With Goro's words, a vast murmur emerged in the crowd. Many fighters were issuing friendly challenges to each other as they departed to the arenas. Kano turned to leave and gave a laugh at the bound Sonya, who growled at the Black Dragon mercenary. Without a word, the Masked Guard pushed Sonya onto the sand below her, coughing as she hit the impact, Cage's face was overcome with anger and pity. "Come on, Liu. We gotta help her up." With a nod, Liu Kang followed Johnny Cage to Sonya, who struggled on the sand.
"Damn. How the hell did this happen?" Sonya asked herself. As she tilted her head up, she saw two men standing before him.
"Here, we'll untie you, hold on." Johnny started.
"I don't need your help." Sonya spat, as she tried in vain to break free. "Stay out of this."
With a confused pause, Johnny turned to Liu, shook his head and said. "You certainly look like you do."
Sighing, Liu brought his hands down. "Here."
"Hey! I told you I didn't-" But before Sonya could continue her protests, Liu Kang had already freed her from her binds. For a moment, Sonya was too stunned to move, but she got to her knees and rubbed her hands now that they were free from the ropes. "Thank You." She said, although she said it as though she had never said it before in her life. "But, I could've gotten free myself."
"You were doing a great job." Johnny said, sarcastically.
"I didn't ask for your help." Sonya retorted.
"You needed it though."
Sighing, Sonya turned to Liu Kang. "Where the hell are we? Who are you?"
Liu took a breath and began to explain everything to her. "My name is Liu Kang, I am from the Shaolin Temples. You are on Shang Tsung's island where the Mortal Kombat tournament is to take place." Before Liu could continue to explain, he was interrupted by Johnny clearing his throat, with an annoyed sigh, Liu turned to Johnny and said. "This is Johnny Cage."
Johnny outstretched his hand for Sonya to shake, but Sonya looked at it coldly and turned back to Liu. "Where's Kano?"
"Kano, do you mean the man with the metal plate on his face?"
"Yes! How did you know that?"
"Johnny Cage and I had a scuffle with him on the boat."
"Where'd he go?" Sonya asked, sharply. Johnny was amazed at how Liu was keeping his temper in check.
"If you want to face him, then you'll have to go through the tournament." Came a mysterious voice, the three warriors turned their attention to the man standing before them, he was a tall man, with a chinese hat on his head. His eyes were glowing with white energy.
"Who the hell are you?" Sonya asked with a rude tone. However, Liu Kang appeared amazed at the stranger, he had heard legends of this man, but he never believed it, it couldn't be true, could it?
"You couldn't be…." He started with a shocked voice. "Raiden…?"
"Meet me at the Warrior Shrine to the west." With this, a bolt of lightning dropped down from the sky and hit the man, who vanished into thin air.
The three warriors stood for a moment, too stunned at the spectacle to move, but this silence was broken when Liu stepped forth and headed into the direction of the Warrior Shrine, with some hesitation Sonya followed. "You guys! He might be crazy! I mean come on! Do you know anyone who can do… whatever he just did?"
But Liu Kang and Sonya ignored his warnings, with a sigh, he ran to catch up.
O-O-O
After what seemed like hours, the warriors found themselves at the Warrior Shrine. It was just a sight, in the middle was a statue of the current champion, Goro with his arms outstretched. As Liu Kang and Sonya looked for any sign of Raiden, Johnny Cage had finally caught up, panting, he tried to catch his breath.
"Welcome." Came the stranger's voice, Liu looked and saw the man who he believed to be Raiden standing near the Goro statue.
"Are you really Raiden, the God of Thunder? The Protector of the realm of Earth?" Liu asked, curiously.
"Indeed, I am and I know all about you Liu Kang." Raiden replied. Electricity was running all over his body.
"God of…. Thunder?" Johnny balked, trying to avoid laughing. "Give me a break."
Johnny advanced towards Raiden and declared. "If you're really a God, then let's see some God powers eh? Freeze time or cause it to rain or something like that."
Without a word, Raiden extended his index finger and out of his fingertip came a jolt of electricity; which shocked the movie star in place, he reacted accordingly. "Hey! That didn't feel very…" Suddenly without warning, Raiden sent another, and another, and an another.
Sonya shook her head disgustedly, while Liu watched with a smile. "There's a lesson here, but I'm enjoying this too much to think of it."
After a while, Raiden stopped and Johnny fell to his knees breathing heavily. "OK, I'm convinced."
"Good." Raiden said. "Welcome to the biggest test of your lives. I doubt any of you are fully aware of the evil behind Shang Tsung's intentions."
"Wait." Sonya said, interrupting. "What the hell is going on here?"
"Relax, Sonya Blade. All will be explained in due time." Raiden started. "You have been brought here to defend your realm of Earth against Shang Tsung and the forces of Outworld."
"What is Outworld?" Liu asked.
"The realm of which you know as Earth is not the only world in existence, millions of years ago, the Elder Gods created the realms, governing over the lands, one such realm was the realm of Outworld, once it was a land much like Earth, but one day an evil Emperor claimed the throne and with it, spread darkness through all the land, once everything he could see was under his control, he turned his attention to conquest of the other realms. Earth is his next target."
"Great story." Johnny said, somewhat sarcastically. "But what's that got to do with us?"
"I became aware of the Emperor and as Earthrealm's protector, I could not let him attain the realm that he so desperately wanted. So, I approached the Shaolin Monks and created a tournament to protect Earth, only by winning 10 tournaments, could Outworld conquer Earth. They only need one more victory and everything you see before you will belong to the Emperor of Outworld."
"You mean to tell that a handful of martial artists are going to save the world?" Sonya asked, skeptically. "I'm not buying."
"Essentially, yes, Sonya Blade. But, I'm afraid none of the other fighters pose a threat to Goro and Shang Tsung. One of you three will decide the outcome."
"What about those two ninja? Who are they?" Liu asked.
Raiden sighed and continued. "The one clad in blue is a Lin Kuei assassin named Sub-Zero, he assisted me in preventing one threat from occurring two years ago, though his reasons for doing so, were purely selfish. He has evil in his soul, I warned him to change his ways, but it seems he has ignored my warning."
"Damn, I don't think I want to fight that guy." Johnny said. "What about the other one?"
"The one clad in yellow is a ninja specter known as Scorpion. Scorpion is neither friend nor enemy. He is one of Sub-Zero's past victims. Scorpion has returned from the dead to exact his revenge. Their conflict is a personal one, I'd advise you three not to interfere."
After a long pause, a gong was heard, Raiden motioned for the three to head to Shang Tsung's arena. "It is time for the tournament to begin, you three need to be present. Good luck."
As the three turned to leave, Raiden once again extended his finger and zapped Johnny in the back, causing him to leap in the air.
"Ow!" he yelled. "Don't do that!" he shouted, angrily. Smiling, Raiden vanished once again.
O-O-O
At the arena for the tournament, the warriors had gathered around, those not fighting took their seats and waited for the first match to begin and out of the first entrance came Liu Kang, walking determined and confident and out of the second came an unknown warrior. Both fighters walked to the arena where in the middle, a giant dragon symbol lay and on the high chair sat Shang Tsung, he was higher than the spectators and when he stood up all turned their attention to him and out of his mouth came one word: "Fight!"
Liu Kang bowed before his opponent and took his fighting stance; which resembled Jeet Kun Do. His opponent took his own, for a moment Liu Kang waited for his opponent attack and when he did, Liu blocked with his elbow. For a few moments, the two block and countered again and again, but Liu took his elbow and implanted it in his opponent's chest, falling back the fighter nearly fell to his knees, but regained his balance.
In the stands, the crowd cheered as the fight waged on with Johnny and Sonya cheering Liu on. "Wow, I got to admit, Liu Kang is a good fighter." Sonya admitted.
"Hell yeah…" Johnny said, mesmerized. "I could probably beat him though." He said, cockily.
"You probably won't even make it past the first round." Sonya said coldly, which caused Johnny to give her a cold stare.
"I can't believe that I was attracted to this."
Meanwhile Liu's battle continued, he was quickly gaining the advantage, but his opponent was good, no doubt about it. Liu let out a grunt of pain as his thoughts distracted him, allowing his opponent to hit him squarely in the chest, holding his stomach in pain, Liu quickly countered by jumping into the air, spinning his body allowing him to strike his opponent across the face with his foot.
"Come on, Liu, you can't let yourself be distracted." The fighter came at him again, this time with a combo, Liu managed to block the attacks and countered with a knee to the face then taking his leg, he kicked his opponent across the face and then seeing his opponent stunned, he prepared his finishing move, he performed a cartwheel, which allowed both of his legs to strike his opponent's face and then quickly, Liu knelt down and performed an uppercut which knocked his opponent flat on the ground.
With the match over, Shang Tsung rose into the air and yelled: "Liu Kang wins!" Suddenly the crowd erupted into cheers. Liu Kang looked around and gave the crowd a slight wave, and then he walked off the arena while the Masked Guard carried the loser's unconscious body off the arena.
Liu Kang had won his first match, but he knew his greatest challenge still lay ahead, before he left the arena, he gave one last cold, hard look at Shang Tsung.
Exhausted, Liu made his way to the stands where Johnny Cage and Sonya sat, taking his seat next to Sonya, he sighed and breathed heavily.
"Awesome job, Liu." Johnny complimented. "Although, I got one question… why do you scream like a turkey when you fight?"
Liu gave a bit of a surprised reaction, as though he didn't know how to answer.
"I mean, it was kind of annoying, but hilarious at the same time."
"Is there any chance you could stop talking for about 5 minutes?" Sonya interrupted.
For 10 minutes, several fights came and passed until at last, it was Johnny Cage's turn, putting on his trademark sunglasses, he stepped into the arena and took his fighting stance while his opponent did the same. "Begin!" shouted Shang Tsung.
Cage started with an attempted kick to the side, but the fighter blocked and countered with a punch to the chest, Cage responded with a kick to the chest, which allowed him to advance and take his opponent by surprise with a few punches to the chest. With his Shadow Kick, he knocked his opponent to the ground, stunning him for a few short moments.
"I hope the press saw that." He thought to himself. "You know after this is over? I wonder if I can make some kind of movie about this? Yeah, "Mortal Kombat: The Movie". Hey, that sounds pretty good…" But his thoughts were quickly interrupted as his opponent had gotten back up, and kicked him in the chest. "Ow…."
His opponent was obviously getting frustrated. He angrily charged and swung widely at the movie star, but Cage ducked and both of his legs immediately spread out across the ground, suddenly he pulled his fist back and hit the man's groin. Immediately, his eyes went wide with pain and he fell back, holding his groin in pain. Johnny immediately got to his feet and waited his opponent to recover, instead he heard.
"I give up…" then he let out another yell of pain and fell to the ground moaning. With his surrender, there was no applause, no jeering, just silence. Even Liu Kang and Sonya were stunned by this victory.
"I have seen many fighting techniques, but I gotta admit that was pretty low." Liu said to Sonya, who replied with a slight nod.
Then after a few more rounds, it was the Thunder God Raiden's turn. His opponent stood practicing his moves, waiting for Raiden to appear, then suddenly without warning, a bolt of lightning hit the arena and the Thunder God formed, standing at the ready with electricity running all around him, the crowd reacted with stunned silence just as they had previously to Johnny Cage's victory, but soon the crowd erupted into loud cheers.
"Wow, now that's an entrance." Johnny exclaimed.
In the cheering crowd, Sub-Zero stood in the crowds, watching the battles, waiting for his first match. Upon seeing Raiden, he was immediately surprised by the Thunder God's appearance. "So he's here huh?" he thought to himself. Two years ago, Sub-Zero had given an evil sorcerer a sacred amulet, which would bring about the return of an evil deity from a place called the Netherrealm, which was Hell itself. Under Raiden's orders, Sub-Zero reluctantly went into the Netherrealm to reclaim the amulet, he succeeded in his mission, although he was quite bothered by the revelation that there was evil in his soul. When he asked Raiden for the truth, Raiden replied with a yes. Sub-Zero dismissed it and returned to his clan, but still he wondered if Raiden had been telling the truth, perhaps now was the time to ask? As he pondered this, Scorpion watched him from high in the stands, that never-ending rage still burning in his eyes.
"You'll pay for what you did to me and my family, Lin Kuei… I swear it!"
In the battle below, Raiden's opponent had charged at the Thunder God, who disappeared and reappeared behind, suddenly Raiden attacked and before the fighter knew it, he was on the ground holding his chest in pain.
"Wow." Said Johnny, with utter amazement. "God or not. This Raiden guy is good."
Shang Tsung had been watching every battle to this moment, at the moment the only fighters, who he had deemed a threat were Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Raiden. However, there was something in particular about Liu Kang that bothered him. "That monk is a good fighter, no doubt about it… almost reminds me of… him."
Meanwhile, Raiden had defeated his opponent, who lay on the ground unconscious. Unlike other matches, Raiden had won without a blow dealt to him. "Flawless Victory." Shang Tsung stated. Without a word, another bolt of lightning hit where Raiden stood and the Thunder God vanished, leaving the crowd stunned by the spectacle they had just seen, while the fighter's unconscious body was carried out.
Shang Tsung stood up and walked behind his chair, out of sight, away from any eyes. He moved his hands around and in thin air what appeared to be a portal and out of it came a voice. It was deep and cruel voice, it was the voice of Shao Kahn, the Emperor of Outworld.
"This had better be important Shang Tsung!"
"Pardon me, my Emperor." Tsung replied, humbly. "But I just thought I'd give you a report of the current state of affairs. So far, only three fighters that I have seen pose a threat to defeat Goro and myself."
"Oh." Shao Kahn replied, his voice sounded irritated and annoyed. "And?"
"One of them in particular reminds me of that monk from…" Tsung started.
"I don't care, who or what this fighter is, Shang Tsung! All I know is that if you or Goro should fail me…"
Tsung interrupted his master, he did not need to hear the answer. "I will not, my emperor." He said, gracefully.
"See that you don't". And without a word, the portal closed and Shang Tsung was left alone…