MARKUS X'S POV
Why did Sonya do this? Did she really not trust me enough to take my advice at face value? Regardless, we were in this too deep to pull out now...
As the cat-like woman came towards me, Parsek engaged her with a katana. Instead of the sword harming her as was expected, though, she grabbed it by the blade and pulled it out of his hands. As the weapon clattered on the ground, I saw her crimson blood begin to flow from the wound, which... healed?
"Fuck," I muttered under my breath, not really being able to take my eyes off the woman about to seriously maim my best friend as the gash in her palm fully closed up. She pulled out a pair of flaming whips as I stepped towards her, cocking my head to the side in curiosity. At least with the helmet on, she couldn't see that I was noticing her attire being very similar to that of Mileenas: a leotard slit down the middle with weaving holding it together.
"You look confused, mortal. You've never seen me before... I am no ordinary demoness."
With a sudden motion I could barely see, the leader of the demon army rushed towards me, grabbing my arm and teleporting the two of us to another valley.
"Earthrealmers... Always so eager. Especially the Americans..."
As quick as I could, I pulled out my Desert Eagle and fired an entire clip of .50 Action Express rounds into her. A single shot was more than enough to blow her head off. The full clip would leave nothing left of her but bloodied chunks of flesh. I'd be sure to take a picture and show it to a friend of mine back in Earthrealm.
And yet, it didn't work. Her body seemed to change, becoming more cat-like for a brief moment as her wounds seemed to physically force the bullets out of her body, her spitting one out that had gone into the back of her throat. Her flesh then merged itself back together as she smiled, a truly evil look on her face. "Now now... That's not the way to treat your host. You come to my domain and shoot me? Tsk, tsk, Markus X."
I froze in place, quickly reloading my Desert Eagle despite it being totally ineffective against the woman in front of me. "Who the hell are you and how do you know my name?"
"I am Genesis, future queen of the Netherrealm and the daughter of Archsorcerer Quan Chi. As for your name, many know it."
"I made that big of a mark here after I killed Quan Chi's assassins? Good to know." I twirled my worthless Deagle and re-holstered it, trying to live up to my apparent reputation as a badass.
"Indeed. But trust me, I will not be so easy!" With a sudden burst of telekinesis, very similar to Ermac, she picked me up, throwing me against a rock before hurling me into the air and slamming me into the ground, my ribs cracking as my eyes span around from the concussion.
"May the demons of the Netherrealm take pity on your soul!"
GENESIS'S POV
With speed a mortal could only dream of, I dashed forward and, with a roundhouse kick, shattered the lens of Markus's helmet. His head flew back, the modernized helm flying off his head and landing several yards away.
Standing up, he looked at me with a smile, blood dripping from the corner of his mouth as he pulled out a blade mounted in he wrist of his armor. "Why so serious? Live a little."
I crossed my arms, staring at him. "I've been living for thousands of years."
"Truly live. Have fun, for God's sake!"
"There is no time for fun. I have an army to run. Responsibilities." He apparently knew less of me than I assumed Adriana had told him.
"And? Just because of that doesn't mean you can't have fun. Besides, if you don't, you'll start acting like a bitch."
"That's what I'm known for. Trust me, I can still have fun. Ask my husband." I gave a satisfied smirk at the nights of passion that ended every single day. Gods, I would kill for Noob to be here right now.
"Ah yes, Noob Saibot... Adriana's your daughter, right?"
"Yes. I know you impregnated her." I gave a frown. My daughter was supposed to mate with someone powerful, not this... Earthrealmer! Everything about him annoyed me: his attitude, his intelligence, his physical inferiority to myself, his average looks...
"Yes... Two sons and a daughter. Mileena will be very happy that she will have kids to raise, and I'm happy to have someone else in the family."
"Quite a load. No wonder she was in pain. But I hear that you and Mileena are still together. You are... unfaithful to her?" My body reverted to its natural state, though my eyes gleamed like a glowing green lantern instead of a cat's yellow irises.
"We have an open relationship. Besides, Mileena is sterile. She cannot have children. We can't adopt for obvious reasons, so surrogacy seemed the way to go. I thank your daughter for being the mother of our children."
I rolled my eyes. "Please... An open relationship's just an excuse to sleep with more than one woman."
He could only smile. "Polygamy may be outlawed where I come from, but if I love two women, why not have them both if they love me as well?"
I shrugged before rushing forward, grabbing Markus by the throat and holding him up with a single arm. "I'll give this to you straight. If you ever, EVER hurt my daughter, I will skin you alive and hang you on my wall." My cat-like claws emerged from my free hand to emphasize that I wasn't kidding.
"Ooo, kinky." Even now, the smile on his face refused to vanish. "I love your daughter. Hurting her is out of the question."
"Kinky? No. I'm more serious than you can imagine. I will make you suffer." I relaxed my grip on his neck, letting him down. "Good thing my daughter is pregnant with your child, or I would kill you where you stand."
MARKUS X'S POV
Well, I had to say something to compliment Adriana right now, or I was dead meat. Thinking about everything good in her pregnancy that I could, I gave the demon princess something I guessed she was waiting for.
"Your daughter is gorgeous when pregnant with my children. Her charcoal black skin, smooth as silk, her glistening white eyes like lit diamonds... She looks amazing."
My kind words about her daughter were met with nothing but disgust. "Young love is sickening."
"And you're telling me your husband doesn't feel this way about you?"
"Of course he does. But he doesn't sound like a lovesick puppy dog."
Well, I was too far into full-scale nice guy mode to back out now. "I love the women I love unconditionally, with all my heart. That's the way people should be loved. I have no reason to deny how strong and passionate my love for Adriana and Mileena is." Genesis did nothing but mock me, rolling her eyes and motioning with her hand as though it was talking and repeating exactly what I said.
Suddenly, her still-human ears perked up, as though she could hear something going on. An evil smile crossed her face as he slowly turned to look at me. "You'd better go back to your troops. They seem to be having trouble." With that, she herself teleported away, returning to the battle.
I typed in the code to return to the fight myself, but like before, the sound of a car door locking was all I got out of it. Angrily, I smashed the device against a rock formation, and oddly enough, it worked! I found myself back in the fight!
Except the fight was almost over. Dead bodies lined the valley, some human, some demon. The few remaining humans continued to valiantly fight on. My eyes caught those of Sonya's as I repeated my warning to her.
"I tried to warn you, Sonya! You didn't listen, and now their blood is on your hands!"
With that, the Earthrealmers were routed. All of us returned through the portal. As I turned and looked back at Genesis, her smile was still here as a thought made its way into my head.
"Run away, Markus... Run away and never return..."
