them later, but right now you gotta pick what we get to do for the rest of the day." "Really? Anything?" asked Daniel. "Yeah buddy, anything you want." "Can we go see the new Spiderman movie?" "Oh... Sorry buddy we can't do that." "Really..." said Daniel immediately losing his cheesy smile. "I mean one does not simply go to see the new Spiderman movie, without going to get Ice-Cream first. Geez, what were you thinking?" Daniel's cheesy smile came back in an instant and he hugged his older brother again. "I love ya too little guy." said John. "Now go get your shoes on." "Ok!" said Daniel running to the front door. John chuckled, stood up, and turned to his friend. "I just want to say I really do appreciate you watching him when I'm not here." "Aw. Does the Big Tough Military Commander have a soft side?" said Amanda approaching John. "As much as I hate to admit it, yeah when I'm out there, he's the only thing that keeps going." Amanda hugged him and said "Then go and spend every second you can with him, because in your choice of career, you may not be getting more." He hated that she knew what he was thinking. "John! I'm ready to go!" said Daniel eager to go. "Let's go buddy." The entire day went exactly as great as he thought it would have went home to change clothes, ice cream, McDonald's, then Spiderman. As John and Daniel were leaving the theater, they were laughing. "Was that an awesome buddy?" asked John. "That was SO COOL!" said Daniel. As John continued walking he realized how dark it had gotten. *Dammit, parking behind the theater doesn't seem as good of an idea anymore...* he thought. He wrapped his left arm around his little brother and said "Stay close to me." he walked behind the theater. And saw his red Miata was still there none of the windows were smashed and the tires were still there. "Come on buddy. Let's hurry." he sped up as he walked to the car. He unlocked it and walked to the passenger side and escorted his little brother into his seat and waited for him to buckle up. "John LOOK OUT!" Daniel screamed. John turned around and was hit in the forehead with the butt end of a gun. He was knocked off of his feet. Dazed, he looked up and saw two men with leather jackets standing in front of him. One had a gun pointed at his face and the other had a knife in his hand. The one with the handgun spoke up first. "Alright buddy, you know who we are, what these are and what you need to do, so let's make this quick." John put his hands up and got to his feet. "Hurry up." said the one with the knife. "Let me tell you how bad of a day you are having right now. Right now you are mugging a military Commander." Said John hoping they would back off. "Oh really, then you must get paid well, your wallet. Right now." said the man with the gun starting to get nervous. "Can we not do this in front of the kid?" asked John mentally preparing for the worst. "Hurry up or we'll kill him too." said the man with the gun. John spun his body away from the gun grabbing it and pointing the gun away from the car and elbowing the man in the face. He wouldn't let the gun go, John then kicked the man with the knife, in the chest, then used his chest as momentum to jump and spin a kick right into the side of the man's head with all the strength he could muster, knocking him back a few feet, and onto his back, while twisting the gunman's wrist at the same time. He then swung his knee at the man's elbow breaking it and forcing him to let the gun go. He then grabbed the gun with a proper grip. And grabbed the man by the jacket and slammed his back against the wall and pointing the gun under his chin. "Alright you ass rag, What the fuck is wrong with you? Huh? Seriously, threatening to kill an eight year old kid? Are you fucking retarded?" he then felt a sharp pain in his lower back and he screamed in pain. He let the gun go and he fell to the ground. He heard Daniel scream "No!" and then unbuckle and run toward him he then threw his small body over his big brother's. "Don't hurt him!" Daniel screamed. Then gunman picked up his gun and pointed it at the two lying on the ground. "No!" he shouted and wrapped his huge arms around his little brother. A loud bang sounded throughout the air. He then felt the ground beneath them shake a little. *Did they miss?" John thought. He looked at his brother. He was clearly scared. But he was alright. He then heard a second shot go through the air. This time the eight year olds jaw dropped and his pupils dilated. "NO!" John shouted as the small and fragile body went limp on top of him. "Come on man, let's go." he heard. John tried to reach for the gun on his ankle with no success. He looked at the men. The one with a limp arm was staring at them with great satisfaction on his face. While the other one was trying to get his friend to leave the area. Then the area was illuminated by a yellow light. Confused he realized the light was coming from his little brother's bullet hole. Then a figure emerged from the wound. It looked like a muscular man but his head was shaped like that of a dog. "Let's go!" the man shouted again now the men started running as they were running away. John noticed a familiar symbol on the back of their jackets. A symbol he swore he would never forget, The Black Dragon. The figure drew a sword as if from thin air and swung it at the two thugs. The two spontaneously combusted and were being burned alive his vision started to get blurry, as he passed out to the sounds of the two men screaming.