Chapter Seven - The Closeness
A week passed since the neighborhood terrorists have been captured thanks to the Special Forces agents. Now peace has been brought back to the neighborhood.
Jax said there at his desk in his office of the Special Forces base. He rubbed his eyes with his hands as he thought back on last week's events. He was glad to have captured the terrorizing gang and that the neighborhood is safe. It was when he and the other agents realized that Alex was missing. He could've sent out his squads to search for her, but Kenshi had insisted that he would go look for her and that he and the other agents should take care of the rest of the business that was going on. Jax wanted to protest after a few seconds of thinking, but Kenshi was already on his way to look for Alex.
Jax and Sonya sent their units back to the base to question all of the gang members who were arrested. Jax and Sonya stayed behind and waited for Kenshi and Alex to return…
After what seemed like a long time, Jax was just about to go out to search when Sonya spotted Kenshi emerging from an alley nearby with Alex in his arms.
The two agents ran over to them. "Alex," said Sonya. "Is she all right?"
Alex looked up at her. "I'm all right Sonya. I almost got killed, but I'm all right."
"Damn," Jax replied. "Do you need to go to the hospital?"
"No, I'm fine, I just need some rest," Alex insisted. She looked up at Kenshi. "Thanks for the ride."
"No problem," Kenshi answered and put Alex back on her feet. Alex wobbled a little as soon as Kenshi let her go. He and Jax caught her before she fell.
"Yeah, you do need some rest," Jax said. "What happened back there?"
"One of the men managed to grab my gun and he was just about to kill me," Alex told them. She smiled. "Then Kenshi came and saved me just in time."
Jax and Sonya looked at each other. Then Sonya turned back to Alex with a devilish grin. "Anything else happened back there?"
Kenshi and Alex both immediately blushed. "Umm…" Kenshi said.
"We kind of kissed if you want to know that badly," Alex finished while rolling her eyes.
Jax grinned. "That's cool, just don't show too much affections in front of General White. Fraternization isn't exactly the best thing to do in the military, but at least Kenshi's a free agent so you should be good. And don't worry… you two aren't the only ones who have affections for someone." He turned to Sonya.
Sonya narrowed her eyes at him. "Are you talking about Johnny Cage again?"
"Of course," Jax replied, his grin devilish. "Who else would I be talking about?"
"There's nothing going on between us," Sonya insisted with a growl. "Besides, I haven't seen him since our fight against Shinnok."
"Well, he's probably looking at himself in the mirror saying, 'I'm beautiful' right now anything," Jax said with a laugh.
"Ha, ha," Sonya replied with a roll of her eyes.
"Um," Alex said. "Shouldn't we be going back to the base?"
Jax laughed a little. "Hey! It's my job to say that. Sure, let's go."
Jax smirked to himself from that thought. Then, present time came back to him as he looked down at his paper work.
He leaned back in his chair and stretched out his metal arms back. 'I really need a break from this,' Jax thought. Then, he spotted a folder on the corner of his desk. He knew that it contained records on all the agents involved with the OIA including himself.
Out of boredom, Jax leaned forward, reached for the folder, and brought it towards him. He opened the folder up and immediately saw a picture of him from five years ago, back when he had hair on his head and a small mustache.
'I've got to get that picture changed,' Jax thought. He looked at his profile. All that needed was a change in his weight.
He flipped the page back and saw Sonya's picture, which was recently updated. Then, he flipped the page again and saw Cyrax's picture. Not too much was revealed about him, like his real name, but it did state that he was from a country in Africa and lived there until he joined the Lin Kuei.
Jax then decided to contact Cyrax since he hasn't heard from him all day. He reached over to his radio and turned it on. "Jax to Cyrax, come in Cyrax."
A second later, he heard a static voice say, "Cyrax here."
"How is the operation currently going?" Jax asked.
"It's quiet where I am right now... too quiet," Cyrax said. "I just woke up from my recharge. I'm in a forest right now."
"A forest?" Jax said, one of his eyebrows arched up. "Isn't that the forest with the-"
"AH!" Cyrax cried out. "A tree just yawned right in front of me!"
"Figured," Jax sighed. "Just stay away from them, they can whip you pretty good with their branches if they don't eat you first."
"Thanks for the warning," Cyrax replied. "Well, I'm signing off now, I'll contact you in a few hours. Cyrax out."
"Later." Jax placed his radio back on the desk. 'Too quiet, huh? That's never a good thing.'
Jax returned to the records that were lying out in front of him. He picked them up again and flipped the page. Alex's picture was there. He looked at her profiles. She grew up in Florida and was the only daughter of a respected military General. She had enlisted at age twenty-two after attending college and receiving a Bachelor's degree in world history. She had served for ten years before joining Special Forces.
He turned the page again and saw Kenshi's picture. He wasn't surprised at all that most of the facts only say 'unknown,' even his age and origin like Cyrax. Jax guessed that by his complexion, he had to be in his mid- thirties and of Eurasian descent.
He turned the page one more time and saw Hsu Hao's profile. He was a Mongolian man who served in the Chinese Secret Military. He was only here to help the Special Forces eliminate the remaining members of the Black Dragon, but Sonya had insisted that he helped out with the OIA for the current investigation of Outworld since he did well with their last investigation.
Jax shook his head as he closed the folder. He still had a bad feeling about him…
Kenshi flipped through the channels of the TV in the lounge with the remote control after finishing his dinner in the cafeteria. He was surprised that he didn't sense Alex there, but perhaps she had an early dinner or she will have dinner later.
He listened to the TV as he slowly flipped through the channels. Nothing interesting was on so he decided to shut the TV off. That's when he heard someone coming towards him from behind.
"Who's there?" he asked, his head tilted towards the footsteps. A second later, he felt someone touch his shoulders and the person sat next to him on the couch.
Kenshi smirked then. "Alex."
"Hey," Alex replied. "Sorry I wasn't at dinner, I wasn't really hungry. Sonya said I would find you here."
"It's all right," Kenshi said.
He felt Alex wrapping her arms around him sending chills up his spine. "How was your day?"
Kenshi shrugged as he placed his hands on her hips. "A little boring… there hasn't been much excitement all day." He grinned a little. "At least until now."
"Ha, ha," Alex replied as she grinned back.
"We're alone right now, right?" Kenshi asked.
"Yeah."
Kenshi put one of his hands on Alex's face. Then, he leaned towards her and pressed his lips against hers. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Alex pulled away. The two ended up lying back on the couch with Alex's head on Kenshi's chest, their arms wrapped around each other.
"It feels like it's been a while since our first kiss," Alex said. "But it's really only a week ago."
"Yeah," Kenshi agreed. He sighed, "I haven't really been close to anyone since my father deceased when I was seventeen."
Alex looked up at him. "Really?"
Kenshi nodded. "I grew up in the country far from the cities in Japan. I was an only child. My mother died when I was an infant so it was my father who raised me. He was the one who taught me the way of the way on top of my Tai Chi and Judo training. I've pretty much been on my own after he died, traveling and working to be the best swordsman."
"I'm an only child too," Alex said. "I grew up in a small town in Florida down south. My father was a General in a military so I never saw him that much growing up. Still, he was the one who inspired me to follow his footsteps with the photos he would show me and all the stories he told me. My mother owned this bakery shop in town and I used to help her out after school. I was in college when my mother died of cancer. My father had a stroke not long after and he eventually died I was twenty-six. His sister, my aunt, is my only family member left. It's funny because I had originally wanted to be a history teacher… even went to college for it, but… things change, you know?"
"Things like that happen sometimes," Kenshi answered. "My father's teachings and his own dedication to swordsmanship was what inspired me to travel the world and be a swordsman myself."
"I see," Alex agreed. They stayed silent for a brief moment, just holding each other and listening to nothing but their rhythmic breathing.
Then, Kenshi said, "Do you want to go in my room?"
"Sure," Alex answered after a few seconds.
They left the lounge and went to Kenshi's room. They talked a little more about family and life. The conversation ended when they began to make out. Later that night, their romance would consummate.
Late that night, Jax and Sonya walked down the hallway towards their room to rest for the night.
"Cyrax should contact me any minute," Jax said.
That's when the radio went off. "Cyrax to Jax, come in."
"Speak of the devil," Sonya said as Jax picked up his radio.
"Jax here."
"Hey," Cyrax said. "Well, I'm almost out of this scary forest, I can finally see a village coming up."
"What have you been doing?" Jax asked. "You've been there since one o'clock Earth time."
"Actually, since midnight Earth time, so I've been there for eleven hours. So I took a recharge time and even ate, sue me," Cyrax laughed.
"As long as you're all right," Jax said.
"Yeah, the scary trees haven't- what the... AAAHHH! SHIT! Get off of me! Get-" Suddenly, the radio was cut off.
"Cyrax?" Sonya cried out.
"Cyrax, are you there?" Jax calmly said into the radio. "Cyrax, this is Major Jax Briggs, do you copy? Cyrax?"
The only reply coming from the radio was silence.