A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the extremely late update! I think I have this eye problem, so my folks wouldn't let me be near by PC! Sorry! I think the next update will be here by Sunday! Hopefully! Hope you arent mad at me!

CHAPTER IX:

The Nether ship held many secrets. It had secret doorways and passages unlocked only when certain words were praised. These words were only to be spoken once . . . Kung Lao came across one such door. His search for other fighters was still on. He found no other living being boarding this mystical ship . . . rather than him and the five other chosen ones.

By now, his current problem was to go to the other side of this wooden door. Kung placed his burning lantern towards the door to see the rest of it. It seemed that the door was locked by a huge locking mechanism, although the invention was old . . . the door still remained locked. Maybe it has remained locked for centuries or even milleniums. That is how old the Nether ship was.

Kung held the metal lock in his hands, studying its ancient rule . . . one strange thing was that the lock had no keyhole to put a key in. He tried yanking it, nothing happened. He tried pulling it, breaking it, smashing it with all of his strength . . . but yet the lock remained where it was.

"Can't open a lock eh?" Agent Kenshi's voice hurled out from behind the monk.

"How could you tell?" Kung asked, he nearly jumped at the sudden warning.

"I may be blind but . . . I can still feel the movement in the air surrounding me."

"So you can see with a sixth sense?"

"No, I am blind. I can sense everything that's happening around me . . . even that now you are scratching the lock in irritation." He was right, again the blind man was right. With a slight 'hmm' Kung Lao proceeded his task on unlocking the door, amazed as he might be of the blind man.

"So, you wanna help me out?"

"Ah . . . sure." As Kenshi started walking, it seemed that he was dragging his left leg along with him, as if it was broken or cut. Though 'cut' was most likely it, blood was stained in his black leather pants.

"What happened . . .?" The monk asked, pointing his eyes towards the blind man's leg.

"Where?" Came the response from Kenshi. A surprise to the eyes of Kung Lao, he thought that Kenshi would be able to see, sense, Kung's pointing.

"What happened to your leg?"

"Oh that! I . . . got hurt while trying to capture a Red Dragon member, he jumped into this ship while I was chasing him."

Smiling, "That sounds familiar," The young monk stated. The familiarity was that this thing happened with Sonya Blade on the first tournament . . . decades ago. Although Kung wasn't around then, he heard all the stories from Liu Kang on how he and rest of the fighters entered the world of Mortal Kombat.

~@~

Back on the upper side of the Nether ship, where the fighters have settled a location as their resting spot until they reach the island. Or wherever they were supposed to go.

"Isn't anyone sailing this dump?" Sonya Blade's ranting continued. The others found a food-storage nearby, Jax and the teenager were trying to cook up a meal for the group for dinner.

"I dunno, last time I saw, this 'dump' was controlled by the main huncho here . . . well by magic that is." The actor Johnny Cage noted, he wasn't much of a cook anyway. He preferred to just eat and not work.

"Magic?" Nein blurted out while chopping a potato with a battle knife.

"Yeah magic! You guys won't believe this but I saw that no one was at the controls!" Johnny practically screamed with his lungs. The only light that the 4 was getting came from the fire from the lanterns, a charge light, and the fire that was used to cook the food. The blue moonlight did reflect on the ship, but it was outside. They were sheltering in a room descended from the main part of the ship with a small flight of stairs.

"Hey Sonya, y'know, in MK: DA the people really liked you character!" Johnny bragged once more, shifting the current topic to his movies.

"In your so-called movie you showed that I was a helpless Damsel in Distress!"

"A ha! I knew you saw that movie! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!" This time, Jax did the whining. His metal arms were removed and placed on the side. The taste of metal-in-food was something the group didn't want at least tonight.

"Am I surrounded by whinnies?" Blade asked to God, and left up the stairs towards the outside area of the ship.

"Yeah! See that! She's calling you two whinnies!" Said Cage,

"Dude you are surrounding her too y'know." His bodyguard informed, rubbing his nose.

"Noooh!" Johnny's voice took a long 'ooo' tone and continued "I'm standing next-to her! Not surrounding!" with that, even the actor left up the stairs, following the apple of his eyes.

"Does that make sense?" Nein asked to his sort of co-cooker Major Briggs.

"No. It doesn't" The black-man responded, not taking his eyes off his side of potatoes.

~@~

Both Kung Lao and Kenshi had finally opened the door, with much effort being made, the result they were to find was cruel than they could imagine. Kung aimed his lantern up inside the unopened room, making his vision a bit clearer. Kenshi on the other hand, needed to sight at all.

Old broken bones and skulls were scattered across the small 14/13 feet room. Cobwebs and dust filled the air and every corner of the hidden crypt. On the middle was a coffin.

Kung put his lantern on one side to read the words written on the coffin in ancient Chinese language. "Here lies the dead body of the once eroded Dragon King." Kung Lao spoke aloud, his voice shattering into fear. He knew too well what and whom the Dragon King was.

"The Dragon King . . ."

"We should not open it."

"Yes . . . we shouldn't."

And with that, the two warriors left the sacred room the way they came, locking the door on their way out. However, what they missed to see was on the sides of the coffin . . . a moving shadow emerged and followed them outside. This shadow from the depths of hell was known to be Noob, Noobseibot.

~@~

"Hey guys dinner is ready you can – oh my!" Nein Lee squeezed his eye shut to see his boss Johnny Cage kissing the general of the OIA Sonya Blade.

"What?" Johnny said, finally breaking off from Sonya's lips.

"Ah . . . nothing! I just came to say that dinner is ready and you guys . . . can come . . . whenever you want. Sorry!" The teenager left as quickly as he came, blushing all the way.

"Like he doesn't do these back home." Johnny complained. His arms were grabbing Blade by her back and her hands pulling his neck.

"Just shut up and shut up!" She ordered and pulled his face back onto hers.

Moments later, as the two came downstairs at the 'table' both Jackson Briggs and Nein Lee were serving them dinner.

"Wonder where Lao and Agent Kenshi are?" Jax asked to the rest of the group, slumping a nice big fat greasy splat of mashed potato on Johnny's plate, which was more like his face cause it was contorted to see such a fatty food served with a fatty guy like Jax.

"Hope they weren't doing what Johnny and Ms. Blade were doing! Ha, ha, ha, ha . . ." Nein's good laugh came to an end when he saw the angry glare at the general's face. And he certainly wouldn't wanna bug her again.

There was a door on the side from which both Kung Lao and Kenshi arrived, their faces were as concerned as of when they left at first.

"Hey," Kung sat on one of the small wooden chairs, he was used to eating on small tables.

"What's that? Smells good," Kenshi noted smiling at the smoke emerging from a pot on the 'stove'.

"Thanks! Made it myself, its carrot and cheese with crab and corn- soup." Explained Jax, "There are some potato chips on the table! Help your self." Nein ended.

"Don't you mean CORN-SOUP and SMASHED potatoes?" Another complain was made by the actor and producer Johnny Cage.

"Look beside you genius!" Kung pointed at the bowl of chips sitting near Johnny's elbow. The ignorance at-last formed a smile on Sonya's face.

The amount of food they had on the storage would last them 7-days. Whoever placed it there really was a friend rather than an enemy. And speaking of enemies, the shadow was still there, near Jack's shadow, making the creature from hell invisible.

TBC