Chapter Fifty-Nine: Deceived

Many of Earthrealm's warriors have made it to the temple Raiden and Sindel have been taking refuge in. Kitana, Jade, and Nightwolf were the first group to arrive with Officer Stryker in tow, who they had found in the subway tunnel after he defeated Ermac. The trio was surprised that a human with no magical abilities was able to defeat red-cladded ninja on his own, but Raiden himself had asked them to retrieve the policeman, so he must have some skill. Shortly after their arrival, Liu Kang and Kung Lao came to the temple and of course, the first person Liu went to was Kitana. The princess smiled and immediately wrapped her arms around Liu Kang and Sindel, who was watching the two along with Jade, could not help but smile at how happy daughter seemed. But as her mother, Sindel felt a bit uneasy about Liu Kang since she did not know much about him, but she was willing to put those thoughts aside for now.

Some time after that, Sonya, Johnny, and Jax arrived and stood by Raiden and Sindel to discuss future plans. While Liu Kang may have defeated Shao Kahn once and could probably defeat him again, Raiden and his champions needed to make sure the emperor STAYED dead. Simply beating Shao Kahn in combat will not be enough to stop his conquest and everyone knew that he would continue to come after Earthrealm as long as he drew breath. There had to be a way to stop the evil tyrant before any more innocent lives were taken.

"So…"

Approaching to the concrete table in the middle of the room, Stryker looked around the room at the other warriors and crossed his arms.

"Anyone care to tell me what's going on? Because I don't think what's happening out there…"

Kurtis pointed to the entrance doors.

"…is part of a movie set. Right, Mr. Cage?"

Turning to the actor, Stryker saw a smirk on Johnny's face. Despite the war happening around them, Cage still retained his sense of humor.

"Nah. But that would've been cool, huh?"

"I don't think four-armed monsters and freaks with bad teeth could've saved your career anyway."

That remark immediately wiped the smirk off the actor's face. Cage opened his mouth to say something, but Raiden stepped forward with his hand raised to stop him. This was not the time for any foolish bickering.

"I understand your confusion, Kurtis Stryker, and I will answer your questions to the best of my ability."

"Wait…"

Now Stryker was pointing at Raiden with a deep frown on his face.

"You're that guy with the lightning. From the bridge."

Raiden nodded.

"Nightwolf told me that I'm supposed to be one of your so-called "Earthrealm Defenders." What the hell's "Earthrealm"? And what exactly am I defending it from?"

Just as Stryker finished asking his questions, one of the front doors opened. The policeman, along with everyone else around him, pulled out their weapons in case their new guests turned out to be enemies. The door slowly creaked opened and the first thing the Forces of Light saw was the head of a Lin Kuei cyborg. Jade quickly pulled out her boomerang and threw it at the cyber ninja, but a hand shot out and grabbed the projectile before could hit its mark. The door opened up more and everyone could see who it was that had stopped the boomerang.

"It is alright."

Smoke pushed the door all the way in and stepped inside with the cyborg in tow. He looked up at Jade, who looked apologetically his way, and smiled at her under his mask.

"Excellent throw, Jade."

The silver-haired man threw the boomerang back to Jade and she caught it with ease. The Edenian returned his smile with one of her own as she placed her boomerang back on her belt. While she was doing that, Sub-zero helped the speedster, who was a little weak due to the loss of blood from his shoulder injury, into the temple and Sonya came to assist them.

"How bad is it?"

Sonya began to inspect the wound as she questioned Kuai Liang and their new comrade.

"A sword went straight through his shoulder. Much blood has been lost."

Lifting his head up, the masked man turned to Sonya with half-lidded eyes and chuckled.

"Guess I should get injured more often, if I get a pretty lady like you to treat me."

Seeing how the speedster was disoriented due to blood loss, Sonya ignored the comment and asked Sub-zero to bring him to the back where other patients were being treated. Even though he had his head down again, Stryker managed to catch a glimpse of the masked man's eyes and immediately caught up to the trio.

"Wait."

The policeman stepped in front of Sub-zero and looked over at the speedster, who looked up again to see why they had stopped. When he saw Kurtis, his eyes instantly lit up with recognition.

"Stryker?"

His voice may have been raspy because of the mask, but Stryker knew his friend's voice like the back of his hand.

"Kabal?"

Tomas had just settled Hydro down when he heard Kabal's name and he disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Next thing everyone knew, the silver-haired man had a knife at the speedster's throat.

"I suppose we should have finished our introductions earlier."

Smoke then felt cold steel on the back of his head, and he did not need to look back to know that Stryker had his gun aimed at him.

"You got three seconds to drop the knife before I…"

"He is a member of the Black Dragon clan."

Tomas glanced over his shoulder to look at Stryker, whose eyes had widened slightly at the information the silver-haired man had presented to him.

"Did you know that?"

Sighing, Kurtis lowered his weapon and put it back into its holster.

"Look, I can explain…"

"Kabal."

Sonya whispered to herself and she suddenly remembered something. The blonde turned back to Kabal.

"You're the informant, right? An undercover agent?"

Smoke frowned. Undercover? If that was the case, then…

"I've been working undercover within the Black Dragon for a few months now."

Sonya was bandaging Kabal's wound in the medical area the Special Forces had set up in the back of the temple. The speedster told Earthrealm's champions his story as he was being treated.

"Years ago, yes, I did work for the Black Dragon willingly. But let's just say that I grew a conscience and I soon joined the police force after spending some time in prison. Stryker was the only one who believed in me when no one else did. Believed that I could change for the better."

Kabal glanced at Styrker and the policeman nodded his head. The masked man continued his tale.

"About two months ago, Kano contacted me saying there was this "big job" that he wanted me to be a part of. He knew I had joined the force, but he still tried to convince me to come back to the clan. After informing Stryker and the chief, they thought it would be a good idea for me to accept Kano's offer and get info about what's going between the Black Dragon and another clan called the Lin Kuei. I hadn't known about the whole Shao Kahn business until recently."

Sonya Blade kept her eyes on the bandages but was listening to Kabal as well.

"I thought your name sounded familiar. I didn't get a chance to thank you."

"Thank him?"

Johnny scoffed as he pointed at Kabal.

"For what? Being a flirt? Sorry buddy, but you're not catching any chicks with those…"

"Johnny Cage."

Grabbing the actor's shoulder, Raiden shook his head to stop Cage from finishing his sentence. Sonya scoffed.

"Like you have room to talk, Cage. Anyway, he saved my life. Me and a few other Special Forces members got caught in an ambush, and Kabal stepped in to help us. Good thing you managed to do that without breaking your cover."

Johnny looked back at Sonya, who had just finished dressing Kabal's wound. The whole time the blonde had been putting the bandages on his partner's shoulder, Stryker could not pry his eyes away from the burnt skin that laid underneath Kabal's clothing. He felt guilty for not being able to stop Kintaro before he unleashed his flaming breath upon the masked man.

"This wasn't your fault, Stryker."

As if he could read Kurtis' mind, Kabal tried to comfort his friend.

"I'm alive. You're alive. That's all that matters, okay?"

Stryker sighed, but he soon nodded his head.

"Yeah. Glad to have you back."

"Glad to be back. Now…"

Kabal hopped off the medical table, despite the protests of his new allies and his body, and he walked over to the slumped form of Hydro,

"Let's see what's wrong with your cyborg friend here."

"Which one?"

Startled, Kabal jumped back into another person, or rather cyborg. He turned around and saw a yellow cyborg with green eyes.

"Geez, man! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?"

Ignoring Kabal, the yellow cyborg knelt and placed hand on the chest of his blue cybernetic comrade.

"Good to see you made it here safely, Cyrax."

Smoke stepped next to the masked man and watched as Cyrax opened a compartment within Hydro's chest. Kabal nudged the silver-haired man's arm to get his attention and pointed at the yellow cyborg.

"Wait, you're telling me you've already reprogrammed one of the cyborgs!?"

"I suppose you can call it that."

"How? I mean, Kano may not look like it, but the guy's a technical genius. That slaving protocol can't be so easily broken, y'know."

"Well, Kano's intellect is nothing compared to Cyrax's."

Kabal could hear the pride in Tomas' voice as he spoke of his comrade. He turned back to Cyrax and watched as he fidgeted with a panel that contained a screen with multiple buttons on either side of it. After about a minute or two, the cyborg closed the compartment and stood up.

"The virus I have implanted should override the slaving protocol. Now all we can do is wait."

"How long will it be before he wakes up?"

Cyrax shook his head in response to Smoke's question.

"I do not know. Like I said, all we can do is wait."

Tomas nodded, but he stayed where he was by the blue cyborg's side. He just stood there staring at cyber ninja for a moment before he looked back at Cyrax and spoke again.

"It is…"

"Hydro. I know."

The yellow cyborg grabbed Smoke's shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"As I was installing the virus into our sifu's system, I was able to scan his neural net."

"His what?"

"I gained access to his memories, Tomas. All of his experiences since he became a cyborg were opened to me."

"What about his memories from the before the transformation?"

"They were there, they were just… it will take some time before he gains all of his memories back. You may have broken through to him as you have done for me, but it will still take some time before he is free from the Grandmaster's programming. I should know."

"So…are you still missing some of your memories, Cyrax?"

The cyborg did not answer. Tomas sighed.

"Why did you not say anything about that before?"

"There was nothing you can do about it and I did not want you nor Kuai to worry. Besides…"

Cyrax let go off his friend's shoulder and began to walk away.

"I think I am entitled to a few secrets of my own, eh?"

He knew that the cyber ninja was only joking with him, but Smoke could hear a little bitterness in Cyrax's voice. It was bad enough that Sub-zero was angry with him, but now Cyrax was beginning to get agitated with Tomas. The silver-haired man felt torn and hated having to hide the truth from his friends and family. Why did life have to treat him so cruelly?

"Excuse me."

Smoke felt someone grabbed his arm and he turned around to see it was Sindel. She smiled kindly at Tomas and the silver-haired man could not help but feel warm and comforted by her presence.

"You look deeply troubled, my child. Please… tell me what worries you so."