Chapter Eighty: To the Rescue

Soliel held Tomas' hand with both of her own, and she gently stroked the back of the silver-haired man's hand. Much like what Esme would do to her if she was upset, and Soliel wanted to comfort the man in any way she could. Speaking of the woman, Esme sat behind the little girl with her hands clasped together on her lap, a silent prayer passing through her mind for Smoke.

"Please, Elder Gods. Please let him be alright."

As if the gods had heard her prayer, Tomas' eyes flew wide open and sat upright with a sharp gasp. He looked over his body for any wounds and was relieved to see that he was perfectly fine. He was back in the real world. Smoke leaned back against the wall and smiled.

"Oh, děkuji Starším bohům."

"Ano."

Tomas' eyes widened slightly, but he instantly calmed down we recognized who had spoken to him. Telepathically, that is.

"I did not know you spoke Czech."

"Not much. But…after meeting you, I wanted to learn."

Smoke's smile grew and he wrapped his arms around Soliel and trapped her in a bear hug. But the girl did not mind at all.

"It is good to see you, little one."

"Ahem."

Tomas finally looked behind Soliel and saw Esme sitting there with hr arms crossed. He chuckled as the old woman pretended to pout, and he gently grabbed her hand.

"It is good to see you too, Esme."

"Yes…you too."

Esme's voice cracked as she spoke and her eyes welled up with tears that were very close to falling. Smoke saw this and gave her hand a squeeze.

"Please. Do not cry. I am here, and I am fine. In fact—"

Tomas let go of Soliel and Esme and stood up from the floor. He did a few stretches before speaking again.

"I feel better than ever. Exhausted, but…still better than I have felt in days."

The sound of a sudden explosion drew everyone's attention to the ceiling. They could hear a few more crashes coming from above, each one louder than the last. Something was falling, and Smoke knew it was going to land right on top of them if they did not move now. With lightning speed, the silver-haired man grabbed both Soleil and Esme and ran out of the closet just before a ceiling caved in. The trio watched as a huge pile of debris fell where they had just been sitting. But that was not all that fell.

"…Stryker?"

When the dust cleared, a body was laying within the wreckage. Tomas recognized the police uniform, and he knew it had to be Officer Kurtis Stryker. The silver-haired man ran to the policeman's unconscious form and checked if the man was breathing. Fortunately, Stryker was.

"Stryker, can you hear me? Stryker!"

The officer groaned and slowly opened his eyes. It took a moment for his eyes to focused, but when they did, Kurtis was relieved to see that it was Smoke by his side.

"Hey…y-you're looking better…"

"Stryker, what happened? Who did this to you?"

"He's here…he's…he's…"

"Stryker? Hey, stay with me. Don't—"

But it was too late. Stryker fell unconscious again. He was still alive, but barely. Since he was a human with no powers, it was a miracle that the policeman even survived such a fall. Tomas looked back at Esme.

"Can you help him?"

"I will do what I can. But…what are you going to do?"

Smoke looked up at the ceiling and through the hole that Stryker had created into the darkness that laid beyond. His face turned into a deep scowl, and he clenched his hands into fists.

"There is another battle taking place up there. And it is about time I stepped back into the fight."

As he said that, smoke began to surround Tomas' body.

"And if the "he" Stryker was referring to is who I think it is…then the others will need all the help they can get."

"Goddammit! We're completely surrounded!"

Shortly after Tomas fell unconscious, the temple came under attack by Shao Kahn's army. And this was not a simple ambush like the Lin Kuei's assault not too long ago. This was an onslaught, a madman's last attempt to get rid of the only people who stand between him and merging Earthrealm with Outworld. It seemed that Shao Kahn was really irritated die to his enemies not being six feet under by now.

The Champions of Light were forced to separate and fight in smaller groups to take down their opponents. Jax and Kabal were facing a group of Tarkatans with Ermac leading the small force. Of course, Jax wanted to fight Ermac one-on-one because of what happened with his arms, so Kabal was busy with the Tarkatan. The speedster zoomed through the monsters in a flash, his hookswords slashing through anything they could get their blades into.

"You think!? I could use some help, big guy!"

Jax dodged a punch from Ermac and countered with a punch of his own, which his opponent caught with ease.

"Little busy here! Can't you take care of a few Tarkatans!?"

Kabal sliced through another Tarkatan and glared at the African American.

"Yeah! But this ain't a "few" fucking Tarkatans!"

Suddenly, Kabal and Jax found themselves slowly being swallowed by fog. They soon could not see their adversaries, but Kabal could hear the Tarkatans screaming and their bodies dropping to the floor from within the fog. The speedster almost had a heart attack when he felt someone grab his shoulder, but once he turned around, he relaxed when he saw who it was that had approached him.

"You son of a bitch! When the hell did you get here?"

Smirking, Tomas patted Kabal on the back.

"Just now. But by the way you were getting pummeled by those Tarkatans, I would say I came just in time."

"Hey, I was doing just fine! And looking at you now, you must be doing fine yourself."

"Better than fine actually. Thanks for noticing."

"Glad to hear it."

With a wave of his hand, Smoke made the fog disappear and that was when Kabal could see the damage his comrade had inflicted upon the Tarkatans. Some had kunai sticking from their heads while others were missing body parts. Kabal arched a brow.

"Woah. You really…you really let them have it, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Sorry. Guess I went a little overboard."

"No, no. You got the job done. Just take it easy next time."

"I will keep that in mind."

"HEY!"

Tomas and Kabal both looked towards Jax, who was pinned against the wall by Ermac's magic. It looked as though the amalgamation of souls was going to rip apart Jax's arms again. What was Ermac's problem with arms? Kabal was behind Ermac in a second and he swung his swords down to hook onto the warrior's back. But Ermac stopped the speedster by using his magic to grab the hookswords and throw them down the hall along with their owner.

"Ermac!"

Distracted by Kabal, Ermac did not realize until to late that Smoke was going to attack him as well. From above. The silver-haired man appeared above Ermac from a cloud of smoke, and he jumped onto the sorcerer's shoulders. He then managed to flip backwards with his legs wrapped around Ermac's neck and threw the fusion of souls through the wall opposite of Jax. The African American man was released from Ermac's magic, and he dropped to the floor with a loud thud. Jax took in a few deep breaths before he addressed Tomas.

"Nice moves. Wish I was that flexible."

Smoke chuckled and held out his hand to Jax.

"Trust me when I say that my back is now killing me."

Jax chuckled as well and grabbed his friend's hand. The soldier stood up and turned to where Ermac laid half-unconscious under a pile of rubble. Jax could see the ninja's hand still moving, so he decided to stop Ermac's struggle by giving him a hard kick in the face.

"And stay down!"

Hearing footsteps behind them, Smoke and Jax looked behind them to see Kabal walking towards them with a hand on his back.

"Damn, that hurt."

Tomas smiled.

"At least you are still breathing."

"I guess. So, what's our next move?"

Suddenly, Smoke froze as his enhanced hearing came into effect. He could hear two voices, both he recognized, and they sounded like they were in a struggle.

"I can hear Johnny and Sonya down this direction. We should assist them and anyone else we find along the way."

Jax nodded and the three men sprinted down the hall to aid their other comrades. On the way, Kabal spoke to Tomas.

"Hey, did you happen to see where Stryker went off to? We got separated during the fight."

"He is…injured, but I am sure he will be fine."

"Injured? What happened!?"

"I am not sure, but we cannot worry about that right now. Stryker is alive and that is all that matters."

"…Yeah. Right."

Smoke glanced in Kabal's direction and even with the mask, he could see that the speedster was worried. He knew that feeling. Hearing that your best friend has been harmed and worrying if they will be alright, no matter how small the injury may seem. But Stryker was fine and taking down their enemies was their main priority right now. And that is exactly what Tomas planned to do.

First, the trio went to Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade, who were fighting against Kintaro and Kano respectively within one of the storage rooms. The actor managed to land a few hits on Kintaro, but they did not do much damage. The Shokan, who was beginning to feel irritated by Johnny's attacks, suddenly grabbed the man by his head and threw him to the floor. When Kintaro released him, Cage realized that his sunglasses were now broken from the attack.

"Those were five-hundred-dollar sunglasses, you asshole!"

Angry, Johnny Cage used his shadow kick to knock Kintaro back a couple of feet away from him. On the other side of the room, Sonya swung a kick at Kano, but the Black Dragon leader blocked it and countered by elbowing the blonde right in her knee. Sonya howled in pain and Kano threw her by her leg into a pile of wooden crates. Kano laughed as he watched the soldier struggle to get up.

"Looks like I win. Nothing personal, love. Just business."

Kano smirked as he drew one of his butterfly knives out from his boot. But he did not have time to strike before he was hit by a hard punch in his face. The Australian was knocked out cold with Jax looming over him with a smirk.

"Just business. Yeah right, you son of a bitch."

"Dammit, Jax!"

Jackson turned to Sonya, who was leaning against the wall. She tried to look angry, but her partner knew that the blonde was happy to see him.

"I had him, you know."

Jax smiled and nodded his head.

"Of course you did. But a little help didn't hurt, right?"

Sonya shook her head, but she was laughing as she did so. While Jax helped Sonya and Johnny, Smoke and Kabal went ahead to aid Nightwolf and Hydro, who were battling against a group of Lin Kuei cyborgs. Looks like the Grandmaster had saved a few for this occasion. They seemed to be doing fine until Hydro noticed Tomas and got distracted.

"Smoke? You are alright, I—"

"Get down!"

Without hesitation, Hydro ducked just as Smoke threw a kunai knife at a cyber ninja that was behind him. The hydromancer thought he and Nightwolf had taken care of them all, but it looks like one managed to slip through their fingers. This cyborg was missing an arm and sparks were flying from its open arm socket along with its head after Tomas planted a knife into it. It did not take long for the cyber ninja to shut down and fall onto the floor. Hydro stood up and looked over the fallen cyborg's corpse.

"Quickness is the essence of war."

Tomas walked over to his sifu and stood next to him.

"The Art of War, right?"

"So, you did read it?"

"If you mean Bi-han forced me to read it, then yes."

Hydro laughed and patted his student on his shoulder.

"I am glad to see you are alright."

"Thank you, Sifu. But as much as I would like to sit down and catch up, we need to help the others."

Hydro nodded and the two took off with Kabal and Nightwolf behind them. Shortly after, Jax, Sonya, and Johnny joined them and the group of seven were now on there way to the roof. Being the first at the rooftop door, Johnny Cage reached for the door handle, but suddenly the door was torn off its hinges and slammed right into the actor. Cage was thrown back and crashed into the wall behind him, taking pieces of the wall with him as well. When the dust cleared, the actor was buried under the rubble, the door, and surprisingly, a cyborg.

"Johnny!"

Smoke started moving the debris on top of Cage, but it was then that he realized who the cyborg was. The debris and dust had almost covered the yellow of Cyrax's armor to the point where Tomas had thought that he was just another cyber ninja.

"Cyrax?"

The yellow cyborg's body looked disfigured, as if someone had pulled apart Cyrax's limbs and had tried desperately to put them back together. Sparks were flying from some wires that had been pulled from his form, and the light in Cyrax's eyes was off meaning that he was unconscious.

"Cyrax, I—"

"Uh, guys? Sorry, but…he's really heavy."

Smoke quickly regained his composure when he heard Johnny's voice, and he went back to getting the actor out of the rubble. The silver-haired man carefully moved Cyrax out of the way and immediately pulled Cage from under the debris with just a tug of the actor's arm.

"Thanks."

"Of course. But Cyrax—"

Explosions from the other side of where the roof door drew the champion's attention to outside. There were other battles going on just up ahead, and Smoke and his allies knew they needed to stay focused if they were going to survive. They could not afford to worry about Stryker, or Cyrax, or anyone else right now. When this was over, then they will be able to take a breather.

Here are some translations for when Smoke and Soliel were speaking in Czech:

Oh, děkuji Starším bohům – Oh, thank the Elder Gods

Ano - Yes