One by one, they each jumped through the portal to Outworld. With a little fear and a little excitement. As the warriors departed, they did not notice a jet landing nearby.
"All right, while that portal is still open, I have to get going." Sub-Zero said, as he jumped out of the cargo doors.
"Good luck." Smoke called, but he did not know if Sub-Zero had heard it. As the Lin Kuei Warrior jumped through the portal, another ninja, a yellow ninja emerged from the ground, seeing the portal open, the ninja leapt through the portal. Smoke reacted with horror, but also awe.
"What the hell was that? Cyrax?" Smoke said to the yellow clad Lin Kuei Warrior behind him.
"I don't know." Cyrax said, just as shocked.
"I don't know what to make of it either." Said the red-clad Lin Kuei Warrior known as Sektor.
"Yeah, well. Sub-Zero could need help on this one. Tell the Grandmaster that I had to go help out." Smoke said, jumping out of the cargo doors.
"Will do Smoke." Cyrax replied.
As Smoke jumped through the portal just as it closed, then Lin Kuei took one last look and the jet took off into the air. Flying through the skies of China, they received a message from the Lin Kuei Grandmaster.
"Cyrax, Sektor is Smoke with you?"
"No, he followed Sub-Zero in his mission to assassinate Shang Tsung." Cyrax replied.
"I see. We have quite a honor for you 2 as well as Smoke and Sub-Zero when they return."
"That would be, Grandmaster?" Sektor asked.
"It is quite an honor indeed…"
O-O-O
In the realm of Outworld, the heroes found all sense of reality ripped away, it seemed as though time had stopped. Liu Kang was the first to awaken. Rubbing his head, he heard a moan behind him, turning his head, he saw Kung Lao behind him.
"Where are we?" Kung asked, as he gathered his senses.
"I don't know. I think we're in Outworld." Liu said, helping Kung get to his feet.
They appeared to be in some kind of forest, except unlike the forests of Earthrealm, this forest's trees were apparently alive, complete with faces.
"Yes, but the question is where?" Kung added.
"I'm wondering where this tournament is be held." Liu asked, half to himself, half to Kung.
"I don't know, I guess if we go through this forest, we'll find out."
Liu nodded as the two walked forward into the unknown. "What happened to Johnny Cage and Jax?"
"I don't know, I guess they landed in a different spot?" Kung said.
"I guess so. By the way, can you describe these mutants that attacked the academy?"
"Well, they had blades coming out of their arms, along with the ugliest teeth I've ever seen."
Immediately, Liu began to remember these features, he recalled that night when his brother killed, these Tarkata sounded exactly like the mutants that killed his brother.
"By the way, what did you mean by my victory cost me the thing I valued most?"
"Isn't it obvious, Liu. They attacked the Shaolin Temples, because of you. You won the tournament, and this is the price you had to pay."
"What about you? As I recall, you were originally who the Order of Light wanted to compete in the tournament."
"I guess you didn't know at the time you entered the tournament did you?" Kung said. "I knew perfectly well the responsibilities of what being the Champion of Mortal Kombat would bring. I didn't want that. I wanted a life of my own…"
"So, while I am to be bound to the life of the Mortal Kombat Champion, you are to have a life of your own, live happily everafter, while I'm fated to live my life alone?"
"No!… I didn't say that…" Kung stuttered. He felt terrible, perhaps he had just openly mocked his best friend.
Liu sighed, a solemn look on his face. "Yeah, I guess so."
Kung placed his hand on Liu's shoulder. "Don't worry about it. Let's go." With a slight nod, Liu and Kung ran ahead into the forest, unaware that a certain female assassin garbed in blue watched from the treetops.
O-O-O
In Outworld, in a place called, the Evil Monastery, Jax and Johnny Cage landed inside, groaning slightly. The two men got to their fight.
"OK, where the hell are we?" Johnny said.
"I don't know." Jax said, pulling out a tracker device from his pocket. "Let's hope technology works in this realm." Activating it, he was pleased to see that the device was working a blimp appeared on the radar. "That's Sonya's signal."
"Sweet!" Johnny said, blushing slightly.
"What the hell is the matter with you?" Jax said.
"Uh, nothing." Johnny stuttered. He didn't want to admit it to her partner, but he was attracted to the Special Forces agent. He almost wanted to rescue her before Jax did. He could just imagine it now:
"Help! Help!" Sonya cried. She was tied to a chair with rope around her waist, pinning her to the chair. While the villains, Shang Tsung, Goro and Reptile gathered around her, laughing cruelly at the young damsel in distress…"Hey! Leave her alone!" The lone hero shouted, he had a distinguishable feature with his sunglasses. Johnny Cage had arrived.
With an angry look, Shang Tsung covered the girl's mouth and ordered for Goro and Reptile to attack. Reptile came at the hero, but he was knocked back by Cage's high kick. Goro came at Cage, but a forceball to the face and a punch to the ground, caused the massive Shokan to fall to the ground.
Moving his hand away from the girl's mouth. Shang Tsung came at the movie star again with the intention of finishing him. But as the two fought a Shadow Kick ended the match. Walking up to Sonya, he removed her bonds.
"My hero." She said, dreamily…
Johnny stood back in the real word, giggling, unaware of what was going on around him. Jax watched him, with an awkward look on his face. He snapped his fingers twice in front of the movie star, before he finally snapped out of it.
"Huh?"
"Weird." Jax muttered, before he walked off.
O-O-O
As Liu Kang and Kung Lao walked through the forest, they noticed the trees, watching them and it made them feel uneasy.
"So do we have any instructions to where to go? Where is Raiden anyway?" Kung asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine." Liu replied.
As the two continued to walk down the pathway, a rustling could be heard from the trees, although Kung did not notice it, Liu did. "Hold on a moment."
"What?" Kung asked.
Liu calmly walked over to one of the trees and without warning, he leaped behind and the sounds of a struggle could be heard, noticing this, Kung ran quickly to the spot. Where he saw that Liu had a female warrior pinned to the tree, holding her arms behind her.
"Are you the one called Liu Kang?" the female asked.
Liu reacted, understandably shocked. "How do you know my name?"
Kitana broke free of her hold and walked back a few ways. "You've become quite famous here after you defeated Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat Tournament."
Kung walked forward, and prepared himself to attack, but Liu held him back. "Not yet." He said.
"Are you crazy? She's an assassin!"
"Assassin?" Kitana said, shocked.
"You certainly look like one to me." Kung said.
"I-I mean you no harm." Kitana stuttered. "I merely came to talk."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Kitana and believe me I am on your side."
"Can we see proof?" Kung asked, somewhat rudely.
"I'm sorry, but all I can give you is my word."
"Well that's…" Kung started, but Liu pushed him away.
"What is it that you want to talk about Kitana?" He didn't know why, but for some reason he trusted her.
"I can't do it here, but at the tournament, I want to talk to you in private. I can give you the whereabouts of your friend Sonya Blade."
"Is she all right?" Liu asked, worriedly.
"Yes, she's fine for now." Kitana looked around nervously. "I have to get going."
"Wait! Where is the tournament being held?"
"Just keep going through the forest, you'll find the arena there." Kitana shouted as she ran off.
"That was a little too odd, don't you think?"
"I don't know, I mean yeah that was a little weird, but something tells me that we can trust her." Liu said.
Kung sighed. "You've always been way too trusting, Liu. For all we know, she could be leading us into a trap."
"Well, I just have a feeling." Liu urged.
"What?"
"Yeah, that look in her eyes, I could tell that she was telling the truth…"
"That's not good enough for me." Kung replied.
"Fine. You can stay here and get eaten by the trees, I'm following her."
Sighing, Kung ran to catch up. He didn't know why his friend was suddenly so trusting of her. "There's something going on here. I'm sure of it."
Liu was feeling the same thing, but yet there was something about this girl, the one who had been spying on them. She had invoked some confused feelings in Liu Kang….