Chapter Six: Zhu Zin

The young boy struggled to keep up as his captors carelessly dragged him through the woods. He was confused, sad, angry... so many emotions rushed through the child at once. He had been beaten and kidnapped, but for what purpose? And where were his parents? Were they dead like the rest?

The poor boy had so many questions and he doubted that his kidnappers would answer any of them. At least they started to slow down, and the boy soon saw why. They were approaching a cave with light shining from within it. As they entered the cave, the source of the light was shown to be a raging fire burning upon a stone table. Six more men, each dressed in a red cloak just like his captors, were waiting by the fire.

"They deserved it."

The child thought that one of the cloaked men had spoken to him, but they were not paying him any attention as they started chanting in a language he did not understand.

"They all deserved to die. Not you."

All of a sudden, the boy started to sob uncontrollably. The fear of death had finally hit him. The voice was right. He did not deserve to die.

"Nechci umřít!"

The child screamed the same sentence over and over again in his native tongue: "I don't want to die!" The kidnappers became angry with the boy's antics and eventually hit him on the back of his head to shut him up. As he laid there on the ground about to fall unconscious from the impact, the boy saw something in the flames. It looked like a pair of eyes. Red eyes that were fixed on him.

"Do not worry, little one. I will not allow you to perish. But do well to remember this: Where there is smoke, there is fire."

"Tomas!"

With a strong jerk, Smoke was pulled out of his dream and brought back to reality. He was in a cold sweat and he was breathing heavily as he looked at his surroundings. The only other living being with him was Tundra and his eyes showed deep concern for his friend.

"What happened... where..."

"Hold on, are you okay? You started shouting in your sleep and tried to fight me when I was attempting to wake you up."

His breathing back to normal, Tomas looked over at Kuai and immediately saw the burn mark on the cryomancer's arm. It was in the shape of a hand.

"Oh, gods, did I..."

"It is alright. It hurts like hell, but I will live."

Now Smoke felt really terrible. He could have seriously injured or even killed his comrade. All because of a stupid dream. Speaking of which... what was that dream about? Tomas could not remember a thing about it. In fact, he could not remember anything after...

"Kuai, where is the hooded guy?"

"He just... disappeared. When we got to this inn, he asked a woman who works here to provide us with a room. Said she was an old friend of his. Once we went inside and got you settled, he vanished without a word. I did not even see any trace of his wagon."

That was Pyros. The telepath did show his face to Smoke, so now he was not a "complete" stranger. The gray ninja could now pin the name with a face and that was an accomplishment.

"You said we are in an inn. You mean in... Zhu Zin?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"About two hours."

"So... wait a minute, we were nowhere near the bottom of the mountain! It would have taken us another day or two to get down, especially in that wagon! How long was I asleep!?"

"About two hours from what that hooded man told me. Not long after I fell asleep, he said you went to sleep, too. From the point of the mountain where we met that guy to here, you were unconscious. I know, it is incredible that we were able to get to Zhu Zin so fast, but I am not complaining. I suppose you were right to trust that man."

"Yes..."

No matter how he did it, Smoke thanked the Elder Gods for sending Pyros in their time of need. Now they could focus on their next destination.

"I know you probably do not want to talk about this right now, my friend, but... what exactly did the Grandmaster tell you about Bi-han's death?"

"I told you, he did not tell me anything. All I know is that it was a combatant who fought for the Netherrealm."

"I see. Well, maybe we should find out for ourselves."

"...How?"

The seriousness in his tone caused Tomas to glance at Kuai. The gray ninja was a little worried about telling his friend about the sorcerers, but he had a right to know.

"We should go to Outworld. The sorcerer Shang Tsung will be there, and I believe had something to do with your brother's death. He has answers, I know it."

"How do we get there? We cannot just make portals, you know."

"Yes, I know. We will figure something out. I wish Cyrax would have..."

A thought suddenly popped into his head when he mentioned the Botswanan.

"Kuai, look in the bags. If you see anything unusually, let me know."

"Why? What are we looking for?"

"I am not sure, but..."

Smoke started digging in one of the bags while Tundra dug in the other. They found some food and water, some clothes and...

"Aha!"

Kuai turned around and saw Tomas holding something up in his hand. It was small and round like a ball and it was silver in color. It could have easily been mistaken for one of Cyrax's bombs.

"What is that?"

"Remember when Cyrax told us about a project he was working on that would make it easier for us to travel from different realms? I think this is the finished product, a device that can make portals. I do not know if it will work or not, but there is not harm in trying it."

"Except it could blow up."

"Yes."

"Or it could be a tracker that someone had planted on us."

"Yes."

"Or it could..."

"Okay, I get it! It could be dangerous, but it could also be our ticket out of here. We will not know until we have tried it and we do not have many other options."

"Ugh..."

It was true. Besides, if they managed to get to Outworld, it would be harder for the Lin Kuei to find them since as far as their former allies knew, Smoke and Tundra had no way of traveling to other realms. It would definitely buy them some time.

"Do you even know how it works?"

"I have no clue. It should not be too hard to figure out though."

Tomas rotated the sphere in his hands to see if the device had a button or switch he could use to turn it on. He barely noticed a small, black button on the bottom of the gadget. Before Smoke could press the button, he and Tundra heard a scream from outside. The duo rushed to the window to locate whoever screamed, as well as what they were screaming at.

Buildings, mostly black and brown and smaller in size, surrounded the inn and dirt roads made up the streets. People were running past the inn in terror, some carrying children who were crying in their arms. Tomas caught sight a young woman with black who was struggling to get through the mob. Someone pushed her and she stumbled onto the ground with a yelp. A shadow loomed over the woman as she tried to get up. Smoke quickly jumped out the window to the lady's aid.

"Smoke, what are you doing!?"

The gray ninja did not hear Tundra and continued his way to the girl. He swiftly scooped the black-haired woman into his arms and got out of the way of whatever was approaching them. A huge impact on the ground soon followed and caused Smoke to stumble, but he was able to right his footing. The girl clung onto the warrior's neck and hid her face in his shoulder in fear. Tomas looked down at her in concern.

"Are you alright? Nothing broken?"

She slowly peeked from her hiding place and looked up at her savior. The woman was in shock and unable to speak, so she just gave Tomas a simple nod.

"Target located. Objective: Return rogues Smoke and Sub-zero back to the Lin Kuei to be transformed. Damage: Minimal."

Smoke shifted his head to the robotic voice as he heard his codename being said. The woman followed his gaze and was terrified of what she saw. A humanoid figure had his fist planted in the ground, creating cracks within the earth. Its body was made of metal and a dull gray in color. Faint blue lights illuminated from the spots where their eyes were supposed to be, and black cords sprouted from their head like hair. As this robotic entity rose to his feet, it turned its head over to its target: Smoke.

The gray ninja put the girl down and told her to run from here. After giving him a quiet "Thank you," she did as she was told and sprinted in the direction her people had gone. Tomas kept his eyes on the intruder to make sure he did not go after the woman, but the robot's eyes were trained only on him. Its soulless gaze slightly intimidated Tomas, but he would not let the cyborg know that. He scowled at the robot and clenched his fists, ready for any attack it threw at him.

"You should have just stayed at the temple, Smoke."

Two more cyborgs appeared along with an old man with long, white hair tied back into a ponytail. It was the Grandmaster. Tomas' eyes darkened once he caught sight of his former superior.

"I apologize if I do not take kindly to the idea of being turned into a robotic servant."

"I would not have put you or Tundra under the slaving protocol. You both would have retained your free will."

"No one deserves to have their free will taken from them! That is not your decision to make!"

"Oh, Smoke. Your emotions have always blinded you and you could never see the big picture. With this transformation,"

The Grandmaster motioned to the gray cyborgs.

"And your powers, you will be unstoppable."

"I do not need any mechanical enhancements to become stronger. The same goes for Tundra."

"Ah, speaking of him, where is he?"

"Scanning..."

One of the cyborgs had switched his perception to heat vision and was looking around the area for any signs of Tundra. Due to Kuai being a cryomancer, his body temperature was a bit lower than an average human's, just as Smoke's was relatively higher. It made Tundra harder to spot in heat vision, but the robot managed to detect a small signature in the inn.

"Signature detected within..."

A kunai knife made of ice flew towards the cyborg at an alarming speed. Unfortunately, it managed to catch the projectile mere inches from its face. Throwing the knife aside, the robot watched as Tundra walked outside while two more knives were forming in his hands. He made his way over to Smoke, who pulled out two knives of his own and the duo got into their fighting stances. Oniro laughed.

"Do you two really think you can defeat these cyborgs? Have you lost your sanity?"

"Apparently so. We will not come quietly, no matter how strong you say your cyborgs are."

Truth be told, the gray ninja had no intention of seriously fighting the robots. They were his former comrades and, more than likely, wanted no part in the initiative in the first place.

"Tundra, did you grab the sphere?"

"Yes, I did."

"Good. When I say so, turn it on. We are going to make a quick getaway before anyone else shows up."

"I understand."

For a moment, there was complete silence. The gray and blue ninjas stared down the Grandmaster and his minions. Oniro had a confident smirk on his face as he looked to the cyborgs.

"Remember, I need them alive. Do well not to injure them unless it is absolutely necessary."

"Yes, Grandmaster."

Originally, this and chapter seven were one whole chapter, but I thought it would be better to split the two up. The next chapter will have a fight scene and to be honest, I am not that good at writing fight scenes, so beware. If you guys have any advice though, I would love to hear it!