We eventually arrive safely back to Cole's house, after leaving Jax behind to fight Sub-Zero. When I pulled in, parked, and shut the car off, everyone proceeded to enter in the house, except me. I was starting to have plenty of questions in my mind: Why did Sub-Zero attacked us? Is the marking meant for a fighting match? Would Jax be alright? Are we participating a tournament?

After a few minutes of remaining in the car, I exited out of the car and entered the house. Katie and Allison were waiting for me. I turned to see Cole was trying to have his daughter go to sleep. It became certain that they're no longer safe. I told my sister to grab her things together and bring her stuffed rabbit with her. I began packing my belongings also. I even had my handgun holstered in the holster and secured it around my pants.

"Are you sure, Katie has to come?" Allison asked me.

"I'm afraid so." I answered. "If they're targeting her too, she's vulnerable."

"I understand, Thomas. But it's been sometime that you two have been on your own."

"I know." I could see what she's getting about. "However, if she has the mark and stays here, all three of you will be in danger. I'll be able to protect her, without putting you and your daughter in harms way."

Cole than came out of Emily's bedroom, along with Katie, as she was already to go. "She's finally asleep." Cole spoke.

Katie nodded at me, as she's ready. I finished gathering my belongings and joined my sister. Cole was the last person to join us. He spoke with his wife to tell her that he has to join us.

"You'll be safe here, Ally. You heard what Jax and Thomas said. That fighter is hunting people with a marking. It's after us. If the three of us stayed here, it'll show up and kill us all. I'm not going to let that happen."

Allison looked at me and I nodded my head. I knew better that her and their daughter would be safe. "Jax could have killed it. I..."

"Allison. Jax is a good fighter, but battling Sub-Zero, he held back for us to escape. If something happens to Jax, he saved and gave us the opportunity to escape." I told her. "And don't worry, I'll look after your husband. We'll try to let you know of our arrival at Gary."

She nodded her head and kissed Cole. Followed by a whisper to his ear... she would have told him to be safe. After their goodbye; Cole, Katie, and I got into the car and depart for Gary to meet Sonya.


The road was dark, empty, but we knew how to get there. Katie was asleep in the backseat, while Cole and I were in front and I was driving. During the first few minutes of the driving, it was quiet. Neither one of us said a word, until we're getting near.

"Alright, tell me everything you know about this marking." Cole than spoke.

"Well, at first... when I was working one day, clouds went totally Armageddon like. Souls were being taken from people's bodies. Until someone in the clouds by the name of Raiden, told me I was one of the chosen to defend Earth."

"To fight?"

"No. It was more to defend Earth. There was no tournament when I came to the rabbits' world. There were already fighters for Earthrealm present. What we did soon after, was that we warned them that they were next. Apparently, they were still invaded when we attempted to escape."

"Any of you guys survived?"

"Yes. We than journeyed to find a new warren. Until Fiver found a new home at the downs. Made the warren, and soon after defended it from Outworld and their allied warren at the time, Efrafa." I went on. "On the other fighters, we may encounter are not even from this world. They're from another realm. Like another world to say. Not like from outer space. They teleport themselves through portals. That's how they came to our world and start killing people to get to us with the marking."

"But now... how did you get yours?" he asked.

"I was battling Shang Tsung. He was a sorcerer from Outworld. He was responsible for murdering someone, who I grew very close to. We than engaged into combat, until he morphed into a cobra and I into a wolf. We than fought like animals, until I was able to rip him into shreds. During our battle, he bit me. However, within the bite mark, was the dragon marking. Neither the warriors I fought along side with had no clue, until Nightwolf stated that I was chosen to fight in a tournament."

"This one." Cole summed it up.

"I suppose so." I nodded, as I than slowed down to see the sign of the address. 806 W. Washington Ave. "We're here." There was no sign for a entrance or a gate. We than pulled our car back near towards the fencing to jump through there. When we're close to the fence, we parked the car and turned off the car. I than gently shook Katie to wake up.

"Are we there yet?" she asked.

"We're. You need a lift?" I asked her, because I could tell she's still a bit sleepy.

She nodded her head and I picked up, after we grabbed our belongings. Cole climbed up first on the hood of the car, and than ran and jump over the fence. When me and Katie got up on the hood. I advised her to hold on, as we tossed our belongings to the other side. When she held firmly tight, I ran and jumped over the fence from the car, to a perfect landing on the ground. As we walked, there were mostly boats that were just parked on the ground or left there. We even heard

"You sure this is the right place?" I asked Cole.

"Jax said she was here." Cole answered.

A woman came out of nowhere and started attacking Cole. Quickly, I was able to pull out my M1911 when she held him down and flashed him with a flashlight. I was able to put off the safety and aimed my firearm at her.

"Stand down! We're looking for Sonya Blade! Jax sent us!" I exclaimed, as my finger was near the trigger.

The woman turned around and noticed me, pointing my weapon at her. She than looked back at Cole and stepped back, while still brightening at him. "Where is it?"

"Where's what?" Cole asked.

"The marking!"

He lowered his lowered his sweater and shirt collar to show the woman the marking. She turned and brightened me and Katie. "And you?"

I showed her my marking, as I instructed Katie to show hers. Katie turned and raised her head up a bit to reveal her mark.

"A child? Why is she have the mark?!"

"An accident. A self-defense. She didn't mean too. We're hoping we could find someone to help her remove the mark." I explained to the woman.

She turned off the flashlight and composed herself to trust the three of us. "I'm Sonya."

"What's your rank?" I asked her.

"My rank? Why are you asking me for this?" she grew somewhat impatient.

"I know you and Jax are in The Army. He's a Major of U.S. Special Forces. I'm only PFC, Private First Class in the Army... ma'am." I started to have my military attitude coming back.

She nodded. "In that case, Private... I'm Lieutenant Blade. You?"

I gave her a salute. "Private First Class Thomas, ma'am."

She quickly saluted back at me and nodded back. "Alright, come with me, quickly."


The three of us began to follow Sonya Blade, as she's leading us to her home. She turned to see it was just the three of us and no sight of Jax. "Apparently Jax hasn't checked in. Where is he?"

"He stayed behind to fight Sub-Zero." I answered.

We than entered her mobile home and the close the door behind us. She grabbed her phone, from a lamp stand, and attempted to message Jax for his whereabout. Meanwhile, Cole gazed at the pictures of Sonya on the wall, even one of them was her military picture in her uniform. "You guys in military, like Thomas?" Cole asked.

"Yes, in Special Forces." she answered.

At one point, as I was also looking at the pictures, I started having blurred flashbacks that seemed unclear. It was around the time I was being released from the Taliban. When I was being escorted back, there was a woman and a man, both whom to be Special Forces, were taking me back to an airbase. The blurred flashback was cut short from Sonya opening a secret door, but it appeared to be a storage unit hatch. The three of us were gazed around the surroundings.

"Holy... what is this?" Cole asked.

"We needed a safe place to run our operation." Sonya answered.

"The Special Forces chose you guys for this?" I asked.

"Yes."

"Well, this looks, uh, pretty safe." Cole complimented. "Looks like you're ready for anything."

We than entered further to see the works that her and Jax were researching. There were news articles, story articles, pictures, even images that seems to be regarding about our marking.

"This is where we keep all of what we've learned about the dragon markings." Sonya stated.

"How did you guys start?" Katie asked shyly.

"Seven years ago, we first started learning about it." Sonya than walked to her table, as she continues to show us all the research that she has done. "Jax and I were on a mission in Brazil to capture a wanted fugitive. When we got there, the target had superhuman abilities."

"Abilities? Like what?"

"I wasn't sure what kind ability exactly, but he tore through our unit in seconds. The fugitive had the same marking as you three do." Sonya continued, as she answered Katie's question. "When Jax finally took the fugitive down, the dragon marking transferred directly onto his skin."

"Just like the markings got onto me and Katie." I found some similarity on how the markings were transferred. We than stood in front of the research wall that Sonya and Jax found.

"I spent years trying to figure out what it means. It seems throughout history, different cultures all over the world, referenced a great tournament. My research shows that there's realms and species that we didn't even know existed. That dragon markings you three have... they signify that you three were chosen to fight for Earth."

"For Earthrealm?" I questioned.

"Yes. It's an invitation... to fight something known... as Mortal Kombat." she than pointed at an image that appeared to be within a ancient text or from another realm's text."

"Is it like the one we battled?" Katie whispered.

"No. What we encountered was more of invasion than a tournament." I answered back to her with a whisper.

Cole looked back at Sonya. "Did you make that last part up?" He chuckled that got my attention. "It just kind of sounds like you made it up. I mean, and look, they misspelled it."

"Cole!" I exclaimed.

"I'm sorry, it seems it was just made up and hard for me to believe."

"Hey, you listen to me." Sonya broke it up, before turning towards Cole. "I think there's another tournament coming. That's why you three are here. That is why Jax and I were been tracking you guys, because we need to find every last champion before it's too late."

"Oh... Thomas." Katie seemed bit frazzled for what she's about to be involved.

"Actually, Blade, there's just two of us." I spoke up for my sister.

"Two?" Sonya looked back at me with a confused look.

"Yes. Because Katie is young and she can't be part of this. She's only a child."

She sighed. "I know, but no matter what circumstances, she's part of it."

I looked back my sister, as she came close to me, out of fright. "What if there's something we could do, to transfer the marking? Without combating each other?"

Sonya shrugged. "I don't know. All we know is that a marking was transferred after the previous champion had and was killed." I sadly sighed. "And FYI, Private First Class, most of them are dead already."

Cole looked back at the research wall, as I could figure that the other champions were dead, due to being picked off by ambush. "It's the Outworld fighters. They're probably picking off champions of Earthrealm, one by one, so no one could compete. The three of us survived the ambush, thanks to Major Briggs. Hopefully, though, he could be able to get out of his own ambush alive."

Sonya nodded. "He will." She than walked back to another table, where she had her laptop there. "There's more to this. I know it. Even for you Cole. I swear to God, I'm gonna get to the bottom of this."

Oddly, I was able to find Nightwolf's face on a research article. Perhaps there was another person by the name of Nightwolf lived years ago and may even had a marking on himself. There were other images and/or articles were mentioned. I saw an image of a Japanese artwork that showed Scorpion or Hanzo Hasashi was there. It was perhaps another Hanzo Hasashi that lived long time ago. It was that image that drew Cole into it lot more than I do. He even had moments that he was still, before waking back up. Something that might have to do with his marking, regarding about Hanzo.

"Thomas, there's Hazel!" Katie exclaimed and pointed at the research wall.

"What?"

"There's Hazel and Woundwart! Another with Bigwig and Woundwart. And you!" she exclaimed once more that I went back to look at the wall. When I looked at the images of those three rabbits. There was an story article from an eyewitness stating that he, his warren, and a few humans, fought off against Efrafa and Outworld. The flashbacks of our battle started coming back. Including seeing Holly's, untimely, demise, with Hyzenthlay screaming for him. Even at one point, I saw the souls that were calling for me.

Thomas!

Thomas!

Free us!

Thomas, free us! Please!

He must be stopped!

At one point, I hear The Black Rabbit of Inle's voice. "Defeat The Human Sorcerer."