Chapter 8

Damages

"What happened!?" yelled Kenshi, looking upon the devastation that lied down the large hill he and his friends stood upon.

The OIA compound had been completely destroyed and engulfed in enormous flames, causing large amounts of dark grey smoke and ash polluting the air and casting over the evening sky as if a looming shadow. The other smaller compounds around were all just as decimated by the roaring flames and had been nearly incinerated implying that the buildings had been burning for quite some time. Large mountainous ash piles of burnt and decayed wood, concrete, and steel along with various tech and equipment; Now ALL lied in ruins.

Liu and his allies could only watch in horror and disbelief as their home for so many years, passed on to him by the late Sonya Blade, laid before them incinerated in flames. All of what they had worked so hard to build just a few years earlier, now completely gone. The handy work of their longtime enemy no doubt; The Evil and vengeful Quan Chi.

"C'mon!" Jax shouted, running towards the destruction.

As they reached nearer, they started seeing bodies of OIA agents and workers lying on the outside grounds as well as within the piles of wreckage. Not all of them were dead however, some of them still could be seen crawling away from the fires, most likely injured in battle or from the collapsed buildings. Some of their screams and moans of agonizing pain, could be heard the nearer the heroes came.

Jax rushed to one of them, helping him up from the ground. He carried the ash and blood covered man to a nearby bench that had been still intact, far away from the fires.

"What Happened!?" Jax concernedly asked him, trying to get through to the half dead agent. His weak, stuttering voice struggled to answer Jax but in mere moments, his attempts ceased completely, along with his life. Jax tilted his head and closed his teary eyes in a moment of silence for one of his fallen comrades.

"See if any are still alive" Liu then said to everyone.

The group then separated to search the grounds of the devastation that surrounded them for any more survivors. They tried as best they could to find any outside the compound and there weren't many…and the ones that were alive, were in critical condition and barely able to utter a word that would be of any use. By now, the sirens of the police, fire trucks and ambulances could be heard in the airwaves and only got louder, confirming that they were getting closer to the burning compounds.

Inside the buildings that were still intact for the moment, Hanzo had been looking around searching for his beloved wife. His anger and pain was growing with each passing second his eyes did not set their loving gaze upon her but instead on others who died, hoping such was not the fate of his wife.

The former spectre then found an agent who has still been of the living and he immediately and aggressively grabbed the broken and helpless man by his collar and demanded he tell what he knew,

"Where is Kana?!" he demanded.

The weakened agent was trying hard to speak but his will to speak could not outweigh the intense pain he suffered. The man appeared to be mortally wounded with his shirt soaked in wet red blood, the darkest tones coming from below his stomach. Hanzo pressed further and even more sternly until he got an answer. His answer however came from another survivor a few feet beside him,

"They…Quan chi…" he uttered. Hanzo dropped the dying man he was holding and rushed to the one speaking who was trying to move a large heavy piece of a broken desk from his injured leg. He was badly wounded as well, but not as bad as others had been. He could speak clearly and Hanzo assisted him with removing the desk from on top of his leg. He then moved him to a more open area of all the surrounding mess and looked to the man for more information,

"Quan Chi, What did he Do to Kana!?" the ninja asked.

"He-he took her…" the man further revealed.

Hanzo growled in fury upon hearing these words. His mortal enemy had once again committed a crime against him and his family. But this time, he thought there might be a chance to save her. Hanzo looked angrily upon the man once more for information,

"Where?! Where did he take her!?"

"I…I don't know…" the agent shook his head.

That was Far from what Hanzo wanted to hear, but in his mind, he had a gut feeling of where Quan chi might have taken her; the Netherrealm.

It made since to Hanzo; He and Quan Chi had became enemies once he found out the sorcerer was responsible for the death of his family and not Sub Zero. Since then, Hanzo who was still known as Scorpion in those days had been hot on Quan Chi's trail. One day the sorcerer was at the mercy of Scorpion until he struck a deal with him; His wife returned to him fully resurrected and restored in exchange for his Powers. Hanzo made the deal, and surprisingly, Quan chi did not choose to destroy them both on the spot. Perhaps he was savoring his revenge…for now? Either way, He knew where to find Quan Chi and of certain 'hotspots' in Earthrealm to get to the Netherralm.

MK Parallel

Back on the other side of the compounds, the fire fighters were spraying down the large flames and the ambulance and police were setting perimeters and securing the area while gathering up the dead and wounded. Liu and the others had already spoke with the officials and told them about what happened and was told to expect more information within the hour. The brokenhearted, distraught, seemingly restless, and gloomy Liu continued to walk around the ruination he once called home, and was trying to just absorb all that had recently happened in his life.

He wondered how his whole life could have all of a sudden, just turn into this Nightmare. The stress of it all got to him and it was beginning to take a serious toll. To him it seemed like his will to go on and fight was leaving him with each misfortune. His eyes began to tear up at seeing all of the destruction and dead that had seen. The people he could not save, people who were not even really involved in the madness, yet became victims of it. He couldn't help but think that all of this was his fault. That It never would have happened it he had killed Quan Chi after so many chances, yet the moment Quan chi had a chance to take his life, he did, which was the beginning of the what seemed like 'The End' to him.

He wandered down the stairs to Ops which had been mostly wreaked as it was covered with large pieces of the collapsed building above and broken equipment. Signs of explosions had been evident as well as signs of hand to hand battles, by the heavy amounts of blood stains and bodies who were previously there. As the ambulance crews continued to bag up dead bodies and secure stretchers for the injured, Liu was called out by one of his trusted assistants, Andrew who was getting strapped onto stretcher by medics.

"Andrew", Liu walked over to the bloodied man and knelled beside him, "Andrew, hold on, your gonna get some help", he tried calming him as the medics continued to strap him down to the stretcher.

"He…he told me t-to give u…a..a message" he coughed, the blood spilling from his mouth.

"A message?" Liu looked to him. Andrew raised his bloodied hand and pulled a small scroll from his coat pocket. Liu grabbed the old ancient looking small scroll and gave the medics a nod as permission to take Andrew. After a few moments of reading the scroll, he closed his eyes in anger and a tear fell from it, down his cheek as he crushed the scroll in his clinched fist setting, it ablaze with his fire chi; He knew then that his nightmare was JUST beginning.

Kang then turned about quickly, as he heard rumbling and breaking of moving stones and sounds of footsteps coming form the staircase. It had been Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Smoke, Sub Zero, and Nightwolf. Kitana saw her woeful husband and went to offer some sort of comfort to him. The rest searched Ops to see the full extent of the damages. It was all completely catastrophic and damaged waay beyond repair.

"You guys see anything over there?" Liu Kang asked.

While walking, From the corner of his eyes, Sub Zero caught sight of what appeared to be more dead bodies in one of the slightly enclosed rooms that were blocked off by wreckage. Sub Zero and Smoke assisted each other in moving the large broken stones, desks, and equipment to gain access to the room. Upon entering The Lin Kueis' eyes widened with shock at what they gazed upon entering the room.

"I found Sektor…and my sister…" Sub Zero revealed, as everyone then rushed over to him. The dead, mutilated bodies of Sektor and Frost hung from chains attached to the walls; Their skinned, blood dripping bodies baring nothing but their bloodied recognizable cloths draped over them to identify them. The unsettling, heart wrenching, sight almost broke everyone's heart. Their long time allies and most trusted friends hung in the open completely mutilated in the worst possible way.

"Im sorry, Sub Zero" Kitana expressed her condolence.

"Save your pity…" he replied somewhat coldly. He continued to stare at the red bloodied bodies, his true emotions not known by the cold mist, emitting mask concealing most of his face.

"Their deaths wont be in vain" Kitana added.

"No, because they will be avenged…" he declared boldly, clenching his cold icy fists. "Quan Chi will die for this..."

"Yes, by MY hands…" a familiar stern voice interjected revealing it to be non other than Hanzo Hasashi.

"He has personally offended me, He is mine, now." The Lin Kuei contended.

"No, I WILL KILL HIM!" Hanzo sternly returned. The two ninja rivals stood face to face; Their tension boiling up to the surface once more.

"How about I just kill both of you…" Sub Zero retorted.

"Try it, Lin Kuei!"

"Enough! both of you!" Kitana angrily interjected, pushing herself between the both of them whilst staring them down. "No one is going anywhere or doing anything until we figure out what we are going to do!"

"Quan Chi is MINE! Don't try to stop me Princess…or you will suffer my wrath as well…" Hanzo threatened, turning about and making his way back to the staircase.

"Hanzo! "Kitana started, "Let him go…" Liu held her back.

"We don't know what Quan Chi has planned for us, running to fight him may be exactly what he wants us to do." She speculated. "We've lost too many as it is, we need to stay right here".

"I know…" Liu woefully nodded, "But, we can't keep him here…let him go"

Kitana reluctantly obliged and stood at ease beside her husband, leaving Hanzo free to do what he pleased. Liu then looked to everyone else remaining,

"As for the rest of you, If you wanna go, go ahead, but Kitana is right, we cant just barge into Outworld looking for vengeance…not yet."

MK Parallel

MKU3/Outworld 3/ Dragon King's throneroom

"My massster, I have done as you have asssssked" The saurian Komodai said, returning from his mission. He bowed down to his masters: Quan Chi, and the corrupted, Dragon King; Liu Kang.

The two men were in the middle of further discussing their plans for 'Universal' conquest. So far, it seemed that Quan chi whom Liu reluctantly put his trust in, was fulfilling his plans to perfection. As he said, he was taking vengeance upon his enemies piece by piece, after that, then would began Liu's rise to more power beyond what he has ever known.

"So you have returned them to Earthrealm?" Quan Chi asked

"Yessss, a mile away from whaaaatssss left of their Agenccccyy" the reptilian nodded.

"Excellent!" the pale sorcerer deviously grinned.

"Well, looks like your plan is coming together so far, sorcerer…" the Dragon King observed.

"Yes, now we can begin the next step, I believe you know what to do" Quan chi implored with a nod to the evil former shaolin, to which he replied with the same gesture.

"I must be elsewhere at the moment, I shall join you shortly" the old man spoke before summoning his dark magic powers and creating a small swirling blood red vortex in front of them.

"Where are you off…?" Liu questioned him suspiciously, still not fully trusting the evil necromancer despite the evident truths of his words and his plans fulfilling themselves.

"Im expecting a visitor in the Netherrealm, and he's dying to see me…" he smirked, "You have the portal to the other Outworld at your disposal, began 'The Gathering"

MKU2/Earthrealm2/OIA headquarters…or whats left of it…

A couple hours had passed by since Liu Kang and his allies returned to their now defunct OIA compound. The fires that engulfed the buildings had withered away thanks to the firefighters, and the bodies of their dead agents were gathered up by the coroners and sent away to the nearby morgues. Ambulances were leaving to take the rest of the wounded and police and detectives were rapping up their work. The group of warriors were all scattered around the whole compound taking in the chaos and just trying to figure out where to go from there. Sub Zero, Smoke and Sareena took time to honor their fallen comrades Sektor and Frost. Nightwolf went to a small spot near the woods to pray, Mileena continued to look around the ruins as did Jade. Liu and Kitana were sitting on one of the benches with Kitana resting her head on Liu's shoulder and moving the tips of her fingers slightly up and down Liu's back, in an effort to comfort him in this time of grief for all of them.

Kenshi and Jax, who had just come from talking with the remaining authorities, walked towards the couple, no doubt baring news as they both then rose to greet him,

"So what did they say?" Liu asked,

"72 dead...6 injured and in critical condition." Kenshi revealed, which did not go over will with Liu who further expressed grief with the news.

'The military said they'll cover the damages, which is pretty much everything…"Jax added.

"...Except for the Portal equipment…I noticed..." Kenshi noted, confusion appearing on his face.

"Why would ol' pale and baldy keep that stuff perfectly fine?" Jax pondered.

"I know why…" Liu answered after a moment of silence. "Kenshi, Jax, gather up everyone else and meet us downstairs in whats left of Ops" he told the two men.

"What's going on?" Kitana concernedly questioned. Liu simply turned about and stared out into the distance in front of them for a moment before answering,

"We need to discuss what's about to happen…"

MK Parallel

A/N: Okay so here's another update, this chapt was MEANT to be short and kinda sad.

I think right now or on chapt 9, we will be officially Half way through this story.

Thank you for those who have kept up with this story despite the lack of frequent updates. again I must point out that FanFic is not my priority in Life.

Please read and review, and catch up with the story in case its been a while since you last read, perhaps you might gain interest in it once more.

Im not perfect, nor is my writing, so flaws will be noticed. just bare with me.

If you are confused, please PM me or read the 'MKP:Daizenshuu' chapt which will be updated soon.

Stay tuned because we are getting further and further to the ending BIG BATTLE! with more twists and turns on the way.