Final Confrontation

by Jcarlton

Stories that start before the first MK movie and then pick up after it ended. The world holds surprises for the kombatants once they return from Shang Tsung's island, and some adversaries refuse to stay dead. Note that MK Annihilation never happened.

2. Final Confrontation 2

Note : Story follows from the end of the MK movie, and after the sequel that should've followed it, since that film ended with a cliffhanger. Unfortunately, the official sequel, MK Annihilation, sucked, thus doesn't count here.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once Sonya found herself back in Hong Kong, she procrastinated as much time as possible before going back to her Army base. When she had last been here, she had left with Jax hoping that they would be back soon enough so that no one would've noticed they were missing. But her adventure on Shang Tsung's island had lasted way over a day, and the colonel who threatened to kick her out was sure to have noticed that she wasn't present no matter how dumb he was.

She was about two miles away from the military base, so she decided to walk there instead of trying to get a ride. Walking would have allowed her to enjoy whatever scenery Hong Kong had as well as let her delay having to face everyone for about half an hour or so. She didn't even want to return since she knew she wasn't about to see a welcoming committee; but she had come back in order to tell some of the soldiers, like Jax or Scott, that she was still in one piece. She looked around at the other pedestrians and buildings as she slowly but surely headed for her destination...

When she finally reached the base, she entered it and instantly ran into some soldiers whom she knew, though not personally. The soldiers recognized her as the one who had been absent without leave, so they didn't try to stop her as she made her way around the barracks; they were just amazed that she had the bravery to show up after leaving in such a way. Instead of going back to her room, which she knew was probably already empty, she proceeded towards Jax's barracks. She still remembered the way even though she was only there once before. She entered the room where Jax had shown her his reserve arsenal in the hopes of finding him, but realized that he wasn't there. Instead, she saw a soldier from behind as that one was straightening his hair by holding a comb and a small mirror. She wondered if he knew where Jax was, so she decided to break the silence by letting him know that he wasn't alone.

"Hello?", Sonya smiled nervously, "Could you tell me where Jax is?".

Upon hearing a woman's voice, the soldier turned around surprised to see who was behind him. To Sonya's surprise, she realized that she was talking to Scott. But Scott was more surprised as he widened his eyes after seeing who it was and then gave her a huge smile.

"Goddamn!", Scott exclaimed, "You're OK! You're actually OK!".

"You weren't expecting me, huh?", Sonya told him, allowing herself to feel a bit more relaxed.

"Lieutenant, we were afraid you were lying face-down in a lake somewhere!", Scott happily answered, "Where the hell have you been?".

"It's a really long story", Sonya wasn't about to clue him in.

"Jax told me you ran off into some weird boat before he could stop you. That's the last anyone heard of you", Scott wasn't calm yet, "I figured Kano had gotten the best of you, lieutenant. We felt terrible here. You should've at least given us a call to tell us you were OK, you know?".

"I'm sorry. I really was busy", Sonya gave as little detail as possible, "Is Jax around, by the way?".

"Yeah, he's here", Scott informed her.

Scott then turned away from her and screamed as loud as he could.

"YO JAX!!! SOMEONE'S HERE TO SEE YOU!! GET OVER HERE!!!".

Jax opened a door and walked into the room a few seconds later. He and Sonya made eye contact as she smiled at him. He smiled back

"She's OK. Can you believe it?", Scott told him.

"Yeah, I can", Jax responded as he still looked at her, "But the colonel isn't gonna be this happy when he sees you, I hate to say it".

"Yeah, well", Sonya sighed, "It was worth the price".

"What was?", Scott questioned her.

"Not now", Sonya didn't want to answer.

"Is Kano dead?", Scott bluntly asked then.

"I'd rather not say anything that can be used against me in court later on, if you don't mind", she said as she smiled, telling him indirectly that the answer to his question was affirmative.

Just then, two soldiers in jungle camouflage entered the room and stood erect on either side of the doorway as the three of them turned their heads to face them.

"Lieutenant Blade?", the one on the right asked, "The colonel would like to see you in his office, now".

Word sure gets around fast on this base, Sonya told herself. The soldier's tone of voice warned her that her colonel was not in a good mood. She turned around to look at Scott and Jax one last time before she was ousted.

"Well, I knew it would come down to this. Might as well get it over with", she told them with as much spirit as she afford.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sonya walked over to the two soldiers by the door and walked through the doorway as both men in jungle camouflage followed her from a few feet behind. The walk to the colonel's officer was mercifully short, but she still got many looks from soldiers on her way there. Obviously, the idea of someone who broke a direct order and house arrest was new here. As the trio reached the closed door of the office, one of the men behind her walked up and knocked on it four times. From inside, the colonel told them to come in. The same soldier turned the knob and held the door open for her. As she walked in, he closed the door behind her. Sonya looked defiant because she knew she was about to get hell for her actions, so she wasn't going to try to reason with him.

"Well, well. Look who's back", the colonel said as he sat behind his desk.

Sonya didn't answer. She just crossed her arms across her chest as she stared at him with the same facial expression that she gave to Kano as they had faced off in the tournament.

"Get to the point!", she sharply replied.

"Oh, you're always so fucking defiant, aren't you?", the colonel stood up with an irritated look on his face.

He took two steps towards her as she just stood her ground and didn't move an inch. She knew she had done the right thing no matter what he said or did.

"You realize this is it for you, don't you, you stupid bitch", he was annoyed because he couldn't scare her.

"Go fuck yourself", was her only answer as she still stood like a statue with its arms crossed.

As she got the last comment in, Scott opened the door unannounced and froze as the colonel stared at him, although Sonya didn't turn around.

"Wadda you want?", the colonel asked.

Scott smiled at him.

"I figured it was only fair that I provide moral support".

Scott's reply caught Sonya by surprise as she realized that he was talking about her. She turned her head around and looked at him, nonverbally asking him what he was doing. She remembered that the only time she had ever really talked to him was when he wanted to accompany Jax and her to the dance studio and she had forced him to stay behind. So she naturally wondered why he was trying to help her now.

"I don't' have time for this, kiddo", the colonel countered him, "Get lost".

"Excuse me, sir", Scott answered as politely as possible, "But it's not against regulations to be present when a fellow serviceman is being questioned. You wouldn't want me to complain to the general, would you sir?".

The fact that he referred to Sonya as a serviceman didn't sound strange to him or her. But his threat to call the colonel's superiors with a complaint was enough to force the colonel to let him stay, although from the looks of it, it seemed like the colonel would make Scott pay later on for his actions.

Thus, with both Scott and Sonya present, the colonel changed his demeanor somewhat, starting with not calling her any more names.

"I have told you," he lectured her more politely, "that you'd be gone from here if you didn't stay in your room for 24 hours. You broke my direct order. So I'm recommending you be discharged from the United States Army as soon as possible".

"But look", Scott protested on her behalf, "Just because you didn't have the guts to go after Kano, don't take it out on her".

The colonel made eye contact with Scott with a shocked expression on his face, so Scott widened his eyes.

"Sir!", he added.

"There is also the matter of what you did with the fugitive Kano", the colonel went on, "If you killed him, I will not protect you".

"There's a shock", Sonya countered.

"Let's just see if you're that brave when you're arrested for whatever happened between you and him, Blade", the colonel said.

"Well, tell you what", Sonya was getting tired of this game, "If you ever find his body, you can charge me with murder one. Otherwise, stuff it!".

"Sir, I don't think lieutenant Blade would kill him in cold blood", Scott kept coming to her defense.

Sonya stared at him with a confused look because she didn't even know why he was putting himself on the line for her. She was ready to be discharged, even dishonorably, and to be flown back to the states. She had known the consequences from the beginning.

Scott's brave attempt didn't have much effect on the outcome, though, because they were both summarily dismissed after the colonel told her of her imminent discharge. They both walked out of the office and, as soon as the door was closed behind them, Sonya stared at Scott, wanting an explanation for his behavior.

"What the hell was that about?", she demanded.

"I was just trying to help you out", he responded, "Didn't do much good, though, did it?".

"Why?", was her next question.

"Why what?".

"Why were you trying to help me out?!", Sonya pressed on.

"Look, I figured you deserved it".

"Well, thanks, but I was ready for this ever since I got on that boat after Kano", she let him know, "I was expecting it".

"So where're you gonna go, lieutenant?", Scott seemed genuinely concerned.

"There's a flight from here to Washington DC in two days. I'm gonna be on it. I'm meeting my father there".

"What about until then?".

"I'll just get a motel room or something", Sonya figured, "Don't worry about me, Scott. Just pretend you never saw me in this base. You'll be better off".

As she was about to walk away from the base for the last time, Scott stopped her by grabbing her arm. Sonya was surprised at his action and looked down at his hand on her bicep, so Scott instantly let her go.

"What??", she demanded.

"I just gotta know", Scott couldn't rest until he was told, "Is Kano really dead?".

Sonya stopped, wondering whether she should answer the question or not. Finally, after staring at him for several seconds, she simply nodded once.

She was about to leave, then she remembered she still had a few items in her room that she should take with her wherever she's headed.

"By the way", she asked him, "Is my stuff still in my room?".

"Yeah. We were hoping you'd come back, despite what that moron says", he answered by pointing at the office from where they both emerged, "Nobody touched it".

"Great!".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sonya returned to her old room in the barracks, packed up the few clothes she had in her gym bag and also retrieved her clips for the Glock. She put on a blouse, sneakers and a pair of blue jeans that she hadn't worn since she came into the base. She also reminded herself that she had to get a new 9mm semiautomatic when she went back to the states. She then put whatever money she had in her right pants pocket and left the room as well as the base for good.

Holding the gym back over her right shoulder, Sonya started walking as soon as she had been outside the barb-wired fence of the base. There were plenty of buildings around, but she needed somewhere to stay for the next 48 hours until her flight across the ocean. After being on foot for about twenty minutes, she ran into a MOTEL sign and figured it was as good a place as any to try out. She walked up the steps that led to the front door, turned the knob with her left hand and entered. A middle-aged man behind the counter looked at her as she took several steps towards him in the dimly lit room. When she reached the counter, she set the gym bag down on the floor.

"How much for a room?", she asked him.

"Are you American?", the man asked back.

"Yes", there was no point in hiding the fact since it was clear she wasn't a native of Hong Kong.

"Thirty American dollars for night", the man told her in broken English, "Can you afford?".

"Yeah, that's fine", Sonya said as she reached into her right pocket and withdrew all the cash she had.

She then selected a twenty dollar bill and a ten dollar bill from the whole amount and put it on the counter. The man handed her a key with the number 22 on it. Just as she picked up the gym bag and was about to head for the hallway beyond the counter to look for room 22, she remembered something else she wanted to ask for.

"By the way,", she went on, "do the rooms have a telephone in them?".

"No phone", the man's reply was.

"Oh. Because I need to make a phone call too", she told him as she noticed the phone he had next to him on the counter, so she pointed towards it , "Would it be possible for me to use that?".

"Long distance?", the man looked somewhat suspicious.

"Well, yes", Sonya answered, "But I am willing to pay for it".

With that, she handed him another twenty dollar bill. No matter how far she was planning to call, it couldn't have cost more than the amount she offered, the man reasoned, so he took the fifty dollars and handed her the phone. Sonya picked it up with her left hand as she put the gym bag back on the floor and dialed a number she promised she would. She then put the phone to her ear and counted the number of times it rang. It rang three times before someone picked it up.

"Yeah?", the man on the other end responded.

"Johnny? It's Sonya", she spoke into the receiver.

"Hey, Sonya!", Johnny Cage was evidently happy to hear her voice, "How did it go? Did you find out?".

"Oh yeah! I found out all right", she told him, "I got kicked out".

"You're kidding!", Johnny went on, "I don't believe it! How can they do that?".

"I was expecting it, so it really aien't a surprise", she realized he was more upset than she was, "But that means I'm coming home the day after tomorrow".

"OK", Johnny went over the plans to make sure there were no misunderstandings, "Don't forget, I'll be in terminal C at 2:00 PM at the latest. Is your plane still touching down at one?".

"As far as I know", Sonya said, "I'll tell dad that I need to wait for you".

"Great", Johnny sounded pleased, "I'm sorry, Sonya. Those idiots don't know what they're missing by letting you go".

"Yeah, well. It happens...So I'll see you there".

"OK, I look forward to it".

"Me too. Bye", she wanted to end the conversation fast so it wouldn't cost the motel manager an arm and a leg when the phone bill arrived.

"See ya", Johnny answered before he hung up on the other end.

Sonya hung up and then pushed the phone back towards the manager. She said "Thanks" with a smile, picked up the gym back and proceeded to walk down the hallway as originally planned. The first rooms on her left were in the teens. After following the path of the hallway and turning to the right, the first room on her left was number 20. Then came 21 and then 22. She used the key to unlock the door and stepped inside.

The room was pretty small with one small window, but it suited her fine for the next two days. She closed the door behind her, locked it using the deadbolt and then put the gym bag down on the wooden floor. Next, she walked over to the bed and sat on the edge to take her sneakers off. She was tired enough as it was, so after her feet were bare, she decided to lie down with her jeans and blouse still on. The bed felt about the same as her bunk bed did back in the barracks as she didn't use the covers because it was a fairly warm evening. She was asleep within minutes...

When she woke up, she saw the sun shining through the motel room window. She took a few seconds out to stretch her arms and legs in bed before getting up. Sitting on the bed, she yawned as she planted both feet on the cool wooden floor. She then stood up, walked towards the gym bag and reached inside to find her wristwatch. The watch informed her that it was almost 8:00 AM before she put it back in the sack.

Sonya then rubbed her eyes as she was wondering what she should do for the next 24 hours before she had to catch the flight back home. She was still pondering about it when someone knocked on the door. Surprised, she walked up to the locked door as she thought who could be looking for her. After all, no one knew she was here except for the middle-aged man who gave her the key to the room. By reasoning that it could only be him, she decided to undo the deadbolt to open the door.

"Yeah, what is it?", she asked expecting to see the manager as the pulled the door wide open.

To her amazement, she found herself staring at Scott as he stood a foot beyond the doorway dressed in a commando-style black pants, boots and tank top. He was holding a grocery bag.

"You?", she asked astonished, "What're you doing here?".

"I was looking for you", he simply stated.

"Wait a second!", she got suspicious, "How did you even find me?".

"Lieutenant,", Scott replied as if the answer was obvious, "this motel is the only one within a five mile radius almost. It made sense that you'd come here. I just walked in here two minutes ago and when the manager saw me, he was like 'You looking for American girl?' and I said 'Yes'. So he told me you were in 22".

"That still doesn't tell me what you're doing here", Sonya insisted.

"I wanted to see if you needed anything, that's all", Scott defended himself, "Can I come in?".

"Yeah, I guess", Sonya stood aside next to the open door to let him walk through the doorway.

As Scott entered the room and put the grocery bag on the bed, Sonya wasn't through asking questions.

"So you're checking up on me now, is that it?", she told him exactly what was on her mind.

"I just figured you needed to find a way to sustain yourself for two days, you know what I'm saying, lieutenant?".

"You brought groceries?", she asked since she recognized the kind of paper bag he had with him.

"Yeah", was the only thing he said.

"How?...When?", she was curious.

"We get a break every once in a while in the mornings. So I told them I was going to a fast food place to unwind".

"Oh", she was flattered that he did so many things for her, so she smiled as she crossed her arms, "So...What did you bring me?".

"Nothing major. Just something to keep you alive until tomorrow", he emptied the contents of the bag on the bed mattress.

There was some bread, cheese and two apples.

"I do appreciate it, Scott", she went on after seeing the merchandise, "But I still don't understand why".

"Look, lieutenant", his tone became more serious, "What happened to you was wrong. I really felt bad when they let you go... You had the guts to go after Kano when nobody else did, so they made you pay for it. That's not right".

"It wasn't your fault, Scott", Sonya reassured him, "If anything, I should be the one who feels bad... What you did ever since I got back was way more than I deserved, especially after how I treated you before I left for the dance club. That wasn't right".

"Oh", Scott told her by waving his hand, "That's old news".

"Look, I know you were trying to help out. If I had more common sense I would've seen it instead of biting your head off like that", it was as close as Sonya was planning to come to an apology.

"So you're really leaving after tomorrow for good, huh?", Scott asked by placing both his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, I'll try to find something in Washington DC", Sonya let him know, "My dad already told me before I returned into the base that if I got kicked out that he'd have my old room ready for me at home. I guess I'm lucky, huh?".

"Can I come with you?", Scott asked with a large grin on his face.

"What???", Sonya answered his question with a question of her own with a surprised smile.

"Well, I do have two weeks of vacation that I haven't taken, and all we need now is to give 24 hours' notice", Scott answered, "Who knows? I could help you find something".

"You're serious?".

"Yeah!".

"Well, I guess that would be OK", she told him, somewhat surprised at her answer, "You'd have to sleep on the couch, though, because my dad doesn't have an extra room in his place for you too".

"Oh, that's fine!", Scott went on.

He then sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at her. Sonya could distinctly see that there was something else on his mind. Before she could ask, he told her.

"So... You wanna tell me what exactly happened when you went after Kano?".

"Why do you wanna know?", she asked him with a stern look.

"He killed lieutenant Richards, that's why!", he countered, "And God knows how many other good people both before and after him, lieutenant".

"Call me Sonya", she first answered as she sat next to him.

"So... You really wanna know everything?", she was hoping he'd say 'Yes' because she wanted to tell someone about her experiences after she boarded Shang Tsung's boat.

"Of course...", Scott's fortunate response was, "And don't worry, I aien't taping this conversation".

"Good", she started from the beginning, "Well, after I got on that boat and it sailed, I found out I was one of the people from earth who had been called to a tournament called Mortal Kombat to protect the realm of Earth from the realm of Outworld".

Her use of the words made Scott think she was being sarcastic and didn't want to tell him what really happened.

"Come one, Sonya. Be serious", he told her.

"I am!", she reassured him, "I was there with Liu, who was one of the guys on our side, and Johnny Cage. We defeated some sorcerer and saved this world by finishing off his warriors one at a time. I killed Kano in a hand-to-hand match".

"You were there with Johnny Cage. The movie actor", Scott repeated and it was obvious he didn't believe a word she said.

"Yes!", she responded, "In fact, I'm gonna meet him at the airport tomorrow also".

"You're gonna get together with Johnny Cage".

"Uhuh", she nodded.

"Sonya," he sighed with a faint smile as he stared at her, "How stupid do you think I am?".

"I am not making this up!", she protested, "You were the one who wanted the truth!".

"Yeah, OK", he answered sarcastically as he stood up, "Look, the break's gonna be over in about half an hour, so I better get back to the base. If you ever feel like telling me what really happened, maybe one day you will".

"I knew you wouldn't believe me", Sonya told him as he headed for the door.

"No offense, Sonya. But that story is about as believable as a man lifting up a tank with one hand".

"Well, actually,", Sonya went on as she stood up also, "We didn't do it alone. Rayden, the god of lightning, helped us out a lot".

Scott laughed out loud when he heard Rayden's description.

"The god of lightning???", he repeated hysterically, "Sonya, this is the real world! It's not a mythology book!".

Sonya wasn't amused at his remark, although she understood why he was skeptical of her story.

"Actually,", Scott went on as he stopped laughing, "If you wanna see a mythology character come to life, you should see the guy I'm going after tonight... There's this guy, they call him the Minotaur. He spends most of his time in a wrestling arena slash bar. Every time he sees an American soldier, he harasses them. Yesterday night, he saw one of our humvees and he punched the windshield in with his bare hands. One of our guys needed several stitches because he was hit by glass. So I'm going over there to tell him to calm down".

"You're not going alone, are you?", she sounded concerned.

"Well, yeah, I am. But it's not like I'm going there looking for a fight. I'm just gonna tell him that we can't tolerate that kind of treatment".

"Don't you think that's a little careless?".

"Nobody else is interested in coming along. They just think we should leave it alone as if our guy was responsible for his own bruises", Scott told her, "I don't".

"You can't go there alone", Sonya tried to reason with him, "You'll be inviting trouble if you do... Look, if I'm gonna take you with me tomorrow, they you take me with you tonight. Fair enough?".

"Fine", Scott wasn't about to argue because he wanted to have someone with him in case things got nasty.

"What time is it planned for?", was Sonya's next question.

"I'm getting off for a break at 10:00 tonight. I'm gonna see him right afterwards".

"OK, come on by here and I'll come along. It's safer that way".

"Fine with me", Scott smiled, "See you then".

With those words, he walked out the door and left her alone. She hoped he would not change his mind and decide to take on the Minotaur alone later on that night.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Scott did not disappoint her because after the uneventful day turned to night, he came by and knocked on the door to her motel room. By then Sonya had changed and was wearing the most comfortable clothes she knew of, mainly shorts and a T-shirt. Scott still had his commando outfit with only the tank top on as he motioned her to follow him. While exiting the motel and heading for a jeep from the base, Scott brought her up to date about the latest events with him.

"I already told that prick colonel that I was taking my two weeks starting tomorrow. He couldn't find anything wrong with it, so he had to let me go", he gladly told her.

"Good", was her reply, "Still no one else wants to come with you, huh?".

"No!", he seemed a bit agitated at the point, "I still can't believe how those guys could walk away like that".

"I'm sure they have their reasons", Sonya calmly told him.

Ever since she had returned from the tournament, she started seeing people in general through a more generous and optimistic eye. It was because she and her friends had fought for everybody on the planet and that fact brought her closer to others than she would ordinarily be.

As she reached the jeep and climbed into the front passenger seat, Scott took the wheel and started the engine. They were soon on their way to meeting someone who was considered to be a pain by many people on the base. She knew that this was probably the last time she'd do something on behalf of the military base in Hong Kong.

The ride only took them a few minutes as Scott was explaining the situation to her and keeping an eye on the road at the same time.

"This guy started bugging us about five months ago for the first time", he told her, "I only saw him once in a crowded area, but it was enough to tell me that he was huge... So, whatever happens, just let me do all the talking, OK Sonya?".

"I hear you", she answered while staring at the road as they reached the arena.

Scott stopped the jeep and they both promptly got out of it. The place was surrounded by scores of people, most of whom were drinking, as Sonya cracked her knuckles in the clear night sky before following Scott inside. She wasn't looking for a fight, but she wanted to be ready in case one found her. Once inside, Scott's clothes immediately put them on the receiving end of curious stares as people were wondering what an Army personnel was doing there. Especially considering that those people used U.S. Army equipment and personnel to play annoying jokes on.

Scott began to walk around in the crowed place next to people who were either drinking or ordering refills. He was followed by Sonya who was a few feet behind him as he visually searched for the one they called the Minotaur. As he was still searching, a man who was obviously drunk walked up to Sonya from behind and wrapped his right arm around her as he held a bottle with his left hand.

"How 'bout you and me, baaabbb...Baby?", he asked as he leaned on her because he couldn't stand up straight.

The smell of alcohol was so strong from his mouth that Sonya reasoned that she would've been able to smell it even if her nose was clogged from the flu.

Scott turned around and quickly walked back to get the drunk off her. But before he reached them, Sonya smiled at the man and held his right wrist with both her hands.

"Not tonight", she politely answered as she lifted his arm off her shoulders and set it on the bar; the man leaned on the bar without a protest and kept drinking.

When Scott walked up to her in the crowd, she had forgotten all about the drunk and wanted to know how his search was going.

"Did you find him?", she asked.

"No, but this place is pretty big. It's likely he's around. All I have to do is look....", Scott was cut off in midsentence as someone who was about twenty feet behind Sonya caught his attention.

"There he is!!", he exclaimed and walked past her, headed for the man he came to find.

Within minutes, they had both reached the Minotaur. He was in his early thirties and sitting at a table with an attractive lady who was about Sonya's age as he was drinking like everyone else. There were also three other men with him, but he was by far the biggest in size. He was just three or four inches short of seven feet tall and extremely muscular, as could be seen because he wasn't wearing anything above the belt. Among the loud conversations elsewhere in the place, Scott walked up to him and raised his voice so he could be heard.

"Hey, Minotaur!", Scott went on, "I'm from the Army base!... You know, the base whose humvee you fucked up yesterday? You wanna stop doing that??".

At the verbal confrontation, the Minotaur looked at the lady and then the three men right before all five of them laughed.

"What's your problem?", the lady next to the Minotaur addressed Scott.

"Hey, she asked you a question!!", the Minotaur told Scott as he stood up and shoved his right index finger into his chest.

Although Scott was in good physical shape, the Minotaur towered over him and easily outweighed him by a hundred pounds.

"And who is she?", Scott asked him.

"That's my wife Helena!", the Minotaur barked by looking down at him.

"Yeah!", Helena stood up next to her husband to face Scott too as Sonya came by and positioned herself next to him.

"...And we don't like your kind of attitude!", Helena then snapped at Scott.

"Cool it, Helena!", Sonya sarcastically emphasized her name, "This isn't about you".

"How dare you?", Helena snapped at her as Sonya widened her eyes, "Nobody talks to me that way!".

With those words, Helena raised her right forearm and swung back because she was planning to slap Sonya in the face. Seeing it coming from a mile away, Sonya grabbed her right wrist with her left hand and intentionally pushed it towards Helena so the Minotaur's wife actually ended up slapping herself with her own hand.

Everybody who was around gasped with shock as they saw what happened. Helena looked so furious that Sonya thought her eyeballs were about to pop out of her face.

"Sweetie!", Helena barked at her husband while still looking Sonya straight in the eyes, "Take this blondie out! Now!".

With that, the people who were surrounding them cheered the Minotaur in order to encourage him to go on with the fight.

"You're going down for that!", the Minotaur pointed at Sonya with his index finger.

"What?", Sonya sounded and felt defiant as she positioned both hands around her waist, "You're gonna beat me up now?".

"Not here! I only fight in the ring!", the Minotaur answered, "Why don't you and I go there if you feel like being so tough?".

There was a kickboxing ring surrounded by three levels of rope about ten yards away from them. That's where the Minotaur pointed as over a dozen men stood behind and around both Sonya and Scott in case they decided to flee. Sonya had no intention of running as she first looked at Scott and then at the Minotaur before she answered.

"You're on, tough guy!".

Sonya headed towards the ring without saying anything else while Scott followed her and protested all the way until she reached it.

"You can't do this!!!", he kept objecting, "I'm not sure if I could take this guy!! And he's twice your size, literally!!! Sonya, are you listening???".

Sonya didn't answer as she climbed into the ring and looked up at the ceiling as she inhaled and exhaled to relax herself. People were still cheering the Minotaur on as he made his way into the ring in his own turn. It reminded Sonya a lot of when she saw Goro marching towards a match back on Shang Tsung's island. There was a time when she had actually prepared herself to try to take on the four-armed Prince of Pain before Johnny Cage volunteered himself. So, since she had prepared herself to go up against Goro, the Minotaur didn't scare her one bit.

As her opponent entered the ring, though, Scott felt scared for her as the 300 pound Minotaur screamed to rouse up the crowd and himself.

"Get out of the ring, Sonya!!! I'm taking your place!!", Scott almost screamed even though he was outside the ring and holding on to the ropes just three feet away from her.

Sonya locked eyes with him and saw fear in his expression. Not fear for himself, but for her.

"You don't have to", she calmly answered.

"The hell I don't!! You aren't gonna kill yourself like this!!", Scott asserted.

"Are you sure you can take him?", Sonya was still calm.

"No!! But I at least I have a chance!! His right arm weighs more than you do!!!".

"Really, Scott", she took two steps and walked up to him, "Would you be telling me this if I was one of the other guys from the base?".

"Maybe not", Scott shot back, "But excuse me for not wanting to see a lady get stepped on by a goddamn freak of nature!".

"That's nowhere near a freak", Sonya responded with Goro still on her mind.

"Fine!!", Scott seemed furious that she wouldn't trade places with him, "But if you lose, then I fight him next".

"OK", Sonya flatly replied before she turned away from him and took several steps to come closer to the center of the ring.

As she and her opponent neared the center of the ring, a man who was acting as a referee walked up to them both and simply made one statement.

"The only rule is, there are no rules".

He then took several steps behind until he reached the ropes and then screamed "Fight!!" right before he exited the ring.

As the Minotaur swung his right arm back and tried to punch, Sonya twisted to her right and used her left ankle to kick him in the side of the knee. The Minotaur screamed in pain and bent over somewhat to grab his knee as Sonya then twisted to her left and kicked him in the head with her right leg.

The second kick sent her opponent crashing on the mat on his right side. As he was on his hands and knees, trying to stand back up, Sonya ran to him and kicked him in the head like she was trying to punt a football. The kick bloodied the Minotaur's face and he screamed in pain, but he still managed to stand back up. He was angrier than ever as he regained his balance. He had never been humiliated like this when he fought men, he remembered to himself. It was the only thought Sonya allowed him to have because she next took a huge step towards him with her left leg, brought all her weight down on her left foot and kicked him in the chest with all her strength. That hit sent the Minotaur staggering back until he hit the ropes where his head and torso swung outside the ring, but the rest of his body kept him inside the ropes.

Sonya realized her chance. As her adversary's back was still touching the ropes, she took two large and fast steps towards his direction and fly kicked him. As the bottom of her sneakers impacted into his massive chest, the force pushed the Minotaur over the ropes and his back crashed on the wooden floor outside the ring.

As he was groaning in pain, Sonya caught her breath and climbed out of the ring after him as the voices of the crowd started cheering her on. She jumped down on the wooden floor and hurriedly walked towards him before he got a chance to stand back up. While he was still on his back, she reached him and kept walking until she was standing on the floor on either side of his waist. She bent over until her face was two feet from his. After making eye contact, she slapped him in the face with her right hand. She didn't want to hurt him, only wanted to get his attention, which she did.

"Will you listen to them?!?", she almost screamed in his face, "They want me to keep hitting you when you're down! You think your wife will love you more after you broke every bone in my body?... Listen to them! This is just fun for them! What are you? Just a piece of meat that acts as a human punching bag and a human pit bull?!?".

After that lecture, she straightened her back up so she was at her full height and took four steps back so she wasn't standing over him any more. As he stood back up, she continued.

"Look, I don't wanna fight, and I don't think you do either. We can end this right now. We both walk away and no one wins and no one loses. What do you say?".

She extended her right hand as he was standing at his full height too. The things that she told him must've made sense because the Minotaur reached for her hand with his own. But just as he was about to grip her hand, an irate Helena walked up to the two of them.

"Wadda you doin'?", she demanded as she stared at her husband, "Don't you know what she did to me?".

"Look, I'll apologize if I have to, OK?", Sonya smiled at her to lighten the mood, "I'm sorry".

With that, Sonya reached over and kissed Helena on the right cheek.

"I hope that makes up for it", she added.

The Minotaur wasn't going to stay angry at someone who apologized to his wife in such a way and Helena's vengeful face seemed to ease up as the large crowd still didn't understand what was going on. When Scott reached Sonya after making his way through people, she pointed at him as she addressed the Minotaur one more time.

"Oh. This is my friend Scott", she told him, "And he'd appreciate it if you didn't punch out any more of his windshields, OK?".

With that, Sonya turned around and smiled at Scott as she walked towards the door from which they had both entered. He followed her out, still not being able to believe how she handled her opponent in the ring. The crowd was visibly disappointed with the outcome, but no one gave the two of them any trouble because it was easier to hit the bottle for fun than it was to hit a person. That was especially true considering that this person had just beaten their champion in a fair fight.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On the ride back to her motel, Scott couldn't keep his thoughts to himself about the event he had just witnessed.

"That was very impressive, Sonya", he said, "I didn't give you enough credit".

"Well, I just did my best", Sonya smiled back, flattered by the comment, "But I was still glad you were there to intervene in case something went wrong".

She waited a few seconds and then spoke again when he didn't answer.

"You would've intervened if he had come down on me, right?", she asked by turning to her left to see him.

"Naturally", was his answer.

"Oh, good", she replied.

After reaching the motel, Sonya jumped out of the passenger side without opening

the door. She then stared at the driver in order to make sure that everything was still planned for the following day.

"Are you sure you wanna do this tomorrow?", she asked.

"You mean come with you to Washington?".

"Yeah", she told him, "This is your last chance to pull out of the deal and stay here for vacation".

She wasn't trying to get rid of him, only wanted to make sure it's what he really wanted.

"I'll come along", Scott answered, "This place could never excite me during off hours anyway".

Sonya leaned forward with her elbows on the front passenger side door as she still kept staring at him.

"You better not be doing it because you feel sorry for me", she warned him.

"Don't worry about that", he reassured her, "After tonight, I'm sure you can handle any situation by yourself. I just wanna be there to witness it. Someday when you're famous, I'll be able to tell people that we both fought side by side once".

"Gee, thanks", Sonya grinned because she found the thought of her becoming famous amusing.

She stood back up straight, tapped on the front passenger door with her right open palm before she wanted to head inside.

"You better get back to the base", she added, "Just make sure you're here tomorrow at eight hundred hours sharp because if you're late, I'll just have to leave without you".

"I'll be here", he guaranteed her, "See you tomorrow".

With that, he drove the car back and then proceeded down the street to return to his base. Sonya stood her ground and waved once with her forearm before she turned around and walked into the motel.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Once inside, she greeted the middle-aged man who was still seated behind the counter reading a book and then headed for room number 22. Like the previous night, she unlocked the door, stepped inside and put the deadbolt on. She then stood on her right leg as she lifted her left foot off the floor to pull off her left sneaker. After dropping the left sneaker on the floor, she stood on her bare left foot and lifted her right foot in order to do the same for the right sneaker. Afterwards, she slipped into bed and closed her eyes, knowing tomorrow would be a big day. She was planning to see her father for the first time in almost a year as well as fellow mortal kombatant Johnny Cage; all while bringing a commando that she met only a few days ago to live with her at her father's home for two weeks. Things couldn't get any more exciting than this, she told herself as she fell asleep...

The next morning, she was wide awake and dressed in a different pair of shorts and T-shirt before 6:30 AM even though she didn't have to be leave for the airport until 8:00. Since she couldn't think of anything to do, she strapped on her wristwatch and decided to grab her gym bag, her plane ticket and the key to room number 22 in order to leave the motel for a walk in the cool morning. As she left her room, she walked down the hallway towards the counter. Once there, she saw the middle-aged man still standing there reading a book. He somewhat reminded her of Jax because he appeared to be doing the same thing after she woke up that he was doing before she went to sleep.

"Thanks a lot for the room", she told him with a smile as she handed him the key.

"You enjoy stay?", the man asked as he took the key and placed it behind the counter.

"Yeah, it was great!", she exaggerated a bit while still smiling.

"You leaving today?", he asked next.

"Yeah, I'm outta here", she answered.

"Planning to come back?", was his next question.

She didn't mind answering because she really didn't have anything else important to do. Besides, she thought, she was actually going to miss Hong Kong because she had considered it to be her home for the last year. It would've been nice if she spent her last two hours talking to someone who she believed was clearly born here.

"No", she informed him, "I'm leaving for good. I'm never coming back".

"Oh", the man answered.

"It wasn't my choice", she went on and her facial expression became a bit more serious as she rested the gym bag on the floor, "I got kicked out of the Army base that's stationed a couple of miles from here".

"Why kicked out?", he was getting interested because he realized she needed to tell somebody about her experiences.

"They didn't like the way I carried on without following some moron's orders", she went on, "But I really knew this was coming for a while. It was my choice to do things this way".

"Took risks?", the man asked.

"Yeah, I did. For everybody's sake", Sonya told him remembering Kano, "I chased after a criminal who had done more damage to the world that even he could remember. The moron in charge of the base didn't like the fact that I stole his spotlight by doing it".

"Brave of you", the man told her.

"Thanks", she went on, "Anyway. I followed him into this really old boat and it turned out this other guy was using this criminal as bait to drag me and a few other brave guys to a tournament where we had to win or it was lights out for everybody in this world. So there, there was this four-armed guy who had more muscles on him than five bodybuilders put together. The amazing part is, one of my friends actually beat him".

Sonya then went on to tell the manager about her fight with Kano, about Scorpion and Sub-zero, her kidnapping by Shang Tsung, her rescue by Johnny and Liu and about their face-off with Shao Kahn. She didn't even realize that she spent ninety minutes straight on her feet talking to the man, so she was surprised when Scott came through the door with a gym bag of his own over his shoulder.

"You ready, Sonya?", he asked after he saw her at the counter.

"Well, we don't have to go now", she resisted because she wanted to keep on talking, "There's still time".

"Sonya, the plane takes off in thirty minutes", Scott was puzzled.

"What?", she looked at her wristwatch and realized that it was indeed an hour and a half later; she hadn't even noticed the time passing.

"Oh wow!", she laughed as she looked at the motel manager, "I guess I have to go! It was very nice to talk to you, though! Thank you for listening".

She extended her right hand towards him. Seeing it, he held it with his own right hand as he smiled back.

"I'm Sonya, by the way", she told him as she put her left hand palm-down on her chest.

With that, she picked up her gym bag and walked towards Scott as the manager was still trying to absorb everything she had told him. After she walked out of the door and into the street, the manager turned his attention back to his book.

"Too much video games in America", he told himself.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The ride to the airport was short and uneventful, which meant it was good news for Sonya. After they arrived there, both she and Scott handed the flight attendant their ticket and boarded the plane. While looking for their seat number, they realized that Sonya's seat was all the way in the front of the plane and Scott's seat was near the back.

"Let's just strap in", Sonya told him, "When they tell us that we can unfasten the safety belts, I'll come over to your section of the plane".

"OK", Scott replied as he realized she was staring at his clothes.

"What?", he then demanded.

"Nothing", she answered, "I just haven't seen you without that commando outfit on before. It seems funny seeing you in civilian clothes".

"Well, I do have an outfit in my bag. They let me keep it during my vacation. That was so nice of them".

"Yeah, right", she grinned as she headed towards her seat.

Soon the plane took off into the air and the passengers were informed that they could unfasten their safety belts and smoke. Sonya hastily undid her safety belt, grabbed her gym bag and got out of her seat to head towards the rear of the aircraft. There, she found Scott staring at the ceiling with a bored look on his face.

"If you're doing anything important, I could come back", she told him amused.

"Please! Stay", he answered.

There were no empty seats around Scott anywhere, so Sonya decided to sit on the floor next to him after placing her gym bag on the floor also. She could've moved away in case anyone wanted to pass by, she thought to herself. Her position attracted Scott's attention as well as everybody else's very quickly.

"Oh", Scott told her as he stood up, "Here. The seat's yours".

"No! No!", Sonya protested, "It's OK! You can have it".

"I aien't grabbing a seat if you don't have one!", Scott insisted.

"But I'm fine!", Sonya countered looking up at him as they were getting stares from other passengers.

"Well", Scott crossed his arms in front of his chest, "I guess neither one of us is taking the seat".

With those words, Scott sat down on the floor and faced her. The well-dressed businessman who was in his forties and seated next to Scott's seat had enough of the spectacle.

"Hey, miss", he addressed Sonya, "Did you come from up front?".

"Yeah", Sonya looked up at him and pointed towards the front of the plane, "My seat is number 9B".

"I'll move", the businessman sharply said as he stood up, picked out two small bags from the baggage compartment overhead and headed to the front of the plane.

"Thank you!!", Sonya yelled out smiling as he was heading towards her seat.

She laughed lightly as the man didn't turn around. At least now, they could sit next to each other, she told herself as both she and Scott stood back up to take the two available seats. She first placed the gym bag in the overhead compartment and crashed down in Scott's seat as he took the businessman's seat. They were bracing themselves for the long trip to Washington DC.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

They were in the plane so long that they lost count of the time after the fifth hour. When they finally landed in the Washington DC airport, Sonya and Scott exited the aircraft with their bag and realized their muscles were incredibly tense. They walked out of Terminal A as Sonya was scanning every person around so she'd be able to spot her father. After a minute or so in the crowded terminal, she saw him about ten yards away at the same time that he saw her.

"DADDYYY!!!", she yelled out smiling as she suddenly dropped her gym bag at Scott's feet and rushed forward.

She reached her father within seconds despite the crowd and put both her arms around him with as much strength as she could. Scott walked up behind her while she was still hugging her father as he held his gym bag as well as hers. Sonya turned around promptly as she let go and took her gym bag back after thanking her traveling companion.

"Daddy,", she went on pointing at him, "this is Scott. Can he stay with us for two weeks?".

"You mean in the house?", major Herman Blade was surprised since he didn't know anyone else was coming with her.

"Oh, he'll sleep on the couch, don't worry about that", Sonya pressed her point still smiling, "Can he stay, pleeeeeeeeaaaaaaaase?".

"OK, fine", her father gave up as he shook Scott's hand, "So, are you stationed in the base too?".

"Yes sir", Scott answered, "I got two weeks of vacation and I figured I might as well take it now".

"So, who is this, Sonya?", her father asked while he still held Scott's hand, "Your boyfriend? It's about time you got one".

The mention of the word surprised Scott so much that he widened his eyes as he heard her father talking about him in such a way, but Sonya just ignored the question.

"Say, daddy", she asked, "what time is it here? My watch is still based on Hong Kong time".

Her father looked at his wristwatch before he answered.

"It's 1:49 PM. Why?".

"1:49? That means he could already be here", Sonya told both Scott and her father.

"Who?", they both asked at the same time.

"Daddy, I'm meeting another friend here at the airport. He's at Terminal C", she then turned around to face Scott with a happy face, "Remember? I told you I was meeting Johnny Cage here".

"Oh, not that line again!", Scott answered.

"Johnny Cage? As in the actor?", her father asked.

"That's what she keeps insisting", Scott brought him up to date.

"I'm telling you guys, he's actually here!", Sonya told them both, "I have to go to Terminal C to see him".

"Well, look", her father went on, "You two do whatever you want, I wanna go to the parking lot and bring the car around. I'll meet you two, or three, whatever the case may be, by that side entrance".

He pointed towards an entrance that was about a hundred yards away with his index finger before he asked one more question.

"Do you want me to take your bags now?".

"No that's fine", Sonya told him, "They're not really that heavy".

"OK", her father answered as he headed for the parking lot.

While she was watching her father walk away, Sonya motioned Scott to follow her.

"Terminal C is through here I think", she told him.

Scott was still not accepting her story of meeting the movie star as true. They both made their way through the crowd as they reached Terminal B. After walking for about three more minutes, they then found the beginning of Terminal C. Scott followed Sonya as she went into this terminal and began scanning every face one more time... After scanning total strangers for about a minute, she noticed a group of people that numbered about thirty who were huddled together in one corner of the terminal. Considering the possibility that Johnny might have been there, she walked up to the group after she motioned to Scott of the direction she was heading.

She approached the group walking at a quick pace. She was about twenty yards away from it when she noticed who the group was huddled around. At the center of the group, Johnny was smiling with his sunglasses on and signing autographs for his many fans. Scott noticed him a few seconds after she did and was amazed.

"What??", he exclaimed, "No way!".

"See?", Sonya smiled, feeling proud of herself, "I told you".

As they both approached the group, they began to hear what was being said. Johnny had just finished signing his name on a piece of paper, so he handed the paper to a teenager who was two feet from him.

"Do I owe you anything for it?", the teenager asked.

"Oh no", Johnny went on still enjoying the attention as he grabbed another piece of paper, "Autographs are free".

Sonya took several more steps towards him in order to get his attention.

"You know", she said loud enough so he'd hear her from ten feet away, "I want your autograph too".

As Johnny looked up to see who said that, the grin on his face widened.

"You know guys. I do have to go, but I am willing to stick around here long enough to sign autographs for anyone who wants 'em", Johnny announced to the crowd before some members in the crowd cheered because of it.

It took the movie star a few more minutes to sign his name for everybody who was around and to shake hands before the crowd let him go with his planned business. He then walked towards Sonya with his arms stretched out in front of him because he hadn't brought any luggage along.

"SONYA!!", he greeted her as she put both her arms around his shoulders.

"It's so good to see you!", she told him after they pulled away.

She then pointed at Scott.

"By the way, this is my friend Scott. He's from the base. Scott, this is my friend Johnny", she introduced them both to each other.

"Hi", Scott said as he shook his hand, "I really didn't think she was being serious when she said she was coming here to see you".

"Yeah, well", Johnny went on, "Sonya and I go way back. And I do mean waaaayyy!".

"Definitely", Sonya snickered, "Look, Johnny. My dad's bringing the car around to one of the entrances. Why don't you come with us? We can catch up on current events over lunch".

"Well, sure", Johnny gladly answered, "I'd love to".

With that, the trio headed for the side entrance where her father had pointed out to her. Herman Blade was already there as they exited out of the automatic door. He recognized Johnny right away, but still wanted his daughter to introduce them.

"And who are you?", he asked as he pretended he didn't know.

Before Sonya could say anything, Johnny put his left arm around her shoulder and answered for her.

"I'm her boyfriend", he announced.

"Wow!", Sonya's father exclaimed, "Two at once? I'm impressed... But that's OK, honey. That's actually how I met your mother. I was boyfriend number three".

"Oh shut up!", Sonya laughed out loud, "You're gonna give these two ideas!".

"Actually sir", Johnny became serious as he took his arm off Sonya's shoulder and extended his right hand, "I'm Johnny Cage the actor".

"Really? I didn't recognize you", Herman Blade lied as he shook his hand, "I don't really watch movies that much".

"Daddy, we were planning to go home and get some lunch", Sonya told him.

"Well, this morning I thought I was only going to have her in the car on the way back home", Herman Blade told the trio, "But what the hell. The more the merrier".

That was their invitation to get into the car.

While all four of them were seated in Herman Blade's living room eating whatever could be found in the refrigerator, Johnny reasoned that it was only appropriate to talk about his latest project. His adventure in the tournament was more exciting than any movie he had ever made, but the tournament still remained a very difficult subject to even mention. That was true with Sonya as well, since her father still didn't know anything about it. So Johnny was the center of attention not only because he was good at entertaining people, but also because Sonya had brought the subject up first.

"Say, Johnny", she had wondered out loud, "How come you didn't have any suitcases or anything with you when you came to the airport?".

"The production company is paying all expenses for me while we're filming the movie here. They're paying for everything, including an indefinite stay at the most luxurious hotel here", the actor explained as he bit a portion of a sandwich and held up a key that had the name of very expensive hotel on it, "We're doing a sequel with the same director that I was with right before I met you. The guy drives me nuts sometimes, but I guess it's part of the job"....

As a couple hours passed, the conversation about everything from movies to the weather winded down as evening approached. Sonya's father was curious about their plans.

"So", Herman Blade went on, "Are you kids tired after that flight?".

He wanted to know whether or not he was about to have some time alone with his daughter.

"Actually,", Scott spoke for himself as he stretched out, "I should be exhausted after that plane ride, but I'm not. Do you guys feel like going out for some time longer?".

"OK!", Sonya enthusiastically responded with a smile, disappointing her father without knowing it.

"I guess I could", Johnny didn't want to be left out even though the filming of his movie was scheduled for early the next morning.

"Come on along, daddy!", Sonya addressed her father as she stood up to head for outside.

"No, no...", Herman Blade refused, "I'm tired enough as it is".

He was telling the truth because, after the last few hours, he knew his stage of life wouldn't allow him to keep up with three athletic people who were half his age.

"Oh! Are you sure?", Sonya tried to change his mind.

"Yeah. You kids go ahead", was his answer.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With that, Scott, Johnny and Sonya headed out for a mall that was a few miles away and open until midnight... Johnny was still wearing his sunglasses even though the sun had already set. While the three of them were still browsing among the shops, a lady about Sonya's age walked up to them, stared at Johnny for a few seconds and then screamed in his face.

"Oh my God!! Look who it is!!", she yelled and then turned around, "Lisa!! Come here!! You'll never guess who it is!!".

As Lisa, who was around the same age, curiously walked up and asked what was the matter, the first lady reached into her purse for a pen and found it.

"Mr. Cage", she went on, looking at him, "Could you make one out addressed to Jamie? That's me".

"Oh, sure", Johnny smiled back.

"Oh my God! It can't be!", Lisa recognized him.

It wasn't a bother for Johnny as he was handed a piece of paper and began to write on it because the ever-present attention was part of the job. He knew, when all was said and done, that his fans were the ones who paid his salary. Thus, he was willing to stick around whenever somebody wanted an autograph. As he was making out the autograph for Jamie, he knew Lisa was next, so he decided to let Scott and Sonya go without him.

"You two go ahead", he looked at them both, "I'll catch up".

"OK", was Sonya's answer before she and Scott turned away and kept on walking.

He was still writing away when they got outside hearing range. Sonya and Scott walked about a hundred yards more in the light crowd as he brought up the subject they had discussed in the motel room in Hong Kong when he first appeared.

"So,", Scott told her, "If you really know Cage, how much of the stuff you said was true?".

"All of it", Sonya answered at once.

"All of it", he repeated to make sure he hadn't misheard.

"Yeah", Sonya stared at him with a look that said she wasn't kidding, "And there's plenty more, too. But I don't think this is the time or the place. I'll tell you about the rest later on sometime".

"Was Johnny on the boat with Kano?", Scott asked.

"Uhuh", Sonya nodded as they approached the main entrance of a superstore that specialized in computers.

There were restsrooms as well as a line of payphones a few yards away from the entrance of the superstore.

"Scott", Sonya said as she stopped and pointed into the superstore, "I need to go in here for a second. You wait outside, I'll only be a couple of minutes".

"Why can't I come along?", a curious Scott asked.

"Look, this is just something I have to do on my own", she told him, "Besides, I brought you over here, so that means I'm the heroine here and you're my sidekick. Everybody knows the sidekick always does what the hero slash heroine says".

"I'm the sidekick?", Scott asked, pretending he was insulted.

"Do you have a problem being a sidekick?", Sonya asked with her hands extended palms-up at forearms' length from her body, "Because that's the only way you can live at my daddy's place for two weeks".

"Hey!", Scott protested, "That was never in the contract".

"You should read the small print next time, Scott", Sonya smiled as she walked into the superstore and left him standing outside and wondering why she wanted to go in alone.

About two minutes passed with still no signs of Sonya or Johnny as Scott began pacing back and forth in front of the entrance. Just then, the first payphone in the line next to the store entrance rang. Scott counted the number of times it rang and soon reached fifteen before he got sick of the sound and decided to pick it up. He lifted the phone and spoke into it.

"Hello?", he asked.

"What're you doing standing outside the ladies' room you pervert??? I'm gonna call the mall security!!!", Sonya screamed from the other end before she laughed out loud.

"Funny! Real funny!", Scott answered, "This was why you went inside?".

"You have to admit I caught you by surprise", Sonya said as she was still enjoying her prank call.

"You should be a stand up comic, Sonya", Scott told her over the phone, "There's a huge market out there for people like you".

As he was saying that, Scott noticed five men dressed in jungle camouflage in the store and getting into a shoving match with someone who appeared to be an employee. He could see the spectacle because they were inside the store several yards behind the main door, which was made out of glass. Despite their clothes, Scott knew right away that the five men were not in the military. The first clue was that they didn't have any names on the right side of the chest and the second was that two out of the five men were clearly overweight. The only fact Scott knew about the military was that the food did not make one fat. The shoving match soon became a fight because all five men began to hit the store employee as everyone around them dispersed. Scott saw it and wasn't about to stand by and watch it happen.

"Sonya, get over here now!", he changed his tone of voice as he spoke into the phone, "I think we got a problem".

Scott briskly hung up, opened the glass door and rushed into the store to stop the fighting. He recognized that five people against one was a lot more like a beating.

"Hey!!", he screamed as he approached the five men to get their attention, "Get off him!!".

"Who the fuck are you??", one of the beaters asked Scott as he cautiously came closer because they had stopped hitting their victim.

"Leave the guy alone", Scott spoke in a regular tone as the employee was on the floor covering his head.

"Well, maybe we'll turn both you and him into spaghetti", the same man answered as he turned around to look at one his friends, "Wadda you think, Blud?".

"Blood?", Scott sarcastically repeated after him, "What kind of a stupid name is that?".

He was hoping that if he angered them enough, then they would divert all their attention towards him and thus stop harming the employee.

"That's B, L, U, D, punk!", the one named Blud spelled out his name. He was about six and a half feet tall and was so muscular that Scott instantly recognized him as being a regular steroids user. Since Blud was the largest in size among the five, he was the leader.

"Kick his ass!", Blud screamed as he lifted his right leg and kicked the employee in the lower back.

Three of the five men charged towards Scott screaming in order to fire themselves up. The two overweight militants were among the three as one of them grabbed a personal computer monitor off a display case and was planning to use it as a weapon. Scott readied himself for the imminent confrontation. The attacker who held the monitor over his head reached Scott first. Scott swiftly twisted to the left and kicked him in the stomach. Attacker #1 then let go of the monitor and bent over gasping for breath as the other two attackers reached Scott.

Scott turned his right hand into a fist and punched attacker #2 right below the eyes. That one staggered back with a yell as he held his broken nose. Attacker #3 tried to tackle his opponent but was so weak that Scott only took one step back after being hit head-on by him. Scott then grabbed attacker #3 by both arms and pushed him a few feet away. Once there, Scott executed a roundhouse kick and his third adversary dropped on the floor with a yell after the back of Scott's ankle impacted into his head.

Seeing the damage Scott had inflicted on his friends, attacker #1 didn't even try to resume his offensive after he recovered from the kick to the stomach. Instead, he quickly took several steps behind to put as much distance between himself and Scott as possible. But Blud didn't want to be so cautious. After the first three attackers failed to harm Scott, he screamed at the top of his lungs and charged ahead all by himself. The fear of seeing the 300 pound man coming straight at him froze Scott for a split second. But a split second was all Blud needed to tackle him, pick him up into the air as he was still running and then slam Scott's body on the floor under his own.

That single hit was enough to knock the wind out of Scott as Blud got back up to his feet. Satisfied, he then grabbed Scott by the collar with his right hand and picked him up in order to inflict more pain. Scott's feet were several inches off the floor as Blud brought his face close to his. The only thing that disappointed Blud was the lack of an audience because everyone had already run out of the store. Just as he was about to punch his victim with his left fist, they both heard someone calling from afar.

"Hey, tough guy!! Let him go now!!".

Blud turned around to see Sonya walking towards him from the back of the store and looking dangerously annoyed with his behavior. She stopped as she reached the employee who was still trying to get up but couldn't. She helped him get back on his feet and then motioned him to stay behind her. Then, standing in front of him, she looked Blud straight in the eyes as Blud's four friends watched to see what would happen next.

"I said put my friend down, tough guy!", she ordered.

"You're one to demand things!", Blud grinned as he still held Scott in place, "I can break you even more easily than I can break him. What makes you think a piece of meat with an attitude can take on me?".

"I'm the best", she calmly challenged him, "And if I'm the best, then that makes you inferior. Yeah, why don't you try it?".

Blud released Scott and let him fall back on the floor. Knowing that three of his friends were somewhat hurt after the first assault, he stared at the man in jungle camouflage who hadn't tried to rush Scott. The fourth militant's stare instantly told Blud that he would get assistance.

"I hope you don't mind if it's two on one, bitch", Blud announced as both he and the other attacker closed in on her about sixty degrees away from each other with the main entrance behind them.

The smaller man rushed forward first with a yell as he intended to tackle her and then pin her on the floor so Blud would be impressed. He was about her height and very skinny. As he got within a few feet of Sonya, she twisted around to her right and kicked him in the chest with her left foot. As the bottom of her shoe collided with his chest, the strength of the kick sent him flying out of the store. The man screamed as his body shattered the glass door and then landed several feet outside the main entrance in front of dozens of surprised and cautious spectators. After witnessing the damage done, Sonya was actually surprised at her own strength.

"Wow!", she exclaimed, "It's one on one now".

Seeing that, Blud rushed towards her by himself with sadistic thoughts in his head. Sonya ran forward for three steps, concentrated her weight on her left foot and fly kicked him with her right leg. The violent contact of her right foot into Blud's stomach hurt her opponent as he gasped and took several steps back. Before he got a chance to recover, Sonya followed him and kicked him right below his left knee. The result was that Blud screamed and came down on his knees with a loud crash.

"Think next time before you mess with a lady", Sonya told him as he was still groaning in pain.

She wasn't finished because she then saw the personal computer monitor that Scott's first attacker had dropped near her. She picked it up, raised it over her head and screamed as she smashed the monitor over Blud's face.

Her opponent dropped on his side without a sound as he had fallen unconscious after his face shattered the monitor screen. Seeing that, Sonya walked over to Scott to see how he was doing. She was pleased to see that he was able to stand and walk by himself.

"Let's get outta here", Sonya told him as she looked over to the store employee that she had ushered behind her.

"Are you OK?", she asked him.

"I'm alive", the employee groaned as he headed outside.

Sonya and Scott decided to follow him as they headed for the door while they watched each other's back. They wanted to make sure that Scott's three original attackers didn't get any more ideas. But the three men were too busy trying to wake Blud back up to give them any notice. One of the three turned around in a rage to face them as they were almost through the dooway.

"You brute!!!", he screamed, "You knocked him out!!".

Sonya didn't even seem to notice that the man's face was red with anger. Despite his feelings, the man made sure he stayed put and didn't attack because he knew he didn't have a chance if Blud had failed. While exiting the store, Sonya and Scott didn't have to open the door because it wasn't there any more. Scott went through the opening and Sonya followed and then stepped over the man who had burst the doorway open.

Once outside the store, they both caught sight of Johnny because he had just made his way through the crowd.

"What happened here?", he asked with his sunglasses still on when he finally reached them.

"That's what I'd like to know", Sonya told him as the employee who had preceded them outside was still groaning.

"What did they want?", Scott asked him.

"Jesus Christ", the employee answered, still shaken up, "They come in there and tell me they wanna put up a sign on the front door about some meeting of theirs. We aren't allowed to advertise or solicit here, I told them that. That's our rule, there's even a sign that says that on the door".

He pointed for the shattered glass door with his hand and everybody followed his direction before they all remembered the door was gone.

"Well", the employee went on, "At least the sign was there".

Just then, a man who was about Herman Blade's age hurried towards them by squeezing through the crowd. He then saw the man in jungle camouflage still lying in front of the glass door as Blud and the three other militants exited the store the same way as those before them.

"What's the meaning of this?!", the man directly addressed the four militants.

"I'm sorry,Mr. Kline", Blud announced out loud as he was holding his left palm pressed on his cheek.

The three other militants were helping the bony comrade who had just woken up in front of the door to his feet. That one groaned in pain and held his back, but Kline didn't ask anyone for a doctor or an ambulance.

"We'll take care of him ourselves", he told his other men as they had to hold on to the injured militant to keep him standing, "But he aien't having to go to some goddamn place in the city".

Before anyone among the crowd could protest that his decision wasn't wise, Kline motioned the five militants to follow him, which they did without a sound. The thin militant who had flown through the glass was conscious and thus knew that he wasn't being taken to a hospital, but he didn't complain either. Thus, the five men followed Kline as the crowd scattered a bit to let them through. As they passed by Sonya or Scott, none of the five men even looked at them.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Back home, around 11:00 PM, Sonya had told her father about the incident as soon as she, Scott and Johnny had walked through the door. Johnny had to leave to prepare himself for the next day's movie, but he was willing to stand around for a few more minutes. He wanted to find out about the men who had dared to engage his friends in a fight.

"Kline?", Herman Blade repeated after Sonya was done telling him the whole story, "You're sure that's what the guy called him?".

"Yeah, I'm positive", Sonya answered, still curious.

"Everybody in the military who's over 50 knows that name", her father went on, "Kline has been an anti-government militant for the last few decades. He hates anything and everything the government does or stands for".

"Isn't that funny?", Scott grinned sarcastically, "If they hate the government, then why are they wearing our military outfits?".

"You have to ask him that, I guess", Sonya's father told him, realizing he made a good point, "Well, a couple of years ago, his only son was killed in a drive-by shooting. And that made him far angrier, I think, because the kid was murdered by one of the automatic weapons that the House of Representatives had just decided to put back on the streets...His combination of anger and his access to weapons definitely makes this guy dangerous. He's suspected to be behind several robberies of banks and gun shops, but we're still waiting for the solid evidence to build up to put him away. He lives at an open rural area a couple of miles from here where he trains his people".

"Huh", was the only response the three people he was talking to could think of.

"What was this guy doing at the mall?", Herman Blade was curious too.

"The employee who was getting hammered said they wanted to put a flyer up for a meeting they were about to have", Johnny told him.

That was all they had to say on the subject, so they decided to end the long day at that instant as Johnny first mentioned that he was tired and needed some rest for tomorrow.

"You will come back tomorrow when you're done, right?", Sonya smiled at him, already having put the mall incident behind.

"Definitely", was his reply as he took his sunglasses off for the first time.

He put his left arm around her shoulder as she wrapped her right arm around his lower back in response.

"It was great to see you", he said before he extended his right hand to Scott, "Scott, it's been a pleasure. Hopefully next time I'll be there to help you kick ass so you won't steal the entire spotlight".

"Oh, right", Scott smiled as they shook hands before Johnny did the same with Sonya's father.

"You need a ride to the hotel, by the way?", Herman Blade asked as he let go of Johnny's hand.

"Nah! That's OK", Johnny told him, "I'll take a cab. It aien't that far".

"You're sure".

"Definitely".

With that, Johnny left, Scott crashed down on the couch with his back still complaining after being slammed by Blud and Sonya headed for her old room, which her father hadn't changed one bit since she had moved out. He had somewhat always known she'd be back.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day, all three occupants were awake and alert by noon. Scott was still wondering why Sonya hadn't told her father about Kano. She still hadn't after getting something to eat. Sonya was dressed in her usual shorts and T-shirt while Scott decided to put on his black pants and tank top that had accompanied him from Hong Kong.

"Daddy? I wanna go out and visit some of the old places I used to know before I left, OK?", she told her father innocently enough, "Why don't you come along, Scott?".

"That'd be fine", he answered.

As they exited her home, she headed straight for the car that was parked by the curb. She already had the keys, so she opened the driver's door after unlocking it. She then tossed the keys to Scott who was standing by the front passenger side so he could use them also. After they both got inside and closed the door, Scott handed her the keys back and she started the car.

"So where're we going?", an interested Scott asked out loud, "Which places do you wanna see?".

"None of 'em", Sonya answered by locking eyes with him, "I wanna go see Kline".

"WHAT?!?", Scott snapped, feeling surprised.

"Daddy said he lived in a rural area a couple of miles from here where he trained his goons", she went on, "I can think of only one place within such a radius that fits that description".

"Why do you wanna see him of all people?", Scott was still uneasy about the idea, especially after his encounter with Blud.

"Come oooon! It'll be fun!!", Sonya smiled, "We could go there, see how the losers in society spend their time and maybe even kick some ass if they try anything".

Scott wasn't smiling back.

"What would you rather do?", she looked at him through a pair of bright eyes, "You wanna stay here and watch TV? Trust me, there's nothing on. Besides, we're the military, you and me. We can't put up with his kind of an attitude".

"Oh! And who the hell put us in charge?", Scott countered.

"We did!!", Sonya was all smiles as she pointed to herself.

"Oh allright!! But I still don't like the idea!", Scott cautiously gave up.

Sonya drove for about twenty minutes with her eyes scanning the entire scenery before deciding she found place she was looking for.

"This might be it", she told Scott as she parked the car on the side of the street near a rural location.

As they both exited the vehicle, Scott kept being cautious.

"This is our last chance to pull back, Sonya", he warned her, although she had her mind made already.

Even though the area was surrounded by a fence and barbed wire, the front entrance gate was wide open. Sonya walked right in and Scott followed to make sure she wasn't in over her head. They got about fifty yards before they were approached by a man who was dressed in jungle camouflage, so they knew they had found the right place. The man they were facing was even younger than they were.

"Earthling, may we speak with your leader?", Sonya smiled as she mimicked a space alien.

"Follow me", the young man in the military outfit smiled back, feeling amused.

They followed him for about a hundred more yards past other men in military outfits who were busy in exercise drills before reaching a private office. The young man knocked on the door before hearing "Yeah?" from inside.

"Mr. Kline?", the man answered, "There are two people here to see you".

"Come on in", Kline answered from the other end of the door.

The young man opened the door from outside and held it open for Sonya as he motioned her inside with his free hand.

"Oh, thank you", Sonya smiled at him as she entered the room and Scott followed.

As soon as Kline saw the two of them, he stood up from behind the desk where he was seated as the young man followed them inside and closed the door.

"How did you get here?!", Kline demanded, "How did you find me?".

"We're good at what we do", Sonya answered by crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You just let them in here?!?!", Kline next snapped at the young man behind them.

"Relax!!", Sonya countered, "He didn't let us do anything. The front gate was wide open, we just walked in".

"The front gate was wide open...", Kline repeated before he looked at the young man again, "Who the hell was the last guy who used it?... What's the point of having barbed wire around the entire place if the front gate is gonna be left open??!!".

"I'll find out sir!", the young man rushed out of the officer feeling scared.

"You have got to do something about your demeanor, Kline", Sonya commented even though Kline was not interested in her opinion.

"What do you two want? You came by to tell me you're suing after last night's incident at the mall?", he asked as he sat back down.

"No", Sonya took a step closer towards his desk, "We were just curious about why you do what you do. Nothing more... And we wanted to see if your training was better than ours".

"Why? You're in the military too?", Kline asked.

"Uhuh", Sonya nodded.

"Yeah right!", Kline didn't believe her.

"Trust me, she is", Scott spoke for the first time, "At least was".

"Oh? What happened?", Kline was getting more curious himself.

"I disobeyed a politician", Sonya plainly told him.

"Really?", Kline grinned, "Now that I can believe!".

"I'm sorry about what happened to your son", Sonya told him as she let her arms back down by her sides, "I really am".

"Yeah, well", Kline answered as if the death didn't mean anything to him, "It won't matter real soon".

"What are you talking about?", Sonya was getting an eerie feeling about his tone of voice.

"Do you two want to join my organization?", Kline didn't answer her question.

"Well, I don't think so", Sonya responded.

"Then get the hell out!", Kline motioned for the door with his head, "That bill the House passed was enough of an insult. I don't need to put up with this bullshit from anyone else".

He had probably meant the bill that tried to legalize the kind of automatic weapon his son was killed with, Sonya reasoned.

"Mr. Kline", she approached his desk and then leaned on it looking at him, "I find it curious that you are showing almost no emotion with regard to your son's death. Why is that? You're not planning anything, are you?".

Sonya knew that a troubled mind looks extremely calm when it decides to die, and death does not usually come to the person alone. It was clear from Kline's facial expression that Sonya had read him like a book. She could see that he was planning something big that would avenge his son's death and also be the biggest news for a long time.

"Don't do anything stupid, Mr. Kline", Sonya locked eyes with him.

"What I do with my own time is my business", Kline was angered by her last statement, "Even if you two loons knew what I was doing, which you don't, you couldn't stop me... Now get lost!".

But Sonya didn't leave. In fact, she kept on lecturing him.

"What're you thinking?", she remained leaning towards him on the desk, "You figure you're gonna go to some public place with an automatic and blow away as many people as you can? Is that gonna make you feel better? If you do, that's gonna be your son's memory. Years from now, people are only gonna remember him for causing a major terrorist act. His name will by synonymous with Lee Harvey Oswald. Is that what you want?".

The reason she wanted to change his mind was because Kline reminded her of herself. She could understand how someone could have so much anger towards society that he or she would end up harming total strangers because of it. Sonya was actually afraid that if Kline committed such an act, then so might anyone else in the future, including herself. After all, she reasoned, Kline wasn't born that way, he was made.

"Are you finished?", Kline then asked her, unimpressed.

"Yeah", she answered as she pulled back from the desk and stood at her full height.

"Then you know the way to the door", Kline went on.

"Come on, Scott. We're out of here", she headed for the door realizing there was some imminent danger to the country's capital.

She left the office followed by Scott, who was extremely glad to be out of there. Once outside, they ran into the young man who had opened the door for them as he was returning to Kline's office. He politely greeted them both before proceeding for the office door, but Sonya grabbed a hold of his arm as he passed her.

"Let me ask you something", Sonya wanted to satisfy her curiosity, "You seem nice enough. And I don't think it's an act. So why are you here with these guys?".

"That's a pretty long story", the young man answered as he faced them both.

"We have a while", Scott took the words out of Sonya's mouth, "Why don't you give us a summary".

"Why should I do that?", the young man asked him.

"Because we want to know. And we're the Army Special Forces", Scott countered.

It seemed like the young man didn't feel comfortable with the idea of telling his life story to a pair of strangers, so Sonya thought it wise to introduce themselves.

"I'm Sonya", she told him before she pointed to Scott, "And this is Scott".

"I'm Rick", the young man told them, "Special Forces, huh?"

"That's right", Sonya went on, "So, Rick. What's on your mind?".

"Look", Rick told them both, "I used to be married, with a kid of my own. I worked in a factory to make parts for Cobra helicopters ever since I got out of high school. I was a damn good worker, too. I never stole anything and I always did my best whenever they assigned me a job... Hey, I had to. I was married right after high school because my girlfriend got pregnant, so I had to provide for 'em. But after several years, they just shut the goddamn place down because some pig wants to make more profits than he already is by giving some contract to someone else".

"Oh", was the only thing Sonya could say.

"Do you know what it's like to not be able to provide for your family?", Rick asked them both, "It's the worst feeling in the world! It's like them telling you that you're worthless! My wife left five months ago because she couldn't take it any more... She wanted to find someone who could provide for her. Not that I can blame her... I haven't seen her or my kid since then. These guys have become my family since then, they took me in".

"I'm sorry", Sonya could see the pain in his face.

"Don't be", Rick countered, "I don't want pity. Nobody does... Look, I appreciate you two listening, but I gotta job to do here withMr. Kline. I better not be late".

"Listen, if you ever wanna talk, you can reach us", Sonya wanted to hold him long enough to tell him that, "I don't suppose you have a pen on you".

"No", Rick answered.

"I do", Scott brought one out from his pants pocket and handed it to her.

After accepting the pen from Scott, Sonya saw a leaf on the ground near their feet. Without either men knowing what she was doing, she bent down to pick it up. Upon being back up to her full height, she wrote her home phone number on one side of leaf and handed it to Rick.

"That's where you can find me", she told him, "Ask for Sonya".

"Thanks, but I doubt I'll call", Rick took the leaf from her, turned around and marched towards Kline's office.

Sonya and Scott then proceeded towards the car. As they were nearing the gate, they could see that they were not getting stares from the people in the camp. That was probably because the militants were used to having potential recruits walk in and out in civilian clothes, Sonya reasoned. Upon reaching the gate, they realized that it was still wide open, so they used it to return to the car. After unlocking both doors, Scott settled down on the front passenger seat like before.

"I'm glad that's over", he commented to her as he stared out the windshield towards the camp.

"I feel bad for that kid Rick", Sonya told both him and herself as she started the car to drive away.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When they reached home, Sonya's father told her that Johnny had just called a few minutes ago.

"He was wondering if you guys were in because he said they had stopped filming for an hour or so because of some electrical problem", he told them, "I told him I didn't know when you'd be in but that he could come by if he wanted. He said 'Yes', so he's on his way".

"Maybe we can discuss the art of politics when he gets here", Sonya told him.

"What?", her father was confused.

"Nah. Nothing", she wanted to drop the subject.

"Well, have fun kids", her father announced as he walked towards the door, "Because I have a meeting that I should get to. So if you decide to leave, take a key along, OK?".

"OK, daddy", Sonya told him as he headed out the door.

After her father was gone, Scott figured out this was as good a time as any to inquire about her experiences for the last few days.

"OK", he exhaled and put both his palms together in front of his chin, "Do you wanna tell me what happened now?".

"You really don't quit, do you?", she asked him, not surprised that he wanted to know.

"No", he answered, "And why aren't you telling your father about it?".

Sonya sat down on a couch and stayed quiet for several heartbeats without answering as she stared in front of her.

"If you don't tell me, I'll just ask Johnny", Scott defiantly smiled.

"Why don't you do that?", she rubbed her face with her hands.

"I want to hear it from you!", he protested.

"OK", she figured he earned the right to know, "Now, everything I'm telling you is the honest truth. I would bet my life on it, OK? So nothing's a joke. And......".

She stopped without finishing her sentence.

"What?", Scott stopped smiling as she sighed.

"You have to promise not to tell anybody about what I'm telling you", she continued.

"I can do that", Scott told her.

"When I got on the boat, it belonged to a sorcerer. This guy, his name was Shang Tsung, and he wanted to take over the earth", she had a small smile on her face, "Another thing he wanted was me... Not that I wasn't flattered, but this guy was a creep... See, there are many other realms other than our world, and Shang Tsung could apparently take over these realms by winning ten tournaments in a row. The Mortal Kombat tournament was available only once every generation and Shang's men had already won nine. In other words, if Johnny and I lost this fight, our world was fucked. One of Shang Tsung's men was called Sub-zero and he could freeze anybody he wanted to from several yards away".

Sonya had an emotionless face as she was recounting the story.

"Before the major fight began, I saw him freeze a guy and then smash him to pieces just to demonstrate his power", she sighed again, "Another guy who worked for Shang Tsung was Scorpion. This guy had a live harpoon coming out of his hand that tried to bite his opponent during a fight. Shang himself was a warrior who could steal the souls of anybody who was defeated in the tournament if he wanted to... That was no joke either because I actually saw him doing it. That practice had kept him alive for God knows how many centuries".

Sonya's mood was getting more grim as she kept on describing all the different characters she ran into during the tournament.

"And of course, there was Goro...", she stopped after mentioning his name.

"And who was he?", Scott asked even though he could see the recollection was affecting her. His curiosity had gotten the best of him.

"Goro was Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat champion", Sonya told him, "He was by far the meanest son of a bitch I had ever seen, and knowing Kano and Benson, that says a lot... Kano was there too and he and I duked it out as one of the first fights in the tournament. As you can see, I got the better of him. I actually broke his neck. He was down on his back so desperately trying to get out of my grip, but he couldn't... Only one of us was going to walk out of that fight alive, so I figured it better be me".

"Where exactly was this fight held?", Scott went on as he began believing her for the first time.

"Some of it was on Shang Tsung's island. Wherever this place was, it wasn't on any map and the compasses or radios didn't work when you were near it. That's where the ship took us when I boarded it. The island was somehow of a door between this world and the realm of Outworld because there was a way to walk into that world from there".

"That's why you were so sure that nobody would ever find Kano's body!", Scott exclaimed, "Because his body is in this island that can never be found, except by some mystical force once every generation".

"Exactly", Sonya began to smile.

Just then, someone rang on the doorbell. Seeing that Sonya was still seated and looking straight ahead, Scott decided to answer it himself. When he opened the door, he realized that it was Johnny on the other side holding a shoe box.

"What's up, Johnny?", Scott greeted him, "Come on in".

"Hi Scott", Johnny greeted him as he walked in and closed the door behind him with his free hand.

"Johnny!!", Sonya exclaimed while still seated, "You don't have another decapitated head in that shoe box, do you?".

"What?!", Scott's eyes widened at her question.

"Just kidding", Sonya grinned, "Now, that is a joke".

"Oh", Scott answered, feeling a bit foolish.

"No, not this time", Johnny answered as he took his sunglasses off with his left hand, "Actually, the box is for you. When did you guys get here? Your father said you weren't in right now ".

He extended the box towards Sonya with his right hand.

"We just got here a minute before you", Sonya let him know.

Surprised and curious, she stood up and walked up to him to accept the box.

"I'm almost afraid to look inside", she kept grinning as she placed her left palm under the box and lifted the top with her right fingers.

Inside the box was a brand-new Glock 9mm pistol, just like the one she had lost aboard the ship.

"Oh my God!!", Sonya exclaimed as she gripped the handle of the pistol and pulled it out the box with her right hand.

"I didn't bother with any rounds since I figured you still had plenty from the old one", Johnny told her as she threw the empty shoe box on the couch.

"Why? What happened to the old one?", Scott pondered.

"Sub-zero froze it as I was pointing it at his head inside the boat", Sonya told him with the grin still on her face.

At the mention of Sub-zero's name, Johnny's head snapped back for a few inches with surprise.

"He knows???", he pointed at Scott.

"Yeah. But Scott's OK", Sonya reassured him, "He won't tell".

Her statement was enough to comfort Johnny's anxiety.

"Sub-zero froze your piece as you were holding it?", Scott was still wondering about what she said.

"That's right", Johnny said while looking at him, "And I know too because I was cowering behind her when it happened".

"No he wasn't!!", Sonya began to laugh.

"She never takes credit for her actions", Johnny smiled as he still stared at Scott and pointed at Sonya.

"Thanks, Johnny!", Sonya was still all smiles, "It'll be great to begin practicing with this again".

"You guys hear the news? I heard it this morning as we were filming", Johnny asked them both at once.

"What?", Scott asked.

"That idiot who we ran into yesterday, Kline", Johnny went on, "He's planning a demonstration this afternoon going into this evening outside the White House. That's probably why his goons were trying to put those pieces of advertisement up yesterday".

"He didn't tell us anything about it", Scott stated to no one in particular.

It took Johnny a few seconds to understand what he meant.

"Why would he tell you guys?", he asked before he realized the significance, "Oh, wait a sec... Tell me you guys didn't see him".

"Actually we did", Sonya nervously smirked.

"Why?!", Johnny couldn't understand, "Why did you two do that? Can you tell me?... It was the two of you, wasn't it?".

"Yes, daddy. I didn't go alone", Sonya answered him.

"You shouldn't make light of this, Sonya!", Johnny answered, "There's no saying what this guy is capable of!".

"Well, Johnnyyyy", Sonya protested, "We talked to him! He really didn't seem that scary at all. The press is making him out to be like Shang Tsung or something and he's not! He doesn't have any class or any sacred mission. He's just some guy who feels he can only be heard when he's packing heat. There's nothing scary about him".

"No sacred mission is right", Johnny continued her description, "Unless total anarchy is considered a sacred mission nowadays".

"Change the subject, guys!", Scott interrupted their talk, "I was trying to come up with anything to do today".

"I'm free for another...", Johnny looked at his wristwatch, "Uh... twenty minutes... Then I gotta go back and restart filming. So, you two are alone. I gotta go back to my hotel and meet my make-up man just about now".

"You came by just to drop the piece off?", Sonya questioned.

"Yeah", Johnny put his sunglasses back on, "I figured I was gonna hand it to your father instead".

"He left right before you showed up because we came in", Sonya responded, "Well, thanks a million for the piece!".

"It was a pleasure", Johnny stated as he headed for the door.

As Johnny headed back to his hotel after hailing a cab, Sonya was busy testing the empty gun by aiming it at inanimate objects to see if it felt the same as her old one. She should not have been able to tell the difference and wasn't able to. Just as she was aiming it at the TV set, the phone rang. Scott, who was closer to it, picked it up.

"Hello?".

He waited a few seconds and then handed the phone to her.

"It's for you. It's some guy", Scott said as Sonya put the Glock down on the floor to grip the phone instead.

"Yes?", Sonya spoke into the receiver herself.

"Is this Sonya?", the man on the other end asked.

"That's right", Sonya went on, "Who is this?".

"This is Rick! From Kline's camp!", the man whispered out loud.

"Rick? Hi! What's going on?", Sonya was amazed, especially since Rick had told her not to expect him to call.

"I can't stay!", Rick kept on whispering, "Kline's lost it, Sonya! I'm just calling you because you're in the Special Forces and you may do something about it".

"What??", Sonya demanded, getting worried.

"After you left today, Kline went nuts!!!", Rick told her, "He was screaming about how some airhead had dared to lecture him and that pissed him off more than anything I'd had ever seen!".

"Are you OK?", Sonya went on, feeling scared for Rick's safety.

"I'm fine. I'm gonna get the hell outta here as soon as I hang up!", Rick was getting more nervous, "Sonya, listen to me... Kline is gonna attack the House of Representatives!! He's got eleven men with him and they're all armed to the teeth. I think he's gonna kill as many people as he can before he blows the place up to kingdom come! He's gotta a bomb too!".

"How do you know about this, Rick?", Sonya asked him, not wanting to be tricked, although she didn't mistrust Rick.

"After you left, he told us about his plans! There was supposed to be a demonstration today, but it's a fake! It's really a hit!", Rick went on, "He told us all to pack up and move because him and eleven of his guys were doing the hit! I aien't gonna stick around, though. As soon as I hang up, I'm getting as far from this place as possible! I never signed a contract to conspire to kill anybody! Bye, Sonya. Thanks for listening".

"Wait Rick!! Rick!!!", Sonya yelled into the phone with no avail because Rick had already hung up.

"What's going on?", Scott asked her as she put the phone back down.

He could see from her facial expression that something wasn't right.

"We got a problem!", Sonya told him as she picked her Glock back up, "That was Rick and he says the demonstration by Kline is a fake. Kline is actually gonna attack the House of Representatives".

"Oooooooooooh!!!", Scott sarcastically looked impressed and a lot less scared than Sonya.

"We have to stop him", Sonya insisted, surprised at his attitude, "And I don't wanna call the police. If Kline is there, then he's there to kill! A single police car going up against his men will get crushed".

"You're getting really worked up over this", Scott calmly told her.

"Scott, we have to stop them!", Sonya shot back.

"Why? He's gonna wipe out a bunch of politicians", Scott countered, "Is that so bad?".

He wasn't being sarcastic or speaking out of anger. He was serious.

"How can you say that, Scott?", she was getting more fired up every second.

"Come on!", Scott defended his view as he held his right index finger in front of his hand, "Give me one good reason why we should risk our lives for them!!!".

Sonya was speechless. For about thirty seconds, she desperately tried to come up with a good reason while she and Scott had locked eyes... She finally came up with a response after he had patiently waited.

"Well!", she hoped what she said didn't sound stupid, "Our system of government keeps us from anarchy!".

"Some asshole who makes a six figure salary to give everybody lip service keeps us from anarchy? No! Politicians don't keep us from anarchy, Sonya!", Scott barked back, "People like us do!".

"Allright, allright!", Sonya conceded defeat in that point, "What if... What if there's somebody near the House of Representatives when Kline and his men attack? This person will try to get involved after seeing the attack and he'll get killed! We have to intervene for that person if for no one else!".

Her argument seemed to win Scott over and he finally agreed to come with her. He reached under the couch where he'd slept the previous night and retrieved an already loaded Beretta 92F. Sonya had no idea how he brought the pistol with him through the airport, but she couldn't think about it at the present time. As Scott checked to make sure his clip was full, Sonya dropped her empty pistol and rushed to her room.

"I have to get some clips for the new Glock!", she told him as she ran there, "And I have another gun too!"....

She came out a few seconds later with a clip for the Glock in her left hand and a shiny revolver with a six-inch barrel in her right.

"It's a 357", Sonya told him as she put the revolver down and loaded the Glock.

"Wadda you need a second one for?", Scott asked.

"Can't hurt to have a back-up", she told him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

With that out of the way, Scott and Sonya ran for the car after she grabbed the keys to it. The vehicle was still exactly where they had left it. Thankfully, Sonya told herself, her father hadn't taken it...

They were in it and racing towards the House of Representatives with Sonya in the driver's seat in a matter of seconds. As Sonya sped towards the destination, she realized which direction they were headed. After driving for a couple of minutes, she quickly turned her face to the right to take a look at Scott.

"Scott, we're passing by Johnny's hotel", she informed him, "Should we stop to get him?".

"Is it wise? Can he handle himself?", Scott wasn't sure of the idea of having Johnny walk in the middle of a gun battle.

As they drove by the front of the hotel, Sonya pressed on the brakes because she caught a glimpse of Johnny outside the front door. The actor was still wearing his sunglasses and eating an ice cream cone.

"JOHNNY!!", Sonya yelled after her face was out of the driver's side window, "GET IN THE CAR!!".

"Hey guys!", Johnny waved as he smiled, "I can't come along. I'm on my way to the studio now. I'm waiting for my guy because filming starts in ten minutes".

"JUST GET IN THE CAR!!!", Sonya yelled back, "SOMETHING'S WRONG!! WE'LL EXPLAIN IT ON THE WAY!!".

Johnny realized from her tone of voice that something had indeed gone seriously wrong. Not knowing what to do with the ice cream cone, he just dropped it on the pavement and ran for the car. Sonya reached back and unlocked the left back door a few seconds before Johnny opened it, jumped in and then closed it behind him. As soon as he closed the door, Sonya stepped on the accelerator again.

"What's going on?", Johnny asked, expecting bad news.

"We have information saying Kline's gonna attack the House of Representatives", Scott told him without looking back.

Knowing he shouldn't go into battle unarmed, Scott gripped Sonya's .357 revolver and handed it to Johnny.

"Is it loaded?", he asked Sonya about the revolver.

"It's loaded", she answered.

"Oh, guys!", Johnny protested, "I don't need a gun. I never did".

"This is no time to be stupid!", Scott protested as he turned around in his seat to look at him, "Take the gun!".

"I'm serious, Scott!", Johnny still refused it, "I never needed it! You guys should keep it".

"Don't argue, Scott!", Sonya ordered him as her face was becoming more tense the closer they got to their destination, "If Rick was telling the truth, then we're gonna be facing twelve guys in there... Make sure you stay together guys, we can't afford to separate. People usually get hurt when they're alone".

"I hear you", Scott was bracing himself for the showdown.

"Gotcha", Johnny echoed him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kline, in the meantime, was behind the wheel of a van as he and his eleven men raced for the building where the members of the House of Representatives were meeting.

"Now remember", he instructed his men one last time, "You separate into three groups of three each. Blud and Techno, you two come with me... After six minutes in there, the three groups get the hell out of there fast.... Any questions?".

No one answered. They all knew that Techno was the nickname for the militant who was their explosives expert. Kline wanted to take him and Blud along because he planned to wire the place up with as much C4 as possible. Blud was a bodyguard and Techno was the brain behind setting up the explosives correctly. As he and his two men were busy with that task, his other nine men would separate into three groups and cause havoc in order to divert everyone's attention from their boss. Each of the twelve men in the van, except for Techno, had an AK-47 and was dressed in jungle camouflage. Some of them even had hand grenades in case they felt like having some extra fun.

Kline sped faster than the legal limit as his van approached the building. He told his men to brace for impact as he drove the van into the door. The van crashed through the door with a loud explosion and then stopped. All the militants inside promptly exited from the rear of the van, except for Kline who used the driver side door. They saw they were at the beginning of a hallway....

Patrolman Boyle happened to be inside the building just watching the ceiling and feeling bored when he heard the noise. Knowing that something was wrong, he instantly withdrew his Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol and proceeded towards the origin of the noise. He was finally doing something other than filling out endless pieces of paper for a living, he told himself as he kept running to see what was going on.

After about thirty seconds, officer Boyle reached the opposite end of the hallway and caught sight of a dozen men in military outfits as they loaded their AK-47s. Boyle was usually very careful, but this time, the excitement got the better of him. He exposed himself without taking cover behind the wall that led to the hallway. Instead, he stood in the middle of his end of the hallway, which was about thirty feet from the militants, and he aimed his handgun at one of them.

"FREEZE, MOTHERFUCKERS!!!!", Boyle yelled out as the militants had just realized they had company.

Kline wasn't about to let a police officer get in his way and his men knew it. Three of the militants smoothly aimed their AK-47s at Boyle and opened fire. Boyle was hit in the right thigh as well as the chest. He yelled out and pulled the trigger of his Smith & Wesson several times as he fell on his back. One of his rounds hit the militant he had aimed for in the left shoulder as that one screamed in his own turn and dropped on the floor in pain.

After seeing that Boyle was hit, Kline and his men tried to see the extent of the damage the officer's bullet had created.

"I'm fine!!!", the wounded militant protested, "I can go ahead as planned".

"I know", Kline answered him, "You're very brave".

One of the other militants quickly tried to patch up his comrade's shoulder after he was handed a first aid kit from inside the van. Within two minutes, the wounded militant was hissing with pain as he gripped his AK-47 to go on with the offensive as planned. The militants then ran towards the end of the hallway and officer Boyle's body in order to begin their killing spree. Upon reaching Boyle, one of the militants looked down at him, wondering whether he was still alive.

"Should we shoot him some more?", he asked Kline.

"Come on! Nobody could've taken so many hits and lived! We're wasting time!", another militant reasoned with him.

"He's right", Kline told the first man, "But so what?".

With that, Kline aimed at officer Boyle's chest and fired a single round from his weapon. Officer Boyle didn't seem to react at all, so his lack of response told the militants that he was dead. Thus, all twelve men ran towards the politicians they had come to hate. As they disappeared, though, officer Boyle opened his eyes and grunted with pain. He knew he was bleeding profusely from the wound in his thigh and tried to stop the flow of blood.

"Next time check to see if I'm wearing a vest, asshole!", he commented to whomever had shot him last.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sonya, in the meantime, drove towards the building. Seeing the rear of the van among the pieces of the door and the wall, she knew they were at the right place. She stepped on the brakes and the car came to an uneasy halt. As soon as the vehicle had stopped, she, Scott and Johnny opened their separate door and exited. While they began to rush for the van, though, Sonya heard a voice that was apparently talking to her.

"Give me your purse, bitch".

She was surprised since she couldn't even remember the last time she had carried a purse. She turned to her left, from where the voice had come from, and saw a teenager with green hair coming towards her from feet away as he held a switchblade knife in his right hand.

"Come on!!! Hand it over!", the teenager ordered as he stopped five feet away.

Apparently, it didn't seem strange to him that Sonya was only carrying a handgun in each hand. Scott and Johnny were as puzzled as she was as they stopped to stare at someone who was clearly stupid.

"Go back to school", Sonya commented to her teenage mugger right before kicking at his right hand.

The teenager screamed as the knife flew out of his hand. The next thing he felt was Sonya's foot going straight into his stomach as she twisted around and kicked him there. The second kick was enough to land her mugger on the ground in pain as Sonya then turned away and proceeded towards her original target. As Scott passed by the mugger, he made sure to kick him in the stomach for a second time.

"Moron", Scott called him as he screamed out again.

All three then reached the hole the van had created. Seeing nobody near it, they then ran towards the opposite end of the hallway where they caught glimpse of somebody still on the ground, though conscious. Upon reaching him, they realized that it was a police officer who was trying to stop the bleeding in his leg by wrapping his shirt around the wound.

"Hang on officer", Scott told him, "We're the good guys".

He squatted next to him and tightened the makeshift tourniquet on Boyle's thigh as Boyle groaned louder in pain.

"We should get him outta here", Scott looked up to Sonya and Johnny.

"I'll be fine!", Boyle told him, "Just stop those sons of bitches! I already used my radio and told them I've been shot, so every cop and ambulance in the city is gonna be here in sixty seconds! There were about a dozen of them, all armed with machine guns".

"Gotcha", Scott told him as he stood back up gripping his Beretta, "You're sure you'll be OK?".

"Yeah, yeah!", Boyle hissed air into his mouth, "Take my piece too if you want. It's over there. It still has about ten rounds or so in it".

Boyle pointed towards where his Smith & Wesson had fallen a few away from him. Scott thanked him and picked it up before all three ran after the militants and left the officer behind waiting for the ambulance.

As they quickly went after Kline's men, they were warily going over every detail around them to make sure there weren't any surprises.

"We are gonna do this. Right guys?", Scott asked them both, "We can win!".

He was trying to encourage both them and himself.

"Hey", Johnny answered, "If Goro can be killed then anything in this world is possible. Remember that".

"Can Goro be killed?", Scott asked without looking at him.

"Yeah", Johnny said, "I killed him".

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At that time, Kline and his men reached the floor where a congressman was giving a speech while a few dozen others were listening. The listeners were seated in seats that were screwed to the floor and each row was raised at a 45 degree angle above the one below it.

"We're here!", Kline announced a split second before he shot the congressman who had the floor.

Panic gripped the remaining congressmen as they tried to scramble out.

"Blud and Techno, you're with me", Kline ordered as he proceeded towards what he considered to be the weakest point of the infrastructure.

He also ordered the first group of three men to go in one direction and the second group to go in another in order to find more victims. This was going on as the third group of three militants was shooting through seats in order to hit the retreating politicians, without much success

As nine of the militants went along with their assigned duties, the three remaining stayed behind and kept firing as they stood in a line shoulder to shoulder. They found two congressmen who were trying to retreat and summarily butchered them while cheering. They then caught sight of a lone congressman who was still among the seats.

"Go for his head!", the middle of the three militants told the other two just for fun.

The three men concentrated their AK-47 fire on that one person as they kept trying to aim for his head. The congressman's head exploded as the rest of his body was pierced by bullets and he fell down on the seats. After that bit, it didn't seem like there were any more potential victims left. One of the three militants decided to unclip a grenade from his belt. After pulling off the pin with his teeth, the militant threw the grenade into the seats where he thought people were still hiding. Within a few seconds, the grenade exploded and two congressmen flew several feet into the air. One of them didn't move as they landed on the floor, but the second was screaming as his clothes caught fire. Even though they were enjoying the sight of the man trying to get rid of the flames, the militants knew they had to proceed with the plan. So all three emptied their first AK-47 clip into the second man and that one dropped without any more sounds.

"Hey, tough guy!", the militant who had thrown the grenade heard someone call from behind him.

All three militants turned around at the same time to see Sonya standing twenty feet away with Scott at her right and Johnny at her left. Sonya and Scott were aiming two handguns each at them. She had the Glock in her left hand and the 357 revolver in her right while Scott had the Beretta in his left and the Smith & Wesson in his right. "From how you fired at him", Sonya told the militants regarding the congressman who was set on fire, "I would say that your weapons are empty".

The militants were surprised to see this kind of resistance since they believed they had the element of surprise. They also knew they were at their opponents' mercy but weren't about to beg. Sonya knew it wouldn't have done them any good even if they did.

"Wadda we do?", Scott asked her.

"Well, we have a choice", Sonya answered, "We can waste 'em or.... We can take them into custody, thus forgetting about the other nine".

As she finished saying that, Sonya and Scott locked eyes for a second. Each could read what was on the other's mind.

"Waste 'em!", they both said at the same time as looked back at the militants.

That was the last thing the first three militants heard because Sonya alone opened fire with her .357 revolver. She evenly put two rounds into each militant's chest as they screamed out and dropped on the floor in a pool of blood. Knowing the revolver was empty, Sonya then let it go and it too dropped on the floor.

Gripping the handle of the Glock with both hands now, she scanned the area to make sure no other militants were around as Scott approached the three she had just killed.

"Look at this", Scott told them while looking down at the bodies, "This one's got a grenade belt".

While Sonya was still scanning the place, Johnny checked to see if any of the shot congressmen still had a pulse. None did as Scott put the Beretta on the floor, reached into the militant's bloody corpse and pulled one of the grenades out. He figured it might come in handy later , so he placed it into one of his pockets. As he was doing that, someone emerged from behind a seat that was near him and began to swing a chair leg at his face.

Scott instinctively aimed the muzzle of the Smith & Wesson he was still holding at his potential attacker's face. Sonya had done the same from twenty feet away when she heard the noise. The attacker wasn't a militant, though. It was a nervous congressman. They both realized it and held their fire. The congressman, in his turn, realized Scott wasn't dressed in jungle camouflage and thus didn't swing the chair leg all the way.

"What the hell's going on here?", the congressman asked, clearly afraid.

"We got a crazy on the loose", Scott calmly told him as he lowered the Smith & Wesson, "He's hunting you guys with the same weapons you voted to put back in the streets".

The congressman then emerged completely and climbed over the seat he was hiding behind.

"Well, that's fine!", the congressman answered Scott, "But why is he coming after me? I voted to ban those weapons!".

With that, the congressman shakily walked past him, then Sonya and Johnny and proceeded to run outside. Still standing over the three bodies, Scott watched him disappear and told himself that Sonya was right when she wanted to stop the militants.

After the initial encounter, Sonya, Scott and Johnny advanced to the main hallway that was attached to the present section.

"You're sure you don't want the Smith & Wesson, Johnny?", Scott offered it to him one more time because he held both it and his Beretta.

"I'm fine", Johnny answered as he was wiping the congressmen's blood off his hands by rubbing his hands on his shirt.

Johnny still hadn't taken his sunglasses off as all three came upon an intersection. Another hallway cut across the one they were following at a 90 degree angle even though their hallway still continued on for another forty feet.

"Which way do we go?", Scott asked out loud even though all three of them were thinking the question.

His question was answered when all six militants who had separated into groups 2 and 3 appeared at the end of their hallway. They had been warned when they heard Sonya's revolver firing because they knew none of their comrades carried anything other than the AK-47s. From forty feet away, the six militants opened fire.

Scott pushed Sonya into the hallway on the left and Johnny jumped into the hallway on the right a split second before the wall around them was chewed up by gunfire. After Sonya slammed into the ground under Scott's weight, they both stood up and saw Johnny across the hall several feet away. He faced them too. All three knew they couldn't get to each other and also that the militants would be coming after them.

"Run, guys! Get outta here!", Johnny signaled them back with his hands before he turned around and ran towards the end of his hallway.

"Come on!", Scott told her as he turned around to do the same.

But Sonya was momentarily frozen as she stared at Johnny running away from them. Seeing it, Scott dropped the Smith & Wesson and gripped her free hand.

"Come on, Sonya!!", he exclaimed with more force as he ran and pulled her behind him.

The jolt woke Sonya up.

"OK, OK!", she pulled her hand free after they had gotten ten feet into their hallway, "I'm awake, you can let go".

Within a few seconds, the six militants reached the intersection and decided to separate into the two groups that Kline had assigned them to. Three of them chased after Johnny and the other three chased after Sonya and Scott.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sonya and Scott ran as fast as they could as they turned around the many twists the hallway contained. They didn't want to stop at any of the doors they came upon because they knew some of the militants were right behind them. They reached the end of the hallway and abruptly stopped. They found themselves staring at a large conference room that was filled with tables, chairs and clean filing cabinets. The good news was that there were many items to take cover behind. The bad news was there was nowhere else to go for a retreat. One side was going to die in the room.

"Let's take cover behind the cabinets", Sonya said exactly what Scott was thinking.

Sonya ducked behind a silver-colored cabinet that about five feet tall and Scott did the same with another cabinet. There, they anxiously waited for their opponents to show themselves at the open doorway since their footsteps could be heard.

The militants didn't waste any time to arrive. The first of the three rushed inside the conference room not knowing that it was the end of the trail. He thought Sonya and Scott had run somewhere beyond the room. That was his first and last mistake, Sonya thought to herself as she and Scott leveled their handgun at him. Sonya fired four times and Scott three times in rapid succession. All seven rounds found their mark in the militant's chest and his rush forward was stopped cold because he screamed and fell flat on his stomach. He was still moving and gasping for breath when his two comrades realized what happened and took cover on either side of the doorway.

At first, both militants fired their AK-47 aimlessly into the room since they didn't see their opponents. They had their head and arms in the doorway and the rest of their body was behind the wall. Sonya fired aiming for the head three times and missed. Realizing where she was, both militants concentrated their fire on the filing cabinet she was crouching behind. Sonya completely hid behind the cabinet and clinched her eyes shut as bullets tore into its front. Whatever was inside the cabinet was keeping the bullets from reaching her, and she was grateful for it. As both militants were still aiming at her and firing, they forgot all about Scott. Taking advantage of his opportunity, Scott took careful aim at the militant on the right side of the doorway. He pulled the trigger of the Beretta once and the militant's head exploded. The second dead militant dropped without a sound behind the wall next to the doorway as his comrade's clothes were stained with his blood.

"You son of a bitch!!!", the third militant cried out in a rage.

Seeing where the second source of gunfire had erupted, he realized he had to do something else. Since he had some grenades on his outfit, he grabbed one and bit off the pin before tossing it towards Scott's direction. A startled Scott saw the grenade land on the floor just four feet away from him. He knew it would explode right away, so he had to get out of there, even if that meant walking into the third militant's trap.

Scott leaped out from behind his cabinet just as the grenade exploded. It was exactly what the third militant was waiting for because he had his AK-47 aimed towards that direction. Scott knew it, so he opened fire towards the third adversary. Sonya put him on the receiving end of her gunfire also, but neither one had aimed carefully because they were too surprised by the militant's action. Among the bursts from the Glock and the Beretta, the militant managed to fire back and hit Scott.

Scott screamed out and dropped his handgun as one bullet tore through his stomach and a second through his hip. Sonya saw him go down on the floor with his hand placed on his stomach wound. It only took him a split second to fall on his back, but Sonya felt like she was watching him in slow motion. When her partner's head finally impacted on the floor, she thought she felt his pain herself.

"AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!", she yelled out as rage overcame common sense.

She opened fire because she knew the militant had fired for a sizable amount of time. She then let him shoot back at her until he willingly stopped. That's when she realized that he had to be out of ammunition. Sonya could've rushed over to him a lot faster than he could've reloaded, so she did. She didn't even bother taking the Glock with her. She dropped her handgun on the floor and ran past Scott's body to get to the militant like a lioness who wanted to reach a deer.

The third militant was still holding the new clip in his hand and trying to reload when she reached him and gripped the muzzle of the AK-47. With hatred still burning inside her, she pulled his AK-47 towards her. It was a tug of war for a few seconds until the militant lost his grip on the weapon. Sonya then tossed the machine gun aside because she didn't want to use it.

"Now", she commented as she cracked her knuckles, "The fun begins".

She grabbed him by his collar with her left hand and sent a powerful right hook into his jaw, breaking several teeth. The militant staggered back as he spat out blood because he was shocked at her strength. He wasn't about to let a woman frighten him, though, so he charged back at her thinking he could still beat her.

As he reached her, yelling out loud, Sonya uppercut him with her left fist. His head snapped back and he stared at the ceiling as he heard an explosion in his mind. The uppercut then sent him down on his hands and knees, but Sonya wasn't finished. She bent down, gripped his jaw with her right hand, quickly picked him up to his full height and slammed the back of his head into the wall. The third hit drained most of her opponent's strength out of him, so he sank to the floor while still spitting out more blood.

"Please!", he raised his hands in front of him, "I give up! No more!".

"You give up?!?!", Sonya barked back with her eyes on fire, "Who said you could???".

While the back of his head was still touching the wall, she punched him in the nose and instantly knew she broke it. Seeing that she wasn't about to stop attacking, the militant realized that his only chance of getting out of the situation alive was to reach for his hunting knife. He knew he was weak and in pain, but he didn't have any other choice because she was clearly planning to beat him to death. He reached for the Buck knife with a ten inch blade that was strapped next to his right calf. He withdrew it and held it in a menacing fashion to hopefully get rid of her. Sonya wasn't planning to walk away, though.

"Come on!", she dared him from five feet away.

The militant rushed ahead and planted the blade into her left shoulder, almost piercing it. She should have been in tremendous pain, but Sonya didn't feel a thing. Instead, she simply pushed him off and he fell on his back. She then gripped the handle of the knife while it was still inside her flesh and pulled it out without even blinking. With the bloody knife in her right hand, Sonya walked towards her terrified adversary.

"Cute toy", she told him as he desperately tried to crawl away from her.

She caught up with him, gripped his collar with her left hand and yanked him up to his feet again before flattening his back against the wall. Before he could say anything, she kneed him between the legs. As he bent over and screamed, she quickly slammed his torso and head against the wall again.

"This is what you used on me, tough guy?", she asked as she showed him his knife.

While the militant was still moaning and trying to recover from her last hit, Sonya inserted the tip of the blade between his lips. She then gently pushed it in further so the blade was inside his mouth.

"Read the holy book, tough guy", she told him as her left shoulder kept bleeding, "Those who live by the sword die by the sword".

Before the militant could resist, she shoved the hunting knife all the way into his mouth with all her strength. The tip of the blade exited right above the back of his neck and entered the wall behind him, thus nailing him to it. Seeing that the militant didn't move after that, Sonya released her left grip on his collar. She finally began to feel the pain in her left shoulder when she pulled the hunting knife out of the militant's mouth. After the militant fell on the floor with his eyes still open, she used the knife to cut the top half of his military outfit in half. She then took the piece of cloth with her as she went back to Scott.

When she returned to the conference room, she saw Scott was still awake, although not able to stand the pain. His hands seemed soaked in blood because he kept pressing them against his stomach.

"Listen, Scott", Sonya knelt next to him, "I'm gonna get you outta here".

"Sonya!", Scott exhaled as he realized she was there, "Get outta here!..... Just leave me!..... Save yourself!".

"No, I can't!", Sonya protested as she began to wrap the last militant's outfit around Scott's stomach to try to lessen the bleeding.

It took her about two minutes to do the best job she could on Scott's wounds. Throughout the entire time, her partner just waved his head back and forth on the floor and hissed. Sonya then ripped a line that was about four inches thick from the bottom of her own T-shirt in order to lessen the loss of blood from her own shoulder. Because she didn't want Scott to be waiting any more than necessary, she did a haphazard job on her wound and was satisfied as soon as she thought she saw the bleeding stop.

"Come on, sidekick", she said next as she lifted Scott's shoulders a few inches off the floor and lowered her upper body towards him at the same time.

"Wadda you doin'?", Scott asked, barely able to talk.

"I'm giving you a ride home", Sonya told him as she loaded his entire body on her shoulders, thus increasing the pain from the knife wound.

"What?!", Scott became louder, "I said leave me here!!!".

"No way", Sonya told him as she proceeded out the door.

Since both her hands were busy holding Scott in place, she couldn't pick up any of the weapons and thus hoped they didn't run into any more of Kline's men.

"You bitch!!!", Scott was letting the pain do all the talking, "Why don't you ever listen to what people tell you?? Put me down!! Let me die in peace!!!".

Sonya ignored him as she walked past the bodies of the three militants and staggered back towards where they had come from. She realized for the first time that the hallway was extremely long.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Johnny was running down the hallway, he could sense a handful of militants were behind him. The militants weren't firing because they were almost sure they would miss if they pulled the trigger while running. Johnny passed some doors in the hallway but didn't stop to investigate what they were because he was sure they were a dead end. He knew he couldn't afford to have such a confrontation at the present time.

He finally came upon a sharp left turn in the hallway and he took it. He stopped running and flattened his back against the left side of the wall so the militants would arrive at his right. The hallway continued on, but Johnny chose to end the chase right then. He could hear the militants' footsteps approaching fast as he took his sunglasses off and placed them in his pocket.

The three militants had decided not to separate because they reached the turn in the hallway and appeared at his right together. They weren't expecting to see him and thought they would keep rushing by. Johnny grabbed the AK-47 muzzle of the militant closest to him and pulled the weapon out of his hand. Before any of the three realized what happened, Johnny lifted the AK-47 to his left like a baseball bat and swung it into the face of the militant he had taken it from. That one was knocked out without a sound and crashed on the floor on his back. As the second and third militants stopped in their tracks and aimed for him, Johnny punched the next closest militant in the stomach with the muzzle of the first militant's AK-47. While the second militant bent over and screamed, Johnny then saw the third militant levelling his own AK-47 at him. Knowing he only had one chance, Johnny kicked at the man's weapon. His foot hit the AK-47 muzzle from underneath it and the weapon flew out of the militant's hands. It spat out bullets as it hit the ceiling several feet behind them.

Seeing the third militant unarmed, and thus helpless, Johnny punched him with a closed right fist and sent him staggering back. Since he was still holding the first militant's firearm in his left hand, Johnny faced the second militant. That one was still trying to recover from the hit to the stomach and was still bent over gasping for air. Johnny raised his AK-47 over his head as he held it by the muzzle like one would hold an ax. He then sent the gun crashing down on the back of the head of the second militant, knocking him out also. With two down and one more to go, he turned his attention to the last militant who was standing. That one just stood several feet away looking at his opponent and planning in his head.

"Well, come on then!", Johnny dared him.

He was wondering if this one might actually be smart enough to surrender after seeing the kind of damage inflicted on his two comrades. The militant knew if he tried to reach for his own AK-47, which was several feet behind him, that Johnny would be all over him before he could get his hands on it. So he decided he had to attack relying only on his wits.

"Don't let this thing scare you", Johnny taunted him as he threw his own AK-47 on the floor.

That move encouraged the militant, so he rushed forward intending to tackle his opponent. But as soon as he got within two feet of Johnny, the actor instantly did a full leg split and punched him between the legs.

"UUUUGGGGGGGGHHH!!", the militant bent down and staggered several steps back with his eyes wide open as Johnny stood back up.

"It may be small, but it still hurts, doesn't it?", Johnny asked the helpless militant as he reached him.

Without saying anything else, he grabbed his opponent by both his ears and raised his right knee. He then brought down the militant's head with all his strength. After the militant's chin impacted with his knee, he was knocked unconscious and fell on his back. Johnny's knee hurt also, but obviously not as much as his opponent's chin. He then looked back down the hallway from where he had come and listened carefully to make sure there were no other followers. Hearing nothing, he put his sunglasses back on and ventured back towards the origin of the hallway.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Kline had watched Techno place all the C4 in what he considered to be strategic spots. Blud was standing watch over the both of them with his AK-47 at the ready just in case anyone tried to get in their way. Kline was armed in such a way also, but Techno wasn't armed because he was busy with the C4 and the wiring. With all the explosives at the ready, Techno handed the trigger to detonate them to Kline as requested.

"OK, you two", Kline addressed both Blud and Techno as he held the trigger, "You have five minutes to get the hell out of here. After that, you better not be in this building".

Both Techno and Blud realized that their boss meant to blow himself up along with everything else, but they knew they weren't to argue with him.

"Who's to lead us then?", Techno asked him.

"Blud is in charge", Kline answered as he looked up at the muscular militant, "You two have been through a lot with me, but it's time for me to step down to let some young blood take over. It's been an honor to serve with you two... Here".

Kline handed his own AK-47 to Techno and that one strapped it to his back because he considered the battle to be over. The last comment was Kline's hint for them to leave him so he could begin to time them by using his wristwatch as he held the trigger with his free hand. Blud ran in one direction and Techno in the other in order not to exit the building together; they reasoned they had less of a chance of being spotted that way.

While Techno was rushing towards his intended exit, he hadn't unstrapped his AK-47 because he didn't think he would run into anyone else. He was just concentrating on getting out. His haste towards an exit was cut short, though, because he reached the region where the original three militants had massacred the congressmen. Techno saw the bodies of three of his comrades and their six victims. But that wasn't all he saw because he also came face-to-face with a man who was wearing sunglasses inside the building. Johnny was walking towards him from twenty feet away when he caught sight of his military outfit and jumped behind some seats to take cover. Techno hurriedly unstrapped his AK-47 and began firing into the seats Johnny had disappeared behind.

His bullets were tearing into the seats, but unknown to him, Johnny was crawling towards the end of the line of seats. He saw some chairs there that weren't bolted down like the seats were. Upon reaching the chairs, Johnny swiftly stood up and grabbed the closest chair by the legs. Techno was surprised to see him emerge several feet away from the spot he had been firing at. As he aimed his AK-47 toward his target's new position, Johnny swung the chair back. Before Techno could pull on the trigger, Johnny hurled the chair at him with all the strength he could bring up. The chair flew the twenty feet of space that separated them and struck Techno in the face, knocking him out.

As Techno lay motionless on his back with his arms stretched out wide, Johnny began to hear several sirens emanating from outside the building. He knew right away it was the massive back-up officer Boyle had promised them as they came inside. But Johnny suddenly realized in fear that the people outside might have taken Boyle to the hospital before he told them about the three people who chased after the militants. Sonya and Scott weren't with him and they were both armed, Johnny remembered, especially Scott who was dressed in a black commando outfit. Johnny hurried towards an exit to warn the people outside. The last thing he wanted to hear was that a SWAT team member shot either of his friends after mistaking them for militants.

Blud, in the meanwhile, was making his way through an area that looked much like the place where they had first hit the politicians. He was surprised when he came across the blonde who had beaten him up in the mall. Sonya had carried Scott all the way out of the hall after leaving the conference room. Blud instantly aimed his AK-47 at her even though he didn't know who she was still carrying on her shoulders. He saw that she and the other individual were hurt and covered with blood. He realized he could simply open fire and kill them both, and Sonya knew it too as she locked eyes with him. By this time, the pain and exhaustion had already drained just about all her energy and, if Blud wanted to fire, she had already made peace with herself. But Blud wasn't firing.

"What the hell are you waiting for?!?!", Sonya barked at him as she desperately kept trying to inhale some air, "Do it!!!".

But Blud didn't do as she expected, he instead lowered his AK-47 until it touched the floor. He then let it go and stood at his full height at the ready with a menacing smile on his face. Sonya couldn't believe what she was seeing. This guy wanted to fight, she told herself.

"You've got me at an extreme disadvantage", she almost pleaded with him, "I can barely walk.... I just wanna get my friend out of here while he still has a pulse. Whatever you wanna do is up to you".

She knew she didn't have a chance in her current condition. Blud was a challenge when she was prime shape, but she now had a deep knife wound in the shoulder and was fatigued after carrying Scott for hundreds of feet. But Blud didn't sympathize. In fact, Sonya realized, he probably liked it better like this so he was sure to avenge his earlier beating at her hands.

After coming to terms with the fact that the only way she and Scott could get out alive was if she gave in to Blud's demands, she slowly lowered her partner to the floor. Scott groaned again as she put him on the floor.

"Hey... What....", he wondered out loud and in pain.

Sonya didn't stay next to him to answer, she stood back up instead and walked towards Blud intending to inflict as much damage as possible. She reasoned to herself that if she could keep him from reaching Scott, then officer Boyle's back-up might find her partner in time. She couldn't let Blud get to Scott because Scott was completely helpless by now.

"OK, tough guy", she stood at the ready several feet in front of her opponent, "Come on!".

She wanted him to make the first move, so Blud screamed and rushed forward towards her. As he reached her, Sonya spun to her right and punched him in the side of the stomach with her left fist. Unfortunately, due to her lack of energy, Blud barely felt it. He just stopped cold and laughed after he realized how weak her hit was. Sonya didn't concede defeat, though, she tried to strike again. But Blud grabbed her by both upper arms, lifted her into the air and then tossed her fifteen feet away like a rag doll. Sonya flew in midair as she screamed before landing on her back. She tried to stand up as she saw Blud calmly walking towards her with only revenge on his face.

"How does it feel to be on the receiving end?", he asked her as he squatted next to her on the left and gripped her shirt collar with his left hand, thus making sure she coudn't stand back up.

With that, he clenched his right hand into a fist and punched her in the jaw with all his strength. That single hit snapped Sonya's head to the right as she felt blood coming out of her mouth. She was still spitting out the blood as she straightened her head, and Blud next punched her using a jab right below the eyes. Her head snapped backwards and she knew her nose was broken. He grabbed her by the hair and brought her head back to its straight position so she could see the next punch coming. He pulled his right arm back with a fist so she would realize what his next move was.

"You can spare yourself any more of a beating", Blud told Sonya with a smile as he still had his left grip on her shirt collar, "All you have to do is beg for mercy".

Sonya knew he planned to kill no matter what she said.

"Fuck you!!", she whispered through the blood that was flowing from her mouth and nose.

"Wrong answer!", Blud responded right before punching her in the jaw for the second time.

He realized he could go on beating her like that for a long time, but he remembered the five minute deadline his boss had instructed him on. So instead of beating her unconscious, he shoved Sonya flat on her back on the floor with his left arm and knelt next to her. He then let go of her collar and pressed his massive left palm on her mouth as he also pinched her nostrils with his left thumb and index finger to cut off her air supply. He also pressed his right palm over her eyes so he'd have more leverage. Sonya instantly figured out what he was trying to do by pressing his entire weight on his two hands and desperately tried to get out of his hold.

"MMMMMMMMM!!!", was the only thing he heard from her as she punched him in the face with her right fist.

Blud laughed at her attempt because her hit felt more like a light slap as he kept pressing both his hands on her face. Sonya put both her hands on top of his left one in an effort of pull it off her mouth, but to no avail. As precious seconds passed by, she began to panic. She kicked her feet into the air in a wild manner as she kept moaning and trying to pull his left hand off.

"It shouldn't be long now", Blud grimaced, "I would've stayed longer, but I only got a couple of minutes left, you know".

Just when Blud thought he had won unconditionally, someone reached him from behind and wrapped two arms around his neck. The person didn't try to pull him off Sonya. Instead, Blud realized to his horror that the person behind him held a grenade in the right hand and passed the index finger of the left hand through the pin.

"GET OFF OF HER, ASSHOLE!!!", Scott screamed into Blud's ear from behind him, "OR I'M PULLING THE PIN AND BELIEVE ME, I CAN DO IT!!".

Blud believed him because he instantly released the pressure on Sonya's face and stayed on his knees. Sonya quickly sat up on the floor with her left palm on her neck as she tried to calm herself down. She inhaled and exhaled in a loud manner while she stared into Blud's eyes.

"Everything OK, boss?", Scott asked her from behind Blud with his arms still wrapped around her potential executioner.

"I'm OK, sidekick. Thanks", she answered still breathing hard.

Scott had crawled over to Blud from behind him when he realized what was going on, so he wasn't holding his weight up by himself. He had to lean on Blud to do it. The giant militant was still not moving because he didn't want to give the person behind him a reason to do anything drastic.

"If you pull the pin, you'll die too", Blud told Scott without looking at anyone as Sonya shakily stood up and walked over to the AK-47 he had rested on the floor.

"I don't care!", Scott snapped back, "But she gets out of here alive!".

After gripping Blud's AK-47, Sonya turned around to face the two of them as she aimed it at Blud's head.

"Scott, let him go", she told her partner.

From behind Blud, Scott stared at Sonya without answering. Seeing the expression on his face, she got the eerie feeling he was planning to pull the pin to stop being a burden to her. The last thing Sonya wanted was to see him sacrifice himself for her.

"Scott, let him go!", she told him in a more stern voice.

She still got the same stare as Blud was getting more and more scared. It wasn't just Scott's action he was dreading, but also the time limit specified by Kline.

"LET HIM GO, SCOTT!! PLEASE!!", Sonya began to panic.

She knew she was far enough that if Scott had pulled the pin, there was not anything she could've done about it. Fortunately, Scott decided to loosen his arms around Blud's neck. He fell flat on his back and let go of the grenade as Blud stood up. Blud wanted to get out of there fast, but he wasn't going anywhere as long as Sonya was pointing the firearm at his head.

She was considering shooting him on the spot, but she decided on another choice. Sonya marched towards him quickly and she gripped the muzzle of the AK-47 with both hands instead. From a handful of feet away, she and Blud locked eyes.

"I hope you enjoyed the fight, tough guy", she told him, "Because that's gonna be the last time you're gonna be touched by a member of the opposite sex".

With those words, and before Blud could react, Sonya pulled the AK-47 towards her left and then swung it at his head. As the firearm crashed into him, Blud dropped on the floor unconscious with a deep cut on his forehead. Sonya then let go of the weapon and sat on the floor next to Scott to try to regain her strength and.

"God, this hurts!!!", Scott groaned as he compressed his teeth from the pain.

Sonya knew his trip towards Blud must have hurt a great deal as she noticed more blood flowing out from her shoulder wound. She didn't pay attention to it, just like she ignored the blood that originated from her mouth and nose.

"Never try to fight somebody when you've got a hole in your shoulder", she told Scott.

Something Blud had said during his attempt to kill her stood out in her mind. She asked herself why he had been in such a rush when he was enjoying himself by beating her.

"Look, Sonya", Scott raised his head to see her, "Just get outta here. Let me go".

"No!", she insisted as she looked back at him.

"Don't be so damn stubborn!!!", Scott shot back as he let his head hit the floor.

"Listen, dammit!", she retaliated as she grabbed him by the tank top and looked down at his face, "We can get out of this! It's not hopeless for either of us! I can still get you out, but have to want me to! I can't save somebody who wants to die, so stay alive! You have to stay alive, Scott! For me! You and Johnny are too important. I can't keep on fighting all by myself, I just can't! You have to wanna stay. I can't keep on fighting if you're willing to give up... So what is it?".

"You're an idiot sometimes, you know that?...", Scott answered after hearing the lecture, "But hey, so am I".

His reply was enough to make her smile despite all the blood and pain she was being accompanied with. She stood up to her full height as the wound from her shoulder began to drip drops of blood on the floor around her feet. She then picked up Blud's AK-47 again because she had one more thing to do.

"What?", Scott asked as he closed his eyes.

"Something this idiot said keeps bugging me", Sonya let him know, "I'll be right back, OK? I'm just gonna go to where he came from because I got a real bad feeling about this one".

"What?", Scott asked again because he was in a daze.

"Just promise me you'll be alive when I come back...", she said, "Promise?".

"Yeah, sure", he answered as he opened his eyes back up and stared at the ceiling.

Sonya ran towards the direction she saw Blud emerge from as she held on to his firearm. Drops of blood were marking her trail next to her sneakers as she made her way. After running for less than a minute, she abruptly stopped as she found herself staring at Kline. She held the AK-47 in front of her face with both hands because he was still grasping the trigger for the C4.

"Put it down, Kline", Sonya ordered as she aimed the AK-47 at his forehead.

Kline was surprised to see there. He was even more surprised at her appearance. The blood from her shoulder wound was dripping on the left side of her T-shirt and then on the floor while the blood from her mouth and nose was staining her chin and collar.

"How the hell did you get here?", Kline nosily asked.

"I don't have time for this!!", Sonya angrily snapped at him, "I'm hurt, one of my friends is dying and I don't even know what happened to the other! Putit down!!!".

"No way", Kline answered, "I've come too far to be thwarted now".

That was the last thing he got to say because Sonya pulled the trigger of the AK-47 once and sent a single round into his forehead. The bullet blew Kline's brain matter out the back of his head as he dropped without a sound. His body hit the floor dead without him being able to press the button the detonate any of the C4.

Sonya dropped the AK-47 and simply returned to where Scott lay. She was too exhausted to feel sorry for Kline. She had trouble walking straight and kept bumping into the wall when she finally reached her intended area. When she was within fifteen feet of Scott, she realized that he wasn't moving at all and his eyes were closed.

"Oh nooo!", she panicked as she rushed to his side.

She knelt next to his stomach and touched the left side of his upper chest to feel for a heartbeat. There was a faint heartbeat, but it was extremely weak, so she stood up to finally take him outside. She couldn't even try to load his weight on her shoulders, so she just picked him a few inches off the floor. She slipped her right arm under his upper back and her left arm under his knees.

"Don't leave me alone here, you got that?", she told him as her voice shook, "You're not gonna take the easy way out!".

As she actually succeeded in lifting him by putting her arms to the ultimate test, she heard footsteps rushing towards her. She was dead if they were militants, she told herself. To her delight, she saw half a dozen SWAT team members armed in M-16 rifles coming straight at her.

"Put him down! Hands up!", one member ordered.

Sonya gladly complied with both orders. As the six men came closer, the one who spoke walked to within a few feet of her.

"Sonya?", he asked.

"Yeah!! My friend's hurt! You gotta help him, please!!", she implored as she lowered her arms by her side.

"The actor is outside bugging us all about you and Scott", the man responded.

"I'll take him", another SWAT member told them right before he strapped his M-16 around his chest and easily picked up Scott.

"That one's one of them, by the way", Sonya pointed at Blud's unconscious figure as one of the members was handcuffing the militant's wrists behind his back, "They're all dressed like that".

"Allright, we got it. Go with Tank", the member who had spoken to her first told her before the five remaining men rushed ahead.

Tank, as the SWAT member who was carrying Scott was known, accompanied her outside. He easily noticed the trail of blood that was following her.

"You should go to an ambulance, lady", he told her as they reached an exit door.

"I'll do that", she told him as they walked out and she saw him putting Scott on a stretcher as two paramedics went to work.

Sonya shakily walked past the paramedics and police officers who were around her. A few officers were busy keeping the large crowd that had surrounded the area calm, but she didn't see or hear them. She saw Johnny a second before he saw her. She kept walking towards him as Johnny rushed to her and stood two feet in front of her.

"Where's Scott?", Johnny asked.

"He's hurt, Johnny", Sonya faintly told him, "I don't even know if he's still alive".

"Jesus!", Johnny answered as he looked at the huge amount of blood that was covering her, "How about you? Are you hurt?".

She looked him in the eyes.

"Yeah", she said with a smile.

After saying that, Sonya looked up at the sky as her facial expression went blank. She fell forward and fainted in Johnny's arms. She was lucky he was there to catch her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Sonya woke up, she was lying on a stretcher that was touching the wall in a hospital hallway. Doctors and nurses were running by her like she wasn't even there. The first thing she saw was the neon light in the ceiling and the second was Johnny's face looking down at her. At least he came out fine, she told herself.

"Scott!!", she exclaimed as she sat up on the stretcher, "Where's Scott??".

She felt extremely light-headed, so Johnny motioned her to lie back down.

"You shouldn't sit up just yet", he advised her, "The nurse patched up your shoulder but you've lost a lot of blood. You should lie back down".

Sonya was never the type to do what she was told, so she twisted around and planted her bare feet on the hospital floor. She was still wearing her blood-soaked shorts and T-shirt as she looked at her fellow mortal kombatant again.

"How's Scott?", she pressed him because she had to know.

"They're still working on him", Johnny answered by pointing his index finger down the hallway, "He's down there".

"At least they didn't put me into one of those hospital gowns", Sonya commented as she stood on her own feet.

She then held grabbed her forehead with her right hand because she felt extremely dizzy.

"They've been bringing people in every second in here", Johnny told her, "The doctors and nurses couldn't afford to concentrate on one person".

Despite her dizziness, Sonya staggered towards the room where Scott was being held by being accompanied by Johnny as he pointed the exact room out. As they both reached the door with the glass in it, they saw a figure inside the room who was standing over the bed. Sonya leaned her back against the wall opposite the door and crossed her arms as Johnny patiently waited next to her.

"Lieutenant Richards was murdered just a few feet away from me", she told him as people rushed by them both, "Knowing Scott got hit was like seeing Richards go down all over again".

Sonya passed her hands through her hair.

"I can't lose him too, Johnny", she sighed, "I just can't".

"I can't wait to explain this to the producers", Johnny told her after she quieted down, "We were supposed to start filming that damn film hours ago and they still don't know where I am".

"Just tell 'em the truth", Sonya advised.

"Just like that", he looked at her.

"Yeah. You saw twelve men attacking the House of Representatives, you went in there and single-handedly wiped them out", she informed him.

"That's not a bad idea", he let her know.

"If you wanna go call 'em, that's probably a good idea", Sonya told him to let him know that he didn't need to watch over her around the clock, "You shouldn't leave people in the dark anyway. Everyone deserves to know the truth for a certainty".

"I'm not sure if I should leave you alone, to be honest", he spoke his mind.

"I'll be fine. Really", she patted him on the shoulder, "I'm just glad you came out in one piece".

With those words, she reached over and wrapped her arms around his neck. He patted her on the lower back before he turned away to find a phone.

"I'll be right back", he held up his right index finger as he walked away.

After Johnny was momentarily gone, the person in the room, who turned out to be a doctor, emerged and closed the door behind him.

"How is he?", Scott uneasily pushed herself off the wall.

"I can only notify his family", the doctor flatly answered, "Are you a member of the family?".

"Yeah, I'm his wife", Sonya almost sarcastically answered.

Her tone of voice told the doctor that she wasn't being serious.

"I'm sorry. I can't tell you then", he began to walk away.

Annoyed, Sonya rushed for him, grabbed him by his shirt collar and pinned him against the wall.

"I don't feel like putting up with this!", she snapped at him with an angry stare, "Talk!".

The doctor decided it would be easier to tell her about Scott's condition instead of arguing or trying to call security.

"This patient will never walk again", he sternly replied.

Sonya still had him pinned against the wall as his words sunk in.

"Do you mind?", the doctor angrily asked about her grip.

Sonya instantly released him and let him proceed with whatever he had in mind with others.

"It shows how much you know", she commented to him as he walked away.

She opened the door without even knowing if Scott was conscious. When she entered the small room, she noticed that he was.

"How 'ya feeling?", she asked him as she closed the door behind her.

"No pain at all", Scott faintly answered as he saw her, "I guess I'm pretty lucky. How are you doing?".

"Bleeding was stopped", she smiled, "All I need now is a shower and a change of clothes".

"And Johnny?".

"He's fine", she told him, "He came out exactly as he went in".

"Did the doc tell you?", Scott obviously knew about the extent of his injury.

"Yeah", Sonya answered, "But that's bullshit! He doesn't know what he's talking about!".

"Right", Scott said sarcastically, "I knew this would've happened sooner or later. This kind of lifestyle never lasts long".

"You will walk again!", Sonya gripped his hand, "And I'll help you! I won't stop until you're back to beating up three guys at once, I promise".

"Thanks for the offer", Scott gave a faint smile.

"Hey, soldiers have to look out for each other, right?", she smiled back.

"I need some sleep", he told her even though he wanted to keep talking.

"Oh sure", she gripped his hand tighter, "I'll be back, OK? I'll be right outside. Just call when you wake up".

"OK", he promised as he closed his eyes and she let go of his hand.

Sonya walked back outside and closed the door behind her. She stood across the hall and stared at the door where her sidekick was. She decided to stay there until Johnny came back so she could tell him about what they were facing.