A/N:Alright, new chapter is up! Please R&R!


Tsumetai walked up the stone stairway. He was walking beside his new companion, Fujin, who claimed to be THE Fujin, the god of wind.

"Why are we in China again?" asked Tsumetai. "We're going to meet up with some people who can help convince you to trust me." responded Fujin. Great, thought Tsumetai. I've been dragged off to China to be brainwashed. That's totally normal.

They continued walking up the side of the crumbling temple they were scaling. The stairs themselves were unreliable for a plethora of reasons; the stone they were made from was old and crumbling, they were set too narrow and too steep, and they were coated in moss and other vegetation grew from cracks in the ancient rock. As they neared the top, which was a flat surface large enough for a small group of people to stand comfortably on, Tsumetai turned and looked behind him.

His breath was halted for a moment by the panorama below and around them. The jungle grew out in all directions, as far as the eye could see in most, and wildlife rustled through the trees and undergrowth. "It really is beautiful here, I'll give you that." said he. "Of course it is. the Shaolin Monks chose this place to build their temple because of the beauty. It's very conducive to meditative thought." said Fujin. This reminder of just how little he knew about why he was here effectively dispelled Tsumetai's brief good mood.

"The Shaolin Monks? This is one of their temples then?" asked Tsumetai. "It WAS one of their temples," responded Fujin,"But it was attacked not so long ago, and the monks who lived here were killed." Tsumetai was perplexed. "But I thought the Shaolin Monks of China were some of the greatest martial artists on the planet. who would attack someone that intimidating?" he asked. "Do you remember the story I told you back at your house in Japan?" asked Fujin. "Yes, of course. How could I forget something that crazy?" came the response.

Fujin stopped walking up the steps a few meters from the top. "Then you remember what I told you about Shao Kahn?" he inquired. "Shao Kahn...he was the emperor who kept trying to take everything over, right?" said Tsumetai. "In so many words, yes. It was his armies that attacked this temple. They killed all of the monks from here except two, who were away at the time. I have summoned one of them here today. Let us go meet him, shall we?"

So saying, Fujin resumed walking up the stairway. Tsumetai followed. When they reached the top, sure enough, there was a young man waiting for them...although he didn't really have the look of a Shaolin Monk. "Tsumetai, meet Kung Lao. He is a survivor from the Shaolin Temple."

Kung Lao wore baggy clothes, but not the classic orange of the Shaolin Monks. No flowing robes here, no black sash around the waist. He wore a black shirt with the Hanja meaning "Martial", or "Warrior" on it, but other than that, there were no signs of his being a Shaolin. He also wore a very strange hat. It was black for the most part, but a shiny silver around the edges.

"Lord Fujin," greeted this person. "Hello Lao," said the god. "Is this the kid?" Asked the monk. "It is." said Fujin.

The man looked Tsumetai over. "So, kid. You don't think Fujin is a god?" asked he. "Well, I have my doubts." said Tsumetai. The monk sighed. "Come on, kiddo. Let me show you."


About a half an hour later, the three of them were in the kwoon where the monks taught by Kung Lao trained in the Shaolin art of Wushu. The display of skill was impressive, with a great many demonstrations of different take-downs, pressure points manipulations, vital point strikes, grips and holds, and various other Wushu techniques. However, when Lao himself hit the ring, his students were immediately put to shame He was head, shoulders and chest above the rest in terms of martial arts technique. And then Fujin entered the ring. Tsumetai raised an eyebrow.

Fujin immediately downed Kung Lao. The former had attempted a rushing take-down, but Fujin somehow got behind him and applied pressure to the back of his elbow, at which point Lao went down. Variations of this went on for a good while, until it became clear that Fujin was using supernatural powers to evade his sparring partner. Tsumetai was duly impressed.

Kung turned to Tsumetai. "You see it now?" Tsumetai shrugged, unwilling to admit that he was wrong, that this strange, strange man with the long hair actually was a GOD. "Well...yeah, I guess so." he said. "You GUESS SO?" repeated Lao incredulously. "You GUESS he's a god after watching him TELEPORT?!"

"Lao, drop it. Let's just begin his training, shall we?" spoke the now-proven god. "I suppose so...yes, let's do it."

And what followed was a long period of learning techniques from Fujin. Not for hours. Not for days or weeks, even. For MONTHS. The process was actually sped up by Fujin's superb knowledge of every fighting style known to mortal man, which took a learning procedure that should have taken years, and reducing the time to about 12 months. One year, and Tsumetai was already learning the more advanced techniques of Ninjutsu, Wushu, Karate, Taekwondo, Muy Thai, and Lin Kuei. This last was by far his favorite. It seemed...right, somehow.

Tsumetai met many new companions; Johnny Cage, Jax, Sonya, Kitana, Kenshi, and a masked man who called himself Ermac and referred to himself in the plural form were the most prominent of these. He got to know some of them, but never really became intimate with any. The blind swordsman was probably his closest companion among them, and after him, Ermac.

It was during a conversation with that last that Tsumetai first heard tell of the Lin Kuei warriors, the "forest demons" of rural China. Ermac told him of a man named Sub-Zero, with the power to freeze anything and everything. He told him about his brother, Noob Saibot, who joined the Brotherhood of Shadow, and his arch-nemesis, Scorpion, who hunted him far across the Earth Realm and beyond it, and he told Tsumetai of Sub-Zero's mysterious dissapearance, approximately the same time as Tsumetai first discovered his new powers.

So this became Tsumetai's life for a good long while. Training and meditating with the Shaolin Monks, swapping tales with his eccentric friend Ermac and his blind friend Kenshi, and gaining a better understanding of his ability to control ice.

He also found time for some reflection. He mostly thought about Sub-Zero. How he took his brother's name after his disappearance. About the dream he had the night before he discovered his powers. More and more, he thought the man in that dream must have been Sub-Zero. More and more, he thought Sub-Zero somehow chose him to be his successor.

He finally decided that must be it. As he was speaking to Kenshi one day, he brought it up. Kenshi agreed that it could be possible.

"So, Kenshi, that said, I've decided to take a new name."

"What's that?"

"Sub-Zero, of course."


A/N: Alright, so there it is. Hope it's not to cheesy. Read and Review, please and thankya!