Mortus-Coombe was flat and scorched black, and difficult to traverse merely from the sheer heat of the plain closest to the Black Palace. The Earthrealm Champions marched steadily on in spite of it, even as ghastly Netherrealm warhorns boomed deep throaty moans like the calls of old ghosts. "Be prepared," Bi-han commanded those in his line. "Check your weapons. Stay alert. Mind your surroundings." In turn, Smoke, Stryker, and Kailyn relayed his words to the warriors behind them.
The warhorns sounded again. This time, Bi-han felt Noob tingling inside his heart. "Tighten your lines!" he barked at the Earthrealmers in response, desperately trying to drive the wraith inside of him away.
You know you'll fare better if you set me free, the ghastly voice whispered to his brain. The Cryomancer winced and fought him back.
Beyond the Mortus-Coombe, rising high before the jagged mountain backdrop, Bi-han could see the dark palace sprawling across the plain, dark against a sickly purple sky. Glowering down, the Black Palace commanded the approaches. Its iron-crowned battlements, massive towers, and thick black walls gave it the aspect of a ferocious beast hunched above the scorched earth. At the base of it, the number of oni and Netherrealm Champions steadily grew larger, and as Sareena had reported, they were joined by Reiko's band of Edenian rebels, Tarkatans, and even a handful of Zaterrans. They stirred like angry ants when they caught sight of the approaching army. More trumpets sounded from amongst them, tiny and brazen, soon swallowed by the roar of a thousand shouts.
"Sareena was telling the truth," Raiden remarked, his face a solemn mask.
"Yes, she was," Bi-han agreed, still annoyed with the Thunder God for being too stubborn to listen to reason. "And now it's too late for you and the others to turn back." He didn't say what he was thinking, but the implication was all-too-present. If the Earthrealm Champions died here, it was on Raiden's head.
"There may yet be a chance we can change Liu Kang's heart," the god said. It didn't take a genius to hear the sorrow in his voice, or the delusion with which he spoke.
"I find that highly doubtful," he told him. "He is drowning in darkness."
"A darkness that I pulled you from," he reminded him.
"That is why I did not say it would be impossible," he shot back. "Merely doubtful."
They soon began crossing from the rocky path onto the coombe, but the enemy forces were retreating backwards and staying close to the palace. They're trying to draw us in, the Cryomancer thought to himself. They want us hemmed in, constricted, with no way to attack their flanks like we did against Onaga's army. He closely surveyed the field and saw none of the revenants amongst their number, nor did he see his brother or Reiko's other minions. Liu Kang, Kitana, and Reiko were suspiciously absent as well. He smelled a trap.
And then from atop the walls of the gully surrounding their path, pots of burning pitch spilled on the Champions, arcing over them in trails of fire and smoke. Most of the soldiers, Lin Kuei, and Shirai Ryu dodged these flaming tendrils, but a few unlucky souls were splattered by it and screamed in pain as it seared them all the way through their clothes. When Bi-han whirled around to see what was happening, he saw at least three different spots in their number billowing smoke. By then, hundreds of arrows were falling on them as well, eerily hissing as they plummeted to the ground. One of General Blade's soldiers tumbled into the stony wall when one of those arrows hit him in the throat, and he quickly bled to death. He was the first casualty today. But, Bi-han bitterly thought, he would not be the last.
Gunfire from the Army Rangers answered them, but more pots of pitch herded the Earthrealmers towards the Mortus-Coombe where they were exposed to attack on all sides. Closer to the Black Palace, the arms of great trebuchets began to rise as one and hurled hundreds of giant boulders high into the air. They mercilessly rained on the Champions, and anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves beneath them quickly found themselves ground into a smear in the Netherrealm dirt.
Things could have gone much better, Bi-han quickly decided as the enemy forces successfully broke up the battalion of soldiers and surviving Lin Kuei and Shirai Ryu. The warriors were easily spread apart by the ambush, and now it was - he was dismayed to see - every man for himself. But Raiden, who also came to the same conclusion, rallied the troops to him when he floated into the air and lifted his staff high into the air over his head. As it moved upward, sparks of purplish-blue light began to dance across the metal surface. These sparks worked their way upward, growing larger by the second, until large balls of plasma leapt from the large fulgurite tip and arched into crackling tendrils that zipped through all the oni currently attacking the Champions. They immediately fell to the ground dead, giving the Earthrealmers a chance to regroup around him.
To send a further message, Raiden lifted his crackling staff again, and this time, several thick branches of lightning raced from the fulgurite and slammed into the Black Palace. This time, the walls and the towers exploded outward from where they had been hit. Black brick and mortar rained upon the Netherrealm army's heads, forcing them to run forward to avoid being crushed by falling debris. He attacked with his lightning again, and again, and each time, it caused devastating damage to the palace.
"Wow, that was really shocking," Tomas breathed after he struck down one of the oni.
Bi-han started to tell him to shut his mouth, but before he could form the words, the cyber-ninja had already charged off with an enraged cry. He shook his head in exasperation and then followed suit, leaving Raiden to continue blasting the enemy forces with lightning. He, instead, attacked the oni and steadily battled his way towards the palace.
"Fuckin' hell," Erron muttered as he and the others in his group surveyed the battlefield from the safety of a nearby bluff. Things, not surprisingly, were going terrible for the Earthrealmers.
"Could be worse," Kabal said. "There could be a fire-breathing cunt named Onaga flying around."
"What the hell was Raiden thinkin', attacking them like this when he's clearly outnumbered?" the other continued as if he hadn't heard the cop.
"Perhaps they were ambushed," Miyuki suggested.
"From where?" he countered. "Ain't no place for these bastards to hide."
Olivia was barely listening to them as they debated the whys and hows of this terribly orchestrated battle. She'd known the enemy forces were numerous, but it still came as something of a jolt to see them all scurrying over the encrusted flatlands. Without taking the time to actually count, she estimated several thousand warriors fighting before the Black Palace, their explosive weapons kicking up clouds of dust. At this distance, it was difficult to see the various warriors clearly - there was just too much chaos raging and detritus from the warfare hanging in the air. Even still, she was focused on finding her father in the melee. Her heart tugged her vision to the right of the battlefield, and immediately caught a flash of blue in her eyes. But it was quickly swallowed again by the oni and Earthrealmers violently clashing in the lingering dust, and she lost it before she could decide if that was or wasn't the Grandmaster. Still, her heart insisted that it must be, so without warning, she leapt from her spot and raced down the bluff towards the battlefield.
It wasn't long before the young Cryomancer arrived, and her squadron arrived shortly behind her, swearing at her for rushing in like that, but she didn't pay attention to them. They were all immediately attacked by random oni, and they didn't have time for an argument about strategy. Gunshots and cannons spoke around them, over and over, blasting the more potent of the oni while Olivia and the others skillfully fought their way through the mess. Many demons fell, but just like a hydra, several more took their places.
And then Jataaka, one of the Netherrealm witches who'd served Quan Chi for eons, ferociously emerged from the melee and attacked the Cryomancer with a left hook and then a right. Though her movements were exceptionally fast and fluid, Tundra blocked both, countered with a right hook, and then lobbed an ice ball into the demoness' middle. Naturally, victory didn't come that easily for her; though Jataaka froze into a statue for a moment, her figure quickly trembled before purple energy exploded within, carrying the ice on a violent shockwave in all directions. Tundra wasted no time in shielding her face and then snap-kicking her in the chest when she emerged from her icy tomb unharmed, knocking her backwards.
The Cryomancer started to go after her, but suddenly, a strange tendril made of blood slithered around her waist and constricted her with all the power of an anaconda, and she gasped, struggling to breathe. She only had a split second to think of her predicament, however, before it snapped her backwards and suspended her upside down in the air above Skarlet.
"I have dreamed of killing you for many years," the woman calmly spoke in her sultry, dangerous voice. "And now I will bleed you dry."
"Can't we talk about this?" Tundra grimaced as the blood rushed to her head before the red woman fan-kicked her in the face and knocked her to the ground. For a moment, she saw blue and white stars as her jaw flooded with liquid fire.
More tendrils stretched from the ground and wrapped themselves around the Cryomancer's wrists and ankles, lifting her into the air once more, this time spread eagle. Tundra fought to get free, but there was no point. The ghastly tentacles held her tightly, so much so that in seconds, her extremities were going numb. Skarlet jeered at her, her eyes glittering like topaz chips at the thought of what she was going to do to the young Lin Kuei. Calmly, she cupped her cheeks in her hands. Suddenly, Tundra wilted as she could actually feel the blood in her head pooling behind either ear, and then there was pain, great pain like twin power drills boring holes in either temple, prompting her to scream in agony.
And then Kabal, who saw the Cryomancer's predicament, dashed unnoticed towards Shao Kahn's construct to stop her, growling in determination as he ran. Before Skarlet even knew he was there, he lashed out with his hook swords and caught her around her belt and beneath her armpit before he violently slammed her into the ground. The woman groaned as Tundra toppled to the ground, her head already splitting in two, but the detective barely noticed her. Instead, he spun with his hook swords once more, this time yanking Skarlet and introducing her face to his combat boot.
Now Kung Lao, his skin gray and cracked with fiery fissures, stormed into the fight to help his temporary ally. He threw his deadly razor-wire edged hat at Kabal's head, but the detective calmly deflected it with a simple swipe of his swords. Undeterred, the undead Shaolin monk snap-kicked him in the belly, and shoved him back, but the other countered with a quick swipe of a sword, which kissed his abdomen and parted through his tunic and his flesh. Kung Lao grunted loudly and in pain as he stumbled backwards, holding his stomach as ghastly blood like lava spilled over his fingers. But now Skarlet, who'd recovered from the boot to the teeth, stretched out her arm towards Kabal, seductively twisted her fingers through the air, and prompted a bloody tendril to slither around her target's body. Then, with a cruel smile, she jerked her arm to the side, sending the detective flying over a thicket of warring bodies.
Then Tommy attacked her with a high roundhouse kick that she easily blocked before he aimed a high-pressure jet of water towards her face. She quickly ducked and then sprang backwards into a reverse cartwheel kick that caught him beneath the chin. The young Hydromancer fell to the ground hard, groaning as blood exploded over his lips. But he quickly scurried to his feet, avoiding her just as she plunged a scythe made of blood into the ground where he'd just fallen, a storm sword freshly made in his hands. As her scythe hit the ground, Tommy had already whirled around and sliced her hamstring with his weapon.
The Hydromancer sneered at her, satisfied with his handiwork as she wailed and dropped to one knee, moaning. Suddenly, something large and rotating drilled into his shoulder blade from behind. Now it was his turn to scream as Kung Lao's hat tore his flesh apart, the sharp, hot pain exploding through his gushing shoulder muscles as he weakly tried to pull it out. The undead monk helped him, and yanked it out with a loud squelch that prompted even more blood to spill over his black tactical shirt. Then he poised to swipe it through his neck, decapitating him.
But Jamie had no intention of letting Kung Lao do any such thing to his twin. To save his brother, he kicked him in the back before he gracefully whirled around and wrapped a water whip around the monk's throat, yanking him backwards. Immediately, the Hydromancer jerked his arm and pulled him through the air in a butterfly twist before letting him fall hard on the burning ground in a steaming puddle of water. The revenant was unharmed, though now angry as he turned his attention to the black-clad teenager, who now had a storm sword in his hand as well. Jamie jumped in the air and then hacked down with his weapon, aiming for the other's bald head, but this time, Kung Lao snap-kicked him in the groin before he darted to the side, grabbed his hat, and then swiped it at the teenager's head. But Jamie, though weakened from blood loss and pain, mustered the strength to throw his storm sword at the monk. As he intended, it plunged into his torso, bursting through his stomach, and he howled like a wild beast as more of his fiery blood spilled on the ground.
As all of this was happening, Tundra had rejoined the fight with aching head and now battled the oni once again while her brothers finished with Kung Lao; he couldn't die - not really - but he wasn't going to be troubling them on this battlefield anymore. Immediately, a demon armed with an ngao flew on leather wings through the air towards the Cryomancer, but she patiently waited until the last possible second to side-step from the creature's attack. A moment before the oni crashed onto the ground, Tundra drove her fist into its jaw so hard that the momentum carried it into the melee around them. Unfortunately for it, one of the Rangers threw a grenade at it, and it was vaporized in a flash, its limbs and intestines exploding outward like gory confetti.
Then another oni, this one armed with a naginata, charged towards Tundra with its weapon parallel to the ground, its blade aimed for her chest. Impulsively, she ran towards the creature and leapt onto the pole, dashing across it quickly and as gracefully as a tight-rope walker. When she reached the end, she jumped into a backward cartwheel and kicked the oni in the chin, breaking its jaw as it dropped its weapon. When she landed, a kori sword sprang from her palms, and she stabbed the demon through its eye and into its brain.
She then risked a glance at her companions to see how they were faring against the combined might of the Netherrealm and Outworld forces. She saw Erron locked in battle with a revenant she quickly deduced was Nightwolf, and had the circumstances not been so dire, she might've laughed at the cowboy and the Indian living up to the stereotype. Not surprisingly, the gunslinger fired his six-shooters at the revenant while the other deflected his bullets with his tomahawk before chucking it at his head. It nearly took Erron's head off; thankfully, he had the good sense to dodge to the side. While he was distracted, Nightwolf took the opportunity to fire a barrage of mystical arrows in his opponent's direction from a ghostly bow.
But Xinyi, who fought Kia nearby, glimpsed Erron's distress and fiercely threw an ice bomb at the revenant's feet, and Tundra's jaw dropped to see it as she'd never learned to do that herself. Neither had her father or uncle, for that matter. The weapon launched Nightwolf high into the air as it froze him into a statue that thudded harmlessly to the earth, allowing Erron to run off to shoot more of the oni.
There was a brief pause in the action, almost as if everyone was taking a collective breath, though she knew it was just her imagination. But in that split second, she saw both of her uncles cutting a swath through a group of oni, Bi-han with a kori sword, Tomas with his cybernetic enhancements and on-board missiles. Once more, the young Cryomancer bolted, this time towards them. It was a relatively easy matter, cutting through the oni with her powers, and she arrived just in time to see one of the demons poise to attack Bi-han from behind with an ngao. She immediately slid on ice across the ground and forced it to launch her through the air so that she could tackle the oni before cutting his throat with her kori sword.
But Bi-han did not look happy to see her. When she'd rolled to a stop and let the dead demon fall to the ground in a heap, he quickly wiped the onis' black blood from his face and then stomped to her, glaring. "I expressly forbade you from joining this fight," he snarled.
She glared back at him. "And I expressly told you that I'm an adult and will make my own decisions for myself," she snapped as she put her hands on her hips.
He narrowed his eyes. "If we make it out of this alive, you and I are going to have a long discussion about insubordination," he hissed.
"You're not technically Lin Kuei anymore," she replied as she casually threw an ice ball to her right, instantly freezing an oni into a statue. "You haven't been for a long time. So I don't have to take orders from you."
"Olivia Leigh Sullivan!" Tomas' voice now yelled as a missile whistled through the demons and blew up several of their number. "What in the Ten Hells are you doing here?" he shouted as he made himself visible and joined her side. "Your parents would kill me if they knew you were here."
She glowered at them both. "In case you both missed it, my parents are a little tied up right now," she barked. "Thankfully, I'm an adult capable of pitching in rather than hiding back at the base like a goddamn coward. Now, I just came from Outworld from an audience with Kotal Kahn. He's not coming, so for now, we're on our own."
Her uncles exchanged a look and then Tomas sighed and spoke. "I'll go inform Raiden," the Enenra told Bi-han as he teleported towards the Thunder God, who was still busying himself with electrocuting his enemies.
"You and I are not done talking about this," her other uncle growled at her as he kicked a line of penitentes at a group of demons, impaling them through their groins on the massive spikes. "I-"
"Dad!" Tundra yelped as she caught a glimpse of her father freezing his way through a band of the Rangers. She narrowed her eyes, determined to save him. She started to run towards him, but Bi-han promptly caught her by her elbow.
"You're not fighting your father," he told her, though his tone was less stern than it had been only a moment ago.
"You're not gonna stop me!" she snarled, shoving him off her and continued towards him.
"He almost killed you last time," the elder Cryomancer barked. "And this time, Olivia, he could succeed." The urgency with which he spoke stopped her in her tracks.
She whirled around and looked at him. "He caught me off guard last time," she argued.
"Perhaps," he agreed. "But what if he kills you and then, we somehow manage to restore him? What do you think it'll do to him to know that he murdered his daughter?" He shook his head. "You've seen what it did to Tomas. He killed his own daughter, and he's never been the same."
"I have to try," she said. "He's right there. I might not get another chance to capture him."
"You leave your father to me," he ordered. "I'm the only one between us who can actually take him."
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do?" she demanded to know as he started to jog away.
"Stay here and try not to die," he said before he disappeared into the scrum.
"Great advice, Uncle!" she yelled after him.
"I have an alternative suggestion, Olivia," a new, albeit painfully familiar, voice said behind her. She slowly turned around and her heart immediately sank into her stomach when she saw Reiko standing there, holding his scythe in one hand, the other hand curled behind his back. "Fight me. For old time's sake," he grinned.
Fury invaded her heart where fear dared not. The thirst for revenge against the General burned her throat and coated her tongue. It was a rage that she would never forget for as long as she lived. "What did you do to my father?" she growled.
"I am merely helping him live his best life," he replied, clearly amused by her question.
With that, he flipped high through the air and landed before her, and he wasted no time delivering a front snap-kick at the Cryomancer's groin. Tundra blocked the shot before her opponent swung his broad scythe at her head. She deflected that attack as well, finally answering the assault with a front snap-kick of her own to the General's chest. Reiko staggered backwards, and in that split second, the oni swarmed towards her.
One of the demons, armed with a kwan dao and gifted with wings, attacked Tundra, but she side-stepped out of the way of the thrust of the weapon and watched it glide by her harmlessly. She then grabbed it, yanked it from the creature's hands, and twirled her entire body around, letting the kwan dao carry her. When she'd come full circle, she angled the blow downward so that the bladed end struck it halfway down its back, slicing its spine completely in half. Then she used the weapon to parry Reiko's second attack with his scythe before she broke free and smashed the blunt end of it across his face.
Reiko wailed as blood gushed from his newly broken nose, but he stayed in the fight, crossing weapons with her once again, both of them retreating and advancing in a flurry. Soon, Tundra managed to break free of the action, leap into the air, and butterfly-kick the General in the face, and when she landed, she stepped into a sidekick that knocked him back. But Reiko, not to be outdone, tossed a barrage of shuriken at her, catching her unaware, laughing maniacally as they plunged into her at various non-critical spots on her body. Then, wasting no time, he got a running start before he leapt into the air and kicked her in the chest. Tundra fell to the ground as he acrobatically propelled himself from her body, flipped high above her, and then landed on top of her, straddling her tightly. Immediately, he knelt on her and then started punching her over and over again in the face.
Finally, she blocked an incoming punch, gripped his arm, and threw him over his head using her knee to help her. They then kipped-up at the same time, and now circled each other like predators in the wild.
"Your technique has improved," he praised, his voice sweet but full of danger, like a rattlesnake's tail quivering a threat. "You're not the green little girl I took from the Shirai Ryu Temple all those years ago."
"No, I'm not," she snarled back as she ripped a stray shuriken from her armor.
"Don't get excited, Olivia," he smirked, "you're still quite inexperienced."
"I beat you before, I'll do it again," she spat. Her heart was racing in her chest. What was this asshole waiting for?
Her question prompted him to chuckle. "Oh, I love that fire in you," he grinned. "So unlike the rest of your kind. You know, we never did finish our conversation."
"What conversation?"
"The one we had the day we both died," he replied. "Your father rudely interrupted us, if you'll recall."
Olivia quickly thought back to that moment, but couldn't remember what he'd said. It was all a blessed blur to her, best left forgotten. She glared at him. "No, I don't recall," she hissed.
Once again, he bared his fangs in his toothy, wicked grin. "I offered to make you my apprentice," he replied. "I promised to open up all the Realms for you, and teach you everything I know. The offer still stands, Olivia. For some strange reason, you amuse me."
"No!" she abruptly yelled at him. "I'll never be your evil bitch concubine!"
"Pity," he shrugged.
With that, he dropped his shoulder and then slid into him in a blur of green magic, knocking her down. Stunned, Tundra hesitated to move for a second. Her hiccup proved to be a mistake. Reiko promptly stomped her in the kidney, flooding her body with such blinding pain that her vision split into two blurry images, and she almost blacked out entirely. She moaned as she rolled onto her side, struggling to stay conscious. She frantically rubbed her side with her ice-charged hand, hoping to alleviate at least some of the pain. It only slightly worked. She continued to squirm and writhe in the greasy dirt. Above her, Reiko laughed cruelly.
The General lifted his foot again to stomp her another time, but this time the Cryomancer, who'd recovered enough to move again, didn't hesitate. She immediately hooked her leg around his ankles and swept him onto his back. Reiko yelped in surprise as he fell, and before he even landed, Tundra was on her knees again, her fist drawn back to punch him just as soon as he hit the ground. The Cryomancer had started throwing her punch quickly, but equally as quick, the General rolled out of the way leaving her no way to pull her punch. With a startled cry, her balled-up fist met the ground, further cracking the parched stone with her knuckles.
While she pulled back her aching fist, Reiko scrambled to his feet, buried his strong fingers deep in Tundra's thick white French braid, and then slammed her face into the ground over and over. She grunted every time she heard a loud thump, knowing that every time she heard the dull thud, it was her face breaking just a little bit more. Her mouth quickly filled up with blood, her tongue gurgling around it to the point of choking. She spat it out, suddenly feeling very tired, feeling very weak, nearly to the point of resignation. Finally Reiko stopped and then kicked her as hard as he could in her ribs. She heard a loud cracking sound as a flare of pain ripped through her chest.
"You broke my ribs," she managed to whimper in a daze a few gasping moments later, not really certain why she'd said as much. It was doubtful he'd even care.
As expected, he said, "I'm sure I did, Olivia." He prowled around her body, glaring down at her. "That was my intention. It will hurt you enough to take the fight out of you for now."
At that, his powerful arm slithered around her throat and clamped around her tightly. Then he jerked his arm back and viciously laughed as he tossed her into a nearby rock. When she slid to the ground, struggling to breathe, he quickly stomped to her and lifted her up with one arm, pinning her body against the boulder with very little effort. His green eyes, almost black with cruelty, focused on her.
"You see, darling girl, you must be tamed before you can be trained," he softly spoke into her ear. Now he backhanded her and let her fall to the ground in a heap.
Something about the thought of him 'taming' her, breaking her like a prized racehorse, sat ill in her stomach and rekindled her dwindling fire. No one - least of all the Outworld General - could tame her. She bristled at the mere thought of it. So when Reiko started to lift his foot to stomp Tundra again, she closed her eyes and relaxed, and willed her body backwards through a passage of ice and snow, pulsating white. A split second later, she reappeared behind him, instantly putting him in a choke hold. He merely laughed at that, then held her arms, dropped to his knees, and flipped her over his shoulder. The Cryomancer instantly toppled onto her back, but as she scrambled to get up, he promptly lifted her high into the air and threw her into yet another boulder.
Reiko started to grasp for her again, but Tundra had already decided that she'd had enough. Promptly, she uppercut the General so hard that the man was propelled like a rocket into the air. That bought her enough time to gain good footing before he charged towards her. Immediately, she side-stepped and threw a rigid arm in front of his throat, catching him like a clothesline, and as the other choked and staggered, Tundra ignored the pain in her ribs and spun into a back kick. Finally, she started pounding Reiko in the face. It felt good to see blood fly from his face.
And then, unexpectedly, something crashed into her head, and a shower of blue-white sparks exploded in her vision. She slumped to the ground, dazed, before a hand gripped her by the shoulder. A blast of cold immediately surged through her muscles - for a brief moment, she felt like she was taking a walk through Arctika on a snowy day, the wind whipping through her body like she was nothing. The cold steadily - rapidly - grew stronger. It wasn't long before it completely overwhelmed her senses altogether, and her eyes rolled into the back of her head. She collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
"Apologies for the delay, Lord Reiko," a new voice spoke as he pulled his hand from Tundra's shoulder. "I was battling a contingent of oni."
Reiko wickedly grinned at the newcomer. "Your timing was actually impeccable, Prince Xinyi," he said as he looked at the young prince.
"What are your orders, Lord?" the Cryomancer asked.
Reiko looked down at Olivia. "Take your prize from this battlefield before she is seriously hurt," he commanded. "And do not let any harm befall her. She is...precious...to me." He knelt beside her and brushed a few unruly strands of hair that had fallen out of her braid from her face. "Farewell, Olivia, for now. Think about my offer, will you?" Tenderly, he planted a kiss on her forehead. Then he straightened and looked at Xinyi again. "Take her now, while there is still time."
"Yes, Lord Reiko," he replied as he lifted her into his arms and began walking towards the mountains behind the Black Palace.
MKDemigodZ-Warrior, what were you expecting Bi-han and Sareena's reunion to be like? Also, you said, "I was not expecting you to like "Dominatrix" Sindel...but I suppose judging from your previous stories, that kind of figures." What's that supposed to mean? :p
caroccio66, hello, I'm glad you're still alive! America is becoming insane and I absolutely hate it. Thankfully, I live in a town that's kind of far away from the danger and the violence. I fully support the peaceful protests they've been having, but those who are looting and rioting and attacking innocent people can fuck right off to hell. Just yesterday, I saw video where they attacked members of a Baptist Church up in New York. They went after a mother with her three small children, including a baby. What point does that make? IMO, shit like that does the exact opposite - it makes people not want to listen to you. But that's just my hot take. I hope you're safe where you are, and that the madness hasn't touched your home as much as it has mine.
alwaysdoubted, I'm going for Bi-han being brave (not stupid) going back to Netherrealm. His cause is noble; he wants to rescue Kuai Liang. Sareena is in a difficult spot, for sure. I think her motive no matter what is always going to be to do what she thinks is best for Bi-han. She looks at him as sort of her knight in shining armor, so for him and him alone, she'd do anything. And that includes attacking him to scare him away, even though she ultimately failed. I didn't think the torture scene was as bad as I've done in the past, but some people always seem to get triggered by things like that, so I err on the side of caution and warn people. I remember writing the torture scenes in Frostbitten, and I got a lot of angry emails about that. So yeah, nothing a simple author's note won't cure.
Reptaliator, he makes one joke in the history of my depiction of his character, proceeds to laugh at said joke like a normal human, and that makes him immature? No, bro, I have to disagree with you on that. And I guess it's up to you, the reader, to decide if he's really serious about Fujin feeling sorry for him or not. I think that he's a dude and wants to save face, and being told you only one because the other person felt sorry for you is kind of a slap in the face. But that's just my hot take. I wasn't originally going to resurrect Skarlet, but to be honest, I liked how they depicted her in MK11 and wanted to revisit her as a result. Besides, raising people from the dead is the whole point of having a necromancer around, a necromancer like, say, Havik? But if I didn't make you feel a little bit hopeless, then the happy ending to this mess just wouldn't feel as sweet. Trust me, young Padawan. I know what I'm doing ;)
ROCuevas, thank you!
JimmyHall24, he very well might! And thank you for all the comments you've left on my previous stories. I watched your progression through those reviews, and you really binge-read the hell out of my stuff. That's a high compliment, so thank you! :D
Obelisk of Light, yeah, I think Sareena will have a bigger part to play this time, and her fate will, obviously, be closely interconnected to Bi-han's. And I do love tormenting readers at times. It's always a lot of fun for me :D
SpinoGuy Productions, yup, she's back and hopefully will be more memorable this time around. She was in Ascension, but she was mostly just in the background as Reiko's stooge. I have a little bit more material to work with this time, so I feel like I can do her better justice. But yeah, Fujin is friends with all the Earthrealm Champions, but with his depiction in MK11, I was inspired to make him more like that. For example, I like the idea of him being a fan of Johnny's LOL Anyway, it seems like you've forgotten a lot! Maybe you should reread my stories LOL
DinoLord00, thank you very much! I'm glad you've been enjoying my work so much so far. I really like the idea of Reiko outsmarting Havik, but like you said, we'll see what happens. And Mileena...ugh. She'll be returning, but honestly, the Mileena fans have been harassing Ed Boon so much on Twitter that they're annoying me. So I think her role in this story will be decidedly small. We'll see. I always let the story go where it wants to go, so maybe she'll wind up having a bigger part. But either way, she'll be coming up very shortly. And I didn't consider her having a love affair with Havik, which would be interesting to explore, but I don't think love could be reciprocated given his overall character and his origins. If he could "fall in love," I think it would be the most perverse and deplorable parts of love, like unfaithfulness, violence, etc., all the things that point towards chaos. IDK, that would be an interesting discussion to have :)