"So, what's the deal with you and Sonya?" Johnny Cage asked the woman-in-question's commanding officer.
Major Jackson Briggs, known as 'Jax' to his friends, had been searching for his missing Lieutenant when he'd first found the movie star now asking him this question, adrift in the middle of the ocean. Cage had claimed she and he had been part of some deadly martial arts tournament to determine the fate of the world against the forces of an alien conqueror from another dimension.
Of course, Jax hadn't believed this nonsense and had concluded the actor to have been on a drug-fuelled bender with his rich Hollywood friends on one of their private islands and sent him home. Now, a few weeks later, Jax knew that every word had been true, as he and Cage were currently resting in a room in the aforementioned conqueror's homeworld between bouts in a new tournament against all kinds of hideous and dangerous monstrosities.
"I know what you're gettin' at, Cage," Jax replied in an exasperated tone between wiping off sweat and blood from his previous fight. "And no, we're not an item, nor is she interested in that kind of thing."
"C'mon, you don't know that," the actor replied with a smug grin, his pearly whites forged from only the most expensive whitening procedures making Jax want to knock a few of them loose.
"Trust me. If anyone knows what Sonya is and is not interested in, it's me."
"You said you and she weren't an item."
"We're not. But we go way back."
"Define 'way'."
Jax sighed. He wasn't sure how much of his and Sonya's history he should relay, but his brief meeting with the captive Sonya had included her telling him that Cage, while obnoxious, was a damn good fighter and a fairly trustworthy ally. Plus, Cage's concern for Sonya seemed genuine, deeper than simply thinking she was hot. If nothing else, knowing what kinds of horrific things Sonya had been through would most likely convince the actor to back off from both the subject and the woman herself. With that hope, Jax made up his mind.
Way as in, "I was a punk-ass kid from the projects who got in way over his head."
You? A punk-ass kid?
I wasn't always thirty-five, Cage. This is goin' back twenty years. Back when you weren't even old enough to wait for the school bus without your momma holdin' your hand. I was fifteen. I ran with a street gang back then. We thought we were real tough guys. Yellow jackets, reversed caps, gold chains. Damn, we were stupid. And there's no better example of our stupidity than when I tried to mug a man in an army coat.
He was only in his early thirties, but my idiot teenage brain saw him as ancient, as an easy target. I was always good at sneakin' up on people without bein' heard. I got in close and got in the first hit: a hard jab in the back of his head. The 'old man' never saw it comin'. But that was about as far as I got, cuz he quickly turned it around and had me pinned to the ground in seconds. I'll always remember what he said to me after he got me to agree to stop fightin' and let me go:
"You got in a good hit at the start there. I didn't even know you were there until you were on me. What the hell are you doing, wasting a talent like that mugging people on the streets? Any law enforcement or military outfit would be lucky to have a man of your skills. You should put them to use making people's lives better instead of worse."
Those words changed the entire course of my life, my entire outlook on life. I realised how much of a waste it really was to be pullin' this crap and I cleaned myself up. I dropped the gang life, took school more seriously and shaved off that butt-fuzz on my lips until I was old enough to grow a real moustache.
After high school, I entered basic. Graduated top of my class and was assigned to serve under that same man I'd tried to mug those years ago. His name was Major Herman Blade. As it turned out, the day I'd tried to mug him was the sixth birthday of his twins: Sonya and Daniel.
Sonya's got a twin brother?
I'm gettin' there. I met Sonya soon after. By then, she and Danny were ten. Over time, I grew close with the Blades. Herman said I was like a son to 'im. Sonya and Danny looked up to me like a brother too. I always wondered if that had any bearing on their decision to enlist right out of high school, or if it was all their father. Either way, they excelled in the military. They were placed under my command early on, just as I had been under Herman. Sonya made Lieutenant in no time.
Soon, though, things took a nasty turn. Herman had an old enemy. An arms-dealer named Kano.
I know that guy. That Terminator-looking Aussie. He leapt onto the boat right as we departed from Hong Kong. Picked a fight with me on the way there.
(I can't imagine why...)
Yeah, him. Herman had been dealing with Kano's Black Dragon syndicate for years. Once Herman was promoted to General four years ago, he stopped taking part in field ops, leaving Kano in my hands.
A year later, we got a tip-off about a staging area Kano was using to prep for a big operation. It was a warehouse in NY. Right on the docks. No easy way in or out. Sonya wanted to take on the mission. I though Herman had- Thought I had prepared her for that job. I thought it was poetic for Sonya to finish her father's work. I was a goddamn fool.
Getting inside the warehouse was the easy part. Sonya was leading the team. It was her, Danny, Cliff LoDolce, Bill van Hoven, Lance Spark and Josh Wexler. Almost as soon as they set foot inside that dark, empty warehouse, shit hit the fan. I wasn't there, of course. I only filed the report based on Sonya's testimony. But the picture she painted was so vivid, the images still haunt me as well.
Kano had set a bunch of traps for the team. And once one trap went off, the shock and panic lead to mistakes that triggered the rest. First was a tripwire bringing down a pendulum with a jagged piece of metal, impaling Spark through the heart. In his panic, LoDolce set off a makeshift sentry gun that shot him six times in the back. While the team tried to get behind cover among the crates, van Hoven set off a razor wire trap that sliced his throat ear-to-ear. While reeling from that, Wexler stepped back and set off an I.E.D., leaving almost nothing behind. By the time Sonya and Danny dealt with the sentry gun, the rest of the team were already dead.
Jesus Christ...
That's not even the worst of it.
The fuck? How?
Once the rest were dead, the lights came on and Kano had the twins surrounded. They were too shocked and sickened by the remains of their teammates to put up much resistance. Kano had 'em tied to chairs in a circle with the bodies of the other four. He came over with his own chair and sat on it backwards, casually playing with one of his butterfly knives to intimidate them.
"Well, ain't this a treat?" Kano laughed. "Finally, I get to meet Herman's little sprogs. You two are good, stayin' calm under pressure like that. Unlike yer boys there. Me 'n' yer daddy go way back. 'e killed my own mentor, y'see. I've been lookin' for a chance ta pay 'im back for Trev fer years. An' you two just came right to my doorstep an' offered yerselves up like a Christmas goose. You two're gonna make yer old man a broken shell of a man once he gets all yer pieces back. So, which of you wants to go first?"
Neither of them said anythin'.
"If yer plannin' to drag this out to buy yerselves time fer a last minute rescue, yer wastin' yer time. I'll give you five seconds to decide before I make the choice for ya."
Sonya knew I'd be comin' in with backup once radio contact was lost. She just had to buy time for her little brother. She spat in Kano's face, getting the wad right on his cyber eye. The rage with which he glared at her as the heat of his eye sizzled under the damp saliva was palpable. Sonya figured that, if she pissed Kano off enough, he'd kill her first and buy me enough time to get in there and save Danny, at least.
Needless to say, the plan didn't work. In fact, it backfired. Hard.
Kano decided that Sonya would suffer, but not by killing her first. Instead, he stood behind Danny and drove his knife right into his chest. He carved his way through Danny's ribcage, cut his goddamn heart out and wiped it across Sonya's face.
I arrived with my team right after this, forcing Kano to flee. Sonya was still screaming when we arrived, coated in her brother's blood.
For the first time since he'd met him, Johnny Cage was silent. He looked as sick as Jax felt recounting the tale. Seeing that Cage had nothing more to add, Jax continued.
"She's been determined to kill Kano ever since. He's wanted for interrogation so we can take down the Black Dragon, but I can't say I'd stop her if she had a chance to wrap her fibre wire around his throat."
"Same," Cage responded queasily.
Jax sighed, feeling a little bad for him. "Look, this is why I'm sayin' to not get your hopes up for anythin' to happen between you and her. I'm sure you mean well, but Sonya's got too much baggage, too much trauma. She's too focused on bringing Kano to justice to waste her time on dating. I'm sure you understand."
"Y-Yeah. Sounds like she could use some help getting revenge though."
"Cage, come on. I really don't think helpin' her with her revenge'll get you any closer to-"
"Christ, man! You think after hearing that story that earning her favour would be the first thing on my mind? Fuck no. I'm not exactly pro-vigilante-justice, but that son of a bitch deserves to die for that fucked up shit he did. And Sonya deserves some closure after all this time. If it'll can help her get it, I'll kill Kano myself, given the chance."
Jax raised his eyebrows. Maybe he'd misjudged Cage. Maybe he really wasn't the self-centred playboy he presented himself as. Given how Sonya had described him, she had probably seen it too. Maybe he would prove a useful ally in Jax's bid to ensure that, unlike Daniel, Herman's other child would not die on his watch.
While a lot of people like to see Jax as a potential romantic partner for Sonya, her father being stated to have the same rank as Jax in her MK1 comic bio suggests to me that Jax is a fair bit older than her. whether he's supposed to be a Major at present or when Sonya was born is unclear, but it makes sense to me for it to be the latter.
Given that Sonya's brother was stated to be dead in her comic bio, connecting that to the traditional dead partner plotpoint made too much sense to not use. And yes, each other member of Sonya's squad is based on her dead partners in past stories, each meeting similar fates to their original incarnations.
