Back in his "office", Sub-Zero waited impatiently as he was patched through to Sonya Blade. He had carefully searched the rooms for bugs and Smoke was running a scan for signals constantly, but that didn't mean that the danger of someone tapping the communication wasn't ever present. The longer the line was open, the easier it was to trace it.
A quick glance out the window revealed that it was still snowing heavily. Likely it would slow down the Red Dragon if they were crazy enough to attack after figuring out they had been on a wild goose chase. Still, he wanted to know if Sonya had any indication that they were heading back to their own base first.
The General looked quite harried when her face finally appeared on the screen. She was wearing a full camouflage uniform and a headset. "I don't suppose you have any clue as to what the Red Dragon is up to?" she asked without preamble.
"I was hoping you could tell us the same," Sub-Zero answered truthfully. He watched for a moment as a small explosion erupted behind Sonya. She was positioned in front of a large warehouse of some sort.
"We don't know what the hell is going on anymore. As far as we can tell the Red Dragon has completely disappeared. There were no guards left behind here."
"What do you mean?" a wave of panic swept through Sub-Zero.
"I mean there wasn't anyone here! It doesn't make any sense." Sonya turned away for a moment as a group of armored soldiers rushed past in formation. "We've breached the building, but none of the scout teams have found anything."
"Keep your troops on the lookout outside the building. "Even if the Red Dragon isn't there, they may be heading back to you. We believe that they might have followed a false lead to our old HQ. They might return to regroup."
"So it's a waiting game them." Another formation of soldiers ran past. "I hate waiting." Suddenly her hand flew to her earpiece, and she was listening intently with a thoughtful look on her face. She grinned. "One of our squads say that they've found something," she relayed. "A restroom with three fresh bodies, one paralyzed goon and a whole lot of bloody ice water. I think we've found the trail of your girl. Either that, or the Kool-Aid man was here."
"The who?"
"Nevermind. If it makes you feel better," Sonya said, still smiling, "All four men appear to be members of the Red Dragon, and it looks like she found a secret passageway.
Sub-Zero's eyes narrowed. "What on earth is she up to?" he grumbled.
"We're following the passage right now. I'll let you know if we find anything."
Sub-Zero nodded and ended the transmission, silently pondering his options.
***
The pipespace seemed specifically built to annoy anyone attempting to traverse it. At least that is what Frost concluded after smashing her shin into yet another low cross pipe. She winced inwardly as the sound echoed, but so far she had seen no signs of anyone hearing her occasional misstep.
There were no signs of any exit from the pipespace either, and she had been walking for quite some time. Clearly the four men she had dispatched earlier must have gotten in somehow, but they must have already been within the area to be able to investigate so quickly. Frost's opinion was that they must have been patrolling, which implied that someone hadn't wanted people to discover the passage and that the pipespace probably led to something worth guarding. That alone was the carrot dangling in front of her, but it was enough to keep her going. The light from the flashlight she had lifted from one of the bodies earlier did little to illuminate the deep blackness of the length of the space, and the ambient sounds of water in pipes and drips did little to lighten Frost's mood.
As if on cue, the light from her flashlight began to wane, making navigating the obstacle laden space even more difficult. She swore quietly as her forehead discovered a low cross pipe. The pipe had been burning hot too, leaving her with split, blistering skin and an aching skull.
Several things occurred to her as she was glaring angrily at the offending length of metal. One was that this was the second hot pipe she had come across. Two, was that it was the largest cross pipe she had found, and it was on the ceiling. Three was that the only other hot cross pipe she knew of was leading to the bathroom she had entered from. Finally, she was sick of this damp, dark tunnel anyway.
Finding a clear place to break the wall, however, proved a bit more difficult than in the restroom. She feared breaking the pipes, because a pipe spewing anything in such a small area was not likely to be a good thing. There was little room for a powerful kick either. The best she could do was a two foot space surrounds by only a few large pipes. Even then she had a few false starts before she connected and heard the satisfying sound of shattering metal and what sounded like tile.
She cautiously poked her head through the opening and was greeted by the site of a very wet, very naked and very surprised man standing in the middle of what appeared to be a communal shower. Or at least that's the immediate conclusion she came to, seeing as wet, naked men don't normally wander around criminal organizations.
Unfortunately for Frost and her musings, the man in question recovered from his surprise and started running for the door without bothering to cover himself. He was not faster than Frost though, and her blast of ice froze him solid a few inches from the open door. Working quickly, Frost dragged the still immobile gangster back into a more concealed part of the room, then shut the door, locked it, and froze the locking mechanism. By now the man was beginning to thaw, but Frost was more than ready as the man clumsily tried to break away.
She roughly pushed the disoriented fellow against the cold, tile wall, and he stared her wide-eyed as she slowly formed a kori dagger in front of his face.
"Who the f-fuck are you?" he stuttered, watching nervously as the blade was waved in front of his face.
Frost ignored his question and fixed him with her icy stare. "Where are we?" she asked, still fingering her dagger.
"In the showers," the man answered slowly, attempting to wiggle out of what he assumed was a raving lunatics grasp.
"Where are we?" Frost asked again, becoming more irate as the seconds passed before his answer.
"In the Red Dragon's headquarters?" the man's voice was rising every time he spoke.
"You know that's not the answer I'm looking for," Frost hissed. "Tell me what I want to know, and you might live."
"I'm not authorized to give out any information, on pain of death."
"Do you know what men value more than their lives?" Frost asked, with a dangerous drop in her voice. The man was just staring dumbly at her now, and she sighed. "Their dicks, shithead, and if you don't tell me where the hell we are, who you are, and what is going on here, I'm going to rip yours off and shove it so far up your ass that you will taste it.
The man eyes seemed to bug out, and he blurted out, "We're in the manufacturing plant!"
"What are you manufacturing?" Frost asked, slamming the man back into the tile for emphasis.
"I don't know! They won't tell us," the answers were coming more readily now, although they weren't particularly useful.
"Who's they, you useless piece of-" she was interrupted by someone banding on the door. Once she was effectively distracted, the man desperately tried to shake her grip. Not able, nor willing, to deal with both problems at once, she slit his neck and turned to the door.
The ice sealing the door was rapidly cracking under the battering it was taking. "Hey, open up!" came a female voice on the other side, which caught Frost off guard. After a moment's deliberation, she decided to come out and catcher her opponent off guard. A good shove broke the seal and the door swung open.
"What the hell have you been-" the woman's sentence was cut off by a sucker punch to her mask-covered nose. She cried out, clutching her now bleeding face, but had enough presence of mind to duck the next blow.
Frost swung again, but her now fully aware opponent was faster and danced back to drop into a fighting stance. Both women sized each other up quickly.
The other woman was dressed almost completely in leather, and Frost momentarily wished for her Lin Kuei uniform, a feeling that intensified when two sais were pulled from the woman's high-heeled boots.
The two opponents circled each other warily, waiting for the other to make the first move. Finally, Frost's impatience got the better of her, and she launched into an ice slide with the intent to sweep her opponent off her feet. The other woman seemed prepared, however, and sidestepped, bringing her sais down for a raking strike. Frost was nor ready for a counterattack, but fell away from the blow. Her shirt was not as lucky as the rest of her, shredding on the sharp metal.
Frost glared as the other woman laughed and brandished her sais. "What's the matter girl; am I to quick for you?" she taunted.
Frost was furious, but now knew better than to just charge in. She was going to make this bitch come to her. A kori dagger formed in each of her hands, and her opponents face registered surprise for moment. "You're not quick bitch, just lucky." She sent a blast of kori power along the ground, then charged in after it. The woman jumped the freezing trail, but Frost was ready and buried her daggers in the woman's thighs, sending blood spurting everywhere.
The leather-clad woman let out a shriek like a banshee and seemingly went berserk, slashing furiously at Frost, despite her rapidly flagging strength. Frost had neither the time nor the concentration to reform her weapons as she desperately tried to dodge the relentless barrage of strikes. She was nearly successful until a wild downswing hit her above the brow, catching in her skin, and she desperately threw her head back, trying to avoid losing her eye as the said continued down into her cheek.
The woman was rapidly failing as the loss of blood overwhelmed her, which Frost was extremely grateful for. The searing pain of her torn face was almost as distracting as the blood pouring down her face. She tried futily to clear her eyes but her hands were already slippery from the blood from the other women's still spurting wounds.
In a moment it was over, and her opponent lay twitching feebly, face down on the floor in spreading pool of blood. Quickly checking to see if any one was coming to investigate the commotion, Frost took the already blood stained remains of her shirt and did her best to staunch the flow from her own wound before dragging the corpse into the showers, leaving behind a gory trail.
She caught a glimpse of herself in a mirror while stashing the two bodies in the pipespace, and had a momentary twinge of embarrassment at the image she presented. There was a moment where she debated cleaning some of the gore off herself, but she quickly settled for washing the worst of it off her hands and face, and stealing a shirt which she presumed had once belonged to the naked fellow, although it seemed much too small for her, let alone a full frown man. Pulling the shirt over her head (and grimacing as her hands brushed her matted hair) she set about trying to cover as much of her exposed torso as possible.
There was still the matter of the large mess in the hallway, but she hastily chose to continue on her way. She was anxious to get down to business and find out what exactly the Red Dragon had been making.
***
Several minutes of slinking down more steel hallways, and trying to resist the urge to scratch her head wound, found Frost in front of a bolted door. It had one major difference from the other similar doors she had passed, and that was the fact it was not welded shut.
She pressed her ear to the door, listening carefully for signs that the space behind was occupied. Satisfied that no one awaited her, she undid the heavy bolt, and pushed the surprisingly heavy door open. The room was dimly lit, with nearly a full wall of what appeared to be security monitors and a desk covered with electronic equipment in front.
The door swung back into place with a sharp clang, and Frost winced slightly at the noise. Upon closer inspection, the monitors all showered views of various manufacturing equipment, none of which she recognized. She tried the computer on the desk, but it was password protected. The computer did provide one small piece of information, however. As she raised her head, she caught the reflection of the blinking red light of the wall mounted security camera behind her.
She was being watched.