Two guards watched as Jax and Stryker broke off from the group. They stood at each side of the large gong just beyond the raised platform where blood stained the stone arena. Beyond that, the empty throne for the host to watch and his noble guests. Behind the platform and seating, the guard walls of the courtyard came to a turn and at the edge a great fissure had cracked open the wall.
Stryker noted that there was an entrance through the raised platform and staircase where the host would enter from, but with little pause, Jax pressed through the opening big enough for him to squeeze through, and easier for Stryker to follow suit. What the guards would make of it, neither cared beyond this point.
This opened up to another stone courtyard with a platform a meter below with a staircase and creases in the stone where the naknada would burn around the gong for added visual during combat. This was to their immediate right, and just ahead, Jax noticed another fissure in the wall where the night fog had begun to roll through.
"There's a door round the corner there, let's try that first." Jax pointed just beyond the turn, almost aligned with the gong.
There wasn't much more to this area as they pushed forward. Each readied to pull their weapons, and each vigilant for any movement, but beyond the gong, the platform lowered with steps another meter to an empty courtyard that overlooked the spires and crags that littered the island.
Through the opening, Jax noticed a small pagoda set by a wooden bridge that looked old and ruined, much like the rest of this area. It was clear this space was not kept up, nor meant to be part of the tournament grounds. Stryker noted it was more likely to be used by the guards and naknada than combatants. It connected further along beyond a gnarled old tree that stretched it's bony fingers out to the night sky where metal sconces on the stone walls lit and guided them further along the side of the temple.
There was a dirt path that lead down to a view of the crags and spires, or they could hug the wall along the paved path that passed a round opening where the grounds appeared to be better kept. This round door entered the main building of the temple, but in one of the rooms unknown to the guests.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Stryker noted and pressed his back to the wall.
The awkward opening didn't leave much room for cover if he were to turn to find a guard, so they hugged the wall and he waited for Jax to ready.
He waited and heard only breath.
He looked over at his partner and followed Jax's line of sight across the bridge to the gazebo.
"That wasn't lit before, was it?" He hadn't paid much attention to it when they crossed the bridge as only the fires that guided them along the wall caught their attention.
It seemed readily apparently they had caught the attention of a cold pair of eyes that stared back at them from the gazebo. The one metal lantern that hung from chain danced slowly above the head of a man dressed in black and yellow clothes.
To Jax, he looked like a ninja, face covered, head hidden within a black hood and breeches that tightened at the ankles and tapered into tabi that moved one after the other onto the bridge.
That chain fell slack from the lantern and it crashed down to the stone rubble beneath and followed the man, his eyes never darted from Jax's.
"You know what?" Jax stepped out from the wall, Stryker slow to follow, cautioned by the glare of the masked man. "Let's do this."
He raced forward, gun quick into his hand and Stryker fast behind him to lean and cover his partner.
Scorpion stepped back and ducked under the first swing, the chain connected to the metal lantern swung with his momentum as he came back. Jax tightened his body against the wooden rail as the chain slapped the deck. One of the planks splintered under his weight and the water rippled beneath them. He stepped on the chain as the lantern scrapped the stone edge where Stryker knelt.
Scorpion dropped the chain and pulled the sword from the hilt on his waist band to put distance between he and Jax. A warning not to step closer, but Jax could see the rope at his hip as well. Scorpion was well equipped at close and long range, but was he equipped for a modern bullet?
Jax was quicker to shoot off a round than Scorpion to raise the sword and swing. The bullet blew through his right eye and yanked is head back. His body staggered, but he didn't move further than a few steps until he had grounded himself into a defensive stance.
Jax stood in place and Stryker watched, ready to join.
The hole where an eye once settled began to cinder and burn like the lantern at Stryker's feet. Scorpion sheathed the sword and reached for the rope at his side. Jax stepped back. The embers burned through the skull of the revenant, but Scorpion was unaffected.
With no words, he chose bullets.
Jax shot again and Stryker joined from behind. The fires from the socket burned brighter and escaped like dragon's breath to encase Scorpion's frame as he faded back. As it dissipated, Jax and Stryker ceased fire and waited for the smoke to clear, but the man was no where to be seen.
Stryker knelt back in position and waited for Jax's signal.
Left, right, no where. Jax turned back toward Stryker across the bridge and staggered as Scorpion kicked the metal lantern into Stryker's face and then swung the rope, tied to a spear, toward Jax.
The spear scraped his flesh, he cursed his large frame, but glad to have dodged. His arm began to bleed out, but the rope was now in his grasp and he tugged on it against Scorpion's strength.
Stryker struggled against the wall, his face marked but he heated metal, his hands guarded his wound, but he could hear the combat burn around him. As Scorpion and Jax struggled with control of the range weapon, he heard foot steps, several, and then a great force yank him from his seated position against the wall.
Jax shot another round at Scorpion, the bullet struck through the revenant's chest, but only fire spat out at him. Scorpion's response was to cut the rope that tethered him to Jax and turn to find himself closed off from the exits by guards and Lin Kuei.
Jax approached, gun raised and one round left.
Scorpion eyed the opposition and turned back around. Stryker had been dragged into the room to their side, where two guards had captured him from Lin Kuei hands.
"Happy Halloween, motherfucker!" Jax readied the gun, stepped one more foot closer and eyed his target.
"Enough." Scorpion dissipated into the flames that consumed his wounds as Sub-Zero broke through the barrier of Lin Kuei.
"Where's my partner?" Jax repositioned the gun toward the assassin.
"In the holding cell here." Sub-Zero parted the way where the two guards held Stryker. "Where you belong."
"Not until you send him over and tell me where fuck Sonya is." Jax pressed closer, inch by inch, but his weapon was trained on the cold eyes of the Lin Kuei leader. "I'm not here for no fucking trick or treat, so you better you better shut up and do as I say."
"What's your name?" Sub-Zero pulled the cloth from his face and let it hang against his chest.
"Only name you need to worry about is Sonya Blade, and where I can find her."
"Lower your weapon, and I'll tell you where she is."
Jax stood in place. He wasn't ready to give the high ground to these freaks, but the air grew cold, and the moment stale as he knew more would close in on him.
"Release him first."
Sub-Zero nodded and the guards allowed Stryker to cross the bridge.
"Who the fuck are you?"
"Bi-Han, the Sub-Zero of the Lin Kuei." He added, "I see you are strong to take on that revenant bare handed."
"Had a little help." He looked back at Stryker, and kept the gun high.
"We've been looking for him. Name's Scorpion."
"Don't care."
"Shame."
"I'll help you find your partner." Sub-Zero approached the edge of the bridge.
"What's in it for you?" Stryker spat.
"Send the revenant back to the Nether Realm."
"I put two bullets in that thing and it's still fought like nothing happened, you expect me to take that out?"
"Well," Sub-Zero turned his lips up and glanced back at the Lin Kuei then into Jax's eyes, "with a little help."
There was no where to go.
No forward, and as the guards filled in the fissure behind them, there was no going back.
Jax glanced back at Stryker and with a nod, the two agreed to lower their weapons as the man in black and blue closed the distance between he and Jax and sized the man up.
"You're built like a machine." Sub-Zero noted the wound that bleed down Jax's arm.
"I don't care what you think, let's get this over with and find Sonya!" Jax spat and Sub-Zero nodded.
"Sure thing."
The leader of the Lin Kuei reached out a hand, a gesture of good faith in their mutual deals. As Jax took Sub-Zero's hand, he felt the cold flesh creep fast against his own. The sting of winter pierced through him right to the bone.
It wasn't until Stryker's scream as he was captured by the guards did he suddenly realize the hand that had his wasn't just as cold as ice, but had started to freeze his. He pulled away, but the strength of ice that connected him would not separate. He felt the burn of ice rapidly crawl up his arm to the shoulder where only then did Sub-Zero let go.
Jax leaned against the broken rail that splintered further under his added weight. He screamed, the pain too much and the world around him had started to fade as his body would soon succumb to shock.
The last thing he had seen, the last thing he felt was the wood beneath his free arm crawl up his flesh as the ice encased it and the sound of glass shattered around him as the weight crashed through the old wooden planks beneath him.