"Aw yeah." Liu purred.
He sank down more into his bath, now only his nose and eyes were above the water. After witnessing mobs of Edenians praise Rain's name, alongside Kitana's, as the new monarch of this realm, well, he needed some R&R. Sindel had some servants run him a bath. He had never been treated so well. The water smelt heavenly, like he was bathing in a garden. The servants had emptied several bottles of bath oils into the water, and a thick layer of bubbles rested on top of the water. Perhaps most unexpected of all, and at the same time most sensational, was the face cream spread on his face and the cucumber slices on his eye. The cream was greenish, and smelt vaguely of fruit. To quote what the servant that had suggested this said, 'Baby this gonna make your skin shine!'. He wasn't sure about that, but it did feel good.
"Oh Alfonse, you are amazing." Liu whispered.
For what felt like hours he soaked himself. He almost felt guilty for having such a lavishing time, almost! Who was he kidding? He was loving this, his whole body was zinging. Now that he thought about it, the hairs on the back of his neck stood up. Curiously, he lifted one the cucumbers off his eye and looked around. He noticed an aura of electricity outlining his body.
"What the..." He began while reaching for his towel.
Suddenly, white light flashed in his eyes, and he felt a surge of energy rush through him. He heard a thunderclap, inside?
"Raiden, I appreciate you not teleporting right on top of me this time, but I was in the middle of a bath."
He peeled the cucumbers off of his eyes and was three things. One, he was startled to find that Raiden hadn't teleported to him, the thunder god had teleported Liu to him! Second, he was worried because Raiden was looking at him apologetically, Sub Zero was holding Jade back because she looked like she was trying to tear Tanya apart...wait Tanya? He heard chuckling, an arrogant and self satisfied chuckle that could belong to only one supreme douche bag. Turning, Liu found Rain standing just to the left of him, with the remains of the electrical discharge from Raiden's teleportation just starting to dissipate. He noticed Rain look him up and down, and the demi god was full on laughing now. Finally, third, Liu was embarrassed because he was standing in a crowded pub in nothing but a damp towel, and he still had the greenish skin cream all over his face.
"I think you interrupted Liu Kang's make up time Raiden." Rain joked.
Raiden ignored Rain's comment.
"Liu, I have some bad news." Raiden told him.
Liu took another look at his situation, and felt suddenly jaded.
"What is it?" Liu asked.
"I'm gonna kill you!" Jade threatened loudly to Tanya, who stood just out of arm's length of the raging Edenian.
"Enough Jade!" Sub Zero pleaded.
The Lin Kuei had his arms wrapped around Jade's waist, firmly holding her in place. He admitted that it was much more difficult to hold her back than he thought; the woman was much stronger than she looked, and she looked rather strong already. As he continued to pull her back whenever she tried to pull away, his physical and mental discipline was pushed to the limit to keep himself 'contained', as her behind bounced repeatedly into his pelvis.
"Raiden, what happened?" Liu asked.
"Jade..."
"Our esteemed general," Rain suddenly interjected, "while usually much more classy than this, has assaulted one of my competitors, thus breaking the rules of the Olympiad and disqualifying herself. In lamest terms, our teams are tied up."
Liu thought that nothing could affect him right now, he was more than half naked in a public place right now after all, but the news rocked him. He looked to Raiden as if he needed the god's confirmation of what he just heard.
"I'm afraid he is telling the truth Liu." Raiden told him sadly.
Tanya came to stand by Rain, Jade turning after her like a gun aiming at a moving target.
"I'm disappointed in you Jade, although I suppose I can't blame you. Spending so much time with the rabble can be detrimental to anyone's character." Rain stated.
Tanya bore a sly smile, and even though he wore his purple mask, Liu could tell Rain had as well. Liu knew that this was no accident; despite her sharp tongue he knew Jade was one of the last people he knew that would just lose her temper. They had baited her, he didn't know how and he didn't care. Rain had looked right at him when he used the term 'rabble', he spoke with such an air of superiority that it infuriated him to no end. Liu stomped towards the larger man until he was right in his face; looking about as intimidating as a man wearing face cream and a bath towel could ever hope to look.
"You really are a piece of work Rain." Liu told him hatefully.
"Aren't I?" Rain stated smugly, deliberately twisting Liu's words.
This only fuelled Liu's anger.
"The way you talk to others, the way you see people as beneath you in every way, using dirty underhanded tricks to get your way, you really think you are untouchable don't you?"
Rain leaned down so that he was at eye level with Liu, meeting the monk's stare of loathe and disgust with one of his own.
"Do you think you can prove otherwise?" Raid asked lowly.
Liu clenched his fist tightly. He could feel Rain's heat, he was so close, it would be so satisfying, and so easy...
"Liu!" Sub Zero said gruffly.
Liu struggled to pull his eyes off of Rain. Sub Zero still held Jade back, and Jade still vented her seemingly endless rage.
"You are a snake! A snake Tanya!" Jade ranted.
A tear flew off of he face as she thrashed about, a tear of anger and sadness. Liu Kang and Sub Zero both noticed it.
"It's not over yet Liu Kang." Sub Zero told him, and it sounded more like a promise.
Liu mentally kicked himself; Rain had tried baiting him and almost made him commit the same mistake Jade had. He had almost damned himself.
"It seems not all Earthrealmers are idiotic fools." Rain whispered in his ear.
Suddenly, Rain grabbed Liu's towel and yanked it off, exposing him to the whole crowd of people. He heard several gasps, some sharp whistles, a lot of whispering, and a few bouts of ego shattering laughter. All he could do was cover his manhood and hope that he was invisible. Judging by the continued gasps, whistles, whispers, and laughs, hoping for the latter was futile.
"Anytime now Raiden!" Liu shouted.
"Oh, right, my apologies."
Electricity gathered around Liu, Sub Zero, Jade, Tanya, and Rain. In an instant, all five were teleported back to the palace, though each faction was in a different area of course. Liu and company were sent back to the bathroom that Liu had been taken from. The bath still looked as welcoming as ever, but he just couldn't bring himself to go in. Sub Zero let Jade go after she finally calmed down, or rather wasn't readily trying to murder someone. Both of them panted heavily.
"Thank you for that Sub Zero." Jade said.
Sub Zero merely nodded.
"I'm so sorry Liu." Jade whispered.
Liu put an arm around her and pulled her close.
"Don't you dare be sorry, Rain's scared and thats why he resorted to this."
"Liu, your clothes?" Jade reminded him.
Liu realized that he was dangerously close to pushing his naked junk up against he leg, and he swiftly pulled away and ran behind a change wall to get his pants on. Jade rubbed her face with both hands, letting out a heavy sigh and moved to leave. Sub Zero grabbed her forearm, stopping her.
"Jade, do you want to talk or, well can I do anything?" He asked.
He remembered how close they had become just moments before it all went to hell. Jade didn't look back at him, she just moved his hand off her arm.
"No Sub Zero. This is my mistake, I need to bare it."
"You can't carry everything yourself." Sub Zero said quietly.
Jade lingered by the door for a moment, he thought she had heard him. Lingering for a moment longer, she left. Just as she did, Liu came back out with pants on thankfully.
"I meant what I said; Rain is scared." Liu told Sub Zero.
"He should be." Sub Zero said forebodingly.
Sub Zero made his way to the door so he could leave, stopping to say one more thing.
"I'll be waiting at the arena, I'll see you there when it's time to end this." He said before leaving.
Silently, Liu nodded, and noticed that he had trouble moving his face. Suddenly, Sub Zero popped his head back in.
"And you'll want to wash that off before it hardens, otherwise we'll need to take a chisel to your face."
Liu poked the face cream and found it hard as a rock. His face was petrified.
Dammit Alfonse.
Deep underground beneath the palace, down a pair of stairs nobody used, through a pair of rotten wooden doors, in a chamber filled with the foul fumes of constant acid corrosion, Eric dangled from a length of chain. After having overheard the conversation between Rain and Tanya, he was knocked unconscious by someone invisible, and hissing like a snake. He had been here for almost a day, bound and gagged while hanging precariously over a pool of bubbling acid. He had stopped squirming awhile ago, he was too dehydrated and hungry to continue. Worst of all, he had to pee. Really bad. He looked down to Kano, he was sitting in a chair half asleep.
"I niid ta gu ta tee bahoon." Eric mumbled.
Kano didn't stir.
"I niid ta gu ta tee bahoon!"
Kano still just sat there.
"Hee ahhnole, I niid ta tek a pith!"
"Huh, what? What?" Kano said suddenly, almost jumping of his chair.
"I niid ta goo ta tee bahoon."
"What? I can't understand you mate, speak clearly." Kano said while laughing cruelly.
Eric tried making unintelligible pleas, but these only amused Kano.
"I don't know what you are saying, try again!"
Kano shot a laser beam from his cybernetic eye, aiming just to the left of the chain suspending Eric over the pools of acid. Eric let out a muffled scream of fear.
"Come again?" Kano said.
He fired another laser, again deliberately missing the chain, though just barely. Eric was swinging to and fro, helpless and screaming past the gag.
"Why don't you stop hanging there like a worm on a hook and tell me what you want?"
Kano fired another laser beam, but this time it met an invisible wall, and invisible hissing wall?
"What the hell Kano?" Reptile snapped as he made himself visible again.
"I have told you to stop running around while invisible you know. Accidents can happen." Kano said with feigned concern.
Reptile jumped off of the wall he clung to and grabbed hold of Eric's chain. He slid down the metal rings until he was just above Eric, who was shaking half from fear and half because his bladder was about to burst.
"What are you mumbling about?" Reptile asked.
"I...niid ta gu ta tee bahoon."
Reptile pulled the gag out of Eric's mouth.
"I need to go to the bathroom."
"So hold it." Reptile told him simply.
"I've been holding it all day!"
"Fine then, go."
"What do you mean, go?"
"I mean exactly that."
"But I'm, well look at me!"
Reptile sighed heavily and then reached for Eric's crotch.
"Hey, hey hey what are you doing?"
Reptile undid his trousers so that they opened.
"Now, you can go." Reptile told him.
Thirty seconds, thirty terribly awkward seconds passed by with Reptile and Kano staring at Eric expectantly, with no results. Neither of them really thought about how weird that was.
"We're not gonna aim it for you mate, if thats what you're waiting for." Kano said.
"I can't go with you watching!" Eric protested.
"What are you twelve?" Kano asked.
"No, but when I was twelve my brother walked in on my while I was going and he had a mug of hot coffee and..."
"Stop! Stop I don't want to hear it. Turn him around Reptile." Kano said with urgency.
Reptile spun Eric around so that he faced away from them. After a few more seconds, Kano and Reptile heard a steady stream pour into the pool of acid, followed by the hiss of the urine being dissolved by the corrosive liquid.
"So, what do you guys," Eric began.
"Are you serious?" Reptile asked.
"What?"
"This isn't a locker room or something, hurry up and finish."
The three men waited in silence for a few more seconds before the sound of dissolving urine ceased. Reptile turned Eric back around, but didn't care enough to do his pants back up.
"Listen I'm really hungry. Do you two have anything to eat?"
Reptile shoved the gag back into Eric's mouth deeper than he really needed to.
"Eat that."
Reptile jumped from the chain, causing Eric to sway heavily around. He squirmed so much that his pants, being undone, now fell down to his knees, and revealed his pink boxers! Below, Reptile snickered alongside Kano, who was barely able to stand while laughing.
"Pink undies? What are you fruity?" Kano asked Eric mockingly.
"Lhere wus a pik suk in ma loondy! (There was a pink sock in my laundry!" Eric explained.
"I tell you Reptile, you aren't much of a kidnapper. You should've let him pee himself like a child." Kano told Reptile.
The saurian stared up at Eric the same way a hunter looks at freshly caught prey.
"I don't want my meal soiled." The saurian stated, removing his mask so his tongue licking between his teeth could be seen.
Eric sighed fearfully, and felt the need to relieve himself again. He didn't though, having pink underpants was bad enough, he didn't want to leave a brown stain in them.
Sitting in her room, Kitana lightly brushed her jet black and silky hair. It was the single most trifling aspect of her appearance to maintain. She sometimes considered cutting it back to shoulder length, like how she had kept it when she until she was two thousand years old, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it. This was her image, Kitana, Princess Kitana, and in a matter of hours, Kitana the wife.
She put the brush aside and picked up her jeweled tiara, sliding it into her hair. She looked at herself in the mirror. Straightening her back, widening her shoulders, and hardening her face, she tried to look as regal as possible. The image of those banners that some of the villagers had raised came to mind, but this deflated her rather than inspired her.
Queen Kitana, alongside King Rain. The news that Jade had gotten herself disqualified spread like wildfire, and burned just as hot. Kitana had tried to console Jade, but her best friend seemed dead set on feeling guilty. Kitana herself would never think less of Jade for her actions, but she couldn't kick this feeling of bitterness she had. So close, but now so far. One more challenge remained, the winner would decide who Kitana would be married to. The Olympiad had turned out like a predictable movie; this team wins, the other wins, the first team wins again, then the other again. Usually in those movies the heroes would just barely come out as winners, but she was in far too pessimistic a mood to be that hopeful.
She heard a knock on her door and, checking herself once more in the mirror, got up to answer it. It must be Liu coming to get here for the final challenge. When she opened the door she found, with no small amount of surprise or disappointment , Rain.
"Greetings princess, my you look even more beautiful than usual."
"You flatter me, Rain." Kitana said halfheartedly.
"The fifth and final challenge is about to come underway, and I thought it would be only proper if I escorted you there, my fiancé." Rain offered his hand.
"You're too kind." Kitana said as she swiftly moved by him.
Rain lingered momentarily with a wounded ego, clutching his offered hand into a rock hard fist. He walked beside her, working hard to keep his voice composed instead of hostile.
"It's great, isn't it? This ridiculous farce is finally coming to an end." Rain told her.
"I guess it is."
"It's just as well too, I fear the villagers may start rioting and fighting if this lasted much longer."
"Why do you figure that?"
"Because all those fools that hope for Liu Kang's victory are sure to cause trouble."
"I've only seen rowdiness from the ones that hang your pictures everywhere they can."
"Well they wish to show their devotion to their soon to be king and queen."
"Possible king and queen." Kitana reminded.
Rain snickered, and it was an infuriating sound.
"So sure of yourself, are you?" Kitana asked in a confrontational tone.
"I'll admit princess that the monk gave an admirable effort, but he shall not be king of Edenia. He can't be he, well he, well I'm sure you know."
"I don't think I do, enlighten me." Kitana suddenly stopped and turned to him.
Rain was taken back by her seriousness, and angered by her tone.
"He is not royalty, not here or in his realm of dirt. He does not have a mind for politics, does not know how to rule over thousands or millions of people."
"They're hundreds of people outside these walls who think otherwise."
"Fools, all of them. I can understand them though, the monk gives them a sense of comfort. They must be intimidated by a god king with a military career."
"A demi god king." Kitana reminded snidely.
Rain's expression turned irate.
"I have tried to understand why you insist on being with that monk princess, but the reason still alludes me. Tell me, why?"
Kitana just shook her head at him; the way he spoke about others, the way he treated others, how he threatened Mileena, that he tried to kill Liu. She didn't care anymore that they shared a good day together, or that her father thought that he was better choice than Liu. She was done with him.
"Thats for me to know, and you to never find out. I don't think you are capable of understanding it anyway Rain."
She turned on her heel and started walking again, and she noticed that Rain wasn't following her anymore. That look of regality that she had tried to wear in her room now fell over her like a blanket. Rain silent seethed with rage. Her audacity was enough to make him form water bubbles in his hand. He shook his head clear and let the bubbles drip down onto the ground as drops of water.
When this is over, and Quan Chi is playing with your soul, then I guess I never will know. And I won't care.
"Lord Rain, do you need help?" A servant came behind him and asked.
"What? No, why would I?"
The servant pointed to the puddle that he was standing in.
"It's okay sir, we all have accidents." The servant told him.
"What the hell are you thinking? I didn't pee..."
"I can get you some new underpants sir."
Rain lost his temper kicked the servant with his patented super roundhouse, sending the man flying down to the other end of the hall.
Liu walked briskly towards the outlet to the arena dressed in his finest clothing. He felt it necessary; one way or another this was the end. He had never been much for prayer; being on a first name basis with a real life god took most of the magic out of it. That and after seeing Raiden win a hot dog eating contest against a six hundred pound sumo wrestler, well, the mystique of the gods was forever ruined for him. So instead of praying, he had been hoping really, really, really hard that he was going to be walking out of that arena as a winner. Kingship be damned, he just wanted to be with Kitana. That's all he ever wanted, but Rain just had to take things too far.
To his disappointment, Jerrod and Sindel awaited him by the outlet, a first. Sindel looked as if she was trying to stay positive, and struggling. Jerrod, well Ermac's wrappings made his face almost unreadable. From his body language, he looked even more distanced than usual.
"Hello Liu." Sindel said warmly.
Liu merely nodded to her, really unsure of what to say. Sindel nudged Jerrod in Ermac's ribs.
"So this is it then."
She nudged him again.
"I mean, well it's all over."
She elbowed him hard enough to wind him.
"...I know it has been tough, Liu, but for what its worth...good luck." Jerrod took a small step to the side in case Sindel elbowed him again.
Liu couldn't get over what Jerrod had said to him a few days ago, but after all he did to try and get on his good side, he wasn't about to ruin that forever. Liu offered his hand, and in a surprisingly gratifying gesture, Jerrod shook it.
"Whichever way this goes, good luck." Liu told him.
Jerrod was confused by the statement, but Liu was already walking out to the arena.
Exiting out of the short tunnel, the bright Edenian sun glistened off his black and orange outfit, and the voices of hundreds of spectators poured into his ears. It had all become somewhat familiar; the clear skies, the misleading arena platform that was much more complex that it looked, the spectators crammed into the stands that now had clear lines drawn between them. Now though, he found his whole team assembled here; the cocky but capable actor, the fiery noble, the mechanized commando, and the ferocious lunatic. Johnny, Jade, Jax, and Mileena greeted him with the same intensity he had, they clearly felt similarly to how he did. He noticed another unusual thing; the air had a biting cold to it. He easily deduced the reason when he noticed Sub Zero standing at the top of the platform with Kitana.
Liu climbed the steps to join the two of them, and upon reaching the top he heard some of the spectators start talking more excitedly, and it rapidly spread.
"Hey." Liu said to Kitana, taking her hand.
"Hey." She told him, half shrugging, half smiling, half cringing.
"Yeah." Liu said empathetically.
"Hey!" Sub Zero said to them gruffly.
He came off as almost hostile, turning to them and looking intense. He then put his fist to his chest, a Lin Kuei custom, and nodded to each of them.
"The Lin Kuei do not accept failure." He told them in both a strong and softer tone.
"Your damn right they don't!" Liu said enthusiastically, raising his hand for a high five.
Sub Zero just looked at his hand, and at Liu's ridiculous smile. He also glanced at Kitana, who just chuckled and shrugged at him.
"Lin Kuei do not high five..."
"Come on..." Liu persisted.
Sub Zero grunted happily and did so.
"I guess they do now." Sub Zero said.
Suddenly, the roars from the crowd picked up. Coming in from the other end of arena platform, a twister of water came blowing in. It remained for a moment, and then suddenly Tanya came flying out of it, landing on her head, and when the twister calmed, Rain stood in it's place. He turned to the spectators in the stands and raised his fist like a conductor, and the people raised their voices like an orchestra.
"Rain! Rain! Rain! Rain!" A vast majority of the spectators cheered.
Rain turned to look at Liu Kang and Kitana, he looked like he had already won in his mind. Liu noticed lightning in the sky. The day was clear of any storm clouds, so the lightning could only mean one thing...
"Not again!" Liu shouted, closing his eyes and covering his head.
He heard the lightning strike, but he didn't feel the painful zap, nor the weight of Raiden on top of him. Cautiously, he opened his eyes and moved his hands. Where Rain once stood, he now lay on his back, with Raiden standing on top of him.
"I have arrived!" Raiden shouted out.
"Oh, I beg your pardon Rain." Raiden said.
"Don't...worry...about it." Rain said with seething anger.
Raiden gave Liu a smile and wink, and Liu nodded gratefully.
"Spectators, competitors, this is the moment you've all been waiting for! Both teams have, amazingly..." Raiden said so sarcastically, "...won an equal number of challenges. That means that it will come down to a fifth and final challenge, and dare I say, the most spectacular. Both competitors, get over..."
A fireball erupted from the ground right next to Raiden, and Scorpion materialized out of the flame. His white eyes stared daggers at Raiden, daring him to finish his sentence. The ninja didn't say anything, the constant sound of a crackling fire said it all. Raiden gulped down a lump in his throat and teleported away to the center of the stage.
"Both competitors please step forward." He said meekly.
"Well, here it goes. You two may want to move, this might get ugly." Sub Zero told Liu Kang and Kitana.
They did as he said and moved to the lower level. Sub Zero stretched his arms, cracked his neck and knuckles, and started walking forward.
"Sub Zero."
Sub Zero stopped and turned to find Jade standing where Kitana and Liu were a moment ago. She was like the air in how quietly she moved. Hot.
"Um, yes Jade?"
"I just wanted to tell you good luck...and to take care of yourself. Liu and Kitana are relying on you, as am I." She extended her hand to him for a handshake.
A handshake? How ironic it was that he found the notion of giving a high five to Liu Kang hard to swallow, but Jade just wanting to shake his hand came off as too cold for him. Ironic indeed. He wasn't about to insult her however, and so he returned the handshake.
"Thank you Jade...I,"
Jade suddenly looked back like she was checking to see if someone was there, there wasn't and then with her incredible speed she gripped his hand and pulled him closer to her. As she did that, she used her free hand to pull his mask down and then she kissed him, passionately. Sub Zero's eyes widened, she was french kissing him! She pulled her tongue out of his mouth and then slipped his mask back and moved off of him. The whole thing only lasted about five seconds, albeit five glorious seconds, and no one else seemed to have notice.
"Seriously, take care of yourself. That's an order." Jade told him as she walked away.
He was too awe struck to even take advantage of the view of her walking away. Okay, maybe not that awe struck. He channeled his cold energy inward, making a cooling sensation travel down his torso to his pelvic area so that things calmed down there.
Lin Kuei do not, do that. They are damn well going to start though. Sub Zero thought.
With renewed drive, Sub Zero turned and started walking towards the centre, as was Scorpion. The spectators hushed, with the exception of excited whispers, as well as 'ooohs' and 'aaaaahs'. The air around Sub Zero was heavy with a frosty mist, and the air around Scorpion was warped and obscured the view behind him because of the heat. Both stood tall, each step a challenge to the other, daring them to come closer. Both would come closer still, and the ever thinning space between them would tremble if it could. This was a rivalry that was never ending, pure in its absoluteness. Nothing could undermine this moment...
"Yeah Sub Zero, you can do this! Rip his fake face off and fuck that skull up!" Johnny cheered.
Whhrrrp!
A mass shuffling of feet and turning heads could be heard as all the spectators shifted in their seats to glare at Johnny Cage. Raiden, Kitana, and Liu Kang all face palmed. Sub Zero looked over his shoulder and gave Johnny a withering look, and Scorpion tilted to the side so he could look at Johnny with shock and irritation.
"Wait! I didn't mean it like that, Sub Zero do not do that!" Johnny said before Jax clasped a metal hand over the actors mouth.
"Smooth man, real smooth." Jax told him sarcastically.
"Anyway, both of you pay attention." Raiden told Sub Zero and Scorpion.
At their feet, a circular hole opened in one of the floor panels. Out of it, a metal sphere levitated out of it. Raiden lifted his hand over it and let his electric energy pour into it, making the metal charge with electricity. The sphere then separated into three wedge shapes, each one hovering and having electricity arcing off of them.
"The two of you will be racing to acquire these pieces and reassemble the sphere."
Raiden opened three portals and each piece went through a different one, closing the portals behind them.
"I get the feeling there is more to it than what you are telling us." Scorpion told Raiden suspiciously.
"Maybe, but that would be telling. Here is the first portal you must go through, good luck."
Another portal, a man sized one this time, opened before them. Scorpion moved to step through it, as did Sub Zero at the same time. They brushed shoulders, stared at each other, and then both tried to rush in first. Both men were stuck just centimetres from stepping through the portal, shoulder to shoulder, stubbornly trying to push one another away.
"We are both going the same way." Sub Zero grunted.
"I know, so step aside." Scorpion demanded.
"I was going first!" Sub Zero protested.
"The hell you were, I took the first step!" Scorpion said.
"Move!"
"You move!"
Raiden rolled his eyes at the two grown men acting like children. He turned his staff horizontally and shoved Scorpion and Sub Zero with it.
"Hey!" Both of them exclaimed before they fell through the portal.
"Now that thats over with, lets see where our competitors have ended up!" Raiden shouted to thunderous applause.
He shot lighting bolts from his hands and they formed into the lightning screens that had been used during the competition between Reiko and Johnny. Instead of the storm ridden skies surrounding the massive Sky Temple, all that showed was snow.
Scorpion pulled his head out of the snow pile he had landed in. The challenge had just started and he was already irritated by it. He didn't even like the rain or swimming; he absolutely hated snow. Looking around, he put his ninja training from years ago to use; taking in his surroundings, assessing any immediate threats...where was Sub Zero? He listened for any crunch of snow to reveal the Lin Kuei's movements, but heard nothing. Satisfied that he was alone, Scorpion got his bearings. He noticed that he was near the base a hill, a rather steep hill. Straining his eyes, he could make out what looked to be lightning discharging up the hill. After proclaiming his hatred for snow again, he started the his ascent.
"How high can it be?" He asked himself.
2 Hours Later
Evidently it could be very high. Scorpion was more than knee deep in snow and he had left twin trails in the snow. At this point he couldn't even lift his feet out when he stepped, rather he just dragged himself through it. He had seriously misjudged the distance he needed to climb to reach the piece of the sphere, the foot long icicles hanging from his shoulder guards were like literal bookmarks showcasing how long he had been going. His clothes were drenched, and now started to freeze over, making each movement harder. Worst off all, the relentless chattering! For the better part of his whole climb he had been hearing this unrelenting and absolutely infuriating chattering noise, and it was working on his last nerve. It sounded like how skeletons would jangle in old cartoons...Scorpion stopped in his tracks and gripped his jaw with his hand, and the chattering ceased immediately. He released his jaw and he heard the chattering again. If there was any humour in the realization he just made, he wanted none of it. He actually contemplated dislocating his own jaw so that the chattering ceased, but before he could come to a decision, a snowball blinded him. He slowly wiped it off his face, and like an eraser the cold snow removed his almost perpetually angry expression to reveal, well a murderous expression.
"Oh...hell no." Scorpion said dangerously, turning to the source of the snowball.
"You're a little underdressed for the weather, hothead." Sub Zero mocked him from several feet up the hill, holding a freshly made snowball.
"You don't know what you are getting yourself into Sub Zero, so put the.." Scorpion was cut off by another snowball.
"Enlighten me." Sub Zero challenged.
Bellowing angrily, Scorpion thrusted his palm forward, intending to throw he spear and impale Sub Zero on it. However, nothing happened. He thrusted his palm again, again, again, each time barking angrier and louder.
"Having some trouble?" Sub Zero asked smugly.
Scorpion checked what the problem was and found his spear and chain all frozen together, which were in turn frozen to his gauntlet.
"Dammit!" He cursed.
Sub Zero turned his attention to the piece of the sphere up above.
"Watch your step." He told Scorpion before he started running up the hill.
Scorpion gave up on his spear and sprinted up the hill, or rather he started to bulldoze through the snow with hard headedness alone. He didn't get very far before he slipped and fell. He got up and tried again, but he just slipped again. Scorpion shoved snow away and found that he was trying to climb of a sheet of ice. This ice however was too, perfect, to be natural. He noticed that Sub Zero had stopped and was looking down on him with his arms crossed.
"I told you." The blue ninja said.
Growling, Scorpion pulled his swords from his back and stabbed them into the ice, then pulled one out after the other and use them as climbing hooks.
"How resourceful, but I wouldn't recommend that." Sub Zero said.
"Yeah I bet you wouldn't."
Scorpion plunged one of his swords into the ice again and heard a sharp crack. He looked at the ice and saw a rapidly spreading crack. He looked up at Sub Zero again who's expression was just screaming 'I told you so.'
"I, really, hate.." Scorpion began before he was sliding back down the slope with chunks of ice following him.
The snow slid between his clothing into all the most sensitive places, he had ice falling on top of him, and his skeletal teeth chattering was still going. Most people take several deep breaths to calm themselves down; Scorpion did it so he could yell louder when he started punching and kicking the ice patches of of him.
"Temper, temper. You should keep your voice down though." Sub Zero shouted down to him.
If anything this just turned the button for Scorpion's volume all the way up. Sub Zero heard a rumble, and felt distant vibrations in the snow. He looked up to where the lighting was shooting off, and it was shifting!
"Okay seriously, quiet down!" Sub Zero urged.
Scorpion was now trying to sprint up the ice, but he may as well have been running on a treadmill. Sub Zero slid down the hill on a ice slope he created.
"Yeah you better run!" Scorpion shouted at him, still stubbornly running in place.
The spectre looked in front of him and saw an avalanche coming his way.
"Oh..." He stated simply.
Scorpion popped it in reverse and started running back down the hill he had just spent a couple of hours climbing. He ran with an odd gait because he tried to stay in the tracks he had already made. Despite this, the avalanche was quickly gaining ground on him, flurries of snow were already flying in front of him. Scorpion spared a look back and was surprised to find the piece of the sphere, still discharging lightning, rolling along at the head of the avalanche. Scorpion started moving sideways with his hand out, trying to grab it and not get caught up in the avalanche. He was so close, his fingers almost brushed it, he had it! A large clump of snow came lose and took out his legs suddenly. Scorpion was rolling down the hill, building enough speed to outpace the avalanche, as well as building a shell of snow. Scorpion was soon encased in a snowball big enough to engulf him. The avalanche came to a crashing halt when it hit the bottom of the slope, and Scorpion's rolling descent slowed down considerably on flat ground. Sub Zero stopped the ball with his foot, and noticed one of Scorpion's hands still sticking out of the snowball, clutching the piece of the sphere.
"How kind of you Scorpion." Sub Zero said as he tried to take it.
Scorpion's fingers refused to let go, and Sub Zero had to pry them off. He then noticed a reddish orange light building inside the snowball, and he quickly dove to the ground as a burst of fire shot of of the ball. Keeping his head down, Sub Zero moved away as more flame melted the snow from inside out until Scorpion freed himself. His skin was blue from the cold, and his teeth were chattering loud enough for Sub Zero to hear.
"Give...me...that..."
Suddenly the electricity in the piece of the sphere overcharged, creating a light that blinded both of them.
Back in Edenia, Liu Kang and his team cheered triumphantly. Watching the screens, they saw that Sub Zero and Scorpion had been transported to some new location, and Sub Zero was still in possession of the piece of the sphere. It was a small victory that they all enjoyed, with the exception of Mileena who was oddly quiet and contained.
"Hey Pinky, why so glum?" Johnny asked her.
"Don't call me that." Mileena said with a sulk.
"Come on Pinky your harshing the mood!"
"Please don't call me that."
Johnny gasped and Jade, Jax, Liu Kang, and Kitana all turned and stared at Mileena, wide-eyed.
"Please?" They all stated in shock.
"Are you feeling well Mileena?" Kitana asked.
The older 'sister' put her hand on the younger's forehead, which Mileena slapped away defensively.
"Don't treat me like a child, I just...have a headache." Mileena said unconvincingly.
"More like a heartache." Johnny whispered in Jax's ear.
"For real, I haven't seen her boyfriend, that jumpy guard Eric, in awhile. Her attitude has been pretty glum all that time to." Jax whispered back.
Despite their whispering, Mileena was a trained assassin and she heard every word. She snarled and threw both her sais at the two men. Each blade got imbedded in the wall, just a few precious inches below their crotches.
"Damn, I missed." Mileena half joked, which terrified the two men.
"Okay, she is back." Johnny whispered.
"Why are you whispering? She can obviously hear us!" Jax snapped on him.
Mileena ignored the two arguing men and leaned back onto the wall with her arms crossed, pretending that Kitana wasn't there still. It didn't work.
"Is it true Mileena?"
"Yeah he's been gone for awhile; who cares?"
"You do, clearly."
"Don't give me that. If he has more important things to do...he can go do it, I don't care."
"Hmmm, maybe he's with a girl." Kitana prodded.
Kitana noticed Mileena's cheek twitch; a much more tame reaction than expected, but enough to prove her suspicions.
"Maybe." Mileena said with barely contained irritation.
"Give it up Mileena, you like him!" Kitana accused her.
"Do you want me to bite you?"
Jade listened to all them bicker, and some natural intuition in her made her stealthily approach the opposing teams section. She didn't have the ability to turn invisible, but she came about as close as a without that ability could due to her skill. Peeking around the corner, she made sure that Rain and Tanya were nearby. Then she listened closely.
"Scorpion is off to a bad start lord Rain." Tanya said.
"I noticed." Rain replied.
"Its a pity, after I worked so hard to take Jade out of the competition, which was a very clever plan on your part. Truly your reputation as great general is well deserved.
Rain rolled his eyes; he had actually gotten tired of Tanya's brown nosing, as impossible as it seemed.
"Despite this poor start, there is still opportunity for him to come out on top. Even if he doesn't, I still have a trump card that I can play. However, I first need to tie up some loose ends. Go to the others and make sure that our friend is taken care. Permanently."
"Absolutely lord Rain, your every wish is my greatest pleasure to..."
"Now Tanya!"
Jade hugged the wall tighter so that Tanya did not see her as she walked by. Resisting the urge to jump her mortal enemy, Jade quickly returned to her section to relay what she had learned to the others. When she got back, thankfully Jax and Johnny were separated from Liu, Mileena, and Kitana who was rubbing her shoulder which had bite marks on it.
"We've got to go." Jade told them.
"Go where?" Both of them asked.
"I'm pretty sure Rain has done something with Eric, and he has another plan up his sleeve, but this plan apparently relies on Eric being taken care of, permanently."
"That doesn't sound good." Jax stated.
"Definitely not. He ordered Tanya to meet up with the others, I'm guessing Rain's other cronies. We need to follow her."
"Alright let's just get Mileena and..."
"No! I think Mileena might cause things to escalate out of control, I want this to go smoothly."
"If you insist, lead the way Lucky." Johnny said.
"Good lets...wait, Lucky? Kitana is Baby Blue, Mileena is Pinky, where does Lucky come from?"
"You're wearing green, so yeah Lucky. It's an Irish thing."
Jade cocked an eyebrow at him. Irish?
"I guess in this case its an Earthrealm thing, but we don't have time for that. Lets move!" Jax rallied.
Sub Zero wiped more sweat from his brow. If he had been keeping all the sweat he had been wiping away for the last half hour, he would have a gallon of smelly, salty, dirty liquid. He thought karma may have been playing a cruel joke on him; before he had been in a frozen snowy hillside, his ideal location, and now he was trudging up the face of a volcano!
Suddenly he felt and heard a violent rumble in the ground, and then saw flame and molten rock start spewing from the glowing maw.
"Really? An active volcano!" He exclaimed before running.
Bits of molten rock shot out of the top like it were a cannon, and then started coming down like meteors. He had to run in a serpentine pattern to avoid the meteors that were surprisingly accurate. Very accurate actually, if he didn't know any better he would have suspected foul play...
Inside The Volcano
Standing on one of the walkable ledges inside the volcano tube, Scorpion pour more flames down the volcano's throat, added to the inferno far below. He could see the piece of the sphere down below as well, in the belly of the beast if you will. However, an even more pressing matter was at hand. He had seen Sub Zero making his way up the scorched slope of the volcano.
"You throw snowballs at me..." He said while shooting more flames into the inferno.
Like oil spitting out of a pan of cooking bacon, magma shot up out of the throat and hardened into heated meteorites in the air.
"I throw fiery rocks at you!"
Topside
Sub Zero really worked up a sweat now, and it wasn't just because of the heat. He was quickly running out of steam and couldn't keep running like this, but he couldn't turn back now because he saw the lightning bolts shooting out of the volcano's mouth like a beacon. Ending his serpentine pattern he instead started running straight up, with his hands out in front of him. Channeling his ice powers, he made essentially grow out of his hands and make an umbrella shape. He now had a transparent shield over him. A meteor struck the ice umbrella and bounced off, although it did chip away at the shield. Despite that, Sub Zero was content that his shield would hold. He used this security to catch his breath, and resembled a bluish white, oversized turtle crawling up the side of a volcano.
"No matter the injury, no matter the terrain, no matter the adversity, the Lin Kuei always..."
Suddenly a huge volley of white hot meteors shot out and began raining down upon him.
"...Shit!"
Calling upon his reserves of energy, Sub Zero hefted the ice shield open his shoulders and started running again. The extra hot volley smashed into the shield, both cracking it and melting it. His ice was coming apart before his very eyes, encouraging him to move faster. This sudden burst of heat and accuracy was mildly odd...Sub Zero shook his head clear. It wasn't like someone was directing this...
In The Volcano
Scorpion poured a continuous stream of his hellfire into the lava pool, all the while singing along to his favourite song before his death.
"Burn baby burn! Disco inferno..."
Topside
He was so close, but his shield was merely an ice cube of its former self. Sub Zero was almost to the top, his foot was on the lip of the volcano's mouth, and another volley came shooting out, this one arcing at him almost immediately. Sub Zero leaped forward just as his shield was destroyed. He toppled over and was in free fall, but managed to stop himself when he grabbed onto a ledge protruding from the wall. He hefted himself up onto it and took a knee, exhausted. He had escaped the last volley relatively unscathed save for a few singed hairs and...was something burning?
The question may have been stupid, but he didn't care because he grabbed for his ass and was jumping up and down. A piece of a meteor had burned through his pants and was now resting in his nether regions. He fished it out and threw the hot rock out of his sight. The lingering burning sensation felt like the worst rash ever.
"Can't take the heat?" Scorpion asked from a few feet below.
"Really, thats all you got? How unoriginal." Sub Zero rebutted.
Scorpion was cut down in his pride before he even took off.
"I, you...get over here!" The yellow ninja shouted before throwing his spear.
Sub Zero dodged it and the spear got stuck in the rock wall behind him.
"Ha, you missed!"
"Did I?" Scorpion asked rhetorically.
He sent his hellfire traveling up the chain and into the spear, where it then spread into the rock wall and ignited all the cracks in it like glowing veins. An internal combustion blasted the rock apart. Sub Zero was knocked off the ledge and was in free fall again. He created an ice slide in mid air and used it to get around obstacles. He aimed for the piece of the sphere, but the farther he descended, the hotter things got. It got so hot that his constructs melted faster than he could create them, and suddenly his slide broke under his weight and he crashed to the ground. He forced himself to his feet and took uneasy steps towards his goal.
"I guess this is how Frosty felt near the end."
"Get the fuck over here!"
Sub Zero didn't even have time to groan before a chain wrapped around his neck like a lasso and yanked him to the ground. Scorpion dragged him back and kicked him onto his front. Scorpion lifted Sub Zero's head over the pool of lava and then tried to dunk it in, but Sub Zero pushed against it.
"Prepare for a swirly you will never forget!" Scorpion told him.
"Your...trash talk is abysmal." Sub Zero mocked.
"Uh, you will burn?"
"Cliche."
"It's time to turn up the heat?"
"Nope."
"I'm going to melt your face off, then let you lift your head up before mercilessly stomping it back down!"
"Now you aren't even trying."
Despite his criticism, Sub Zero couldn't keep this up. He had to do something. Something crazy. He dug deep and called upon all the power in his cryomancer blood. He willed his power to come back to him despite his exhaustion. He thought about Liu Kang and Kitana, and how much rested upon his shoulders.
His breath came out of his mask as a frost ridden mist again.
He thought about Jade, who had broken through his cold and hard exterior, as he hoped he had done to her.
Ice began to form on his arms.
Finally, he thought about that kiss, that glorious kiss. If those five seconds were that good, just imagine...
His arms became encased his frigid ice. Sub Zero lifted his fists and plunged them into the lava. Instead of having his arms melted off, the lava froze solid. Now no longer needing to worry, he managed to throw Scorpion off of him. Instead of attacking, he bee lined for the piece of the sphere, with Scorpion right on his heels. Both men dove for the prize at the same time, and both landed a hand on it. Their fight had been turned into a tug o' war.
"There...can be only one." Scorpion stated.
"Are you serious?"
Neither of them anticipated what happened next. Steam had built up underneath the ice. It broke through the layer of ice and launched the two of them up and out of the volcano and into the air. Neither of them relinquished their hold on the object of their desire, not even while airborne.
"Let go!"
"You let go!"
The piece of the sphere overcharged and the both of them were teleported somewhere else. The Elder Gods, being in tune with all mystical happenings, were able to make out their quarrelling even when they were mere atoms being hurled across time and space.
Jade, Jax, and Johnny had followed Tanya like a team of special operatives...
"The J Team!" Johnny blurted out.
"The what?" Jade asked.
"The three of us, we're the J Team."
"Dude, shut up." Jax said.
"What? That could be a good movie."
"We don't have time for this Johnny, Tanya just went through those doors." Jade told them.
"What's our plan of attack?" Jax asked.
"You two will charge in. As you open the doors, I'll stealthily approach via the ceiling."
"Wait, it sounds like we are going to get the brunt of whatever is waiting for us." Johnny suspected.
"I'm sure two big strong men like you can handle anything." Jade said in an over exaggerated damsel in distress voice.
"You're damn right we can Lucky!" Johnny said confidently.
Jax just shook his head at the actor's gullibility. The three of them took positions, Jax took point. He counted to three with his hand, and on three he and Johnny charged the doors, steeling themselves for whatever instruments of torture may be waiting for them.
On the Other Side
"Go fish." Kano told to Reiko.
"Hold on a minute, you've been telling me that for the whole game."
"So?"
"So I've asked you for every card in the deck!"
"Nope, I don't think so."
Tanya sat in her chair and looked down at the two men sitting on the ground condescendingly.
"He's been lying the entire game Reiko, you fool." She said.
Kano threw his cards down.
"Damn you really are a little fink aren't you? No wonder Jade wants to kick your ass so badly." Kano told her.
Reptile leaned against the door, well away from the squabbling group. He had a raging headache. For some reason, he started reflecting on his long life. So many years of serving others, so many years of fighting for causes that weren't his own, all for the sake of trying to restore a race that had died out before his birth, a civilization he did not know save for his own body. Perhaps he needed to stop living for others, stop living for some impossible dream. Maybe he should start living for himself...
Suddenly Johnny and Jax broke the doors down and crushed Reptile beneath them. They didn't realize, and walked right over him. Kano, Reiko, and Tanya all jumped to their feet.
"Moo cem fi mo! (You came for me)" Eric said.
"What are you doing here? Do you worms dare to attack accomplices of Lord Rain?" Tanya asked them with confidence.
Someone tapped her shoulder from behind, and she unwisely turned.
"Why yes, we do dare." Jade said before smashing Tanya's own chair over her head.
The chair was destroyed and Tanya fell to the ground, unconscious.
"What the.." Kano and Reiko both said after turning.
Jax and Johnny took advantage of their distraction. Jax grabbed Kano from behind and dropped him onto his knee, straining his spine, and then followed up by bending Kano across his shoulders, almost breaking his back in two. Johnny did the splits and delivered three uppercuts to Reiko's groin, which still had the diaper like cast over it, and did an elbow drop onto his back. Both men were incapacitated.
"Whooo! The J Team baby, I love it when a plan comes together." Johnny said happily.
"Does anyone else get the feeling that this was too easy?" Jax asked.
"I don't care, it felt good...really good." Jade said, sounding oddly sadistic.
"Okay...maybe we should get our friend down." Jax suggested.
As they went to work about that, Reptile lifted himself out of from under the destroyed doors. Something within him snapped. He had fallen from great heights, eaten disgusting and unbearably spicy food, and bean burned by fireballs. He had been smashed, bashed, and crushed...for the last time. Silently fuming, Reptile stomped towards the J Team, not even bothering to cloak himself. As Eric was lowered to the ground, before he could be freed he noticed Reptile coming up behind his rescuers.
"Luus ut!"
"What he say?" Johnny asked.
"Luus ut!" Eric said while gesturing to Reptile with his head.
The J Team turned and found Reptile just casually walking up to them. Naturally, they underestimated their situation.
"I got this." Jax told the others.
He walked up to Reptile and grabbed him by his collar.
"Gotcha!" He stated confidently.
Reptile's hand wrapped around his throat, choking the air out of him.
"No...I got you!"
Reptile lifted Jax off his feet and slammed him head first into the stone ground. Johnny attempted to come to his aid and performed a shadow kick. Reptile put his free hand forward and caught Johnny's foot, stopping his kick in its tracks. He pushed his foot away and Johnny did the splits, attempting to attack Reptile's groin. Reptile merely stopped Johnny's fist with his foot.
"You aren't getting away with that anymore."
Reptile lifted Jax into the air and slammed him down onto Johnny, who was much smaller. With those two dealt with, Reptile turned his attention to Jade.
"It seems you've finally found your spine Reptile." Jade taunted.
"And I'm about to find yours." Reptile replied.
He ran at her, and Jade started making quick swipes and jabs at him with her staff. He dodged all of them and wrestled her staff from her.
"This toothpick annoys me." He broke her staff in half over his knee.
Reptile held each half in his hands like batons and attacked Jade; two strikes to the stomach, one to the leg to bring her to the knees, and then he hit he upwards with both of them at once. Jade flipped over from the impact.
Reptile tossed the halves aside and took a look at his handiwork. He was compelled to roar out loud, and he did. He even beat his fists against his chest as he did so.
"I feel so great, so powerful, like I can, like I can..." He started to slip his hand into his pants, all that adrenaline was going somewhere.
"What, the hell, are you doing?" A revitalized Kano asked.
Whrrrp!
Reptile put his hands behind his back hastily as Reiko and Tanya got to their feet as well.
"I was subduing our attackers." Reptile said.
"Subdue? More like ra..."
"Enough! Not only are we going to kill this pathetic little guard who knows too much, we are going to kill all Liu Kang and Kitana's little minions too!" Tanya stated.
"All of them? I think you are forgetting about somebody."
All four of them, as well as the J Team turned to the source of the voice.
"Misless Mevanna!" Eric said excitedly.
Mileena strutte forward like she owned the place, which by some technicalities she did.
"Did you idiots really think I didn't hear about your little plan?" She asked to the J Team.
"And you, this is where you've been all this time? You are even more of a shitty guard than I thought." She scolded Eric.
"In case you haven't noticed sweetie, it's four against one." Kano said while drawing his knives.
"I know, it's not fair for you."
"What did you plan on doing when you came down here silly girl?" Tanya asked.
Mileena narrowed her eyes at the comment.
"First, I planned on dealing all four of you some uniquely horrendous pain. Second, I was going to take all of my friends here back up to see the end of this stupid Olympiad. Third and finally, once Rain loses, I planned on personally kicking him and all of you out of Edenia and into whatever realm I thought was suitable."
"You talk a big game Mileena, but you are in over your head. Here's my plan, after I give you an acid bath, I'm finally going to devour that snivelling little man chained up there." Reptile said.
Still clinging to his defeat of the J Team, Reptile shot his tongue out at Mileena, intending to rip her head off. Instead, Mileena caught his tongue in her hand. Reptile tried to retract it, but Mileena held it firmly in place.
"Let me make this perfectly clear to you, to everyone actually. Without my permission, no one, and I mean no one is going to be putting their mouth on him except me!"
"Huh?" Eric asked, dumbfounded.
Kano ran at Mileena with both his knives. He tried slashing her, but she parried it with one of her sai. She managed to fend him off with one weapon, knocking one of his knives out of his hand. She ducked under another one of his slashes and stabbed her sai into his foot, and then quickly did the same with the other.
"Ah! Crikey!" Kano exclaimed.
Mileena grabbed his hand that still held a knife and started wrapping Reptile's tongue around it. After several circles, she took Kano's knife and stabbed it through Reptile's tongue and into Kano's hand, pinning the two together. Both parties yelled in pain.
"Be a dear and hold that for me." Mileena said.
Reiko came running at her. She tucked and rolled under his feet, making him trip. While he started getting to his feet, Mileena put her boot to his ass. Reiko almost toppled over the side and into the acid pool below, but he grabbed a hold of Kano's free hand, not that Kano was trying to save him. Mileena limboed under Reptile's tongue and ran her finger along the length of it as she walked towards Kano, despite the spit. Kano desperately tried to move but he was completely immobilized, and Reiko's weight pulled painfully at the blades stuck in his feet. Mileena crouched down placed her hands on the hilts of each sai.
"No, no, no, please, have a heart!" Kano pleaded.
Mileena laughed like the very notion was a joke.
"Have a nice trip!" She said before pulling her sais out of his feet.
With Kano no longer being anchored to the ground, Reiko pulled him, and the two of them toppled over the side. Reptile was being dragged along as well, and Mileena waved to him as he past her. He had to crouch like a frog to stop himself from being pulled over the edge, but he felt like his brain was about to yanked out of his head. His tongue was stretched to the limit, and Kano and Reiko panicked while dangling dangerously close to the skin dissolving acid.
"Don't let go! Don't let go!" Reiko pleaded to Kano.
"Lit gu! Lit gu! (Let go)" Reptile shouted from above.
While the three men were otherwise occupied, Mileena approached Tanya with a particularly sinister demeanour.
"Now now Mileena, can't we talk about this?" Tanya asked fearfully.
Mileena cracked her knuckles and snickered.
"I've got something special in mind for you, you won't be able to talk."
Five Minutes Later
Tanya opened her eyes groggily. She wasn't sure what happened, Mileena was coming at her and then she must have blacked out. She realized with a startle that she was in the air! She realized this because she saw the J Team, Mileena, and Eric the guard looking up at her. Wait, the guard was unchained and didn't have a gag? She made another startling realization, or rather a horrifying one. She had the gag in her mouth, and her limbs were hogtied behind her with the chain. That wasn't the worst part though. No, the worst part was the, foreign objects. Namely, both halves of Jade's staff.
"Mmmm, kinky." Mileena commented.
Jax whistled in awe, Eric was slack jawed, Jade look oddly satisfied. Johnny didn't know what to think.
"Wow, remind me to never piss you off Pinky." Johnny said.
"You are doing it right now." Mileena told him.
Johnny took a step back. A big step.
"You...right up her...did you really need to use both pieces?" Eric asked.
"I didn't need to, but what hell, right?"
"I like it." Jade stated.
"Sub Zero is in for a hell of a time then." Johnny said under his breath.
"We should get back, Liu Kang and Kitana will be missing us." Jax said.
"What about all of them?" Eric asked.
"They don't look like they are going anywhere." Jax told him. One by one they began to file out of the acid chamber.
"Eric, I want to know everything you do. I want to know what was so important that Rain had you locked up like this." Jade said.
"Yeah, yes of course general."
Johnny and Jade were the first to leave, and Mileena was going to be third before Eric caught up to her.
"Mistress Mileena, I just wanted to thank you for saving me. If it weren't for you I would have...well you know what they wanted to do to me."
Mileena turned on him with some fire in her eyes, taking him off guard.
"Don't let it happen again." She told him fiercely.
He didn't know what to say, so he just nodded. Mileena then showed a softer side suddenly, she put her arm around him. Uncertain, but thinking it worth the risk, Eric put his arm around her as well. To his relief, she didn't try to kill him.
"And enough with the mistress crap already, save that for my mother and sister." She told him softly.
Jax brought up the rear, and felt he needed to stand the doors back up again, if only to hide the what had been done in this room. He spared one more look and Reptile, Kano, Reiko and Tanya before closing the doors.
"Damn." He muttered.
A portal opened and Sub Zero and Scorpion fell through it. Both of them were exhausted, and definitely looked the part.
"It's...mine."
"No...mine."
Both of them suddenly realized that neither of them had 'it'. Sub Zero checked his belt a noticed the piece he already had was gone too. The two pieces of the sphere lay next to each other on the ground a few feet away. The ground looked familiar...
"What is this?" Scorpion asked out loud.
They had been transported back to Edenia, back to the arena. The spectators loudly talked amongst one another, and the lightning screens disappeared.
"Welcome back!" Raiden greeted them.
"Back? Why are we back?" Scorpion asked.
"Indeed Raiden, I thought we had three pieces to retrieve?" Sub Zero asked.
"Oh you do, you do..." Raiden snapped his fingers.
A section in the arena floor, a large section slid away. They heard the sound of machinery, large gears mostly, followed by a deep and loud growling sound.
"What was that?" Sub Zero asked.
"It sounds...big." Scorpion stated.
A platform was rising to the top of the hole in the floor. The creature standing upon it cast a shadow over them, a huge shadow, a shadow larger than it's forty foot tall frame. Strapped to the creature's head was the third and final piece of the sphere.
"You can have that one." Sub Zero told Scorpion while he constructed his Kori blade.
"You are too kind." Scorpion told Sub Zero sarcastically while drawing both of his Mugai Ryu.
The ground shook with each lumbering step the Tormentor took. It bent down and let a deafening roar, spewing slobber and guts all over the place.
"It's time for some big game hunting." Scorpion proclaimed.
"That is...you know what, fuck it, it'll do." Sub Zero said.
Too Be Continued
Over eleven thousand words in a chapter; thats a personal record. As you may be able to tell, the end is upon us. Eric, who may hold the secret to ending Rain's plans, has been rescued by Mileena and the J Team. Rain's minions have all been done in by Mileena's twisted head. Also, Scorpion isn't as eloquent as he would like to be. When you have a bad ass attitude like that, who needs eloquence? Read, review, enjoy, and stay tuned for the conclusion to Meet the Edenians.