Chapter 6- Powers and sanity- Kane

The moment I saw him… the moment he stepped foot on the ramp, I knew what would happen to me. I figured out the reason why he left that mask on my bed, and I knew why he haunted my dreams. My mind state was what he was after. Madness is a key to his power, when you don't care of the world around you. It makes it all that much easier to destroy, when you distance yourself from your friends. The guilt eats away at you until there is nothing more. That was what he wanted, and I was giving it to him.

When the mask hit my face, it was like being hit with a chair. It stuck on quickly, not even giving me a chance to take it off. It was on… for good. The sudden power flooding my body became too much, I passed out because of it. Yet when I came too… my head throbbed and my body felt strange. I heard Cena call out to me when I complained about my head. Sitting up I looked in his eyes. His face said it all.

"What happened to you?"

I looked at my hands, which remained bare, yet my arms were now covered in thick leather. My wrist had two sharp spikes breaking through. My legs too were covered in the rough material; this wasn't ordinary clothing for sure. Hell the boots on my feet even changed! Slowly, bringing my self to my feet, I looked at the new clothing. And another difference, hair drooped down the side of my face. My old long brown hair… it grew back.

My eyes looked at John who was speechless. "Am… I hard to look at?" I asked him.

John shook his head no. "Dude… you look like a badass" he said bluntly.

The door opened once more, this time it was Vince that walked in. Oh boy, I'm in for it now. He took one look at me and nearly fell flat on his ass.

"What in God's name are you doing in that!" he demanded.

I couldn't quite answer him, not even I knew what I was doing in this. "I don't know" I replied honestly.

Vince walked up and tugged on the clothing seeing how stiff and tight it was, his eyes then caught the spikes coming from my wrist. "Take those off!" he ordered. I tried to, yet I felt my skin get pulled up with the blades.

"Uh… I can't… it's a part of my body"

Vince turned to John. "Is this a joke you two are playing?"

"N…No sir" Cena stuttered.

"Mr. McMahon. I didn't do this on purpose, I've been passed out… how long was I out for?" I asked John.

"Almost an hour"

"Almost an hour… didn't you see what happened to me out there?" I asked of him.

Vince nodded as his eyes caught my mask. He tried to find the edges to pull it off. When none could be found, he knew then and there I wasn't joking around.

"Oh my God… it's real!"

Well that was the start of it all, a meeting was quickly held with the locker room. Me being the main topic of discussion, I wasn't really thrilled about it. "Well… any idea?" Vince asked aloud.

The room went quiet. "Ideas about what?" demanded Batista.

"On how to get Kane normal again"

I laughed aloud to McMahon's question. "Me? You think you can get me back to normal? That would be like getting Taker to remove all his tattoos Vince!" I shot at him.

Vince stared at me oddly. "So there's nothing we can do?" he asked.

"Nope"

"You sure?"

"Yep"

I saw the strange looks I was getting from everyone. "You're oddly at ease with this Kane" Taker stated.

I was well aware of that. "You can tell? Well, to be honest, I am… I am at ease with it, why you ask. I have to be. If not, I will go insane, simple as that"

The room was abuzz as to what I meant. I stop up and took the stage. "Quan Chi likes people to suffer, he wants me to suffer. Why I don't know. Yet let's look at it this way, I got his powers…" was the way I see it.

"Kane… what will it do to you?" asked Cena.

I haven't really figured it out yet, but I looked at my hand and imagined a flame. Much to my shock I conjured one, it want from green to a red fire… something I didn't expect it to do! "I'm still me… I won't let him sculpt me in his image" I stated as I extinguished the flame when my fist clenched.

I don't know if everyone was more scared of me being totally cool with this, or the fact that it happened. "Trust me" I said to them.

I saw Taker nod his head, he was seeing where I was coming from, and all the guys that have dragon inner animals agreed with me, everyone else was unsure. "Question though, how will you wrestle… if you can't take off the spikes?" asked Chris Jericho.

"Well, I won't be stepping foot into the ring…" I said. Knowing how sharp these spikes were, never would I risk anyone's well being like this.

The meeting had ended, for me; I went to the roof to think about what will need to be done. I sat on the edge of the rooftop, and looked down at the streets below. I could feel someone was behind me, someone powerful.

"Hey Rayden" I said aloud. Turning around, I gave him a smirk.

He was stunned to say the least. "What? Is this the same Kane that told me to shove it?" he asked me.

"Yeah, but I think I understand now. And know what I need to do."

Rayden had a quizitive look on me. "That's a first"

"Rayden, I know why Quan Chi did what he did to me. He wanted to drive me insane to take control of me, making me snap. I figured if I accept what's being done, he has no power over me. Am I right?"

Rayden looked rather confused. "You think that?" he asked. "Are you not considering the other motive behind this Kane? Why would he need you in a diminished metal state? Why is he infusing you with his powers?" he asked of me.

Honestly I haven't thought that far ahead yet. "I will get answers to those in a while, when I am ready but first thing is first" I turned around fully, and stood before the thunder god. "I want you to teach me of my powers. All you know about Quan Chi"

Well, it wasn't that easy of a request of him. "I can't teach you, the only one who can is the sorcerer himself. Not I. It's either that or learn on your own"

Ah, door number one or door number two.

"I think I will teach myself then"

Rayden didn't look comfortable with it. "Glen, you need to know one thing, the more power you use. The more you gain. Every time you use Quan Chi's magic, you gain in strength. It will be to a point that not even I can remove them from your body, one more thing. If anything happens to him…"

"Something will happen to him Rayden, count on it. He has taken me for a fool and treated me like a child long enough. I am not some sort of play thing for him!" I shot back.

"Will you let me finish!" Rayden yelled.

I became silent and allowed him to finish what he was going to say. "I am telling you here and now. If Quan Chi is killed, YOU will be granted his powers; do you know how serious that is? How dangerous?" he demanded of me.

I looked him in the eyes. "I know how serious that is, but you know what Rayden, sacrifices must be made in order to live at ease and with him out of my life" I shot back.

Rayden stared at me with anger. "Does the name Shang Tsung ring a bell to you?" he demanded.

I nodded to him. "When Quan Chi is gone, he will come at you next. And when that happens you pray to your God that he doesn't kill every one of those fans in the arena. Quan Chi lacks the power to take souls. If Shang Tsung finds out you exist… your world of hell will just get worst. Not even you can stop him. You wish to risk that on the heads of your friends, those people who cheer you every night?" he yelled.

"Why would Shang Tsung come after me though? I have done nothing to him!"

Rayden was losing patients with me. "He doesn't care if you have done something to him or not, you're a threat to his power that's all he needs to know. Right now you have lucky Quan Chi is hiding you from Shang. I fear greatly what will happen if he did find you"

His voice spoke of the utmost seriousness, and I imagined it happening in my mind. Think about it, 10,000 fans sitting in one enclosed arena, over 40 wrestlers in the back, and Shang Tsung standing in the middle of the ring, sucking the life from every man, woman and child before him. Taking the souls of my friends without a second though or sign of remorse as he grows stronger in power. And me, standing among them watching it happen, unable to help them in any way. I couldn't let it happen to them. Snapping out of the dream, my eyes shifted back to the thunder god. "I have to endure being a lackey, in order to keep everyone safe…" I whispered.

Rayden nodded. "Unless you know how to protect those you care about, it's the best thing to do right now. Glen, you're a smart man. You know what needs to be done" Rayden began to leave.

"Wait… I thought Shang was dead. How did he live?" I asked.

Rayden turned to me. "Quan Chi made a deal with him." Rayden vanished then and there before me.

Damn, why does all this weird stuff happen to me? I stood there trying to decide what to do. No doubt Quan will come back for me, he will train me. Yet why would he? Why does he need a successor… unless? Unless Shang plans on doing him in! Running back inside I went to Hurricane who had all the Mortal Kombat stuff in his bag; I borrowed it from him then hunted down Triple H.

"HUNTER!" I called out to him. He turned around to face me. "I need you." He was curious as to what I met; we went to his locker room as I hooked up the system. Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, I handed him a controller. "Uh Kane… why are we playing?" he asked me.

"Training Hunter, we're training" I corrected him.

It was hours that we played until we defeated the game as Quan Chi and Shang Tsung. Rayden did say all the games and movies were real, they happened and the TV series. So, what happens at the ending of this game… must be what occurred. There are different variations of the story. But it became clear. Shang Tsung and Quan Chi have it out for one another, meaning one wishes to see the other dead. It all started over a stupid amulet. Hunter looked at me oddly. "So what does this have to do with you?" he asked.

I didn't know for certain, but I felt I was starting to become a bigger part of it. I turned off the game and looked to Triple H.

"All I know is we can't kill Quan Chi, if we do that will being about Shang, and if he comes… we're screwed up the ass!"

Hunter put down his controller as I told him the whole story and gave him a brief yet effective idea… I was able to use my powers for visual effects!

Around us I made it look like an arena, full of fans, I stood in the middle of it. "Ok, pretend I am Shang Tsung and he appears" I said. He nodded simple, I watched his eyes widened as the fans I made disappear into little sparks and come back into my body until he saw nothing but empty seats. "Now, imagine that was real, and Shang Tsung took the lives of over 10,000 fans"

There were no words necessary in his mind. He couldn't speak. But he understood why we couldn't kill Quan Chi and get it over with.

That left the question, where do we go from here?